The American People

All the writers of England united, if we could for a moment suppose their great minds stooping to so unworthy a combination, could not conceal our rapidly growing importance and matchless prosperity. They could not conceal that these are owing, not merely to physical and local, but also to moral causes,--to the political liberty, the general diffusion of knowledge, the prevalence of sound moral and religious principles, which give force and sustained energy to the character of a people; and which, in act, have been the acknowledged and wonderful sporters of their own national power and glory.

--Washington Irving, Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.