Excerpt from An Account of the American Antiquarian Society, Incorporated, October 24th, 1812 With whatever interest we regard the foreign trade, we may find there the causes which have concurred to produce the union of our States, as these appear in the different periods of our history.from the beginning. Though it be true that our existence under the same government must have supplied the most powerful causes of union, yet it is evident that our rapid progress did at every period obtain for us advantages never derived from this same government. The political wisdom which resigned to the British nation the settlements which the Dutch and the Swedes had made in the most ourishing part of our country, was directed by the slow growth of those plantations, and the higher value of our own. The same policy arrested the regions in the North, which had been possessed by the French, and those which had been held by the Spaniards in the South. And it is the same condition of things which has given to the States, since the revolution, the extensive regions of Louisi ana. Whatever any portion of the Southern States may claim from the priority of date to their settlements, we trust it will not be questioned that they were inferior to' us in their commerce at the period of which we treat, and if they have not been indebted to our example, they must confess they were later in the school of commerce than our selves. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."