Along the southern tier of the great States which form the American
Republic, whose gigantic structure and almost supernatural vigor already
overshadow and animate the older civilizations of the world, we observe
vast extents of level and alluvial lands and deltas, or "rather a series
of littoral bands of remarkable disposition," which the ocean left when
receding from the mountain shores of the interior to its present limits,
or which slowly and gradually emerged from their watery bed in the
upheavals during the long intervals of the earth's ages.
This immense territory, stretching from the Potomac to the Rio Grande, and
hardly broken throughout this long distance by undulations of the soil,
embraces more than six hundred thousand square miles--an extent greater
than that of France and the States of the Germanic Confederation combined.
Eight millions of human souls inhabit the one, whilst one hundred millions
people the other. Ignorance and brutality darken the one, intelligence and
humanity illuminate the other.