He will take up with those crude and vague notions which are so useful to the ignorant all over the world.

But if you question him respecting his own country, the cloud which dimmed his intelligence will immediately disperse; his language will become as clear and as precise as his thoughts.

He will inform you what his rights are, and by what means he exercises them; he will be able to point out the customs which obtain in the political world.

You will find that he is well acquainted with the rules of the administration, and that he is familiar with the mechanism of the laws.

The citizen of the United States does not acquire his practical science and his positive notions from books; the instruction he has acquired may have prepared him for receiving those ideas, but it did not furnish them.