[Democracy In America Volume 1 (of 2) by Alexis de Toqueville]@TWC D-Link bookDemocracy In America Volume 1 (of 2) CHAPTER II: Origin Of The Anglo-Americans--Part I 8/19
The idea that mines of gold and silver are the sources of national wealth was at that time singularly prevalent in Europe; a fatal delusion, which has done more to impoverish the nations which adopted it, and has cost more lives in America, than the united influence of war and bad laws.
The men sent to Virginia *a were seekers of gold, adventurers, without resources and without character, whose turbulent and restless spirit endangered the infant colony, *b and rendered its progress uncertain.
The artisans and agriculturists arrived afterwards; and, although they were a more moral and orderly race of men, they were in nowise above the level of the inferior classes in England.
*c No lofty conceptions, no intellectual system, directed the foundation of these new settlements.
The colony was scarcely established when slavery was introduced, *d and this was the main circumstance which has exercised so prodigious an influence on the character, the laws, and all the future prospects of the South.
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