A history of the United States . was in its infancy, as we atonce perceive when we learn that even in 1800 not quite fourper cent of the people lived in towns. 262. The Towns. — The country people had no such incen-tives to flock to cities as they have to-day. There were norailroads or steamboats to make the journey easy. On thecontrary, roads were bad and travel by water was both uncom-fortable and dangerous. Nor were the towns, of which Phila-delphia with seventy thousand inhabitants. New York withsixty thousand, Baltimore with twenty-six thousand, Bostonwith twenty-four thousand, and Charle
A history of the United States . was in its infancy, as we atonce perceive when we learn that even in 1800 not quite fourper cent of the people lived in towns. 262. The Towns. — The country people had no such incen-tives to flock to cities as they have to-day. There were norailroads or steamboats to make the journey easy. On thecontrary, roads were bad and travel by water was both uncom-fortable and dangerous. Nor were the towns, of which Phila-delphia with seventy thousand inhabitants. New York withsixty thousand, Baltimore with twenty-six thousand, Bostonwith twenty-four thousand, and Charleston with twenty thou-sand, were the chief, especially attractive. Sanitation waslittle attended to, save in Philadelphia after the terrible yellowfever epidemics of 1793 and 1797. There were few newspapers were small and uninfluential sheets. Good 194 THE CLOSE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [§ 26)) colleges and schools and libraries were scarcely to be was comparatively simple and lacking in interest and. Stagecoach of the time of Washington. brilliancy. Indeed the country gentleman, especially in theSouth, found his rural sports and his rounds of social visitingmore enlivening than the life led by his town friends. SPIRIT OF THE PEOlLE. 263. Dominance of the Colonial Spirit. — In their mental atti-tude toward life the American people had changed about aslittle as in their occupations and customs. Although inJonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin they had pro-duced two great writers, in Franklin and Benjamin Thompson(Count Eumford, 1733-1814) eminent scientists, and in Ben-jamin West (1738-1820) and J. S. Copley (1737-1815) distin-guished painters; although they had developed as greatstatesmen and political writers as any country could name,they still had no literature, or art, or science worthy of beingcalled national. In other words, though the people of theUnited States had won their political independence, they werestill, in their modes of thought
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