the pioneers of
the Western solitudes, the America of the clearers of the forests, the
America of the Bible and the schools. This America long since abolished
slavery, and prevented its introduction into the territories that
acknowledged its influence. In the meanest of its cabins, you will find
the Scriptures, hymn books, reports of religious societies; in the
majority of its families, domestic worship is celebrated; in its
prayer-meetings, it is not rare to see physicians, lawyers, magistrates,
marine officers, taking part publicly; its statesmen do not think
themselves dishonored by keeping a Sunday-school; the Gospel, in a word,
is a power to which no other can compare, and outside of which it would
be puerile to expect to succeed in accomplishing any thing of
importance.

Here the action of the Gospel can be plainly detected; an important
religious event preceded and paved the way for the political event which
we have witnessed: before the election of Mr. Lincoln, an awakening took
place. The American awakening, which must not be confounded with those
_revivals_, the description and sometimes the caricature of which have
been transmitted us by travellers, the awakening, which had neither
ecstasies nor convulsive sobs, and the distinctive feature of which was
a tone of simplicity and conviction, produced one of those profound
agitations of the conscience, which give rise to generous resolutions.
The financial crisis had just overthrown the fortunes of the people;
they turned towards God and began to pray. On a route of three thousand
miles, wherever one might stop, he found a meeting, a simple,
spontaneous meeting, at which the pastors did not take the initiative,
where they were present instead of presiding. Ere long, public attention
became fixed on this movement, the greatness of which could not be
contested; the most hostile journals ended by rendering it homage. And
it lasted, it still subsists, it has produced something else than
meetings and prayers, it has induced extensive moral reforms, it has
closed places of debauchery and taverns by hundreds. The military and
commercial marine of the United States has been especially subjected to
its influence; captains, officers, and sailors in great numbers, have
shown by their lives that their habits of piety are more than a vain
form; American vessels are perhaps the only ones at the present day in
which groups of sailors assemble to converse on the interests of th