Mitchel, in his School Geography (4th revised edition), p. 101, speaking
of the United States, says:--

"When it is considered that one hundred years ago the inhabitants
numbered but 1,000,000, it presents the most striking instance of
national growth to be found in the history of mankind."

Let us reduce these general statements to the more tangible form of
facts and figures. A short time before the great Reformation in the days
of Martin Luther, not four hundred years ago, this Western Continent was
discovered. The Reformation brought out a large class of persons who
were determined to worship God according to the dictates of their own
consciences. Being fettered and oppressed by the religious intolerance
of the Old World, they sought, in the wilds of America, that measure of
civil and religious freedom which they so much desired. A little more
than two hundred years ago, Dec. 22, 1620, the Mayflower landed one
hundred of these voluntary exiles on the coast of New England. Here,
says Martyn, "New England was born," and this was "its first baby cry, a
prayer and a thanksgiving to the Lord."

Another permanent English settlement was made at Jamestown, Va., in
1607. In process of time other settlements were made, and colonies
organized, which were all subject to the English government till the
declaration of Independence July 4, 1776.

The population of these colonies, according to the _U.S. Magazine_ of
August, 1855, amounted in 1701, to 262,000; in 1749, to 1,046,000; in
1775, to 2,803,000. Then commenced the struggle of the American colonies
against the oppression of the mother country. In 1776, they declared
themselves as, in justice and right, an independent nation. In 1777,