Even then the same variety of race and habits and characteristics which
the United States reveal to-day were to be observed in the population
which was scattered over the narrow strip of territory extending a
thousand miles along the seaboard. There were English everywhere--
predominant then, as English traits still possess, in a yet more marked
degree, the prevailing influence. There were, however, Dutch in New York
and Pennsylvania, some Swedes still in Delaware, Danes in New Jersey,
French Huguenots in the Carolinas, Austrian Moravians, not long after,
in Georgia, and Spaniards in Florida.

[Sidenote: The New England Colonies.]

Amid such a diversity of races, of course the habits, the laws, and
the religious opinions of the colonies widely differed. But these
differences were not confined to those arising from variety of origin.
The English in New England presented a very marked contrast to the
English in New York and in Virginia. The settlements of Plymouth and
Massachusetts Bay comprised communities of zealous Calvinists, rigid
in their religious belief and ceremonies, codifying their religious
principles into political law, and adhering resolutely, through thick
and thin, to the idea expressed, by one of the early Puritans, that
"our New England was originally a plantation of religion, and not a
plantation of trade."

[Sidenote: Roger Williams.]

Roger Williams founded Rhode Island on the principle of religious
toleration; but he carried thither the sobriety and diligence and
courage of his former Puritan associations. He provided, as he himself
said, "a shelter for persons distressed for conscience." Connecticut was