ABSTRACT
Christianity may be pronounced emphatically the religion of the American people; for although there may be a few other religionists, they are so very few as to be only an exception to the general rule. The Jewish religion is in the same category as the Christian, being based, or professing to be based, on the Old Testament, and therefore what has been said applies equally to it. At the South, the best land, indeed the only good land in most districts then settled, were on the borders of streams or swamps, where the heat, humidity, and fertility of the soil combined to produce an atmosphere very deleterious to the constitutions of the whites; requiring the utmost care sometimes to preserve health, by avoiding exposure to the sun, the night air, &c., which laboring men cannot do. The North possessed salubrity of climate, and few slaves. The South was generally insalubrious, and had a large colored population.
