It has gone to the islands of the sea; and they have sent their contributions.

It has reached the Orient, and opened as with a password the gates of nations long barred against intercourse with other powers; and China and Japan, turning from their beaten track of forty centuries, are looking with wonder at the prodigy arising across the Pacific to the east of them, and catching some of the impulse which this growing power is imparting to the nations of the earth.
Less than one hundred years ago, with three millions of people, the United States became an independent government.

It has now a population of thirty-eight and a half millions of people, and a territory of three and a half millions of square miles.

Russia alone exceeds this nation in these particulars, having forty millions more of people, and four millions more square miles of territory.

Of all other nations on the globe whose laws are framed by legislative bodies elected by the people, Brazil, which has the largest territory, has not quite three millions of square miles; and France, the most populous, has not probably, considering her late reverses and misfortunes, a greater number of inhabitants than our own country.