The people in the different States of the Union are characterized by peculiarities of both a moral and physical nature, which in many cases make them easily recognizible even by partial strangers. The inhabitants of the New England States constitute the pure Yankee breed, and, as a general rule, they are easily distinguished from all other races of men on the Continent. These States embrace Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. The spirit that rebelled against persecution in the Old Country, and persecuted with savage ferocity when it became the master of the situation, still lives in puritanical pride and self-satisfied holy dignity in these States. The families of the men who were the pioneers of civilization in the New World, whose religious zeal and fiery faith made them regardless of danger, and who brought with them their Old World experience, social habits, and domestic virtues, have some reason to feel proud of being the only Americans in the country. The “ down easters, ” as the people in these States are called, have a happy method of combining their religious aspirations and worldly pursuits in profitable harmony. The men of business in these States can neither be rivalled in godly zeal nor circumvented in trade. In speech, they are slow, snaffling, and formal, and as they in general only possess two classes of ideas they act with amazing promptitude when their own interest is in question.

The City of Boston is the centre of New England civilization, and may be looked upon as the metropolis of the Eastern States.