Chrisanne’s Reviews > Letters from America > Status Update

The Trail of Tears?

Parties are always composed of passionate, credulous people who act out of conviction, and of rogues who follow them out of self-interest.

Travel often tells us how little we know about our own country

irreligion/political

private interest vs general interest.

June 9 1831

Oh dear. Nothing seems to have changed.

The more I see of this land, the more convinced I am of this truth, that there are virtually no political institutions radically good or bad in themselves and that everything depends on the physical conditions and social state of the people to whom they are applied.