Noah Webster
A fundamental mistake of the Americans has been that they considered the revolution as completed when it was but just begun. Having raised the pillars of the building, they ceased to exert themselves and seemed to forget that the whole superstructure was then to be erected. This country is independent in government but totally dependent in manners, which are the basis of government. Men seem not to attend to the difference between Europe and America in point of age and improvement, and are disposed to rush with heedless emulation into an imitation of manners for which we are not prepared.
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