The laws of the State of Pennsylvania, and that of Massachusetts, by which the punishment of death is abolished, in all cases except for wilful murder, are about to be adopted by the respective Legislatures of all the other States. The system of the great and merciful???caria, has taken place of the sanguinary Penal laws of England.
The abolition of Negro slavery, which has taken shape in the five New England States of New Hampshire, Massachusets, Rhode island, Connecticut, and Vermont; in the Midland States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delawar; and in the Western State of Kentucky, for several years past is now extended, by act of Congress to the Southern States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Maryland; and the emancipation of the remainder of that unfortunate race of men is to take place on or before the fifth of November, 1795.
The Legislature of the State of Massachusetts has g???ed a part of the public lands to the emancipated Negroes of that State, in proportion to the numbers of the respective families, where the liberal and philanthropic mind is gratified, by seeing them erect villages cultivate farms, and form communities of civilized Societies.
Before the Gentleman, who has favoured us with this Intelligence, left America, they had established a Lodge of Masonry; and he had the satisfaction of seeing them on a grand day, parade to Church in all the magnificence of the Order, where a sermon was preached, on the occasion, by one of their own colour. They have also endowed public schools, employed??? and erected places of Public Worship.
The Officers, Non-commissioned Officers, and Soldiers, who served in the Continental army and established the Liberty of their Country, have at last received a reward, infinitely beyond their expectations, but every way corresponding with the liberty of a great and rising Republic.
Five hundred acres of land have been voted by Congress, this last Session, to each individual, who served throughout the war; and to the defendants of those who fell in contending for the Rights of Nature, and eequal proportion to those who served for a shorter period; and to prevent its being sold at a price under its real value, to the injury of the Patriotic Veteran, as has been the case of former grants, he is allowed his option of taking its value in sterling money, at the present market price, from the Treasure of the States; or any part in land, and the rest in money,a s may be most agreeable to the receiver.
The Mint of the United States, which was established two years since, has begun to issue its hold and silver coin: the copper has been delivered some time. The gold coins are eagles, half eagles, and quarter eagles.
The first is exactly five and forty shillings, English money, or ten American coin.
The dollars are coined in the same divisions of half, and quater, which makes the courie of exchange simple, and suits the reckoning to a very capacity–as our Readers will perceive, that ten quarter dollars make the quarter eagle; ten half dollars the half eagle; and ten dollars the eagle.
There is, besides, one more silver coin, which is called a Dime, and is the tenth part of a dollar.
The copper coin is called a Cent, and is the tenth part of a Dime.
Six of the ships of war, which were voted by Congress in November last, are completed and put in commission: the remaining twenty four will be ready by Midsummer next, and will complete a fleet of???hundred guns.
The city of Washington, which in five years more will be the Capital of the United States, will in every respect be the first in the world: the Capitol or Congress House is situated upon a beautiful eminence, and c??? a full and complete view of every part of the city, as well as a considerable extent of the country around. The President’s house likewise stands upon a rising ground near the banks of the Potamac, possessing a delightful water prospect, together with a commanding view of the Capitol and some other material parts of the city.
From the President’s house to the Capitol, run two great pleasure parks or malls, which intersect and terminate upon the banks of the Potomac, and are ornamented at the sides by elegant buildings for Foreign Ministers. The four fronts of the Capitol, as well as those of the President’s house, are of the finest marble. The building of these superb edifices has been much retarded by the want of stone cutters, masons, bricklayers, carpenters, and blacksmiths, who at this time actually receive the enormous wages of ten shillings American currency per day.
The district of Country at the back of North Carolina, reaching to the Mississippi, and covering a country six hundred miles long by three hundred broad, is next winter to be formed into a Sixteenth State; and the Province of Maine, extending from the borders of New Hampshire to the river St. Croix, is expected to form a Seventeenth.
The new cities build in America since her independence are Grenville, in the State of Georgia; Martenberg, the Capitol of North Carolina; Columbia, the Capital of South Carolina; Noxville and Nashville, in the Tenesee Settlements; Danville, Fairfield, and Lexington, in the State of Kentucky; Washington, the Capital of the United States; Sunbury, in the State of Pennsylvania; Hudson, upon Husdon’s River, and Cooper’s Town, in the State of New York; Bennington, in the State of Vermont; and Paterson, in the State of New Jersey. All the towns burnt by the English in the was, have been rebuilt, and the old cities of Charlestown, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, have been extended to more than double the extent they had before the peace.
The population of the United States, by the last Census in 1790, was more than double what it was in 1775, by which it appears, that America doubles her number of people every fifteen years. The emigrations from the different nations in Europe to that country, are esimated at one hundred and sixty thousand annually. The increase of farms and villages has been so great as to people four new States, and to extend their Settlements from the Atlantic to the Ohio in the South, and from the Atlantic to the Lakes on the River St. Lawrence in the North.
Citation: Glasgow Advertiser (Glasgow, United Kingdom), 12 September 1794, available at the Scissors and Paste Database, http://www.scissorsandpaste.net/97.