They had to evolve a system satisfactory to people scattered through
thirteen degrees of latitude, with climatic differences arising from
a mean average temperature of forty degrees in the north and sixty
degrees in the south. Such decentralising tendencies were met with
nowhere in Europe save under the strong hand of a monarch in Russia.
These climatic differences produced the frugal Northerner, who had to
provide in advance for the winter season, and the hospitable planter
of the South, in whom prodigality was induced by the very lavishness
of nature about him. It was not strange that by contrast, and seen
through the haze of distance, the frugality of the North should appear
to be avarice to the South; while the hospitality upon which that
section prided itself should seem to be prodigality in Northern eyes.
These bask differences could be reconciled by compromise, and that
only temporarily. Washington had summed up the situation when he
declared that there must be reciprocity or no union; that the whole
matter could be reduced to a single question--whether it was best for
the States to unite.
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