history. The pilgrims who crossed the Atlantic in the 'Mayflower' and landed on the
barren cost of Cape Cod in November 1620, were English people who had first left
England and gone to Holland for freedom of worship. Later they were joined by other
dissenters who could not submit to the restrictions placed upon their religious beliefs
by the English rulers of the time. These were the forbears of the sturdy, religious-
minded New Englanders who, two centuries later, became the leaders of the
intellectual and spiritual culture of America. Swami Vivekananda found among their
descendants many of his loyal and enthusiastic followers.
Both the Holy Bible and the philosophy of Locke influenced the Bill of Rights and the
American Constitution. Leaders imbued with the Christian ideal of the Fatherhood of
God and the brotherhood of men, penned the second paragraph of the Declaration of
Independence, which clearly set forth its political philosophy, namely, the equality of
men before God, the state, and society. Thomas Paine, one of the high priests of the
American Revolution, was an uncompromising foe of tyranny, and an upholder of
human freedom. The same passion for equality, freedom, justice, enduring peace, and
righteousness was later to permeate the utterances of the great Lincoln.
The political structure of America shows the sagacity and lofty idealism of her
statesmen, who built up the country after the War of Independence. The original
thirteen colonies, which had wrested freedom from England, gradually became the
United States of America. The architects of the American Government might have
created, following the imperialistic pattern of England, an American Empire, with the
original thirteen states as a sort of mother country and the rest as her colonies. But
instead, the newly acquired territories received complete equality of status. It may also
be mentioned that, with the exception of the Mexican War of 1845, America has never
started a war.
Within a hundred years of her gaining independence, America showed unprecedented
material prosperity. The country's vast hidden wealth was tapped by European
immigrants, who brought with them not only the flavour of an older civilization, but
technical skill, indomitable courage, and the spirit of adventure. Scientists and
technologists flooded the country with new inventions. Steamboats, a network of
railroads, and various mechanical appliances aided in the creation of new wealth.
Towns grew into cities. As big business concerns expanded, workmen and mechanics
formed protective organizations. Ambition stirred everywhere, and men's very manners
changed with the new haste and energy that swept them on.
Material prosperity was accompanied by a new awakening of men's minds and
consciousness. Jails were converted into penitentiary systems, based upon
humanitarian principles, and anti-slavery societies were inaugurated. During the five
years between 1850 and 1855 were published some of the greatest books in American
literature, hardly surpassed in imaginative vitality. Democracy was in full swing and it
was the people's day everywhere. The crude frontier days were fast disappearing.
The Transcendentalist Movement, of which Emerson was the leader, with Thoreau and
Alcott as his associates, brought spiritual India into the swift current of American life.