[1] This work is entitled, Marie, ou l'Esclavage aux Etats-Unis. [2] Legislative and administrative documents have been furnished me with a degree of politeness which I shall always remember with gratitude. Among the American functionaries who thus favored my inquiries I am proud to name Mr. Edward Livingston, then Secretary of State and late American minister at Paris. During my stay at the session of Congress, Mr. Livingston was kind enough to furnish me with the greater part of the documents I possess relative to the federal government. Mr. Livingston is one of those rare individuals whom one loves, respects, and admires, from their writings, and to whom one is happy to incur the debt of gratitude on further acquaintance. AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS. CHAPTER I. EXTERIOR FORM OF NORTH AMERICA. North America divided into two vast regions, one inclining toward the Pole, the other toward the Equator.--Valley of the Mississippi.--Traces of the Revolutions of the Globe.--Shore of the Atlantic Ocean, where the English Colonies were founded.--Difference in the Appearance of North and of South America at the Time of their Discovery.--Forests of North America.--Prairies.--Wandering Tribes of Natives.--Their outward Appearance, Manners, and Language.--Traces of an Unknown People. North America presents in its external form certain general features, which it is easy to discriminate at the first glance. A sort of methodical order seems to have regulated the separation of land and water, mountains and valleys. A simple but grand arrangement is discoverable amid the confusion of objects and the prodigious variety of scenes. This continent is divided, almost equally, into two vast regions, one of which is bounded, on the north by the arctic pole, and by the two great oceans on the east and west. It stretches toward the south, forming a triangle, whose irregular sides meet at length below the great lakes of Canada. The second region begins where the other terminates, and includes all the remainder of the continent. The one slopes gently toward the pole, the other toward the equator.