1. The revolution interested every inhabitant of the country of both sexes, and of every rank and age that was capable of reflection. An indifferent, or neutral spectator of the controversy, was scarcely to be found in any of the states. 2. The scenes of war and government which it introduced, were new to the greatest part of the inhabitants of the United States, and operated with all the force of _novelty_ upon the human mind. 3. The controversy was conceived to be the most important of any that had ever engaged the attention of mankind. It was generally believed, by the friends of the revolution, that the very existence of _freedom_ upon our globe, was involved in the issue of the contest in favour of the United States. 4. The American revolution included in it the cares of government, as well as the toils and dangers of war. The American mind was, therefore, frequently occupied at the _same time_, by the difficult and complicated duties of political and military life. 5. The revolution was conducted by men who had been born _free_, and whose sense of the blessings of liberty was of course more exquisite than if they had just emerged from a state of slavery. 6. The greatest part of the soldiers in the armies of the United States had family connections and property in the country. 7. The war was carried on by the Americans against a nation, to whom they had long been tied by the numerous obligations of consanguinity, laws, religion, commerce, language, interest, and a mutual sense of national glory. The resentments of the Americans of course rose, as is usual in all disputes, in proportion to the number and force of these ancient bonds of affection and union. 8. A predilection to a limited monarchy, as an essential part of a free and safe government, and an attachment to the reigning king of Great-Britain (with a very few exceptions), were universal in every part of the United States. 9. There was at one time a sudden dissolution of civil government in _all_, and of ecclesiastical establishments in several of the states. 10. The expences of the war were supported by means of a paper currency, which was continually depreciating. From the action of each of these causes, and frequently from their combination in the same persons, effects might reasonably be expected, both upon the mind and body, which have seldom occurred; or if they have, I believe were never fully recorded in any age or country. It might afford some useful instruction, to point out the influence of the military and political events of the revolution upon the understandings, passions, and morals of the citizens of the United States; but my business in the present inquiry, is only to take notice of the influence of those events upon the human body, through the medium of the mind.