Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919). New York. 1906.
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| IN 1710 New York City contained some 6,000 inhabitants, in 1750 over 12,000, and at the outbreak of the Revolution about 20,000. It was a smaller town than either Boston or Philadelphia, with a society far less democratic, and divided by much sharper lines of caste. Strangers complained, then as now, that it was difficult to say what a typical New Yorker was, because New York’s population was composed of various races, differing widely in blood, religion, and conditions of life. In fact, this diversity has always been the dominant note of New YorkNo sooner has one set of varying elements been fused together than another stream has been poured into the crucible. There probably has been no period in the city’s growth during which the New Yorkers whose parents were born in New York formed the majority of the population; and there never has been a time when the bulk of the citizens were of English blood. |
| All this is in striking contrast to what has gone on in some other American cities, as, for instance, Boston. Colonial Boston was a Puritan English town, where the people were in all essentials wonderfully |