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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 f 1^ 1 i' r tpem l(M> '^. /.t'//,/f/f />//'//..■///./ /m / t-n.i'mtti , /.'f//w/ A'"X *'rft.- .*'• /^n>}tn. -S^e„nl^ V >, ^'W„/\".'^'' /.,.tr., •<■ '^^W. /i,,,„ VniTL'D 5l'ATli:3. .«> At \H..\i.l.'M Uritixh W/r.,: _2^r°s ^ 4 ..^' //'(' /w' l.'i|ii'}tn /'<>,% ru- '.^-t, t 'i'<»f, /'''.'.. I I ViriTls'D 5'i'Al'Ii5. :^t> /Irff/y/i MiAw. .W> //'(' /.)(' (•("(•IIWM'il 7ll> '/..■'////// ..-. . Awi ,iA.''/''* .//•'■ '.;,, /.'.:■:. VIEWS OF I ' SOCIETY AND MAxVNERS IN AINIERICA ; , i IN A SERIES OE LETTERS FROM THAT COUNTRY TO A FRIEND IN ENGLAND, DURING THE YEARS 1818, 1819, AND 1820. By FRANCES WRIGHT. But mark the judgment of experienced Time, Tutor of Nations. ! A ken side. ^econD Cttmon. \ V » LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, C-w. PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1822. > »■ ' "^ ■tw^- I . l^ J ' ,1- ' H ' ; r ' I I i London : Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode, Ne\T- Street- Square. i t s TO CHARLES WILKES, Esg. OF NEW YORK. My dear Sir, Although I am uncertain how far the senti- ments contained in this little volume may be in unison with yours, I cannot resist that im- pulse of the heart which leads me to inscribe its pages to you. 1 1 Viewing, as I did, your adopted country with the eyes of a foreigner, I may have been sometimes hasty, and, therefore, mistaken in my judgments. Though I do not apprehend that my inaccuracies can extend to facts of any importance, it is possible that a citizen of America may detect slight errors which the foreign reader cannot be aware of, and which the Author herself could not wholly guard against, however authentic the sources whence she drew her information. A 3 I it w ' r-a 'I !.f IV Wlicrc, in the following letters, I may have expressed opinions at variance with yours, I am persuaded that you will view them with candour; and that, notwithstanding the defects you may find in this little work, you will pardon my seizing this opportunity of openly expressing the high respect I feel for your character, and my grateful remembrance of the many proofs of friendship with which you have honoured me. I Permit me to subscribe myself, My dear Sir, Most respectfully and Aftectionately, yours, THE AUTHOR. London^ 20th April, 1821. ADVERTISEMENT. i: J '.3 ' j The following letters form only a part of a more extensive and desultory correspondence : occa. smnal allusions will, therefore, be found to letters that have been suppressed, as interesting only to the friend to whom they were written. if i im v\ : t f CONTENTS. I LETTER I. Voyage. — Iceberg. — Ship's crew. — Bay of New York. — Arrival in the city. - - .- Page 1 LETTER IL Boartling-house in New York. — General appearance of the city and its environs. - - . - 14« LETTER in. Manners oi' the working classes. — Anecdotes, &c. LETTER IV. 20 Appearance and manners of the young women. — Style of society. — Reception of foreigners. — General Bernard. — Foreign writers. — Mr. Fearon. - - - 28 LETTER V. Visit to the city of Philadelphia. — Remarks on the Friends. — Laws and Institutions of William Penn. — Penal Code. — Dr. Rush. — Abolition of the slave-trade. — Emancipation of the slaves in the Northern States. — Condition of the negro in the Northern States. - - - - -iS LETTER VL Reference to Lieutenant Hall. — Advice to tourists. — Appear- ance of the city of Philadelphia. — Style of architecture, — State-house. — Remarks on the conduct of the first American Congress. — Anecdotes relating to that period. — Peculi- arities in the political character of the people of Pennysyl- vania. — Internal government of the States. - 71 LETTER Vn. American character. — Anecdote of a Prussian officer. — a ^■: I » I s* I IM ! 11 # I I Vlll CONTENTS. Societ}' of Pluliidelphia. — Chevalier Correa dc Serra. — Mr. Garnett. - . - . Page 107 LETTER VIII. Visit to Joseph Buonaparte. — General observations. — Ame- rican country-gentleman. _ . . i^l LETTER IX. Passage up the River Hudson — Account of the academy at West Point. — Pass of the Highlands. — Arnolds' treachery. — Albany and its environs. - - - 132 LETTER. X. Departure for the Falls of Niagara. — Mode of Travelling. — Description of the country. — Canadaigua. - 153 LETTER XL Genessee. — Visit to Mr. Wadsworth. — American farmer. — Settling of the new territory. — Forest scenery. 164? LETTER XH. Indian village. — Observations on the Indians. — Conduct of the American Gvernment towards them. - 181 LETTER XIIL Departure from Genessee. — Falls of the Genessee river. — Singular bridge. — American inns. — Opening of the Post- bag. — Journey to Lewiston. — Cataract of Niagara. 197 LETTER XIV. Lake Erie. — Water scenery of America. — Massacre on the river Raisin. — Naval Engagement on Lake Erie. — Mr. Birkbeck. ----- 223 LETTER XV. Upper Canada. — Mr. Gourlay. — Poor emigrants — Lake Ontario. — Descent of the St. Lawrence. — Montreal and Lower Canada. ----- 24-2 18 I i CONTENTS. IX LETTER XVI. Lake Cliamplain. — Battle of Plattsburg. Phcenix steam-boat. Burning of the Page 258 4 LETTER XVIL Town of Burlington. — Character and history of the State of Vermont. ----- 272 .' »: Lake ll and 242 LETTER XVIIL Direction of American genius. — Founders of the American re- publics. — Establishment of the Federal government. 282 LETTER XIX. On the Federal administrations. — Mr. Jefferson. — Causes of the last war. — Regulations of the navy and merchantmen. — Effects of these on the sailor's character. — Anecdote. — Defence of the country. — How conducted by the rtople. — Army of the West Policy of the New-Englanc' States. — Effect of the war on the national character. - 301 LETTER XX. Unanimity of sentiment throughout the nation, government. — Federal constitution. LETTER XXL National 328 Character and interests of the different sections of the con- federacy, and their influence on the floor of Congress. — New England. — Final extinction of the Federal party. — Central states. — New- York and Pennsylvania. — Southern States. — Policy and 'nfluence of Virginia. — Western "'ites. Manufactures. — Powers of Congress respecting ck slavery. — Formation and government of territories. — Generous policy of the western States. — Character of the first settlers. — Shepherds and hunters of the Border. — Anecdote of Lafitte. — Various ties which cement the union of the States. - - - - - 343 1 '■ !i 'i-J I ■ ; a CONTENTS. LETTER XXII. Unrestrained liberty of the press.— Eioctions Effect of po- litical writings. — ■ Newspapers — Congressional debates. — Deportment of the members in Congre ?ss. Page?,':\ LETTER XXIIL Education. — New- England. — Public seni.naries. — Discipline ofscliools. — Condition of women. - - 1381 I 'i LETTER XXIV. Religion. — Temper of the difterent sects. — Anecdotes. 396 LETTER XXV. Account of Colonel Huger. — Observations on the climate, &c. .... - - 405 I 1 i \ LETTER XXVL Philadelphia Market. — Deportment of the citizens. — Mode of guiding and breaking horses. — Hints to an emigrant. — Consequences of bringing foreign servants to America. — Character of servants in America. — German redemptioners. — Manner in which the importation of the peasants of the European continent is conducted. — Reply to the Quarterly Review. — Descent of the Delaware. — Letter of Count de Survillier (Joseph Buonaparte). — Rencontre with English travellers. - - - - - 419 LETTER XXVIL Baltimore. — Yellow fever at Fells Point, city. — Miscellaneous. LETTER XXVIIL Appearance of the 438 Washington. — The capitol. — Hall of the representatives. — Senate chamber. — The president. — Virginia slavery. — Conclusion. - . - . . .1.59 I I VIEWS OF AMERICA. LETTER I. V()YA(iT;. — ICEBERG. — SHIP S CHEW. nA\ OF NEW YORK. ARRIVAL IN THE CITY. )f the 438 res. — [y- — 1-59 ( New York, September, 1818. MY DEAR FRIEND, iHE report of our safety, as well as of the kind welcome with which we were greeted on landing, by several families in this city, is now, 1 trust, far on its way towards you. 1 wrote too rapidly, and with a head too giddy, (you know what sort of a head one brings out of a ship), to enter into much detail upon the few and dull events of our voyage. We saw spouting whales, and sharks, and porpoises, and all sea-monsters in plenty ; i'or the breezes were mild, and the ocean and heaven so fair and smiling, as might well woo all the hideous tribes of Tethys from their dark caverns. But the only sight worth noticing was a large iceberg, in lati- tude 43°, towards the most southern extremity of the Newfoundland bank. This, for the month of August, was an unusual object in such a latitude j nor shall I easily forget the moment of singular li 1 ,i| H ■til li U it 1 1 ■' i i I i . i) VOYAfiF.. t f fxcitcMnont whicli it occusioncMl lo tlio captain ol'tlic vessel, anollier j)asscii^er, and myself. Lip,lit nortli- easterly winds had prexailed thronghout the day ; so light, indeed, that the island which had first been descried in the direct line of our course an hour after noon, lay but some ten miles astern of us an hour after sunset. We were leaning over one of the hatchways in careless conversation, and the eyes of the captain were cast accidentally upon the iceberg, which now (the short twilight having died away) appeared a black three-pointed rock, upon the clear blue of tlic liorizon. A sudden exclamation from Captain Staunton caused my fellow-passenger and me, to start on our feet and gaze as he directed. A bright flame blazed u})on the highest point of the distant rock. None of us spoke ; we all held our breath, and each wrought out for himself, after his own manner, some tale of hideous suffering. " A few beings, or it might be, one solitary wretch, had here sur- vived his companions, and clung to this isle of frost, to expire more slowly under the united hor- rors of cold, hunger, and despair. A pile had been here collected from the disjointed planks of the foundered vessel, which was now kindled, when the first shades of evening afforded a hope that some eye from the receding vessel would catch the signal." All this passed through our minds at one glance of tliought. The captain had turned cpiickly to give orders for tacking about, and lowering a boat that should put of!' to the rock J when suddenly a bright star peered above the crystal, and hung distinct, and clear, over the VOYAUi:. 3 I of lior- had s of led, 1 lope M\d 1 our i (tain out, the > 30ve • the ilistant pinnach^ which still, for a while, (piivered heneath its receding rays. It was some minutes heforc we could smile at this sudden and simple explanation of an appearance, which had, a moment hcfore, so highly wioiight up our interest and cu- riosity. It is usual to complain nuich of the discomforts of a ship, and I grant that they are numerous j hut to those who are not disahled by sicki ess or nervous fears, I think a voyage is not without its pleasures, and certainly not without interest. Our fellow -passengers, mostly Americans, were cheer- ful, obliging, and conversable ; the ship excellent, her captain a weather-beaten veteran, a kind- hearted as well as experienced sailor, who looked not merely after the safety of his ship, but the comfort of every living being on board of her. A moralizer might have apostro})hized capricious fortune, when he heard this old seaman recount the many times he had ploughed the Atlantic, and thank God that he had weathered every gale, without ever losing (to use the sailor's phrase) a single spar. I have conversed with sailors not half the age of this good captain of the Amity, who had never made a voyage without losing a spar, and holding their lives in jeopardy into the bargain. But is it not thus on the varied sea of life ? Some adventurers set forth in youth and hope, and brave gales and storms, and scud by rocks and shallows with light and easy hearts, and moor at last peacefully in the haven of old age, wrinkled indeed by time, but unscathed by misfortune j while others, blown about at the mercy of the B '2 I J >! ■ t '■ PP Hf:!' 1 ml 1 i i 1' VOYAGE. clpnients, their helm broken and then rig^lnu lorn, run foul of every qiiieksjuul, and die a thou- sand deaths ere they die tlie hist. I observed much and often upon the (|uietness as well as the matchless activity of the crew. No scolding on the part of the captain, or sulky looks on that of the men. By the former, authority was exercised with kindness, and, (a sure conseqnence of this,) obedience was by the latter yielded with good-humour and alertness. The ship indeed was well named The Amilijy for 1 never heard a dis- ])ute on board her; except one night, when I was the unwilling auditor of a dispute in the adjoining cabin, which gradually waxed to a wrangle, be- tween a young Scotchman, firm in the belief of grace and predestination, an older Englishman, as h'rm in the non-belief of both articles, and an Ame- rican, who, without agreeing with either, seemed to keep the peace between both. In this good office he probably succeeded, as in the middle of a nicely drawn distinction on the part of the Englishman between foreknowing and foredecreeing I fell asleep, and waked to no other noise than the creaking of timber and lashing of the waves. It is worthy of remark that every man of the crew, from the old veteran to the young sailor-boy, could read and write, and, I believe, I might al- most say everij man could converse with you upon the history of his country, its laws, its present condition, and its future prospects. When our ship lay sleei)ing on the waters in a lazy calm, 1 often whiled away an hour in conversing with one or other of these sons of Neptune, as he sat piecing iJ^' unJ voYAor:. as I a tori) .sail, oi mciuliiii*' a ropi', and I am smo that J i',cvcr came from the conversation vvitliout liaving gained some useful information, or without having conceived a higher idea of the coinitry to vvliich the man whom 1 had converseil with, beh)ngcd. To one who has only viewed the great deej) in contemphitive case and security from its shores, there is something pleasingly exciting in being borne triumphantly over its bosom, and in witnessing how the wonderful creature man struggles with the elements, holding on his ad- \'entiu'cu'=i course for days and weeks without doubt or fear, marking his progress over the track- less waste with unerring certainty, and i)ointing his eye yet more steadily to the far-distant port than does his guiding needle to the pole ! For^ give me the idle observation, that I never fully appreciated the perseverance as well as the adven- ture of the daring Columbus, until I found myself watchinir the sun sink and rise, in and from the eternal waters, day after day, and week after week. How extraordinary was the mind which could cal- culate with such certainty upon the existence of an unknown world ! How daring the spirit which could throw itself upon the mercy of a furious and unexplored ocean, hitherto deemed impassable and interminable ! How perfect the self-possession which remained unshaken, not merely amid the strife of the elements, but the warring passions — the alternate rage, and fear, and despair of the ignorant and superstitious crew, who stood a united host against one man ! But what a man i I) 3 \4 6 VOYAOi:. Alone supported by his own powerful mind amiilst the perils of the deep, the horrors of ji mutiny, and the heart-sickness wrought by hope delayeil, when sun after sun discovered the same watery waste — the same unchanging horizon of sky and sea; when night afler night bred thoughts, more and more anxious, and danger still more eminent, the apprehension of which it had been defeat or death to betray ! How much the human race is indebted to this great mind is still perhaps un- known. The world which a hero discovered, and which bigots and robbers for a season polluted with crimes, has also been the refuge of the poor and the persecuted of every tongue and every clime ; and now exhibits, in its northern section, a well-organized nation in all the vigour and pride of youth and freedom J in its southern, a spirited people awaking from ignorance and resenting oppression, asserting their rights as men and citizens, and laying the foundation of common- wealths, which the next generation may see established in power, rich in resources, enlightened with knowledge, and fenced by the bulwarks of just laws, wise institutions, and generous patrio- tism, against tlie efforts of foreign enemies or the machinations of domestic traitors. It was not without emotion that, on the even- ing of the 30th day from that on which we had cleared out of the Mersey, we heard the cry of " Land V* and, straining our eyes in the direction of the setting sun, saw the heights of Never-sink Id i i U.W OF N'KW VOItK, liad of ion ink f>lovvly rise Iroin the waters <)|)})osiii^ a l)lack screen to the crimson fjflories of the evening sky. Vou will but too well remember the stiikinii? position of New York to require that I shoulil describe it. The magnificent bay, whose broad and silver waters, sprinkled with islands, are so (inely closed by the heights of the Narrows, which, jutting forward with a fine sweeping bend, give a circular form to the immense basin which receives the waters of the Hudson — this magnificent bay is grand and beautiful as when you aihiiired it some twenty years since ; only that it is perhaps more thickly studded with silver-winged vessels, from the light sharp-keeled boat through all the va- rieties of shai)e and size, to the j)rouil thiee- masted ship, setting and lowering its sails to or from the thousand ports of distant Europe, or yet more distant Asia. Every thing in the neighbourhood of this city exhibits the appearance of life and cheerfulness. The purity of the air, the brilliancy of the un- spotted heavens, the crowd of moving vessels, shooting in various directions, up a>id down, and across the bay and the far-st retching Hudson, and the forest of masts crowded round tin; cpiays anil wharfs at the entrance of the East-River. There is something in all this, — in the very air you breathe, and the fair and moving scene that you rest your eye upon, which exhilarates the sj)irits, and makes you in good-humour with life and your fellow- creatures. We approached these shores under a fervid sun ; but the air, though of a higher tein- 13 1 j ■ I I ! i ;,-> ' If .t I 8 HAY or NKW YOIIK. j)cratnre than I liatl ever bofbro cxpcricnceil, was so entirely free of vaponr, that I thought it was for the first ti'iie in my life that I liatl drawn a clear breath. I was no longer sensible of any weakness of the lungs, nor have I as yet been reniiiuieil of this infirmity. Probably a great proportion of the neat white liouses that every where peep out from clumps of young trees along the picturesque shores of the surrouniliiig waters, have started up since you left this country. As we first slowly entered the New York bay, with a breeze so light as just to save a calm, it was with ])leasure that I observed the num- ber of smiling dwellings that studded the shores of Staten and Long Islands. No great proprietoi", his mighty domains stretching in silent and soli- tary grandeur for uninterrupted miles, but thou- sands of little villas or thriving farms, bespeaking the residence of the easy citizen or tiller of the soil. I should not omit another circumstance which 1 noticed as evincing the easy condition of the people of this young country. While our ship slowly moved througii the still waters, pointing her course to the city, which just appeared upon the distant (^dii;(i of tiie bright sheet of silver which opened before us as we cleared the pass of the Narrows, numberless little boats, well manned with active rowers, darted from the different shores, and severally mooring along-side of our lazy vessel with the cry oi' All-well ? a dialogue ensued, com- mencing with friendly congratulations, between the crews of the boats and the various inhabitants of the ship. On one side queries respecting the length I ) f HAY or Ni:W YORK. !) he lip ler he icli tlie ilh -Ih ol the voyafTc, the weathor, thi* winds, aiul the latest news from Kurope ; on the other, tlie liealth oCthe eity, the natine of the season, ol'tlie liarvest, the arrival and departure of vessels, and a thou- sand nameless triHes interestifiu; to men returnin*;- iioni a distance to their native shores. At the elose of the dialopjue, one ur other of the boatmen wouhl carelessly ask if any of the passengers wifshetl to be landed, but the recpiest was always made in a manner which ex})ressed a willingness to render a civility rather than a desire to obtain employ- ment. These boats had something picturesque as well as foreign in their appearance. IJuilt unusu- ally long and sliarp in the keel, they shot through the bright waters with a celerity that almost startled the eye. Their rowers, tall, slender, but of un- common nerve and agility, were all cleanly dressed in the light clothing suited to a warm climate : their large white shirt-collars unbuttoned and thrown back on their shoulders, and light hats of straw or cane, with broad brims, shading their sun- burnt faces. These faces were unconnnonly intel- ligent. Piercing grey eyes glancing from beneath even and i)rojecting brows, features generally re- gular, and complexions which, burnt to a deep broNvn, were somewhat strangely contrasted with the delicate whiteness of the clothing. I made vet an- other observation upon these natives. hey all s])oke good English with a good voice and accent ; I had before observed the same of the crew of the Amity. Approaching the city at sunset, I shall not soon forget the impression which its gay a})pearanee I • . % 10 NEW YORK. made upon mc. Pas.sini»; slowly round its southern ])oint, (formed by the confluence of the Hudson with what is called the East River, though it seems more j)roperly an arm of the sea,) we admired at our leisure the striking panorama which encircled us. Immediately in our front, the battery, with its little fort and its public walks, diversified with trees, impending over the water, numberless well- dressed figures gliding through the foliage, or standing to admire our nearing vessel. In the back ground, the neatly-painted houses receding into distance ; the spiry tops of poplars peering above the roofs, and marking the line of the streets. The city, gradually enlarging from the battery as from the apex of a triangle, the eye followed on one side the broad channel of the Hudson, and the picturesque coast of Jersey, at first sprinkled with villages and little villas, whose white walls just glanced in the distance through thick beds of trees, and afterwards rising into abrupt precipices, now crowned with wood, and now jutting forward in bare w^alls of rock. To the light, the more winding waters of the East River, bounded on one side by the wooded heights of Brooklyn and the varied shores of Long Island, and on the other by quays and warehouses, scarce discernible through the forest of masts that were crowded as far as tlie eye could reach. Behind us stretched the broad expanse of the bay, whose islets, crowned with turreted forts, their colours streaming from their flag-staflfs, slept on the still and glowing waters, in dark or sunny spots, as they variously caught or shunned the gaze of the th( i the the eye the at into and the iver, of and, arce ere lind lose urs still „ as the NEW YORK. 11 sinking sun. It was a glorious scene ; and we almost caught the enthusiasm of our companions, who, as they hailed their native city, pronounced it the fairest in the world. When our ; up neared the quays, there w;ip, some bustle occasioned by the moving crowd of vessels that intervened between us and the shore, and many active tars sprang from the yards and rigging of the surrounding ships to assist in clear- ing our passage. But neither then, nor when we finally touched the land, were we boarded by any ' needy supplicants imploring work for the love of charity, or charity for the love of Heaven. There was, however, no lack of good offices from the busy citizens on the quay. One laid planks to assist the passengers in their descent from the vessel ; another lent a hand to stay their unsteady feet, while some busied themselves in taking charge of their bundles and portmanteaus, and many strange tongues and faces spoke and smiled a good welcome to the city. There was in the look and air of these men, though clad in working-jackets something which told that tliey were rendering civilities, not services ? and that a kind thank ye was all that should be tendered in return. Arriving at a boarding-house which had been recommended to us, we were very kindly wel- comed by a sprightly intelligent young woman, the sister of the more staid and elderly matron of the house. The heat continued with little abate- ment after sunset, and every window and door of the house was open. While seated, refreshing if I. J. =1 ! i t 12 NEW YORK. ourselves with tea and I'niit, and conversing with our Jively hostess, a sound, which had filled our cars from the first moment that we left behind us the bustle of the wharfs, now completely fixed our attention. I remembered your account of the din 'of the frogs, and of your consequent surprise there- at, in descending the Delaware. But the sound we heard did not at all answer to our preconceived no- tions of a frog concert. Tic-a-te-tic, tic-a-te-tac, was ciied as it were by a thousand unseen voices. At first we half suspected the sound had its existence in our fancy — a kind memorial, perhaps, be- stowed at parting by the giddy ship. Gradually, however, 1 began to esteem these chatterers breathing realities, and, losing the thread of our gay-hearted entertainer's discourse, I found myself repeating tic-a-te-ticy tic-a-te-tac, " I suppose they must be frogs." The word caught the lady's ear. ** Frogs ! Where ?" " Nay ; indeed I know not, but somewhere assuredly." ** Not here," said the lady. " No !" said I. " Pray then what is the noise ?" ** Noise ! I hear none." If my companion had not here come to my assistance, I should have had serious apprehensions for the sanity of my organs. Backed, however, by her support, I insisted that there certainly was a noise, and to my ears a most uncommon one. Our good-humoured hostess listened again. *' I hear nothing, unless it be the catty-dids." ** The catty-dids ! and who or what are they ?" ** You will probably recognize them for old acquaintances, though I do not re- member your mentioning them among the thou- I I ri.r^. m NEW YORK. 13 our saniV-tongiied insects of this land. * This whimsi- cal cry, with the shorter note of the little tree frog, the chirp of crickets, and the whiz and boom of a thousand other flying creatures, creates, at this season, to the ear of a stranger, a noise truly astounding. We are now, however, tolerably familiarized to the sound, and I doubt not may soon be able to say to a wondering stranger, like the young American, / hear nothing. ':■« * I have since had one of these insects in my hand. In size it is larger than the ordinary grasshopper, and in colour of a much more vivid green. It is perfectly harmless, and is altogether a most ** delicate creature," y f , I \ f ■■ ! f; P iff 11. LiriTFJi II. BOARDING-HOUSE IN NKWYOUK GENERAL Al'l'EARANCE OF THE CITY AND ITS ENVIRONS. New York, October, 1818. :\IY DEAR FRIEND, We have removed from our former residence, to a more private boarding-lioiise at the head of Broad-way ; a gay street that you v^ill remember, though it has now stretched itself over twice the length of eartli that it occu})ied when you traversed it. This house has been filled with a rapid suc- cession of inmates since we first entered it, and whenever we are not engaged abroad, we find a very pleasing society at the public table. The social mode of living here adopted in the hotels and boarding-houses, offers great advantages to foreigners, who may be desirous of mixing easily with the natives, and of observing the tone of the national manners. During the few days that we have lived in this house, we have met with a greater variety of individuals from all parts of the Union, than we could have done in as many months by visiting in half the private houses of the city. Families from the Eastern States, and gentlemen from the south and west, have successively ap- peared, and departed, and left with us many invit- ations to their various dwellings — so warmly ut- tered, that the heart could not doubt their sincerity. i I I i NEW YORK. 15 to . of ber, tlie rsed SLIC- antl id a The Dtels 3 to asily the t we h a the nths :ity. men ap- vit- ut- rity. We were pccuHarly struck by the polislicd nmnncrs of one or two natives of Carohnn, and hy the independent air, .softened by rcpubHcan sim- ])licity, of some of the adventurous settlers from the infant west. We gleaned from these intelli- gent strangers many curious facts, tending to illus- trate the amazing advance of this country, which imparts to it the character of a player's stage, where both the actors and tlie scenery are shifted M as fast as you can turn your eye. One gentle- man, in the prime of manhood, told me, that he knew the vast tract which now forms the flourish- inu: state of Ohio, when it contained no inhabitant save the wild hunter and his prey. Making lately tiie same journey, through which he had toiled 20 I years ago through one vast, unbroken forest, he found smiling landscapes, sprinkled with thriving settlements, villages, and even towns, and a people living under an organized government, and well administered laws. •* J. had heard of all this,*' I said my inlbrmer, '• and knew that it all was so ; but when I saw it with my own eyes, I felt as a man might be supposed to feel, who should wake from a sleep of some centuries* duration, arid find the earth onvered with states and empires of which he had never heard the name.*' Many changes have taken place in this city and island since you knew them. Streets upon streets have been added to the former, and much draining and levelling (of this last I incline to think too much) has been, and is still carrying on in, and about it. The citizens of Paris were wont to call the narrow streets of their ohl capital rues aris- •1 ! M ( V- • I * ! ' ii ; a i' i \ X I / / 16 NKW YORK. tocrateSj and very justly, since pedestrians had to make their way through them at tlic hazard of their Hves. In opposition to this, tlie streets here might with justice be termed rues democrates. Not content witli broad pavements, carefully pro- tected from the encroachment of wheels by a sill of considerable elevation, the Httle inequalities of the ground arc removing with much trouble and expense. I have frequently admired the inge- nuity with which a new, or rather an additional foundation is introduced beneath a brick house of very tolerable solidity, so as to preserve to it the superiority it had hitherto asserted over the passing causeway ; but I have not yet had the opportunity of observing a house upon its travels. I am told, however, that the curiosity is still to be seen, though probably very rarely, as the now universal use of brick, in almost all the chief cities of the States, as well as the improved style of architecture in the wooden tenements, still prevalent in the country, must have rendered the method of travel- ling in domoy and shifting the neighbourhood, with- out disturbing the household goods, considerably less feasible. My confidence in the veracity of a friend has been occasionally put to the proof, when he has pointed out to me, in the outskirts of the city, a house that had undergone a transport- ation of a quarter of a mile to arrange itself in the line of the street, and which stood a very secure looking tenement of two floors, with brick chimneys, and walls of very substantial frame work. Notwithstanding the pleasant, opulent, and airy appearance of the city, a European might be led i Si NEW YORK. 17 to remark, that, if nature has done every thing for it, art, in the way of ornament, has as yet done little. Except the City Hall, there is not a public building worth noticing ; but it presents what is far better — streets of private dwellings, often elegant, and always comfortable. Turn where you will, successful industry seems to have fixed her abode. No dark alleys, whose confined and noisome atmosphere marks the presence of a dense and suffering population ; no hovels, in whose ruined garrets, or dark and gloomy cellars, crowd the wretched victims of vice and disease, whom penury drives to despair ere she opens to them the grave. I shall not fatigue you with particular accounts of the excursions we have made into the surround- ing country. We surveyed with pleasure the thriving farms of Long Island, and those of the neighbouring state of Jersey. The country is every where pleasingly diversified ; gentle hills, sinking into extensive valleys, watered by clear rivers, their banks sprinkled with neat white dwel- lings, usually low and broad-roofed, shaded by projecting piazzas, and very generally by enormous weeping willows. These exotics seem to take wonderfully to the soil and climate, and are much cultivated, in the more immediate neighbourhood of houses, as well on account of their rapid growth, as from the massiveness of their foliage, and from their being the earliest trees to bud, and the latest to cast their leaves. I could not so well approve of the equally universal culture of the Lombardy poplar, a tree that has no one c 1^.^ rl ' jn \i I ii i1': J! I I I 18 NEW VORK. pjood quality to recommend it, for the rapidity oi its growth can hardly be accounted one, since we can only observe upon it, in the words of the old proverb, that ill xveeds grow apace. One is the more disposed to quarrel with this vile stranger, from the uncommon beauty of all the native trees. Nor might the neglect of the more noble sons of the forest find apology in the sluggishness of their growth. In this soil and climate, vegetation is so powerful, that a very few years may find you seated under the oak that your hands have planted. There are some very lovely, though few very lordly dwellings scattered along the shores of this island. You will remember how picturesque these shores are ; the one washed by the magni- ficent waters of the Hudson, and the other by that arm of the sea styled the East River, which runs round the head of Long Island. I know not if you ever navigated this curious channel. The whirlpools of Hell-gate are, at high water, with good pilotage, passed by sailing vessels without much hazard, and by steam-boats without any hazard, in almost all states of the tide ; those huge leviathans pointing their way steadily through the narrow channels which wind among the whirling eddies that boil on either hand, styled respectively the greater and lesser pots. During the revolutionary war, a large British frigate, richly laden with specie, seeking to attain the city unobserved by the American force, attempted thi« intricate passage without the guidance of an experienced pilot ; suddenly assailed by one of the many 1 NEW YORK. W ATOW Iddics the »nary with Id by icate meed [imiiy powerful currents which run, with irresistible force, in all directions, it was sucked into the largest of tliesc caldrons, and, in all its pride and gallant trim, engulfed in a moment. The summer residences of some gentlemen of the city command a fine prospect of these convulsed and resounding waters, and form pleasing objects when seen from the channel. It is singular, in wan- dering through this island, to reflect that there is scarce a tree in it older than the independence of the country. A friend pointed out to me some half- dozen veterans that, by some strange chance, had escaped the axe of the British soldier, and now overlook the land which freedom has regenerated.* When you look on the young thickets, and thriving trees and saplings not yet grown to maturity, which shade the neigh ^^ouring villas, and fringe the shores, and think that, young as they are, they are old as the country — old as the date of its national ex- istence, you find yourself strangely wondering at the wealth and energy that surround you ; and, recalling the rapid strides which these States have made, in less than half a century, from unknown colonies to a vast and powerful empire, you cannot help invoking the name of Liberty, under whose auspices all has been effected. * The British, hemmed in by the Americans in their last fastness, the city and ishmd of New York, suffered much dis- tress from want of fuel. They had so completely cleared the island from one end to the other, that, at the time of its evacu- ation, there was not a stick to be found upon it, except the few trees mentioned in the text. c ^2 > !?'■ V\ M 20 ! I LETTER III. MANNERS OF THE WORKING CLASSES. — Ai^ECDOTES. New York, November, 1818. MY DEAR FRIEND, You will marvel, perhaps, that I have not observed upon the rudeness and incivility of what are termed with us the lower or j)oorer classes, but which I know not very well how to designate here, since there seem to be neither poor nor uneducated. As yet, my experience would dispose me to dissent from those travellers in the United States who com- plain, in our newspapers and journals, of being elbowed in the streets, and scowled at in the houses, and made uncomfortable every where. 1 have not as yet found even the ser^^ants, a race of beings peculiarly quarrelled with by our orumbletonians, either morose or impertinent. They do not indeed read your wishes in your eyes, but I have never found them unwilling to answer them, and that in an obliging manner, when expressed byyour tongue. The only exception to this which has as yet come, not within my observation, but to my knowledge, is the following : — A young British officer, in his way to or from Canada, was lately lodged in a boarding-house, in this city. The first morning after his arrival, he came from his apartment with a face considerably discomfited and wrathftd; and seeking the lady of the house, informed her i ) ^•I:^v vouk. n m lining tment ihful; her tliiit her serviuit was a very insolent tellow. TIk «um of the story that could be gleaned from the iin; ant gentleman was, that, when roused in the morning, the servant had not brought him warm water. '* I called the fellow, and asked him, how he thought 1 was to shave myself; upon which he turned on his heel, and never afterwards made his appear- ance." The lady expressed much concern at the intelligence, adding that she had never found the man insolent, nor received complaints of him before, but that certainly, if he had changed his manners, she would part with him instantly ; and thereupon called the delinquent before her. In the presence of his accuser, she then began the lecture you may suppose. The man listened in solemn silence, and to tlie lady's final emphatic enquiry, " John, why did you not bring warm water to the gentleman ?" replied, " Because I am not accustomed to answer to the name of d — nd rascal ;'* and then with philosophic composure John left the room. I need not state, that it appeared, upon enquiry, that the demand of the military gentleman had been prefaced by this sonorous title, in style thus, '* You d — nd rascal ! how do you think 1 am to shave myself?" A few days after my arrival in the city, T had recourse to rather a whimsical mode of trying the temper of the citizens. I was bound alone and on foot to the house of a friend in a distant part of the city, and I must confess that 1 was in no diffi- culty as to the line of my route. Meeting however a man whom, from his appearance, I judged to be a mason, I accosted hiin with " Friend ! can you c 3 ' I I 4 « »' ', < ■ h ,1^ i ' Ni:w VOIIK. direct mc to such a street ?" He paiiseil, luul facing about, patiently explained the advance, in the straight line that I was to make, with all the turn- ings that I was to follow afterwards. ** But I guess you are strange to the city. 1 have nothing very pressing on hand, and can see you on your way." With all due acknowledgments, I declined the offer as unnecessary. Pursuing my walk a little further, I overtook a woman who was about to cross the street. She had the air, I thought, of a servant, and the apparently well-stocked basket of provisions that she carried, seemed to say, that fhe was returning from the market. I addressed her with the same query I had before put to the mason, and she, turning round, with words and signs, replied as he had done ; then checking herself, ** But perhaps you are a stranger !'* *« And a foreigner too," said 1. " Why then — wait a moment." And crossing the pavement, and placing her basket upon the broad stone step leading into a shop, " I will walk with you to the head of the next street, where I can better point your way. *' But the basket ?" said I, eyeing it over my shoulder, where it stood on the step. " What harm should come to it? It will stand there." " Will it ?" said I ; ** 'tis an honest city then." " Honest enough lor that," said she. 1 suffered the good woman to accompany me to the spot she proposed, for I own that I was curious to prove whether the basket tcoulcl stand as quietly as its owner reckoned upon. We proceeded accordingly, and, reaching the an- gle of the street, my kind informer repeated her directions, and exchanged wiui no a **good morn- m;\v youk. '2.'3 ii'K- I vvjiitrd to trace licr back with my eye tlimiigh the crow tl of moving passengers, and soon saw her in the distance crossing tlie street with her basket on her arm. You will tliink that I had practised sufliciently on tlie good nature of tlie public, but I made yet another trial of it. 1 stept into II small but decent-looking shop. A man, the only person in it, was seated at his ease behind the counter, reading the newspaper. To my query of *♦ Can you direct me?" &c. he rose, and coming to the door, ran through the necessary instructions. ** But, stop ! I have somewhere a map of the city." lie sought and found it, and spreading it on the counter, traced upon it my route. I thanked him, and departed ; and was disposed, from the experi- ments of the morning, to pronounce the city quite as civil as any city in England, and perhaps a little more honest j for, pondering upon the basket, I could not but suspect that it would scarcely have stood as quietly upon an English pavement, or, what I judged was luidoubted, a woman with her five senses would never have thought of placing it there. It is truly interesting to listen to an intelligent American when he speaks of the condition and re- sources of his country ; and this, not merely when you find him in the more polished circles of society, but when toiling for his subsistence with the saw or spade in his hand. I have never yet conversed with the man who could not inform you upon any fact regarding the past history and existing insti- tutions of his nation, with all the readiness and accuracy with which a school-boy, fresh from his c I f M I, " ih< V I' % 24 NEW YORK. studies, might reply to your queries upon the laws of Lycurgus or the twenty-seven years* war of the Peloponnesus. Putting some questions a few days since to a farmer whom I met in a steam-boat, I could not help remarking to him, when, in reply to my ques- tions, he had run through the geography, soil, cli- mate, &c. of his vast country, just as if its map had been stretched before him, with the catalogue of all its exports and imports, that he seemed as inti- mately acquainted with the produce and practica- bilities of the United States, as he could be with those of his own farm. The manner in which an American husbandman or mechanic connects himself with his chief magis- trates and legislators, and seems in his discourse to take part in all their measures, and decide on their wisdom or error, is apt at first to make a stranger smile. He soon, however, learns to smile at his own ignorance, which could see any presumption in a man's pronouncing upon the fit- ness of legislators whose character he has studied, or in taking to himself the credit or discredit of their measures, when he has exercised a free voice in their election, or in judging of a question which he perfectly understands, or, at least, which he has leisurely considered. I have observed, that it is usual for an American, in speaking of political matters, to say our president does so and so ; we passed, or shall bring forward, such a bill in Con- gress; xve took such and such measures with a view, &c. To speak, in short, from my present confined observations, I should say that it were impossible \FAV VOUK. ^25 for a people to be more completely identirted with their government, than are the Americans. In considering it, they seem to feel, it is ours : JVc created it, and tt'nce * -=*»•• Jacques for good an hour and a quarter. You know the spot ; but it doubtless lives in your memory as inliabited by kind friends, and breathing, within and without, warmth, comfort, beauty, and liospitality. We found it desolate and deserted ; the house without a tenant, gradually falling into disrepair ; the fences broken down, the trees and shrubs all growing wild, while the thick-falling leaves that strewed the ground, and rustled beneath our feet — the season and even the hour, all wooed one on to sickly thoughts, and pr( ^ed on the heart the conviction of the slenJerness of that link whicli holds us to this changing world, to its good or ill, its joys or sorrows. I would finish this letter with a more cheerful paragraph, were not the ship that is to bear it to you about to sail. Autumn still lingers with us, or rather we are at present thrown back into July by the Indian summer. Farewell. I i :uig I the and the )uld [ling ^ith i|( .1 ■ i ' ^^ '28 LF/lTEll IV. APPEARANCE AND MANNERS OE THE YOUNG WOMEN. STYLE OF SOCIETY. RECEPTION OF FOREIGNERS. GENERAL BERNARD. FOREIGN WRITERS. MR, FEARON. New York, Febrmiry, 1819. MY DEAR FRIEND, My letters have as yet chiefly spoken of our more intimate friends ; and have said Httle of the general style of society in this city. I feel that a stranger ought to be slow in pronouncing an opinion upon these matters, and indeed the rigors of the winter (thongh unusually mild this year) have for some time past made me rather a close prisoner. Though the objects around me have now lost the freshness of novelty, they have by no means lost that air of cheerfulness and gaiety which I noticed in my first letters. The skies, though they have exchanged their fervors ibr biting frosts have not lost their splendors, nor are the pavements trod by figures less airy, now that they are ghttering with snows. Broadway, the chosen resort of the young and the gay, in these cold bright mornings, seems one moving crowd of painted butterflies. I some- times tremble for the pretty creatures (and very pretty they are) as they flutter along through the biting air in dress more suited to an Italian winter than to one which, notwithstanding the favorable season, approaches nearer to that of Norway. In APPEARANCE AND MANNERS, kc. Q9 )ung iems )me- reiy the Inter lable In t 1 spite of this thoughtlessness, tlic catch-cold does not seem to be the same national disease that the Frenchman found it in England. This is the more remarkable, as consumption is very frequent, and may be generally traced to some foolish frolic, such as returning from a ball iii an open sleigh, or walking upon snow in thin slippers. I believe I have before remarked upon the beauty of the young women j I might almost say girls, for their beauty is commonly on the wane at five and twenty. Before that age, their com- plexions are generally lovely j the red and white so delicately tempered on their cheeks, as if no rude wind had ever fanned them ; their features small and regular, as if moulded by fairy lingers ; and countenances so gay and smihng, as if no anxious thoughts had ever clouded the young soul within. It is a pity that the envious sun should so soon steal the rose and lilly from their cheeks, and perhaps it is also a pity that the cares of a family should so soon check the thoughtless gaiety of their hearts, and teach them that mortal life is no dream of changing pleasures, but one of anxieties and cheating hopes. The advantages attending early marriages are so substantial, and the country in which they are practicable, is in a condition of such enviable prosperity, whether we regard its morals or its happiness, that I almost blush to notice the objections which, as an idle observer, one might find in a circumstance re- sulting from so happy an order of things. The American youth of both sexes are, for the most part, married ere they are two and twenty j and in- t i:.;,i 1 I' it Ik ,: « ill I 1 I. M 'K) APPEARANCE AND MANNERS I i d':cd it is usual to sec a giii of ciglitccn a wife and a mother, It might doubtless, ere this, be possible, if not to fix them in habits of study, at least to store their minds with useful and general know- ledge, and to fit them to be not merely the parents, but the judicious guides of their children. Men have necessarily, in all countries, greater facilities than women for the acquirement of knowledge, and particularly for its acquirement in that best of all schools, the world. I mean not the world of fasliion, but the world of varied society, where youth loses its presumption, and prejudice its obstinacy, and where self-knowledge is best ac- quired fro).i the mind being forced to measure itself with other minds, and thus to discover the shallowness of its knowledge, and the groundless- ness of its opinions. In this country, where every man is called to study the^ national institutions, and to examine, not merely into the measures but the principles of government, the very laws become his teachers ; and in the exercise of his rights and duties as a citizen, he becomes more or less a politician and a philosopher. His education, therefore, goes on through life ; and though he should never become familiar with abstract science or ornamental literature, his stock of use- ful knowledge increases daily, his judgment is con- tinually exercised, and his mind gradually fixed in habits of observation and reflection. Hitherto the education of women has been but slightly attended to ; married without knowing any thing of life but its amusements, and then quickly immersed in household affairs and the rearing of children, they OF THE YOUNG WGMF.M. 31 command but few of those o])portunities by wliich their husbands are daily improving in sound sense and varied information. The wonderful advance wliich this nation has made, not only in wealth and strength, but in mental cultivation, within the last twenty years, may yet be doubly accelerated when the education of the women shall be equally a national concern with that of the other sex ; and when they shall thus learn, not merely to enjoy, but to appreciate those peculiar blessings which seem already to mark their country for th^ hap- piest in the world. The number of the schools and colleges established throughout the Union for the education of boys, is truly surprising. Your late distinguished friend, Dr. Rush of Philadelphia, remarks, in his paper. On Ihe Mode of Education prop)er in a Republic, " I am sensible that our women must concur in all our plans of education for young men, or no laws will ever render them effectual. To qualify our women for this purpose, they should not only be instructed in the usual branches of female education, but should be taught the principles of government and liberty ; and the obligations of patriotisux should be incul- cated upon them." At present it appears to me that the American women are as deficient upon some of these heads as the men are practised. They love their country, and are proud of it be- cause it is their country ; their husbands love and are proud of it, because it is free and well-governed. Perhaps when the patriotism of both shall rest on motives equally enlightened, the national character will be yet more marked than it is at present. A Hi I ;, m I Ml 1 > '! '» 1 1^ Ut' i -I ■J' 11 illll '\\ ill :n APPEARANCE AND MANNERS ! I new race, nurtured under the watchful eye of judicious mothers, and from them imbibing, in tendei' youth, the feelings of generous liberty and ardent patriotism, may evince in their maturity an elevation of sentiment, which now to prognos- ticate of any nation on the earth might be ac- counted the dream of an idle theorist or vain believer in the perfectibility of his species. It ought to apologize for this digression j but before I leave the subject into which I have wandered, 1 should observe, that much attention is now paid to advance the education of women to that of tlie men, and for this end public schools are rapidly establishing in various parts of the Union, on the most liberal terms. The manners of the women strike me as peculi- arly marked by sweetness, artlessness, and liveli- ness : there is about them, at least in my eyes, a certain untaught grace and gaiety of the heart, equally removed from the studied English coldness and indifference, and the no less studied French vivacity and mannerism. They enter very early into society 5 far too early, indeed, to be consistent with a becoming attention to the cultivation of their minds. I am, however, acquainted with striking exceptions to this general practice. There are some mothers in this city, who anxiously preside over the education of their daughters, and are yet more desirous of storing their minds with solid in- formation, than of decking them with personal accomplishments. I hope, and am induced to be- lieve, that in the next generation such individuals will be no longer conspicuous among the mass of •I _2 OF THE YOUNG WOMEN. 3S e of r, in ' and urity gnos- 3 ac- vain 1. It lefore ■ed, 1 paid •f tlie ipidly n the leculi- liveli- yes, a heart, dness rcnch y into t with their riking re are ireside |re yet id in- sonal to be- iduals ass of their fellow-citizens. This miu'ht be too nuich to hope in oUl, slow-moving Europe, but one gener- ation here sees marvellous revolutions. The society, I mean by this, tliut which is collected into large evening assei^^'^hes, is.almost exclusively composed of the unmarried young. A crowded loom is in this way a pretty scene for a quiet ob- server to look into for half an hour ; but if he have survived the buoyant spirits of first youth, he will then find it better to walk home again. 1 ought not to omit a remark, not merely upon the elegance of the dress of these young gay creatures, but what is far better, on its modesty. It may be sometimes more showy and costly than is wise or befitting in the daughters of a republic, but it never mocks at decency, as does that of our English ladies, who truly have often put me to the blush for their sex and their nation. The fashions here are copied from the French j but I am told by those that are knowing in such matters, that they are not very changeable, and that it is judged, if not more wise, (for this, I fear, seldom sways with youth,) at least more becoming to wear the waist and shoulders where nature placed them, than to raise them this month to the ears, and sink them the next to the length of our grandmothers. The dances, too, (and these young women, as far as my judgment may go with you for any thing, dance with much Hghtness, grace, and gay-heartedness,) the dances, are also French, chiefly quadrilles ; certainly prettier to look at than the interminable country-dance, whose appalling column seems ti» picture out some vague image of space and time I m ,!l !■. I- 1 i ■ I t! -,(,•■' ' p lb Jl IHL AMKUICAN VOdTIf. which the imagination cannot see the end of. The young men do not, in general, appear to nie to equal in grace their fair companions j nor, indeetl, in general ease of manner and address. In accost- ing a stranger, they often assume a solemnity of countenance that is at first rather appalling. They seem to look as if waiting until you should '* open your mouth in wisdom,*' or as if gathering their strength to open theirs in the same manner. I have more than once, upon such an occasion, has- tened to collect my startled wit», expecting to be posed and shamed by some profound enquiry into the history of the past, or the probable events of tJie future. I could ill convey to you the sudden relief I have then experienced on hearing some query upon the news of the day, or as to my ge*ie- ral opinion of Lord Byron's poetry. It is not from the young men in an idle drawing-room that a stranger should draw his picture of an American. He nnist look at these youths when stamped with manhood, when they have been called upon to ex- ercise their rights as citizens, and have not merely studied the history and condition of their country, but are thoroughly imbued witli the principles of its government, and with that philosophy which their liberal institutions are so well calculated to inspire. The youth of both sexes here enjoy a freedom of intercourse unknown in the older and more formal nations of Europe. They dance, sing, walk, and ** run in sleighs" together, by sunshine and moonshine, without the occurrence or even the apprehension of any impropriety. In this bounti- n TlIK AMEUU'AN YOUTH, :^.; from lat a ican. with o ex- erely ntry, es of hich d to ledom more Iwalk, and the )iinti- iul country, marriages are seldom dreadetl iii im- prudent, and therefore no care is taken to prevent, llie contracting of early engagements. It is curiou ; to see how soon these laughing maidens are mela- morphosed into fond wives and attentive mothers ; and these giddy youths into industrious citizens and thinking politicians. Marriages are usually solemnized in the paternal mansion of the bride, in which the young couple continue to reside for six or twelve months. It is seldom that the young woman brings with her any dowry, or that the husband has much .to begin the world with, save a gay heart and good hopes ; whicii even should he fail in his profession as lawyer, or physician, or merchant, arc not extinguished ; for he has still the wide iield of bounteous nature open before him, and can set forth with the wife of his bosom and the children of his love, to seek treasures in the wilderness ! It is very customary in this, and I am told in other cities, to breed up young men to the bar, not always with an idea of their following the profes- sion for a livelihood, but because, if they discover talents and ambition, it is considered as the best introduction to political life. Mr. Wells, and Mr. Emmctt, whose history is in his name, are considered at the head of tlie New- York bar. In the mild manners, in the ur- banity and benevolence of Mr. Emmett's character, one might be at a loss to conceive where oppres- sion found its victim. Is it in his powerful talents mid generous sentiments that we must sock the I) 2 I.I •M H 1 ;:i , il :,;, II f,\ « ; I i 3t> uixtrTioN or lonKicNLiis-, explanation ? There are other well known IiNh names in this city. Were it worth while to vindicate this nation from a charj^e, the absnrdity of which I am ahnost tempted to think nuist be apparent to those who have advanced it, that there is an illiberal preju dice against the employment of foreign talent, I could from my own observation positively attest the contrary. The well employed honrs of Mr. Emmett, and his highly-respected abilities and character, might alone set the charge at defiance. The success of Dr. M'Neven as a physician, and his situation as Professor in the College, and the eagerness with which his society is sought by travellers from all parts of the Union, might be quoted as another rcfntation. But, indeed, it vere idle to run. through the various instances in which a naturalized citizen has risen to eminence i'l hi^i profession, and commanded consideration from the people of his adopted country. Perhaps where this complaint has been made, it has originated in disappointed vanity. It is true that this people have a provoking soundness of judgment, and rate men and things according to their net value. They have a straight-forward conuuon sense about them, that will set nothing down to name or con- dition : they weigh the man against the trappings of his vanity ; and, if they find him wanting, will leave him to walk on his way. I am proud to rank among my friends and acquaintances many indi- viduals, who generously ascribe to the liberality of their adopted country the liouourable success which has here followed the exercise of their talents, 1* I MM thj J'eu ren tJKN'KKAL BCltN'Ani). 47 on ost C I test Mr. and nco. and , the t by \t be vere vbiciv 1 bn Many of those I have named to you in my earlief letters, and vou know how mnch 1 um iiulcbted to their f'rientlship, and how warmly I return it. There is yet another foreigner that 1 am tempted to introduce to you — General IJernard ; a native ot' France, and one of the earliest and most distin- guished scholars of the polytechnic school. His manners, simple and modest as those of a sage, frank and independent as tiiose of a soldier ; his principles, talents, varied knowletlge, and profound science, such as do honor to his school and his .lation. After the battle of AVaterloo, (in wliich he received six wounds at Napoleon's side,) and the return of Louis, he resigned his connnission, and retired to private lite with his family, Tlie king twice solicited his service, but he replied, that having been aide-de-camp to the Ex-emperor, and honored with his intimacv, he could not enter into the service of the reigning family without drawing upon himself the suspicion tiiat, in conduct as well as opinion, he was guided by interest. His conduct as an officer, and skill as an engineer, were so well known and acknowledged throughout Europe, that he received invitations from two other courts, Bavaria and Holland, both of which he buccessively declined, urging the same reasons that he had pleaded to the French monarch. He jcmained retired in his chateau, and would have remained there still, but for the vexation and inconvenience which the underlings of the court knew how to bring to the fire-sides of the sus- pected foes of legitimacy. " If they would have Jet me sit in my chimney-corner sans me dire mot, w J' m nn 38 GENERAL i>i:KNAKD. I should have been content to sit tlicre still.'* ** Foildy me.s amis ; vous etes les maitrcs ; c'cst voire tour. Eh hien ! jouez^ danseZf triomphez, et laissez- mot dormir ; mats Us lie voulurent pas.^* Even England will occasionally afford us examples of petty knaves and busy bodies, who, to attract the attention of those in power, will inform themselves of the actions, or, if there be nothing tangible there, of the opinions of their neighbours, and evince their own zeal by de- nouncing the supposed disaffection of others. General Bernard could not submit to the official visits of the petty magistrates and cui^es of a village, or to those of the under gentlemen of the police of Paris ; and though, upon application, the high tuithorities disavowed any " art or part" in such vexatious proceedings, a disciple of Carnot, and aide-de-camp of the ci-devant emperor, was too fair game to receive the shield of their protection. He was teased and teased till his patience became ex- hausted, when he addressed himself to the govern- ment of the United States, and made a tender of his services. They were accej)ted with every expres- sion of respect and satisfaction, and he was placed immediately in the corps of engineers with the same rank that he held in the army of France. The United States, are believed to have received in him an inestimable treasure. Since the last war, it has been a great object with the Congress to fortify the American coasts and lines, to be prepared, in the event of any future hostilities with foreign powers, against such surprises as once lost the infant capital, and threatened the destruc- I GENERAL BERNARD. S9 lion ot* New Orleans. General Bernard has re- ceived instructions to take a survey of the country, and draw up a report of what he shall consider requi- site to complete the plan of precautionary defence, either on the coasts, or on the Canadian, Indian, and Spanish frontiers. He has already examined the southern lines, and proceeds this year to the lakes. The cheerfulness with which this soldier, broken down as he is by military service, undergoes the fatigues of such hard duty, — travelling in all ways and in all climates, through all the varieties of forest, swanjp, or savanna ; and the pleasure and pride which he expresses in being permitted to employ his time and talents in the service of the republic, is truly gratifying to contemplate. It is not from General Bernard that you will hear com- plaints of the illiberality of this government, or the inhospitality of this people ; nor is it of sucli foreigners, as this soldier and gentleman, that the Americans will express themselves with coldness or disrespect. I often hear them name him with admiration, and acknowledge themselves as proud that their country should be the chosen abode of such a character, as he on his part acknowledges liimself in being devoted to its service. Considering the spleen that for the most part besets men in foreign countries, not merely his own nation, but mankind at large is indebted to the individual who has curiosity and good humour enough to travel among strangers with his eyes in his head, and his heart in his hand ; but how much more highly are they indebted to him who, to cu- riosity and good humour, unites every gift of the D 4 . I- i. I i" m I V 40 GENERAL, BERNARD. ( understanding, possesses all the wide range of knowledge, and inspires a foreign nation not only with respect for his own high merits, but for the country which gave him birth ! Would a few more such individuals as General Bernard visit this re- public, more would be done towards setting the seal of amity between the two hemispheres, than was effected by the treaty of Ghent, or than could be effected by any treaty by official authorities. It is governments that make war, and the same governments that make peace ; but the peace they make is only a cessation of hostilities by fleets and armies ; they do not make friends^ and I know not liow it is that they contrive that the people under them shall never make friends either. In this country, however, you will remember that the government is identified with the people, — it is their free voice and their efficient will ; and to offend the one is to outrage the other. In the minds of no European people, therefore, can the abuses of malignity, or the misrepresentations of ignorance, rankle more deeply than in those of the Americans. They cannot say the misrepresen- tations made of our character and our laws have been drawn upon us by the acts of a government in which we had no share ; on the contrary, they are ready to exclaim, " The vast Atlantic separates " us from Europe — from its clashing interests, " its strifes, and its ambitions. In peace, we have " established our laws ; in the spirit of liberty and " good will to man, we have framed our constitu- ** tion. The arms of our country have been open ♦* to the unfortunate of every nation on the earth. i( [pen Irtlu \ rORKICN WRITERS. 41 '^ The stranger comes to us, and we receive him, »* not as a stranger, but a brother. He sits down '< among us a fellow-citizen, and in peace and se- " curity gathers the fruits of his industry, professes " his opinions, and leaves a free inheritance to his •' children.'* If the American thus speaks, who sihall gainsay him ? If he thus speaks, where is the generous European, the fair, the honourable man that will not acknowledge that he speaks justly, and that will not blush, if any of his countrymen have been found among the traducers of his nation ? These observations have been drawn from me by a passage in your last letter. Had you not iilluded to the little volume that lately found its way hither, neither should I. The credit that your letter, and the letters of other trans- Atlantic friends, leal re to think that Mr. P'earon has found in Eng .d, could alone have induced me to advert to him. When a friend put this little book in my hand, and told me with a smile to study his nation, I glanced at a few pages here and there, and smiled too. " It is to be regretted," said my friewd, " that our country is visited by so many travellers of this description, and so few of any other kind. We are a young people, and therefore perhaps despised ; we are a people fast growing in strength and pro- sperity, and therefore perhaps envied. We have doubtless errors ; I never yet saw the nation that had them not ; but it is equally certain that we have many virtues. An enemy will see only the Ibrmer j the friend who would wisely point out 5 ■A f 1^1 i! ? in i? 4i^ rORElGN WRITERS. * both, " nothing edienuating, nor settiiig doxcn aught in malice" would do as kindly by us, as honour- ably by himself. Will no such man ever come from your country ?" *' I often lament," he again observed, " that we should be visited only by the poor or the busy, the prejudiced or the illiterate of tlie English nation. Their reports are received for lack of better, and form the texts from which the European journalists draw their reports of our character and our institutions. " All this were very ridiculous, if it were not very mischievous. Cutting words cut deep ; and I fear that we are human enough to feel ourselves gradually estranged from a nation that was once our own, and for which we so long cherished an affection, that I am sure w^ould have grown with our growth, and strengthened with our strength, had not \\\Q^'pen yet more than the sword destroyed it." I have given you my friend's observations rather more in the form of an harangue than they were delivered, but I saw no reason for breaking them to introduce my own, which were not half so well worded, or so much to the purpose. 43 LETTER V. VISIT TO THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA. REMARKS ON THE FRIENDS. — LAWS AND INSTITUTIONS OF WILLIAM PENN. PENAL CODE. DU. RUSH. ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE. EMANCIPATION OF THE SLAVES IN THE NOR- THERN STATES. CONDITION OF THE NEGRO IN THE NORTHERN STATES. Philadelphia, May, 1819. MY DEAR FRIEND, 1 HE rapidity ol' our motions previous to our arrival in this city, and here the kind attentions of those famiUes to whom our New- York and Jersey friends had supplied us witli letters, and of others who, without the receipt of such credentials, sought us in our character of strangers and foreigners, has left me little leisure, — not for remembermg my friends in the old world, but for affording them written proofs of remembrance. I had been led to expect that the citizens of Philadelphia were less practised in courtesy to strangers than those of New- York. Our expe- rience does not confirm the remark. We have only to bear testimony to their civility. There is at first something cold and precise in the general air and manner of the people, particularly so when compared to the cheerfulness and open-heartedness of the natives of New- York ; perhaps too we un- fairly contrasted them with those of the amiable circle we had left on the shores of the Rariton or at * * * * Pennsylvania. This coldness of ex- I. '. il ■1| til 'pj 11 THE rillENDri. tcrior, however, wears off in a great measure upon further acquaintance, and, what may still remain, you set down to the ruling spirit, and philanthropic father of the city, and respect it accordingly. Though we have found some quietism in the society, we have found less absolute qiiakerism than we expected ; and I own that I at first felt something like disappointment, when, on looking round a room, I saw not one drab-colored son of Penn in it. It is very true that a man is none the better for wearing a brown coat, but I have a notion that he is sometimes the better for being a Friend. There is no ridicule that has ever given more offence to my better feelings, than that which is oflen so thoughtlessly directed against the society of the Friends. I object to the term quakerSt a name which they do not acknowledge themselves, and which was affixed to them in derision by those who could perceive their peculiarities of phrase and demeanor, but were unable to appreciate the unpre- suining virtues which distinguished them yet more i'rom every Christian sect and society of men on the face of tlie earth. The children of the peaceful and benignant William Penn have not only inherited the fashion of their patriarch's garments, but his simple man- ners, his active philanthropy, his mild forbearance, his pure and persevering charity, thinking no evil and taking no praise. The annals of the human race present us with no name more dear, at once to humanity and to liberty, than that of Penn. He united every great and every gentle virtue. His intrepidity withstood i TIIK FUIENDS'. 45 with id to great stood the frowns of power ; his Christian philosophy was superior to the lures of ambition ; and while his tbrtitude resisted persecution, his candour and gentle benevolence never sentenced the opinions of others. His religion was without dogmatism, his virtue without austerity ; he was tolerant among bigots, inflexible before tyrants, patient with the factious, humane towards the criminal, fair and just with the savage as with the civilized man. Proud indeed may tl '^ republic be which had such a man for its ' auiu and whose u- >ry has so generally done honour to his name ; and justly venerable, justly entitled to the respect and love of mankind, is the fraternity of which that man was a member, (one may almost say the founder,) and which has followed up his deeds of mercy by others not less beautiful, tempering the rigors of justice to the offender, relieving the sick and the destitute, and even the criminal in the prison- house ; teaching virtue to the j)rofligate, practis- ing humanity to the hard-hearted, cherishing the unconscious lunatic, bearing with his impatience, soothing his despair, and calming his frenzy. We may idly speculate indeed upon the silence and quietism that might pervade this now bustling world, were all its varied tribes and sects resolved into one society of Friends. The pulse of human life might then, it is true, beat feebly, and we might all live and die without greatly sinning or suffer- ing, but without exercising half those energies, bodily and mental, which the conflict of human passions now calls into existence. Whether this were well or ill for us, it matters not to dream ,« * 'I I 1 * li -i m ( j )• it !■ ,;' 'IF pG THE FRIENDS. upon J there is as little chance of our all turnin■>' :,;i; .:' iS THL FRIENDS. matron of the house, or tlie more reserved address of the whole family, and sometimes by the addi- tional help of portraits on the walls, in round-eared caps and starched handkerchiefs, can distinguish the abode of the children of peace and good works from those of other men. I have no peculiar fancy for the fashions of our ancestors ; absurd indeed as our own often are, they are on the whole in better taste. I should not wish to see a whole people in the garb of the Friends, but I have sometimes thought, that I should like to see the daughters of these republics clad in that simplicity which is so appropriate a beauty in all that meets the eye and the ear in a young democracy. Let me, however, observe of the young women here, as I before observed of those of New-York, that, though they may be- decked in the flaunting silks of France and the Indies, their dress is always arranged with womanly modesty ; the boson never forgets its screen, nor are the ankles afid arms exposed to court every idU- ii'aze and bring into discredit the morals of the nation. You will think me perhaps old-fashioned before my time, but I cannot help judging in part of na- tional, as well as of individual character, by the general fashion of the garments. It is difficult to take cold manners and haughty reserve as suretic* for pure minds ; but when the dress is arranged with decency and simplicity, we feel disposed to give women credit for modesty and good sense. I cannot as yet accord the latter quality to the young Americans, but I do give them full credit for native innocence oi heart, which prevents their * The \ i . WILLIAM IM:NN\ 49 I the lanly , nor / idU- ation. efbrc f na- y the lit to retic* iiged d to ense. the redil their gaiety fiom ever overstepping decency ; and thongh we slioukl sometimes smile at tlieir v:>nitv, leaves US no room to hhish f'oi^ their immodestv. It were needless to recoinit to yon the hiany wise laws and humane institutions for which this i( country is indebted to the Friends. Peiin was one of those rare spirits who learned mercy in the courts of oppression. At a time when the (\itiio- lic persecuted the Protestant, or the Protestant the Catliolic, as one or the other party obtained ^ the ascendant, — when the reformed Churcii, after having fought the battle i'ov couscience sakcy denied tliat conscience to others for which she had bled herself, and enforced cruel statutes against every dissenter from her doctrines or her forms, the mild, but entre])id Penn, not only asserted his own right to freedom of opinion, but r-laimed it also for mankind. Having joined himself to an obscure and persecuted sect, who professed peace, and fol- lowed good works in a world of strife and hard- hearted bigotry, he confronted, with the energy of insulted virtue and outraged freedom, the tribunal of injustice*; having borne imprisonments, tines, * The spirited address of William Pom? to a London Jury can never l)e forgotten by Englishmen. Being brought to trial at the Old Bailey, for having spoken in public according to the rules of his sect, the Jury, after listening to his own magna- nimous defence, gave .n a verdict, Gn'diy only of .yycnkittg in Grace Church Street. This was pronounced to be no verdict, and the jury, with threats from the Bench, were commanded to evise the sentence ; when Penn cried aloud to them, Ye are Englishmen! mind t/our privileges ! give not axmy your right ' The Jury, equally Ingh-minded with the prisoner, having cn- roflii>ates, and inflicted mental agonies which they would gladly have exchanged tor the transitory iiorro's of the scaflbUl. It is not therefore in mercy to the criminal, but to the community that the change can be proposed. The chief purpose of juilicial punishments is said to be example. I know not how far the legislator should .be guided by this ))rinciple ; but is it not undoubted, that he must be carefid that the example, that is, the efiect produced by the sentence of the judge and sut- icring of the oH'enderon the mind of tlie spectator, shall be pure and decided ? Must he not be watch- lul that no pity for the criminal shall be roused to weaken our horror of the crime? — that our moral indignation shall not be turned aside by an appeal to our ucfvous sensibility? Executions, where they are frequent, have been found to ler the mind callous to the last mortal sutier- s of the oifender: and thus to leave with it no rent eri'ect but what is decidedly vicious. To familiarize the human eye to blood is to render savage the human heart. An English multitude of men, women, and children crowd round the scafrold of the murderer or the thief with gaping curiosity, as did the French, during the bloody tragedies of llobec^pierre, round that of the innocent citizen, or have their the intrepid sage, eager only syni- ^} E 3 ^•; I' I ^1 i! \3 If if .• i 54 PENAL CODE. pathy awakened, or perhaps eager only to see how the hapless wretcli will meet his fate. On the other haiul, where executions are rare, they as naturally excite unmixed horror ; the atrocity of the crime and of the criminal are lost in this one overpowering sensation ; he wiiom the heart cursed, and at whose sight the blood ran cold, is changed in a moment to an object of compassion ; his deeds of darkness are forgotten when his life's blood is poured at our feet ; — the murderer in our eyes is no longer the lifeless wretch, it is the hired executioner. Can the law be wise which thus trifles with our moral feelings ? and that it does so, we need not look to the speculations of philan- thropists. I have the testimony of many citizens of these republics for asserting, that when exe- cutions, rare and far between, as they are in this happy country, occur, they have no other effect than to excite amazement and horror at the suffering, and commiseration for the sufferer. Nay, so much is this the case, that tiie execution of a pirate, convicted of the most atrocious crimes, has, upon one or two occasions, assumed the appear- ance of a martyrdom : multitudes crowding to gaze upon him, as led from the prison with all the respect that the citizens of Rome might have seen a victorious general enter their gates under the honours of an ovation. The criminal himself has caught die enthusiasm of the hour, and ascended the scaffold with the majesty of Kemble in Coriolanus, seeking the hearth of his enemy; the scene closing with a funeral procession, and all the solemnities of Christian interment. A judicial t PENAL CODE. 5.5 ible all licial execution thus transformed into an heroic tragedy, IS something Hke a farce ; but can it be other- vise in a country where the human eye is unused ■0 the sight of human suffering? The fault is not ill the people but in the law — 1 correct myself j The law being here made by the people, the fault /.9 with them. It is time it should be corrected. 1 nuist observe, that it does not seem to be the terror of example that is here sought by the in- Hiction of this worst sentence of law : and I am led to believe, that it is permitted to remain on the statute-book from the persuasion, that justice, con- sidered in the abstract, demands for the highest degree of malignant murder " blood for blood." But this principle of retribution cannot however demand, that an injurious effect should be pro- duced on the feelings of the community; nor can it require, that to any human being should be ilelegatcd the office of executioner, — an office which no human being should ever be called upon, which no man should ever be alloxced, to exercise. Rarely, indeed, is this officer of death in requisition in these benevolent republics; the importance of human life is here acknowledged ; ihe dignity of man felt and understood. Law may not lightly molest him, nor justice, except for the last outrage, demand the sacrifice of life. It is not for the sake of the criminal, but of the community, that I mingle my wishes with those of the American philanthropists who would blot from their code the penalty of death. To the society of Friends also is humanity in- debted for a continued opposition to the odious E 4 I ■h\ m i M^ SLAVK TRADK. < traffic in the African race ; for unwearying eflbrts to etlect its abolition, which no chimour, no ridicule, no licart-sickening delays and disappointments could relax, until they were crowned witii success. It is pleasing to see these simple and unpresuming iriends of man raisintc their voice in either hemi- sj)here against the most atrocious of all the sins that deface the annals of modern history. All the American colonies may lay claim to the honor, not merely of having yielded with marked un- willingness and tardiness, to the example of Euro])eans who sought the coasts of wretched Africa for human objects of barter, but to the constraining edicts of the mother country, which made the new hemisphere the mart for the wretched victims of her avarice. The early laws of the New England colonists upon this subject, reflect a glory upon those infant people of which their descendants may well be proud. The struggle of their intrepid Houses of Assembly against the supreme authority of England, to prevent, in the very infancy of this odious trafiic, the importation of slaves into their provinces, appears with no less honor in their annals, than does their subsequent struggle for national independence. In Pennsylvania, the society of Friends were united in opposition to the African trade from their first settlement in the province ; and, had they constituted the majority of the population, (which their own liberal institutions tended to prevent,) it is probable that the European traders would have found the implanting black slavery on the banks of the Delaware impracticable. It SLAVE TllADE. b must be reniembered, liowevcr, tliat the will of the mother country was iipon this matter iinper- ative ; and that a positive prohibitory statute, on the part of Pennsylvania, would have been treated in like manner witii those of Massachussets. Her restrictive regulations, however, were numerous ; nor coultl the eager cuj)idity of the foreign traders ever create a certain market for the enslaved Africans to the north of Maryland. It is a striking- fact, and one greatly in favor of religious as well as civil liberty, (if in this age of the world either needed the support of argument,) that in those ])rovinces where the home authority was insufficient to establish one privileged church, this traffic was held in odium from its very commencement. Religion, there ingrafted in the heart, instantly bred scruples as to its legality, humanity, and policy, while, in the distant Ijuopcan empires, living under proud hierarchies, and in the neighbouring colonics in which tlie church of England had been by law established, the iuiman mind was more slow to acknowledge the crime. It is not to be doubted, that tlie difference of climate, between the southern and northern pro- vinces of British America, contributed yet more than the differing standard of conscientious scruple among the colonists, to produce a more marked reluctance to the trade in the one than the other ; yet we cannot peruse the colonial histories of these states without counting for something the varying influence of religion in those districts where its principles were engrafted in rcilUng minds j and y V: ! 4 I Jl- ,r I ! 1 I i I f !i * .^8 ABOLITION OF THE those where its forms were estabhsheil by com- pulsory edicts. 'ilie low and marshy lands stretching along the coasts and great rivers of the south, tainting the warm atmosphere, and generating diseases fatal to a white population, held out too al'uring a tempt- ation for the employment of tiie African, to whose constitution the climate was less fatal, for the offers of the trader to be resisted by the young settlers * ; but let it not be forgotten, that the slave-holding Virginia, while yet a colony, revolted at the crime to which she had been allured. Her energetic appeal to the throne, to release her from the inundation of domestic slavery, which was forced upon her, is grateful to the human heart to recal ; and the deaf ear which was turned to her prayer is what the friends of that throne will not wish to remember. The history of African slavery is at once the disgrace and honor of America ; the disgrace she shares in common with the whole civilized world — the honor is all her own. Surrounded by every temptation which could seduce her to tiie crime, at first courted and then awed into compliance, she openfy reprobated it when all the nations of the earth were silent, and dared, even in her weak infancy, to brave the anger of a powerful empire in behalf of the wretched slave who was thrown upon her shores. She was the first country to abolish the trade j first, by the * It is highly creditable to the infant Georgia, that she, I'or several years, successfully resisted, by an imperative law, the introduction of slaves into her province. SLAVE TRADE. 59 laws of her separate states, among which Virginia led tlie way, and, secondly, hy the hiw of her federal government. More than a dozen years before the abolition of the trade by the British parliament, it was abohshed in America by act of Congress. There is surely soinetliing to ail mire — something grand, as well as beautiful, in the effect of liberty on the human heart. This Congress was composed, in great part, of representatives from slave-hokling states, themselves slave-holders. Had the British abolition waited until the West Indian planters should have voted for the measure, when would it have passed ? 1 intend no invidious comparison. There were found among the West Indian planters, some few illustrious exceptions to the crowd of opposers to the abolition. If the exceptions among Americans were found in the opposition, and the crowd on the side of mercy and wise policy, we must ascribe it to the more liberal institutions under which they lived. Canvassed as the question of the African trade has now been, until it is not only set at rest for ever, but that men wonder how its legality and humanity could ever be a question, it may be diffi- cult for us fully to appreciate the merits of the infant American colonies, who, more than a century before the attention of Europe was seriously turned to the consideration of this crying outrage, were engaged in passing statutes to prohibit it. To obtain the sanction of the government to any law of abolition, was, however, found impossible by any of the provinces, until the era of the revolution, when their governments spoke the will of their 'li ■!■ I I I i i Hu BLACK SLAVERY. : 'l j)ooj)lc. Then, one utter another, the assemblies rendered penal a crime which they had so long dtMionnced ; atid w here circnmstances permitted the speedy application of the remedy, fixed the year of emancipation for their negro bondsmen. Where, as was the case to tlie north of the Susquehanna, the slave population was inconsider- able, this was etlected with Jittle, or at least with temporary, inconvenience. 'J'o the south, where it is numerous, and as it were engruited in the soil, the evil yet needs years of p:\tience, the more perfect understanding of t. ; mischief to the master, or the more universal feeling of the injustice to the slave; the more absolute con- viction of the necessity of a remedy, or th<^ more clear insight into the mode in whicii it should be aj)plied, ere this foul blot can be eti'aced from tliat portion of this great union, and the whole of these confederated republics asj)ire, in their po- litical, antl consequently in their moral, character, to a glorious ecpiality. It is not ibra young and inexperienced foreigner to suggest remedies for an evil which has en- gaged the attention of native philanthropists and statesmen, and hitherto baffled their eflfbrts, though not relaxed their exertions. Those who, removed in distant countries, know only of these southern republics, that they are disgraced with black sla- very, without reflecting upon the manner, and the era in which that curse was introduced, without inquiring into the exertions that may have been made towards alleviating the misery of the negro finally achieving his emancipation, without •i 1 or p. LACK SLAVHRV. Hi led Mil lla- Ihe •en |ro Hit consiJciiniij the difKcuIties that must Iinpetle so great ii measure in its progress — the doubts and I'ears that must l)e endured, the interests that must be sacrificed, tlie consequences that must be braved — tiiose who do not know, and cahnly \v(Mgh these circumstances, are, I ap])rehend, not im[)artial judges of the merits or demerits of the American planters ; nor, though they should be among the most generous deplorers of the evil, would they perhaps be the wisest devisers of its remedy. There is, indeed, in tlie history of African slavery, something so revolting, that we may well {)artlon any intemperance of feeling, which in breathing the energy of virtuous indignation, forgets the measure of justice, and visits too heavily the crime upon those who may suffer its continuance both with regret and alarm. That this is more peculiarly the case with the majority of the white population of Virojinia, cannot be doubted by any candid mind. We need not trust to their opinion, as expressed in private conversation ; we have but to peruse the history of their country, the various statutes enacted by their colonial legislators, their un- availing petitions to the throne, their enumeration of the forced continuance of the African trade, among the list of grievances which warranted their dismemberment from the British empire ; and we shall see how very early they deplored the evil, and how ardently they sought to crush it in the germ. The first assembly of t'jeir independent republic, amid all the distraction of war and re- volution, prohibited the traffic for ever, and almost every session of their subsequent assemblies aftbrds I I n si 6« PL\S OF COLONIZATIOV. some proof, that the pul)lic mind is ever tiunetl towards the calamity with a view to its alleviation or removal. The most enlightened part of the community appear, indeed, to think these terms synonymous, and that no half measures can ame- liorate the condition of the slave or of the master. Every publication that 1 have seen on the sub- ject, and even the very laws, first trying, and then repealing as inefficient or misciiievous, regu- lations which went not to the root of the evil, seem to point to emancipation as the final, and only remedy. A plan of colonization has, for many years, been prosecuted with vigor. The friends and supporters of the societies organized for this purpose, even carry their views so far, as to propose the removal of such a proportion of the slave population, as shall render practicable the emancipation of the remai.'der ; it is obvious, however, that, before such a system can b'^ productive of any national benefit, it niusi be made a national concern. The report of the committee, aj)pointed by the first Virginia assembly after the revolution, to revise the laws of the commonwealth, contains an amendment by which it was proposed to educate the whole black population at the public expense ; and then to send them forth in vessels equipped with arms, imple- ments of husbandry, &c., to the coast of Africa or elsewhere, extending to them the protection of the republic, until they should be established as a na- tion. After much discussion this was abandoned, either from want of funds, or a deficiency of per- severing benevolence. Some at present have de- ^ CONDITION OF TIIK VRIT. W.CtnO. n3 vised the sclioini' oi' iippropiiatiiig to this pmposo tlie nionev arising from tlie sale of the national lands. Kroni various circumstances, I am led to think that this measure is neither visionary nor im- practicable, especially as it finds supporters among the slave-holders of the south.* I have not as yet replied to your inquiry, and that of your friend, concerning the appearance of the black population in those districts of these northern republics which we have hitherto visited. I hope you did not suspect me ot iiaving thrown your questions asiilo ; 1 have been slow to answer, only because 1 was unwilling to pronounce hastily. It has appeared to me, so tar as my observations and inquiries may authorize an opinion, that, in no one particular has the American character been more unfairly represented, than as regartls the treatment and condition of the nei^ro. The feelings of an European, when he lands in one of these northern cities, are, I have observed, of a mixed and somewhat contradictory nature. When he sees a crowd of black faces assembled at the corner of a street, or descries the sable cheeks and clumsy features of a negro girl under a pink silk bonnet, the sight ottends him from its ugliness, and an immediate distaste at the country, defaced by a mixture of so novel and unseemly a population, * A motion for this purpose was made in Congress, during the last session, by Mr. Meigs, of New York. It was proposed to purchase the slaves from their owners at a regulated price, to fit them out for the colony established on the coast of Africa, .and to extend to them the protection of the republic in the manner formerly proposed by Virginia. % ' t t ii fi V. H CO.VDMIO.V OP takes possession of his luiml. It is from foreigners, tliemselvos professing an nn\\illini?ness, or <:• en ar. absolntc (lis in oni yel in- an ; the the ds, for oni ion ex- bv Ahich unites the interests of the numerous slates, seems as it were to approximate the most distant mhahitants of this vast empire to each otiier. The blot whicli defaces a portion of tiie union is felt as reflectin«^ dis'ery where are schools open for his F tt I, 66 CONDITION OF i ( instruction. In small towns, he will find him taught by the same master, and attending the same church with the white population. Would it not be more wise to rejoice in this visible decay of pre- judiccj than to dwell on what remains, and which still ranges the black and white children on dificrent forms in the school room, or the place of worship? In cities, the Africans have churches as well as preachers of their own, a fact from which we can only draw a satisfactory proof of their rapid advance in situation and knowledge. A European has Jearned, perhaps before he lands on these shores, tliat black and white servants sit down to meat at different tables ; and shoiiLl he find the fact sub- stantiated in the first hotel in which he takes up his lodging, ht marks it in his memorandum-book with a note of admiration, and follows it up with some reflection upon the liberal opinions that pre- vail under a democracy. Ditl he reflect upon the history of this country, and the history of the African in every country, and did he consult his own feelings, which, I believe, seldom acknow- ledge — I do not say an equality y hut a similaritt^ of race between the negro and himseiti he would perhaps find little in the circumstance to argue the existence of any 'peculiar illiberality in the senti- iTients of this people. That wise institutions will do much towards improving both the physical con- dition and moral feelings of men, I am ready to admit, but I do not believe that they can perfect either. It seems to me, however, that such an expectation mast have been formed by those who are surprised to find in this community an unwilling- rcpi he tlioi Afj- Am( worl i)ret no s the tJieir ings and know Uiat THE PREE NEGllO. G7 l»g- ness to associate with the negro as with an equal. Nature has stamped a mark upon the unhappy African, which, though the more cultivated and liberal will account an accidental distinction, the vulgar will regard as a symbol of inferiority. Had not the European of a less humane age degraded the African below the human standard, and laid the benumbing hand of oppression on his intellect, it is doubtful whether the least enlightened of us should ever have seen any thing in a sable skin but a whim of nature, or attributed the ignorance and siavisliness of the African tribes on their own soil to any other causes than those which variously operate on the human race in all the differing climates and countries of the globe. As it is, an invidious comparison has often been drawn ])ctwecn the black man and the white, which, con- sidering the actual condition of the former, is per- liaps neither wise nor humane. In these northern republics, where alone such a comparison could be instituted with any seeming phuisibility, a tiiousaud hidden causes conspire to retain tlie African in a lower scale of being than that of the American. The latter looks around him upon a world of his creation, upon a race of men, his brethren and equals, who, like him, acktiowledge no superior but the one great Being who blessed the exertions of their heroic ancestors, and to w iom their hearts rise in grateful adoration for the bless- ings showered upon their country. What great and invigorating thoughts 'are here which are un- known to the sons of slaves! It was but yesterday, that they were *• hewers of wood and drawers of l-.! I mI si St 1 .m r U 'h ()8 CONDITION OF i I water" in the land which yields ihem their subsist- ence ; i'or the very rights with whicii they are now endowed, (and of which their minds can, as yet, scarcely feel the value or understand the meaning,) ibr these very rights, for all they know, and all that they enjoy, they are indebted to the repenting justice of masters. This repentance, however com- plete, cannot obliterate in a moment the wrongs of years ; cannot transform an abject slave into a virtuous citizen;- cannot banish from his mind that he lately trembled at the frown of those who are now his equals, nor banish from the minds of these, that it was only by the law of their own lips that he ceased to be the tool of their will. It requires no dee]) insight into the secrets of human nature to read the consequences of this state of things. There must inevitably exist a barrier between the American and the negro, similar to that which separates the higher from the poorer and less po- lished classes of society in Europe. The black and the white man are a distinct race ; and the dis- tinction is, as yet, no less marked in the internal than tiie external man. How far a nearer approach in thougiit, feeling, and moral character, in future generations, may tend to remove the barrier, it it is not easy to judge. I must observe that, con- sidering the inferior grade in society that the African as yet holds; and considering also the fraction that he constitutes in the sum of the popu- lation, it speaks honourably for the morals of the American community, that the two races continue so distinctly marked. Tiir; frfj: neguo. m Notwithstanding the inferior estimation in wliich the blades are held, not so mucli on account o(" complexion and feature, as from the greater laxity of tlieir morals, they may be more properly said to constitute a distinct than a dejjjraded race. Thev are equally vnuler the protection of mild and im- partial laws ; possess, in general, the sanie political rights with the mass of the community ; are more peculiarly the objects of humane consideration with the benevolent and the religious, and are enabled, from the very condition of the country, to procure a subsistence, in spite ol" tlieir indolence and thoughtless fbrgetfulness of the morrow. Though neither a frugal, nor, compared with the American population, a moral people, they are singularly cheerful and good-humoured, and are bound in close ties of social intercourse with each other. They are every where immoderately fond of danc- ing, and, when assembled for that purpose in the room of a country tavern, or in the hall or kitchen of some one of their employers, exhibit a show of finery whicii might amaze Harlequ'n himself. It is always thus that man, emerging i'-.om the savage or the slavish state, seizes on tha' indulgeiicies and the tinsel of luxury, before he discovers the value of those higher enjoyments, derived from the ac- quirement of knowledge and the cultivation of refined and elevated sentiment. In spite of the many disadvantages under which tlie African has hitherto laboured, instances are not wanting where he has risen to considerable wealth and resj)ecta- bility, particularly, I believe, in the New England ijtates. Nothing indeed is here necessary biiv liis F 3 I f ! I . ! I il ill m 70 CONDITION OF TIJE FREE NEGRO. 1 '> '( own exertions to raise him in tlie scale of being;. His political rights must in time awaken in him political ambition, in which he has as yet been usually found deficient. In some of the states, the blacks now freciuently exercise their rit^ht of suf- frage ; and it is a curious fact, that in Massachus- sets some black votes were given so long back as the election for the general (Convention, appointed to digest the plan of the Federal Government. In some of the northern states, the right of suffrage is still withh'jld from the negro j and with seeming reason, for he is evidently, as }ei, but ill fitted to exercise it. * I have wandered into more general observations than I had intended at the commencement of this letter, but, as they rose naturally out of a subject upon which you have expressed some curiosity, I hope they will not appear altogether misplaced. I / ! I * Where the negro holds the right of suffrage, I do not believe the law excludes him from any publi country, that intelligent officer ; not that I an^ always disposed to tlnnk or feel with him in hi'^ observations upon this nation. I incline to think that he has !)ot always done justice either to their character or their manners. 'I'he same object;* often appear so differently to two diflerent pair of eyes, though both should be equally intent upof seeing them as they are, that one might readily be tempted to turn Pyrrhonist, and call in doubt, not only the sanity of one's judgment, but the evidence of one's senses. The fact is, that though we should even be disburdened of national and individual pre- judice, tliere will yet remain, in our constitutional temper, or certain fortuitous circumstances of wind or weather, a dull companion, exhausted spirits, wearied limbs, or some one of the thousand name- less accidents to whose influence we frail mortals are so miserably subjected, enough to jaundice oui eye-sight and pervert our feelings. A traveller is, of all men, most at the mercy of these namelesi> trifles J it is a pity however, that .i-'tions should be laid at their mercy too, oi: rather at the mercy of a jaded traveller's distempered mind. Would it not be a good rule, ihat when a tourist sits down with pen and paper before him to pass judgment upon * Travels in Canada and the United States, by Lieutenant Hal), litli Light Dragoons. ADVICK TO TOUUISTS. Inarit tlie world around him, lie s'uoiiKl first ask himself II few questions : " Am 1 in good health and good iumiourl-' in a comfortable room and an easy chair? at peace with myself and all men about me?" 1 have a notion tiiat some such short catechism would save volumes of mis-stated facts and misre- presented characters, and keep the peace not only between man and man, but nation and nation, in a manner undesired by statesmen, and undreamed of by philosophers. I mean not exactly to apply this to Lieutenant Hall, whose remarks in general do as much honour to his heart as his head ; it strikes me only that he has sometimes judged- hastily, or perhaps I think so because I incline to judge difierentlv. 1 have mentioned with how much pleasure 1 found your name remembered in some houses of this city ; of course, more particularly in that of the family of the late Dr. Rush. I much regret that this venerable philanthropist should have sunk beneath the weight of years before our visit to this country. It makes even the young pause to ruminate on the swift wings of time, when they find the path of life forsaken by those whom 'he heart has been taught to venerate. There would, indeed, be much in this city to mark the lapse of years, were not this somewhat checked by the re- flection that years, in their effects, count for ages in this young and vigorous world. Washington, Hamilton, Gates, and all the older veterans of the Revolution, who yet trod the stage when you sur- veyed it, are all gathered to their fathers ; jud, though their names are still fresh in men's mouths. »' I ■ I: I' I • I' i : -m m ?^ PHILADELPHIA. could they now look up from their graves, they might scarcely know their own America. It is curious to picture the Philadelphia intc which the young Franklin threw himself^ friend- less and j)ennyless, to seek his fortune, and the Philadelphia that now is — we may say, too, the Philadelphia that he left it, when he sunk, full of years and honor, into the grave. From a small provincial town, without public libraries or insti- tutions of any kind, he lived to see it not only the thriving, populous, and well-endowed capital of an independent state, but tlie seat of a govern- ment, the novelty of whose ])rinciples fixed the eyes of the whole civilized world. It has now all the appearance of a wealthy and beautiful metro- polis, though it has lost the interest which it pos- sessed to you as the seat and centre of political life. Not merely has it ceased to be the seat of the great central government, as it was when you knew it, but even of that of the Pennsylvania re- public. The legislature now meets in Lancaster, about 60 miles west from hence, but this also has already grown out of the centre of the fast- spreading circle of population ; and, by an act of the Assembly, the capital is ordained to travel yet farther west to Harrisburgh, on the east branch of the Susquehanna. This town, the definitive seat of the Pennsylvania state-government, is, I am in- formed, laid out with great care, much on the same plan as Philadelphia, arid promises, in the grandeur of its public buildings, to outstrip the parent city. I never walked through the streets of any city i i,i.i rilll.ADr.I.PHTA. .; 'with so much satisfaction as those of rinladelphia. The neatness and cleanMiicss of all animate and inanimate things, houses, j)avements, and citizens, is not to he surpassed. It has not, indeed, the commanding position of New York, whicii gives to that city an air of heauty and grandeur very imposing to a stranger, hiit it is lias more the ap- pearance of a finished and long-establislied metro- polis. I am not sure that tiie streets have not too many right angles and straight lines to be alto- gether pleasing to the eye, but they have so much the air of cheerfulness, cleanliness, a- id comfort, that it would be quite absmd to find fault with them. The side pavements are regularly washed every morning by the domestics of each house, a piece of out-door housewifery, by the way, which must be somewhat mischievous to the ladies* thin slippers, but which adds much to the fair appearance, and I doubt not, to the good health of the city. The brick walls, as well as frame- work of the houses, are painted yearly. I'he doors are usually white, and kept delicately clean, which, together with the broad slabs of white marble spread before them, and the trees, now gay with their first leaves, which, with some intervals, line the pavem.ents, give an air of cheerfulness and elegance to the principle streets quiij un- known to the black and crowded cities of Europe. The plan laid out by William Penn, which has been generally followed, was very early swerved from in one important particular. Instead of leaving a sloping bank of verdure rising gradually from the river, whicli would have left the city r i > I ; t «T 1 1 11 I' 'I fii i :i:; • I 70 rnu.ADFJJ'HiA. '1 1 open to tilt vie'.v of its magnifitcn: waters, as well as to wlioltisome and refreshing breezes, it is choked up with wharfs and ugly niinoiis-lookinti buiklings, the nest of infection during the heats of sunnner. Fortunately these are of wood, and must soon run their time; when, tho, as it IS [)kin^ heats , umi lu)ukl Ian ot \ that with- ;ht, 111 but 1 buiU [vterial ectior. rstices ecting illy bt shines [' ugly )t' this e cou- the rclerly idoed, uredlv knock neat- An- 1 model never which [elves j •ibovc all, r trust they will never attempt the (jotliic, a failure in which being a failure in the sublime, is of all failures the worst. The Academy of Arts contains a small, but weli-chosen collection of ])ictiires, among which I ha\e regartleil with most pleasiue too modern })ieces — an exquisite Niobe by liehberg, and a masterly scriptural piece by the American artist Allston. It is tridy surj)rising how prolific this young country has already been in painters. We^t, Leslie, Coppely, 'I'rumbull, and Allston, are names known uid respected in both hemispheres. The last-men -ned artist seems destined to rise to peculiar emii .ee. There is a genius in his conception, an ease in his execution, md a truth in his coloiuing, which stamp hiin for a master in his art. He is now in Boston, and it is said, has patriotically pledged himself to try his fortune in his own country. The State-house, state-house no lon^^er in am thing but name, is an interesting object to a stranger, and, doubtless, a sacred shrine in the eves of Americans. I know not but that I was a little oft'ended to fiml stuffed birds, and beasts, and mammoth skeletons filling the place of senators and sages. It had been in better taste, perhaps, to turn the upper rooms of this empty sanctuarv into a library, instead of a museum of natural curiosities, or a mausoleum of dead monsters. * I might have judged that the citizens felt less respect for this venerable building than had been * The lower rooms are more appropriately occupied by >he courts of law. ,1 I t i 1 •. I' IP :■ 1;H<|I !< ' IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // K << \° u. 1.0 I.I ■16 'a IL25 ■ 1.4 2.0 18 1.6 w^'^^i '/ Hiotc^raphic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 14580 (716) 872-4503 l\ iV ■^ o '^ ^ 'fm HLMAUKS ON THE \iM ''II t . pleasing to me, bad not every friend or acquaint- ance that ever passed it with me, paused before it to make some observation. " Those are the windows of the room in which our first Congress sat." " There was signed the declaration of our independence." " From those steps the declar- ation of independence was read in the ears of the people." Ay 1 and deeply must it have thrilled to their hearts. *Tis a fine moment to recall ; one that swells the bosom, and makes us proud of our nature. Who can consider, without deep and aff'ecting sympathy, that little assembled senate, who in the name of a young and unskilled people, there set at defiance the power of a mighty empire^ — not rashly and ignorantly, but advisedly and calmly, — having weighed their own weakness as well as their adversary's strength, — feeling the heavy respon- sibility that rested on their decision, — calculating the consequences of attempt and failure, and then with a full conviction of all the mighty odds against them, " having counted the cost of the con- testy and finding nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery,^* solemnly appealing to the supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude o/'their intentions, and pledging to each other " their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honour," ranging themselves and their infant nation under the banners of liberty, denouncing their oppressors enemies in war, in peace friends ! 1 know not, in the whole page of human history, any thing more truly grand and morally sublime than the conduct of the American Congress throughout that unequal contest, upon ill' FIRST AMERICAN CONGRESS. 79 ,, I and nes, and in of and ican poll which hung not the liberties of* one people but those of mankind. How admirable was the moderation which marked their earlier deliber- ations ; the calmness which they opposed to ministerial haughtiness, the firmness they opposed to ministerial obstinacy, tempering vigor with prudence, and inflexible principle with respectful submission ! How admirable their dignity when called upon finally to decide between unconditional submissio7iy or resistance by force! With what Stoical composure they made the noble choice, and having made it, with what unshrinking fortitude they met all the vicissitudes of fortune, — the ebb and flow of the tide of war, the discontent of the factious, the fears of the timid, the despondency even of the high-minded, never cast down by re- peated misfortunes, nor too much elated by mo- mentary success ! When the houseless people were scattered before their invaders, when the army unpaid, unclothed, vainly sought assistance from the commander, and he vainly sought it in the exhausted treasury, when the sword fell from their tainting hands, and the blank of despair seemed falling on their hearts, still did these patriots weather the storm, still did they find confidence in their just cause, and, with their eyes upon the pole-star of liberty, did they steady the helm of the reeling vessel of the infant state, ride out tri- umphantly the storm of war and revolution, and gain the glorious haven from which their thoughts had never swerved. The annals of every nation can supply us with some brilliant characters who stand superior to .t-: \ V- 1 1 ' t ':^ ■ t i i 11 M • , v i I lit ' I) ''1*!^ 80 EKMAlUvS ON THE 'i f II the sordid passions which sway the minds of ordinary men, and hut too often dictate the feel- ings of national communities. But how seldom is it, that, in the most energetic pages ot' history, we find a bodij of men uniting all the qualities of sages and heroes, — cautious in their deliberations, firm and united in their measures, pure in their feelings, beyond suspicion in their conduct! To the unbending spirit and perfect rectitude of the Congress, was mainly owing the salvation of the American people, not merely from foreign conquest, but from intestine broils. To their little senate-room, amid ail the changes of war, did the eyes of the people ever turn in hope and confi- dence. Were their little armies defeated, were their heroic generals fighting in retreat, were their cities taken, were their houses in flames, was their commerce destroyed, were their gold and their credit gone ; they still looked to that high-minded assembly, whose counsels, they were satisfied, were ever framed with good intention, and whose ener- gies were ever employed to relieve the sufferings which tiiey could not prevent. It is interesting to imagine, what must have been the earnest thoughts of those modern Romans throughout that trying contest ; — what their anxi- eties, and, finally, what the flood of joy that must have poured on their hearts, when the tidings reached them, that the last great victory was achieved. There is a little anecdote, recorded in the history of that period, which seems, in a man- ner, to set this before us. The old door-keeper of the house of Congress, when the news suddenly iii:l* liliiis i'lRSr AMERICAN CONGRESS. 81 lings was [d in lan- leper lenly reached him of the surrender of Cornwallis, dropt on the instant dead. The feelings of this poor veteran, too intense for his feeble age, seem to image well those oi' the members of that assembly, upon which he had been so faithful an attendant. In the history of the American Revolution, I know not which is most admirable, — the integrity of the Congress, or the confidence of the people in their integrity. The first was so pure, that throughout that distracted period, which might so well have furnished temptation to the selfish or the ambitious, we find not one member of that magna- nimous assembly even suspected of peculation, or of a desire of personal aggrandizement ; and the latter was so entire, that during the worst days of that stormy period, the public suffering was never charged to any wilful mismanagement on the part of the government ; not even when its faith was violated, by the gradual depreciation and final extinction of a paper-currency, whicli had been issued without funds, and which ceased to circulate, with scarce the shadow of a prospect being held out for its future redemption, *• The demise of one king, (says Ramsay, in his succinct, but clas- sical history of his country,) and the coronation of a lawful successor, have often excited greater com- motions in royal governments than took place in the United States on the sudden extinction of the whole current money. The people saw the neces- sity which compelled their rulers to act jn the manner they had done j and being well convinced that the good of their country was their object, quietly submitted to measures, which, under other G * ■ *. ■ ! I I 1^ r V,^^:'^ .n Ji i^ihii •I W S'Z REMARKS ON TllL I i I r 1 circumstances, would scarcely have been expiatc(^ by the lives and fortunes of'their authors." That a government, framed in all tlie distraction of revolution, — a powerful enemy on the very shores, the emissaries oi' that enemy in tlie very heart of the country, the Indians on one side their allies, and the ocean on the other possessed by their fleets^ that, at such a time, a government so Iiastily organised, unpractised in those powers it was called upon to exercise, with armies untrained, unfed, unclothed, and without a treasury to meet tlie demands that assailed them on every side, the commerce of the country suddenly destroyed, the harvests laid waste, not a guinea in the whole country, except in the hands of the enemy, — that, at such a time, and under such circumstances, the public confidence should have been preserved, argues a degree of moderation, on the part of the government, and of good sense, and devoted feeling on that of the people, as perhaps in the history of ancient or modern times was never equalled, and certainly has never been surpassed. In the history of the dispute which first involved the liberty, and latterly the very existence of the young America, it is worthy of remark, that the prudence of her Congress was always equal to their intrepidity, and their intrepidity to their pru- dence. Like a cautious general, they advanced slowly, but never yielded an inch of the ground they had once assumed. At first called together by the voice of their fellow-citizens, without con- sent, or rather in very despite of existing authorities, the legality of wliose title remained unquestioned, MV\' t ; FIRST AMERICAN CONGRRSS. S3 they calmly took in review the colonial grievances, and petitioned their redress upon those consti- tutional grounds, acknowledged by the distant, monarchy of which they professed themselves, as they, in truth, then appear to have been loyal and affectionate subjects. Without assuming power to enact laws., they passed resolutions, to the sacred ob- servance of which, until redress of the enumerated grievances should be obtained, they bound them- selves by the ties of honour and patriotism. That iliese simple ties should have proved sufficient to hold together the people of numerous and distant provinces, who had heretofore been often divided by jealousies and clashing interests, and to give an efiect to the recommendations of private individuals as absolute as could have followed upon the fiat of an established despot, affords a beautiful evidence of the readiness with which national obedience is yielded when the hearts of a people are with their rulers. These laws, but too often found imaginary, were then sufficient at once to supersede the authority of existing law, and to triumph over the vulgar passions of humanity. They were stronger than man's avarice and woman's vanity ; set at nought poverty and suflfering, and transformed a nation of industrious citizens into one of patriot soldiers and higli-minded heroes. The state of the public feeling is well expressed by the unpre- tending historian I have before quoted. " From whatever cause it proceeded, it is certain that a disposition to do, to suffer, and to accommodate, spread from breast to breast, and from colony to colony, beyond the reach of human calculation. G 2 Jl^ r'^ u > I 'I :1 f i . U'* . \ ! 1 1. jl i 1 ! 1 •;' i ; -I i I ,;1 i I Sh UKMAUKS ON THE ! ! i! ■# It lieemed as though one mind inspu'ed tlie whole. The merchants put far behind them the gains of trade, and cheerfully submitted to a total stoppage of business, in obedience to the recommendations of men invested with no legislative powers. The cultivators of the soil with unanimity assented to the determination that the hard-earned produce of their farms should remain unshipped, although, in case of a free exportation, many would have been eager to have })urchased it from them at advanced prices. The sons and daughters of ease renounced imj)orted conveniences, and voluntarily engaged to eat, diink, and wear only such articles as their country aflbrcied. These sacrifices were made, not from the pressure of present distress, but on the generous principle of sympathy with an invaded sister colony, and the prudent policy of guarding against a precedent which might, on a future day, operate against their liberties." " Tin's season of universal distrevSs exhibited a striking proof how practicable it is for mankind to sacrifice ease, pleasure, and interest, when the mind 13 strongly excited by its passions. In the midst of their sufferings, cheerfulness appeared in the face of all the people. They counted every thing cheap in comparison with liberty, and readily gave up whatever tended to endanger it. A noble strain of generosity and mutual support was generally excited. A great and powerful diffusion of public spirit took place. The animation of the times raised the actors in these scenes above themselves, and excited them to deeds of self-denial, which the jngs, (lorn reques ent wi throwi the c( venera of the even t FIRST AMF:niCAN CONGRESS. 8j interested prudence of calmer seasons can scarcely credit." But thougli empowered by their fellow-citizens to think and to act for tiiem, at a time, too, when the public feeling was wrought to the highest pitch of enthusiasm, the members of this virtuous assem- bly never exceeded the necessity of the occasion. They kept in view the interests and honor of the community, but held their passions in check. 80 long as the most distant prospect remained to them of obtaining the acknowledgment of their country's rights, they preserved the language and character of British subjects. In their second meeting, while they issued their counsels to their fellow-citizens to persevere in repelling force by force, and entered with them into active preparations for defensive war, they re- spectfully petitioned the distant throne, that these preparations might be rendered unnecessary. The manly style in which they apostrophized the mo- ther-country was calculated as well to soothe her pride as to convince her reason. Having stated the grievances which provoked their resistance, they declared " that, notwithstanding their ^ufier- ings, they retained too high a regard for th ; iiing- dom from which they derived their origin, to request such a reconciliation as might be inconsist- ent with her dignity and welfare." The contempt thrown upon these remonstrances, and, it is said, the contemptuous language addressed to their venerable Franklin, did yet more to turn the minds of the people from their parent-country than did even the sword which she pointed at their throats. G 3 » ■ 1 i.*. ■J' ' . • 1 1''' J i ^ 1 , 1 1 ' - 1 ';:• ! : i t » \\'i t 1 ■ ! , ■ i 1 1 I : ^ > 1 '^ 1 > •1 ' ■ " 'i i'. \_ :|i- : iiii ' 1_ 1- ■ . : 1 ■ • f; ■ '.• 1 ■ (J i ^,« 80 REMARKS ON THE i? : / I I 1. if- 1 -I However this may be, these united griefs rapidly prepared the public mind for the reception of the numerous energetic pamphlets which began to advocate the national disunion of the colonies from the British empire. The circulation and effect of the well-known ** Common Sense" were instan- taneous as those of the electric fluid. Thousands were convinced by its homely reasoning, but more were carried away by the passion of feeling, which it wrought to the highest pitch of human enthu- siasm. Then followed the declaration of indepen- dence. The wishes of the people had preceded the act of their rulers, and the style of that act affixed yet a new seal of confirmation to their wishes. The simple exposition of moral and poli- tical truths vNith which it opens, elevat.:rd still higher the already-sublimed tone of the public sentiment; the energetic enumeration of the national wrongs, opposed as in contrast to these great laws of nature, kindled anew the national indignation ; the solemn appeal to the great Author of Being, and the sacred pledge of "lives," "fortunes,** "and honor," with which it closes, roused all the devotion of human hearts and manly minds ; and, assuredly, never was it roused in a better or a nobler cause. It was not the cause of Americans only, it was the cause of the very people whose injustice they opposed ; it was the cause of every people on the earth ; of the whole great family of human-kind. Well might that high-minded patriot and statesman, the English Chatham, exclaim in the British parliament, in the face of the British minister, " I rejoice that America has resisted!** Well might he observe. ^1 } FIftST AMERICAN CONGUESS. 87 n light lish the that servcj lliat '* three millions of fellow-creatures, so lost to every sense of virtue, as tamely to give up their liberties, would be Jit instruments to make slaves of the rest.*' Had America basely submitted to the encroachments of ministerial parliaments, soon would that same parliament have tried encroach. ments upon the liberties of England ; or had the infant America been overwhelmed by the armies poured upon her shores, with the buried liberties of her people, without farther efforts on the part of their rulers, her victors had buried tor ever their own national virtue, and honor, and character. Then, indeed, had we read this moral upon England's '* faded brow, Nations, like men who others' rights invade, Shall doubly rue the havoc they have made, And, in a brother's liberties o'erthrown, iShall weep to find that they have wreck'd their own.'' Thoughts of a Bed use* Considering the common frailties of human nature, we might well be at a loss to account for the uniform rectitude of the first rulers of these infant republics ; but the secret is thus simply explained by Ramsay. *' The pubhc voice ele- vated none to a seat in that august assembly but such as, in addition to considerable abilities, pos- sessed that ascendency over the minds of their fellow-citizens which can neither be acquired by jjirth, nor purchased by wealth.*' The occasional weakness of the central govern- ment during the revolutionary struggle, was as much owing to the unwillingness of its members to o 4> 1 • ■ u !l HH IlEMARKS ON THE I 'i nssiimc too mucli, as to the difficulty of exacting obedience, or of ])rocurin^ tliat unanimity of measures (which can alone render the greatest national struggles effective) throughout the extent of the vast and thinly-peopled territory w hiih was every where assailed by invading legions. The vigilant patriotism of the Congress was as i uniformly exerted to protect the civil as the national liberties of their country ; for the former they began the struggle, and, when necessity compelled them to prosecute it for the latter, they never for a moment lost sight of the one or the other. They seem to have ever held before them that page of the history of their English ancestors, when having risi^n against the tyranny of a monarch, the people fell beneath that of a soldiery. These indeed are the Scylla and Charybdis between which it is so dif- ficult for a nation to steer during the storm of political commotions : it was here that the vessel of the state was wrecked in England at the era of the commonwealth ; it was here that it was wrecked in France at that of the Revolution. If it be not impossible, it is at least incalculably dif- ficult to establish the liberties of a country on a solid foundation by means of a vigorous army ; it is, indeed, the most efficient weapon wherewith to combat tyranny, but it is a two-edged one ; it forces open the temple to liberty, but stabs her as she ascends her throne. The earlier Congress may perhaps be judged to have carried their scrupulous precaution too far ; to have exerted, if I may so express my self i too paternal a dominion for a season of such exigency ; to have calculated too I im FIRST AMi:ilICAN CONGRESS. 8f) a lith it \r as lay llous >r a too nuicli upon that moral force which they saw so powerCulIy exerted around them; to have deenied, in short, tl\e seH'-impelled energy of the country to have been sufficient to spurn the invaders from her shores. That their first calcuhition was erroneous is undoubted, and the experience of a second cam- paign induced them to adopt more vigorous measures ; but their vigor was ever so tempered with ])rudence, their ardor for speedy relief from foreign violence so balanced by the dread of nerving too strongly the iuuuls of inteinal power, that they have frequently been censured for too excessive a moderation, for dreaming, in short, upon abstract rights, wliile the very existence of the nation was at stake. The more reflecting, especially among Americans, who may be allowed to be the best judges of a scene in which they or their fathers were the actors, are wont to ascribe to the revolutionary congress a wisdom as practical as it was beautiful. I'hey were not dreaming upon abstract principles ; they were guarding the actual rights and preserving the morals of the community. They judged it a lesser evil that the war should be somewhat protracted, than that the seeds of po- litical evil should be engrafted on the soil. They accounted it impossible to make slaves of a people who were determined to be free, and the result proved that they judged wisely. The Fabian shield employed by their wise general in his military conduct was spread by themselves over the civil government. Their aim was to do nothing that might afterwards require to be undone ; a rule, the steady adherence to which imparts more lasting I i it^ i; • ■i \ m , \ I 'I'lii ! ;:.l w REVOLT OF THE it •> if. !!■ Strength to a government than any which has ever been devised. It must farther be observed, that the powers of Congress were at this season by no means clearly defined ; and had they incautiously stretched them too far, they might have roused opposition, and so divided the community. As it was, they held it united ; indeed the unanimity of sentiment which prevailed throughout this scat- tered community during that grievous and pro- tracted warfare, is perhaps not the least striking feature in the characterof the times. No jealousy of the government, none of the commander, ever mingled its leaven with the patriotism of the people ; both indeed were so pure, it was impos- sible to doubt them ; and this it was that blunted the swords of the enemy, and before which their xperienced and well-provisioned armies fell one after another, as the ripe leaves of the forest before tiie invisible breezes of heaven. * * It has been observed to the Author by a veteran hero of the American Revolution, that, in rendering her tribute to the virtues of the senate, she has thrown into shade those of the army. Perhaps she was betrayed into this seeming neglect of those patriot soldiers (than whom Greece or Rome never afforded any more devoted) by a belief that the history of their achieve- ments and suffierings was universally known and justly appre- ,^>ated. Had it been otherwise, she would have found it impos- sible in these desultory pages to render justice to the patient heroism, and disinterested patriotism of the soldiers of the revolution. Their virtue was not expended in one field of Marathon : Saratoga and York-town saw the least of their achievements. It is when their ranks are thinned in the Jerseys by vigils, insufficient sustenance, and the ravages of the small- pox ; — it is when suffering every hardship and privation in the barracks of Valley-forge ; it is in Virginia during the harassing PENNSYLVANIA LINE. 91 led the ling I must here recall to you that singular evidence of the devotion of the national feeling, afforded, I think, in the seventh year of the war, after the revolt of tlie Pennsylvania line. You will re- member the hard sufferings which produced the mutiny. Fainting under the united hardsliips of military duty, and deficient food and clothing, they withdrew from the body of the army, deuianding that which their officers had not to give, the im- mediate supply of their necessities. To awe them into obedience. Gen. Wayne presented his pistols ; they pointed their bayonets at his breast. " We love and respect you, but if you fire, you are a dead man. We are not going to th6 enemy j but are determined on obtaining our just rights.*' They withdrew in good order, with their arms and field-pieces, to a neighbouring town, committed no devastations, but obstinately persisted in their demands. Congress dispatched some of its mem- bers to the mutineers, but before these arrived, emissaries from the enemy appeared among them. Unconditional terms were offered ; gold, prefer- ment, and the immediate cover and assistance but decisive campaign of 1781; — it is when fainting under fatigue, and famine, and nakedness, in the swamps and wilder- nesses of the Carolinas ; it is when, encountering all the dangers and calamities which can subdue the body and spirit of man, they despise every threat and spurn every bribe of the rich and powerful enemy, and suffer in common for the noble cause with the affection of brothers and the patience of martyrs ; — it is only by foiKiwing through all its details the history of their suf- ferings, their perseverance, their heroic gallantry, and their brotherly union, that we can estimate the virtue of the little armiei of the Republic. 1. I* I I V ' I ; f: |:* Sb 1^ - i k i '( 92 GENERAL REFLECTIONS. .11 of a body of royal troops, already on their march towards them. Their reply was the instant seizure of their evil tempters, whom they sent imme- diately under a guard from their own body to the same general who had pointed his pistols at their lives. At the appearance of the Congress* commissioners, their grievances were stated and redressed j but when President Reed offered them a hundred guineas from his private purse, as a reward for their fidelity in having surrendered the spies, the sturdy patriots refused them. " We have done a duty we owed our country, and neither desire nor will receive any reward, but the approbation of that country for which we have so often bled.'* * A country peopled by such men might be over-run, but could not be subdued. This conviction supported the Congress in the most trying emergencies ; tliey ever preserved equal hopes, and asserted the same claims, whether their fellow-citizens were victorious or defeated. They seem to have foreseen this consequence from defeat, a new ardour in the cause of liberty ; and most truly were their expectations answered. The national spirit ever rose highest in the moment of adversity ; the greater the pressure, the more vigorous the rebound ; the longer the blessings of peace and independence were withheld, the fiercer was the desire for their possession. * Among these soldiers were some naturalized citizens, natives of Ireland, a country which has sent forth many an able hand and head to the American wilderness : many, too, of high birth, but whom political or religious persecution has made aliens and foreigners. GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 9S I shall perhaps weary you with these reflections upon })ast events. They are so glorious, how- ever, that the mind has pleasure in recurring to them. Such actions inculcate lessons beyond all that the schools can teach ; which charm the dull monotony of ordinary life, refute the misan- thrope, and encourage the hopes of good men. It is true, that great excitement, that is, per- haps, great crimes, are necessary to call into being great virtues. The world is happier, there- fore, when these are left in embryo ; but it is good to have proof that the seeds are there, lest we should sometimes doubt it. You will say, perhaps, that, according to this calculation, ' the balance is even ; but it is not. As the shadow of a giant will hide the littleness of a multitude of dwarfs, so will the dignity of a hero outweigh the meanness of a host of common men. What child, in reading of the torments of Regulus, does not so triumph in the proud constancy of the Roman, as to for- get with him the coward cruelty of his enemies ? In reading the answer of the men>ber of Congress, when tempted to betray his country, ** Tell the King of England, I am not worth buying ; but that, such as I am, he is not rich enough to do it," who does not, in the indignant scorn of the patriot, forget the littleness of those irits who doubted his virtue? In contemplating „he sufferings of those who endured in a noble cause, we have a secret assurance that the mag- nanimous mind had that within itself which the oppressor never dreamed of. In considering Henry Laurens in his prison, when we hear him I, 1 1 ; •.,;> i,M' ' \ V 1 1 I'M ' ■Ijljl Sill H ! !1;i5- ij" r » ■\ h '■ . I Hi n Mil •! e it I 94 HENRY LAURENS. spurning the offers of liberty and ministerial favour, and braving the hist thieats of power rathe^ than demand of his son a moment's relaxation from his duty, we forget that we are reading of a man bowed down with infirmities, and feel that his spirit rose then yet more proudly in his narrow prison than it did when, in tlie strange revolution of human affairs, he was call- ed forth to mediate a peace between his ene- mies and his victorious countrymen. You may not be acquainted with the anecdote to which I allude ; it is one among a thousand recorded of the intrepid assertors of American independ- ence. Henr\ Laurens, a gentleman of property and high consideration in this his native country, was deputed by Congress, in the latter years of the war, to negotiate a treaty between the United States of America and those of Holland. He was captured on his passage, and thrown into a close and grievous imprisonment in the Tower of London. Many propositions were there made to him, which were repelled with indignation. At length, news being received that his eldest son (a youth of such un- common talents, exalted sentiments, and prepos- sessing manners and appearance, that a romantic interest is still attached to his name) had been appointed the special minister of Congress to the French court, and was there urging the suit of his country with winning eloquence, the father was requested to write to his son, and persuade his return to America; it being farther hinted, that as he was held prisoner in the light of a ! 'i I: ill PEOPLE OF PFA'NSYLVANIA. 9.-5 rebel, his life should depend upon compliance. " My son is of a^e," replied the heroic father of an heroic son, •' and has a will of his own. I know him to be a man of honor. He loves me dearly, and would lay down his life to save mine, but 1 am sure that he would not sacrifice his lionor to save ray life, and I applaud him." This veteran wa» not many months after released, with a request from Lord Shelburne that he would pass to the continent, and assist in negotiating a peace be- tween Great Britain, and the free UtnLed States of America and France their ally. * It is a singular, and perhaps a somewhat in- explicable circumstance, that the state of Pennsyl- vania, colonized by the most peaceable set of men that the earth could ^ell furnish, has been the seat of more political contention than any other of the Union. It is true, that the primitive Society of Friends made, but for a short term of years, a majority in the province, yet the explan- ation of the fact cannot well be found in any peculiar turbulence of disposition in the people. Whether it was that their earlier legislators were less skilled in the science of government than those of the other provinces, or whether it was owing to accidental causes not now easy to trace, we find them disputing in the first page of their colonial history with their governors and deputy- * Colonel Laurens, his interesting son, having executed his commission in France, returned to resume his place in the army. He was killed in the very last days of the war, in an insignificant skirmish, just when the liberties of his country wore decided. } ^ \^:\ U ( 1 Hi Mi 1' i I' I ( ' I i ,'■ 1 5 \ V ' ■ ■ I J -J . 'I i|H|?; it m\ 96 PEOPLE OF PENNSYLVANIA. ',i; B ■i' ! \m governors, even with their friend and parent William Penn himself. A people seldom, perhaps never, complain without good cause, and the candid mind of Penn seems to have admitted this truth. He frequently new-modelled the constitu- tion which the colonists had first received from his hands, and the alterations appear to have been amendments ; but whenever he delegated the power he had preserved to himself, as proprietor of the infant province, it appears to have been abused. So true is it that irresponsible authority can never be lodged in the hands of an individual, however good or wise, without risk to the peace of a community. It is possible, indeed, that a people may govern themselves ill (though it is always pro- bable that they will understand their own interests better than others can for them) ; but the having themselves to blame for the misfortunes that befall them, and possessing the power to work their remedy at pleasure, will at least save much public tumult, by shortening the term of their ill humour. The political dispiitants, however, until the era of the Revolution, employed no keener weapons than the tongue and the pen, and with the exception of occasional wrangles with a neighbouring pro- vince touching the boundary line, in which the proprietors were more concerned than the people, their quarrel seems always to have regarded the vital liberties of the community. I have alluded to the political history of this commonwealth, because there are in it some pecu- liarities. Its people appear to have been singu- larly jealous of their liberties, and at the same time GOVERNMENT CF THE STATES. 97 to have been slower to discover the best mode oi' securing them, than those of their sister states. Though the intention of their first legislator was to " frame a government for the support of power, that should be in reverence with the people, and to secure the people from the abuse of power,** neither he nor his immediate successors could effect this most desirable object. The convention called by the people at the time of the Revolution, could not fail of better success, since there was no longer any compromise to make with the interests of any one man, or set of men, or with the enactments of a distant government. As the people were now their own lawgivers, whatever they decreed amiss could be forthwith amended, and from that time we find no political disputes in this or the other republics, but those of a day. Several of the states have called subsequent conventions to amend the constitutions then adopted, and in many these alterations have been important. The old thirteen states, with the exception of two, acknowledged, in their original constitutions, two branches of legislature, a house of represent- atives and a senate. Pennsylvania and Georgia decreed but one. It appeared to them that, as no distinction of ranks had existence in the American commonwealths, it would not be easy to create two houses of representatives who should differ in any thing the one from the other, and conse- quently, that they would only be parts of the same body legislating in different rooms. I have been informed that Franklin was at f^rst among the ad- H M. i ■I 1 '!^' I fi •-.HiV r I ■ I 1 :'*.; !*i«! 98 INTERNAL GOVERNMENT 1'^ "•I ' 'i. visers of this more simple mode of legislation, but that he was, after a short experiment, convinced that it had its disadvantages. The people were convinced of the same ; and, in a few years, Penn- sylvania and Georgia adopted a senate in the manner of their sister states. Although the two houses are chosen by the same electors, and may be thus said to be the same body divided into two parts, yet as the discussions on any bill take place successively, more time is allowed for deliberation. * Experience has taught communities, that though, upon some rare emergencies, decision and dispatch may further measures important to the public weal, as a general rule it is better to make laws too slo*wli/ than too hastily. Pennsylvania seems, indeed, to have been aware of this ; and, in order to provide against any precipitancy in her legislative proceed- ings, she adopted an expedient quite peculiar to herself, and which was more in the spirit of the old democracies of Greece than those of modern times. In place of a senate, she first enacted that the opinion of the people at large should be taken upon every question brought forward by their representatives. To effect this, every bill was published after its second reading in the house, and time allowed for the body politic of the state to submit their opinions to their servants in council. m t: :t !l ill r i i lii> * An attempt is made in some few of the states to constitute a difference between the two houses, by requiring a higher rat^ of property to qualify a senator than a representative ; many also require the senators to be older than the members of tlif other house. held t and lej t A OF THE STATES. Q9 One can barely imagine a mode of* legislation more t v'ublesonie than this. It was, of course, soon abandoned, together with a council of censors, whose duty it had been to sit in periodical judg- ment upon the whole government of the state, legislative and executive, and to report accordingly. After the Revolution, the lapse of a few years, and the trial of a few experiments, calmed the spirit of controversy which liad so long beset this people. Their rights being now fairly established, and guarded beyond the possibility of invasion, party animosities have subsided, and the wheel of govern- ment, mo7ed by the united impetus of the whole people, turns noiseless, and unimpeded, watched by all, and suspected by none. The constitutions of all these different confe- derated republics differ in little the one from the other. Tiie legislative power is vested in a gene- ral assembly, consisting of a senate and house of representatives * ; the executive in a governor, or in a governor with the assistance, or perhaps it were more correct to say, the impediment of a council. This impediment, at first adopted by all the original thirteen states, has been abolished by several, and has not been adopted by those which have been subsequently added to the Union, t A majority, however, of the old thirteen states re- tain this check upon the will of their chief * With the single exception of Vermont, she has hitherlo held to the system first adopted by Pennsylvania and Geoigiu, and legislates without a senate. f Also with the exception of Vermont. H 2 : f . I ( ■« 111 ♦ \ {\ iti: ' !.!■ I! ? t' tl vq -_ j: 1 -i 1 A 100 INTERNAL GOVERNMENT I i magistrate. Considering the short term of his authority, and the slender powers with which he is vested, many regard this check as unnecessary, some think it mischievous, as tending to retard the operations of government, while others think it salutary on that very account. Perhaps the truth is, that it is very unimportant. This will more clearly appear, if we consider the supreme au- thority of the legislative branch of the government, which is, in fact, the people speaking and acting distinctly and definitively in the person of their representatives. The governor does, indeed, pos- sess a veto upon the decision of the two houses ; but his veto is not decisive ; he must within a given time return the bill, stating the grounds of his dissent, when the question is debated anew, and two-thirds of both houses are then required to give the effect of a law ; but as this majority can impart to it that effect without the signature of the governor, it is, of course, rarely refused. I know not, indeed, that the case ever occurs. It is clear that it can only occur where the voices of the legislators are pretty equally divided, and, conse- quently, when the wisdom of the proposed law may be supposed to be more than usually doubtful. That the door should then be left open for its recon- sideration must surely be accounted wise j and we must farther suppose that the executive could never adopt the extraordinary measure of with- holding its consent, but on a question of vital im- portance, as well as of doubtful merits. By the English constitution, a veto is granted to the mo- narph, and this without a second appeal to the ii 1 t 1 1 ' i ih\ ! OP THE STATES. .101 legislative authority. If this veto is never exerted, it is evidently because the royal influence can pre- viously affect the legislative decision, and thus vir- tually speak the will ofthe monarch, without the too apparent and irritating opposition of his voice to that of the nation. Whatever power the executive here possesses, it is direct j its influence is nothing; it must simply approve or dissent. The governor is as powerless to affect the voices of the assembly as any other individual in the commonwealth ; they are all powerful on the other hand to affect his, or, as we have seen, can render it r.ugatory. The powers of the governor vary somewhat in the different states ; and it is, perhaps, singular, that in Pennsylvania, where there has ever existed an excessive jealousy ofthe executive, its powers are greater than in other states. The governor is unshackled by a council, holds his office for three years, and is trusted with the disposal of many public offices, which, according to the constitution of most of the other republics, are voted by the joint ballot of both houses of assembly. One might amuse one's self by imagining that the citizens of this state were so constitutionally dis- putatious as to be unwilling to forego all oppor- tunity for wrangling. By throwing upon their chief magistrates the choice of judges, mayors, re- corders, &c. they reserve to themselves the pos- sibility of quarrelling with him. This seems to be a fashionable amusement, as it is also in the state of New York, where the appointment to some of the chief public offices is also vested in the though with the concurrence of a H 3 governor, ' I \H "'t i ' 1 « • J jiff ■;: i I * ■ t! » ! is) J '■-: .1 s|>-,. U4i. WJ INTERNAL OOVJERNMENT counciL The bickering that this gives rise to in the public prints may be very entertaining to those eng-'t^ed in it, but lookers-on may be allowed to think it very ridiculous, and altogether unworthy of the dignity of these two important republics. All public offices, whether in the disposal of the governor, or the legislature, or the people, are held only on good behaviour, and are, not excepting the governor, liable to impeachment in the house of assembly. The concurrence of two-thirds of the representatives is necessary to pass sentence, which extends only to removal from office and dis- qualification to hold thereafter " any place of honor, trust, or profit, under the state." It is always provided, that no person holding any office under the state, or the United States, shall be a member of either house of assembly ; a regulation of vital importance, and without which it is impossible to rely upon the purity of the representative system. The servant of the people must be in the pay of no other man, or set of men, or his interests may be at issue with his duty. Pluralities, indeed, are prohibited in every branch of American government, and all the authorities under it. This, of course, imparts to it a vigor and clean handedness which no other regulations could ensure. * * A curious instance of political vigilance occurred lately in New York : A post-master in that city was removed from office, because he was found to be a mail'Contractor. The post-master general in Washington, assigning as a reason for bis dismissal, that the post-master was the check over the irreg both publi( the el OP THE STATES. 103 'A ch he .le n, ich lies for ms The house of representatives may generally be said to be the more popular branch of the legislature: its irif^mbers are chosen annually*, by the whole free male citizens of the state. This may be said to be the < ise throughout the Union, except in two or three of the old repub- lics of the south. The mode of election employed in the choice of senators varies a little in the different states ; in many the term of service extends but to one year, in others to three, four, or, as in Maryland, to five years ; but we cannot exactly calculate the varying popularity of the senatorial elections by the greater or less fre- quency of their occurrence j this is effected by the greater or less extension of the right of suffrage ; greater qualifications by some consti- tutions being required to entitle a citizen to vote for a senator than a representative ; by others these are declared to be equal, though the period of election should occur more frequently in the one case than the other. In Virginia, the gover- nor, representatives, and senators, are chosen annually, and yet her constitution is the least de- mocratic of any state in the Union. In the eastern, central, and western states, all the elections are thoroughly popular. In Virginia and the Carolinas, the suffrage needs farther extension before tl»')y can be said to legislate truly upon American p^.nciples. irregularity of the contractor, and that, if the same man held both situations, no security could be considered as given to the public for the proper fulfilment of the duties of either. * Excepting in South Carolina, Tenessee, and Illinois, where the elections occur every second year. H 4 \u ' I 1^^ 'I \ 1-:IM( ]-.i !f I r' 104. INTERNAL GOVERNMENT m. ! i I The most admirable contrivance in the frame of these governments is, the provision made in all for their alteration and amendment. The convention is at once the foundation and corner- stone in the beautiful structure of American go- vernment ; by its means the constitution of the state is shaped to the wishes of the people as easily and silently as its laws ; it is at once the safe-guard of the public rights, and the keeper of the public peace. The rights of this community rest not on charters or ancient usages, but on immutable principles, which every head and heart is taught to understand and to feel. There is here no refining upon the meaning of words, no oppos- ing of records to reason, no appealing from the wisdom of the present to that of the past. The wis- dom of to-day is often the ignorance of to-morrow ; what in one age is truth, in another is prejudice ; what is humanity becomes cruelty ; what justice, in- justice j whatliberty,slavery; and almost what virtue, wickedness, and happiness, misery. All things are by comparison ; the man of this generation, with views and feelings unknown to earlier ages, is cramped in a sphere of action which those before him found commensurate to their powers and their ambition. If law oppose barriers, his spirit is checked, but not quelled. The flood of knowledge gathers strength, and the mound is swept away with a sudden fury, which shakes the very foun- dations of society, and spreads a momentary ruin over the wide field of civilized life. Power and liberty, existing in the same state, must be at Qternal war j it is only where one or other rules OF THE STATES. 105 IS singly and undisputed, tliat the public peace can be preserved ; in the one case by the free exercise of all the human energies ; in the other by their extinction. It has oftei been asserted by the advocates o^ despotism, that the elements of liberty are wild and intractable. The position is most true, where they are found in an atmosphere uncongenial to their nature, where they have to contend with other elements, with which they can never amalgamate, and which wage with them unceasing warfare. It is common to point our attention to the repub- lics of ancient time, and to tell us that free Rome was split into factions and civil wars ; without enumerating the many causes found in the dis- tinction of ranks, the jealousy existing between the various orders of society, the powerful armies with their ambitious leaders, which combined to throw society into chaos, we have only to refer to the ignorance of the doctrine of representation ; this doctrine, so simple when once revealed, forms the whole science of a free government j this it is which gives to modern liberty a character foreign to that which she wore in ancient times j this it is which has made freedom and peace shake hands, and which renders the reign of the one coeval with that of the other. The representative system, invented, or rather by a train of fortuitous circumstances brought into practice in England, has been carried to perfection in America j by it the body of the people rule in every thing ; by it they establish their constitu- tions i by it they legislate according to the con- Mi ■ • ■■>', ■f '■ i ill' \m ' H I 4 '\\ 'I iri ' 100 INTERNAL GOVERNMENT, &C. m \ M i stitutions established ; and by it again they amend their constitutions, according to the gradual ad- vance of the public mind in political wisdom. Thus, though the form of government should in some cases be found deficient, yet as the door is ever left open to improvement, in system it may always be pronounced to be perfect. " Quelle re- publiche che, se le non hanno Tordine perfetto hanno preso il principio buono e atto a diventare migliore, possono, per la occorrenza delli accidenti diventare perfette." * Considering how greatly the human mind is ennobled by liberty, and how rapidly it becomes humanized when the book of knowledge is thrown open to its inspection, there is no calculating the progress of a people, in virtue as well as power, whose successive generations shall be bred up under benign laws and liberal institutions. Who does not sympathize with the playful wish of the benign sage and devoted patriot Franklin, who, when he saw a little fly escape from a bottle in which it had been imprisoned, exclaimed, " / wish I could be corked up as you have been, and let out a hundred years hence, just to see how my dear America is goiiig on /" ^' Machiavelli sopra la prima Deca di Tito Livio, 107 ^ LETTER VIL AMERICAN CHAKACTER. — ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES. — SOCIETY OF PHILADELPHIA. CHEVALIER CORREA DE 8ERRA. — MR. GARNETT. Philadelphia, May, 1819. MY DEAR FRIEND, I MUST not leave this city without observing some- what more distinctly than T have as yet done, upon the general character of the society. It is difficult to make observation's upon the inhabitants of a particular district that shall not more or less apply to the nation at large. This is the case in all countries, but more particularly in these democracies. The universal spread of useful and practical knowledge, the exercise of great political rights, the ease, and, comparatively, the equality of condition, give to this people a cha- racter peculiar to themselves. The man of leisure, who is usually for the most part the man of plea- sure, may, indeed, find himself somewhat alone in this country. Every hand is occupied, and every liead is thinking, not only of the active business of human life (which usually sits lighter upon this people than many others,) but of matters touching the general weal of a vast empire. Each man being one of a sovereign people, is not only a poli- tician, but a legislator — a partner, in short, in the grand concern of the state ; and this not a sleeping' partner, but one engaged in narrowly inspecting its % : J I' > . ;r 1 1.1!.: ■ ;i<' I ■ ^r I r? i i ^1 108 AMERICAN CHARACTER. Operations, balancing its accounts, guarding its authority, and judging of its interests. A people so engaged, are not those with whom a lounger might find it agreeable to associate : he seeks amusement, and he finds business ; careless wit, and he finds sense ; plain, straight-forward, sober sense. The Americans are very good talkers, and admirable listeners ; understand perfectly the ex- change of knowledge, for which they employ con- versation, and employ it solely. They have a surprising stock of information, but this runs little into the precincts of imagination ; facts form the ground-work of their discourse. They are accus- tomed to rest their opinions on the results of ex- perience, rather than on ingenious theories and abstract reasonings ; and are always wont to over- turn the one, by a simple appeal to the other. They have much general knowledge, but are best read in philosophy, history, political economy, and the general science of government. The world, however, is the book which they consider most at- tentively, and make a general practice of turning over the page of every man's mind that comes across them ; they do this very quietly, and very civilly, and with the understanding that you are at perfect liberty to do the same by theirs. They are entirely without manvaise honte, and are equally free from eflrontery and officiousness. The con- stant exercise of the reasoning powers gives to their character and manners a mildness, plainness, and unchanging suavity, such as are often remarked iu Europe in men devoted to the abstract sciences. Wonderfully patient and candid in argument, close t ' AMERICAN CHARACTER. 109 reasoners, acute observers, and original tliinkers. They understand little the play of words, or, as the French more distinctly express it, badinage. When an American, indeed, is pressed into this by some more trifling European, or by some lively woman of his own nation, I have sometimes thought of a quaker striking into a Highland reel. This people have nothing of the poet in them, nor of the bel espritf and I think are apt to be tiresome, if they attempt to be either. It is but fair, however, to observe, that they very seldom do attempt this, at least after they are five-and-twenty. On the other hand, they are well-informed and liberal philoso- phers, who can give you, in half an hour, more solid instruction and enlightened views, than you could receive from the first corps Uttdraire or diplo^ matique of Europe by listening to them for a whole evening. It is said that every man" has his forte^ and so, perhaps, has every nation j that of the American is clearly good sense: this sterling quality is the current coin of the country, and it is curious to see how immediatf»ly it tries the metal of other minds. In truth, I know no people who sooner make you sensible of your own ignorance. In conversing even with a plain farmer, it has seemed lo me, that I had been nothing but a foolish trifler all my life, running after painted butterflies, while he, like the ant, had been laying up winter stores of solid mental food, useful at all times, and in all exigencies. I must also remark of this people, that they pos- sess ati uninterrupted cheerfulness of mind, and an imperturbable evenness of temper, and, more- id • M ■ I It. I i '■■if! ■Hi lii! n\ I' u m i; M r '^ 110 ANECDOTES. I !•' over, a great share of dry humour, which is the weapon they usually employ when assailed by im- pertinence or troublesome folly of any kind. I have witnessed many amusing instances of this j and you will find some true specimens in the writ- ings of Franklin, whose humour was truly of native growth. A story occurs to me at the moment, which, though it perhaps owed something to the manner in which I heard it, may at least serve as an ex- ample of the national trait to which I have here alluded. A Prussian officer, who some while since landed in New York, in his way to Venezuela, having taken up his lodgings at an hotel in Broad- way, found himself in company with two British officers, and an American gentleman, who was quietly seated in the recess of a window, reading the Washington Gazette. The Prussian under- stood not a word of English, but observed that the two foreigners, in conversing with each other, eternally used the word Yankee, As they leaned out of an open window which looked into Broad- V. ay, he heard them repeat it again and again, and seemingly apply it to every citizen that passed be- fore them. " Yankee ! Yankee !" at length exclaim- ed the Prussian ; " Que vent dire ce Yankee ?" and turned, wondering, to the gentleman who sat ap- parently inattentive to what was passing. " Je vous dirai. Monsieur," said the American, gravely looking up from his paper ; " cela veut dire, un homme d'une sagesse parfaite, d'un talent extreme, jouissant des biens de la fortune, et de la consMer- ation publique." " En un mot, un sage et un 7* ANECDOTES. Ill homme distingue." " Precis^ment." ** Mais, Mon- sieur, que la republique est riche en sages et en honimes distingues 1" *' Ces Messieurs nous font riionneur de le croire," bowing to the officers. You may smile to hear that the Prussian took the explanation in sober seriousness, (though you will readily believe that our two countrymen were too petrified to offer it a contradiction,) and failed not in employing the word to comment upon the superabundance of hommes distingue's to be found in the city, as well as upon the force of the lan- guage, which knew how to convey so many ideas in one word. It was long before I could under- stand the drift of the Prussian's discourse ; when at length I had drawn the above story from him, and that the mystery stood explained, the joke seemed almost too good to put an end to. As I saw, however, that it was his fixed intention to apply the word in its new meaning to every citizen to whom he meant to do honour, and that, in case of an interview with the President himself/ he would infallibly, in some flourish of politeness, denominate him Chef des Yankees^ I thought it better to restore the word to its old reading. * * Perhaps the original derivati* i of the word Yankee is not generally known in England. It . the Indian corruption of English, Yenglees, Yangles, Yankles, and finally Yankee. In the United States, the nick-name is only jocularly applied to the citizens of New England, whose early settlers were thus denominated by the savages. .The Pennsylvanians are known among the Indians by the name of Quekels, being a corruption of Quaker ; the Virginians by that of Long Knives, I believe frorn the bloody wars in which they were continually engaged witTi the firh adventurous settlers of that mother of the Union. •'H- 1 ■! f f; r^ ^ \ I '\H i hi I 1 I ! I H lie SOCIETY OF PHILAD£LPIIIA. rin I '1^' I have already observed upon the quietism still discernible in this city ; there is, however, much gaiety among the young people, and much social intercourse among those of maturer age. Here, as elsewhere, I obsei've a distinct line drawn be- tween the young and the old ; nothing, indeed, can be more opposite than their characters ; the former all life and animation, carolling like young larks in the spring j the latter mild, composed, and devoted, — the women to domestic duties, and the men to affairs domestic and public. Some foreigner has said, that in Europe there is pleasure without happiness, and in America happiness without pleasure. Something here is doubtless sacrificed to the point of the sentence ; I rather incline to think, that pleasure is equally found in the two hemispheres, but that in the one she resides with youth, and in the other with mature age. In France, for instance, a woman has scarcely an acknowledged existence until some Monsieur has placed a ring on her finger ; here, with her, the joy of life is in its spring. Truly it is a pretty sight to see these laughing creatures moving and speaking with a grace that art never taught, and might in vain seek to imitate. I know not if pleasure be a divinity that should be greatly worshipped ; perhaps her spirit intoxicates for a moment to leave the mind vacant afterwards, and the legislator might do wisely who should leave hei' out of the national pantheon ; but if the goddess is to be sought at all, it seems more in the order of nature that it should be when youth and health are mantling on the cheek ^ frolic may then find h -^ SOCIETY OF PHILADELPHIA. 113 a nd ess excuse in the quick blood, and Heraclitus himself be won to laugh at it with good humour. The thoughtless girl throws away precious moments, but the thoughtless woman neglects impo^'^ant duties ; and she too pursues only the shadow o» a shade ; witness the faded cheeks and jaded spirits of a London female rake of thirty or forty. The American girl, evanescent as her joy jnay be, yet finds joy, pure and heart-felt, which older wisdom might almost envy. ** Bless'd hour of childhood ! then, and then alone, Dance we the revels close round Pleasure's throne, Quaff the bright nectar from her fountain springs, And laugh beneath the rainbow of her wings. Oh ! time of promise, hope and innocence, Of trust, and love, and happy ignorance ! Whose every dr'-im is Heaven, in whose fair joy Experience yet has thrown no black alloy ; Whose pain, when fiercest, lacks the venom'd pang Which to maturer ill doth oft belong, ^ When, mute and cold, we weep departed bliss. And hope expires on broken Happiness." Thoughts of a Recluse. This last catastrophe, however, seems seldom to happen here ; love at an early age gives place to domestic affection, and pleasure to domestic comfort ; the sober happiness of married life is here found in perfection. Let the idler smile at this J it is assuredly the best of Heaven's gifts to man. But talking of youth and youth's folly, I must not forget to report to you a sight, which I doubt if you will believe I saw ; 1 did, however, and that I i ' It , I . ^ \ii f •H m f 1 it I ? ' I'll - H? J '■^'■:* ; |. \ ' •■!" • • - 1 i '.' II - ^ I r^ ' hm lU SOCIRTY OF rillLADELPHIA, in broad daylight, and in Clicsnut-street, Pliila- delphia. This is the fashionable promenade, as Broad-way is in New York ; and the figures are equally gay and elegant in both. Walking one morning with a friend, a knot of young men ap- proached, whose air and dress were so strangely foreign to those of the citizens of the country, that I at first doubted if I was not transported, by some fairy's incantation, into New Bond-street or the boulevards. No lounger there, no gay Parisian beau, fresh from the fencing-master, could have worn waists more slender, or looked more like fashion's non-descripts. " Who are those foreigners ?'* I asked. " They are natives," replied my companion laughing; " but the fools are rare ; and I hope, for the sake of the chariicter of our city, will remain so." There are here some circles of very choice society. There is one lady particularly, who appears to assemble all the talent of the city in her drawing-room; and of this, by the bye, no inconsiderable portion is in herself. I have seldom met a lady who possessed more high gifts, or employed them more unostentatiously; and yet, while the life of the evening circle, her mornings are exclusively devoted to the education of a numerous family, who cannot fail to grow up, under such tuition, worthy of their country and their name. We met yesterday at her house a character well known and highly respected throughout this country ; the Portuguese minister, Correa de Serra. Mr. Brackenridge of Baltimore, in dedicating to ClIRVALIF.n CORRIiA DE SEURA. m ind reW this Ira. to him his little work on Louisiana, has prono nceJ him to be " one of the most cnhghtened t'oit uers that has ever visited the United States." The observations with which he follows up this compli- ment are so similar to what I nave universally heard applied to this amiable philosopher by the citizens of this country, that I am tempted to quote them. " Your amiable simplicity of manners re- store to us our Franklin. In every part of our country which you have visited, (and you have nearly seen it all) your society has been as accept- able to the unlettered farmer as to the learned philosopher. The liberal and friendly manner in which you are accustomed to view every thing in these states, the partiality which you feel for their welfare, the profound maxims upon every subject which, like the disciples of Socrates, we treasure up from your lips, entitle us to claim you as one of the fathers of our country." After such testimo- nies from those who can boast an intimate pei*sonal acquaintance with this distinguished European, the observations of a stranger were a very imper- tinent addition. I can only say, that, as a stranger, I was much struck by the unpretending simplicity and modesty of one to whom unvarying report as- cribes so many high gifts, vast acquirements, and profound sciences. The kindness with which he spoke of this nation, the admiration that he ex- pressed of its character, and of those institutions which he observed had formed that character, and were still forming it, inspired me, in a short con- versation, with an equal admiration of the enlight- ened foreigner who felt so generously. As he I 2 =:l \ r. ! I i ,. !^ u 1 I ' ! ;l lliiii ■i.\, ■; i' I ill iiii M(\ CIIEVALIUU COllKEA DL SlCllUA. ! fill walked home with inc I'lom tlic party, (lor your character is not here fastened to a coaci), as Ury- donc found his was in Sicily,) I clianced to observe upon the brilliancy of the skies, which, 1 said, as a native of a moist and northern climate, had not yet lost to me the charm of novelty. He nu'ldly replied, ** And on what country should the sun and stars shine brightly, if not on this ? Light is every where, and is each day growing brighter and spreading farther." ** Are you not afraid," 1 asked, encouraged by the suavity of the vener- able sage to forget the vast distance between his mind and years and my own, " Are you not afraid, as the representative of royalty, of loving these republics too well ?'* He retorted playfully. ♦* As the courtly Melville adjudged Elizabeth the fairest woman in England, and Mary the fairest in Scot- land, so I deem this the fairest republic, and Portugal, of course, the fairest monarchy." It was impossible to hold an hour's conversation with this philosopher, and not revert to the condition and future prospects of the country which gave him birth. When I pondered on these, it was with pain that [ marked the furrows on his brow. Has such a man been born in vain for his country ? Is he there too far before his generation, and must he sleep with his fathers, before the light which has burst in full eflulgence upon his mind, shall gleam one faint ray upon those of his fellow- countrymen.* * When, after my return to Europe, the tidings of the Revo- lution in Portugal first reached ui'\ my thoughts reverted to the Chevalier Correa. Should these nsignificant pages ever 19 : V. * MR. gah\i;tt. 117 try levo- ted to ever It is surely :i proud reflection for this people, that, ii] the very infancy of their existence as a nation, they should attract the attention of foreign statesmen and sages, and that their country should not only be the refuge of the persecuted, but often freely chosen as the abode of the philosopher. America nc ul not complain ; if she is condemned by the ignorant and the prejudiced, she is ap- plauded by those whose applause is honor ; by those too who have closely considered her charac- ter, and whose matured and candid judgment enables them to decide upon its merits. A people who have the voices of a Corrca, a Kprnard, and a Garnett, may laugh in good-humour at an Ashe or a Fearon. The name of Garnett has often appeared in my letters. I hesitate to depict a character which would defy an abler hand than mine ; those who have seen the original, would find any transcript of it an unmeaning daub ; those who iiavc seen it not, would deem that the pi'inter drew from an over-wrought imagination. I may have already mentioned, that he was a native of England, and known in early life in that country, as he has since been known in this, for every gift and every ac- quirement that can ennoble or adorn the human accidentally attract his eye, he will never recall, that he once deigned to throw away an idle hour in conversing with their writer ; but she is proud to remember it ; nor was it without deep emotion, that at one moment she pictured the thoughts and feelings of that benevolei.l and enlightened friend of human-kind. 1 3 ' I' i n i . I I' i: ■ . <■ < •I -.1 ■, 118 MR, GARNETT. ;. r mind. To the world he is best known as a man of science ; but the more deep researches which have engrossed him as a mathematician, astrono- mer, and mechanic, form but a fraction in the sum of his rich and varied knowledge. It were idle to recount the mental powers and accomplishments of this venerable sage ; the difficulty would be to imagine one that he does not possess. Never was a mind more rich in treasures ; never a heart more overflowing with benevolence ; never a soul more ardent in the love of liberty, and of all that is great and excellent. Were it possible to enu- merate the noble endowments of this philosopher, there would still be that in his manners and ap- pearance which would mock description ; a sim- plicity, and withal, a winning grace, that charms alike childhood, youth, and age ; which makes ignorance at ease in his presence, and gives him the air of a disciple, while uttering the word:? of wisdom. The countenance whose beauty in its younger days fixed the eyes of Lavater, and was the image from which he drew the portrait of benevolence, might yet picture the same virtue to the same master. Never, indeed, were jewels shrined in a nobler casket; never did goodness beam more beautifully from the eye, or thought sit in more majesty on the forehead ; never did wisdom breathe more mildly and playfully from the lips ; never were such transcendant powers — such vast and universal acquirements worn with such modesty and sweetness. How poor are words to speak the charm that hangs about this son of t MR. GARNETT. 119 of science and of nature ! To tell how each accent sinks from the ear upon the heart ; how his know- ledge instructs, his fancy charms, his playful, sparkling, careless wit enlivens! The moments passed in his presence are counted by sands of gold, and are treasured up in the memory for the mind and the heart to recur to, whenever their better powers and feelings may need refresliing. Should the contemplation of human weakness and wicked- ness ever make us call in doubt, for a moment, the high destinies of our nature, it is by recalling the image of such a sage as this — of such a philosopher of the world and friend of man, that our confidence in human virti'ie may be restored, our philanthropy quickened, and every generous hope and aim be revived and exerted with new ardour. * ♦ This venerable philosopher and philanthropist is now numbered with the dead ; but eight and forty hours after the writer of these pages parted from him, and almost before she was out of sight of the American shores, he was a corpse. He suddenly fell asleep, full of years, and in full possession of all his great powers, without a struggle or a groan, on the night of the 1 1th of May, 1820, at his farm, in New Jersey. To have known this amiable sage, and to have been honored with some share in his esteem, will ever be among the proudest recollections of my life, though it is now also one of the most painful. I beg to apologize to those in either hemisphere who knew this amiable and highly-gifted man, for this poor tribute to his memory. In no way am I worthy to be the re- corder of his virtues, unless the reverence, and almost filial affection that I bore to him, may seem to afford me a title. Lest I should appear, in this instance, to hare swerved from the rule which every writer of any delicacy will observe — I h ■4 I ^ h\\ ffi i ', • M • I. I'U j Ml 'Ml5 1 . t iliili •I pi : t V20 3IU. GARNETT. that of abstaining from any remarks, which may tend to attract the public attention to his private friends, I must observe, that the distinguished and acknowledged place that Mr. Garnett held in the world of science, had rendered him, in some mea- sure, a public character. He is now, too, lost to that world and to his friends : had it not been so, this humble testimony of one who feels herself better for having known him, would never have appeared to pain his modesty. ii ? IV. \:l vn LETTER VIII. VISIT TO JOSEPH BUONAPARTE. — GENERAL OBSERVATIONb. — AMERICAN COUNTRY-GENTLEMAN. Pennsylvania, June, 1819. MY DEAR FRIEND, I HAVE not much leisure to recount the particulars of our peregrinations j nor perhaps would they greatly interest you. In travelling I find it con- venient to bear in mind that the ground has been trodden before, and that, in detailing the appear- ance and population of towns and districts, I should only write what others have already written, to whose journals, should you be curious on these matters, you can refer. It may amuse you somewhat more to receive the account of our visit to Joseph Buonaparte. Some days since, joined by the friends in whose house we are now inmates, we filled a carriage and light waggon, called a Dearborn *, struck across to the Delaware, and then took boat to Bordentown, on the Jersey shore. A friend of our polite Philadelphia acquaintance here joined our party, and we walked forwards to the residence of the Ex-King. It is a pretty * From the American General of that name ; to whom the farmer and country gentleman are under infinite obligations for its invention. '•■'■ 1i| » I i '"\ «■'.! r i tl 1| ]t^ K^2 VISIT TO I I \ villa, commanding a liue prospect of* the river; the soil around it is unproductive ; but a step removed from the pine-barren ; the pines how- ever, worthless as they may be, clothe the banks pleasantly enough, and altogether, the place is cheerful and pretty. Entering upon the lawn, we found the choice shrubs of the American forest, magnolias, kalmias, &c. planted tastefully under the higher trees which skirted, and here and there shadowed the green carpet upon which the white mansion stood. Advancing, we were now faced at all corners by gods and goddesses in naked, — I cannot say majesty, for they were, for the most part, clumsy enough. The late General Moreau, (a few years since, according to the strange revolutions of war-stricken Europe, a peaceful resident in this very neighbourhood,) left behind him, in the same Parisian taste, a host of Pagan deities of a similar description, with a whole tribe of dogs and lions to boot, some of which I have seen scattered up and down through the surrounding farms. Two of these dumb Cer- beruses are sitting at this moment on either side of a neighbouring gentleman's door, and the chil- dren of the family use them as hobby-horses. Truly, the amusement of the child has often less folly in it than chat of the man ; the child rides the hobby, while the hobby too often rides the man ; and then if ambition be the hobby he chooses, the man rides down his fellow-creatures. Happy the country where, without iron laws, all men are a check upon each other ! I thought this lis %\ JOSEPH BUONAPAllTK. 1^23 when I entered the house of the brother of Napoleon. Until the entrance of the count who was super- intending the additions yet making to the house, we employed ourselves in considering the paint- ings, and Canovas, of which last we found a small but interesting collection. It consists chiefly of busts of the different members of the Buonaparte family. The similar and classic outline prevailing in all is striking, and has truly something imperial in it. As these were the first works of this Italian Phidias that I had met with, I regarded them with much curiosity. There are two small pieces of most exquisicd workmanship — a naked infant (the little King ofRome), lying on a cushion, which yields to the pressure of one of the feet with a truth that mocks the marble. I remember a child in the same attitude in a much-prized Rubens, from which my first thought was that the sculptor had caught his idea ; but, studying the same nature, genius is often original when vulgar cri- ticism suspects the contrary ; the same thought has been elicited from minds that never had com- munication, and this not once, but repeated times. There was another yet more lovely figure of a girl caressing a greyhound. What softness and de- licacy wrought out of such rude materials ! It is presumptuous for one so little skilled to venture upon the remark, yet I have always felt my eye offended by the too glaring whiteness of modern sculpture; perhaps the mellowing hand of time is as necessary for the marble as the canvas. Turning to look at David's portrait of Naj)oleon i 1 iJ. *■■' \ I I a \ r i \ I'M ll \ . i ■ :; i t V :■[ '', lAi 1 p 121^ VISIT TO i I, 4 crossing the Alps, 1 was greatly disappointed witli the expression of the young soldier; the horse has far more spirit than the rider, who sits care- lessly on his steed, a handsome beardless boy, pointing his legions up the beetling crags as though they were some easy steps into a drawing- room. Such, at least, was my impression. Count Survillier (he wears this title, perhaps to save the awkwardness of Mr, Buonaparte), soon came to us from his workmen, in an old coat, from which he had barely shaken off' the mortar, and, — a sign of the true gentleman, — made no apologies. His air, figure, and address, have the character of the English country-gentleman — open, unaffected, and independent, ^ut perhaps combining more mildness and suavity. Were it not that his figure is too thick-set, I should perhaps say, that he had still more the character of an American, in whom I think the last-enumerated qualities of mildness and suavity are oftener found than in our country- men. His face is fine, and bears so close a resem- blance to that of his more distinguished brother, that it was difficult at the first glance to decide which of the busts in the apartment were of him, and which of Napoleon. The expression of the one, however, is much more benignant ; it is in- deed exceedingly pleasing, and prepares you for the amiable sentiments which appear in his dis- course. The plainness and urbanity of his man- ners for the first few moments suspended pleasure in surprise ; and even afterwards, when smiling at myself, 1 thought. And xvliat did I expect to see ? 1 could not still help ever and anon, acknowledg- JOSKPII BUONAPARTE. V25 ing that I had not looked to see exactly the man I saw. I felt most strangely the contrast between the thoughts that were fast travelling through my brain, of battles and chances, ambition and in- trigues, crowns and sceptres, — the whole great drama of the brother's life passing before me, — I felt most strangely the contrast between these thoughts and the man I was conversing with. He discoursed easily on various topics, but always with much quietness and modesty. He did and said little in the French manner, though he always spoke the language, understanding English, he said, but imperfectly, and not speaking it at all. He expressed a curiosity to become acquainted with our living poets j but complained tliat he found them difficult, and enquired if there was not often a greater obscurity of style than in that of our older authors : 1 found he meant those of Queen Anne's reign. In speaking of the members of his family, he carefully avoided titles; it was mon frere Napoleon^ ma sceur Hor tense. Sec, He walked us round his improvements in-doors and out. When I observed upon the amusement he seemed to find in beautifying his little villa, he replied, that he was happier ;n it than he had ever found himself in more bustling scenes. He gathered a wild flower, and, in presenting it to me, carelessly drew a comparison between its minute beauties, and the pleasures of private life ; contrasting those of ambition and power with the more gaudy flowers of tli€ parterre, which look better at a distance than upon a nearer approach. He said this so naturally, with a manner so simple, r-t HI 1 ♦! ^:1 '! *1 t I ' ' ! 1 ;'■ ViC) VISIT TO and accent so mild, that it was impossible to see in it attempt at display of* any kind. Understanding that I was a foreigner, he hoped that I was as much pleased with the country as he was ; ob- served that it was a country for the many, and not for the few ; which gave freedom to all and power to none, in which happiness might better be found than any other, and in which he was well pleased that his lot was now cast. The character of this exile seems to be much marked for humanity and benevolence. He is peculiarly attentive to sufferers of his own nation — I mean of France j is careful to provide work for the poorer emigrants ; and to others, affords lodging, and often money to a considerable amount. His kindness has, of course, been imposed upon, in some cases so flagrantly, that he is now learning circumspection, though he does not suffer his humanity to be chilled. This 1 learned from his American neighbours. I left Count Survillier, satisfied that nature had formed him for the cha- racter he now wears, and that fortune had rather spited him in making him the brother of the am- bitious Napoleon. In reviewing the singular destinies of this family, there is one acknowledgment that is forced from our candor ; it is that, considering the power that circumstance threw into their hands, they wrested it to less monstrous purposes than has often been done by similaily spoiled children of fortune. We may indeed exclaim, in considering the mad career of Europe's conqueror, ! i JOSEPH nUONAPARTE. Vii7 '»» " Ah ! how did'st thou o'crlcap the goal of Fame ! Ilad'st thou but propp'd expiring Freedom's head, And to her feet again the nations led ; Had'st thou, in lieu of War's blood-dropping sword, Seiz'd her white wand, and given forth her word ; Bid the mad tumult of the nations cease, And love from realm to realm cried Liberty and Peace P' Thoughts of a Recluse, But it is easier to be a philosopher in the closet than in the tented field ; and, in reality, the real philosopher shrinks even from the trial of his virtue. Had Napoleon been such, the destinies of Europe would never have been laid at his mercy. As a soldier of fortune, he fought his way to distinction. That the young ambition which first fixed on him the eyes of men, should have died at the most brilliant moment of his career, had been little less than miraculous ; as it was, all was in the common order of vulgar humanity ; he dared all things for a throne ; he gained it, and then dared all things to throw splendor around it. It was false splen- dor, you will say. True ; but it was false glory that allured him to the throne. The mind that coveted the one must necessarily have desired the other. Instead of quarrelling with successful am- bition, it might be more rational, as well as more useful, to upbraid the nations that stoop to its in- solence. If despots sometimes make slaves, it is no less true that slaves make despots ; if men value not their own liberties, are they to expect that others will for them ? they may find those that will fight their battles, but not those that will guard their rights. Heroes are more rare than warriors ; thousands are born who can master others, but I I i i \ : i\ • . 1 1 i ( ■' III ipli 1 WtJ' '\ 128 GKNEKAL OBSERVATIONS. i' ] scarce one in a generation who can master himself. The fallen tyrant has been a good schoolmaster to the nations of Europe ; may they profit by the lesson. You will, perhaps, at first be scarcely disposed to admit the surmise, that it is easier to speculate upon the future destinies of Europe in this hemi- sphere than the other. It is not only that vehe- ment jealousies and vacillating parties distract the attention of the more near observer, and prevent him from calmly considering the ultimate tendency of those great principles which, though now more or less every where acknowledged, are found to clash with the prevalent interests of the moment ; it is not only that the noise of the combatants is lost in the distance, whilst the petty actors in the shifting scene dwindle into air, leaving only ap- parent the colossal stage itself, and the general purport of the great drama which it exhibits ; it is not only this, but that the various revolutions which have convulsed the European continent, have thrown into America a motley crowd of statesmen, soldiers, and politicians, who can here repeat the result of their experience without risk, and con- sequently without reserve. This continent seems at present to be the great side-scene into which the chief actors of Europe make their exits, and from which, in the revolutions of human destiny, they may perhaps again be called to make their en- trances. It was observed, I think, in the English House of Commons, by a generous opposer of the Alien Act, that the present league sul)sisting between the c;iiNKIlAL OnSKUVATlDNs. F2f) i jms the 'om en- mse lien I the ;reat Km'opeaii potentates, luul realized the ap- palling picture drawn by the masterly })en of Gibbon, when the proscribed sought to ^y the power of Rome, and found her every where. The parallel, however, is not perfect ; since there are now two hemispheres, while formerly there was i)ut one. Beyond the waters of the Atlantic, the proscribed of every nation, whatever be. their merits or demerits, now find a / i<;:l mM9 ^i||H?i r 7 f f fl 13*2 LETTER IX. PASSAGE UP THE RIVER HUDSON. ACCOUNT OF THE ACADEMY AT WEST POINT. PASS OF THE HIGHLANDS. i ARNOLD S TREACHERY. ALBANY AND ITS ENVIRONS. Albany, July, 1819. MY DEAR FRIEND, The hasty letter I addressed to you from Con- necticut, will have explained to you my unusual silence, and relieved you from any apprehension that it might be occasioned by a broken neck j but in truth you are rather unconscionable in epistolary demands. You had no manner of title to look for a letter by the Martha, and yet I thank you that you did look for it. It tells me that your thoughts are as often on this side the ocean as mine are on yours. We have just made the passage up the magni- ficent Hudson (l60 miles) from New- York to this city, which has indeed but one, though that no unimportant title to so grand a name, in being the capital of the state. It is probable, however, that the government will soon have to travel in search of the centre of the republic, in like manner with that of Pennsylvania. Albany indeed seems to stand as in expectation of her fallen honors, for though there are some well-finished streets and many commodious and elegant private dwellings, tr ACADEMY AT WEST POINT. 1.33 ith to for Ind the general appearance of the town is old and shabby. You will not care to trace with me the beautiful course of this river. The features of nature, so unspeakably lovely to contemplate, are often tire- some in description. A few observations upon the military academy at West Point will perhaps in- terest you more than a sketch of the rocks and woody precipices upon which it stands. This in- teresting academy, which flourishes under the eye of the Central Government, was established in 1802. Its first organization was devolved by Congress upon the late General Williams, whose alents and unremitting industry did honor to himself and his country which employed them. The average number of youths educated at West Point varies from 230 to "250 ; 336 dollars are expended yearly upon each cadet, and the support of the establishment is rated by the government at the sum of 115,000 dollars per annum. The branches of education taught at the academy are similar to those taught at Woolwich and the Polytechnic school of Paris. About one thousand youths from all the sections of the Union have here received a liberal and scientific education. A few of these now fill respectable posts in the corps of engineers, artillery, and otlier branches of the little army, amounting to a few thousands, which, scattered through this vast em- pire, are actively employed in the erection and conservation of forts, the protection of the Indian frontier, drawing of boundary lines, roads, &c. By far the greater number, however, retire from this k3 i ■ ^ ' ■'.i n 1:1 ni 1 .; -i i 1, II E \M\ /' 134 ACADEMY AT WEST POINT. (I little military fortress to the shade of private life, as peaceful cultivators of the soil, from whence some have been called by the voices of their fellow- citizens to fill important civil offices ; and all would be found ready at the first call of the Republic, to rush foremost for her defence. It is judged by this government, ever liberal in all that touches the real welfare and dignity of the nation, that military knowledge can never be idly bestowed upon a citizen, who, whatever be his condition or calling, must always form one of the chic militia; and, looking to the event, always possible, and therefore always to be provided against, of attack trom foreign powers, it is per- haps the wisest of all conceivable precautions to scatter thus the seeds of military science among the peaceful population. It is true, that these may never be required to put forth their fruits. These infant soldiers may live and die as peaceful tillers of the soil ; but it is well to know, that the trump of defensive war could summon skilled heads as well as devoted hearts to the field. This establishment has yet in it the seeds of more good. These youths, natives of different states, gathered from the north, south, east, and west of this vast confederacy, and here trained together for the defence of the great whole, under the fostering aixd liberal cai'e of the governmetit of that whole, necessarily forget all those paltry jealousies and selfish interests which once went nigh to split these great republics, and to break down the last and noblest bulwark of freedom erected on this earth. Scattered again to the four winds of ACADKMV AT WKST POINT, 135 heaven, these sons of the repubHc bear with them the generous principles here imbibed, to breathe them perhaps in the senate, if not to sup- port them in the field ; and to hand them down to future generations tlirough the minds of their children. '* The most interesting and important consequences," (1 quote the words addressed to me by an enliglitened American officer. General Swift, to whom I have often been obliged for many par- ticulars regarding the condition of this country, and to whose politeness I am chiefly indebted for my information respecting this establishment,) " the most interesting and important conse- quences which I have noticed as resulting from an education at West Point, are a zealous attachment to the political institutions of the nation, a de- vot''>n to country, an ardent love of liberty.*' Tii^^ >r, indeed, I have observed in the mind of an /.. ' wkican to be synonymous with the love of the other two. In this country, the government is the very palladium of liberty j her throne is at Washington ; upheld there by the united force of the whole people, she throws back light and heat upon her children and defenders. Generally speaking, all those connected with, or forming a part of the Central Government, engaged in its service, or in any manner placed under its more immediate direction or protection, are peculiarly distinguished for elevated sentiment, a high tone of national feeling, an ardent enthusiasm, not merely for American liberties, but for the liberties of mankind. The officers attached to the establishment being K 4 Ir i ;| it\ ■\ ) t m t'-i ' \ jsri ACADEMV AT Wf.ST POINT. (. I ! ii » » distiiigiiislieci both as men of* sciencj and ardent patriots, and combining also the mihhiess and frankness of manner peculiar to the American .i^entleman, are well fitted to tutor the opinions and feelings of youth. Under their tuition they can acquire no sentiments that are not patriotic and generous; their minds in early infancy imbibe simple, but sublime truths, invigorating principles, and all the pride and the energy which go to form free men. It is fine to see how soon the boy learns within the walls of this academy, a knowledge of his own high destinies as the child of a re- j)ublic. Our venerable friend ***** lately procured admission for his little grand-son. « I thought myself;** said he, "among a crowd of young Spartans, and found my own little fellow, after a few weeks, looking and speaking as proudly as any one of them." Among the most promising scholars, there are at present two Indians, the sons of chiefs. In the second class, at a late examination, they carried away several of the prizes. There was an instance of the same kind some years since, but, ere the boy reached his sixteenth year, he left his dia- grams, (as a young geometrician he had been one of great promise,) ran to the woods, and forewent all other ambition for that of excelling in the chase. An officer of the establishment, from whom I had this, added, that he had little doubt the two now with them would follow the same example. The account that I have received of the uncon- querable wildness of the young savages, who, at different times, have been educated in the various AC.\lJi:.MY AT WEUr I'Ol NT. 137 colleges of these states, have sometimes brought to my recolleotion the experiments of a philosophic old housekeeper, in Devonshire, vk^ho was bent upon domesticating a brood of partridges. I re- member well how she took me, then a child, into her poultry-yard, and dilated upon the untameable dispositions of these wild-fowl, of which she had possessed herself of a brood for the third or fourth time. " I have reared them now from the egg, and yet two ran away yesterday ; and if 1 had not puc the other rogues under a hen-coop, they would have been oft' this morning." I know not how the partridges learned, in the old dame's poultry- yard, to connect happiness with hedges and corn- fields; but it is easy to see how the young Indian should, in all places, and under all circumstances, learn to connect it with the wilderness and the wild deer. You will understand, from what I have said upon this military academy, that the object of the government, under whose eye, and at whose ex- pense it is conducted and maintained, is not to rear a band of regulars. The youth are in no way under obligations to enter into the service of the Republic, nor indeed, supposing them so disposed, would it often be in the power of the government to gratify the desire. The slender force which is maintained at the national expense, and which is barely sufficient for the hard duties in which it is engaged, (consisting, as I have stated, in the in- spection and erection of public works,) admits but of few openings to such as might be ambitious of so arduous a service. It is intended, indeed, tv '4 !^it Jt! } f *■ ] ■ ■ \': IU\ .1-.; ^ ■ (ijif! ! ! ;?l! 1 ... 138 <;i:NKUAr- uioiauks. .1, !!. m provide u body of men, wliose education shall fit them ably to fill the chief posts in this little band, and which has thus a surety of being directed by ability ; but, as I have stated, a further and more important object is kept in view, namely, that of scattering throughout the union men, imbued not merely with liberal principles, but attached to scientific pursuits. The course of study in West Point chiefly difiers from that of other colleges, in so far as it leans rather more to the sciences, and follows up those essential to the soldier in command, more particularly the engineer. There is little fear, in these pacific states, of any portion of the citizens acquiring a taste for military glory. The strength of the country can never be put forth but in defence. The very institutions make against any other warfare ; the sentiments of the people, inspired by these institutions, make against the same ; all here breathes of peace, as well as freedom. American freedom, founded upon the broad basis of the rights of man, is friendly to the freedom of all nations ; it looks not with jealousy upon the improving condition of foreign states ; it will — it never can attack but when attacked, or grossly insulted ; but even in the last case, excepting indeed on the ocean, war here must stiil be defensive. The armi/ is the people, and the people must be at home. The enemy must invade, before it can be engaged, and then no American need fear the issue. A town may be pillaged, a farm may be burnt, a few acres of cultivated land be laid waste, and then the aggressors must find their ships, or be overwhelmed by accumulating i.li cl GENEU.M. UtMAUK.'i. 13!J multitudes. Foreign politicians, who, speculating upon the prospects of this nation, augur for it a career similar to that of other empires, — inoffen- sive, because feeble in infancy, aspiring and violent in maturing strength, and then hurried into ruin by the reaction which ever returns upon aggres- sion, have, I apprehend, but little considered its position and character. No nation, in the whole history of the known world, ever stood in a situation at all similar to this ; none ever started in the ca- reer so equips o A . it well. It hr^ ""^ ambitious rulers, no distinguisued classes, who might find it their interest to turn aside the public attention, by means of foreign wars, from the too narrow inspection of their aims or privileges ; no colonies, no foreign possessions, requiring the guard of armed forces, or nourishing unjust ambition. What country before was ever rid of so many evils? Without adverting to monarchies, let us consider the old republics. What points of com- parison may we find between Rome and the United States ? Rome had an arrogant and artful nobility, whose policy it was to foster the military mania of the people ; to employ them in conquests abroad, lest they should aspire to dominion at home. The consequence was inevitable : the army gradually became the paramount order in the state, fell back upon their employers, and swallowed the privileges of the nobility, with every right of the people that the nobility had not swallowed before them. In considering the history of modern Europe, we ever find the rulers- rather than the people lighting up the first flame of war, and madly pro- If '4 ^i ., f .1 . i''ii )ti ys' t ■ U • -■ } f U i 1 !1* 110 OKNKUAL UKiMAUKS. tiM secuting it beyond what the strength of the nation can support. It may be urged, that an unreason- able war lias often been a national one. The fact is undoubted j but we must take into the account the arts first employed by the rulers to rouse the popular feeh'ng ; or, supposing it roused without their assistance, the arts invariably employed to keep it alive. Pride and passion may hurry a peo- ple into momentary error, but, if left to themselves, time will bring reflection, and reflection reason. The people here are left to themselves ; they are their own rulers, their own defenders, their own champions j should they judge hastily, they can retract their decision j sliould they act unwisely, they can desist from error. But there is yet a more important consideration — they are their own teachers ; not only can none shut the book of knowledge against them, but, by an imperative law, is it laid open before them. Every child is as fairly entitled to a plain, but efficient education, as is every man to a voice in the choice of his rulers. Knowledge, which is the bugbear of ty- ranny, is, to liberty, the sustaining staff of life. To enlighten the mind of the American citizen is, therefore, a matter of national importance. In his minority he is, in a manner, the ward of the ruling generation ; his education is not left to chance ; schools are every where open for him at the public expense, where he may learn to study those rights which he is afterwards called upon to exercise. In this union of knowledge, with liberty, lies the strength of America. The rights that she possesses, she perfectly understands. Her bless- m AR>;()L1J S TlUvVCIlKlJV. lil e iiif^s she not only enjoys, !)nt knows to trace to their true soiu'ces. To suppose, therefore, tliat slje can ever idly fling them away, is to suppose her smitten with sudden madtiess. Whatever may be the career of this nation, it must at least be singular ; it cannot be calculated by the experience of the past. It is impossible to enter, for the first time, the romantic pass of the Highlands, and to rest the eye upon the interesting academy of West Point, perched upon one of the highest and most rugged pinnacles, without recalling the traditionary and historical remembrances of the place. In earlier ages, this was the region of superstitious terror to the Indian, and even the European hunter. The groans of imaginary spirits changed in time into the shrill pipe of war, and now it is only the mimic drum of the academy that rings among the caverns and precipices, through which the Hudson rolls his deep and confined waters. It was in the fastness of West Point that, in the moment of his country's worst distress, the traitor Arnold planned his scheme of treachery. There is a moral that breathes from the tale, and that is thus pointed out by the historian ; " it enforces the policy of C07iferring high trusts upon men of' clean hands^ and of withholding all public confidence from those who are subjected to the dominion of plea- sure.** It is common to separate a man's public from his private character ; the distinction is more than dangerous, it is morally atrocious. It is possible, indeed, that a rapacious soldier, or an unprincipled minister, may display, in domestic !| I' ' I ' 1 1:1 '!• ; I :■ '^mIii r4''lii;: \ i '( 14^^ Arnold's tukachery. \u u \0 . u n lii'e, some pleasing qualities ; ami it is also possible that u man, notoriously licentious and unprincipled in private, may preserve a tolerably fair and con- sistent political character ; but this is a chance that none have a right to reckon upon ; and on the whole it is to be regretted when this chance occurs. It tends to corrupt the public morals ; to lead men of weak heads and strong passions to wear their unblushing vices openly, and even to make them a passport to distinction. It is probable that the example of Arnold served as a useful warning to the people of these states, and tended to encourage them in the practice of scrutinizing the secret conduct of those citizens whom they promote to offices of public trust. It is somewhat remarkable, that the licentious and unprincipled Arnold should have been a native of Connecticut, a state, as Ramsay observes, " remarkable for the purity of its morals, for its republican principles and patriotism.** This might be wrested into an evidence that earlv education does little towards forming the character of the man ; but there is a species of restraint, which, if suddenly removed, may leave the passions to run more riot than if no bridle at all had ever been laid upon them. It is not unlikely that the young Arnold was bred up by virtuous, but narrow- minded puritans, whose doctrines were hammered into the head, rather than breathed into the heart, and which afterwards uprooted during a stormy intercourse with the world, left no moral feelings to stem the flood of temptation. It was well written by a philosopher, On ne dispute jamais stw la I i jllij.j^, j AUNOM) S I KKACIIKIIY. iir. rertUf puree quelle tie fit de Dieu ; o)i se qiicrelle sur /es opinions qui viefinent des honnnes. The Ameri- cans are, for the most part, aware of tliis truth ; even the citizens of (.Connecticut are gradually coming round to the opinion. It is a proud and gratifying reflection, that an arduous revolutionary str-iggle of eight years* duration brought to light but one such character as Arnold. This single exception was indeed a most atrocious one. Born and bred among a simple and moral race, embarking the first and the boldest in the noblest cause in vvhicli a pa- triot could engage, pouring his blood for years freely, and, to appearance, ungrudgingly, for a country who acknowledged his services with a gratitude and generosity such as might have melted the heart of a savage, and repaid them with a confidence which might have flattered the most selfish ambition ; that a man so situ- ated, so held by every tie that might seem calculated, not only to induce, but to constrain fidelity, should, in the very last years of the war, have sold himself for a bribe, and plotted the destruction of the patriotic army which he had so often led to victory ; and that, after his treason had been baffled, he should have served under the standard which he had so often and so boldly de- fied, have laid waste the country of his nativity, and plundered and butchered the people who had so often, forgiven his offences, and repaid his services with gold, hardly and yet willingly wrung from their exhausted fortunes ; truly there is in this a hardened depravity, an atrocious licentiousness* y '^|. . .. ( i M^ .1 ! 7 l! r, I t, , in AUNOLi) s Tui:Aciii:iiy. 1-^ n «i which, to muse upon, .nakos the blood run cohl. The spot on the beach was pointed out to me, where the traitor met the untbrtunutc young Andre, so unfit to be a party in the scheme of wickedness. It seems as if fortune had found a pleasure in opposing every contrast that couhl set off to worst advantage the villany ofArnokl. The very spy, dispatched by the enemy, proved too artless to sustain tlie cliaracter that was thrust upon him. To j)ourtray the feelings of these two men, of characters so opposite, met together in treasonous conference, in the dead of night, upon the wild and desolate siiores of this vast :iver, might furnish a subject for the painter or the dramatist. The little shallop, moored upon the beach, which has landeil tlie young Andre ; the sloop of war waiting to assist his retreat, sleeping in the distance on the waters ; the out-posts of the American army just visible ou the tops of the frowning precipices; from which, with hasty and unequal steps, listening to every breeze, and startling at his own shadow, the traitor steals to his appointment. The soldiers meet; and each looks round as apprehending listeners in the savage solitude ; one trembling with the sense of his own iniquity, fearing lest the winds should bear to the little band of patriots, then confiding in his honor, the purpose of their treacherous com- mander ; the other ashamed of the part in which he is engaged — his honorable feelings as a man revolting against the obedience he yields as a soldier to the instructions of his general. How repugnant to a gfinerous nature, a conference held ill ( ■ 1 1 1 *t V AllNOM) S TKKACirr.UY. 145 in darkness and disguise, with a cold ami calcu- lating villain, who stipulates the price for which he will sell his unsuspecting countrymen and companions in arms, the voice of whose sentinels perhaps swells at intervals on his ear ! The interview was prolonged until the dawn threatened them with detection. The young Eng- lishman was forced to remain in concealment until the shades of another night should favor his escape. Arnold, having secreted his companion, returned to his post, to face, without a blush, the heroes he had sold. The romantic position held by this detachment of the patriot army, increases, if possible, the interest of the moment : it was posted in a fastness, if not impregnable, yet such as gave to p handful of men a superiority over thousands ; it stretched along the tops of two ridges, Ivro'cen into abrupt precipices, sinking on one side into woods and morasses, and on the other shelving precipitously into the deep Hudson, whose chan- nel it here securely shut against the enemy. Perched like an eagle in his eyrie, the little army looked down securely on its foes. It had many distresses to bear, — hunger and nakedness, with all their train of evils j but these it V >re cheerfully, unconscious of the fiend who had iound his way into this little Thermopylae of America, and who, in marking out to its assailants its strength and weakness, forgot not the miseiies of its defenders, which, perhaps in his calculation, reduced their number to a cypher. There is something greatly affecting, if we suffer ourselves to picture the J ' i% ■> * ' ' 1 1 , lit'} Arnold's tueacheuy. If' l< . 1 ! I I . I • * H 'u security of this little band, seeking fbrgetfulness of their sufferings in sleep, while their commander was stealing forth to barter them for gold. The confidence reposed by the pure-minded Wash- ington in the honor of this veteran soldier, is not less affecting. When he solicited the com- mand of this important post (as it soon appeared, for the express purpose of selling it to the enemy), some ventured to whisper doubts of his fidelity^ probably from the knowledge of his debts, as well as the strong suspicion of his having embezzled the public money, and entered into disgraceful con- tracts and speculations ; but the American com- mander, recollecting the long list of services ren- dered by Arnold to his country, and feeling in himself all the honor of a soldier and a man, generously resented the suspicions cast on one whose valor and truth seemed to have been so tried, and fi-ankly accorded the request preferred to him. Had this treasonable scheme succeeded, it is painful to calculate the consequences to tlie country and the cause. West Point was, perhaps, the post of most importance throughout the whole of the union. It commanded the navigation of the Hudson, secured the communication of all the states, one with another, and protected the whole interior of the country. The enemy already in possession of New York, would have commanded this great river from its mouth to its head, have pierced directly to the lakes, and established a line or communication with Canada. The eastern states, thus cut oft* from the southern and assailed on one side ^rom the sea, and on the other Hi aps, hole of the lole .».^ AR>J()LD S TllKAClIEUV. J 47 by hind woiihl have been completely fciinoundiul, and must inevitably have been overrun, as the Camlinas had lately been by the army under Corn- wallis. Not the least calamitous of the effects that would have accrued from the loss of West Point, had been the blow given to the public confidence by so nefarious a treachery. The people might liave seen in every officer another Arnold, and the soldier have attributed every subsequent disaster to the tr ason of their commanders. Nor must we over- look in the account, the despair and rage of the little army, unsuspiciously devoted to slaughter by their own leader, and mingling with their dying groans the curses of righteous, but impotent in- dignation. From these calamities America was s))iired : and tlie traveller, in visiting this romantic pass, recurs to the tale of Arnold as to that of some demoniac hero of a wild drama. You remember the circumstances of the closing scene. Andre found his retreat by water cut off', and, in disguise, took his way to New York by land. Challenged, within a few miles of his own army, by three Americans of the New York militia, he, unpractised in deceit, incautiously betrayed himself Discovering his error, he offered gold, with any terms they might farther insist upon ; but he had no longer to treat with an Arnold j he, and the papers found upon him, detailing all the particulars of the intended treachery, were delivered by his captors to their colonel ; and the life of this young officer was forfeited to the law. After his seizure, the first object of the disintei*- ested Andre was to convey a warning to Arnold j I. o Iff ^^ ,1!-; ^ «= «ij v^ J 1 i ,. \\ \ •! ... I 148 Arnold's treachery. ! I I' ri\ •i !!• 1i this the latter unfortunately received in time to effect his escape. Having joined the British, the traitor well filled up the measure of his iniquity ; intimately acquainted with all the distresses of those he had forsaken, he exposed their weakness to the enemy he had joined, and imagined that he knew how to practise on it, by holding out offers, calculated at once to tempt their ambition and cupidity, and to subdue their spirit, already broken down by famine, sickness, and every suffering which can afflict humanity ; but there is a strength in man which an Arnold cannot dream of j there is that virtue which the Romans, in their language, finely made synonymous with force ; and, truly, that courage which has its seat only in the nerves, and which the man shares but in common with the brutCwS, is no more to be compared in lasting heat and energy with the heroism of mind, than is the parhelion to the sun. The promises of Arnold were impotent as his threats. The fainting sol- diers, whom he had sought to betray, were nerved by indignation with new valor. The country, every where reduced to the lowest ebb of calamity, gathered confidence from the very circumstance which seemed calculated to annihilate it ; not a man deserted his post ; his very sufferings became a source of pride, and often of jest ; to be half naked arid half starving were spoken of as marks by which to know a patriot. Thus is it that man, inspired by the noble spirit of independence, rises above himself, stands superior to fortune, and dis- covers the divine image beneath all the weakness and pains of mortality. fess ALBANY AND ITS EVVIUONS. 149 We linger here from day to day, unwilling to leave the kind and cheerful circle who administer so pleasingly to us the laws of hospitality ; it is time, however, to remember, tliat we have yet a long journey to make, and must determine to set forward so soon as the skies shall resume their wonted serenity. This has been a season of un- common heat, and along the whole line of the coast, one of uncommon drought. At , in Jersey, during the latter days of July, the mercury twice rose, in a northern exposure, to a hundred ; and ibr many days successively, when the sun was at his meridian, varied from 90 to 90. Some local causes might there have influenced the atmosphere, as I found its temperature had been some degrees lower in other places, but every where it had been unusually high. In many parts, where the soil was light, the heritage had totally disappeared, and plants, of considerable size and strength, were drooping, and occasionally quite bereft of leaves. In ascending the Hudson, we had no sooner passed the Highlands, than our eyes fell upon carpets of massy verdure, and woods, whose foliage was fresh as if daily washed by showers. We could have imagined ourselves in a second spring, but for the tropical heat which followed us ; and which was only broken two days since by the grandest and longest thunder-storm that I ever witnessed. The sun has not yet pierced the clouds ; his doing so will be the signal for our departure. I have found this extreme heat much less oppressive than I could have believed possible ; indeed, I will con- fess, under hazard of yoiu' ihinkint!; mc fit to li\p I 1 , < ! '■ a - m\ I i 1 '- It '.J i > i; J 1 «i I' l.OO AJJJANY AND ITS KNVlRONS. < ! i «1 with the <»iiiiits under Mount il^^tna, that I have enjoyed it exceedingly. I find a purity and elas- ticity in the air that exhilarates my spirits, even while I am half melted by its fervor. It may strike you as singular, if you never made or heard the observation, that the constitution is, in general, not immediately sensible to the extremes of climate. It is often remarked here, that a strangei-, fron: a more southern latitude, feels the severity of a first winter less than the natives, though he should feel the second more ; and, in like manner, that one from a temperate climate is, for some years, less relaxed by the summer heats, than those who have regularly been exposed to them. This last seems to admit of an easy explanation ; but I know not how wise physicians will account for the former j if they cannot explain the fact, they will, perhaps, dispnte it, and far be it from me to provoke their wrath by insisting upon it. In this neighbourhood nature presents many beautiful, and some grand features ; chief among these, is the well-known cataract of the Mohawk ; whose waters precipitate themselves over a fine wall ot rock just before they unite with those of the Hudson. Its height is stated variously ; perhaps sixty feet is nearest the mark ; its immense breadth is by some accounted a disadvantage ; I imagine this to be the true source of its grandeur, particu- larly as there is nothing in the surrounding scenery to assist the efliect. For us, however, circum- stances combined to throw charms around the spot, when, beneath an Italian sky, and on a carpet of verdure which fairy feet might have sought to print •i . \ . ALBANY AND ITS ENVIRONS. 151 Ith liie ;u- ;ry im- |ot, of lint their magic rings, we stretched ourselves with • # # # under the sliade of a spreading tree, and cast our eyes upon the foaming Cohoez, whose dash and roar seemed to cool the fervid air. A group of smiling handmaids mean time spread a repast which an epicure might have envied. The scene, the air, the laughing heavens, and the cheerful companions, have graven the place on my memory as one of tliose " sunny spots" which chequer witii gold tiic shadowy path of human life. There are several very pleasing falls of water to be found in the hills of the surrounding country, and though in grandeur that of the Mohawk stands pre-eminent, in beauty some may do more than rival it. I have frequently been surprised, in the small section of this vast country that I have visited, to find, upon a more close examination, wild and romantic features in a landscape whose out-line wore a character of mild beauty or dull uniformity ; rocky glens, clothed with shaggy wood, and traversed by brawling streams, broken into cascades, are not unfrequently found in hills, rising gently out of vast and swampy plains, or skirting valleys, watered by placid rivers, whose banks of alluvial soil are rich with golden harvests. The broken course of America's rivulets and rivers has, I believe, among other appearances, led the scientific to suppose this a world of later formation than the other. 1 was once much startled by the eager refutation which this hypothesis received from an American naturalist, no less remarkable for the simplicity of his character, than for his L 4- li i ' " F .1! I (1 • i i^i ,!l 152 ALBANY AND ITS ENVIRONS. J- f Ih^i; enthusiasm in his chosen pursuits. Chancing to put a modest query to the philosopher upon the results of his researches into the age of his native continent, I quickly perceived, that to question her antiquity, were as though you should question her excellence, and you will believe, that I bowed out of the subject, (for 1 had never presumed to make it an argument,) with all possible politeness and deference. f f i I,, rfflri 1^3 LETTER X. DEPARTURE FOR THE FALLS OF NIAGARA. MODE OF TRAVELLING. DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. CANADAIGUA. Canadaigua, August, 1819. MY DEAR FRIEND, W^HAT is there in life more pleasing than to set ibrvvard on a journey with a light heiirt, a fine sun in the heavens above you, and the earth breathing freshness and fragrance after summer rain ? Let us take into the account the parting good wishes of friendship, recommending you to a kind for- tune, and auguring pleasant roads, pleasant skies, and pleasant every thing, A preux Chevalier, in olden time, setting forth in a new suit of armor, buckled on by the hand of a princess, to seek adventure through the wide world, might be a more important personage than the peaceful tra- veller of these generations, who goes to seek waterfalls instead of giants, and to look at men in- stead of killing them ; but I doubt if he was in any way happier, or felt one jot more exquisitely the pride and enjoyment of life, health, vigor, and liberty. These are the moments, perhaps, which, in the evening of life, when seated in an easy arm- chair, we may rouse our drowsy senses by recurring to 'y and, like old veterans counting their honorable ■ i- ! • { M J. 01. -Modi: of i uavij-Mno. ir |t'^' sciatclies, and all their " hair-breadth 'scapes in the imminent deadly breach," pour into the ears of some curly-pated urchin our marvellous adventures upon the back of a mule, or in the heart of a stage- waggon, with a summary of all the bruises and the broken bones, either received, or that might have been received, by riding in or tumbling out of it. Should I live to grow garrulous in this way, our journey hither may afford a tolerable account of bruises, though it is now a subject of congra- tulation with me, whatever it may be then, that there must remain a total deficit under the I^ead of fractures. If our journey was rough, it was at least very cheerful ; the weather beautiful, and our com- panions good-humored, intelligent, and accommo- dating. I know not wiiether to recommend the stage-coach or waggon, (for you are sometimes put into the one and sometimes into the other,) as the best mode of travelling. This must depend upon the temper of the traveller. If he want to see people as well as things — to hear intelligent remarks upon the country and its inhabitants, and to understand the rapid changes that each year brings forth, and if he be of an easy temper, not incommoded with trifles, nor caring to take, nor understanding to give offence, liking the inter- change of little civilities with strangers, and pleased to make an acquaintance, though it should be but one of an hour, with a kind-hearted fellow-crea- ture, and if too he can bear a few jolts — 7iot a few, and can suffer to be driven sometimes too quickly over a rough road, and sometimes too inti:lli(Ji:mt tiiavi:llkks. 1.7.7 slowly over a smooth one, — then let him, by all means, fill a corner in the post-coach or stage- wag- gon, according to the varying grade in civilization held by the American diligence. But if the tra- veller be a lounger, running away from time, or a landscape-painting tourist with a sketch-book and portable crayons, or any thing of a soi-disant philosopher bringing with him a previous knowledge of the unseen country he is about to traverse, having itemed in his closet the character, with the sum of its population, and in his knowledge of how every thing ought to be, knowing exactly how every thing is, — or, if he be of an unsociable humor, easily put out of his way, or, as the phrase is, a very particular gentleman — then he will hire or purchase his own dearborn or light waggon, and travel solus cum solo with his own horse, or, as it may be, with some old associate who has no humors of his own, or whose humors are known by repeated experience to be of the exact same fashion with his companion's. In some countries you may, as it is called, travel post, but in these states it is seldom that you have this at your op- tion, unless you travel with a phalanx capable of peopling a whole caravan ; eight persons will be sufficient for this, the driver always making the ninth ; seated three in a row. In this journey, as I have often found before, the better half of our entertainment was afforded by the intelligence of our companions. It was our good fortune on leaving Albany .o find ourselves seated immediately by a gentleman and his lady returning from Washington to this their residence. i \ r\ H^ > 1 ll ^, if 5 I I 1 ; ' • ..\ ; i ■ 1 ( ,' i « Hi! i r It/ . 1 i > ■; ■ 1 •1 .\ )' ' l^G INTKLMOKNT TU.WKLMCItS. I ' liF I He was a native of iScotland, but came to this country in his early youth, followed the profession of the law, settled himself many years since in affluence on his farm (which seems rather to fur- nish his amusement than his business), married in- to a family that had emigrated from New-England, and settled down in the neighbourhood, and lives surrounded not only by all the comforts, but the luxuries of life. We were successively joined and abandoned by citizens of differing appearance and j)rofessions, country gentlemen, lawyers, members of congress, naval officers, farmers, mechanics, &c. There were two characteristics in which these our fellow-traveliers generally, mere or less, resem- bled each other, — good humor and intelligence. Wherever chance has yet thrown me into a public conveyance in this country, I have met with more of these, the best articles of exchange that I am acqusrnted with, than I ever remember to have found elsewhere. Our second day's journey was long and fatiguing, but withal very interesting ; the weather delightful, and the scenery pleasing. The road bore every where heavy marks of the Jlagellatioiis inflicted by the recent storms. It seemed often as if not only the rain but the lightning had torn up the ground, and scooped out the soil, now on this side, and now on that ; into which holes, first the right wheel of our vehicle, and anon the left making a sudden plump, did all but turn us out on the highway. To do justice to ourselves, we bore the bruises that were in this manner most plentifully inflicted, DKsciupTioN oi- riir: countuv. 157 !d, with very tolerable stoicism and uiibiokcn good- Imnior. (iainintf the banks of the Mohawk, we traced its course for sixty miles, whicli, between tlje lower catcract of the Cohoez and the upper J'alls^ Hows placidly through a country finely varied, rich with cultivation, and sprinkled with neat and broad- roofed cottages and villas, shadowed with trees, and backed with an undulating line of hills, now advancing and narrowing the strath, and then re- ceding and leaving vistas into onening glades, down which the tributaries of the Mohawk pour their waters. Massy woods every where crown and usually clothe these ridges ; but indeed, as yet, there are few districts throughout this vast country where the forest, or some remnants of it, stand not within the horizon. The valley of the Mohawk is chiefly peopled by old Dutch settlers ; a primitive race, who retain for generations the character, customs, and often the language of their ancient country. Of all European emigrants, the Dutch and the German invariably thrive the best, locate themselves, as the phrase is here, with wonderful sagacity, and this being once done is done for ever. Great must be the penury from which this harmless people fly, who are thus attacheti to the ways of their fathers, and who, once removed to a land yielding sustenance to the swart hand of industry, plant so peacefully their penates, and root themselves so fixedly in the soil. As a settler next best to the German, thrives the Scot j the Fi enchman is given to turn hunter ; the Irishman, drunkard, and the ''i. 1 1 S I' U> I' 1 'I 1,58 » KlJUOrKAN KMKiUANTS. !* m I ' ■ t I'iHglishman, speculator. AmiisLMneiil nilis tlu' first, pleasure ruins tlie second, aiul self-su^'icient obstinacy drives lieadlong the third. T:' I 1' It I \ 4 !l Ih'o DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 1 f ill i _ I Stop, or threat of hinderancc ! Ages arc to her as ! moments, and all the known course of time a span. We reached Utica very tolerably fagged, and bruised as I could not wish an enemy. A day's rest well recruited us, however, and gave us time to examine this wonderful little town, scarce twenty years old. An inn-keeper here, at whose door fifteen stages stop daily, carried, eighteen years since, the solitary and weekly mail in his coat pocket, from hence to Albany. This new- born Utica already aspires to be the capital of the state, and in a few years it probably will be so, though Albany is by no means willing to yield her honors, nor New- York the convenience of having the seat of government in her neighbourhood ; but the young western counties are sucii stout and imperious ciiildren, that it will soon be foiuid necessary to consult their interests. The importance of Utica will soon be increased by the opening of the great canal, destined here to join the Mohawk. We swerved the next day from our direct route for the purpose of looking at this work, now in considerable progress, and which, in its consequences, is truly grand, affording a water high-way from the heart of this great continent to the ocean ; commencing at Lake Erie, it finds a level, with but little circuit, to the Mohawk j at tile Lesser Falls are some considerable locks j others will be required at the mouth of the river, where the Hudson opens his broad way to the Atlantic. It is thought that four or five years will now fully complete this work. The most troublesome opposition it has encountered, is in the vast Onondaga swamp, and not a few of the work- CANAUAKJUA. l()l men have fallen a sacrilicc to its pestilential atmos- phere. Leaving Utica, the country begins to assume a rough appearance ; stumps and girdled trees en- cumbering the inclosures ; log-houses scatteretl here and there ; the cultivation rarely extending more than half'a mile, nor usually so much, on either hand ; when the forest, whose face is usually ren- dered hideous to the eye of the traveller by a skirt- ing line oi' girdled trees, half standing, half falling, stretches its vast, unbroken shade over plain, and hill, and dale ; disappearing only with the horizon. Frequently, however, gaining a rising ground (and the face of the country is always moie or less un- dulating,) you can distinguish gaps, sometimes long and broad, in the deep verdure, which tell that the axe and the plough are waging war with the wilderness. Owing to some disputed claims in the tenure of the lands, cultivation has made less progress here than it has farther west, as we found on approaching the Skneneatalas, Cayuga, Seneka, Onondaga, and Canadaigua lakes. Having passed the flourishing town of Auburn, we found the country much more open ; well-finished houses, and thriving villages, appearing continually. The fifth day from that of our departure from Albany brought us to this village, where our kind fellow- travellers insisted on becoming our hosts. The villages at the head of the different lakes I nave enumerated above, are all thriving, cheerful, and generally beautiful ; but Canadaigua, I think, bears away the palm. The land has been disposed of in lots of forty acres each, one being the breadth, 1 M « >. ' i (1 ■1. H r "*^ \G^2 CANADAIGIJA. I.. 1^5 •'t, \t,r: ninning in lines diverging on eitlicM' liand from the main road. Tlie houses arc all dehcately painted ; their windows with green Venetian blinds, peeping gaily through fine young trees, or standing forward more exposed on their httle lawns, green and fresh as those of England. Smiling gardens, orchards laden with fruit — quinces, apples, plums, peaches, &c. and fields, rich in golden grain, stretch behind each of these lovely villas ; the church, with its white steeple rising in the midst, overlooking this land of enchantment. The increase of population, the encroachment of cultivation on the wilderness, the birth of settlements, and their growth into towns, surpasses belief, till one has been an eye-witness of the miracle, or conversed on the spot with those who have been so. It is wonderfully cheering to find yourself in a country which tells only of improve- ment. What other land is there that points not the imagination back to better days, contrasting present decay with departed strength, or that, even in its struggles to hold a forward career, is not checked at every step by some physical or political hinderance ? I think it was one of the sons of Constantine, I am sure that it was one of his successors, who, returning from a visit to Rome, said, that he Iiad learned one thing there, " that m en died in that queen of cities as they did elsewhere." It might require more, perhaps, to remind a stranger of the mortality of his species in these states, than it did in old Rome. All here wears so much tiie gloss CANADATGUA. 163 of novelty — all around you breathes so much of the life and energy of youth, that a wanderer from the antique habitations of time-worn Europe might look around, and deem that man here held a new charter of existence ; that time had folded his wings, and the sister thrown away the sliears. M S ■ ;if:^!. ! I ' I ' , I . i < 164 LETTER XI. f i 1/ GENESSEE. — VISIT TO Mil. WADSWORTH. — AMERICAN FAR- MER. SETTLING OF THE NEW TERRITORY. FOREST SCENERY. Genessco, August, 1819. MY DEAR FRIEND, Taking a kind farewell of our hospitable friends in Canadaigiia, we struck into the forest, and by a cross road, heller skelter over sumps and logs, rattled in a clumsy conveyance to this thriving settlement on the banks of the Genessee. The road, though rough, was not wholly without its interest J at first, opening prospects of ^HIs and valleys, where sometimes the white walls of a young settlement glanced in the sun, relieving the boundless ** continuity of shade ;" and then bordered occasionally with corn-fields and young orchards of peach and apple, groaning beneath their weight of riches. The withered trees of the forest stood indeed among them : but though these should mar beauty, they give a character to the scene that speaks to the heart, if not to the eye. We were received with a warm welcome by Mr. and Mrs. Wadsworth, a name you are already acquainted vvitli. The Amei'.can gentle- man receives lus guest In the true style of old wli lad VISIT TO !MU. ".VADS". ORTH- 10.5 »g patriaicliul hospitality — with oper hand at the gate J antl leads you over the threshold with smiling greetings, that say more than a thousand words. There is about him an urbanity and a politeness, breathing from the heart, which courts and cities never teach. Nothing seems to be ♦lisarranged by your })resence, and yet all is ordered lor your convenience and amusement ; you find yourself in a few minutes one of the family j frankness and friendliness draw forth the same feelings from you ; you are domesticated al the hearth and at the board, and depart at last with heart overflowing, as from some Jiomc, endeared by habit and sacred association. This house stands pleasantly on the gentle declivity of a hill, commanding a fine pros[)ect of the Genessee flats (beautiful prairie land bordering the river,) and the rising grounds, covered with dark forests, bounding them. Some scattered groups of young locust-trees spread their chequered shade upon the lawn j down which, as seated beneath the porch, or in the hall, with its v/ide open doors, the eye glances first over a champaign country, speckled with flocks and herds, and golden harvests ; and then over primeval woods, wheru the Indian chases the wild deer. To the right stretches a scattered village of neat white houses, that have just started into being; from the bosom of which rises the spire of a little chapel, flashing against the sun ; behind, barns, stables, and outhouses ; and to the left a spacious and well-replenished garden, with orchard after orchard, laden with all the varieties of apple, pear, and peach. 31 3 \ ' J i 1 r I' hi wr am MR. WADS WORT 11. ; !' ii< i . Mr. Wadsworth is the patriarch of the Genessee district. He is a native of New England, in whose earliest history the name appears frequently and honorably. It is scarcely nineteen years since this gentleman, with his brother, Col. Wadsworth, pierced into these forests, then inhabited only by the savage and his prey. The rich and open lands here stretching along the river, fixed their attention, and having purchased a considerable tract of land from the Indian proprietors, they settled themselves down among them. The first six years were years of fearful hardship ; every autumn brought fevers, intermitting and bilious, and this too in a wilderness where no comforts or conveniences could be procured. Their constitu- tions, however, hardened by early temperance, eathered this trying season. Other settlers gra- dually joined them, and now a smiling village is at their door, rich farms rising every where out of the forest, and a pure and healthy atmosphere ever surrounding them. Mrs. Wadsworth tells me, that her numerous family have never been afflicted with sickness of any kind, nor do we hear of any in the surrounding neighbourhood. I have not yet seen more thriving or beautiful young settlements than those now surrounding me. Mr. Wadsworth is considered as one of the richest proprietors in th^ state j and well has he acquired his wealth, and generously does he employ it. Like one oi' the i^ttyiarclis of old, he looks round upon his flocks and herds, luxurious pastures, and rich fields of grain, bounteous heaven ever addino* ■to his store, and feels that, under its blessing, all 18 :' ! AMKIilCAN FARMKU. 107 is the revvanl of his own iiulustry, the work, as it were, of his creation. Jt is truly a grateful sight to see the wilderness thus transformed into beauty ; to see the human species absolved from oppression, and, with it, absolved from misery, extending their dominion, not unjustly over their fiel low-creatures, but over the peaceful earth, and leaving to their posterity the well-earned fruits of their industry, and, what is better, the pure ex- ample of time well employed. In truth, it cheers the spirits, and does the heart good to see these things. Sometimes, indeed, I cannot help contrasting the condition of the American with that of the Eng- lish farmer ; no tythes, no grinding taxes, no bribes received or offered by electioneering candi- dates or their agents ; no anxious fears as to the destiny of his children, and their future establish- ment in life. Plenty at the board ; good horses in the stable ; an open door, a friendly welcome, light spirits, and easy toil ; such is what you find with the American farmer. In England — *• There is a tale the traveller can reiul Who, on old Tyber's banks, hath check'd his steed, And paus'd, and mus'd, and wept upon the wreck Of what tvas Rome." Thoughts of a Recline. » f ) •i i I rl^ d d l» II You will tell me, perhaps, that I now see the old world in contrast with the new ; that this is comparing age to youth, a comparison that is either unfair or childish. But is it with nations as with individuals ? Have they no second youth ? M 4 hi I(i8 AMFRICAN FARIVJEIl. We have seldom seen that they have ; but few in their old age have shewi) such vigor as England. Has she not enough to work her own regeneration ? I wish it too well not to believe it. ! " Oh England ! well I love thcc ; oft recall Tliy pleasant fields ; thy hills' soft sloping fall ; Thy woods of massy shade and cool retreat ; Thy rivers in their sedges murmuring sweet. Where once with tender feet I wont to stray, Muttering my childish rhymings by the way ; And pouring plenteous sighs, I knew not why, And dropping soft tears from my musing eye. — Yes ! much I love thee ; — turn not then away As tho' thou heard'st a heartless alien's lay. Childhood and dreaming youth flew o'er this head Ere from thy pleasant lawns the wanderer fled ; And tho* maturer years have mark'd her brow, . And somewhat chill'd perchance her feelings now, Still docs her stricken heartbeat warm for thee. Much docs it wish thcc great, — much does it wish thecy;r V MP,. 'Z<' ^:%' A 7i 1.0 I.I 110 IM 1125 t 1^ IL25 III 1.4 2.0 1 1.8 1.6 Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 14580 (716) 872-4503 iV ?v ^ ^^ o «^-V o^ >> ( > 172 Mil. HOPKINS. f-i found among the first occupiers of the wilderness. When Mr. Wadsworth settled in this district, he formed the advanced guard of civilization ; a vast tract of forest stretched behind him, through which he cleared a passage for the necessary implements of husbandry, with considerable toil and difficulty. The tide of human life has now flowed up to him, and is rapidly sweeping onwards in all directions. In the deep verdure of the forest, stretching beyond the open lands that border the river, the eye discerns specks of a browner hue, which mark where the new settler has commenced his work of peaceful industry. It was with much surprise, that, in a late excursion, we suddenly opened upon a flourishing little village that has started up in a couple of years, or little more, in the bosom of the forest, a few miles higher up the river. It was towards evening when we reached the settlement; and then, turning again among the trees, and making a short ascent by a road roughly paved with logs, suddenly found ourselves on a lawn in front of a spacious and elegant dwelling. We had already made acquaintance with its hos- pitable owner, who, with his wife and daughter, had during the day joined our cavalcade in the forest. Mr. Hopkins followed successfully for many years the profession of law in the city of New York. His enterprise and good taste seem equal to his opulence. The neighbouring village has grown up under his eye ; his house, both within and without, wears the character of convenience and elegance. The manner in which ne has ()nNA:MKNTAL CLKARINC. 173 cleared the forest in tlie immediate neighbourhood of liis dwelling, is peculiarly admirable. In general, the settler cuts to right and left with un- sparing fury, anxious only to clear the giant weeds which obstruct the light, and choke his respiration. It is a natural impulse, perhaps, which leads him thus unthinkingly to lay bare his cabin to the heavens ; but some may doubt if it be very wise, and all will agree, that it is in very bad taste. I know not if the observation has been made by others, but it has often occurred to me, that the gap made by the settler in the dense mass of the forest, must serve as a sort of funnel, by which the hot rays of the sun must draw up the noxious vapors from the surrounding shades. Were he to place his cabin under shelter, and commence his chief operations at a little distance, I have a notion that his family would both enjoy more comfort and better health. I have sometimes put a query upon this subject to a farmer, who has invariably assured me, that any single tree, if deprived of the support of its neighbours, would infallibly be blown down. This seemed probable enough, but as the assurance was generally accom- panied by some reflections upon the uselessness of the long weeds, 1 felt by no means satisfied that they had ever had fair play. I was convinced of this, when, in the neighbourhood of Canadaigua, we found a New England farmer, whose house was surrounded by a fine grove of young hickory, which had been cleared out with care, and stood in perfect health and security. ■ % j.", i ■, >' •; ^'1 .! \ i:V t J lli t p ' i 1i" , ! lit ! i^iUI 'I ^m' ' h m *«| . i . •; vn Miu 171- ORNAMKNTAL CLKAUING it; i ui; i i- U,- U ■ •Iff i' '■' i,. >*i Mr. Hopkins has tried the experiinent on a hirgcr scale, and cleared the forest around his dwelling in such a manner as to give to it the air of* a magnifi- cent park. It is surprising to see how soon these giants have thrown down tlieir branches, rejoicing in the air and light suddenly opened to them. When first exposed, they have the appearance of enormous ship-masts, their smooth, silvery stems, towering to the skies, sustaining on their heads a circular canopy of verdure, like the umbrella of a Brogdignag. There is one peculiarity that cha- racterizes the American forest, which is wonder- fully favorable to the ornamental clearer ; it is the general absence of brush, and the fine smooth carpet of verdure spread by the hand of nature over the surface of the soil. * It is doubtless necessary, in this operation, to proceed with much caution, and to consult the nature of the soil as well as of the tree you intend to preserve. A fence from the north-west must usually be indispensable. Every thing seems to have favored Mr. Hopkins's improvements ; and we should have been well pleased, had time permitted us to have surveyed them more at leisure. Entering the house, the shade of its broad piazzas and Venetian blinds, through which the * May not this be the cause, which, by affording facilities to the hunter, served to arrest the aborigines of North America in the savage state ? The woods of the southern continent are represented as impeded by luxuriant and impervious veget- ation. Man, thus shut out from the covert, and driven to seek the open plains and valleys, was there naturally allured to the pastoral and agricultural life. m r ; 'ed OF THE rOIlEST. \75 evening breeze played sweetly, refreshed us much after the fatigiier, and heat of the day. From the windows the eye glanced down the hill, through vistas tastefully opened in the dense shade, upon the rich valley, watered by the river, and the undulating lands which lay beyond ; the last rays of the sinking sun flashed upon the white walls of the little town of Genesseo, ])erched upon the distant horizon, and shed a flood of glory upon the wide world of primeval forest that stretched around. While refreshing ourselves with a variety of delicious fruit, and, for myselfi looking round in wondering admiration at this house of enchant- ment, for truly, containing, as it did, every con- venience and luxury that art could aflford, and planted down thus in the bosom of the wilderness, it seemed like nothing else than some palace of the genii, — while thus gazing and admiring, a pleasing young woman entered, the wife of a neighbouring settler. She prolonged her stay until the sun had bade good night, and then, requesting us to look in upon her in her log- house before our departure, remounted her horse, disappeared in the forest, and gained her home, seven miles distant, more by the sagacity of the steed than any twinkling of the stars. We made her a visit next day. The dwelling, though small, and every way inconvenient, as one might have imagined, to those accustomed to all the comforts of a city life, (for this gentleman is an emigrant from Boston, Massachussets,) was rather of larger dimensions than the ordinary log- l^'-\ f 1 1 ,1 i 1' 8 ' 1 1 . 1:1 i 'i:| n mm\ i il ■ \ !'!> i', 1 -'i ti :. ■ it',: M K/fi AMERICAN TRKES, house, being divided into a room and kitchen, and having a sleeping apartment above. With all these extras, however, the dwelling was comfort- less enough for a five years* residence ; yet its owners seemed contented in it, putting ofi* from year to year the building of a better, and finding in this narrow and ill-finished tenement in tlie wilderness, that contentment which many live and die without finding in a palace. Returning from this excursion, we again tra- versed the open prairie that here stretches along the water-course, and formfi tlie richest portion of Mr. Wadsworth's magnificent property. We often paused to admire the giant trees, scattered taste- fully here and there by the hand of nature ; their enormous trunks, rooted in alluvial soil, pointing up their stems into mid air, like the columns of some Gothic minster, and then flinging abroad their mighty arms, from which the gracefid foliage dropping downwards, opposed, in beautiful con- trast, the rich verdure with the clean and polished bark. The finest trees that I had ever before seen, had been dwarfs, if placed beside these mighty giants. The art of ornamental planting has, as yet, been little cultivated in these states. The native forest is generally in sight; and as the human eye is prone to rest with pleasure on what is uncommon, an American usually considers an open plain as nature's most beautiful feature. The settler's first desire is to have a clear view of the heavens ; when his patch of ground is completely naked, he tells you, that it looks handsome. As the dense \ :\V AMERICAN TREES. 177 shade of the forest recedes, a tree, in his mind, becomes less associated with wolves and bears, swamps and agues; and gradually he conceives the desire that some sheltering boughs were spread between his roof and the scorching rays of July's sun. His object now is to plant the tree that will grow the fastest ; and consequcMitly, the finest sons of the forest are seldom those that he patro- nizes. In the older districts of the Union that 1 have visited, especially in Pennsylvania, I have admired trees of a very noble character, surround- ing the dwelling of the farmer, or dropped through his fields as a shelter for the cattle. Of the American oak, there are. upwards of thirty varieties ; almost as many of the walnut ; several of the elm, which is a tree of very un- common majesty. The sycamore of the Ohio, which can receive half a regiment of soldiers within its trunk, seems to realize the wildest fables of marvel-loving travellers. The maple and the hickory are also remarkable ; the former for its elegance, and the latter for the rich color of its foliage ; the ash ; the white pine, rising in pre- eminent grandeur ; the scent-breathing cedar ; the graceful acacia ; the wild cherry, with its beautiful fruit clustered on the stalk like currants; and, among the flowering trees, tiie sweet locust, breath- ing the breath of violets ; the catalpa, with its umbrageous leaves, and luxi:iiant blossoms; the majestic tulip, pointing up hh clean and unen- cumbered shaft, and throwing down his branches, heavy with polished foliage and millions of flowers. Indeed the varieties of the native trees are almost N t > ! I. i 1 I ]l\ I i ! itp •• ; ' 'i: .1 ^^lilllf ' 1, •|i[i^l^^ 178 AMERICAN TREES. ■•-• ■ \ ■ I" i': lii^H • 1 1]\, ! ■*!i ii' 1 ill i '!!■ i' endless ; and when cultivated with care, and ar- rangeil with taste, may even surpass in nuijesty the woodland tribe of England. It has struck nie that the American trees (V speak of" them when reared for ornament, or dropped by the hand of nature with more taste perhaps than art could rival,) have a character whicli migiit be termed one of sinjple majesty, while those of England are remarkable for a romantic or even savage grandeur. 'J'he gnarled oak, his boughs covered with lichens, thrust forth horizontally but grotesquely, stands beneath the watery skies of England, a hardy veteran, nerved to brave the elements, and opposing his broad and shaggy forehead to the storm, as reckless of its fury, and indifferent alike to the smiles and frowns of heaven. Vegetation here being much more rapid, the American tree puts forth longer shoots, springing upwards to the sun, with a stem straight, smooth, and silvery, and flinging forth his sweeping branches to wave with e\ery gust. This perhaps applies more peculiarly to the elm, a tree of singular grace and beauty, but answers, more or less, to all the nobler sons of the forest. In general the wood of this country is of superior stature to tliat of our island, but is charged with fewer branches, or, more properly speaking, twigs. Under an oak in England, you can barely see the winter's heaven ; here, when stripped of its foliage, the most rugged tree would afford no shelter. There is, in short, less wood, or rather it shoots upwards more in straight lines; the foliage is magnificent and wonderfully varied in its shades. FOREST SCENERY. 179 Yon will remember the irlories of the ant urn mil tints: their riclniess cielies the pen or th'.* ))encil. The cliaracter of the American forest, yon are, })er]iaj)s, familiar witli : springing oin of ii virgin soil, and struggling njiwards to catch the sun's glance, the stems are irecjuently of enormous stature ; and, from the dryness of the atmosphere, wholly free from moss antl lichen. I have already noticed the absence of brush and the carpet of verdure that covers the soil ; where this is firm and dry, nothing can be more pleasing than to wander among these primeval shades j — at least those will think so whose eyes are not i)alled with their eternal contemplation. When thp first gloom of evening ♦' deepens the horror of the woods," it is finely impressive to tread their dark mazes, and ureatlv interesting when the night closes in to catch the glimmer of some settler's fire, and, as you approach, to see its rays streaming across your ])ath from his cabin door. During the smnmer nights, a log-hut often pre- sents a very singular aj)pearance. It is not tui- iisual, when the hot months set in, to clear away the mud which stops the interstices between the logs, as they are raised horizontally ui)ou each other, so as to allow a free passage to the external air. In the darkness of the forest, the light stream- ing through these crevices, gives to the cabin the appearance of being either illuminated or on fire. A painter might then often pause to consider the family group assembled in the little dwelling : the father resting after the day's fatigues — his prattling urchins round him, while the busy matron N 2 lU 1 j- 1 I'll ■\^\m\ I 180 FOREST SCENERY, i i prepares the evening meal. Insensible were tlie heart that could pass without emotion this little scene of human industry and human happiness. The cotter's evening light is interesting every where ; but doubly so when it shines in a world of solitude such as this. . 4i ■ ■r i: iV- h I fl 'I' s ;• ^ ! 'Ft J;'i ISl \ >•■! LETfER XII. tNDlAN VILLAGE. OBSEIIVATIONS ON THE INDIANS.-— CONDUCT' OF THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT TOWARDS TUCM, *^' i.Tencsseo, August, 1819. MY DEAR FRIEND, boME days since we made two of a large party to the high banks of tlie Genessee, and in our return visited an Indian viihige. The huts were scattered wildly over a little hill jutting forward from the forest, and commanding a magnificent prospect down tlie course of the river. Tliese Indians had more of the character of the lords of the wilderness than any I had yet seen ; but even these are a wasting remnant that must soon disappear with the receding forest. Notwith- standing their frequent and friendly intercoutse with their white neighbours, they keep their lan- guage pure, and their manners and habits with but little variation. The richness of the soil, or the beauty of the spot, seems to have attached them to the neighbourhood, as they refuse to sell their patrimony, though every year renders the game more shy, and, consequently, the business of the hunter more doubtful and toilsome. The falling greatness of this people, disappear- ing from the fiace of their native soil, at first strikes mournfully on the imagination j but such regrets N 3 ;1 \ '.1 ! '•■). I 1. I 1 .. i' nre scarcely rational. The savage, with all his virtues, and lie has some virtues, is still a savage, nobler, douhtless, than nuinv who boast themselves civilized beings; nobler far than any race of slaves who hug their chains while they sit in proud con- templation of days of glory that have set in night j but still holiling a lower pliice in creation than men who, to the ])rond spirit of independence, unite the softer i'eelings that sj)ring only within the pale of civilized life. The increase and spread of the white population at the expense of the red, is, as it were, the triumph of peace over violence ; it is Minerva's olive bearing the palm from Nep- tune's steed. Not that the aborigines of this fine coiuitry have never had to complain of wrong and violence, offered by the invaders of the soil. The Indian, as he looks mournfully upon the scattered remnant of his once powerful tribe, recounts a long list of injuries, received by his ancestors from those strangers, whom they were at first willing to re- ceive as friends and brothers. Though he should acknowledge, that the right by which the early settlers were willing to hold a portion of their territory, was that of purchase, he may justly com- plain, that the sale had little in it of fair reciprocity, which was often rather compelled than proposed. The first contracts, indeed, were peaceful ; entered into witli tolerable fairness on the one side, and with willingness on the other ; but it was not in human nature, that the native inhabitants should long view without jealousy the growing strength of new comers, whose knowledge, and cultivation U ii'. i| i TIIK INDIANS. 183 ot* the peaceful arts, sociiied a ratio of increase to their popuhitioii so far lieyoiul tliat of tlie wild aborigines; and whose hardihood, scarce inferior to that of tiie sava ■■■ ; 1 ^ 1 1 ' !i^ '; . i: i!; 188 OBSERVATIONS ON with it. The Indians are then frequently disposed to move off in a phalanx, and to make a final sale of their landed property. Frequently, how- ever, by the humane intervention of the legisla- ture, or of philanthropic individuals, the more peaceful, which with the savage usually signifies the more lazy, are induced to remain, and gradu- ally to forego the occupation of the chase for that of husbandry. Thus it is, that, in the vast field of the white population, now stretched from the Atlantic to the Missouri, we find some little specks of the red Indian, scattered like the splinters of a wreck upon the surface of the ocean. The issue of these experiments has invariably been such as to stamp them with benevolence, rather than wisdom. It is indeed truly melancholy to see what slender success has hitherto attended all the attempts, whether on the part of the legis- lature, societies or individuals, to improve the condition of these half-civilized natives. Filth and sloth are in their cabins ; sometimes superstition, but very rarely knowledge in their minds. With scarcely an exception, the Indian, on emerging from the savage state, sinks, instead of rising in the scale of beings. There are two principal causes to which, perhaps, this may be attributed ; first, that the nobler the spirit, the more attached is it to its race, and to what it conceives to be the dignity of that race. Such fly the approach of civilization, and bury themselves deeper in the forest, identifying happiness with liberty, and liberty with the wide earth's range. Thus it is only the more tame and worthless who are sub- THE INDIANS. 18f) mitted to the experiments of the humane or the curious. But there is another cause M'hich has operated generally to prevent the approach of the Indian habits to those of the whites ■ they have been each too violently opposed to the other. Had the red man been less savage, or the white man less civilized, each would have yielded a little to the other, and the habits of the two people, and gra- dually the two people themselves have in some measure assimilated and amalgamated.* In the southern continent we see that the haughty and cruel Spaniard often condescended to mix his blood with that of his conqueretl vassals ; and it is probable that many of the early adventurers con- sulted their pride as well as their interest, in uniting themselves to the daughters of tributary or slaughtered Incas. It is this mixed race, re- markable no less for their intelligence than their high spirit, who are now working out the deliver- * It may seem strange after this to conjecture, that, Iiad the North American continent been colonized entirely by French, this would have happened. That people, though in a relish for many of the ornamental arts, seemingly further advanced in mental cultivation than their English neighbours, yet from their inferior acquaintance with the science of government, and from their being less practised in the exercise of steady in- dustry, there has always been a less gap between them, and the wild hunter, than between the latter and the English. The French have always lived on more friendly terms with the natives than either the English or the Anglo-American. Many wild Indians have a mixture of French blood in their veins ; and, in tue miserable remains of the old French settlements in the western territory, is found a mongrel population, but little removed from the half-civilized savage. M • !t1 I i. yrl Ml .*! r ]:'' 'In i 2/ 1!)0 OnSKRVATIONS ON t : iit'a' ance of tlifir coiintrv from the oilious thraldom of Spain, iuul who arc destined, perhaps, in t\\e course of a few 'est ; whose virtues he cannot under- stand, but whose vices he will certainly imitate. It has been remarket!, that there is no instance of any Indian youth, who has been educated in the colleges of these states, having risen to distinction, or assumed a place in civilized society. We must bear in mind, first, that not one in a thousand of any race whatsoever is gifted by nature so as to become distinguished. Experiments of this kind have hitherto been few, and we must draw many blanks in a lottery before we can draw a prize. Secondly, it may be supposed that the prouder spirits, who are usually the stronger intellects, have been those who spurned the restraint imposed by habits and laws foreign to those of their race, and ; ' 1 1 I I Hill n w '.'1 IP ill. .' u •^ (» \\\f r ' i' ■ ;f • if iiWri ! 1 192 OBSERVATIONS ON who fled (Voiu tlie refinements of strangers to tlie savage woods, and the savage ways of" their fathers. Where is tlie young mind of vigor and enthu- siasm that is not curious to trace the cliaracter of tiiose who gave it being, and is not prone to ascribe to it something noble and singuUuly ex- cellent ? They wlio have known the feelings of an orphan, when in a house and country foreign to his race ; how he yearns to hear of those who nursed his infancy, but whose voice and features are lost to his memory ; how he muses on them in solitude, calls upon their names in moments of distress, and idly fancies that fortune could never have wrung from him a tear, had they lived to cherish and protect him ; they whose fate it has been to know such feelings, will easily conceive how the young Indian, alone among strangers, must look wistfully to the wilderness, where his tribe tread the haunts of their fathers, free as the winds, and wild as the game they pursue. 1 know not if the circumstances of my own early life have tended to make me sympathise peculiarly with such a situation ; but the position of the Indian youth, as an alien and an orplian among his American guardians and play-mates, strikes me as singularly affecting. If we look to those feeble remnants of the aborigines, who, here and there, have settled down in the states, under protection of their laws, and marvel to see them dwindling away from the face of the soil, a prey to the pestilence of intemper- ance and sloth, in spite of all the efforts to reclaim fiAi\ THE INDIANS. 193 er- im them, we may, perhaps, without calling in doubt the judiciousness of these efforts, perceive that they ixre counteracted by circumstances beyond tlie control either of the legislature, or of individual?. It is invariably seen that the savage, when removed into the centre of a civilized world, acquires a taste for the coarser indulgences that he finds within his reach, before he can be taught to engage in irk- some employments that promise only moderate and future good. Industry and temperance are virtues ef calculation, and the savage is unused to calculate. When removed from the forest, the Indian has lost his accustomed incentives to exertion ; those more hidden ones that surround him he does not see, or, if pointed out to him, does not feei. His old virtues are no longer in demand, and a length of years were requisite to lead him to adopt new ones. Ere this season comes, his slender and decreasing numbers will probably be reduced to a cypher. In passing lately through the Oneida settlement, we saw many cabins deserted, and tiie inhabitants, who still haunted the remainder, dragging on a drowsy existence, painfully contrasted with the life and vigor of the white population that is flowing past them. In many parts of the old states, such settlements have totally disappeared, so gradually and silently, that none can tell when or how. I cannot help remarking, however, upon a cir- cumstance, which may be supposed to have consi- derably impeded the exertions of the humanizers of the Indian. Religion has been too generally employed as the first agent. A practical philoso- pher were the best tutor in this case. The more o :ijl i I I 'Ml I i i' ■Mi! ' li \]h ' I ' ih.li ■ i. ■i:' ( ■ »■ h. ! ^.t.^-_ : I :'^■ i^; ti "p. ^■ 191 OBSERVATIONS ON beautiful, not to say the more al)struse the religion, the more should the nu'rul be prepared to receive it. The untutored ears of the Indians are assailed by teachers of all kinds. The Friends and Moravians are undoubtedly the best, and tlieir exertions are sometimes partially repaid, and even wlien unsuccessful, humanity is still their debtor. But there are sects which this world shares in com- mon with the old, who, considered by themselves, are harmless, and so far as intention goes, virtuous, but attending to the effect they work upon others, the weak and the ignorant, are as mischievous members as a community can well be troubled with. It is strange, in this nation of practical philo- sophers, to find, here and there, a society of the most insane fanatics, and a perambulating teacher, compared to whom the wildest followers of Wesley or Whitfield were rational. These strange ex- pounders of the simple lessons of Christ are ever most zealously employed in doubly confounding understandings already bewildered j in making the ignorant foolish, and the foolish insane. Their more frequent victims are the poor blacks, who are sometimes seen assembled in crowds round one of these teachers, groaning and gesticulating like Pythia on the tripod. Their success on the whole is but indifferent among the Indians ; where they fail to persuade, they probably disgust, or perhaps only astonish ; and though these last are the best of the three consequences, it would be doubtless as Kvell if they were secured from all. I suspect that the doctrines, or, more properly. iH! TIIR INDIANS. vj:> absurdities of these wild fanatics, are what chiefly arrest the mental advance of the nei^ro in tlieso northern states, and form one of the minor causes which prevent that of the savaii^e. Among tlie ignorant, one fool can work more harm tiian twenty wise men can work good ; thongli indeed with the Indian, it is doubtful whether the wise men, if left to themselves, could work much. It seems that the fate of the aborigines of this magnificent country is governed by immutable laws, which no efforts of man can turn aside. They appear destined to dwindle away with the forests that shelter them, and soon to exist only in traditionary lore, or in the wild tale of some wild genius. Though it is of necessity singularly difficult to obtain any accurate knowledge of a people wholly unacquainted with the arts, and possessed of no other means of retailing the most important na- tional revolutions than that of oral tradition, yet the persevering labors of some American citizens and literary societies, as well as of some eminent European travellers, have done much towards elu- cidating the past as well as present condition of the native tribes. The philosophical society of Philadelphia has more particularly collected much valuable information. * * The observations of the amiable missionary John Hecke- welder upon the history, manners, and customs of the six na- tions, Delawares, Mohicans, &c., lately published at the request of that society, are peculiarly interesting. Perhaps he may be accounted somewhat partial to his wild associates, but his state- ments are made with so much simplicity, that it is impossible not to receive them as accurate. This venerable missionary is o 2 I A. , ill ;^J.^ 111.'. I i'l lis \' , 1 4 t . \ • 'il r ,M' # i 1 j 1 ' f i 1 If 106 THE INDIANS. It is certainly greatly desirable that some just knowledge of the aborigines, so fast disappearing from the earth, should rapidly be obtained. Euro- peai.j, in general, may peruse with little curiosity the legends of a people with whom they or their ancestors were never placed in contact ; but with Americans they must ever possess a national in- terest, the romance of which will gradually increase with their increasing antiquity. I hope I do not send you in this letter too serious a dissertation. 1 sometimes fear lest I answer your questions, and those of * * * * with too much detail, and at other times with too little. You must allow something occasionally to my more slender stock of information upon one subject than another, and something also to the humor of the moment. Farewell. tf attached to the Moravian establishment of Bethlehem in Penn* syWania. The Moravians have peculiarly distinguished them- selves, not merely by their zeal in the religious conversion of the savages, but by their patient and judicious exertions to lead them to the cultivation of the peaceful arts. V..w^. 197 LETTER XIII. DEPAUTUHE FHOM 'FNESSEO. FALLS OF THE (JENESSF.R RIVER. SINGULAR MRIDGE. AMEUU'AN INNS. — OPEN- ING OF THE POST BAG. JOURNEY TO LEtVINTON, CATARACT OF NIAGARA. Niagara, September, 1819. MY DEAR FlilEND, AVe left Genesseo on a lovely morning, that breathed the first freshness of Autumn ; our con- veyance one of the light waggons universal in these states ; many a kind parting glance we threw back upon the fair valley, and on the roofs winch sheltered so much worth, and seemingly so much happiness. Our route, after some miles, crossed the great western road, and traced the course of the Ge- nessee to within four miles of its discharge into Ontario. Here the river makes three considerable falls. At the head of the first stands the flourish- ing young town of Rochester, and at the head of the third one of minor fame, hight Carthage. A singular fate seems to pursue the latter colony, A farmer with whom 1 fell into convc ,ation, in- formed me that it had first assumed the more modest appellation of Clyde, from the resemblance that some travelled settler had discovered between * o 3 •I- i''l ■ <; t ,1 1 ■ I I "I Si- 198 CONTUSION OF NAMES. I ! 'r i li! 1(1 ft h B'^ if 1-' Vl[ f- k- ^;. the neighbouring fall of the Gcnessee and that of the Clyde at Stone Byres ; which resemblance, by the bye, allowing for the superior dimensions of the American river, is striking enough. After some time, the new occupants received information that there existed an older settlement of that name in the same county ; and to rectify the confusion that this occasioned in the post-office, the Scots changed themselves into Punicians ; but now, delenda est Carthago ; it is discovered that there are two more infant Carthages, claiming the right of primogeniture. There is, it must be confessed, the strangest confusion of names in the western counties of this state that ingenuity could well imagine. In one district, you have all the poets from Homer to Pope, nay, for aught I know, they may come down to Byron ; in another, you have a collection of Roman heroes ; in a third, all the mighty cities of the world, from the great Assyrian empire downwards ; and, scattered among this classic confusion, relics of the Indian vocabulary, which, I must observe, are often not the least elegant, and are indisputably always the most appropriate. For the Roman heroes, bad, good, and indifferent;, who in one district are scattered so plentifully, the new population is indebted to a Jand-surveyor, and a classical dictionary. Being requested, in parcelling out the lots, to affix a name to them, the worthy citizen, more practised in mensuration than baptism, shortly found his ingenuity baffled, and in despair had recourse to the pages of Lempriere. CONFUSION OF NAMES. 19i) There is something rather amusing in finding Cato or Regulus typified by a cluster of wooden houses ; nor, perhaps, are the old worthies so much disgraced as some indignant scholars might imagme. I met with one name on my route which somv ■ what surprised me, and which struck me as yet more inappropriate than the sonorous titles of antiquity, nor was I ill pleased to learn that it had occasioned some demur among tiie settlers. I thought that I had left JVaterloo^ on the other side of the Atlantic, in the streets, bridges, waltzes, ribands, hotels, and Hy-coaches of Great Britain and Ireland. When objections were made to the founder of the little town flourishing under this appellation, the story goes, that he called to his aid the stream of water which turned the wheel of his mill, gravely alKrming, that he had that in his eye, and not the battle in his thougiits, when he christened the settlement. ♦' The name speaks for itself,'* said he, with a humourous gravity peculiar to his native district of New England — ** JFater-loo,** If the name did not speak for itself, it was impossible not to let him speak for it ; and so his neighbours turned away laughing, and the title of Waterloo stands more undisputed than that of poor Carthage. The falls of the Genessee are well worth going fifty miles out of your way to look at. The first is a noble cascade of ninety feet. Seen from the bottom, (to get to which we had to traverse a marsh and a score of mill-streams,) I have since thought is a sort of minaturc of Niagar^tj ---but o 4 l\ ii M!li it ) \ ii!, I . I ^ !•, 'J - I vs I ■ ^ i ,; ;:- 1, iil \i\ fHi ! I ' K I ! /. •¥ « re ' ■ I ^ ■ f 1 j ; ' 1 - I 200 lALLS OF THE this is woefully comparing small things to great. It is, however, a lovely sheet of water, and truly grand when you have not seen the wonder of nature that is now roaring in my ears. I believe we should have enjoyed the scene more, if the swamp, and the slime, and the mud, had not sug- gested rattle-snakes to the fancy of my companion. The apprehension was every way groundless ; at least we saw no rattle-snakes ; and these reptiles, when seen, I believe are seldom seen in mud, but among rocks moist with clear water. The second fall is inconsiderable compared to that either above or below. The third, though not upwards of eighty feet, is the most picturesque of the whole. The effect is, at present, singularly heightened by a stupendous bridge, thrown across the chasm, just below the basin of the fall, in the manner of that over the Wear at Sunder- land. The chord of the arch, as I was informed, is upwards of 300 feet ; the perpendicular, from the centre to the river, ^50. We were desirous of viewing it from the bottom of the chasm ; but to do this it seemed necessary to go two miles farther down the river to seek a boat, which even then, we were assured, it would be but a chance if we found. To descend to this spot and wait this chance, day-light would hardly have served us. To see what we could, we scrambled a fourth of the way down, first by means of the wood- work of the bridge, and then by advancing cautiously along the shelving edge of the precipice, resting our weight on one hand, until we reached an acute angle, formed by the roots of a blasted pine, which GENESSEE RIVER. 201 afforded us a narrow footing, while the broken stem yielded us support. Having assumed this position, which, had we duly considered we should perhaps not have ven- tured upon, we gazed up and down with a sens- ation of terror, that I do not remember to have felt in an equal degree more than once in my life. Beneath us, on either hand, the precipice now shelved perpendicularly, or rather we were pro- jected over it, so that a pebble would have dropped into the gulf of water below. To the left, we looked upon the falling river ; beneath us, was the basin, broad, deep, and finely circular ; opposite, the precipice answering to that we stood upon, on our right, was the bridge, suspended as it were in mid-air. We were on a level with the spring of the arch, and I shuddered to observe that, on the opposite side projecting over the precipice, the beams which sustained it seemed to rest on a hair's breadth. Tracing also the semicircle with my eye, I perceived that it was considerably strained, about 20 feet on the same side from the centre. Afterwards, on crossing the bridge, we found several heavy logs placed over the spot to prevent the springing of the arch. You cannot conceive the horror with which we gazed upwards on its tremendous span. After a while, it appeared as if in motion j and the impulse was irresistible, which led us to shut our eyes, and shrink as in expectation of being crushed beneath its weight. I cannot yet recall this moment without shuddering. Our sight swimming ; our ears filled with the stunning roar of the river, the smoke of whose ' I , J r| ■|M;= ^1 •■ ■ ) , I J: ^•i J = 1 : : : 1 \ >i ! i'ii •5 ;; I' ■i.'i HI 4j| 8oa k ::1 i' i I «' p!, ' I r^ FALLS OF THE waters arose even to this dizzy height ; while the thin coating of soil which covered the rock, and had once aftbrded a scanty nourishment to the blasted tree which sustained us, seemed to sliake beneath our feet. At the time I judged this to be the work of busy fancy. To restore our confused senses, and save ourselves from losing balance, which had been the loss of life, we grasped the old pine with considerable energy, and it was at last, with trembling knees, and eyes steadily fixed upon our footsteps, neither daring to look up nor down, that we regained the height from which we had descended. Having regained it, 1 thought we never looked more like fools in our lives. Crossing the bridge, (which brought us down not quite to the level we had sought by a more perilous descent on the other side,) we walked round upon a fine carpet of verdure, kept always fresh by the spray from the basin beneath, till we stood above the brink of the fall, and nearly facing the arch. While making this circuit, we again shuddered, perceiving, for the first time, that the point we had descended to on the opposite side, had a concealed peril more eminent than those which had so forcibly affected our imagination. The earth beneath the old pine, being completely excavated and apparently only held together by one of its roots. A young man, who the next day became our fellow-traveller, told me that he had seen us take this {x>sition with such alarm, that his blood ran cold for many minutes after we left it j adding, that he had observed the earth crumble beneath our weight, and strike in the water below. 1* ',' l! GENESSEE RIVER. 203 I know not if his fancy had been as busy as ours in exaggerating our perils, but I will confess that they were sufficient to startle me from sleep twenty times during the ensuing niglit in all the horrors of tumbling down precipices, and falling through bridges in the manner of the sons of men, as seen in tlie vision of Mirza. I have heard it said that the art of swimming has lost more lives than it has saved ; perhaps the art of clambering has done the same. The flourishing town of Rochester, thus strik- ingly situated, is seven years old, — that is to say, seven years ago, the planks of which its neat white houses are built, were growing in an unbroken forest. It now contains upwards of two hundred houses, well laid out in broad streets ; shops, furnished with all the necessaries, and with many that may be accounted the luxuries of life ; several good inns, or taverns, as they are universally stylcil in these states. We were very well, and very civilly treated in one of them ; but, indeed, I have never yet met with any incivility, though occasionally with that sort of indifference which foreigners, accustomed to the obsequiousness of European service, sometimes mistake for it. In the country, especially, service, however well paid for, is a favor received. Every man is a farmer and a proprietor j few, therefore, can be procured to work for hire, and these must generally be brought from a distance. Country gentlemen complain much of this difficulty. Most things^ however, have their good and their evil. I have remarked that the American gentry are possessed^ ■ ) • I ; t 'v AH*} *. Vi'l 1 ■' if r, . I i J ! ii i,' 'i '■;■*! \m i-\ 'i; ^^ k^ ^5i ' >■ M 204- AiMEHlCAN INNS. ir \ : '' ■: i-' 1 I •I 1 h^iv i*^-',' of much more personal activity than is common in other countries. They acquire, as children, the habit of doing for themselves what others require to be done for them ; and are, besides, saved from the sin of insolence, which is often so early fixed in the young mind. Some foreigners will tell you, that insolence here is with the poor. Each must speak from his own experience. I have never met with any ; though I will confess, that, if I did, it would oftend me less than the insolence offered by the rich to the poor has done elsewhere. But insolence forms no characteristic of the American, whatever be his condition in life. I verily believe that you might travel from the Canada frontier to the Gulf of Mexico, or from the Atlantic to the Missouri, and never receive from a native-born citizen a rude word, it being under- stood always that you never give one. On arriving at a tavern in this country, you excite no kind of sensatio7i, come how you will. The master of the house bids you good day, and you walk in j breakfast, dinner, and supper, are prepared at stated times, to which you must gene- rally contrive to accommodate. There are sel- dom more hands than enough to dispatch the necessary work ; you are not, therefore, beset by half-adozen menials, imagining your wants, before you know them yourself; make them known, however, and, if they be rational, they are gene^ rally answered with tolerable readiness, and I have invariably found with perfect civility. One thing I must notice, that you are never any where charged for attendance. The servant is not yours ! 1. I THE POST BAG. 205 but the inn-keeper*s ; no demands are made upon you except by the latter ; tliis saves much trouble, and indeed is absolutely necessary in a house where the servant's labour is commonly too valuable to be laid at the mercy of every whimsical traveller ; but this arrangement originates in another cause, the republican habits and feelings of the com- munity. I honor the pride which makes a man unwilling to sell his personal service to a fellow- creature ; to come and go at the beck of another, — is it not natural that there should be some un- willingness to do this ? It is the last trade to which an American, man or woman, has recourse ; still some must be driven to it, particularly of the latter sex ; but she always assumes with you the manner of an equal. I have never, in this country, hired the attendance of any but native Americans, and never have met with an uncivil word ; but I could perceive that neither would one have been taken ; honest, trusty, and proud, such is the American in service ; there is a character here which all who can appreciate it, will respect. At llochester we dismissed our waggon ; and the following morning, between three and four o'clock, once again seated in the regular stage, struck westward to the Niagara river. It was not, I assure you, without some silent alarm, that, on leaving Rochester, we crossed by starlight the tremendous bridge, for the purpose of opening the mail at Carthage. The mode in which the contents of the post-bag are usually distributed through the less populous districts, had often before amused me. I remem- ! ■'. :f ;,1 ,, i' t-5 J ; r ^ i rti ::i;' rit ^iiil ■' j -I' I i ! IH ^ ' I '/ ^40G tiiE POST TJArr. l)er, when taking a cross cnt in .1 queer sort of a caravan, bound for some settlement on the southern shore of Lake Erie, observing, with no small surprise, the operations of our charioteer ; a paper flung to the right hand, and, anon, a paper flung to the left, where no sight or sound bespoke the presence of human beings. I asked if the bears were curious of news ; upon which I was informed that there was a settler in the neigh- bourhood, wiio ought to have been on the look- out, or some of iiis children for him. '* But when I don't find them ready, I throw the paper under a tree ; and 1 warrant you they'll look sharp enough to find it j they're always curious of news in these wild parts j" and curious enough they seemed, for not a cabin did we pass that a news- paper was not flung from the hand of this enlight- ener of the wilderness. Occasionally making a halt at some solitary dwelling, the post-bag and its guardian descended together, when, if the assistance of the farmer, who here acted as post- master, could be obtained, the whole contents of the mail were discharged upon the ground, and all bands and eyes being put in requisition, such letters as might be addressed to the surrounding district were scrambled out from the heap ; which, being then again scrambled together, was once ttiore shaken into the leathern receptacle, and thrown into the waggon ; but it sometimes hap- pened, that the settler was from home. On one occasion, I remember, neither man, woman, nor child was to be found ; the stage-'^river whistled and hallooed, walked into the dwelling, and C( s';t " THE POST BAG. ^.>()7 tlirougli tlie dwelling, sj)rang the fence, traversed the field of maise, itnd shouted into the wood ; but all to IK) purpose. Having resumed his station, and set his horses in motion, I enquired how the letters were to find their destination, sceinj^ hat we were carrying them along with us, heaven knew where ? " Oh they'll keep in the country any how ; it is likely, indeed, they may go down the Ohio, and make a short tour of the states ; this has happened sometimes ; but it is a chance but they get to Washington at last ; and then they'll commence a straight course a-new, and be safe here again this day twelvemonths may be, or two years at farthest." At Carthage we found the post-master, very naturally fast asleep ; after much clatter against his door and wooden walls, he made his appear- ance with r candle, and, according to custom, the whole contents of the mail were discharged upon the floor. The poor Carthaginian rubbed his eyes, as he took up one letter after another from the heap before him ; but his dreams seemed still upon him. ** Not a letter can I see,** he exclaimed, as he again rubbed his eyes, and snufted his candle. " Friend, lend me your eyes, or you may just take the whole load away with you.** " I am none of the best at decyphering hand-writing,** replied the driver, *♦ Why then I must call my wife, for she is as sharp as a needle.** The wife Was called, and, in gown and cap, soon made her appearance ; the candle and the papers placed in the middle, wife, husband, and driver, set about decyphering the hieroglyphics ; but that the wife had the charact n' of being as sharp as a needle, I should have •SI' .: , : 1 ) . i01 r \>()8 JOURNEY TO LEWl'sTON. augured ill of the labours of this triumvirate. Whether ri