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The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, pienches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre fiimis A des taux de reduction diffirents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul clichA, il est filmA A partir de I'angle supArieur gauche, de gauche k droite, et de haut en bes, sn prenant le nombre d'imeges nAcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrsnt la mithoda. ly errata sd to nt ne palure, ipon A f i • 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 ■I T f TRATELS iir CANADA, AND THE UNITEB STATES, IV 1816 AND 1817. By Lieut. FRANCIS HALL, 14tII light DHAQOONg, II, P. i i 1 1 1 1 • . \ X. 1 L it BOSTON : RE-PrHMSHRI) Viuni TIIH I.nNDON IDITION By Wi'lU and Lilly. 1818. U -^ F ! )i \ TO WILLIAM BATTIE WRIGHTSON, WILLIAM EMPSON, AND ROBERT MONSEY ROLFE, BROTHER WYKEHAMISTS, THESE TRAVELS, ARE DEDICATED, BY TBKIR OLD 8CB00L-FEL10W AND AmeilONATE rRIEND, FRANCIS HALL. 1 1^ *W.4.^ji-^^ TRAVELS IN CANADA, &c. &c. CHAPTER I. VOYAGE. January, 1816. I SAILED from Liverpool on the 20tli of Jiiniiaiy, af- ter having been detained several weeks by a continu- ance of west winds, which usually prevail through the greater part of the winter. Indeed, they liave become so prevalent of late years, as to aj>proach very nearly to the nature of a trade wind. They forced us to lie to, twelve, out of the lorty-foiu- days we spent on our passage. Our vessel was an Ame- rican, excellently built and comniande. M. 6e» 590 IS. 9 A. M. 53» 480 10 A. M. dO> 430 11 A. M. 480 330 I F. M. 480 33« 6 P. M. 380 320 ID. 10 A. M. 370 330 Stundings 35 feet. 17. 10 A. M. 380 57* 2 p. M. 400 570 18. 9 A. M. «20 640 19. 12 A. M. •00 61«* * We had eagerly anticipated a regale of cod Bsh on the Banks ; lines were thrown out, and the silver mail of one victim soon glistened, as he ascended through the green wave ; but, alas ! he proved no harbinger of fortune, and it seemed as if he had been made the cat's paw of his mute society, who, by no means satis6ed with the result of their first experi- ment, refused unanimously to repeat it. Luckily we were not imitating the heroes of the " Almanack des Govrmands^^* who in ohi and modern days, have made the grand tour of gluttony for the express purpose of surfeiting themselves at every classick spot with the delicacy which had won its renown. * Some of these variations seem to indicate the Tempera- ture ot" the Gulf stream, into which we were sometimes forced by the prevalence of MT. W. wimls. without knowiug It; the Americau f-aptains very comiooDly use the Thermometer to ascertain this circumstance. ... "" T"'' .V| TOTAGE. On Ihe 27tb, we touched on the Gulf Stream, where it flows round the Bank, and made the follow- ing observations : — Air. Water. Long. Lat. April 27. 11 A.M. 52" G-l" 64<» w. 30C 34' .N. 28. fl A. M. 53" ija" 29. 10 A. M. 60« 54" 68" w. 39(» 22' N March 1. 12 A. M. 520 ■IS" 70» w. 390 30' N e. 10 A. M. 49* 45" It is to this difference of temperature betwixt the Gulf Stream and the adjacent waters, that M. Vohiey attributes the Bank fogs. He observes, (Tome 1, Page 238,) " // en doit risulter Ic double rffd dhtne evaporation plus '■^ ahondanie, provoquec par la tiidatr di as caiix cxoUqucs " et d''unc condensation plus etcnduc, a raison dc la J'roidmr " des caux indigims et dc leiir alinosphere, qui precisemcnt " se trouve dans la direction des vents du nord-cstJ'''* There is some difficulty in this part of the voyage, to escape the action of Ihe stream to Ihe south, which soon begins to be sensible, and at the same time to avoid the dangerous shoals of Nantucket to the north. I felt little concern about Nantucket, at this time, except to keep at a respectful distance from it ; but I have since met with some interesting particulars relative to this inglorious little island. Its inhabi- tants are reckoned at 5000, some of whom are worth 20,000L er-h. It contains 23,000 acres of land, and was origiiuiiiy possessed by the Nantucks, an In- dian tribe, some of whom still remain on it, having peaceably incorporated with the Europeans, and joined in their occupations. The soil was originally a barren sand, but the industry of the inhabitants has * Vide Humboldt's Observations on tlie Variations of Tem- perature in tlie Gulf Stream, and on the Bank. — " Personal Narrativft'^ vol. 1, page 50. He ol)serves a diflerence olnuly 13« between them. This was in Juiic. Fide, also, M. Vol- aey's Table of experiments, page 23."), in ivhich the fi;rralesl diflerence is 23o. Ours was 31<*. W^"**"'*' ■ rr'i^J ■V" — •*«•■-'" 8 VOYAGE. \ i 'f made it capable of pasturing large flocks of sheep, which constituted, in the infancy of the settlement, a co.ninon stock, but their chief employment is whale- \ng, at which they are equally diligent and daring ; doii!jlin!i Cape Horn in pursuit of their game. The prolils of (his trade afford them both the necessaries and coiiifoifs of life. The luxuries are forbidden both by their character and religion, which is unmix- ed Presbylerianism. The only recreation they used to allow themselves, was driving in parties to a little spof, which they rescued from barrenness, converted info a kind of publick garden. The traveller, from whom I borrow this account, gives a lively picture of their hospitality, and of the simplicity of their man- ners,* which supersedes the necessity of those inven- tions and restraints so inefficient in more polished so- cieties. The whole commimity affords an admirable instance of what human industry will effect, when left to the unshackled direction of its own exer- tions. They have, particularly the women, an odd habit of taking a small quantity of opium every morn- ing. It is difficult to divine whence they have im- ported this unwholesome luxury. f The only books this traveller found in the island, except the bible, where Hudibras and Josephus ; many of the inhabi- tants could repeat lines of the former, without having much notion to what they referred. Martha's vine- yard is a settlement of much the same kind as Nan- tucket. It derives its name from that part of it which was originally the portion of the first settler's danghfc. They formerly constituted part of the Slafe of New York, but now of Massachusetts. The last few days of our passage were blest with such favouring gales, and an atmosphere so warm and * Mc mentions a great outcry raised in the commonwealth, l)y the luxury of a spring waggon. 1 1 hat^e since heard it remarked, that this practice is very general in America. ^^^*i1V.;^S^■>5.,. ^.-.v.. .^* VOYAGE. 9 iheep, ent, a whale- iring ; The Bsariea j'ldden unuaix- y used a little iverted r, from ;ture of lir man- 3 inven- ilied so- Irnirable t, when n exer- , an odd ry morn- ave ira- ,y books le bible, inhabi- t having s vine- fas Nan- |rt of it iettler's of the its. ist with Lrm and bright that the sea gods seeri)ed resolved we should part good friends. — LFiiluckily liiis gleam of good for- tune was extinguished in a cold heavy fog, when we approached the Aiiierican coast, by which we were deprived of the lovely prospect which opens upon the entrance of the harLour of New York. \\e anchored close to the quays, and eagerly began to escape from the place of our durance, which Dr. Johnson flallers \\i oi! I.e st\ !c-< '' it a prison, with a chance of being drowned.'' The chance of being drowned forms the least of its njiseiics. In most cases it is a complete annihilation of all faculties, both of mind and body : perhaps I should except that of mastication, which went on, generally with great vig- our, during the whole of I he Aoyage. — I owe honour able mention to our " C'ou:pi(gno)is de Voyage, who, though of many trades and nations, united in the maintenance of harmony, and in support of the general weal. We were about eighteen in number; among whom were several Americans, who contri- buted their full share of good humour and sociability. We disputed for the honour of our countries, but our disputes invariably ended, as, it were to be wished, all national disputes should end, in a hearty laugh ; and when 1 saw, during these forty-four days, how easily the jarring elements of our body corporate blended for general convenience, I was induced to i:hink thd rulers of the Earth take too much both pains and credit unto themselves, for holding together the patch-work of society. j> ',i \ [ 10 CHAPTER II. NEW YORK. March 5th, JN EW York is built on the tongue of land, at the point of which the Hudson and East rivers effect their junction. The principal street (Broadway) runs along the ridge, and terminates in a small pa- rade, planted with trees, designed originally for a bat- tery ; a destiny it fulfilled during the war ; but since " tlie piping time of peace," it has again reverted to the occupancy of fashionable pedestrians, and moon- light lovers. — From this point the eye commandSi towards the left,. the coast of Long Island, with the wooded heights of Brooklyn ; on the right, Sandy- Hook, with the mounfain shores of Jersey ; while the mouth of the Bay lies before it, studded with bastioned islands, and gay with the white canvas of the American river craft, glancing like graceful sea- birds through their native element. From Broad- way, streets diverge irregularly to either river, an4 terminate in extensive warehouses, and quays, con- stantly crowded. The houses are generally good, frequently elegant, but it requires American eyes to discover that Broadway competes with the finest streets of London or Paris. New York is reckoned to contain at present about 100,000 inhabitants, and is spreading rapidly northward. I was told that 2000 houHcs were contracted for, to be built in the ensuing year. There are fifty churches, or chapels, of iiitferent sects ; a proof that a national church il not indispensable for the maintenance of religion. NE\fr YORK. 11 The Town Hall is an elegant building of white marble, standing at right angleii to Broadway. The plot of ground in front of it is railed round and plant- ed. The inferior is well arranged for the purposes of business. The state rooms of the Mayor and Cor- poration are ornamented with the portraits of several of the Ciovernours of New York, and whole lengths of the officers most distinguished during the late war. Some of these seemed well executed ; but if the State should always reward upon as large a scale, their future heroes must consent to occupy the gar- rets of the building. There is a good portrait of the first Dutch Governourof the State. That of Colum- bus was repairing. It is a considerable defect in this building;, that the basement story is of a red granite, which, at a distance, has the appearance of brick. The staircase is circular, lighted by a cupo- la, and, in the style of its construction, not unlike that of Drury-lane theatre. The state rooms, and courts of justice are on i \ 19 NEW YORK. kindness of bis manner towards the unfortunate vic- tims of insanity, wiio seemed to greet hirn as a friend. One pat lent was pointed on! to us, wh<9se delusion consisted in imagining himself black. I spent an evening at the theatre. It is a shabby building without, and poorly li<^hted and decorated within. The play was Coiumhus, a wretched hash of dillerent plays and siorics, uuserably acted. The audience, like that of a Portsmouth theatre, consisted almost entirely of men. — 1 saw nothing resembling a Lady in the house, auil but few females. The Ame- ricans are generally con^idered to have little taste for the drama ; or for musick, beyond what is necessary for a dance ; dancing being iti New York, as in most {larts of the world, the favoinite amusement of the adies ; they dance cotillions, because they fancy they excel in French dances, and despise country dances for the same reoson. The young men have the cha- racter of being dissipated, living much apart from their families in boarding houses. Good dinners are in high esteem in the upper commercial circles, and I had occasion to bear witness both to the skill of their cooks, and the hospitality of the entertainers.^ I wai. naturally curious to visit the famous Steam frigate, cr Floating Battery, built for the defence of the harboi|r ; this favour 1 obtained through Dr. Mitchell, tVe great philosopher of New York, of whom it is (it to mention, that he has been lately en- ♦ Two curious itistaiircs ol' disease were related at one of Ihese dinner partite |,y (ieneral Nortli. One, of the tarantula inl'ertiou, in wliicli !ho sntrticr, a leinale, was veheiiiently af- fected l)y musick, ani| the ajipliration of particular odnui-s, ia discovering wliich slie evinced an acutenrKS of 8niell, infinitely beyond what is found in t|„. healthful state. The other w^s the (asa of a female, *Niio was atlacktul hy lethargy, at the end of which h»r menuny l?a paiiy. The interior arrangements, on the whole, re- semble those of our best packets. I was not without apprehension, that a dirmer in such a situation, for above 1^0 persons, would very much resemble (he scramble of a mob ; I was however agreeably surpris- ed bv a dinner haning east and west. Tbe country through which we passed, though compa< ratively low, undulated in the same direction. About three miles from Fishkill a wild torrent rush- ed over its bed of broken rocks, across (he road : The romantick bridge flung over its brawling course, the mill on its craggy banks, and (he deep wood- en glen, down which it hastens to the Hudson, deserve a place in every traveller's journal. Pough- keepsie was (he first country (own, or ra(her village, I had seen ; and as (he fea(ures of all are much alike, it shall be described for a specimen. Houses of wood, roofed wi(h shingles, neatly pain(ed, with generally from four to six sash windows on each floor, two sto- ries high, and ajbroad veranda, resting on neat wood- en pillars, along the whole of the front : such is tbe NEW, TORK TO ALBANY. 21 common style of house-building through the whole State : It unites to cleanly neatness a degree of ele- gance, confined in England to the cottage ornee ; but here common to all houses ; very few sink to a meaner fashion: this seems strange to the eye accustomed to a hundred wretched hovels for one habitation of grace- ful comfort ; but poverty has not yet wandered beyond the limits of great towns in America; in the country every man is a land owner, and has competence with- in his grasp ; " O fortunatos niminm sua si bona norint.** The wiiole of this beautiful passage may be well applied to American farmers : To them the earth is " most just,*' for they are industrious and enterprising, and they have not yet discovered the necessity of yielding 10 parts of their earnings to their Government, to lake care of the remaining 20th. At Poughkeepsie, as in almost all American towns, are two or three large inns, in which dinner is provided at a certain hour, for all travellers en masse I nor is it an easy matter any where to pro- cure a separate meal ; indeed privacy, either in eating, sleeping, conversation, or government, seems quite unknown and unknowable to the Americans, to whom it appears, whether political or domestick, a most unnatural as well as unreasonable desire, which only Englishmen are plagued with. There is no want of churches, either here or in any other village of this state, but they are all built of the same perishable materials : Mr. Jefferson, in his "Nolea on Virfiinia," objects to this method of building, which adds nothing to the riches of the state ; but as long as wood continues plentiful and labour dear, houses will be built in the readiest and cheapest manner. The same fashion was once general in our own country : Knickerbocker, in his humorous way, thus describes this passion of the Yankee settler for building large wooden houses. " Improvement is his darling passion, and having thus improved his lands, the next care is to provide f^l I I i 4 I .' 22 NEW YORK TO ALBANY. mansion worthy 7, does indeed charge "some families in Albany^' with still keeping up an economical expedient of their iMicestors for sweeten- ing tea, viz. by suspending " a large lump of sugar di- rectly over the tea-table, by a string from the ceiling, so that it could be swung from moiilli to mouth." It is probable, however, he found some reason to doubt the continuance of this custom, during his lust visit to Albany, uflfu* the publi'-ation of his work : vide an " Account of the Author," prefixed to his history, p. ix. One speci(nen of Dutch maruiers did indeed fall under my own observation at Srhoilach. An old lady, who had finished her morning drive before we t F11 1 1 20 ALBANY. had begun ours, was saluted by our landlord's daugh> ter with the pristine ceremony of a small stove of warm coals, decorously introduced beneath her full- flowing petticoats. Albany beitis the seat of government for New York, has a p»rliament*house, dignified with the name of the Capitol, which, as in duty bound, stands upon a hill, and has a lofty columned porch ; hut as the building is but small, it looks all porch. There is a miserable little museum here, with a group of waxen figures, representing the execution of Louis XVI., brought from France : it is impossible not to give them the praise of being natural, if a ghasty sem* blance of life, so close as to make one start, deserve the name. The furious attitude of the executioner, stretching out his arms from the top of the scafTold- steps, eager to receive his victim; the hard counte- nance of the commiSf seated, with his watch jn his hand, to minute down the fatal stroke ; the features of the unfortunate king, " Pallena morfe futurA^* all {)osness this merit in no small degree. While 1 was ooking through the museum, three Oneida Indians, the first I had seen, came to the keeper to borrow some articles of Indian dress and armoury to exhibit that evening at the theatre. They wore pretty near- ly the European dress, excepting a kind of cloak fold- ed over one shoulder, and a ribbon round their hats. The spokesman of the three, a very handsome young man, was, I was told, son to the principal chief. I saw him on the stage in the evening, beatmg a kind of drum, and accompanying the war-dance of his com- panions with a low monotonous song. It seemed a melancholy sight : the Hons of the once free masters of the soil exhibiting themselves to the scornful mirth of those who 4iad spoiled them of their inheritance. To be robbed, corrupted, and degraded is the in- variable lot of the Indian who comes in contact with the civilization of Europe. Nobler he, " Who forward riishen witli indi^nnnt grief, *' Where uevor loot lias trod the falloa loaf." I ».) r27 ] CHAPTER VII. THE FALLS OP THE MOHAWK. AV-HATEVER a country affords worth seeing, take the first opportunity to see it. This simple rule would prevent many such posthumous lamentations, and lame " buts," as, "lam very sorry 1 omitted goin;;, but I thought I should have returned by the same road." " I fully intended seeing it, but the weather was so unfavourable, that I deferred it 'til" —when ? •' Some period, no where to lie foimd " In all the hoary register ni' time." As nothing sounds so ill to one's self or others, I de> termined to visit the falU of the Mohawk, the same day I arrived at Albany ; though I was told we should pass within a few yards of them on the mor- row, which did not turn out to be the case. The Cohoz^, or falU of the Mohawk, are little more than half a mile from the junction of the two rivers : their extreme breadth is about three hundred foises, which is much more than the mean breadth of the stream, both above and below them, being increased by the manner in which the ledge of rocks forms an obtuse angle, in the direction of the current. f Their height • Le nom de Colioz me pnrnit iin mot imitatirmniiervP dfs Snuvnjri'ii, et par un chh HJiigiilirr, je I'lii rpiioiiv^ daii« lo pnyK di' liidgt*, appli4u6 & uue petite ciiBcad*', 4 troi!) lieue* dr &pii "— Voliiey, p. 123 f '• The bed of the falls is of fserpenline stone." — Volney, Tableau, I. i Al. lie observes, (hat the bed oC the Mohawk fcems to separate the region of freesloue ihiiu that of granite. ,,A. - , i \- ii 28 THE FALLS OF THE MOHAWK. t i 1 '> I >l does not, perhaps, exceed 50 ket.* The banks above them are nearly on a level with the water, but are increased below by the depth of the fulls. In summer, the overflow is said to be scanty, and even at this season a cap of snow rested on the most promi- nent clitTof the angle, from beneath which the stream filtered in silver veins. The whole effect of these falls, the broadest, I believe, in the Stales, excepting Niagara, is diminished for want of the relief of a bold, darkly-shadowed baclc>ground. The air of wintry desolation, varied only by the soa*bre foliage of the pine and cedar, stretching their dark masses over beds of snow, took little from the rude force of a gcene, the character of which is rather simply grand, than lovely or romantick. There is a very good point of view from a long covered bridge, which crosses the Mohawk near its mouth, and leadn to the village of Waterford. The distance, from Albany is about ten miles. 1!^ * Volney says, •• norne reckon it at 65 feet, others only 50." The Marquis de Chastellux makes it 75. He al^^o visited it in winter, and observes, *' The picture was rendered Ktill more "terrible by the snow which covered the (irs, the brilliancy "of which gave a black colour to the water, gliding gently " along, and a yellow tinge to that which was waihmg over the '* cataract." vr t/) Sr..^ ....-:.., „.l,., J f • [29] CHAPTER VIII. ALBANY TO THE FRONTIER OF CANADA. March 14th. Troy, 6 milei. Lansinghurg, 3 Schatecoke, 3 Pittstown, 7 raiiihridge, 13 Portir's Inn, 2 Robert's Inn, 6 I5th. Salem, 8 Hfbron, 8 Hopkin's Inn, 4 Granvilli', 5 16th. Whitehall, or i SkeeiiiSoiough, J 14 Stage W ghorFlium, t Larenhurg'd Inn, S 25 17th. Chimney Point, 14 Basin Harbour, 12 JM'NiePs Inn, 9 Burlington, 12 Plattsburg, 21 Chazy, 20 Inn, 7 Iile aus Noix, 12 Slelghi. k n n 211 T^ROT is a little short of a mile in length, and hears every mark of growing opulence. There is a large barrow-fonnrd mount, at the end of the town, on the road side, which, though evidently a natural rock, might represent the tomb of llus to this new Ilium, were Yankey imaginations disposed to run classically riot. The road runs pleasantly on the banks of the Hudson, which here form a long stiipe of flat giound, evidently an alluvion, about a mile in breadth, beyond which the hiili again rise, intersecting the country in \'\ I II I III 11 mill .? 30 ALBANY TO THK f { a N. W. direction. Betwixt Pittstown and Cam- bridge we crossed the Hoosick river, and continued our way through a wild and mountainous country, whose remoter heights were now fading in evening mists. From Pitlstown we had quilted (he course of the Hudson, and moving in a N. E. direction, were falling in with the various chams of hills which spring la'erally from the great N. E. chain of the West Point mo.intains. Salem is beautifully embo- somed amid these ramification:^, which seem to divide the low country into a nuuiber of separate basins, each watered by its own sequestered stream. Mas- ses of slaty rock are every where scattered through the roM-itry. Lind, we were informed, was worth about 20/. per acre ; a considerable sum, where it is so plentiful. The Americans, who are never defi- cient when improvement is in view, have introduced the use of gypsum, as the most transportable, as well as the most profitable, manure. A farmer here, with whom, as is usual in the States, we tell into conver- sation, informed us that the average quantity employ- ed was three pecks per acre, united with the seed: that it was of great service to clover ; and well em- ployed on all sandy or gravelly soils, adding a curious remark, if correct, that it produces no efiect on land within thirty miles of the sea.** Granville is situated in one of these mountain ba- sins, and is but a few miles from the toot of the Green and Bald mountains, which form the continuation of the great chain. The streams in (his neighbourhood no longer fall into the Hud!unlrj, -J veiling course .,,'; ectioni which of the 4 embo- ■J divide 'i basins, if Maa- through worth 1 re it is ■i* er defi- ■■'.* •oduced A as well re, with conver- employ- I e seed: (veil em- curious on land ,; t tain ba- B Green ■I. lation of aurhood Ktherly ^ ve quit- "it ind take lerved a ined per- 1 le use of 1 ure, thus i quantity of red clay-slate in this neighbourhood, re- sembling the cliffs of the St. Lawrence near Quebec. The aspect of the country remained much the same, only growing more wild and wintry as we proceeded. The snow which had hitherto been partial, now be- gan to impede the progress of our waggon, which had been moving at the rate of three and a half miles per hour. We were frequently obliged to aliiiht, and walk down steep hills, thickly encrusletl with ice and inow. A fine bear had preceded us, as we discover- ed by his large round fool prints, but he was not complaisant enough to show himself from some, crag- gy knoll, and welcome us to his solitude. A smalt ground squirrel was the only specimen of bird or beast we encountered. The valley closes in as you approach Whitehall, until its lofty barriers barely leave space suUicienI for the site of the village, and the course of a small river, called Wood-creek, which rushes into the lake, with a small cascade ; its right bank rises perpendicularly several hundred feet: strata of dark grey lime-stone, disposed at regular parallels, exhibit an appearance of masonry so perfect as to require a second glance to convince one a wall is not built up from the bed of the stream. The heights on the opposite side of the valley are equally bold, and marked with the same character; their summits are every where darkened with forests of oak, pine, and cedar ; large detached masses of granite are scat- tered generally through the valley, and among the housesof the village, which like several others on our road, very much resembled a large timber-) ard, from the quantity of wood cutting up and scattered about for purposes of building : indeed it is impossible to travel through the Slates without taking part with the unfor- tunate trees, who, unable like their persecuted fel- lows of the soil, the Indians, to make good a retreat, are exposed to every form and species of tlcslriidion Yankee convenience or dexterity can invent ; felling, burning, rooting up, tearing down, lopping, and chop 'f's ,4 32 ALBANT TO THS .} I ping, are all employed with most unrelenting severity. We passed through jnany forests whose leafless trunks, blackened with fire, rose above the underwood, like lonely columns, while their flat-wreathed roots lay scattered about, not unlike the capitals of Egyp- tian architecture. I believe some traveller has ob- served that there are no large trees in America, an observation not very wide of the truth, to judge from what may be seen from the high road ; a few steps however into any of the woods, shew that they have abounded in very fine timber, numerous remains of which are every where left standing; but the ex- treme prodigality with which the finest timber trees have been employed, being often piled together to make fences, and so left to rot, has begun to pro- duce a comparative scarcity, especially near large towns, which has considerably increased the value of the property of woodland. At Whitehall we embarked in sleighs on Lake Champlain ; the afternoon was bright and mild, and well disposed us to enjoy the pleasing change from our snailpaced waggon to the smooth rapidity of a sleigh, gliding at the rate of nine miles an hour. The first object our driver was happy to point out to us, was several of our own flotilla, anchored near the town, sad " trophies of the fight." The head of the lake called " the Narrows," does not exceed the breadth of a small river ; the sides rise in lofty cliffs, whose grey strata sometimes assume the regular di- rection of the mason's level, sometimes form an an- gle more or less acute with the horizon, and some- times, particularly in projecting points, seem almost vertical to it. Our driver pointed out a curious fis- sure in the left bank, called the " devil's pulpit ;" it is in about the centre of the ens', and seems broken with great regularity, much in this figure \ /. Tyconderoga point stands out in an attitude of defiance to those who ascend the lake, but its martial terrors are now extinguished, or marked only by the FRONTIERS OF CANADA. 33 ■A severity, leafless derwood, ed roots t( Egyp- • has ob- erica, an dge from few steps ley have emains of L the ex- iber trees rether to 1 to pro- ear large } value of on Lake nild, and nge from idity of a ur. The tut to us, near the ad of the ceed the ►fty cliffs, gular di- rra an an- nd some- :m almost rious fis- pulplt ;'* IS broken \7- crumbling remains of field works, and the ruin of an old fortilied barrack. Lake Geui,:^e unites with Lake Champlain, at the foot of this mountain point, by a narrow stream, on the right bank of which, rises Mount Defiance, and on I lie opposite side of Lake Champlain, Mount Independence ; names which be- speak their military fame in days of old, but now, like letired country gentlemen, they are content to raise oak and pine woods, instead of frowning batte- ries. At Shoreham, nearly opposite to Crown Point, we found good accommodation lor the night, at Mr. Larenburg's tavern, and set oil the next morning be- fore breakfast ; but we had soon cause to repent of thus committing ourselves fasling to the mercy of the elements. The lake now began to widen, and the shores to sink in the same propoi lion ; the keen blasts of the north, sweeping o\er its frozen expanse, pierced us with needles of iie ; the thermometer was 22'* below zero ; buffalo hides, bear skins, caps, shawls and handkerchiefs were vainly employed against a degree of cold so much beyond our habits. Our guide, alone of the party, his chin and eye-lashes gemmed and powdered with the drifting snow, boldly set his face and his horses in the teeth of the storm. ' Sometimes a crack in the ice would compel us to wait, while he went forward to explore it with his axe, (without which, the American sleigh-drivers sel- dom travel,) when, having ascertained its breadth, and the foo'hold on either side, he woidd drive his horses at speed, and clear the fissure, with its snow ridge, at a tiying leap ; a sensation we found agreea- ble enough, but not so agreeable as a good inn and dinner at Burlington. Burlington is a beautiful lit- tle town, rising from the edge of the lake ; the prin- cipal buildings are disposed in a neat square ; on a hill above the (own stands the college, a plain brick building, the greater part of which is unoccupied, and seemingly unfinished. ' ^ 6 ^■Y^ "»*-'d every T so com- ound on imb-fish' i md for a ter asto- '\ larmless, igenioiis, y friend- Yankies, . sett) lan- pellation Yankies, p. irs. are still igage in ach fare p a dozen W he luxii- i^- is a lit- enjoins Sv* arrives ften oc- ea of a e seve- 1 ^hen on formed Jider, or (let me, Iss : im- pertinence I never met with, though they have some- times ralher a sluitling plainness in their manncc of conveying their sentiments. Or. onr arr:\ai af Pongh- keepsie, a plain man sleppfd t'loin the croud lound the inn-door, and aiidiessing liiinselfto the CLeoileiuan I was acoinpanyinir, 'who had been appointed to Jhe adiuinistialion of Lo ver CanaJa,) wishe: I'arin, and s«)ine half-a- score of flaxen bended urchins, who by tlieir size, seen) to have spuing all at once out of the earth, like a cio(» of load-stools. '1^ in- riie pile of civilized life widens daily, and pla ly inliiu.ttes to the indignant and retiring liidiiin, that it will finally know no limit but the Pacilick. Cultivators Ii.i\e begun to discover the superiority oflnesoil, westward of the Alleghany Ri-wise, and left to u>e his own discretion, without ihe restrdini ot rein, or impulse of whip. Stionid, however, the laitersllmnlns become intlispen- sable, the driver jumps from the sleigh, runs forwaid, applies h"** pack-thread lash, and regains his seat wiitiodt any hazurd from extraordinary increase of im- pel us. The runners of these sleighs are fornied of two slips of wooii, so low that the shafts collect the snow into a succession of wavy hillocks, properly chrisfeued " c;diols," for they almost dislocate your limbs five thousiuul tiu)es in a day's journey. An at- tempt wa« once mside to correct this evil, by piohi- bitina; all low nrmiers, as tliey are ctdled, from cona- ing wiiliin a ceiiam jjiwiance of Quebec ; meaning, therel»^, to for«e Ihe country people into the use of high runners, in the Americar> lashiou. Jean Baptiste, however, sturdily anti effectually resisted this he- retical innovation, by hailing with his proiluce with- out the limits, and thus compellinj:^ ihe towns-people (o cotne lo him to make theii purchases. The mar- kets l)oth of Montreal and Quebec » xhibil several hundred market sleighs dally. They ditffr from ihe pleasure, 01 trtvellinj: sh-iu,!), in having no si«les ; that is, tliey consist mt^rely of a plank bottom, with a kind of railing. 11 ay and wonl seem ihe staple commo- dities at this season, both of which are immoderately dear, especially at Quebec ; even ('trough the Siales, the common charge lor one horse's hay for a nicht, was a dollar. Provisions are brought to market fro- i I ':^ CANADA. 45 len, in which stale (hey are preserved during winter; cod fish is brought IVoin Boston, a land carriage of 500 miles, and then sells at a reasonable rale, the American cominonly speculating on a cargo of smug- gled goods back, to make up his profit ; a kind of trade extremel}' brisk betwixt the frontier and Mon- treal. As we approached Quebec, snow lay to the depth of six feel ; from the heights of Abram, the eye rest- ed upon what seemed an immense lake of milk ; all smaller irregularities of ground, fences, boumiaries, and copse woods, had disappeared ; the tops of \ il- lages and scattered farm houses, with here and there dark lines of pine-wood, and occasionally the mast of some ice-locked schooner, marking the bed of the Ciiailes rive.", were tiie only objects peering above it. A range of mountains, sweeping round from West to North, unlil it meets the Si. Lawrence, bounds the horizon ; no herald of Spring had yet approached this dreary oulpost of civilization ; we had ohsL: ved a few blue thrushes in the neightiour- hood of Albany, but none had yet reached Canada ; fwo only of the feathered tribe brave the winter of this inclement region ; the cosmopolite crow, and the snow bird,* a small white bird, reported to teed upon snow, because it is not very clear what else it can find. It would be acting unfairly to Quebec, to describe it as ( found it on my arrival, cho;iked with ice and snow, whij.h one day flooded the siroels with a profu- sion of dirty kennels, and llu^ next, cased them with a sheet of glass. Clolh or carpet bonis; galashes, with spikes to their heels, iron poiiiied walking-sticks, are the defensive weapons perpi'fMally in eitipl»)v on thrse occasions. The direction of the sirrets loo, which are most of ihem built up a preci[)ire, trieally facilitates any inclination one may enterlain for tum- bling, or neck-breaking. >'^ "l !^»" » ..v^- : . •«• -*i I f •■! . '• \' • i ■>' ib!1 52 (lUCBEC AND ITS NLIGHBOURHOOD. . no distinction in the admission of Catholick or Pro- testant : kbe hand of charity has spread a couch for each in his infiraiities. Both houses have a small pharmacopoeia in charge of a sister instructed in me- dicine. The several duties of tending the sick by night, cooking, &c. are distributed by rotation. Em- ployment is thus equally secured to all, and the first evil of cankering thought elFectually prevented. Good humour and contented cheerfulness seem to be no strangers to these *♦ veiled votaries ; seem ! nay, perhaps are ; for without ascribing any miraculous ef- fect to the devotion of a cloister, it is no unreasona- ble supposition, that in an eslahlishinent of this kind, the duties and occupations of which |)revent seclu- sior. from stagnating into apathy, or. thought from fretting itself into peevishness, a greater degree of tranquillity, (and this is happiness,) may possibly be obtained, than commonly tails to the lot of those who drudge through the ordinary callings, or weary them- selves with the common enjoy ments of society. Grave men have doubted whether the purj)ose8 of these in- stitutions might not be better answered by our com- mon hospital establishments, and have even indulged themselves in a sneer, at the idea of young men being attended in sickness by nuns ! On the question ge- nerally, it may be observed, that few (who have any knowledge of the system of common hospitals) can be at a loss \o appreciate the ditfercnce betwixt the ten- der solicitude with which charity smooths, for con- science sake, the bed of siilForing, and the heartless, grudging altendance which ho-^pital nurses intiict upon (heir victims, if the action of the mind produce a sensible etTeot on the frame, particularly in sickness, this is no i'ntnateriai circurnslanre, in a medical point of view. Kven when the hour of human aid is past, it is, perhaps, still so nelhing, that the last earthly ob- ject should be a face of sympathy, ami the last dutiei of humanity be paid with a semblance of atfection. For those who dedicate themselves to this ministry, ). (tUEBEC AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 53 k or Pro- couch for e a small led in me- e sick by ion. Em- d the first pd. Good to be no em ! nay, icidons ef- mreatjona- this kind, ent seclii- uglit from degree of osHibly be those who »ary them- ly. Grave f these in- r our corn- indulged men being irstioii ge- have any s) can be the ten- for con- leartlesa, lict upon )roduce a Hirkness, ical point id is past, nrthly ob- ast dutiei affection, ministry, some apology may be urged to such as admit motive as, at least an exteniialing circumstance in the consi- deration of erroiir. The moral crilicks, perhaps, who are foremost to coiidetiin their practice as super- stitious, revolt less tVom the supposition, than from the self-sacrifite it requires. Let the lash of satire fall mercilesly on mere bitiols, wherever they are found ; but against the spirit, which, abjuriug the pleasures, devotes itself to the moyt painful duties of lite, what argument can be direcled, which may not be left for its refutation to the prayers and l)lessings of the poor? The most objeclionabic part of the in- stitution seems to be the cornmilling of insane per- sons, of both sexes, to the charge ot females : the an- swer is, that there is no other asylum for them; the blame therefore attaches to the police of the coun- try ; for it is evident, that womtri aie very inadctpiate to the charge of such patients us require coercive treatment, particularly ujen."^' The Ursuline Cunvcnl, founded by Madame de la Pellrie, in 1(539, for the education of female chil- dren, stands within the city. It has, both in its inte- rior decoration, and the dress of its inhabitants, a greater appearance of wealth than the " General Hospital," and "Hotel J) UMI. Among the orna- ments of the chapel, we were particularly directed (o the skull and bones of a missionary who had been murdered by the savages, for at\etnpting their con- version : it is perhitps doubtful, consideilng the gene- ral inditrerence of the Indians on matters of religious controversy, whether this was the real and sole of- ftiM (' bv which he won the crown of niartyrdotn. These nuns have generally about 'JOO little girls un- der their care, but I was sorry to ol)Herve their edu- cation bought with their health ; not one of them but halishment. Th«! course of studies here rjuaiifiijs for ordination. There is a sm ill lUiiseu n, or ''cabinet de physique," which soe us in a growing condition; it contains, besides nalurd cario-)ities, electrical apparatus, telescopes and other iustrumenls of science. The library is so newhiit too theological ; there is a S'uall hell at- taclie I to it, in which f perceived our common Pray- er \i toics, Testaments, &c. in company with many diviu'^s, as well Catholic as Protestant, Bayle, and a few travellers and philosophers, but the greater part theologians. Tne ohl palace, besides tho chambers for the council, and House of Assembly, contains a good publick library ; the nature of the collection, may be defmed generally, as the reverse of that of the seminary library. There is a good assortment of his- torical works, of a standard quality, and of travels ; but no classicks, proi)ably because none of the inhabi- tants atPect to read tluun. A library is also on the eve of being established, by the ofHcers of the staff and garrison; but the society of Ciucbcc is generally on too limited a scale, and too exclusively military or CO n>nercial, to foster any considerable spirit of literature or science. An attetnpt was made during Sir fl. Prevost's administration, to establish a society on the plan of the lloyal Institution, but it fell to the ground, for want of a stifBciency of eflioient members, eleven being the supposed necessary quantum to be- gin with ; nor is this seeming scarcity surprising, ..^1^ ■ t ^.^^^^-^ 3D, QOFBEC AND ITS NEICHBOURIIOOU. OJ 1 an atmos- to the suit, Cuiiatiiaiis. lese ladies' in, for the (h of Can- about 200. c. are de- ignioral do- ^lit! course rhere h a le," which 19, besides telescopes library is dl hell at- iinon Pray- with many yle, and a reater part chambers contains a !Ction, may ^at of the lent of his- >f travels ; the inliabi- Imo on the f the staff 9 generally y military ; spirit of (Ic during I society fnll to the members, urn to be- urprising, when we consider, lliat the short Canadian summer is appro[)riated lo business, ami that duiiii^; the te- dious winter, I he men are never tired of dinners, nor the Indies of diuri'inj;. Tlieie are some peculiar mid inlerestinj; features in the neii^libourhood of Quebec. The lofty lianks of the St. Lawrence, tVom Cape Diaujond to C.ipe lJon5i;e,arc coMH)0' TO ftUEBEC BY THE NORTH SHORE. 21 9t. Malbay 22d. St Paul's Bay 24th. La Peti'e Riviere 25th. St. Joaliioi Quebec 20 Ferry. 30 le Water 18 do. TfO no 90 200 Opposite to Quebec is Point Levi, a command- ing eminence on the right bank of St. Lawrence, whose breadth here is little above a mile. A party of Michmac Indians were encamped on the shore. They were the tirst Indians 1 had seen, in any thing like their original condition of life, and are al- most the only ones to be seen about Quebec. Their encampment consisted of four tents, raised with pine poles, and covered with the bark of the white birch) which is used generally for this purpose, and for canoes, by all the tribes of the continent. Two women were gumming their canoe at the water's edge ; three or four little half-naked " bronzed varl- pr-^ ^nBBEC TO KAMODRASKA. 69 ets" were dabbling in the tide, who, on my coming up, began to articulate " bow d'ye do," in Michraac English. A man in one of the tents was making small canoes for children's toys, and the rest were in that state of indolence, most accordant to their dis- positions, when their circumstances will permit it. In dress and personal appearance they were too like gypsies to require more particular description, ex- cept that their cheek-bones, high, and set wide apart, rendered them the ugliest looking mortals 1 had ever seen. The Michmacs originally dwelt and hunted betwixt the shores of Nova S otia and the St. Lawrence. Like all Indians t.iclosed within the pale of civilization, they are wasting fast from the effects of spirituous liquors, bad living, and in- dolent habits ; deprived of the resource of the chase by the progress of agriculture, they wander on the ^ shores of the St. Lawrence, fish, beg, or steal, and ^ live as they can, that is, ill enough. « St. Michel is remarkable for the neatest inn in the I country ; 1 dined there, and slept at the house of f Mr. Couillard, a Canadian gentleman. His house, } which he had lately erected, was a substantial stone building, furnished in the plainest manner, much per- haps, as were those of our country gentlemen a century ago ; that is, much wainscot, no papering, little or no mahogany, plain delf ware, a rustic estab- lishment, with two or three little girls to wait, in- stead of a footman, and as many large dogs for por- ters. In the morning, Mr. Couillard accompanied me to the mouth of the South River, which falls over a ledge of rocks into the St. Lawrence, below bis house, where the early fisherman was jus^ visiting his nets, stretched below the fall. We returned through the village, which is one of the neatest in the province ; the houses are placed in the Dutch fashion, with the gable end to the road. The num- ber of inhabitants in the whole parish is reckoned at 1500, who have among them 1000 children ; a good I ' «J ^N H ■ tl 60 HUEBEC TO KAMOUttASKA. proof, as Mr. Couillard seemed justly to think, of their populative difiposiiion. On entering nrhood, taking their furs nt a shilling earh, and selling them those commodities custom has rendered necessaiies, at their own price ; no pains, nor even violence bring spared, lo pre\ent any competition likely lo diminish their profits. A striking instance of Ihio spirit occurred last year at Pistole. Nearly opposite lo thcli trading posl is a Canadian (itlicry, the buslnes'* of which is.cenerally carried on during the spring, when the fish fiequent the south side of the river; last } ear, however, owing lo a scarcity of salt, it was necessarily put off until the auMimn, when the fish are fount! on the north bank; but when the fishermen attempted to pursue their vocation in this direction, ihey were set upon by an armed parly of Ihe subaltern agents of the Northwest Company, iheir oars and boat tack- ling destroved, and Ihemselves set adrift, at the mer« cy of the elements. Fortunately Ihey succeeded in g.iining the shore in thi^ condition, and are since understood lo have commenced a process against these lawless traders, who, themselves, unchartered monopolists, assumed Ihe possibility of these fisher- iiten communicating with ihe Indians, as a pretext for this unprovoked outrage. The road from IMidbay lo St. Paul's Bay, follows the direction of Ihe river, over a IrucI of mountain country, occasionally crossed by »leep glens, and covered with pine, cedar, elm, maple, birch, ««nd wild cherry : neither oak, nor hickory, are found so qUBBBC TO KAMOURASKA. er far north. Scattered settlements are every wliere met Willi along the roaii, and many an acre, on which the halt burnt pine-lrnnks arc Hiill stamling, lallier indicates the pi unless of cnlli\ation, than adds to the beaiily of tiie lands^cape. liaiher more than half way belwixl Malbay and St. Paul's liay, stands the little village of " Les Elioukuiens." 1 stopped my caleche a I the house of the ciii?, whose rosy (h bitn point, and good humour, oetckened him ey IIh; roiijcctiin- ; I Irurncd al'lfrwanN tliat lie was vi-ry [Htor, buiii|( very i^eun'uuv, and nu tavoiirilv willi Itic hiibop. 6a QUEBEC TO KAAIOUilASKA. : t*'. rv f and " fsle aux Coudres," lying, -like a ehield, on ifs biijjht waleis. St. Paid's Bay is a ftoiiridhin? little village, much reseiniiling iMalliay, in site and teature. The parish is reckoned to contain almiil '2000 inhabitants, the greater part of them seMled along the little river, whose mouth forms the bay, and which once proba- bly covered the hoil on which the village is built. From St. Paul's Bav to St. Joachim, there is a road flanned, but, as 1 had not leisnie to wait its making, procured a boat to take me roiUMl Cape Toruienio. ** Isle aux CouUres" lies within the bay ; it is one of the earliest settlements in Canada, and said still to. retain, with the simple manners, a considerable share of the national urbanity of its first colonis'. IVly boat's crew, lhou interior, howe>er, did not discreilil tlie**gnde wife's" character. The white-washed walU, against which hunIOVRA8KA. 69 crockery, neatly g liie St. Lawrence, about tour miles in lenglii, anu seldom h^dl'amile in its greatest breath. I'owarus either en, ris- ing preci|iiiousiy to the height ut' several Imndrcd feel, und thus eilectuajly protecting the terriliuy of this secluded colony troui the cliilting noitli-west winds,* is cloa'hed to the suiiinitt with d«ep u,ioves of pines, beeeli, and m iple ; tlie tatter ot' which adoid annually more than sulLcieni siig.ir tin the consump- tion ol' the inhiibitanls. Tne si vie ol their houses is at once siitistantial and rouiMiodioiis : uulls treslily white-washeil, and deltly •trimmed gaideiib, denote a * Kx|MMien raliiiind (M)iij('cliire, that it \s. to the severity u\' Itiis wiiid. swre|iiiiy; dver Ilie littalt n'ii,iiiiis of fliiil^oirs liay, iiiiil |||<< LaljiMiliM' lo.itl, iliai (lie tx nine v>h\ of liitwrr Canada ik |ii'iii<'i|mll,\ atlrilMilaliie. 'I'l.t' imi tli-Me>tiassai£e to lliis wind, oliviales tlie jfwu\ etl'itts of llie dieller atliiidrd l>y its lolly slioies. 'I'Jie village of l.a I'etite Itivien- serins iildelilnl tor its k« iiial ell* male to tlu' taviiiiratde (liy wliieii il is hliellered, t'or llie wind lo paik IbruiiKh. TO Q,nEBEC TO KAMOURASKA. Mr; } condition beyond flie mere grovellinj!; of exisfencc. They are grouped, or irregularly scaHered along (he road, each einbosoitied in its own (ufted orchard, at once the weaj/h and glory of its owner. This luxnri- ant abundance of fruit trees ia not only the most graceful feature of the scene, but a very striking pe- culiarity in the site and soil of this favoured spot, which produces app!es as abundantly, and of equal quality with those of Montreal ; plums, cherrifs, and currants no less plentifully : even the peach dei^ins to ripen here, though found no where besides in Cana- da, to the west of the Niagara frontier. Fruit is therefore the staple commodity of the villiige, and obtains for the inhabitants, not only the corn they have not space to raise in siitHcieni quantity for their consumption, but the few articles they are accustom- ed to consider the luxinies of life. At the lower en«l of the vill»aris, rum and tobacco; and on mv declining both, " What," said he," you neither drink run nor smoke tobacco ? How rich you must be !" I could not assent to his conclusion, though it would, in general, be just cno'igh if in the place of rum and tobacco, one should substitue the erpiivalent luxuries of more polish ed life. He informed me, the hamlet contain- aUKBEC TO KAMOtRABKA. 71 ed thirty fires, and one hundred and thirty grown iip persons ; or as he expressed if, " Cointnuniranls ;'* persons receiving the sacrameni : a criterion of popu- lation very common in Lower Canada, and very ill suited to most other countries. All his observations bespoke a mind cheerful and contented. He praised the excellence of the soil, and observed, it was one of the earliest settlements in Canada. " Their young men," he said, *' had gone out duiinc the war, but most of them had returned safe, for Sir George had always spared the Canasoon led by the halter, throunh laiirs au(' niendows, (ill emerging among (he rocks, a distant light directed us /; QUEBEC TO KAMODRASKA. to our boat, which lay, as the tide was low, some way in the stream, and we presently proceeded on our voyage. The cold star-heain enabled us to discern the diirk outline of Cape Turrnenlo, rising almost pcrptMidicidarly from the water':* edge, lis heii^ht is estinialed by the Canadians at liiOO feet ; but I should think 800 a sufiicK'.nt cillowance. 1 landed xoon alter dav ti.iwn, near S<. Joachim. Here is a house with lands, beloniiing to the (^nebec seminary, fiumed out uni(er (he in>)|ieclion ot a steward, i fancied the cut- . tivalion of them superiour in method, and (heir crops more abundant llun any 1 had seen. The soil is al- toa;ctlier alluvial, lying on a level willi the river, betwixt it and its rocky banks, us if redeemed from the water. iM y '^.tiiile, charioteer, or carter, (lor be it knowU) St Juachiin could furnish no costlier veliicle than a carl,) Irixing introduced himself to my notice, with a compliment lit the frankne<^s and honour of his own dr.dinsis, (of which, by-lhe-bye, 1 had some little d<)ubf,) proceeded to inloiui me of a far uu>re obvi- ou-* per'nliiMity in his character; '■^ qu^il ainioil bean- cotij) d jitser en clienihi." He followetl up this enun- ciation, or rather dcnuncialion, with a succession of interro:iatories, monolotfues, and eulogies on his steed " Papillon," (who liad certainly nothing volatile in his whole anatomy,) and good humouredly apologia* ed, from time to time, for his excessive lotpiacity, which he ascribed to an extreme thirst for inlorma* tiou ; witluuil adding, whether for giving or receiv- ing it. He expre:«sed much surprise at (he pains taken, an 10 [74] CHAPTER XIII. THE FALLS OF THE CHALDIERE. ' I I . t ' '! ' f The Falls of the Chaudicre are about four miles from the junction of the Chuiuiiere with (he St. Law- rence, which takes place on its soulh shore, five miles above Quebec. There are few who will not ac- count an excursion hither, anion;; the interesting days of their life. The wooded cliflfs of the St. Law- rence, with Sillori, and New Liverpool, looking out, on opposite siiles, froa) their romantic seclusion ; the broad expanse of the river itself, widening out from Cap Rouge, as the baslioned heights of Quebec seem to close its northern outlet ; the frequent sail) or heavy timber-rafi, "floating many a rood," pre- pare the mind, by a succession of pleasing objects, for the enjoyment of the scene which awaits it. Af- ter walking from the little cove, in •vliich you land, to the village of St. Nicholas, (about half a mile,) you are furnished with a conveyance, carl orcaleche, to within a mile of the Falls. The road turns from the village lhroN!!;h the fields, and after descending into a little pebbly streandet, passes through a deep wood, principally of pine and maple, in the middle of which, it ceases to be practicable for carriages ; you continue by a foolpalli, and suddenly emerge upon a ledge of rocks, whose disjointed masses, and strata, uplieavrd from their primieval bed, seem, while the rush uf waters thumiers around, to denote the iniinediate presence of some destroying minister of nature. Continuing over these rocks, you arrive at a crag, projecting midway acrosn the river, and THE FALLS OK THE CIIAUDIERE. 7h crested with a sinj^Ie cetlar. The Falls are now directly befoie you; Ihe river, "240 yards in breadth, precipitates itself above 100 perpeinliciilar feet; the bed of the fall is a red clay-slate, residarly, and even f^incifully penciled wiih ti)in layers of soft grey stone ; this gavely of colonring, while it ploasini;ly relieves the solemn grandeur of Ihe scene, lends a russet tinge to the tiescendin;; flood, \vhi)se broken masses foam in their descent, "like the mane of a chesnut steed." Part of it falls over a Icdije of rocks, at an oblique ans^le to the main charuiel, lorming a lesser cascade, which, but (or its mai^iitificent neighbour, would itself be an interesting;; object. Nearly on the line of the fails, a wall of granite, about six feet in height, and three in thickness, springs through the strata, forming the bed of the river, and traverses them in a straight line, until broken through by the lesser fall, beyond which a fragment of it appears again, seeming to in- dicate, that it had once extended across the torrent, and resisted its passage. There is no other appearance of granite immedi- ately round the falls, though immense masses of it cumber the stream about half a mile below them, and fortn considerable rapids ; viewed from this spot, the falls lie in beautiful perspective, beyond the cliffs, which project from either shore, in their front.* The surrounding scenery is grand and quiet. The stately woodii' have never bowed before the ravage of improvement, nor has the stream been tortined, and diverted from its channel, for tiie supply of grist and saw mills. The freshness of nature is in every sight and sound, and cold must be the heart that feels not a momentary glow, while thus standing in the presence of her wildest loveliness. * Tlie corresponding; posilioii of thrsp clitrs on Iwtli sides of llie Ktrrain, atfurdK siroii<>; n^asoii ti> think tlii>y once .''orminl part of llin ledge of tlid Kail, wliiuli has nioco worn its wa* backward to its present situation. 9 :U [76] CHAPTER XIV. ti i i I/- i\ ■ 1 ■ i,!f, QUEBEC TO MONTREAL. July 28th, Bridge or Jacques Cartier, •23tli. Three Rivers. :iOth, Falb of Shawinnegacnnie, August I"!. Berthier, •id, St Ours, 1 St \nloine, ?- St. Dt^nys, j BeJopil, 4th, liO(i|!UPil, Montreal, Miles. 33 63 Caleche. 21 Canoe. 40 Calecbe. 1 Ferry. 24 16 1 2 24 Caleche, 4 Ferry, 22G 1-2 7rateller8 frequently make a small detour to pass by (he Jacques Cartier bridge, six or seven miles above the ferry. The river comes widely down betwixt its wooded shores, and, after forming several cascades, foams through a narrow channel, which seerns chisselled out of the solid rock to receive it, and, having passed the bridge, buries itself from the eye of the spectator, in the deep valley below. The rock, which constitutes its bed, is formeu into re- gular platforms, descending by natural steps to the edge of the torrent. The Jacques Cartier is famous for its salmon, which are taken of a great size, and in great abimdance below the bridge, at the foot of which stands a little inn, where the angler may have his game cooked for supper, and sleep in the lull of the torrent below his chamber window. Its white-washed parlour is adorned with stuffed birds, fishing tackle, records of large fish caught, and such like sporting trophies. I supoed ingloriously, but heartily, on HCEBEC TO MONTREAL. 7r salmon I had not captured. After quitting ^Ihis neighbourhood, (he scenery of the St. Lawrence becomes flat and uniform. The high lands, which skirt the horizon of Quebec, fail oil" towards the north-west, leaving an expanse of level country as far as the hill, which the primitive settlers, in admi- ration of its solitary, and king-like emiiunce, ile- nominated the Royal Mountain. The road follows the liireclion of the river, sometimes running along th*t beetling clitV, which once cn)bankeil it, and «sonie- times descending to the water's edge, a'ong the nar- row alluvion lime has redeemed from its bed roumi with pine-clad mountains, re- fleeted from its limpitl b;>'*om. Ye( in (his seeming ■ecurify dwells (he i^reatesf danger: (he stream des- cending rapidly into it, frofn (he immediate vicinity of the falls, is unable (o find an exit with equal cele- rity at (he opponite point, where (he channel nar- rows ; part of it, therefore, makes a turn willjin the basin, am) produces a vortex about its centre, in which some of the early vova^eurs perished. The diflllcuity is eas.ly avoided, when known, by creeping * The Sr Vfjiui-ioo. rroin the dark coluur of its waton, il rorainoDly called the Black Uivur. TIIREB RIVERS, &C. ai close round the edge of the shore. About half a miie above the ba»in, the river again widens. The tumbling of waters is now heard diijtinctly ; nothing however is visible but a smooth sheet of wafer, at the bottom of which, a lofty barrier of wooded rocks forbids all further progress. CliH*s, equally lofty, rise on either side. It is not (ill you have nearly reached the shore in frcnt, that you perceive the Falls, rushing down on your right hand info a gloomy nook, which seeirts hollowed out for their reception. I should conjecture their descent to be about 100 feet i* but the fall is not perpendicular, and is di- vided by an islet, or mass of rocks, on which a few pine and cedar trees liave taken root. The current betwixt this island and the right bank does not ex- ceed the width of twelve yards. The extreme breadth of both falls together, may be sixty ; this, however, is not easily estimated, because no front view can be obtained, but from the perpendicular cliffs which form the elbow round then), and which I had no means of ascending. Much clauibering ii requisite to reach the head of the descent, for the regular carrying path cuts off the whole angle, and though my boatmen had repeatedly ascended the river to the highlands, (above TOO leagues,) they bad never before approached the Falls. The rocks round the foot of them are covered with trunks and limbs of trees, worn round and smooth, as if turned in a lathe, by the action of the torrent. After spreatling my repast on a granite table, and sharing my ruslick meal with my ronductors, we (taddled rapidly down tlie current, and by the aid of « bright moon, reached Three Uivers at ten o'clock, making forty-four miles in thirteen lours. * The diftrrrnt t'alli nml rapids Itotwijct \hv inoiitii of tli« rivrr, uiiti (lir );rcat fall, caiiiiot hv it« kuiinl h! \vss tlinii IIK> frrt nwvv : for tl»P whoir (irsn-nt l«i alon^ the rivers of llie west.* It is, however, not Ies8 retnarkable on the Si. Law- rence, and ils tributary sli'eains, as far as Lake On- tario. It is not only to be traced along the course of the river generally, but follows each bay and winding with a corresponding (lexure, thus indicat- ing, that the subscipient change in the volume of wa- ter iias taken place gradually, and without violence. I could never discover a single creek without this accompaniment, though the traveller repeatedly en- counters these banks, separaletl by a flat channel of eighty or a hundred yards in width, overgrown with trees, through which the track of a scanty streamlet is scarcely marked by a line of verdure, fresher than the a slopes warrants the belief, that few centuries havt* passed since the greater part of the cultivated iand of this continent was sub- merged in moruMs, and pouring ri\ers, which have * Tableau du tliuial, iic. i. p. 19. THRBH: RIVeHH, &.C. 8.'} aiiice entirely disappeareil, or lieen greafly reiliiced in their limits. Where the coiiiilry is ilat, this se- cond bank meat be 8uni:!;ht at a considerable distance from the pii^senl i.hannt;! ; so that a £;(Micral rise of fifty or sixty feet would probably oveillow cnnrh of the ndiabiled country betwixt the Jaques Carlier and Si. IManiici;, the whole neiulibonrhood of Lake St. Fclcr and the Richelicn river, to the fool of the BrUril IMoiiiitain, with the soiithwcBt shores of the Montreal Ulan!, a!i*l the greater part of the npper nio\ince, be.wixt the Ottawa and the neighbour- hood of Pie*«'olt. Havitiij; ferri«ul iVom Hcrlhier to Conlrccuenr, 1 proccedfd, "fit citlerlie.'* with two Ciebillons, to- wards St. Oiiis, in the direction of the Beloeit Monn- tain, towerinu. in the nnsly horizon. The meadows were profusely decorated with the rich orange lily, anil the banks and dingles with the crimson cones of the Mimack, and a variety'* of (lowerin); shrubs. Se- veral brills and merchant-^ships were tliopping down wiih the tide, their crowded sailtf scarcely swelling in the lan<^nid summer brec/e, which just sufliced tu temper the ^,lowing atmofiphere of August. The Canadian summer (Ihcugh the present year formed in some degree an exception) is hot in pro- portion to the severity of the winter, which enables the cultivator to raise Indian corn, water melons, gourdH. capsicunif, and such vegetablis as reipiire u sIh ri and intense heat; a circumstance which lends the country the aspect of a Portuguese sum- mer, by way of appendix to a UiiHsian winter. M. Volney observes, (torn. i. p. KM,) that this is the case along the whole extent of She Atlanlick coast, as far as the Koutlieiii slates ; each portion of which is both hotter in MuuMiier, and colder in winter, than its parallels in Kiirope, by many decrees. The greatest heat ex|)erienci.d thin summer (esteemed a very cold one) at (Quebec was 1)2** of Fahren. In the shade, HO" and tt'i"* were averu^^e temperatures during July and August. iM r .« [«4 ] 't ■■ 1 .r I (• CHAPTER XV. THE BEIXEIL MOUNTAIN. On my arrival at the iinfrequeDted village of Beloeil, I iHOceedeii, according to the travelling custom in Cuniida, to the house of the curd, who generally Gonhiderd, in the remoter parts of the country, the trilling chargea of huspitaiily repaid by the novelty ot a Htrangcr's, visit, and by the little news he cora> monly brings with him ; but the cure of Belocil was a youth ot the new school, a cold lanky figure, as dilTereut from my mountain friend in manners, as in appearance. With a very stifT apology* he recom- mended me and my baggage to a neighbouring au- berge, where I found more tolerable accommodation than the exteriour seemed to promise ; it had, how- ever, one puzzling quality, but which could be ex- hibited in wet weather only ; wheu the shutters were open, the whtdows would not keep out the rain, and when they were closed, they would not let in the light, so that |for one wet forenoon I had to choose betwixt darkness and deluge. The next morning I again crossed the river, and proceeded towards the mountain, which towered like a wall of rock above the tlat country round it. A few wretched houses are scattered at its base, the inhabitants of which subsist chiefly by the produce of their apple-or- chards, whose luxuriant verdure richly embowvPrs (he whole slope, until the ascent becomes difficult. At the end ol this hainiet is a mill, built on the edge of a ravine, and turned by the streamlet of (iie mountain-lake descending down it. Here 1 stopped to breakfast i for the mill lervea in the capacity of THE BKLOCIL MOUNTAIN. 85 r Beloeil, ustom in generally ntry, the novelty he com- e'iI was a giire, as rs, as in e recom- iring au- tnodation ul, how- 1 be ex- ers were rain, and t in (he ) choose orning I u'ds (he above hoiinea which pple-or- ibowv»rs iflicult. 10 edge of the topped at il^ of an inn, to the few whom chance may mislead, or repentance for the sin of ghittony induce to stop at it. I found, however, bread, milk, and fresh eiigs, (but no tea-spoon to eat them with,) and paid (he price of a London hotel breakfuMl ; a strong proof of the actual want prevailing in (he province. To avoid the (hick murky air of (he dwelling, I had my table placed out of doors, in the shade of (he houne, and breakfasted to (he a;es, fadin*; in the distance: except in this direction, the whole pros- pect is a level plain of woodland, intersected and 8[)<>ited with brown patches of cultivation, and white villa;;es. Volumes of smoke, from the casual, or intentional burning of woods, every where clouded the horizon, and seemed to give additional heat to Ihe glowing landscape. Tiie basis of the mountain is granite, forming a bold termination to that branch of Ihe Oreen M(tnn- (ains, which divides Ihe wnlers of lake Cham|)lain from Ihe sources of Ihe A.tamasca and St. Fran- cis.f Qn mv way down, I stopped to refresh my- self at a delicious Sjiring, in the valley of the lake, repaying the favour, as I could best afford, with an idle verse : — h/i I Seldom. O Niiiad, thy ^n(|iiKster*d dell Hath pil^rriin trodJeii, or Ifiit o'er lliy well To slakf^ ills tliirst, and lavo his throl>l)in<<; brow, And thank Iheo lor th«.' Ihion, as I do now ! Tliiiio is no sliiiliul draiiti;lit, ttiit larj^Kly eiven As hlpssihi^s art; raiit'd dovrn on man Ity hcav'n ; Not as mm i^ivos to man — Tlinr«'lon! I'll thmk, In tutiini days, npon tliy grassy brink. And nameless spriiiK; ; cold, undistnrb'd and clnar, As Alpino iriclcs, or holy snor, * Till' hcif^hl of this piuuaule hai buuu ascertained to be 140() icnt. f Volncy oljsorrrH, i, 49. " liC sitmmct di< la monta^nc dc IIcIumI oM do }|;ranit, anlii quo lo rhainoii di>s miinU<{n)^s lilanchuK de Ne«r Hampshire auquel on puut dire qn'il appartiont." I'l % ^ iTtained to be THE DELCEIL MOUNTAIN. Whose bosom passion never touched with fire : And this iiay*8 imMiiory shall live fntire, To tell how on an August noon I toil'd To gain Hi-'la^rs rude summits; all hemoil'd With threading tluUiot wilderness of iMUghs, Whose intcrtwiniiiL -ranty path allows; And climhuig rocks oi ^^ranite, broad and bare, Which, thus upheaving their grey sides in air, Like Nature's altars seem ; or giant thrones, Where mountain (ienii sit, to catch the tones Of 'teav'n's high minstrelsy, and thence prolong In v/aterlalls and breexes, the deep song. The peak at length, and topmost stone I won, And guz'd upon the lanilscape, wide and dun; Far-gleamini: lakes, and the majestick river, Whosesilver waters through the brown fields quiver; Broad forests uiapp'd all round, the royal bill, In sultry mistiness repos'd and still : Descending thence, I hail thy silent bow^r. In its gr^'cn frcsjinrss, at this glowing boiir, When birds are panting in the leafy brakes. And the biytbe grasliopprr shrill miisick makes, A uoonlide rev»'ller— and long for thee Be this, (by vaMey of (he iiiouiitain, free From woodman's stroke; so o'er (by shaded spring These tower ng maples shall their verdure fling. And, shield- like, their broad branches overspread. To fence (be <-oolness of thy mossy bed — My harp is feeble, \aiad, and its tone Best heard by echoes, lonely as thine own, Kise, Willi Kaiulusia's fountain, thou shouldst live Th' immortal life sweet jMietry can give. Thou, and thy kimlred lake, whose moonlight brim, ) No Kummer elves have printed, gemm'd and (rim, > Gvok'd by tdiepberd's reed, or minstrel's hymn. S sr ^ { I 08 J CHAPTER XVI. MONTREAL. m\'\l i't The basis of the Montreal Mountain is freestone; th»? asrent is connequently less steep, and the siir- fa«'f* (ess broken, than those of Beloeil : it is thickly woou, crowned with his sta'ue.* Ttie religious auf' charitable institutions of Mon- treal are counterparts of those at Quebec. The principal Catholick church is rich and handsome. The protestant church, like its brother at Quebec, will probably decay ere finished. Tliere seems BO nethin.; in the Canadian climate, unfavourable to the 2;iowth of Protestant churches, thou£;h the En- glish inhabitants are great friends to Protestant as- cendancy ; a feeling less costly than church build- inz,' The college, or seminary, a capacious stone building, has been lately repaired and enlarged. It was originally endowed as a branch of the seminary of P iriji ; and has afforded an asy'um, since the re- volution, to several of the members of the latter, whost: learning and talents have been employed in its advancement. f The fineKt lands of the island * It si*f>my small hoops of wicker, on ttie expos- ed tide. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 1.1 11.25 lis ■ 25 ^ li^ |2.2 lU ■ 2.0 ^U4 Photographic .Sciences Corporation 9S WHT MAIN STMIT WHSTH.N.Y. I4SI0 (7U) •73-4S03 > 4 r/. ^^ :\ V -% 92 MONTREAL TO THE BOUNDARY. ! 1 The bustle of the road had all vanished by the time I entered (he little wood immediately round the ferry, and was succeeded by a scene of quiet splen- dour, that Claude would have delighted in. 1 seated myself on a rock, near the water's edge, lo admire it. An orchard, belonging to (lie ferry-house, with the adjacent wood, closed the back ground : oti my right, the river spread otit into the lake of the Two Moun- tains, whose blue summits bounded the pioHpect in that direction : on my left was a lilt'e church of grey stone, stained with moss, and going fast to decay ; beyond which, on the opposite shore, lay the mas- sive woods of L'Isle Perroi : the ri\er in front of me (which is here about three miles over) was spotted with numberless rocky islets, behind which, the sun, sinking in a flood of golden (ire, presented, in beauti- ful relief, the dark clumps of pine trees, which seem- ed pencilled out on their summits. A herd of cattle at this moment came down lo water, and as they loi- tered listlestsly in the glassy stream, seemed to share, with man, in the tranquil feelings of the scene and hour. The ferryman's broad straw hat, and light canoe, now appeared ; and as we paddled swiftly by these many little island-bowers, towards the glowing west, fancy may be pardoned for half sketching a Fassage lo the Elysian fields, or enchanted gardens of talian romance. The blaze of sun-set had mellowed into the purple tints of evening, before we reached the opposite shore : I proceeded by moonlight to the Cedars, where I procured lea, by knocking up a civil landlord, and the next morning went on to " Coteau- du-Lac," between which, and Cornwall, runs the boundary line of the two provinces. After quitting the neighbourhood of IVIontreal, we lee little of the French Canadian ; he is succeeded by settlers of a character very ditTerent ; and with whom he is generally placed in humiliating contrast. lie gains lillle by travellers ; few enter his cottage, 0r ioquiiitively scan the character of an ignorant and /*■ MONTREAL TO THB BOUNDART. 93 Buperstilious race, who aspire to little more than to Walk in the steps of their prieslH, and loiefalhers. Certainly, if intellectual power be the sole measure of human merit, their's lies in little compass. — Ignoiunt they unqneiitionably are, though I lioubt whether they have a right to such extreme pre-eminence in this respect, as Enp;lishmen are usually libtMal enough to assign them. Schools are common through ilie Province, and the number of colleges seems propor- tioned to the population : the gentry and tratiesimen appear not much inferiour in information to ilic voun- Uy gentlemen and tradesmen of wiser natii>ns ; and if the share of the peasant's intellect exceeds noi much that of the ox he drives, he iniy claim fellowship in this respect, with the pea^iiint of almost every cunnlry on the globe, except the Uwited Stales, lie is cer- tainly superstitious, that is, he believes all his piirst tells him — no great peculiarity. Let not, ho' c\rr, those qualities be overlooked, whit h give a grace to his poverty, sweeten the cup of his privations, and almost convert his ignorance into bli'*8. — K"»Miii;illy a Frenchman, he is gay, courteous and conlenicfl : If the rigours of a Canadian climate have somewhat chilleil the overflowing vivacity derived from liis pa- rent stock, he has still a sullirii-nt portion of g*/od spirits and loquacity, to make his rulers :ind nei;:.h- bours seem cold and silent: To strangers and travel- lers, be is invariably civil, seemin;: to v.ilne I heir good word beyond their money : lie is reckoned J)arsimonious, because all his gains arise from his sav- ngs : He is satisfied with the liuiidilest fare, and his utmost debauch never exceeds a " coup" of nnn, and f>ipe of tobacco, taken with a dish &' gossi|>, I lie only uxury in which he can be accouDtctI extravauant. The influence of the priests is pro! ably injnrinns, as it atTects mental improvement, benc'leial u'lli re~^i»e( t to morals. Religion, or rather superstition, and p n- rality, are so birmled in (he mind of the ( .ucMlii.n, (hat were the former shaken, considerable timt must 1 111, ^ I ;•' ' ' j', '■ii \i 94 MONTREAL TO THE BOUNDARY. elapse before any basis could be raised on which to found the latter. At present, great crimes are almost unknown, and petty ufTences are rare ; I have indeed heard the lower classes accused of a propensity to pilfer, but I am inclined to think, few instances of this kind occur, e^ccept from the pressure of extreme want. The late war, by calling out a considerable Eroportion of the population to serve in the militia, as produced an eviiJ.' { ', ^ ' 'Tis a sad waste of life to ascend the St. Lawrence in a batteau. After ad.niring the exertions with which the CinaHiio baattnen, w'lo see'ii to liave ex- clusive poHHes'iion of this e n}>ii)yfnenf, force their Ion,; 1il-b')flo n^ii barks against the rapiiU, there is nofdin^ left bit to gaze listlessly on the descending current, an I its low wojJetl shorjes ; while the mono- tony of the oir-stroke i* scarcely broken by the oc- casionil rustling of a wild dirk through the sedge, or cry of the A Q»rican king-fisher, as he darts froTi 80 ne hinging bough on his scaly prey. It cost us 15 hoiirs to row fro n Coteau dn-Lac to Corn will, with bill one incident during the vo\rage ; this wns a piirchise, or rather barter, of bisi'iiit for dried eels, with a party of half-naked In lians, who n we found idly occupied, under a clump of trees on the shore, in curing the produce of their fishery. Several of their birch cinoes were anchored among the islands, or glancing along the stream, as we passed the neigh- bourho'>d of St. Regis, where the Oswegatcbies have a settlement. A sta;e-wiggon runs from IVIjutreal to Prescott, and carries the mail, which is afterwards conveyed on hir.ieb.ick to Kingston ; ( took it at Cornwall, and can answer for its being one of the roughest convey- ances on either side the Atlantick. n ^ 4 :-*tftr;^* '*>«',—. •• ..V* ._•■(•»* UPPER CANADA. 97 The face of the country is invariably flat ; and, (as in Lower Canada,") settlements have not spread far froiu (he river, and main road, which follows its banks. There is, however, an evident dilference betwixt the two provinces, as to the mode of settling. The system ol'farming is here altogether Etiglish, or Ame- rican. The low, deep-roofed Canadian dwelling, gives place to the English farm-house, or Yankey fir- boarded mansion, with a dozen sash windows in its front. Instead of churches we have taverns ; gaols, and assembly-roomd for convents ; and a half sulky nod for a French bow. Two Canadian postillions never meet without touching their hats ; the Portu- guese peai^antry are equally ceremonious ; when the American or Englishman nods, '(is like the growling salutation of a masdtf, who has no( quite leisure enough to (urn and quarrel with you. The picturesque is but scantily spread through this tract of counlry ; occasionally, however, on emerging from a dark clump of pines, or hickory Kood, the eye dwells with pleasure on the course of (he river, broken with wooded islands, and foaming over a thousand rocks.* The chirp of the locust, (he continual tapping of the redheaded wood- pecker, {picas erythrocephidus,) and the light bound of the squirrel, as he traverses (he newly erected fences, are sights and sounds which enliven, what, as far as regards the features of (he coun(ry, may be called a somewhat heavy journey. Prescott is remarkable for nothing but a square redoubt, or fort, called Fort VVelling(on. As a military traveller, I should observe, there is a small fort at Coleau-du- Lac, through the works of which a lock has been cut, to avoid a dangerous rapid. — I found the ac- comodations at Prescolt so bad, (hat I seated my ■elf at midnight in a light waggon, in which two gen- * There in a mill and small Tillage, within a Tew miles of Cornwall, named ** Milleroclies,** from the aiyacent rapidi. 13 a" I n 1 ,,;i^i 11 '^-„ m UPPER CANADA. tiemen were going to Brockville, and was thus so far jumbled into their acquaintance, that thev politely offered me a passage to KingHlon, in a boat belooi^ing to the navy, which was waiting for them at Biock- ville. I am always unlucky on the water, whether it be in crossing the ocean, or a duck pond: The wind [Koved contrary, and our heavy boat pulled slowly against the current ; it was, however, not so bad as the batteau voyage : 1 had the advantage of agreeable company, and a good provision basket, the contents of which were spread, towards noon, on a granite table, near the shore ; a kettle was boiled at an adjacent cottage, and an excellent breakfast ar- rani!;ed, " sub tegminefagi.*^ Occasional repetitions of this ceremony tended evidently to relieve the te- dium of the journey, which lasted till the evening of the day after our embarkation. The river banks, from the neighbourhood of Brock- ville, are of limestone, from 20 to 50 feet in height, and evidently grooved, or hollowed, by the tides of former age^t. Immense masses of reddish granite are scattered along the bed of the stream, and some- times pri^ject bare and bold from the shore. On one of these projections there is a blockhouse, form- ing a prominent object at a considerable distance. The islands which crowd the approach to Lake On- tario, called, from their number, 1000 isles, have all a granite basis, but are cloathed with cedar, pine, and abundance of raspberries ; The bed of the Ga- nanoqua is also of granite, and the lofty banks of the Kingston river, near the mills, are of the same rock, which probablv crosses the'country near the heads of the Oswegatchie, Muskinsons, Juniatta, and Ap- palusia rivers (the latter of which has a fall of 150 feet,) till it strikes, by Lake Champlain, the ridge of the Bejccil mountains. The Gananoqua is rising into importance, from the circumstance of a neir •ettlement being formed, under the auspices of go- vernment, on the waters^ with which it communi- catcB. ^ ,# DPPER CANADA. 99 This settlement lies on the head lakes of the Ri- deau, and is meant to secure a communication be- twixl Montreal and Kingston, by way of the Utiana, in case of another war : The settlers are chietly disbanded soldiers, who clear and cultivate under the ' superintendance of officers of the quarler-master-ge- neral's department. Each man draws rations for himself and family, the expenise of which is about five shillings per ration, so that it may be justly call- ed a hothouse settlement. A canal has been cut to avoid the falls of the Rideau, and the communica- tion, eith>ite, lor naval piirpubes; it consists of three parts, disposed thus : — # ■ !^ 'i « ""r^*. 100 OFFER CANADA. V:^-l The basis of the soil is a complete quarry of lime- itoiie, ditiposed in horizontal strata, on the surface of the earth, and requiring only (o be raised with a lever, to be fit for use. The fort, which was merely a field work during the war. Is now finishing with stone dug from its own foundation ; and, having two stout Marteilo lowers, already looks formidable from the lake : it is meant chiefly to defend the navy- yard, which it commands. There are batteries on Point Frederick; and on the point of the town, which is pallisaded, and strengthened with block- houses. I( contains some good houses, and stores; a small theatre, built by the military for private thea- tricals ; a large wooden Government-house, and all the appendages of an ex(eneive military, and naval establishment, with as much society as can reasona- bly be expected, in a town so lately created from the " howling desert." The adjacent country is flat, stony, and barren ; a circumstance which per- haps increases the kind of interest peculiar to the place : do you approach it by land ? The road lies through a tract of forest, in the midst of which the first rude traces of population are scarcely visible : do you come by water ? Uncultivated islands, and an uninterrupted line of wooded shore, seem conduct- ing you to the heart of a wilderness, known only to the hunter, and his prey : you emerge from a wood, double a headland, and a fleet of ships lies before you, several of which are as large as any on the ocean: others, of equal dimensions, are building on the spot, where, a few months since, their frame- timbers were growing. Two sources of aslonish- ment here rise in the mind : first, the magnitude of the resources called into action ; secondly, the ob- ject which called them forth. Of the first, some idea may be formed, by considering that the St. Lawrence alone cost 300,000^ The Psyche fri- gate, sent from England in frame, cost 12,000/. in transporting from Quebec. The Commissariat dis- ■«Jf*"«L^4y ■. ^,fi.- UPPER CANADA. 101 bursements at Kingston, during the war, were esti- mated at 1000/. per diem. The present expense of the naval establishment is about 25,000/. per an- num : the navy -yard employs 1200 labourers."^ For the object, on one side, there is America, with << millions on millions" of acres beyond what her po- pulation can fill up, on the other, England, contend- ing for, and expending her best blood and treasure in defence of, a country, one half of which is little better than a barren waste of snows, and the other, a wild forest, scarcely intersected, by a thread of population. This is the "gfrosjeu" of society. * Considerable reductions have lately taken place in the whole establishment. "* Jit rvff-t.i ■'■*. . iC ^j' hi- •»> ^,'A> V- * » [ 102 1 CHAPTER XIX. IINGSTON TO THB BAY OP ftUINTE. '■.'M ^ Ernest Town Adolphus Town Lake of the Mouatain 18 Miles. 14 2 IT This is the most interesting excursion in the neigh- bourhood of Kingston. Adolphus Town is pleasant- ly situated on the neck of the bay. Its farms are thriving, and cultivation is pushing rapidly through the forests, round the numerous streams and bays, which water every part of the adjacent country. After crossing the ferry, two miles beyond Adol- Ehus Town, I ascended a limestone did', to the lake of the Mountain, immediately on its verge : recent measurements have fixed its height at ITd feet : the lake may be a mile in circucnference, and abounds in fish : it formerly discharged itself into the river by a perpendicular fall from the summit of the cliflf: the channel of the cascade still remains, but the stream is more profitably, though less taste- fully, employed in working a mill. From this Ta- ble Land the eye commands a lovely prospect, along the irregular shores of the bay, into which the river Nappanee, and a variety of streams, empty themselves, through a rich country, the dark mas- liveness of whose forests is already considersrlily broken, and relieved by settlements and corn-fieli a. Wheat harvest was just now (August 16tb) begii- ling ID this neighbourhood, and generally through '« KINGSTON TO THE BAT OP qVINTE. 103 Upper Canada. Excepting the river Nappanee, on which the Mohawks have a settlement, all the names rnunil this bay are right loyal, or royal, from Ernest Town, to Adolphus Town, Prince Edward's Bay, Sophiasberg, Maryflberg, and Ameliasberg, on the furthest neck of land at its head. This happy choice, if the inhabitants had any thing to do with it, speaks well for their politicks. Their morals are no less refined, being, to judge from their names of things, modelled on the Pialonick system. I re< quested the fair Maritornes of the inn at Adolphus Town, to feed my horse, while I walked through the village. " But is he ugly ?" said she ; ** handsome enough to be fed," I answered ; not then compre- hending, that in the language of the country, she elegantly alluded to his moral qualities, of which alone beauty, or deformity may be truly predi- cated. The road from Ernest Town to Kingston runs, for the most part, through forest ; but the heaviness of the scenery is frequently relieved by the course of some quiet creek, descending betwixt its rocky hi Vs to the lake, which gleams at irt^tervals through the trees. The summer stillness of^the landscape seemed forcibly to contrast itself wjth the sights and sounds of war, which had so~*laiiely prevailed there; and, as the inhabitants declare, Jiad frighten- ed all the deer and wolves back to Lake Huron : certain it is, they have lately become Very scarce, so the fact is poetically credible. t Ontario's ample breast is still. And silence walks tlie distant h\\\; And siiitimor barks are gently gliding, Wliere lately yonder war-towers riding Seem'd, like leviathans, to load The bosom of the groaning flood. Oft as grey dawn broke o'er the wave, Each hostile line stern greeting gavs, And oft. beneath the setting sun, « Responsive peai'd each heavy gun. It "ill /"i vi. I < » ■1 «■■ ■•■', ■•#■ 104 KINGSTON TO THE BAY OF QCINTB. ^ Then crouch'd the midoight ambuscade, i T Within the pine-wood's pillar'd shade, And Indian war-notes fiercely rose, A death-dirge to unwary foes. As burst their murdering attack Upon the drowsy Bivouack. Round leagci-ed fort, and post, and ford. The crashing shell and cannon roar'd, Till rung th' alarum of the fray, •» From old Toronto's* quiet bay, To rhere Niagara madly pours His uoiiing tide 'twixt mountain shores : — The eagle, whose broad wing was spread Above the cataract's wild bed, Scar'd by unwonted thunders, rose To hang the nest of his repose. Where cedars desolately wave ^i- O'er Naniboja's island-grave :f No wolf bis moon-light hunt pursued, * By Erie's forest sol'-tude. But cowering from his covert ran, Dr\>ading the lordlier chase of man; ^ Nor dar'd th' unhunted stag remain Near his lov'd haunts, and green demesne, But far from sounds of human slaughter. He strays by Huron's distant waler. * The Indian name for York, where formerly was an Indian town. t One of the IMnnitoulin islands. For the story, yid. Hen- ry's Travels la Canada, in 17«U and 1776, p. liS. '9 >. ■ .vt;;'. J • ■• ) '1.'. '■' ^ i - i«' 1 *:> « ♦ * I ' ' -t^: , # [ 105] CHAPTER XX. WESTERN COUNTRY OP NEW YORK. as an Indiao .▼id. Hen- •■ „ > •i ;i < • : .^. J(;u8t 31 8t, Sackett'8 Harbour, 36 Vliles. Packet. pt. Ist, Wntertown, 10 1 Vaggon. 2d,' DftunHrk, 17 Martinsberg, 14 * 3d, Tur.n, 9 Leyden, 19 iitftiben. 17 Trniton, ) 13 Uticn, < Atli, New Hartford, 4 Vernon, 11 Chenango, 17 Manlitis, 6 - Jainejivillp, 5 OuoiidBgo Hollow, 5 li^ MarcelluH, 10 . bkaiienctas. 6 6tb. Auburn, 8 N Aureliui, 4 Cayuga, A Geneva, 1» Canandaieua, 16 Stage, 7th, Biirninii Spring 8 Rocliester, 3U Jeriiey waggoo ttli, & 0th, LewiRtown, by the Bridge road, 80 Stage. 364 Sackrtt's harbour haR a mean appearance after Kin<^»ton ; ilH Hitiiation Ih low, the liuibuiir hijiuII, and fort ifi cat iuiifl of very inditKt rent conHtriiclion, both as to form anil inateriuU. The navy-yurd conMiHta merely of a narrow loni^ne of land, the |> int of which afiurdH just space RutticieDt tor the cunitruc- 14 f m i^r- ■•^ .-f* * M^ 106 WESTERN eOUNTRV OF NEW YORK. :h f tion of one first-rate vessel, with barely room for workshops, and stores, on the remaining part of it. One of the largest vessels in the world is now on the stocks here; her dimensions are li)6 feel keel, by 57 beam ; she is built over, to preserve her, and may literally be said to be housed : there is an ob- servatory on the top of the building, commanding an extensive view of the lake, and flat wooded country. About a mile up the river, there is another vessel of equal dimensions, built, and housed, literally in the woods. The town consists of a long street, in the direction of the river, with a fe\r smaller ones, crossing it at right angles: it covers less ground than Kingston, and has fewer good houses ; it has, how- ever, the advantage of a broad flagged footway, while the good people of Kingston, notwithstanding the thousands expended in their town, and the quar- ries beneath their feet, submit to walk ancle deep in mud, after every shower. Whence this difference ? The people of Kingston are not poor, ignorant, French Canadians, but substantial, active, Scotch or English traders. Probably it lies in this, that the Americans are at home, while the English Canadian considers himself as a temporary resident, for the purpose of making a fortune (o spend in hia native country. The fortifications at Sackett's are so inconsidera- ble, that one is equally surprised that the American government should have left their naval depdt so inadequately protected, and that our army should have failed to take it. An American naval officer, who obligingly showed us through the navy yard, related by what singular accident the place waa saved ^from Sir George Prevosl's attack; an anec- dote I have since heard confirmed, from a variety of sources. The garrison consisted almost entirely of militia, under General Brown, and ran away on the first cannonade, leaving a few artillery-men in the fort, who w«i^e preparing to abandon it; the I] \i > .♦ WESTERN COUNTRY OP NEW YORK. lOl buildings of llie navyyartl were already on fire. The general having in vain atlemjited to stop his panick-slrnck soldiers, crossed (heir flight, at the end of the street leading towards Brounville, declaring, that if they would run, (hey should not run towards home, and so turned them otf to the Oswego road, which runs obliquely in the direction of the right flank of the Britinh forces, as they had landed from Horse island. The latter perceiving a considerable force moving rapidly in this direction, concluded they bad been falsely inlbrmed of the strength of the American force, and actually gave up the attack, through fear of being cut ofl'by the runaways. On such conlingences depend the laurels of war. The Government of the United States not only preaches, but practises economy. The establish- ments at Sackelt's are on the most moderate scale. Two regiments of the line, with a proportion of ar- tillery, for garrison duty, 80 men in (he navy-yard, and one boat, the Lady of the Lake, in commission : what dreadful havor.k would this parsimonious go- vernment make at Kingston !^ The road from Sacketl's to Watertown Forks, at about three miles from the former, leads on the left to Brownville, a thriving little village, on the banks of the Black ri\er, about five miles from its mouth. It is named from general Brown, wliose property and residence are here. This gentleman was one of the few fortunate American generals in the late war. lie was not bred a military man, but suc- ceeded, from the command of the militia of the dis- trict, to the command of the frontier army ; I be- lieve, chiefly, because the United Slates government had no regular general at hand, to take the situation. He is a plain, shrewd man, and carried this charac- m li * There wore in rommiKsinn, wlicn I was there, the Itrf^rnt 74, .Montreal, and .star, sloops of war, and Charvillr, a large, new transport, built slnrc the war, rupahle of transporting the persons and property of almost all the lake population. ■''^m^-.'f m 108 WESTERN CODNTRT OF NEW YORK. ter into bis military operations. He has also the merit of having never unnecessarily aggravated the calamities of war. From Brownville there is a new road opened, across the head of Chaumont's bay to Gravelly Point, opposite Wolfe's island, (about fourteen miles.) From Gravelly Point there is a ferry of a mile,, to the island, and another, of three, from thence to Kingston. 1 took this route, in company with a friend, to escape a tedious passage in the packet ; and happening to laml on Wolfe's island, nearly at Bun-set, we had to walk, or rather wade across it, (for 'tis wood and bog from beginning to end, about seven miles,) in the dark ; a jaunt 1 would recom- mend no one to repeat, without good reason, at the same hour. This new road seems intended to open the Kingston market to the produce of the fertile country of the Black river. At present a few log- buts, and patches of burnt timber, are the only marks cultivation has set on this tract of country. We passed two or three sportsmen, -sitting by the road- side, with iheir rifles, watching for deer. W^ater- town is an elegant village,"^ on the Black river, about four miles above Brownville. The basis of the soil is limestone ; a broad rock of which, several acres in extent, divides the river, just at the town ; the right branch, after breaking into several smaller falls, precipitates itself about 30 feet, and continues its course down a craggy valley ; a paper mill stands on the left branch, which descends more gradually. Large masses of rock strew the banks below, as if severed from above by the action of floods and rains; several cedar trees have been left so near the edge, that they have bent down for want of support, and continue clinging, with their roots uppermost. * The Amerirans, at least the Yankies, call their towni, Tillagei ; applying the teruii towoi to what wecaHa township. ii .i.r WDSTERN COUNTRY OF NEW YORK. 109 A youth, belonging to the village, conducted me under (he banks, towards the mill, and lesser fall, to an amphitheutrical range of natural steps, or benches in ihe rock, with a flat ceiling of limestone, about fit'leen feet in breadth ; the whole of it abound- ing in shells. On the island are numerous fossil impressions of fish, seemingly of the eel kind, with the spines in perfect preservation. Higher up the river is a large cotton mill, beyond which, the banks on both sides continue to rise boldly, thickly cloathed with maple, beech, and elm, whose deep shade, waving over the narrow stream, may probably have given it its name. VVaferlown contains about 1*200 inhal)it- ants, chiefly emigrants from New England. 'J'he bouses are generally of wood, but tastefully finished : brick, however, is coming fast into use ; and begins every where to prevail, as soon as experience has pronounced the soil, or situation of a township to be capable of any considerable improvement. Here is a good tavern, which, besides the acci- dental advantage of coming after the Wapping inns of Sackett*s, afliirded us the rare luxury of a pri- vate sitting-room, and a dinner at an English, that is, at our own hour. We found the church-} nrd worth a walk, not for the elegance of its monuments, or classick beauty of the epitaphs, but for its pleas- ing site, on a rising ground beyond the villa;;e, com- manding an interesting view of the falls and course of the river. It is, moreover, neatly kept ; a mark of respect to its silent tenants, too frequently nevlcclcd in the States. Within a few miles of Watrrtown the country rises boldly, presenting a reftesihiiig contrast of hill and valley, to Ihe flat, heavy woods, through which we had been labouring from Sarketl's. The road, turning near Denmark, ascends tlie val- ley of the Black River by its left bank. The bunks on either side are lofty, presenting, on the opposite shore, unbroken and majestick masses of forest : on n I! no WESTEllN COUNTRY OF NEW YORK. (! r I : the western side the soil is good, and coming rapidly into cultivation. A fe\v pine barrens occasionally intervene, upon sand mixed with blocks of talkous granite, rounded, and scattered down the water- courses. Indian corn seerns the slaple grain, as it generally is, on lands newly cleared, but altno«t the whole of this year's crop has been destroyed by July and August frosts. On the 28lh of August there was ice at Kingston Mills, jV ^^ 3» '"ch in thickness, and this inclemency was general, as far as Carolina. Here and there, I observed fields that had escap- ed ; and sometimes a small porlion of a field would be untouched, while the remainder was as brown, as if scorched by fire. On examining these exceptions more narrowly, I was induced to believe, they were all indebted, for their escape, to a situation more or less protected fro;n the N. E. winds, which by sweeping over deserts of ice, and forest, from the pole, become the chief agents of cold through the whole continent. The inhabitants, indeed, seemed more inclined to ascribe these escapes to the proxi- mity of streams, which had mitigated the frost; but frequently the bottom of a field had suffered, while the slope escaped: A valley crop was sometimes cut off, and a hill-crop uninjured. Betwixt Sacketl's and Watertown, 1 observed several fields sloping to the roid, (thit is facing nearly south,) with a broad belt of timlier, on the crest of the hills be- hind them, perfectly green and flourishing, while the whole valley, fro n IMirtinsberg to Utica, down which the road forms a N. W. funnel, or wind course, was blighted, except where occasional angles, or returns, afforded a partial shelter. If these ob- servations should be correct, it would seem no in- judicious precaution, in clearing lands, to leave a sufficient belt of timber to shut out the winds most likely to prove fatal ; that is, the N. E. and N. W. WEBTERiV COUNTRY OF NEW TOKK. Ill from which quarters unseasonable frosts may always be expected. Utica stands on the ri;;ht bank of the Mohawk, over which it is approached by a covered wooden bridge, of aome length. The appearance of the town is highly prepossessing : the streets are spa- cious; the houses large and well-built, and the stores (the name given to shops throughout America)* as well supplied, and as handsomely filled up, as those of New York or Philadelphia. f There are two ho- tels, on a large scale ; for one of which, the York House, I can answer, as being equal in arrangement and accommodation, to any hotel beyond the Allan- tick : it is kept by an Englishman from Bath. The number of inhabitants is reckoned at from 3 to 4000; they maintain four churches — one Episcopal, one Presbyterian, and two VVelcli. To judge from the contents of three large buok-slorcs, I heir literary taste inclines chiefly towards theology and church history. I encountered but one effusion of native genius, in the shape of two verses, under three grim faces, painted on a tobacconist's sign-board, as follows : — iV f " We tliree are engag'd in oue cause ; " 1 snuffs, I smokes, and 1 ciiaws." The town is laid out upon a very extensive scale, of which a small part only is yet completed; but little doubt is entertained by the inhaiiilanis, that ten venrs will .accomplish the whole. Fillccn have not put^l ^iiiice the traveller found here no other trace of habitation than a solitary log-house, built for the occasional reception of merchandise, on its way down '*' May not tliis term be traced to tlie i>liip stores of the early colonists ? t 1 should compare ttiem with onr second class of London ihops, some may even rank with the first. m- 112 WiiSTERN COUNTRY OF NEW YORK. ■4 i .., ■ i'V V ' ;'!!'■ fr, i rii the Mohawk. The overflowing population of New- Eii;rlan(), fixin;; its exertions on a new, and fertile soil, has, in these few years, effected this change, and ifoes on, wurkins; the miracles of industry and freedom, from the Mohawk to the Missouri. Utica has ;;reat advantages of situation, indepen- dent of its soil, being placed nearly at the point of junction betwixt the waters of the Likes and of the Atlantick. The Moliawk communicates with Wood Cre* k, by a canal, from Rome, fifteen miles north of Utica ; and Wool Creek falls into the Oneida Lake, which is joined to that of Ontario, by the 0-<»ego river. Should the proposed canal befwixt BnflTalo and Rome be cut, it will add very considera- bly to these advantages, by drawing much of the produce of the Western country in this direction. The expense of this undertaking is variously esti- mated at from 6 to 10,000,000 dollars ; and the expense of carriage at about six dollars per ton. Commissioners have been appointed to survey the line of communicaiiou, and the canal ia already traced on paper. As far, however, as f could understand, the route of the St. Lawrence would be preferred, should the policy of our Government incline to give their commerce ingress and egress on moderate terms. With Utica commences that succession of flour- ishing villages, and settlements, which renders this tract of country the astonishment of travellers. That 80 targe a portion of the soil should, on an average period of less than twenty years, be cleared, brought into cultivation, and have a large population settled on it, is in itself sufficiently surprising ; but this feeling is considerably increased, when we consider the character of elegant opulence with which it every where smiles on the eye. Each village teems, like a hive, with activity and enjoyment: the houses, taken in the mass, are on a large scale, for (except- ing the few primitive log-huts still surviving) there is # WESTERN COUNTRY OF NEW YORK. 113 scarcely, one, below the appearance of an opulent London tradesman's country bux ; nor is tbeir style of building very unlike these, being generally of wood, painted while, with green doors and shutters, and porches, or verandas in front. The face of the country is beautifully varied ; on the left of the road, lofty ridges divide the Lake streams from the head waters of the Chenango, and Orisfkany rivers ; and again, shooting up towards the north, form the steep banks of (he Canserage Creek, and the wooded heights, which einbosuin Onondago Flollow. The shores of the small lakes are picturesquely formed in the same manner, and a succession of ridges is thus continued, till they terminate towards Lake Ontario, in the Niagara heights, and mingle, on the south, with the spurs of the Aileganies, round the sources of the Susqiiehanriah. Tiie timber of this country is mostly oak, elm, ash, maple, hickory, bass, hemlock, and butternut. Betwixt Onondago and S^aneactas, our stage- parly, which had consisted of several honest farm- ers, received an addition, in the person of a little man in grey, who might have well passed for what he was, a barber, had he not, early in the drive, be- gun to figure in the character of an apostle ; first of all* hy pertinent remarks on the efficacy of the in- ward light ; and secondly, by objurgating the coach- man for his propbane language, who revenged him- self, not only by sulky expressions of disbelief in the apostolick rights of his reprover, but infinitely more to our mortification, by considerably slackening hia pace, as if to afford full leisure for our regeneration. To console us under this misfortune, and as we now began to ascend a rather long hill, the barber, taking off his hat, and turning his face to us, said ; *' Gen- tlemen, if you have no objection " I'll sing you a hymn ; I have not a good voice for it, but the hymn is a very fine one, and will shorten the hill." He began accordingly, and soon induced us to as- 1.1 I; ^t^H" •■ V' « w i# w»^ ■» _^ #^ .J" -'^' ff ' V mw I ' • I tHH WESTERN COUNTRY OF NEW YORK. sent unanimously to the first part of his proposition, relative to his voice ; the second seemed by no means equally convincing; and the third was alto- gether so dubious, that we determined, on any simi- lar occasion, to try whether a hill would not be bet- ter shortened by walking, than singing, up it. He had visited the chief town of the Onondago In- dians, in this neighbourhood, and described them as extremely reserved, averse to communication with strangers, and clos^^ addicted lo their old forms of worship. •' They would neither receive a preacher," be said, " nor drink spirits ;" facts, which he seem- ed to consider equally indicative of hardened idola- try. Mr. Jefferson, in his Notes, quoting different enu- merations of the Indian tribes, gives the last esti- mate, (trom Doilge, in 1779,) of the Onondagoes at '230. This is much below what they are at present reckoned at,"*^ in this part of the country. Skaneactas is pleasantly situated at the head of the lake from which it is named. We stopped here for the night, and admired, by a clear moon, the sloping banks, descending with alternate promonto- ries of wood, and cultivated land, to its smooth sil- very waters, whilst here and there rose the tall mast of some trading schooner, anchoring under the shore. ^ Cayuga, besides its agreeable site, is remarkable 'for a bridge over the head of the Cayuga lake, a mile in length : it is built on piles, and level ; calcu- /lating from the time it took to pass it, I should think -it rather over-rated at a mile ; three-fourths is proba- bly about the true length. Betwixt Cayuga and Oe- "neva, is the flourishing little village of Waterloo, born and christened since the battle. Geneva con- tains many eleg&nt houses, beautifully placed on the rising shore, at the head of the Geneva lake ; a situa- * I have heard the Onoudagoes estimated at 1000. #, WESTERN CODNTRT OP NEW YORK. 115 tion indicating that the name was not bestowed at randuiR. From Geneva to Canandaigua, a tract of bill and rale extends for 16 miles, with only two houses. I' neglected to observe accurately, or enquire whether the soil was of inferiour quality : should this not be the case, this note would afford a traveller of m*26, an exact mean of estimating the growth of its im- provement in 10 years. Canandaigua is a town of villas, built on the rising shore of the Canandaigua. lake, which terminates the picture, at the bottom of the main street : the lower part of this street is occu- pied by stores and warehouses, but the upper, to the length of nearly two miles, consists of villas, or ornamented cotiages, tastefully finished with colon* nades, porchen, and verandas, each within its own garden, or pleasure ground. The prospect down this long vista to the lake, is charming ', if it has a, difecl, not to the eye, but to the mind, it arises from a consideration of the perishable materials with which these elegant buildings are constructed, impressing an idea uf instability, like pleasure houses raised for an occasional festival. A fertile soil, and industrious population, are, however, bases on which brick will succeed to wood, and stone to brick. From Canandiiigiia we turned from the main road nine miles S. VV. lo visit what is called " the burning spring,'Mafely discovered. This tract of country it beautifully uneil, Was of the ordinary temperature, »n(i but a frw imheti ^\^^*'[^ ; a few bubldes indicated the paxxatrt; of the inf1ckinaiiibie:)ir through it : on applying a inatcii to (lie adjacent pail8cf the dry rock, a monienlai;^ flame played ul<>n^> it aho, Thene circumstances induced iis lu consider llu bed of the streamlet, as accidentally affordinv; an outlet to the inflammable air from below, and the wnier, as in some degree performing the part of a candle-wick, by preventing its immediate dispersion into the at- mosphere.* I should observe, that there are con* siderable sulphur springs nine miles N. W. o( Canan- daigua ; and it may perhaps be worth noticing, that a line drawn through both, would strike,, in a S. S. W. direction, the warm spring near Huntingdon, in Pennsylvania; the Berkely medicinal waters on the Potomac, and thence, following the course of the mountains, S. W. the hot springs of Bath, and sul- phur springs in the Allegany. Rochester is built immediately on the great falls of the Genesee, about eight miles above its entrance into Lake Ontario. It is four years since the yankey axeman began to dispossess the wood nymphs, or ra- ther the wolves and bears, of this neighbourhood ; and the town now contains 100 good houses, fu nish- ^ ed with >all the conveniences of life ; se\eral com- fortable taverns, a large cotton-mill, and ^ome large corn-mills. Town lots fetch from 500 to 1000 dol- lars, and are rising in value rapiilly. The whole vil- lage is as a summer hive, full of life, bustle, and acti- vity. Its site is grand : the Genesee rushes through it, like an arrow, over a bed of limestone, and preci- pitates itself down three ledges of rock, of 93, 30, * Mr. Jefferson, in his Notes, p. 51, clescril)es what I ima- gine to be a similar vapour, near the junetioD of tlie Elk river with the great Kauhawa. I'i, I f ■''^ WESTERN COUNTllT OF HEW YORK. lit 1^1 wears loo much the gloss of newness. — Here are no memorials of the past, for tlie whole country is o( to- day ; five, ten, or at the utmost, twenty years ago, where are now corn-fields, towns and villates, was one mass of forests Certain pains-taking New-£n- glanders, having discovered the fertility of the soil, sal down to clear, till, settle, and improve it, and are now reaping the just harvest of their labours. — Ima- gination folds her wing over such a history, and we feel with Moore, •* No brigtit remembrance o'er the fancy plays ; No classifk dream, no star ot'otber days, Has left tbat visionary glory here. That relirk of its light so soft and dear, Which gilds, anti hallotvs e'en the rndext scene, The humblest shed where genius once has been.'* I remember visiting the convent of " Our Lady of the Rock," near Cintra in Portugal. It was founded by Etnanuel, to commemorate the return of Vasco de Gama. For three centuries, the matin hymn had ascended daily from its mountain pinnacle, unmixed with sound of earth, when the ^tep of the invader si- lenced and dispersed the ministers of its altar. There was one old man left ; he was eighty years of age, and had forsaken the world at the period of the great earthquake of Lisbon. The effects of a moral con- vulsion, more U') instances it exceeds this : a gentleman of Booni^ld town, stated the return of part of his lands, at 40 for one : in L iwer C \n;ida it seldom ex- ceeds six or seven. Notwithstanding the bad state of the road, the stage waggon runs from Rochester to L^^wistown in two days : this journey is heavy enoutsh ; it is so netines necessary to alight, and walk several miles, or suffer a dislocation of limbs, in jolt- ing over causeways, or logged roads, forrned of pine, or oak trees laid crossways, without much regard to up.ifor nitv o^ size, or the comfort of those who may have to trivel over them. O casionally a wild deer starts tro n the brink of so ne overshadowed creek, and, at different intervals, square patches seem cut out of til; forest, in the centre of which low log-huts have been constructed, without aid of saw, or plane, and surrounded by stumps of trees, black with the 6res, kindled for the purpose of clearing. These • « / • r^*^« -#* « , 1 WESTERN CODNTRJ OF NEW YORK. 121 fires are stiil usually burning, in some quarter round the hoiise ; so Ihut Ihe whole f8ervee sur le reste de la cole." And a^ain, p. 166, he observes the great increase of cold from Like Erie, west ; "so that in the neigh- bourhood of Lake St. Clalr, the only fruits which will ripen are apples and winter pears;" whereas at Niagara, peaches are raised in such abundance as to be the common food for hogs during the autumn ; capsicums, melons, and all sortM of gourds, are also abundantly raided in the open ground. M. Voiney is inclined to attribute this dilTerence of climate, to the greater or less prevalence of the S. and S. W. winds, which, he says, become less fre- quent round Lake St. Clair : but in addition to any general reason of this kind, there is a peculiar circum- stance in the locale of this frontier, which has proba- bly a more direct effect. The IS. W. wind, as has been already observed, is found to be the great agent of cold through nearly the whole of the Ameri- can continent. It seems no less certain that it derives its chilling powers from the unbounded tract of fro- zen, uncultivated country over which i1 sweeps. Before, however, it arrives at the Niagara frontier, it has past diagonally across both Lake Superiour and Lake Huron, and must therefore have lont some por- tion of its intense cold in its passage. To prove the correctness of this observation, it is necessary that the difference of climate should be co-extensive with the range of the N. W. wind, under these peculiar circumstances ; and this seems to be the case. A line drawn N. W. from York, wouhl cross the nar- rowest extremity of Ijake Huron, and sweep the NIAGARA FRONTIER. 125 shore, instead of crossing the expanse, of Lake Supe- I'iour : now York is known to have longer and severer wirilcrs than the frontier, (hough hul sixty niih^s N. VV^. of il. In like manner, a tint thawn i\". W . from Lake St. Clair, would fall be_yoiin Lake Huron, and cross bni a small portion of Liike Snperiour ; Ihe whole country, therefore, from this lake west, niaj be expected, as Volney observes to be the case, to feel Hn unmitigated winter : the favoured portion 1} ing betwixt these (wo points, on both siuts o( Lake Erie.* Accordingly, a decided prelerence is gi\tn, by settlers, (o (his neisihbourhood : on our side, (lie banks of (he Grand Hiver were long since chosen by the Six Nations for their fertility ; anti from (hence (o the Thames, «an«l Loiii; Point, are (he finest (arms in the province. Tiie whole of (he American siile is rapidly settling, and Erie, built on (he 8i(e of the old fort, is already a considerable town. The northern point of the frontier, at the junction of (he Niagaraf with Lake Onlario, is occupied by Fort Missisaga, built opposite to (be American Fort, Niagara, which it is tliought to command : il is star- shaped, and intended to be faced with s(one, should Ihe expense be deemed convenient. From hence to Fort George there is about a mile of flat ground, mostly occupied by the village of Newark, which has in great part been rebuilt. The houses are of wood, and being generally placed on frames, wi(hout foundations, seem (o give a stranger no more reason to expect to 6nd them standing when he next travels that way, than the tents of an Arab, or Ihe booths of an annual fair. There is one large inn, of a gay ex- terior ; but being commonly crowded with guests, is half (inisbed, half furnished, and miserably dirly : ♦ It seems probable ttiat tlie whole of the Genesee country shares iu this advantage. t The St. Lawrence, betwixt the two lakes, is couiuonlj railed the Niagara. I '\ § i\] tf \-. \K i(^ "^ 4 y i 126 NIAGARA PR017TIBR. beds, indeed, are in no more than comfortable abun- dance ; it being no easy matter to squeeze betwixt each two of tlie dozen, crowded into a room. Betwixt Newark and Qiieenston the river is sepa- rated from the road by a light wood, through which it breaks on the sight at intervals, frequently with the top-sails of a schooner glirt' 130 IflAOARA FRONTIER. a pork chop when Ihe pork was all salted ?" — " Bodj of us, mine host," then said {y in the feelings of Sancho Panza under similar vexations, " what caa we have ?" — Why we could have bread and cheese, or butter, if we preferred it; and bread and butter it was, seasoned however by Bonniface's eulogium on his own generosity in keeping a tavern, which he did, (he said,) not for the sake of profit, but because his feelings would not suffer him to send 4ravellers from his door, albeit his wife was much vexed at this benevolence. A little way from this tavern stands the house built by our government for the Mohawk chief, Brandt, in recompense of his services during the American war. It is a large sash-windowed house, opposite to the lake, and supcriour in appearance to most houses in the Province. His wife was living in it at this time, but his son, with whom I had become acquaint- ed at Kingston, was at York. He is a fine young man, of gentlemanly manners, and appearance^ speaks and writes English agreeably and correctly, and dresses in the Engli'sh fashion, retaining only the mocassins of his Indian habit. He served during the war, among his own people, with the rank and pay of a Lieutenant, which he still holds. It took us three hours to accomplish the five miles of riad, betwixf ihe head of the lake and the main road, called Duiidas-street, which runs from York towards Lake Erie, and Amherstsberg. We halted for the night at Hopkins's inn, where we found all the cleanliness and comfort a traveller can desire, with the alloy of but one little accident. Our game was to be cooked for supper ; a thought flashed us like lightning, while the preparations were going on in an outer room ; my friend rushed out, it was too late; the sacrilege had been committed; the wood- cocks had been profanely gutted, and were tossed ignobly, to be stewed in a common pot with the other birds : their excelleuce, however, though thus bar- 1^ « ■ * , • t NIAGARA FRONTIER. 131 barously degraded, could not be extinguished, and our appetitrs paid a just tribute to merit iu disguise. The face of the country, from the head of the lake to York, is less varied than that of the Niagara frontier. The thread of settlements is slender, and frequently interrupted by long tracts of hemlock- swamp, and pine barrens. The banks of the several stieams which descend lo the lake, are, like those of the frontier, bold and steep, exhibiting strata of crumbling red clay -slate. The river Credit is an Indian reserve, well stocked with salmon : we found a family encamped on its banks, drying fish. There is a good bridge over the rocky bed of the Humber, and large mills near it. The surface of the whole country seems flat ; 1 did not observe a single hill, or inequality, but such as have been evi- dently formed by streams, descending over a soil little tenacious ; and as the banks of all these are very lofty, there is probably a considerable, though gradual, slope of the whole country down lo the lake, the shores of which have no elevation worthy of notice. From the Humber to York is a uniform tract of sandy pine-barren, unsusceptible of culture ; a change of feature, probably connected with the ancient his- tory and revolutions of the lake. York being the seat of government for the upper province, is a place of considerable importance in the eyes of its inhabitants ; to a stranger, however, it presents little more than about 100 wooden houses, several of them conveniently, and even elegantly built, and I think one, or perhaps two, of brick. The publick buildings were destroyed by the Ameri- cans ; but as no ruins of them are visible, we must conclude, either, that the destruction exceeded the desolation of Jerusalem, or that the loss to the arts is not quite irreparable. I believe they did not leave one stone upon another, for they did not find one. Before the city, a long flat tongue of land runs into the lake, called Gibraltar Point, probably from being •I h \ '^' ■ !■ , , ( 132 NIAGARA FRONTIER. very unlike GibiaUar. York wholly useless, eilber as a port, or milifary post, would sink info a village, and the seat of governinenf be transferred to Kini;;s- ton, but for the influence of those, whose pro- perty in the place would be depreciated by the change. My friend having returned to Queenston by water, I left York with no companion but my dog, frequ»'nl- ly repeating, as uiy wain dragged hea\ily over the logged roads, which cross the swauipy woods round the iVlocaco and Etobico, the verses of Pelrarca : " Solo e pen'oso i piil decerti Cainpi " Vo iniMiiando ft passi taidi, e lenli." Nothing looks less cheerfid than the hut of a pri- mitive settler, especially when isolated in the mass of a dark heavy forest ; yet it is the first glance only which is unpleasant, the second shews present com- fort, and progressional improvement. 1 do not re- member to have seen one of them abandoned, except for a better house : there are more ruined cottages in the vicinity of Cork, than in all North America. A few miles beyond Hopkins's inn, the road as- cends the HmeHtcme ridge, and sometimes runs so near the edge of it, that by stepping aside a few yards, the traveller perceives the level country he is traversing to be a terrace, about 300 feet above the level of the lake. I descended by a road, so precipitouH, as nearly to resemble, at its summit, an irregular flight of steps, to the village of Dundng, enclosed within the rich woods and anglc;8 of the heights : in fact, its territory is so much contracted by them, that it will admit of little increase of popu- lation ; and there is about it a stagnant aspect, very unlike that of its neighbour Ancaster. To reach Ancaster, the ridge, or mountain, as it is called here, must ** with toilsome march*' be again ascended. A itreain gushing from the rocks above, turns several h # NIAGARA FRONTIER. 133 mills by the roadside, and forms a pleasing cascade in (be jrlen near its fuuntain. H:i\ing nionnled the hei'iht, and entered the village, I nas ajireeably sur- prised tu Hnd a tavern, superiuur both in size and ap- p"ar;uire to any thing I bad expected in a \illage so re.'ijdle from any great line of travelling. On cal'ing for the osiler, i was quietly answered, •• l»e would cocio as soun as he had taken his tea ;" so I inanag- e«l (or myself; not caring, after a fatiguing dav's joi.rnp\, that my horse shoidd wait his independent lei>nre, and (he uncertain close of a lea-table con- versiition. • - Tl'f landlady, a very obliging woman, apolofjlzed aftei v^.id^ for this inattention, on the giound ot the inipossibdity of procuring good servants ; and I men- tion this incident, one of many similar, to shew that this free and easy behaviour of the lower clasijcs, which English travellers so frequently complain of in the States, and attribute to their R«-publiciin prin- ciples, is common enough under our own Govern- ment, whenever the supply of labour is dispropor- tionate to (he demand for it. Ancaster has a smiling aspect : new shops and houses, sjperiour in size, and architecture, to the old, are building rapidly. Its site is picturesquely grand, and the neighbourhood thickly spread wi(h improving farms. Ancaster merits to be the metropolis of Upper Canada. A gendemnn, to whom young Brandt had given me a letter of introduction, having some friend travel- ling towards the Grand River, I set* ofl, the next morning after my arrival, for the Indian settlements. . V « 'A '^« • If [ 134 J CHAPTER XXII. INDIANS OF THE GRAND RIVER. r ' m. . i The powerful Indian confederacy, known by Ihe name of iVI.issawooirucs, or Five Nations, oriuitially occi:pied the whole of the country betwixt the lakes, and the Allegany ridges, from the sources of the Ohio to the banks of the HudKon. They were known, and dreaded by the French Canadians, under the name of Iroquois. " Each village, or canton," writes Lahontan, in 16U I, " contains 14,000 soids, of whom 1500 bear arms." I41 l7l'i, they received the Tuscaroras into their confederacy, and made them the sixth nation. " All the confederated tribes," says Morse, " except the Oneidas, and Tusca- roras, sided with the British in the late war, and fought against the Americans." In 1779 tiiey were attacked by general Sullivan, and driven to Niagara ; their numbers were at this time estimated by Dodge at 1580. At Niagara, many of them died, *< from being obliged," saya Morse, " to live on salted pro- visons." The remainder had the lands round the Orand River assigned them for their support, by our government, where they have since resided, with the Datawares and Missisagafi, joint suflferers in the same cause; the latter of whom have given their name to the new fort opposite to Fort Niagara. It is probable, however, trom the villages of the Six Nations still to be found within the territory of the Blate of New York, that, besides, the Oneidas and Tuscaroras, portions of the other four tribes, in op- n .'«k' rf \ INDIANS OF THE GRAND RITER. 136 position to the general disposition of their nation, at- tached themselves to llie American cause : a species of national disunion, resulting from an excess of in- dividtial freedom, which has, on ever} occasion of hostilities, whetted the tomahawk of kindred war- riours, for the destruction of their own clan. The Mohauks have always been esteemed the head of the confederacy. They were strongly at- tached to the British interest, and first followed Sir William Johnson in)o Canada, under their chieftain, " the Monster Brandt." The Monwter had, however, some good qualities. He accustomed his people tu the arts of civilized lil'e, and made farmers of them. He built a church, and translated one of (he Gospels into the Mohawk language ; for, like Clovis, and many ot' the early Anglo-Saxon, and Danish Chris- tians, he contrived to unite much religious zeal with the practices of natural ferocity. His grave is to be seen under the walls of his church. 1 have men- tioned one of his sons : he has also a daui<,hii r living, who would not disgrace the circles of Eurrpenn fashion : her face, and person are fine and uracel'ul : she speaks English, not only correctly, but elegi ntly ; and has, both in her speech and manners, a softness approaching tu Orientai languor : she retains so much of her national d ess as to identify her with her people, over whom she atfectfl no supciioriiy, but seema pleased to preser\e all the ties, and duties of relationship. She held the infant of one of her re- liitinps at the font, on the Sunday of uiy visit to ihe church, 'i'hc usual church, and baptismal service was performed by u Dr. Aaron, an Indian, and an assistant priest ; the congregation consisted of 60 or 70 persons, male and female : many of the young men were dressed in the English fashion, but several of the old warriours cumc with their blankets, folded over them, like the drapery of a statue , and in this dress, with a step and n ein of qutrt erergy, > more forcibly reminded me of the ancient Romans I'l m .t I , 71 I i -■ ♦- »-*' me INDIANS OK THE GRAND KIVER. V than some other inhabitants of tlijg continent, who have laid claim to the resemblance. Some of Ihern wore lar^e silver crosses, medals, and other trinkets, on tlieir backs and breasts ; and a few had bandeaus, orna.iiented with feathers. Dr. Aaron, a grey-head- ed Mohawk, had touched his cheeks anct forehead with a few (tpots of vermillion, in honour of Sunday : he wore a surplice, and preached at considerable. Iens;th ; but his delivery was uniinpassioned, and mono'onoiis in the extreme. Indian elocpience de- cays with the peculiar state of society to which it owed its energy. The IM (hawk villaa;e stands on a liltle plain, look- ins; down upon the Grand riv«r ; upon the alluvion of which the inhabitants raise their crops, chiefly of Indian corn. Their houses are built of logs, rudely put together, and exhibiting externally a great ap- pearance of neglect, and want of comfort. Some few are in a better condition : the house belonging to Brandt's family resembles that of a petty English farmer; Dr. Aaron's was neat and clean. The Doc- tor, who had been regularly ordained, and spoke very good English, told me the village had been injured much by the war, which had put a stop to its im- provements, and dispersed the inhabitants over the country. . This is probable enough : the Indians ad- vance towards civilized life with a forced motion, and revert to habits of warfare, and wandering, with a natural rebound. The Cayugas seem to have made less progresa than the Mohawks, towards do- mestick accommodation : the fire is still in the middle of their dwellings : the earth, or a block of wood, suffi- ces for chair and table ; and planks, arranged round the walls, like cabin births, form their beds. They seemed very cheerful, though with little reason; for their crop of Indian corn, which they were now drying and husking, ha«i been spoiled by premature frost, and in comumn with all the other Indians of the settlement, their only resource against starva- - A .--^-A --- «,* ihc re'rcal of our fon-es, he en;r,'.if(;d an Aiiiei i<;iii dtfatlunonl of nionitled ridt'iien, uf^ar flie I\loi.«\ian village, and having, rush- ed forward, *^ilI;:;I', , fo » iicniini*!!' llieir com manding oflicer, wluxii l;e tnjsionk i'uv (Jern'ral Harrison, he fell by a j.islol Im!!. Tin- oMillaiJoiis of the Anieri- c;ui^ on his dedti'i, afr)rd niu'i i iiiti, luM'anse unintend- ed, evidence uf liie dread his laicnts had inspired. -{- y I'll i' ! TO TlIC MH.MOIIY OF TECl'MSEH. Teonmspli h'la no im, l;;it in vain I)e«^inin•• imniKii.il, !.i,o\\s no pain ! * " I eonipari>." vai.l ln'. spr.akinjj oC I'lc aniluir of tliis re- treat, "niir faMicr !o ;i (ill vvhi'c dc;. wlui, in ilio ^ra^ion of prosperity <'arri''>> liis tail cri'd on Ims lurk, liiit j, aiiij tliiv at lit" approafli ol' (lanncr." f)n ano- ther orra^ion. wilt II hy way of pjiciiyin.: Iii rrntdiislranc"* with a nii'taphor. in ll)i> Imliun nunin'r. our roniniindi r prolt'^'scd his rt'a(lin<'«s to lay lii»; lion 's liy his side. " I'd! Hit' -"'r s('V( rely w(tiui(l<'fl tlio inonicn' hcCorr. Trrnin- seh Imre a p. r-niiil enmity to (inirral Harrison, to wI;oim lie attrilMited thr sluii:<;|it(M- of his family ; and had avowed, that witeii they met, one of them siioiild lie left on the tield. \ The ritlemen are said to have eut off strips of his skin, to preserve as trophies. la ) .«-i^i « 140 INDIANS OF THE GRAND RIVER. Might ye torment him to this earth again, That were an agony : his children's blood Deiug'd his soul, and, like a fiery flood, Scorched up his core of being. Then the stain Of flight was on him, and the wringing thought, He should oo more the crimson hatchet raise, Nor drink from kindred lips his song of praise; So Liberty, he deem'd, with life was cheaply bought. ! tl C 141 ] m CHAPTER XXIIi. ', m THE FALLS OF NIAGARA. *¥l To describe the Falls of Niagara, is to lell a thrice- toid tale,; jet few can have looked on this marvel of nature with so cold an eye, as not to wish for some record of the emotions it occasioned. The history of our sensations, as excited by the siiblimest objects of art or nature, would be far worthier of perusal, than the Ie<;end8 of our vanities and passions, of which history is, for the most part, compounded. It is little, that such spectacles are innocent : an en- thusiast in the fine arts has declared, that no one can contemplate the Apollo Belvidere without feeling an exaltation of his moral being. The miracles of nature are not less powerful : to be conversant with them, is to feel too sensibly the littleness of ordina- ry pursuits and vulgar gains, to become deeply im- mersed in their polluted vortex. By frequently gaz- ing on scenes, in which the power of man is nothing, the possession of that power becomes an object of indifference or contempt : we approach the content- ment of Diogenes, without its cynicalness, and have nothing to ask of the masters of the world, but that they would leave us the free use of sky and sun- shine — a greater boon, indeed, than they are com- monly disposed to grant. At Qiicenslon, seven miles from the falls, their sound, united with the rushing of the river, is dis- tinctly heard. At the distance of about a mile, a white cloud hovering over the trees, indicates their situation : it is not, however, until the road emeiges . r ^1"^^^ ■*^>' •^•.HUiL^. 142 THE FALLS OF NIAGARA. from a close country inio the space of open ground iiniiietiiately in their vicinity, that the while volumes of foiiin are seen, ^is if boiliiij^ Uj) from a sulphurous gulj)h. Ileie a fool-path turns from the roa< sea. A narrow tract descends about 60 t'eet (loivn the cliif, and continues across a plashy mea- dow, ihroui^h a copse, encumbered with masses of liujeslone ; extricated from which, I found myself on the Tahle Rock, at the very jxiijit where the river precipitates itself into llie abyss. The rapid molion of the waters, the sliinnlnj; noise, the mounting cloudi), almost persuade the slarlleti senses, llia> the rock itself is lotierini, and on the point of rolling down info the i!;ulj)!i, which swallows up the mass of descending waters. 1 bent over It, to mark the clouds rolling white benealh me, as in an inverled sky, ilhimined by a most brilliant rainbow, — one of those features of aol'lness, which Nature delights (o pencil amid her wildest scenes, tempering her awful- ncss with beauty, and making her very terrours lovely. There is a ladder about half a mile below the Ta- ble Rock, by which I descentled the clitT, to reach (he fool of the fall. Mr. Weld has' detailed the im- pediments and difficulties of this approach, and M. Volnev confesses they were such as to overcome his exertions to surmount them ; a (e.w years, how- ever, have fuade a great change ; the present dan- gers and difficulties may be easily enumerated. The first is, the ordinary hazard e\ery one nins, who goes up, or down a ladder ; this is a very good one of 30 steps, or about 40 feet ; frotn thence the path is a rou^h one, over the fragments and masses of rock, which have gradually crumbled, or been forci- bly riven, from the cliff, aid which cover a broad declining space, from its bae to (he river brink. The only risk in this part of the pilgrimage, is that i| U4 w THE FALLS OF NIAGARA. 143 of a broken shin frofn a false step. The path grows siiiouth as i( adviini'.eH to (he fall, »u that the iiiitii- videtj attention may be isiven to this i(n|)Osing spec- tacle. 1 tcit a sen!>alion of aue as 1 drew Dear it, like that caused by the first cannon on the morning of bailie. 1 passed from sunshine into gloom and tempest : the spray beat down in a heavy rain ; a violent wind rushed fiom behind the sheet of water: it was ditiiciiit to respire, and lor a moment, it seem- ed temerity to encounter the convulsive workings of the elements, and intrude into the dark dwelliiii^ra of their power : but the danger is in appearance only ; it is possible to penelnile but a {myi steps behind the curtain and in liiese few, there is no hazard ; the footing is good, and the space sufficiently broad and free : there is not even a necessity for a gniile, two eyes ;>iuply suOIce to point out all that is to be seen or avouled. During my first visit, there were two young American Udies on the same errand, who were drenchcil, as well as myself, in the cloud of spray. \\\ my opinion, more is lost than gained, by this tacilily. 'J'lie eil'tct |)rouuced upon us, by any object of admiration, is increased by the y them. Are the feelings excited by the Elgin marbles, when we view theoi, elbowed by groups of simpering fashionables, and gaping tradesmen, the same with those they must have awakened in the bosom of the lonely traveller, sitting before the fane of Theseus ? — For Niagara, I fore- see that in a few years travellers will find a finger lU !.; . \\ ; I 144 THE FALLS OF NIAGARA. F" >M^ posf, " To (he Falls' Tea Gardens," wifh cakes and refreshments, set out on the Table Rock. The name of "the Horse shoe," hitherto given to the lrir<^er Fall, is no longer applicable : it has be- come an acute angle. M. Volney and Mr. Weld have observed this change.* An officer, who bad been stationed in the neighbourhood thirty years, pointed out to me the alteration which had taken place in the centre of the Fall, which he estimated at about eighteen feet in the thirty years. M. Vol- ney, speaking of the limestone ridge at Queen-ifon, observes, " Pour quiconque examine avec alietilion loutea les circonstances de ce local, il devient evi- dent que c'est ici que la chute a d'abord commence, ct que c'est en sciunl, pour ainsi dire, les banes dii rocher que le fleuve a creu->S le ravin, et recule d'a^e en a!;e sa breche iusq'au lieu ou est mainten- ant la cascade." It does not seem that any objec- tion lies against this theory, for admitting that the present bed of the Fall wears away, and recedes, as it evidently does, there is no reason to set any other limit to the commencement of this action, than the commencement of the impediment by which it is caused. It confirms this hypothesis, that from Q,iieenston to the foot of the Falls there are no islands, though at, and above them, there are many. Ujjon this supposition, then, and from the rough estimate hitherto formed, some calculation may be made, approximating to the probable length of time the river has employed in thus wearing its way back- wards. The distance is about six (uiles ; and as the substance to be worn away is hornogeneous, the pro- gress would be tolerably uniform in uniform spaces of time : the result, however, startles our chronology. ♦ IjRS plus vieiix hahltaiis dii pays, comme I'ohuerve M. Weld, se rapellent avoir vii la mtancle plus avanrSo de pliisieiirs pas. Un officier An;loi«i, stitionnS depuJ!) trente ans au Fort GriS, liii cita den faitx positifg, proiivant (|iie dcs I'ocliers, alors exiatang, avaient etd minds et engloutii. — ClimatD'Anierique, T. i. p. lift, '^ THE FALLS' OF NIAGARA. 145^ 1 cakes and M. Volnej denominates the limestone of this fron- tier " primitifj ou chrystallisi.** It however con- tains organick remains, as well as that of the Gene- see country, but not in such abundance as the bed of Lake Erie. He considers it as resting "sur del bancs de scbiste bleu, que contiennent une forte dose de soulfre." I observed sulphur oozing abun- dantly from the cliff immediately adjacent to, and within the spray of the Fall.''^ The lesser F'all, on the American side, had a considerable appearance of elevation above the bed of the greater : upon inquiry, I found there was a difference of fifteen feet between them, caused pro- bably by the greater weight of water descending down the latter; the effect of the scene is increased by this circumstance. The island which divides the Falls has been fre- quently visited of late years, nor, odd as it may seem, is it an adventure of much hazard. Examin- ing the map, it will be seen, that at the point, at which the rapids commence, the current separates, and is drawn on either side, towards the two Falls, while the centre of the stream, being in the straight line of the island, descends towards it without any violent attraction ; and down this still water Ameri- can boats, well manned, and provided with poles to secure them from the action of the two currents, have frequently dropt, to the Island. Since, however, the small military post the Americans occupied, on their side of the river, has been abandoned, there are no boats in the neighbourhood, equal to the at- tempt. The whiilpool is abouf^half-way betwixt Queens- ton and Niagara. The river, boiling, and eddying from the Falls, enters a circular basin, round which the lofty cliff sweeps like an antique w%)'» overgrown * 1 found gypsum incorporated with the limestoae, in seve- ral parts of tlie cliff. 19 /i t- . ' .» 146 .'j»- VHE FALL8 OF NIA04RA. 'f/ .rfi III, i' with treea at its base, and amid its clefts and crevi- ces. The cause of the whirlpool is readily per- ceived by the spectator, who looks down, and ob- serves that the stream, being compelled into this basin, by the direction of its channel, and unable to ei^cape with equal celerity, is forced to gain time by revolving within its circumference.^ The river widens above the Falls. The banks are low and (he adjoining country flat. The bridge over the Chippewa is protected by a tile de pont : the river in properly a long stagnant creek, or drain, to Canby Marsh, which covers all the interiour of the frontier, from the Grand River. — Fort Erie has a war-worn aspect, decayed both in strength and dignity. A rag upon a crooked pole, was the ordy banner, floating on the evening breeze : the walls were tenanijess. The original building was a fortifi- ed stone barrack : four small bastions were com- menced before the war, and one of them partly faced, but without curtainsi. An Officer, who stood gover- nour when hostilities comtnenced, finding these works too scattered and unconnected for his small garri- son, drew an interiour entrenchment round the bar- rack, which he declared to be impregnable, and as he prudently avoided bringing his declaration to a trial, it may still hold good. When the Americans defended the fort under Qeneral Brown, they con verted each of the bastions into a detached redoubt raised a cavalier battery on one of them, and con nected them with abatlis : It was the accidental ex plosion of one of these, during our assault, in Sept 1814, that saved their array in its entrenched camp, on Snake Hill, adjoining the fort.f Snake Hill is .'^ * The flpKt cause or thiit elliow in the roiirHe ot* the river, wan |irnbal)ly tlic oppoNition of sorou part of the cliff ouUi« Dorfliern ttido of tho basin, harder than tlie reil. f Geonral Brown h»nial : it tnoii plaon alter oiu' troops had pot««HNion of the bastion most probalily by a wad's enloriug tho powder inaga- sine benoatb itt THE FALLS OF NIAGARA. i4f a sand-hillock, on the edge of the lake, and proves how easy it is, to be a hill in a flat country. The baain of Lake Erie is limestone, most inhospitable to eels. It abounds in organick remains, corals, reeds, shells, &c., differing in this respect, from the rock round Niagara, in which the impression of a shell is rarelj to be discovered. Crossing the Niagara to Black Hock, by a ferrj three-fourths of a mile over, 1 again entered t^e ter- ritory of the United States. h (VI .1"* , it-:. * ^1, l-se of tlie river, thechfTou tbe • |i to have tiren loi^nifiinn of the puwdcr inaga- ' i* *.st't.. V T^ » t ^ . • t * > *.t • «I s •» ■•• 1 t *, 1 =»i« '! 1 . ii ► « 1- . It* 1 b . t V. 1. 1 .hi I I M ! k « ' i. ■ . ' * ' I 148 ] > i • '■ 1 • i< , ■■>♦■■■- * i ».-'iV - CHAPTER XXIV. T'-',. ..i-t'X : BLACK ROCK TO PHILADELPHIA. ^ )' 4 Oct. 19, Buffalo 2 Milei. N. York WilliatDBville 10 Porter's Idd 4 ZO, Batavia 26 21, Caledonia " 23, \von ' 7 , " Danville 28 34, Cauisteo 17 25, Bath 20 26, Painted Post 18 27, Newtown or Elmira 17 ' 38, Tyoga Point 20 Peaoiylvauia 30, Wywll 13 Le Fevre's Inn 8 , 31, Wyalusiog 8 Tunkhanock 20 Nov. 1, Wilkesbarre 28 4, Wrnirg's Inn 17 Pnkono Mountain 12 5, Wind G«p 16 1-2 Nazareth 6, Bethlehem 10 7, Seller's an 20 8, Philadelphia 31 378 12 OvvvkhO was among the frontier villages burnt dur- ing the war ; not a house was left standing. It is now not merely a flourishing village, but a considerable town, with shops and hotels, which might any where be called handsome, and in this part of the country, asfoMiDhing. Its situation is highly advantageous, forming the extremity of the new line of settled country already described, and communicating by the Lakes with the Western States of the Union, and BL&eK ROCK TO PHILADELPHIA. 140 ■II ,-.,;*fi A, J' N. York. rlvauirf 1 burnt dur- It 18 now Lniiderable I any where le country, rantageous, ]of settled I'lcating by Fnioni and the two Canadas. The American side of Lake £ri6 is aiiio settling fast, and Erie is already a thriv- ing (own. The celerity with which Buflalo has risen from its ashes, indicates the juvenile spirit of life and increase, that so eminently distinguishes the Ameri- can population from (he exhausted tribes of our he- misphere, which seem, in many countries, scarcely to preserve vitiality sufficient to bear up against the evils of inequality and bad governmment. '' The hot breath of war" is scarcely felt here, or, like their own forest conflar,ia(ions, is succeeded by a livelier verdure, and richer produce. I found (he country as I went on, (hickly setded,'*^ but dull, and uniform in feature, being an entire flat. The autumn had been dry, ajntl water was so scarce in many places, that my horse was sometimes very grudgingly served with wha( had been fetched seve- ral miles. This is an evil not rncommon in newly fi'^ttled districts: draining follows clearing; the creeks, »'.' ''>riens pro veto expansatn :" nur can it he otliorwise ; " iVon eoiin ei natiira alicessum couit natandi raodum."— Ixriii. 14. % ' f > BLACK ROCK TO PHILADELPHIA. 153 ee Coiin- he Lime- (M. Vol- ath, couj^ti |)ar gratlioB d in large as a Hmall B therefore gntly make of several dered a de- , and have ielves over f, and Iheir same story i authorizes nous talent, er of hypo- I of Aineri- eek, windg \\y timber- Its to Canis- rkport the in a mea- [l from the there, and hose liead- id for this, supposed icttled : vil- or twenty elwi&t Ca- ligno caudam Vise ; "Non .IzTiii. 14 Nisteo and Bath there are not more than a dozen, though improveuieiits are going on. The principal settlemenlii are to be found on the narrow alluvions of the creeks and rivers ; but even there the soil is of an inferiour quality. The roads are bad enough, but 1 was surprised to see them deep and niry, having experienced but one wet day during the au- tumn. I found, however, that this calculation would not apply to the mountains, or to the country east of them, where there had been heavy falls of rain : a circumstance easily account' I for by considering that th6 clouds which come impregnated with mois- ture from the Atlantick, are frequently arrested by the mountains, and disgorged, without crossing into the Western country. Bath is built on the alluvion of the Conhocto Creek, and embosomed in wild nuninlains : the prin- cipal houses are placed round the three sides of a square, or green, and being most of them new, whitf, and tastefully finished, have a lively appearance, agreeably contrasted with the dark mountain scene- ry which opens on the fourth side. It was court day when 1 arrived, and as the court was held at the tavern to which I had been recommended, I found it in a bustle, but 1 was not the less comforta- bly accommodated in a well-furnished carpeted par- lour, in which dinner was neatly and expeditiously served. Amone; the persons at the court-meeting was the Militia (iiM)rral, M'Clure, who brought on his coun- trymen the (l(;struction of their frontier, by hia wanton burning of Newark. He !:eeps a store in Bath, and succeeded to the command which he dis- graced, either by accident, or through the want of a fitter man. He had lately been cast in HOO dollars damages at Canandaigna, in an action brought by an inhabitant of Newark, lor the destruction of lii^ pro- perty. It would be judging the Americans unfairly to suppose they had regarded his conduct with in- 20 111 i' , ! 154 BLACK ROCK TO PHILADELPHIA. 1 ^. \.» difference : for some time after if, he scarcely dared (o show himself in his own neighbourhood ; and being on one occasion recognized at a publick auc- tion-rnart in Philadelphia, he was hooted out of the room. Many affect to consider the American government as confederate with its oflScer in the burning of Newark. It must be observed, first of all, that Mr. M'Glure's conduct was disavowed ; and secondly, that his instructions have been produced, directing him to " destroy the village, in case it should be ne- cessary for the defence of the fort." Every one acquainted with the rules of war, or even with the rules of common sense, knows such instructions to be perfectly correct ; yet the calumny has still held its ground ; as if the American government, how- ever willing in principle, had really any interest to commence a system of desolation, which could not but be, as it was, heavily retaliated upon inhabitants, as innocent and defenceless as those of Newark. " But jealous minds will not be answered thus." A lurking hostility to republicanism has been too fre- quently suffereil to colour our views of the conduct of America. Had I believed many Englishmen in Canada, I should have believed there were neither honour, faith, nor honesty in the United Slates; and that the whole of their military conduct was as odious for its cruelty, as ridiculous fur its blunders ; yet as far as I could sift out the truth, even on our side of the Boundary Line, there was, as in all wars, some- thing to be praised, and much to be blamed on the part of both. Each nation may charge the other with many acts of devastation, and perhaps some unnecessary bloodshed ; but each could also call to mind, amid many deeds of gallantry, traits of high feelinv, and generous humanity. Should the reverse side of (he picture be alone retain^^d in sight? — Perish^ the records of glory, and warlike achieve- n. BLACK ROCK TO PIIILAnELPHI A. !.!>:> inent, iflliey serve but to perpetuate national aninio- giiies, and whet ttie sworil lor a future conlesi ! There is a road from Baih by the shores of the Crooked Lake to Jerusaleu), the village of the Elect Luly, Jemima Wilkinson, and her sect of Friends. A story is current in this part of the country, that having signitied her intention of proving the truth of her mission, by walkin.; on the waters, and assembled her followers to witness the miracle, she asked (hem whether they truly believed in her ability to per- form it, to which they unanimously replieil, *' I hey did ;" " Then," said she " the performance of it is unnecessary ;" and so, as may be believed, they went their ways without it. The road from Bath to Painted Post, follows the alluvion of the Conhocio branch of the T^oga, and though stony is tolerably level; it crosses the Creek twice in the last six miles. The mountains have a slaty appearance, with horizontal strata. I was dis- appointed at Painted Post to find the post gone ; broken down, or rotted, within these few years. It was, as may be supposed, an Indian memorial, either of triumphj or death, or of both. A post is not much, but, in this instance it was a record of the past, a memorial of, (may I be pardoned the expres- sion,) the heroick ages of America!"^ When I was at Ancaster I was shown the grave of an Indian, among the woods near the head of the stream : It was co\ered with boards, and a pole erected at each end, on which a kind of dance was rudely painted with vermillion. The relati\es of the deceased brought offerings to it daily during their stay in the neighbourhood ; a vitality of sorrow truly savage. • , * M. Voloey, wiiliout meaning to speak their praise, dis- covers a wondcrtii! reKomlilance betwixt tiio Imliaiis, and th(! herofs of Homer and hophucies. Vid. " Eclaircissemens sur let Sauvages," t. 11. p. 502. 156 BLACK ROCK TO PHILADELPHIA. iV:" I- ¥ 'n I New Town, or Elmira, ([ put down both the names, for I went six miles about, from not know- ing it ha ,»'! l;| \ 158 BLACK ROCK TO PHILADELPHIA. H '^ er ciillivafora ; and for the third time, this wander* ing colony tran:«ported itself to the ri^ht bank of the Susquehanna, betwixt VVysall and Wyalusing, and astonished the inhabitants by buildinc man^-uindow- ed villas, and cutting roads across the mountains to hunt deer and foxes. They named their village French-town, and considering its barren site, il is probable they must have shortly resoUed on a fourth pilgrimage, when change of circumstances enabled them to return to France, leaving their aiiy halls (o be tenanted by crows, and wondered :il hv all the farmers in the neighbourhood. One faini!^», how- ever remained behind, and crossing the river, to avoid starvation, set up this litte inn. The na'iie of this family is Le Fevre ; not Sterne's Le Fevre ; neither withered greatness, nor heart-broken merit, — yet one whose present situation seems no less for- cibly contrasted with their former habits of life, t'ian that of King Joseph himself. The keeper of a Caffi Anirlaise d. Paris, set down among the wild- est regions of the Alleghany, removed miles from any thing resembling n village ; and, to judge from the rude country round him, almost berond the ken of civilized life: — yet well may he, (or rather his wife,) answer, "no matter where, so I be still the fiame, and what I should be;'* for so it was r the gay courtesy of France was flouri'^hing as cheerily on this desol.ite spot, as in its native atmosphere of Versailles. Madame was turned of fifty by her look, short, strongly pock-marked, with a snub nose flattened to her face ; altogether so little of a beauty, that she passed in the neighbourhood, that is, with- in the adjacent twenty miles, for a strong likeness to a toothless superannuated Poodle, belonging to a tavern on the roa«I ; but her manner was, **/o«f a fait, a la Parisienne.** Dinner was in prepara- tion, within a few minutes after my arrival, and her own history narrated during the process. 1 asked her if she had no wish to return to her native coun- ■ /; BLACK ROCK TO PHILADELPHIA. 1^9 try: "Ah no," she replied, "one's coiinlry is al- ways where one can live:" she was as conlenlcd as it' she had been cradled in (lie desjart. During din- ner, IVIonsienr came in, and having quielly made his bow, waH deposiled in the chimney corner, whence be was again in due time passively transferred to bed : it was evident he had acquired little knowledge of the " rights of man," since his domestication in a repidtiick : in tart, neither he nor his wife nnder- stood a word of English : but she dti^pised the Ameri- cans for their ignorance of etiquette, and of the legi- timate mode of fricaseeing a chicken. The mother's prejudices, however, did not seem to have eic^ended to her family, whicli consisted of two danihtf &, one of whom had married an American fiurut (, ofj the opposite side of the river ; whilst the other, an itiler- esting sprightly lass of seventeen, filled tli^ ofill/ es of interpreter, chainbermnid, and waiter, fo tlie hotel ; milked the cows, and looked after the pig. mii] poui- try. In all this, she was the soni of !;i'vcfy ; pier<- sure seemed to gush from the fonnt.fi.j of i.» r natu- ral spirit, and she was evidently bepJ .s^itj-fied v>\ih herself, when she saw others sali!>ried ; a L^^Irikisis; contrast fo American giils in the same s;l '11 :\. ■it. lower classes of American females. Tbc married women are, I think, a sli-ide sulkier than the single, but the difference is very trifling. The men, al- thou(;h liltle chargeable with an excess of gayety, have more vivacity of manner than the women ; and as there are few of them who are not well-informed, (at least on local subjects,) they have altogether more advantage over their fair moiietis, in the mere agrfiinens of society, than men usually possess. The banks of i'.a Susquehanna have no great va- riety of scenery, though they frequer.tly present grauil features. The space betwixt the mountains and the river, is often so narrow, that it barely sufli- ces for one carriage, and in many places the road, for a mile or two, seems to have been hewn from the rock : shoultl two carriages meet in one of these pas- ses, it is difficult to imagine by what contrivance they could be extricated ; the population of this tract of country is, however, so scanty, that a dilemma of this kind would be a phenomenon in travelling. Oc- casionally round the creeks, there is some tolerable land, and two or three pleasant villages ; among which, Wyalusing may, perhaps, image out what Wyoming was; but it cannot be said that the deer " unhunled seeks his woods and wilderness again ;'* — for I heard a cry of hounds as I stopped to breakfast, and the game was swimming the river. The face of the landscape is no where bare : moun- tain and vale are alike cloathed with pine, and dwarf or scrub oak ; the swamp lands aic covered with hemlock, and the bottoms of the woods with the rhododendron. I was informed that land in this Cart of the country, though naturally very poor, had een so much improved of late by the use of gyp- sum, that its value was raised from five to fifteen dollars per acre. Wilkesbarre is a neat town, regularly laid out on the left bank of the Susipiehanna. Its locality is determined bv the direction of one of the Allegany ridges, which receaei from the courie of (he river BLACK ROCK TO PHILADELPHIA. 161 narried 1 single, len, al- gayety, ?n ; and iformed, logethev he mere ma. rreat va- present loiintains ely suffi- he road, from the liese paa- ntrivance thiii tract. ilemma of ins;. Oc- tulerable ; amon^ out what the deer again ','* • pped to he river. |e : moiin- md dwarf !red with with the in this >oor, had of gyp- [o fifteen id out on )caUty i« [Allegany 1 (he river a few miles above the (ow n, and curvmg s. w. encloses a seiniciic.iilar plot of land, tuuurds the centre of which it is buiil. Its neighbuurhuud abounds in cual.^ The piU are about a mile N. E. of ihe lowii. They lie uniler s(ia!a of a soft clay- slate, containing impressions of ferns, oak leaves, and other vegetables usu.illy found in such situations. Tiie coal has a briglii, poli^siied a|ipearani'e ; its strata are slightly angulni ; I hey routain iron, pyrites, and salt-pe(re, and are traversed by veins of char- coal. The theory of the foimation of coal, from de- cayed tinii)er, is slrennitliened by a view of ttie site of these pits. The ri\er A lia\ing descended S. E. suddenly changes its diicction jusi above the town, and runs S. \V. as if f'orceil lo this deviadoUi by the mountain B. Now, as all the land round the town, including these pits, is an alluvion, raiseil but a few feet above the present hed of tlu,* river, it is nt''ural lo suppovie that its anrient ciurent must have deposileii the liuiber, and oilier substances it brought with it, in the angle foiiii«il liy Ihe coiir»e oi the ridge B, i. e, in (he neighbourhood of the coal f * OrUio kiod called i^luico riial. 21 ]62 BLACK ROCK TO PUiLADELPHI A. The town iself has a quiet, rural aspect, from the frequent separation of its streets and houses, by grass fields and gardens. It confains a neat church, allot- ted to the alternate use of Episcopalians and Presby- terians. The Town Hall was occupieorlion, and the landlady's temper in iiniHon with the whole; though an old croney of the house whispered me in the morning, that it was beyond comparison the best tavern on the road- m ^1 164 BLACK ROCK TO PHILADELPHIA. The Pukunu Muiintain is ramous among tlie sports- men and epicures o( Pliiladeipliia lor its groni>e : like all the Alleu;liany ridges, it is gleepe^t on the eastern side. I parsed ihe Bine Ritlge at the stu- pendous fissure of the Wind Gap,* where the moun- tain seems forcibly broken thioup,h, and is strewed with the ruin of rorks. There is a similar aperture some miles N. K. called the Water Cap; which af- fords a passage to Ihe Dtlaware. All the piiiicipal rivers of the States, which rise in the Alleghaiiies, pass through similar apertures, a peculiarity 1 had afterwards an opporliinily of obseiving in the passage of the Potomac. Betwixt the Blue Hidge and the Lehigh the road traverses the Limestone Valley, de- scribed by Volney, t. 1. p. tit'., but which he seems erroneously to circumscribe by the Blue Ridge, and the North Mountain, whereas it lies betwixt the Blue Ridge and the Lehigh Ridge, as he himself in- dicates by the names ot Easton, Bethlehem, and Naza- reth, within its limit. The two latter are Moravian settlements : there is a thiid about a mile and a half from Nazareth, which, though small, exceeds both the others, in my opinion, in the calm and pensive beauty of ils-«ppearurce. The houses, like all with- in its valley, are built of limestone : they are all upon a similar plan, and have their window-frames, doors, &c. painted of a fawn-colour : before each are planted weeping willows, \ihose luxuriant shade seems to shut out worldly glare, and throws an air of Dioiiastick repose over the whole \illnge. Mr. Morse, in his description of Peiinsylvanin. has given a detailed account of the Mora\ian seltlementg ; and the inimitable pen of Mad. de Siael has reveal- ed, and perhaiis ado:ned, the spirit of llieir institu- tions. (l)e L Allemagne, t. iii. p. iv. c. li. Du culte des t^^^es Moraves.") I transcribe a single pas- sage, for the faithful picture it presents: * Granular^quartx scvuis llio prcduniiualing rock at this gap. BLACK KOCK TO PHILADELPHIA. 165 e sports- gfoiise : t on the tl.e 9t»i- \\v. iiioun- gtiewed aprrtiire whirl* af- pi iiicipal leghanies, iiy 1 had le pussace and the alley, de- he seems liilge, and iwixt Ihe liin^elf io- aiul Naza- Moraviaii and a half eeds both tl pensive .e all with- I'y are all w-fiainea, fore each lant shade Is an air of ivania, hs.s lltlenit'i'ts; lias reveal- ir inatitu- l)n cnlte lingle pas- »t this gap. ' " Les mi;j;iHMit Icur '£te avec iiii riilian doiil Uacuuleurs iii(li(|tiprit si I'lles eont niiirieos, filial on veuves : le» hotn- ine^ 8 tilt veins de brim, a peu I'res euiiime les Quakers. IJiie iiuhislrie mercantile lea oecupe presipje tuus ; mais on ireiileiid |iiia le moiiulre bruit dana la villatre. Oharun travaille aver rt inilarit^ et traii(|uiHitC' ; et Taction interi- «Mire (Its sentiments religieux appaise toute autre inouve- nient." 1 had not an opportunity of witnessing their church service, wlijch is, as she descrihex, celebrated with singin-4, and ii band of wind irit-ilritiiM-nts, but I at- tended a meeting which the inhabitantji of Beilile- h^-tn co/imionl^ hoUl every evening, in an a|)artiiient aitjoining the churcli, lor the joint pinpo?es of atnnscfiienl and de\otii)n. The vvomen «(.«' ranged at one end ot the room, the men af the o'l er: tlieir bishop presidetl ; — but let me not riii«!«'.id by the term ; he had not so niiicli as a wig. wheievvitli to support his Fipisropal dignity, Imt was an old man, drest in the plainest manner, with u coiinienance sin- gularly niihl and placid: Pan! Vcroiif -e might liave chosen him for Ihe " beloved disciple," only a linic ad- Tanced in years — he gave out Ihe psaln>, and led Mie quire : the singing was alternately in (jierman and liti- glish, and I have still Ihe good Bishop's voice in my ear, when he gave out, " O delightful, past expreasion, " My Kedeemcr died lor me." It is an Idle question, and yet one likely enough to obtrude itself, "what wonUI become of the vvoild were all its inhabitants Moraviaiis ?" The breath of the passions would have i cn^ed to stir ihe ocean of life: urls of general utility noiild proceed viilhoiit the check of many of our liabils : disease would gra- dually > ield to scicnlifick improveinenls, and the temperate enjoymrnt of plenty : alxo, as inornl and prudential reslrainls would have (heir full eil'ecl, Ihe HI 1 I 1 .' '/ 166 BLACK ROCK OF PHILADELPHIA. Ni ImiJ 'ill il l( IP' f increase of population would be constantly kept within the lin)ils of subsistence. A period will therefore have arrived, when late marriages must be universal : the most active portion of man's life must in consequence be spent in leisure. — By what objects will his mental energies in this situation be excited ? Our hypothesis excludes ambition, glory and interest; necessity excludes love; the former would destroy the principles of a society founded on equality and peace ; the early indulgence of the latter, would poison them with want. Shall the energies of mind be stilled, to prevent their abuse? they will be replaced by physical instincts, and brutal force. There is one object of speculation left in unison with Moravian principles, — religion ; but in a cotnmunity in which all men occupied their thoughts on one subject, would they all think alika on it? or could their dilTerences of opinion coalesce with the general tranquillity ? History is not silent on this point: that of the Greek empire intorms us what would be the destiny of a nation of theologians : So that if a succession of miracles were to establish Moravianism, by destroving all principles of our na- ture hostile to its foundation, it would require ano- ther succession of miracles to preserve it from sui- cide. The Lehigh mountain is the last of the Alleghany ridges ; the country is thenceforth level, fertile, and (hickly inhabited by steady Germans, in broad hats, and purple breeches, whose houses and villages have the antique fashion of a Flemish landscape. Ger- man is so generally spoken, that the news|ii>pers, and publick notices, are all in that language. The roads arc of a deep miry clay, through which the country waggons, with their long fat teams, plod on seeming- ly at their ease, but it fareil very ditlerenlly with my light vehicle. The approach to Philadelphia is an- nounced by a good turnpike roatl. German-Town is a large suburb to the city, and the traveller here feels himself within the precincts of a populous and long eatabliifhed capital. i\ » . ! r ( U7 ] IJ t^IlAFTER XXV. •♦,, 1 I'H'I-VDrLPHlA. "hiladklphi \ is q« ^. I ^'"•ecurai ,.„„,,,,,;. rni?"r'"'"^'' of f<" ■"> «- "verse. La-t-e .o„l h , ''"' '^"'" »« for ll,e "b-urdi,^ ,„ ,,„,,• I'j^" ''"f I'een as singular an 'ave bu It (he l,oi„r. '^^'^ "ookcd, as to »l.ould be more i... p^,', ^,;"^"'"''-- ""iformiiv •lie sireers of Plj.lad:^ ?■ "'"" ' ""ilioear. All "•"-7 of .l.en,, as S S;';'2 "f"-"-. ^ -he na.es^o ''■•J lva„ oris „ "J;,,!- f"""'- ''"•^•"'<. &0. re- poplars, wiia „!,;,,, J,, '. " "' '^^ '•»;" o' l-ombardv «vol,.„on in favour „7 e'e ti; ''' '""' » «e™nd iouse, are chara.rerized bv '' , ' '" '•"'"'o "ep. and window sill, of ^ *=""' ""'ne,, ; ,be "»;ble. and i,„ve 1, ' 1T2."\ W"' "'^ "< ^'4 The slreel, are c.ref,,! y 'U ,,'"' ^"'T ""' <'°«" ?»"». Khicb are pa,ed\rirT, ■■ 1' "'" ""^ "-^ fool- '•»' >i»ld in displ.^^ o ,!,„ e of";''- , '■'- "'"P" do "»' of «l.e Bapli . bo Z"';'^^" »« '«»< l.ul plain ; 168 PHILADELPHIA. I ,*.' y f of winp;^, separated by an lonick colonnade, which form- (lin enliance, and is crowned by Iwo cupolas; the whole is of hriik * the diameter of the rotunda la HO r<'(;», the wiMs arc .OO feet from the 'jiirouiid, and ail! sdrmountnd by three steps before the swell of the do'ne, wtii'-li rises at an ani^Ie of Ijo. The building is <;;d<:iil,itetl lo liohl 2, .000 persons. The Masonick ilill is an awkward co;nbination of brlcii and marble, in the Gulhick style ; (hal ii^, plen- tifully " tricked and frounced" with niches, pinna- cles, and battlements, and a spire {50 fet'l hi^h. One would tliink it were easy to catch the spirit of Goth- ick architecture, which seems to be a combination of luxuriant decoration with imposin;; grandejr ; no ef- fori perfectly succeeds, which separates these quali- ties ; there is, perhaps, besides the nieetinsi; tojijelher of the awful and (he graceful, an association of other feelnij!;s, connected with their union ; it siippu-^es a great exertion of power in cost and labour, anti ifleas of power approxitn.ite to the sublitne. Giand«'ur of desi by voluntary contribution, and soon after incorporated by the Legislature. It has a handsome building, containing rounis for draw- ing and publick exhibitions. In the hall of statuary, besides numerous casts, are several pleasing pieces of Italian sculpture, particularly two Bacchantes. The picture-gallery contains several excellent pic- tures of (he old masters, and a large collection of the modern. It is injudicious to place them side by lide. American artists seem to think that to paint largely is to paint well : much good colour and can- vass are thereby lost. It is not surprising that painting should iiare made inch feeble progress, not only in America, but in modern Europe generally ; feeble, with reference to the perfection of the art, for of correct and graceful Eainting there is no want ; wealth will create so far ; ut the sublime is the production of enthusiasm only, and our social system contains no qualities by which an artist's enthusiasm may be either inspired, or re- warded. It is true that many painters are correct- ly said to be enthusiastically fond of their profes* sion, as many readers are of poetry, who woidd not therefore make excellent poets : the mind, compelled to one occupation, will commonly become disgusted or devoted : habit engenders attachment ; this is professional enthusiasm. But there is another kind, 172 PHILADELPHIA. , r hfv'" of a more expansive and intellectual character; oc- cu|)ying ilsjelf, not upon the profession, but upon the Bubjecls of the profession ; and this is even more es- sential than the former, in as niurh as the ablest painter can go no further than tht perfect delineation of his own conceptions ; so that it these be cold or inadequate, the pertormance must sufier in the same proportion. Here seenis to be the parting pomi be- twixt ancient and modern artists. We have no re- mains of Grecian painting, but the analogy of sculp- ture will illustrate my remark. The Greek slatuary inigbt easily persuade himself that the divine image he had cloathed with majesty and beauty, would not only be an object of adoration to his fellow citizens, but might even become the material dwelling-place of the Deity, whose lineafients he had worthily ex- pressed : while the heroes, who were indebted to the gratitude of their countrymen, for a seat among the immortals, must be contented to owe to his chisel the form and features of their divinized existence. If the ancients deified human nature, their artists and poets were the high-priests of the apotheosis. The great burst of talent with which painting has adorned the Christian world, shewed itself in Italy : the Christian mythology supplied the place of the gods of Paganism ; saints and martyrs tliat of Her- cules and Theseus ; but the strength of enthusiasm was the same, and perhaps more nearly simiLr than the Protestant inhabitants of Northern Europe may be able readily to imagine. It is a well known anec- dote, that painters frequently partook of the sacra- ment before they began an altar-piece: their finest paintings were, in fact, religious offerings ; and they who patronized and applauded, as well as they who painted, had alike kindled the altars of their taste with the fires of religious zeal. The spiritualized creed of Protestantism disembodied the whole Po- pish mythology: credulity was forced into new channels, and the artist who should attempt to re- , / '(: m PHILADELPHIA. 17a icter; oc- iipon the I more es- he ablest ielinealion 3e cold or the same point be- ive no re- ' of atulp" L slaluary ine image would not « citizens, lling-place irthil> ex- ited to the among the chisel the itence. If irtists and is. tinting has in Italy : ace of the of Her- nthusiasm niiLr than rope may >wn anec- he sacra- leir finest and they they who eir taste itualized hole Po- nto new t to re- animate the iiifas^es of a belief no longer fashionable, would feel his spirit chilled in the uns^enial atmos- phere ; and Kpeediiy learn to exchan^ie the delinea> tiun of Madounuii, (whoime virgin purit)' some are irreverent enough (o smile at, and almost ail are con- tent coldly to assent to,) for the more lucrative em- pioyinent of flattering living beauty : hence it is that our exhibitions blaze with ladies of quality, officers of hussars, gentlemen in arm-chairs, and other equally " Vain attempts to g\re a deathless lot " To names by Nature bora to be forgot." It is true that there is enough of religion at pre- sent in America, but it is, for the most part, of that sour Calvinistick kind which would damn St. Cecilia for a "pianoforte playing strumpet," and put the whole celestial hierarchy into snuff-coloured suits, and high bibs and tuckers. Nor are the publick and political events of mo- dern times less unpropilious to the artist's pencil : the Athenian, or Roman painters addrest their per- formances to the whole civilized world, for what was there of civilization which had not bowed to tiie arts or arras of these nations ? Their gods were the gods of the universe : their publick trunsactions de- cided the fate of all nations, not barbarians. The modern painter must expect that the event which he selects as interesting to h\f> own nation, will be regarded at best with indifference, perhaps with disgust, by nine-tenths of the rest of mankind. There are besides vety few publick events sus- ceptible of picturesque * fTecl : the business of go- vernment is no longer transacted in a publick forum, before the asseml)led people, with all the accesso- ries of eloquence, passion, and leliiiion: the artist must now giope his way into the ministerial closet, thence to extract well-drest heads, from which feel- \" 174 FHILAUGLPHIA. ing never shook the powder, and transplant to his canvass rows of vacant, or kindly coiinteiianres, looking over (he pirlitioning of kingtiotns, with rMwh. an air uh easy rso p:isst;s tlirou^h the midst of their army, in a sacrificial habit, bearing the sacred vessels in his {iiPiis, to ptM'foriu the riljd of his family ou (he Collis Ct'iirinalis, *' LIvii Mist. I. v. c. 46." — Some 'of the (} luls s ;ek to terrify lii'n with menacing gestures ; some point him out, with astonishment at his audacity ; others regard him with a religious re- verence. — '\. The death of Brutus, as described by Vetleius I'aterculus. (lis left arm is raised, and thrown back above his head ; his right hand guides the sword's point to his heart : the averted counte- nance am' hesitating posi ire of his freedman, con- trast with the resolved and energetick attitude of the hero. —Of modern incidents, battles seem to be most capable of picluresipie effect ; yet here the artist encounters dilHcultios of no trifling kind. The chief i, PHILAnELPHIA. Ui interest is attached to the leiuler, who niiiHt ronse« qiiently occupy (lie centre of the paiiiliii|r ; but a general oflicer and his Hlitti* are precisel}' the leust pictnre!iC|ue, because the niosf inactive objecls in the whole army. To rt'prcsent a great degree of perlurljdiion, would be to indicate a want of 8elf- posr«e>>8iun : I he painter is therefore retluced to a kind of grt)iipina, rendered almost ridiculous by re- petition : lht> general's extended right aim, his while horse's corresponding raised leg, an aid-ilecamp with his lial oil", on the callop, have become the ine- vitable common pluces of bHille-pieces. Our bailies are well suMcd lo piinornnias, l>ecHn<>e, though they have much tiiiiforn)i>y in the detail, fhr> tiave n oie variety in the loultnsetiihle, than those of liie an- cients. In addition to these general tlisailvantagps, piiinl- ing in America lias some p«!culiar olii*iaclcs Jo ton- tend witti. The more etpial di\ision of wtahh leaves a less surplus to be t xp'iided :n the Inxniy ofthearls: the etjual tlivisii)n of inheritances places almost every man in the necespiiy of JiitAinj; re- course to commert'c, or a pmlt ssiMi : ve cttiiBCCji-enlly find neither the idleness which et'^'endiis dissipa- tion, nor the leisuie which cieales taste. "i^ Again, industry has loo many safe roads to cnn>| eUnce, to induce anv considerable nianber of men of talrnti to embarkMl in n protcshii>n, whose honours, like a giMidon of chi^ally, nre lendtred ilenrer lo the tiic- ce^slid iiw, by the many s!icr>ficed in ihe iKhinlnre. Thus the \ery advantages ol America tniii ityainst the arts ; nor would it, perhaps, be i dining loo lar to observe, that the tendency observable in Ameiicnnn towards logical analysis, the natural result of their education and government, ll.ough extrrniely nsetul in the business of lile, is not eijually lavourbblc to the H^ , jt %t * I «i|)(>ak nationally: tlierr are, ol l•^lll^^e. ir for the hive, not to lavish its sweetness in social iuteiroutse ; hence the form is less considered than the mutier ; but it is \\u' form which is principully the subject of taste. There is besiiles, a principle of economy running through every department of sorit*ly in the Slitlt's : it is a sa\ing of lime, rather to import Itooks than to write them ; hence, there is no cl;iss of authors, no literary emulation : criticism loses its iiit«'iesi when confined to the pro y inaj be read for proiil or amusement, but they cinuiot be discussed, either in their f.uilts or beauliew. with the feeling inspirrd by the wriiiu2» of coinp.iti iois, whose reputation every mnnbtT ofsttrieiy feels iis ronneet- ed with his own, siid their glorv as part of his pslri- monv. Aiain, piquancy in conversation supposes a certain persiflage, a ialitudr in opinion, which ;dlows every thmg to be said on < vri v sultprt, pio\ided it be latd well : Ibis kind of freedom, wiiich up|tertuini II 'I J .r ira rtllLADELPHIA. I) . */ liu .4 perhaps, (o a corruption of existing institutions, ii singularly inapplicaiile to a country, in which all moral iluties are poitiiive ; aiul whatever is poiiilive adtnits neither of speculation nor discussion. Reiigiouii toleration has produced in America an eflfect, which though natural, is curiously the reverse of what the advocates for a church, " by law es* tablished," cotuiuonly predict. A monopoly, either in trade or religion, goes far to produce stagnation and d«;crement ; tihi una, ibi tnilla. — Zeal cools, and faith decays, under the indolent governance of chartered pistors, with who!U such extrriNtl coinpli« ance, as will assure them on tlie score of temporals, may be expected to form the chief pari of their anxie- ty. When tlie mo.'iopoiy is entirely close, the few in whose minds r^ii-iiin continues to assert her rights, have no resource, but in suoh positive iiifidell- ty as will permit those outward compliances, which an heretical belief woidd re^iurd as criminal. A free com- petition, on the contrary, not only stimulateH the zeal of all, because oU'i sect has no advantage over another, except what it ar very ipiickly caught u|) and penned in tuiolher. Thrre are forty-two rhurchcs in Philadelphia : Kornati (Jaiholirk, ^episcopalian, Pres- byterian, tinaker, Kici; (r^uakcr, Swedish Lutheran, German liutheran, (}ern:an Kdormeii, Associate, Associate litiormed, Covenanters, Methoih'^tH, (/hris- tiaii cliiirch, iMoi avian, I niverM.ilit«t, Indepeiulenti Unitarian, .It'wish. To fall in with none of these, wouUi indicate a surprising eccentricity of character, not likely to meet with much indulgence ; and hav- ing choi«n one, the American would coi;-ider, that, like a tiaili , it wan seriously to be followed, and no longer ipeculaled upuu. mi * 1 ; e' W » • t PHILADELPHIA. I?5» Politicks are, indeed, a RiiUjcct of high interest, whether in action or Mp'iciilation, but for this very reason they are scarcely a fit t«>{)ick for social relaxa- tion : they are a ptirl of every injn'ii ttiHiiiess, and are discussed as «ncli : a pleaiire to»ociety its perfect j^race. " All the politeness of the Americans," observes the Marquis de Chas- tellux, *' is mere lorm, such as drinking health to the company, observin<: ranks, giving up the ri^ht hand, &c. but til ey (Jo no iliiui:; of this, but what has beei taught them; not a particle of it is ttie result of sen- titnenl : in a word, itoliteness here, is like reli gion in Italy, every thing in practice, but without any principle." I have myself seen a lad haniling two young women out of a pol-houne into (he stage wag- gon, with all the gravity of a Master of the Ceremo- nies at Uath : in fact, this varnish is used to cover manners very frequently vul'i,ar, and very rarely elegant. IManners to be viilg.ir must be affected; the meanest Indian is a genllernHn, because he is composed and natural ; add a desire to please, and you have all that society reipiires. A Frenchman is as anxious to. please as he appears, because hia vanity is gratified by success; his politeness ii the natural expre'jsior of this anxiety, and plea- ses, as something natural. Tl le Ameru'an, on rn- the contrary, nilent and rcfKciing, occupies hi leir very little with the cliVi I of what he says; *' liriller iliins In Soriili^^^ is to him an unmean- ing phrase ; his po iilenesis is, therefore, no re- flexion of his feelings, but an arlifii iai form Im; has borrowed, to hide a vacuum : — and what should haxc liKtuceii a sensihie people l.) Iiorrow a trap|)uig ho unsiiiled (o thtir chara.ler .' The vanity probably, to rival Uie nations of Europe, in manners, as well 180 PHILAUELPHIA. I V I 11^ as in arts and power : (he French led (he ton in fashions ; and accident gave French fashionn a dou- ble advantage in America: but they made ihe mis- take of the nobleman, who purchased Fiuu h, and then wondered he exhibileii none of the feats which had delii^hted him, while in possession of the show- man : — but I mistake; they have no such astonish- ment ; they believe, he actually does exhibit (hem all. I have proceeded too far in the discussion of man- ners without introducing the ladies, who have so great a sh»rc in forming them. Their cheeks may redden, perhaps, at my hard sayings, but I offer to replace their wreaths of tinsel, with rhaplets of pearls. Women bear a high rate in the American market^ because they are scarce in proportion to the demand, in a country, w!iere all men marry, and marry young ; consequently they are not called upon, to make great exertions to captivate ; they can do without striking ar.compliithmenis, and, to recur to a trading maxim, wiiich (hey will very well understand, there will sel- dom be more of a commodity raised for market, (ban the conHiimpliou calls for. Female accomplishments are consequently in (he same predicament with male politeness ; they are cultivated upon a principle of vanity, to imitate (he ladies of Europe; but they feldom enrich the understanding, or give eleicance to the manners : — like the men, the ladies fall into the mistake of confounding fashions with manners, and think they import Parisian graces with Parisian bonnet;* : nay, this is little, they have improved the commodity : " The American ladies," as 1 nave heard an American lady modestly observe, *' unite French grice with English modesty." Happy combination, did it not neutralize Ihe whole compound ' Let ua view (hem in (heir perihelion, at a ball or assembly. Chairs are arranged in a close semi-circle ; the !;\dlet file into the room, and silently take their seats bortide etch other, the men occupy ing (he chord of (he segment, i,\ PIIII.AUr.I.PHIA. %'i8-a-vis to their fair foes, (for sufili their cautious distance and rare coiiimnniculion would indicate Ihem to be :) the men in this situation dittCUSH trade and politick-^ ; the ladies, fashions and doini'slick incidents, with all I lie quiet and gravity becoming the solemni- ty of the meeting; : tea and cufft^e are handed about, and in due process of time, cakeit and lemonade, &c. : rIiouUI there be no dancing, the forces draw otr, afier having for several hours thus reconnoiiied each other. When they dance, the n»en slep for- ward, and, more by gp>(lure lliiin word, indicate their wishes to their fair partners: Cotillions then com- mence, with a gravity and perseverance almost pitia- ble, "Dancing,** nays the MiU(|uis de Chastellux, is said to be at once the etnbicin of gayety and of love : here it seems to be the "emblem of legislation and marriage.'* The animation displayed by the feet never finds its way into the countenance, to light up the eye, or deepen the rose on the cheek, Wlijrh liang^ in c->iill and lirrli><<« lustre tlicre. Like a P'd nak-li-af in tin winiry air; While llie hhierye altovi.' it rnUlly lH irrave et silen- cieuTy el toiife rHitjitctle iriiimhe qui rrtine enrare dnns la socitii dfs fenintfs ties Ktals I'liis/* Not- withstanding the niulli|ili(;ily of seels in America, they all take theii- lone rnun llu; auslercHt, that they may lose none of I he a«l\;inl.ir*'« rcNidling from the appearance of superiour sanctity : in this way« peo- ple of all creeds are screwed up lo the [lilcli of ('al- vinistirk slilfness: gallantry itself asHiimes a solemn and serious air : the God of Love has laid aside his M ]ft2 PHILADELPHIA. J( {>t torch and purple wlnc;s, and sfeps a merchant's clerk, well versed in the (nvHieries holh of gruce and uun. Society, under these circiimsfances, heconien in>iead of theF.Mst, the Fast of Self-love. With scarcely any cotiiinnnK ation of Hen>iiiient betwixt the sexes, there is no collision to strikeout the sparkle!* of v. it, nor any sympathy of tastes to kindle feelin'i, or ^ive the expression of it anim:ilion. Parties Heparaie as if they had p«>rforn)t'(l a duty, and meet to perfotm one a^ain. — i have thus far touched on the (leficien* cies of A nerican females, let me speak their praise. Their good «pi;dities are of a sterlinj; kind : jiood wives, j^ood mothers, prudent housekee[iers, they may hid defiance to the satirist, until Ihev tpiit the hallowed cir«;le of domestick virtues, to (loller heavi- ly on the li;;ht airs of vanity : throuji;h their aflVrta- tion only are they vulnerable. Should it he objected that domestick virtues alone are insufficient to j^ive the human mind its fullest expansion, to produce a He Slael or an 10. Ii^e worth, we may reply, that the cneriretick feelings which nourish the soul of genius, thouu;h to their im-uediate posseHsor they may, acitordint; to circumstances, be productive cither of puin or pleasure, yet in their ;;eneral growth, are iti variably attached to a slate of social hutioring : there must be a war of elements to engender the Ihuntlerbolt. In America life moves evenly, for every one is thriving in his proper pla< e. IMisfor- tiine, when it occurs, as where iloes it not ? flows from individual miscalculation, an«i has, therefore, none of the solemn character of Natality, whicli it bears in asocial svslein, miire defectively ort{.inized. Whatever has been observed with rej^ard to socie- ty ill Philadelphia, and in the Stales ^renerally, must be taken with such exceptions as all (General observations are liable to. In all the principal towns small circles are to be met with, in which animated converiiation, i^olished and easy manners, leave no- PniLAPrLPHIA. 183 thin:; (o be <1e<lie sti-earii lake iia ititiirat courne, without torluriii^; if into arlifirial />rs- ii|)t(Ml t«) consider th*; farmers of the back-wooth the polilest class of people in the Stiites, bt!cuiH*> their mani.ers spring from the true souK-.e, their feejni^g. To a siraiis were at uork on one ^ide of it, and the whole court is surionnded by a uallery and double tier of work shops, in which were brush- makers, tailors, shoemakers, weavers, all at their several occupations, hdioiiiini;, not only to defray to the pnblick the expences of their coidinement, but to provide the means of their own honest sidi^islenve lor the future. I passed Ihroiifrh the shops, and paused a inomeiit in the gallery to look down on (he Hcene ^ » 184 PHILADELPHIA. below : it had none of the usual features of a prinon bouse, neither the hardened proflii^iicy which scoffs down its own sense of guilt, not ihe hollow-eyed sor- >ow which wastes in a living death of unavailing expia- tion : there was neither the clank of chains, nor yell of execration, but a hard-working body of men, who though seperated by justice from society, were not supposed to have lost the distinctive attribute of hu- man nat'ire: they were treated as rational beings, operated upon by rational motives, and repa} ing this treatiii'iil by improved habits, by industry and 8ub nissior) : ihey had been profligate, they were sober and decent in behaviour ; thev had been idle, they were actively and usefully employed ; they had diso- beyed the laws, they submitted (armed as they were with all kind of utensils) to the government of a single turnkey, and the barrier of a single grating. The miracle which worked all this was humanity, addres- sing their self-love thtough their reason. I envied Atnerica this system 1 felt a pang that ray own country had neither the glory to have invented, nor the emulation to have adopted it. — I borrow the de- tail of its history and regulations from " the Pirture of Philadelphia," publishedby Dr. James IMease, liill. History. — By the code of laws, framed by Wil- liam Penn, the punishment of death was abrogated in all cases, except " wilful and premeditated dturder where it was admitted in obedience to tht will of Ood." These humane and Christian laws, when transmitted to England, were all repealed by the Queen in council, but were immediately re-enacted, and continued till the year 17IU, the epoch of Penn's death: the penal code of England was then revived. The constitution of Pennsylvania, formed upon the declaration of independence, directed, in one of its first provisions, *' the Legislature to proceed to the reformation of the penal laws, and to invent punisli- ntents less sanguinary, and better proportioned to the various degrees of crimioality." In 1786, when the ••♦»^** PHILADELPHIA. jg, close of the war Uft i • "» some cases whic h Ld he «": /'"'' "'^ ''^'^ '«»'0«r, bour, however, whs pZ k I l'"'" ''^P''«' • >^i« '«- *J'o aMain none 0^^! .i^ . .^'^ «««" ^''^^over- »em ; hardening, rJi^^.i^^' .•^"^« of punl.h- and creafing, i„ ,/,« nnbh'<^ ..??""'"« '*'^ *^'''"""a' ; ' i';!.r?r'"*"'''-'''''errCahW^ ^«'"n>i«erafion fo.' ;?«?'. l>r. Uu«h, whHad 7 "^-^ "'^^e crime, i" read a p«pe, 3, ^ socieh br nniK "^ Pnnishmen.s. at hehouseofihevenera^ffr' '"^"''•'^«' ''^'^ l^nqu.r^ ,nfo ihe Influence of „n'",' T'^'*^^' " ^ on tnm,nals and Socle/ v'' u'ii"'' Puni^hmenf8 Pubhshed. In Jhu 1.1 "^ ' "~"^'<^'i was afferward. chief of ,he penlfL'r.aX'" "™"" """'■■"- and proposed (haf »li '".'/"•" "een recenflv nasspd and Iha.^he; IhoJd ZZ^f"'' '«'""" ^'^ ™ k.nds of lahiur, low d.er c ,.?' 7"^?«'"^"^ ^'fl-eren bj religious ins^rucrion T^. "^^ accompanied 'n Hs pamphlet were"«td IT'*^'^^. ^*^"'«'"«'» '"'•cule,,n,henewspape?r T,''''^' ''""'^^y and «? /he schemes of ^ humanp .^^ ^^•"^ considered v.s.onar^ imagination. J "nrirr^'' *^'" "''^ «"^' the nature of man, and hi T .^"'' ""P«8««ble, from «ver to realize. ZtJh 'T'""""" "'' '"« n.ind^ powerful opposioC'tr,t"> ''"'^^-^' « "-« *'ad.byacontinuanJeofthr?. ' "-^Pcaled, af.er if 'e*^ nesH of Ihe argumen f/*^ f-T' P^"^^^' '^^ 'o - ?««'"«' if. In place of n.K,?"'' *""*' b««" '"^led Jour in private,^;:. tf,t';tr'"'^''"'^"'' *>«""" diet, were suh«t|rufe , • IndT ""P'^'«""^«*nf, and low entitled" An E„^,,ir,7„^7^^ f''°"'^ ^""'Pl'lef, punishing Murde/ b/ Del,/ ^* 1"'"'/ ""*' ^"'^0 o fo-d, the Attorney-Genera '„fP '" '?^' ^'•- «-d. "'i "An Bnquir/how7a; he pT-''^'^ ""'■"' ''"''''«''- 24 '^•""^^n'cnt of Death »...- »- IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 10 I.I iilli 12.5 ■ lO 1^ I lU u 22 Li H2.0 I 1.25 ,1 u ,j^ < 6" ► ^ ^. ^ -y^ W •> Hiotographic Sdencos Corporation 13 WIST MAIN STRUT WIISTIR.N.Y. MSIO (7U) 173-4503 /A l/u 186 PHILADELPHIA. is necessary in Pennsylvania," with documents from the criminal conrls of the state, calculated to enforce the principles laid down by Dr. Rush. An account of the gaol was added, by Caleb Lowndes, one of the inspectors of the prison. At the following ses- lion of the Legislature, the punishment of death was abolished for ail crimes except murder of the fir&t de> gree ; and a motion was made, during the session of 1809, to abolish it altogether. Reffulaiions and Government. — The gentlemen who tirst undertook the task of inspectors, encoun- tered conrtiderable opposition from those who had, or imagined they had, an interest in the abuses of the old system. The gaoler had grown rith by gaol f(^es, the sale of liquors, and similar perquisites, and was naturally a decided enemy to innovation. The prisoners on being informed that their former habits of indolence and drunkenness were to be replaced by labour and sobriety, took alarm, and on the eve- ning of the first day on which the experiment wai tried, made a desperate effort to escape ; but upon the restoration of order, the adoption of mild but decided conduct, ultimately secured the most per- feet obedience. The prisoners were informed, " that their treatment would depend upon their conduct, and that those who evinced a disposition that would afford encouragement to believe they might be re- stored to liberty, should be recommended for a par- don, but if convicted again, the law in its fullest rigour would be carried into effect against them." A change was early visible ; they were encouraged to labour ; their good conduct was remarked ; many were pardoned ; and before one year was expired, their behaviour was almost without exception, de- cent, orderly, and respectful. The principal regula- tions of the present system, may be reduced to the following heads : I. Cleanliness.— Th" criminal on coming into the gaol is bathed, and cloathed in the prison dreii, bis ^. FHILADBLPBIA. 187 face and hands are washed daily, his linen is changed weekly, and he bathes during the sutnmer. The apartments are swept and washed once or twice a Week. 2. Lodging. — The prisoners lie on the floor in a blanket, about thirty in one room. The hours for rising and retiring, are announced by a bell. A lamp is kept burning, so that the keeper has constantly a view of the apartment. 3. Diet. — They take their meals with the greatest regularity, by Nound of a bell : silence is enjoined while eating. Fur breakfast they have about three- fourths of a pound of good bread, with molasses and water ; at dinner, half a pound of bread and beef, a bowl of soup and potatoes, sometimes heninj^s in the spring ; at supper, corn meal, mu!«h, and niolas- ■es, and sometimes boiled rice. Slight otfences iu prison are punished by a curtailment of diet. Spi- rituous liquor or beer never enters the walls, nor are provisions permitted to be sent to the convicts. 4. Sickness. — A room is appropriated to the sick, with a physician and nurses to attend them ; hut the regularity of their lives almost secures them from disease* 5. Religious Instruction. — Divine service is per- formed on Sundays, and good books are distributed. 6. Labour. — Work suitable to the age and capa- city of the convicts is assigned, and an account open- ed with them. They are charged with their board, clothes, the fine imposed by the state, and expense of prosecution, and are credited for their work ; at the expiration of their time of servitude, half the amount of the sum, if any left, after deducting the charges, is paid to them. As the board is low, the labour constant, and the working hours greater than among mechanicks, they easily earn more than their expenses. On several occasions, the balance paid to a convict has amounted to more than 100 dollars ; in one initaoce, it was 160 dollars, and from 10 to •. i i I 1 / '> ill V li i' "i i ' ...,r y i/ r' 188 PHILADELPHIA. 40 dollars are commonly paid. When, from the nature of the work at which the convict has been employed, o^ from his weakness, his labour does not amount to more than the charges against him, and his place of residence is a distance from Philadel- phia, he is furnished with money sufficient to bear his expenses home. The price of boarding is 16 cents (about 9d.) a-day, and the general cost of cloaths for a year, is about 19 dollars 33 cents. 7. Corporal pwiishment is prohibited on all occa- sions. The keepers carry no weapons, not even a stick. 8. Solitary confinement. — The solitary cells are 16 in number : their dimensions six feet by eight, and nine feet high ; light is admiltfd by a window at the end of the passages, and by a small window plac- ed above the reach of the person confined, and so contrived as to admit the light only from above. Stoves in winter are placed in the passages out of reach of the convicts. No conversation can take place betwixt the several cells, but by vociferation, and as this would be heard, the time of punishment would thereby be increased. The prisoner is there- fore abandoned to the gloomy society of his own re- flections. His food consists of only half a pound of bread per day. No nature has been found so stub- born as to hold out against this punishment, or to incur it a second time. Some veterans in vice, have declared their preference of death by the gallows, to a further continuance in that place of torment. A convict, by name Jackson, who acknowleged him- self to be an acconipiished villain, and to have been in most of the gaols of the United States, was sen- tenced to hard labour for several years in Philadel- phia ; he gave much trouble, and at length escaped over the walls ; he was pursued to IVlarylund, and, on his way back, escaped again ; he was fiitallj taken, and lodged in the cells, where, full of health, and with a mind high-toned, he boasted of Lis reio- ^ . w »« PHILADELPHIA. 189 lution, and of the iropossibilily of subduing his spirit or of efTecling any change in him ; but after having been confined for some time, an alteration in his de- portment became evident, and he took occasion, when the inspecl^ors were going through the prison, to en- ter into conversation with them, and inquired how an old comrade^ in iniquity who had been long ron6ned, had obtained his release froiy the cells. The reply was, that he promised to behave well, and had been put upon his honour ; " Would you trust mine ?" he rejoined; "Yes," was the answer, "if you will pledge it :" he did so, was released, went cheerfully to work, and behaved with propriety during the re- mainder of his time. 9. Inspection. — Visiting inspectors attend the prison at least twice a week, to examine inio the whole of its economy, hear the grievances, and re- ceive the petitions of the prisoners, lay reports monthly before the Board of Control, and in e^ery point insure the regulaiity of the system; particular- ly by watching the conduct of its subordinate agents, as the keepers, turnkey, &c. They are fourteen in number. Such is the outline of the system on which Penn- sylvania, and the Slates whi».h liiive folloved her example, w ay secuiely pillow their fame. Objec- tions, however, ha\e been rtiised to it : its mildness has been represented as a temptation to crin e ; yet crimes ha\t «!)ii.inii>hed, siiit e its ad<»pti(in. "More persons," sn^s Mr. Brntlfvrd, "were trifd for larce- nies and buiglaries, while thrse rfiCMei' wtie cupital, than since the pnnishnient has been let<»ienrd. I hdd heard it said that thefts weie c( nmiitttd for the 41 * This man hsA licrn ronflned Tor 8ix nirktliw in tlie rrljo, at the (ud ol whicli t nir, le.ng ron (tidf ly Mildiifd. le waF let out npnu a rnlen n |i!«d^r tiT ^niid Itl o\l(^iii'. nrd diirirg the rert of hin \ itif, ^b\v tut Iroiililr b) tl'l^ (I'm. Mi niUiton- TerRationN and seriou» advice of one of the inii|iet>tors powerful. Ij asaisted. ■■ '- ^ *■ I 190 PHILADELPHIA. sake of returning to prison ; and this is so far trut^ that negroes, who have neither friends, nor means of getting their bread, have in some instances procured their own return to an abode in which their few wants are provided for; a provision comprising^all the en- joyments of which their lives are susceptible. This objection is in fact of a nature so rare and unique, that I doubt whether Ihe friends of the institution should feel very anxious for its removal. It would, however, be hazardous to assert that this system is suited to the meridian of all nations, or rather that all nations are capable of receiving it : transplanted into many European States, it would altogether change its character, as the torch, which is a dim speck in sun- shine, becomes a shining light in darkness. The pri- son would be without the walls, and innocence would take refuge within. In truth, liberal and humane in- stitutions cannot co-exist with tyranny and moral de- basement : they who rule by the lash, and the bayo- net, have incapacitated themselves from employing the golden weapons of humanity. T.; ,- #> t rf [ 19» 1 ■#. ^ CHAPTER XXVI. PHILADELPHIA TO WASHINGTON. Darhy 71-4 Chester 7 12 Nov. 26, Naaman's Creek 5 Wilmington 7 12 Newport 4 Cfirisliaoa 5 12 27, Elkton 10 Havrenle Grace 161-2 28, Harford Biiih 1114 Joppa 614 29, Baltimore 18 12 Dec. 8, Vani>ville 25 1-4 Bladeniburg 8 12 9, Waibingtoo 6 Milet. *f^ ■•* 139 # Off the banks of the Schuylkill, about two milet from Philadelphia, there is a wild scene of rocki breaking the river into several rushes and fails : the metallick brilliancy of these rocks, whenever their strata are broken up, indicates (he ridge of talkous granite, which Volney has traced for nearly 500 miles, from Long Island to the Roanoke, and which probably extends as far as the Savannah.*' It is ob- served to limit the tide waters by the cascades it forms CD crossing the rivers, and to separate the barren sand-coast from the fertile alluvion districts above * I found it about Raleigh in Nortli Cnrolina, and it seems by the falls to cross the Fear hivrr near Kayettville, and the Great Pedee near the Ferry ol' dliieenljorougb. It is in some places composed of micaoeous schistus. |i .#^ 192 PHILADELPHIA TO WABHINGJON. *;f[^ A V V i 1 fA \' -^ ] « ; i \ # ,s ^ 1 ;*\ it, striking the Delaware at Trenton, the Schuylkill at Philadelphia, the Sutiqiiehanna near Octarora Creek, the Gunpowder Creek near Joppit, the Pa- tapsco at Elkridge, the Potomac at Geor^^etown, the Rappabanock near Fredericksbur^i the James at Richmond, the Appainatox above Peter«bur(^, and the Roanoke near Halifax. The road to Washing- ton follows the line of this ridge, which naturally mo- difies the features of the country. Its apparent eleva- tion is inconsiderable, just sufficient to undulate the face of the landscape, and occasionally pp'esenting, especially round streams, bolder prominebces, called bluffs in South Carolina. The creeks ami rivers, wearing through a yielding soil, have frequently their banks steep, and let the eye into deep woody glens ; the soil in such situations is rendered fertile by a mixture of clay with the sand which consfitutei its basis."^ As far as Wilmington, the stately Dela- ware enriches the prospect : from thence the scenery is uniform, consisting of plantations, interspersed with oak and pine barrens. Tiie houses universally shaded#ith large verandas, seem to give notice of a southern climate ; the hats round them, open to the elements, and void of every intention of comfort, tell a less pleasing tale : I hey in- form the traveller he has entered upon a land of mas- ters and slaves, and he beholds the scene marred with wretched dwellings, and wretched faces. The eye, which for the first time looks on a slave, feels a Eainful impression : he is one for whom the laws of umanity are reversed, who has known nothing of society but its injustice, nothing of his fellow man but his hardened, undisguised, atrocious selfishness. The cowering humility, the expressions of servile respect, with which the negro approaches the white man, strike on the senses, not like the courtesy of the * I foiiii'l abundance of iron-stone on this line, in blocks and detached masses. * * .* w »- / PHiLAUELPHIA TO WASHINGTON. 193 huyium )cldrora J he Pa- rjretown, fames at Lirj^, and Vri^hing- raily rno- int eleva- iilafe the esentint;, •s, called J rivers, cqiieiitly ;p woody •ed lerlile onstitutes ely Dela- e scenery srsed with verandas, the hats of every they in- of mas- marred les. The e, feeU a e laws of othing of man but 88. The respect, ite man, of the French and Kalian [»casant, civing a i;race fo pover- ty, but with iltf (.liillini; indicalion of a crushed spi- rit : the .sound of th«i lash is in his accents of submis- sion, and llic eye which shrinks frotn mine, caught its fear from that of the task-master. Habit steels us to all thini;s, and it is not to be expected, that objects, con.»(finlly presf-Mit, sho'ild continue to excite the same scr)satiou3 wliich (licy cause, when looked upon foi- the first time ; (and this, perhaps, is one reason, why so much cruelty has been tolerated in the world ;) but whoever should look on a slave for the first time in his life, witli the same indiHerent 2;aze he would bestow on any casual object, may triumph in the <;ooages of a few platMers, and a wretched negro popu- ation, crawling anmn^; fil'hy liovels — for villages, (after crossing (he Susquehanna,) there are scarcely any ; there are only plantations — the very name speaks volumes. M 25 Iblocks and [ 194 1 CHAPTER XXVII. BALTIMORE. W'HiLE I was in Baltimore, I saw a sketch of the citj, taken in 1750; it then consisted of about half a dozen bouses,- built round the landing place : it now contains 50,000 inhabitants, and is growing rapidly. Here are reckoned to be some of the largest fortunes in the Union, that is, of from 500,000 to 1,000,000 dollars. To strangers, the polish- ed hospitality of its inhabitants renders it a plea- santer residence than Philadelphia. For my own part, though very slightly introduced, I received more civilities in proportion, during the week I spent in this city, than in the whole course of my tra- vels besides. Perhaps this courteous disposition is in a certain degree an inheritance: during the colo- nial regime, Annapolis was the centre of fashion to all America : the Governours of Maryland were commonly men of rank and family, who brought with them a taste for social elegance, which seems to have become the appanage of the old families, who, since Annapolis has fallen into decay, have become residents of Baltimore. The city is built round the bead of a bay, or inlet of the Patuxent, about eight miles above its junction with Chesapeake Bay. The entrance of the harbour at Gossuch Point is l50 yards across, and defended by a fort, which our fleet ineffectually bombarded during the war. A sand bank, about fifty feet in height, evi- dently the ancient boundary of the bay, forms a natural glacis round the town, and terminates at its southern extremity, in the hill of the signal post, .' .'"• ^1lM/■^- BALTIMORE. 19^ from which there is a beautiful panoramick view of the city, tort, arMl harbour. It was on this natural terre-plein the lines were constructed against our threatened attack. The puhlick buildings of Baltimore, being all of brick, have little aicliiteclural beauty ; they evince the prosperity, and good polity, rather that the taste of the city. There is, however, a monument erect- ing to the Mieruory of Washington, in a kind of park, adjoining the town ; it consists of a marble column, adorned with trophies in bronze: the design, like the man who<>e fame it records, is nobly simple. This is the first token of publick gratitude Ameri- ca has consecrated to her first citizen ; and, strange to tell, the design was set on foot, not by an Ameri- can citizen, but Uy an Irish exile.* Annapolis continues to be the seat of government for Marylind. iVIo>»t states choose some second- rate town for this purpose, to preserve their legis- lators, either from the seductions or the mobs of a great city ; though there seems to be little cause for alarm on either head. * It is ludicrous, whcuever a city corporation gives a din- ner to a puhlick character, to see what a clutter the news- papers raise about " liepublican Gratitude." Party zeal is fometimes a dreadful satirist. • Jl ■0: ■A ■ [ iy(> ] CHAPTER XXV III. WASrilNGTON. TiiK. trnveller, havina; passnti (liroiigh Bladensburg, on (ho east Inancli of llu^ Patiixenf, where Ihe ac- tion was U)ii|irc^('iil.i(ives, to peisonily llie scmmuI stales oI" IJK- rii;i>ii; bill as i| i» not fiisy fo sar!n!>fMs, Noilii Catohria bom Suddi C.u'oliiia, or Koiitiirky lioni ()Iii>>, i^itouise must l»e Imd to (he uiijiiacct'iil expedieiif oi a sJiijier- sc.rip(joi) lo point out \m own tii!e!.oy haiiil lo « :u:li i'epro>*«'iitative. iMr. Latrob.; has, indeed, hit i;j»oii one device ("or IMassiicliuHetts ; siie is leailiiii;, by (lie huiid an ii}:;ly cub of a boy, rej-icseiiling IViaiut.', ^vhich boy l)e(:ottit'S a giil when Maine a^sniucs )h i pro- per stafe ; — a puerile conceit. One cannul lielj; re- greltinu; the Ainerioans should have neglected lo ff^ give their new Capitol a »;haracler ol grandeur woiihy ■ of their (cnilory and ambilion. Privaje edifices -■ rise, decay, and are replaced by others of snperiour niagni(icence, as the taste or growing opulence of the nation require ; but publicU buildings should have a character answerable to their purpose ; they bear upon ihem the seal of the genius of the age, and souietinies prophetically reveal the political des- tinies of the nations by which ihey are raised. The Romans communicated to their erections the durability of their empire. The Americans, in "their aspirations to be great," seem sometimes lo look towards Roman models, but Ihe imitation u^ust be of things, not names ; or instead of a noble pa- rallel, Ihey are in danger of producing a hidinoiis contrast. From the foot of the Capilol hill there runs ii straight road, (intended to be a sirt el.) jtlanled with poplars, for about (wo,miles, to the President's hoi;se, a handsome stone mansion, forming a conspicuous ob- ject from Ihe Capilol Hill : near it are ihe publick offices, and some streets nearly filled up : about half a mile further is a pleasant row of houses, in one of which the President at present resides : there are a .1 . »• 'SI'! 4. 198 WASHINGTON. few tolerable houses still fiirlher on the road to George- town, and this is nearly the sum total of the City for 1816. It used fo be a joke against Washington, that next door neighbours must go through a wood (o make their visits ; t>ut the jesi and forest tiave vanish- ed together: there is now scarcely a tree betwixt Gc >rgetowu and the Navy Yar*!, two miles beyond the Capitol, except the poplars I have tnentioned, which may be considereil as the loctim leuentes of fu- ture houses. I doubt the policy of such thorough clearing ; clumps of trees are preferable objects to vacant spaces, and the city in its present state, being commenced froin the extremities instead of the cen- tre, has a disjointed and naked appearance. The fiery ordeal has, however, fixt its destiny.* Land and houses are rising in value, new buildings are erecting, and with the aid of the intended university, there is little doubt that Washington will attain as great an extent as can be expected for a city possest of no commercial advantages, and created, not by the natural course of events, but by a political specula- tion. The plan, indeed, supposes an immense growth, but even if this were attainable, it seems doubtful how far an overgrown luxurious capital would be the fittest seat for learning, or even legislation. Perhaps the true interest of the union would rather hold Washington sacred to science, philosophy, and the arts : a spot in some degree kept holy from commer- cial avarice, to which the members of different stales may repair to breathe an atmosphere untainted by lo- cal prejudices, and find golden leisure for pursuits aqd speculations of publick utility. Such fancies would be day dreams elsewhere, and are so perhaps here ; but America is young in the career of political life ; * Our rxpodition ag;ain*it Wninliini^ton had a NJngular fate : it pleased ()otl) Rides, ft pioaHed us, tor it Riicceeded. or Reemod to succeed. It pleased the American government, tor ii pro- Vokcd the spirit, by wounding the honour of the people. From that raonient the war became uatioual. i H'Y MTASIIINOTON. 199 she has the light of former ages, and the BiiflTerinjiis of the present to guide her ; she has not cru!«hed the spirits of the many, to build up the tyranny olihe lew, and, therefore, the prophelick eye of iinao;ination may dwell upon her smilingly. I fell info very pleasant society at Washington. Strangers who intend staying some days in a town, usually take lodgings at a boari sight into the best part of society ; for if in a free na- tion fhe depositaries of the piiblick confidence be ig- norant, or vulgar, it is a very fruitless search to look for the opposite qualities in those they represent ; whereas, if these bi^ well infortnod in mind and man- ners, it proves at the least an inclination towards kn()\vi<;d'^e and refiiiffni-nf, in the general mass of citizens, hy whom they are selected. My ouii expe- rience ol>!ig;es me to a favourable verdict in this par- ticular. I found the little cii*:le into which I had happily fallen, full of good sen''? and good hnniour» and never quitted it without feeling myself a gainer on the hi'ore, either of usehd itilormatioii or of social enjoy nio:)t. T(ie Pre iident, or rather his lady, holds a drawing- room weekly, during the sitting of Congress. He take--, by Jlse hand ihose who aie piesentcd to him ; shakitig Inruis being 'liscovercd in America to be more rational and aiaidy than kissing them. F'or the rest, it is much as such things are everywhere, chat- ting, and tea, compliments and ices, a little musick, (some scandal, I suppose, among the ladies,) and to bed. Nothing in these assemblies more attracted my notice, than the extraordinary stature of most of the wesier.. menibers ; the room seemed filled with giants, among whom moderately sized men crept like pigmies. I know not well, (o what the difference may be attributed, but the surprising growth of the inhabitants of the Western stales is matter of asto- nishment to those of the Eastern, and of the coast line generally. This phenotnenon, which is certainly a considerable stumbling-block to the Alib<; Raynal's theory, may probably be resolved into the operation of three positive causes, and one negative, namely, plentiful but simple food, a healthy cbunite, constant exercise in the o|)en air, and the absence of mental ir- ritation. In a more advanced stage of society, luxu- rious and sedentary habits prod ice in the rich that enfeebieuient of vitality, which scanty food, and labo- j- \ WABHINeTOK. 201 i free na- ce be ig- h to look ipresenl ; and uian- towards mass of »wn expe- I thin par- ch I had I huiiioiir» f a gainer of social a (lr;nv ing- ress??. Vl6 ?a\ lo liiin ; rica to be . For the liere, chat- tie miisick, es,) and to attracted of moat of lied with crept like ditference vvth of the cr of aato- ooast line •crtainly a Uaynal's operation i, namely, L constant I mental ir- ^ety, luxu- rich that I, and labo- rious or unwholesome occupations bring upon the poor. The only persons to be compared with these Goiiahs of the West, were six Indian chiefs from Georgia, Chaetaws or Chickasaws, who, having come to Washiny^ton on publick business, were presented at Mrs. Madison's drawing-room. They had a still greater appearance of muscular power than the Ame- ricans ; and while looking on them, 1 comprehended the prowess of those ancient knights, whose single might held an army in check, " F.nd made all Troy retire." The sittings of Congress are held in a temporary building, during the repair of the Capitol : I attend- ed them frequently, and was fortunate enough to be present at one interesting debate on a change in the mode of Presidential elections : most of the princi- pal speakers took a part in it : Messrs. Gattton, Cal- houn, and Webster in support of it ; Randolph and Grosvenor against it. The merits of the question were not immediately to be comprehended by a stranger, but their style of speaking was, in the high- est degree, correct and logical, particularly that of Mr. Webster of New Hampshire, whose argumenta- tive acuteness extorted a compliment from Mr. Ran- dolph himself, " all)eit unused to the complimenting mood." Mr. Grosvenor, both in action and lan- guage, might he considered a tinished orator, as far as our present notions of [iractical oratory extend. Mr. Randolph, wIkhc political talents, or rather po- litical fluccesH, is said to he marred by an eccentrick turn of thouirht, which chimes in with no party, seems rather a brilliant than a convincing speaker ; his elo- cution is distinct and clear to shrillness, his command of language and illustration seems unlimited ; but he gave me the idea of a nuui dealing huge blows against a shadow, and wasting his dexterity in splitting hairs: his political sentiments are singular : he con- siders the government of the United States as an elective monarchy ; " Torture the constitution ns 20 '• T.V»»"V'"». ' 202 WASHINGTON. ilKf I ' ' i '■r r: yoii will,'* said be, in the course of the debate, "the President will elect his successor, and that will be bis son whenever he has one old enough to succeed him." No expressions are used, either of approba- tion or the contrary'; whatever may be the opinion' of the House, the most perfect attention is given to each member ; nor, however long he may speak, is he ever interrupted by those indications of impa- tience so common in our House of Commons. This may resHonably be accounted for by supposing, that their average speeches are, in themselves better; or more agreeably, by conjecturing, that the Ameri- can idea of excellence is put at a lower standard than our own. Both the talents, however, and beha- viour of the members, seem worthy of the govern- ment, and of what America is, and may be. Their formH of business and deltate nearly resemble those of our parliament ; always excepting wigs and gowns, a piece of grave ab^turdity well omitted : for it is surely an odd conceit, to fancy the dignity of the first officers of Slates aliarluii to, or supported by, large conglouteralious of arliticial hair. ' i.ii I ^ ^)^ ^'l ft *. t • - > . « [ 203 ] ^ < CHAPTER XXIX. MOUNT VERNON. L/R08SING the Patomac by a.wnoden bridge, a mile and a quarter in letiglh, the toll of whicli id a dollar, I proceeded through Alexandria, lo Mount Vernon. Whatever is worth describing in the house or situa- tion, has been many times described : having walked through the gardens, I requested the old German gardener, who acted as Cicerone, lo contiuci me to the tomb of Washington: " Dere, go by dat path, and you will come lo it," said he : I followed the path across the lawn, to the brow that overlooks the Patomac, and passing a kind of cellar in the bank, which seemed to be an ice-house, continued my search, but to no effect: — I had already found it: this cellar-like hole in the bank, cloned by an old wooden door, which had never been even painted, was the tomb of Washington, with not a rail, a stone, or even a laurel " to flouiisli o'er his grave." I stood for a moment overpowered uitli astoriish- ment and indignation : — behold, says Prejudice, the gratitude of republicks ! behold, says Reuson, the gratitude of mankind ! Had W tsliingtou served a Czar of Russia, he might have shared with Suwa- roff a Siberian exile ; he lived and died, honoured by the country he bad saved ; he is forgotten in the grave, because man is feebly excited by any but selfish motives: the enlightened selfishness of repub* licanism honoured its defender, but what form of polity has been discovered, in which gratitude sur- vives the hope of future benefiU ? Parly zeal raises if' I 204 MOUNT VBRKON. monuments over its victims, to stimulate the sur- vivors : vanity has not unfrequently urged the living to unite by such means, their perishable names with those of the immortal dead, but the mausoleum rises slowly to which neither interest nor vanity contri- butes. It is said the Federal city will finally receive the remains of its designer ; but the Dead can wait ; and in the interim the matter was nearly cut short, by an attempt to steal the bones from their present receptacle, to carry them about for a show. The old door has since been kept padlocked. K ''■'"! i ' si.ir ) _ m v ''T i c tl [ 205 ] tie sur- e living ea with m rises r contri- receive an wait; it short, present vl The CHAPTER XXS. * , WASHINGTON TO RICHMOND, BT T^E SHEN; VALLEY. . \ Georgetown 1 Miles Lower Falls of Patomac 2 l.pper Palls 11 ' Dec. 22, Lansville 10 Lpcpbiirg i 13 23, Wafprford . i 6 Hilnbornueh 8 24, Harper's Ferry' 8 25, Cliarlestown 8 20, Winchester 22 New Town, or Stevensburg 8 Strasburg . . , 10 27, Woodstock 12 Mount Pleasant 12 28, Nfw market 8 Big Spring . 10 29, Hirrisonhurg 10 Port Rfpublick 15 30, Cave Inn 2 31, iSlaunton 17 Middlebiook 12 Jan. 1, Brownshurg 11 liPxiiigtou 13 2, Natural Bridge 14 Lexington to Fairfield 10 1-2 4, Greenville . 13 WayenPHboroiigh 17 5, Rock Fish Gap 4 * 6, ( harlottesville 24 7, Monticeilo 1 12 8, Bovd's Tavern 9 9, Mrs. Tisley's Tavern 27 Goochland Court house 15 10, Powell's Tavern 18 11, Kiclimond . 14 394 THE MATILDA F.\LLS. Close to Georgetown the granite ridge strikes the Patomac : the road winds agreeably under its s li 1 I 1 3 206 THE MATILDA FALLS. * : V I cliff, till it crosses an old bed of the river, left dry in consequence of a canal which has been cut to turn (he rapids: there is^ a chain bridge here, from which the broken bed of the river, (he falls, sca((er> ed masses of rock, and lofty banks, present a wild and pleasing picture. Having pursued my way for about nine miles, I quitted (he main road to visit the upper, or Matilda Falls. A field track brough( me into a scatlered village, built along a canal, cut, like the one above-mentioned, to avoid (he falls: having crossed it, I walked along its edge for about a quar- ter of a mile, on a broad green-sward path, as sinoo(h and regular as a garden terrace : a little wood was on my right, the trees of which were fantastically grouped together by abundance of wild vine, and other parasitical plants, (railing and (wining (hrough them; (he whole conveying no inadequate idea of a stately and fair pleasure-ground of Queen Elizabeth's time. Turning short from the canal, and stepping a few paces (hrough (he wood, I found uiyself on a bold precipice of rocks fron(ing (he fulls. — I s(arted at a sight so much grander than any thing I had ex- pected : as far as my eye could reach, (he Patomac came down from among its woods, dashing, and whitening over numberless ridges of rock, and break- ing in a wild succession of cascades, till, as if weari- ed by its own efforts, i( swep(, wi(h silent impetuo- sity (hrough a contracted channel betwixt perpendi- cular cliffs, whose dark, bare masses of granite were scantily crested by a few pines and cedars. The perpendicular descent of (he falls is reckoned by Volney at seven(y-two feet,* but the rapids extend III*' c i * *' Elle a environ 72 pirds tic hauteur, sttr 800 a 900 Je larffc : le fievvc, qui ju.squ'' aiors avail cotilk dans une valltc bofflk dc colraux sauvages comme ceux du Rhone en Vivarais, tomhc tout acoup, comme Ic Saint Laurent^ dans un profond ravin dc pur roc granit talLk a pic sur les deux rives. Volney, Climat W Amcrique, t. i.p. 125. I fouutl mica-slate, aud porphyry about the Falls. i- j: THE MATILDA FALLS. 207 sr, left cut to ;, from acalter- a wild way for Uit the ight me Mit, like having a quar- 1 smooth 1 was on astically ine, and through idea of a izabeth*8 epping a self on a I started had ex- Patomac ling, and [id break- if weari- impetuo- lerpendi- [nite were 8. The ;oned by 8 extend for several miles up the river, and (he whole scene has a magnificent wildness, which may be gazed upon with delight and wonder, even after Niagara; so inexhaustibly can nature vary her features, and be alike gracefully sublime in all."^ * It is remarkable, that Mr. Jefferson, so accurate in bit ■otices of Virgiaia, makes do mentiou of these falls. t;/: ■,v '■ ■ */ i' /• r. -':^. loo o 900 dam une \du Rhone Lavrcntt a pic sur *t* It. p. 125. ' [ 208 ] CHAPTER XXXI. ,;, HARPER'S FERRY. - *■ / U ' f J. HE road which ascends the right bank of the Pa- tomac, through Lansville and Leesburg, has the credit, and I think justly, of being about the worst in the Union. It is a common saying of roads in Vir- ginia, that they are " not made, but created." The soil towards the mountains is generally a stiff clay, and as each waggoner works his own way through the woods, the traveller is continually puzzled betwixt the equal probabilities of a variety of tracts, most of whi^h, indeed, lead to the same point, but as this is not invariably the case, he must often journey on in doubt, or halt in muddy perplexity until he can pro- cure information. The villages are thinly scattered, but well.buill of brick, an advantage derived from the soil. Leesburg contains about 1200 inhabitants. The inn at which t stopped, had stabling for above an hundred horses, for the accommodation of faraiers who come together on Court days. These court days are almost county meeJings ; those who have business attend for business sake, (hose who have none attend to meet their neighbours, who may have business with them, and because it is discreditable to be often absent. At Hilsborough, the road passes through a moun- tain gap, resembling the Wind Gap, on a small scale : this ridge is called the Short Mountain, and runs parallel to the Blue Elid>>;e, at the distance of about five miles ; it crosses the Patomac below Harper's ■ f ■ I'i harper's ferry. 209 r--'V< li the Pa- has the ; worst in I in Vir- ." The itiflf clay, through id betwixt 3, most of as this is ley on in f can pi'o- scattered, ed from abitants. or above of farmers Bse court ho have nho have may have creditable Ferry, and I am inchncd to consider it as the same, which M. Volney observed near Cohimbi» Ferry, betwixt York and L-tncaster, and which he is dispos- ed to regard as the Blue Mountain itself. I should rather leave the Blue Mountain where it stands in the maps at present, and conjecture this collateral ridge to be a prolongation of the Lehigh Mountain, perhaps communicating with Monticello. Immediate- ly after passing it, the road turns to the right and continues betwixt it and the Blue Mountain, to which it seems an immense out-work. The land rises gradu- ally, nor is it until you have reached the ridge of the descent, and find yourself looking down towards the bed of the Patomac, and its opposite shore, that you are aware of the elevation gained. Here commences the savage wildness of the pic- ture. Your road lies down the side of the mountain, strewed with splinters and fragments of rock, which slide from beneath your horse's feet : .immense masses of rock project their bold angles, so as fre- quently to leave a cranked and difficult passage ; meantime the mountains stretching up on every side, and partially beheld between the scattered pine trees, seem contracting round with a deepening breadth of shadow and gloomy' grandeur, until you find at their base the united Patomac and Shenandoah, boiling over their incumbered channel. Continuing your way betwixt these waters, and the ragged pre- cipices of the Blue Mountain, through which they seem to have burst, you reach the Shenandoah Ferry : but a sketch will best illustrate the locaU of this extraordinary scene. a moun- nall scale : and runs of about Harper's 27 I'l 210 harper's ferrt. ma I descended by the road A. The village is built round fhc loot of 1 he height B: if is chiefly remar- kable for a maniifacfory of siniill arms, about 10,000 stand of which are finished yearly : " They make as many in a week at Birmingham," said one of the workmen, who had been formerly employed there, lo m?. It is from this height, immediately above the village, and from a broad bare platform of Rook, known bv the name of Jefferson's rock, that the eye co:ntnands the magnificent prospect which Mr. Jeffer- son has so eloquently, yet correctly described. " Yon stand on a very high point of land. On your right comes up the Shenandoah, having ranged along the foot of the mountain an hundred miles to seek a vent. On your left approaches the Patoroac, in quest of a pasitage al^o. In the moment of their jUQCtion, they rush together against the mountain, I I harper's ferry. 211 atoroac, in rend it asunder, and pass ofT to the sea. The first glanre of this scene hurries our senses into the opin- ion, (hat this earth has been created in time, that the mountains were formed tir^t, that the rivers be- gan to flow jfterwardi) ; (hiit in ihis place particular- ly, they have oeen daaniied up by tlie Blue ridge of mountains, and have formed an ocean \vhi.;h filled the whole valley ; that continuing to rise, they have at length broken over at this spot, and have torn (he mountain down from its s^iiminit (o ils base. The piles of rock on each hand, but particularly on (he Shenandoah, the evident marks of (heir disrupture and avul^iion from their beds by the most powerful agen(s of na(ure, corroborate (he impression. But the dis(an( finishing which na(ure has given to the picture, is of a very different character. I( is a true contrast to The foreground. It is as placid and de- lightful, as that is wild and tremendous. For (he mountain being cloven asunder, she presents to your eye, through the cleft, a small catch of smooth blue horizon, at an infinite distance in (he plain couidry, inviting you, as it were, from the rio( and (umult roaritig around, to pass through the breach and par- tit ipaie of the calm below. Here the eye ultimately composes itself; and (hat way (oo, the road iiappens actually to lead. You cross (he Patomac above the juncdon, pass along i(s side through the base of the mountain for three miles, its (errible precipices hang- ing in fragments over you, and wi(hin about '20 miles reach Fredericktown, and (he fine coun(ry round it. This scene is worth a voyage across (he Atlanlick: yet here, as in the neighbourhood of the Natural Bridge, are people, who have passed their lives with- in half a dozen miles, and have never been to survey these monuments of a ilrar between liivers and moim- tains which must have shaken the earth itself to iti centre." — Notes, p. '27. Crossing Harper's Ferry, I ascended with some (oil Ike mountain precipice, C, on the left of the Pato- 212 harper's fgrrV. 'i \ t . iii ftiac. The side it presents to the river, broken and perpendicular, its disjointed and confused strata, with enormous musses of rock jutting out, and impending above its base, seem to testify the catastrophe by which it has been rent asunder: from its summit I co;nmanded a magnificent prospect of the Shennndoah Valley, bounded on either side by the North and Biu« Mountain ridges, like gigantick walla, with the blue peaks of the Fort IVlounlain, rising at the distance of about fifty mites to the south-west. M. Volney esti* myites the height of the Biue Ridge, at this spot, at 1150 feet, ll is chiefly composed of flint, freestone, and some granite, but the point B is schislus. Canall hiive been cut to turn the rapids of both rivers. Flour is the article chiefly brought down, in long flat boats, which carry about eighty barrels earh. The navigation, as may be supposed, is both diflicult and dangerous. I found the inn here tolerably good, but the charges extravagant ; a circumstance my landlord indirectly explained, by telling me of the many travellers whom curiosity brou£:ht to the spot, rather, it should seem, to discover if it possesl any peculiar virtue to rid them o.' their time and money, than to admire its beauties. He was also haunted by a class of customers of a very different stamp, wealthy and penurious farmers, from whom he could extract noth- ing : he instanced two, who had lately slept at his house, after laying out very large sums at a neigh- bouring cattle fair : (hey slept, took their meals, and paid a bill of two ponce. This is economy beyond (he flight ol an English miser. They brought their baton with them, requested permission to spread thf'iv bl:uikots on the floor, and took two glasses of wliishey in the morning tor the good of the house. I found my host graduated his charges according (o wlial one set of his cuHlomers would, and what he thoiitzhl tlie other shovltl spend ; by which means I paid for the opposite vices of both. 1 1 [213] jken and rala, with npending ophe by summit I ennncioah and Bine the blue Htance of Iney cstU I spot, at Ireestone, Canals Ih rivers, n long flat rh. The fficult and good, but y landlord the many )ot, rather, y peculiar y^ than io by a class allhy and tract noth- ept at his a neigh- leals, and beyond ght their |to spread jlansies of Ihouse. I [ording to what he means I CHAPTER XXXII. THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY. The Bhie Ridge, and North Mountain, having cross- ed the Patoiuac, bound a valley, about twenty niii^s wine at its greatest breadth on the P.itornar, and narrowing, almost to a point, beyond the Natinal bridge, a length of ahont IKO oiiles. It is wtiined by the many branches of the Shenandoiili, a few of which rise in the North Mountain, but the greater number among the spurn of both ridges, wiieie they nearly meet, in the neighbourhood of Staunton and Waynesborough. The two piiiM:ipal branches, call- ed the North and South Rivers, are peparated by a ridge, named, from the peculiarity of it» form, the Fort Mountain, which divides the valley longitudi- nally for above iifty miles, and terminates near the village of Port Republick. The basis of the noil is limestone, the strata of which are every whrre visible, ranging, (says Mr. Jefferson,) " as the mountains and sea-coast do, from south-west to north-east, the lami- na of each bed declining from the horizon towards a parallelism with (he axis of (he earth." Notes, p. 42. The whole valley is remarkably fertile, parti- cularly in wheal, so that Winchester, as a corn mar- ket, his more than a nominal resend)lance to its Hampshire namesake, ft has been built about sixty years : (he houses are, for (he mos( part, small, and either log, plank, brick, or s(one, according to their date, or (he means of (heir inhabitants : the nundtei of these was estimated at 2,500 by the last census, btit there is a considerable portion of negroes. 1 hud a ■- / i •> I !. \ 214 THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY. I'l direction to a boarding-house kept by a Mrs. Street, and can conscientiously recommended ber neat apart- ments and good table to the attention of future tra- vellers. The return of crops through the valley is averaged at about twenty busheh ot wheal per acre. Gypsum is generally used at the cost of from thirty to forty dollars per ton. The farmeis, (for here we get quit of planters and plantations,) are reckoned rich and penurious. It is probable enough, their habits of expense are upon a very different scale from those of the planters, but the luxury of the few is ever atoned for by the poverty of the many. There are more farm-houses and fewer negro huts in this valley, than in the Lowlands : still, however, the plague-spot is too evident. At every tavern advertisements are stuck up for rimaway slaves : the bai'barnus phraseology in which they were drawn up, sometimes amused,^ but the ferocious spirit of le- venge they too plainly expressed more frequently disgusted me. A country must have very bold features to be in- teresting in winter: the Shenandoah Valley should be visited when the harvest is yellow on iiH ample fields: the roads were, however, good, even at this season, except that when crossed by limestone strata they were rather rough. The weather, too, was tine, and the thermometer frequently up to TOo, with a south-west wind. The Fort Mountain commences near Stratford : it is named from bf;iug accessible but by one road, but the top of it is flat, and I was told there were many hundred acres of very good land on it. The inhabitants of the valley are remarkably clean in their houses: 1 stopped at a little tavern near the Big Spring, on the floor of which one might have dined: to be sure it did not seem a house of great resort, but I had, subsequently, cause to make comparisons '*' I roineiuiL>er a negro being described as " Cliunkmade." THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY. 21d ^liunkmade." on this point, rt»iicl. to lis advantage, particularly at Richmond. The Big Spring gushes from a knoll ol limestone behind tht tavern, ai.d almost immeili- ateiy turns a mill, and escapes down a glen, dark with cedars and pine-trees, Some fine views of the mountains present themselves a little above Harrison- burg. On entering the village, J inquired, of a res- pectable looking farmei, for 'he best tavern : be con- ducletl me to one kept by him^^elf, which it was' lucki- ly no prejudice in him to cull the best. Mr. Dufi'^s person and appearance pleased me : hf was a very personification of Farmer Dimuiond ; tali, u.id of an athletick make, with a gait firm and erect, and his dark hair slightly grizzled, curled above a counte- nance of n)anly beauty, beaming with good humour. He made n\e. very welcome, and entered into a lively- gossip ; while his wife, a neat and somewhat cpiaint picture of guod huuscwiferyj prepared a comtbrtable dinner, after which, over a few glasses of negus, I soon became acquainted with whatever was worth knowing of the coiujiry. The village, Mr. DiilT in- formed nie, had formerly been remarkable lor the vicious habits of its iuhabilunts ; but a complete reformation had lately taken place through the agen- cy, not of preachers, but of the Giand Jury, who had imposed upon themselves the duly of receiving informations in cases of quarrels, swearing, drunken- ness, and other habits of low vice, and had put the laws into force against the otit-nders with such good effect, that scarcely an oath was to be heard, or a drunken man seen in the township. Mr. Duff wa« himself an excellent specimen of the best part of his neighbours ; though extremely lively, and fond of conversation, he never uttered an iintiioral expres- sioM, and declared, that 'he glass ul negus he look with me was more than he had taken of spirits for several years. His difpo-^iiion sc( tiie«l in a high de- gree Irieiidly and lu'iirvoieiii ; vet, mark liie wither- ing effect ol slavery on the mural feelings! he was . /• ^1' 'st 216 THE SHENANDOAH VALLEf. r ■ ' .1 '• talkins; of the different ways men had in that part of Mie roiintry of (iiakin.£; money. "Some," said he, " piircfiase droves of hogs, oxen, or horses, in one p;itf of the Union, and ^irive them for sale to anotliei ; and some bny negroes in the same way, and litive ihem, chained together, to different mar- ket < : I expect two gentlemen here this evening with a di'ove." 1 expressed my horronr of such traffick ; h« oivilly assented to my observation, but plainly without any si/nilar feeling, and spoke of the genlle- ^men he expected, as if they were just as " honour- al)!e men," as any other fair dealers in the communi- ty : luckily 1 was not cursed with their company. I 'lever chanced to fail in with one of these human droves, but I borrotv from a pleasing little work, written by a Vu'ginian, and entitled, "Letters from Virginia," the following description which he gives ill the character of a foreigner newly landed at Norloik. " { look the boat this morning, and crossed the ferry over to Ports»noiith, the srnall town which I toid you is opposite to this place. It was court diy, and a iiiri;a crowd of people was gathered nljoul tne door oi' the Court House, i had hardly got upon the stejts to look in, when my ears were arf!»i)lod bv the voice of singing, and turning round to »rnly grasji^d, a{ii<; at her breast as she walked along, while two small children had nold of her li ! ) ■-^i tiat part e," said jrses, in sale to me way, ent mar- ning with trafBcIc ; t plainly e gentle- " honour- cominuni- cornpany. je human tie work, tters from he gives landed at ossed the 1 which I was court gathered ad hardly ears were ing round w a group and ages, sat care- ist turned the main on their saw some their es- 's hands, s in their mother, walked d of her 1*HE SHENAITDOAH TALLET. 217 apron on either side, almost running to keep up with the rest. They came along singing a little wild hymn, of sweet and mournful melody, flying by a divine instinct of the heart to the consolation of religion, the last refuge of the unhappy, to support them in their distress. The sulky now stopped before the tavern, at a little distance beyond the court-house, and the driver got out. < My dear Sir,' (said 1, to a person who stood near me,) ' can you tell me what these poor people have been doing? What is their crime ? and what is to be their punish- ment V * O, (said he,) its nothing at all, but a parcel of negroes sold to Carolina, and that man is their driver, who has bought them.' * But what have they done, that they should be sold into ban- ishment V * Done, (said be,) nothing at all that I know of, their masters wanted money, I suppose, and these drivers give good prices.' Here the driv- er having supplied himself with brandy, and his horse with water (the poor negroes of course wanted noth- ing,) stepped into his chair again, cracked his whip and drove on, while the miserable eiilea followed in funeral procession behind him." • >. ' . , i !• ■if 4 V,' (I J I i ■^, [218 1 • 1 ; - CHAPTER XXXIII. THE CAVES. ;Ji ;i(! r Aboitt a mile from Harrisonburg, there is a roaji wbii h turns to the left ; it crooHes the north and middle forks of the South Shenandoah, and passea round the southern extremity of the Fort Mountain, through a well settled country, to Port Republic.k ; from this village the distance is about a mile to the Cave tavern. A hill, reckoned at 200 feel of per- pendicular height, rise» on the left bank of the south fork, the ascent of u'hirh is so steep, that, as Mr. JettiBrson obser\e8, " you may pitch a biscuit from its summit into the river." The entrance into the Caves \n about ttvo-thirds of the way up ; the one Mr. Jeflfer»'oii has described. Notes p. 31. by the name of IVI.\(li»on*8 Cave, is used for the purpose of making ^uiNpetre, and seldom visited from curiosi- ty ; its aitrnction having been destroyed by the dlwrovery of armiher cavern of !>nperiour extent and grundeur, m the same cliff, a few yards beyond it. Being private property, and much frequented by 8tranu;ers, the entrance is kepi closed. The pro. prieior, an old German, acts as guide, provides lightSi &c. and seems to feel much interest in his office, when be attends persons whom he thinks capable of appreciating (he scene. Tlie eniranoe afforded mere crawling room, but as we receded from the light of day, the vaulting rose, and after descending some rude steps and crag«, we began to perambulate a magnificent sub- ^ terranean palace. Its length if reckoned at 800 v.-r : I • ir 1 caverns, bas the effect of fine muiick. What a Py- thian dwelling for old Huperstition I* I found verj good quarlers at Staunton, and spent the evening agreeably, in company with a young American sailor, who had served af the Battle of Plattsburg. He related some anecdotes, which hi*(^ fallen under bis own observation, of the behav' *' of imprest seamen, which induced me to wish inis rotten portion of our naval system exterminated. While coping with inferiour foes, some errours may be afforded, but when "Oieek meets Greek," the careless fastening of a vizor-clasp may decide the contest. Betwixt Staunton and Lexington, the villages have a mean appearance. At Middlebrook, while my horse was feeding, several of the inhabitants collected round my waggon, and finding it of a fashion unusual in their country, concludea 1 could be no ordinary person, so they begged to know if I was not the showman, who had been exhibiting in the neighbourhood, and whose fame had pre- ceded his arrival at this village : upon my assuring them I was no such distinguished character, (for I believe the inquiry rather implied a compliment,) they contented themselves with taking notes and dimensionH of my equipage, and we civilly parted. The valley narrows towards Lexington, and the face of the country becomes in consequence more wild and uneven, being broken into paps and short hills, shooting out from the North, and Blue ridges, and thus piesenting a succesHion of deeply wooden glens and mountain, very agreeable after the level uni- formity of the upper part of the valley. Lexing- ton is a brisk-looking little town, and having a col- lege, is the literary capital of the upper parts of "' I found the heat of the Cavern oppressive ; it was a sharp frost without, the thermometer at 30° ; in Washington's Hall it rose to 64^ ; tlie vapour from within had completely thaw- ed the vicinity of the entrance. THE GATES. 221 iat a Py- ind spent a young Battle of hich bj»«* )ehav' * wish inis rminated. ours may lek," the Bcide the i Tillages ok, while nhabitants ; it of a r 1 could know if exhibiting had pre- asBuring er, (for I ipliment,) lotes and parted, the face lore wild ort hills, Iges, and len glens vel uni- Lexing- ing a col- parts of las a sharp ton's Hall tely thaw- Virginia. Arriving early in the day, I inquired for a saddle horse to ride over to the Natural Bridge; the landlord of the tavern at which 1 stopped im- mediately set out with me in search of one, and I reached the Bridge tavern, as it is called, the same evening. 1 found it a substantial stone house, and all in a bustle, for a party of young men had met to have a dance ; they were, however, scantily sup- plied with partners, the ladies of llie neighbourhood •having, either from caprice or devotion, Tor the most part (lecliiied their invitation ; they, Jiowever, used mefriiy the means they had. While the amuse- ments were going on in the publick room, I walked into the parlour, to be a little out of the noise ; an ungracious term, but the mirth in which we have no share, will sometimes sound harshly, and so it did to other ears than mine, though for a diflferent rea- son. In this same parlour, I found a square erect figure, in a brimmed hat, and primitive suit of dark snufT-colour, pacing up and down with a sourness of aspect, which, had I not been subsequently en- lightened as to its cause, 1 might have ascrdied to a fit of the cholick : he had already enunciated the perturbed condition of the inward man, by several emphatick ohs, and groans, when a merry, respec- table looking Irishman, whom I had observed a prin- cipal promoter of the revels, tripped in, and pre- sently addressing himself rather to the thoughts than the words, of my dolorous snulf-coloured friend, observed, " Now for my soul, I cannot see any dif- ference whether we jump about to the cat-gut, or sit still with our hands before as ; the time is but spent one way as well as the other." " The differerfce" retorted the saint, (for such he now proved himself to be,) " is that the one can be done to the gI'My to God, and the other cannot." Alas! for the glory of the Almighty, which one half of mankind be- lieves itself able to exalt by jumping about, and the other half by silting still. This sour fanaticism is, however, gaining great ground in the States. m ■"^s .V [222 ■i J CHAPTER XXXIV. THE NATURAL BRIDGE. 1 1 «- To describe the Natural Bridge in any other wordfe than those of Mr. Jefferson, would imply a stronger feeling of lis beauty, or a greater power of descrip- tion than his : I pretend to neilber, and a good quo- tation is better than original insipidity. ** The Natural Bridge, the nio^t sublime of Na- ture's works, is on the ascent of a hii<, which seeras to have been cloven through its length by some great convulsion. The 6ssure just at the bridge is by some admeasurements '270 feet deep, by others, only 205 : it is about forty-five feet wide at the bottom, and ninety feet at the top ; this of course determines the length of the bridge, and its height above the water. Its breadth in the middle is about sixty feet, but more at the ends, a.v* the thickness of the mass at the summit of the arch, about forty (eet, A part of this thickness is constituted by a coat of earth, which gives growth to many large trees : the resi< due, with the hill on both sides, is one «4olid rock of limestone. The arch approaches the semi elliptical form; but the longer axis of the ellipsis, which would be the chord of the arch, is many times longer than the transverse. Though the sides of (his bridge are provided, in some parts, with a parapet of fixed rocks, yet few men have the resolution to walk to them, and look over into the abyss. You involun- tarily fall upon your hands and feet, creep to the parapet, and peep over it. Looking down from this height about a minute gave me a violent headacb. ■"T\ THE NATURAL BRIDOB. 223 ther words a stronger jf descrip- good quo- inie of Na- hich seews some great ridge is by others, only he boltoodi determines above the |t sixty feet, of the mass t. A part t of earth, : the resi- lolid rock of mi elliptical hich would longer than [this bridge pet of fixed to walk to on involnn- :reep to the n from this it beadacb. If the view from the top be painful and intolerable, thai trum below is delightful in an equal extreme. It is impossible for ttie emotions arising from the sublime to be fell beyond what they are here : so beautiful an arch, so elevated, ao light, and spring- ing up as it were to heaven ! The rapture of the spectator is really indescribable ! The fissure con- tinuing narrow, deep, and straight, for a considerable distance above and below the bridge, opens a short, bu very pleasing view, of the North Mountain on the one side, and the Blue Ridge on the other, at the distance, each of them, of about five miles. The stream passing under the bridge is called Cedar Creek. It is a water of James' River, and suffi- cient, in the dryest seasons, to turn a grist-mill, though its tountoin is not more than two miles above." — Notes, p. 34. Mr. Jotierson prudently abstains from building any hypothesis as to the origin of this natural won- der : the Marquis de Chastellux has mure chivalrous- ly made the attempt, by supposing that after the draining of the larger valleys by the et«cupe of their waters through the mountain gaps, the little valley of Cedar Creek served as u partial reservoir, dam- med up by the rock of the ndtiual bridge, the under part of which they undermined, and so formed the arch. It is ditficult, however, to conceive how a body of water contained within this liltle ravine, and consequently in a quiescent state, could have force enough to break, or mine through a mas'- of rock sixty feet in ihicknes!>: besides, this hypothe- sis still loaves the extraordinary circumstance of a wall of these dimensions crossing the valley, unac- counted for. Mr. Jeilerson, in observing on Don Ultoa's description of a similar break in the pro- vince of Anjarez, in South America, inclines to the opinion that in both cases the effect had been pro- ducied by some sudden convulsion ; a less favourite, because, perhaps, a more simple hypothesis than the former. Mr. Jeflferson is the proprietor of the , \ '•••<,:■, •■ < •-» » • ■ "»»♦ *"^-«'>. 224 THE NATURAL BRIDGE. •■ I Natural Bridge, and commonlj makea a visit once iu the year, **Xo look upon its beautj."^ Betwixt Lexington and the bridge there are some grand features of scenery, particularly at the mill and village of Buffalo Greek. Betwixt Lexington and Wayenesborough, I found the roads miry, and the country heavy ; the villages few, and not very pleasing in their appearance ; but in fact, the sea- son for the picturesque was gone by, and toiling through dark plashy woods began to be tiresome work. I slept a night at the tavern of Rock-fish Gap, and from the heights above the house, enjoy- ed a last view of the valley and mountain country on one hand, while on the other I looked down into the lowlands, over an immense landscape of fertile country. The soil on this side the ridge, is a tenacious reti clay, "just," says Volney, "like the soil of Aleppo," and continues such most of th§ way to Richmond. w* * ■: \ 1 ^1 w.. ^ *" From the Bridge it is fourteen miles to the Peaks of Otter. Id the maps the distance exceeds forty miles. I found basaltick stones scattered in great abundance about a mile from the bridge. 4t .■HA?«^' . im"^ I t1 ■>■»• • V ■ - ..^f^>. '■' i-v' 'i.:>-'^- • ■'■ ■•- '.* . ■ : . l"i /* '■ V 4 , , V +':.'r (' /'■'.♦t.i • f. ,;, 1.= ■■ V . < /•' - >%.> ' _ : ,..>. . ^ .J =: i -: , • l''^: >' ""•"v ' - i I.- ;■ ^..» 'i ■' ■■. • ,',i;A)j:: r'p :'»*"nl.' ;*■•-'■ .'*v.iA^^' ■^■-' sit once in [ 225 ] i are some t the mill Lexington miryt And I not very t, the aea- ind toiling s tiresome Rock-fish lae, enjoy- country on down into { of fertile a tenacious the soil of the way to the Peaks of ty miles. I ice arbout a r CHAPTER XXXV. MONTICELLO. xlAviNG an introduction to Mr. Jefferson, I ascend* ed his little mountain on a fine morning, \vhich gave the situation its due effect. The uhole of the sides and base are covered with forest, through which roads have been cut circularly, so that the winding may be shortened or prolonged at pleasure : the sum- mit is an open lawn, near to the south side of which the house is built, with its garden just descending the brow : the saloon, or central hall, is ornamented with several pieces of antique sculpture, Indian arms, Mammoth bones, and other curiosities collected from various parts of the Union. 1 found Mr. Jefferson tall in person, but stooping and lean with old age, thus exhibiting that fortunate mode of bodily decay, which srrips the frame of its most cumbersome parts, leaving it still strength of muscle and activity of limb. His deportment was exactly such as the Marquis de Chastellux describes it, above thirty years ago : "At first serious, nay even cold," but in a very short time relaxing into a most agreeable amenity ; with an unabated flow of conversation on the most in- teresting topicks, discussed in the most gentlemanly and philosophical (uanner. I walked with him round, his grounds, to visit his pet trees, and improvements of various kinds : during the walk, he pointed out to my observation a ronical mountain, rising singly at the edge of the soulhtrti horizon of the landscape : its distance he said, was 40 miles, and its dimensions tiiose of the greater Egyptian pyramid ; so that it ac- 'J9 |r r^ I 226 MONTICELLO. '!. RV » ! ciiralely represents the appearance of the pyramid at the same ilisl;'ince ; there is a small cleft visible on ita summit, through which, the true meridian of Monti- cello exactly passes : its most singular property, how- ever, is, that on diflferent occasions it looms, or altera i(:t appearance, becoming sometimes cylindrical, sometimes square, and sometimes assuming the form of an inverted cone. Mr. Jefferson had not been able to connect this phenomenon with any particular season, or state of the atmosphere, except, that it most commonly occurred in the forenoon. He ob- served, that it was not only wholly unaccounted for by the laws of vision, but that it had not as yet en- gaged the attention of philosophers so far as to ac- quire a name ; that of looming, being in fact, a term applied by sailors, to appearances of a similar kind at sea. The Blue Mountains are also observed to loomi though not in so remarkable a degree.* It must be inieiesting to recall and preserve the political sentiments of a man who has held so distin- guished a station in piiblick lite as Mr. Jefferson. He seemed to consider much of the freedom and hap- piness of America to aiise from local circumstances. ** Our population," lie observed, " lias an elasticity, by which it would fl}' otf from oppressive taxation." Ho instanited the beneticial effects of a free govern- ment, in the case of New Orleans, where many pro- prietors who were in a state of indigence under the dominion of Spain, have risen to sudden wealth, lolejv by the rise in the value of land, which followed a change of government. Their ingenuity in me- chanical inventions, agricultural improvements, and that uiHSH of general information to be found among Americans of all ranks and conditions^, he ascribed to that ease of circiimHlances, which afforded them lei- sure to cultivate their minds, after the cultivation of \^ V' ■ * Vide, Tor a niuro detailed account of ttiis plienomenoDi in Notes OQ Virj^iula, p. Vi2, i .t MONTICfiLLO. 827 pyramid at sible on ita I of Monti- »erty, how- s, or altera cylindrical, g the t'orm I not been particular pt, that it . He ob- ;ounted for as yet en- ' as to ac- iCt, a term ilar kind at sd to loonii eserve the 1 so dialin- Jefferson. u and hap- jmstances. elasticity, taxation." je govern- many pro- iinder the It Health, 1 followed y in me- ents, and nd among icribed to them lei- ivation of oDienoD, in their lands was completed. — In fact, I have frequent- ly been surprised to find mathematical and other useful works in housen, which seemed to have little pretension to the luxury of learning. Another cause, Mr. Jefferson observed, might be discovered in ihe many court and county meetings, which brought men frequently together on publick buiiiness, and thus gave them habits, both of thinking and of expressing their thoughts on subjects, which in other countries are confined to the consideration of the privileged few. Mr. Jeflerson has not the reputation of being very friendly to England : we should, however, be aware, that a partiality in this respect is not absolute- ly the duty of an American citizen •, neither is it to be expected that the policy of our government should be regarded in foreign countries, with the same com- placency with which it is looked upon by ourselves : but whatever may be his sentiments in this respect, politeness natiually repressed any oflTonsive expres- sion of them : he talked of our afTiiirs with candour, and apparent good will, though leaning, perhaps, to the gloomier side of the picture. He did not per- ceive by what means we could be extricated from our present financial einbarrassment», without some kind of revolution in our governmt^nt : on my reply- ing, that our habits were remarkably steady, and that great sacrifices would be made to prevent a violent catastrophe, be acceded to the obsrrvatioii, but de- manded, if those who made the sacrificts, would not require some political reformation in return. fl>^ re- pugnance was strongly marked to the despolick prin- ciples of Bonaparte, and he seemed to consider France tmder Louis XVI. as scarcely capable of a re- publican form of governnient ; but added, that the present generation of Frenchmen had grown up with sounder notions, which would probably leap to their emancipation. Relative to the light in which he views the conduct of the Allied Sovereigns, I cannot do better than insert a letter of hii to Dr. Logan, I n'r 'r 228 MONTICELLO. dated 1 8th October, 1815, and published in the Ame- rican Newspapers : . k ft Dear Sir, — I thank you for the extract in yours of August 16th, respecting the Empeiour Alexander. It arrived here a day or two after I had left this place, from which 1 have been absent about seven or eight weeks. I had from other information, formed the most favourable opinion of the virtues of the Empe- rour Alexander, and considered his partiality to this country as a prominent proof of them. The magnanimity of his conduct on the first capture of Paris, still magnified every thing we had believed of him ; but how he will come out of his present trial, remains to be seen : that (he sufferings which France had inflicted on other countrieis, justified some repri- sals, cannot be questioned, but I have not yet learn- ed what crimes Poland, Saxony, Belgium, Venice, Lombardy, and Genoa, had merited for them, not merely a temporary punishment, but that of perma- nent subjugation, and a destitution of independence and self-government. The fable of JE^op and the Lion dividing the spoils, is, I fear, becoming true history, and the moral code of Napoleon and the En- glish government, a substitute for that of Grotius, of Puffendorf, and even of the pure doctrines of the great author of our own religion. We were safe our- selves from Bonaparte, because he had not the Bri- tish fleets at his command. We were safe from the British fleets, because they had Bonaparte at their back, but the British fleets, and the conquerors of Bonaparte, being now combined, and the Hartford nation drawn off to them, we have uncommon reason to look to our own affairs. This, however, I leave to others, offering prayers to Heaven, the only contri- bution of old age, for the safety of our country. Be so ;^ood as to present me affectionately to Mrs. Lo- gan, and to accept, yourself, the assurance of my es- teem and respect. T. Jefpkbson." (( I," I ■ n aiONTICELLO. 229 he Ame- in yours exander. lis place, or eight med the e Ernpe- iality to n. The iptiue of lieved of cut trial, I) France me repri- fei learn- Venice, hem, not ►f perma- pendencc I and the ing true the En- otiua, of 8 of the safe oiir- the Bri- from the at (heir erors of arlford In reason leave to contri- ry. Be llrs. Lo- my es- ;bson >' The same anxiety for his country's independence seems to have led him to a change of opinion on ihe relative importance of mannfaclories in America. He thns expresses himself, in answer lo an address from the American society for Ihe encouragement of manu- factories : "J have read with great ^atisiaclion, the eloquent pamphlet you were so kind as to send me, and sympathize with every line of it. 1 was once a doubter, whether the labour ui tlie cultivator, aided by the creative powers of the earth iisell, would not produce more value than ihat ot (he manutaclurer alone, and unassisted by the dead tmibject on which he acted ; in other words, whether the more we could bring into action of tl.e energies ol our boundless ter- ritory, in addition to the labour oi our (iiizens, the more would not be our gain. Hui the inventions of the latter times, by labom-bitviiij: machines, do as much now for the manutacluier, as the eailh for the cultivator. Experience loo, Itas |;iovcd that mine was but half Ihe cjiiestion ; the other half is, wlieilier dollars and centtn are to be weighed in the scale against real independence. The quesiion is ihen solved, at least so far as respects our own Ui«nls. I much fear the eil'ecl on our inlant establHlimtnl, of Ihe policy avowed by Mr. Brougham, and (|iioth commerce and mannfac(oi'ies in the ntass will giin, bv beating down the competition of ours iti our own markets, &c." The conversation tuinmg on American history, Mr. Jeiler^ion related an anecibiie ol ihe Abbe Jtav- nal, which serves to ^llew how lusloiy, even w hen it calls itself |ihilosophical, is wiilicn. 'J'lie Able was in company with l)i. Frimklin, and s«^cral Ameri- cans a( Paris, w lit u inenlioii tliaiKed to be made oi his anecdote of Polls Bakei, leluied in his sixth vol- lime, upon which one ol the rompHiiv observed, (hat no Hiich law ar* tluil alluded to in ih^- story, existed in New England : Ihe Abbe stonily maintained the if',.? 'I 230 MONTICBLLO. authenticity of iiis tale, when Dr. Franklin, who had hitherto reniiiined silent, said, *' I can account (or all this ; yon took the anecdote from a newspaper, of which I was at that time edilor, and, happening to be very short of news, 1 composed and inserted the whole story." " Ah ! Doctor," said the Abhg mak- ing a Irne French retreat, •' f had rather have yoiir stories, than other men's trnlhri." Mr. JetFerson preferred Bolta's Italian History of the American Revolution, to any that had yet ap- peared, remarkini;;, however, the inaccuracy of the speeches. Indeed, the true history of that period seems to be generally con!»i«lered as lost : A re- markable letter on this point, lalely appeared in print, from the venerable Mr. John Adams, lo a Mr. Niles, who had solicited hh aid to collect and publish a body of revolutionary spperhes. He says, " Of all the speeches made in Coa^ress, from 1774 lo 1777 1 incl'isive, of both years, no( one sentence remains, ex- cept a (e\9 periods of Dr. Wilherspoon, piinled in his works." His concluding senlence is very strong. " In plain English, and in a few wor.ls, Mr. Ndes, 1 consider the true history of the American revolution, and the establishment of our present constitutions, as lost for ever; and nolhing but misrepresentations, or partial accoimts of it, will ever be reco\ered." I slept a night at Monticeilo, and left it in the morning, with such a feelmg as the traveller quits the (nouldering remains of a Grecian temple, or the pilgrim a fountain in the desert. It would indeed argue great torpor, both of understanding and heart, to have looked wilhont veneration and interest, on the man who drew up the declaration of American Independence ; who sharee they have obtained a mono- poly of genius, as well as of power, and hold in true regal disdain the honest simplicity of their Yankey brethren. These observations do not, however, apply to (he inhabitants of the Upper Country, who seem to be generally a race of plain industrious farm- ers, with both the sound sense, and unaffected man- ner, peculiar to this class of people throughout the Union. As the Virginians feel destined to govern, and as persuasion is a necessary instrument for this purpose, eloquence is their favourite study ; but one of their contrymen is best able to describe their efforts and success : — " The people of this State insist upon it, that they have the patent right for making speeches. Eloquence, indeed, (of some sort or other) is almost the only road to fame and influence in the State. Every youth, of course, who has been led to believe that be has any talents at all, immedialely turns his whole attention to the science of spouting. The consequence is, that (he land is literally over-rua with orators of all sorts and sizes, almost as numerous and noisy as the frogs in the plague of Egypt. — In the first place, we have (hepolificalspou(ers,who are found in every hole and corner of the favoured land ; but particularly in the court-yard and tavern. The ta- vern, especially, seems to be a very favourite haunt for .these young orators ; whether it is that the long porch invites thetn by certain classical associations, from its resemblance to (he schools of some among the ancient rhetoricians ; or rather, as others sup- pose, that the bar-room contains some secret stimu- lants of eloquence, more sovereign than all the pre- cepts of Quintilian. Jt is, indeed, very amusing to hear one of these talking Jacks (as you may call them,) when it has been properly screwed up, seated by the tire, and unwinding itself in long disr;>urses upon liberty, the rights of man, the freedom of the seas, general suffrage, or something of that sort. Its ,n| V 1 i ■ •4, ■ i If 236 RICHMOND. whole conversation is one incessant harangue. In- deed, to speak strictly, it never converses at all; but declaims upon you without any reasonable allow- ance for the delicacy of your ears. And yet, really when it cocks its feet up against the mantle-piece, its favourite oratorical attitude, and lets out, as ihej call it, you can form no idea how eloquent it is. — Next in order to these come the ' Fourth of July Orators,* or as they would doubtless prefer to be styled, the ' Orators of the Human Race.' These are men who set up once a year (generally in very hot weather) to proclaim their independence with a loud voice, and abuse the British con amore. In fact, they sometimes carry their malice so far, as to vent their spite upon the very language they speak in, its unoffending parts of speech, and innocent rules of syntax, only because they are English, I presume. Nothing seems to be requisite for the perfection of these things, but a plenty of hard names, abuse against tyranny and oppression, a panegyrick upon liberty, and five or six apostrophes to the dead heroes of the revolution ; the whole accompanied with an en- tire new set of mouths and faces made on purpose for the occasion. Add to this, the words selected for this service must all be as long as possible, ses- quipedalia verba; or tri-syltables at least; and none under that size should be received, any more than a man under six feet could have been admitted into the King of Prussia's tall regiment. I can only say of them, as poor Desdetnona said of the wad speech* es of her jealous husband, ** I understand a fury in the words ; •' But not tlie words — " "But besides these engaging speakers, we have still another class of orators, called Slang-whangers, who are also sometimes known by the name of Stump- orators, from their generally choosing to deliver i\ '■:) RICHMOND. '237 ngue. In- ies at all ; tbie allow- yel, really ntle-piece, il, as ihey [)t il is. — h of Juljr ;fer to be .' These y in very ice with a more. In far, as to hey speak )cent rules I presume, ifection of use against )n liberty, heroes of ith an en- [) purpose selected sible, ses- and none i)ore than iUed into only say d speech* we have hangfcrs, Stiunp- deliver tbeir harangues from the stump of a free, or a horse- block, or sodie other appropriate place of this sort. For you must know, these are the men who under- take to resuiafe elections, and to ciiange the votes in the courl-viird, before the opening of the poll. I have observed they are all passionately fond of the w>ird Republican ; which seems to comprise all the excellence of oraiory in itself, and is generally look- ed upon a>> a very good substitute for both reason and cotntnon sense." — Letters from Virginia, — Let- ter xxii. The same lively writer thus describes the impor- tation of foreign impostors, who play ofl' on the cre- dulity of his countrymen : " All I'uii nations of Europe are very generous to «s in tliM way, and we have no right to complain of any of Ihein for not furnishing its full quota. In- deed, thfy all seem to pity our poor republicanism, anf4 very cheerfully club their mites to give us a de- cent stock of their cast-off gentry, to keep up our credit in the world. Our old friend, Great biitain, in particular, is very good to us ii fleed. Peihaps she thinks it but right to make us some amends for the shabby population she gave i;s to begin with. However this may be, nhe is ceitaiuly most bountiful in her sujiplies of great men : though to be sure she does not sen ! her grand dignitaries themselves, but only their cousins and acquaintances, — good enough for our market. Thus we can shew men who have corrected the speeches of Pitt, at his own request, rattled a box with Charles, or even betted against the Prince of W.des at Newmarket ; but, after all, these are little fellows by the side of the French marquisses and 'uarshals of the empire." — Letter xxiii. This cullability of Virginians the writer attributes to \ unity, and a pa3!i>ioi) for whatever comes from Europe, to wliu'h ihey are still in (he habit of look- ing up for moiie'ft in every thing: — "Above all," he adds, " Republicans as they are, they have a hu- /' I ! A . i,.' 238 BiCHMOIfD. man hankering after lords and gentry ; and, as beg- gars must never be choosers, it is rie;ht for fhern to put up with such as they can get." — Letter xxiii. Let me close these extracts (and ihey contain, per- haps, no little satirical exaggeration) with a trait of feeling, which, as an Englishman, I cannot but con- sider as honourable to the Virginian character. The Attorney General of the State, at a late publick din- ner, gave as a toast, " Wilson, Bruce, and Hutchin- son ! The age of chivalry is not past, nor the glory of Europe extinguished for ever." [ 250 ] , as beg- r them to r xxiii. itain, per- a trait of but con- er. The blick that the nd on the r all was ran aveay I one pas- the wind rht down snow, in y posture d elbows, bs, while anlicipa- swarnps, £;iiesMed 10, to do ceaied to to halt at lilt in one he ferry r Louis- lan 1 fell irncy, to |e nuflfers irarm cli- lada is so [irs with- ; where- escaped its dominion, it made travelling highly disagreeahle. The houses are all built of scantling, and are worse than any thing in the form of dwellings, but the ne- gro huts ; for they are penetrable at every cre- vice ; while, from the usual mildness of the weather, doors have become altogether released from the duty of beina shut. Indeed they have seldom a latch, and Ml. Fox, to whom I was deploring this neglect, observed, that they generally considered a door's being shut as a sign nobody was at home. It must, however, be noticed, that they had not, for many years, experienced such a severe cold as the present. The crew of a schooner, on lake Ponchrtrtrain, was frozen to death on the l!'lh. On the same dav the mercury descended, at BHJlimore, to tJ" below zero, a moie intense cold than was ever remembered to biive been felt there. At Charleston it was down to 17", and I found all the oiMiige-trees wilh their fiiiit looking as if seared by fne. Near Raleigh a man was frozen to death on the 19th, yet, when I was there, on the 2lsl, the thernmtnrler rone to 71°. Raleigh is the capital of North Carolina, anr siiie, overflowing into pestilen- tial marshes, which exhale a contagion so pernicious as (o render sleeping a single night within its in- fluence, during the summer months, an experiment of the ulinoiri«'ntttli''in ; tlie otflrr ol'sravrnprrs is IiIIihI l)y tMri'on viiltiiros, who ar*' prnlrctrH hy Inw lor their firrvires, and t'lililled tu devour all ofl'al uiulor the guarantee of the rc|)ublick. CHARLESTON-. 245 n houses, the town, itlom with e gardens loliatt, are on belong- he Teiito- iking into g leinpera- iiiie of the ica.* In hat human ning sand ; to pestilen- pernicious jhin its in- eriment of ;)|j»ce of re- all the in- rren Hand- id, (Oiitain- ilhey ilwell £ in every their hid- headfl, or Isravrnprrs it lt«w lor tht'ir hic guarantee dehiged by an inundation of the sea. But what will not men do, and bear, for money ? These pesiileniial marshes are found to produi e good rice, and the ad- jacent a'lhivions cotton ; true it is, no European frame could support the labour of cultivation, but Africa can furnish slaves, and thus, amid contagion and suf- fering, bosh of oppressors and oppressed, has Charles- ton become a wealthy city — nay, a religious one too ; to judge by ;he number of churches built, build- ing, and to be built. 1 inquired the cause of what seemed to me an ano- maly in the history of planters, and was itiformed, that this devotional access came on about the period of the French revolution, in consequence of very se- vere alarm at the danger to which religio»i and social order were exposed. The Carolinians proceeded in consequence to amend their lives, not as a mere mo- ralist might have imagined, by amending their slave code, by providing for the instruction, and pa\ing the way for the total emancipation of the many thou- sands of their fellow-creatures, whom they held in stiipes and bondage. This, indeed, would have been, to a certain extent, imitating the revolutionists themselves ; they therefore took, not only an easier course, but one they had reason to think much more acceptable, because a more per'^onal compliuieni, to the Deity whom they professed to serve ; they built, and frequented many churches, heard, and read many sermons, and bought and sold their brethren as be- fore. Charleston has a great reputation for hospitality, a virtue very generally conceded to llie Americans, even by those, who are willing to deny them e\ery other: in my judgment, (heir fame in this respect, as much exceeds their deserving, as in utosi other cases it falls below it. Hospitality, in the true sense of the word, meak.s that liberal enleitainmenl, which spreads a couch and table for the stramrer, merelv bet ause he in a stranger : this was (he hospitality of the an< ijii 246 CHARLEBTOK. ! 5 ■:H ! r I ■ !i IIV I * 1 cients, and is still that of the Arabs, Tartars, and iin- corrupted Indian tribes ; it was also that ot the Ame- rirans themselves in a less advanced stale of society : Mr. Jefferson told me, that in his fathers time, it was no uncommon thing for gentlemen to post their ser- vaiiis on the main road, for the purpose of amicably way-laying, and bringing to their houses any travel' lers who might chance to pass. Of such violence not a particle is now to be apprehended, at least in the old Siates. While f was in the north, I was constant- ly told of the hospitality of the south : At Philadel- phia, I toud it ice-bound, at Baltimore there was in- deed a thaw, but at Washington the frost, probably from the congenial influence of politicks, was harder than ever; the thermometer rose but little at Rich- morid, and, when 1 arrived at Charleston, I was en- tertained, not with its own hospitality, but with an eulogium upon that of Boston. — 1 ilid not retrace my steps, to put the matter to proof. — Tlie experience of an individual would not be very conclusive, were hospifality a discriminating virtue ; but its essence ig prodigality, and the name of stranger, the only requi- site passport to its favour. Ot such hospitality, the traveller will find nothing,''^ except, indeed, his rank or character should be such, as to give an eclat to his entertainers. The ordinary pilgrim must be con- tent, ^f his lettets of introduction procure him, as they certainly will, a courteous reception, and a dinner. He will also find a ready and polite admission into general society. And this ought to satisfy him. ''' If I liave any wtierc in my travels npoken of hospitality, it was for want of a ()ettcr word to express the politeness with whirh a stran)?er is orcaed are always prepared for travel- lers. I mi;^lit, pert 'ps, make a third uf the rosy Priest of Les Kbnulemens. CHARLESTON. 247 and iin- e Ame- iociely : ;, it was lieii- ser- mirably / travel- ence not fit in the lonstant- Philadel- B Wii9 in- probably 18 harder at Rich- [ was en- t with an trace my cperience ve, were jssence is y requi- ility, the his rank eclat to be con- ,a3 they dinner. sion into sfy him. piiality, it eness with le hospita- irm»'r, who y middling ained me, ler at Mrs. lor travel- Iie8t of Les As long as there are taverns open he has no claim, and ever>*civirny is a matter of grace. The human mind, is, however, slow to di^irard an opininn it has once cherished. Hospitalily is still talked of, both by Americans and strangers, as if it were still alive. The free reciprocation of civilities betwixt citizens of different states, when connected by commercial or Other ties, fosters the delusion. The New York merchant is liberally entertained at Charleston, and he of Charleston receives an adequate return of civi- lities at New York. This is not hospit.ility, but a mutual exchan(>;e, founded on mutual convenience. Let not, however, a t:hange of customs be considered a reproach. Society has, in all countries, moved, through (he same gradations, and each stage of its progress has been marked by its appropiiale virtues, crimes, and follies. Hospitality belongs to that pe- riod, which in a certain point of view, is to be styled barbarous ; and would become a super-human virtue, were it to survive the moment when it ceases to be as pleasing to the entertainer as necessary to his guest. It probably still lingers on the banks of the Mississippi, it will accompany the advanced guard of settlers down the shores of the IVlissouri; be driven from thence to the neightxHirhood of the Columbia, and finally «lrowned in the Piuifirk. I sailed from Chiirlrsion on the 2*2d of February, and on the 30lh of March welcomed the hills of mv country. t tSX % W m • ■ml '' < i ^ N APPENDIX. n 1 \ No. I. OP SLAVERY IN THE UNITEO STATES. There seems little in slavery and slave dealing to captivate either the judgment or the heart, yet they have always found advocates, not merely among dealers and planters, but men who appear to love them for themselves : this too without any natural sympathy with cruelty, for many would shudder to inflict on an individual of their acquaintance, an iota of the suflfering they uphold as fit to be the portion and daily bread of thousands, but from the influence of authority, prejudice, or from an inaptitude to in- vestigate any subject beyond the line of their ordi« nary occupations. As such persons scarcely aflect to reason, or in- quire, it is difficult to discover on what grounds they rest their opinions : the few who pretend to speak from experience, have seldom more to urge than the experience of good West-India dinners ; and how can any thing be i'ietor's does use loilists, ja- [ifit to be 8, slavery he present 1 humanity ature leads they hear t, or should nally over- nit, that as while men, t what may arsh to peo- hem than a ►wever con- ical impor- rmy of cor- jund among epended on established. ey oppose a resistance rested, and tortoise, it teresi takes enterprise, did he not, II the shell ,ss of good rous in the loriiied, or lever)' ques- tion connected with the publick weal ; and this dis- position has been highly tavourable to tiie cauae of emancipation. Slavery has been formally excluded from the con- stitution of each state ailiiiitted into the LTnion since Kentucky. Even in Virginia, il seems to have few supporters out of the immediate classes of dealers anil planters. During my journey through the up- per, and mountainous parts of the country, 1 bad frequent occasion to hear farmers, and men of all descriptions, express their dislike to it, not indeed, as a violation of humanity, but as a political evil, which substituted bud labour for good, an unsound population for an healthy one. In fact, the only desoriplion of cultivators really interested in its pi e- servation, are the planters of the coast-line, whose infectious rice-grounds can be cultivated by nct^roes only : here therefore the resistance to its abolition will be lasting and steady ; but even here nature in- terposes to diminish the evil. Experience begins to teach, that health and labour are preferable to indolence and disease. The low marshy coast lands are daily abandoned, wbile the muunlain connlry is peopling with its emigrants. So much is this the case, that I was told by many, that the wolves and bears which formerly inhabited the latter, have suc- ceeded to the wildernesses of the former, in which they are now almost exclusively to be found. An- other favourable circumstance is, that rice-hnds make no auequate return if beyond the reach oi (he tidewater; but the rivers of the Caroimas and Geor- gia, descending through a sandy flat, arrive at the sea with so little force of current, that they are unable to remove the sand-banks and other obstruc- tions constantly forming at their mouths : the har- bours are therefore becoming more and more un- safe : the bar of Charleston is with difllcnlty pas!^a- ble by a vessel of 300 tons, except under very fa- Tourable circumstances of wind and tide. From the ( i m .. i^**- ' -m iM h iPv ' n 252 APPENDIX. same causes, the ascent of the tide inland is con- tinually diminishing, and the quantity of land favoura- ble to the culture of rice, necessarily decreases in the same proportion. Thus, while the Eastern and Central States ag- gregately, and the most enlightened individuals of all states, continue to wage the combat of humani- ty, the dominion of slavery is narrowed on every side, and the hope may be indulged, that its total extinction is neither improbable, nor even very far distant. It remains to satisfy a melancholy curiosity res- pecting the actual condition of slaves in the United States both in law and fact. Information on the lat- ter point is little attainable by a cursory traveller. The planter will not present himself to his examina- tion, with his memorandum book of the stripes and tortures he has inflicted, and of the groans which have followed : the information he affords, should he .afford any, must come through a doubly distorted medium ; as a planter he is interested in concealing whatever militates against the slave system : as an American he is interested in vindicating the national character to a foreigner. The testimony of the slave would gain no credit from the enemies to his eman- cipation ; nor will travelling through the country suffice to shew the workings of a system, the most odious part of which is necessarily withdrawn from the publick eye. I can therefore delineate such broad outlines only as are incapable of concealment ; leaving, not to the imagination, but to inductive rea- son, the filling up of the picture. The law by which slaves and free-men of colour are governed in the Carolinas (and 1 believe the same, or a similar code prevails in all the Slave States) Ai a Provincial Act past in 1740, and made perpe- tual in 1783. It commences by a heart chilling enunciation ; APPENDIX. 253 id is con- I favoura* ureases in States ag- iriduaU of if humani- on every at its total I very far •iosity res- he United on the lat- ' traveller. B examina- tripes and tans which should he T distorted concealing em : as an he national )f the slave his eman- te country the most rawn from eaie such icealment ; luctive rca- of colour |e the same, ive Stales) lade perpe- Irt chilling " Whereas in his Majesty's Plantations, &c. Slavery has been allowed, be it enacted, That all negroes, miilattoes, &c. who are, or shall hereafter be, in this province, and all their issue and ofl- spring, born, and to be born, shall be, and are here- by declared to be, and remain for ever hereafter absolute Slaves." A clause follows from which the most iniquitous oppressions are at this day deduc- ed ; " It shall always be presumed that every negro is a slave unless the contrary can be made ap- pear." The 9th clause gives two justices of the peace, and three, of five freeholders, the power of ♦ry'nj^ slaves for capital offences, and of carrying iheir i.t\\< tence in.o effe« t ; that is ok inflio'iitg such ^;an.*!fc'r of death " as they shall judge wiil be nost edtcctual to deter others from offending in V'V.e mani^er.'* The I3th clause admits the eviri?i!i<; e of lU free negroes, and of any slave against a Tiave " Wilhout oath." Clause 14th. " And v.hecas slj^vea ,iiaj be har- boured, &c. by free negroes, and suet; free negroes may escape punishment for want of s cut- ling off the most unobjectionable mode by which the slave of a benevolent master might ascend, throug,i> an equality of condition, to an equality of rights .vith the white man. The 37th clause presents an exquisite specimen of that legislative cPiUt and crieltv v\ti! T^Mch (he governments of all nations, frGit,' Ijtiie (c t; lire, edify their country and ma;ikind ; "And whereas cruelty is not only highly unbocomin^ ihose who profess themselves Chnstic.'.iS, bni is odious in the eyes of li f; m 1 f .1 1 . 1 '.'i 2.'i4 AfPENDIX. 1* i all men who ha- e any sense of virtue or hiinianily, therefore, to restrain and prevent barbarity Iroin being exercised towards slaves, be it enacted. That any person wilfully luurdering a slave shall forfeit 700/. currency, (i. e. 100/. sterling:) and if any per- son siialt on a sudden heat and passion, or by undue correction, kill his own slave, or slave of another person, he shall forfeit 360/. currency, (/. e. 501. sterling.") The 3(Uh enacts a penally of 14/. for cutting out the tongue, dismembering and other tortuies, indict- ed by any other instrument than a horsewhip, cow- skin, or small stick. The 39th is a legislative premium upon perjury ; it enacts, That when a slave is maimeii or cruelly used, his owner shall be presumed gudty ; *' unless he clear himself by evidence, or make oath to the contrary." By clause 43d any white man meeting above srven slaves on a high road together " shall and may whip each of them, not exceeding twenty lashes on the bare back." The 4.'>th inflicts a penally of 100/. currency for teaching a slave to write. Such is the code by which Christians govern Christians ; nor is it, in any point, a dead letter. The fears of the proprietors are tremblingly alive, and racked with the dread of an insurrection, in which they must expect the measure they have meted. A military police is constantly kept up in Charleston, and every man of colour, whether slave or free, found in the streets after dark, without a pass, is taken up, and puniahed. In fact, the con- dition of the free man of colour is scarcely pre- ferable to that of a slave : subjected to the same V mode of trial, ekposed to the same jealous surveil- lance, carefully excluded from all the rights and privileges of citizenship, and surrounded by every kind of snares, both legal and ille^vtl, hii freedom 't 4 "-^ Jl APPENDIX. 255 iinianity, ity Irom !d, That II I'orteit any per- ly undue unuther . e. 501. itting out s, indict- lip, cow- perjury ; r cruelly <' unless li to the ng above I and may lashes on rency for 9 govern d letter. gly alive, iction, in hey have ;pt up in her slave thout a he con* ly pre- lie same surveil- ghts and y every freedom v;i CO seems but a mockery superadded to oppression. The slutule declares that every man of culuur shall be preaufjMMj a slave : every newspaper is a com- menlary un the injustice and barbarity of this enact- ment ; tneiy Uu) irien of colour are advertised as taken up on suspicion of being slavch : they are committed to jail, and if no owner appears, are sold to pay expenses. Rut the direct operation of the law is not all the free man of colour has to dread. The humane exertions of some gentlemen of the Charleston bar have lately brought to light a singu- lar system for kidnapping free negroes, and selling them as slaves into Kentii«;ky, or any Stale at a distance from their connexions. The agents were a justice of the peace, a constable, and a slave dealer. The process was as simple as unblushing villainy could devise. A victim having been selected, one of the firm applied to the justice upon a sham charge of assault, or similar offence, for a wiit, whit h was immediately issued and ser\cd by the constable, and the negro conveyed to prii«on. Here, without friendb or money, he is to await hi'> trial for some unknown crime, charged against hiin by hoimc un- known acruHer: no wonder if in this desohtte con- dition his spirit" (»rHiiM) I hoy thinic lilack iii«>ii have tlie Ninnr ted- iiii^^ n-ith whitp; hiil it i% th<* vny iiobriely of rouou, to as- « rib« to platilsm tlie virtues ol'ai)|«li. ! \ APPENDIX. 257 dag;e is te und nd the I more, len hii- of jus- 10 such as false > shame on the lan can is more on with ty than favour ;ro, thus cherish- of the thing to did, the ght well are the e popu- mildly onstant enough le. To iralively lervants jghtened respect le same tt from of phi- inr lecl- |>u, to as- the good fortune of this minute portion, we can de- duce a fair estimate of the condition of the many. It is in the plantation, and principally, perhaps, among the petty proprietors, the work of torture goes on. An occasional irdii^nce of atrocity some* times meets the publick eys, ind sheds a lurid light upon a region " where ^ope never comes." I shall advert to a few such particulars, in the mode of treating slaves, as being matters of publick notoriety, admit of no dispute, and therefore, afford true bases, upon which to discuss the question of their physical enjoyments. — First then for their lodg- ing. If there be any sensation to which the negro is by conalitntion peculiarly alive, it is that of cold. I have mentioned the degree of cold in the Caroli- nas during my journey through them ; this it must be owned, was greater than is usual, so far south as the Roanoke, but a much less degree is sufficient to chill frames unbraced by a climate hot and moist in summer to an excess. In Mar}' land and Virginia several months of the winter are as severe as in En- gland.* The hut which is to shelter the negro during this, to him, inclement season, is built of legs or nnsquared trunks of pine trees, so carelessly put togetler, that as I travelled through the country by night, the fire-ii^ht shone through every part of them, as through wire lanterns : true it is, they may have •'Tptfc cdte (l.'Atlantiqiip) fprouvc do< attaqiiPH dp gcl(5eg Di«e« vivps d»n* loi qiinr^inlu joiiri* <|iil miivtMit If* soUticp ilMiivri' A Norfolk, )e 14 Kfvrirr. ITItS, il timihn i' iik iiii«' iiuit (lu.itre int-dH df iipigp ; ft i ChurlP^toi) iiitine pur Its W'S^ <\v Inliliidr, 1p iiKicun' tomhf junqim' i Juntre dpi{r6 »oin «6ro (scKm liiaiKMiuit.) et la lerrp (iili- ffium jiifqiin' i nix ponri't d'ouuiiiHt'iir d^ini urx* KPidp unit. Fxr iiivti^e niir todtc )i\ cftt^, dPpiiiM lo I'litiimur, Ion tliiilp»ir», ddi iiii nioi» uviint Ip hoIhIIvC •I'flf , loiiti li riirtc!), i]Mi* |ii'ii(iiiiit qiiiitrp moil le inprrtiiL' st'fil^v^ (-(iiiiiiiiiiiriiii'iit a\x^* inidi, piUip "J'i pt 24"" Volttpy. t. i. p, 141. Ohsprvinu mlpt- wind" oil tlip pffiTt pKKliK'i'd by lliew tlinnKPi of tpiniipiiidup, he ;idd«, " CVnt Piicnrf pnr i'pjrct dp lelte liiifiiludp dpii oiRiinps, qii' ft Cliai!p>loii nil IP pliiiiit dii froid qmiiid le tliPiiiioiiitliP rxt ft 10" 011 I'i** iiii kI »'''i •t qiip I'uii y hidip, iptoii In i-finurqiip iK liiaiicoiiri, iiutnnt do hois qii'ft I'biltdelphia 6u Ic mercure toiubc ()" plui biu.'* Id. p. \b'l, 33 258 APPENDIX. wood for the fetching, but it is no trifling addition to their daily toil, that they must cut and bring it in, and have their night's re»t perpetually broken, by the oblii!;alion of keeping up their fires. To talk of furniture and conveniences in such cabins is superfluous ; a few gourds and wooden utensils comprise their whole stock : as for bedding, a negro is supposed to require none. While [ was sitting in tiie publick room of the tavern at Charlot'eville, ihe master of some negroes was making arrangements relative to their hire by another man for the season,* when one of them request- ed, in the name of the rest, that they might be allow- ed the usual blanket a-piece, which ihey had not received in their former service. This trifling inci- dent informed me to what kind of accommodation an equitable master considers his slave entitled ; — a wretched cabin and a single blanket. For their clothing, with the exceptions I have already mention- ed, I observed it almost invariably to be ragged and miserable in the extreme. The description of their food is well known; Rice and Indian meal, with a little dried fish ; it is, in fact, the result oi'a calculation of the cheapest nutri- ment on which human life can be supported. I have heard, indeed, of the many luxuries the negro might enjoy were he not too indolent ; of the poultry and vegetables he might raise round his hut ; but his un- conquerable idleness masters all other feelings. 1 have seldom heard an argument against the negroes that was not double-edged. If they are, indeed, so indolent by nature, that even a regard for their own comforts proves insuffirient to rouse them to exertion, with what colour can it be asserted that they feel it no misfortune to be compelled to daily labour for * Wtirn an owner hw no work tor til* «!av«'s ho rommoiily letw tlifim out for tUe year, or foasun, to aoy oM iu waut of hands. \L APPENDIX. 259 another? Is Ihe sound of (he whip so very ftxhilaiat- ing that it disjiels at once indolence and sntleiing? But 1 admit the fact of their indolence. The hiiinan mind fits itself to its situation, and lo flic dctuarMh which are made upon itsj energies. Cut oil' hope for the future, and freedom lb;* Ihe present, superadd a due pressure of hoilily suffering, ami personal degra- dation, and you have a slave, who, of whiilever zone, nation, or complexion, will be, what Ihe jtoor African is, torpid, debased, and lowered beneath tiie standard of humanity. To inquire if, so circumstanced, he is happy, would be a question idly ridicidous, except that ihe affirmative is not only gravely maintained, but con- stitutes an esHential moral prop of the whole slave system. Neither they who affirm, nor they who deny, pretend to any talisman by which the feelings of the heart may be set in open day ; but if general reasoning be resorted to, since pain and pleasure arc found to be the necessary result of the operation of certain accidents on the human constitution, the aggregate of our sensations (that is, our happiness or misery) ntust be allowed to depend on the nundjer and cotnbination of these accidents. '* If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?" Stiould there be any unknowi. principle in the negro's constitution, which enables him to convert natural effects into iheir contraries, and so de»piso contingencies, whether of good or evil, he may pride himself on havinc over-past the glory both of saints and sloicks ; but the fact wouhi no tnore justify his oppressors, than did the stubborn endurance of Kpictetus, the barbarity of his master, who broke his leg. It would be loo much, first lo inflict a cruelly, and then to take credit for tlie patience wiih which it is supported ; but the fact itself is, in this case, more than doubtful. That to a certain point the feel- ings of the slave grow callous under bondage, may be conceded : this is the mercy of Nature : but that i ^1 260 APPENDIX. I \f 'I If' they are wholly extinguished by siitTering, is con- tradicteJ by facts of loo palpable evidence ; one of which is, that it is no uncommon thing for negroes to commit suicide. This 1 heard from a gentleman of Charleston ; and I have since met with the still more unexceptionable testimony ot a friend to the Slave Tiade. Dr. Williamson, in his " Medical and Miscellane- ous Observations, relative to the West India Islands," observes, " Negroes anticipate that they will, upon death removing them froui that country, be restored to their native land, and enjoy their friends' society in a future state. The ill-disposed to their masters, will sometimes be guilty of suicide; or by a resolute determination resort to dirt-eating; and thence pro* duce disease, and at length death." i. 93. This it the kind of man who, should he ever hear of the death of Cato, would call it the result of *'an ill dis- position towards his master, Cffisar." I remember to have once heard a person assert, from his own experience, that a cargo of Africans expressed great pleasure on finding themselves made slaves, on their arrival in America. A further expla- nation, however, removed the seeming improbability of this anecdote. They imagined they had been purchased for the purpose of being eaten, and there- fore rejoiced in their ignorance, when they discovered, they were only to be held in bondage. The natural inferiority of the negro race has been frequently urged, as an excuse for enslaving them ; as if, admitting the fact, superiority of intellect con- ferred a right of oppression. It is to be regretted, that Mr. Jefferson has, to a certain extent, lent the sanction of his name to this opinion, not indeed to justify practices which no man more sincerely ab- hors;"^ but as the result of deliberate inquiry. The ♦ •• I tremble for my country," nays ho, •• when I reHect that God IS Jiut ; that his Juitiee caanot ileep for cvpr" Notei on Virginia, p. 241. APPENDIX. 261 is con- one of frees Id man of ill more B Slave cellane- ilancJs," II, upon restored >ciety in era, will resolute ice pro* This is r of the n ill dia- n assert, Africans es made r expla- bability lad been d there- overed, las been them ; set con- sgretted, lent the Ideed to rely ab- The I reflect jr ever." author ot "Letters from Virginia," discusses his arguments on (his subject, »nd I think proves (hem to be ill-grounded, if I um not mistaken in his cha- acter, the philosopher of Munlicello will be himself among the first to rejoice in his own defeat. I forbear entering upon a question already decided by the irrefragable evidence of facts. A black empire has arisen amid European settle- ments. Do the ptiblick proceedings, and details of its government bespeak an> inteiioiity to those of white men? The state papeiH of Hayti are to be distin- guished from those of European potent iies, only by Buperiour energy, and more exalted k< niiuients ; and while the manners and politics of Petion eioulete those of his republican neighbours, the court of Chris- tophe has at least as much giiiiing and foolery, as ma- ny lords and ladies of the bedchamber, lords in wait- ing, stars and ribbons, gilded coachett, and laced but- ton-holes, as those of his brother potentates, all over the world. I shall conclude, by an account of the trial and execution of a negro, n hich took place during my stay at Charleston. A man died on board a merchant ship, apparently in consequence of poison mixed with the dinner serv- ed up to the ship^s company. The cabin-boy and cook were suspected, because they were, from their occupations, the only persons on board who did not partake of the mess, the effects of which began to appear as s^on as it was tasted. As the offence was committed on the high seas, the cook, though a negro, became entitled to the benefit of a jury, and. with the cabin-boy, was put on his trial. The boy, a fine looking lad, and wholly unabashed by his situa- tion, was readily acquitted. The negro's turn was next. He was a man of low stature, ill-shapen, and with a countenance singularly disgusting. The proofs against him were, first, that he was cook ; so who else could have poisoned the mess ? It was indeed over ' i. ■•^ fi' 4 •26-Z APPENDIX. J m I ■ f \ looked, that (woof the crew had absconded since the ship came into port. Secondly, he had been heard to utter cxpresriions of il!-hnnioiir before he went on board : that part of the evitience nas indeed stip- prest, which went to explain these expressions. The real proof however was written in his skin, and in the uncouth lines of his countenance. He was found guilty. Mr. Crafts, junior, a gentleman of the Charleston bar, who from motives of humanity had undertaken his defence, did not think a man ought to die for his colour, albeit it was the custom of the country ; and moved in consequence foe a new trial, on the ground of partial and insufficient evidence ; but the Judge, who had urged his condemnation with a vindictive earnestness, intrenched himself in forms, and found the law gave him no power in favour of mercy, lie then forwarded a representation of the case to the President, through one of the senators of the State ; but the senator ridiculed the idea of interesting him- self for the life of a negro, who was therefore lell to liis cell and the hangman. In this situation he did not however forsake himself; and it was now, when prejudice and persecution had spent their last arrow on him, that he seemed to put on his proper nature, to vindicate not only his innocence, but the moral equality of his race, and those mental energies which thewhite man's pride would (\eny to the shape of his head and the woollincss of his hair. Maintaining the most undevialing tranquillity, he conversed with ease and cheerfulness, whenever his benevolent counsel, who continued his kind attentions to the last, visited his cell. 1 was present on one of these occasions, and observed his tone and manner, neither sullen nor desperate, but quiet and resigned, suggesting what- ever occurred to him on the circumstances of his own case, with as much calmness as if ho had been uninte- rested in the event ; yet as if he deemed it a duly to omit none of the means placed within his reacli for II » APPENDIX. 203 vindicating his innocence. He had constantly atten- ded the exhortations of a Melliotlist preacher,* who for conscience-sake, visited "those who were in pris- on ;" and having thus strengthened his spirit with religion, on the morning of his execution, breakfasted as usual, heartily ; but before he was led out, he re- quested permission to address a few words of advice to the companions of his captivity. " [ have observ- ed much in them, he added, which requires to be amended, and the advice of a man in my situatioii may be respected." A circle was accordingly formed iti his cell, in the midst of which he seated himself, and addressed them at some length, with a sober anrirymuii to tim jail, and the salaried clergymen oi'thn rity caniiol aflord to rontainiiiatH their pioty, by entering, unpaid, tbc abode of ciinie and uiis- fortunc. lii ff. 264 APPENDIX. r '■ 1 .. ■'i > \ 1 M ^^ 1 the vindication of his fame, and the unsullied white- ness of his memory : he knew that his hour of glory must come, and that it would not pass away. The negro had none of these aids ; he was a man friend- less and despised ; the sympathies of society were locked up against him ; he was to atone for an odious crime, by an ignominious death ; the consciousness of his innocence was confined to his own bosom, there probably to sleep for ever : to the rest of mankind he was a wretched criminal ; an object perhaps of con- tempt and detestation, even to the guilty companions of his prison-house ; he had no philosophy with which to reason down those natural misgivings, which may be supposed to precede the violent dissolution of life and body : he could make no appeal to posterity to reverse an unjust judgment. — To have borne all this patiently, would have been much : he bore it hero- ically. Having ended his discourse, he was conducted to the scaflfold, where having calmly surveyed the crowds collected to witness his fate, he requested leave to address them. Having obtained permission, he stept firmly to the edge of the scaffold, and having com- manded silence by his gestures, " you are come," said he, " to be spectators of my suflferings ; you are mistaken, there is not a person in this crowd but suf- fers more than I do. I am cheerful and contented, for I am innocent." He then observed, that he truly forgave all those who had taken any part in his con- demnation, and believed that they had acted consci- entiously from the evidence before them ; and dis- claimed all idea of imputing guilt to any one. He then turned to his counsel, who with feelings, which honoured humanity, had attended him to the scaffold ; " to you, Sir," said he, " I am indeed most grateful,, had you been my son, you could not have acted by pie more kindly ;" and observing his tears, he continu- ed ; " this. Sir, distresses me beyond any thing I have felt yet I entreat you will feel no distress on my ii . I APPENDIX. 266 white- ' glory . The friend- y were 1 odious ouaneBS n, th«rc kind he of con- panions ii which ich may a of life jrity to i all this it hero- ed to the crowds eave to he stept )g com- coine," you are but suf- ntented, e truly is con- conaci- Ind dis- le. He which :aSb1d ; rrateful, ;ted by :ontinu- Ihave on ray account, I am happy ;" llien praying Heaven to re- ward hi^ beiievoieiioe, he took leave of him, and sig- nilird \\'\^ ieudiiiess lo die ; l)iit requested he might be excused liom ha\ing his eye« and hands bandag- e«l ; rtixhiiiii, wjih an excusable pride, to give this fiiiiii piMoi «)t ills luishaken (innness : he, however, sub.aitUfii (ill iliis point, to the representations of the shtii.;', and died uitiiouithe quivering of a muscle. The sjmrtitois, who had been drawn together, part- ly by idle' cm iosity, and partly by a detestation of his si.'pposo:! crime, retired with tears for his fate, and execrations on his murderers. No. II. OF THE AMERICAN CHARACTER. I ventured at an early period of my travels to delineate some features of the American charsictcr. Whatever I have sfen auice has tended to confirm the im|*resaion then mule, and this agreement of early imitressiuns with sub- sequent experience may be admitted to prove, that the national character is strongly pronounced and therefore readily aMpreci>ited. NotwithHtandinsT the important diQereuces of climate, habits of life, and religion, there exis^ts throughout the Uniim a feature of similitude countervailing all these. Thi» feature is government. Political institutions have in other countries a feelile and secondary inlluence : the duties of a snliject are, for the most part, passive; those of the American citizen are active, and perpetually act- ing; an 'J68 API'RNDIX. 1 1! II' ■I f.i ^oo(l people, as if Proviiicneo ha«l (ieterinineil to take tbose islaixU under his care, aiitl oe.id tlii'iii iDii|>|>lies to save lliem rrom r.tniiie, in spite of the Aiiieric raised hy the idack art, or at least were in inufaclureil in a iiotan's otVu-e. f\' pressly for the occasion, and tlu-tei'ore r«M<)lved In lay them at once. So they pasM< d a la.v wliicli declared in ■uhslance that no kind of accident or dii act entitled, an Ad laijiin( an anban^o, &c. to the contrary notwith- iitandinu;/'' TiCiler VI. This is confessedly a caricature, hut its distorted linea- ments may help us to some of the true features of the New FiUj^landers They are the Scotchmen of the Unit- ed Slates. Inhal)itin<; a country of limited extent, and iucapahle of maintaining its «i\vn populiition, (heir indus- try naturally and s*iccesfully directed itsilf to coinnier- cial pursuits; liul as even thette hecame(i;r , and, as far as they could, hunted them from their in-igh- bourlitMNi, whenever (hey attempted to gain a fooling in it. "II is (says the author of Ihe "Olive Hranch,''*) xvilhin (he iriemory of (hose over whi>se chins no raTior has nver mowed a harves(, that Yankee and sharper were '*' A political puhlirntioii. Iiy Matthew Carey, of I'hiladeN phia. l>lif» to ury lliat |u> liliick itVuf. t'X- il In lay •iiirfil iit tioiiM l>e ic ItuiuU. IIICP, Ullll Hill notii- II 1 1 |iointii t ciititlrd, iiutv^illi- letl linea- p»'9 of the the Uiiit- tunt. ami ii'ir iiiilua- t roiniiirr- iittiilViiifnt It Hii I'lirly noii^ thi'ir lialil« tliut ex|i«(lii*nt, its, to en wlu) v.ire iii't'eplatile Ni'W York liliornMH't*, fir iH'inh- I'ootiiiK in trHiuh,"*) no ray.or lirpiT WtTC 11 niilailol- Iwork oC llin liiiviii)!; bucii regnrcled os nearly synonymous, and this was not among the low, und Iht; iiliui-ral, the liase, and the vtil<;ar. It |H'i'va; witlt thobo of the Eastern." Fa{i;e J 7 J. It is therefore ii. this class of adventurers and emigrants we are to look lor the least lavonialtlc tiailh ol ,lie New En^laitil character : |iatieiii, induHlrioub, l'riiu,.il, (nl«-r|itis- in^, and iiilellit!;ent, it cannot he deiiitd. luti lh.>l (h«y are rre(|uenily knavish, lll^'all, and avariciuua ; as men who make ^Hin the m.tttter Sjoin^ ol tin ir arlioiis. Here we perceive the force and in»'ani;iii of the Vir;;i- nian satire, hut here too its application inuttt lie rr»iri<'l- ed : even emigration senns to he so far nu>uly the yotin^ and entt rt isln^ of all cla^Hi's ; it is a whoWsoaie drain to tin e\uii«iance of pO|Mj|atioii, and preserves at home that comparative ei|Ua- lity. on which |)uhlick happiness and morals so enlirely depend. The New Kn^landers should he sei n at home to he correctly Judged of: as far us testimony pus. it is universally in their favour. ■' 1 h.-el a priile, and | lensnre (siys Mr. Carey) in iloinu; justice to the y»'omanry of the Kaslern Stales : they will not siilVcr in a compari^o)l with the same class of men in any part of the worhl. 'J'hey are upriu;ht, soher, orderly, und retrular ; shrewd, intellitieiit, and welliidonned ; and I helieve there is not a urealer de- gree of uenuine native nrlianity amoii^ the yeomanry of any country under the canopy ol heaven " " Olive Hianch." Va\ie '27.'i. This is the character my own »'X- perience recoirnized in the inhaliilanis of the lieaiitiful (jentsee country, which has heen enlirely cleared and settled liy New r^nirlnmlers. it is imposHihle to ipiit the Kaalern Slates without, speaking of their reli<,{ioii, which is scarcely more their i ghiry ill their own eyes, than Iheir ^.^pprohrium in those of their nei|u;lihonrs. Pretensions to siiperiour saiidily are always received withjealousy, especially liy a people, amon^ whom devo- tion is ill repute. The coiilrasi loo, heiwixl the pious seeminy;, and stihslaniial kiit«\ery of many of the New I'lii •270 AFI'tNDIX. li I • ^1' gland adventurers, nnturall}' brings tlnse pretniBiona into atill i^reater discredit, and extorts a wish, that tli(>y liad either a lillle more morulily, or a little less religion. There is. however, no rejison to iloiihl that in the bulk of ihe inhabitants, reli<]i;ion is not mcr* ly a shew and pretext, hnt a beliif and practice : ini-n lire of nuilual hypocrisy, when it has grown too common l(» impose. Calvinism, ri^id, uneompro'nisinu; Ciilviiiism, is ili»^ in- heritimce the New Knj^landrrs have received Irom their r^ref.ithers; it was the siiered lire their ancestorit boie with them into exile, nnd vnIiicIi has continued (o burn in the hearts, and on the altars of their descendants; somelimos indeed like " Ihe rurnace l)lue,'* lo which Moloeb treated his worshippers, but of lute yetrs willi a b>ss filial, though still ancry, liu;ht, round which the trumpets and tnnitreU of the priests still soinni '* in dreiidfnl harmony." Resides the inihdtrence of Hpirilu:d prii.e, (for tpiriliiai pride is a ln:'ury of the highest rale to those v\hoare too fru- gal, or too conscientious l«> lolerHle jir»»i<9er enjoyments,) the early colonists perceived Ihe Calv inistick system of church discipline to be best suited lo the poverty and simjdiclty of their condition. Calvinism lias therefore grown up with republicanism, and from an accidental connexion, claims lo he of Ihe same kindred : but Ihe vital spirit of Calvinism is intolenince, and intolerance is in no shape a republican principle. It is true, this spirit is, lo a certain extent, mitigated by the partinl influence of g(»od sense. And by the temper of the age, but it is still Ihe same in essence, and wails but a favournble opr>orlimily lo prove itself the snme in action. I do ool, h(»wever, ascribe in- tolerance to Calvinism as a peculiarity; it is a (pialily common to religious sects of every di-uomination, when- ever failh girds on the sw. id td' temporal power. 'I'lm disposition of any sect to persecute others seeiiH in exact proportion to itx Hirength and credulity ; increasing as these inirrense and unite, and growing mild as «hey fade and separate. Thus all religioim have in their turns iieen persecuting and tolerant, bloody anil inofl'eiisive. The Romr/> Cathnjiek religion, Inrmb ss in Canada, and in the United Stales, opprest in Ireland, bedridden in France, stilt exhibits the vitality of its poison in .Spain urd Portugal. The Anglican ehurch, perseculing even in ill cradle, persecuting at its flrst establishment in Vir- if^ APPENDIX. '27 i ions into llu'y had rcli^iun. i^ hulk o!" I preti'xi, j'pocrisy, 8 llie in- oin tlieir )ort' with rn in tli« iinftiincs II iTV.\U'i\ il, (houfi;h tunlti'flH r e|)iriliiul re toclVii- i»'ht9.)lhc ui'i'hnri'li iim,tlit'ily [rrown up itiincxion, Hpiril oi <) ahiipe a H ntrlHin (mI sense , fiamr in lo prove gcrilnf in- 11 (piHlily I, \vh«a- r. Th.- ill rxHCt iiHinhi'r features of ita Ibiuider and early dU- eiples, it is hf cause (he New Eiiulunders have as yet fountl little teiaure lo unsettle their lalier; while he- iievcra, hy eh.'vating their mortal p'-.sBi<)n» and human weaknesses to the throne of C(>d, hiive miide a cherished idol of tlieir own pri(!e, and authuri/e intolerance by Di- vine »'x;im|de. It i<) (u he re<;relted. that this fanatical fipirit is not con- lined to the KHSlern States : either, for, that it is in itself naturally contagious, <»r ihal it has hcen carried ahroad by emigration, it is now spreading rapidly through all parts of the I'nior) j sometimes, indeed, in a nuinner, which may well provoke u smile;* but more Irtipicntly with a * I oner plckrd up a work entilhd *' Tlie Cliristian's Jour- nal," tvrittt n t>y a niinisier of liathliiinton. the aim of which was to extract some lelinioiis leelinji Irom «!very ohjeet which niii{hl meet a ( lirist;aii eye, aK for inslaiicu, " iSOw the hiitelier tihaves the net k of yciud* r sow, that he may cive her the kil- linjc stub, so Saian tickles iiiid lla'.teis n^y h id that he n>ay nair- der her. — Veialer feed a fltx k o*' j^eeso ; a covey of diieks ; lei nie never resMiible the tirst iii bring hendy and high-minded i nor the la<>t ins|ieakie^' uiihIi, and doing little, in walking kIow, Kv. — Yonder are tvvi, ki'noul, ride in the cliuriot of the wood of I t banon, and en the white hortr of the dospel ~ Yonder isuerovvil ol people, who attend the neighloiii mg '| a to di ink or lathe m it. Itlessed JetUN, mine- ral v«ell, |j>ri at spa. let us daily hatiiu in thy blood.— Here they make glasK : ilw or gmal is stones, sand, kelp, and Nueh briny materials; !»' what grinding, meliing, and p«dishin}( they trans- form it into the transparent substance ! I Ini.k, my loiil.on ll." Ireniendons giindiiig and n>eliiii||; uf the • on ol (•(hI, in the like- nt'S8 of »intul tlesh. to prepare the gluyiii >< .i ni I.i.n ii^htiuuk' •v 272 AFI'KNUIX. ri<;iility of as[)ect, befoie wliicli the t;rauc9 mid pleasuriit of iU'e wittier. The AinpricniiB mv hnbitiially uerious and eiU'iit, even heyoiirl Encjiish tacitiirnily.* Tlit-ir 9|iiri(8 arc Bcliloin (>t<>v;ilei|. exce|it Ity llir a|i|ilutaliun of some extra- orilitiary 8(in:ul'iiil. either in liie shape of politicks or li- quor; they an- Ihiiti excellenily Qtted to become vessels ol" elef^tioii and r«'s;eneraliou : the soiir leaven ferments tli'.)ii;;h thnir fnimes, until ail the kindlier juices curdle, and h'ii>!»ii)es!« becomes a deadly sin. In mmy p.irts of the country dancinp; is held to be an ahomiii'ilion, which even the youns; of l»oth sexes have been intluced by the penalty of eternal damiiKtion to re- nounce : perhaiis this is no i>;reat sacrifice, for I have sometimes fincied, that thoii<^li the Americans iire great dancers by habit, d'Miciii^ is with them an acquired taste, which will not lonu; slatil its ^;i-ouiid acaiiist pleastirea more C(>'nr"ni il to their imfural tlisposliion ; still it is a m:'.tter of re!j;ref, in as much as the severity of their cha- racter evidently requires rather to l>e teinpere«l by social enjoyments, than stiifened iiy gloomy creetir, and the cant of fanaticism. Havina: testified in favour of the morality of the New Ens^landers, it is natural to ini|uii'e how far it m«y bo supposed to originate in, or be strengthened liy their re- liiti.iUH tenets, '''bis, however, is a question of not very easy solution. When a people is well educated and iu- ness. and a boUle for Ood to put my teari In." This is rertninly iiis^eninus ; " t1:^re i<< plenty orrlolli well dy<'H. ami I hopi- well male ; here is fine linen, strong iiml tlioroiipanetitieation l»v a;rari' : " Here liiMli oui- wlio rrrkons hiinsials, as thev do at th«' eoiintry taverns, and orparaliii'.; with- out littering as ininv w »rds as therr were dishei on the table ; yei tii'v tv«ri< not in ;(uiiL>i'al KtrAo^eri, but fellow-towiisinon. boarding at the iiouiu. •••i, APPENDIX. 273 >a8ure» )us and rits are ! extra- (s or li- 89ol8 of irinents curdle, be an ea have n to re- 1 have TV great «d taste, ileasiires 1 it is a leir clia- ly social the caul [he New inw ho their re- u)t very I and in- crrtninly lope well ihmI : xatl our sill, «r eltjc- |H lor hi< •nant of l)(> like • y, with Wo their nn with- |i«> tahlii ; iwiisiuoti. dustrious, when property is so far equally divided, that the extremes of wealth uiiil poverty are scarcely known, their morals will necesaarily i)e pure. 'J'he iwu main sources of vice are want and i<^uorance : let a man know Avell hia own interest, and remove from him the blandish- ments of luxury on the tnie hand, and the horrours of poverty on the other, and he will have little temptation to work his own ruin Ity iilleuess, jtrotli^acy, or ilespair. Such is the condition of the New Eiiml.iiid States, and under such circuni8lm liowever, lakes cre- dit, as mi|;hl be expected, for their good conduct, and :laim8 the merit of having <:iven birth to virtues, which p'olmlily it has only not lieen alile lo destroy. Time will bring alioul a *\vv,iy of fiiih, and time will also in- troduce luxury and \^;lnt. IUIi;iion and morality wilt then deciiy l<>irf lln-r, and eollaieral events will be mis- taken for cause and elftet. If ihe inlliienee of religion can in any way be fairly appreciated, it muni be liy olmerving the character and couduct of the prieailaMxl, in whom, as u body, its ei- sence must be peeuliiirly concenlnttd. At the period of Ihe Frrneh revolution, and for some years after, ihe N«'W England clergy, were, to use the words of Fisher Ames, '^powerful auxiliaries of lawful authority/' "Waleh those unuratiful souls," preaches Dr. Pari>4h in 170!), "wbt» murmur liliout taxation, and oppresHion, the hiirden^ of ^ovrrntnent and religion. They have f»llow»»hi|» with «tiu' i nt in «'s« ; they are trai- tors to (io»l and < 'lirUiinuily." " As eiii/euft" (preaches the Rev. .leditliah iM'tse, at the name period) " we ought with one heart to eh av(> |o, and support our own go- verninenl ; we on;;lil lo repel xsilb indignation every •tugs«Mtion, and nlanderonit inHinnntion, calculated to weakt.'U a j'.ial contidence in Hie rectitude of the inten- tions of our eoiiitlitiiled iiiitlioriliea. Our government, it itself the inoAl peiT'Cl, llir bexl lolministered, the least burdeiiHome, ami most happyfying to the people, of any on earth." A convention of conii:re«.[atioii;d ministers )»reB«'nted au address to Frii'/ident AdunH, in I7',)B, in which we read; 3.j i j V i 't f .Hm 274 APPENDIX. " The intimnte connexion between our civil and Chris- tiao hlc88iti!2;8, is alone sufficient to justify the derided part which the clerp;y of America have uniformly takea in 8Uji|)orting the constituted authorities, and political ia- terests of their country." Thus far all is consistent, and as it should be ; " Now mark whiil follows.'' During the late war, we find these lame in.iividu,>ls, whom the Federalists had represented* and who had represented themselves to be the stead- fast supporters of authority and order, not only joining heart and voice to the party in opposition to the govern- ment, but actually heating " the drum Ecclesiaatick," to excite open rebellion. " if you do not wish to become the slaves of those who own slaves, and who are them- selves the slaves of French slaves, you must, in the lan- guage of the day, cut the connexion," &c. Sermon by the Rev. F. Gardiner, Boston, preached July 23, 1812. According to the Kev. Dr. Osgood, whoever assisted the government, in any way, to carry on the war, was, *'ln the sight of God, and his law, a murderer." Ser- mon, June 27, 1812. " ^Vere not the authors of this war in character nearly akin to the deists and atheists of France ; were they not men of hardened hearts, seared consciences, reprobate minds, and desperate wickey tbe nature of their occupations to rely much un tlu ii uv.n rllorls, found no * "Of the proprietors of slaves, a very small propnrtinii in dead are over soon to lalxtiir." Jvjfenon's Nittet, p. 2JI. I I WH 278 APPENDIX. wise inreriour in attainments and application to the same description of persons in (he more tem|>crute portion? of the Union. Nay, have not almost all the siillricat re- gions of (he globe been alterout^^' the seats of sloth and enterprise ? The sr.me dietrihution of property which renders la- bour unnecessary to its |iroprietor, is no leas fatal to his mental improvement. Experience informs us, that means and leisure are less powerful excitemenis to study than the spur of necessity, anil hope of prolit. Information will be first sought, that it may he useful, it will after- wards be [torused for the pleasure of the Hcquisition only. The plaittor has therefore been ever reckoned among the least enlightened members of society ; but says a pro- Terb, Those whom the devil (inds idle, he sets about his own work. Dissipdlion must be always the resource of (he unoccupied and iil-instrucled. If the political effects of slavery are pernicious to the citizen, its moral effects are still more fntal to the man. " There must doubtless," (says Mr. .IilVerson,) " be an unhappy influence on the in inners of the people, pro- duced by the existence of slavery among us. The whole commerce between master and slave, is a perpetual ex- ercise of the most boisterous passions ; the most unremit- ting despotism on (he one part, and degrading submis- sions on (he o(her. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it, for man is aii imitative animal. The parent storms, the child looks on, catches the lineaixients of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, give loose to the worst of passions, and thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tvranny, can- not but be stamped by it with odious iieculiarities. The man must be a prodigy who can retain his morals and manners undepraved by such circumstances." Notes p. 241. We know the time of prodigies is past, and that na- tural effects will follow their causes. The manners of the lower classes in the Southern states are brutal and depraved.* Those of the upper, corrupted by power, are * The stage drivers, for instance, are more inhuman, and much infcrioiir in derency of behaviour to the negroes, whp are sometimes employed in the same capacity : so that it APPENDIX. 279 frequent ly arrogant and assuming : unused to restraint or contradiction ot any iiiud, they are necessarily quarrel- some ; and in their quarrels, the native t'erucity of their hearts hrenks out. Uuelling is not only in general vogue and fashion, but is |)racti8f(4 with circumstances of pe- culiar vindictiveness. It is usual when two persons have agreed to fight, for each to go out regularly ami practise at a mark, in the presence of their friends, during the interval which precedes their meeting; one of the parties therefore commonly falls. Did the whole of the altove causes operate ^vith undi- minished influence, the result would lie horrible; but there are several circumstances continually working in mitiga- tion of those evils. The American form of government, as powerfully im- pels to energy, as slave proprietorship does to indolence. The example uf neighbouring states continually urges on improvements. The learned and mercantile professions have little direct interest in the slave system, and are therefore less infected by its contagion. 1 have already noted a distinction betwixt the farmers of the upper country, and the planters of the lower. There is thus a considerable portion of comparatively untainted popula- tion. Even among the planters, there are individuals, Tvho, by a judicious UbC of the advantages of leisure and fortune, by travel, and extensive intercourse with the world, have acquired manners more politthed, and senti- ments more refined, than are the common lot of their fel- low-citizens in other portions of the Union : but these are rare exceptions, stars in darkness, which shine, more sensibly to mark the deep shadows of the ojiposite ex- treme, where the contrast is strong, perpetual, and dis- gusting. ♦'>.! THE WESTERN STATES The inhabitants of Kentucky are, or at least were (foi in America the wheel of society turns so swiftly, that seems not improbable that tlio efferts of slavery, upon the lower orderr: at least, are ffiur« debasiu]{ to the governing claiiK. than to the governed. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I l^|2£ 12.5 Ui Uii |2.2 !t? 144 ■" £f |i£ 12.0 I '•2^ lli-^ Ui^ < 6" ► Photographic Sciences Corporation 13 WIST MAIN STRUT WnSTIR.N.V. MSIO (7U)l7a-4»09 A z 2c 4 P™ > 280 APPENDIX. 1 K ' < :i U' 20, years work the changes of a century) considered as the irishmen of the United States : that is to suy, a simi- lar state of society had produced, in a certain degree, similar manners. The Keutuckians inhabited a fertile country, with few large towns or mmiifHCtoriea; they had therefore both leisure and abundance, as far as the necessaries of life went: they were consequently disposed to conviviality and social intercourse; and as the arts were little under- stood, and the refinements of literature and science un- known, their board was seldom spread by the graces, or their festivity restricted within the boundaries of temper- ance. They were in fact hospitat)le and open-hearted, but boisterous, and addicted to those vulgar, and even brutal amusements, which were once common in Vir- ginia, and have been common in all countries, as long as man knew no pleasure more retined, than the alternate excitement and dissipation of his animal spirits, by feats of physical strength and coarse debaucher3\ To a certain extent therefore, there were points of similitude betwixt the Kentucky rarmnrs and the Irish gentry, but there was always this point of distinction ; in Kentucky, leisure and abundance bebms^ed to every man who would work for them; in Ireland, they appertained only to the few for wh(»m I he many worken in Vir- as long as J alternate s, by feats points of the Irish inction ; in every man ippertuiued lufacturing Uixiirirs of n Lexing- e have un- pciiliiirities lark Ken the more may safe- d the Mis- met with Lm a state ji the very [gregarious, pendence. , wlio are recent ini* them, and r. Boon. if a person of this description ; he explored Kentucky in 1760; since this period, he has constantly formed the advanced patrole of civilization, until he is now, I be- lieve, on the Missouri. It is a maxim with him, that a country is too thickly peopled, as suon as he cannot fall a tree from the forest into his own inclosure. " It seems a very simple process to go and settle in a fer- tile country, where land may be procured for two dollars the acre; a glance, however, over an uncleared, and hea- vily-timitered tract, is sutficient, not only to correct our notions of the facility of the enterprize, but to render it astonishing, that men are found sullicienlly venturesome and enduring to undertake the task. The stoutest la- bourer might well shrink at the prospect, hut hope and freedom brace t)oth soul and sinews. The manner in which the young adventurer sets out upon his piltrnmage, has been already d<^8crii)ed in livelier colours I ban mine. There is someiliing almost poetical in the contidence and hardihood of such undertakinirs, and 1 have heard a kind of hailadsong, which turns upon them, with some such burthen as this : ** • '■•«•♦,.. ,,ji '• 'Tls you can reap and mow, love, • . ' ' V^ 11 And I i-aii Kpiu, and si cause is it for be- nit to the )r al least them the ireferable rough the the natu- )rtitioa of » journey- dollars for id lodging •. Knox- ) are natu- ir streams, a, and the > the Mis- direction, erefore to their com- tack coun- y work in jeems evi- itates will nd popula- surveys an out. Be- Michigan,, nt to four bed in the American " Traveller's Directory :" " Boundaries — On the north, unsettled country ; south, Louisiana, and Gulf of Mexico ; east, Upper Canada, Northwest territory^ Illi- nois territory, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missi38i|)pi territory, and Louisiana : west, the Paciflck Ocean, and south-west the Spanish internal provinces. Extent from north to south, about 1380 miles; from east to west, about 1680 miles. Area, about 1,580,000 square miles." The popu- lation is as yet something inadequate, iM'ing only 21,000. It is curious to observe, for how much, or rather for how little, the rights of the real proprietors of the soil, the In- dians, count in these convenient distributions. They are in fact considered as a race of wihl animals, not less inju- rious to settlement and cultivation than wolves and bears; but too strong, or too cunning to be exterminated exactly in the same way. Their final extinction, how- ever, is not less certain. Then will the Queen of the Pacifick tiscend the throne of undisputed empire, *' €t vie- trix dominabitur OrbiJ'^ No. III. ■*^ OP THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT. '• The United States, despairing of producing, good mnnners, or a regard for private duties, by iuftisini; into covernincnl tlie stront^cst oolicitatioiix *o disregard publick duties ; endeavour to serurr tin* nmniiity of eovprnniput, as the hcsi security against the licentioiMiess of tiie people. They forbear to excite ambition an(l iro on the Ame- riran Ciovernmrnt ; were his manner equal to his matter, his ** Inquiry" could not but produro a sensihlc efl«>rt on the !icieiice of politicks ; an it is, the strength and originality of hU intellect amply reward the labour of a perusal. I f; If J fi I' m •-#■ 284 APPENDIX. INTRODUCTION. '-; X HE observations I Hm about to offer on the American Governnaent refer less to its forqas and details, which are sufficiently understotMl, than to its principles, and to the essential points of difference betwixt it and all existing governments. In considering these, I shall endeavour to follow the route traced by the Americans themselves, by beginning with general principles, and thence deducing the constituent elements of their polity ; preserving throughout, the line of argument adopted by what is termed the Democratick party, in opposition to the Fe- deralists, some of whom hold principles widely different. SECTION I. I'. ^ ! / \l ,\.. J OP NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY. Individual advantage is thb object fpr which men unite in society, and sacrifice a portion of individual liberty. Government is compounded of the portions so sacrificed. The purport of its creation is to guarantee the aggre- gate of these individual advantages which constitute the publicli good. But although almost all governments con- fess this end of their being, yet having been founded, not upon a recognition of the principle, but upon the usurpa- tion of some, and the weakness of others, the publick good has been almost invariably resolved into the good of one man, denominated a king or emperour, or of a few deno- minated nobles, and privileged classes. The Americans had the singular advantage of being called u|>on to build up a frame of government, *' ab initio,''^ so that no reason could exist for legitimating an abuse, merely because it was established. They were called upon loo, ut a period, when men's minds were thoroughly imbued both with a knowledge of the principle, and with a deep sense of the calamities which a neglect of it had inflicted on the world. They therefore considered it as the key-stone and cement of their social edifice. ♦•* # APPENDIX. 285 Tierican ich arc I to the sxisting vour to veB, by educing •serving wliat it tlie Fe- lifferent. icl) men idiv'idual rtioDB so • aggre- itute the nts con- |ded, not usurpa- |ick good A of one [w deno- jericans to build reason ause it period, with a |e of the world. • cement V The end and purpose ol government having thus been agreed upon, the question naturally ;n whut basis governments had been and should he erteled. All government? evidently dt^pc-nded upon power, and all pretended a rijjht to the power they exercisetl. The origin however of this right w.is variously assi rted, and derived from a variety ol souroes; $>ome1im('s it was heaven-born; sometimes an inlteritance; now a prescrip- tion; now a contract betwixt the government and the people. As the American constitution acknowledges none of these derivations, it is necessary to give each of them a brief consideration, both to mark this point of distinction, betwixt it and other governments, and also to be able more safely to deli?rmine, to which party most essentially belongs lh<- invaluable attribute of political Justice. ist. — The plea of some men to a Divine right to go- vern others, has antiquity on its side : it seems to have been successfully resorted to by thf governing classes ia the kingdoms of early Greece. Almost all their heroes and chitftains claimed kindred with Jupiter, and were rectilinear descendants from Hercules and Theseui. Claims so exalted, were however, to be supported by a Buperiurity of mental and bodily endowments, in some degree commensurate; so that the sturdy warriours, who led the van ol the tight, and bore the tempest of battle on shields, which the less practised strength of their follow- ers was inadequate to wield, might exclaim, probably with as much truth as vanity ; nnvTic ii, 61CUC >^> ttro^'.oivi ; Paganism was, however, too lax a system, and the ten- dency of the Gret'ks to fnedtim and knowledge too strong, for divine right long t(» niainfain an ascendancy over them : it was hiuied with lli>' Heraclidffi, and would probably have been forgotten with ornrles and omens, had not the early Christian church borrowed a similar notion from the Jewish dispens ilions, and emjdoyed it as an in- strument to perfect an alliance with civil government ; .1! f f hk •J86 APPENDIX. '*' I to aid the usurpations o( which, the Clcrc;y, in considera- tion of value received, lent that Right Divine, which in their own hand proved so etlicucious an instrument of subjugation. As Ion":, however, as the Feudal system held its ma- turity of strength, the doctrine of Divine Right seems to have had but a vague and partial etlV-ct on the miiitary^ Aristocracies which frequently usurped and concentrated the whole powers of governrrlent.* It was not until these were broken up, that we find it assuming an important rank among political principles. In England, it attained the zenith of its influence under the Stuarts; but exposed and confounded by philosophy, it grew out of vogue at the period of the Revolution; so that it seems to have been pretty generally laid by among the antiquated notions of past generations ; with this exception, however, in its favour, that it should be again brought forward whenever a period of nolitical de- lusion should favour its resurrection; for though it bears its native al)surdily somewhat ostentatiously on its front, it is a natural favourite with politicians, both on ac- count of tlie ingenious manner, in which it confounds the intelligible with the mysterious, the cause of bad men, with that of a benevolent Deity ; and also from its ines- timable quality, of rendering reason superfluous. 2. A right of inheritance in some men to govern others, may be thus expressed ; " My father governed your father ; therefore, I have a right to govern you." A formula which carries little more authority with it, than if one should say, " My father munlered your fa- ther, therefore I have a right to murder you." The sim- ple existence of the fact confers no right. Admit the right in the terms of the proposition, and it will stand thus; "My father had a right to govern your father, therefore I have a right to govern you :" that is, you foherit your father's rights to govern my father ; — grant- ed ; but you cannot claim as an inheritance, that which * The honest Bishop of Carlisle's speerh against the depo- sition of Richard |[. seems to be a fair statement of this doc- trine, as maintained by cliiirchmHii ; while the event shew how little it was able to iutluenoe the lay nubility. .>■ considera- , which in Irument of ikl its ma- t seems to iie military ncentrated we find it riiiciples. ence under philosophy, olulion; so ly laid by ions ; with : shouhl be tiolitical de- gh it bears )n its front, loth on ac- mfounds the )f bad men, om its ines- 18. ern others, your father ; rity wilh it, ed your fa- The siin- Admit Ihe will Blind your father, ii\t is, you ler ; — grant- that which st the depo- ofthis on which no question could be raised, namely, the Right of each individual to bestow that which belonged to him. Each individual, as has been ol)served, sacritices, on entering into society, a certain portion of his freedom^ that is, of his absolute and unlimited right over his own person and property. But these portions so sacrificed, are not lost, nor to be made an appanage for the strongest ; but they constitute a general stock of national power to be used for the publick good. The Right of distribution resides in the nation, because national power is a property incapable of being transfer* red to individuals; and this Right constitutes National Sovereignty, the only legitimate origin of government. " For the ancient sjiecies of compact," says Mr. Taylor, p. 425. " our policy has substituted a chain of subordina- tion suspended from its principle of the right of self-go- vernment. Our political sovereignty is the first link, and our government the second.'* . M it I IP ?a .'ju).'"! In r ■#* 291) APPENDIX. SECTION II. OF THE SYSTEM OF ORDERS. The Americans having, by means of Conventions, given life to the principle of National Sovereignty, pro- ceeded to consider what form of government would be most in unison with it. They had the light of ages to guide them in their se- lection ; and the result uf it will instruct us to what pur- pose they employed the means within their grasp; how far they are to be considered as servile imitators ^of Euro- pean institutions, and how far they have enlarged the Umits of political science. The three sim|)le forms of government had been so generally felt, and pronounced to he evil, that there was never a question of them in America. The compound form, however, or system of Orders, was so far from being included in this sentence, that it is generally regarded in other countries, and even by a small but respectable party in America, as the Archetype of their own government. Mr. Adams' " Defence," seems to have been written for the express purpose of proving that this either was, or ought to be, the case ; and the Federalists are, for the most part, followers of the same doctrine. The question therefore demands examination. If both the fundamental principles, and experimental effects of this system are wholly different from those of the American policy, it would be absurd to insist upon their being copies one of the other. The peculiar merit of the system of Orders, or Estates, is admitted to consist in the equilibrium maintained among them, each acting as a check upon the other. The means by which this effect is produced, are also admitted to be jealousy, and a balance of power. The result is asserted to be the greatest political hap- piness of which mankind are capable. Political theories are objects of ridicule to practical politicians, yet Plato's republick would.seem the vulgarest matter of fact, if compared with the system of Orders, as laid down in theory. :("•■ ventions, nty, pro- vould be their se- whut pur- asp; how of Euro- irged the been so there was if Orders, that it is ven by a Archetype Defence," lurpose of the case ; Howers of lerimental those of asist upon or Estates, aed among are also itical hap- practical vulgarest of Orders, APPENDIX. 291 Three Estates or Orders, nnturally hostile, and equal in power, are to he held, like the Ass in the Fable, or Ma- homet's Coffin, in a stale of |»erpetual neutrality, by the operation of the evil mordl quHliiy, jealousy ! I know of nothing with which to com|>ai'e such an in- genious piece of moral mechanism, except the celebrated dagger scene in The Critick. Wrre experience howev- er in its favour, its theoretical effigy would be unimpor- tant; but the deep and sober warning of history flatly contradicts its pretensions. History tells us, that the three ingredients of the com- pound Monarchy, Aristocracy, and Democracy, alike nox- ious when single, have exhiltited the same deleterious quali- ties under every form of combination ; and that so far from having ever been held in equilibrium one by ano- ther, the moment of their approximation to a balance has ever been the signal for civil wars, terminating in a fu- sion of the whole compound into one mass of anarchy, or despotism. Aristocracy and Democracy were the prevailing forms of Grecian polity. The repeated struggles of the two factions, throughout Greece generally, and in each par- ticular city, denote at least an approximation to a balance, since neither party could completely prevail over the other; but did they therefore preserve tranquillity and freedom ? Did they not, on the contrary, deliver the no- blest race of men that ever existed, into the benumbing embrace of absolute power ? We have little certain knowledge of the early Mo- narchy of Rome. Its lineaments, however, exhibit some traces of a system of Orders, consisting of a King, Senat^, and People. It lasted until the king felt himself strong enough to oppress, and the people to resist ; when each party had recourse to arms, and the contest was so far doubtful, that the existence of the republick was jeopardized. The government afterwards fell into the hands of the Senate, with their relations and connexions, the Patri- cians, who probably at this period constituted an Aristo- cracy, according to the original sense of the word. As the Plebeians grew sensible of their own weight, they put themselves into competition with the Patricians, for the purpose of opening their monopoly of dignities, ' ^ 29 o APPENDIX. I: . ni .1? » ' » 1(, and breaking <]o\vo their accumulaliun of property, by means of the A&;rarian Law. The fate of all those who attempted this measure, notwithstanding their talents and [topularily, clearly proves, that the aristooralical party, notwithstanding its occasional concessions, still maintained an ascendancy, which could he levelled only by civil war. Marius was the Brat Plebeian consul ; thenceforth the contest seems equal, the result was f«lavery to all. We read over agaai the history of Greece in that of the Italian republic'. s. The noldes anled to ruin. The institutions of modern European governments are all of Feudal origin, changed and moditied by time and accident. The Feudal system is itself a curious illustration of the effect of Orders in government. It prevailed generally through Europe from the dissolution of the Koman em- pire almost to our own times; it had therefore some principle of durability : but its dissolution has constantly taken place at (he moment the equilibrium of Orders seemed established. In its infancy, as in its old age, it consisted of three estates, a King, a Nol)ility, and the free Tenants. During several centuries, the power of the Kings and People was dust in the balancei against (hat of the No- bility : alienation destroyed the power of the great vas- lals, while that of (he Crown continued to increase, at the expense of those who had formerly overawed it. un- til in France under the Bourbons, in Spain under Charles V. and his successors, in England under the Tudon and Stuarts, it elevated itself above both the •'■\ APPENDIX. 293 .t ^ erty, by neasure, clearly ding its jmlancy, rorth the that of w't re 80 lown the iens pre- iii I heir country, lieir lost -ver res- ent of a in some il until it r the peo- vvheii the Ifients are time and on of the reiierally man em- )i'e some nstantly f Orders |of three Is. lings and r the No- •at vas- J-ease, at d it. UD- |i under ider the hoth the Nobles and People, the latter of wht>m it employed as the iiidtrumeut of its elevation, forcing the d* {graded no- bility into the rank of eoiirliirs and df pentlanla. During these changes, the condition of the people changed also; they rost- r.ij»id!y int«> im;'orlaiice, »o that hy the time the Crown hud com;)let«rinm of ev< riasling inictivily : in En;^iand. where the pro- gress of events hid heen most rapiti, a civil war en- sued, and it would lie ditheult to discover any thing re- sem()ling a balance of Orders from this period to that of the Revolution. In France the same eflecis were |)rodi!ced ni<»re slow- ly ; there was no mention of a lialanee of orders under Louis XIV. or XV.; hut an ap|.roxim!■ ; we know the result was any thing but the so much celel.ratt d repose of mutual jealousy. There is another antl more important period to he ex- amined ; that of the present generation. If we can now discover trunquiiliiy and happiness r)' mistrusl tluir con- stitution, and leave the Federalists to inlerpiet it. Power follows wealth; where one is, tluie will the other be also. 'J'he Feudal Aristocracy resied upon the solid foundation of property; with the chnreii, il dixidt-d the wealth as well ns the power of Lnrope. The power of the Crown, which succeeded it, did not rest pre« 's« ly U|>on the same basis. Alienation and commerce, which had impoverished the Barons, had enriched the Commons in the same proportion, liut the change had been gradual, and habits of submission continued to give the Crown advantages not naturally (telonging to it; it is tlurtfore simide enough that it should have acqniicd an immense accession of power in this interval ol Itaronial wtakness, and |)opular ignorance; Itut to recover the same or even a still greater degree after the people had loth f( It and used their strength, was a procesH more complicated; its consuleration involves the quustiuu of the balance, as at present existing. I. I! 294 APPENDIX. Jl it ftfl 3 When Buonaparte assumed a place among the legiti* mule sovereigns of Europe, he reiidily perceived, that notwithstitniiing his immctise military force, there would be no stability in the imiierial throne, unless he could 8-jcceed in raising such n countervailing power to that of the people, as existed under the ancient Regime. The attemit was mide under a partial and narrow view of circumstances : not even Buonaparte could create an aristocracy, which had been the work of events and times irrevocable. Had he succeeded, the history of France would have foretold to him, how little his family would have profited by it. He did not succeed, but created a Peerage of phantoms, which added neither support nor lustre to his throne; slaves in prosperity, summer flics in the winter of his downfall. He felt this errour, and 'on his return from Elba sought to buiid on a surer foundation ; but the real state of the question was then revealed; it was this, that the true strength of a nation resides in the body of the People, and that govern- ments which are not founded upon the principle of Na- tional Sovereignty, by which is im[died a right in the nation to choose its own agents, must rely for their sup- port upon force and fraud. The People are never willing and knowing victims. Little need be said of France since the restoration of the Bourbons : it is evident that the ingredients are wanting for compounding a new system of Estates, it only therefore rem tins to be ^een what fraud and force can effect, against the right of self-government. This seems acknowledged, that they who use them, have as yet little confidence in their wea|)ons. I proceed to consider the English system, regarded by Mr. Adams, as the most perfect exemplihcation of the system of Orders, with its anti-attrition wheels of mutual jealousy. " The constitutional government of this island," says Blackstone, " is so admirably tempered and compounded, that nothing can endanger or hurt it, but destroying the equilibrium of power between one branch of the legis- lature and the rest," 1. p. 51. The three co-equals are necessarily equal to one another; therefore the House of Peers is equal in power to the Crown. Power fol- lows wealth ; he who commands the wealth of others, .. I - , , .1 1: APPENDIX. 295 commands the power attncheil to that wealth. The King of England, besides a personal revenue of 1,000,000/., commands as much more as maintains an army of nearly 100,000 regular troops a considerable fleet, an im- mense body of civil agents, with abundance of pensioners and other persons, attached either by hope or fear to its interests. Let the popular strength be deducted from either side, and the two parties take the field with their own resources, would the contest be prolonged half an hour? Would there be a contest? Shall it be said the parties are equal, because the Crown dares not attempt the lives or property of the Peers ; I ask, why dares it not? because the third party would necessarily take a part in the contest ; — but this proves any thing but an equality betwixt the two.* Is the House of Peers equal in power to the popular branch of the constitution ? The power of a representa- tive body is to be measured by that of the represented ; a small portion only of the English pcoitle is represent- ed; yet even this portion far exceeds, in the sunr. total of its property, that of the aristocrat ical branch, who bring with them the weight only of their individual es- tates. If in this condition it be no match for the Com- mons, much less would it be felt, if weighed against the whole strength of the People, according to the theory of the constitution, and according to the interpretation of it by its admirers in America. In France, the Nobility, at the period of the revolu- tion, far exceeded the English peerage in all the essen- tial qualities of an aristocracy. It had more wealth, greater numbers, ampler privileges, and deeper preju- dices in its favour; yet it was not more sensibly felt than the fly on the bull's horn against the power of the People. It remains to consider the equilibrium of power be- twixt the Crown and the People. Whatever the Crown • As lonji; as the nobility were rrally formidable to the crown, the latter watclud ovrr tlirm. In lielrtgagee8 to whom (heir property is pledged. The Vational Sovereignty is therefore in the hands of two parties. The Crown, and a new Order in the state, entitled the IMonied Interest. The history of this order is contained in our annals from (he time of Sir Robert Walpole, who first built it up against the landed or Tory interest. It is natural to inquire, how an enlightened nation could he tem >ted into this act of political suicide. Many catises were combined to produce it ; (he landed interest fell into disrepute from its tory princinles ; national ani- mosities were carefully fostered, to hurry the people into French wars and Germin alliances ; debt was (he na- tural conseqtience, and taxation the consequence of debt. Taxation is naturally unpo;)ular; the dullest knave will feel through his pocket, and the feeling quickly becomes as general as the cause of it : it was here the principle of fraud began to exercise ilself. It was not easy to per- suade the payers of taxes (hat (hey did not feel (hem, but it was attem tted and found possible to persuade th>,n, (hat this uneasy sensation wis like a rash or a boil, the surest symitom of vigorous heaUh ; and when this was done, it was comparatively easy to go a step 1 there' Tiisades, ixt him he set is, there long as ) instru- ilute his my mas- e. estimate eople in ve their ystem of the na- is quite , but in in those Iged. hands of he state, his order r Robert nded or nation Many interest inal ani- >ple into the na* of debt, ive will lecomes fciple of to per- il them, ^eraudde )h or a id when a step APPENDIX. 297 further, and assure them it wjs not only a symptom of good health, bul actuaily the cause ot it. We catch a glimpse of the cords and pulleys, by which this machinery was pluycd oti', in the lifih chapter of Sterne's pusiiiumuus works. IJe was employed, he says, to write a piimphlet in defence of Sir Robert Walpole, and he thus desurilus the course he took. " 1 itffirmed thai ihe high price ut' jirovisions so loudly complainMi of, aroHe t'rum (he riches and atfluence daily (lowing into the kingdom, under the auspices of uur minister. And that the accumulaiibu of taxes, like Ihe rising of renin, was the 8ur<-sl token of a nation's thriving; IhJ (he dearness of niirkets, with these new imjtosis of government, neces- sarily doutded industry; and that an increase of this natu- ral kind of manufacture^ was adding to Ihe capital stock of the commonweahh. I lamented Ihe fatal eflecis to be apprehendt'd from all these beats, animosities, and revil- ings, which 1 said, I had s[Ood reason to atlirm were but a method of acting and ins(illing (re.-tson under cover; for that whenever (he minister was abused, the king was at- tacked. " This book of mine has been the codex, or ars politica, of all the ministerial sycophants, ever since that era ; for I have scarcely met with a parhgra|»h in any of the stale- hireling writers for many years past, that 1 could not trace fairly back to my own cotle." The separate interests created by debt and taxation, have both in zeal and number, been powerful auxiliaries of this system; a |iart they are the belter able to play from their concentration, the sphere I hey occupy, and the aid of a venal press. All these advantages would proba- bly however, have been found insutlicient, had there ex- isted any unconlaminaled organ of publick opinion, or none so styling itself hi Ihe first case, the gooil sense of Ihe nation would have pierced Ihe cloud of sophistry, and having discovered the liuhl, would have had resolu- tion to billow it. In the latter, the fountain of sup|dy would either have been chocked by des|»olism and Tur- kish darkness, or (which is more probable) would have forcibly worked itself a new and purer channel. The consumm ilion of (he pretended system of balances, is to transfer to the Crown and iVlonied Interest, so much of the People's property as will enrich the latter, auU ena- !>■ I V. <*,] 1l 1^ # <<<*h ■m 298 APPRNDIX. ( i.' is i- I > ble the rormer etfectii.illy lo |>rolect it in its flpolintioDi. The toliowiiig cxtr^ici will show this to t>e tht- U«in>iura- tick View of (lie system. " The elfect ol' o|i|)OHile iiileresiB, orif fnricheil hy, and goveriiiiiG; the other, eurreclly lollows ila Citiise. One in- terest i«i a lyt-.iiil, the other its slave. In KrhHiii. one uf these iiitereBis owes to the other itbove ten humlreil mil- lions oi' |»uiin(!s sterling, which would require twelve ttiil- lioiis ul' sliives to discharge, at eighty (louiids sterling each. ir the delilor interest amounis tu ten millions of souls, and would he worth forty |iouiids sterling roiintl. sold for slaves, it pays twelve and an hall' per centum on its Ca;iiUtion value, to the creditor interest, for the exclusive items of deht and hank-slock. This protit for their mas- ters, made hy those who are called freemv»n, greatly ex- ceeds what is generally made liy those v^ho are called slaves. But as nothing is calculated except two items, by including the payments for useless otfices, excessive ;>alarie8, and fat sinecures, it is evident that cme interest makes out of the other, a far greater prulit than if it had sold this other, and placed the money in the most produc- tive slate of usance. " Whatever destroys an unity of interest between a government and a nation, infallibly |)roduces oppression and haired. Human conception is unatde lo invent a scheme, more capable of atllicting mankimi with these evils, than that of paper and patronage. It divides a na- tion into two groups, rredilors and delitors; the lirst sup* plying its want of physical strength, by allinnces with fleets and armies, and practising the most unlflusliing cor- ruption. A consciousness of inliieiing or sutfering inju- ries, fills each with malignity towards the other. Thia maliirnity lirst hegets a multitude of penalties, punish- ments, and executions, and then vengeance. A legisla- ture, in a nation where the system of paper and patron. ige prevails, will be governed liy that interest, and legislate in Its I'lvour. it is imjiossil'le to do this without legislat* in<; to the injury of Ihe other interest, that is. the great ra^iss of the nation. Such a legislature will create unne- cessary (tflires, that themselves or their relations may be endowed with them. They will lavish the revenue, lo enrich themselves. They will borrow for tin? nation, that they may lend. They will oAer lenders great prohtf, I. y.Wt < 14 ■^ olifltioDi. )fin<>ura- I hy, and One in- II. «Mi»- of ilrfd mil- flvr iriil- sterliiig III I ions of iiin legista* latron.ige egislnte legislat- ie great te unne> may be enue, to ion, that prolits, APPBNDIX. 299 that (hey mny nhnre in them. As grievances grndually exrite naiionHJ discontent, (hey will iix the yoke mur»' se- curely, liy making it gradually heavier. And they will fin^^lly av4i\v and maintain their corruption, by eslahlish- in;; an irn sistiUe slanding army, not to defend the nation, bul lo i!cfeud a system for plundering the nation." Tay- lor, p. 38. SECTION III. OP THE AMERICAN SYSTEM, Notwithstanding the evidence of history, (hat the system of Orders has grown out of feudalism, lis ihrtiriats have maiiitrtined it to he the produetion ol' fate, or nature, and mankind have, through this belief, been hilherlo •' held enchanted (to use Mr. Taylor's expression) within the circle of the nnmeriral analysis." Nature, according to this iloctrine, engenders Monarchy, Aristocracy, and Democracy, all fiMinded on evil moral qualities; anil ma^ has nothing left to do, but to compound three eviU, in the jest way he can, and extract nutriment from poi- sons. The American system supjioses moral liberty, or a power of choosing tielwixl ^oud and evil : without this at- tribute, National Sovereignly would be only an oslentn- tioiis display of human weakness. A nation, willing its own interest, yet unalile lo pursue it, would exhiliii the tormenting, yet ludicrous aspect, of a political Tantalus. Man, being free lo choose, cannot bul choose : he has moral |iropensities, su'ijccl to universal m«»ral laws. " The strongest moral propensity of man (says .\lr. Taylor, p. 7t).) is to do good lo himself. This begets a propensity to ilo evil lo others, for the sake of doing giMid to himself." This propensity, being governed liy motives, is capable of increase or diminution. To whatever increases it, we give the name of a vicious excitem»'nt, and vice versa. Government, being composed of individuals, and by indi- viduals, contains, and generates the same moral qualilies, which will be good or evil, in proportion to the excile- ments it contains, to good or evil propensities. Upon this view of the question, a new raoile of analysis is ob- \ \ I Y I i >■'' MT ^ )> 300 APPENDIX. I: tained, hy means of ^hich, governmentg are defined, not according tu uuuierical classtficutionB, but to thtir moral qualities. The American system proposes to diminish evil in government, by weakening its generative iirinriple ; that is, by affording the least possible excitement to evil moral qualities, itoih in the government and in the peo|)le. "■ Governments, (suys Mr. Taylor, |». 130.) whoBe ele- m^'Ols are fraud or I'orce, will naturally excite the evil moral qualities of human nature; and those whose ele- ment is reason, cm only excite its tfood And if every government miisi rely for continuance, either on force or fraud, or on reason, it follows that every government must be founded in good or in evil mitral principles." He enumerates as evil moral principles of government, . " Hereditary order, and exclusive privilege, legal religion, .legal freedom of inquiry, accumulation of power, patron- age or corruption, ignorance, virtual representation, ju- dicial uncontrol, funding, and an oligarchy of banks. The good are, national sovereignty, equality of civil r^hls, freedom of religion, and of inquiry, division of power, knowledge, uncorrupted representation, and actual responsibility." Taylor, p. 406. A bare enumeration of principles will not constitute a good government ; it is necessary it should be moulded of, and in them. I^et us examine how far this is the case with the government of the United Slates 1st. — Nallonol Sovereignty has been determined to be the only legitimate origin o( power : it is therefore, the only moral basis of government, and consequently, the only one capable of genet ating good moral (ju ililies. National Sovereignty is incapable of alienation, for its supremacy being absolute in every point nf time, it cannot he divested of it, even by its own act ; still less by any power derived from itself. Hence follows a strik- ing difennce betwixt the An.erican system, and that of Estates. < r Orders. ' Aceordiug o the letter, the Ciovernment is the natioo, because the thee Estates are the nation; it is therefore illimitable, for the same reason that National Sovereignty is illimitable. Acc(»rding to the former. Government is an agency, and therefore limited by the will and inten- tion of the natioo. ■..' r' ■.•■' '•'■ ■^■' ned, not ir mural evil in lie; that vil m«>ral •le. liooe Wie- the *-vil liose fle- il every force or (vernineut .les." veiitinent, il religion, r, palroQ- talion. ju- ur banks. y of civil ili vision of and actual ionstilute a inuuUled is the case ined to be refore, the lently, the ities. nation, for if time, it still less \v8 a slrik- nd that of the natioo, s theref«)re overeignty BrnmenI ib and inten- APPENDIX. 301 History tells us. that to insure national tranquillity, ther*' rr)t;8l sninevliere he iuiljred. in pome portiun ol the body corpurale, a prepondt Mting pnvviM'. H^niunt which opposiliitu is useless : the contntry to x^hicli. is a teixlen* cy t;ilarte, it was in the Army, of which he was Ihe chief; in Englanhl lo com- tp»nd another; therefore, hereditary oider aud iuheri- » :1 i ' # /' I i M I 4 V II (^ i r i \ \ ItM .,:*-, .. 302 APPENDIX. i V \ ,* ii table privileges, are necessarily excluded from the Ameri> can sysif m. Men have a right over that which is their own ; either to ^ive it or withhold it; and they have also a right to ffceive that, which others have a rigiu to give. The former would be negatived, oy a uegaliop of the latter. The portions of individual liberty, constituting na- tional power, .ire the property of all, as much as a joint banking or trading stock ; with this limitation in liotb cases, that no individual carating from the social firm. What belongs to all, is to be appropriated by all ; therefore each mnn has a right to a voice in the mode of appropriation ; that is, to the Elective Franchise. This right seems morally susceptible but of two limi- tations, crime and pauperism. Crime is a violation of the terms on which men unite in society, mutual advan- tage; it therefore dissolves social obligations. In the case of pauperism, should the social compact be dissolved, the man who has neither property nor ability to gain his bread, would have no portion to reclaim; and, should it be re-constructed, he would have no portion to contribute; because his personal existence depends on others. This principle, however readily deducible from Na- tional Sovereignty, encountered prejudices even in America. A comparison, however, betwixt the constitutions of the Old and New States, will show the progress it cqn* tinues to make. Virginia has the oldest constitution in the United States. '* It was framed," says Mr. Jefferson, *' when we were new, and unexperienced in the science of go- vernment. No wonder then, that time and trial have discovered very cafiital defects in it." The elective francliise is here con^ned to persons having 100 acres of cultivated land, or property of equal value. The consequence is, that faction prevails, and the principle of a division of power is materially neg- lected. As might be expected, "The great body of the peo- 'ple do not concern themselves with politicks ; so that ^f i own; also a o give, uf ihe ng na- a joiot tn Itotb 1. witb- } lo fill, II has a it is, lo wo limi- Uion of advan- [ipact be r ability im; and, ^rtion to ends on • rom N li- ven in itions of it cqn* United " when ! ofgo- tal have persons of equal nils, and rtlly neg- jtbe peo- 80 tbat APPEiNDIX. 303 their government, though nominally republican, is in fact oligitrchiciil, ur arialocralical." Morse, p. 387. In iVlaasachusetls and Conneuliciit. properly to the value of 40/. or 50/. or a freehold of 21. or 3/. yearly value, qualifies. In Rhode Island and New Hampshire, no qualification is necessary, except tue paymeni of laxes. New York, and New Jersey, require a small qualifi- cation of property. PeiinsylvaniH, Delaware, Maryland, the Carolinas, Georgia, Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, and in dmna, require no greater qualification than either a cer- tain period of residence, the payment of a slule tax, or such trifie of property as may bar the right of paupers. It is to be ottserved that a right to vote for Stale re* presenlaiives confers a right lo vole for Ihe members of the General government, therefore, in Ihe same degree that equality of rights in this particular is preserved or violated in the State governments, it is also preserved or violated in the General government The Elective Franchise represents the right of each citizen to dispose qf his own portion of the pulilick pow- er. His right to become the dt^poaitary of the portions of others is represented by Eligibility. This Right seems to have Ihe same natural limits with the other : any other restriction operates as a double in- justice; first on the giver, flince a limitation of the right to receive, is equally a limitation on Ihe right to bes- tow, and if carried to an extreme, destroys it altogether ; as for instance, if none should be eligible but persons above seven feet high. Secondly: on the receiver; for though no man has a right to power, and therefore cannot complain if others do not confer it on him ; yet if the law declares him dis- qualified to receive, on account of some contingency over which he has no controll, he is in fact deprived of a portion of his natural right. The General government requires as qualifications; age, residence and natural-born citizenship. The first is rather a delay, than a destruction of the right. A Representative must be twenty-five, a Senator thirty, a President thirty-five years of age ; and though doubtless prudence would commonly adhere lo this rule, ■* /; '% ■u •^,! \ i o • '.r^l 304 APPENDIX. [// - CI- t « *> 1:';- ij. ' - h *■' i 'J UK w4 II jMd H m i ' ■■ M\ 1 ' ■. * H 1 .^ there seems no adequnte reason that the national will shoiilil he redtricted in the exercise of a right, merely because ii mi$;ht pussidly use it imfirudently. Every Senator, aixi Representative must he a resident in the state for which he is chosen. The same obser- vation seems to apply to this, as to the tVinner limita- tion. It is fliore prouahle a citizen of a different State should be a (it reiiresentative for any particular State, than that he should be chosen tty it. A representative must have been seven years a ci' tizen, H Senator nine years, the President a natural bora citizen. Here too it would be more natural to suppose prudence in the use, than to limit the extent of the right. But though these restrictions may l)e marked as devia- tioos from the positive rule of equality, there seems no reason to conclude, they are either oppressive, or inju- rious in practice. It is possiltle to suppose abundance of limitations, all of which would violate the principle, and yet not one of them operate as a hardship. There are however two species of qualification, re- quired by some of the Stale Governmeuls, which seem not equally indifferent ; these are, Property and Reli- gion. ,!■•• V ' "■* " ' ■ *■ ■ ''■■ First of Property. Almost all the Old Slates, except Connecticut,* require a certain property to qualify for the otKces of Goverr.-v-,, Senator, and Representative. The value of 1000/. in freeh«>ld estate is required by New Hnmitshire, Massachusetts, and North Carolina, in candidates for the first. Maryland requires 5000/. and South Carolina 10,000/ For the office of Senat<«r an avenge of 400/. is requisite in most of the Old Stales : and of 150/, fur a Representaliv.e. .•\ll persons therefore n«)t possessing property to this amount lose their civil right to receive these uflices at the hands of their fellow citizens. It is true that were the law otherwise the practice would he most generally the same. The natural influence of wealth will be always felt, nor would electors l)e disposed to degrade them- « * By the constitution of Connecticut all Freemen are eligi- ble to all offices, i am ant acquamtt'd with the regulation of the Western States ii this pariinilar. bat I doubt if they re- quire any otlier qualiticatiuu than tiie people's choice. » APPENDIX. 306 •elves, and hazard the puhlick business, by choosing such men as from thf'ir stations in life could hardly be supposed ca|»ahle of ti.c inrormallon and leisure neces- sary for transacting it ; but thf mare likely these reasons are to prevail the less cause is flierr for euforcing them by a constitutional precept, eapecially by one which im- plies a falsehood, in sup|)osin£ a natural connexion be- twixt properly and merit, or trusl worthiness. The qualification of property seems therefore a devia- tion from the principle of equality "*" in civil rights. If, however, the quHli6cations of Property be not free from objection, still less is that of Religion. The constitutions of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the Caroiiuas, requ' profession of belief in Christianity, and several of th^m limit the species of it to Protestantism. An act of the Virginia Assembly requires a belief of the Trinity in Unity. Here we have a right, subjected to a contingency, over which the disqualitied person has no control. If the evidence of certain doctrines be insufficient to establish his belief, doubting is nut a matter of option; but he may pretend to believe, and a legislative premium is thus oflFered to hypocrisy :— and for what purpose? To ex- clude Intidels from offices of trust. — But if the people perceive them to he unworthy, they will not elect them, and if they do not perceive this, why are Electors to be deprived of the right to confer, as well as Intidels to re- ceive ? The judgment of Eligibility can properly exist no where but in the breasts of the choosers. It is true these may err, because, being human, they are fallible, but they are liable to errour only, whereas legislatures which destroy rights, where no olfence has been commit- ted, are guilty of injustice, as well as errour. 1 \ 1 4i .1 f * It is not intended to advocate the idea of tiestowing pow- er on the lowest member of the rommimity ; but it seems that the end would be equally answen-d without violating the principle. In Kn!i;land the qualification for a member, though not great for a w«althy n 18 no izaltle by jrHcle, to tlie voice Ifgal in- le Deity. rise to a 9 believe , THylor, and man, kreii there Hnd folly evelation, t by laws onvenient i SHlaried tism that iurces im- Dlh in re- itick into crc in its turdily of It'Crers of the 8|))tn mercy of iipport of led, either ly law. is and |>ro- [eliould a leJieB, yet ]d punish you I hut U \\orUl." Ilrtlilished ;kLt, and restrained from uttering your disbelief." •' Upon what authority do you aftirm, that tormenting me here, will profit me hereafter ?" *' Upon authority which is infallible ; that of the word of God." " Not according to my in- terpretation of His wonl." " But according to mine, and mine is the on!}' right one.'' If this were sincerely uttered, it would be impiety; but the personal advantage of the victim is now rarely urged, except by the Holy Office ; the grounil most ge- nerally assumed, is, the interest of society, which re- quires, say poiiiici.-tns and priests, that there should be a Stale Religion, and penalties for recus;gal establislunent, but," says Mr. I\Jor<.p, "a pe- culiaritv which dihes this state from every other pro- testnnt country in the known world, is. that no contract form- ed by the minister with his peophj I'or his salary, is v.ilid in law. So that ministers arc dependant wholly on the inic);:rity of tlin people I'or their support: since timir s:il!iri»'s Arc not recoverable hy law It onjjhl in jusuce. Iiowi-vcr. to l>c ob- served, that the clergy, in general, are liherally niaint,iin*'d ; and none who merit it hav«> reason to complain fur want of •upport." American Uougrapliy, p. 200. } & i; , *" :^ n. i^ 808 APPENDIX. and more in England than in Italy. The closer the monopoly, the less abundant the commodity. Secondly. — Why does the law com|>el me to contri- bute to mnintain a particular church ? Because the doc- trines of such church are true. Are there mure ciiurrhes in this predicament, or is the nationd church the only true one? If there be more, I may as conscientiously adhere to one of these as to the le^al one. Why then must I contribute to the latter, of which I am not a member? If 1 follow truth the penalty cannot he for the good of my soul, and it will hardly be pretended it is for the good of my pocket. If the national church be the only true one, I ought indeed to maintain it ; but we are at issue upon this point ; How shall it be decided ? By argument. — But why then must I pay before 1 am convinced ! By au- thority. — If the church be Protestant, this argument des- troys its own rights, for it was estahlis'ied uiion reason in contratMction to authority. Well then, y<»u shall pay, because we who are of the Established Church are more numerous than you, and find it convenient you should contribute to ease us of our burden. There would be candour in replying thus, and candour of any sort is preferable to preaching piety, and prac- tising injustice. Thirdly. — The puhlick good in matters of religion as well as politicks, is frequently urged as a reason fur sa- crificing individuals. The publick good requires a slate religion, a state religion cannot l)e supported, except all be compelled to contribute ; ergo, &c. — The consequence implies the schismatick minority must contribute with the rest. Experience enables the United States to deny the major of this proposition; Religion both exists and thrives ^without a Legal Establishment. It cannot indeed be moulded into an instrument of alate-crnft. The General government adheres strictly to the prin* ciple o( freedom. It is however violated by the tests of some State governments ; by which Jews and conscieu- tious infidels are excluded from office. .1 \ :# APPENDIX. 809 V The State ofVirginia is, I believe, the only one, which by an act of Assembly of 1705, adds penalties to disquali- fications''^ It has been asserted, that disqualifications are not penalties, because offices are not matter of right, but of grace.* It h true, as h»s been already ol>sprved, that power or office is not a matter of ri(i;ht, but iiidqualification destroys bo|h the right to give and the right to receive ; the latter of vvliioh is as truly inherent as the former. {Fid. supra, p. 303.) 4. Freedom of Inquiry is another inherent right, whether in matters religious or (lolilicHl. lieg.il reelraiiit upon the freedom of religious diecussion is founded U|ioii two absurdities; one, that the Deity needs human aid to vindicate his name; the oiher, that man is competenl to vindicate it. God visits the atheist with uo peculiar punishment in this life, therefore man thinks it necessary he should legislate in the place of God. " But we punish for examples' sake, says Perseeu- tion ; we burn him and his books to prevent the contagion from sfireading." Is the example then so seducing, or the doctrine so convincing ? Neither; — no man can be an atheist, unless he be an idiot or a knave. Well then, for the 8<t," WHS made pimishalile by fine and imfirisonment. The author of the '' Olive Branch," commenting in fa- vour of this law, observes, that it created *' a senseless and disgraceful clamour," in which however, " were en- gaged vast numi)ersof the best and m ist intelligent mem- bers of the community." He then subjoins; "It would be uncandid not to slate, that the trials under Ibis act, for libels against the President, and as far as my recollection serves me, against some of the other publick functionaries, were managed with very considerable rigour; and from the abuse of the law, tentled to give an appearance of propriety and justice to the clamour against it The cases of Thomas Cooper, and Matthew Lyon, E»qrs., who were both treated with remarkable severity, excited a high de- gree of symitatliy in the publick mind. Of the two cases, it may be justly said ; summumjus, summa injuria^'' p. 55. 7lh ed. Mr. Carey concludes by observing, that a neg- lect on the part of Mr. JelTerson, to procure the re-enact- ment of this lawi *' casts an indelible stain on his ad- ministration." This statement, taken altogether, forms an invaluable commentary on the justice and wisdom of libel and se- dition laws. It has ever been the policy of the Fed sra lists to "strengthen the hands of GovernmtMU :" no measure can be imagined more elfectual for this purpose, than a law which gifts the ruling powers with infallilitlity ; but no souuer was it enacted, than it revealed its hostility to nf ,f ''W* APPENDIX. 311 Icry of uilt on Araeri- raclice, ttration, which, ridalous, of the •eeulent, rito con- iment. g in fa- lenselesfl ivere en- nl mena- It would } act, for ollection tioiiaries, mill from iraiice of rheotses who were hifijh »le- \vo cases, ' p. 55. it a neg- re-eiiact- his ad- n valuable and se- k\\i\» to Uiire can Mt n law Itut no ktiUty to the principles of the American system, by generating oppression under the cloak of defending social order.'*' If (here ever was a period when circumslances seemed to Justify what are called euergelick measures, it was during (he administrations of Mr. Jetlerson and his suc- cessor. A disastrous war began to rage, not only on the fron- tiers, but in the very penetralia of the republick To oppose veteran troops, (he ablest generals, and the largest fleets in the world ; the American government had raw recruits, ollicers who had never seen an enemy, half adozea frigates, and a population unaccustomed to sacrifices, and impatient of taxation. To crown these disadvantages, a most importnnt section of the Union, the New England States, openly set up the standard of separation and rebellion ; a Convention sat for the express purpose of thwarting the measures of Govern- ment, while the press and pulpit thundered every species of (lenunciation against whoever should assist their own country in tbe hour of danger.f All this was the work, not of Jacobins, and Democrats, but of the staunch friends of relisfion and social order, who had Iteen so zealously attached to the Government, while it was administered by their own parly, that they suffered not the popular breath " to visit the President's breech too roughly.'' '*' In New Jersey, a man was found guilty and pnnislied un- der this law, "for the simple wi^h that the wadding of a gun discharged on a festival day, had made an inroad into, or sing- ed the poNteriors of Mr. Adams." " Olive Branch," p. 89. t In Boston, associations were entered into Cor the purpose of preventing the tilling up of pLOveninunt loans; individuals disponed tu subscribe were obliged to do il in secret, and con- ceal their names, as if tie action had iieen dishonest. Vide "Ulive Branch," p. ISO?. At the same time iniiuensc runs were made by the Boston Banks, on IIiom; of the central and southern states, while the sptnie tliiis drhiiied. was transmit- ted to Canada, in payment I'ur Mim^^lrd >:oods, and British government hills, wlii<'li were drawn in Quebec, and disposed of in great numbers on adviinta<<:costs ol' a vhen in- iucousis- in undis- vith libel row bold iiid mure will be a , so much jpinioD is convert a 1 motives, t. In the ke thai of ' seeming I, we coo- e seek to nowledge, at ion, or, betwixt nt to im- , iverthrow ^88 or this ;lirium of Itred with ^n danger, Bd herself it : in her mourned [ederalism I proceed (o consider (he principle of iibel-laws, as set up RgHiust freedom of political discussion. The lantriiaj^e of despotism is honest and consistent on this point. In Turkey she says, You, the people, have no busin^'ss with government, hut to obey it ; with religion, but to l)elleve if. The Koran suffices both for your faith, and moral conduct ; you h»ve therefore no business with discussion, except it be to discuss the arching of a Circas- siit'i's eye brows. — Sleep, and smoke In quiet; we answer for your souls and bodies. Libel-law in a free gorernment, says; Being freemen you have a right to discuss the conduct of your govern- ment, whether it be right or wrong; provided always, you conclude that it is right, otherwise you lend to hriug it into contempt, and therefore shall be punished. — But it is only intemperate discussion we object to, say politicians : so far from blaming, we are friends to a moderate op|)osi- tion. — Yes, provided it injure you. neither in protit, power, nor re|)Utalion. You would be tickletl, not wounded A well regulated oppositifui preserves a shew of freedom. Two factions are struggling for place ; the Outs blame all the measures of the Ins, but they would not therefore di- minish the perquisites of the places they hope one day to fill. Discussion may attack Persons, or Principles. The American constitution, by contining treason to overt acts, leaves the utterance of opinions free, however they may tend to bring the constitution into contempt. — Why ? Because discussion being free, it supposes truth will prevail. If therefore the constitution could be shewn to be bad, it seems more rational to amend, or change it, than to punish those who reveal its defects. Libel law supposes either that falsehood is in fair fight, more potent than truth, or that political systems may [luasess the tirst attri- bute of the Deity, perfection. They set up a political idol, and say; " Behold your God; bow down to it : you may tind fault with the trap- pings of its throne, or the pavement beneath its feet; or even, provided it be done tenderly, with the ministers of its altar, but beware of proclaiming that it is Itself the work of hands, wood and stone." * . 40 » > ■«(■ 314 APPENDIX. ^1 ■% !•'■ :i - A Constitution which permits the free examination of itself, falls into an absurdity, when it passes a I'lw (u shield its agents from a similar Creedum. It is still nure absurd to erect a man into a God, than a constitution; it is hIso more dangerous, for the living idut will not bo long satis- fied with empty prostrations ; it must be fed with lives and property. Is therefore every species of calumny to be poured out against a government, without restraint or punishment ? Calumnies against the theory of a government, injure no one; nor the government itself, except it be founded on evil moral principles. The evidence of facts would bear it out, even were there not more persons interested in its defence thin in its attack. The annals of the world offer not a single instance of a good government overthrown, or brought into contempt by discussion. Mankind are not too prone to change habits, even of the worst descrip* tion ; they have gone on for ages and centuries enduring tyranny and oppression, for no belter reason than be- cause their fathers endured them before. Libel-laws are, indeed, essential to the security of governments founded on force and fraud, as masks and daggers protect thieves and cut throats. The persons administering a government, cannot re- quire greater immunities for themselves than the Constitu- tion claims for itself. " Reverence for a magistrate, (says Mr. Taylor,) is frequently contempt for a coustitulion." He thinks himself unjustly assailed ; shall he therefore have a law for his protection, which he may convert in- to an instrument of oppression ? If the situation he fills will neither enable him to defy calumny, nor remunerate him for its injustice, he is free to return to the walks of pri- vate life, and claim, as an individual, that legal protec- tion for his character, which the constitution affords him, but let not ministers be gratified with the sacrifice of inherent rights to protect their own crimes and follies. "Caligula-8 appointment of his horse to the consulship, is both an illustration and a mockery of the ideas of na- tional sovereignty without the freedom of utterance ; and a nation, the members of which can only speak and write as Government pleases, is exactly this consular sovereign." Taylor, p. 472. APPENDIX. 31 .'i ation of iu shield t absurd it is hIso Dg; satis- itli lives tured out stiment ? injure no nded on juld bear ted in its orld offer jrt brown, \ are not . desc rip- enduring (ban be- ■laws are, I founded it thieves annot re- Constilu- ate, (says ititution." therefore >nvert in- aits will erate him (B of pri- protec- brds him, critice of follies, nsulship, sas of na> nee ; and eak and consular 5.— Division of Power is the vital spirit of the Ameri- can system : convert it into accumulation, and all other ^ securities perish ; preserve this, and they can never be altogether extinguished. . Man is feeble when conlined to his own individual means ; Power enables him to use the strength of others ; .it is therefore the i.-adiest instrument for gratifying his own desires at the expense of others, and ranks foremost in the class of vicious excitements. Is this vicious attritiute of power capable of being neutralized ; or must a nation, in framing its government necessarily submit its neck to a yoke ? Alonarchy, aristo- cracy, democracy, and the system of orders are all so many memorials of the efforts mankind have made to free themselves from the dilemma of an!\rchy and desttulisra. They have all lieen uiifoitiinate, for Ihey have all work- ed hy different roads to the same end, namely, the substi- tution of the interests of a minority for those of the majo- rity ; bin they have all this comn^on quality, concentra- tion of power in the hands of a few. The American system, ileeming the nation the fountain of power, considers it altsnrd to collect it a second time into reservoirs, which are not the nation; and therefore distributes it in streams sufficient only to give motion to the several engines of government. The principle of Distribution ni;iy lie thus stated : — Power is a virions excitement, liecause it impels its posseS' 8or to gratify himsf^lf iii the expense of others ; the greater the powej", the greatt:r the possible gratihcation : concen- tration therefore affords the greatest possible excitement. But as the increase of power increases its vicions cpialities, to will its diminution diminish them : diminish it theivfore to such a degree that it is unable to extract any selfish gratihcations at the expense of others, and it becomes di- vested of its evil moral ipiality, and capable of being em- ployed to the advantage of the people. Hut as govern- ment represents all the portions of individual liberty sa- crificed for the good of society, its power must, in the ag- gregate, suffice to oppress individuals, unless some expe- dient he hit upon, to counteract this effect. This expe- a dient is Division. The American people, by sacrificing a^^ much less portion of its freedom than other nations, or rather by retaining in its own hands, powers, which other i i (, - *■ t 816 APPENDIX. nations have commuted (o their Governments, has sought in diminution a method of counteracting the evil effects of power : it employs Division for the same purpose by in- vesting the General, and State governments respectively with a portion of (tower, which portion is ag.iin subdivid- ed in each among several agencies, entitled Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches. The test of the success of these expedients, must be looked for in the ex|ierience the nation possesses of the ability of one, or all of them, to extract individual grati- fication at the publick expense. The portion ol power allotted to the General govern- ment naturally claims the first place in this examination. In 1798 Virginia, and Kentucky framed resolutions expressive of an idea (hat the General Government had evinced a spirit of encroHchment, 'Mending to consolidate the States into one sovereignty."* The political prin- ciples of the Federalists are acknowledged to have this tendency. It is from their disposition to 8tren<>;lhen the General Government, under the idea of strengthening lI*o union, that they first obtained, or assumed the name of Federalist. We accordingly find, in the executive power of tiie General Government, a degree of accumulation not quite consistent with the principle of division, observed by the State Governments. " The goveruours of nine States^ comprising a majority of the people, are annually chosen, and are ineligible after certain terms ; those of the other states are chosen for two and three years cne excepted, and a multitude of other imfiortant differences exist, be- tween the modification of executive power, under the General and State constitutions." Taylor, p. 169. Now if the Governors of thirteen States have for thirty years, found their limited powers sufficient for executive purpo- ses, it would follow, that those of the General Executive, must be more than sufficient. The power of the President has been, seemingly with justice, compared with that of the King of England ; the difference consists less in the power each of them pos> Besses, than in that which the (leople of either nation re- * These Resolutions were framed by Mr. Madison and Mr, Je^erson. , APPENDIX. 3ir 18 sought effeclB of e by in- lectively siihdivid- Kecutive, must be >s of the ual grati- govera- liiiation. •solutions nent had tnsolidate ical prin- iiave this ;then the ening tbo name of er or the not quite edby the e States, chosen, 16 other excepted, xist, be- nder the Now y years, purpo- xecutive, gly with nd ; the lem pos- ation re' and Mf, tains : Mr. Tayfor thus draws the comparison : " This Kins cannot create offices, inflict taxes, piiss laws, or raise armies; neither can the President. The King can ap- point officers, disburse taxes, recommend laws, and com- mand armies; so can the President. This King can make treaties under checic of two legislative branches ; the President can make treaties under the check of one. This King can appoint the members of the legislature to lucrative offices ; so can the President ; and in both cases an appointment vacates the seat. This King appoints the judges and the officers who appoint the juries; su does the President." p. 172. It would seem, that the framers of the General Govern- ment had the English constitution in their contemplation, Vihen they invested the President with this accumulation of (tower; less probably because they wished to assimilate the two, than because the theories which had been built upon the system of orders, had concurred m the idea, that particular powers and patronage were espentially inherent in the executive; a notion, which if closely examint-d, has, perhaps, little foundation; the result however is. that the American government is both more like the British than it seems, and also seems more like than it is, accord- ing to the point of view of the observer. The little external parade, the a! sence of a court, no- bility, army, and established church; \vith the elective nature of the presidency, seem to form distiiu-tinns suffi- cient to destroy all comparison betwixt them. Tlie com- parative estimate of executive powers, above (pioted, seems, on the other hand, to give them a rant)l limit lespotism, fore in a provided of Pow- miiiimum the pur- ban this, he hands , is that example, S judffes, xecutive r is more Const! tu- ntatives, the pur- ally, the the lat- |or poUtl- ler, that Montesquieu has made Virtue the vital principle of RepublicaniBm ; and consequences the most injurious to Freedom, have been deduced from this authoritative axiom. The essence of Republicanism is virtue; but mankind are vicious; therefore a HepuldicU is an impossifde form of Government ; and the demonstration is usually closed with a pitying glance of conscious superiority, at such as are romantick enough to dream of Virtue, Republicanism, and the Perfectibilily of the human species. The sophism lies in the double meaning of an abstract terra. If by Political Virtue, l)e understood a sacritice of self-interest, an beroick abstraction of personal consi- derations, such a quality neither is, nor could be a ge- neral principle of human action. It may burn in the bosoms of a few consecrated individuals, shining here and there, athwart the night of ages, but a system of Go- vernment which should require its habitual and uniform agency, could exist no where but on paper. If, on the contrary, by Virtue, we understand a principle of utility, evincing itself by laws, 0|)erHting for the general good, then is Virtue both the essential principle of Re|)ub- licanism, and also a quality sufficiently attainable by bu- mau institutions. A republick cannot exist without vir- tuous laws, that is, without laws generally useful ; but is any degree of self devotion requisite to the making of useful laws, or can none but coniidetely virtuous men make them / On the contrary, cannot robbers frame laws generally useful to their own society ? A law generally useful, is one conformable to each man's individual in- terest. And how can men be induced to frame such laws ? By a knowledge of this interest, Gi neral utility there- fore, resolvable into enli<;htened self-interest, is the vital principle of Republicanidni. When a nation coratnits its legislative powers to indi- viduals, chosen by itself, what security b'ls it that these will legislate for the general, and not for their private ad- vantage ? By lecturing Ihenion virtue, and self devotion ? Clearly not — but liy withdrawing from I hem all tempta- tion to ofTend. If they be entrusted with the power of pocketing the publick money, they will pocket it ; or if the Executive branch be enabled to confer a portion of 41 y ! { I '•s, li'2'1 APPENDIX. f it on them, they will accept it, mid in return legislate, bolti to i»cr»Mse liie caiiubiiiiy of llie Executive to con- fer, and of llieinaolves to receive: tlwy will concur in deltl, iHxt's, .iiid sliuidiiig armies, provitled they are to he rewarded with lot IIS, lucrative [ilaces, and cominii^sioiis ; and if a seat in ihi^ legislature he the |)urt;d to these »c- quisiti'ins, they will procure seals l>y 'uinery uiiil corrup- tion, Hfid doultle the puhlick iuiposilioiis to repay them- selves the price thus a(lvauc«-d. liut ".\iil the electors submit to he bribed and corrupted, and ilus become the instruments (i of If gaining It may be doubted if the American system has ab- 8ohitely reaoheil llie minimum in this rKun)«d) must ite sought in some pretext of moral gu!ll. or of I'uhlicli utility. It is object* d, that poor men, that ie, mtii who have less than the ma,i(>rity of their fel'ou eilizi'iis. will l)e lit siiltjecls for bril»ery : — granted, but upon what gioiinds are they then fore to be [tunished ? If a dp.u-ivation ol an inherent right is to lie attached to a liitliiliiy to l«e corriijitcd, why siiuuld not the s;ime de- privation lie attai'iud to the li.'.tiiliiy to corrupt, and very rich men le t(|Uall> punisheii with very |)oor men? The nior.il ^iiilt woiii-l l»e at least e(jual should the crime be e'uninillt'tl, ami that they should be presumptively piiiiis^lied, ia no hard<.-r in one case than the other. If not mor:d •:;uilt. but piil)lieU utility lie the objeiid. The People resented siirli un appi-o|H'iuti))ii of the piiiilick money: turned oal forty of the oHeiid ng Meni'.irs at the next Kleclion, and compelled the rest to sing a I'aliiio- dia. i \ < f 324 APPENDIX. m ^ fl 1 circL-nnstances, Ihe limitation of the elective franchise, and laws against brihtry and corru()tion, are ei|iiival»int to a law pruhihitiua: maggots from breeding in a dead dog: bury the earcaHS, and there will Ji>e no broods de- riving life from iid |iulridity: to drop the metaphor, re- move the means of corrupt ion, and there will, he no bribe- ry for the purpose of liemg corrupted. The persons most ready to bribe are [irecisely those, who have the least inclination to expend their money without a eutfi- cient return : the people are not corrupted by those who are to reap no fruits from their corruption, and when no one has interest in bribing his suffrage, the poor man's vote is as liable to be well bestowed as the rich man's. The true state of this question will be further evident, from considering the futility of all lemedies lor corrup- tion, VNbichdo nut reach the l^art of the disease. In Virginia, greiit powers ol patronage are concentrated in the Legislature, much ccTni|)tinn. if, consejjtiently, to be found in the fin\nnrnent, anti yet ibc Elective Fran- chise is more limitfd lh;in in any State of the Union. To destroy corru|ition by limiting the Elective Fran- chise, proceeds upon the logical errour of non causam pro crtM.sd; that bribery is practised, because there are people capable of being bribed, not because there are people who find it worth while to liribe them. Another false position is assumed, namely, that none but poor men are capable of being bribed; and this too, while the very act of limitation implies, that rich men will britie, and consequently, receive bribes. The re- presentative who buys the elector's vote, sells his own to the President, or to whatever branch of the constitution possesses the means of buying it : it is true, that the vote of a man of property may cost more than that of u poor man, but this is made up to the candidate in the dimin- ished number of his purchases ; so far, however, is this diminution from diminishing the inducement to sell, that it evidently increases the temptation, by raising the value of the commodity; and so on, the greater the diminution becomes. 7. Actual Responsibity. — Responsibility pervades eve- ry portion of the American System: each branch of the Government is responsible; therefore, the whole ii respoubible.'*' * Puni>iiiiy to steer Ibroiigli the perioil of the late war, without requiring the ailililional defence of a single act of Congress; and the simpliciiy with which it works, in ordinary times, when a consl.iMt 's still'is sufficient to enforce the execu- tion of the law (Vom .Maine to the Missouri. It is proba- ble the weakest of all Governments are precisely those which call themselves vigorous- anil energetiek ; and should that of America be ever heard to call for laws to put down the f.ictioiis, and to declare that (he anarchical spirit of the times required the ajiplicalion of measures unusually vigorous, and contrary to the practice of her belter days, however the forms of her conslitnlion may be retained, its principles will have been rooted out, and fraud and force snlisiilutetl in their place, to work the gratification of the few, at the expense of the many. H. — Knowlediie — Knowleilge is power. Men submit as implicitly to those who persuade, as to those who com- mand them : with this disiiiniion in favour of the former, that good will accompanies persuasion, and shrinks from authority. All Governments are sensible of this truth, and it is for this reason, that such of them as are establish- ed upon a denial of national sovereignty, and consequent- ^ m object of ck hapi)!- Miid traii- ;n are the ns, avoid- en a gov- tvereignty on which patronage, •nger than ane, or of r we lake which the be set at d of vveak- red against prove tl>e 1 witli I lie irlh ; since I jiowt-r of !i ai.iliiy to It re(|uiriiig igrcss; and ary times, the execu- ' 13 proba- sely those ick ; and )r laws to anarcliical ' ineasurt'B Wa' of her uti(tn may I out, and work the my. ri submit who coiti- he former, rinks from his truth, estHbiish- nsequent- APPENDIX. 327 ly upon evil moral principles, never fail to unite fraud to force, for the purpt)8e of conimantHiiir the minds, as well as tiodifs (jf tlieir an^jeils. The oltjecl, in this case, is to substitute in the mimls of the governed, tiie advantage of their rulers, for their own; aiid this may be ctlecled in two ways ; tiist, by not suflVring them to be instructed at all, in which case the power of Government jiesses wilh the lV)rce of fatalism, anti requires Oi;ly the aid of a legal religion to give it a divine sanction, that the mental chain may l)e eomplttely rivetted. Secondly, by the Govern- ment becoming itgelf the instructor : which is generally eflecled by means of a legal religion, by the priests of which the business of education is, liy various processes, monopolized. Kn Avietlge, un;!er these circumstances, re- semldes light passing through a coloured medium ; it repre- sents the form of objecle, bui gives them artificial hues. The American system is necessarily repugujint to both these methods : the right of instruction is one of those which the nation retains in its own hiiuds. 'J'o entrust it to a government or a prieslhoud, woulil be to substitute the political or religious creed of a sect, or party, in the pitiCe of the interests of the nation. SECTION IV. OP THE EFFECTS OF THE AMERICAN SYSTEM. Governments create neither men nor food ; consequent- ly they cannot create happiness.* Their operation is preventive, by neutralizing the ten- dency e:'ch man has to injure others, for the snke of bene- fitting bimstif; and this set ins to l;e the only positive ope- ration l»y which they are iapalile of proninling national feiiciiy. 'J'he frrsi and essential attribute of gooji govern- ment IS, therefore, sjcurily for persons and pn)perly, by means of ^^hich the universal stimulus of self-love is left * Happiness;, as a politiral result, may I r defined to be the enjnyiiieiit of personal (Vet'dnm. and of the means of snbsJKtenre, sntfuiint for « arh individual, with those naturally di^ndant on liim; meanin!r by suttirient, not the miniuinm of subulstence necessary tor exist«'nce, hnt inrludin): h degree of eondbrt pro- portioned fo the progress of the society in which lie lives, and To the enjoyments of the upper classes hi it. • 328 APPENDIX. '■ n k I I 1 full scope to work out the good pf each individual, with- out injury to others. The laws protect personal Freedom in America, because they expre-8 the general will, and are therefore para- mount over any individual, or combination of individual interests. The remedy for illegal imprisonment is. as in England, by writ of Habeas Corpus which issues in all cases what- ever, ami can be su3|)ended in its operation by an Act of Congress only, which, by a constitutional precfftt, may be pMSt " in cases of reiiellion, and invasion only :" and as the nation, by its representatives, is to judge of the oc- casion, it is scarcely possible for a President to use the pntext of plots, and conspiracies, to suspend the privileges of the people.* The American system secures propertj' by actual re- presentation, and division of power. The first constitutes the people judges of the necessity and amount of taxation to be imposed; the second prevents the generation of any interest, in opposition to that of the people, liy which its property might, forcibly or fraudently, be extracted fromit.f But while the healthful operation of Governments is thus limited, their powers of producing evil dilate almost into infinity. They cannot create a blade of grass, but they can desolate the Universe ; and it is from this consi- der ition we ascribe to them us virtue, the evils they for- bear to create. It would be endless to institute a comparison betwixt the American system and other forms of Government, unon every item of calamity Governments are capable of priducinsr; one however, may be selected, because it is either the cause or consequence of all others ; and of itself fully ex'iress^R by its increase or diminution, the essential nature of Political Systems : it is Want.;}^ * The Habeas Corpus act was never suspended during the late war. + Any body of m^n having a powerfnl Interest in deceiving a nation, will prnha' ly in the Inii": rnn, deceive it; and since there is srarcelv any limit to human credulity, a (tystem of fraud onop hesiun, will be »*ven more ruinous than one of simple op- pr»»ssiob. hpeanse good-will in th^ former case, will re-pruduce the food of the vulture, which preys upon it. t Want Is oolltically thn reverse of political happiness : the lack of a sv^ient maintenance for each individual and his fa- ^% APPENDIX. 829 al, with- , because •re para- iilividual England, ses what- in Act of I'pJ, may ly :'' and L)f the oc- o use the |)rivilege8 actual re- onstitutes r taxation on of any which its 'd from it.j nments is [ite almost i^rass, but lis consi- hey for- betwixt vernment, apable of ause it it of itself esseotial uring the leoeivlng a and since >in of fraud simple op- re-pruduce iness : the and his fa- How f:ir is want affributable to Government i Man is atiiinjlilt'd hoflj by renson (mil insliiict to soek his own hapjtint-SB. and this lemlenoy, j)rovio!i(iciil h;ippinP9S or misery. Society ni.iy be supposed to exist under llie fol- lowing forms. 1. A Community m^y !»e planted on a 8«>il ca(»able of feedini^ but a part of its ninnwer?, or iii a pisfile'.tial at- mosphere, or ofi the crati^r nf a volca-.o. It is evidt^it that in all these cases, misery must ensu.', whatever might be the furm <»f Govermnnil, hecatiHe the obstdcit s lo pu'dick happiness are natural, and therefore unavoid- able. 2. h may be settle«l in a fertile country, but have in- creased beyor\d any possible increase of the fecundity of the soil. Here loo, NHture bars the ellorts of human interference, as eflectually as in the former cases. 3. Suppose it however fixed on a territory ca|)able of fiuppnrling; more than its present numbers, and yet a large portion of these sulVeriug from want,* bow far woidd Government in this inst-tnce, be chaigeable with crushing or paralysing the universal tendency lowarda mily. In the extreme it annihilates pergonal freedom, KJnre it is inunaterial whether tlie law>d excite placed rk; few urchase > cause human procure who, ac- the pro- lim in a bettered ute lords cured to ;ed to re- he proxi- )n of pro- efTective leot, by lined, lion was ate, and al fraud, le King, hare, la- it left fit basis >n is still [mulating. taxes, it kar as the Ike place Vase with Ithe whole vhy raise fiber, and libly con- * iers yield The American system, not being founded upon feudal principles, rejects the law of primugeniture common to European Governments, and huving subjected taxation to National Sovereignty, leaves accumulation to the na- tural order of events, by wiiich it is alternately repro- duced and jlestroyed.' Men are horn unequal in strength, talents, and appli- cation : their success in lite is consequently unequal : one man rises into affluence, another subsides into poverty. But moral qualities are not inheritalile : the active and skilful father is succeeded hy an indolent or weak son, and vi-ce versa. Thus accumulation per|ietnally alternates with division, and the general level of society is no more destroyed than is that of the ocean, by the billows which swell and sultside upon its surface. Would not this system in any other country but Ameri- ca, produce misery, by removing all checks to a supera- bundant increase of population, and thus render the con- dition of society worse generally than before? Perhaps it would ' perhaps too« nature may have remedies in store, when the occasion shall require them: in either case governments which create inequality, and consequent misery, by law, are not Just itiable ; tirsi, because it is contrary to reason to 8ul)8titute a positive for a possible evil; secondly, because they have in no case been em- powered to sacrifice the present generation to posterity ; thirdly, because in doing so they consider neither the present generation nor posterity, but are actuated by self-interest only, according to which they substitute the increase of their own power for the general good. ♦ ( SECTION V. CONCLUSION. I have thus far touched upon the general principles and most striking effects of the American system. the chief part of their proiluct in taxes, they are no other than cultivators or ViUani for the benefit of the receivers. They may be treated with indulgence to render their services more profitable, or with harshness, lest they should acquire courage to resist, or sagacity to escape. The mode of their treatment is indifferent to the fact. 332 APPENDIX. With respect to its relative value, and to the advance* ment it miiy be coiisiilered as having made in the science of politicks, there will probably exist much diversity of opinion, but none, I think, as to its utility with reference to the American people. It has survived the tender period of infancy, and outlived the prophecies of its downfall.* By the trium;)h of the Democratick party, its principles have been fostered into maturity, and their application illustrated by experience. It has borne the nation triumphantly through a period of donieslick diffi- culty, and external danger; it has been found service- able both in peace and war, and may well claim from the nation it has saved, and honoured, the votive beae- Hiciion of ^' Esto pcrpdua." M> \i * I allude to Mr. Ames' Essay "On the Dangers of Ameri- can Liberty," written in 180.'>. Fisher Ames was the Burke of America. With an understanding Tigorous, and higlily cultivated, he had the same vividness of imagination, united with anite, it might almost be said, morbid sensibility. He saw objects dimly, through the medium of discoloured feel- ings, but his brilliant and heated fancy supplied the defi- ciencies of reality, till he started at the phantastick crea- tions of his own eloquence. The French Revolution had doubt- less its admirers in America, and where political feelings know no restraint, the expression of them will go even be- yond the truth. There might be individuals too, whose proper element was confusion, and who would theretbre have gladly raised a tempest they hoped to govern, but to revo- lutionize a nation by speeches and newspapers, is a project incompatible with the known laws of human nature. Civil commotions can be raiwd by suffering only, and by suffering of a very intense kind. Men will not hazard a comfortable existence for the sake of metaphysical doctrines, which i^ro- mise them no advantages they are not already possessed of; yet Mr. Ames assumes in his writings a possibility of this kind, and labours to sh^^w how a few knaves may turn a hap- py people topsy-turvy. As might be expected, the contrast betwixt his facts, and his hifirences, is ludicrously striking. Time has amply shewn the inanity of those gloomy forebodings, which too probably weighed on his own distempered spirit, and accelerated the close of a career adorned with the exhi- bition of splendid talents, and directed by the purest feelings of virtue and patriotism. I'-v' THE' END. ♦""^Wl 4 the advance- in the science 1 diversity of iWh reference I the tender hecies of its rafick parly, ily, and their ts home the nieslick diffi- und service- I clHim from (Totive beue- jers of Aineri- vas the Burke , and higiily nation, united isibility. He coloured feel- lied the deS- itastick crea- on had doubt- tical feelings go even be- s too, whose ficrefore have but to revo- . is a project lature. Civil by Kufllering comfortable , which i^ro- 30S$essed of; bility of this turn a hap- the contrast usiy striking. ' tbrebodings, pered spirit, b the exhi- rest feehngs .^.