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EMIGRANT'S MANUAL. 
 
MANUAL 
 
 EMIGRANTS 
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 BY CALVIN COLTON, A.M., 
 
 OF AMERICA. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 P. WESTLEY AND A. H. DAV18, 
 
 10, stationers' hall court. 
 
 1832. 
 

 John Wcstley and Co., 'ZT , Ivy Lane. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The Author, having received numerous 
 letters of inquiry concerning the United 
 States, since he has been in England, 
 which demanded information in so many 
 particulars, and to such an extent, that he 
 concluded it would be the shortest way to 
 answer them by writing a book. It was 
 this class of facts, which suggested this 
 volume, and seemed to impose upon him 
 the necessity of its production. And he 
 hopes, that those persons, who have been 
 waiting for answers to letters of inquiry 
 on this general subject, addressed to him, 
 will accept this as his apology, and as a 
 discharge of that duty. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The Author would simply observe : — 
 that, having sat dovrn to this task, he 
 judged it vrorth while to give such a 
 brief and comprehensive picture of the 
 United States, and such items of more 
 minute information, as might naturally 
 seem to be desirable to all classes of per- 
 sons, who might meditate emigration to 
 that country. And if some shall be dis- 
 appointed, in not meeting with answers 
 to all their inquiries, the Author hopes 
 they will appreciate the difficulty of dis- 
 charging such an office for every variety 
 of character — and that they will find 
 enough of valuable information, which 
 they did not expect, to indemnify the 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER. I. 
 
 Page 
 
 Erroneous impressions and romantic expectations 
 of Europeans respecting America — And a decla- 
 ration of the general purpose of this volume .... 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Canadas — Geographical situation — Physical 
 character — Government — The motives which 
 they present to British emigrants — The parts 
 most inviting, &c 8 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 United States — Geographical description, bcc 17 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Climate of the United States 22 
 
Vm CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Government of the United States = 27 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The relations of the General Government of the 
 United States to the several minor Republics, 
 which form the Compact of the Union, &c 35 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 New England 49 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 The City and State of New York 54 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Other States East of the Alleghany Ridge 66 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Mississippi Valley 74 
 
 Reason of the name given to this region 76 
 
 Steam-boats 81 
 
 Other and general Statistics of the Valley 83 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 General Motives for going to the Valley of the 
 Mississippi 97 
 
CONTENTS. IX 
 
 Page 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The best and most inviting Parts of the Mississippi 
 Valley — being the States of Ohio, Indiana, and 
 Illinois — and the Territory of Michigan 103 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Comparative Importance, Capabilities, and pro- 
 bable Destiny of the United States ; and the re- 
 lative Importance of the Mississippi Valley 120 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 What may reasonably be expected, and what ought 
 not to be expected in the United States, by Emi- 
 grants from Europe 130 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The particular Classes of Persons to whom the 
 United States hold out the strongest inducements 
 for emigration — And the best methods of execut- 
 ing the purpose 150 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The value of Money in the United States, and the 
 facilities of acquiring Wealth 169 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 The best way of getting to the United States, and 
 to different parts of them — Some General Esti- 
 mates of the Expenses, with Advice as to the 
 species of Property it may be well to take along 180 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 General Advice 187 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Taxes in the United States 193 
 
 Advice to those, who wish to purchase Land, or 
 Farms ... 194 
 
 The Value of Labour, and General Expenses of 
 Living in the United States 197 
 
 Additional information concerning the Canadas . . . 200 
 
 Rates of Wages and Market Prices in Lower Ca- 
 nada, for 1831 202 
 
 Ditto, for Upper Canada ib. 
 
EMIGRANT'S MANUAL. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Erroneous impressions and romantic expecta^ 
 tions of Europeans respecting America — 
 and a declaration of the general purpose 
 of this volume. 
 
 Erroneous impressions on this subject are 
 of two opposite classes, and many of them 
 resting in the remotest extremes. And they 
 have been produced, very naturally, by unge- 
 nerous misrepresentations on the one hand, 
 and by too high and extravagant praise on the 
 other. 
 
 Of those who have been guilty of misrepre- 
 sentation, there are at least two principal 
 classes : Firsts those who have gone to Ame- 
 rica with visionary schemes and extravagant 
 
2: . em'g^ian'tV manual. 
 
 expectations, and, perhaps, with no commend- 
 able views, and who, of course, have been 
 disappointed, and returned to discharge them- 
 selves of their ill-natured spleen, by traducing 
 the country and the people, their state of 
 society, and all their institutions. Not being, 
 perhaps, sufficiently accredited by their let- 
 ters, or wanting in personal recommendations, 
 or having a taste only for low company and 
 low things, they have necessarily been ex- 
 cluded from the higher conditions and nobler 
 sympathies of society, and qualified them- 
 selves to describe only the worst features of 
 the worst things. For the misrepresentations 
 of this class, there is some show of apology : 
 they were as naturally incapable, as they were 
 morally indisposed to do better. Such writers 
 of travels in America, or in whatever form 
 they have addressed themselves to the public, 
 are easily recognised. I will not name them. 
 
 Of the second class of traducers, are those 
 travellers, for whom the apology cannot be 
 pleaded, — that they were so unqualified for 
 correct observation ; — who have been well ac^ 
 credited both by their connexions in life and 
 
CHAPTER I. 6 
 
 by their manners — who have received all the 
 advantages and comforts of American hospi- 
 tality, and who, notwithstanding, and for 
 various reasons, have had sufficient interest to 
 violate the laws of gratitude, and become the 
 abusers of those, who had shown them all 
 convenient kindness. Neither will I name 
 these. They are already sufficiently conspi- 
 cuous. 
 
 Again : The natural propensity of the hu- 
 man mind to extravagant statements has too 
 frequently been indulged, on the other hand, 
 by the too high colourings and unwarranted 
 praise of things found in America, by emi- 
 grants from Europe, who have happened to 
 be pleased and to do well, and who have 
 wished to present sufficient motives to induce 
 their family connexions and friends to follow 
 them. Especially has this been the case, 
 where the recollections of the unequal state 
 of society in Europe, and of the disadvan- 
 tages they had suffered on that account, have 
 awakened their strongest feelings, and kindled 
 their love of liberty and equality into a pas- 
 sion. All their recollections of what they 
 b2 
 
4 EMIGRANTS MANUAL. 
 
 have left behind are associated, perhaps, with 
 pain ; while all that they now enjoy, by com- 
 parison, gives new being to their affections, 
 and unwonted power to their imaginations. 
 It is as impossible for them to write to their 
 friends on this side of the Atlantic without 
 extravagant praise, as for the ill-natured or 
 purchased libeller to write without detraction 
 and extravagant censure. Neither the one nor 
 the other are to be trusted. The truth lies 
 between them. 
 
 If there is not sufficient motive for emigra- 
 tion from Europe to America by a knowledge 
 of the exact truth, then it is unquestionably 
 better^ that those who are meditating this 
 change under romantic expectation, should be 
 undeceived before they are disappointed in 
 having gone too far to retrace their steps. 
 On the other hand, it is due to those who, 
 under the inducements of fair representation, 
 would naturally decide to go to America — it 
 is due to truth — it is due to America herself, 
 and to her States, that the misrepresentations 
 of the interested, or of the ungenerous and 
 malicious, should be corrected, and that Ame- 
 
CHAPTER I. 5 
 
 rica should be exhibited in her own naked and 
 undisguised forms, in all that she is — for all 
 that is worthy, as for all that is unworthy — 
 for all that is inviting, as for all that is unin- 
 viting. For some (for many^ probably) there 
 are sufficient inducements, well founded, to 
 emigrate to America. For others, there is 
 little, or no inducement. The motives depend 
 upon the various considerations of station, 
 rank, amount of wealth ; the kind of business, 
 trade, or profession which any one is pur- 
 suing, and his comparative prospects of suc- 
 cess in either country ; his family connexions, 
 difficulties of removal, &c. &c. His religion 
 also, his partialities for one form of govern- 
 ment rather than another, and a regard to the 
 comparative and general state of society, will 
 all naturally come into the reckoning. And 
 he ought to have such data before him - he is 
 fairly entitled to such information, if it can be 
 had — as may enable him to settle all and each 
 of these questions, and every other appertain- 
 ing to his interest on this subject, not only to 
 his present full conviction and satisfaction, 
 but, if possible, so that he may never have 
 b3 
 
b E3IIGRANT S MANUAL. 
 
 occasion to repent of his decision, whichever 
 way it be. 
 
 These data and this information, in all their 
 variety, and as suited to the most natural 
 inquiries of all classes, trades, and professions, 
 who are meditating emigration to America, it 
 is the conscientious purpose of the author to 
 give in the following pages ; and which he will 
 endeavour to do, according to the best of his 
 ability, and the means of knowledge, of which 
 he has had opportunity to be possessed, and 
 by the additional helps which may come with- 
 in his reach. And it may, perhaps, be proper 
 for the author here to say, as a reason why he 
 ought to be in some degree qualified to speak 
 upon this subject : — that besides having access 
 to the great variety of published records and 
 documents, which have fallen from the Eng- 
 lish and American press, in relation to these 
 inquiries, he has personally visited both the 
 Canadas, and travelled over most of the 
 United States and territories, within a few 
 years past, and has consequently enjoyed 
 opportunities of making himself minutely 
 acquainted with the physical character of the 
 
CHAPTER I. 7 
 
 different portions of North America, of the 
 relative advantages of one part over another, 
 of the manners and customs of the people, 
 and the state of society in different regions ; 
 of the public improvements actually executed, 
 or in progress, or projected ; and of such 
 other facts as are important to be noticed for 
 the information of emigrants. He has tra- 
 velled extensively in the great Valley of the 
 Mississippi, which is now so much the object 
 of attention, and which is so rapidly peopling, 
 not only by emigrants from Europe, but from 
 the Eastern portions of the United States, and 
 which, from the vast extent of its territories, 
 the richness of its soil, and its other nume- 
 rous and inexhaustible physical resources, 
 opens one of the most interesting and inviting 
 fields of human enterprise, which the world 
 now affords. And the character and prospects 
 of this portion of North America, as they well 
 deserve, will receive a conspicuous notice in 
 these pages. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Canadas — Geographical situation — 
 Physical character — Government — The 
 motives which they present to British 
 Emigraiits — The parts most inviting, ^c. 
 
 It is understood that the British provinces 
 of North America are the most northern of 
 the eastern portions of that continent, which 
 are tenanted by civihzed man ; the lowest 
 parts of them, on the shores of Lake Erie, 
 being in latitude north 42'' 30'. The entire of 
 their southern boundary is the north line of 
 the United States, commencing on the At- 
 lantic at north lat. 45°, running thence in a 
 circuitous westerly direction, till it strikes the 
 River St. Lawrence, on the same line of lati- 
 tude, a little below the outlet of Lake Ontario; 
 thence dividing all the upper great waters 
 (of which Lakes Ontario^ Erie, St. Clair, 
 
CHAPTER II. y 
 
 Huron, and Superior, are principal) into 
 nearly equal portions between the two govern- 
 ments of Great Britain and the United States ; 
 making, of course, a very circuitous route, one 
 of the most southern points of which is the 
 mouth of Detroit river, near Fort Maiden. 
 
 Of course the winters of Canada are longer 
 and more severe, than in the United States. 
 In the lower Province, especially, taking the 
 regions about Quebec and Montreal as speci- 
 mens, the winters are not unlike those of 
 Russia : they commence suddenly, generally 
 in November, and continue in all their seve- 
 rity, with deep snows and ice-bound waters, 
 till the month of April, when the spring 
 bursts forth as suddenly, as the winter came 
 in. As a compensation for the severity of 
 winter, the spring, summer, and autumn are 
 generally fine, the soil rich, and the climate 
 healthful. The southern regions of Upper 
 Canada, lying between Lakes Ontario and 
 Huron, and especially those bordering upon 
 Lake Erie, are more mild and grateful. It 
 should always be understood that there is 
 more cold weather, and that the winters are 
 
10 emigrant's manual. 
 
 longer in America, than in Europe, reckoning 
 on the same latitudes ; especially more so, 
 than in the insular territories of Great Britain, 
 where the climate is so much qualified and 
 attempered by the surrounding seas and the 
 Atlantic. There is vastly more humidity of 
 atmosphere, however, in these islands than in 
 North America; and it is commonly remarked, 
 that the weather is much more fickle here. 
 As a general rule, the difference of the amount 
 and degrees of cold between America and 
 Europe, is that of ten degrees of latitude ; 
 that is — there is as much cold at the 40th de- 
 gree of north latitude in America, as at the 
 50th in Europe ; and the 50th degree of lati- 
 tude, in the insular condition of England, is 
 ordinarily as mild as the 35th in America. 
 The summers in America, any where north of 
 the city of Washington and of the Ohio river, 
 are always fine and salubrious. In the more 
 southern States, a torrid sun is oppressive. 
 
 The Government of the Canadas is probably 
 the best and most grateful of any of the Bri- 
 tish provinces in the world. The former de- 
 fection, and consequent independence of the 
 
CHAPTER II. 11 
 
 Other neighbouring colonies, now the United 
 States, have induced the Government at home 
 to remove, as much as possible, all occasion 
 of dissatisfaction, and to support such a pro- 
 vincial administration over the Canadas, as to 
 make their own subjects there contented by a 
 comparison of their own condition with that of 
 their neighbours, citizens of the United States. 
 Especially since the achievement of the inde- 
 pendence of the States, have the King's sub- 
 jects of the Canadas been relieved from burden- 
 some taxes, and the government has generally 
 been, and is still, reasonable and kind. The 
 natives of Great Britain, partial to the govern- 
 ment and institutions of their own country, 
 would probably find very few reasons to be 
 discontented under the Government of the 
 Canadas. 
 
 The British provinces of North America 
 which first present themselves are Newfound- 
 land, Cape Breton, Prince Edward's, Nova 
 Scotia, and New Brunswick. The first three 
 of these are islands, the fourth a peninsula, 
 and New Brunswick, a somewhat extensive 
 territory, bordering upon the State of Maine 
 
12 emigrant's manual. 
 
 and Lower Canada. The motives for emigra- 
 tion from the mother country to these parts 
 are few and feeble, and rest principally with 
 those, who may happen to have in those pro- 
 vinces connexions of family, or of business. I 
 shall, therefore, pass by them for a more con- 
 spicuous notice of those provinces, which are 
 known under the name of the Canadas. 
 
 Lower Canada, being the most northern, 
 and the province first entered by the^ emigrant 
 going direct from Great Britain to those parts, 
 lies upon either side of the river, and extends 
 around upon the north side of the Gulf of St. 
 Lawrence. The most common port of de- 
 barkation for the Canadian emigrant is Que- 
 bec, which is reached by a somewhat difficult 
 and often protracted navigation up the gulf and 
 river above named. Indeed the remainder of 
 the voyage, after making the American conti- 
 nent, to Quebec, is altogether the most painful 
 and hazardous, and is entirely closed during 
 the winter months. 
 
 The population of Lower Canada, by the 
 census of 1831, is 504,598, composed princi- 
 pally of French Catholics, and very unlike in 
 
CHAPTER II. 13 
 
 manners, customs, and temper, to the English, 
 Scotch, and Irish. The whole line of popula- 
 tion, on both sides of the St. Lawrence, from 
 the Gulf up to Lake Ontario, which compre- 
 hends the great bulk of the population of the 
 Lower Province, is French and Roman Ca- 
 thohc. The city of Quebec, with a population 
 of about 30,000, is composed principally of 
 those, who speak English, from the mother 
 country. In Montreal, a city of equal mag- 
 nitude, the French are most numerous, and 
 the French language is generally spoken. 
 The Lower Province, therefore, all things 
 considered, and the elements of society being 
 principally French Catholics, and of the lowest 
 order, the prevailing genius of the institutions 
 also being French, can hardly be considered 
 so inviting to emigrants from England, Scot- 
 land, or Ireland. It is true, there are a few 
 settlements of English in this province, and 
 there is English society in Quebec and Mon- 
 treal for all who may have an interest to settle 
 in those places and cities. The winters in 
 the Lower Province are also more severe, and 
 the c imate, on the whole, less tolerable. 
 c 
 
14 emigrant's ftlANUAL. 
 
 Generally speaking, the motives to emigrants 
 are much more interesting and more attractive 
 in Upper, than in Lower Canada. The popu- 
 lation of Upper Canada is 234,064 — making 
 the joint population of the two provinces 
 739,662, by the census of 1831 : and this 
 population must be considered as rapidly in- 
 creasing, not only by the ordinary registry of 
 births, but by the present increasing tide of 
 emigration. The emigrants landed at Quebec 
 in 
 
 1828 were 12,000 
 
 1829 .... 16,000 
 
 1830 28,000 
 
 1831 50,000 
 
 And, from present probabilities, it is estimated 
 that those of the present year (1832) will be 
 100,000. A large fraction of this emigration, 
 however, probably much more than a moiety, 
 pass directly through the Canadas into the 
 United States, principally from the disappoint- 
 ments and discouragements they meet with in 
 the Lower Province, on their first arrival. 
 Upper Canada is not only blessed with a 
 
CHAPTER II. 15 
 
 healthy climate, but it is a rich and desirable 
 agricultural country, where good land can be 
 purchased at a price within the reach of the 
 poorest man, if he is honest and industrious, 
 ranging from four to fifteen shillings per 
 acre; and it is open to the market of 
 Europe, and of all the world, by the waters of 
 the St. Lawrence. There are rising towns 
 and flourishing settlements on the lakes and 
 on the rivers, an open and easy navigation^ 
 important canals, and other public improve- 
 ments^ executed, or in progress. In a word, 
 there is abundant encouragement in Upper 
 Canada for every class of emigrants, who find 
 themselves straitened in the mother country, 
 if they have the resolution to accommodate 
 themselves to the new circumstances, which 
 may reasonably be expected in such a change. 
 There is encouragement and necessity for all 
 the common and useful arts of life. It is a 
 country in which any honest man may prosper, 
 and be useful and happy. 
 
 And Canada is a wide and interesting field 
 for the benevolent enterprise of faithful minis- 
 ters of the Gospel, for teachers of common 
 c2 
 
16 emigrant's manual. 
 
 schools, and for instructors of youth in the 
 higher branches of education. It is to be 
 feared, nay, it is an undoubted fact, that the 
 intellectual and moral culture of the people 
 of Canada has been too much neglected, and 
 their spiritual wants overlooked by those, 
 upon whom that community has the most 
 natural and the strongest claims. 
 
 For further particulars of Canada — See the 
 Appendix. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 United States — Geographical Description^ 
 
 Sfc. 
 
 It would not accord with the design of this 
 work to attempt minute information on any 
 topic, which does not come within the imme- 
 diate scope of the most natural inquiries of 
 emigrants. Emigrants from England, or any 
 part of Europe, to America, may well be sup- 
 posed to wish to know where and what sort of 
 country America is. And although there is 
 little danger, that such persons would frequent- 
 ly embark for India by mistake, yet it does 
 sometimes happen that emigrants know little 
 of the geography of the country, to which 
 they are going. The territorial jurisdiction 
 of the United States is very extensive — em- 
 bracing all the most valuable portions of 
 North America, and extending from 24" 27' 
 to 50' north latitude, and from 67' to 125' 
 west longitude — comprehending nearly all 
 D 2 
 
18 emigrant's manual. 
 
 the territory within these extended bounda- 
 ries ; that is, extending from the Atlantic on 
 the east, to the Pacific on the west ; and 
 from the Gulf of Mexico on the south, to the 
 Canadas on the north. The higher latitudes 
 of the territory of the United States, are to- 
 wards the Pacific — the lowest, on the Atlantic. 
 
 ' Miles 
 
 The northern line of the United States, 
 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific, is . 3600 
 
 The maritime coast on the Pacific . . 625 
 
 The southern boundary, from latitude 
 42° north, on the Pacific, along the 
 Mexican territories, first running east 
 a few hundred miles, and thence 
 southerly to the mouth of the Sabine 
 River, thence along the coast of the 
 Mexican Gulf to the extreme point 
 of Florida 3400 
 
 The Atlantic coast is 1800 
 
 Making an entire outline of ... . 9425 
 
 This immense territory — immense to be 
 comprehended under the jurisdiction of one 
 
CHAPTER m* 19 
 
 nation, and that nation controlled entirely by 
 the popular will, as expressed at the periodical 
 elections, which are ordinarily annual — 
 embraces, in its superficial measurement, 
 2,457,000 square miles, and is naturally di- 
 ^;^ided into three grand geographical sections ; 
 Has tern, Middle, and Western — or the At- 
 lantic Declivity, the Mississippi Valley, and 
 the Pacific Declivity. The former section 
 comprehends the Atlantic States of the Re- 
 public, embracing all the territory between 
 the Atlantic Ocean and the Alleghany, or 
 Apalachian Ridge, the latter line cutting the 
 United States nearly parallel with the Atlan- 
 tic coast ; that is, from north-east to south- 
 w^est — defining a superficial territory of 
 350,000 square miles. The second section, 
 named above, being the Middle^, or the Mis- 
 sissippi Valley, is by far the most extensive, 
 and prospectively the most important, com- 
 prehending 1,500,000 square miles ; and lying 
 between the Alleghany Ridge on the east, and 
 the Chippewayan, or Rocky Mountains, on 
 the west. Through the heart of this immense 
 
20 emigrant's manual. 
 
 the magnificent river of the Mississippi, receiv- 
 ing all along, from the east and from the 
 west, its numerous, and themselves in many 
 instances, magnificent tributaries. The third 
 grand section, being the Western, or the 
 Pacific Declivity, embraces the whole of the 
 remaining territories of the United States, and 
 lies between the Chippewayan Mountains, on 
 the east, and the shore of the Pacific Ocean 
 on the west — all its waters running into the 
 Pacific, of which the Columbia River is most 
 considerable ; this region, as yet, being prin- 
 cipally occupied by native Aboriginal tribes of 
 North America. The Oregon territory lies in 
 this district. The principal attentions of civi- 
 lized man, heretofore directed towards these 
 Western territories of the United States, have 
 been for the purposes of discovery and trade. 
 Some speculations and efforts, however, are 
 now being made for colonizing and settling 
 the Oregon territory, at the mouth of Colum- 
 bia River. And the time is probably not far 
 distant, when flourishing towns will spring up 
 on that shore of the Pacific, and the inter- 
 course between those regions and the waters 
 
 i 
 
CHAPTER III. 21 
 
 of the Mississippi, across the mountains, open, 
 free, and frequent. But at present that terri- 
 tory is of little interest to emigrants from 
 Europe to America. I shall therefore dismiss 
 it here from any more particular notice. The 
 two great fields of inquiry with emigrants to 
 the North American States, are the Atlantic 
 States, and the Mississippi Valley. 
 
 N. B. The word States or State, as it fre- 
 quently occurs in this volume, is not used in 
 the common political sense — but as indicating 
 one, or more of the several United States of 
 North America. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Climate of the United States, 
 
 I HAVE before observed, generally y that the 
 temperature of North American climates may 
 be estimated, as differing from Europe by ten 
 degrees of latitude ; that is, the latitude of 
 50^ in Europe is generally as mild as 40^ in 
 America. I, of course, speak of the Atlantic 
 coasts of America, and of the European con- 
 tinent. And this observation is to be consi- 
 dered as general. There are many local 
 causes and insular, or remote inland condi- 
 tions, and mountainous regions, which make 
 exceptions to the general rule. Nor is it to 
 be inferred from this statement, that the more 
 northern parts of the United States are very 
 uncomfortable, by the severity of cold in win- 
 ter. The winters are, indeed, longer than in 
 the same latitudes of Europe, and somewhat 
 more severe perhaps. But it is not the degree 
 
CHAPTER IV. 23 
 
 of cold, that makes a winter uncomfortable, 
 where the people are well housed and have 
 plenty of fuel. It is rather fickleness of 
 weather, and the consequent frequent alter- 
 nations of frost and humidity. The climate 
 of the New England States, for example, will 
 perhaps, bear a close resemblance to that of 
 Scotland, in general temperature ; while the win- 
 ters of New England are probably much more 
 uniform and unbroken,^ and consequently more 
 tolerable and healthful. The insular condi- 
 tion of England, Scotland, and Ireland, ren- 
 ders them much more liable to frequent, and 
 often severe and trying changes of weather, 
 than the continental regions of America. The 
 summers of the middle and northern parts of 
 the United States are very grateful. 
 
 I think I may say with truth, that all those 
 portions of the United States, north of the 
 city of Washington, on the east of the Alleg- 
 hanies, and north of the River Ohio on the 
 west, are among the most salubrious and 
 grateful climates of the world. And Virginia, 
 Kentucky, Tennessee, might also be compre- 
 hended in this reckoning. There is, indeed. 
 
24 emigrant's manual. 
 
 a great variety of climate within this exten- 
 sive district, sufficient to suit all those who 
 come from the more northern and more 
 southern regions of Europe. And experience 
 proves, that it is not indispensable to the 
 health of emigrants, that they should seek a 
 climate exactly of the same temperature, as that 
 to which they have been accustomed — provided 
 they are careful not to settle down in a region 
 of a known and prevailing malaria. And 
 such regions are very rare and very limited 
 in the northern and middle portions of the 
 United States, arid may easily be ascertained 
 and avoided. Some of the new settlements 
 on the rivers and prairies of the western States 
 have been subject, more or less, to inter- 
 mittent and other fevers. But these gradually 
 disappear by the clearing away of the forests 
 and the advance of general improvement, and 
 are by no means to be considered, in ordinary 
 cases, as endemic. There is nothing so for- 
 midable in these diseases, as to aiford any 
 apparent check to the spirit of domestic emi- 
 gration from the eastern States to the West. 
 The more unhealthy regions can easily be 
 
CHAPTER IV. 25 
 
 avoided by those who are afraid. But ordi- 
 narily, when emi^ants go and look for them- 
 selves, the reports of malaria are disproved, 
 and their occasions of fear vanish. All evils 
 of this kind are more formidable on the wings 
 and in the mouth of distant report, than in 
 any experience of people upon the premises. 
 I have travelled over many of those parts of 
 the western States, reported as unhealthy, but 
 could not find the sick. The people were all 
 well enough to laugh at such stories, and say 
 with triumph, and in the use of the best and 
 the most convincing argument, — ** look at our 
 faces,'' '' And. besides," they would say, 
 '*ask the doctor, and he will tell you, that he 
 is obliged to go to work upon his farm for a 
 living." Ordinarily, therefore, the stories of 
 the unhealthfulness of certain portions of the 
 western States, are not worthy of much regard. 
 And, besides, the country is so wide, and the 
 parts so numerous and so extensive, which are 
 known and admitted to be perfectly healthy, 
 that if any emigrants are afraid of the lower 
 grounds, they may choose the higher. 
 
 The climate of the more southern of the 
 
26 EMIGRANT'S MANUAL. 
 
 United States is not generally reckoned 
 favourable to European constitutions ; and 
 the existence of slavery in those States — an 
 entailed, grievous, and lamented evil — gene- 
 rally constitutes a sufficient objection against 
 a voluntary emigration there, so long as such 
 vast and healthful regions of the north and 
 west are open, and free, and unoccupied. 
 From the shores of the Atlantic to the Alleg- 
 hanies, and from the Alleghanies to the Chip- 
 pewayan Hills, embracing a region of nearly 
 3000 miles in a direct measurement across the 
 country, there is every variety of geographical 
 feature; mountain, and hill, and valley, and 
 dale — forest and prairie — plains and interval 
 grounds — magnificent and smaller rivers — 
 creeks and running brooks — high country and 
 low — out of which a selection can be made, and 
 all of them in the Northern, Middle, and 
 Western States, generally healthful. It is 
 true, that men die in the United States. And 
 so they do in all other countries, so far as I 
 know. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Government of the United States, 
 
 It is generally understood that the govern- 
 ment of the United States is Republican. It is 
 even de?nocratic, so far as this epithet indicates 
 the people as the source of power. It is not 
 democratic, however, in the wild and turbulent 
 sense of this term. As the people of. the 
 United States have been accustomed to govern 
 themselves for more than half a century, by a 
 periodical election of their legislators and 
 rulers, which period is for the most part an- 
 nual, the use of this prerogative has long since 
 (I might say from the beginning) become a 
 sober and practical business. It is true, in- 
 deed, that in the conflicting interests of politi- 
 cal parties, nearly equal, popular elections are 
 not unfrequently conducted with great spirit. 
 But whenever the will of the majority is an- 
 nounced, the minority submit as to the deci- 
 d2 
 
28 EMIGRANT'S MANUAL. 
 
 sion of irrevocable law. It is their own law, 
 which may yet turn to their advantage, and 
 will, at least, always secure their equal rights. 
 The government of the people, by a majority 
 of voices, is an acknowledged and sacred 
 principle. And no one thinks of rising against 
 it, any more than against a decree of heaven. 
 And there is never a necessity for the majority 
 to violate law, because it is always in their 
 power to change it, when it does not suit them. 
 Even Constitutional, or fundamental law, may 
 be changed and modified by the people, and 
 has actually been done in many of the States, 
 not through the ordinary constitutional legis- 
 lators, but by a special convention, chosen by 
 the people for this purpose. And experience 
 proves, that it can be done as dispassionately, 
 and with as much safety, as the ordinary busi- 
 ness of legislation under the Constitution itself. 
 When the Constitution of a State is found, by 
 experiment, not to work to the best advantage, 
 on account of some defects, and when the 
 people are generally convinced of it, the 
 legislative assembly orders a convention of 
 delegates to be chosen, to revise and amend 
 
CHAPTER V. 29 
 
 this fundamental and sacred instrument, ac- 
 cording to their wisdom. And it is apt to be 
 made better. And the Constitution of the 
 General Government has been three several 
 times amended, and still has some defects, 
 v^^hich will doubtless yet be removed, and 
 that without difficulty or danger, before many 
 years. 
 
 The reasons why these attempts to amend 
 Constitutional law in the United States are 
 perfectly safe, if a government of popular in- 
 fluence may be supposed to be best, are two : 
 First, It is impossible that the General, and 
 State governments, should be more purely 
 democratic, than they actually are ; — and 
 next, The people being naturally jealous of 
 their rights, and having governed themselves 
 so long, it is morally impossible, that they 
 should resign it to other hands. That a few 
 men should have a leading influence, is na- 
 tural, necessary, and best in any community. 
 But when in the government of the United 
 States, these few are seen to abuse that in- 
 fluence, which may easily be shown to the 
 people, (for there is always an opposition to 
 D 3 
 
30 emigrant's manual. 
 
 every government in popular hands), the people 
 have only to wait for the return of the next 
 election to change their rulers. The govern- 
 ment of the United States, therefore, must, by 
 moral necessity, for ever act in accordance 
 with the wishes of the majority of the people. 
 And if the government be bad, it is only 
 because and so far, as the people are bad. 
 It is still the government of the people. And 
 as the legitimate objects of a government, in 
 its domestic policy, is to protect the people 
 against each other, every community, left to 
 the uncontrolled and sovereign election of 
 their own rulers, will always find it conve- 
 nient to have a good government. And as 
 to the foreign policy of such a government 
 as that of the United States, if at any time 
 it happens to be bad, it will soon begin to 
 operate disadvantageous! y upon the people — 
 and the same remedy of a change of rulers is 
 open to them by the elective franchise. 
 
 The only imaginable peril of such a govern- 
 ment arises from two assumptions: one, that 
 the people, having the power to remodel the 
 constitution of their own government, have 
 
CHAPTER V. 31 
 
 nothing to defend themselves against them- 
 selves, when they may happen not to be wise 
 and good enough to take care of themselves ; 
 — the next, that the fickleness of the popular 
 mind is liable to embarrass and defeat any 
 good system of domestic or foreign policy. 
 
 As to the first assumption, it may be ob- 
 served : — -first, That the prevailing popular 
 desire of a change in the Constitutional law of 
 a popular government, is not very naturally a 
 desire to make the government less popular, 
 or essentially to affect its radical principles, 
 bu^l^her to remedy incidental and substan- 
 tial evils, and to secure a more effectual and 
 easy administration — to remedy evils which 
 have forced themselves upon the public, as a 
 grievance, by a satisfactory course of actual 
 experiment. And, secondly, if the majority 
 of such a community should happen to be so 
 unnatural, as to turn and prey upon them- 
 selves (which is not very probable), the mi- 
 nority will have just cause of complaint. And 
 ^n such an event, the minority are likely soon 
 to make the majority ; and, of course, will 
 have it in their power to rectify the mischief. 
 
32 ExMigrant's manual. 
 
 And as to the peril of any good system of 
 domestic or foreign policy, arising from the 
 fickleness of the popular mind, it is a paradox, 
 that the mind of the many is more likely to 
 change than the mind of a few. Indeed, it 
 would be as impossible to produce a sudden 
 change in the mind of a great community, on 
 any great question of state policy, foreign or 
 domestic, as to root up a mountain from a 
 continent, and throw it into the sea. Such a 
 thing never was done, and never can be done. 
 The objection, if there be any, must lie on the 
 other score — that public opinion cannot be 
 made to yield soon enough to meet the un- 
 expected and sudden exigencies of state policy, 
 which may sometimes occur. And these are 
 exigencies in which a popular government 
 must assume the responsibility of acting on its 
 own discretion, and make its appeal and 
 await its trial before the popular mind. And 
 whether it is better to make a government in- 
 dependent of the people, for the sake of 
 securing some of the advantages, which might 
 rarely accrue from a sudden change of state 
 policy, or to abide the issues of the more steady 
 
CHAPTER V 33 
 
 and uniform course of a general and popular 
 opinion, may safely be submitted. 
 
 I might extend these observations, but my 
 object is only to give a general notion of the 
 government of the United States, as being of 
 popular construction, for popular control and 
 uses. 
 
 I am aware, that tlie belief has been enter- 
 tained, and frequently uttered and recorded 
 on this side of the Atlantic, by those who 
 know little either of the government or people 
 of the United States, that the permanency of 
 the institutions of that Republic is yet pro- 
 blematical ; and that the example and fate of 
 all former popular governments are against 
 the probability of the permanency of this. 
 To make this argument sound, requires to 
 establish the likeness between the cases re- 
 ferred to and the United States. The truth 
 is, there is little or no likeness, except in name. 
 It is true, indeed, that the permanency of such 
 a popular government depends upon the ge- 
 neral prevalence of that amount of intelli- 
 gence and virtue among the people, which are 
 indispensable to self-government. And there 
 are good and sufficient reasons to expect, that 
 
34 emigrant's manual. 
 
 such will continue to be the character of that 
 people. They have actually governed them- 
 selves successfully and triumphantly for more 
 than half a century, and have risen to a con- 
 dition of unexampled prosperity. And it is 
 time that the symptoms of dissolution should 
 begin to show themselves, if they are likely to 
 appear at all. But the progress of the Govern- 
 ment and the experiment of its institutions 
 have only rendered them more compact and 
 firm. They have been so long enjoyed and 
 cherished, that they have become incorporated 
 with the affections and sympathies of the 
 people, and identified with their dearest 
 earthly expectations. They have not been 
 shaken by time and change, but only settled 
 down upon a firmer basis. The intelligence 
 and virtue of the people have grown with 
 their growth. And they are consequently not 
 the less, but more capable of governing them- 
 selves^ than at any former period. The cha- 
 racter and prospects of the people of the 
 United States are not to be estimated by the 
 example and fate of any nation that ever 
 existed. They are radically and thoroughly 
 diverse. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The relations of the General Government of 
 the United States to the several minor 
 Republics, which form the Compact of the 
 Union, — Sf€» 
 
 EverV separate State, of which there were 
 originally thirteen, and now twenty-four, 
 forms an independent Republic in all respects, 
 except as regards those particular rights of 
 state sovereignty, which have been resigned 
 for the great national objects of the Union 
 and which are exactly defined in the Compact 
 of the Union ; and this compact makes the 
 Constitution of the United States, or of the 
 General Government. The General Govern- 
 ment assumes and employs only those specific 
 prerogatives, and discharges only those offices, 
 which are literally defined in the instrument of 
 its organization. It never assumes — the jea- 
 lousy of the minor States, whose representa- 
 
36 emigrant's manual. 
 
 tives compose the General Government, would 
 never allow it to assume — any constructive pre- 
 rogative whatever. It is a well-known, a uni- 
 versally-acknowledged and practical principle 
 in the legislation of the General Congress, and 
 in the administration of the General Govern- 
 ment, that the rights and offices literally de- 
 fined in the Constitution of the United States, 
 are their only rights and their only offices. 
 Every other right and every other office, pro- 
 per to an independent State, which are not 
 literally defined and expressed in this general 
 compact, are considered, and practically as- 
 sumed and used, as belonging to each and 
 every State, in its own sovereign capacity. 
 Hence there is not, and cannot be, the 
 slightest interference between the General and 
 State Governments. Every separate State is 
 interested alike and ^equally in the mainte- 
 nance of its own independent sovereignty, so 
 far as the rights of such sovereignty have not 
 been resigned in the general compact. And 
 as the General Government itself is an equal 
 and component representation of the several 
 States, the very membcfs of that Government, 
 
CHAPTER VI. 37 
 
 in its three several and co-ordinate branches 
 of the executive^ legislative, and judiciary, 
 are interested in defending the rights of the 
 several States from all encroachments, or im- 
 proper assumptions of the national authorities. ' 
 Here, then, is literally and actually imperium 
 in imperio — or, rather, imperia in imperio — 
 many governments in one. We cannot pre- 
 dict all that is possible, but it is not very pro- 
 bable, that a government so nicely, so equally, 
 and so admirably organized and balanced, is 
 likely soon to be disturbed by the operation 
 of its own internal and constituent elements. 
 
 Every separate State has its own Executive 
 in a Governor and his Council, in most in- 
 stances elected annually by the immediate 
 voice of the people; — a legislative assembly, 
 composed of a senate and house of represen- 
 tatives, also elected annually by the people ; — 
 and a j udiciary , commissioned by the j oint autho- 
 rity of the governor and legislature, the judges 
 of the higher courts retaining their office for 
 life, — or during good behaviour; — and the en- 
 tire machinery proper to an independent State. 
 
 The General, or National Government, is 
 
 E 
 
38 emigrant's manual. 
 
 vested in the President of the United States, 
 as the executive, who constitutes his own 
 cabinet, or counsellors, ordinarily and by 
 custom, of the Secretaries of state, of the 
 treasury, of the navy and war departments, 
 the Attorney-general of the United States, and 
 the Postmaster-general; — the President being 
 elected for a term of four years, by a college of 
 electors, themselves chosen by a general ballot 
 of the people of all the States ; — or if the votes 
 of the college are so divided among the several 
 candidates, as not to give a majority to one, 
 the election is thrown into the House of Re- 
 presentatives in the General Congress. The 
 President is re-eligible, at the popular will. 
 The legislative branch of the General Govern- 
 ment is composed of a Senate and House of 
 Representatives, called the General Congress 
 of the United States. The upper House, or 
 Senate, are chosen, two, and only two, for 
 ever, from each State, either by a general 
 ticket, or by the legislative assembly, as each 
 State may determine, the Senators holding their 
 office for six years. The lower House are 
 chosen for two years, by a general vote of the 
 
CHAPTER VI. 39 
 
 people of all the States, their term of service 
 making what is called one Congress of the 
 representatives of the people of the United 
 States, the present Congress being the twenty- 
 third since the adoption of the present Con- 
 stitution in 1789. Till this period, 1789, the 
 first years of the independence of the United 
 States were occupied under the administration 
 of what is called the Confederation, Every 
 forty thousand souls of each State are entitled 
 to one member in the lower house of Congress. 
 The present House of Representatives in Con- 
 gress, by this rule, is a little less than three 
 hundred. The Senate, of course, is forty- 
 eight, there being twenty-four states. 
 
 The third branch of the General Govern- 
 ment, or judiciary, are commissioned during 
 good behaviour, by the President and Senate 
 of the United States, making one Supreme 
 Court at the city of Washington, and district 
 judges for the different States of the Union. 
 All public officers, both of the General and 
 State Governments, are removable during the 
 period of their incumbency, by impeachment 
 for mal-conduct, or mal-administration. 
 E 2 
 
4t) emigrant's manual. 
 
 The patronage of the President of the United 
 States is very extensive and very influential, 
 and his executive powers and functionaries 
 pervade the entire Union, to maintain the 
 jurisdiction and execute the administration of 
 the National Government^ under the prescribed 
 and well-defined limits of the Constitution, 
 which is at the same time the fundamental and 
 supreme law of the land. And all questions 
 arising from the conflicting powers of the 
 National and State administrations ,or between 
 the General Government and individuals, are 
 brought by the aggrieved party before the 
 Supreme Court of the United States, whose 
 decision is final ; or, in certain cases, they 
 are submitted to the Second or legislative 
 branch of the General Government, whose de- 
 cisions are yet subject, if necessary, to the 
 interpretation of the Supreme judiciary. The 
 judiciary is the last tribunal of appeal, the 
 high and sacred Court, except in cases of the 
 impeachment of public functionaries, when its 
 own members are amenable to the senate of 
 the nation, or to the Senate of a State, accord- 
 
CHAPTER VI. 41 
 
 ing as they are parts of the national, or of a 
 State justiciary. 
 
 It is proper to observe, that in all popular 
 elections of the United States, whether for 
 national or State purposes, there are always 
 certain prescribed qualifications of freemen or 
 voters, designed to exclude from the elective 
 franchise the base and unworthy, and all 
 those who are not supposed to have any inte- 
 rest of real property and other valuable consi- 
 derations at stake in the commonwealth 
 And such ordinarily is the collision of party 
 interests, and what generally operates as a 
 salutary check, that any unworthy person, who 
 comes to offer his ballot is immediately chal- 
 lenged and excluded. 
 
 The definition I have here given of the re- 
 lations of the General and minor Governments 
 of the United States to each other, ought to 
 rescue the nation from 'some of the scandal, 
 which has been attempted abroad to be 
 attached to certain items of the national 
 policy and administration, foreign and do- 
 mestic. The Government of the United States 
 has been held responsible before the world, 
 E 3 
 
42 emigrant's manual. 
 
 and has been blamed for not doing certain 
 things, which it could not do from the nature 
 of its organization. Take, for instance, the 
 matter of slavery. It is charged as an incon- 
 sistency on the professions, and a libel on the 
 character of the people of the United States, 
 that they should tolerate in their very bosom, 
 and on so large a scale, this acknowledged 
 crime against the human race — this egregious 
 violation of the rights of man. And far be it 
 from me to make any apology for such an 
 outrage on the rights of fellow-beings. It is 
 well known, however, as a matter of fact, al- 
 though shocking to our best feelings, that in 
 all those communities, where the crime and 
 curse of slavery have been introduced, the 
 slave has been recognised in law as the pri- 
 vate property or goods of his master, and his 
 person held disposable in the market, and sub- 
 ject to the common law, which defines the 
 right and regulates the control of private 
 estates and chattels. And such was the law, 
 under which the Southern States of the Union 
 came into the compact of the Federal Govern- 
 ment, a great portion of the property of their 
 
CHAPTER VI. 43 
 
 citizens being vested in the persons of slaves, 
 those States themselves retaining all original 
 rights of sovereignty, except such as were 
 resigned in common by all the States, with 
 and without slaves, for the purposes of a 
 general union, under a National Government, 
 It was impossible to secure a union on any 
 other basis, than an equality of sacrifice — 
 certainly impossible, by demanding of the 
 Southern States the relinquishment of a spe- 
 cies and an amount of property, and that 
 property being of such materials, that, if imme- 
 diately released to the satisfaction of the rights 
 of man, would go to the very disorganization 
 of that state of society, under which these un- 
 happy and unlawful relations had so long 
 subsisted. And it has consequently never been 
 in the power of the General Government of the 
 United States, as a government, to touch the 
 question of slave property, which has been 
 held under the responsibility and sovereign 
 control of some of the separate and indepen- 
 dent States. And the temper and sentiments 
 of the people of the United States, as a 
 whole, and in relation to this subject, are not 
 
44 emigrant's manual. 
 
 to be judged by the existence of slavery in 
 some of the integral parts of the great com- 
 munity. However much the General Govern- 
 ment and the people generally may deplore 
 this fact, as they unquestionably do, they 
 have no other remedy in their power than a 
 declarative reprobation — which they have 
 made — and the common influence and increas- 
 ing strength of public opinion, operating 
 against this crying sin. 
 
 I say, the people of the United States, 
 through their Government, and in various 
 ways, direct and indirect, have, as a body, 
 declared their reprobation of this offence 
 against humanity. It is recorded in their 
 public Declaration of Independence ; it is 
 implied in the constitutional frame of their 
 Government ; it is announced in their legisla- 
 tive enactment of the abolition of the slave 
 trade, and decreeing it piracy ; it is seen in 
 the voluntary and benevolent organization of 
 the mighty and combined hosts of the citizens 
 over the entire Union, from north to south, to 
 assist in wiping away this scandal, and re- 
 moving this calamity. On the 1st of January, 
 
CHAPTER VI. 45 
 
 1808, the Congress of the United States de- 
 creed the abolition of the slave trade, and 
 pronounced it piracy. On the first of March 
 of the same year, the British Parliament did 
 the same. Since that period, 1808, nine of 
 the original thirteen United States have abo- 
 lished slavery for ever from their several com- 
 monwealths ; while out of thirteen chartered 
 and seven crown colonies of Great Britain, 
 not one of them has yet abolished slavery. 
 Others of the United States are about to fol- 
 low in the same track of domestic abolition. 
 The abhorrence of slavery is rapidly increas- 
 ing over the land, and extending and exerting 
 its influence through all the slave-holding 
 States ; and nothing can now arrest the pro- 
 gress and final triumph of this public opinion. 
 And it is due both to the Government and 
 people of the United States, that it should be 
 understood over the world , that they are not 
 insensible to this stupendous evil ; that they 
 are not asleep over this terrible volcano. 
 Slavery will be abolished in the United States 
 — utterly and ybr ever» Of this all the world 
 may be assured ; and the tendencies to this 
 
46 emigrant's manual. 
 
 result are accumulating in power, and increas- 
 ing in the rapidity of their advancement every 
 day. 
 
 There is one other item of the domestic policy 
 of the United States, which is misunderstood 
 and often misrepresented abroad. And that is: 
 — their treatment of the aboriginal tribes, which 
 are found upon and scattered over their terri- 
 tories, amounting in all probably to about 
 350,000, most of whom are west of the river 
 Mississippi. There is a difference of opinion 
 in the United States, as to the treatment, 
 which is best calculated to save and redeem 
 those scattered and wasting tribes, and ele- 
 vate them to the condition and enjoyments 
 of civilized society. But it is not true, either 
 that the Government or people of the United 
 States are insensible to their responsibility, in 
 the measures they adopt respecting these once 
 mighty, but now dependent and helpless na- 
 tions. Although I do not approve of the 
 policy of the present Government, in endea- 
 vouring to extinguish the territorial rights of 
 these nations on this side of the Mississippi, 
 and removing them to the west ; yet it is 
 
CHAPTER VI. 47 
 
 due to the Government to allow them that 
 credit for kindness and parental care which 
 they profess, in believing, that this is the most 
 benevolent course which could be devised ; 
 viz. to allow them the full value of these 
 lands, where they can no longer be distinct 
 and independent; to secure them permanent 
 and indefeasible territorial rights on the west 
 of the Mississippi ; to separate them from all 
 their disadvantageous connexions with a white 
 population (the most unprincipled of whom 
 will contrive to sell them ardent spirits to their 
 ruin) ; to establish them in a wide and suffi- 
 cient country, more natural to their habits ; 
 to defend them thoroughly against injurious 
 encroachments ; to give them a government of 
 their own, retaining over them such a parental 
 guardianship, as their dependent condition may 
 require ; and bestowing upon them all pos- 
 sible intellectual and moral culture, and 
 endeavouring to raise them to the enjoyments 
 of civilized society. Such are the professions, 
 and such, we hope, are the honest intentions 
 of the Government of the United States. And 
 it should be added, that the benevolent sym- 
 
48 emigrant's manual. 
 
 pathies of the American public are so tho- 
 roughly roused for this fallen and suffering 
 race, that they will follow them continually by 
 their prayers and labours, and if it be possible 
 to save them — will save them. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 New England, 
 
 New England is a legitimate child of Old 
 England, although in its minority it became 
 undutiful, and broke the bonds of parental 
 restraint. Draw a line north and south, from 
 fifteen to twenty miles east of the Hudson 
 river, beginning on Long Island Sound, a little 
 east of the city of New York, until it cuts the 
 boundary line of Lower Canada ; and all that 
 part of the United States east of this line is 
 New England, comprehending the states of 
 Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, 
 Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, and 
 containing a population of 2,500,000. This 
 district is indeed but a small portion of the 
 territories of the Union ; but it is an important 
 fraction, physically, intellectually, and morally. 
 Its principal towns are Newhaven and Hart- 
 ford, in Connecticut ; Providence, in Rhode 
 
50 emigrant's manual. 
 
 Island; Boston and Salem, in Massachusetts ; 
 Portsmouth, in New Hampshire ; and Port- 
 land, in Maine ; besides which the whole of 
 New England is sprinkled with numerous 
 smaller, yet beautiful towns, and flourishing 
 villages, not important for the design of this 
 work to mention. This part of the United 
 States is more or less diversified with hills and 
 mountains, as Scotland and Wales, and gene- 
 rally devoted to agriculture, manufactures, 
 and commerce. The population is spread 
 over nearly its whole extent. It is England 
 and Scotland again in miniature and in child- 
 hood — not so mature, not so much crowded, 
 and with less of the refinements and luxuries 
 of overgrown estates. There are many rich, 
 and even very wealthy, especially in the larger 
 towns. The great bulk of the population are 
 perfectly independent, and none, not probably 
 a family in New England, necessarily suffer- 
 ing from want, unless it be some of the de- 
 praved poor of a few large towns. New Eng- 
 land has its Manchesters, its Birminghams, its 
 Sheffields, and its Leeds', &c. &c., on a 
 smaller scale, but fast rising into importance, 
 
CHAPTER VII. 51 
 
 by the vast capital transferred from the city of 
 Boston, and other large towns, into their manu- 
 facturing establishments. New England is 
 remarkable for its intellectual, moral, and reli- 
 gious culture ; for its colleges, public schools, 
 and the advantages of common education ex- 
 tended to all — to the children of the poor as 
 well as of the rich ; the rich being obliged to 
 pay for the education of the poor, by main- 
 taining common schools, which are brought 
 within the reach of all. New England has 
 also proved an immense hive, out of which 
 swarms have been constantly and for a long 
 time teeming to people the new and Western 
 States ; and they have always proved the best 
 pioneers for opening and cultivating the wil- 
 derness ; and it would probably be speaking 
 within the bounds of truth to say, that she 
 has sent out a greater population for this 
 purpose, including their increase, than what 
 she now retains within her own bosom. 
 
 If, then, the people of New England have 
 found such motives to emigrate to the west, it 
 will very naturally be inferred, that New Eng- 
 land is not the most inviting field for emigrants 
 r2 
 
52 emigrant's manual. 
 
 from OZc? .England. And this inference is a 
 very just one for common and general pur- 
 poses, and taking into consideration the com- 
 parative inducements which lie farther west. 
 Those, however, who wish to find England 
 and Scotland in America, as near as may be, 
 will more likely be satisfied with New Eng- 
 land. '' And yet there is room," notwith- 
 standing so many have found motives for 
 going away. There is room for farmers, 
 mechanics, tradesmen, merchants ; manufac- 
 turers especially will find employment ; and 
 scholars, the learned professions, and the 
 sacred — provided always these emigrants can 
 take along with them a good name. Those 
 who are wanting in this commodity had better 
 stay at home, or bury themselves in a large 
 town, or in the wilderness, where people are 
 not so particular. New England is a pure 
 atmosphere, and holds a good name at great 
 «^rice ; and they who wear it will be honoured, 
 whatever be their calling. But, as compara- 
 tively few now emigrating from Great Britain 
 to the United States, will be likely to stop in 
 New England, so long as such interesting and 
 
CHAPTER VII. 53 
 
 attractive inducements are held out from the 
 farther west, especially to enterprising spirits, 
 I will only say, — that New England is the 
 Paradise of America, a cradle of virtue and 
 piety, the nursery of a sound and healthful 
 morality, a pattern of industry, the glory of 
 all lands, her sons of a fixed and stable cha- 
 racter, known to the world's end, free as her 
 mountain air, buoyant and bounding as her 
 clouds, and, like her clouds, often taking 
 wing for distant and generous enterprise. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The City and State of New York, 
 
 The city of New York is the great commer- 
 cial emporium of North America, and destined 
 to rival any city in the world, in population, in 
 wealth, and in commercial intercourse. Like 
 Tyre of old, she is planted in the midst of the 
 waters, and is for ever surrounded by a dense 
 forest of shipping, whose traffic connects her 
 with every part of the globe ; and her capa- 
 cious harbour and outstretching arms of the 
 sea, are ever covered with wings of open and 
 swelling canvass, and with swift and majestic 
 steamers, darting in every direction. Man- 
 hattan Island, on which the city is founded, 
 looming up from the surrounding waters, is 
 capable of crowding together a population of 
 many hundred thousands, more even than are 
 now counted in the metropolis of the British 
 empire ; and when that is filled, the city can 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 55 
 
 Still extend itself backwards on the north, and 
 spread itself out to the east on Long Island, 
 from which it is separated by a deep arm of 
 the sea, but a little wider than the Thames. 
 In the event of the perpetual prosperity of the 
 United States, imagination itself cannot set 
 limits to the growth of this city. Its present 
 population is not far from 230,000. For 
 artists, mechanics, and tradesmen of every sort, 
 of good character and industrious habits. New 
 York will always be an inviting field. For the 
 poor, accustomed only to manual drudgery 
 and grovelling pursuits, it is not so bad as 
 London, neither is it much better. Never 
 let the poor and destitute emigrant stop in 
 New York — it will be his ruin. But let him 
 push into the country : he may find employ- 
 ment somewhere, if he is honest and willing 
 to work. There never has yet been a time, 
 when an honest and industrious man has ne- 
 cessarily suffered from want in America, nor is 
 that time likely soon to arrive. And every 
 such man may thrive in the acquisition of pro- 
 perty, even with a family upon his hands, with ^ 
 proper economy. 
 
56 emigrant's manual. 
 
 The State of New York is the largest and 
 most important in the Union — its population 
 now (1832) is more than two millions, still in- 
 creasing, there being large tracts of unoccu- 
 pied territory yet in the market, especially in 
 the Southern and Western districts. In geo- 
 graphical relations, this State has New Eng- 
 land on the east, Canada on the north — from 
 which it is separated the greatest distance by 
 the watery boundary of the River St. Lawrence^ 
 Lake Ontario, and Niagara River, — Lake 
 Erie on the west, — and the States of Pennsyl- 
 vania and New Jersey on the south. Its open- 
 ing to the Atlantic is on the south-west point, 
 where stands the city of New York, at the 
 mouth of the Hudson ; the harbour of New 
 York being created by the favourable position 
 of Long Island on the east, and Staten Island 
 on the south — the principal passage for fo- 
 reign commerce, lying between these islands ; 
 while another, for eastern navigation, and 
 foreign, if necessary, passes through Long 
 Island Sound, opening into the Atlantic. 
 Another passage towards Phila4elphia, to 
 cross the Peninsula of New Jersey, lies to the 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 57 
 
 west, while the great channel of internal trade 
 runs up the Hudson, 150 miles, to Albany, 
 thence by the grand Erie Canal, 360 miles 
 long, running east and west, and connecting 
 the waters of the Hudson with Lake Erie ; 
 and the waters of Lake Erie are again con- 
 nected with those of the Mississippi to New 
 Orleans, by a canal across the State of Ohio 
 to the Ohio River, which is this year being 
 completed, itself equally important and mag- 
 nificent as the Erie Canal. So that, in fact. 
 New York is not only connected with New 
 Orleans by the Atlantic, but also by an unin 
 terrupted inland navigation, between 600 and 
 700 miles of which are artificial. The Erie 
 Canal, running through the State of New 
 York, is a stupendous work, physically, mo- 
 rally, and commercially. It connects New 
 York immediately, not" only with all the 
 western territories of her own State, but with 
 all the Western States, and with all the vast 
 regions lying around, and upon all the upper 
 lakes, Erie, St. Clair, Huron, Michigan, and 
 Superior — which are so many great inland 
 seas of fresh water, already covered with ship 
 
58 emigrant's manual. 
 
 navigation, running to the utmost extent of 
 their shores, all connected by deep and navi- 
 gable channels, excepting only the falls of St. 
 Mary, at the foot of Lake Superior, of one 
 mile in length — which will soon be overcome 
 by a ship canal. The shores of these lakes^ 
 and the wide countries bordering upon them, 
 are rapidly settling, both on the Canada side 
 and in the States, and must pour all their pro- 
 ducts into the lap of the city of New York — 
 except the small fraction, which goes by the 
 way of Montreal. 
 
 In the summer and autumn of 1830, I 
 passed through all these lakes, except Superior 
 (the outlet of which I visited), and returned,, 
 by steam, commencing at Buffalo, the foot of 
 Lake Erie. Here are at least a dozen steamers, 
 most of them of a large and heavy class, 
 besides some hundreds of sailing craft, most 
 of them schooners (though ships are also 
 found), doing the business of these upper 
 lakes, and connected immediately, by the 
 Erie Canal, with the trade of New York. I 
 left Buffalo in July, and in a passage of twa 
 days made Detroit, through Lake Erie, 300 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 59 
 
 miles. In August I embarked in a steam-boat 
 for Green Bay, North- West territory. In three 
 days we had passed through St. Clair, and 
 Lake Huron, and came to St. Mary's, foot of 
 Lake Superior, 500 miles from Detroit. After 
 landing a company of troops at the garrison, 
 we returned by the Strait, fifty miles, and 
 went up to Fort Michillimackinack, at the 
 head of Lake Huron, and landed another 
 company of troops. We had also left one 
 company at the foot of Lake Huron, as we 
 passed up. We then sailed across Lake 
 Michigan to Green Bay, 300 miles from the 
 last named fort, and landed another company 
 of troops at a garrison at the mouth of Fox 
 River, North- West territory. Here I spent six 
 weeks adfong the wild Indians of North 
 America, and attended a grand council of 
 several tribes, which lasted two weeks, and 
 witnessed every day their wild and expressive 
 oratory. The latter part of September I re- 
 turned by another steam-boat, the same route. 
 The length of ship navigation, through these 
 lakes, from Buffalo to the head of Michigan, 
 *s about 1300 miles, all bordered by the finest 
 
60 emigrant's manual. 
 
 country, large portions of which are already 
 yielding the fruits of agriculture — though the 
 upper regions are yet more or less wild, and 
 exceedingly romantic, and tenanted only by 
 the Aborigines. 
 
 But to the State of New York, — the western 
 sections of which were the first field of emigra- 
 tion from New England, some thirty to forty 
 years ago. Those regions were then wild and 
 scarcely known, but now filled with flourishing 
 settlements, rising villages and towns, some of 
 them grouping a population of from 5000 to 
 12,000. A large portion of the country is 
 reduced from a wilderness to a very improved 
 and productive state of agriculture. And, 
 although the spirit of emigration has more re- 
 cently pushed on still further west, and poured 
 down its tens of thousands into the Valley of 
 the Mississippi ; yet the physical resources of 
 the single State of New York are capable of 
 sustaining many millions of people ; — and its 
 middle and western counties are still an in- 
 viting field of emigration. The towns and 
 villages, which are springing up on the line of 
 the grand canal, on its several branches, and on 
 
CHAPTER VIII 61 
 
 the minor lakes, with which its territory is 
 sprinkled, some of them 20, and 30, and 40 
 miles in length, — all present openings for the 
 various trades and useful arts. The princi- 
 pal towns lying on a single route from the 
 city of New York to the western part of the 
 state — are Newburgh, Poughkeepsie, Hudson, 
 Albany, Troy, Skenectedy, Utica, Auburn, 
 Geneva, Canandaigua, Rochester, and Buf- 
 falo — besides scores of minor, yet rising and 
 flourishing villages. The population of the 
 towns, above named, ranges from 3000 to 
 25,000. The whole region, from east to west 
 of this State, presents one bustling, stirring, 
 scene, not unlike a May-day hive of bees — 
 all moved to activity by their connexions with 
 the city of New York, which receives their 
 products, and renders them their delicacies. 
 The people, however, are careful not to ex- 
 pend all for delicacies. They collect and 
 amass wealth with great rapidity, if they are 
 ordinarily industrious and economical. Merely 
 to live never satisfies the ambition of an Ame- 
 rican ; — and no man, in America, with health 
 and virtue, is ever necessarily doomed to such 
 
 G 
 
62 emigrant's manual. 
 
 a condition. It is accretion to his worldly- 
 estates and goods, which inspires and con- 
 stitutes the spring of his industry and enter- 
 prize. And he sees spread before him, for his 
 own election, a great variety of the certain 
 means of accomplishing his purpose. It can 
 never be said, in America, for the blasting of 
 hope and enterprize, that every station is oc- 
 cupied and every place is full. In America 
 a man may create stations and make places, 
 and may always find such already open, as 
 might satisfy any reasonable ambition. And 
 the city and State of New York, for a long 
 time yet to come, will present wide and inex- 
 haustible fields of enterprize. 
 
 Poor people, however, emigrating from Eu- 
 rope, should always be cautioned against 
 stopping in the city of New York, or in 
 any large commercial towns. They can 
 rarely rise in such places, and are likely 
 to be doomed to the lowest, most groveling, 
 an4 vicious pursuits — and those often con- 
 nected with crime. And next comes the 
 Penitentiary, and, perhaps, the gallows. 
 Cooks and servants in houses, however, if 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 63 
 
 meritorious and faithful, — and all persons 
 accustomed to be retained in the service of 
 the rich and wealthy, — if they choose still 
 to continue in such service, may do well in 
 New York, or in any American city. But 
 for out-door, manual drudgery, and the most 
 laborious occupations, foreigners in Ameri- 
 can cities are the worst of managers, equally 
 for themselves and employers. And for want 
 of a better occupation, they are apt to give 
 themselves up to the low pursuit of orange 
 and fruit hawkers — from which the pride of 
 a native American revolts, and he is never 
 found in it. And the reason is obvious : — 
 He knows he can find a higher and more 
 profitable employment. Indeed, the igno- 
 rant and laborious poor of England, and 
 especially of Ireland, are, in almost all cases, 
 bad managers in America. Their minds have 
 been so thoroughly subdued by their former 
 depressed condition, that they seem utterly 
 incapable of recovering elasticity, and of ma- 
 naging well for themselves in circumstances 
 entirely new and unwonted. And, hence, 
 we find all over America, that the most ser- 
 G 2 
 
64 emigrant's manual. 
 
 vile stations are occupied, and the heaviest 
 drudgery of life performed by foreigners of 
 this class. Who digs the canals of America, 
 and builds the foundations of her railways ? 
 — ^They are almost exclusively Irish labourers, 
 who contrive to spend all their wages as fast 
 as they receive them — ignorant, groveling, 
 intemperate, and addicted to fighting. They 
 go from a bad condition on this side of the 
 Atlantic, to make themselves worse, if pos- 
 sible, on the other. This ignorance and stu- 
 pidity unfit them to keep pace with the quick 
 and rapid movements of American habits, 
 and they are easily discouraged, and sink 
 down and die in the lowest conditions of 
 life. Common sense might teach, that there 
 must be some degree of cleverness, some 
 spirit of enterprize, some self-respect, and 
 vigour of character, for a poor man to make 
 his way prosperously in a foreign country. 
 For when men go out into a selfish world 
 to seek their fortunes, they are not to expect 
 the aids of hospitality, and sacrifices from 
 others, to help them alang. Certainly they 
 must not rely on such uncertainties. But 
 
CHAPTER VIH. 65 
 
 they should go prepared, by good conduct 
 and perseverance, to make their own way. 
 As clouds of Europeans of all sorts are 
 flocking to America, a foreigner there is no 
 novelty. And as too many of the dishonest 
 and of outlaws have gone there for refuge, 
 without mending their manners or their ways, 
 all emigrants to America should be careful 
 to carry with them proper certificates of cha- 
 racter, or expect to submit to the ordinary 
 course of earning a reputation. 
 
 There are many important and rising manu- 
 factories in the State .of New York, although 
 New England is by far the most inviting field 
 for those Europeans, who wish to connect 
 themselves with such establishments in Ame- 
 rica. 
 
 3 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Other States East of the Alleghany Ridge. 
 
 New Jersey, which is a Peninsula, or tongue 
 of land, running down between the Hudson 
 River and Atlantic on the east, and Delaware 
 River, and bay on the west, is a small and 
 comparatively unimportant State, presenting 
 little to invite the attention of emigrants 
 from Europe. There are some important, 
 and even great manufacturing establishments 
 of woollen and cotton fabrics, situated on the 
 Passaic Falls, about twenty miles west of the 
 city of New York, which may claim the con- 
 sideration of those devoted to such occupa- 
 tions. 
 
 The State of Pennsylvania, having Phila- 
 delphia for its chief city, is a large and 
 flourishing commonwealth, not inappropri- 
 ately called the garden of the United States, 
 before the Mississippi Valley was better 
 
CHAPTER IX. 67 
 
 known, and containing a population of nearly 
 1,500,000. It is the second State of the 
 Union in population and relative impor- 
 tance — New York being the first. The com- 
 monwealth was founded under the auspices 
 of William Penn, by the Quakers, who still 
 make a predominent element of the com- 
 munity — more especially at Philadelphia. 
 Next to the Quakers, and even more, taking 
 into consideration the whole extent of the 
 State, the Germans constitute a great portion 
 of the society — so much so, that throughout 
 all the German districts, the language of their 
 parent country is almost exclusively used. 
 Their common schools, their pulpit, their 
 newspapers, and most of their literature are 
 generally sustained through the medium of 
 the mother tongue — all doomed, however, 
 to the gradual encroachments of the English, 
 which must ultimately supplant the German. 
 
 Philadelphia, whose population, including 
 its liberties, or suburbs, is a little less than 
 200,000, standing on the west bank of the 
 Delaware, is the second city in the United 
 States Projected by William Penn on the 
 
68 emigrant's manual. 
 
 exact rectangular plan, and lying upon an 
 extended plain, its growth has been made 
 to conform to this rule — so that all its parts, 
 especially its principal streets, and in the 
 night season, when lighted up, present to 
 the eye, in every open line, one intermina- 
 ble vista of brilliant and enchanting perspec- 
 tive. It must be confessed, however, that the 
 eye often tires of the uniformity of such a 
 scene. To have seen a few streets is seeing: 
 the whole city — one part is so nearly the per- 
 fect type of another. The principal market 
 of Philadelphia, running through its heart 
 from east to west, and being erected in a 
 street left wide for the purpose, is nearly 
 two miles in length. The influence of the 
 Quakers, abhorring church steeples, has been 
 so great, as to deprive almost the whole 
 city of this beautiful ornament of a large 
 town — even among those religious sects, 
 whose conscientious scruples do not forbid 
 them. Only two are to be seen in approach- 
 ing the city from any direction — one Episco- 
 palian, the other Presbyterian, There are a 
 few modest ones, however, and here and 
 
CHAPTER IX. 69 
 
 there a tower to be found by close inspec- 
 tion, in walking over the town. But what 
 is wanting, in this sort of show, is richly in 
 demnified by the exemplification of the purest 
 taste and some of the finest and most perfect 
 models of architecture, ancient and modern, 
 in many public edifices, and in a vast num- 
 ber of private mansions. The best streets of 
 Philadelphia are, perhaps, equally satisfac- 
 tory to the eye, for their demonstrations of 
 elegance, and for their indications of dura- 
 bility and convenience, wath any city in the 
 world. And the internal of the best houses 
 is as perfect, in all respects, as any thing of 
 the kind can be. The most remarkable of the 
 public edifices of Philadelphia — of which 
 there are many most exemplary patterns — > 
 is the Bank of the United States — it being of 
 pure marble, and after one of the grandest 
 models of architecture. 
 
 Philadelphia is a quiet city, compared with 
 New York, exhibiting less of the external dis- 
 play and bustle of commerce — but its capital 
 is more substantial, its citizens more wealthy, 
 and it is greatly in advance of New York in 
 
70 emigrant's manual. 
 
 the culture and perfection of the useful and 
 fine arts, in its science and literature, in the 
 tone of its morality, and in purity of manners. 
 It is in all respects a prosperous, agreeable, 
 and healthful city, having a good share of 
 foreign commerce, and drawing into its bosom, 
 not only the vast products of the interior of its 
 own State, but of more extended regions, and 
 supplying them in turn with every thing de- 
 sirable from foreign countries, as well as the 
 productions of its own domestic arts. For 
 those emigrants from Europe, who have rea- 
 sons for desiring a city life in America, either 
 for business or retirement, Philadelphia has a 
 large share of attractions. 
 
 There are many large and flourishing towns 
 in the interior of Pennsylvania — of which are 
 Harrisburgh, the seat of government, on the 
 Susquehannah, — Lancaster, — and Pittsburgh, 
 west of the Alleghanies, at the head of steam 
 navigation on the Ohio River — the latter being 
 a manufacturing town of 30,000 inhabitants, 
 and fast rising into great importance. 
 
 The State of Pennsylvania, being of wide 
 extent, and having the richest soil, is more es- 
 
CHAPTER IX. 71 
 
 pecially an agricultural district. To give an 
 idea of its internal improvements, for the pur- 
 pose of connecting all its parts with Philadel- 
 phia, it is sufficient to remark that, its canals 
 and railroads, in the aggregate, measure more 
 than 800 miles — ^most of which are in actual 
 use, and the whole to be completed probably 
 in the current year, 1832, at an expense of 
 not less than 15,000,000 of dollars — five 
 dollars being equal to a guinea. The city of 
 Philadelphia and the State of Pennsylvania 
 are, on the whole, not unworthy the attention 
 of emigrants from Europe — more especially^ if 
 they have any friends, or connections of busi- 
 ness to lead them there. 
 
 The States immediately south of Pennsyl- 
 vania, are Delaware and Maryland — the for- 
 mer being the smallest, the most unimportant 
 and altogether the most undesirable in the 
 Union, having a population of only 70,000, 
 and lying upon a low ground peninsula, be- 
 tween the Bays of Delaware and Cheseapeake, 
 with a climate for the most part unhealthy, 
 besides being cursed with slavery. 
 
 Maryland is naturally desirable, but also 
 
72 emigrant's manual. 
 
 labouring under the evil of slavery. It is, 
 however, approaching the period, when eman- 
 cipation will be unavoidable. The large com- 
 mercial and flourishing city of Baltimore, at 
 the head of the Cheseapeake Bay, lies in the 
 heart of this State, and is now connecting it- 
 self with the vast interior of the West by a 
 rail-road of 300 to 400 miles in length, across 
 the Alleghanies down to Wheeling on the 
 Ohio, with a branch to Pittsburgh — a consider- 
 able fraction of which is already in use, less, 
 perhaps, than 100 miles. The population of 
 Baltimore is about 70,000 — that of the State 
 450,000. The city of Baltimore is not unin- 
 viting to those who wish to engage in trade 
 and commerce, in the various manufactures, 
 and in the useful arts. For the purposes of 
 agriculture, none but natives can manage 
 plantations to advantage, which are worked 
 by slaves. The slave States are all uninviting 
 to emigrants ; and will naturally be avoided. 
 We have, therefore, no occasion to be any 
 longer detained on this side of the Alleghany 
 Ridge, as all other parts of the United States, 
 on the East of this boundary, not already 
 
CHAPTER IX. 73 
 
 brought under review, are labouring under the' 
 disadvantages of slavery, and are comprehend- 
 ed in Virginia, the two Carolinas and Georgia. 
 These States are generally divided into large 
 plantations, cultivated for the most part by a 
 coloured and slave population ; and excepting 
 the Western and high grounds of Virginia and 
 North Carolina, are considered unhealthy for 
 European constitutions. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Mississippi Valley, 
 
 We come now to the most important and 
 most interesting part of the United States of 
 North America, as opening a wide, hopeful, 
 and exhaustless field of human enterprise. 
 The fact, that the people of the Eastern States 
 are annually flocking by tens of thousands 
 into this vast region, with their families and 
 substance, and scattering themselves over 
 these new States and territories, clearing the 
 wilderness, building towns and villages, and 
 securing a home and a larger estate for them- 
 selves and their children — is a suflficient indi- 
 cation of the high expectations, which are en- 
 tertained in America of the physical resources 
 of this Valley, and a sufficient proof of the 
 public estimation of its comparative import- 
 ance. It is not to be inferred from this fact, 
 however, that the older and Eastern States are 
 
CHAPTER X. 75 
 
 fall, or that the materials of industry, and the 
 motives of enterprize, on the east of the Al- 
 leghanies, are exhausted. On the contrary, 
 if this Western region were struck out of ex- 
 istence, or had never been, there would still 
 be room enough in the Atlantic States for a 
 great empire — an empire long to increase in 
 population and in wealth, and long to de- 
 velope its energies, and assert its growing 
 importance among the nations of the earth. 
 Indeed, it is only this Atlantic region, which 
 has heretofore been known as the United 
 States of America — this only, which has im- 
 posed itself upon the notice of the world, as 
 comprehending the North American Republic 
 — this only, which originally asserted and 
 secured its own independence, and took rank 
 in the community of nations. All beyond, 
 till within a generation past, was principally 
 an unexplored region, unknown in its import- 
 ance, and presenting little temptation to those, 
 who had been absorbed in events and scenes 
 immediately around them, and whose domestic 
 and public interests claimed, for a while, their 
 principal attentions. It is only by comparison, 
 H 2 
 
76 emigrant's manual. 
 
 that the Mississippi Valley rises to such im- 
 portance, by a recent discovery of its physical 
 resources, and a prophetic discernment of its 
 prospective political sway. 
 
 Reason of the name given to this region. 
 
 It might seem strange that so vast a ter- 
 ritory as 1,500,000 square miles, extending 
 from south to north, through twenty -Jive de- 
 grees of latitude, and covering, from east to 
 west, forty degrees of longitude, should re- 
 ceive the small and unpretending name of 
 Valley, which, in its ordinary acceptation, 
 may be found wherever two opposite hills 
 are found, even though so nearly ranged, that 
 the human voice might send its echo across 
 the intervening region. Proper names are 
 often accidentally and uncontrollably arbitrary. 
 So in the present instance. When the citi- 
 zens of the United States first began to peep 
 over the Alleghany Ridge, and look down 
 into the regions beyond, where the waters 
 changed their course to the west, and, as was 
 well known, ultimately found their way into 
 the great Mississippi, it was very natural to 
 
CHAPTER X. 77 
 
 give those regions a distinctive name, although 
 their extent had never been surveyed, nor even 
 computed. And that name happened to be 
 the Valley of the Mississippi, which is now 
 understood to comprehend all the vast regions 
 which lie between the Alleghany Ridge on the 
 east, and the Chippewayan summits on the 
 west, and extend from the Gulf of Mexico on 
 the south, to the northern sources of this 
 mighty river, which disembogues its measure- 
 less torrents into the sea at New Orleans. 
 This immense valley contains within its bosom 
 other valleys, created by the numerous tribu- 
 taries of the Mississippi, some of which are 
 themselves of vast extent. One of these is 
 the Missouri Valley, 1200 miles in length, 
 and 437 in breadth, with a surface of 527,000 
 square miles. Another is the Valley of the 
 Ohio, more than 1 000 miles long, and spread- 
 ing out a surface of somewhat more than 
 200,000 square miles. The valleys of the 
 Arkansas and of Red River must also be 
 large, as each of them runs a course, esti- 
 mated by its channel, 2,500 miles, before it 
 falls into the Mississippi. The last two rivers 
 H 3 
 
78 emigrant's manual. 
 
 come from the west, as also the Missouri. On 
 the east are the Yazoo, the Tennessee, and 
 Cumberland Rivers, creating long and exten- 
 sive valleys ; also, White River, with a course 
 of 1200 miles — the Kaskasia, 200 miles — the 
 Illinois, 400 — and other numerous branches 
 both of the Mississippi and of its principal 
 tributaries, all creating a variegated and un- 
 dulating surface over the entire of these ex- 
 tended territories. There are not only hilly, 
 but mountainous, districts in the Valley of the 
 Mississippi, lying between the principal rivers. 
 As a general aspect, however, could an ob- 
 server be favoured with an elevated seat in 
 the regions of the clouds directly over the 
 channel of the Mississippi, and survey at a 
 glance the territories we are now describing, 
 beginning at the Alleghany Ridge on the 
 east, as the eye rolled on to the west, the 
 mountains would gradually sink into hills, 
 and, after a passage of some hundreds of 
 miles, the hills finally be merged in one vast 
 plain, spreading out from the Mississippi on 
 the east and west, and rising again towards 
 the setting sun, till the eye should rest on the 
 
CHAPTER X. 79 
 
 summits of the Chippewayan, or Rocky moun- 
 tains. And as the Mississippi rolls on to the 
 south, the plain would be seen to extend itself 
 wider and wider, till the hills disappear, and 
 the whole region merges in the waters of the 
 Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 And it is a remarkable fact, that the rivers 
 of the Mississippi Valley are so numerous and 
 so accessible, by an uninterrupted navigation, 
 that all parts of the entire region are near 
 and convenient to market — or, which is the 
 same thing, near to an outlet for the produc- 
 tions of the soil and mines — for an easy and 
 rapid egress and ingress to and from the city 
 of New Orleans, and, of course, in relation to 
 all the world. All the larger tributaries of 
 the Mississippi are navigable by steam for 
 many hundred miles ; and often the tribu- 
 taries of these tributaries may be ascended a 
 great distance into the country, in different 
 directions, by the same craft, and then a class 
 of smaller boats penetrate still farther into the 
 forests of the wilderness. It is only a year 
 ago, now that I am writing, that I found 
 myself able, in the midst of the mountains of 
 
80 emigrant's manual. 
 
 Virginia, to take a steam-boat on the Kanawa 
 river, sixty miles above its junction with the 
 Ohio, and from 300 to 400 miles above the 
 city of Cincinnati, v^ith the most commodious 
 accommodations. And yet, it so happened, 
 although I had supposed myself acquainted 
 with the geography of my own country, that 
 I had never heard of that river till I got there. 
 And there are numerous steam-boats plying 
 every day upon waters, in the Valley of the 
 Mississippi, which, as yet, have no name, or 
 place, in the ordinary charts. 
 
 The Missouri river, which is the largest tri- 
 butary of the Mississippi, is navigable, without 
 interruption, 2300 miles above its junction 
 with the latter ; and thence to New Orleans, 
 by the Mississippi, is 1200 miles, making the 
 longest river navigation in the world, except 
 by the Amazon, in South America, — the whole 
 distance being 3500 miles. The river Ohio is 
 navigable for steam-boats of the largest class, 
 even to 500 tons, when the waters are swollen, 
 as far as Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania, which 
 is 948 miles above its junction with the Mis- 
 sissippi, and 1950 above New Orleans. The 
 
CHAPTER X. 81 
 
 Arkansas and Red Rivers are also navigable 
 for steamers of a large size, for some hundreds 
 of miles — I am inclined to believe at least a 
 1000, perhaps more — before they fall into the 
 Mississippi. The tributaries of the Mississippi, 
 navigable by steam, and penetrating the dis- 
 tant regions of the valley, in almost every 
 direction, are very numerous, the names of 
 which it is not convenient here to mention. 
 The Mississippi itself is penetrated by steam- 
 boats to the Falls of St. Anthony. Its dis- 
 tance from New Orleans I do not remember, 
 though not far from 2000 miles. All these 
 reckonings, are, of course by the channels of 
 the respective rivers, and not in a direct line. 
 And by this line, the distance from the source 
 of the Ohio, down across the Mississippi, up 
 to the source of the Missouri, is 5000 miles. 
 
 Steam-boats. 
 
 The first steam-boat built for the waters of 
 the Mississippi (and by the waters of the Mis- 
 sissippi I mean the principal river and its 
 tributaries) was launched at Pittsburgh in 
 1811. Not many, however, were brought into 
 
82 emigrant's manual. 
 
 use previous to 1817. Since 1817 they have 
 been rapidly multiplied, so that the whole 
 number which has been launched on those 
 waters, down to the present time (1832), by 
 the latest estimate, is more than 450, about 
 15 of which were built last year (1831). 
 Many of these, perhaps one-fourth, have been 
 worn out and laid aside. The largest class 
 measure 500 tons ; the ordinary size is 300 
 tons, and so down to 100 and to 75 for the 
 smaller rivers. They are, for the most part, 
 of large dimensions, and, on account of their 
 peculiar structure, erecting two, and some- 
 times three, stories above deck, they are of 
 majestic and imposing appearance. As they 
 are built exclusively for river navigation, and 
 being never exposed to the gales of an open 
 sea, these stories above deck are appropriated 
 to cabins for passengers, while the space be- 
 low is used for freight. And their appearance, 
 in moving through the water, has often been 
 compared to floating castles. The population 
 and business of the Valley have increased so 
 rapidly, and to such an extent, within a few 
 years, that all these boats, with all their 
 
CHAPTER X. 83 
 
 facilities of expediting their trips by the ama- 
 zing power of steam, have a constant and full 
 occupation upon the Mississippi and its ex- 
 tended branches. 
 
 Other and general Statistics of the Valley, 
 
 Those parts of the United States which lie 
 within the Mississippi Valley, as already de- 
 fined, are the States of Alabama, Mississippi, 
 Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, 
 Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Some of the 
 western portions of Georgia, Virginia, Penn- 
 sylvania, and New York — the organized dis- 
 tricts of West Florida, the Arkansas, Missouri 
 Territory, Michigan, and North West Territory, 
 together with extensive regions, over which no 
 Territorial Government has yet been estab- 
 lished. 
 
 It is proper, perhaps, to explain here, that 
 the territorial jurisdiction of the United States 
 is generally of three sorts : — That which is 
 asserted by the General Government, over their 
 wide domains, in relation to foreign powers — 
 that which is asserted by each individual 
 member of the Federal Union, over its own 
 
84 emigrant's manual. 
 
 geographical bounds, in relation to other 
 States, and the General Government — and that 
 which is set up by special provision of Con- 
 gress, over a particular district, which is con- 
 sidered a candidate for admission into the 
 independent prerogatives, and under the Fe- 
 derative obligations of the General Union. The 
 latter is called a Territorial Government, and 
 is organized, in all its parts, under commission 
 of the Executive of the General Government, 
 with a governor and council, two houses of le- 
 gislative assembly, with the customary powers 
 of a state jurisdiction, except being amenable, 
 in all respects, to the General Government. 
 And by a provision of the Constitution of the 
 United States, these organized Territories, when 
 grown to a sufficient importance (the measure 
 of that importance being left in the breast of 
 the General Congress to determine), are accus- 
 tomed to claim and receive from Congress the 
 full charter of a State Government, and are 
 solemnly installed in all the privileges, and 
 invested with all the prerogatives of members 
 of the General Union, by special acts of Con- 
 gress ; after which they hold this charter in 
 
CHAPTER X. 85 
 
 their own sovereignty, the same as the ori- 
 ginal States, and can no more be deprived of 
 it. Every State in the Mississippi Valley, of 
 which there are nine, has been formed and 
 erected in this way ; and so also the States of 
 Vermont and of Maine, in New England. 
 And there are five Territorial jurisdictions 
 in the Valley, as enumerated and described 
 above, which are growing with a rapidity, that 
 promises soon to entitle them to the usual 
 charter of an independent State. Those por- 
 tions of the territory of the United States yet 
 unorganized, comprehending the whole of that 
 immense region which lies between the west- 
 ern margin of the Mississippi Valley and the 
 Pacific Ocean, as also large districts in the 
 western and northern portions of the Valley 
 itself, remain under the general and a dis- 
 tinct jurisdiction, executed immediately by 
 the General Government. 
 
 It will be seen, therefore, that the United 
 States of North America, — which originally 
 were thirteen, and which have since grown 
 to twenty-four, having now jftve organized 
 Territories candidates for admission into the 
 
8b EMIGRANTS MANUAL. 
 
 Federal Union, — are destined still to be multi- 
 plied by the increase of population, and its 
 extension westward, until they shall cover and 
 embrace, each in its own defined boundaries, 
 the entire territory of the Union, from the 
 Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Gulf of 
 Mexico to the British and Russian dominions 
 on the north. The number of the United 
 States ultimately will probably be about j^/ify. 
 And from the nature of their relations to each 
 other, and to the General Government, as de- 
 fined in the Federal Compact, extensive and 
 vast as the Republic is likely to become, there 
 is no apparent probability of any future con- 
 vulsion, that shall dissolve the Union, provided 
 a suitable intellectual and moral culture can 
 be made to keep pace with the amazing and 
 rapid growth, which evidently awaits the na- 
 tion. The interests of the Union are so com- 
 mon and so important to all, that no consider- 
 able portion of the Republic can be expected 
 to make a voluntary and successful defection 
 
 But to return to the Valley. Nine of the 
 twenty-four States, and j^ve organized Territo- 
 ries, making virtually fourteen States — together 
 
CHAPTER X. 87 
 
 with no inconsiderable fractional parts of four 
 other States — lie in the Mississippi Valley. 
 By the census of 1830 the population of the 
 United States was 12,856,171, and is now 
 (1832) more than 13,000,000. Somewhat 
 less than 5,000,000 of this population are 
 in the Valley of Mississippi. The following 
 comparative estimate of the increase of popu- 
 lation in the United States, from 1790 to 
 1830, and of the two districts now under 
 consideration, comparatively, will show the 
 rate of increase in the Valley over that of 
 the Atlantic States. In 1790 the entire po- 
 pulation of the United States was 2,929,000 ; 
 in 1800 it was 5,309,000; in 1810 it was 
 7,240,000; in 1820 it was 9,638,000; in 
 1830 it was 12,856,000. In 1810 the popu- 
 lation of the Mississippi Valley was l,(i78,000; 
 in 1820 it was 2,234,000 ; and now (1832) it 
 is somewhat less than 5,000,000 ; — these es- 
 timates for the Valley being integral parts of 
 the foregoing estimates of the entire popula- 
 tion of the United States at the same periods. 
 The population of the Valley for 1800 is not 
 worth reckoning, there having been only a 
 I 2 
 
88 emigrant's manual. 
 
 few scores of thousands at that time, in that 
 region, under the jurisdiction of the United 
 States. And the motives for emigration from 
 the Atlantic States to the Valley are still in- 
 creasing, drawing over continual floods, be- 
 sides the natural increase upon the premises. 
 And, inasmuch as the population of the United 
 States doubles every twenty-five years, assu- 
 ming the rates of increase during their past 
 history, as a basis of calculation, it is reason- 
 able to conclude, that in one quarter of a 
 century from this^ the majority of the people 
 of the Union will be in the Valley, and, of 
 course, the preponderance of influence in the 
 national counsels will be there. And the city 
 of Washington, the present seat of govern- 
 ment, will be found not only out of the centre, 
 but upon the very margin of the extending 
 and extended Republic. The immense Valley 
 of the Mississippi, which, at the first forma- 
 tion of the Government, was never looked 
 upon as a region to be tenanted by the citi- 
 zens of the States, much less to make members 
 of the General Union by a sub-division of its 
 territory, is doubtless destined, in a short 
 
CHAPTER X. 89 
 
 period, to draw into its bosom the great cen- 
 tral and all-pervading influences, and to make 
 the great body of the nation. What has 
 contributed greatly to hasten the relative im- 
 portance of the Valley was the purchase of 
 Louisiana from the Government of France, 
 under the administration of Jefferson, and 
 the more recent purchase of the Floridas from 
 Spain. New Orleans is the key of the Valley, 
 and the possession and control of Louisiana, 
 by the Government of the United States, were 
 indispensable to the most advantageous occu- 
 pation and uses of the great Mississippi Valley. 
 But for this successful negociation the whole 
 of that vast region would have been shut up 
 by a foreign power, but now it is open to all 
 the world. And the cession of the Floridas 
 has completed the circle of the physical and 
 moral capabilities of the Republic, endowing 
 it with advantages in relation to all the world, 
 the value of which cannot be computed. 
 
 For all the purposes of information import- 
 ant for emigrants from Europe to the Valley 
 of Mississippi, we may pass over, with very 
 slight notice, all those parts of it, which lie 
 I 3 
 
90 emigrant's manual. 
 
 south of the river Ohio, and west of the Mis- 
 sissippi, — as those districts, so far as they are 
 reduced to organized Governments, are unfor- 
 tunately afflicted with the evil, and are la- 
 bouring under the disadvantages of slavery. 
 And besides, the southern regions of the Valley 
 are in a low latitude, are generally low coun- 
 tries, and comparatively unhealthy. There 
 are few inducements for Europeans to emi- 
 grate to the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, 
 Alabama, or the Floridas, except for com- 
 mercial purposes. These districts are most 
 southerly of any of the Western States, or 
 States of this Valley, and their climate is apt 
 to be unkind to Europeans. The whole of 
 Louisiana lies below north latitude 33**, the 
 Floridas below 31"*, and the States of Missis- 
 sippi and Alabama below 35**, — and their natu- 
 ral products are the fruits of tropical climates 
 — their staples, as grown by culture, sugar 
 and cotton. 
 
 New Orleans, in latitude 30'' (nearly ), is 
 the capital of Louisiana, and the great com- 
 mercial emporium of the Valley, connected 
 with an interior incomparably more vast, and 
 
CHAPTER X. 91 
 
 prospectively more important, than the inte- 
 rior relations of the city of New York, and 
 destined — we should say, but for its low and 
 unhealthy position — to be the greatest and 
 most important city in North America. How 
 far it may be able, by art, to overcome these 
 disadvantages, it is impossible to say. It can 
 well afford any improvements, and any arti- 
 ficial protections, which it is in the power of 
 man to create. As yet, however, it annually 
 proves the grave of many thousands from the 
 north and east, whose commercial enterprise 
 and business detain them there too late in the 
 summer to escape the indigenous or endemic 
 diseases, or who attempt to inure themselves 
 to the influences of the climate. New Orleans 
 is the natural port of entry for all importations 
 from any part of the world — for the remote 
 and extreme parts of the vast interior of the 
 Mississippi Valley ; and it is equally the out- 
 let for all its exports. Here all the steam 
 navigation of the Mississippi and its tributa- 
 ries meets the ship navigation from the ocean, 
 and from whatever distant seas and foreign 
 lands, as well as from all the ports of the 
 
92 emigrant's manual. 
 
 Atlantic States. Here is the place where all 
 commodities, going and coming, change their 
 bottom. Already an active population of nearly 
 5,000,000, scattered over the Valley, and in- 
 creasing annually by hundreds of thousands, 
 is pouring the teeming products of their in- 
 dustry into the lap of New Orleans, and re- 
 ceiving in return, through the same channel, 
 nearly all their imports and foreign luxuries. 
 A generation to come, and the Mississippi 
 Valley will probably contain a population of 
 tens of millions, all necessarily retaining the 
 same commercial connections with New Or- 
 leans, except the slight diversion in the north- 
 eastern parts, towards the cities of New York, 
 Philadelphia, and Baltimore, by canals and 
 rail-roads. The natural course of the rivers, 
 after all, is the natural channel of commerce, 
 which must for ever give to New Orleans 
 the great bulk of the commercial business 
 of the West. The present population of this 
 city is about 60,000, increasing with great 
 rapidity. 
 
 North of Louisiana, on the west of the river 
 Mississippi, is the Arkansas Territory, with the 
 
CHAPTER X. 93 
 
 Jong and navigable river of the Arkansas and 
 its tributaries, as also other considerable and 
 navigable streams. This Territory will soon 
 be entitled to the charter of a separate mem- 
 ber of the Union, and presents a wide and 
 hopeful field of enterprise. 
 
 Immediately on the north of the States of 
 Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, and east 
 of the river Mississippi, lies the State of 
 Tennessee, with an industrious, thriving po- 
 pulation of 684,000, connected with New 
 Orleans by its numerous and navigable rivers, 
 exuberantly bounteous in the productions of 
 its soil, and most of its territory lying under 
 a mild and healthful climate. It is by no 
 means the least inviting of those regions for 
 agricultural enterprise. It contains many 
 flourishing towns, and an active population. 
 
 Kentucky, having Tennessee on the south, 
 the Mississippi river on the west, Ohio river 
 on the north, and the State of Virginia on the 
 east, but for slavery, is altogether the garden 
 of the West. And this State has already in- 
 stituted generous measures for the abolition of 
 
94 emigrant's manual. 
 
 slavery, and in a few years will be exempt 
 from the scandal of the name, although it will 
 take a longer time to get rid of the evil con- 
 sequences. The population of this State is 
 688,000. The soil of Kentucky is the richest 
 imaginable. It contains within its bosom, 
 and upon its northern border, many beautiful 
 and rising towns ; its citizens are character- 
 ized for generous sentiments and hospitality ; 
 and the city of Lexington sustains a repu- 
 tation for intellectual culture and refinement 
 of manners, which would do honour to any 
 community, in whatever part of the world. 
 The southern line of this State is in latitude 
 36^ 30' 
 
 North of the line of latitude 36*^, and west 
 of the river Mississippi, lies the state of Mis- 
 souri, with a population of 140,000; and St. 
 Louis, for its principal town, being a port on 
 the Mississippi, and containing 12,000 souls. 
 This is an infant, and as yet a western border 
 State, divided into nearly equal portions by 
 the great river after which it is called, coming 
 down from the distant west, and mingling its 
 
CHAPTER X. 95 
 
 mighty floods with those of the Mississippi, 
 coming' from the north. At the confluence of 
 these two rivers, the Missouri is greatly the 
 largest, and ought reasonably to have re- 
 tained its own name to the Gulf of Mexico ; 
 but by the accident of previous discovery, 
 the Mississippi has for ever assumed that 
 honour. Missouri is also a slave State, and 
 cannot be regarded as presenting many in- 
 ducements to emigrants from Europe. It may 
 be remarked, that the French language is 
 much in common use in the lower regions 
 of the Mississippi Valley, more especially in 
 Louisiana, and at New Orleans, for the same 
 reason, that it prevails in Lower Canada: — the 
 French were the first settlers of those regions. 
 Louisiana, it will be recollected, was pur- 
 chased from France by the government of 
 the United States. 
 
 We have now made a brief and general 
 survey of all those parts of the great Valley , 
 which lie west of the river Mississippi, and 
 south of the river Ohio, and which are prin- 
 cipally important to our present purpose, on 
 account of their relations to those other parts. 
 
96 emigrant's manual. 
 
 which we shall by-and-by consider. And 
 these last are especially inviting, as a large 
 and rich field, tempting the enterprise equally 
 of the people of the Atlantic States, and of 
 emigrants from Europe. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 General Motives for going to the Valley of 
 the Mississippi, 
 
 There are a few leading and capital con- 
 siderations, claiming to be well weighed and 
 discreetly settled by those, who are meditat- 
 ing so great a change in the condition of their 
 earthly existence, as the abandonment of their 
 native country and the breaking up of all 
 their wonted relations of society, for a re- 
 moval and establishment in a country new 
 to them, in circumstances new and unwonted, 
 and where the relations of society and of 
 general interests are to be formed and set- 
 tled anew. 
 
 I am now writing for the information of 
 those, who are supposed to meditate a removal 
 from Europe to the United States. And when 
 they have once resolved upon so great a 
 change, for reasons best known and satis- 
 
98 emigrant's manual. 
 
 factory to themselves, and concluded hence- 
 forth to identify themselves and their inte- 
 rests with the people of the United States ; 
 the choice of their particular place of des- 
 tination, and of the circumstances, in which 
 they are to be placed, cannot be considered 
 immaterial. The country of the United States 
 is wide, presenting a great variety of unequal 
 degrees of inducements from different quar- 
 ters. 
 
 As a general consideration, to settle the 
 question oi particular destination, it is doubt- 
 less wise, in an emigrant from Europe to the 
 United States, to inquire where he can settle 
 himself and his children, if he has any, or 
 expects to have any, so as to be found, within 
 the reasonable scope of human ambition, in 
 the future heart and soul of the influence and 
 prosperity of the new community, to which 
 he proposes to attach himself? — And if this 
 be the first and principal question, let him, 
 by all means, go to the Valley of the Missis- 
 sippi, For Providence has evidently decreed, 
 that within the limits of a single generation, 
 the great bulk of the population and the in- 
 
CHAPTER XI. 99 
 
 fluence of the North American Republic, 
 will be found in that Valley. All the peo- 
 ple of the United States are aware of this, 
 and feel it, and know it, they consider the 
 question settled. And it is especially an ob- 
 ject of ambition, among the citizens of the 
 Atlantic States, whose circumstances will con- 
 veniently admit of such a change, to trans- 
 plant and identify themselves with the people 
 of the West. And from motives of this des- 
 cription, as well as from the prospect of en- 
 larging and improving their worldly estates, a 
 flood of immigration is perpetually pouring in- 
 to the west from the east. A few years ago, 
 to remove into the Valley of Mississippi, was 
 considered, comparatively, as going out of 
 the world. But now, it is considered, as go- 
 ing into the world — so great is the change, 
 not only in the increase of the western popu- 
 lation, but in the general prospects of the 
 western country. Its physical resources are 
 ascertained and known to be inexhaustible ; — 
 the market of its products always sure, and 
 easy, and quick, by the almost innumerable 
 and navigable ramifications of its waters; — 
 K 2 
 
100 emigrant's manual. 
 
 and the sudden rise and unequalled growth 
 of its towns, and cities, and villages, have 
 demonstrated unequivocally its capabilities 
 of boundless wealth and illimitable prospe- 
 rity. If the emigrant from Europe, there- 
 fore, would wish to plant himself in the heart 
 of the United States (soon to be so), and even 
 now beating as with the original pulse of 
 life, let him look for a place in the Valley 
 of the West. Those regions are, at this mo- 
 ment, the grand theatre of bustle, and acti- 
 vity, and enterprise. They are like one im- 
 mense summer-hive, where every bee is on 
 the wing, and collecting and returning with 
 its treasures. The actual employment of be- 
 tween 300 and 400 steam-boats upon the 
 waters of those regions, as before mentioned, 
 darting up and down the rivers with incon- 
 ceivable industry, and penetrating the obscure 
 and distant retreats of the Valley, is a suffi- 
 cient proof of the amount of business, that 
 is transacted. And these boats, not a few 
 of them, bear a burden equal to the heaviest 
 ships, which are ordinarily employed in the 
 navigation of the oeean. 
 
CHA^TiSR XI IG-l 
 
 If, however, there are special reasons for 
 stopping short of the Mississippi Valley, such 
 as family or business connexions, or a desire to 
 to settle in the neighbourhood of old acquain- 
 tances, or any other motives having a govern- 
 ing influence in the mind, the field is suffi- 
 ciently wide, and not uninviting in the Eastern 
 and Northern States ; — especially where the 
 desire of being established in an older and 
 more settled state of society may be predomi- 
 nant. But with whomsoever young ambition 
 is buoyant, and the spirit of enterprise is 
 the moving spring of the passions ; — with 
 whomsoever the reasonable prospect of dis- 
 tant, prospective good, on a larger scale, as 
 the reward of present sacrifice, and persever- 
 ing, patient effort, is dear ; — for all such, the 
 Valley of the Mississippi opens the widest, 
 richest, most hopeful field. All who enter 
 there in the infancy, in the first budding of 
 its prospects, are placed upon an equal foot- 
 ing, and their success is made to depend 
 alone upon their virtue. If they are honest 
 and industrious, and blessed with health, they 
 may acquire wealth, and rise to become im- 
 K 3 
 
102 emig^rant's manual. 
 
 portant and influential members of the future 
 community. 
 
 It may be added, that fox the most profita- 
 ble investment of funds in land, and for the 
 acquisition of the most extended landed estates, 
 with a given amount of means, the Missis- 
 sippi Valley alone is worthy of consideration. 
 There, any extent of land may be purchased, 
 at the lowest price — one crow7i per acre — and 
 a title obtained from the Government of the 
 United States, as secure and as durable as 
 the Government itself. Wild lands, and good, 
 may be purchased for much less than this, 
 of individual proprietors, and of companies. 
 But it is always safest and more satisfactory 
 to purchase of the General Government, whose 
 price is always uniform, and their title never 
 to be disputed 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The best and most Inviting Parts of the 
 Mississippi Valley — being the States of 
 Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, — and the Ter- 
 ritory of Michigan. 
 
 Our views are now to be particularly di- 
 rected to the regions, lying within the Ohio 
 river on the south, the Mississippi river on the 
 the west, the great lakes on the north, and 
 the Alleghany Ridge on the east, embracing 
 the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, 
 and the two territories of Michigan and the 
 north west. 
 
 It is proper to observe, that there are six- 
 teen Counties of Virginia, twelve of Pennsyl- 
 vania, and a small district of New York, 
 which lie west of the Alleghany Ridge, and 
 of course, fall within the Valley proper. And 
 these tracts together make a large and impor- 
 tant section of the country, and contain the 
 
104 emigrant's manual. 
 
 sources of the great river Ohio. The large 
 and flourishing manufacturing town of Pitts- 
 burg, with a population of 30,000, rapidly 
 increasing, lies within the forks and at the 
 confluence of the Alleghany and Monongehala 
 Rivers — which, being united, receive the name 
 of Ohio — the former coming in from the 
 north, and the latter from the south. Pitts- 
 burgh is the head of steam navigation on the 
 Ohio branch of the Mississippi — and is one 
 of the most active, bustling points of the 
 great West. Pittsburgh is connected with 
 Philadelphia, by the grand Pennsylvania 
 Canal, (surmounting the Alleghany Ridge, 
 however, by a rail-road line of fifty miles,) 
 which ^ in its circuitous course, measures 
 about 400 miles, running in two separate lines 
 a large part of the distance, for the accom- 
 modation of different sections of the State. 
 It is also to be observed, that the east end 
 of this line, from Columbia, on the Susque- 
 hannah river, to Philadelphia, a distance of 
 eighty miles, is a rail-road. So that two 
 parts of the entire line, one eighty miles and 
 the other fifty, are rail-way. Pittsburgh is 
 
CHAPTER XII. 105 
 
 also to be connected with Baltimore, by a 
 rail-road, now being constructed, through a 
 more southern route, as before mentioned, 
 running a line of some 400 miles. These are 
 two of the great artificial connexions of the 
 east with the west, falling together at Pitts- 
 burgh. The other connexion is by way of 
 the Erie canal, through the State of New 
 York, and across lake Erie, and over the 
 state of Ohio, down to the Ohio river, by 
 the Ohio canal. 
 
 The stranger, on his arrival at Pittsburgh, 
 finds himself in the smoke of a great manu- 
 facturing town. The furnaces in all directions 
 1 ift up their lofty chimnies, and are perpetually 
 belching forth their volumes of fire, and cloud- 
 ing the heavens by their pitchy darkness. The 
 Alleghany and Monongehala, as they rapidly 
 approach each other below the town, are 
 covered with all manner of craft and lum- 
 ber, launched from the mountains, scores 
 and hundreds of miles above, in the States 
 of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York; — 
 while, on the bosom of the Ohio, made by 
 this confluence, the majestic steam-boats may 
 
106 emigrant's manual. 
 
 be seen, coming and going, as if by concert 
 they had assembled from unknown regions 
 to sport among the mountains, and assist in 
 the creation of this vision of enchantment. 
 For it is to be understood, that all this scene 
 lies in the midst of surrounding hills, whose 
 beds of inexhaustible coal have been opened, 
 and portions of them put in requisition to 
 make this smoke and dust, and to set these 
 many wheels in motion. Here, at Pittsburgh, 
 beginneth the first chapter of the bustling ac- 
 tivity of the West — 2000 miles above the city 
 of New Orleans, by the way of the channel. 
 
 The eastern line of the State of Ohio is 
 about twenty miles west of the city of Pitts- 
 burgh, and, for our present purpose, that part 
 of Pennsylvania, which lies west of the Alle- 
 ghanies, maybe considered as identified with 
 Ohio. All these, regions, forty years ago, 
 were a vast and almost an unbroken wilder- 
 ness ; — and most of the population, which is 
 now found there, has gone in within twenty, 
 fifteen, and ten years. In 1790 the large 
 district, now included under the jurisdiction 
 of Ohio, contained a population of only 3000 ; 
 
CHAPTER XII. 107 
 
 —in 1800 it had risen to 45,000; in 1820, 
 it reckoned 581,000; — in 1830, there were 
 937,000;— and now (1832), there are more 
 than one million ; — and that within a terri- 
 tory, 220 by 200 miles, containing a surface 
 of 40,000 square miles. This rapid increase 
 has, of course, been principally effected by 
 immigration. And the growth of the State of 
 Ohio may be taken, as a specimen of the or- 
 dinary increase of the Western States and Ter- 
 ritories — some advancing even with more 
 rapid strides, and others not so fast. The 
 present Territory of Michigan, lying between 
 Lake Erie, St Clair, and Huron, on the east, 
 and Lake Michigan on the west, — and which 
 is about to be erected into a separate State — 
 has far exceeded any other of the western 
 regions in its sudden occupation by emigrants, 
 and is likely to advance in rapidity beyond all 
 former example. 
 
 The State of Indiana, bordering upon Ohio 
 on the west, and containing about the same 
 (a little larger) amount of territory, had no 
 population in 1790; — in 1800, it numbered 
 4000 ;— in 1810, it was 24,000 ;— in 1820, it 
 
108 emigrant's manual. 
 
 was 147,000;~in 1830, it was 341,000;— 
 and now (1832), probably is 500,000. 
 
 The state of Illinois, west of Indiana, hav- 
 ing for its western border the Mississippi, and 
 being also of nearly equal dimensions with 
 Ohio and Indiana, in 1800, had a population 
 only 215 ;— in 1810, it had 12,000 ;— 55,000 
 in 1820;— 157,000 in 1830;— and now 
 (1832), probably 250,000. 
 
 These three states — viz. Ohio, Indiana, and 
 Illinois, lying below the latitude of 42^* — 
 and the territory of Michigan, lying immedi- 
 ately above the same line, having for its 
 southern border parts of Ohio and Indiana 
 — are altogether the most tempting regions 
 of the west, for all the purposes of enter- 
 prising emigrants. To this may be added 
 the North West Territory, lying north of the 
 States of Indiana and Illinois, with Lake Mi- 
 chigan on the east, the Mississippi river on 
 the west, and Lake Superior on the north — 
 the latter lake measuring 1000 miles in its 
 greatest length, from east to west. This lat- 
 ter Territory, however, is of vast extent, and 
 much of it yet unsurveyed. Its southern and 
 
CHAPTER XII. 109 
 
 eastern parts only, and that in small portions, 
 have as yet been occupied by citizens of the 
 United States. These three States and these 
 two Territories I mention especially, as worthy 
 of the attention of emigrants, inasmuch as 
 slavery is excluded; as their institutions of 
 government and of society are, and will be, 
 of the most generous character ; as the land 
 is generally of the best sort, though of great 
 variety in its soil and susceptibilities ; as their 
 physical resources are incalculable, and as 
 they are open equally to the market of New 
 York and of New Orleans. And they em- 
 brace in extent a superficial Territory, pro- 
 bably not less than 500,000 square miles. 
 Large and flourishing towns are destined ra- 
 pidly to rise upon their waters, and, in many 
 instances, in the interior. And it is impossi- 
 ble to say what amount of population they 
 are capable of sustaining. Land of the best 
 quality, and to any extent, may he had at 
 one crown per acre. And there is no com- 
 mendable and practicable object of human 
 ambition, within the ordinary scope of human 
 enterprise and of human society, for which a 
 
 L 
 
110 emigrant's manual. 
 
 wide and various field does not open here — 
 such objects, I mean, as may reasonably be 
 selected in the prospects of a new and rising 
 country. And the climate is generally mild, 
 grateful, and salubrious. 
 
 But to return to Ohio. It might, perhaps, be 
 supposed, that with a population of 1,000,000, 
 the lands of this State are principally taken 
 up, and the Territory nearly filled. But 
 there are yet large tracts in the market, in 
 different sections of the State, and fresh emi- 
 grants may yet, for a long time, have a choice 
 of wild lands, or of farms partially improved, 
 or well cultivated, paying, of course, for the 
 latter, according to the value of the improve- 
 ments. Or if they choose to establish them- 
 selves in the more dense population of the 
 towns and villages, in the use of mechanic 
 arts and of the trades, or for purposes of com- 
 merce, or for professional occupation — a com- 
 mon field and an equal rivalship are open be- 
 foie them. Ordinarily there is no occupation 
 so crowded, as to exclude fair and hopeful 
 competition. 
 
 The land of Ohio is almost universally 
 
CHAPTER XH. Ill 
 
 good, and generally convenient to some na- 
 vigable waters, natural or artificial. One 
 canal across the State, from Lake Erie to the 
 Ohio River, 306 miles long, is already com- 
 pleted. Another in an adjacent section, far- 
 ther west, connecting the same great waters, 
 265 miles in length, is projected, and sixty 
 miles of it in use from Cincinnati towards 
 Lake Erie. There are very many pleasant 
 and rising towns and villages scattered over 
 the State, one of which it may be v/orth while 
 here particularly to describe. 
 
 The city of Cincinnati, situate on the 
 north bank of the Ohio, in lat. 39"* 6', 455 
 miles below Pittsburgh, by the river, and 504 
 above its confluence with the Mississippi, has 
 become somewhat prominent in the commer- 
 cial world, and is also remarkable for the 
 rapidity of its growth. In 1810, it was a 
 small village, containing a little more than 
 2000 inhabitants; — in 1819, it reckoned 
 10,000;— and now it has risen to 30,000, 
 increasing by thousands every year. The 
 average number of houses built in a year, 
 at present, is about 500. It exhibits all the 
 l2 
 
112 emigrant's manual. 
 
 show of a compact, well built, and bustling 
 city, extending rapidly in all directions, and 
 demonstrating most respectable improvements 
 in every part. It is thoroughly and well paved, 
 and has a number of well furnished markets. 
 Public edifices are also beginning to show 
 themselves in a good style of architecture. 
 Brick is the principal material for building. 
 
 The city and the surrounding scenery are 
 altogether picturesque in their relations to 
 each other, — the former resting upon two 
 extended tables of land, the first about sixty 
 feet above low water, and the second 120 — 
 from any part of which the eye beholds a 
 circular line of hills, 200 feet higher than 
 the upper table, and forming apparently a 
 perfect basin, with a diameter of four to five 
 miles, cut in two equal parts by the river 
 Ohio — the northern semicircle, of course, 
 containing the city of Cincinnati, while the 
 southern aspect exhibits two beautiful vil- 
 lages on the Kentucky side, separated from 
 each other by a small river coming in from 
 the south. The time is not distant, when 
 this natural basin will swarm with a popu- 
 
CHAPTER XII. 113 
 
 lation of some hundreds of thousands — as 
 Cincinnati is evidently destined to take the 
 lead, as the great inland commercial town 
 of the West. The daily arrivals and depar- 
 tures of steam-boats, and the large family 
 of them constantly lading and unlading at 
 the Quay, contribute not a little to the en- 
 chanting eiFect of the entire scene. To see 
 these active, self-moving castles, dashing in 
 and darting out, at every hour of the day, 
 and to think what distances many of them 
 have come from and are going to, through 
 the serpentine and almost interminable chan- 
 nels of that vast region, without ever being 
 obliged to breast an ocean wave — if it is not 
 a sublime spectacle in itself, it is at least so 
 in its associations. There are not, indeed, 
 the lofty mast, and the extended arms, and 
 wide-spread canvass of the ocean bark. But 
 there is a thing whose life is in itself — which 
 waits not for the tide or wind, but by its own 
 independent energies vanquishes the oppos- 
 ing combination of nature's elementary powers, 
 and dashes on its way with a majesty and de- 
 termination, which mock the lazy, or the fitful 
 l3 
 
114 EMIGRANT'S MANUAL. 
 
 currents of the air above and the deep below. 
 The State of Indiana, lying farther down 
 upon the Ohio River, and stretching up to Lake 
 Michigan on the North, is yet more young 
 than the State of Ohio, and in many respects 
 more interesting and more attractive to the 
 agriculturalist. It contains tracts of a different 
 species of land, called prairie-bottoms, or 
 prairies, which are little to be found farther 
 East. The prairie is an open bottom-ground, 
 vacant of every tree, and even of a shrub, — is 
 of a rich, inexhaustible soil, bearing only a 
 summer vegetation, and that of the greatest 
 luxuriance — and often extending for many 
 miles in breadth and length — skirted with 
 moderate elevations, suitable for the residences 
 of the tenants of the country, bearing wood, 
 or being cleared, fit for such other uses, as 
 make the necessity of higher grounds. These 
 prairies produce, with a very little labour, 
 every species of corn and grass. And the 
 greatest objection to such a country is thought 
 to be : — that a man can live too easy for his 
 own moral benefit, and become independent and 
 wealthy, at too little cost. This State is also 
 
CHAPTER Xfl. 115 
 
 generously supplied with streams and naviga- 
 ble waters, and is connected with the market 
 of New Orleans on the South, and with that 
 of New York by the way of the Lakes, 
 
 The State of Illinois is still more remarka- 
 ble, as a prairie-country^ than Indiana — being 
 almost exclusively such — and is generally re- 
 garded as one of the most tempting regions 
 of the West. The settlement of this State 
 is very recent — its present population being 
 probably about 200,000. It is capable of 
 sustaining millions. It has the Ohio River 
 on the South, and the Mississippi on the 
 West, and is penetrated by several important 
 and navigable rivers. Both in this State and 
 in Indiana, the choice of agricultural districts, 
 yet unoccupied, is vast in extent and variety, 
 and the labour required for cultivating the 
 land, is next to nothing. 
 
 The Territory of Michigan is a physical 
 prodigy, as a great peninsula, surrounded by 
 inland seas in the heart of a Continent, and 
 those seas capable of floating ships of any 
 burthen, to all their parts and to all their 
 shores. Lake Michigan on the West is 400 
 
116 EMIGRANT*S MANUAL. 
 
 miles long and 250 broad. Lake Huron on 
 the East is not so long, but yet a larger sea. 
 St. Clair and Erie are also on its Eastern 
 border. These waters are nearly 600 feet 
 above the level of the Atlantic Ocean, and 
 make their way into it by the rivers of Nia- 
 gara and St. Lawrence. They are so large, 
 that tides are observed upon their coasts, as 
 the effect of the Lunar and Solar influences. 
 I am aware, indeed, that this is a matter of 
 dispute. But I have observed it myself to 
 my full conviction of the fact. 
 
 The Michigan Territory is destined to be one 
 of the largest, wealthiest, and most desirable 
 States of the Union. And it is at this moment 
 one of the inviting fields for emigration, and 
 tens of thousands are annually flocking into it. 
 Its land is the very best, and all its waters are 
 as pure and transparent as crystal. It may 
 be observed, in distinction from the waters 
 of the Mississippi and its branches, that 
 all those of the upper Lakes are perfectly 
 transparent, and their foundations so deep- 
 ly and firmly laid, that no storms can 
 make them turbid. And the Territory of 
 
CHAPTER XII. 117 
 
 Michigan is checkered, over a great portion 
 of its surface, with innumerable little lakes, 
 of the most beautiful and romantic character, 
 on the bosom of which, the tenant of a bark, 
 in a still day, may, by the perfect trans- 
 parency of the waters, v/atch every motion 
 of the fish sporting in their element. The 
 noblemen of Europe create artificial lakes at 
 great expense, and after all the plunge of a 
 frog may cloud them. But here they are found 
 scattered over nature's own lap, surpassing in 
 beauty all the powers of the pencil to describe, 
 and all the art of man to imitate. I have 
 stood upon the shores of these miniature 
 lakes, and of the mightier ones, and seen 
 them lashed by the angry surf, — and yet so 
 free was their gravelled bottoms from any 
 pulverized material, that the wave returned 
 as pure and lucid, as it came. I have looked 
 down from the sides of a steam vessel in har- 
 bour, and watched the fish of every size, far 
 in the deep, now at rest, now springing for- 
 ward, like the humming-bird, that darts from 
 flower to flower in quest of his provided 
 and sweet repast. If this description be 
 
118 emigrant's manual. 
 
 thought poetic, it is yet the simple narrative 
 of fact. 
 
 The North West Territory is yet too new 
 and too unbroken for any but the pioneers of 
 the wilderness, although it is rich in resource, 
 as it is vast in extent. 
 
 I trust I need make no apology for having 
 thus directed the attention of emigrants, first, 
 to the Mississippi Valley, and next, more par- 
 ticularly to those parts of it, which may fairly 
 be considered as most inviting, all things con- 
 sidered. I have already specified what will 
 doubtless be regarded by all as a good and 
 sufficient reason why, when the purpose of 
 abandoning one's native country and adopting 
 another, is formed, the emigrant should en- 
 deavour to make the most of the change — 
 why he should select the place and circum- 
 stances of his new abode so as to secure the 
 greatest possible facilities of accomplishing 
 his objects. It may reasonably be supposed 
 that his primary object is the advancement 
 of his worldly estate for himself and his chil- 
 dren. A nian who is well off in this par- 
 ticular, and in a good state of society, would 
 
CHAPTER xrr. 119 
 
 be unwise to abandon a certainty for an un- 
 certainty. And next to the improvement of 
 his estate, would be the formation of civil 
 and social relations of the most advantageous 
 nature, immediate, or prospective. In the 
 opening and settlement of a new country, 
 these advantages cannot ordinarily be imme- 
 diate, in all their most desirable conditions. 
 And the grand question, in such case, is, 
 whether the prospect is sufficiently promising, 
 and sufficiently near to indemnify for the 
 temporary sacrifice to be made. And this 
 question can be settled only by the arithmetic 
 o{ probabilities. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Comparative Importance, Capabilities, and 
 probable Destiny of the United States ; 
 and the relative Importance of the Missis- 
 sippi Valley, 
 
 The importance of a nation is physical 
 and moral. Its physical importance consists 
 generally in the extent and resources of its 
 soil, and its commercial advantages. The 
 moral power of a nation is estimated by the 
 amount and character of the population, and 
 by the nature of its institutions. Population 
 is also a component element of the physical 
 power of a community. 
 
 The number of square miles in all Europe 
 is about 3,400,000 — Russia claiming nearly 
 half of this. The territorial jurisdiction of the 
 United States is equal to three-fourths of all 
 Europe. And the resources of its soil, and 
 its commercial advantages, all things consi- 
 
CHAPTER Xm. 121 
 
 dered, cannot be considered inferior to Eu- 
 rope. Each of the twenty-four United States, 
 on an average, is nearly as large as the whole 
 of England proper. And the Territory, not 
 yet organized into States, is vastly larger than 
 that which is. 
 
 The present actual population of the United 
 States will only compare with some of the 
 individual States of Europe. It is less than 
 half of the population of France, and about 
 two-thirds of the population of Great Britain 
 and Ireland. But the past and prospective 
 increase of population in the United States 
 is prodigious. It doubles at least once in 
 twenty-five years. By this rule, the present 
 population being assumed as 13,000,000, in 
 1857 it will be 26,000,000 ; in 1882 it will be 
 52,000,000 ; in 1907 it will be 104,000,000 ; 
 and, in 1932, or in one hundred years from 
 this time, it will be 208,000,000 ! In one 
 hundred and fifty years, it will be 832,000,000 
 — equal to the present population of the globe ! 
 Assuming the permanency of the Government 
 of the United States — in the maintenance of the 
 integrity of the Union, on the ground of the 
 
122 emigrant's manual. 
 
 Federal Compact, with an ordinary degree of 
 prosperity, however amazing these results may 
 seem, a large moiety of them may be set down 
 as probable against all contingencies. Bating 
 the effects of foreign war, and of internal 
 and violent disruptions, a growth of this kind 
 would seem to be a physical certainty ; the 
 former of which is hardly to be expected, so 
 as to afford a serious check to such advance- 
 ment, inasmuch as there is no rival power on 
 the Continent of America, and the Republic 
 is too remote to be reduced by invasion from 
 another Continent. And as to internal dis- 
 ruption, it is possible, but not probable to 
 occur, with such calamity in its train, as to 
 disappoint a destiny sufficiently bright and 
 cheering to satisfy any reasonable ambi- 
 tion. The destiny of the United States 
 is reasonably rescued from the ordinary cal- 
 culations of historical data, inasmuch as the 
 providence of God never yet set up a nation 
 of a like character, in like circumstances. It 
 is thrown completely without the pale of 
 ordinary political prognostication. There are 
 no premises in the history of nations bearing 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 123 
 
 resemblances sufficient to found a prediction 
 of overthrow in the present instance, within 
 the scope of a statesman's ken — unless it be, 
 that that which hath not been, cannot be — 
 which is disproved in the threshold, that that 
 which hath not been, already is; — viz. a nation 
 without a type in character and circumstance. 
 Those who deal so generously in their predic- 
 tions of a disastrous issue to the Republic of 
 the United States, only show their ignorance 
 of the nature of its Government, and of the 
 moral character of the community. Every 
 severe test, as yet, has only contributed to 
 cement and consolidate the Union. And 
 whatever doubt there may have been of the 
 perpetuity of the Government, in all its purity 
 and energy, there is less doubt now than ever. 
 The world at a distance, witnessing the occa- 
 sional violent irruptions of party feeling in 
 the United States from a particular quarter, 
 and on some local, or even general question, 
 and listening to the stormy rancour of some 
 newspaper declaimers, and perhaps of parlia- 
 mentary debates, might imagine that the 
 Republic was in jeopardy, and the Union 
 M 2 
 
124 emigrant's manual. 
 
 about to be dissolved ; whereas, all these 
 agitations, instead of disjointing the general 
 fabric of the community, only settle it down 
 more firmly on its own proper foundations. 
 Take, for instance, the recent public agita- 
 tions respecting the rights of the Aboriginal 
 tribes. The State of Georgia, in violation of the 
 Constitution of the United States, assumed ju- 
 risdiction over the Cherokees. The question was 
 brought before the Supreme Court of the United 
 States, and that Court, on the third of March, 
 current year, 1832, decreed all the legisla- 
 tion of Georgia over the Indians, unconstitu- 
 tional, and, consequently, null and void. 
 And three days after this decision, a Georgia 
 member of Congress, rose in his place, and 
 declared that his State would never submit — 
 and the State herself, anticipating this decree, 
 had also made the same declaration before- 
 hand. And will the Union therefore be dis- 
 solved? Why, it is a mere wordy quarrel 
 of one member of a numerous family against 
 all the rest. It will only confirm the Union. 
 And the rights of the Indians thus vindicated 
 and asserted, will never again be invaded. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 125 
 
 With the people of the United States, as a 
 body, law is supreme, and they know how to 
 respect it. 
 
 And as to the capabilities of the United 
 States, both physical and moral, such as they 
 are now, in fact, and such as they are in 
 prospect — there is no arithmetic of man that 
 can estimate them. 
 
 And the great bulk of these capabilities, 
 jorospectively, lie in the Valley of the Missis- 
 sippi. It is there they are to be developed 
 and demonstrated. In twenty years, the bulk 
 of the population will be there. In half a 
 century, the natiori will be there ; so that, 
 every thing found on the Atlantic declivity, 
 east of the AUeghanies, although it was origi- 
 nally itself the nation, and although it shall 
 still be growing in the meantime, will notwith- 
 standing be left only a skirt. There, in the Mis- 
 sissippi Valley, beyond a question, and in a very 
 brief time, will be cities and towns to rival 
 any in the world in population, in commercial 
 enterprise, in the productions of art, in the 
 refinements of cultivated life and manners — 
 and, I fear, in luxury. There, in that vast 
 M 3 
 
126 emigrant's manual. 
 
 region, compared with which, in geographical 
 extent, the whole of Europe on this side of 
 Russia, is no more than equal, — will be 
 found, within half a century, a teeming, 
 active, industrious population, themselves a 
 world! — still increasing with unexampled 
 rapidity, and crowding still more densely the 
 place, which shall have become too strait for 
 them — and sending out their swarms towards 
 the shores of the Pacific. Then, instead of 
 three hundred steam -boats, more or less, now in 
 active employment, will be thousands, shoot- 
 ing up and down the channels of its rivers — 
 and where the natural channels fail, canals 
 and railways will supply their place, to con- 
 nect every smaller and more remote district 
 with every other, and to bring the market of 
 the world near to every point. 
 
 There is nothing visionary, or improbable in 
 all this. It is even now as certain, as that 
 the world shall endure, and the family of man 
 multiply upon the face of it. Nor need we 
 trouble ourselves at present to bring in the 
 benefit of Mr. Malthus's theory to save this 
 Valley from being deluged with a population 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 127 
 
 beyond its physical resources to sustain. 
 Much more would it be a premature anxiety 
 and a rare waste of benevolence, to contrive 
 to bring' in war, and famine, and pestilence, 
 and earthquake, to assist the high Providence 
 above in maintaining his own offspring, and in 
 keeping their increase within just limits, as to 
 save them from starvation, and leave them 
 place to set a foot upon. We hope mankind 
 will yet become too good to kill one another 
 — too temperate and virtuous to fall victims 
 of vice — and so observant of the precepts of 
 Heaven, as not to provoke Heaven's extermi- 
 nating judgments ; — and that that period is 
 not far distant. And as to the earth's being 
 overrun, He who made and peopled it will 
 take care of that ; and, if necessary, will, 
 peradventure, anticipate such a catastrophe 
 by some change in the economy of his pro 
 vidence — such, for example, as the confla- 
 gration of the world, and the introduction 
 of the human family, when they shall have 
 become worthy, to a higher and nobler state 
 of existence. It is to be hoped, that all 
 
128 emigrant's manual. 
 
 this reasoning, predicated on the vices of 
 mankind, in its prophecies of the future, will 
 yet find reason to shift its ground, and assume 
 for its premises the virtues of a better era of 
 the world. And, for one, I have no objection 
 that America should present the first example — 
 the first array of facts in the economy of 
 human society, to dissolve this dark and 
 gloomy spell of evil boding to man. It is 
 unnecessary to my present purpose, however^ 
 that I should prove all this — It is enough to 
 have shown that America presents an open field 
 for a mighty and an incalculable population ; — 
 that it is evidently destined to such importance 
 — that the providence of God has set up a state 
 of society and a Government there of hopeful 
 and high promise; — that from the peculiarity 
 of its institutions, and in consideration of its; 
 remoteness from rival interests, it is not likely 
 soon to be shaken, or disturbed in its founda- 
 tions; — and, above all, — if, from thegleamings 
 and faith of divine prophecy, it may be hoped 
 that the world is on the eve of abetter state, — 
 that the American Government and institutions 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 129 
 
 shall never be overthrown, but still be im- 
 proved in their forms, and ultimately arrive at 
 the perfection of the constitution of human 
 society. That those who have been used 
 only to a Government of physical force, should 
 reason differently, is not strange. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 What may reasonably be expected, and what 
 ought not to be expected in the United 
 States, by Emigrants from Europe. 
 
 We all know there are such things as ro- 
 mance and poetry, getting a place in and 
 stealing upon the human mind ; and such a 
 thing as the beau ideal of society, and of life 
 and manners ; and the beau ideal of being 
 alone : — 
 
 " Oh, lost to virtue — lost to manly thought, 
 Who think it solitude to be alo7ie,'^ 
 
 Now, any person, looking at this couplet,, 
 whether he regards its construction and mea- 
 sure, or its sentiment, if he is not very stupid, 
 will see that it is poetry. But is it truth ? 
 Yes ; it may be so, if one does not get too 
 much of it. But he who forgets that man 
 was made for society, and adopts the oppo- 
 site as his moral creed, and follows it up,. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 131 
 
 makes a mistake. It will do well enough for 
 those who can afFord it, and who have nothing 
 else to do — who are so fenced in by wealth 
 and circumstance, as not to be obliged to feel 
 the common thorns of life, and the many '' ills 
 that flesh is heir to," — for such, it may be con- 
 venient to luxuriate in the speculative regions 
 of poetry and romance. But those, who me- 
 ditate leaving Europe and going to America 
 to work, and toil, and build a fortune, might 
 as well also leave their poetry behind. It 
 will not be supposed, that I mean their books, 
 but their poetry of expectation. Nor do I 
 mean, that there is no room for poetry in 
 America — no material and no elements. It is 
 as rich as any other region of the globe for 
 such purposes, in materials of its own kind, 
 and as naturally productive, and for this 
 reason : that men every where love poetry, 
 and because they love it, they every where 
 find materials. This faculty, or disposition of 
 the human mind to invest things that are 
 in agreeable forms, and to charge them with 
 the ingredients of happiness — or to create 
 things that are not, and make them the means 
 
132 emigrant's manual. 
 
 of a fancied, and for the time being, real en- 
 joyment, is more or less the privilege of all — 
 and may be profitably used, if well chastened, 
 and kept within reasonable limits. But for 
 men to set out on a migratory enterprise, 
 under the sole impulse and leadings of such 
 sentiments, with reins thrown loose on the 
 neck of imagination, whether they go to Ame- 
 rica or any where else, are likely to be in- 
 volved in disappointment and trouble. 
 
 To the point, then, as to what may reason- 
 ably be expected in America, and what ought 
 not to be expected. Towns and cities may be 
 found there, and all the ordinary conveniences, 
 and privileges, and delicacies which they af- 
 ford, in any part of the world. But London 
 is not there — nor Paris. Those who can be 
 satisfied only with such a city as London, and 
 who can command the means of living in it to 
 their utmost gratification, had better stay in 
 London. And yet an American city of equal 
 magnitude does not differ very much from an 
 European city, either in external show, or in 
 the means of enjoyment. 
 
 There is society in America, as good as in 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 133 
 
 any part of the world. But notwithstanding 
 all the theoretical notions of Republican 
 equality, society there has its grades, and 
 every one must expect to take his own proper 
 rank. Or if rank be an obnoxious term — his 
 proper place. Unequal relations, in closest 
 contact, are always unnatural and unhappy — - 
 and it is not in man to make them otherwise. 
 It might as well be understood beforehand, as 
 it might reasonably be presumed, that there is 
 no miraculous charm in Republican institu- 
 tions to make minds alike, or to fit them to be 
 society for each other, which are constitution- 
 ally and by education and habit unlike. No 
 person can conveniently have many particular 
 friends and intimate associates ; and it is not 
 only natural, but best, that those who are 
 most intimate should be equal — that they 
 should have common sympathies. He, there- 
 fore, who aspires to a higher place in society 
 than he is fit for, by going to America — who 
 imagines that every body there will make obei- 
 sance to him, or yield him the station, which 
 his own mistakes may lead him to claim, is natu- 
 rally destined to the chastening of experience. 
 
134 emigrant's manual. 
 
 It is, however, true of society in the United 
 States, that precedence is not so much the 
 award of adventitious rank and of birth, as in 
 Europe ; although these considerations are 
 not without influence. Real intrinsic worth 
 and practical talents for usefulness are most 
 honoured there, and are rarely overlooked. 
 He who possesses and acquires these excel- 
 lencies, may find opportunities to demonstrate 
 them, and is likely to be ^appreciated. And 
 he who aspires to be respected and honoured 
 by the public, must be content to earn his 
 reputation by his virtues, by his industry, and 
 by his persevering devotion to useful and ho- 
 nourable pursuits. And on this condition he 
 will not fail to obtain any privileges of society, 
 to which he is fairly entitled. 
 
 Religious privileges are as abundant, and 
 the ordinances of Christianity, under all the 
 forms of the leading Christian sects, are as 
 well sustained in the older portions of the 
 United States, as in any part of the Christian 
 world, and on the best foundation ; because 
 they rest solely upon the virtue of the people 
 — having no State patronage, except the pro- 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 135 
 
 tections of law for the rights of conscience, 
 made equal to all. The first thorough experi- 
 ment, since the days of Constantine, of re- 
 signing the maintenance of the ordinances 
 and the orthodoxy of Christianity to the virtue 
 and pious zeal of its advocates and friends, 
 without enforcing it by State enactments upon 
 the people, has been made in the United 
 States, and made with triumphant success. 
 For in no part of the Christian world does 
 religion receive a more general, or more pure 
 regard from the people ; and in no part of the 
 world have the means and the agencies of 
 Christianity been more effectual in securing 
 their legitimate sway over the popular mind. 
 It is not unknown, even abroad, that Chris- 
 tianity, in the United States, has proved in a 
 very extraordinary degree efficient, in the 
 attainment of great and notable public refor- 
 mations. In the Western and new settle- 
 ments of the country, it is natural to suppose, 
 the ordinances of Christianity are not so gene- 
 rally established, and religious privileges are 
 more rare — although great pains are taken by 
 the benevolent efforts of the Christian public 
 N 2 
 
136 EMIGRANT*S MANUAL. 
 
 to supply this defect, and to maintain reli- 
 gious culture, as far as possible, in an equal 
 march with the extension and progress of po- 
 pulation. The itinerant preacher of the gospel 
 goes out upon his horse, and endeavours to 
 visit the remotest settlement and cabin of the 
 wilderness. But those who emigrate to the 
 new settlements, or who plunge into the forests, 
 or plant themselves upon the distant rivers of 
 the West, must expect that it will take time 
 for the best and most desirable organization 
 of Christian society. In the older towns and 
 settlements of the East, places of public 
 worship are abundant, and all the means of 
 religion, enjoyed in any part of the world, are 
 brought within every one*s reach. In the 
 cities, in the villages, and in the country, the 
 Christian steeple and its lofty spire may be 
 seen in every direction, pointing the way to 
 heaven, — and the church-going bell invites 
 the wanderer to the house and to the altars of 
 God. The churches (for all places of public 
 worship^ in America, are called churches, and 
 all ministers of religion, clergymen) are not so 
 ancient in the United States ; but they are 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 137 
 
 often magnificent without and splendid within, 
 and not unfrequently more in taste, as it 
 seems to me, than those I generally see on this 
 side of the Atlantic. The public taste here is 
 reluctant, perhaps commendably so, to emerge 
 from the sombre glooms of antiquity in church 
 architecture. It apes what is old, and often 
 labours ineffectually to make a new thing old ; 
 to create an ugly feature, which was not an 
 original stamp of the pattern, but is the effect 
 of the wasting hand of time. 
 
 Schools and seminaries of education of 
 every grade, for children and youth, and for 
 every destination of life, from the infant 
 school up to all the privileges of the Univer- 
 sity, are abundantly supplied in the older 
 States of the Union, especially at the East 
 and North. The people of the United States 
 are allowed to have done more to secure the 
 education of the common mass, than any 
 other nation, and, no doubt, with justice. It 
 is a fundamental and just political maxim — 
 that a people must be enlightened to govern 
 themselves. And the necessity of universal 
 education has been imposed upon the people 
 N 3 
 
138 emigrant's MANUA.L. 
 
 of the United States, from the fact, that they 
 have undertaken to support a popular Govern- 
 ment. To neglect this would be the aban- 
 donment of their dearest and most cherished 
 hopes. It is a principle of practical policy 
 throughout the States — that the rich shall be 
 taxed, as far as is necessary, to educate the 
 children of the poor. The higher seminaries 
 of learning in the middle grades, of which 
 there is every variety, are supported by the 
 patronage of those who can afford, and who 
 desire to give their children a better educa- 
 tion. Of Colleges and Universities, which are 
 both virtually of one class in America, being 
 chartered in the respective States in which 
 they are found, for the purpose of conferring 
 academical degrees, there are forty-six in all, 
 scattered over the Union, most of them in the 
 infancy of existence. The ordinary course of 
 an industrious student, after he has com 
 menced his academical education, to his final 
 graduation for the use of either of the learned 
 professions — law, medicine, or theology — is 
 about ten years. As good and as thorough 
 an education may be obtained at the schools 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 139 
 
 and Universities of the United States as at 
 the same institutions on this side of the 
 Atlantic. 
 
 The emigrant from Great Britain, or from 
 any of the States of Europe, to the United 
 States, will doubtless receive this general 
 impression: — that all things in the latter coun- 
 try, as created by man, are comparatively in 
 the childhood of existence. He will find no 
 architectural antiquities. Commercial town* 
 and cities are equally compact, but do not 
 ordinarily exhibit an equal degree of splen- 
 dour. Agriculture, except in the vicinity of 
 large towns, has not been carried to so great a 
 degree of perfection — because the farmer, hav- 
 ing more land, can obtain a greater product 
 with a given amount of culture, by spreading 
 his labour over a larger surface. Roads are 
 not so good ; though, in the older States, im- 
 provements of this and every other kind are 
 constantly advancing. He who has been 
 accustomed to the excellent roads, and who 
 has seen the most cultivated parts of England, 
 would hardly know how to appreciate the 
 modes and degrees of improvement in like 
 
140 emigrant's manual. 
 
 things in the United States. He must recol- 
 lect, however, that in a new and wide country, 
 where land is plenty and the population sparse, 
 the most profitable product is not by the 
 highest degree of improvement. It is only 
 when a country is crowded with its population, 
 that men are driven to make the most of every 
 foot of land. The prairie farmer of Indiana 
 and of Illinois has no other trouble but to 
 plant his seed-corn and reap his harvest. 
 Such a thing as the necessity and labour of 
 tillage is hardly known to him. His cattle, 
 and sheep, and hogs, and poultry run at 
 large, and multiply and fatten without his 
 care ; and he has only to bring them up, and 
 drive them to market, or pickle them for 
 transportation. Ordinarily, however, and espe- 
 cially in the Eastern States, tillage and the 
 care of cattle are more expensive. But still 
 the labours of husbandry, and the expense of 
 raising cattle and sheep, &c., in America, bear 
 no comparison to the pains and labour devoted 
 to the same objects in Europe. Every thing 
 necessary for life is obtained at a cheaper 
 rate, and of course the general and most ob- 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 141 
 
 vious appearances of the country exhibit less 
 improvement. For example : — the people of 
 a country, whose population averages two hun- 
 dred to a square mile, must obviously work 
 harder, and their improvements must be of a 
 higher character, to gain a sustenance from 
 the soil, than where the population is not more 
 than ten to a mile, — allowing the soil in both 
 cases to be equally good. This example, it 
 may be understood, is assumed, merely for 
 illustration. 
 
 The emigrant, who meditates a removal 
 into the wilds of America, or into its new and 
 more unsettled Territories, should calculate the 
 loss, as well as the gain. With a given amount 
 of money he may acquire more land, and ulti- 
 mately he may expect to leave a larger estate 
 to his children. But he should consider the 
 sacrifices he is to make. -He leaves behind 
 him his Church and his pastor — schools, roads, 
 and all the improvements and advantages of a 
 cultivated country,and of a well-organized, and 
 perhaps refined state of society ; — and besides 
 the time, which must necessarily elapse, before 
 he can enjoy them again,, he should recollect,, 
 
142 emigrant's manual. 
 
 that he must bear his share of the trouble and 
 expense of creating them. And the negative 
 loss to himself and family, intellectually and 
 morally, in the mean time, should also come 
 into the reckoning. Can he well afford all 
 this ? Is the gain in expectancy tantamount 
 to the sacrifice? And is his moral courage 
 equal to the undertaking? He must recol- 
 lect, that his destiny, in such an enterprise, is 
 literally, the patience of labour — and his en- 
 joyment, the pleasure of anticipation. If, 
 after well weighing all these considerations, 
 he can brave the disadvantages of the enter- 
 prise, his ambition will not unlikely be re- 
 warded to his entire satisfaction. To a mind 
 properly constituted and well adapted to such 
 circumstances, there are a thousand cheering 
 and animating considerations in the prospects 
 of a new and rising country. The vast and 
 endless susceptibilities of improvement, and 
 the actual advances of every day — the sure 
 reward of labour, and the increasing value of 
 every species of property — and a common 
 sympathy with hundreds and thousands of 
 others, devoted to the same objects — sustain 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 143 
 
 the mind, and nourish it continually with the 
 freshness of hope and the joy of anticipation. 
 Especially to be identified with the interests 
 and prospects of such a community, as that 
 which is now organizing and spreading itself 
 over the Valley of the Mississippi, is itself a 
 powerful spring of hope and of enterprise. 
 The mind is at once enlarged and ennobled, 
 and becomes great, by the very contemplation 
 of such a scene. It estimates and limits its 
 own importance only by the importance of its 
 circumstances and relations. Who can esti- 
 mate the difference between the influence of 
 those circumstances on the mind, where a man 
 is for ever cut off from the hope of extending 
 his relations and sphere of importance, what- 
 ever be his efforts, — and of those, in which he 
 knows, that every single effort of laudable am- 
 bition will not only accumulate his personal 
 wealth, but raise him to a higher sphere, and 
 advance him to more honourable relations in 
 society ? And who again can estimate the 
 difference between being a member of a com- 
 munity, which can only hope to maintain its 
 present ground of relative importance, and of 
 
144 emigrant's manual. 
 
 one, whose prospects of growth are absolutely 
 inappreciable, both for rapidity and extent ? 
 The latter are the animating prospects of him, 
 who aspires to identify himself with the people 
 of the Mississippi Valley, however remote 
 and wild the retreat in that vast region, in 
 which he chooses to set up his tent and fix his 
 abode. 
 
 What has been called the Republican im- 
 portance of servants in the United States, de- 
 serves, perhaps, a single remark, by way of 
 advice to those emigrants from Europe, who 
 have been accustomed to depend on the obse- 
 quious services and attentions of inferiors. 
 American servants are reputed, and not, per- 
 haps, without reason, to be very scrupulous in 
 the observance of the scriptural maxim : — 
 *' Call no man master/' 
 
 But, mutato nomine — consult the prejudice 
 — and under different names I am not aware, 
 from any experience or observation — (and I 
 have certainly had some of the first, and no 
 small opportunity for the second), I am not 
 aware, that every and any convenient service, 
 which any persons can reasonably need, may 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 145 
 
 not be purchased in America. Only let him, 
 who wishes to be served, be kind ?ind gracious 
 — as in all countries and in all circumstances 
 he ought to be — and he need not sacrifice a 
 single feeling which a reasonable man should 
 desire to retain. He may then be served, in 
 all that he may require, as respectfully, as 
 cheerfully, and as thoroughly in America, as 
 in any other country. But if Europeans going 
 to America, or travelling there, will insist upon 
 that obsequiousness and servility in servants, 
 which may have been rendered to them in 
 their own country ; — if they can err so much, 
 as to imagine, that superciliousness towards 
 inferiors is a legitimate emanation of a proper 
 self-respect, and a necessary protection of 
 their own importance against invasion ; — why, 
 then, they must take the consequences. And 
 those consequences will not unlikely be a per- 
 petual annoyance — or the vexation of being 
 served badly, if at all — at least of the perpe- 
 tual change of servants. I do not believe 
 there is a country in the world, where a rea- 
 sonable and an accommodating temper may 
 not get along well enough in matters of this 
 o 
 
146 emigrant's manual. 
 
 kind — ^and for this good reason, that human 
 nature is the same all the world over — and 
 that those, whose necessities oblige them to 
 sell their personal services, will naturally try 
 to please, not only for their own profit, but 
 because themselves like to be pleased. Those 
 persons, therefore, who have found occasion 
 to complain of the Republican independence 
 of American servants, have by the same word, 
 or by the same dash of their pen, written the 
 severest libel against themselves — and that is : 
 — that they themselves have been the aggres- 
 sors — that they have been guilty of the first 
 impropriety. They had had the indiscretion 
 to forget, that they had got into another 
 country. 
 
 Society and manners in the United States 
 have sometimes been complained of by tran- 
 sient residents, or flying travellers, from this 
 side of the Atlantic. I have only to reply: — 
 that this also is a libel against the complain- 
 ants, and |)roves, either that their own want of 
 merit had excluded them from good society, 
 or that their own ill manners had provoked 
 a treatment which they well deserved. For it 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 147 
 
 is evident to all the world, that the greatest 
 portion of the people of the United States are 
 in higher conditions of life than the greatest 
 portion of any State in Europe. And the 
 challenge may be extended yet farther : 
 Select what is considered the highest and most 
 cultivated class of society in any European 
 community, and a greater portion of the com- 
 munity of the United States shall be found 
 whose cultivation of mind and accomplishment 
 of manners are not unequal. If, however, 
 the adventitious show of a Court, of a titled 
 nobility, and of enormous estates, is insisted 
 on as an indispensable element of good society 
 and of good manners, it must be confessed, 
 the people of the United States have slender 
 claims of this sort to assert. But if mind be 
 the measure of the man, associated with sim- 
 plicity and kindness of manners; — if independ- 
 ent wealth and well-provided mansions, and 
 a generous hospitality, go to make up the 
 pleasant things of life ; — then America has at 
 least some claims to good society and to good 
 manners. I would willingly submit this ques- 
 tion to the verdict of the exact impressions 
 o2 
 
148 emigrant's manual. 
 
 and the honest convictions of those Europeans, 
 who have visited America, and whose merits 
 entitled them to the respect and hospitality of 
 the American public. He must be an un- 
 grateful man, indeed, who could forget the 
 politeness he had received, and abuse the 
 hospitality, the bounty and grace of which he 
 had enjoyed. It may be and doubtless is 
 true, that the habitual occupation of most of 
 the citizens of the United States, in some avo- 
 cations of business, or professional employ- 
 ment, and that of the highest conditions and of 
 the most wealthy — may, in some instances, 
 preclude them from that amount of devotion 
 to strangers which they may perhaps expect. 
 But every reasonable man can make allowance 
 for this — and, if he is truly enlightened, he 
 will admire, rather than reprobate such a state 
 of society. 
 
 In a word — the emigrant from Europe to 
 the United States should be reasonable and 
 chastened in his expectations. He should ^ 
 remember, that he is going to another country 
 — to a country in many respects unlike to 
 what he has been accustomed; — unlike in its 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 149 
 
 physical appearances, — unequal, perhaps, in 
 those improvements which age only can 
 create ; whose — Government and institutions 
 of society are somewhat diverse and peculiar ; 
 — and where he will find and feel himself to be 
 in novel and unwonted circumstances; — a 
 country, indeed, of rising and hopeful pros- 
 pects, but not exempting man from inconve- 
 nience, nor from the necessity of labour ; — a 
 country where Government and laws are as 
 indispensable as in any other — and where 
 prosperity is ordinarily the reward of virtue, 
 and ruin the consequence of vice. And he 
 who is honest and industrious in America may 
 do well — well enough to satisfy any reasonable 
 expectations. But he who is unwilling to be 
 doomed to an honest life might as well stay 
 away. Unfortunately for America, Europe 
 has already furnished her with too many of 
 this character. (/^ 
 
 o3 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The particular Classes of Persons to whom 
 the United States hold out the strongest 
 inducements for Emigration — And the best 
 methods of executing the purpose. 
 
 It may be deemed quite unnecessary to 
 say, that America holds out more encourage- 
 ments to the farmer, or agriculturist, to the 
 cultivator of the earth, than to any other class. 
 It presents wide and yet untenanted regions 
 of the richest, most productive soils. I say, 
 soils — because they are of great variety, and 
 adapted to every species of agricultural and 
 pastoral pursuits. And, for these purposes, it 
 is a country equally inviting to the poor and 
 to the rich. To the poor — because, if he can 
 have a little money at the end of his journey, 
 he can enter immediately upon the possession 
 and culture of a territory, greater or smaller, 
 according to his means, which he may call his 
 
CHAPTER XV. 151 
 
 own — of which he is the lord. Or, if he has 
 no money, with industry he may soon earn it, 
 and appropriate his gains to the object he has 
 in view. It is not good, however, for those 
 who are entirely destitute, to emigrate to 
 America, simply because they are destitute. 
 Nor is it kind to send them out, unprovided 
 with suitable advice and protection. Their 
 courage is liable to fail them, when they 
 find themselves in a strange land, labouring 
 under all the disadvantages of poverty — and 
 the chances are, that they will not better their 
 condition. They do not know how to manage 
 — and are accustomed either to associate 
 with the miserable dregs of large towns, or 
 to sell their services on the public works, 
 where the society is little better ; and all 
 their wages are ordinarily squandered in vice. 
 There is no object towards which the bounty 
 of an European Government, which is willing 
 to part with its superabundant poor, could 
 better be appropriated, than seeing them well 
 established in the country to which they are 
 advised to emigrate. And they ought to con- 
 sider themselves morally bound to do it. It 
 
152 emigrant's manual. 
 
 is cruel — it is inhuman — it is a .crying sin — 
 first, to make their subjects poor, by a bad 
 political economy, and then to throw them 
 off from their hands into a worse condition, 
 and perhaps to perish by their own improvi- 
 dence. For, if they are incapable of taking 
 care of themselves, it is not to be expected 
 that America, or any other part of the world, 
 will tax themselves to support the poor of a 
 foreign nation. 
 
 And I cannot forbear in this place to ob- 
 serve and to suggest, that here is open one of 
 the noblest fields for the display of the kind- 
 ness of rich and wealthy emigrants from Eu- 
 rope to America — and an opportunity, which 
 may be made to turn to their own profitable 
 account, as well as to the advantage of those 
 who are the objects of their benevolence. Let 
 every wealthy emigrant, or an association of 
 such men, collect the honest and industrious 
 poor about them — let them set up a standard 
 and beat for recruits on kind and generous 
 terms ; — and, when they have found enough for 
 a little colony, let them take these families 
 and these individuals under their protection and 
 
CHAPTER XV. 153 
 
 guidance, and pass over the Atlantic, and 
 penetrate into some of the vacant Territories 
 of the West, and there plant themselves, with 
 their grateful and hsupipy proteges around them. 
 And if, in this way, they do not realize some 
 of the pleasures of doing good, at the same 
 time that they are promoting their own inte- 
 rests, it will only be because they have no 
 benevolence. They may not only enlarge 
 their own estates, but they may secure the 
 wealth and independence of the poor. If 
 associations of this sort were sufficiently 
 large in the outset — (and it is evident they 
 might be formed to any extent) all the ele- 
 ments of a good and substantial community, 
 with the means of intellectual and moral cul- 
 ture, and not excepting the refinements and 
 luxuries of the best conditions of society, 
 might be transferred at once from the heart 
 of an European State, into the wilderness 
 of North America. Such an association 
 might, and by all means ought to take along 
 with them the ministry and ordinances of 
 Christianity ; for no community can flourish 
 without them. 
 
154 emigrant's manual. 
 
 This plan has been executed to a considera- 
 ble extent by emigrants from the Eastern por- 
 tions of the United States to the West. And 
 in this way the otherwise formidable disad- 
 vantages of the new settlements have been 
 greatly relieved. In this way society itself, 
 in its forms of complete organization, mi- 
 grates. And it is evident, that there is no 
 impracticability in this. And certainly it is 
 wisest and best. Religion, literature, refine- 
 ment, and all the best things of a well organ- 
 ized community, and all the means of sus- 
 taining them — an enlightened public opinion 
 in constant and active operation, by the 
 habitual interchange of the accustomed sym- 
 pathies of the association — all travel on to- 
 gether, and take up their abode in the wilder- 
 ness, without ever being obliged to feel, that 
 it is a wilderness. After this manner the first 
 Colonies of America were founded. So Wil- 
 liam Penn laid the foundation of the Colony 
 and city of Philadelphia. And what a spec- 
 tacle do those Colonies and those Cities now 
 exhibit to the world ! And there is yet room 
 for ever so many Colonies, and for ever so 
 
CHAPTER XV. 155 
 
 many Cities, in the vast regions of the West 
 of North America — and with this advantage, 
 that a wise and salutary Government is al- 
 ready established in thorough operation, where 
 all the securities of property, of personal li- 
 berty, and the rights of conscience are fully 
 and effectually guaranteed. Colonies of this 
 description have not now to wait for genera- 
 tions, as formerly, under a dark cloud of du- 
 bious prospects — but they may instantly rise 
 into importance, turn their energies to im- 
 mediate account, and in a very short period 
 display both a physical and a moral gran- 
 deur to the world around them. For an il- 
 lustration of this truth — look at the present 
 condition and prospects of the City of Cin- 
 cinnati, on the Ohio, and of many other 
 Cities, and towns, and rising settlements, 
 which lie scattered over the bosom of the 
 Valley of the Mississippi. 
 
 The Germans and other nations of the Eu- 
 ropean Continent seem to understand the ad- 
 vantages of emigrating in groups, or small 
 Colonies by association, better than the En- 
 glish, or the Americans themselves. And 
 
156 emigrant's manual. 
 
 they are now annually pouring these associ- 
 ated masses into the Mississippi Valley. I 
 happened in the summer of 1830 to pass, in 
 company with one of these Colonies of Ger- 
 mans, across Lake Erie in a steam-boat. The 
 principal, or Chief, was a well-educated gen- 
 tleman, of large estate, himself and family 
 evidently accustomed to all the refinements 
 of the best society in Germany. He had 
 himself gone before, made his purchase of 
 land in the State of Ohio, returned to Ger- 
 many, disposed of his estates there, and was 
 now on his way, with his family, and some 
 scores of the native and hardy German pea- 
 santry, under his protection and guidance — 
 himself the patriarch of the interesting and 
 happy group, all looking to him, as their 
 chief and father. Such an association did 
 not leave their home — they carried it with 
 them. There was no breaking up of fami- 
 lies — no separation of parents and children. 
 And, notwithstanding their long voyage across 
 the Atlantic and up to this place, they seemed 
 as happy on board of the steamer on the 
 waters of the Lake, as if they had been sitting 
 
CHAPTER XV. 157 
 
 by their own fire-sides in Germany. And I 
 have no doubt, that they are happy still in 
 their new abode, surrounded with cheering 
 circumstances created by their own hands, 
 and looking forward to the most cheering 
 prospects. And this is doubtless one of the 
 happiest modes of emigration. Let others of 
 the rich and wealthy, if they wish to do good, 
 go and do likewise. They may make the poor 
 independent and happy, and themselves richer 
 and wealthier still. While the older commu- 
 nities of Europe seem to have arrived at their 
 ne plus ultra of advancement, until some un- 
 known and yet dubious changes in their forms 
 are effected — there, in the Mississippi Valley, 
 these enterprising emigrants may identify and 
 ally themselves and their posterity with a 
 rising and rapidly extending community, 
 which seems destined, in human view, to a 
 career of unexampled prosperity and impor- 
 tance. 
 
 Akin to agricultural enterprise, although of 
 
 minor and comparatively trivial importance in 
 
 America, it may be proper here to mention, 
 
 that persons accustomed and skilled in horti- 
 
 p 
 
158 emigrant's manual. 
 
 culture, may find abundant encouragement 
 in the neighbourhood of large Cities and 
 Commercial Towns of the United States. In 
 the interior of the country horticulture is more 
 a matter of taste, than of profit, in its highest 
 perfection — and of course is not so much an 
 object, except as people become independent 
 and wealthy. European gardeners are ordina- 
 rily better than Americans — and in the vici- 
 nity of large towns may always find employ- 
 ment. But this is reckoned small business 
 in America, and would rarely satisfy the as- 
 pirations of a mind, coveting the importance 
 of a personal independence. 
 
 All the various arts of manufacture, which 
 are too numerous to specify, are annually and 
 daily coming into greater importance in the 
 United States. And it is scarcely possible to 
 mention any species of those arts, for which 
 there is not a very ample and generous en- 
 couragement — both for those, who wish to be 
 employed in the use of their own hands, and 
 for those who have capital and skill to set up 
 and superintend such establishments. Euro- 
 pean manufacturers are always preferred in 
 
CHAPTER XV. 159 
 
 America, if they are honest and skilful, and 
 they may expect a generous patronage. The 
 greater perfection of these arts in Europe, as 
 a general fact, give European emigrants, who 
 are skilled in them, an advantage. With 
 emigrants of this description. New England, 
 or the Eastern States, claim the first atten- 
 tion — and the middle and Western States 
 also are constantly presenting additional en- 
 couragements. The necessary and best infor- 
 mation on these topics will be found upon the 
 premises — that is, after the emigrants have 
 arrived in the United States, if they can af- 
 ford to look round, and visit different places 
 — ^which is always desirable, in order to make 
 the most advantageous selection. 
 
 Mechanics, of every description, and all 
 persons skilled in the useful arts, have a rea- 
 sonable share of encouragement in the cities, 
 towns, and over the wide country of the 
 United States. The Fine Arts are to a con- 
 siderable extent appreciated, although they 
 do not receive so much patronage in America, 
 as in Europe. It is a sufficient apology — 
 that the people there have not so much time 
 p2 
 
160 emigrant's manual. 
 
 and wealth to devote to them. The country 
 is too young, and the growth of society too 
 immature, to have developed the highest at- 
 tainments in those arts, which have never flou- 
 rished but in the oldest communities. America, 
 however, presents one of the finest openings, 
 in the history of man, for the exercise of 
 these talents, and for the formation of this 
 character. 
 
 Those who have capital to invest in trade 
 and commerce, and who wish to devote them- 
 selves to these objects, in any of their branches, 
 have the wide country, with all its towns and 
 cities before them. But they should also be 
 apprised, that all the centres of active com- 
 merce, and all places of profitable trade, are 
 always crowded with competitors. And suc- 
 cess in such business in every market must of 
 course depend upon certain adventitious ad- 
 vantages, which no writer on this part of the 
 economy of human life, can either prescribe, 
 or predict, or secure to those, who choose to 
 engage in it. It is a sort of lottery, always 
 having more blanks than prizes. And there 
 are few large commercial towns in the world, 
 
CHAPTER XV. 161 
 
 where the Courts of Bankruptcy do not re- 
 cord more names, than do the funded securi- 
 ties of those who have acquired independent 
 wealth by trade. 
 
 Those, if there be any, who might wish to 
 retire to the United States to live upon the 
 income of their inherited, or acquired estates, 
 may have a great choice in the numerous 
 banking and other monied institutions of the 
 country, for the safe and profitable investment 
 of their funds. There is probably no other 
 country where the investment of funds is 
 equally safe, or more productive, than in the 
 United States. The proof of this lies in the 
 fact, that the enlightened capitalists of Europe 
 are always eager to embrace opportunities for 
 the investment of money in the American 
 funds. On this subject there can reasonably 
 be no embarrassment, and no hesitation, for 
 want of safe investment. And those, who 
 have money, can of course choose their resi- 
 dence, in town or country, and enjoy all the 
 advantages of society, and every luxury of life, 
 that can be found in Europe. 
 p 3 
 
162 emigrant's manual. 
 
 Of the learned professions — of law, medi- 
 cine, and theology. I coutd not honestly say, 
 all things considered, that there are strong 
 motives to emigration from Great Britain to 
 America, for either of these classes. Emigra- 
 tion from the continent of Europe to America, 
 for the practice of these professions, is of 
 course ordinarily out of the question, on account 
 of a different native tongue. The common law 
 of the United States is indeed substantially 
 the same as the common law of the British 
 Empire. And the codes of Statutes are also 
 as similar as local circumstances, and the dis- 
 crepancy in the nature of the institutions of 
 the Government, would allow. The genius of 
 American a English law is one. But, after 
 all, he who has got into the practice of law in 
 England, with the prospect of rising through 
 the grades of his profession, I should imagine, 
 would find slender motives, except in extraor- 
 dinary circumstances, for a transfer of his pro- 
 fessional relations and practice to the United 
 States. This profession there is already 
 crowded and overrun by native aspirants. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 163 
 
 But those gentlemen need no information 
 from me. ^ 
 
 The medical profession in popular language, 
 in America, comprehends surgery — the entire 
 art of treating the animal economy of man for 
 its health and preservation, under all the acci- 
 dents to which it is liable. The profession 
 itself of course recognises the same distinctions, 
 that exist in England, and these distinctions 
 are ordinarily maintained in the cities and 
 larger towns. But, for country and general 
 practice in the United States, medicine and 
 surgery are both united, for the reason, that 
 there is not ordinarily practice enough to sus- 
 tain them separately. I mention this merely 
 to show the qualifications, that would be ne- 
 cessary for the use of this profession in the 
 United States. And if it is expected of me 
 to give an opinion, whether there are encou- 
 ragements for the emigration of physicians and 
 surgeons from England to America, I do not 
 honestly think, they are very inviting. If they 
 are not very skilful, there are enough of such 
 already ; or, if they are skilful, they will still 
 meet in every part of the country a host of 
 
164 emigrant's manual. 
 
 competitors. The United States, especially 
 all th large towns and principal villages, 
 swarm with lawyers and doctors. Stilly how- 
 ever, a man of professional excellence and of 
 character, may find a place, and a share of 
 patronage. 
 
 And as for the ministers of religion, it is 
 not so necessary, that they should be able to 
 demonstrate an apostolical descent, through a 
 legitimate Episcopal line, as that they should 
 possess, and evince to the public, a truly 
 apostolic spirit — if they would prosper in the 
 United States of America. And having ob- 
 tained public favour, by the proof of their 
 Christian virtues and ministerial qualifications, 
 they must be contented with a moderate com- 
 petency and the kind affections of the people, 
 whom they serve. For the people of the 
 United States, although respectful and affec- 
 tionate towards a pure and worthy ministry — 
 as much so probably as any Christian com- 
 munity, have yet by some means inherited from 
 their fathers such a jealous watchfulness over 
 their spiritual guides — have from some quarter 
 received such a deep rooted conviction, that 
 
CHAPTER XV. 165 
 
 money is the bane of a Christian ministry;-— 
 that so far as themselves are concerned, they 
 take good care that their ministers shall never 
 become rich. And to their credit it must also 
 be said, as equally true, that so long and so 
 far as the ministers of religion are pure and 
 faithful, neither they, nor their families, are 
 ever allowed to suffer the inconveniences of 
 want. The people are always wil ling that 
 their ministers should live even better than 
 themselves, taking the middle ranks of life as 
 a standard. But they do not like to see them 
 living in splendour. 
 
 It is matter of fact, as might be presumed ^ 
 that the rapid increase of population in the 
 United States has created the urgent necessity 
 of a corresponding increase of the ministers of 
 religion. And as worldly motives do not 
 operate to crowd this profession, as those of 
 law and medicine, the present and prospective 
 wants of the people, as to the offices of the 
 Christian ministry, throughout the country^ 
 more especially for the great Valley of the 
 West, have been and still are a subject of 
 
166 emigrant's manual. 
 
 deep solicitude among those, who know (as 
 every body ought to know and feel) that the 
 adequate maintenance of Christian ordinances, 
 and consequently of a Christian morality, is 
 the only security for private and public virtue, 
 and for the permanency of such a government 
 as that of the United States. The Mississippi 
 Valley is seen to be rapidly filling up with a 
 population, which to a great extent is unpro- 
 vided with any stated ministrations of the 
 Gospel. And as far as there is any present 
 apparent dubiousness, as to the future fate of 
 that growing community, it arises from this 
 alarming circumstance. I cannot, however, 
 honestly think, that the ministers of religion, 
 educated in Great Britain, and with all the 
 habits and feelings which must be the result 
 of their former relations in society and modes 
 of life, are well fitted to enter upon such ^a 
 peculiar and self-denying field of labour, as 
 the Valley of the Mississippi. Not that I 
 would detract from their virtue. But, if they 
 have families, those families must be provided 
 for. And it must be evident, that none, but 
 
CHAPTER XV. 167 
 
 the young and enterprising, and those who 
 are little or not at all encumbered with fa- 
 milies, can enter upon such a field most ad- 
 vantageously and most efficiently. That 
 ground, apparently, can be cultivated only by 
 native ministers of the United States, who 
 know how to appreciate such circumstances, 
 and who can more easily accommodate them- 
 selves to the necessities of such a condition. 
 And the attention of the Christian world in 
 America is now particularly directed towards 
 this object. 
 
 As a general truth, it may be said : — There 
 is much room and great demand, in the United 
 States, for the labours of a Christian ministry, 
 of all the principal Protestant denominations. 
 But if any of this profession in Great Britain 
 meditate a removal to that country for good 
 livings, it is no more than fair to inform them 
 that good livings for ministers of the Gospel in 
 the United States, are rare endowments, and 
 bestowed only upon men of superior talents. 
 Or if they indulge this purpose indefinitely 
 yet practically, for a better worldly mainte- 
 nance, they should think twice before they 
 
168 emigrant's Manual. 
 
 have resolved to go. And one of the inquiries 
 proper to be made is this, Whether the same 
 reasons, which make their support slender 
 and inadequate here, would not be likely to 
 subject them to the same disadvantages 
 there. 
 
 To all ministers of the Gospel, who think of 
 emigrating to America, it may be said : — Take 
 the Missionary staff and coat, and be content 
 to work on earth for a reward in heaven. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The value of Money in the United States, 
 and the facilities of acquiring wealth. 
 
 One of the best standards of the value of 
 money in any country, is perhaps the ascer- 
 tainment of the nominal expense of living in a 
 given style, or the ordinary expense of a given 
 amount of those necessaries, comforts, and 
 luxuries of life, which are most in common 
 use. Another rule is : — the value of money 
 is to be reckoned inversely, as the price of 
 labour and the profits of trade. The former 
 rule, however, is more infallible than the last. 
 The price of labour and the profits of trade are 
 known to be comparatively great, in the 
 United States ; — and yet it does not follow, 
 that the value of money is proportion ably di- 
 minished, for all the purposes of life. It is 
 the controlling and irresistible influence of 
 enormous estates, and of the stupendous com- 
 Q 
 
170 emigrant's manual. 
 
 mercial, monied, manufacturing, and trade 
 monopolies, together with taxation in direct 
 forms — which keeps down the price of labour 
 and curtails the profits of trade in Great Bri- 
 tain, and in other States of Europe. In such 
 circumstances, neither labour nor trade is in a 
 free and open market. And so long as they 
 remain under such constraint, neither the price 
 of the former, nor the profits of the latter, are 
 any sure criterion of the general value of 
 money. It is only where a field is always 
 open to the labourer, in which he can use his 
 physical powers for himseU immediately , with- 
 out running any risk in declining to sell the 
 use of them to an employer, — that he can be 
 sure to command a fair price for his labour. 
 It is only when trade and commerce are 
 exempt from the oppressive burdens of mo- 
 nopoly, that they can breathe freely, and 
 operate equally to all. And such is the rela- 
 tive condition of labour and of trade in the 
 United States. The labourer is not dependent 
 on his employer — he does not serve for his 
 bread simply, but for a reasonable profit — 
 that himself may ultimately be possessed of 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 171 
 
 an estate. The ocean and the world are 
 equally open to all, who desire to engage in 
 commerce and trade. And as to taxation, 
 it is a mere nothing. An equal competition in 
 every species of business, and in every pursuit 
 of life, is a radical and controlling principle in 
 the economy of American society. And hence, 
 although the value of money for some of the 
 necessaries, comforts, and luxuries of life, is 
 less in America than in Europe — the price of 
 labour and the profits of trade, and of every 
 species of business, are more than proportion- 
 ably greater. The facilities of independence 
 and wealth are brought within the reach of 
 every honest, industrious, and clever man. 
 No man in America is doomed by the necessity 
 of his circumstances to die in the same condi- 
 tion, in which he was born. But he may rise, 
 and spread out himself — he may become rich, 
 and important, and great, if he has wit and 
 virtue, in spite of any body, and of every 
 body. There are no monopolies there to confine 
 the currents of wealth to a favoured few — no 
 legal impediments, or disabilities, in the way 
 of public and professional honours and emolu- 
 Q 2 
 
172 emigrant's manual 
 
 ments, that they should not be equally open 
 to all the meritorious. 
 
 For the convenience of society, money is 
 not valuable in proportion as it is precious, 
 and difficult to be got — but in proportion as 
 it is plentiful, and in the power of all. As it 
 is always a conventional representative of pro- 
 perty, and at certain specific rates for every 
 kind, determined by the market, the more free 
 and common its circulation — in other words, 
 the more plentiful — the better for the commu- 
 nity. And although it is technically y or com- 
 mercially less valuable on that account, it is 
 really more valuable for general and public 
 convenience. And in the sense of being 
 plentiful, and within the reach of all the indus- 
 trious and frugal, and thus becoming the re- 
 presentative of any species of property, for the 
 possession of which the owners of money may 
 choose to appropriate it — as also for the ne- 
 cessaries, comforts, and luxuries of life — 
 money may be said to possess the highest 
 value in the United States. That, however, 
 which serves general and public convenience, 
 may operate unfavourably in individual cases. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 173 
 
 The interests of the great bulk of every com- 
 munity are always promoted by the plentiful- 
 ness and free circulation of money. But as 
 every species of property, of which money is 
 the representative, and all articles of con- 
 sumption, bear a higher nominal value by 
 such a cause, the income of any given amount 
 of funded investments and the value of fixed 
 salaries are always less. Of course all sala- 
 ried men in the United States, who have no 
 other means of subsistence, and whose salaries 
 have been meted out for a bare subsistence, — 
 such, for example, as the ministers of religion 
 ^— are among the poorest of the land, so far as 
 the means of acquiring wealth are concerned. 
 The more plentiful money may be, and the 
 greater the general prosperity of the commu- 
 nity, unless salaries are raised in proportion, 
 the greater the difficulties of living, with all 
 who are solely dependent on a fixed salary. 
 The reason of this is obvious, most of the com- 
 modities necessary to life and comfort com- 
 mand a higher price. 
 
 As a general truth : — ^The facilities of ac- 
 quiring property and amassing wealth, open to 
 Q 3 
 
174 emigrant's manual. 
 
 all, in the United States, are immense, and al- 
 most endlessly diversified. Every virtuous, 
 industrious man, in whatever condition of life, 
 feels the springs of ambition challenging his 
 enterprise, by the prospects opened before 
 him. He is never met by that blighting and 
 appalling influence on his hopes : — that what- 
 ever be his merits, and however great his ef- 
 forts, he is yet doomed to remain and die in 
 the same condition, and to bequeath to his 
 children, and they again to theirs, the inherit- 
 ance of his own poverty and dependence. 
 
 But it may perhaps be thought that these 
 general remarks do not meet the inquiries, 
 which the emigrant wishes to see answered. 
 He wants, perhaps, the prices current of the 
 entire American market, and in addition to 
 this, house rent, taxes, &c. &c. He wants to 
 know the expenses of furnishing his house, his 
 table, his wardrobe — feeding, clothing, and 
 maintaining a family. Now a reasonable man 
 should know, that it is impossible to do this, 
 except in general — as the views and habits of 
 people differ so essentially, as to what they 
 deem necessary ; as also their places of desti- 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 175 
 
 nation, their specific occupations, and means 
 are so various. If a man were going to Ame- 
 rica with a family, or without, to live upon his 
 money (which is not perhaps likely often to be 
 the case), he can easily spend as much money 
 there as would be convenient for his purposes 
 in England, or on the Continent. But to 
 maintain a given style of living, he could 
 doubtless do with less money in America. It 
 is impossible to anticipate the views of different 
 individuals of this description. As in the 
 principal cities of Europe there is a wide range 
 in the expenses of domestic establishments, 
 so in the principal cities of the United States. 
 But there is not so much extravagance in the 
 latter. It does not require so much to main- 
 tain what is called respectability » And the 
 notion of respectability itself is also very inde- 
 finite, and so much the creature of circum- 
 stance and place, that in different minds, it 
 may be almost as wide apart as the poles. 
 But it may fairly be supposed, that emigrants 
 ordinarily are under the necessity of economy 
 — that they go out to make a fortune, rather 
 than to live upon it. 
 
176 emigrant's manual. 
 
 To give examples : — For a single man it will 
 cost twice as much to live in London, allowing 
 himself equal conveniences and comforts, as 
 in the cities of New York and Boston. In the 
 latter cities his wardrobe would cost him more, 
 but his board and lodging, and numerous etce- 
 teras, will be less. The same remark may be 
 applied to the necessary expenses of a family in 
 New York, compared with London. Travelling 
 in America, if a man selects the best conveyan- 
 ces and lodges at the best hotels, is as expensive 
 as in England — and more so than the Con- 
 tinent. But if a man chooses, or if his neces- 
 sities compel him, he may live cheap, and 
 travel cheap, in America — for a very trifle — 
 but he cannot have the same conveniences and 
 comforts. He may retire into any part of the 
 country, either as a single man or with a 
 family, and in the practice of a rigid economy, 
 he may get along with a very little money — ' 
 his bills of expense of course being graduated 
 by the number of persons he may have to pro- 
 vide for. 
 
 But all this does not settle the great ques- 
 tion. An emigrant from Europe to America 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 177 
 
 ordinarily goes out to better his condition in 
 life — and he goes on some specific enterprise 
 — as a merchant, or tradesman, or mechanic, 
 or artist, or manufacturer, or farmer, or what- 
 ever may be his occupation. And it does not 
 matter whether this thing costs more, or that 
 thing less, in America, than in the country he 
 has left behind — provided he can find a place 
 and a business, where his income, or the gra- 
 dual and sure accretion to his worldly estate, 
 shall make these minor questions of trifling 
 importance. It is of little consequence to 
 him whether he pays more or less for a piece 
 of cloth, for his bread stuff, for his groceries, 
 for whatever is necessary to life, and for the 
 maintenance of himself and family, if all this 
 aggregate expenditure is only a reasonable 
 and minor fraction of his growing wealth. 
 And, if it were possible for me to give him 
 the prices current of the entire American 
 market for every city, and every village, and 
 district of the country, it would only multiply 
 and extend these pages without the least be- 
 nefit. It would be no sort of sure criterion, 
 by which to determine the advantages, or dis- 
 
178 emigrant's manual. 
 
 advantages of going to America. The ques- 
 tion to be settled, is not the comparative 
 value of a given amount of money in Europe 
 and America, as appropriated for the pur- 
 chase of any given necessaries and comforts 
 of life. But the question is rather : Is there 
 a richer, broader, and more open field of 
 wealth in America, for those who have need 
 of special exertions to acquire property, than 
 in the older countries of Europe, to rev^^ard the 
 enterprise of the industrious ? Can a man 
 reasonably expect, after meeting the ordinary 
 expenses of life, by frugality and perseverance 
 to build up a fortune for himself and his child- 
 ren ? And I shall hope, that all the infor- 
 mation I have attempted to communicate in 
 this volume, may furnish a satisfactory answer 
 to this inquiry. Some rates of wages and 
 market prices may be found in the Appendix. 
 Whatever may be the specific destination 
 and occupation of the emigrant, it will be 
 obvious, that his more immediate success will 
 better be secured, j^r5^, by his excellencies of 
 character, properly certified in his letters, and 
 well sustained in his person ; and next^ if 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 179 
 
 possible, by carrying along with him funds 
 sufficient for his first establishment. If he 
 be destitute, he must work out and earn his 
 way, by patience and perseverance, through 
 the disadvantages of his necessities. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 The best way of getting to the United States, 
 and to different parts of them — Some Ge- 
 neral Estimates of the Expenses, with 
 Advice as to the species of Property it 
 may be well to take along. 
 
 As to the species of property, which it may 
 be well for emigrants to take into the United 
 States, it may be observed, that all personal 
 and family luggage, to an amount that may 
 be supposed reasonable for each individual, 
 will be admitted into the ports of the United 
 States free of duty. Trunks, however, will 
 be subject to the inspection of Custom House 
 Officers, in order to ascertain whether there 
 are any goods in them liable for duty by the 
 regulations of the Commercial Tariff of the 
 country. But this examination is not very 
 particular, where there are no marks of sus- 
 picion of an attempt to evade the Tariff — and 
 
CHAPTER XVir. 181 
 
 a generous amount of luggage will always be 
 permitted to pass, in the possession of emi- 
 grants. 
 
 All tools and implements of labour and of 
 art, which an emigrant may wish to take 
 along with him, are admitted yree. And this 
 regulation is commonly allowed to include 
 the private libraries of professional men. It 
 will be a matter of economy to carry a good 
 supply of wearing apparel, as all goods of 
 this kind, cotton excepted, are cheaper in 
 Europe than in America. Household fur- 
 niture had better generally be disposed of 
 before emigration, as it is not only subject 
 to duty, but inconvenient and expensive for 
 transportation — especially such articles as are 
 cumbrous. If, however, the sacrifice of a 
 sale is likely to be very great on articles 
 deemed precious, the amount of duty upon 
 them may be ascertained at any of the 
 American Consular Offices, which are found 
 in all the principal ports of Great Britain and 
 Europe. If, moreover, emigrants may have 
 reason for taking along with them any spe- 
 cies of goods called merchandize, of whatever 
 
182 emigrant's manual. 
 
 nature, they can easily ascertain the duty 
 upon them, as exacted in the ports of the 
 United States, at the offices above-named. 
 As a general rule, unless emigrants are en- 
 gaged in trade, the less of goods and the less 
 of merchandize they take, the better. Let 
 all their property, as far as possible, be in 
 ready money — especially, if they are destined 
 to the interior, or to the Mississippi Valley. 
 
 And money should be in the form of bills 
 of exchange, rather than gold or silver — as 
 specie is more liable to be lost. These bills 
 may be purchased with triplicates at any of 
 the principal ports of Great Britain and Ire- 
 land, and in the large commercial cities of 
 Europe. And emigrants should contrive to 
 transmit the separate copies of their bills of 
 exchange, by different ships. Or better still 
 — to leave one behind, to take one in their 
 own packet, and send the third by another 
 ship — so that if any accident happens to one, 
 or even to two, the third can hardly be lost. 
 Money conveyed across the ocean in this way 
 is scarcely ever known to disappoint the right- 
 ful holder. For convenience, the bills should 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 183 
 
 be drawn on the port, to which the emigrant 
 is about to sail, and then he can realize his 
 money as soon as he lands. As the bill is 
 made payable to his order, nothing but forgery ly' 
 can cause it to be paid to another hand. 
 
 For any part of the United States ordi- 
 narily, the emigrant should embark for the 
 city of New York. If he has resolved to settle 
 in New England, he may go directly to Bos- 
 ton, if he chooses — if he can more conveni- 
 ently find a ship going to that port. For the 
 State of Pennsylvania, he might as well em- 
 bark to Philadelphia. For any of the Southern 
 States, to the most convenient Southern port. 
 He may embark to New Orleans for any part 
 of the Mississippi Valley — but the voyage is 
 longer — and if it be in the summer season, 
 the climate, through which he will be obliged 
 to pass, will be hazardous to health. He may 
 cross the country from New York to any part 
 of the Valley with the greatest ease and safety. 
 Indeed, unless there are special reasons for 
 going by the way of New Orleans, all emi- 
 grants to the Valley of the Mississippi, had 
 better go by the way of New York. The city 
 r2 
 
184 EM1GRANT*S MANUAL. 
 
 of New York is connected with every part of 
 the country, by great facilities for the con- 
 veyance of passengers and goods. 
 
 From New York to the Valley, there are 
 two principal routes : — one by the Erie Canal, 
 through the State of New York, and across 
 Lake Erie by steam-boats ; the other, by the 
 way of Philadelphia, across the State of Penn- 
 sylvania to Pittsburgh, the whole line of which 
 will soon be opened with an uninterrupted 
 connexion of canal and rail- way. Or if any 
 choose to go as far South, as Baltimore and 
 the City of Washington, they may find a third 
 route to the Valley — all of them nearly equal 
 in expense, to those who wish to select the 
 best and most rapid conveyances. The dis- 
 tance from New York to Cincinnati, which is 
 in the heart of the Valley, is a little less than 
 900 miles, by the ordinary routes, and may 
 be gone over easily in a week — the expence 
 to each individual, with his luggage, and by 
 the most speedy conveyances, being from 
 seven to eight pounds. But for those, who 
 have families, or who may wish to travel at 
 the least expense, they may go by the way of 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 185 
 
 the Erie and Ohio Canals, from New York to 
 Cincinnati, at much less than half this ex- 
 pense for each individual. The cheap way, 
 of course, takes a longer time by at least one 
 week — ordinarily more. As a general rule 
 for the expenses of travelling over the prin- 
 cipal and most frequented thoroughfares in 
 the United States, including the fare and the 
 table, the best and most rapid conveyances 
 by stage-coach will average probably about 
 one pound per hundred miles. The best 
 steam-packets, with the best accommodations 
 and the best table, ten shillings per hundred 
 miles; the best canal packets, running 100 
 miles per day, fifteen shillings for this dis- 
 tance, including the table. For all the in- 
 land navigation by the rivers and canals, 
 there are always cheap fares for half, and 
 07ie-third of the best. This estimate of the 
 expenses of travelling is supposed accurate 
 enough for all the purposes of the emigrant — 
 as he will not necessarily have occasion to 
 travel over the ground to his place of desti- 
 nation but once — and by this he may calcu- 
 late very nearly what funds he may need for 
 r3 
 
186 emigrant's manual. 
 
 such purpose. At every point of taking pas- 
 sage, in whatever conveyance, if there is 
 much competition, he should make thorough 
 inquiries, and guard himself against impo- 
 sitions. 
 
 For a passage across the Atlantic, the re- 
 gular New York packets, which sail from 
 London every two weeks, and from Liverpool 
 every week, are always the best ships, and 
 make the quickest and safest voyages. Those 
 who can afford to take a birth in the cabin, 
 will always find them furnished in the most 
 splendid style, and the tables burdened with 
 every delicacy and luxury. For all these ac- 
 commodations, including the table and wines, 
 they must pay thirty-five pounds. For a pas- 
 sage in the steerage of a New York packet, 
 finding their own provisions, they must pay 
 six pounds. There are numerous other ships, 
 as is well known, constantly sailing to the 
 port of New York — that emigrants may suit 
 themselves, and make their own arrangements 
 with the captain with whom they negociate. 
 And although an ordinary passage to New 
 York, in the best sailing-packets, is thirty 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 187 
 
 days, it would be prudent for those, who 
 provide for themselves, to calculate for all 
 the delays of contrary winds, which some- 
 times extend a passage to two months. In- 
 deed, it would not be unwise to lay in pro- 
 visions for even three months, as the overplus 
 will not be lost. Let all emigrants be well 
 advised by those, who have had experience, 
 as to the kind and amount of stores, which 
 may be necessary for their comfort in a-n 
 ocean voyage. 
 
 General Advice, 
 
 It is proper, perhaps, for the Author, in 
 closing this book, which is addressed to per- 
 sons who meditate emigration from Europe to 
 America, for their information and guidance, 
 being himself an American, to drop a few 
 hints of a moral character and bearing. 
 
 And, first, he would earnestly advise all 
 persons, who think of going to America, to 
 eject thoroughly from their minds and hearts 
 all romantic expectations. The motives, which 
 induce emigration to America, are various with 
 different individuals — but in all, there are 
 
188 EMIGRANT'S MANUAL. 
 
 strong tendencies to the indulgence of extra- 
 vagant liopes. Some, who have felt oppressed 
 with the unequal conditions of European so- 
 ciety, and who, perhaps, have been dissatis- 
 fied with the Government of their native 
 country, go to the United States, under the 
 impression, that what is called Republican 
 liberty and equality will elevate them at once 
 to rank and importance — or to a common 
 level and fellowship with the best men in 
 the community. And some, perhaps, ima- 
 gine, that Republican liberty is — that every 
 man may do as he pleases — in other words, 
 that it is licentiousness. It is due to all such 
 persons, and to American society, that they 
 should be informed — that law is as necessary 
 in the United States, as in any other country, 
 and that it is emphatically the guardian of 
 right ; — and that every citizen must be con- 
 tented with that place in society, which his 
 personal merits and qualifications naturally 
 award to him. If a man is not willing to be 
 an honest and sober member of community 
 on these terms, and if he is not resolved to 
 consecrate his energies to some useful and 
 
CHAPTER XVI1» 189 
 
 honourable pursuit, such as he is fit for, he 
 can neither be welcomed in the United States, 
 nor can he have any warrant, that his con- 
 dition there will be comfortable to himself. 
 All such characters may better conceal them- 
 selves in the dark retreats of a dense and 
 crowded population of an European city. Let 
 them by all means stay where their unlawful 
 desires have been begotten. They will only 
 throw themselves into the light of day, and 
 the sooner meet with their deserved doom, by 
 going to America. 
 
 Some expect, by going to America, to live 
 without care and without labour — that riches 
 will come pouring into their lap and be forced 
 upon them, without any pains of their own. 
 But the primitive infliction for human apos- 
 tacy : — " In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou 
 eat thy bread" — is not so easily avoided. 
 Until the garden of Eden, with all its inno- 
 cence and virtue, can be recovered, exemp- 
 tion from this curse must not be expected. 
 America is a good country — good enough to 
 satisfy any reasonable expectations — but it is 
 
190 emigrant's manual. 
 
 not a Paradise. American society has a good 
 degree of simplicity and purity. But it wants 
 no importation of worse materials. Patient 
 industry is the source of all its prosperity, 
 and virtue the crowning glory of the com- 
 munity. And he who is not willing to be 
 sober and industrious must not expect to 
 rise, — he is doomed to sink in the United 
 States. 
 
 It has before been intimated in this volume, 
 that proper testimonials of good character are 
 of no small importance to .those, who go to 
 America with the expectation of being in- 
 stalled in the confidence and affections of the 
 American public. Too many have emigrated 
 from Europe lame in this particular, and the 
 citizens of the United States have been taught 
 by painful experience, that it is safest to re- 
 pose confidence in those foreigners, who being 
 worthy, have also been prudent enough to 
 bring along with them satisfactory credentials 
 of their respectability and worth in the com- 
 munities, from which they have come. 
 
 Those, who do not respect the Christian 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 191 
 
 religion, in its own proper garb, and in the 
 legitimate administration of its ordinances, 
 will be little welcome, and find little sym- 
 pathy in the United States. Christianity there 
 has found its own proper basis in the respect 
 and affections of the respectable portion of 
 the community — and the enemy of religion is 
 deemed alike the enemy of the country, and 
 will in vain assert his claims to respect and 
 confidence, so long as such is known to be 
 his character. And the Christian religion is 
 every day acquiring a stronger hold on the 
 mind of the American public ; — and he who 
 does not like such an atmosphere may be 
 warned before-hand to keep away. He will 
 not be esteemed an acquisition to American 
 society. 
 
 In a word — he, who loves liberty without 
 licentiousness — who indulges reasonable and 
 chastened expectations — who is as willing to 
 be industrious, as he is to be rich — whose 
 virtue is equal to his desire of respectability 
 — and who is resolved to maintain a good 
 conscience in the sight of God, as well as of 
 man — such a person, from whatever part of 
 
192 EMIGRANT'S MANUAL. 
 
 the world, would be welcomed in the United 
 States, — and would be likely to prosper and 
 be happy there. And so far as the Author 
 is concerned, he can neither desire, nor re- 
 commend any others to go. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Taxes in the United States. 
 
 The General Government imposes no direct taxes. 
 Its revenue from imposts on articles of commerce 
 and trade, and from various other sources, has not 
 only supported the Government, but during the 
 present year will have liquidated entirely the na- 
 tional debt, contracted by the Revolutionary war, 
 and the war of 1811 — 14. To what purposes the 
 Government will appropriate the surplus Revenue, 
 after the national debt is paid off, is not yet decided; 
 probably to internal improvements. 
 
 Neither are the State Governments very often 
 obliged to impose direct taxes. The only taxes of 
 this description, to which the citizens of the United 
 States are subject, are for such municipal purposes, 
 
 * For farther information respecting the British Co- 
 lonies of North America, referred to at the end of 
 Chapter II. see page 200. 
 s 
 
194 APPENDIX. 
 
 as the majority of the people composing the incor- 
 porations of counties, townships, villages, and cities, 
 agree to impose upon themselves for their own pub- 
 lic and domestic improvements — such as building 
 roads, bridges, public edifices of various descrip- 
 tions, &c. &c the sum of which is ordinarily very 
 
 light and trivial. And in these improvements every 
 one feels an interest and reaps an advantage, as 
 much as in the improvements of his own estate. In 
 many instances the Municipal authorities are pos- 
 sessed of funds, or are able to create them, by the 
 use of public privileges, so as to exempt the citizens 
 from all taxes whatever. Taxes, indeed, are never 
 felt to be a burden by a reasonable man. 
 
 Advice to those, who wish to purchase Land, or 
 Farms. 
 
 There are always improved plantations and farms 
 in the market, in every State and in every settled 
 part of the Union, from the changes which are 
 constantly taking place in society by the deaths of 
 proprietors, or by the motives which some find to 
 remove from one place to another. And he who 
 chooses to purchase an improved farm, or planta- 
 tion, must of course pay for the fair value of the 
 improvements, buildings, &c. — and also for the ad- 
 ventitious value of its vicinity to market, to large 
 towns, and for other relative considerations, which 
 
APPENDIX. 195 
 
 vary so much in different places and circumstances, 
 tliat it is impossible to specify the price, abstracted 
 from such considerations. 
 
 If an emigrant wishes to settle in an older and 
 well-organized community, and has money to pur- 
 chase an improved farm, larger, or smaller; — and if 
 he has not decided in what particular State, or district 
 of a State, he will take his position, — let him pro- 
 vide transient accommodations for his family, if he 
 has one, and get upon a horse, and ride over the 
 land, in its length and breadth, if he chooses, and 
 survey the country to his satisfaction. Let him 
 pass over different States and Territories, and the 
 almost endless variety of choice, that will be pre- 
 sented, will abundantly reward him for all his pains 
 and expense. If he spends three, or six months, or 
 a year, and travels thousands of miles, he may be a 
 gainer by it—especially, if he has a few hundred 
 pounds to invest in such property. He had better 
 not be too hasty, nor listen to the first casual ad- 
 viser, that may happen to come in his way. The 
 new establishment of a family, in a new country, 
 for the future generations of one's posterity, is an 
 important step; — and in such a country as the 
 United States, there is a wide field of choice, a 
 thousand circumstances to be considered, and suffi- 
 cient motives for an extensive and thorough inspec- 
 tion. 
 
 s2 
 
196 APPENDIX. 
 
 If an emigrant wishes to purchase wild, or unim- 
 proved lands, in the Western Country, he may find 
 public offices established for the purpose, in all the 
 States and Territories, where such lands are in the 
 market. And as has been before remarked, it is 
 generally best to purchase of the General Govern- 
 ment, whose minimum and uniform price for wild 
 land is one dollar and twenty cents, — about one crotan 
 per acre. The public lands are surveyed at the 
 expense of Government, and laid out into districts, 
 called townships, of six miles square, containing 
 36 square miles. These townships are divided into 
 sections of 640 acres — quarter-sections of 160 acres 
 — and hdiif- quarter sections of 80 acres — to accom- 
 modate those, who wish to purchase more or less. 
 Twenty pounds will purchase 80 acres — and one 
 hundred and sixty pounds will purchase 640 acres — 
 and so on. There are 150 millions of acres of public 
 lands in the Mississippi Valley already surveyed 
 and laid out, and unsold — 80 millions of which are 
 in the market, and presenting the greatest variety 
 of choice. Let the emigrant, who proposes to 
 purchase wild land, if he can afford it, ride on horse 
 back over the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and 
 the Michigan Temtory, and make an actual [survey 
 of the different districts — and thus select his place 
 of habitation. 
 
 Or if he chooses to purchase a farm, partially im- 
 
APPENDIX 197 
 
 proved, in the Western States, he may find them at 
 all prices, from ten shillings per acre up to five 
 •pounds^ according to the relative situation and the 
 value of the improvements, buildings, &c. And for 
 such a choice, let him ride far, and make extensive 
 observations, and thorough inquiry. There is no- 
 thing lost, and much may be gained, by taking time 
 to look and consider. 
 
 Many and most advantageous purchases of unim- 
 proved land, or of farms partially improved, may be 
 made in the Western Counties of the State of New 
 York. Indeed, every species of fixed property may 
 always be found in the market, in almost any part 
 of the United States, advantageous to him, who 
 may have occasion to purchase. 
 
 The Value of Labour and General Expenses of Living 
 in the United States. 
 
 There are no questions, more difiicult to answer, 
 than those which regard the price of labour and of 
 living in a foreign country. A specific, market 
 value set upon these commodities, in all their va- 
 rieties of form and substance, as fixed by the money 
 currency on the premises, can never convey to per- 
 sons in another country the relative and real value 
 of these things. As I have elsewhere remarked, 
 except for persons, who have a certain and fixed 
 income, the prices of labour and of the necessaries 
 9 3 
 
198 APPENDIX. 
 
 of life, whether they are nominally a little more or 
 a little less, are not very material. Every thing 
 depends upon the chances oi profit, by labour, or by 
 whatever business one undertakes. If a man dis- 
 burses £b a week for his food, lodging, clothing, 
 and other needful comforts, and receives for his 
 services iJl5, he can lay up £10. And this is the 
 only comparison, by which the profits of an indus- 
 trious application to any kind of business, in any 
 country, can be fairly estimated. The great ques- 
 tion is — whether a man has a reasonable prospect 
 of adding to his worldly estate by industry and eco- 
 nomy ? And if he can do this, and do it satisfac- 
 torily to himself, it is no matter what it costs him to 
 live — so long as the profits of his business are pro- 
 portionably great. 
 
 As these inquiries, however, are always made, and 
 as they are considered of some importance, I will 
 endeavour to anticipate a few of such as have not 
 before come under consideration. The market 
 prices, which will be found in the additional infor- 
 mation concerning the Canadas, at the close of this 
 Appendix, may be considered as a suflScient guide 
 in those items, for all general purposes of inquiry 
 respecting the same things, in the Northern and 
 Western States of the Union. There cannot be an 
 exact agreement— neither is there a very wide dif- 
 ference. The market prices of labour and of the 
 
APPENDIX. 199 
 
 necessaries of life are constantly fluctuating to some 
 extent, in the same places of every country, and they 
 differ somewhat in different districts, according to 
 their vicinity to, or remoteness from the great 
 marts of trade and commerce. 
 
 Nearly all articles of clothing are more expensive 
 in America than in England— as much generally, 
 perhaps, as by one fourth. But take all the expenses 
 of living, in equal circumstances, or for the purchase 
 of equal conveniences and enjoyments, they are by 
 very much less. Labour is of higher value in 
 America — and the profits of almost every kind of 
 business are more secure, and ordinarily by very 
 much greater 
 
 The wages of common labourers in the United 
 States range from £2 to £4 per month, according 
 to the part of the country in which he is employed, 
 and the kind of labour to which he is devoted— board 
 and lodging being found by the employer ; — and a 
 labourer may always lay up three-fourths of his 
 wages, after clothing himself, and meeting inci- 
 dental expenses. The wages of mechanics, accord- 
 ing as they work in town or country, and according 
 to the kind of their art, range from £3 to £10 per 
 month ; — and they too, with good economy, may 
 save an equal proportion, after defraying all their 
 necessary expenses. There is no kind of labour, or 
 service, commonly needed, which may not yield to 
 
200 APPENDIX. 
 
 him, who is employed, a saving of somewhat more 
 than a moiety of his wages— often four- fifths, and 
 sometimes more. And as to those, who go into 
 speculations and trades, of which themselves are 
 masters and superintendants, there is no calculating 
 for them. They may become rich, if they are in- 
 dustrious and frugal ;— or poor, if they are heedless 
 and prodigal. 
 
 The common conveniences, necessaries, and com- 
 forts of life, of the same kind and to an equal 
 amount, are generally purchased for much less 
 money in America than in England— especially all 
 such as are of domestic gi'owth and manufacture. 
 House-rent is generally much cheaper, other things 
 being equal— as also all bread stuffs, and meat, — 
 and all provisions for the table, except imported 
 articles, some of which are more expensive, and 
 some less, according to the duties imposed in either 
 country. 
 
 Additional infonnation concerning the Canadas. 
 
 J t appears from official information, issued from 
 the Colonial Office, London, as late as February of 
 this year (1832), that the bounties, or premiums, 
 heretofore held out to emigrants for Canada, are 
 withdrawn ;— that the public lands in market are 
 subject to competition, but selling from 4*. to 155. 
 per acre, according to their relative value; — and 
 
APPENDIX. 201 
 
 that responsible government agents will be found 
 in both the Canadas, to advise and assist emigrants 
 on their arrival, in accomplishing their objects of 
 settlement. Arrangements have also been made 
 with Messrs. Smith, Payne, and Smiths, Lombard 
 Street, London, for the accommodation of emigrants 
 to Canada, by giving them drafts on the Montreal 
 bank, and thus saving them the risk of carrying 
 their funds in specie. See the small pamphlet, 
 published by Authority, price twopence, containing 
 information on this subject. The price of passage 
 for each individual from London to Quebec is £6 
 with provisions, and £3 without — children half- 
 price. From Liverpool, Grenock, and the principal 
 ports of Ireland, the price of passage is about one 
 third less, and in some instances lower still. Those, 
 who supply their own provisions for Cluebec, should 
 calculate on a voyage of at least fifty days — and 
 more safe for seventy-five days. To prevent impo- 
 sition, it is recommended to all emigrants to nego- 
 ciate their passages with respectable houses in the 
 principal ports. They should also be provided with 
 money to pass through Lower to Upper Canada, 
 which is about the same as the expense of the 
 voyage on ship-board; and also, if possible, with 
 enough to purchase their land, and make a settle- 
 ment. Lower Canada, ordinarily, will not be 
 found a pleasant place for emigrants from Great 
 
202 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Britain and Ireland, as the population is principally 
 French. Let them by all means pass directly 
 through to the Upper Province — if they have no 
 special reasons for stopping short. 
 
 Rates of Wages and Market Prices in Lower Canada, 
 for 1831. 
 
 Wheat, per bushel . 
 Rye, do. 
 
 Maize do. ... 
 
 Oats do. ... 
 
 Wages of labourers, per day 
 Ship builders, carpenters, joiners, coopers, 
 masons, and tailors, per day . 
 
 5. 
 
 d. 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 . 3 
 
 
 
 . 2 
 
 6 
 
 . 1 
 
 3 
 
 . 2 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 For Upj:er Canada. — The following table exhibits 
 the loivest and the highest price, which the several 
 articles therein named bore, in 1831, in the district 
 of Niagara : — 
 
 Wheat per bushel 
 
 Maize „ „ 
 
 vJats ,, ,, 
 
 Barley „ „ 
 
 Pottitoe^ per c w t. 
 
 Butter (fresh) per lb. 
 
 £ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Lowest. 
 d. 
 9 
 6 
 3 
 6 
 3 
 7i 
 
 £. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Highest. 
 d. 
 
 () 
 6 
 
 (> 
 7i. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 203 
 
 Lowest. 
 
 Biitter(salt)... „ „ 61 
 
 Cheese „ ,,004 
 
 Eggs per dozen 6 
 
 Ducks per pair 13 
 
 Fowls „ ,,013 
 
 Geese „ „ 3 9 
 
 Turkeys „ ,,050 
 
 Hay per ton 1 15 
 
 Straw per load 5 
 
 Bread per 4lb. loaf 7 
 
 Meat, per lb. 
 
 Beef 2 
 
 Mutton 2 
 
 Pork 3J 
 
 Veal 2i 
 
 Flour, per lOOlbs. 
 
 Fine 12 6 
 
 Seconds 12 6 
 
 Highest. 
 7i 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 9 
 
 1 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 7 6 
 2 10 
 5 
 8 
 
 3| 
 
 3i 
 
 3i 
 
 3f 
 
 15 
 15 
 
 ft appears, that the wages of labourers in Upper 
 Canada, are from £27 to £30 per year; — from £i 
 10s. to £S lOs. per month ; — from 2s. to 3^. 9d. per 
 day ; — board and lodging, in all these rates, being 
 found by the employer. The wages of mechanics 
 range from 5s. to 75. 6d. per day. 
 
LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED BY JOHN WESTLEY AND CO., IVY I.ANF. 
 
 
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