Chapter XVIII: Letter XVI

State Legislatures--A predilection for dividing Counties, laying out New Towns and Roads--The influence of Slavery on the habits of People who live in the neighbourhood of Slave-Keeping States--Elopements from Kentucky--Banking.

_Jeffersonville, (Indiana,) March 10, 1820._

The legislatures of new States consist only of a few members. The consequence is, that public acts for the exclusive advantage of private individuals are occasionally passed through influence or intrigue; and the commendations which I have bestowed on the general government of America must not be held to apply indiscriminately to the administration of the _local_ governments, at least in newly established {189} states. Much of the business (it is said) is privately arranged, before the questions are discussed in the house. Combinations are formed for effecting particular purposes. These are called _log rolling_; a very significant metaphor, borrowed from the practice of several farmers uniting in rolling together large timber to be burnt. A number of bills are frequently conjoined by their movers, so that a member who takes a deep interest in one must vote for all of them, to obtain the suffrage of the separate partizans. The member who deserts from the cabal might be leaving his own motion without any other supporter but himself. An enlightened gentleman told me, that he was induced to vote for the ridiculous law of this State regarding intercourse between white and coloured people, in consequence of its being previously conjoined with other bills.

The laying out of new counties, county towns, and lines of road, seems to be a gratifying duty to back-wood legislators. Where a county includes a considerable tract of country, it must be divided into two. Where it is not large enough to admit of bisection, the county wanted must be made up from the extremities of four or five which are contiguous. A large population is not a prerequisite: yet the convenience of the people is the pretext. A few neighbours who propose that their settlement should be made the nucleus of the new establishment, petition the Assembly for a subdivision. If this is granted, commissioners are appointed to fix the new seat of justice. An eager contest for private advantage ensues, and although the ostensible object is public convenience, the new city is perhaps placed near the outline of its jurisdiction.

You will be much surprised to hear of the avidity which prevails in this country for towns consisting of a very few log cabins. For a convenient {190} distribution of seats of justice, and for roads that are at best openings cut through the woods, with the stumps remaining, without side ditches, and without any other bridges through marshes or streams, than a few pieces of timber laid down side by side across the way. But an explanation is made, when you are told that pettifoggers by this means create situations for themselves, and a few of their constituents who are in the employment of squires, county commissioners, prosecuting attornies, supervisors of roads, and constables. With numbers the design is to increase the value of their contiguous lands at the public expense, instead of improving them by their own industry. By such means, they frequently succeed in selling at an advance of fifty, or even a hundred per cent, per annum; and remove to more recent settlements, where they are able to purchase a larger extent of land, and where they can continue their favourite trade of making counties, towns, and roads.

Towns are laid out by persons who sell lots of about a fourth or a fifth part of an acre: these sometimes sell at from a hundred to three hundred dollars, even in situations where scarcely a single spot of the neighbouring woods is cleared. After a town has made some progress in point of improvement and population, lots usually rise in price, from three hundred to a thousand dollars; and, in the larger towns, to a much higher value. At present the mania of purchasing town lots is rather declining. Holders are unwilling to see the prices reduced. They continue to talk of former rates, and to keep them up; on exchanging one lot for two, say, that for the better one, one thousand dollars is paid in two lots worth five hundred each. Their conduct very much resembles that of a person who said, that he sold a dog at forty guineas, and explained the transaction by stating, {191} “that he was paid in two dogs, each worth half that sum.” I lately saw a town lot sold for state or county taxes, at a fourth part of the price paid for it two years ago. The rents of the worst kind of houses amount to upwards of fifty per cent, per annum, on the price of erection. A miserable cabin, that could scarcely be let at all in your country, or would not rent at £1 10s. a-year, gives here as much per month. The people are of consequence closely crowded together; several families frequently inhabiting a house of one apartment, without any inner door, so that when the street door is open, passengers may see the inmates at table, and the other particulars of the house. The beds are ranged round the walls, like so many looms in a weaver’s work-shop. In various instances I have seen families living in temporary huts, built of small pieces of decayed timber collected in the woods, laid upon one another in the manner in which sawyers erect piles of timber to be dried. The roofs were covered with bark, and the interstices of the walls left open, so that at a distance I could count the persons within, as if they had been birds in a cage. Near to this place a family lately lived, for several weeks, under an old waggon that was turned upside down. In towns along the banks of the Ohio, a class of people are to be seen, who depend on traffic with travellers, and with the scanty population in the rear of them. Without extravagant profits on the trifling capital employed, they could not subsist. Many of them seem to be immoral, dissipated, and without rural or domestic industry. Few of their lots are cultivated as gardens; and the spinning-wheel, (so far as I have observed,) is not to be seen in their houses.

The evils of slave-keeping are not confined to the parts of the country where involuntary labour {192} exists, but the neighbourhood is infected. Certain kinds of labour are despised as being the work of slaves. Shoe-blacking, and, in some instances, family manufactures, are of this class of labours; and it is thus, that in some of the small towns on the _north side_ of the Ohio, the mechanic and the labourer are to be seen drawing water at the wells; their wives and daughters not condescending to services that are looked upon to be opprobrious. It was for the same reason, that on one occasion, some paupers in a poor’s house at Cincinnati refused to carry water for their own use.

Elopements from Kentucky into Indiana are frequent. Since my arrival in this very town, I have witnessed two examples. I do not now allude to slave-keepers losing their negroes, but their white daughters, who escape to get married. In a former letter I mentioned the watchfulness of parents over young ladies in Kentucky, and would only add, that there, as elsewhere, restraint does not seem to be conducive to contentment. Those who are acquainted with the state of society in Turkey, are perhaps the most able to give a decided opinion on this very interesting subject.

Of upwards of a hundred banks that lately figured in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, the money of two is now only received in the land-office, in payment for public lands. Many have perished, and the remainder are struggling for existence. Still giving for their _rags_ “bills as _good as their own_;” but, except two, none pay in specie, or bills of the United States Bank. Discount varies from thirty to one hundred per cent.

The recent history of banking in these western States, is probably unrivalled. Such a system of knavery could only be developed in a country where avarice and credulity are prominent features {193} of character. About four years ago, the passion for acquiring unearned gains rose to a great height; banking institutions were created in abundance. The designing amongst lawyers, doctors, tavern-keepers, farmers, grocers, shoemakers, tailors, &c. entered into the project, and subscribed for stock. Small moieties must actually have been advanced to defray the expenses of engraving, and other incidents necessary to putting their schemes in operation. To deposit much capital was out of their power; nor was it any part of their plan. Their main object was to extract it from the community. A common provision in charters, stipulated, that the property of each partner was not liable, in security, to a greater amount than the sum he had subscribed. This exempted the banks from the natural inconveniences that might be occasioned by the insolvencies and elopements of members. Money was accumulated in great abundance, as they bought property; lent on security; and became rich. But their credit was of short duration. When it was found, that a few of them could not redeem their bills, the faith of the people was shaken. A run on the paper shops commenced; and a suspension of specie payments soon became general. Had the people been at liberty to recover a composition, as in the bankrupt concerns of Britain, the evil might have, in some measure, been remedied before this time; but chartered privileges granted by legislators concerned in the fraud, prevented legal recourse. Even these could not have been sufficient protection, but for the co-operation of subsequent laws dictated by the same interest. The state of Indiana, for example, passed in 1818, what was called “the replevy law,” liberating the debtor for a year from the claim of the creditor, who refuses to accept depreciated money. This {194} law, though sufficiently injurious to creditors, could give no stability to swindling banks. It was, therefore, succeeded by an act during last session, prohibiting landed property to be sold by execution, under two-thirds of the appraised value, and that to be ascertained by five freeholders. The debtor is by the same act allowed to set apart any portion of his property he chooses, to discharge execution. Freeholders, it may be observed, are a class of men naturally adverse to depreciating their own land, by setting a low value on that of their neighbours. This disposition is the more dangerous at present, especially when lands are falling considerably in price, in consequence of the depreciation of the money which lately stamped such a high value on property. In Kentucky, a total suspension of law process for sixty days, was followed by a “replevy law.” In the State of Ohio, enactments similar to those of Indiana were passed. Here is a combination of laws for the protection of knaves, who have swindled the people.[117] Those who have either bought property on credit, or borrowed money, while _rags_ passed at a high price, have got debts of a great amount to pay, while property can no longer be sold at former prices. Debtors of this description have united with bankers, in getting the infamous laws passed just noticed. While the property law was pending in the Assembly of Indiana, debtors were in full activity sending forward petitions in favour of the impolicy, and persuading the ignorant of the propriety of the measure. In the small town of Jeffersonville, two petitions were made. These unnatural expedients, however, cannot long serve the purpose intended. Land continues to fall. The debtor may, for a short time, be kept out of jail, and the peculator from being stripped of his ill-gotten gains; but the public is {195} receiving dearly bought instructions, and must set a watch over future elections.

Although the relations of debtor and creditor are equal in the amount of property involved in their transactions; and although the obligations imposed by contracts naturally render creditors the more powerful class in civilized society, the recent proceedings of legislatures in this western country, would lead us to believe, that a majority in numbers or artifice, or perhaps in both, stands on the debtor side of the ledger. Republicans are not to be whipped like slaves, nor openly and directly taxed to such extent as Europeans are, but they may be deluded. Men of their own electing have practised upon them with success, and the emoluments to be gained in this way, are apparently the great stimulus that prompts men to intrude themselves into State governments. No rational mind can discover profit enough in two dollars per day; or patriotism enough in cheating their constituents; or popularity enough in eloquence that few can hear, and none can ever see in print, to collect talent and integrity in council.

At first sight, it would appear to be a paradox, that any individual State can be allowed to grant charters to banks, or to frame laws that protect pecuniary fraud, while a section of the constitution of the United States prohibits such procedure by the following words:--“No state shall coin money; emit bills of credit; make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in paying of debts; pass any ex post facto law; or law impairing the obligation of contracts.” The western States cannot avoid being brought to issue with the above very distinct clauses, as every charter granted by them, is an act tolerating the substitution of paper, instead of gold and silver; and their replevy laws, and property {196} laws, are in reality, making paper a legal tender. Besides, several establishments are chartered under the appellations of State Banks; and that in Kentucky, for example, consists partly of stock owned by the State. The conduct of Congress is not marked by any known act of partiality towards the makers of unconstitutional money. On the contrary, the collectors of the United States’ revenue are not allowed to accept of depreciated bills. Their receiving the money of inferior banks while at par, though apparently countenancing them, has been, in effect, the best means hitherto adopted for effecting their ruin. The receivers of revenue lodge the money received in the United States’ Bank, whose officers almost immediately present the money to the Banks that issued it, and demand payment in specie, or bills of the United States’ Bank. It has been in this way that many of the paper manufacturers were obliged to suspend specie payments; and it was partly on account of this mode of operating on local banks, that several State Assemblies voted an enormous tax to be levied on the branches of the United States’ Bank situated in the respective States.--That tax was mentioned in a former letter, with a notice that the supreme court had given judgment in favour of the National Bank; and the reasonings on which the decision was founded, were published in a most luminous style. The supreme court being the arbitrator in all questions rising out of the constitution, Congress have the power of making the United States a party in defending against encroachments in the prerogative of the general government. In the present banking concern, they prudently decline interference, seeing that experience will soon open the eyes of a people who can, at any time, counteract the {197} abuse by excluding bankers, and their adherents, from State legislatures. On this occasion, there can be no necessity for forcing the interests of the people down their throats, nor can there be any danger that this infraction of the constitution will be perpetuated. That the present disorders in banking are not extended over the whole of the United States is manifested by the tables of exchange periodically published at New York. These show that the depressions of money are chiefly confined to the western country, where the substantial capital is small, and where, (there is reason to believe,) a large proportion of the people are less acute.

The error committed in the Western States, is not in consequence of any defect exclusively inherent in the democratic system of government; as the fraud is neither matured nor confirmed in the older States, and as England suffers under an evil of the same kind, and apparently in a more dangerous form. Her restriction act of 1797, is not understood to be opposed by any recognized constitutional principle. It emanated from the highest authority in the land. It is not yet repealed, and twenty-four bank-directors still have it in their power to regulate the _money_ value of all the property in the empire.[118]

Amidst all the pecuniary inconveniences of this country, the personal liberty of men is not in danger of being assailed by the hand of constituted authority. May the time soon come, when the people shall have understanding enough to take care of their property.

FOOTNOTES:

[117] This practically stopped execution sales, as the freeholders appraised property so high that no bidder would offer two-thirds of the appraised value. Flint regards the replevin laws as a protection to knaves; as a matter of fact, they were a protection to the majority of the people of the Western States, who had bought their lands on credit, and in the depreciated state of paper money found themselves helpless to pay, and their land about to be sold at a great sacrifice. See McMaster, _History of the United States_, iv, pp. 506-510.--ED.

[118] Essay on the Justice and Expediency of Reducing the Interest of the National Debt. By Mr. J. R. McCulloch. Edinburgh, 1816.--FLINT.

{198} LETTER XVII

Depreciated Paper Money--Stagnation in Trade--Produce cheap--Labourers and Mechanics in want of Employment--The Poor and Poor’s Rates--Appropriations for the Expenses of the State of Indiana, for the year 1820--Objects and Rates of Taxation--County Taxes--A rude style of Improvement--The progress of New Settlements--Lands about to be Forfeited to the Government for non-payment of the price.

_Jeffersonville, (Indiana,) May 4, 1820._

The accounts given in my last letter of the depredations committed by bankers, will make you suppose that affairs are much deranged here. Bankruptcy is now a sin prohibited by law. In the Eastern States, and in Europe, our condition must be viewed as universal insolvency. Who, it may be asked, would give credit to a people whose laws tolerate the violation of contracts? Mutual credit and confidence are almost torn up by the roots. It is said that in China, knaves are openly commended in courts of law for the adroitness of their management. In the interior of the United States, law has removed the necessity of being either acute or honest.

The money in circulation is puzzling to traders, and more particularly to strangers; for besides the multiplicity of banks, and the diversity in supposed value, fluctuations are so frequent, and so great, that no man who holds it in his possession can be safe {199} for a day. The merchant, when asked the price of an article, instead of making a direct answer, usually puts the question, “What sort of money have you got?” Supposing that a number of bills are shown, and one or more are accepted of, it is not till then, that the price of the goods is declared; and an additional price is uniformly laid on, to compensate for the supposed defect in the quality of the money. Trade is stagnated--produce cheap--and merchants find it difficult to lay in assortments of foreign manufactures. I have lately heard, that if a lady purchases a dress in the city of Cincinnati, she has to call at almost all the shops in town, before she can procure trimmings of the suitable colours. It is only about three years ago, that an English traveller[119] asserted, that in Cincinnati “_English goods abound in as great profusion as in Cheapside_.”--Merchants in Cincinnati, as elsewhere, have got into debt, by buying property, or by building houses, but are now secure in the possession. Such people, notwithstanding complain of the badness of the times, finding that the trade of buying without paying cannot be continued. Those who have not already secured an independence for life, may soon be willing to have trade and fair dealing as formerly. Property laws deprive creditors of the debts now due to them; but they cannot force them to give credit as they were wont to do.

Agriculture languishes--farmers cannot find profit in hiring labourers. The increase of produce in the United States is greater than any increase of consumpt that may be pointed out elsewhere. To increase the quantity of provisions, then, without enlarging the numbers of those who eat them, will be only diminishing the price farther. {200} Land in these circumstances can be of no value to the capitalist who would employ his funds in farming. The spare capital of farmers is here chiefly laid out in the purchase of lands.

Labourers and mechanics are in want of employment. I think that I have seen upwards of 1500 men in quest of work within eleven months past, and many of these declared, that they had no money. Newspapers and private letters agree in stating, that wages are so low as eighteen and three-fourth cents (about ten-pence) per day, with board, at Philadelphia, and some other places. Great numbers of strangers lately camped in the open field near Baltimore, depending on the contributions of the charitable for subsistence. You have no doubt heard of emigrants returning to Europe without finding the prospect of a livelihood in America. Some who have come out to this part of the country do not succeed well. Labourers’ wages are at present a dollar and an eighth part per day. Board costs them two three-fourths or three dollars per week, and washing three-fourths of a dollar for a dozen of pieces. On these terms, it is plain that they cannot live two days by the labour of one, with the other deductions which are to be taken from their wages. Clothing, for example, will cost about three times its price in Britain: and the poor labourer is almost certain of being paid in depreciated money; perhaps from thirty to fifty per cent, under par. I have seen several men turned out of boarding houses, where their money would not be taken. They had no other resource left but to lodge in the woods, without any covering except their clothes. They set fire to a decayed log, spread some boards alongside of it for a bed, laid a block of timber across for a pillow, and pursued their labour by day as {201} usual. A still greater misfortune than being paid with bad money is to be guarded against, namely, that of not being paid at all. Public improvements are frequently executed by subscription, and subscribers do not in every case consider themselves dishonoured by non-payment of the sum they engage for. I could point out an interesting work, where a tenth part of the amount on the subscription book cannot now be realized. The treasurer of a company so circumstanced, has only to tell undertakers or labourers, that he cannot pay them. I have heard of a treasurer who applied the funds entrusted to him to his own use, and who refused to give any satisfaction for his conduct. It is understood that persons who are agents for others, frequently exchange the money put into their hands for worse bills, and reserve the premium obtained for themselves. Employers are also in the habit of deceiving their workmen, by telling them that it is not convenient to pay wages in money, and that they run accounts with the storekeeper, the tailor, and the shoemaker, and that from them they may have all the necessaries they want very cheap. The workman who consents to this mode of payment, procures orders from the employer, on one or more of these citizens, and is charged a higher price for the goods than the employer actually pays for them. This is called _paying in trade_.

You have often heard that extreme poverty does not exist in the United States. For some time after my arrival in the country supposed to be exempt from abject misery, I never heard the term poor, (a word, by the by, not often used,) without imagining that it applied to a class in moderate circumstances, who had it not in their power to live in {202} fine houses, indulge in foreign luxuries, and wear expensive clothing; and on seeing a person whose external appearance would have denoted a beggar in Britain, I concluded that the unfortunate must have been improvident or dissipated, or perhaps possessed of both of these qualities. My conjectures may have on two or three occasions been just, as people of a depressed appearance are very rarely to be seen, but I now see the propriety of divesting myself of such a hasty and ungenerous opinion. Last winter a Cincinnati newspaper advertised a place where old clothes were received for the poor, and another where cast shoes were collected for children who could not, for want of them, attend Sunday schools. The charitable measure of supplying the poor with public meals, has lately been resorted to at Baltimore; but there is reason to believe, that most of the people who are relieved in this way, are Europeans recently come into America. In the western country, poor rates are raised in the form of a county tax. They are, however, so moderate as to be scarcely felt. Contracts for boarding the permanently poor are advertised, and let to the lowest bidder, who has a right to employ the pauper in any light work suited to the age or ability of the object of charity. They are said to be well treated. This sort of public exposure must create a repugnance against becoming a pauper. In the Eastern States, work houses are established. It is to be wished that those who follow this plan will not lose sight of the example of England. The operations of bankers, and the recent decline in trade, have been effective causes of poverty; and it seems probable that the introduction of manufacturing industry, and a reduction of base paper, would soon give effectual relief.

{203} It is not from the number of benevolent institutions, nor from the low condition of some families, nor from the insolvency of individuals, that I draw the conclusion that poverty prevails to a greater extent than I at first imagined. The appropriations for defraying the expenses of the State, together with the ways and means, and the deficiencies in payments, are highly illustrative. I shall transcribe two documents.

_An act_ for making appropriations for the year one thousand
eight hundred and twenty.

Approved January 22, 1820.

SEC. I. _Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana_, That the following sums be, and they are hereby appropriated for the following purposes; to wit, for defraying the expenses of the present General Assembly, including pay to the members thereof, secretaries, clerks, door-keepers, sergeants at arms, stationary, ink, ink-stands, fuel, printing, binding, and distributing the laws and journals, making marginal notes and indices to the same, together with all other just and necessary expenses, the sum of eight thousand five hundred dollars.

_Dollars_

For the executive department, 2200

For the judiciary department, 4900

For the interest on the public debt, 3000

For defraying the contingent expenses of the government,
for the year 1820, 800

For the military department, including the salary of the
adjutant-general, 400

For defraying the premiums on wolf scalps unsatisfied, 500

For defraying warrants not yet presented in the judiciary
department, 875
-----
12675
-----

To make up the deficiency between the above expenses and the sum appropriated, a separate act authorizes the governor to borrow four thousand {204} dollars on the credit of the State. The following extract from an act, shows the sources of revenue.

_Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana._ That there shall be levied a tax for State purposes, on the following objects of taxation, and after the following rates, to wit, For every hundred acres of first rate land subject to taxation, the sum of one dollar. On every hundred acres of second rate land, the sum of eighty-seven and a half cents. On every hundred acres of third rate land, the sum of sixty-two and a half cents; and in that proportion for a greater or less quantity. And on all Bank Stock actually paid in at the rate, twenty-five cents for every hundred dollars.

The expenses of the government of the State for last year was 11,701-90¹⁄₂/100 dollars. Receipts of bad money prevented payment of the interest of the debt. On the 4th day of December, 1819, there were arrears of taxes due for the years 1817 and 1818, amounting to 4991³⁴⁄₁₀₀ dollars.

It is worthy of notice, that among the objects of taxation quoted, that on bank stock is by the act limited to “_stock actually paid in_.” A most decided proof of the preponderance of the banking interest, in exempting the villanous associations from an equal share of taxation; and, at the same time, countenancing an evasion of the security pledged by bankers to the people. The receipts of bad money, noticed in last paragraph, disclose a wickedness or a weakness on the part of the Assembly which is altogether contemptible.

The following are the rates of taxes to be paid for county purposes: For every horse, mule, or ass, _not exceeding_ 37¹⁄₂ cents. For every horse kept for covering; once the rate at which he stands for the season. Every tavern, not less than ten, nor more than twenty-five dollars. For every ferry, not less than five, nor more than twenty dollars. {205} Town lots in proportion to their value, (exclusive of improvements thereon,) not exceeding fifty cents on every hundred dollars. A tax of fifty cents to the clerks of the several circuit courts, at the issuing of each writ of _capias ad respondendum_. A tax of fifty cents on each certificate of magistracy, with the county seal attached thereto. A tax on every pleasure carriage with two wheels, of one dollar. A tax on every pleasure carriage with four wheels, of one dollar and twenty-five cents. A tax on every silver watch, twenty-five cents. And a tax on each gold watch, of fifty cents.

Town taxes for defraying the expense of digging wells, forming streets, &c. are regulated by a committee of the inhabitants. The objects of taxation in a town in this State were published last year. Among these, a very moderate impost on bachelors and male dogs was mentioned.

Rich country signifies fertility of soil, and not the opulence of its inhabitants.--It would be vain to search for a rich district, according to the European acceptation of the term. Almost every object bespeaks a want of capital. Fine houses are brick ones of two stories high, covered with shingles, and frequently unfinished within; and where the work is completed, it is usually in a bad style; the windows often broken; and the adjoining grounds perhaps studded with the stumps of trees, overgrown with rank weeds, or rutted by hogs. The inferior buildings, as stables, barns, (and negro huts in slave States,) are unseemly log cabins, frequently standing in front of the mansion; the whole having more the appearance of a ruin than the abodes of a people having taste for elegant improvements. Gardening is performed in the most slovenly manner imaginable; the plough {206} being in more general use than the spade. Labouring utensils are constructed without the application of the joiner’s plane. Iron is either sparingly used in their formation, or altogether dispensed with.

All who have paid attention to the progress of new settlements, agree in stating, that the first possession of the woods in America, was taken by a class of hunters, commonly called backwoodsmen. These, in some instances, purchased the soil from the government, and in others, placed themselves on the public lands without permission. Many of them, indeed, settled new territories before the ground was surveyed, and before public sales commenced. Formerly pre-emption rights were given to these squatters; but the irregularities and complicacy that the practice introduced into the business of the land-office, have caused its being given up, and squatters are now obliged to make way for regular purchasers. The improvements of a backwoodsman are usually confined to building a rude log cabin, clearing and fencing a small piece of ground for raising Indian corn. A horse, a cow, a few hogs, and some poultry, comprise his live-stock; and his farther operations are performed with his rifle. The formation of a settlement in his neighbourhood is hurtful to the success of his favourite pursuit, and is the signal for his removing into more remote parts of the wilderness. In the case of his owning the land on which he has settled, he is contented to sell it at a low price, and his establishment, though trifling, adds much to the comfort of his successor. The next class of settlers differ from the former in having considerably less dependence on the killing of game, in remaining in the midst of a growing population, and in devoting themselves more to agriculture. A man {207} of this class proceeds on a small capital; he either enlarges the clearings begun in the woods by his backwoodsmen predecessor, or establishes himself on a new site. On his arrival in a settlement, the neighbours unite in assisting him to erect a cabin for the reception of his family. Some of them cut down the trees, others drag them to the spot with oxen, and the rest build up the logs. In this way a house is commonly reared in one day. For this well-timed assistance no immediate payment is made, and he acquits himself by working to his neighbours. It is not in his power to hire labourers, and must depend therefore on his own exertions. If his family is numerous and industrious, his progress is greatly accelerated. He does not clear away the forests by dint of labour, but girdles the trees.[120] By the second summer after this operation is performed, the foliage is completely destroyed, and his crops are not injured by the shade. He plants an orchard, which thrives and bears abundantly under every sort of neglect. His live-stock soon becomes much more numerous than that of his back-wood predecessor; but, as his cattle have to shift for themselves in the woods, where grass is scanty, they are small and lean. He does not sow grass seeds to succeed his crops, so that his land, which ought to be pasturage, is overgrown with weeds. The neglect of sowing grass-seeds deprives him of hay; and he has no fodder laid up for the winter except the blades of Indian corn, which are much withered, and do not appear to be nutritious food. The poor animals are forced to range the forests in winter, where they can scarcely procure any thing which is green, except {208} the buds of underwood on which they browse.--Trees are sometimes cut down that the cattle may eat the buds. Want of shelter in the winter completes the sum of misery. Hogs suffer famine during the droughts of summer, and the frosts and snows of winter; but they become fat by feeding on the acorns and beech nuts which strow the ground in autumn. Horses are not exempted from their share in these common sufferings, with the addition of labour, which most of them are not very able to undergo. This second rate class of farmers are to be seen in the markets of towns, retailing vegetables, fruits, poultry, and dairy produce. One of them came lately into this place on horseback, with ten pounds of butter to sell; but as he could not obtain a price to his mind, he crossed the river to Louisville market. In going and returning he must have paid twenty-five cents to the ferryman--a considerable expense, when it is considered that he had travelled twelve miles with his little cargo. Another, who lives at the distance of eight miles from this place, brought a barrel of whisky, containing about thirty-three gallons. He employed neither horse nor vehicle in the transportation, but rolled the cask along the road, which, by the by, is none of the smoothest. Incidents of this kind may, perhaps, cause you to suppose that the condition of the second rate settler is similar to that of subtenants in the north of Scotland, or in Ireland; but the high price of labour in America explains the apparent parity. Men perform offices for themselves that, in Britain, would be done by hiring others. The American farmer, it must be observed, is commonly the proprietor of the land he occupies; and, in the _hauteur_ of independence, is not surpassed by the proudest freeholders of Britain. The settler of the grade under consideration, is only able to bring a {209} small portion of his land into cultivation, his success, therefore, does not so much depend on the quantity of produce which he raises, as on the gradual increase in the value of his property. When the neighbourhood becomes more populous, he in general has it in his power to sell his property at a high price, and to remove to a new settlement, where he can purchase a more extensive tract of land, or commence farming on a larger scale than formerly. The next occupier is a capitalist, who immediately builds a larger barn than the former, and then a brick or a frame house. He either pulls down the dwelling of his predecessor, or converts it into a stable. He erects better fences, and enlarges the quantity of cultivated land; sows down pasture fields, introduces an improved stock of horses, cattle, sheep, and these probably of the Merino breed. He fattens cattle for the market, and perhaps erects a flour-mill, or a saw-mill, or a distillery. Farmers of this description are frequently partners in the banks; members of the State assembly, or of Congress, or Justices of the Peace. The condition of the people has necessarily some relation to the age and prosperity of the settlements in which they live. In Pennsylvania, for instance the most extensive farmers are prevalent. In the earliest settled parts of Ohio and Kentucky, the first and second rate farmers are most numerous, and are mixed together. In Indiana, backwoodsmen and second rate settlers predominate. The three conditions of settlers described, are not to be understood as uniformly distinct; for there are intermediate stages, from which individuals of one class pass, as it were, into another. The first invaders of the forest frequently become farmers of the second order; and there are examples of individuals acting their parts in all the three gradations.

{210} In the district of Jeffersonville, there has been an apparent interruption of the prosperity of the settlers. Upwards of two hundred quarter sections of land are by law forfeited to the government, for non-payment of part of the purchase money due more than a year ago. A year’s indulgence was granted by Congress, but unless farther accommodation is immediately allowed, the lands will soon be offered a second time for sale. Settlers seeing the danger of losing their possessions, are now offering to transfer their rights for less sums than have already been paid; it being still in the power of purchasers to retain the lands on paying up the arrears due in the land office. This marks the difficulty that individuals at present have, in procuring small sums of money, in this particular district.

FOOTNOTES:

[119] Fearon.--FLINT.

_Comment by Ed._ Henry Bradshaw Fearon, a London surgeon born about 1770, was sent to the United States by an association of English families to investigate suitable sites for their residence. He found little that pleased him, as appears from his account, _Sketches in America_ (London, 1818).

[120] The process of cutting the bark round trees, to destroy their growth, is called girdling, or deadening.--FLINT.