•lfMJl«¥M¥]EI&Sinnf- BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OP THE Alfred E. Perkins Fund l=i X £• ? ! 1 M 'TO IE Qfis and ropOGiJ4f UNIT TAT' ¦:|e ! ^ T^3£ ®&©T, AM® MM®^^ Mi!? BOSTOSEtCHJSGE COFTEE HOUSE, BURNT 1816. PUBLISHED BY SWPKIN t 1UESEAIL ,t IHOMiS if KYJDTJE . PHIXJUJELPHIA ,T\me 1" 1&5X Ell^raYed-amL Printed by Fennel- -Sears X-O C&^qjfi THE HISTORY AND TOPOGRAPHY UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA. EDITED BY JOHN HOWARD HINTON, A.M. WITH VIEWS AND MAPS. VOL. II. LONDON I PRINTED BY R. CLAY, BREAD-STREET-HILL, CHEAPSIDE. CONTENTS OF VOL. II. BOOK I.— PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. CHAPTER I. GENERAL OUTLINE MOUNTAINS RIVERS, &C. Various accessions of territory. — Boundaries. — General physical divisions. — Atlantic Slope. — Divisions of the Atlantic Slope. — South-western Bay. — Middle Bay.— North-east Bay. — Gulf of Mexico. — Apalachian Mountains. — Rivers flowing into the Atlantic. — Region bordering on the Pacific Ocean. — Valley of the Mississippi. — Basin of the St. Lawrence. — Lake Superior ; Lake Michigan; Lake Huron ; Lake Erie; Lake Ontario. — Quantity of water in the Lakes. — River St. Lawrence. — Lakes George and Champlain. — Capacity of the St. Lawrence basin. — Valley of the Mississippi. — Divisions of the Mississippi valley. — Valley of the Ohio. — Source of the Mississippi. — Aspect of the Mississippi valley. — Source of the Missouri. — River Platte. — Valley of the Missouri. — Valley of the lower Mississippi. — Arkansas River, and Red River. — Mouth of the Mississippi. — Comparison of the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence. — Inundations of the Mississippi. — Navigation of the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio. — Bed of the Mississippi. — Mountains in the Mississippi valley — Ozark mountains, and Black mountains p. 1 to 2]. CHAPTER II. CLIMATE, SOIL, &C. General excellence of the climate. Very cold region ; cold region •, temperate region ; warm region ; and hot region. — General view of temperature. — Value of thermometrical observations. — Course of the winds, and state of the atmosphere. — Prevailing winds above N. Lat. 35° ; and prevailing winds below N. Lat. 35°. — Mildness of climate on the Pacific; supposed mildness of the interior. — Climate of the Mississippi valley; winters ; summers ; coldness compared with Europe ; influence of the Gulf Stream, and of the trade winds ; whether the climate has improved, or the winters become milder. — Method of finding the mean tempera ture of any place. — Rains in the United States. — Soil of the United States : Atlantic Slope ; Mississippi valley ; timbered country ; barrens ; prairies. — Soil in different parts of the Mississippi valley. — Soil beyond the Chippewayan mountains. — Diversity of soils.^— Salubrity of the United States. — Effect of clearing the forests. — Inferior salubrity of the bluffs. p. 22 to 45. BOOK II.— NATURAL HISTORY. CHAPTER I. Progress of geological research. — Geological structure connected with physical aspect. — Chippewayan mountains : primitive and transition rocks ; secondary rocks ; sandstone ; trap rocks ; greenstone ; amygdaloid. — Chippewayan desert. — Apalachian mountains : primitive rocks ; transition rocks. — Valley of the Ohio and Upper Mississippi: secondary rocks.— Central district of the Mississippi valley: Ozark mountains; granite distriots. — Upper Mississippi. — Black Mountains. — Upper Missouri. — Atlantic Slope: secondary strata; ferruginous sand formation; tertiary formations. — Oregon. — Character of the Apalachian mountains. — Arrangement of American strata. — Formation of the Mississippi . valley. — Evidences of diluvial action. — State of Lake Huron. — Alluvial formations. — Fossil remains. — Cave fossils.— Living fossils p. 15 to 89. CONTENTS. CHAPTER II. MINERALOGY. Mineral contents of the primitive rocks j of the transition rocks ; of the formations east of the Apalachian mountains. — Specific minerals : gold ; silver ; mercury ; copper ; iron ; lead j and other metals. — Coal. — Graphite and petroleum. — Salt — Mineral waters. — Gaseous substances. — Conclusion p. 90 to 104. CHAPTER III. BOTANY. General character of the vegetation. — Forest trees : oak ; walnut ; maple ; birch ; ash ; elm ; chesnut ; beech ; pine ; white pine ; spruce j cypress ; acacia ; poplar. — Ornamental trees : magnolia ; catalpa ; bow- wood ; China tree; dog-wood; red-bud; rhododendron; kalmia; snowberry; coral tree; palmetto. — Fruit- bearing trees and shrubs : papaw ; cherry ; persimon ; plum ; apple ; mulberry ; vine ; gooseberry. — Cane. — Fla*v — Creeping plants. — Grasses. — Rush. — Pea vine. — Wild rice. — Palmetto. — May apple. — Weeds. — Various plants. — Aquatic plants. — Parasitic plants p. 105 to 130. CHAPTER IV. ZOOLOGY. Mammiferous animals : bat ; cougar ; lynx ; black bear ; grizzly bear ; wolf; fox ; otter ; skunk ; raccoon ; badger; glutton; ermine; shrew; mole; opossum; beaver; musk-rat; rat and mouse ; marmot; squirrel; porcupine ; hare ; sloth and elephant ; deer ; antelope ; buffalo. — Quadrupeds common to both con tinents. — Cetaceous animals. — Ornithology : vulture ; eagle ; fish-hawk ; falcon ; owl ; burrowing owl ; parrot; cuckoo; wood-pecker; red-headed wood-pecker; king-fisher ; oriole; starling; cow-bunting; raven; magpie and blue jay; night-hawk, &c. ; swallow; flycatcher; mocking-bird; cat-bird; robin; blue-bird ; wren ; creepers ; humming-bird ; pigeon ; partridge ; wading-birds ; crane ; purre ; goose ; wild duck ; canvass-back duck ; widgeon ; goosander ; snake-bird ; swan. — Birds of the Atlantic and the Mississippi compared. — Reptiles : snakes ; harmless serpents ; lizard ; alligator ; tortoise, and other reptiles. — Frogs. — Fish. — Oceanic vampire. — Insects p. 131 to 192. BOOK HI.— STATISTICS. CHAPTER I. AGRICULTURE. Division into northern and southern j neglected as a science ; progressive improvement. — Disappointment of English agriculturists. — First erections on new lots. — Clearing the land and first crops. — Manures. — Draining and fencing. — Maize, or Indian corn; wheat; rye and barley; turnips, &c; hemp; flax. — Animals. — Implements. — Southern states: tobacco; cotton; rice; sugar-cane; indigo; mulberry- tree and silk-worm ; vine and olive. — Horticulture p. 193 to 215. CHAPTER II. MANUFACTURES. State of manufactures before the constitution of 1789— Effect of the new revenue laws. — Account of manufac tures in 1810. — Advantageous effects of the war. — Imposition of additional duties in 1816; further increase in 1824. — Unsuccessful attempt to raise the duty on woollens in 1826. — Proceedings of congress in 1828. — •Circumstances which favour the protecting system of the United States. — Manufactures of cotton and> woollens.— .Household manufactures.— Manufactures of iron. — Circumstances favourable to some establish- CONTENTS. v ments. — Tariff of 1828 more favourable to the miners than the manufacturers. — Glass; reduction in the value of the article, but the price of labour maintained. — Earthenware. — Hats. — Shoes. — Furniture. — Ship-building. — Steam-boats. — Paper. — Type, and books. — Distillation of spirits. — Minerals. — Manufactures exported. — Tariff Tables p. 216 to 238. CHAPTER III. COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION. State of commerce previous to the constitution of 1789.— Provision of the new constitution.— Rapid increase of commerce from 1790 to 1806.— State of commerce from 1807 to 1830.— Exports. — Products of the sea ; of the forest; and of agriculture. — Exports of manufactures. — Foreign goods exported. — Imports. — Articles admitted free of duty. — Articles subjected to duties : cotton ; woollens ; silks ; manufactures of flax ; manufactures of hemp i carpeting ; wines ; fruits ; spirits ; teas ; coffee ; iron ; paper ; books ; glass ; cigars. — Raw materials imported : hemp ; flax ; wool ; salt ; and coal. — Total amount of imports. — Balance of trade.— Navigation ; its importance to the United .States ; fostered by legislative enactments ; rapidity of its increase ; promoted by the wars of Europe } depressed by the proceedings of England and France, and by the embargo and the war with England. — Cause of the present stationary state of American navigation. — Amount of tonnage for the year 1829. — Tables of Commerce p. 239 to 266. CHAPTER IV. FINANCES REVENUE, EXPENDITURE, DEBT. Revenue. — Customs. — Sale of public lands.— Title of the United States. — Survey and divisions of public lands. — Reservations. — Allowance for survey, — Terms of sale. — Squatters. — Proposed reduction of price. — Appropriation for roads and schools. — Quantity of land surveyed. — Beneficial effect of the'possession of surplus land. — Amount received for land. — Internal revenue. — Direct taxes. — Post-office. — Rates of postage. — Mint establishment. — Coins. — Amount of coinage. — Sources from whence the gold coined is derived. — Value of gold rated too low. — Observations on the nature of the circulating medium. — Amount of the circulating medium. — Number of banks. — United States bank. — First charter in 1791. — Expiration of the charter in 1811. — A new establishment chartered in 1816; independent of the government ; amount of circulation and deposits. — Expenditure of the United States. — Civil list. — Miscellaneous disbursements.— Military establishment ; pay, &c. ; ordnance, &c. — Military academy ; internal improvements ; revolu tionary pensions. — Naval establishment ; number and rate of vessels ; navy yards ; dry docks ; improvements ; accumulation of timber and stores. — Public debt ; highest amount and gradual reduction ; entire liquidation proposed. — Difficulty of disposing of or reducing the surplus revenue. — Views of the administration. — An appropriation of the excess suggested. — Financial Tables p. 267 to 299. CHAPTER V. POPULATION. The rapidity of its increase compared with European nations. — Relative increase of the free and slave popula tion. Effect of immigration. — Dr. Seybert's calculation. — Calculations of Godwin and Booth. — Different estimates of the ratio of deaths. — Opinions of Mr. Sadler. — Estimate of number of immigrants from the North American Review. — Estimate formed from the census of 1820. — Census of 1830. — Details of the census of 1820.— Number of persons 100 years old.— Population Tables p. 300 to 309. BOOK IV.— STATE OF SOCIETY. CHAPTER I. POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS AND JURISPRUDENCE. General principles.— Guarantees of liberty in the United States.— Constitution of 1787-9, &c— Legislative powers.— Members of house of representatives, how chosen ; qualifications of.— Apportionment of repre- i CONTENTS. sentatives. — Vacancies, how filled. — House of representatives choose officers.— Senate, how chosen. Senators classed. — Senators' qualification. — Vice-president's vote. — Senate choose officers ; try impeach ments. — Judgment on impeachment. — Elections, how held.— Congress assemble annually. — Elections, how judged; quorum of senate and house of representatives. — Rules. — Journals by each- house. Adjournment. — Compensation ; privileges ; arrests. — Members not appointed to office. — Bills for raising revenue, to originate in the house of representatives. — Bills, their formalities. — Resolutions and votes to be presented to the President of the United States. — Congress lay taxes; borrow money; regulate commerce, naturalization, bankruptcies, coinage, 8tc. ; punish counterfeit ; establish post-offices and post-roads ; pro mote science and useful arts ; constitute courts ; declare war ; raise armies ; maintain navy and militia. — Congress exercise exclusive jurisdiction and make laws. — Importation of persons after 1808.— Habeas corpus. — Attainder. — Tax. — No exportation duty.— Money, how drawn. — Titles not conferred. — States not to make treaties. — States not to lay imposts, &c, or tonnage. — Executive power.— Electors, how appointed ; day electors meet ; qualification of President of United States ; removal of President of United States ; President's of United States compensation ; oath. — President's of United States powers : to make treaties ; appoint officers ; fill vacancies. — President's of United States duties. — Officers removable by impeachment. — Judicial power, and tenure of judges. — Extension of judicial power. — Supreme court; jurisdiction; trials by jury; treason; attainder. — Acts of states accredited.— Citizens' privileges. — Persons charged with crimes fleeing. — New states admitted. — Territory of United States. — Republican form. — Amendments, how attained. — Debts prior to adoption of Constitution. — Treaties the law of the land. — Oath or affirmation to members. — Ratification. — Establishment of religion. — Right of the people to keep arms. — Soldiers, how to be quartered. — Persons, Sec, secured. — Persons to answer for infamous crimes, &c. — Criminal prosecutions. — Trial by jury. — Excessive bail, fines, and punishments.— Enumeration of certain rights. — Powers not delegated. — Judicial power. — Electors for president and vice-president of the United States, &c. — Source of the Constitution. — Conventions. — Massachusetts convention of 1820. — Convention at Boston in 1689. — Constituency of conventions. — Limited powers of the general government. — Date of the commencement of American law.— General assembly of 1787 adopts a new constitution. — Legislative power. — Concurrent powers of individual states. — Supremacy of law over discretion. — Excep tions. — The executive authority. —Appointment and removal of public functionaries. — State executives. — Township meetings. — Local expenditure, 8cc. — The judiciary. — The supreme court. — Circuit courts. — District courts. — Appeals. — Distinct jurisdictions of the general and the state judiciaries. — State judiciaries. — Separation of the judicial from the legislative power. — Independence of the judiciaries. — Justices of peace. — Constitutionality of laws. — American law. — Common law. — Equity. — Law of debtor and creditor. — Mercantile law. — Admiralty law. — Criminal laws. — Imprisonment under game and vagrant laws. — Prison discipline. — Proportion of criminals to the population. — Examining courts. — Punishments fixed by juries. — Laws against drunkards and duellists. — Law officers and public prosecutors. — Police. — Military power. — Military obedience and responsibility. — Codes of law. — American estimate of English lawyers. — Extensive studies of American lawyers. — Reports. — Cheapness of law. — Law schools. — Publicity. — American law manu scripts p. 31 0 to 359. CHAPTER II. RELIGION. Interest of the subject.— Religious aspect not uniform. — View of the different sects : Roman Catholics Episcopalians; Presbyterians; Congregationalists ; Baptists; Christians; Unitarians; Methodists Friends ; Dutch Reformed Church ; German , Reformed Church ; Lutheran Church ; United Brethren Universalists; Swedenborgians ; Shakers.— No religious establishment.— Gradual abandonment of establish ments.— State of religion.— Evils ascribed to the want of an establishment.— Revivals of religion.— Theology of New England. — Camp-meetings. — Theological seminaries. — Benevolent institutions. — General review p. 360 to 392. CONTENTS. vii CHAPTER III. LITERATURE ARTS MANNERS. • Language. — National education : public schools ; infant schools ; improvement of teachers ; private schools ; colleges. — Literature : newspapers ; reviews and magazines ; annuals ; original works ; dramatic compo sitions ; poets. — American intellectual power. — The arts. — American painters. — Manners : filial obedience ; conjugal relation.; servants ; social intercourse ; marriages ; public assemblies ; dress ; feeling of independence ; coldness of manners, &c. — Titles. — Duelling. — Sectional characteristics. — Personal liberty in America p. 393 to 423. CHAPTER IV. INDIANS NEGROES. Characteristics of the Indians.— Customs of the Indians ; their religion ; their wars and pursuits ; the extent and limits of their claims to the land ; causes producing a diminution of their number. — Numbers of Indians in the United States. — General failure of attempts to improve their condition. — Favourable state of the Cherokees ; counter statement. — Indian question in Georgia. — Indian board of emigration. — Conduct of Americans towards the Indians. — Negroes. — Free persons of colour. — African Colonization Society. — Colony of Liberia. — Prospects of the Colonization Society.— Slavery. — Colonization Society. — Existence of slavery partial.— Conduct of the general government. — Slave states. — Internal slave trade.— Condition of the slaves. — Instruction of the slaves. — Treatment of the slaves. — Negro sale p. 424 to 457. BOOK V.— TOPOGRAPHY. CHAPTER I. NEW ENGLAND. NEW HAMPSHIRE VERMONT MASSACHUSETTS— RHODE ISLAND CONNECTICUT. General design. — Maine: boundaries; surface; climate; soil; commerce; institutions; religious bodies; chief towns.— New Hampshire: boundaries; surface; climate; soil; trade; institutions; religious bodies ; chief towns. — Vermont : boundaries ; surface ; climate ; soil ; trade ; institutions ; religious bodies ; chief towns. — Massachusetts : boundaries ; surface ; climate ; soil ; trade ; canals and rail-roads ; institutions ; religious bodies ; slavery abolished ; Boston, and other towns. — Rhode Island : boundaries ; surface ; climate ; soil ; trade ; institutions ; religious bodies ; chief towns. — Connecticut : boundaries ; surface ; climate ; soil ; trade ; institutions ; religious bodies ; chief towns p. 458 to 482. CHAPTER II. NEW YORK NEW JERSEY PENNSYLVANIA. New York : extent ; surface ; Falls of Niagara ; soil ; climate ; roads and canals ; trade ; institutions ; religious bodies ; chief towns. — New Jersey : extent ; surface ; climate ; canals ; rail-roads ; trade ; insti tutions ; religious bodies ; chief towns. — Pennsylvania : extent ; surface ; soil ; canals ; trade ; institutions ; education ; religious bodies ; Philadelphia, and other towns p. 483 to 504. CHAPTER III. OHIO INDIANA ILLINOIS MISSOURI. Ohio : extent ; surface and climate ; produce ; canals ; trade ; institutions ; chief towns. — Indiana : extent ; surface ; climate and produce ; institutions ; religious bodies ; chief towns. — Illinois : extent ; surface ; soil and produce ; minerals ; canals and roads ; education ; religious bodies ; chief towns. — Missouri : extent ; surface ; soil ; produce; climate; minerals; trade; institutions ; religious bodies ; chief towns, p. 505 to 520. CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. DELAWARE MARYLAND DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA VIRGINIA KENTUCKY NORTH CAROLINA TENNESSEE. Delaware: — extent; surface; soil, climate, and produce; canal ; religious bodies ; chief towns. — Maryland: extent; surface; soil and produce ; trade; canals and roads ; institutions; religious bodies ; chief towns. — District of Colombia : Washington ; Alexandria ; canals ; religious bodies. — Virginia : extent ; surface ; soil and produce ; scenery ; institutions ; religious bodies ; chief towns. — Kentucky : extent ; surface ; soil ; caves ; produce ; canal ; institutions ; religious bodies ; chief towns. — North Carolina : extent ; surface ; soil and produce ; minerals ; agriculture ; education ; religious bodies ; chief towns. — Tennessee : extent ; surface ; climate ; soil and produce ; institutions ; religious bodies p. 520 to 546. CHAPTER V. SOUTH CAROLINA GEORGIA ALABAMA MISSISSIPPI LOUISIANA. South Carolina : extent ; surface ; soil ; climate ; roads ; institutions ; religious bodies ; chief towns. — Georgia : extent ; surface ; produce ; climate ; institutions ; religious bodies ; chief towns. — Alabama : extent ; surface ; produce and climate ; institutions ; roads and canals ; religious bodies ; population ; chief towns. — Mississippi : extent ; surface ; climate ; roads and canals ; institutions ; religious bodies ; population ; chief towns. — Louisiania : extent ; surface ; climate ; produce ; rail road ; religious bodies ; chief towns 547 to 562. CHAPTER VI. THE TERRITORIES ARKANSAS FLORIDA MICHIGAN CHIPPEWAYAN DESERT OREGON. Arkansas : extent ; surface ; " religious bodies ; population ; chief towns. — Florida : extent ; surface ; climate ; produce ; population ; chief towns. — Michigan : extent ; surface ; climate ; produce ; trade ; population ; chief towns. — Chippewayan Desert. — Oregon 563 to 571 TOPOGRAPHY CHAP. I. THE UNITED STATES. BOOK I. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. CHAPTER I. GENERAL OUTLINE. MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, Sic. The territory of the United States has undergone many changes subsequently to the formation of the republic ; all of them, however, tending to its enlargement. At the close of the war which established their independence, it was the wish of many, accessions both among the French and the English, to limit them to the possession of the ° temt01'y- Atlantic coast, and " to coop them up," as some of their own writers have termed it, within the mountain chains which run nearly in a parallel direction with it, at a distance, for the most part, of several hundred miles. The endeavours of the American negotiators prevented such a result, and obtained the river Mississippi as the western boundary. The state, as thus constituted, was of great extent; but it was far from satisfying the wishes of this young nation. They first cast their eyes over the immense tract to the westward of the Mississippi, as far as the Pacific Ocean in one direction, and the Gulf of Mexico in another, a tract which was still claimed by France, and which was purchased by the United States, in the year 1803, for fifteen millions of dollars, or about three millions sterling. Not many years passed before the Floridas, which had been originally colonized by Spain, and were still under her feeble dominion, became an object of desire, and the cession of them was obtained with some difficulty, in the year 1821. The details connected VOL. II. B 2 HISTORY OF BOOK IV. Bounda ries. General physical divisions. with the boundary line were settled by treaty at various periods, and with various powers; and a question relating to the British province of New Brunswick, has recently been referred to the decision of the king of the Netherlands, whose award is understood to be unacceptable to both parties, and may therefore be deemed inconclusive. The line of separation between the territories of Great Britain and the United States on the north, from the Chippewayan Mountains * to the Pacific Ocean, never has been determined.15 The last reference to this region in diplomatic docu ments is the following : — " It is agreed that any country that may be claimed by either party on the north-west coast of America, westward of the Stony Mountains, shall, together with its harbours, bays, and creeks, and the navigation of all rivers within the same, be free and open, for the term of ten years from the date of the signature of the present convention, to the vessels, citizens, and subjects of the two ' powers ; it being well understood that this agreement is riot to be construed to the prejudice of any claim which either of the two high contracting parties may have to any part of the said country, nor shall it be taken to affect the claims of any other power or state to any part of the said country ; the only object of the high contracting parties, in that respect, being to prevent disputes and differences among themselves." In the meantime, the best maps have outrun the slow progress of negotiation, and exhibit a line of demarcation, which is certainly not unnatural, and which may be proceeded upon for the purposes of the present description. In its utmost reach, the territory of the United States-extends from N. Lat. 25°, or 24° 27, the southern extremity of Florida, to N. Lat. 54° 40', the extreme north of the district of Oregon ; and from the 67th to the 125th. degree of west longitude from Greenwich.0 It is bounded on the north by British America ; on the west by the Pacific Ocean to the 42d degree of latitude; on the south by the republic of Mexico and the Mexican Gulf, and on the east by the Atlantic Ocean. This may well be called an immense region. Its mean length' from east to west is 2,500 miles, and its mean breadth from north to south 830. Its line of boundary extends, according to Darby, to 9,425 miles, of which 2,525 are sea coast ; and its area comprehends 2,257,374 square miles, exceeding by a small fraction one-twentieth part of the land surface of. the^ earth. The great features of this ample territory are few and simple. Contemplating its extent from east to west, we perceive on, either side the, Atlantjc or Pacific Ocean » The appellation which we shall uniformly give to what have commonly been called the Rocky or Stony Mountains. * The Russian claim to this territory, which brought that empire at one period into contact with the Americans, has- been subsequently abandoned, and the respective limits settled by treaty with the British government. c Reckoned from the meridian of Washington, the United States extend from 10° east to 48° west longitude. . . . .'. I : < THE UNITED STATES. 3 respectively; on either side, also, are chains of mountains, on the east the Appala- chap. I. chian, on the west the Chippewayan Mountains, traversing the whole extent of the country, at a considerable distance from the coast, but in a direction nearly parallel with it. The effect of these mountain chains is to cut off a strip of land next the sea on either side, and to throw the whole of the intermediate country into the form of an immense inland valley. The territory of the United States is thus naturally divided into three great sections; that of the Atlantic Slope; that within, the great central valley of North America ; and, thirdly, a portion extending from the Chippe wayan Mountains towards the Pacific Ocean. The first of -these sections' we have called the Atlantic Slope, since for the most Atlantic part it consists of lands gradually sloping from the Appalachian Mountains to the °pe' Atlantic Ocean. There are, however, two exceptions to this description ; the one in the peninsula of Florida, which is flat and entirely separate frpm the mountain chains, and the other in the New England states, in which the mountains constitute the sea coast, without any intermediate lands. Neither in strictness can it be said that the mountain ridges constitute the western boundary of the Atlantic Slope itself; since the rivers, which of course indicate the descent of the country most correctly, do not uniformly rise in the mountains, but in many cases, especially in the north, rise in the table land beyond them, and burst through the mountains, in order to find their way to the Atlantic Ocean. The high ground, therefore, which really defines the western edge of this slope, must be traced by the river sources, and will be found to form an inflected line, ranging obliquely over the Appalachian system. The. ocean border of the Atlantic Slope is formed into three extensive bays. Divisions Having Capes Hatteras and Florida as the extremes of its chord, and the fine Atlantic .estuaries of St. John's, St. Mary's, Alatamaha, with many other rivers, pouring into sloPe- it, stretches a bay swept by that great ocean river, the Gulf Stream. The coast South- of this.bay is uniformly low'and sandy, with small islands, extending generally parallel Bay.6™ to the opposing shore of the continent. The rivers are comparatively shallow at or near their efflux into the ocean. If we consider the South-western Bay as commencing with the northern outlet of the Bahama Channel/the length of its chord will be about six hundred miles, with a depth from that chord to the mouth of the Alatamaha of about two hundred miles. . The Gulf Stream in its passage north-east flows almost exactly along the chord of this bay, and forms in its inner curvature an immense whirlpool. Cape Hatteras forms a most distinguishing land-mark on the oceanic border of the Middle United States. Without an elevation much above the waves, which beat with un- ay' tameable rage against its rocky front, this stormy promontory projects into the Atlantic , Ocean, almost exactly mid-distance between Florida Point and Passama- quoddy. Sweeping inwards from this cape of tempests, and forming a section of a 4 HISTORY OF BOOK very elongated ellipse, the Middle Bay of the United States extends about five IV' hundred and fifty miles to the eastern salient angle of Massachusetts, with a depth from its chord to New York harbour of one hundred and fifty miles. The coast of the Middle Bay, like that of the South-west, is generally low and sandy; but its rivers and minor bays assume a very different character. All the rivers of the South western Bay enter the Atlantic Ocean by narrow and very shallow outlets, neither of them, except the St. Mary's, admitting the entrance of large vessels ; but with the Neuse and the Pamptico, entering into Pamptico Sound directly west from Cape Hatteras, commences a new order of rivers. Pamptico Sound is followed by that of Albemarle, receiving Roanoke and Chowan Rivers, which is again succeeded by that immense recipient, the Chesapeake Bay, and that again by the wide estuary of the Delaware, and next, the long and singular tide river or bay of the Hudson. At the efflux of the Hudson the Atlantic waves almost reach the base of the Appala chian mountains, but are again repelled by the sandy bordef of Long Island, which, through a distance of one hundred and sixteen miles, shelters an inland gulf, differ ing in character from the other sounds or bays on the Atlantic Slope only in having two outlets into the ocean. The outer coast of Long Island may therefore be regarded as the continuation of that of the Atlantic, and what is called Long Island Sound as the recipient of the Houssatonick and Connecticut rivers. The beautiful and richly variegated bays of Narraganset and Buzzard close the fine indentings of the Middle Bay of the United States, which terminates with the sandy point of Malabar. Similarly to that of the South-west, the chord of the Middle Bay is very nearly the course of the Gulf Stream, though, in its advance to the north-east, that great current increases in width, but diminishes in rapidity. North-east Cape Cod, the eastern extremity of Massachusetts, is a promontory which con- Bay- statutes another of those geographical limits on each side of which strong contrasts in natural phenomena present themselves. Here the coast curves rapidly inwards by an abrupt sweep to the south, thence west, gradually winding to the north-east, and finally to the south-east; enclosing on three sides a sheet of water in the form of a parallelogram, extending two hundred by one hundred and eighty miles. Into this north-eastern recipient are poured the rivers Charles, Merrimac, Piscataqua, Saco, Kennebeck, Penobscott, St. Croix or Passamaquoddy, St. John's, and it might be added the Bay of Fundy. The shores of Cape Cod are low and sandy, but with it terminates the low and alluvial coast of the United States. The high land now approaches the ocean, and the bays and rivers of north-east Massachusetts, and those of New Hampshire and Maine, open to the ocean between bold and swelling hills. The harbours of this section of the United States are numerous, deep, and spacious, and the two extremes of the Atlantic Slope present a complete contrast in scenery and in commercial facility. 9* I i THE UNITED STATES. 5 Along the Gulf of Mexico, in a line of 1 100 miles, scarcely a hill of any perceptible CHAP. I. elevation rises, to break the dull monotony of the coast. The rivers enter their Gulf of recipient by narrow and shallow channels, and even the mighty Mississippi on no one bar has thirteen feet water. The best harbours are bays into which no great rivers are discharged. Looking inland from the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico* one vast and very gently rising plain seems emerging from the waters. At- first almost an undeviating level, it is imperceptibly broken, into hill and dale ; the hills being first humble, but swelling into majesty as they approach the mountains. The long chains of the Appala- Appalachian system stretch from south-west to north-east. ¦ They are irregular, and Mountains. plainly different from the hills, yet arranged, as a whole, with remarkable symmetry. They cross the line of the river sources, which singularly follows the, deflections of the coast, at an angle of about 30 degrees. Touching the ocean in the New England states, they penetrate more and more deeply into the continent in their course to the south- westward. Taken under a comprehensive survey of its physiognomy, the Appala chian system comprises an undetermined number of chains, extending in collateral ranges ; each chain is formed of ridges, , which interlock with each other, and are frequently cut by the rivers; the: ridges i extend in most instances in the same direc tion with the chain which they contribute to form ; the chains differ very materially in relative elevation and continuity, and the whole system is, with a few exceptions, in a remarkable manner devoid of peaks. No unequivocal appearance of volcanic eruption has been anywhere detected. The elevation of the Appalachian mountains is by no means considerable, and that of the table land giving origin to the Atlantic rivers may be said to be very trifling : the former never exceeds. 6000 feet, and rarely approaches that elevation; while the latter, at> its highest point, which is near the Gulf of Mexico, does not exceed 1800 feet, and in the northern, states is less than 500. The chasms by which the rivers penetrate this mountain system are not the least remarkable of its features. The most extraordinary is that occupied by the River Hudson, by means of which the tide flows for 160 miles through the very heart of the mountains, and pierces the entire mass. This glen is con tinued to the St. Lawrence, the northern part of it being occupied by Lakes George and Champlain, and an elevation of only 140 feet dividing them from the tide level in the Hudson^.. A rocky obstruction giving occasion to a fall, is a general, and almost a uniform Rivers occurrence in all considerable rivers which flow into the Atlantic between New York intc/the and the Mississippi. It is found that a line passing through these falls in succession Atlantlc- would very nearly observe the deflections of the coast, and it is believed that they are all occasioned by a ledge of rock passing continuously through the whole country connected with the mountains. In most instances the tide advances up to this rocky VOL. II. c TOPOGRAPHY OF Region bordering on the Pacific Ocean. BOOK I. ledge, and within a short space above and below it the face of the country is strongly contrasted. Below the river falls the aspect becomes more and more monotonous, until the whole sinks to a level scarcely more broken, in many places, than that of an ocean in a calm. The rivers, except from the tides, are without current, or flow gently ; and marshes, overflowed by the tides and land floods, are extensive near the coast. Above the falls all is different, and not only to the mountain bases, but in their expansive valleys, the hills meet the traveller's eye in considerable elevation, round, bold, and swelling. The rivers wind through vales, rich, variegated, and gently undulating, and now, under the influence of cultivation, smiling in all the gaiety of field, garden, orchard, and meadow. This fine hill tract spreads, if the expression may be used, round the Appalachian masses, and extends from the mouth of the St. Lawrence nearly to that of the Mississippi. It comprises the best peopled and best cultivated part of the north-eastern, middle, and southern states ; and the largest and most wealthy cities of the republic have risen on its margin. Let us now turn to the west, and examine the tract between the Chippewayan Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. The extent of coast here possessed by the United States is small in comparison with the Atlantic, being only about 600 miles ; but the mountains are at a mean distance of 500 miles from the sea, giving to this region a much greater breadth than that of the Atlantic Slope. The Chippewayan Mountains appear to be altogether of a different character from the Appalachian. They are of a much greater altitude, some of them rising to the height of nearly 12,000 feet, and much more distinguished by conical peaks, and marks of volcanic agency. They are not broken through by the numerous rivers which rise in them, but constitute the dividing ridge of the respective waters. The rivers which flow towards the ocean do not, as on the eastern side, enter it in consider able numbers, indenting the coast with frequent estuaries ; this being obstructed by a second, and as yet nameless, chain of hills running along the coast, and supposed to be a continuation of the range which constitutes the peninsula of California. The district of Oregon, therefore, (for such is its name,) is not properly a slope from the mountains to the sea, but a valley enclosed by two mountain ranges, the western being occasionally opened for the escape of the enclosed waters. Four principal rivers traverse this territory : the Multnomah, coming about 900 miles from the south; Lewis River, perhaps 1100 from the south-east; Clark's River, 1000 from the eastward ; and the Columbia, an equal distance from the north. These rivers, among which it is difficult to determine the principal, unite at various distances from the ocean, and flow into it under the general name of the Columbia, N. Lat. 46°. In relative height, the surface of the Oregon basin falls from the plateau of the Chip pewayan, at least 3,370 feet, to the level of the Pacific Ocean, and down this rapid descent the rivers are precipitated over numerous falls and cataracts. The tide THE UNITED STATES. 7 penetrates inland through the western system of mountains, following the windings CHAP. I. of the stream upwards of one hundred miles, the bay at the mouth opening between Capes Adam on the south-east, and Disappointment on the north-west. The entrance,. with about twenty-six feet water, runs easterly about twenty miles, and thence south easterly to the mouth of Multnomah, sustaining thus far a depth of at least twenty feet. The face of the Oregon basin, as far as explored, is far from promising. Much of the country is broken by mountains, or stretches in naked plains, though some fine valleys, of confined extent, spread between the chains. Between the Chippewayan and the Appalachian Mountains stretches an extensive VaUey of tract, which, as a whole, may be called a valley, and, not improperly, the valley sippi. "" or basin of the Mississippi, as drained principally by that river and its confluent streams. In looking at the upper or northern part of this region, we are immediately struck Basin of with the unparalleled series of lakes, or rather inland seas, which empty themselves Lawrence. into the Atlantic by the river St. Lawrence. It will be proper, in the first place, to glance at this interesting tract, which may be described as the St. Lawrence Basin. This great basin is naturally subdivided into three unequal parts, which may be with propriety designated upper, lower, and- middle. The higher basin, the bottom of which is occupied by Lake Superior, lies in form of a rhomb; its length from north-east and south-west is 300 miles, and its breadth from south-east to north west is nearly equal. Its area is about 90,000 square miles, one-third of which is contained in the lake. Into this reservoir are poured upwards of fifty rivers, none of which are of much importance. Though individually small, the quantity of water supplied collectively by the numerous confluents of Lake Superior must be very great, Lake • and it differs materially in different seasons of the year. The whole mass, composing a large river, is precipitated through the straits and down the falls of St. Mary. The surface of the lake is, by measurement, 641 feet above the Atlantic level. With a slight depression of twenty-three feet, the second or middle sub-basin of the St. Lawrence is spread below that of Lake Superior. The middle basin extends over a quadrangular area of at least 160,000 square miles, having the three great central lakes of Michigan, Huron, and Erie, as its lower valleys. Lake Michigan is an im- Lake mense chasm, at least 900 feet deep, and 270 miles long, by about fifty mean width. The confluents of both this and Huron, like those of Superior, are inconsiderable indi vidually, but very numerous ; and when swelled by spring rains and melted snows, they exert a sensible influence on the relative height of their recipients. The sides of the lakes, and, indeed, the whole peninsula of Michigan, present little elevation. Lake Lake Huron is an expanded triangular body of water, second in mass and extent only to Lake Superior. Receiving the vast discharge of both Superior and Michigan into its north-western angle, Huron protrudes the accumulated waters from its southern TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK I. LakeErie. LakeOntario. extremity. A few detached islands lie scattered over the surface of Lake Superior, and a few of still more diminutive size checker the northern part of Michigan ; but Huron is almost subdivided by a regular chain. A peninsula is projected into this lake from its south-east side, from which, in a direction south-west by west, and nearly parallel to the northern side of the lake, the Manatoulin islands follow entirely across the lake to about midway between the mouths of Michilimakinak and St. Mary's Straits. Between the Manatoulin group, and the northern shore of the lake extends a strait of about 200 miles in length, with a mean width of about thirty miles, also much checkered with islands. The residue of Huron towards the Michigan coast sinks to an almost unfathomable depth; nine hundred or a thousand feet would be a moderate estimate. The prodigious depth of the three upper Canadian lakes is a very interesting phenomenon in physical geography. Though the surface of the two lowest of the three, Michigan and Huron, is 618 feet above the Atlantic level, their bottoms are nearly 300 feet below it. It is therefore probable that some parts of Lakes Michigan or Huron are the deepest chasms on the continental surface of the earth. Lake Erie constitutes the most southern section of the middle sub-basin of the St. Lawrence. It is elevated 565| feet above the Atlantic surface, and consequently lies 52£ feet below the level of Miohigan and Huron. It is 230 miles long, from south-west to north-east. The form is elliptical, but much elongated, the breadth but little exceeding fifty miles at the widest, and not averaging more than thirty-five. The bottom of Lake Erie appears to be composed of an alluvial deposit of sand and mud, resting on a secondary sandstone, the depth seldom exceeding 200 feet, and in few places being so much. In the course of the river from Lake Erie occur the celebrated and truly magnificent falls of : Niagara, hy which it descends into the lower sub-basin of the St. Lawrence, and expands into Lake Ontario. This lake is 334 feet lower than Erie, and a very marked change" is perceptible in the natural physiognomy of the country. This portion of the St. Lawrence basin is composed of two very unequal inclined planes. That of the right, or south-east, about 750 miles in length, does not exceed a mean width of sixty miles; but that of the north-west extends over 900 miles in length, with a mean width of nearly 270, with an area of 287,000 square miles. Lake Ontario is the lower stage of an enormous chasm on the earth's surface. The rivers on every side pour into its bosom by rocky and precipitous chan nels; and not one is navigable to any considerable distance without interruption from rapids, or, in most instances, from direct falls. The north-east part of Ontario is; a congeries of islands, which are continued down the St. Lawrence about fifty miles. This part of the river is from ten to two miles wide, without much current, and known by the local name of The Thousand Islands. The number actually amounts, if every naked little rock is taken into the list, to upwards of 1500. H1-3 e a * p 5 S THE UNITED STATES. 9 The peninsula of Prince Edward, and the small islets outside of Sackett's Harbour, chap. I. are the higher eminences of this group, which, as extended into Lake Ontario, exceeds " one hundred miles in length. These magnificent lakes, which have justly been called the Canadian Sea, are Quantity deemed the most extensive repository of fresh-water upon the globe. They are so in theTakes!" consequence of their immense depth, however, and not of their surface, which is only 72,900 square miles, little more than half the superficial area of the Caspian Sea. The attempts that have been made to estimate the quantity of water contained in them are necessarily embarrassed with many difficulties. It appears, from the united testimony of every person who has made the necessary experiments, that Lakes Superior, Huron, and Michigan, are vast, and in some places unfathomable gulfs; that of all the great lakes, Erie is the most shallow, not exceeding a mean depth of 120 feet; and that Ontario varies from 450 to 534 feet. According to Darby, who takes a mean depth of 900 feet for the three upper lakes, the contents of the St. Lawrence basin maybe computed at 1,547,011,792,360,000 cubic feet of water.d The amount is certainly stupendous. It would form a cubic column of nearly twenty- two miles each side ; or, if spread round the earth equally on each side of the equator, at a depth of one foot, it would nearly cover the torrid zone, and would actually envelope the whole earth to upwards of three inches in depth. In positive mass, it may be assumed on very solid grounds, that the St. Lawrence basin contains more than one-half of all the fresh water on this planet. The writer above quoted calcu lates the water discharged by the St. Lawrence at 1,672,704,000 cubic feet per hour." In making its way to the ocean, the St. Lawrence, like the Hudson, penetrates an River extensive mountain mass, frequent rapids alternating with lake-like expansions, and renceaw" finally enters the sea, after a course very nearly parallel to the Atlantic coast. In its progress it receives from the United States the waters of Lake George and Lake Lakes Champlain, two fine sheets of water, occupying the northern part of the great glen by champlain. means of which the Hudson pierces the mountain chains. The length of Lake Champlain is 109 miles, and its breadth varies from half a mile to twelve miles. Its depth, like that of the higher lakes of the St. Lawrence, is in many places prodigious. It is in reality the lower plateau of a deep vale. As a basin of inland commerce, it may be truly asserted that the St. Lawrence Capacity of stands alone on the globe. In its main channel the ocean tides penetrate 432 Lawrence miles, or about midway between Quebec and Montreal. Above tide water to Ogdens- basm- burg, the channel is much impeded by shoals and rapids, but in no place actually impassable with vessels, either ascending or descending. Ships of the line of the first class are navigated to Quebec, and vessels of 600 tons to Montreal, upwards of 500 miles from the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Again passing from the river we merge ' Darby, p. 231. e Ibid. p. 233. 10 TOPOGRAPHY' OF BOOK I. Valley of the Mis sissippi. into an inland sea. At the lower extremity of the first expanse of that central sea, Lake Ontario, two ports present their deep recesses to the most unwieldy vessels of war; these are Kingston and Sackett's Harbour. Beyond those spacious havens the harbours of the Canadian Sea are generally shallop, but no region of the earth pre sents such varied, contrasted, and peculiar scenery. Even the majestic Niagara is but the principal object of interest on this expanded canvass. Above the falls of Niagara it is generally only in the rivers that safe anchorage can be found, and in many parts, for great distances, no kind of shelter is offered by the lake shores. Round all the lakes ridges of sand and shingle are traced, which indicate various subsidences of their level, to the depth, in Lake Ontario, in which the occurrence is most strongly marked, of 160 feet. In the remainder of the central valley of the United States, of which the St. Lawrence basin constitutes, to a great extent, the northern boundary, it is a promi nent and obvious feature that the whole of it is drained by one set or system of rivers. Many of them come from very remote distances, and are themselves of great magnitude ; but instead of finding their own way to the sea, they mingle their waters in a common receptacle, and enter the Gulf of Mexico by the mouths of the Missis sippi. We have already seen that no considerable rivers run into the lakes of the St. Lawrence ; and this may prepare us for the fact, which is obvious upon the maps, that many of the streams which pour themselves into the Mississippi arise very near to the lakes themselves. The Ohio, for example, rises within five miles of Lake Erie, and there are many similar cases. But we should scarcely have expected that rivers which have a course of 3000 miles to run, would rise from grounds elevated only a few hundred feet above the level of the ocean. Yet such is the remarkable fact. No mountains, nor grounds of considerable elevation, divide the tributaries of the lakes from those of the Mississippi valley. On the contrary, the waters of Lake Michigan are so nearly on a level with those of the River Illinois, which flows into the Mississippi, that, in flood seasons, their waters not only mingle, but boats of seventy or eighty tons are navigated from the one into the other. The preceding remark may be farther extended, and may be applied to the immense inflected line, of upwards of 2000 miles, from, the sources of the Susquehanna, Genessee, and Allegany, to those of Saskasawin of Hudson's Bay, Maria's River of Missouri, and Clark's River of Columbia. The latter line may be considered as that by which the slope of the Mississippi basin declines from that of the St. Lawrence and Hudson basins. It is entirely destitute of mountains. We may, there fore, consider the basin of the Mississippi as the southern declination of the great central valley of North America ; and as limited on the east by the table land, and not by the actual chains, of the Appalachian system, and on the' west, by the chains of the Chippewayan. the Ohio. THE UNITED STATES. 11 This central valley may be divided into four parts. First, the portion between the CHAP. I. lakes and the Appalachian Mountains ; this is traversed by the Ohio, and its Divisions numerous confluents. Second, the portion between the lakes and the Missouri ; this ?£.th? . 1 Mississipp is traversed by the Mississippi proper. Third, the portion occupied by the Missouri valley. itself, including the course of the river Platte. Fourth, the valley of the Lower Mis sissippi, with the Arkansas and Red rivers. The Ohio valley is subdivided by the river into two unequal sections, leaving Valley of on the right or N. W. side, 80,000, and on the left or S. E. side, 116,000 square miles. The Ohio River flows in a deep ravine, and forms a common recipient for the water poured down from both slopes. The length of the ravine, in a direct line from the city of Pittsburgh to the Mississippi River, is 548 miles, but by the meanders of the stream 948 miles. " The hills," says Mr. A. Bourne/ " are generally found near rivers or large creeks, and parallel to them on each side, having between them the alluvial valley, through which the stream meanders, usually near the middle, but sometimes washing the foot of either hill. Perhaps the best idea of the topography of this region may be obtained by conceiving it to be one vast elevated plain, near the centre of which the streams rise, and in their course wearing down a bed or valley, whose depth is in proportion to their size, or the solidity of the earth over which they flow. So that our hills, with some few exceptions, are nothing more or less than cliffs or banks, made by the action of the streams : and although these cliffs or banks on the rivers or larger creeks, approach the size of mountains, yet their tops are generally level, like the remains of the ancient plain." The confluents of the Ohio which flow from the Appalachian Mountains are, from their sources, pre cipitous torrents, and pursue their courses in deep channels ; whilst those streams which derive their fountains from the north-western slope, although sluggish towards their sources, gain velocity as they approach the Ohio. In its natural state, the valley of Ohio was for the most part covered with a dense forest, but the central plain presents an exception. As far east as the sources of the Muskingum commenced open savannahs, covered with grass and devoid of timber. Like the plain itself, those savannahs expand to the westward, and on the Illinois open into immense natural meadows, generally known under the denomination of prairies. The Ohio, from Pittsburgh to the Mississippi, a course of nearly a thousand miles, falls only about 400 feet, or about five inches in a mile. This river, and its principal branch, the Allegany, are in a striking manner gentle as respects current; and from Hamilton, in the state of New York, to the Mississippi, over a distance of 1158 miles, following the streams, at a moderately high flood it meets, excepting the rapids at Louisville,, with not a single serious natural impediment. The Monongahela, 1 Darby, p. 298. 12 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK I. Source of the Mis sissippi. more impetuous than the Allegany, is yet navigable, without falls Or rapids, by both branches, far into Virginia. On the north-west side of the valley the rivers are extremely rapid. Rising on a table land from 300 to 1000 feet above their mouths, and in no instance having a direct course of 300 miles, the streams, though falling gradually, are almost torrents. The Big Beaver, Muskingum, and Hock- hocking, have direct falls ; but the Sciota, Miami, and Wabash, though rapid, have neither falls nor cataracts to impede navigation. The Ohio valley may be regarded as a great plain inclining from the Appala chian system to the N.W., obliquely and deeply cut by the Ohio and its nume rous confluents, into chasms from an elevation of 460 feet to nearly the level of the streams. In the higher part of the valley, when on the rivers, the banks, with the exception of comparatively narrow flats near the margins, rise by bold acclivities which have a mountainous aspect. This boldness of outline imper ceptibly softens in descending the Ohio, and on approaching the Mississippi, an extent of level woodland bounds the horizon. Ascending the rivers of the south east slope, the scenery becomes more and more rugged, until it terminates in the ridges of the Appalachian chains : on the contrary, if the rivers of the north west slope are followed, we find the landscape broken and varied near the Ohio, but around their sources flat and monotonous. In our survey of the Ohio valley, we have reached the verge of those wide spread prairies, savannahs, or steppes, which, more westward, dilate until forests dwindle to mere clumps or narrow lines of trees along the streams, while in the intermediate spaces extend grassy wastes, which seem to lengthen as the traveller speeds over their tedious surface. In its natural state, an almost unbroken forest spreads over and around the Appalachian system of mountains, reaching to the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and stretching over the St. Lawrence towards Hudson's Bay, and westward beyond the Mississippi and Ohio. This is, perhaps, the most extensive continous forest which exists on earth. The human hand has, indeed, marked its surface by opening a few spots, but the far greater part remains the empire of trees. Beyond this wooded region, to the •west, follows another, far more extensive, but of very different character. The second or grassy tract is not separated from the wooded by any definite limit; in passing from one to the other, the features are so blended as to render the transition imperceptible. In general, the prairie region is less hilly, mountainous, or rocky than that of the forest; but exceptions in both cases are frequent. Plains of great extent do exist in the latter, while mountains of great elevation, mass, and extent, checker the former. The Mississippi rises in Turtle Lake and Lake Lebeish, about N. Lat. 47° 47' and pursues a course of about 1200 miles, previously to its junction with the Missouri. The Ohio, in its north-eastern extreme sources, we have found issuing THE UNITED STATES. 13 from an elevated, mountainous, and highly variegated country ; whilst those of the CHAP. I. Mississippi, on the contrary, ooze from an immense marshy plain, in great part devoid of timber. The space intervening between Lake Superior and the great inflection of the Missouri and the Mandan villages, rises by a rapid acclivity to nearly 700 feet above the lake, and thence spreads towards the Missouri in a level, with a very gentle descent. In this plain the Mississippi rises. It is a circumstance peculiar to this river, that the physiognomy of nature around its head bears so strong resemblance to that of its estuary. A difference of nineteen degrees of latitude precludes much similarity in vegetable or stationary animal production ; but according to Mr. Schoolcraft, who visited the sources in the month of July, the migratory water fowl found there at that time of the year are very nearly the same which flock in countless millions over the delta, in December, January, February, and March. " It is also deserving of remark," says Mr. Schoolcraft, " that its sources lie in a region of almost continual winter, while it enters the ocean under the latitude of perpetual verdure." On a view of the particular valley of the Mississippi, its general monotony first Aspect of strikes the eye. No chains or groups of mountains, or elevated ranges of hills, rise sissippi to vary the perspective. Over so wide a space as 180,000 square miles some valley- - solitary elevations indeed exist, which, for want of contrast, are dignified by the name of mountains ; but few continuous tracts of equal extent afford so little diversity of surface. The upper part of the Mississippi itself is traversed by numerous falls of inconsiderable perpendicular descent ; many places along the banks are high, broken, and precipitous ; but taken as a whole, there is a sameness strikingly in contrast with the ever varying landscapes along the higher part of the Ohio, and upon the Appalachian streams. The Missouri rises in a part of the great Chippewayan mountain system. As viewed Source from the course of this river, the mountains rise abruptly out of the plains, which lie Missouri. extended at their base, and tower into peaks of great height, which renders them visible at the distance of more than one hundred miles eastward from their base. They consist of ridges, knobs, and peaks, variously disposed, among which are interspersed many broad and fertile valleys. The more elevated parts of the moun tains are covered with perpetual snows, which contribute to give them a luminous and, at a great distance, even a brilliant appearance, whence they have derived the name of Shining Mountains. They are clad in a scattering growth of scrubby pines, oak, cedar, and furze, and exhibit a very rugged and broken aspect. The Missouri rises far within the bosom of the mountains, and is divided by a single ridge from the waters of the Columbia, which terminate in the Pacific Ocean. In its early course it flows through small but beautiful and fertile valleys, deeply embosomed amidst the surrounding heights, and forms a variety of islands in its progress, till at length it VOL. II. D 14 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK I. RiverPlatte. issues from these verdant recesses by a rocky pass, which has not unaptly been called by Lewis and Clarke, the Gates of the Rocky Mountains. " The rocks," « say these enterprising travellers, "approach the river on both sides, forming a most sub lime and extraordinary spectacle. For five and three-quarter miles these rocks rise perpendicularly from the Water's edge to the height of nearly 1200 feet. Nothing can be imagined more tremendous than the frowning darkness of these rocks, which project over the river and menace us with destruction. The river, of three hundred and fifty yards in width, seems to have forced its channel down this solid mass; but so reluctantly has it given way, that, during the whole distance, the water is very deep, even at the edges, and for the first three miles there is not a spot, except one of a few yards, in which a man could stand between the water and the towering perpendicular of the mountain ; the convulsion of the passage must have been terrible, since at its outlet there are vast columns of rock torn from the moun tain, which are strewed on both sides of the river, the trophies as it were of the victory. Several fine springs burst out from the chasms of the rock, and contribute to increase the river, which has now a strong current, but very fortunately we were able to overcome it with our oars, since it would be impossible to use either the cord or the pole. We were obliged to go on some time after dark, not being able to find a spot large enough to encamp on; but at length, about two miles above a small island in the middle of the river, we met with a spot on the left side, where we pro cured plenty of lightwood and pitchpine. This extraordinary range of rocks we called the Gates of the Rocky Mountains." The stream called by preeminence Mis souri, is not the main branch, if the documents hitherto published are correct ; the Yellow Stone River appears to be longer than its rival i above their junction, and to receive larger and longer confluents. It rises in the Chippewayan mountains, more to the southward. At the junction of the Yellow Stone and the Missouri, the river, estimated by either branch, has flowed upwards of a thousand miles, and it is little if any less, either in width or depth, than it is at its junction with the Mississippi. A few miles below the influx of the Yellow Stone, the Missouri has reached its utmost northern bend, in N. Lat. 48° 20' ; and curves by a regular sweep of two hundred miles to the Mandan villages. The Platte and Kansas are two great confluents of the Missouri rising in the same mountains* and flowing generally to the eastward, the former 700, and the latter 600 miles. The Platte derives its name from the cir cumstance of its being broad and shoal ; its average width being about twelve hundred yards, exclusive of the islands it embosoms; and its depth, in a moderate stage of water, so inconsiderable, that it is fordable almost every where. The river in several places expands to the width of many miles, embosoming numerous islands, e Lewis and Clarke's Travels up the Missouri, chap, xii THE UNITED STATES. 15 some of which are broad and considerably extensive, and all of them covered with a chap. i. growth of cotton wood and willows. These are the only woodlands that make their appearance along the river, and in travelling westward these become less numerous and extensive, till at length they entirely disappear. The Platte is seldom navigable, except for skin canoes, requiring but a small depth of water, and for these only when a freshet prevails in the river. No attempts have ever been made to ascend the river in canoes for any great distance, the prevalence of shoals, and the rapidity of the current, discouraging such an undertaking. The bed of the Platte is seldom depressed more than six or eight feet below the surface of the bottoms, and in many places even less, and spreads to such a width that the highest floods pass off without inundating the bottoms, except in their lowest parts, the rise of the water on such occasions being no more than five or six feet. The Kanzas is navigable only in high freshets for boats of burden, and on such occasions for not more than one hundred and fifty or two hundred miles, the navigation being obstructed by shoals. The character of this river and its several branches is similar to that of the Platte and its tribu taries. After a direct course of 1870 miles, and a meandering one of 3000, the Missouri falls into the Mississippi. The greatest length of the valley of the Mis- Valley souri, from the mouth of that stream to the head of Maria's River, is 1200 miles; its Missouri. greatest breadth, from the sources of the Platte to a short distance south-east from the Mandan villages, is 700 miles ; with an area of 523,000 square miles, equal to 334,000,000 of statute acres. Three remarkable features exist in it ; first, the turbid character of the water ; second, the very unequal volumes of the right and left con fluents ; and third, the immense excess of the open prairies over the river lines of forest. In the direction of the western rivers, the inclined plain of the Missouri extends 800 miles from the Chippewayan mountains, and rather more than that distance from south to north, from the southern branches of the Kansas to the extreme heads of the northern confluents of the valley. Ascending from the lower verge of this widely extended plain, wood becomes more and more scarce, until one naked surface spreads on all sides. Even the ridges and chains of the mountains partake of these traits of desolation. The traveller in those parts who has read the descriptions of central Asia by Tooke or Pallas will feel, on the higher branches of the Missouri, a resemblance at once striking and appalling. He will regret how much of the earth's surface is doomed to irremediable silence, and, if near the Chippewayan heights in winter, he will acknowledge that the utmost intensity of frost in Siberia and Mongolia has its full counterpart in North America, on similar if not on lower latitudes. But of all the characteristics which distinguish the Missouri and its con fluents, the few direct falls, or even rapids, is certainly the most remarkable. Between Dearborne's and Maria's rivers the stream leaves the Chippewayan range by rolling over ledges of rock for a distance of eighteen miles, after which this overwhelming 16 TOPOGRAPHY OF Valley of the lower Mississippi BOOK 1. mass of water, though every where flowing with great rapidity, nowhere swells into a lake, or rolls over a single cataract in a distance of at least 3500 miles to the Gulf of Mexico. If therefore the Amazon is excepted, the Missouri and its continuation, the Mississippi, afford the most extended uninterrupted line of river navigation which has ever been discovered. After being joined by the Missouri, the Mississippi makes a direct course of 820, or an indirect course of 1265 miles to the Gulf of Mexico. In no circumstance is the physical geography of the United Sfates more remarkable, than in the extreme inequality of the two opposing planes down which are poured the confluents of the Mississippi below the influx of the Ohio. The western inclined plane, falling from the Chippewayan mountains, sweeps over upwards of eight hundred miles, whilst the eastern, sloping from the Appalachian, has not a mean width of one hundred miles. The rivers which drain the two slopes are, in respective length, propor tionate to the extent of their planes of descent. Whilst Red River exceeds a comparative course of 800 miles, the Arkansas of 1000, and White River of 400, the longest stream from the opposite slope falls short of 200 miles. The alluvion brought down by such volumes of water as those of White, Arkansas, and Red rivers, explains satisfactorily the reason why the Mississippi infringes so often on the eastern, and nowhere below the Ohio touches the western bluffs. The lower valley of the Mississippi is the most variegated section of the United States. Every form of landscape, every trait of natural physiognomy, and an exhaustless quantity, with an illimitable specific diversity, of vegetable and metallic productions, are found upon this extensive region. It is flanked on the east by a dense forest, and on the west by the naked ridges and spines of the Chippewayan mountains ; while the deep entangled woods of the Mississippi stand in striking relief against the expansive prairies of the Arkansas and Red rivers. The principal confluent of the lower Mississippi is the Arkansas, which is longer, and drains more surface, than either the Mississippi proper, the Platte, or the Ohio. It rises in the Chippewayan Mountains, and has a direct course of 1400, and an indirect course of 2000 miles. This great river is navigable about 600 miles ; but issuing from an elevated and mountainous region, its main volume and numerous branches are much impeded by shoals and cataracts ; below the mouth of Canadian Fork, however, though passing through a minor chain of mountains, the Arkansas rolls its stream of about 600 yards wide, with great depth, to the Missis sippi. Next in volume and length of course to the Arkansas is Red River, which, like its rival, flows from hidden fountains in the mountains of Santa Fe. By a direct course this stream flows over about 1000, but by its meanders it exceeds in length 1500 miles. Both the Arkansas and Red rivers have their periodical annual swell, and enter their recipient in seasons of flood with immense volumes which ArkansasRiver. Red River THE UNITED STATES. 17 contribute largely to that enormous mass of water which every spring flows over chap. I. Louisiana into the Gulf of Mexico. Impregnated by saline particles, and coloured by ochreous earth, the waters of these two rivers are at once brackish and nauseous to the taste, particularly near their mouths ; that of Red River is so much so, that at Nachitoches, at low water, it cannot be used for culinary purposes. The Mississippi makes its way to the sea through a tract of low country, consist- Mouth of ing of forest, of prairie, and of marsh land. By its immense deposits of earthy sjsesippt ' matter, it has formed in the course of ages an extensive delta, distinguished from those of all other rivers by the protrusion of a cape, or head-land, into the sea. This peculiarity arises from its having but one principal course through the delta itself, so that the debris continually brought down is always driven forward in one direc tion. The cape projects at present thirty miles into the Mexican Gulf, and has extended itself twelve or thirteen miles since the colonization of the country. The river has three main outlets, all of them shallow ; the two deepest of them have only twelve feet water on the bar at ordinary tides. The shallow water, however, is only on the bar. At New Orleans the depth of the Mississippi is one hundred and sixty- eight feet. Having taken this general view of the Mississippi, we may for a moment compare Compa- it with the other great river with which it is so nearly connected. Rising from the Mississippi same vast table land, and having such an extended line of interlocking sources, and the St- ' ° ° ' Lawrence. it is worthy of remark, that no two rivers on earth so essentially differ in their general features, as do the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence. The former is turbid in many places, even to muddiness ; the waters of the latter, and of its lakes, are highly limpid. The channel of one river is checkered with innumerable lakes, some of which are of immense extent, whilst in the other no lakes of any note occur. Annually the Mississippi swells and overleaps its bed, inundating the adjacent shores ; a casual rise of three feet once or twice in any given fifty years is considered a great elevation of the waters of the St. Lawrence. The Mississippi, flowing from north to south, passes through a great variety of climes, whilst its rival, winding from its source in a south-east direction to nearly N. Lat. 41°, turns gradually to the north-east, and again flows into its original climate, of ice and snow. The Mississippi, before its final dis charge into the Gulf of Mexico, divides itself into a number of channels, having their separate egress ; the St. Lawrence imperceptibly expands to a wide bay, which ultimately opens into the gulf of the same name. The banks of the Mississippi, par ticularly near the mouth, present a level scarcely rising above the highest spring floods of that stream ; those of the St. Lawrence generally slope from the river margin by an elegant acclivity, and when cleared from timber, have the aspect of a most delightful basin. Much of the surface within the Mississippi valley is occupied by open grassy plains, where few shrubs or trees break the monotony of the landscape ; 18 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK i. nearly the whole of the St. Lawrence basin, in a state of nature, is covered with a continuous and almost impervious forest. Such are the leading and contrasted features of these two great North American rivers. Inunda- The spring floods to which the Mississippi is subject are remarkable for their Mississippi! ^onS an<^ stea 23 N. lat. 9 38 W.Lon. Hunts-ville. 1819. 'M 38 N. Lat. 9 55 W.Lon. Jan. jHigh. 42 'Low. 10 Mean 29 High. 68 LOW. 10 Mean 40 High. 67 LOW. 16 Mean 42 High. 64 Low. 18 Mean 40 High. 70 Low. 20 Mean 37 High. 66 JLow. 20 Mean 47 High. 74 Low. 20 Mean 47 High., 70 Low,. 27 Mean 51 Feb. 62 10 42 64 18. 39 62 13 39 66 15 40 64 16 42 64 ,18 44 72 20 ¦48 70 28 53 Mar. 54 21 42 62 10 39 67 15 40 68 14 41 63 10 40 68 19 44 80 12 46 76 26 50 Apr. 81 30 60 83 24 56 89 28 54 78 30 57 79 30 57 178 28 58 82 :28- 60 '81 32 63 May 82 40 58 88 42 65 80 34 64 86 44 69 86 42 66 88 50 69 90 38 67 87 42 69 June 90 54 71 90 50 74 86 56 73 98 60 77 94 51 74 97 60 80 92 54 75 92 62 81 July 92 64 76 93 51 75 88 62 72 74 62 77 91 58 74 94 60 79 90 53 76 90 66 81 Aug. 89 60 72 96 50 78 93 56 78 72 60 80 92 52 77 99 56 82 90 58 75 87 69 79 Sep. 89 41 64 92 41 69 88 48 69 89 52 70 90 45 69 94 50 70 94 42 71 86 60 76 Oct. 76 40 54 76 25 55 81 30 52 86 32 56 83 29 55 72 34 60 83 38 62 Nov. 62 32 46 71 20 49 72 22 48 72 32 59 76 28 51 68 30 53 80 22 .54, 79 36 58 Dec. 48 28 37 59 6 30 57 12 35 60 16 39 63 12 38 58 4 37 .., . ... .,. 64 18 42 Mean of the year 54° 2' 55° 7' 55° 6' i 58° 8' 56° 8' 60° 3' incomplete 63° 7' 4. The region ppssessing a warm climate lies between the temperate and a line drawn from Cape Henry in a circular direction below Annapolis, and passing above Tarboro,, and through Fayetteville, Columbia, Augusta, MiMedgeville, and Fort Jackson* in Alabama, and thence a little south of west across the Mississippi, and on to the Sabine River, in the latitude of Nacogdoches, in Texas. In this region the winters commence about the 1st of January, and end about the 1st of March; and the summers commence about the 1st of May, and end about the middle of October J The weather is pretty settled .and steady, and, except in swampy or marshy situ ations, the country is generally healthy. THE UNITED STATES. 25 METEOROLOGICAL TABLE. CHAP. If. Norfolk. 1820. 36 53 N.Lat. 00 47 E. Lon. Augusta. 1818. 33 15 N.Lat. 5 00 W.Lon. Miliedgeville. 1810. 32 55 N.Lat. 6 10 W.Lon. Monroe, 1819. 32 23 N. Lat. 9 38 W.Lon. High. Low. Mean High. 7174 79 83 Low. 19 20 31 22 Mean 51 4854 61 High. 70 68 7084 929592 92 LOW. 173132 42 61 78 78 62 Mean 48 456765 82 878679 High. 727885 87929492 94 9076 Low. 38 293048" 51 57 6365 35 21 Mean 63576372737679 80 62 39 September . . . November. . . . December .... 89 89 838079 65 707471 50 4140 80 7978 675650 100 72 85 Mean of the year incomplete. incomplete. incomplete. incomplete. 5. The hot region extends from the southern extremity of the warm to the Atlantic Hot region. Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. In this climate the summers commence in April and end in November, and the heat is often very oppressive; the winters are often very variable, but generally pleasant and healthy. The whole of this district being on the alluvial formation, there are many sWamps and marshes interspersed through it, and near these the summers are very unhealthy, but in high and dry situations the climate is favourable. The diseases particularly incident to this district are bilious fever, and fever and ague j but on the other hand pulmonary complaints, and many others which prevail in cold countries,, are hardly known. METEOROLOGICAL TABLE. Fort Johnson^ Savannah. Fernandina/Fl. Fort Scott. iNew Orleans. Baton Rouge. . Camp Ripley. 1820. 1'819. 1620. 1820. 1820. 1820. 182d. 33 51 N.Lat. 32 8 N. Lat. 30 37 N. Lat. 30 43 N. Lat. 30 00 N. Lat. 30 36 W.Lon. 31 18 N. Lat. 1 10 W.Lon'. 4 15 W.Lotf. 4 4ft W.Lon. 7 23 W.Lon. 13 10 W.Lon. 15 14 N. Lat. 1'6 50 W.Lori. LOW. Mean High. Low. Mean High. Low. Mean High. Low. Mean High. LOW. Mean High. LOW. Mean High. Low. Mean January . . 63 32 47 75 ,28 53 79 35 55 74 32 55 February . 79 40 55 79 32 57 78 50 65 72 31 61 78 51 64 March . . . 62 34 60 87 30 60 70 50 64 78 38 66 78' 32 61 .. .. . . April .... 82 32 67 89 34 64 85 45 72 89 44 68 78 58 73 86 42 70 87 55 76 May 82 60 69 93 56 74 86 61 74 88 56 74 87 72 79 90 58 75 88 54 7(5 June .... 84 ,64 75 97 64 78 87 67 78 91 50 78 91 72 86 ,94 .60 81 92 57 78 August'. . . 89 75 81 94 68 78 87 71 80 91 60 79 90 80 82 90 70 79 93 72 81 90 72 83 91 68 78 .8* 70 79 i92 68 80 92 :78 85 92 74 83 94' 65 82 September. 86 67 78 92 60 76 87 73 80 80 65 75 88 71 81 88 64 77 ,92 56 77 Octdber". . . 84. 50 67 87 41 661 85 60' 69 89 60 70 84! 4'5 65 ¦88 40 '67 85 48 66 November. 79 40 61 ., , . . . 76 43 64 78 40 60 75 39 57 84 36 .61 84 32 60 December . 70 51 57 75 50 61 84* 32 59 77 39 60 76 40 60 79" 28 53 66° 7' incomplete. 70° 1' 68 V incomplete. incomplete. incomplete. ... , . ...... — r- — -• - <- - .iI_-~i_:LJ: -r* n " : — . - . . .¦.;..,, .... . — :J_S. -—"•—* ¦ \ It is woftlly of remark that the heat, though it is of longer' duration in' the warm and hot regions1, is not of greater intensity than in the cold arid very cold. > In the 26 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK I. latter the thermometer reaches 98°, or even 99° ; while in the former the summer heat is generally below that line, and only once appears in the tables above it, namely, at 100°. We add a table, giving a more general view of the subject under con-i sideration. General ' view of tern, perature. General Abstract from all the. Observations made at the Military Posts of the United States for 1820 ; Thirty-seven Posts, extending from SO0 -to 45° 55' North Lat. and 6° 46' East to 19° 45' West Longitude. Average at Highest, and place of observation. Lowest, and place of observation. 7A.M. 2p.M. 9p.m. Vj l_ I H.I dl Average Range. January . . 25 33 29 29 79 Fernandina f-30 St. Peters 109 February . 38 46 32 42 79 Fort Johnson" -17 Plattsburg 96 March . . . 41 49 44 45 78 Belle Fontaine -10' St. Peters 88 April . . . 56 66 60 61 94 Council Bluffs 10 Ditto 84 May .... 61 71 65 66 90 Montpellier 22 Ditto 68 June .... 70 84 74 76 99 Prairie des Chiens 50 Ditto 49 July .... 74 82 75 77 98 Fort Mifflin, Philadelphia 54 Ditto 44 August . . 73 81 75 76 *105 Council Bluffs 53 Boston 52 September . 67 76 70 71 99 Ditto 30 St. Peters 69 October . . 52 60 56 56 88 Baton Rouge 20 Prairie des Chiens 68 November . 42 50 46 46 84 Camp Ripley -7 St. Peters 91 December . 34 41 37 37 84 Fort Scott -30 Ditto 114 General Mear 52 62 56 57 *105 Sunday, 13th of August t-30 Sunday, 30th of January 135 Value of thermome- trical ob servations. Mr. Melish informs us that the observations from which his tables were compiled were taken, as we believe similar observations have generally been, at the hours of seven a. m. and two and nine p. m. ; but we agree in the opinion that this method gives a mean temperature much too high. It is obvious that the coldest portion of the twenty-four hours, that between nine in the evening and seven in the morning, is wholly excluded from the calculation. It appears also, as might have been expected, that, by taking the morning observations very early, Messrs. Brantz and Haines have produced tables with a mean temperature lower, and doubtless more correct, than others. As a specimen of the deductions to be made on this ground from Mr. Melish's tables,. which we have given above, our readers may refer to the city of Washington, in the second region, the mean temperature of which is stated to be 58°, while Mr. Brantz reduces" it to 52° and I, Mr. Haines to 49°, and Mr. Darby finally adjudges it to 53° and |. Climate, however, is not to be determined by the mere use of the ther mometer. Great as the importance of this instrument is, when accurately constructed and properly employed, it is liable to so much error and unskilful use, and has yielded, in point of fact, so many irreconcileable and obviously mistaken results, that little dependence can be placed on it alone. Hence arises the necessity of taking into the account prevailing winds, the freezing of rivers, vegetable indications, and whatever else may be auxiliary to "a correct judgment. The following table, exhibiting the THE UNITED STATES. 27 course of the winds and the state of the atmosphere at various places in the United CHAP. II. States, is given by Mr. Melish, as compiled from official information : Places, Portsmouth Boston Mackinaw, Oct. Nov. Dec. . . St. Peters, eleven months . . . New York, Jan. Feb. March . Philadelphia . Washington Sackett's Harbour Prairie des Chiens, nine months Council Bluffs Detroit, six months Pittsburg Norfolk, six months Fort Johnson Fernandina Fort Scott Baton Rouge, eleven months . Camp Ripley, nine months . . Winds. N.W. 147 64 16 74 3776 875880621054 333732 7 69 27 N. E 40 43 13 21 8 65 3.5 47 9 34 9 365545 82 11 3531 S.E. 22 16 17 71 3 31 24 4226 113 18 5821 35 145 16 05 46 S. 35 37 6 34 0 28 40 25 8 46 76 28 2 108 6 71 17 20 S.W .2888 9 70 28 65 55 888127 17 7151 40 41 15 103 74 W. 41 49 17 53 6 13 56 38 27 16 20 42 5 25 20 146 8 28 Atmosphere. Clear 208224 12 223 54 216 222 186138 236 84 210 123 216257209 162 129 31oudy Rain 116 23 84 35 24 33 32 57 15 14 85 55 58 72 93 54 51 46 73 48 86 12 55 45 39 21 78 64 88 7666 Snow ^| In the ,,„ Svery cold „. j climate in 9 13 | 37 ^ Cold 9 11 2j 20 Temperate 3 Warm °l0 VHot of Course of the winds, and state of the at mosphere. In this table the state of the atmosphere deserves notice., for the very large propor tion of dry and clear weather. This is a highly characteristic and important feature of the North American continent, as contrasted, at least, with our own country, and • contributes much to diminish the rigour and increase the salubrity of the climate. For the further illustration of the prevailing winds we insert two tables given by Mr. Darby: Abstract of the prevailing Winds at various points of the United States, above North Latitude 35°. The whole numbers reduced to proportions of 1000. Places of Observation. N.E. N. N.W. W. S.W. S. S.E. E. Prevailing winds above N. Lat. 35°. 122 100 394 79^ 132 32 112 28 32 58 159 274 79 86 241 73 Basin of Columbia . 130 20 118 44 401 33 200 53 Valley of Missouri . 117 58 294 73 244 21 141 48 Council Bluffs . . . 71 196 151 53 101 246 134 61 Fort Howard .... 384 23 . 23 26 535 13 3 6 Fort Crawford . . . ' 33 186 250 53 101 190 137 10 New Harmony . . . 101 131 124 165 221 155 65 33 164 22 211 77 343 22 135 26 s Washington City . . 165 65 ¦257 72 238 96 90 14 194 303 208 295 , Philadelphia . . . . 196 49 227 120 255 58 69 32 Germantown . . . . 97 48 194.3 301 167 49 64 78.5 116 24 301 69 210 130 134 29 Newport, R. Island. 112 101 218 61 335 66 89 33 Eastport, Maine. . . 68 109 229.7 159 123 234 26 69 2102 1190 3454 1638 3693 1231 1929 593.5 28 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK I. Prevailing winds below N. Lat. 3,5°. Abstract of the prevailing Winds at various points of the United States, below. North Latitude 35°. The whole reduced to proportions of 1000. Places of Observation. N.E N. N.W. w. S.W. S. S.E. E. Baton Rouge .... 2,3:6 5 133 83 208 94 153 100 Pensacoja 417 36 97 47 83 25 250 58 Cantonment Jessup . 146 79 99 65 151 ' 109 235 127 Tampa Bay . , . . . St. Augustine , . . . 416 36 97 47 83 25 250 58 Charleston, S. C. . . 228. 59 38 57 127 169 186 126 Smithville, N. C. . , 42 293 109 141 52 299 21 53 Amount , . . . 1485 508 573 440 704 721 1095 522 The general result deducible from, these tables, which are in harmony with many other observations, is, that westerly winds prevail above N. Lat. 35°, and easterly winds below it. In the former table, out of 15,830 decimal numbers 8785 are from the N. W. W. and S. W. ; in the latter, out of 5048 decimal numbers 3102 are from the N. E. E. and S. E. This course of the winds is conceived by Mr. Darby to be owing to no circumstances peculiarly affecting the North American continent, but rather to some more general, though little understood, causes, which give a similar determination to the air in similar latitudes over the whole earth. He connects the ascertained facts with the ingenious theory, that the winds, uninfluenced by local interruptions, follow a parabolic curve from the polar to the tropical regions of the earth, with the sweep of the curve eastward. Mildness of Comparing with each other the several parts of the United States in the same the Pacific, latitudes, two diversities of climate may be noticed!. The maritime district on the Pacific Ocean is much warmer than corresponding latitudes on the Atlantic. At the mouth of the river Columbia, in N. Lat, 46°, the thermometer is seldom below the freezing point ; while on the eastern part of the continent the winters in this parallel are excessively cold. This seems to arise from the. prevalence of westerly winds in the latitudes in question, a cause which makes all western coasts in similar parallels of milder climate than the eastern. In addittion to this, it. has been supposed, also, that the country in the valley of the Mississippi hasj milder winters than the Atlantic shores, Many persons seem to have been influenqed to go into the interior by this idea, which was strongly maintained by the French traveller, Volney; but which, after exciting much diversity of opinion, is now shown to be as contrary to fact as it was in; the first instance to probability. Mr- Darjby thus sets the question at rest. Referring to the growth of vegetables, he says,a " I surveyed southern, Louisiana Supposedmildness of the interior. View of the United States, p. 421. THE UNITED STATES. 29 from the Sabine eastward, and found the live oak, quercus sempervirens, flourishing CHAP. II. along the rivers in the delta and its vicinity ; but when the great body of woods which bounds the delta above the marshes and prairies is passed, and the north-west winds from Texas have full sweep along the Calcasiu and the Sabine, the live oak ceases. In the delta this production is found as high as N. Lat. 30° 22', rising to the majesty of a forest tree ; yet in their utmost range in the basin of Mississippi this and the chaemerops, or dwarf palm, cease far south of their limit on the Atlantic coast. The large palm (cabbage tree) is not found in Louisiana. The live oak rises to consider able height and column as high as the mouth of Cape Fear River, N. Lat. 34°, full 3£° beyond its greatest northern residence in the central basin. In Louisiana the orange tree cannot be cultivated to much advantage above N. Lat. 30°, and it ceases altogether about a degree farther north; the sugar cane, with a slightly higher locality, does not flourish beneficially much above the orange ; but both these vegetables are profitably cultivated along the Atlantic coast as high as N. Lat. 33° 30'. We thus find tender vegetables either indigenous, or cultivated as objects of emolu ment, on latitudes along the Atlantic coast where no art could produce a similar effect directly west on the Mississippi. Natchez stands on a hill, or series of hills, about one hundred feet above the ordinary level of the Mississippi at N. Lat 30° 33', almost directly west from Sapelo island; but at Natchez, and even on the low banks of the Mississippi, opposite that city, neither the orange nor cane could be cultivated. The thermometer, whilst I myself resided in the vicinity, fell to 12° above zero near that city, in December, 1799. No winter passes at Natchez without severe frost, and snows are there annual and not seldom deep, and resting on the ground from five to ten or twelve days. I once, in January, 1812, witnessed at Opelousas snow eleven inches deep, which did not entirely disappear in less than seven or eight days. The Ohio and all its branches, as well as other rivers more westward, are more deeply, more fre quently, and longer frozen than those on the Atlantic Slope by a difference of three or four degrees of latitude." It is obvious, therefore, that the supposed mildness of the Ohio Valley, so much insisted on by Volney and others, has really no existence ; but that, on the very contrary, the cold of winter is several degrees more severe in the interior than on the Atlantic border of the United States upon any given latitude. In addition to the general division of the climate of the United States which we Climate of the Mis- have already given, we may add the following view of that of the Mississippi Valley, sissippi for which we are indebted to the industrious observation of Mr. Flint." We may Valley- conceive four distinct climates between the sources and the outlet of the Mississippi. The first, commencing at its sources and terminating at Prairie du Chien, corre sponds pretty accurately to the climate between Montreal and Boston, with this difference, that the amount of snow falling in the former is much less than in the e Geography and History of the Western States. VOL. II. F 30 TOPOGRAPHY OF book I. latter region. The growing of gourd seed corn, which demands a higher temperature to bring it to maturity, is not pursued in this region. The Irish potatoe is raised in this climate in the utmost perfection. Wheat and cultivated grasses succeed well. The apple and pear tree require fostering and southern exposure to bring fruit to perfection. The peach tree has still more the habits and the delicacy of a southern stranger, and requires a sheltered deelivity with a southern exposure to succeed at all. Five months in the year may be said to be under the dominion of winter. For that length of time the cattle require shelter in the severe weather, and the still waters remain frozen. — The second climate prevails over the opposite states of Missouri and Illinois in their whole extent, or the country between 41° and 37°. Cattle, though much benefited by sheltering, and often needing it, here seldom receive it. It is not so favourable for cultivated grasses as the preceding region. Gourd seed corn is the only kind extensively planted. The winter commences with January, and ends with the second week in February; the ice in the still waters after that time thaws. Wheat, the inhabitant of a variety of climates, is at home, as a native, in this. The persimon and the pawpaw are found in its whole extent. It is the favoured region of the apple, the pear, and the peach. Snows neither fall deep, nor lie long. The Irish potatoe succeeds to a certain extent, but not as well as in the former climate ; but this disadvantage is supplied by the sweet potatoe, which, though not at home in this climate, with a little care in the cultivation, flourishes. The grandeur of the vegetation, and the temperature of March and April, indicate an approach towards the southern regions. — The third climate extends from 37° to 31°. Below 35°, in the rich alluvial soils, the apple tree begins to fail in bringing its fruit to perfection ; apples worth eating are seldom raised much below New Madrid. Cotton, between this point and 33°, is raised, in favourable positions, for home consumption, but is seldom to be depended upon for a crop. Below 33° commences the proper climate for cotton, and here it is the staple article of cultivation. Festoons of long moss hang from the trees, and darken the forest, and the palmetto gives to the low alluvial grounds a grand and striking verdure. The muscadine grape, strongly designating climate, is first found here. Laurel trees become common in the forest, retaining their foliage and their verdure through the winter; wheat is no longer seen as an article of cultivation, but the fig tree brings its fruit to full maturity. — Below this limit to the gulf, is the fourth climate, the region of the sugar cane and the sweet orange tree. It would be, if it were cultivated, the region of the olive. Snow is no longer seen to fall, except a few flakes in the coldest storms ; the streams are never frozen ; winter is only marked by nights of white frosts, and days of north-west winds, which seldom last longer than three days in succession, and are followed by south winds and warm days. The trees are generally in leaf by the middle of February, and always by the first of March. Bats are hovering in the air during the night, and fireflies are seen by the middle of February. Early in March the forests are in blossom; the delightful THE UNITED STATES. 31 white flowers of the cornus florida, and the brilliant red tufts of the redbud, or cereis chap, ii canadensis, are unfolded ; the margins of the creeks and streams are perfumed with the meadow pink, or honeysuckle, yellow jessamine, and other fragrant flowers. During almost every night a thunder storm occurs. Cotton and corn are planted from March to July. In these regions the summers are uniformly hot, although there are days when the mercury rises as high in New England as in Louisiania ; the heat, however, is more uniform and sustained, commences much earlier, and continues much later. From February to September thunder storms are common, often accompanied with severe thunder, and sometimes with gales, or tornadoes, in which the trees of the forest are prostrated in every direction, and the tract of country which is covered with the fallen trees is called a ' hurricane.' The depressing influence of the summer heat results from its long continuance, and its equable and unremitting tenour, rather than from the intensity of its ardour at any given time ; it must, however, be admitted, that at all times the unclouded radiance of the vertical sun of this climate is extremely oppressive. The winters, through the whole extent of the country, are variable, passing rapidly winters. from warm to cold, and the reverse. Near the Mississippi, and where there is little to vary the general direction of the winds, they ordinarily blow three or four days from the north. In the northern and middle regions the consequence is cold weather, frost more or less severe, and perhaps storm, with snow and sleet ; during these days the rivers are covered with ice. When the opposite breeze alternates, there is immediately a bland and relaxing feeling in the atmosphere ; it becomes warm, and the red-birds sing on these days in January and February, as far north as Prairie du Chien. These abrupt and frequent transitions can hardly fail to have an unfavourable influence upon health. From 40° to 36° N. Lat. the rivers almost invariably freeze, for a longer or shorter period, through the winter. At St. Louis on the Mississippi, and at Cincinnati on the Ohio, in nearly the same parallels, between 38° and 39°, the two rivers are sometimes capable of being crossed on the ice for eight weeks together. Although the summers over all this valley must be admitted to be hot, yet the Summers. exemption of the country from mountains and other impediments to the free course of the winds, and the circumstance that the greater proportion of the country has a surface bare of forests, together probably with other unexplained atmospheric agents, concur to create, during the sultry months, almost a constant breeze ; it thence happens that the air on these wide prairies is rendered fresh, and the heats are tempered in the same manner as is felt on the ocean. The same degree of heat in the spring does not advance vegetation as rapidly in the south as in the north. " We have seen a brilliant sun, and felt the lassitude of warm spring days continued in succession," says Mr. Flint, " and yet have remarked the buds to remain almost stationary, and the deve lopment of vegetation to be almost imperceptible ; while the same amount of heat at Quebec would have completely unfolded the foliage, and clothed the earth with verdure." 32 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK I. It is a very prominent feature of the climate of North America that it is much colder Coldness than similar latitudes in Europe; as appears strikingly from the fact that the New withPEu- England states, which fall within the very cold or coldest section of the republic, rope. are m tne same latitude as Italy. The principal cause of this difference is to be found, doubtless, in the vast extent of land which, with little intermission, stretches into the north-polar regions, and forms an immense deposit of ice and snow for the refrigeration of the southern lands. The changes of the seasons are for the most part abrupt; and on the Atlantic coast it appears that very sudden and extensive changes of the weather are of frequent occurrence. Influenceof One of the causes operating on the climate of the United States, in a direction con^ the Gulf .... Stream ; trary to that which we have just noticed, is the oceanic current, commonly known as the Gulf Stream. It is now well ascertained that a current exists in the ocean, by which the whole body of water, for as much as 28° on each side of the equator, flows towards the west. This current setting in from the coast of Senegal, in Africa, is borne against that of central America, where a very large division of it forces its way into the Gulf of Mexico, whence it issues through the Bahama Channel, along the shore of the United States to Cape Hatteras, and towards Cape Cod. Mr. Darby shows, by tables con structed with great care, that the surface of this current is considerably warmer than that of any other part of the ocean. In 3° N. Lat. it was found by Humboldt at a temperature of 83°, gradually, and almost uniformly, cooling at greater distances from the equator, and at 40° N. or S. standing at 55° and 57°, a difference of 28°- From a variety of observations, it appears also that the temperature of the water of the Gulf Stream exceeds that of the air above it, generally by several degrees, and sometimes by nearly 20°. It is obvious, therefore, that this immense current, running always with considerable rapidity, and in the Bahama Channel with the force of a torrent, reaching sometimes the rate of five miles an hour, must have a great effect in diffusing caloric through the atmosphere, and especially upon the eastern and south-eastern shores of the United States. Allied to this oceanic current is the aerial one, the trade and of the wind, which is known to flow in the same direction, and probably originates in the same cause, namely, the diurnal revolution of the earth. This current moves through the West Indies and the adjacent seas until it meets the American continent, which, in' consequence of being slanted off from S. E. to N. W., impels the current of air in a similar course, and the current which passes towards the North American continent diverges over it in different directions. One branch takes a N.W. direction and passing over New Mexico, and thence between the Stony Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, spends its force probably about N. Lat. 50°. Another branch takes a N. E. direction, and blows partly over the mountains, but principally between the mountains and the Atlantic Ocean ; it seems to spend its force about the Potowmac although it sometimes reaches as far as Philadelphia and New York. A third branch passes up the valleys of the Mississippi and Ohio, having often all the characteristics tradewinds. THE UNITED STATES. S3 of the original trade wind, and is so strong that it frequently passes over the large CHAP. II. lakes, and sometimes reaches Montreal, and even Quebec. With respect to the climate of the United States, two ideas have been entertained, Whether which still demand briefly to be noticed. It has been conceived by some persons to has im™* 6 have undergone a considerable change for the better since its colonization by Proved ; Europeans. This idea may have originated perhaps in the same causes as a similar one respecting the climate of Europe ; and it appears to be equally without founda tion. On the contrary, there seems sufficient reason to conclude that, with whatever local and temporary variations, the climate is substantially unchanged. The winter, cold over the United States, as every where else on earth, is in direct intensity with height, latitude, and exposure; the interior states being more exposed to the influence of a central, elevated, and frozen table land, have winters much more severe than are experienced on similar latitudes on the Atlantic Slope ; and the interior summers are equally in excess. But if the general climate has not altered, it has been confidently believed, that as the country was cleared and the timber removed, or the win- the winters have become milder. That the clearing and improvement of a region miider. "" may contribute to its salubrity we entertain no question, the ways being obvious by which such a result must be produced ; but we agree with Mr. Darby in thinking that it leads to no elevation of temperature. " Employed," says this gentleman, " ten or twelve years in exploring the prairies of Louisiana, I had ample means to test the "seasons of a country naturally devoid of forest trees ; and in the frequent, and sometimes not slight, snows of Opelousas, N. Lat. 30f°, I, as early as 1805, became convinced that removing timber must produce the very reverse of melioration, and then suspected, what is now proved, that in very open countries the range of the thermometer must be augmented." To this testimony may be added that of Mr. Dunbar, of Natchez, a close and very competent observer, respecting land which had been partially cleared. " It is with us a general remark that of late years the sum mers have become hotter, and the winters colder, than formerly. Orange trees, and other tender exotics, have suffered more in the neighbourhood of New Orleans within these four or five years than before that period ; the sugar cane also has been so much injured by the severity of the first of the two last winters as greatly to discourage the planters, whose crops, in many instances, have fallen to one-third, or less, of their expectations. In former years I have observed the mercury of the thermometer not to fall lower than 26° or 27° ; but for a few years past it has generally, once or twice in the winter, fallen as low as from 17° to 20°, and on the 12th December, 1800, it was found sunk to 12°, which has hitherto had no parallel in this climate, and indicates a degree of cold which in any country would be reckoned consider able, and which probably may never again be produced by natural means in Lat. 31° 30'. As this apparent alteration of climate has been remarked only for a few years, and cannot be traced up to any visible, natural, or artificial change of sufficient 34 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK I. magnitude, it would be in vain to search for its physical cause. Dr. Williamson and others have endeavoured to show that clearing, draining, and cultivation, extended over the face of a continent, must produce the double effect of the relaxation of the rio-ors of winter, and an abatement of the heats of summer. The former is probably more evident than the latter; but, admitting the demonstration to be conclusive, I would inquire whether a partial clearing, extending thirty or forty miles square, or to 300,000, or 3,000,000, may not be expected to produce a contrary effect by admitting with full liberty the sunbeams on the uncovered surface of the earth in summer, and promoting during winter a free circulation of cold northern air." f To us it appears that Mr. Dunbar might have spoken with much greater confidence, and that the partial clearing of the country is a sufficient physical cause for the diminution of the tem perature. Method of To find the probable mean temperature of any place by comparing it with another mnean tem-6 of which the temperature is known, Mr. Darby suggests that one degree of Fahrenheit anyaP'lace?f maY be allowed for one degree of latitude, and the converse ; and that 400 feet of elevation may be assumed to lower the thermometer one degree : he adds, however, very justly, that so many circumstances contribute, slightly, to influence the thermo meter, that only general results can be expected from such comparisons, and that when the difference of latitude becomes considerable, they would be altogether delusive. The rains of the United States are represented as occurring very irregularly, not only in the course of a single year, but through a succession of years. No sufficient data have yet been provided for the formation of philosophical views on this subject ; but Mr. Darby has furnished us with tables of the monthly quantity of rain in several successive years at Baltimore, Germantown, and New Harmony, of which we avail ourselves. The Baltimore table we shall insert entire, adding to it the monthly mean quantities of the other two places. Rains in the United States. Table of the monthly depth in inches of rain at Baltimore, from Mr. Brantz s Tables. 1817 1818 1819 1820 1821 J 822 1823 1824 Mean. Mean at German- town, Mean at New Har mony, January . . . February .... June September . . . October ... November. . . . December .... 2.25 2.8 4.5 1.5 2.6 9.1 3.5 10.4 3.31.83.7 3.6 .9 2.0 3.02.1 6.45 1.15 4.1 2.0 3.2 ' 3.12.0 2.6 .7 1.9 4.55 2.74.1 1.3 2.24.3 3.0 .7 1.12-2 2.82.2 3.3 1.14.4 4 0 2.28.0 1.5 7.8 2.7 1.9 3.3 5.4 17 21 5.1 1.8 7.50-3 107 3-4 56 3.3 1.8 4.8 1.3 2.1 1.51.5 4.35 .8 225 2.55.1 1.2 5.6 .7 7.1 1.8 2.1 1.63.64.1 5.82.8 3.16.25 2.35.94.34.72.955.03 3.374.5 2.94 1.772.27 2.25 2.853.225 3.71 2.20 3 65 3.663.85 4.3 4.45 2.975 3.22.9 2.18 3.583.072.622.87 3.224.25 3.48 3.273.503.01 3.05 4.31 4.043.38 4.52 2.614.41 3.544.84 2.802.84 1.62 3.94 42.85 Amount. 48.55 32.6 28.75 40.5 50.2 29.2 44.55 42.28 39.97 38.10 f Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. vi. p. 40. THE UNITED STATES. 35 The Soil of the United States is naturally enough represented as comprehending CHAP. II. every kind, from the very best to the very worst. Of course it is not to be supposed soiToTthe that it divides itself into such spaces as to render possible an accurate general estimate Fmjtesd of it ; we may nevertheless throw out a few hints of somewhat general application, leaving the minuter details for the account which we shall subsequently give of indivi dual states. We may first notice that portion of the republic with which our readers are by this time familiar, under the name of the Atlantic Slope ; we mean the country Atlantic east of the Apalachian Mountains, from Cape Cod to Louisiana. Next to the ocean °pe" are salt meadows, or marshes, nearly level, sloping a very little towards the water, above which their surfaces have but little elevation wherever they are found. They are covered with a peculiar kind of grass, which is from six to twelve inches high, of a reddish colour, and grows very thick, the roots of which form a very compact turf or sward, and which requires a sharp instrument and considerable force to cut it. They are overflowed by the salt water a few inches deep several times in a year by the spring tides, and this appears to be necessary to the retention of their peculiar character; for if the water is kept from them by dykes, the upland grasses take root, the turf moulders away or loses its tenacity, and in a few years their appearance is completely changed. As the surface of these meadows lies a little above common high-water mark, there is generally a slope of about six feet in two or three rods, to low-water mark; and this slope is covered with a coarse tall grass called sedge, which requires a partial inun dation every tide, or twice in twenty-four hours, to bring it to maturity. Adjoining the salt meadows, on the same level, and at the farthest extent to which the salt water flows at spring tides, fresh meadows commence^ by an almost imperceptible line of distinction, and they generally extend to the upland; but sometimes there is wet ground covered .with bushes or a swamp between them and the upland. They are wet and. soft, and few will bear a waggon. Similar meadows are sometimes found several miles from any salt meadows Or salt water, and generally at the heads of rivers, where the face of the country is level. The general appearance of all these meadows is the same; being covered with wild grass of different kinds from twelve to thirty-six inches high, according to the quantity of water in the soil, and the more water there is, the coarser and taller the grass will be, until flags and rushes take its place. The meadows are much lower than the upland, and were evidently formed by the agency of water, which has deposited an alluvial soil, composed of the finer particles from the higher grounds, and of decayed vegetable substances. If they are drained by a large ditch round them at the foot of the upland, and one through the lowest part of them, so that the water from it may soon run off, they become hard, will produce cultivated grass and even trees, and will in a few years lose all their former features, except their low situation and level aspect. 86 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK I. Mississippi Valley. Timberedcountry. Barrens. The soil of this section is to a great extent sandy ; very light, therefore, and some times barren, more especially near the coast, where also is much marsh land, with extensive swamps. These swamps are in many places to an immense extent covered with an impenetrable growth of timber, especially of the cypress and some species of pine, the maturity of which is favoured by the deep clayey soil, augmented by a fresh deposit every year ; Louisiana, towards the sea, exhibits a great breadth of this cha racter through its whole reach. Along the rivers there is found a considerable quantity of rich clay ; many fertile spots likewise are interspersed among the sands, and the land generally improves as it approaches the mountains. The central portion of the slope between the mountains and the sea possesses the best soil, the change of which is particularly discernible along the course of the rocky ridge which has already been described in our account of this region. In the alluvial district of Louisiana the soil is for the most part deep and rich ; it is also strong and vigorous on the Red River. Along the range of the Apalachian Mountains a thin and poor soil prevails, mingled, however, with many rich and productive valleys. In the northern portion of it are a large number of boulders, which give to the country a very stony and barren appear ance, even where the soil is fertile. When we cross the mountains, and come to the great plain descending from them to the Mississippi, we survey an immense extent of almost universally fertile country. The general surface of the Mississippi Valley may be classed under three distinct aspects, — the thickly timbered, the barrens, and the prairie country. In the first division, every traveller has remarked, as soon as he descends to this valley, a gran deur in the form and size of the trees, a depth of verdure in the foliage, a magnificent prodigality of growth of every sort, that distinguishes this country from other regions. The trees are large, tall, and rise aloft, like columns, free from branches. In the rich lands they are generally wreathed with a drapery of ivy, bignonia, grape vines, or other creepers. Intermingled with the foliage of the trees are the broad leaves of the grape vines, with trunks occasionally as large as the human body. Sometimes the forests are as free from undergrowth as an orchard; at others the only shrub that is seen among the trees is the pawpaw, with its splendid foliage and graceful stems ; but often, especially in the richer alluvions of the south, beneath the trees there are impenetrable cane brakes, and a tangle of brambles, briar vines, and every sort of weed ; which constitute the safe retreats of bears and panthers. This under growth universally indicates a rich soil. The country denominated barrens has a very distinct and peculiar configuration. It is generally a country with a surface undulating with gentle hills, characterized by long and uniform ridges. The soil is for the most part of a clayey texture, of a reddish or greyish colour, and is covered with a tall and coarse grass. In addition to a peculiarity of aspect more easily felt than described, the trees are generally thinly scattered, seldom THE UNITED STATES. 37 large or very small. They are chiefly of the different kinds of oaks, and the trees of the chap. II. barrens have an appearance and configuration appropriate to the soil they inhabit. The land never exceeds second rate in quality, and is more generally third rate. It is favourable, in the proper latitudes, to the growth of wheat and orchards. The barrens are found in a level country, with here and there a gentle rise, only a few feet higher than the land around it. On these little elevations, for they are not hills, trees grow, and grass also; but grass and weeds are the only occupants of the soil where there is no rise of ground. The soil is alluvial to a greater or less depth in the barrens, though on some of the highest points there is little or none ; the lower the ground the deeper the alluvion. On these elevations, where there is no alluvion, is stiff blue clay, without pebbles. Under the alluvial soil in the lower grounds are pebbles. On the little ridges, wherever the land is not too moist, the oak or the hickory (walnut) has taken possession, and there grows to a moderate height in clusters. It would seem, that whenever the land had become sufficiently dry for an acorn or a hickory nut to sprout, take root, and grow, it did so ; and from one or more of these trees, in time, others have grown around them in such clusters as we now behold; where the land is lower, and the soil deeper, more moist and more fertile, the grass was too thick, and the soil too wet, for such kind of trees to grow as were found in the immediate vicinity. Imagine, then, natural meadows of various dimensions, and of every figure which the imagination can conceive, with here and there a gentle rise of ground, decked with a few scattered trees or a thick cluster of them, and bearing a tall coarse grass, which is thin on the elevated parts, but on the lower grounds thick and luxuriant; imagine, also, a rill of a reddish colour, scarcely meandering through ground a little lower than the surrounding plain — and you will have a very correct idea of the appearance of these barrens. On the whole the barrens have an aspect so peculiar and appropriate, that no person at all used to this country is in doubt for a moment when he enters on the region occupied by them. There are large districts of this kind in Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama ; it is common in Illinois and Missouri, and is seen with more or less frequency over all the valley of the Mississippi. In this region, and in the hazel or bushy prairies, are most frequently seen those singular cavities called sink-holes. They are generally in the shape of funnels, or inverted cones, from ten to seventy feet in depth, and on the surface from sixty to three hundred feet in circumference. There are generally willows and other aquatic vegetables at their sides and bottoms ; there is little doubt that they are caused by running waters, which find their way through the limestone cavities beneath the upper stratum of soil. The remaining, and by far the most extensive surface, is that of the prairies. Prairies. Although they have no inconsiderable diversity of aspect, these may be classed under three general divisions ; the heathy, or bushy; the alluvial, or wet; and the dry, or VOL. II. G 38 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK I. rolling prairies. The heathy prairies seem to be of an intermediate character between the alluvial prairies and the barrens. They have springs. They are covered with hazel and furze bushes, small sassafras shrubs, with frequent grape vines, and in the summer with an infinite profusion of flowers ; the bushes are often overtopped with the common hop vine. Prairies of this description are very common in Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, and they occur among the other prairies for a considerable distance towards the Chippewayan Mountains. The dry or undulating prairies are for the most part destitute of springs, and of all vegetation, but weeds, flower ing plants, and grass. To the sight they are so nearly level, and the roundings of their undulations so gentle, that the eye, taking in a great surface at a single view, deems them a dead level; but the ravines made by the water-courses through them, sufficiently indicate that their swells and declinations communicate a quick motion to the waters that fall on them. This is by far the most extensive class of prairies. These are the plains over which the buffaloes range ; and it is these plains, without wood or water, in which the traveller may wander for days, and see the horizon on every side sinking to contact with the grass. The alluvial or wet prairies form the last and smallest division. They generally occur on the margins of the great water-courses, although, they are sometimes found, with all their distinctive features, far from the points where waters now run. They are commonly basins, as regards the adjacent regions, and their outlines are marked by regular benches. They are for the most part of a black, deep, and very friable soil, and of exhaustless fertility. In the proper latitudes they are the best soils for wheat and maize, but are ordinarily too tender and loamy for the cultivated grasses, though they rear their own native grasses, of astonishing height and luxuriance. An exact account of the size and rank- ness of the weeds, flowering plants, and grass on the richer alluvial prairies of Illinois and Missouri, would seem to those who have not seen them an idle exaggeration. Still more than the rolling prairies, they impress the eye as a dead level ; but they still have their slight inclinations and depressions, where their waters are arrested and carried off: yet, from their immense amount of vegetation, and from the equality of their surface wherever they are considerably extensive, they have small ponds, and bayous, which fill from the rivers and from rains, and are only exhausted during the intense heats of summer, by evaporation. These ponds, in the alluvial prairies that are connected with the rivers, when they overflow by bayous, are filled in the season of high waters with fish of the various kinds ; as the waters subside, and their connecting courses with the river become dry, the fish are taken by cart loads among the tall grass, where the water is three or four feet deep. When the waters evaporate, during the heats of summer, the fish die, and although thousands of buzzards prey upon them, they become a source Of pollution to the atmosphere; hence these prairies, beautiful as they seem to the eye, and extraordinary as is their THE UNITED STATES. 39 fertility, are very unfavourable positions, in point of salubrity. Flocks of deer are CHAP. II. seen scouring across these rich plains, or feeding peaceably with the domestic cattle. In the spring and autumn innumerable flocks of water-fowls are seen wheeling their flight about the lakes and ponds of these prairies, and they find copious pasture in the oily seeds of the plants and grasses that have seeded during the summer. During the months of vegetation no adequate idea could be conveyed by description of the number, forms, varieties, scents, and hues of the flowering plants, or of the various flowers of the richer prairies. In the barrens are four or five varieties of ladies' slippers, of different and the most splendid colours, but the violets, and the humbler and more modest kinds of garden flowers, are not capable of competing with the rank growth of grass and weeds that choke them; some of the taller and hardier kinds of the lilliaceous plants struggle for display, and rear themselves high enough to be seen. Most of the prairie flowers have tall and arrowy stems, and spiked or tassellated heads, and the flowers have great size, gaudiness, and splendour, without much fragrance or delicacy. The most striking of these flowers we may notice further in another place ; only remarking here, that during the summer the prairies present distinct successions of dominant hues as the season advances. The prevalent colour of the prairie flowers in spring is bluish purple; in midsummer, red, with a considerable proportion of yellow ; in autumn the flowers are very large, many of them of the helianthus form, and the prairie receives from them such a splendid colouring of yellow, as almost to present to the imagination an immense surface of gilding. The northern shores of Lakes Ontario and Erie, the western shore of Lake Huron Soil in dif- (the eastern shore of Lake Michigan is sandy and barren), and the general surface of ofthe Mis- the valleys of the Ohio, the Illinois, and the Mississippi, afford a highly productive sissippi val- soil. The extended valley of the Tennessee, also, more to the southward, is one of the most fertile portions of the republic. The same character of fertility extends itself beyond the Mississippi below the Missouri, until it is checked by the Ozark Mountains, the productive portion of which is confined to the valleys. On the banks of the Mis souri, likewise, and for some distance up its tributary streams, rich soil is found. The same may be said of the Mississippi above its junction with the Missouri ; but towards the sources of these rivers the ground is extremely barren. The southern coast of Lake Superior is either sandy or rocky, and generally sterile. To the west of the Ozark Mountains and of the Missouri the soil becomes less and less fertile, till at length we reach an immense tract of sand and barrenness, extending the whole way to the Chippewayan Mountains. This portion of the United States is rendered more desolate by the large quantity of salt and magnesia contained both in the soil and the rivers ; it has been, not unjustly, called the Great Desert of North America, and bears no inconsiderable resemblance to the tract of the same denomination in Africa. It never can be permanently inhabited. Eastward of the Mississippi 40 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK I. Soil beyond the Chippe wayan mountains. Diversity of soils. there is a copious natural growth of timber ; but the region westward of that river is marked by the gradual diminution and final disappearance of this im portant production, a circumstance by which the country is rendered unfit for settlers, independently of the quality of the soil. Lumber is almost totally absent from the banks of the Missouri above the River Platte, although the soil still continues rich. With the Chippewayan mountains commences a change. The summits of these mountains, of course, are sterile, being rugged rocks, and covered with snow the greater part of the year ; but among them are sheltered and fertile valleys. The timber in the mountains is pine, spruce, fir, and the other terebinthines. The terrace plains below generally have a fine soil, but are very deficient in timber. The prairies, like those in the Mississipi valley, are covered with grass, and a profusion of most beautiful flowers. Among the prairie plants are two or three kinds of edible roots, which furnish vegetable food to the savages, as an accompaniment to the great proportion of salmon which they devour. Wild sage is also an abundant herb; it grows of a size and height like a small tree, and on these extensive plains is one of the principal articles of fuel. The sea shore, for a considerable distance to the interior, is skirted with deep and thick forests of evergreens, such as pine and hemlock. On the whole, it is believed that few countries on the earth have a more fertile soil and agreeable climate than the valleys of the region west of the Rocky Mountains. When a farmer clears the land of the United States, under the trees he finds a stratum of black vegetable mould, more or less thick in proportion to the original properties of the soil, the time that the trees have been dropping their manure upon it, and the declivity which obstructs or facilitates its washing away ; for this mould is lighter than water, and runs off rapidly from the sides of the hills, and seldom or never lays long on the steep descents of mountains. While this bed of vegetable mould remains, the labour of the farmer is rewarded by rich and abundant crops ; for when he sows and reaps from such a soil, four or five years before he exhausts it, he not only expends as many years' natural production, but he consumes many hundred or perhaps thousand years' accumulation of natural manure, which it would require a very long time for the common operations of production and decomposition to replace. While this vegetable mould is in sufficient quantities on the surface, the land is more or less fertile, independently of the nature of the earth on which it lies ; it is when this coat of manure is gone, and the land worn out by constant cropping, that the soil shows its fertility, as depending on the nature of the rock of the country, and the species of earth or loam resulting from their decomposition. It is at that time that the difference between a granite and limestone soil appears, and any one can see the effects, though few ever think of inquiring into the cause ; yet it is evident that the washing and decomposition of a granite soil, can only afford sand mixed with a small THE UNITED STATES. 41 proportion of clay, from the mode in which the rocks divide in their process of decom- CHAP. II. position ; and even this small quantity is liable to filter through the interstices left in the aggregates of gravel, by the form of their crystalline particles. The limestone, on the contrary, by its easy solution and facility of decomposition, furnishes to the exhausted soil, with every rain, a quantity of food, fitted by solution for vegetable absorption, as well as a great quantity of mould divided and triturated into impalpable powder, which forms an excellent pabulum, through which the vegetable can receive the other fluids necessary for its growth. Meantime this mould forms a retentive base or soil, which prevents the filtration of the smaller particles, and even retains the water in its pores, so as to give it out by regular evaporation to the surface, when necessary for the increase and support of the plants that may be sown on the land. In such a variety of climate and exposure, in a country alternately covered in Salubrity of one point with the thickest forests, and in another spreading out into grassy plains, states?1 6 in one section having a very dry, and in another a very humid atmosphere, and having every shade of temperature, from that of the Arctic regions to that of the West Indies, there must necessarily be generated all the forms and varieties of disease that spring simply from climate. Emigrants will always find it unsafe to select their residence near stagnant waters and creeping bayous, on the rich and heavy timbered alluvions ; yet these, from their fertility, and the ease with which they are brought into cultiva tion, are the points most frequently selected. The rich plains of the Scioto were the graves of the first settlers ; but they have long since been brought into cultivation, and have lost their character for insalubrity. A thousand places in the west, which were selected as residences by the first emigrants on account of their fertility, and which were at first regarded as haunts of disease and mortality, have now a character for salubrity. On the lower courses of the Ohio, the Wabash, the Tennessee, the Mississippi and its southern tributaries, — in short, wherever the bottoms are wide, the forests deep, the surface level and sloping back from the river, and the vegetation rank ; wherever the rivers overflow, and leave stagnant waters that are only carried off by evaporation; wherever there are in the bottoms ponds and lagoons, to catch and retain the rains and the overflow, it may be assumed as a general maxim that such positions will be unhealthy, and more or less so as more or fewer of these circum stances concur. Wherever these causes of disease exist, there is no part of the country which has not a summer of sufficient heat and duration to quicken them into fatal action. The very rich and extensive alluvial prairies of the upper Mis sissippi and of the Illinois, which are covered with a prodigious growth of grass and weeds, generally contain marshy basins, small lakes, and ponds, where the water from the bluffs and the high lands is caught and retained. They will ordinarily prove unhealthy, some think more so than the timbered country, until these reser voirs of stagnant waters are all drained, and the surplus vegetation is burned off, or 42 TOPOGRAPHY OF book I. otherwise removed by the progress of cultivation. These places strike the eye with delight. Their openness and exposure to be swept by the winds seem to preclude them from the chance of sickliness ; their extraordinary fertility and their being at once ready for the plough, held out allurements to emigrants ; but there seems to be in the great plan of providence a scale in which the advantages and disadvantages of human condition are balanced. Where the lands are extremely fertile it seems to be appended to them, as a drawback to that advantage, that they are generally sickly. Emigrants have scarcely ever paused long enough, or taken sufficient elements into the calculation, in selecting their residence with a view to its salubrity. When the choice is to be made they are often encumbered with families, generally feel stinted both for time and money, and are in a hurry to Commence operations for the supply of their wants ; they are thus apt to give too little weight to the most important motive of all which ought to determine their election. A deep bottom, a fertile soil, a position on the margin of a navigable stream; these are apt to be the determining elements of their choice. The heavy forest is levelled ; a thousand trees moulder and putrify about the cabin ; the stagnant waters which, while shielded from the action of the sun by the forest, had remained comparatively innoxious, exposed now to the burning rays of the sun, and rendered more dele terious by being filled with trunks and branches of decaying trees and all kinds of putrid vegetation, become laboratories of miasma, and generate on every side the seeds of disease. When it is known that such have been precisely the circumstances in which a great portion of the emigrants to the western country have fixed themselves, in open cabins that drink in the humid atmosphere of the night through a hundred crevices, in a new and untried climate, under a higher temperature, under the operation of a new diet and regimen, and, perhaps, under the depressing influence of severe labour and exposure, need we wonder that the country has acquired a general cha racter of- unhealthiness ? With every allowance, however, there can be no doubt, that in the southern and middle regions of this valley, the wide, level, and heavy timbered alluvions are intrinsically more or less unhealthy ; neither can it be disguised, that in these situations the new resident is subject to bilious complaints, to remitting fevers, and, more than all, to intermitting fever, or fever and ague. This complaint is the general scourge of the valley. It is an undoubted fact, explained in different ways and by different theories by the people, that even in the most unfavourable positions, on the lower waters of the Ohio, or even the bayous of the Arkansas or Red River, the emigrant is not so much exposed to disease while his cabin is still under the shade of the unbroken forest. The most dangerous period is, after the trees have been levelled a year or two, and while they are still decaying about the dwelling. This well-known fact would seem to give plausibility to the doctrine, that these deep and grand forests feed their foliage with Effect of clearing the forests, THE UNITED STATES. 43 an atmosphere that is adverse to the life of man; and that when the timber is cleared chap. II. away, the miasma, the noxious air, that used to be absorbed and devoured by the redundant vegetation and foliage of the forest, and incorporated with its growth, thus detached and disengaged, and inhaled by the new residents, becomes a source of disease. Another fact, in relation to the choice of a residence, with a view to its salubrity, has been abundantly and unanswerably proved by experience. It is, that bluffs on the margins of wide bottoms and alluvial prairies are more unhealthy than inferior sa- situations in the bottom, or prairie, which they overlook. This fact has been ^bluffs. amply demonstrated on the Ohio bottoms and bluffs, on the margins of the alluvial prairies of the upper Mississippi, and, in short, wherever a high bluff overlooks a wide bottom. The inhabitants on the airy and beautiful bluffs that bound the noble prairies of the upper Mississippi, in an atmosphere apparently so pure as to preclude all causes of disease, are far more subject to fever and ague than the people that live below them on the level of the prairies ; the same has been remarked of the Chickasaw bluffs, Fort Pickering, or Memphis, Fort Adams, Natchez, Baton Rouge, and the bluffs generally along the great water-courses. Yet, though such is the uniform lesson of experience, so deceptive is the salubrious aspect of these airy hills, which swell above the dun and murky air that seems to lie like a mist over the wide bottoms below them, that most people, in choosing their residence, will be guided by their senses in opposition to experience. We know not whether the theory by which this fact is explained is a sound one or not. It is said that the miasma or noxious air from putrid vegetation and stagnant water in the swamps and bottoms, is specifically lighter than atmospheric air ; that, of course, it rises from the plains, and hovers over the summits of the bluffs, here finding its level of specific gravity ; and that, were it coloured, it would be seen overlaying the purer strata of air beneath it. — The slopes of the Alleghanies, the interior of Ohio and Kentucky, of Tennessee and Indiana, where the forest is cleared away and the land has been for a sufficient time under cultivation, and where it is sufficiently remote from stagnant waters — the high prairies of Illinois and Missouri, the dry pine woods of the lower and southern country, parts of the plains of Opelousas and Attakapas, considerable portions of Alabama and Mississippi, and generally the open country towards the Chippewayan Mountains may be considered as healthy as any other country. It is a very .trite, but a true and important remark, that in proportion as the country becomes opened, cultivated, and peopled, in proportion as the redundance and rankness of natural vegetation is replaced by that of cultivation, the country becomes more healthy.6 • Flint's Western States. 44 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. NATURAL HISTORY. INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. book II. The discovery of the continent of America was, emphatically, the discovery of a new world. Although possessing, of course, many things in common with the other parts of this globe, and exhibiting proofs not only of a community, but of an identity of origin, and similarity of general character, it presented striking and interesting novelties in every department of nature's works. Many of its productions in the animal and vegetable worlds are not only peculiar, but both beautiful and useful in no ordinary degree, and have done much to enlarge the menagerie, to adorn the shrubbery, and to augment the resources of trade ; while, though in some instances latest in attracting regard, the bosom of the earth contains not only ample treasures of metallic wealth, but splendid, if not unique specimens for the cabinet of the mine ralogist, and new facts of no little curiosity for the geological inquirer. This extended and engaging field of scientific research has attracted, in part, the obser vation of which it is worthy ; but up to the present period the examination of it is far from being complete in any direction. That portion of this immense continent to which our attention is directed, namely, the territory of the United States, possesses in its full proportion the interest which attaches to the whole ; and we shall endea vour to collect, from all the authentic sources to which we have access, the matters of principal importance, so that our pages shall contain a summary view of the existing state of natural science as it respects this portion of the globe. We shall treat of the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal kingdoms, under the titles Geology, Mineralogy, Botany, and Zoology. w SI H w H w H THE UNITED STATES. 45 CHAPTER 1. Considering the comparatively recent date of geology as a European science, it is chap. i. not surprising that earlier attention was not paid to it in America. The first con- Progress of siderable attempt towards a scientific view of the character and relations of the sp0'0^"11 strata in the United States was made by Mr. Maclure, a short time previous to the year 1812. His work, though small, and necessarily general in its statements, was a very valuable commencement, and has served both as a guide for subsequent inquirers, and a kind of carte blanche, on which their corrections or their discoveries may be inscribed. The field of geological research having been so well opened, the number of these subsequent labourers has been by no means small, and their inves tigations have been conducted with much skill and success. It has been our endeavour, in the necessarily condensed account we have prepared of the geology of the United States, to avail ourselves of the most recent information, and to illustrate this interesting subject by a map as accurate and complete as the fragments of knowledge in this department would enable us to compile. We have added such other drawings as appeared most material. In order to obtain a view of the general geological formation of the territory of Geological the United States, it will be advantageous to recall the features of its physical structure geography — the Apalachian Mountains on the east, with the slope from them to with physi- the Atlantic Ocean; the Chippewayan Mountains to the west, with the valleys inter vening between them and the Pacific Ocean ;a and the extended valley between these elevated ranges, with the Ozark Mountains dividing it in the centre, and the Black Mountains occupying its north-western angle. The geological structure of the country is intimately connected with these natural features. To begin with the Chippewayan, as by far the most elevated rangeb. The Chippe- summits of this chain of mountains are formed entirely of primitive rocks, and almost wayan . J L mountains. * Observations on the Geology of the United States by W. Maclure. b See James's Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, vol. iii. VOL. II. H 46 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. Primitive and transi tion rocks. Secondary rocks. — Sandstone. exclusively, not merely of the granitic family, but of granite itself. The primitive clay-slate and limestone appear to be entirely wanting, together with mica-slate, while gneiss occurs in small quantity, and the granite passes into it by imperceptible gradations. As many members of the primitive class are here absent, the transition rocks of the Wernerians are altogether so. Immediately upon the granite rests a red and saline sandstone; and this through the whole length of the mountain chain, so far as it has been examined, without the intervention in any case of any other rock. We discover here, therefore, comparatively few traces of that magnificent profusion of animal and vegetable life, which in other parts of the globe has reared mountains of limestone, clay-slate, and those other aggregates, which if not entirely, are often in a great measure made up of the exuvia? of living beings. The western boundary of this formation of sandstone corresponds to the side of the easternmost granitic ranges. From the Platte towards the south, the sandstone increases in width, and on the Canadian it extends more than half the distance from the sources of that river to its confluence with the Arkansa. It consists of two members. 1. Red sandstone. — This rock, which is the lowest of the horizontal or flcetz rocks met with in this part of the country, is very abundant in all the region immediately subjacent to the mountains. It occurs at intervals along their base, reposing against the primitive rocks in an erect or. highly-inclined position. It varies in colour from bright brick-red to dark brown, and is sometimes found exhibiting various shades of yellow and grey ; it is, however, almost invariably fer ruginous; and the predominance of red in the colouring certainly entitles.it to the distinctive appellation of red sandstone. The lowest part of the stratum has frequently least colour, and is also the most compact and hard. This is not, however, invariably, the case ; for in the neighbourhood of the Platte, that part of it which lies immediately upon the granite is white, and contains beds of coarse conglomerate or puddingstone. At the lowest points which could be examined, are found embodied large oval or irregular masses of hornstone, usually of a yellowish white: or bluish colour; and near the surface of these masses, are found the few well-marked organic relics the stratum can be said to contain. Higher up the rock becomes much softer, and usually of a browner colour. It. is disposed in immense horizontal laminae or strata, which, when broken transversely, exhibit some tendency to separate into frag ments of, a rhombic form. The character which most particularly distinguishes this rock from the old red sandstone of Werner, pointed out by Maclure in New York and New Jersey, appears to be the constant accompaniment of gypsum and muriate of soda. 2. Argillaceous or grey sandstone. Immediately above the red sandstone, where any rock rests upon it, a grey or yellowish-white sandstone is found, which is the second variety. It most frequently contains a large proportion of argillaceous earth in the cement, and has a more or less slaty structure. The line of separation THE UNITED STATES. 47 betwixt the two is often manifest and well defined, and in other instances they pass CHAP. I. by imperceptible gradations into each other. The upper or grey sandstone is usually more compact and homogeneous than the red; it breaks, like the former, though more rarely, into large cubic or rhombic masses, which, on account of the more compact texture of the stone, retain their form longer than those of the other variety. The precipices formed by both are often lofty and perpendicular ; but the projections and angles of the red are more worn and rounded than those of the grey. The narrow defiles and ravines which the streams of water have excavated, are less tortuous when they are made entirely in the grey sandstone than in other instances ; and the springs of water flowing from it are more free of mineral impregnations than such as are found in the other variety. The sandstone formation just described, though it must be supposed to have been at one time horizontal and uniform, is now found in a state of entire disruption and disorder. This may be best described, perhaps, by supposing oneself to be approaching the mountains from the valley of the Mississippi. The surface of the sandy plain rises perceptibly towards the base of the mountains ; and becoming con stantly more and more undulating, is at length broken, disclosing some cliffs and ledges of micaceous sandstone. This sandstone occurs in horizontal strata, some times divided by the beds of the streams, and forming low ridges parallel to the mountains. They are separated from the first range of primitive by more elevated cliffs of a similar sandstone, having its strata in a highly inclined position. Behind these, occur lofty but uninterrupted ranges of naked rocks, destitute of any covering of earthy or vegetable matter, and standing nearly perpendicular. At a distant view, they present to the eye the forms of walls, towers, pyramids, and columns, seeming rather the effect of the most laborious efforts of art, than the productions of nature. When surveyed from the more elevated summits of the first granitic range, these immense strata of sandstone standing on edge, and sometimes inclining at various angles towards the primitive, resemble the plates of ice often seen thrown into a vertical position in the eddies and along the banks of rivers. The position of the strata of sandstone varies in the distance of a few miles from nearly horizontal to an inclination of more than sixty degrees, and that without any very manifest change of character, or the interposition of any other stratum. The laminae most distant from the primitive, occupying the eastern sides of the first ridges, though lowest in actual elevation, may with propriety be considered the uppermost, as resting on those beyond. At the level of the surface of the great plain, they sink beneath the soil, and in the neighbourhood of the river Platte they are no more seen. This tract of sandstone, which skirts the eastern boundary of the Chippewayan Mountains, and appears to belong to that immense secondary formation which occupies the valley of the Mississippi, abounds in scenery of a grand and interesting 48 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. character. The angle of inclination of the strata often approaches 90°, and is very rarely less than 45°. That side of the ridges next the primitive appears to have been broken off from a part of the stratum beyond, and is usually an abrupt and perpen dicular precipice, sometimes even overhanging and sheltering a considerable extent of surface; the face of the stratum is usually smooth and hard, and both sides are alike destitute of soil and verdure. Elevations of this description are met with varying from twenty to several thousand feet in thickness. Neither are they by any means uniform in height; some of them rise, probably, three or four hundred feet; and considering their singular character, would appear high, were they not subjected to an immediate and disadvantageous comparison with the stupendous Andes at whose feet they are placed. Their summits in some instances are regular and horizontal, and are crowned with a scanty growth of cedar and pine. Where the cement and most of the materials of the sandstone are silicious, the rock evinces a tendency to break into fragments of a rhombic form; and in this case the elevated edge presents an irregularly notched or serrated surface. Sandstones consisting of silex with the least intermixture of foreign ingredients, are the most durable ; but in the region of which we speak, the variations in the composition, cement, and characters of the sandstone are innumerable ; clay and oxide of iron enter into its composition in con siderable proportions, and render it unfit to withstand the attacks of the various agents whose effect is to hasten dissolution and decay. Highly elevated rocks of this description may well be supposed in a state of rapid and perceptible change. The sharp angles and asperities of surface which they may have originally presented are soon worn away; the matter constantly removed by the agency of water from their sides and summits is deposited at their feet ; their elevation gradually diminishes, and even the inclination of their strata becomes at length obscure or wholly undiscover- able. This appears to have been a part of the process by which numerous conical hills and mounds have been interspersed among the highly inclined naked rocks above mentioned; they are often clothed with considerable verdure to their summits, and add greatly to the beauty of the surrounding scenery. The contrast of colours in this rude but majestic region often produces the most brilliant and grateful effects. The deep green of the small and almost procumbent cedars and junipers, with the less intense colours of various species of deciduous foliage, acquires new beauty from being placed as a margin to the glowing red and yellow seen on the surfaces of many of the rocks. The sandstone along the base of the mountains, though apparently not very recent, contains the remains of marine animals and plants, and embraces some extensive beds of puddingstone. Trap rocks. Overlying the red sandstone, southward of the Arkansa, are rocks of basaltic origin. They present a striking contrast, by their dark colour, by the vastness and irregularity of their masses, to the smooth, light, and fissile sandstone on which they THE UNITED STATES. 49 rest. Sometimes they are compact and apparently homogeneous in their composition, CHAP. I. and in many particulars of structure, form, hardness, Sec. more analogous to the " primitive rocks than to those recent secondary aggregates with which they are associated. In other instances, black and shapeless masses of porous and amygdaloidal substances are seen scattered about the plains or heaped in conical masses, but having no immediate connexion with the. strata on which they rest. Most of the rocks belonging to this class were observed in the neighbourhood of the sources of the Canadian; and may be distinguished into two kinds, referable to the two divisions called greenstone and amygdaloid. 1. Greenstone. It appears in this district under almost every variety of form Green- and character noticed by mineralogists. Sometimes it is nearly or quite free ^°ne' from any intermixture of hornblende, is of a fine dark green colour, and closely resembles some varieties of serpentine ; sometimes its colour is a dull grey, gradu. ating into brown and black of various shades and intensities. It forms numerous conical hills, of considerable elevation, scattered without order, or grouped in various directions. These hills are usually of a regular and beautiful form. The great plain on which they repose is elevated, and destitute of timber or water, but ornamented with a carpet of thick and verdant grasses ; and the hills, though steep and high, are sometimes smooth and green to the summit, the surface on all sides being unbroken by trees or rocks, and covered with thick turf. The whole forms a scene of singular beauty. " During our journey across the district now under consideration, says Dr. James, we had constantly occasion to admire the freshness and abundance of the grasses and other herbaceous plants. The plains of the Platte and Arkansa we had seen brown and desolate, as if recently ravaged by fire ; but here we passed elevated tracts, where, for many miles, we could find no water for our own necessities, yet the vegetation possessed the freshness of spring in the most fertile regions." But the conic hills just mentioned are not the only form under which the greenstone appears. It sometimes rises in low irregular ridges, extending a considerable distance, and sloping on both sides into the level of the plain. In the narrow chan nels which the streams of water have sunk in it, may be seen perpendicular preci pices of great elevation, but the valley between them is usually almost filled with large broken masses of the rock, which frequently exhibit a prismatic form. It falls readily into large masses, but seems strongly to resist that progress of disintegration which it must undergo before it can be removed by the water. The face of the per pendicular precipices is almost invariably marked by distinct and large seams running nearly parallel to each other, and at right angles with the horizon. Following the water-courses, which are sunk a considerable distance below the surface, the line of separation from the sandstone on which the greenstone rests at length becomes visible. 50 TOPOGRAPHY OF Amygda loid. BOOK II. 2. Amygdaloid, a porous or vesicular rock, of a very dark grey, greenish or black colour, usually found near the greenstone, but sometimes in connexion with the sandstone. In its ultimate composition it resembles greenstone, but there were never seen in it such large fragments of felspar and scales of mica as were observed in that rock. The amygdaloidal cavities which every where penetrate this rock are of various sizes, some of them appearing like bubbles which have been formed in a semi fluid mass, and afterwards lengthened and variously distorted by the motion of the contiguous matter. Near the surface they contain a soft white or yellowish-white substance, very different from the rock itself, usually a soft chalk-like carbonate of lime. This gives the recent surface a mottled appearance ; but on surfaces which have been for some time exposed to the air, this soft substance has been removed, and the pores and vesicles are found empty. Amygdaloid does not appear to occupy any very great extent of the country near the mountains. It was not met with im bedded in, or surmounted by, any other rock. Like the greenstone, it forms conical hills, which sometimes occur in deep water-worn valleys, bounded on both sides by perpendicular walls of sandstone ; it is likewise seen in the high plains, sometimes in the form of narrow and crooked ridges, apparently following what were anciently the beds of small brooks. When either of the two rocks last mentioned occur, it is not uncommon to find detached masses of a stone somewhat resembling the pumice- stone of commerce. It is usually of a faint red or yellowish-white colour, but some times it is brown, or nearly black. It feels less harsh than the pumicestone which is used in the arts, and seems to consist in a great degree of clay. It appears to be entirely similar to the substance brought down the Missouri by the annual floods, and by many considered as a product of pseudo-volcanic fires, said to exist on that river. With regard to the soils resting upon the rocks of this trap formation, it may be worthy of remark, that gravel and water-worn pebbles rarely occur, except in situations where it is easy to see that they may have been derived from the substratum of sandstone. Pieces of charred wood were found in the sandstone underlying the trap rocks ; but the travellers of Major Long's party did not observe any thing analogous to the whin-dykes of Europe, nor do they notice an altered character in the trap and sandstone at their junction. Before we advert to any other object in the field we are now viewing, the valley immediately to the eastward of the Chippewayan range claims our attention, on account of its close geological connexion with those mountains. We have seen already that the sandstones of this region, diminishing in their elevation as they recede from the granite, dip at a moderate angle under the bed of the valley. After they are lost sight of, the valley itself consists of an immense accumulation of sand, the apparent debris of the mountains. The soil to an unknown depth is constituted of gravel made up of rounded granitic fragments, varying in dimensions from the size Chippe wayan desert. THE UNITED STATES. 51 of a six-pound shot to finish sand. This great mass of granitic fragments, evidently chap. I. brought down by the agency of water from the sides and summits of the mountains, slopes gradually from their base, and appears, as far as examinations have extended, to correspond, in some measure, to the elevation and extent of that part of the mountains opposite which it is placed. The minute particles derived from the quartzose portions of the primitive aggregates, being least liable to decomposition, have been carried to the greatest distance, and now form the almost unmixed soil of the eastern margin of the great sandy desert : the central portions are of a coarser sand, with which some particles of feldspar and mica are intermixed; nearer the mountains, pebbles and boulders become frequent, and at length almost cover the surface of the country. It is probable that many parts of this extensive desert may differ from that traversed by the Platte, in having the surface more or less covered with horizontal strata of sandstone and conglomerate, instead of loose sand and pebbles; indeed, there are many appearances indicating that a formation of this kind formerly extended down the Platte much farther than at present. Towards the north the sands con tinue to the margin of the Black Mountains ; and below these still farther to the east, until met by some more recent deposits intervening between them and the Ozark range. From the strong saline impregnation and the brick-red colour of the streams, especially below the Arkansa, there is reason to suppose that the red or saline sandstone is continued at no great depth under the sand to near the mouth of the Canadian river. Let us now look at the next most considerable mountain range, the Apala- Apala chian ; in geological structure, as well as in other respects, differing widely from Mountains. that we have just "been contemplating. A large portion of these mountains, the Primitive whole of their eastern front, is composed of primitive rocks, comprehending both the granitic family and its associated strata of clay-slate and limestone. In New England the rocks of this class constitute the sea-coast, and, with some exceptions, extend inwards to the St. Lawrence, so as to form the general aspect, as well as the most elevated parts of the country. Southward of the Hudson the edge of the primitive follows the general contour of the mountains, at a considerable but variable distance from the sea, to their termination, and until it meets more recent deposits at the extremity of the mountain range. The breadth of this primitive belt is very unequal. It occupies but a small part of the country, where it passes through the states of Pennsylvania and Maryland, in which the highest part of the range of mountains to the west consists of transition, with some intervening vallies of secondary strata. In Virginia, the primitive increases in breadth, and propor tionally in height, constituting the greatest mass, as well as the most elevated points of the mountains in the states of North Carolina and Georgia. Besides this range, there is a great mass of primitive on the west side of Lake Champlain, 52 TOPOGRAPHY OF book II. having that lake and Lake George for a boundary on the east, joining the primitive in Canada to the North and North-west, and following a line from the Thousand Islands in St. Lawrence, running nearly parallel to the Mohawk river, until it meets Lake George as a south-west limit. This mass of primitive rocks runs across the Mohawk at the Little Falls, and near to Johnstown, where it is covered by lime stone; it occupies all the mountainous country between Lake Champlain, the St. Lawrence, and Lake Ontario. In general, the primitive rocks run from a north and south to a north-east and south-west direction, and dip generally to the south-east at an angle of more than forty-five degrees with the horizon ; their highest elevation is towards their north western limit, whence they gradually descend to the south-east, there being covered by more recent strata; and the greatest mass, as well as the highest mountains, consisting of primitive rock, is found towards the northern and southern extremities of the range. The mountains of this formation generally consist of detached masses, with rounded flat tops and a circular waving outline, as the White Hills to the north ; or conically waving with small pyramidical tops, as the peaks of Otter, and the ranges of hills to the south. Granite in large masses forms but a small part of this forma tion, and is found indifferently on the tops of mountains and in the plains ; it is both large and small grained, is mixed occasionally with hornblende and talc, and contains, as in Europe, rounded masses of a rock consisting of hornblende and feldspar, in small grains, disseminated through it ; it generally divides vertically into rhomboids, and, except in some very small grained varieties, there is no appearance of stratification. When found in low situations, as in the interior of South Carolina and Georgia, it is ' frequently so far decomposed as to have lost the adhesion of its particles, to the depth of thirty or forty feet below the surface ; each crystal is in its place, and the whole looks like solid granite, while you may take it up in handfuls like sand and gravel. Gneiss extends perhaps over a half of this formation, (though some writers have taken a lower estimate,) and includes in a great many places beds from three to 300 feet thick of a very large grained granite, which run in the same direction, and dip as the gneiss does ; it is in those beds generally that the emerald, phosphat of lime, tourmaline, garnet, cymophane, octahedral iron ore, graphic granite, &c. &c. are found. These beds are mixed, and alternate occasionally in the same gneiss, with the primitive limestone, the beds of hornblende and horn blende slate, serpentine, magnetic iron ore, and feldspar rocks. In some places the gneiss contains so much mica as to run into mica slate ; in others, large nodules of quartz or feldspar ; in others hornblende takes the place of the mica ; in short, I scarcely know any of the primitive rocks, says Mr. Maclure, that may not occa sionally be found included in the gneiss formation. Primitive clay-slate is not abundant, but the granular limestone is so. and wherever found is observed to be the THE UNITED STATES. 53 uppermost in the series of primitive rocks. In this region hornblende rocks, porphyry, CHAP. I. and serpentine are not wanting, and primitive trap or greenstone occurs abundantly. Several dykes are mentioned by Mr. Hitchcock0 as deserving of more minute investi gation. It has been observed that the granite by no means generally constitutes the most elevated parts of this region. From the highly crystalline gneiss rock at Philadelphia, there is a gradual ascent, across strata more and more recent, to the rocks of the coal formation, about the summit of the Alleghanies ; and some of the granitic mountains of New England are far surpassed in elevation by the neigh bouring hills and ridges of mica slate, talcose rocks, or even more recent aggregates. Below the Hudson, where the primitive rock is no longer bounded by the sea, it is in immediate contact, through its whole length, with secondary and tertiary beds, of which we shall have occasion to speak when we refer to the Atlantic Slope. On the other side, an immense body of transition strata, according to Werner, reposes on the primitive. These are to be traced on the eastern side of Lake Champlain, to within a short distance of New York, whence they stretch in a line corresponding with the general direction of the mountains to their southern extremity, the whole way constituting the north-western boundary of the primitive rocks. The breadth of the transition district, like that of the primitive, is variable. Transition Narrow towards the Gulph of Mexico, it widens gradually towards the north-east, till it reaches the river Hudson. From its upper portion it sends off a considerable arm, penetrating for several hundred miles into the granitic region, or overlying it, but running parallel with the principal body. After the primitive it forms some of the highest mountains in the range, and appears to be both higher and wider to the west in, the states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and part of Virginia, where the primitive is least extended and lowest in height. It contains all the varieties of rocks found in the same formation in Europe. It is generally broadest where the primitive is narrowest, and vice versa; its breadth varying from twenty to one hundred miles: the stratification runs from a north and south to a north east and south-west direction, dipping' generally to the north-west at an angle in most places under forty-five degrees with the horizon ; on the edge of the primitive it deviates in some places from this general rule, and dips for a short distance to the south-east. The most elevated ground is on the confines of North Carolina and Georgia, along the south-east limits to Magotty Gap, thence descending towards the north-west until it meets the secondary; from Magotty Gap north-easterly, the highest ground is on the north-west side, sloping gradually towards the primitive, which ranges along its south-eastern boundary. The outline of the mountains of this formation is almost a straight line, with few interruptions, bounding long parallel ' Silljman's Journal, vol. vii. VOL. II. I 54 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. ridges of nearly the same height, declining gently towards the side where the ~~ ~~" stratification dips from the horizon, and more precipitous on the opposite side, where the edge of the stratum breaks out to the day. This formation is composed of the following rocks : viz. a small-grained transition limestone, of all shades of colour, from white to dark blue, and in some places intimately mixed with strata of greywacke slate, with limespar in veins and dis seminated, and in many places with small grained particles, so as to put on the appearance of a sandstone with excess of lime cement. This occurs in beds from fifty to five thousand feet in width, alternating with greywacke and greywacke slate. Near the borders of the primitive is found a siliceous aggregate, having particles of a light blue colour, from the size of a pin's head to an egg, disseminated in some places in a cement of a slaty texture, and in others in a quartzose cement ; a fine sandstone cemented with quartz, in large masses, often of a slaty structure, with small detached scales of mica intervening ; a rock not far from the borders of the primitive partaking both of the porphyry and the greywacke, having both feldspar crystals and round pebbles in it, with a cement of a kind of dull chlorite slate in excess ; another, though rarer, with pebbles and feldspar crystals in a compact petro- siliceous cement; and a great variety of other rocks, which, from their composition and situation, cannot be classed but with the transition. The limestone, greywacke, and greywacke slate, generally occupy the valleys, and the quartzose aggregates the ridges, amongst which is what is called the country burr stone, or mill-stone grit, which must not be confounded with another rock, likewise denominated mill-stone grit, which is a small grained granite, with much quartz, found in the primitive formation. There are many and extensive caves in the limestone of this formation, some of which extend underground for several miles, and in which the bones of various animals are found. It is the lowest, and is considered as the most ancient of the rocks containing organized remains, which are those of cryptogamous plants, and animals without sight. The greywacke has been observed to contain impressions of organized remains, but these are usually those of zoophytic animals, and are exceedingly unlike those found so abundantly in the shale of coal formations. Its colours are variable ; it is, however, most commonly bluish, black, or dark brown. Between Albany and Pittsfield it is met of a grey colour, and a few miles to the south-east of White-hall, New York, it is bright red. The greywacke appears to form the connecting link between the clay slate and a rock which has been called the old red sandstone, and is usually found intimately blended- either with the one or the other. The sandstone to which the name just used is applied, occurs throughout the whole extent of the transition formation, and evidently belongs to the oldest depositions of that rock. It is for , the most part distinctly stratified, and in all cases its stratifica tion is inclined. It, consists of grains of quartz united by a scanty cement, and THE UNITED STATES. 55 usually more or less rounded, as if by attrition and the operation of currents of water ; CHAP. I. their fragments vary in magnitude from the finest sand to boulders of several pounds weight. Among the Alleghany mountains are many extensive beds of pudding-stone, or coarse conglomerate, usually coloured by oxide of iron. It is also to be observed, that this formation of transition sandstone sometimes embraces extensive beds, integrant particles of which have by no means the appearance of having been rounded by attrition. As in the case of almost all the rocks of secondary formation, there appear to have been periods during the time of its deposition when the waters of the super incumbent ocean ceased to throw down the mechanical debris of former rocks, and deposited earthy matter from a state of chemical solution. The old red sandstone contains no beds of bituminous coal, though many of anthracite, and few organized remains. Of the rocks thus described, the limestone occurs extensively all along the north western side of the primitive strata; sometimes, it is stated, alternating with granular or primitive limestone, which often graduates, by minute and almost imperceptible dif ferences, into that which is decidedly secondary. If we suppose the whole of the Alleghany mountains of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the western parts of Virginia, removed to a level with the surface at the base of their eastern declivities, it is probable that their foundation, which would be thus exposed, would be found through their whole extent to be of transition limestone. About twenty miles west of Philadelphia and Harrisburgh, Cove Hill, the north and south mountains, and the other eastern ranges of the Alleghany, all repose upon the same rock. It is seen emerging from beneath the sandstone which forms the body of these mountains at O'Connel's town, and in most of the valleys between the Alleghanies ; and we learn from Maclure that it extends to the south and west, nearly to the termination of this range of mountains at the confluence of the Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers, in Mississippi. The clay-slate occurs in the central portions of that extensive field of transition which skirts the western margin of the primitive of New York and New England, and forms the great body of the Cattskill Mountains. It is wider and more extensive in the north, occupying much of the surface in Vermont, and the northern parts of the state of New York. In the mountains of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, its beds are of great thickness, and form in some instances the prevailing rocks, being, however, almost invariably overlaid by sandstone. The old red sandstone is of very frequent occurrence in the transition district along the whole range of mountains, and is perhaps more frequent and more abundant than any other aggregate. This region also has a consider able mixture of trap, comprehending greenstone, basalt, amygdaloid, and toadstone ; but the newer trap rocks are entirely wanting in the whole of the mountain range. It is by no means to be supposed that the primitive and transition rocks observe exactly the limits which have been drawn. They frequently so interlock the one with 56 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK. II. the other as to make the drawing of any line of demarcation exceedingly difficult. There are also various large bodies of transition rock thrown to a considerable dis tance into the primitive region, as is the case particularly with one in the neighbour hood of Boston ; while in many instances secondary rocks are found running along the valleys far into the bosom of the mountains. Between the primitive and transition rocks a series of primitive rocks sometimes intervenes, something different from the common primitive, having the structure of gneiss, with little mica, the scales detached and not contiguous, or much feldspar, rather granular than crystallized, mica slate, with small quantities of scaly mica, clay-slate, rather soft, and without lustre, the whole having a dull earthy fracture and gritty texture, partaking of transition and primitive, but not properly belonging to either. There is great variety in the appearance of this rock, as it were an imitation of almost every species of the common primitive rocks, but differing from them by having a dull earthy fracture, gritty texture, and little or no crystallization. Valley of With the edge of the transition strata we approach the western summits of the Apala- and upper chian Mountains, or the line from whence they begin to fall towards the Mississippi Mississippi. Valley. Along this line commences a series of secondary rocks, stretching westward to rocks. an immense extent towards the Mississippi and the lakes, and constituting one of "the most interesting and important geological formations in the United States. Near the summit of the ridge called particularly the Alleghany, the change to secondary begins to appear ; without the interposition of any other rock, and without any sudden change of features, the strata of sandstone become nearly horizontal, assuming gradu ally all the characters of secondary rocks ; descending into the valleys, the transition strata again emerge to the light. The same thing happens in the case of the Catskill and other mountains west of the Hudson, their bases being of transition, and their summits crossed with secondary. This secondary region extends unbroken across the whole country to the shores of the lakes, being bounded orrthe west probably by the river Wabash, and, as you descend the Mississippi, by the more recent formations through which that river flows. It consists of various strata of sandstone, limestone, and clay, generally, but by no means exactly, corresponding with similar strata in this country. Although England has been considered a more advantageous station for examining the secondary strata than any other in Europe, it will by no means serve as a model for America. The strata are thus given by Professor Eaton: — 1. Mill stone grit ; 2. Saliferous rock, probably identical with the saline sandstone of the Chippewayan Mountains; 3. Ferriferous rock; 4. Lias; 5. Geodiferous lime-rock- 6. Cornitiferous lime-rock ; 7. Third greywacke. The fifth and sixth of these strata occupy the space of the English oolite, but are stated to be of a somewhat different character. Our green sand, iron sand, and associated marls, may be assigned to the third graywacke ; but the chalk, it seems, in Europe no unimportant stratum, is THE UNITED STATES. 57 entirely wanting ; nor has a single particle of this substance been found in the whole of CHAP. I. the United States ; that which has been mistaken for it, and indeed used for it in some respects with success, is ascertained to be native argil, or pure clay. The limestone generally found in this district is of a bluish colour, running through all the shades to a dingy black, having an even rather earthy fracture, and sometimes a schistose structure. The flints found in the secondary limestone in America are generally black, resembling Lydian stone, and in all kind of irregular forms and branches intimately mixed with the limestone. Its greatest elevation is on the south-east boundary, from which it falls almost imperceptibly to the north-west, and mingles with the alluvial of the Mississippi, having a mountain outline, straight and regular. A boundary of long and parallel ranges, of a gradually diminishing height as they approach to the north-west, a stratification almost perfectly horizontal, waving with the inequalities of the surface, distinguishes this from the two preceding formations. Immense beds of secondary limestone, of all shades from light blue to black, intercepted in some places by extensive tracts of sandstone and other secondary aggregates, appears to constitute the foundation of this formation, on which reposes the great and valuable coal formation, which extends from the head waters of the Ohio, in Pennsylvania, with .some interruption all the way to the waters of the Tombigbee, accompanied by the usual attendants, slaty clay and freestone with vegetable impressions, &c. ; but in no instance yet ascertained covered by, or alternating with any rock, resembling basalt, or indeed any of those called the newest floetz trap formation. One grand peculiarity of this secondary region is the horizontal direction of the strata, which is almost perfect and uniform, no disturbing causes whatever appearing to have acted upon them since their deposition, excepting such as have worn them down from above ; and in conjunction with this fact, it is striking to observe that trap rocks are entirely wanting through the whole extent. It results from these circumstances, that individual strata can be traced uninterrupted through many hundreds of miles, and that opportunities of investigation unparalleled elsewhere are afforded. Having thus examined the two sides of the Mississippi Valley, we may now direct Central .,., .. T , district our attention to the region which occupies its centre. In a geological point of view of the this must be taken to comprehend not merely the Ozark Mountains, but the whole MaUey.S1PP1 tract of country extending northwards from them to the shores of Lake Superior, bounded on the east by the rivers Wabash and Ohio and the recent deposits of the Mississippi, and on the west by a line drawn from nearly the western extremity of Lake Superior to the western declivity of the mountains. The Ozark Mountains consist chiefly of secondary and transition rocks, but there Ozrak are two points at which the primitive makes its appearance.'1 About fifteen miles 1 Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, vol. iii. p. 310. 58 TOPOGRAPHY OF book II. south-east from the hot springs, near the Washita, granite is found in situ. " It forms Granite the basis," says Dr. James, " and, as far as we could discover, the whole mass of a small hill, but little elevated above the level of the river; we found it emerging from beneath the soil at several parts of an area two or three hundred acres, but had not an oppor tunity to trace it to any great distance, nor to observe its connexion with any other rock. The extent of surface which it covers, we believe, cannot be very great." This granite is very soft, and disintegrates rapidly when exposed to the air. It is compounded of greyish-white quartz, yellowish-white feldspar, and an unusually large proportion of mica in variously and brilliantly coloured masses. These large laminae of mica are white, pearl-colour, yellow, brown, green, and often black, and in some instances are so large and numerous as to exceed in proportion the other ingredients of the aggre gate. Talc also enters in large proportion into the composition of this granite. It is indeed sometimes so abundant as to occasion a doubt whether the whole should not be considered a bed of talc, rather than granite. This talc is in tabular masses, two or three inches in diameter, and about half an inch in thickness. Zeolite is also so abundant as sometimes to seem to take the place of the other materials of the granite. The bed of one of the streams which traverse this formation is paved with small crystals of schorl, that of another with native magnet. Sulphuret of iron is disseminated in the rock. Several of the appearances presented by this interesting mass of granite would seem to countenance the opinion that it is of secondary origin, like that mentioned by Saussure as existing near the valley of Valorsine, at Semur en Auxois, and at the city of Lyons. In speaking of the rock at these places, he says, " It could not be doubted, on seeing these heaps of large crystals, that they are the produce of the rain-waters, which, passing through the granite, have dissolved and carried down these different elements, and have deposited them in these wide crevices, where they have formed new rocks of the same kind. The crystals of these new granites are larger than those of the ancient, on account of the repose which the waters enjoyed in the inside of these reservoirs." The granite of the Washita, if it is to be considered as of secondary formation, appears to be much more extensive than any of the kind hitherto known; but any more particulars must be ascertained before this question can be settled. " We are ignorant," says Dr. James, "of the manner of its connexion with any other rock, nor do we know of any formation of primitive granite from which it could, by the action of water, have been derived: one can have no hesitation, however, in considering the Ozark Mountains as a separate system within themselves, and having no immediate connexion with either the Apalachian or the Chippewayan Mountains. May not an extensive range of granite and other primitive rocks have existed at some distant period where the Ozark Mountains now are, containing the vast quantities of the ores of lead, iron, &c. now found in rocks of secondary origin, and even in the alluvial soil? And may not the operations of water, THE UNITED STATES. 59 during many ages, when an ocean rolled over the summits of these mountains, have CHAP. I. worn down those primitive rocks, their detritus having been deposited horizontally upon their submarine sides and summits; so that the greater part of their surfaces are now covered by secondary aggregates ? Our acquaintance with this range is, however, much too limited to admit of indulgence in such speculations." Besides the cove of the Washita, another granitic region, according to Mr. School craft, occtlrs in the north-eastern extremity of the Ozark Mountains, in the mining district of Potosi. The granite appears about a mile west of St. Michael's, an antique French village, and suddenly emerges from the alluvial soil. " It constitutes," says Mr. Schoolcraft, " the summits of the greatest elevations, and also the depths of the lowest valleys in the district. It is almost exclusively confined, so far as we have observed, to the north-western portion of Madison, and the contiguous parts of Washington county. We suppose the whole area covered by this formation does not exceed 120 or 130 square miles; but we have not observed its southern limits. It may extend in that direction farther than we have reason to believe it does, and may possibly even have a subterraneous connexion with that talcose variety of granite discovered by Dr. James, on the Washita. The marked dissimilarity in the two varieties is not, perhaps, a valid objection to this supposition, when we consider the different aspects which some of the ranges of our American granites assume, examined at distant points." e This granite is without any marks of stratification. Its structure is fine grained. Its colour, which is imparted by the predominance of feldspar, is a flesh red. Both the quartz and mica form but a comparatively small portion of the mass, and the mica exists in the least abundance. Very frequently the latter mineral is entirely wanting through considerable portions of the mass, and the rock is made up wholly of quartz and feldspar. This rock is traversed by veins of greenstone, which are chiefly por- phyritic, and in some places beautifully so. In connexion with the granite of the Washita is found a stratum of clay-slate, and another of transition sandstone, but neither of them of any great extent. Near St. Michael's, Mr. Schoolcraft affirms the existence of the metalliferous or transition limestone. The hot-springs of the Washita issue from the clay-slate, and, if we may judge from the inclination of the strata, and the distance at the surface from the granite of the cove, we may conclude that a very large mass of clay-slate is interposed between the surface of the granite and the point at which the springs rise. This, however, it is not possible to ascertain. The hottest springs on the globe rise from beneath or within the granite, and it is not improbable that this rock may approach near the surface at many points in the Ozark Mountains where it has not yet been uncovered. The slate rock about the hot springs is highly inclined, often flinty ' Schoolcraft's Travels. 60 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. in its composition, and, as far as" has been hitherto observed, it contains no organic remains. It is traversed by large upright veins, filled usually with white quartz, contrasting strongly in colour with the dark blue of the slate. The mountains contain vast beds of limestone, which, though decidedly secondary, has in many parts so peculiar a crystalline appearance as to be easily mistaken for primitive. The recent fracture is uneven, distinctly crystalline, and much like that of many moderately fine-grained granites. Careful examination shows that in many instances the most minute particles visible under a lens have assumed the rhombic form so common to the carbonate of lime ; these crystalline particles vary greatly in size, and are some times half an inch across. In the interior of the casts of animal remains, they are sometimes less distinct than in parts of the rock where no such remains are disco vered. These vast beds of sparry limestone, made up almost exclusively of deposits from chemical solution, would seem to have been formed during periods when great tranquillity prevailed in the waters from which they were deposited. They alternate with limestones of the common earthy and compact varieties. The sandstones of this small group of mountains appear under almost every variety of character, but in most of them, as far as hitherto examined, are discovered traces of coal, or of those minerals and. organic remains which usually accompany it. A conspicuous feature in the sandstones about the central and western portions of the region under consideration, is the great proportion of mica, in large scales, which enters into their composition. Fragments of the sand-rock about the mouth of the Poteau might be mistaken for mica slate. This mica is rarely, if ever, of that dark coloured variety which prevails in the Chippewayan Mountains ; and in the other materials of these aggregates there is a manifest want of resemblance to those mountains. Another peculiar variety of sand stone occurs in connexion with the sulphuret of lead, at the old mines of St. Michael, and at many places in that vicinity. This bears apparently the same relation to the common sandstones, as the crystalline limestone above mentioned does to the earthy varieties, and it alternates with and passes into the common rock in a similar manner. Its particles are crystalline, and appear to remain undisturbed in the position in which they were originally deposited from solution in water. Nevertheless the aggregate is manifestly secondary, and embraces the relics of many organized beings, as is common in the other secondary rocks. There appears reason to think that these mountains are entirely secondary. Com pact limestone contains the lead ore, and is here associated with an extensive deposit of fluate of lime. None of this mineral, however, has yet been discovered in this place. the whole of it is in the form of detritus, showing evident marks of abrasion and attrition." Besides several varieties of sandstone, shell limestone and oolite were observed at this point. Though the country stretching northward to Lake Superior becomes more level, and is not distinguished by any considerable physical peculiarities Upper Mississippi, THE UNITED STATES. 61 its geological and mineralogical character identify it with that which we have just CHAP. I. noticed. Numerous specimens of minerals brought from the Upper Mississippi and the Illinois rivers have a peculiar resemblance to similar minerals met with in the territory south of the Missouri. From these resemblances, and the corroborating testimony of all the accounts received concerning that country, rich in mines, which lies along the eastern side of the Upper Mississippi, there is reason to believe that a continuation of the Ozark Mountains, or at least of a region similar in minera logical features, extends from the confluence of the Missouri northward, to the sources of the Wisconsan and the Ontonagon river of Lake Superior. North of the Missouri the country is very little elevated, but aside from this it appears to possess all the peculiar features of the region we have been considering. The sandstones, the lime stones, and other rocks, have a striking resemblance. Of the Black Mountains, in the north-western part of the Mississippi Valley, only Black enough is known to mark them out as of a distinct geological structure from the rest of the valley. They appear to consist entirely of sandstone lying horizontally, and to be destitute of any mineral productions of value. The remaining portions of the great valley may now be easily disposed of. In the north, between the Black Moun- Upper"iy/T iqcoi11*1 tains and the central district, is a wide tract containing the course of the Missouri, marked by Dr. James as alluvial. The same appellation he gives to a space on the west of the Ozark Mountains, between them and the Chippewayan sands, and to the country on both sides of the Lower Mississippi. We think that the application of this term may admit of considerable modification and improvement, as it seems to us to be sometimes confounded with diluvial, if not with tertiary formations. Such for mations appear to exist on the line of the Mississippi, and will engage our attention hereafter. We must now turn our attention to the region which lies to the eastward of the Atlantic Apalachian Mountains. The eastern front of this range we have already stated to consist of primitive rocks, and we have mentioned that so far south as the Hudson these rocks reach the sea ; from this point they take an inland course, and leave a considerable tract of land between them and the ocean all the way to the Mississippi. On this side there is no appearance of any rocks of the transition class ; the primitive terminates abruptly, and through its whole length is skirted by an extensive series of beds of shell-limestone, marl, clay, sand, and gravel, constituting what has been described in our geographical department as the Atlantic Slope. This class of strata begins at Long Island, becomes gradually wider as it extends through the middle and southern states, forms the whole of Florida, and crosses the Mississippi, where it meets the secondary formation of that valley, and sends up a tongue for a considerable distance along the sides of that river. We may here notice the extended granitic ridge which forms the boundary between the primitive and secondary regions, and which has been considered as one of its most remarkable features. It commences as VOL. II. K 62 TOPOGRAPHY OF Secondary strata. Ferruginous sand formation. BOOK II. far south as Georgia, and extends to New York; whence it seems to pass into Long Island, and under the Sound into Connecticut. It is in some places concealed by the soil ; but it appears distinctly at the riverfalls, and is particularly rugged where it crosses the Susquehanna. It has been conjectured that this ridge was the ancient line of the seacoast. The entire region to the eastward of the primitive was long spoken of as alluvial; but a more careful examination has shewn that it comprehends, not only a large extent of tertiary formations, but some which are decidedly secondary. From an elaborate investigation of this district by Dr. Morton, of Philadelphia, more particularly directed to the characteristic features of its organic remains, there appears decisive evidence of this fact. These secondary strata are not, however, calcareous, like those on the west of the Apalachian Mountains ; but they consist of beds of sand and clay analogous to the iron sand, green sand, and chalk marl, or gait, of our own country. Dr. Morton calls it the ferruginous sand formation. The tract occupied by it encloses nearly the whole of the marl region of New Jersey, so far, at least, as it has hitherto been explored ; though there is reason to believe that this formation occupies a great proportion of the triangular peninsula south of the"Raritan river. Much of the fer ruginous sand, however, is overlaid by deposits of clay containing lignite, which have been referred, with apparent correctness, to the plastic clay formation. Above these clay beds is an almost uniform covering of grey sand ; though in many places the marl, with its peculiar fossils, is found immediately beneath the soil. In Maryland commences a vast deposit of sand and clay, extending along the coast to the Mississippi : this tract abounds with tertiary fossils, which appear chiefly to belong to the upper marine formation of the European geologists. The secondary strata are occasionally met with beneath it, and sometimes approach so near the surface as to be readily identified by their fossils. It is therefore reasonable to suppose that the beds of ferruginous sand extend nearly the whole length of the Atlantic frontier of the United States south of Long Island, though for the most part concealed by the different members of the tertiary class. In all its localities this formation has been identified by similar genera and species of organic remains, though all the genera do not exist in every locality. The predo minant constituents of the varieties of marl are silex and iron. They often contain beds of a dark bluish, tenacious clay ; sometimes this clay is mixed with the marl, forming marly clay. Again the marl is seen of a yellowish brown colour, friable, or compact, and filled with green specks of the silicate iron. Some of the greenish varieties are also very compact, rendering it extremely difficult to separate the fossils from their matrix. The friable blue marls often contain a large proportion of mica in minute scales. Other localities present beds of silicious gravel, (turtia ? of the French,) the pebbles varying from the size of coarse sand to one or two inches in diameter. These are cemented together by oxide and phosphate of iron, and contain the same THE UNITED STATES. 63 fossils as the earths already described. The most striking instance of this kind is at CHAP. I, Mullica Hill, in New Jersey. Similar mineralogical appearances, but without fossils, occur in the lower beds at the Chesapeake and Delaware canal. At the latter place is also found a friable silicious sand, of a bright green colour, answering to the glau- conie sableuse of Brongniart : also a fine, pure white sand, with abundance of lignite ; and extensive beds of brown and yellow ferruginous sand, more or less argillaceous. Some of the blue marls which effervesce strongly with acids, contain but five per cent, of lime. There are also large beds of calcareous marl, containing at least thirty-seven per cent, of lime, the remainder being silex, iron, &c. : a hard, well- characterized, sub-crystalline limestone, filled with zoophytes. All these pass by insensible degrees into each other, exhibiting an almost endless variety of mineralo gical character. The mineral substances found in these beds are, iron pyrites in profusion ; chert, (in the calcareous beds,) amber, retinasphalt, lignite, and small spherical masses of a dark green colour and compact texture, apparently analogous to those found in the green sand of France. Mr. Hayden suggests that these may be the discolites of the Abb6 Fortis ; their structure, however, does not appear to be organic, although they often have a shark's tooth, or a small shell, for a nucleus. Larger spherical bodies also occur, resembling the nodules of clay iron stone so common in some parts of England. One of the most abundant mineral products of these beds is lignite. It is found at the deep cut of the Chesapeake and Delaware canal in almost every variety, from charred wood to well-characterized jet. Sometimes it is in small fragments, and again it occurs in large masses, presenting the trunks and limbs of trees thirty feet in length, and perforated in every direction by the teredo. That these lignites belong not to the tertiary depo sits, but to the ferruginous sand, appears to be the more probable, inasmuch as the lignite beds of Delaware are found to be subordinate to strata replete with ex tinct multilocular univalves, and other secondary remains. The extensive occur rence of this formation, so closely connected with chalk in Europe, renders the absence of the chalk itself still more remarkable. The tertiary formations, as we have just seen, occur largely on the Atlantic Slope, Tertiary but they are by no means confined to it : they overlie the secondary strata to a great extent on both sides of the mountain chains. Marly clay (London clay) is one of the most universal of all visible strata. It is the common clay of all North America. Lieut. A. B. Eaton traced it from the mouth of the Ohio to New Orleans, mostly covered with Bagshot sand. It always effervesces with acids when dry, and always contains muriate of lime ; consequently all wells dug in it yield hard waters. Sulphate of magnesia is not uncommon in it, and in some localities it contains small quantities of muriate of soda. Bagshot sand and crag are next in extent to the marly clay, and generally overlie it. The* sand and crag often pass into each other, and often alternate ; but if they are to be treated as distinct, probably the crag should be 64 TOPOGRAPHY OF Oregon. Facilities forgeological research. BOOK II. considered as uppermost. The plastic clay formation is stated to appear very distinctly on the west side of Lake Champlain, and at various points, from Martha's Vineyard to the eastward of Long Island, to Florida and the Mississippi. The silicious limestone of Georgia is asserted to be decidedly contemporaneous with the calcaire silicieuse of the Paris basin. In Virginia the marly or London clay is found, and the sands of the Upper Marine formation are conceived to occur in the same state, and in Staten Island. Of the geology of the region west of the Chippewayan Mountains nothing certain is known. The chains which stretch nearer to the Pacific are lofty, and are pre sumed to be primitive. Mr. Scrope represents the mountains which border the Pacific Ocean as volcanic. Having taken this general survey, before we proceed to further details it may be desirable to make a few observations respecting the influence of American geological facts upon existing geological theory. It was soon found that geological researches were made with much greater facility in America than in Europe, especially in the region of the secondary strata. The immense extent over which they could be traced, the undisturbed condition in which they are found, and their generally hori zontal position, afforded valuable facilities for efforts of generalization and system. The absence of the newest floetz-trap rocks, (which partially and irregularly cover all other formations, thereby breaking the continuity of the strata,) and of the effects of the violent convulsions so frequent in the vicinity of this disputed formation, unquestionably facilitate geological researches. A second cause, producing much more extensive effects, may perhaps be found in the greater number and mag nitude of the changes that have been effected in the different classes of rocks on the European continent, since their original formation ; either by the effect of water during a long course of time, partially washing away the superincumbent strata most liable to decomposition, and leaving the more hard and durable parts of the same rocks in their original positions ; or by the long and continual action of rivers wearing deep beds, and exposing to view the subordinate strata, giving to the whole the appearance of a confused and interrupted stratification, though it might have been uniform and regular in its original state. Rivers, likewise, by under mining, throw immense masses out of their place, and create a disorder and con fusion not easily unravelled. The rivers in North America have not generally cut so deep into the different strata, either in the mountains, or during their course through the level country, as materially to derange the stratification ; nor do we find those immense and inaccessible precipices, which render the prosecution of geo logical researches almost impossible. Broken detatched masses of one forma tion covering the tops of mountains, with their sides or foundation composed of different classes of rocks, seldom occur; and where* any irregularity or apparent confusion takes place, the vicinity generally admits of a sufficient examination of THE UNITED STATES. 65 the surrounding strata, to account for the accident without affecting the general arrange- CHAP. I. ment. A third cause of the facility of geological observations on this continent, may be traced in the fact that the whole continent east of the Mississippi follows the arrangement of one great chain of mountains. Europe, on the contrary, is formed of five or six chains of mountains, all following different laws of stratifica tion, and frequently interrupting each other; which increases the difficulty of arrange ment, and augments the apparent confusion. The effect of the opening of this field of observation has been striking and im- Results of portant. It has been to confound and set at naught every previous attempt at the geology. determination and arrangement of general strata. American geologists may be said to be continually laughing at the mundane systems which men of science on this side of the Atlantic have been constructing from their survey of such a mere corner of it as the continent of Europe ; and European geologists themselves have acknow ledged that general strata must be determined in America. The absence of the chalk forcibly illustrates this ; the chalk being not only a very prominent feature in our geological structure, but the grand point of division between the secondary ' and tertiary formations. The English oolite has not its fellow in America. It has come to be affirmed by Professor Eaton, that the old red sandstone is not a general stratum, and to be questioned whether primitive clay slate has any existence at all ;e while Mr. Maclure informs us, that, though the primitive formation contains all the variety of rocks found in the mountains of Europe, yet neither their relative situation in the order of succession, nor their relative heights in the range of mountains, correspond with what has been observed here. The order of succession from the clay slate to the granite, as well as the gradually diminishing height of the strata, from the granite through the gneiss, mica slate, and hornblende rock, down to the clay slate, is so often inverted and mixed, as to render the arrangement of any regular series impracticable. It would have made amends for this subversion of existing systems, if men of science in America had been able to form any satisfactory gene ralization themselves. This is as yet, however, far from being the case. With much of positive assertion, every thing is controversy and confusion ; every thing, at least, but the observation and accumulation of facts, which is going on with some rapidity and diligence, and which, it would seem, must be carried to a much greater extent before any hope of successful generalization can be entertained. Notwithstanding all the uncertainty we have described, however, some important general facts are either confirmed or established, and of these we shall endeavour to give a condensed account. The primitive, and, perhaps it may be added, the transition rocks of the United Character States, bear an almost perfect resemblance, in structure and general character, to lachianmountains. e The existence of primitive clay slate is distinctly affirmed by Mr. Hitchcock on the Connecticut, and by Professor Dewey. Silliman's Journal, Vol. II. p. 248, Vol. VI. p. 36. 66 TOPOGRAPHY OF book II. those of Europe. They constitute the whole mass of the mountains, with the same declination, irregularity, and apparent disruption and dislocation of the strata. The granite is in beds and veins, with only such equivocal appearances of stratification as have been detected elsewhere. The Apalachian resembles several of the European chains of mountains, in having the secondary formation principally on the north-western side. Among the peculiarities of this primitive range is its compa ratively low elevation ; only one portion of it, the White Hills, reaching six thousand feet above the level of the sea, a far lower point than is reached by any other considerable mass of primitive rocks at present known. Connected with this is also the very low level at which the same rocks are found in the northern states, especially on the banks of the river Hudson, where the tide runs between precipitous banks of granite, greenstone, &c, entirely through the mass of primitive and transition rocks into the secondary, to a distance of a hundred and fifty miles. It arises from the same geological character of this range, that the ridges of the mountains do not form the dividing high lands of the waters ; but that in many cases, as with the rivers which discharge themselves into the Chesapeake, the streams rise beyond the mountains, and find avenues which permit them a clear passage, often at right angles to the chain which they penetrate. The immense depth of some of the lakes, ascertained to be in some places as much as twelve hundred feet, and in others being hitherto unfathom able, belongs to the same class of indications. We feel constrained to associate with these circumstances the comparatively small quantity of unstratified rocks found in this region. We have already seen that one half the primitive is gneiss ; and when allowance is made for mica slate, talc slate, and other stratified primitive rocks, it will follow that granite is but in small, proportion. Porphyry and serpentine do not appear to be abundant. Greenstone occurs, as also basalt; but, as we have seen, the newer trap rocks are almost if not entirely wanting. It remains to be added, that no traces whatever exist of volcanic action, that is to say, of recent volcanic action, or of any other than must have occurred if greenstone and granite are of igneous origin. All these circumstances may be considered as confirming the supposition that the mountain masses generally have been upheaved by convulsive action ; and as indi cating that the impulses which raised the Apalachian chains were, if not in the first instance less powerful, yet less frequently repeated, than in most other cases. Hence the small elevation of their highest summits; hence the deep notches which allow the transverse passage of great rivers ; and hence also that remarkable tide-valley occupied by Hudson's River. The Chippewayan Mountains, contrasted as they are with the Apalachians in their elevation and other physical features, are equally so in their geological structure. The unstratified rocks almost exclusively prevail ; the newest floetz-trap rocks also are found ; and every indication of violent action of greater power or more frequent repetition. Trap Rocks. Another general fact respecting the newer trap formations is strongly indicated by THE UNITED STATES. 67 their entire absence from the immense secondary formation of the United States, taken CHAP. I. in connexion with the horizontal position and undisturbed character of the stratifi- cation. Here is no dislocation, and no trap. Wherever there is trap, as in Europe, there is dislocation and disorder. It seems to follow, therefore, that trap rocks have had their origin, not in the causes which formed the secondary strata, but in those which have disturbed them. Whether the vastness of the field which is open to geological inquiry in the United Arrange- States will materially facilitate the determination of general strata, or whether, beyond American the primitive, there are really any such, may be a matter of doubt. We now turn to strata- the more certain and yet disputed ground of the actual arrangement of the American strata themselves. The cutting of the canal from Albany to Lake Erie afforded a valuable opportunity for investigation, of which Professor Eaton has diligently availed himself, in order to form a scheme of general strata such as the structure of the North American continent would indicate ; and we cannot do better for the informa tion of our readers, than present to them his views on the subject/ In doing so, it will be necessary to allow him to employ his own nomenclature, which, however, will be easily understood, whether adopted or not. Geological Nomenclature, exhibited in a Synopsis of North American Rocks and Detritus, by Professor Amos Eaton. CLASSES OF ROCKS, Class I. Primitive Rocks; being those which contain no organic relics or coal, See Fig. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Class II. Transition Rocks ; being those which contain marine organic relics only, and, in some localities, anthracite coal. See Fig. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. Class III. Secondary Rocks,- being those which contain, in some localities, dry land or fresh-water organic relics, as well as marine or bituminous coal. See Fig. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19. Class IV. Superincumbent Rocks; being those hornblende rocks which overlay others without any regular order of superposition, supposed to be of volcanic origin. See Fig. 20. CLASSES OF DETRITUS. Class V. Alluvial Detritus ; being those masses of detritus which have been washed into their present situation. See Fig. 21, 22, 23, and 24. Class VI. Analluvial Detritus; being those masses of detritus which have not been washed from places where they were first formed by the disintegration of rocks. See Fig. 25 and 26. 1 See two papers by Professor Eaton, in Silliman's Journal, Vol. XIV. 68 TOPOGRAPHY OF GENERAL STRATA AND SUBDIVISIONS. VARIETIES. IMBEDDED AND DISSEMINATED. Second Graywacke. B. Rubble. A. Compact. Red sandy, (old ted sandstone ?) Honeslate. Grindstone. Manganese. Anthracite. Metalliferous Limerock B. Shelly. A. Compact. Birdseye marble. Calciferous Sandrock B. Geodiferous. A. Compact. Quartzose. Sparry.Oolitic. Semiopal. Anthra cite. Barytes. Concentric concretions. Sparry Limerock. B. Slaty. A. Compact. Checkered rock. Chlorite.Calc spar. First Graywacke. B. Rubble. A. Compact. Chloritic. Milky quartz. Calc spar. Anthracite. Argillite. B. fVacke slate. A. Clay slate. Chloritic. Glazed. Roof- slate. Red. Purple. Flinty slate. Anthracite. Striated quartz. Milky quartz. Chlorite. Granular Limerock. B. Sandy. A. Compact. Verd-antique. Dolomite.Statuary marble. Tremolite.Serpentine.Chromate of iron. iL^ Granular Quartz. B. Sandy. A. Compact. Ferruginous.Yellowish.Translucent. Manganese. Hematite. Talcose Slate. B. Fissile. A. Compact. Chloritic. Octahedral crystals of iron ore. Chlorite. Hornblende Rock. B. Slaty. A. Granitic. Mica Slate. B. Fissile. A. Compact. Greenstone. Gneis- soid. Porphyritic. Sienitic. Granite.Actynolite. Augite. Staurotide.Sappare. Garnet. Granite. B. Slaty, (gneiss.) A. Crystalline. Sandy.Porphyritic. Graphic. Schorl, Steatite. Diallage Plumbago. THE UNITED STATES. 69 general strata AND SUBDIVISIONS. VARIETIES. EMBEDDED AND DISSEMINATED. Basalt. B. Greenstone trap (columnar.) A. Amygdaloid, (cellular.) Granular.Compact. Toadstone. Amethyst. Calcedony. Prehnite.Zeolite. Opal. Third Graywacke. B. Pyritiferous grit. A. Pyritiferous slate. Conglomerate, (breccia.) Calcareous grit. Red sandstone, (old red sandstone ?) Red wacke. Argillaceous. Grindstone. Hornstone ? Honeslate. Bituminous shale and coal. Fibrous barytes. CoRNITIFEROUS LiMEROCK. B. Shelly. A. Compact. Hornstone. Geodiferous Limerock. B. Sandy. A. Swinestone. Foetid. Snow-gypsum. Strontian. Zinc. Fluor spar. Lias. B. Calciferous grit. A. Calciferous slate. Shell grit. Argillaceous. Conchoidal. Shell limestone. Vermicular.Water cement. Gypsum. Ferriferous Rock. B. Sandy. A. Slaty. Saliferous Rock. B. Sandy. A. Marl slate. Millstone Grit. B. Conglomerate. A. Sandy. Conglomerate. Green. Blue. Argillaceous iron ore, (reddlej Conglomerate. Grey-band. Red sandy. Grey slate. Red slate. Salt, or Salt-springs. Coal? VOL. II. 70 TOPOGRAPHY OF general deposites AND SUBDIVISIONS. Superficial Anal- luvion. B. Granulated, (from graywacke.) A. Clay loam, (from argillite.) Stratified Anal- luvion. C. Lias, B. Ferriferous. A. Saliferous. Postdiluvion. B. Sediment. A. Pebbles, (in the rocky bed of a river.) Ultimate Diluvion, (on crag in old forests.) Diluvion, (in an antediluvial trough.) Antediluvion. C. Bagshot saiid and crag. B. Marly clay. A. Plastic clay. varieties. Yellowish grey. Greyish yellow. Quicksand.Gravel. Vegetable mould. embedded and disseminated. Various boulders Pebbles. Gypsum.Shell limestone. Reddle. Quicksand.Yellow sand. Hardpan. Brick earth. Various boulders. Trees and herbs. Fish bones and shells. Works of art.~ Boulders. Trees and leaves. Bones and shells. N6 works of art. Puddingstone. Buhrstone.Bog ore. Shell marl. Indurated marl. Septaria ? THE UNITED STATES. 71 The following Tabular Arrangement of the Rock Formations along the Connecticut, after the method of Conybeare and Phillips, is given by Mr. Hitchcock.* I. C Common . . \ Porphyritic Granite's Graphic . . I Pseudo- *¦ morphous ¦fi § 3. Gneiss Common . . Glandulous 4. Hornblende Slate Inferior Order. Rocks observed in contact with those in the leading column. Sienitic Granite. Gneiss. Hornblende Slate. Mica Slate. Serpentine. Limestone, (No. 7.) Diluvium. Alluvium.Granite. Sienite, or Sienitic ) HoniUende Slate. Granite \ £rim. Greenstone. J Diluvium. v Alluvium. Granite.Hornblende Slate. White Granular Limestone. Mica Slate. Steatite.Diluvium. ! Granite.Sienitic Granite. Gneiss. Mica Slate. Diluvium. ' Granite.Gneiss. Hornblende Slate. Limestone, (No. 7.) Argillite. Chlorite Slate. Greenstone Slate. Serpentine.Steatite. Old Red Sandstone. Coal Formation. Diluvium. Alluvium. I Mica Slate. \ Chlorite Slate. Limestone, or a Gran. ( Granite, (in veins.) Aggregate of Silex, \ Mica Slate. Carb. Lime & Mica ' Argillite. " Talcose Slate. Mica Slate. Argillite. Chlorite Slate { Verd Antique. Prim. Greenstone. Diluvium. Alluvium. Gneiss. Steatite 2 Mica Slate. ( Serpentine. C Granite. ) Mica Slate. iGranul. Limestone. Steatite. 5. Mica Slate Talcous Slate 10. Serpentine 11. Verd Antique (Unstratified ¦ Greenstone Slate .. Rocks observed in contact with those in iheltading column. ( Prim. Greenstone. \ Chlorite Slate. Mica Slate. Chlorite Slate. Sienite. Verd Antique. Old Red Sandstone. Coal Formation. The order of succession of the 7 preceding rocks is very variable & oocertain . II. Submedial Order. Mica Slate. Limestone, (No. 7.) Prim. Greenstone. 13. Argillite s| Chlorite Slate. Old Red Sandstone. Diluvium.Alluvium, III. Medial Order. ' Granite. Mica Slate. Argillite. Prim. Greenstone. Second. Greenstone. ; Coal Formation. Diluvium. Alluvium. 14. Old Red' Sandstone . , Common . . Conglom- . erated.! 15. Coal Forma-< tion < Wacke • Trap Tuff Dark bastard Limestone. Bituminous do. Foetid ditto .. Seams of Coal Fine red arg. Sandstone. . Granite.Gneiss.Mica Slate. Old Red Sandstone. ^Prim. Greenstone. Second. Greenstone. Diluvium. Alluvium. V Coarse grey Si- licious ditto Very Mica. do. Blk. tortus, do. Bitumin. Shale FinerPudding- stone .... . Coarse ditto . . Ve:Jc=ar-;::i . 'i Amygdaloidal i *tone"( Porphyritic..', IV. Superior Order. _„ ,..., . ( Above most or all of 17. Diluvium [ Ae preced &rma Ocean, depos. "J Beds of Gray. I Ditto . . Clay [ Above most of the Ditto.. Sand > preceding forma- Loam I tions. Decom.Rocks 1 & Vegetables J l Granite. . Old Red Sandstone. , Coal Formation. 18. Allu vium * Silliman's Journal, vol. vii. to which we must refer for more detailed information. 72 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. Formation of the Mississippi valley. Evidencesof diluvial action. Gravel. The valley of the Mississippi, presenting an area of 1500 miles from east to west, and 1200 from north to south, occupied by extended strata of the secondary class, is an object too interesting not to have set speculation in activity ; more especially as connected with the immense lakes in the interior of the North American continent. When treating of the physical geography of this interesting country, we gave an account of the fact that the lakes are not divided from the Mississippi valley by mountains, or by any considerable highlands. It has been accordingly suggested by Mr. Maclure, and Professor Cleaveland and others seem disposed to concur with him, that all this extent of secondary rocks, together with the area of the present lakes, and a large space to the northward of them, was once the bottom of a much larger lake or sea, and that the waters of it have been gradually discharged by the Mississippi, the Hudson, and the Saint Lawrence, the only rivers which have broken through the mountains once surrounding this immense basin of water.h Without being prepared to propose any more plausible conjecture, we cannot express any satisfaction in this, which seems to us to be incumbered by the obvious fact that one side of this supposed basin appears never to have been enclosed by mountains at all. Between the southern extremity of the Apalachian chains and the corresponding portion of the Chippewayan range intervenes a space of many hundreds of miles, affording no barrier which could enclose the imagined waters ; or if the Ozark Mountains be considered suffi cient for this purpose, the same cannot, at all events, be imagined of the level and sandy tract between them and the Chippewayan. Allowing the valley of the Missis sippi to have been once the bottom of the sea, the conjecture of its elevation by subterraneous forces appears to us less difficult than that of its drainage by its present rivers. The evidences of diluvial action on the North American continent are very ample, and on the same magnificent scale with the other geological phenomena. The follow ing description of them in one locality is given by Professor Eaton : — " I find a diluvial trough, extending from Little Falls, along the Erie Canal, one hundred and sixty miles. After numerous examinations, I feel confidence in the following description. It is as it would have been, the whole having been filled to its present level with marly clay, covered with Bagshot sand and crag, generally overspread with a layer of shell marl, had it then been cut up, by a strong current running from Little Falls westerly, into islands, ridges, embankments, &c. ; and after these channels were thus made, had they been filled with a confused mass of gravel, sand, clay, trees, leaves, fresh-water shells, &c. Whether the appearances originated in this manner, or in any other way, such is the present aspect. I caused diggings to be made, to the depth of forty or fifty feet ; and in one case a well was dug one hundred and eighteen feet h Mr. Maclure's paper may be seen in Silliman's Journal, vol. vi. p. 98. It is to us altogether unsatisfactory. THE UNITED STATES. 73 deep. The American hemlock (pinus canadensis) appeared everywhere to the greatest - CHAP. I. depth of this deposit ; also, immense quantities of fresh-water shells. They were chiefly of the genus Mya, ( Unio of Bruguires,) and Helix, (Lymnce of some authors.) The insulated remains of the stratified antediluvial deposites present the marly clay, Bagshot sand and crag, beautifully crowned with almost snow-white shell marble, a fine yellowish soil, and vegetable mould, or peat. I may add, that nothing is more manifest, than that these deposites could not have been made by any existing cause." In addition to deposites of gravel, boulders are likewise extensively found. Along Boulders. the Connecticut in the primitive region, large boulders in great numbers are com monly found, removed not many miles from the spot whence they were derived. Stragglers of this description may indeed be found almost everywhere, and among all the rocks none seems to be more scattered than granite, though perhaps the numerous beds and veins of this rock found almost everywhere may account for this : but in general along this river, the character of the rolled masses corresponds to the rock in the place underneath them ; that is, the greatest number of the loose stones are of the same description as the rock that underlies them. But to this there are many exceptions — a most remarkable one occurs a few miles west of New Haven in Wood- bridge and Milford, where the surface is covered with rolled masses, sometimes quite large, of primitive and secondary greenstone, mica slate, gneiss, granite, and almost every other rock, except that which is in place, viz. chlorite slate, or argillite. In many places which are highly mountainous, the geest (diluvium) is so abundant as to occupy most of the surface ; the subjacent rock rarely appearing, as in the east part of Plainfield and in Shutesbury. The diameter of the loose fragments varies from an inch to twenty or even thirty feet, and they are usually rounded, indicating attrition. Some of the highest of these boulders are found insulated on the pinnacles of the mountains. Bordering on the Ohio River, in the state of Ohio, is a hilly region, which covers perhaps one third part of the surface of the state. Above these hills towards Lake Erie, boulders of primitive rocks are found. That they are out of place in a region decidedly secondary and alluvial no one can doubt. They are water- worn, rounded, and smoothed, exactly like the pebbles in alluvial soils, and like them have been abraded by the stones with which they have come in contact, aided by the waters in which they have been immersed. That they have been brought thither from the north, north-west, and north-east, appears from the following considerations : — 1. They exactly resemble the primitive rocks found, in several instances, on the shores of Lake Superior, and on the north side of Lake Ontario. 2. In proceeding northwardly from the hilly region above mentioned, they increase both in number and size. They have been seen on the northern side of the hilly region about Hillsborough, in Highland county, but never on the southern side of this region, except in the form of pebbles, in the beds of rivers passing through the country 74 TOPOGRAPHY OF book II. where the larger masses exist. These rocks abound most in valleys, which now are or appear to have been the beds of streams. Thus, in the bed of the Whetstone, below the town of Delaware, large rocks of this class are seen reposing on limestone. The latter rock is in situ, and abounds in shells. The stream (the Whetstone) has worn itself a channel, in some places very deep, through clay slate, until it has been checked in its progress downwards by a very hard, compact limestone. In the barriers (improperly so called) in Madison county, none but primitive boulders are found, and they are used for chimneys, and for the underpinnings of buildings. They are some times used for mill-stones, and one fragment was so large as to make three mill-stones. Primitive rocks are found in Indiana and Illinois, north of their hilly region, as in Ohio, south of Lake Ontario. They are also found in the state of New York, in a country geologically similar in all important respects to Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Ultimate In reference to the stratum which, in his tabular arrangement given above, Professor Eaton calls ultimate diluvion, he makes the following statement : " All elevated plains from which the original forests have not been removed, and whose surfaces have not been disturbed, are now covered, immediately beneath the vegetable mould, with a mantle of fine earth, finest at the surface, and this is everywhere nearly similar, and unlike the stratum upon which it rests. It is most perfect, as far as I have examined, upon that variety of crag which American agriculturists call hardpan. Almost the whole of the vast tract of land called Hardenburg patent, west and south-west of Catskill mountains, containing several million acres, and most of the high ranges in New England, and the lands west of Lake Champlain, present a most perfect example of the hardpan crag covered with this ultimate diluvion." Professor Eaton is the only geologist who has thought this stratum worthy of a distinct enumeration, and seems doubtful whether any analogous fact has been traced by others ; but we apprehend it entirely harmonizes with European observation, though on this side of the Atlantic such matter may be less extensively found. It appears to be identical, for example, with the fine earth lying above the pebbles in the diluvial hollows of the rock of Gibraltar.' state of Striking indications of a similar kind are found in the great interior lakes. Of the Huron. north-west portion of Lake Huron, which exhibits many evidences of change and convulsion, Dr. Bigsby gives the following account : — The original form of the bed of the lake may be described as a triangular valley of great extent, divided in an easterly direction by the Manitoulin Ridge into two unequal parts, the northern being rocky and of variable elevation, and the southern more uniform in its level, and generally lower. In its present form, the bed of Huron Lake is covered with the debris of distant countries : its rocks are furrowed and abraded ; its loftiest heights 1 Buckland's Reliquiae Diluvianse. THE UNITED STATES. 75 overthrown, (of greenstone, one of the most tenacious of minerals, as in the narrows CHAP. I. of St. Joseph,) separating large tracts from the Main ; and finally, passages, from ten to twelve miles wide and ten long, are forced in the Great Manitoulin barrier itself. These violences, and particularly the first and last, indicate a more general and powerful agency than that of a gradual accumulation of waters of Lakes Huron and Superior, whose united surplus requires only an outlet of three hundred yards in breadth, (River St. Clair,) in place of the four Manitoulin detours. The effect of a gradual accumulation of water would have been to have filled the north division of Lake Huron, and, in the end, to have inundated the lower grounds on the south and east by an embouchure at the point of least elevation in the Great Ridge. Dr. Bigsby is inclined to the opinion that an enormous body of water (a " debacle") has rushed over these countries, swept from distant lands the colossal fragments of rock so frequent in the Lake, and formed the breaches called the detours; perhaps at the same time when the passages of the Hudson and Shenandoah were opened, and the heights of Quebec and the marshes of Montreal were covered with the ruins of annihilated mountains. These fragments are incredibly numerous in Lake Huron, and may be divided into two geological classes, the foreign and the native. The former are the more plentiful, and are round and smooth. They are seen everywhere, but are collected principally in the interior of the coasts and islands, either in confused heaps, or in parallel ridges, and crowning the highest acclivities in great numbers. The fragments are of various dimensions. They belong almost exclusively to the older orders of rocks, and are therefore of a northerly origin. Granites, gneiss, mica slate, and porphyries prevail, of kinds which, says Dr. Bigsby, " I never saw in situ, although I have skirted the north shore for two hundred miles, and have traversed the wildernesses to the east-north-east for six hundred miles. Mica slate I never met with in a fixed state, excepting a few strata of the black variety at the Falls des Chats, on the Ottawa." The other class is small, angular, and ragged. They are most frequent on the beaches, whither they are driven by the waves. The formations in the United States of a character strictly alluvial are numerous Alluvial and extensive, as may readily be imagined from the extent of its sea-coast, and the formatlons- multitude and magnitude of its rivers. Thousands and millions of acres must have been thus formed in the course of ages, and are undoubtedly in a continued progress of formation. From the importance which fossil remains have recently assumed in geological Fossil investigations, much interest necessarily attaches to those contained in the strata of the western world. It will be long before so vast a field of inquiry is fully explored ; and, with Mr. Maclure in 1812, we may still say that it has not yet been examined with that accuracy of discrimination necessary to form just conclusions. From the 76 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. Fossils of the transi tion strata. Fossils of the old red sandstone. Fossils of the coal strata. various sources open to us we glean the following notices. The fossils of the transi tion strata consist of the ancient coralline and encrinital families, trilobites, &c, and generally resemble those of similar rocks in other parts of the globe. Entering upon the carboniferous strata of Conybeare and Phillips, we find the following account of the old red sandstone by Mr. Hitchcock : — " I found, in Deerfield Mountain, one or two specimens that belong to the petrifacta of Martin, there being a perfect substitution of a finer grained sandstone for the original substance. I found only fragments, about four or five inches long, and they appear to belong to the genus phytolite of Gmelin's Linnaean System, and to the species Lignite. They are a third of an inch in diameter, and a little flattened ; and seem to agree with Professor Eaton's description of certain petrifactions found in red sandstone on the Catskill Mountain (Index p. 211); which he is inclined to refer to the ' tribe of naked Vermes.' Fossil bones occur in East Windsor, east parish. They belong to the conservata of Martin, and, without much doubt, to the genus zoolithus of Gmelin. The animal must have been about five feet in length, and lay horizontally in the rock, eighteen feet below its top, and twenty-three below the surface of the ground. The tail bone, as Dr. Porter, who lives near the spot, informed me, projected beyond the general mass containing the body of the skeleton, about eighteen inches in a curvilinear direction. This, of which that gentleman gave me a specimen, was easily distin guished by its numerous articulations. On exposure to the air, the bones begin to crumble, and lose the appearance they presented when first dug up. The rock in which these bones were found is decidedly the old red sandstone. It agrees exactly with that rock as it exists at New Haven, and to the distance of one hundred miles north from that town. The rock enclosing the bones is a little coarser than the finest varieties of this rock, and in the rock above the bones was found some moderately coarse conglomerate. Whatever doubt I had with regard to some other varieties of rock in that vicinity being the real old red sandstone, I could have no doubt in regard to this, after examining it." From the same paper we derive an account of the organic remains in the coal for mation itself. These occur at Westfield, Connecticut; at Sunderland, Massachusetts; and it is said also at some other places. At Westfield they were found, in exploring for coal, lying upon bituminous shale. Two species at least were recognized, one of which Mr. Brongniart calls the Palcethrissum freislebenense of Blainville. At Sun derland impressions occur in bituminous shale, which often contains a little mica, and generally a quantity of iron pyrites, disseminated through the rock. They occur at Witmore's ferry, in the north part of Sunderland, in the bank of the river. They are found most abundant at the lowest water-mark, at which time two men, in less than half a day, dug out for me nearly fifty specimens. Sometimes a layer of semi-crystalline dark coloured carbonate of lime, less than one twentieth of an THE UNITED STATES. 77 inch thick, lies between the layers of slate. The substance of the fish is usually cHap. i. converted into coal, the thickness of which is rarely more than one tenth of an inch in any part, and the colour is black ; in some instances, however, the carbonate of lime above mentioned covers the fish, and has taken the place of the matter of the fins and scales, and their original light grey colour is preserved so perfectly as to resemble a fish just taken out of the water. Some of the specimens appear contorted ; in others the form of the fish is wholly lost, the fins, scales, and bones being scattered about promiscuously, as if the fish had perished in violent struggles, or the rock had been disturbed after its imprisonment. Yet, in the same specimen that contains one thus mutilated, another will appear not more than a foot distant which is whole. Specimens have been found in which the fishes (both of them distinct,) lie across each other ; sometimes a very thin layer of shale, and sometimes none, separating them. Another specimen, three feet long and fifteen inches wide, contains seven distinct impressions. The shale in which these ichthyolites occur, when rubbed or held in a flame, exhales a strong bituminous odour. Among the impressions hitherto obtained, are easily discoverable three distinct species that have scales. Another petrifaction occurs with fishes which resemble the common silver eel, {Mureena anguilla,) or some other species of the eel tribe ; the width varies from half an inch to an inch, and the length from one to two feet. The substance of the eel (if indeed it be one,) is not converted into coal, but there is a substitution of shale of a finer grain, except in the head, which is coal. No fins appear, except, perhaps, in one instance, a pectoral one. Sometimes along the centre of the impres sion there is a small relief, answering to the place of vertebrae. The course of the impressions is usually serpentine. The vegetable remains appear to be either the branches or roots of trees, or the Vegetable relics of culmiferous plants, and therefore may be called lignites and rhizolites. They Coal. are usually converted into a thin vein of coal, similar to the fish, and they are com monly broken into pieces from an inch to two feet long. Their width varies from a mere line to two inches, and they are not jointed. They are found in abundance at the falls in Gill, and with the icthyolites at Sunderland ; the rock in which they occur at both places is hardly bituminous shale, but a greyish micaceous sandstone. A specimen of rhizolite occurs on the road side, half a mile south of Newgate prison, not less than seven or eight feet in length. The following information respecting a different part of the country is furnished by another writer, Mr. Caleb Atwater, in the same Journal. " In the vicinity of the Ohio River, and on the waters of the Muskingum, I have carefully examined not a few of the fossil trees there existing. Among them I noticed the following, (viz.) — black oak, black walnut, sycamore or button wood, white birch, sugar maple, the date or bread-fruit tree, cocoanut-bearing palm, the bamboo, and the dogwood; and I VOL. II. m remains in 78 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. have in my possession the perfect impression of the cassia and the tea leaf. Of ferns I have beautiful impressions of the leaves, and of the bread-fruit tree flowers fully expanded, fresh and entire. I have specimens so perfect, and so faithful to nature, as to dispel all doubts as to what they once were. The larger trees are found mostly in sandstone, although the bark of the date tree, much flattened, I ought to say perfectly so, is found in shale, covering coal. The date is a large tree, not very tall, and having numerous wide-spreading branches. Nine miles west of Zanesville, the body of a bread-fruit tree, now turned to sandstone, may be seen ; it is exactly such sandstone as that in which M. Brongniart found tropical plants imbedded in France. It contains a considerable quantity of mica in its composition. The cassia was found in such sandstone in the Zanesville canal. The bamboo is mostly impressed upon ironstone, especially the roots, and the trunks and leaves are found in the micaceous sandstone. The ironstone is sometimes apparently made of bamboo leaves, the leaves of fern, and bamboo roots. It happens frequently that the trunks of small trees and plants are flattened by pressure, and the bark of them partially turned into coal. Thus the shale often contains a bark, now become coal, and a stratum of shale in succession, alternately, for several inches in thickness." Fossils of No part of the secondary strata has undergone so full and accurate an investiga- the ferm- tjon as tne ferruginous sand formation to the east of the Apalachian Mountains, gmoussand ° r * formation, by Dr. Morton of Philadelphia, to whose industry and care the science in this department is much indebted. As it is impossible for us to enter largely into detail, we give the following enumeration of the ascertained fossils in this formation, referring our readers for more particular information to the works mentioned below.k Chambered Univalves. Ammonites: 1. A. placenta; 2. A- hippocrepis ; 3. A. delawarensis ; 4. A vanuxemi. Baculites : B. ovatus. Scaphites : S. cuvieri. Be- lemnites: 1. B. americanus; 2. B. ambiguus. — Simple and Spiral Univalves. Dentalium, Patella, Turritella, Scallaria, Rostellaria, Natica, Bulla ? Trochus, Spiror- bis? Serpula, Cypraea.— Bivalves. Terebratula: 1. T.harlani; 2. T.fragilis; 3. T. Sayi. Gryphaea: 1. G. convexa; 2. G. mutabilis; 3. G. vomer. Exogyra: E. costata. Ostrea: 1. O.falcata; 2. O. cristagalli? 3. O ....,• 4. O Anomia. A. ephippium? Pecten: 1. P.quinquecostatus. 2. P. Cardium. Cucullaea : 1. C. vulgaris. 2. C Mya, Trigonia ? Tellina, Avicula, Pectunculus, Pinna, Teredo, Venus, Plagiostoma. — Echinide^. Spatangus, Ananchytes, Echinus, Cly- peaster. — Crustacea. Astacus, Cancer. — Zoophytes. Anthophyllum (atlanticum,) Eschara (millepora, Lin.) Flustra, Retepora, Caryophillia, Alcyonium. — Fossil Bones. Mosasaurus, Plesiosaurus, Saurodon, Geosaurus, Crocodile, Whale? Shark, Tortoise. To these may be added an abundance of lignite, in various stages, from k Silliman's Journal, vol. xvii. p. 279 ; vol. xviii. p. 244. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences, vol. vi. p. 113. THE UNITED STATES. 79 charred wood to perfect jet. We have already referred to these organic remains as chap. I. sufficiently establishing the secondary character of the strata in which they are found. With respect to the fossils of the tertiary formation, we collect the following Fossils of notices. In the plastic clay and sand are found large quantities of lignite, with dis- *e tertiary persed shells of the genera venus, ostrea, and murex, besides beds of the oyster. The silicious limestone contains splendid impressions of two or three varieties of mactra. " In the banks of James River, Virginia," says Mr. Finch, "there is a large quantity of organic remains imbedded in a bank of clay. At Richmond are found fossil triangular teeth apparently belonging to sharks, and other pieces of bone, at a distance of sixty feet from the surface. All these fossil remains are similar to those found in the London clay, and from the same spot I have seen fossil shells, similar to those which are deposited in the collection of the Geological Society in London, and which were obtained in the deep excavations at Highgate Hill." At Washington, under the mass of diluvian gravel of which the higher part of the capitol hill is composed, there is a stratum of clay, which contains many organic remains. Trunks and branches of trees are found at a distance of fifty-four feet from the surface ; and farther down the river, in digging wells, sharks' teeth are often met with. Near Williamsburg, fifty miles from the Atlantic ocean, the skeleton of a large fish was discovered ; amongst other parts, fragments of the ribs, and all the vertebras, were found regularly arranged. ' Here also is placed by Mr. Finch a bed of oyster shells, which extends six hundred miles in length, from ten to one hundred miles in width, ami if the known measure ment in one part of the line may be supposed a fair criterion, three hundred feet in thickness. The principal part of the formation is composed of shells, and it may probably be considered as the largest collection of fossils in the world. In this stratum the shells are in some situations united by a scanty calcareous cement, from which they may be readily detached; in this state it is called by the inhabitants a soft limestone, which in the quarry is easily cut by any edge tools, and becomes harder on exposure to the air : in other parts it presents immense banks of loose shells, ten or fifteen miles in length, without the admixture of any foreign substance. This extensive formation is chiefly composed of a large species of ostrea, which is believed not yet to have been described. A specimen of it may be seen in the Phila delphia museum, twelve inches long and two and three-quarters wide, and each valve from half to two and a quarter inches thick: it is said they occur larger; and on account of their great size it is proposed to call them ostrea gigantissima. The shells appear but slightly changed by their continuance in the earth, and are in many parts used for burning into lime. Respecting the shells found " in the alluvial of New Jersey," according to Mr. Maclure, or those generally, we may presume, of the 1 Silliman's Journal, vol. vii. more recent origin. 80 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. secondary and tertiary strata in the Atlantic slope, that distinguished geologist makes the following somewhat surprising observation. " Most of these shells are similar to those found in the limestone and graywacke of the transition, and equally resemble those found in such abundance in the secondary horizontal limestone and sandstone ; from which it would follow, that the different classes of rocks on this continent cannot be distinguished by their shells, though the different strata of the same class may be discovered and known by the arrangement of the shells found in them." This obser vation requires either the confirmation or the correction of subsequent inquiries. Fossils of To give our readers an idea of the fossils of more recent origin in which the United States abound, we cannot, perhaps, do better than present to them an account of one of their most remarkable localities, a morass, known by the characteristic name of Big-bone Lick, in Kentucky. This wonderful spot is a small valley situated twenty miles south-west of Cincinnati, and two from the Ohio River. In a number of places the ground is so soft for several rods, that a pole may with ease be thrust down many feet. In these soft places saline and sulphurous mineral waters rise ; the earth round them is dry and solid. Here are found the bones of the mas todon, elephant, buffalo, elk, and other now unknown animals. They are in immense quantities — it is a complete charnel-house. The bones ai% generally under ground, and so numerous that a hole cannot be dug to the depth at which they are usually found, without striking them. They are generally bones of the buffalo. On the east side of a rivulet that runs near the principal spring they lie in a hori zontal stratum, three feet below the surface, where the ground is lowest, and eleven, where the ground is eight feet higher. As the ground is dry and solid over this stratum, it cannot be supposed that the bones have sunk through it to their present level ; their position also excludes such a supposition, each bone lying horizontally, and the stratum also being horizontal. If the bones had penetrated the ground when it was soft, it cannot be supposed that they would have arranged themselves in a horizontal stratum, irrespectively of the unevenness of the ground, and of the various depths, three and eleven feet, necessary to attain this horizontal range ; it is therefore evident, that this part of the valley was level when these bones were deposited, and that they lay on the surface, and were subsequently covered with earth. As they have been covered without being displaced, and without the horizontal position of each bone or of the stratum being disturbed, the only admissible supposition is, that they have been covered by an inundation. They must previously have been long accumulating ; for there has been no accumulation since that supposed event, which bears any com parison for quantity with those thus imbedded. The inference also seems. warranted, that quadrupeds have never been equal, either in number or variety, since such an inundation, to what they were previously to it. The ground on the opposite side of the rivulet is higher, and presents a different class of phenomena. There the bones THE UNITED STATES. 81 lie promiscuously, at unequal depths, without any stratification ; we must, there- CHAP. I. fore, suppose that some other agent than an inundation has contributed to this state of things. These bones are represented as in a state of " entire preservation ;" a circumstance ascribed in part by the narrator to the salt with which the earth at Big-bone Lick is strongly impregnated. He adds a more remarkable fact, when he informs us that the process of petrifaction has commenced among them and that many of them are completely petrified. Some further interesting particulars respecting similar remains will be found in the Human following description of them by Mr. Atwater, as occurring in the state of Ohio. maTns™" " I am credibly informed, that in digging a well at Cincinati, in this state, an arrow-head was found more than ninety feet below the surface. At Pickaway plains, while several persons were digging a well several years since, a human skeleton was found seventeen feet six inches below the surface. This skeleton was seen by several persons, and among others, by Dr. Daniel Turney, an eminent surgeon; they all concurred in the belief, that it belonged to a human being. Pickaway plains are, or rather were, a large prairie, before the land was improved by its present inha bitants. This tract is alluvial to a great depth ; greater, probably, than the earth has ever been perforated, certainly than it has been here by the hand of man. The surface of the plain is at least one hundred feet above the highest freshet of the Scioto River, near which it lies. On the surface is a black vegetable mould, from three, to six, and nine feet in depth ; then we find pebbles, and shells imbedded among them : the pebbles are evidently rounded and smoothed by attrition in water, exactly such as we now see at the bottom of rivers, ponds, and lakes. I have examined the spot where this skeleton was found; and am persuaded that it was not deposited there by the hand of man, for there are no marks of any grave, or of any of the works of man, but the earth and pebbles appear to lie in the very position in which they were deposited by the water. On the north side of a small stream, called Hargus creek, which at this place empties itself into the Scioto, in digging through a hill composed of such pebbles as I have described in Pickaway plains, at least nine feet below the surface, several human skeletons were discovered, perfect in every limb. These skeletons were promiscuously scattered about, and parts of skeletons were sometimes found at different depths below the surface. This hill is at least fifty feet above the highest freshets in the Scioto, and is a very ancient alluvion, where every stratum of sand, clay, and pebbles, has been deposited by the waters of some stream. Other skulls have been taken out of the same hill, by persons who, in order to make a road through it, were engaged in taking it away. These bones are very similar to those found in our mounds, and probably belonged to the same race of men; a people short and thick, not exceeding generally five feet in height, and very possibly they were not more than four feet six inches. The skeletons, when first 82 TOPOGRAPHY OF book ii. exposed to the atmosphere, are quite perfect, but afterwards moulder and fall into pieces. Whether they were overwhelmed by the deluge of Noah, or by some other, I know not ; but one thing appears certain, namely, — that water has deposited them here, together with the hill in which, for so many ages, they have reposed. Indeed, this whole country appears to have been once, and for a considerable period, covered with water, which has made it one vast cemetery of the beings of former ages." Fragments of antique pottery, and even entire pots of coarse earthenware, have been found likewise in the excavations of the Illinois salt-works, at the depth of eighty feet and more from the surface. One of these was ascertained to hold from eight to ten gallons, and some were alleged to be of much greater capacity. This fossil pottery is stated not to differ materially from that which frequently occurs in the mounds supposed to have been formed by the aboriginal Indians. Remains The most extraordinary of the North American fossils in point of bulk, and we may mastodon a(^* ^e most interesting to science, are the remains of the mastodon, an . enormous Creature of an extinct race, bearing a close affinity to the elephant, and long considered to be identical with it, but now allotted to a distinct genus, under the name of Mastodon. Of the discovery of these remains we would gladly give a detailed account if our limits would allow ; but we must content ourselves with referring our readers to Godman's Natural History, vol. ii. where much information on the subject is collected* The size of the living animal may be conjectured when it is stated, that the head, at the posterior part, is 32 inches across, the lower jaw 2 feet 10 inches long, and the tusks 10 feet 7 inches long, and 7| inches in diameter at the base. The first vertebra, the atlas, is 11 inches broad, and 18 inches from tip to tip of the transverse processes. The scapula, or blade-bone, is 37 inches long, the shoulder-bone 2 feet 10 inches by 3 feet 2\ inches at the largest part, and the fore-arm (ulna) 2 feet 5\ inches in length by 3 feet 8 inches where largest. The pelvis is five feet 10 inches across ; the thigh-bone 3 feet 7 inches in length, with a diameter of 8 inches in the middle; and the leg (tibia) 2 feet, with a diameter of 8 inches at the upper part. We have given an engraving of the skeleton in the nearly perfect condition to which it has at length been brought by the industry and labour of American naturalists, and may add the following not unnatural expression of feeling on beholding it : — " The emotions experienced when, for the first time, we behold the giant relics of this great animal, are those of unmingled awe. We cannot avoid reflecting on the time when this huge frame was clothed with its peculiar integuments, and moved by appropriate muscles ; when the mighty heart dashed forth its torrents of blood through vessels of enormous caliber, and the mastodon strode along in supreme dominion over every other tenant of the wilderness. However we examine what is left to us, we cannot help feeling that this animal must have been endowed with a strength exceeding that of other quadrupeds, as much as it exceeded them in size ; and, looking at its ponderous jaws, THE UNITED STATES. 83 armed with teeth peculiarly formed for the most effectual crushing of the firmest sub* chap. I. stances, we are assured that its life could only be supported by the destruction of vast quantities of food. Enormous as were these creatures during life, and endowed with faculties proportioned to the bulk of their frames, the whole race has been extinct for ages. No tradition nor human record of their existence has been saved, and but for the accidental preservation of a comparatively few bones, we should never have dreamed that a creature of such vast size and strength once existed, — nor could we have believed that such a race had been extinguished for ever. Such, however, is the fact — ages after ages have rolled away — empires and nations have arisen, flourished, and sunk into irretrievable oblivion, while the bones of the mastodon, which perished long before the periods of their origin, have been discovered scarcely changed in colour, and exhibiting all the marks of perfection and durability. That a race of animals so large, and consisting of so many species, should become entirely and universally extinct, is a circumstance of high interest ; for it is not with the mastodon as with the elephant, which still continues to be a living genus, although many of its species have become extinct: the entire race of the mastodon has been utterly destroyed, leaving nothing but the ' mighty wreck' of their skeletons, to testify that they once were among the living occupants of this land." We cannot quit this subject without adverting to a striking instance of the facility Supposed with which the marvellous may be converted into the miraculous. In reference to theTtomach one of the mastodon skeletons discovered in the United States, we have the ofamas- ' todon. following passage in Cuvier, Oss. Foss. vol. ii. ed. 1. " But what renders this discovery unique among others, is that in the midst of the bones was found a half triturated mass of small branches, of gramina, and of leaves, among which it was believed that a species of reed still common in Virginia could be recognized, and that the whole seemed to be enveloped in a sort of sac, which was considered as the stomach of the animal ; so that there was no doubt but that these were the very substances upon which the animal had fed." This information, it seems, was communicated to Mons. Cuvier by Dr. Barton in a letter, in which he says most truly, " If the facts are as I state them, you will not hesitate to consider the discovery one of the most interesting that has been made for a long time. I may add," he continues with great naivete, " that such a discovery was hardly to be expected by the most sanguine or enthusiastic zoologist." Truly we think not ; and quite as little was it to be expected that men of science should be so. bereft of common sense as to credit such an alleged discovery without a rigorous investigation. Not an approach to satisfactory evidence of such a miracle exists. The reader may consult Godman's American Natural History, vol. ii. p. 240. We ought not to omit a reference to some fragments of the skull of a fossil ox, Fossil ox which were thrown out at an eruption caused by an earthquake, at New Madrid, on 84 TOPOGRAPHY OF book 11. the Mississippi, in 1812. It is stated that none of the oxen now in North America have crania " in the slightest degree " resembling this specimen. There has also been found upon the shores of Long Island a fossil skull of the genus trichecus, or walrus. It is agatized, and in fine preservation.m It is stated by Dr. Harman,™ that in North America, there have been found fossil remains of eleven species of animals, which no longer exist in a living state, in that or in any other country. Whether With respect to the question whether the whole of these remains occur exclusively viaf'oV u" in alluvial formations, or whether some of them are not imbedded in deposites strictly partly dilu- diluvial, some difficulty seems to us to exist. That in part they are alluvial, admits of no doubt ; and if it is to be set down as a criterion that human bones and works of art occur in none but alluvial deposites, then, of course, the inquiry is at an end. We cannot help asking, however, how, upon this supposition, the stratum of bones laid horizontally under an uneven surface at Big-bone Lick is to be accounted for;, or the promiscuous deposite of bones in the higher ground. We feel a similar difficulty respecting the plains in Ohio, where human- bones have been found, in some cases fifty, and in some at least an hundred feet " above the highest freshet " of the river in their neighbourhood. We can do no more, however, than suggest our doubts, and commend the inquiry to those who may be able to pursue it to a conclusive issue. Should there appear reason to think that these remains are in any case found in diluvial deposits, it will open a new and interesting field of observation. We subjoin some remarks of Mr. Schoolcraft, as a specimen of the method in which the strictly alluvial character of these deposites is maintained. " One striking fact, which appears to have escaped general observation, is, that at some former period, there has been an obstruction in the channel of the Mississippi at or near Grand Tower, pro ducing a stagnation of the current at an elevation of about 130 feet above the present ordinary water mark. This appears evident from the general elevation and direction of the hills, which, for several hundred miles above, are separated by a valley from twenty to twenty-five miles wide, which now deeply embosoms the current of the Mississippi. Wherever these hills disclose rocky and precipitous fronts, a series of distinctly marked antique water-lines is to be observed. These water-lines preserve a parallelism which is very remarkable, and as we should expect to find, constantly present their greatest depression towards the sources of the river." At Grand Tower they are elevated about 130 feet above the summer level, at which elevation we observe petrifactions of madrepores and various other fossil organic remains which belong to this peculiar era. Here the rocks of dark-coloured limestone, which " Godman, vol. iii. ¦ Fauna Americana. ° We have quoted accurately; but this statement appears to us, if correct, irreconcilable with Mr. School craft's theory. Water-marks produced by the course of a stream, would present their greatest elevation towards its source. THE UNITED STATES. 85 pervade the country to so great an extent, project towards each other as if they had chap. i. once united; but by some convulsion of nature, or what is still more probable, by the continued action of the water upon a secondary rock, the Mississippi has effected a passage through this barrier, thus producing an exhaustion of the stagnant waters from the level prairie lands above. The whole Missouri shore from the vicinity of Grand Tower extending upwards, is sufficiently elevated to have served, at a former period, as the western shore of an expanse of waters standing upon the present surface of the state of Illinois. This hypothesis derives additional weight from an attentive consideration of the mineral character of the alluvial deposits forming the surface of the prairies, in which we often observe fine, hard, and compacted layers of earth, similar to those which are found at the bottoms of mill-ponds, where the water has been long stagnant." Before closing our notices of fossils we must briefly advert to those which have cave fos- been found in the caverns, with which the limestone districts of the United States S1 s" abound, in a manner analogous to those of Europe. In too many instances caverns have been penetrated, and their contents disturbed, without any accurate observa tion or report : Professor Eaton, however, writes on the subject as follows : " The new cavern in Root's Nose, on the Erie Canal, I carefully investigated, aided, by three accurate assistants. This is 400 feet in extent. I caused two important caverns to be minutely examined in the Helderberg by three good assistants, of whom Mr. Finch, the geologist, was one. In addition to these, I have caused the important points suggested by Buckland to be searched out in several of the Kentucky and Illinois caverns. Nothing resembling the bones so abundant in European caverns has hitherto been discovered. Whoever will take the trouble to make personal inquiry, or to look over the journals of the last half century, will learn that all the bones disinterred in this country which may be called ante diluvian, belong to the pachydermata, or thick skin order. I cannot learn that a fragment of hyaena bone has ever been found in this hemisphere. I have taken measures to secure every important discovery made by the workmen on the canal for the last four years ; I distributed 1000 copies of a pamphlet giving plain instructions for making collections, along the canal line, while the labour of excavating 360 miles was going on ; but not a fragment of a dry-land animal was discovered. I may add, that we found stalagmites in all the caverns, as described by Buckland ; and on shelves, and in other situations protected from the touch, and in almost every part of the new cavern in Root's Nose, we found a deposit resembling what I have elsewhere denominated ultimate diluvion." From these facts he derives the con clusion, not perhaps improbable, yet open to correction by future researches, that antediluvial animals were few on the North American continent, and that they consisted chiefly of large species of pachydermata. vol. n. N gravel. 86 TOPOGRAPHY OF book i i. We may now find a proper place for adverting to another topic. The geological Operation aspect of the United States has, in many instances, been apparently modified by the causes!114 comparatively recent operation of natural causes ; such as the fall of a portion of a mountain, an impetuous torrent of water, or the draining of a lake. These are scenes which strongly tempt the spectator to suspect, and almost to be confident, that such events have occurred within a thousand, or perhaps within a few hundred years, and have given origin to valleys, and cliffs, and strata, and river courses, which now mingle in entire harmony with the general landscape. The want of written records among the native tribes precludes the possibility of discovering any other memorials of these catastrophes than such as are impressed on the face of nature ; but while the idea is encouraged by the immense force of the causes which are here in operation, and the vastness of the scope which is open to their action, it is converted almost into certainty by occurrences of a similar kind which have taken place within the period of accurate observation and record. We may mention one Deposits of in illustration of the manner in which local deposits of gravel may have been formed, and at a height considerably exceeding that of the water which produced them. The severity of the winter of 1821-2 having formed the ice of the Hudson of unusual thickness, it broke up suddenly, and moved down, not with great velocity, but. with a degree of force which seemed to threaten even the shores of solid rock. Pressing against a little rock promontory across which a canal is cut, cakes of ice shot over, and soon filled the canal. Other cakes pressing against the bottom of these, lifted them up to a considerable height above the water. At length an enormous ice cake appeared, bearing on its back a great quantity of gravel, and began to press against the heaps of ice already formed, which bore much gravel also. Innumerable other cakes from behind, urged on by the unconquerable waters of the Hudson, soon forced the largest cake across the canal, and up the eastern bank, so that its eastern edge extended thirty-four feet higher than the surface of the water, carrying up hundreds of smaller cakes to the same height. " This moun tain of ice," says Professor Eaton, " having taken its stand here, is now melting away, and leaving on the bank the gravel which is transported from the northern counties. I do not record this," he adds, " as an uncommon occurrence ; but since it seems to be a rule among geologists to trace the derivation of alluvial deposits to localities more elevated than those where they are found, it may be well to remind them of contingencies of the above nature." ' Formation The following brief account relates to the cutting of deep channels by mountain torrents, and the formation and impulse of boulders. Deerfield river, in the greater part of its course, is a mountain torrent, very rapid and powerful, and has worn itself a passage often 400 feet deep, the banks being almost perpendicular. The ice freezes three or four feet thick, and when a sudden rain melts the snows on its banks, of boulders. THE UNITED STATES. 87 the stream rises rapidly, and lifts up and urges forward with tumultuous fury this chap. i. immense body of ice. As the banks among the mountains are steep and rocky, they prevent the accumulation of water and ice from spreading to the right or left, and thus an immense force is exerted upon obstacles in the bed of the stream, which, in winter floods, is filled with huge masses of ice to the very bottom. In the west part of Shelburne this river descends a cataract thirty or forty feet high. The rock in the bottom of the river is an aggregate of quartz and mica with hornblende intermixed, and below the falls it is unstratified, almost without seams, and very hard. Here we might expect the force of the torrent would be very powerful ; and accordingly are found masses of this rock, from one to ten feet in diameter, raised from their bed and removed down the stream, some only a few rods, but some one or two miles. Some very large blocks are seen just beginning to be raised from their bed. " Previously to viewing this spot," says Mr. Hitchcock, " I had no just ideas of the enormous force exerted by a mountain torrent." The most interesting account of this kind, however, is that given by the Rev. S. E. Draining of Dwight, of his visit to a lake which had burst its banks through an indiscreet lakes- attempt to draw off part of its waters to a needy mill. By virtue of the sandy nature of its margin, the whole contents of the basin were set at liberty, and made, of course, in their progress a frightful desolation. " I was most agreeably surprised," says our traveller, " as I descended the hills which overlook the valley of the river, to find the ravages made by the flood so distinctly visible, after the lapse of thirteen years. Our first view of the desolation presented a gully, or excavation in the earth, extending up and down the river as far as its course was visible, and varying in breadth from twenty to forty rods, and in depth from twenty to forty feet. This immense channel, except what had been previously worn away by the gradual attrition of the streamlet, had all been hollowed out at once by the violence of the torrent. Its sides were precipices of earth or sand, every where indicating the avulsion of the mass which had been adjacent, and exhibiting, in frequent succession, large rocks laid bare and often jutting out into the gulley, and near the top the uncovered roots of trees, which, having been partially undermined by the water, still nodded over the precipice. The bottom of this channel, as far as we could see, was covered with larger and smaller rocks and stones, and in some places with extensive deposits of sand. The sight of this vast excavation only heightened our conceptions of the effects of the flood." We know not where, better than in connexion with these facts, to introduce one impression still more remarkable, if not altogether inexplicable. There have been found, it j^""18" appears beyond all question, in naked limestone of the elder secondary formation, close on the western margin of the Mississippi at St. Louis, the prints of human feet. The prints are those of a man standing erect, with his heels drawn in, and his toes 88 TOPOGRAPHY OF book II. turned outward, which is the most natural position. They are not the impressions of feet accustomed to a close shoe, the toes being very much spread, and the foot flattened in the manner that happens to those who have been habituated to go a great length of time without shoes. The prints are strikingly natural, exhibiting every muscular impression and swell of the heel and toes, with great precision and faith fulness to nature. The length of each foot, as indicated by the prints, is ten inches and a half, and the width across the spread of the toes, four inches, which diminishes to two inches and a half at the swell of the heels, indicating, as it is thought, a stature of the common size. Every appearance seems to warrant the conclusion that these impressions were made at a time when the rock was soft enough to receive them by pressure, and that the marks of feet are natural and genuine. " Such was the opinion of Governor Cass and myself," says Mr. Schoolcraft, " formed upon the spot, and there is nothing that I have subsequently seen to alter this view : on the con trary, there are some corroborating facts calculated to strengthen and confirm it." At Herculaneum, in the same neighbourhood, similar marks have been found, as well as on some of the spurs of the Cumberland mountains, always in similar limestone. In the latter case it is stated that the impressions are elongated, as of persons slipping in ascending a slimy steep. Opinions are much divided as to the origin and import of these impressions.? Should similar observations multiply, important inferences may perhaps be drawn from them; at present it seems impossible to speak respecting them decisively or satisfactorily. They may perhaps be connected with the tracks of animals which have been noticed in Scotland."1 Living fos- The following extraordinary facts, respecting what may be termed living fossils, appear to be well authenticated. During the construction of the Erie canal, while the workmen were cutting through a ridge of gravel, they found several hundred of live molluscous animals. They were chiefly of the Mya cariosa and Mya purpurea. " I have before me," says Professor Eaton, " several of the shells from which the workmen took the animals, fried and ate them. I have received satisfactory assu rances that the animals were taken alive from the depth of forty-two feet." In addition to this discovery in diluvial deposits, mention is made of a similar one in a much older formation. In laying the foundation of a house at Whitesborough, the workmen had occasion to split a large stone from the millstone grit. " It was perfectly close-grained and compact. On opening it they discovered a black, or dark brown spherical mass, about three inches in diameter, in a cavity which it filled. On examining it particularly, they found it to be a toad, much larger than the common species, and of a darker colour. It was perfectly torpid. It was laid upon a stone, and soon began to give signs of life. In a few hours it would hop moderately, on f Silliman's Journal, vol. v. p. 223. i See Dr. Brewster's Journal, April, 1828. sils. THE UNITED STATES. 89 being disturbed. They saw it in the yard, moving about slowly for several CHAP. I. days ; but it was not watched by them any longer, and no one observed its farther movements. They laid one half of the stone in the wall, so that the cavity may still be seen. " The millstone grit," says Professor Eaton, who gives this account, " in which this toad was found, is the oldest of the secondary rocks. It must have been formed many centuries before the deluge. % Was this toad more than 4000 years old ? or was it from an egg introduced, through a minute and undiscovered cleavage, into this cavity or geode, made precisely to fit the size and form of a toad? I was par ticular in my inquiry, and learned that the whole stone was perfectly compact, without any open cleavage which would admit an egg. Besides, it is well known that the millstone grit is neither porous nor geodiferous. If this rock stratum was deposited upon the toad, it must have been in aqueous, not in igneous solution, and the toad must have been full grown at the time. Toads are often found in com pact, hard, gravelly diluvial deposits, in situations which demonstrate that they must have lived from the time of the deluge. I think I am warranted in saying this without citing authorities, as it is a common occurrence. Then why may they not have lived a few centuries longer, if we admit them a life of at least 3000 years?" 90 TOPOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER II. mineralogy. book II. From the Geology of the United States, we now turn to their Mineralogy, which is equally ample and extraordinary. We may first give a general view of the mineral contents of the several classes of strata. Mineral A great variety of mineral substances are found in the primitive formation, such as theprimi-f garnets m the granite and mica slate, from the size of a pin's head to that of the head tive rocks. 0f a child, staurotide, andalusite, epidote in vast variety and abundance, tremolite, all the varieties of magnesian rocks, emerald touching graphic granite, and disseminated in the granite of a large extent of country, adularia, tourmaline, hornblende, sulphate of barytes, arragonites, &c. From the number already found in proportion to the little research that has yet been employed, there is every reason to suppose, that in so great an extent of crystalline formation, almost every mineral discovered in similar situations on the ancient continent will be found on the new. Metallic sub stances in the primitive are generally extensive, like the formation itself. Iron pyrites runs through vast fields, principally of gneiss and mica slate ; magnetic iron ore, in powerful beds, from ten to twelve feet thick, generally in a hornblende rock, occupies the highest elevations, as in the Highlands of New York, the Jerseys, the Yellow and Iron Mountains in the west of North Carolina ; a black brown bed of hematitic iron ore occurs in Connecticut and New York states ; crystals of octahedral iron ore (some of which have polarity) are disseminated in granites, as at Brunswick, district of Maine, and in many varieties of the magnesian genus ; black lead is met with in beds from six to twelve feet wide, traversing the states of New York, Jersey, Virginia, Carolina, &c. ; native and grey copper ore, near Stanardsville, and Nicholson's Gap, Virginia, is disseminated in a hornblende and epidote rock, bordering on the transition; molybdenaat Brunswick, (Maine,) Chester, (Pennsylvania,) Virginia, North Carolina, &c. ; arsenical pyrites in large quantities in the district of Maine ; red oxyd of zinc and magnetic iron ore in a powerful bed on the edge of the pri mitive, near Sparta, in New Jersey, having a large grained marble, with nigrin or silico-calcareous titanium imbedded in it on one side, and hornblende rock on the THE UNITED STATES. 91 other. This bed contains likewise large quantities of blende. Detached pieces of chap. II. gold, of which we shall presently speak more particularly, have been found in the beds " of some small streams in North Carolina, and other places. Manganese has been found in New York, North Carolina, &c. Near the confines of the old red sandstone and primitive formation, a white ore of cobalt has been wrought above Middletown, on the Connecticut river, and found also, as it is said, near Morristown, in New Jersey. The general nature of metallic repositories in this formation appears to be in beds, disseminated, or lying in masses ; when in beds (as the magnetic iron ore and black lead) or disseminated (as the iron pyrites, octahedral iron ore, molybdena, &c.) they occur at intervals through the whole range of the formation. Veins to any great extent have not yet been discovered in this formation. Beds of coalblende, or anthracite, accompanied by alum slate and black chalk, Of the have been discovered in the transition strata, on Rhode Island, the Lehigh and rocks!13011 Susquehannah rivers, and a large body of alum slate in Virginia; many powerful veins of the sulphate of barytes cross it in different places ; granular, as that near Fincastle, or slaty, as that in Buncomb county, North Carolina. Iron and lead have as yet been the principal metals found in this formation ; the lead in the form of galena, in clusters, or what the Germans call Stockwerk, as at the lead mines on New River, Wyeth county, Virginia ; the iron disseminated in pyrites, hematitic and magnetic iron, or in beds; and considerable quantities of the sparry iron ore in beds, and disseminated in the limestone. Prehnite and Zeolite are found in the trap of the old red sandstone formation ; and considerable deposits of magnetic iron ore at Grub's, mines are enveloped, and have their circular layers intersected, by greenstone trap, on a ridge of which this extensive cluster of iron ore seems to be placed. Grey copper ore has been found in the red sandstone formation, near Hartford and Washington, in Connecticut ; there are likewise mines in New Jersey, where copper pyrites and native copper have been found. The metallic veins at Perkiomen creek, containing copper, pyrites, blende, and galena, are in the same formation, running nearly north and south across the east and west direction of the red sandstone, and a small bed, from a half to three inches thick, of brown or red copper ore is interspersed, and follows the circular form of the iron beds at Grub's mines. In the secondary and tertiary formations eastward of the Apalachian mountains, of the for- considerable deposits of bog iron ore occupy the lower situations, and many of the ™gf ™sthe more elevated and dividing ridges between the rivers are crowned with a sandstone Apalachian ... Mountains. and puddingstone, the cement of which is bog iron ore. Large quantities of ochre, from bright yellow to dark brown, are found in this formation, in flat hori zontal beds, alternating with other earths in some places, in others in kidney-form masses, from the size of an egg to that of a man's head ; in form, resembling much the flint found frequently in chalk formations. 92 TOPOGRAPHY OF book II. In the ordinary mineral productions, such as sand of all qualities, brick-earth, Specific stone adapted for buildings of all descriptions, as well as for any kind of workmanship, the resources of the United States are inexhaustible. The same may likewise be said of many minerals of less universal occurrence, of which it may be expected that we should speak somewhat more particularly. To speak first of the precious metals. Gold. Gold is found in considerable quantities in North and South Carolina, on the eastern side of the Apalachian Mountains. One mass is stated to have weighed 281bs. The value of the gold received at the mint of the United States up to 1820, was 44,000 dollars, or about 11,000/. sterling. It is remarkable that the gold of this region is found not only in alluvium, as in South America, but in its matrix, though the opinions of the scientific men who have written upon it are so various, as to render it difficult to say what the matrix is. By Professor Olmsted it is referred to clay slate (argillite) ; by Mr. Rothe to granite, and beds of greenstone occurring in granite ; and by Pro fessor Eaton to talcose slate, a kind of rock, in which he states that a small portion of gold has been found in Maryland.1 Its occurrence in the alluvium is thus explained, with great probability, by Professor Mitchell : — " It formerly existed in the rocks of the region in which it is found, whether in veins of quartz exclusively, or also dis seminated through the rock, is in a degree uncertain ; but I am inclined to think, disseminated also. As the rocks have undergone decomposition, it has fallen out, and now lies mingled in the soil, near the same spot, and bearing the same proportion to the earthy matter as when enclosed in its original stony matrix. In a few cases only, where it happened to occupy the side of a steep declivity, it has been carried down during the violent rains into the adjacent low grounds, and the beds of the neigh bouring streams." He gives also the following general result of his inquiries: — The gold of North Carolina is found, — 1. In veins of quartz traversing the ancient primi tive rocks, in very small quantity. 2. In veins of quartz traversing more recent primitive rock, in considerable quantity. 3. In veins of quartz traversing transition rocks, and also disseminated, in considerable quantity. 4. In soil produced by the decomposition of these three kinds of rock. 5. In the sand of a stream running over old red sandstone, in very minute quantity. Silver. Silver and its ores are not of frequent or extensive occurrence. Dr. Dana states the curious fact that, near Portsmouth, New Hampshire, a mass, three or four inches in diameter, was found on the top of a wall, composed principally of native silver in Mercury, filaments : the' surrounding hills are chiefly greenstone. Mercury, which has been found native in Kentucky, occurs more plentifully as a sulphuret, (Bituminous Cinna bar, Cleaveland), in Ohio and the Michigan territory, more particularly on the shores of Lakes Michigan, Huron, St. Clair, Detroit River, and Lake Erie to the mouth of ' Silliman's Journal, vol. vii. f as THE UNITED STATES. 93 Vermilion River. It occurs in the soil in the form of a black and red sand, but is CHAP. II. usually more abundant in banks of fine ferruginous clay. Near the mouth of Ver milion River, it is in the form of a very fine red powder, or in grains and small masses, disseminated in clay. It yields by distillation about 60 per cent, of mercury. Copper in various forms occurs in the United States, but the ores do not appear to be Copper. brought into use. This metal is not found so abundantly on the shores of Lake Superior as it was anticipated it would be ; but many specimens of copper ore have been found at different points in the Mississippi valley. Specimens of pure and malleable copper have been obtained; one of which, said to have been found in Illinois, thirty miles east of St.Louis, weighed three pounds. In the United States ores of iron are abundant. Those iron. hitherto worked are chiefly the magnetic oxide, brown hematite, and the argillaceous oxide, particularly bog ore. The more important ores are the following, viz. in New Hampshire, the magnetic oxide ; in Vermont, brown hematite, and bog ore ; in Massachusetts, bog ore ; in Rhode Island, brown hematite ; in Connecticut, brown hematite, and bog ore ; in New York, the magnetic, specular, and argillaceous oxides ; in New Jersey, the magnetic and argillaceous oxides ; in Pennsyl vania and the States south and west, the magnetic oxide, brown hematite, and the argillaceous oxide. To these may now be added the carbonate of iron, which has recently been successfully smelted, and which produces iron having the carbonaceous impregnation of steel, whence it has been called steel ore. In New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, the ore is found in an abundance, and of a quality not exceeded in Sweden. The Connecticut and Virginia iron is highly esteemed. More than 600 furnaces, forges, and bloomeries now exist in the United States ; at which it is estimated that about 30,000 tons of bar iron, and about 60,000 tons of cast iron are annually made. In 181 9, 20,000 tons of iron in bars and bolts were imported into the United States. In Ohio, are furnaces or forges, or both, in nine or ten counties. The ore sometimes occurs in nodules in clay, and sometimes it is a very ferruginous sandstone, occurring in beds. The ores of lead are extensively found in the territories of the republic ; and in Lead. Ohio, it is stated to have been met with native, forming slips, or slender prismatic masses, in crystallized galena. This mineral is found in various places from the Arkansas River to the north-west territory, the precise line of the Ozark and Shawnee Mountains, a tract which seems to constitute one of the most important and extensive deposits of lead hitherto known. On the Arkansas, the ore is smelted by the Osage Indians for bullets. To the northward, some valuable mines at Prairie du Chien are imperfectly worked by the proprietors of the soil. But the most important mines are those in Cape Girardeau district, commonly known as the lead mines of Missouri. The mining district is situated between two prominent ridges of sandstone, which bound the valley of Grand River, or the basin of Potosi. These ridges diverge in vol. n. o 94 TOPOGRAPHY OF book n. their course northward, and are intercepted by the Merameg, which receives the waters of Grand River, and forms a boundary to the mining district in that direction. The area thus isolated by prominent topographical boundaries forms the metal liferous district, where mining operations were first commenced by the French about a century since, and have been continued, with more or less activity, to the' present period. The consolidated portions of this area consist of two distinct deposits of limestone, a formation of sandstone, and another of red marl, the latter of which has, thus far, yielded the greatest quantities of lead ore. This metalliferous marl fills large veins and fissures in the inferior stratum of limestone, and there is reason to conclude that it is found, in some cases, in the position of subordinate beds. The galena and spars found in this marl are never abraded, but present all their crystal line characters unimpaired by the action of any accidental forces.. The superior limestone is compact, shelly, and blackish, and seems to be above the metalliferous marl. Over the whole, and forming the surface of the country, is a heavy deposit of diluvial materials, pebbles of various formations, ferruginous loam, fragments of quartz, &c. This is the repository of those comparatively limited beds of abraded galena which are denominated gravel ore, and which has all the marks of diluvial action. Mixed with the more finely comminuted portions of rock, are found fragments of quartz, and lumps of lead ore, together with rounded masses of pre-existing strata represent- ing the two great classes of formations, which most geologists have felt a necessity for recognizing under the names of primitive and secondary. Most of these masses are small, not exceeding a few ounces in weight, and few are found to exceed the size of a cannon shot. Some writers have been disposed to ascribe the ore fouhd so abundantly, and so contrary to all analogy hitherto observed, in the veins of red marl or clay in the galeniferous limestone, to diluvial action likewise ; but Mr. Schoolcraft positively assures us that there are none of those marks of abrasion which such a theory would require. The galena raised from the marl, he tells us, is as free from any marks of diluvial action, as if it had been fresh blasted from the most solid parts of the limestone. That the red marl never has been so disturbed appears also from the large vein-like beds of sulphate of barytes which traverse it. To assert that these very white, highly crystalline bodies of spar, often enveloping cubical masses of galena, and large beds of galena with the cubical pyrites and octahedral and crested iron ores of the basin of Potosi j could have been removed by any known forces amid the earthy mass in which they are found, without effecting a visible obliteration of their angles, would certainly be not very reasonable. The same series of formations extends in a particular direction, not only from the Merameg to the St. Francis, throughout the broadest part of the valley of Grand River, but even beyond it, to the southern limits of the state of Missouri, to the upper tributaries of White River, and to the Strawberry branch of Black River. THE UNITED STATES. 95 Towards the north also, this metalliferous red clay and its accompanying strata chap. II have been traced ; whether uninterrupted or not, they certainly reappear, with some differences, on the Upper Mississippi, at the mines of Peosta and Dubuque. In the Shawnee mountains, in the southern part of the state of Illinois, mining was formerly attempted, but it is now abandoned. Tin has not been found in the United States. Other And although the ores of zinc, antimony, and many other metals occur in various metals" localities, they do not possess sufficient importance to require further notice here. Coal is known to exist in the United States in great quantity, and has been Coal. sought after to a considerable extent, although the abundance of wood has hitherto impeded the working of the mines to their full capability. The kinds of coal found in this extensive territory are very various, and the localities in which they are met with are of corresponding diversity. They are classed by Professor Eaton under the following heads : — First, The genuine anthracite, or glance coal, found in the transition argillite, as at Worcester, (Massachusetts,) Newport, (Rhode Island ;) also in small quantities in the north and south range of argillite along the bed and banks of the river Hudson. Second, Coal destitute of bitumen, usually called anthracite, but differing greatly in its character from the anthracite found in argillite. It may be called anasphaltic coal. This is embraced in a slate rock, being the lowest of the lower series of secondary rocks. This coal formation is equivalent to the great coal measures of Europe. There is always bitumen in a greater or less proportion, though the proportion is often exceedingly small.b The principal American localities of this coal hitherto discovered are in the state of Pennsylvania ; as at Carbondale, Lehigh, Lakawaxen, Wilkesbarre, &c. Third, The proper bituminous coal, as at Tioga, Lycoming, &c. This coal is embraced in a slate rock, which is the lowest of the series of upper secondary rocks. The fourth formation is the lignite coal, which is found in a very extensive stratum in the state of New Jersey along the south shore of the bay of Amboy. The second species of coal is becoming of considerable Anasphal- iinportance in the United States, and rising into high estimation, as peculiarly tlccoa- adapted to various Useful purposes. When once ignited, it burns with a strong and durable heat ; and indeed much of the difficulty of kindling it may be avoided by the addition of a certain quantity of charcoal, and by a strong current of air judiciously managed. As it is composed almost entirely of carbon, without bitumen, or even sulphur, except from the accidental presence of pyrites, it burns without caking, and is Very useful in those operations where a durable and uniform degree of heat is required. Hence its use in smelting iron ore, and in the preparation of steel ; in burning limestone ; in salt-Works, and Other processes of evaporation ; in distillation, preparing malt, &c. &c. But as it burns without flame, it cannot be employed iii reverberatory b This is called in question by Dr. Silliman, who asserts that he has repeatedly distilled different varieties of this coal without obtaining any bitumen. 96 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. furnaces ; and, as it does not cake, it cannot be used by the smith for those purposes of the forge where a hollow fire is required. It has been common to consider this anasphaltic coal as a true anthracite, and the strata in which it is found as properly . belonging to the transition class ; but it would be difficult to admit this in conjunction with such a profusion of vegetable remains as occur in connexion with it. In visiting several of the mines of the Susquehanna and Lackawanna, the naturalist is gratified by seeing the vast deposits of vegetable impressions and remains which accompany the coal, usually in the slate that forms the roof, and occasionally in that of the floor ; they exist also, although in a smaller degree, in the sandstone, and some times, but much more rarely, even in the coal itself. There are instances where they fill the slate for a space of ten feet in thickness, and, making due allowance for the compression which they haye undergone, the original deposits must have occupied a vastly greater thickness than their relics do now. The impressions are very perfect, indicating repose and calm at the time of their deposition, and excluding the possibility of transport from distant countries. There are many species, of ferns, none of them, as it is said, modern, and most or all of them tropical ; there are impressions, sometimes several feet long and broad, of the bark of gigantic. vegetables, some botanists s'ay they are palms ; occasionally there are entire limbs, carbonized ; frequently, broad leaves are found of six or seven inches or more in diameter ; culmiferous plants are numerous, and so are the aquatic algae, and rushes.. The leaves of the plants are usually in full expansion, the most delicate parts of their structure being exactly preserved or copied; and according to Mr. Cist, flowers of a stellated form are occasionally found. Professor Hitchcock believed that he had found a flower with unfolded petals. If all these remains are found in transition rocks, it is certainly a new feature in geological science ; if, on the contrary, according to Professor Eaton, the strata in which the anasphaltic coal lies are of the elder secondary, then this class of rocks must be of more extensive occurrence on the eastern side of the Apalachian Mountains than has been hitherto supposed. Origin of We cannot withhold from our readers the following speculations of a scientific the anas- observer on the probable formation of these interesting beds : — " Is the anthracite coal. coal," says Dr. Silliman, " of vegetable origin? Does the fibrous charcoal, frequently found between its layers, owe its origin to the vegetable skeleton ? There seems no more reason to doubt the latter fact, than that the vegetable impressions found in and upon the coal and its rocks have the same origin. But did the mass of coal arise from vegetables ? This has been admitted by many persons with respect to ..bitu minous coal, but, I have heretofore been inclined to attribute anthracite coal to a direct mineral creation; the opinion of its vegetable origin appears however to me less improbable, since I have seen with my own eyes the incontrovertible and abundant proofs of vegetable life in these mines. We are obliged, from the facts here seen, to THE UNITED STATES. 97 go a great extent in admitting vegetation in connexion with this coal. But if we CHAP. n. seek to trace the entire masses to vegetable matter, how shall we admit the existence and accumulation of the enormous quantities that must have grown or been collected on the spot, to form such stupendous beds, ten, twenty, and thirty feet in thickness, and repeated, again and again, with all their attendant rocks and impressions ? But, the plants, from ferns and liliputian vegetables to those of great size, did grow, and were deposited, in connexion with these coal strata, for there we find their unques tionable and exuberant remains ; and they were produced again and again, for we find them in the different deposits, as the coal strata succeed each other at different depths. As the vegetables, whose organized forms or impressions we actually find, did exist in these places, could there, by any possibility, have been enough accumu lated to form the coal beds ? If it is difficult to answer in the affirmative, perhaps it is not quite certain that we must reply in the negative ; at least it is not, I must confess, quite so certain as I once thought it to be. " But, supposing the vegetable matter to have existed in sufficient quantity to have formed the coal ; why, if so formed, is there in general no appearance of ligneous structure, of vegetable organization in the coal itself? On this point it may be suggested, that the vegetable matter may have been so decomposed, as to lose in a great degree its organization ; it may have been suspended or deposited in water along with the same earthy matter which formed the accompanying rocks, and parti cularly the coal slate, and this earthy matter may have been deposited along with and among the particles as well as the masses of coal, now in minute proportion, as we actually find it in burning even the purest anthracite, the form and structure of whose layers is delicately exhibited by the earthy skeleton, commonly called ashes, which remains : now the earthy matter may have prevailed to a greater degree, and then the coal is more impure, less combustible, and affords a more abundant residuum ; again, the earthy matter may have prevailed still more, and then the deposit is a carbona ceous slate ; and lastly, the carbon may have been supplanted by the earthy matter, and then seams of slate would be formed as we actually find them in the coal beds. Without some such process, it seems difficult to account for the varying proportions of earth and carbon which we find blended in the anthracites ; the extremes being the purest coal on the one hand, and slate on the other, and between these there appear to be innumerable mixtures or combinations of earth and coal in different proportions. " Perhaps the reason why the vegetables found in the slate retain their organized form, is found in the fact, that the fine sedimentary earths, the silicious and argilla ceous, of which the slate is composed, may have enveloped the plants too suddenly to permit them to undergo decomposition, and thus to exhibit an impalpable carbon; while their forms would, of course, be distinctly impressed upon the yielding plastic 98 TOPOGRAPHY OF book II. matter of the slate, rendered soft perhaps try diffusion in water. Pressure is also to be taken into account in reasoning upon the probable obliteration of the organic structure ; this force would operate in proportion to the progress of the accumulation, whether of coal strata, or of those of superincumbent rock." c Bituminous The appearance of the Tioga, or bituminous coal, differs so little from the well- known character of the best Liverpool or Newcastle coal, that it scarcely requires a description. Its colour is velvet black, with a slight resinous lustre, its structure is slaty or foliated, and its layers, as in the best English coal, divided into prismatic solids, with bases slightly rhomboidal; it is easily frangible and slightly soils the fingers. The specific gravity is 1,287. It burns with a bright flame and consider able smoke, with a slight bituminous smell, a sort of ebullition taking place, and, as the heat increases, an appearance of semifusion, leaving a light residue or scoria. In 100 parts of coal are, Carbon 66 7 Bitumen 30 43 ¦ I' - "¦ ' — Earth 3 50 100 00 It thus appears that the Tioga coal is of an excellent quality, fully equal to the best Liverpool coal, and fit for all the purposes of manufactures, but requiring to be converted into coke before it can be made use of in the smelting of iron ore, or in many other processes in metallurgy and the arts. This should be always kept in view, and is the principal distinction between it and the anthracite or non-bituminous coal of Rhode Island and Pennsylvania. Each of them has its distinctive and valuable qualities. While the anthracites consist nearly of from ninety to ninety-seven per cent, of pure carbon, the Tioga coal contains only 66,7, the residue being chiefly bitumen, a substance which renders it extremely valuable in domestic use, and in the reverberatory furnaces, but inapplicable to many other purposes which the experi enced artist can easily comprehend. The bituminous coal occurs in a series of beds of sandstone, accompanied by shale or argillaceous slate, abounding with vegetable impressions and resting on secondary limestone containing fossil remains. In the neighbourhood of the coal mine is found abundance of iron ore, of that species which is called ironstone or argillaceous iron ore, precisely of the same character as that which accompaniie the beds of coal in England. Graphite Graphite, or plumbago, commonly but improperly called black lead, occurs exten- leum. sively in primitive and transition rocks ; from that which is obtained in New York, excellent pencils have been made. There are also numerous localities of petroleum, or mineral oil. It usually floats on the surface of springs, which in many cases are c Silliman's Journal, vol. xvm. THE UNITED STATES. 99 known to be in the vicinity of coal. It is sometimes called Seneca or Genessee oil. CHAP. 11. In Kentucky, it occurs on a spring of water in a state sufficiently liquid to bum in a lamp ; it is collected in considerable quantities, and sold at twenty-five cents, or about one shilling, a gallon. Salt appears to be very abundant in the United States. We have already noticed Salt the indications of a gypsum and rock salt formation along the east and south-east boundaries of the Mississippi Valley bordering on the transition rocks of the mountain chains, and in strata identical with the saliferous sandstone of Europe ; and through the whole extent of this line, from the state of New York across the Mississippi, into the Arkansas country, salt-works have been more or less successfully undertaken; The salt, however, has never been found in the. mass ; it is obtained from springs, or more frequently from wells or borings made for the purpose. The brine varies considerably in its strength. Professor Eaton has suggested doubts whether masses of salt really exist He conceives that an apparatus for the spontaneous manufacture of salt may be found within the bosom of the earth, in those rocks which contain the necessary elements ; and his opinion has the support of an experiment which we shall give in his own words. " I took a specimen of the rock called water limestone from a hill adjoining Nine-mile Creek, a few miles west of the Onondaga salt-springs. If this specimen be pulverized and examined ever so minutely, it presents nothing to the senses resembling common salt, (muriate of soda).. 1 do not mean that the elementary constituents cannot be found in it, but I do not propose here to have any reference to a chemical analysis of the rock. On exposing a fresh fracture of a specimen from this rock for two or three weeks in a damp, cellar, it shoots out crystals of common salt, sufficient to cover its whole surface. This proves conclu sively, that one rock at least, reposing over the floor of the salt springs, contains in itself the materials for the spontaneous manufacture of salt. And there may be many kinds of rock besides the water limestone, which contain the elementary constituents of common salt." Subsequently, however, Mr. Eaton has found reason to think that salt has existed in ,a solid state in cubical crystals, the hollow forms of which he discovered abundantly in the lias and saline rock of the west, and it seems still to be highly probable that masses of salt exist in the neighbourhood of the salt-springs. The brine contains, besides the muriate of soda, a considerable proportion of muriate of lime and magnesia. Recently also bromine has been detected in the brine of Salina by Dr. Silliman. In addition to those which are strictly saline, mineral waters of various properties are of frequent occurrence in the United States. Our notices of them in this depart ment of our work must be chiefly confined to their mineralogical character. The mineral waters of Saratoga, which have become so celebrated for their medicinal qualities, are situated in a low marshy valley, along the termination of a ridge of 100 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK ii. secondary limestone; they discover themselves in a bed of blue marl, which covers the Mineral valley throughout its whole extent, and to an unknown depth. On digging into this marl, to any considerable distance, in almost any direction, a mineral water is sure to be found ; in some places, at the depth of six or eight feet, it is discovered issuing from a fissure or seam in the underlying limestone, while at other places, it seems to proceed from a thin stratum of quicksand, which is found to alternate with the marl at distances of from ten to forty feet ; at this depth the marl is interrupted by a layer of boulders of a considerable size, beyond which no researches have yet been made. All the mineral fountains that have yet been examined in this valley, and there are more than twenty, are found to possess uniformly the same qualities, differing only in what is usually termed their strength, or, in other words, in the quantities of the articles which the water of each is found to hold in solution. They belong to a class which may with propriety be styled the acidulous saline chalybeate. The best analyses agree in demonstrating that they contain the following ingredients, viz. — carbonic acid, muriate of soda, carbonate of soda, carbonate of lime, carbonate of magnesia, and carbonate of iron, together with a very minute quantity of silica and alumina. To these ingredients recent investigations have added iodine, hydrobromic acid, and potash. The surface of Hamilton spring, at Saratoga, is constantly agitated by the escape of large quantities of gas ; and as the water passes off, it leaves on the surface of the earth an abundant deposit of a brownish colour, evidently ferruginous and calcareous. The water, when first dipped from the fountain, is remarkably clear and sparkling, but on standing exposed to the atmosphere, soon becomes turbid. It is saline and acidulous to the taste, and when taken to the quantity of five or six half pints, is usually powerfully cathartic and diuretic. The temperature at the bottom of the well is uniformly at fifty degrees. One gallon, or 231 cubic inches, of this water, when first taken from the well, contains Muriate of soda : grains 297.3 Hydriodate of soda 3. Carbonate of soda • 19.21 Carbonate of lime 92.4 Carbonate of magnesia 23. 1 Oxide of iron 5.39 grains 440.4 together with a minute quantity of silica and alumina, probably 0.6 of a grain, making the solid contents of a gallon amount to 44 1 grains. Carbonic acid gas 816 cubic inches. Atmospheric air 4 Gaseous contents in a gallon 320 cubic inches. e e I © THE UNITED STATES. 101 At Albany, in the summer of 1826, in boring for pure water for a brewery, a CHAP. II. mineral spring was 'accidentally opened. The sensible qualities of this water have a great resemblance to those of the Congress spring at Saratoga. Its temperature is uniformly from 51° to 52° of Fahrenheit at all seasons of the year; its specific gravity, when taken with great care, and after repeated trials, was found to be as 1010 to 1000. The taste of the water is purely saline, somewhat pungent, and not at all disagreeable ; but those who are best acquainted with it think it by no means so stimulating and pungent as the waters of the Congress spring; it has no sensible chalybeate taste, and no perceptible smell which could lead to the suspicion of its holding sulphuretted hydrogen gas in solution. As to the gas which ascends through the tube and has been described as inflammable, it appears to be either hydrogen or carburetted hydrogen, similar to the gas which is so frequently observed to accompany the saline springs in the state of New York, but which passes through the water without giving it any sensible properties. When this water, which is at first so clear and pellucid, is allowed to remain for a few hours in a glass, the gas which is extricated from it adheres, in the form of innumerable air bubbles, to the inside surface of the glass ; in a short time after, the water loses its transparency, a thin pellicle appears on its surface, which has a slightly irridescent appearance ; by degrees the water becomes perfectly opaque, the pellicle falls to the bottom, which, as well as the sides of the glass, is covered with a light brown powder, which adheres firmly to it. The water, after this, recovers its former transparency, but loses its agreeable, pungent, and acidulous taste, becoming perfectly vapid, and having no other taste but that of a solution of marine salt in water. Dr. Mead gives the following comparative analysis of the mineral contents in one pint of water of Congress spring at Saratoga, the public well at Ballston, and the new spring at Albany. Congress Spring. Public Well, Ballston. Albany Water. Grs. Grs. Muriate of soda. ... 21 Carbonate of lime . . 4 5-8 Carbonate of magnesia 5 5-8 Muriate of lime 13-4 Muriate of magnesia 3-4 Oxide of iron 1-2 Grs. Muriate of soda. ... 51 1-2 Carbonate of lime . . 13 3-4 Carbonate of magnesia 8 1-2 Muriate of lime. ... 1 3-4 Muriate of magnesia 2 1-2 Oxide of iron 1-4 Total 78 1-4 Carbonic Acid Gas. Cubic inches 33. Total 34 1-2 Carbonic Acid Gas. Cubic inches 30 1-2 59 5 4 Muriate of soda. . . . Carbonate of soda . . Carbonate of lime . . Carbonate of magnesia 1 1-2 Carbonate of iron . . 1 Muriate of lime. ... 1-2 Total. 71. Carbonic Acid Gas. Cubic inches 26. A mineral spring exists in Cliff-street, in the city of New York, of which we find the following analysis : — VOL. II. p 102 BOOK II. Gaseous substances. TOPOGRAPHY OF Carbonate of, ammonia 5.00 Carbonate of.lime , , 29.50 Carbonate of magnesia (F,) 33.7 + 1 gr. (E,) 34.70 Carbonate of potassa 3.00 Chloride of magnesium ,.,... ., 1.92 Chloride of sodium, (C, b,) 4.98 grs. + 52.6 grs. (G,.&,) 57.58 Sulphate of magnesia 6.00 Sulphate of soda 5.46 Sulphate of lime 0.25 Silioa 0.20 Oxide of iron, (D.) (F.) 1.55 Extractive matter 5. 150.16 GASEOUS matter. Cub. In. Carbonic acid 68.57 Atmospheric air , 4.57 73.14 At Bedford, in Pennsylvania, there is a very copious supply of mineral water, issuing from the foot of a cliff by no less than seven highlyi-medicinal springs, all within the radius of a stone's throw, and some of them containing iron and sulphur. The Berkely springs, at Bath, in Virginia, are chiefly magnesian. , To this account of the principal mineral waters must be added a notice of the various gaseous matters which are likewise met with in the- United States. In the state of New York, nitrogen gas is found issuing from the earth. The gas appears to issue from every part of a low hill comprising four or five acres of ground ; for wherever there is- water, it becomes manifest by bubbling through it. It issues abundantly through three springs, from the clean gravelly bottom of each ; but it does not combine with the water in either of them. The gas probably accompanies the water from a considerable depth, since the water of the springs is not increased by the greatest spring and fall freshets. Sulphuretted hydrogen gas escapes in large quantity from varieties of argillite and graywacke, containing soft and fine-grained iron pyrites, by the decomposition of which it is produced. It burns along the surface of the water from which it issues with a bright red flame by day-light. The most interesting water of this kind is Lake Sodom, in a place nicknamed Satan's Kingdom. The bottom is grass-green ferriferous' slate ; the sides are white shell marl, and the brim is black vegetable mould. The water is perfectly limpid. The whole appears to the eye like a rich porcelain bowl filled with limpid nectar ; but to the THE UNITED STATES. 103 taste it is the true Harrowgate water, and readily convinces the visitor of the fitness CHAP. IL of the name. Carburetted hydrogen gas issues from a stream in the neighbourhood of the Erie canal, at the rate of a gallon per minute, through the gravelly soil at the bottom. The carbonic acid gas, which is so abundant in the Saratoga springs, is produced from an argillite, which contains large quantities of fine granulated pyrites and finely disseminated calcareous spar. It is a well-knOwn- fact that this variety of pyrites produces sulphuric acid by the aid of water. The acid being in immediate contact with the spar, gypsum is produced, and carbonic acid is disengaged at con siderable depths in the earth, and under great mechanical condensation, which causes its combination with water in such large proportions. When the water issues from the earth, the pressure which forces it up to the surface being taken off, it parts with that portion of the carbonic acid which is combined with it by the effect of pressure ; while the solution of the carbonate of lime, which is caused by the carbonic acid, can no longer be continued, so that it is deposited in the form of tufa. Such is the origin of what is called the High Rock at Saratoga. Sulphuric acid in large quantities is produced in a diluted and in a concentrated state in the town of Byron, Genessee county, thirty miles west of Genessee river, and ten miles south of the Erie canal. Here is a hillock 230 feet long and 100 feet broad, elevated about five feet above the surrounding plain. It consists of a kind of ash-coloured soil, containing immense quantities of exceedingly minute grains of iron pyrites. It is mostly covered with a coat of charred vegetable matter, four or five inches thick, and as black as common charcoal. The same charred matter extends some distance from the base of the hillock on all sides. It appears as if it had been recently burned over, though it is in a meadow where no other traces of fire exist. Its charred state is caused wholly by the action of the sulphuric acid. Several holes have been dug in the hill, which now contain turbid diluted sulphuric acid, as do the depressions in the meadow ground surrounding it. Should curiosity or interest induce the proprietor to dig a trench about it, or to make an artificial pond on one side, which might be occasionally drained and cleaned, a bath of diluted sulphuric acid might be constructed. The strength of the acid increases in a drought. It appears to be perfectly concen trated, and nearly dry, in its combination with the charred vegetable coat. In this state it is diffused throughout the whole piece of ground; which presents a charred appearance to the depth of twelve or fifteen inches^ and in some places three or four feet. It is everywhere the strongest at the surface. The strength of the acid combined with the vegetable matter, and several other circumstances enumerated, make this locality very interesting. But there is another, about 100 rods west of Byron hotel, being two miles east of this, which, in one point of view, is still more remarkable ; it is a spring, which issues from the earth in quantities sufficient for turning a light grist mill. Such an immense sulphuric acid laboratory is here conducted 104 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. by nature, that all the water which supplies this perennial stream is sufficiently acid to give the common test with violets, and to coagulate milk. The continual formation of the sulphates of lime, iron, and magnesia, is also traced to a considerable extent. Conclusion. It is impossible for us, consistently with the character of the present work, to enter more minutely into the peculiarities' of American mineralogy. We can only say that it affords much both to adorn the cabinet of the curious, and to enrich the collection of the scientific, as well as to furnish materials for commerce, manufactures, and the arts. There are found crystals of great beauty, we might almost say magnificence; for their dimensions, in many cases, are certainly extraordinary, and seem to cor respond with the gigantic scale on which so many of the works of nature there have been produced. We have been struck with the testimony of Mr. Schoolcraft to the recent formation of quartz crystals."1 They have been found, it appears, upon the handle of a spade, and the edge of some old shoes, which had been left for some years in an abandoned lead mine of the Shawnee Mountains. Many minerals which are rare in Europe are found abundantly, and often in finer forms, in the United States; some, which have subsequently been detected elsewhere, were first discovered there, and not a few may still be claimed by that country as its peculiar treasure. We shall now close this chapter with the observation of Dr. Mead,. that in general a great resemblance can be traced between the minerals of North America . and those which have been found in the north of Europe, particularly in Norway and Sweden. This resemblance is stated to exist, not merely in the properties of the minerals themselves, but in their geological character and geognostic situation throughout the whole series. It is observed more particularly in those specimens which are found to accompany the primitive formation at Arendal, in Norway*; it is not confined however, to the primitive range of mountains alone, as the same resemblance can be frequently traced, on comparing American minerals with those of Piedmont and even of the Hartz Mountains. Among the principal minerals of the north of Europe, there are none which are of more importance than the ores of iron, for which Norway and Sweden are so remarkable ; and every variety of this mineral which has been met with there has been found in the same class of rocks in America, in the greatest abundance, and of equally good quality. Titanium is one of those metals which have been found more particularly in the north of Europe. It is said to occur frequently in those primitive aggregates which contain beds of magnetic iron ore, associated with augite, scapolite, epidote and hornblende, precisely the same rocks in which we find it in this country. There is scarcely any part of Europe where a greater variety of augites are found, than in Norway and Sweden ; nor can there be any class of minerals in which the similitude between the specimens from those countries and America is more striking. d Travels in Missouri. THE UNITED STATES. 105 CHAPTER III. The vegetation of the United States is as various as the climate and the soil. In the chap. Floridas grows a majestic species of palm, {chamcerops palmetto) ; and the orange, the cotton, the indigo, and even the sugar cane, may be cultivated there to great character of perfection and advantage. In the Carolinas and the Floridas the eye of the traveller rionyegeta" is charmed with the beauty and grandeur of the forest trees, the various species of evergreen oak, the numerous kinds of pine, walnut, and plane, the majestic tulip tree, fliriodendron tulipifera,) the curious deciduous cypress, and the superb magnolias. A different vegetation occurs in the more northerly of the states ; and what renders the botany of this district peculiarly interesting to the British naturalist is, that a very large proportion of its vegetable productions may be assimilated to our own climate. The oaks and firs of this region now decorate many of our plantations and pleasure grounds ; and as the quality of their timber comes to be better known and appreciated, may well occupy a conspicuous place in our woods and forests. Our shrubberies owe their 'greatest beauty to the various species of kalmia^ azalea, rhododendron, robinia, cornus, sambucus, ceanothus, and lonicera, to the syringa, the flowering raspberry, and a hundred others, which flourish as if they were the aboriginal natives of our soil ; whilst the gardens of the curious are indebted for many of their choicest productions to the herbaceous plants of North America, the greater number being remarkable for the brilliancy of their blossoms, and not a few, such as the dionaea and sarracenia, being ranked as amongst the most singular of all vegetable productions in their structure. In the rapid survey we shall have to take of this wide, and interesting field, our Forest trees. attention is naturally turned, in the first instance, to the forest or timber trees. We have already seen how large a portion of territory is covered with native forests, among which, varieties of the oak, the walnut, the maple, the birch, the ash, the elm, the chesnut, the beech, the pine, and the cypress, are the most prominent. It is a general observation, that the trees of the United States are larger, taller, and more 106 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. of them useful for timber, than those of Europe. As to height, it is observed by Michaux, that, while in France only thirty-seven species of trees arrive at thirty feet, in the transatlantic republic, one hundred and thirty exceed that elevation. A general idea of the American forest has already been given ; we shall now select the principal trees for more particular notice. Oak. In the greater part of North America, as well as in Europe, there is no tree so generally useful as the oak. It seems also to have been multiplied in proportion to its utility, since it is indigenous to many climates, and diversified into many species. In America are found forty-four species, which are all comprised between the 20th and 48th degrees of north latitude ; in the old continent are enumerated only thirty, which are scattered on both sides of the equator, beginning at the 60th degree north. Some of the species in the United States are small, scarcely larger than shrubs; but others are of great size and beauty, reaching an .elevation, rof. from s|xty to eighty feet. The white oak is preeminent among these. It is a larger,; and handsomer tree in the Mississippi valley, than in the Atlantic country ; but is less firm, hard, and durable. The same may be said of the swamp white oak, {quercus aquatica,) which grows of a prodigious height, size, and beauty. The black oak, with, large and small leaves ; the yellow oak, and the post oak, grow on cold, level, wet, and clayey lands. The last receives its name from the durability of posts made of it in the ground. It is said to be the most durable timber of the oak kind in4he upper country for boat and ship building. South of thirty-one degrees,, in the lower country along the, coast of Florida, extending into the interior from sixty to a hundred miles, and along the shore of Louisiana for half that depth, is the region of the live oak, (quercus sempervirens.) It is not found west of the Sabine. It is not a tall, but a spread ing tree, with long lateral branches, looking at a distance like an immense spread umbrella. It is extremely hard, compact, and difficult to cut ; and when green, is so heavy as to sink in the water. It, is almost incorruptible. The islands on the shore of the gulf furnish this tree in abundance. It is so difficult to cut down, to burn, or otherwise to clear from the soil, that in these islands, which have recently, begun to be in request as sugar lands, this tree, elsewhere considered so valuable for ship timber, is regarded as an incumbrance,, though still valuable for its acorns, affording the, finest range for swine. The value of this timber in ship-building is well known. Its trunk is sometimes undivided for eighteen or twenty feet, but often ramifies at half that height; and at a distance, it has the appearance of an old apple-tree or pear-tree The live oak does not afford large timber ; but its wide and spreading branching summit makes amends for this disadvantage, by furnishing a great number of knees, of which there is never a sufficient quantity in the dock-yards. The consumption has become threefold within twenty years, in consequence of the growing development of American commerce : hence the price has doubled, and the species is rapidly diminishing. The clearing of THE UNITED STATES. 107 the islands for the culture of cotton, which they yield of a superior quality, has contri- chap. buted greatly to its destruction. It is already difficult to procure sticks of considerable IIL size in the southern states. As the live oak, from the peculiarities of its constitution, is multiplied with difficulty, Michaux considers its disappearance throughout the United States, within fifty years, as nearly certain, It will then be found only in the form of a shrub, like the quercus ilex, which formerly skirted the southern coast of France and Italy. In the variety of trees which compose the forests of North America east of Walnut. the Mississippi, the walnut ranks after the oak among the.genera whose species are most multiplied. In this particular, the soil of the United States is more favoured than that of Europe, to no part of which is any species of this tree indigenous. There are distinguished in the United States ten species of walnut, and others are expected to be discovered in Louisiana. There is room to hope, also, that species may be disco vered susceptible, like the pacanenut, of speedy melioration, by the aid of grafting and of attentive cultivation ; to which consideration some weight is given by the fact, that the fruit of the common European walnut, in its natural state, is harder than that of the American species just mentioned, and' inferior to it in size and quality. Throughout the United States, the common name of hickory is given to some species of walnut. This common appellation is due. to certain properties of their wood, which, however modified, are possessed by them all, in .a greater degree than by any other tree of Europe or America. The grain of the wood1 is coarse and open. Its chief properties are great weight, strength, and tenacity, a speedy decay when exposed to heat and moisture, and peculiar liability to injury. from worms. According to these prominent excellencies or defects, the uses of their, wood are determined. Hickory timber is employed in no part of the United States in the building of houses, because it is too heavy, and soon becomes worm-eaten. But if jts defects forbid its employ ment in architecture, its good qualities, on the other hand, render it proper for many secondary uses, which could not as well be subserved by any other wood. Of the numerous trees of North America east of the Apalachian Mountains, none except the hickory is perfectly adapted to the making of .hoops for casks and boxes. For this purpose, vast quantities of it are consumed at home, and exported to the West India Islands ; and when it is considered how large a portion of the produce of the United States is packed in barrels, an estimate may be formed of the necessary consumption of hoops. All the hickories are very heavy, and in a given volume, contain a great quantity of combustible matter; they produce an ardent heat, and leave a. heavy, compact, and livid coal. In this respect, no wood of the same latitude in Europe or America can be compared to them. The use of the young hickories for hoops, and of the old for fuel, threatens the' speedy extermination of them, without much care : the more so, as they are of slow growth, and never sprout twice from the 108 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. same root. Pignut hickory is loaded with a nut whose shell is seftre than an acorn, and the meat to the pressure of the fingers yields a copious oil, of use in the finer kinds of painting. It is acrid and bitter to the taste. The large walnut is a fruit of the size of an apple, and is common in the middle regions of the central valley. The peccan, or pacanenut, is found far up the Mississippi and Illinois, and thence to the gulf of Mexico. It is a tree of beautiful form and appearance, and the most useful of the whole class, except the black walnut, for building and for rails. Its hut is long, cylindrical, and olive-shaped, with a shell comparatively soft. The meat lies in two oblong lobes, is easily taken out entire, and excels all other nuts in deli cacy of flavour. Unfortunately it soon becomes rancid, and is seldom found in the Atlantic country in its original perfection. The black walnut is a splendid tree, and often grows to a great size. Its nuts much resemble those of the white walnut, or what is called butter-nut in the northern states. It is much used in the middle regions of the country for ornamental finishing of houses, and cabinet fur niture ; and when rubbed with a weak solution of nitric acid, can be distinguished from mahogany only by an experienced eye. Maple. The maples in general are lofty and beautiful trees, capable of enduring an in tense degree of cold. They form in the north of the old and of the new continent exten sive forests, which, with those of the beech, appear to succeed the spruce, the larch, and the pine, and to precede the chesnut and the oak. The North American species are more numerous than those of Europe. The wood speedily ferments and decays when exposed to the weather ; it is liable to be injured by worms, and hence it is unfit for building: it possesses properties, however, which compensate in part for these defects, and which render it useful in the arts and in domestic economy. Perhaps the most interesting tree of this genus is the sugar maple, which covers a greater extent of the American soil than any other species of this genus. It flourishes most in mountainous places, where the soil, though fertile, is cold and humid. Besides the parts where the face of the country is generally of this nature, it is found along the whole chain of the Alleghanies to their termination in Georgia, and on the steep and shady banks of the rivers which rise in these mountains. The sugar maple reaches the height of seventy or eighty feet, with a proportionate diameter ; but it does not commonly exceed fifty or sixty feet, with a diameter of twelve or eighteen inches. Well-grown thriving trees are beautiful in their appearance, and easily distinguishable by the whiteness of their bark. When cut at the proper season, it forms excellent fuel, and its ashes are very rich in the alkaline principle. The work of making sugar from the juice of the maple is commonly commenced in the month of February or the beginning of March, while the cold continues intense, and the ground is still covered with snow. The sap begins to be in motion at this season, two months before the general revival of vegetation. In a central situation, lying convenient to the THE UNITED STATES. 109 trees from which the sap is drawn, a shed is constructed, called a sugar camp, which chap. is destined to shelter the boiler, and the persons who tend them, from the weather. m An auger three quarters of an inch in diameter ; small troughs to receive the sap ; tubes of elder or sumee eight or ten inches long, corresponding in size to the auger, and laid open for a part of their length ; buckets for emptying the troughs and con veying the sap to the camp ; boilers of fifteen or eighteen gallons' capacity ; moulds to receive the syrup when reduced to a proper consistency for being formed into cakes ; and, lastly, hatchets to cut and split the fuel, are the principal utensils employed in the operation. The trees are perforated in an obliquely ascending direction, eighteen or twenty inches from the ground, with two holes four or five inches apart. Care is taken that the augers do not enter more than half an inch within the wood, as experience has shown the most abundant flow of sap to take place at this depth. It is also usual to insert the tubes on the south side of the tree. A trough is placed on the ground at the foot of each tree, and the sap is every day collected, and temporarily poured into casks, from which it is drawn out to fill the boilers. The evaporation is kept up by a brisk fire, and the scum is carefully taken off during this part of the process. Fresh sap is added from time to time, and the heat is retained till the liquid is reduced to a syrup ; after which it is left to cool, and then strained through a blanket, or other woollen stuff, to separate the remaining impurities. Three persons are found sufficient to tend 250 trees, which give a thousand pounds of sugar, or four pounds from each tree. The sugar thus manufactured is superior to the brown sugar of the colonies, at least to such as is generally used in the United States ; its taste is as pleasant, and it is as good for culinary purposes, and when refined, it equals in beauty the finest sugar consumed in Europe ; it is made use of, however, only in the districts where it is made, and there only in the country. The cheapness of cane sugar, the abundance and excellence of its growth in the lower country, and the diminished expense of transporting it to the upper states in consequence of the multiplication of steam boats, have diminished the demand for what is called country sugar, and the manufac ture of it has considerably decreased. The sycamore, a species of maple, is described as the king of the western forests. It is the largest tree in the woods, and rises in the most graceful forms, with vast spreading lateral branches, covered with bark of a brilliant white. These hundred white arms of the sycamore, interlacing with the branches of the other forest trees in the rich alluvions, where it delights to grow, add one of the distin guishing traits of grandeur and beauty to the forest. A tree of this kind near Marietta measured fifteen feet and a half in diameter. Judge Tucker, of Missouri, cut off a section of the hollow trunk of a sycamore, and applied a roof to it, and fur nished it for a study. It was perfectly circular ; and when fitted up with a stove and other arrangements, made an ample and convenient apartment. This gigantic section of VOL. II. Q 110 TOPOGRAPHY OF book II. a tree was conveyed on sleds prepared on purpose, and drawn by a sufficient number of oxen to its resting-place. It is very common to see this beautiful tree, on the margin of rivers, from ten to fifteen feet in circumference. Birch. Seven species of the birch have been discovered in North America, five of which may be ranked among tall trees. The northern extremity of the new continent, like that of the old, appears to be the native climate of this tree, which is less frequent towards the south ; and it thus becomes of great interest and importance to man, in regions destitute of many of the larger vegetables. One of the most useful species is the canoe birch, which is abundant in the forests of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, a tract very much resembling Sweden and the eastern part of Prussia. The largest size of the canoe birch is seventy feet in height and three feet in diameter ; and the wood is quite equal, if not superior, to the white birch of Sweden and Norway. On trees not exceeding eight inches in diameter, the bark is of a brilliant white, like that of the white birch of Sweden, and, like that too, it is almost indestructible. Trees long since prostrated by time, are often met with in the forests, whose trunk appears sound, while the bark contains only a friable substance, like vegetable mould. This bark, like that of the European species, is applied to many uses : in Canada and the district of Maine, the country people place large pieces of it immediately below the shingles of the roof, to form a more impenetrable covering for their houses ; baskets, boxes, and portfolios are made of it, which are sometimes embroid ered with silk of different colours ; divided into very thin sheets, it forms a substitute for paper ; and, placed between the soles of the shoes and in the crown of the hat, it is a defence against humidity. But the most important purpose to which it is put,. and one for which it is equalled by the bark of no other tree, is the construction of canoes. To procure proper pieces, the largest and smoothest trunks are selected : in the spring two circular incisions are made, several feet apart, and two longitudinal ones on opposite sides of the tree ; after which, by introducing a wooden wedge, the bark is easily detached. These plates are usually ten or twelve feet long, and two feet nine inches broad. To form the canoe, they are stitched together with fibrous roots of the white spruce, about the size of a quill, which are deprived of the bark, split and suppled in water. The seams are coated with resin of the balm of Gilead. Great use is made of these canoes by the savages and by the Canadians, in their long journeys into the interior of the country: they are very light, and are easily transported on the shoulders from one lake or river to another, which is called the portage. A canoe calculated for four persons with their baggage, weighs from forty to fifty pounds ; some of them are made to carry fifteen passengers. The black birch, called also sweet birch, cherry birch, and mountain mahogany, abounds in the middle states, particularly in New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland ; farther south it is confined to the summit of the Alleganies, on which it is found to their THE UNITED STATES. Ill termination in Georgia, and to the steep and shady banks of the rivers which issue CHAP. from these mountains. - Except the oak, no tree of Europe, or of North America, is so generally useful as Ash. the ash. The distinguishing properties of its wood are strength and elasticity ; and it unites them in so high a degree, that, for many valuable purposes, it could not be replaced by any other tree. This remark is particularly applicable to the white ash of the United States, which is the largest species, the most multiplied, and the most useful in the arts. It is also the most remarkable for the rapidity of its growth, and the beauty of its foliage. It is most abundant north of the Hudson, and a cold climate seems most congenial to it. It sometimes attains a height of thirty feet, with a diameter of three feet, and is one of the largest trees of the United States. The elms of the United States, though some of them of magnificent growth, are not of Elm. equal value with the common elm of Europe. The principal species is the white elm, which has been observed from Nova Scotia to the extremity of Georgia, and abounds in all the western states ; but it grows most freely in the north-eastern section of the republic. In clearing the primitive forests, a few stocks are sometimes left standing. Insulated in this manner, it appears in all its majesty, towering to the height of eighty or one hundred feet, with a trunk four or five feet in diameter, regularly shaped, naked, and insensibly diminishing to the height of sixty or seventy feet, where it divides itself into two or three primary limbs. The limbs, not widely divergent near the base, approach and cross each other eight or ten feet higher, and diffuse on all sides long, flexible, pendulous branches, bending into regular arches, and floating lightly in the air. A singularity is observed in this tree, which has been witnessed in no other : two small limbs, four or five feet long, grow in a reversed position near the first ramification, and descend along the trunk. The uses of the elm are few and unimportant, and it deserves attention only as the most magnificent vegetable of the temperate zone. The chesnut does not venture beyond the forty-fourth degree of latitude. It is Chesnut found in New Hampshire, between the forty-third and forty-fourth degrees, but such is the severity of the winter, that it is less common than in Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. It is most multiplied in the mountainous districts of the Carolinas and of Georgia, and abounds on the Cumberland Mountains and in East Tennessee. The coolness of the summer and the mildness of the winter in these regions are favourable to the chesnut ; the face of the country also is perfectly adapted to a tree which prefers the sides of mountains, or their immediate vicinity, where the soil in general is gravelly, though deep enough to produce its developement. The ches nut is little esteemed for fuel, and is not used in the cities of the United States : like the kindred species in Europe, it is filled with air, and snaps as it burns. The coal is excellent ; and on some of the mountains of Pennsylvania, where the chesnut - 112 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. abounds, the woods in the neighbourhood of the forges have been transformed into copses, which are cut every sixteen years for the furnaces. This period is sufficient to renew them, as the summer is warmer in America than in Europe, the atmosphere more moist, and consequently vegetation more rapid. Beech. In North America, as in Europe, the beech is among the tallest and most majestic trees of/ the forest. Two species, the white and the red, so called from the colour of their wood, are found in the United States. A deep, moist soil, and a cool atmosphere, are necessary to the utmost expansion of the white beech ; and it is. accordingly most multiplied in the middle and western states. Though it is common in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and throughout the country east of the mountains, it is insulated in the forests, instead of composing large masses, as in Gennessee, Ken tucky, and Tennessee. " I have found the finest beeches," says Michaux, " on the banks of the Ohio, between Gallipolis and Marietta, and have measured several stocks, growing near each other, which were eight, nine, and eleven feet in circum ference, and more than one hundred feet high." In these forests, where the beeches vegetate in a deep and fertile soil, their roots sometimes extend to a great distance, even with the surface ; and being entangled so as to cover the ground, they embarrass the steps of the traveller, and render the land peculiarly difficult to clear. The red beech is almost exclusively confined to the north-eastern parts of the United States. In the district of Maine, and in the states of New Hampshire and Vermont, it is so abundant as often to constitute extensive forests, the finest of which grow on fertile, level, or sloping lands, which are proper for the culture of corn. It bears a very close resemblance to the beech of Europe. pine The pines and the spruces constitute a large and interesting class of American forest trees. The most valuable species is that which is known in England and the West Indies as the Georgia pitch-pine ; and which, in the United States, is variously called yellow pine, pitch pine, broom pine, southern pine, red pine, and long-leaved pine, a name which, after Michaux, we adopt. Towards the north, the long-leaved pine makes its appearance near Norfolk in Virginia, where the pine-barrens begin. It seems to be especially assigned 'to dry sandy soils; and it is found, almost without interruption, in the lower part of the Carolinas, Georgia, and the Floridas, over a tract more than six hundred miles long, from north-east to south-west, and more than a hundred miles broad from the sea towards the mountains of the Carolinas and Georgia. Immediately beyond Raleigh, it holds almost exclusive possession of the soil, and is seen in company with other pines only on the edges of the swamps, enclosed in the barrens ; even there not more than one stock in a hundred is of another species, and with this exception, the long-leaved pine forms the unbroken mass of woods which covers this extensive country. The mean stature of the long-leaved pine is sixty or seventy feet, with a uniform diameter of fifteen or sixteen inches for two-thirds of this THE UNITED STATES. 113 height. Some stocks, favoured by local circumstances, attain much larger dimensions, CHAP. particularly in East Florida. The timber is very valuable, being stronger, more IIL compact, and more durable, than that of all the other species of pine : it is besides fine grained, and susceptible of a high polish. Its uses are diversified, and its consumption great. But the value of the long-leaved pine does not reside exclusively in its wood: it supplies nearly all the resinous matter used in the United States in ship-building, with a large residue for exportation to the West Indies and Great Britain ; and in this view its place can be supplied by no other species, those which afford the same product being dispersed through the woods, or collected in inaccessible places. In the northern states, the lands, which at the commencement of their settlement were covered with the pitch pine, were exhausted in twenty-five or thirty years, and for more than half a century have ceased to furnish tar. The pine-barrens are of vast extent, and are covered with trees of the finest growth, but they cannot all be rendered profitable, from the difficulty of communicating with the sea. Formerly tar was made in all the lower parts of the Carolinas and Georgia, and throughout the Floridas vestiges are everywhere seen of kilns that have served in the combustion of resinous wood ; but at present, this branch of industry is confined to the lower districts of North Carolina, which furnish almost all the tar and turpentine exported from Wil mington and other ports. All the tar of the southern states is made from dead wood of the long-leaved pine, consisting of trees prostrated by time or by the fire kindled annually in the forests, of the summits of those which are felled for timber, and of limbs broken off by the ice which sometimes overloads the leaves. It is worthy of remark, that the branches of resinous trees consist almost wholly of wood of which the organization is even more perfect than in the body of the tree ; the reverse is observed in trees with deciduous leaves. As soon as vegetation ceases in any part of the tree, its consistence speedily changes, the sap decays,' and the heart, already impregnated with resinous juice, becomes surcharged to such a degree as to double its weight in a year ; the accumulation is said to be much greater in four or five years. To procure the tar, a kiln is formed in a part of the forest abounding in dead wood ; this is first collected, stripped of the sap, and cut into billets two or three feet long and about three inches thick. The next step is to prepare a place for piling it : for this purpose a circular mound is raised, slightly declining from the circumference to the centre, and surrounded with a shallow ditch. The diameter of the pile is proportioned to the quantity of wood which it is to receive : to obtain 200 barrels of tar, it should be eighteen or twenty feet wide. In the middle is a hole with a conduit leading to the ditch, in which is formed a receptacle for the resin as it flows out. Upon the surface of the mound, beaten hard and coated with clay, the wood is laid in radiations from the centre ; and the pile, when finished, may be compared to a cone truncated at two-thirds of its height, and reversed, being twenty feet in diameter 114 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. below, twenty-five or thirty feet above, and ten or twelve feet high. It is then strewed over with pine leaves, covered with earth, and sustained at the sides with a slight cincture of wood. This covering is necessary in order that the fire kindled at the top may penetrate to the bottom with a slow and gradual combustion, because, if the whole mass was rapidly inflamed, the operation would fail and the labour in part be lost: in a word, nearly the same precautions are required in this process as are observed in Europe in making charcoal. A kiln which is to afford 100 or 130 barrels of tar is eight or nine days in burning. The tar flows off into the ditch. white The white pine is another valuable species. This tree is diffused, though not pine' uniformly, over a vast extent of country. It is incapable of supporting intense cold, and still less extreme heat. It appears to be most abundant between the forty-third and forty-seventh degrees of latitude ; farther south it is found in the valleys and on the declivities of the Alleganies to their termination, but at a distance from the mountains on either side its growth is forbidden by the warmth of the climate. It is said with great probability to be numerous near the source of the Mississippi, which is in the same latitude with the district of Maine, the upper part of New Hampshire, the State of Vermont, and the commencement of the St. Lawrence, where it attains its greatest dimensions. " I measured two trunks," says Michaux, " felled for canoes, of which one was 154 feet long and 54 inches in diameter, and the other 142 feet long and 44 inches in diameter, at three feet from the ground. Mention is made in Belknap's History of New Hampshire, of a white pine felled near the river Merrimack, seven feet eight inches in diameter, and near Hollowell I saw a stump exceeding six feet : these enormous stocks had probably reached the greatest height attained by the species, which is about 180 feet, and I have been assured by persons worthy of belief that in a few instances they had felled individual trees of nearly this stature." It is probable that the authors who have stated its height at 260 feet, have been misled by incorrect reports ; but this ancient and majestic inhabitant of the North American forests is still the loftiest and most valuable of their productions, and its summit is seen at an immense distance aspiring towards heaven, far above the heads of the surrounding trees. The trunk is simple for two-thirds or three-fourths of its height, and the limbs are short and verticillate, or disposed in stages one above another to the top of the tree, which is formed by three or four upright branches, seemingly detached and unsupported. In forests composed of the sugar maple, the beeches, or the oaks, where the soil is strong and proper for the culture of corn, as for example on the shores of Lake Champlain, the white pine is arrested at a lower height and diffused into a spacious summit ; but it is still taller and more vigorous than the neighbouring trees. The wood of this species is employed in greater quantities and for far more diversified uses than that of any other American pine ; yet it is not without essential defects : it has little strength, gives a feeble hold to THE UNITED STATES. 115 nails, and sometimes swells by the humidity of the atmosphere. These properties CHAP. are compensated, however, by others which give it a decided superiority : it is soft, IXI" light, free from knots, and easily wrought ; it is more durable, and less liable to split when exposed to the sun ; it furnishes boards of a great width, and timber of large dimensions ; in fine, it is still abundant and cheap. A very large proportion of the houses in the United States are built of it. The vast consumption of this tree for domestic use, and for exportation to the West Indies and to Europe, renders it necessary every year to penetrate farther into the country; and inroads are already made, in quest of this species only, upon forests which probably will not be cleared for cultivation in twenty-five or thirty years. Of the several species of spruce, the two most considerable are the black spruce Spruce. and the hemlock. They both appertain to the coldest regions of the new world. The regions in which the black spruce is the most abundant are often diversified with hills, and the finest forests are found in valleys where the soil is black, humid, deep, and covered with a thick bed of moss. Though crowded so as to leave an interval of only three, four or five feet, these stocks attain their fullest developement, which is seventy or eighty feet in height and from fifteen to twenty inches in diameter. The summit is a regular pyramid, and has a beautiful appearance on insulated trees ; this agreeable form is owing to the spreading of the branches in a horizontal instead of a declining direction, like those of the true Norway pine, which is a more gloomy tree. The timber of the black spruce is distinguished by strength, lightness, and elasticity. Josselyn, in his History of New England, published in London, in 1672, informs us that it was considered at that period as furnishing the best yards and topmasts in the world. From the young branches of the tree, by boiling, is made the salutary liquor called spruce beer. The hemlock spruce abounds in the district of Maine, the state of Vermont, and the upper part of New Hampshire, where it forms three quarters of the evergreen woods, of which the remainder consists of the black spruce. Farther south it is less common, and in the middle and southern states is seen only on the Alleganies, where it is often confined to the sides of torrents, and to the most humid and gloomy situations. In the country east and north of Massachusetts, which, without embracing Canada, is more than 750 miles long and 250 miles broad, the resinous trees are constantly found at the foot of the hills, and constitute nearly half of the unbroken forests which cover these regions. The hemlock spruce is always larger and taller than the black spruce. It attains the height of seventy or eighty feet, with a circumference of from six to nine feet, which is uniform for two-thirds of its length ; but if the number and distance of the con centric circles afford a certain criterion of the longevity of trees and the rapidity of their vegetation, it must be nearly two centuries in acquiring these dimensions. In a favourable soil this tree has an elegant appearance while less than thirty feet high, 116 TOPOGRAPHY OF Cypress. BOOK II. owing to the symmetrical arrangement of its branches, and to its tufted foliage ; and at this age it is employed in landscape gardening. When arrived at its full growth, the large limbs are usually broken off four or five feet from the trunk, and the dried extremities are seen staring out through the little twigs which spring around them ; in this mutilated state, by which it is easily recognized, it has a disagreeable aspect, and presents, while in full vigour, an image of decrepitude. This accident, which is attributed to the snow lodging upon the close, horizontal, tufted branches, never happens to the young trees, whose fibres are more flexible. The woods are also filled with dead stocks; but it is uncertain whether their destruction is occasioned by an insect which attaches itself of preference to the pines, or to some other cause. The dead moss-grown trees, which stand mouldering for twenty or thirty years, deform the forests of this part of the United States', and give them a gloomy and desolate appearance. Unhappily the properties of its wood are such as to give this species only a secondary importance, notwithstanding its abundant diffusion: it is the least valuable in this respect of all the large resinous trees of North America ; but the regret which we should experience to see it occupying so extensively the place of more useful species, is forbidden by a property of its bark, inestimable to the country where it grows, that of being applicable in tanning. Two species of cypress are indigenous to the United States. The banks of Indian river, a small stream that waters a part of Delaware, in latitude 38° 50', may be assumed as its northern boundary. Hence, in proceeding southward? it becomes constantly more abundant in the swamps; but in Maryland and Virginia it is confined to the vicinity of the sea, where the winter is milder and the summer more intense. Beyond Norfolk its limits coincide exactly with those of the pine-barrens, and in the Carolinas and Georgia it occupies a great part of the swamps which border the rivers, after they have found their way out from among the mountains, and have entered the low lands. In the Mississippi valley it begins to be seen on the swampy and overflowed lands, near the mouth of the Ohio. It is, along with the swamp gum, the most common tree in the deep swamps from that point to the gulf of Mexico. It is in every respect a striking, and singular tree. Under its deep shade arise a hundred curiously shaped knobs, called " cypress knees." They are regular, cone-shaped pro tuberances, of different heights and circumferences, not unlike tall and taper circular bee-hives. " We have often remarked," says Mr. Flint, " a very small cypress sprig, that had started from the apex of one of these cypress knees ; and we believe, that it will ultimately be found that each one of these knees is the natural matrix of the tree.': These noble trees rear their straight columns from a large, cone-shaped buttress, whose circumference at the ground is, perhaps, three times that of the regular shaft of the tree. This cone rises from six to ten feet, with a regular and sharp taper, and from the apex of ;he cone towers the perpendicular column, with little taper after it THE UNITED STATES. 117 has left the cone, from 60 to 80 feet clear shaft. The largest stocks are 120 feet CHAP. in height, and from 25 to 40 feet in circumference above the conical base. Very n ' near its top it begins to throw out multitudes of horizontal branches, which interlace with those of the adjoining trees, and, when bare of leaves, have an air of desolation and death more easily felt than described. In the season of vegetation, the leaves are short, fine, and of a verdure so deep as almost to seem brown, giving an indescri bable air of funereal solemnity to this singular tree. A cypress forest, when viewed from the adjacent hills, with its numberless interlaced arms covered with this dark brown foliage, has the aspect of a scaffolding of verdure in the air. It grows in deep and sickly swamps, the haunts of fever, musquitos, moccasin snakes, alligators, and all loathsome and ferocious animals, that congregate far from the abodes of man, and seem to make common cause with nature against him. The cypress loves the deepest, most gloomy, inaccessible, and inundated swamps ; and, south of 33 degrees, is generally found covered with the sable festoons of the long moss, hanging, like a shroud of mourning wreaths, almost to the ground. It seems to flourish best where water covers its roots for half the year. When it rises from eight or ten feet water of the overflow of rivers, the apex of its buttress is just on a level with the surface of the , water, and it is then, in many places, that they cut it. The negroes surround the tree in boats, and thus get at the trunk above the huge and hard buttress, and fell it with comparative ease. They cut off the straight shaft, as it suits their purpose, and float it to a raft, or the nearest high grounds. Unpromising as are the places and the circumstances of its growth, no tree of the country where it is found is so exten sively useful. It is free from knots, is easily wrought, and makes excellent planks, shingles, and timber of all sorts. It is very durable, and incomparably the most valuable tree in the southern country. It is a fortunate circumstance, that it inhabits the most gloomy and inaccessible regions, which will not come into culti vation for ages, so that it will, of course, have a better chance of escaping the fate of the most useful timber on the valuable uplands. The improvident axe soon renders timber difficult to be procured, even in a country in the centre of forests. All the cypress forests that are easily accessible, on the lower Mississippi and its tributaries, have already been stripped of their timber by the lumberers, who have floated to New Orleans millions of feet of this timber from the lands of the United States, and who have already created a scarcity of this species on the margin of the river; there are, however, in the vast swamps of the Mississippi, Arkansas, Red river, and Florida, inexhaustible supplies of cypress still remaining. In addition to these we may notice the acacia and the poplar. Several varieties of Acacia. the acacia, or locust tree, are found in the United State's, from whence this valuable tree was early imported into Europe. It is most multiplied in the south-west, and abounds in all the valleys between the chains of the Allegany mountains, particularly VOL. II. R 118 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. in Limestone valley. It is also common in all the western states, and in the territory comprised between the Ohio, the Illinois, the Lakes, and the Mississippi. It is not found in the states east of the river Delaware, nor does it grow spontaneously in the maritime parts of the middle and southern states, to the distance of from fifty to one hundred miles from the sea; all the stocks that are seen in these parts having been planted at different periods. Though the locust is multiplied east of the mountains in the upper part of Virginia and of the two Carolinas, it forms a much smaller proportion of the forests than the oaks and walnuts ; and it is nowhere found occupy ing exclusively tracts even of a few acres. For this reason it is the only tree, besides the black walnut, that is left standing in the clearing of new lands : hence these two species, which are not sufficiently multiplied to supply the demand for their wood, are frequently seen growing in the midst of cultivated fields. The greatest consumption of locust wood is for posts, which are employed by preference for the enclosing of court-yards, gardens, and farms, in the districts where the tree abounds, and in the circumjacent country. In naval architecture, the shipwrights use as much of it as they can procure. It combines great durability with strength and lightness. The sweet locust belongs peculiarly to the country west of the Allegany mountains, and it is found scarcely in any part of the Atlantic states, except in Limestone valley, and its branches, which lie beween the first and second ranges of the Alleganies. Poplar. Of the poplar several species exist in the United States. Of this family is the tulip tree, or yellow poplar, a splendid, lofty, and useful tree. The cotton wood belongs to the same genus. It is probably more abundant on the lower courses of the Ohio, on the whole course of the Mississippi, Missouri, St. Francis, White river, Arkansas, and Red river, than any other tree. It is a noble and lofty forest tree, and sometimes vies with the sycamore itself for predominance in size and grandeur. It is of singular beauty when its foliage is but partly unfolded in the spring. These trees, especially in the valley of Red river, have been seen twelve feet in diameter ; and there are single trees, that will make a thousand rails. When they are cut in the winter, the moment the axe penetrates the centre of the tree, there gushes out a stream of water or sap, and a single tree will discharge gallons. On the sand bars and islands of the rivers, wherever the alluvial earth begins to be deposited, there springs up a growth of cotton wood, the young trees standing so thick as to render it difficult for a bird to fly among them, and having, to a person passing at a little distance on the river, a singular appearance of regularity, as though they had been put out to ornament a pleasure-ground. The popular name " cotton wood" is derived from the circumstance, that soon after its foliage is unfolded, it flowers, and when the flowers fall, it scatters on the ground a downy matter, in feeling and appearance exactly resembling short ginned cotton. THE UNITED STATES. 119 Among the ornamental trees of the American forest we have been led to assign the C H A P. magnolias a conspicuous place. It is undoubtedly a beautiful tree ; but seems to have I11- been so extravagantly described by American writers, as to occasion disappointment ^ees"16"13' when first beheld by a stranger in its native localities. There are six or seven Magnolia- varieties among the laurels of the magnolia tribe, some of which have smaller flowers than those of the grandiflora, but much more delicate, and more agreeably fragrant. A beautiful evergreen of this class is covered in autumn with berries of an intense blackness, and has been remarked in great numbers about St. Francisville. The holly is a well-known and beautiful tree of this class ; but the handsomest of the family is the laurel almond. It is not a large tree. Its leaves strongly resemble those of the peach ; it preserves a most pleasing green through the winter, and its flowers yield a delicious perfume. It grows in families of ten or fifteen trees in a cluster . and planters of taste in the valley of Red river, where it is common, often select the place of their dwelling in the midst of them. The catalpa, or catawba, is an ornamental tree, abounding in West Florida and Catalpa. the southern part of the Mississippi valley. It is beautiful from the great size, peculiar shape, and deep green of its foliage. When in blossom, its rounded top is a tuft of flowers, of great beauty and unequalled fragrance. One tree in full flower fills the atmosphere, for a considerable circumference round it, with its delicious odours. For the gracefulness of its form, for the grandeur of its foliage, and the rich and ambrosial fragrance of its flowers, as well as for the length and various forms of its knife-shaped, pendent seed capsules, two feet in length, it is considered by some writers unequalled among ornamental trees. The bow-wood is a striking and beautiful tree, found on the upper courses of the Bow-wood. Washita, the middle regions of Arkansas, and occasionally on the northern limits of Louisiana. It inhabits a very limited region, and is supposed not to be native elsewhere. Taken altogether, it is a tree of extraordinary beauty.' It bears a large fruit of most inviting appearance, and resembling a very large orange ; but tempting as it is in aspect, it is the apple of Sodom to the taste. Many people consider it the most splendid of all forest trees. It receives its name from the circumstance, that all the south-western savages use it for bows. The china tree is much cultivated in the China tree. southern regions of the Mississippi valley for ornamental shade. The verdure is the most brilliant and deep in nature. In the flowering season, the top is one tuft of blossoms, in colour and fragrance resembling the filac, except that the tufts are larger, and it holds in flower for a long time. These trees, planted out in a village, in a few years completely embower it ; and, from the intenseness of their verdure, they impart a delightful freshness to the landscape in that sultry climate. After the leaves have fallen in autumn, the tree is still covered with a profusion of reddish berries, of the size of haws, that give it the appearance at a little distance of remaining in 120 TOPOGRAPHY OF Dog-wood and red- bud. Rhododen dron. book ii. flower. Robins migrate to this region in the latter part of winter, settle on these trees in great numbers, and feed on the berries, which possess an intoxicating or narcotic quality, so that the robins, sitting on the trees in a state of stupefaction, may be killed with a stick. The dog-wood and the red-bud are of an intermediate size, between shrubs and trees. The former has a beautiful heart-shaped and crimped leaf, and an umbrella-shaped top. It covers itself in spring with a profusion of brilliant white flowers, and in autumn with berries of a fine scarlet. The red-bud is the first shrub that is seen in blossom on the Ohio. The shrub is then a complete surface of blossoms resembling those of the peach tree, and a stranger would take it, at that time, to be that tree. The shrubs are dispersed everywhere in the woods ; and in descending the Ohio early in the spring, these masses of brilliant flowers contrast delightfully with the general brown of the forest : the first time that the voyager descends this river, the red-bud imparts a charm to the landscape that he will never forget. These two are at once the most common and the most beautiful shrubs in the Mississippi valley. The dog-wood, especially, is found everywhere from Pittsburg to the gulf of Mexico ; and, seen through the forests in blossom, is far more conspicuous for its flowers than the magnolia. The rhododendron or dwarf rose bay, and the kalmia or mountain laurel, are plants with which our own shrub beries have now rendered us familiar. The west end of Long Island, and the river Hudson below the Highlands, may be considered as the limit far beyond which the rhododendron ceases to be found in the forests of the United States. It is abundant in the middle states, and in the upper parts, particularly in the mountainous tracts of the southern section. In the low lands it is almost exclusively seen on the borders of creeks and river's, and is observed to be more multiplied in approaching the Alleganies ; till, in the midst of these ranges, especially in Virginia, it becomes so abundant on the sides of the torrents as to form impenetrable thickets, in which the bear finds a secure retreat from the pursuit of the dogs and of the hunters. The kalmia abounds in New Jersey, and covers Wheelock Hill, nearly opposite to the city of New York. It grows also near the Schuylkill, in the immediate neigh bourhood of Philadelphia. It is found along the steep banks of all the rivers which rise in the Allegany mountains ; but it is observed to become less common in fol lowing these streams from their source, towards the Ohio and Mississippi on one side, and towards the ocean on the other. In the southern states it disappears entirely when the rivers enter the low country, where the pine-barrens commence. In North Carolina, on the loftiest part 01 the Alleganies, it occupies tracts of more than 100 acres, and forms upon the summit, and for a third of the distance down the sides, thickets eighteen or twenty feet in height, which are rendered nearly impenetrable by the crooked and unyielding trunks, crossed and locked with each other. As the shrubs which compose these copses are of an uniform height, and richly laden with Kalmia. •A¦¦i 2 6 ir- c It t2 ft (rfee THE UNITED STATES. 121 evergreen foliage, they present, at a distance, the appearance of verdant meadows CHAP. surrounded by tall trees. The snowberry is an ornamental shrub, inhabiting the IIL banks of the upper Missouri. It bears at the same time flowers and fruit, which SnowberT- continue successively expanding and ripening during the whole summer ; and when in the autumn the large bunches of ivory or wax-like berries are matured, the appearance is stated to be extremely beautiful. Of the gaudy genus erythrina, or Coral tree. coral tree, the United States lay claim to one species. It is a herbaceous shrub from two to three feet high. It is a native of the open bushy forests of Carolina, Georgia, and Florida; and its brilliant red blossom makes a superb appearance at the time of florescence. The southern regions of the United States, as far north as Cape Hatteras, present Palmetto. to us one species of palm. It is the palmetto, or cabbage tree. A trunk from forty to fifty feet in height, of an uniform diameter, and crowned with a regular and tufted summit, gives the cabbage tree a beautiful and majestic appearance. The base of the undisclosed bundle of leaves is white, compact, and tender ; it is eaten with oil and vinegar, and resembles the artichoke and the cabbage in taste, whence is derived the name of cabbage tree : but to destroy a vegetable which has been a century in growing, to obtain three or four ounces of a substance neither richly nutritious nor peculiarly agreeable to the palate, seems to be nothing short of prodigality. The cabbage tree bears long clusters of small greenish flowers, which are succeeded by a black inesculent fruit, about the size of a pea. In the southern states the wood of this tree, though extremely porous, is preferred to every other for wharfs : its superiority consists in being secure from injury by sea-worms, which, during the summer, commit great ravages in structures accessible to their attacks ; but when exposed to be alternately wet and dry by the flowing and ebbing of the tide, it decays as speedily as other wood. The use of the cabbage tree is rapidly diminishing its numbers, and probably the period is not distant when it will cease to exist within the boundaries of the United States. In the war of independence, the cabbage tree was found eminently proper for constructing forts, as, on the passage of the ball, it closes without splitting. Among wild fruit-bearing shrubs the preeminence seems to be due to the papaw, Fruit-bear- or Indian fig. It is not uncommon in the bottoms which stretch along the rivers of and shrubs. the middle states ; but it is most abundant in the rich valleys intersected by the apaw" western waters, where, at intervals, it forms thickets exclusively occupying several acres. In Kentucky, and in the western part of Tennessee, it is sometimes seen also in forests where the soil is luxuriantly fertile, of which its presence is an infallible proof; in these forests it attains the height of thirty feet, and the diameter of six or eight inches, though it generally stops short of half this elevation. The fruit closely resembles a cucumber, having, however, a more smooth and regular appearance; 122 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. when ripe, it is of a rich yellow and there are generally from two to five in a cluster. The pulp resembles egg custard in consistence and appearance; it has the same creamy feeling in the mouth, and unites the taste of eggs, cream, sugar, and spice : in short it is a natural custard, and is too luscious for the relish of most people. The fruit is nutritious, and a great resource to the savages. So many tastes are unexpectedly and whimsically compounded in it, that, it is said, a person of the most hypochondriac temperament relaxes to a smile when he tastes papaw for the first time. Cherry. Three species of cherry are found in the United States, one of which occurs both in the Atlantic and the western states, as a tall timber tree. None of them produce eatable fruit ; but the red cherry bears the greatest analogy to the cultivated cherry of Europe, and is the most likely to allow of grafting. Persimon. The persimon varies surprisingly in size in different soils and climates. In the vicinity of New York it is not more than half as large as in the more southern states, where, in favourable situations, it is sometimes sixty feet in height and eighteen or twenty inches in diameter. The ripe fruit is about as large as the thumb, of a reddish complexion, round, fleshy, and furnished with six or eight semi-oval stones ; but it is not eatable till it has felt the first frost, by which the skin is shrivelled, and the pulp, which before was hard and extremely harsh to the taste, is softened and rendered palatable. The fruit is so abundant, that in the southern states a tree often yields several bushels ; and even in New Jersey are seen the branches of stocks, not more than seven or eight feet in height, bent to the ground by their burthen. In the south the fruit adheres to the branches long after the shedding of the leaf; and when it falls, it is eagerly devoured by wild and domestic animals. In Virginia, the Carolinas, and the western states, it is sometimes gathered up, pounded with bran, and formed into cakes, which are dried in the oven, and kept in order to make beer ; for which purpose they are dissolved in warm water, with the addition of hops and leaven. It was long since found that brandy might be made from this fruit, by distilling the water, previously fermented, in which they had been bruised. This liquor is said to become good as it acquires age : but it will be impossible to derive profit from the persimon in these modes, and in the country where it is most abundant a few farmers only employ its fruit occasionally for their households. The apple and the peach tree are far more advantageous, as their growth is more rapid and their produce more considerable. , Plum. The Chickasaw plum is common from 34° north latitude to the gulf of Mexico. It is found in the greatest abundance, and ripens early in June. Prairie plums are most abundant in Illinois and Missouri on the hazel prairies. They*are of various sizes and flavours ; their general colour is reddish and their flavour tart, but some of them are large and delicious. In some places they are found in inconceivable quantities, THE UNITED STATES. 123 the surface of acres being red with them ; and two bushels have been gathered from CHAP. one tree. The yellow Osage plum of this class, when the better kinds are culti- ' vated, is delicious. In the middle regions of the central valley, on prairies of a particular description, there are great tracts covered with an impenetrable mat of crab Apple. apple shrubs. The form, 'colour, and fragrance of the blossoms are precisely those of the cultivated apple tree, and when the southern breeze comes over a large tract of these shrubs in full blossom, it is charged with a concentrated fragrance almost too strong to be grateful. They are useful as stocks in which the cultivated apple and pear tree' may be engrafted. Their fruit, when properly prepared, makes fine cider, and the apple is much used as a preserve. The mulberry is of rare occur- Mulberry. rence in the Atlantic states, but is found in every part of the valley of the Mississippi, and in some places constitutes no inconsiderable portion of the timber. Its wood is very valuable, and scarcely less durable than that of the locust. The American species is not the black mulberry of Europe, but the red mulberry. The white mul berry, on which the silkworm feeds, has been asserted to be indigenous to the United States ; but the stocks of this kind which may now be seen there, are stated by Michaux to have been planted " a century ago, when attempts were made to introduce the raising of silkworms : " as the soil and climate of the United States, however, are well adapted to the white mulberry, there is no reason why that branch of industry should not be cultivated successfully, though the experiments hitherto made have had no very promising result. The common grape vine is diffused through all the climates. Nothing is more vine. common than, in the richer lands, to see vines, often of a prodigious size, perpen dicularly attached at the top to branches sixty or eighty feet from the ground, and at a great lateral distance from the trunk of the tree. It is common to puzzle a man first brought into these woods, by putting him to account for the manner in which a vine, perhaps nearly of the size of the human body, has been able to rear itself to such a height : there can be, however, no doubt that the vine in this case is coeval with the tree ; that the tree, as it grew, reared the vine ; and that the vine receded from the trunk with the projection of the lateral branch, until, in the lapse of time, this singular appearance is presented. In many places, half the trees in a bottom are covered with these vines. In the deep forests, on the hills, in the barrens, in the hazel prairies, and in the pine woods, every form and size of the grape vine presents itself. Of the plants of the winter grape, which so generally clings to the trees in the alluvial forests, probably not one in fifty bears any fruit at all. The fruit, when produced, is a small circular berry, not unlike the wild black cherry. It is austere, sour and unplea sant, until it has been mellowed by the frosts of winter; but it is said, when fermented by those who have experience in the practice, to make a tolerable wine. The summer grape is found on the rolling barrens and the hazel prairies. It is more than twice the 124 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK li. size of the winter grape, is ripe in the first month in autumn, and, when matured under the full influence of the sun, is a pleasant fruit. It grows in the greatest abundance, but is too dry a grape to be pressed for wine. The muscadine grape is seldom seen north of 34 degrees. More southerly it becomes abundant, and is found in the deep alluvial forests, clinging to the tall trees. The fruit grows in more scanty clusters than that of other grapes. Like other fruits, they fall as they ripen, and furnish a rich treat to bears and other animals that feed on them ; they are of the size of a plum, of a fine purple black, with a thick tough skin, tasting not unlike the rind of an orange ; the pulp is deliriously sweet, but is reputed unwholesome. The pine woods grape has a slender, blueish purple vine, that runs on the ground among the grass. It ripens in the month of June ; is large, cone-shaped, transparent, with four seeds, reddish purple, and is a fine fruit for eating. On the sandy plains at the sources of Arkansas and Red river, the gentlemen of Long's expedition concur with hunters and travellers in relating, that there are found large tracts of sandy plain, from which grows, a grape, probably of this species. They have stated that the clusters are large and delicious, and that the sand, drifting about them, covers up the redundant vegetation, perform ing the operation of pruning on the vine : the sun, too, strongly reflected from a surface of sand, must have a powerful influence to mature the fruit. It is possible, that some part of the admiration which has been felt, in seeing such sterile tracts covered with these . abundant and rich clusters, and the high zest with which they were devoured, may have been owing to the surprise of finding such a phenomenon in contrast with a white' and moving sand, and eating the fruit under associations Created by hunger and thirst. The universal diffusion of such numbers and varieties of the vine, would seem to indicate this valley to possess a natural aptitude for the cultivation of the vine. Gooseberry The gooseberry, in all its natural varieties, is indigenous to the United States. In fruits. the middle regions of the Mississippi valley it grows to a great height and size, and covers itself with fruit. It makes a high, compact, and impervious hedge. Immense tracts of the prairies are covered with the hazel, and the nuts are fine and abundant : the bushes are often surmounted with wreaths of the common hop. The whortleberry abounds in the Atlantic states, but is less common in the interior. The red raspberry is also indigenous, and grows of a fine size and flavour from the middle to the northern regions of the great valley : one species of it, the rose-flowering raspberry, has a large and ornamental blossom. Blackberries, high and creeping, are found in pro digious abundance, and the prairies in many places, in the season, are red with fine strawberries. The cranberry is a native fruit of the North American continent. It grows in morasses and swamps of rich boggy bottoms, from Labrador to Carolina. When found it is in great abundance, and gives to such localities the name of cran berry swamps. Extensive cranberry swamps are met with in New Jersey. THE UNITED STATES. 125 The cane grows on the lower courses of the Mississippi, Arkansas, and Red River, CHAP. from fifteen to thirty feet in height ; some, in these rich soils, would almost vie in size with the bamboo. The leaves are of a beautiful green, long, narrow, and ane- dagger-shaped, not unlike those of the Egyptian millet. It grows in equidistant joints, perfectly straight, and in almost a compact mass, so that the smallest sparrow would find it difficult to fly among it. Looking at its ten thousand stems almost contiguous to each other, and at the impervious roof of verdure which it forms at its top, it has the aspect of a solid layer of vegetation. A man could not advance at the rate of three miles in a day through a thick cane-brake. It is the chosen resort of bears and panthers, (cougars) which break it down, and make their way into it as a retreat from man. It indicates a dry soil, above the inundation, and of the richest character ; and the ground is never in better preparation for maize, than after this prodigious mass of vegetation is first cut down and burned. When the cane has been cut, and is so dried that it will burn, it is an amusement of high holiday to the negroes to set fire to it. The rarefied air in the hollow compartments of the canes bursts them, with a report not much inferior to a discharge of musketry ; and the burning of the whole brake makes the noise of a conflicting army, in which thousands of muskets are continually discharging. This beautiful vegetable is generally asserted to have a life of five years, at the end of which period, if it has grown undisturbed, it produces an abundant crop of seed, with heads very like those of the broom corn ; the seeds are farinaceous, and are said to be not much inferior to wheat, for which the Indians, and occasionally the first settlers, have substituted it. No prospect so strikingly shows the exuberant prodigality of nature as a thick cane-brake ; nothing affords such a rich and perennial range for cattle, sheep, and horses ; and the butter that is made from the cane pastures of this region is of the finest kind. The seed easily vegetates in any rich soil. It rises from the ground like the richest asparagus, with a large succulent stem, and it grows six feet high before it loses its succulency and tenderness. No vegetable furnishes a fodder so rich or abundant ; and it has been recommended to make trial of the annual cultivation of the cane in regions where it cannot survive the winter. A Flax. species of flax was found by Lewis and Clark growing in the valleys of the Chippe wayan Mountains, and on the banks of the Missouri. The bark possesses the same kind of tough fibres as the common flax, and the Indians are in the habit of making lint and wadding for their guns from it. Many parts of the United States are tangled with annual and perennial creepers of Creeping Various kinds, foliage, and forms. The trumpet flower, (bignonia,) is a creeper, pa'' beautiful for its foliage and flowers. It has a vine of a greyish white colour, and long and delicate spike-shaped leaves in alternate sets. It climbs the largest trees in preference to others, mounts to their summits, and displays a profusion of large, trumpet- VOL. II. S 126 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOO k. 1 1, shaped flowers, of a flame colour. Planted near a house, in two or three seasons a single vine will cover a roof, throwing its fibrous and parasitic roots so strongly under the shingles, as to detach them from the rafters. Various species of ivy abound, especially in the rich alluvions, where thousands of the forest trees, and often huge dead trunks, are wreathed with it. The supplejack is remarkable for attaching itself so strongly to the shrub it entwines, as to cause those curious spiral curves and inner flattenings which give value to its cane. Grasses. The gramineous vegetation of the United States is extremely luxuriant, and species of grass are found adapted to every locality, except the sands of the Chippewayan desert. The aspect of the eastern, however, differs in this respect from that of the western states. The northern Atlantic country covers itself naturally with a fine sward, but the friable soil of the western lands is the region of coarse grass, and tall flowering plants with gaudy blossoms. The numbers, forms, and gigantic height of these weeds and plants are not among the least surprising objects to an observer of nature. We have already noticed the kind of sedge which occupies the salt marshes of the Atlantic coast, and the various changes in it as the uplands are approached. In the boggy meadows of New England, and elsewhere in low, wet, and miry swamps, on parts elevated above the water, grows the swamp grass ; it is of the brightest verdure, remaining green through the frosts of winter, and its sharp edges, when drawn rapidly through the fingers, cut them. In the middle regions of the Mississippi valley, cattle are driven to these swamps, to subsist through the winter. The universal indigenous grass of this country, in all its climates and extent, covering the millions of acres of the prairies, is what is commonly called the prairie grass, (poa pratensis.) It grows equally in the forests and barrens, wherever there is an interval sufficiently unshaded to admit its growth. It is tall, coarse, and full of seeds at the top ; and when ripe, is rather too wiry for fodder. It is cut for that purpose in September. If it were cut earlier, and before it had lost its succulence and tenderness, it would probably be excellent feed. The prairies yield inexhaustible quantities, and the towns and villages in the prairie regions are copiously supplied with it. When young, and before it has thrown up its stem, it resembles wheat in appearance. The speargrass of New England yields a fine, soft sward. In the western country it is observed growing about deserted houses and Indian villages, and it is said in many places to be displacing the prairie grass, on the upper prairies of Illinois ; like the robin-redbreast, it seems to be attached to the abodes of civilized man. The fowl meadow grass of New England is also valuable ; but it does not abound, if it exists, in the western states, to the wet prairies of which it would be an important acquisition. Rush. A useful herbaceous plant is the rush, (equisetum hyemale,) which grows in bottoms, on grounds of an intermediate elevation between those of the cane-brake and the deeply-flooded lands. This grass is sometimes a perfect mat, as high as the THE UNITED STATES. 127 shoulders. Nothing can exceed the brilliance of its verdure, especially when seen chap. in winter in contrast with the universal brown. Where it grows high and thick, it IIL is difficult to make way through it ; and it has a disagreeable kind of rustling which produces the sensation that is called setting the teeth on edge. In the northern regions its tubular stem is apt to fill with compact icicles. It is the favourite range of horses and cattle, and is devoured by them with more greediness than even cane ; but if swallowed when filled with ice, it produces a chill in the stomach of the cattle that is apt to prove fatal. To the boats that descend the Mississippi, the rush is an invaluable resource, the cattle and horses, after being pent up in these floating barns for many days in succession, being turned loose, and finding holiday pasture in this rich range. The pea vine is a small fibrous vine, that covers the Pea vine. soil in the richer forest lands ; it receives its name from the resemblance of its leaves and flowers to those of the cultivated pea. It is a rich and almost universal forest range for cattle, but when once eaten down, it is not apt to renew itself; of course, it disappears in the vicinity of compact population. A plant of great importance is the wild rice, (%i%ania aquatica.) - It is found in the Wild rice. greatest abundance on the marshy margins of the northern lakes, and in the shallow waters on the upper courses of the Mississippi. It grows in these regions on a vast extent of country. It is here that the millions of the migrating water-fowls fatten, before they take their autumnal migration to the south; it is here, too, that the northern savages, and the Canadian traders and hunters, find their annual supplies of grain, a resource, without which they could hardly subsist. It is a tall, tubular, reedy water-plant, and very much resembles the cane grass of the swamps and marshes on the gulf of Mexico. It springs up from waters of six or seven feet in depth, where the bottom is soft and muddy, and rises nearly as high above the water. Its leaves and spikes, though much larger, resemble those of oats, from which the French give it its name. When it is intended to be preserved for grain, the spikes are bound together, to secure them from the ravages of birds and water-fowls, which prey upon them in immense numbers, and it thus has a chance to ripen ; at the season for gathering it, canoes are rowed among the grain, a blanket is spread upon them, and the grain is beaten on to the blankets. It is perhaps of all the cerealia, except maize, the most prolific. It seems also not peculiar to any climate, since it arrives at perfection equally at the sources and at the mouths of the Mississippi. A perennial plant of the palm kind, and called also palmetto, appears about Palmetto. latitude 33°. It throws up from a large root, so tough as to be cut with diffi culty by an axe, and very hard to be eradicated from the soil, large fan-shaped leaves, of the most striking and vivid verdure, -and ribbed with wonderful exactness. It indicates a deep swampy soil, and grows to six feet in height. The infallible index of swamp and of southern climate, and having no resemblance to any plant seen 128 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. at the north, its foreign aspect, and its deep green, unchanged by winter, when first seen by the traveller from the north, is apt to produce considerable surprise, and strongly reminds him that he is a stranger, and in a new climate. It is used by the savages and the poorer Creoles as thatch for their cabins ; and from the tender shoots of the season, properly prepared, a very useful kind of summer May apple, hats, called palmetto hats, is manufactured. The May apple is a beautiful plant that completely covers the ground, where it grows with the freshest and most cheering verdure of spring. It has a handsome white blossom, and bears a fruit of the Weeds. appearance and taste of a lemon, and its root is a powerful cathartic. Strammony is a poisonous weed, perniciously common through the western country. On the richest bottoms it grows fifteen feet in height, and of such a size and compactness as to prevent cattle from running among it. It has splendid flowers, and a great quantity of oily seeds ; its smell is nauseous, and it is a common and annoying tenant of the villages on the alluvial margin of rivers : in some places, no inconsiderable part of the labour on the highways is to cut up this weed from the roads and outlets of the villages. Its popular name is jimson, probably a corruption of Jamestown, the place whence it was said to have been brought. It is used as medicine in spasmodic asthma. The next most common and annoying weed along the roads, especially in Louisiana, is a very tall plant resembling cassia marilandica ; it renders the paths, and the banks of the streams in that region almost impassable in autumn, until the cattle have trodden it down. Cockle burrs in the same situations are excessively annoying weeds, filling the outlets and uncultivated places to such a degree, that the burrs adhere to the clothes of passengers, and mat the wool of sheep running among it with an inextricable tangle. The common nettle is everywhere annoying to Various the summer traveller in the woods. One of the most singular of the forest produc tions is the wax plant, every part of which, except the root and the anthers, is snow white, and has the appearance of the most delicate wax preparation. It grows in rich shady woods, and is greatly prized because of its delicate appearance. The beautiful blue flower with golden anthers, the Virginian spiderwort, now common in our gardens, is a native of the sandy margins of rivers and creeks in the United States. It is disputed whether tobacco, long naturalized and now extensively cultivated in North America, is indigenous to the country or not. Aquatic The common kinds of aquatic plants are found in the still and shallow waters of the swamps; particularly a beautiful kind of water lily, highly fragrant, but not identical with the New England pond lily. This is the nymphea odorata, closely resembling the European water lily. Another of this genus, nymphea nelumbo, is much larger, and, for size and beauty, is said to be unrivalled. Dr. Barton,e who • Barton's Flora of North America. plants. plants. THE UNITED STATES. 129 calls it cyamus luteus, considers it to be the same as the sacred bean of India, and CHAP. mentions it as abundant near Philadelphia, but rare otherwise, and refusing propaga- tion. Mr. Flint found it in the southern states, and speaks of it as attaining great splendour on the lakes and stagnant waters of the Arkansas. It rises from a root resembling the large stump of a cabbage, and from depths in the water of from two or three to ten feet ; it has an elliptical, smooth, and verdant leaf, some of the largest of them being of the size of a parasol. The muddy creeks and stagnant waters are often so covered with these leaves, that the sandpiper walks on the surface of them without dipping her feet in the water. They have their home in still lakes, in the centre of cypress swamps ; musquitos swarm above ; obscene fowls wheel their flight over them ; alligators swim among their roots, and moccasin snakes bask on their leaves: in such lonely and repulsive situations, under such circumstances, and for such spectators, is arrayed, what is represented as the most brilliant display of flowers in the creation. In the capsule are embedded from four to six acorn-shaped seeds, which the Indians roast and eat when green ; or they are dried and eaten as nuts, or reduced to meal, and made into a kind of bread. A singular kind of aquatic vegetation, which has given rise to the fiction of floating islands of vegetation on the waters, is seen to cover a great extent of shallow lakes and muddy streams. It appears, indeed, to float on the water, and great masses of it, no doubt, often are detached and floating, as though there were no roots affixed to the soil at the bottom; but its twiny stem, of many yards in length, is ordinarily bound to the bottom by a thousand fibrous roots. It has a small beautiful elliptical leaf, and a diminutive but delicate white flower. Under them fishes dart, alligators gambol, and in the proper season, multitudes of water-fowl are seen pattering their bills among these leaves. This plant has been designated by the name pistia straliotes. One species of the orontium, or golden club, is indigenous to the United States. It grows on the marshy borders of rivers and creeks, or on the margins of ditches and ponds, so far as the tide penetrates, but no further. The only other known species of this plant is a native of Japan. Besides the misletoe, which is abundant, a singular parasitic plant of the southern Parasitic states, is the long moss. It hangs down in festoons, like the stems of the weeping willow. It attaches itself of choice to the cypress, and gives its next preference to the acacia. Its pendent wreaths often conceal the body of the tree to such an extent, that, when bare of foliage, little is seen but a mass of moss. These wreaths, waving in the wind, attach themselves to the branches of other trees, and thus sometimes form curtains of moss which darken the leafless forest of winter. It is in colour of a darkish grey, and the wreaths are many yards in length. It has a small, trumpet-shaped flower, of peach-blossom colour, and seeds still finer than those of tobacco. Associated as it naturally is with marshy and low alluvions, 130 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. where it grows in the greatest profusion, and with the idea of sickness, this dark ' drapery of the forest has an aspect of inexpressible gloom. When fresh, it is a tolerable fodder for horses and cattle, and the deer feed upon it in winter. It soon dies on dead trees. Prepared something after the manner of water-rotted hemp, the bark is decomposed and the fibre remains, fine, black, strong, elastic, and apparently incorruptible ; in this state, in appearance and elasticity it resembles horse hair, and like that, is used for mattresses. Most of the people in the lower country sleep on these mattresses, and they are becoming an article of commerce in the upper country. The Creoles make various articles of harness, as horse-collars, and saddle-stuffing, of this material ; for which purposes also, considerable quantities, are exported to the upholsterers and carriage-makers in the Atlantic country. Of course it will be understood that in this chapter we have noticed only the more conspicuous and considerable of the vegetable productions of the United States. A mere catalogue of the whole would occupy all the space we can allot to the subject, and would afford our readers neither gratification nor instruction. Scientific works may be referred to for more extended information. THE UNITED STATES. 131 CHAPTER IV. The living tribes occurring in the transatlantic republic open a wide and CHAP. interesting field of observation. The ornithological department is particularly rich — and striking ; and the reptiles are numerous and powerful ; and on the whole the zoology of the United States may be said to be still more peculiar than either their mineralogy or their botany. We shall notice, in as copious a manner as our limits will allow, the principal objects of interest in the respective animal tribes. The following general view of the mammiferous animals inhabiting the North Mammifer- American continent, is given by Dr. Harman.a The number of species now ascer- m^111" tained is 147, in which, however, this author, like some other American and European writers, includes man ; but, as it does not correspond with the purpose of this chapter to do so, we shall reckon the species at 146. Of these 28 are cetacea, and 118 are quadrupeds. Among the quadrupeds it is also to be noticed that Dr. Harman reckons eleven species of which no living trace whatever is found, either in North America or in any other part of the world, and which he introduces only by virtue of their fossil remains ; but if we allow a sufficient reason to exist for placing such animals in a scientific arrangement, they cannot, at all events, be regarded as forming a part of the present zoology of the North American continent. The number of living species of quadrupeds is, therefore, 107. The. comparative numbers of the several orders are stated to be as follows : — Primates, (not including man) 0 Carnivora, (in which Dr. Harman includes the bat) 60 Glires 37 Edentata 6 Pachydermata 2 Ruminantia 13 Cetacea 28 * Fauna Americana. 132 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. It thus appears that the monkey tribe is wholly excluded from the territory under review, together with the kindred animals constituting the order primates. In this Bat- order, however, the bat has been commonly reckoned, and we think with more pro priety than where Dr. Harman has placed it. Several species of this animal are found in the United States, but exhibiting no remarkable features. The following account of their manner of hybernation in a cave is given by Professor Green. " They did not appear to be much disturbed by the light of the torches carried by our party, but, upon being touched with sticks, they instantly recovered animation and activity, and flew into the dark passages of the cavern. As the cave was for the most part not more than six or seven feet in height, they could very easily be removed from the places to which they were suspended ; and some of the party who were behind me disturbed some hundreds of them at once, when they swept by me in swarms to more remote, darker, and safer places of retreat. In flying through the caves they made little or no noise ; sometimes, upon being disturbed in one place, they flew but a few yards, and then instantly settled in another, in a state of torpor apparently as pro found as before. These bats, in hybernating, suspended themselves by the hinder claws, from the roof or upper part of the cave : in no instance did I observe one along the sides. They were not promiscuously scattered, but were collected into groups or clusters of some hundreds, all in close contact. On holding a candl > within a few inches of one of these groups, they were not in the least troubled by it ; their eyes continued closed, and I could perceive no signs of respiration. On opening the stomach of one of these bats, it was found entirely empty." The strictly carnivorous animals, or beasts of prey, form, as might be expected in so extensive and diversified a tract of uncultivated country, a large class of tenants of the American wilds. Here, however, we find neither the lion, nor the tiger, the hyaena, nor the leopard, nor any of those creatures, with which, as beasts of prey, we are most familiar, and which make so conspicuous a figure in African and Asiatic Cougar regions. The largest animal of this kind in the United States is the cougar. This is commonly but improperly called the panther, and has occasionally received the name of the American lion, from the similarity of its proportions and colour to the lion of the old world. He is little inferior in size, and not at all in the fancied qualities of magnanimity, clemency, and generosity, which have been so lavishly attributed to the " king of beasts." He may be stated to be about one-third less than the lion ; he has no mane, nor any tuft at the extremity of the tail, which is about half the length of the body and head. The cougar was at an early period distributed in considerable number over the whole of the warm and temperate regions of this continent, and it is still found, though by no means abundantly, in the southern, middle, and north-western parts of the Union, becoming, however, gradually more rare as the population increases, and cultivation is extended. It is a savage and THE UNITED STATES. 133 destructive animal, yet timid and cautious. In ferocity it is quite equal to most of its C H A P. kindred species ; it kills numbers of small animals for the sake of drinking their . !__ blood, and, when pressed by hunger, attacks large quadrupeds, though not always with success. When the cougar seizes a sheep or a calf, it is by the throat ; and then, flinging the victim over its back, it dashes off with great ease and celerity, to devour it at leisure. Deer, hogs, sheep, and calves, are destroyed by the cougar when ever they are within reach ; and occasionally these animals have committed extensive ravages among the stock of the frontier settlers. They climb, or rather spring up large trees with surprising facility and vigour, and in that way are enabled, by dropping suddenly upon deer and other quadrupeds, to secure prey which it would be impossible for them to overtake. In the day-time the cougar is seldom seen; but its peculiar cry frequently thrills the experienced traveller with horror, while encamping in the forest at night ; or he is startled to hear the cautious approaches of the animal, stealing step by step towards him over the crackling brushwood and leaves, in expectation of springing on an unguarded or sleeping victim, whom nothing but a rapid flight can save. The northern lynx is a fierce and subtle creature, exhibiting most of the traits of Lynx. character which distinguish animals of the cat kind. To the smaller quadrupeds, such as rabbits, hares, lemmings, &c, it is exceedingly destructive, never leaving the vicinities they frequent until their numbers are altogether destroyed, or exceedingly thinned. But the ravages of the northern lynx are not confined to such small game : it drops from the branches of trees on the necks of deer, and clinging firmly with its sharp-hooked claws, ceases not to tear at the throat and drink the blood of the animal, until it sinks exhausted, and expires. It attacks sheep and calves in the same manner, and preys upon wild turkeys and other birds, which it is capable of surprising even on the tops of the highest trees. The United States, to which Dr. Godman thinks the brown bear is not native, present us with two principal species of this animal, of remarkably different characteristics. The black bears feed principally on grapes, plums, whortle-berries, Black bear. persimmons, bramble and other berries ; they are also particularly fond of the acorns of the live oak, on which they grow excessively fat in Florida. In attempting to procure these acorns, they subject themselves to great perils ; for, after climbing these enormous oak trees, they push themselves along the limbs towards the extreme branches, and with their fore-paws bend the twigs within reach, thus exposing themselves to severe and even fatal accidents, in case of a fall. They are also very fond of the different kinds of nuts and esculent roots ; and often ramble to great distances from their dens in search of whortle-berries, mulberries, and indeed all sweet-flavoured and spicy fruits. Birds, small quadrupeds, insects, and eggs, are also devoured by them whenever they can be obtained. They are occasionally very VOL. II. t 134 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. injurious to the frontier settlers, by their incursions in search of potatoes and young corn, both of which are favourite articles of food. Their claws enable them to do great mischief in potatoe grounds, as they can dig up a large number in a short time ; and where the bears are numerous, their ravages are occasionally very extensive. In the vicinity of Hudson's Bay, the black bear has been observed to feed entirely on water-insects during the month of June, when the berries are not ripe. These insects, of different species, are found in astonishing quantities in some of the lakes ; the bear, swimming with his mouth open, gathers those on the surface of the water. They are even believed to feed on those which die, and are washed on shore. The flesh of the animal is spoiled by this diet ; though individuals killed at a distance from the water are agreeably flavoured at the same time of the year. The black bear is in fact very indiscriminate in his feeding, and though suited by nature for the almost exclusive consumption of vegetable food, he refuses scarcely any thing when pressed by hunger ; he is, moreover, voracious as well as indis criminate in satisfying his appetite, and frequently gorges until his stomach loaths and rejects its contents. He seeks with great assiduity for the larvae or grubs of various insects, and exerts a surprising degree of strength in turning over large trunks of fallen trees, which, whenever sufficiently decayed to admit of it, he tears to pieces in search of worms. When the bear seizes a living animal, he does not, as most other beasts do, first put it to death, but tears it to pieces and devours it, without being delayed by its screams or struggles, and may be actually said to swallow it alive. The black bear, under ordinary circumstances, is not remarkably ferocious, nor is he in the habit of attacking man without provocation ; but, when wounded, he turns on the aggressor with great fury, and defends himself desperately. They are occasionally found throughout the territories of the United States, in the wooded and mountainous regions, and in unsettled districts, where their skins are of great value to the inhabitants, as a substitute for blankets and other manufactured woollens. They are still numerous in the wooded and thinly-settled parts of Pennsylvania, as well as in most of the other states of the Union ; and, where their favourite food is plentiful, they grow to a great size, and afford a large quantity of oil. Bartram relates that he was present at the cutting up of one which weighed five or six hundred pounds, and says that his hide was apparently as large as that of an ox of six or seven hundred weight. The Indians consider this bear, as one of the noblest objects of the chase, and they always manifest the highest degree of exultation when they are successful in killing one. Every part of the animal is valuable to, them, even to its intestines and claws ; the latter are bored at the base, and strung on deer sinews, to be worn as ornaments ; the flesh is considered most delicious food, and the fore-paws as an exquisite dainty. The black bear, in common with other species of the genus, THE UNITED STATES. 135 endeavours to suffocate an adversary by violently hugging and compressing its chest, chap. A man might end such a struggle in a few instants, if one hand were sufficiently at IV" liberty to grasp the throat of the animal with the thumb and fingers, externally, just at the root of the tongue; as a slight degree of compression there will generally suffice to produce almost immediate suffocation. The grizzly bear is of a totally opposite character. This animal is justly con- Grizzly sidered as the most dreadful and dangerous of North American quadrupeds, and is the despotic and sanguinary monarch of the wilds over which he ranges. Gigantic in size, and terrific in aspect, he unites to a ferociously blood-thirsty disposition a surpassing strength of limb, which gives him undisputed supremacy over every other tenant of the wilderness, and causes man himself to tremble at his approach. To the Indians, the very name of the grizzly bear is dreadful, and the killing of one is esteemed equal to a great victory. The white hunters are almost always willing to avoid an encounter with so powerful an adversary, and seldom wantonly provoke him. This formidable animal unhesitatingly pursues and attacks men or animals, when excited by hunger or by passion, and slaughters indiscriminately every creature whose speed or artifice is not sufficient to place them beyond his reach. He is capable, however, like the rest of his tribe, of living on vegetable food. This bear at present inhabits the country adjacent to the eastern side of the Chippewayan Mountains, where it frequents the plains, or resides in the copses of wood which skirt the margin of water-courses ; and there is some traditional reason to believe that it once inhabited the Atlantic regions of the United States. As a specimen of his manners, we extract the following narrative : — " One evening, the men in the hindmost of one of Lewis and Clark's canoes perceived one of these bears lying in the open ground, about three hundred paces from the river; and six of them, who were all good hunters, went to attack him. Concealing themselves by a small eminence, they were able to approach within forty paces, unperceived: four of the hunters now fired, and each lodged a ball in his body, two of which passed directly through the lungs. The bear sprang up, and ran furiously with open mouth upon them : two of the hunters, who had reserved their fire, now gave him two additional wounds, and one, breaking his shoulder-blade, somewhat retarded his motions. Before they could again load their guns, he came so close on them that they were obliged to run towards the river ; and before they had gained it, the bear had almost overtaken them. Two men jumped into the canoe ; the other four separated, and concealing themselves among the willows, fired as fast as they could load their pieces. Several times the bear was struck, but each shot seemed only to direct his fury towards the hunter : at last, he pursued them so closely, that they threw aside their guns and pouches, and jumped from a perpendicular bank, twenty feet high, into the river. The bear sprang after them, and was very near the hindmost 136 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. man, when one of the hunters on the shore shot him through the head, and finally killed him. When they dragged him on shore, they found that eight balls had passed through his body in different directions." Wolf. The common wolf of America is considered to be the same species as the wolf of Europe. When the aboriginal Americans first gave place to European adventurers, and the forests, which had flourished for ages undisturbed, began to fall before the unsparing axe, the vicinity of the settler's lonely cabin resounded with the nightly howling of wolves, attracted by the refuse provision usually to be found there, or by a disposition to prey upon the domestic animals. During winter, when food was most difficult to be procured, packs of these famished and ferocious creatures were ever at hand, to run down and destroy any domestic animal found wandering beyond the enclosures, which their individual or combined efforts could overcome ; and the boldest house-dog could not venture far from the door of his master, without incurring the risk of being killed and devoured. The common wolf was then to be found in con siderable numbers, throughout a great extent, if not throughout the whole, of North America ; at present, it is only known as a resident of the remote wooded and moun tainous districts, where man has not fixed his abode. The prairie, or barking wolf, frequents the prairies of the west, where troops or packs, containing a considerable number of individuals, are frequently seen following in the train of a herd of the buffalo or deer, for the purpose of preying on such as may die from disease, or in consequence of wounds inflicted by the hunters ; at night they also approach the encampments of travellers, whom they sometimes follow for the sake of the carcasses of animals which are relinquished, and, by their discordant howlings close to the tents, effectually banish sleep from those who are unaccustomed to their noise. They are more numerous than any of the other wolves which are found in North America. In appearance the barking wolf closely resembles the domestic dog of the Indians, and is remarkably active and intelligent. Like the common wolf, the individuals of this species frequently unite to run down a deer, or a buffalo calf, which has been separated from the herd; though it requires the fullest exercise of their speed, sagacity, and strength, to succeed in this chase. They are very often exposed to great distress from want of food ; and, in this state of famine, are under the necessity of filling their stomachs with wild plums, or other fruits no less indigestible, in order to allay the sensations of hunger. Fox. Red foxes, resembling but not identical with the common fox of Europe, are very numerous in the middle and southern states of the Union, and are everywhere notorious depredators on the poultry-yards. Their haunts are most commonly in exceedingly dense thickets of young pine, where they can scarcely be followed even by dogs. The grey fox is very common throughout this country, and is found more immediately in the vicinity of human habitations than either of the other species. It is pursued by the sportsmen with more pleasure than the red fox, because it does not THE UNITED STATES. 137 immediately forsake its haunts, and run for miles in one direction, but, after various CHAP. doublings, is generally killed near the place whence it first started. A small species, '. called the swift fox, inhabits the plains east of the Chippewayan Mountains. The most remarkable circumstance peculiar to this fox is its extraordinary swiftness, which all who have seen it agree in declaring to surpass that of any other animal with which we are at present acquainted. The fleetest antelope or deer, when running at full speed, is passed by this little fox with the greatest ease ; and such is the celerity of its motion, that it is compared to the flight of a bird along the ground, rather than the course of a quadruped. Other observers have stated, that, when in full speed over the plain, the effect produced on the eye makes the animal resemble a line drawn rapidly along the surface; so impossible is it to distinguish any of the parts of its body, on account of its surprising velocity. A species of otter, analogous to the European, is found in the United States. Otter. In the southern, middle, and eastern states of the Union, they are comparatively scarce ; but in the western states they are in many places still found in considerable numbers, and on the tributaries of the Missouri they are very common. A singular sportive habit has been observed in them, viz. that of sliding; and for this pur pose, in winter, the highest ridge of snow is selected, to the top of which the otters scramble, where, lying on the belly, with the fore feet bent backwards, they give themselves an impulse with their hind legs, and swiftly glide head foremost down the declivity, sometimes for the distance of twenty yards. This sport they continue, apparently with the keenest enjoyment, until fatigue or hunger induces them to desist. In the summer this amusement is obtained by selecting a spot where the river bank is sloping, has a clayey soil, and the water at its base is of a considerable depth. The otters then remove from the surface, for the breadth of several feet, the sticks, roots, stones, and other obstructions, and render it as level as possible. They climb up the bank at a less precipitous spot, and starting from the top, slip with velocity over the inclining ground, and plunge into the water to a depth proportioned to their weight and rapidity of motion. After a few slides and plunges, the surface of the clay becomes very smooth and slippery, and the rapid succession of the sliders shows how much these animals are delighted by the game, as well as how capable they are of performing actions which have no other object than that of pleasure or diversion. This amusement is so congenial to the frolic spirit of boyhood, that in vicinities where otter-slides are found, youngsters, while bathing, sometimes take possession of one, and, sitting at the top, glide thence with great glee into the water. Pedestrians, led by business or by pleasure to ramble through the country during Skunk. the morning or evening twilight, occasionally see a small and pretty animal a short distance before them in the path, scampering forward without appearing much alarmed, and advancing in a zig-zag or somewhat serpentine direction. Experienced persons 138 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. generally delay long enough to allow this unwelcome fellow-traveller to withdraw from the path.; but it often happens that a view of the animal arouses the ardour of the observer, who, in his fondness for sport, thinks not of any result but that of securing a prize. It would be more prudent to rest content with pelting this quadruped from a safe distance, or to drive it away by shouting loudly ; but almost all1 inexperienced persons, the first time such an opportunity occurs, rush forward with intent to run the animal down. This appears to be an easy task. In a few moments it is almost overtaken ; a few more strides and the victim may be grasped by its long and waving tail — but that tail, is now suddenly curled over the back, its pace is slackened, and' in one instant the condition of things is entirely reversed : the lately triumphant pur suer is eagerly flying from his intended prize, involved in an atmosphere of stench, gasping for breath, or blinded and smarting with pain, if his approach were sufficiently close to allow of his being struck in the eyes by the pestilent fluid of the skunk. Should the attack on this creature be led by a dog, and1 he be close when the dis gusting discharge is made, he runs with tail between his legs howling away, and, by thrusting his nose into the soil as he retreats, tries to escape from the horrible effluvium, which renders the air in the immediate vicinity too stifling to be endured. This animal is the skunk, which inhabits the whole of North America, in the forests or their immediate vicinity. Raccoon. Raccoons also are found throughout the whole of North America; and they still continue to be numerous in many of the welUpeopled parts of the United States. Occasionally their numbers are so great as to render them very troublesome to the farmers in the low and wooded parts of Maryland, bordering on the Chesapeake Bay. To the capricious mischievousness of the monkey, the raccoon adds a blood-thirsty and vindictive spirit peculiarly his own. In the wild state, his sanguinary appetite frequently leads to his own destruction, which his nocturnal habits might otherwise avert; but, as he slaughters the tenants of the poultry-yard with indiscriminate ferocity, the vengeance of the plundered farmer speedily retaliates on him the death so liberally dealt among the feathered victims. The fur of the raccoon forms an article of considerable value in commerce, as it is largely employed5 in the fabri- Badger. cation of hats. The American badger is a pretty little animal, and its aspect is not unlike that of some small pug-faced dogs. It is found most frequently on the plains adjacent to the Missouri and its tributaries, as well as on those near the Glutton. Columbia river, both in the open country and1 in the woods. The wolverene, or American glutton, is one of the most destructive animals found in the northern parts of the continent. He is slow in his motions, but strong, and full of stratagem. He causes much trouble to hunters and travellers who attempt to secure provisions by burying them in the snow, or to protect them by coverings of boughs and trunks of trees ; since it is almost impossible to prevent this creature from gaining access to THE UNITED STATES. 139 such places of deposit, either by strength or by stratagem, and destroying the stock chap. on which the voyager may have counted for his future subsistence and safety. To IV- the hunters the wolverene is also very injurious, by robbing their traps of the animals which are taken in them, before the arrival of the owners. Among the small quad- Ermine. rupeds inhabiting this continent, few are to be found equalling the ermine in beauty ; perhaps none that excel it in the qualities of courage, graceful celerity of movement, and untiring activity. Its whole aspect inspires the beholder with an idea of its character, which is well supported by its actions. It is found in the northern and middle states, and its habits are similar to those of the common weasel of Europe. The shrews belonging to this country are remarkable for their diminutive size shrew. and apparent helplessness. They are generally found in the country, where their residence is either in burrows, or among heaps of stones, or in holes made by other animals ; near dung-heaps, hay-ricks, or privies, they are more numerous than else where. Insects are their principal subsistence, but they seem no less fond of grain, putrid flesh, and filth of various sorts ; as they have been occasionally seen rioting in ordure, in a manner similar to the hog. The shrew-mole is found abundantly Mole. in North America, from Canada to Virginia, often living at no great distance from water-courses, or in dykes thrown up to protect meadows from inundation. This creature, when at rest, bears more resemblance to a small stuffed sack than to a living animal, its head being entirely destitute of external ears, and elongated nearly to a point, and its eyes so extremely small, and completely hidden by the fur, that it would not be surprising should a casual observer conclude this creature to be blind. It is endowed, however, with considerable powers of action, and doubtless of enjoy ment ; though we cannot enter here into the details of its extensive and curious subterraneous operations. The usual haunts of the opossum are thick forests, and their dens are generally in Opossum. the hollows of decayed trees, where they pass the day asleep, and sally forth mostly after nightfall to seek for food. The hunting of the opossum is a favourite sport with the country people, who frequently go out with their dogs at night, after the autumnal frosts have begun, and the persimmon fruit is in its most delicious state. The opossum, as soon as he discovers the approach of his enemies, lies perfectly close to the branch, or places himself snugly in the angle where two limbs separate from each other ; the dogs, however, soon announce the fact of his presence by their baying, and the hunter, ascending the tree, discovers the branch upon which the animal is seated, and begins to shake it with great violence, to alarm and cause him to relax his hold. This is soon effected; and the opossum, attempting to escape to another limb, is pursued immediately, and the shaking is renewed with greater violence, until at length the terrified quad ruped allows himself to drop to the ground, where hunters or dogs are prepared to dispatch him. Should the hunter, as frequently happens, be unaccompanied by dogs, 140 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. when the opossum falls to the ground, it does not immediately make its escape, but steals slowly and quietly to a little distance, and then, gathering itself into as small a compass as possible, remains as still as if dead. After remaining in this apparently lifeless condition for a considerable time, or so long as any noise indicative of danger can be heard, the creature slowly unfolds himself, and, creeping as closely as possible upon the ground, would fain sneak off unperceived ; but upon a shout or out cry in any tone from his persecutor, he immediately renews his deathlike attitude and stillness. If then approached, moved, or handled, he is still seemingly dead, and might deceive any one not accustomed to his actions. This artifice is repeated as frequently as opportunity is allowed him of attempting to escape, and is known so well to the country people as to have long since passed into a proverb. " He is playing the opossum," is a phrase applied with great readiness by them to any one who is thought to act deceitfully, or wish to appear what he is not. Beaver. The beaver has at a former period inhabited the territory of the United States much more extensively than at present. In various parts of the western country, where they are at present entirely unknown, except by tradition, the dams con structed by their labours are still standing securely, and in many instances serve instead of bridges to the streams they obstruct. There are few states in the Union in which some remembrance of this animal is not preserved by such names as Beaver- Dam, Beaver-Lake, Beaver-Falls, &c. In situations where it is frequently disturbed, all its singular habits are relinquished, and its mode of living changed to suit the nature of circumstances ; instead of building dams and houses, its only residence is then in the banks of the stream, where it is forced to make an extensive excavation, and to be content to adopt the manners of a musk-rat. More sagacity is displayed by the beaver in thus accommodating itself to circumstances, than in any other action it performs. Such is the caution which it exercises to guard against detection, that were it not for the removal of small trees, the stumps of which indicate the sort of animal by which they have been cut down, the presence of the beaver would not be suspected in the vicinity. All excursions for the sake of procuring food are made late at night; and if it pass from one hole to another during the daytime, it swims so far under water as not to excite the least suspicion of the presence of such a voyager. On many parts of the Mississippi and the Missouri, where the beaver formerly built houses according to the usual mode, no such works are at present to be found, although beavers are still to be trapped in those localities. These circumstances throw light on the character of the European beaver, which has been thought to belong to another species, because it does not build. The value of the fur of these animals is well known. The capture, or trapping of them, is a large part of the business both of the Indians and the whites. It is a subject of regret that an animal so valuable and so prolific should be hunted in a manner tending to the extermination of the species, when a little care and THE UNITED STATES. 141 management on the part of those interested might prevent unnecessary destruction, CHAP. and preserve the sources of their revenue. In the Hudson's Bay possessions they ' — are becoming annually more scarce, and the race will eventually be extinguished throughout the whole continent ; though a few individuals may, for a time, elude the immediate violence of persecution. The musk-rat, which is closely allied in form and habits to the beaver, does not, Musk-rat like that timid animal, retire from the vicinities inhabited by man ; but, relying on its peculiar instinct for concealment, remains secure, notwithstanding the changes induced by cultivation, and multiplies its species in the very midst of its enemies. Thus, while the beaver has long since entirely disappeared, and become forgotten, in the Atlantic states, the musk-rat is found within a very short distance of the largest and oldest cities, and bids fair to maintain its place in such situations during an indefinite future period. The animal owes this security to its nocturnal and aquatic mode of life, as well as to the peculiar method in which its domicile is constructed. Along small streams, mill-races, and ponds, where the banks are of some elevation and strength, the musk- rats form large and extensive burrows. These have their entrance always in the deep water, so as to be entered or left without betraying the presence of the animal. The mouth of the burrow ascends from its commencement near the bottom, and slopes upwards until it is above the level of the highest water ; it then extends to great distances, according to the numbers or necessities of the occupants. Like most other animals residing in such burrows, the musk-rats frequently excavate them beneath the roots of large trees, where they are secure from being disturbed by having their home broken into from above. The injuries done by the musk-rat to the banks thrown up to exclude the tide from meadows and other grounds, are frequently very extensive. The tide encroaches more and more on the burrow, as the soil softens and is washed away ; the animals extend their excavations in various directions, in order to free themselves from the intrusion of the water ; and, at length, from the combi nation of both causes, the bank falls in, and the water is allowed free access, often laying waste the most valuable parts of the farm. To understand the extent to which such mischief may be carried, it is sufficient to take a walk along the banks thrown up to protect the meadows on the Delaware, on both sides of the river. Similar, though not as extensive injury, is produced along the borders of ponds, embank ments, and small streams, by the falling in of the burrows formerly tenanted by the musk-rat. The meadow-mouse is found in various degrees of abundance throughout this Rat and j £ u u mouse. country, and, as implied in its name, prefers the meadow and grass fields to other situations. The banks of drains, and those thrown up to keep off the tide or the over flow of streams, are the favourite places for their burrows, which are both numerous and extensive, being continued in various directions and to considerable depths. These VOL. II. u 142 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. burrows are frequently causes of injury similar to that resulting from those of the musk- rat. " The wood-rat," says Bartram, " is a very curious animal : they are not half the size of the domestic rat, and of a dark brown or black colour ; their tail slender and shorter in proportion, and covered thinly with short hair. They are singular with respect to their ingenuity and great labour in the construction of their habitations, which are conical pyramids, about three or four feet high, constructed with dry branches, which they collect with great labour and perseverance, and pile up without any apparent order ; yet they are so interwoven with one another, that it would take a bear or wild cat some time to pull one of these castles to pieces, and allow the animals sufficient time to secure a retreat with their young." The wood-rat has, beyond doubt, been as common throughout this country at a former period, as it is at present in Florida and on the Missouri. It has very universally given place to the black-rat, and both have disappeared before the Norway rat. The wood-rat soon learns to infest the houses of the settlers, and to do nearly, if not quite, as much mischief as the common rat. In Florida, Georgia, and the plains adjacent to the Missouri, the pouched- rat is to be found in great numbers : their burrows are exceedingly numerous in various places, and give an appearance to the plains similar to that produced by ploughing. Over their burrows hillocks of loose earth are raised, resembling in some respects those thrown up by the shrew-mole'. The jumping-mouse is a little animal very remarkable for the great length of its hind legs, and for its mode of progression, in both of which it bears some resemblance to the kangaroo of Australia, and the jerboa of the old continent. When the jumping-mouse is pursued by one or two persons, and permitted to advance in one direction, its movements resemble those of a bird rather than a quadruped, so high does it leap info the air, so great is the dis tance it measures at every bound, and so light and quick is its ascent and descent. The jumping-mouse, however, does not exclusively move in this manner, but is capable of running on all its feet with considerable speed ; hence it frequently excites the wonder of the country people, or gives them much labour in vain, when they attempt to run it down. Marmot. The marmot is a common animal in all the temperate parts of the country, and is the cause of great injury, especially to the farmers engaged in the cultivation of clover, as thei» numbers become very considerable, and the quantity of herbage they consume is- very large. They are the more capable of doing mischief, from their extreme vigilance and their acute sense of hearing, as well as from the security afforded them by their extensive subterranean dwellings. One species of this animal, under the name of the prairie marmot, or prairie dog, abounds near the Chippewayan Mountains. A traveller passing from the Mississippi towards the mountains, after traversing a vast expanse enlivened by numerous herds of browsing animals which here find a luxurious subsistence, and arriving at the higher and more barren THE UNITED STATES. 143 parts of the tract, is startled by a sudden shrill whistle, which he may apprehend chap. to be the signal of some lurking savage ; but, on advancing into a clearer space, the IV" innocent cause of alarm is found to be a little quadruped, whose dwelling is indicated by a small mound of earth, near which the animal sits erect in an attitude of profound attention. Similar mounds are now seen to be scattered at intervals over many acres of ground ; and the whole forms one village or community, containing thousands of inhabitants, whose various actions and gambols awaken very pleasing emotions. In some instances these villages are very limited, or at most occupy but a few acres', but nearer to the Rocky Mountains, where they are entirely undisturbed, they are found to extend even for miles. We may form some idea of the number of these animals, when we learn that each burrow contains several occupants, and that fre quently as many as seven or eight are seen reposing upon one mound. Here, in pleasant weather, they delight to sport, and enjoy the warmth of the sun. On the approach of 'danger, while it is yet too distant to be feared, they bark defiance, and flourish their little tails with great intrepidity ; but, as soon as it appears to be draw ing nigh, the whole troop precipitately retire into their cells, where they securely remain until the peril be past ; one by one they then peep forth, and vigilantly scrutinize every sound and object, before they resume their wonted actions. While thus near to their retreats, they almost uniformly escape the hunter ; and, if killed, they mostly fall into their burrows, which are too deep to allow their bodies to be obtained. The villages found nearest the mountains have an appearance of greater antiquity than those observed elsewhere ; some of the mounds in such situa tions are several yards in diameter, though of slight elevation, and, except about the entrance, are overgrown by a scanty herbage, which is characteristic of the vicinity of these villages. This active and industrious community of quadrupeds, like every other society, is infested by various depredators, who subsist by plunder, or are too ignorant or too indolent to labour for themselves : and hence a strange association is frequently observed in their villages ; for burrowing-owls, rattlesnakes, lizards, and land-tortoises, are seen to take refuge in their habitations. The young of the marmot probably become the prey of the owl. The rattlesnakes also exact their tribute with great certainty, and without exciting alarm, as they can penetrate the inmost recesses of the burrow, and a slight wound inflicted by their fangs is followed by the immediate extinction of life. The species of the squirrel inhabiting the United States are numerous and beau- Squirrel. tiful. Like most of the animals belonging to this order, they are very prolific, and multiply until large districts of country are injuriously overrun by them; they then invade, and literally lay waste the corn-fields, consuming vast quantities of grain, and destroy nearly as much as they eat, by breaking it down and scattering it on the ground.. On such occasions, the farmers in thinly-settled districts severely suffer. 144 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. The efforts of a whole family are sometimes insufficient to drive off or destroy these busy plunderers. In the state of Ohio, in the autumn of 1822, says Dr. Godman, parts of the country appeared to swarm with squirrels, which were so numerous that, in travelling along the high road, they might be seen scampering in every direction ; the woods and fields might be truly said, in the country phrase, to be " alive with them." A farmer, who had a large field of Indian corn near the road stated, that, notwithstanding the continued exertions of himself and his two sons, he feared he should lose the greater part of his crop, in addition to his time, and the expense of ammunition used in killing and scaring off the little robbers. This man and his sons frequently took stations in different parts of the field, and killed squirrels until their guns became too dirty to be used with safety; yet they always found, on returning, that the squirrels had mustered as strong as before. Squirrel-shooters were frequently met with heavily laden with this game, which, in many instances, they had only desisted from slaying through want of ammunition, or through mere fatigue. Fortunately for the farmers, these animals are not at the same time equally numerous in all parts of the country. During some seasons, they appear to move in a mass, deserting certain districts entirely, and concentrating themselves in others ; in such migrations, vast numbers are drowned in crossing the rivers, and many are also destroyed by beasts and birds of prey, and various other causes. Porcupine, The American porcupine exhibits none of the long and large quills which are so conspicuous and formidable in the European species ; and the short spines, or prickles, which are thickly set over all the superior parts of its body, are covered by a long coarse hair, which almost entirely conceals them. These spines are not more than two inches and a half in length, yet they form a very efficient protection to the animal against every other enemy but man. In the remote and unsettled parts of Pennsylvania, the porcupine is still occasionally found; but south of this state, it is almost unknown. In the Hudson's Bay country, Canada, and New England, as well as in some parts of the western states, and throughout the country lying between the Rocky Mountains and the great western rivers, they are found in great abun dance, and are highly prized by the aborigines, both for the sake of their flesh and their quills, which are very extensively and very ingeniously employed by the Indian women, as ornaments of dress. Hare. The American hare never burrows in the ground, like the common European rabbit. When confined in a yard, the animal has been known to attempt an escape by scratching a hole in the earth, near the fence or wall ; but there are few wild animals, whatever may be their character, that will not do the same under similar circum stances, though in their natural condition they may never attempt to burrow. Such is the fact in relation to the American hare, which never burrows while it is a free THE UNITED STATES. 145 tenant of the fields and woods. It has been said, that this animal also occasionally c H A P. ascends trees ; this must be understood solely of its going up within the trunks of lv' hollow trees, which it effects by pressing with its back and feet against opposite sides of the hollow, ascending somewhat in the same manner as a sweep climbs a chimney. The hare is not hunted in America as in Europe, but is generally roused by a dog, and shot, or is caught in various snares and traps. In its movements it closely resembles the common hare of Europe, bounding along with great celerity ; and would, no doubt, when pursued, resort to the artifices of doubling, &c, so well known to be used by the European animal. The sloth is not found in the republic, except in a fossil state ; and these remains sl°th antt • - i • ¦ xt n i elephant. are of three gigantic but extinct species. Not even fossil traces have occurred of the kindred animals. We have already noticed the remains of the mastodon, which is allied to the elephant ; and may here add, that bones of an extinct species of elephant also have been found. No living animal of that entire order appears to exist on the North American continent. The ruminant animals abound. The species of deer come first to our notice. Deer. The moose was formerly found throughout the New England states, but is now con fined to that of Maine, and is there becoming unfrequent. Judging by the rapid diminution of this species within a comparatively few years, it is to be feared that it will at no great distance of time be exterminated. The American elk is a stately and beautiful animal, which is believed at some period to have ranged over the greater part, if not the whole, of the continent. The common deer is the smallest American species at present known, and is found throughout the country between Canada in the north, and the banks of the Orinoco in South America. It has always been of great importance to the aborigines of America, as an abundant source of food and raiment; nor has its value been less to the pioneers of civilization, in their advances into the untrodden solitudes of the west. The improvements in agriculture have long since rendered this supply of food of comparatively little value to the white man ; yet vast numbers of this species are annually destroyed, equally for the sake of their flesh, hides, and horns. Notwithstanding this extensive consumption, however, the species does not appear to be very rapidly diminishing, if we except the immediate vicinity of very thickly-peopled districts. Even in these, where the destruction of deer during the breeding-season is prevented by law, the increase seems quite equal to the demand ; and such humane and judicious provisions will probably preserve this beautiful race to adorn the forests, long after the species is exterminated in situations where it is not thus protected. The prong-horn antelope is a beautiful creature, ranging over the Chippewayan Antelope. Mountains. It is of wonderful fleetness, and so shy and timorous, as but seldom to repose, except on ridges which command a view of the surrounding country. The 146 TOPOGRAPHY OF book ii. acuteness of their sight, and the exquisite delicacy of their smell, render it exceed ingly difficult to approach them; and, when once danger is perceived, the celerity with which the ground is passed over appears to the spectator to resemble the flight of a bird, rather than the motion of a quadruped. " The chief game of the Shoshonees," say Lewis and Clarke, " is the antelope ; which, when pursued, retreats to the open plains, where the horses have full room for the chase. But such is its extraordinary fleetness and wind, that a single horse has no possible chance of outrunning it, or tiring it down ; and the hunters are, therefore, obliged to resort to stratagem. About twenty Indians, mounted on fine horses, armed with bows and arrows, left the camp : in a short time they descried a herd of ten antelopes ; they immediately separated into squads of two or three, and formed a scattered circle round the herd for five or six miles, keeping at a wary distance, so as not to alarm them till they were perfectly enclosed, and usually selecting some commanding emi nence as a stand. Having gained their positions, a small party rode towards the herd, and, with wonderful dexterity, the huntsman preserved his seat,, and the horse his footing, as he ran at full speed over the hills and down the steep ravines, and along the borders of the precipices. They were soon outstripped by the antelopes, which, on gaining the other extremity of the circle, were driven back, and pursued by the fresh hunters. They turned, and flew, rather than ran, in another direction ; but there, too, they found new enemies. In this way they were alternately pursued, backwards and forwards, till at length, notwithstanding the skill of the hunters, (who were merely armed with bows and arrows,) they all escaped ; and the party, after running for two hours, returned without having caught any thing, and their horses foaming with sweat. This chase, the greater part of which was seen from the camp, formed a beautiful scene ; but to the hunters it is exceedingly laborious, and so unpro ductive, even when they are able to worry the animal down and shoot him, that forty or fifty hunters will sometimes be engaged for more than half a day, without obtaining more than two or three antelopes." The Chippewayan Mountains have afforded also one species of' goat, and one of sheep, of which it might be well for more to be known. Buffalo. Of the ox kind, the bison, or buffalo, is the only, and a very remarkable species. The buffalo was formerly found throughout the whole territory of the United States, with the exception of that part which lies east of Hudson's River and Lake Champlain, and of narrow strips of coast on the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.. At present it is scarcely seen east of the Mississippi. Its great range is over the plains between this river and the Chippewayan Mountains, but it is met with also in the territory of Oregon. To the Indians and the visitors of the western regions the bison is almost invaluable : they supply a large part of the food used by the natives, and covering to their tents and persons ; while, in many parts of the country, THE UNITED STATES. 147 there is no fuel to be obtained but the dried dung of this animal. The herds of bison wander over the country in search of food, usually led by a bull most remarkable for strength and fierceness. While feeding, they are often scattered over a great extent of country ; but when they move in a mass they form a dense and almost im penetrable column, which, once in motion, is scarcely to be impeded. Their line of march is seldom interrupted, even by considerable rivers, across which they swim without fear or hesitation, nearly in the order in which they traverse the plains. When flying before their pursuers, it would be in vain for the foremost to halt, or to attempt to obstruct the progress of the main body; as the throng in the rear still rush onward, the leaders must advance, although destruction awaits the movement. The Indians take advantage of this circumstance, to destroy great quantities of this favourite game ; and, certainly, no mode could be resorted to more effectually destructive, nor could a more terrible devastation be produced, than by forcing a numerous herd of these large animals to leap together from the brink of a dreadful precipice, upon a rocky and broken surface a hundred feet below. When the Indians determine to destroy bison in this way, one of their swiftest-footed and most active young men is selected, who is disguised in a bison skin, having the head, ears, and horns adjusted on his own head, so as to make the deception very complete ; and, thus accoutred, he stations himself between the bison herd and some of the precipices which often extend for several miles along the rivers. The Indians surround the herd as nearly as possible ; when, at a given signal, they show themselves, and rush forward with loud yells. The animals being alarmed, and seeing no way open but in the direction of the disguised Indian, run towards him, and he, taking to flight, dashes on to the precipice, where he suddenly secures himself in some previously-ascertained crevice. The foremost of the herd arrives at the brink — there is no possibility of retreat, no chance of escape : the foremost may, for an instant, shrink with terror ; but the crowd behind, who are terrified by the approaching hunters, rush forward with increasing impetuosity, and the aggregated force hurls them successively from the cliff, where certain death awaits them. We may here introduce, from Dr. Harman, a statement of the number of North Ameri can quadrupeds which he conceives to' be common both to the new and the old world, Species. Species. 1 Mole. 2 Wolf. .2 Fox. 2 Seal. 2 Weasel. 1 Beaver. CHAP IV. 2 Shrew. I Bear. 1 Glutton. I Otter. The whole number of common species is twenty-one ; leaving eighty-six species as peculiar to North America, though not all of them to the United States. Species Field-mouse.Campagnol (rat.) Squirrel. Deer. Sheep. Quadru peds com mon to both continents. 148 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK ii. Among cetaceous animals, the lamantin, or sea-cow, is found on the coast of Florida. Cetaceous When full grown, it is from fifteen to twenty feet in length, by eight in circumference, and weighs several thousand pounds. After having satisfied its hunger by feeding on the sea grass or fucus, which constitutes its principal nourishment, it delights to sleep upon the marshy grounds in the shallows, where it lies with the snout elevated above the water. It is there easily taken by the harpooners. " Shoals of dolphins," says Dr. Godman, " may be seen almost every day, and at any hour, feeding or sporting in the bay and rivers near the city of New York, where we have sometimes enjoyed an oppor tunity of observing, from the wharf, a large shoal of them moving down the Hudson with the tide ; some plunging along, as if in haste, others apparently at play, and others very slowing rising to the surface for breath, and as gradually disappearing, allowing their dorsal fin to remain for a considerable time above the surface." From the month of May until towards the end of autumn, the true dolphins frequent the bays and salt-water rivers of the United States, in great numbers. They are most nu merous and are best observed during the run of the herring and shad, upon which they doubtless feast abundantly ; they appear gradually to diminish in number as these fish retire from the rivers and coast, though a small party may be occasionally seen very late in the season. The gladiator dolphins, so celebrated for attacking and destroying the whales, are found on the New England coasts. As they commonly swim in small troops, they attack the whale in a body, and tear off great pieces of his flesh, until, becoming excited to a certain degree, he thrusts out his tongue, when they immedi ately fasten on this organ and devour it, and finally, gaining access to his mouth, they destroy the life of the animal. The porpoise, or sea-swine, is not ascertained to have been seen in the waters of the republic ; the animal generally called by this name is the true dolphin. The spermaceti cachalot is found in greatest abundance in the Pacific Ocean, where large numbers of them are annually killed by the American and other whalers, for the sake of their oil and spermaceti. Ornitho- The Ornithology of the United States exhibits a rich display of the most splendid colours, from the green, silky, gold-bespangled down of the minute humming-bird, scarcely three inches in extent, to the black coppery wings of the gloomy condor, of sixteen feet, an occasional visitant of the republic ; a numerous and powerful band of songsters, which, for sweetness, variety, and melody, are surpassed perhaps by no country on earth ; an ever-changing scene of migration from torrid to temperate, and from northern to southern regions, in quest of suitable seasons, food, and climate ; and an amazing diversity in habit, economy, form, disposition, and faculties. The study of this branch of the natural history of their adopted country seems to have been long neglected by its new inhabitants, the manners, language, and faces of the feathered tribes being in general either overlooked or unknown ; and the substantial THE UNITED STATES. 149 enlargement of science in this department is mainly to be referred to Alexander chap. Wilson, a Scotchman, whose name cannot be recorded without attaching to it as high IV" an encomium as a passionate attachment to natural science, manifested in a thousand instances of personal labour and hazardous adventure, can deserve. Other writers, among whom we may mention Ord, Bonaparte, and Audubon, have meritoriously followed in his train ; and from them we shall gather our brief notices of the prin cipal birds of the United States. We begin with the birds of prey. Vultures of several species are common. One Vulture. called the turkey buzzard is remarked for a habit of repelling an assailant by vomit ing matter intolerably offensive. They eat so immoderately, that frequently they are incapable of rising, and may be caught without much difficulty ; but few that are acquainted with them will have the temerity to undertake the task. A man in the state of Delaware, a few years since, observing some turkey buzzards regaling them selves upon the carcass of a horse, which was in a highly putrid state, conceived the design of making a captive of one, to take home for the amusement of his children. He cautiously approached, and, springing upon the unsuspicious group, grasped a fine plump fellow in his arms, and was bearing off his prize in triumph, when, lo ! the indignant vulture disgorged such a torrent of filth in the face of our hero, that it produced all the effects of the most powerful emetic, and for ever cured him of his inclination for turkey buzzards. — The habits of the black vulture, or carrion crow, which is not found higher than North Carolina, are singular. In the towns and villages of the southern states, the carrion crows may be seen either sauntering about the streets, or sunning themselves on the roofs of the houses, and the fences ; or, if the weather be cold, cowering round the tops of the chimneys, to enjoy the benefit of the heat, which to them is a great pleasure. They are protected either by law or by usage, and may be said to be completely domesticated, being as common as the domestic poultry, and equally familiar. The inhabitants generally are disgusted with their filthy, voracious habits ; but notwithstanding, being viewed as conducive to the removal of the dead animal matter, which, if permitted to putrify during the hot season would render the atmosphere impure, they have a respect paid them as scavengers, whose labours are subservient to the public good. It sometimes happens, that, after having gorged themselves, these birds vomit down the chimneys, which must be in tolerably disgusting, and can scarcely fail to provoke the ill-will of those whose hos pitality is thus requited. For strength, spirit, and activity, the ring-tailed eagle ranks among the first of its Ea^le tribe. A still more interesting species is the bald eagle, which, as he is one of the most beautiful of his tribe in this part of the world, and the adopted emblem of the republic, is entitled to particular notice. The celebrated cataract of Niagara is a noted place of resort for the bald eagle, as well on account of the fish procured there, as for the vol. n. x 150 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK 11. numerous carcasses of squirrels, deer, bears, and various other animals, which, in their attempts to cross the river above the fells, have been drawn into the current, and precipitated down that tremendous gulf, where, among the rocks that bound the rapids below, they furnish a rich repast for various predaceous birds. He is also found generally in the vicinity of the sea, and along the shores and cliffs of the lakes and large rivers. Formed by nature for braving the severest cold; feeding equally on the produce of the sea, and of the land ; possessing powers of flight capable of out stripping even the tempests themselves ; unawed by any thing but man ; and, from the ethereal heights to which he soars, looking abroad, at one glance, on an immeasur able expanse of forests, fields, lakes, and ocean, deep below him, he appears indifferent to the little localities affected by change of seasons ; as, in a few minutes, he can pass from summer to winter, from the lower to the higher regions of the atmosphere, the abode of eternal cold; and from thence descend, at will, to the torrid or the arctic regions of the earth. He is, therefore, found at all seasons, in the countries he inhabits ; but he prefers such places as have been mentioned above, from the great partiality he has for fish. In procuring these, he displays in a very singular manner the genius and energy of his character, which is fierce, contemplative, daring, and tyrannical ; attributes not exerted but on particular occasions, but, when put forth, overpowering all opposition. Elevated on the high dead limb of some gigantic tree that commands a wide view of the neighbouring shore and ocean, he seems calmly to contemplate the motions of the various feathered tribes that pursue their busy avoca tions below: the snow-white gulls slowly winnowing the air; the busytringae coursing along the sands ; trains of ducks streaming over the surface ; silent and watchful cranes, intent and wading ; clamorous crows ; and all the winged multitudes that subsist by the bounty of this vast liquid magazine of nature. High over all these appears one, whose action instantly arrests his whole attention. By his wide curvature of wing, and sudden suspension in air, he knows him to be the fish-hawk, settling over some devoted victim of the deep. His eye kindles at the sight, and, balancing himself, with half-opened wings, on the branch, he watches the result. Down, rapid as an arrow, descends the distant object of his attention, the roar of its wings reaching the ear as it disappears in the deep, making the surges foam around. At this moment, the eager looks of the eagle are all ardour ; and, levelling his neck for flight, he sees the fish- hawk once more emerge, struggling with his prey, and mounting in the air with screams of exultation. These are the signal for our hero, who, launching into the air, instantly gives chase, and soon gains on the fish-hawk ; each exerts his utmost strength to mount above the other, displaying in these rencontres the most elegant and sublime aerial evolutions. The unencumbered eagle rapidly advances, and is just on the point of reaching his opponent, when, with a sudden scream, probably of despair and honest execration, the latter drops his fish : the eagle, poising himself for a moment, as if to THE UNITED STATES. 151 take a more certain aim, descends like a whirlwind, snatches it in his grasp ere it CHAP. reaches the water, and bears his ill-gotten booty silently away to the woods. These Iv- predatory attacks and defensive manoeuvres of the eagle and the fish-hawk are matters of daily observation along the whole of the seaboard, from Georgia to New England, and frequently excite great interest in the spectators. Sympathy, however, on this as on most other occasions, generally sides with the honest and laborious sufferer, in oppo sition to the attacks of power, injustice, and rapacity, qualities for which our hero is so generally notorious, and which, in his superior, man, are certainly detestable. As for the feelings of the poor fish, they seem altogether out of the question. When driven, as the eagle sometimes is, by the combined courage and perseverance of the fish-hawks from their neighbourhood, and forced to hunt for himself, he retires more inland, in search of young pigs, of which he destroys great numbers. In the lower parts of Virginia and North Carolina, where the inhabitants raise vast herds of those animals, complaints of this kind are very general against him. He also destroys young lambs, in the early part of spring ; and will sometimes attack old sickly sheep, aiming furiously at their eyes. This eagle is said to live to the great age of sixty, eighty, or even a hundred years. A still finer bird, the sea-eagle, which dives for its own prey, has also been discovered in the United States, though it is not common. An account of it is given by Audubon, who has called it the bird of Washington. b The fish-hawk is migratory, arriving on the coasts of New York and New Jersey Fish-hawk. about the twenty-first of March, and retiring to the south about the twenty-second of September. This formidable, vigorous-winged, and well-known bird, subsists alto gether ort the finny tribes that swarm in the bays, creeks, and rivers ; procuring his prey by his own active skill and industry, and seeming no further dependent on the land than as a mere resting place, or, in the usual season, a spot of deposit for his nest, eggs, and young. On the arrival of these birds in the northern parts of the United States, in March, they sometimes find the bays and ponds frozen, and expe rience a difficulty in procuring fish for many days ; yet there is no instance on record of their attacking birds, or inferior land animals, with intent to feed on them ; though their great strength of flight, as well as of feet and claws, would seem to render this no difficult matter : but they no sooner arrive, than they wage war on the bald eagles, as against a horde of robbers and banditti; sometimes succeeding, by force of numbers and perseverance, in driving them from their haunts, but seldom or never attacking them in single combat. The flight of the fish-hawk, his manoeuvres while in search of fish, and his manner of seizing his prey, are deserving of particular notice. In leaving the nest, he usually flies direct until he comes to the sea ; he then sails round in b Ornithological Biography. 152 TOPOGRAPHY OF book II. easy curving lines, turning sometimes in the air as on a pivot, apparently without the least exertion, rarely moving, the wings, his legs extended in a straight line behind, and his remarkable length, and curvature or bend of wing, distinguishing him from all other hawks. The height at which he thus elegantly glides is various, from one hundred to one hundred and fifty and two hundred feet, sometimes much higher, all the while calmly reconnoitring the face of the deep below. Suddenly he is seen to check his course, as if struck by a particular object, which he seems to survey for a few moments with such steadiness that he appears fixed in air, flapping his wings. This object, however, he abandons, or rather the fish he had in his eye has disap peared and he is seen sailing round as before. Now his attention is again arrested, and he descends with great rapidity ; but ere he reaches the surface, shoots off on another course, as if ashamed that a second victim had escaped him. He now flies at a short height above the surface, and by a zig-zag descent, and without seeming to dip his feet in the water, seizes a fish, which, after carrying a short distance, he perhaps drops, or yields up to the bald eagle, and again ascends, by easy spiral circles, to the higher regions of the air, where he glides about in all the ease and majesty- of his species. At onee, from this aerial height, he descends like a per pendicular torrent, plunging into the sea with a loud rushing sound, and with the certainty of a rifle. In a few moments he emerges, bearing in his claws his strug gling prey, which he always carries head foremost, and, having risen a few feet above the surface, shakes himself as a water-spaniel would do, and directs his heavy and laborious course directly for the land ; and if the wind blow hard, and his nest lie in the quarter from whence it comes, it is amusing to observe with what judgment and exertion he beats to windward, not in a direct line, that is, in the wind's eye, but making several successive tacks to gain his purpose. His flight will appear the more striking, when we consider the size of the fish which he sometimes bears along. A shad was taken from a fish-hawk near Great Egg Harbour, on which he had begun to regale himself, and had already eaten a considerable portion of it ; the remainder weighed six pounds. Another fish-hawk was passing Mr. Beasley's, at the same place, with a large flounder in his grasp, which struggled and shook him so, that he dropped it on the shore; the flounder was picked up, and served the whole family for dinner. It is singular that the hawk never descends to pick up a fish which he happens to drop, either on the land or on the water. In his fishing pursuits he sometimes mistakes his mark, or overrates his strength, by striking: fish too large and powerful for him to manage : in this case he is dragged under the water, and though he sometimes succeeds in extricating himself, after being taken three or four times down, yet oftener both parties perish. The bodies of sturgeon, and of several other large fish, with a fish-hawk fast grappled in them, have at diffe rent times been found dead on the shore, cast up by the waves. THE UNITED STATES. 153 The peregrine falcon, or, according to Wilson, the great-footed hawk, is in the c h a p. United States the terror of the waterfowl. When they perceive the approach IV- of their enemy, a universal alarm pervades their ranks ; even man himself, with Falco11, his engine of destruction,_ is not more terrible, but the effect is different. When the latter is beheld, the whole atmosphere is enlivened with the whistling of wings ; when the former is recognised, not a duck is to be seen in the air ; they all speed to the water, and there remain till the hawk has passed them, diving the moment he comes near them. The ducks which are struck down by this bird have their backs lacerated from the rump to the neck ; a proof that he strikes with his talons, and not, as vulgarly supposed, with his breast. The Mississippi kite is one of the numerous species peculiar to the western continent, feeding chiefly on insects, with an occasional repast on lizards, snakes, and small birds. Wilson gives the following account of one shot by himself: " This hawk, which proved to be a male, though wounded, and precipitated from a vast height, exhibited in his distress symptoms of great strength, and an almost unconquerable spirit. I no sooner approached to pick him up, than he instantly gave battle, striking rapidly with his claws, wheeling round and round as he lay partly on his rump, and defending himself with great vigilance and dexterity, while his dark red eye sparkled with rage. Notwithstanding all my caution in seizing him to carry him home, he struck his hind claw into my hand with such force as to penetrate to the bone. Anxious to preserve his life, I endeavoured gently to disengage it; but this made him only contract it the more powerfully, causing such pain that I had no other alternative but that of cutting the sinew of his heel with my penknife. The whole time he lived with me, he seemed to watch every movement I made, erecting the feathers of his hind head, and eyeing me with savage fierceness, and considering me, no doubt, as the greater savage of the two." c The republic is visited by the snow owl, the great winged hunter, which inhabits Owl. the coldest . and most dreary regions of the northern hemisphere on both continents. The great horned owl is found in almost every quarter of the United States. His favourite residence, however, is in the dark solitudes of deep swamps", covered with a growth of gigantic timber ; and here, as soon as evening draws on, and mankind retire to rest, he sends forth such sounds as seem scarcely to belong to this world, startling the solitary pilgrim as he slumbers by his forest fire, and " Making night hideous." " Along the mountainous shores of the Ohio, and amidst the deep forests of Indiana, alone, and reposing in the woods, this ghostly watchman has frequently warned me," says Wilson, " of the approach of morning, and amused me with his singular " Wilson's American Ornithology. 154 TOPOGRAPHY OF book II. exclamations, sometimes sweeping down and around my fire, uttering a loud and sud- den Waugh O ! Waugh 0/ sufficient to have alarmed a whole garrison. He has other nocturnal solos no less melodious, one of which very strikingly resembles the half-suppressed screams of a person suffocating, or throttled, and cannot fail of being exceedingly entertaining to a lonely benighted traveller, in the midst of an Indian wilderness. It preys on young rabbits, squirrels, rats, mice, partridges, and small birds of various kinds. It has been often known to prowl about the farm-house, and carry off chickens from roost. A very large one, having been wing-broken while on a foraging excursion of this kind, was kept about the house for several days, and at length disappeared, no one knew how ; almost every day after this hens and chickens also disappeared, one by one, in an unaccountable manner, till, in eight or ten days, very few were left remaining. The fox, the minx, and the weasel, were alternately the reputed authors of this mischief, until one morning the old lady rising before day to bake, in passing towards the oven surprised her late prisoner, the owl, regaling himself on the body of a newly-killed hen. The thief instantly made for his hole under the house, from whence the enraged matron soon dislodged him with the brush-handle, and without mercy despatched him. In this snug retreat were found the greater part of the feathers, and many large fragments of her whole family of chickens." The barn owl, though so common in Europe, is rare. in the United States, and is only found there during very severe winters ; this may possibly be Owing to the want of those favourite recesses in this part of the world, which it so much affects in the eastern continent. The most singular bird of this species, and one whose habits are strikingly at variance with the general characteristics of the family, is the burrowing owl. He is found in the trans -mississippian territories of the United States, residing exclu sively in the villages of the marmot, or prairie dog, whose excavations are so com modious as to render it unnecessary that our bird should dig for himself, as he is said to do in other parts of the world, where no burrowing animals exist. In all these prairie-dog villages the burrowing owl is seen moving briskly about, or else in small flocks scattered among the mounds; and, at a distance, it may be mis taken for the marmot itself when sitting erect. They manifest but little timidity, and allow themselves to be approached sufficiently close for shooting ; but, if alarmed, some or all of them soar away, and settle down again at a short distance : if farther disturbed, their flight is continued until they are no longer in view, or they descend into their dwellings, whence they are difficult to dislodge. Mr. Say uniformly noticed the ruinous condition of the burrows tenanted by the owl, which had frequently fallen in, and their sides channelled by the rains ; while the neat and well- preserved mansion actually occupied by the marmot shewed the active care of a skilful and industrious owner. We have no evidence that the owl and marmot habitually Burrowingowl. THE UNITED STATES. 155 resort to one burrow; yet we are assured, by Pike and others, that a common chap. danger often drives them into the same excavation, where lizards and rattlesnakes IV" also enter for concealment and safety. Of 168 kinds of parrots enumerated by European writers as inhabiting the Parrot. various regions of the globe, the Carolina parrot is the only species found native within the territory of the United States. This bird inhabits the interior of Louis iana, and the shores of the Mississippi and Ohio, and their tributary waters, even beyond the Illinois river, to the neighbourhood of Lake Michigan in lat. 42 deg. north ; and, contrary to the generally-received opinion, is chiefly resident in all these places. Eastward of the Apalachian, it is seldom seen farther north than the state of Maryland, though straggling parties have been occasionally observed among the valleys of the Juniata, and, according to some, even twenty-five miles to the north-west of Albany, in the state of New York. "At Big-bone Lick," says Wilson, " thirty miles from the mouth of Kentucky river, I saw them in great numbers. They came screaming through the woods in the morning, about an hour after sunrise, to drink the salt water, of which they, as well as the pigeons, are remarkably fond. When they alighted on the ground, it appeared at a distance as if covered with a carpet of the richest green, orange, and yellow : they afterwards settled in one body on a neighbouring tree, which stood detached from any other, covering almost every twig of it ; and the sun, shining strongly on their gay and glossy plumage, produced a very beautiful and splendid appearance. Here I had an opportunity of observing some very particular traits of their character. Having shot down a number, some of which were only wounded, the whole flock swept repeatedly around their prostrate companions, and again settled on a low tree, within twenty yards of the spot where I stood. At each successive discharge, though showers of them fell, yet the affection of the survivors seemed rather to increase ; for, after a few circuits round the place, they again alighted near me, looking down on their slaughtered companions with such manifest symptoms of sympathy and concern as entirely disarmed me." We are tempted to give a further extract, though somewhat long, from Wilson's account, not merely for the sake of exhibiting the habits of the bird, but because it shows something of the manner in which this enthusiastic naturalist prosecuted his inquiries. " Anx ious to try the effects of education on one of those which I procured at Big-bone Lick, and which was but slightly wounded in the wing, I fixed up a place for it in the stern of my boat, and presented it with some cockle burs, which it freely fed on in less than an hour after being on board. The intermediate time between eating and sleeping was occupied in gnawing the sticks that formed its place of confinement, in order to make a practicable breach, which it repeatedly effected. When I aban doned the river, and travelled by land, I wrapped it up closely in a silk handker chief, tying it tightly round, and carried it in my pocket. When I stopped for 156 " TOPOGRAPHY OF book ii. refreshment I unbound my prisoner, and gave it its allowance, which it generally dispatched with great dexterity, unhusking the seeds from the bur in a twinkling ; in doing which it always employed its left foot to hold the bur, as- did several others that I kept for some time. I began to think that this might be peculiar to the whole tribe, and that they all were, if I may use the expression, left-footed ; but by shooting a number afterwards while engaged in eating mulberries, I found sometimes the left, sometimes the right foot stained with the fruit, the other always clean: from which, and the constant practice of those I kept, it appears, that, like the human species in the use of their hands, they do not prefer one or the other indiscriminately, but are either left or righf>footed. But to return to my prisoner : in recommitting it to * durance vile ' we generally had a quarrel, during which it frequently paid me in kind for the wound I had inflicted and for depriving it of liberty, by cutting and almost disabling several of my fingers with its sharp and powerful bill. The path through the wilderness between Nashville and Natchez is in some places bad beyond description. There are dangerous creeks to swim, miles of morass to struggle through, rendered almost as gloomy as night by a prodigious growth of timber, and an underwood of canes and other evergreens ; while the descent into these sluggish streams is often ten or fifteen feet perpendicular, into a bed of deep clay. In some of the worst of these places, where I had, as it were, to fight my way through, the paroquet frequently escaped from my pocket, obliging me to dismount and pursue it, through the worst of the morass, before I could regain it. On these occasions I was several times tempted to abandon it ; but I persisted in bringing it along, When at night I encamped in the woods, I placed it on the baggage beside me, where it usually sat, with great composure, dozing and gazing at the fire till morning. In this manner I carried it upwards of a thousand miles in my pocket, where it was exposed all day to the jolting of the horse, but regularly liberated at meal times and in the evening, at which it always expressed great satisfaction. In passing through the Chickasaw and Chactaw nations, the Indians, wherever I stopped to feed, collected around me, men, women, and children, laughing, and seeming wonderfully amused with the novelty of my companion. The Chickasaws called it in their language Kelinky; but when they heard me call it Poll, they soon repeated the name ; and wherever I chanced to stop among these people, we soon became familiar with each other through the medium of Poll. On arriving at Mr. Dunbar's, below Natchez, I procured a cage, and placed it under the piazza ; where, by its call, it soon attracted the passing flocks, such is the attachment they have for each other. Numerous parties frequently alighted on the trees immediately above, keeping up a constant conversation with the prisoner. One of these I wounded slightly in the wing, and the pleasure Poll expressed on meeting with this new companion was really amusing. She crept close up to it as it hung on the side of the cage, chattering THE UNITED STATES. 157 to it in a low tone of voice, as if sympathizing in its' misfortune, scratched about CHAP. its head and neck with her bill ; and both, at night, nestled as close as possible to IV" each other, sometimes Poll's head being thrust among the plumage of the other. On the death of this companion, she appeared restless and inconsolable for several days. On reaching New Orleans, I placed a looking-glass beside the place where she usually sat, and the instant she perceived her image, all her former fondness seemed to return, so that she could scarcely absent herself from it a moment. It was evident that she was completely deceived. Always, when evening drew on, and often during the day, she laid her head close to that of the image in the glass, and began to doze with great composure and satisfaction. In this short space she had learnt to know her name, to answer and come when called on, to climb up my clothes, to sit on my shoulder, and to eat from my mouth. I took her with me to sea, determined to per severe in her education ; but, destined to another fate, poor Poll, having one morning, about daybreak, wrought her way through the cage while I was asleep, instantly flew overboard, and perished in the Gulf of Mexico." A stranger who visits the United States for the purpose of examining their natural Cuckoo productions, and passes through the woods in the month of May or June, will sometimes hear, as he traverses the borders of deep, retired, high-timbered hollows, an uncouth guttural sound, or note, resembling the syllables kowe, kowe, kowe, kowe, kowe, beginning slowly, but ending so rapidly, that the notes seem to run into each other, and vice versa: he will hear this frequently, without being able to discover the bird or animal from which it proceeds, as it is both shy and solitary, seeking always the thickest foliage for concealment. This is the yellow-billed cuckoo. From the imitative sound of its note, it is known in many parts by the name of the cow-bird; it is also called in Virginia, the rain-crow, being observed to be most clamorous immediately before rain. Unlike the European cuckoo, the bird now before us builds its own nest, hatches its own eggs, and rears its own young ; and, in conjugal and parental affection, seems nowise behind any of its neighbours of the grove. The woodpeckers constitute a large and interesting class of American birds. The Wood- ivory-billed woodpecker is a majestic and formidable species, which, in strength and magnitude, stands at the head of the whole class of woodpeckers hitherto discovered. He may be called the king or chief of his tribe ; and nature seems to have designed him a distinguished characteristic in the superb carmine crest, and bill of polished ivory, with which she has ornamented him. His eye is brilliant and daring ; and his whole frame admirably adapted for his mode of life, and method of procuring subsist ence. His manners have also a dignity in them superior to the common herd of woodpeckers, to whom trees, shrubberies, orchards, rails, fence-posts, and old pros trate logs, are alike interesting in their humble and indefatigable search for prey ; but vol. n. Y 158 TOPOGRAPHY OF book II. the royal hunter now before us scorns the humility of such situations, and seeks the most towering trees of the forest, seeming particularly attached to those prodigious cypress swamps, whose crowded giant sons stretch their bare and blasted or moss- hung arms midway to the skies. In these almost inaccessible recesses, amid ruinous piles of impending timber, his trumpet-like note and loud strokes resound through the solitary savage wilds, of which he seems the sole lord and inhabitant. Wherever he frequents he leaves numerous monuments of his industry behind him. We there see enormous pine-trees with cartloads of bark lying around their roots, and chips of the trunk itself in such quantities as to suggest the idea that half a dozen axe-men had been at work there for the whole morning. The body of the tree is also disfigured with such numerous and large excavations, that one can hardly conceive it possible for the whole to be the work of a woodpecker. With such strength, and an appa ratus so powerful, what havoc might he not commit, if numerous, on the most useful of the forest trees; and yet, with all these appearances, and much of vulgar prejudice against him, it may fairly be questioned whether he is at all injurious, or rather, whether his exertions do not contribute most powerfully to the protection of the timber. Examine closely the tree where he has been at work, and you will soon perceive, that it is neither from motives of mischief nor amusement that he slices off the bark, or digs his way into the trunk. For the sound and. healthy tree is the last object of his attention. The diseased, infested with insects, and hastening to putre faction, are his favourites ; there the deadly crawling enemy have formed a lodgment between the bark and tender wood, to drink up the very vital element of the tree. It is the ravages of these vermin which the intelligent proprietor of the forest deplores, as the sole perpetrators of the destruction of his timber. Would it be believed that the larvae of an insect, or fly, no larger than a grain of rice, should silently, and in one season, destroy some thousand acres of pine trees, many of them from two to three feet in diameter, and a hundred and fifty feet high ? Yet whoever passes along the high; road from Georgetown to Charleston, in South Carolina, about twenty miles from the former place, can have striking and melancholy proofs of this fact ; and in some places the whole woods, as far as you can see around you, are dead, stripped of the bark, their wintry-looking arms and bare trunks bleaching in the sun, and tumbling in ruins before every blast, presenting a frightful picture of desolation. And yet ignorance and prejudice, it seems, persist in directing their indignation against the bird now before us, the constant and mortal enemy of these very vermin, as if the hand that probed the wound to extract its cause, should be equally detested with that which inflicted it, or as if the thief-catcher should be confounded with the thief. " Until some effectual preventive or more complete mode of destruction can be devised against these insects and their larvae," says Wilson, " I would humbly suggest the propriety of protecting, and receiving with proper feelings of gratitude, THE UNITED STATES. 159 the services of this and the whole tribe of wood-peckers, letting the odium of guilt chap. fall to its proper owners." 1V- The same author furnishes us with the following account of an ivory-billed wood pecker which he shot. " Having wounded it slightly in the wing, on being caught it uttered a loudly reiterated, and most piteous note, exactly resembling the violent crying of a young child, which terrified my horse so as nearly to have cost me my life. It was distressing to hear it. I carried it with me in the chair, under cover, to Wilmington. In passing through the streets its affecting cries surprised every one within hearing, particularly the females, who hurried to the doors and windows with looks of alarm and anxiety. I drove on, and on arriving at the piazza of the hotel where I intended to put up, the landlord came forward, and a number of other persons who happened to be there, all equally alarmed at what they heard ; and their concern was greatly increased by my asking whether he could furnish me with accommodations for myself and my baby. The man looked blank and foolish, while the others stared with still greater astonishment. After diverting myself for a minute or two at their expense, I drew my woodpecker from under the cover, and" a general laugh took place. I took him up stairs, and locked him up in my room, while I went to see my horse taken care of. In less than an hour I returned, and, on opening the door, he set up the same distressing shout, which now appeared to proceed from grief that he had been discovered in his attempts at escape. He had mounted along the side of the window, nearly as high as the ceiling, a little below which he had begun to break through. The bed was covered with large pieces of plaster, the lath was exposed for at least fifteen inches square, and a hole, large enough to admit the fist, opened to the weather-boards ; so that in less than another hour he would certainly have succeeded in making his way through. I now tied a string round his leg, and, fastening it to the table, again left him. I wished to preserve his life, and had gone off in search of suitable food for him. As I reascended the stairs, I heard him again hard at work, and, on entering, had the mortification to perceive that he had almost entirely ruined the mahogany table to which he was fastened, and on which he had wreaked his whole vengeance. While engaged in taking a drawing, he cut me severely in several places, and on the whole displayed such a noble and unconquer able spirit, that I was frequently tempted to restore him to his native woods. He lived with me nearly three days, but refused all sustenance, and I witnessed his death with regret." The ivory-billed woodpecker is seldom seen above Virginia; the pileated woodpecker, next in size, is the northern chief of his tribe. There is perhaps no bird in North America more universally known than the red- Red-head- headed woodpecker. His tricoloured plumage, red, white, and black, glossed with pecker. steel blue, is so striking, and characteristic, and his predatory habits in the orchards and corn-fields, added to his numbers and fondness for hovering along the fences, so 160 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. very notorious, that almost every child is acquainted with him. " In the immediate neighbourhood of our large cities," says Wilson, " where the old timber is chiefly cut down, he is not so frequently found; and yet, at this period, June 1808, I know of several of their nests within the boundaries of the city of Philadelphia. Towards the mountains, particularly in the vicinity of creeks and rivers, these birds are extremely abundant, especially in the latter end of summer. Wherever you travel in the jnterior at that season, you hear them screaming from the adjoining woods, rattling on the dead limbs of trees, or on the fences, where they are perpetually seen flitting from stake to stake, on the roadside before you. Wherever there is a tree of the wild cherry covered with ripe fruit, there you see them busy among the branches ; and in passing orchards, you may easily know where to find the earliest, sweetest apples, by observing those trees, on or near which the red-headed woodpecker is skulking, for he is so excellent a connoisseur in fruit, that wherever an apple or pear tree is found broached by him, it is sure to be among the ripest and best flavoured : when alarmed, he seizes a capital one by striking his open bill deep into it, and bears it off to the woods." When the Indian corn is in its rich, succulent, milky state, he attacks it with great eagerness, opening a passage through the numerous folds of the husk, and feeding on it with voracity. His favourite retreats are among the girdled, or deadened timber, so common in corn-fields in the back settlements, whence he sallies out to make his depredations. He is fond of the ripe berries of the sour gum, and pays pretty regular visits to the cherry trees when loaded with fruit ; and towards autumn he often approaches the barn or farm house, and raps on the shingles and weather boards. He is of a gay and frolicsome dispo sition ; and half a dozen of the fraternity are frequently seen diving and vociferating around the high dead limbs of some large tree, pursuing and playing with each other, and amusing the passengers with their gambols. On account of the vicious traits in their character, a war of extermination has been waged against these birds, and even the legislatures of some provinces in former times, offered premiums to the amount of twopence per head for their de struction; yet Wilson, whose generous and simple-hearted advocacy for the feathered race forms one of the principal charms of his book, thus reasonably pleads their cause : — " Though this bird occasionally regales himself on fruit, yet his natural and most usual food is insects, particularly those numerous and destructive species that penetrate the bark and body of the tree to deposit their eggs and larvae, the latter of which are well known to make immense havoc. He searches for them with a dexterity and intelligence, I may safely say, more than human ; he per ceives, by the exterior appearance of the bark where they lurk below : when he is dubious, he rattles vehemently on the outside with his bill, and his acute ear distinguishes the terrified vermin shrinking within to- their inmost retreats, where THE UNITED STATES. 161 his pointed and barbed tongue soon reaches them. The masses of bugs, cater- chap. pillars, and other larvae, which I have taken from the stomachs of these birds, have often surprised me. These larvae, it should be remembered, feed not only on the buds, leaves, and blossoms, but on the very vegetable life of the tree, the alburnum, or newly-forming bark and wood ; the consequence is, that whole branches and whole trees decay under the silent ravages of these destructive vermin ; witness the late destruction of many hundred acres of pine trees, in the north-eastern parts of South Carolina, and the thousands of peach trees that yearly decay from the same cause. Will any one say, that taking half a dozen or half a hundred apples from a tree is equally ruinous with cutting it down ? Or, that the services of a useful animal should not be rewarded with a small portion of that which it has contributed to preserve? We are told, in the benevolent language of the scriptures, not to muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn ; and why should not the same generous liberality be extended to this useful family of birds, which forms so powerful a phalanx against the inroads of many millions of destructive vermin ?" The kingfisher is a general inhabitant of the banks and shores of all the fresh-water King- rivers, from Hudson's Bay to Mexico, and is the only species of its tribe found within the United States. It is as universally known as its elegant little brother, the common kingfisher of Europe, is in Britain. Like the love-lorn swains of whom poets tell us, he delights in murmuring streams and falling waters ; not, however, merely that they may sooth his ear, but for a gratification somewhat more substantial. Amidst the roar of the cataract, or over the foam of a torrent, he sits perched upon an overhanging bough, glancing his piercing eye in every direction below for his scaly prey, which, with a sudden circular plunge, he sweeps from their native element, and swallows in an instant. His voice, which is not unlike the twirling of a watchman's rattle, is naturally loud, harsh, and abrupt ; but it is softened by the sound of the brawling streams and cascades among which he generally rambles. He courses along the windings of the brook or river at a small height above the surface, sometimes sus pending himself-by the rapid action of his wings, like certain species of hawks, ready to pounce on the fry below ; now and then settling on an Old dead overhanging limb to reconnoitre. Mill-dams 4re particularly visited by this feathered fisher ; and the sound of his pipe is as well known to the miller, as the rattling of his own hopper. Rapid streams with high perpendicular banks, particularly if they be of a hard clayey or sandy nature, are also favourite places of resort for this bird ; not only because in such places the small fish are more exposed to view, but because those steep and dry banks are the chosen situations for his nest. Among the most beautiful of the American birds is the oriole. Almost the whole Oriole. genus of orioles belong to America. With few exceptions, they build pensile nests ; but few of them equal the Baltimore in the construction of these receptacles 162 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. for their young, and in giving them convenience, warmth, and security. For "" these purposes he generally fixes on the high bending extremities of the branches, fastening strong strings of hemp or flax round two forked twigs, corresponding to the intended width of the nest ; with the same materials, mixed with quantities of loose tow, he interweaves or fabricates a strong firm kind of cloth, not unlike the substance of a hat in its raw state, forming it into a pouch of six or seven inches in depth, lining it substantially with various soft substances, well interwoven with the outward netting, and finishing with a layer of horse hair ; the whole being shaded from the sun and rain by a natural pent-house, or canopy of leaves. The Baltimore inhabits North America from Canada to Mexico, and is even found as far south as Brazil. Since the streets of the American cities have been planted with that beautiful and stately tree the Lombardy poplar, these birds are constant visitors during the early part of summer ; and, amidst the noise and tumult of coaches, drays, wheelbarrows, and the din of the multitude, they are heard chanting " their native wood notes wild," sometimes, too, within a few yards of an oyster-man, who stands bellowing, with the lungs of a Stentor, under the shade of the same tree ; so much will habit reconcile even birds to the roar of the city, and to sounds and noises, which, in other circumstances, would put a whole grove of them to fight, The. orchard oriole, though partly a dependent on the industry of the farmer, is no sneaking pilferer, but an open, and truly beneficent friend. To all those countless multitudes of destructive bugs and caterpillars that infest the fruit trees in spring and summer, preying on the leaves, blossoms, and embryo of the fruit, he is a deadly enemy ; devouring them wherever he can find them, and destroying, on an average, some hundreds of them every day, without offering the slightest injury to the fruit, however much it may stand in his way. " I have witnessed' instances," says Wilson, " where the entrance to his nest was more than half closed up by a cluster of apples, which he could have easily demolished in half a minute ; but, as if holding the property of his patron sacred, or considering it as a natural bulwark to his own, he slid out and in with the greatest gentleness and caution." Nor is the gaiety of his song one of his least recommenda-> tions. Being an exceedingly active, sprightly, and restless bird, he is on the ground — on the trees — flying and and carolling in his hurried manner, in almost one and the same instant. His notes are shrill and lively, but uttered with such rapidity and seeming confusion, that the ear is unable to follow them distinctly ; between these, he has a single note, which is agreeable and interesting. Wherever he is protected, he shews his confidence and gratitude by his numbers and familiarity. The orioles are birds of passage, spending the summer only in the northern parts of the United States. starling. The red-winged starlings, though generally migratory in the states north of Mary land, are found during winter in immense flocks, sometimes associated with the purple grakles, and often by themselves, through the lower parts of Virginia, both Carolinas, THE UNITED STATES. 163 Georgia, and Louisiana, particularly near the sea coast, and in the vicinity of large c HAP. rice and corn fields. " In the months of January and February," says the writer above IV- quoted, " while passing through the former of these countries, I was frequently enter tained with the aerial evolutions of these great bodies of starlings. Sometimes they appeared driving about like an enormous black cloud carried before the wind, varying its shape every moment ; sometimes suddenly rising from the fields around me with a noise like thunder ; while the glittering of innumerable wings of the brightest vermilion amid the black cloud they formed, produced on these occasions a very striking and splendid effect. Then descending like a torrent, and covering the branches of some detached grove or clump of trees, the whole congregated multitude commenced one general concert or chorus, which I have plainly distinguished at the distance of more than two miles ; and which, when listened to at the distance of about a quarter of a mile, with a slight breeze of wind to swell and soften the flow of its cadences, was to me grand, and even sublime." The whole season of winter, which, with most birds, is passed in struggling to sustain life in silent melancholy, is with the red-wings one continued carnival. The profuse gleanings of the old rice, corn, and buckwheat fields, supply them with abundant food, at once ready and nutritious ; and the intermediate time is spent either in aerial manoeuvres, or in grand vocal performances, as if soli citous to supply the absence of all the tuneful summer tribes, and to cheer the dejected face of nature with their whole combined powers of harmony. In summer these birds are very mischievous. Having migrated to the northward in the spring, before the beginning of September the flocks have become numerous and formidable; and the young ears of maize, or Indian corn, being then in their soft succulent, milky state, present a temptation that cannot be resisted. Reinforced by numerous and daily flocks from all parts of the interior, they pour down on the low countries in prodigious multitudes. Here they are seen, like vast clouds, wheeling and driving over the meadows and devoted corn fields, darkening the air with their numbers. Then commences the work of destruction on the corn, the husks of which, though composed of numerous envelopments of closely wrapt leaves, are soon com pletely or partially torn off, while from all quarters myriads continue to pour down like a tempest, blackening half an acre at a time : if not disturbed, they repeat their depre dations till little remains but the cob and the shrivelled skins of the grain; and what little is left of the tender ear, being exposed to the rains and weather, is generally much injured. All the attacks and havoc made at this time among them by the gun and by the hawks, several species of which are their constant attendants, have little effect on the remainder. When the hawks make a sweep among them, they suddenly open on all sides, but rarely in time to disappoint them of their victims ; and, though repeatedly fired at with mortal effect, they only remove from one field to an adjoining one, or to another quarter of the same enclosure. From dawn to nearly sunset, this ing. 164 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. open and daring devastation is carried on under the, eye of the proprietor; and a farmer, who has any considerable extent of corn, would require half a dozen men at least, with guns, to guard it ; and even then, all their vigilance and activity would not prevent a good tithe of it from becoming the prey of the blackbirds. The Indians, who usually plant their corn in a common field, keep all the young boys of the village all day patrolling round and among it; and each being furnished with a bow and arrows, with which they are very expert, they generally contrive to destroy great num bers of them. For this bird, though the notorious corn-thief of the United States, our humane author again puts in a plea, on the ground of the insects and larvae destroyed by them, which he calculates at no less than sixteen thousand two hundred millions in the space of four months. A similar character and apology may be attached to the rice-bunting and the purple grakle. Cow-bunt- The cow-bunting, or cow-pen finch, like the cuckoo of Europe, has the habit of dropping her eggs into the nests of other birds. The following account is given by Dr. Potter, of Baltimore : — " I once had an opportunity of witnessing a scene of this sort, which I cannot forbear to relate. Seeing a female prying into a bunch of bushes in search of a nest, I determined to see the result, if practicable ; and, knowing how easily they are disconcerted by the near approach, of man, I mounted my horse, and proceeded slowly, sometimes seeing and sometimes losing sight of her, till I had travelled nearly two miles along the margin of a creek. She entered every thick place, prying with the strictest scrutiny into places where the small birds usually build, and at last darted suddenly into a thick copse of alders and briers, where she remained five or six minutes, when she returned, soaring above the under wood, and returned to the company she had left feeding in the field. Upon entering the covert, I found the nest of a yellow-throat, with an egg of each. The deport ment of the yellow-throat on this occasion is not to be omitted. She returned while I waited near the spot, and darted into her nest, but quitted it immediately, and perched upon a bough near the place, remained a minute or two, and entered it again, returned, and disappeared. In ten minutes she returned with the male. They chattered with great agitation for half an hour, seeming to participate in the affront, and then left the place. I believe all the birds thus intruded on manifest more or less concern at finding the egg of a stranger in their own nests. Among these the sparrow is particularly punctilious ; for she sometimes chirps her complaints for a day or two, and often deserts the premises altogether, even after she has deposited one or more eggs." The most remarkable circumstance connected with this habit is, that the young of the cow-bird is hatched before those of. the proprietor of the nest, whose eggs, in fact, are never hatched at all, but pushed out of the nest, and in such a manner that no person can yet ascertain how it is done, or what becomes of them. THE UNITED STATES. 165 The raven is a general inhabitant of the United States, but is more common in the chap. interior. On the lakes, and particularly in the neighbourhood of the Falls of ' the Niagara River, they are numerous ; and it is a remarkable fact, that where they aven' abound, the common crow seldom makes its appearance. The crow is a constant attendant on agriculture, and a general inhabitant of the cultivated parts of North America. On an island in the Delaware is a very celebrated crow-roost. It is there known by the name of the Pea Patch, and is a low flat alluvial spot, of a few acres, elevated but a little above high-water mark, and covered with a thick growth of reeds ; and it appears to be the grand rendezvous, or head-quarters, of the greater part of the crows within forty or fifty miles of the spot. It is entirely destitute of trees, the crows alighting and nestling among the reeds, which by these means are broken down and matted together. The noise created by them, both in their evening assembly and their reascension in the morning, and the depredations they commit in the immediate neighbourhood of this great resort, are almost incredible. The strong attachment of the crows to this spot may be illustrated by the following circumstance : — Some years ago, a sudden and violent north-east storm came on during the night, and the tide, rising to an uncommon height, inundated the whole island. The darkness of the night, the suddenness and violence of the storm, and the incessant torrents of rain that fell, it is supposed, so intimidated the crows, that they did not attempt to escape, and almost all perished. Thousands of them were next day seen floating in the river ; and the wind, shifting to the north-west, drove their dead bodies to the Jersey side, where for miles they blackened the whole shore. This disaster, however, seems long ago to have been repaired ; for they now congregate on the Pea Patch in as immense multitudes as ever. One American species, the fish-crow, is a roving inhabitant of the sea-coasts, ponds, and river-shores. The magpie is much better known in Europe than in America, where it has Magpie and not been long discovered; although it is now found to inhabit a wide extent of territory, and in great numbers. The blue jay is peculiar to North America, and is distinguished as a kind of beau among the feathered tenants of the woods, by the brilliancy of his dress ; and, like most other coxcombs, makes himself still more conspicuous by his loquacity, and the oddness of his tones and gestures. It is an almost universal inhabitant of the woods, frequenting the thickest settle ments as well as the deepest recesses of the forest, where his squalling voice often alarms the deer, to the disappointment and mortification of the hunter. In the charming season of spring, when every thicket pours forth harmony, the part performed by the jay always catches the ear. He appears to be among his fellow- musicians what the trumpeter is in a band, some of his notes having no distant resemblance to the tones of that instrument. These he has the faculty of changing, through a great variety of modulations, according to the particular humour in which he VOL. II. z 166 TOPOGRAPHY OF book II. happens to be. When disposed for ridicule, there is scarcely a bird whose peculia- rities of song he cannot imitate. When engaged in the blandishments of love, his notes resemble the soft chatterings of a duck, and while he nestles among the thick branches of the cedar, are scarcely heard at a few paces distance ; but he no sooner discovers your approach than he sets up a sudden and vehement outcry, flying off, and screaming with all his might, as if he called the whole feathered tribes of the neighbourhood to witness some outrageous usage he had received. When he hops undisturbed among the high branches of the oak and hickory, his notes become soft and musical ; but his calls of the female a stranger would readily mistake for the repeated screakings of an ungreased wheelbarrow. All these he accompanies with various nods, jerks, and other gesticulations, for which the whole tribe of jays are remarkable. They are among the most useful agents in the economy of nature for disseminating forest trees, and other ruciferous and hard-seeded vegetables on which they feed. In their autumnal foraging they drop abundance of seed ; and they alone are capable, in a few years' time, of replanting all the cleared lands. Night- The United States present to us specimens of a singular genus of birds, formed to subsist on the superabundance of nocturnal insects, and surprisingly fitted for their mode of life. Three species only of them are found within the United States ; the chuck- will's widow, the whip-poor-will, and the night-hawk. The first of these is confined to those states lying south of Maryland ; the other two are found generally over the Union. The chuck-will's- widow, and the whip-poor-will, have received these singular names from the similarity of their call to these words. The night-hawk is a bird of strong and vigorous flight, and of large volume of wing. It often visits the city, darting and squeaking over the streets at a great height, diving perpendicularly with a hollow sound ; they are also seen sitting on chimney tops in some of the most busy parts of the city, occasionally uttering their common note. Their favourite time for flight is from two hours before sunset until dusk. At such times they seem all vivacity, darting about in the air in every direction, making frequent short sudden turnings, as if busily engaged in catching insects. Near the sea shore, in the vicinity of extensive salt marshes, they are very numerous, skim ming over the meadows, in the manner of swallows, until it is so dark that the eye can no longer follow them. The whip-poor-will is a singular and very celebrated species, universally noted over the greater part of the United States for the loud reiterations of his favourite call in spring. The notes of this solitary bird, from the ideas which are naturally associated with them, seem like the voice of an old friend, and are listened to by almost all with great interest. At first they issue from some retired part of the woods, the glen, or mountain ; in a few evenings, perhaps, we hear them from the adjoining coppice, the garden fence, the road before the door, and even from the roof of the dwelling-house, long after the family have retired to THE UNITED STATES. 167 rest. He is now a regular acquaintance. Every morning and evening his shrill CHAP. and rapid repetitions are heard from the adjoining woods, and when two or more are V' calling out at the same time, as is often the case in the pairing season, and at no great distance from each other, the noise, mingling with the echoes from the moun tains, is really surprising. Strangers, in parts of the country where these birds are numerous, find it almost impossible for some time to sleep ; while to those long ac quainted with them, the sound often serves as a lullaby. The American chimney-swallows, of a species peculiar to that continent, arrive in Swallow. the spring, and disperse themselves over the whole country wherever there are vacant chimneys in summer, sufficiently high and convenient for their accommodation. In no other situation are they observed at present to build. This circumstance naturally suggests the query, Where did these birds construct their nests before the arrival of Europeans in America, when there were no such places for their accom modation? Probably in the same situations in which they still continue to build in the remote regions of the western forests, where European improvements of this kind are scarcely to be found, namely, in the hollow of a tree, which, in some cases, has the nearest resemblance to their present choice. One of the first settlers in the state of Kentucky informs us, that he cut down a large hollow beech tree, which contained forty or fifty nests of the chimney-swallow, most of which, by the fall of the tree, or by the weather, were lying at the bottom of the hollow ; but sufficient fragments remained adhering to the sides of the tree to enable him to number them. They appeared, he said, to be of many years' standing. The present site which they have chosen must, however, hold out many more advantages than the former, since we see that, in the whole thickly-settled parts of the United States, these birds have uniformly adopted this new convenience, not a single pair being observed to prefer the woods. Security from birds of prey and other animals — from storms that frequently overthrow the timber, and the numerous ready conveniences which these new situa tions afford, are doubtless some of the advantages. In towns it is matter of curiosity to observe that they frequently select the court-house chimney for their general place of rendezvous, as being usually more central, and less liable - to interruption during the night. The summer residence of. the purple martin is universally among the habitations of man ; who, having no interest in his destruction, and deriving consider able advantage, as well as amusement, from his company, is generally his friend and protector. Wherever he comes, he finds some : hospitable retreat fitted up for his accommodation. Even the solitary Indian seems to have a particular respect for this bird. The Choctaws and Ghickasaws cut off all the top branches from a sapling near their cabins, leaving the prongs a foot or two in length, on each of which they hang a gourd, or calabash, properly hollowed out for their con venience ; and on the banks of the Mississippi, the negroes stick up long canes, with 168 TOPOGRAPHY OF book ii. the same species of apartment fixed to their tops, in which the martins regularly breed. ~ " The barn swallow is of particularly swift and incessant flight, and Wiison gives us the following computation of the distance he may be supposed to traverse. " Let us suppose that this little bird flies, in his usual way, at the rate of one mile in a minute, which, from the many experiments I have made, I believe to be within the truth ; and that he is so engaged for ten hours every day; and further, that this active life is extended to ten years, (many of our small birds being known to live much longer, even in a state of domestication,) the amount of all these, allowing three hundred and sixty-five days to a year, would give us two million one hundred and ninety thousand miles ; upwards of eighty-seven times the circumference of the globe." Flycatcher. Of the numerous family of flycatchers, the tyrant flycatcher, or king bird, is the principal. The name king as well as tyrant has been bestowed on this bird for its extraordinary behaviour, and the authority it assumes over all others, during the time of breeding. At that season his extreme affection for his mate, and for his nest and young, makes him suspicious of every bird that happens to pass near his residence, so that he attacks without discrimination every intruder; all his turbulence, how ever, vanishes as soon as his young are able to shift for themselves ; and he is then as mild and peaceable as any other bird. But he has a worse habit than this ; one much more obnoxious to the husbandman, and often fatal to himself. He loves not the honey, but the bees ; and, it is confessed, is frequently on the look-out for these little industrious insects. He plants himself on a post of the fence, or on a small tree in the garden, not far from the hives, and from thence sallies forth on them as they pass and repass, making great havoc among them. His shrill twitter, so near to the house, gives intimation to the farmer of what is going on, and the gun soon closes his career : yet, the death of every king bird is an actual loss to the farmer, by multiplying the numbers of destructive insects, and encouraging the depre dations of crows, hawks, and eagles, who avoid as much as possible his immediate vicinity. The yellow-breasted chat, which belongs to this tribe, has a singular habit of concealed vociferation. When he has once taken up his residence in a favourite situation, which is almost always in close thickets of hazel, brambles, vines, and thick underwood, he becomes very jealous of his possessions, and seems offended at the least intrusion ; scolding all passengers as soon as they come within view, in a great variety of odd and uncouth monosyllables, which it is difficult to describe, but which may be readily imitated, so as to deceive the bird himself, and draw him after you for half a quarter of a mile at a time. On these occasions, his responses are constant and rapid, strongly expressive of anger and anxiety ; and while the bird itself remains unseen, the voice shifts from place to place, among the bushes, as if it proceeded from a spirit. All his notes are uttered with great vehemence, in such different keys, and with THE UNITED STATES. 169 such peculiar modulations of voice, as sometimes to seem at a considerable distance, CHAP. IV and instantly as if just beside you; now on this hand, now on that ; so that, from these ' manoeuvres of ventriloquism, you are utterly at a loss to ascertain from what parti cular spot or quarter they proceed. Among the many novelties which the discovery of this part of the western continent Mocking- first brought into notice, we may reckon the mocking-bird, which is peculiar to the new world, and inhabits a very considerable extent of both North and South America ; having been traced from the states of New England to Brazil. The plumage of the mocking-bird, though none of the homeliest, has nothing gaudy or brilliant in it ; but his figure is well proportioned, and even handsome. The ease, elegance, and rapidity of his movements, the animation of his eye, and the intelli gence he displays in listening and laying up lessons from almost every species of the feathered creation within his hearing, are preeminent. To these qualities may be added that of a voice full, strong, and musical, and capable of almost every modulation, from the clear mellow tones of the wood- thrush, to the savage scream of the bald eagle. In measure and accent, he faithfully follows his originals ; in force and sweetness of expression, he greatly improves upon them. In his native groves, mounted on the top of a tall bush, or half-grown tree, in the dawn of dewy morning, while the woods are already vocal with a. multitude of warblers, his admirable song rises preeminent over every competitor. The ear listens to his music alone, to which that of all the others seems a mere accom paniment. Neither is this strain altogether imitative. His own native notes, which are easily distinguishable by such as are well acquainted with those of our various song-birds, are bold and full, and varied seemingly beyond all limits. His ex panded wings and tail, glistening with white, and the buoyant gaiety of his action, arresting the eye, as his song most irresistibly does the ear, he sweeps round with enthusiastic ecstasy, and mounts or descends as his song swells or dies away; and, as Mr. Bartram has beautifully expressed it, " he bounds aloft with the celerity of an arrow, as if to recover or recal his very soul, expired in the last elevated strain." While thus exerting himself, a bystander destitute of sight would suppose that the whole feathered tribes had assembled together, on a trial of skill, each striving to produce his utmost effect ; so perfect are his imitations. He many times deceives the sportsman, and sends him in search of birds that perhaps are not within miles of him, but whose notes he exactly imitates : even birds themselves are fre quently imposed on by this admirable mimic, and are decoyed by the fancied calls of their mates, or dive, with precipitation, into the depth of thickets, at the scream of what they suppose to be the sparrow-hawk. The mocking bird loses little of the power and energy of his song by confinement. The only bird in the world worthy of being compared with hijm, is the European nightingale. 170 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. In his account of the catbird, a common and well known species, Wilson says, — Cat-bird. " ln passing through the woods in summer, I have sometimes amused myself with imitating the violent chirping or squeaking of young birds, in order to observe what different species were around me, — for such sounds, at such a season, in the woods, are no less alarming to the feathered tenants of the bushes, than the cry of fire or murder in the streets is to the inhabitants of a large and populous city. On such occasions of alarm and consternation, the cat-bird is the first to make his appearance, not singly, but sometimes half a dozen at a time, flying from different quarters to the spot. At this time, those who are disposed to play with his feelings may almost throw him into fits, his emotion and agitation, are so great, at the distressful cries of what he supposes to be his suffering young. Other birds are variously affected ; but none show symptoms of such extreme suffering. He hurries backwards and forwards, with hanging wings and open mouth, calling out louder and faster, and actually screaming with distress, till he appears hoarse with his exertions. He attempts no offensive means ; but he bewails — he implores — in the most pathetic terms with which nature has supplied him, and with an agony of feeling which is truly affecting. Every feathered neighbour within hearing hastens to the place, to learn the cause of the alarm, peeping about with looks of consternation and sympathy." Robin. The robins are so fond of gum-berries, that wherever there is one of these trees covered with fruit, and flocks of robins in the neighbourhood, the sportsman need only take his stand near it, load, take aim, and fire .; one flock succeeding another, with little interruption, almost the whole day. When berries fail, they disperse themselves over the fields, and along the fences, in search of worms and other insects. Sometimes they disappear for a week or two, and return again in immense numbers ; the cities then pour out their sportsmen by scores, and the markets are plentifully supplied with them at a cheap rate. Bluebird. Among the numerous warblers of the United States, we can only further mention the blue bird. He is of pleasing manners and a sociable disposition. As one of the first messengers of spring, he bears his own recommendation always along with him, and meets with a hearty welcome from every body. In his motions and general cha racter, he has a great resemblance to the robin redbreast of Britain ; and, had he the brown olive of that bird, instead of his own blue, could scarcely be distinguished from him. Like him, he is known to almost every child; and shows as much confidence in man by associating with him in summer, as the other by his familiarity in winter. Few farmers neglect to provide for him, in some suitable place, a snug little summer-house, ready fitted and rent free ; for which he more than repays them by the cheerful ness of his song, and the multitude of injurious insects which he daily destroys. Wren. Several species of wren are common. The house wren, a familiar bird, is marked by a strong antipathy to cats; for, having frequent occasion to glean among the THE UNITED STATES. 171 currant bushes, and other shrubs in the garden, those lurking enemies of the feathered chap, race often prove fatal to him. " A box fixed up in the window of the room where I 1V- slept," says Wilson, " was taken possession of by a pair of wrens. Already the nest was built and two eggs laid, when one day, the window being open as well as the room- door, the female wren, venturing too far into the room to reconnoitre, was sprung upon by grimalkinj who had planted herself there for the purpose; and, before relief could be given, she was destroyed. Curious to see how the survivor would demean himself, I watched him carefully for several days. At first he sang with great vivacity for an hour or so, but, becoming uneasy, went off for half an hour. On his return he chanted again as before, went to the top of the house, the stable, and the weeping willow, that she might hear him ; but seeing no appearance of her, he returned once more, visited the nest, ventured cautiously into the window,- gazed about with sus picious looks, his voice sinking to a low melancholy note as he stretched his little neck about in every direction. Returning to the box, he seemed for some minutes at a loss what to do, and soon after went off, as I thought, "altogether, for I saw him no more that day. Towards the afternoon of the second day he again made his ap pearance, accompanied with a new female, who seemed exceedingly timorous and shy, and who only after great hesitation entered the box; at this moment the little widower or bridegroom seemed as if he would warble out his very life with ecstasy of joy. After remaining about half a minute in, they both flew off, but returned in a few minutes, and instantly began to carry out the eggs, feathers, and some of the sticks, supplying the place of the two latter with materials of the same sort; and they ulti mately succeeded in raising a brood of seven young, all of which escaped in safety." The brown creepers are distributed over the whole United States; but are most Creepers. numerous in the western and northern states, and particularly so in the depth of the forests, and in tracts of large-timbered woods, where they usually breed ; visiting the thicker-settled parts of the country in fall and winter. The white-breasted nuthatch is common almost everywhere in the woods of North America, and may be known at a distance by the notes quank, quank, frequently repeated as he moves upward and downward, in spiral circles, around the body and larger branches of the tree, probing behind the thin scaly bark of the white oak, and shelling off considerable pieces of it, in his search after spiders, ants, insects, and their larvae. The red- bellied black-capped nuthatch is particularly fond of the seeds of pine trees. You may traverse many thousand acres of oak, hickory, and chesnut woods, during winter, without meeting with a single individual; but no sooner do you enter among the pines, than, if the air be still, you have only to listen for a few moments, and their note will direct you where to find them. The brown-headed nuthatch is chiefly an inhabitant of Virginia and the southern- states, and seems particularly fond of pine trees. 172 TOPOGRAPHY OF book II. The humming-bird is migratory through the whole of the United States, excepting Humming- Florida. As it passes on to the northward as far as the interior of Canada, where it is ""' seen in great numbers, wonder is excited how so feebly constructed and delicate a little creature can make its way over such extensive regions of lakes and forests, among so many enemies, all its superiors in strength and magnitude ; but its very minuteness, the rapidity of its flight, which almost eludes the eye,«and that admirable instinct, reason, or whatever else it may be called, and daring courage, which heaven has implanted in its bosom, are its protectors. The humming-bird is extremely fond of tubular flowers. When arrived before a thicket of trumpet-flowers that are full-blown, he poises, or suspends himself on wing, for the space of two or three seconds, so steadily, that his wings become invisible, or only like a mist, and you can plainly distinguish the pupil of his eye looking round with great quickness and circumspection ; the glossy golden green of his back and the fire of his throat, glistening in the sun, he forms altogether a most interesting appearance. When he alights, which is frequently, he always prefers the small dead twigs of a tree or bush, where he dresses and arranges his plumage with great dexterity. His only note is a single chirp, not louder than that of a small cricket or grasshopper, generally uttered while passing from, flower to flower, or when engaged in fights with his fellows *: for, when two males meet at the same bush or flower, a battle instantly takes place ; and the combatants ascend in the air, chirping, darting, and circling round each other, till the eye is no longer able to follow them. The conqueror, however, generally returns to the place, to reap the fruits of his victory. He is one of those few birds that are universally beloved ; and, amidst the sweet dewy serenity of a summer's morning, his appearance among the arbours of honeysuckles, and beds of flowers, is truly interesting. Tanager. The tanagers are gaudy birds, who annually visit the republic from the torrid regions of the south. The scarlet tanager is, perhaps, the most showy. He spreads himself over the United States, and is found even in Canada. He rarely approaches the habitations of man, unless, perhaps, in the orchard, where he sometimes builds ; or in the cherry trees, in search of fruit: the depth of the woods is his favourite abode. Among all the birds that inhabit our woods, there is none that strikes the eye of a stranger, or even a native, with so much brilliancy as this. Seen among the green leaves, with the light falling strongly on his plumage, he really appears . beautiful. Another species, the summer red-bird, delights in a flat sandy country, covered with wood and interspersed with pine trees; and is, consequently, more numerous towards the shores of the Atlantic than in the interior. In both Caro linas, and in Georgia and Florida, they are in great plenty. Finch. Among the numerous birds of the finch family we briefly notice a few. The indigo-bird is another of the rich-plumaged tribes, which migrate from the south. Finch. THE UNITED STATES. 173 It is numerous in all the settled parts of the middle and eastern states; in the CHAP. Carolinas and Georgia it is also abundant. Its favourite haunts are about gar dens, fields of deep clover, the borders of woods, and roadsides, where it is frequently seen perched on the fences. In its manners, it is extremely active and neat, and a vigorous and pretty good songster. In some lights, his plumage appears of a rich sky blue, and in others of a vivid verdigris green ; so that the same bird, in passing from one place to another before your eyes, seems to undergo a total change of colour. The painted bunting is one of the most numerous o the little summer birds of Lower Louisiana, where it is universally known among the French inhabitants, and called by them " le pape," and by the Americans " the nonpareil." Its gay dress and docility of manners have procured it many admirers. The low countries of the southern states, in the vicinity of the sea, and along the borders of the large rivers, particularly among the rice plantations, are the favourite haunts of this elegant little bird. It is very commonly domesticated in the houses of the French inhabitants of New Orleans, appearing to be the most common cage bird they have. The negroes often bring them to market for sale. The cardinal grosbeak is one of the most common cage birds, and is very generally known, not only in North America, but even in Europe, numbers of them having been carried over both to France and England, in which last country they are usually called " Virginia nightingales." To this name Dr. Latham observes they are fully entitled," from the clearness and variety of their notes, which, both in a wild and domestic state, are very various and musical ; many of them resemble the high notes of a fife, and are nearly as loud. The sprightly figure and gaudy plumage of the red-bird, his vivacity, strength of voice, and actual variety of note, and the little expense with which he is kept, will always make him a favourite. This species, like the mocking-bird, is more numerous to the east of the great range of the Apalachian mountains, and is found from New England to Carthagena. Through the lower parts of the southern states, in the neighbourhood of settlements, they are numerous ; their clear and lively notes, in the months of January and February, being almost the only music of the season. Along the roadsides and fences they are found hovering in half dozens together, associated with snow birds, and various kinds of sparrows. The crossbill is a regular inhabitant of almost all the pine forests situated north of 40°, from the beginning of September to the middle of April. Respecting the melody of the transatlantic birds generally, Wilson makes the following observations : — " The opinion which so generally prevails in England, that the music of the groves and woods of America is far inferior to that of Europe, I, who have a thousand times listened to both, cannot admit to be correct. We cannot with fairness draw a comparison between the depth of the forest in America, and the cultivated fields of England ; because it is a well-known fact, that singing VOL. II. 2 A 174 TOPOGRAPHY OF book ii. birds seldom frequent the former in any country. But let the latter places be compared with the like situations in the United States, and the superiority of song, I am fully persuaded, would justly belong to the western continent. The few of our song-birds that have visited Europe extort admiration from the best judges. 'The notes of the cardinal grosbeak,' says Latham, *are almost equal to those of the nightingale.' Yet these notes, clear and excellent as they are, are far inferior to those of the wood thrush ; and even to those of the brown thrush, or thrasher. Our inimitable mocking-bird is also acknowledged, by themselves, to be fully equal to the song of the nightingale in its whole compass. Yet these are not one-tenth of the number of our singing birds. Could these people be transported to the borders of our woods and settlements in the month of May, about half an hour before sunrise, such a ravishing concert would greet their ear as they have no conception of." The American crossbill is a regular inhabitant of almost all the pine forests situated north of 40°, from the beginning of September till the middle of April. They then appear in large flocks, feeding on the seeds of the hemlock and white pine, have a loud, sharp, and not unmusical note, chatter as they fly, alight, during the preva lence of deep snows, before the door of the hunter, and around the house, picking off the clay with which the logs are plastered, and searching in corners where any substance of a saline quality has been thrown. At such times they are so tame as only to settle on the roof of the cabin when disturbed, and in a moment afterwards descend to feed as before. They are then easily caught in traps, and will frequently permit a person to approach so near as to knock them down with a stick. On first glancing at the bill of this extraordinary bird, one is apt to pronounce it deformed and monstrous ; but on attentively observing the use to which it is applied by the owner, and the dexterity with which he detaches the seeds of the pine tree from the cone and from the husks that enclose them, we are obliged to confess on this, as on many other occasions where we have judged too hastily of the operations of nature, that no other conforma tion could have been so excellently adapted to the purpose. Pigeon. The turtle dove is a general inhabitant, in summer, of the United States, from Canada to Florida, and from the sea-coast to the Mississippi, and far to the westward. This is a favourite bird with all those who love to wander among the woods in spring, and listen to their varied harmony. They there hear many a singular and sprightly performer ; but none so mournful as this. The hopeless woe of settled sorrow swelling the heart of female innocence itself, could not assume tones more sad, or more tender and affecting. Its notes are four : the first is somewhat the highest and preparatory, seeming to be uttered with an inspiration of the breath, as if the afflicted creature was just recovering its voice from the last convulsive sobs of distress ; this is followed by three long, deep, and mournful moanings, which no person of sensibility can listen to without sympathy. There is, however, nothing THE UNITED STATES. 175 of real distress in all this. The bird who utters it wantons by the side of his c H A p. beloved partner, or invites her by his call to some favourite, retired, and shady ' retreat. It is the voice of love, of faithful connubial affection, for which the whole family of doves are so celebrated ; and, among them all, none more deservedly so than the species now before us. — The wild pigeon of the United States inhabits a wide and extensive region on this side of the Chippewayan Mountains. The most remarkable characteristic of these birds is their associating together, both in their migrations and during the period of incubation, in such prodigious numbers as almost to surpass belief, and certainly to have no parallel among any other of the feathered tribes on the face of the earth, with which naturalists are acquainted. Their roosting-places are always in the woods, and sometimes occupy a large extent of forest. When they have frequented one of these places for some time, the ground is covered to the depth of several inches with their dung; all the tender grass and underwood is destioyed; the surface is strewed with large limbs of trees, broken down by the weight of the birds clustering one above another ; and the trees them selves, for thousands of acres, killed as completely as if girdled with an axe. The marks of this desolation remain for many years on the spot; and numerous places could be pointed out, where, for several years afterwards, scarcely a single vegetable made its appearance. When these roosts are first discovered, the inhabitants from considerable distances visit them in the night, with guns, clubs, long poles, pots of sulphur, and various other engines of destruction ; and in a few hours they fill many sacks, and load their horses with the birds. The breeding-places are of greater extent than the woods. In the western countries they are generally in beech woods, and often extend nearly in a straight line across the country for a great way. Not far from Shelbyville, in the State of Kentucky, about five years ago, there was one of these breeding-places, which was several miles in breadth, and upwards of forty miles in length. In this tract, almost every tree was furnished with nests, wherever the branches could accommodate them. The pigeons made their first appearance there about the 10th of April, and left it altogether, with their young, before the 25th of May. As soon as the young were fully grown, and before they left the nests, numerous parties of the inhabitants, from all parts of the adjacent country, came with waggons, axes, beds, cooking-utensils, many of them accompanied by the greater part of their families, and encamped for several days at this immense nursery. " Several of them informed me," says Wilson, " that the noise in the woods was so great as to^ terrify their horses ; and that it was difficult for one person to hear another speak, without bawling in his ear. The ground was strewed with broken limbs of trees, eggs, and young squab pigeons, which had been precipitated from above, and on which herds of hogs were fattening. Hawks, buzzards, and eagles, were sailing about in great numbers, and seizing the squabs from their nests 176 TOPOGRAPHY OF book II. at pleasure ; while, from twenty feet upwards to the tops of the trees, the view through the woods presented a perpetual tumult of crowding and fluttering mul titudes of pigeons, their wings roaring like thunder, mingled with the frequent crash of falling timber ; for now the axe-men were at work, cutting down those trees that seemed to be most crowded with nests, and they contrived to fell them in such a manner, that, in their descent, they might bring down several others; by which means the falling of one large tree sometimes produced two hundred squabs, little inferior in size to the old ones, and almost one mass of fat. It was dangerous to walk under these flying and fluttering millions, from the frequent fall of large branches, which were broken by the weight of the multitudes above, and which in their descent often destroyed numbers of the birds themselves ; while the clothes of those engaged in traversing the woods were completely covered with the excrements of the pigeons." Partridge. The quail, or partridge, is a general inhabitant of North America. Where they are not too much persecuted by the sportsmen, they become almost half domesticated; they approach the barn, particularly in winter, and sometimes, in that severe season, mix with the poultry to glean up a subsistence. What is commonly called the pheasant in Pennsylvania and the southern districts, is the ruffed grouse. Its favourite places of resort are high mountains, covered with the balsam pine, hemlock, and similar Grouse evergreens. Unlike the pinnated grouse, it always prefers the woods ; is seldom or never found in open plains, but loves the pine-sheltered declivities of mountains near streams of water. The pinnated grouse avoid wet and swampy places, and are remarkably attached to dry ground ; the low and open brush is preferred to high shrubbery and thickets. Into these latter places they fly for refuge when closely pressed by the hunters ; and here, under a stiff and impenetrable cover, they escape the pursuit of dogs and men. During the time of mating, and while the females are occupied in incubation, the males have a practice of assembling by themselves. To some select and central spot, where there is very little underwood, they repair from the adjoining district; and from the exercises performed there, this is called a scratching-place. As soon as the light appears the company assembles sometimes to the number of forty or fifty. When the dawn is past, the ceremony begins by a low tooting from one of the cocks ; this is answered by another ; and they then come forth one by one from the bushes, and strut about with all the pride and ostentation they can display. Their necks are incurvated ; the feathers on them are erected into a sort of ruff; the plumes of their tails are expanded like fans ; and they strut about in a style resembling, as nearly as small may be illustrated by great, the pomp of the turkey cock ; they seem to vie with each other in stateliness ; and, as they pass each other, frequently cast looks of insult, and utter notes of defiance. These are the signals for battles, in which they engage with wonderful spirit and fierceness, and THE UNITED STATES. 177 during which they leap a foot or two from the ground, and utter a cackling, scream- CHAP. ing, and discordant cry. After the appearance of the sun, they disperse. These ' places of exhibition have been often discovered by the hunters, who have freely availed themselves of the facilities thus afforded for the destruction of the birds ; and the grouse, after having been repeatedly disturbed, are afraid to assemble. Several new species of grouse have recently been discovered by Mr. Douglas, among the Chippewayan Mountains: the finest bird of this species, however, is described by Charles Lucien Bonaparte, under the name of the cock of the plains. It must have formed, from the earliest periods, a principal ornament of the distant wilds of the west: hardly inferior to the turkey in size, beauty, and usefulness, this bird is entitled to the first place in the series of North American grouse, with a preeminence like that which the cock of the woods so justly claims among those of Europe and Asia. The native country of the wild turkey extends from the north-western territory Turkey. of the United States to the Isthmus of Panama. In Canada, and the now densely- peopled parts of the United States, they were , formerly very abundant; but, like the Indian and the buffalo, they have been compelled to yield to the destructive inge nuity of the white settlers, often wantonly exercised, and to seek refuge in the remotest parts of the interior. On hearing the slightest noise, they conceal them selves in the grass, or among shrubs, and thus frequently escape the hunter, or the sharp-sighted birds of prey ; and the sportsman is unable to find them during the day, unless he has a dog trained for the purpose. When only wounded, they quickly disappear, and, accelerating their motion by a sort of half flight, run with so much speed that the swiftest hunter cannot overtake them. The traveller driving rapidly down the declivity of one of the Alleganies, may sometimes see several of them before him, evincing no urgent desire to get out of t|ie road ; but on alighting in hopes of shooting them, he soon finds that all pursuit is vain.*1 The wading birds of the United States, as might be expected from the great extent Wading of its various waters, are of great multitude and variety. The kildeer plover, so called Pi0VCT from its note, is a restless and noisy bird, known to almost every inhabitant of the republic, being a common and pretty constant resident. During the severity of winter, when snow covers the ground, it retreats to the sea-shore, where it is found at all seasons ; but no sooner have the rivers broken up, than its shrill note is again heard, either roaming about high in air, tracing the* shore of the river, or running amidst the watery flats and meadows : as spring advances, it resorts to the newly ploughed fields, or level plains bare of grass, interspersed with shallow pools ; or, in the vicinity of the sea, to dry, bare, sandy fields. The oyster-catcher frequents the sandy d Bonaparte's Continuation of Wilson's Ornithology. 178 TOPOGRAPHY OF book II. sea-beach of New Jersey and other parts of the Atlantic coast, in summer, in small parties of two or three pairs together. They walk along the shore in a watchful, stately manner, at times probing it with their long wedge-like bills, in search of small shell fish. It is the only one of its genus hitherto discovered, and a fanciful observer might imagine, that it had borrowed the eye of the pheasant, the legs and feet of the bustard, and the bill of the woodpecker. Crane. The whooping crane is the tallest and most stately species of all the feathered tribes of the United States ; the watchful inhabitant of extensive salt marshes, desolate swamps, and open morasses in the neighbourhood of the sea. They wander along the marshy and muddy flats of the sea-shore in search of marine worms, sailing occasion ally from place to place, with a low and heavy flight, a little above the surface ; and they have at such times a very formidable appearance. At times they utter a loud, clear, and piercing cry, which may be heard at the distance of two miles ; they have also various modulations of this singular note, from the peculiarity of which they derive their name. This bird is nearly five feet in height, and four feet six inches in length. Heron. The great heron is a constant inhabitant of the Atlantic coast, from New York to Florida ; in deep snows and severe weather seeking the open springs of the cedar and cypress swamps, and the muddy inlets occasionally covered by the tides. On the higher inland parts of the country, beyond the mountains, they are less numerous; and one which was shot in the upper parts of New Hampshire, was considered as a great curiosity. The snowy heron is seen at all times during summer among the salt marshes, watching and searching for food, or passing, sometimes in flocks, from one part of the coast to another. They often make excursions up the rivers and inlets, but return regularly in the evening to the red cedars on the beach, to roost. Bittern. The American bittern is a nocturnal species, common to all the sea and river marshes, though nowhere numerous : it rests all day among the reeds and rushes, and^ unless disturbed, flies and feeds only during the night. In some places it is called the Indian hen ; on the sea-coast of New Jersey, it is known by the name of dunkadoo, a word probably imitative of its common note. They are also found in the interior. It utters at times a hollow guttural note among the reeds, but has nothing of that loud booming sound for which the European bittern is remarkable. Pun-e. The United States present several species of the ibis, the curlew, and the sandpiper. One of the most common strand birds is the purre. It is extremely active and expert in running and searching among the sand on the reflux of the waves, as it nimbly darts about for food. These birds, in conjunction with several others, sometimes collect together in such flocks, as to seem, at a distance, a large cloud of thick smoke, varying in form and appearance every instant, while it performs its evolutions in the air: as this cloud descends and courses along the shores of the ocean with great rapidity, in a kind of waving serpentine flight, alternately throwing its dark and white plumage THE UNITED STATES. 179 to the eye, it forms a very grand and interesting appearance. At such times the chap. sportsman makes prodigious slaughter among them; while, as the showers of their IV- . companions fall, the whole body often alight, or descend to the surface with them, till he is completely satiated with destruction. The semipalmated snipe is one of the Snipe. most noisy and noted birds that inhabit the salt marshes in summer. Its common name is the willet, by which appellation if is universally known along the shores of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, in all of which places it breeds in great numbers. It is peculiar to America. It arrives from the south on the shores of the Middle States about the 20th of April, or beginning of May; and, from that time to the last of July, its loud and shrill reiterations of ' pill-will-willet, pill- will-willet, resound almost incessantly along the marshes, and may be distinctly heard at the distance of more than half a mile. The American woodcock is univer- Woodcock. sally- known to the sportsmen ; but,->&om the nature of the ground where they are to be sought, viz. deep mire intersected with old logs, which are covered and hid from sight by high reeds, weeds, and alder bushes, both men and dogs are soon tired out. The clapper-rail, is a very numerous and well-known species, inhabiting the whole Rail. Atlantic coast from New England to Florida. It is called by different names, such as the mud-hen, clapper-rail, meadow-clapper, big rail, &c. Its principal resi dence is in the salt marshes. None of the species afford the American sportsmen greater entertainment, or a more delicate repast, than the Carolina rail. Early in August, when the reeds along the shores of the Delaware have attained their full growth, the rail resort to them in great numbers to feed on the seeds of this plant, of which they ,are immoderately fond. When the reeds are ripening, and even while they are in blossom, the rail are found to have taken possession of them in great numbers. As you walk along the embankment of the river at this season, you hear them squeaking in every direction like young puppies ; if a stone be thrown among the reeds, there is a general outcry, and a reiterated kuk, kuk, kuk, something like that of a guinea fowl. In the mean time none are to be seen, unless it be at or near high water ; for, when the tide is low, they universally secrete themselves among the interstices of the reeds, and you may walk past, and even over them, where there are hundreds, without seeing a single individual. On their first arrival, they are generally lean, and unfit for the table ; but, as the reeds ripen, they rapidly fatten, and from the 20th of September to the middle of October they are excellent, and eagerly sought after. The usual method of shooting them in this quarter of the country is as follows : — The sportsman furnishes himself with a light boat, and a stout experienced boatman, with a pole of twelve or fifteen feet long, thickened at the lower end to prevent it from sinking too deep into the mud. About two hours or so before high water, they enter the reeds, and each takes his post, the sportsman standing in the bow ready for 180 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. action, the boatman on the stern seat pushing her steadily through the reeds. The rail generally spring singly as the boat advances, and at a short distance ahead are instantly shot down, while the boatman,keeping hiseye on the spot where the bird fell' directs the boat forward, and picks it up as the sportsman is loading. In this manner the boat moves steadily through and over the reeds, the birds flushing and falling, the sportsman loading and firing, while the boatman is pushing and picking up ; and the sport continues till an hour or two after high water, when the shallowness of the water, and the strength and weight of the floating reeds, as also the backwardness of Flamingo the game to spring as the tide decreases, oblige them to return. — The red flamingo ! ' is occasionally seen in Florida ; and the roseate spoonbill inhabits the coast as high as Georgia. The latter bird has been found as far up the Mississippi as Natchez. Sheerwater. The black-skimmer, or sheerwater, is a truly singular fowl, the only species of its tribe hitherto discovered. It inhabits the whole Atlantic coast, during the summer, and retires early in September. Its favourite haunts are low sand bars, raised above the reach of the summer tides, and dry flat sands on the beach in front of the ocean. The sheerwater is formed for skimming while on wing the surface of the sea for its food, which consists of small fish, shrimps, young fry, &c. whose usual haunts are near the shore, and towards the surface. That the lower mandible, when dipped into and cleaving the water, might not retard the bird's way, it is thinned and sharpened like the blade of a knife; the upper mandible being at such times elevated above the water, is curtailed in its length, as being not wanted, but it tapers gradually to a point, so that, on shutting, it offers little opposition. To prevent inconvenience from the rushing of the water, the mouth is confined to the mere opening of the gullet, which, indeed, prevents mastication. taking place there; but the stomach, or gizzard, to which this business is solely allotted, is of uncommon hardness, strength, and muscu larity, far surpassing in these respects any other water bird yet known. To these peculiarities is added a vast expansion of wing, to enable the bird to sail with sufficient celerity while dipping in the water. The general proportion of the length of the swiftest hawks and swallows to their breadth, is as one to two ; but, in the present case, as there is not only the resistance of the air, but also that of the water, to over come, a still greater volume of wing is given, the sheerwater measuring nineteen inches in length, and upwards of forty-four in breadth. The bill of this bird and his way of life have by some authors been depreciated ; but whoever attentively examine this curious apparatus, and observes the possessor, with his ample wings, long bending neck, and lower mandible occasionally dipt into and ploughing the surface, and the facility with which he procures his food, cannot but consider it a mere playful amusement, when compared with the dashing immersions of the tern, the gull, or the fish-hawk, who, to a superficial observer, appear so much better accommodated. Gull. The laughing gull, known in America by the name of the black-headed gull, is one THE UNITED STATES. 181 of the most beautiful and most sociable of its genus. They make their appearance on CHAP. the coast of New Jersey in the latter part of April ; and do not fail to give notice of their arrival by their familiarity and loquacity. The inhabitants treat them with the same indifference that they manifest towards all those harmless birds which do not minister either to their appetite or their avarice ; and hence the black-heads may be seen in companies around the farm-house, coursing along the river shores, gleaning up the refuse of the fishermen and the animal substances left by the tide ; or scattered over the marshes and newly-ploughed fields, regaling on the worms, insects, and their larvae, which, in the vernal season, the bounty of nature provides for the sustenance of myriads of the feathered race. The Canada goose is the common wild goose of the United States, whose mi- Goose. grations are the sure signals of returning spring or winter. In their aerial voyages to and from the north, these winged pilgrims pass over the interior on both sides of the mountains, as far west, at least, as the Osage river. Wounded geese have, in numerous instances, been completely domesticated, and they readily pair with the tame grey geese ; the offspring are said to be larger than either, but the characteristic marks of the wild goose still predominate. The sportsmen on the sea-shore have long been in the practice of taming the wounded of both sexes, and have sometimes suc ceeded in getting them to pair and produce. On the approach of every spring, how ever, these birds discover symptoms of great uneasiness, frequently looking up into the air, and attempting to go off; and some whose wings have been closely cut, have travelled on foot in a northern direction, and have been found at the distance of several miles from home. They hail every flock that passes overhead, and the salute is sure to be returned by the voyagers, who are prevented from alighting among them only by the presence and habitations of man. Our readers will be entertained with the following surprising but well-authenticated narrative : — " Mr. Piatt, a respectable farmer on Long Island, being out shooting in one of the bays which, in that part of the country, abound with water-fowl, wounded a wild goose. Being wing-tipped, and unable to fly, he caught it, and brought it home alive. It proved to be a female ; and, turning it into his yard with a flock of tame geese, it soon became quite tame and familiar, and in a little time its wounded wing entirely healed. In the following spring, when the wild geese migrated to the northward, a flock passed over Mr. Piatt's barn-yard ; and, just at that moment, their leader happening to sound his bugle note, our goose, in whom its new habits and enjoyments had not quite extinguished the love of liberty, remembering the well-known sound, spread its wings, mounted into the air, joined the travellers, and soon disappeared. In the succeeding autumn, the wild geese, as was usual, returned from the northward in great numbers, to pass the winter in our bays and rivers. Mr. Piatt happened to be standing in his yard when a flock passed directly over his barn. At that instant, he observed three geese detach VOL. II. B B 182 TOPOGRAPHY OF Canvass-back duck. book II. themselves from the rest, and, after wheeling round several times, alight in the middle of the yard. Imagine his surprise and pleasure, when, by certain well-remembered signs, he reeognised in one of the three his long-lost fugitive. It was she indeed ! She had travelled many hundred miles to the lakes ; had there hatched and reared her offspring ; and had now returned with her little family, to share with them the sweets of civilized life."6 Wild duck. The mallard, or the common wild duck, is found in every fresh-water lake and river of the United States in winter, but seldom frequents the sea-shores or salt marshes. This bird is numerous in the rice-fields of the southern states during winter, many of the fields being covered with a few inches of water ; and, the scattered grains of the former harvest lying in abundance, the ducks swim about and feed at pleasure. This is the original stock of the common domesticated duck, reclaimed time immemorial from a state of nature, and now become so serviceable to man. In many individuals, the general garb of the tame drake seems to have undergone little or no alteration ; but the stamp of slavery is strongly imprinted in his dull indifferent eye and grovelling gait, while the lofty look, long tapering neck, and sprightly action of the free bird, bespeak his native spirit and independence. The canvass-back duck, a celebrated American species, altogether unknown in Europe, arrives in the United States from the north about the middle of October. A few resort to the Hudson and Delaware, but the great body of these birds descend to the numerous rivers in the neighbourhood of the Chesapeake, particularly the Sus- quehannah, the Patapsco, Potowmac, and James rivers, which appear to be their general winter rendezvous. They are chiefly found in that particular part of tide water where a certain grass-like plant grows, on the roots of which they feed. They swim with great speed and agility, and sometimes assemble in such multitudes as to cover several acres of the river; when they rise suddenly, they produce a noise resembling thunder. They float about the shoals, diving and tearing up the grass by the root, which is the only part they eat. They are extremely shy, and can rarely be approached, unless by stratagem ; and when wounded in the wing, they dive to such prodigious distances, and with such rapidity, continuing it so perseveringly, and with such cunning and vigour, as almost always to render the pursuit hopeless. From the great demand for these ducks, and the high price they uniformly bring in market, various artifices are practised to get within gunshot of them. The canvass- back, in the rich juicy tenderness of its flesh, and its delicacy of flavour, stands unrivalled by the whole of its tribe in this, or perhaps in any other quarter of the world; and those killed in the waters of the Chesapeake are generally esteemed superior to all others, doubtless from the great abundance of their favourite food ' Wilson's Ornithology. THE UNITED STATES. 183 which these rivers produce. At public dinners, hotels, and particular entertainments, chap. the canvass-backs are universal favourites. IV- The widgeon is the constant attendant of the canvass-back duck, by the aid of Widgeon. whose labour he has ingenuity enough to make a good subsistence. This bird is extremely fond of the tender roots of that aquatic plant on which the canvass- back feeds, and for which that duck is in the constant habit of diving. The widgeon, who never dives, watches the moment of the canvass-back's rising, and, before he has his eyes well opened, snatches the delicious morsel from his mouth, and escapes. On this account the canvass-backs and widgeons, or, as they are called round the bay, bald-pates, live in a state of perpetual contention ; the only chance the latter have is to retreat, and make their approaches at convenient opportunities. The goosander, called by some the water-pheasant, and by others the sheldrake, Goosander. fisherman, diver, &c. is a winter inhabitant only of the sea-shores, fresh-water lakes, and rivers of the United States. They usually associate in small parties of six or eight, and are almost continually diving in search of food. Several species of mer ganser are common. The snake bird is an inhabitant of the Carolinas, Georgia, the Snake bira. Floridas, and Louisiana. It seems to have derived its name from the singular form of its head and neck, which at a distance might be mistaken for a serpent. Its habits too, while in the water, have not a little contributed to its name. It generally swims with its body immersed, especially when apprehensive of danger, with its long neck extended above the surface, and vibrating in a peculiar manner. " The first indi vidual that I saw in Florida," says Wilson, " was sneaking away to avoid me, along the shore of a reedy marsh which was lined with alligators, and the first impression on my mind was that I beheld a snake ; but the recollection of the habits of the bird soon un deceived me. On approaching it, it gradually sank, and my next view of it was at many fathoms' distance, its head merely out of the water." To pursue these birds at such times is useless, as they cannot be induced to rise, or even to expose their bodies. Wherever the limbs of a tree project over and dip into the water, there the snake birds are sure to be found ; these situations being convenient resting-places for the purpose of sunning and preening themselves, and probably giving them a better opportunity than when swimming, of observing their finny prey. They crawl from the water upon the tree, and fix themselves in an upright position, which they maintain in the utmost silence ; and if there be foliage or long moss, they secrete themselves in it in such a manner that they cannot be perceived, unless one be close to them. When approached, they drop into the water with such surprising skill, that one is astonished how so large a body can plunge with so little noise, the agitation of the water being apparently not greater than that occasioned by the gliding of an eel.— The noise of the countless flocks of migratory water-fowl, as they journey through the air in the spring to the 184 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK II. sources of the great rivers and lakes, and in autumn to the gulf of Mexico, is one of the most familiar sounds to the ear of an inhabitant of the west, and is one of his strongest and pleasantest associations with spring and autumn. The noise of migrating geese and ducks, at those periods, is also familiar to the ear of an Atlantic inhabitant ; Swan that of the swans, pelicans and cranes, is peculiar to the central valley. The swan is well known for its stateliness and brilliant white. Its migrating phalanxes are in per fectly regular forms, as are those of the geese ; and they sometimes join forces, and fly intermixed with each other. Their noise on the wing is like the distant sound of a trumpet. They are killed on the rice-lakes at the north in the summer, and in the gulf and its neighbouring waters in the winter ; the younger ones are as fine for the table as geese. Birds of the Mr. Flint makes the following observation respecting the birds of the Mississippi and the valley, as compared with those of the Atlantic regions : — " This valley, embracing all compared^ ^e var'eties °f climate of the country .east of the mountains, might be supposed to have the same birds, and those birds the same habits. The former is true; and the latter is not. We have noted no birds in the Atlantic country that we have not seen here ; we have many that are not seen there ; and those that are common to both regions have not the same habits here as there. We have no doubt, that cultivation and the presence of civilized man affect the habits, and even the residence, of birds. There are many in the more populous and cultivated regions beyond the mountains, that seem to belong to orchards and gardens, and that appear to exult and be at home only in the midst of fruit arbours, and groves reared by art and luxury. It is remarked in the more populous and cultivated districts of the west, that, in proportion as the wilderness disappears, and is replaced by apple, pear, peach, and plum trees, and fruit gardens, the birds which cheered the infancy of the immigrants, and whose notes are associated in recollection with the charms of youthful existence, and the tendei remembrances of the natal spot, and a distant and forsaken country, are found among the recent orchards. Every immigrant, especially, who was reared in New England, remembers the magpie, the bird of half-formed leaves, of planting, and the freshness of spring ; and he remembers to have heard them chattering in the woods, almost to tiresomeness. They are occasionally seen in the middle and northern regions of this valley ; but they are seldom heard to sing, and are only known by the lover of nature, who hears in the air, as they pass over his head, the single note which they utter in the east, when they are leaving that country. Some years since, in Missouri, we saw a number of the males gathered on a spray, in the midst of a low prairie, of a sunny morning, after a white frost ; they were chattering away in their accustomed style, but they did but half carry out the song that we used to hear in the meadows of New England." THE UNITED STATES. 185 Reptiles, or animals of the serpent, turtle, and lizard class, are, of course CHAP. numerous in the United States. ! All the varieties of the rattlesnake are seen, in some places in pernicious abun- Reptiles. dance. The yellow rattlesnake is the largest of the species ; they are sometimes seen as large as a man's leg, and from six to nine feet in length. A species of small rattlesnake is sometimes seen in great numbers on the prairies ; they are said, in the regions far to the west, to consort with prairie dogs, and to inhabit the same burrows. There is a very troublesome species, called snappers, or ground rattle snakes ; they travel in the night, and frequent roads and house-paths. The copper head is a terrible serpent, supposed to inflict a more dangerous bite than the rattlesnake; they inhabit the same region, but are not so common as the former. They are of a dirty brown colour ; and when they have recently shed their skin, some parts of their body resemble burnished copper, whence they derive their name. There are three or four varieties of the moccasin snake inhabiting the southern country. The upland moccasin has many aspects in common with the rattlesnake, but is a serpent still more repulsive in appearance. They have been seen of great size, and their fang teeth are extremely large and long : they are most frequently seen basking among the bastard cane. The largest variety of the water moccasin resembles the water-snake of the Atlantic country. It has a very large flat head, and it opens its upper jaw at right angles to the under one. It is a lazy, reckless animal, neither flying nor pursuing man ; it is a serpent of the largest size ; has a ground-coloured, scaly back ; and, in point of venom, is classed with the rattlesnake. There is another species of the moccasin rarely seen out of the water, of a brilliant copper colour, with annular grey stripes, marking off compartments at equal distances. The brown viper, or hissing snake, is of a dirty brown colour, from six to eight inches long, with a body large in proportion, and terminating abruptly in a sharp tail : when angry, their backs change colour, and their heads flatten, and dilate to twice the common extent, and their hiss is like that of a goose. They are extremely ugly animals ; and, though very diminutive, are supposed to be~of the most venomous class. One being confined by a stick across its back, it instantly bit itself in two or three places ; and when set at liberty it soon became very much swollen, and died. The accounts of the deadly venom of the horn-snake, being without actual attestation by fact, are considered as unfounded. Mr. Flint expresses his conviction that the Mississippi valley presents a greater number of serpents, and is more infested by them, than the country on the Atlantic, excepting perhaps the southern portion of it. Wherever the population becomes dense, the swine prey upon them, and they quickly disappear. Their most permanent and dangerous resorts are near the bases of rocky and precipitous hills, about ledges and flint knobs, and in the lower and southern country, along the stagnant water channels, and near those vast swamps that cannot be 186 TOPOGRAPHY OF Harmless serpents. book II. inhabited for ages. People are often bitten by these terrible animals; the pain is excruciating, and the person that is badly bitten swells, and soon becomes blind. The more venomous of the serpents themselves become blind during the latter part cf summer : they are then, of course, less apt to strike their aim ; but their bite, at this period, is most dangerous. The people suppose this blindness to be occasioned by the absorption of their own poison into their system. Whether it be that the numerous remedies that are prescribed are really efficacious, or whether the bite of these venomous reptiles is not fatal unless the poison is conveyed into some leading vein, or from whatever cause it be, it so happens that few fatalities occur from this cause. Of harmless serpents this country has the usual varieties, as the green, garter, ehicken, and coach-whip snakes. The glass-snake is often seen with a body of the most lustrous brilliance. A stroke across the back separates the body into a number of pieces ; each of these pieces preserves for some time the power of loco motion, and continues to exercise it : and the inhabitants believe that these pieces soon meet, 'and unite, and become as before the separation. The bull, or prairie snakes are of great size, and horrid appearance : they are common on the prairies, live in holes in the ground, and run at the passing traveller with a loud hiss ; but if he stands, they instantly retreat to their holes. They are believed to be perfectly harmless ; though such is their size, boldness, and formidable appearance, that it is long before the resident in these regions gets over his horror of them. Lizard?. Ugly animals of the lizard kind are seen, in greater or less numbers, in all the climates : they are found under rotten logs, and are dug from .the rich and muddy alluvions ; these last are lazy and loathsome animals, and are called " ground puppies." It does not appear that they have any disposition to bite. Common small lizards are frequent in the southern districts, running along the logs, and making just such a sound as the rattlesnake, when he gives his warning. There are varieties of small cameleons ; they are apparently harmless animals, though, when caught, they show a disposition to bite. They will change in half an hour to all the colours of the prism. Green seems to be their favourite colour, and when on a green tree, that is their general hue ; while in this colour, the under part of their neck becomes of a beau tiful scarlet ; their throat swells, and they emit a sharp note, like that of one of the larger kinds of grasshoppers when singing. " We have placed them on a hand kerchief," says Mr. Flint, " and they have gradually assumed all its colours. Placed on a black surface, they become brown ; but they evidently suffer while under this colour, as is manifested by uneasy movements, and by strong and quick palpitations, visible to the eye. They are very active and nimble animals, three or four inches in length." Some lizards of a larger class and flatter heads are called scorpions ; they are animals of an ugly appearance, and are deemed very poisonous, though we THE UNITED STATES. 187 have not found that any person has been known to be bitten by them. When CHAP. attacked, they show the anger and the habits of serpents, vibrating a fiery and — forked tongue, and biting with great fury at the stick which arrests them. The alligator is the most terrible animal of this class. This large and powerful Alligator. lizard is first seen in great numbers, in passing to the south, on the Arkansas, that is to say, a little north of 33Q; and this is its general northern limit across the continent. Vast numbers are seen in the slow streams and shallow lakes of Florida and Alabama ; but they abound most on Red River, the Mississippi lakes, and the bayous west of that river : forty at one time have been numbered on a muddy bar of Red River; and on these sleeping waters, the cry of a sucking pig on the banks will draw a shoal of them from their muddy retreats at the bottom. The largest alligator that Mr. Flint ever saw killed in these regions measured something more than sixteen feet from its snout to the extremity of its tail. They have at times, especially before stormy weather, a singular roar or bellow, not exactly as Bartram has described it, like distant thunder, but more like the half-suppressed roarings of a bull. When moving about on their customary avocations in the water, they seem like old logs in motion. In fine weather they dose in Kstlessness on the sandbars ; and such is their reckless ness, that they allow the people on the passing steam-boats to come within a few paces of them. The ascent of a steam-boat on an alligator stream, at the proper season for them, is a continual discharge of rifles at them; a rifle ball, however, will glance from their bodies, unless they are hit in a particular direction. They are not, like tortoises and other amphibious animals, tenacious of life, but bleed pro fusely, and immediately expire when mortally wounded. They strike with their tails coiled into the section of a circle; this blow has great power, and the animal stricken is, by the same blow, propelled towards their mouth, to be devoured. Their strength of jaw is prodigious, and they are exceedingly voracious. They have" large ivory teeth, which contain cavities sufficiently large to hold a musket-charge of powder, for which purpose they are commonly used by sportsmen. The animal, when slain, emits an intolerable smell of musk ; and it is asserted that its head contains a quantity of that drug. They will sometimes chase children, and would overtake them, were it not for their inability to make lateral movements. Having few joints in their body, and very short legs, they cannot readily turn from a straight forward direction ; consequently, those who understand their movements avoid them without difficulty, by turning off at right angles, and leaving the animal to move forward, under its impulse in that direction : indeed, they are by no means so dangerous as they are commonly reputed to be. It is said they will attack a negro in the water in preference to a white: but they are chiefly formidable to pigs, calves, and domestic animals of moderate size. They are rather objects of terror from their dimensions, strength, and ugly appearance, and from their large teeth 188 TOPOGRAPHY OF Tortoiseand other reptiles. book II. and strong jaws, than from the actual injuries which they have been known to inflict. The skin of the alligator is valuable for the tanner. The tortoise is found in considerable variety and number. The soft-shelled mud- tortoise of the lakes about New Orleans, and west of the Mississippi, is said to be not much inferior to the West India sea-turtle for the table ; and epicures who are dainty in their food consider their flesh a great delicacy. — In the pine barrens of Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi, is found an animal, apparently of the tortoise class, commonly called the gouffre. It has a large and thick shell, and burrows to a great depth in the ground ; it is of prodigious power and strength, and resembles in many respects the loggerhead-turtle. — The siren (murena siren) is a very singular animal ; it somewhat resembles the lamprey, and is nearly two feet in length. It seems intermediate between the fish and the lizard class; it has two short legs, placed near the head, is amphibious, and penetrates the mud with the facility of a crawfish. — The whole of the republic is prolific in frogs, toads, and animals of that class, but more especially so the more southerly parts of it, the land of lakes, marshes, and swamps, combined with high temperature. The deep notes of the bull frog are heard in perfection in the swamps at the back of New Orleans. Frogs. Fish. It is reasonable to suppose that so vast an extent of maritime and inland waters should afford a great quantity and variety of the finny tribes ; it is to be regretted, however, that very small progress has yet been made in the scientific observation of this interesting class of animals. American ichthyology is yet in its infancy. The fishes which fill the coasts and bays of the United States are generally of the same species as on the opposite coasts of Europe. They are abundant, especially along the shore of the New England states, which, however, have no bank of the same extreme richness as that of Newfoundland. The shad and the salmon are fine fish, abounding in the Atlantic rivers ; and beautiful trout are taken in the moun tain streams of the northern states. Among the fish of the western waters, probably in a great measure common to them and other rivers, are noticed several varieties of perch, one of which, the buffalo-perch, derives its name from the singular grunting noise which it makes, a noise which is familiar to every one who has been much on the Ohio. It is a fine fish for the table, weighing from ten to thirty pounds. There are also varieties of the sun-fish, the bass, and the hog-fish. Besides the shad, false herring, and trout, we find in these waters sixteen species of minny, the largest of which are called shiners ; but the brown buffalo-fish is one of the best fishes in the western rivers, and is found in all of them, in length from two to three feet, weighing from ten to thirty pounds. The black buffalo-fish, found in the lower waters of the Ohio and in the Mississippi, sometimes weighs fifty pounds. The buffalo of the Mississippi is larger ; it is taken in immense quantities in the THE UNITED STATES. 189 meadows and lakes of the Mississippi, and greatly resembles the Atlantic shad. CHAP. The trout of Louisiana and Florida is not the same with the fine fish of that name Iv' that is taken in the cold mountain streams of the northern country of the Atlantic; it is a fish of the perch class, beautifully marked with golden stripes, and taking the bait with a spring, like the trout. It weighs from one to four pounds, and is a fine- flavoured and solid fish for the table. " We have never witnessed angling," says Mr. Flint, " that could compare with that of this fish in the clear pine-wood streams of the southern divisions of this country. With fresh bait a barrel may be taken in a few hours." — The cat-fish is the most common fish in all the western waters. Twelve species have already been noted in the Ohio, and the varieties are very numerous in the waters west of that river. They are without scales, and of all colours and sizes ; ' their mouths, when open, are circular ; and they are easily taken with a hook. They receive their English name from the noise which they make when at rest ; a noise very similar to the purring of a cat, and one of the most familiar to those who are used to the western states. The cat-fish of the Mississippi often weighs more than a hundred pounds. — The Ohio toter is a fish of the length of from two to three inches ; it makes itself a cell by surrounding its place with pebbles ; and hence, from the Virginia word " tote," to carry, is called a toter. — There are a great many species of pike in the Ohio and the Mississippi, and their waters ; they are called pike, pickerel, and jack-fish, and perfectly resemble the fish of the same names in the Atlantic waters. They vary from half a pound to twenty pounds. — Of the gar-fish there are a great many varieties in the western country. The alligator-gar is sometimes eight feet in length, and is strong, fierce, voracious, and formidable, not only to the fish, which he devours by tribes, but even to men, who go into the water near him. Its dart equals the flight of birds in rapidity. It has a long, round, and pointed mouth, thick set with sharp teeth ; its body is covered with scales of such a texture, as to be im penetrable by a rifle bullet, and, when dry, to make fire with steel. It is a fish of most outlandish appearance, weighing from fifty to two hundred pounds. It is con sidered as a far more formidable animal than the alligator : it is, in fact, the shark of rivers. — The devil-jack-diamond-fish is another monster of the rivers. It is rarely seen as high as the falls of Ohio, and probably lives ia the Mississippi : its length is from four to ten feet, and one was caught which weighed four hundred pounds. It is extremely voracious ; and, like the preceding, its scales will give fire with the steel. Eels are in length from two to four feet. The yellow eel is the best species for the table. Six species of sturgeon occur in these rivers, some of them four feet in length, and some of them eatable. There is also a Mississippi saw-fish, in length from three to six feet ; it has twenty-six long sharp teeth on either side, in the form of a saw, and is commonly shown in museums. Likewise a spotted horn-fish, in length vol. n. c c 190 TOPOGRAPHY OF book II. from two to three feet; the horn being one-fourth the length of the body. The bar- fish are taken with a hook; they go in shoals in the southern running waters, weighing from one to three pounds, and are beautifully striped with brown and silver. The spade, or shovel-fish, a mud fish of the middle regions of the valley, is found in muddy lakes; they weigh from ten to fifty pounds, are without scales, and have, in advance of their mouths, a smooth bony substance, much resembling an apothecary's spatula, from six inches to a foot in length, and two or three inches in width ; its use, apparently, is to turn up the mud in order to find subsistence. They are extremely fat, and jire taken for their oil. " We have never remarked this fish in any museum," says Mr. Flint," although to us the most strange and whimsical-looking fish we have seen, We have seen," he adds, " one instance of a horribly deformed animal, apparently intermediate between the class testudo and fishes. We saw it in a water of the Washita, and had not a fair opportunity to examine it. It is called toad-fish ; has a shell like a tortoise ; but has the other aspects of a fish. It is said to be sufficiently strong to bear a man on its back ; and, from the account of those who have examined it, this animal must be a singular lusus natures" — The drum, rock-fish, sheep's-head, &c, are large and fine fish, taken in the lakes on the gulf of Mexico that are partially mixed with salt water, and so saline as not to be potable. They correspond in size to the cod and haddock of the Atlantic country, and are among the most common fish in the market at New Orleans. The fish of the gulf shore are of a very peculiar character, being taken in shallow lakes, principally composed of fresh water, but having outlets into the gulf, through which, when the wind blows strongly from the south, the sea-water is forced to such a degree that they become salt : the fish, accordingly possess an intermediate charac ter, between those of fresh and salt water. There are vast numbers of crawfish every where in the shallow waters and low grounds. By penetrating the bank of the Mississippi, they have more than once made perforations which have imperceptibly enlarged to crevices, by which the inundation of the river has been let in upon the country. Fish of the The fish of the western rivers are generally less esteemed than those of the anaa"he°- Atlantic waters, and, as it would appear, with some justice ; although, in making Mississippi tne comparison, it should in fairness be remembered that fresh-water fish in general will not vie with those of the sea. The fishes of the Mississippi and its tributaries, generally, are tough, coarse, large, and unsavory. The trout, so called, and the bar- fish, are fine. The pike, perch, and other fish of the Illinois, are represented as excellent; and in that river they are taken in great abundance. A line, here called a " trot line," drawn across the mouth of the Illinois where it enters the Mississippi, with hooks appended at regular distances, took five hundred pounds in a night. " Except the trout, the small yellow cat-fish, the pike, the bar-fish, and THE UNITED STATES. 191 the perch," says Mr. Flint, " we do not much admire the fish of the western chap waters." '. — Feet. Inches. 10 9 4 0 2 6 Dr. Mitehill gives the following account f of a gigantic fish of the ray kind, which Oceanic i • a vampire. he calls the oceanic vampire. It had been taken in the Atlantic Ocean, near the entrance of Delaware Bay, by the crew of a smack. They had heard that creatures of extraordinary form and size were frequent in the tract situated off Capes May and Henlopen, during the warm season ; and accordingly equipped themselves for the purpose of catching one or more of them. After an absence of about three weeks, the adventurers returned with an animal of singular figure and large magnitude, which they had killed after a long and hazardous encounter. The weight was so considerable after it had been towed to the shore, that three pair of oxen, aided by a horse and twenty-two men, could not drag it, by their united strength, to the dry land. By estimation, it was supposed to be between four and five tons. The length from the fore margin of the head to the root of the tail . Length of the tail Length of the fins projecting forward from the corners of the mouth. 17 3 Making the whole length, from the tip of the head fins to the tip of the tail, seventeen feet and three inches. The breadth from the extremity of one pectoral fin or wing to the other, measuring along the line of the belly, was sixteen feet; when measured over the convexity of the back, eighteen feet. On each side of the mouth there was a vertical fin two feet and six inches long, twelve inches deep, and two inches and a half thick in the middle, whence it tapered toward the edges, which were fringed before with a radiated margin. The fin or organ so constituted could, from its flexibility, bend in all directions, and be made in many respects to perform the function of a hand, so as by twisting round, to seize an object and hold it fast. The wings, flaps, or pectoral fins, were of very curious organization. There was a scapula, humerus, ulna, carpus, and an uncommon number of phalanges, of a cartilaginous structure ; all these joints were articulated with each other, but the articulations, like those of the human sternum, had very little motion. It had more analogy to the wing of a bird than to any thing else ; and yet was so different from it, as to manifest a remarkable variety of mechanism, in organs intended substantially for the same use. Fish of the kind now under consideration may be aptly deno minated submarine birds, for they really fly through the water as birds fly through the air. Fishes of this organization perform their flights by flapping their wings after the manner of crows, hawks, and eagles, in their progress. We give a plate of this very peculiar and extraordinary animal. f Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History, New York, vol. i. 192 TOPOGRAPHY OF book II. ^ne msects °f tne United States are of course numerous, and many of them of great Insects_ beauty. Many of the species are entirely new, and science is particularly indebted to Mr. Say for the addition of no inconsiderable number to American entomology. The moths and butterflies are extremely splendid, and one of them, the atlas moth, the largest hitherto known. Among the spiders is a huge species, called the tarantula, supposed to inflict a dangerous bite. The annoyance inflicted by the mosquito flies, a species of gnat, in hot weather is well known ; by these, and other insects armed with stings, damp and low situations are rendered during the summer almost untenable. The fire flies, which glitter especially in the forests of the south, are merely entertaining. The copper-coloured centipede, a creature of a cylindrical form, and as long as a man's finger, is dreaded as noxious ; a family is said to have been poisoned by taking tea in which one of them had been inadvertently boiled. One insect, the cegeria exitiosa, has long been the cause of solicitude and regret to all lovers of fine fruit in the republic, as the insidious destroyer of the peach-tree. The larva commences its destructive career about the beginning of October, by entering the tree, probably through the tender bark under the surface of the soil ; after having passed through the bark, it proceeds downwards, within the tree, into the root, and then turns its course upwards towards the surface, where it arrives about the commencement of the succeeding July. They voraciously devour both the alburnum and the liber, the new wood and the inner bark, leaving the cortex and epidermis as a covering and defence. The insects deposit their eggs within the bark of the tree, which they perforate by a blunt-pointed instrument, and leave from one to three hundred eggs, according to the capacity of the tree to support their progeny. The United States are not free from the scourge of the locust. The males have under each wing a ribbed membrane as thin as a gossamer's web, which, when inflated, constitutes their musical organ. The female has a tuberous sting or drill the size of a pin, and near half an inch in length, of a hard and brittle substance, which lies on the under surface of the body ; with this the 'insect drills a hole into the small limbs of trees quite to the pith : there it deposits through this hollow sting or drill some dozen or two of small white eggs. The time required to drill the hole and deposit the egg is from two to five minutes. When undisturbed they make some half dozen or more insertions of their drill in the same limb, perhaps an inch apart, and these punctures usually produce speedy death to the end of the limb. They sometimes swarm about the forests in countless multitudes, making " melancholy music,'' and not less melancholy desolation. THE UNITED STATES. 193 BOOK III. STATISTICS. CHAPTER I. AGRICULTURE.3 IT would manifestly be foreign to the nature of the present undertaking, even did we CHAP. I. deem ourselves competent to the task, to enter into the general theory or science of Division agriculture. It will, however, be our endeavour to give a brief yet faithful sketch em° and of the agriculture, in the most comprehensive sense of the term, of the United southern- States, enlarging only either on those points which are peculiar to that country, or upon productions which differ materially from those of Great Britain. The vast extent of latitude, and the consequent variety of climate which the republic com prises, will give to the subject a variety, interesting even to those who are not engaged in that most primitive of all occupations — the cultivation of the soil. — The agriculture of the United States naturally divides itself into northern and southern : the middle states, indeed, partake of some of the characteristics of both extremes, but do not, in a brief summary like the present, require to be ranked as a separate class ; while the culture of the soil in the southern states is so entirely different in its processes and its products, that it is impossible to mingle its history with that of the northern portion of the Union. It appears to be admitted by our transatlantic neighbours themselves, that while Neglected most abundant supply of all the bounties of nature has ever been their peculiar privilege, agriculture as a science has, till recently at least, been at a very low ebb.11 » It would have been, perhaps, more accordant with strict propriety to have commenced this section of the work with the chapter on population ; but as the publication of the census of 1831 may be shortly expected, it has been deemed advisable to defer the account of the population to a subsequent portion of the work. » " It is indeed a lamentable truth," says Mr. Watson, "that, for the most part, our knowledge and practice of agriculture, at the close of the revolutionary war, was in a state of demi-barbarism, with some solitary exceptions. The labours, I may say, of only three agricultural societies in America at that epoch, conducted by ardent patriots, by philosophers, and gentlemen in this state, Philadelphia, and Boston, kept alive a spirit of inquiry, often resulting in useful and practical operations; and yet, these measures did not reach the doors of practical farmers to any visible extent. Nor was their plan of organization calculated to infuse a spirit of emulation, which farmer, which county, or state, should excel in the honourable strife of competition in discoveries and improvements, in drawing from the soil the greatest quantum of net profits within a as a science. 194 TOPOGRAPHY OF book hi. The neglected state of this important branch of political economy may be traced to the condition of the first settlers and their descendants, rather than to any defect in soil or climate. Their first settlements were made along the shores of the sea, or on the banks of navigable waters. The ocean and its tributary streams offered fields for cultivation easier and more lucrative, in the scattered state of their population, than any which the land could afford. The fisheries, and navigation, thus naturally arrested the attention and chiefly occupied the thoughts of early settlers; and whatever there was of agriculture was limited to the supply of the essential neces sities of the people, and to the yielding of a scanty surplus for the humble demands of colonial commerce. The circumstances of the country during the first century and a half after its settlement, — down to the time, indeed, of the revolutionary struggle, — were such as tended unavoidably to reduce agriculture below its just consequence in the scale of useful employments ; and to elevate all the arts connected with naviga tion in a proportionate degree above their proper estimation. Not only was a large proportion of the little capital then in the country attracted to the pursuits of com merce, and drawn away from those of agriculture, but the temptations to trade and to a seafaring life were so strong as often to deprive the farmer of the most active and intelligent of his sons. When to this is added the unceasing drain upon the agricultural population by the prospects which the extent of the interior and the cheapness of lands opened to their enterprise, and the consequent effect upon the demand for labour, there is more cause of surprise that the actual state of cultivation is so good than of reproach that it did not receive higher improvement. Besides, in England itself the state of agriculture did not begin to attract any general and systematic attention until a little after the middle of the last century. The American farmer and capitalist would probably have joined earlier in the eager activity which this new state of things excited, had not the revolutionary contest, and the subsequent political embarrassments, at one period, both deprived them of the means of doing so, and forced their attention upon other objects; and had not, subsequently, the advantages resulting from neutrality during the wars of the French revolution, required at another the employment of all, and more than all, the pecuniary resources of the country. given space : at the same time keeping the land in an improving condition, in reference to its native vigour. These results, and the renovation of lands exhausted by means of a barbarous course of husbandry for nearly two centuries, are the cardinal points now in progression in our old settled countries, stimulated by the influence of agricultural societies. Nor did their measures produce any essential or extensive effects in the improvement of the breeds of domestic animals ; much less in exciting to rival efforts the female portion of the community, in calling forth the* active energies of our native resources in relation to household manufactures. The scene is now happily reversed in all directions. Perhaps there is no instance in any age or country, where a whole nation has emerged, in so short a period, from such general depression, into such a rapid change in the several branches to which I have already alluded ; in some instances it has been like the work of magic." — Memoirs of the Board of Agriculture of the State of New York, vol. iii. p. 524. THE UNITED STATES. 195 A very different arrangement in the relations of the useful arts to each other seems chap. i. to have commenced in America, upon the new state of things which peace among progressive the powers of Europe, and the increase of population and capital (the effect of time imProve- and of successful commercial industry) have induced. The natural result of peace, and of the comparatively unrestricted competition of the commercial nations of the earth, must necessarily be to limit the sphere of commercial speculation and to diminish its profits; and capital will therefore be thrown back from the water, to seek employment upon the land. Of the excess, beyond the wants of the merchant, one part will be applied directly to agriculture, and the other indirectly, by its being vested in manufactures ; for whatever tends to create and fix a great population in a country, must manifestly tend to increase in that country the production- of food necessary for its support : it may therefore be safely asserted, that whatever capital commerce cannot employ, becomes eventually a bounty on agriculture, until at least the resources of a country for vegetable production are fully developed. The republic already begins to perceive the effects of the great increase of capital and population, in the attention paid to the cultivation of the soil, in the agricultural associations, and the legislative patronage, which are active in the principal states of the Union. A new era in the state of agriculture has unquestionably commenced ; the effect of which is to attract general consideration and concern for the art, to stimulate the ambition of the farmer, and to multiply and concentrate the means of information in relation to all the subjects connected with its prosperity. Feelings of deep disappointment appear to have been excited in the minds of most Disappoint- English agriculturists who either engaged in the labours of the field themselves, or mngi;°h visited the farms of the republic, arising, as it appears to' us, from the want of a due agrkvd- consideration of the different — the opposite — circumstances, in which the two coun tries are placed. In perusing the volumes of Messrs. Parkinson, Faux, Fearon, and others, some hundred pages of invective occur, because the Americans will persist in taking up fresh land, instead of the more costly process of manuring a worn-out soil ; will raise extensive crops, instead of highly cultivating and beautifying a small space ; in fact, will employ their time in a manner calculated, in their estimation at least, to produce the greatest profit with the least exertion. In noticing the process of taking possession of and clearing for cultivation the virgin First erec- soil, some account of the simple agricultural erections which the settler requires will be n"^8] °t" both necessary and interesting. The building first erected on a new lot, or on a tract of land not yet cleared from its native growth of timber, is what is called a log-house. This is a hut or cabin made of round, straight logs, about a foot in diameter, lying on each other, and notched in at the corners. The intervals between the logs are filled with slips of wood, and the crevices generally stopped with mortar made of clay. The fire place commonly consists of rough stones, so placed as to form a hearth, on which wood J 196 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK in. may be burned. Sometimes these stones are made to assume the form of a chimney, and are carried up through the roof; and sometimes a hole in the roof is the only substitute for a chimney. The roof is made of rafters, forming an acute angle at the summit of the erection, and is covered with shingles, commonly split from pine- trees, or with bark peeled from the hemlock (pinus canadensis.) When the occu pant or first settler of this new land finds himself in comfortable circumstances, he builds what is styled a frame-house, composed of timber, held together by tenons, mortises, and pins, and boarded, shingled, and clap-boarded on the outside, and often painted white, sometimes red. Houses of this kind generally contain a dining-room and kitchen, and three or four bed-rooms on the same floor. They are rarely desti tute of good cellars, which the nature of the climate renders almost indispensable. The farm-buildings consist of a barn, proportioned to the size of the farm, with stalls for horses and cows on each side, and a threshing-floor in the middle ; and the more wealthy farmers add -a cellar under the barn, a part of which receives the manure from the stalls, and another part serves as a store-room for roots, &c, for feeding stock. What is called a corn-barn is likewise very common, which is built exclusively for storing the ears of Indian corn. The sleepers of this building are generally set up four or five feet from the ground, on smooth stone posts or pillars, which rats, mice, or other vermin cannot ascend. In those parts of the country where wood is of but little value, the trees are felled in one of the summer months, the earlier in the season the better, as the stumps will be less apt to sprout, and the trees will have a longer time to dry. The trees lie till the following spring, when such limbs as are not very near the ground should be cut off, that they may burn the better. Fire must be put to them in the driest part of the month of May, or, if the whole of that month prove wet, it may be applied in the beginning of June. Only the bodies of the trees will remain after burning, and some of them will be burned also ; those which require to be made shorter having been cut in pieces nearly of a length, they are drawn together by oxen, piled in close heaps, and burned; such trees and logs only being reserved as may be needed for fencing the lot. The heating of the soil so destroys the green roots, and the ashes made by the burning are so beneficial as manure to the land, that it will produce a good crop of wheat or Indian corn without ploughing, hoeing, or manuring. If new land lie in such a situation that its natural growth may turn to better account, whether for timber or fire-wood, it will be unpardonable waste to burn the wood on the ground ; but if the trees be taken off, the ( land must be ploughed after clearing, or it will not produce a crop of any kind. The following remarks on this subject are extracted from some observations by Samuel Preston, of Stockport, Pennsylvania, a very observing cultivator, and may prove serviceable to settlers on uncleared lands. Pre vious to undertaking to clear land, Mr. Preston advises — " 1st. Take a view of all Clearingthe land, and first crops. THE UNITED STATES. 197 large trees, and see which way they may be felled for the greatest number of small CHAP. I. trees to be felled along-side or on them. After felling the large trees, only lop down their limbs : but all such as are felled near them should be cut in suitable lengths for two men to roll and pile about the large trees, by which means they may be nearly all burned up without cutting into lengths, or the expense of a strong team, to draw them together. 2d. Fell all the other trees parallel, and cut them into suitable lengths, that they may be readily rolled together without a team, always cutting the largest trees first, that the smallest may be loose on the top, to feed the fires. 3d. On hill sides, fell the timber in a level direction, then the logs will roll together ; but if the trees are felled downhill, all the logs must be turned round before they can be rolled, and there will be stumps in the way. 4th. By following these directions, two men may readily heap and burn most of the timber, without requiring any team ; and perhaps the brands and the remains of the log-heaps may all be wanted to burn up the old fallen trees. After proceeding as directed, the ground will be clear for a team and sled to draw the remains of the heaps where they may be wanted round the old logs. Never attempt either to chop or draw a large log, until the size and weight are reduced by fire. The more fire-heaps there are made on the- clearing, the better, particularly about the old logs, where there is rotten wood. The best time of the year to fell the timber in a great measure depends on the season's being wet or dry. Most people prefer having it felled in the month of June, when the leaves are of full size. Then, by spreading the leaves and brush over the ground (for they should not be heaped), if there should be a very dry time the next May, fire may be turned through it, and will burn the leaves, limbs, and top of the ground, so that a very good crop of Indian corn and pumpkins may be raised among the logs by hoeing. After these crops come off, the land may be cleared and sowed late with rye and timothy grass, or with oats and timothy in the spring. If what is called a good burn cannot be had in May, keep the fire out until some very dry time in July or August. then clear off the land, and sow wheat or rye and timothy, harrowing several times, both before and after sowing ; for, after the fire has been over the ground, the sod of timothy should be introduced as soon as the other crops will admit, to prevent briers, alders, fire-cherries, &c. from springing up from such seeds as were not consumed by the fire. The timothy should stand four or five years, either for mowing or pasture, until the small roots of the forest-trees are rotten; then it may be ploughed; and the best mode which I have observed is, to plough it very shallow in the autumn ; in the spring, cross-plough it deeper, harrow it well, and it will produce a first-rate crop of Indian corn and potatoes, and, the next season, the largest and best crop of flax that •I have ever seen, and be in order to cultivate with any kinds of grain, or to lay down again with grass. These directions are to be understood as applying to what are generally called beech lands, and the chopping may be done at any time in the winter, VOL. II. i) D 198 TOPOGRAPHY OF book IIL when the snow is not too deep to cut low stumps, as the leaves are then on the ground. By leaving the brush spread abroad, I have known such winter choppings to burn as well in a dry time in August as that which had been cut the summer before."0 Manures. The subject of improving the character of various inferior soils, or of restoring exhausted soils, by manure, is becoming of increasing importance to the American farmer, and has consequently attracted increasing attention. It is true that in situations in which large sections of fertile soil still remain unoccupied, the subject is at present of little or no importance ; but to localities in the vicinity of cities or populous towns, where the land has risen to a great value, it is a question of deep interest. Drought is one of the greatest evils to which the soil of America is exposed, and gypsum is very extensively used, from the quality it possesses of attracting moisture. It does not answer near the sea or salt water, nor on wet stiff lands ; it answers best on hot, loose or sandy soils, and if strewed over the land, five or six bushels are found sufficient for an acre. Bone-dust would probably answer where gypsum will not succeed. The method of using all manures of animal or vegetable origin while fresh, before the sun, air, or rain, or other moisture, has robbed them of their most valuable properties, now generally prevails ; but it was formerly the practice to place barn-yard manure in layers or masses for the purpose of rotting, and turn it over frequently with the plough or spade, till the whole had become a mere caput mortuum, destitute of almost all its original fertilizing substances, and deteriorated in quality almost as much as it was reduced in quantity. It would be foreign to our purpose to enter more particularly into the system of manuring practised in the United States ; the results of the experiments of many respectable agriculturists will be found in the publications of the New York, Pennsylvania, and other agricultural societies. Draining The price of labour being very high, especially when compared with the value of an encmg. producej draining is but little attended to. — The fences are almost exclusively wooden rails, thorn hedges being very rare. In the eastern states it is probable that the thorn would not succeed, owing to the severe frosts in winter ; but in the middle and western states there is no doubt that it would flourish ; and certainly it would afford a shelter for the cattle during the oppressive heat of summer. If the thorn would not answer as a fence, the prickly locust, and several other small trees, indigenous to the country, would make an impenetrable barrier. Maize or Among the objects of culture, maize, or Indian corn, must take precedence, even 1 ''' " of wheat : it is prolific beyond comparison, yielding from thirty to one hundred bushels per acre ; and is cultivated in the eastern, middle, and western states, though much more successfully in the latter. Maize constitutes the principal food of man in c Encyclopaedia Americana, vol. i. p. 109. corn. THE UNITED STATES. 199 some districts ; while it supersedes the growth of the horse-bean, and other plants, chap. I. which in Europe are essential to the support of animals used in husbandry, or raised for the market. It is, in fact, one great cause of the cheapness of cattle, hogs, and poultry. Wheat, however, the grain so decidedly esteemed above all others, is Wheat. considered a more valuable crop in the soils adapted to it, and where culture has made the requisite progress ; it is the grain generally used for bread, and the best fitted for exportation. In the New England states, the soil and climate do not appear to reward the cultivation of wheat by an abundant produce ; and the southern states of the Carolinas and Mississippi have too much moisture, and a climate too tropical. The middle states, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, and in the west Ohio and Kentucky, are the tracts in which this important grain is produced with that excellence which enables it to become a leading article of American export. Rye, for mixing with maize in the common bread, oats for horses, and barley for Rye and distillation, are also raised ; though the two last not on so great a scale as in the al ey' northern countries of Europe. The cultivation of plants, for their roots, has recently attracted much more of the Turnips, attention of American agriculturists than formerly. The winters in the northern section of the Union, however, are so severe, that turnips can rarely be fed on the ground, and all sorts of roots are with more difficulty preserved and dealt out to stock, in this country, than in those which possess a milder climate. Happily, hay is more easily made from grass in the United States than in Great Britain, owing to the season for hay-making being generally more dry, and the sun more powerful, which renders root husbandry less essential to the prosperity of the American farmer. The different sorts of grasses which are cultivated for hay, grazing, &c. are lucern, sainfoin, burnet, timothy ; red, white, and yellow clover ; green-sward, blue-grass, crib-grass, &c, according to the section of the Union in which they are found respec tively to be most advantageous. Hemp is produced in some parts of the United States. Considerable portions of Hemp. the lands in the states of Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois and Indiana are well adapted to its profitable culture. It may also be grown to advantage in several of the counties of the state of New York, and on the borders of the Connecticut river ; or indeed in any of the middle and eastern states, where the soil is composed of a rich loam, or on alluvial bottoms. Kentucky is the only state where it is at present raised in any considerable quantity, and the crop in that state alone has been from five hundred to a thousand tons, which is manufactured chiefly into cotton-bagging, and the coarser kind of ropes, such as bale-rope, &c. Indeed it is supposed that Ken tucky could furnish a sufficient supply for the consumption of the United States. Hemp being an exhausting crop, it has been stated that the best land will not bear a succession of more than three crops ; but in Kentucky it has been ascertained by 200 TOPOGRAPHY OF book III. experience that the land, by being afterwards put' into grass, especially clover, will, in three years, be restored to its ability to produce a further succession of three crops of hemp. The quantity obtained from an acre, by the ordinary process of rotting and preparing the hemp, is from 500 to 800 pounds ; but when cleared in an unrotted state, it is supposed that the yield will be from one half to two-thirds more. The perfection to which machinery for cleaning hemp, both in a rotted and unrotted state, is now brought, warrants the conclusion that in a short time it will be in general use. The ordinary mode of sowing the seed is considered defective, from the small quantity put into the ground. At present a bushel and a quarter is the usual quantity ; but it is said by judicious farmers, that upon rich soil two bushels of seed at least ought to be used to an acre. The hemp of the United States, before rotting, is fully equal to any hemp of foreign growth, the texture of the fibre generally resembling that of St. Petersburgh and Archangel ; and the finest fibres being fully equal to the best Riga. The average price for Russian hemp is from 230 to 250 dollars per ton, while American (solely from the imperfect manner of rotting it) sells for about 175 dollars per ton. The hemp of the United States is almost invariably what is termed dew-rotted, and experience has shown, that cordage made of hemp of this description is by no means so durable as that made of water-rotted hemp, and the foreign hemp above mentioned is all of this kind. Dew-rotted hemp does not contain the tar necessary for the protection of the cordage from the effects of the wet, and without tar it is injuriously affected by the water, in a much greater degree than water-rotted hemp. " In order to make our hemp equal to any of foreign growth," say the manu facturers of New York,"5 " and to supply its place altogether as far as quality is con cerned, nothing further is necessary than that it be water-rotted, or prepared without rotting, if, upon proper investigation, it be found that the machines constructed for that purpose will make the hemp suitable for all kinds of cordage. We have long and anxiously looked forward to an improvement in the culture and preparation of the hemp of our own country, and inquiries, which we have diligently made, have resulted in the conviction that the expense and difficulties of water-rotting hemp have been much over-rated with us. It was tried upon a small scale, in Orange county, in this state, and the experiment resulted very satisfactorily.'' Flax. Flax is grown extensively ; and the seed being highly esteemed for some of the European soils, it forms an export of considerable amount. It is stated that in some instances an acre of land has produced a profit of twenty, and in others of thirty * Report of the Committee of Agriculture, in relation to American canvass, cables, and cordage, presented to the House of Representatives on the 5th of January, 1825. —As an instance, among a multitude of similar facts, of the interest Congress takes in promoting the agricultural, as well as commercial interests of the Union, it may be observed, that of this Report (No. 381), which contains a mass of information on this sub ject, important both to the grower and the manufacturer, six thousand copies were printed by order of the House, for distribution. THE UNITED STATES. 201 dollars. The manufacture of it, however, seems in a great measure to have been CHAP. I. superseded by the use of cotton. Indeed, the same inferiority is found in the quality of this article as in that of hemp, and from a similar cause. " In 1822," states Mr. Travers, the manager of a large factory at Paterson, New Jersey, in his exami nation before the committee of manufacturers,6 " I made duck of American flax, but I ascertained from actual experiment that it would not answer, and that my credit as a manufacturer was likely to suffer, and I abandoned it. I am satisfied that the superior quality of the foreign over the American flax is to be attributed, almost exclusively, to their preparing it by water-rotting, while in America it is prepared by dew-rotting. In this country too, it is suffered to grow too long, with a view of saving the seed, whilst the foreign is pulled when the bloom falls, and before the bole is formed. I conceive the difference between American flax, pulled when the blossom falls and water-rotted, and that which is pulled after it has seeded and dew-rotted, would be fifty per cent, better to the farmer and to the manufacturer, estimated upon the present prices. The one gains that much by the quantity and quality of the article, and the latter can afford to give that much more for it that it is now worth to him. Flax pulled at this time will weigh thirty-three and a half per cent, more than when suffered to go to seed." The animals, either employed in agriculture, or reared for food, are very similar to Animals. those of Great Britain. In the eastern, middle, and western states, much attention is paid to the breeding of horses. British race, and also Arabian horses, have been imported, to improve the breed of this animal. Neither the intense cold of winter in some of the states, nor the excessive heat of summer in all the states, appear much to distress the horse in America. Some of the American horses are likewise very fleet; the races in Virginia and South Carolina prove that the swiftness of the American horse equals that of the British. There are none of those very heavy cart-horses which we have in the British sea-ports. The cow in general use is about the size of the Devonshire one, giving five or six quarts of milk at each milking. The Holderness cow, and other large breeds, would certainly not suit the United States ; they are more adapted to a humid climate. It has been said that all animals dwindle in size in this country, a statement certainly very incor rect. If the same care be taken there in the breeding and feeding of horses and other animals as in England, there is not a doubt that the animal would attain an equal size or weight. Bullocks have been fed in America, weighing 2000 to 2500 lbs. : hogs, 800 to lOOOlbs. Sheep do not appear to succeed so well as oxen and swine. The mutton is not so good or fine-flavoured as the English, and it is frequently sold at half the price of beef. It is probable that proper attention is « Report (No. 115) presented to the House of Representatives, January 31, 1828, p. 136. ment, states.-Tobacco. 202 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK III. not paid to this animal; for it is healthy, not subject to the rot, or to many diseases which are prevalent in England. Mutton is not esteemed by the inhabi tants for the table, and the sheep is principally reared for the wool, for which the demand has recently much increased. Poultry of all kinds is abundant and good, but the climate does not seem to suit the rabbit. implc- The implements used in agriculture in most points resemble those of Great Britain, Circumstances however require variations, which the sagacity of the American culti vator will lead him to adopt, often in contradiction to the opinions of those who understand the science better than the practice of husbandry. In Europe, land is dear and labour cheap ; but in the United States the reverse is the case. The European cultivator is led, by a regard to his own interest, to endeavour to make the most of his land ; the American cultivator has the same inducement to make the most of his labour. Southern The principal products of the southern states are tobacco, cotton, rice, and sugar. The first of these indeed is grown largely in Virginia and other of the middle states, and, together with the cultivation of wheat, has enabled many of the proprietors to amass considerable wealth ; though, from the low price of tobacco, it is said now to be a speculation often attended with loss. In common with the other plants which thrive in the warm climates of the southern states, tobacco is cultivated almost exclusively by slave-labour : it is raised in the same manner as cabbages are in England, only planted at a greater distance. A bed is made as early in the spring as possible, generally in a wood, as no kind of animal will touch or eat the plant ; they seem even to avoid treading upon it. The preparation is by felling the timber, and burning the tops on the place intended to be sown with seed; to raise the plants, the seed being small, the ground is hoed up, and the ashes and earth mingled together as fine as possible. New land is preferred, and treated in the same manner as that for the seed-bed : if old land, it is very highly dunged, or cow-penned, which is by folding the cattle at night on a small piece or patch of ground, as sheep are folded in England ; and the latter mode is preferred to the former. The ground is then ploughed, and made fine by the harrows, in the same manner as for turnips in England. That being done, the plants are set; after which it is very com mon, if the man has sheep, to keep them in the fields to eat the weeds; even cattle are kept in the field for that purpose. Before the plant is set, the earth is generally drawn up into hills with the hoe, at the distance of three feet asunder, and dung put into them. It is said by the planters, that an industrious black man or woman will manage three acres. There is a caterpillar, or beautiful worm, more than an inch and a half long, of such a devouring nature, that if it be not observed every day, it soon spoils a great number of plants ; therefore the plants are searched over every day, which is one cause of the three acres being set off to every planter. THE UNITED STATES. 203 The culture of tobacco exhausts the land to such a degree, that it will only sustain CHAP. I. two or, at most, three crops. The entire process employs the negroes during the whole year: preparing the land in March and April, planting in May, hoeing and overlooking in June, July, August, and September, cutting and housing in October ; the other months, in moist weather, to be pulling the leaves off the tobacco-stalks, and preparing them for market ; in frosty weather in clearing the wood off, to plant new land the next year, and cutting the wood for rails, fire, &c. The following description of the mode of preparing tobacco for exportation is given by a recent traveller in the United States. " A party of a dozen negroes, on the floor of a tobacco-house, were placed, men, women, and children, in a circle, drawing the leaves from the stalk. In the centre stood two men, who, on receiving the leaves from the pickers, distributed them in heaps according to their quality. There seem to be three qualities of tobacco. The lower leaves, or those which touch the ground, are liable to get dirty and torn; but on the higher parts of the same stalk two different sorts of leaves are found, one yellow and one brown. These being carefully separated, and made up into little bunches, somewhat thicker than a man's thumb, are tied round with a thong formed out of the leaf itself. The bunches are then slung in pairs, across bars of wood, stretching from side to side of the roof, not unlike herrings in a drying-house. In the course of time, the house becomes so completely filled with these bars carrying bunches of tobacco, that there is barely left space enough for a man to creep under them to trim the fires, kept constantly burning on the mud floor to dry the leaves. The next process is to pack it into the large hogsheads which every one has seen before the door of a tobacconist's shop. This operation is performed by means of long levers worked by hand, which force it into a compact mass." The cultivation of cotton is conducted in a manner very similar to that of tobacco. Cotton. It is an annual plant, growing to a considerable height, and has leaves of a bright green colour, marked with brownish veins, and each divided into five lobes. The flowers have only one petal in five segments, with a short tube, and are of a pale yellow colour, with five red spots at the bottom. The cotton^pods are of somewhat triangular shape, and have each three cells. These, when ripe, burst open, and disclose their snow-white or yellowish contents, in the midst of which are con tained the seeds, in shape somewhat resembling those of grapes. The fibres of cotton are extremely fine, delicate, and flexile. When examined iby the microscope, they are found to be somewhat fiat, and two-edged, or triangular. Their direction is not straight, but contorted, so that the locks can be extended or drawn out without doing Violence to the fibres. These threads are finely toothed, which explains the cause of their adhering together with greater facility than those of bombax and several apocynece, which are destitute of teeth, and which cannot be spun into thread 204 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK III. without an admixture of cotton. In the southern states of the Union, the cotton cultivated is distinguished into three kinds — the nankeen cotton, so called from its colour ; the green-seed cotton, producing white cotton with green seeds ; and the black-seed cotton. The first two kinds grow in the middle and upper country, and are called short-staple cotton ; the last is cultivated in the lower country, near the sea, and on the isles near the shore, and produces cotton of a fine, white, silky appearance, very strong, and of a long staple. Cotton appears to have been found indigenous in America ; but for a long period after it had been grown in some of the southern states, it seems to have been consumed in domestic use, and none exported ; indeed, the factories at this time were supplied with a foreign article. When, in 1784, a small quantity of cotton was imported into Liverpool, in a vessel from the United States, it was, at first, considered as an illegal transaction, as it was not supposed possible for it to have been the growth of any of the states of the Union ; and when, about the same period, a duty was proposed in the United States Congress on the import of foreign cotton, it was declared by one of the representatives from South Carolina, that the cultivation of cotton was in contemplation by the planters of South Carolina and Georgia, " and that if good seed could be procured it might succeed." How rapidly this produce must have risen in amount, and what wealth must have been accumulated by its cultivators, may be supposed when it is stated that the crop in 1824-5 was 369,259 bales; that of 1825-6, was 720,027 bales; of 1826-7, 957,281 ; of 1827-8, 720,593 ; of 1828-9, 870,415. This rapid increase of production has been attended by proportionate diminution of price, which averages only about one-third what it did formerly : " Low as the price has sunk, however," says Mr. Everett/ " there is good reason to think it still, with thrift and economy, a profitable branch of industry. I have been lately favoured with a minute statement of the average product of five or six cotton plantations in two of the south-western states, ascertained by putting together the income of a good and a bad year. The result of this statement is, that the capital invested in these plantations yields from fifteen to twenty per cent, clear ; and that the net profit accruing to the proprietor, for the labour of each efficient hand, is 237 dollars, 50 cents per annum; being a clear gain of 4 dollars, 50 cents per week. It further appears that on one of these plantations, (and the same though not stated is believed to hold of the others, in due proportion) worth altogether, for land, labour, and stock, 92,000 dollars, the entire amount of articles paying duty annually consumed is 2,300 dollars. The average crop of this plantation, taking a good and bad year, is 14,500 dollars. — Suppose the duties to be thirty-three and a half per cent., and the whole amount of the duty to be actually assessed, in the shape of an enhanced price of the article, (the contrary of which f Address delivered before the American Institute of the city of New York, at their fourth annual fair, October 14, 1831, p. 40. THE UNITED STATES. 205 is known to be true, for in several articles the entire price is little more than the duty,) CHAP. I. it would amount to less than 730 dollars per annum, or a clear profit of 14,000 dol- lars. The great wealth of the south is, of course, the product of the labour there performed. The productiveness of this labour must greatly depend on the cost at which it is sustained. This cost must consist chiefly of that of food and clothing. Food is subject to no duty, nor is there any duty, which, except in the most remote and indi rect manner, can enhance its price. The annual cost of clothing in the south-western states, — probably in all the states south of 35°,— is said to be eight dollars per head. Suppose this supply to come enhanced one-third, it is a very small sum when assessed upon the annual product of the industry of the labourer. These statements are furnished to me on the very highest authority. There is no reason why the planta tions, to which they refer, should be more productive than others in their neighbour hood, except as they may be conducted with greater skill and prudence. But there never existed, and never will exist, any branch of industry, which, in the long run, will be profitable in any but skilful and prudent hands." There are two machines for cleansing cotton from the seeds; these are the roller-gin and the saw-gin. The essential parts of the first are two small cylinders, revolving in contact, or nearly so. The cotton is drawn between the rollers, while the size of the seeds prevents them from passing. The saw-gin, invented by Mr. Whitney, is used for the black-seed cotton, the seeds of which adhere too strongly to be separated by the other method. It is a receiver, having one side covered with strong parallel wires, about an eighth of an inch apart. Between these wires pass a number of circular saws, revolving on a common axis. The cotton is entangled in the teeth of the saws, and drawn out through the grating, while the seeds are prevented, by their size, from passing. The cotton thus extracted is swept from the saws by a revolving cylindrical brush, and the seeds fall out of the bottom of the receiver. Rice is cultivated extensively in the southern states, by a method somewhat similar Rice. to that of garden peas in this country. The grains of this plant grow on separate pedicles, or little fruit stalks, springing from the main stalk. The whole head forms what a botanist would call a spiked panicle ; that is, something between a spike like wheat, and a panicle like oats. The grain is sown in rows, in the bottom of trenches made by slave-labour entirely. These ridges lie about seventeen inches apart, from centre to centre. The rice is put in by the hand, generally by women, and is never scattered, but cast so as to fall in a line. This is done about the 17th of March. By means of flood-gates, the water is then permitted to flow over the fields, and to remain on the ground five days, at the depth of several inches. The object of this drenching is to sprout the seeds, as it is technically called. The water is next drawn off, and the ground allowed to dry, until the rice is risen to what is termed four leaves high, or between three and four inches. This requires about a month. .• VOL. II. E E TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK III. The fields are then again overflowed, and they remain submerged for upwards of a fortnight, to destroy the grass and weeds. These processes occupy till about the 17th of May, after which the ground is allowed to remain dry till the 15th of July, during which interval it is repeatedly hoed, to remove such weeds as have not been effectually drowned, and also to loosen the soil. The water is then, for the last time, introduced, in order that the rice may be brought to maturity ; and it actually ripens while standing in the water. The harvest commences about the end of August, and extends into October. It is all cut by the male slaves, who use a sickle, while the women make it up into bundles. As it seems that no ingenuity has yet been able to overcome the difficulty of threshing the grains out by machinery, without breaking them, the whole of this part of the process is done with hand-flails in a court-yard. The next process is to detach the outer husk, which clings to the grain with great pertinacity. This is done by passing the rice between a pair of mill-stones, removed to a considerable distance from each other. The inner pellicle, or film, which envelopes the grain, is removed by trituration in mortars under pestles weighing from 250 to 300 pounds. These pestles consist of upright bars, shod with iron, which being raised up by the machinery to the height of several feet, are allowed to fall plump down upon the rice, the particles of which are thus rubbed against one another till the film is removed. It is now thoroughly winnowed, and, being packed in casks holding about 600 pounds each, is ready for distribution over all parts of the world. Sugar cane. The extraction of sugar from the maple has already been described/ but that from the cane far surpasses it in amount, and will probably soon supersede it altogether as an article of sale. The sugar-cane is extensively cultivated in Louisiana, Georgia, and West Florida. Five kinds of sugar-cane are cultivated in Louisiana. 1st. The cane called Creole cane. It is supposed to have come originally from Africa ; its stalk rises vertically, the joints are closer than in the other kinds, and it is not so long and thick ; its leaves also are vertical, and remarkably lanceolated ; it requires as much labour as the cane of Otaheite : it is, of all the five kinds, the one that is most exhausting to the earth, so that, after a few years, the land on which it has been cultivated is so impoverished, that it becomes necessary to substitute cane of another kind. The sugar it produces has more strength or body than that from the others ; it is, consequently, preferable for exportation, and suffers less waste by dripping in Crossing the sea. — 2nd. The cane from Otaheite, called Bourbon cane. The stalk is thicker than that of the other kinds, and longer than that of the Creole cane ; the joints are farther apart, the leaves broader, of a lighter colour, turning over, and hanging towards the ground. The roots branch out less than those of the Creole e Book ii. ch. iii. p. 108. THE UNITED STATES. 207 cane, and it is more liable to be thrown down by the wind. The eye or bud of this CHAP. I. cane is very small, and so flat as to be difficult to judge of its quality. It is the most watery of all, and consequently not suitable for new land ; it succeeds better in an old soil, provided that it be well ploughed. Cultivated in this way, the Otaheite cane is the one that produces the most sugar. It suffers less from the cold than the Creole, but it is more tardy in coming up ; yet, when it has started, its vegetation is more rapid than that of the others. The plants are not so easily preserved, and it must be replanted every year. It is admitted that the sugar it produces has less body than that from the others. — 3rd. The Riband cane, green and red. — 4th. The riband cane, green and yellow. These two species of cane grow rapidly ; their stalks are as high as those of the Otaheite cane, and a little less thick ; the joints very far apart, as in that cane ; the eyes more prominent and larger ; the leaves are more bushy on the top of the cane, which exposes it to be prostrated by the wind ; but this accident is little to be dreaded in these canes, because it does not germinate so easily ; whilst, in the other species, the buds, in being brought in contact with the earth, vegetate speedily, which changes the sap, and injures the production of the sugar. The green and red riband cane comes up earlier than any other ; it is peculiarly adapted to newly-cleared land and low grounds ; it is the most vigorous, the easiest to preserve as a plant, the one that bears the most cold, and the culture of which requires the least labour ; but, by reason of the thickness of its bark, it requires a stronger pressure than any other to extract the juice ; and steam power alone can produce the degree of pressure necessary to avoid a considerable loss of the saccharine matter. The sugar that this cane produces possesses body, is easily made, and gives less molasses than that from any other. The green and yellow cane bears a consider able resemblance to the Otaheite ; it is almost as watery, and is not hard ; but it seems to be the general opinion that the plants are more easily preserved ; its stalk is larger than that of the green and red riband ; it is late in coming up, like the Otaheite cane, withstands the cold at least as well, and appears equally suited to lands somewhat exhausted by cultivation. — 5th. The violet cane of Brazil. This plant was introduced in Louisiana in or about 1806, but it was soon abandoned, the planters having found that in the climate of the United States it is much less pro ductive than any of the others. The Creole, the Otaheite, and the riband canes, are at present the only ones cultivated in Louisiana, and are the best suited to the nature of the soil. They are all more or less affected by the variations of the atmosphere, are very sensible to cold, and are killed in part by the frost every year. They are also exposed to other injuries, which renders the culture very expensive. Experience has shown that the cane may be cultivated in a latitude much colder than was generally supposed ; for fine crops are now made in Louisiana, in places where, a few years ago, the cane froze before it was ripe enough to make sugar.. 208 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK III. In the process of cultivation the ground is ploughed as deep as possible, and harrowed : after it has been thus broken up, parallel drills or furrows are ploughed at the distance of two feet and a half to four feet from one another ; in these the cane is laid length wise, and covered about an inch with a hoe. Small canals to drain off the water are commonly dug, more or less distant from each other, and these are crossed by smaller drains, so as to form squares like a chess-board. These ditches are necessary to drain off the water from rains, as well as that which filters from the rivers, which would otherwise remain upon the plantations. The average quantity of sugar that may be produced upon an acre of land of proper quality, well cultivated, is from 800 to 1,000 pounds, provided that the cane has not been damaged, either by storms of wind, inundations, or frost. The strong soil is easiest of cultivation, and most productive in rainy seasons. The light soils require less labour, and yield more revenue in dry seasons. To these variations others are to be added, resulting from the different exposure of the lands, the greater or less facility of draining, and also from the greater or less quantity of a weed, known by the name of coco or grass nut. Sixty working hands are necessary to cultivate 240 acres of cane, planted in well-prepared land, and to do all the work necessary until the sugar is made and delivered. The sugar, up to the moment it is delivered to the merchant, costs the sugar-planter about three and a half cents per pound for expenses incurred, without reckoning the interest on his capital.11 It will give our readers great satisfaction, however, to find that this article can be raised without the absolute necessity of employing slaves, which has been by some so strongly contended for. Mr. Coxe, in. his " Statement of the Arts and Manufactures of the United States," undertaken by the direction of Congress, observes, " This new mode of managing sugar lands appears to be worthy of par ticular attention and statement. Instead of the employment of slaves, requiring a very burdensome advance of capital, and an expensive subsistence, the occasional labour of neighbouring, transient, hired white persons, is often used to prepare the grounds with the plough and harrow, to plant the new canes, to dress the old ones, and to clear the growing plants from weeds. The same or other white labourers are afterwards employed by the planters to cut, and stack under cover, the ripened canes, so as to prepare them for the grinding-mill and boiler. The operation of planting occurs after the sickly autumnal season, and before the vernal ; and the operation of cutting also occurs in the healthy season, at the end of the following autumn. The service is therefore not unhealthy. It is considered to be expedient that the planters who own, and they who cultivate the soil, should not expend great sums in the establishment of mills and sets of works, on all the sugar estates, after the manner of h Answer of the Central " Committee of the Sugar Planters of the State of Louisiana," contained in a " Letter from the Secretary of the Treasury," presented to the House of Representatives, January 21, 1831. THE UNITED STATES. 209 the West Indian colonies of the European states. But it is found much more con- CHAP. I. venient and profitable, to leave the business of grinding and boiling to one manufac turer of muscovado sugar, for a number of planters. These persons, like the owners of grain-mills and saw-gin mills, can be employed for a toll in kind, or part of the produce, or for a compensation in money. By this method a tract of three miles square, or three hundred and twenty perches square, which would contain twenty- five plantations of above one hundred and two acres each, may be accommodated by one central manufactory of muscovado sugar from the cane stalks ; for none of these plantations will be more distant from the boiler than a single mile ; a mere city porterage or cartage. Refineries for making white sugar, and distilleries may be added, and the economy and accommodation to the planters will be more complete. The effect of this division of labour and ownership will be, rapidly to bring into the most complete and productive cultivation, all the cane-lands in the United States, and to advance the various manufactures of this valuable and wholesome agricultural production. The easy and cheap maintenance of cattle, the abundant supplies of provisions and building materials for man and beast, and the redundance of fuel and cask lumber, with the benefits to our planters from being more frequently and com fortably their own stewards and overseers, will greatly redound to their convenience and profit." Indigo was formerly an object of very extensive cultivation, but the growth of it indigo. was generally abandoned when cotton became the great staple of the south. It is still produced, however, in some of the southern states, but not to any very great extent, the exportation amounting only to a few thousand or sometimes only a few hundred dollars annually, while it is imported to a large amount. The cultivation of the mulberry tree, and the raising of silk-worms, have occupied Mulberry- a considerable and increasing portion of attention in the United States, and may be silk-worm. considered as a branch of agriculture the least pre-occupied, and the most open to energetic pursuit that the country affords. Before the revolution, attempts to pro duce silk were made in Georgia with some success ; but circumstances were unfavourable, and ultimately they were abandoned. Sewing-silk, indeed, has been made for upwards of seventy years, and still continues to be made in the state of Connecticut, and in some other parts of the Union ; but this silk is of so inferior a quality, that it not only cannot be exported abroad, but cannot even find a cash price in the domestic markets. It is disposed of in barter among the farmers, and is acknowledged not to be fit to compete with the same article imported from Europe, which still continues to be imported. The reason of this is not the want of ingenuity in the females, who, it is understood, exclusively attend to this manufacture, but to their ignorance of the art of preparing this precious material, an art which can only be acouired by experience and practice, and which must be taught by a person fully 210 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK III. skilled in it. Such persons are not to be obtained from foreign countries without the greatest difficulty. In several parts of the country, however, this important branch of agriculture is now more or less attended to. Societies of various kinds have been established for its promotion. With the same views, acts of incorporation have been granted by the state legislatures, and the national government themselves have not thought this object unworthy of their special patronage. The works of foreign authors on these interesting subjects issue in translations and abridgments from the press ; manuals, and even periodicals, are published by American authors, all tending to produce the same result — the introduction of silk as a profitable object of culture into that country. During the year 1829, a series of essays were written by M. D'Homergue, the son of an eminent silk-manufacturer, at Nismes, who had arrived in Philadelphia at the instance of an association for the promotion of the culture of silk ; they have since been published in a separate form, and will well repay the perusal of those who may feel peculiarly interested in the subject.1 The report of the " Committee of Agriculture, " who were instructed " to inquire into the expediency of adopting measures to extend the cultivation of the mulberry-tree, and to promote the cultivation of silk by introducing the necessary machinery," &c. made to the House of Representatives, March 12, 1830, states, these essays, and the facts contained, to be entitled to high confidence. " It appears from them," states the report, " that American silk is superior in quality to that produced in any other country : — in France and Italy, twelve pounds of cocoons are required to produce one pound of raw silk, whilst eight pounds of American cocoons will produce one pound of raw silk: — that cocoons cannot be exported to a foreign market from several causes, — their bulk, their liability to spoil by moulding on ship-board, and because they cannot be compressed without rendering them incapable of being after wards reeled. It is further demonstrated in these essays, and in a memorial lately presented by the manufacturers of silk stuffs of Lyons, in France, to the minister of commerce and manufactures, that the art of filature can only be acquired by prac tical instruction, by some one intimately acquainted with, and accustomed to, that process ; that no human skill or ingenuity, unaided by practical instruction, is capable of acquiring that art, to any profitable extent. It is made manifest, that, although the culture of silk has been carried on for many years in some parts of the United States, and more particularly in Connecticut, it has been conducted very unprofitably, compared with what the results might have been, if the art of filature had been understood. The sewing-silk made in Connecticut is from the best of the silk, and is, after all, quite inferior to that of France and Italy ; in these latter countries, sewing-silk is manufactured from imperfect cocoons, or from refuse silk. It appears 1 Essays on American Silk, See. by John D'Homergue, and P. S. Duponceau. Philadelphia : 1830. THE UNITED STATES. %\\ also that, unless the silk is properly reeled from the cocoons, it is never afterwards CHAP , susceptible of use in the finer fabrics. It is a gratifying consideration that the benefits from the culture of silk, and the acquisition of the art of reeling the same, will be common to every part of the United States. The climate of every state in the Union is adapted to the culture of silk ; hatching the eggs of the silk worms may be accelerated or retarded to suit the putting forth the leaves of the mul berry. That tree is easily propagated from the seeds of the fruit, and is adapted to almost any soil. The committee regard the general culture of silk as of vast national advantage in many points of view. If zealously undertaken and prosecuted, it will, in a few years, furnish an article of export of great value ; and thus, the millions, paid by the people of the United States for silk stuffs, will be compensated for by the sale of our raw silk. The importation of silk, during the year which ended on the 30th of September, 1828, amounted to 8,463,563 dollars, of which, 1,274,461 were exported ; but, in the same year, the exportation of broad stuffs from this country amounted only to 5,414,665 dollars, leaving a balance against us of nearly two millions. The committee anticipate that, at a period not remote, when we shall be in possession of the finest material produced in any country, the manufacture of silk stuffs will necessarily be introduced into the United States. The culture of silk promises highly moral benefits, in the employment of poor women and children in a profitable business, while it will detract nothing from agricultural or manufacturing labour. The culture of silk will greatly benefit those states which have abundant slave-labour, the value of whose principal productions, particularly in the article of cotton, has been depressed by over production." The first object to be obtained is undoubtedly the preparation of an abundant supply of food for the worms, which may be effected at a very small expense. There are two different species of mulberry, — the black, which is cultivated for its excellent fruit, of a dark purple colour, almost black ; and is a tree of slower growth than the white ; the leaves are larger, of a darker green, thicker and stronger. The silk worms will eat them for the want of better, but they do not thrive upon them, and the silk is coarse and inferior. The white mulberry-tree bears a white, or light pink fruit, and its leaves are the most congenial food for these precious insects ; is of a quicker growth, and does not come to so large a size as the black. The white mul berry is a very hardy tree, and bears the severest winters without any apparent injury ; will last a great many years, and, if cut down close to the ground, will send up many suckers all around, and resist destruction for several years. There are many kinds of white mulberry, the leaves of which differ in point of merit as a food for the silk-worm. Some are of a small size, earlier, and more tender ; and, on that account, are cultivated as the most proper for the worms when first hatched ; others are large, and of a peculiar quality, which suit the taste of the worms, upon which 212 TOPOGRAPHY OF book III. they thrive best, and make the handsomest silk. The best plants for earliness and superiority of leaves should be set out and noted, as they may hereafter furnish scions for grafting. Upon a dry soil the mulberry-trees do not grow much taller than the largest peach-trees ; but they are stouter and thicker set. Their roots, which are of a remarkably bright gold colour, (that of silk,) extend to a considerable distance ; and they ought not to be planted on that account nearer than thirty feet from tree to tree. As the gathering of leaves too soon would injure the growth and constitution of'the trees, we would recommend that no leaves should be gathered from them until after the fifth year. In the mean time plantations may be made for immediate use, by sowing the seed in drills, at a convenient distance, planting beans or potatoes between, to keep the ground clear of weeds. The second year after sowing, these seedlings might be cut down with a sharp instrument, three or four inches from the ground, and would give a second crop the same season. In the silk countries, they raise seedlings in rows for the first feeding of the worms : these young plants putting out their leaves earlier than the old trees, and being more tender, are better adapted for the worms in the first stage of their existence. They also plant the mulberry- trees, and suffer them to grow according to unrestrained nature, branching out from the ground, for the convenience of gathering the leaves more easily, and making a food stronger than the seedlings. They consider the leaves from trees, regu larly trained with a single butt, and of several years' growth, to give the most substantial food. The white mulberry thrives in all soils and situations, and will grow very rank and full of leaves upon low, moist ground ; but the food it affords in such situations is very inferior, and apt to disorder the worms. A warm loam, even if gravelly, will give leaves of the best quality, and a sheltered, warm situation, will produce leaves many days sooner than one which is exposed to cold; and is desirable on that account. The mulberry-tree may be raised from suckers : sometimes slips, planted in a moist soil, will take root ; and if the low branches of a tree can be bent so as to be fastened and covered in the ground, they will take root. The trees may be planted near buildings for shade, or in a yard ; the fowls are very fond of the fruit when it falls. A variety of situations will increase the means of early and late feeding, which is very desirable. The most esteemed seed of that tree in Europe is that raised in Piedmont. The seed from Spain is also excellent. The seed of the best quality is large, bright, and heavy; when bruised, it will appear oily, and when thrown on ignited coals, it will crackle. It would be superfluous here to give detailed instructions respecting the best methods of raising the silk-worm and winding the silk. Volumes have been written by Dandolo and others on this important subject ; but every needful information may be obtained from the article on this subject in the New American Gardener, by T. G, Fessenden; from the Essays already referred to; and from the Philadelphia THE UNITED STATES. 213 Silk Society. Persuaded that we are concurring in promoting both national and chap. i. individual benefit, by extending in any degree the circulation of appeals on the importance of this subject, we shall conclude with an extract from the first of the above publications : " Fully aware of the importance of the object we have pre sented to the attention of the community, we cannot leave it without making a concluding appeal to the intelligence and energy of our countrymen, not to suffer any delay to take place in setting their hands to a work so promising of results the most favourable to our comforts, and for our welfare : the first step is within the farmer's immediate department, to sow the mulberry-seed, and rear the young trees ; and after two years of attendance, the silk raising may commence in good earnest, and will become a healthy and pleasant business for children and young women. This rich crop will require but two months care to secure it, and when the business shall flourish on a large scale, which we may anticipate as probable within a short period, the raising of the cocoons will become a distinct occupation for farmers' families ; the winding and reeling of them, most probably, will be carried on as a distinct and separate branch of industry ; this is actually the case in all the silk-growing countries, where the cocoons are carried to the public markets, and sold for ready cash to those who keep filatures, where they wind and reel them. Great advantages will accrue to the younger members of farmers' families in cultivating so pleasant and profitable an employment at home : it will offer to many young women a choice between home > and the factories, and a resource in case the liberal encouragement given to manu factures should eventually prove the cause of business being overdone ; it will also offer valuable resources for the pauper establishments, where the old and infirm, under a discreet and judicious government, may be made to provide themselves a comfortable support. If we take a retrospective view of the affairs of mankind, since the times of early record, we find that the riches and the prosperity resulting from commerce and navigation, or from a system of extensive manufactures, however brilliant, are comparatively of short and uncertain duration ; the changes of views and systems of a government at home, the changes of policy among foreign nations, render the whole fabric subject to many sudden and unforeseen vicissitudes, and dependent upon the results of relations abroad, and of the compromise of jarring interests at home, setting at defiance, in the course of time, the subtle calculations of the most accomplished statesman ; but the prosperity which is founded upon a perfected agriculture, that combines with intelligence the abilities of the soil and climate, so as to naturalize, by industry, rich crops of products, unknown to its original situation, is a prosperity not liable to changes ; it becomes inherent and lasting." By the latest intelligence that has been received on this interesting subject, there appears every reason to believe that the difficulty in winding the silk will speedily be overcome. The indefatigable and patriotic advocate of this branch of national wealth, VOL. II. f F 214 TOPOGRAPHY OF Vine and olive. book ill. M. Du Ponceau, with the assistance of M. D'Homergue, has already, made consi- derable progress in instructing young females in the art of winding, and they have, in the midst of the obstacles by which they were surrounded, succeeded in producing about fifty pounds of raw silk in marketable condition ; part of which has been manufactured into a national flag, and presented to the House of Representatives.k The vine grows in most parts of the United States, and yields a plentiful return for the labour of cultivation. A few years since a number of Swiss settlers at Vevay, in Indiana, commenced the cultivation of the grape on a large scale, an example which has been followed in many parts of the west. The vicinity of Vevay still boasts the largest vineyards in the United States. "We have .witnessed nothing in our country," says Mr. Flint,1 " in the department of gardening and cultivation, which can compare with the richness of this vineyard in the autumn, when the clusters are in maturity. Words feebly paint such a spectacle. The horn of plenty seems to have been emptied in the production of this rich fruit. We principally remarked the blue or Cape grape, and the Madeira grape. The wine of the former has been pre ferred to the claret of Bordeaux. The fruit seems to have a tendency to become too succulent and abundant. It is now supposed that some of our native grapes. will more easily acclimate to the country and soil, and make a better wine. — These amiable, industrious, and intelligent people are constantly profiting by the benefit of experience, and this species of agriculture already yields them a better profit than any other practised in our country, while they are every year improving on the vintage of the past." A large grant of land, in the territory of Alabama, was made by the general government to a French association under M. Villar, for the purpose of encouraging the cultivation of the vine and the olive. Above 270 acres had been occupied with vines in 1827, and nearly 400 olive-trees had been planted. The latter, however, do not thrive, and it is apprehended will not attain an available degree of perfection in that climate, as the tree is perished to the roots by every winter's frost, although fresh shoots appear every spring.™ Horticulture has not been overlooked in the United States ; although, amidst the bustling pursuits and profitable occupations of the agriculturist, the manufacturer, and the merchant, it has not received that general attention which is evinced in our own country : those, however, who, either from views of pleasure or of gain, have devoted their time to the culture of the garden, have not had to complain of an unsuccessful or unprofitable pursuit. Some idea of the variety of fruits and of flowers which the climate will admit of, may be formed from, the following statement of the contents of a garden in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia* which may be relied Horticul ture. k Twenty-first Congress, second Session,' Report No. 7. 1 Geography and History of the Western States, vol. ii. p. 149. m Report made to the Secretary of the Treasury, Dec. 24, 1827. THE UNITED STATES. 215 on as authentic, being extracted from the Report of the Committee appointed by the CHAP. n. Pennsylvania Horticultural Society for visiting the Nurseries and Gardens in the vicinity of that city:" "Here are to be found," say the Committee, "113 varie ties of apples, seventy-two of pears, twenty-two of cherries, seventeen of apricots, forty-five of plums, thirty-nine of peaches, five of nectarines, three of almonds, six of quinces, five of mulberries, six of raspberries, six of currants, five of filberts, eight of walnuts, six of strawberries, and two of medlars. The stock, considered according to its growth, has in the first class of ornamental trees, esteemed for their foliage, flowers, or fruit, seventy-six sorts ; of the second class, fifty-six sorts ; of the third class, 120 sorts ; of ornamental evergreens, fifty-two sorts ; of vines and creepers, for covering walls and arbours, thirty-five sorts ; of honeysuckle, thirty sorts, and of roses eighty varieties." There are, however, considerable difficulties to be overcome in this pursuit, arising from the sudden transitions of temperature, long periods of drought, and the tremen dously heavy rains which wash away the soil. To avoid, as much as possible, the first of these evils, a situation sheltered from the north and north-west winds should be selected ; to meet the second, the vicinity of a perennial stream will of course, if possible, be sought ; and to prevent the third, a level plat free from any considerable undulations should be preferred. — Our limits do not admit of our entering into a detail of the various species of trees and plants suitable for cultivation. The quotation we have made will prove that most of the fruits and flowers of Europe may be raised in the transatlantic republic. Peaches flourish in such abundance, that in many cases they furnish food for swine ; and apples are no less plentiful, the finer sorts being considered superior to those produced in Europe. Large quantities of cider are manufactured, and this is an article that, in a great measure, supersedes the use of malt liquor. On the other hand, some of the vegetables most esteemed in the old world are difficult to raise and inferior in the new ; as is the case with the potatoe, which, in quantity and in flavour, is far inferior to the Irish. Notwithstanding the difficulties we have mentioned, and the inferiority of some productions, we are com pelled to admit that the balance is in favour of the American horticulturist, and we believe that there are few branches of business in which an industrious English emigrant, well acquainted with the principles of gardening, would find more profit able employment. ¦¦ Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania, vol. vii. p. 106. 216 TOPOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER II. MANUFACTURES. BOOK III. The subject on which we now enter is one, the importance of which is too deeply state of felt by the mass of the community, both in America and Great Britain, especially tures be- at the present period, to require any prefatory observations to attract attention to it. — fore the ^he manufactures of the United States, if not altogether of recent origin, are of sur- constitution ' ° . of 1789. prising recent growth. During their colonial state, the British government discouraged to the utmost every tendency to manufacture even comparatively trifling articles : with other articles, the manufacture of hats was entirely prohibited/ The cessation of inter course between the two countries during the revolutionary period gave the first great ¦ " While the colonies were increasing in population, and endeavouring to secure to themselves, in some degree, the benefits of their own industry and economy, complaints were constantly made to parliament, by interested individuals, that the colonists were not only carrying on trade, but were setting up manufactures detrimental to Great Britain. These complaints produced an order of the House of Commons, in 1731, directing the Board of Trade to inquire and report, ' with respect to laws made, manufactures set up, or trade carried on, detrimental to the trade, navigation, or manufactures of Great Britain.' In a report made, in pursuance of this order, the commissioners found that certain trades carried on, and manufactures set up in the colonies, were injurious to the trade, navigation, and manufactures of the parent country. Among the manufactures, were enumerated those of wool and flax, iron, paper, hats, and leather. The Company of Hatters in London complained that great quantities of hats were made in New England, and exported to Spain, Portugal, and the British West India islands ; and through their influence, an act of parliament was procured, not only to prevent the exportation of hats from the colonies to foreign countries, and from being carried from one plantation to another, but to restrain, to a certain extent, the manufacture of them in the colonies. In 1732, hats were prohibited from being shipped, or even laden upon a horse, cart, or other carriage, with an intent to be' exported to any other plantation, or to any place whatever. At the same time, no hatter in the colonies was allowed to employ more than two apprentices at once, or to make hats, unless he had served an apprenticeship to the trade seven years, and no black or negro was permitted to work at the business of making hats. " The manufacturers of iron next claimed their share in the benefits to be derived from the colonies. They were willing the poor colonists should reduce the iron ore, with which their land abounded, into pigs, and even bar iron, and that the same be brought to their doors, duty free, provided they could monopolize the manufac ture of it beyond this incipient stage. In the year 1750, parliament permitted pig and bar iron to be imported from the colonies into London duty free, but prohibited the erection or continuance of any mill or other engine for slitting or rolling iron, or any plating forge, to work with a tilt hammer, or any furnace for making steel in the colonies, under the penalty of two hundred pounds. More effectually to carry this act into execution, every such mill, engine, plating forge, and furnace, was declared a common nuisance, and the governors of the colonies, on the information of two witnesses on oath, were directed to cause the same to be abated within thirty days, or to forfeit the sum of 5001." — Pitkin's Civil and Political History, vol. i. p. 101, 103. THE UNITED STATES. 217 impulse to the manufacturing principle, and left the states no longer dependent on CHAP. II. Britain for several of the minor articles of manufacture. " On the return of peace, in 1783," says Mr. Everett, in his admirable address before the American Institute, Oct. 14, 1831,b "the influx of foreign goods, in many respects prejudicial to the country, proved in the highest degree disastrous to its mechanical and manufacturing industry. The want of one national government, and the division of the powers of government among thirteen sovereignties, made it impossible, by a uniform revenue system, to remedy the evil. The states generally attempted, by their separate navi gation laws, to secure their trade to their own vessels ; but the rivalry and selfish policy of some states counteracted the efforts of others, and eventually threw almost the whole navigation of the country into foreign hands. So low had it sunk in Boston, that in 1788 it was thought expedient, on grounds of patriotism, to get up a subscription to build three ships ; and this incident, proving nothingbut the poverty and depression of the town, was hailed as one which would give renewed activity to the industry of the tradespeople and mechanics of Boston! The same class of citizens, and the manufacturers in general, in the state of Massachusetts, petitioned the government of that state, by bounties, imposts, and prohibitions, to protect their industry. This prayer was granted, and a tarif of duties laid, which in some points, — that of coarse cottons for instance, — was higher than any duty laid by Congress before the war of 1812. But the state of the country rendered these laws of little avail. Binding in Boston, they were of no validity in Rhode Island ; and what was subject to duty in New York, might be imported free in Connecticut and New Jersey. The state of the industry of the country was depressed to a point of distress unknown in the midnight of the revolution. The shipping had dwindled to nothing. The manu facturing establishments were kept up by bounties, and by patriotic associations and subscriptions, and even the common trades were threatened with ruin. It was plain, for instance, that, in the comparative condition of the United States and Great Britain, not a hatter, a boot or shoe maker, a saddler, or a brassfounder, could carry on his business, except in the coarsest and most ordinary productions of their various trades, under the pressure of foreign competition. Thus was presented the extraordinary and calamitous spectacle of a successful revolution wholly failing of its ultimate object. The people of America had gone to war, not for names, but for things : it was not merely to change a government, administered by kings, princes, and ministers, for a government administered by presidents, and secretaries, and members of Congress ; it was to redress their own grievances, to improve their own condition, to throw off the burden which the colonial system laid on their industry. To attain these objects they endured incredible hardships, and bore and suffered almost beyond the measure b We should recommend all our readers who feel interested in the question of " free trade," to procure this judicious and lucid discourse. 218 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK III. Effect of the new re venue laws. Account of manufac tures in 1810. of humanity. And when their independence was attained, they found it was a piece of parchment. The arm which had struck for it in the field, was palsied in the work shop ; the industry which had been burdened in the colonies, was crushed in the free states ; and, at the close of the revolution, the mechanics and manufacturers of the country found themselves, in the bitterness of their hearts, independent — and ruined. They looked round them in despair. They cast about for means of relief, and found none, but in a plan of a voluntary association throughout the continent, and an appeal to the patriotism of their fellow-citizens. Such an association was formed in Boston in 1787 or 1788, and a circular letter was addressed by them to their brethren throughout the Union. The proposal was favourably received, and in some of the cities zealously acted upon ; but, unsupported by a general legislation, its effects must at best have been partial and inadequate. But before our meritorious citizens had discovered this, by sad experience, a new and unhoped-for remedy for their sufferings had been devised. The day-star of the constitution arose ; and of all the classes of the people of America, to whose hearts it came as the harbinger of blessings long hoped for and long despaired of, most unquestionably the tradesmen, mechanics, and manufacturers hailed it with the warmest welcome. It had in fact grown out of the all-pervading inefficiency and wretchedness of the revenue system, which had been felt in ruin by them more than by any other class." Under the new constitution a system of revenue laws, which afforded considerable protection to the manufacturers, was adopted ; and to these, combined with the effect of the embargo of 1807, and the subsequent war, the present manufacturing system of the United States may be said to owe its rise ; for the progressive enactments of pro tecting duties since the close of the war may be truly said to have been originated by the amount of capital involved and labour employed previously. Before we notice the particular species of manufactures now carried on, a general sketch of their pro gress, and the legislative measures by which they have been fostered, will not only afford matter of interest to the political economist, but will enable those engaged in mercantile pursuits to form a tolerably correct idea of the course which will probably be pursued in future by the United States. The first attempt to obtain a general account of the state of manufactures through out the United States was made by the government in 1810. The marshals of the several states, and the secretaries of the territories, and their assistants, were directed, pursuant to instructions from the secretary of the treasury, to make returns of the manufacturing establishments, and of the manufactures within their respective districts, territories, and divisions, and these were transmitted to the secretary of the treasury, for the purpose of being laid before congress. Some elaborate and valuable returns were made and transmitted, though the greater number of them were irregular, and evidently very deficient; those which came from Massachusets, Connecticut, New THE UNITED STATES. 219 York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, were the most complete. Notwithstanding, how- CHAP. 11. ever, the imperfection of the returns, the agents reported 1,776 carding machines, by which 7,417,216 pounds of materials had been carded; 1,682 fulling mills, and 5,452,960 yards, which had been fulled; 122,647 spindles; 325,392 looms; 153 iron furnaces and 53,908 tons of iron manufactured ; 330 forges, which made 24,541 tons of bar iron; 316 trip hammers; 34 rolling and slitting mills, which required 6,500 tons of iron; 410 naileries, in which 15,727,914 pounds of nails had been made ; 4,316 tanneries, producing 2,608,240 pounds of leather ; 383 flaxseed oil mills, making 770,583 gallons of oil; 141,191 distilleries, producing 22,977,167 gallons of spirits from grain, and 2,827,625 gallons from molasses ; 132 breweries, in which 182,690 barrels of beer had been made; 89 carriage makers, who made 2,413 carriages ; thirty-three sugar refineries, in which 7,867,211 pounds of refined sugar had been manufactured ; 179 paper mills, furnishing 425,521 reams of paper; four stainers, who stained and stamped 148,000 pieces of paper ; twenty-two glass works, which furnished 4,967,000 square feet of window glass; 194 potteries; eighty-two snuff mills; 208 gunpowder mills, in which 1,397,111 pounds of powder had been made. The following summary of the value of the manufactures of the United States is founded on the above returns : — Value in Dollars. 1 Goods manufactured by the loom, from cotton, wool, flax, hemp, and silk, including stockings 39,497,057 2 Other goods spun from the five materials above enumerated 2,052,120 3 Instruments and machinery manufactured, estimated at 186,650 dollars; carding, fulling, and floorcloth stamping by machinery, estimated at 5,957,816 dollars 6,144,466 4 Hats of wool, fur, &c, and from mixtures thereof 4,323,744 5 Manufactures of iron 14,364,526 6 Ditto of gold, silver, set work, mixed metals, &c 2,483,912 7 Ditto of lead 325,560 8 Soap, tallow candles, and wax, spermaceti, and whale oil 1,766,292 9 Manufactures of hides and skins 17,935,477 10 Ditto from seeds 858,509 11 Ditto from grain, fruit, and case liquors, distilled and fermented 16,528,207 12 Dry manufactures from grain, exclusively of flour, meal, &c 75,766 13 Manufactures of wood 5,554,708 14 Ditto of essences and oils, and from wood 179,150 15 Refined sugars 1,415,724 16 Manufactures of paper, pasteboards, cards, &c 1,939,285 17 Ditto of marble, stone, and slate 462,1 15 18 Dittoof glass 1,047,004 BOOK III. 220 TOPOGRAPHY OF Value in Dollars. 19 Earthen manufactures 259,720 20 Tobacco ditto 1,260,378 21 Drugs, dye stuffs, paints, and dyeing 500,382 22 Cables and cordage 4,243,168 23 Manufactures of hair ° 129,731 24 Miscellaneous manufactures 4,3i7,611 Dollars 127,694,602 Advantage ous effects of the war. Imposition of addi tional du ties in 1816. Mr. Trench Coxe, of Philadelphia, to whom the secretary of the treasury, in 1810, confided the arrangement of the returns of the marshals, &c, concerning the ma nufactures of the United States, in addition to the above estimates, observes, " From a consideration of all the reported details, and by a valuation of the manu factures which are entirely omitted, or imperfectly returned, for 1810, the foregoing amount of 127,694,602 dollars, is extended to 172,762,676 dollars; the sum last mentioned does not embrace the doubtful articles." The doubtful branches include such manufactures as have a very near relation in their character to, and connexion with agricultural pursuits, amongst which are the following; viz. cotton pressing, flour and meal, the mills for grinding grain, the barrels for containing the articles manufactured, malt, saw mills, horse mills, pot and pearl ashes, maple sugar, sugar from the cane, molasses, rosin, pitch, slate, bricks, tiles, saltpetre, indigo, red ochre, yellow ochre, hemp and hemp mills, fisheries, lime, grinding of plaster of Paris, &c. &c. ; all of which are estimated at 25,850,795 dollars, making the aggre gate value of the manufactures, of every description, within the United States, for 1810, 198,613,471 dollars." The preceding was the state of American manufactures previously to the war, which lasted from 1812 to 1815. During this period, the country was in the same state with regard to manufactures, as though they had been protected by duties absolutely prohibitory, and, consequently, a most amazing increase of the capital and labour engaged in manufactures accrued, especially in the staple articles of cottons, woollens, and iron. The capital employed in various manufactures at this period has been estimated at 1000 millions of dollars ; but on the return of peace, the influx of European goods reduced, the prices nearly 50 per cent., and closed, probably, one-half the manufacturing establishments of the Union. This circum stance alone could not fail to raise the question of the propriety of some additional protecting enactments being passed ; but the effect of the British corn laws on both the agriculture and commerce of America, tended yet more than the distressed state of her manufactures to render popular the imposition of protecting duties ; and in 1816 a considerable increase of duties on many articles of foreign commerce was enacted THE UNITED STATES. 221 by congress. A few years' experience, however, under the uninterrupted operation CHAP. II. of the commercial regulations of the two countries, demonstrated that inequalities still existed, and produced the conviction, that a further modification of the revenue laws was necessary. The people themselves took the lead, and gave the impulse to congress. An unsuccessful attempt was made in 1822. In 1824, the attempt sue- Further ceeded, and various augmentations in the imposts were made, with the view of j11^386 1D protecting American manufactures, and to secure to them the domestic market. On some articles of foreign manufacture, and more especially on the great British staple of cotton cloths, duties were imposed almost prohibitory, except on those of the finer kind ; and the experience of a few years established the ability of the Americans to supply themselves with manufactured cottons, upon better terms than they could be procured from England. On woollen manufactures, the duty imposed in 1824 proved inadequate for protection; and the languishing state of that manufacture indicated the ruin of those engaged in it, without further legislative encouragement. Application was accordingly made to the nineteenth congress, for an increase of Unsuccess- duties on imported woollens. After a long and animated discussion, the bill received toraisethe the sanction of the house, 106 to 95 ; but was laid on the table (which was equivalent duty on ' ' v ± woollens ir to rejection) in the senate, by the casting vote of the vice-president. Steps were 1826. immediately taken to bring the subject again before congress; and a general con vention of delegates from the states was held at Harrisburg, with the view of con centrating public opinion, and of obtaining an harmonious cooperation in the measures to be taken for the encouragement of domestic manufactures. Contrary to general expectation, no notice was taken of the subject in the opening message to the following congress ; but in the annual report from the secretary of the treasury, on the 10th of December, 1827, an elaborate view was taken of the manufactures of the country, and their encouragement and protection warmly recommended. " The time that has passed since the tariff of 1824," says the secretary, Mr. Rush, " has been sufficient to show, that the duties fixed by it upon these articles "= are not adequate to the measure of success in producing them at home, which their cardinal importance merits. A change, since 1824, in the laws of Great Britain, in regard to those first named, has also rendered almost abortive the provisions of the tariff in their favour. It belongs to the purpose of this report, which looks to the encourage ment of the national industry in preference to any that is foreign, here to state, that, for a period of six successive years, ending with 1826, the value of woollen goods and cotton goods, imported into the United States from the country just named, exceeds one hundred millions of dollars ; and the value of iron, and of articles manufactured from iron, seventeen millions. During one of these years, the woollens exported e Manufactures from woollens, cotton, and iron. VOL. II. G G 222 TOPOGRAPHY OF book in. from that country to this exceeded the amount of those exported to the whole of Europe put together. For the means of exchange against an amount of foreign manufactures so great, the United States have had three principal staples of their soil, viz. wheat-flour, tobacco, and cotton. The first of these the same country has, by her laws, positively or virtually excluded, during the same period of years, from consumption within her dominions. The second she has. admitted, under, a duty of more than 600 per cent. The third she has received with little scruple. She has known how to convert it into a means of wealth to her own industrious people, greater than had ever before, in her whole annals, been derived from any single commodity. This she has done, first by working it up for her home use upon the largest scale, and, next, by making it subserve the interests of her foreign trade. The complete establishment of American manufactures in wool, cotton, iron, and hemp, is believed to be of very high moment to the nation. All the principal raw materials for carrying them on are at hand, or could be commanded. The skill for imparting excellence to them would come at the proper time. There would be no want of labour, to which an abundant water-power, as well as artificial machinery, would everywhere be lending its assistance. Capital would be found for investment in them. If their establishment, by the immediate protection of the laws, should, at first, raise the cost of the articles, and, for a succession of years, keep it up, a true forecast, looking to the future, rather than adapting all its calculations to the existing hour, would not hesitate- to embrace the protecting policy. If it were a question of fostering manufactures for which the circumstances of the. country yielded not abundant facilities, then indeed could success be accomplished only by indefinite forcing, to be followed by indefinite monopoly in price. Such is manifestly not the case. Manufactures of fine cotton, of woollens of almost all descriptions, of iron articles, and of those from hemp, have already arrived at a point, in the United States, justifying the conclusion that some additional encou ragement from congress is alone wanting to fix them upon lasting and profitable foundations. This additional encouragement is invoked as a proper offset to the high degree of success which foreign industry has attained in these branches by the effect of capital and skill, long, preexisting in older nations, and long aided by their laws. These are advantages not intrinsic, hap accidental. , Yet they, cannot be countervailed but by efficient legislative aid to our own establishments in the beginning." Proceed- Early in the session the committee on manufactures entered on. the. investigation of congress the subject; and to them the petitions which flowed in from all portions of, the country, in 1828. both for and against an increase of duties, were referred.. The., resolutions also which were transmitted to congress from the legislatures of Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana, in favour of an augmentation of THE UNITED STATES. duties, and those from Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, in opposition to that measure, were referred to the same committee. On the 31st of December, the chairman of the committee, Mr, Mallary, by direction, submitted a resolution, that the committee be vested with power to send for persons and papers; which was, after a long debate, agreed to. The committee, thus authorized, issued subpoenas for twelve witnesses, who were examined, together with nine who voluntarily attended, and seven members of the house. The examination was principally directed to ascertaining the cost of manufacturing iron, steel, wool, hemp, flax, sail duck, spirits from grain and molasses, glass, cotton, and paper ; the capabilities of the country to manufacture them, at that time; and whether any alteration of the duties was required to protect the manufacturer against foreign competition. After four weeks spent in examining the various witnesses, the com mittee, on the 31st of January, made a report, accompanied by the testimony taken, and a bill, in which an increase of various duties was recommended, and which, after long discussion in both houses, and receiving several amendments, was passed into a law.d This measure was not only violently opposed in both houses, by the represen tatives of the southern states, but after it had become a law, the vehemence of opposition was still more manifest among the inhabitants, and even in the state legislatures of that section of the Union. The question still continues to occupy d The bill, as originally proposed, was as follows : — (The final result will be apparent in the table of duties.) On iron in bars, not manufactured by rolling, 1 cent per lb. — On iron in bars, manufactured by rolling, 37 dollars per ton. — On pig-iron, 62J cents per cwt. — On iron and steel wire, not exceeding No. 14, 6 cents per lb.; exceeding No. 14, 10 cents per lb. — On round-iron, of three sixteenths to eight sixteenths of an inch in diameter ; on nail rods, slit or rolled ; on sheet and hoop iron ; on iron slit or rolled for bands, scroll or casement rods, 3f cents per lb. — On adzes, axes, drawing and cutting knives, sickles, sithes, soades, shovels, squares, (of iron or steel,) bridle-bits, steelyards and scalebeams, socket chisels, vices, and screws for wood, 10 per cent ad valorem beyond the present duty. — On steel, 1 dollar 50 cents per cwt. — On raw wool, 7 cents per lb. ; and, in addition thereto, 40 per cent ad valorem, until June 30th, 1829 ; from which time an additional duty of 5 per cent, ad valorem shall be imposed annually, until it shall amount to 50 per cent. All wool imported in the skin to be estimated as to weight and value, and to pay the same rate of duty as other wool. — On woollen manufactures, of which the actual value shall not exceed 50 cents the square yard, 16 cents duty the square yard. — On all of which the value is between 50 and 100 cents the square yard, 40 cents duty the square yard. — On all between I dollar and 2 dollars 50 cents, a duty of 1 dollar the square yard. — On all between 2 dollars 50 cents and 4 dollars, a duty of 40 per cent ad valorem to be levied, and the goods to be valued at 4 dollars the square yard. — On all exceeding 4 dollars, a duty of 45 per cent, ad valorem. — On woollen blankets, hosiery, mits, gloves, and bindings, 35 per cent, ad valorem. — On raw hemp and raw flax, 45 dollars the ton, until June 30th, 1829, and then an additional duty of 5 dollars annually, until the whole shall amount to 60 dollars per ton. — On sail duck, 9 cents the square yard. — On molasses, 10 cents per gaUon. On all imported spirits, 10 cents per gallon, in addition to the present duty. — On window glass, above ten inches by fifteen, 5 dollars for every 100 square feet, and charging all window glass imported in sheets, uncut, with the same rate of duty. — On phials and bottles, not exceeding the capacity of six ounces each, 1 dollar 75 cents per gross. — All cotton cloths (except nankeens from China) of which the cost, together with the custom-house additions, shall be less than 35 cents the square yard, shall be deemed to cost 35 cents, and duty charged accordingly. CHAP. II. 224 TOPOGRAPHY OF Circumstances which fa vour the protecting tysiemof the United States. book III. the first place in the discussion of the periodical press, the language of which is still occasionally so violent as almost to indicate the probability of separation between the southern and northern states, if the tariff is persisted in. It would be incompatible with the limits, if not irrelevant to the purpose of this work, to enter into any lengthened discussion of the now virulently-contested question of free trade as applicable to the United States. With all the light which political economists have thrown on the subject, (and for some modifications of non-intercourse laws the nations are certainly indebted to their labours), the scheme of establishing a general system of free trade, in the present condition of the world, seems to be utterly hopeless ; and this being the case, it appears to us, and we apprehend it will to every one who follows candidly the path of investigation through which the claims of this work have necessarily led us, that there is no nation to which laws restricting the admission of foreign manufactures, if judiciously arranged, can be more beneficial than the United States. In considering this subject, those who, on either side of the Atlantic, have charged the American legislature with folly, overlook a very important circumstance, arising from the extent of space, and the variety of climate embraced by the limits of the republic, namely, that, to a vast extent, trade which to other nations is a foreign trade, is to the United States domestic ; — for instance, as far as commerce is affected, Louisiana and Georgia are at least as foreign in relation to New York or Massachusetts, as Spain or Turkey are to Great Britain : " consequently, the relative importance of foreign commerce, the interests of which are mainly impeded by restrictive laws, must ever be less than in the case of other nations; while, on the other hand, the existence of a manufacturing population must tend to promote domestic cultivation, trade, and commerce, to an extent proportionably greater than would be effected in other kingdoms.f With « It is true that, including her colonial possessions, the same' remark applies to Great Britain -. and, on this very ground mainly rests that " British system" of protective duties. 1 This point is well stated by Mr. Rush, secretary to the. treasury, in his Report to Congress, in 1817. " The United States," says Mr. R. " are distinguished in this respect, by a lot as peculiar as it is favourable. Nothing can exceed the inducements to various and subdivided traffic, that abound within their own limits. It is here that the economist may hope to see exemplified every essential advantage of the foreign and home trade, blended in the same system, moulded by the same policy, and freed from the jealousies that have frustrated and must ever continue to frustrate, the benevolent, but impracticable theories of commercial inter course as between distinct nations. It is not merely that the extent of climate and soil in the Union arc adapted to all pursuits that can give activity and fruitfulness to industry under every form. These are but natural advantages. It is the exchange of the products of industry upon terms the most desirable, and the most gainful, throughout so ample an extent of home dominion, that will exalt such natural advantages to the utmost. It is here that commerce may be carried on freed from every restriction, and probably for the first time, upon a political and geographical theatre so expanded. The appropriate industry of each portion may go into unfettered action ; of Louisiana and of Massachusetts, of Georgia and Rhode Island. A vast home trade, resembling foreign trade, as well by intervening distances as the nature of its exchanges, will be prosecuted, whether along the ocean, or the water highways of the interior, untrammelled by tolls or imposts THE UNITED STATES. 225 respect to the numerous other circumstances which must be taken into account before CHAP. II. it can be affirmed that any nation can conduct some of the principal branches of ~ manufacture at all, and still more to advantage, it so happens that the United States possess, in a preeminent degree, the great requisites of manufactures — water, coal, iron, cheap provisions, and an intelligent and active population: and that in such circumstances they should feel a desire to manufacture their own raw produce, and to be enabled to do so by protection from foreign competition, to say the least, does not appear either unnatural or unreasonable. The general principle of protecting duties being admitted, however, its application to any particular branch of manufacture must depend on its own separate merits, and upon the commercial arrangements existing with other countries. As an example of the latter case, we may cite the duty levied on American flour in British ports, a reduction of which might justify the Americans in diminishing the rate of duty on British cottons or woollens, as a benefit would accrue equal to, or perhaps greater than, the loss incurred. We apprehend the history of American manufactures and commerce will fully sustain the preceding observations. Having thus briefly noticed the circumstances which have conduced to the establishment of manufactures in the United States, we shall lay before our readers such information respecting the present state of the principal branches of manufac ture as we have been able to collect from public documents and other sources. As, however, there are no annual returns made to the government of the gross quantity manufactured of every article, but only of the exports, which comprise a very small portion of the whole, the information we can present, while important, will be inevitably but partial and incomplete. In the United States, as in Great Britain, the manufacture of cotton has out- Manufac- stripped all its competitors, and claims the first notice : on this subject we shall avail cotton. ourselves of information contained in a very able work now publishing at Philadel- phia.s The progress of this manufacture, as might be supposed, has partaken of the characteristic energy and vigour of the country. It is only, however, since the introduction of the power-loom, that it can be considered as having been established of any kind, and without even the necessity of custom-houses ; or giving to such establishments uses only formal. Such a trade can only, however, have its proper value by the extensive success of manufactures. There is nothing else that can impart to labour, in the United States, the necessary variety in its objects, and the necessary regularity and fulness in the demand. There is, nothing else can adequately augment and diversify the list of commodities for which the necessities and enjoyments of improved life are ever making calls. There is nothing else will raise up towns on the surface of our territory, at every commanding point, without which land can never be made to yield the full amount of which it is susceptible, or the farmer be sure of prices steady and remunerating. It hardly need be added, how a course of policy that would infuse aug mented vigour and briskness into a coasting trade, embracing in its range nearly one-half of a continent, would tend to enlarge, in all ways, the essential foundation of naval strength." s Encyclopaedia Americana, vol. iii. p. 573. 226 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK III. on a permanent and useful basis ; the scarcity of skilful weavers, and the high prices of weaving, had been found serious obstacles to its success, which has been, there fore, secured only by this invention. The first successful experiment with this instru ment was made at Waltham, Massachusetts, in 1815, on the coarser fabrics ; but so rapid has been the extension of the manufacture, that, besides furnishing the United States with its full supply of the more staple productions, and a considerable export of coarse goods, the beautiful prints of Manchester and Glasgow are imitated in great per fection; and more than half the consumption of the country, in this important branch, is supposed to be now furnished from native industry. The actual extent of this manu facture in the United States, at the present time (1830,); is matter of estimate only ; a very moderate one is believed to be the consumption of 35,000,000 pounds of cotton per annum, manufactured into 140,000,000 of yards of cloth, of which about 10,000,000 are exported, and upwards of 20,000,000 printed ; the value, twelve to fourteen millions of dollars, and employing a capital of twenty-five to thirty millions. Several im provements, originating in the country, have been introduced into the manufacture, and the whole process is believed to be performed to as great advantage as in any part of the world. The cottons exported are mostly of a coarse fabric, which are taking the place of the cottons of India, and are known abroad by the name of American domestics. They have been extensively imitated by the English, and a competition is going on, between the manufacturers of the two coun tries, for the possession of the foreign markets. It is thought that the possession of the raw material on the spot, and the use of the comparatively cheap moving power of water instead of steam, with the proximity of the great markets of South America, are advantages in favour of the United States, more than sufficient to counterbalance some disadvantage in the higher cost of machinery, and, as is commonly supposed, in the higher wages of labour. But the labour in the cotton mills producing these goods being wholly performed by females, it has been ascer tained not to be materially dearer than the same description of work in England; and, as the same labour is not easily applicable to any other branch of industry, it would seem not improbable that the United States will ultimately supply the foreign market with the coarser cottons. The great profits attending this manu» facture, in the first instance, attracted to it, in a very short period, a large amount of capital, and produced a violent competition : the consequence has been a sudden reaction, and great depression of prices, producing considerable embar rassment in those establishments operating with inadequate capital, and unable to meet the shock of impaired credit. But, although individuals may meet with heavy losses by imprudent speculations, there is no reason to distrust the eventual success of the manufacture, which must soon find relief under the increasing consumption of the country. The largest establishments for the manufacture of THE UNITED STATES. cotton in the United States, at present, (1830,) are at Dover, New Hampshire ; CHAP. ii. Lowell, Massachusetts; Pawtucket, Rhode Island; Patterson, New Jersey; and in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia and Baltimore. The reduction of price in the raw material, which is now of only one-third the value of 1815, has still more extended the manufacture, which, in many instances, supersedes coarse linens, and even hempen sail cloth.h Woollen factories are numerous in the eastern states ; and the manufacture of this Woollens. article excites a deep and general interest in the republic, as the production of the raw material is not confined to one portion of the country, but may be profitably pursued in some parts of nearly all the states. The protection of this manufacture was one prin cipal object of the tariff of 1828. That without further protection both the manufac ture and the growth of wool would have been abandoned, was made very apparent in the evidence tendered to the committee of manufactures appointed by congress early in that year. It appeared that several of the joint-stock manufacturing companies' t 11 The following details respecting the operations of a cotton factory, near Springfield, Massachusetts, in the summer of this year, are not without interest. " There are about 15,000 spindles in operation, and from 10,000 to 13,500 yards of cloth manufactured daily— 20,000 spindles are soon to be at work. About 800 hands are employed — 700 of these are females, who earn from 12 to 21 dollars a month: they pay 8 dollars for board, washing, &c. ; but they all work by the piece, and some clear 18 dollars monthly. The village contains 1,400 souls : ii is inhabited only by persons employed in the factories, or their families. The agent receives 3,000 dollars a year, the superintendent 2,000, and the concern is said to yield 10 per cent, on the capital invested." 1 The statement of the superintendent of the Oriskany Woollen Manufacturing Company, before the com mittee of manufacturers, affords some interesting information respecting the management and operations of similar institutions : although, of course, they vary from each other, both_ in extent and in some points of management. " The officers of the company," says Mr. Dexter, " are five directors, who receive, each, 2 dollars for every attendance at the meetings of the board. The number of these meetings averages about four annually. The board appoints, from its own body, a president, secretary, and treasurer. The president and secretary receive nothing as compensation. The treasurer receives 50 dollars per annum, over and above his pay as a director. A superintending agent, who is paid 800 dollars per annum, and is furnished with a house and garden, rent free ; and a clerk of the store, who receives about 10 dollars per month, and is boarded. The company employs in its service one head carder, at a salary of 400 dollars per annum, who boards himself, as do all the hands employed in the factory, except three apprentices, who receive board and clothing ; one machinist, at 1 dollar 50 cents per working day j one superintending weaver, at 1 dollar 37£ cents per working day ; one principal fuller j one presser, 8ic. ; two hands in the finishing room, and one dyer, each at 1 dollar 25 cents per working day ; ten hands in the spinning and carding rooms ; two assistant carders, and one assistant in and about the dying house, each at 1 dollar per working day ; and one watchman, also at 1 dollar per day, for every day ; one fireman, at about 80 cents per day, and two or threeother labourers, getting wood, &c. at about 75 cents per day, each. These include all the labouring men I can now recollect. One girl to letter the cloth, at 4 dollars per week j twenty-four women and girls, at 3 dollars each per week ; and eighteen or twenty women and girls, at 2 dollars 50 cents each per week. The residue of the hands are young boys and girls, whose wages will vary from 1 dollar 25 cents to 2 dollars per week, each. The whole number employed will range from 80 to 100. Also, an assorter of wool, at about 30 dollars per month, and an assistant assorter, at] about 20 dollars per month. The working hours, summer and winter; are, I think, eleven in number. . They commence work at five o'clock in the morning, in winter, and, I think, in summer also. The leisure for breakfast and dinner is thirty minutes each ; but at what hour they break off for breakfast I cannot say ; for dinner, it is at 12 o'clock at noon. Each person employed is held to work eleven hours for a day's work ; if any works less time, it is 228 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK III. had never paid any dividends on the capital subscribed, and that not from losses by bad debts or mismanagement, but from the reduction of the price of woollen cloths through importation from Europe. The. increase of duty (for the details of which we refer to Table, No. I. at the close of this chapter,) on foreign cloths, has led to great activity in the woollen manufacture, and at the present time it is in a very prosperous state. The demand for wool is so great, that large quantities are imported from Europe, and the price of native wool has risen from 50 to 100 per cent., an advance, however, which cannot long be sustained ; but unless great caution is used, it will lead to a most injurious reaction and depression. To enter into details respecting particular factories would be unnecessary in this part of the work, as they will be noticed, in a subsequent department, in the respective localities in which they occur. This observation will apply to the other articles of manufacture which remain to be noticed. Before leaving the subject of woollens, however, we regret to be compelled to add an observation not at all to the credit of the commercial world : — there appears to be too much reason to apprehend that the duties to which the several descriptions of woollens are subject according to their quality,1' are extensively evaded by means of false invoices and false oaths. One great evil of high protecting duties is undoubtedly the strong temptation it affords to men, whose only deity is gold, to enter on a system of fraud, and consequently to ruin those in the same line of business who are too honourable to descend to such practices. We hope, however, there may be some other method of accounting for facts which appear at first sight to admit only of such, an unpleasant and disgraceful solution.' deducted ; if more time, he is paid extra in proportion to the time. When there is a hurry, the hands are induced to work one and two hours over the regular time, each day, for which they are compensated." 1 See Table, No. II. at the close of this chapter. 1 That our mercantile readers who may feel peculiarly interested in this subject may clearly apprehend the charge as stated by the American manufacturer, we insert an extract from a letter, inserted in Niles' Register, of July 2, 1831. — " A cloth of 6-4 wide (which is the ordinary width) costing 6s. 9d. sterling, or 1 dollar 50 cents per running yard, being the highest cost whish can lawfully come in under the 1 dollar minimum, can be imported at 2 dollars 53 cents, which includes cost, duties and expenses of importing; add to this 25 cents per yard for credits on sales, commission, guarantee, &c. making up the whole cost, and expenses of sale, to 2 dollars 78 cents per yard for dollar minimum cloths ,- if they will sell at 3 dollars per yard it is a clear profit on the investment of 15 per cent If the cloth cost but Ss. sterling and pays the lawful duty, which is 1 dollar per yard more than on the cloth costing 6s. 9d. it must sell for 4 dollars per yard to pay the cost and charges^ and remit to the owner his net cost of 8s. per yard without any profit. If a cloth cost 9s. sterling it must at least bring 4 dollars 30 cents to pay cost. If it cost 10s. it must bring 4 dollars 60 cents. If it cost lis. 5 dollars to pay the cost " Merchants will not long carry on business that yields no profit, either on one or the other side of the Atlantic. On the contrary, it appears that some classes of importers appear to have made profits beyond all belief, or have suffered heavy losses. Thousands of pieces of cloths have been sold in this market by private and public sale at the prices of between 3J and 4J dollars per yard, mostly at 3J and 3| dollars, and the sellers were well satisfied, as I am informed, with the prices they obtained. " All cloths that cost but 6s. 9d. sterling, per running yard of 6-4 wide, paying the dollar minimum duty, and which sell — At THE UNITED STATES. 229 Household manufactures of woollen, linen, and cotton, are carried on to a CHAP. II. great extent. Many thousands of families spin and make up their own clothing, Household manufac- sheets, table-linen, &c. They purchase cotton yarn, and have it frequently mixed tures. with their linen and woollen : blankets, quilts, or coverlets, in short, nearly all articles of domestic use, are chiefly made in the family. It is supposed that nearly two-thirds of all the clothing, linen, blankets, &c, of those inhabitants who reside in the interior of the country, are of household manufacture. It is the same in the interior with both soap and candles, the inhabitants happily having no exciseman to prevent their making those articles at any time or to any extent in the family. Next in importance and amount to the manufacture of wool is that of iron. ^""^c' The abundance in which the ore is found, and in the immediate vicinity of coal, iron. has naturally promoted the erection of forges in various parts of the Union, but particularly in the state of Pennsylvania. As in other cases during the war, many extensive establishments were erected, and were very successful ; but the return of peace, and the consequent influx of pig and bar iron from Europe, annihilated a very large proportion of them, the price of iron being reduced to fifty-five or sixty dollars per ton, which was less than the cost of manufacture in America, except under very favourable circumstances. The following statement of facts and estimates, showing the nature, extent, and results of the iron-making business, as conducted in the state At 3 dollars per yard, yield a clear profit of 15 per cent. At 3 dollars 25 cents do. do. do. 31 do. At 3 dollars 50 cents do. do. do. 53 do. At 3 dollars 75 cents do. do. do. 75 do. If they cost but 3d. sterling more than 6s. 9d. they, of course, come under the 2 dollar 50 cents minimum, • and are subject to a duty of 1 dollar per yard more. Thus, if a cloth cost but 7s. sterling per running yard of 6-4 wide, pays the lawful duty, and sells for but 3 dollars, it produces a loss to the owner of 55 per cent. If at 3 dollars 25 cents the loss is 88 do. If at 3 dollars 50 cents the loss is 23 do. " To an intelligent public I appeal whether either of these two cases is probable. That the market has been well stocked with cloths selling at 3£, 3£ to 4 dollars, is notorious ; to believe that either can be true, we must consent to the absurdity, that the owners have either realized the enormous profits of from 30 to 75 per cent, or lost from 23 to 55 per cent. There is no mistake in these figures ! " When, therefore, to these calculations, which cannot be controverted, the fact is added, that no honest man can import from England (purchased for cash) at a cost of 6s. 9d. a cloth that will sell, taking the average of all colours, for more than 3 dollars per yard, can a doubt remain ? The writer has in vain tried to have cloths bought in England at 6s. 9d. that would sell for more than 3 dollars ; and he asserts fearlessly, (and challenges proof that he is in error,) that the whole average of cloths of all colours that have been honestly imported at 6s. 9d. for the past nine months, have not sold in this market above the average of 3 dollars per yard, many cloths would not bring that price ; and that nearly every yard of cloth that has been sold in this market at'3| dollars to 4 dollars, has either been smuggled or fraudulently entered, or it produced a considerable loss to the owner ; and from what has been previously stated, no doubt can exist that by fraud only is this market so fully supplied with cloths of this description, thousands of pieces of which have been sold this season both at public and private sale, and the owner no doubt laughing at our folly and credulity." VOL. II. H H 230 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK hi. of New Jersey, deposed by Mr. Jackson before the committee on manufactures in 1828, affords a very clear and interesting development of the state of. the trade at the time, and, with the information subsequently given, will enable any individuals, who might be inclined to embark capital in this branch of American manufactures, to form a tolerably correct idea as to the probabilities of success : — I. The Nature of the Business. " The iron-making business in this section of country is principally conducted by persons who have severally commenced their operations by the purchase of a tract of land embracing the necessary water-power for propelling the works, and affording a sufficient quantity of timber to supply them with fuel for a number of years. In the improvement of such tracts, the first step is the erection of a dam; a forge, or iron mill, which usually contains two fires; two pair of bellows ; one hammer, anvil, and the harness connected therewith ; two water-wheels to move the bellows and ore stampers, and one for the hammer ; a coal house ; a smith's shop { and dwellings for the owner and workmen. The business then proceeds in the employment of the necessary workmen, such as wood choppers, colliers, teamsters, and forgemen ;¦ and the preparation of teams for carting the coal, ore, and iron. It is the practice of the owners, in the prosecution of their business to furnish to the workmen, at the works, such supplies of provisions and other necessaries as they may require. II. The Extent of the Business, and Facilities for enlarging it. 1st. The amount of iron actually made per annum, so far as the same can be ascertained by the returns from the different forge owners, is 2,750 tons. ., 2d. The amount of capital invested embraces the following items, viz. — Dollars Cost of erecting 1 10 forge fires, now in operation, at an average epxense, including machinery, dams, and coal-hou3es, of 1,500 dollars each 165,000 Amount invested in woodland, allowing each fire to require 750 acres for its support in producing its proportion of 1;he 2,750 tons, made in all, equal to 82,500 acres, at an average price (the water privileges included) of ten dollars per acre .". . . .... 825,000 The expense of teams, tools, etc., for each fire, is 500 dollars 55,000 Cost of houses for the accommodation of workmen, allowing to each fire five houses, at 200 dollars each, 1,000 dollars ..!.:..... 110,000 Amount of floating capital necessary to conduct the business, 500 dollars for each fire 55,000 , Dollars 1,210,000 3d. The number of workmen employed in the business, allowing each fire, to require two forgemen, two colliers, two cartmen, one coal stacker, five wood choppers, and a carpenter and blacksmith, equal to one hand, are thirteen to each fire, numbering, in all,: 1,430 workmen THE UNITED STATES. 231 who, with their families of four persons each, make the number of souls dependent upon the CHAP. II. business, 5,720. 4th. The facilities for extending the business are ample. There are now in operation, as appears by this statement, 110 forge fires, producing, on an average, about twenty-five tons each per annum. Were sufficient encouragement afforded, it is presumed that these fires may be made to produce thirty-five tons each per annum, instead of the present quantity, and that a number more of equal ability would soon be put in operation, all of which could be fully supported with charcoal and ore, the materials now used in the manufacture. III. The Results of the Business, and Details of the Manufacture. • Dolls, cts. To make one ton of bar iron, it requires — Three tons of ore, at an average cost of five dollars per ton 15 00 Ten loads of coal, at four dollars per load 40 00 The additional expenses are — Stocking ten loads of coal, at Is. per load 1 25 Small repairs of forge, per ton 1 50 Wages of workmen for making, per ton 16 50 Average expense of cartage and freight to New York, per ton 5 00 Dollars 79 25 The average price of American bar-iron in New York, for most of the time during the last eleven years, has not been greater than it now is, viz. seventy to eighty dollars per ton. In the above estimate of cost in making the one ton of iron, it is assumed that the coal and ore are purchased by the manufacturer at the current prices. If, however, the coal is made upon his own premises, and the ore raised from his own mine, the following estimate will show the result : — Dolls, cts. Cost of -cutting twenty cords of wood, for one ton of iron, at 3*. per cord 7 50 Cooling ten loads of coal, at 12s. per load 15 00 Carting ditto, at 8s. per load ,. 10 00 Stocking ditto, at Is. per load 1 2S Raising three tons of ore, at 12s. per ton 4 50 Carting ditto, at 8s. per ton . . ; s 00 Wages for making one ton of iron - 16 50 Small repairs of forge, per ton 1 50 Cartage and freight to New York, per ton 5 00 Dollars 64 25 Should any allowance be made in the last estimate, for the value of the standing wood used in making the coal, and of the ore in the bed/ the following sum should be added to the amount of this estimate, viz. 232 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK III. Circum stances favourable to some establishments. Dolls, cts. Twenty cords of standing wood at 4s. per cord 10 00 Three tons of ore in the bed, at 12s. per ton '. 4 50 14 50 Amount of the last estimate added 64 25 Dollars 78 75 It is perceived that the foregoing estimates include no account of interest of capital invested, decay of works, expense of management, taxes, &c. ; nor is any provision made for risks or losses, although the business is greatly exposed to the hazards of both. Were these items estimated, there should be an addition of ten to fifteen dollars per ton, to each of the foregoing estimates. It will also be perceived that in this statement no estimate has been submitted of the amount of capital invested in mines, or the cost of opening them, from the impossibility of arriving at any thing satisfactory respecting them. It can only be stated that there are fifty mines in this district already opened, fifteen of which are at present worked, and that the quantity of good ore is presumed to be inexhaustible. This statement is, moreover, strictly confined to facts and estimates in relation to manufac turing of bar iron, without any allusion to furnaces, of which there are several, or to rolling mills, of which there are four in the district, three situated at Dover, and owned by Messrs. Blackwell and M'Farlan, of the city of New York, which annually convert into rolled iron 1,000 tons of the manufactures of the district ; and the other at Rockaway, owned by Colonel Joseph Jackson, capable of rolling about 400 tons more." On a cursory view of this subject, it would be matter of surprise that the manufac ture of iron from native ore should have continued to exist in the United States; but another statement of the same witness throws a light not only on this particular subject, but indicates one of the peculiar advantages which tend to counterbalance some of the unfavourable circumstances with which manufacturers in America have to contend. The committee very reasonably inquire, " If the business of manufacturing bar iron is as bad as you represent it, and if others in your neighbourhood have failed in it, how have you. been able to sustain yourself; and why have you continued the business? " Tp which Mr. Jackson makes the following reply : " I have been able to sustain, myself because I carry on a farm, and the manufacturing establishments furnish a good market for my farming produce. I also keep a store, and pay for a share of the labour of my workmen out of the store, and get a profit on my goods. I have, also, a grist mill, and a saw mill, which have aided me in my buildings, &c. ; but establishments unconnected with these, or like advantages, have failed. My rolling mill, also, enables me to do more business, and upon which I get a little profit ; and I have continued to hope for better times. I have, also, some government contracts, which have assisted me, not so much by an advance of price, as by a sure THE UNITED STATES. 233 market for a large quantity ; which enabled me to proceed with certainty, and without CHAP, n being subjected to the fluctuations of the market for the manufacture." In consequence of this state of things, an advance of duty, averaging from Tariff of five to twenty-five per cent, on that already imposed on foreign iron, was enacted.m fa*w°™ The method in which this duty was arranged appears, however, to have been much t0 tne n ~ , . _ . miners more in iavour of the proprietors of the iron mines and smelters than of the than the manufacturers of hardware, the advance of duty being on kon rolled; also, on ^rei"f° slabs, blooms, and loop, or other wire, from thirty to thirty-seven dollars per ton, or nearly twenty-five per cent., while, on manufactured articles, as axes, knives, &c. the advance was only ten per cent., the alteration being, manifestly, nearly fifteen per cent. in favour of the British manufacturer. The " Petition of the Iron Manufacturers of Philadelphia, presented to Congress in the Session of 1831," states, that under these enactments, even " horseshoes " have become an article of considerable export from Britain. If the statements of the manufacturers of Philadelphia should not prove erroneous, which, from the very extensive orders executed this year at Sheffield and Birmingham, we apprehend will not be the case to any material extent, the history of the past would lead us to expect that congress will speedily remedy what they will deem an anomaly in the " American system."— Among articles of which iron forms the material, steam-engines now undoubtedly claim the first rank . and the Americans are remarkable for the number of these admirable machines, both on land and water. Although the demand for them is constantly increasing, such is the skill which competition has brought to bear on this important article, that an engine, which, a few years since, would have cost 2,000 dollars, may now be purchased for 800 dollars. Glass, both for windows and domestic purposes, is manufactured extensively in Glass. the United States, principally at Pittsburgh. The price of this article has much declined, owing chiefly, if not entirely, to internal competition,11 a healthy process indeed, when not carried to excess ; but sometimes a direful disease, that may be termed the " madness of the few for the gain of the many," if, indeed, in some cases, it may not be more truly said, " for the gain of none." When it is carried to the extent of destroying, not only the master's profit, but the value of the labour of the mechanic, it is the madness of the few for the destruction of thousands ; a result which has accrued to a lamentable extent in Great Britain. Happily, however, the American labourer is Reduction as yet, by the quantity of unoccupied land which still remains, protected from this cf tne arti_ deplorable result of the folly of his master, and, consequently, it is found, that, while ^ but the the prices of articles of glass have declined in value at least fifty per cent, within a few labour years, there has been " a great uniformity of wages " during that period. " In 1808," m See Table, No. I, at the end of this chapter. " Some addition to the import duty was, however, made in the tariff of 1828. — See Table, No. I. 234 TOPOGRAPHY OF Earthen ware. Hats. Shoes. book III. says Mr. Bakewell,0 " we sold common flint half-pint tumblers at two dollars per dozen ; after the currency of the state became settled, we sold them at one dollar per dozen ; and now we sell them at about eighty-one cents per dozen. Plain quart decanters j which, in 1808, we sold at six dollars per dozen, we now sell at two dollars and twenty-five Cents. Wine glasses, in 1808, were one dollar and fifty cents per dozen, and they are now seventy-five cents per dozen." Earthenware of the' coarser kinds has long been manufactured in various parts of the Union ; and, recently, the finest qualities of china ware have been attempted, and with, considerable success. The manufactories in the eastern and northern states not only supply those states with hats, but they send large quantities to the middle, southern, and western; and have nearly excluded the British hat-manufacturer from the market. It is only a few years since, that all who had any pretensions to gentility, purchased hats at eight or ten dollars each : these certainly were handsome, well-made beaver hats. Lately, however, other hats have been introduced, which at first look equally well with those expensive ones, and very few now purchase the high-priced hats. The amount of hats manufactured in the United States is stated to be 13,000;000 dollars annually. Shoes and boots are made in great quantities, and may be purchased at very low prices, particularly in Massachusetts and New Jersey. Boots are sold wholesale at from two to three dollars per pair; shoes from three quarters to one dollar per pair. Many boots and shoes are made with wooden or copper pegs, with which, instead of stitching the soles, they fasten them together, and the. .price is rather less. The eastern export many shoes to the middle and southern states ; the latter, indeed, are almost entirely supplied from thence, very few shoes being.now imported from Great Britain, while the annual value of the boots and shoes manufactured in the United States is said to be 26,000,000 dollars. All articles in wood, household-furniture, and carriages of all kinds, are executed in great variety. We have been surprised to find, however, that notwithstanding the beautiful descriptions of wood which the American forests yield, chairs, and other articles of domestic furniture, are, for the most part, painted. Articles of furniture are, in most instances, rather cheaper than in England. Ship-building is carried on to a great extent. In some years, the amount of tonnage has equalled, if not exceeded, that launched in Great Britain ; at any rate, the United States are second only to ourselves in this noble art.p In steam-boats, or, more properly, steam-ships, they far outstrip us, their mighty internal waters affording such admirable scope for these vessels. It is said that upwards of thirty have been built this year between Pittsburgh and Louisville alone, in addition to " Report of the Committee on_ Manufactures, 1828, p. 149. t The Americans may be excused for deeming the British second to themselves. Furniture. Ship-build ing. Steam boats. THE UNITED STATES. 235 250 already employed in navigating the Mississippi, or its tributary streams. The chap.ii. magnitude of these vessels bears full proportion to their number, some of them consisting of three stories, containing a variety of apartments, and making up 200 beds. In 1830, the amount of tonnage of steam-boats was 54,036 tons. The manufacture of paper, type, and books, is scarcely surpassed by that of any Paper, equal number of inhabitants in the world. Of the first of these, there are many books?" very extensive manufactories ; and type founderies exist in many of the principal towns. One is found in the west, where, only thirty years ago, a settlement was scarcely made. The daily and weekly periodicals consume a large quantity of paper, being estimated at nearly a thousand. The principal publications will claim our attention as connected with literature, more emphatically than with manu factures. A duty equal to the price of the paper is placed on foreign books, an error of policy we hope soon to see erased from the statutes of the United States. A duty of one-fourth the amount (3d. per pound) would be amply sufficient to secure to American publishers the reprint of all works, the demand for which was sufficient to justify the expense of their being reprinted ; so that the present duty has the sole effect of raising the price, and, in many cases, denying possession of a variety of English works to the American public, without any corresponding advantage to their manufactures. There are many works on particular branches of mechanical science, for instance, of which comparatively few copies are printed even in England, and the free circulation of which in the United States cannot be otherwise than an important advantage, but which is prevented by the present state of the revenue laws. Even if the interests of the American printers should for a moment sustain a 'slight disadvantage, the writer has far too high an opinion of their patriotism to suppose they would suffer that fact, in the slightest degree, to retard the intellectual progress of their country. Distillation is extensively, we fear too extensively, carried on in the United Distillation States. Some of the* distilleries work entirely from molasses, others from grain ; the ° spmi former is distilled into rum, and the latter generally into gin and whisky. These articles, — whisky, gin, and rum, are sold wholesale by the distillers at from thirty- seven and a half to fifty cents per gallon, or about 1*. 9d. to 2s. 3d. per gallon sterling. When cider is' made, a considerable quantity is fermented, and distilled into what is called apple-brandy: this is sold at the same price as American gin. Peaches are also fermented, and distilled into what is termed peach-brandy ; the wholesale price is from a"' half' to three-quarters of a dollar, per gallon. More than thirty millions of gallons of ardent spirits are annually distilled and consumed in the United States. A considerable check has been given to this manufacture, and numerous distilleries have been closed, by the exertions of temperance societies, whose operations will require notice in a subsequent section of the work. 236 TOPOGRAPHY OF book III. Minerals. The minerals of the United States, the procuring and smelting of which is a species of manufacture, besides iron and coal, are lead and copper.i The first is found in considerable quantities in several parts of the Union. In the Huron country, where the mines have only been worked three years, under every disadvantage, thirty millions of pounds of lead have been produced. Only about a mile square of surface has yet been opened, and from this, thirty millions of pounds more might be extracted without opening a new mine. The whole of the lead district occupies a surface one hundred miles square, including, however, a district of copper ore about twenty miles long, and four or five broad. Mines of lead and copper abound also on the Missouri. The quantity of lead produced at the United States lead mines, annually, from 1823, to the 30th of September, 1829, is exhibited in the following table: — Manufactures ex ported. Tariff tables. To „ „ 1825 Total pounds . . . Fever River. Missouri. Total. Pounds. 335,130 175,220664,530 958,842 5,182,180 11,105,810 13,343,150 Pounds. 386',590 1,374,962 910,380 1,205,920 1,198,160. Pounds. 335,130 175,220 1,051,120 2,333,8046,092,560 12,311,73014,541,310 31,764,862 5,076,012 36,840,874 The quantity of the various manufactures exported throws considerable light on their progress and present state; but the statements illustrative of that subject connect themselves more properly, and indeed inseparably, with commerce, and will form the materials of a considerable portion of the following chapter. From them it will be evident that several important articles, which, a few years since, were articles of import only, are already become exports of a very considerable amount. The first table appended to this chapter exhibits a comparative view of the several tariff laws which have been enacted in the United States ; and the second shews more precisely the size and value of which the several articles of manufacture must be, to come within the respective gradations of duty. « The gold mines of tne Carolinas and Georgia have been noticed in Book ii. Chap, ii., where, also, will be found particulars respecting lead, copper, mercury, iron, coal, &c. TARIFF.— TABLE I. A COMPARATIVE VIEW of the TARIFF LAWS. Protecting Tariff of 1828. Protecting Tariff of 1824. Old Tariff up to 1824. Iron, in bolts or bars, not rolled, 1 cent per lb , rolled, also in slabs, blooms, and loop, or otherwise, ] except pigs and cast iron, $37 per ton J , in pigs, 62J cents per cwt. Wire, of iron or steel, not finer than No. 14, 6 cents, finer than No. 14, " 10 cents Round iron, or braziers' rods, 3-16ihs to £ inch, nail or spike rods, iron in ' sheets or hoops, and slit or rolled for bands, casement rods, 3 j cts. per lb. Axes, adzes, drawing knives, cutting knives, sickles or reaping hooks, ' sithes, spades, shovels, squares of iron or steel, bridle-bits, steelyards, I scalebeams, socket chisels, vices and wood screws, 10 per cent. | additional Steel, $1 50 c. per cwt Lead, in pigs, bars, or sheets, 3 cents per lb shot, 4 cents per lb " , red or white, dry or ground in oil, 5 cents per lb pipes, 5 cents per lb Litharge, orange mineral, and sugar of lead, 5 cents per lb Wool, (the same if on skins,) 4 cents per lb. and 40 per cent, ad valorem 1 until June 30, 1829, then 5 per cent, increase annually to 50 per cent. J Woollens, (wholly or in part,) except carpeting, blankets, worsted stuffs,>> bombazines, hosiery, mits, gloves, caps, and bindings, the value of J which, at the place whence exported, (except flannels and baizes,) does I not exceed 33 J cents per square yard, to pay 14 cents per square yard ; | from 33J to 50 cents, to be estimated at 50 cents ; from 50 cents to $1, > at $1 j from $1 to $2£, at $2£ ; from $2$ to $4, at $4, and to be I charged with 45 per cent, duty ; and exceeding $4 to be charged with I 50 per cent ; and all unfinished woollens are to be estimated at the I same value as if finished J Woollen blankets, 35 per cent Hosiery, mits, gloves, and bindings, 35 per cent Clothing ready made, 50 per cent Brussels, Turkey, and Wilton carpets, 70 cents per square yard .... Venetian and ingrain carpeting, 40 cents per square yard All other carpeting, of wool, hemp, or cotton, or in part of either, 32 cents 1 per square yard ) Patent printed or painted floorcloths, 50 cents per square yard ; other oil- 1 cloths 25 per cent j furniture oilcloths, and floor matting of flags or £ other materials, 15 cents per square yard ) Hemp, $45 per ton, and $5 additional annually, from June 30, 1829,) until $60 • ) Flax, $35 per ton, and $5 in addition annually, from June 30, 1829, untd $60 Cotton bagging, 5 cents per square yard Sail duck, 9 cents per square yard, and § cent additional yearly, from 1828, ) until 12 \ cents and no drawback on less than 50 bolts in one shipment f Distilled spirits, 15 cents per gallon additional on the duties of 1824 . Indigo, 5«mts additional from June 30, 1829, to June 30, 1830, and 10) cents additional per annum, until the whole duty shall be 50 cents . j Molasses, 10 cents per gallon, and no drawback on the exportation of) spirits distilled therefrom ¦ • • • • • • • ¦ \ Manufactures of silk from beyond the Cape of Good Hope, 20 per cent. ) after June 30, 1829 . ." . ". • ... • • • • • • • ••.\> Window glass, larger than 10 by 15, and in sheets uncut, $5 per 100 teet . Apothecaries' phials, not exceeding 6 ozv$l per 75 gross. . . . . • • Slates for building, not larger than 12 by 6 inches, $4 per ton ; 12 to 14 J inches long, $5 j 14 to 16, $6 ; 16 to 18, ,87 ; 18 to 20, $8 ; 20 to 24, •> $9; larger, $10 > Slates for schools, 33J per cent . . . ... . . . . . • • • • Cotton cloths, (except nankeens direct from China,) of whatever cost, shall, 1 with the addition of 20 per cent, if beyond the Cape of Good Hope, f and 10 per cent, if from other places, be deemed to have cost 35 cents f per square yard, and be charged with 25 per cent J VOL. II. I l 90 cents per cwt. or 112 lbs. $1 50 c. per cwt 50 cents per cwt Not finer than No. 18, 5 cents ; ) finer, 9 cents ) 3 cents per lb Wood screws, sickles, sithes, ~\ spades, 30 per cent.; all f other manufactures of iron, f 25 per cent J $1 per cwt 2 cents per lb 3J cents per lb 4 cents per lb 25 per cent 15 per cent. . Costing not more than 10 cents, j) 15 per cent ; higher cost, 30 > per cent j Costing less than 33£ cents. per square yard, 25 per cent. ; all others 33J per cent, ad valorem, on actual value or cost 75 cents per 112 lbs. $1 50 c. per cwt. 50 cents per cwt. Not finer than No. 18, 5 cents ; finer, 9 cents. $2 50 c. per cwt. 20 per cent. $1 per cwt. 1 cent per pound. 2 cents per pound. 3 cents per pound. 20 per cent. 15 per cent. 15 per cent 25 per cent 33£ per cent . . . . 30 per cent 50 cents per square yard 25 cents per square yard 20 cents per square yard 30 per cent $35 per ton 15 per cent. . . . . ¦ 3| cents per square yard 15 per cent From grain, 1st pf. 42 cents per gallon 2d „ 45 ditto . . . ditto 3d „ 48 ditto . . . ditto 4th „ 52 ditto . . . ditto 5th „ 60 ditto . . • ditto higher 75 ditto . . . ditto 15 cents 5 cents per gallon 25 per cent . . $4 per 100 feet . $1 a $1 25 cents 25 per cent. 15 per cent 25 per cent 30 per cent. 25 per cent 25 per cent. 25 per cent. 30 per cent $30 per ton. 15 per cent. 20 per cent. Russia, $2 ps. ; Ravens, 81 J j Holland, Slf. From other materials, 38 cents. 38 „ 42 „ 48 „ 57 „ 70 „ 15 cents. 5 cents per gallon. 15 per cent. $3 25 cents. 20 per cent. 25 per cent. 15 per cent Minimum under some con- "1 ditions, 30 cents, with 25 ; per cent, duty . . . . ) 15 per cent. 15 per cent 25 per cent. TARIFF.— TABLE II. IMPORTATION OF DRY GOODS UNDER THE NEW TARIFF LAW. A Table showing what Description of Goods may be Imported under the Tariff passed by the Congress of the United States, May, 1828. Woollens, (exeept Flannels and Baizes,) 33$ Cents minimum, Duty 14 Cents per Square Yard. Net Cost, 1828. 37J cts. per yd. 42 Net Coat, 1827. 36 cts. per yd. 40 4449531 „ 67801 Broadcloths, Kerseymeres, Pelisse Cloths, Kerseys, Forest Cloths, Valentia and Woollen Vestings and Flannels, 50 Cents minimum, Duty 45 per Cent, ad valorem. Width. 24 inches. 27 „ 30 „ 33 ,, 36 „ 54 „ Is. 6d. stg. \ 1 81 10J 0| 3H Net Cost, 1838. 57 cts. per yd. 631 ,, Net Cost, 1827. 531 cts- Per yd- 606774801 „ 120J Flannels, Duty 45 per Cent. 27 inches. 30 inches. $20 09 20 92 21 76 22 59 23 42 ' 24 26 '' 25 09 $26 78 27 60 28 44 29 28 30 10 30 94 31 78 32 33 $16 12- 17 20. 18 28 19 35 20 42 21 50 22 58- $23 65 > 24 73/ 25 80 f 26 881 27 95 [ 29 03 I 30 10 1 30 82^ $7 59 $8 44 Broadcloths, Kerseymeres, &c.$l minimum, Duty 45 per Cent. Width. Net Cost, 1828. 24 inches. 3s. 0d.\ % /$1 13 27 „ 3 41 / S t \ 1 27 30 „ 3 9 { *= J 1 41 33 3654 4| 1 8 > V . Net Cost, 1827. $1 07J per running yd. 1 201 1 34 1 471 1 611 2 42 Broadcloths, Kerseymeres, &c. $2 50 Cents minimum, Duty 45 per Cent, ad valorem. Width 27 inches. £0 '8 5") „ 311 » 0 9 10 1 » 36 „ 0 11 „ 54 „ 0 16 10 | „ 63 „ 0 19 8, Must not exceed these prices per running yard. Broadcloths, $4 minimum ; Duty 45 per Cent.' Width 54 inches. £17 0 1 Must not exceed these ices »> Od ,, 1 11 O > v.,»«i«n. -nwA „ 72 „ 1 16 0 running yard. Woollen Blankets, Woollen and Worsted Hosiery, Gloves, Bind ings, and Mitts, to pay a Duty of 35 per Cent, ad valorem. Brussels, Turkey, and Wilton Carpets and Carpeting, 70 Cents per Square Yard. Venetian and Ingrain Carpets and Carpeting, 40 Cents per Square Yard. Cotton Goods, if they do not cost 35 Cents per Square Yard, in cluding the addition of 10 per cent, must pay a Duty of 8f Cents per Square Yard. Worsted Stuff Goods, Bombazines, Linens, Lawns, Linen Diapers and Cloths, Cotton Braces, Cotton Hose, Silk and Leather Gloves, Sewing Cottons, Tapes, Small Wares, &c. pay the same Duty as they did previous to 1828. Net Cost to Import the following Goods. 24 inches, 27 inches. 27 inches. Net Cost, 182S. 301 cents. 321 „ 35 „ 37 „ 311 „ . 331 » ¦ 36 „ , 38 „ , 42 „ , 601 v63 1 03 1 07 1 12 1 161 1 211 1 26 Net Cost, 1827. 27 cents. } 30 „ f Plains or 33 „ C paddings. 36 „ J 27303336 40531 561591 891 951011071 > Plains or paddings. 1 13J 1 191 and Forest Cloths. THE UNITED STATES. 239 CHAPTER III. COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION. Commerce has frequently, in the history of nations, evinced the rapidity of its c H A p- growth, as in the cases of Venice, Holland, and Great Britain ; but in no instance has its progress been more remarkable than in that of the United States. It will not be commerce necessary to insert any details respecting the state of commerce while the Americans Previous to were under the colonial yoke, since, under the commercial laws then existing, the tution of energies of the colonies were as much as possible repressed, except in subserviency to the interests of the mother-country. During the war of the revolution, the degree of traffic which had previously existed was, of course, suspended; and after the peace of 1785, commerce still laboured under peculiar difficulties. The chief of these resulted from the political constitution which the thirteen " sovereign states" had thought fit to adopt. This subject has already been referred to as affecting the manufacturing inte rest ; but the introduction of some additional particulars, illustrative of its bearing on commerce, will not be deemed unnecessary. The original constitution did not admit of the imposition of any duties by the congress, without the unanimous vote of all the states ; while the right which was thus shackled as it respected the general government, was accorded to each of the separate states. It is not, therefore, matter of surprise that some of the states should have acted in opposition to others, as their interest might dictate. When the state of Pennsylvania laid a duty on foreign merchandise imported, the state of New Jersey, equally washed by the waters of the Delaware river, admitted the same articles free of duty ; and they could easily be smuggled into one state from the other. The several states laid different rates of duty on foreign tonnage ; in some, one shilling sterling per ton was imposed on vessels, which in other states paid three shillings sterling per ton. Such was the misunderstanding amongst the several states, that there were no general commercial regulations, nor could the congress enforce any, while the opposition of any one of the states could prevent the passage of any act on the subject. The evil of this condition of affairs was flagrantly manifest, when, to provide a fund to discharge the public 240 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK III. Provisionsof the new constitution. Rapid in crease of commerce from 1790 to 1806. debt, and to pay the arrears due to the soldiers who fought the battles of the revolution, it was proposed in congress, during the operation of the articles of confederation, to lay a duty of 5 per cent, ad valorem, on foreign merchandise imported into the United States, and the opposition of the state of Rhode Island was of itself sufficient to defeat this plan. The nations of Europe were well pleased to avail themselves of the embarrassed condition of the United States; for even those who had assisted them in their struggle for independence, now viewed them with a jealous eye as competitors in the field of commerce ; and when, soon after the peace, the republic endeavoured to negotiate treaties of commerce with Great Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal, the offer was in each case met with a refusal. The conviction that this portion of their federal constitution required amendment, was one of the principal reasons which induced the people of the United States to call a convention for its revision. Happily, the convention, when assembled, concurred in the necessity of an alteration on this point, and the new constitution contained the following clauses : — " Art. I. Sect. VIII. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes. — Sect. IX. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state. No preference shall be given by any regu lation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one state over those of another : nor shall vessels bound to, or from, one state, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another. — Sect. X. No state shall, without the consent of the congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws ; and the net produce of all duties and imposts, laid by any state on imports or exports, shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States ; and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of the congress." Not long after the new constitution had been adopted, the secretary of state pro posed a liberal system of policy, in relation to commercial intercourse with other nations. His views were detailed in a report, made in answer to a resolution of the House of Representatives, of the 23d of February, 1791. Strongly advocating a free commerce with every nation, the secretary thus expressed himself: — " In stead of embarrassing commerce under piles of regulating laws, duties, and pro hibitions, it should be relieved from all its shackles in all parts of the world. Would even a single nation begin with the United States this system of free commerce, it would be advisable to begin it with that nation." These domestic arrangements had a very favourable influence on American com merce ; but a new and most extensive field for it was now opened by the circum stances which transpired in Europe. " The wars consequent on the French revolution created a demand for our exports," says Dr. Seybert, " and invited our shipping for the carrying trade of a very considerable portion of Europe; we not only carried the THE UNITED STATES. 241 colonial productions to the several parent states, but we also became the purchasers chap. of them in the French, Spanish, and Dutch colonies. A new era was established in IIT' our commercial history; the individuals who partook of these advantages were numerous ; our catalogue of merchants was swelled much beyond what it was entitled to be from the state of our population. Many persons who had secured moderate capitals from mechanical pursuits, soon became adventurous ; and the most adven turous became the most wealthy, and that without the knowledge of any of the principles which govern commerce under ordinary circumstances. No one was limited to any one branch of trade ; the same individual was concerned in voyage's to Asia, South America, the West Indies, and Europe. Our tonnage increased in a ratio with the extended catalogue of the exports ; we seemed to have arrived at the maximum of human prosperity ; in proportion to our population we ranked as the most commercial of nations ; in point of value, our trade was only second to that of Great Britain." a In 1790 the aggregate of exports was estimated at 19,012,041 dollars ; in 1791 their value was increased by 1,741,057 dollars, or about one-eleventh of their amount in 1790. In 1792, the aggregate of the exports amounted to 26,109,572 dollars; the addition in the course of this year was 5,356,474 dollars, or more than one-fifth of their total value in the preceding year. In 1793, the exports were estimated at 33,026,233 dollars, or they were augmented considerably above one- fourth of their amount in 1792. The value of the exports increased with the progress of the war in Europe ; this effect was common to the domestic surplus products and to the foreign merchandise re-exported. Prior to 1795, there was no * discrimination at the treasury department of the value of the domestic - and foreign merchandise exported from the United States. In 1795, the aggregate value of the merchandise exported was estimated at 67,064,097 dollars ; of this amount the domestic productions were estimated at 40,764,097 dollars, and the foreign produce re-exported at 26,300,000 dollars. In 1796, the foreign merchandise re-exported was only 2,850,208 dollars less in value than that of the domestic exports ; in 1797, the foreign merchandise exceeded the value of the domestic exports by 4,472,903 dollars ; during several of the succeeding years, the value of the foreign merchandise exported greatly surpassed that of the domestic articles, and, in 1806, was estimated at 59,643,558 dollars, or it exceeded the value of the domestic exports by more than one-fifth, or 22.47 per cent. In 1805, the foreign merchandise re-exported arrived at the maximum, and amounted to 60,283,236 dollars, and in that year exceeded the value of the domestic productions exported in. any one preceding or succeeding year, 1816 and 1817 excepted. The periodical progress of the export trade is exhibited by the following statements, viz. : — => Seyberf s Statistical Annals of the United States, p. 61. Total BOOK III. State of commerce from 1807 to 1830. 242 TOPOGRAPHY OF Dollars. Total value of the exports from the United States, in 1795 67,064,097 Ditto ditto, 1790 19,012,041 Increase in five years 48,052,056 Total value of the exports from the United States, in 1800 94,1 15,925 Increase in ten years 75,103,884 Total value of the exports from the United Sates, in 1805 101,536,963 Increase in fifteen years 82,524,922 Total value of the exports from the United State3, in 1806, when they arrived at the maximum 108,343,150 Increase in sixteen years 89,331,109 This astonishing progress could not fail to attract the attention, and to excite the commercial jealousy of the principal nations of Europe ; and the war at this time raging between England and France was carried on not only by military and naval armaments, but by commercial codes of restriction and prohibition, by which the Americans, as a neutral power, were more seriously injured than either of the belligerents. Indeed between the years 1804 and 1807 inclusive, above 1000 American merchant vessels were captured, by nations professedly at peace with the United States, for alleged breaches of blockade, or of commercial decrees. Under these circumstances, the government of the United States, at the close of the year 1807, resorted to an embargo to prevent the destruction of the mercantile navy, which was continued till March, 1809. Thus the export trade of the United States, after having, in the course of sixteen years, from 1790 to 1806, acquired an aug mentation of 89,331,109 dollars, was, in 1807, in an instant, reduced to the aggregate of 22,430,960 dollars, only 1,677,862 dollars more than the amount in 1791, the second year after the organization of the present government. After the embargo was taken off in 1809, commerce speedily revived, and during that and the following year the amount of exports, so far, as related to domestic products, was greater than the average of the ten years from 1802 to 1812. Subsequently to the declaration of war with Great Britain the export trade of the United States was of course materially and progressively depressed, till, in the year 1814, it did not amount to seven millions of dollars. At the conclusion of the war the exports rose, in 1815, to fifty-two millions; in 1816, to eighty-One; in 1817, to eighty-seven; in 1818, to ninety-three. From 1819 to 1824, the amount ranged between sixty-five and seventy-five millions, the average being above seventy; but, in 1825, the amount of exports again rose to nearly one hundred millions of dollars. From the year 1826 to THE UNITED STATES. 243 1830, the exports have ranged from seventy to eighty millions; the exports of chap. foreign goods have declined materially, the amount for the year 1830 being little IIL more than fourteen millions, a smaller amount than any year since 1803, except that of the embargo, and those of the war4 while the domestic exports are nearly sixty millions, an amount exceeding those of any preceding year, since the establishment of the republic, except the years 1816, 17, 18, and 25. The official returns presented to congress divide the exports into four classes: Exports. those of the sea, the forest, agriculture, and manufactures. The following is a summary of the exports of the year 1830 ; the details will be found in Table, No. I., at the close of this chapter. The products of the sea, consisting of the results of Products of the whale, cod, mackerel, and herring fisheries, exported mostly from the northern states, amount to 1,725,270 dollars, being nearly a thirty-fifth part of the whole domestic export. About one-third of this value consists of codfish, and more than half of the products of the whale-fisheries. The value of skins, furs, ginseng, lumber, staves, bark, tar, pitch, rosin and Products of turpentine, and pot and pearl ashes, partly from the northern, and partly from the southern states, which were formerly of much greater comparative impor tance in the trade of the country, now constitutes nearly one-fifteenth part of the whole value of the domestic exports, and amounts to 4,192,040 dollars. A large proportion of the trade in these articles, as well as in those of codfish and broad- stuffs, is carried on with the West Indies, Mexico, and South America. The skins and the furs go to Europe and Canton, the ginseng to Canton, but in less quantity than formerly, and the pot and pearl ashes are sent to England and France. The chief amount, however, of articles of export consists, as would naturally be Products of supposed, of the products of agriculture. The article of cotton alone furnishes nearly agncu ure- half the amount of the whole exports of the United States, being, for the year 1830, 29,674,883 dollars. The next article in importance of export is wheat, either as grain, flour, or biscuit, the amount being 6,320,617 dollars. The third in amount is tobacco, 5,586,365 dollars; the fourth, rice, 1,986,824 dollars; the fifth, the produce of swine, including pork, bacon, and live hogs, 1,315,245 dollars. Three of the most important of these articles, (cotton, tobacco, and rice,) amounting collectively to 37,248,072 dollars, are the produce of the southern states, including Virginia and Kentucky. The othfr agricultural exports, namely, beef, tallow, hides and cattle, butter, cheese, horses, mules, sheep, rye-meal, oats, potatoes and apples, flax-seed, and hops, are mostly furnished by the middle and western states. Cattle, and their products, including butter and cheese, amounted to 860,053 dollars. This species of export is of far less comparative importance than formerly, being limited to its present amount, not by the capacity for production, but by the extent of demand in the foreign markets ; an increase of the foreign demand would very 244 TOPOGRAPHY OF Exports of manufactures. BOOK in. soon double and treble the quantity. Some of the articles comprehended in the above list, though agricultural products, yet involve some process of manufacture ; such, for example, as butter, cheese, bacon, flour, biscuit, meal, and part of the tobacco. A great many, however, of the exports coming under the head of manu factures include in them the value of materials supplied by agriculture, such as the cotton fabrics, those of leather, and spirits distilled from grain ; so that, on the whole, the strictly agricultural products of the country constitute a larger proportion of the whole exports than the tables represent; and, if we add the value of the materials supplied by agriculture for the manufactured exports, we shall have at least six-sevenths of the whole domestic exportation consisting of the raw products of agriculture. The total amount of manufactured articles exported from the United States, in the year 1830, is estimated in the official returns, at 6,258,131 dollars, being rather more than one-tenth of the domestic exports of the country; about 930,000 dollars should, however, be struck out of the list of domestic imports, being gold and silver coin, consisting mostly of metals imported from abroad, and; after being coined at the mint, again exported. The labour put upon these materials, in coining, is so inconsiderable a part of their value, that the amount of the coin of country exported ought not to be included in the estimate of the value of manufactured exports. Considerable quantities of gold, it is true, have been produced in North Carolina, but by no means enough, as yet, to supply the demand for the consumption of the country, though it is to be considered, at the same time, that this article, as far as it is supplied from the domestic mines, will be chiefly exported, being drawn into this channel by the higher price of gold, as compared with silver, in England and France than in the United States, Some of it is arrested for use in jewellery and the arts, but very little in the currency, or in the vaults of the banks. As cotton fabrics also form a large item in this list of exported manufactures, and those fabrics are mostly of the coarser kind, the raw material will constitute a very considerable part of their value, and the proportional value of the direct wages of manufacturing labour incorporated in these exports will be proportionately less. If, for instance, a plough, or trunk, or quantity of combs, be sent abroad, almost the whole value of the export consists of the wages of the manufacturers ; and a still greater proportion of the value of earthen and stone wares, which make a very considerable item in this list, is of this description ; whereas an export of spirits distilled from West India molasses comprises a comparatively small proportional value of manufacturing labour. Taking the whole list of domestic manufactured articles together, and making allowances for the cost of the raw materials in their rudest state, after they are taken from the ground or from animals, and assume the character of merchandise, by deducting their value from the gross amount of that of the exported manufactures, the remainder, THE UNITED STATES. 245 which is the result of the manufacturing labour, interest of capital, and profits CHAP. incorporated into these materials, to bring them into the state in which they are IIL exported, may be estimated at about 4,000,000 dollars. Of the articles of export on which the arts of the United States are employed, the most considerable are cotton twist, thread, and fabrics, the exported value of which for the year 1830 was 1,318,183 dollars, being more than one-fiftieth part of the whole domestic- exports, the principal markets of which are South America, Mexico, and the Mediter ranean. The value of leather and its various manufactures exported, is 375,250 dollars. Hats exported during the same year amount to 309,362 dollars, a very large sum, considering the short period during which this article has been sent to foreign markets. Soap and candles have long been supplied for the foreign markets, but have lately been on the decline, the amount for the year 1830 being 619,238 dollars. The various articles manufactured for the most part of wood, such as furniture, or of wood, leather, and iron, such as coaches and carriages, besides various agricul tural implements supplied to the West Indies and South America, constitute an important branch of trade. The American glass begins to appear in the foreign markets : the value sent abroad in 1830 was 60,280 dollars, and it bids fair to be increased. The other exports consist of a variety of articles in small quantities, among which are, wearing apparel, combs and buttons, brushes, fire engines and apparatus, printing presses and types, musical instruments, books, maps, paper and stationery, and trunks. It is apparent from the above enumeration and estimates, that the manufactured articles of which the export is most considerable and the most flourishing, are those of which the raw materials consist mostly of cotton, wood, and leather. The foreign articles imported and again exported from the country during the year Foreign 1830, amounted to 14,378,479 dollars. This transit trade thus appears to form a ported"" very important part of the American commerce. The principal foreign articles re exported are cottons, coffee and cocoa, sugar, tea, wines, and hardware. The imports of the United States are of great importance to the commercial Imports. interest of the world, but especially to that of Great Britain ; and the regulations respecting their admission, as already referred to in connexion with manufactures, form the most prominent topic of discussion, as a domestic question, in the several states composing the republic. — It will therefore neither be uninteresting nor unim portant to exhibit a statement of the amounts of the principal imports, distinguishing the countries from which the greater portion of them are severally received. In doing so, we shall, with some slight deviations, follow the order observed in the annual statements of the secretary of the treasury made to congress, and take as the basis of our obervations the statement of the year ending the 30th of September, 1 830. The principal articles are manufactures of wool, cotton, silk, flax and hemp, VOL. II. k K 246 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK III. iron, tea, wine, and earthenware; also raw hides and skins, and gold and silver: there are, however, considerable quantities of a great variety of other articles, the produce or manufacture of the different nations of the globe. The information which the following statements contain, if attentively considered, will afford a more correct idea of the state of the inhabitants of the republic than the personal narration of any individual, however accomplished or intelligent, and however ex tensively he may have travelled. It must be borne in mind that the imports are consumed by a population scarcely amounting to thirteen millions, and in addition to a greater amount of domestic produce than is supplied by any corresponding amount of population. Articles The articles first noticed are those admitted free of duty — among these are phi- free of losophical apparatus, for the use of incorporated societies for the promotion of outy. learning and science, to the amount of 9,830 dollars, imported in nearly equal pro portions from England and France ; books, maps, and charts, under the same con ditions, to the amount of 19,621 dollars, more than three-fourths of which were from England, and the remainder about equally divided between France and Germany, the latter through the medium of the Hanse Towns ; specimens of botany and natural history, to the amount of 6,118 dollars, from upwards of twenty different countries; models of inventions and machinery 897 dollars, almost exclusively from England ; and anatomical preparations 274 dollars, from France. The fact that this class of articles is duty free, evinces a laudable attention on the part of the congress of the United States to the interests of science and literature ; and we hope that no long period will elapse before every production connected with their advancement, not only in the recognised institutions of the country, but in the pursuits of individuals or families, will be accessible on the same terms. We deem it a sound and incontro vertible principle, that the improvement and expansion of the national mind ought not to be impeded or delayed, either for the revenue of government, or for the gain of individuals. To act on a contrary principle is, bartering that, which is beyond all price. The remaining articles which are admitted without payment of duty are either. articles derived from mining or from agriculture, which the United States do not produce in sufficient quantities; or of manufactures in which they do not. excel. We can only mention a few of the principal of them, referring our readers for the particulars of the remainder to Table IV. Furs were imported in 1830 to the amount of 305,782 dollars, of which, 205,090 dollars were from England; 64,584 dollars from the British American colonies; 19,363 dollars from France; and the remainder in small portions from nine other countries. Raw hides and skins constitute the largest amount of articles (with the exception of specie,) imported duty free, being, in 1830, 2,409,850 dollars, of which, 1,904,251 dollars are from the THE UNITED STATES. 247 states of South America ; b 85,374 dollars from Hayti ; and the remainder in portions, chap. varying from 100 dollars to 60,000 dollars, from twenty other countries. Plaster of m- Paris is imported to the amount of 125,606 dollars, of which, 119,234 dollars were from the British American colonies, and the remainder from France. Dye wood to the amount of 279,411 dollars, of which, 161,634 dollars were from South America; 77,078 dollars from Hayti; and the remainder chiefly from the West Indies. Mahogany timber to the amount of 286,825 dollars, of which, 203,948 dollars were from Hayti; 28,917 dollars from Cuba; 25,018 dollars from the Central Republic of America ; and the remainder chiefly from Mexico and the British West Indies. Of metals, tin was imported to the amount of 101,341 dollars, of which, 62,862 dollars were from England; 15,450 dollars from the Dutch East Indies; 5,960 dollars from China; 9,007 dollars from the Netherlands; 2,485 dollars from the British East Indies ; and the remainder from Chili and Peru : copper is imported to a large amount, — 403,203 dollars in bars, 283,785 dollars in plates for the sheathing of ships, &c. ; 14,435 dollars for the use of the mint, and 83,413 dollars of old copper to be remanufactured ; of the former amount, 231,493 dollars were from Peru; 154,965 dollars from Chili ; 14,700 from Colombia ; and the remainder chiefly from the British American colonies : the amount for sheathing ships was almost exclusively from England, as was also that for the use of the mint. The amount of gold as bullion, imported in 1830, was 115,267 dollars, of which, 39,557 dollars were from Mexico; 33,022 dollars from Africa; 25,633 dollars from Peru; and 12,056 dollars from Colombia : the amount of gold, as specie, was 705,000 dollars, of which 131,852 dollars were from Colombia; 81,343 dollars from other countries of South America ; 69,267 dollars from Cuba; 81,262 dollars from British American colonies, and the West Indies ; 81,384 dollars from the Swedish West Indies; 78,534 dollars from the Danish West Indies; 76,356 dollars from the Dutch West Indies ; 53,123 dollars from England ; and the remainder in small amounts from various countries. The amount of silver imported is much larger than that of gold : the amount in bullion was 1,049,343 dollars ; of which, 781,201 dollars were from Mexico ; 159,735 dollars from Peru; 75,712 from other parts of South America; 18,719 dollars from Cuba ; and the remainder from the Dutch and Danish West Indies, and the South Seas. The silver, in specie, imported in 1830, amounted to 6,285,475 dollars, of which, 3,860,936 dollars were from Mexico ; 988,756 dollars from South America generally ; 273,498 dollars from Cuba ; 242,468 dollars from the French West Indies ; 237,953 dollars from the British American colonies and West Indies ; 161,452 dollars from the Danish West Indies; and the remainder from all other parts of the world. b In these statements it is found convenient to regard Mexico as one of the South American states, as it is generally included in that appellation by Americans in their commercial transactions. 248 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK III. The total amount of articles admitted duty free, in 1830, was 12,746,245 dollars, of which, considerably more than half, however, was gold and silver ; of the remainder, raw hides and skins constituted more than three-sixths, or nearly one-fourth of the whole amount of articles imported duty free ; copper about one-sixth ; furs, dye wood, and mahogany, one-sixth ; the remaining sixth being divided among miscella neous articles the particulars of which will be found in the Table IV. It cannot fail to have struck our readers, that, when the gold and silver are deducted, the amount of articles admitted duty free bears an extremely small proportion to the whole amount of imports ; and it will appear in the sequel, that duties of a greater or less degree have been imposed, not only on all articles which could be procured in sufficient quantities or could be manufactured in America, but upon those, also, where there could not possibly be at present any international competition. It is, therefore, probable that duties of the latter kind will be re mitted, when, the public debt being discharged, the revenue arising from them will not be required ; though but little expectation can exist that the protection afforded to American manufactures will be diminished. Of the imports subject to duty, the first, as to amount, is cotton, in its various forms of manufacture. It is hardly needful to state, thai the great bulk of this article is supplied from England. The amounts from England, Scotland, and France, will be seen in the following table, which, with similar tables subsequently given of the principal articles of import, has been compiled from the last treasury statement, that of the year 1830. The tables have been so arranged as to exhibit the information contained in that publication in a form more readily apprehended, and also to afford the additional information of the total amount of each article im ported from the several countries named. They have also been condensed, by omitting the countries from which small amounts only have been imported. Articlessubjectedto duties — Cotton. COTTONS. White England. Scotland. France. All other Countries. Total. Dollars. 3,553,5091,868,723 201,788141,212 23,63896,572 Dollars. . 259,038 65,862 4 26,899 2,786 Dollars. 355,227178,784 4,001 693 2,078 79,204 Dollars. 188,901374,535181,666 3,981 202,497 50,813 Dollars. 4.356,675 2,487,804 387,454 172.7S5228,233 229.375 Hosiery, Gloves, Mits, Bindings, &c. . . Total from each country. . . . 5,885,457 354,589 619,987 1,002,393 7,862,326 Woollens. Of articles manufactured from wool, it will be perceived that France furnishes a considerable quantity, although bearing a very small proportion to that of England. THE UNITED STATES. 249 The importations from France consist chiefly of stuffs, and other light articles, in which their manufacturers excel those of England, and also some sorts of blankets. CHAP. III. WOOLLENS. Not exceeding 50 cents per square yard Exceeding 50 cts. and not exceeding 100 cts. per sq. y d Exceeding 100 cts. and not exceeding 250 cts. per sq. yd Exceeding 250 cts. and not exceeding 400 cts. per sq. yd Exceeding 400 cts. per sq. yd Blankets Hosiery, Gloves, Mits, &c Bombazines Worsted Stuff Goods All other Manufactures Not exceeding 33J cts. per square yard Total from each country. . . . England. Dollars. 418,324 958,458 1,137,370 69,984 5,890 551,149124,116 22,906 1,228,707 157,869 263,283 4,938,056 Scotland. Dollars. 3,604 453 1,726 486 1091 838 6,1552,307 15,670 Ireland. Dollars. 12 124 3,794 40 3,984 France. Dollars. 25,098 98,69568,166 3,439 42,588 1,040 10,927 102,234 132,379 170 484,736 All other Coun tries. Dollars. 5,709 26,197 28,792 1,797 125 173 4,412 54 65,72622,903 300 156,188 Total. Dollars. 452,743 1,083,815 1,236,060 75,706 6,015 594,044 133,453 33,887 1,397,545 319,306 266,060 5,598,634 About six-tenths of the silk used in the United States is imported from France, Silks. nearly two-tenths from China, rather more than one-tenth from England and the British East Indies, and the remainder chiefly from Italy. It will be apparent in this article, as in many others, that the inhabitants of the Union have an advantage over the nations of Europe in the opportunity of importing their manufactures from those countries which severally bring them to the highest perfection.0 SILKS. £s 5 Other Manufactures. &sl> Other Manufactures. Total from each country. . . . En°;land,&c. British East Indies. France. China. Italy. All other Countries. Total. Dollars. 29,358 249,860 119,701 Dollars. 376,166 Dollars. 2,922 2,256,529 1,291,849 Dollars. 942,923 28,756 Dollars.265,892 89,545 Dollars. 15,723 2.468 52.637 49,681 Dollars. 1,367,092 31,224 2,824,918 1,550,776 398,919 376,166 3,551,300 971,679 355,437 120,509 5,774,010 The importations of the manufacture of flax are from the northern nations of Manufac- Europe; more than six-tenths from England, Scotland, and Ireland, two-tenths from flU^sof the Hanse Towns, one-tenth from France, one-twentieth from Russia, and the re mainder chiefly from the Netherlands, or through the medium of Cuba. « It will perhaps raise the character of the inhabitants of the United States in the opinion of some of our fashionable coteries, if they are informed that French silks and Canton crapes are profusely worn in that country, even by the moderately gay ; and that female dress is sometimes as splendid, and sometimes as ridiculous, in New York as in London. 250 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK III. MANUFACTURES OF FLAX. Checks&Stripes OtherManufact. Total from each country .... England. Scotland. Ireland. HanseTowns France. Russia. All other Countries. Total. Dollars. 1,088,554 23,028 170,295 Dollars. 156,495 2,750 185,481 Dollars. 288,524 606 Dollars. 496,907 16,923 20,855 Dollars. 282,372 9,137 Dollars. 93,01988,350 Dollars. 79,182 24 8,778 Dollars. 2,485,053 42,725 483,502 1,281,877 344,726 289,130 534,685 291,509 181,369 87,,984 3,011,280 Manufac- Of the articles made from hemp, Scotland furnishes nearly half, Russia a quarter, hemp.° England an eighth, and the remaining eighth comes chiefly from the Hanse Towns. MANUFACTURES OF HEMP. England. Scotland. Ireland. Russia. Hanse Towns. All other Countries. Total. Dollars. 79.846 9,138 28,642 Dollars. 400,070 95,635 Dollars. 4,046 Dollars. 241,098 3,225 Dollars. 79,663 5,517 Dollars. 40 1 84 Dollars. 563,665250,237 133,103 Total from each country .... 117,626 495,705 4,046 244,323 85,180 125 947,005 Carpeting. Carpeting was imported during the year to the amount of 200,451 dollars, exclu sively from Great Britain or her colonies ; sail duck, to the amount of 317,347 dollars, of which 259,896 were from Russia, 28,485 from the Netherlands, 18,483 from England and Scotland, and 9,567 from the Hanse Towns ; cotton bagging, to the amount of 69,126 dollars, of which 52,918 were from Scotland, 5,852 from England, and 1 0,345 from the Hanse Towns. Wines. Travellers in the United States have expressed themselves surprised at the variety of foreign wines produced at the tables of the more wealthy inhabitants : when the various kinds included under the different heads of the following table are con sidered, the amateur in this luxury is left without a wish ungratified, except that of actual participation. WINES. Red of France and Spain .... Of France, Spain, Germany, and Mediterranean,not enumerated Of Sicily and all others not enu- Total from each country. . . . -England. British E. Indies.' Portugal. Gibraltar. France. Spain. Italy and Malta. All other Countries. Total value. Dollars.20,631 29,263 I 404 15,203 Dollars. 50,239 100 355 Dollars. 10,579 84.321 Dollars. 40 1,2761,310 27,097 ,3,309 Dollars. 137 245,549 202,029lb7,443 Dollars. 38,124 20,517 166,8S2 5,231 Dollars. 3 1,2445,744 44,685 Dollars. 248,797 781 4,412 22,148 97,248 Dollars. 330,423 69,547 273,033424,304437,795 65,502 50,694 94,900 33,032 635,158 230,754 51,676 373,386 1,535,102 THE UNITED STATES. 251 However delicious the wines, the dessert would be incomplete without the chai. fruits of various climates : but when, in addition to the melons, apples, peaches, IIL pine-apples, oranges, and a hundred other fruits which are the domestic produce Fruits- of different sections of the Union, are added all the varieties of foreign fruits, epicures, either of the city or west-end species, might partake of an American dessert without one serious regret, except, perhaps, that its flavour was destroyed by the day-light. FRUITS. CurrantsPrunes iSc Plums Pigs England. Gibraltar. France. Spain. Cuba, Italy and Malta. Adriatic Ports. Turkey, Le vant &Egypt lbs. 392,839 41,238 54,981 lbs. 65,757 21 1,169 429,385 lbs. 836,526 70,139 313 28,838 lbs. 165,213 407 14,576 111,151 4,892,819 lbs. 27,140 2,139 39,991 72,403 lbs. 64,00623,962 1,669 lbs. 153,731 11,299 lbs. 156,590 1,423,759 741,017 Total from eacli country. . . . 489,058 496,332 935,816 5,184,166 141,673 89,637 165,030 2,321,366 By the quantity of spirits distilled in America, and the duty imposed on those coming Spirits. from abroad, the quantity imported is reduced to a comparatively small amount. Of spirits manufactured from grain the amount imported is 205,704 dollars, of which, 183,551 dollars are from the Netherlands : of those distilled from other materials the total amount is 453,286 dollars, of which, 199,945 dollars are from the Danish West Indies, and 200,899 from France. The amount of molasses imported is 995,776 dollars, of which 666,238 dollars are from Cuba ; 66,097 dollars from other Spanish West Indies; 154,833 dollars from the French West Indies; 72,549 dollars from the Dutch West Indies ; while from the British West Indies, in consequence of the commercial regulations existing, the amount is only 1,239 dollars. Of beer, ale, and porter, the quantity is only 65,260, and the value 60,420 dollars: almost the whole comes from England and Scotland. If the price of English porter is 4s. 6d. per gallon, (more than five times the price of French wines,) the diminutive amount of the quantity imported cannot be matter of surprise. The amount of tea consumed in the United States is very considerable,, and, with Teas. exceptions scarcely worth mentioning, is imported direct from China. Of Bohea, 152,9901bs. only are imported; but of Souchong, and other black, 2, 166, 142 lbs. ; of Hyson and other green, 5,637,247 lbs., and 653,036 lbs. imperial; the whole value being 2,425,018 dollars. Considerable as is the import of tea, that of coffee is nearly Coffee, double in value, and six times the amount in weight, being 51,488,248 lbs., worth 4,227,021 dollars. Nearly sixteen millions of pounds are imported from Cuba, 252 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK III. fourteen millions and a half from Brazil, and more than eleven millions from Hayti," while the amount from the British West India Islands is only 57,632 lbs. Iron. The next article we have to notice is of a character very different from the preceding, — though not inferior to any in utility, — it is iron. In the variety of articles manufactured from it, this material is preeminent ; and it will be seen that, almost without exception, the manufactured articles imported, from the needle to the sledge hammer, are from Great Britain ; while, on the other hand, the chief importation of bar and bolt iron is from Sweden and Russia. No table more manifests the supe riority of British skill, industry, and capital, over that of her competitors, than that respecting iron ; and we apprehend this is almost the last point which will yield to foreign competition. The lighter manufactures of Great Britain may the sooner be super seded in the American market, because on these females labour, and from the decided aversion of the youth of that sex to domestic service, their labour may be brought to bear at a rate very little exceeding the pittance now paid to the English weaver ; while, notwithstanding a protecting duty varying from twenty-five to one hundred per cent. on iron, it may be found impossible to exclude the foreign article on account of the high price in the United States of such labour as can only be performed by men. England, &c Subject to ad valorem Duties. Side-arms and Fire-arms, other than Muskets and Rifles Drawing-knives, Axes, Adzes, and Socket-chisels Bridle-bits Steelyards, Scalebeams, and Vices Cutting Knives, Sithes, Spades, &c Screws , Other Articles Subject to specific Duties. Muskets Rifles Iron and Steel Wire Tacks, Brads, N ails, and Spikes . . Chains and Cables Mill Irons and Saws Anchors Anvils and Blacksmiths' Hammers Castings, &c Rods Sheets and Hoop In Pigs Bars and Bolts Steel Total from each country . . . Dollars. 98,248 28,99862,253 30,89985,821 66,832 2,791,487 10,824 58 59,32644,57024,181 12,252 473 34,29133,304 6,348 55,270 25,643 243.802233,200 British Colonies. Dollars. 12 94 714 38 27 54 240606 200128 52. 1,144 71 2,061 1 1,767 97 3,948,080 7,225 Dollars. Sweden. Dollars. 300 2,482 541,445 240 1,148,604 6,499 543,927 1,155,643 All other Countries. Dollars. 80,893 18 9,179 3 116,777 13,980 105286 1,098 520 2 4,238 7019 27,000 21,09352,161 Total. Dollars. 179,153 29,00762,271 30,899 95,00466,835 2,908,978 25,142 85 59,485 45,09625,885 12,452 1,121 34,34538,686 6,729 59,822 52,644 1,956,711 291,957 327,342 5,982,307 d We request the advocates of West Indian slavery to reconcile this authentic statement with their asser tion, that since the blacks of Hayti had enfranchised themselves, they had ceased the cultivation of this plant, or, at least, did not carry it beyond their own immediate necessities. THE UNITED STATES. 253 CHAP. III. Owing to the heavy duty, the amount of paper imported into the United States is very limited, being only 110,408 dollars; of this amount 36,025 dollars are from France; 36,654 dollars from Cuba; 16,208 dollars from England; and 10,168 aper' dollars from Italy. It will be perceived that the articles are confined to letter paper, or mere fancy papers, there being no amount worth mentioning of printing or plate paper. We do not know that this duty has any unfavourable influence on the progress of knowledge, as paper is manufactured nearly as well, and quite as cheap, in the United States as in other country. PAPER. England. France. Italy. Cuba. lbs. 6,682 6,160 5 1,005 20,113 lbs. 24,746 195,660 32 11,831 11,038 lbs. 14,669 79,757 766 lbs. 189,136 902 2,507 Foolscap, Drawing and Writing .... Printing, Copper-plate, and Stainers.. Binders and Wrappers All other 16,208 36,023 10,168 36,654 It is with regret we perceive that the importation of books is so comparatively Books. trivial — certainly the amount not at all corresponding with the mental demands of a prosperous republic, containing thirteen millions of inhabitants. The total amount from all foreign countries is only 130,632 dollars, of which 81,752 are from England, 34,262 from France, 7,075 from the Hanse Towns, 2,346 from the Netherlands, and 1,897 from Italy. We have already expressed our regrets and our hopes on the subject of the protecting duty which thus limits the importation of knowledge, and will only, therefore, repeat our firm expectation, that the impolicy of an impost so contrary to the peculiar characteristic of an age in which, by " running to and fro," "knowledge is increased," will speedily be discovered by the very class for whose sake it has been enacted, and who, were they less enlightened, might deem it a benefit to themselves, to be nothing less than a national injury. BOOKS. Volumes . . < In other Languages, except En- In Pounds j AU others (English) England. France. Italy. Hanse Towns. Cuba. Nether lands. 785 2,178 2,712 79,478 67,433 1,636 2,191 1,999 74 58 9,348 3,407 122 1,790 34 4,198 42 81,752 34,262 1,897 7,075 474 2,346 Glass still continues to form an article of import, though to a very diminished Glass. amount. It is chiefly imported from Great Britain, France, and the Hanse Towns. VOL. II. l l 254 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK III. Cigars. Raw mate rials. Hemp. Flax. Wool. Salt. Coal. Totalamount of imports. The Scotch proverb, that " many mickles make a muckle," has no better exempli fication than in the import of cigars into the United States, which amounts to 251,818 dollars, of which 243,526 are from Cuba. Thus nearly double the amount of dollars is spent in smoke by the Americans, of that bestowed on works of English and other foreign literature. Surely it would be better to protect cigars, and leave know ledge free. It only remains for us to notice a few articles of raw material which are imported into the United States. Hemp, to the amount of 200,338 dollars, almost exclusively from Russia; flax 39,055, of which 29,101 are from Russia, 8,604 from Prussia, and the remainder from the Netherlands; wool, to the amount of 96,853 dollars, of which 39,846 were from England, 20,329 from Turkey, the Levant, and Egypt, 13,932 from Spain, 8,594 from Portugal, 6,252 from the Hanse Towns, and the remainder from the British colonies and South America. Only a few years since, the American wools were an article of export to Great Britain ; but a duty being placed on the importa tion of inferior wools, for the protection of the British farmer, (or, perhaps, more truly — and it is well to accustom ourselves to write the truth on all occasions — for the benefit of the British landholder), the Americans were forced to commence, though, at first, in the very rudest shape, the manufacture of woollens ; and from this com mencement the manufacture of that article has advanced, till it not only consumes all the American wool, but requires a large amount of import. The amount of this article imported for the year 1831, (of which the official accounts are not yet pub lished) has, we find, far exceeded that of any former year. Notwithstanding the abundance of salt and coal in America, they are both, to some extent, articles of import; of the former, upwards of five millions of bushels (value 671,979 dollars) have been imported, chiefly from Great Britain or her colonies; and of the latter, 1,640,295 bushels, (value 204,773 dollars) almost entirely from Great Britain and her dependencies. The total amount of the imports for the year 1830 (70,876,920 dollars) exceeds that of the exports (63,849,508) by 7,027,412 dollars, or about ten per cent. There should, of course, be an excess of value of imports according to those returns, whether their value is estimated at the cost in foreign ports, or at the market-price in the American ports ; for these goods are the returns for the exports, the value of which is estimated at the rate of the markets in the United States ; and, unless a greater value of merchandise can be obtained in exchange in the foreign ports, the ship-owners would obtain nothing for outward freight : and still more ought the value of the imports in the American markets, after deducting duties, to exceed that of the exports, since this excess is the only fund for paying the two freights and interest on the capital employed. It can scarcely be doubted, that the estimated amount of the imports must be much under the real value ; for the difference of ten per cent. THE UNITED STATES. Q55 between the imports and exports would be utterly inadequate to renumerate the ship- CHAP. owner and the merchant, especially as more than sixty-six millions of the imports are ' ' in American vessels, and less than five millions in the ships of other nations. With Balance of the world at large, therefore, there is no balance of trade against the United State's, the real excess of imports being, in fact, only the profit of the parties who devote their capital, time, and skill to commerce. With separate countries, however, the balance is, in some cases generally against, and in others almost as uniformly in favour of the United States. With Great Britain, at the present time, the balance is considerably against the United States, and the rate of exchange is consequently ten per cent, in favour of Great Britain, which operates, to a considerable extent, as an additional duty on the imports of the latter country, as for every hundred pounds the American merchant has to remit, he can only procure bills on England at a pre mium of ten pounds. The navigation of the United States, although so intimately connected with com- Navigation. merce, requires to be noticed separately. It is certainly a most important interest, tanceTo™" not only as associated with the employment of a numerous class of individuals and 'he Umted otflt£S. a large amount of capital, but from considerations of a national and political character. It is only through their naval power, as combined with their com mercial importance, that the United States can cause themselves to be respected by European nations ; and it is manifest, that the adequate supply of hardy and well- disciplined mariners, in case of war, must most materially depend on the state of the commercial marine in times of peace. To foster and protect the naval interest Fostered was, therefore, naturally one of the earliest measures of the general government of iJtivfen- the United States, after their independence had been established. While, as a actmente- necessary addition to the revenue, a duty of six cents per ton only was imposed on vessels of the United States, when entering any of her harbours from any foreign port, on all vessels belonging to foreign nations there was laid a duty at the rate of fifty cents per ton, with an addition of ten per cent, to the several rates of duty on merchandise brought into the United States, when not imported in ships or vessels thereof. The beneficial operation of this system, from the confidence it inspired in the estimation in which the government held the navigation of the country, from the protection afforded by it to an interest destined to be the great source of its revenue, and from its various relations to the industry, the commerce, the fiscal concerns, and the external defence of the republic, was soon made manifest by the resuscitation and rapid increase of the navigation of the United States which immediately ensued from the adoption of it, and which were, doubtless, produced in a good degree by these measures of protection, aided however by other causes, which soon after followed and cooperated with them. The discriminating duty was applauded by the merchants 256 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK ill, of the United States, and by all those classes more immediately connected with its navigation; in addition to its effects on individual interests, and its countervailing influence on the duties imposed on American shipping in foreign ports, it required indeed little prescience to perceive, that, with an extended sea-coast of near two thousand miles, bordering a vast and fertile country, inhabited by an intelligent; brave, and enterprising people, the ocean was destined, at no distant period, to become one of the great sources, alike of their wealth and their industry — of their prosperity and their glory. The discrimination thus instituted between foreign vessels and those of the United States, with occasional alterations, dependent on the circumstances of the times, and the varying dispositions and conduct of other nations towards the republic, with a duty on foreign vessels of fifty cents per ton, as light-money, in 1804, have been continued to the present time, except with those powers with whom conventions or arrangements have been made for a reciprocal abolition, or suspension of them, in whole or in part. Rapidity of That the increase of the navigation of the United States before alluded to, was as us increase., j^y an(j gratifying as it was unexpected and unexampled, is established by the fact, that the tonnage of the United States, which, in 1789, amounted to 204,998 tons, of which 127,329 were employed in the foreign, 68,607 in the coasting trade, and 9062 in the fisheries, had reached, in 1807 to 1,477,075 tons, giving, in that space of time, a sevenfold increase, whereof 1,116,241 were employed in foreign trade, 285,090 in the domestic trade of the country, and 75,744 in the fisheries. This very important expansion of the navigation of the United States, as before observed, emanated in part from the discriminating duties ; while the unprecedented political circum stances of the times could not but also have a powerful influence in producing a result so desirable. Promoted The French revolution, which commenced nearly contemporaneously with the of Europe? adoption of the federal constitution, deranged for a series of years the mercantile operations of nearly all the navigating nations of Europe ; and for long periods between the epochs of 1789 and 1807, left the United States as the only important neutral power traversing the ocean. Under these circumstances, the increase and employment of the shipping of the United States was favoured in a manner which could not, within the same compass of time, have been effected by any other causes ; as the hazards of capture and the, higher rates of insurance which attached to European vessels at that period in intercourse with the United States, greatly exceeded the influence of the discriminating duties, and served almost to extinguish, at least for a time, the freighting business of this country, and of other nations, in the by thTpro- vesse*s 0I" tne belligerents. But, in 1807, it became apparent that, amid the colli- ceedings of sions of a world in arms, this state of unrivalled prosperity for the commerce and England . . f f J in France ; navigation of the United States was not to have a longer continuance ; for aggressions THE UNITED STATES. 257 on their rights as a neutral naiion, and depredations on the commerce of the United chap, States by the more important of the maritime powers of Europe, multiplied so fast as to occasion the withdrawment, for a time, of American navigation from the ocean, embargo"" and to give rise to those measures of resistance which issued in a war with Great and ' *ewar b with Eng- Britain. At the conclusion of the war, it was the desire of the government of the land. United States to promote freedom of commerce among the nations of the earth upon a fair and equal footing, as conducive, by the friendly intercourse and interchange of commodities to which it would give rise, to their mutual advantage ; they also felt confident that the vigour and maturity which the navigation of the republic had attained, would enable it successfully to meet a competition with that of other powers upon principles of reciprocity: the act of congress of March, 1815, repeal ing the discriminating duties on foreign vessels and vessels of the United States, and on goods imported therein, was therefore passed, abolishing the distinction and duties which previously existed, so far as regarded the vessels of those powers which reciprocated the same conditions to the United States. This act was confirmed by an act, passed January 7, 1824, extending the principle so far as to include within it those articles of produce and manufacture which could only be, or most usually are, first shipped from a port or place in Europe, when brought into the United States in the vessels of such nation, whether the articles be of its own produce or manufacture or not : the proffer of which conditions has been accepted by several of the powers of Europe. Both the facts and the sentiments which we have just stated are, in substance and Cause of partly in words, those of the report of the committee made to the senate in the year gta^iwuiry 1826.e We are aware that the position has been strenuously maintained, that American sAtate °' r J American navigation has been materially depressed by the enactment of the tariffs of 1824 and navigation. 1828. Mr. Cambreling, chairman of the committee of commerce appointed by the House of Representatives, in 1830, in a very long and very able report, takes this view of the subject ; f but it appears to us, that, owing to circumstances which no longer exist, the commercial navy of the United States had engrossed more than its due pro portion of. foreign trade ; of which, having so ample a field of employment both for labour and capital, they should be the less tenacious, especially as the amount of tonnage employed in the coasting trade and the whale fishery is decidedly on the increase. It would, however, certainly be desirable, that every diminution of the expense of fitting out vessels which can accrue from the i-eduction of duties on ton nage, &c. should be effected. The tonnage of the registered vessels employed in foreign trade at the close of Amount of the year 1829 was 650,142 tons; enrolled and licensed vessels, including licensed the year ° 1829, « Nineteenth Congress, First Session, Rep. No. 16. f Ibid. No. 165, 258 TOPOGRAPHY OF Tables.— Exports. BOOK III, craft under twenty tons, employed in the coasting trade, 508,858 tons ; vessels employed in the whale fishery 101,796 tons; making a total of 1,260,797 tons. Of the registered tonnage, 57,284 tons were employed in the whale fishery ; and of the ton nage reckoned as employed in the coasting trade, 54,036 tons were employed in steam navigation ; a larger amount, we apprehend, than the tonnage of steam vessels in the aggregate of all other nations. The tables annexed to this chapter have already been frequently referred to. — Table I. contains a statement of the value of the domestic exports of the United States from 1821 to 1830, inclusive ; and so far as exports may be regarded as a test, exhibits the pro gress of the fisheries, the agriculture, and the manufactures of the republic, during that period. Table II. is a statement of the total value of exports, domestic and foreign, from 1790 to 1831 ; and though but a brief compendium, affords important matter for the economist and the politician : the figures opposite the years 1814 and and 1825 stand as memorials of the evils of war and of excessive speculation. Table III. contains a statement both of the value and the destination of the exports, domestic and foreign, during the last ten years. The stream of American commerce, and the relative importance of each country to her markets are here exhibited. It is gratifying to perceive, that more than one-third of the exports of the United States are consumed by Great Britain. Table IV. is a statement of the kind and value of articles imported into the United States during the year 1830, and will enable manufacturers or merchants to ascertain, with the minutest accuracy, the value of every class of articles imported into the United States. Table V. exhibits combined in one view the value of the imports and exports from each foreign country during the year 1830 ; and affords an opportunity of ascertaining the relative proportion of the imports and exports in each case. The large amount of commerce with the island of Cuba will not fail to attract observa tion. This table also contains the amount of the tonnage of American and foreign vessels engaged in conducting the commerce of the United States into the several nations of the world. It will be perceived, that in their transactions with Great Britain about three-fourths of American and one-fourth of British are employed; while, in the aggregate, the Americans continue to engross nearly seven-eighths of the tonnage employed in their commerce. Imports. American and foreign tonnage. COMMERCE.— TABLE I. A SUMMARY STATEMENT of the VALUE of EXPORTS, of the Growth, Produce, and Manufacture of the UNITED STATES, from 1821 to 1830, ending the 30th of September in each Year. THE SEA. Dried fish, or cod fisheries Pickled fish Whale (common) oil and bone . . . Spermaceti oil and candles THE FOREST. Skins and furs • • Ginseng Product of wood — lumber, (boards, staves, shingles, hewn timber, &c.) • ¦ oak bark and other dye naval stores (tar, pitch, rosin, & turpentine) ashes, pot and pearl .... AGRICULTURE. Product of animals — beef, tallow, hides, live cattle .... butter and cheese pork, (pickled,) bacon, lard, live hogs . horses and mules sheep Vegetable food — wheat, flour, and biscuit Indian corn and meal rye meal .... rice all other, (pulse, rye, oats, potatoes, apples) Tobacco Cotton All other agricultural products — indigo flax-seed maple, or brown sugar .... hops • • • MANUFACTURES. Soap, and tallow candles Leather, boots, shoes, saddlery, &c. . . . Hats Grain, (spirits, beer, and starch,) .... Wood, including coaches and other carriages Cordage and canvass Iron .... Spirits, from molasses . .... Sugar refined Chocolate Gunpowder " Brass and copper ... Medicinal drugs ... Various items, (snuff, wax, lead, cotton goods, gold and silver coin, umbrellas, books, maps, &c.) . . . ... Uncertain — manufactured raw produce . . . . Total . 1821. Dollar* . 708,778 264,813 350,480 175,117 1822. 1,499,188 766,205 171,786 1,512,808 139,534 314,660 889,348 3,794,341 698,323 190,287 1,354,116 59,830 22,175 4,476,357 606,279 1^4*94,307 173,543 5,648,962 20,157,484 420,202 1,975 18,498 85,654 Dollars. 666,730249,108 311,415 157,286 1823. 1,384,539 501,302 313,943 1,307,670 145,707 447,869 1,099,053 3,815,542 -35,407,992 661,409 304,430 63,363 120,561 369,511 26,662 108,083 280,648 24,051 2,166 56,91926,694 44,998 Dollars. 734,024 270,776 432,115 221,309 1,658,224 672,917150,976 1,335,600 111,333 457,562 1,770,523 4,498,911 844,534221,041 1,357,899 93,753 12,276 5,287,286 900,656 1,553,482 233,825 6,222,838 24,035,058 392,772 805 23,025 93,129 41,272,379 173,127 2.262,622 492,009 215,742 707.751 43,671,894 788,946 385,086 86,007 124,140 487,141 33,807 132,727 60,04526,320 3,391 82,94736,97443,711 191,810 739,461 192,778 1,291,322 123,373 15,029 5,151,437 930,489 1,820,985 248,981 6,282,672 20,445,520 2,314 262,314 353 27,124 112,574 1824. Dollars. 873,685263,019 168,272 306,014 1,610,990 661,455 229,080 1,734,586 95,674 555,055 1,613,796 4,889,646 -37,646,726 707,299 204,205 1,489,051 213,396 14,938 5,977,255 736,340 1,882,982 271,907 4,855,566 21,947,401 836 504,327 434 81,810 107,451 1825. Dollars. 830,356 248,417296,425 219,867 1,595,065 524,692 144,599 1,717,571 93,809 463,897 1,994,381 4,938,949 664,807 566,489 115,168 89,615 421,633 22,659 97,27137,807 9,249 66,326 16,768 74,490 -38,995,198 930,465247,787 1,832,679 283,835 20,027 4,466,679 878,073 73,245 1,925,245 183,476 6,115,623 36,846,649 7,084 324,845 2,632 13,865 85,592 175,245 637,978280.589 2,483,052 918,567 44,897,097 782,071 211,949 2,357,52} 994,020 47,155,408 816,095 S14,638 217,648 154,144 513,435 47,262 142,974 51,172 7,195 2,285 163,165 26,981 78,675 228,752 3,264,421 -54,237,751 1,576,962 312,283 1,889,245 50,649,500 790,975 724,281240,074 154,223 470,006 28,114 156,173 51,505 6,96-3 1,184 234,366 30,47269,460 210,619 2,560,682 443,183 3,169,115 3,003,865 :,944,745 259 COMMERCE.— TABLE I.— continued. THE SEA. Dried fish,. or cod fisheries .... Pickled fish Whale (common) oil and bone . . Spermaceti oil and candles .... THE FOREST. Skins and furs Ginseng Product of wood — lumber, (boards, staves, shingles, hewn timber, masts, &c.) oak bark and other dye .... naval stores (tar, pitch, rosin, & turpentine) ashes, pot and pearl AGRICULTURE. Product of animals — beef, tallow, hides, and live cattle . . . butter and cheese . . .... pork, (pickled,) bacon, lard, live hogs . horses and mules sheep Vegetable food — wheat, flour, and biscuit Indian corn and meal rye meal rye, oats, and other small grain and pulse potatoes apples rice . . . Tobacco .... Cotton All other agricultural products — indigo flax-seed hops maple or brown sugar MANUFACTURES. Soap, and tallow candles .... Leather, boots, and shoes . . Saddlery . . Hats Wax Spirits from grain, beer, ale, and porter . Wood, including carriages, furniture, &c. . Snuff and tobacco Lead Linseed oil and spirits of turpentine Cordage and canvass .... Iron, pigs, bar, nails, &c Spirits from molasses Sugar refined Chocolate . Gunpowder ' . . Brass and copper Medicinal drugs Cotton piece goods — printed and coloured white nankeens twist, yarn, and thread . . . all other manufactures of . . . Flax and hemp — cloth and thread } bags, and all manufactures of ... ] 260 1826. 1827. Dollars. 667,742257,180 236,845311,621 1,473,388 582,473 137,014 2,011,694 65,120 254,491 900,458 3,951,250 733,430 207,765 1,892,429 247,543 17,693 4,411,870 1,007,321 49,297 72,371 41,58327,370 1,917,445 5,347,208 25,025,214 3,922 144,908100,668 4,964 -41,253,001 722,417586,576 66,994 272,431206,001 143,966 631,060 210,134 3,347 27,116 31,482 248,960 70,21227,043 2,427 174,273 60,083 133,716 1,138,125 Dollars. 747,171240,276223,604 364,281 1,575,332 441,690 79,566 1,697,170 79,884 102,489 643,171 3,343,970 772,636 184,049 1,555,698 173,629 13,586 4,645,784 1,022,464 47,698 *87,284 39,17435,828 2,343,908 6,577,123 29,359,545 8,358 188,606 8,284 1,489 -47,065,143 1828. Dollars. 819,926 246,737 181,270 446,047 1,693,980 626,235 91,164 1,821,906 101,175 487,761 761,370 3,889,611 719,961 176,354 1,495,830 185,542 7,499 4,464,774 S22.858 59,036 67,997 35,371 22,700 2,620,696 5,269,960 22,487,229 1,495 144,095 25,432 4,095 1829. Dollars. 747,541 220,527 495,163353,869 1,817,100 526,507 114,396 1,680,403 165,406 377,613 817,434 3,681,759 674,955 176,205 1,493,629 207,858 10,644 5,972,920 974,535 127,004 74,896 30,07915,958 2,514,370 4,982,974 26,575,311 1830. Dollars. 530,690225,987 680,683287,910 1,725,270 641,760 67,852 1,663,242 220,275321,019 1,105,127 4,019,275 -38,610,924 8,381 901,751 388,525 57,717 286,624 123,354144,832 574,751 239,024 3,761 20,70463,074 273,158 97,003 34,012 1,350 176,229 52,341 119,390 45,120 951,001 14,75011,175 137,368 11,084 5,364 912,322 401,259 49,758 326,294134,886 203,780 611,196210,747 4,184 22,119 20,030 231,234 185,096 38,207 .3,344 181,384 60,45295,083 76,012 887,628 5,149 12,570 28,873 5,335 3,365 113,040 6,9173,289 -43,954,584 692,691 356,658 35,765 270,780 132,939 215,494 501,946202,396 8,417 30,442 7,984 223,705 166,740 50,739 1,759 171,924 129,647101,524145,024 981,370 1,878 3,849 127,336 2,166 14,954 717,683142,370 1,315,245 182,244 22,110 6,320,603 597,119 87,796 66,249 39,027 23,727 1,986,824 5,586,365 29,674,883 827 180,973 30,312 2,975 -46,977,332 619,238338,603 38,651 309,362 153,666 225,357 463,425246,747 4,831 35,039 4,135 309,473 49,798 193,084 893 128,625 36,60192,15461,800 964,196 1,093 24,744 266,350 2,152 1,779 COMMERCE.— TABLE I.— continued. 1826. '¦ MANUFACTURES— continued. Wearing apparel Combs and buttons Brushes Billiard tables and apparatus Umbrellas and parasols Leather and morocco skins, not soldper lb. Fire engines and apparatus Printing presses and type Musical instruments Books and maps Paper and other stationery Paints and varnish Vinegar Earthen and stone ware Manufactures of glass tin pewter and lead . . . marble and stone . . . gold & silver, & gold leaf Gold and silver coin Artificial flowers and jewellery Trunks . . . Bricks and lime Salt ... . Uncertain — manufactured . raw produce . Total . Dollars. 85,866 23,654 4,631 3,811 50,764 43,834 4,935 33,509 5,157 49,340 39,582 21,545 5,8011,958 44,557 4,515 1,820 13,303 2,297 605,855 25,162 621 9,3976,075 248,252277,086 5,852,733 525,338 53,055,710 1827. Dollars. 94,76833,415 7,334 3,191 49,138 119,545 2,513 33,713 14,844 54,012 37,716 29,664 8,182 6,492 59,307 2,9676,183 3,505 3,605 1,043,574 22,357 1,511 12,483 3,365 293,379 257,021 6,386,846 550,400 . 58,921,691 1828. Dollars. 143,253 60,957 6,372 2,240 24,703 81,221 2,384 40,199 10,011 46,937 32,02626,229 5,884 5,595 51,452 5,0495,5453,122 7,505 693,037 18,195 601 6,004 4,573 247,990233,763 5,993,401 481,753 50,669,669 1829. Dollars. 91,108 76,250 3,150 3,443 22,067 80,173 2,832 12,908 8,868 29,010 25,62921,133 5,9535,592 49,900 1,757 5,1852,647 11,250 612,886 21,627 1,992 11,248 3,717 27,648 309,106 221,544 5,716,100 530,650 55,700,193 1830. Dollars. 102,277 124,589 6,116 316 25,796 70,968 13,274 10,26132,00440,994 13,716 6,690 2,773 60,280 4,4974,1724,655 3,561 937,151 13,707 3,9686,6542,482 22,978 347,228 309,249 6,083,675 656,477 59,462,029 COMMERCE.— TABLE II. A SUMMARY STATEMENT of the TOTAL VALUE of EXPORTS, Domestic and Foreign, from 1790 to 1831. For the Year ending Sept. 30. Domestic Produce. Foreign Produce. Total. For the Year ending Sept. 30. Domestic Produce. Foreign Produce. Total. 1790 *12,123,094 +8,082,062 20,205,156 1811 45,294,043 16,022,790 61,316,833 1791 * 11,407,225 ' +7,604,816 19,012,041 1812 30,032,109 8,495,127 38,527,236 1792 *12,451,860 +8,301,238 20,753,098 1813 25,008,152 2,847,845 27,855,997 1793 •15,665,744 +10,443,828 26,109,572 1814 6,782,272 145,169 6,927,441 1794 *19,815,741 +13,210,492 33,026,233 1815 45,974,403 6,583,350 52,557,753 1795 •28,793,684 +19,195,788 47,989,472 1816 64,781,896 17,138,556 81,920,452 1796 40,764,097 26,300,000 67,064,097 1817 68,313,500 19,358,069 87,671,569 1797 29,850,206 27,000,000 56,850,206 1818 73,854,437 19,426,696 93,281,133 1798 28,527,097 33,000,000 61,527,097 1819 50,976,838 19,165,683 70,142,521 1799 33,142,522 45,523,000 78,665,522 1820 51,683,640 18,008,029 69,691,669 1800 31,840,903 39,130,877 70,971,780 1821 43,671,894 21,302,488 64,974,382 1801 47,473,204 46,642,721 94,115,925 1822 49,874,079 22,286,202 72,160,281 1802 36,708,189 35,774,971 72,483,160 1823 47,155,408 27,543,622 74,699,030 1803 42,205,961 13,594,072 55,800,033 1824 50,649,500 25,337,157 75,986,657 1804 41,467,477 36,231,597 77,699,074 1825 66,944,745 32,590,643 99,535,388 1805 42,387,002 53,179,019 95,566,021 1826 53,055,710 24,539,612 77,595,322 1806 41,253,727 60,283,236 101,536,963 1827 58,921,691 23,403,136 82,324,827 1807 48,699,592 59,643,558 108,343,150 1828 50,669,669 21,595,017 72,264,686 1808 9,433,546 12,997,414 22,430,960 1829 55,700,193 16,658,478 72,358,671 1809 31,405,702 20,797,531 52,203,233 1830 59,462,029 14,387,479 73,849,508 1810 42,366,675 24,391,295 66,757,970 1831 62,048,233 18,324,333 80,372,566 • Estimated at three-fifths of the whole. t Estimated at two-fifths of the whole. 261 COMMERCE.— TABLE III. DESTINATION and VALUE of EXPORTS, Domestic and Foreign, from 1821 to 1830. WHITHER EXPORTED. Russia Prussia Sweden* Swedish West Indies Denmark and Norwayb Danish West Indies ....... Danish East Indies ....... Holland or Netherlands0 Dutch W. Indies and American Colonies Dutch East Indies England, Man, and Berwick .... Scotland Ireland Gibraltar British West Indies East Indies Newfoundland and British Fisheries . British American Colonies .... African Ports Other British Colonies The Hanse Towns and Ports of Germany French European Ports on the Atlantic . Mediterranean W. Indies and American Colonies East Indies Bourbon and Mauritius'1 Other French African Ports .... Hayti Spanish European Ports on the Atlantic Mediterranean Teneriffe and the other Canaries Floridas Manilla and Philippine Islands Honduras, Campeachy, & Musquito Shore Cuba Spanish West Indies Spanish SouthAmerican Colonies . . . South America and Mexico Portugal Madeira Fayal, and the other Azores .... Cape de Verd Islands Coast of Brazil and other Amer. Colonies15 Italy and Malta Trieste, and other Austrian Ports on the Adriatic Turkey, Levant, Egypt, Mocha, and Aden Morocco and Barbary States .... Cape of Good Hope China Asia — generally West Indies, ditto Europe, ditto Africa, ditto South Seas North West Coast of America . . . . Total .... 1821. Domestic Produce. Dollars. 127,939 154,213 507,077 165,568 1,316,2961,954,513 533,259 133,010 16,339,109 1,405,448 889,577 956,111 264,632 32,089 260 2,009,336 9,953 12,113 1,535,5065,098,843 69,855 846,597 5,784 19,600 1,740,383 324,706 24,225 74,828 300,248 1,359 99,895 2,950,055 175,217508,176147,726193,414 26,837 22,176 885,348 410,171 31,781 30,883 388,535 32,467 513,039 183,854 85,062 40,328 94,493 Foreign Produce. 43,671,894 Dollars. 500y955 62,968 53,149 360,535 485,483 1,739,692 149,784 1,581,803 2,125,594 13,683 4,069 513,635 470 1,934,190 4,478 455 5,0132,357 597,038 349,010 10,851 49,838 1,784 22,556 '530,218 189,900 915 48,637 49,522 209,964 106,830 1,590,625 33,604 529,559 26,667 11,158 7,656 496,412689,496308,580406,997 3,902,025 1,180,797 47,474 10,782, 41,629 31,080 282,505; 1822. Domestic Produce. 21,302,488 Dollars. 177,261180,411 569,586 32,023 1,603,494 7,344 2,077,368 921,072 121,441 21,072,395 1,615,565 770,176 525,708 449,601 67,979 1,314 1,881,273 4,850 1,644,226 4,561,299 183,191 918,699 17,952 1,746,107 116,270 25,20085,937 123,115 3,201,045 150,435 1,592,767 102,935 186,952 33,160 34,941 1,217,411 560,714 38,752 6,1246,150 439,230 74,346 515,729 58,575 71,968 37,209 54,799 Foreign Produce. 49,874,079 Dollars. 351,820 80,210 , 91,247 160,757 628,256 2,172 1,524,683 157,704 999,571 1,029,224 10,987 625,074 2,540 1,968,365 16,286 860,789 1,210,533 70,33742,303 ' 71,018 '373,704 67,742 1,354 29,140 ' 11,799 127,943 1,069,573 7,606 1,828,286 18,555 4,662 10,454 35,832 246,518 889,470 436,968405,197 5,506,138 1,087,989 24,331 6,391 69,410 11,934 110,710 1823 Domestic Produce. 22,286,202 Dollars. 51,635 7,268 151,037 241,701 39,783 1,231,152 2,642,930 655,763 151,120 18,968,185 1,158,495 714,037 875,604 1,617,845 10,642 3,183 1,818,113 26,232 1,582,354 4,677,914 323,861804,218 1,670,140 130,966 20,87658,002 5,449 211,383 3,271,270 256,033 1,372,526 48,077 117,685 27,841 22,055 1,062,209 115,994 25,697 4,877 288,375 55,902 554,273 10,994 49,971 21,741 Foreign Produce. Dollars. 597,099 568 147,191 18,362 53,134 631,002 2,409,216 157,065 1,750,981 978,474 10,104 37,644 1,028,272 10,122 307,738 2,560 3,347 463 1,587,085 2,527,656 1,171,898 63,377 708.642 65,966 19,447 21,216 41,2'75 100,052 2,134,095 25,405 3,229,347 300 3,976 15,70411,010 279,181951,911 919,618559,783 4,347,686 436,759 59,417 17,956 55,999 45,429 1824. Domestic Produce. Dollars. 92,766 5,163 163,725. 204,983 35,487 1,149,641 1,597,514 589,775 61,669 18,218,841 1,196,219 913,532934,402 1,750,703 34,354 7,243 1,773,107 20,463 859,383 7,585,815 265,815770,515 36,692 1,901,926 140,436 9,840 42,845 8,958 157,060 3,611,693 306,896 2,827,521 77,255 315,896 17,463 51,019 1,669,754 76,868 6,596 25,171 1,694 330',466 19,271 559,998 55,40183,900 44,063 9,703 Foreign Produce.. 47,155,408 27,543,622 Dollars. 139,215 161,033 39,687 299,822698,302617,831 111,984 638,616 1,268,282 14,632 8,673 934,445 20,305 927,716 2,617 2,311 1,003,890 1,095,612 750,431 41,217 ' 6,207 463,229 366,434 20,144 210,562194,365 2,195,840 233,718 5,040,966 5,168 26,347 4,023 21,665 602,150 587,480518,057314,257 3,819 4,970,705 450,358 39,886 1,608 64,506 119,367 29,675 1825. DomesticProduce. 50,649,500 25,337,157 Dollars. 55,191 4,918 222,164. 193,761 214,517 1,281,248 2,486,468 497,194 163,022 32,096,390 1,699,526 1,247,550 861,733 1,635,574 206,450 16,068 2,538,224 7,735 23,612 1,144,474 7,338,693 187,242 937,368 40,125 968 1,648,055 73,515 18,814 70,38023,16957,286 3,276,556 216,102 3,419,158 110,015122,840 33,421 60,072 1,641,296 66,605 8,834 34,373 3,589 160,059 37,486 646,638 16,312 59,365 29,090 11,500 Foreign Produce. 66,944,745 Dollars. 232,210 12,650. 112,378 41,247 637,146 568,177 1,306,839 77,092 1,364,884 2,031,186 7,657 20,669 941,981 11,472 784,629 1,7401,977 2,025 1,976,559 2,625,968 726,499 74,588 ' 41,202 406,560 82,722 6,336 21,271 185,554 23,543 1,844,146 22,156 7,757,325 2,824 55,326 4,695 18,967 752,458 578,434 643,568 364,591 3,720 5,YlO,456 675,567 23,030 135 35,72027,16443,601 32,590,643 * After 1823, the Exports were to Sweden and Norway. d After 1824, to Mauritius. * After 1823, to Denmark. ' After 1823, to Brazil. ' After 1824, to the Netherlands. 262 COMMERCE.— TABLE III.— continued. WHITHER EXPORTED. 1826. Russia Prussia Sweden and Norway . . . Swedish West Indies . . . Denmark Danish West Indies . . . Netherlands Dutch West Indies . . . Dutch East Indies . . . England, Man, and Berwick Scotland Ireland Gibraltar British East Indies . . . West Indies . . . Mauritius and Bourbon* British Amer. Colonies and Newfoundland Other British Colonies The Hanse Towns and Ports of Germany French European Ports on the Atlantic . — Mediterranean - W. Indies . . - African Ports . Hayti Spanish European Ports on the Atlantic Mediterranean Teneriffe and the other Canaries Manilla and Philippine Islands . . . Cuba Other Spanish West Indies Portugal Madeira Fayal, and the other Azores . . . . Cape de Verd Islands Italy and Malta Trieste, and other Ports on the Adriatic Turkey, Levant, and Egypt Greece, and Grecian Archipelago . . . Morocco and Barbary States . . . . Cape of Good Hope China Mexican Ports on the Atlantic . . . Central Republic of South America . . Honduras, Campeachy, &c Colombian Ports on the Atlantic . . . Brazil Buenos Ayresb Chili Peru South America' — generally Asia, ditto West Indies, ditto Europe, ditto Africa, ditto South Seas North West Coast of America .... Total . . . . Domestic Produce. Dollars. 11,044 15,129 126,034 120,573100,582 1,391,004 1,970,199 434,125 57,506 19,065,185 572,894 775,137 692,396 24,226 2,078,871 13,893 2,564,165 34,378 979,313 9,075,254 273,675904,115 512 1,252,910 71,313 80,96442,761 14,133 3,749,658 210,858 99,945 119,058 16,976 39,69381,622 13,387 46,897 Foreign Produce. 21,154 242,451 1,024,275 79,294 946,014 1,597,344 222,832512,650278,724 56,72517,565 603,807 166,875108,226 27,468 29,921 Dollars. 163,604 3,421 88,48923,284 245,288 676;001 1,899,857 57,426 374,957 1,569,023 2,9526,684 1,055,525 418,042 31,93122,000 24,630 500 1,137,384 1,316,178 483,677 52,059 959 161,584 22,22720,04621,742 58,207 2,382,774 12,668 538 25,549 2,4959,299 448,599273,933271,438 1827. Domestic Produce- Dollars. 45,510 8,515 201,488 416,822 148,958 1,463,691 2,339,381 387,573 38,859 23,514,421 1,336,169 637,120 1,040,999 32,717 683,105 6,433 2,324,1935,256,775 40,480 1,006,658 603,005 156,508 934,848 231,175 8,003 387,490 14,062 12,443 54,840 62,859 74,870 2,797,014 1,693,971 8,712,011 475,547979,697 1,162,473 74,761 62,353 46,163 4,160,747 218,156 116,103 100,153 13,487 80,01074,417 42.671 131,734 14,634 2,031 290,862 886,907 147,574 13,261 611,312 1,485,433 100,780 1,040,748 202,944 71,53721,139 454,904 150,236126,968 24,92337,702 Foreign Produce. Dollars. 336,734 207,553 25,014 253,983 538,190 888,950 44,162 127,749 904,596 864,387 1,018,733 7,470 33,734 1,319,214 2,555,869 781,076 61,156 169,436 47,178 7,112 39,817 2,655,341 10,363 220 18,281 .4,861 24,155 535,804 234,122 470,325 2,003 53,055,710 24,539,612 58,921,691 23,403,136 50,669,669 21,595,017 3,573,5433,286,350 77,198 1,573 333,222377,373 50,424 661,853 70,077 21,489 640,670 11,956 779 67,872 287 40,882 1828. Domestic Produce. Dollars. 108,922 15,430 256,532 611,584 150,979 2,202,4651,863,767 415,343 83,710 18,737,661 959,560 394,450899,411 45,19926,149 Foreign Produce. 1,618,288 1,804,333 7,091,699 606,638 1,009,437 1,123,405 40,946 66,844 33,529 19,914 3,912,997 222,191 77,010 101,948 19,559 67,502 279,520 119,233 78,374 230,385 522,016 106,773 5,950 560,846 1,505,770 94,372 1,519,978 159,389 146,967 46,776 437,916 46,586 131,249 42,147 39,020 Dollars. 341,573 215,222 23,616 386,689 608,034365,646 41,616 313,277 2,960,261 7,927 810 506,719795,682 2,706 1829. DomesticProduce. 56,386 1,190,918 3,095,826 279,407 15,334 209,306199,953 51,193 8,551 141,838 2,490,994 15,677 1,164 9,985 4,719 9,727 641,230205,255 124,567 1,252,417 2,364,468 52,499 2,371 323,678 482,935 59,856 1,109,424 100,555 13,808 356,835 22,281 9,367 26,361 40,989 55,365 Dollars, ^ 51,684 14,411 122,663 684,523 73,597 1,942,010 3,095,857 379,874 62,074 21,281,334 895,315 327,728 301,132 69,070 1,463 10,502 2,724,104 Foreign Produce. 1,998,176 8,008,923 886,122 1,056,639 814,987545,753 185,952 42,839 10,802 3,719,263 209,780 42,088 175,074 7,949 68,528 289,755409,288 27,600 260,759 495,626 123,631 12,693 525,783 1,510,260 444,716890,356 91,542 147,670 40,721 359,496 102,364108,837 45,969 2,911 .55,700,193 Dollars. 334,542 ' 126,971 23,79113,166 282,401889,330 18,667 176,318 1,767,457 19,493 366 160,130 477,629 5,058 1830. DomesticProduce. 40,805 1,278,984 2,105,573 748,777 15,768 160,171 139,732 45,70023,317 66,430 1,859,626 38,900 628 15,089 78 13,477 611,257 280,200 47,384 1,094,103 1,835,525 116,223 8,229 241,565 419,667 181,336 530,778119,615 6,175 232,768 10,123 250 49,51620,991 4,399 16,658,478 Dollars. 35,461 16,501 181,353 552,700 76,292 1,688,022 3,354,551 319,495 63,273 23,773,020 1,465,211 261,687 513,248 93,731 140 3,650.031 1,549,732 9,183,894 717,252 792,241 5,931 714,791538,956 145,556 19,040 39,129 3,439,060 245,636 43,408 155,719 6,649 50,560 326,239 300,859 75,801 156,290 985,764 138,456 25,132 316,732 1,600,999 425,220 915,718 32,400 9,190 56,318 242,114 16,090 96,86721,17828,392 Foreign Produce. Dollars. 381,114 189, 949 37,72729,048 220,723675,527 42,298 107,293 826,946 2,488 ' 370,150 553,126 1,761 136,342 725,148661,925430,888 13,528 579 108,387 61,327 610 54,539 1,477,675 27,523 1,803 12,358 1,524 7,778 414,121293,261 337,539 585,903 3,851,694 111,662 5,432 180,258 242,239 204,667 620,396 39,402 170 229,290 5,010 22,653 52,236 6,764 24,698 59,462,029 14,387,479 ' After 1828, the Exports were to Bourbon. b After 1828, to the Argentine Republic. 233 COMMERCE.— TABLE IV. A SUMMARY STATEMENT of the VALUE of GOODS IMPORTED, from the 1st of Oct. 1829, to the 30th Sept. 1830. SPECIES OF MERCHANDISE. VALUE. SPECIES OF MERCHANDISE. VALUE. merchandise free of duty. Articles imported for the use of the United States . . . Articles specially imported for Philosophical Societies, &ct Philosophical apparatus, instruments, &c Books, maps, and charts Paintings and drawings Medals, and collections of antiquity Anatomical preparations Antimony, regulus of Lapis calaminaris, tutanag, spelter, or zinc Burrstones, unwrought Brimstone and sulphur Cork tree, bark of Clay, unwrought Rags of any kind of cloth Furs of all kinds Hides and skins, raw Plaster of Paris Specimens of botany, natural history, and mineralogy Models of invention and machinery Barilla Wood, dye , unmanufactured mahogany Animals for breed Pewter, old Tin in pigs and bars Brass in pigs and bars , old Copper in pigs and bars in plates, suited to the sheathing of ships . . . for the use of the Mint , old, fit only to be re- manufactured Bullion, gold , silver Specie, gold , silver All other articles Total merchandise subject to duties ad valorem. Manufactures of Wool, or of which wool is a component material — Not exceeding 50 cents per square yard Exceeding 50 cents, and not exceeding 100 cents, per ditto Ditto . . 100 .... ditto .... 250 ... ditto . Ditto . . 250 .... ditto .... 400 . . . ditto . Ditto . . 400 Blankets' Hosiery, gloves, mits, &c Bombazines Worsted stuff goods All other manufactures of Cotton — Printed or coloured White , Hosiery, gloves, mits, and bindings Twist, yarn, and thread Nankeens AH other manufactures of Vestings and plaids — Of wool, or wool and cotton, or silk . . Of cotton, or cotton and silk . . . . Silk — From India, piece goods Ditto . . . other manufactures From other places, piece goods Ditto other manufactures Dollars. 430 9,830 19,621 322 95 274 6,7452,560 16,31717,240 2,538 9,048 72,661 305,782 2,409,850 125,606 6,118 897 66,222 279,411286,825 23,151 815 101,341 29,615 3,344 403,203283,785 14,435 83,413 115,267 1,049,343 705,879 6,285,475 8,787 12,746,245 452,743 1,083,815 1,236,060 75,706 6,015 594,044 133,453 33,887 1,397,545" 319,306 4,356,6752,487,804 387,454 172,785 228,233229,375 53,916 2,292 1,367,092 31,224 2,824,918 1,550,776 merchandise subject to duties ad valorem. Manufactures of Lace — Of thread, silk, or cotton Coach Flax — Linen, bleached and unbleached Checks and stripes Other manufactures of Hemp — Ticklenburgs, osnaburgs, and burlaps Sheeting, brown Ditto . . white . All other manufactures of Clothing, ready made Hats, caps, and bonnets — Leghorn, straw, chip, &c Fur, wool, leather, or silk .... Iron, or Iron and steel wire — • Side arms and fire arms, other than muskets and rifles . . Drawing knives, axes, adzes, and socket chisels Bridle-bits of every description Steelyards, scalebeams and vices Cutting knives, sithes, sickles, reaping hooks, spades & shovels Screws weighing 24 pounds or upwards Wood screws Other articles not specified Copper — Vessels of All other manufactures of Gold and silver — Lace Watches, and parts thereof Articles composed of, &c Wares — Glass not subject to specific duties China or porcelain Earthen and stone Japanned Plated Gilt Brass Tin j Pewter and lead, except shot Wood, including cabinet wares Leather, including saddles, bridles, and harness Plated saddlery, coach and harness furniture Marble, and manufactures of Square wire, used for umbrella stretchers Ciphering slates Prepared quills Blacklead pencils Paper hangings Brushes of all kinds '. '. . Hair seating Bolting cloths Copper bottoms, cut round, raised to the edge ...'.!.' Quicksilver Brass, in plates Tin, in plates Crude saltpetre \ \ Opium Unmanufactured — Raw silk \ Articles not specially enumerated, subject to a duty of 1 2 £ per cent. Ditto DittoDitto DittoDitto Ditto Ditto DittoDitto dittodittoditto dittodittoditto ditto dittoditto dittodittodittoditto dittoditto dittodittoditto 15 20 25 3033i 3540 45 50 Dollars. Total 264 35,835,450 COMMERCE.— TABLE IV.— continued. SPECIES OF MERCHANDISE. VALUE. SPECIES OF MERCHANDISE. VALUE. MERCHANDISE PAYING SPECIFIC DUTIES. Manufactures of wool, not exceeding 33J cents per square yard Carpeting — Brussels, Turkey, and Wilton Venetian and ingrain All other of wool, flax, or cotton Patent printed or stained floorcloths Oilcloth, other than patent floorcloth Furniture oilcloth .... Floor mattings of flags or other materials Sail duck Cotton bagging Wines — Maderia Sherry Red, of France and Spain Of France, Spain, and. Germany, not enumerated . . Of Sicily and other countries, and all wines not enumerated, in casks and bottles Foreign spirits — From grain From other materials Molasses Beer, ale, and porter Vinegar .•.•••¦•• Oil Foreign fishing, spermaceti, whale, olive (in casks), castor, linseed, and hempseed Teas — Bohea, souchong and other black, hyson skin and other green, hyson and young hyson, imperial, gunpowder, and Gomel Coffee Cocoa Chocolate Sugar — Brown White, clayed, &c. Candy and loaf Other refined Fruits— Almonds, currants, prunes and plums, figs, raisins (in jars and boxes), and all other . . Spices — Ginger, Cayenne pepper, mace, nutmegs, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, pimento, and cassia Candles— Spermaceti and wax Tallow Cheese Soap Tallow Lard Beef and pork Bacon Butter Saltpetre Camphor, crude ' Salts, Epsom • • • Tobacco, manufactured, other than snufl and cigars .... Snuff Indigo > - • Cotton Gunpowder Bristles Glue Ochre— Dry In oil White and red lead Whiting, and Paris white Sugar of lead Lead— Bar, sheet, and pig Shot Dollars, 266,060 77,562 123,950 137 19,865 762 2,596 9,486 317,347 69,126 330,423 69,547 273,033424,304437,795 205,704 453,286995,776 60,420 4,241 18,074 2,425,0184,227,021 137,453 899 3,985,865 644,477 571 9 520,275457,723 519 8,959 8,898 3,310 43 10 23,220 G81652 80 26,374 111 224834 715,715 34,737 20,488 26,518 3,110 21,182 430 14,231 3,933 11,84618,757 1,638 MERCHANDISE PAYING SPECIFIC DUTIES. Cordage — Tarred and cables . Untarred and yarn Twine, packthread, and sean Corks Copper — Rods and bolts . . Nails and spikes . . Fire-arms — Muskets . . . Rifles .... Iron — Iron and steel wire . . Tacks, brads, and sprigs Nails Cables and chains, or parts thereof Mill-cranks, and mill-irons of wrought iron .... Mill-saws Anchors Anvils Hammers and sledges for blacksmiths * Castings, vessels and all other Braziers' rods or round iron, of 3-10 to 8-16 diameter inclusive Nail or spike rods, slit Sheets and hoop Slit or rolled, &c In pigs Bar and bolt, rolled . , hammered Steel . . Hemp Flax, unmanufactured Wheat flour . . . Wool, unmanufactured Salt Coal Wheat Oats Potatoes Paper — Folio and quarto post, foolscap, drawing and writing, printing, copperplate, and stainers', sheathing, binders', wrapping, box boards, &c Printed books, in all languages Glassware — Cut and not specified All other articles of Glass — Apothecaries' phials, not above 8 oz Bottles, not above 1 gallon Demijohns Window Fish — Foreign, dried or pickled Shoes and slippers . Boots and bootees Cigars Playing cards Roofing slates Value of merchandise paying specific duties Ditto . . . ditto . . . paying ad valorem duties Ditto . . . ditto . . . free of duty Total 70,876,920 Dollars. 71,291 8,114 75,006 30,730 262 2,141 25,142 85 59,485 2,799 40,906 1,391 25,885 200 12,252 1,121 31,249 3,096 38,686 5,945 784 59,822 81 25,644 226,336 1,730,375 291,957200,338 39,055 599 96,853 671,979204,773 492 378 9,189 110,408 130,632 6,192 129,632 3,473 52,991 15,624 25,59727,624 5,3621,013 251,818 430 34,683 22,295,225 35,835,450 12,746,245 265 COMMERCE.— TABLE V. A STATISTICAL VIEW of the VALUE of IMPORTS from, and EXPORTS to, each Foreign Country, and the TONNAGE of AMERICAN and FOREIGN VESSELS employed, for the Year ending Sept. 30, 1830. COUNTRIES. Russia Prussia Sweden and Norway .... Swedish West Indies .... Denmark Danish West Indies .... Netherlands Dutch East Indies .... West Indies .... England Scotland Ireland Gibraltar British East Indies .... West Indies .... Newfoundland British American Colonies . . African ports .... Other British Colonies . . . Hanse Towns France on the Atlantic ; . . Mediterranean . French West Indies .... African ports . . . Spain on the Atlantic . . . Mediterranean . Teneriffe, and other Canaries . Manilla and Philippine Islands Cuba Other Spanish West Indies . . Portugal Madeira Fayal, and the other Azores Cape de Verd Islands . . . Italy Sicily Trieste, and other Adriatic ports Ragusa, and the Seven Islands Turkey, &c Hayti Mexico Central Republic Colombia Honduras Brazil Argentine Republic .... Cisplatine Republic .... Chili Peru South America, generally . . China Asia, generally" West Indies, ditt9 East Indies, ditto Europe, ditto Africa, ditto Cape of Good Hope .... South Seas ....... North West Coast of America . Total . 266 COMMERCE. VALUE OF IMPORTS. Dollars. 1,621,899 ' 16,605 1,168,110 230,530 - 5,384 1,665,834 888,408 181,848 286,509 22,755,040 1,382,841 381,333 90,028 1,373,297 168,579 650,303 2,300 1,263 1,873,253 6,831,015 891,183518,687 461,267543,271 99,878 384,887 5,577,230 1,307,148 165,321 239,652 32,912 33,758 940,254 3,740 132,093 Vl7,392 1,597,140 5,235,241 302,833 1,120,095 1,472 2,491,460 1,431,883 182,585 972,884 40,269 3,878,141 98,451 7,386 394 172,861 20,74*8 70,876,920 VALUE OF EXPORTS. Domestic Produce. Dollars. 35,461 16,501 181,353 552,700 76,292 1,688,022 3,354,551 63,273 319,495 23,773,020 1,465,211 261,687 513,248 93,731 140 3,650,031 1,549,7329,183,894 717,252792,241 5i931 538,956 145,556 19,04039,129 3,439,060 245,636 43,408 155,719 6,649 50,560 326,239 300,859 ' 75,801 714,791985,764 138,456 316,732 25,132 1,600,999 425,220 915,718 32,400 9,190 156,290 56,318 242,114 16,090 96,867 21,17828,392 59,462,029 Foreign Produce. Dollars. 381,114 189,949 37,727 29,048 220,723675,527 107,293 42,298 826,946 2,488 "376,150 553,126 1,761 136,342 725,148 661,925 430,888 13,528 579 61,327 610 54,539 1,477,675 27,523 1,803 12,358 1,524 7,778 414,121 293,261337,539 108,387 3,851,694 111,662 180,258 5,432 242,239204,667 620,396 39,402 170 585,903229,290 5,010 ' 22,653 52,236 6,764 24,698 14,387,479 Total. Dollars. 416,575 16,501 371,302590,427105,340 1,908,745 4,030,078 170,566 361,793 24,599,966 1,467,699 261,687883,398646,857 1,901 3,786,373 2,274,880 9,845,819 1,148,140 805,769 6,510 600,283 145,556 19,650 93,668 4,916,735 273,159 45,211 168,077 8,173 58,338 740,360 594,120 413,340 823,178 4,837,458 250,118 496,990 .'30,564 1,843,238 629,887 1,536,114 71,802 ' 9,360 742,193285,608247,124 38,743 149,103 27,942 53,090 73,849,508 NAVIGATION. AMERICAN TONNAGE. Entered into the U. S. Tons. 13,681 372 15,14410,406 877 38,767 42,998 662 12,047 199,972 5,784 5,494 3,346 4,806 22,428 452 130,527 17,259 79,459 15,406 25,928 16,28810,920 1,762 2,774 97,644 19,031 12,287 3,212 634 1,253 5,062 1,697 4,332 345 3,668 18,513 22,062 4,560 13,514 6S 38,005 6,584 236 304 3,276 394 8,598 1,679 2,288 ' 1,904 2,730 15,392 967,227 Departed from the U.S. Tone. 3,492 232 3,502 19,960 1,923 52,53535,220 1,501 11,043 192,714 6,9134,594 13,450 ;4,029 2,395 1,523 117,171 510 "li,728 82,52118,967 47,129 106 9,3873,017 796 458 114,054 8,7342,2436,080 244 2,628 6,626 135 4,6622,887 19,395 27,295 3,0445,955 1,042 44,450 9,565 . 1,373 12,287 732679 3,5013,697 7,417 424 911 2,560 580 28,222 522 971,760 FOREIGN TONNAGE. Entered into the U. S. Tons. 264 ' 2,935 965 ' 600793 ' 248 61,355 12,560 6,949 275 4,002 8,488 4,061 205 5,945 122 12,954 625 114 137 1,633 4,362 1,676 248225 141 618 131,900 Departed from the U.S Tons. 264 ' 2,023 984 ' 849 4,515 220 124 58,589 7,707 12,570 14,267 10,262 6,014 1,074 4,325 I. . 1 1,356 489 184 137 ' *418 ' '282 1,748 3,551 ' 62 ' 601 116 155260290 133,436 THE UNITED STATES. 267 CHAPTER IV. FINANCES REVBNUE, EXPENDITURE, DEBT. The revenue of the United States is derived chiefly from the duties levied on the CHAP. , „ iv. importation of foreign commodities, or the sale of public lands ; the former source — § Revenue at present3 producing twenty-two parts (22,681,996 dollars) out of twenty-four of the whole amount, (24,767,122 dollars), the remaining twelfth being raised from the latter, (1,457,004 dollars) ; together with dividends or sales of bank stock, (490,000 dollars); the arrears of internal duties, (14,404 dollars) ; direct taxes, (11,321 dollars); and miscellaneous charges, (112,425 dollars.) The post-office department has fre quently been a source of gain to the treasury; but in the year 1829, the whole amount received appears to have been expended in improvements of the post-roads, and, indeed, for the last ten years it has not, for a similar reason, been at all materially productive. We shall notice very briefly each of the sources from which the revenue is derived. The present rates of duty imposed on the most important articles imported Customs. from foreign countries have been given in a table at the close of the chapter on manufactures, as indicative of the extent to which they are severally pro tected. The amount received from the customs annually, from 1791 to 1830, will be found in Table I., at the end of this chapter. It will be perceived that from the year 1792, when it was 3,443,070 dollars, it gradually rose to the year 1808, when it reached 16,363,550 dollars. This increase manifests very decidedly the progressive prosperity of the republic during that period, since it did not accrue from any increase of the rate of the imports, but of the quan tity of the articles consumed or the amount of the tonnage employed. During the years 1809-10, in consequence of the embargo, the amount declined to about half the sum; in 1811 it reached thirteen millions of dollars; but, in conse quence of the war, it sank again, in 1812, to under nine millions of dollars. In » These statements and calculations are founded on the official reports of the year ending 30th of Sept 1829. 268 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK III. July of that year the rate of duties was doubled; and in 1813, they exceeded thirteen ~ millions of dollars : in 1814, however, in consequence of the continuance of the war, and the effectual manner in which the British navy blockaded the American coast, they did not amount to six millions of dollars, and in 1815, a little exceeded seven millions of dollars. After the close of the war, the double duties, which were continued to the 30th of June, 1816, and the immense importation of goods which the active competition of British manufacturers and merchants poured into the United States, raised the amount of customs for the year 1816 to the surprising sum of 36,306,874 dollars, the highest amount, by nearly one-third, they have ever attained. The tariff which was established on the abandonment of the war duties, in June, 1816, was at a considerably higher rate than the old duties, and produced, in 1817, a revenue of upwards of twenty-six millions of dollars. The American market, during the first two years of peace, was glutted with foreign manufactures, and consequently, a reaction in the imports took place, which reduced the amount, in 1818, to little more than seventeen millions of dollars; in 1819 it reached twenty millions of dollars; from 1820 to 1825 the amount varied from thirteen to twenty millions of dollars. Since that time it has, with the exception of 1827, been about twenty-three millions of dollars. It is generally understood (although we have not received the official returns) that in consequence of the large importations under the high duties imposed by the tariff of 1828, the revenue derived from the customs this year will reach twenty-eight millions of dollars, an amount greater than that of any year since the establishment of the republic, except the first after the war.b Public The sale of public lands is at present almost the only real source of revenue besides the customs ; for although an amount of 490,000 dollars from dividends on stock in the bank of the United States appears in the statement of receipts, while any public debt remains, that sum, or nearly so, must be paid to the public creditor as interest on the debt, of which the loan to the United States bank forms a part, and upon which the interest paid by the bank cannot therefore be esteemed as clear Title of revenue. The title of the United States to the public lands is derived from three Slates"*"6 distinct sources : first, from treaties with foreign nations, by which territory has been acquired, or boundaries settled ; secondly, by treaties with the Indian tribes, by which, for a certain remuneration, the title of the natives to the land has been extinguished ; and thirdly, from cessions of territories made by individual states to the general government. It cannot be matter of surprise that the title of the United States should be frequently disputed by individuals, on the ground of claims existing previously to the cession of the land in question to the government. No less than b Since these sheets were prepared for press, the Report of the Finances of the United States has been received, in which the receipts for the year ending 30th September, 1831, are estimated to be 28,000,412 dollars. THE UNITED STATES. 269 fourteen extensive claims are stated by Seybert ; c some of them arising from alleged chap. purchases from the Indians, which however were, even if substantiated, undoubtedly IV" contrary to law, and others originating in grants from officers of the different governments to which the territory belonged before its acquisition by the United States, but of which the evidence of confirmation by their respective governments is either totally wanting or incomplete. Our limits will not permit us to state the details of these disputed claims : there is one, however, both from its peculiar character and its magnitude, too remarkable to be passed over. The Yazoo .claims, as they were called, embraced 35,000,000 acres in the Mississippi territory, and were derived from a pretended sale by the legislature of Georgia, but declared null, as fraudulent, by a subsequent legislature. " The evidence, as published by the state of Georgia, and by congress," says Dr. Seybert, " shows that that transaction, even if considered as a contract, is, as such, on acknowledged principles of law and equity, null ab initio ; it being in proof that all the members of the legislature who voted in favour of the sale, that is to say, the agents who pretended to sell the property of their constituents, were, with the exception of a single person, interested in, and parties to the purchase." This claim, however, was arranged by commissioners appointed by congress in 1814, and treasury certificates to the amount of more than four millions of dollars were awarded among the various claimants. On the 10th of May, 1800, an act of congress was passed, laying the foundation of Survey and the land system, as it now exists. Under this law, all the lands, before they are public offered for sale, are surveyed, on a rigidly accurate plan, at the expense of the lands" government. This is the corner-stone of the system. In this consists its great im provement over the land system of Virginia, according to which, warrants were granted to those entitled to receive them, for tracts of unsurveyed public land. These warrants might be located on any land not previously appropriated. In the absence of geometrical surveys, it was difficult, by natural boundaries, Indian paths, and buffalo traces, to identify the spots appropriated. The consequence was, that nume rous warrants were laid on the same tract, conflicting claims arose, and the land titles of the country were brought into a state of the most perplexing and injurious embar rassment. The state of Kentucky, and that portion of Ohio allotted as bounty-lands to tb,e Virginia troops, have constituted one great theatre of litigation, from their first settlement.' On the other hand, land titles acquired under the system of the United States are almost wholly exempt from controversies arising from uncertainty of location or boundary. The surveys of the public lands of the United States are founded upon a series of true meridians. The first principal meridian is in Ohio, the second in Indiana, the third in Illinois, &c, each forming the base of a series of e Statistical Annals, chap. v. p. 355. VOL. II. N N 270 TOPOGRAPHY OF book m. surveys, of which the lines are made to correspond, so that the whole country is at ~ last divided into squares of one mile each, and townships of six miles each ; and these subdivisions are distributed with mathematical accuracy into parallel ranges. The greatest division of land marked out by the survey is called a township, and contains 23,040 acres, being six English or American miles square. The township is sub divided into thirty-six equal portions, or square miles, by lines crossing each other at right angles. These portions are called sections. The section contains 640 acres, and is subdivided into four parts, called quarter-sections, each of which, of course, contains 160 acres. The quarter-sections are finally divided into two parts, called half-quarter-sections, of eighty acres each, and this is the smallest regular subdivision known to the system. The sectional and quarter-sectional divisions are designated by appropriate marks in the field, which are of a character to be easily distinguished from each jother. The half-quarter-sections are not marked in the field, but are designated on the plot of the survey, by the surveyor-general marking the distance on one of the ascertained lines, in order to get the quantity of such half-quarter- sections as exhibited by his plan of survey. The fractional sections which contain less than 160 acres are not subdivided; the fractional sections which contain 160 acres and upwards are subdivided in such a manner as to preserve the most com pact and convenient forms. A series of contiguous townships laid off from north to south is called a range. The ranges are numbered north and south from the base, or standard line, running due east and west. They are counted from the standard meridian, east and west." The dividing lines of the sections, of course, run by the cardinal points, except where what is called a fractional section is created by a navigable river or an Indian boundary. Reserva- The superintendence of the surveys is committed to five surveyors-general. One thirty-sixth part of all the lands surveyed, being section No. 16, in each town ship, is reserved from sale, for the support of schools in the township ; and other reservations have been made for colleges and universities. All salt springs and lead mines are also reserved, and are subject to be leased under the direction of the pre sident of the United States. Whenever the public interest is supposed to require d The following first section of a private act, passed in 1825, may serve as a specimen of the nomenclature by which lots of land may be indicated in the system of the public surveys : — "Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the United States of America in congress assembled, that, when the secretary of the treasury shall be satisfied that John Johnson, of Indiana, did enter at the Brookville land-office, in said state, the east half of the north-east quarter of section thirty-five, and the west half of the north-west quarter of section thirty-six in township seventeen north, in range four east, by mistake, instead of the east half of the south-east quarter and the west half of the south-west quarter of the said sections, it shall be lawful for a patent to be issued to the said Johnson, for the two last-mentioned half-quarters, so intended to be entered, on his relinquishing to the United States his interest in, and surrendering the patent issued for, the two first mentioned half-quarters, in such manner as shall be directed by the secretary of the treasury." tions. THE UNITED STATES. 271 that a certain portion of territory should be brought into market, for the accommo- chap. datioh of settlers or others who may wish to become purchasers, the president issues Iv- instructions to the surveyor-general^ through the commissioner of the general land office, at Washington, to have such portion of territory surveyed. The surveyor- general makes this requisition publicly known to those individuals who are in the habit of contracting for public surveys ; and a contract for the execution of the surveys required is entered into between the surveyor-general and deputy surveyors. The contract is given to the lowest bidder, provided the surveyor-general be fully satisfied of his capacity to fulfil the contract. The maximum price established by law for Allowance executing the public surveys is three dollars a mile, in the upland and prairie coun- for survey" tries. In the southern parts of the United States, where the surveys are rendered difficult by the occurrence of bayous, lakes, swamps, and cane-brakes, the maximum price established by law is four dollars a mile. The deputy surveyors are bound by their contract to report to the surveyors-general the field notes of the survey of each township, together with a plan of the township. From these field notes the surveyor- general is enabled to try the accuracy of the plan returned by the deputy surveyor, and of the calculations of the quantity in the legal subdivisions of the tract surveyed. Fromthese documents three plans are caused to be prepared by the surveyor-general ; one for his own office ; one for the register of the proper land office to guide him in the sale of the land; and the third for the commissioner of the general land office at Washington. The government has generally found it expedient to authorize the surveying of forty townships of land annually, in each land district, so as to admit of two sales by public auction annually, of twenty townships each. The general land office at Washington is under the superintendence of an officer, called the com missioner of the general land office. It is subordinate to the treasury department. The public lands are laid off into districts, in each of which there is a land office, under the superintendence of officers appointed by the president and senate, called the register of the land office, and the receiver of public moneys. There are at present forty-two land offices, The register and the receiver each receive a salary of 500 dollars per annum, and a commission of one per cent, on the moneys paid into their office. Till 1820, a credit was allowed on all purchases of public lands. In consequence Terms of of this system, large quantities of land had been purchased on speculation, and s e' in'the ordinary course of purchases a vast amount of land debt to the government had been contracted. To relieve the embarrassed condition of these debtors, an act was passed, authorizing the relinquishment of lands purchased, and substituting cash pay ments for the credit system. The most beneficial effects have resulted from this change, apart from the relief of those who were indebted to the government. At the same time the minimum price of the land was reduced from two dollars to one dollar 272 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK III. Squatters. Proposed reduction of price. Appropriation for roads and schools. and twenty-five cents an acre. In the first instance the public lands are offered for sale, under proclamations of the president, by public auction, with the limitation of the minimum rate. Lands not thus sold are afterwards subject to private sale at the minimum price. A very large amount of public land is in the occupation of persons who have settled upon it without title. This is frequently done, in consequence of unavoidable delays in bringing the land into market, and not from any intention, on the part of the settler, to delay payment. Laws have been passed, granting to settlers of this description a preemptive right in the acquisition of a title, that is, the preference over all other persons at private sale. These laws afford the actual settler no protection against those who might choose to overbid him at the public sales ; but it is believed, that in most cases, by mutual agreement among purchasers, the actual settler is enabled to obtain his land, even at public sale, at the minimum price. It is stated, however, that great injury is done to the settlers by combinations of land speculators, who infest the public sales, purchasing the lands at the minimum price, and compelling bond fide settlers to take them at an enhanced valuation. Should the settler refuse such an agreement, the speculators enter into competition with him at the sale. On the whole it would appear, that, in general, the govern ment obtains but the minimum price for its lands, although what is actually sold and occupied, being the choice of the whole quantity brought into market, is, of course, worth much more. It has been suggested, and with an appearance of justice, that the price of the public lands is still too high. The government, having already reimbursed itself for the cost of them, cannot be considered as having any other duty to perform than to pro mote their settlement, as rapidly as it can take place by a healthy process, and to meet the wishes of all who desire bond fide to occupy them. Considering the class of men most likely to take the lead in settling a new country, one hundred dollars, (the price of a half-quarter section): paid in cash to the government, is a tax too heavy perhaps for the privilege of taking up a farm in an unimproved wilderness. The price is already too low to oppose a serious obstacle to speculation ; so that a considerable reduction of it would not probably increase that evil, while it would essentially relieve the bond fide settler. -There would, in fact, perhaps be little else to object to a plan of gratuitous donation of a half-quarter-section to actual settlers, than the compara tive injustice of such a plan toward those settlers who have already purchased their farms. Five per cent, on all the sales of public lands within the several states is re served ; three-fifths of which are to be expended by congress in making roads leading to the states, and two-fifths to be expended by the states in the encouragement of learning. The first part of this reservation has been expended on the Cumberland- THE UNITED STATES. 273 road; and the treasury of the United States is greatly in advance to that fund on chap. account of this public work. — It appears, that up to the present time, about 150 millions of acres of the public lands have been surveyed. Of these, thirty millions iandsui> ° have not been proclaimed for sale ; twenty millions have been sold, and as much veyed- more granted by congress for education, internal improvement, and other purposes. There are then 1 10 millions of acres surveyed, but not sold, eighty millions of which are in the market, ready for sale at the minimum price, and thirty millions subject to be proclaimed for sale whenever there is a demand. The total quantity of land, the title of which vests in the United States, is estimated by Pitkin and Seybert at 400 millions of acres : the Indian title to a very considerable proportion of this, however, is not yet extinguished. It must be evident, that while such a resource is possessed Beneficial for the profitable occupation of redundant labour or capital, the labourer will never be possession6 without remunerating produce for his toil, and the capitalist will be clear of the folly, °f surplus not to say the guilt, of reducing profits to such a shade, that no small manufacturer or small vender can possibly exist ; and consequently, that the country so favoured will enjoy a long period of prosperity. The total amount received by the treasury for the sale of public lands from the year Amount 1796 to 1829, as stated in a letter from the secretary of the treasury to the chairman forian,i. of the committee of retrenchment, in April, 1830, was 32,403,527 dollars ; the highest amount was in 1819, 3,274,422 dollars. It appears that the capital thrown out of employ by the destruction of manufactures, on the return of peace, was appropriated to speculations in land, in 1817, 1818, and 1819; but many of these speculations turning out unfavourably, the amount expended in the purchase of land resumed its usual level. From that year to the year 1829, the amount received from this source has varied from about one million to one million and a half of dollars ; but during the last two years it has greatly increased — the amount for 1830 being 2,329,356 dollars, and the amount for the present year, as calculated by the secretary of the treasury, would prove to be about three millions and a half, a sum exceeding that of any former year.6 e It would appear that in consequence of the revenue produced from the sale of public lands being no longer needful to the general government, a most important change respecting them may possibly occur — the transfer of their title from the general government to the states where they are situated. " On this point," says Mr. M'Lane, " the undersigned deems it proper to observe, that the creation of numerous states throughout the western country, now forming a most important part of the Union, and the relative powers claimed and exercised by congress and the respective states over the public lands, have been gradually accumulating causes of inquietude and difficulty, if not of complaint. It may well deserve consideration, therefore, whether at a period demanding the amicable and permanent adjustment of the various subjects which now agitate the public mind, these may not be advantageously disposed of in common with the others, and upon principles just and satisfactory to all parts of the Union. It must be admitted that the public lands were ceded by the states, or subsequently acquired by the United States, for the common benefit, and that each state has an interest in their proceeds, of which it cannot be justly deprived. Over this part of the public property the powers of the general government have been uniformly supposed to have a peculiarly extensive scope, and have been 274 TOPOGRAPHY OF Internalrevenue. BOOK III. Respecting the internal revenue, as it has almost ceased to exist except in the shape of arrears, it is unnecessary to enter into any lengthened detail. Soon after the establishment of the government it was found necessary to impose internal taxes, and the articles made liable to them are stills and spirits, snuff, refined sugar, sales at auction, licenses to retail wines and spirituous liquors, carriages for the conveyance of passengers, and stamped paper. It is interesting to observe the regular and rapid increase in the product of these duties, from about 209,000 dollars to upwards of one million, from 1792 to 1801. As the rate of dirty was not increased, it must be evident the quantity consumed of the articles liable to them must have increased in the ratio of fifty per cent, per annum, the amount of the last year being five times that of the first. There is only one drawback on the satisfactory nature of this statement — a large portion of the increased consumption was in spirituous liquors ! The above duties were repealed in 1802; but the arrears of them continue to occupy a place in the treasury accounts till the year 1814, when, with very little variation, they were reenacted. Subsequently, however, in consequence of the war, additional duties were imposed by congress on spirits and other articles, and during the same session taxes were imposed on most of the articles manufactured in the United States. In 1815, the revenue derived from internal taxation amounted to more than four and a half millions of dollars, and in 1816 it reached its maximum of upwards of five millions. Soon after the termination of the war many of the duties were either reduced or repealed, and subsequently the remainder have been dismissed from the statute book, unless the " fees on letters-patent," which amount for 1829 to 12,990 dollars, may be termed a remnant of internal taxation. It has already been intimated construed to authorize their application to the purposes of education and improvement to which other branches of revenue were not deemed applicable. It is not practicable to keep the public lands out of the market ; and the present mode of disposing of them is not believed to be the most profitable either to the general govern ment or to the states, and must be expected, when the proceeds shall be no longer required for the public debt, to give rise to new and more serious objections. " Under these circumstances, it is submitted to the wisdom of congress to decide upon the propriety of disposing of all the public lands in the aggregate, to those states within whose territorial limits they lie, at a fair price, to be settled in such manner as might be satisfactory to all. The aggregate price of the whole may then be apportioned among the several states of the Union, according to siich an equitable ratio as may be consistent with the objects of the original cession ; and the proportion of each may be paid or secured directly to the others by the respective states purchasing the land. All cause of difficulty with the general government on this subject would then be removed ; and no doubt can be entertained, that, by the means of stock issued by the buying states bearing a moderate interest, and which, in consequence of the reimbursement of the public debt, would acquire a great value, they would be able at once to pay the amount upon advantageous terms. It may not be unreasonable also to expect, that the obligation to pay the annual interest upon the stock thus created, would diminish the motive for selling the lands at prices calculated to. impair the general value of that kind of property. It is believed, moreover, that the interests of the several states would be better promoted by such a disposition of the public domain, than by sales in the mode hitherto adopted ; and it would at once place at the disposal of all the states of the Union, upon fair terms, a fund for purposes of education and improvement, of inestimable benefit to the future prosperity of the nation." — Finance Report, Dec. 7, 1831, pp. 19, 20. THE UNITED STATES. 275 that the amounts which are stated in Table I., in the column of internal revenue, are only the arrears of the former imposts, which, as debts due to the government, continue to be collected. The direct taxes are those laid upon houses and lands, and upon slaves. They were first imposed in 1798, to the amount of two millions of dollars, apportioned to the several states according to the constitution. Of this sum, rather more than one-third was collected in the year 1800, another third in 1801 and 1802, and a portion only of the remainder has since been collected as arrears. In 1813 a tax to the amount of three millions of dollars was imposed; and in 1815 an annual direct tax of six millions of dollars was enacted, which, however, was reduced to three millions of dollars by the congress of 1816, and entirely repealed in 1817. The arrears of this tax still continue to flow annually into the treasury. The whole amount levied by the four enactments was fourteen millions of dollars, and in the year 1829, 12,702,597 dollars had been received, which, allowing for expenses of collection, does not leave room for many defaulters. The following statement of the rate of assessment on each occasion of the several states will be instruc tive, as another test of the progressive increase in value of the property of the inhabitants. CHAP. IV. Direct taxes. STATES. Quotas apportioned in 1798. Quotas apportioned in 1813. Quotas apportioned in 1815. Dolls. Cts. Mills. New Hampshire . Massachusetts Rhode Island . . Connecticut . . Vermont . . . New York . . . New Jersey . . Pennsylvania . . Delaware . . . Maryland . . . Virginia . . . Kentucky . . , North Carolina . Tennessee . . . South Carolina Georgia . . . . Ohio. . . . . Louisiana . . . 77,705 260,435 37,502 129,767 46,864 181,680 98,387 237,177 30,430 152,599 345,488 37,643 193,697 18,806 112,997 38,814 363108 00 18 7025 727995 66 99 9638 73 9 87 5 Dolls. Cts. 96,793 37 316,270 98 34,702 18 118,167 71 98,343 71 430,141 62 108,871 83 365,479 16 32,046 25 151,623 94 369,018 44 168,928 76 220,238 28 110,086 55 151,905 48 94,936 49 104,150 14 28,295 11 Dolls. Cts. 193,586 74 632,541 96 69,404 36 236,335 42 196,687 42 860,283 24 217,743 66 730,958 32 - 64,092 50 303,247 88 738,036 88 337,857 52 440,476 56 220,173 10 303,810 96 189,872 98 208,300 28 56,590 22 Of the various tests by which the progressive prosperity of a country may be Post office. ascertained, the extension of its internal communications is certainly not one of the least important. In this respect the progress of the United States is, perhaps, more conspicuous than in almost any other. In the year 1775, congress first established a 276 TOPOGRAPHY OF Rates of postage. book III. line of posts from Falmouth, in New England, to Savannah, in Georgia : in 1782 all the surplus income derived from the postage was directed to be applied to the establishment of new post-offices, and the support of packets. In the year 1790 there were seventy-five post-offices, and 1,875 miles of post-roads ; in the year 1810 there were 2,300 post-offices, and 36,406 miles of post-roads; and in 1829 there were 8,004 post-offices, and 115,000 miles of post-roads. The general post-office is established at Washington, under the direction of a post-master general, who is authorized to appoint two assistants, and the requisite number of clerks ; he is further directed to superintend the business of the department in all the duties that are or may be assigned to it ; and he is required, once in three months, to render to the secretary of the treasury an account of all the receipts and expenditures in the department, to be adjusted and settled as other accounts. The post-master general may establish post-offices, and appoint post-masters on the post-roads which are or may be authorized by law, at all such places as to him may appear expedient. He regulates the number of times the mail shall go from place to place, and he is authorized to contract for carrying the mail, and to establish post-roads. The rates of postage are very moderate, being about half those of Great Britain. For any distance not exceeding thirty miles, six cents ; eighty miles, ten cents ; 150 miles, twelve cents and a half; 400 miles, eighteen cents and three quarters ; above 400 miles, twenty-five cents.' Thus a letter may be conveyed from Maine to New Orleans, at least 2,000 miles, for a fraction more than one shilling. Double letters, or those composed of two pieces of paper, are charged with double the above rates, and triple and quadruple letters in the same proportion. All letters weighing one ounce avoirdupois, or more, are charged at the rate of single postage for each quarter of an ounce, or quadruple postage for each ounce, according to their weight ; and no letter can be be charged with more than quadruple postage unless its weight exceeds one ounce avoirdupois. The postage on ship letters, if delivered at the office where the vessel arrives, is six cents ; if conveyed by post, two cents in addition to the ordinary postage. For each newspaper s not carried out of the state in which it is published, or, if carried out of the state, not over 100 miles, one cent; over 100 miles, and out of the state in which it is published, one cent and a half. Magazines and pamphlets, if published periodically, distance not exceeding 100 miles, one cent and a half per sheet; ditto, distance over 100 miles, two cents and a half per sheet ; if not published periodically, distance not exceeding 100 miles, four cents per sheet; ditto, distance over 100 miles, six cents per sheet. Small pamphlets, containing not more than a half sheet royal, are charged with half the above rates ; ' It may not be improper to remind our readers, who may not be familiar with American coins, that a cent, or the hundredth part of a dollar, is nearly equivalent to the English halfpenny. t Newspapers are not subject to stamp or other duty in the United- States. THE UNITED STATES. 277 eight pages quarto are rated as one sheet, and all other sizes in the same proportion, chap. The number of sheets in a pamphlet sent by mail must be printed or written on one — — — of the outer pages ; when the number of sheets is not truly stated, double postage is charged. Every thing not coming under the denomination of newspapers or pamphlets is charged with letter postage.'1 Before entering on the general expenditure of the United States, it may be proper Mint esta te notice the mint establishment, and the state of the circulating medium. In 1792, a bhsliment mint establishment for the United States, to be carried on at the seat of government for the time being, was authorized by congress. Since the removal of the seat of government to Washington, this establishment has, by special act of congress, been continued at Philadelphia ; and very recently, a handsome and commodious new build ing has been provided, on such a plan as to admit of its operations being carried on to much greater extent than formerly. The gold coins of the United States are — eagles, Coin:* of the value of ten dollars or units, containing 247 -J grains of pure, or 270 grains of standard gold ; half-eagles, of the value of five dollars ; quarter eagles, of the value of two and a half dollars. The silver coins are — the dollar or unit, of the value of one hundred cents, containing 371 -^ grains of pure silver, or 416 grains of standard silver; half-dollar, of the value of fifty cents ; quarter-dollar, of the value of twenty-five cents ; dime, of the value of ten cents; half-dime, of the value of. five cents. The copper coins are — cent, of the value of the one-hundredth part of a dollar, and containing eleven pennyweights of copper ; half-cent, of the value of the two-hundredth part of a dollar. The devices upon the coins are, upon one side, an impression emblematical of Liberty, with an inscription of the word " Liberty," and the year of the coinage ; upon the reverse of the gold and silver coins, the representation of an eagle, with the inscrip tion, " United States of America ;" upon the reverse of the copper coins, an inscription expressing the denomination of the piece. The proportional value of the gold and h Privilege of Franking. — " Letters and packets to and from the following officers of the government, are by law received and conveyed by post, free of postage : — The president and vice-president of the United States ; secretaries of state, treasury, war, and navy; attorney-general ; postmaster-general and assistant postmaster- general ; comptrollers, auditors, register, and solicitor of the treasury ; treasurer ; commissioner of the general land office j commissioners of the navy board ; commissary-general ; inspectors-general ; quartermaster- general ; paymaster-general ; superintendent of patent office ; speaker and clerk of the house of representa tives ; president and secretary of the senate ; and' any individual who shall have been, or may hereafter be, president of the. United States; and each may receive newspapers by post free of postage. — Each member of the senate, and each member and delegate of the house of representatives, may send and receive, free of postage, newspapers, letters, and packets, weighing not more than two ounces, (in case of excess of weight, excess alone to be paid for,) and all documents printed by order of either house, during and sixty days before and after each session of congress. — Postmasters may send and receive, free of postage, letters and packets not exceeding half an ounce in weight ; and they may receive one daily newspaper each, or what is equivalent thereto. Printers of newspapers may send one paper to each and every other printer of newspapers within the United States, free of postage,-under such regulations as the postmaster-general may provide." — American Almanack, 1832. VOL. II. ° ° 278 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK HI. silver in all the coins which are current in the United States is as fifteen to one, according to quantity in weight ; that is to say, every fifteen pounds weight of pure silver, are of equal value with one pound weight of pure gold. The standard of all the gold coins of the United States is eleven parts fine to one part of alloy ; the alloy is composed of silver and copper in proportions not exceeding one-half of silver. The standard of all the silver coins is 1,485 parts fine to 179 parts of alloy; the alloy is wholly of copper. Any person may carry gold or silver bullion to be coined at the mint ; the bullion so brought is assayed and coined as speedily as possible, free of expense. As soon as the bullion has been coined, the person who deposited the same, may upon demand receive in lieu thereof, coins of the same species of bullion, weight for weight of the pure gold or pure silver therein contained. The gold and silver coins struck at the mint are a lawful tender ; the value thereof is in proportion to their respective weights. The coinage effected within the last year (1830) amounts to 3,155,620 dollars, comprising 643, 105 dollars in gold coins, 2,495,400 dollars in silver, 17,115 dollars in copper, and consisting of 8,357,191 pieces of coin, viz. Amount of coinage. Half-ea^es 126,351 making Quarter-eagles 4,540 " Half-dollars 4,764,800 Dimes 510,000 Half-dimes 1,240,000 Cents 1,711,500 dollars. 631,755 11,350 2,382,400 51,00062,000 17,115 Sources from whencethe gold coined is derived. 8,357,191 3,155,620 Of the amount of gold coined within the last year, about 125,000 dollars were derived from Mexico, South America, and the West Indies ; 19,000 dollars from Africa ; 466,000 dollars from the gold region of the United States, and about 33,000 dollars from sources not ascertained. Of the gold of the United States above men tioned, 24,000 dollars may be stated to have been received from Virginia, 204,000 dollars from North Carolina, 26,000 dollars from South Carolina, and 212,000 dollars from Georgia. In the last annual report of the director of the mint, the pro gressive developement of the gold region of the United States was illustrated by referring to the increase of the annual receipts from North Carolina, which, previous to 1824, had been inconsiderable; but from that year to 1829, inclusive, had advanced from 5,000 dollars to 128,000 dollars, and also to the then novel occurrence of gold having been received at the mint from Virginia and South Carolina, about 2,500 dollars having been received from the former, and 3,500 dollars from the latter. The past year exhibits, in relation to all these states, a conspicuous increase in the pro duction of gold, and presents, also, the remarkable fact of 212,000 dollars in gold THE UNITED STATES. 279 received from Georgia, from which state no specimen even had been received at the chap. mint in any previous year. Iv- Owing to the proportionate value of the gold and silver coins not being properly Value of adjusted (gold being valued as only 15 to 1 of silver, while its real value is very ^\^i nearly 16 to l,1) there is no gold coin now in circulation.11 It has been a question much agitated amongst financiers and political economists, Observa- whether the absence of the precious metals is a subject for lamentation or for rarareof 6 congratulation. It has been affirmed by some, not without apparent reason, that as ,the. circu" the circulating medium is only an instrument — a machine — the less the expense medium. of its construction and maintenance, the more profit or the less loss must accrue: while it has been maintained on the other hand, that there is no safety for commerce, unless gold, or paper immediately convertible into gold, be the circulating medium. We shall not so far forget the nature and limits of our undertaking as to enter into this controversy, but content ourselves with stating our opinion, that, excepting the advan tage of cheapness, it is a matter of indifference whether the circulating medium be of 1 "The relative value of gold and silver in our coins should be 15.9 to 1. In France, the relative value of gold to silver is about 15.82 to 1. In Great Britain, gold is in value to silver about as 15.86 to 1. The relative value of gold and silver in Spain has been 15 to 1 during the last fifty or sixty years, and, according to recent information, the value of gold in Spain is now a little higher than this proportion. In Portugal, the rise of gold and the decline of silver in relative value were slower and later than in Spain ; but the relative value of the two metals in Portugal is now about 16 to 1, and this proportion appears to have prevailed there for many years. From all the information which can be obtained, it appears that the value of gold in relation to silver, is about 16 to 1 in all the American countries south of the United States. This relative value seems to have prevailed in those parts of America which were formerly Spanish, and especially in Mexico and Peru, during the last forty or fifty years. In Brazil, gold was for a long time somewhat less valuable, but during the last ten years, the relative value of gold in Brazil has also been about 16 to 1. In the West Indies, the two metals fluctuate much in respect to each other ; but the ratio of 16 to 1 seems to be the average of relative value." — Report of the Select Committee appointed to consider the State of the Current Coin, Sfc, presented to the Senate, 15th Dec, 1830. k " The fact that we have no gold coins in use, is not the intended effect of our institutions. It has resulted from too low a valuation of gold in respect to silver, when our system was established, and a progressive rise in the relative value of gold since that time. By our system the two metals are coined upon the basis that one pound of gold is equal in value to fifteen pounds of silver, and all our coinage of the two metals has been executed in conformity to this relative valuation. This proportion was too low a valuation of gold in the year 1792, and it is certainly much too low a valuation of gold in relation to silver at this time. Our gold coins being much underrated in respect to silver, have never had any general circulation in the country ; they have ceased to be used as money; they are merely merchandise, purchased by a considerable premium over silver, and they are used in manufactures or exported to Europe. Our public coinage of gold is now wholly without any public benefit : we prohibit and punish all private coinage of gold ; we coin this metal at the mint upon a principle which does not permit it to circulate as money, and we pay the expense of this useless coinage. In practice, this coinage affords a facility to the possessor of gold bullion, since it enables him to employ the mint to weigh and assay his bullion, and to divide it into very convenient portions, without expense to himself. When the coins are received from the mint they are sold for their value as bullion ; some of them are used in manufactures, and the greater part are exported. If we will not rectify the legal proportion between the coins of the two metals, we ought to abolish the coinage of gold, save a useless expense, and leave gold to be treated like other metals not coined as money." — Report of the 'Select Committee, 1830. 280 TOPOGRAPHY OF book ill. value in itself or be the representative of value; that if it be the representative of value, it is not important whether that value be gold, or land, or houses, or barrels of flour, provided the circulating medium by which they are represented does not represent more than their marketable or exchangeable value ; and that the interests of commerce are not directly affected by the question, whether the circulating medium be real value itself, or the representative of real value, but by the amount of the circulating medium, the variations of which have a corresponding effect upon the prices of all articles of trade. There can be no doubt, that as the interests of all are affected by the increase or diminution of the currency, this point should be sufficiently under the control of the executive, to prevent or mitigate the perni cious extremes in which the avarice or indiscretion of individuals have too often resulted. The committee, however, consider that the abundance of " paper money" in the United States is an evil. " While we have so much paper money," they state, we cannot have any great quantity of the precious metals in use, as money ; and while this extensive use of paper money shall continue, an adjustment of the relative value of gold and silver will not bring much gold into circulation. Still, the necessary adjustment should be made. No man can foresee how far the present course of issuing paper will proceed, or how long paper money in its present forms and abun dance will be tolerated. Whatever may happen in respect to paper money, the precious metals should always be coined, and a sound system of coins should be in constant operation, to the end that whether paper money shall be used or not, and whether the amount of our coins shall be great or small, a portion of them may consist of gold, and another portion of silver." It appears from the testimony of the select committee, that the coins now in the United States, and the bank notes now circulating as money, are estimated at about one hundred millions of dollars. The coin is estimated at about twenty-three millions of dollars ; of which sum, it is conceived, that about fifteen millions of dollars are held by the banks, and about eight millions of dollars are in circulation among the people. The bank notes in circulation are estimated at about seventy-seven millions of dollars. The amount of money in circulation among the people is, accordingly, about eighty-five millions of dollars, consisting of about seventy-seven millions of bank notes, and about eight millions of coin. The banks in the principal sea-ports have at this time an unusual quantity of coin ; and the amount of coin now held by those banks is much greater than the sum which they have generally held. Of the sum of seventy-seven millions of dollars of bank notes in circulation, it is estimated that about one-half consists of notes for sums exceeding five dollars, about one-fourth of notes for five dollars, and about one-fourth of notes for sums less than five dollars. The notes for sums less than five dollars are chiefly for one dollar, two dollars, and three dollars ; and a great portion of them consists of notes for one dollar. Amount of the circu lating medium. THE UNITED STATES. 281 The power to establish banks is claimed and exercised by the government of the cha p. United States, and also by each of the states. There are now in the United States about five hundred incorporated banks, and the number is annually increased. The banks. public revenue of the United States, and of every one of the states, is collected and disbursed almost wholly in bank notes. The coin held by the banks, and in circu lation among the people, is silver. All the coin in common circulation, and most of that held by the banks, is half-dollars and the minor silver pieces. It will have been perceived, that the subject of coinage is eventually interwoven United with that of the use of bank notes. Before we leave this subject, therefore, we shall j^£s notice the bank of the United States — an institution, the existence of which, on con stitutional grounds, forms the subject of considerable discussion in the republic at this time.1 The old bank of the United States was incorporated by an aet of congress, First approved in February, 1791. By the limitation of the charter, it was to expire on the mai79i. 4th of March, 1811. This, like the banks of England and France, was a bank of deposit, discount, and circulation, with a capital of 10,000,000 dollars. Those Euro pean writers, both British and French, who have eulogized this institution as being purely commercial, and distinguished from those of England and France by not being connected with the government, or an engine of finance, cannot have read the charter, the preamble to which begins thus : " Whereas the establishment of a bank will be very conducive to the conducting of the national finances, will tend to give facility to the obtaining of loans for the use of the government in sudden emergencies, and will be productive of considerable advantages to trade and industry in general," &c. Instead of being a merely commercial establishment, therefore, it was, essentially and mainly, of a financial and political character, and it was on this ground that its constitutional character was defended; the right of congress to grant such a charter being claimed mostly upon the strength of that clause of the constitution, which gives to congress the authority necessary for carrying into execution the powers enumerated, and expressly vested in that body. The origin of this establishment was, therefore, similar to that of the bank of England, and the resemblance is not limited to the general purposes of its institution; for, as the bank of England originated in a loan to the British government, so the act by which the old bank of the United States was chartered, provided that the sums subscribed by individuals and corporations should be " payable, one-fourth in gold and silver, and three-fourths in the public debt" certificates. The president of the United States was authorized to subscribe for two millions of the stock in ' For this statement respecting the United States hank, we with pleasure acknowledge our obligations to that ably conducted work, the Encyclopaedia Americana. Although we have read much in various American publications upon the subject, the statements of the editors appeared to us so correct, and their views so just, that we found it unnecessary to do more than to add the state of the bank at a period somewhat later than that work contains. 282 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK III. Expiration of the charterin 1811. A new establish ment char tered in 1816. behalf of the United States. The directors, being twenty-five, were chosen by the stockholders, without any interference on the part of the government in the election.; but the government reserved the right of inspecting the affairs of the bank, and, for this purpose, the secretary of the treasury was authorized to demand of the president and directors a statement of its concerns as often as he might see fit. The corpora tion was authorized to establish branches in any part of the United States. The only restriction, as to circulation, was, that the amount of debts due from the corpo ration by bond, bill, note, or otherwise, besides the debts due for deposits, should never exceed 10,000,000 dollars ; and, in case of excess, the directors, by whose agency such debt should be incurred, were made personally answerable. This bank went into operation, and had a most powerful agency in establishing the credit of the government, facilitating its financial operations, and promoting the interests of industry and commerce. Congress having refused to renew the charter, it expired by its own limitation, in 1811. During the war, however, the want of a national bank was severely felt, not only as an agent for collecting the revenues, but more especially for transmitting funds from one part of the country to another ; and then it might have been a useful auxiliary to public credit, by supplying temporary loans in cases of emergency. So thoroughly convinced were the public of the necessity of such an institution, that the members of the same political party by which the constitutional objections had been made to the old bank, and which had refused to renew its charter, passed an act of congress, which was approved by the president April 10, 1816, chartering the present bank of the United States, with a capital of 35,000,000 dollars, upon principles, and with pro visions, very similar to those contained in the former charter. For this charter the government demanded and received a bonus of 1,500,000 dollars from the stock holders. The government became a stockholder in the same proportion as in the former bank, taking one-fifth, or 7,000,000 dollars of the stock. The direction of the institution was left to the stockholders, as in the old bank,; except that the govern ment reserved the right of appointment and removal at pleasure, by the president, of five directors out of the twenty-five, the other twenty being elected by the stock holders. The government also reserved the right to demand a statement of the con cerns of the institution by committees of either branch of the legislature. One quarter of the subscriptions to the stock were payable either in gold and silver or United States stock, at the option of subscribers. The seven millions to be: subscribed by the government was payable either in gold and silver or public stock, at an interest of five per cent., at the option of the government. The transactions of the corporation were limited to making loans and trading in the precious metals, and the sale of such goods or proceeds of such lands as should be pledged. Branches may be established in any parts of the United States or their territories. No other similar corporations ent of the government. THE UNITED STATES. 283 are to be chartered by the government, except banks in the district of Colombia, with chap. a capital, in the whole, not exceeding 6,000,000 dollars, during the period for which IV- the charter was granted, namely, to the 3d of March, 1836. The bank is prohibited from purchasing any part of the public debt, taking interest above six per cent., or lending to the government more than 500,000 dollars, or to any state more than 50,000 : and the debts of the institution are in no case to exceed the amount of deposits by more than 35,000,000 dollars. In case of refusing payment of its notes or deposits in specie, the bank is made liable to pay interest at the rate of twelve per cent, per annum. The bank is also obliged, by its charter, to give the government the neces sary facilities for transferring the public funds from place to place within the United States, without charging commissions, or claiming any allowance on account of the difference of exchange, and to transact all the business of commissioners of loans whenever required so to do. The bank is prohibited from issuing bills under the denomination of five dollars. It is an object proposed by the charter, as appears from some of the provisions Independ- already noticed, to make the institution independent of the fortunes, and place it beyond the exigencies, of the government, by limiting the amount of loans that may be made to the government, and prohibiting the purchase of the public debt. It is not in the power of congress to exonerate the bank from the liability to pay, in specie, its deposits made, or notes put into circulation, previously to the passing of any act for that purpose ; so that the depositors and holders of its notes are entirely secure from any interposition of the government between themselves and the bank, in violation of the contract held by them. The institution is thus essentially commercial in its character, being directly auxiliary to the government, and subject to its control, only as a financial engine. It has had an important influence upon the industry and commerce of the country and the credit of the government, and has been of immense utility in the management of its finances. But its greatest and most beneficial influ ence has been felt in the restoration of the currency to a sound state ; for, at the time of its going into operation, many of the state banks had an immense amount of un redeemable paper in circulation, purporting, it is true, to be payable to the bearer in specie, on presentment for that purpose, but which was not, in fact, so paid. Imme diately on the bank of the United States going into operation, with its various branches in the principal commercial cities, it became necessary for all the other banks within the circle of its influence to resume specie payments, or discontinue their operations. Those which had not resources to resume specie payments necessarily stopped ; and the consequence of the influence of this institution is a complete restoration of the currency to specie, or its equivalent. In fine, whether we consider the extent of the capital of the institution, that of its operation, or its commercial and financial utility and influence, it may justly be considered the second institution of the kind in the 284 TOPOGRAPHY OF Amount of circulationand depo sits. BOOK III. world, ranking, in all these respects, next after that of England. The stock was made the subject of speculation soon after its establishment, and rose, at one time, to the enormous advance of fifty-six per cent, upon the original subscription ; but the great losses incurred by some of the branches, especially those of the new states, and other causes, subsequently reduced it to ten per cent, discount on its original value. It has since risen to a more steady market-value of from twenty to twenty-five per cent. advance. The amount of the circulation for 1828 was between 12,000,000 and 13,000,000 dollars. The deposits for the same year averaged from 13,000,000 to 14,000,000. The dividends have varied from five to six per cent.™ Besides the prin cipal bank, there were in January, 1830, twenty-two offices of discount ; namely, at Portland, Portsmouth, Boston, Providence, Hartford, New York, Buffalo, Pittsburg, Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, Norfolk, Eayetteville, Charleston,, Savannah, Mobile, New Orleans, Nashville, Lexington, Louisville, Cincinnati, and St. Louis. The state of the bank, April 1, 1830, was as follows : — » The present secretary of the treasury, Mr. M'Lane, in his Finance Report for 1 831, judiciously observes,— " The indispensable necessity of such an institution for the fiscal operations of the government in all its de partments, for the regulation and preservation of a sound currency, for the aid of commercial transactions generally, and even for the safety and utility of the local banks, is not doubted, , and, as is believed, has been shown in the past experience of the government, and in the general accommodation and operations of the present bank. The present institution may, indeed, be considered as peculiarly the offspring of that necessity, springing from the inconveniences which followed the first loss of the bank of the United States, and the evils and distresses incident to the excessive, and, in some instances, fraudulent issues of the local banks during the war. The propriety of continuing it is to be considered not more in reference to the expediency of bank ing generally, than in regard to the actual state of things, and to the multiplicity of state banks already in existence, and which can neither be displaced, nor in other manner controlled, in their issues of paper, by the general government. This is an evil not to be submitted to ; and the remedy at present applied, while it pre serves a sound currency for the country at large, promotes the real interests of the local banks by giving sound ness to their paper. If the necessity of a banking institution be conceded or shown, that which shall judiciously combine the power of the government with private enterprise, is believed to be most efficacious. The government would thus obtain the benefit of individual sagacity in the general management of the hank ; and, by means of its deposits and share in the direction, possess the necessary power for the prevention of abuse. " It is not intended to assert that the bank of the United States, as at present organized, is perfect, or, that the essential objects of such an institution might not be attained by means of an entirely new one, organized upon proper principles, and with salutary limitations. It must be admitted, however, that the good manage ment of the present bank, the accommodation it has given the government, and the practical benefits it has rendered the community — whether it may or may not have accomplished all that was expected from it — and the advantages of its present condition, are circumstances in its favour entitled to great weight, and give it strong claims upon the consideration of congress in any future legislation upon the subject. To these may be added, the knowledge the present bank has acquired of the business and wants of the various portions of this extensive country, which, being the result of time and experience, is an advantage it must necessarily possess over any new institution. It is to be observed, however, that the facilities of capital actually afforded by the present institution to the agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing industry of all parts of the Union, could not be withdrawn, even by transferring them to another institution, without a severe shock te each of those interests, and to the relations of society generally. To similar considerations, it may be presumed, is to be traced the uniform "policy of the several states of the Union, of rechartering their local institutions, with such modi fications as experience may have dictated, in preference to creating new ones." — Pp. 14 — 16. THE UNITED STATES. 285 Dollars. Cents. CHAP. Notes discounted 32, 138,270 89 IV- Domestic bills discounted 10,506,882 54 Funded debt held by the bank 11,122,530 90 Real estate 2,891,890 75 Funds in Europe, equal to specie 2,789,498 54 Specie 9,043,748 97 Public deposits 8,905,501 87 Private deposits 7,704,256 87 Circulation 16,083,894 00 The expenditure of the United States is divided into four departments : the civil Expendi- list, which includes the salaries paid to all the political, judicial, and diplomatic United functionaries of the general government, both at home and abroad, as well as a large tates' amount for miscellaneous items; the military establishment, including Indian affairs and internal improvements ; the naval establishment ; and the public debt. The last of them is an item which will probably not appear in any finance report after the present, or, at any rate, the following year. At the close of this chapter we have given a detailed statement of the expenditure of the United States for the year 1829, extracted from the appendix of the Finance Report for that year. It speaks volumes in favour of the government from which it issues. Here are no attempts at conceal ment — no appropriations obtained for one object and devoted to another — but a simplicity of statement worthy of the utility of the objects to which the revenue is devoted ; indeed, the statement is so clear and satisfactory, that any American who can read cannot fail to apprehend the manner in which its funds are appropriated. Having put our readers in possession of this document, it will be only necessary CivU list. for us to make some general observations on the principal items in each department of the expenditure. The whole amount of the civil list for the year 1829, including miscellaneous and foreign intercourse, was 3,101,514 dollars; of this sum 1,327,069 only belong properly to the civil list, the remainder belonging to the miscellaneous (1,566,679) and to the diplomatic departments (207,765); and even then the civil list is charged with disbursements which are not connected with it in other countries, the legislature receiving 467,447, the judiciary 239,447, and the governments of the territories 55,344, besides several other items ; leaving for the whole executive depart ment only 530,172 dollars, or little more than 100,000/. sterling. The first item in the disbursements is the salary of the president, 25,000 dollars, about 5,000/. sterling. The vice-president has only one-fifth of that sum ; the secretaries of state, of the treasury, of war, of the navy, and the post-master-general, receive 6,000 dollars annually ; the attorney-general 3,500 ; the chief clerks to each of the secretaries vol. II. p p 286 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK ill. 2,000. In the treasury department the comptroller receives 3,500; and the second comptroller 3,000 ; five auditors, the treasurer, and registrar, 3,000 each ; the solicitor to the treasury 3,500 ; and the commissioner of the land office 3,000. In the judiciary, the chief-justice of the supreme court of the United States receives 5,000 annually ; and six associate justices 4,500. In the foreign intercourse nearly half the amount of the disbursement is for expenses of treaties and other contingencies. The plenipotentiaries at foreign courts receive only 9,000 dollars per annum, besides 9,000 for an outfit; a charge d'affaires receives a salary of 4,500; and a secretary of legation 2,000. There are employed six plenipotentiaries, with a secretary of legation attached to them, and ten charge d'affaires. We apprehend that our readers on both sides of the Atlantic will concur in the observations of Mr. M'Lane on the amount of remuneration received by the ministers to foreign courts ; and many will probably be inclined to extend the principle to other officers of the republic. " The salaries of the public ministers abroad," observes Mr. M. " must be acknowledged to be utterly inadequate, either to the dignity of the office, or the necessary comforts of their families. At some foreign courts, and those whose relations towards the United States are the most important, the expenses incident to the station are found so burdensome as only to be met by the private resources of the minister. The tendency of this is to throw those high trusts altogether into the hands of the rich, which is certainly not according to the genius of our system. Such a provision for public ministers as would obviate those evils, and enable the minister to perform the common duties of hospitality to his countrymen, and promote social intercourse between the citizens of both nations, would not only elevate the character of his country, but essentially improve its public relations." n Miscella- Among the miscellaneous items are the mint establishment, 85,931 dollars ; bursements the lighthouse establishment, 289,149; surveys of public lands, 51,289; marine and navy hospitals, 188,562; public buildings at Washington, 74,114; shares in several canal companies, 468,500 ; and revolutionary claims, 288,446. It is impossible to close this brief account of the civil list of the United States without expressing a sincere admiration of the purposes to which its funds are devoted. Not only is the catalogue of its expenditure free from those corruptions which either are too gross to be clearly expressed, or if stated fill the mind with a just indignation ; but it is to us surprising how large a portion of the funds are made directly to bear on the welfare of the people themselves, either in the shape of internal improvement, (which, while it pro motes commercial advantage, by facilitating the communications between the sea-ports and the states of the interior, confers scarcely a less benefit in the well remunerated occupation it affords to the labourer), or of hospitals, or lighthouses, or other similar " Finance Report for 1831, p. 18, THE UNITED STATES. 287 objects ; while the amount paid in salaries to a few individuals cannot possibly be c h;a p. deemed either burdensome to the nation, or corrupting to the possessors of office. IV' The amount under the head Military Establishment (6,267,626 dollars,) is nearly half Military the gross sum expended by the government, exclusive of that devoted to the liquidation e^ish' of the public debt ; but a very large proportion of it is applied to purposes, either not at all, or very indirectly, connected with military affairs. The amount for pay, subsistence, Pay, &c. clothing, medicines, recruiting, and contingencies, is little more than two millions of dollars. This amount is found sufficient to keep on foot an army of 6,000 men, to which the peace establishment was reduced (from 10,000) in 1821. The force consists of the general staff, 119; comprising, medical department, pay and pur chasing departments, a corps of military and a corps of topographical engineers ; four regiments of artillery, consisting of 545 officers and men, with supernumeraries, amounting to 2,240 ; and seven regiments of infantry, consisting of 547 officers and privates, amounting to 3,829: total organized force, 6,188.° In the armouries, Ordnance, arsenals, and ordnance, armament of fortifications, and arming and equipping the &c- militia, there were disbursed, in 1830, nearly one million of dollars ; and in the con struction of fortifications, and in the erection of barracks, were expended about 800,000 dollars. The military academy at West Point, an interesting and im- Military portant institution, an account of which will appear in a subsequent section of academy- the work, requires nearly 28,000 dollars annually: and this closes the list of expenses 'strictly military, making in the whole, 3,800,000 dollars. The remain ing two and a half millions are expended in the erection of breakwaters, and internal other improvements of harbours; in deepening and improving the navigation of n^tsT*" the Mississippi, Ohio, and about thirty other rivers or harbours ; and in the con struction or repair of the Cumberland, and twelve other lines of road. The pensions for soldiers who devoted their lives and fortunes to the great cause of Revolu- the revolution, amount to 764,492 dollars : it must therefore be admitted, even by pensions. the most bitter opponents of republicanism, that it has improved since the days of the splendid barbarians of Sparta and of Athens, whose ingratitude to their most devoted patriots has ever been a reproach, which the conduct of the modern Greeks has tended to confirm rather than to remove. With the exception of a few miscel laneous items of little importance, the remainder is disbursed in the department of Indian affairs ; the annuity to Indians, in the fulfilment of treaties for the payment of lands, the title of which has been conveyed by the several tribes to the United States, amounting, for the year 1829, to 245,108 dollars, and various other payments, among which we find one, and one only, for " schools" for an Indian tribe, making the sum total half a million of dollars. Before taking leave of the details of the expenditure ° American National Calendar for 1830. 288 TOPOGRAPHY OF book in. in the military department, it may not be improper to suggest to those who may feel desirous to ascertain the present defensive power of the United States, in comparison with that of 1814, that it will amply repay their attention, if they will note on a map the points in fortifying which the government are annually expending a large sum. We are the more induced to make this observation, from a conviction that a com pliance with it will tend to promote the growth of that just respect which is the true basis of political friendship between nations, and which some of the leading literary publications of the day have so pertinaciously laboured to prevent or to destroy. Naval The navy has always been a favourite object in the United States, as in Great estabhs - grit^n. an(j} from tne flourishing state of the revenue, it will probably receive increased support. The amount disbursed annually in the navy establishment is about three and a quarter millions of dollars, of which a considerable portion is devoted to its gradual improvement, by the accumulation of stores, the erection of Number dry docks, and the building of additional vessels. In 1830, the United States navy vessels. consisted of seven sail of the line, all of which were laid up in ordinary; seven frigates of the first class, of which three were in ordinary, and four in commission ; three frigates of the second class, of which one was a receiving ship, one in actual service, and one in ordinary ; fifteen sloops, of which two were in ordinary, and the remainder on different foreign stations ; seven schooners, of which three were in employ as receiving ships, one in ordinary, and two in commission. There were also five ships of the line and seven frigates in such a state of forwardness, that they Navy could be ready for sea in from three to six months. There are seven navy yards maintained by the government in different states of the Union, for an account of which we must refer to the topography of the states in which they are located. Although we are compelled, by the limits of our undertaking, to condense our information as much as possible, there are some passages in the report of the secretary of the navy, recently presented to congress, indicative of the progress of this department, too Dry docks, interesting to be omitted. " The construction of the two dry docks," says the secre tary, Mr. Woodbury, " has advanced with great rapidity during the past year. Both are now mostly completed, except the removal of the coffer dams, and the finishing of some of the gates and steam machinery. They present to the eye specimens of stone masonry seldom rivalled in beauty and solidity. The expenditures on each have been about 500,000 dollars ; and by the 4th of next July, it is hoped, that some of the public vessels requiring repairs may be safely docked in these useful, economical, Improve- and splendid conveniences for our naval establishment. The buildings for accommo- lllt'lltS dation to the officers of yards, reported in the surveys and plans of a. d. 1828, are. in progress where most needed, and, in connexion with the storehouses, sheds, wharfs, walls, and shipways, require, annually, such appropriations as can be expended without a neglect of more urgent duties. — An increased estimate, to advance all these THE UNITED STATES. 289 improvements, is presented for the ensuing year. Among other contemplated im- CHAP. provements in those plans, were ropewalks at some of our present yards. All IY' observation and experience in the navy show, that in nothing does it suffer more at this time than from bad cordage. The impositions in the quality of the hemp, in the manufacture, and in the tar, are numerous, are difficult of detection, productive of injurious delays when detected, and when not detected, exceedingly hazardous to the safety of both crews and vessels. — The vessels in ordinary have been at most of the yards, covered, so as to shelter them effectually from sunshine and storms, and to render their security from decay much greater than heretofore. It is a gratifying circumstance, that most of these vessels, as well as those upon the stocks, are in a condition highly creditable to the persons who planned and executed the present mode of preserving them ; and that, by proper care in future, until put in commission, no probability whatever exists of much further decay in the important portions of their expensive works, or of any decay in those portions composed of the invaluable material of live oak. The whole purchases of timber and stores, under the act for the gradual Accumu- increase of the navy, and which remain in deposit at the yards, are over a million and timber°and a half in value. The amount of purchases, under the act for the gradual improve- stores" ment of the navy, in deposit, is nearly half a million. The amount of property on hand for repairs is almost a million. The ordnance, provisions, &c. amount to upwards of a million and a half more." — It is most sincerely to be wished, that the vigorous attention which the government of the United States devote to the subject of their naval power, may not only tend to secure and perpetuate their peaceful rela tions with foreign powers, but to moderate the notions of a few overheated indivi duals, who- would apparently rather make an effort to dissolve their connexion with the Union, than acquiesce in an arrangement which, while certainly beneficial to a very large portion of the republic, is very slightly, if at all, injurious to themselves. If satisfaction has been felt in the management of the funds of the several depart- Public ments already noticed, who can withhold the meed of praise and congratulation when the state of the public debt of the republic is developed? The Table No. IV., at the close of this chapter, exhibits operations of finance such as, we believe it may be safely asserted, no nation has ever before achieved. On some points, indeed, it has been a subject of dispute, whether the example of America has been benefical or injurious ; but surely all must concur in the opinion, that in being the first nation to annihilate her national debt, not by any "equitable adjustment," nor by following the example of the ' beloved ' Ferdinand, but by the legitimate mode of direct payment, the nation is placing a laurel on her brow that will wear its greenness when the trophies of mere military prowess are faded and turned to dust. In 1817, owing to the Highest war with Great Britain, the public debt of the United States amounted to nearly 116 ™°d™l re- millions of dollars, or about 25 millions sterling. In comparison with our own debt, ducti°n. 290 TOPOGRAPHY OF book in. indeed, this may appear trifling; but when the circumstances and resources of the two countries are considered, the Americans may well be excused for deeming it large and oppressive. During twelve years it was reduced to fifty-eight millions of dollars, which was the amount when General Jackson ascended the presidential chair. Fortunate in his military career, the general seems not to be forsaken in his political course; but appears likely to render his administration celebrated, by accomplishing the entire liquidation of the public debt before the expiration of his presidency. During the first three years of his administration the amount has been reduced from 58,362,138 to 24,322,235 dollars. The whole of this amount, the secretary, in accordance with "the views of the president," proposes to liquidate before the 3d of March, 1833. Entire "The occasion," observes Mr. M'Lane, "is deemed a propitious one to bring before proposed0" tne legislature the subject of the debt, with a view to its redemption, at a period, not only earlier than has been heretofore anticipated, but before the termination of the present congress. Dolls. cts. " The entire public debt on the 2d of January next, as has been already shown, will amount to 24,322,235 18 The amount of the receipts into the treasury during the year 1832, after satisfying all the demands of the year, other than on account of the public debt, are estimated, as above, at 16,734,797 84 To this may be added the balance in the treasury on the 1st of January, 1832, (exclusive of the ineffective funds and the Danish indemnity,) at 1,208,276 24 From this aggregate of 17,943,074 08 After deducting the amount of the unsatisfied appropriations already esti mated at 3,423,525 87 There will remain a surplus in the year 1832, of 14,519,548 21 Which, unless congress should enlarge the appropriations for other objects, may be applied to the public debt. The interest on the debt during the year 1832 may be estimated at 500,000 00 Leaving for the principal in that year 14,019,548 21 Which, being applied to that object, will leave the total amount of the public debt at the close of the year 1832 10,302,686 97 The government, however, has other means, which, if congress see proper, may be applied towards the payment of the debt, viz. the shares in the bank of the United States, amounting at par to 7,000,000 dollars ; but which, as will be presently explained, may be estimated at not less than 8,000,000 00 In that event, the amount of the debt on the lstof January, 1833, would be but 2,302,686 97 THE UNITED STATES. 291 Which sum, together with a fair allowance for the cost of purchasing, at the CHAP market price, the stocks not redeemable in the course of the proposed opera- IV- tion, might be supplied in the months of January and February, 1833, by the application from the revenues of that year of a sum equal to two-twelfths of the amount applied from the ordinary revenues to the debt of the year 1832, say '. 2,503,258 02 " It may be further observed, that should any diminution take place in the esti mated revenue, or should the expenditure exceed the estimated amount, the deficiency which either event might produce in the means of the treasury applicable to the debt, would be supplied by the amount reserved in this estimate for the unsatisfied balances of appropriations ; for, although that sum constitutes a legal charge on the treasury, to be met as occasion requires, yet, in any estimate of present means, it may be con sidered rather as a nominal than a real charge. It will be thus perceived, that the government has the means, if properly employed, of reimbursing the whole of the public debt, by purchase, or otherwise, on or before the 3d of March, 1833. The moral influence which such an example would necessarily produce throughout the world, in removing apprehension, and inspiring new confidence in our free institutions, cannot be questioned. Seventeen years ago, our country emerged from an expensive war, encumbered with a debt of more than 127 millions, and in a comparatively defenceless state. In this short period it has promptly repealed all the direct and internal taxes which were imposed during the war, relying mainly upon revenue derived from imports and sales of the public domain. From these sources, besides providing for the general expenditure, the frontier has been extensively fortified, the naval and maritime resources strengthened, and part of the debt of gratitude to the survivors of the revolutionary war discharged. We have, moreover, contributed a large share to the general improvement ; added to the extent of the Union, by the purchase of the valuable territory of Florida ; and, finally, acquired the means of extinguishing the heavy debt incurred in sustaining the late war, and all that remains of the debt of the revolution." p We most cordially congratulate the government and the people of the United States Difficulty on the happy prospect of being free from the incubus which weighs down the energies °f 0"P°*lng of other nations ; and most sincerely hope that the novel and extraordinary difficulty duici"1gstl'e which has come upon them, of having to dispose of, or to reduce, a revenue nearly revenue. twice the amount of the expenditure, may not be attended with any of the injurious consequences arising from party violence and internal dissensions, that present circum stances appear to indicate. As the subject connects itself directly with a question of the utmost importance to the interests of commerce and of manufactures on both sides of p Finance Reportfor 1831, pp. 9 — 11. the admi nistration. 292 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IIL the Atlantic, it will be desirable for our readers to be put in possession of the views __ of ^ present administration, although it is by no means certain that they may Views of ultimately prove to be in accordance with those of the legislature. " Whatever room there may be," says the secretary of the treasury, " for diversity of opinion with respect to the expediency of distributing among the several states any surplus revenue that may casually accrue, it is not doubted that any scheme for encouraging a surplus for distribution, or for any purpose which should make it necessary, will be generally discountenanced. — There is too much reason to apprehend that a regular, uniform dependence of the state governments upon the revenue of the general government, or an uniform expectation from the same source, would create too great an incentive to high and unequal duties, and not merely disturb the harmony of the Union, but ultimately undermine and subvert the purity and independence of the state sovereignties. " To distribute the duties in such a manner, as far as that may be practicable, as as to encourage and protect the labour of the people of the United States from the advantages of superior skill and capital, and the rival preferences of foreign countries, — to cherish and preserve those manufactures which have grown up under our own legislation, which contribute to the national wealth, and are essential to our indepen dence and safety, to the defence of the country, the supply of its necessary wants, and to the general prosperity, — is considered to be an indispensable duty. The vast amount of property employed in the northern, western, and middle portion of the Union, upon the faith of our own system of laws, and in which the interests of every branch of our industry are involved, could not be immediately abandoned without the most ruinous consequences. The various opinions by which the people of the United States are divided upon this subject, concern the peace and the harmony of the country, and recommend an adjustment on practical principles, rather than with reference to any abstract doctrines of political economy. The objects more par ticularly requiring the aid of the existing duties, upon the principles of this report, are believed to be wool, woollens, cotton, iron, hemp, and sugar, as comprehending those articles in which the agricultural and manufacturing industry are more particularly interested. Upon these articles, the average duty collected in the years 1829 and 1830 amounted to 8,940,593 dollars. These duties could not be materially changed at present, without the effect already deprecated. No objection is perceived, however, to such gradual reduction of them in future as may withdraw the aid thus afforded, as the growth and stability of our manufactures will enable them to dispense with it, to such a degree at least, as will, with the aid of an increase of population, and the means of consumption, still leave a revenue adequate to the expenditures; or until what may be withdrawn from them may be levied on other articles which may be found to admit of it. The additional sum, which, THE UNITED STATES. 293 together with the amount of those duties, it may be necessary for eongress to chap. provide, in a re-adjustment of the tariff, will depend upon its decision as to confining IV> the expenditures to the present objects, or of enlarging them, as herein suggested. In the former case, the sum of 4,559,607 dollars,— and in the latter, the sum of 6,059,607 dollars will be required ; and, in regard to either estimate, the provision should be upon a scale sufficiently liberal to guard against the chance of a deficiency. In providing for either sum, the duties may be advantageously retained upon articles of luxury, or those which are principally consumed by the wealthier classes, or upon those not abundantly produced in the United States, in preference to others. At the same time, the duties may be removed from such raw materials as will admit of it without detriment to our agriculture ; whereby the manufacturers would be enabled to sell cheaper, and also, the sooner to dispense with a part of the duties which may be at present retained for their protection. If the adjustment suggested to congress, by the views hazarded in this report, be in any wise entitled to their respect, it is not unreasonable to hope that the various topics of national concern, at present engaging the attention of the people, may facilitate rather than embarrass the task." q All who desire the welfare of the human race, with which the success of the An appro- principle on which the political arrangements of the United States are founded is so the excess essentially connected, will unite in the hope, or at least the desire, that the opinion suSgested- expressed in the last sentence quoted from Mr. M'Lane may prove to be correct. Of this, many, however, entertain serious fears. Might it not be for the general good of the republic, if all the excess of revenue derived from maintaining the protecting duties were divided among the states who deem themselves injured ? If a judicious arrange ment of this nature were effected, would not all parties be benefited ? If the accounts given of the injury sustained by South Carolina be correct, and the surplus revenue were proportionably divided, would not Charleston, by its magnificent edifices, and its improved communications with the interior, become one of the wealthiest and proudest cities, not only of the republic, but of the world ? Or would her inhabitants still be unhappy, unless the rising towns of the north, the west, and the middle states were depopulated ? 9 Finance Report, 1831, pp. 21, 23, 25, 30, VOL. II. O Q M * i-l s 5 •< H 2 I a o rfl OS w Bi u s *^ H t-H Eh en 0 w H 05N W oH ¦g a ' d w - ¦S« ! Q . 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OS^rH^OO CO © * i-H CO_ rH COihOCONMHO © j= -^" otf of to1 of ** cf 1>T r-T ua" uf cf cf co* ocf o" tC ** to* rHST^bTc^J^o*,*fcrH>o"'^co"i>r'^of o" rn* of of r-f*C ua" !?H^»*HOO^iflN03C»»OHCOCfttONO©MtO^ONCa©«3(NCOiCiOCDCJ^IsCCj>000^ HCfiHO^pimNijsHHNNUJWH NCQMHfNWiNn 5WCOU3*!OT^00©©^*©CM«CW00US©rH©*M00CNUOO©©**rHUSU3C0C0UaOluaCM^t-. coco*co*^uaus^>-uausuacouscotocot>-t»coooi^o^cocN©i-HrHOirHrH©coco o s * ofCO "*^* o^eo*usto^»co©©rHCNeo*uacoi^oo©OrHOlco*uacoJ^-coo©rHO^eo*u^cot^co© SaOCiacSOSQOaOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHrKNlMINNNNINNNM ^NNNNNNNNNOT05COO3COCO0000COW0O«00l»»(»0000COCCQ0Q0WMXCOCO»»Q0 ri to •* jl 1 II 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 II 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 . 1822 „ 1823 » 1824 Acres. 303,404781,213 801,226 653,319749,323 has. 09 32 18 52 04 In 1825 „ 1826 „ 1827 „ 1828 „ 1829 Total 299 Acres, hds. 893,461 69 848,082 26 926,727 76 965,600 36 1,244,860 01 8,167,218 23 300 TOPOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER V. POPULATION. BOOK III. The rapid ity of its in crease com pared with Europeannations. Relative increase of the free and slave popu lation. Where the increase of the human family is looked upon as an evil, society must be poisoned at its very source, and some great change must be both needful and near. The United States are happily circumstanced in this respect, whatever disadvantages they may lie under in others ; there, at least, the human infant is. not welcomed with less satisfaction than though he were one of the progeny of the stall or the stye ; but the rapid increase of the population is esteemed conducive alike to the wealth, the glory, and the happiness of the republic. It is greatly to be regretted, that the different nations of the civilized world have not kept regular and authentic accounts of the progress of their population, as im portant moral and political truths might have been elucidated by comparison, if such tables had existed. It appears that the population of France does not double itself in less than 150 years, and that of Great Britain in about half that time ; while the population of the United States doubles itself in less than thirty years. The congress early determined to ascertain, at regular intervals, the progress of population ; and, according to its enactments, the first census was taken in the year 1790. The number of inhabitants was then nearly 4,000,000, of whom not quite 700,000 were slaves ; in 1800, the population had increased to 5,300,000, of whom nearly 900,000 were slaves; in 1810, the numbers were 7,239,000, of whom 1,191,000 were slaves; in 1820, 9,638,000, of whom 1,538,000 were slaves; and, in 1830, the population amounted to 12,856,000,. of whom rather more than 2,000,000 were slaves. The precise particulars, including the numbers in each state, will be found in Tables I, and II. annexed to this chapter. It will be perceived, that in the forty years during which the census has been taken, the increase of the population has been steady, though rapid ; and that it is, at the close of the period, more than three times the number that it was at the commencement. The increase during the last ten years has been 33.4 per cent, which is quite equal to that of the preceding periods. The increase of the free population has uniformly been the most rapid, and that of the slaves the most retarded : the increase of the slaves will, hereafter, be further checked, as their importation has been some years prohibited. From 1800 to 1810, the ratio of the increase of the free population was lessened, and that of the slaves augmented : the former effect was, probably, owing to the small addition accruing from immigration ; THE UNITED STATES. 301 and the latter to the importation of negroes from 1800 to 1808, especially in 1806 CHAP. v. and 1807, in anticipation of the prohibition of the inhuman traffic in slaves ; the ~~ ~ number of the slaves was also increased by the additions of Louisiana, where they constituted nearly the half of the population. The rapidity of the increase of the population of the United States forms the Effeet of principal fact on which the Malthusian system has been founded; and it has conse- T™^*' quently been a subject of much controversy, whether its ratio is materially affected by immigration. There appears to be no decisive authority by which to determine the actual number of emigrants arriving annually in the United States. Dr. Seybert estimates their amount from 1790 to 1810 at 6,000 per annum. " In 1790," says Dr. Dr. Sey- Seybert, " the free population of the United States amounted to 3,223,629 persons, ^f and in 1810 it was 6,048,539; the actual increase in the twenty years was 2,824,910, from which deduct 120,000, for the emigrants who arrived during that period, and allow for their increase at the extraordinary rate of 5 per cent, per annum, or 60,000 for the twenty years, making the aggregate from the emigrant stock 180,000, which, when deducted from the total actual increase abovementioned, will leave 2,644,910 persons for the augmentation, independent of any aid from abroad ; or the duplica tion of the free inhabitants, without addition from the emigrants, would only require about four-fifths of a year more than it did when they were added." a — Messrs. Calcula- Godwin and Booth, opponents of Mr. Malthus, take another method of ascertain- Godwin ing the amount of immigration, and arrive at a very different result: "When anaBootfa- enumerations are taken every ten years, it is obvious, exclusive of immigration, that, in any particular census, the persons living above ten years of age must have all existed in the census immediately preceding. In that of 1810, for instance, all above ten years formed part of the population for 1800, and are in reality the same, except inasmuch as they are diminished by death. Those under ten have all been born in the interval between the censuses. Comparing the American censuses on this prin ciple, we shall find an astonishing extent of immigration. The white population of 1800 was 4,305,971. These in ten years would be diminished by a fourth. It is very improbable that more than 3,200,000 would have been alive in 1810 ; for, what ever proportion the births of that country may bear to the whole population, the pro portion of deaths is certainly greater than in Europe. These 3,200,000, then, should have constituted the number of those above ten years of age in the censHS of 1810, had there been no importation from other countries. But the actual census above ten years of age was 3,845,389, giving a surplus of 645,389, which can be accounted for in no other way than by immigration. To account for the difference between the censuses of 1800 and 1810, the immi gration must have been, therefore, on the principles adopted by Godwin and Booth, » Statistical Annals, p. 30. VOL. II. BR 302 TOPOGRAPHY OF Different estimates of the ratio of deaths. BOOK IIL, at least 35,000 per annum, being nearly six times the number calculated by Dr. Seybert. This would appear to be utterly inconsistent with facts, and as far above the truth as Dr. Seybert's estimate is below it. The solution of this dif ficulty must be sought in the incorrect estimate of the ratio of deaths which has been adopted — that of one-fourth in ten years. The Edinburgh Review runs to the other extreme, and estimates the proportion of deaths at only one-eighth. " If we had American tables," says the writer, supposed to be Mr. Malthus himself, " formed like those of Dr. Price for Sweden, we should expect, that, on account of the peculiar structure of the American population, arising from the great excess of births above deaths, it would turn out that the proportion which a given popu lation, without any fresh accession of births, would lose in ten years, instead of being rather more than one-seventh, would not be more than one^eighth; in which case, the amount of immigration annually would, by Mr. Booth's own rule, be only between seven and eight thousand, and the period of doubling would come near to the calculation of Dr. Seybert." b Mr. Booth has occupied a consider able portion of his reply in proving this statement of the Edinburgh reviewer to be incorrect. The details of the controversy, owing to the absence of any direct and general authentic data, are by far too intricate and extended to introduce into our work ; we shall therefore satisfy ourselves with stating, that, after investigating the subject, we are convinced that the truth lies, as in many other cases, between the two extremes, the result of Mr. Booth's estimate of the deaths being quite irrecon cilable with the annual rate of immigration upon the most liberal scale ; and that of the Edinburgh reviewer, making every allowance for the different condition and circum stances of the United States, being inconsistent with the ratio of deaths in otfter countries. From the result of these statements, in themselves contradictory, tout constituting, in fact, checks upon each other, we think it may be concluded, /witfr- some tolerable degree of satisfaction, that the ratio of deaths is about one-sixth in every ten years,c which, allowing a procreative increase from immigration at the rate of ten per cent, per annum instead of five per cent, as calculated by Dr. Seybett, would require the number of immigrants to have been, from 1800 to 1810, at least 10,000 annually. A much more masterly performance than the labours either of Mr. Godwin or Mr. Booth has recently appeared in opposition to the Malthusian system, from the pen of Mr. Sadler ; indeed, however our opinions may differ from some of his deduc tions, the " Law of Population " is equally creditable to the soundness of the author's b Edinburgh Review, No. LXX. pp. 365, 366. c The assertion of Mr. Booth, that, " however the births in the United States may exceed those of Europe the deaths cannot be less numerous," is obviously unsatisfactory, as there are many circumstances in a newly-settled country which tend to diminish the ratio of deaths, although there are some of an opposite character. Opinions of Mr. Sadler. THE UNITED STATES. 303 principles as a moralist, and to his indefatigable industry as a political economist. CHAP. V. " The theory," says Mr. Sadler, " that mankind would double, at the very slowest rate of increase, by procreation only, in five-and-twenty years, is founded upon the supposed increase of various colonies of America, and, finally, upon the growth of the entire population of the United States, which, it is asserted, have doubled, on the lowest calculation, in that term, and many much more rapidly, independently of foreign emigration. In refutation of this position, it has been shown, that none of the states instanced have ever so doubled in any part of their history ; that the population of New England in particular, as well as that of the remaining colonies, at the period whence these doublings are dated, has been grossly understated, and that there are not, in reality, half the number of white inhabitants now in the United States that the theory demands, had not a single emigrant proceeded to that country ; that, on the contrary, a vast and incessant afflux of emigrants has proceeded to America, first from England, but, very early afterwards, from the remaining parts of the British empire, and from every country of Europe ; that, so far from this emigration having been immaterial in its effects, it has influenced, in every possible way, the manners, customs, habits, religion, and even language, of the various states; has shown its presence by every species of statistical evidence, excepting that of direct enumera tion ; that, more satisfactorily even than by such a mode, it has manifested its extent, by altering the natural proportion of the sexes, and the classifications of society throughout ; has varied the established proportions of nature, as it respects the ages of the living in the censuses, and of the dead in the registers of mortality : and, finally, to epitomize the argument no further, it has been proved, from the very admissions of those who are anxious to demonstrate to the contrary, that emigration has been the main cause of that rapid increase in the population of America, on which alone they build their entire system." Nearly one-half- of the two thick octavo volumes, of which Mr. Sadler's work is composed, is devoted to the consideration of the rate of increase of the population of the United States, and abounds with calcu lations which must be the result of a high degree of mental exertion ; but we can obtain no specific result from his pages unless it be that the population of the United States is wholly (the Indians excepted) derived from emigration from Europe," a fact sufficiently manifest to persons at all acquainted with American history. We can not perceive where Mr. Sadler draws any line : all the inhabitants of the United States are the descendants of emigrants undoubtedly ; but the first point at issue is, stating the population of the United States at nine and a half millons in 1820, and at d " Mr. Malthus has, indeed, only commenced his calculation, relative to this annual emigration, with the year 1782 ; but I think it will be quite as difficult for him to persuade the historian that emigration first began at that period, as to convince the arithmetician, that even if calculated only thence, such an addition, increasing as he admits, can have been 'immaterial ' whoever may attempt demonstrations to the contrary." — Sailer on Population, vol. ii. p. 79. 304 TOPOGRAPHY OF book III. twelve and a half in 1830, how many of the persons composing the difference between these two amounts were immigrants from foreign countries ? The second point to ascertain would be, how many persons were living in 1830, born within the term of the last census, of parents one or both of whom were not natives of the United States ? These would be two plain and simple statements, and would be the utmost that could be interesting to the national statistics of America ; indeed, we doubt whether the latter is at all necessary, as the natives of a country can in no practical sense be con sidered immigrants. To what further extent the estimate of the influence of emigra tion must~be carried to overthrow the system of Malthus we do not perceive, unless it be to the " pilgrim fathers," which would be equally subversive of all systems. Estimate of It is much to be regretted that authentic records of the immigrants arriving in the immigrants United States are not regularly kept and annually published by the government of Nortif16 tne United States : such information of this character as exists we shall now lay American before our readers. " The subject of emigration to this country," says the editor Review. of the North 'American Review, "is not, however, one involved in such utter darkness, but that we can do something towards enabling our readers to form a tolerably correct estimate of the actual number of foreigners who arrive here ; and the first document which we offer is nothing more nor less than an official transcript of all the lists of passengers who arrived in the United States from the 1st October, 1819, to September 30th, 1820, inclusive: — total arrived, 7,001 ; of these there are 1,959 females and 5,042 males."5 Now it is to be observed that this list embraces not only the foreigners coming here with the intention of remaining, but those who came here only on a visit, and our own citizens, who returned from visits to foreign countries. For these reasons we should deduct nearly all of the following classes, viz : ambassadors, clergymen, consuls, judges, lawyers, merchants, mariners, phy sicians, supercargoes, gentlemen, and ladies, and probably the planters, amounting in the whole to 1,579, which leaves but 5,422. But as our deductions are merely con jectural, we will estimate the number of emigrants for that year at 6,000. A second report for the year ending 30th September, 1821, was presented to congress at « Taking the scale of emigration at 10,000, the calculation of Mr. Sadler, founded on the proportion of marriages which would arise from this relative proportion of males and females among the immigrants, (a calculation evidently exaggerated in favour of his own position, as he makes no adequate deduction from the number of males for travellers on pleasure or business,) very little exceeds our estimate of the addition which immigration occasions, (one fifth,) and, if connected in correspondence with the intimation just made, would pro bably accord with an accuracy somewhat surprising. — See " Law of Population," vol. i. pp. 50 and 58. It is true that we calculate an immigration of 20,000 per annum to be necessary to produce the same result ; but that is on the supposition that if the unmarried immigrants marry American females, the procreative result was not wholly to be carried to the account of the immigrants, but to be divided ; and still less that the results of the intermarriages of the children of the immigrants with native Americans should be placed also to the same account. Upon this principle, the ratio of increase of the population of England must be most materially diminished by deducting the procreative result of a certain immigration of Normans which took place some few hundred years since. THE UNITED STATES. 305 their last session ; but, owing to some strange oversight, no order was passed for CHAP. V. its being printed. The particulars, therefore, we are not acquainted with; but we have ascertained that the whole number of passengers was 10,722, of which 2,415 were from the United States, leaving 8,307 foreigners. Besides this, we have a newspaper before us, which professes to give an abstract of official returns ordered to be printed by the house of commons of Great Britain. From these it appears, that from the year 1812 to the year 1821, both years included, there emigrated to the United States — from Ireland, 30,653; from England, 33,608; from Scotland, 4,727: the whole amount of emigrations to the United States, 68,988. During the same period, there embarked for the British dominions in North America — from Ireland, 47,223; from England, 23,783; from Scotland, 19,971. Total of emigrations to the British dominions, 90,977. Total of the emigrations from the United Kingdom, 159,965. This gives us an annual average of 6,898 emigrants to the United States ; and this we take to be not far from the true average ; for, if the above period embraces the years of the war, when there were no emigra tions to this country, it likewise embraces the extraordinary years 1817 and 1818, when the emigrations were double or treble what they ever were before, or have been since. We should add about one-ninth to the above amount for emigrants from other countries than Great Britain ; for we take it that about nine-tenths of all the foreigners who come to this country come from the United Kingdom, and we shall have an average of little more than 7,500 emigrants per annum. And whilst we thus find the documents of the British government and of our own coinciding so nearly, it is impossible to think that both are very far from the truth. The number of passengers arriving at the principal ports of the United States during the year 1817, as obtained from the records of the several custom-houses, was 22,240. If we make a proper deduction for the number of Americans who must have been among these passen gers, we shall conclude that the number of emigrants for that year was about 18,000. The amount of emigration in common years, we are of opinion, varies from six to eight thousand. If any thing be wanting to confirm the above statement, we may find it in the last census. The number of foreigners not naturalized is there given, and amounts only to 53,655. No foreigner can be naturalized until he has resided within the United States at least five years ; and consequently we have the whole number which could have arrived during the five years preceding the census, even if we suppose that all who arrived before that period were naturalized as soon as the law would permit. But we know that a great many delay obtaining naturaliza tion for several years after they are entitled to it ; and not a few are never naturalized atall.f" It will be observed that the North American Review allows no addition to the f North American Review, vohxv. p, 301 — 305, 306 TOPOGRAPHY OF book III, number of immigrants from those who emigrated to Canada, although on other occa- Estimate sions American writers do not hesitate to affirm, that the greater part of those who from the leave Great Britain professedly for the Canadas ultimately settle in the United States; I820T ° an¦ and on the 14th of fanuary, 1830, the convention adopted an amended constitution, by a vote of fifty-five to forty. The amended constitution, on being submitted to the legal voters of the state, was ratified by a majority of 10,492 votes, as appears by the following statement : — For. Against. Votes in Trans- Alleghany district 2,123 11,289 Valley district 3,842 2,097 Middle district' 12,417 1,086 Tide-water district 7,673 1,091 26,055 15,563 By this constitution the legislative power is vested in a senate and a house of delegates, which are together styled " The General Assembly of Virginia." The house of delegates consists of 134 members, chosen annually ; — thirty-one from the twenty-six counties west of the Alleghany Mountains ; twenty-five from the fourteen counties between the Alleghany Mountains and the Blue Ridge ; forty-two from the twenty-nine counties east of the Blue Ridge and above Tide-water ; and thirty-six from the counties, cities, towns, and boroughs, lying upon Tide-water. The senate consists of thirty-two members, thirteen from the counties west of the Blue Ridge, and nineteen from the counties, cities, towns, and boroughs east thereof. The senators are elected for four years ; and the seats of one-fourth of them are vacated every year. In all elections to any office or place of trust, honour, or profit, the votes are given openly, or viva voce, and not by ballot. A reapportionment for representation in both houses is to take place every ten years, commencing in 1841, until which time there is to be no change in the number of delegates and senators from the several divisions ; and after 1841 the number of delegates is never to exceed 150 ; nor that of the senators thirty-six. " The executive power is vested in a governor elected by the joint vote of the two houses of the general assembly. He holds his office three years, commencing on the 1st of January next succeeding his election, or on such other day as may be, from time to time, prescribed by law ; and he is ineligible for the three years next after the expiration of his term of office. There is a council of state, consisting of three members, elected for three years by the joint vote of the two houses ; the seat of one being vacated annually. The senior counsellor is lieutenant-governor. The judges of the supreme court of appeals, and of the superior courts, are elected by a joint vote of both houses of the general assembly, and hold their offices during good behaviour ; or until removed by a concurrent vote of both houses ; but two- thirds of the members present must concur in such vote, and the cause of removal he entered on the journals of each house. " The right of suffrage is extended to every white male citizen of the Commonwealth resident therein, aged twenty-one years and upwards, who is qualified to exercise the right of suffrage according to the former con stitution and laws ; — or who owns a freehold of the value of twenty-five dollars ; — or who has a joint interest to the amount of twenty-five dollars in a freehold ; — or who has a life estate in, or reversionary title to, land of the value of fifty dollars, having been so possessed for six months ; or who shall own and be in the actual occupation of a leasehold estate, having the title recorded two months before he shall offer to vote, of a term 324 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. The originators of the Constitution are the people, by direct votes given upon resolu tions prepared by their delegates in convention ; a term with which the reader of this Source of the Consti tution. originally not less than five years, and of the annual value or rent of 200 dollars ; or who, for twelve months before offering to vote, has been a housekeeper and head of a family, and shall have been assessed with a part of the revenue of the Commonwealth within the preceding year, and actually paid the same. " Executive Government. — Governor, salary 3,333 J dollars per annum ; lieutenant-governor and president of the council, and seven counsellors, 8,000 dollars ; clerk of the council and keeper of the public seal, 1,320 dollars ; assistant clerk of the council, 1,000 dollars ; attorney-general, 1,000 dollars ; treasurer of state, 2,000 dollars ; auditor, 2,000 dollars ; second auditor, 1,800 dollars ; register of the land-office, 1,500 dollars ; keeper of the penitentiary, 2,000 dollars ; penitentiary store-keeper, 1,500 dollars ; adjutant-general, 500 dollars. "The number of members of the existing senate is twenty-four; and of the house of delegates 214, two from each of the 105 counties, and one from each of the two cities and two boroughs. The senators and delegates receive four dollars a day, and twenty cents a mile for travel ; the speaker of each house, eight dollars a day. "Judiciary. — The offices of all the following judges of the supreme court of appeals, of the general court, and of the superior courts of chancery, will expire at the termination of the session of the first legislature under the new constitution. Supreme court of appeals, — five judges, 2,500 dollars each. Superior courts of chancery, — four judges, 1,667 dollars each. Fifteen judges of the general court, who are also judges of the superior courts of law held in each county : these judges receive each a salary of 1,500 dollars, and three dollars for every twenty miles travel on the circuit." MISSISSIPPI. The constitution of this state was formed at fhe town of Washington, in August, 1817. " The legislative power is vested in a senate and a house of representatives, which are together styled, ' The General Assembly of the State of Mississippi.' The representatives are elected annually on the first Monday in August, in the ratio of one to every 3,000 white inhabitants. Each county, however, is entitled to one ; and the present whole number is thirty-three. According to the constitution, when the number of white inhabitants exceeds 80,000, the number of representatives cannot be less than thirty-six, nor more than one hundred. The members of the senate are elected for three years, one third being chosen annually. Their number cannot be less than one fourth, nor more than one third of the whole number of representatives. " The executive'power is vested in a governor, who is elected by the people for two years, on the first Monday in August. At every election of a governor, a lieutenant-governor is also chosen, who is president of the senate, and on whom the executive duties devolve in case of the death, resignation, or absence, of the governor " The general assembly meets at Jackson annually, on the first Monday in November. " The right of suffrage is granted to every free white male citizen of the United States, of the age of twenty-one years or upwards, who has resided within this state one year next preceding an election, and the last six months within the county, city, or town, in which he offers to vote, and is enrolled in the militia thereof, unless exempted by law from military service ; or, having the aforesaid qualifications of citizenship and residence, has paid a state or county tax. " The judicial power is vested in a supreme court, and such superior and inferior courts of law and equity as the legislature may from time to time establish. The judges of the several courts are elected by the general assembly, and hold their offices during good behaviour, till the age of sixty-five years. " Executive Government. — Governor's salary, 2,500 dollars ; lieutenant-governor's pay, six dollars a day during the session of the legislature ; secretary of state's salary, 1,200 dollars ; state treasurer, 1,000 dollars ; auditor of public accounts, 1,000 dollars; attorney-general, 1,000 dollars. " Judiciary.— Court of chancery: chancellor's salary, 2,000 dollars. Suprejne court : chief justice, and four associate justices, 2,000 dollars each. Circuit courts. — The state is divided into five districts, in which the judges of the supreme court severally hold circuit courts. These courts have original jurisdiction in all cases where the sum in dispute exceeds fifty dollars ; and appellate jurisdiction from the courts of the justices of the peace, when the sum exceeds twenty dollars. They are also invested with criminal jurisdiction, except in the THE UNITED STATES. 325 history is familiar; but of which the precise import upon the present occasion deserves chap. I. further remark. Conventions, then, in this sense, are the supreme and primary Conven- assemblies of the people in the several states, which have for their rule only the tl0ns- public will, and for their objects justice and the public good. Like the merely voluntary meetings of the people — the conventus publicos propria authoritate of England of the twelfth century — they originate in the old common law ; but they are county of Adams, which has a court exclusively of criminal jurisdiction : judge's salary, 800 dollars. Probate and county courts. — There are, in every county, a probate court and a county court, the judges of which have no salary, but are paid by fees and by an allowance of three dollars a day. The county court is composed of three judges, of which the probate judge is the presiding justice. This court has jurisdiction over all offences committed by slaves ; and for such trials it is invested with the powers which usually belong to courts of oyer and terminer. It has appellate jurisdiction from the courts of the justices of the peace when the sum involved does not exceed twenty dollars." DEPENDANT TERRITORIES. With respect to the vast territories belonging to the United States, — territories not formed into states, and which are not yet distinct societies, known to the Constitution as separate states, — congress has assumed to exercise supreme sovereignty over them until the means of internal organization as states exists there. In the Arkansas territory, for example, the governor and judges are appointed by the president and senate, but they are removable at the pleasure of the president ; and the judges, subject to such removal, hold office for four, and the governor for three years. A legislative body, composed of nine counsellors appointed by the president and senate of the United States to continue in office for five years, and of a house of representatives to be chosen by the inhabitants every two years, was provided by congress in 1 820. The superior court of justice has exclusive cognizance of all capital offences, and trial by jury is secured, together with many of the other great fundamental principles of civil liberty. The local legislatures of these territories are prohibited from interfering with the primary disposal of the soil by the United States, or from taxing lands belonging to the United States, or the lands of absentees higher than those of residents, or from interrupting the navigable waters flowing into the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. It is held that congress has supreme power in the government of these territories, depending on the exercise of its sound discretion ; and if the government of the United States should carry into execution the project of colonizing the great valley of the Oregan to the west of the Rocky Mountains, the civil and political destiny of this country will afford a subject of grave consideration. — Chancellor Kent's Commentaries. The adoption of foreign states, upon equal and constitutional terms, into the old Union, is an interesting and novel illustration of the success of the American polity, which was applied with great advantage upon the acquisition of Louisiana. When that country was purchased, a great problem presented itself, which it was necessary for the government and the people of the United States, and the inhabitants of Louisiana, to meet Although France sold the country, it is plain that, on American principles, the United States could acquire no rights, under the purchase, except against France and other powers admitting the right of a mother-country to transfer the jurisdiction of a colony. It was the opinion of Mr. Jefferson and his cabinet, that it was necessary for the people of Louisiana to do some act expressive of their willingness to join the American people : this was, however, superseded by the obvious good-will and predisposition of the population,- and the momentous result of transferring all Louisiana, an empire in itself, from one jurisdiction to another, was unattended by the slightest violence, and has been succeeded by daily increasing satisfaction. Had the comprehensive character of our work permitted it, we should have presented a sketch of the con stitution of each state, and have exhibited the points in which they differ. Any of our readers who may wish to ascertain minutely the constitutions of the other states can refer to the tables in the Encyclopedia Americana, vol. iii. art. Constitutions, or to the Companion to the British Almanack for 1832. VOL. II. V U TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. Massachu setts con vention of 1820. Convention at Boston in 1689. much more regular in form, although not more legal or important, than voluntary meetings of the people for less momentous purposes. When experience suggests that the constitution wants amendment, the subject is referred to conventions. The legislature (we speak of Massachusetts, in 1820, by way of example) pass a law, that inhabitants qualified to vote for the senators and representatives shall assemble in regular town meetings on a certain day, and give their votes by ballot on this question — " Is it expedient that delegates should be chosen to meet in convention for the purpose of revising or altering the constitution ? " And if the majority of votes is in favour of choosing delegates, the inhabitants entitled to vote for representatives to the legislature shall elect delegates to take into consideration the propriety of making any and what amendments in the constitution ; and such amendments shall be sub mitted to the people for their adoption, in such manner as the convention direct ; and if ratified by the people, the constitution shall be deemed to be amended accordingly ; and if not so ratified, the present constitution shall remain. (Act of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, June 16, 1820.) Under this act, delegates met on the 15th of November in the same year, and resolved to abolish the old property qualification of electors of representatives ; — to extend to militia soldiers under twenty-one years of age the right of voting for their ensigns, lieutenants, and captains ; — to render more complete the separation of the judicial, executive and legislative authorities ; — and to make other important changes. The proposed amendments were then referred to the people, who discussed them over again in their respective townships. Of the fourteen articles thus presented to their consideration, five were rejected. The debates of the convention were published, and distributed from day to day with great care throughout the state ; and the whole business occupied about six months.1 The earliest convention of which we read in the history of North America was formed directly upon the model of that of England in 1689. When the intelligence of the Revolution reached Boston, the people rose in mass, and imprisoned an unpopular governor. A small body of the principal inhabitants tools upon themselves the government, under the title of " A Council for the Safety of the People and Con servation of the Peace ;" and, in imitation of the convention called by the Prince of Orange, recommended to the several towns in the colony to meet and depute persons to form an assembly. Of this event, the governor of Connecticut says, in a contem porary letter, " The true grounds of the procedure of the colony in assuming the government was, salus populi est suprema lex" The king soon signified the royal approbation of what had been done, recognizing, in his letters to the council, the convention of the representation of the people of the colony. In this case, at the privy council, Sir John Somers, then the counsel for the people upon a petition, said, 1 Debates and Proceedings in the Massachusetts Convention of 1820. 8vo. Boston, 1821. THE UNITED STATES. 327 " The country, oppressed by an arbitrary government, did there as we did here— rose chap. I. as one man." One of the council remarked in this case, " I perceive the revolution was there as it was here — by the unanimous agreement of the people." k The constituency who choose the delegates for a convention is almost always the Constitu- same constituency who choose the members of the state legislature ; but it seems to conven- be open to discretion to make this occasional constituency even more extensive. A tlons" great peculiarity, however, of the character of conventions is, that the delegates maybe individuals from any class, including the ministers of religion, the governor, and other public functionaries, and the judges. In this point the reader will be struck with the resemblance it bears to the English county meetings, where peers, and commoners, and clergy, and all other men, assemble to deliberate on any public concerns. Both institutions, indeed, are traceable to a common Saxon stock. The experience of the Americans, however, is fast giving a new and fixed character to these important organs of the popular will. Frequent resort to the true source of national power has rendered that resort regular and easy ; and by bringing the real sovereign, the people, into view and activity without confusion, promises to advance the public interests on a scale hitherto unknown, and scarcely anticipated by the most sanguine lovers of good government. The constitution being so settled, the general government cannot exercise Limited any powers not given either expressly, or by the implication1 necessary to the 0f the i govern- * Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, vol. i. pp. 373 — 394. ment. 1 The due limits of constructive powers have been the occasion of anxious discussion. It has been strongly contended, that no implied powers were given to the federal government; for which position, the following solemn declarations by members of the convention of 1787, are relied upon. — " In the convention of Massachusetts, at which were present the two members from that state who signed the constitution, the first amendment proposed, in order to re rove the fears of many, and more effectually guard against an undue administration of the federal government, is in these terms : — That it be explicitly declared, that all powers not expressly delegated by the aforesaid constitution are reserved to the several states, to be by them exercised." (Debates of the Convention of Massachusetts, Boston, 1788, p. 211.) In the legislature of South Carolina, to which the constitution was sent, in order to be referred to a convention of the people, one of her delegates in the general convention, in explaining the views of the convention and the objects of the constitution, uses these expressions : — " The distinction often taken between the nature of a federal and state government appeared to be conclusive ; that in the former, no powers could be executed or assumed but such as were expressly delegated." (Debates in the House of Representatives of South Carolina, Charleston, 1788, p. 7.) General Pinckney, also a member of the general convention, thus expresses himself: — " It is admitted on all hands, that the general government has no powers but those which are expressly granted by the constitution ; and that all rights not expressed, were reserved by the several states." (Ibid. p. 25.) And again, when replying to some one who had remarked that the liberty of the press had not been secured, he adds, — " The general government has no powers but what are expressly granted to it ; it therefore has no power to take away the liberty of the press : that invaluable blessing is secured by all our state constitutions ; and to have mentioned it in our general constitution, would, perhaps, furnish an argument hereafter, that the general government had a right to exercise powers not expressly delegated to it. For the same reason, we had no bill of rights inserted in our constitution ; for as we might perhaps have omitted the enumeration of some of ourrights, itmight here after be said, we had delegated to the general government a power to take away such of our rights as we had 328 TOPOGRAPHY OF book IV. execution of the express powers. The powers vested in the state governments by " their respective constitutions, or remaining with the people of the several states, prior to the establishment of the United States, continue unaltered, except so far as they are granted to the United States. The true construction of the particular declarations in the constitution, and the extent of the authority still remaining to the several states, are to be ascertained by the practice of the respective governments, where there is no collision. In all other cases, where the question is of a judicial nature, doubts are determined by the supreme court of the United States. The people, as we have seen, have declared the constitution to be the supreme law; and every act of congress, every act of the state legislatures, and every part of every state constitution, which is repugnant to the constitution of the United States, is void. The determination of the supreme court must be final, because the constitution gives to that tribunal the power to decide, and gives no appeal from its decisions. But it is the familiar practice of the people to discuss those decisions with the most unlimited freedom; and the judges who pronounce them are subject to impeachment at the bar of congress for malversa tion in their posts. The date of the constitution, and of American law generally, as contradistinguished from the old colonial constitutions and laws, is perhaps subject to some doubts. It has been shewn m how gradually the national independence grew out of resistance to particular measures in 1774, extending itself to the abrogation of British authority and British courts of justice in 1775, until, in 1776, regular war broke out; and independence was first resolved upon in April, and then declared on the celebrated 4th of July of the last mentioned year. These various circumstances seem to render the point difficult to be determined when British law ceased to operate in the Date of the commencement of American law. not enumerated ; but by delegating express powers, we certainly reserve to ourselves every power and right not mentioned in the constitution." (Ibid. p. 44.) — Southern Review, on the'. Constitution of the United States, for May, 1828. Upon this precise point it was prophetically said by the able and eloquent Virginian, Patrick Henry, against granting powers by implication, "If they (the federal government) can use implication for us, they can also use implication against us. We are giving power, they are getting power; judge then on which side the implication will be used. When we once put it in their power to assume constructive power, danger will follow. Implication is dangerous, because it is unbounded ; if it be admitted at all, and no limits be preserved, it admits of the utmost extension. They say that every thing not given is retained ; the reverse of the proposition is true by implication." — Ibid. p. 315. And it is well said by Mr. Webster, in justification of limiting the power of legislation, that " The people have most wisely chosen to take the risk of occasional inconveniences from the want of power, in order that there might be a settled limit to its exercise, and a permanent security against its abuse. They have imposed prohibitions and restraints ; and they have not rendered these altogether vain by conferring the power of dispensation. No legislature in this country is able, and may the time never come when it shall be able, to apply to itself the memorable expression of a Roman pontiff: Licet hoc, de jure non possumus, volumus tauten de plenitudine potestatis." — Speeches and Forensic Arguments, by Daniel Webster, Boston, 1830, p. 136. ¦» Vol. i. pp. 320—322, 349, 353. THE UNITED STATES. 329 States. For New York, the date is said to be the 19th of April, 1775 ; but, generally, chap. i. the 4th of July, 1776, upon which day the declaration of independence was signed, may be termed the earliest legal origin of American law. There was then also adopted and continued much of the old colonial law, or that which had grown up from what had accompanied the first emigrants, or had afterwards been adopted from England, or enacted at home, and by the colonial legislatures. Many difficulties attended the framing of the constitution : and it was not until November, 1777, that the congress could so far reconcile the discordant interests and prejudices of thirteen distinct communities as to fix upon the articles of confederation ; nor was it until March, 1781, that all the several states accepted those articles which had been suc cessively submitted to them for approval. The powers of the federal government thus created were found too dependent upon General the acquiescence of the separate states ; and, in 1786, the old congress yielded ofTw.'0" to a call from certain delegates of a large majority of the states, to recommend the people to form a general convention of delegates from all the states to "revise, amend, and alter," the articles of confederation. This recommendation was made accordingly; and such general convention (excepting Rhode Island, which did not send delegates,) was assembled at Philadelphia, in May, 1787. After several months' deliberation, the present constitution, except the last articles, was agreed to. It was directed to be submitted to delegates, to be chosen by the people at large in Adopts each state, for their assent ; the grand question turning upon the extent of the powers with which the several governments should be invested. Nearly a year elapsed before nine states had adopted this constitution ; it then received a political exist ence ; but it did not obtain the unanimous ratification of all the members of the original confederacy until June, 1790." The intervening discussions were, however, unattended by the loss of a single life ; nor were the doubts of the objecting parties of a nature to lead to any differences more serious than those of opinion, or than the somewhat bitter party feelings, now understood to be daily softening, or seeking scope in new channels. But if the particular parties into which political society was divided during the last forty years have lost much of their noxious character, other difficulties respecting the constitution, not essentially different from the old ones, have occurred ; and they are difficulties of a kind to require the exercise of all the wisdom of this people, in order that they may find a good issue. In the construc tion, too, of the constitution, great diversities of opinion have arisen, traceable, perhaps, to the same source of proper jealousy of the encroachments of the central government, as much as to the intrinsic difficulty of framing important documents clearly. Of these diversities of opinion, an able writer in the United States has » Vol. i., pp. 379, 380, 406, 418—421. its a new con stitution. 330 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. lately said, that they " threaten to become intermingled with sectional feelings - an(j sectional interests, and if not terminated by some new compromise in the spirit of our ancient friendship, they may endanger the peace and permanence of the Union." ° These questions will be noticed briefly as we proceed. The legislative powers are vested in congress, and in the legislatures of the sepa rate states, according to principles settled by the constitution. The limits of these authorities have given rise to various questions, the nature of which may be estimated by the points mentioned in the notes below.? Legislativepower. 0 Southern Review, May, 1828, p. 274. » The power to regulate commerce, Con. Act i., s. 8. chap. iii. is vested in congress, exclusively of each of the states. — Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheaton, 186 ; &c. Under this power, congress may lay an embargo.— 2 Hall's Law Journal, 255 ; Acts of Dec. 22, 1807. Congress may provide for the punishment of foreign pirates. — 3 Wheaton, 630. Const. Art. I. s. 8. chap. 18. — " Necessary." The word *' necessary " in this article means needful, requisite, essential, conducive to, and gives to congress the choice of the means best calculated to exercise the powers they possess. (4 Wheaton, 413 ; 2 Cranch, 358, 396 ; 3 Wheaton, 304.) Hence congress have power to inflict punishment in cases not specified by the constitution ; such power being implied as necessary to the sanction of the laws and the exercise of the delegated powers. (4 Cranch, 146 ; 3 Wheaton, 336 ;) and to exact an oath of office, (4 Wheaton, 415 ;) and to punish larceny of letters from the post-office, or robbery of the mail, (ibid. 417 ;) and to create a corporate bank, if necessary, for carrying into effect the powers vested in the government of the United States, ( ibid. ; 9 Cranch, 374 ;) and to secure to the United States a priority of payment from the effects of an insolvent debtor. (2 Cranch, 159 ; 9 Cranch, 374.) The prohibition to pass ex post facto laws applies exclusively to criminal or penal cases. 3 Dallas, 386 ; and see on this article 1 Cranch 109 ; 4 Dallas, 14. The president's instructions are no justification to illegal acts. — Little v. Bareme, 2 Cranch, 170. Public Works. The exercise of authority by congress over great public works, commonly spoken of under the terms, " internal improvements," as roads and canals, and the like, is an occasion of much controversy in-, the United States, which seems to tend towards limiting the extent hitherto assumed by the federal government. See Webster's Speeches, pp. 393, 398 ; President Madison's Letter ; and the Southern Review for May, 1828, pp. 286, 290. The regulations of the houses of congress resemble in many particulars those of the houses of parliament ; in other respects they have made original rules. The house of representatives choose their own speaker, but the vice-president of the United States is ex-officio president of the senate, and gives the casting vote when they are equally divided. The proceedings and discussions in the two houses are public ; but less careful provision seems to have been yet made for reporting the debates and proceedings than, as we shall hereafter find, have been made in regard to the courts of justice. The constitution of the United States requires no evidence of property in the representative, nor any declaration of religious belief; but he must not hold any office under the United States. A member of congress may be expelled for a high misdemeanour. — The cases of W. Blount, 1797, and J. Smith, 1807. No member of congress shall hold any contract to be made in behalf of the United States. — Act, April 21, 1808. By the act of 7th March, 1822, the representatives are apportioned according to a ratio of one for every forty thousand persons, making two hundred and thirteen members, the present number of the house ; besides delegates from three of the territories belonging to the United States, who have a right to debate, but not to vote. The elections are held at stated seasons established by law. The people vote by ballot, in small districts, and public officers preside over the elections, receive the votes, and maintain order and fairness. Though the THE UNITED STATES. 331 The question how far state governments have concurrent power, in the legislative CHAP. I or judicial, over cases within the jurisdiction of the government of the United States, Concurrent has been much discussed. The correct principle is, that whenever the terms in Individual which a particular power has been granted to congress, or the nature of that power, states- require it to be exercised exclusively by congress, the subject is as absolutely taken from the state legislature, as if they had been forbidden to act. When the laws of particular states and the laws of the Union are in direct and manifest collision, those of the Union being the supreme law of the land, are of paramount authority ; and the state law, so far only as such incompatibility exists, must yield. If a par ticular state and the Union impose taxes on the same article, it has been questioned whether the Union would have the priority of payment. But the United States have declared by law that they are entitled to such priority in respect to debts. The concurrent power of legislature in the states seems, indeed, to be not an independent, but a subordinate power, liable, in many cases, to be extinguished, and in all cases to be postponed to the supreme law of the Union, whenever the federal and the state regulations interfere with each other.q It is an illustration of the success which has attended the efforts of the Americans Supremacy to strengthen the guarantees of good government, and make " the fiend, Discre- discretion. tion," with all its vices, give place to the many virtues of " sovereign law," that the statutes of the country mark out their duties even to the great officers of govern ment.1 To listen to the advocates of despotic authority in Europe, and even to competition between candidates is generally active, the elections are everywhere conducted with tranquillity. A very few exceptions occur to voting by ballot, as in Kentucky and Virginia ; and in 1821, when the consti tution of Massachusetts was amended, it became a question, whether the votes of the people upon the proposed clauses of amendment should be taken, in the towns of 4,000 inhabitants and under, by ballot or not. Upon a division in the convention, a majority of 185 to 69 was against the ballot being necessarily the way of taking the votes upon that occasion, which was left to the select men. — Massachusetts Convention Debates, p. 272. The electors of the president, or vice-president of the Union, under section I. of the second article of the Constitution, have been appointed hitherto, either upon the plan of balloting by what is termed " General Tickets;" or upon the plan of balloting "by districts." On the former plan, each voter in the state puts into the halloting-box a list of all the individuals whom he chooses for the whole state. On the latter plan, the voters of separate districts in the state put into the box the name, or names of the elector or electors for their districts ; and separate majorities determine the choice of the individuals, who are afterwards united, in order to become the electors for that whole state. Voters are, for the most part, all the resident white men of twenty-one years of age. The qualification of 200 dollars in property was abolished in Massachusetts in 1821 ; and that of being a freeholder was abolished in Virginia in 1830, and in other states in earlier years. Indians, if taxed, vote in Maine ; and in New York a man of colour may vote, if possessed of a freehold worth 250 dollars ; generally, men of colour are expressly excluded. In some cases, in Connecticut, " good moral character " is necessary to the voter. In Vermont, he must be " of quiet and peaceable behaviour." In almost all cases, residence of three, six, or twelve months in their particular state, before voting, is required. Sometimes the qualification for voting for senators differs from that of voting for members of the house of representatives. i For this doctrine, and indeed for a large portion of this chapter, we are indebted to Chancellor Kent's Commentaries on American Law, a work that does not require the humble tribute of our praise. r 6 Wheaton, 411 ; 3 Hall's Law Journal, 130. 332 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. Excep tions. those wno are guiaea only by the English public service of the last half century, it would be supposed that abject submission to a superior's command is an inevit- able adjunct to vigorous official service ; and that to. pause till convinced of the legality of an order, would be incurring the great evil of a feeble administration of affairs. The modern Americans wisely think otherwise ; and are, therefore, realizing the excellent system of official responsibility, combined with sufficient and safe despatch, which the old English constitution, with its forgotten oaths of office, and neglected statutes, equally aimed at, and which modern English reformers must revise and improve. A grave exception to the rule, that law governs every thing in the United States, is to be found in the want of legal redress for claimants upon the funds or justice of the government. The United States cannot be sued ; and no other remedy exists for a creditor who is refused payment at the treasury, or elsewhere, than an application to congress. There is even no lien against the government for advances made to its use. This is one of the principles imported from the old governments of Europe, which arm the strong against the weak, and, like the priority given to the United States as creditors, ought to be removed from an enlightened system of legislation. The theory of even the parent English constitution is adverse to this rule. There, as well as in the United States, every wrong is presumed to have its remedy, and every claim its redress ; but it is abundantly clear that, without peremptory access to a fixed judicial tribunal, invested with the ordinary duty to dispense right to every complainant^ redress will often be sought in vain. Legislative justice, or justice to be granted only on the grace of a sovereign to a petition, implies the exer cise of a discretion, which is but too apt to be swayed by personal considerations or by the feelings of the times. Long experience in England has proved how great is the evil of this principle there; and already have some very serious inconveniences to individuals arisen from it in America, where it is peculiarly discordant with the almost universally good guarantees established by the republic in defence of rational freedom. There are many cases requiring redress which the ordinary courts do not receive, the parties being left to the eleemosynary remedy of petitions to congress. The dependence of congress upon popular elections checks the evil prevalent in other countries on the point; but the complaining party finds interest needful, a thing always fatal to peace, and often to justice. How precarious a petitioner may find his situation in such a state of things, is pleasantly to be learned from the passage in the note below.8 • " Mr. Gallatin came to Virginia when a very young man ; he was obsdure and unknown, and being engaged in some agency which made it necessary to present a petition to the assembly, he endeavoured to interest the leading members in its fate, by attempting to explain out of doors its merits and justice. He spoke English so badly that they could not understand him well enough to feel any interest either for him or THE UNITED STATES. 333 The executive power vested in the president by the foregoing written constitution, chap. I. and the influence to be obtained from the nomination to public offices, have often Appoint- been commented upon severely as great defects ; and the proposed remedy to be ^moval of found in disqualifying the president from a second election has recently been urged public upon congress and the people with renewed earnestness. In some of the states, aries. as in Louisiana, checks have been devised against the appointment of unfit persons to public posts ; and throughout the Union, unquestionably, the president, or any governor who should make such unfit appointments, as in England any minister who should advise them, would be punishable ; — the English minister under the old com mon law, which prescribes, that the best men shall be placed in offices of trust ; and the American president, or governor, under the portion of the common law originally carried from home upon this important subject. The power of the president, how ever, to remove all executive officers at his will or pleasure has been settled, not indeed judicially, but by the declared sense of the legislature, and the uniform acquiescence and practice of the government. The appointment and the removal of public functionaries, however, have not failed to attract much consideration in the United States. If any doubt exists, whether the ancient statute of Richard the Second, that public offices shall be given only to the " best" men, applied to the old colonies, unquestionably the still more ancient common law of the like tenour, on which that statute was founded, was carried by the first settlers to America, and was retained at the revolution. Popular election is the grand check on favouritism and on the mischievous principle of patronage ; but attempts, as above stated, have been made in this matter, to impose rules upon the exer cise of irregular discretion ; and traces may be found, even in periods of strong popular excitement, of just preferences prevailing in favour of fit public officers, whose fair claims were endangered by the violence of party spirit. Occasions sometimes occur when sound views upon this subject are of great importance. Changes take place amongst leaders ; and their power is often sought to be strengthened by a change of the subordinate functionaries. In 1801, circumstances of this kind happened; his petition. In this hopeless condition he waited on Mr. Henry, and soon felt that he was in different hands. Mr. Henry, on his part, was so delighted with the interview, that he spoke of Mr. Gallatin everywhere in raptures ; he declared him, without hesitation or doubt, to be the most sensible and best informed man he had ever conversed with : ' he is to be sure,' said he, ' a most astonishing man.' The reader well knows how eminently Mr. Gallatin has justified Mr. Henry's sagacity." — Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry, p. 410. This case was one of harmless exertion of interest ; but it suggests the importance of a rule, that all who have claims to prefer to the consideration of public assemblies, or to sovereigns, should be entitled to be heard as of course, and with attention, upon a statement of their claims. Petitions are forms only fit to be addressed to the Deity. The foregoing defect in the American constitution has long been regretted ; ( St George Tucker's Blackstone, vol. i. parti. Appendix, p. 117, 1803;) and in the speech of the president to congress, in 1831, it is intimated that an amendment of the law is strongly desired. VOL. II. X X 334 TOPOGRAPHY OF book iv. and the correspondence of President Jefferson for that year furnishes admirable comments upon the duty of government in such conjunctures. Certain merchants of New England had remonstrated with the president for appointing a particular individual to one post, and for removing another individual from another post. In reply, Mr. Jefferson admits fully the, right and the usefulness of such remonstrances; and adds, — " Of the various executive duties, no one excites more anxious concern than that of placing the interests of our fellow-citizens in the hands of honest men, with understandings sufficient for their stations. No duty, at the same time, is more difficult to fulfil. The knowledge of character possessed by a single individual is, of necessity, limited. To seek out the best through the whole Union, we must resort to other information, which, from the best of men, acting disinterestedly and with the purest motives, is sometimes incorrect." The grounds of the appointment are then stated, concluding with these words : — " The remonstrance, indeed, does not allege that the office has been ill conducted ; but only apprehended that it will be so. Should this happen in event, be assured I will do in it what shall be just and necessary for the public service. In the mean time, the person appointed should be tried without being prejudged." In reply to a case of removal complained of, the president says, " When it is considered that, during the late administration, those who were not of a particular party in politics were excluded from all office ; when, by a steady pursuit of this measure, nearly the whole offices , of the United States were monopolized by that party; when the public sentiment at length declared itself, and burst open the doors of honour and confidence to those whose opinions they more approved, was it to be imagined that this monopoly of office was still to be con tinued in the hands of the minority ? Does it violate their equal rights to assert some rights in the majority also ? Is it political intolerance to claim a proportionate share in the direction of public affairs ? If the will of the nation, manifested by their various elections, calls for an administration of the government according with the opinions of those elected ; if a due participation of office is matter of right, how are vacancies to be obtained ? Those by death are few ; by resignation none. Can any other mode than that of removal be proposed? This is a painful office; but it is made my duty, and I meet it as such ; I proceed in the operation with inquiry and delibe ration, that it may injure the best men least, and effect the purposes of justice and public utility with the least private distress ; that it may be thrown, as much as pos sible, on delinquency, on oppression, on intolerance, on anti-revolutionary adherence to our enemies. The remonstrance laments that a change in the administration must produce a change in the subordinate officers ; in other words, that it should be deemed necessary for all officers to think with their principal ; but on whom does this impu tation bear ? On those who have excluded from office every shade of opinion which was not theirs ; or on those who have been so excluded ? I lament sincerely that THE UNITED STATES. 335 unessential differences of opinion should ever have been deemed sufficient to interdict half CHAP. I. the society from the rights and the blessings of self-government — to proscribe them as unworthy of every trust. It would have been to me a circumstance of great relief had I found a moderate participation of office in the hands of the majority. I would gladly have left it to time and accident to raise them to their just share ; but their total exclusion calls for prompter correction. I shall correct the procedure ; but, that done, return with joy to that state of things, when the only questions concerning a candidate shall be — Is he honest? is he capable? is he faithful to the constitution?'^ What has already been said of executive government relates, in a great measure, State . executives. to the Union, lhat of the separate states is not less important. Its character may be collected from the constitution of the two states, and from various details already presented to the reader. In those states, the governors and other functionaries derive their powers from the constitution and statutes of the states respectively. But in the territories not yet admitted as states into the Union, special acts of congress determine these points independently of the inhabitants of these territories. The appointment, succession, correction, and removal of such governors and function- taries, are determined often directly, and in all other cases indirectly, by the votes of the people. The people, too, transact many public affairs in their own persons Townsnjp in townships, of which Massachusetts has for nearly two centuries exhibited ex- meetings. amples not to be surpassed in excellence in any nation in the world. The con stitution of 1780, for example, declares, as the old laws directed, that education • The course actually taken was' somewhat opposed to the eagerness of the majority ; but the republican administration of Mr. Jefferson persevered in it, and, in 1802, he again describes it in the following terms : " I still think our original idea as to office is the best ; that is, to depend for obtaining a just participa tion, on deaths, resignations, and delinquencies. This will least affect the tranquillity of the people, and prevent their giving in to the suggestion of our enemies, that ours has been a contest for office, not for principle. To these means of obtaining a just share in the transaction ot public business shall be added one other ; to wit, removal for electioneering activity, or open and industrious opposition to the principles of the present govern ment, legislative and executive. Every officer may vote at "elections according to his conscience,; but we should betray the cause committed to our care were we to permit the influence of official patronage to be used to overthrow that cause." In the spirit of these principles, Mr. Jefferson, in old^agev^xpressed strong satisfaction at his own course on this head — a course which affords a noble contrast to the itched nepotism practised in other countries : — " In the trusts I have exercised through life, with powers of-appointment," says he, " I can say, with truth, and with unspeakable comfort, that I never did appoint a relation to office ; and that merely because I never saw the case in which some one did not offer or occur better qualified." And in a still more important passage on this subject, he also said, " I have never removed a man merely beeause he was a federalist ; I have never wished them to give a vote at an election but according to their own wishes : but as no government could discharge its duties to the best advantage of its citizens, if its agents were in a regular course of thwarting, instead of executing, all its measures, and were employing the patronage and influence of their offices against the government and its measures, I have only requested they would be quiet, and they should be safe ; that if their conscience urges them to take an active and zealous part in opposition, it ought also to urge them to retire from posts which they could not conscientiously conduct with fidelity to their trusts-; and, on failure to retire I have removed those who maintained an active and zealous opposition to the government." — Jefferson's Correspondence, vol. iii. pp. 474—508 ; vol. iv. pp. 397, and 101. (a. d. 1824.) 336 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. shall be duly provided for by public schools and grammar schools in the towns ; and the duty of making this provision is imperative on the township corporations elected by the people ; the breach of which duty may be punished by indictment, pre ferred by any inhabitant. Again, the same constitution declares, as the ancient law sanctioned, that the people have a right, in an orderly and peaceable manner, to assemble to consult upon the common good, and, by way of addresses, petitions, or remonstrances, to seek redress of grievances of the legislative body. Such rights as these are for the most part exercised through the townships, where the select men would be subject to punishment in the courts of law if they obstructed the holding of public meetings on such subjects. The expenditure of money for local purposes, as the building of court-houses and the like — the assembling of militia — election of officers — and the appointment of constables for the preservation of the peace, are vested in the same local divisions, whose disinterested, wise, and vigorous exertions in the great contest for indepen dence, have been justly eulogized by one of the most eminent American statesmen of the present day,' and which were thought models for good internal government by the ablest of his predecessors." Local ex penditure. &c. The judi ciary. The su preme The judicial establishments of the United States are the supreme court, the circuit courts, and the district courts ; besides which, each state has its own judiciary, con nected, by appeals and otherwise, with that of the Union. The supreme court consists of a chief-justice and six associate justices, any four of whom are a full court ; and any one can make orders in suits preparatory to the hearing or trial. It holds one term annually, which begins in January ; it has exclu sive jurisdiction in all causes of ambassadors and the like, and also in all civil causes in which a state is a party, except in suits by a state against one or more of its * " We have not always," says Mr. Webster, "done justice to the merits and to the sufferings of those who sustained, on their property, and on their means of subsistence, the great burden. of the revolutionary war. Any one who has had occasion to be acquainted; with the records of the New England towns, knows well how to estimate these merits and these sufferingsW^ "obler records of patriotism exist no- where ; no-where can there be found higher proofs of a spirirfhat wasready to hazard all, to pledge all, to sacrifice all, in the cause of the country. The voice of Otis and of Adajps, in Faneuil Hall, found its full and true echo in the little councils of the interior towns ; and if, within Hie continental congress, patriotism shone more conspicuously, it did not there exist more truly, nor burn more fervently ; it no-where made the day more anxious, nor the night more sleepless ; it sent up no more ardent prayer to God for succour ; and it put forth, in no greater degree, the fulness of its effort, and the energy of the whole soul and spirit in the common cause, than it did in the small assemblies of the towns." — Mr. Webster's\ Speech in the Convention of Massachusetts, in 1820, on the Apportionment of the Senate, p. 245. White's Digest of the Laws of Massachusetts, 1809. u In describing what he thought the best organization of government, Mr. Jefferson says, — " The townships of New England are the vital principles of their governments, and have proved themselves the wisest invention ever devised by the wit of man for the perfect exercise of self-government, and for its preservation." — Correspondence, vol. iv. p. 297. THE UNITED STATES. 337 citizens, or against citizens of other states, or aliens. In these excepted causes it has chap. I. original, but not exclusive jurisdiction. It also receives appeals from the circuit courts, and in admiralty cases, where the matter in dispute exceeds 2,000 dollars ; and a judgment or decree in the highest state court may be brought up, on error in point of law, to the supreme court of the United States, provided the validity qf a treaty, or statute of, or authority exercised under, the United States, was ques tioned in the state court, and the decision was against that validity ; or provided the validity of any state authority was questioned as repugnant to the constitution, the treaties, or laws of the United States, and the decision was in favour of that validity ; or provided the construction of any clause of the constitution, or of a treaty, or statute of a commission, held under the United States, was questioned, and the decision was against the title, right, privilege, or exemption claimed under the authority of the Union. By a rule worthy of adoption in the superior courts of all countries, the supreme court of the United States may receive and determine a single point of law upon which the judges in the inferior court are opposed in opinion.* The principle of stating specific cases for the decision of the upper courts is not altogether new, and it obviously admits of very advantageous application to all jurisdictions but especially to every country, where, as in English colonies, distant dependencies have to seek the correction of errors, or the check of abuses, almost invited by the remoteness of place, and the inferiority of the primary tribunals. The supreme court can issue prohibitions to the district courts when proceeding as courts of admiralty; — writs of mandamus to any courts appointed by officers of the United States ; — writs of ne exeat on a suit commenced ; — and injunctions, on reasonable notice to the adverse party, but not to stay proceedings in any state court; — and also writs of habeas corpus. The circuit courts are seven in number, and held in separate districts, extending circuit over eighteen out of the twenty-four states, by one judge of the supreme court of the United States, and the local judge of the district. In special cases, two of the supreme court judges attend ; and where the district judge shall be absent, or is interested, one may sit alone. The circuit courts have original cognizance, concurrent with the courts of the several states, of all suits where the matter of dispute exceeds 500 dollars, and the United States are plaintiffs, or an alien is a party, or the suit is between a citizen of the sate where the suit is brought and a citizen of another state, and in all suits under any law of the United States on copyright and patent rights. They receive also appeals, from all decrees and judgments in the district courts, where the matter in dispute exceeds fifty dollars ; and certain cases of the value of 500 dollars may be removed by the defendant from a state court to the next circuit court. In criminal trials they have, with a few exceptions, exclusive jurisdiction of all offences Cognizable * Act of Congress, April 29, 1802. courts. 338 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. under the authority of the United States, exceeding misdemeanours ; and in mis demeanours they have concurrent jurisdiction with the district courts. After much discussion, it seems y to be now settled, that one of the judges at the circuit courts shall be taken from the sitting members of the supreme court at Washington, who thus carries periodically into distant states the uniformity and learning of the capital, and at the same time acquires much knowledge whilst actually engaged in local affairs. District The districts generally extend over an entire state ; but in six states there are more districts than one. A court is established in each district, consisting of one judge, who holds annually four stated terms, and also special courts in his discretion. They have exclusive original cognizance of all civil admiralty causes ; of seizures under impost, navigation, or trade laws of the United States, when the seizures are made on the high sea, or on waters navigable from the sea by vessels of ten or more tons' burden ; and of all other seizures made, and suits for penalties, under the laws of the United States. They have also concurrent jurisdiction with the circuit and state courts in certain suits by aliens; and of all suits at common law, of 100 dollars' value and upwards, in which the United States are plaintiffs ; and over all captures made within the waters of the United States, or within a marine league of its coasts ; and they have jurisdiction of proceedings to repeal patents obtained sur reptitiously, or on false suggestions. In bankruptcy, a summary jurisdiction, without appeal, has been claimed for the district judges : but the opinions of able lawyers are adverse to the claim ; and in the new bankrupt system expected to be established in the United States, no such objectionable authority is likely to be vested in these courts. In criminal trials they have exclusive jurisdiction over offences cognizable under the authority of the United States, committed within their respective districts, or upon the high seas, and punishable by a fine of 100 dollars at the utmost, by imprisonment, not exceeding six months, or by corporal punishment, not exceeding thirty stripes. When the parties have not reasonable time to apply to the circuit court, the judges of the district courts may issue injunctions to continue until the next circuit court ; and when the judge of the supreme court cannot conveniently come, the powers of a circuit court are superadded to the ordinary powers of the district court. The district judges of the United States are required to reside within their respective jurisdictions. i It is, however, even now considered by many persons a great question, whether, by the terms of the con stitution, and in accordance with sound policy, the supreme court ought not to be confined, with all its mem bers, to the session at Washington, solely as a court of appeal, except in a few cases of original jurisdiction. From 1789 the judges have made circuits over part of the states, the more remote parts of the Union being too distant for their visitation. If a sufficient number be added for new states of the Union, not now visited by any circuit, the collected members at Washington will, it is thought, partake too much of the cha racter of a popular assembly : and the objection is alleged to be still stronger, if the great duty of the court in appeals is to be impeded by some of its members being the parties appealed from. Upon these grounds it is urged that the circuits from the supreme courts should be abolished. The president's speech to congress, in December, 1831, brought the question under notice. THE UNITED STATES. 339 In appeals to the circuit court, if the circuit judge and district judge associated chap. I. with him differ, the judgment is according to the opinion of the circuit judge. In Appeals. original causes, points in difference may be certified to the supreme court for its decision; but in no case shall imprisonment be allowed, or punishment inflicted, where the judges of the circuit court are divided in opinion. The judicial power of the general government in the supreme court, in the circuit Distinct and district courts, is limited to objects more expressly defined by written law than dictions of the judicial powers of the state courts; and between the two classes of courts, dis- the general tinctions deserving of careful notice by the student of the American institutions, state judi- have been made by good authority: — 1. The cognizance of every crime and mis demeanour whatsoever, committed within the body of any state, belongs to the courts of that state in which the offence is committed, exclusively, unless it can be shewn that power over the subject has been expressly granted to the United States by the federal constitution. 2. The federal courts possess no jurisdiction over any crime or misdemeanour which is an offence by the common law, and not declared to be such by the constitution, or some statute of the United States. 3. Although a certain class of offences may, by the constitution of the United States, be declared to be within the jurisdiction of the federal courts, yet these courts cannot proceed to take cognizance thereof unless they be first defined by the constitution, or by statute, nor to punish them, unless the punishment be likewise prescribed by a statute of the United States.z The vast field of the law of property, the very extensive head of equity jurisdiction, and the principal rights and duties which flow from civil and domestic relations, fall within the control, and we might also say the exclusive cognizance, of the state governments. The elementary principles of the common law are the same in every state, except Louisiana and Florida, where French and Spanish laws have prevailed.1 The state courts are invested with the cognizance of cases arising under the laws State judi- of the United States, in certain suits for taxes, and in certain prosecutions for fines and forfeitures under the revenue laws. In judicial matters, the concurrent jurisdiction of the state tribunals with the tribunals of the Union depends upon the judgment of congress, and may be revoked and extinguished whenever it thinks fit, in every case in which the subject matter can constitutionally be made cognizable in tribunals of the Union ; and, without any express provision to the contrary, the state courts will retain a concurrent jurisdicr tion in all cases where they had jurisdiction originally over the subject matter. Both in the courts of the federal government, and in those of the particular states, Separation the important advantage is enjoyed of a very considerable separation of the judicial from ^^gi * St. George Tucker's Blackstone, vol.iv. Appendix, p. 110. jT^slative ¦ Chancellor Kenf s Commentaries, p. 418. power. 340 TOPOGRAPHY OF Indepen dence of the judi ciaries. BOOK iv. the executive and legislative authorities. It is, however, a curious fact, that so late as the year 1820 it was a subject of debate in Massachusetts, whether the judges of that state should continue to be advisers of the executive government, upon questions propounded to them by the governor. During about a century, the old practice in England, that the judges of Westminster Hall should give opinion upon cases from the crown, has fallen into disuse ; but its offspring very long survived it in America." The independence of judges is variously secured : those of the United States can only be removed by impeachment, and not by address of the house of representatives ; they must consequently be accused of specific offences, and be heard before con demnation. This is the general rule of the separate states ; but in Virginia they are liable to removal upon the address of the legislature. In Vermont and Rhode Island they are reappointed every year. Other states appoint them for seven, five, three, two, and six years ; and able men still differ on what is the right basis, in this respect, of a true judicial independence.0 In some of the states, the ages of sixty, sixty-five, and seventy, are limited for the holding of the judicial office. No judge of the United States can practise a* a counsellor ; nor in the supreme court can any counsellor practise as an attorney, nor an attorney as a counsellor. In all the other courts the rule is otherwise ; and in this counsellors may be admitted as attorneys. The salary of the chief-justice of the United States is 5,000 dollars; each of the associate justices receives 4,500 dollars : and the attorney-general 3,500. The salaries of the judges of the district courts vary from 1,000 to 3,500 dollars; each of the attorneys-general, and the marshals, or sheriffs of the district courts, receives 200 dollars, with fees ; nor does any consi derable attention appear to have been yet directed to the very important subject of administering justice without allowing fees to the subordinate officers. The courts of the several states have long been held by judges bred to the law as a profession ; and many of them are eminently learned men. Their yearly salaries vary from 550 to 3,500 dollars. They are appointed by the legislature in fourteen states ; by the governor and senate in seven states ; by the governors alone in two states ; and in the state of Indiana, those of the supreme court are appointed by the governor and senate ; the presidents- of the circuit courts by the legislature ; and the associate judges by the people. Justices of the peace have to decide many civil causes, to a limited amount in value, besides the criminal and police business within their cognizance ; and they are severally liable to removal upon the address of the legislature, and upon condemna tion of certain offences, and upon impeachment. In some of the states they are appointed justices by other authorities, and sometimes they are elected by the people ; b Journal of the Debates of the Massachusetts Convention of 1820, p. 213. 0 St. George Tucker's Blackstone, vol. i. b. 1, Appendix, p. 116. Justices of peace. THE UNITED STATES. 341 but they are not restrained from seats in the legislature, a circumstance which has CHAP. I. been the occasion of much regret to Americans of the highest authority.*1 It belongs to the judicial power chiefly to declare every act of the legislature made Constitu- in violation of the constitution, or of any provision of it, null and void. Accordingly, ^l ' y ° in 1791, the judges of a circuit court in New York declared an act of congress,, assigning ministerial duties to them, to be unconstitutional, and not obligatory ; and in two other states the circuit judges declined to act under the law in any capacity.' In 1792, the supreme court of South Carolina set aside an act of the state legisr, lature as being against common right and the principles of magna charta. In 1795, a judge at Philadelphia declared an act of Pennsylvania to be unconstitutional, and not binding. The same doctrine was maintained afterwards in South Carolina, where the judges claimed to be only the administrators of the public will, and declared the law void, not because they had any control over the legislature, but because the will of the people expressed in the constitution was paramount to that of their representa tives expressed in the law. Much later the subject was brought before the supreme court of the United States, when the power and duty of the judiciary to disregard an uncon stitutional act of congress, or of any state legislature, was declared as an argument approaching, says Chancellor Kent, " to the precision and certainty of a mathematical demonstration." Until 1823 the judges in the state of New York constituted what was called the council of revision, by which every law was examined before it became a valid statute. The absolute separation of the judicial from the other powers of state is too important to justify a regret that the judges should be withdrawn from this duty ; but the testimony of the learned chancellor to whom we have been so much indebted in compiling this summary upon the constitution of the United States, in favour of the labours of the New York council, suggests the importance of attaching to all legis latures a ministerial body of constitutional lawyers, whose reports might merit Mr. Kent's eulogium, " that they would shew that many a bill heedlessly passed the legislature was objected to and defeated on constitutional grounds — reports replete with salutary and sound principles of public law and policy, and monuments of the wisdom, firmness, and integrity of the council." The power of the judges to check the legislative and the executive government, is a power obviously liable to abuse by the courts themselves, and to undue jealousy on the part of those upon whom they are checks. Accordingly, the exercise of this power will be found one of the most interesting subjects to the inquirer into the constitution of the United States. The principal checks upon the judges in their turn are, first, public opinion ; — secondly, the indirect elective control of the people over the president and others who appoint the superior judges, and the direct popular control over those i Jefferson's Correspondence, vol. iv. p. 296, &c. ' St George Tucker's Blackstone, vol. i. Appendix. VOL. II. Y Y 342 TOPOGRAPHY OF American law. book iv. inferior judges who are elected by the people; — and thirdly, the liability of the judges to impeachment before the elective senate. The law administered in the courts is, with a just pride, termed by the writers of the United States "American law." Its sources are, 1st, the law of England, wide as that title is, and modified by the great English principle, that colonists take abroad with them only so much of the law of the mother-country as is suitable to their new circumstances ; 2dly, in particular states, as Louisiana and the Floridas, so much of other foreign law as affects those places ; 3dly, the law of nations and nature ; and lastly, but principally, the constitutions and statutes of the United States, and the several domestic legislatures, and the treaties with foreign powers, with the rules and decisions of the courts of law. It has been a subject of much discussion whether the courts of the United States have a common law jurisdiction, and if any, to what extent. It seems to be settled, that although the federal government has not adopted the common law as a source of jurisdiction, nevertheless that the courts of justice must resort to it largely as the instrument for exercising the jurisdiction conferred by the constitution, and the means of interpreting constitutional language.' Therefore the study of common law is recommended by Chancellor Kent as part of the jurisprudence of the United States. " In its improved condition in England," says this eminent judge, " and especially in its improved and varied condition in America, under the benign influence of an expanded commerce, of enlightened justice, of republican principles, and of sound philosophy, the common law has become a code of matured ethics and enlarged civil wisdom, admirably adapted to promote and secure the freedom and happiness of Common law. < Mr. Justice Story, who has occupied an eminent rank amongst the judges of the United States these twenty years, places the true doctrine in a very clear light. " I admit," says he, " that the courts of the United States are courts of limited jurisdiction, and cannot exercise any authorities not confided to them by the constitution and the laws made in pursuance thereof. But I do contend, that when once an authority is lawfully given, the nature and extent of that authority, and the mode in which it shall be exercised, must be , regulated by the rules of the common law. Whether the common law of England, in its broadest sense, in cluding equity and admiralty, as well as legal doctrines, be the common law of the United States or not, it can hardly be doubted that the constitution and laws of the United States are predicated upon the existence of the common law. The constitution, for instance, provides that ' the trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeach ment, shall be by jury.' I suppose that no person can doubt that, for the explanation of these terms, and for the mode of conducting trials by jury, recourse must be had to the common law. So the clause, that ' the judicial power shall extend to all cases in law and in equity arising under the constitution,' &c. is inexplicable, without reference to the common law ; and the extent of this power must be measured by the powers of courts of law and equity, as exercised and established by that system. Innumerable instances of a like nature may be adduced. I will mention but one more, which is in the clause providing that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it What is the writ of habeas corpus ? What is the privilege which it grants? The common law alone furnishes the true answer. The existence, therefore, of the common law is not only supposed by the con stitution, but is appealed to for the construction and interpretation of its powers." The United States v. Coolidge. — 1 Gallison's Report's,-p. 488. 1813. THE UNITED STATES. 343 social life. It has proved to be a system replete with vigorous and healthy princi- chap. I. pies, eminently conducive to the growth of civil liberty; and it is in no instance "~ disgraced by such a slavish political maxim as that with which the Institutes of Justinian are introduced. It is the common jurisprudence of the people of the United States, and was brought with them as colonists from England, and established in America, so far as it was adapted to our institutions and circumstances. It was claimed by the congress of the united eolonies, in 1774, as a branch of those 'indu bitable rights and liberties to which the respective colonies are entitled.' It fills up every interstice, and occupies every wide space, which the statute law cannot occupy."g The learned Du Ponceau correctly observes,11 " We live in the midst of the common law ; we inhale it at every breath, imbibe it at every pore ; we meet with it when we walk, and when we lie down to sleep ; when we travel abroad, and when we stay at home ; it is interwoven with every idiom of our tongue ; and we cannot learn another system of laws without learning at the same time another language." Upon this somewhat rhetorical claim of a participation of the old common law, as carried from England, the Americans have also erected the further very important doctrine, that usages peculiar to the United States have been ingrafted upon it, so as that there is now produced an American common-law jurisprudence, different in many respects from that of their forefathers, and in harmony with their own more repub lican institutions. Equity has been less universally introduced than the other branches of the com- Equity. mon law. In Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and some other states, there are no courts of equity ; but equity processes are given to the courts on some points ; and public opinion seems to be favourable to the extension thither of that system of chancery law, which, through the eminent judicial labours of Chancellor Kent, has been brought to a very improved condition in New York. The topic, however, is open to interesting questions, and is much discussed. In Virginia, and perhaps in other states, a principle of equity has been transferred to the common-law courts, where the parties, in civil actions, may examine their adversaries upon interrogatories, and without prejudice to a bill of discovery in chancery.' The laws regulating property, and intercourse between man and man, are, in Law of many respects, similar to the laws of England on the same subject matter. In nu- creditor." merous points, however, great changes have been made ; k but the difficult and subtle " Chancellor Kent's Commentaries, vol. i. p. 322. ", Du Ponceau on Jurisdiction, p. 91. On this subject, however, other adverse authorities should be consulted by the student, as St. George Tucker's Blackstone, vol. iv. p. 9. ' Laws of Virginia for 1830, sect. 68. k " The nature and extent of the improvement will be placed in a strong light by the following enumeration of the changes made in one or more of the states : — 1. Abolition of feudal tenures, including copyholds. 2. Abolition of tithes. 3. Making both the real and personal property of intestates descend to the same 344 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. questions arising out of the contingencies created by the free disposal of property, by conflicting claims, and by doubtful construction, are necessarily numerous in all the courts of the Union. The forms of proceeding and practice in the courts have been extensively simplified, although on this head much remains to be improved.1 The reduction of the court officers to a clerk and the common crier, indicates how large a portion of the old and useless machinery has been dispensed with. The writ of habeas corpus has not only been secured, as in England, but its remedy has been extended by the power given to the judges of investigating the real merits of each case without confining themselves to the face of the return. Imprisonment for debt has been abolished in some of the states ; and in almost all, females are exempt ; and there is an increasing disposition to abolish it throughout the Union, both under mesne process and in execution.™ person. 4. Enabling parents to become heirs to their children. 5. Abolition of primogeniture and of preference of males in descents. 6. Making all estates descend in the same course, whether acquired by purchase or by descent, from paternal or maternal relations. 7. Abolishing the preference of male stocks in descents. 8. Enabling half-blood relations to inherit. 9. Making husband and wife heir to each -other in case of failure of blood relations. 10. Making seisin of land pass by the mere delivery of the deed. 11. The general registration of deeds. 12. Making a fee-simple pass without the word 'heirs,' or any equivalent, when a less estate is not expressed. 13. Enabling tenants in tail to convey estates in fee-simple without a fine or recovery. 14. Enabling married women to convey their estates and bar their dower without a fine. 15. Change of joint tenancies into tenancies in common. 16. Removing the disabilities of alienage with regard to real property. 17. Abolition of the doctrine of tacking in mortgages. 18. Placing lands mortgaged, as well as the debt, at the disposal of the mortgagee's executor. 19. Making real estates liable to execution and sale for debt 20. Rendering real-estate assets to pay debts without any preference. 21. Shortening the time of limitation." — The American Jurist, No. 1. p. 99. 1 Upon the subject of pleading, Mr. Dana, the author of the Digest, says, " In modern, and especially in American practice, a great degree of liberality has been admitted, in giving matters formerly pleaded in evidence under the general issue. It is a very general practice in the United States to agree to cases, signed by the parties, for the opinions and decisions of the courts. Pleas in abatement are almost disused. Broad and very liberal statutes of amendments in the pleadings have been enacted in the United States in addition to the statutes of this sort adopted from England ; still the art of pleading is one which the Americans are seeking to simplify." — Digest of American Law, vol. v. — Title, " Pleading." In Louisiana, the forms of pleading by the civil law prevail, of which an able judge says, " I cannot help paying my humble homage to the excellence of this code, which, adapting its remedies to the exigency of the case, gives complete relief without trammeling itself with prescribed forms, which often perplex, and sometimes defeat, the ends of justice." — American Jurist, No. 1, p. 17. This testimony is given to the civil-law forms, compared with those derived from English pleadings. "In England," says a learned writer in the Southern Review, for August, 1831, "the mere subtleties of pleading, such as go not to the merits, but to immaterial allegations, are too much encouraged. The record being] paid for, and most extravagantly paid for, according to its extent, is the excuse for this,— (Burton ». Wright ; Douglas and Cowper ;) but it were better that no necessity for such an excuse existed, as now exists here, where (to borrow a phrase of our own courts) ' the law mechanic ' is paid a lumping price for the job. It would be well for England if she would copy after most of our judicial reforms, so far as they may not be inconsistent with the frame and policy of her constitution ; and it is, no doubt, a very great compliment to the wisdom of our predecessors, that there is a marvellous coincidence between the reforms projected in that country, by her ablest men, and those which have been so generally adopted among us." — P. 393. m In Kentucky and Ohio imprisonment for debt is abolished ; and the managers of the Boston Prison Discipline Society add, in their Report for 1830, " A similar law in the northern and middle states would have THE UNITED STATES. 345 In the study and practice of mercantile law," the American lawyers have made chap. I. very great advances ; and in these branches they have perhaps as far surpassed the Mercantile English lawyers as they are excelled by the latter upon questions respecting titles to lands and real property, which are discussed much more frequently in England than the simplicity of that branch of the law requires in America. The deep learning and subtle argument displayed upon other legal topics, which might be thought peculiar to our own country, evince the great legal powers of the advocates of the American Bar. In admiralty causes, there is understood to be the greatest similarity between the Admiralty systems of America and Great Britain. The reputation of Lord Stowell is very high in the former country, and, with some exceptions, attributed to particular cir cumstances, the differences between his decisions upon prize" law, and those pro mulgated by the supreme court of the United States are so few, it is said, as to be almost evanescent. After the most powerful arguments, and under the highest political excitements, there has been but a single principle adopted by him which has been deliberately overruled by the supreme court ; and on that occasion there was a serious difference of opinion among the judges.? It deserves, however, to be remarked, that the judge who is the most eminent for his early and continued success in the study of the mercantile and shipping-laws, Judge Story, is also earnest in his ex pressions of respect towards Lord Mansfield and other English judges who have improved these branches of jurisprudence.*1 The criminal laws are remarkable for their mildness ; although, in other respects, as criminal in their distinction between felonies and misdemeanours, and in some of the conse quences of that distinction, they resemble the English criminal law. Although trial saved from imprisonment during the last year, as nearly as we can ascertain, about fifty thousand persons. The number of persons discharged by the creditor or his attorney is more than three times as large as the number of those who pay the debt." — Pp. 369, 370. By the constitution of Pennsylvania it is provided, that " the person of a debtor, where there is not a strong presumption of fraud, shall not be continued in prison after delivering up his estate for the benefit of his creditors." By the laws of the same state, however, and by those of most parts of the Union, all personal estate, whether in funds or otherwise, and all real estate, whether legal or equitable, are liable to execution. Great facilities are afforded to creditors to obtain payment of debts from any property belonging to the debtor, but personal liberty is exposed to few restraints, even in the case of insolvency ; and no inconveniences are believed to arise from this state of the law.— House of Commons' Papers for 1831, No. 92, p. 214 :— " Evidence of Richard Biddle, Esq. before the common-law commissioners." ' See particularly the arguments of Mr. Webster, on collegiate endowments, and on the impeachment of a judge of probate.— Webster's Speeches, pp. 110 and 138. ° It deserves to be recorded, to the honour of the United States, that the practice of privateering has been abandoned by the Americans in » treaty with one European power ; and that they have earnestly sought to impose further restraints upon this barbarous practice by similar treaties with other powers. p North American Review for January, 1825, p. 66: 1 Judge Story's Address to the Suffolk Bar. American Jurist, No. 1. p. 15 ; and see the passages in the last note to this chapter. laws. 346 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. by jury is perfectly understood in the United States, and generally used, yet justices Criminal of the peace decide upon some felonies, as petty thefts, without a jury, unless the accused claims a jury trial ; and in slaves' cases juries are very far indeed from being universal. Treason is confined, by the express terms of the Constitution, to narrow limits. The only capital offences in any of the states are treason, murder, burglary, robbery from the person, and rape ; and all these offences, except murder in the first degree of atrocity, are, in most of the states, usually followed by secondary punishment ; and in some of the states they are liable to secondary punishment only. In Pennsyl vania no crime is punishable with death, but murder perpetrated by means .of poison, or by lying in wait, or by some other kind of wilful, deliberative, and pre meditated killing, or perpetrated in the commission of certain crimes which were formerly capital;' and great exertions are making in that state and elsewhere in North America, not only to mitigate all severity in the criminal law, but especially to abolish all capital punishments.3 It is said,' nevertheless, that the recent legislation of the federal government in congress is more severe than that of the separate states either before or since the revolution of 1776. Prosecutions for all capital offences, except for wilful murder and forgery, are limited to three years after the offence was committed; and for offences less than capital to two years, unless the person flees Imprison- from justice. - Imprisonments under game and vagrant laws are unknown. Colonies game and* of convicts have not yet been established,11 with all the horrors attendant upon com- vagrant munities of unrestrained men, necessarily disproportioned in number to females, and r First and Second Reports of the Inspectors of the Eastern State Penitentiary of Pennsylvania. Phila delphia, 1831, p. 11. ' Remarks on the Expediency of abolishing the Punishment of Death. By Mr. Livingstone. 1822, and reprinted in Philadelphia, 1831. * The skilfully drawn statute of 1825, commonly called Mr. Webster's Crimes' Act, awards death to those who set fire to dwelling-houses in dock yards, or to government vessels, although no life be lost by either crime ; but those who commit arson in other circumstances, or who forge on the public, or who plunder ships, or use dangerous weapons, with intent to murder, but no death ensues, are by this statute made liable to limited fines and imprisonment only. " It has, however, been proposed to form a convict colony under the most dangerous circumstance of permitting the convicts to govern themselves, uncontrolled, after transportation. The commissioners on the penal code of Pennsylvania, in 1828, reported upon this proposal in the following terms : — " We should have little to remark upon this method of punishment, were it not that it has recently been pressed upon the legislature and the public by some of our active and well-intentioned citizens. It has been suggested that the objects and ends of punishment might be attained, were the government of the United States to take possession of some uninhabited island, such as the Island of Tristan da Cunha, in the Atlantic Ocean; where the states might leave their convicts, with a stock of food and tools, to their own exertions." The commissioners justly conclude that the objections to the scheme which they set forth will prevent its adoption. — ^Pennsylvania House of Representatives' Report, 4th June, 1828, p. 9. A like proposal was half adopted by the English government fifty years since, and stopped by proceedings in the House of Commons. — Commons' Journals, vol. x). In regard to the New South Wales transportation system, the Americans seem to appreciate its evils both in point of expense, and in point of incapability to reform offenders. — Report of the Commissioners, p. 11. THE UNITED STATES. 347 of dishonest people neither corrected nor discountenanced by an ordinary proportion CHAP. I. of individuals of good principles. The system of the best American penitentiaries has at length, after many dis- Prison dis appointments and much controversy, reached the great excellencies of restoring clPine- many of the inmates to society in an improved condition, both as to character and morals ; and also of defraying the charges of the prisons by the reformatory labour of the prisoners. The history of this system is one of the most interesting examples of the perseverance and good feeling of the people of the United States ; and it is with regret that we can do little more than allude to it. William Penn early instituted in Philadelphia solitary confinement and labour for the punishment of death, with the best effects. His views were disapproved in England, and the com mon law was restored to supersede his innovations, when crime increased. In 1786, labour alone, upon the public works, was inflicted upon capital criminals; and the decrease of offences was not rapid. But after 1790, the rule of solitary confinement, along with labour, was revived, when, from that year until 1793, out of 200 convicts who underwent this discipline and were pardoned, four only were recommitted, and crime generally decreased, although the population daily increased. After 1793, this prison became crowded, and the separation of the prisoners from each other could not be accomplished. The consequence was an increase generally of criminals. " This double result," says Mr. Livingstone, to whom we are indebted for these facts, " of a rapid and before unheard-of decrease whilst the convicts were both separated and employed, and an increase when they were suffered to associate, seems to solve the great problem of penal jurisprudence, and points to seclusion and labour as effectual remedies for the prevention of crime; for these effects were produced without any change in lAie state of society at the two periods that could be favourable to such results."" " In all the other states," he continues, " a similar result has been observed. During the first year, when there was room for classification, the most sanguine hopes of humanity were surpassed by the effect. But, with the promiscuous intercourse of the convicts, offences increased both in number and in atrocity." He therefore insists upon the necessity of classifying the various denominations of prisoners; and also of employing them profitably to themselves as well as to the state, in labour of the hands, of the heart, and of the mind; and completes his bene volent and statesman-like design in the following terms : " To avoid a relapse, an asylum is provided in the house of refuge and industry. Here the discharged convict may find occupation and subsistence, and receive such wages as will enable him to remove from the scenes of his past crimes, place him above temptation, confirm him in his newly acquired habits of industry, and cause him safely to pass the dangerous « Livingstone's Introductory Report, folio, p. 5. 348 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. period between the acquisition of his liberty and restoration to the confidence of society. Independently of this resource, the industrious convict -receives at his dis charge a proper proportion of his surplus earnings, he receives friendly advice as to his future pursuits, and a certificate, if merited, of such conduct as will entitle him to confidence. The consequences of his reconviction are solemnly represented to him, and his conduct, if he remain in the neighbourhood of the prison, is carefully watched, so that, if he return to habits of idleness and intemperance, his career to crime may be stopped by commitment to the house of industry as a vagrant." y Upon similar views, to a certain extent, with those of Mr. Livingstone, many peni tentiaries have been built with the best effects.2 If their projectors are favourably circumstanced in regard to the value of labour, the cheapness of which in England is a great difficulty in prison discipline, in an economical light, they deserve our un qualified respect for persevering through many intrinsic difficulties in the nature of bad habits and crime, so as unquestionably to have proved that men of the most desperate character may be reformed by steady care, and liberal and just coercion. The grand proof of this rests upon the fact of the inmates of the American peniten tiaries becoming again offenders in a proportion incomparably less than those who are not, either in America or other countries, subjected to reformatory penitentiary discipline. Whipping is abolished in Massachusetts; and in other states earnest endeavours have been made for its abolition. On the subject of whipping, Mr. Livingstone's argument deserves the deepest attention on the part of all European governments. In the comparative view of the punishments annexed to crime in the United States and in England, by Mr. Sydney Taylor of the Middle Temple, which has been published by the Society for Diffusing Information on Capital Punishments, it is well remarked, that " although the legislators of the United States deserve credit for the improvement which they have introduced in their criminal laws, perhaps it would have been better to have repealed the old English laws and to have. commenced a new structure on a more civilized system, as Mr. Livingstone's code for Louisiana, which has departed from the old system altogether, approaches nearer to excellence than any y Livingstone's Introductory Report, folio, p. 51. * The great model penitentiaries in the United States are at Sing Sing, Auburn, and Wethersfield ; but many others are rapidly springing up in all parts of the Union. The best approved system is briefly this ; — to employ the prisoners in quietness and silence, in various labours, part of the profits of which is given to them on being discharged with good character ; to separate them completely from each other at night, and much during the day ; to instruct them in trades, in letters, and in religion ; to treat them with gentleness, but firmly ; and to promote their reestablishment in society after being released. The results at Auburn may be taken as an example of the success of this system : there, out of 600, only seventeen have committed new offences during a considerable time after being released ; and out of 206 of those who have undergone punishment in this prison, 146 well-authenticated cases of reform have been recorded, which results have been iustly held forth to the consideration of the British public, in the Eighth Report of the Prison Discipline Society ; whilst the system is at length brought under discussion in a committee of the House of Commons on secondary punishments. THE UNITED STATES. 349 of the most improved editions of the original model. The criminal laws of the United CHAP. I. States are not entirely free from the imputation of confounding offences of distinct characters ; but they have, at least, partially achieved what the English parliament has wholly neglected — the establishing a gradation of punishment according to the degrees of guilt." This discipline is not yet probably adopted upon a sufficiently extensive scale Proportion throughout the Union to occasion the general low state of. crime there. The fact, tothepopu- that in several of the states criminals are only in the very small proportion of 1 to latlon- 5,000 and 1 to 3,000 of the population is, doubtless, chiefly attributable to the abun dance of employment at the command of the poorest, and to the anxious care bestowed by the public upon the instruction of the most destitute and ignorant. It would there fore be too much to attribute the paucity of criminals in the United States to the mildness of the law. But the fact of that paucity is certainly honourable to the cha racter of the law as well as to many other circumstances in the condition of the people. Although the whole number of crimes and misdemeanours committed yearly cannot perhaps be exactly ascertained, the amount may be safely conjectured from the following facts: In July, 1826, out of a population of 946,133, in all the counties except seven in Pennsylvania, the number of persons, tried and untried, in prison was 284, of whom, as near as could be fixed, 221 were males and 45 were females. The number of them born in Pennsylvania was 131 ; of those from other states of the Union 82; and 35 were foreigners. The whites were 183 in number; the people of colour and blacks were 83. This is one to above 3,600, tried and untried ; a proportion scarcely to be paralleled in the records of any other people. In one of the states, and perhaps in others, there is the very important institution of Examin- what is designated an examining-court, which takes cognizance of criminal cases in an earlier stage than can be convenient to an ordinary court, and which is more solemn than the authority of a committing justice of the peace. The committing justice sum mons a bench of other justices, within ten days of the first disposal of the case, for the examination of the facts. This court considers whether the prisoners may be discharged from further prosecution, may be tried in the county court, or must be tried in the district courts. It is plain that this preparatory tribunal must add greatly to the just and merciful administration of criminal law, an end also promoted in Virginia^ the state in which it prevails, by power being given to two judges to bail any prisoner according to their discretion. It is a point further deserving of notice, that recent laws have been made in some Punish- of the states to enable juries to apportion punishment as well as to pronounce verdicts gxedby of guilty or not guilty. juries. In some of the states, laws have been applied to acts, which, in modern times, have either been left elsewhere to moral influence, or which have evaded the care of VOL. u. z z 350 TOPOGRAPHY OF book IV. legislators in Europe. For example, in Pennsylvania, an habitual drunkard, found so Laws by the verdict of a jury, loses the control of his children, whom the wife may, in his drunkards stead, bind apprentices. Several states have also passed laws to repress duelling, by ^fsduel~ disqualifying from public office all the parties to any duels, and by requiring persons entering on office to take an oath that they have not been, and will not be, concerned in a duel.a Law The law officers are, an attorney-general for the general government, who pubHcSpro- receives 3>500 dollars for his salary, and 1,000 dollars for the salary of his clerk, secutors. and also attorneys for each of the districts and states, who are paid small salaries and settled fees for the business dond by them. These law officers are efficient and zealous prosecutors in all cases of felony whatever, and in all misdemeanours that concern the public. Voluntary societies also take upon themselves the task of aiding the public prosecutors in repressing offenders, and the parties injured may likewise prosecute them. In some of the states no ex-officio informations can be exhibited to subject any person to imprisonment, or to ignominious punishment. The duties of law officers, however, seem to stand in the same undefined situation with those of the attorney-general in England and in the English colonies ;b but the expense of criminal prosecutions is borne chiefly by the public. Police. The police consists of ordinary constables and justices of peace ; the latter having the power, upon emergencies, of summoning the posse comitatus to act as special constables. All the power of the constables, and most of that of the justices, resembles that with which the common and old statute law respecting public tranquillity invests the same authorities in England. For various local arrangements considerable authority is. also given to select men ; and the justices have civil jurisdiction, without a jury or strict forms of pleading, in cases under twenty dollars, with criminal jurisdiction in some of the states, also without a jury, in small thefts, and over light, offences by- young persons, who, however, are then only punishable by imprisonment for short periods of time. The people control all these functionaries, either directly by annual elections, or indirectly by electing the higher functionaries who appoint them. Military The military power is vested in the government of the Union, not in the separate power' states, the president being commander-in-chief; but the right to have arms is not taken away from individuals; and each state bears the expense of many military equipments. The regular army is subject to laws passed by congress ; and all free, able-bodied, white male citizens, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, are bound to have a musket, or rifle, and proper accoutrements ready for service in the militia, of which the privates elect their captains and subalterns, and the latter their field-officers. In the militia there must be a proportionate number of horse and * Virginia Laws for 1830, sect 3. ¦» Journals of the Massachusetts Convention of 1820, pp. 211, 213, 258. THE UNITED STATES. 351 artillery. The time of service is limited to three months in the year ; and to a CHAP. i. due rotation of the individuals enrolled. The president of the United States may call them out at his discretion, in cases of invasion, or of imminent danger of invasion ; and at the discretion of the legislature, or executive councils of the separate states, in cases of insurrection. Whenever* also, the laws are opposed or obstructed by comr bination too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceeding, or by the powers vested in the marshals (the sheriffs), the president may call out the militia; but he must, by proclamation, command the insurgents to retire, peaceably to their homes, within a limited time ; and the militia are not to. be kept embodied in this case more than thirty days after congress shall meet. The soldier in the United Military States, as in England, is bound to obey only lawful commands ; and he acts there, ana re-Ce as here, on his own responsibility, not exclusively on that of his officer. The rash sp°nsibi- interference of soldiers in riots is more expressly guarded against in America than in England. The subject of codes of law has obtained deep consideration in the. United States. Codes of Although Mr. Bentham's views c have not been adopted there, they have not failed to make a great impression ; but the difficulty of it has prevented much more being accomplished than the accumulation of materials for the use ; of another generation, One individual, of well-deserved and high reputation, Mr. Edward Livingstone, has done great things for Louisiana on this head, in reg;ard to the criminal law; and in civil jurisprudence the Code Napoleon has been adopted in that state with compara tively few alterations.*1 By a law of 1829 the legislature of Louisiana appropriated " 4,500 dollars to Mr. Livingstonej for services in compiling the criminal code and code of evidence, leaving the subject of further compensation open for future consider ation."6 The early views of the leading statesmen in America on this subject are recorded by President Jefferson as follows : — " Whether we should undertake to reduce the common law, our own, and so much, of the English statutes as we have adopted, to a text, is a question of transcendent difficulty. It was discussed at the first meeting of the committee of the revised code, in 1776,. and decided in the negative/ We met in January, 1777, to settle the plan of operation, and to distribute the work. The common law, and statutes to the 4th James I., when our separate legislature was established, were assigned to me ; the British statutes, from that period to the present day, to Mr. Wythe; and the Virginia laws to Mr,. Pendleton. . . . We were employed in this work to February, 1779, when we met and examined critically the several parts sentence by sentence, scrutinizing and amending, until we had agreed on the whole. We had brought so much of the common law as it was ' Mr. Bentham's work on legislation has, however, beentranslated from the French by an American. d American Jurist, No. I, p. 32. " Ibid. No. III. p. 188. ' Jefferson's Correspondence, vol. iv. p. 183. 352 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. thought necessary to alter, all the British statutes, and all the statutes of Virginia, which we thought should be retained, within the compass of 126 bills, making a printed folio of ninety pages. Some bills were passed,: but the main body was not entered on by the legislature until after the general peace in 1785, when, by the unwearied exertions of Mr. Madison, in opposition to the endless quibbles, chicaneries, perversions^ vexations, and delays of lawyers and demi-lawyers, most of the bills were passed by the legislature with little alteration." s Of later years much: more has been accomplished. In New York and in other states, many debates have been had, and valuable volumes have been published by authority, in order to simplify the law. In Pennsylvania, in 1830, three commissioners were appointed to collect into one act the different acts requiring consolidation; to divest such acts of all redundant phrases ; to distribute the acts systematically; to omit all that were repealed,, or repeated, or expired ; to suggest to the legislature imperfections, with the means of correcting them: and the same commissioners were to report whether it would be expedient to introduce any, and if any, what change, in the forms or mode of proceeding in the administration of the laws. It will be a proper conclusion to the foregoing views of American laws, intimately allied as they are to those of England, to notice the manner in which the ablest writers, and the greatest lawyers amongst these kindred h foreigners, have expressed their respect for the first of English judges and jurists. The most important accounts of Sir Edward Coke and Lord Bacon will be found written by Americans ;* the' great legal fathers also of modern liberty, Lord Somers, Sir John Holt, and Lord Camden, have met with more practical and devoted homage in America than at home ; and the just legal fame of Lord Eldon, Lord Stowell, and Lord Mansfield, incomparably the first of modern names in the law, has been no-where more fairly estimated, or more eloquently acknowledged, than by the greatest American lawyers ; — lawyers, however, who, as citizens, were at the same time willing to put their lives at hazard in a noble opposition to the unfortunate views of Lord Mansfield, Lord Stowell, and Lord Eldon, on questions of civil policy. The leading principles of English law, and the great names in our jurisprudence, are familiar in America as "household words." , The observations of Mr. Burke upon this subject are well known ; k and American biography since his time has produced a curious confirmation of the justice of Mr. Burke's testi mony to the eagerness with which Americans, before the revolution, hailed the Com mentaries of Sir William Blackstone. The author of the Life of Otis1 states, that American estimate of English lawyers. s Jefferson's Correspondence, vol. i. p. 37. h This is not a mere figure of speech, as an American naturalized by act of parliament might perhaps acquire greater English capacities than any other foreigner. — Sir Orlando Bridgmuris Reports, p. 633. 1 North American Review. k Speech upon American Taxation. 1 Tudo^s Life of Otis, p. 10. THE UNITED STATES. 353 this able and patriotic lawyer, in conversing with his brother on the subject of the CHAP. I. study of the law, and speaking of the books written upon the science, and its modern improvements, said, that " Blackstone's Commentaries would have saved him seven years' labour poring over and delving in black letter." m m The spirit of the best of their fathers has not been lost on modern American lawyers. In remarking upon the independence of the judges, Mr. Webster, of Massachusetts, with just discrimination observes, " 1 know not whether a greater improvement has been made in sound government, than to separate the judiciary from the executive and legislative branches, and to provide for the decision of private rights in a manner wholly uninfluenced by reasons of state, or considerations of party or policy. It is the glory of the British constitution to have led in the establishment of this most important principle. It did not exist in England before the revolution of 1688, and its introduction has seemed to give a new character to the tribunals. In matters of mere property, in causes of no political or public bearing, the judges, before this event, might perhaps be safely trusted ; but in great questions concerning public liberty, or the rights of the subject, they were, in too many cases, not fit to be trusted at all. Who would now quote Scroggs, or Saunders, or Jeffries, on a question concerning the rights of the habeas corpus, or the right of suffrage, or the liberty of the press, or any other subject closely connected with political freedom ? Yet, on all these subjects, the sentiments of the English judges since the revolution,; — of Somers, and Holt, and Jekyl, and others, — are, in general, favourable to civil liberty, and deserve and receive great attention whenever referred to." — Debates in the Massachusetts Convention of 1820, p. 217. Another testimony from an older tongue is more important. It has been attempted to pay a just tribute of applause to the important improvements made in the state of commercial laws by Mr. Justice Story of the supreme court of Washington, in his editions of Lord Tenterden's " Law of Shipping." Models for a better . eulogy upon him, may be found in the approbation which that very learned judge has bestowed upon English lawyers. After making an original sketch of the earlier progress of our jurisprudence, he proceeds in the following words : — "It was reserved for Lord Hardwick, by his deep learning, his extensive researches, and his powerful genius, to combine the scattered fragments of equity into a scientific system ; to define with a broader line the boundaries between common law and chancery ; and to give vigour and certainty to the prin ciples as well as to the jurisdiction of the latter. Henceforth, equity began to acquire the same exactness as the common law ; and at this moment, there is scarcely a branch of its jurisprudence that is not reduced to method, and that does not, in the harmony of its parts, rival the best examples of the common law. Our own age has witnessed, in the labours of Lord Eldon, through a series of more than twenty-five volumes of reports, a diligence, sagacity, caution, and force of judgment, which has seldom been equalled, and can scarcely be surpassed; ' which have given dignity as well as finish to that curious moral machinery which, dealing in an artificial system, yet contrives to administer the most perfect of human inventions, the doctrines of conscience, ex aqua el bono." Again, — " How few have read with becoming reverence and zeal, the decisions of that splendid jurist, the ornament, I will not say of his own age or country, but of. all ages and of all countries ; the intrepid sup porter equally of neutral and belligerent rights ; the pure and spotless magistrate of nations, who has administered the dictates of universal jurisprudence with so much dignity and discretion in the prize courts of England 1 Need I pronounce the name of Sir William Scott 1 " " There is another great name respecting whom it is difficult to speak in terms of moderate praise, and still more difficult to preserve silence. England and America, and the whole civilized world, lie under the deepest obligations to him: wherever commerce shall extend its social influences, — wherever justice shall be administered by enlightened and liberal rulers, — wherever contracts shall be expounded upon the eternal principles of right and wrong, — wherever moral delicacy and juridical refinement shall he infused into the municipal code, at once to persuade men to be honest, and to keep them so, — wherever the intercourse of mankind' shall aim at something more elevated than that grovelling spirit of barter, in which meanness and avarice and fraud strive for the mastery over ignorance, credulity, and folly, — the name of Lord Mansfield will be held in reverence by the good and the wise, by the honest merchant, the enlightened lawyer, the just states man, and the conscientious judge. The maxims of maritime jurisprudence which he engrafted into the stock 354 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. Extensivestudies of American lawyers. It is, indeed, a. highly gratifying circumstance, that the lawyers of the United States cherish a disposition to extend the bounds of the science beyond domestic learning, and to improve their own jurisprudence by the study of that of other nations, ancient and modern. The effects of this excellent spirit cannot fail to be to relieve society more and more from the scourge of uncertainty to which all laws have hitherto been exposed ; and hereafter to enable a well-informed people to collect a comparatively simple' system from the multitude of entangled rules and statutes now everywhere prevalent. Although law reform is still in its infancy throughout the Union, materials are in the course of accumulation which must lead to great results. The repository of of the common law are not the exclusive property of a single age or nation, but the common property of all times and all countries. They are built upon the most comprehensive principles and the most enlightened experience of mankind. He designed them to be of universal application, considering, as he himself has declared, the maritime law to be not -the law of a particular country, but the general law of nations; And such under his administration it became, as his prophetical spirit, in citing a passage from the most eloquent and polished orator of antiquity, seems gently to insinuate : Non erit alia lex Roma, alia Athenis ; alia nunc, alia posthac ; sed, et apud omnes gentes &t omni tempore, una eademque lex obtinebit. Lord Mansfield was ambitious of this noble fame, and studied deeply, and diligently, and honestly, to acquire it. He surveyed the commer cial law of the continent, drawing thence what was most just, useful, and rational ; and left to the world, as the fruit of his researches, a collection of general principles, unexampled in extent, and unequalled in excellence. The law of insurance was almost created by him ; and it Would be difficult to find a single leading principle in the beautiful system thai surrounds and protects the commerce of our times which may not be traced to the judgments of this surprising man. Of him it cannot be said, ' Stat magni nominis umbra.' His character as a statesman and an orator, as the rival and the equal of Chatham and Camden, would immortalize him. But the proudest monument of his fame is in the volumes of Burrows arid Cowper and Douglas, which; we may fondly hope, will endure as long as the language in which they are written shall continue to instruct mankind." An address delivered before the members of the Suffolk bar, at their anniversary, on the 4th of September, 1821, at Boston, by the Honourable Mr. Justice Story: — Amencari Jurist, No. 1. p. 8. A more recent tribute to England is perhaps even worthier of, being recorded, as it boldly unites the best names of both countries.' — "Let us imitate the example of illustrious predecessors ; (says the writer,) of Coke, in his industry, who thanked God that he never gave his body to physic, his heart to cruelty, nor his hand to corruption ; of Hale, the proudest because the purest name in English history, ' of unblemished in tegrity and uprightness in every character in life, of generous frankness and open sincerity in conversation, of unalterable adherence in all stations to the principles of civil and religious liberty, accompanied with a serious regard to true piety ; ' and, in the words of Baxter, ' that unwearied student, that solid philospher, that famous lawyer, that pillar and basis of justice, who would not have done an unjust act for any worldly price or motive, — the ornament of His Majesty's government, and honour of England, the highest faculty of Westminster Hall, and pattern to all the reverend alnd honourable judglesj — that: godly, serious, and prac tical Christian, the lover of goodness and all good men, a lamenter of the clergy's selfishness and unfaith fulness and discord. ' Let us imitate the example' of Selden, Clarendon, Holt, Hardwick, Nottingham, Mansfield, Thurlow, Sir William Jones, and the host of worthies, the lights of Westminster Hall; and of our distinguished men in the profession who have done so much for themselves and the country ; and dwell upon the recollections of the gifted jurists who aided in the cause of our revolution and in the establishment of our frame of governmenV-rof Hawley, Otis, Adams,'Quincy, Ellsworth, Hamilton, Jay, Wythe, Jefferson, Lee, Randolph, Henry, Parsons, Gore, Ames, Dexter, King: it was the men of this cast who in stormy periods girded on the armour, and subdued might to the empire of justice, They were of that popular cast, answering the description of James, Who, when the twelve judges were brought before him, in the case of the Cpmmendams, declared, ' that ever since his coming to the crown, the popular sort of lawyers had been the men that most affrontedly. had trodden upon his prerogative.' " — Mr. Willard's Address to the Worcester Bar, Massachusetts, 1829. THE UNITED STATES. 355 the judgments of the numerous local courts daily improves the judges and the people ; chap. i. and the visibly increasing excellence of the American reports, although, like the Reports. independent states, but of recent creation, shews that legal learning is spreading every where in a degree perfectly new to mankind. The reports are the more valuable, as they contain the written decisions which it is the very general practice of the judges to deliver on important occasions. The establishment, also, of official reporters, such as Lord Bacon recommended in vain for Westminster Hall, is favourable to the greater exactness of the reports ; and the freedom and activity of the law press, as well as of the press generally, which was wanting in Lord Bacon's time, will tend to check indolence, and to add to the efficiency of these reporters. The increase of litigation is often urged as a consequence of the cheapness of law, cheapness and of the multiplicity of tribunals scattered over the United States. The existence of of law- the fact may be doubted : the doing of justice is greatly increased, but not litigation. It is not easy to form an accurate and comparative estimate of the amount of business done in the courts, and out of the courts, by lawyers and judges in any two countries ; but if the judges are more numerous in America than in England, it is a most important point in the comparison, that the practitioners of the law are fewer in number ; and, by the union of the different branches of the practice in the same individuals, they are generally a more learned and more respectable class of men. In a work of good repute, the result of careful calculations is, that whilst in England and Wales there is one lawyer (barrister, conveyancer, special pleader, solicitor, attorney, advocate, or notary,) to every thousand persons, in the United States, the average is one to every seventeen hundred persons. It is probable that the good old practice of uniting the two branches of attorney and barrister in one person elevates the general character of lawyers, and lessens litigation. Students" generally attend at the offices of established practitioners, but law Law schools are increasing ; " and," said Dr. Du Ponceau, in 1824, " the most exalted sc 00 s' characters do not disdain to fill the professors' chairs. Until lately, the only institutions of this kind were two in Massachusetts, one in Connecticut, and one ° The following rapid sketch of the tuition of an American lawyer, " Edward Jackson Lowell, a member of the Suffolk bar," in Massachusetts, is contained in an interesting notice of one who was lost too early to, his country and friends. " Five years and a half spent in the college and law school of Harvard university, a. winter attendance upon the lectures and private instruction of (the retired) Chancellor Kent; a year in a counsellor's office in Boston ; two years spent in study and travel in Europe ; and two years of professional seclusion and study, excepting the interruptipns of sickness, fill out the short and simple outlines of his ljfe. While in France, he took an instructor in the civil and French law ; and, both in France and in England, he, attended the courts and legislative assemblies, and paid great attention to the history, the theory, and the operations, of their political and legal institutions. He died at the age of twenty- five years, and almost at the very hour when he was to have performed his first act of professional duty, and after having lived a life, which, though undistinguished by public exertion, made it privately known exactly how he would have performed that duty." — Jurisprudent, No. 9. Boston, 1828. 356 TOPOGRAPHY OF . book IV. in Philadelphia : there are now established^ two in Kentucky. In the university of New York, the Hon. James Kent, during many years the distinguished chancellor of that state, and whose name and talents will long be venerated, fills the chair of jurisprudence. At Baltimore, Professor Hoffman, and at Northampton, Judge! Home, and Mr. Mills, a member of congress, lecture with success to considerable numbers of students."0 Since the publication of Dr. Du Ponceau's book, law schools and law professorships have been established at various other places : of these, one professor ship, founded by a distinguished lawyer, and filled by a distinguished judge, requires especial notice : Mr. Dane, one of the fathers of the Revolution, has dedicated the profits of his valuable Digest to a chair of jurisprudence at the university of Cambridge, in Massachusetts ; and he has had the good fortune to be able to appoint Mr. Justice Story as his first professor. The professor's eulogy of his founder is singularly happy, in the application of Lord Hale's character of Rolle, the learned chief-justice of the English Commonwealth : — " He argued frequently and pertinently ; his arguments were fitted to prove and evince, not for ostentation ; plain, yet learned ; short, if the nature of the business permitted, yet perspicuous ; his words few, yet significant and weighty ; his skill, judgment, and advice in points of law and pleading, were sound and excellent. In short, he was a person of great learning and experience in the common law, of profound judgment, singular prudence, great moderation, justice, and integrity." p Mr. Story himself, after securing the respect of one generation as a judge, like Chancellor Kent, will earn the gratitude of another as their teacher. The character of what the American youth are learning by such means will be best understood by a special notice of this eminent professor's inaugural address. After expatiating, in the manner of Blackstone, upon the great importance of legal knowledge to the citizens at large, the discourse is solemnly ad dressed to those who study the law as a profession, and holds forth the highest motives to arduous application, with large and comprehensive views of the science, reminding the student that it is insufficient to be " the sharp and cunning pettifogger, a retailer of lawsuits, 'a canter about forms, and a caviller upon words,' described by Cicero. God forbid that any man, standing in the temple and presence of the law, should imagine that her ministers were called to such unworthy offices." The all-pervading and all-controlling influence of the administration of the laws upon the welfare of communities, and, most of all, of republics, is then dwelt upon with great power; and the members of the profession are reminded that they are the guardians and sentinels of the purity and integrity of its administration, in defence of which, against the popular attacks of the moment, they are bound to sacrifice, if needful, their own popularity, and should glory in the sacrifice. The advocate is also called upon 0 Dr. Du Ponceau on Jurisdiction, Philadelphia, 1824, preface, p. xix. P The American Jurist, No. 4. 1829, p. 407. THE UNITED STATES. 357 to vindicate the laws from the attacks of the government itself. The discouragements CHAP. I. and the long-enduring labours through which the path to eminence lies, are then portrayed to students ; and they are cautioned against indulging " the belief, that fluency of speech, a kindling imagination, ready wit, graceful action, and steady self- confidence, will carry them through the struggles of the law."q In the wise spirit of Judge Story's address, Otis had a century before urged the necessity of various and deep learning to the American lawyer;1 and, in 1760, the eloquent Patrick Henry, although an unlearned student, obtained admission to the bar of Virginia, upon proof of his extensive knowledge of the laws of nature and of nations, of the feudal system, and of general history." Eminent writers in the United States have fairly vindicated their countrymen from all reproach of neglecting the study or improvement of juris prudence : by no people has so much been done in so short a time ; and a long -catalogue of their elementary writers, of their reporters, and of their laws, might be quoted to their great honour. To these sources of legal and constitutional knowledge must be added the two Publicity. remarkable facts, that about fifty millions of copies of newspapers are issued in the United States in the year, in which constitutional and legal reports and papers are pub lished without limit. The local legislatures afford scope for discussion and deliberation to more than 3,500 members on the most important topics ; and at least 30,000 verdicts of juries are said to be returned yearly in the civil and criminal courts — circumstances which show the extent to which the minds and passions of men must be exercised in the United States, where, as well as in the legislative assemblies, all transactions are con ducted with great publicity. It was one of the fruits of the revolution of 1776 to open all the legislative assemblies to the public as hearers ; previously, the sittings had been for the most part close. But so early as 1776, the house of assembly of Massachu setts, at the beginning of the great struggle, opened " a gallery for such, as wished to hear the debates." ' Law reporting is also more and more provided for by the state governments. In 1831, the legislature of Illinois directed 150 copies of the reports of their supreme court to be bought by the public. In 1830, Alabama voted 800 dollars a year to the reporter of the supreme court; and the like occurs in most parts of the Union, in the best spirit of Lord Bacon's advice in England two cen turies ago. In America, as elsewhere, valuable law manuscripts exist, the careful publication American of which would give certainty upon many points not likely otherwise to be rescued scripts. from the influence of doubt, and, worse — discretion. Such materials must abound in the United States, upon a particular class of cases, as interesting to them historically as to Great Britain legally. Until the revolution in 1776 frequent appeals were made from i Tudor's Life of Otis, p. 10. * Tudor'sLife of Otis, p. 253. s Wirt's Life of Henry, p. 17. ' Tudor's Life of Otis. VOL. II. 3 A 358 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. the colonies, on various subjects, by petition to the king. These petitions were heard regularly at f?he Cockpit ; and, for the most part, the leading lawyers of England were the advocates, employed in these causes. The judicious course of Lord Somersin such a case, from/ Boston, has been noticed; and Lord Mansfield is known to have had great practice there; The subjects being rarely interesting to the English bar, a. very few reports of the arguments are published in our law books; but it is clear that the agents of (he transatlantic parties sent home large details of every thing that passed ; and, in desultory notice's of Privy Council causes in American books, there is proof that some of i these details are preserved, as in Belknap's and Hutchinson's Histories of Massachusetts, and in the collection of the Boston Historical Society ; to which society there were lately sent the printed briefs and petitions in the very curious Privy Council appeal of " The Last of the Mohicans," an appeal which, in the fact of its having been seventy years' before the English tribunal, furnishes a. sufficiently clear illustration of one cause of the ruin of the native tribes. These Privy Council proceedings are important in the United States as matter of constitutional and legal history ; bfut to the existing English colonies the precedents which some of them would furnish of wise decisions^ and the warnings which might be derived from the manifest errors exhibited in others, would be of the highest value. In Newi England there are extant also manuscript law cases, taken before the Revolution), by such a man as Josiah Quincy, whose short report, written from London, iri 1775, of a speech of Lord Chatham, is one of the most precious remains we pdsSessj of that great man's oratory. The manuscripts in England affecting America are numerous. One of Sir Matthew ^Hale's, on the law of colonies, contains the following very .curious passage : — - " Concerning the plantations of Virginia, New England, Bermuda, and other islands and cbtiri'nents towards the West Indies, and, also, our plantations in Africa and the East Indies, tfieXcourse of their acquisition was, that the King issued a commission to seize them ; thias Virginia and New England were seized in 4 Jac. I. ; Greenland and the northern plantations in 1 Phil, and Mar. pat. 3 ; the Carribee islands by Warner ; and sb\ divers others . Presently upon the acquest the English laws are not set&ed there, , or at least only temporary, till a settlement is made ; and thereforey'we see there administration of justice and law much differing from the English Jaws ; but the people carry with them those English liberties which are incident to tjrieir persons."" Another, respecting civil maters, is perhaps more curious, by containing one of the earliest suggestions for the settlement of the old colonies, as a means of humbling Spain, and of avenging the Jcause of the Elector Palatine, son-in-law to James I. [ " Lord Hale's Prerogfetiva Regis.— British Museum: — Hargrave MSS. No. 81. p. 64. THE UNITED STATES. 359 This manuscript is from the first Lord Fairfax, a well-known name in Virginia. It chap. I. urges, by way of incentive to North American colonization, in the seventeenth century, that " in the glorious and happy days of Queen Elizabeth, frequent were the naviga tions of our worthy countrymen ; every brave spirit was taken up with some action that deserves esteem ;" concluding with the just boast, — " Let the same occasion be that was, and there will be found English blood in English veins still ! The same that we received from our fathers, the same we will leave to our sons ;" — a boast which those sons have, indeed, nobly vindicated. To the foregoing very incomplete sketch of the Constitution and jurisprudence of the United States, two concluding remarks remain to be added. The first is, that the essen tially popular character of the Constitution has led a greater number of disinterested men, than under any other form of government, tb direct their faculties calmly to the consideration of the best means of acting upon, of improving, and preserving it : — the second, that in consequence of the steady and widely extended watchful ness of the people over all that concerns them, popular affections and direct popular intervention have become safe influences in public affairs; and a degree of Certainty, at little cost, is thereby secured to the public peace, heretofore unknown to human institutions. So deeply do we feel that these great results are attributable in a high degree to the character of the government under which they are found, that it is most unwillingly we abstain from selecting, out of its legal history, many additional excellencies of the constitution of the American Union. 360 TOPOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER II. Interest of the subject. book iv. As the state of human society in regard to religion is unquestionably the most important aspect in which it can be viewed, so the state and progress of religion can be no-where contemplated with more interest, or to greater advantage, than in the North American republic. We have not here to trace its influence upon savages, but upon civilized man ; not upon uninformed and wandering tribes, the natives of the wild, but upon the population of enlightened states suddenly transplanted to its soil. We find this population, however, in a condition entirely new. Bringing with them the knowledge and the arts of civilized life, together with the principles of the civil, political, and religious economy of long-established kingdoms, they entered, not only upon the soil, but into the wild independence and unrestrained liberty of, the savage. Released on the one hand from every thing which could have any ten dency to render them either really or apparently religious, except the permanent force of truth and (under their circumstances) the diminishing power of habit, they may be considered as presenting a fair example of what habit and truth can effect, when separated from the artificial helps of legislative enactments, of an ennobled and wealthy priesthood, and of an imposing public ritual : released on the other hand from all which might tend to fetter the free exercise of the understanding, and per mitted, not only to choose for themselves in the first instance, but to make what ever alterations their experience might suggest, they may be regarded as having, for the first time, put to the test of common sense and practical utility, the forms both of religious sentiment and religious worship so long established — and because esta blished, revered — by the parent nations. The issue to which the question of a national church establishment has thus been brought is of great importance; and not less so is the aspect which the progress of religion has assumed, in the mul tiplication and extension of what has for some time been well known under the name of a revival- It will, of course, be recollected by the reader, that the religious aspect of the United States is very far from being uniform. Different portions of the republic Religious aspect not uniform. THE UNITED STATES. 361 are characterized, not merely by less or greater degrees of religion, but by the CHAP. II. prevalence of different religious sects. This has arisen principally from the ~~ manner in which the colonies, which are now cemented under the general title of the United States, were formed. Little or no progress was made in cultivating the transatlantic wilderness, until it became a refuge from persecution. It was natural that the first parties who went over on this ground should consist of persons of similar religious sentiments — of those, namely, which at that particular period exposed the holders of them to suffering ; and when persons of a different creed became the victims of similar bigotry, in its capricious waywardness, they, in similar bodies, sought an.asylum, not in the arms of those already banished, (where, indeed, it must be confessed, it would not then have been found,) but in some distant and unoccupied portion of the far-spreading shore. In this manner the states of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont, together forming what is familiarly known as New England, were colonized by the persecuted Puritans, and their religious condition bears the powerful impress of their origin to this day. Maryland was settled by Roman Catholics ; Pennsylvania by the Quakers, (or Friends;) while episcopacy prevailed in Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. Another circumstance contributing to diversify the religious aspect of the United States is, that several of the colonies comprehended in the republic were not of English origin. New York, New Jersey, and Delaware, were originally colonized by the Swedes and the Dutch; while Louisiana was long a possession of the French; and Florida is but recently acquired from Spain. The religious condition of these states bears distinct traces of their origin, in the existence, in the former, of Dutch and Lutheran churches, and in the prevalence of popery, superstition, and infidelity, in the latter. A further cause of want of uniformity in the religious aspect of the republic, is the rapidity with which the settlement of new lands is perpetually going forward. Every year the immigrant population is pressing onwards in the western wilderness, and at a much swifter pace than the means of religious in struction. As you retire from the more populous towns and the longer-settled districts, these means become more and more scanty, until the border settlers are withdrawn from every thing external by which a sense of religion might be maintained, and abandoned, until lately almost without an effort, to the prevalence of irreligion and vice. Although our limits preclude us from attempting any thing like a history of religion view of the in the United States, and equally from giving an extended account of particular ^^nt sects, we have selected a few brief notices, which will give to our readers, we trust, a sufficient view of the existing religious bodies. Not wishing to exhibit our own partialities, we begin with the Roman Catholics. Roman A Jesuit priest accompanied the emigrants to Maryland in 1632 ; and from that date Cathohcs- 362 TOPOGRAPHY OF book iv. till the period of the revolution, the American Catholics in Maryland and Virginia were constantly served by Jesuit missionaries, successively sent from England. The Rev. Dr. John Carrol having' been elected by the clergy the first bishop, through a special indulgence1 granted them by the pope, Pius VI., a see was constituted, and the bishop elect consecrated in England, August 15, 1790; In 1810, the increase of the Romish communion had become so great in the United States, that it was judged best at Rome to erect the episcopate of Baltimore into a 'metropolitan or archiepiscopal see, and to establish four new suffragan dioceses ; namely, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Bardstown in Kentucky. New Orleans, Charleston, Richmond, and Cincinnati, are now to be added to this list. It appears that th© court of Rome cherishes the hope. of acquiring large accessions to its spiritual 'dominion in the United States, more especially from the western territory. Regular- missions are established over the whole country, and the following language is held respecting them: "The missions of America are of high importance to the church. The super abundant population of ancient Europe is flowing towards the United States. Each one arrives, not with his religion, but with his indifference. The ^greater part are disposed to embrace the doctrine, whatever it be, which is first preached to them. We must make haste ; the moments are precious. America may one day- become the centre of civilization ; and shall truth or error establish there its empire? If the Protestant sects are beforehand with us, it will be difficult to destroy their > influence.*" To these missions there was remitted from Europe in the year 1828, out of the funds of the Association for the Propagation of the Faith, nearly 5,000 J. The methods adopted by1 the Catholics comprehend particularly establishments for education, from which they evidently expect much,b the formation of religious houses of a benevolent character, and the building of churches, " whose pomp and splendour form so striking a contrast with the barrenness and nudity of Protestant worship." c These efforts of the Romanists have been attended with a degree of success, which, though by no means extraordinary, has greatly encouraged the papal court, and has of late been regarded with anxiety by the more public-spirited part of other communions in the United States. The number of persons who have embraced Romanism does not appear to have been ascertained; but " the population belonging to this church,'? (a phrase of great latitude and vagueness,) at the highest of the various estimates which have been formed of it, has been computed at half a million.*1 We see nothing in v. . . ' " Annates de 1' Association de la Propagation de la Foi. Paris, 1829. b " TheSe establishments do wonderful good : Catholics and Protestants are admitted indiscriminately ; the latter, after having finished their education, return to the bosom of their families, full of esteem and veneration for their instructresses. They are ever ready to refute the calumnies which the jealousy of. heretics loves to spread against the religious communities ; and often, when they have no longer the opposition of their relations to fear, they embrace the Catholic religion." — Ibid. c Ibid. d Quarterly Journal of the American Education Society, vol. ii. p. 199. THE UNITED STATES. 363 this more than commensurate with the well-designed efforts and the devoted zeal chap. ii. which have been applied to the work, especially when combined with the extreme neglect with which the population of the western territory has been treated by other religionists, and the skilful adaptation of the papal system to the corrupt heart and proud imaginations of mankind. When American evangelical writers talk of contem plating the extension of popery with grief, we are ready to ask them why they did not view with equal grief the indifference and irreligion which were long before pre valent, and which were in themselves equally afflictive ; and when they speak of it as a matter of humiliation that such a system should be capable of diffusing itself in such a country as theirs, we may suggest, as a still more proper topic of abasement, the supineness of those who, having light in their dwellings, have been pitiless of them that sat in darkness and the shadow of death. There is reason to believe, however, that the depth of this sleep is past ; and we shall have occasion to notice, before we close this article, some recent exertions of great energy and promise in this direction. The number of Episcopalians among the settlers in the United States was Episcopa- small ; in Maryland and Virginia, however, many churches were early formed, and ians' had legal establishments for their support. The organization of the episcopal church in America took place after the revolutionary war. The Rev. Samuel Seabury, D.D. of Connecticut, was consecrated at Aberdeen in Scotland, in November, 1784, by the Scotch bishops ; Bishop White, of Pennsylvania, in 1787, by the Archbishop of Canterbury. ' Since that time, the number of Episcopalians in the republic has constantly increased, and they are now found in all the states. The colleges of Washington in Connecticut; Columbia in New York city ; Geneva, New York; the University of Pennsylvania; William and Mary College, Virginia; and Kenyon, Ohio, are institutions under their control. Their dioceses are fifteen, bishops ten, and clergy five hundred and twenty-eight. American episcopacy, though it was derived from this country, has been so greatly modified, by its separation from state patronage, and is so very unlike its still venerated parent, that we may perhaps gratify our readers, especially those of the same faith, by a brief sketch of its constitution. The highest spiritual capacity known is, of course, a bishop. Priests and deacons, being all the orders named in the Bible, are the only other orders known or used in America. The supreme authority is exercised by the general convention, which is composed of two bodies, — -a house of bishops, and a house of lay delegates. Each diocese has a convention for the regulation of its own affairs. The general conven tion consists of the bishops, who form the house of bishops, and of laymen, who are sent as delegates from the state conventions. The object of this body is to promote harmony and uniformity of doctrine in the whole church. The state conven tions contain the clergy of the diocese, and a lay delegation from each church. In both conventions, the clergy (or bishops, as the case may be,) and the laymen vote 364 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. Presbyterians. separately, a majority of both being necessary to an ordinance. Clergymen are pre sented by their congregations, and bishops are elected by the conventions of the diocese, and are approved of by the house of bishops. There is no salary yet given to any bishop, though provision, to a reasonable amount, is making for that object; at present they are all rectors of churches. The oldest bishop for the time being is called the presiding bishop, though he enjoys no exclusive authority. The influence of republican institutions, even upon episcopacy, is here decidedly manifest. With the same name, this is obviously a very different thing from English episcopacy : the people uniformly choose their own ministers ; the bishops are elected by a process in which, by their delegates, the laity have a voice ; and no salaries are independent of a similar vote. It is well known that the Episcopalians of the United States look with no complacency on the golden fetters of their parent church ; and it may be matter of some surprise how the admirers of the English hierarchy can delight themselves in the prosperity of a scion, which, while retaining an identity of denomination, has adopted what they must consider so dangerous and mischievous a principle, as the popular nomination to ecclesiastical offices and appropriation of ecclesiastical funds. The first Presbyterians in America came from England, Scotland, and Ireland, about the year 1700, and settled in what is now a part of New Jersey and Delaware. The first presbytery was formed about 1706; the first synod, that of Philadelphia, in 1716; the general assembly in 1788. The essential features of Presbyterianism are the following: — 1. The parity of its ministers. It recognizes but one order of ministers or presbyters, who receive their authority primarily from the Lord Jesus himself, and have power afterwards to confer this authority upon their successors. 2. The order and cooperation of ruling elders. They are properly the representatives of the people, chosen by them for the purpose of exercising government and discipline, in conjunction with pastors or ministers. 3. The union of its churches under courts of review and control. The general assembly of this church in the United States has under its care — synods, 20 ; presbyteries, 104 ; ministers, 1,800; churches, 2,250 ; communicants, 182,000. Of the ministers, forty are either presidents of, or professors in, theological or literary institutions, and fifteen foreign missionaries. In February, 1810, the Cumberland Presbytery was formed in Tennessee without any connexion with the Presbyterian church, principally because the synod of Kentucky refused to license ministers to preach the gospel without a classical education. This was at a period of considerable religious excitement, when the labours of clergymen were in great demand. They dissented also in some respects from the confession of faith of the general assembly, particularly in regard to the doctrines of reprobation, limited atonement, &c. At first there were but nine preachers in the connexion, four only of whom were ordained. They have now a synod, consisting of several presbyteries. The Congregationalists, although principally abounding in New England, have a THE UNITED STATES. 365 number of churches scattered over other parts of the country. The fundamental CHAP. II. principle of Congregationalism, and that from which the name is derived, is, Congrega- that each congregation, assembly, or brotherhood of professed christians, meet- onaists- ing together for religious purposes in one place, is a complete church. It may commune with other churches, but it is a church of itself, and not by virtue of any connexion with another body of christians. It has the right, under Christ, to appoint its own officers, to discharge the duties of worship, to observe the instituted sacraments, and to exercise discipline upon its own members. The name Indepen dent, which has sometimes been applied to these churches, has been objected to as inapplicable, because " they hold friendly mutual intercourse for various purposes," and are only independent as to authoritative control; but this, so far as we understand it, is the exact meaning of the word Independent as the denomination of a religious body, and the term seems to be just as applicable to the American Con gregationalists as to the body who have long been designated by it in Britain. An account of the emigration of Mr. Robinson and his church, from whom the Congre gationalists of the republic took their rise, will be found in a former part of our work.e Formerly there were three officers known in these churches; pastors, ruling elders, and deacons. The intermediate class is now discontinued. The constitution of these churches, so far as there is any, is derived from ancient congregational writers on this subject, from the Cambridge platform of 1648 and the collateral discussions;, from the Saybrook platform, and from general usage.f The strictly congregational form of church constitution and government in this body has undergone some singular modifications, by the connexion, or rather the identification, in the origin and early proceedings of the colonies, of the church with the state. Migrating as a church, the settlers, not perhaps unnaturally, though clearly both unjustly and unwisely, con ducted civil matters in the same capacity, and would allow none but church members to be elected to any office, or to possess the entire privileges' of citizenship. In order to ,provide more completely for public worship, there was effected a division of the country and of the larger towns into parishes, a place of worship belonging to some Congregational Society being often considered as the parish church, and the residents in the parish, having a joint right with the members of the church in the election of the minister. These things are obviously incongruous with the great principles of the congregational system, and must have proceeded from an oversight of them. They have produced the results which might have been expected. By a recent legal decision, in a case in which the parish and the church could not agree in their choice, the church has been merged in the parish, its distinct rights of pro perty taken away, and even its separate existence denied. Loud, and as we think f Vol. i. p. 51. ' For an account of the Cambridge and Saybrook platforms, see vol. i. p. 130, et seq. VOL. II. 3 B 366 TOPOGRAPHY OF book IV. just complaint, is made by the Congregationalists against this decision, and we hope it will be cancelled ; but should it be established and acted upon as law, the whole body may tremble for their very sanctuaries, and will have to learn, by costly and bitter experience, the evil of departing from their principles.8 There are about 1,000 Congregational ministers, 1,270 churches, and 140,000 communicants. Baptists. The Baptist churches in the United States are formed upon the same theological model as the Congregational, and differ only in baptizing by immersion on a profes sion of faith. The Calvinistic Baptists formed their first church at Providence, Rhode Island, in 1639, and are now found in all parts of the Union. They are a highljr numerous and influential body, having 224 associations, 4,384 churches, $;914 ministers, and 304,000 communicants. This Is far, however, from being the whole >body of American Baptists; there are others of "one faith and one baptism," appearing under subordinate distinctions: such are, — 1. The Seventh-day Baptists. The first Sabbatarian church in America was formed in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1671, and they are confined principally to that state. A few years since they numbered about 1,000 communicants. In the United States there are now about 2,000 members, united together in an annual conference. 2. Emancipators, consisting of a num ber of ministers and churches in Kentucky; who, in 1805, took a decided stand against slavery, in principle and practice: their number is constantly increasing. 3. Free-communion Baptists, a name given to about thirty ministers and churches, who reside west of Albany, in the state of New York. The preceding are all of them Calvinistic. 4. Free-will Baptists : the number of ministers probably amounts to 300; churches, 400 ; communicants, 16,000. 5. Tunkers, or Dunkers, who have acquired this name 'from the manner in which they perform the rite of baptism, the word Tunker being a corruption of tumbler. They first appeared in America in 1719: they hold the doctrine of universal salvation, with some peculiar qualifications. They have, probably, forty or fifty churches, principally in the western states, and have great singularities. 6. Mennonites, of whom there were, in 1824, about 200 churches. 7. Six-principle Baptists, so called, from their belief that the custom of the imposition of 'hands, recognized in Heb. vi. 1,2, is still binding as a pre requisite to church communion. As these two verses contain six distinct propositions, these persons have acquired the name of Six-principle Baptists, to distinguish them from others, sometimes called Five-principle. They reside mostly in Rhode Island and New York,1 and* in 1828, consisted of about twenty churches, and from 1,500 to 1,800 members. ¦<>¦'' Christians. The Congregationalists and Baptists already mentioned require to be further desig nated as orthodox', in order to distinguish them from some of a similar constitution, ? Spirit of the Pilgrims, vol. i. p. 114. It appears from this article, that some places of worship belonging to other denominations are likewise " connected with parishes." THE UNITED STATES. 367 but of a different creed. Of this kind is a Baptist community calling themselves CHAP. II. Christians, in defence of the name they have assumed quoting Acts xi. 26, xxvi. 28, and 1 Peter iv. 16, and regarding all others as the invention of men. The first society of this kind was formed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1803 ; they have spread extensively in all parts of the United States ; they are anti-calvinistic and anti- trinitarian, and have not far from 1,000 congregations. A portion of the congrega- Unitarians. tional churches, likewise, is now characterized by what may be designated English Unitarianism. The origin of this form of belief in the states is not to be traced to emigration, but to the decay of vital piety among the Congregationalists of New England, which is stated to have occurred about seventy years since. Under the cover of indifference, Unitarianism but too effectually insinuated itself among the members and into the pulpits of that body, with no small measure, as is alleged, of secrecy and artifice ; some concealing their sentiments because they were unpopular, others because they felt indifferent about them ; and others, more reflecting and philo sophical, because they conceived that their extension would be most effectually promoted at that particular time by reserve and caution. The first Unitarian con gregation formed in America was established in the king's chapel soon after the revolution, a case in which an open change was facilitated by the chapel becoming private property. As Unitarian sentiments became more general, they were gradually avowed with less reserve : yet the pulpits of many ministers who were supposed to have imbibed them gave no evidence of the fact, except by the systematic omission of distinct statements on discriminating points of doctrine. This at length brought upon them the charge of insincerity from their more orthodox brethren. The imputation was repelled with warmth, and the public were left in great doubt as to the precise sentiments of many of their pastors. Dr. Morse, the most prominent of those who publicly manifested their regret at the supposed defection of their brethren from the common faith, was accused of misrepresentation ; and the most candid felt it almost impossible to arrive at the real state of things. At this time Dr. Morse happened to meet with Mr. Belsham's Life of Lindsay, in which he found his own representations borne out by letters and documents trans mitted from Boston by the Unitarians themselves : these he put together in the form of a pamphlet, under the title of "American Unitarianism ; or a brief History of the Progress and Present State of the Unitarian Churches in America, compiled from Documents and Information communicated by the Rev. James Freeman, D.D. and William Wells, jun., Esq., of Boston, and from other Unitarian Gentlemen in this Country. By the Rev. T. Belsham, Essex-street, London. Extracted," &c. This pamphlet was eagerly read, and produced a great sensation. It dis closed the actual state of things, brought the question to issue, and ranged in opposite ranks those advocates of conflicting sentiments who had hitherto been 368 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. confusedly intermingled.11 The Unitarian: party were not compelled to avow them selves, and to assume a distinct form in the United States, without loud complaints of illiberality against the orthodox Congregationalists ; but, as it appears to us that this measure was right and imperative in its principle, so it is acknowledged on all hands to have been powerful in its influence, the orthodox churches having much increased since the commencement of this controversy, and Unitarianism being at a stand. The number of churches belonging to the Unitarians is not definitely known. Six or eight are found in Maine ; four or five in New Hampshire ; one in Vermont ; one hundred and thirty or forty in Massachusetts ; two in New York city; and a few in other places, south and west. It thus appears that they are by no means a large body, and that they are almost entirely confined to New England, their head-quarters being in Boston, where they have possession of seven or eight churches, and where, at one period, only one or two were filled by evangelical ministers. Striking and surprising as it may appear, that such a system should have had its birth in the part of the United States most eminent for knowledge: and religion,' and that it should have enthroned itself in the very centre of orthodox Congregationalism, (for such Boston ,has always been,) gaining possession of its pulpits,' its revenues, and its oldest, best endowed, and most influential university,' we conceive that there is nothing in these facts out of keeping, either with the character of Unitarianism, or the nature of man. The history of Unitarianism in our own country demonstrates it to be a, system, delighting to insinuate itself into places it did not build, especially when attracted by funds which it is worth while to divert from their just appro priation ; and proves equally, that nothing is so favourable to its progress as a religious state compounded of formality and indifference. Just so it has been in New England. The case of the Congregationalists there is but a repetition of that of the Presbyterians among ourselves: they stand, as a body, partly orthodox and partly Unitarian; and the strife on the part of the former will be, to induce, as vacancies may arise, the election of orthodox ministers. In this respect, if they could act as churches alone, their work would be much more easy and their efforts more success ful : it is the combination of parishes with churches which has given Unitarians their chief advantage, and creates for the orthodox their chief difficulty.11 It is not the h Letters from North America, by Adam Hodson, vol. ii. p. 237. 1 Harvard University; now opposed by a flourishing institution at Andover. k 'Itis this controversy which has given rise to the legal appeal and decision to which we have referred in our account of the. Congregational body. At a place called Dedham, the church. ha viijg elected an orthodox minister, the parish elected a Unitarian; to which the church not submitting, the parish carried the matter before the, supreme court, and. the judge determined, not only that the election of the parish should stand against that of the church, but that all the property of the church should likewise be at the disposal of the parish, equally irrespectively of the will of that body. Enormous injustice, truly, and flagrant law ! but a fit employment for Unitarian artifice, and a fit recompense for Congregational inconsistency. — Spirit of tlte Pilgrims, vol, i. THE UNITED STATES. 369 Congregational system, therefore, but a departure from it, which has suffered chap. II. Unitarianism to enter; and in exact proportion to the degree in which its consistent operation can be restored, will be the prospect of expelling the intruder. The first Methodist society in the United States was formed in the city of New Metho- York, in 1776, by some emigrants from Ireland. During the war of the revolution, all the preachers, except Mr. Asbury, returned to their native land. In 1784, Dr. Thomas Coke went to America, with powers to constitute the Methodist societies into a church : before this the preachers were considered only as laymen, and did not administer the ordinances. Dr. Coke ordained Mr. Asbury a bishop, and thus gave to the whole Methodist body an episcopal character, which it has ever since retained. There is something singular in the contrast which is thus created between the Methodists of America and those of Britain ; and we feel inclined to ask whence it arose. How is it that bishops were not ordained on both sides of the Atlantic? Was it originally intended, and frustrated on this side of the water by feelings relating to the proud episcopacy of the national church, which had no ex istence in America, at least after the establishment of its independence? The clergy of the Methodist Episcopal church consist of bishops, presiding elders, elders, deacons, and an unordained order of licensed preachers. The ministry is divided into itinerant and local : the former are constantly engaged in preaching and pastoral labour under the direction of the bishops and conferences ; the latter perform these offices only as opportunity offers. The highest authority of the Methodist Episcopal church is the general conference, which meets once in four years, and consists of delegates from the annual conferences, in the ratio of one delegate for every seven itinerant preachers. Ths annual conferences are seventeen in number, dividing the whole territory of the United States : these conferences consist of all the travelling preachers in the connexion. Their numbers, in 1829, were 437,000, with 1639 travelling preachers. The Quakers, or Friends, are found principally in Pennsylvania.1 Within a few other years past there has been a serious schism among them : a part professing the doctrines £™s of Unitarianism, and called Hicksites, from their leader, Elias Hicks; the other Friends. portion adhering to orthodox sentiments. It having been made a question which of them ought to be considered as seceding from the doctrines of the original sect, the yearly meeting of Friends in London, May 20, 1829, sent forth an epistle, con taining a statement of their belief; from which it appears that they fully believe in the inspiration of the 'Scriptures, the supreme divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, atonement by his sufferings and death, &c. The Hicksites, therefore, though not the ' The editors of-the Quarterly Journal of the American Education Society tell us that the Quakers " agree with the Baptists in denying the validity of infant baptism."— Vol. ii. p. 187. Query : Do they allow the validity of adult baptism ? 370 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. Dutch re formed church* German reformed church. Lutheran church. United Brethren, Universal-ists.Sweden- borgians. Shakers. No reli gious esta blishment. minority, are the seceders, Of 150,000 members of this society, 56,026 are Hicks ites, and 28,904 are orthodox; the others are not known. — The Dutqh reformed church was the established church in the state of New York until it was surren dered to the English. The church was dependent for the ordination of its ministers, &c, on the classis of Amsterdam, in Holland, till 1757, when the first classis was formed in America. Its government is committed to consistories, classes, and synods. — Some members of the German reformed church were among the early set tlers in Pennsylvania : they are descended from the reformed or Calvinistic church in Germany, and remained in a scattered state till 1746, when the Rev. Michael Schlatter, who was sent from Europe for the purpose, collected them together. They are found principally in Pennsylvania ; but there are a few in Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, and other states. The following may be given as a general estimate of the condition of this synod, including that of Ohio : — classes, eight ; ordained ministers, 120; congregations, 500. — Some persons of the evangelical Lutheran church settled in Pennsylvania and the adjoining states on their arrival in America, and were for a con siderable time supplied with ministers from Germany, some of whom were eminent men : they are now found in Pennsylvania, New York, North Carolina, Maryland, and other states. The Augsburg Confession, consisting of twenty-one articles, is the acknowledged standard of faith for the Lutherans. Among the American Lutherans are three judicatories : — 1, the vestry of the congregation ; 2, the district conference ; 3, the general synod, from which there is no appeal. The general synod contained, in 1828, about 200 ministers, and 800 congregations. — The principal settlements of the United Brethren are in Pennsylvania and North Carolina ; their congregations, in 1828, were twenty-three; communicants, 2,000 ; members, 6,000. — In the United States, there are probably about 300 societies, and 150 preachers of the Universalist persuasion : a general convention is annually holden, in which the several societies in New England, and some from other states, are represented. — The Sweden- borgians are organized into a general convention, which meets annually : the eleventh meeting was held in Boston, in August, 1829; it consists of pastors, or teachers, and lay delegates. — The population of the Shakers, whose worship consists in religious dancing, was, in 1828, 5,400, in sixteen societies, and with forty-five preachers. Our readers cannot fail to have observed, that, in the preceding account of the religious bodies existing in the United States, we have made no mention of a national church, or a state religion. There is, in truth, no such thing in the republic. Religion is scrupulously dissevered from the state, and as much from its patronage as from its control. The general government is prohibited by a fundamental article of the union from making any laws relating to religion, a right which the separate states have reserved to themselves ; and they have determined, we believe unanimously, not to use it. The states, indeed, allot portions of land in new settlements for the support of THE UNITED STATES. 371 schools or divine worship, but they leave the appropriation of the grant to the vote of chap. II. the inhabitants, without preference being shown by the legislature to any sect. If any more religious legislation than this exists, it is only in the laws by which some of the states prescribe qualifications for office ; but these are, we believe, universally a dead letter. We do not consider it as an exception to this rule, that acting ministers of the gospel are, by law, in some states, not eligible to the legislature, or to the office of governor : where no such law exists, the principle, we are informed, is equally held and acted upon, that the union of civil and religious duties in the same person is inexpedient, — a point on which Mr. Cooper states " the opinions of the whole nation " are agreed. The opinion of the Americans in this respect is the more worthy of regard, because it is not the offspring of theory, but the result of experience. In many cases, and in some almost inevitably, the early magistrates of the colonies were ministers. Here, therefore, the utility of a clerical magistracy has been put to a practical test, and the decision of experimental wisdom is against it. Truly happy should we be to see a similar division between civil and sacred duties among ourselves. We were saying, however, that, in the United States, religion is not established by law : so far as the government is concerned, every man is left entirely free to be of any religion or none, without any forfeiture of any civil right ; and religious people are permitted to propagate every man his system, to whatever extent they please, alike without patronage and without resistance. This feature in the religious aspect of the republic has been regarded with considerable interest, and has become the subject of much discussion. Those who yield themselves to the imagination that a nation without a state religion is a nation of atheists, " a nation without a God," have naturally deemed it a horrible enormity ; those who conceive religion to be the only foundation of civil government, have not less naturally apprehended from it the irruption of anarchy; while those who identify the existence and spread of religion with the apparatus and wealth of an establishment, have, with equal reason, trembled for the ark of God. There are others, on the contrary, and we place ourselves in this class, who deem the existing state of things in the republic right in its principle, and rejoice to believe, that it has been, and will be, beneficial in its results. It should be recollected in the outset of this discussion, that the separation of religion from the state in the North American republic has not arisen from the original structure of the colonies, or from' the principles or designs of the first settlers. As the colonists went out for the most part as religious bodies, so they were almost universally impregnated with a passion for making religion the basis of the state, or of putting the sfate: under the government of religion, — the reigning passion of the age, from which even persecution had not purified them.m Hence, almost every- m Ample proofs of this may be fpund in the first volume of this work, p. 61, et seq. 372 TOPOGRAPHY OF book IV. where, one of the first proceedings was to establish religion by a fundamental law ; and thus Romanism was established in Maryland, Episcopacy in Virginia, and, with grievous inconsistency, Congregationalism in New England. If in these regions reli gion is not now established by law, it is because establishments were found not to be useful, and for no other reason. Here is no mere theory brought forward and put into action, but, on the contrary, the exclusive result of experience. It is, moreover, not the experience of states in which an unestablished religion was instituted from the commencement, but of states in which establishments were first tried, and in which they were loved, and clung to with almost infinite tenacity. They were abandoned gradu ally, only as the necessity of circumstances and the light of experience dictated, and only as it was demonstrated that they did more harm than good. Here, therefore, we have the system of ecclesiastical establishments put to the most critical and satis factory test, for such that of experience confessedly is. There is proverbially nothing crude, nothing rash, nothing delusive, in the lessons of this teacher, who is withal so effectual that she is said to teach fools, at least if they will ever learn. To this it may be added, that no trial of the system of state religions can be more advantageous for the advocates of establishments than that to which it has been subjected in the United States; and though it is far less favourable for the principles of Congrega tionalism than a fair trial of their value might demand, yet we are content. It is so much the more satisfactory if the result be on our side. The practice of connecting the more ample or more restricted enjoyment of social privileges with a particular religious profession, which some of- the colonies at first rigorously enforced, was soon found incompatible with their secular welfare. Persons aggrieved in this method could so easily remove themselves, either into another territory, or into the unsettled wilderness, that such a policy had for the most part no other effect than that of banishing valuable residents, and this at a time when it was of the utmost importance to multiply them. To the necessity of encouraging population we are indebted for the first instance of a government in this respect entirely equal, that of Maryland, into which, although it was colonized by Roman Catholics, and although Romanism was made the religion of the state, persons of all religious persuasions were welcomed upon equal terms as to civil rights, while bigotry was driving Presbyterians from the south, and Episcopalians from the north, to cul tivate the lands, to augment the resources, and to reward the liberality, of a wiser state. In other instances, the near equality between the parties inflicting and those suffering the grievance contributed to the promptness of its cure. During their infancy, the colonies received such numerous accessions of persons not of the religious persuasion of the first settlers, and these often became of such special value and indispensable importance to the colonies themselves, that when they complained, their voice was necessarily heard. The reigning church became merged in the general Gradual abandonment of establish ments. THE UNITED STATES. 373 population ; and the equalization of civil rights became too general and imperative a CHAP. 11. demand to be refused. Its refusal, had it been possible, would have been not merely folly, but suicide. The interference of the state with religion was found by no means conducive to the prosperity of religion. Those who settled in the transatlantic wilderness not unnatu rally partook of the boldness and freedom of the wilderness itself; and religionists of the same sect assumed no inconsiderable diversities. This was the case at least in New England, where, in consequence of it, an attempt was made to introduce a uniformity of worship, by a meeting of delegates under the sanction of the government. From this body issued the ecclesiastical constitution called the Saybrook Platform. It was approved by the existing legislature ; but what then ? It caused great discontent among the people, and it was not adopted in general practice. Resolved to try their hands again at this hopeless work, another meeting was held at Cambridge, and a second " platform," or code of ecclesiastical laws, was promulgated. The result is, that the churches which these legislative enactments were to regulate have, to the present day, no uniform constitution at all ; but each has adopted which of the laws it pleased, and the others remain a dead letter. It was found impracticable to enforce them, without inflicting evils far more than commensurate with the benefit ; and experience thus taught these meddling legislators and divines that uniformity of worship, if it be any benefit at all, which may well be doubted, is too dearly purchased by animosity and oppression. Equally adverse to the interests of true godliness has been found the secular endowment and nomination of the ministers of religion. In no section of the republic was this system more deeply rooted, or more fondly clung to, than in Vir ginia, where Episcopacy had been established as the state religion from the first. After it had been abandoned everywhere else it was acted upon here, conjoined with a legal prohibition of a different worship. According to the wisdom of some persons in the old world, Virginia, under this treatment, ought to have been a religious paradise : unhappily, however, it was a religious desert, the ecclesiastical revenues of which were absorbed by a tribe of irreligious clergymen, and the people abandoned to neglect and impiety, while neighbouring states were enjoying the benefits of a disin terested and devoted ministry. The consequence was, that the common sense of the population dictated a petition to the state for the abolition of the religious establish ment, and the legislature had wisdom enough to comply with it. Sound wisdom and great liberality were long thought to be embodied in that act of some American legislatures, by which all persons were compelled to pay a rate proportioned to their property in support of religion generally, but were allowed to select the denomination to which it should be applied. Even this, it seems, does more harm than good ; and the last fragment of that system of secular interference or support on behalf of religion, which has been contemplated among ourselves with vol. 11. 3 c 374 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. such profound veneration, and which has so long been identified in imagination with the existence of religion itself, is probably doomed speedily to follow the fate of the structure of which it formed a part. State of What then is the fact? Has religion perished in the ruins of its secular supports ? religion. and kave fae rasn hands, so unkindly laid on religious platforms, fallen with a kindred violence on piety herself, whose sacred person they were intended to enthrone? It is an incontestable fact that nothing like this has occurred. Not only have these successive, and, in the eyes of some persons, these alarming changes, , been made by those who wished religion, not harm, but good; but religion has actually survived this perilous treatment, and now appears in a state of no ordinary vigour and advancement. No-where, has vital Christianity suffered any injuryrby^ it: although she has had to grapple with the wickedness of, man's heart in successive generations, and to sustain the assault where circumstances have given an extraordinary and almost unprece dented license and power to evil propensities : and although, while her dominion was yet young, and might have been supposed to be feeble, she had to contend with the mighty champions of infidelity, whose writings were poured like a flood into the bosom of the republic from revolutionary France, with a boastful confidence of success, she has nobly maintained her ground. Where religion ever flourished, it flourishes still, except where the baneful influence- of religious establishments, or of practices partaking of the nature and principles of establishments, have enfeebled her energy. To such a cause exclusively, we conceive, must be referred the generation of Unitarianism in Massachusetts, together with the state of apathy by which it was preceded; results which the parochial division and the religious tax undoubtedly facilitated, and which the removal of these vaunted " aids " to piety will probably, not only check, but ultimately leave to perish. To say that religion has maintained its ground in the United States, however, is far too little. It has been continually and greatly on the increase. Voluntary zeal, with out the lure of secular emolument, has extended the preaching of the gospel: through a very large portion of that immense territory; and everywhere with a measure of success proportionate to the activity employed. Let our readers but refer to the hundreds of thousands of communicants comprised in the religious bodies of unex ceptionable character already described, recollecting that they are gathered from all parts of the Union ; and, making a reasonable allowance ! for children and others, among whom, as usual, these persons of piety may be scattered, let them say whether these fruits of a few years' labour are not tolerably creditable to a reli gious system without that indispensable help, an establishment." It may add to the n " Whatever may be the actual state of religion in this country, I am quite satisfied that it is on the advance. There may be many local exceptions, but my inquiries and observations in every part of my route have led me to a confident conclusion as to the general fact."— Hodgson. No one of THE UNITED STATES. 375 distinctness of the fact, if we mention the annual increase of some of the principal de- CHAP. II. nominations : — the Presbyterian official reports for 1831 exhibit a clear increase of ~ nearly 20,000 communicants during the year; the Congregationalists have had an equal number of accessions ; and the Baptist denomination, as far as can be ascer tained, experienced an increase of about 10,000 members during the same period. But, perhaps the religion thus disseminated is of a spurious and unsatisfactory kind ; perhaps, without the pressure of ecclesiastical authority in matters of faith, religious excitement may have run wild, and generated forms of superstition and error, fantastic beyond all former example. Open as the bosom of the states has been to the reception and unshackled utterance of all diversities of opinion from all quarters of the world, it could have been no matter of surprise if this had been the case ; but while some of the numerous sects are certainly singular enough, and some may, perhaps, be peculiar to the republic, its condition in this respect presents nothing at all extraordinary. — It is well known that sects do not exist only in America. Their number on that side of the Atlantic does not appear to exceed those which exist in our own country, and they are far fewer than those which have been generated in the bosom of the Romish church, and cloaked in the mantle of her infallibility. For nearly the whole of its diversities the Union is indebted to other countries ; and if in any case a vagary of religious enthusiasm has shown itself in America to which Europe is a stranger, how many forms of fanaticism exist on this side of the Atlantic which have taken no root on the other ! Besides, sects of great peculiarity are in variably small and insignificant. The great masses in America, as in Europe, and more especially as in England, are the Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, Congrega tionalists or Independents, Baptists, Methodists, Unitarians, &c. Freedom of thought and discussion, though it has been highly advantageous to the science of theology, has given birth to no new forms of religious belief; while the pillars of the moral and reli gious system stand but the more firmly amidst the deep convictions of the mind, for the shrewd and fearless investigation to which they have been subjected ; and truth and error are but repeating the same phrases with which the old world has for ages been familiar. — With some exceptions, of which it is impossible to speak without mingled censure and regret, there is no departure from the sobriety and sound judg ment by which the ministrations of religion, and the conduct of its professors, should "No one of reflection and candour can fail to be convinced, that truth and righteousness do, to a very important extent, prevail ; and that those principles are in a state of increasing progress, and develope much." — Duncan. " I found more places of worship in the large towns of America than in similar towns in Britain ; and much genuine piety among the Presbyterians, the Congregationalists, the evangelical Episcopalians, the Methodists, and the Baptists ; and, as far as my journeying extended, I observed a cheering exhibition of Christian pro gress ; as in England, all denominations of real Christians are increasing, and all are growing better." — Ward, of Serampore. 376 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. unquestionably be characterized. To these observations it may be added, we believe with indubitable truth, that, in some places, if not in all, personal piety is more decided and vigorous than among ourselves : we mean, that persons who are religious are more manifestly so, and that their religion imparts more of its character to their converse and general deportment; so that among professors there is a tone and atmosphere of piety of a more elevated and decided kind. In this connexion we ought to notice, likewise, those remarkable periods which are now so familiarly known on both sides of the Atlantic as revivals of religion, during which conversions of ungodly men are multiplied to an extent, and with a rapidity, in modern days altogether unparalleled. In reference to the influence of religious establishments, it is not a little remark able how the very systems which have been accustomed to them, and have for the most part been identified with them elsewhere, thrive in America without them. Both the Roman Catholics and the English Episcopalians are in a state of vigorous action and prosperity, which, upon the supposition of secular support being of any great consequence, is altogether inexplicable. While they were established they were feeble ; when their secular props were broken from under them they began to prosper. They are now associations of an exclusively voluntary character, and have neither impulses nor resources but such as individual sentiment may afford ; and yet they are marching through the length and breadth of the American Union, diffusing and esta blishing an influence which the secular arm could never have acquired for them. We entertain a full conviction, that now these bodies have breathed the air of free dom, and felt its inspiring energy, neither of them would wish to receive the gaudy trappings and oppressive patronage of a state establishment • and that such a step, if it were practicable, would speedily reduce them to a state of torpor and decay. Evils as- We have looked with some care at the topics which have been adduced on the the want of contrary side of the argument to that which we have taken ; and we may be expected, an esta- perhaps, to take some notice of them in passing. Some writers speak of the value of " national religion as distinguished from personal religion ;" and, from certain forms of phraseology in state documents, augur the stability or the ruin of empires. We wish these gentlemen would be at the pains to acquire a distinct notion of religion itself, and then they would see in a moment that it cannot be otherwise than personal, and that their notion of " national religion " is one of the merest fictions ever imposed upon the human mind. A nation can in no other sense be religious or irreligious than as a greater or less proportion of the individuals who compose it are so. As for the whim of prophesying- that the American Union will some time be violated, because religious phrases were not incorporated in the constituent legislative act, it is purely ridiculous. Writers who contend that religion is the only basis of government, forget how many governments have existed and prospered without being founded upon any THE UNITED STATES. 377 religion but a false one, the efficacy of which we suppose the advocates for the excel- CHAP. 1 1. lency of the true will not very strenuously maintain. To us it is obvious, that, while religion undoubtedly tends to promote the welfare of a nation, by causing the duties of social and public life to be better understood and fulfilled, the principles on which the existence and prosperity of nations are founded are not those of religion, but of mutual interest; principles which it does not require Christianity either to understand or to follow. To quote the French revolution as an example of a throne destroyed by the overthrow of religion, is quite in character for the advocates of priestcraft and of despotism; but we marvel at such language being held by Americans. The feelings of the people, it is true, were wrought to desperation by a set of designing infidels : but they were wrought upon by an appeal to the oppression which, alike from the court and the church, they had. endured; and it was to avenge these social wrongs that they lifted themselves up against the powers which had inflicted them. They imbibed the poison of infidelity ; but to say that they destroyed religion is absurd, for in all that their fury overwhelmed there was no religion to destroy. They suffered a period of anarchy and bloodshed, not because they had cast off religion, for none had previously existed ; but because they yielded themselves to the frenzy of a selfish ambition. If they have subsequently been more tranquil, religion has had nothing to do with it ; if they are yet restless, it is not for want of religion, but of a due regard to the principles of mutual interest. Without these, the government of an intelligent community never can be stable, as with them it can be in no considerable peril ; and if the American Union observes them, without making any pretension to the prophetic gift, history and common sense assure us that long will be her prosperity. It has been alleged, as an evil resulting from the absence of a state or national religion, that it allows persons to be of no religion at all ; a permission of which it appears that no inconsiderable number on the western side of the Atlantic have availed themselves. Now, without questioning in the first instance the power of the state in this respect, we may ask, why the right of being of no religion should be denied by any government to its subjects ? Is not this a question lying exclusively between man and his Maker, and to be settled on moral considerations, entirely apart from autho ritative human interference ? But suppose the state sets out on the quixotic errand of making christians of its subjects by wholesale, what can it do ? Nothing but impose a ceremony and a name, while all the principles of character are left un changed. If, therefore, the United States were to pass a law that all persons who did not choose to identify themselves with any minor religious sect, should be con sidered as belonging to some one henceforth to be made national, what would result, but that the present avowedly irreligious population would be compelled to assume a disguise and play the hypocrite, without having one particle more of religion than 378 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. they had before ? We ask any man of common sense to say whether there would be any advantage in this ; and whether it is not better that persons who will be irreli gious, as vast numbers will, and perhaps equal numbers whether there be a state reli gion or not, should appear to be so, rather than be screened alike from knowledge, rebuke, and conviction, by an inappropriate name ? It is easily intelligible, that the absence of a national religion in the republic should be connected with the absence of that habit of religious forms which, in other countries, gives a semblance of religion to society at large, and, by allowing irreligious character to show itself with greater distinctness and freedom, should tend to the diminution and ultimate annihilation of that large class of persons, who avail themselves of decent forms to conceal sceptical opinions, and an irreligious or perhaps a profligate life. And this we conceive to be the whole of the case in the North American republic. We see no proof that the popu lation is more wicked there than in countries where a national religion, as it is called, is maintained ; but there being no bounty put upon the observance of religious forms, and little penalty in public opinion attached to the neglect of them, the wicked are perhaps somewhat more openly and more freely wicked; and instead of extenuating their wickedness by saying, as here, that they belong to the church, they avow, what is equally the fact in both cases, that they are of no religion at all. So far from esteeming this an evil, we consider it a benefit. All experience shows that the method of disguising wicked men under the name of christians has done little towards the repression of vice, while it has done much to dishonour the profession, to obstruct the progress, and to paralyze the power of Christianity. In the United States every man may be judged of " by his fruits ;" and the ungodly part of the population, instead of being claimed in their sins as good members of the national church, lie open, as acknowledged sinners, to the instruction, reproof, and persuasion, of all who may take pity on their souls. This, if we mistake not, ranks high among the very reasons why religion spreads more rapidly in that country than in any other in the world. Before we leave this topic we may add, that we scarcely know how to sup press a smile when we find a respectable writer in America," eagerly quoted by high churchmen in England, speaking of the class of persons above referred to, those of " no religion," with horror, as " unbaptized infidels," and that unbaptized infidels are " the most atrocious and remorseless banditti that infest and desolate human society." That the vast territory of the republic is infested with " atrocious ban ditti " to a lamentable extent may possibly be true enough, as well as that it con tains no small number of "infidels;" but Mr. Bristed's doctrine is, not merely that the infidels and the robbers are actually " unbaptized," but that it is the want of baptism which has caused the mischief! If it will be any comfort to this gentleman, ° Mr. Bristed, " America and her Resources," p. 394. THE UNITED STATES. 379 we can assure him thatt his wonder-working rite has done very little in the Old World chap. ii. to prevent either infidelity or murder ; and if he will take the pains to make the inquiry, we think he will find fewer of the American banditti and infidels " unbap tized " than he may have been inclined to suppose. Another evil alleged to arise from the want of a national religious establishment in the United States, is the destitute condition of the new settlements. Now it is an unquestionable fact, that the border settlements in the western country are, to a very lamentable extent, characterized by prevalent irreligion, and unprovided with means of religious instruction. In many cases, a remedy for these evils is not desired ; and when it is, the combined and only adequate exertion of the scattered population for this end, is often obstructed by sectarian attachments. We do not wonder that the idea of government dividing such districts into parishes, and appointing a minister to each, with a salary from the public purse, should occur to the friends of establish ments in such a case as this : it accords with their habits of thinking, and it is perhaps plausible in itself; but it is only plausible. The nomination of religious instructors by the state has never been found to secure a faithful and devoted ministry ; and to try the experiment again on the Ohio or the Mississippi, would only be to renew disappointments which have already been sufficiently plentiful, both in the Old World and the New. Besides, in this case, one of several coexistent and rival sects must be adopted and patronized by the state, a step which has always been found to inflame animosity rather than to allay it, and which would soon add to the evils of the border settlements, already sufficiently great, the worse mischief of party feuds. It is remark able, indeed, that one of the most strenuous advocates of state support for religion,p while loudly calling for a parochial provision in the new country, acknowledges its inutility in the old. Speaking of Massachusetts, where the desired method has had the longest and the fairest trial, he says, " Even here, we are beginning to feel the evils arising from division, and to feel them severely : — your parishes are crumbling into ruins, — party is -arrayed against party, — to settle a minister becomes imprac ticable." Why,; therefore, should an apparatus be set up elsewhere, which, in the most favourable circumstances, has produced such unsatisfactory results? While we are convinced, however, that no ultimate or permanent good could arise to these destitute regions from the interference of the state, we must add that they have a strong and imperative claim upon the friends of religion in the more favoured parts of the Union. This is the source from whence their help should be derived. They present an appropriate sphere for operations of a truly missionary character, and can be effectually benefited only by missionary zeal. Considering the rapid popula tion and the growing influence of the western states, no religious object should be p Dr. Jarvis, as quoted by Mr. Hodgson, " Letters from North America," vol. ii. p. 224. 380 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. deemed by American christians of equal importance with the diffusion of vital religion throughout their whole extent. There can be no doubt of their com petency to the task ; and if it is painful to see how much in past years it has been overlooked, it is matter of joy to know that it has recently been entered upon in a spirit of great promise. Besides the labours of the American Home Missionary Society, which are not inconsiderable, a vigorous effort of Sunday-school instruction has been made by several thousand teachers, who have pledged themselves to go through the whole of the great central valley, and are still engaged in the accomplish ment of their purpose. Those who have already encountered the labour of sowing the seed of divine truth in this hitherto barren region, have found it far from unproductive ; and there is every reason to believe, that, under the hand of assiduous cultivation, it will ere long be fruitful as the garden of the Lord.*1 To bring this long, but we hope not unimportant or useless discussion to a close, we may remark, that, if the absence of a national establishment of religion be connected with no evil, it is an obvious and positive good. The advocates of such institutions, while they have contended that they yielded benefits for which it was worth while to bear them, have never maintained, we believe, that they were blessings in themselves. The heavy expense which they entail upon a country — the corrupt ing influence of church patronage — the anti-national bias of an endowed hierarchy — the inundation of interested and worldly ministers — and the heart-burnings inseparable from the elevation of one sect above its fellows — are evils which might be thought too great to be suffered for any price ; but they are at all events too great to be endured for nothing. To the absence of a religious establishment has been referred, and perhaps with some justice, the liberality of different sects towards each other, which exists to an eminent degree in the republic. The feature itself is at all events a very pleasing one, and must contribute very materially, both to the facility of individual labour, and the power of united exertion. " The different denominations in this country," says Mr. Ward, " come together in delightful harmony, and cooperate without being obstructed by those impediments which exist in other countries. The Sunday-school Union, in New York, exhihits a noble specimen of the true christian feeling, and the Union flourishes accordingly." Revivals We may now turn to the consideration of a subject which we have already lgion. mcidentally noticed, — we mean the Revivals of Religion by which some parts of the United States have been distinguished. Few things have struck the ear of the 1 We recommend it to the serious consideration of religious individuals or families who propose to emigrate, whether it is not their duty, by settling in some of the new states of the Mississippi valley, to assist in the promotion of vital religion in a portion of the world, the importance and influence of whioh is increasing at a ratio of which it is difficult to form an adequate estimate. THE UNITED STATES. 381 christian public in this country with more surprise and incredulity than the accounts CHAP. II. which have of late more particularly reached us, of wide-spreading religious excite- " ments, and conversions in a few weeks amounting to several hundreds, and, in some cases, thousands. Not a few have asked, with the very best intention, What is to be thought of these things? Must not large allowances be made, either for glowing representations, or for enthusiastic feeling ? We apprehend that no judicious person, on either side of the Atlantic, commits himself to the approbation of every thing which may be called a revival of religion, or may be attendant upon one. Some of them, it is admitted on all hands, have been enthusiastic to a great degree; while others have been eminently characterized by the exercise of sound judgment, the awakening of holy emotion, and the production of valuable fruits. For the former we make no apology ; of the latter we shall endeavour to lay before our readers a brief but comprehensive view. It appears that we are not to consider a revival of religion as synonymous with a multitude of conversions. By an author who writes from his own observation, their peculiar feature is illustrated in the following manner : — " Imagine a sinner awakened, and led on to conversion by reflection ; having, in the mean time, little or no inter course with other minds on the subject of religion, but associating principally, or exclusively, with his bible, and communing alone with his own heart and with God, Scarcely a second person is aware of the state and progress of his mind, except that, if he is concerned in the common intercourse of life, the more than usual gravity and seriousness of his demeanour will naturally be observed. There are, doubtless, a great many conversions of this sort, and they may be called, in distinction from another class, insulated conversions. Suppose an individual has been awakened by the admonitions of a sermon, or of some private intercourse with other minds, and is conducted by the Spirit of God to the stage of genuine conversion, but is virtually alone in this state and progress of his mind, there being no second person in his neighbourhood in a similar condition ; this may also be called an insulated conversion, though not so absolutely so as the other case supposed : there was, indeed, a social influence which first awakened his attention, but no sympathy of other minds in a like condition, either to originate instrumentally, or to urge on his career. There is little reciprocal influence between such conversions and society. We may suppose, again, a community of greater or less extent, bound together by many common ties of a social character, through the channels of which sympathy on all subjects of common interest, especially those calculated to agitate the mind, is easy and quick. It may further be supposed, that the spirit of God arrests the attention of an unconverted individual of such a community, producing a very anxious solicitude for the salvation of his soul — so anxious, that he cannot keep it a secret if he would. It is, moreover, supposed, that this community are generally instructed in the doctrine of repentance, VOL. II. 3 D TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. as essential to peace with God, — and of regeneration, to salvation. It is the common public opinion — the popular belief, by an habitual speculative assent. Of course it is an easy and natural step to the conclusion, that it is quite reasonable, and even important, for every individual, at some period of his life, to devote himself, in special earnest, to his own preparation for eternity— that he is in danger of being overtaken in his sins by death. When, therefore, an individual of such a community is sud denly and powerfully seized with a concern for his soul's eternal welfare — so power fully that he cannot conceal it — that his feelings break out in tears and in prayers — that he throws himself upon the compassion of christians as more fitted to guide his anxious mind, and to be his intercessors with God — and that, of necessity, the matter becomes a subject of some public notoriety — it very naturally produces a pause in the ordinary career of those with whom this individual is more intimately allied. And it may also be supposed, that the same Spirit which has smitten the individual with a convic tion of his guilt, and a sense of his danger, employs that very event as an instrument of awakening his former associates to an equal degree of concern, so that they not only pause at his arrest, but are themselves arrested, finding that they too are involved in the same condemnation, and have need of the same pardoning mercy and sanctifying grace. And now a group of individuals are together, asking, with an affecting and overpowering earnestness — What must we do to be saved ? And this increase of the number renders it still more a matter of public notoriety ; and there is a general pause. Every individual of this group has his more intimate connexions with society as the first individual had with them ; and for the same reasons, and we will suppose, by the same divine influence, the number of the anxious is soon multiplied, till a crowd of individuals are together asking and seeking the way of salvation ; and soon a whole community are affected, in a greater or less degree. All sympathize. Christians are * filled with faith and the Holy Ghost,' and with an uncommon spirit of prayer ; they are excited to diligence and roused to activity. The minister or ministers of religion are greatly animated, and uncommonly furnished by the natural excitements of such a state of things. The house of God is thronged, and the assemblies deeply affected and impressively solemn. Every sermon, and every prayer, and every exhortation, seem to tell with amazing power on the congregated multi tudes. Sinners are converted, and others awakened, and the work goes on with increasing power, extending through the community. Meetings are necessarily mul tiplied to meet the exigencies ; ministers and christians have as much as they can do to attend to the anxious, to guide the inquiring, and to conduct the frequent public assem blies of the people. They visit from house to house, warning the careless, encouraging and confirming the trembling hope, rejoicing with those who rejoice, instructing, exhorting, and offering up prayer. And this is somewhat the manner of an American revival of religion. And the fruit of it is, that many sinners are hopefully born THE UNITED STATES. 383 again, the church enlarged, believers improved in their christian character, the CHAP. II. interests of religion obtain a wider and more solid foundation in the community, and the way is better prepared for another season of like refreshing influence from above." r American revivals, therefore, in part at least, owe their existence and peculiarities to sympathy. The supposition, however, that they wholly do so, and that they are nothing more than powerful sympathetic excitements, is by no means reconcilable with the nature of the results. " There is nothing in the social principle," as Mr. Colton justly remarks, " to account for a great and sudden movement of a whole community, upon a subject which, like that of the christian religion, has been before them from time immemorial, with all its sanctions and with all its motives — nothing in it, independent of the coming in of a special influence — an influence which does not lie in the letter of Christianity. A community may be surprised by what is new — but everything in the letter of Christianity is old. A community may be greatly moved by what naturally and deeply affects their passions, when unexpectedly brought before them by the eloquence of the tongue, or under the affecting power of circumstances. ••'All such excitements, however, can only be momentary. But that the histories, and doctrines, and truths of religion, in which the public mind had been thoroughly versed from the cradle, should suddenly be armed with an unwonted power, not only over the minds of individuals, but so as manifestly to affect a whole community, and operate a thorough change in the hearts and lives of many individuals of that community, is a fact, which, so far as I know, it lies within the compass of no philosophy to account for, but that of the religion which is the instrument of the change, and which professes to solve the problem by a reference to the powers of the Holy Ghost. What reason is there that one community should feel more than another, or one person more than another; — their education being the same, and other things equal, which belong to the same relations and influences of society ? And what reason, that the same communities and the same persons should feel more at one time than another, under the same system of means ? Independently of the Spirit of God, there is a mystery in this ; but with it, there is no mystery." It has been customary to regard American revivals of religion as connected generally, if not uniformly, with scenes of enthusiastic extravagance ; but it would appear that such an idea has been entertained with little truth. Without maintaining an entire absence of irregularities, which, indeed, it would have been, in the highest degree, unreasonable to expect, the author we have already quoted gives the following general statement: — " The ostensible phenomena of revivals of religion in the United States have exhi bited themselves very much according to the characters of the communities affected, - Rev. C. Colton on American Revivals of Religion, pp. 10 — 14. 384 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. and of the individuals to whom, in the providence of God, have been committed the guidance and control of public feeling. In New England, the character of the com munities has always been of a grave and sbber cast, where thought takes lead of feeling ; and the temperament of the ministry is more severe than ardent — more prone to stock the Understanding than excite the passions. Hence the public excitements of revivals have never exposed the people or the ministers to extravagances. The most remarkable characteristic of such seasons is not noise but stillness— the reign of con templative silence and solemn reflection. The world itself seems hushed, as if awed by eternity. The public assemblies are thronged, indeed, but the ordinary restiff listnesshess of an unthinking crowd is settled into a wrapt attention of the soul, and into the silent, but not less expressive demonstrations of the deepest emotions. Public order is not less, but more exact. , A violation of it would be the more shock ing. There is no want of feeling, and no difficulty in controlling it. And I have yet to Jearn the occurrence of any notable disorders in all the revivals of New England that have ever come to my knowledge. They may have happened, but I never heard even of one. All is decency, and all quietness — not, however, the quietness of stupor, but of subdued feeling. A large portion of New England is literally educated to revivals. The present generation of ministers and churches has been born in them, and brought up in them, and is familiar with all their scenes. They understand the symptoms — they know what to do and how to do — and the people know how to behave. In the highest excitement of public feeling, it would be morally impossible to drive the people into disorder or extravagance. They have nO such habit. Such •is the fixedness of their character, that no power on earth could essentially discompose the public mind. But all this cannot be said of every portion of the population of our country. Farther west there is less of the stubbornness of a well-defined and fixed character, as the settlements are new, and society comparatively heterogeneous and unorganized. Farther south, the people are more ardent and more excitable. But the medium of those extremes is of a character qualified between the two — I mean that medium of society, which is found in the intermediate territories. And there are many, very many communities without, and some of them far without New England, in the states of New York, New Jersey, and Ohio, where revivals of religion are characterized with as much sobriety as in the land of the pilgrim fathers. Irregularities and extravagance are no more essential attributes of revivals than are the physical conditions of the territory and climate. They are mere accidents, when they happen to occur, owing to the state of society, or to the want of a proper superintendence, or to the combined influence of both these causes. A proper superintendence may, at all times, and in any community, prevent them." ' 6 Colton, p. 132. THE UNITED STATES. 385 It is conceived by Mr. Colton, and doubtless by his American brethren generally, chap. II. that there is in the revivals with which they have been favoured something peculiar, not only to their own country, but to the last age of Christianity. We cannot here enter into the details by which he supports his opinion; but if the views of this writer be adopted, (and we confess that we are disposed to adopt them,) it becomes of some interest to inquire what the reasons may have been which, either in themselves have favoured the production of revivals in the United States, or may have rendered it good in the eyes of divine wisdom thus pecu liarly to honour them. On these points let us again hear Mr. Colton. " It is re markable that revivals of religion, under their American character, commenced in New England, and were, till quite recently, principally confined to that region. And their extension westward and southward, I believe, has generally been found in the track of New England emigrants, or springing up under the labours of New England ministers, until they are now beginning to be reported from every part of the land. The great bulk of revivals, however, are still found in the east and north. Such facts may be presumed to have a connexion with the original elements and peculiar frame of society, as also with the blessing of God in reward of the distinguished christian virtues of the founders of such institutions, and of the fidelity of successive genera tions in supporting them in their original spirit. It is a general and exact truth — that the pilgrim fathers of New England laid the foundations of their civil and social edifice, and of their religious institutions, in tears, and prayers, and in much faith. And the experiment of 200 years has proved that God has regarded those tears, and remembered those prayers, and plenteously rewarded those works of faith." Our author refers us likewise to the general aspect of society in the transatlantic republic. " It is generally understood, that the state of society in the United States is very near to a common level. And so far as the sympathies of the com munity are concerned, on any subject of great and common interest, it is agreeable to fact. Especially is it so in those regions where revivals of religion originated, and have principally flourished. It may be said of all the minor communities, of which the grand community is composed, that, in each of them, every body knows every body, and feels an interest in every body ; so much so, that nothing of material interest transpires with a family, or scarcely with an individual, but that a pulse of sympathy beats through the whole body. Such being the state of society, and religion being generally acknowledged and esteemed the paramount interest of man, and, withal, the public conscience being preserved pure and susceptible, it is not very difficult to see, that the marked conversion of one or more individuals might become a subject of common and public interest. And admitting the scripture doctrine of the office and special agency of the Holy Spirit in the work of conversion, the change might well be regarded with a high degree of respect and reverence. It has ever 386 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. been considered as a great and decided change — a change which every one must undergo, in order to salvation. It has been habitually urged and pressed upon the conscience as a present duty. With a public mind so enlightened, and a conscience so susceptible, and a common sympathy so all-pervading, it can hardly appear incre dible that the awakening of one sinner should be the means of awakening others, and the conversion of one the means of other conversions. And to this day there are no barriers of caste in' the United States — no impaled, insulated conditions of society, of a character to limit the common circulation of good and healthful moral influences — or to prevent a reformation begun in one place, from reaching every other place." It is a striking indication of the extent to which sympathy is carried in religious con cerns, that, among ministers of the same denomination, a custom of exchanging pul pits exists, to the amount of nearly one-fourth of their services. It thus arises that the influence of even a single minister of peculiar energy becomes widely felt; and it is an honourable feature in the congregation over which he is fixed, that they can rejoice in this extension of his usefulness.* To these causes may be added, we conceive, the character of the theological system, which, within the last century, has been advocated in New England, and has now obtained a general prevalence. The change accomplished within this period is thus luminously stated by Dr. Lyman Beecher : " Our Puritan fathers adhered to the doctrine of original sin, as consisting in the imputation of Adam's sin, and in a hereditary depravity ; and this continued to be the received doctrine of the churches of New England, until after the time of Edwards. He adopted the views of the reformers on the subject of original sin, as consisting in the imputation of Adam's sin, and a depraved nature transmitted by descent. But, after him, this mode of stating the subject was gradually changed, until, long since, the prevailing doctrine in New England has been, that men are not guilty of Adam's sin, and that depravity is not of the substance of the soul, nor an inherent or physical quality, but is wholly voluntary, and consists in the transgression of law, in such circumstances as constitutes accountability and desert of punishment. This change was not accomplished without Theologyof New England. • Though. Unitarianism stands far removed from all connexion with revivals, its diffusion has been with great probability traced to this sympathetic practice. " The question has often been asked, what has led to that awful degeneracy of Boston with respect to evangelical truth, which the friends of the ' faith once delivered to the saints,' have so long observed and deplored 1 Various reasons have been assigned for this phenomenon, a phenomenon nearly, if not entirely unparalleled in ecclesiastical history : but I acknowledge, none of these reasons have ever satisfied me. The licentiousness and derangements of the revolutionary war were known, and exerted an influence in other places as well as in Boston. The literary character and inquiring spirit of the clergy have been quite as much distinguished in some other places as in that town. The same remark might be made with respect to several other considerations usually offered to assist in solving the difficulty. I have scarcely any remaining doubt, that a. principal cause of the effect in question is to be sought in indiscriminate exchanges with all classes of heterodox ministers. There probably never was a place in which this system has been carried to such a length as in Boston." — Spirit of the Pilgrims, p. 143. THE UNITED STATES. 387 discussion. It was resisted by those who chose to be denominated Old Calvinists, chap, ii, and advocated by those who were called Hopkinsians and New Divinity men, until, " for many years, these views of original sin have been the predominant doctrine of the ministers and churches now denominated Evangelical. These, while they disclaim the language held by Calvin and Edwards on the subject of imputation, do, in accord ance with the bible and the reformers, hold that there is a connexion of some kind between the sin of Adam and the universal, voluntary, and entire depravity of his posterity; so that it is in consequence of Adam's sin that all mankind do sin volun tarily, as early as they are capable of accountability and moral action. The pamphlets and treatises on this subject were written, and the subject settled," adds Dr. B. "chiefly before my recollection. But I have read them, and have searched the scriptures, and have, from the beginning, accommodated my phraseology to opinions which had been adopted as the result of an investigation which commenced more than seventy years ago, and has been settled more than fifty years ; and which is now, with some variety of modification, received substantially, as I apprehend, by two- thirds, if not by three-fourths, of the evangelical divines in the United States."" " Spirit of the Pilgrims, vol. i. p. 158. Dr. Beecher goes on to say, " Some of the most approved writers on this subject are, Hopkins, the younger Edwards, West, Smalley, Spring, Strong, Dwight ; and in England, Andrew Fuller, one of the greatest and best of men. The following quotations from several of these writers will shew the fact, and the nature of the change in the mode of stating the doctrine of original sin. ' It is not to be supposed that the offence of Adam is imputed to them, [his posterity,] to their condemnation, while in their own persons innocent ; or that they are guilty of the sin of their first father antecedent to then- own sinfulness. All that is asserted as to what the scriptures teach is, that, by a divine constitution, there is a certain connexion between the first sin of Adam, and the sinfulness of his posterity.' — Hopkins vol. i. p. 319. " The subject is thus stated by Dwight ' 1. That by one man sin entered into the world. 2. That in con sequence of this event, all men have sinned. 3. That death, as the consequence of sin, has passed upon all men.' And he says, ' It is clearly impossible that any being except a thinking, voluntary one, should be the subject of either virtue or sin.' " Please to remember that your wicked nature is your own, in the most personal sense ; for, though we are sinners by Adam ; though there is an established connexion between the sin of Adam and the sin of his posterity ; though all the children of men are, by nature, totally depraved, in consequence of Adam's sin ; yet sin is a personal quality. And as your hearts and souls are your own, and not the hearts and souls of other men ; as your thoughts and volitions are your own, and not the thoughts and volitions of others ; so your sin and evil nature are your own, and not the sin and evil nature of another. David, in his penetential confes sion, evidently refers to the established connexion between the sin of Adam and his posterity ; for, he says, with the note of attention, ' Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.' But he does not confess the sin of Adam any more than the sin of Seth ; nor will any other man who is the subject of a proper share of conviction ; for sin is a personal quality, and cannot be transferred from one to another, any more than the heart or soul of one man can be transferred to another." — Spring's Disquisition, as quoted in Ely's Contrast, p. 79. "Adam's first offence was some way or other the occasion of the universal sinfulness of his future offspring. And the question now before us is, how his sin was the occasion ot ours. 1 . Adam did not make us sinners by causing us to commit his first offence. Nor can we more easily believe, — 2. That he made his posterity sinners by transferring to them the guilt of his first transgression. The doctrine of imputation, therefore, gives us no ground to suppose that all mankind sinned in, and fell with, Adam, in his first transgression ; or that the guilt of his first sin was, either by him, or by the Deity, transferred to his posterity. Nor can we suppose,— 388 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK iv. This change of theological system, (we speak without committing ourselves to its entire approval,) must undoubtedly have exercised an extensive influence on the mode6 of conceiving other topics, besides those more immediately specified, and have powerfully modified the whole style of pulpit address. In the latter respect, the change is wholly in favour of a more efficient ministry. The notions that men are born to be punished for Adam's sin, that they are summoned to duties they are not able to perform, and are to be tormented with the loss of happiness they never had the opportunity of attaining, whatever may be their other merits, have a clear adaptation, on the principles of common sense, to frustrate all exhortations, and to lull men into an imperturbable slumber. The new Calvinism of New England, on the contrary, bears upon the conscience with a direct and immense pressure ; and to this cause some of their writers have, we think with great reason, attributed the signal success of their ministry. But it appears, that, beyond the general influence of a stimulant and awakening ministry, there are methods employed in the western world for the direct and specific purpose of producing revivals of religion. On this part of the subject, Mr. Colton's treatment of which is highly interesting and important, our limits will not allow us to enter into detail. The modes of proceeding which have been adopted are of great variety ; but they are obviously pervaded by the general design of bringing known and familiar truth into a more direct and powerful bearing upon individual feeling. Hence the protracted services, in which preaching and other exercises are kept up incessantly for a number of days, varying from four to twelve or thirteen ; and hence the various methods of dividing congregations, from which such valuable effects have often resulted. Variety, in truth, is stated to be essential to the system : something to break in upon the ordinary routine of religious services, by the very regularity of which, perhaps, much may be done to lull the mind into slumber in the midst of awakening truths. That much wisdom is necessary to the beneficial use of such methods, we have no inclination to deny, but we are fully convinced that the system which employs them is founded upon right principles, and that they need only to be wisely used in order to produce effects of extraordinary power. Camp- Among the various methods adopted for the diffusion of the gospel in the United meetings. gtateSj the holding of "camp-meetings," a practice prevailing chiefly among the Methodists, has attracted considerable attention and animadversion. When such a 3. That Adam made men sinners by conveying to them a morally corrupt nature. There is no morally corrupt nature distinct from free, voluntary, sinful exercises." — Bmmans, as quoted in Ely's Contrast, pp. 67, 69, 71. " Men have lost none of their ability to obey his commands by the fall ; they are as really able to obey every divine command as Adam was when he came out of the forming hand of his Maker." — Mass. Miss. Magazine as quoted in Ely's Contrast, p. 75. THE UNITED STATES. 389 meeting is announced, presently all the roads, sometimes for a hundred miles round, CHAP. II. are covered with travellers on foot, on horseback, and in gigs, or waggons, hastening themselves and their families to this grand celebration. The centre of a forest, ' deep, dark, lonely, and almost impenetrable,' is the theatre usually chosen. The native tenants of the wood being frightened away by the noise and tumult, it is taken possession of by this immense congregation. The horses being tied to the trees, and the waggons ranged in rows along the skirts of the forest, the interior is prepared for the purpose by cutting down the trees, and laying their branches along the ground to be used as seats; the space is railed round, and a pulpit elevated. Religious services are then kept up for several days. Great evils have been ascribed to these meetings ; but while it would obviously be too much to expect that such an occasion should attract no persons of profligate character, or that they should not avail themselves of such an opportu nity for licentious excesses, the unsparing manner in which the accusations have been brought, throws great suspicion upon the charges themselves. What is unusual may easily be deemed wrong ; and when a thing is ranked as an evil, nothing is easier than to imagine mischiefs which do not exist, and to exaggerate those which do. Admitting such meetings to be in themselves undesirable, it may be questioned whether in the actual state of the republic, some such services are not necessary ; and whether efforts of any other kind could adequately convey religious instruction to a population so widely dispersed among the vast forests and prairies of the west. It is a relief, at least, to know that all testimony is not against them. Mr. Cooper, who is at all events no enthusiast in religion, speaks of such services as " alike impressive and beautiful." " It is a fashion," he adds, " to ridicule and condemn these meetings, on the plea that they lead to excesses and encourage superstition. As to the former, the abuse is enormously exaggerated, though, beyond a doubt, there are individuals who attend them that would seek any other crowd to shield their vices ; and as to the latter, the facts shew, that, while new and awakened zeal, in ignorant persons, fre quently breaks out in extravagance and folly, they pass away with the exciting cause, and leave behind them tender consciences and a chastened practice." Before closing this chapter, we must take a passing notice of the important Theoiogi- iii i_v u j cal semina- theological institutions, with which it may be said that the republic abounds. ries. This spacious territory, notwithstanding its recent settlement, is almost studded over with colleges and universities. Of the rank of these in relation to general literature some notice will be taken in the following chapter; we only observe here, that in many of them there is a theological department of great value and efficiency. Besides these, there are also a number of strictly theological semi naries, of which a tabular view is annexed, devoted entirely to the training of ministerial candidates. The American Education Society is a valuable auxiliary to these; taking for its object, and pursuing it in a very catholic and praiseworthy spirit, the pecuniary provision necessary for eligible candidates, when they are destitute of VOL. II. 3 E review. 390 TOPOGRAPHY OF book iv. resources for completing their education. A new, and hitherto, we believe, a peculiar feature in educational institutions, has been recently introduced into some of the transatlantic theological seminaries, namely, that of combining study with manual labour ; several hours daily being devoted to some vigorous bodily employment. The principal object sought by this arrangement, appears to be the preservation of health of body and elasticity of mind ; and, so far as experience has hitherto gone, the results are highly favourable to the wisdom of its adoption. The number of theological institutions in the United States decisively indicates the value which the professors of religion there attach to an educated gospel ministry. Benevolent The benevolent institutions of the republic,1 on which, perhaps, we may here make tions. the single remark we have to offer, although most of them of comparatively recent origin, and most of them formed in generous imitation of British example, are of extraordinary vigour for their youth, of rapid growth, and of great promise. Their general denominations, and the amount of their receipts for the years 1829 and 1830, will be found in one of the tables at the end of the chapter. General We may conclude this chapter with a general view of the religious character of the republic in the words of a pious English traveller." The extent in which vital reli gion prevails here is known only to the Searcher of hearts ; but there is the strongest reason to believe that it is very considerable. I am disposed to think that a cursory traveller visiting England and America, without prejudice, and with equal opportu nities of observation, would draw a more favourable inference with respect to the state of religion in the Atlantic cities of the eastern and middle states, than with respect to the towns or cities of the former. I confine my supposition to the Atlantic cities, because the benighted shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and many portions of the western wilds, possess few features in common with our favoured country, and should rather be compared with our colonial possessions in the East or West Indies. Indeed, I might include extensive districts in the back parts of many of the Atlantic states, where population is thinly scattered, and opportunities of public worship occur only once or twice a month. In some of these, I thought I observed great coldness in religious concerns ; the unfrequent return of public ordinances rendering the inhabitants rather less than more willing to avail themselves of them when offered. I felt more disappointed in such districts, than in the frontier settlements. In the latter, some spiritual as well as temporal privations are naturally to be expected, though I thought their inhabitants often exhibited greater solicitude for schools and churches than those of the former. In fact, the new settlers from the Atlantic states have, in many cases, participated in the advantages of that general revival of religion which promises to be the characteristic of modern times ; and before their zeal has had time to cool in solitude and separation, it has often secured a pro vision for those religious ordinances by which it may be cherished and sustained. ~ Mr. Hodgson. THE UNITED STATES. 391 But the back parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia were settled in less auspicious days ; CHAP. II. and we must not be surprised if the flame of piety, burning less brightly at that time, even on the coast, should have grown pale and sickly when removed into an atmos phere which ministered little to its support. THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES. Name. Bagnor Theological Seminary . . . Theological Seminary Theological School Massachusetts Epis. Theo. School , Theological Institution Theological Dep., Yale College . . Theological Ins., Epis. Church . . Theological Seminary of Auburn . Hamilton Lit and Theo. Instit. . Hartwick Seminary Theological Sem. Dutch Ref. Ch. . Theological Sem. Pres. Ch. U. S. . Seminary, Lutheran Church, U. S. German Reformed . . Western Theological Seminary . . Episcopal Theological School, Va. Union Theological Seminary - . . South Theological Seminary .... South West. Theological Seminary Lane Seminary Rock Spring Seminary Place. Bagnor, Me. . . Andover, Mass. . Cambridge, do. . . Ditto ditto . . . Newton, ditto . . New Haven, Ct . New York, N. Y. Auburn, ditto . . Hamilton, ditto . Hartwick, ditto . N.Brunswick,N.J. Princeton, ditto . Gettysburg, Pa. . York, ditto .... Alleghany T. do. Fairfax Co. Va. . Pr. Ed. Co. do. . Columbia, S. C. . Maryville, Ten. . Cincinnati, Ohio . Rock Spring, II. . Denomination. Com.opera. tion. No. educat Stud. in 1831. Vols, in Library. No. Prof Congregationa 1816 50 14 1,200 Congregational 1808 514 139 10,000 4 Cong. Unitar. 1824 87 33 4 Episcopal . . 1831 .... 4 Baptist . . . 1825 25 22 1,020 2 Congregationa 1822 70 48 3 Prot. Epis. . 1819 134 28 3,600 4 Presbyterian. . 1821 157 51 4,000 3 Baptist . . . 1820 100 80 1,600 4 Lutheran . . 1816 . . Dutch Reform ¦ 24 Presbyterian 1812 537 92 6,000 3 Evangelical L 1826 43 6,200 2 G. Reform. Ch 1825 11 14 . 2 Presbyterian 1828 , , 22 3,964 2 Prot Epis. . 19 1,500 3 Presbyterian 1824 30 42 3,000 3 1829 9 2 Ditto .... 1821 41 22 5,500 3 1829 „ , ...... Baptist . . . 1827 5 1,200 1 There are Roman Catholic Theological Seminaries at Baltimore and near Emmittsburg, Maryland ; at Charles ton, South Carolina ; at Bardstown and in Washington county, Kentucky ; and in Perry county, Mo. RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS. Denominations. Calvinistic Baptists Methodist Episcopal Church . . Presbyterians, General Assembly Congregationalists, Orthodox . . Protestant Episcopal Church . . Universalists Roman Catholics Lutherans Christians German Reformed Friends, or Quakers Unitarians, Congregationalists . Associate, and other Methodists Free-will Baptists Dutch Reformed Mennonites Associate Presbyterians ..... Cumberland Presbyterians . . . Tunkers Free Communion Baptists . . . Seventh-day Baptists Six-principle Baptists United Brethren, or Moravians Millennial Church, or Shakers . New Jerusalem Church .... Emancipators, Baptists Jews and others not mentioned Ministers. Churches or Cong. 2,914 1,7771,801 1,000 558 4,384 2,253 1,270 700 150 300 205 200 1,200 800 84 400 400 160 193 350 300 400 159 194 200 . . . 7450 144 75 40 40 30 30 40 25 30 23 23 45 15 30 28 15 150 Commu nicants. 304,827 476,000 182,017140,000 44,00025,000 17,400 35,00016,000 17,888 30,000 15,000 8,0003,0003,500 2,000 1,8002,000 600 392 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. BENEVOLENT SOCIETIES. Name. Presidents. Forma. Income, 1828-9. Income, 1829-30. Dollars. Dollars. Connecticut Missionary Society . . 1798 2,070 33 3,013 06 Right Rev. Wm. White, D. D. 1808 7,724 41 American Board Foreign Miss. . . John C. Smith, LL. D 1810 102,000 00 106,928 26 American Baptist Board For. Miss. 1814 16,061 90 20,000 00 American Tract Society, Boston . . 1814 13,896 18 11,102 06 American Education Society .... 1816 30,434 18 30,710 14 American Asylum, Deaf and Dumb 1816 2,341 55 1816 143,184 33 170,067 55 Presbyterian Br. American Edu. So. 1817 12,632 00 Board Missionary General Assembly A. Green, D.D., LL. D 1818 8,000 00 12,632 43 Methodist Missionary Society . . . 1819 14,176 11 13,128 00 Board Education General Assembly 1819 American Colonization Society . . . 1819 19,561 93 20,295 00 1822 4,470 71 18,527 00 4,604 00 70,521 70 1824 Baptist General Tract Society . . . Rev. William T. Brandy . . . 1824 5,256 76 5,536 39 1825 3,531 00 3,353 52 1825 1,018 80 1,465 46 American Tract Society S. V. S. Wilder, Esq. 1825 60,000 00 60,210 00 American Temperance Society . . . Marcus Morton, LL. D 1826 American Home Missionary Society S. Van Rensselaer, LL. D. . . 1826 26,997 31 33,229 00 American Seamen's Friend Society 1826 1,214 38 4,159 87 Massachusetts Miss. So. reorganised 1827 5,247 32 1828 495 85 Right Rev. Wm. Meade, D.D. 1830 485,714 20 584,084 29 Place of Worship and Burial Ground at Ligonier Town, Pennsylvania. THE UNITED STATES. 393 CHAPTER III. LITERATURE ARTS MANNERS. It has been our aim, in treating of the varied subjects to which the plan of the work c H A P. has directed our attention, to avoid all unnecessary comparisons between the cir- IIL cumstances and condition of the republic, and of our own country, and to leave our readers to form their own judgment on the facts which have been laid before them; but the topics of the present chapter are of a character which frequently require com parison in order to render them intelligible : we trust, however, to be able to prove that even this process may be accomplished without manifesting the prejudices of nationality to the absurd excess which some, even of the most talented publications of the parent state have exhibited. As if desirous to be revenged on the Republic for the substantial advantages it possesses, they pour out a torrent of contemptuous abuse on their literature and manners. The language of the United States, for the most part, differs so slightly from that Language. of the middle and southern counties of England, that it requires some considerable discrimination to ascertain any points of distinction ; and those which are perceptible rather pertain to accent and intonation, than affect the sense. It is matter of surprise, indeed, that the idiom of the English language has undergone so little alteration. Several of the differences which exist arise from the Americans express ing their meaning by words which were in use at the time of the emigration of the " pilgrim fathers ; " while, in the mother-country, other terms have been substituted : — as, for instance, the word " sick," which the Americans continue to use instead of " ill," or " indisposed." " The best English," says Mr. Copper," " is spoken by the natives of the middle states, who are purely the descendants of English parents, without being the descendants of emigrants from New England. The educated men of all the southern Atlantic states, especially the members of those families which have long been aecustomed to the better society of their towns, also speak an English but little to be distinguished from that of the best circles of the mother-country. Still there are shades of difference between these very persons that a nice and practised ear can detect, and which, as they denote the parts of the Union to which they belong, must be called » Notions of the Americans, vol. ii. p. 171. .53* luruixiiArni ur BOOK IV. provincialisms. These little irregularities of language solely arise from the want of a capital. Throughout all New England, and among most of the descendants of the people of New England, the English language is spoken with more or less of an intona tion, derived, I believe, from the western counties of England, and with a pronunciation that is often peculiar to themselves. They form so large a proportion of the entire population of the country, that some of their provincialisms are getting to form a part of our ordinary language. The peculiarity of the New England dialect, (the term is almost too strong,) is most discernible in the manner in which they dwell on the last word of a sentence, or the last syllable of a word. It is not properly drawling, for they speak very quick in common, much quicker than the English ; so quick, indeed, as to render syllables frequently indistinct: but, in consequence of the peculiar pause they make on the last word, I question if they utter a sentence in less time than those who dwell more equally on its separate parts. Among men of the world and of education, this peculiarity is, of course, often lost; but education is so common, and the state of society so simple in New England, as to produce less apparent distinction in speech and manners than it is usual to find elsewhere. The middle states certainly speak a softer English than their brethren of the east. I should say, that, when you get as far south as Maryland, the softest, and, perhaps, as pure an English, is spoken as is any where heard. No rule on such a subject, how ever, is without many exceptions in the United States. The emigration alone would, as yet, prevent perfect uniformity. The voices of the American females are par ticularly soft and silvery; and I think the language, a harsh one at the best, is made softer by our women, especially of the middle and southern states, than you often hear it in Europe. New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, have each their peculiar phrases. Some of the women have a habit of dwelling a little too long on the final syllables, but I think it is rare among the higher classes of society. I do not know that it exists at all as far south as Baltimore. As you go farther south, it is true, you get a slower utterance, and other slight varieties of provincialism. In Georgia, you find a positive drawl, among what are called the " crackers." More or less of this drawl, and of all the peculiar sounds, are found in the south-western and western states ; but they are all too new to have any fixed habits of speech of their own. The usual vulgar phrases which are put into the mouths of Americans are commonly caricatured, though always founded in truth. ' I guess,' is a phrase of New England : it is used a great deal, though not as often as ' you know,' by a cockney. It proceeds, I think, from the cautious and subdued habit of speaking, which is characteristic of these people. The gentlemen rarely use it, though I confess I have heard it interlarding the conversation of pretty lips that derived none of their beauty from the puritans. You see, therefore, that it has been partially introduced by the emigrants into the middle states. Criticism is here so active, just now, that it is rapidly getting into THE UNITED STATES. ,395 disuse. The New Yorker frequently says, ' I suspect,' and the Virginian, ' I reckon.' CHAP. But the two last are often used in the best society in the mother-country. The differ- ' ence in pronunciation and in the use of words, between the really good society of this country and that of England, is not very great. In America, we can only tell an Englishman by what we are pleased to call his provincialisms, and quite half the time the term is correct. I was struck at the close resemblance between the language of the higher classes in the mother-country, and the higher classes of my own, especially if the latter belong to the middle states. There are certainly points of difference, but they as often proceed from affectation in individuals, as from the general habits of the two countries. Cockneyisms are quite as frequent in the language of an English gentleman, as provincialisms in the mouth of an American gentleman of the middle states." We can readily conceive that the Americans must often be strongly tempted to believe, from the specimens imported by emigrants, that they speak better English than the natives of Great Britain ; for we have found, to our cost, that, although not unacquainted with most of the varieties of our native tongue, the cottagers of some of the most romantic parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire were as unable either to receive or communicate ideas through the medium of words known to us as though they had been inhabitants of the South Seas. Certainly we found far more difficulty than we have ever done among our Gallic neighbours. The construction of the English language is a topic which occupies much more frequently, (we might almost say, incessantly,) the attention of the public in the United States than in Great Britain. The American linguists have been thought presumptuous in supposing they could possibly understand the language better than Murray, or other English grammarians ; to an impartial examiner, however, there will appear much force and truth in many of their observations. The following extract from " Strictures on Murray's Grammar," b may be taken as a specimen : " 'An article,' says Mr. Murray, ' is a word prefixed to substantives to point them out, and to show how far their signification extends.' Again, ' There are but two articles, a and the ; a becomes an before a vowel or a silent h.' It was not difficult to find words in English resembling the nouns, verbs, adjectives, &c. of the ancient languages ; but this was not enough for the first English grammarians ; they must find in English as many ' sorts of words' as were said to exist elsewhere. Something called an article was found in Greek, and suspected to exist in Latin. O, the Greek article, is equivalent to hie in Latin, and hie in Latin is this (in some dialects thic,) in English. But this, Murray calls a pronoun. The, his article, is a con traction of this, once spelled thae, and, afterwards, the. The has been pressed * Journal of Education, vol. i. p. 425. 396 TOPOGRAPHY OF book IV. into the service, and made an article ; while this has been denied the (or this or that) honour ; for two words that are entitled to form a separate class are, certainly highly distinguished. Now, we venture to say, that, in every important case, this, that, these, and those, may be substituted for the, without altering the sense. Mr. Murray says that the in the sentence, ' Nathan said unto David, Thou art the man,' is peculiarly emphatical ; but thou art this or that man is equally so. ' An article, (our author says,) is a word prefixed to substantives,' this and that, these and those, one, two, three, and every other numeral and ordinal adjective, are prefixed to nouns in the same way, 'to point them out,' and even, 'to show how far their signify cation extends,' for they effectually limit the signification of the noun. The man, this man, that man, forty men, seventh man. The words in italic are all articles, if Murray's definition be correct. Thus we have disposed of one article. Not satisfied with one (that is an,) article, our grammarian must have two. An is a contraction of one. An is generally contracted into a before words beginning with a consonant, and a does not become an, as Mr. Murray asserts ; for, at no very remote period of our literature, an was used before all words. One is sometimes spelled ane, hence an. A book is one book. The article un, which the French grammarians have impressed into the list of articles, is also their numeral adjective. How a numeral adjective can be called indefinite, is hard to conceive. Is one or ten an indefinite number ? The fact is, a, an, and I he, are as good adjectives as any in our language ; and had there not been an article in the Greek grammar, these words would have been left among the adjectives in ours." Nationaleducation. Publicschools. The subject of national education has engaged much attention, overcome many difficulties, and made considerable progress in Great Britain during the last forty years. Previously to that time, the opinion of the clerical, and perhaps of the lay aristocracy of England, was decidedly adverse to the education of the people at large ; but finding that the dissenters would successfully conduct the great work of educating the poorer classes, the clergy resolved, perhaps wisely, not to suffer so pow erful an engine to remain in the hands of their opponents ; and from these contrary, but cooperating causes, has elementary education become in a good degree general. In the United States, however, the cause of the education of the people has had no such difficulties to contend with, and owes its successful progress to feelings far more honourable. State has vied with state, as to the most effective means of insuring the education of every individual within its borders. In the new states, large grants of land have been made by the general government to constitute funds for the support of public schools ; and a reservation of land is made for that purpose, in the laying out of every new township. In other states, enactments have been made by the legis lature, compelling every township to provide, by assessment, instruction for its popu- THE UNITED STATES. 397 lation, and rendering each township subject to indictment and fine if the regulation CHAP. remains uncomplied with. We do not deem ourselves competent judges as to which IU' of the states has made the best arrangements to attain so desirable a result ; and our limits will not permit us to enter on a general collection of the details of the number of public schools, and the amount expended in their maintenance. In most of the states education at the public expense is one of the " rights " of " free-born Americans ;" and throughout the Union there are very few whites who cannot both read and write. In the state of Massachusetts, by the returns from 131 towns presented to the legis lature, it appears that the amount annually paid in those towns for public schools is 177,206 dollars, and the number of scholars receiving instruction is 70,599. The number of pupils attending private schools in the same towns is 12,393, at an expense of 170,342 dollars. The number of persons in those towns between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one who are unable to read or write, is fifty- eight. In the town of Hancock, Berkshire county, there are only three persons between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one, who are unable to read or write, and those three are mutes. Infant schools have been extensively established in many of the states ; and the infant best mode of conducting early instruction has occupied much attention. We would add the testimony of our own experience to the high importance of the training the human mind is capable of receiving between the ages of three and six, fully convinced as we are that the complexion of future life is frequently determined by the treatment received at that early age ; and would especially urge on the consideration of religious parents, whether the facts they are so ready to attribute to innate hereditary corrup tion do not, in truth, to a great extent, result from their own irrational and injudicious treatment, or to that of those whom they employ. Recently great attention has been bestowed on the improvement of the public improve- schools, and a variety of means have been resorted to to render the teachers them- teachers. selves more competent for their important work. Institutions for the improvement of schoolmasters are established,0 various associations for mutual improvement formed, lectures delivered, libraries accumulated, periodicals on education ably conducted, and the systems of Europe investigated; in fact, every process is in operation which can indicate intense interest — a patriotic persuasion that the stability of the empire depends on the intelligence and information of her people. Where the elements of education are thus open to all, it cannot be otherwise than Private that the more wealthy should be desirous of acquiring a larger portion of knowledge for their children than the public elementary schools can be expected to afford. In the principal towns there are private schools, in which this desire may be fully c One benevolent gentleman, in New York, devotes 8001. per annum to this important object. VOL. II. 3 F 398 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. gratified, and as good an education may be obtained as in similar institutions in England, though, perhaps, at an advance of thirty per cent, on the cost. In some instances, the public schools have intrenched materially on private academies ; while in others the case has been reversed. In some of the female seminaries classical attainments are carried much farther than is deemed desirable in England — Latin, Greek, algebra, and mathematics, forming part of the routine, in addition to philo sophy, astronomy, geology, botany, and the usual accomplishments : and a recent traveller complains particularly of the young ladies of Cincinnati being very "blue." It would appear to be characteristic of American education, that a general acquaintance with language and science should be imparted, without pursuing any particular branch to its utmost limit. Under such circumstances, there must be a liability to superficial knowledge in many cases. There is, however, a broad basis laid, on which the refinements of literature will naturally rise, as they are called forth by the increasing improvement of the national taste; and, indeed, the progress of the last few years indicates that the time is not far distant, when " eminent scholars " will not be so rare as they are now presumed to be. Colleges. The colleges in the Republic are numerous, and dispersed among the different states. Those which, have attained the greatest celebrity, are Harvard University and Yale College. As it is our aim to afford information rather than offer opinions of our own, we have appended the systems of education pursued in one of these institutions in a note ;d " A STATEMENT OF THE COURSE OF INSTRUCTION, EXPENSES, &c. IN YALE COLLEGE. Terms of Admission,— Candidates for admission to the freshman class are examined in Cicero's Select Orations, Virgil, Sallust, the Greek Testament,. Dalzel's Collectanea Graeca Minora, Adam's Latin Grammar, Goodrich's Greek Grammar, Latin Prosody, Writing Latin, Barnard's or Adams' Arithmetic, Murray's English Grammar, and Morse's, Worcester's, or Woodbridge's Geography. Jacob's Greek Reader and the Four Gospels are admitted as a substitute for Graeca Minora and the Greek Testament. — No one can be ad mitted to the freshman class till he has completed his fourteenth year ; nor to an advanced standing without a proportional increase of age. — Testimonials of good moral character are in all cases required ; and those who are admitted from other colleges must produce certificates of dismission in good standing. The students are not considered as regular members of the college till, after a residence of at least six months, they have been admitted to matriculation, on satisfactory evidence of an unblemished moral character. Before this they are only students on probation. Course of Instruction. — The faculty to whom is committed the government and instruction of the students consists of a president ; a professor of chemistry, mineralogy, and geology ; a professor of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages ; a professor of mathematics, natural philosophy, and astronomy ; a professor of divinity ; a professor of rhetoric and oratory ; and eight tutors. The whole course of instruction occupies four years. In each year there are three terms or sessions. The three younger classes are divided, each into two or three parts ; and each of the divisions is committed to the particular charge of a tutor, who, with the assistance of the professors, instructs it. The senior class is instructed by the president and professors. Each of the four classes attends three recitations, or lectures, in a day ; except on Wednesdays and Saturdays, when they have only two . The following scheme gives a general view of the authors recited each term : — THE UNITED STATES. 399 and a table, containing the names of the various colleges throughout the Union, and CHAP. many interesting particulars, extracted from the American Almanac, is given at the close — — FRESHMAN CLASS. ,f Folsora's Livy, from one half to two thirds. * \ Adam's Roman Antiquities. } Day's Algebra, begun. C Graca Mujora, VoL. l., begun. t Folsom's Livy, finished. II* I Gi*ssca Majora, continued through the historical part. I Day's Algebra, finished. r Horace, began. III. < Greeca Majora, Vol. II., begun. I Playfair's Euclid, fire books. SOPHOMORE CLASS. ' Horace, continued. Gneca Majora, continued. - Euclid, reviewed and finished. /¦ Horace, finished and reviewed. I Graeca Majora, continued. U J Day's Mathematics; Plane Trigonometry, Nature j and Use of Logarithms, Mensuration of Superficies i and Solids, and lsoperimetry ; Mensuration of ^ Heights and Distances ; and Navigation. /¦Gneca Majora, continued. V Juvenal ; Leverett's Edition. 1 Cicero de Oratore, begun. III. J Day's Mathematics ; Surveying. ] Bridge's Conic Sections. I Spherical Geometry and Trigonometry. \ Jamieson's Rhetoric. ,{: n. in. JUNIOR CLASS. /-Cicero de Oratore, finished. \ Tacitus, begun. 1 Greeca Majora, continued. C Olmsted's Natural Philosophy and Mechanics. /-Tacitus ; The History ; Manners of the Germans ; N and Agricola. P Graeca Majora, continued. ( Natural Philosophy, finished and reviewed. (Astronomy. Hedge's Logic. Tytler's History. S Fluxions. I Homer's [liad. V, Hebrew, French or Spanish ) At the option of the I student. II. 111. SENIOR CLASS. ! Blair's Rhetoric. Stewart's Philosophy of the Mind. Brown's do. Paley's Moral Philosophy. Greek and Latin. r Paley's Natural Theology. < Evidences of Christianity. I Greek and Latin. Say's Political Economy. In addition to the recitations in the books here specified, the classes receive lectures and occasional instruc tion from the professor of languages ; the junior class attends a course of experimental lectures on natural philosophy; and the senior class the courses on chemistry, mineralogy, geology, and select subjects of natural philosophy and astronomy. The members of the several classes attend also the private exercises and lectures of the professor of rhetoric and oratory. A course of lectures on the Oration of Demosthenes for the Crown is delivered to members of the senior class. Specimens of English composition are exhibited daily by one or more of each of the divisions of the sophomore and junior classes. Written translations from Latin authors are presented by the freshman class. The lower classes are also instructed in Latin composition. The senior and junior classes have forensic disputations once or twice ~ week, before their instructors. There are very frequent exercises in declamation before the tutors, before the professor of oratory, and before the faculty and students in the chapel. Gentlemen well qualified to teach the French and Spanish languages are engaged by the faculty to give instruction in these branches to those students who desire it, at their own expense. The object of the system of instruction to the undergraduates in the college is not to give a partial educa tion, consisting of a few branches only ; nor, on the other hand, to give a superficial education, containing a little of almost every thing ; nor to finish the details of either a professional or practical education ; but to commence a thorough course, and to carry it as far as the time of the student's residence here will allow. It is intended to maintain such a proportion between the different branches of literature and science as to form a proper symmetry and balance of character. In laying the foundation of a thorough education, it is necessary that all the important faculties be brought into exercise. When certain mental endowments receive a much higher culture than others, there is a distortion in the intellectual character. The powers of the mind are not developed in their fairest proportions by studying languages alone, or mathematics alone, or natural or political science alone. The object, in the proper collegiate department is not to teach that which is peculiar to any one of the professions ; but to lay the foundation which is common to them all. There are separate schools of medicine, law, and theology, connected with the college, as well as in various parts of the country, which are open to all who are prepared to enter on professional studies. With these, the undergraduate course is not intended to interfere. It contains those subjects only which ought to be understood by every one who aims at a thorough education. The principles of science and literature are the common foundation of all high intellectual 400 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. of this chapter. It will be perceived, that the intention of these institutions is to give a thorough education both in languages, mathematics, and the sciences ; and there is attainments. They give that furniture, and discipline, and elevation of the mind, which are the best prepara tion for the study of a profession, or of the operations which are peculiar to the higher mercantile, manufactur ing, or agricultural establishments. There are two public examinations of the classes in a year, — one in May, the other in September, — which are continued from four to six days each. The candidates for degrees are also examined at the close of their course of study. There are three vacations in a year : one of six weeks, beginning at commencement, the second Wednesday in September ; the second, two weeks from the second Wednesday in January ; and the third, four weeks from the first Wednesday in May. No student is allowed to be absent, without special leave, except in vacations. The absence of a student in term time, even for a few days, occasions a much greater injury to his education than is commonly supposed by parents and guardians. Public Worship. — Prayers are attended in the college chapel every morning and evening, with the reading of the Scriptures, when one of the faculty officiates, and all the students are required to be present. They are also required to attend public worship in the chapel on the Sabbath, except such as have permission to attend the episcopal, or other congregations in town. Expenses. — The college bills are made out by the treasurer and steward three times a year, at the close of each term, and are presented to the students, who are required to present them to their parents, guardians, or patrons. If any student fails to comply with this requisition, he is not permitted to recite till the bills are paid. Dols. Cts. The annual charges in the treasurer's bill are, For instruction 33 00 For rent of chamber in college, from 6 to 12 dollars — average . . 9 00 For ordinary repairs and contingencies 2 40 For general damages, sweeping, &c, about 3 30 For wood, for recitation-rooms, about 1 30 Total 49 00 Besides this, the student may be charged for damages done by himself, and a small sum for printing cata logues, and otiier occasional expenses. Board is furnished in commons by the steward, at cost, about 1 dollar 60 cents a week, or 64 dollars a year, not including vacations. It varies, however, with the price of provisions. Wood is procured by the corpora tion, and distributed to those students who apply for it at cost and charges. The students provide for themselves bed and bedding, furniture for their rooms, candles, books, stationery, and washing. — There are also, in the several classes, taxes of a small amount, for the fuel in the recitation-, rooms, catalogues, &c. If books and furniture are sold, when the student has no further necessity for them, the expense incurred by their use will not be great The following may be considered as a near estimate of the necessary expenses, without including apparel, pocket-money, travelling, and board in vacations. Dollars. Treasurer's bill, as above 49 49 Board in commons, 40 weeks, from 60 to 70 Fuelandlight 8 16 Use of hooks recited, and stationary 5 15 Use of furniture, bed, and bedding 5 15 Washing 8 18 Taxes in the classes, &c. 5 7 Total.. , 140,tol90 Mo students are permitted to take lodgings in town, except when the rooms in college are not sufficient to accommodate all. THE UNITED STATES. 401 no reason to doubt that any students who remain, and diligently apply themselves, chap. during the full term, may attain the object proposed. It is admitted, nevertheless, m' that a large proportion leave college for the busy and interesting concerns of life, before they have allowed themselves sufficient time to become thoroughly grounded. It may be doubted, however, how many individuals in England would condemn themselves to spend the fairest portion of their lives in celibacy, were they not amply supplied, by means of endowments, with the luxuries of life, and beguiled by Students who wait in the hall are allowed their board ; and those who occupy the recitation- rooms save their room-rent and fuel in winter, and receive a small compensation in summer. A cheap boarding-house is opened, under the direction of the steward, for those students who wish to board at a lower rate than it is fur nished in commons. The price of board here is about 1 dollar 25 cents. By a resolve of the corporation, a sum not exceeding one thousand dollars a year is appropriated to the relief of indigent students, and the encouragement of merit "the Theological Department. — The instructors in the theological department are » professor of didactic theology, a professor of sacred literature, and the professors of divinity and of rhetoric in the classical depart ment of the college. — The whole course of instruction occupies three years ; and the students are divided into junior, middle, and senior classes. — The time of admission is at the commencement of the first collegiate term. The terms and vacations are the same with those in the college. The conditions for entrance are hopeful piety, and a liberal education at some college, unless the candidate have otherwise qualified himself for pursuing advantageously the prescribed course of studies. — No charges are made for the tuition and lectures. — No funds have as yet been granted to this department for defraying the expenses of indigent students.-— Board may be obtained in private families at from 1 dollar 25 cents to 1 dollar 75 cents per week. The Law School. — The Law School is under the direction of the Hon. David Daggett, LL. D., a judge in the supreme court in Connecticut, and professor of law ; and Samuel J. Hitchcock, Esq., attorney and counsellor at law. — The students are required to peruse the most important elementary treatises, and are daily examined on the author they are reading, and receive at the same time explanations and illustrations of the subject they are studying. — A course of lectures is delivered by the professor of law, on all the titles and subjects of common and statute law. — A moot court is holden once a week, or oftener, which employs the students in drawing plead ings and investigating and arguing questions of law. — The students are called upon from time to time to draw, declarations, pleadings, contracts, and other instruments connected with the practice of law, and to do the most important duties of an attorney's clerk. — They are occasionally required to write disquisitions on some topic of law, and collect the authorities to support their opinions. — The students are furnished with the use of the elementary books, and have access, at all times, to the college libraries, and to a law library, comprising every important work, both ancient and modern. — The terms for tuition are 75 dollars per annum. The course of study occupies two years, allowing eight weeks' vacation each year. Students are, however, received for a shorter period. — The professor of law will also, for the present^ occasionally deliver lectures to the senior class in college, until arrangements are made for a systematic course to be permanently continued. The Medical Institution. — The instructors of the Medical Institution are a professor of surgery and obstetrics, a professor of chemistry and pharmacy, a professor of the theory and practice of physic, a professor of materia medica, botany, and therapeutics, and a professor of anatomy and physiology. — The lectures commence the last week in October, and terminate the last week in February. During the course, from fifty to one hundred lectures are given by each professor. — The students have access to the lectures on natural philosophy on paying the fees of the course, and they may attend the lectures on mineralogy and geology without charge. The examination for licences and degrees is held immediately after the close of the lectures.-r-The institution is furnished with a library and an anatomical museum. The students have access also to the library of the college, and to the cabinet of minerals.— The fees, which are paid in advance, are twelve dollars and fifty cents for each course. The matriculation fee and contingent bill are seven dollars and fifty cents. ' The entire expense of a residence of four months, through the course, including fees and all expenses, except clothing, is from 120 to 150 dollars. . .; 402 TOPOGRAPHY OF book IV. a prospect of liberty and a good living at the death of some worthy consumer of the tithe. Contrasting the university system of Great Britain, under which many indi viduals are justly said " to spend their lives in polishing a key, without ever unlock ing a door," with the less wealthy colleges of America ; and keeping in view their moral, as well as literary character, the superiority of the former may be viewed without envy by a people, who in their literary, as well as in their financial pursuits, have as few beggars as they have monopolists. Litera ture. — News papers. Reviews and maga zines. Having thus briefly noticed the machinery of education in the United States, we shall make a few observations on its results, which will be found to correspond with the character of their causes. We commence with what, with few exceptionsj may be termed the lowest kind. Newspaper literature has attained a universality unparalleled in the annals of the art of printing, and leaving, in point of quantity at least, the parent country far behind. There are published in the United States nearly 1,000 newspapers ; a large number of them daily, and some of them of very extensive circu lation : many of them are entirely political ; and certainly we cannot commend their style of conducting their warfare — they appear to mistake virulence for talent : others are purely commercial, filled with advertisements, at the rate of four insertions for a dollar. Some are devoted chiefly to literary and scientific purposes ; many of these are highly respectable. A considerable number, some of them of a very large circulation, (the New York Observer for instance,) are religious newspapers — a class that has never yet maintained its ground in England, although blessed with a " national religion." There is also another class of newspapers, very different from any in this country — weekly registers of .facts connected with trade, commerce, internal improvements, mechanical inventions, as well as the proceedings of congress and the state legislatures — such are Niles's Register, Hazard's Pennsylvania Register, and Styles's New York Register. We apprehend they cannot exist, in this country unless the stamp duty were abolished, as they combine many of the features of a newspaper with those of a mechanic and scientific magazine. The present state of the monthly and quarterly publications indicates a rapid im provement in the taste of the American public. Several attempts were made, some years since, to establish an American Review; but the North American has been the first that has maintained its ground ; and from its progressive improvement, it has well deserved the honour. It is now become almost as well known in Europe as the Edinburgh or Quarterly ; and some of its articles on European politics are read with a biting interest. Two other American Reviews, the Quarterly and the Southern, both very ably conducted, are also published quarterly. In the field of science, Silliman's Journal, published quarterly, at Philadelphia, is well known, and deservedly esteemed. The American Monthly Review, recently established, gives short notices THE UNITED STATES. 403 of all new works which issue from the press, either in Europe or America. The New CHAP. England Magazine, though inferior, is somewhat in the style of our New Monthly. m- Several other literary periodicals are published in Boston, New York, and Philadel phia ; and even the new states in the west are not wholly destitute of periodical litera ture. Theological periodicals are very numerous ; and some of them contain very able critical disquisitions on biblical literature, as well as controversial pieces. The Chris tian Examiner, and the Unitarian Advocate, published at Boston, are the organs of Unitarianism. The Christian Spectator, published at Newhaven, and the Spirit of the Pilgrims, at Boston, advocate orthodoxy. The Theological and Critical Repo sitory, published at Andover, conducted by Professor Robinson and Dr. Moses Stuart, is perhaps one of the ablest critical works in biblical literature that has ever appeared in the English language. The Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, Swedenborgians, Universalists, and other sects, have each one or more periodicals. It might seem impossible that such variety should exist without inducing universal freedom of thought ; but this result may be, and to a very large extent is, avoided, by the very simple process of each sect carefully excluding every other publication but its own, for the very sufficient reason that it is the only one which either does or can contain the truth — a reason perfectly similar in its principle to that which induced the Turk to order the destruction of the Alexandrian library. , The principal annual works which issue from the American press are the American Annuals. Almanac, a most admirable publication, and the Annual Register, which improves every year, both as to matter and arrangement. The pictorial annuals certainly exhibit no advanced state of the arts either of painting or engraving ; and, indeed, are more discreditable in the former point than in the latter : for most of the designs are taken from English prints, and this (unless the taste of the American people is founded upon the principle that a painter is to have " no honour in his own country ") most unnecessarily, as the scenery of the Hudson, the Potowmac, and the Ohio, not to mention a thousand other streams, and the pencils of Cole and other American artists, would produce as interesting an annual, at any rate, as borrowed prints, which, as invasions of copyright, render the works not only unpalatable, but unsale able in Great Britain. With respect to original works on general literature, if America has less to boast Originalworks than Europe, she has still less to be ashamed of. If her genius has not been employed to enliven the fancy, neither is it devoted to the pollution of the heart. But the writings of Irving and Cooper have forced their way through the prejudice which exists against the productions of our former colonies, and are too well known and too highly esteemed to permit any encomium from our pen, without a violation of pro priety. It is true that their chief writers have sought the richer reward which the European- market affords ; but the genius is no less American because exercised on 404 TOPOGRAPHY OF Dramaticcomposi- Poets. BOOK IV. this side the Atlantic, nor must our readers suppose that the claims of America to literary merit rest on two or three names alone. If a lucid and manly style is worthy of commendation, that of Franklin, and of Washington, has rarely been surpassed ; if eloquence be a mark of genius, Henry Lee, Patrick Henry, and others, may well lay claim to the wreath of fame. We are somewhat surprised to find the dramatic writings of the Americans to be so numerous. The editor of the American Quarterly states, that " he has actually in his possession nearly sixty American dramas, consisting of tragedies, comedies, operas, melodramas, and farces ;" and he adds, that after a duly diligent perusal of them, he can venture to affirm, that " they are quite equal to the productions of the present race of London playwrights which are regularly brought out at our theatres, and to which the certificate of having been performed a hundred nights, with unbounded applause, gives all the efficacy of a quack medicine." Nor have the Americans been destitute of poetic efforts ; not to mention living poets, Hopkins, Dwight, Barlow, Humphreys, Hopkinson, Trumbull, Freneau, Sewell, Linn, Lathrop, Paine, Prentiss, Boyd, Clifton, Isaac Story, Allen, Osborn, Spense, and Brainerd, have contributed many powerful and even refined effusions of the poetic muse. It would, however, occupy a volume to give a brief account of American writers ; and it is a work which we hope will be taken up by some able pen, that the ignorance which exists on this subject may, at least> be left without excuse. We shall close our remarks in American literature with some very just observations by a recent American writer ,e which place in a correct point of view the causes which have hitherto operated to retard the progress of literary refinement in the United States, while they at the same time vindicate the mental elements of their national character. " The American intellect possessing great compass, strength, and flexibility, united to a clear perception of fitness, is equal to any exigency in human affairs, and can adapt its pursuits to every change that may occur, and its measures to every new demand that may be made on it. This is attested by the great improvements it has made in every branch of knowledge that is called for in the country, and by which an honourable independence can be gained. Our position to this effect might be con firmed by a reference to the elevated condition of the liberal professions among us, and the multitude of inventions in the mechanical arts. Knowledge on these subjects, being needed in the present state of society, can be rendered profitable to its pos sessors, by an immediate application of it to practical purposes. It is therefore eagerly sought after, and rapidly attained. And the same will be true of every other branch of knowledge, as soon as it shall be called for under the certainty of a suitable reward. No matter whether it belongs to science, arts, or letters ; let a American intellectual power. New England Magazine, vol. i. p. 479. THE UNITED STATES. 405 market for it be opened, and American genius will soon supply it. But little has CHAP. been hitherto done by the public to encourage American literature. It has been even ' discountenanced, by an unreasonable preference of that from abroad. We call the preference unreasonable, because the foreign articles preferred have been often inferior to the domestic ones that were undervalued. The consequence has been what every one who reflected on the subject anticipated. Polite literature has been com paratively but little cultivated among us, except as a matter of individual taste and amusement. We have had but few writers by profession, because neither honour nor riches awaited the pursuit. Our mechanics became wealthy by labouring in their vocations, while our scholars might have starved in the midst of the most exquisite productions of their pens. The reason is obvious. There was a great demand for the implements of agriculture and some of the arts, but a very limited one for poetry, or any other kind of fine writing. The former was adapted to the state of society, while the latter was out of time. Necessaries and comforts, not luxuries or mere delicacies, were first to be provided. But polite literature is a luxury, and will not therefore be encouraged, because it cannot be indulged in, except as a concomitant of wealth and leisure. During this condition of things, but few literary productions appeared ; and even those that did appear were not of the highest order, or in the most finished style, because they had not been sufficiently elaborated : and to become a good writer is the work of years, under close industry, and the strictest attention to style and manner. Such was the disheartening state of things : yet it has already appeared that, notwithstanding its power to blight and wither, it did not render American genius unproductive. Beneath gloom and winter the blossoms opened, and the fruit became mature and excellent, far beyond what there was ground to expect. But of late, the sentiments of society have changed, public taste and judgment are improved, and a new era is evidently opening on American literature. Foreign pro ductions are not, as formerly, almost indiscriminately approved, nor those of our own writers rejected, merely because they are not the growth of a distant hemisphere. Readers examine and reflect, before they feel themselves authorized to decide. Their decision, therefore, is founded on principle, and is usually correct. As the con sequence of this change ¦ in public feeling, American works are sought for and pur chased to a much greater extent than in former years. Let this state of things continue; or rather, let it improve in the requisite degree; let fine specimens of American composition be rewarded with honour and profit, and they will soon be abundantly produced. Let prompt and liberal purchasers be found, and the market, as in other cases, will be well supplied. The Souvenirs, Tokens, and novels of the day, with many other productions of taste, give proof of this. We do not say that Byrons, and Sir .Walters, and Moores, will immediately spring up among us. Authors of that class appear but seldom. But we do say that we shall soon have writers vol. ii. 3 G 406 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. equal to any Europe contains, except, perhaps, such prodigies as we have named ; and in time we shall equal them. The same genius that gave renown to our fathers, through all the eventful periods of our history, is still the cherished inheritance of their descendants." The arts. The progress of the arts in the United States has been in proportion to their bearing on the essential comforts of life. Thus, in the mechanical arts they are inferior to no nation of the globe, as their ships, steam-boats, and engines of all kinds, bridges, canals, and rail-roads, abundantly testify. Architecture has recently received a far greater portion of attention than formerly ; those who devote their attention to this subject generally making the tour of Europe, to inform their minds and cul tivate their taste. Many of their recent state-houses and churches indicate the improved condition of the art, and afford just ground for pleasing anticipations of the future. We cannot give our readers a better idea of the domestic architecture of a respectable house in the cities of the United States, than by quoting the descrip tion which Mr. Cooper has given of an habitation of an American in the very best society, who is in easy circumstances, of extensive and high connexions. " The house in question occupies, I should think, a front of about thirty-four feet on the Broadway, and extends into the rear between sixty and seventy more. There are no additions, the building ascending from the ground to its attics in the same propor tions. The exterior necessarily presents a narrow, ill-arranged facade, that puts architectural beauty a good deal at defiance. The most that can be done with such a front is to abstain from inappropriate ornament, and to aim at such an effect as shall convey a proper idea of the more substantial comforts and of the neat ness that predominate within. The building is of bricksy painted and lined, and modestly ornamented, in a very good taste, with caps, sills, cornices, &c. in the dark red freestone of the country. The house is of four stories; the lower, or ress de chauss&e, heing half sunk, as is very usual, below the surface of the ground, and the three upper possessing elevations well proportioned to thevheight of the edifice. The door is at one of the corners of the front, and is nearljy on a level with the windows of the first floor, which may commence at the distance of about a dozen feet above the pavement of the street. To reach this- door, it is necessary to mount a flight of steep, inconvenient steps, also in freestone, which compensate, in a slight degree, for the pain of the ascent, by their admirable neatness, and the perfect order of their iron rails and glittering brass ornaments. The entrance is into a little vestibule, which may be some twelve feet long, by eight in width. This apartment is entirely unfurnished, and appears only constructed to shelter visitors while the servant is approaching to admit them through the inner door. From the vestibule, the entrance is into a long, narrow, high, and handsome corridor, at the farther extremity THE UNITED STATES. 407 of which are the principal stairs. This corridor, or passage, as it is called here, is chap. carpeted, lighted with a handsome lamp, has a table, and a few chairs ; and, in short, '. is just as unlike a French corridor as any thing of the sort can very well be. From this passage you enter the rooms on the first floor ; you ascend to the upper, and descend to the lower story, and you have egress from and ingress to the house by its front and rear. The first floor is occupied by two rooms that communicate by double doors. These apartments are of nearly equal size, and, subtracting the space occu pied by the passage, and two little china closets that partially separate them, they cover the whole area of the house. Each room is lighted by two windows ; is suffi ciently high ; has stuccoed ceiling, and cornices in white ; hangings of light, airy, French paper ; curtains in silk and in muslin ; mantel-pieces of carved figures in white marble ; Brussels carpets ; large mirrors ; chairs, sofas, and tables, in mahogany ; chandeliers ; beautiful, neat, and highly-wrought grates in the fire-places, of home work ; candelabras, lustres, &c, much as one sees them all over Europe. In one of the rooms, however, is a spacious, heavy, ill-looking sideboard, in mahogany, groan ing with plate, knife and spoon cases, all handsome enough, I allow, but sadly out of place where they are seen. You ascend, by means of the stairs at the end of the passage, into what is here called the second story, but which, from the equivocal character of the basement, it is difficult to name correctly. This ascent is neces sarily narrow, crowded, and inconvenient. The beautiful railings in mahogany and brass, and the admirable neatness of every part of an American house of any pretension, would serve to reconcile one to a thousand defects. As respects this cardinal point, I think there is little difference between the English and the Americans, at least, so far as I have yet seen the latter; but the glorious sun of this climate illumines every thing to such a degree as to lend a quality of bright ness that is rarely known in Britain. On the second floor (or perhaps you will get a better idea if I call it the first) of the house of Mr. — — , there is a spacious saloon, which occupies the whole width of the building, and possesses a corresponding breadth. This apartment, being exclusively that of the mistress of the mansion, is furnished with rather more delicacy than those below. The curtains are in blue India damask, the chairs and sofa of the same coloured silk, and other things are made to correspond. The library of the husband is on the same floor, and between the two is a room which is used as a bed-chamber. The third story is appropriated to the sleeping-rooms of the family; the attic to the same purpose for the servants; and the basement contains a nursery and the usual offices. The whole building is finished with great neatness, and with a solidity and accuracy of workmanship that it is rare to meet with in Europe, out of England. The doors 6f the better rooms are of massive mahogany ; and wherever wood is employed, it is used with great taste and skill. All the mantel-pieces are 408 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. marble, all the floors are carpeted, and all the walls are finished in a firm, smooth cement." f American Of the fine arts, the Americans have been less deficient in painting than any other ; painters. an(jj we apprehend, but few years comparatively will transpire before they attain a high character in this respect. Symbert, who went out with Dean Berkley, in 1728, was decidedly a man of genius, though a self-taught artist. He settled in Boston, where he was highly esteemed. His head of Cardinal Bentivilio, and of Dr. Mayhew, are among the first of fine portraits. Copley, the father of Lord Lyndhurst, the late lord-chancellor, appears to have been a pupil of Symbert, and flourished at Boston after Symbert's death. At the period of the revolution, after the battle of Lexington, he left America for England, where he had the good fortune to be as acceptable as he had been in his native country. Sir Benjamin West was a native of America, and first discovered his genius there. His talents are too well known to require our comment. Among the most distinguished American painters must be ranked Gilbert Stuart: he was a native of Rhode Island, and, after leaving college, made up his mind to follow painting as a profession; and not being able to find a proper master in America, Copley being then gone to England, he embarked for this country, in 1775, and put himself under the instruction of Mr. West, who was then in the zenith of his fame. Stuart soon became a favourite pupil of his master, and graduated from his school with a high reputation as a portrait painter : he ranked second to no one in London, but Sir Joshua Reynolds. While in the metropolis, he had the good fortune to become acquainted with Burke, Fox, Sheridan, and many of their associates. These men were not only patrons of the arts, but the friends of artists. He painted several of them in a fine style, which spread his fame far and wide. They were anxious to possess and to give to the world a correct likeness of Washington and they hiduced Stuart to visit the United States for that purpose. When he arrived at the city of Washington, the great man had retired from all office, and was in private life at Mount Vernon. When he sat to Stuart, as the latter has often stated, an apathy seemed to seize him, and a vacuity spread over his countenance, most appalling to the painter. Stuart was, however, not easily overcome ; he made several fruitless attempts to awaken the heroic spirit in him> by talking of battles, but in vain. He next tried to warm up the patriot and sage, by turning the conversation to the republican ages of antiquity ; — this was equally unsuccessful. At length the painter struck on the master-key, and opened a way to his mind, which he has so happily transferred to the canvass with the features of his face. In the whole of this picture, in every limb, as well as feature, the martial air of the warrior chief is admirably mingled with the dignity and majesty of the statesman ' Notions of the Americans, vol. i. p. 194 — 199. THE UNITED STATES. 409 and sage. Stuart tarried a year or two in the city of Washington, and, during c H a P. that time, painted John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Mr. Madison, and many other m" distinguished men of America. He removed from Washington to Philadelphia, which was then greatly in advance of the other cities and great towns in the United States, in every branch of the fine arts. Here, too, he was a favourite in society, as well as in his profession. His next remove was to Boston, where he resided during the remainder of his life. For several years after his coming to Boston, he was overwhelmed with business : many had to wait months for an opportunity of sitting to him; and, even in his latter years, he frequently had more calls than he could answer. Colonel John Trumbull, who is now living, was the contemporary of Stuart and Johnson, an acquaintance of Copley's, and a student with West. His life has been more full of incident than those of his brother artists, for he has been soldier, politician, and traveller, as well as painter. In him the love of his art was early developed ; it began in the nursery : before he was prepared to enter college, he had painted several pictures ; and while at Cambridge, in his leisure moments, he indulged himself in painting. Some of these efforts, before he had received a single lesson, were seen by Copley, who bestowed upon them a cordial smile of approbation. He then had but a faint expectation of making the art his main pursuit, and he subsequently entered on a military career ; and, in the fall of 1776, he was appointed adjutant-general of the northern army. While in this office, he thought himself superseded, which his pride could not brook ; and he resigned his commission, and returned to his native state. Having determined to become an artist, he made his way to England, to place himself under the guidance and instruction of his coun tryman, Mr. West, then at the head of painters in England. He had sheathed his sword, and shut his ears to all political strife, and was advancing his know ledge in the bosom of the arts, when, on the British ministry learning the fate of the unfortunate Andre, in 1780, he was seized and imprisoned in the tower, on the ground of being an American officer of the same rank as Andre ; and, for some time, his life was considered in danger. During his imprisonment, Fox, Burke, and the leaders of the opposition, often visierling jfim. At k»gth Trumbull was released on bail ; but an order instantly followed11 omViis departure forthwith. He went to France, and from thence returned to Amerit,^' During this difficulty, West was the warm and unshaken friend of his pupil, ancl proved to him that his virtues were as exalted as his talents, that his heart was as true and steady as his hand. Colonel Trumbull returned to England after the peace of 1783, and was most warmly received by his old friends, and patronized by them in his profession. During this visit he painted the Sortie of Gibraltar — a production which Horace Walpole pronounced the best that had ever been executed on this side the Alps. After his return to America, 410 TOPOGRAPHY OF book iv. he was employed in painting the four historical pieces which adorn the capitol : the subjects are — The Declaration of Independence, the Surrender of Burgoyne, the Taking of Cornwallis, and Washington resigning his Commission. It is much to be regretted, that the pencil of this veteran has not been employed to perpetuate other signal events of the illustrious struggle of the Americans for independence.? Several institutions have been formed for the encouragement of the arts. One of • them, the National Academy of Design, in New York, has furnished opportunity for some very judicious remarks in the North American Review. The editor resents the charge brought by one of the advocates of the institution, Mr. Morse, that the Americans are neglectful of their own artists, and observes, that the only way in which a correct taste can be formed is, by placing a due value on the productions of the old masters, as well as on the productions of other countries. The writer adds, " That our country will equal the contemporaneous works of others, we are well inclined to believe, though we cannot but see in our peculiar situation peculiar disadvantages. But we can hardly hope that the masterpieces of ancient art are ever to be surpassed, here or in Europe. The forms and occupations of society are grow ing every day less favourable to the highest efforts of the imagination. We live in an age of utility. Every thing which tends directly to improve the physical condition of man, and to develope his reasoning and active powers, is cultivated with zeal and success. The most stubborn obstacles of nature are yielding to new and tremendous enginery. What were her impassable barriers, have become highways ; and the fabled works of the giants are surpassed by the power of knowledge. Education is sent abroad into all classes of men, to make them feel their strength and use their reason. All this renders the world populous, prosperous, and happy ; but it is at the expense of much that we love, and much that elevates and refines the feelings. In this cultivation of the reason, the imagination loses its power. Eloquence, poetry, painting, and sculpture, do not belong to such an age ; they are already declining, and they must give way before the progress of popular education, science, and the useful arts. It may be, that when "^he great work about which the world is now occupied is accomplished, a new school of art,, of proportionate grandeur, may arise ; but we fear that its best days, are past. \s t0 fnnot but rejoice at this progress of society ; still we must wish that the good ^ to a European, appears like indifference or apathy. We have felt the unpleasantness of it ourselves, with one or two exceptions only, in the American gentlemen to whom we have had the pleasure of being introduced : we have, however, invariably found it to be mere manner ; and consequently, by being accustomed to it, all unpleasant feelings cease to be excited. There is, however, one custom among the Americans, to which we apprehend English travellers, or emigrants, must feel an insuperable repug nance — the habit of chewing tobacco and spitting, which, though diminishing, still pre vails to a considerable extent through the middle class of society. We must join in the unqualified condemnation of a custom so revolting, notwithstanding the plea that it is very improving to the quality of Turkey carpets. To the practice of lolling in chairs as though they were rocking-chairs, we see not so much objection, provided due skill be always exercised to keep clear of the legs of neighbouring parties. 420 TOPOGRAPHY OF Titles. Duelling. BOOK IV. The influence of republican institutions on the general appearance of society is observable, not only in the spirit of individual independence and energy it commu nicates, but also in the absence of many of the titles and gorgeous equipages which are common in Europe. Still a great number of carriages are kept, and a great number of titles are acquired by holding office. The use of esquire to gentlemen, honourable to members of congress and public officers, excellency to governors, causes every public meeting to be crowded with titles. Others, which are despised or declined in Europe, are closely adhered to in America. The shopkeeper, or mechanic, who has combined with his trade a commission in the militia, continues to be styled major or colonel, not only during its tenure, but for the rest of his life. The same is the case with the civil functions of judge and magistrate, and even with the eccle siastical one of deacon. In regard to the titles of Mr. and Mrs. equality is main tained, not by their disuse, but by applying them equally to all, even labourers and beggars : they cease thusto form any distinction. The negroes " Sir " and " Madam " each other continually ; and know no other order amongst themselves than that of " gentlemen " and " ladies." If ready resentment, and willingness to fight, is to be taken as the most decisive mark of a man of honour and a gentleman, the Americans, notwithstanding tobacco, &c, bear the palm from the best shots in Europe ; for not only are their duels more numerous, but much more indicative of perfect sincerity by their result : while, of late especially, the rencounters of Europe have been of so friendly a character as to reduce the transaction from a tragedy to a farce — giving hope that such proceedings will soon be left to children, with their sixpenny guns and broken tobacco pipes. The practice is, we believe from a very different cause — the moral force of public opinion, on the decline in the United States ; and it would be well if a nation, who can justly boast of its efforts to prevent privateering, had to triumph in the abolition of the no less dishonourable practice of duelling. As to the stories of Kentucky drinking and gorging, the combined effects of knowledge and civilization have left them only to the page of history, from which the hand of charity will willingly blot them out. It remains for us to notice some sectional distinctions of character which may be perceived. The north-eastern states from Maine to Pennsylvania, and the north-western, — Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, that are free from slavery, (the one- fifth of the Quarterly,) have, in consequence, a characteristic peculiar to themselves. But the subject of slavery, as well as the Indians, we propose to notice in the next chapter ; and we shall here refer to the three divisions of the country into north eastern, north-western, and southern, as it respects their general manners. The first section contains the chief seats of learning, of commerce, and of arts ; and is esteemed the most money-getting and most enterprising portion of the Union, although some of the states in the others are vying with the eastern. The manners of this section are more Sectional characteristics. THE UNITED STATES. 421 cold and reserved than those of the south and west. The planters of the south CHAP, are represented as a liberal, almost prodigal, race of men, but as being by no means '— in such princely circumstances as formerly. It is one of the wise allotments of the Ruler of the world, that what is wrongfully taken from the labourer should not long remain a benefit to the oppressor ; and the slave-master, be he individually ever so benevolent, stands in the. relation of an oppressor to the slave. The splendid and princely fortunes which some of the planters possessed are reduced within much narrower limits; indications of which,. Basil Hall informs us, were very manifest in the race-course at Charleston, where these noble supporters of the turf were no longer to be found. While speaking of the southern section, it is necessary to observe, that the states of Mississippi Louisiana, and Florida, having been of French or Spanish origin, differ materially from the other states; but that dis tinction is being rapidly obliterated by the tide of emigration which incessantly flows into the new states. The western states, from their recent settlement, are, of course, behind the eastern in literature and the arts; but they press rapidly onward, and are daily increasing in physical, intellectual, and moral power. The abundance of provision for all animal wants encourages a degree of hospitality, and insures a security, unknown to modern Europe. Mrs. Trollope found herself in danger of giving offence by fastening her door, as it might be construed to indicate some suspicion of the honesty of her neighbours. We shall now mention one characteristic of American society, which, to a bene volent mind, will compensate for many trivial privations — there are no beggars. What can be more appalling and depressing to the mind, than the sight of hundreds of miserable objects sweeping pathways across the streets, to afford a pretext for soliciting alms ; besides hundreds of vagrants committed to prison every month to clear the streets, many of whom gladly accept the shelter of the gaol; and this in a country where, according to the Quarterly, " happily for the poorer classes, society is divided into ranks, of each of which the rights and privileges are distinctly known and resolutely maintained?" Noble right !— inalienable privilege — of being sent to bridewell for one month, — liberated for one day, — and then returned therefor a second period ! But what is this hopeless wretchedness, — ;this perpetual me mento of the miserable condition of human beings, in comparison with the calamity of meeting hogs in the streets and vicinity of Cincinnati ? Poor Mrs. Trollope ! " Immense droves of them were continually arriving from the country, by the road that led to most of our favourite walks; they were often fed and lodged in the prettiest valleys, and, worse still, were slaughtered beside the prettiest streams. Another evil threatened us from the same quarter, that was yet heavier : — our cottage had an ample piazza, (a luxury almost universal in the country houses of America,) which, shaded by a group of acacias, made a delightful sitting-room. From this VOL. ii. 3 I 422 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK iv. favourite spot we one day perceived symptoms of building in a field close to it ; with much anxiety we hastened to the spot, and asked what building was to be erected there. * 'Tis to be a slaughter-house for hogs,' was the dreadful reply. As there were several gentlemen's houses in the neighbourhood, I asked if such an erection might not be indicted as a nuisance. ' A what? ' ' A nuisance,' I repeated, and ex plained what I meant. ' No, no,' was the reply ; ' that may do very well for your tyrannical country, where a rich man's nose is more thought of than a poor man's mouth ; but hogs be profitable produce here, and we be too free for such a law as that, I guess.' " How delighted would thousands of Mrs. Trollope's fellow-subjects have been, to have come in contact with such a "nuisance" as plenty of good bacon, at two-pence per pound, and plenty of labour to earn the cents to purchase it where withal ! Personal Before we close this chapter, we shall notice one more point in the characteristics America" °f American society, because it will confute, we believe, one of the grossest and most ealumnious falsehoods that even the Quarterly, with the " long-wished-to-see " help of Mrs. Trollope, could possibly concoct. In connexion with the awful calamity of the hogs, Mrs. T. remarks : — " The well-disposed, those who own the feeling of justice would prevent their annoyihg others, will never complain of the restraints of the law. All the freedom enjoyed in America, beyond what is enjoyed in England, is enjoyed solely by the disorderly at the expense of the orderly?'' "We have taken the liberty," says the writer in the Quarterly, " of putting the concluding remark of the above paragraph in italics, for we desire greatly to call the attention of our readers to a truth which has not before been so distinctly pointed out, but which every page of these interesting volumes, and, indeed, of every other book which we have read ¦ respecting America, tends to confirm. We conceive that the inevitable consequence of extending the democratical principle beyond what used to be considered its due limits, must be to degrade the cause of genuine freedom, and even essentially to diminish the amount of personal liberty in any country. In America there is ample licence, with all sorts of liberty of action and speech — but only for one class of society— -the democrats ; scarcely a particle, it would seem, for any of the rest. It is true, the democrats* form the majority, and a very large majority indeed, not only counted numerically, but reckoned by the scale of influence and intelligence, wealth, talents, or any other element of recognized power elsewhere. Then why find fault with it? we may be asked; why, if the system is such as the great body of the people, including the richest, wisest, and best, choose to prefer, why should we quarrel with them for persevering in what they approve of? To this we reply, that we have no quarrel with them about it at all. We are in no way disposed to begrudge them their universal suffrage — their general dram- drinking — their occasional camp-meetings — their republican institutions — their eternal THE UNITED STATES. 423 electioneering, or anything else which may to them seem fit and proper. But we must chap. take the liberty to point out to our countrymen, that, although this may be all very 1 ' well for the Americans, (since they like it,) nothing can be more utterly repugnant to the feelings and habits of Englishmen, or more completely unsuited to the geogra phical, statistical, and moral situation in which this country is placed." A very grand superstructure, truly, to be raised on the foundation of Mrs. Trollope's reflections on a slaughter-house for hogs! — when, in fact, it so happens, that the civic order of American cities, so far as the permission of the disorderly to enjoy themselves at the expense of the orderly is concerned, is as far superior to that of English towns as are the means of existence of the bulk of their population. If the editor of the Quarterly doubts this in sober seriousness, let him send a few of his titled " Tom and Jerry " friends, and see whether they will be allowed to ring at the doors of the " orderly," knock down the charleys, and play up their pranks as they do in this land, where, " happily," all classes so well know and so resolutely maintain their rights. How, with the recently disordered state of the lower classes of the principal towns of Great Britain, and the notoriously orderly state of the American cities, any person capable of writing at all could be hired to write such falsehoods, would be beyond comprehension, if it were not evident that the dangerous " absurdity of comparing the two countries together," ' rendered at the present moment a bold game necessary, even at the risk of being inextricably placed in the condition of propounding a notorious and barefaced calumny. 1 See Quarterly Review, vol. xlvii. p. 41. 424 TOPOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER IV. INDIANS NEQROES. Characte ristics of the In dians. BOOK IV. There are two very important circumstances connected with, and bearing forcibly on, the state of society in the United States— the practical effect of which it is by no means easy for a European correctly to appreciate. We refer to the presence, in most of the States, of some remains of the aboriginal race — the Indians; and in others, to the existence of, perhaps, a still more unfortunate race— the African negro, whether in a state of freedom, : or of slavery. To a brief account of these two branches of the human family, as existing in the United States, and their influence in American society, political and civili we propose to devote the present chapter. , , , > The fact of the aboriginal Indians, still retaining possession of large portions of the soil in some of the , states, in circumstances the , most peculiar perhaps that, ever occurred to any portion of. the human race; has recently; given rise to; some of the most interesting discoveries which can possibly be presented to the, view : of the philosopher, the philanthropist, the civilian, or the statesman. In order that the subject may be adequately appreciated, it will be desirable to present a very brief outline of the physical, mental, and moral characteristics of the race ; in doing which, we avail ourselves of what ought to be, and we believe is justly considered, standard authority on this and similar subjects, — the Encyclopaedia Americana. With the exception, perhaps, of the Esquimaux, all the Indians have the same physical characteristics. The bronze or copper colour, the straight, coarse, black hair, the hazel eyes, the high cheek-bones and erect form, are common to them all. There is, indeed, some difference in the stature of different tribes. The Osages are very tall, and the Shoshonees are below the middle stature. Each race, and, indeed, each tribe, has its peculiar physiognomy. To a European or Anglo-American, all Indians look alike ; but one accustomed to them can distinguish the tribes with almost unerring certainty. Thus a Dahcotah is as readily distin guished from a Chippeway or a Winnebago by his features, as his dress. Yet the difference is not so great as to induce a belief that all the tribes are not descended from the same stock. The Esquimaux of Greenland and the eastern part of the continent differ from the red Indians in complexion, stature, and in the position of the eyes, which are set obliquely in their orbits. The Indians in the northern part of THE UNITED STATES. 425 North America are divided into several great families. The Algonquin or Chippeway c H A r. race is one of the two most numerous now in existence. All the tribes of New ' IV> England were Algonquins, if we may take identity of language, manners, and customs, as a proof of the fact. The vocabulary of the Narraganset tongue, recorded by Roger Williams, proves them to have been a branch of the Algonquin stock. The Mohegans, considered the progenitors of the other tribes in New England, spoke the same tongue. The tribes in Maine claimed the same origin. The Delaware, or Lenni Lenape, were of the same family, and their language has been pronounced, by competent judges, the most perfect existing. The Iroquois, or Six Nations, once dreaded from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, are Algonquins. This tribe did and still does extend from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi, and thence northward to Great Slave Lake ; for so far do the Nayheeowawk or Knisteneaux extend their rambles. On the western side of the Mississippi is another great Indian family, viz. the Sioux or Dahcotah. The Dahcotah proper inhabit the country on the west side of the Mississippi, north of the Wisconsin, to the sources of the Mis sissippi. Their territory extends westward to the Missouri. This tribe speak a language radically distinct from that of the Algonquin race. Their origin is unknown, and their own traditions are at variance on this point one with another. One account, and the most probable, represents them as having been driven from the confines of Mexico by the Spaniards. The branches of this tribe are the Winnebagoes, the Otoes, the Ioways, the Missouries, the Assinniboins, the Omahaws, the Kansas, and the Osages. All these tribes speak dialects of the Dajagc\th tongue. The Assinniboins are known also by the names of Ossinneboins, (cJssinnepa ]les, Stone Indians, and Hohays. This last is the name they give themselvesX The Otoes and Missouries, now united, are renowned among the tribes of the Missouries for their bravery. They can muster about 300 men. The Ioways still dwell on t"ae~iYfis»;.ssippi. They have from 100 to 200 men. The Osages are divided into thrjfe tribes, and can boast more than 1,000 warriors. The Kansas inhabit the plains/about the heads of the Arkansas and Red rivers. Their number is unknown. The Omahaws live high up the Missouri. Besides these tribes, there dwell on the Mississippi, between the river Des Moins, the Wis consin and the Missouri, the Sacs and Foxes, a branch of the Chippeway tribe. They speak the Chippeway tongue, and number above 1,000 men. On the Missouri are the Pawnees, divided into three tribes, of which the Arikarees are a branch. They live by hunting the buffalo, and are said to have a language of their own. The Mintarees or Bigbellies, the Mahdans, the Crows and the Blackfeet, also live on the Missouri, and each is said to have a language of its own. Their numbers are un known. The Shoshonees live between the head waters of the Missouri and Columbia rivers. "They are almost constantly on horseback, . and are at war with the lower tribes of the Missouri. On the Colombia river are the Chohunnish, the.Skilloots, 426 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK iv. Echeloots, Multnomahs, Clatrops, and other tribes,. Their havjnts and numbers are "" unknown. They live by fishing as well as hunting, and differ in manners and, customs from the tribes east of the Rocky Mountains. They are neither so well fed nor clad. Most of these tribes have the practice of flattening the heads of infants between boards, whence the general name of Flat-heads. They have some commerce with ships on the north-west coast. Nothing is known of the languages of any of these people. In the south of the United States, there are four tribes, viz. the Chickasaws, Choctaws, Cherokees, and Creeks. All these have made some progress in civilization. The Cherokees have a written and printed language, said to be radically different from all others. They number about 15,000 souls. The Choctaws and Chickasaws are each more numerous. Customs The Indians have hitherto uniformly resisted all attempts to civilize them, where Indians. they could support themselves by the chase. Some few tribes, such as the Southern Indians, and the remnants of the Six Nations, having been hemmed in by the whites, and circumscribed in their limits so as to be unable to live by hunting, have turned x to agriculture for subsistence ; but such a departure from the habits of savage life is not to be found where there has been a possibility of supporting life by other means. The hospitality of Indians is among their most striking qualities. In any of the tribes, a stranger is received with the utmost respect and attention. On his arrival he is served with the best in the wigwam, seated on the best seat, and treated with the utmost respect and attention. His person and property are considered sacred. He may remain as. lonj>j IRS-Jie pleases in a wigwam without any questions being asked, and retire unopposemi FeasTsNare made for him, and, though his appetite may be satisfied, to refuse any ming set Jbefore him gives great offence. With all, or almost all, the Indian tribes the sole care of the men is to provide food ; the labour is the exclusive lot of thLr women. The use of the axe or hoe is considered beneath the dignity of the male sex. It belongs to the females to plant corn, to make and mend garments and moccasins, to build, to pitch tents, to cut wood, to bring water, to tend horses and dogs, and, on ja march, to carry the baggage. The women do not murmur at this, but consider it a natural and equitable distribution of family cares. But they are regarded as an inferior race, and often transferred as property. Polygamy is general. Everyman has as many wives as he can support, and, in marriages, the will- of the bride is seldom or never consulted; a man addresses himself directly to the parents of his intended wife, and her fate depends on their will. The custom of dowry is reversed among Indians; the man makes certain presents to the parents of his wife, instead of receiving a portion with' her. Themarriage ceremony is always very simple, and, in most tribes, there is none at all. Adultery is punished by cutting off the nose, or otherwise mutilating the offending female ; sometimes, though rarely, with death : in some tribes, this crime is regarded as a venial fault, THE UNITED STATES. 427 and in many the husband lends his wife to a friend without opposition on her chap. part. Divorces are frequent, and at the pleasure of the contracting parties : in such IV- cases, the wife is usually left to provide for the children as she may. It is no un common thing to see an Indian woman who has been five or six times repudiated before she finally settles in life. In some tribes, especially those of Dahcotah origin, it is held the duty of each man to marry all the sisters of a family, and to have as many wives as he can support. In most tribes, and we believe in all, incest is held in abhorrence ; and instances of. devoted attachment are not uncommon. — Every Indiai, submits in youth to a process of severe mental and corporeal discipline; during the course of which, frequent intervals of long and rigid abstinence are enjoined, by which the system is reduced, and the imagination rendered more susceptible. Dreams are then encouraged: by these the novice is taught both his duty and his destiny; and in them his guardian manitou, who is to protect him in life and attend him in death, appears in the shape of some familiar animal, thenceforth to be the object of his adoration. He is taught to despise death, and during his whole life he regards it with indifference. An Indian seldom commits suicide ; not because the grave does not offer him a refuge, but because patience and fortitude are the first duties of a warrior, and none but a coward can yield to pain or misfortune. This, sternness of purpose is another lesson early taught. He learns also to despise labour, to become a warrior and a hunter, to associate the idea of disgrace with any other employment, and to leave to the women all the ordinary duties of life. He is a stern and unbending fatalist : whatever of good or of evil may happen, he receives it with imperturbable calmness. If misfortunes press upon him which he cannot resist, he can die ; and he dies without a murmur. The opinions, traditions, and institutions of his own tribe, are endeared to him by habit, feeling, and authority ; and from early infancy he is taught that the Great Spirit will be offended by any change in the customs of his red children, which have all been established by him. Reckless of consequences, he is the child of impulse ; unrestrained by moral considerations, whatever his passions prompt he does. Believing all the wild and debasing superstitions which have come down to him, he has no practical views of a moral superintendence, to protect or to punish him. Government is unknown among them ; certainly, that government which prescribes general rules, and enforces or vindicates them. The utter nakedness of their society can be known only by personal observation. The tribes seem to be held together by a kind of family ligament ; by the ties of blood, which, in the infancy of society, are stronger, as other associations are weaker. They have no criminal code, no courts, no officers, no punishments. They have no relative duties to enforce, no debts to collect, no property to restore. They are in a state of nature, as much as it is possible for any people to be. Injuries are redressed by revenge, and strength is the security for right. 428 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV, Their religion. Their wars and pur suits. All Indians of whom we have any knowledge, believe in one Supreme God and the immortality of the soul. They attribute all good and all power to the Supreme Being. Many tribes also believe in the existence of an intelligent evil principle, whose ill offices they endeavour to avert by prayer and sacrifice. They never ask the Supreme for any thing, but merely return thanks for benefits received, saying, that he is the best judge of what is for their advantage. They believe in many subordinate deities, two of whom reside in the sun and moon. They attribute supernatural powers to all serpents, especially rattle-snakes, and will kill no animal of the genus. Even the eel escapes on account of his resemblance. They pay religious honours to rocks and venerable objects. They believe that brutes have immortal souls as well as men, and, in short, that all animated nature teems with spirits. In their belief sorcery is blended with the healing art, and their priests are also physicians and jugglers. These priests practise feats of sleight of hand with all their religious ceremonies; but, with a few exceptions, they have no power or influence over the multitude. The future state of the Indians is a material paradise, where they will follow the same occupations, and enjoy the same delights, they have experienced in this world. They have also a vague idea of future punishment for sins committed in the body. Among the super stitions of the Algonquin and Dahcotah tribes, is a very singular one : a man is sometimes devoted, by his parents or himself, to a life of ignominy. In this case, he dresses like a woman, and performs all female avocations ; he associates with women only, and sometimes takes a husband ; and he is held in utter contempt by all, though his condition be not of his own choice. This condition is frequently owing to a dream of his parents while he is yet unborn. In many tribes men have what they call their medicine-bags, which are filled with bones, feathers, and other rubbish; and to the preservation of their medicine-bags they attach much importance. Besides this, each holds some particular animal in reverence, which he calls his medicine, and can by no means be induced to kill, or eat it when killed, for fear of some terrible misfortune. Moreover, the Indians leave tobacco, worn-out clothing, and other articles, on rocks, as sacrifices to invisible spirits. We believe it is impossible to estimate the number of the North American Indians with any degree of accuracy. It is, however, very small throughout, in proportion to the extent of their territory; for a hunting people cannot be very numerous. Their wars, of which we have heard so much, do, not materially affect them. They are carried on in detail by small parties, and, consequently, are not very destructive. They very seldom give quarter ; but when a prisoner is spared, he is sure of being adopted, by, the conquering tribe. The tribes who inhabit the prairies go to war on horseback, and their weapons are spears and bows and arrows. Those who inhabit the forests. are generally armed with guns. Their courage is moral and passive, rather than active. They think it cowardice to be affected by calamity, or to give way to passion THE UNITED STATES. 429 or emotion. Though they have no laws, there are customs, which every indi- CHAP. vidual scrupulously observes. In cases of murder, for instance, the rule is blood for blood, and the homicide rarely shuns the penalty of his deed. They have chiefs, but the power of these is limited to persuasion, and they can command no one. Sometimes a chief becomes such in virtue of his achievements in war, or his wisdom ; in some tribes, there is something like hereditary rank; but even this authority does not descend in a direct line, the son of a chief being often set aside to make room for one more worthy. But in war, implicit obedience is given to the commands of a leader. The tribes that inhabit the prairies all live by hunting the buffalo, mostly on horse back; those who dwell in wooded countries hunt deer and smaller animals. The more primitive savages are the poorest, but at the same time the least dependent, for they have few wants, and can supply those few without assistance. Those who live nearer the whites have more of the comforts of life, but are no whit more civilized or more happy. We may say, that if the Indian trade of the Mississippi were inter rupted for five years, all the aborigines of that quarter would be in danger of perishing, as they depend on the whites for clothing and weapons. The Indians can never be dangerous, as there is no union among them. On the whole, we may speak of them as a brave, reckless, generous, and unfortunate people. Such is the race of human beings, who, from a remote period, occupied — we The extent . . and limits were going to say, but the term is inapplicable, and has occasioned serious mis- of their understandings on the subject, — ranged over the northern portion of this vast the land. continent undisturbed, till mercantile adventure, or religious persecution, brought to their shores the civilized inhabitants of Europe. The right of Europeans to take possession of the soil which formed the vast hunting province of these tribes, has given rise to much discussion. Had they, in any sense, fulfilled the purpose for which the earth was given to the children of men, it would have been difficult to establish a title to any kind of possession contrary to their consent. But to maintain that the fact of a tribe of 1,000 men passing and repassing through as many square miles of country, and destroying as many of its irrational occupants as might be deemed needful for their support, could give them just claim to have such territory considered exclusively their own, is more than we think the most zealous philan thropist will be willing deliberately to contend for. At the utmost, the only right they could have was to have a sufficiency of land to support them in their own way ; and even this, perhaps, could scarcely be maintained in its fullest extent. Nearly this view of the subject, however, was taken by the English colonists ; and consequently, with very few exceptions, full compensation to the Indians for their fore going the right of scouring the country when they thought fit, was made upon terms settled with them as parties to a voluntary treaty. We do not intend to maintain that, in some instances, the aborigines were not unjustly or cruelly treated, but that the vol. n. *» K 430 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. principle generally acted on was not unsound. The testimony of Vattel is, — " We cannot help praising the moderation of the English puritans, who first settled in New England," (and he might have added, the first settlers of the other colonies,) "who, notwithstanding their being furnished with a charter from their sovereign, purchased of the ; Indians the lands they resolved to cultivate;" " ^oducin Whether, however, the space which the Indians had been accustomed to roam a diminu- over in search of food was diminished by feud, fraud, or equitable agreement, the number. result to the native tribes was ultimately the same : it tended to limit the only means of subsistence of whjch they chose to avail themselves, and, consequently, to add to the wretchedness of their condition, and to diminish their numbers. " It is obvious," says the writer of a long and able article on this subject in the North American Review, to which we shall have occasion to make frequent reference, " that the reduction or disappearance of the game, consequent upon the conversion of forests into fields, and the gradual advance of a civilized people, must have soon begun to press upon the means of subsistence on which the Indians mainly depended. Other circumstances cooperated in the work of destruction. Fire-arms were in^ troduced, and greatly facilitated the operations of the hunter. Articles of European merchandise were offered to the Indians, and they were taught the value of their furs, and encouraged to procure them. New wants arose among them: the rifle was found a more efficient instrument than the bow and arrow ; blankets were more com fortable than buffalo robes ; and cloth, than dressed skins. The exchange was altogether unfavourable to them : the goods they received were dear, and the peltry they furnished was cheap ; a greater number of animals was necessary for the support of each family, and increased exertion was required to procure them. We' need not pursue this subject further. It is easy to see the consequences, both to the Indians and their game. Herds of buffaloes were once found upon the shore of Lake Erie, and at the base of the Allegany mountains ; they have now receded to the plains beyond the Mississippi, and are every year migrating still further west. A few years since, they were unknown in the Rocky Mountains ; they have now passed that barrier, and will ere long reach the Pacific. The beaver has nearly disappeared upon all our borders, and hunters and trappers have followed them to the waters 01 the Columbia. Even the common red deer, once so abundant, is rarely found east 01 the Allegany, and is becoming scarce in the western regions. But a still more power ful cause has operated to produce this diminution in the number of the Indians : — ardent spirits have been the bane of their improvement, and one of the principal agents in their declension and degradation. In this proposition we include only those tribes in immediate contact with our frontier settlements, or who have remained upon * Vattel, book I, chap, xviii. THE UNITED STATES. 431 reservations guaranteed to them. It has been found impracticable to prevent the sale of CHAP. spirituous liquors to those who are thus situated : the most judicious laws are eluded or '¦ openly violated. The love of spirits and the love of gain conspire to bring together the buyer and the seller. As the penalties become heavier, and the probability of detection and punishment stronger, the prohibited article becomes dearer, and the sacrifice to obtain it greater. We shall not attempt to investigate the cause of the inordinate attachment displayed by the Indians to ardent spirits ; it is probably without a parallel in all the history of man, and is certainly so, with very few exceptions, in the whole range of their own society. This predisposition was the subject of observation and regret two centuries ago; and the earlier historians and travellers, while they furnish the record of its existence, furnish also the evidence of its overpowering influence and destructive consequences. To the operation of the physical causes which we have described, must be added the moral causes connected with their mode of life and their peculiar opinions. Distress could not teach them providence, nor want industry. As animal food decreased, their vegetable productions were not increased. Their habits were stationary and unbending, never changing with the change of circumstances. There is a principle of repulsion in ceaseless activity, operating through all their institutions, which prevents them from appreciating or adopting any other modes of life, or any other habits of thought or action, but those which have descended to them from their ancestors." b That the aboriginal population should decrease under the operation of these Number of causes, can excite no surprise. Whether the tribes upon this continent had attained the United the maximum of their population before its discovery by Europeans, we have not now states- the means of ascertaining ; it is certain, however, as well from a consideration of their mode of life by Europeans, as from a careful examination of the earlier narratives, that, greatly as they exceeded their present numbers, they were yet thinly scattered over the country. The ratio of diminution may have been greater or less ; but there is no just reason to believe, that any of the tribes has been increasing in numbers at any period since they became known to Europeans. This opinion is expressed by the superin tendents of Indian affairs, in the report submitted to Congress, at its last session, by the war department; and, from the favourable opportunities possessed by those officers of acquiring correct information upon this subject, their opinion must carry with it consider able authority. The whole amount of Indian population within the United States, east of the Mississippi, is estimated in this report at 105,060, and is divided as follows : — Within the states of Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, 1* ' 2 573 Connecticut, and Virginia, ) The state of New York 4,820 Carry over 7,393 b North American Review, vol. xxx. pp. 65 — 67. TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. Brought over 7,393 Pennsylvania 300 North Carolina 3,100 South Carolina 300 Georgia 5,000 Tennessee , 1 .000 Ohio 1,877 Mississippi , 23,400 Alabama 19.200 Indiana ''. - - 4,050 Illinois '..'¦'¦ 5.900 Territory of Michigan 29,450 Florida : 4,000 105,060 ^. It will be seen that, in the original states, the primitive stock has been reduced^ tp 16,093 individuals, and that three fourths of the number now surviving in th# whole^ of, the vast country east of the river Mississippi, are found in the states of Alabama and Mississippi, and in the territory of Michigan, where the pressure upon themis now beginning to be felt, and will bring with it the usual process of diminution* In the same report, the number of Indians west of the Mississippi is thus estimated : , Between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains 108,070 Within the ranges of the Rocky Mountains 20,000 West of the Rocky Mountains 80,000 Making a general aggregate of 313,130, within the United States, extending over twenty-four degrees of latitude and fifty-eight degrees of longitude. And these are the remnants of the primitive people, who, only two centuries ago, possessed this vast country, and who found in the sea, the lakes, the rivers, and the forests, means of subsistence sufficient for their wants. General From an early period, their rapid declension and ultimate extinction were foreseen of attempts and lamented, and various plans for their preservation and improvement were pro- thei^con-6 Jected and pursued. Many of them were carefully taught at our seminaries of dition. education, in the hope that principles of morality and habits of industry would be acquired, and that they might stimulate their countrymen by precept and example to a better course of life. Missionary stations were established among various tribes, where zealous and pious men devoted themselves, with generous ardour, to the task of instruction, as well in agriculture and the mechanical arts, as in the principles of morality and religion. The Roman Catholic church preceded the Protestant in this labour of charity ; and the Lettres Edifiantes are monuments of her zeal and libe rality. Unfortunately, they are monuments also of unsuccessful and unproductive THE UNITED STATES. 433 efforts. What tribe has been civilized by all this expenditure of treasure, and labour, chap and care ? From the martyrdom of Le Pere Brebeuf, in 1649, upon the shore of 1V" Lake Huron, to the death of the last missionary, who sacrificed himself in a cause as holy as it has proved hopeless, what permanent effect has been produced ? Year after year sanguine anticipations have been formed, to be succeeded by disappointment and despondency. We are flattered with accounts of success, with explanations for the past, and hopes for the future ; and this without the slightest intention to deceive. But the subject itself is calculated to excite these expectations. There are always indivi duals attending these establishments who give fair promise of permanent improvement and usefulness. And as these prospects are blighted, others succeed to excite the same hopes, and to end in the same disappointment. The cause of this total failure cannot be attributed to the nature of the experiment, nor to the character, qualifica tions, or conduct, of those who have directed it. The process and the persons have varied, as experience suggested alterations in the one, and a spirit of generous self- devotion supplied the changes in the other. But there seems to be some insurmount able obstacle in the habits or temperament of the Indians, which has heretofore prevented, and yet prevents, the success of these labours. Whatever this may be, it appears to be confined to the tribes occupying this part of the continent. In Mexico and South America, a large portion of the aboriginal race has accommodated itself to new circumstances, and forms a constituent part of the same society with their con querors. Under the Spanish regime they existed as a degraded cast ; but still they were sedentary, living under the protection of the laws, and providing by labour for their comfortable subsistence. In other parts of the continent, particularly in California and Paraguay, where the Spanish sway had but a nominal existence, the Jesuits succeeded in collecting the Indians into regular societies, in improving their morals and condition, and in controlling and directing their conduct. In the usual progress of conquest, where permanent possession is retained, the victors and van quished become connected together, and if they do not form one people, they yet acknowledge obedience to the same laws, and look to them for protection. But from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, under the French, or British, or Spanish, or American rule, where is the tribe of Indians, who have changed their manners, who have become incorporated with their conquerors, or who have exhibited any just estimate of the improvements around them, or any wish to participate in them ? The following statement from Sherwood's Gazeteer of Georgia, published in 1827, FavourableStfttp of ttl£ gives a more favourable representation of the state of the Cherokees, than the writer cherokees. in the North American Review will admit. " Within the last twenty years, the Cherokees have rapidly advanced towards civilization. They now live in comfortable houses,, chiefly in villages, and cultivate large farms. They raise large herds of cattle; which they sell for beef to the inhabitants of neighbouring states. Many 434 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. mechanical arts have been introduced among them. They have carpenters and blacksmiths, and many of the women spin and weave, and make butter and cheese. The population, instead of decreasing, as is the case generally with the tribes sur rounded by the whites, increases very rapidly. There are now 13,563 natives in the nation; 147 white men and seventy-three white women have intermarried with them. They own 1277 slaves. Total, 15,060 souls. Increase in the last six years, 3563. Their government is republican, and power is vested in a committee and council, answering to our senate and house of representatives. The members are elected once in two years. Newtown is the seat of government. Their judges act with authority, and prevent entirely the use of ardent spirits during the sessions of their courts. The mission at Spring Place was established in 1801. Since that time, nearly a dozen have been brought into operation in various parts of the nation. The number of children in the several missionary schools is nearly 500, all learning the English language." Counter In reference to this and similar statements, the Reviewer observes, " We are as unwilling to underrate, as we should be to overrate, the progress made by these Indians in civilization and improvement. We are well aware, that the con stitution of the Cherokees, their press, and newspaper, and alphabet, their schools and police, have sent through all our borders the glad tidings, that the long night of aboriginal ignorance was ended, and that the day of knowledge had dawned. Would that it were so. None would rejoice more sincerely than we should. But this great cause can derive no aid from exaggerated representations ; from promises never to be kept, and from expectations never to be realized. The truth must finally come, and it will come with a powerful reaction. We hope that our opinion upon this subject may be erroneous. But we have melancholy forebodings. That a few principal men, who can secure favourable cotton lands, and cultivate them with slaves, will be comfortable and satisfied, w^ may well believe. And so long as the large annuities received from the United States are applied to the support of a newspaper and to other objects, more important to the rich than the poor, erroneous impressions upon these subjects may prevail. But to form just conceptions of the spirit and objects of these efforts, we must look at their practical operation upon the community. It is here, if the facts which have been stated to us are correct, and of which we have no doubt, that they will be found wanting. , " The relative condition of the two races of men, who yet divide this portion of the continent between them, is a moral problem involved in much obscurity. The phyr sical causes we have described, exasperated by the moral evils introduced by them, are sufficient to account for the diminution and deterioration of the Indians. Bnt why were not these causes counteracted by the operation of other circumstances? As civilization shed her light upon them, why were they blind to its beams ? Hungry THE UNITED STATES. 435 or naked, why did they disregard, or regarding, why did they neglect, those arts by CHAP. which food and clothing could be procured? Existing for two centuries in contact iV" with a civilized people, they have resisted, and successfully too, every effort to meliorate their situation, or to introduce among them the most common arts of life. Their moral and their intellectual condition have been equally stationary. And in the whole circle of their existence, it would be difficult to point to a single advantage which they have derived from their acquaintance with the Europeans. All this is without a parallel in the history of the world. That it is not to be attributed to the indifference or neglect of the whites, we have already shown. There must then be an inherent difficulty, arising from the institutions, character, and condition of the Indians themselves. It is easy, in contemplating the situation of such a people, to perceive the difficulties to be encountered in any effort to produce a radical change in their condition. The fulcrum is wanting upon which the lever must be placed. They are contented as they are ; not contented merely, but clinging with a death-grasp to their own institutidns. This feeling, inculcated in youth, strengthened in manhood, and nourished in age, renders them inaccessible to argument or remonstrance. To roam the forests at will, to pursue their game, to attack their enemies, to spend the rest of their lives in listless indolence, to eat inordinately when they have food, to suffer patiently when they have none, and to be ready at all times to die, — these are the principal occupations of an Indian. But little knowledge of hunian nature is necessary, to be sensible how unwilling a savage would be to exchange such a life for the stationary and laborious duties of civilized society. Experience has shown, that the Indians are steadily and rapidly diminishing. And the causes of this dimi nution are yet in constant and active operation. It has also been shown, that our efforts to stand between the living and the dead," continues the writer before men tioned, " to stay this tide which is spreading around them and over them, have long been fruitless, and are now hopeless. And equally fruitless and hopeless are the attempts to impart to them, in their present situations, the . blessings of religion, the benefits of science and the arts, and the advantages of an efficient and stable govern ment. The time seems to have arrived, when a change in our principles and practice is necessary ; When some new effort must be made to meliorate the condition of the Indians, if we would not be left without a living monument of their misfortunes, or a living evidence of our desire to repair them." We hope, we may say we believe, from all we have read on both sides of this controversy, that the North American Review does, in fact, take too unfavourable a view of the improvement which has taken place among the Cherokees ; and that Christianity and civilization have produced extensively-beneficial results, though, pro bably, not equal to the sincere but sanguine representations of some of the advocates of the Cherokee character. 436 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK iv. The attention of the people of the United States, and, in some measure, of Europe, Indian has been attracted to this interesting subject with peculiar force at the present time, in in Georgia, consequence of the controversy carried on between the state of Georgia and the Cherokee nation residing within its limits. We have already observed, that the civil and political relations existing between the aborigines and the white inhabitants, are such as the world affords no example of. In other cases, the less civilized inha bitants have either become the subjects of their conquerors, or have been amal gamated with them; but the North American Indians have never intermingled with the whites, and have been permitted by them to exist in a state of almost independence, in the very heart of some of their states. The Cherokees have retained possession of the north-western portion of the state of Georgia, and not only decline to relinquish their title to it, but have formed a constitutional govern ment, as already stated, among themselves, and claiming an entire exemption from the control of the laws and government of the state, have assumed all the essential attri butes of sovereignty, and appealed to the general government to support them in that claim. The establishment of this government, thus claiming to be independent, and the probability that a similar policy will be adopted by the other southern tribes, by which means they may become permanently established in their present possessions, necessarily presents to the states within whose limits they reside a serious question for consideration. It is evident that if this pretension be not resisted now, resistance hereafter will be vain. It is one of those questions, eminently practical, which a few years' acquiescence would settle. What might now be the assertion of a just and pro per jurisdiction by the civilized communities, might then be an unjust claim, to be en forced only by war and conquest. The following is the argument of the writers already referred to on this point. " This demand is now made for the first time, since the discovery of the continent. Writers upon natural law, courts of high character and jurisdiction, the practice of other nations, are all adverse to it. We can discern no advantages which either party can reasonably anticipate from such a measure. There can be none to the Indians ; for if they are anxious and prepared for a stable govern ment, which shall protect and encourage all, such governments they will find in the states where they reside. What has a Cherokee to fear from the operation of the laws of Georgia? If he has advanced in knowledge and improvement, as many sanguine persons believe and represent, he will find these laws more just, better administered, and far more equal in their operation, than the regulations which the chiefs have established and are enforcing. What Indian has ever been injured by the laws of any state ? We ask the question without any fear of the answer. If these Indians are too ignorant and barbarous to submit to the state laws, or duly to ' estimate their value, they are too ignorant and barbarous to establish and maintain a government which shall protect its own citizens, and preserve the necessary relations THE UNITED STATES. 437 and intercourse with its neighbours. And if there are any serious practical objections chap. to the operation of these laws, growing out of the state of society among the Indians, ' it would be easy for the state authorities to make such changes and interpose such securities as would protect them now, and lead them hereafter, if any thing can lead them, to a full participation in political rights. New York has acted upon this prin ciple, in authorizing the Brothertown Indians to hold town meetings and elect town officers. No doubt can exist of the disposition of the state legislatures thus to accommodate their laws to the actual condition of the Indians. And in fact it is the criminal and not the civil code, from which they have any thing to fear. The former extends to them all, and at all times, and in its process, its prohibitions, and its punishments, introduces regulations utterly at variance with all they have seen, or heard, or believed. The rights and remedies secured and provided by the civil code would affect them less, as they have little for them to operate upon, and the obliga tion of a promise is not wholly unknown to them. But the experiment has already been made, in many of the states, of extending over them the action of the criminal laws ; and, as we have seen, the general government has done the same, through the whole vast extent of the Indian country, however rude or barbarous may be the tribes inhabiting it, in all cases where an injury has been committed against a white man. We have yet to learn, that any injustice has resulted from this legislation. But, if it is difficult to perceive the advantages which the Indian tribes would derive from these independent governments, it is not difficult to foresee the mischiefs they would produce to the states and people within whose limits they might be formed. The progress of improvement would be checked. Extensive tracts of land would be held by the Indians in a state of nature. The continuity of settlements, and the communication between them, would be interrupted. Fugitives from labour and justice would seek shelter, and sometimes find it, in these little sovereignties. Questions of conflicting jurisdiction would frequently occur, not easy to be determined ; for in vain might we search for principle, analogy, or precedent, by which to adjust them. There is already enough of the imperium in imperio in our government. Another wheel is not wanted to render the machinery still more complicated. In the whole extent of Christendom can a single instance be produced, where a state has voluntarily permitted, within its acknowledged boundaries, the establishment of a government independent of, and unconnected with its own ?" While the Cherokees are endeavouring to carry their point with a high hand, making it death for any individual, or number of individuals, to agree to sell or exchange any portion of their land without consent of their new government, the legislature of Georgia has intimated its intention not only to extend its laws' over the '«' In January, 1828, proceedings were had by the legislature with regard to the course pursued by the United States, on the Indian question, and a report on the subject of the Cherokee lands, was VOL. II. 3 L 438 TOPOGRAPHY OF book iv. Indian tribes, but ultimately to compel their removal by force. The president of the United States, however, assures them, that this will not be permitted; while he informs them also, that,, if they remain in the State of Georgia, they must submit to its laws. " This is the course," says the North American Review, " we had a right to expect, and to which there can be no just objection. Let the whole subject be fully explained to the Indians. Let them know that the establishment of an inde pendent government is a hopeless project, which cannot be 'permitted, and which, if it comld be permitted, would lead to their inevitable ruin. Let the offer of a new country be made to them, with ample means to reach it and to subsist in it; with ample security for its peaceful and perpetual possession, and with a pledge, in the words of the Secretary at War, ' that the most enlarged and generous efforts, by the government, will be made to improve their minds, better their condition, and aid them in their efforts of self-government.' Let them distinctly understand, that those who are not disposed to remove, but wish to remain and submit to our laws, will,' as the President has told the Creeks, ' have land laid off for them and their families, in fee. ' When all this is done, no consequences can affect the character of the government, or occasion regret to the nation. The Indians would go, and go speedily, and with satisfaction. A few perhaps might linger around the site of their cbuncil- fires ; but almost as soon as the patents could be issued to redeem the pledge made to them, they would dispose of their possessions and rejoin their countrymen. And even should these prefer ancient associations to future prospects, arid finally melt away before our people and institutions, the result must be attributed to causes which1 we can neither stay nor control. If a paternal authority is exercised over the aboriginal colonies; and just principles of communication with them, and of intercommunication among them, are established and enforced, we may hope to see that improvement in their condition, for which we have so long and so vainly looked. made to the legislature, and the committee recommended the adoption of the following resolutions among others : — " Resolved, That the United States, in failing to procure the lands in controversy, as * early' as the same could be done upon ' .peaceable' and ' reasonable terms,' have palpably violated their contract with Georgia, and are now bound, at all hazards, and without regard to terms, to procure the said lands for the use of Georgia. " Resolved, That the policy which has been pursued by the United States towards the Cherokee Indians, has not been in good faith towards Georgia ; and that as all the difficulties which now exist to an extinguish ment of the Indian title, have resulted alone from the acts and policy of the United States, it would be unjust and dishonourable in them to take shelter behind those difficulties. " Resolved, That all the lands appropriated and unappropriated, which lie within the conventional limits of Georgia, belong to her absolutely1; that the title is in her ; that the Indians are tenants at her will, and that she may, at any time she pleases, determine that tenancy by taking possession of the premises ; and that Georgia has the right to extend her authority, and to coerce obedience to them, from all descriptions of people, be they white, red, or black, who may reside within her limits; " Resolved, That Georgia entertains for the general government so high a regard, and is so solicitous to do no act that can disturb the public tranquillity, that she will not attempt to enforce her rights by violence, until all other means of redress fail." THE UNITED STATES. 439 " Impressed with the conviction, that a removal from their present position, and from chap, the vicinity of the settlements to the regions beyond the Mississippi, can alone pre- ' serve from final extinction the remnant of the aboriginal population, a number of t"aran0f benevolent men have associated themselves, and established a society, under the em'gration. appellation of ' The Indian Board, for the Emigration, Preservation, and Im provement of the Aborigines of America,' the objects of which are distinctly indicated by this title. The society avows its intention to ' afford to the emigrant Indians all the necessary instruction in the arts of life and the duties of religion,' and pledges itself to ' cooperate with the federal government of the United States in its opera tions on Indian affairs, and at no time to contravene its laws.' The plan for their removal, establishment, and gradual improvement, sketched by Colonel M'Kenney, is just to ourselves, and liberal to them ; offering a fair exchange of property, insuring present subsistence and future support, and holding out rational prospects of melio ration in their external circumstances and their moral relations. ' It is proposed in the first place to give them a country, and to secure it to them by the most ample and solemn sanctions, suitable in all respects, in exchange for theirs ; to pay them for all their improvements, and see them, free of cost, to their new homes ; to aid them after their arrival, and protect them ; to put over them at once the framework of a govern ment, and to fill this up, as their advancement in civilization may require it ; to establish schools over their country for the enlightening of the rising generation, and to give them the gospel. In fine, it is proposed to place them in a territorial relation to us in all respects, and in the enjoyment of all the privileges consequent upon such a relation, civil, political, and religious. Thus will they attain an elevation to which, in their present relations, they can never aspire. And then would new influences be created, ennobling in their tendencies, and animating in their effects. Under these the Indian would rise to the distinction to which he has always been a stranger, and live and act with reference to the corresponding honours and benefits of such a state.' " It appears that there is still an extensive and decided difference of opinion on this subject amongst the patriotic and benevolent in the United States. On this point, Colonel M'Kenney very candidly observes, " That men, and good men, should differ in their views of what ought to be done for the preservation and improvement of our Indians, is natural. We know there are men, and good men, who are opposed to the emigration of the Indians. We respect them and their motives. They seek to save and civilize these people. We profess to aim at the accomplishment of the same end, and differ only as to the mode. We once entertained similar views of this question with them, and thought it practicable to preserve and elevate the character of our Indians, even in their present anomalous relations to the states, but it was ' distance that lent enchantment to the view.' We have since seen for ourselves, and that which before looked like flying clouds, we found, on a nearer approach, to be 440 TOPOGRAPHY OF book IV. impassable mountains. We believe, if the Indians do not emigrate, and fly the causes which are fixed in themselves, and which have proved so destructive in the past, they must perish. We might distrust our conclusions, though derived from personal investigation, did not experience confirm them. But, alas ! it is the admo nition of experience, more than anything else, that claims and urges us to employ all honourable means to persuade these hapless people to acquiesce in the policy which is proposed to them." ">We cannot enter,'' says the reviewer, "into a full examination, of the effect of planting colonies of Indians in the western regions. From the retrospect^ view furnished by their history, it is evidently the only means in our power, or in theirs, which offers any probability of preserving them from utter extinction. . As a dernier resort therefore, apart from the intrinsic merits of the scheme itself, it has every claim to a fair experiment. But when viewed in connexion with the peculiar notions and mode of life of the Indians, the prospect it offers is consolatory to every reflecting person. Upon this subject we shall adduce the opinion of an able and dispassionate labourer in the great field of aboriginal improvement. The Rev. Mr. M'Coy has for many years devoted himself, with an industry equalled only; by his zeal and. disinte restedness, to the life and labour of a missionary. Ten years since, he commenced a school for the instruction of youth, at Fort Wayne, in Indiana, but the progress of the settlements soon compelled him to retire, and he removed his establishment to the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan. He here founded an institution for the benefit of the Indians, and adopted a course of procedure well calculated to be permanently bene ficial to them. The youths were taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, and also agriculture, the mechanical arts, and domestic duties. Their mental discipline, moral advancement, and progress in the business and occupations of life, went on together.. The principal and his coadjutors were indefatigable in their application, and sanguine in their expectations, and for a time every, thing promised success. And we ourselves, from a personal examination of the establishment, augured favourably of its perma nence and'usefulness. We have never seen, a similar: institution managed with more purity or judgment. But the novelty soon wore off, the Indians became dissatisfied, the institution has declined, and Mr. M'Coy is convinced, that nothing but removal, and speedy and entire removal, can save from, utter ruin those who have been taught, or those who are untaught. During the year. 1828, he repaired to the country west of the Mississippi, to examine its adaptation to the, purposes of the Indians, and has returned, satisfied with the prospect it offers, and he is now directing his efforts to procure their emigration.4 Mr. M'Coy, from personal observation, describes the * Although the following passages from -the interesting pamphlet of Mr. Onley give a very afflicting, view of the present state of the Indian tribes in the United States, we apprehend them to be calculated to correct notions which have been taken up on too slight grounds, while they are of a character, too descriptive to be omitted : — THE UNITED STATES. 441 country west of Missouri and Arkansas, as suitable for the colonization and perma- c H A P nent residence of the Indians. ' This country,' he says, ' is generally high, healthy, IV" rich, its extent adequate to the purposes under consideration, and the climate desirable.' He approves the general plan originally submitted by Mr. Monroe and " You have your missionaries at Gayhead, Stockbridge, Brothertown, Oneida, among the Tuscaroras, Tonnewantas, Senecas, Wyandots, Ottawas, Potawatamies, Miamies, &c. ; but the most they can do in the present posture of affairs is to soften, as it were, the pillow of the dying. They have been instrumental in benefiting a few ; nevertheless, in a national point of view, all these tribes, as well as others near at hand, west of Lake Michigan and West of the Mississippi river, continue to dwindle, — they are positively perishing, and perishing rapidly. " Through the instrumentality of your missionaries, some of the natives, no doubt, have become pious, and have gone, or will go, to a better country in the heavens, where their condition will be ordered by principles very different from those which have governed the conduct of men towards them while upon earth. A few have acquired some knowledge of letters and of labour ; so far, this is well. But let none imagine that these tribes, and many others, are, as tribes, improving their condition generally. I say it without fear of contra diction, that their condition is becoming more and more miserable every year. I repeat it, — they are positively perishing. " It is a lamentable truth, that the evil (the use of ardent spirits) increases annually, and occasions a fearful waste of human life. As a specimen, take the following. In the fall and winter of 1825-6, in the neighbourhood of the Carey Missionary Station, near Lake Michigan, twenty-five Indians were either directly murdered by the hands of their own people, or otherwise lost their lives by drunkenness. I took the liberty, not long since, of suggesting that the condition of these small bands, who are on little reservations in New England, New York, and Ohio, surrounded by white population, is worse than that of those who have more latitude on our frontier.' It is probable that they may be more plentifully supplied with food and raiment, but I have no hesitation in repeating that their numbers decrease faster than those of the other tribes ; and that they are more debased in principle, and positively more worthless, than those with whom I am comparing them. This sentiment is the result of my own personal observation, as well as of the con current testimony of the most authentic information. But we say, that their depravity and sufferings have been increared by our proximity to them, and their hopes cut off by our policy. They are too deeply sunk in the mire to be able to extricate themselves. It therefore rests with us to say, whether they shall be left to perish, or whether they can be or shall be ' taken out of the horrible pit and miry clay, and set upon a rock and their goings established,' — or rather, they established in a home which they can call their own. But let the policy of our government, in relation to them, continue as it has been and now is, and with the exception of the Cherokees, and their immediate neighbours, I know of no tribe, nor part of a tribe, no, not one, within or near to all the frontiers of Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, or Ohio, not one of those bands on small reservations in New York or New England, of whom we can indulge any better hope than that of their total extermination. Even over those whom we have excepted above, a gloomy cloud is gathering, of which we shall speak hereafter. " I fear the public are not fully aware of this fact, especially the Christian public, who would more espe cially shudder at the thought, and who have been hoping for better things. I fear, too, that missionaries are sometimes afraid to tell the worst part of the story, lest the benevolent societies and individuals who patronise the missions should become discouraged, and decline the undertaking. I know that there cannot exist with them any sinister motive to such a forbearance, because their labours, — the labours of their whole lives,— are gratuitously devoted to this enterprise. But they have been eye-witnesses of Indian wickedness and sufferings. They have heard fathers begging them to have mercy on them and their offspring, and entreating them not to forsake them ; they have seen the mother digging roots for her children, and have beheld the emaciated frames of those who, in winter, had lived weeks upon acorns only, or who, in summer, had fed for days upon boiled weeds alone. They have heard the cries of children suffering with hunger, and seen the frozen limb of the half-naked sufferer." 442 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK iv. Mr. Calhoun, and recommended anew by the present executive and the secretary of war, of removing, with their own consent, the various tribes to that region, and establishing over them such a government as will protect, and restrain, and improve them. If the conviction of its importance should lead to its adoption, and to the voluntary acquiescence of the Indians, it would be easy to regulate hereafter the practical details of the subject, and to accommodate them to the progress and prospects of the migrating colonists and of the permanent settlements formed by them." The " right of the strong over the weak" has generally been considered as only a periphrasis for the principle of tyranny ; and, unhappily, the history of the world has afforded too many facts to justify such an interpretation. Yet the very attributes of strength and weakness originate a relation, to which both rights and duties are attached which do not exist among equals. We apprehend it will be admitted by most of our readers, (we wish we could say all) that it is no man's duty to do what he cannot do : thus, it is not the duty of the weak to prevent the injuries committed by the strong upon each other; but it is the duty of the strong to prevent the weak acting injuriously towards each other. On this principle we apprehend the United States, and the separate states, are justified in requiring the Indians to refrain from murdering each other ; which their customs not only allow, but require. It is singular and amusing to find the same individuals who deprecate the application of this principle (we speak not now of the abuses of it) in Georgia, loudly calling on the British government to adopt it in India. What right have the government of Bengal to suppress the burning of widows, which that of Georgia has not also to prevent an Indian being murdered in cold blood, because he accidentally shot a companion while engaged in the pursuit of game ? And if none, what becomes of the absolute sove reignty of the nation of Cherokees ? Conduct of It is, however, far from our intention to maintain that the state-legislature of towards^ne Georgia is acting in consistency with a sense of what is due to the Cherokees. What Indians. has the state effected, with ample means in its power to enlighten and instruct the Indians within its borders ? It is true, the task is difficult and discouraging, but no attempt by the state has ever been made ; while, on the other hand, American citizens have been permitted, in defiance of their own laws, to corrupt and demoralize the Indians, in a manner the most disgraceful to human nature and to civilized society. It would have been at least decent, that the white inhabitants of Georgia should have been compelled to obey their own laws, before the operation of those laws was extended to the red ones. It will be said, efforts were made to check the abominable evil, but in vain. Possibly so ; but does then the free and enlightened sovereign state of Georgia mean to exhibit itself before the world as compelling the Indians to reverence its laws, while it cannot compel its own subjects to keep them ? On this subject the THE UNITED STATES. 443 remarks of a correspondent in one of the American papers, are severer than we CHAP. should venture to pen. We must leave it to his fellow countrymen to decide whether — they are more severe than just. " American citizens are so much worse than the Indians, that the latter cannot live near them. Do not facts sufficiently evince this ? While the white man can go and come without fear of robbery, oppression, or murder, the poor Indian must watch night and day, to preserve even one little poney to plough his field, or one poor cow to nourish his children, or one beeve to furnish meat for his table. White women can pass and repass with safety among the Indians, yet the Indians must watch with the mdst anxious solicitude, or their wives and daughters will be betrayed, and worse than murdered by American citizens. They must watch also every motion of their own hearts, or they are made drunkards before they know it by American citizens, who are constantly forcing intoxicating poison into their hands. Wherever they go, which way soever they turn, they find American citizens with some dark and deep laid plan to rob them of their property, their friends, their virtue, their good name, their all. And what can they do ? They cannot live with such wretches. They must go to the more virtuous Comanches of the west. They perhaps, without envy, can see them in possession of one little blanket, in which they may wrap themselves. If American citizens were not insensible to shame, they would blush at the recital of their deeds." Whatever good qualities the inhabitants of the southern states may possess, they Negroes. must be either more or less than men, if the state of society be not materially degraded by the double evil of the Indians on their borders, and slavery in their midst. To the circumstances and moral effects of the latter we shall now call the attention of our readers. It would have been gratifying if we could have entitled this section of the chapter "Slavery," instead of "Negroes;" but, unhappily, the former would have by no means expressed the extent of the subject now placed before us — the condition of the free negroes and their influence on society being, in many instances, more deplorable than that of their enslaved brethren, and presenting features of civil polity still more anomalous. We shall first notice the condition of free persons of colour, both in the free Free and the slave states. It is with regret we say, that in those states where slavery c«[our.S° has been abolished, the separating feeling between the whites and their coloured fellow-citizens is so strong, as to effectually prevent that amalgamation in society which would, strange as the assertion may seem, elevate both races. Both in public and private life the distinction is, with few exceptions, studiously kept up ; and the negro is perpetually and forcibly reminded that he is held to be of an inferior race to his white fellow-citizen. This feeling is kept alive by the evil which itself, in a great 444 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. degree, it produces — the moral degradation of ,a very large portion of the class. In these states from one-sixth to one-third of the criminals are coloured persons, while they bear to the population a proportion of only l-70th to l-30th ; that is to say, the proportion of coloured culprits is ten times that of the s whites.? So grievous a burden has the coloured population been found in Ohio and some other states, that they have deemed themselves justified in the extraordinary measure of requiring all coloured persons to give security for their good conduct in a heavy penalty, or to quit the territory/ It would seem that the tie of christian brotherhood itself is insufficient to overcome the association . of ideas connected with the dark colour of the negroes, and that the temple of the Deity is desecrated by the palpable exhibition « The following statement is from the First Annual Report of the Prison Discipline Society ; — " The first cause existing in society, of the frequency and increase of crime, is the degraded character of the coloured population. The facts, which are gathered from the penitentiaries, to show how great a proprtion of the con victs are coloured, even in those states, where the coloured population is small, show most strikingly the connexion between ignorance and vice. " In Massachusetts, the population is 523,000. The coloured population less than 7,000 ; the whole num ber of convicts 314 ; the coloured convicts 50 ; that is, l-74th part of the population, and nearly l-6th part of the convicts are coloured. " In Connecticut, the whole population is 275,000. The coloured population about 8,000 ; the whole num ber of convicts is 117; tbe coloured convicts 39 : that is, l-34th part of the population is coloured, and l-3d part of the convicts. "In Vermont, the whole coloured population is only 918 souls, from whom twenty-four have been furnished for the penitentiary. " In New York, the whole population is 1,372,000. The coloured population 39,000 ; the whole number of convicts in the state prison in the city is 637 ; the coloured convicts 154 ; that is, l-35th part of the popu lation is coloured, and about l-4th part of the convicts. " In New Jersey, the whole population is 277,000 ; the coloured population 20,000 ; the whole number of convicts 74; the number of coloured convicts 24 ; that is, I- 13th part of the population is coloured and l-3d part of the convicts. " In Pennsylvania, the whole population is 1,049,000 ; the coloured population 30,000 ; in 1816, the whole number of convicts 407 ; the number of coloured convicts 176 ; in 1819, the whole number of convicts 474 ¦ the number of coloured convicts 165 ; that is, l-34th part of the population is coloured, and more than l-3d part of the convicts. " It is not necessary to pursue these illustrations. It is sufficiently apparent, that one great cause of the frequency and increase of crime, is neglecting to raise the character of the coloured population." African Repository, vol. ii. pp. 152, 153. ' " The vices of the free blacks do not spring from any inherent depravity in their natural constitution, but from their unfortunate situation. Social intercourse is a want which we are prompted to gratify by all the properties of our nature. And as they cannot obtain it in the better circles of society, nor always among them selves, they resort to slaves, and to the most debased and worthless of the whites. Corruption, and all the train of petty offences, are the consequences. Proprietors of slaves, in whose neighbourhood any free coloured family is situated, know how infectious and pernicious this intercourse is. And the penal records of the tribu nals, especially in the large cities, bear frightful testimony to the disproportionate number of crimes committed by the free people of colour. The evil of their increase in those cities is so enormous as to call loudly for effec tive remedy. It has been so sensibly felt in a neighbouring city, (Cincinnati,) as to require, in the opinion of the public authorities, the enforcement of the vigorous measure of the expulsion of all who could not give gua rantees of their good behaviour." — Mr. Clay's Address to the Colonization Society of Kentucky. THE UNITED STATES. 445 of the degrading stain, which the baptismal font has failed, in the estimation of pro- chap. fessing christians, to wash away. For this unhappy race a star in the east has appeared, and the dawn of a brilliant African day has arisen upon them. Fourteen years ago, some benevolent individuals formed Colomza- a society for establishing a colony of free negroes on the shores of Africa. Like ciety. other noble institutions, it has had difficulties to contend with which have impeded its early progress. Very much has, however, already been effected by it — much in point of the number of individuals benefited — but infinitely more in the convincing proof afforded them, that, placed in circumstances reasonably favourable, the negro is capable of forming a character which may make the pride of distinction all his own. " One of the earliest acts of the society was to despatch a competent agent to Africa, to explore its coast and the countries bordering upon it, and to select a suitable spot for the establishment of the contemplated colony. The society was eminently fortunate in the choice of its agent, as it has been generally in those whom it subsequently engaged in its service. A selection was finally made of a proper district, and a purchase of it was effected from the native authorities in December, 1822, to which additions have been made, as the growing wants of the colony, actual or anticipated, required. The country so acquired, upon terms as moderate as those on which the government of the Union extinguishes the Indian title to soil within the United States, embraces large tracts of fertile land capable of yielding all the rich and varied produce of the tropics, possesses great commercial advantages, with an extent of sea-coast of from 150 to 200 miles, and enjoys a climate, well adapted to the negro constitution, but providentially fatal to that of the whites. Within that district the society founded its colony, under the denomination of Liberia, established towns, laid off plantations for the colonists, and erected mili tary works for their defence. Annually, and as often as the pecuniary circum stances or he society would admit, vessels from the ports of the United States have . been sent to Liberia, laden with emigrants, and with utensils, provisions, and other objects for their comfort. No difficulty has been experienced in obtaining as many colonists as the means of the society were competent to transport; they have been found, indeed, altogether inadequate to accommodate all who were willing and anxious to go. The rate of expense of transportation and subsistence during the voyage, per head, was greater in earlier voyages ; it was subsequently reduced to about twenty dollars, and is believed to be susceptible of considerable further reduc tion. The number of colonists of both sexes amounts now to upwards of 2,000. " The colony, in the first period of its existence, had some collisions with the Colony of native tribes, which rose to such a height as to break out in open war. The war was l ena' conducted by the late gallant Mr. Ashmun, with singular good judgment and fortune, and was speedily brought to a successful close. It had the effect to impress upon the VOL. II. 3 M 446 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. natives a high idea of the skill, bravery, and power of the colonists ; and having since become better acquainted with them, perceived the advantages of the colony, and gradually acquired a taste for its commerce and arts, no further misunderstanding with them is apprehended, and the colony is daily acquiring a salutary influence over them. " The colony has a government adequate to the protection of the rights of persons and property, and to the preservation of order. The agent of the society combines the functions of governor, commander-in-chief, and highest judicial officer. The colonists share in the government, and elect various officers necessary to the adminis tration. They appoint, annually, boards or committees of public works, of agriculture, and of health, which are charged with the superintendence of those important interests. It has established schools for the instruction of youth, and erected houses of public worship, in which divine service is regularly performed. And it has a public library of 1,200 volumes, and a printing-press, which issues periodically a gazette. " The colonists follow the mechanical arts, or agriculture, or commerce, as their incli nations or attainments prompt them. The land produces rice, cassada, coffee, potatoes, and all kinds of garden vegetables ; and is capable of yielding sugar-cane, indigo, and, in short, all the productions of the tropics. It is rich, easily tilled, and yields two crops of many articles in the circle of a year. They carry on an advantageous commerce with the natives by exchanges for ivory, gums, dye-stuffs, drugs, and other articles of African origin ; and with the United States, which is annually increasing, and which amounted last year to 60,000 dollars, in the produce of the colony, and in objects acquired by their traffic with the natives, receiving, in return, such supplies of American and other manufactures as are best adapted to their wants." s Prospects Partaking of that general impulse which seems to have pervaded American society mzation" °" Dotn ^n *ts c™^ an<^ religious aspect during the last two or three years, the Coloniza- Society. ^ t;on Society has become increasingly efficient, although it has met with opposition from contrary points, alike from the advocates of emancipation and from the friends of "things as they are" in the Southern states; the former maintaining that the tendency of the society was to perpetuate slavery by ruining the free blacks, — the latter, that the society aimed directly at some project for promoting emancipation. The occurrences of the last year, which indicated a considerable tendency to insurrec tion in the slave states, have produced many friends to the society in the south : and the satisfactory accounts of the prosperity and happiness of the negroes on their original soil, have turned other opponents into friends. Many thousand slaves in Kentucky and other states, have been offered their freedom, without compensation from any quarter, as soon as the funds of the society would admit of their being 5 Mr. Clay's Address to the Kentucky Colonization Society. THE UNITED STATES. 447 embarked for Liberia ; while several of the state legislatures have resolved to devote a CHAP. large sum annually, to enable the free blacks to join their brethren in the new republic.11 ¦ — Indeed, within the last few months, the prospect of the unfortunate African race has brightened, in a manner calculated to excite the highest hopes for their future destiny. We should deem it insulting to our readers to enter into any discussion on the Slavery. subject of slavery. As a principle, the whole civilized world, except the actual tion So- proprietors (and indeed very many of them also), have utterly abandoned it long ciety" since ; and if we are sufficiently impressed with the evils that might result to the slaves themselves not to recommend immediate and universal emancipation, we h " The Virginia House of delegates have passed the bill making appropriations for the removal of free negroes from that state to Liberia, by a vote of seventy-nine to forty-one. It appropriates 35,000 dollars for the present year, and 90,000 dollars for 1833, besides 10,000 dollars for a temporary shelter at Liberia. This is the first time that any member of our confederacy, coming fairly within the list of slave-holding states, has commenced a series of efforts designed eventually to free itself from the curse of slavery." — New York Mercury, Feb. 22, 1832. " We have read, with much interest, an abstract of the bill reported to the Maryland house of delegates, on the 15th instant, on the subject of free negroes and slavery. Its leading provisions we will endeavour to state in a few words : — In the first place it enacts that no free negro or mulatto shall emigrate to, or settle in the state of Maryland, under heavy penalties, and ultimate liability to be sold as a slave. 2. That after the 1st of June next, no slave shall be brought into the state, either for sale or to reside, under penalty of forfeiture. 3. It appropriates 100,000 dollars for the removal of free blacks now in the state, to be borrowed by the state treasurer, at five per cent, redeemable in fifteen years ; and directs a tax of 10,000 dollars per annum to be levied upon the different counties for the payment of the principal and interest Said 100,000 dollars to be apportioned among the several counties according to the ratio of the free black population in each, agreeably to the census of 1830. If any county refuses to be taxed, (and it has the liberty of so doing,) it shall receive no portion of the money raised, and the amount to be raised shall be proportionally diminished. Said 100,000 dollars to be applied to the removal of free blacks, in the following order : — " ' Healthy free coloured persons, of both sexes, over the age of eighteen, consenting to remove to Liberia and never to return to this state. Free coloured persons, under the age of eighteen, consenting to remove or not consenting, whose parent or parents, if any living, consent to their removal. Free coloured persons, under eighteen, neither of whose parents are living, and who are bound out, with or without their consent ; and if bound out, with the consent of their master or mistress, to whom they are bound. Free coloured persons of the desu :otion mentioned in the first seven sections of this act ; that is, persons hereafter manu mitted, by deed or by will.' " 4. Slaves hereafter emancipated by deed, manumission, or will, to become the property of the State, unless fifty dollars each be paid by the owners or other persons for their removal to Liberia. In case of neglect by the person contracting to pay the fifty dollars, the slave, by becoming indented till his wages shall net fifty-five dollars, may redeem himself. 5. It is however provided, that emancipated slaves shall not become the property if the state, if the owners agree with the State Colonization Society, or American Colonization Society, to remove them to Liberia. But their emancipation will not be acknowledged by the state, until they have actually departed from its limits ; and will become void in case of their return within three years, except for a sojourn not exceeding ten days. 6. All free persons of colour are required to be registered, and to pay a capitation tax of one dollar fifty cents per annum. 7. It is declared unlawful to sell spiritous liquor to a slave, without a written authority from his overseer j or to a free person of colour, without a permit from a justice of the peace in the county where he resides. The licence of retailers to be forfeited by a breach of this enactment, at the discretion of the judges of the county courts, or, in their recess, by the judges of the Orphan's Courts." 448 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. Existenceof slavery partial. are at a loss to conceive on what just principle "it can be refused, if demanded by the parties themselves. The person of man equitably cannot become the property of another against his own consent : the negro slaves have, therefore, an absolute right over their own persons: it is matter of discretion with them when and where they may choose to assert that right ; but we put it home to the conscience of those who have solemnly declared, — "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness : that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed ; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness :" — we put it home, we say, to those who avow such principles, how much less a crime than murder is committed, if death is inflicted on a man because he attempts to obtain that liberty which is as unalienable as life itself. Before entering on a description of the condition of the negroes in the slave states, it is proper to remind the reader that the question of slavery is not one which can be justly held to affect the character of the general government, or of the people at large. It does not rest with the former, because the question, with others of a similar cha racter, was referred by the constitution (and it was impossible to form a union of the states on any other principle) to the decision of each separate state ; nor can it justly lie upon the people, as the great majority deplore the evil, and have abandoned it. Of the thirteen original states, the local legislatures of seven have abolished slavery; namely, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Since the declaration of independence, eleven new states have been added to the Union ; of these, slavery was abolished in Maine, while it formed a part of the state of Massachusetts ; the state of Vermont has since abolished slavery, and in the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, it was prohibited at their formation. Thus, of the twenty-four states which at present constitute the Union, nine have abolished slavery, and three have prohibited its introduction ; making altogether twelve free states out of the twenty-four. Conduct of The only instance in which the general legislature has appeared to neglect a fair eovern"6™ opportunity of repressing or preventing the extension of this direful evil, occurred in the admission of the state of Missouri. In the contention on this subject, the most violent of the democratic party, among whom Mr. Jefferson was conspicuous, sacrificed their consistency by perpetuating slavery in that large portion of the republic, lest they should infringe in the slightest degree on their favourite principle government, THE UNITED STATES. 449 of " state sovereignty." It is certainly much to be regretted, that a sufficient number c H A P. of the representatives from the free states could have been induced to lend their ' support to this view of the subject, to secure a majority; but it is some con solation to reflect, that most of them were rejected by their constituents at the next election. The slave states may be divided into two classes — the breeding states, and the Slave planting states. Among the former are principally Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, and Tennessee : the latter, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. In the former the condition of the negroes is generally much more tolerable than in the latter ; in point of physical comfort, probably superior to the condition of the greater part of the labouring population of Europe. The slave owners, more prudent — per haps more benevolent — than many of the English aristocracy, allot their slaves portions of ground on which they grow corn, melons, and other vegetables ; and their hours of labour are not excessive. Still their moral state, for the most part, is awfully degraded, and the state of the whites, in many instances, equally so. " There must doubtless," observes Mr. Jefferson, " be an unhappy influence on the manners of our people, produced by the existence of slavery among us. The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions ; the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and the most degrading submission on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it ; for man is an imitative animal. This quality is the germ of all education in him. From his cradle to his grave he is learning to do what he sees others do. If a parent could find no motive, either in his philanthropy or his self-love, for restraining the intemperance of passion towards his slave, the presence of his child should always be sufficient. But generally it is not sufficient. The parent storms, the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of younger slaves, gives a loose to his worst passions, and thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped with its odious peculiarities. The man must indeed be a prodigy who can retain his manners and morals undepraved by such circum stances. With what execration then should the statesman be loaded, who, permitting one-half of the citizens thus to trample on the rights of the other, transforms those into despots and these into enemies. He destroys the morals of the one part, and the amor patriae of the other. For if a slave can have a country in the world, it must be any other in preference to that in which he is born to live and labour for another." But there are more grievous immoralities still. " The young men of a family," says a recent traveller, "are allowed to cohabit with the domestic slaves, who, from being mulattoes, are in general preferred to the pure negresses. Some of these girls are uncommonly handsome, and have but very little black blood in them. Indeed I have seen some of these female slaves, who, being three or four generations removed 450 TOPOGRAPHY OF book IV. from the negro, were nearly as white; and fully as good-looking as the ladies they waited upon. All these spurious generations are slaves, liable to be sold, and often actually sold to negro drivers, who again sell them to some one else for mistresses. Indeed, in the southern states the ladies would be very angry, and turn any one out of society, who kept a white woman for his mistress ; but would not scruple even to marry him if he had a coloured one, and a whole family of children by her. But what should we say in Europe if a man sold his own natural son, brother, or sister ? This however takes place quite commonly, and as a matter of course. I could mention the name of a lady not a hundred miles from Washington, who lets out as a servant her own natural brother, a good-looking mulatto. Indeed, it is a saying in Ken tucky, that 'many a man makes his own niggers;' for many a slave-holder, in gratifying his passions, increases, at the same time, what may be called his live stock." Internal An extensive slave-trade is carried on between these regions and those western a e' parts of the states of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia, in which they find it more profitable to breed slaves for the market, than to raise the appropriate produce of the soil. " I have already mentioned," ' says Mr. Hodgson, " the nume rous gangs which I continually fell in with, on my route from the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico ; and I have understood that, from Maryland and Virginia alone, from 4000 to 5000 per annum are occasionally sent down to New Orleans, a place, the very name of which seems to strike terror into the slaves and free negroes of the middle states. Instances are not rare of slaves destroying themselves, by cutting their throats or other violent means, to avoid being sent to Georgia or New Orleans. An instance is on record of a poor black woman, in the winter of 1815, torn from her husband and destined for transportation to Georgia, throwing herself at day-break from the third story of a tavern in Washington ; and slaves are marching in open day in manacles, on their melancholy journey southward, past the very walls of the capitol, where the senate of this free republic conduct their deliberations. Indeed, this trade between the middle and southern states has given rise to the horrible practice of kidnapping free black men, and has introduced into the heart of a country pre-emi nently proud of her free institutions, a sort of tegra, or man-stealing, which one had hoped was confined to the deserts of Africa. It is stated by Mr. Torrey, a gentleman of the medical profession, in a work which he has published, called 'American Slave- Trade,' that under the existing laws, if a ' free-coloured man travels without pass ports certifying his right to his liberty, he is generally apprehended, and frequently plunged (with his progeny) into slavery, by the operation of the laws.' He observes, 'The preceding facts clearly exemplify the safety with which the free-born (black) Letters from North America, vol. i. p. 194. THE UNITED STATES. 451 inhabitants of the United States may be offered for sale, and sold, even in the metro- CHAP. polis of liberty, as oxen, even to those who are notified of the fact, and are, perhaps, lv" convinced that they are free.' " Of the estimation in which slaves are held, in the more southern states especially, Condition Mr. Hodgson gives us an appalling account. It is well he prefaces his statements, "laves. by an assurance that, on so serious a subject as this, he is particularly guarded in mentioning nothing for which he has not unquestionable authority. " The following fact," says he, " rests on the evidence of my own senses. At a dining party of five or six gentlemen, I heard one of the guests, who is reputed a respectable planter, say, in the course of conversation, that he shot at one of his slaves last year, with intent to kill him for running away ; that on another occasion, finding that two run away slaves had taken refuge on his plantation, he invited some of his friends out of town to dinner and a frolic ; that after dinner they went out to hunt the slaves, and hearing a rustling in the reeds or canes in which they believed them to be concealed, ' they all fired at their game, but unfortunately missed. ' Does not your blood curdle? Yet he did not appear to be sensible that he was telling any thing extraordinary, nor to understand the silence of astonishment and horror. I could extend this sad recital, but why should I harrow up your feelings? No incident could supply, indeed imagination could scarcely conceive, a more striking and decisive proof than is afforded by the last anecdote, of the degree to which the negro is degraded in the public estimation. If any place is allotted to him in the scale of humanity, it is so low, and so distant from that occupied by his white brethren, as frequently to exclude him in a great measure from their sympathy. The planter whom example and habit have led to believe that he must render the negro industrious by the use of the lash and obedient by shooting the refractory, acts as you and I should doubtless have acted under similar circumstances : but is not that a horrible system, which so deranges the feelings of men of education and liberal attainments ? Nothing but famiharity with the degradation and sufferings of the negroes could induce their white masters, many of whom are respectable, liberal, and humane, in the ordinary relations of life, to tolerate the constant use of the lash. You see the overseer continually stalking about with his long-lashed whip, while the poor slaves are toiling, with little rest or respite from morn to night — for here I observe they seem to work many hours longer than in Carolina, and the system is considered far more severe. A friend told me, that while walking on the Levee, at New Orleans, he has distinctly heard the successive lashes on the back of a poor slave on the other side of the Mississippi, which is half a mile across. Another friend who was riding with me here told me, that one evening lately, spending a night at the house of a planter who was from home, the planter's wife said how glad she was to see him, as she was just going to flog one of her slaves, and would 452 TOPOGRAPHY OF book IV. he be kind enough to save her the trouble. My friend, however, who was from the north, had not been accustomed to the office, and did not choose to take the hint, broad as it was. The lady resumed the subject before supper, and again as soon as the cloth was drawn, when my friend told her he could not think of complying with her wishes. She was extremely offended, and evinced her displeasure so openly, that had there been another house within a few miles, my friend would have withdrawn. Before bed-time, however, another traveller arrived, to whom the lady complained aloud of the ungentlemanly conduct of her first guest, and who at once undertook the office, without inquiring into the offence. You will not wonder, after these details, that a white man considers it a degradation to eat with a black one ; and that if you take a white servant to a planter's or an inn, he is obliged to have separate meals, and, where it is practicable, an apartment separate from the black servants. I remember, that as the mail stopped in Virginia and Carolina, I generally saw a little white boy stuffed in one corner, and for a long time without being particularly struck with the circumstance. At last, something leading me to inquire into the cause, I found there was a law prohibiting the mail bags being entrusted to a black man. Now, as the coachmen were negroes, this little lad was stuffed in as a matter of form, as the nominal white guard of the United States' mail bags." Well may Mr. Jefferson exclaim, " 1 tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that this justice cannot sleep for ever ; that considering numbers, nature, and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible events; that it may become probable by superior interference. The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest." instruction The slave owners are generally much opposed to the instruction of their slaves. slaves. The following paragraph, copied from a Charleston paper of 1823, will give some idea of the feelings on this subject. " The grand jury of Charleston present as a nuisance the numbers of schools which are kept within the city by persons of colour ; and believe that a city ordinance, prohibiting under severe penalties such persons from being public instructors, would meet with general approbation." As the blacks are most carefully excluded from all schools kept by white persons, where their pre sence would be considered as a sort of contamination, both by the master and the scholars, this bill of the grand jury goes to deprive them at once of all instruction. " I lately saw in the newspapers," says Mr. Hodgson," " a notice from the mayor of one of the principal cities in the south, presenting an extract from the law which prohibits the instruction of slaves, expressing his regret to observe that this law had been infringed upon in several instances lately, by teaching the slaves to read and write, and declaring the intention to inflict the penalty, if the offence should be repeated. And yet, in the * Vol. i. p. 201. THE UNITED STATES. 453 northern states, among the most interesting objects which I saw were the schools, in chap. which some hundreds of free black Africans were receiving the elements of a some- : — what liberal education, and where they exhibited both industry and intelligence." Respecting the treatment of slaves, Basil Hall has furnished some interesting par- Treatment ticulars ; and, however justly complaints may be made of this traveller's unfavourable s]aves. representations of the United States on some points, is certainly far from being unfair on this subject. " With respect to the amount of labour performed by the slaves in the culture and preparation of cotton, I may mention, that in all cases of tasking — whether this term be applied to field or to house- work — a three-quarter, a half, or a quarter hand, is required to work only that proportion of a task per day. Appli cations are made every year by the slaves to the overseer, or to their master, to reduce the quantum of labour from the higher to the lower grades. This method of, tasking, or defining their work, is that which the slaves prefer to any other. Active hands get through their proportion generally by the middle of the day, others in two- thirds of the day, after which they are left to employ the balance, as it is rather well called, or what remains of daylight, in their own fields, in fishing, or in dancing; — in short, as they please. The driver puts them to work in the morning, and sees that all is properly executed before they go away. The young slaves, of course, come in as one-quarter hands,, and are gradually raised. Every negro knows his rate and lawful task so well, that if he thinks himself imposed upon by the driver, he appeals at once to the master. " The stated allowance of food,. to every slave over fourteen years of age, is nine quarts of Indian corn per week, and for children, from five to eight quarts. This is said to be more than they can eat, and the surplus is either sold, or is given to the hogs and poultry, which they are always, allowed to rear on their own account. A quart of salt monthly is also allowed, and salt fish, as well as salt beef occasionally, but only as a favour, and can never be claimed as a right. A heaped-up bushel of sweet potatoes is considered equal to the above allowance, and so are two pecks of rough, that is, unhusked rice or paddy ; but this is not thought so substantial a food as the Indian corn. On the plantation to which these details refer, the negroes are allowed three holy days at Christmas, when they have plenty of beef and whisky. At the end of this period, they are often, as I am told, completely done up with eating, drinking, and dancing. On that plantation they are allowed to have as much land as they choose to plant, and the master's family is supplied entirely with poultry and eggs from this free work of the slaves, who are regularly paid at the following rates: — eggs, 12£ cents (6d.) , a-dozen ; chickens, 12J cents (6d.) ; fowls, 20 to 25 cents, or about a shilling a-pair ; ducks, twice as much. But they are left at liberty to carry their poultry to a better market, if they can find one. The proceeds are mostly laid out in dress and trinkets. VOL. ii. 3 N 454 TOPOGRAPHY OF book iv. " The slaves are generally dressed in what is called white Welsh plains, for winter clothing. This costs about 80 cents, or 3s. 6d. a-yard, in Charleston. They prefer white cloth, and afterwards die it of a purple colour to suit their own fancy. Each man gets seven yards of this, and the women six yards, — the children in proportion. Each grown-up negro gets a new blanket every second year, and every two children in like manner one blanket. The men receive also a cap, and the women a handker chief, together with a pair of strong shoes, every winter.' A suit of homespun cotton, of the stuff called Osnaburghs, is allowed to each person for summer dress. " It is very disagreeable to speak of the punishments inflicted on these negroes, but a slave-holder must be more or less of a despot in spite of himself; for the laws neither do, nor can they, effectually interfere in the details of discipline. The master must enforce obedience to his orders, and maintain general subordination, however kind-hearted he may be, by the only means which the nature of the whole system leaves in his power. The slave has, unfortunately, so few generous motives to stimulate him to work, that fear is necessarily made to enter* as the chief ingredient, into the discipline. It is a great mistake, however, to suppose that slaves labour sulkily, and under the perpetual exercise of the lash. On the contrary, from constant habit, they do, in point of fact, go about their work with cheerfulness ; and, as their tasks are limited to what can be readily performed, it is in the power of every slave who chooses, to escape punishment for any length of time. But it seems to be indis pensable to the working of this strange piece of moral machinery, that every negro should be made fully sensible that punishment will follow neglect or crime. Neither men nor women, it is most melancholy to know, can ever be exempted with safety, upon any occasion, except that of sickness, from the operation of this stern but inevitable rule. When slaves are under the management of injudicious, unmethodical, dissipated, ill-tempered, or naturally cruel masters, of course the evils which ensue are too horrible to think of." Negro We shall conclude the descriptive touches of this revolting subject with Captain sa,e- Hall's description of the sale of a slave by auction. " After various delays, the slave was put up to auction at the end of the passage, near which four or five persons had by this time collected. There was a good deal of laughing and talking amongst the buyers, and several jests were sported on the occasion, of which their little victim took no more notice, than if he had been a horse or a dog. Infect, he was not a chubby shining little negro, with a flat nose, thick lips, and woolly hair ; but a slender, delicate-looking youth, more yellow than black, with an expression every way suitable, I thought, with the forlorn situation in which he was placed — for both his parents, and all his brothers and sisters, he told me, had been long ago sold into slavery, and sent to the southern states — Florida, or Alabama — he knew not where ! ' Well, gentlemen, ' cried the deputy-marshal , ' will you give THE UNITED STATES. 455 us a bid? Look at him — as smart a fellow as ever you saw — works like a tiger ! ' chap One of the spectators called out, 'Come, I'll say twenty-five dollars;' another said L_ thirty-five, another said forty, and at last one hundred dollars were bid for him. From the spot where I was standing, in the corner, behind the rest of the party, I could see all that was passing. I felt my pulse accelerating at each successive offer, and my cheek getting flushed, for the scene was so very new that I almost fancied I was dreaming. The interest, after a time, took a different character, to which, how ever, I by no means wished to give utterance, or in any shape to betray ; but at this moment the deputy-marshal, finding the price to hang at one hundred dollars, looked over to me and said, ' Do you give us a bid, Sir — won't you?" My indignation was just beginning to boil over at this juncture, and I cried out in answer to this appeal, with more asperity than good sense or good breeding, ' No ! No ! I thank God we don't do such things in my country ! ' • And I wish with all my heart,' said the auctioneer, in a tone that made me sorry for having spoken so hastily — ' I wish we did not do such things here.' ' Amen ! ' said several voices. The sale went on. ' We can't help it, however,' observed the marshal ; * we must do our duty. One hundred dollars are bid, gentlemen ! One — hundred — dollars ! ' The ominous personage with deep-set eyes now called but, to my horror and that of the poor boy, '120!' Just at this moment a farmer who had come from the country, and seemed pleased with the looks of the youth, nodded to the auctioneer, and said, ' 130.' My tall friend now said, '140,' which was echoed by the new comer, with, '142!' Upon which these two bidders, having exchanged looks, walked apart for a couple of minutes, whispering something, which I did not hear. I observed the farmer nod several times, as if assenting to some compromise. They now returned, and the tall gentleman said, * I will give 143 dollars for him,' while the other, though more than once appealed to by the auctioneer, spoke no more. ' 143 dollars are bid for this lad ! 143 dollars — once ! twice ! Are you all done, gentlemen ? Thrice ! The lad is yours, sir, — a slave for life!' I patted the boy on the head, wished his new master, my tall friend, all joy of his bargain, and ran off as fast as I could down one of the avenues, hoping, by change of place to get rid of the entanglement of many unpleasant thoughts which crowded upon me during the sale ; arid perhaps willing, by a good scamper over the ground, to. satisfy myself of the identity of my own freedom. " I asked a gentleman, afterwards, whether such things were common in that part of the country. Instead of answering my question, he picked up a newspaper at random, and pointed out the following advertisement: — "MARSHAL'S SALE. " By authority of a writ of fieri facias, issued from the clerk's office of the circuit court of this district, for the county of Washington, to me directed, I shall 'expose to public sale, for 456 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK IV. cash, on Monday, 31st instant, the following slaves, viz. : — Charity, Fanny, Sandy, Jerry, Nace, Harry, Jem, Bill, Anne, Lucy; Nancy and her five children, George, Penn, Mary, Francis, and Henry ; Flora and her seven children, Robert, Joseph, Fanny, Mary, Jane,. Patty, and Betsy ; Harry ; and also four mules, four carts, one carriage and harness. Seized and taken in execution, as the goods and chattels of John Threlkeld, and willbe sold to satisfy a debt due by him to the bank of the United States, use of ,the United States, and the bank of the United States. " Sale to be at the dwelling of Alexander Burrows, and commence at eleven o'clock, a.m. " Tench Ringgold, Dec. 24 — dts. " Marshal of the district of Columbia." " I should be doing the inhabitants of the district of Colombia great injustice, and also leave a needless degree of pain on the minds of others, were I not to mention the sincere desire which is felt, and, perhaps, as far as possible, acted upon, in that quarter, to remedy, if not altogether to remove an evil, apparently so inconsistent with the principles applied to every thing else in America." If slavery be injurious in its inoral influence, it is no less so in its political. It decidedly impedes the career of national competition, and renders states more poor and feeble, instead of more wealthy and more powerful — an admirable proof of the presiding care of a moral governor, that, on a large scale, injustice should always be attended with injury to the oppressor. Slavery is a complete check to the building of towns and villages, because it almost entirely prevents a demand for labour or merchandize. Say a man possesses forty slaves. All these unhappy beings are clothed and fed in the coarsest and cheapest manner, generally on a little salt^fish and Indian corn. They live in huts on the estate of their master, and having nothing to sell, can buy nothing. Each proprietor has his shoemaker, tailor, carpenter, &c, on his own estate — all slaves. These are either taught by other slaves, or are, when young, sent by their masters as apprentices to a white artizan at some large town. If, therefore, a white settler should go to one of the slave states, what could he do ? He could not, if an artizan, find any employment ; for there is no demand for his services. If he should buy land, he could not cultivate it without becoming a slave-holder, and this would require considerable capital. Hence, in the slave states, the towns, as they are called, consist of little more than a tavern, a small store, and a blacksmith's shop. We speak, of course, of the towns in the interior, where there is no foreign commerce. The difference between a slave and a free state is no where more sensibly felt than in crossing from Ohio into Kentucky. Here the really indefatigable industry of the freeman, is seen contrasted with the negligence and slovenliness of the slave. Had Louisville been free and Cincinnati enslaved, how different would their respective features have now been ! THE UNITED STATES. 457 There is no motive which ought to influence an honourable mind, which does not chap. bear immediately and forcibly against the system of involuntary servitude. It is true, ' that if the crime and the mischief of slavery are great, the remedy is proportionably difficult. The immediate sacrifice required is, doubtless, a fearful penalty — a striking instance of the retribution of the primary wrong on the " third and fourth gene ration." But the evil must be met, — met boldly and decidedly; and we would close this chapter, by fearlessly telling the present race of slave-owners, that if they do not effectually remedy the dreadful evil, they are guilty of the destruction of the very parties whose interest they are so unwilling to sacrifice, — their own and their children's. They probably know the hazards to which we are unwilling more explicitly to refer. Better for them would they abandon their glittering but unright eous possession, and apply themselves to get an honest living by their own labour, than live in affluence, with the elements of ruin gathering daily more thickly around their devoted heads. 458 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK V. TOPOGRAPHY. BOOK V. General design. Mair.e.- - Bounda ries. CHAPTER I. NEW ENGLAND. NEW HAMPSHIRE VERMONT MASSACHUSETTS RHODE ISLAND — CONNECTICUT. IT is our design in this, the closing department of our work, to give a concise but clear account of the situation, extent, natural and physical geography, internal improvements, manufactures and commerce, education, religion, civil divisions, and population, of each state. We trust the former portions of this volume have conveyed a correct idea of the state of the republic generally, and would enable an inquirer to determine on the propriety of a removal thither ; alike correcting unjust prejudices and unreasonable expectations, and preventing disappointment on his arrival in the transatlantic world. The remaining pages will afford, to a considerable extent, such an outline of the local peculiarities of the several states of which the Union is composed, as may in some degree enable the emigrant to select that section of the country most suited to his circumstances and pursuits. We shall commence with the most northern state, deeming a geographical preferable to an alphabetical arrangement. We have not attempted, however, any classification; as we agree with Mr. Darby, when he says, " Many arbitrary subdivisions have been attempted, with a view to simplify the engrouping of the United States, but they have appeared to me in every instance productive of confusion. The artificial lines of the political subdivisions are drawn with so little regard to natural features, that all relative classification into eastern, western, southern or central states, superinduces so many exceptions as to render the rule worse than dubious." MAINE. The State of Maine is situated between 43° 5' and 48° 3 north latitude, and extends from 66° 49' to 70° 55' west longitude. It is bounded by Lower Canada on the north, New Brunswick on the east, the Atlantic on the south, and New THE UNITED STATES. 459 Hampshire on the west. The map exhibits the positions in controversy between chap. i. the governments of the United States and Great Britain, respecting the extension of Maine beyond the sources of the St. Croix river. The decision by his Dutch majesty is generally considered to be unsatisfactory. The greatest length of Maine is, from south-west to north-east, 350 ; mean breadth, 92 ; and area, by the rhombs, 32,194 square miles. The surface of this state differs essentially from any other part of the United Surface. States. The coast between Casco Bay and Passamaquoddy is excessively indented by long projecting points, and by innumerable islands, between which are discharged the fine streams of Kennebeck and Penobscot, with many others of less volume, affording an unequalled variety of harbours. Upon this very broken coast is poured a tide of from 20 to 40 feet. So powerful is the ocean swell, as to break the winter ice to fragments, and to preserve open the harbours of Maine, whilst those several degrees more southward are closed. The interior of the state is a congeries of hills of great variety of form, without any mountain ridges of much elevation or mass, with intervening lakes and streams. With Maine, indeed, commences that lake section of North America, which extends to the utmost known northern regions of the continent. Though not very elevated, the interior of Maine rises so rapidly from the sea-coast, as to preclude the flow of the tide far inland, though few other states of the Union are more completely traversed by navigable rivers. Extending over 5° of latitude, and differing in level at least 800 feet, Maine pre- Climate. sents at its extremes great diversity of climate: the air, however, in all parts of the country is pure and salubrious. The summers in most parts are favourable to the growth of all the vegetable productions of the northern states. In some places, however, Indian corn, and some other plants of a more tender kind, are frequently injured, and sometimes destroyed, by frosts late in the spring and early in the autumn. The cold of winter is severe, yet the serenity of the sky, and the invi gorating influence of the atmosphere, during the same season, make amends in some degree for the severity of the weather. The tract of country along the sea-coast, from ten to twenty miles wide, embraces Soil. all' the varieties of sandy, gravelly, clayey, and loamy soils, frequently interspersed at short distances ; seldom very rich, in many places tolerably fertile, but generally poor. Of this section Indian corn, rye, barley, grass, &c, are the principal productions. In the tract lying north of this, and extending fifty miles from the sea in the western, eighty in the central, and ninety in the eastern part, the same kinds of soil are found, but they are less frequently diversified, and generally more fertile. The surface rises into large swells of generally good soil, between which, on the margin of the streams, are frequently rich intervals, and in other places sandy or gravelly pine plains, or spruce and cedar swamps. Of this section also the principal productions are grass, Indian 460 TOPOGRAPHY OF Commerce. BOOK v. corn, wheat, barley, rye, flax, &c. The country beyond the limits above specified is but little settled. It exhibits great diversities in, the appearance of its soil, in the growth of timber, and in climate. The land on the Kennebeck, and between this river and the Penobscot, is accounted the best in the state. It is well adapted to the various purposes of agriculture, and as a grazing country it is one of the finest in New England. Maine enjoys great facilities for commerce. All the settled parts of the: country lie near a market, and the produce of the farmer is readily exchanged for money at a good price. The principal article of export is timber. Vast quantities of boards, shingles, clapboards, masts, spars, &c, are transported to the neighbouring states, to the West Indies, and to Europe. Much of the firewood consumed in Boston, Salem, &c, is brought from Maine. Dried fish and picked salmon are considerable articles of export. Beef, pork, butter, pot and pearl-ashes, and some grain, are also among the exports. Great quantities of lime are annually exported from Thomastown. Lime stone and bog-iron ore abound in many places. The principal manufactures consist of cotton and woollen cloths, hats, shoes, boots, leather, iron, nails, distilled spirits, arid cordage. Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, was incorporated in 1794. It has four professors, two tutors, about 120 students, a complete philosophical apparatus, and a library of nearly 5,000 volumes. The college is endowed with five townships of land. The Maine charity school, at Bangor, was incorporated in 1814. Its design is to educate young men for the ministry in a shorter time than is usual at other seminaries. It is under the direction of two professors and a preceptor; and in 1818, had nineteen students. There is a Literary and Theological Institution under the direction of the Baptist denomination, at Waterville. In was opened in 1818, with twelve or fifteen theological students. Free schools are kept in every town. By a permanent law, each town is compelled to raise for this object a sum equal to fortycents for each individual, annually. The sum raised and expended is about 120,000 dollars. The Baptists have 210 churches, 136 ministers, 22 licentiates, and 12,936 com municants^ the Congregationalists, 156 churches, 107 pastors; and 9,626 communi cants ; the Methodists, 56 ministers, and 12,182 communicants ; the Free-will Baptists, about 50 congregations; the Friends, about 30 societies; the Unitarians, 12 societies, and 8 ministers ; the Episcopalians, 4 ministers ; the Roman Catholics, ,4 churches ; the New Jerusalem Church, 3 societies ; and there are some Universalista. Institu tions. Religious bodies. THE UNITED STATES. Population of the Counties and County Towns. 461 CHAP. I. Counties. Cumberland, s.w. c Hancock, s Kennebec, m. . . . Lincoln, s Oxford, w Penobscot, N. . . . Somerset, N.w. . . Waldo, s Washington, E. . . York, s. w Total . Population, 1820. 49,445 17,856 40,15046,84327,104 13,870 21,787 22,253 12,744 46,283 298,335 Population, 1830. 60,113 24,347 52,491 57,18135,21731,530 35,78829,790 21,295 51,710 399,462 County Towns. Portland * . . , Castine . . . , Augusta . . f Wiscasset . , -i o U ° n m m p \h ^xaxe :h dttsie, fte-vip o'H'i'. : .1 fi 3£ Tiy ITEmtan.* SawpTriiL AMkrsha]!. o , 1 3 S J_ g % a -'. H i. 3 tv ' O ¦~l * u, = ;~ s THE UNITED STATES. 479 CONNECTICUT. CHAP. J. The boundaries of this state are, — on the north, Massachusetts ; on the east, Connec- Rhode Island ; on the south, Long Island Sound ; and on the west, New York.8 Extent The length from east to west, is eighty-five miles; mean width, sixty miles; and area, 5,050 square miles. Though generally hilly, and in part mountainous, no part of Connecticut rises to Surface. a great elevation above the level of the ocean. The greatest elevation is a range of small mountains on the west side of Connecticut River, being a continuation of the Green Mountains. The hills are generally of moderate size, and occur in quick succession, presenting to the traveller an ever^varying prospect. Though exposed to the extremes of heat and cold, and to sudden changes of tem- Climate. perature, the country is very healthful. The north-west winds which prevail during the winter are keen ; but the serenity of the sky during the same season makes amends, in some degree, for the severity of the weather. In the maritime towns the weather is particularly variable, changing as the wind blows from sea or land : in the inland country it is less so. The soil is generally fertile, though intermixed with portions that are comparatively Soil. thin and barren ; and the whole is well-watered. It is generally in a state of good cultivation, resembling, in many parts, a well-cultivated garden. The principal pro ductions are Indian corn, rye, wheat in many parts, oats, barley, buck-wheat, flax in large quantities, some hemp, potatoes, pumpkins, turnips, peas, beans, &c. Orchards are very numerous, and cider is made for exportation. The state is, however, on the whole, better adapted to grazing than tillage ; and its fine meadows and pastures enable the farmers to feed great numbers of cattle, horses, and sheep. The quantity of butter and cheese made annually is great, and of well-known excellence. Beef and pork of superior quality are also abundant. The state is for the most part laid out in small farms, of from fifty to 300 and 400 acres. It is intersected by nume rous roads, which are generally kept in good repair. Its exports consist of beef, pork, cattle, horses, mules, butter, cheese, maize, rye, flax-seed, fish, candles, and soap. Almost all the produce of the western part of the state is carried to New York. The manufacturing industry of Connecticut is greater in proportion to the popula- Trade. tion, than that of any other state in the Union except Rhode Island. The manufac tures consist of cotton and woollen goods, tin ware, iron, gin, glass, paper, snuff, powder, leather, shoes, clocks, buttons, fire-arms, carriages, &c. Mines of different kinds have been opened in this state ; but they have not been wrought to any consi derable extent, with the exception of those of iron ore, which abounds in Salisbury and.Kent, of an excellent quality, and is also found in other places. There is a lead • Longitude, 71* 20' to 73' 15' ; latitude, 41* to 42* V. 480 TOPOGRAPHY OF Institu- tions. BOOK V. mine on the Connecticut, two miles from Middletown, which was wrought during the revolutionary war. Copper mines have been discovered and opened in several places, but, having proved unprofitable, they have been neglected. Marble is found in Washington, Milford, Brookfield, and New Milford ; porcelain clay in New Milford and Cornwall ; black lead in New Milford and Marlborough ; cobalt in Chatham ; and excellent freestone in Chatham, Haddam, and East Hartford. There are several mineral springs, but none of much note, except those of Stafford and Suffield ; the one at Stafford is the most celebrated in New Englarid. . Yale College, in Newhaven, is one of the oldest and most respectable colleges in the United States. It was founded in 1701 : its officers, in 1825, were a. president, six professors, and eight tutors, besides four medical professors. The college library contains about 7,000 volumes ; and the students have libraries amounting to 2,000 more. The philosophical and chemical apparatus are complete, and the mineralogical cabinet is probably superior to any other in the United States.. The medical institu tion, connected with the college, has a valuable anatomical museum and medical library. The whole number of students, in 1825, was 468; of whom, seventy-five were medical students, twenty-three theological, and sixteen law, and 354 were under-graduates. The American Asylum for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb, established at Hartford in 1817, was the first institution of the kind in America. The number of pupils in 1819, was fifty. The congress of the United States has made a generous grant to the asylum of 23,000 acres of land ; and, the legislatures of several of the states have made appropriations for the support, of pupils. A Foreign Mission School was established at Cornwall, in 1817, by the American board of commissioners for foreign missions, for the purpose of educating heathen youth from various parts of the world. After receiving their education they are sent home to instruct their countrymen. In 1820], there were twenty-nine pupils, of whom nineteen were American Indians,- and six had come from the islands of the Pacific Ocean. Several natives of the Sandwich Islands; who were educated, at this school, have already returned to their native country well qualified for usefulness, A Law School was established at Litchfield in 1784, which has had great reputation. It has usually about thirty students, and the whole number that have been educated here is more than 600. Bacon Academy, in Colchester, was founded in 1801 ; it is well endowed and very flourishing. The Episcopal Academy, in Cheshire, is, a flourishing institu tion. Washington College, at Hartford, was incorporated in 1823. There are, also, academies at Plainfield, Litchfield, and almost all the principal towns in the state^ Common schools are universally established in Connecticut. The state has , a large school fund, which amounted, in 1824, to 1,756,233 dollars. The yearly income, together with 12,000 dollars from the public taxes, is annually devoted to the main tenance of commo schoolmasters, in every town in the state. The whole amount M©Sfmi! TME>IE© ttEHE KJESroKSTOI ©F D.WABSWOSTH.BS©. NEAR HARTFORD. CONNECTICUT IcnddLMiuliea ApritT5lB31 "by IX Hmfcm. «nd Snnpkm k Marshall THE UNITED STATES. 481 paid to the towns from this fund, in 1 825, was 72,229 dollars, and the amount of the CHAP. I. state tax, in 1817, was only 48,362 dollars ; the income of the fund exceeding the amount of the tax by 22,551 dollars. This, probably, is the only government in, the world which gives to the people more than they pay to the treasury. The Congregationalists have 236 ministers and 36 licentiates ; the Baptists, 99 Religious churches, 78 ministers, 14 licentiates, and 9,732 communicants ; the Episcopalians, 59 ministers ; the Methodists, 40 ministers and 7,000 communicants ; there are, also' several societies of Friends, several of Universalists, 2 of Unitarians, 1 of Catholics, 1 of Shakers, some Free-will Baptists, and a few Sandemanians. Population of the Counties and County Towns. Counties. Population, 1820. Population, 1830. County Towus. Population. Distance. H.< | W.° Hartford, N. M. . . . . . New Haven, s. M. ... Total .... 42,739 47,264 41,267 22,405 39,616 35,943 14,330 25,331 46,950 51,14142,855 24,845 43,848 42,295 18,700 27,077 Tolland 4,2264,311 7,076 4,456 6,8923,025 ' 10,180 4,356 3,144 1,698 1,413 55 61 3114 253442 38 17 41 289 290 335324325335301354362352 372 275,248 297,711 Population at different Periods. Population. Population. Increase. Slaves In 1701, 1749, 1756,1774, 1782, 30,000 100,000 130,611197,856 209,150 In 1790, 237,946 1800, 251,002 From 1790 to 1810, 261,942 1800 1820, 275,248 1810 1830, 297,711 1820 1800, 1810,1820, 1830, 13,056 10,94013,306 22,463 2,764 954310 97 There are five incorporated cities in Connecticut, viz. Hartford, Newhaven, Chief Middletown, New London, and Norwich. Hartford and Newhaven are the capitals of the state, the sessions of the legislature being held at them alternately. Hartford lies on the west bank of the Connecticut River, fifty miles from its mouth. It is advantageously situated for trade, being at the head of the sloop navigation, and having an extensive, rich, and industrious back country. Newhaven lies round the head of a bay, which stretches inwards about four miles from Long Island Sound. The city is regularly laid out on a large plain, which is bounded on the north-east and north-west by mountains. The harbour is well defended from winds, but shallow, and is gra dually filling up with mud, — which difficulty has been remedied in part, by the con struction of a wharf, about a mile in length, extending into the harbour. Middletown ' From Hartford. From Washington. 482 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK. V. is on the west bank of Connecticut River, thirty-one miles from its mouth, fifteen miles south of Hartford, and twenty-six north-east of Newhaven. It is a pleasant and flou rishing town, and has considerable commerce. The amount of shipping, in 1815, was 19,499 tons, a greater amount than belonged to any other port in the state. The river is navigable to this place for vessels drawing ten feet of water. New London is near the south-east corner of the state, on the west bank of the Thames, three miles from its entrance into the sound. It is one of the most considerable commercial towns in the state. The harbour is large, safe, and commodious, and has five fathoms water. It is defended by two forts. Norwich is on the Thames, fourteen miles north of New London, and forty south-east of Hartford. It is favourably situated for trade, being at the head of navigation on the river, and having a productive back country. There are falls within the town, which afford seats for various mills and manufacturing establishments. Litchfield is thirty miles west of Hartford, and thirty-six north north west of Newhaven. Its situation is elevated and healthy. Wethersfield is on the west bank of Connecticut River, between Hartford and Middletown. It is famous for raising great quantities of onions. Saybrook, one of the oldest towns in the country, stands on the west bank of Connecticut River, at its mouth. Stafford, famous for its mineral spring, is twenty-seven miles north-east of Hartford. Cornwall, the seat of the Foreign Mission School, is ten miles north-west of Litchfield. Fair field, the chief town in Fairfield county, is twenty-two miles west south-west oi NeVhaven. Bridgeport, an incorporated borough, and a thriving commercial place, is four miles north-east of Fairfield. if!' llliill ' ill ?r P. THE UNITED STATES. 483 CHAPTER II. NEW YORK NEW JERSEY PENNSYLVANIA. NEW YORK. This extensive, populous, and flourishing state extends from latitude 40" 30' to 45° ; chap. II. and longitude 73° sto 79" 55'. Length from Staten Island, the south-west point, New York. 315 miles, and from the south-west angle of Massachusetts along the line of ndrth latitude 42°, 320 miles. The area is within a fraction of 46,500 square miles, and the mean breadth nearly 110 miles. It is bounded on the north by Lower Canada, on the east by Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut, on the south-east by the Adantic Ocean, on the south by New Jersey and Pennsylvania, on the west by Pennsylvania, Lake Erie and the Niagara River, and on the north-west by Lake Ontario and the River St. Lawrence. The south-eastern angle of the state, about forty miles above New York, is moun- Surface. tainous, being traversed by several ridges from New Jersey, one of which crosses the Hudson at the Highlands. The Catskill mountains, in the counties of Ulster, Green, Albany, and Scoharie, are the highest in the state; Round Top, the principal summit, being 3,804 feet above the ltevel of the sea. The country on Lake Cham plain is hilly, and becomes mountainous as you approach the highlands which divide the waters of this lake from those which fall into the St. Lawrence; West of these highlands, a fine country, at first hilly, then level and fertile, extends to the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario. The westem part, lying between Lake Ontario and Pennsylvania, is principally level, except near the Pennsylvania boundary, where it becomes hilly and mountainous. From Genessee river, near its mouth, to Lewistown, on the Niagara River, there is a remarkable ridge, running alriiost the whole distance, which is seventy-eight miles, and in a direction from east to west. Its general altitude above the neighbouring land is thirty feet, and its width, in some places, is not more than forty yards. Its elevation is about 160 feet above the level of Lake Ontario, to which it descends by a gradual slope, and its distance from that water is between six and ten miles. There is every reason to believe that this ridge was once the margin of Lake Ontario. About twenty miles south of this ridge, and parallel with it, there is another which runs from Genessee River to Black Rock. The country between the ridges is called the Torinewanta Valley, and there is some reason to believe that it was once covered by the waters of Lake Erie. 484 TOPOGRAPHY OF, BOOK V. Falls of Niagara. Soil. Climate The falls of Niagara are, perhaps, the most wonderful natural object in the world.3 They are in Niagara River, about half way between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. This immense river here rushes over a precipice, and falls perpendi cularly to the depth of 176 feet. The roar of the waters can sometimes be heard at the distance of forty miles ; and the vapour, which continually rises in clouds from below, can be seen at the distance of seventy miles. — In Mohawk River, about two miles from its mouth, are the falls called the Cahoos, or Cahoes, which have been much admired for their beauty and sublimity. The river, which is here. between 300 and 400 yards broad, descends, at high water, in one sheet, to the depth of seventy feet; About three-quarters of a mile below, a bridge has been thrown across the Mohawk, from which the view of the falls is inexpressibly grand. , The Saratoga and Ballston springs are the most celebrated in America. Saratoga is thirty miles north of Albany, and a few miles west of the Hudson. Ballston is twelve miles. south- west of Saratoga. These springs, during the summer months, are the resort of the gay and fashionable, as well as of invalids, from all parts of the United States. The waters afford relief in many obstinate diseases. The warm springs of New Lebanon, twenty-nine miles south-east of Albany, are visited for bathing. The eastern half of Long Island is sandy and barren ; the western part is fertile and in a state of high cultivation. The country on the Hudson, below the mouth of the Mohawk, has a good medium soil. The counties of Westchester and Dutchess are under very good cultivation. The alluvial flats of Columbia and Rensselaer counties are very extensive and rich. A considerable district west of Albany consists of sandy plains interspersed with marshes. The alluvial flats on the Mohawk are extensive and very fertile. The soil of the elevated plain of the western region, occupied by the small lakes, is a rich mould, equally well adapted to grain and grass. The alluvial flats are here extensive ; those on the Genessee river include about 60,000 acres. Wheat is raised in this state in greater quantities than all other grain. Indian corn, rye, oats, flax, hemp, &c, are also extensively cultivated. As New York stretches from north to south four degrees and a half, passing by the states of Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, the climate of the eastern parts resembles that of these stejes respectively. In the south-east, towards the sea, the climate is temperate, but subject to very sudden and great changes. After passing the highlands, and going into the western country beyond Utica, the climate a It was our intention to have given a lengthened description of this grand and magnificent scene from a manuscript with which we have been presented by a recent traveller, but matter of a more important though not more interesting character, has left so little room within the limits of our work, that the description of the beautiful; scenery of the lakes, the Hudson, &c which would require a volume to do it justice must be omitted. 1=1 H a CI ;-) -, ?-• :1 t-i THE UNITED STATES. 485 becomes milder than it is to the eastward. In the western part, contiguous to Lakes CHAP. II. Ontario and Erie, the temperature is moderated by these waters, and does not go to the same extremes as in the south-east. The climate of the whole state is in general healthy, and favourable to cultivation. At Salina, in Onondago county, about thirty miles from Utica, are the celebrated salt springs and salt works, which yield about 500,000 bushels of salt annually, and the manufacture may be extended to any quantity. The turnpike roads are numerous : the most important is the great western Roads and turnpike, leading from Albany to Canandaigua, a distance of 196 miles. The oana8, great canal connecting Lake Erie with the Hudson was completed in 1825, and is 360 miles long. The route is as follows: beginning at Albany, on the Hudson, it passes up the west bank of that river, nearly to the mouth of the Mohawk ; then generally along the south bank of the Mohawk, through the counties of Albany, Schenectady, Montgomery, Herkimer, and Oneida, to Rome. From Rome it proceeds in a south-west direction, and crosses Oneida creek into Madison county, where it turns to the west, and passes through Onondago county, approaching within a mile and a half of Salina, at the south end of Onondago or Salt Lake. It crosses Seneca River at Montezuma, and, passing by Lyons and Palmyra, strikes the Genessee River at Rochester. West of the Genessee River, it runs on the south side of the Ridge road, and parallel with it for sixty miles, and then, turning to the south, joins Tonnewanta Creek, eleven miles from its mouth in Niagara River. The channel of the Tonnewanta is made use of for these eleven miles, and the canal then proceeds in a southerly direction from the mouth of the Tonnewanta along the east bank of Niagara River to Buffalo, on Lake Erie. This route is divided into three sections : the western section extends from Buffalo to Montezuma, on Seneca River, 155 miles ; through this distance the level of the canal uniformly descends from the lake, and the whole descent is 194 feet, by twenty-one locks. The middle section extends from Montezuma to Utica, ninety-six miles ; through this distance the level of the canal uniformly ascends, and the whole ascent is forty-nine feet, by nine locks. The eastern section extends from Utica to Albany, 109 miles ; through this distance the level of the canal uniformly descends, and the whole descent is 419 feet, by fifty-one locks. The aggregate of rise and fall is, therefore, 662 feet, and the difference of levels between Lake Erie and the Hudson, 564 feet. The canal is forty feet wide on the surface, twenty-eight at the bottom and four feet deep. It was estimated by the com missioners, in 1817, that the whole expense would be 4,881,733 dollars. The canal was commenced on the 4th of July, 1817, and on the 4th of November, 1825, the first boat from Lake Erie arrived at New York. For sixty-seven miles of the middle section, the canal proceeds on the summit level without a single lock. The northern canal extends from Lake Champlain to its junction with the western canal, about eight vol. ii. 3 a 486 TOPOGRAPHY OF book v. miles north of Albany, and its whole extent is about sixty-four miles, estimating forty- eight miles and a half for artificial navigation, and fifteen miles and a half for natural navigation improved. The actual cost of the Erie and Champlain canals was 9,123,000 dollars. The debt contracted for them is 7,771,000 dollars. The tolls, in 1825, amounted to 500,000 dollars. Besides these, there are several other canals : Oswego Canal, completed ; length, thirty-eight miles, from Salina to Oswego, connecting the Hudson and Erie Canal with Lake Ontario. Seneca Canal, completed ; its length twenty miles, connecting the Seneca and Cayuga Lakes with the Hudson and Erie Canal. Delaware and Hudson Canal; length, sixty-five miles, from Delaware, in Orange county, to the Hudson, near Kingston. Trade. New York takes the lead of all the states in commerce, and perhaps now in manufactures, as it does in population ; but the quantity or value of manufactures in any state is very difficult to ascertain. The exports consist of wheat, Indian corn, rye, beef, pork, lumber, pot and pearl ashes, and various manufactures. The value of exports, in 1816, was 19,690,031 dollars; in 1817, 18,707,433; in 1825, 35,259,261, of which 14,607,703 was foreign produce; and a great portion of the domestic produce was from other states. The tonnage in 1821 was 281,148. The duties paid or secured at the custom-house in New York, in 1825, were 15,749,936 dollars. The following statistical account from Williams's New York Register, (quoted in the American Almanack) furnishes many interesting particulars of the state of New York in 1825. Since that time the number of factories have much increased. Whole number of souls 1,616,458 Males 822,897 Females 793,561 Aliens 40,430 Population, excluding aliens, pau pers, and persons of colour not taxed 1,531,648 Paupers 5,610 Persons of colour not taxed 38,770 Do. taxed 931 Do. qualified to vote. . 298 Persons subject to militia duty . . 180,645 Do. qualified to vote 296, 132 Deaf and dumb persons Of which 141 are supported by charity. Idiots Of which 442 are supported by charity. 645 1421 819 200,481 Lunatics Of which 184 are supported by charity. Married Females, under 45 years Unmarried ditto, between sixteen and forty-five : 135,391 Do. under sixteen years .... 361,624 Marriages the year preceding . . 11,553 Births, male 31,514, female 29,689 60,383 Deaths, male 12,525, female 10,019 22,544 Acres of improved land 7,160,967 Neat cattle 1,513,421 Horses 349,628 Sheep 3,496,539 Hogs 1,467,573 Yards of fulled cloth, domestic manufacture, preceding year 2,918,233 THE UNITED STATES. 487 Ditto Flannel and other woollen cloths, not fulled 3,468,001 Ditto Linen, cotton, and other cloths 8,079,992 Grist mills 2k274 Saw mills 5, 195 Oil mills 121 Fulling mills 1,222 Carding machines 1,584 CHAP. II. Cotton factories 76 Woollen factories 189 Cotton and woollen factories. ... 28 Iron works 170 Trip-hammers 164 Distilleries 1,129 Asheries , 2, 105 A large fund in money and lands has been appropriated to the support of common institu- schools. In 1823, there were 7,382 common schools; 400,534 children were edu- b°nS' cated during eight months, and 182,802 dollars expended from the public funds for this purpose. There is a fund for academies amounting to 150,000 dollars. The colleges also are well endowed : they are, Columbia College, in New York; Union College, in Schenectady ; Hamilton College, in Clinton ; and two medical colleges, one in New York, the other in Fairfield, Herkimer county. The Presbyterians have 5 synods, 29 presbyteries, 587 churches, 486 ministers, 124 Religious licentiates, and 54,093 communicants; the Dutch Reformed, 148 churches, 111 bodles* ministers, 7 licentiates, and 8,672 communicants; the Associate Synod of North America, 15 congregations, 13 ministers, and 1,668 communicants; the Methodists, 73,174 members; the Baptists, 549 churches, 387 ministers, and 43,565 communi cants; the Episcopalians, 129 ministers; the Lutherans, 27 ministers, and 2,973 communicants; the Roman Catholics, Friends, and Universalists are considerably numerous; the Unitarians have 5 societies and 2 ministers, and there are some Shakers, and some United Brethren. Population of the Counties and County Towns. SOUTH DISTRICT. Counties. Population, 1820. Population, 1830. County Towns. Population. Distance. A." | W.« Westchester, s. e. . . . 38,330 46,61522,996 11,187 123,706 41,21311,268 21,519 6,1358,837 24,272 8,900 30,93432,638 39,952 50,926 29,525 20,537 203,007 45,372 12,701 22,276 7,0849,388 26,980 12,372 36,55136,456 New York 5,395 7,222 4,861 1,143 203,007 3,361 6,4242,379 2,298 4,170 2,750 297534 156151105 96 106174167 122225113 58 135 335 301337 230225 2(>6 282 306 248221251299 278 313 268 N. Hempstead .... 428,550 537,041 b From Albany. From Washington. 48*8 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOKV. NORTH DISTRICT. Counties. Albany, e. m Alleghany, w. m. ... Broome, s. m. ..... Cattaraugus, w. m. . . Cayuga, m Chatauque, w Chenango, s. m Clinton,N. n Cortland, m Delaware, s. h Erie, w. Essex, n. e Franklin, n Genessee, w Hamilton, H Herkimer, m Jefferson, n. w. . . . . Lewis, n. m Livingston, w. m. ... Madison, m Monroe, w. m Montgomery, e. m. . . Niagara, w Oneida, m Onondaga, m Ontario, w. m Orleans, w. m Oswego, w. m Otsego, m Rensselaer, u Saratoga, e. m St. Lawrence, n. w. . Schenectady, e. m. . . Schoharie, m Seneca, w. m Steuben, s. w. m. ... Tioga, s. w. m Tompkins, s. w. m. . . Warren, e. m Washington, e Wayne, w. m Yates, w. m Total Total of New York, Population, 1820. 38,116 9,330 11,100 4,090 38,897 12,568 31,215 12,07016,507 26,587 15,668 12,81 1 4,439 39,835 1,251 31,01732,952 9,227 19,196 32,208 26,52927,669 7,322 50,99741,461 35,312 7,625 944,262 Population, 1830. 53,560 26,218 17,582 16,726 47,947 34,057 37,404 19,344 23,693 32,93335,710 19,387 11,32151,992 1,324 55,86948,515 14,958 27,719 39,037 49,862 43,595 18,485 71,326 58,974 40,107 18,485 12,374 27,104 44,85640,153 36,052 16,07313,081 23,154 51,372 49,472 36,616 36,351 12,334 27,910 17,773 21,031 21,989 33,975 14,716 27,704 26,178 9,453 36,545 11,795 38,831 42,615 20,319 33,555 11,025 19,019 1,366,467 County Towns. Albany Angelica Binghampton . . Ellicottsville . . . Auburn Mayville Norwich Pittsburgh . . . Cortlandville . . Delhi Buffalo Elizabethtown . . Malone ...... Batavia Wells Herkimer . . . . Watertown . . . . Martinsburgh . . Geneseo (Cazenovia . . . J Morris ville . . . Rochester . . . . Johnstown . . . . Lockport C Utica < Rome r Whitesborough . Syracuse Canandaigua . . Albion S Oswego , i . . . Richland . . . . Cooperstown . . Troy Ballston Potsdam Schenectady . . Schohaire .... JOvid, ^Waterloo . . . . Bath (Elmira JOwego Ithaca Caldwell (Salem JSandy Hill . . . 5 Lyons ( Palmyra . . . . Penn Yann . . . 1,913,508, of whom 46 are slaves. Population. 24,238 998 1,203 626 4,486 3,774 4,913 3,573 2,114 8,653 1,729 2,2074,271 340 2,4864,7682,3822,675 9,269 7,7002,0228,3234,360 5,162 2,703 2,733 1,115 11,405 2,113 3,650 4,258 5,146 2,756 1,8373,387 2,9623,080 5,270 797 2,972 3,6033,434 Distance. A. |W.e 256 145 292 166336 110 162 142 77 284 126 212 244 72 80 160 129 226 113 101 219 45 288 96 107100133 195 257 167153 66 6 29 216 1532 171 173 216 198 167 163 6246 50 181196 185 376 327 291 328 340319332 539 311341376 503523370451392 412431 345349353 361 415403 383 401 387 342336 289 379397372 383 406484 391381317336 299273274 290 439423427 345349314 d From Albany. From Washington. -1y 3 Q I » THE UNITED STATES. 489 Population. In 1701, 30,000 Population at different Periods. CHAP. II. 1731,1749,1771, 1790, 50,395 100,000 163,338 340.120 In 1800, 1810, 1820,1825, 1830, Population. 586,050 959,349 1,372,8121,616,458 1,913,508 From 1790 to 1800, 1800 1810, 1810 1820, 1820 1830, Increase. 245,930 372,999 413,763 540,696 Slaves. 21,324 20,613 15,017 10,088 46 Growth of the Cities of New York, Albany, and Troy. In 1696, 1731, 1756, 1773, 1786,1790, New York. 4,302 In 1800, 8,628 10,381 21,87623,614 33,141 1810,1820,1825, 1830, 60,489 96,373 123,706167,059203,007 In 1790, 1800, 1810, 1820,1825,1830, Albany. 3,498 5,349 9,356 12,63015,974 24,238 Troy. In 1810, 1820, 1825,1830, 3,8855,264 7,859 11,405 Growth of the Villages of Brooklyn, Rochester, Buffalo, Utica. Brooklyn. Rochester. Buffalo. 1800, 3,278 In 1820, 1,502 In 1810, 1,508 1810, 4,402 1825, 5,271 1820, 2,095 1820, 7,175 1826, 7,669 1825, 5,140 1830, 12,043 1830, 9,269 1830, 8,653 Utica. In 1810, 1,700 1820, 2,972 1825, 5,040 1830, 8,323 The preceding table indicates how great a number of important towns have arisen chief in this state. The capital of the state is Albany ; but the only one, respecting which towns- our limits will permit us to enter on any details, is the great commercial city of New York. This city is situated on the point of York Island, at the mouth of the Hudson, New York. in north latitude 40°. It was founded by the Dutch, in 1615, under the name of New -Amsterdam, and was appropriated by the British in 1696. The island on which it stands is fifteen miles long, and from one to three miles broad. The city is situated on the south part of the island, and extends along the Hudson about two miles, and from the Battery along the East River, properly a branch of the Hudson, nearly four miles. The early settlements were commenced at and near the Battery, from which streets were extended without order or regularity ; and this accounts for the seeming want of taste in laying out the streets towards the docks and harbour. The Battery is situated at the south-west point of the city, opposite to Governor's Island. It is handsomely laid out into gravel-walks, and tastefully decorated with shrubs and trees. It is much frequented by the citizens in the warm season, as well for the purpose of partaking of the refreshing sea-breeze, as for enjoying the prospect, which includes the harbour with its various shipping, Governor's Island, Bedlow's Island, and Ellis's Island, on each of which are military stations ; the shores of New Jersey and Long Island, with the flourishing town of Brooklyn, and the numerous country-seats in its vicinity. Castle-garden, connected with the battery by a bridge, is much frequented during the summer evenings. It has a fine promenade, and is often rendered attractive by a display of fire-works from its enclosure, and other amusements. 490 TOPOGRAPHY OF book V. Broadway, the most splendid street in the city, runs through the centre, and extends three miles in length and about eighty feet in width. It is the great and fashionable resort for citizens and strangers, and is much crowded during pleasant weather. In this avenue are Grace, Trinity, and St. Paul's Churches, the Adelphi Hotel, City Hotel, National Hotel, Franklin House, American Hotel, Washington Hall, Masonic Hall, and a variety of shops, with elegant and extensive assortments of merchandize of every description. Opposite Trinity Church Wall -street opens, which contains the Ex change, and most of the banks, together with the principal part of the brokers' and insurance offices. At the termination of Wall-street, is the Tontine coffee-house, an extensive and handsome establishment. On passing up Broadway still farther, are Cedar and. Courtland-streets, both of which lead to the Hudson River, where the steam-boats start for Albany. At the foot of Courtland-street is the ferry to Jersey city. A little further up is Fulton-street, at the corner of which stands St. Paul's Church. Fulton-street leads to the East River ; along the docks of which are the steam-boats for the New-England ports. A little below are the boats for New port and Providence ; above, for Brideport, Saybrook, Hartford, New London, and Norwich. The Newhaven boats lie at Fly Market Dock, still farther below. Above St. Paul's Church are the Park and the City Hall, situated in the centre of the city, the former containing about eleven acres, which are ornamented with much taste, and enclosed by a substantial iron railing. It furnishes a cool and fashionable resort for men of business and pleasure, after the fatigue and heat of a summer's day. On the right is the Park theatre, and on the left Park-place, on the west-side of which is Colombia College. The next street above Park-place is Murray-street, which leads to Hoboken Ferry. Of the public buildings, the most prominent and important is the City Hall, the front of which is built of white marble. It is 216 feet long, 105 feet broad, and, including the attic story, sixty feet high. The rooms for holding the different courts of law are fitted up in a rich and expensive style. The room for holding the mayor's court contains portraits of Washington, of the different governors of the state, and of many of the most celebrated commanders of the army and navy of the United States. The foundation stone of this building was laid in 1803, and the whole finished in 1812, at an expense of 500,000 dollars. It is one of the most elegant edifices in America, and reflects great credit on the inhabitants for their munificence and taste. — The Merchant's Exchange in Wall-street is also a superb structure of white marble. Its front in Wall-street is 114 feet, and its depth, extending to Garden-street, 150 feet. The main body of the building is two stories high, besides the basement arid an attic story. About two-thirds of the basement is occupied for the post-office, including a spacious corridor for the convenience of persons visiting the office, with entrances from Wall and Exchange -streets. The portico of the building. 3T PjMXLS, BJi^J^D'Vy^XI^r.X IiondonPabllihedl!lrjv.35183'lbyn'.Iiiii.to-ii ftSmcpkiii S^arnlvall THE UNITED STATES. 491 to which a flight of marble steps ascends, is ornamented with Ionic columns twenty- CHAP. ii. seven feet high. In the centre is the Exchange, of an oval form, eighty-five feet long, fifty-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high, surmounted with a dome, from which light is reflected. The whole is imposing, and affords a delightful promenade. From the Exchange are doors and passages leading to a commercial reading-room, and numerous newspaper and other offices within the edifice. From the attic story, a flight of stairs leads to a room in the cupola where telegraphic signals are made, which are returned from the telegraph at the Narrows, seven and a half miles distant. The height of the cupola above the attic story is sixty feet. The cost of this building, including the ground, was 230,000 dollars. It was commenced in 1824, and completed in three years. — The United States Branch Bank, in Wall- street, is an elegant white marble building, sixty feet in front. The ground on which it was erected cost 40,000 dollars. Trinity Church, in Broadway, at the head of Wall-street, from its antique appear ance generally attracts the notice of strangers. The first church on this spot was erected in 1696. Originally small, it was enlarged in 1737 ; but during the fire which destroyed the western part of the city in 1776, while the British troops were in pos session, it was destroyed, and was not rebuilt till 1788. The present building is of stone, in the gothic style, much like the old one, except its diminished size, and has a steeple 198 feet high. It contains a chime of bells, the only set in the city, and an excellent organ. — St. Paul's Chapel is a superb structure further up the Broadway, near the Park. It contains a portico of the Ionic order, consisting of four fluted pillars of brown stone, supporting a pediment, with a niche in the centre containing a statue of St. Paul. Under the portico is a handsome monument erected by order of congress to the memory of General Montgomery, who fell at the storming of Quebec in 1775, and whose remains were brought to New York, and interred beneath the monument, in 1820. The spire of this church is 234 feet high; and the whole building is esteemed one of the best specimens of architecture in the city. In the church-yard adjoining is an elegant monument, recently erected to the memory of Thomas Addis Emmet, an eminent counsellor at law, and brother of the unfortunate Irish orator, Robert Emmet. The plinth of the monument is one entire block, seven feet square and twelve inches thick. The Egyptian obelisk standing on this base is also in a single piece, and is about thirty-two feet high. The face towards Broad way is embellished with the American eagle sheltering a harp unstrung, with a medallion likeness of Emmet, and with two clasped hands, having stars around one wrist, and shamrocks around the other. On the north-side is a Latin, and on the south an Irish inscription. There are nearly 100 other churches in the city, many of which were erected at a very considerable expense, and are ornaments to the sections of the city in which they stand. T2CE! 2Oi:ul':0(V. ¦..i:r.;V -M.^,i.::£L,i,j>r'-a»j, j>f. -j;. Io^mi.Publk'hEa.DeciaaiO.V S.Tmpkm. *MaiahaIL& I.XJlTrcbm. Dr.fWTL'by A J 1 tnvi . 1' .-ftCfrfr'OTYJf'fi WMX, ]SlR€l&XD'f^tVi", SOT. lonfl^n.I'u.'aiahea Bep.ll830."by JermrngB * Chop! >¦" £ L' 1' tl 1 r. Lu 492 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK v. Columbia College, above the City Hall, was chartered in 1750, under the name of King's College. The edifice and grounds attached are extensive, and are advan tageously and handsomely situated. The college contains a chapel, lecture-rooms, hall, library, museum, and an extensive philosophical and astronomical apparatus. The New York Society Library, in Nassau-street, was commenced in 1740, and at the commencement of the revolution contained 3,000 volumes, which were destroyed or taken away by the British troops. It was re-established in 1789, and now consists of about 20,000 volumes, many of which are rare and valuable. The Athenaeum, Broadway, corner of Pine-street, contains a reading-room, which is open daily, except Sundays. The New York Institution is in the rear of the City Hall. Its apartments are occupied by the Literary and Philosophical Society; the Historical Society, the American Academy of Fine Arts, the Lyceum of Natural History, the American Museum, and the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb. The Historical Society has a library of 10,000 volumes, embracing many .valuable works. Near the institution are the Savings' Bank and Panorama Rotunda ; and a little further up Broadway, the New York Hospital. The annual expenditure in this institution is about 40,000 dollars, and the annual number of patients from 140 to 180. The Park Theatre is a spacious edifice. It was built in 1798, at an expense of 179,000 dollars, was destroyed by fire in 1820, and rebuilt the following year. It is eighty feet long, 165 deep, and fifty-five high, and has generally been more liberally patronized than any other theatre in the city. The New York Theatre, in the Bowery, displays much architectural beauty, and, among the modern ornaments of the city, stands preeminent. It has a front of seventy-five feet, is 175 feet deep, and fifty feet high. It enjoys a handsome patronage. Besides these places of amusement, there is a theatre in Chatham-street, and a circus in Broadway, between Canal and Grand streets. Brooklyn (on Long Island), directly opposite New York, from which it is separated by the East River, is usually reached by steam-boats, which are constantly plying between the foot of Fulton-street and that village. It is in fact a town, having a population of about 15,000, and within a few years has risen to some importance. Its contiguity to New York, and the facilities afforded for communication between the two places, have induced many merchants and men of business to select it as a place of residence in preference to the upper parts of the city. The village also contains several elegant country-seats and public gardens. Those on the bank contiguous to the East River, from their elevated situation, overlooking the bay of New York, and commanding a view of a great part of the city, are peculiarly attractive and romantic. North-east of the village, on a tract of land called the Wallabout, is a United States navy-yard, where are erected a house for the commandant, several spacious warehouses, and an immense edifice of wood, under which the largest ships of war 0 c e si V' 1 [=1 >r^Hi-ti.iTryTCo"le- T2EW QW THE CATTSMUX MOTH^TAXIEf HOUSE, H.TT. I^niaanPnliriihca.Aiigaatl'bylTJIirLtoii. & Sinrpkrn. & Marshall THE UNITED STATES. are built. The steam-frigate Fulton, which lay near the navy-yard and was an CHAP. n. object of attraction, was blown up at this place in 1829, occasioning the loss of several lives. NEW JERSEY Is bounded on the north and north-east by New York ; on the east and south-east by New the Atlantic ; on the south-west by Delaware Bay ; and on the west, by Pennsylvania/ Extent.- The extreme length is directly from south to north, 170 miles ; area, 7,870 square miles ; mean breadth, forty-six miles. New Jersey presents three very marked divisions ; first, a marine or sandy section ; Surface. secondly, a hilly or middle section ; and, thirdly, a mountainous section. The first occupies nearly one-half the area of the state. A line from the mouth of Shrews bury River to Bordentown, will very nearly separate the alluvial from the hilly tract. Between this natural limit and the continuation of the Blue Ridge, New Jersey is delightfully variegated by rich and bold scenery. This hilly region contains the counties of Middlesex, Hunterdon, Somerset, Essex, Morris, and Bergen. It is also decorated by several mountain ridges, but the true mountain portion of New Jersey is the extreme northern part of the state, composed of the counties of Warren and Sussex. The descent from the mountain to the hilly region is not by a gentle declivity, but abruptly, as by the steps of a stair. The elevation of the different sections has not been very accurately determined, but the higher valleys of Sussex county must be from 800 to 1000 feet above the tide. As it declines from north to south, difference of latitude and of level cooperate in Climate. New Jersey, and in a space less than two and a half degrees of latitude a very remarkable change of climate is perceptible. The level sandy plains of the southern extreme approximate to the temperature of eastern Virginia, and admit the cultivation of cotton, whilst the seasons of Warren and Sussex counties resemble those of Vermont and New Hampshire. This state has the two large and increasing cities of New York and Philadelphia on its borders ; and, taken in every respect, it may be doubted whether it is not the most advantageously situated of any political subdi vision of the republic. A connexion between the Hudson and Delaware basins is now in progress Canals. by the Morris Canal. The line of it leaves the Delaware at Phillipsburgh, opposite Easton, in Pennsylvania, and is carried over Warren county, New Jersey, to its extreme north-east angle about thirty miles ; thence eastward, through Morris and Essex counties, to the Passaick River, and along the valley of the latter to Newark ; leaving that city, it crosses Passaick and Hackinsack, and winds through ' Longitude, 74' to 75° 29'; latitude, 39° to 41" 24' VOL. II. 3 S 494 TOPOGRAPHY OF book v. the Bergen Marshes to Jerseycity, opposite New York. The Delaware and Raritan Canal, which is to extend from Lambertoin on the Delaware, below Trenton, to New Brunswick on the Raritan, a distance of thirty-eight miles, is in progress, and is expected to be completed in 1833. It is seven feet deep throughout, and seventy- five feet wide at the water line. The water to supply this canal is to be con ducted by a navigable feeder five feet deep, and fifty feet wide at the water, line, extending from Eagle Islands on the Delaware, to its junction with the main canal at Trenton, about twenty, miles. The whole expense of the canal, feeder, &c. is estimated at 1,438,227 dollars. Railroads. ; Charters for four rail-roads havabeen granted by the legislature within two years, the state having reserved the right to levy a transit duty upon the goods, &c. transported upon them, which is expected to yield a large- revenue when the works shall be completed. The most important of these enterprises is the Camden and .Amboy rail-road, the charter of which was granted in 1829, and which is to extend from Amboy to Camden, a distance of sixty-one miles. The part of this rail-road which extends from Amboy to Bordentown, thirty-four miles in length, with a deviation of only three-quarters of a mile in the whole distance from a right line, was expected to be completed in November, 1831 ; and the other part* from Bordentown to Camden, a distance of twenty -seven miles, to be finished early in the summer of 1832. — The Paterson and Hudson River rail-road is to extend from Paterson to Jersey city, a distance of fourteen miles. The stock has been taken up, and preparation is making tq begin the work early in the spring of 1832. The other, two rail-roads for which charters have been granted, are the Elizabethtown and Somerville rail-road, and the West Jersey rail-road; but the construction of them has not yet been begun. A rail-road has been commenced, and we believe is nearly; completed, from Perth Amboy to Trenton, and is designed to be eontinued to Camden, opposite Philadelphia. This will render it practicable to go from New York to Philadelphia (100 miles), and return the same day. Trade. New Jersey abounds in staples, composed of every product; of its fields, woods, mines, fisheries, and manufactories. Its manufactures are extensive and thriving. Iron is one of the principal. In July, 1825,, there were at Patterson twelve cotton mills in operation, moving 22,000 spindles ; three woollen factories, two duck factories, &c. In Trenton, also, there are manufactories of cotton and woollen goods. In Trenton, Ne^airk, and Elizabethtown, are many valuable tanneries. Shoes are made in great numbers at Newark. Almost all the foreign goods consumed in this state are imported at New York and Philadelphia, and the produce of the state is principally carried to those cities for exportation. The College of New Jersey, at Princeton, was founded in 1738, and has always THE UNITED STATES. 495 been one of the most respectable and flourishing literary institutions in the country. CHAP. II. In 1820, it had a president, who also instructed in the holy scriptures, the; evidences Institu- of divine revelation, moral philosophy, and logic ; a vice-president, who was also professor of languages and belles lettres ; a professor of mathematics and mechanical philosophy; a professor of chemistry, experimentaLphilosophy, and natural history ; three tutors, and 121 students. The college library contains about 8,000 volumes ; the philosophical apparatus is complete ; and the cabinet of mineralogy and natural history is valuable. The college edifice is styled Nassau Hall, in honour of the Prince of Orange. The whole number of alumni of the college, in 1815, was 1,425, of whom 1,023 were then living. — A Theological Seminary was established at Princeton, in 1821, under the direction of the general assembly of the Presbyterian church. It has two professors, — one of didactic and polemic theology, the other of ecclesiastical his tory. The edifice for the accommodation of the institution, is an elegant stone building, 150 feet by fifty, four stories high, and contains rooms for 100 students. The term of study is three years. The number of students, in 1821, was seventy- three. — Queen's College was established in New Brunswick by the ministers- of the Dutch reformed church, for the education of their clergy, and incorporated in 1770. In 1810, a Theological Seminary was established in the city by the general synod of the reformed Dutch churches, and, to a certain extent, connected with the college. The exercises of Queen's College, which had been suspended for several years, were revived in the autumn of 1825, under very favourable auspices. This state possesses a school fund which yields an annual income of about 22,000 dollars, and, by a law passed in 1829, the sum of 20,000 dollars was appropriated to be annually distributed in small sums to such towns as would voluntarily raise an equal sum for the support of schools. At a public meeting of the friends of education, in 1828, a committee was appointed to procure and publish information relating to the condition of schools. From the statements published by this committee, it appears that, in the whole state, 11,742 children were entirely destitute of instruction, and that about 15,000 adults were unable to read. In many towns, more than half of the children never attended school. In Sussex and Warren counties, forty-nine districts were destitute of schools ; and in the rich and flourishing county of Essex, 1,200 children were destitute of instruction. Among the families visited by the agent of the bible society, eighteen were found in which none of the members could read. The system of instruction in the schools which are supported, is stated to be very defective, owing, in many instances, to the want of well qualified teachers. It is gratifying to see that the friends of education are engaged in efforts to change this state of things; The Presbyterians have 85 churches, 88 ministers, 20 licentiates, and 12,519 com- Religious municants ; the Methodists, 10,730 members ; the Dutch Reformed, 28 churches and 28 ministers ; the Baptists, 34 churches, 21 ministers, and 2,324 communicants -, 496 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK V. the Episcopalians, 20 ministers ; the Friends are numerous, and there are some Chief towns Congregationalists. Population of the Counties and County Towns. Counties. Population, 1820. Population, 1830. County Towns. Distance. T.e j W." Bergen, n. e 18,178 28,822 4,265 12,668 30,793 23,039 28,60421,470 25,038 21 ,308 14,02216,506 32,752 22,414 31,066 4,945 14,091 41,92828,431 31,066 23,157 29,233 23,580 14,155 17,689 20,349 18,634 6321 102 69 49 392327365565 33 7054 229 156 204 175 215 145 166 182 193 201221 171199 228 210 Cumberland, s Essex, n. m Hunterdon, w. h Morris, n. m. .. Total 277,575 320,779, of whom 2,446 are slaves. Population. In 1790, 184,139 1800, 211,149 1810, 245,562 1820, 277,575 1830, 320,779 Population at different Periods. Increase. From 1790 to 1800, 27,010 1800 1810, 34,413 1810 1820, 32,013 1820 1830, 42,204 Slaves. 11,423 12,422 10,851 7,5572,246 Population of East and West Jersey in 1701, 15.000; in 1749, 60,000. Population of the principal Towns in 1880. Newark 10,953 Paterson 7,731 Elizabethtown 3,451 New Brunswick 7,831 Trenton 3,925 Trenton, the seat of government, is on Delaware River, at the falls, thirty miles north-east of Philadelphia, and sixty south-west of New York. At the foot of the falls, there is an elegant bridge over the Delaware, 1,100 feet long and thirty-six wide. Steam-boats ply regularly between Trenton and Philadelphia. New Bruns wick is on the Raritan, thirty -three miles south-west of New York. Half the inhabitants are of Dutch origin. Steam-boats ply regularly between this city and New York. Princeton is a pleasant village, eleven miles north-east of Trenton, and sixteen south-west of New Brunswick. Newark is pleasantly situated near the west bank of the Passaic River, two or three miles from its mouth. In this and the adjoining town of Orange, there are valuable qiiarries of stone for building, and numerous tanneries. Elizabethtown is pleasantly situated on Elizabethtown Creek, which empties itself into Staten Island Sound. Vessels of twenty or thirty tons come up to the town, and those of 200 or 300 tons come as far as Elizabethtown Point, at the mouth of the creek, two miles distant. A steam-boat plies between the city of * From Trenton. * From Washington. THE UNITED STATES. 497 New York and Elizabethtown Point. Burlington is on Delaware River, opposite CHAP. n. Bristol, eleven miles below Trenton. Perth Amboy is on a point of land, at the union of Raritan River with Arthur Kull Sound. It has one of the best harbours on the continent. PENNSYLVANIA. This important state occupies from the 74° of west longitude, to more than half the Pennsyi- 81", and from 39" 43' of north latitude, to 42": which gives a length of 307 miles, ew™!" and a breadth of 190. Mr. Darby states the square miles to be 47,000, or 29,935,200 acres. It may be doubted whether a more widely diversified region exists on the face Surface. of the earth than Pennsylvania, or one of similar area on which the vegetable and mineral productions are more numerous. In a state of nature, the streams of this state flowed through a dense forest. No part of Pennsylvania is level, and in respect to surface it is divisible into three natural sections : first, a small but important hilly tract between the marine alluvium and the lower ridges of the Apalachian system ; second, the mountainous, or middle section ; and third, the western hilly. The subjoined tabular view presents the respective area of these sections, and their population according to the census of 1820. Sections. Square Miles. ^e^te Population to * Population, the square mile. Eastern 7,869 569,355 77 Middle or mountainous 25,189 260,506 10 Western 13,942 219,597 16| 47,000 1,048,458 22 From political causes the great body of the population has spread over the eastern, southern, and western borders, and left the central and northern a comparative wilderness. The difference of level in Pennsylvania, if the mountain plateaus are included, Soil. is about 1200 feet, or an equivalent to three degrees of latitude ; so that extremes of temperature over the state extend to about 5°. Pennsylvania is emphatically a country congenial to wheat, meadow grass, and the apple ; but it admits a wide diversity of other vegetable productions. Except rice, it embraces the whole list of cerealia cultivated in the United States ; and amongst fruits, besides the apple, peaches, pears, and plums abound. Of indigenous forest trees this state yields as great a variety as is to be found on the globe in a zone two degrees and one third wide, and not quite six degrees in length. The terebinthine forests are in great part confined to the moun tains, and the deciduous trees to the eastern and western sections. In the latter the sugar maple becomes plentiful. The productive soil is in a remarkable manner 498 TOPOGRAPHY OF Canals. BOOKV. equally distributed, and some of the most fertile bottoms in the state are induded in the mountain section. This state affords marble of a beautiful variety and excellent texture, which has contributed to adorn the eastern towns, and even the farm houses of the state. Iron and anthracite coal follow marble, and exist in quantities which defy exhaus tion. Iron abounds over the whole state; and where the anthracite coal ceases the bituminous commences, and seems to underlie great part of the western, and some of the central portions of it. In the region of bituminous Coal, wherever the earth has been penetrated to any great depth, salt water has been found ; and salt works, on a large scale, exist on the Conemaugh, and in some other parts of the western section. Pennsylvania is advantageously situated in respect of navigable rivers. Of these the Delaware on the east, the Susquehanna in the centre, and the Ohio on the west, claim the precedence. Few states in the Union have undertaken and executed inore in the way of internal navigation ; and no Other state has such extensive works in actual progress. The Lehigh River, above Easton, to Mauch Chunk or Lehigh coal mines, has been rendered navigable by dams and falling locks. A canal is now in progress from Easton down the Delaware to Bristol ; in length about fifty miles. The Schuylkill River has been completely canalled, from tide water at the city of Philadelphia to the extensive coal mines on its sources, upwards of 1 10 miles. To unite the Schuylkill navigation to that of the Susquehanna the Union Canal has been constructed, fol lowing the vallies of Tulpehocken and Swatara Creeks, from Reading in Berks to Middle town in Dauphin county. The Union is a link in a chain now in progress, for uniting the Susquehanna, Juniata, and Alleghany rivers to the city of Pitts burg. Beside these extended lines, there exists a small but important canal, to pass the rapids or Conewago Falls at York Haven on the Susquehanna ; the Cones- togo Canal of eighteen miles opens by that creek a navigable channel from the city of Lancaster to the Susquehanna River ; and preparations are making to extend a rail-road from the city of Philadelphia, by Lancaster, to Columbia, on the Susquehanna. Pennsylvania ranks high in the variety and extent of her manufactures, some of which are of superior excellence. In 1810, there were sixty-four cotton manufac tories, forty-four blast furnaces, six air furnaces, four bloomerie's', seventy-eight forges, fifty trip hammers, eighteen rolling and slitting mills, 175 naileries, sixty- four paper mills, eight glass works, thirty-five rope walks, and 108 printing offices. The total amount of the manufactures, embracing 220 articles, was 44,194,740 dollars. Most of the foreign goods consumed in this state, in Delaware, and the western part of New Jersey, are imported at Philadelphia. Goods to the amount of many millions of dollars are annually transported from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, and thence Trade. THE UNITED STATES. 499 distributed through the western country. In 1815, the amount of revenue paid chap. ii. by this state into the national treasury, was 7,142,333 dollars, an amount greater than ' that of any state excp^^.tiw York. The value of exports from this state, in 1825, was 11,269,981 dollars, of which, 7,333,848 dollars was foreign produce. The imports in the same year, were 15,041,977 dollars. The University of Pennsylvania, established in Philadelphia, is a very respectable Institu- institution, embracing, the four departments of arts, medicine, natural science, and law, in each of which lectures are given. There are four professors in the department of arts, five in that of natural science, one in the law department, and seven in the medical department. The latter is one of the most flourishing institutions of the kind in the world, and usually affords instruction to about 500 students from various parts of the United States. Dickinson College, at Carlisle, is now a very respectable institution. In 1826, the legislature made a grant of 3,000 dollars per annum to aid its funds. Washington College, at Washington, twenty-six miles south-west of Pittsburg, had, in 1817, a president, two professors, a library, and a philosophical apparatus. Alleghany College, at Meadville, was founded in 1815. Jefferson College is situated at Canonsburg, in Washington county. A university has recently been established near Pittsburg, and endowed by the legislature. Though Pennsylvania has many literary and benevolent institutions, yet the pro- Education. gress of general education in the state has been slow, and it is still very limited. In the Report of the Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Public Schools, dated April 28, 1831, it is said, " There is reason to believe that the attention of the citizens is so awakened to the importance of establishing public schools, that the attempt will not hereafter fail to be encouraged. The society will recollect, that at their last meeting, [Oct. 11, 1830,] there was read a memorial, proposed to be presented to the legislature, which contained statements relative to the great deficiency in the means of education in various parts of the state, and urged the importance of speedily, applying a remedy to this evil." From the memorial alluded to the follow ing extract is made : " There are at least 400,000 children in Pennsylvania, between the ages of five and fifteen. Of these, during the past year, there were not 150,000 in all the schools in the state. Many counties, townships, and villages have been taken indiscriminately from all parts of the state, and been examined by your memori alists, and the average proportion of children educated, in any one year, compared with the entire number of children between the above specified ages, appears to be but one out of three. It is probable that this proportion prevails generally through Pennsylvania, and justifies the assertion, that more than 250,000 children capable of instruction were not within a school during the past year. Many of these children never go to school at all." In the city and county of Philadelphia, there are ample means for the education of every child, and many thousands have been benefited 500 TOPOGRAPHY OF Religiousbodies. book v. by them. In that district, and we believe the case is the same in the city of Lancaster, no one need be uneducated, except from choice. The Presbyterians have 429 churches, 209 ministers, 39 licentiates, and 38,873 communicants ; the Methodists, 140 preachers, and 46,390 members ; the Baptists, 144 churches, 96 ministers, and 7,561 communicants; the German Reformed Church, 282 churches, and 73 ministers; the Episcopalians, 60 ministers; the Associate Presbyterians, 39 congregations, 18 ministers, and 4,180 communicants; the Evan gelical Lutherans, 2 synods ; the Dutch Reformed Church, 6 churches and 6 ministers; the Friends are numerous ; the United Brethren have about 15 congregations ; the Unitarians, 5 congregations and 3 ministers ; and there is a considerable number of Roman Catholics, some Universalists, Jews, &c. Population of the Counties and County Towns. EASTERN DISTRICT. Counties. Population, 1820. Population, 1830. County Towns. Population. Distance. H.' I W." Adams, s. . Berks, s. e. Bucks, s. E Chester, s. e. . Cumberland, s. m. Delaware, s. a. . . Dauphin, s. E. m. , Franklin, » Lehigh, e Lancaster, s. E. . . Lebanon, s. e m. . Montgomery, e. . Northampton, E. . Perry, m Philadelphia, s. e. Philadelphia, city Pike, e Schuylkill, e. m. . Wayne, N. E. . . . York, s 19,370 46,275 37,842 44,451 23,606 14,810 21,65331,892 18,895 68,336 16,988 35,793 31,765 11,342 73,295 63,802 2,894 11,339 4,127 38,759 21,379 53,357 45,740 50,90829,218 17,361 25,30335,10322,26676,55820,54639,40439,267 14,257 108,503 80,458 4,843 20,783 7,663 42,658 Gettysburg . . . Reading (Doyleston . . . {Bristol rWest Chester . . Carlisle Chester Harrisburg . . Chambersburg . Allentown .... Lancaster .... Lebanon .... Norristown . . . Easton New Bloomfield > Philadelphia . Milford Orwigsburg . . . Bethany. . . . . York 1,473 5,859 1,2621,258 2,523 848 4,311 2,794 7,704 1,8261,089 3,529 80,458 773327 4,216 3452 107122 75 18 9548853524 88 101 36 98 157 59 162 24 76 143163 159115104121 110 90 178 109134143190122 136 249 167 265 87 WESTERN DISTRICT. Allegheny, w. . Pittsburg, city Armstrong, w. Beaver, w. . . Bedford, s. . . Bradford, n. . Butler, w. . . . Cambria, M. . . Centre, m. . . . Clearfield, M. . Columbia, E. m. Crawford, n. w. Erie, n. w. . . 27,673 37,964 7,248 12,542 10,324 17,625 15,340 24,206 20,248 24,536 11,554 19,669 10,193 14,683 2,287 7,079 13,796 18,765 2,342 4,803 17,621 20,049 9,397 16,005 8,553 16,906 > Pittsburg Kittaning . Beaver . . , Bedford . . Towanda . ButlerEbensburg , Bellefonte . Clearfield . Danville. . Meadville . Erie 12,542 201 1,620 183 914 229 870 105 128 580 203 270 131 699 85 129 65 1,070 236 1,329 272 223215 151126 239236178192 201 175 297 1 From Harrisburg. k From Washington. Missing Page Missing Page THE UNITED STATES. 503 more justly proud than those at Fair Mount, by which the city is supplied with water CHAP II. of the best quality, and in the greatest plenty. Fair Mount is in the rear of the city, upon the bank of the Schuylkill, the neighbourhood of which affords some romantic scenery. The reservoirs are situated on the top of a hill rising from the river, a part of it perpendicular rock, to the height of 100 feet. The ascent from the, river to the reservoirs is by a flight of substantial wooden steps, with resting places, over one of which is a temple. The reservoirs, which are surrounded with paling, outside of which is a gravelled walk, contain upwards of twelve millions of gallons, supplying the city through between fifteen and twenty miles of pipes. The water was formerly forced to the reservoirs by steam, which is no longer used ; it is now raised by machinery propelled by the Schuylkill. The machinery is simple, and is turned by large water wheels, of which there are five, one of them of iron, and twenty-four tons in weight. If all are in motion, they will raise seven millions of gallons in twenty-four hours. To turn them, the Schuylkill has been dammed its whole breadth, by which the water is thrown back into a reservoir lock, whence it is admitted as required to operate upon the wheels, and is discharged into the river below the dam. The whole expense of these works, including the cost of works abandoned, was 1,783,000 dollars. The water thus circulated through the city, is not only sufficient for every family, but is used to wash the streets. It is of immense service in case of fire, as it is only necessary to screw the hose to hydrants, which are placed at convenient distances, to secure a constant stream of sufficient force to reach any ordinary height. — There is a navy yard on the Delaware. The New Penitentiary, situated on elevated ground near the city, and nearly completed, is designed to carry the principle of solitary confinement completely into effect. Ten acres of land are occupied for the purpose, forming a square of 650 feet each way, and enclosed by massive walls of granite thirty-five feet high, with towers and battlements. The prison is in the centre of the square, and is admirably calcu lated for the purposes for which it was designed. The expense already incurred in its erection is 300,000 dollars. The banks of the Schuylkill near Philadelphia contain "^any elegant country seats, and several public buildings. Among the private resider'W , none are perhaps more justly admired than that of Henry Pratt, Esq. on Lemon Hill. The mansion- house is situated on the eastern bank of the river, and directly above the Fair Mount Water Works, about a mile from the city. Connected with the mansion are gardens of an extensive kind, laid out in a style of much elegance and taste, to which respectable citizens and strangers have free access, and a ride to them is among the various pleasant excursions in the vicinity of the city. Pittsburg, in the western part of the state, is very advantageously situated, on a Other plain between the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers, at the point where they unite towns" 504 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK v. to form the Ohio. By means of the Allfeghiany river and its branches, Pittsburg has a water communication with the western part of New York; by the Monongahela and a good turnpike-road, it is connected with Baltimore ; and by the Ohio it has an easy intercourse with the western states'. It is also connected with Philadelphia by an excellent turnpike-road. These advantages have made Pittsburg the centre of a great trade, and it is estimated that merchandise to the value of 20,GQ0j000 dollars annually passes through the city. The immense supply of coal in the neighbouring country has given rise tb numerous and extensive manufacturing establishmemtst The popula- tioft in 1820 was 7248. Harrisburg; the seat of government t is regfcilajiy laid out on the east bank of the Susquehanna, ninety-seven miles west-north-west of Philadelphia. Lancaster, sixty-two miles west of Philadelphia, is advantageously situated in the midst of a fertile and highly cultivated country. Easton is pleasantly situated on the Delaware, at the mouth of the Lehigh, fifty-six miles nOrth of Philadelphia. Reading is a flourishing town on the Schuylkill, fifty^one miles north*west of Philadelphia, inhabited chiefly by Germans, and fanious for the manufacture of hats. Wilkesbarre is on the south-east side of the Susquehanna, 119 miles north-west of Philadelphia. Canonsburg, the seat of Jefferson College, is eighteen miles south-west of Pittsburg. Meadville, the seat of Alleghany College, is in the north-west part of the state, On French Creek, about forty miles from Lake Erie. Carlisle is sixteen miles west of Harrisburg. Bethlehem, a Moravian settlement, is on the Lehigh, twelve miles south-west of Easton, and fifty-three north of Philadelphia. THE UNITED STATES. 505 CHAPTER III. OHIO INDIANA ILLINOIS MISSOURI. OHIO. This interesting and important state is bounded by Lake Erie and Michigan territory c H A p. on the north ; by Pennsylvania and by the Ohio on the south; and a line separates it from Virginia and Kentucky on the south-east, and from Indiana on the west. Extent. Extending; from north latitude 38° 30' to 42", and from longitude 38° 35' to 84° 47' west, its area is 40,000 square miles. The greatest breadth of Ohio is within a fraction of 220 miles ; mean breadth about 182 miles. This state occupies about one-third of the plane which declines from Pennsyl- Surface & vania to the Mississippi. Except along the deep vales of the Ohio, and those of other Imate- streams near their efflux* into that recipient, the climate is as uniform as the surface, and considerably more severe in the winter season than in corresponding latitudes on the Atlantic. " In a state of nature," says Darby, " Ohio was, with the exception of some cen#al Produce. prairies, covered with a dense forest, to which the fertility of the soil gave a stupenT dous developement. The size, majesty, and generic and specific variety of the trees of the Ohio basin has been a just theme of admiration, but I am inclined to consider the picture over-coloured. I spent my early years in the Ohio valley. and Mississippi basin alternately, and could never observe any single species, of tree common to both, say to Ohio and Louisiana as extremes, which did not reach a height and mass greater in the lower climate of Louisiana." In cultivated vegetables, Ohio is peculiarly productive. Indian corn, wheat, rye, oats,, barley, tobacco, and orchard fruits, are staples. Meadows and gardens,, where due attention is paid to their improvement, yield abundantly. Of metals, iron is the only ore found in great quantity. Coal of the bituminous species, exjsts; in extensive strata along the Ohio and; some of its opnfluenf; streams, and no doubt underlies, other parts of , the state, though inf. a manner top level, to be detected, except by artificial means. The state of Ohio^as, undertaken the construction of canals, as public works, on a Canals. very liberal scale. One of thesse is; the Ohio State Canal, from Cleaveland, on Lake Erie, to the Ohio, ,a,t the mouth of the Scioto ; lockage, 1,185 feet ; length of the main line, 306, miles ; feeders, fifteen miles; total, 322 miles. Estimated expense, ,2,801,000 dollars. The route is from, Portsmouth, on the. Ohio, where it is 4?4,feet above tide 506 TOPOGRAPHY OF book v. level, and ninety-four below Lake Erie,) up the valley of the Scioto, to Pikestown ; thence crossing the river to near Chillicothe ; thence again crossing the river, it con tinues along the eastern bank to Big Belly Creek, where it receives a feeder, ten miles long, from the Scioto at Columbus ; it then passes up the valley of Walnut Creek to the Licking and Walnut Creek sunimit, between the head waters of those streams. From the summit it continues down the valley of Licking Creek to Rocky Fork, and thence across the valley to the Tomaka, and down that stream to near its junction with the Muskingum. From this point an ascent commences, and the line passes up the Muskingum Valley to White Woman's Creek; crossing this, it proceeds up the valley of Tuscarawas Fork, first on the western, then on the eastern bank, to a point where its two head waters unite, near the south-west angle of Portage county. This is the centre of the Portage summit, extending ten miles. From the north of the Portage or Akron summit (499 feet above the Ohio at Portsmouth, 973 feet above the Atlantic, 405 above Lake Erie), it passes down the Cuyahoga Valley; first on the west, afterward on the east side of the river, to within six miles of its mOuth at Cleaveland, for which six miles the river channel with a towing-path is to be used. — Miami Canal, forty feet wide at the surface, and four feet in depth; from Cincinnati, on the Ohio, to the Maumee, near the head of Lake Erie, was commenced in 1825. Length of main line, 265 miles ; feeders, twenty-five miles ; total, 290 ; lockage, 889 feet; estimated expense, 2,929,957 dollars. The line from Cincinnati to- Dayton was completed in 1831. This division embraces twenty-two locks, and length of canal sixty-five miles. The summit level, commencing eighteen miles north of Dayton exten'ds sixty miles within a single lock. To aid the state in extending this canal to Lake Erie, there is assigned by congress, of the public lands which the same shall pass through, a quantity equal to One-half of five sections in width, on each' side of the canal between Dayton and the Maumee River at the mouth of the Auglaise, the United States reserving each alternate section; provided this extension be c6riimenced within five years from May, 1828, and finished within twertty; the canal to be a highway for the United States, free from toll. Trade. The principal manufactures are flour and spirits, and woollen and cotton cloth, with family manufactures to a great amount. The number of steam-ooats built is great. About 200 are now plying in the western valley. The principal exports are flour, pork, and tobacco ; which are carried down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans. Foreign goods are received from the same place by the steam-boats, and from Philadelphia and Baltimore, across the Allegany Mountains. Institu- Education is pretty generally extended through this state. There is a university at Athens, called the Ohio University; and another at Oxford, called the Miami University! One section, or the thirty-sixth part of every township, has been granted by the government of the United States for the support of schools. There are many tions. 3KC THE UNITED STATES. 507 incorporated academies in different parts of the state, and a college established at Cincinnati. The Presbyterians in this state have 346 churches, 192 ministers, 11 licentiates, and 22,150 communicants ; the BaptistSj 14 associations, 240 churches, 140 ministers, and 8,801 communicants; the Methodists, 91 preachers, and 36,064 members ; the Lutherans, 37 ministers, and 8,706 communicants ; the Associate Presbyterians, 65 congregations, 20 ministers, and 4,225 communicants ; the German' Reformed, 82 congregations, and 3,750 communicants ; the Episcopalians, 16 ministers ; the New Jerusalem Church, .4 societies ; there" are also a considerable number of Friends and Roman Catholics, and some Universalists, Unitarians, and Shakers. . . . Population of the Counties and County Towns. . . CHAP. III. Counties. Adams, s Allen, w. m Ashtabula, n. e. . . . Athens, s. e Belmont, e Browu, s Butler, s. w Champaign, w. m. Clark, s. w. m Clermont, s. w. .... Clinton, s. m Columbiana, e Coschocton, e. m. Crawford, n. m Cuyahoga, N. e Dark, w Delaware, m Fairfield, m, Fayette, s. m Franklin,, m Gallia, s Geauga, n. e Green, s. w. m Guernsey, e. m Hardin, w. m Hamilton, s. w Hancock, n. w. m.. . Harrison, e Henry, n. w Highland, ». m Hocking, s. m. ..... . Holme?, m Huron, n Jackson, s Jefferson, e. , Knox, m Lawrence,. s. ...... Licking, u. Lorain, n Logan, vv. m. .. .-.,., Madison, in.. Population, 1830. 12,278 578 14,584 9,763 28,412 17,867 27,044 12,130 13,074 20,466 12,29235,508 11,162 4,778 10,360 6,203 11,523 24,788 8,180 14,766 9,733 15,81315,084 18,036 52,321 813 20,920 260 16,347 4,008 , 9,133 13,345 5,974 22,489 17,124 5,366 20,864 '5;696 6,442 6,190 Square ' Miles, 550542705744 536492 486417412515 400 865562584 475 660 610 540 415 520 495600416621500 400575450 474 555 432 400 840 492 400610426666555 425 448 County Towns. West Union Wapaghkonetta . Jefferson Athens St. Clairsville Georgetown Hamilton Urbana Springfield Batavia Wilmington , New Lisbon Coshocton Bucyrus Cleveland , Greenville Delaware Lancaster ., ,. . .. Washington Columbus Gallipolis Chardon, township Xenia Cambridge Hardy Cincinnati Findlay Cadiz Damascus . ...... Hillsborough Logan ..... ...... Millersburg. Norwalk Jackson Steuben ville ...... Mount Vernon . . . Burlington Newark' Elyria '..:¦ Belle Fontaine . . London . ........ Population. 429 270 729 789 325 1,0971,102 1,080 426' 607 1,138 333 298 1,076 160532 1,530 300 2,437 755 881919 518 24,831 52 820 564 97 319310329 2,937 1,021 149 999668266 249 Distance. C" I W " 101 110 191 73' 124 104 101 50 43 109 67 152 8469 138103 232845 108 157 57 8366 112 114124161 74 47 SO 113 74' 149 45 135 34 130 6227 460507325344 275480 4S8447437 476 444 282336409354501 419 372 422 396 362 332 453 314 436497 502278 485 441 370341399 387260 375 405 362377 458423 • From Columbus. b From Washington. 508 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK V. Counties. Marion, m. Medina, n. e. m. . . Meigs, s. e. ...... . Mercer, w Miami, w. m. Monroe, s. e Montgomery, w. m. Morgan, s. e. Muskingum, m. . . . Paulding, n. w. . . . Perry, s. m Pickaway, m Pike, s Portage, n. i Preble, w Putnam, n. m Richland, n. m. Ross, s. m. ...•••• Sandusky, n Scioto, s Seneca, n. m Shelby, w. m Stark, e. m Trumbull, n. e. Tuscarawas, e. m. . Union, m Van Wert, N. w. . . Warren, s. w. m... . Washington, s. e. .. Wayne, n. m Williams, n. w. ... Wood, n. w Total 937,679 Population, 1830. 6,5587,5606,159 1,110 12,806 8,770 24,252 11,79629,325 160 14,418 15,935 6,024 18,827 16,255 230 24,007 24,053 2,8518,7305,148 3,671 26,78426,154 14,298 3,192 49 21,493 11,731 23,344 877 1,095 Square Miles. 527 473405570444563 450 500664 432402 495414 752432576900 672 656 581546418 .780 875 654 .430 432 400670660600744 40,150 County Towns, Marion Medina, township Chester St. Mary's Troy... Woodsfield Dayton................ Mc Connelsville Zanesville ........... Somerset Circle ville Piketon Ravenna, towsuhip .... Eaton Sugar Grove Mansfield.. Chillicothe Lower Sandusky Portsmouth ........:. Tiffin Sydney Canton Warren New Philadelphia Marysville Wiltshire Lebanon Marietta Woostei- Defiance Perrysbnrg Population, 287 622164 92 504157 2,965 267 3,094 576 1,136 271 806511840 2,846 351 1,064 248 240 1,257 510 410 142 1,1571,207 977 52 182 Distance. C.° I W.d . I in 47 111 94 111 78 140 66 70 5946 26 65 127 92 148 714-5 103 9185 86 116 157 107 37 146 83 106 86 175135 416 357 343 508 474 294 462 340 354 394 409 320488538 380 404 428 421431 482319 297 314 433 533 468304 347511 460 Population of Ohio at Different Periods. Cincinnati. Population. Increase. . Population. . Jn 180.0,.. 750 In 1790, about 3,000 " s 1810, 2,540 1800, 45,365 From 1790 to 1800, 43,365 1820, .9,642 1810, 230,764 1900 1810, 195,395 . 1826, lo;,230 1820, 581,434 1810 1820, 350,674 1830, . 24,831 1830, 937,637' 1820 1830, 356,203 .1831, 28,014 Cincinnati, the largest towii, is near the south-west corner of the state, on the Ohio, twenty miles above the mouth of the Great Miami. This-town was first laid out in 1789, and began to flourish after the year 1794, since which time its growth in population, wealth, and trade, has been exceedingly rapid. It is the emporium of the western country, and, next to New Orleans, much the largest town in the United States west of the Allegany Mountains. It is advantageously and plea santly situated. It stands partly on the first and partly on the second 'bank 'of the river, the upper part being elevated fifty or sixty feet above the lower. The central e From Columbus. From Washington. THE UNITED STATES. 509 part of the town is very compact, and a great proportion of the houses are handsomely CHAP. built of brick. The principal public buildings and institutions in 1829 were a court- '. house, a jail, the medical college, the Cincinnati College, an hospital, a museum, a city library, the apprentices' library, three market-houses, five insurance companies, twenty- three places of public worship, five classical schools, and forty-seven common schools. There were published, at the same period, two daily newspapers, two semi-weekly, and five weekly, besides other periodicals. In 1826, there belonged to the city twenty-eight clergymen, thirty-four attorneys, and thirty-five physicians. The number of students in the medical college, in 1825, was eighty-two. The Cincinnati College was incorporated in 1819. Cincinnati is a place of great trade and extensive manufactures. The exports, of which the most considerable articles are flour and pork, amounted, in 1826, to 1,063,560 dollars ; and the imports, in the same year, to 2,528,590 dollars, a considerable portion of the imports being brought here for re exportation. There are between thirty and forty manufacturing establishments, some of which are on a very extensive scale ; and their works are, to a great extent, moved by steam-power. The whole value of the manufactures, in all the departments, was estimated, in 1828, at 1,850,000 dollars. The markets of Cincinnati are abundantly supplied with various kinds of provisions, at a low price. Chillicothe is on i the west bank of the Scioto, forty-five miles, in a direct line, from its mouth. It has many valuable mills and manufactories, and is the second town in the state. Columbus, the seat of government, is regularly laid out on a pleasant rising ground on the east bank of the Scioto, just below the confluence of Whetstone, forty-five miles north of Chillicothe. Marietta, the oldest town in the state, is on the Ohio, at the mouth of the Muskingum. Its situation is unfortunate, parts of the town being liable to an annual inundation, an inconvenience which has much retarded its growth. Zanesville is on the Muskingum, sixty miles north of Marietta. Steubenville is on the Ohio, near the Pennsylvania boundary. Athens is on the Hockhocking, about fifty miles east of Chillicothe. Cleaveland is on Lake Erie, at the mouth of the Cayahogo. INDIANA Is bounded by the Lake and territory of Michigan on the north; by Ohio on the east; Indiana.— by Kentucky, from which it is separated by the River Ohio, on the south ; and by Illinois on the west. It extends from latitude 37° 48' to 41° 36' ; and longitude 41° 42' to 87° 49'. Indiana is in length 264 miles ; in mean width 124 ; and its area is 34,000 square miles. There are no mountains in Indiana ; the country, however, is more hilly than the Surface. state of Illinois, particularly towards the Ohio. A range of hills, called the Knobs, extends from the falls of the Ohio to the Wabash, in a south-west direction, in VOL. ii. 3 v srt TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOKV. Climate & produce. Institu tions. many places producing a broken and uneven surface. North of these hills lie the flat woods, seventy miles, wide. Bordering on all; the principal streams, except the Ohio; there are stripes of bottom and prairie land, both together from three to six miles in width. Between the Wabash and Lake Michigan the country is mostly champaign, abounding alternately with woodlands, prairies, lakes, and swamps. A range of hills runs parallel with the Ohio, from the mouth of the great Miami to Blue River, alter nately approaching to within a few rods of the river, and receding to the distance of two miles. Immediately below Blue River the hills disappear, and there is presented to the view an immense tract of level land,, covered with a heavy growth of timbeiv North of the Wabash, between Tippecanoe and Ouitanan, the banks of the streams are high, abrupt, and broken, and the land, except the prairies, is well timbered. Between the Plein and Theakiki the country is flat, wet, and swampy, and inter* spersed with prairies of an inferior quality. The sources of rivers are generally iij swamps or lakes, and the country around them is low, and too wet for cultivation. The soil of the prairies is often as deep and fertile as the best bottoms. Those bordering on the Wabash are particularly rich. Wells have been dug in them, wherd the vegetable soil was twenty-two feet deep, under which was a stratum of fine white sand. The ordinary depth is from two to five feet. The climate is generally healthy and pleasant, resembling that of Ohio. The Wabash is frozen over in the winter, so that it may be safely crossed1 ©as the ice. More than half the land in this state remains in the possession of the Indians. Its principal productions are wheat, Indian corn, rye, oats, barley, buckwheat, potatoes, pulse, beef, pork, butter, whiskey, and peach brandy. - Not far from Big Blue River there is a large cave, the entrance of which is on the side of a hill, about 400 feet high. Here are found great quantities of sulphate of magnesia, or Epsom salt, of nitre, &c The earth most strongly impregnated yields twenty or twenty-five pounds of salt to a bushel When Indiana was admitted) into the' Union, in 1816, congress granted one section,. or one thirty-sixth part of each township, for the support of schools. One entire township, or 23,040 acres, said to be worth, on an average, ten dollars an acre, was also given for the support of a college. The college is situated at Vincennes, and a large brick building is already erected for its use. The constitution of Indiana contains the following important provision respecting general education : "It shall be the duty of the general assembly, as soon as circumstances will permit, to> provide by law for a general system of education^ ascending in a regular gradation from township schools to a state university, wherein tuition shall be gratis, and equally open to all." The cause of popular education has not, however, as yet received that attention which this provision of the constitution would seem to warrant, or which its importance demands ; it is, nevertheless, advancing, and: excites increased interest. THE UNITED STATES. 511 Several respectable public and private seminaries are supported in different parts of CHAP. he state. '¦ — The Baptists in this state have 11 associations, 181 churches, 127 ministers, and Religious 3,513 communicants; the Methodists, 34 preachers, and 13,794 members; the Presbyterians, about 50 churches, and 20 ministers. Population of the Counties and County Towns. Counties. Papulation. Allen, n. e. . . Bartholomew, m. Boon, s. w. m. . , Carroll Cass .... Clark, s. . . . Clay, w. . . . Clinton .... Crawford, s. . . Daviess, s. w. m. Dearborn, s. e. , Decatur, s. e. m. . Delaware, e. m. . Dubois, 8. w. m. . Elkhart . . . Fayette, E. m. . . Floyd, s. E. . , Fountain, w. . . Franklin, s. e. . Gibson, s. w. Greene, s. w. n. . Hamilton, M. . . Hancock, h. . . Harrison, s. e. . Hendricks, M. . Henry, e. m. . . Jackson, s. m. Jefferson, s. E. . Jennings, s. E. M. Johnson, m. . . Knox, w. . . . Lawrence, s. m. . Madison, m. . . Marion, m. . . Martin, s. m. . . Monroe, s. m. Montgomery, w. m. Morgan, m. . . Orange, s. m. . . Owen, w. m. . . Parke, w. . . . Perry, s. . . . Pike, s. w. . . Posey, s. w. . . Putnam, w. m. . Randolph, E. . . Ripley, s. e. m. . Rush, e. m. . . St. Joseph, n. . 1,0005,480 622 1,6141,154 10,719 1,6161,423 3,184 4,512 14,573 5,854 2,3721,774 935 9,1126,3637,644 10,199 5,417 4,253 1,7501,569 10,288 3,9676,4984,894 11,465 3,9504,139 6,557 9,237 2,4427,181 2,010 6,578 7,886 5.57S 7,909 4,060 7,5348,3782,4646,883 8,1953,9123,9579,918 287 County Towns. Foot Wayne Columbus . Thorn town Delphi . . LogunsportCharlestownBowling-GreenFrankfort . Fredonia . Washington LawrenceburgGreensburgh MuncytownPortersvillePulaskiConnersville New Albany Covington . BrookvillePrincetownBloomfieldNoblesvilleGreenfieldCorydon . Danville . New Castle Brownstown Madison , Vernon Franklin . Vincennes . Bedford . Andersontown IndianapolisMount Pleasant Bloomington , Crawfordsville MartinsvillePaoli . . Spencer . Rockville . Rome . . Petersburgh Mount Vernon Green Castle WinchesterVersailles . Rushville . Tarecoopy Distance. Ind« | W.f 141 41 62 88 113 105 69 122106 9855 59 124 68 121 8170 141 7622 21 124 20 49 69856420 126 73 41 121 51 4430 945268 143119187 42 97 7940 561598620 661642583641 632673523559 546662527 594 654 524 702 648 580552614593 536 603 576565 593 693 633 561573659627617603 636 624640655681 748 614523551553 From Indianapolis. f From Washington. 512 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK V. Counties. Scott, s. E Shelby, M. , . . . Spencer, s. . . . Sullivan, w. . . , Switzerland, s. . , Tippecanoe, N. w. M. Union, e Vanderburgh, s. w. Vermillion, w. . . Vigo, w Wabash, N. w. M. . Warren, w. . . . Warrick, s. w. . . Washington, s. M. . Wayne, e Total . Population, 3,097 6,2943,1874,696 7,1117,1677,957 2,6105,7065,737 2,8542,937 13,072 18,587 341,582 County Towns. New Lexington Shelbyville Rockport Merom Vevay . Lafeyette Liberty Evansville Newport . Terre Haute Elk Heart Plain Williamsport . Boonville . . Salem . . . Centreville . 1 ¦ Distance. ' lnd.s | W.h 89 30 167 115 105 70 77 170 86 83 196187 9163 5945,75692 688 556643650728658 655616712 613510 Population at different Periods. Population. In 1800, 5,641 1810, 24,520 1820, 147,178 1830, 341,582 From 1800 to 1810, 1810 1820, 1820 1830. Increase. 18,879 122,658 194,404 Slaves. 133 237 190 0 Chief towns. Indiana was admitted into the Union in 1816, and contained, in 1815, by enumera tion, 68,780 inhabitants. This state has had a rapid increase of inhabitants ; yet the greater part of the land within its limits still belongs to the United States. It contains no large towns. Vincennes, the largest town in the state, is on the east bank of the Wabash, sixty-five miles from its junction with the Ohio in a direct line, but nearly 120 by the course of the river. It was settled about a century ago by the French from Lower Canada, many of whom intermarried with the Indians, and gradually approximated to the savage state ; but within a few years American emigrants have flocked thither, and the society is rapidly improving. Corydon, in Harrison county, on Indian creek, and about twenty-five miles west of Louisville, was, until lately, the seat of government. This settlement commenced in 1809, and is rapidly increasing. Vevay, in Switzerland county, is pleasantly situated on the second bank of the Ohio,, twenty -five feet above high-water mark. The inhabitants are emigrants from the Pays de Vaud, in Switzerland. In 1814, the site of the town was a forest, but it is now a flourishing settlement. The country in the rear is broken and fertile ; and, half a mile below the village are the Swiss vineyards, where the culture of the vine has been successfully i Frotn Indianapolis. h From Washington. THE UNITED STATES. 513 introduced. Brookville, pleasantly situated in the forks of Whitewater River, is a c HA P. HI. flourishing town, and will probably be the centre of trade for an extensive and fertile portion of the state. Jeffersonville, on the Ohio, a little above the falls, and nearly opposite Louisville, promises to become a place of considerable business. Princeton, Harmony, Evansville, Troy, Terre Haute, Madison, Lawrenceburg, and Fort Wayne, are all thriving settlements. The seat of government has been lately fixed at Indian apolis, near the centre of the state. ILLINOIS. This state has the Trans-Michigan territory for its northern boundary; Lake Illinois.- Michigan, Indiana, and Kentucky on the south-east ; and the Mississippi on the west and south-west. Length from the junction of the Mississippi and Ohio, north latitude 37°, to the northern boundary of the state, north latitude 42° 30', 382 miles; mean breadth, 154 miles ; area, 58,900 square miles, equal to 35,696,000 statute acres. Illinois is, after Virginia, Georgia, and Missouri, the largest in point of extent, and Surface. in general fertility the first state of the Union. Extending over a zone of 5J° of lati tude, it embraces the greatest extent north and south ; Georgia and New York only embracing each 4". Illinois is, comparatively speaking, a very gently inclined plain. It is a country of so very little difference of level, that it may be doubted whether the general level varies 600 feet. The surface of it is singular, and very picturesque. It is nearly all prairie, with a few groves of timber widely separated from each other, and deeply indented with ravines, whose sides slope off into low round hills, as if an exact plain had been divided into an infinite number of globular eminences. With all its uniformity of surface, the climate at the extremes differs very materially. Illinois, in regard to soil, resembles Ohio and Indiana, but with less of flat and Soil and irreclaimable land than either, and more generally of rich plain than both the latter pro uce' taken together. The surface is rolling on the south and west, and level on the north tod east. The staple productions of Illinois are Indian corn, wheat, potatoes, beef, pork, horses, tobacco, and lead. The castor bean is raised, and oil is manufactured from it, but not in large quantities. Good cotton is produced for home consumption, and is manufactured extensively in the families of the farmers, into coarse fabrics, for domestic uses. Hemp, flax, and silk-worms succeed well. Apples, peaches, pears, plums, cherries, grapes, gooseberries, and currants, arrive at great perfection. The wild fruits are grapes, plums, cherries, gooseberries, mulberries, crab-apples, persim mons, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries. In the timbered parts of the country the trees exhibit a luxuriant growth, and are often seen of an enormous size. 51* TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK V. Minerals. Canals and roads. The whole of this country abounds in coal. : Salt is manufactured' extensively in the neighbourhood of Shawneetown, in Gallatin county ; salt springs have been discovered in other places, but salt has not yet been manufactured from them. Sulphur springs, chalybeate springs, and very strong impregnations of pure sulphate of magnesia, abound in different parts. In the southern part of the state a number of sections of land have been reserved on account of the silver ore which they are supposed to contain. The lead mines in the vicinity of Galena, are very extensive and valuable. The mineral has been found in every portion of a tract of more than fifty miles in extent in every direction, and is supposed to occupy a territory of more than twice that size. The ore lies in beds, or horizontal strata, varying in thickness from one inch to several feet. It yields seventy-five per cent, of pure lead. A canal has been projected, though not yet commenced, to unite Lake Michigan with the river Illinois, and the general government has made a donation of land in aid of the design. The length will be about seventy miles ; and the cost is estimated at 800,000 dollars. Labourers are now employed in the construction of that part of the national road which extends from the town of Vandalia to the eastern boun dary of Indiana, near Terre Haute. The length of this part is ninety miles, and the road is so straight that its length is not so much as a mile greater than the dis tance by a right line between the two extreme points. Education. Land to the amount of 998,374 acres has been given for the support of schools ; but no system of general education has yet been organized. The following particulars are extracted from an "Appeal in behalf of the Illinois College." " It appears that in the fifty-one counties, containing a population of 157,575 souls, there are 550 common schools, and fifty-one Sunday schools. From the new census it appears that the number of children in the state is 47,895 ; an examination shows that the whole number of children in the schools, at one season or other, is 12,290. Large numbers of the men and women throughout the state, and a great proportion of the children, are wholly unable to read." Religious The Baptists in this state have 6 associations, 80 churches, 69 ministers, and 2,432 communicants; the Methodists, 45 preachers and 8,859 members; the Presbyterians, 24 churches, 13 ministers, and 492 communicants. THE UNITED STATES. 515 Population of the Counties and County Towns. CHAP. III. Counties. Adams; w. ; ; . Alexander, s. . . Bond, w. m. . . CaJhouDV *• . • Clark, e. . . . Clay, e. m. . . Clinton, s. m. . . Crawford', E. . . Edgar, e. . . . Edwards e. . . Fayette, m. . . Franklin, s. . . Fulton, ir. m) Henry, n. > , Knox, n. m. ) Gallatin, ». e. . . Green, w. . . . Hamilton, s. e. . Hancock,, w. . . Jackson, s. w. Jefferson, s. m. . Jo-Daviess, N. w. Johnson, s. . . Lawrence, e. . . Macaupin, M. . . McLean, . . . Macon, iv. m. . . Madison, w. , . Marion, s. M. . , Mercer; N'. w. Monroe, w. . . Montgomery, M. . Morgan, w. h. Macdonough, w. m. Schuyler, w. M. . Peoria, n. m. ) Putnam, n. ) Perry, s. m. . . , . Pike, w. . . . . . Pope, s. E. .... Randolph,, s. w. . . . St. Clair, w Sangamon, m. ... Shelby, m Tazewell; m Union, s. w Vermiffion, E. . . . Wabash, e. .... Warren, N. w. . . . Washington,, s. m„ . ¦ Wayne, s. e. m. . . . White; s. e Total. Population. 2,186 1,390 3,124 1,090 3,940 755 2,330 3,113 4,071 1,649 2,704 4,0812,1567,4077,0642,620 484 1,827 2,5552,111 1,596 3,6611,989' 1,122 6,229 2,021 26 2,1192,950 12,709 2,050 1,3091,215 2,393 3,323 4,4367,092 12,960 2,973 4,716 3,239 5,836 , 2,709 307' 1,674 2,5626,091 County Towns. Quiwey . . . , America . . , Greenville . . , Gilead . . . , Clark C. H. . , Maysville . . , Carlyle ... Palestine . . , Paris . . . . Albion . . . , Vandalia . , Frankfort , . . Fulton C. H. . , Middletown . . Knox C. H. . Equality . , . Carrollton . . , McLeanborough . Venus . . . , Brownsville . . Mount Vernon . Galena . . . . Vienna . . . . LawrencevilleCarlinville . . . Bloomingtdn . . Decatur . . . Edwardsville . . Salem . . . . Waterloo . . Hillsborough . Jacksonville . Macomb . . Rushville . . Peoria . . . Hennepin . . Pinckneyville . Atlas . . . Golconda . . Kaskaskia . . Belleville . . SpringfieldShelbyville . Mackinaw . . JonesboroughDanville . . Mount Carmel Warren . . . Nashville . . Fairfield . . Carmi . . . Distance. V.' | W.k 157,575; of whom 746 are slaves; 193 181 20 126 86 46 30 118 106 92 102 133 188 137 106 93 133127 65 326 167 84 95 70 55209928 115172 43 129148 160 957179 40 149 154 150 109 69 974850801 907696740802718 675 733 781808854877773887773 914 833 801 990817702 861771830777890809837 894 807 842929791 867843801 741790830683 716 756 748 1 From Vandaliai !j9-1I!' k From Washington. 516 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK V. Chieftowns. Missouri.-Extent. Surface. Population at different Periods. Population. Increase. Slaves. In 1810, 12,282 1820, 55,211 From 1810 to 1820, 42,929 1830, 157,575 1820 1830, 102,364 168 917 746 Illinois was admitted into the Union in 1818, and contained that year, by enumera tion 35,220 inhabitants. Kaskaskia, lately the seat of government, is on the right bank of the Kaskaskia river, eleven miles from its mouth. It contains a land office, a printing office, and about 160 houses, scattered over an extensive plain. The town was settled upwards of 100 years ago by emigrants from Lower Canada, and about one half of the inhabitants are French. The surrounding country is under good cultivation. Cahokia is a French settlement, on the Mississippi, fifty-two miles north-north-west of Kaskaskia, and five miles below St. Louis. Shawneetown is on the north bank of the Ohio, twelve miles below the mouth of the Wabash, and twelve miles east of. the salt works belonging to the state on Saline creek. The inhabitants are supported principally by the profits of the salt trade. Edwardsville is a flourishing town on Cahokia river, twenty-two miles north-east of St. Louis. Vandalia, fifty miles north-east of Edwardsville, is now the seat of government. MISSOURI. This was the last state admitted into the union. It is bounded on the west and north by the unappropriated territory of the United States; on the east by the Mississippi, which divides it from Illinois and Tennessee ; and on the south by the Arkansas territory. It extends from longitude 89° to 94° 10', and from latitude 36J to 40° 36'. Mean length from north to south 280 miles; area rather exceeding 63,000 square miles, or 40,320,000 acres ; the mean width is 225 miles. Though, with the exception of the alluvial bottoms, Missouri is rolling or hilly, yet no part rises to an elevation deserving the name of a mountain. A chain of hills commences south-east from the mouth of Osage river, and stretching south-west, is the beginning of the Ozark or Maserne chain ; but it remains humble until far within Arkansas. No other state of the Union, however, is so greatly diversified in respect to soil and external features. The prairie region, commencing in Ohio and Indiana, spreading into immense plains in Illinois, expands still more in western Missouri. To a civilized and commercial people rivers are of primary importance; The far greater part of fertile and easily cultivated soil is on the banks of rivers ; where also rise the most extensive and wealthy cities. In this respect there is perhaps no equal section of the earth to compare with Missouri. The Mississippi sweeps along its eastern border 550 miles, receiving in its course the still mightier Missouri. The latter entering the western boundary traverses the state, receiving from each side tributaries which, if not contrasted with the stream into which they are poured, would THE UNITED STATES. 517 deserve the title of fine rivers., The Osage, rising intheangleibetween Arkansas and C H A P. J ' m JTT Kansas rivers, on the vast plains west from the state of Missouri, carries its very serpentine but navigable volume into Missouri river near the centre of the state. The Illinois and Ohio, though, not within the state, are in a commercial point of view rivers of Missouri. The White river and the St. Francis rise in this state, and flowing southward, connect it with the Arkansas. '.-, The soil is as varied as is.the surface; every quality is found, from the most pro- Soil. ductive and exhaustless alluvion, to sterile clay or silicious sand. On the eastern border, and near the streams generally, a dense forest covered Missouri ; although in some places naked prairie encroaches upon the streams. In general terms the south east section is alluvial, and liable to a partial annual inundation ; the south-western is mixed prairie and " Flint Hill" land. The northern section, west from the Mississippi, and north from the Missouri, says Mr. Flint, "is no where mountainous. It contains great tracts of alluvial and hilly prairies. It is for the most part a surface delight fully rolling and variegated., There is no part of the globe where greater extents of country can be traversed more easily, and in any direction, by carriages of any description, where there are no roads, and that is yet in a state of nature." These three portions have each their appropriate features, but are interspersed with minor tracts partaking of the general character of the others. According to Mr. Flint there is a specific difference between the alluvium of the two rivers Mississippi and Missouri; the bottoms of the Missouri being more loamy and sandy, and those of its rival more clayey, and yet more substantial. The whole state will, with no very great exceptions, Produce. support a dense population. Its geographical extent, and its very great diversity of soil, will admit a correspondent variety of vegetable production. Wheat and Indian corn have been from the first the staples, though in the south-east section cotton is produced. Agriculture in all its forms, either as an art or a science, is in its infancy in Missouri, as it may be considered to be in any newly settled country where nature has done too much. — Three winters in five the Mississippi becomes passable on the Climate. ice at St. Louis. In 1818, it was so for upwards of two months. Receding from the Atlantic, it is in this state that the frigid winds of the north-west are first experienced in all their force. The climate is, in brief, cold and windy, as well as dry and bracing. The successive years also vary exceedingly ; and uncertain as are the revolutions in meteorology elsewhere, they are proverbially variable in the state of Missouri and the adjacent regions. This state has become celebrated for immense deposits of lead ore, chiefly of Minerals. galena. The principal lead region is in Washington county and the parts adjacent, extending about 30 by 15 miles. The centre of the district is about 70 miles south west from St. Louis. The ore is found in imbedded masses, and evidently a deposit. None has yet been found in situ, though some of the diggings have reached vol. n. 3 x 518 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK V. Trade. Institu tions. Religiousbodies. to 80 feet. Coal in immense strata also exists in Missouri, and at some future period must greatly exceed in value the lead mines ; as in a country of intense winter and scarcity of wood, coal mines must be a resource of primary importance. Iron ore forms no inconsiderable part of many of the hills of Missouri ; but as this invaluable mineral is found almost every where, its existence here, though highly advantageous, gives but little local preference. The principal exports are lead and furs. A large capital is employed in the fur- trade with the Indians up the Missouri and Mississippi. St. Louis is the centre of this commerce. Boats are continually passing between St. Louis and New Orleans. Since the independence of Mexico, a considerable trade has been carried on with the interior provinces of that republic. In 1825, commissioners of the United States laid out a road through the wilderness, from Missouri to Mexico ; and the Osages by treaty, in consideration of 800 dollars, granted the right of making and using the road through their lands. St. Louis College, and another seminary, at a place called Bois Brule Bottom, in the southern part of the state, both Catholic institutions, are the most considerable literary seminaries in Missouri. St. Louis College, pleasantly situated on the outside of the city of St. Louis, was founded in 1829. The building is of brick, fifty feet by forty, four stories high, including the basement; and the library contains about 1,200 volumes. There are five professors, and 125 pupils, partly from Catholic and partly from Protestant families, attending to different branches of English education and the elementary parts of classical learning. There are several convents in the state, to which young females are sent for education. The Baptists in this state have nine associations, 111 churches, 67 ministers, and 3,955 communicants ; the Methodists, 23 preachers, and 3,403 members ; the Presby terians, 17 churches, 10 ministers, and 605 communicants ; the Roman Catholics, a considerable number of churches and priests ; the Episcopalians, 3 ministers. Population of the Counties and County Towns. Counties. Boone, M Callaway, m. . . . Cape Girardeau, s. e. Chariton, n. m. . . Clay, n. w Cole, m Cooper, M Crawford .... Franklin, E. M. . . Gasconade, M. . . Howard, m. . . . Population. 8,889 6,102 7,430 1,776 5,342 3,006 6,019 1,709 3,484 1,548 10,844 County Towns. 1 From Jefferson City,/ Columbia Fulton . . . , Jackson Chariton Liberty Jefferson City Booneville Little Piney Union Gasconade Fayette m From Washington. Distance. J.1 | Wm 5682 208 79 190 519879 4765 891967856 10311142 980 1023 989901939 1017 THE UNITED STATES. 519 Counties. Jackson, w. . . . Jefferson, E. . . . Lafayette, w. . . . Lincoln, e Madison .... Marion, n. e. . . . Monroe Montgomery, e. m. . New Madrid, s. s. . Perry, e Pike, N. E Ralls, n. e. ... Randolph, n. m. . . Ray, n St. Charles, e. . . St. Francbise, s. e. m. St. Genevieve, e. St. Louis,? E. . . . Saline, n. m. . . . Scott, s.E Washington, E. m. . Wayne Total Population. 2,8222,5862,921 4,060 2,3714,839 3,900 2,3513,377 6,122 4,346 2,962' 2,6574,3222,3862,182 14,907 2,893 2,1366,7973,254 County Towns. Independence . Herculaneum . Lexington . . Troy . . . Frederifktown Palmyra . . Monroe, C. H. Lewistown . . New Madrid . Perryville . . Bowling Green New London . Randolph . . Richmond . . St. Charles . Farmington . St. Genevieve . St. Louis . , Walnut Farm . Benton . . . Potosi . . . Greenville . . 140,074, of whom 24,990 are slaves. Distance. J." | W.° 177 164138 97 170 190 129 67 278 187 132167 96 149 123152168 134 35 236 127 200 1129 886 1090 913 894 984 998932 892882948961 10421101 876912 ¦ 874856 1038 861915908 CHAP. III. Population at different Periods. Population. Increase. Slaves. In 1810, 19,833 3,011 1820, 66,586 1824, 80,677 From 1810 to 1820, 46,753 10,222 1830, 140,074 1820 1830, 73,488 24,990 The situation of St. Louis is elevated, pleasant, and healthy. The ground on which Chief it stands rises gradually from the first to the second bank of the Mississippi. Three towns' streets run parallel with the river, and are intersected by others at right angles. The town extends along the river about two miles. The second bank of the river is about forty feet higher than the spot on which the town is chiefly built, and affords a fine view of the town and river. On this bank stand the fortifications, erected in early times for the defence of the place. They consist of several circular towers, twenty feet in diameter and fifteen in height, a small stockaded fort, and a stone breast work. The courts are held in one of the buildings of the fort, and another is used for a prison. The town contains three houses of public worship, a land office, a brewery, two water-mills, one steam-mill, a museum, two banks, a theatre, and two printing-offices, from each of which is issued, a weekly newspaper. The houses are mostly of wood, but many are built of stone and are white-washed ; very few of them are handsome. Most of the houses are furnished with a large garden. St. Louis was settled in 1764. It is at present in a state of rapid improvement, fast " From Jefferson City. ° From Washington. p Population of St. Louis, the largest town, in 1820, 4,598 ; and in 1830, 5,852. 520 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOKV. increasing in population and trade. Its situation is advantageous and interesting, being more central with regard to the whole territory belonging to the United States, than any other considerable town. Uniting the advantages of the three great rivers, Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois, with their numerous branches, and possessing unrivalled facilities for an extensive trade, it will probably beCotne a large city, and be the centre of an extensive commerce. The country around- and west of St. Louis, for the distance of fifteen miles, is an extended prairie of very luxuriant soil.q The other chief towns' in Missouri are, Herculaneum, on the Mississippi, thirty miles below St. Louis; St. Genevieve, on the same river, sixty-four miles below St. Louis ; St. Charles on the Missouri, twenty-five miles north of St. Louis ; Cape Girardeau, on the Mississippi, sixty miles above the mouth of the Ohio ; and New Madrid, on the Mississippi, sixty-five miles below the mouth; of the Ohio. Jeffer son, on the south side of the Missouri, near the mouth of Osage River, has recently been laid out as the seat of government. Franklin, in Bc-onie's Lick . settlement, about seventy-five miles above] Jefferson, is a thriving town/ ' Steam-boat Navigation from St. Louis. — StLouis is 1,200 miles by the course of the river above New Orleans, In the summer of 1831, there were six steam-boats regularly employed between St. Louis and New Orleans. A trip from one place to the other and back again usually occupies twenty-four days ; the shortest time in which one was ever made was eighteen days. The usual fare for cabin passengers, descending, 20 dollars ; ascending 25 dollars ; for deck passengers, 5 dollars either way. Freight per 100 lbs, descending, 37J cents ; ascending, 62 J cents. From St. Louis to Louisville, 630 miles : six boats regularly running, in 1 831 : usual time of a trip, eleven days j the passage one way being somewhat more than three days. Fare of cabin passengers, about ten or 15 dollars either way ; deck passengers, 4 dollars ; freight, about 25 cents per 100 lbs. One boat, also, ran regularly to Cincinnati, 150 miles above Louisville. From St. Louis to Fever River, about 480 miles : three steam-boats regularly employed in 1831 : time occupied by a trip, about ten days. Fare for passengers, ascending, 15 dollars; descending, 9 dollars. The route of one of the boats occasionally extended to St Peter's River, 400 miles further up. In 1831, two boats were employed in running from St. Louis up the Missouri to Franklin, 200 miles, and to Fort Leavenworth, 200 miles further. Freight to Franklin, 75 cents per 100 lbs. and to Fort Leavenworth, from 1 dollar 25 cents, to 1 dollar 50 cents ; from Franklin, down, 25 cents per 100 lbs. From St. Louis to Pekin, on Illinois River, 180 miles : two or three boats regularly employed in 1831. Steam-boats come occasionally to St. Louis from Pittsburg and other places. THE UNITED STATES. 521 CHAPTER IV. DELAWARE MARYLAND DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA VIRGINIA KENTUCKY NORTH CAROLINA TBNNESSBB. DELAWARE. With the exception of Rhode Island, this is the smallest state in the Union. It is c H A P. bounded on the north by Pennsylvania; on the east by Delaware Bay and the IV. Atlantic ; and on the south and west by Maryland.1 Length 100 miles ; mean width, Extent"6 twenty-one miles ; and area 2,100 square miles. Delaware is the least diversified in surface of any of the states. The more northern Surface. part is hilly and waving, but it becomes monotonous towards the Atlantic Ocean. The actual dividing line between the waters of the Delaware and the Chesapeake Bay is in Delaware ; but so far from being a ridge, it is mostly an extended flat, from which the Pocomoke, Nanticoke, Choptank, Chester, and Sassafras Rivers ooze, rather than flow, into Chesapeake Bay, and a number of unimportant creeks flow into the Delaware. The soil, in some places excellent, is generally thin, and in many Soil. places marshy. The climate is more distinctly different, at the extremes, than could be pr^ce. expected from a difference of latitude of only 1° 23', and no considerable difference of level. Fruits are abundant, and grain and meadow-grass are the general objects of agricultural pursuit. Wheat is the staple commodity, and Delaware is noted for its excellent flour. From the mean annual temperature of Baltimore, it is evident that cotton might be made a staple crop in Delaware, and on the eastern shore of Mary land. Little metallic wealth can be expected in a region so approaching to recent alluvium as Delaware. The Delaware and Chesapeake Canal, which completes a water communication by Canal. sloops and steam-boats between Philadelphia and Baltimore, commences on the Dela ware, about forty miles below Philadelphia, crosses the peninsula in a direction nearly west, and enters the tide waters of the Elk River, a tributary of the Chesapeake. It is about fourteen miles in length, sixty feet broad, and ten feet deep, with a rise of eight feet only above the tide to its summit level. The ample dimensions adapt it to the passage of the largest schooners of the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, and the work is worthy of Philadelphia, in which the design was conceived and matured. - Longitude, 74° 56' to 75° 40' ; latitude, 38° 29' to 39° 47'. 522 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOKV Religiousbodies. Chief towns. Extent. It presents the greatest excavation ever attempted in any country ; and the drains constructed for the passage of the waste water are nearly equal in magnitude to the largest canal of New York. At its entrance into the Delaware has been constructed a spacious harbour, twenty feet deep at low water, capable of containing 200 vessels of a large class, and affording shelter against the dangers of the bay at every season of the year. The cost of the work is estimated at about 1,200,000 dollars. In its session of 1824-5, congress made a liberal subscription of 300,000 dollars to this truly national undertaking. The Methodists in this state have 15 preachers and 12,304 members ; the Presby terians, 8 churches, 9 ministers, 1 licentiate, and 1,300 communicants ; the Baptists, 9 churches, 9 ministers, and 520 communicants ; the Episcopalians, 6 ministers. Population of the Counties and County Towns. Counties. Population, 1820. Population, 1830. County Towns. Distance.D." | W.° - 20,79327,899 24,057 19,911 29,71027,118 4247 40 114 103 108 122 72,749 76,739, of whom 3,305 are slaves. Dover, a small town near the centre of the state, is the seat of government. Wilmington, the largest town, is situated between the Brandywine and Christiana creeks, two miles from the Delaware, and is celebrated for the number and importance of the manufactories in its vicinity, particularly the flour mills, which are the finest in the United States. Newcastle and Smyrna have some trade ; and Lewistown is noted for salt works. MARYLAND. The ground plan (if we may be permitted the expression) of this state presents a very singular appearance, being completely, though irregularly, divided in its whole length by perhaps the most noble estuary in the world, Chesapeake Bay. The state is bounded on the north by Pennsylvania ; on the east by Delaware and a portion of Virginia ; on the south by the confluence of Chesapeake Bay, with the Atlantic ; and on the west by the Pitumac, which separates it from Virginia. It extends from longitude 75° 10' to 79° 20'; latitude 38° 03, and 39° 42'. " The area of Maryland," says Mr. Darby, " is generally and greatly overrated. This exaggeration has arisen from its very irregular form, and from including the surface of Chesapeake Bay. I have taken some extra trouble to obtain the true area, and find that the land superficies is within an inconsiderable fraction of 10,000 square miles." b From Dover. ° From Washington.1 THE UNITED STATES. 523 All those parts of Maryland east from Chesapeake, and west from that bay to the C H A P. IV. Surface. head of tides, may be considered as recent alluvium. Above tide water, the surface rises, though not very rapidly, into hills, which reach the foot of the mountains. The third or mountainous section constitutes the western part of the state. Much highly productive soil exists in each zone, but in general the intermediate vallies of the mountainous part contain the most fertile. The limestone tracts of Frederick and Washington exhibit a fertility not surpassed in the United States. The hilly or middle zone is very variable ; and in a very limited extent are frequently found the extremes of sterility aad fertility. The marine and river alluvial section, though not affording any surface equally productive with the calcareous parts of the western, is more uniform than the middle zone. The surface of the alluvial region, though not rising into hills of any considerable elevation, is far from being a dead plain. In a state of nature, Maryland was, with .little exception, covered with a dense forest. The diversity of soil and elevation induces in Maryland an extended facility of vege table production, by which the staples have been greatly multiplied. The whole arable surface of Frederick, Washington, and Allegany counties, may be regarded as lying more than 500 feet above the ocean. The Apalachian system of mountains forms the western part of Maryland, and gives origin to its most considerable river, the Potomac The ridges rise into a barrier in no place less than 2,486 feet in height, and in many places exceeding 3,000 feet. This mountain chain raises a very formi dable impediment to canal construction. An elevation of 2,486 feet in winter gives to the mountain ridges of Maryland a temperature similar to that on the Atlantic Ocean in latitude 45°. The soil is generally a red clay or loam, and much of it is excellent, producing Soil and good crops of wheat, Indian corn, hemp, and flax. Here are also fine orchards, and apples, pears, peaches, plums, and cherries are abundant. Of peaches the inhabitants make large quantities of peach brandy ; and of apples, apple brandy and cider. The forests abound in nut-bearing trees, which feed great numbers of swine. These run wild, and, when fattened, are killed, barrelled, and exported in great quantities. Beef and mutton are also plentiful. Some cotton for domestic use is raised in this state, but it is of inferior quality. The most considerable export from this state is that of flour ; and next to this is Trade. tobacco. The other exports are iron, lumber, Indian corn, pork, flaxseed, beans, &c. Its trade is principally carried on from Baltimore. This state abounds with mines of excellent iron ore, and has also some coal. Furnaces have been erected in various parts for the manufacture of pig and bar iron, hollow ware, cannon, stoves, &c. There are a number of glass works, paper mills, &c. Large quantities of rye are distilled into whiskey ; but the most considerable manufacture is that of flour. A turnpike has been completed from Baltimore to Cumberland, on the Potomac, a 524 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK V. distance of 135 miles. From Cumberland to Brownsville on the Monongahela, in Canals and Pennsylvania, there is now completed by the. United States a free road' of a most road*; excellent construction. The distance is seventy-two miles, making the whole distance from Baltimore to Brownsville 207 miles. A turnpike extends from Baltimore in a north-west direction sixteen miles, to Reister town, and there divides ; one branch turning more to the north, meets the Pennsylvania line in nineteen miles ; the other in a west-north-west direction runs twenty-nine miles in Maryland. A turnpike road has been made from Baltimore by York and Pennsylvania; to the Susquehanna, by which large quantities of the produce of Pennsylvania are brought to that city. The Havre de Grace turnpike, leading to Philadelphia, and the Belle Air turnpike, have both been commenced, and are advancing to their completion. Port Deposit Canal is a public work of Maryland, of ten miles in length, from Port Deposit, on the east bank of the Susquehanna, along a line of rapids northward to the boundary line of Maryland and Pennsylvania. At Little or Lower Falls, on the Potamic, three miles above Washington, is a canal two miles and. a half long ; > difference of level thirty-seven feet one inch, overcome by four sets of locks of solid masonry, eighty feet long and twelve wide. At Great Falls, nine, miles above, is a canal 1,200 yards long, lined with walls of stone; difference of level seventy-six feet nine inches, surmounted by five sets of locks of solid masonry, 100 feet long, and from ten to fourteen wide ; lifts from ten to eighteen feet. Both here and at Little Falls, the canal dimensions are twenty-five feet wide at surface, twenty at bottom, four feet deep. Canals on a smaller scale are constructed at Seneca Falls, Shenandoah Falls, and House's Falls. These works were executed by the Potomac company, incorporated in 1784 by Maryland and Virginia ; but they are to be sur rendered to the Chesapeake and Ohio canal company. The most important under taking, however, is the Baltimore and Ohio Rail-road, which is to extend from the city of Baltimore to the river Ohio, about 350 miles ; it is now in progress, and is the greatest enterprise of the kind in America. Institu- In 1696 funds were appropriated by the province for the support of a college and free schools, the former of which had made considerable progress before 1776. Washington College, at Chestertown, was established in 1782. St. John's College was established in 1784, at Annapolis, and these two were united into a university. After the peace of 1783, a fund was again appropriated for the college! This was with drawn in 1804; but the state appropriated 12,000 dollars per annum, and in 1813 laid a tax upon bank stock, which yields about 10,000 dollars, the whole of which is appropriated to the support of free and charity schools. In addition to this, the personal estate of any person who dies intestate, and leaves no relations within the fifth degree, is appropriated to this object, with the exception of the property of seamen who die in the port of Baltimore, which devolves to the Charitable Marine Society. tions. THE UNITED STATES. 525 The money received from the tax on bank stock is equally divided among all the counties CHAP. in the state, although the population of some is much greater than that of others. Sunday schools are very numerous. — In 1807 the legislature founded, in the city of Baltimore, a college for the instruction of students in the different branches of medical knowledge, and, in 1812, the faculty of medicine was authorised to annex the faculties of divinity, law, and arts and sciences, the whole of which were incorporated under the name of the University of Maryland. The institution is governed by twenty eight regents and a provost. The professor of theology and six ordained ministers con- stitutute the faculty of divinity; the professor of law and six qualified members of the bar, that of law ; that of medicine is composed of the professors of surgery, anatomy, the theory and practice of physic, chemistry and mineralogy, institutes of medicine, obstetrics, and materia medica; that of arts and sciences is constituted of four professors and the principals of any three academies or colleges in the state. Each faculty organizes itself, chooses its own dean, fills its own vacancies, and makes such rules for its government as are not inconsistent with those enacted by the regents. The medical school offers great facilities for the acquisition of information in that department of science, as much pains has been bestowed in rendering it complete. The philosophical and chemical apparatus is extensive, and the museum contains a very valuable collection of anatomical preparations. The mineralogical collection is also very respectable. The state has recently granted 30,000 dollars to this rapidly growing institution. Baltimore College, a chartered and respectable seminary, is in a very flourishing state. St. Mary's College belongs to the Roman Catholics, and is a very flourishing institu tion. It was incorporated in 1805 as a university, and has an extensive library, and philosophical and chemical apparatus. Its officers are a president, vice-president, and nine professors. In addition to the above there are extensive academies at Somerset, Elkton, Washington, Talbot, Charlotte Hall, Frederick County, Garrison Forest, Franklin (Allegany County), Centreville, Rockville, Hagerstown, Cambridge, Hills borough, West Nottingham, artd Hartford County. The arrangements for the promotion of knowledge in this state are highly liberal, and bid fair to produce the best effect. The Roman Catholics in this state have one archbishop, the metropolitan of the Religious United States, and 30 or 40 churches ; the Methodists are numerous ; the Episco- bodies' lians have 57 ministers; the Presbyterians, 11 ministers, 6 licentiates, and 1,058 communicants; the Baptists, 15 churches, 12 ministers, and 680 communicants; the German Reformed, 9 ministers ; the Friends are numerous, and there are some Mennonites, one congregation of Unitarians, and one of the New Jerusalem Church. vol. n. 3 Y 526 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOKV. Population of the Counties and County Towns. Counties. WESTERN SHORE. Allegany, n. w. . . . Anne Arundel, m. . Baltimore, n. - . Baltimore, city, Calvert, s. . . . Charles, s. . . . Frederick, N. . . . Harford, n. e. . • . Montgomery, w. m. Prince George's, s. M. S.t Mary's, s. Washington, n. w. m. Caroline, e. . . . Cecil, n. e. . . . Dorchester, 9. e. . Kent, e Queen Anne's, e. . Somerset, s. e. . . Talbot, e. m. . . Worcester, s. e. . , Total Population, Population, 1820. 1830. 8,654 10,602 27,165 28,295 33,663 40,251 62,738 80,625 8,073 8,899 16,500 17,666 40,459 45,793 15,924 16,315 10,400 19,816 20,216 20,473 12,974 13,455 23,075 25,265 Chief Towns. Cumberland .... Annapolis . . . . ^Baltimore . . . . Prince Fredericktown Port Tobacco . . . Erederick .... Belair ...... Rockville .... Upper Marlborough . Leonardtown . . . own EASTERN SHORE. 10,018 9,070 10,048 15,432 17,759 18,685 ' 11,453 10,502 14,952 14,396 19,579 20,155 14,387 12,947 17,421 18,271 407,350 446,913 Denton . . Elkton . . Cambridge . Chestertown . Centreville . Princess Anne Easton . . Snowhill . . Distance. A.' I W.c 165 3063 6976 5352 23 72 101 44 80 62 4732 107 47 127 132 37 56 32 4361 1518 6363 818899 8269 144 84 164 Chieftowns. Different Classes of Population in 18S0. Whites. Slaves. Free coloured persons. Males , Females 147,315143,778 53,429 49,449 34,920 28,022 Total . . 291,093 102,878 62,942 Baltimore, in population, the third city in the United States is built round a bay which sets up from the north side of the Patapsco river, and affords a spacious and convenient harbour. Annapolis, the seat of government, is on the south bank of, the Severn, two miles from its mouth; population about 2000. Fredericktown, is a flourishing town on a branch of Monocosy creek, forty-two miles west of Baltimore, and has about 5000 inhabitants. It is in the midst of a fertile country, and sends great quantities of wheat and flour to Baltimore. — Hagerstowh is situated in the fertile valley of Conecocheague, on the west bank of the Antietam Creek, twenty-seven miles north-west of Fredericktown. Cumberland is at the head of boat navigation on the Potomac. The ports of entry, besides Baltimore and Annapolis, are St. Mary's, on the Potomac; Nottingham, on the Patuxent; Havre de Grace, at the mouth of the Susquehanna; Chestertown, on Chester River; Oxford, b From Annapolis. - From Washington. Dra.-wn.'hy'vV.Goo.lu.roe Jtut^H.'Y KPTT'-Ei^il'Oai Dl'1 TE3E CATBOI'lC U AiT^J-IJiJj'JXAXj, -LLf-li'X LQyi.O:^ . Lonilcui I1-.! Jl'.-'151M.,I bv IXlHxuoi ¦1--:' ¦ ¦ ,'Wn ft MVli-a.TJ: c ise dac '-: u-; 3 W !t.; Drawn, ay fcLBrown. CAPITOL ©IP THE TOflTEID STATE 1. WAS HIHGTOKT. lOTdruxPiihlisriea-MaxchlSlS^byirHi^^ THE UNITED STATES. 527 on Treadhaven Creek, which falls into the Choptank near its mouth ; Vienna, on the CHAP. Nanticoke ; and Snowhill, on the Pocomoke. At each of the three last mentioned ' — places a considerable amount of shipping is owned. THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Is a tract of ten miles square, about equally divided by. the Potomac, ceded by the states District of of Maryland and Virginia to the general government. It has an uneven surface, but ° om Ia" is not mountainous, and the soil is light and sandy. This small district comprises the city of Washington, the seat of the general government. Although this city is of no moment in a commercial view, yet, from its political consequence, a brief description of it is indispensable. It is situated on the Maryland side of the Potomac, and on a, point of land formed Washing- by the junction of the eastern branch with the main river. The plan of Washington, ton" if ever completed, its public edifices, and the elegance of its situation, will render it one of the most splendid cities in the world. The Capitol stands on a lofty eminence, and commands a delightful prospect of the Pennsylvania Avenue, the President's House, Georgetown and the Potomac, the General Post-Office, the Navy Yard, Greenleaf's Point, the bridge on the river, and the road to, Alexandria and Mount Vernon. It is a magnificent edifice.— The Rotunda comprehends the spacious area between the two wings of the structure, and is of a circular form. It is entirely of marble, (and so indeed is every permanent part of the Capitol,) excepting the light doors covered with green baize that lead out of it, and the frame of the skylight above. The dome is lofty and imposing. The floor is , beautifully paved, and the sound of a single voice uttering words in an ordinary, tone reverberates with consi derable power. In the niches left about fifteen feet from the floor, are four sculptured pieces as large as life, • designed to commemorate some of the pro minent events in the early history of the country. The scene of the first device is laid in 1773, and is designed to represent a contest between Daniel Boon, an early settler in one of the western istates, and an Indian chief. The second represents the landing of the pilgrims at Plymouth in 1610. The third is a representation of William Penn and two Indian chiefs in a treaty in 168#, under the memorable elm on the right bank of the Delaware, near Philadelphia. And the fourth represents the narrow escape, in 1606, of Captain John Smith, the first successful adventurer in Vir ginia, from the uplifted war-club of King Powhatan. The . figure of Pocahontas, in the attitude of supplicating the mercy of her father, in behalf of the intended victim, is beautifully wrought, and the whole exhibits much elegance: of design and. workman ship. — The Chamber of the House of Representatives is one of the richest and most splendid apartments of the kind that ;has ever been constructed* It is semi-circular, with dark blue columns of polished stone, and is ISghted.from the roof.-— The National Library is in the same edifice, and contains the paintings executed by Colonel 528 TOPOGRAPHY OF Alexandria. book v. Trumbull. They are The Declaration of Independence, The Surrender of the English "" Armies on the plains of Saratoga and at Yorktown, and General Washington in the act of resigning his Commission. The President's House has four spacious build ings near it for the accommodation of the heads of department. — The Navy Yard is situated on the eastern branch of the Potomac. A monument is here erected to the memory of the American officers who fell in the Tripolitan war. — Georgetown is on the same side of the Potomac with Washington, three miles west of the Capitol. It is very pleasantly situated, and is a place of considerable trade. Alexandria, an incorporated city on the west bank of the river, is a place of extensive business, and of fashionable resort during the sittings of congress. It con tains a court-house, six churches, and a theological seminary. The museum at this place contains, among its valuables, an elegant satin robe, scarlet on one side and white on the other, in which General Washington was baptized ; a penknife with a pearl handle, given to him by his mother when he was in his twelfth year, and which he kept fifty-six years ; a pearl button, from the coat he wore at his first inauguration as President of the United States in the old City Hall, New York ; a black glove, worn by him while in mourning for his mother ; part of the last stick of sealing wax which he used ; the original of the last letter written by him, being a polite apology, in behalf of himself and Mrs. Washington, for declining an invitation to a ball at Alexandria ; (it is penned with singular neatness, accuracy and precision, and contains this expression — "Alas ! our dancing days are over;") a beautiful masonic apron, with the belt of scarlet satin and the white kid gloves worn by him the last time he shared in the social ceremonies of the " mystic tie." The Chesapeake and Ohio canal was commenced in 1828. The proposed length is 341 £ miles; the breadth, at the surface of the water, sixty to eighty feet ; at the bottom fifty feet ; the depth of water, six to seven feet. According to the plan of this canal, it will pass from the tide-water of the Potomac above Georgetown, and terminate near Pittsburg, in Pennsylvania. Five miles from Georgetown the canal is so planned that a branch may be constructed to Alexandria, another to Baltimore, and another to the navy-yard in Washington. The first estimate of the cost was 22,375,000 dollars, but it is maintained that the cost will not exceed 10,000,000 dollars. The United States have authorized a subscription of 1,000,000 dollars to the stock of this company. To be constructed by the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company. The charter was granted by Virginia in 1824, and confirmed by Mary land and congress in 1825. The Baptists in this district have 18 churches, 10 ministers, and 1,658 com municants ; the Presbyterians, 9 churches, 1 1 ministers, 5 licentiates, and 996 communicants ; the Methodists, 1,400 members ; and the Episcopalians, 5 ministers- the Catholics, several churches ; arid the Unitarians, 1 minister. Canals. Religiousbodies. ^.-'T,r-".'/'r'i-o^iji-n«-.lT^'rTiEt TLii^rarre i\ t» Pr int.; i_\rv ESAJTUIRAIL, BMimiSHE.Vm&IlHIA.. Tjgn rl rm Pabliahjo. J-unel.bylT r!mlcm.nnrl Suo.pkm_ 3 'Marshall THE UNITED STATES. 529 Population. CHAP. 1820. 1S30. IV- Washington .... 8,208 Alexandria .... 7,227 Georgetown .... 4,948 13,274 8,218 7,360 18,827 8,263 8,441 VIRGINIA. This is at once the most ancient and most extensive state in the Union. It is virginia.- bounded on the north by Pennsylvania, on the north-east by Maryland, on the east by the Atlantic, on the south by North Carolina and Tennessee, and on the west by Kentucky and Ohio. In longitude, it extends from 75° 25' to 83° 4' ; and in latitude, from 36° 30' to 40° 37'. Its greatest length is 430 miles, and its mean width upwards of 150 miles, comprising about 700,000 square miles. Though the zones of Virginia are not very distinctly marked, each part has its Surface. appropriate character. The oceanic section of Virginia is its tropical climate. Latitude, exposure, and depressed level, all combine to give the Chesapeake counties a much more elevated temperature than is found in the interior. This difference is seen on vegetation. In the lower counties, cotton may be cultivated successfully, whilst the uncertainty of grain and meadow grasses evinces a southern summer. The middle, in all the Atlantic states south from Pennsylvania, we find to be the arcadia of the state. Middle Virginia is, however, blended with the mountainous, the former containing the whole or great part of the valley counties, Berkley, Jeffer son, Frederick, Shenandoah, Rockingham, Augusta, Rockbridge, Botetourt, Mont gomery, Wythe, and Washington. The real mountain section lies north-west from the middle, and extends to the Ohio. The extreme western part is, indeed, com posed of a congeries of hills with alluvial bottoms, but the actual mountain ridges approach so near Ohio River, and the hills are in themselves so generally abrupt and lofty, as to give an alpine appearance to the country. Taken as a whole, central Virginia has the best soil, though in the mountainous part there is much that is Soil and excellent. With the exception of the south-eastern counties, grain and orchard fruits ro are highly congenial to Virginia, and their various products are the natural, actual, and, we may safely say, the permanent staples of the state. Of metals, iron ore is abundant in the central and western sections. Brine has been procured on the Great Kenhawa, and salt extensively manufactured. Virginia is justly celebrated for the grandeur of its scenery. The natural bridge Scenery over Cedar creek, twelve miles south-west of Lexington, is esteemed one of the most extraordinary natural curiosities in the world. d The passage of the Potomac ¦i We give Mr. Jefferson's description from his Notes on Virginia. — " It is on the ascent of a hill which seems to have been cloven through its length by some great convulsion. The fissure, just by the bridge, is by some admeasurements, 270 feet deep, by others only 205. It is about forty-five feet wide at the bottom, and ninety feet at the top ; this, of course, determines the length of the bridge, and its height from the water ; its breadth in the middle is about sixty feet, but more at the ends, and the thickness of the mass, at the summit of 530 TOPOGRAPHY OF book v. through the Blue Ridge, at Harper's Ferry, is also celebrated.e There are several interesting caves, of which the most extraordinary is Wier's Cave, on the north-west side of the Blue Ridge. It is between 2,000 and 3,000 feet in length, and comprises various apartments, containing beautiful stalactites and incrustations, which display the most sparkling brilliancy when surveyed by the light of a torch. Near this there is another singular cavern, called Madison's Cave ; and in one of the ridges of the Allegany mountains, is Blowing Cave, from which a current of air continually issues, strong enough to prostrate the weeds at the distance of sixty feet. One of the largest mounds in the valley of the Ohio is in Virginia, near the Ohio, fourteen miles below Wheeling. It is about 300 feet in diameter at the base, sixty at the top, and the perpendicular height is seventy feet. It contains thousands of human skeletons. the arch, about forty feet. A part of this thickness is constituted by a coat of earth, which gives growth to many large trees j the residue, with the hill on both sidSs, is one solid rock of lime-stone. The arch approaches the semi-elliptical form, but the larger axis of the ellipse, which would be the chord of. the arch, is many times longer than the transverse. Though the sides of this bridge are provided in some parts with a parapet of fixed rocks, yet few men have resolution to walk to them, and look over into the abyss : you involuntarily fall on your hands and feet, creep to the parapet, and peep over it. Looking down from this height about a minute gave me a violent head-ache. If the view from the top be painful and intolerable, that from below is delightful in an equal extreme ; it is impossible for the emotions arising from the sublime to be felt beyond what they are here : so beautiful an arch, so elevated, so light, and springing as it were up to heaven ! the rapture of the spectator is really indescribable! The fissure continuing narrow, deep, and straight for. a con- siderable distance above and below the bridge, opens a short but very pleasing view of the North Mountain on one side, and Blue Ridge on the other, at the distance each of them of about five miles. This bridge is in the county of Rockbridge, to which it has given name, and affords a public and commodious passage over a valley which cannot be crossed elsewhere for a considerable distance. The stream passing under it is called Cedar Creek ; it is a water of James' River, and sufficient in the driest seasons to turn a grist mill, though its fountain is not more than two miles above." — Notes on Virginia, pp. 21, 22. • " The passage of the Potomac through the Blue Ridge is perhaps one of the most stupendous scenes in nature. You stand on a very high point of land ; on your right comes up the Shenandoah, having ranged along the foot of the mountain an hundred miles to seek a vent ; on your left approaches the Potomac, in quest of a passage also j in the moment of their junction they rush together against the mountain, rend it asunder, and pass off to the sea. The first glance of this scene hurries our senses into the opinion; that this earth has been created in time, that the mountains were formed first, that the rivers began to flow afterwards, that in this place particularly they have been dammed up by the Blue ridge of mountains, and have formed an ocean which filled the whole valley j that, continuing to rise, they have at length broken over at this spot, and have torn the mountain down from its summit to its base. The piles of rock on each hand, but particularly on the Shenandoah, the evident marks of their disrupture and avulsion from their beds by the most powerful agents of nature, corroborate the impression. But the distant finishing which nature has given to the picture, is of a very different character ; it is a true contrast to the foreground -, itis as placid and delightful'as that is wild and tremendous : for the mountain being cloven asunder, she presents to your eye, through the cleft, a small catch of smooth blue horizon, at an infinite distance in the plain country, inviting you, as it were, from the riot and tumult roaring around, to pass through the breach and participate of the calm below. Here the eye ultimately composes itself;' and that way too the road happens actually to lead. You cross the Potomac above the junction, pass along its side through the base of the mountain for three miles, its terrible precipices hanging in fragments over you, and, within about twenty miles, reach Fredericktown, and the fine country round that. This scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic ; yet here, as in the neighbourhood of the Natural Bridge, are people who have passed their lives within half a dozen miles, and have never been to survey these monuments of a war between rivers and mountains, which must have shaken the earth itself to its centre." — Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, pp. 17, 18. b ^ l Sid 'A ^ W * u. I- THE UNITED STATES. 531 This state has a large fund, the income of which is appropriated to internal CHAP. improvements. Dismal Swamp Canal, twenty-two miles long, opens a communi- - lo cation between Norfolk, in Virginia, and Elizabeth City, in North Carolina. There are various other canals for the improvement of the navigation of the James, the Jackson, and the Shenandoah Rivers. No provision had been made for a general system of education, to be supported by Institu- the state, until the formation of the Literary Fund. Academies and colleges were t,ons" established by the legislature, and the trustees incorporated, on the application of individuals. The colleges are, William and Mary, at Williamsburg, founded during the reign of the sovereigns whose names it bears; Hampden Sydney, in Prince Edward county, incorporated in 1783 ; and Washington, at Lexington, originally Liberty Hall Academy ; in 1796, its name was changed to Washington Academy, on receiving a donation of the shares in the James River and Potomac Companies, which had been presented by the legislature of Virginia to General Washington, and which he had declined to accept, unless permitted to turn their destination from his private emoluments to objects of a public nature; in 1812 its name was still further changed to Washington College, which it now bears. A college, to be denominated the Central College, was about to be established at Charlottesville, by the private contributions of some of the most enlightened and patriotic citizens in Virginia, when the legislature, in appropriating the interest of the Literary Fund, provided for the University of Virginia. The commissioners appointed to determine the site of the University, selected the very spot intended for the Central College. The lands and other property of the Central College were then conveyed to the president and directors of the Literary Fund, and the University established on the proposed site. This edifice, in which all the orders of architecture are introduced, has been reared up under the parental care of Mr. Jefferson. Combining the effect of the scenery presented by the surrounding country with the plan and execution of the build ings, the University of Virginia is pronounced by competent judges to be equal, if not superior, to any thing of the kind in Europe. This institution, the pride of Virginia, which has had but little more than 200,000 dollars expended on it, (an inconsiderable sum, compared with the magnitude of the object,) requires nothing but the aid of a library and the necessary apparatus to put it into complete operation. In 1823 the legislature made arrangements, which, it is hoped, will speedily effect this desirable object. The Baptists in this state have 337 churches, 192 ministers, and 39,440 communi- Religious cants; the Methodists, 77 preachers and 27,947 members ; the Presbyterians, 104 churches, 75 ministers, 15 licentiates, and 7,508 communicants ; the Episcopalians, 45 ministers ; the Friends are numerous, and there are some Lutherans, Roman Catholics, and Jews. 532 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK v. Population of the Counties and County Towns. EASTERN DISTRICT. Counties. Accomac, e. Albemarle, M. Amelia, s. m. Amherst, m. Bedford, s. . Brunswick, s. Buckingham, n. m. Campbell, s. m. , Lynchburg, town Caroline, e. m. . , Charles City, e. m. Charlotte, s. m. Chesterfield, e. m. Culpeper, n. m. Cumberland, M. Dinwiddie, s. m. Petersburg, town Elizabeth City, s. e Essex, e. . . Fairfax, N. E. . Fauquier, N. m. Fluvanna, m. . Franklin, s. Gloucester, e. . Goochland, M. . Greenville, s. . Halifax, s. . . Hanover, e. m. Henrico, e. m. . Richmond, city Henry, s. . . Isle of Wight, s. e James City, E. . King and Queen, : King George, N. E King William, e. i Lancaster, e. . Loudon, n. e. . Louisa, m. . . Lunenburg, s. . Madison, m. . Matthews, e. . Mecklenburg, s, Middlesex, e. . Nansemond, s. e Nelson, m. . . New Kent, e. m. Norfolk, s. e. . Norfolk, borough Northampton, e. Northumberland, Nottoway, s. m. Orange, m. . , Patrick, s. . . Pittsylvania, s. Powhatan, m. , Prince Edward, s. _ Prince George, e. m. Prince William, N. e Whites. 9,458 10,455 3,2935,879 11,113 5,3977,1727,497 2,4906,490 1,782 5,583 7,709 12,044 4,054 7,7093,440 2,7043,6474,892 13,116 4,223 9,7284,3143,8572,104 12,915 6,526 5,717 7,757 4,058 5,023 1,284 4,7142,4753,155 1,976 15,517 6,468 4,4794,389 3,995 7,443 1,870 5,1435,1862,5868,1805,1313,573 4,029 2,949 6,4565,494 14,690 2,6615,0393,066 5,127 Slaves. 4,654 11,689 7,5185,9278,790 9,760 10,928 7,735 1,751 10,764 2,957 9,433 10,337 11,419 7,309 10,337 2,8502,2186,4173,972 12,612 3,795 4,988 5,6915,706 4,681 14,527 9,2785,9346,3452,8684,272 1,983 6,5143,635 6,3102,6315,3609,3827,2334,873 3,481 11,950 2,137 4,9435,9463,5305,842 3,7573,7343,357 6,9857,983 1,782 10,992 5,472 8,5934,598 3,842 Free Blacks. 2,544 484220263341612245 473385520761236591 563 326 591 2,032 131 467 311621 203 195 603795332590 449 1,0891,960 174 1,222 571416 287347 195 1,062 301245 71 189 874 118 1,698 122 342 963 928 1,334 567223 198 117 340 384475700 361 Total Population. 1820. 19,656 22,618 11,03112,072 20,253 15,77018,35115,704 4,626 17,774 5,504 15,252 18,637 24,026 11,68918,637 8,322 5,068 10,531 9,206 26,379 8,221 14,91110,60810,358 7,117 28,032 16,253 12,738 16,060 7,100 10,517 3,838 11,644 6,397 9,812 4,800 21,938 16,15111,957 9,2367,663 20,366 4,122 11,784 11,251 6,457 14,998 9,816 8,644 7,953 10,141 14,637 7,393 26,022 8,517 14,107 8,368 9,330 County Towns. Distance. R.f | W.« Accomac, C. H. . Charlottesville Amelia, C. H. Amherst, C. H. . Liberty .... Lawrenceville . . Buckingham, C. H. Campbell, C. H. . Lynchburgh . . Bowling Green Charles City, C. H. Charlotte, C. H. . Chesterfield, C. H. Culpeper, C. H. . Cumberland, C. H. Dinwiddie, C. H. . Hampton . . . Tappahannock Fairfax, C. H. . . Warrenton . . . Palmyra .... Rocky Mount . . Gloucester, C. H. . Goochland, C. H. . Hicksford . . . Halifax, C. H. . Hanover, C. H. . > Richmond . . Martinsville . . Smithfield . . . Williamsburgh King and Queen, C. H King George, C. H. King William, C. H. Lancaster, C. H. . Leesburg . , . Louisa, C. H. . . ' Lunenburg, C. H. Madison . . . Matthews, C. H. . Boydton. . . . Urbanna . . , Suffolk .... Lovington . . . New Kent, C. H. . ) Portsmouth . . $ Norfolk . . . Eastville . . . Northumberland, CH Nottoway, C. H. . Orange .... Patrick, C. H. . Pittsylvania, C. H, Scottsville . . . Prince Edward, C. H City Point . . . Brentsville . . ; 214 8147 136145 6987 132120 4430 96 14 9455 40 229650 129107 59 185 82 2863 130 20 207 180 60 49882783 153 54 91 110 100118 83 102118 30 116 112 174 92 6780 241 167 32 75 34 104 206 123169 180 223 191 162 210 198 78 152187 136 76 140162144199 109 2151 136' 263 166127 185 220 10212fr 299204 163142 78 120145 31 110 213 96 184 224 142 224 160133 219235244 151189 92 333 259 138 .176 156 48 ' From Richmond. s From Washington. THE UNITED STATES. 533 Free Total ¦ ' Dis anc*. CHAP. Counties. Whites. Slaves. Blacks. Population. 1830. County Towns. R.»J W.» IV. Princess Anne, s. e. . 5,023 3,736 343 9,102 Princess Anne, C. K 137 240 Richmond, e. . . . 2,975 2,630 451 fi,056 Richmond, C. H. . 56 118 Southampton, s. e. . 6,573 7,755 1,745 16,073 Jerusalem . . . 81 203 Spottsylvania, e. m. . Fredericksburg, town . 4,685 1,798 6,925 1,125 310384 11,920 3,307 > Fredericksburg , 66 56 4,713 4,164 485 9,362 Stafford, C. H. . 76 46 2,865 3,377 866 7,108 Surry, C. H. . . 60 183 4,118 619 7,736 892 866 12,720 1,570 Sussex, C. H. . . 50 172 Warwick, s. E. . . . 27 Warwick, C. H. . 81 184 Westmoreland, E. 3,718 3,845 848 8,411 Westmoreland, C. H. 70 116 Total . . . 2,129 2,598 627 5,354 Yorktown . . . 72 175 375,940 416,259 40,780 832,979 WESTERN DISTRICT. Allegany, m. . . . 2,197 571 48 2,816 Covington . . . 191 233 Augusta, North, M. . 7,208 1,677 257 9,142 t Staunton . . . 121 163 Augusta, South, M. . 8,048 2,588 147 10,783 2,803 1,140 65 4,008 Bath, C. H. . . 170 212 Berkley, N 8,323 1,919 276 10,528 Martinsburg . . 172 71 Bottetourt, s.m. . . 11,808 4,170 386 16,354 Fincastle . ... 196 235 6,774 227 39 7,040 Wellsburg . . . 373 280 Cabell, w 5,2678,104 561 5,342 56 653 5,884 14,099 Cabell, C. H. . . > Winchester . . 344 150 393 71 Frederick, East, n. . Frederick, West, n. . 9,260 2,088 598 11,946 4,779 470 49 5,298 Giles, C. H. . . 240 297 Grayson, s. . . T" . 7,161 462 52 7,675 Grayson, C. H. . 276 354 Greenbrier, w. m. 7,791 1,159 65 9,015 Lewisburgh . . 221 263 Harrison, East, N. w. Harrison, West, N. w. 9,4434,404 626 145 50 10 10,119 4,558 > Clarksburg 260 226 Hampshire, N. . . . 9,796 1,330 153 11,279 Romney .... 195 116 5,408 1,167 223 6,798 ,M°orfields . . . 195 128 Jefferson, N. , . 8,438 3,999 493 12,927 Charleston . . . 182 .60 Kenhawa, w. 7,468 1,718 75 9,261 Kenhawa, C. H. . 308 356 5,830 612 19 6,461 Jonesville . . . 392 468 6,066 162 13 6,241 Weston .... 249 249 3,5116,352 163 6 3,680 Logan, C. H. . . 324 383 Monongalia, East, n. 233 103 6,688 }> Morgantown . 293 215 Monongalia, West, n. . 7,223 129 16 7,368 5,776 7,033 713 682 4583 6,5347,798 Point Pleasant Union .... 371208 352 267 Monroe, w. m. . . . Montgomery, a. w. . 10,212 2,037 55 12,304 Christiansburg . . 206 282 Morgan, «. ... 2,517 153 22 2,692 Berkley Springs . 186 93 Nicholas, w. M. . . 3,229 119 1 3,349 Nicholas, C. H. . . 268 310 Ohio, n w 15,033 362 195 15,590 Wheeling . . . . 357 264 Pendleton, N. M. . . 5,750 498 23 6,271 Franklin . . . . 171 171 Pocahontas, w. M. 2,297 227 17 2,541 Huntersville . . . 191 233 Preston, n. . . . . 4,947 125 27 5,099 Kingwood . , . . 261 183 Randolph, n. m. . . 4,426 259 115 5,000 Beverly 210 221 ^Rockbridge, M. - . 10,465 3,398 381 14,244 Lexington . . . . 156 198 Rockingham, M. . . 17,814 2,331 548 20,693 Harrisonburg . . . 122 144 6,002 679 36 6,717 Lebanon 330 394 :Scott, s. w. .... 5,349 338 15 5,702 Estillville . . . . 368 444 Shenandoah, East . 7,171 992 164 8,327 > Woodstock . . . 156 100 : Shenandoah, W. n. m. 9,698 1,431 294 11,423 t Tazewell, s. w, . . 4,912 820 18 4,104 Tazewell, C. H. . . 290 352 3,991 108. 5 5,750 Middlebourne . . . 307 273 Washington, s. w. 12,785 2,568 261 15,614 Abington . . . . 309 385 5,4879,952 873 2,094 49 117 6,409 12,163 Parkersburg . . . Wythe 299253 , 299329 Total . . . 31.8,505 53,465 6,323 378,293 Total of Virgi lia . 694,445 469,724 47,103 | 1,211,272 h From Richmond. From Washington. VOL. II. 534 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK, V. Chieftowns. Richmond, the seat of government, has a beautiful and picturesque situation, at the head of the tide and at the falls of James River, and is the largest town in the state ; it is favourably situated for trade and manufactures, and has an extensive com merce. Norfolk, on Elizabeth River, 8 miles above its entrance into Hampton Road, has a good harbour, and is the most commercial town in Virginia. The site is low, and in some places marshy, and the houses are not remarkable for elegance. At Gosport, near Norfolk, there is a United States navy-yard.: Petersburg, on the Appomatox, at the head of the tide, is the third commercial town, arid; has consi derable trade in flour, tobacco, and cotton. Lynchburg, on James River, where it passes through a mountain ridge, 118 miles west of Richmond, is a flourishing town, andr has an extensive trade and considerable manufactures : flour, tobacco^ hemp, arid other produce, are transported down the river from this town to Richmond. Fredericksburg, on the Rappahannock, near the head of navigation; has considerable commerce ; and Winchester, to the west of the Shenandoah, is a • handsome and flourishing inland town. Williamsburg, a town now. decayed, is famous for having formerly been the capital of Virginia ; Yorktown, for the surrender' of the British army under Cornwallis ; Charlottesville, as the seat of the University of Virginia ; Lexington, as the seat of Washington College ; Harper's Ferry, for the passage of the Potomac through the Blue Ridge, and for a United States armory ; and the flourish ing town of Wheeling, for its situation at the point where the Cumberland Road! reaches the Ohio. Mount Vernon, a pleasant eminence on the Potomac, nine miles below Alexandria, is famous for having been the residence of Washington ; and Monticello, near Charlottesville, for having been the seat of Jefferson. Kentucky. — Extent. Surface. KENTUCKY. This rising state is the most central in the Union, as at present organized. It is bounded on the north-east by the state of Ohio; on the east by Virginia ; on the south by Tennessee ; and on the north-west by Illinois and Indiana. It extends from longitude 81° 50' to 89° 29'; and from latitude 36" 30' to 39° 10': its extreme length is 380 miles ; mean width 99 ; and area 37,680 miles. The eastern counties, bordering on Virginia, are mountainous and broken. A tract from five to twenty miles wide along the banks of the Ohio is also hilly and broken, interspersed with fertile valleys. Between this strip, Green River, and the eastern counties, lies what has been called the garden of the state ; it is the most populous part, and is about 150 miles long, and from fifty to 100 wide. The soil is excellent, and the surface is agreeably diversified. The lands produce much timber, with an abundance of grape-vines. There is a tract of country in the south-western part of the state, east and north of Cumberland River, and watered by Green and Barren rivers, about 100 miles in extent, called the Barrens, which a few years since was § H s=i s & i 5 1 h 1 THE UNITED STATES. 535 a prairie destitute of timber. It is now covered with a young growth of various kinds CHAP. of trees. The soil is of an excellent quality, being a mixture of clay, loam, and sand. 1V' Through this country there runs a chain of conical hills, called knobs. Ancient Sci1, fortifications and mounds of earth are found in almost all parts of Kentucky. It is also distinguished for some stupendous caves. One, called Mammoth Cave, 130 Caves. miles from Lexington, on the road leading to Nashville, is said to be eight or ten miles in length,1 with a great number of avenues and windings. Earth strongly im pregnated with nitre is found in most of these caves, and there are many establishments for manufacturing it. From 100 pounds of earth, fifty pounds of nitre have frequently been obtained. A number of the rivers in this state have excavated the earth so as to form abrupt precipices, deep giens, and frightful gulfs. The precipices formed by T_entucky River are in many places awful, presenting perpendicular banks of 300 feet vtf ;solid limestone, surmounted with a steep and difficult ascent four times as highi The banks of Cumberland River are less precipitous, but equally depressed below the surface of the surrounding country. In the south-western counties near and on the Tennessee, Cumberland, and Mis- Produce. sissippi rivers, cotton is a staple ; whilst all the grains, fruits, and meadow grasses of the northern and middle states flourish in the other sections. Wheat, tobacco, and hemp, are staple productions ; but Indian corn is the principal grain raised for home consumption. Rye, oats, barley, buckwheat, flax, potatoes, &c. are cultivated : apples, pears, peaches, cherries, and plums, are the most common fruits*. The do mestic animals are large and beautiful, particularly the horse. Swine, horned cattle, horses, and mules, are annually driven to the neighbouring states for a market, and pork, bacon, and lard, are exported. The fattening of animals is the chief mode of consuming the surplus ..gram, on account of the expense of conveying it to market. Considerable quantities of whiskey are made. v Marble of excellent quality abounds, and the whole stale may be said to repose on a bed of limestone. Salt and iron are among its minerals. The most extensive works for the manufacture of salt esta blished west of the Allegany mountains, are oil the waters. of Kentucky; and they supply not. only this state, but a great part of Ohio and Tennessee. ¦ Kentucky} from its position and fairs, has also become' a manufacturing state ., ..-,.. Louisville ahd Portland. Canal, is about two miles in length, fifty feet wide at.tlie Canal. bottom, with a lockage of twenty-two and a half feet. It was not completed in. 1831. It passes from the Ohio, at Louisville, to a point of the same line below the rapids hear Pd>rtlSnd-street. The banks are to be elevated two feet above' the highest wa'ter* markvkiiown at Louisville,' which makes, forty -two feet from the bottom of the canal. Underneath ; there lis a] solid bed of stohe for a foundation the whole' length of the canaV"a«d-this4s-to:be-eut -perpendicularly to the requisite Jepidv varying 'from one to ten feet ; the"1 'slope above which, to the top of each bank, is tor.be faced with stone. 536 TOPOGRAPHY OF Institu tions. BOOK V. The principal literary institution is Transylvania University, at .Lexington. It was incorporated before the separation of Kentucky from Virginia. In 1818, it was re-organized under a board of thirteen trustees, who are chosen biennially by the legislature. In 1826, its officers were, a president, nine professors, including six medical professors, five tutors, and a principal of the preparatory department; the library is large and valuable, and a considerable sum has been recently expended: in the purchase of a chemical and philosophical apparatus. The number of students, including medical .students and those in the preparatory department, in 1825, was 403, of whom 272 were medical. There are also three colleges in different parts of this state supported by different religious societies ; viz. St. Joseph's, at Bardstown, by the Roman Catholics ; Centre College, at Dainville, by the Presbyterians ; and Augusta College, in Bracken county, by the Methodists. Little has yet been done for public schools in this state. A school fund has, however, been established, which, if managed with prudence and integrity, may yet subserve the great purpose, of general education. Efforts have been made within the last two or three years to introduce a system of common schools into this state. The Baptists in this state have 25 associations, 442 churches, 289 ministers, and 37,520 communicants ; the ' Methodists, 77 preachers, and 23,935 members ; the Presbyterians, 103 churches, 61 ministers, 6 licentiates, and 7,832 communicants; the Roman Catholics, about 30 priests ; the Episcopalians,. 5 ministers ; the Cumber-., land Presbyterians are also numerous. . ,, ,. Tleligious bodies. Population of the Counties and County Towns. Counties. Population, Towns. ' f *¦ Distance. F.k W.i 422 91 622 180 151 686 320 12 563 617 126 661 241 73 486 158 62 497 276 72 513 1,219 43 516 470 50 515 195 53 505 691 73 489 316 118 656 194 129 667 64 116 554 76 141 692 278 74 612 226 56 600 366 229 766 167 241 778 163 262 801 Adair, s. m. . Allen, s. . . Anderson, m. . Barren, s. w. m. Bath, e. m. . . . . Boone, N Bourbon, n. e. m. Bracken, n. . . . Breckeni idge, w. h. Butler, s. w. m. . . Bullitt, n. w. m. Caldwell, w. . Callaway, s. w. ¦ 1.(0,1 : 8,220 6,4864,542 14,821 8,799 , 9,012 18,434 6,392 7,3453,0555,660 8,332 5,159 Columbia . . . Scottsville . . Lawrenceburg . Glasgow . . ' . SOwingsville . . Sharpsburg . . Burlington . . . fParis . . . . < Millersburg 4 . (Middletown . . . Augusta . . . CHardinsburg,. . , ; ' ' From W a shington. , THE UNITED STATES. 53/ Counties. Campbell, n. . . . Casey, m Christian, s. w. . . Clarke, m Clay, s. e Cumberland, s. . . Daviess, w. m. . . Edmondson, ». w. m. Estill, e. m. ... Fayette, m. Fleming, n. r.. Floyd, e. ; . Franklin, m. . Gallatin, n. . . Garrard, m. Grant, n. m. . Graves, s. w. . Grayson, w. m. Greene, m. Greenup, n. «. Hancock, w. m. Hardin, w. m. Harlan, s. e. . Harrison, n. m. Hart, s. w. M. . Henderson, w. Henry, n. m. . Hickman, s. w. Hopkins, w. . Jefferson, n. w. m. Jessamine, m. . Knox, s. e. Laurel, s. e. m. Lawrence, e. . Lewis, n. e. . Lincoln, m Livingston, w. , . Logan, s McCracken, W. . , , Madison, m. . . . Mason, jn. . . Meade, w. m. . . Population. 9,893 4,342 12,69413,052 3,549 8,6365,218 2,6424»618 25,174 13,493 4,2669,251 6,680 11,870 2,987 2,503 3,876 13,718 5,853 1,494 13,148 2,928 13,180 5,292 6,649 11,395 5,193 6,763 24,002 9,961 4,321 2,182 3,897 3,206 11,012 6,607 13,002 1,298 j J[8,035 16,203 4,111 Towns. S Newport .. . . Covington - . . Liberty ... Hopkinsville Winchester . . Manchester . . Burkesville . . Owensborongh . Brownsville . . Irvine .... S Lexington ' . . Athens .... Flemiugsburg . Prestonsburg (Frankfort. . JSouth Frankfort Port William . Lancaster , . . Williamstown . Mayfield . . . Litchfield . . . (Greensbjirg . . } Campbells villc . Greenupsburg . Hawsvjlle. . . Elizabethtown . Harlan, CH. . i. Cynthiana . . ^ Leesburg . . . C Clayville . . . SMunfordsville . Woodsonville Hendersonville . New Castle . . (Clinton. . . . (Columbus . . . Madisonville . . ("Louisville . . . ,/Shippingport . ^Portland . . . C Williamsville 5 Nicholas vill e (North Liberty . Barboursville iHazle Patch . . (London . . . Louisa . .- . . ( Clarksburg . , JVanceburg . . (Concord ... I Stanford ... . | Crab Orchard . (Salem .... ^Smithland . . . liussellville . . (Wilmington . . iPadu'cah ... Richmond. . . , (Washington . . , jMaysville , . , Brandenburg . , Population 717 743 118 1,263 620 159 340 229 125 91 6,104 134 642 81 1,680 307 324 570 197 44 166 665 126 204 601 977 138 48 193 48 483 539 81 186 112 10,352 607 398 70 409 62 139 15 87 62 93 34 363 234254 388 1,358 12 105 947868 2,040 331 Distance. F.IW,. C II A V. IV. 7979 66 206 45 115 119 150138 7125 3579 142 57 52 44 284 110 9078 132 130 80 16* 38 28 50 105 180 37 308 200 52 54 37 122 102 498 498 597745 510 558628 688 678 531534544 493 445 538 565 559520 823661 625613 428 668 631 490 134 235 955 656 718 556847738 590 592 546 533558 127 435 96 446 99 443 51 567 61 577 245 783 260 798 171 711 282 827 279 817 50 537 63 482 .67 478 90 628 From Frankfort. » From Washington. 538 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK V. Counties. Mercer, m. Monroe, s Montgomery, si Morgan, e. m Muhlenberg, s. w. m. Nelson, w. M Nicholas, n. km Ohio, w. m Oldham, N. m. Owen, n. in Pendleton, N Perry, b. e Pike, e. '. Pulaski, s. ii , Rockcastle, s. e. m. Russell, s. m Scott, N. m Shelby, n. m. Simpson, s. Spencer, M. Todd, » Trigg, s.w Union, W Warren, s. w. m. Washington, m. Wayne, s. .. . Whltely, s. e. Woodford, M. Total. Population. 17,706 5,125 10,221 2,8575,341 14,916 8,832 4,9139,56.3 5,792 3,8663,331 2,677 9,522 2,875 3,883 14,677 19,039 6,099 6,8158,801 5,889 4,435 10,947 8,731 3,807 .12,294 Towns. fHarrodsburg. ... jDanville ........ j Perry ville (Salvisa Tompkinsville . . . (Moniit Sterling .. ( Jeffersohville . . . West Liberty . . . Greenville (Bardstown ¦?Rloomfield (Fairfield Carlisle. Hartford ( Westport.. .. .i . jBedford j Brownsville C La Grange (Owenton i, (New Liberty ... Falmouth : Perry, C. H. .... Pikeville .' Somerset , Mount Vernon . , (Jamestown .... . Jd-eelsburg ..... Georgetown (Shelbyville ;...., the population is given in the census of 1830<, When two or more towns"'afe given for the same county, the one placed first is the seat of justice. ' Frankfort, the seat df government, is regularly laid out on the'ea'sl>side of Kentucky 0 From Frankfortr -p- Frora-Washington.- ."lioldrii./'I iriori "' THE UNITED STATES. 539 River, sixty miles above its confluence with the Ohio. The site of the town is a CHAP. semicircular plain, from 150 to 200 feet lower than the table land in its rear. — -£^ The river is here, about eighty yards wide, and, after heavy rains, frequently rises towns. sixty feet. Steam-boats of 300 tons come up the river as far as this place when the water is high. Population in 1820, 1679. Lexington, the largest and wealthiest town in the state, is_ delightfully situated twenty-five miles east-south-east of Frank fort, in a beautiful valley on Town Fork, a small stream which falls into the south branch of Elkhorn River. It is regularly laid out, and contains numerous and extensive manufacturing establishments. The growth of this town has been exceed ingly rapid. In 1797, it contained only about fifty houses, and the best farmers lived in log cabins. It is now a large and respectable town, covered with hand some buildings. The surrounding country is much admired for its scenery, and is adorned with more than fifty country-seats. Population in 1820, 5,279. Louisville, on the Ohio, immediately above the rapids, fifty miles west of Frankfort, is the second town in the state in wealth and consequence. The great command of water power afforded by the rapids of the river, and the other advantages of its situation, have given birth to several extensive manufacturing establishments. A very active commerce is carried on between this place and Natchez, New Orleans, and St. Louis. There were in 1821 upwards of twenty-five steam-boats, measuring together 6,050 tons, employed in this trade. The population of the town in 1820, was 4,012. Most of the foreign goods consumed in Kentucky are landed here, or at Maysville. The other principal towns are, Maysville, on the Ohio, sixty-three miles north east of Lexington, the chief port for the north-east part of the state, containing in 1820, 1,130 inhabitants; Russellville, situated in a very fertile country, 200 miles south-west of Lexington, and containing, in 1820, 1,712 inhabitants; Henderson, on the Ohio, seventy-five miles below Louisville, a place of some trade, and containing, in 1 820, 532 inhabitants ; Newport, on the Ohio, immediately above the mouth of Licking River, and opposite Cincinnati ; it contains a United States arsenal, and had, in 1820, 611 inhabitants; and Paris, in Bourbon county, a flourishing town, with a population of about 1,200 persons, several rope-walks, and manufactories of cotton bagging? NORTH CAROLINA. The boundaries of this state are, on the north, Virginia ; on the east and south-east, North the Atlantic ; on the south, South Carolina; on the north-west, Tennessee. It extends Extent.3 ~ from longitude 75° 45' to 84°, and from latitude 33° 50' to 36° 30'. Its extreme length from the western border of Haywood county to Cape Hatteras, in a direction but little inclined from east and west, is 420 miles ; the area above 50,000 square miles, and the mean width 120 miles. 540 TOPOGRAPHY OF Surface Soil and Produce. book v. North Carolina, in its whole width, for about sixty miles from the sea, is generally a dead level, varied only by occasional openings in the forest with which it is covered;. After traversing this tedious plain, we are at length relieved by the appearance of hills and mountains, from the summits of which we behold a beautiful country, stretching far to the westward. That portion of the state which lies west of the mountains is, for the most part, remarkably fertile. No state differs more in soil than North Carolina. Those zones which diversify New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia, are still more conspicuous in this state. The variety of the climate is fully evinced by the indigenous vegetables. The dwarf palms and the live-oak grow around the mouth of Cape- Fear River, whilst in the western counties, the forests mark a climate of much lower temperature. In the south-eastern counties, and partially on the whole seaward zOne, cotton is a staple production. As an advance is made westward, this is entirely superseded by grain,1 of almost every species cultivated in the United States, except rice. The fig-tree flourishes on Lower Cape-Fear River ; and in the western and central counties, the apple is produced in abundance. The peach succeeds over the whole state, precarious as it is in every other section of the United States. The soil and productions, in the hilly country, are nearly the same as in the northern* states. Wheat, rye, barley, oats ahd flax are the crops generally cultivated, and they seem to suit the nature of the soil. Throughout the whole state Indian corn and pulse of all kinds are abundant. Cotton is raised in considerable quantities. North Carolina abounds in iron ore ; and it is the only one of the states in which gold has been found in considerable quantities. The gold mines, which have lately excited a good deal of interest, though they have not yet proved very produc tive, are found oh the Yadkin and its branches, and extend over a district comprising about 1000 square miles."1 In almost any part of this territory, gold may be found Mineral?. 1 We extract the following interesting particulars from tne American Almanac. — "The first notice of gold from North Carolina, on the records of the Mint of the United States, occurs in the year 1814, within which it was received to the amount of 11,000 dollars. It continued to be received during the succeeding years, until 1824 inclusive, in different quantities, but all inferior to that of 1814, and on an average not exceeding 2,500 dollars a-year. In 1825, the amount received was 17,000 dollars ; in 1826, 20,000 dollars ; in 1827, about 21,000 dollars! in 1828, nearly 46,000 dollars: and in 1829, 128,000 dollars. This state is rich in gold mines. The gold region is far more extensive in the south than most suppose. It commences in Virginia, and extends south-west through North Carolina, nearly in the middle of the state, as regards its; length; along the northern part of South Carolina, into Georgia, and thence northwestwardly into Alabama, and ends in Tennessee. The mines in North Carolina and Georgia are now worked to a great extent j those of Virginia and South Carolina to a small extent; and those in Tennessee have not been worked at all, although it is probable that they will be soon. In this state, the counties of Burke ahd Rutherford contain the best gold Washings, as they are called, — that is, the gold there is found in small and pure particles mixed with the sand, which lies in deposits, as if it occupied (as the miners believe) the beds of what were once streams of water. But the counties of Mecklenburg, Rowan, Davidson, and Cabarras, are the richest in what maybe properly called gold mines, — that is, where the gold is found iri ore, and not 'distinguishable by -the eye, and,: ^HE UNITED STATES. 541 in greater or less abundance, 'mixed with the soil. It exists in minute grains or CHAP. particles, and is also sometimes found in lumps of one or two pounds' weight. '. — North Carolina is far removed from, that perfection of culture, which is necessary to Agricul-. give it the full advantage of the natural richness of its soil and the value of its produc tions. One great cause of its backwardness in agricultural improvement, is the want of inland navigation and of good harbours. It has several large rivers, but their mouths are blocked up with bars of hard sand. The best of the indifferent harbours in this state are those of Wilinington, Newbern, and Edenton. Most of the pro duce of the upper country, consMing of tobacco, wheat, maize, &c, has hitherto been carried to Charleston, South Carolina, and ;to Lynchburg, and Petersburgh, Vir ginia. Since 1815, the state has been zealously engaged in an extensive system of internal improvements, relating to the navigation of the sound, inlets, and the rivers Roanoke, Tar, Neuse, Cape Fear, Yadkin, Catawba, &c. ; the construction of canals and roads, and the draining of marshes and swamps. Within a few years much zeal has been displayed in the establishment of acade- Education. mies and schools* Until 1804, there were but two academies in the state. The number at present is 60, and it is rapidly increasing ; and there is a flourishing univer sity at Chapel Hill, 28 miles' west of Raleigh, called the university of North Carolina. The Baptists in this state have 14 associations, 272 churches; 139 ministers, and Religious bodies. which is separated by smelting, using quicksilver for the purpose of detaching the gold, from the gross earthy substances. The best veins of gold are not horizontal, nor often vertical, but have a dip of forty-five degrees to the horizon. They vary in width from a few inches to several feet. They are not confined to hills at all, but are found also in the low lands. These veins are often parallel to each other at unequal distances. Their depth in most places has not been ascertained. There have been no shafts sunk lower than. 120 feet. It is not five years since these mines began to be worked to any considerable extent, and yet many of them are worked upon an extensive scale, and mills for grinding the ore, propelled by water or by steam, are erected in vast numbers. One of the Messrs. Bissels, who are probably doing more at the business than any others, told me recently that their company employs 600 hands ; and he stated that the whole number of meh now employed at the mines in these southern states is at least 20,000. He also estimated theweekly product of these mines to he equal in value to 100,000 dollars, or 5,000,000 dollars annually. But a small part of the gold is sent to the United States mint; by far the larger part is sent to Europe, particularly to Paris. — The chief miners (I mean labourers) are foreigners, — Germans, Swiss, Sweeds, Spaniards, English, Welch, Scotch, &c. There are no less than thirteen different languages spoken at the mines in this strte ; and men are flocking to the mines from all parts, and find ready employment. Hundreds of land owners and renters work the' mines on their grounds on a sm^U scale,, not being able to encounter the expense of .much, machinery. The state of morals among the miners is represented to be deplorably bad. — The village of Charlotte, in Mecklen burg county, is in the immediate vicinity of several of the largest mines ; it is growing rapidly. There are indubitahle evidences that these mines were known and worked by the aboriginal inhabitants, or some other people, a long period since. Many pieces of machinery which, were used for this purpose have been found. Among them are several crucibles of earthenware, and far better than those now in use. Mr.. B. told me that he had tried three of them, and stated that they last twice or three times as long as even the Hessian crucibles, which are the best now made. These gold mines prove that the whole^region in which they abound was once under, the powerful action of fire ; and the miners who have come from the mines in South America and in Europe, pronounce this region to be more abundant in gold than any other that has been found on the globe.— American Almanack, p. 226 — 228. VOL. II. 4 A 542 TOPOGRAPHY OF book v. 15,530 communicants ; the Presbyteriansi have 126 churches/ 57 ministers, 9 licen tiates, and 5,907 communicants ; the Methodists, 32 preachers, and 12,641 members; the Lutherans, 45 congregations, 16 ministers, and 1,888 communicants ; the Epis copalians, 11 ministers; the United Brethren, 4 congregations and 1,727 members-; and the Friends, a number of societies. Population of the Counties, and County Towns. Counties. Anson, s. . . Ashe, N.w. . . Beaufort, e. Bertie, e. m. Bladen, s. . . Brunswick, s. . Buncombe, w. . Burke, w. . . Cabarras, w. M. Camden, n. e. . Carteret, e. . . Caswell, N. . . Chatham, m. Chowan, n. e. . Columbus, s. . Craven, e. . . Cumberland, M. Currituck, s. E. Davidson, w. m. Duplin, s. M. . Edgecombe, M. . Franklin, N. m. Gates, n. E. . . Granville, n. . Greene, m. . . Guilford, w. M. . Halifax, n. . . Haywood, w. . Hertford, n. e. . Hyde, e. . . . Iredell, w. . . Johnston, m. . Jones, s. E. . . Lenoir, m. > . • Lincoln, s. w. . Macon, w. . . , Martin, E. w. . , Mecklenburg, s. w, Montgomery, w. m. Moore, M. . . , Nash, m. ., . . . New Hanover, s. E, Northampton, n. . Onslow, s. e. . Orange, M. . . . Pasquotank, n. e. Perquimans, n. e. , Person, w. . . . Population, 1820. 12,534 4,3359,850 10,805 7,2765,480 10,54213,412 7,2486,3475,609 13,25312,661 6,464 3,912 13,394 14,446 8,0989,744 13,276 9,741 6,837 18,222 4,533 14,51117,237 4,073 7,712 4,967 13,071 9,607 5,2166,799 18,147 6,320 16,895 8,6937,1288,185 10,866 13,242 7,016 23,492 8,0086,8579,029 Population, 1830. 14,081 6,991 10,94912,276 7,801 6,523 16,25917,727 8,7966,7216,607 15,188 15,499 6,688 4,141 14,32514,824 7,654 13,42111,373 14,93310,665 7,866 19,343 6,313 18,735 17,738 4,593 8,5416,117 15,26210,998 5,6287,635 22,625 5,390 8,544 20,076 10,918 7,753 8,492 10,759 13,103 7,814 23,875 8,6167,417 10,027 .County Towns. Wadesborough . . Jefferson ton . . Washington . , Windsor . . . . Elizabeth Town , Smithville . . , Ashville . . . . Morgantown . . Concord . . . . New Lebanon . . Beaufort . . . . Caswell, C. H. . . Pittsborough . . Edenton . . . . Whitesville . . . Newbern . . . . Fayetteville . . . Currituck . . . Lexington . . . Kenansville . • . Tarborough . . . Louisburg . . . Gates, C. H. . . Oxford . . . . Snow Hill . . . Greensborough . . Halifax . . . . Haywood, C. H. . Winton . . . . Lake Landing . . Statesville . . . Smithfield . . . Trenton . . . . -Kingston . . . Lincoln ton . Franklin .... Williamston . . Charlotte. . . . Lawrenceville . . Carthage .... Nashville . . . Wilmington . . . Northampton, C. H, Onslow, C. H. . . Hillsborough . . Elizabeth City . . Hertford .... Roxborough . . . , Distance. R.' I W.» 134 205 122130 99 178 259 199141 201 166 9333 155 138120 61 211 110 120 7230 241 47 84 85 86 295 129 207 146 27 140 80 169 333106 150109 6944 149 95 188 41 189 282 60 410 399302 275385445513 453 402 248 383 264319284462337347 257 362356 252255254259 298 31521654924038?396313 357316 430 587 268 402 382355273 416225 405 296 260267271 From Raleigh. From Washington. THE UNITED STATES. 543 Counties. Pitt, E. M. . . Randolph, w. m. Richmond, s. . Robeson, s. . . Rockingham, N. Rowan, w. m. . Rutherford, s. w. Sampson, m. . Stokes, Ni, w. . Surry, n. w. Tyrrell, E. . . Wake, M. . . Warren, n. . . Washington, e. . Wayne. M. . . Wilkes, n. w. . Total Population, '. 1820. 10,001 11,331 7,537 8,204 11,474 26,009 15,351 8,908 13,03312,320 4,319 20,102 11,004 3,986 9,040 9,967 638,829 Population, 1830. 12,174 12*400 9,3269,355 12,920 20,796 17,557 11,76816,19614,501 4,732 20,417 ¦ 10,916 4,562 ! 10,902 11,942 County Towns. Greenville . , Ashborough , . Rockingham . Lumberton . . Wentworth . . Salisbury . . Rutherford ton . Clinton . . . Salem . . , . Rockford. . . Columbia . . Raleigh . . Warrenton . . Plymouth . . Wanesborough . Wilkesborough . 738,470, of whom 246,462 are slaves. Distance. R.« | W." 97 277 72 345 113 399 94 380 108 292 118 379 223 484 96 382 127 355 151 379 170 332 270 57 229 128 290 51 337 175 403 CHAP. IV. Population of the Principal Towns in 1880. Newbern, 8,776 Raleigh, . 1,700 Tarborough, 971 Fayetteville, 2,868 Salisbury, 1,613 Warrenton, 962 Wilmington, 1820, 2,633 Edenton, 1820, 1,561 Plymoutn', 660 Raleigh, the seat of government, is pleasantly situated near the centre of the state. Newbern, the largest town, is on a flat sandy point of land, at the junction of the Neuse river with the Trent. Fayetteville is regularly laid out near the west bank of Cape Fear river, at the head of boat navigation, and is one of the most flourishing commer cial towns in the state. Wilmington is on the east side of Cape Fear river, just below the confluence of the two branches, 35 miles from the sea. The harbour admits vessels of 300 tons; but the entrance is rendered dangerous and difficult by a large shoal. More produce is exported from this port than from any other in the state. Edenton is on Albemarle Sound, near the mouth of Chowan river. Chieftowns; TENNESSEE Is bounded on the north by Kentucky and Virginia, on the south-east by North Tennessee. Carolina, on the south by Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, and on the west by — Arkansas territory. Its length is 420 miles, extending from longitude 81° 28' to 91° 37' ; its breadth 102 miles, from latitude 35° to 36° 30" ; comprising an area of 43,000 square miles. Tennessee is marked by bold features. It is washed by the great river Mississippi Surface. on the west, and the fine rivers Tennessee and Cumberland pass through it in very serpentine courses. The western part is undulating ; some of it level ; in the middle it is hilly ; and the eastern part, known by the name of East Tennessee, abounds in mountains, many of them lofty, and presenting scenery grand and picturesque. Of « From Raleigh. u FroinWashington. 544 TOPOGRAPHY OF Climate. BOOK v. these mountains the Cumberland, or Great Laurel Ridge, is the most remarkable. Stone, Yellow, Iron-Bald, Smoky, and Unaka mountains, join each other, and form, in a direction nearly north-east and south-west, the eastern boundary of the state. North-west of these, and separated from each . other by valleys of from 5 to 15 miles widej are Bay's mountain, Copper Ridge, Clinch irioiintain, Powell's mountain, and Welling's Ridge. The last four terminate north of Tennessee river. They are all encircled by . valleys, which open passages for rivers and roads, and give occasion to many beautiful ; views. Caves of great depth and extent are found throughout the state. • The Climate is generally healthy. In East Tennessee it is so. tempered by the mountain air on one side,; and; by refreshing breezes from thegiilf of Mexico on the other, that this part of the state has one of the most desirable climates in North America,. The middle part resembles Kentucky. The winter in Tennessee resem bles the spring in New England. Snow seldom falls to a greater depth than ten inches, or lies longer than ten days. Cumberland river has been frozen over but three times since the country was settled. Cattle are rarely sheltered. In the western parts there are some low bottoms, on which the inhabitants are subject to bilious fevers, and fever and ague in the autumn. A considerable portion of the state is bedded on limestone. A large deposit of gypsum has been discovered. Copperas, alum, nitre, and lead are among the mine rals. Some silver has been found, Coal is supposed to be plentiful. Saltpetre is so abundant as to form a great article of commerce. There are several mineral springs, and many valuable salt springs. The western part of the state has a black, rich soil ; in the middle are great quantities of excellent land ; in the eastern, the mountains are lean, but there are many fertile valleys. There is a great profusion of natural timber, and in many places are great quantities of cane remarkably thick and strong. The state also abounds with medicinal plants. But the great business of the state is agriculture. The soil produces abundantly cotton and tobacco, which are the staple commodities. The inhabitants also raise a plentiful supply of grain, grass, and fruit. They export cotton, tobacco, and flour; also saltpetre and many other articles, The principal commerce is carried on through the Tennessee and Cumberland .Rivers, and from them by the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans. This state also supplies Kentucky, Ohio, &c. with cotton for inland manufactures ; and from East Tennessee considerable numbers of cattle are sent to the seaports on the Atlantic. It is probable that a new avenue to commerce will soon be opened, by means of roads or a canal between the Tennessee River and the navigable waters of the Tombeckbee. The Chickasaws possess all the western parts of this state, between the Mississippi and Tennessee. The Cherokees own a large tract near the south-east part, on the Hiwassee. Soil and Produce. THE UNITED STATES. 545 CHAP. IV. Institu tions. There are nominally four colleges in this state ; one at Greenville ; one at Knox- ville ; one at Nashville, and one in Washington county. Greenville College is a flourishing institution. It has a philosophical apparatus, a library of between one and two thousand volumes, and between seventy and eighty students. , The college at Knoxville was founded several years since, but has not yet come into operation. It is entitled to the benefit of a donation from congress, which it is expected will yield a capital of 50,000 dollars The Baptists in this state have 11 associations, 214 churches, 141 ministers, and Religious 11,971 communicants; the Methodists, 125 preachers, and 38,242 members, including ° ies' a few belonging to adjacent states; the Presbyterians, 105 churches, 60 ministers, 20 licentiates, and 6,214 communicants; the Lutherans, lOministers. The Cumberland Presbyterians, computed at about 100,000, reside chiefly in Tennessee and Kentucky. . Population of the Counties, and County Towns. WEST TENNESSEE. Counties. Bedford, m. . . , Carroll, w. . . Davidson, M. . Nashville, town Dickson, w. M. . Dyer, w. . . . , Fayette, s. w. . . Fentress, w. , . Franklin, o. . . Gibson, w. . . , Giles, s Hardiman, s. w. , Hardin, s. w. . Haywood, w. Henderson, w. m. , Henry, N. w. Hickman, M. Humphreys, w. M. Jackson, n. . . Lawrence, s. . Lincoln, s. . . Madison, w. . , Maury, M. . . , McNairy, s. . . , Montgomery, N. , Obion, n.w. . , Overton, n. . . Perry, w. m. . . , Robertson, n. . , Rutherford, M. . , Shelby, s. w. . . Smith, n. . . . Sumner, N. . . , Stewart, N. w. . . Population, 1820. 16,012 20,154, 5,190 ' 16,57112,558 1,462 6,080 4,067 7,5933,271 14,761 22,141 12,219 7,1882,3847,270 19,552 344 17,580 19,211 8,397 Population, 1830. 30,444 9,378 22,523 5,5667,261 1,904 8,654 2,760 15,644 5,801 18,92011,628 4,867 5,356 8,741 12,230 8,132 6,1899,9025,412 22,086 11,750 28,153 5,697 14,365 2,0098,2467,038 13,302 26,133 5,652 21,492 20,606 6,988 County Town's. Shelbyville . . Huntingdon f Nashville . Charlotte . . Dyersburg '. . Somerville . . Jamestown ,. 1 Winchester . . Trenton . . . Pulaski . . . Bolivar . . . Savannah . . Brownsville . . Lexington . . Paris .... Vernon,, . ,. . Reynoldsburgh . Gainesborough . Lawrenceburgh Fayetteville . . Jackson . . . Columbia . . Purdy . . . Clarksville . . Troy . . . . Monroe . . . Shannonsville . Springfield .. . MurfreesboroughMemphis' . . Carthage . . . Gallatin . . . Dover . . . Distance. ,N." | wy. 52 692 109 823 714 40 754 168 882 184 873 131 600 82 684 139 853 77 739 158 849 112 803 275 891 130 840 108 810 66 766 77 792 79 652 75 758 73 722 147 861 42 733 128 819 46 746 161 863 109 622 114 80.5 25 727 33 686 224 915 52 670 25 699 81 787 From Nashville. y From Washington. 546 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK V. Counties. Tipton, w Warren, M Wayne, s Weakley, n. w. . . White, m Williamson, m. . . . Wilson, N. M. . . . Total Anderson, m. . . . Bledsoe, M. . . . Blount, e Campbell, n. . . . Carter, N. e. . . . Claiborne, N. . . . Cocke, E Granger, e. m. . . . Greene, E Hamilton, s. e. m. . . Hawkins, n. e. . . . Jefferson, e Knox, e. M McMinn, s. e. m. . . Marion, s Monroe, s. e. . . . Morgan, n Rhea, e. m Roane, E. m. . . . Sevier, e Sullivan, n. e. . . . Washington, E. . . Total . Population, Population, 1S20. 1830. 5,317 10,348 15,351 2,459 6,013 4,796 8,701 9,967 20,640 26,608 18,730 25,477 287,501 488,448, o County Towns. Covington . . McMinnville . Waynesborough Dresden . . . Sparta . . . Franklin . . . Lebanon . . . EAST TENNESSEE. 4,668 5,312 4,005 , 6,448 11,258 11,027 4,244 5,110 4,835 6,418 5,508 8,470 4,892 6,048 7,651 10,066 11,221 14,410 821 2,274 10,949 13,683 8,953 11,799 13,034 14,498 1,623 14,497 3,888 5,516 2,529 1,3,709 1,676 2,582 4,215 8,182 7,895 11,340' 4,772 5,117 7,015 10,073 9,557 10,995 135,312 196,374, pi Clinton . . . Pikeville . . . Marysville . . Jacksonborough Elizabethtown . Tazewell . . . Newport . . . Rutledge . . . Greenville . . Hamilton, C. H. Rogersville . . Dandridge . . Knoxville . . Athens . . . Jasper . . . Madisonville . Montgomery . Washington . . Kingston . . Sevier, C. H. . Blountsville . . Jonesborough . Distance. H.s | W.i 197 894 ¦74 644 92 783 132 834 92 623 18 732 31 683 195109 197 215316243247232273 148 264229 199 ^153 114168 46 129159 225 306 298 534'608532543420 491 479483454 619 451497 516572653 561746593556 515 409429 Population. In 1800, 105,602 1810, 261,727 1820, 420,813 1830, 684,822 Population at different Periods. Increase. 1 From 1800 to 1810, 1810 1820, 1820 1830, 156,125 159*086 264*009 Slaves. 13,584 44,535 80,107 142,382 Increase. 30,951 35,572 • 62,275 The population of none of the towns in Tennessee is given by the new census, with the exception of Nashville, the seat of government, and much the largest town. Some of the other most considerable towns are MurfreesbOrough, once the seat of govern ment, Clarksville, Franklin, Fayetteville, and Memphis, in West Tennessee; and Knoxville, in East Tennessee. From Nashville. " From Washington. THE UNITED STATES. 547 CHAPTER V. SOUTH CAROLINA GEORGIA ALABAMA MISSISSIPPI LOUSIANA. SOUTH CAROLINA. This state, recently so conspicuous in its opposition to the tariff, is bounded on the chap. v. north and north-east by North Carolina ; on the south-east by the Atlantic, and on South the west by Georgia. It extends from longitude 78° 24' to 83° 30', and from latitude Ex£nT'' 32° to 35° 8'; is 275 miles long, and 120 broad, and contains 33,000 square miles. Like some other states, South Carolina is naturally divided into three zones. The Surface. maritime zone rises by a very gentle acclivity, from the ocean; the rivers are shallow near their mouths, and much of the surface is flooded by the tides and land floods. This outer belt is followed, about the lower falls of the rivers, by a still more sandy zone, which is in turn succeeded by the hilly tract between the head of tides and the mountains. The third or mountainous tract, with the exception of the mountain ridges and a still increased elevation, differs in no essential respect from the middle or hilly zone. Both the latter section of South Carolina partake of the general diversity of surface, salubrity of climate, and fertility of soil, which distinguishes the verge of the Apalachian system in all its length. The extreme north-western part of South Carolina is on the great table land from which the sources of the Tennessee flow north and north-west ; those of the Chatahooche from south-west ; and those of the Savannah and Santee south-east. It is probable that an allowance of two degrees of Fahrenheit will be a moderate estimate for the effect on temperature by difference of level, from the south-east to the north-west angle of this state, and the difference of latitude being 3° If/, the entire difference of temperature will exceed 5° of Fahrenheit. The soil of South Carolina is divided into six classes : — 1. tide swamp ; 2. inland Soil. swamp ; 3. high river swamp, or low grounds, distinguished by the name of second low grounds; 4. salt marsh; 5. oak and hickory high land; 6. pine barren. The first two classes are peculiarly adapted to the culture of rice and hemp ; the third is most favourable to the growth of hemp, corn, and indigo. The salt marsh has been much neglected. The oak and hickory land is remarkably fertile, and well adapted to the culture of corn, as well as indigo; and cotton. The pine barren, though the least productive, is so much more salubrious than the other soils in the low country, that a 548 TOPOGRAPHY OF Climate.1 BOOK V. proportion of it is an appendage indispensable to every swamp plantation. The staple commodities of this state are cotton and rice, of which great quantities are annually exported. These articles have so engrossed the attention of the planters, that the culture of wheat, barley, oats, and other crops equally useful, but less profitable, has been almost wholly neglected. So little wheat is raised throughout the state, that considerable quantities are annually imported. Cotton was not raised in any considerable quantities till so late as 1795. Before that period indigo was, next to rice, the most important article of produce ; but it is now neglected. Tobacco thrives well. The fruits which flourish best are pears, pomegranates, and water melons : the latter, in particular, grow to an enormous size, and are superior, perhaps, to any in the world. Other fruits are figs, apricots, nectarines, apples, peaches, olives, almonds, and oranges. The period of vegetation comprehends, in favourable years, from seven to eight months, commencing in January or February, and terminating in October or No vember. The frosts generally, in the months of November, December, January, and February, are too severe for the delicate productions of more southern latitudes. The low country is seldom covered with snow, but the mountains near the western boundary often are. Frost sometimes occurs, but seldom penetrates deeper than two inches, or lasts longer than three or four days. At some seasons and par ticularly in February, the weather is very variable. The temperature has been known to vary forty-six degrees in one day. In Charleston, for seven years, the thermometer was not known to rise above 93", or to fall below 17" above 0. The number of extremely hot days in Charleston is seldom more than thirty in a year; and there are about as many sultry nights, in which the heat and closeness of the air are such as to prevent the enjoyment of sound sleep. The low country is infested with all the diseases which spring from a warm, moist, and unelastic atmosphere. Of these the most frequent are fevers, from which the inhabitants suffer more than from any, or perhaps from all other diseases together. The districts of the upper country enjoy as salubrious a climate as any part of the United States. A rail-road from the city of Charleston to Hamburg, on the Savannah, opposite to Augusta, is in progress. The whole length of the rail-road, when completed, will be about 135 miles; and according to a report made several months since, eighty-eight miles were then under contract. Several miles, extending from Charleston, were completed in 1830, and a steam-car has been placed upon it, moving at the rate of fifteen miles an hour. South Carolina College, at Colombia, is a flourishing institution, and has been liberally patronised by the state. Colleges have been incorporated- in Charleston, Abbeville district, in Beaufort, and in Winnsborough, but they have not taken a higher rank than academies. Free schools are established throughout the state, Roads. Institu tions. THE UNITED STATES. 549 and the sum of 37,000 dollars annually has been appropriated by the legislature for chap. v. their support. The Methodists in this state have 54 preachers and 25,114 members ; the Baptists, Religious 6 associations, 159 churches, 131 ministers, and 12,316 communicants; the Presby terians, 77 churches, 46 ministers, 7 licentiates, and 6,671 communicants ; the Episco palians, 34 ministers; there are also some Associate Presbyterians; Lutherans, Roman Catholics, and Unitarians. Districts and Seats of Justice. Districts. Seats of Justice. Distance.C.« | W." Districts. Seats of Justice. Distance.C» | W.b Abbeville, n. w. 100 534 Lancaster, n. . . Lancaster, C. H. . . 73 442 Anderson, n. w. Anderson, C. H. . 129 550 Laurens, w. m. . Laurens, C. H. . . . 79 498 Barnwell, s. w. . Barnwell, C. H. . 62 562 Lexington, m. . . Lexington, C. H. . 12 512 Beaufort, s. . . Coosawhatchie . . 147 613 Marion, n. e. . . Marion, C. H. . . . 115 424 Charleston, s. e. 110 544 Marlborough, n. Marlborough, C. H. 102 426 Chester, n. . . . Chester, C. H. 57 448 Newberry, w. m. Newberry, C. H. . . 45 493 Chesterfield, n. Chesterfield, C. H. 102 426 Orangeburgh, m. Orangeburgh, C. H. 43 538 Colleton, s. E. . Walterborough . . 93 588 Pickens, n. w. . Pickens, C. H. . . . 157 550 Darlington, n. e. Darlington, C. H. 86 435 Richland, m. . . 500 Edgefield, w. . . Edgefield, C. H. . 57 557 Spartanburgh, n. Spartanburgh, C. H. 104 477 Fairfield, M. . . Winnsborough . . 29 476 Sumter, M. . . . 44 481 Georgetown, E. . Georgetown .... 134 482 77 467 Greenville, N. w. Greenville, C. H. . 117 509 Wm'sburgh, e. . 86 488 Horry, N. E. . . Conwayborough . . 150 459 York, C. H 78 432 Kershaw, m. . . 33 467 Population at different Periods. In 1790, 1800, 1810, 1820, 1830, Population. 249,073 345,591 415,115 502,741 581,459 From 1790 to 1800, 1800 1810, 1810 1820, 1820 1830, Increase. 96,518 69,52486,626 78,717 Slaves. 107,094 146,151 196,365 258,475315,365 Increase. 39,05750,21462,11056,890 Population of the Districts and other Divisions, as given in the Census of 1 830. Abbeville district 28,134 Anderson ditto 17, 170 Barnwell ditto 19,236 Charleston city 30,289 Charleston Neck ... 10,054 St. Andrews's parish 3,727 St. John's Colleton 10,045 St. James, Goose Creek 8,632 St. Stephen's 2,416 Christ Church 3,412 St. James, Santee 3,743 " From Columbia. St. Thomas and St. Dennis St. Peter's parish St. Helena St. Luke's Prince William's Chester district Chesterfield ditto Colleton ditto Edgefield ditto Fairfield ditto Georgetown ditto 3,055 3,834 8,799 9,659 9,040 19,182 8,472 27,256 30,511 21,546 19,943 b From Washington. VOL. II. 4 B 550 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK V. Chieftowns. Greenville district ;...... 16,476 Horry ditto 5,323 Kershaw ditto . . . : . 13,545 Lancaster ditto 10,361 Laurens ditto 20,863 Lexington ditto 9,076 Marion ditto 11,208 Marlborough ditto 8,578 Newberry ditto 17,441 Pickens district 14,475 Richland ditto 11,465 Columbia town 3,3 10 Spartanburgh district 21,148 Sumter ditto 28,278 Union ditto 17,908 Washington ditto 13,728 Williamsburgh ditto 9,015 York ditto 17,785 Orangeburgh ditto |. . . . 18,455 Total population, 581,458. Slaves, 315,665. Charleston, the largest town in the state, is situated on a peninsula, between the rivers Ashley and Cooper, which unite immediately below the city, and form a spacious and convenient harbour, communicating with the ocean at Sullivan's Island, seven miles south-east of the cityL The harbour has a bar at its mouth, through which afe two channels ; the deepest has sixteen feet of water at low tide. It is defended by Fort Pinkney and Fort Johnson, which are on islands, the former two, and the latter four, miles below the city ; and by Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan's Island. Charleston contains a city-hall, an exchange, a custom-house, a guard-house, a theatre, ah orphan-house, a hospital, an alms-house, two arsenals, two markets, a college, and nineteen houses of public worship. The Charleston library contains about 13,000 volumes. The Orphan Asylum is a noble and well endowed institution which supports and educates nearly 200 orphan children. There are several other charitable societies richly endowed. The city is regularly laid out in parallel streets, which are intersected by others nearly at right angles. The tongue of land on which it is built was originally indented with creeks and narrow marshes, which have been filled up ; and it is drier and more elevated than most parts of the low country of South Carolina. Many of the houses are elegant, and furnished with piazzas. It is much the largest town in the state, and was formerly the seat of government. It has an extensive commerce : the shipping owned here in 1816, amounted to 36,473 tons ; in 1820, to 28,403 tons! That clreadful disternper, the yellow fever, has made frequent ravages in Charleston, but its effects have been cniefly confined to persons from more northern situations; and the climate of the city is accounted healthy to' the native inhabitants, more so than that of most other Atlantic towns in the southern states. Its superior salubrity attracts the planters from the surrounding country, and it is the favourite resort of the wealthy from the West Indies. It affords much agreeable society, and is reckoned one of the gayest towns in the United States. Columbia, the seat of government, is regularly laid out on an elevated plain on the banks of the Congaree. Georgetown is on Winyaw Bay, near the mouth of the THE UNITED STATES. 551 Pedee, thirteen miles from the sea. It is well situated for trade, being in the neigh- CHAP, y. bourhood of fertile lands, and connected by the Pedee and its branches with an extensive back country; but there is a bar at the mouth of Winyaw Bay which prevents the entrance of vessels drawing more than eleven feet water. Beaufort is on an island, seventy-two miles south-west of Charleston. GEORGIA Is bounded on the north by Tennessee, on the north-east by South Carolina, on the Georgia.— south-east by the Atlantic, by Florida on the south, and by .Alabama on the west. It xtent extends from longitude 80° 50' to 86° &, and from latitude 30° 30' to 3§\ Length from north to south, 300 miles ; mean breadth, 203 ; and area 61,000 square miles. Georgia is divided by the hand of nature into three zones, with very distinct Surface. features,. The lowest, and what may be called the tropical zone, rises by a yery slow acclivity from the Atlantic Ocean, commencing in a series of islands. This is, in its oceanic margin, a recent alluvion; and is followed ,by a sandy tract of little more elevation, but reaching to the falls of the rivers. The third, or hilly and finally mountainous section, is the most extensive, fertile, and salubrious. From the level of the Atlantic Islands to the mountain vales of Chatahooche and Etowah Rivers, must be an elevation of 12 or 1500 feet; at the lowest an equi valent to 3° of latitude which, added to 4° 38', gives a difference of 7° 38'^ in temperature. The mountainous northern extremity rises into an elevation favour- Produce. able to apples and the grasses ; while the southern extremity on the Apalachi- cola, Suwanne, St. Mary's, Santilla, and Alatamaha, has a temperature suitable to the sugar cane, orange, olive, date, and lemon. Between those extremes vegetable pro duction has an extensive range. To those already named, may be added cotton, rice, tobacco, and indigo ; of fruits, the peach, fig, pomegranate, plum, &c The sea border is a region of palms, and has a mean temperature at least two degrees above that of equal latitudes in the basin of Mississippi. In summer the Atlantic border Climate. is a real tropical climate, whilst towards North Carolina and Tennessee the moun tain vales smile under a mitigated sun. Cotton, rice, and sugar may be regarded as its staples. The former has, however, so far predominated, the Atlantic islands pro ducing a peculiar kind of superior value, that it might, without much error, be considered the exclusive staple of the state. The sweet orange and sugar cane can be cultivated with success along the whole ocean border, and for some distance inland. In the northern part of Georgia there are interesting falls on the head waters of Savannah River. The river Terrora descends, in the space of a mile, 300 feet, and has one cataract of sixty feet nearly perpendicular. Toccoa Falls, on a small rivulet, are a beautiful cascade of 186 feet perpendicular. — The principal mineral 552 TOPOGRAPHY OF Institu tions. BOOK V. waters in Georgia are the Indian Springs, which are west of Milledgeville, and much visited ; and Madison Springs, north-west of Athens. Valuable gold mines have been lately discovered in the northern parts of the state, near the sources of the Chatahoo^ chee, Tallapoosa, and Coosa. The University of Georgia consists of a college called Franklin College, established at Athens, and of an academy, either established or to be established, in each county. This body of institutions is under the direction of a Senatus Academicus, consisting of the governor and senate of the state, and fifteen trustees. The Senatus Academicus appoints a board of commissioners in each county, to superintend the academy of the county and the inferior schools. In 1817, 200,000 dollars were appropriated by the legislature for the establishment of free schools throughout the state. "In 1801," says Mr. Sherwood,0 " only six academies had been incorporated in the state." " The importance of education about 1811, seemed to be more appreciated; and academies sprang up in almost every town. Few persons born since that period are entirely destitute of education ; but thousands who were brought into the world before 1800, know not a letter." The total number of academies is now nearly ninety. The Baptists in this state have 12 associations, 390 churches, 205 ministers, and 31,797 communicants ; the Methodists, 64 preachers and 27,038 members ; the Pres byterians, 55 churches, 31 ministers, and 3,034 communicants; the Christians, 3 churches and 28 ministers ; the Episcopalians, 4 churches and 4 ministers ; the Roman Catholics, 3 churches and 3 ministers; there are also some Lutherans, Friends, and Jews. Population of the Counties, and County Towns. Religious bodies. Counties. Appling, s. m. . . . Baker, s. w Baldwin, m. . . . . Bibb, m Bryan, s. e Bullock, E. m. . . . Burke, E Butts, N . 51 Camden, s. e. . . . Campbell, y. w. . Carroll, n. w. Chatham, e Clarke, n. m. Columbia, n. m. . Coweta, n. w. . . Crawford, w. m.. Decatur, s. w. .. Dekalb, n. w. . . , Dooly, w. m. Whites, 1,284 977 2,724 4,138 723 1,933 5,066 3,2251,4582,6942,7234,3255,438 4,471 3,6343,591 2,541 8,3761,787 Coloured. 184 276 4,565 3,005 2,416 653 6,767 1,6873,120 629696 9,9054,738 8,135 1,3721,7231,307 1,671 348 Total Population. 1,4681.2537,2897,1433,139 2,586 11,833 4,9124,5783,323 3,419 14,230 10,17612,606 5,0065,3143,848 10,047 2,135 County Towns. H. Appling, C. Byron .; Milledgeville . Macon ......... Bryan, C. H. ... Statesborough...Waynesborough . Jackson Jefferson ton .... Campbellton . . . Carrqllton Savannah Watkinsville . . . ApplingvilleNewman Knoxville Bainbridge Decatur Berrien, Distance., SM I W.<> 125155 35 117 3751 212134153167 69 93 129 60 206 117 97 787 797 642 677671 689 707744715746662623602 722 702 848 680 739 c Gazetteer of Georgia, second edition, 1829. From Milledgeville. e From Washington. THE UNITED STATES. 553 Counties. Early, s. w Effingham, e Elbei-t, n Emanuel, e. m Fayette, N. w Franklin, n..... Glynn, s. E Greene, n. m Gwinnett, n. w Habersham, n Hall, n. w Hancock, n. m Harris, w Henry, n. w. m Houston, w. M Irwin, s. m Jackson, n Jasper, M Jefferson, e. m Jones, M Laurens, m Lee, w. m Liberty, s. e Lincoln, n. m Lowndes, s Madison, n Mcintosh, s. e , Marion, w. m Meriwether, N. w. Monroe, m , Montgomery, m. . Morgan, n. m Muscogee, w Newton, n. w. m. Oglethorp, n. 51 Pike, w. m.... Pulaski, m Putnam, m Rabun, N Randolph, w Richmond, E Scriven, E Talbot, W Taliaferro, n. m Tatnall, e. m Telfair, m Thomas, s Troup, w Twiggs, m. Upson, n . w. m Walton, n. w. m.'.... Ware, s. Warren, n. m Washington, M Wayne, s. e.' Wilkes, n. w Wilkinson, m Total, Whites. 1,505 1,746 6,5012,168 4,2687,712 597 5,026 10,938 9,733 10,573 4,607 2,831 7,991 5,161 1,066 6,1846,7673,603 6,469 3,1881,3671,588 2,8242,1133,365 1,096 1,327 3,018 8,836 934 5,1462,261 8,131 5,554 4,3623,117 5,5122,114 1,508 5,1632,3873,8392,162 1,5191,569 2,1273,607 4,4954,444 7,763 1,132 6,0445,905 676 5,265 4,603 Coloured, 546 1,223 5,853 513 1,233 2,423 3,970 7,5252,282 915 1,182 7,215 2,2742,5762,208 114 2,816 6,3643,706 6,8732,390 307 5,6463,313 340 1,261 3,903 109 1,406 7,366 335 6,877 1,247 3,023 8,004 1,6941,782 7,744 61 683 6,4812,3892,1012,770 520 567 1,169 2,192 3,5342,5693,168 62 4,602 3,915 286 8,972 1,955 Total Population, County Towns. 2,0512,969 12,354 2,6815,501 10,135 4,467 12,55113,220 10,64811,755 11,822 5,105 10,567 7,369 1,180 9,000 13,131 7,309 13,342 5,578 1,674 7,2346,1372,453 4,626 4,998 1,436 4,424 16,202 1,269 12,023 3,508 11,154 13,558 6,0564,899 13,656 2,1752,191 11,644 4,776 5,940 4,934 2,039 2,1363,2965,7998,0297,013 10,931 1,194 10,846 9,820 962 14,237 6,558 Blakely Willoughby .... Elberton SwainsboroughFayetteville . . . Carnesville . . . . Brunswick GreensboroughLawrence ville . . Clarkesville. . . . Gainesville Sparta , Hamilton McDonoughPerry , Irwin, CH Jefferson Monticello Louisville Clinton , Dublin Pindertown Riceborough . . . Lincolnton Franklinville . . . Danielsville Darien Marion, C. H.. . . Greenville Forsythe Mount Vernon . Madison Columbus Covington Lexington Zebnlon Hartford Eatonton Clayton Randolph, C. H. Augusta Jacksonborough Talbotton Crawfordsville . . Perry's'Mills ... Jacksonville .... ThomasvilleLagrange Marion Upson, C. H. Monroe Waresborough . . Warrenton Sandersville . ... WaynesvilleWashington IrwintOn Distance. W.f | W.« CHAP. V. 98 35 52 2247 130 202 1001S7 92 187 174111 60 8944 120 6069 86 67 22 174170 90 144112 47 115111 235133 37 87 72 161 49 27 190 64 20 227 869 181 671 101 579 79 633 187 700 114 , 578 200 733 44 628 93 656 144 608 123 626 24 618 134 776 85 687 60 702 516,567, of whom 217,470 are slaves. 614 668644 665689772 692570 829600720816 753702721648762662603725709650 611 812 580634 754615 757 753 877 752697 729641776617669 721573 662 ' From Milledgeville. e From Washington. 554 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK V. In 1749, Populatio; 6,000 1799, 82,548 1800, 162,686 1810, 252,433 1820, 348,989 1830, 516,567 Population at different Periods. From 1790 to 1800, 1800 1810, 1810 1820, Increase. 80,13889,747 1820 1830, 165,578 Slaves. 29,264 5,9,699 ,105,218 149,656 217,470 Increase. 30,435 45,51944,438 67,814 Population of the principal Towns, Savannah 7,303 Augusta 6,696 Macon 2,609 Columbia 2,000 Milledgeville 1,599 Athens 1,100 Chieftowns. Savannah, the largest town, and the centre of commerce for the state, is on the Savannah River, eighteen miles from the bar at its mouth. Vessels drawing fourteen feet water can come up to the city ; larger vessels receive their cargoes three miles below. Augusta is on the Savannah, just below the falls, 127 miles by land north of the Savannah. Large quantities of cotton and other produce are brought to Augusta from the back country, and carried down the river to Savannah. Milledgeville, the seat of government, is on Oconee River, near the centre of the state. Darien is on Alatamaha river, twelve miles from the bar at its mouth. It will probably soon be a place of importance, as it is the centre of commerce for the country on the Alatamaha and its branches, which is rapidly becoming populous. Sunbury, Bruns wick, and St. Mary's, are on the sea-coast, south-west of Savannah. Petersburg is on the Savannah, fifty-three miles above Augusta. Washington is fifty miles north west of Augusta. Athens is on a branch of the Oconee, about seventy miles north of Milledgeville. Alabama. — Extent. Surface. ALABAMA Is bounded on the north by Tennessee, on the east by Georgia, on the south by Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, and on the west by Mississippi. It extends from longitude 85° to 88° 30', and from latitude 30° 10' to 35° ; is 336 miles long, and 195 wide, containing 51,770 square miles. Alabama, like several other states, is naturally divided into three zones ; the northern, traversed by the south-western extremity of the Apalachian chain, and drained by numerous small rivers flowing into Tennessee, may be considered, if not mountainous, at .least very broken, and most pleasantly diversified. The middle or central zone, drained by the various branches of the Coosa, Cahawba, Tuscaloosa, and Tombigbee rivers, gradually assumes a more level surface, and has a soil in general very inferior to the northern. The southern or Pine region is still less broken by hills than the central, and contracted by the western projection of Florida 83 -: ' '-'I- 1=1 ¦Ii =1 THE UNITED STATES. 555 to a strip of sixty miles wide, along Mobile Bay, terminates in the sandy alluvium chap. v. of the Mexican Gulf. Extending over almost five degrees of latitude, and rising from the level of the Produce & sea on the south to a considerable elevation, perhaps 1000 feet in the north, this state exhibits a marked difference of temperature. It touches rather than enters the region of the sugar cane, but admits in all its extent of the profitable cultivation of cotton. Fruits, from the fig to the apple, flourish abundantly ; but even the southern section does not admit the successful production of the orange. Small grain is cultivated, though ttiaize predominates as^a crop. Cotton is the staple of the state, but might be superseded by tobacco or indigo, and perhaps by other vegetables. Alabama has been too recently settled to admit the full development of its metallic wealth; nor, except iron, do the known specimens promise great abundance. The climate is mild indeed, it might be with safety called (delightful. Much of the soil is fertile, none utterly barren. By navigable rivers this state possesses great commercial advantages, though comprising only one direct outlet to the sea. Besides many of less note, Alabama is Watered by the Tennessee, Tombigbee, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, CahaWba, Coosa, Talapoosa, and Conecuh rivers. When Alabama was admitted into the Union in 1819, the government granted to institu- the state, on certain conditions, one section, or the thirty-sixth part of every town- tlons' ship, for the support of schools, and two townships for the establishment of an university. The prospects of the University of Alabama seem to be pleasing. In 1826, the number of acres appropriated for its benefit which had been sold, was 12,718 ; producing, with interest and rents, the sum of 276,956 dollars. There remained unsold, 33,361 acres, and it is supposed the proceeds of the whole will not be much short of 750,000 dollars. Five per cent of the net proceeds arising from the sale of the public lands is appro- Roads and priated to making roads and canals, and improving the navigation of rivers. As the condition of these grants, the state agrees that no lands belonging to the United States shall be taxed for any purpose for the term of five years from the day of sale, and that all the navigable waters within the state shall for ever remain public highways, free to all the citizens of the United States without any tax or toll. A water com munication, to unite the Tennessee with the Alabama, is contemplated. The Baptists in this state have 12 associations, 219 churches, 130 ministers, and Religious 8,953 communicants ; the Methodists, 44 preachers and 13,504 members; the Pres byterians, 38 churches, 27 ministers, 6 licentiates, and 1,669 communicants; the Roman Catholics, 9 ministers ; the Episcopalians, 2 ministers. 556 TOPOGRAPHY OT BOOKV. Population of the Counties, and County Towns. Counties. Autauga, m. . . Baldwin, s. . . Bibb, it. '. . . Blount, N. M. . . Butler, s. m. . . Clarke, s. M. . . . Conecuh, s. . . Covington, s. . . Dale, s Dallas, m. . . . Fayette, N. m. . .. Franklin, N. w. . Greene, w. m. . . Henry, s. e. . . Jackson, n. e. . . Jefferson, m. . . Lauderdale, n. w. Lawrence, n. . . Limestone, n. . . Lowndes r. . . Madison, n. . . Marengo, s. m. . Marion, N. w. . . Mobile, s. w. . . Mobile, city Monroe, s.Jm. . . Montgomery, s. m. Morgan, N. . . Perry, M. . . . Pickens, w. . . Pike, s. e. . . . St. Clair, N. e. m. Shelby, m. , . . Tuscaloosa, m. Walker, n. m. . . , Washington, s. w. Wilcoxi s M. . . Population. 11,872 2,324 ¦6,305 4,233 5,634 7,5847,444 ' 1,522 2,021 14,017 3,470 11,07815,026 3,955. 12,702 6,855 11,782 24,984 14,848 9,421 28,011 7,742 4,058 3,0713,1948,780 12,694 9,053 11,509 6,6207,103 5,975 5,521 13,646 2,2023,4789,469 County Towns.' Washington Blakely . 1 Centreville . BlountsvilleGreenville . Clarkesville Sparta . . MontezumaDale, C. H. Cawhawba . Fayette, C. H. Russellville Erie . . . Columbia . JBellefonte.,^Woodville j Elyton . . Florence . Moulton . Athens . . Lowndes, C. H HuntsviUe . Linden . . Pikeville . > Mobile . Claiborne . MontgomerySomerville . Perry, C. H. PickensPike, C. H. AshvilleShelbyville . TuscaloosaWalker, C. H, Washington, C. H, Canton . Total 308,997, of whom 117,294 are slaves. i'6 f Distance. T.h | W/>" 129228 39 i 110 a 43 146 205 187 242 96 50 127 47 260 172 1 185 59 146102 130138155 78 118 226 157 119135 6148 179129 7347 146 113 869 1020" ' 837- 748 97f' ¦ 947, 1002 886 874804' ' 896872686 708 799 ¦ 796 77V'751 882726914850 1033 949, 859 751865 906909747803 858 , 834982 912 Population at different Periods. Population. In 1810, less than 10,000 1816, 29,683 1818, 70,542 1820, 127,901 1827, 244,041 1830, 308,997 Increase. From 1820 to 1830, 181,096 Slaves. In 1820, 41,879 1827, 93,008 1830, 117,294 Chief town. Mobile is on the western channel of the Mobile River, near its entrance into Mobile Bay. It is built on a high bank, in a dry and commanding situation ; but the approach to the town for vessels drawing more than eight feet of water is difficult and h From Tuscaloosa. 1 From Washington. THE UNITED STATES. 557 circuitous. The country in the rear is unsettled pine woods. While this town was CHAP. V. under the dominion of the French and Spaniards, it was a mere military post. When it came into possession of the United States, in 1813, it contained only 100 houses ; but since the rapid progress of the settlements on the Tombigbee and the Alabama, an attempt has been made to make it the depot for the produce of the country on those rivers. There is, however, a vigorous rivalry between this place and Blakely. Blakely is on the Tensaw, or eastern outlet of the Mobile, ten miles east-north-east of Mobile. It is a new town, laid out in 1813, and has considerable advantages as an emporium for commerce. The same wind that enables a vessel to enter Mobile Bay will carry her to the wharfs of Blakely. Another advantage is an open road to the rapidly improving country on the Alabama. Vessels drawing twelve feet of water can enter the port at full tide. The town is abundantly supplied with excellent water. — Huntsville is a flourishing town in Madison county, on Indian Creek, ten miles north of the Tennessee. The surrounding country is fertile, and rapidly increasing in population. MISSISSIPPI. This state has for its northern boundary the state of Tennessee ; for its eastern Missis- that of Alabama ; its southern is formed partly by the Gulf of Mexico, and partly Extent. by Louisiana ; and its western by Louisiana and the Arkansas territory ; from which it is divided by the Mississippi. The state extends from longitude 88° 30' to 91° 50', and from latitude 30° 08' to 35°. Length from north to south, 338 miles. Mr. Darby states that the area of this state has never been very accurately determined ; but estimates it at above 51,000 square miles, with a mean width of 150 miles. The state of Mississippi is washed on its western border by the Mississippi ; the Surface- Tennessee touches the north-east angle, and the sources of the Tombigbee, Pasca- goula, Pearl, Amite, Homochitto, and Yazoo, drain the interior. Apart from the islands of the Gulf of Mexico, the soil of Misissippi is divisible into three portions. First, the alluvial borders of the rivers ; second, the bluffs adjacent to the Mississippi over flow ; and third, pine forest land. The flat margin of the Mississippi on the left or east bank, is less valuable than similar soil on the opposite side. This difference is produced by the bluffs, confining the water, and subjecting the river border to more frequent and more durable inundation than takes place on the west side, where the waters are freely drained into remote swamps and outlets. Rising from the Missis sippi alluvium, the bluffs are followed by a waving, 'productive country. This commences in Louisiana, as low down as Iberville, and, with the mere interrup tions of the streams, stretches into Tennessee, with a width of from ten to thirty or forty miles. It may be doubted whether, every thing considered, the bluff zone of Mississippi is exceeded in value by any tract in the United States. In its VOL. II. 4 c 558 TOPOGRAPHY OF Climate. BOOK V. natural state, and so in great part it still continues, it was covered with a heavy forest, with a great variety of vines "and underwood. In the primitive settlements near Natchez, tobacco, indigo, and cotton, haive been successively staples, and ajl have been produced luxuriantly. The latter has prevailed within the last thirty years. Much excellent land exists along the streams over the whole state, and when brought under cultivation, produces similar vegetables with the bluff lands. The pine forest, with other interval land of various but inferior quality, constitutes the greater part of the surface of the state, and will preclude a dense population, except in detached places, unless objects of Culture can be introduced suitable to the now useless soils. What has been stated respecting the climate of Alabama, may be repeated with regard to that of Mississippi, except that, being more exposed to the winds of the north-west, the temperature of the latter is lower than that of the former in winter. Neither sugar-cane nor the orange can be cultivated above latitude 31°, nor nor even below that line to any advantage in the state of Mississippi. The winters are very unequal in point of temperature, and often severe in the vicinity of Natchez. Snow, more or less, occurs annually, and the thermometer has shown a depression of the mercury to 12" above zero. About one half of the territory of this state, embracing the northern and north eastern parts, is in the possession of the Chickasaw and Chocktaw Indians. In 1820, the Chocktaws ceded to the United States a large tract, including all their lands on the Mississippi below the mouth of the Arkansas. In the act of congress admitting this state into the Union, the government agreed, that, after paying a debt of 1,250,000 dollars to Georgia, and indemnifying certain claimants, five per cent of the net proceeds of the public lands lying within the state, shall be applied to roads and canals. As the condition of this grant, the state has provided, that the public lands shall be exempted from all taxes while belonging to the United States, and for five years from the day of sale ; that lands belonging to citizens of the United States residing without the state, shall never be taxed higher than lands belonging to persons residing therein,; and that the river Mississippi, and the navigable rivers or waters leading into the same or irito the Gulf of Mexico, shall be common highways, and for ever free of toll or duty to all citizens of the United States. In 1829, a Board of Internal Improvement was organized by the legislature, consisting of the governor and three commissioners. The Board was authorized" to employ a civil engineer, and to negotiate a loan of 200,000 dollars upon the credit of the state, to be. appropriated to the improve ment of the navigable streams and public roads. The state has a Literary Fund, derived from "escheats, confiscations, forfeitures, and all personal property accruing to the state as derelict ; fines, and pecuniary penalties, Roads and Canals. Institu tions. THE UNITED STATES. 559 and forfeitures, recovered of persons for the visitation of any penal statute, or for chap. v. crimes and misdemeanors." No portion of this fund can be distributed till it shall amount to 50,000 dollars, except as much as shall be necessary for the education of the children of the poor. Increasing attention has of late been paid to the subject of education, and there are now several flourishing seminaries in this state. The Methodists in this state have 23 preachers, and 5,918 members ; the Baptists, Religious 3 associations, 58 churches, 12 ministers, and 1,714 communicants; the Presby- ° ies' terians, 25 churches, 21 ministers, 3 licentiates, and about 950 communicants; the Episcopalians, 4 ministers ; and there are some Roman Catholics. Population of the Counties, and County Towns. Counties. Adams, s. w. . Natchez, city Amite, s. w. . Claiborne, w. . Copiah, s. w. M. Covington, s. M. Franklin, s. w. Greene, s. E. . Hancock, s. . Hinds, m. . . Jackson, s. E. . Jefferson, s. w. Jones, s. m. Lawrence, s. M. Lowndes . . Madison, E. Marion, s. . . Monroe, E. Perry, s. E. Pike, s. .. . . Rankin, w. Simpson, ». M. Warren, w. Washington . Wayne, e. . . Wilkinson, s. w. Yazoo, w. . . Population. 12,129? 2.790J7,943 9,8187,0242,549 4,622 1,8491,961 8,619? 1,789 9,755 1,471 5,3213,3424,973 3,701 3,855 2,2855,4022,084 2,666 7,861 1,976 2,778 11,693 6,550 County Towns. Natchez . . Liberty . . . Port Gibson . Gallatin . . . Williamsburgh Meadville . . Leaksville . . Pearlington . Jackson . . Raymond . . Jackson, C. H. Fayette . . . EUisville . . Monticello . . Columbus . . Livingston . . Columbia . . Hamilton . . Augusta . . Holmesville . Brandon . . Westville . . Vicksburgh . Princeton . . Winchester . Woodville . . Benton . . . Distance. J> | W.l 112 1146 122 1156 67 1101 53 1087 83 1087 105 1139 171 1046 200 1135 1035 19 1053 213 1073 93 1127 134 1054 88 1120 134 900 31 1066 120 1097 150 916 137 1063 151 1128 16 1051 56 1090 54 1089 119 1154 165 1008 148 1182 64 1075 Population at different Periods. The country now forming the states of Mississippi and Alabama was erected into a territorial government by the name of the Mississippi territory, in 1798, and so continued till 1817. Population in 1800, 8,850; in 1810, 40,352:— of Mississippi alone, in 1816, 45,929. Increase. Slaves. Increase. In 1820, 75,448 1830, 136,806 From 1820, to 1830, 61,358 Slaves. 32,814 65,659 32,845 k From Jackson. 1 From Washington. 560 TOPOGRAPHY OF B00K v- Natchez, the largest town, contained 2,184 inhabitants in 1820; in 1830,2,790. Some of the other most considerable towns are Port Gibson, Vicksburg, Woodville, and Monticello. Chief towns, Louisiana. — Extent. Surface. LOUISIANA ' Is bounded on the north by the Arkansas territory, on the east by the state of Mis- sissipi, on the south by the Gulf of Mexico, and on the west by the Salina River, which separates it from Texas, a province of Mexico. It extends from longitude 89° to 94° 5'; its extreme southern point is in latitude 28° 56', and its northern latitude, 33°. The longest line that can be drawn in Louisiana is from the mouth of the Mississippi to the north-west angle on Sabine, 380 miles ; the irregular form renders a correct estimate of its mean width difficult, but 120 miles is not far from accurate ; area, 48,220 square miles. There is not, perhaps, on earth a continuous tract of equal extent, presenting a greater diversity than Louisiana. Within its limits are included all the varieties, from the most recent, and still periodically inundated alluvium, to hills approach^ ihg the magnitude of mountains ; every quality of soil, from the most productive to the most sterile, and from unwooded plains to dense forests. AH the southern part of this state is an alluvial tract of low champaign country, extending from Lake Borgne to Sabine river, and from the Gulf of- Mexico to Baton Rouge and Red River,— about 250 miles long, and from seventy to 140 wide. This exten sive tract is intersected by numerous rivers, bays, creeks, and lakes, dividing the country into a great number of islands. The country about the Balize is one continued swamp, destitute of trees, and covered with a species of coarse reeds, from four to five feet high ; and nothing can be more dreary than the prospect from a ship's mast while passing this immense waste. A large extent of country in this state is annually overflowed by the Mississippi. According to Mr. Darby, the average width: of overflown lands, above Red River, from latitude 31° to 33° north, may be assumed, at ,twenty miles; equal to 2,770 square miles. Below latitude 31° to the efflux of the Lafourche, about eighty miles in extent, the inundation is about forty miles in width; equal to 3,200 square miles. . All the country below the efflux of the Lafourche is liable to be inundated, equal to 2,370 square miles more. From this calculation it appears that 8,340 square miles are liable to be inundated by the overflowing of the Mississippi; and if to this be added 2,550 square miles for the inundated lands on Red River, the whole surface of the state liable to inundation will amount to 10,890 square miles. Of this extent, however, not one half is actually covered annually with water. The immediate banks of the streams are seldom, and many of them never inundated, and they afford strips of rich arable land, from a mile to a mile and a half wide. Embankments are erected on the margin of the Mississippi, called levees, to pre- THE UNITED STATES. 561 vent the water from overflowing the plantations during the periodical floods. On the CHAP. v. east side of the Mississippi the embankment commences above 125 miles above New Orleans, and extends down the river to Fort St. Philip. On the west shore it com mences at the Atchafalaya, 239 miles above New Orleans. The levee is commonly about five feet high, and twelve feet in diameter at the base, with sufficient width at the top for a foot path; but at points where the current acts with greater force, it is sometimes fifteen feet high, and thirty feet at the base. As there is no stone to be had, the only material used is a soft clay. A crevasse is a breach formed in the levee by the waters of the river in time of inundation. "A crevasse," says Mr. Brackenridge, "rushes from the river with indescribable impetuosity, and a noise like the roaring of a cataract, boiling and foaming, and tearing every thing before it." When a crevasse occurs, the inhabitants for miles above and below instantly abandon every employment and hasten to the spot, where every exertion is made- by day and night to stop the breach ; their efforts are sometimes successful, but more frequently the hostile element is suffered to take its course, and the consequences are the destruction of the crop and the build ings ; sometimes the land itself is much injured, the current carrying away the soil, or leaving numerous logs and trees which must be destroyed before it can again be cultivated. From its southern latitude, it might seem reasonable to expect in Louisiana a very climate. warm climate ; and this has been reckoned upon to a greater extent than experience justifies. The winters are in fact more severe and the mean temperature lower than in higher latitudes by 2° on the Atlantic. In reality, as far as vegetation can decide the question, the seasons may be considered milder at Charleston, South Carolina, latitude 32° 42', than at New Orleans in latitude 30°." Sugar and rice are the staples of the state generally, below latitude 30°, and cotton Produce, above that line. The latter is cultivated in every section of the country, and sugar, partially, to near the northern boundary ; but avidity of gain, in some instances, has instigated to an unprofitable struggle with the laws of nature. The whole pro duce of sugar in Louisiana, in the year 1828, was stated at 88,878 hogsheads of 1,000 pounds each; and the capital invested in sugar estates was estimated at 45,000,000 dollars; the number of sugar plantations, in 1827, being about 700. In fruits Louisiana is abundant ; amongst those successfully cultivated may be mentioned, the apple in the northern parts : the peach, and the fig, of several species, over the whole state ; the orange nearly commensurate with sugar cane ; the pomegranate over the state, wherever attempted. Garden vegetables generally seem to have no assignable limit on a soil so varied, and in a climate so near the tropics. It may seem incredible that horticulture should be neglected in Louisiana, but such is the fact ; and a fact the more unaccountable, as some individual gardens would seem irresistibly alluring to imitation. 562 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK V. Rail road. Religiousbodies. In April, 1831, the rail-road from New Orleans to Lake Ponchartrain was opened. It is four miles and a half long, perfectly straight, and its ascent and descent are only sixteen inches. The company are constructing an artificial harbour and break water in the lake, at the end of the rail-road. These works have caused a great rise in the value of property in the vicinity. The Roman Catholics are the most numerous religious. denomination in this state, which is divided into upwards of 20 ecclesiastical parishes, most of which are provided with priests. The Baptists have 1 association, 28 churches; 14 ministers, and 1,021 communicants ; the Methodists, 6 preachers and 1»573 members ; the Presbyterians, 3 churches, 4 ministers, 1 licentiate, and 200 communicants; the Episcopalians, 3 ministers. Table of the Parishes and Seats of Justice. EASTERN DISTRICT. Parishes. Ascension, s. e. m Assumption, s. e. m Baton Rouge, East, m. . . . Baton Rouge, West, m. . . . Concordia, n. e Feliciana, East, E. M. ... Feliciana, West, e. m. ... Iberville, s. E. m Jefferson, s.E Lafourche Interior, s. . . . Orleans, s. e N. Orleans, city and suburbs . Plaquemines, s.E Point Coupee, M St. Bernard, s. e. m St. Charles, s. e. m St. Helena, e. m St. James, s. e. m St. John Baptist, s. e. m. . . St. Tammany, e Terre Bonne, s Washington, E Total Avoyelles, M Catahoula, n. m Claiborne Lafayette, s Natchitoches, n. w Rapides, m St. Landry, s. w St. Martin's, s St. Mary's s Washita, N Total Populat, 5,4005,6706,7173,092 4,662 8,2478,6297,0506,8465,5003,793 46,310 4,489 5,9363,3565,107 4,027 7,6725,700 2,864 2,1212,286 Seats of Justice. Donaldson . . Assumption C. H. Concordia . . . Baton Rouge . . Jackson . . St. Francisville Iberville . . Coquille . . Thibadeauxvdlle New Orleans Fort Jackson Point Coupee St. Helena . Bringier's . , Bonnet Carr6 Covington . . WilliamsburgFranklington 155,318, of whom 80,421 are slaves. WESTERN DISTRICT. 3,488 2,576 1,764 5,6067,9267,559 12,552 7,2046,4425,140 Marksville Harrisonburg Russellville .' . VermillionvilleNachitoches . AlexandriaOpelousas . . St. Martinsville Franklin . . Monroe . . . 60,257; of whom 29,210 are slaves. Distance. N.O.m I W.„ : 75 90 117158 149 98 202 108 75 154 98 60 3644 1278 1293 1237 11931205 12561149 1311 12031278 1210 121212621241 11591162 240 1247 251 1186 441 1274 192 135>1 354 1328 272 1246 192 1326 176 1366 141 1344 323 1258 m From New Orleans. From Washington. THE UNITED STATES. 563 Population. Slaves. ' Eastern District 155,318 80,421 CHAP. V. Western District 60,257 29,210 towns. Total of Louisiana 215,575 109,631 New Orleans, the capital, is regularly laid out on the left bank of the Mississippi, Chief 104 miles from its mouth by the course of the river, and about ninety in a direct line. The streets are generally forty feet wide, and cross each other at right angles. On the streets near the river the houses are principally of brick, but in the back part of the town of wood. New Orleans is admirably situated for trade, being near the mouth of a river whose branches extend for thousands of miles in opposite directions, and open communications with the whole valley of the Mississippi. It is already one of the greatest emporiums of commerce in America, and the introduc tion of steam navigation on the Mississippi daily adds to its importance. The population has increased rapidly. In 1802, it was estimated at 10,000; in 1810, it was 17,242; in 1820, 27,146; and in 1830, 46,310. Baton Rouge is situated on the left bank of the Mississippi, 138 miles above New Orleans, on the first considerable natural elevated bank which reaches that river above its mouth. This town contains about seventy houses, and 350 inhabitants. St. Fran- cisville stands on an elevated bank near the mouth of Bayou Sara, and about one- fourth of a mile from the Mississippi, 170 miles above New Orleans. It is a thriving little village, and the mart of the adjacent country. Natchitoches, the largest town west of the Mississippi, is on Red River, 200 miles above its junction with the Mis sissippi. The French established it as a military post in 1717, and about one-third of its present inhabitants are of French origin. The population in 1818 was estimated at more than 600, exclusive of the garrison. Alexandria is a new and flourishing settlement on Red River, 120 miles from its mouth, and eighty miles below Natchi toches. Madisonville is on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain, twenty-seven miles north of New Orleans. 564 TOPOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER VI. THE TERRITORIES. ARKANSAS FLORIDA MICHIGAN CHIPPEWAYAN DESERT OREGON. BOOK V. Arkansas. — Extent. Surface. Religiousbodies. »' ARKANSAS. This extensive territory is bounded by the state of Missouri on the north ; the Missi- sippi River on the east ; Louisiana on the south ; and Texas and the western territories of the United States on the west. It lies between longitude 90° and 100°, and latitude 32° 40' and 36° 30'. Greatest length from the Mississippi, 550 miles ; mean breadth 220; area 121,340 square miles. It was erected into a territory in the year 1819. Arkansas is naturally divided into three sections; the eastern or alluvial, towards the Mississippi ; the central or mountainous, broken by the Ozark system ; and the western or prairie. Proceeding westward from the Mississippi, an unbroken plain covered with a dense forest, is succeeded by a very gradual ascent partially forest and partially prairie, rising into hills of increasing elevation towards the west. A distinct chain of mountains rises in Missouri, and stretching south-west over Arkansas, ter minates in Texas, towards the Rio del Norte. The western, interior, and prairie section of Arkansas, as extensive as both the preceding, if not more so, is properly the commencement of that ocean of grass which spreads from the forests of the Missis sippi to the summits of the Chippewayan mountains. From these grassy plains issue those numerous confluents which form the great volume of the Arkansas River. The Canadian, a considerable stream formed by three branches, unites with the Arkansas proper at the western foot of the Ozark mountains, and these together form the second largest constituent branch of the Mississippi. Breaking through the mountains, the Arkansas rolls towards the Mississippi, but in a course of 300 miles receives no farther accession beyond the size of a large creek. The general features of this extensive region are defectively explored. The Ozark tract is sup posed to be prolific in mineral treasures ; in fact the' lower lead mines of Missouri, at and around Potosi, belong to this region. Muriate of soda (common salt,) so much abounds in the western plains, as to render unfit for use the waters of Arkansas. The Methodists in this territory have 7 preachers and 983 members ; the Baptists, 1 association, 8 churches, 2 ministers, and 88 communicants ; the Roman Catholics, several priests; the Presbyterians, 3 or four ministers; and the Episcopalians, 1 minister. the United States. Population of the Counties, and County Towns. 565 CHAP. VI. Counties. Arkansas, e Chicot, s. e Clark, e. m Conway, e. m . . . . Crawford, M. . . . . Crittenden, n. e. . . Hempstead, s. . . . Hot or Warm Spring, M. "Independence, N. . . Jfeard,;Nv ..... ., . Jackson Jefferson Lafayette, s. . . . . Lawrence, n. e. . . . Miller, s. w. ,..,-,. ,. . Monroe . . . . Phillips, e. . . X* ..;..,¦ Pope. Pulaski, m. ' . '. . . St. Francis. Si. . ... V| Sevier . . '/.".. Union Washington .... :• - iir, Population. Total. 1,423 1,165 1,369 982 2,440 1,272 2,507 458 2,032 1,266. 333772 748 2,808 358 461 1,152 1,483 2,395 1,505 636 640 2,181 County Towns. Arkansas . . Villem6nt' . . Clark C. H. . Harrisburg . , Crawford^G-H. Greenock . . Hempstead C. H. Warm Spring Batesville . . , Izard Q. H. . . Litchfield . . . Distance. L.n." l w.1 Lafayette C. H. Jackson . . ; MMerC.H. . Jacob's Staff . Helena . . .. Scotia . . . Little Rock Franklin ¦ • ., Paraclifta . . ' Corea Fabre . Fayetteville . 114 184 87 40 136168 130 60 102 172 182 152 ,228 84 124 . 81 1 ' • , 168 217 30,383, of whom 4,578 are slaves.^ 10641134 1155 11081204 936 1198 1128 1044 1114 1250 994 1296 1034 ' 1074; 1149 10681236 1285 Little Rock, the seat of government of the territory, is situated on the south side of Chief the Arkansas, in latitude 34° 44' north,' and longitude 15° west of Washington. Cadron is situated on the north bank of the Arkansas, thirty-five miles above Little Rock. The post or town of Arkansas, is on Arkansas River, about thirty-five miles from its mouth in a straight line, but about sixty-five miles by the course of the river, which is remarkable for its numerous windings ; in consequence of which boats gene rally proceeed to the Mississippi by the White River, which communicates with the Arkansas by what is denominated the Cut-off, a deep though winding bayou. It is one of the most ancient settlements west of the Mississippi, having been established by the French before the beginning of, the last century. Hopefield is a settlement on the Mississippi, nearly opposite Memphis in the state of Tennessee. Helena, the county-town of Phillips, is a thriving village, also on thfe Mississippi. Batesville, the seat of justice of Independence County, is on White River, ahd carries on a conside rable trade in cotton and furs. Here is situated the land office for the northern district of the territory. FLORIDA. This territory is peninsular, having the Atlantic on the east,- the Gulf of Florida on Fiorida.- the south, and the Gulf of Mexico on the west; the states of Alabama and Georgia Extent- form the northern boundary. This is the most southern section , of the Union, ¦>, From Little Rock. c Frotn-Washington. VOL. II. 4 D 566 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK V. Surface. Climate. Produce. extending from latitude 24° 40' to 31°; its extremes of longitude are 80° 25' and 87" 20'. Following a curved line along the peninsula, from Florida Point, and continuing to Perdido River, at north latitude 31°, the length of Florida is about 600 miles; mean breadth, 90 ; and area, 54,000 square miles. Embracing six degrees of latitude, a considerable difference of seasons must be experienced in Florida ; but from the general uniformity of surface, and from being enclosed on three sides by the sea, the transitions of temperature are seldom very rapid or violent. Florida is naturally divided into two very different zones by the twenty-eighth degree of latitude : above it the surface of the country is more broken, better timbered, and the soil of a superior quality ; below it the land is in great part marshy, flat, and devoid of timber, the true palm-tree section of the United States. The thermometer in summer usually stands between eighty-four and eighty-eight degrees of Fahrenheit in the shade; and in July and August frequently rises to ninety-four degrees. The sun is scorching hot at noon. In winter it very rarely freezes, nor is the cold ever so severe as to injure the China orange. From the end of September to the end of June " there is not," says Volney," perhaps, a finer climate in the world." Florida abounds in vegetable productions of great variety, and of luxuriant growth. It is remarkable for the majestic appearance of its towering forest trees, and the brilliant colours of its flowering shrubs. Many rich fruits, particularly limes, prunes, peaches, grapes, and figs, grow wild in the fprests. St. John's River and some of the lakes are bordered with orange groves; and olives are cultivated with success. Some of the most important productions to which the country is well adapted are sugar, coffee, cotton, rice, indigo, tobacco, vines, olives, oranges, and various other tropical fruits. Cultivation has been extended only to some very small tracts. Population of the Counties, and County Towns. Counties. ( Escambia, n. w. ... Florida. J Jackson ) West j Walton, w. . . . . > ( Washington, m. . . j ! Gadsden, n. m Hamilton, n. m. ... Jefferson, n.m Leon.N.M Madison /Alachua, m E . \ Duvall, n. E Florida. S Mosquito 1 Nassau, N. e (jSt. John's, E S. Florida. Monroe, s Total . . ¦ ¦ . e From Tallahassee. Population. 6,092 4,894 553 3,3126,493 525 2,204 1,970 733 1,511 2,535 517 County Towns. Pensacola . . Marianna . , Alaqua . . . Holmes' Valley Quincy . . , MiccotownMonticello . . Tallahassee Hickstown . . Dell's . . . Jacksonville . Timoka . . . FernandinaSt. Augustine . Key West . . 34,723, of whom 15,510 are slaves. Distance. T.° | W.d 242 77 161121 23 29 178 252313 292 1050 927 1011 971873 925 875 801 776841 4 From Washington. THE UNITED STATES. 567 Tallahassee, the capital, was founded in 1824, between the rivers Oeklockonnee CHAP. and St. Mark's, and twenty-three miles north of the Gulf of Mexico, in latitude 30° Chief towns. 20', longitude 84° 8'. It was endowed with the proceeds of the lots of which the town is composed, to be invested in public buildings, and it is rising into importance with the settlement of the country. St. Augustine is a sea-port on the eastern coast, in latitude 29° 51'. It is regularly laid out, the streets intersecting each other at right angles. The houses are generally two stories high, and built of a peculiar kind of stone, a concretion of shells found near the sea shore. The situation is pleasant, fresh water abundant, the atmosphere dry and healthful. Invalids frequently resort thither for benefit. The soil in the vicinity is generally sandy, yet it produces oranges, corn, and esculent plants, in great perfection. The harbour is good but the bar at its mouth has only ten feet water ; the anchorage outside the bar is also good. At St. Augustine is a strong fort, built by the Spaniards, capable of carry ing sixty cannon, and extensive barracks, a court-house, and two stone churches, catholic and presbyterian. St. Augustine is estimated to contain a population of 1,400 souls. Pensacola is a sea port of the Gulf of Mexico, on the bay of the same name, nine miles from the sea. It stands on a dry sandy plain, elevated eighteen or twenty feet above the level of the water. The population amounts to about 2,000. It has a catholic church, and a navy-yard is about to be established by the United States in the vicinity. MICHIGAN. At the opposite extremity of the republic is another peninsular territory, — Michigan; Michigan. not indeed rendered peninsular by the ocean, but by the fresh-water seas which divide — xtentf the United States from the British provinces. This territory is bounded on the north by the Straits of Michilimakinac, on the north-east by Lake Huron, on the east by the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, Detroit River, and Lake Erie, on the south by the states of Ohio and Indiana, and on the west by Lake Michigan. It extends from longitude 82° to 86°, and latitude 35° to 45° 20', having an area of 34,000 square miles.e The peninsula of Michigan is composed chiefly of table-land, resting upon a bed Surface. of lime-stone and argillaceous sand-stone. The interior, towards the sources of the rivers, is generally level and interspersed with lakes and morasses. An inclined plain, about twenty miles in width, skirts the "peninsula on the east, north, *- The preceding is that tongue of land which stretches northward from Indiana and Ohio, and is particularly designated the Territory of Michigan j but for temporary purposes, the United States government has con nected with the peninsula an immense region, improperly called the North-west Territory, towards the sources of the Mississippi, and embraced within the following boundaries: — area, 140,000 square miles, equal to 89,600,000 acres, to which if we add the peninsular part, we have 174,000 square miles, or 111,360,000 acres. From the north-east angle of the state of Illinois to the north-west angle of Trans- Michigan, the territory is 650 miles long. The breadth is very irregular, but averages about 200 miles. 568 TOPOGRAPHY OF BOOK V. Climate. Produce. Trade. and west sides. The rivers towards their sources have a sluggish current ; when they approach the declivity they become more rapid, but generally become sluggish again a few miles above their mouths. In the interior, particularly towards the north-west, there are extensive prairies ; and marshes in many places border the mouths of the rivers ; but more than seven-eights of the whole peninsula is covered with a dense forest. The surface of the country along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan consists of sand-hills, sometimes covered with stinted trees and a scanty vegetation, but gene rally bare, and thrown by the wind into innumerable fantastic forms. This tract has been gained from the lake ; and the land is still encroaching upon the water, every storm throwing up new quantities of sand. A large part of the soil is fertile and well adapted to the purposes of agriculture. The principal settlements are in the south-east; smaller settlements are at Michilimackinac in the north, and at Green Bay, west of the lake. But a small portion of the land has yet been purchased. The climate is healthy, and usually, though probably fallaciously, accounted more mild than in similar parallels on the Atlantic. The forest trees are of great variety. The wild rice, or wild oats, is a valu able natural production, covering the marshes near the margins of the lakes and rivers. The soil is well adapted to wheat, rye, oats, barley, flax, hemp garden vegetables, and grasses. No part of the United States is more abundantly supplied with fish, aquatic fowls, and wild game. The fish are of various kinds, but chiefly white fish and salmon-trout, both of exquisite flavour. The trout weigh from ten to seventy pounds. This territory is favourably situated for commerce, being almost surrounded by navigable waters, which are expected before long to be connected with the Mis sissippi on one hand, and the Hudson on the other. The vessels that navigate the lake usually carry from ten to sixty tons. Detroit and Michilimackinac are ports of entry. Population of the Counties and County Towns. Counties. Berrien Cass Jackson Lenawee, s Macomb, s. e Michilimackinac, n Monroe, s.E Oakland, s. e. ii St. Clair, e St. Joseph Van Buren Washtenaw, s. m , Wayne, s. e. Detroit, city f From Detroit. Population. 323 928 1,491 2,414 877 3,187 4,910 1,1151,313 5 4,042 4,565?2,222 J County Towns. Niles Edwardsburg Jacksonopolis Tecumseh Mount Clemens .'.'.'. Mackinac Monroe Pontiac St. Clair " White Pigeon Prairie Ann Arbor Detroit £ From Washington. Distance. D/ | W.e 179 169 886326 321 36 26 59 42 651643563512552 847490 552585 535 526 TOPOGRAPHY OF 569 COUNTIES WEST OF LAKE MICHIGAN. 964 625692 1,589 356 598 882 1060 31,260, of whom 27 are slaves. __ CHAP. VI. Detroit, the capital of the territory, is on Detroit river, nine miles from Lake St. chief Clair. It was settled as early as 1683, by the French from Canada, for the purposes towns- of the fur trade. At present its trade is chiefly with Ohio and New York, and with the military posts on the upper lakes. In 1818, the amount of shipping was 849 tons. The fort is a regular work, with parapets and bastions, and surrounded by palisadoes, a deep ditch, and a glacis. In 1820, the population was 1422. Michili mackinac, commonly called Mackinaw, is on an island of the same name, in the straits of Michilimackinac. The island is about nine miles in circumference, and the village is on the south-east side of it, on a small cove, which is surrounded with a steep cliff 150 feet high : on the top of the cliff stands the fort. Behind the fort, at the dis tance of half a mile, is another summit, 150 feet higher, and 300 feet above the level of the lake, on which Fort Holmes is erected ; from this spot there is an extensive prospect over Lakes Huron and Michigan. During the summer, Mackinaw is the resort of many Indians and fur traders. Fort Gratiot is a military post on St. Clair River, ahd defends The entrance into Lake Huron. The Sault de St. Marie is of importance as a military and trading post, being at the head of ship-navigation on the great lakes, and the grand thoroughfare of Indian communication for the upper coun tries, as far as the arctic circle, all the fur trade of the north-west being compelled to pass through it. The government of the United States resolved to occupy this post, and in June, 1820, obtained from the Chippewayan Indians the cession of a tract of land four miles square, commencing at the Sault, and extending two miles up, and the same distance down, with a depth of four miles. CHIPPEWAYAN DESERT— OREGON. The entire extent of the North-American republic is far from being comprehended Chippe- in the states and territories which have now been described. In addition to these is sert. the wide expanse of the Chippewayan Desert, to the westward of Missouri, Illinois, and Michigan ; and the district of Oregon, lying between the Chippewayan Moun tains and the Pacific Ocean. Although subject to the dominion of the United States, and constituting a portion of its territory, its government in these regions has rather a nominal than a real existence. It does not appear to have any magisterial represen tation, or any judicial officer ; nor have the scattered inhabitants of this waste a voice in national affairs, or a civil existence of any degree. In full possession of personal 570 TOPOGRAPHY OF book V. liberty, they roam or rest in these almost boundless regions, while here and there a military station is the only signal of authority, and preventive of wrong. As may be supposed, the tenants of the wild are comparatively few, and of a daring and lawless character. Some are allured by the profits to be derived from the pursuit of the chase ; and others by the congeniality of such a life with a reckless and adven turous spirit. Oregon. The whole region possessed by the United States, westward of the Chippewayan range, is comprehended under the name of Oregon. The waters that rise on the western declivities of these mountains flow into the Columbia, the Multnomah, and the Lake Bueneventura. Most of the elevated summits of the mountains are above the limits of perpetual congelation. Beyond the mountains the country descends by regular belts in the form of immense terraces, or descending plains, disposed regularly, the one below the other. Beyond the first plain, and between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific, is another extensive and high chain of mountains in which are the great falls of the Columbia. Still west of these, and running parallel with the coast, and at the distance of 150 miles, is the third and last chain. The peaks of all these chains are covered with perpetual snow. The highest peaks have been named Mount Baker, Mount Regnier, Mount St. Helens, Mount Hood, and Mount Jefferson. The only rivers explored in this region are the Columbia and its branches. Being sheltered on the north by protecting ridges of mountains, and the breezes from the west being softened by coming over an immense extent of sea, the climate is as mild as it is in the country east of these mountains, four or five degrees to the southward. Langsdorf describes the country on the southern limit as the country of oranges and figs, of verdure, health, and fertility. We scarcely remember to have seen more sober pictures of a desirable country than those drawn by him of that region ; they correspond with the accounts of Lewis and Clark, as well as those of other travellers, who have explored it. When the intelligent and intrepid adven turers we have just named left the country, in March, and in the latitude of Montreal, the prairies were in blossom, and the forwardness of the season seems to have cor responded with that of North Carolina at the same time. The winters are rainy, and some parts of them severe. This country was discovered by the Spaniards. In 1791, Captain Gray, of the ship Columbia, of Boston, entered the river, and from his ship it received its name. It was occasionally entered by navigators afterwards. In 1805, Lewis and Clark descended this river from the mountains to the Pacific, and spent the winter on its shore. They returned by the same river to the mountains ; and most of the exact information that we have respecting the country, is derived from them. For some years a settlement of fur traders, called Astoria, has existed here ; and the chief intercourse of this place is with China. In the neighbourhood of Astoria is a military THE UNITED STATES. 571 post, called Fort Classop, or Fort George. The question of permanently settling CHAP. this delightful country has been more than once debated in congress. Were such — settlements authorized, and rendered secure by the requisite military establishments, there can be no doubt but it would receive large accessions of emigrants. The number of Indians of the different tribes is estimated at 140,000. In the description of the different states we have, for the sake of compression, omitted the particulars of the rivers and lakes, and some other portions of natural geography, of which a general account has already appeared in the first part of this volume. We trust that satisfactory information has been conveyed, alike interesting to those who delight to make the field of nature their study, and important to those who contemplate a removal to this prosperous republic of the western hemisphere. INDEX. Abraham, battle of the heights of, i. 253. Adams's administration, i. 429. Agriculture of the United States, ii. 193 ; progres sive improvement of, 195 ; clearing the land, 196 ; manures, 198 ; drainage, ib. ; culture of wheat, rye, turnips, &c. 199; animals employed in, 201. Alabama, topography of, ii. 554 ; produce, 555 ; roads, ib.; chief towns, 556 j admitted into the Union, i. 470. Alexandria, ii. 528 ; surrender of, i. 458. Alligator, the, ii. 187. America, supposed early discoveries of, i. 1 ; hos tilities commenced in 1775, i. 333. Amherst college, ii. 471. Amygdaloid, ii. 50. Andre, Major, execution of, i. 396. Annapolis, ii. 526. Antinomian dissensions, i. 67. Apalachian Indians, war with, i. 210 ; mountains, ii. 5; geology of 51 ; character of, 65. Arkansas river, ii. 16 ; territory, ii. 563 ; town of, 564. Arnold, General, treachery of, i. 394 ; memoir of, 395. Arts, state of in the United States, ii. 406. Assemblies, ii. 417. Astoria, ii. 568. Atlantic slope, ii. 3. Athens, university of, ii. 506. Augusta, ii. 462 — 554. Augustine, Fort, expedition against, i. 209. Bacon Academy, ii. 480. Baltimore, city of, ii. 526 ; battle near, i. 458 ; col lege of, ii. 525. Bangor, ii. 461. Banks, number of, ii. 261 ; bank of United States, ib. ; charter, ib. Baptists, persecution of, i. 79 ; in the United States, ii..366. Barlow's voyage of discovery, i. 17. Barrens, soil of, ii. 36. Batesville, ii. 564. Bath, ii. 461. Baton Rouge, ii. 562. Bear, the black, ii. 133; grizzly, 135. Beasts, ii. 131. VOL. II. Beaufort, ii. 551. Beaver, the, ii. 140. Bellamont, Earl, appointed governor of New York. i. 163; his death, 164. Benevolent societies, ii. 392. Berlin decree, effect of, i. 441. Bermington, ii. 467. Bermudas, the, sold, i. 34. Bethlehem, ii, 504. Beverley, ii. 475. Birds, ii. 148. Bison, the, ii. 146. Black mountains, ii. 21 ; geology of, 61. Blakely, ii. 557. Books, importation of, ii. 253. Boston, description of, ii. 472 ; first church founded in, i. 60 ; first general court at, ib. ; proclamation of William and Mary at, 90 ; the peace of Thys- wick proclaimed at, 98; riots at, 106; tumults in, occasioned by the stamp act, 275 ; tumults in, 291 ; convention at, 292 ', arrival of troops at, ib. ; affray between the troops and populace in, 299; convention at, 326 ; attacked by General Howe, 342. Botany, ii. 105. Boulders, ii. 73. Boudoin college, ii. 460. Brandywine, battle of, i. 369. Brattleborough, ii. 467. Bridgeport, ii. 482. Bristol, ii. 478. British parliament, proceedings of, i. 280. Brooklyn, ii. 492. Brookville, ii. 513. Brown University, ii. 477. Brunswick, ii. 461 — 554. Burgoyne, General, surrenders to the Americans, i. 375. Burlington, University of, ii. 446. Burr, Colonel, conspiracy of, i. 440. Cabot, voyage of, i. 2. Cadron, ii. 564. Cambridge, introduction of printing at, i. 69. Cahokia, ii. 516. Camden, battle near, i. 391. Camp meetings, ii. 388. 4e 574 INDEX. Campaign of 1757, i. 244; of 1758, 256; of 1759, 249 ; of 1776, 356 ; of 1779, 385 ; Canada, French settlements in, i. 234; expedition to, in 1775, 334; evacuated by the American troops, 344 ; campaign in, 449. Cape Girardeau, ii. 520. Carolina, North, topography of ii. 539 ; produce, 240 ; agriculture, 541 ; chief towns, 543. , South, topography of, ii. 547 ; soil, ib. ; roads, 548 ; chief towns, 550. -, North and. South, history of, i. 194; charter granted to Lord Clarendon, 195 ; settle ment of emigrants from Barbadoes, 196 ; consti tution, 197 ; Dutch colony transferred to, 200 ; sanguinary warfare in, 397 ; several forts sur rendered, 400. Caroline, Fort, taken by the Spaniards, i. 9. Carpeting, manufacture of, ii. 250. Carrier, voyage of, i. 4 ; his second attempt at dis covery, 5. Castine, ii. 461. Census taken in 1801, i. 434. Cincinnati, ii. 508. Circulating medium, observations on, ii. 279 ; amount of, 280. Civil list, ii. 285. Champlain, lake, naval engagement on, i. 366. Charlestown, Massachusetts, ii. 475. , Carolina, ii. 550 ; settlement at, i. 58 ; defeat of the British at, i. 350 ; siege of, 1780, i. 389. Charlottesville, ii, 534. Cherookees, present state of, ii. 433. Chesapeake Bay, Captain Newport first lands in, 26 ; builds Jamestown, ib. frigate, attack on the, i. 441. and Ohio canal, ii. 528. Chestertown, ii. 526. Chillicothe, ii. 509. Chippewa, battle of, i. 456. Chippewayan desert, ii. 50, 568 ; or rocky moun tains, ii. 6 ; geology of, 45. Christians, ii. 266. Clarksville, ii. 546. Clatsop, Fort, ii. 568. Cleveland, ii. 509. Climate, ii. 22 ; very cold region, ib. ; cold region, 23 ; temperate region, 24 ; warm region, ib, ; hot region, 25 ; general view of temperature, 26. Coal, ii. 95 ; anasphaltic, 96 ; bituminous, 98. Cochrane, Admiral, declaration of blockade by, i. 455. Coffee, importation of, ii. 251. Colleges, ii. 398. Colonial government as instituted by King James, i. 24. Columbia, topography of the district of, ii. 527 ; treaty with the republic of, i. 475. , Carolina, ii. 550. — : , college, i , 487. Columbus, ii. 509. Commerce and navigation of the United States, ii. 239; state of, previous to 1789, ib. ; rapid in crease of, 240; state of, from 1807—1830, 242; exports,. 243; products of the sea, ib. ; of the forest, ib. ; of agriculture, ib. ; exports of manu factures, 244; imports, 245'; total amount of imports, 254. Concord, ii. 465. Confederation, system of adopted, i. 379. Congregationalists, ii. 365. Connecticut, topography of; ii. 479 ; trade, (6. ; chief towns, 481; history of, i. 117; Dutch settlements ib.; emigration from Massachusetts, 118 {hostilities of the Indians, 119; constitution of, 124; union of the colonies, 125; patentgrantedbyCharlesII., 126; Indian hostilities on the river, 128; penal enactments, 133 ; infringements on civil and reli gious liberty, 139; constitution modified, 141. Constitution of the United States, ii. 313; amend ment of, 321. Convention, general, in 1727, ii. 329. Copper, ii. 93. Cornwall, ii. 482. Cornwallis, Lord, surrenders with his army, i. 404. Corydon, ii. 512. Cotton, culture of, ii. 203; manufacture of, 225; duties on, 248. Cougar, the, ii. 132. Creeks, treaty with the, i. 474. Culpepper's insurrection, i. 200. Cumberland, ii. 526. Customs, ii. 267. Darien, ii. 554* Dartmouth, collegeof, ii. 464. Debt, amount of the public, ii. 289 ; proposed extinc tion of, ib. Declaration of independence, i. 353 ; of rights, 322; of war against Great Britain, 1812, 447. Deer, the, ii. 145. Delaware, topography of, ii: 521 ; produce, ib ; canals, ib ; chief towns, 522 ; vide Pennsylvania ; contest for the possession of, i. 370 ; cession of, to the United States, i. 439. , Lord, arrival of, in Virginia, i. 32. Detroit, surrender of, i. 256, 453 ; site described, 568. Dickenson College, Carlisle, ii. 499. Dieskau, Baron, defeat of, i. 242. Dissenters, persecuted, i. 61 ; 208. Dover, ii. 465, 522. INDEX. 575 Dress, American, ii. 418. Duelling, bad practice of, ii. 420. Du Quesne, Fort, capture of, i. 249. Eagle, the, ii. 149. Easton, ii. 504. Edenton, ii. 543. Education, ii. 396 ; colleges, 398. Edwardville, ii. 516. Elizabeth town, ii. 496. Erie, lake, ii. 8. Episcopalians, ii. 363. Eutau, battle of, i. 401. Exeter, founded by Wheelwright, i. 112; site of, ii. 465. Exports, tabular view of, ii. 259. Fairfield, ii. 482. Fairmount water-works, Philadelphia, ii. 503. Falmouth burnt, 1775, i. 334. Fayetteville, ii. 543—546. Finances, tabular view of, ii. 249. Fish, ii. 188. Flax, manufacture of, ii. 249. Florida, taken possession of, i. 470 ; topography of, ii. 564 ; produce, 565 ; chief towns, 566 ; attempts of the Hugonots to colonize, i. 8. Forests, effect of clearing, ii. 42. Forest trees, ii. 105 ; oak, 106 ; walnut, 107 ; maple, 108; birch, 110; ash, 111; elm, ib. ; chesnut, ib. ; beech, 112; pine, ib. ; white pine, 114; spruce, 115; cypress, 116; acacia, 117; poplar, 118. Fossil remains, ii. 75. France, secret negotiation of the States with, i. 377 ; recognises the independence of the States, 378 ; sends a fleet to their succour, 383 ; the United States declare war against, i. 431 ; importations from, ii. 249. Frankfort, ii. 538. Franklin town, ii. 520, 546. Fredericks town, ii. 526. Fredericksburgh, ii. 534. French and Indian wars from 1756 — 1763, i. 234; causes of the rupture, 237. troops arrive in the United States, i. 393. Frenchtown, massacre at, i. 449. Friends, ii. 369. Frontignac, Fort, capture of, i. 248. Fruit trees, ii. 121. Garangula, chief of the five nations, his speech, i. 157. Gaseous substances, ii. 102. Geology, facilities for research, ii. 64 ; results of, 65; nomenclature, 67. Georgia, topography of, ii. 551 ; produce, ib. ; chief towns, 554; history of, i. 222 ; Indian chiefs visit England, 223 ; its advantages, ib. ; Spanish expedition against, 226; introduction of slaves, 228; insurrection in 1749, 231; surrender their charter, 233. , college of, ii. 552. George town, ii. 550. George, Fort, ii. 568. German town, battle of, i. 371. Gibert obtains a charter of land in America from Queen Elizabeth, i. 14 ; his equipments, ib. ; arrives at Newfoundland, 15 ; sails for the Isle of Sable, ib. ; is lost with his crew in a storm, 16. Glass, manufacture of, ii. 233 ; importation of, 253. Gloucester ii. 475. Gold, ii. 92; from Carolina, 540. Gosnold, voyage of discovery of, i. 22. Gosport ii. 534. Gravel, ii. 72. Greenstone, ii. 49. Greenville's voyage to Virginia, i. 19; his second voyage, 20. Hagerstown, ii. 526. Hallowell, ii. 462. Hamilton college, ii, 487. Harper's Ferry, ii. 534. Harrisburgh ii. 504. Harmony ii. 513. Hartford, ii. 481. Harvard College, i. 69, ii. 470. Hatteras, Cape, ii. 3. Havre de Grace, ii. 526. Hawkins's unsuccessful attempt to find a north-west passage, i. 13. Helena, ii. 564. Hemp, culture of, ii. 199 ; manufacture of, 250. Henderson, ii. 539. Henry, the celebrated Patrick, speech of, i. 273. Herculaneum, ii. 520. Hopefield, ii. 564. Horticulture, ii. 214. Hudson's voyage in 1609, i. 148. Huntsville, ii. 557. Huron, lake, ii. 7 ; geological state of, 74. Illinois, topography of, ii. 513 ; admitted into the Union, i. 469 ; college, ii. 514. Immigrants into the United States, ii. 304. Imports, total amount of, ii. 254 ; tabular view of 259. Indiana, topography of, ii. 509; chief towns, 512. 576 INDEX. Indians, Elliot's efforts to convert the, i. 74 ; success of the gospel among, 76; wars of, i. 115; wars in 1790, i. 421 ; characteristics of, ii. 424; their customs, 426 ; religion, 428 ; wars, ib ; number of in the states, 431. Insects, ii. 192. Iron ii. 93 ; manufactures of, 229 ; importation of, 252. Jefferson, his administration, i. 434 ; retires, i. 443. College, ii. 499. Jefferson town, Missouri, ii. 520. Jeffersonville, iL 513. Kansas, treaty with the, i. 474. Kaskaskia, ii. 516. Keene, ii. 465. Kentucky, topography of, ii. 534; produce, 535; caves in, ib. ; canal, ib. ; chief towns, 539. Kid, Captain, piracies of, i. 163. Knoxville, ii. 546. La Fayette arrives in America, i. 473. Lancaster, ii. 504. Language of the United States, ii. 393. Landonier's expedition to Florida, i. 8 ; his fleet destroyed in a storm, 9. Laws, American, iL 342. Lead, ii. 93. Legislative power, ii. 330 ; circuifcourts, 337. Leisler usurps the governorship of New York, 159 ; is executed, 160. Lewistown, ii. 522. Lexington, ii. 534 — 539. Liberia, colony of, ii. 445. Litchfield, ii. 482. Literature, state of, ii, 402. Little Rock, ii. 564. Londonderry settled, i. 115. Louisburg, expedition against, i. 104 ; taken, 105 ; second capture of, i. 247. Louisiana, purchased from France, i. 435 ; opera tions of the British in, L 459 ; topography of, ii. 560 ; produce, 561 ; chief towns, 562. Louisville, ii. 539 ; canal, 535. Long island, the Americans defeated in, i. 358. Lubeck, ii. 462. Lynchburgh, ii. 534. Lynn, ii. 475. Machias, ii. 46*2. Madison's administration, i. 444. Madisonville, ii. 562. Magnolia, ii. 119. Maine, topography of, ii. 458 ; commerce, 460 ; submits to Massachusetts, i. 78 ; admitted into the Union, i. 470. . Manners of the Americans, ii. 411. Manufactures, ii. 216 ; state of in 1789, i !>.; account of, 1810, 218; imposition of additional duties in 1816,220; further increase in 1824, 221; pro ceedings in Congress, 1828, 222 ; general manu factures, 234. Marblehead, ii. 475. Marriages, ii. 417. Marietta, ii- 509. Maryland, history of, i. 188 ; granted by Charles II. to Lord Baltimore, ib. ; rapid progress of, 189 ; first assembly, 190; persecution of the Catholics and Quakers, 191 ; separated from Delaware, 192 ; towns, 568 ; topography of, ii. 522 ; produce and trade, 523 ; canals, 524 ; chief towns, 526 ; uni versity of, 525. Maserne or Ozark mountains, ii. 20. Massachusetts, topography of, ii. 468 ; history of, L 49 ; early attempts at settlement, 50 ; immigra tion of puritans, 51; progress of the colony, 56 — 60 ; Gorges appointed governor of New England, 57 ; extensive immigration, 59 ; dis franchisement of dissenters, 61 ; first representa tives, 63 ; large accesssion to the colony, 66 ; Antinomian dissenters, 67 ; printing introduced, 69 ; laws of, 70 ; required to deliver up their charter, 78 ; confederacy of the Indians, and commencement of hostilities, 86 ; the colonists raise an army and disperse them, 87 ; hostilities of the French and Indians, 91 ; first paper money issued, ib.; new charter granted, ib. ; the governor opposes the assembly, 101 ; defensive preparations of the colony against France, 103 ; disturbances arising from the currency question; 107 ; immigration from Germany, 108 ; pro ceedings of the House of Representatives in 1765, i. 274 ; in 1768, 288 ; provincial congress of, i. 327 ; insurrection in 1786, L 416 ; conven tion at, ii. 326 ; trade, 469 ; chief towns, 472. Maysville, ii. 539. Memphis, ii. 546. Mercury, ii. 92. Methodists, ii. 369. Meteorology of the United States, ii. 22. Michigan, lake, ii. 7 ; territory, ii. 566 ; produce, 567 ; trade, ib. ; chief towns, 568. Michilimackinac, ii. 568. Middletown, ii. 481. Middlebury, ii. 467 ; college, 466. Military stores taken at sea by the Americans, i. 338 ; power, ii. 350 ; establishments, ii. 287. INDEX. 577 Milledgeville, ii. 554. Mineral waters, ii. 100. Mineralogy, ii. 90, 236, Mint, ii. 277. Mississippi, topography of, ii. 557 ; surface, ib. ; roads and canals, 558 ; admitted into the Union, i. 469; constitution of, ii. 234;. river, ii. 12; inundations of, 18 ; navigation, ib. ; bed of, 19 ; valley of, ii. 10 ; climate of, 29 ; soil, 36, 39 ; formation of, 72. Missouri, topography of, ii. 516 ; produce, 517 ; minerals, ib.; trade, 518; chief towns, 519; ad mitted into the Union, i. 471 ; river, ii. 13 ; valley of, 15. Mobile, ii. 556. Montgomery, General, death of, i. 337. Monmouth, battle of, i. 382. Monroe's administration, i. 468. Monticello, ii. 534j Montpelier, ii. 467. Montreal, expedition agafnst, i. 161 ; cruelties of the French and Indians, 162 ; surrender of, L 256, 335. Mount Vernon, ii. 534. MurfreesbOrough, i. 546. Nashville, ii. 546. Natchez, ii. 560. Natchitoches, ii. 562. Naval establishment, ii. 288 ; improvements, ib. ; accumulation of timber and stores, 289. Navigation act, English, i. 43 ; insurrection against in Virginia, 45 ; in Massachusetts, 85 ; American navigation protected, ii. 255 ; amount of tonnage in 1829, 257. Negroes, ii. 443. Newark, ii. 496. New Bedford, ii. 475. New Brunswick, ii. 496. Newburn, ii. 543. Newbury, ii. 467. Newbury Port, ii. 475. Newcastle, ii. 522. New England, ii. 458 ; state of, i. 70 ; union of the colonies, 71 ; commissioners appointed by Charles II. to visit, 85 ; complaints against the colonists of, 89 ; expedition of France against, 105 ; theology of, ii. 386. Newfoundland, taken possession of by Sir H. Gil bert, i. 15. New Hampshire, topography of, ii. 462 ; trade of, 463; chief towns, 465; history of, i. 110; union with Massachusetts, 112; Indian wars, 115. New Jersey, topography of, ii. 493 ; canals, ib. ; rail roads, 494 ; trade, ib. ; chief towns, 496 ; college of, 494 ; history of, i. 171 ; conquered by the Dutch, and surrendered to the English, ib. ; government of Andros, 172; his tyrannical proceedings, 173; first assembly, 174; the proprietorship purchased by Penn, ib. ; character of, 175, New London, destruction of, i. 405. New Madrid, ii. 520. New Netherlands, granted by Charles II. i. 151. New Orleans, ii. 562 ; defence of, L 459. Newport, i. 146 ; ii. 478, 539. New York, topography of, ii. 483 ; roads and canals, 486; trade, 486; city of, 489; history of, i. 148 ; granted to the Dutch West India company, 149 ; extend their settlement, 150 ; the English and Dutch unite in a war against the Indians, ib. ; the English conquer the Dutch, 152 ; state of the colony, 155 ; English government instituted at, ib. ; taken by the Dutch, 156; restored by the treaty of peace, ib. ; expedition against the five nations, 157 ; added to the jurisdiction of New England, 158; effects of the revolution of 1688 at, 158; contests between the governor and as sembly, 166 ; various administrations, 168 ; state of, in the middle of the 17th century, 170 ; peti tions of the assembly of, i. 270 ; convention of colonial delegates at, i. 275; the governor burnt in effigy, 277 ; abandoned in 1776, i. 361. Newhaven, settled, i. 123 ; described, 481. Niagara, Fort, destruction of, i. 243 ; again taken, i. 250 ; falls of, ii. 484. Norfolk, ii. 534. Norwich, ii. 482. Nottingham, ii. 526. Nova Scotia, successful attack on, i. 240. Ohio, topography of, ii. 505 ; canals, ib. ; trade 506 ; chief towns, 508 ; valley of, ii. 55 ; geology of, 56. ; Ontario, Lake, ii. 8. Opossum, the, ii. 139. Oregon, district of, ii. 568. Ornamental trees, ii. 119. Ornithology of the United States, ii. 148. Osages, treaty with the, i. 475. Ozark or Maserne mountains, ii. 20 ; geology of, 57. Painters of the United States, ii. 408. Pakenham, death of General, i. 461. Palmetto ii. 121. Paper, manufacture of, ii. 235 ; importation of, 253. Paris, peace of, i. 257 ; town of, ii. 539. Parrott, n. 155. Pawtucket, ii. 478. 578 INDEX. Peace, treaty of, in 1783, between the United States and Great Britain, i. 410 ; in 1815, 464. Pensacola, ii. 566. Penn, William, memoir of, L 177. Pennsylvania, topography of, ii. 497 ; canals, 498 ; trade, ib. ; chief towns, 501 ; university of, 499 ; history of, i. 176 ; early settlement of the Swedes, ib. ; subjugated by the Dutch, 177 ; granted by Charles II. to William Penn, 178 ; government of, 179 ; penal code, 180 ; rapid ex tension of, 186; retreat of the Americans from, i. 362 ; insurrection in, i. 423. Perth Amboy, ii. 497. Petersburg!!, ii. 534. Philadelphia, city of, ii. 501 ; founded, i. 181 ; first general congress at, i. 321 ; taken possession of by the British, i. 370. Philip, Indian insurrection under, i. 86; his death, 88. Phipps, his expedition against Canada, i. 91. Pirates, encouragement given to, i. 203. Pittsburgh, ii. 503. Plants, ii. 125. Platte, river, ii. 14. Plattsburgh, the British defeated at, i. 457. Plymouth, fortified, i. 57 ; Dutch trade at, 58 ; de scribed, ii. 475. Pocahontas, romantic story of, i. 28. Poets of the United States, ii. 404. Police of the United States, ii. 350. Population of the United States, ii. 300 ; rapidity of its increase, ib. ; census, 307 ; tabular view, 309 ; of the several states, and of the counties and county towns, viz. Maine, 461; New Hampshire, 464 ; Vermont, 467 ; Massachusetts, 471 ; Rhode Island, 477 ; Connecticut, 481 ; New York, 488 ; New Jersey, 496 ; Pennsylvania, 500 ; Ohio, 507; Indiana, 511; Illinois, 515; Missouri, 518; Delaware, 522 ; Maryland, 526; District of Columbia, 529 ; Virginia, 532 ; Kentucky, 536 ; North Carolina, 542 ; Tennessee, 545 ; South Carolina, 549 ; Georgia*, 552 ; Alabama, 556 ; Mississippi, 559 ; Louisiana, 562 ; Arkan sas, 565; Florida, 566; Michigan, 568. Port Royal, taken by the English, in 1710, i. 100. Portland, ii. 461. Portsmouth, ii. 465 ; first assembly at, i. 114. Post-office, ii. 275. Prairies, description of, ii. 37. Presbyterians, ii. 364. Primitive and transition rocks, ii. 46, 51, 53. Princeton, battle of, i. 367 ; college' of, ii. 494. Prison discipline, ii. 347. Providence, ii. 478. Public assemblies, ii. 417- Public lands, survey of, ii. 269 ; reservations, 270 ; appropriations for roads and schools, 272. Puritanism, sketch of, i. 50 ; persecuting tenet of, 62. Quakers, conduct and suffering of the, L 80 ; public opinion against it, 82; account of, ii. 369. Quebec, expedition against, i. 251 ; surrenders, 255 ; act, i. 313 ; attack on, i. 336. Queen's college, ii. 495. Quinnipiack, purchased by Davenport, i. 12}. Rain in the United States, ii. 34. Raleigh, ii. 543. Reading, ii. 504. Red river, ii. 16. Religion, state of, ii. 360. Religious bodies of the United States, ii. 360 ; tabular view of 391 ; seminaries; 389, 391. Representatives, house of, ii. 313. Reptiles, ii. 185. Revenue of the United States, ii. 267 ; internal; 274. Revival of religion promoted by the visits of Whit field and Wesley, i. 134; recent revivals, ii. 380. Revolution, American i. 259. Revolutionary pensions, ii. 287. Rhode Island, topography of, ii. 476 ; trade, 477 ; chief towns, 478 ; history of, i. 142 ; government, 143; new charter, 144 ; college, 147. Ribault, his expedition to Florida, i. 8; is mas sacred, 10. Rice, introduction of, i. 207 ; culture of, ii. 205. Richmond, ii. 534. Right of search, claimed by Great Britain, i. 441. Robinson, and his church, leave Leyden for America, i. 53 ; settle at Plymouth, 55. Rock formations, tabular arrangement of, ii. 71. Rocky or Chippewayan mountains, ii. 6 ; their geo logy, 46. Roman Catholics, ii. 361. Rowley, settlement of, by Yorkshire clothiers, i. 69. Russellsville, ii. 539. Rutland, ii. 467. Sackett's harbour, unsuccessful attack on, i. 450. Sault de St. Marie, ii. 568. St. Augustine, ii. 564. St. Charles town, ii. 520. St. Genevieve, ii. 520. St. John's college, ii. 524. St. Mary's port, ii. 526, 554. St. Lawrence, river, ii. 9. St. Louis, ii. 519 ; college, 518. Salem founded, i. 58 ; described, ii. 475. Salisbury, settlement at, i. 70. ' Salt, ii. 99. INDEX. 579 Sandstone, ii. 46. Saratoga, encampment of Burgoyne at, i. 373 ; mineral waters at, ii. 99. Saul de Marie, ii. 568. Savannah, ii. 554. Saybrook, synod at, i. 1 SO ; form of church govern ment, 132 ; descent of| the British on, 455 ; de scribed, ii. 482. Schenectady, destruction of, i. 159. Secondary formations, ii. 56, Servants in America, iL 414. Shirley, General, operations of, i. 242. Shawnee town, ii. 514—516. Silver, ii. 92. Silkworms, ii. 209. Slate quarries, ii. 469. Slave trade, rise of, i. 12; slave states, ii. 449 state of the slaves, 451. Smith, exertions of, in founding James Town, i. 27 is taken prisoner by the Indians, ib. ; is released and discovers the source of the Chesapeake, 28 made president of the colony, 29; returns to England, 31. Smyrna, ii. 522. Sons of Liberty, association of, i. 278. Soto, expedition of, in 1539, i. 7. Spain, treaty with, i. 425. Spirits, distillation of, ii. 235 ; importation of, 251. Springfield, armoury at, ii. 476. Stafford, ii. 482. Stamp act, i. 275 ; repeal of, 283. Stillwater, actions near, i. 374. Stony Point, stormed by General Washington, i. 387. Sugar cane, culture of, ii. 206 ; maple sugar, 108. Sunbury, ii. 554. Superior, Lake, ii. 7. Tallahassee, ii. 586. Tariff, ii. 236 ; tabular view of, 237. Tarleton, defeat of, at Cowpens, i. 398. Taxes, direct, in United States, ii. 275. Tea sent to the United States, i. 309 ; destroyed at Boston and other places, ib. ; importation of, ii. 251. Tennessee, topography of, ii. 543 ; climate, 544 ; produce, ib. ; chief towns, 546. Territory of the United States, various accessions to, ii. 1. Tertiary formations, ii. 63. Ticonderoga, Fort, unsuccessful attack on, i. 248 ; taken by the English, 250. Tobacco, cultivated in Virginia, i. 36 ; culture of, ii. 202. Trade winds, ii. 32. Transylvania university, ii. 536. Trap rocks, ii. 48, 66. Trenton, ii. 496; battle of, i. 364. Tripoli, bombarded by the fleet of the United States, i. 437. Union college, ii. 487. Unitarians, ii. 367. United States, boundaries of, ii. 2 ; physical divi sions, ib. ; climate, ii. 22; soil, 35 ; salubrity of the, 41 ; natural history of,- 44 ; geology, 45 ; mineralogy, ii. 90; botany, 105; zoology, 131; ornithology, 148 ; agriculture, 193 ; manufactures, 216 ; commerce and navigation, 289 ; revenue and finance, 267 ; expenditure of, 285 ; popula tion, 300; state of society, 310; constitution of, 313; laws, 342; religion of, 360; language of, 393 ; literature, 402 ; fine arts, 406 ; manners, 41 1 ; topography of, 458. Vandalia, ii. 516. Verazano, expedition of, i. 4. Vermont, topography of, ii. 465 ; trade, 466 ; chief towns, 467. Vevay, ii. 512. Vincennes, ii. 512 ; college of, 510. Vine, ii. 123, 214. Virginia, topography of, ii. 529 ; produce, ib. ; scenery, ib. ; chief towns, 534 ; history of, i. 17 ; partly colonized by Sir W. Raleigh, 21 ; perma nent colony, 25 ; second charter of, 30 ; disas trous state of the colony, 32 ; third charter, 34 ; divided into proprietorships, 35 ; tyranny of Capt. Argal, 36 ; Sir G. Yeardley appointed governor, ib. ; convokes the eighteenth assembly, 37 ; cul prits transported hither, ib. ; proceedings in England against the colony, 39 ; dependent on the crown, 40; state of, during the common wealth, 42 ; navigation act, 43 ; insurrection against it, 45 ; suppressed, 46 ; various governors, ib. ; resolutions of the house of burgesses, i. 272; proceedings of the house of burgesses, i. 307 ; con vention and declaration, 316; descent of the British on, i. 386 ; constitution of, ii. 323. Vulture, the, ii. 149. Waldoborough, ii. 461. Walpole, ii. 465. Warren, ii. 478. Washington, General, early operations of, i. 239 ; his prudence in the command of the army, 344 ; bold operations of, and battle of Trenton, 365 ; resigns his command of the army, 413 ; his administra tion, 415 ; his farewell address, 427 ; he retires to Mount Vernon, 428 ; his death, 432 ; memoir of, ib. 580 INDEX. Washington, city of, ii. 527 ; burned, i. 458. , college of, 499—524. , Fort, capture of, i. 361. Wethersfield, ii. 482. Wesley, John, visits Georgia, i. 224, Westagusset, Weston's settlement at, i. 57. Wheat, culture of, ii. 199. Wheeling, ii. 534. Whitefield, George, visits Georgia, L 225, Williams College, Massachusetts, ii. 471. William and Mary College, Virginia, i. 48. William Henry, Fort, destruction of, i. 245, Williams, . Roger, persecuted and banished from Massachusetts, i. 64 ; his character, 65 ; memoir of, i. 142. Williamsburg, meeting of delegates at, i. 317 ; site described, ii. 534. Winchester, ii. 534. Windsor, ii. 467. Wines, importation of, ii. 250. 'Wisscasset, ii. 461. Wilmington, ii. 543. Witchcraft, trials and executions for, i. 93. Wolf, the, ii. 136. Wolfe, General, death of, i. 254. Wollaston, establishment of mount, i. 57. Woollens, manufacture of, ii, 227 ; duties on, 248. Worcester, ii. 475. Yale College, founded i. 129 ; general synod at, 130 ; expulsion of students from, 140, ii. 480, Yamassee war, i. 211. York town, attacked and carried, i. 403 ; site of, ii. 462, 534. Zanesville, ii. 509. Zoology of the United, States, ii. 113. THE END. R. CLAY, PRINTER, fiREAD-STREET-HILL, CHEAFSIDE. YALE UNIVERSITY a39002 001062703b