i^rr^W ^X^e<tZt^ ^JtS?^
v^
DIARY IN AMERICA,
REMARKS ON ITS INSTITUTIONS.
BY
CAPT. MARRYAT, C.B.,
AUTHOR OF
PETER SIMPLE," "JACOB FAITHFUL,'
"FRANK MILDMAY."
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
PHILADELPHIA:
CAREY & HART
1839.
^'■'"'^'-Kf.ii
THKKKWVORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
i698J36
TlLr""N FC*iJ«i')ATtONS.
1 fOO.
Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1838, by F. Marryat,
in the Clerk's Oflicc of the District Court for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania.
DIARY IN AMERICA.
CHAPTER XXXI.
There is extreme beauty in the Ohio river. As may
be supposed, where the rise and fall are so great the
banks are very steep; and, now that the water is low,
it appears deeply embedded in the wild forest scenery
Through which it flows. The whole stream is alive with
small fresh-water turtle, who play on the surface of its
dear water; while the most beautiful varieties of the but-
terfly tribe cross over from one side to the other, from
the slave-States to the free — their liberty, at all events,
not being interfered with as, on the free side, it w^ould
be thought absurd to catch what would not produce a
t!ent; while, on the slaves, their idleness and their in-
difference to them are their security.
Set off, one of nine, in a stage-coach, for the Blue
Sulphur springs. The country which is very pic-
turesque, has been already described. It is one con-
tinuation of rising ground, through mountains covered
with trees and verdure. Naturels excessively fond of
drapery in America: I have never yet fallen in with a
naked rock. She clothes every thing; and ahhough you
may occasionally meet with a slight nudity, it is no more
than the exposure of the neck or the bare feet of the
mountain-nymph . This ridge of the Alleghanies is very
steep; but you have no distinct view as you climb up,
not even at the Hawk's Nest, where you merely peep
tlown into the ravine below. You are jammed up in the
forests through wdiich you pass nearly the whole of the
way; and it was delightful to arrive at any level, and fall
VOL. II. — I
4 DIARY IN AMERICA.
in with the houses and well-tilled fields of the Virginian
farmers, exhibiting every proof of prosperity and ease.
The heat was dreadful; two horses fell dead, and I
thought that many others would have died, for two of
the wheels were defective, and the labour of th.e poor
animals, in dragging us constantly up hill, was most se-
vere.
The indifference of the proprietors of public convey-
ances in America as to the safety of their passengers,
can only be accounted for by the extreme indifference
of the passengers themselves, and the independent feel-
ing shown by every class, who, whatever may be their
profession, will never acknowledge themselves to be
what we term the servants of the public. Here was an
instance. The coach we were put into was defective
in two of its wheels, and could only be repaired at Louis-
burg, about a hundred miles distant. Instead of send-
ing it on to that tov/n empty, as would have been done
by our coach proprietors, and providing another (as they
had plenty,) for the passengers; instead of this, in or-
der to save the extra trouble and expense, they risked
the lives of the passengers; on a road with a precipice
on one side of it for at least four-fifths of the way. One
of the wheels would not hold the grease, and creaked
most ominously during the whole journey; and we were
obliged to stop and pour water on it continually. The
box and irons of the other were loose, and before we
were half way it came off, and we were obliged to stop
and get out. But the Americans are never at a loss
when they are in v^. fix. The passengers borrowed an
axe; in a short time wedges were cut from one of tke
trees at the road-side, and the wheel was so well re-
paired that it lasted us the remainder of our journey.
Our road for some time lay through the valley of
Kenawha, througli which runs the river of that name —
a strong, clear stream. It is hemmed in by mountains
on each side of it; and here, perhaps, is presented the
most curious varieties of mineral produce that ever were
combined in one locality. The river runs over a bed
of horizontal calcareous strata, and by perforating this
strata about forty or fifty feet below the level of the
river, you arrive at salt-springs, the waters of which
DIARY IX AMERICA.
are pumped up by small steam-engines, and boiled
down into salt in building-s erected on the river's banks.
The mountains which hem in the river are one mass
of coal; a gallery is opened at that part of the foot of
the mountain most convenient to the buildings, and
the coal is throw^n down by shoots or small rail-
ways. Here you have coal for your fuel; salt water
under fresh; and as soon as the salt is put into the bar-
rels (which are also made from the mountain timber,)
the river is all ready to transplant them down to the
Ohio. But there is another great curiosity in this val-
ley: these beds of coal have produced springs, as they
are termed, of carburetted hydrogen gas, which run
along the banks of the river close to the Avater's edge.
The negroes take advantage of these springs when they
come down at night to w^ash clothes; they set fire to the
springs, which yield them sufficient light for their work.
The one wdiich I examined was dry, and the gas bubbled
up through the sand. By kicking the sand about, so as
to make communications after I had lighted the gas, I
obtained a very large flame, which I left burning.
The heat, as w^e ascended, was excessive, and the
passengers availed themselves of every spring, with the
exception of those just described, that they fell in with
on the route. We drank of every variety of w^ater ex-
cepting pure water — sometimes iron, sometimes sul-
phur; and, indeed, every kind of chalybeate, for every
rill Y/as impregnated in some Vv'ay or another. At last,
it occurred to me that there were such things as che-
mical affiifities, and that there was no saying what
changes might take place by the admixture of such a
variety of metals and gases, so I drank no more. I
did not like, however, to interfere with the happiness of
others, sol did not communicate my ideas to my fellow-
passengers, who continued drinking during the whole
day; and as I afterwards found out, did not sleep very
well that night; they were, moreover, very sparing in
die use of them the next day.
There area great variety of springs already dicovered
on lliese mountains, and probably there will be a great
6 DIARY IN AMERICA.
many more. Already they have the blue, the white,
and the red sulphur springs; the sweet and the salt; the
warm and the hot, all of which have their several vir-
tues; but the greatest virtue of all these mineral springs
is, as in England and every where else, that they oc-
casion people to live regularly, to be moderate in the
use of wine, and to dwell in a pure and w^holesome ain
Thev always remind me of the eastern story of the Der-
vise,' who, being sent for by a king who had injured his
health by continual indulgence, gave him a racket-ball,
which he informed the king possessed wonderful medi-
cinal virtues; with this ball his majesty was to play at
racket two or three hours every day with his courtiers.
The exercise it induced, which was the only medicinal
virtue the ball possessed, restored the king to health.
So it is with all watering places: it is not so much the use
of the water, as the abstinence from what is pernicious,
together with exercise and early hours, which effect the
majority of cures.
We arrived first at the blue sulphur springs, and I
remained there for one day to get rid of the dust of tra-
velling. They have a very excellent hotel there, with
a ball-room, which is open till eleven o'clock every
night; the scenery is very pretty, and the company was
good — as indeed is the company at all these springs,
for they are too distant, and the travelling too expensive
for every body to get there. But the blue sulphur are
not fashionable, and the consequence was, we were
not crowded, and were very comfortable. People who
cannot get accommodated at the white sulphur, remain
here until they can, the distance between them being
only twenty-two miles.
The only springs which are fashionable are the wliite
sulphur, and as these springs are a feature in American
society, I shall describe them more particularly.
They are situated in a small valley, many hundred
feet above the level of the sea, and are about fifteen or
twenty acres in area, surrounded by small hills covered
with foliage to their summits : at one end of the valley
is the hotel, with the large dining-room for all the vi-
DIARY IN AMERICA.
sitor^ Close to the hotel, but in another building, is
the ball-room, and a little below the hotel on the other
side, is the spring itself; but beautiful as is the whole
scenery, the great charm of this watering place is the
way in which those live who visit it. The rises of he
hills which surround the valley are covered with Uttle
cottages, log-houses, and other picturesque buildings,
sometimes in rows, and ornamented with veranaahs,
without a second story above, or kitchen below, borne
are very elegant and more commodious than the rest,
having been built by gentlemen who have the right given
to them by the company to whom the springs belong,
of occupying them themselves when there, but not ot
preventing others from taking possession of them in
iheir absence. The dinners and other meals are, ge-
nerally speaking, bad; not that there is not a plentilm
supplv, but that it is so difficult to supply seven hun-
dred people sitting down in one room. In the morn-
hicr they all turn out from their little burrows, meet in
the public walks, and go down to the spring before
breakfast; during the forenoon, when it is too warm,
they remain at home; after dinner they ride out or pay
visits and then end the day, either at the ball-room, or
in little societies among one another. There is no
want of handsome equipages, many four in hand {\ ir-
oinny lono- tails) and every accommodation for these equi-
nacres Tlie crowd is very great, and it is astonishing
what inconvenience people will submit to, rather than
not be accommodated somehow or another. Every
.•abin is like a rabbit burrow, in the one next to where
I wa^ lodo-ed. in a room about fourteen feet square, and
partitioned oil' as well as it could be, there slept a gen-
tleman and his wife, his sister andbrotner, and a female
servant. I am not sure that the nigger was not under
the bed— at all events, the young sister told me that it
was not at all pleasant.
There is a sort of major-domo here, who regulates
every department: his word is law, and his fiat im-
moveable, and he presumes not a litde upon his pow-
er- a circumstance not to be surprised at, as he is as
1*
8 DIARY IN AMERICA.
much courted and is as despotic as all the lady patron-
esses of Almacks rolled into one. He is called the
Metternich of I'iie mountains. No one is allowed ac-
commodation at these springs Avho is not known, and
generally speaking, only those families who travel in
their private carriages. It is at this place that you feel
hoAv excessively aristocratical and exclusive the Amer-
icans would be, and indeed will be, in spite of their in-
stitutions. Spa, in its palmiest days, when princes
had to sleep in their carriages at the doors of the
hotels, was not more in vogue than are these white
sulphur springs with the elite of the United States.
And it is here, and here only, in the States, that you
do meet with Avhat may be fairly considered as selects
society, for at Washington there is a great mixture.
Of course all the celebrated belles of the different States
are to be met with here, as well as all the large fortunes,
nor is there a scarcity of pretty and wealthy widows.
The president, Mrs. Caton, the mother of Lady Wel-
lesley, liady Strafford, and Lady Caermarthen, the
daughter of Carrol, of Carrolton, one of the real aristo-
cracy of America, and a signer of the Declaration of
Independence, and all the first old Virginian and Ca-
rolinia families, many of them descendants of the old
cavaliers, were at the springs when I arrived there; and
I certainly must say that I never was at any. watering-
place in England where the company was so good and
so select as at the Virginia springs in America.
I passed many pleasant days at this beautiful spot,
and was almost as unwilling to leave it as I was to part
with the Sioux Indians at St. Peters, Refinement and
simplicity are equi^lly charming.- I was introduced to
a very beautiful girl here, wliom I should not have
mentioned so particularly, had it not been that she
was the first and only lady in America that I observed
to whittle. She was sitting one fine morning on a
wooden bench, surrounded by admirers, and as she
carved away her seat with her pen-knife, so did she
cut deep into the hearts of those who listened to her
lively conversation.
DIARY IN AMERICA. U
There are, as may, be supposed, a large number of
negro servants here attending their masters and mis-
tresses. I have often been amused, not only here, but
during my residence in Kentucky, at the high-sound-
ing Christian names v/hich have been given to them.
"Byron, tell Ada to come here directly." "Now,
Telemachus, if you don't leave Calypso alone, you'll
get a taste of the cow-hide.'^
Among others, attracted to the springs professionally,
was a very clever German painter, who, like all Ger-
mans, had a very correct ear for music. He had
painted a kitchen-dance in Old Virginia, and in the
picture he had introduced all the well-known coloured
people in the place; amongst the rest were the band
of musicians, but I observed that one m.an wa§ missing.
"Why did you not put him in," inquired I. "Why,
sir, I could not put him in; it was impossible; he never
plays in tune. Why, if I put him in, sir, he would
spoil the harmony of my whole picture!"
I asked this artist how he got on in America. He
replied, "But so-so; the Americans in general do not
estimate genius. They come ta me and ask what
[ want for my pictures, and I tell them. Then they
say, ' how lang did it take you to paint it?' I answer
'so many days.' Well, then they calculate and say,
' if it took you only so many days, you ask so many
dollars a-day for your work; you ask a great deal too
much; you ought to be content with so much per day,
and I will give you that.' So that, thought I, inven-
tion, and years of study, go for nothing.with these peo-
ple. There is only one way to dispose of a picture in
America, and that is, to raffle it; the Americans will
then run the chance of getting it. If you do not like
to part with your pictures in that way, you must paint
portraits; people will purchase- their own faces all over
the world: the worst of it is, that in this country, they
will purchase nothing else.
During my stay here I was told of one of the most
remarkable instances that perhaps ever occurred, of the
discovery of a fact by the party from whom it was of
10 DIARY IX AMERICA.
tlif Utmost importance to conceal it — a very pretty in-
teresting yoiiniT widow. She had married a promising
young man, to whom she was tenderly attached, and
who, a few mouths after the marriage, unfortunately fell
in a duel. Aware that the knowledge of the cause of
her liusband's deatli would render the blow still more
severe to lier, (the ball having passed through the eye
into his brain, and there being no evident gun-shot
wound,) her relations informed her that he had been
thrown from his horse and killed by the fall. She be-
lieved them. She was living in the country; when,
nbout nine months after her widowhood, her brother
rode down to see her, and as soon as he arrived went
into his room to shave and dress. The window of his
room, which was on the ground-floor, looked out upon
the garden, and it being summer time, it was open. He
tore ofi" a portion of an old newspaper to wipe his razor,
Tlie breeze caught it, and carried it away into the gar-
den until it stopped at the feet of his sister who hap-
])ened to be walking. Mechanically she took up the
fragment, and perceiving her husband's name upon it
she read it. It contained a full account of the duel in
which he lost his life! The shock she received was so
great that it unsettled lier mind for nearly two years.
She had but just recovered, and for tlic first time re-ap-
peared in public, when she was pointed out to me.
l^eturning to Guyandotte one of the travellers wished
10 see the view from the Hawk's Nest, or rather wished
1() be able to say that he had seen it. AVe passed the
spot when it was quite dark, but he persisted in going
\\\orc, and to help his vision, borrowed one of the coach-
lamps from the driver. He returned, and declared that
with tlie assistance of the lamp he had had a very ex-
< client view, down a precipice of several hundred feet,
His bird's-eye view by candle-light must have been
very extensive. After all, it is but to be able to say
that they have been to such a place, or have seen such a
ihinsr tliat, more than any real taste for it, induces the
majority of the world to incur the trouble and fatigue of
travellinar.
( 11 )
CHAPTER XXXII.
I WAS informed that a camp meeting was to be held
about seven miles from Cincinnati, and, anxious to veri-
fy the accounts I had heard of them, I availed myself
of this opportunity of deciding for myself. We pro-
ceeded about five miles on the high road, and then di-
verged by a cross-road until we arrived at a steep coni-
cal hill, crowned with splendid forest trees without un-
derwood; the trees being sufficiently apart to admit of
wagons and other vehicles to pass in every direction.
The camp was raised upon the summit of this hill, a
piece of table-land comprising many acres. About an
acre and a half was surrounded on the four sides by cabins
built up of rough boards; the whole area in the centre was
fitted up with planks, laid about a foot from the ground,
as seats. At one end, but not close to the cabins, was
a raised stand, which served as a pulpit for the preach-
ers, one of them praying, while five or six others sat
down behind him on benches. There was ingress to
the area by the four corners; the whole of it was shaded
by vast forest trees, which ran up to the height of fifty
or sixty feet without throwing out a branch; and to the
trunks of these trees were fixed lamps in every direc-
tion, for the continuance of service by night. Outside
the area, which may be designated as the church, were
hundreds of tents pitched in every quarter, their snowy
whiteness contrasting beautifully with the deep verdure
and gloom of the forest. These were the temporary ha-
bitations of those who had come many miles to attend the
meeting, and who remained there from the commence-
ment until it concluded — usually a period of from ten to
12
DIARY IN AMERICA.
twelve days, but often much longer. The tents were
furnished with every article necessary for cooking; mat-
tresses to sleep upon, (fee; some of them even had bed-
steads and chests of drawers, which had been brought
in the waggons in which the people in this country
usually travel. At a farther distance were all the wag-
gons and other vehicles which had conveyed the peo-
ple to the meeting, whilst hundreds of horses were
tethered under the trees, and plentifully provided with
forage. Sucli were the general outlines of a most in-
' cresting and beautiful scene.
Where, indeed, could so magnificent a temple to the
Ijord be raised as on this lofty hill, crowned as it was
with such majestic verdure. Compared with these
giants of the forest, the cabins and tents of the multi-
tude appeared as insignificant and contemptible as almost
would man himself in the presence of the Deity. Many
generations of men must have been mowed down before
the arrival of these enormous trees to their present state
of maturity ; and at the time they sent forth their first
shoots, probably there were not on the whole of this
continent, now teeming with millions, as many white
men as are now assembled on this field. I walked about
tor some time burveying the panorama, when I returned
to the area, and took my seat upon a bench. In one
quarterthecoloured population had collected themselves;
their tents appeared to be better furnished and better
supplied with comforts than most of those belonging
to the whites. I put my head into one of the tents, and
discovered a sable damsel lying on a bed, and singing
hyms in a loud voice.
The major portion of those not in the area were
cooking the dinners. Fires were burning in every di-
rection : pots boiling, chickens roasting, hams seeth-
ing; indeed there appeared to be no want of creature
comforts.
But the trumpet sounded, as in days of yore, as
a signal that the service was about to recommence,
and I went into the area and took my seat. One of
the preachers rose and gave out a hymn, which was
t)lARY IN AMERICA. 13
sung by the congregation, amounting to about seven
or eight hundred. After the singing of the hymn was
concluded he commenced an extempore sermon : it
was good, sound doctrine, and, although Methodism,
it was Methodism of the mildest tone, and divested of
its bitterness of denunciation, as indeed is generally
the case with Methodism in America. I heard nothing
which could be offensive to any other sect, or which
could be considered objectionable by the most ortho-
dox, and I began to doubt whether such scenes as
had been described to me did really take place at these
meetings. A prayer followed, and after about tvv^o
hours the congregation were dismissed to their din-
ners, being first informed that the service would re-
commence at two o'clock at the sound of the trumpet.
In front of the pulpit there was a space railed off, and
strewed with straw, which I was told was the Anxious
seat, and on which sat those who were touched by
their consciences, or the discourse of the preacher ; but,
although there were several sitting on it, I did not per-
ceive any emotion on the part of the occupants: they
were attentive, but nothing more.
When I first examined the area I saw a very large
tent at one corner of it, probably fifty feet long, by
twenty wide. It was open at the end, and, being full
of straw, I concluded it v/as used as a sleeping-place
for those v/ho had not provided themselves with sepa-
rate accommodation. About an hour after the service
was over, perceiving many people directing their stops
towards it, I followed them. On one side of the tent
were about tv.-enty females, mostly young, squatted
down on the straw; on the other a few men; in the
centre was along form, against Vv'hich were some other
men kneeling, with their faces covered with their hands,
as if occupied in prayer. Gradually the numbers in-
creased, girl after girl dropped down upon the straw
on the one side, and men on the other. At last an el-
derly man gave out a hymn, which was sung with
peculiar energy; then another knelt down in the cen-
tre, and commenced a prayer, shutting his eyes (as I
14 DIARY IN AMERICA.
have observed most clergymen in the United States
do when they pray) and raising his hands above his
head ; then another burst out into a prayer, and ano-
ther followed him ; then their voices became all con-
fused together ; and then were heard the more silvery
tones of woman's supplication. As the din increased
so did their enthusiasm; handkerchiefs were raised to
bright eyes, and sobs were intermingled with prayers
and ejaculations. It became a scene of Babel; more
than twenty men and women were crying out at the
highest pitch of their voices, and trying apparently to
be heard above the others. Every minute the excite-
ment increased ; some wrung their hands and called
for mercy; some tore their hair-; boys lay down cry-
ing bitterly, with their heads buried in the straw ; there
was sobbing almost to suffocation, and hysterics and
deep agony. One young man clung to the form, cry-
ing, " Satan tears at me, but I will hold fast. Help —
help, he drags me down !" It was a scene of horrible
agony and despair ; and, when it was at its height, one
of the preachers came in, and, raising his voice high
above the tumult, entreated the Lord to receive into
his fold those who now repented and would fain return.
Another of the ministers knelt down by some young
men, whose faces were covered up and who appeared
to be almost in a state of phrensy; and putting his hands
upon them, poured forth an energetic prayer, v;ell cal-
culated to work upon their over excited feelings.
Groans, ejaculations, broken sobs, frantic motions and
convulsions succeeded ; some fell on their backs with
their eyes closed, waving their hands with a slow mo-
tion, and crying out—" Glory, glory, glory !" I quitted
the spot, and hastened away into the forest, for the
sight was too painful, too melancholy. Its sincerity
could not be doubted, but it was the effect of over-ex:-
citement, not of sober reasoning. Could such violence
of feeling have been produced had each party retired
to commune alone? — most surely not. It was a fever
created by collision and contact, of the same nature
DIARY IN AMERICA. 15
as that which stimulates a mob to deeds of blood and
horror.
Gregarious animals are by nature inoffensive. The
cruel and the savage live apart, and in solitude ; but
the gregarious, upheld and stimulated by each other,
become formidable. So it is with man.
I was told that the scene would be much more in-
teresting and exciting after the lamps were lighted ; but
I had seen quite enough of it. It was too serious to
laugh at, and I felt that it was not for me to condemn.
" Cry aloud, and spare not," was the exhortation of the
preacher ; and certainly, if heaven is only to be taken
by storm, he was a proper leader for his congrega-
tion.
Whatever may be the opinion of the reader as to the
meeting which I have described, it is certain that no-
thing could be more laudable than the intention by
which these meetings were originated. At the first
settling of the country the people were widely scatter-
ed, and the truths of the Gospel, owing to the scarcity
of preachers, but seldom heard. It was to remedy this
unavoidable evil that they agreed, like the Christians
in earlier times, to collect together from all quarters,
and pass many days in meditation and prayer, " ex-
horting one another — comforting one another." Even
now it is not uncommon for the settlers in Indiana and
Illinois to travel one hundred miles in their wagons to
attend one of these meetings, — meetings which are
now too often sullied by fanaticism on the one hand,
and on the other by the levity and infidelity of those
who go not to pray, but to scoff; or to indulge in the
licentiousness which, it is said, but too often follows,
when night has thrown her veil over the scene.
VOL. n. — 2
( 1^^ )
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Lexikctox, the capital of tlie State, is embosomed in
the very heart of the vale of Kentucky. This vale wa^e
the favourite hunting-ground of the Indians; and a
fairer country for the chase could not well be imagined
than this rolling, well-wooded, luxuriant val!e5% ^^'"
tending from hill to hill, from dale to dale, for so many
long miles. No wonder that the Indians fought so hard
to retain, or the Virginians to acquire it ; nor was it
until much blood had saturated the ground, rnan}^ reek-
ing scalps had been torn from the head, and many a
mother and her children murdered at their hearths, that
the contest was relinquished. So severe were the
struggles, that the ground obtained the name of the
" Bloody Ground.^' But the strife is over ; the red man
has been exterminated, and peace and plenty now reign
over this smiling country. It is indeed a beautiful and
bounteous land; on the whole, the most eligible in the
Union. The valley is seven hundred and fifty feet
above the level of the sea, and, therefore, not so sub-
ject to fevers as the States of Indiana and Illinois, and
indeed that portion of its own State wliich borders on
the Mississippi. But all the rest of the Kentucky land
is by no means equal in richness of soil to that of this
valley. There are about ninety counties in the State,
• )f which about thirty are of rich land; but four oftheni.
namely, Fayette, Bourbon, Scotts, and Woodford, are
the finest. The whole of these four counties are held
by large proprietors, who graze and breed stock to a
very great extent, supplying the whole of the Western
States with the best description of every kind of cattle.
DIARY IN AMERICA. 17
<. 'attle-shows are held every 3'ear, and high prizes
awarded to the owners of the finest beasts which are
there produced. The State of Kentucky, as well as
Virginia, is in fact an agricultural and grazing State:
the pasture is very rich, and studded with oak and
other timber, as in the manner I have described in
Iowa and Wisconsin. The staples of Kentucky are
hemp and mules ; the latter are in such demand for the
south that they can hardly produce them fast enough
for the market. The minimum price of a three year
old mule is about eighty dollars; the maximum usually
one hundred and sixty dollars, or thirty-five pounds,
but they often fetch much higher prices. I saw a pair
in harness, well matched, and about seventeen hands
high, for which they refused one thousand dollars —
upwards of two hundred pounds.
The cattle-show took place when I was at Lexington.
That of horned beasts I v/as too late for; but the se-
cond day I went to the exhibition of thorough-bred
horses. The premiums were for the best two-year old
yearlings, and colts, and many of them were very fine
animals. The third day was for the exhibition of
mules ; which, on account of size there being a great
desideratum, are bred only from mares: the full-grown
averaged from fifteen to sixteen hands high, but they
have often been known to be seventeen hands high.
I had seen them quite as large in a nobleman's carriage
in the south of Spain ; but then they were considered
rare, and of great value. After all the other varieties
of age had made their appearance, and the judges
bad given their decision, the mules foaled down this
year were to be examined. As they were still suck-
ing, it vv^as necessary that the brood mares should be
led into the enclosed paddock, where the animals were,
inspected, that the foals might be induced to follow : as
soon as they were all in the enclosure the marcs were
sent out, leaving all the foals by themselves. At fi.rst
they commenced a concert of wailing after their mo-
thers, and then turned their lamentations into indigna-
18 , DIARY IN AMERICA.
tion and revenge upon each other. Such a ridiculous
scene of kicking took place as I never before witnessed,
about thirty of them being most sedulously engaged in
the occupation, all at the same time. I never saw such
ill-behaved mules ; it was quite impossible for the judges
to decide upon the prize, for you could see nothing but
heels in the air; it was rap, rap, rap, incessantly
against one another's sides, until they were all turned
out and the show was over. I rather think the prize
must, in this instance, have been awarded to the one
that kicked highest.
The fourth day was for the exhibition of jackasses,
of two year and one year, and for foals, and jennies
also; this sight was to me one of peculiar interest.
Accustomed as we are in England to value a jackass
at thirty shillings, we look down upon them with con-
tempt; but here is the case reversed: you look up at
them with surprise and admiration. Several were
shown standing fifteen hands high, with head and ears
in proportion : the breed has been obtained from the
Maltese jackass, crossed by those of Spain and the
south of France. Those imported seldom average
more than fourteen hand's high ;, but the Kentuckians,
by greater attention and care, have raised them up to
fifteen hands, and sometimes even to sixteen.
But the price paid for these splendid animals, for
such they really were, will prove how much they arc
in request. Warrior, a jackass of great celebrity, sold
for 5,000 dollars, upwards of £1,000 sterling. Half of
another jackass, Benjamin by name, was sold for
2,500 dollars. At the show I asked a gentleman what
he wanted for a very beautiful female ass, only one
year old; he said that he could have 1,000 dollars,
i;)250 for her, but that he had refused that sum. For
a two year old jack, shown during the exhibition, the}-
asked 3,000 dollars, more than ^600. I never felt
such respect for donkeys before; but the fact is, that
mule-breeding is so lucrative, that there is no price
which a very large donkey will not command.
DIARY IN AMERICA. 19
I afterwards went to a cattle sale a few miles out of
the town. Don Juan, a two year old bull, Durham
breed, fetched 1,075 dollars; an imported Durham
cow, with her calf, 985 dollars. Before I arrived, a
bull and cow fetched 1,800 dollars each of them, about
j£'280. The cause of this is, that the demand for good
slock, now that the Western States are filling up, be-
comes so great, that they cannot be produced fast
enough. Mr. Clay, who resides near Lexington, is one
of the best breeders in the State, which is much in-
debted to him for the fine stock which he has imported
from England.
Another sale took place, which I attended, and I
quote the prices: — Yearling bull, 1,000 dollars: ditto
heifer, 1,500. Cows, of full Durham blood, but bred
in Kentucky, 1,245 dollars; ditto, 1,235 dollars, im-
ported cow and calf, 2,100 dollars.
It must be considered, that although a good Durham
cow \v\\\ not cost m.ore than twenty guineas perhaps
in England, the expenses of transport are very great.
and they generally stand in, to the importers, about
600 dollars, before they arrive at the state of Ken-
tucky.
But to prove that the Kentuckians are fully justified
in giving the prices they do, I will show what was the
profit made upon an old cow before she was sold for
400 dollars. I had a statement from her proprietor,
who had her in his possession for nine years. She was
a full bred cow, and during the time that he had held
her in his possession, she had cleared him 15,000 dol-
lars by the sale of her progeny: As follows : —
2*
20
DiIARY IN AMERICA.
Years.
Calves.
Second
Generation.
Third
Generation.
Fourth
Genftjalion.
i
o
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
i
1
9
7
5
3
Total, 24.-^
averaging 625 dollars a head, which is by no means a
large price, as the two cows, which sold at the sale for
1,235, and 1,225 dollars, were a part of her issue.
Lexington is a very pretty town, with very pleasant
society, and afforded me great relief after the unplea-
sant sojourn I had had at Louisville. Conversing one
day with Mr. Clay, I had another instance given me
of the mischief which the conduct of Miss Martineau
has entailed upon all those English who may happen
to visit America. Mr, Clay observed that Miss Mar-
tineau had remained with him for some time, and that,
during her stay, she had professed very different, or at
least more modified opinions on the subject of slavery,
than those she has expressed in her book : so much so,
that one day, having read a letter from Boston caution-
ing her against being cajoled by the hospitality and
pleasant society of the Western States, she handed it
to him, saying, " They want to make a regular aboli-
DIARY IN AMERICA. 2 1
tionist of me." " When her work came out," continued
Mr. Clay, " although I read but very little of it, I turned
to this subject so important with us, and I must say [
was a little surprised to find that she had so changed
her opinions." The fact is, Miss Martineau appears to
have been what the Kentuckians call, " playing 'pos-
sum." I have met with some of the Southern ladies
whose conversations on slavery are said, or supposed,
to have been those printed by Miss Martineau, and
they deny that they are correct. That the Southern
ladies are very apt to express great horror at living
too long a time at the plantations, is very certain ; not,
however, because they expect to be murdered in their
beds by the slaves, as they tell their husbands, but be-
cause they are anxious to spend more of their time at
the cities, where they can enjoy more luxury and
amusement than can be procured at the plantations.
Every body rides in Virginia and Kentucky, master,
man, woman, and slave, and they all ride well: it is
quite as common to meet a woman on horseback as a
man, and it is a pretty sight in their States to walk by
the church doors and see them all arrive. The churches
have stables, or rather sheds, built close to them, for
the accommodation of the cattle.
Elopements in these States are all made on horse-
back. The goal to be obtained is to cross to the other
side of the Ohio. The consequence is that it is a regu-
lar steeple- chase; the young couple clearing every
thing, father and brothers following. Whether it is
that, having the choice, the young people are the best
mounted, I know not, but the runaways are seldom
overtaken. One couple crossed the Ohio when I was
at Cincinnati, and had just time to tie the noose before
their pursuers arrived.
At I,exington, on Sunday, there is not a carriage or
horse to be obtained by a white man for any conside-
ration, they having all been regularly engaged for that
day by the negro slaves, who go out junketting in every
direction. Where they get the money I do not know ;
but certain it is, that it is always produced when re-
D[AKY IN AMERICA.
quired. I was waiting at the counter of a sort of pas-
try-cook's, when three negro lads, about twelve or
fourteen years old, came in, and in a most authorita-
tive tone, ordered three glasses of soda-water.
Returned to Louisville.
( 23 )
CHAPTER XXXIV.
There is one great inconvenience in American tra-
velling, arising from the uncertainty of river navigation.
Excepting the Lower Mississippi and the Hudson, and
not always the latter, the communication b}' water is
obstructed during a considerable portion of the year,
by ice in the winter, or a deficiency of water in the
dry season. This has been a remarkable season for
heat and drought; and thousands of people remain in
the States of Ohio, Virginia, and Kentucky, who are
most anxious to return home. It must be understood,
that during the unhealthy season in the Southern
States on the Mississippi, the planters, coiton-growers,
slave-holders, store-keepers, and indeed almost every
class, excepting the slaves and overseers, migrate to
the northward, to escape the yellow fever, and spend
a portion of their gains in amusement.
They go to Cincinnati and the towns of Ohio, to the
I^akes occasionally, but principally to the cities and
watering places of Virginia and Kentucky, more espe-
cially Louisville, where I now am ; and Louisville, be-
ing also the sort of general rendezvous for departure
south, IS now crammed with Southern people. The
steam-boats cannot run, for the river is almost dry ;
and I (as well as others) have been detained much
longer on the banks of the Ohio than was my intention.
Ti-.ere is land-carriage certainly, but the heat of the
weather is so overpowering that even the Southerns
dread it ; and in consequence of this extreme heat, the
sickness in these western States has been much great-
24 DIARY IN AMERICA.
er than usual. Even Kentucky, especially that part
which borders on the Mississippi, which, generally speak-
ing, is healthy, is now suffering under malignant fevers.
I may here remark, that the two States, Illinois and In-
diana, and the western portions of Kentucky and Ten-
nessee, are very unhealthy; not a year passes without
a great mortality from the bilious congestive fever, a
variety of the yellow fever, and the ague; more espe-
cially Illinois and Indiana, with the western portion of
Ohio, which is equally fiat with the other two States.
The two States of Indiana and Illinois lie, as it were,
at the bottom of the v/estern basin; the soil is wonder-
fully rich, but the drainage is insufficient, as may be
seen from the sluggishness with which these rivers
flow. Many and many thousands of poor Irish emi-
grants, and settlers also, have been struck down by
disease, never to rise again, in these rich, but unhealthy
States; to which, stimulated by the works published by
land-speculators, thousands and thousands every year
repair, and notwithstanding the annual expenditure of
life, rapidly increase the population, I had made up my
mind to travel by land carriage to St. Louis, Missouri,
through the States of Indiana and Illinois, but two Ame-
rican gentlemen, who had just arrived by that route, suc-
ceeded in dissuading me. They had come over on horse-
back. They described the disease and mortality as dread-
ful. That sometimes, v/hen they wished to put up their
horses at seven or eight o'clock in the evening, they were
compelled to travel on till twelve or one o'clock before
they could gain admittance, some portion in every house
suffering under the bilious fever, tertian ague, or flux.
They described the scene as quite appalling. At some
houses there was not one person able to rise and at-
tend upon the others; all were dying or dead ; and to
increase the misery of their situations, the springs had
dried up, and in many places they could not procure
water except by sending many miles. A friend of mine,
who had been on a mission through the portion of
Kentucky and Tennessee bordering on the Mississippi,
made a very similar statement. He was not refused
DIARY IN AMERICA. 25
to remain where he stopped, but he could procure no
assistance, and every where ran the risk of contagion.
He said that some of the people were obliged to send
their negroes with a wagon upwards of fifteen miles to
wash their clothes.
That this has been a very unhealthy season is cer-
tain, but still, from all the information I could obtain,
there is a great mortality every year in the districts I
have pointed out; and such, indeed, must be the case,
from the miasma created every fall of the year in these
rich alluvial soils, some portions of which have been
worked for fifty years without the assistance of manure,
and still yield abundant crops. It will be a long while
before the drainage necessary to render them healthy
can be accomplished. The sickly appearance of the
inhabitants estabhshes but too well the facts related to
me; and yet, strange to say, it would appear to be a
provision of Providence, that a remarkable fecundity
on the part of the v/omen in the more healthy portions
of their Western States, should meet the annual ex-
penditure of life. Three children at a birth are more
common here than twins are in England ; and they,
generally speaking, are all reared up. There have
been many instances of even four.
The western valley of America, of which the Mis-
sissippi may be considered as the common drain, must,
from the surprising depth of the alluvial soil, have been
(ages back) wholly under water, and, perhaps, by some
convulsion raised up. What insects are we in oui"
own estimation when we meditate upon such stupen-
dous changes!
Since I have been in these States I have been sur-
prised at the stream of emigration which appears to
flow from North Carolina to Indiana, Illinois, and Mis-
souri. Every hour you meet with a caravan of emi-
grants from that sterile but healthy state. Every
night the banks of the Ohio are lighted up with their
fires, where they have bivouacked previously to cross-
ing the river ; but they are not like the poor German
26 DIARY IN AMERICA.
or Irish settlers : they are well prepared, and have no-
thing to do, apparently, but to sit down upon their
land. These caravans consist of two or three covered
wagons, full of women and children, furniture, and
other necessaries, each drawn by a team of horses ;
brood mares, with foals by their sides, following; half
a dozen or more rows, flanked on each side by the
men, with their long rifles on their shoulders ; some-
times a boy or two, or a half grown girl on horseback.
Occasionally they wear an appearance of more refine-
ment and cultivation, as well as wealth, the principals
travelling in a sort of worn-out old carriage, the re-
mains of the competence of former days.
I often surmised, as they travelled cheerfully along,
saluting me as they passed by, whether they would
not repent their decision, and sigh for their pine bar-
rens and heath, after they had discovered that with
fertility they had to encounter such disease and mor-
tality.
I have often heard it asserted by Englishmen, that
America has no coal. There never was a greater
mistake: she has an abundance, and of the very finest
that ever was seen. At Wheeling and Pittsburg, and
on all the borders of the Ohio river above Guyandotte,
they have an inexhaustible supply, equal to the very
best offered to the London market. All the spurs of
the Alleghany range appear to be one mass of coal.
In the Eastern States the coal is of a different quality,
although there is some very tolerable. The anthracite
is bad, throwing out a strong sulphureous gas. The
fact is that wood is at present cheaper than coal, and,
therefore, the latter is not in demand. An American
told me one day, that a company had been working a
coal mine in an Eastern State, which proved to be of
a very bad quality; they had sent some to an influen-
tial person as a present, requesting him to give his
opinion of it, as that would be important to them.
After a certain time he forwarded to them a certificate
couched in such terms as these : —
DIARY IN AMERICA. 27
'' T do hereby certify that I have tried the coal sent
me by the company at , and it is my decided
opinion, that when the general conflagration of the
world shall take place, any man who will take his po-
sition on that coal mine will certainly be the last man
who will be burnt.''''
I had to travel by coach for six days and nights, to
arrive at Baltimore. As it may be supposed, I was
not a little tired before my journey was half over ; I,
therefore, was glad when the coach stopped for a few
hours, to throw off my coat, and lie do-wn on a bed.
At one town, where I had stopped, I had been reposing
more than two hours when my door was opened —
but this was too common a circumstance for me to
think any thing of it; the people would come into my
room whether I was in bed or out of bed, dressed or
not dressed, and if I expostulated, they would reply,
" Never mind, we don't care, Captain." On this occa-
sion I called out, " Well, what do you wanf?"
"Are you Captain M V said the person walk-
ing up to the bed where I was lying.
" Yes, I am," replied I.
" Well, I reckon I wouldn't allow you to go through
our town without seeing you any how. Of all the
humans, you're the one I most wish to see."
I told him I was highly flattered.
" Well now," said he, giving a jump, and coming
down right upon the bed in his great coat, " I'll just
tell you ; I said to the chap at the bar, « Aint the Cap-
tain in your house V ' Yes,' says he. ' Then where
is he]' says I. ' Oh,' says he, 'he's gone into his own
room, and locked himself up ; he's a d — d aristocrat,
and won't drink at the bar with other gentlemen.' So
thought I, I've read M 's works, and I'll bo
swamped if he is an aristocrat, and by the 'tarnal I'll
go up and see ; so here I am, and you're no aristo-
crat."
•' I should think not," replied I, moving my feet
away, which he was half sitting on.
Vol. II.— 3
28 DIARY IN AMERICA.
" Oh, don't move ; never mind me, Captain, I'm
quite comfortable. And how do you find yourself by
this time)"
" Very tired, indeed," replied I.
" I suspicion as much. Now, d'ye see, I left four or
five good fellows down below who wish to see you; I
said I'd go up first, and come down to them. The
fact is, Captain, we don't like you should pass through
our town without showing you a little American hos-
pitality."
So saying he slid off the bed, and went out of the
room. In a minute he returned, bringing with him
four or five others, all of whom he introduced by
name, and reseated himself on my bed, while the
others took chairs.
"Now, gentletnen," said he, "as T was telling the
Captain, we wish to show him a little American hospi-
tality; what shall it be, gentlemen; what d'ye say — a
bottle of Madeira?"
An immediate answer not being returned he conti-
nued,
" Yes, gentlemen, a bottle of Madeira ; at my ex-
pense gentlemen, recollect that ; now ring the bell."
"I shall be most happy to take a glass of wine with
you," observed I, "but in my own room the wine
must be at my expense."
'■'■ kXyour expense, Captain; well, if it must be, I
don't care; at your expense, then. Captain, if you say
so; only you see, we must show you a little American
hospitality, as I said to them all down below; didn't I,
gentlemen?"
The wine was ordered, and it ended in my hospita-
ble friends drinking three bottles; and then they all
shook hands with me, declaring how happy they should
be if I came to the town again, and allowed them to
show me a little more American hospitality.
There was something so very ridiculous in this event
that I cannot help narrating it; but let it not be sup-
posed, for a moment, that I intend it as a sarcasm upon
DIARY IN AMERICA. 29
American hospitality in general. There certainly are
conditions usually attached to their hospitality, if you
v/ish to profit by it to any extent^ and one is, that you
do not venture to find fault with themselves, their man-
ners, or their institutions.
Kote. — That a guest, partaking of their hospitality, should
give his opinion unasked, and find fault, would be in very bad
taste, to say the least of it. But the fault in America is, that
you are compelled to give an opinion, and you cannot escape
by a doubtful reply: as the American said to me in Philadel-
phia, " T wish a categorical answer." Thus, should you not
agree with them, you are placed upon the horns of a dilemma,-
either you must affront the company, or sacrifice truth.
END OF DIARY.
R E 171 A R K S, &c. &c.
LANGUAGE.
The Americans boldly assert that they speak better
English than we do, and I was rather surprised not to
find a statistical table to that effect in Mr. Carey's
publication. What I believe the Americans would
imply by the above assertion is, that you may travel
through all the United States and find less difficulty in
understanding, or in being understood, than in some
of the counties of England, such as Cornwall, Devon-
shircj Lancashire, and Suffolk. So far they are cor-
rect; but it is remarkable how very debased the
language has become in a short period in America.
There are few provincial dialects in England much
Jess intelligible than the following. A Yankee girl,
who wished to hire herself out, was asked if she had
any followers, or sweethearts'? After a little hesita-
tion, she replied, "Well, now, can't exactly say; I
bees a sorter courted, and a sorter not; reckon more
a sorter yes than a sorter no." In many points the
Americans have to a certain degree obtained that
equality which they profess; and, as respects their
language, it certainly is the case. If their lower
classes are more intelligible than ours, it is equally
true that the higher classes do not speak the language
so purely or so classically as it is spoken among the
well-educated English. The peculiar dialect of the
English counties is kept up because we are a settled
country ; the people who are born in a county live in
it, and die in it, transmitting their seites of labour or
of amusement to their descendants, generation after
LANGUAGE. 31
generation, without change : consequently, the provin-
cialisms of the language become equally hereditary.
Now, in America, they have a dictionary containing
many thousands of words which, with us, are either
obsolete, or are provincialisms, or are words necessa-
rily invented by the Americans. When the people of
England emigrated to the States, they came from eve-
ry county in England, and each county brought its
provincialisms with it. These were admitted into the
general stock; and were since all collected and bound
up by one Mr. Webster. With the exception of a few
words coined for local uses (such as syiags and saw-
yers, on the Mississippi,) I do not recollect a word
which I have not traced to be either a provincialism
of some English county, or else to be obsolete English.
There are a few from the Dutch, such as stoup, for the
porch of a door, &c. I was once talking with an
American about Webster's dictionary, and he ob-
served, " Well now, sir, I understand it's the only one
used in the Court of St. James, by the king, queen, and^
princesses, and that by royal order.'
The upper classes of the Americans do not, how-
ever, speak or pronounce English according to bur
standard; they appear to have no exact rule to guide
them, probably from a want of any intimate know-
ledge of Greek or Latin. You seldom hear a deriva-
tion from the Greek pronounced correctly, the accent
being generally laid upon the wrong syllable. In fact,
every one appears to be independent, and pronounces
just as he pleases.
But it is not for me to decide the very momentous
question, as to which nation speaks the best English.
The Americans generally improve upon the inventions
of others; probably they may have improved upon our
language.
I recollect some one observing how very superior
the German language was to the English, from their
possessing so many compound substantives and adjec-
tives, whereupon his friend replied, that it was just as
32 LANGUAGE.
easy for us to possess them in England if we pleased,
and gave us as an example an observation made by
his old dame at Eton, who declared that young Paulet
was, without any exception, the most good-for-no-
thingest, the most provokingpeople-est, and the most
poke-about-every-cornerest boy she had ever had
charge of in her life.
Assuming this principle of improvement to be cor-
rect, it must be acknowledged that the Americans have
added considerably to our dictionary; but, as I have
before observed, this being a point of too much delica-
cy for me to decide upon, I shall just submit to the
reader the occasional variations, or improvements, as
they may be, which met my ears during my residence
in America, as also the idiomatic peculiarities, and
having so done, I must leave him to decide for himself
I recollect once talking with one of the first men in
America, who was narrating to me the advantages
which might have accrued to him if he had followed up
a certain speculation, when he said, " Sir, if I had done
so, I should not only have doubled and trebled, but I
should have fourbled and fivebled my money."
One of the members of Congress once said, " What
the honourable gentleman has just asserted I consider
as catamount to a denial ;" — (catamount is the term
given to a panther or lynx.)
"I presume," replied his opponent, "that the ho-
nourable gentleman means tantamount^
"No, sir, I do not mean tantamount; I am not so
ignorant of our language, not to be aware that c«/a-
raount and ^«??tamount are «?ionymous."
The Americans dwell upon their words when they
speak — a custom arising, I presume, from their cau-
tious, calculating habits; and they have always more
or less of a nasal twang. I ance said to a lady, " Why
do you drawl out your words in that way?"
"Well," replied she, "I'd drawl all the way from
Maine to Georgia, rather than dip my words as you
English people do."
LANGUAGE. S3
Many English words are used in a very different
sense from that which we attach to them; for in-
stance : a clever person in America means an amiable
good-tempered person, and the Americans make the
distinction by saying, I mean English clever.
Our clever is represented by the word smart.
The verb to admire is also used in the East, instead
of the verb to like.
*' Have you ever been at Paris?"
** No; but I should admire to go."
A Yankee description of a clever woman: —
•' Well, now, she'll walk right into you, and talk to
you like a book;" or, as I have heard them say, "she'll
talk you out of sight."
The word ugly is used for cross, ill-tempered. •* I
did feel so ugly when he said that."
Bad is used in an odd sense: it is employed for
awkward, uncomfortable, sorry: —
" I did feel so bad vviien I read that " — awkward.
"I have felt quite 6ac/ about it ever since" — un-
comfortable.
" She was so had, I thought she would cry," sorry.
And as bad is tantamount to not good, I have heard
a lady say, " I don't feel at all good, this morning."
Mean is occasionally used for ashamed.
" I never felt so mean in my life."
"We reckon this very handsome scenery, sir," said
an American to me, pointing to the landscape.
"I consider him very truthful," is another expres-
sion.
" He stimulates too much."
*'He dissipates awfully."
And they are very fond of using the noun as a verb,
as —
" I suspicion that's a fact."
*'I opinion quite the contrary."
The word considerable is in considerable demand
in the United States. In a work in which the letters
of the party had been given to the public as specimens
34 LANGUAGB.
of good style and polite literature, it is used as fol-
lows:—
" My dear sister, I have taken up the pen early this
morning, as I intend to write considerable.^^*
The word great is oddly used for fine, splendid.
" She's the greatest gal in the whole Union."
But there is one word which we must surrender up
to the Americans as their very own, as the children
say. I will quote a passage from one of their pa-
pers:—
** Tlie editor of the Philadelphia Gazette is wrong
in calling absquatiated a Keniucky phrase (he may
well say phrase instead of word.) It may prevail
there, but its origin was in South Carolina, where it
was a few years since regularly derived from the Latin,
as we can prove from undoubted authority. By the
way, there is a little corruption in the word as the Ga-
zette uses it, absquatalized is the true reading.*'
Certainly a word wortli quarrelling about!
*' Are you cold, missf said I to a young lady, who
pulled the shawl closer over her shoulders.
" Some,^^ was the reply.
The English what? implying that you did not hear
what was said to you, is changed in America to the
word how?
*' I reckon," " I calculate," " I guess," are all used
as the common English phrase, " I suppose." Each
term is said to be peculiar to different states, but I
found them used every where, one as often as the other.
I opine, is not so common.
A specimen of Yankee dialect and conversation:^
*• Well now, I'll tell vou — you know Marble Head?"
*• Guess 1 do."
" Well, then, you know Sally Hackett."
**No, indeed."
•*Not know Sally Hackett? Why she lives at
Marble Head."
* Life and Remains of Charles Pond.
LANGUAGE. 35
*' Guess I don't."
" You don't mean to say that?"
*' Yes, indeed."
" And you really don't know Sally Hackett?"
" No, indeed."
" I guess you've heard talk of her.^"
"No, indeed."
"Well, that's considerable odd. Now, I'll tell
you — Ephrim Bagg, he that has the farm three miles
from Marble Head — ^just as — but now, are you sure
you don't know Sally Hackett?"
"No, indeed."
" Well, he's a pretty substantial man, and no mis-
take. He has got a heart as big as an ox, and every
thing else in proportion, I've a notion. He loves Sal,
the worst kind; and if she gets up there, she'll think
she has got to Palestine (Paradise;) arn't she a scream-
er.^ I were thinking of Sal mysel, for I feel lone-
some, and when I am thrown into my store promiscu-
ous alone, I can tell you I have the blues, the worst
kind, no mistake — I can tell you that. I always feel
a kind o' queer when I sees Sal, but when I meet any
of the other gals I am as calm and cool as the milky
way," &c. &c.
The verb " to fix " is universal. It means to do
any thing.
" Shall I fix your coat or your breakfast first?"
That is — " Shall I brush your coat, or get ready your
breakfast first?"
Right awa\}^ for immediately or at once, is very
general.
" Shall I fix it right away — i. e. " Shall I do it im-
mediately?"
In the West, when you stop at an inn, they say —
"What will you have? Brown meal and common
doings, or white wheat and chicken fixings;'^'' — that
is, " Will you have pork and brown bread, or white
bread and fried chicken?"
Also, " Will you have ^feed or a check?'' — A din-
ner, or a luncheon?
o6 LANGUAGE.
In full blast — something in the extreme.
" When she came to meeting, with her yellow hat
and feathers, was'n't she in full blast?'^
But for more specimens of genuine Yankee, I must
refer the reader to Sam Slick and Major Downing, and
shall now proceed to some farther peculiarities.
There are two syllables — um, hu — which are very
generally used by the Americans as a sort of reply, in-
timating that they are attentive, and that the party may
proceed with his narrative; but, by inflection and into-
nation, these two syllables are made to express dissent
or assent, surprise, disdain, and (like Lord Burleigh's
nod in the play) a great deal more. The reason why
these two syllables have been selected is, that they can
be pronounced without the trouble of opening your
mouth, and you may be in a state of listlessness and
repose whilst others talk. I myself found them very
convenient at times, and gradually got into the habit of
using them.
The Americans are very local in their phrases, and
borrow their similes very much from the nature of their
occupations and pursuits. If you ask a Virginian or
Kentuckian where he was born, he will invariably tell
you that he was raised in such a county— the term ap-
plied to horses, and, in breeding States, to men also.
When a man is tipsy (spirits being made from grain,)
they generally say he is corned.
In the West, where steam-navigation is so abundant,
when they ask you to drink they say, " Stranger, will
you take in wood?" — the vessels taking in wood as
fuel to keep the steam up, and the person taking in spi-
rits to keep his steam up.
The roads in the country being cut through woods,
and the stumps of the trees left standing, the carriages
are often brought up by them. Hence the expression
of, " AVell, I am stumped this time."
I heard a young man, a farmer in Vermont, say,
when talking about another having gained the heart oi"
a pretty girl, "Well, how he contrived io fork into her
LANGUAGE. ,37
young affections, I can't tell; but I've a mind to put
my whole team on, and see if I can't run him off the
road."
The old phrase of " straining at a gnat, and swal-
lowing a camel," in the Eastern States, rendered
" straining at a gate, and swallowing a saw-mill ^
To strike means to attack. " The Indians have
struck on the frontier;" — "A rattle-snake struck at
me."
To make tracks — to walk away. " Well, now, I
shall make tracks:" — from foot-tracks in the snow.
Clear out, quit, and put — all mean " be off." " Cap-
tain, now, you hush or puf^ — that is, "Either hold
your tongue, or be off." Also, " Will you shut, mis-
ter?"— i. e. will you shut your mouth? i. e. hold your
tongue?
" Curl up " — to be angry — from the panther and
other animals when angry raising their hair. " Rise
my dander up," from the human hair; and a nasty idea.
"Wrathy" is another common expression. Also,
" Savage as a meat-axe."
Here are two real American words; —
" Sloping" — for slinking away;
" Splunging," like a porpoise.
The word " enthusiasm," in the south, is changed to
" entuzzy-muzzy."
In the Western States, where the raccoon is plentiful,
they use the abbreviation ^coon when speaking of peo-
ple. When at New York, I went into a hair-dresser's
shop to have my hair cut; there were two young men
from the west — one under the barber's hands, the other
standing by him.
" I say," said the one who was having his hair cut,
" I hear Captain M is in this country."
" Yes," replied the other, '• so they say; I should
like to see the ^coon."^^
"I'm a gone ^coon^^ implies "I am distressed — or
mined — or lost." I once asked the origin of this ex-
oression, and was verv gravely told as follows: —
38 LANGUAGE.
" There is a Captain Martin Scott* in the United
States army who is a remarkable shot with a rifle.
He was raised, I believe, in Vermont. His fame was
so considerable through the State, that even the ani-
mals were aware of it. He went out one morning
with his rifle, and spying a raccoon upon the upper
branches of a high tree, brought his gun up to his
shoulder; when the raccoon, perceiving it, raised his
paw up for a parley. " I beg your pardon, mister,"
said the raccoon, very politely; " but may I ask you if
your name is Scott ?" — " Yes," replied the captain. —
" Martin Scott f" continued the raccoon. — " Yes," re-
plied the captain. — *' Captain Martin Scott ?" still con-
tinued the animal. — " Yes," replied the captain, " Cap-
tain Martin Scott]" — " Oh ! then," says the animal, " 1
may just as well come down, for I'm a gone ^coon.'^ "
But one of the strangest perversions of the meaning
of a word which I ever heard of is in Kentucky, where
sometimes the word nasty is used for nice. For in-
stance; at a rustic dance in that State, a Kentuckian
said to an acquaintance of mine, in reply to his asking
the name of a very fine girl, " That's my sister, stran-
ger; and I flatter myself that she shews the nasi/es*^
ankle in all Kentuck." — Unde derivatur, from the con-
stant rifle-practice in that State, a good shot, or a pret-
ty shot, is termed also a nasty shot, because it would
make a nasty wound : ergo, a nice or pretty ankle be-
comes a nasty one.
The term for all baggage, especially in the south or
west, is " plunder." This has been derived from the
buccaneers, who for so long a time infested the bay-
ores and creeks near the mouth of the Mississippi,
and whose luggage was probably very correctly so de-
signated.
I must not omit a specimen of American criticism.
" Well, Abel, whot d'ye think of our native genus.
Mister Forrest 1"
♦ Already menlioned in the Diary,
LANGUAGE. 39
" Well, I don't go much to theatricals, that's a fact;
but I do think he piled the agony up a little too high in
that last scene."
The gamblers on the Mississippi use a very refined
phrase for " cheating " — " playing the advantages over
him."
But, as may be supposed, the principal terms used
are those which are borrowed from trade and com-
merce.
The rest, or remainder, is usually termed the ba-
lance.
" Put some of those apples into a dish, and the ba-
lance into the store-room."
When a person has made a mistake, or is out in his
calculation, they say, " You missed a figure that
time."
In a skh'mish last war, the fire from the British was
very severe, and the men in the American ranks were
falling fast, when one of the soldiers stepped up to the
commanding officer and said, " Colonel, don't you
think that we might compromise this affair?" " Well,
I reckon I should have no objection to submit it to ar-
bitration myself," replied the colonel.
Even the thieves must be commercial in their ideas.
One rogue meeting another, asked him what he had
done that morning; " Mot much," was the reply, "I've
only realized this umbrella."
This reminds me of a conversation between a man
and his wife, which was overheard by the party who
repeated it to me. It appears that the lady was eco-
nomically inclined, and in cutting out some shirts for
her husband, resolved that they should not descend
much lower than his hips, as thereby so much linen
would be saved. The husband expostulated, but in
vain. She pointed out to him that it would improve
his figure, and make his nether garments set much
better; in a word, that long shirt-tails were quite un-
necessary; and she wound up her arguments by ob-
serving that linen was a very expensive article, and
that she could not see what on earth was the reason
VOL. II. — 4
40
LANGUAGE.
that people should stuff so much capital into their pan-
taloons.
There is sometimes in the American metaphors an
energy which is very remarkable.
" Well, I reckon, that from his teeth to his toe-nail,
there's not a human of a more conquering nature than
General Jackson."
One gentleman said to me, " I wish I had all hell
boiled down to a point, just to pour down your
throat."
It is a great pity that the Americans have not ad-
hered more to the Indian names, which are euphonous,
and very often musical ; but, so far from it, they appear
to have had a pleasure in dismissing them altogether.
There is a river running into Lake Champlain, near
Burlington, formerly called by the Indians the Winoo-
ski, but this name has been superseded by the settlers,
who, by way of improvement, have designated it the
Onion River. The Americans have ransacked scrip-
ture, and ancient and modern history, to supply them-
selves with names, yet, notwithstanding, there appears
to be a strange lack of taste in their selection. On the
route to Lake Ontario you pass towns with such names
as Manlius, Sempronius, Titus, Cato, and then you
come to Butternuts. Looking over the catalogue of
cities, towns, villages, rivers, and creeks in the differ-
ent States in the Union, I find the following repeti-
tions :
Of towns, &;c. named after distinguished individuals
there are, —
Washingtons .
. 43
Carrolls . .
. 10
Jacksons . .
. 41
Adamses . .
. 18
Jeifersons . .
. 32
Bolivars . .
. 8
Franklins . .
. . 41
Clintons . .
. 19
Madisons . .
. . 26
Waynes
. 14
Monroes . .
. . 25
Casses . . .
. 6
Perrys . . .
. . 22
Clays . . .
. . 4
Fayettes . .
. . 14
Fultons . . .
. . 17
Hamiltons
. . 13
LANGUAGE.
41
Of other towns, <fec. there are, —
Columbias .
Centre Villes
Fairfields
Athenses
Romes .
Crookeds
Littles .
Lonffs
27 ; Libertys
14
17
10
4
22
20
18
Salems
Onions . .
Muds . .
Little Muds
Muddies
Sandys . .
14
24
28
8
1
11
39
In colours they have, —
Clears 13! Greens
Blacks 33
Blues 8
Vermilions ... 14
Whites .
Yellows
16
Ip
10
Named after trees, —
Cedars ..... 25
Cypresses . . . . 12
Laurels
Pines
14
IS
After animals, —
Beavers 23
Buffaloes .... 21
Bulls ..... 9
Deers 13
Dogs 9
Elks 11
Foxes .
Otters .
Raccoons
Wolves .
Bears
Bear's Rump
12
13
11
16
12
1
Gooses
Ducks
Eagles
Pigeons
After birds, &c.
Fishes 7
Turkeys .... 12
Swans 15
Pikes 20
42 LANGUAGE.
The consequence of these repetitions is, that if you
do not put the name of the State, and often of the coun-
ty in the State in which the town you refer to may be,
your letter may journey all over the Union, and perhaps,
after all, never arrive at its place of destination.
The States have already accommodated each other
with nicknames, as per example: —
Illinois people are termed . . . Suckers.
Missouri Pukes.
Michigan Wolverines.
Indiana Hoosiers.
Kentucky . Corn Crackers.
Ohio . Buckeyes, &;c.
The names of persons are also very strange ; and
some of these are, at all events, obsolete in England,
even if they ever existed there. Many of them are
said to be French or Dutch names Americanized. But
they appear still more odd to us from the high-sounding
Christian names prefixed to them; as, for instance:
Philo Doolittle, Populoram Hightower, Preserved
Fish, Asa Peabody, Alonzo Lilly, Alceus Wolf, &c. I
was told by a gentleman that Doolittle was originally
from the French De I'Hotel; Peabody from Pibaudiere;
Bunker from Bon Coeur; that Mr. Ezekiel Bumpus is
a descendant of Mons. Bon Pas, &c., all which is very
possible.
Every one who is acquainted with Washington Ir-
ving must know that, being very sensitive himself, he
is one of the last men in the world to do any thing to
annoy another. In his selection of names for his wri-
tings, he was cautious in avoiding such as might be
known; so that when he called his old schoolmaster
Ichabod Crane, he thought himself safe from the risk
of giving offence. Shortly afterwards a friend of his
called upon him, accompanied by a stranger, whom he
introduced as Major Crane; Irving started at the name ;
"Major Ichabod Crane," continued his friend, much to
the horror of Washington Irving.
I was told that a merchant went down to New Or-
leans with one Christian name, and came back, after a
LANGUAGE. 43
lapse of years with another. His name was John Flint.
The French at New Orleans translated his surname, and
called him Pierre Fusee: on his return the Pierre stuck
to him, was rendered into English as Peter, and he was
called Peter Flint ever afterwards.
People may change their names in the United States
by application to Congress. They have a story hardly
worth relating, although considered a good one in Ame-
rica, having been told me by a member of Congress.
A Mr. Whitepimple, having risen in the world, was
persuaded by his wife to change his name, and applied
for permission accordingly. The clerk of the office in-
quired of him what other name he would have, and he
being very indifferent about it himself, replied careless-
ly, as he walked away, "Oh, any thing;" whereupon
the clerk enrolled him as Mr. Thing;. Time passed on,
and he had a numerous family, who found the new
name not much more agreeable than the old one, for
there was Miss Sally Thing, Miss Dolly Thing, the old
Things, and all the little Things; and worst of all, the
eldest son being christened Robert, v/ent by the name
of Tiiingum Bob.
There were, and I believe still are, two lawyers in
partnership in '^esff York, with the peculiar happy
names of Catchem and Chetum. People laughed at
seeing these two names in juxtaposition over the door :
so the lawyers thought it advisable to separate them by
the insertion of their Christian names. Mr. Catchem's
Christian name was Isaac, Mr. Chetum's, Uriah. A
new board was ordered, but when sent to the painter,
it was found to be too short to admit the Christian
names at full length. The painter, therefore, put in
only the initials before the surnames, which made the
matter still worse than before, for there now appeared —
" I. Catchem and U. Chetum."
I cannot conclude this chapter without adverting to
one or two points peculiar to the Americans. They
wish, in every thing, to improve upon the Old Country,
as they call us, and affect to be excessively refined in
44 LANGUAGE.
their language and ideas : but they forget that very of-
ten in the covering, and the covering only, consists the
indecency, and that, to use the old aphorism, — " Very
nice people, are people with very nasty ideas."
They object to every thing nude in statuary. When
I was at the house of Governor Everett at Boston, I
observed a fine cast of the Apollo Belvidere, but, in
compliance with general opinion, it w^as hung with dra-
pery, although Governor Everett himself is a gentleman
of refined mind and high classical attainments, and quite
above such ridiculous sensitiveness. In language it is
the same thing: there are certain words which are ne-
ver used in America, but an absurd substitute is em-
ployed. I cannot particularize them after this preface,
lest I should be accused of indelicacy myself I may,
however, state one little circumstance, which will prove
the correctness of what I say.
When at Niagara Falls, 1 was escorting a young lady
with whom I was on friendly terms. She had been
standing on a piece of rock, the better to view the
scene, Vv^hen she slipped dov/n, and was evidently
hurt by the fall; she had in fact grazed her shin. As
she limped a little in w^alking home, I said, " Did you
hurt your leg much." She turned from me evidently
much shocked, or much offended; and not being aware
that I had committed any very heinous offence, I begged
to know what was the reason of her displeasure. After
some hesitation, she said that as she knew me well, she
would tell me that the word leg was never mentioned
before ladies. I apologized for my want of refinement,
which was attributable to my having been accustomed
only to English society, and added, that as such arti-
cles must occasionally be referred to, even in the most
polite circles of America, perhaps she would inform me
by what name I might mention them without shocking
the company. Her reply was, that the word Umb v/as
used; "nay," continued she, "I am not so particular
as some people are, for I know those who always say
limb of a table, or limb of a piano-forte."
There the conversation dropped ; but a few months
CREDIT. 45
afterwards I was obliged to acknowledge that the
young lady was correct when she asserted that some
people were more particular than even she was.
I was requested by a lady to escort her to a semi-
nary for young ladies, and on being ushered into the
reception-room, conceive my astonishment at behold-
ing a square piano-forte with four limbs. Hov/ever,
that the ladies who visited their daughters, might feel
in its full force the extreme delicacy* of the mistress
of the establishment, and her care to preserve in their
utmost purity the ideas of the young ladies under her
charge, she had dressed all these four limbs in modest
little trousers, with frills at the bottom of them !
CREDIT.
In the State of New York they have abolished im-
prisonment for debt; this abolition, however, only
holds good between the citizens of that State, as no
one State in the Union can interfere with the rights of
another. A stranger, therefore, can imprison a New
Yorker, and a New Yorker can imprison a stranger,
but the citizens of New York cannot incarcerate one
another. Now, although the unprincipled may, and
do occasionally, take advantage of this enactment, yet
* "An English lady, who liad long- kept a fashionable board-
ing school in one of the Atlantic cities, told me tliat one of her
earliest cares with every new comer, was to endeavour to sub-
stitute real delicacy fur that affected precision of manner:
among many anecdotes, she told me of a young lady about
fourteen, who, on entering the receiving-room, where she only
expected to see a lady who had inquired for her, and finding a
young man with her, put her hands before her eyes and ran
out of the room again, screaming — 'A man, a man, a man!'
On another occasion, one of the young ladies in going up stairs
to the drawing-room, unfortunately met a boy of fourteen
coming down, and her feelings were so violently agitated, that
she stopped, panting and sobbing, nor would pass on till the
hoy had swung himself up on the upper bannisters, to leave the
passage free." — Mrs. TroUope's Domestic Manners of the Ame-
ricans.
46 CREDIT.
the effects of it are generally good, as character be-
comes more valuable. Without character, there will
be no credit ; and without credit, no commercial man
can rise in this city. I was once in a store where the
widow who kept it complained to me, that a person
who owed her a considerable sum would not pay her;
and, aware that she had no redress, I asked her how
she would obtain her money. Her reply was :— " Oh,
I shall eventually get my money, for I will shame him
out of it by exposure."
The Americans, probably from being such great
speculators, and aware of the uncertainty attending
their commerce, are very lenient towards debtors. If
a man proves that he cannot pay, he is seldom inter-
fered with, but allowed to recommence business. This
is not only Christian-like, but wise. A man thrown
into prison is not likely to find the means of paying his
debts; but if allo\ved his liberty and the means of earn-
ing a subsistence, he may eventually be more fortunate,
and the creditors have a chance of being ultimately paid.
This, to my knowledge, has often been the case after
the release had been signed, and the creditors had no
farther legal claim upon the bankrupt. England has
not yet made up her mind to the abolition of imprison-
ment for debt, but from what I have learnt in this city,
I have no hesitation in saying, that it would ^vork well
for the morals of the community, and that more debts
would eventually be paid, than are paid under the pre-
sent system. Another circumstance which requires to
be pointed out when we would examine into the char-
acter of the New York commercial community, is, the
(liflerence betw^een their bankrupt-law^s and those of
England. Here there is no law to compel a bankrupt
to produce his books; every man may be his own as-
signee, and has the power of giving preference to one
creditor over another; that is to say, he may repay those
who have lent him money in the hope of preventing
his becoming a bankrupt, and all other debts of a like
description. He may also turn over his affairs to an
assignee of his own selection, who then pays the debts
CREDIT. 47
as he pleases. A bankrupt is also permitted to collect
his own debts.
The English bankrupt-laws were introduced, but af-
ter one year's trial they were discontinued, as it was
found that they were attended with so much difficulty,
and, what is of more importance to the Americans, with
so much loss of time. Again, in America, if a person
wishes to become a special partner (a sleeping partner)
in any concern, he may do so to any extent he pleases,
upon advertising the same, and is responsible for no
more than the sum he invests, although the house
should fail for ten times the amount.
Here is an advertisement of special partnership.
"Co-partnership. Notice is hereby given, that a
limited partnership hath been entered into by Lambert
Morange, D. N, Morange, and Samah Solomon, of the
city of New York, merchants, in pursuance of the pro-
visions of the Revised Statutes of the State of New
York. The general nature of the business of said co-
partnership is the manufacturing and selling of fur and
silk hats. The said Lambert Morange is the special
partner, and as such, hath contributed the sum of ten
thousand dollars in cash to the common stock: the said
D. N. Morange and Samah Solomon are the general
partners; and the said business is to be conducted un-
der the name and firm of D. N. Morange and Solomon:
said co-partnership is to commence on the 14th day
of March, 1837, and to expire on the 14th March,
1840.
L. Morange.
"March 14th, D. N. Morange.
1837. Samah Solomon."
That this loose statement of the bankrupt-law may
be, and has been the cause of much dishonesty, is true,
but at the same time it is the cause of the flourishing
state of the community. The bee can always work;
indeed the bankrupt-laws themselves provide for a
man's not starving. In the city the bankrupt's house-
hold furniture is sacred, that his family may not be
48 CREDIT.
beggars; and in case of the bankruptcy of a farmer,
he is permitted not only to retain the furniture of his
cottage, but even his plough, with a proportion of his
team, his kine and sheep, are reserved for him, that he
may still be able to support his family. Surely this is
much preferable to the English system, under which
the furniture is dragged away, the hearth made deso-
late, and the children left to starve because their father
has been unfortunate. Is it not better that a little vil-
lany should escape punishment, than that such cruelty
should be in daily practice? I say a little villany, for
if a man becomes bankrupt in New York, it is pretty
Avell known whether he has dealt fairly with his credi-
tors, or has made a fraudulent bankruptcy: and if so,
his character is gone, and with it his credit, and with-
out credit he never can rise again in that city, but must
remove to some other place.
In England, character will procure to a bankrupt a
certificate, but in New York it will leave him the means
of re-commencing business. In England, it is a dis-
grace to be a bankrupt; in America, it is only a mis-
fortune; but this distinction arises from the boldness
of the speculations carried on by the Americans in
their commercial transactions, and owing to which the
highest and most influential, as well as the smaller ca-
pitalists, are constantly in a state of jeopardy. I do
not believe that there is any where a class of merchants
more honourable than those of Kew York. The no-
torious Colonel Chartres said that he would give
<£20,000 for a character, because he would have made
£100,000 by it. I shall not here enter into the ques-
tion, whether it is by a similar conviction, or by moral
rectitude of feeling, that the merchants of New York
are actuated ; it is sufficient that it is their interest to
be honest, and that they are so. I state the case in
this way, because I do not intend to admit that the
honesty of the merchants is any proof of the morality
of a nation ; and I think I am borne out in my opinion
by their conduct in the late state of difficulty, and the
strenuous exertions made by them to pay to the utter-
CREDIT. 49
most farthing, sacrificing at times twenty per cent, in
order to be enabled to remit money to their London
and Liverpool correspondents, and fulfil their engage-
ments with them.
That there is a great deal of roguery going on in
this city is undeniable, much more, perhaps, than
(taking into consideration the difference between the
populations) in the good city of London. But it should
be borne in mind that New York has become, as it
were, the Alsatia of the whole continent of Europe.
Every scoundrel who has swindled, forged, or robbed
in England, or elsewhere, makes his escape to New
York. Every pickpocket, who is too w^ell known to
the English police, takes refuge here. In this city
they all concentrate ; and it is a hard thing for the
New York merchants, that the stream of society which
otherwise might gradually become more pure, should
be thus poisoned by the continual inpourings of the
Continental dregs, and that they should be made to
share in the obloquy of those who are outcasts from
the society of the Old World.
America exists at present upon credit. If the credit
of her merchants were destroyed she w^ould be checked
in her rapid advance. But this system of credit, which
is necessarily reciprocal, is nevertheless acted upon
with all possible caution. Many are the plans which
the large New York importers have been compelled to
resort to, to ascertain whether their customers from the
interior could be trusted or not. Agents have been
despatched to learn the characters, standing, and means
of the country dealers who are their correspondents,
and who purchase their goods; for the whole of the
transactions are upon credit, and a book of reference
as to people's responsibility is to be found in many of
the mercantile houses of New York.
Willing as I am to do justice to the New York mer-
chants, I cannot, however, permit Mr. Carey's remarks
upon credit to pass unnoticed. Had he said nothing, I
3 hould have said no more ; but, as he asserts that the
s ecurity of property and credit in America is greater
50 CREDIT.
than in England, I must, in defence of my country,
make a few observations.
At the commencement of his article Mr. Carey
says, —
"In England confidence is almost universal. The
banker credits the manufacturer and the farmer. They
are willing to give credit to the merchant, because
they have confidence that he will pay them. He gives
credit to the shop-keeper, who, in his turn, gives credit
to the labourer.
"Immense masses of property change owners with-
out examination; confidence thus producing a great
saving of labour. Orders to a vast extent are given,
with a certainty that they will be executed with per-
fect good faith ; and this system is continued year after
year, proving that the confidence was deserved."
Now, after this admission what more can be re-
quired ] Confidence proves security of property, and
should any change take place so as to render the se-
curity doubtful, confidence would immediately cease.
It is, therefore, rather bold of Mr. Carey, after such an
admission, to attempt to prove that the security of pro-
perty is greater in America than in England ; yet, ne-
vertheless, such is his assertion.
Mr. Carey bases his calculation, first, upon the losses
sustained by the banks of England, in comparison
with those sustained by the banks of Massachusetts.
Here, as in almost every other argument, Mr. Carey
selects one small State — a State, par excellence, supe-
rior to all the others of the Union ; a pattern State, in
fact, — as representing a// America against all England.
He admits that, as you go South and West, the com-
plexion of things is altered ; but notwithstanding this
admission, he still argues upon this one State only,
and consequently upon false premises. But, allow-
ing that he proved that the losses of all the banks
in America were less than the losses of all the
banks in England, he would still prove nothing, or
if he did prove any thing, it would be against him-
self. Why are the losses of American banks less] Sim-
ply because they trust less. There is not that confi-
CREDIT. 51
dence in America that there is in England, and the want
of confidence proves the want of security of property.
The next comparison which Mr. Carey makes is be-
tween the failures of the banks of the two countries ; and
in this argument he takes most of the States in the Union
into his calculation, and he winds up by observing (in
italics) that — " From the first institution of banks in
America to the year 1837, the failures have been less by
about one-fourl»h, than those of England in the three
years of 1814, 15, and 16 ; and the amount of loss sus-
tained by the public bearsj probably, a still smaller pro-
portion to the amount of business transactions."
Now, all this proves nothing, except that the banks of
America are more careful in discounting than our own,
and that by running less risk they lose less money. But
from it Mr. Carey draws this strange conclusion : —
" Individuals in Great Britain enjoy as high a degree
of credit as can possibly exist, but confidence is more
universal in the United States."
Credit \s the ^es\A\. oi confidence ; and if, as appears
to be the case, the American confidence in each other will
not procure credit, it is a very useless compliment passed
between them. It is simply this — " I am certain that
you are a very honest man, but notwithstanding I will
not lend you a shilling." Indeed Mr. Carey contradicts
himself, for, two pages farther on, he says : — " The ex-
istence of the credit system is evidence of mutual con-
fidence.'*
I should like Mr. Carey to answer one question : —
What would have been the amount of the failures of
the banks of America in 1837, if they had not suspended
cash payments ? It is very easy to carry on the banking
business when, in defiance of their charters, the banks
will give you nothing but their paper, and refuse you
specie. Banks which will not pay bullion for their own
notes are not very likely to fail, except in their covenant
with the public. But it is of little use for Mr. Carey to
assert on the one hand, or for me to deny on the other.
Every nation makes its own character with the rest of the
Vol II — 5
52 CREDIT.
world, and it is by other nations that the question between
us must be decided. The question is then, *' Is the cre-
dit of America better than that of England, in the inter-
course of the two countries with each other, and with
foreign nations ?" Let the commercial world decide.
53
PENITENTIARIES, &c.
Although, during iny residence in the cities of the
United States, I visited most of the public institutions, I
have not referred to them at the time in my Diary, as
they have been so often described by precedmg travellers.
I shall now, however, make a few remarks upon the pe-
nitentiary system.
I think it was Wilkes who said, that the very worst
use to which you could put a man was to hang him ;
and such appears to be the opinion in America. That
hanging does not prevent crime, where people are driven
into it by misery and want, I believe ; but it does prevent
crime where people commit it merely from an unrestrain-
ed indulgence of their passions. This has been satisfac-
torily proved in the United States. At one time the
murders in the city of New Orleans were just as fre-
quent as in all the States contiguous to the Mississippi ;
but the population of the city determined to put an end
to such scenes of outrage. The population of New Or-
leans is very different from that of the Southern States in
general, being composed of Americans from the Eastern
States, English merchants, and French Creoles. Vigorous
laws and an efficient police was established ; and one of
the southern planters, of good family and connexions,
having committed a murder, was tried and condemned.
To avoid the gallows, he committed suicide in prison.
This system having been rigorously followed up, New
Orleans has become perhaps the safest city in the Union ;
and now not even a brawl is heard in those streets where,
a few years back, murders occurred every hour of the
day.
In another chapter I shall enter more fully into this
question ; at present I shall only say that there is a great
54 PENITENTIARIES, &C.
unwillingness to take away life in America, and it is this
aversion to capital punishment which has directed the at-
tention of the American community to the penitentiary
system. Several varieties of this species of punishment
have been resorted to, more or less severe. The most
rigid — that of solitary confinement in dark cells, and with-
out labour — was found too great an infliction, as, in many
cases, it unsettled the reason, and ended in confirmed lu-
nacy. Confinement, with the boon of light, but without
employment, was productive of no good effect ; the cul-
prit sank into a state of apathy and indifference. After a
certain time, day and night passed away unheeded, from
the want of a healthy tone to the mind. The prisoners
were no longer lunatics, but they were little better than
brute animals.
Neitiier do I consider the present system, as practised
at the Sing Sing, the state prison of New York, as tend-
ing to reform the olTenders : it punishes them severely,
but tliat is a'l. Where corporal punishment is resorted to,
there always will be feelings of vindictiveness ; and all the
bad passions must be allowed to repose before the better
can gain the ascendant.
The best system is that acted upon in the Penitentiary
at Plii'adelphia, where there is solitary confinement, but
with labour and exercise. Mr. Samuel Wood, who super-
intends this establishment, is a person admirably calculated
for his task, and I do not think that any arrangements
could be belter, or the establishment in more excellent
hands. But m}^ object was, not so much to view the pri-
son and witness the economy of it, as to examine the pri-
soners themselves, and hear what their opinions were.
Tlie surgeon may explain the operation, but the patient
who has undergone it is the proper person to apply to, if
you wish to know the degree and nature of the pain in-
flicted. I requested, therefore, and obtained permission,
to visit a portion of the prisoners without a third party be-
ing present to prevent their being communicative ; select-
ing some who had been in but a short time, others who
had been there for years, and referring also to the books,
as to the nature and degree of their oficnce. I ought to
PENITENTIARIES, dcC 55
state that I re-examined almost tlie whole of the parties
about six months afterwards, and the results of the two
examinations are now given. I did not take their names,
but registered them in my notes as No. 1, 2, 3, &;c.
No. 1 — a man who had been sentenced to twelve years
imprisonment for the murder of his wife. He had been
bred up as a butcher. (I have observed that when the use
of the knife is habitual, the flinching which men naturally
feel at the idea of driving it into a fellow-creature, is over-
come ; and a man who is accustomed to dissect the still
palpitating carcasses of animals, has very little compunc-
tion in resorting to the knife in the event of collision with
his own race.) This fellow looked a butcher ; his face and
head were all animal ; he was by no means intelligent.
He was working at a loom, and had already been confined
for seven years and a half. He said that, after the first
six months of his confinement, lie had lost all reckoning
of time, and had not cared to think about it until lately,
when he enquired, and was told how long he had been
locked up. Now that he had discovered that more than
half his time had passed away, it occupied his whole
thoughts, and sometimes he felt very impatient.
Mr. Wood told me afterwards that this feeling, when
the expiration of the sentence was very near at hand,
sometimes amounted to agony.
This man had denied the murder of his wife, and still
persisted in the denial, although there was no doubt of
his having committed the crime. Of course, in this in-
stance there was no repentance; and the Penitentiary
was thrown away upon him, further than that, for twelve
years, he could not contaminate society.
No. 2. — sentenced to four years' imprisonment for
forgery; his time was nearly expired. This was a very
intelligent man ; by profession he had been a schoolmas-
ter. He had been in prison before for the same offence.
His opinion as to the Penitentiary was, that it could
do no harm, and might do much good. The fault of the
system was one which could not well be remedied, which
was, that there was degradation attached to it. Could
5 *
66 PENITEICTIARIES, &:C.
punishment undergone for crime be viewed in the same
way as repentance was by the Almighty, and a man,
after suffering for his fault, re-appear in the world with
clean hands, and be admitted into society as before, it
would be attended with the very best effects ; but there
was no working out the degradation. When he was re-
leased from his former imprisonment, he had been obliged
to fly from the place where he was known. He was
pursued by the harshness of the world, not only in him-
self, but in his children. No one would allow that his
punishment had wiped away his crime, and this was the
reason why people, inclined to be honest, were driven
again into guilt. Not only would the world not encour-
age them, but it would not permit them to become hon-
est ; the finger of scorn was pointed wherever they were
known, or found out, and the punishment after release
was infinitely greater than that of the prison itself.
Miss Martineau observes, " I was favoured with the
confidence of a great number of the prisoners in the
Philadelphia Penitentiary, where absolute seclusion is the
principle of punishment. Every one of these prisoners
(none of them being aware of the existence of any other)
told me that he was under obligations to those who had
charge of him for treating him ' with respect. '"
No. 3 — a very intelligent, but not educated man : im-
prisoned three years for stealing. He had only been a
few months in the Penitentiary, but had been confined
for ten years in Sing Sing prison for picking pockets. I
asked him his opinion as to the difference of treatment
in the two establishments. He replied, " In Sing Sing
the punishment is corporal — here it is more mental. In
Sing Sing there was little chance of a person's reforma-
tion, as the treatment was harsh and brutal, and the feel-
ings of the prisoners were those of indignation and re-
sentment. Their whole time was occupied in trying how
they could deceive their keepers, and communicate with
each other by every variety of stratagem. Here a man
was left to his own reflections, and at the same time he
was treated like a 7nan. Here he was his own tormentor ;
PENITENTIARIES, &C. 57
at Sing Sing he was tormented by others. A man was
sent to Sing Sing for doing wrong to others ; when there,
he was quite as much wronged himself. Two wrongs
never made a right. Again, at Sing Sing they all work-
ed in company, and knew each other ; when they met
again, after they were discharged, they enticed one another
to do wrong again. He was convinced that no man left
Sing Sing a better man than he went in. Here he felt
very often that he could becom„e better — perhaps he
might. At all events his mind was calm, and he had no
feelings of resentment for his treatment. He had now
leisure and quiet for self examination, if he chose to avail
himself of it. At Sing Sing there was great injustice,
and no redress. The infirm man was put to equal labour
with the robust, and punished if he did not perform as
much. The flogging was very severe at Sing Sing. He
once ventured to express his opinion that such was the
case, and (to prove the contrary he supposed) they
awarded him eighty-seven lashes for the information.
That many of this man's observations, in the parallel
drawn between the two establishments, are correct, must
be conceded ; but still some of his assertions must be
taken with due reservation, as it is evident that he had
no very pleasant reminiscences of his ten years' geolo-
gical studies in Sing Sing.
No. 4 — an Irishman ; very acute. He had been im-
prisoned seven years for burglary, and his time would
expire in a month. Had been confined also in Walnut
Street prison, Philadelphia, for two years previous to his
coming here. He said that it was almost impossible for
any man to reform in that prison, although some few did.
He had served many years in the United States navy.
He declared that his propensity to theft was only strong
upon him when under the influence of liquor, or tobacco,
which latter had the same effect upon him as spirits. He
thought that he was reformed now ; the reason why he
thought so was, that he now liked work, and had learnt
a profession in the prison, which he never had before.
He considered himself a good workman, as he could
o3 PENrTENTIARIES, &C.
make a pair of shoes in a day. He cannot now bear the
smell of liquor or tobacco. (This observation must have
been from imagination, as he had no opportunity in the
Penitentiary of testing his dislike.) He ascribed all his
crimes to ardent spirits. He was fearful of only one
thing : his time was just out, and where was he to go ?
If known to have been in the prison, he would never find
work. He knew a fact which had occurred, which would
prove that he had just grounds for his fear. A tailor, who
had been confined in Walnut Street prison with him,
had been released as soon as his time was up. He was
an excellent workman, and resolved for the future to be
honest. He obtained employment from a master tailor
in Philadelphia, and in three months was made foreman.
One of the inspectors of Walnut Street prison came in
for clothes, and his friend was called down to take the
measures. The inspector recognized him, and as soon
as he left the shop told his master that he had been in
the Walnut Street prison. The man was in consequence
immediately discharged. He could obtain no more work,
and in a few months afterwards found his way back
again to Walnut Street prison for a fresh offence.
No. 5 — a fine intelligent Yankee, very bold in bearing.
He was in the Penitentiary under a false name, being
well connected ; had been brought up as an architect
and surveyor, and was imprisoned for having counter-
feit bank notes in his possession. This fellow was a
regular lawyer, and very amusing ; it appeared as if
nothing could subdue his elasticity of spirit. He said
that he did not think that he should be better for his in-
carceration ; on the contrary, that it would produce very
bad effects. " I am punished," said he, " not for having
passed counterfeit notes, but for having them in my pos-
, session. The facts are, I had lost all my money by
gambling ; and then the gamblers, to make me amends,
gave me some of their counterfeit notes, which they
always have by them. I do not say that I should not
have uttered them ; I believe that in my distress I should
have done so ; but I had not exactly made up my mind.
PENITENTIARIES, &C. 59
At all events, I had not passed them when, from infor-
mation given, I was taken up. This is certain, that not
having passed them, it is very possible for a man to have
forged notes in his possession without being aware of it ;
but this was not considered by my judges, although it
ought to have been, as I had never been brought up be-
fore ; and I have now been sentenced to exactly the same
term of imprisonment as those who were convicted of
passing them. Now, this I consider as unfair; my
punishment is too severe for my offence, and that always
does harm — it creates a vindictive feeling, and a desire
to revenge yourself for the injustice done to you.
" Now, sir," continued he, " I should have no objection
to compromise ; if they would reduce my punishment one
half, I would acknowledge the justice of it, and turn
honest when I go out again ; but if I am confined here for
three years, why it is my opinion that I shall revenge my-
self upon society as soon as I am turned loose again."
This v/as said in a very cheerful, playful manner, as he
stood up before his loom. A more energetic expression,
a keener grey eye, I never met with. There was evidently
great daring of soul in this man.
No. 6 — had only been confined six weeks ; his offence
was stealing pigs, and his companion in the crime had
been sent here with him. He declared that he was inno-
cent, and that he had been committed by false swearing.
There is no country in the world where there is so much
perjury as in the United States, if I am to believe the
Americans themselves ; but Mr. Wood told me that he
was present at the trial, and that there was no doubt of their
guilt. This man was cheerful and contented ; he was
working at the loom, and had already become skilful. All
whom t had seen up to the present had employment of
some sort or other, and I should have passed over this
man, as I had done some others, if it had not been for the
contrast between him and his companion.
No. 7 — this companion or accomplice. In consequence
of the little demand for the Penitentiary manufactures
this man had no employment. The first thing he told
me was that he had nothing to do, and was very miserable.
60 PENITENTIARIES. &C.
He earnestly requested me to ask for employment for
him. He cried bitterly while he spoke, was quite un-
manned and depressed, and complained tliat he had not been
permitted to hear from his wife and children. The want
of employment appeared to have completely prostrated
this man ; although confined but six weeks, he had already
lost the time, and enquired of me the day of the week
and the month.
No. 8 — was at large. He had been appointed apothe-
cary to the prison ; of course he was not strictly confined,
and was in a comfortable room. He was a shrewd man,
and evidently well educated ; he had been reduced to
beggary by his excesses, and being too proud to work, he
had not been too proud to commit forgery. I had a long
conversation with him, and he made some sensible remarks
upon the treatment of prisoners, and the importance of
delegating the charge of prisoners to competent persons.
His remarks also upon American juries were very severe,
and, as I subsequently ascertained, but too true.
No. 9 — a young woman, about nineteen ; confined for
larceny; in other respects a good character. She was
very quiet and subdued, and said that she infinitely pre-
ferred the solitude of the Penitentiary to the company
with which she must have associated had she been con-
fined in a common gaol. She did not appear at all anxious
for the expiration of her term. Her cell was very neat,
and ornamented with her own hands in a variety of ways.
I observed that she had a lock of hair on her forehead
M'hicli, from the care taken of it, appeared to be a favourite,
and as I left the cell, 1 said — " You appear to have taken
great pains with that lock of hair, considering that you
have no one to look at you ?" — " Yes, sir," replied she ;
" and if you think that vanity will desert a woman, even
in the solitude of a Penitentiary, you are mistaken."
When I visited this girl a second time, her term was
nearly expired ; she told me that she had not the least
wish to leave her cell, and that if they confined her for
two years more, slie was content to stay. " I am quite
peaceful and happy here," said she, and I believe she
really spoke the truth.
PENITENTIARIES, &C. 61
No. 10 — a free mulatto girl, about eighteen years of
age, one of the most forbidding of her race, and with a
physiognomy perfectly brutal ; but she evidently had no
mean opinion of her own charms : her woolly hair was
twisted into at least fifty short plaits, and she grinned from
ear to ear as she advanced to meet me. " Pray may I in-
quire what you are imprisoned for ?" said I. — " Why,
replied she, smirking, smiling and coquetting, as she
tossed her head right and left — " If you please, sir, I was
put in here for poisoning a whole family ^ She really
appeared to think that she had done a very praiseworthy
act. I inquired of her if she was aware of the heinous-
ness of her offence. " Yes, she knew it was wrong, but
if her mistress beat her again as she had done, she thought
she would do it again. She had been in prison three
years, and had four more to remain." I asked her if the
fear of punishment — if another incarceration for seven
years would not prevent her from committing such a crime
a second time. •' She didn't know ; she didn't like being
shut up — found it very tedious, but still she thought — was
not right sure — but she thought that, if ill-treated, she
should certainly do it again."
I paid a second visit to this amiable young lady, and
asked her what her opinion was then. — " Why, she had
been thinking, but had not exactly made up her mind —
but she still thought — indeed she was convinced — that
she should do it again.^^
I entered many other cells, and had conversation with
the prisoners ; but I did not elicit from them any thing
worth narrating. There is, however, a great deal to be
gained from the conversation which I have recorded. It
must be remembered that observations made by one pri-
soner, which struck me as important, if not made by
others, were put as questions by me ; and I found that
the opinions of the most intelligent, although differently
expressed, led to the same result — that the present sys-
tem of the Philadelphia Penitentiary was the best that
had been invented. As the schoolmaster said, if it did no
good, it could do no harm. There is one decided advan-
tage in this system, which is, that they all learn a trade,
62 PENITENTIARIES, &€,
if they had not one before ; and, when they leave the pri-
son, have the means of obtaining an honest hveUhood, if
they wish so to do themselves, and are permitted so to
do by others. Here is the stumbling-block, which neu-
tralizes almost all the good effects which might be pro-
duced by the Penitentiary system. The severity and
harshness of the world ; the unchristianlike feeling per-
vading society, which denies to the penitent what indi-
vidually they will have to plead for themselves at the
great tribunal, and which will not permit that punishment,
awarded and suffered, can expiate the crime ; on this
point, there is no hope of a better feeling being engen-
dered. Mankind have been and will be the same ; and it
is only to be hoped that we may receive more mercy in
the next world than we are inclined to extend towards
our fellow-creatures in this.
As I have before observed, I care litde for the observa-
tions or assertions of directors or of officers entrusted
with the charge of the Penitentiaries and houses of cor-
rection ; they are unintentionally biassed, and things that
appear to them to be mere trifles are very often extreme
hardships to the prisoners. It is not only what the body
suffers, but what the mind suffers, which must be con-
sidered ; and it is from the want of this consideration that
arise most of the defects in those establishments, not only
in America, but every where else.
During my residence in die United States, a litUe work
made its appearance, which I immediately procured ; it
was the production of an American, a scholar, once in
the best society, but who, by intemperance, had forfeited
his claim to it. He wrote the very best satirical poem I
ever read by an American, full of force, and remarkable
for energetic versification ; but intemperance, the preva-
lent vice of America, had reduced him to beggary and
wretchedness. He was (by his own request I under-
stand) shut up in the House of Correction at South Bos-
ton, that he might, if possible, be reclaimed from intem-
perance ; and, on his leaving it, he published a small
work, called " The Rat-Trap, or Cogitations of a Convict
in the House of Correction." This work bears the mark
FENITENTIARIES, fcc. ^68
^f a reflective, although buoyant mind ; and as he speaks
in the highest terms of Mr. Robbins the master, and be-
stows praise generally when deserved, his remarks, al-
-though occasionally jocose, are well worthy of attention ;
and I shall, therefore, introduce a few of them to the
Teader.
His introduction commences thus t*-^
" I take it for granted that one of every two individuals
in this most moral community in the world has been,
will be, or deserves or fears to be, in the House of Cor-
rection. Give every man his deserts, and who shall es-
cape whipping? This book must, therefore, be interesting,
and will have a good circulation — not, perhaps, in this
State alone. The Stat« spends its money for the above
institution, and, therefore, has a right to know what it is;
a knowledge which can never be obtained from the re-
ports of the authorities, the cursory observations of visi-
tors, or the statements of ignorant and exasperated con-
victs.
* What thief e'er felt the halter draw,
With good opinion of the law ?"
It has been ray aim to furnish such knowledge, and it
eannot be denied that I have had the best opportunities to
obtain it."
To show the prevalence of intemperance in this coun-
try among the better classes, read the following: —
" On entering the wool-shop, a man nodded to me,
whom I immediately recognized as a lawyer of no mean
talent, who had, at no very distant period, been an orna-
ment of society, and a man well esteemed for many ex-
cellent qualities, all of which are now forgotten, while his
only fault, intemperance, remains engraven on steel. This
was not his first term, or his second, or his third. At
this time of writing he is discharged, a sober man, anxious
for employment, which he cannot get. His having been
in the House of Correction shuts every door against him,
^nd he must have more than ordinary firmness if he does
not relapse again. From my inmost soul I pity hun-.
Vol. ii. — 6
64 PENITENTIARIES, <^C.
Another aged man I recognized as a doctor of medicine -'
his gray hairs would have been venerable in any other
place."
The labour in this House of Correction which he de-
scribes is chiefly confined to wool-picking, stone-cutting,
and blacksmiths' work. The fare he states to be plenti-
ful, but not of the very best quality. Speaking of ill-
treatment, he says : —
" The convicts all have the privilege of complaint
against officers ; but while I was there no one used it but
myself. I believe they dared not. The officer would
probably deny or gloss over the cause of complaint, and
his word would be believed rather than that of the con-
vict; and his power of retaliation is so tremendous, that
few would care to brave it. The chance is ten to one
that a complaint to the directors would be falsified and
prove fruitless ; and the visit of the governor, council,
and magistrates, for the purpose of inquiry, is mere mat-
ter of form. When they asked me if I had reason to
complain of my treatment, I answered in the negative,
because I really had none ; but had they asked me if there
was any defect in the institution, I would have pointed out
a good many."
The monotony of their existence is well described : —
" Few incidents chequered the monotony of our ex-
istence. * Who has a got a piece of steel in his eye ?'— -*
' AVho has gone to the hospital V — ' How many came to
day in the carryall ? were almost the only questions we
could ask. A man falling from the new prison, and
breaking his bones in a fashion not to be approved, was a
conversational godsend. One day the retiring tide left a
small box on the sands at the bottom of the House of
Correction wharf, which was picked up by a convict,
and found to contain the bequest of some woman who
had Moved not wisely, but too well ;' namely, a pair of
new-born infants. In my mind, their fate was happy. If
they never knew woman's tenderness, neither did they
ever know woman's falsehood. There is less pleasure
than pain in this bad world, and the earlier we take leave
of it the better."
PENITENTIARIKS, &LC, 65
He complains of due regard not being paid to the
cleanliness of the prisoners : —
" A great defect in the police of the house was the
want of baths. We were shaved, or rather scraped, but
once a week. Washing one's face and hands in ice-cold
water of a winter morning, is little better than no ablu-
tion at all. The harbour water is interdicted, lest the
convicts should swim away, and in the stone shop there
are no conveniences for bathing whatever : they would
cost something ! In the wool-shop, forty men have one
tubful of warm water once a week. When I say that
shirts are worn a week in summer, and (as well as draw-
ers) two or three weeks in winter, it will at once be con-
ceded that some further provision for personal cleanliness
is imperatively demanded, I hope neither this nor any
other remark I may think fit to make will be taken as
emanatmg from a fault-finding spirit, since, while I pro-
nounce upon the disease, I suggest the remedy."
Speaking of his companions, he says : —
" I had expected to find myself linked with a band of
most outrageous ruffians, but such did not prove to be the
case. Few of them were decidedly of a vicious temper-
ament. The great fault with them seemed to be a want
of moral knowledge and principle. Were I to commit a
theft I should think myself unworthy to live an instant ;
but some of them spoke of the felonies for which they
were adjudged to suffer with as much nonchalance as if
they were the every-day business of life, without scruple
and without shame. Few of them denied the justice of
their sentences ; and if they expressed any regret, it was
not that they had sinned, but that they had been detected.
The duration of the sentence, the time or money lost, the
physical sufiering, was what filled their estimate of their
condition. Many had groans and oaths for a lost dinner,
a night in the cells, or a tough piece of work, but none
had a tear for the branding infamy of their conviction.
Yet some, even of the most hardened, faltered, and spoke
with quivering lip and glistening eye, when they thought
of their parents, wives, and children. The flinty Horeb
of their souls sometimes yielded gushing streams to the
^ PEPflTENTIARIES, &(?.
force of that appeal. But there were very few who Mt
any shame on their own account. Their apathy on the
point of honour was amazing. A young man, not twen-
ty-five years old^ in particular^ made his felonies his
glory, and boasted that he had been a tenant of half the
prisons in the United States. He v/as sentenced to four
years' imprisonment for stealing a great number of pieces
of broad-cloth, which he unblushingly told me he had
lodged in the hands of a receiver of stolen goods, and ex-
pected to receive the vakie at the expiration of his sen-
tence. He relied on the proverbial ' honour among
thieves.' That fellow ought to be kept in safe custody
the remainder of his n.atural life."
Certainly those remarks do not argue much for the re-
formation of the culprit.
By his account, a parsimony in every point appears to
be the great desideratum aimed at. Speaking of the
chaplain to the institution, he says : —
" Small blame to him ; 1 honour and respect the man,
though I laugh at the preacher. And I say, that seven
hundred and thirty sermons per annura, for three hun-
dred dollars and a weekly dinner, are quite pork enough
for a shilling. No man goeth a warfare on his own-
charges, and the labourer is worthy of his hire. I da
not see how he can justify such wear and tear of his pul-
monary leather, for so small a sum, to his conscience.
What is a sixpenny razor or a nine-shilling sermon?
Neither can be expected to cut — not but his sermons
would be very good for the use of glorified saints — but,
alas ! there are none such in the House of Correction.
What is the inspiration of a penny-a-liner ? I will sup-
pose that one of the hearers is a sailor, who would relish
and appreciate a sausage or a lobscouce. Mr. sets
blanc mange before him. Messrs. of the City Govern-
ment, give your chaplain two thousand dollars a year, so
that he may reside in the House of Correction, without
leaving his family to starvation ; let him visit each indi-
vidual, leani bis circumstances and character, and sym-
pathise with him in all his sorrows, and, my word for ity.
Mr. will have the love and confidenjce of alL H&
PENITENTIARIES, &C. 67
will be an instrument of great good by his counsel and
exhortations. But as for his public preaching, this truly-
good, pious, and learned man might as well sing psalms
to a mad horse. Fishes will not throng to St. Anthony,
or swine listen to the exorcism of an apostle, in these
godless days. If you think he will be overpaid for his
services, you may braze the duty of a school-master, who
is very much needed, to that of a ghostly adviser.
" Mr. never fails to pray strenuously that the mas-
ter and officers may be supported and sustained, which
has given rise to the following tin-pot epigram : —
" Support the master and the overseers,
O Lord ! so runs our chaplain's weekly ditty ;
Unreasonable prayers God never hears,
He knows that they're supported by the city."
He complains bitterly of the convicts not being per-
mitted the use of any books but the Bible and Temper-
ance Almanac*
" Is it pleasant to look back on follies, vices, crimes ;
presently on blasted hopes, iron bars, and unrequited la-
bour ; and forward upon misery, starvation, and a world's
scorn? In some degree the malice of this regulation
which ought only to be inscribed on the statute-book oi
hell, is impotent. The small glimpse of earth, sea, and
sky a convict can command, a spider crawling upon the
wall, the very corners of his cell, will serve, by a strong
effort, for occupation for his thoughts. Read the follow-
ing tea-pot-graven monologue, written by some mentally
suffering-convict, and reflect upon it : —
" Stone walls and iron bars my frame confine,
But the full liberty of thought is mine.
Sad privilege ! the mental glance to cast
O'er crimes, o'er follies and misconduct past.
Oh wretched tenant of a guarded cell,
Thy very freedom makes thy mind a hell.
* It is rather strange, but he says that he supposes that a full
half of the iomates of this House of Correction can neither read
nor tcrite.
68 PENITENTIARIES, <fec.
Come, blessed death ; thy grinded dart to me,
Shall the bless'd signal of deliverance be ;
With thy worst agonies were cheaply bought,
A last release, a final rest from thought"
"If the pains of a prison be not enough for you, I will
teach you a lesson in the art of torture which I learned
from our chaplain, or one of his substitutes. ' Make your
cells round and smooth ; let there be no prominent point
for the eye to rest upon, so that it must necessarily turn
inward, and I will warrant that you will soon have the
pleasure of seeing your victim frantic' Look well to the
temperance trash you physic us with, and you will find,
in the Almanac for 1837, a serious attempt to ma^^e Napo-
leon Bonaparte out a drunkard, and to prove that a rum-
bottle lost him the battle of Waterloo. The author must
himself have been drunk when he wrote it. Are yoa not
ashamed, to set such pitiful cant, I will not say such wil-
ful falsehood and slander, before any rational creature !
Did you not know that an overcharged gun would knock
the musketeer over by its recoil ? I do not tell you to give
the convicts all and any books they may desire ; but pray
what harm would an arithmetic do, unless it taught them
to refute the statistics of your lying almanac, which grave-
ly advises farmers to feed their hogs with apples, to pre-
vent folks from getting drunk on cider? Why not tell
ihem to feed their cattle with barley and wheat for the same
reason? What mind was ever corrupted by Murray's
Grammar, or Washington Irving^s Columbus? When
was ever falsehood the successful pioneer of truth ?"
His remarks upon visitors being permitted to see the
convicts are good..
•' Among the annoyances, which others as well as my •
self felt most galling, was the frequent intrusion of visitors,
who had no object but the gratification of a morbid curi-
osity. Know all persons, that the most debased convict
has human feelings, and does not like to be seen in a parti-
coloured jacket. If ye want to see any convict for any
good reason, ask the master to let you meet him in hi&
office 'r and even there, you may rely upon it, your visit
PENITENTIARIES, &C. 6^
will be painful enough ; to be stared at by the ignorant and
the mean with feelings of pity, as if one were some mon-
ster of Ind, was intolerable. I hope a certain connection
of mine, who came to see me unasked and unwelcome,
aad brought a stranger with him to witness my disgrace,
may never feel the pain he inflicted on me. To a kind-
hearted ' Mac,' who came in a proper and delicate way to
comfort when I thought all the world had forsaken me, I
tender my most grateful thanks. His kindness shall be
remembered by me while memory holds her seat. Let
the throng of uninvited fools who swarmed about us, ac-
cept the following sally of the House of Correction muse,
from the pen, or rather the fork, of a fellow convict. It
may operate to edification.
' TO OUR VISITORS.
"■ By gazing at us, sirs, pray what do you mean ?
Are we the first rascals that ever were seen ?
Look into your mirrors — perhaps you may find
All villains are not in South Boston confined.
*■ I'm not a wild beast, to be seen for a penny ;
But a man, as well made and as proper as any ;
And what we most dilFer in is, well I wot.
That I have my merits, and you have them not.
' I own I'm a drunkard ; but much I incline
To think that your elbow crooks as often as mine ;
Aye, breathe m my face, sir, as much as you will — >
One blast fif your breath is as good as a gill.
' How kind was our country, to find us a home
Where duns cannot plague us, or enemies come ;
And you from the cup of her kindness may strain
A drop so sufficing, you'll not drink again.
'And now that by staring with mouth and eyes open,
Ye have bruised the reeds that already were broken ;
Go home and, by dint of strict mental inspection,
Let each make his own house a House of Correction/
" This morceaii was signed * Iwmgitans/ '*
70
PENITENTIARIES, <fec.
The following muster-roll of crime, as he terms it,
which he obtained from the master of the prison, is curi-
ous, as it exemplifies the excess of intemperance in the
United States — bearing in mind that this is the moral
state of Massachusetts.
*'Tiie whole number of males committed to this House
of Correction from the time it was opened — July 1st, 1833,
to Sept. 1st, 1837, — was 1477. Of this number there
were common drunkards, 783, or more than one-half.
" The whole amount of females committed to this insti-
tution from the time it was opened to Sept. 1837, was 869.
Of this number there were common drunkards 430, very
nearly one-half.
" And of the whole number committed there were —
Natives of Massachusetts. . 720
New Hampshire 175
Maine 130
Vermont 17
Rhode Island 35
Connecticut 28
New York 50
New Jersey 3
Pennsylvania 28
Delaware 6
Maryland 10
Virginia 20
North Carolina 10
South Carolina 1
Georgia , . . 5
District Columbia 3
United States 1241
Moral States 1005
Other States 236
England 104
Scotland 38
Ireland 839
Provinces
69
France
.... 10
... . 2
Germany
.... 2
Holland
. . . . 2
Poland
2
Denmark
2
Prussia
1
Sweden ...........
8
West Indies
12
Cape de Verds
1
Island of Malta
At Sea
1
7
Foreigners
Unknown
1100
5
Total,
2346
He sums up as follows : —
"I have nearly finished, but I should not do justice to
my subject did I admit to avert to the beggarly catch-peil-
ny system on which the whole concern is conducted. The
convicts raise pork and vegetables in plenty, but they must
not eat thereof; these things must be sent to market to
PENITENTIARIES, &C. 71
balance the debit side of the prison ledger. The prisoners
must catch cold and suffer in the hospital, and the wool
and stone shops, because it would cost something to erect
comfortable buildings. They must not learn to read and
write, lest a cent's worth of their precious time should be
lost to the city. They may die and go to hell, and be
damned, for a resident physician and chaplain are expen-
sive articles. They may be dirty ; baths would cost mo-
ney, and so would books. I believe the very Bibles and
Almanacs are the donation of the Bible and Temperance
Societies. Every thing is managed with an eye to mo-
ney making — the comfort or reformation, or salvation, of
the prisoners are minor considerations. Whose fault is
this?
'* The fault, most frugal public, is your own. You
like justice, but you do not like to pay for it. You like
to see a clean, orderly, well-conducted prison, and, as
far as your parsimony will permit, such is the House of
Correction. With all its faults, it is still a valuable in-
stitution. It holds all, it harms few, and reforms some.
It looks well, for the most has been made of matters. If
you would have it perfect you must untie your purse-
strings, and you will lose nothing by it in the end^**
72
ARxMY.
Recruits and Unattached 1,418
Total .... 7,834
A STANDING army is so adverse to the institutions,
and so offensive to the people of a democracy, that, were
It possible, there would be no such thing as American
regular troops ; but, finding it impossible to do without
a portion, they have a force as follows ;—
General Staff 13 , Four Regiments of Ar-
Medical Department 76 tillery 1606
I'^y , . ^^"« i8 I Seven Regimente of' In- '
Purchasmg ditto 3 } funtry 3,118
Corps or t;ngineers 28
Topographical 10
Ordnance Department . . . 209
Two Regiments of Dra-
goons 1,335
Of which military force the privates amount to only 5,652 men.
This is very insufficient, even to distribute among the
fi'ontier forts as a check to the Indians, but now that the
i-lorida war has so long occupied the troops, these out-
posts have been left in a very unprotected state. Isolated
as the officers are from the world, (for these forts are
lar removed from towns or cities,) they contrive to form
a society within themselves, having most of them re-
course to matrimony, which always gives a man some-
thing to do, and acts as a fillip upon his faculties, which
might stagnate from such quiet monotony. The society
^uZ 'J^ ^^^'^ """^P^^^" ^^ ^"^^1'' but very pleasant.'
All the officers being now educated at West Point thev
are mostly very intelligent and well-informed, and sol-
diers wives are always agreeable women all over the
world. 1 he barracks turn out also a very fair shew of
children upon the green sward. The accommodations
ARMI?. 73
are, generally speaking, very good, and when supplies
can be received, the living is equally so ; when they
cannot, it can't be helped, and there is so much money
saved. A suttler's store is attached to each outpost, and
the prices of the articles are regulated by a committee
of officers, and a tax is also levied upon the suttler in
proportion to the number of men in the garrison, the
proceeds of which are appropriated to the education of
the children of the soldiers and the provision of a library
and news-room. If the Government were to permit
officers to remain at any one station for a certain period,
much more would be done ; but the Government is con-
tinually shifting them from post to post, and no one will
take the trouble to sow when he has no chance of reaping
the harvest. Indeed, many of the officers complained
that they had hardly had time to furnish their apart-
ments in one fort when they were ordered off to another —
not only a great inconvenience to them, but a great
expense also.
The American army is not a favourite service, and
this is not to be wondered at. It is illtreated in every
way ; the people have a great dislike to them, which is
natural enough in a Democracy; but what is worse, to
curry favour with the people, the Government very often
do not support the officers in the execution of their duty.
Their furloughs are very limited, and they have their
choice of the outposts, where they live out of the world,
or the Florida war, when they go out of it. But the
greatest injustice is, that they have no half-pay : if not
wishing to be employed, they must resign their com-
missions and live as they can. In this point there is
a great partiality shewn to the navy, who have such
excellent half-pay, although, to prevent remarks at such
glaring injustice to the other service, another term is
given to the naval half-pay, and the naval officers are
supposed to be always on service.
The officers of the army are paid a certain sum, and
allowed a certain number of rations per month ; for in-
stance, a major-general has two hundred dollars per
Same rank ,
960
Do
830
Do
525
Do
380
Do. 156
^4 ARMY.
month, and fifteen rations. According to the estimated
value of the rations, as given to me by one of the officers-,
the annual pay of the different grades will be, in our
money, nearly as follows : —
Army. £. Navy, £.
Major-General 850
terigadier-Gencral 570
Colonel 340
Lieutenant-Colonel 280
Major 225
Captain ...200
First Lieutenant. ....... . 150
Second Li -utenant 140
Cadet 90
The cavalry officers have a slight increase of pay.
The privates of the American rcgular army are not
the most creditable soldiers in the world ; they are chiefly
composed of Irish emigrants, Germans, and deserters
from the English regiments in Canada. Americans are
very rare ; only those who can find nothing else to do,
and have to choose between enlistment and starvation,
will enter into the American army. They do not, how-
ever, enlist for longer than three years. There is not
much discipline, and occasionally a great deal of inso-
lence, as might be expected from such a collection. Cor-
poral punishment has been abolished in the American
army except for desertion ; and if ever there was a proof
of the necessity of punishment to enforce discipline, it is
the many substitutes in lieu of it, to which the officers
are compelled to resort — all of them more severe than
flogging. The most common is that of loading a man
with thirty*six pounds of shot in his knapsack, and
making him walk three hours out of four, day and night
without intermission, with this weight on his shoulders,
for six days and six nights ; that is, he is compelled to
walk three hours with the weight, and then is suffered to
sit down one. Towards the close this punishment be-
comes very severe ; the feet of the men are so sore and
swelled, that they cannot move for some days afterwards.
ARMY. 75
I enquired what would be the consequence if a man were
to throw down his knapsack and refuse to walk. The
commanding-officer of one of the forts replied, that he
would be hung up by his thumbs till he fainted — a
variety of piquetting. Surely these punishments savour
quite as much of severity, and are quite as degrading as
flogging.
The pay of an American private is good — fourteen
dollars a month, out of which his rations and regimen-
tals take eight dollars, leaving him six dollars a month
for pleasure. Deserters are punished by being made to
drag a heavy ball and chain after them, which is never
removed day or night. If discharged, they are flogged,
their heads shaved, and they are drummed out at the
point of the bayonet.
From the conversations I have had with many desert-
ers from our army, who were residing in the United
States or were in the American service, I am convinced
that it would be a very well judged measure to offer a free
pardon to all those who would return to Canada and re-
enter the English service. I think that a good effective
regiment would soon be collected, and one that you
might trust on the frontiers without any fear of their de-
serting again ; and it would have another good effect,
which is, that their statements would prevent the deser-
tion of others.
America, and its supposed freedom, is, to the British
soldiers, an Utopia in every sense of the word. They
revel in the idea ; they seek it, and it is not to be found.
The greatest desertion from the English regiments is
among the musicians composing the bands. There are
so many theatres in America, and so few musicians, ex-
cept coloured people, that instrumental performers of all
kinds are in great demand. People are sent over to
Canada, and the other British provinces, to pursuade
these poor fellows to desert, promising them very large
salaries, and pointing out to them the difference between
being a gentleman in America and a slave in the Eng-
lish service. The temptation is too strong; they desert ;
Vol. II-7
76 ARMY.
and when they arrive, they soon learn the value of the
promises made to them, and find how cruelly they have
been deceived.
The Florida war has been a source of dreadful vexa-
tion and expense to the United States, having already
cost them between 20,000,000 and 30,000,000 of dol-
lars, without any apparent prospect of its coming to a sat-
isfactory conclusion. The American government has
also very much injured its character, by the treachery
and disregard of honour shown by it to the Indians, who
have been, most of them, captured under a flag of truce.
I have heard so much indignation expressed by the
Americans themselves at this conduct that I shall not
comment further upon it. Itisthe Federal Government,
and not the officers employed, who must bear the onus.
But this war has been mortifying, and. even dangerous to
the Americans in another point. It has now lasted three
years and more. General after general has been super-
seded, because they have not been able to bring it to a
conclusion ; and the Indians have proved, to themselves
and to the Americans, that they can defy them when they
once get them among the swamps and morasses. There
has not been one hundred Indians killed, although many
of them have been treacherously kidnapped, by a viola-
tion of honour; and it is supposed that the United States
have already lost one thousand men, if not more, in-this
protracted conflict.
The aggregate force under General Jessop, in Florida,
in November 1837, was stated to be as follows : —
Regulars 4,637
Volunteers 4,078
Seamen 100
Indians 178
It is supposed that the number of Indians, remaining
in Florida do not amount, men, women, and children, to
ARMY.
77
more than 1,500; and General Jessop has declared to
the government that the war is impracticable.
Militia. — The return of the ?»-nilitia of the United
States, for the year 1837, is as follows : —
The number of Militia in the several States and Territories, ac-
cording to the statement of George Bomford, Colonel of Ord-
nance, dated 20th November, 1837.
States and Territories.
Date
Number
of
of
Return.
Militia.
1836
42,468
1836
27,473
1836
44,911
1830
14,808
1830
13,724
1830
60,982
1824
25,581
1832
1,377
1836
23,826
1836
184,728
1829
39,171
1834
202,281
1827
9,229
1836
46,854
1836
101,838
1835
64,415
1833
51,112
1834
48,461
1829
14,892
1836
71,483
1836
146,428
1833
- 5.3,913
1831
27,386
1835
6,170
1825
2,028
1831
5,478
1831
827
none
1832
1,249
1,333,091
Maine
New Hampshire . . .
Massachusetts
Louisiana
Mississippi
Tennessee
Vermont
Rhode Island
Connecticut
New York
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
Delaware
Maryland
Virginia
North Carolina ......
South Carolina
Georgia
Alabama
Kentucky
Ohio
Indiana
Illinois
Missouri
Arkansas
Michigan
Florida Territory . . „
Wisconsin Territory
District of Columbia
78 ARMY.
This is an enormous force, but at the com men cement
of a war not a very effective one. In fact, there is no
country in the world so defenceless and so unprepared
for war as the United States, but, once roused up, no
country more formidable if any attempt is made to in-
vade its territories. At the outbreak of a war, the States
have almost everything to provide; and although the
Americans are well adapted as materials for soldiers, still
they have to be levied and disciplined. At the com-
mencement of hostilities, it is not improbable that a
well-organized force of 30,000 men might walk through
the whole of the Union, from Maine to Georgia ; but it
is almost certain that not one man would ever get back
again, as by that time the people would have been roused
and excited, armed and sufficiently disciplined ,* and their
numbers, independent of their bravery, would overwhelm
three or four times the number I have mentioned.
Another point must not pass unnoticed, which is that
in America, the major part of which is still an uncleared
country, the system of warfare naturally partakes much
of the Indian practices of surprise and ambuscade ; and
the invaders will always have to labour under great disad-
vantage of the Americans having that perfect knowledge of
the country which the former have not.
Most of the defeats of the British troops have been oc-
casioned by this advantage on the part of the Americans,
added to the impracticability of the country rendering the
superior discipline of the British of no avail. Indeed
the great advantage of knowing the country were proved
by the American attempts to invade Canada during the
last war, and which ended in the capitulation of General
Hull. In an uncleared country, even where large forces
meet, each man, to a certian degree, acts independently,
taking his position, perhaps, behind a tree (treeing it, as
they term it in America), or any other defence which may
offer. Now, it is evident that, skilled as all the Americans
are in fire-arras, and generally using rifles, a disciplined
English soldier, with his clumsy musket, fights at a dis-
advantage ; and, therefore, with due submission to his
Grace, the Duke of Wellington was very wrong when he
ARMY. 79
Stated, the other day in the House of Lords, that the
militia of Canada should be disbanded, and their place
supplied by regular troops from England. The militia of
Upper Canada are quite as good men as the Americans,
and can meet them after their own fashion. A certain
proportion of regulars are advantageous, as they are more
steady, and in case of a check can be more depended
upon ; but it is not once in five times that they will, either
in America or Canada, be able to bring their concentrated
discipline into play. But if the Americans have not the
discipline of our troops, their courage is undoubted, and
even upon a clear plain the palm of victory will always be
severely disputed. A Vermonter, surprised for a moment
at finding himself in a charge of bayonents with ihe Eng-
lish troops, eyed his opponents, and said, " Well, I cal-
culate my piece of iron is as good as yourn, anyhow,"
and then rushed to the attack. People who "calculate"
in that way are not to be trifled with, as the annals of his-
tory fully demonstrate.
A war between America and England is always to be de-
precated. Notwithstanding that the countries are severed,
still the Americans are our descendants ; they speak the
same language ; and Calthough they do not readily admit
it) still look up to us as their mother country. It is true
that this feeling is fast wearing away, but still it is not
yet efiaced. It is true also that, in their ambition and
their covetousness, they would destroy the mutual ad-
vantages derived by both countries from our commercial
relations, that they might, by manufacturing as well as
producing, secure the whole profits to themselves. But
they are wrong ; for, great as America is becoming, the
time is not yet arrived when she can compete with English
capital, or work for herself without it. But there is
another reason why a war between the two countries is
so much to be deprecated, which is, that it must ever be
a cruel and an irritating war. To attack the Americans by
invasion will always be hazardous, and must ultimately
prove disastrous. In what manner, then, is England to
avenge any aggression that may be committed by the
Ameiicans? All she can do is to ravage, burn, and des-
1*
80 ARMY.
troy ; to carry the horrors of war along their whole ex-
tended line of coast, distressing the non-corabatants, and
wreaking vengeance upon the defenceless.
Dreadful to contemplate as this is, and even more dread-
ful the system of stimulating the Indian tribes to join us,
adding scalping, and murdering of women and children,
to other horrors, still it is the only method to which Eng-
land could resort, and, indeed, a method to which she
would be warranted to resort, in her own behoof. More-
over, in case of a future war, England must not allow it
to be of sueh short duration as was the last ; the Ameri-
cans must be made to feel it, by its being protracted until
their commerce is totally annihilated, and their expenses
are increased in proportion with the decrease of their
means.
Let it not be supposed that England would liarass the
coasts of America, or raise the Indian tribes against her,
from any feeling of malevolence, or any pleasure in the
sufferings which must ensue. It would be from the
knowledge of the fact that money is the sinews of war
and consequently that, by obliging the Americans to call
out so large a force as she must do to defend her coast
and to repel the Indians, she would be put to such an
enormous expense, as would be severely felt throughout
the Union, and soon incline all parties to a cessation of
hostilities. It is to touch their pockets that this plan
must and will be resorted to ; and a war carried on upon
that plan alone, would prove a salutary lesson to a young
and too ambitious a people. Let the Americans recollect
the madness of joy with which the hats and caps were
thrown up in the air at New York, \vhen, even after so
short a war with England, they heard that the treaty of
peace had been concluded ; and that too at a time when
England was so occupied in a contest, it may be said,
with the whole world, that she could hardly divert a por-
tion of her strength to act against America : then let them
reflect how sanguinary, how injurious, a protracted war
with England would be, when she could direct her whoU
force against them. It is, however, useless to ask a people
to reflect who are governed and ruled by the portion wh©
ARMY. 81
will not reflect. The forbearance must be on our part ;
and, for the sake of humanity, it is to be hoped that we
«hall be magnanimous enough to forbear, for so long as
may be consistent with the maintenance ©f our national
honour.
82
AMERICAN MARINE.
It may be inferred that I naturally directed my atten-
tion to every thing connected with the American marine,
and circumstances eventually induced me to search much
more minutely into particulars than at first I had inlend-
ed to do.
The present force of the American navy is rated as
follows : —
Ships of the Line.
Of 120 guns 1
80 guns » .... 7
74 guns 3
Total 11
Frigates, 1st Class.
Of 54 guns 1
44 guns 14
Total 15
Frigates, 2d Class.
Of 36 guns 2
Of 20 guns 12
18 guns 3
Total 15
Schooners.
Of 10 guns 6
Others 7
Total 13
Grand Total . ... 56
AMERICAN MARINE.
83
NAVY LIST.
Vessels of War of the United States Navy, September, 1837.
Name and Rate.
Where and when built
Where employed.
Ships of the Line.
GUNS.
Franklin ....
. 74
Philadelphia .
. 1815
In ordinary at New
York.
Washington . .
. 74
Portsmouth, N.
H.
1816
Ditto ditto.
Columbus ....
. 74
Washington .
. 1819
At Boston (repaired.)
Ohio
. 80
.. 80
New York . . .
Philadelphia . .
.1820
. 1820
Ditto ditto.
North Carolina
In commission (Pa-
cific).
Delaware
.. 80
Gosport
1820
At Norfolk (repaired.)
Alabama
. 80
On stocks at Ports-
mouth, N. H.
Vermont
. 80
Ditto at Boston.
Virginia
„ 80
Ditto ditto.
New York . . .
. 80
On stocks, at Norfolk.
Pennsylvania ..
. 120
Philadelphia . .
. 1837
At Philadelphia.
Frigates, \st Class.
Independence . .
.. 54
Boston
1814
On the coast of Brazil.
United States ..
. . 44
Philadelphia . .
. 1797
In commission (Medi-
terranean.)
Constitution . .
. . 44
Boston
. 1787
Ditto ditto.
Guerriere
. 44
Philadelphia..
. 1814
In ordinary, Norfolk.
Java
.44
Baltimore ....
1814
Receiving ship, ditto.
In ordinary at ditto>
Potomac ....
.. 44
Washington .
1821
Brandywine . . .
. 44
Washington . .
1825
Ditto. ditto.
Hudson
. 44
Purchased . . .
. 1826
Receiving vessel at
New York.
Columbia
. 44
Washington . .
1836
In ordinary, Norfolk.
Santee
. 44
_
On stocks, at Ports-
mouth, N. H.
Cumberland . . .
. 44
. 44
. 44
. 44
. 44
lass.
Ditto at Boston.
Sabine
Ditto at New York.
Savannah
Ditto ditto.
Raritan
Ditto at Philadelphia.
St. Lawrence . .
Ditto at Norfolk.
Frigates, 2d C
Constellation , ,
,. 36
Baltimore
1797
In commission (W. I.)
84
AMERICAN MARINE.
Navy List — (continued.)
Name and Rate.
When and where built
Where employed.
GUNS.]
Macedonian 36
Norfolk (rebuilt;
1836
Ready for sea at Nor.
Sloops of War
Joiin Adams
20
Norfolk (rebuilt) 1820
Ready for sea at N.Y.
Cvane
20
Boston (rebuilding) . .
Boston
20
Boston
1825
At sea.
Lexington
20
New York , . .
.1825
At sea.
Vincennes
20
New York . . .
.1826
In ordinary, Norfolk.
Warren
20
Boston
.1826
Ditto ditto.
Natchez
20
Norfolk
1827
In commission (W. I.)
Falmouth
20
Boston
1827
At sea.
Fairfield
20
New York . . .
1828
On the coast of Brazil,
Vandalia
20
Philadelphia . .
1828
In comm.ission (West
Indies.)
St. Louis ,
20
Washington . .
1828
Ditto. ditto.
Concord .......
20
Portsmouth . .
1828
Ditto ditto.
Erie .
18
N.York (rebuilt) 1820
At Boston.
Ontario
18
Baltimore . . .
1813
At sea.
Peacock .......
18
New York
1813
In ordinary, Norfolk.
Schooners, <^c.
Dolphin
10
Philadelphia . .
1821
On the coast of Brazil.
Grampus
10
W^ashington . .
1821
In commission (West
Indies.)
Shark .
10
10
Washington . .
New York . . .
1821
1831
In the Mediterranean.
Enterprise
In commission (East
Indies.)
Boxer . .
10
10
Boston
Boston
1831
1836
In the Pacific.
Pori>oisc
Atlantic coast.
Exi)eriment ....
4
Washington . .
1831
Employed near N. Y.
Fox (hulk)
3
Purchased . . .
1823
At Baltimore (con-
demned.)
Sea Gull (galliot)
Purchased . . .
1823
Receiving vessel at
Exphring Vessels.
Philadelphia.
Relief
Philadelphia . .
Boston
. 1836
^
Barque Pioneer . .
1836
New York (nearly
Barque Consort . .
Boston
. 1836
I ready for sea.)
Schooner Active .
...
Purchased
1837
.
AMERICAN MARINE. 85
The rating of these vessels will, however, very much
mislead people as to the real strength of the armament.
The 74's and 80's are in weight of broadside equal to
most three-decked ships ; the first-classed frigates are
double-banked of the scantling, and carrying the com-
plement of men of our 74's. The sloops are equally
powerful in proportion to their ratings, most of them car-
rying long guns. Although flush vessels, they are little
inferior to a 36-gun frigate in scantling, and ard much too
powerful for any that we have in our service, under ths
same denomination of rating. All the line-of-battle ships
are named after the several States, the frigates after the
principal rivers, and the sloops of war after the tov/ns, or
cities, and the names are decided by lot.
It is impossible not to be struck with the beautiful
architecture in most of these vessels. The Pennsylvania,
rated 120 guns, on four decks, carrying 140, is not by any
means so perfect as some of the line-of-batde ships.* The
Ohio is as far as I am a judge, the perfection of a ship of
* The following are the dimensions given me of the ship of the-
line Pennsylvania : —
feet, iaches.
In extreme length over all , 237
Between the perpendiculars on the lower gun deck 220
Length of keel for tonnage 190
Moulded breadth of beam 56 9
do. do. from tonnage 57 6
Extreme breadth of beam outside the wales. . . . 59
Depth of lower hold 23
Extreme depth amidships 51
Burthen 3366 tons, and has ports for 140 guns, all long thirty-
two pounder?, throwing 2240 pounds of ball at each broadside, or
4480 pounds from the whole.
Her mainmast from the step to the truck 278
Main-yard 110
Main-topsail yard 82
Main-top-gallant yard • 52
Main-royal yard 36
Size of lower shrouds 0 11
Do. of Mainstay 0 19
Do. of sheet-cable , 0 25
The sheet anchor, made at Washington, weighs 11,660 pounds.
86 AMERICAN MARINE.
the line. But in every class you cannot but admire the
superiority of the models and workmanship. The dock-
yards in America are small, and not equal at present to
what may eventually be required, but they have land to
add to them if necessary. There certainly is no necessity
for such establishments or such storehouses as we have,
as their timber and hemp are at hand when required ; but
they are very deficient both in dry and wet docks. Pro-
perly speaking, they have no great naval depot. This
arises from the jealous feeling existing between the several
States. A bill brought into Congress to expend so many
thousand dollars upon the dock-yard at Boston, in Massa-
chusetts, would be immediately opposed by the State of
New York, and an amendment proposed to transfer the
works intended to their dock-yard at Brooklyn. The other
States which possess dock-yards would also assert their
right, and thus they will all fight for their respective esta-
Main-topsail contains 1,531 yards.
The number of yards of canvass for one suit of sails is 18,341,
and for bags, hammocks, boat-sails, awnings, &c., 14,624; — total
32,965 yards.
The Americans considered that in the Pennsylvania they possessed
the largest vessel in the world, but this is a great mistake ; one of
the Sultan's three-deckers is larger. Below are the dimensions of
the Queen, lately launched at Portsmouth ; —
feet, iaohefl.
Length on the gun-deek 204 0
Do. of Keel for tonnage 166 5
Breadth extreme 60 0
Do. for tonnage 59 2
Depth in lx)ld 23 8
Burden in tons (No. 3,099)
Extreme length aloft 247 6
Extreme height forward 56 4
Do. midships 50 8
Do. abaft 62 6
Launching draught of water, forward 14 1
Do. abaft 19 0
Height from deck to deck, gun-deck 7 3
Do. middle-dech 7 0
Do. main-deck 7 0
AMERICAN MARINE. 87
blishments until the bill is lost, and the bone of contention
falls to the ground.*
It is remarkable that along the whole of the eastern coast
of America, from Halifax in Nova Scotia down to Pen-
sacola in the Gulf of Mexico, there is not one good open
harbour. The majority of the American harbours are
barred at the entrance, so as to preclude a fleet running
out and in to manoeuvre at pleasure ; indeed, if the tide
does not serve, there are few of them in which a line-of-
battle ship, hard pressed, could take refuge. A good
spacious harbour, easy of access, like that of Halifax in
Nova Scotia, is one of the few advantages, perhaps the
only natural advantage, wanting in the United Stales.
The American navy list is as follows : —
Captains or Commodores.. . . 50 Passed Midshipmen 18 i
Masters Cammandant 50 \ Midsliipmen 227
Lieutenants 279
Surgeons 50
Passed Assistant-Surgeons . . 24
Assistant-Surofeons .33
Sailing-Masters 27
Sail-makers 25
Boatswains 22
Gunners 27
Pursers 45 i Carpenters 2G
Chaplains 9
* There are seven navy yards belonging to, and occupied for the
use of, the United States, viz. —
The navy yard at Portsmouth, N. H., is situated on an jslano,
contains fifty eight acres, cost 5,500 dollars.
The navy yard at Charleston, near Boston, is situated on tht; nortli
side of Charles river, contains thirty-four acres, and cost 32,214 dolls.
The navy yard at New York is situated on Long Island, opposite
f^ew York, contains forty acres, and cost 40,000 dollars.
The navy yard at Philadelphia is situated on the Delaware river,
in the district of Southwark, contains eleven acres to low-water
mark, and cost 37,000 dollars.
The navy yard at Washington, in the district of Columbia, is situ-
ated on the eastern branch of the river Potomac, contains thirty-
seven acres, and cost 4,000 dallars. In this yard are made all the
anchors, cables, blocks, and almost all things requisite for the use of
the navy of the United States.
The navy yard at Portsmouth, near Norfolk in Virginia, is situated
on the south branch of Elizabeth river, contains^ sixteen acres, and
cost 13,000 dollars.
There is also a navy yard at Pensacola, in Florida, which is
merely used for repairing ships on the West-India station.
Vol. II.— 8
88 AMERICAxN MARINE.
The pay oi these officers is on the following scale, it
must be obseived, that they do not use the term "half-
pay ;" but when unemployed the officers are either
attached to the various dockyards or on leave. I have
reduced the sums paid into English money, that they may
be better understood by the reader : —
Senior captain, on service , ^960
Oh leave (i. e. half-pay) 730
Captains, squadron service 836
Navy-yard and other duty (half-pay) 730
Off duty (ditto) 525
Commanders on service 525
Navy-yard and other duty (half-pay) 440
On leave (ditto) 380
Lieutenants commanding 380
Navy-yard and other duty (half-pay) 315
Waiting orders (ditto) 250
Surgeons, according to their length of servitude, from 210
To 500
And half-pay in proportion.
Assistant surgeons from 200
To . . 250
Chaplains ; sea service 250
On leave (half-pay) 170
Passed midshipmen, duty * 156
Waiting orders (half-pay) 125
Midshipmen ; sea service 33
Navy-yard and other duty (half-pay)! ! ! 72
Leave (ditto) ! ! . » 63
Sailing masters ; ships of the line 228
Other duty (half-pay) 209
Leave (ditto) 156
Boatswains, carpenters, sailmakers, &, gunners ; ships of the line 156
Frigate 125
Other duty (half-pay) 105
On leave (ditto) 75
It will be perceived by the above list how very much
better all classes in the American service are paid in com-
parison with those in our service. But let it not be sup-
posed that this liberality is a matter of choice oa the part
of the American Government ; on the contrary, it is one
of necessity. There never was, nor never will be, any
thing like liberality under a democratic form of govern-
AMERICAN MARINE.
39
iiient. The navy is a favourite service, it is true, but the
officers of the American navy have not one cent more than
they are entitled to, or than they absohitely require. In a
country like America, where any one may by industry, in
a few years, become an independent, if not a wealthy man,
it would be impossible for the Government to procure offi-
cers if they were not tolerably paid; no parents would
permit their children to enter the service unless they were
enabled by their allowances to keep up a respectable ap-
pearance ; and in America every thing, to the annuitant
or person not making money, but living upon his income,
is much dearer than with us. The Government, there-
fore, are obHged to pay them, or young men would not
embark in the profession ; for it is not in America as it is
with us, where every department is filled up, and no room
is left for those who would crowd in ; so that in the ea-
gerness to obtain respectable employment, emolument
becomes a secondary consideration. It may, however, be
worth while to put in juxtaposition the half-pay paid to
officers of corresponding ranks in the tv/o navies of Eng-
land and America: —
Officers.
America. England
Half-pay post-captains, senior, on leave; corres-
ponding to commodore or rear-admiral in Eng-
land .
Post captains off duty (that is, duty on shore) .
On leave
Commanders off sea duty . . ,
In yards and on leave -
Lieutenants ; shore duty ,
Waiting orders or on leave
Passed midshipmen, full pay . ,
Half-pay
Midshipmen, full pay
Half-pay
£.
730
730
2 5
440
380
315
250
156
125
83
63
£.
456
191
155
90
25
0
25
0
My object in making the comparison between the two
services is not to gratify an invidious feeling. More ex-
pensive as living in America certainly is, still the dispro-
^0 AMERICAN MARINE.
portion is such as must create surprise ; and if it requires
such a sum for an American officer to support himself in
a creditable and gentlemanlike manner, what can be ex-
pected from the English officer with his miserable pit-
tance, which is totally inadequate to his rank and station ?
Notwithstanding which, our officers do keep up their ap-
pearance as gentlemen, and those who have no half-pay
are obliged to support themselves. And I point this out,
that when Mr. Hume and other gentlemen clamour against
the expense of our naval force, they may not be ignorant
of one fact, which is, that not only on half-pay, but when
on active service, a moiety at least of the expenses neces-
sarily incurred by our officers to support themselves ac-
cording to their rank, to entertain, and to keep their ship»
in proper order, is, three times out of four, paid out of
their own pockets, or those of their relatives ; and that is
always done without complaint, as long as they are not
checked in their legitimate claims to promotion.
In the course of his employment in the Mediterranean,
one of our captains was at Palermo. The American com-
modore was there at the time, and the latter gave most
sumptuous balls and entertainments. Being very intimate
with each other, our English captain said to him one day,
" I cannot imagine how you can afford to give such par-
lies ; 1 only know that I cannot; my year's pay would
be all exhausted in a fortnight." " My dear fellow," re-
plied the American commodore, " do you suppose that I
am so foolish as to go to such an expense, or to spend my
pay in this manner ; I have nothing to do with them ex-
cept to give them. My purser provides every thing, and
keeps a regular account, which I sign as correct, and send
home to government, which defrays the whole expenses,
under the head of Conciliation Money," I do not mean
to say that this is requisite in our service ; but still it is
not fair to refuse to provide us with paint and other arti-
cles, such as leather, &c., necessary to fit out our ships ;
thus, either compelling us to pay for them out of our own
pockets, or allowing the vessels under our command to
look like any thing but men-of-war, and to be styled, very
truly, a disgrace to the service. Yet such is the well-
known fact. And I am informed that the reason why our
AMERICAN MARINE. 91
Admiralty will not permit these necessary stores to be sup-
plied is that, as one of the Lords of the Admiralty was
known to say, " if we do not provide them, the captains
most assuredly ivill, therefore let us save the Government
the expense.''
During my sojourn in the United Slates I became ac-
quainted with a large portion of the senior officers of the
American navy, and I found them gifted, gentleman-like,
and liberal. With them I could converse freely upon
all points relative to the last war, and always found
them ready to admit all that could be expected. The
American naval officers certainly form a strong contrast
to the majority of their countrymen, and prove, by their
enlightened and liberal ideas, how much the Americans,
in general, would be improved if they enjoyed the same
means of comparison with other countries which the
naval officers, by their profession, have obtained. Their
partial successes during the late war were often ihe
theme of discourse, which was conducted with candour
and frankness on both sides. No unpleasant feeling was
ever excited by any argument with them on the subject,
whilst the question, raised amongst their " free and en-
lightened" brother citizens, who knew nothing of the
matter, was certain to bring down upon me such a torrent
of bombast, falsehood, and ignorance, as required all my
philosophy to submit to with apparent indifference. But
I must now take my leave of the American navy, and
notice their merchant marine.
Before I went to the United States I was aware that a
. large proportion of our seamen were in their employ. I
knew that the whole line of packets, which is very ex-
tensive, was manned by British seamen ; but it was not
until I arrived in the States that I discovered the real
state of the case.
During my occasional residence at New York, I was
surprised to find myself so constantly called upon by
English seamen, v/ho had served under me in the ditTerent
ships I had commanded since the Peace. Every day-
seven or eight would come, touch their hats, and remind
8*
^2 AMERICAN MARINE.
me in what ships, and in what capacity, they had done
their duty. I had frequent conversations with them, and
soon discovered that their own expression, " We are all
here, sir," was strictly true. To the why and the where-
fore, the answer was invariably the same — " Eighteen
dollars a month, sir." Some of them, I recollect, told
me that they were going down to New Orleans, because
the sickly season was coming on ; and that during the
time the yellow fever raged they always had a great ad-
vance of wages, receiving sometimes as much as thirty
dollars per month. T did not attempt to dissuade them
from their purpose ; they were just as right to risk their
lives from contagion at thirty dollars a month, as to
stand and be fired at at a shilling a day. The circum-
stance of so many of my own men being in American
ships, and their assertion that ihere were no other sailors
than English at New York, induced me to enter very
minutely into my investigation, of which the following
are the results : —
The United States, correctly speaking, have no com-
mon seamen, or seamen bred up as apprentices before
the mast. Indeed a little reflection will show how un-
likely it is that they ever should have ; for who would
submit to such a dog's life (as at the best it is), or what
parent would consent that his children should wear out
an existence of hardship and dependence at sea, when
he could so easily render them independent on shore ?
The same period of time requisite for a man to learn his
duty as an able seaman, and be qualified for the pittance
of eighteen dollars per month, would be sufficient to
establish a young manasan independent, or even wealthy,
landowner, factor, or merchant. That there are classes
in America who do go to sea is certain, and who and
what these are I shall hereafter point out ; but it may be
positively asserted that, unless by escaping from their
parents at an early age, and before their education is
complete, they become, as it were, lost, there is in the
United States of America hardly an instance of a white
boy being sent to sea, to be brought up as a foremast
man.
AMERICAN MARINE. 93
It may be here observed that there is a wide difference
in the appearance of an Enghsh seaman and a portion
of those styling themselves American seamen, who are
to be seen at Liverpool and other seaports; tall, weedy,
narrow-shouldered, slovenly, yet still athletic men, with
their knives worn in a sheath outside of their clothes, and
not with a lanyard round them, as is the usual custom
of English seamen. There is, I grant, a great difference
in their appearance, and it arises from the circumstance of
those men having been continually in the trade to New
Orleans and the South, where they have picked up the
buccaneer airs and customs which are still in existence
there ; but the fact is, that, though altered also by cli-
mate, the majority of them were Englishmen born, who
served their first apprenticeship in the coasting trade,
but left it at an early age for America. They may be
considered as a portion of the emigrants to America,
having become in feeling, as well as in other respects,
bona fide Americans.
The whole amount of tonnage of the American mer-
cantile marine may be taken, in round numbers, at
2,000,000 tons, which may be subdivided as follows :
REGISTERED.
Tons.
Foreign trade 700,000
Whale fishery 130,000
ENROLLED.
Coasting trade 920,000
Steam 150,000
Coast fisheries 100,000
Total 2,000,000
The American merchant vessels are generally sailed
with fewer men than the British. We calculate five
men to one hundred tons, which I believe to be about
the just proportion. 'Mr. Carey, in his work, estimates
the proportion of seamen in American vessels to be 4j to
every one hundred tons, and I shall assume his calcula-
94 AMERICAN MARINE.
tion as correct. The number of men employed in the
American mercantile navy will be as follows : —
Men.
Foreign trade 30,333
Whale fishery 5,000
Coasting trade 39,000
Steam 6,.500
Coast fisheries 4,333
Total ....... 85,799
And now I will submit, from the examinations I have
made, the proportions of American and British seamen
which are contained in this aggregate of 85,799 men.
In the foreign trade we have to deduct the masters of
the ships, the mates, and the boys who are apprenticed
to learn their duty, and rise to mates and masters (not
to serve before the mast). These I estimate at —
Masters 1,500
Mates 3,000
Apprentices 1,500
Ditto, coloured men, as cooks,
stewards, &c 2,000
Total 8,000
which, deducted from 30,333, will leave 22,333 seamen
in the foreign trade, who, with a slight intermixture of
Swedes, Danes, and, more rarely, Americans, may be
asserted to be all British seamen.
The next item is that of the men employed in the
whale fishery ; and, as near as I can ascertain the fact,
the proportions are two-thirds Americans to one-third
British. The total is 5,633 ; out of which 3,756 are
Americans, and 1,877 British seamen.
The coasting trade employs 39,000 men ; but only a
small proportion of them can be considered as seamen,
as it embraces all the internal river navigation.
The steam navigation employs 6,500 men, of whom
of course not one in ten is a seaman.
The fisheries for cod and herring employ about 4,333
AMERICAN MARINE. 95
men; they are a mixture of Americans, Nova Scotians,
and British, but the proportions cannot be ascertained ;
it is supposed that about one-half are British subjects, i,
e. 2,166.
When, therefore, I estimate that the Americans employ
at least thirty Ihousand of our seamen in their service, I
do not think, as my subsequent remarks will prove, that
I am at all overrating the case.
The questions which are now to be considered are,
the nature of the various branches in which the seamen
employed in the American marine are engaged, and
how far they will be available to America in case of a
war.
The coasting trade is chiefly composed of sloops,
manned by two or three men ^nd boys. The captain is
invariably part, if not whole, owner of the vessel, and
those employed are generally his sons, who work for
their father, or some emigrant Irishmen, who, after a
kw months' practice, are fully equal to this sort of
fresh-water sailing. From the coasting trade, therefore,
America would gain no assistance. Indeed, the majori-
ty of the coasting trade is so confined to the interior, that
it would not receive much check from a war with a foreign
country.
The coast fisheries might afford a few seamen, but
very few ; certainly not the number of men required to
man her ships of war. As in the coasting trade, they
are mostly owners or partners. In the whale fishery
much the same system prevails ; it is a common spec-
ulation ; and the men embarking stipulate for such a
proportion of the fish caught as their share of the profits.
They are generally well to do, are connected together,
and are the least likely of all men to volunteer on board
of the American navy. They would speculate in priva-
teers, if they di3 anything.
From steam navigation, of course, no seaman could be
obtained.
Now, as all service is voluntary, it is evident that the
only chance America has of manning her navy is from the
thirty thousand British seamen in her employ, the othei:
96 AMERICAN MARINE.
branches of navigation either not producing seamen, or
those employed in them being too independent in situa-
tion to serve as fore- mast men. When I was at the dif-
ferent sea-ports, I made repeated enquiries as to the fact,
if ever a lad was sent to sea as a fore-mast man, and I
never could ascertain that it ever was the case. Those
who are sent as apprentices, are learning their duty to re-
ceive the rating of mates, and ultimately fulfil the office of
captains ; and it may here be remarked, that many Ame-
ricans, after serving as captains for a few years, return on
shore and become opulent merchants ; the knowledge
wliich they have gained during their maritime career
proving of the greatest advantage to them. There are a
number of free black and coloured lads who are sent to
sea, and who, eventually, serve as stewards and cooks;
but it must be observed, that the masters and mates are
not people who will enter before the mast and submit to
the rigorous discipline of a government vessel, and the
cooks and stewards are not seamen ; so that the whole
dependence of the American navy, in case of war, is upon
the British seamen who are employed in her foreign trade
and whale fisheries, and in her men-of-war in commission
during the peace.
If America brings up none of her people to a seafaring
life before the mast, now that her population is upwards
of 13,000,000, still less likely was she to have done it
when her population was less, and the openings to wealth
by other channels were greater : from whence it may be
fairly inferred, that, during our continued struggle with
France, when America had the carrying trade in her hands,
her vessels were chiefly manned by British seamen ; and
that when the war broke out between the two countries,
the same British seamen who were in her employ man-
ned her ships of war and privateers. It may be surmised
that British seamen would refuse to be employed against
their country. Some might; but their is no character so
devoid of principle as the British sailor and soldier. In
Dibdin's songs, we certainly have another version, "True
to his country and king," &c., but I am afraid they do
not deserve it : soldiers and sailors are mercenaries ; they
risk their lives for money ; it is their trade to do so ; and
AMERICAN MARINE. 97
if they can get higher wages they never consider the jus-
tice of the cause, or whom they fight for. Now, America
is a country peculiarly favourable for those who have little
conscience or reflection ; the same language is spoken
there ; the wages are much higher, spirits are much
cheaper, and the fear of detection or punishment is trifling :
nay, there is none ; for in five minutes a British seaman
may be made a hond-fide American citizen, and of course
an American seaman. It is not surprising, therefore, that
after sailing for years out of the American ports in Ame-
rican vessels, the men, in case of war^ should take the
oath and serve. It is necessary for any one wanting to
become an American citizen; that he should give notice
of his intention ; his notice gives him, as soon as he has
signed his declaration, all the rights of an American citi-
zen, excepting that of voting at elections, which requires
a longer time, as specified in each State. The declara-
tion is as follows : —
" That it is his hond-fide intention to become a citizen
of the United States, and to renounce for ever all allegiance
and fidelity to any foreign power, potentate, state, or
sovereignty whatever, and particularly to Victoria, the
Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ire-
land, to whom he is now a subject." Having signed this
document, and it being publicly registered, he becomes a
citizen, and may be sworn to as such by any captain of
merchant vessel or man-of-war, if it be required that he
should do so.
During the last war with America, the Americans hit
upon a very good plan as regarded the English seamen
whom they had captured in our vessels. In the day-time
the prison doors were shut and the prisoners were harshly
treated ; but at night, the doors were left open : the con-
sequence was, that the prisoners whom they had taken
added to their strength, for the men walked out, and en-
tered on board of their men-of-war and privateers.
This fact alone proves that I htve not been too severe
in my remarks upon the character of the English sea-
men ; and since our seamen prove to be such " Dugald
Dalgetlys," it is to be hoped that, should we be so un-
fortunate as again to come in collision with America, the
same plan may be adopted in this country.
98 AMERICAN MARINE.
Now, from the above remarks, three points are clearly
deducible : —
1. That America always has obtained, and for a long
period to come will obtain, her seamen altogether from
Great Britain ;
2. That those seamen can be naturalized immediately,
and become American seamen by law ;
3. That, under present circumstances, England is un-
der the necessity of raising seamen, not only for her own
navy, but also for the Americans ; and that, in proportion
as the commerce and shipping of America shall increase,
so will the demand upon us become more onerous ; and
that should we fail in producing the number of seamen
necessary for both services, the Americans will always
be full manned, whilst any defalcation must fall upon our-
selves.
And it may be added, that, in all cases, the Americans
have the choice and refusal of our men ; and, therefore,
they have invariably all the prime and best seamen which
we have raised.
The cause of this is as simple as it is notorious ; it is
the difference between the wages paid in the navies and
merchant vessels of the two nations : —
£. s. £. 8.
American ships per month 3 10
British ships ditto 2 2 to 2 10
American men-of-war ditto 2 0
British men-of-war ditto 114
It will be observed, that in the American men-of-war
the able-seaman's pay is only £2 ; the consequence is,
that they remain for months in port without being able to
obtain men.
But we must now pass by this cause and look to the
origin of it ; or, in other words, how it is that the Ameri-
cans are able to give such high wages to our seamen as
to secure the choice of any number of our best men for
their service ; and how it is that they can compete with,
and even under-bid, our merchant vessels in freight, at the
.'?ame time that they sail at a greater expense?
This has arisen partly from circumstances, partly (rom
AMERICAN MARINE. 99
a series of mismanagement on our part, and partly from
the fear of impressment. But it is principally to be as-
cribed to the former peculiarly unscientific mode of calcu-
lating the tonnage of our vessels ; the error of which sys-
tem induced the merchants to build their ships so as to
evade the heavy channel and river duties ; disregarding all
the first principles of naval architecture, and considering
the sailing properties of vessels as of no consequence.
The fact is, that we over-taxed our shipping.
In order to carry as much freight as possible, and, at
the same time, to pay as {ew of the onerous duties, our
mercantile shipping generally assumed more the form of
floating boxes of merchandize than sailing vessels ; and
by the false method of measuring the tonnage, they were
enabled to carry 600 tons, when, by measurement, they
were only taxed as being of the burden of 400 tons : but
every increase of tonnage thus surreptitiously obtained,
was accompanied with a decrease in the sailing properties
of the vessels. Circumstances, however, rendered this of
less importance during the war, as few vessels ran without
the protection of a convoy ; and it must be also observed,
that vessels being employed in one trade only, such as
the West India, Canada, Mediterranean, (fee, their voyages
during the year were limited, aud they were for a certain
portion of the year unemployed.
During the war, the fear of impressment was certainly
a strong inducement to our seamen to enter into the
American vessels, and naturalize themselves as American
subjects ; but they were also stimulated, even at that
period, by the higher wages, as they still are now that
the dread of impressment no longer operates upon them.
It appears, then, that from various causes, our merchant
vessels have lost their sailing properties, vvhilst the Ameri-
cans are the fastest sailers in the world ; and it is for that
reason, and no other, that, although sailing at a much
greater expense, the Americans can afford to outbid us,
and take all our best seamen.
An American vessel is in no particular trade, but ready
and willing to take freight any where when offered. She
sails so fast, that she can make three voyages whilst one
Vol. II.— 9
i r»c>R26
100 AMERICAN MARINE.
of our vessels can make but two : consequently she ha^
the preference, as being the better manned, and giving the
quickest return to the merchant ; and as she receives three
freights whilst the English vessel receives only two, it is
clear that the extra freight will more than compensate for
the extra expense the vessel sails at in consequence of
paying extra wages to the seamen. Add to this, that the
captains, generally speaking, being better paid, are better
informed and more active men ; that, from having all the
picked seamen, they get through their work with fewer
hands ; that the activity on board is followed up and sup-
ported by an equal activity, on the part of the agents and
factors on shore — and you have the true cause why Ameri-
ca can afford to pay and secure for herself all our best
seamen.
One thing is evident, that it is a mere question of pounds,
shillings, and pence, between us and America, and that
the same men who are now in the American service
would, if our wages were higher than those offered by
America, immediately return to uh and leave her desti-
tute.
That it would be worth the while of this couutry, in
case of a war with the United States, to offer £4 a-head
to able seamen is most certain. It would swell the naval
estimates, but it would shorten the duration of the war,
and in the end would probably be the saving of many
millions. But the question is, cannot and ought not some-
thing to be done, now in time of peace, to relieve our
mercantile shipping interest, and hold out a bounty for a
return to those true principles of naval architecture^ the
deviation from which has proved to be attended with such
serious consequences.
Fast-sailing vessels will always be able to pay higher
wages than others, as what they lose in increase of daily
expense, they will gain by the short time in which the
voyage is accomplished ; but it is by encouragement alone
that we can expect that the change will take place. Surely
some of the onerous duties imposed by the Trinity House
might be removed, not from the present class of vessels,
but from those built hereafter with first-rate sailing pro-
SLAVERY. 101
perties. These, however, are points which call for a
much fuller investigation than I can here afford them ;
but they are of vital importance to our maritime superioiity,
and as such should be immediately considered by the
Government of Great Britain.
SLAVERY.
It had always appeared to me as singular that the Ame-
ricans, at the time of their Declaration of Independence,
took no measures for the gradual, if not immediate, ex-
tinction of slavery ; that at the very time they were offering
up thanks for having successfully struggled for their own
emancipation from what they considered foreign bondage,
their gratitude for their liberation did not induce them to
break the chains of those whom they tiieraseh'es held in
captivity. It is useless for them to exclaim, as they now
do, that it was England who left them slavery as a curse,
and reproach us as having originally introduced the system
amongst them. Admitting, as is the fact, that slavery
did commence when the colonies were subject to the
mother country ; admitting that the petitions for its dis-
continuance were disregarded, still there was nothing ta
prevent immediate manumission at the time of the ac-
knowledgment of their independence by Great Britian.
They had then every thing to recommence ; they had to
select a new form of government, and to decide upon new
laws ; they pronounced, in their Declaration, that " all
men were equal ;" and yet, in the face of this Declaration,
and their solemn invocation to the Deity, the negroes, in
their fetters, pleaded to them in vain.
I had always thought that this sad omission, which has
left such an anomaly in the Declaration of Independence
102 SLAVERY.
as'to have made it ibe taunt and reproach of the Ameri-
cans by the whole civiHzed world, did really arise from
forgetfulness ; that, as is but too often the case, when we
are ourselves made happy, the Americans in their joy at
their own deliverance from a foreign yoke, and the repos-
sessing themselves of their own rights, had been too much
engrossed to occupy themselves with the undeniable
claims of others. But I was mistaken ; such was not the
case, as I shall presently shew.
In the course of one of my sojourns in Philadelphia,
Mr. Vaughan, of the Athenaeum of that city, stated to me
that he had found the original draft of the Declaration of
Independence, in the hand-writing of Mr. Jefferson, and
that it was curious to remark the alterations which had
been made previous to the adoption of the manifesto which
was afterwards promulgated. It was to JefTerson, Adams,
and Franklin, that was entrusted the primary drawing up
of this important document, which was then submitted to
others, and ultimafely to the Convention, for approval ;
and it appears that the question of slavery had not been
overlooked when the document was first fram.ed, as the
following clause, inserted in the original draft by Mr.
Jefferson, but expunged when it was laid before the
Convention, will sufficiently prove. After enumerating
the grounds upon which they threw off their allegiance to
the King of England, the Declaration continued, in Jeffer-
son's nervous style :
"He [the king] has waged cruel war against human
nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and
liberty, in the person of a distant people who never offended
him ; captivating and carrying them into slavery, in
another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their
transporting thither. This piratical warfare, the op-
probrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian
King of Great Britain, determined to keep open a market
where men should be bought and sold ; he has prostituted
his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to
prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce ; and that
this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distin-
SLAVERY, 103
guished dye, he is now exciting these very people to rise
in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he
has deprived them, by murdering the people upon whom
he also obtruded them ; thus paying off former crimes
committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes
which he urges them to commit against the lives of
another."
wSiich was the paragraph which had been inserted by
Jefferson, in the virulence of his democracy, and his de-
sire to hold up to detestation the King of Great Britain.
Such was at that time, unfortunately, the truth ; and had
the paragraph remained, and at the same time emancipa-
tion been given to the slaves, it would have been a lasting
stigma upon George the Third. But the paragraph was
expunged ; and why ? because they could not hold up to
public indignation the sovereign whom they had abjured,
without reminding the world tiiat slavery still existed in a
community which had declared that " all men were
equal ;" and that if, in a monarch, they had stigmatised it
as " violating the most sacred rights of life and liberty,"
and *' waging cruel war against human nature," they
could not have afterwards been so barefaced and unblush-
ing as to continue a system which was at variance with
every principle which they professed.*
It does, however, satisfactorily prove that the question
of slavery was not overlooked ; on the contrary, their de-
termination to take advantage of the system was delibe-
rate, and, there can be no doubt, well considered : — the
very omission of the paragraph proves it. I mention these
facts to show that the Americans have no right to revile us
on being the cause of slavery in America. They had the
means, and were bound, as honourable men, to act up to
* Miss Martineau, in her admiration of democracy, says that, in
the formation of the government, "The rule by which they worked
was no less than the golden one, which seems to have been, by some
unlucky chance, omitted in the Bibles of other statesmen, "J9o unto
others as ye would that they should do unto youy I am afraid the
American Bible, by some unlucky chance, has alsoomitted th at precept .
9*
194 5LAVEHY.
eir Declaration ; bat ihcT entered into die quesiion, they
i^ji^ed othervrise, and decided that they would retaoi
:.:eir iil-acqarred property at the expense of their pria-
ciples.
The desrees of slavery in America are as various in
their intensity as are the communities composing the
Union. They may. however, be divided with great pro-
prietv under two general heads— eastern and western sla-
very! By eastern slavery I refer to that in the Slave
States bordering: on the Atlantic, and those Slave States on
the other side of the Alleghany Mountains, which may
be more direcdy considered as their colonies, viz. in the
first instance, Maryland, Delaware. Virginia. North sad
South Carolina : and. secondly. Kenracky and Temwaaee.
We have been accustomed lately to dass the slaves as
non-predial and predial. — thai is, those who are domestic
and those who work on the pbatations. This dasasSot-
tion is not correct, if it is imteaded to distingBisli be-
tween those who are well, and those who are badly treatb-
ed. The true line to be drawn is between those wiw
work separately, and those who are worked in a gang aad
superintended by an overseer. This is fully exemplified
in the United States, where it will be found that in adi
States where they are worked in gangs the slaves aoe
- irshly treated, while in the others their labaar is iig^
Now, with the exception of the rice gnmnds m ScmAt
Carolina, the Eastern States are growers of com, hemp,
and tobacco; but their chief staple is the breeding of
horses, moles, homed cattle, and other stock : the largest
portion of these States remain in wild luxuriant pasture,
more especially in Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee,
either of which States is larger than the other four men-
tioned.
The proportion of slaves required for the cultivation of
the purely agricultural and chieiy 'ga^mg farms or plan-
tations in these States is small, fifteen or twenty being
sufficient for a farm of two hundred or three hundred
acres ; and iheir labour, which is mostly confined to tend-
ing stock, is not only very Ught, but of the quality most
gLATEET. 105
agreeable to the negro. Half the dav yon will see him
on horseback with his leg^ idly swinging as be ^oes along,
or seated on a shaft-horse driving his wag^oiK. He is
quite in his glory ; nothing delights a negro as mnch as
riding or driving, partieniarly when he has a whole team
mider his control. He takes his waggon for a load of
com to feed the hogs, sits on the edge of the shaft as he
losses the cobs to tJbe granting mnltitode, whom he ad-
dresses in the most intimate terms ; in short, every thing
is done leisurely, after his own fashion-
In these grazing States, as they may very properly be
called, the negroes are well fed ; they refuse beef and
mntton, and will have nothing bat pork ; and are, withoni
facception, the fattest and mmoi sancy fellows I ever met
with in a state of bondage ; and andi miy be said gene-
rally to be the case with all the ULgiixm m ibe Eastern
States which I have mentioned. The rice grounds in
South Carolina are unhealthy, but the slaves are verr
kixidly treated. But the facts speak for themselves. Whem
the negro works in a gang with the whip over him, he
may be overworked and iU- treated ; but when he is not
regxdarly watched, he wiQ take very good care that the
work he performs shall not injurs his consbkiitiflB.
It has been asserted, and generally crediled, lltal in ^le
Eastern States acgi'tj> are regularly bred up like the cat-
tle for the W^;tern smileL Th: t the Virginians and ^
inhabitants of the other Eastern slave States do sell ne-
groes which are taken to the West, there is no doubt ; bm
that the negroes are bred expressly for that purpose, is, as
regards the majority of the proprietors, far from the fact ;
it is the effect of circumstances over which they have had
DO control. Virginia, when first settled, was one of the
richest States, but by continually cropping the land with-
out manuring it. and that for nearly two hundred years,
the major portion of many valuable estates has become
barren, and the land is no longer under cultivation ; in con-
sequence of this, the negroes (increasing so rapidly as they
do in that country) so far from being profitable, have be-
come a serious tax npon their masters, who have to rear
106 SLAVERY.
and maintain, without having any employment to give
them. The small portion of the estates under cultivation
will subsist only a certain portion of the negroes : the re-
mainder must, therefore, be disposed of, or they would
eat their master out of his home.* That the slaves are not
willingly disposed of by any of the proprietors I am cer-
tain, particularly when it is known that they are purchased
for the West. I know of many instances of this, and was
informed by others ; and by wills, especially, slaves have
been directed to be sold for two-thirds of the price which
they would fetch for the Western market, on condition
that they were not to leave the State. These facts esta-
blish two points, viz: that the slave in the Eastern States
is well treated, and that in the Western States slavery still
exists with all its horrors. The common threat to, and
ultimate punishment of, a refractory and disobedient slave
in the East, is to sell him for the Western market. Many
slave proprietors, whose estates have been worn out in the
East, have preferred migrating to the West with their
slaves rather than sell them, and thus is the severity of the
Western treatment occasionally and partially mitigated. f
But doing justice, as I always will, to those who have
* " Many fine looking districts were pointed out to me in Vir-
ginia, formerly rich in tobacco and Indian corn, which had been com-
pletely exhausted by the production of crops for the maintenance of
the slaves. In thickly-peopled countries where the great towns are
at hand, the fertility of such soils may be recovered and even im-
proved by manuring, but over the tracts of country I now speak of,
no such advantages are within the farmer^s reach." — Captain Hall.
t " Many, very many, with whom I met would willingly have re-
leased their slaves, but the law requires that in such cases they should
leave the State; and this would mostly be not to improve their condi-
tion, but to banish them from their home, and make them miserable
outcasts. What they cannot for the present remove they are anxious
to mitigate, and I have never seen kinder attention paid to any domes-
tics than by such persons to their slaves. In defiance of (he infamous
laws, making it criminal for the slave to be taught to read, and diffi-
cult to assemble for an act of worship, they are instructed, and they
are assisted to worship God." — Rev. Mr. Reid.
SLAVERY. 107
been unjustly calumniated, at the same time I must admit
that there is a point connected with slavery in America
which renders it more odious than in other countries; I
refer to the system of amalgamation which lias, from pro-
miscuous intercourse, been carried on to such an extent,
that you very often meet with slaves whose skins are
whiter than their master's.
At Louisville, Kentucky, I saw a girl, about twelve
years old, carrying a child ; and, aware that in a slave
State the circumstance of white people hiring themselves
out to service is almost unknown, I inquired of her if she
were a slave. To my astonishment, she replied in the
affirmative. She was as fair as snow, and it was impos-
sible to detect any admixture of blood from her appear-
ance, which was that of a pretty English cottager's child.
I afterwards spoke to the master, who stated when he
had purchased her and the sum whicli he had paid.
I took down the following advertisement for a runaway
slave, which was posted up in every tavern I stopped at
in Virginia on my way to the Springs. The expression
of, "m a laanner while" would imply that there was
some shame felt in holding a white man in bondage : —
" Fifty Dollars Reward.
" Ran away from tlie subscriber, on Saturday, the 21st instant, a
slave named —
George,
betveeen twenty and twenty-four years of age, five feet five or six
inches high, slender made, stoops when standing, a little bow legged ;
generally wears right and left boots and shoes ; had on him when he
left; a fur cap, a checked stock and linen round about ; had with iiim
other clothing, a jean coat with black horn buttons, a pair of jean
pantaloons, botli coat and pantaloons of handsome grey mixed ; no
doubt other clothing not recollected. He had with him a common
silver watch ; he wears his pantaloons generally very tight in the
legs. Said hay is in a manner white, would be passed by and taken
for a white man. His hair is long and straight, like that of a white
person ; looks very steady when spoken to, speaks slowly, and would
not be likely to look a person full in the face when speaking to him.
It is believed he is making his way to Canada by way of Ohio. 1
108 SLAVERY.
will give twenty dollars for the apprehension of said slave if taken
in the county, or fifty dollars if taken out of the county, and secur-
ed so that I recover him again.
Andrew Beirne, Jun.,
Union Monroe City,
July 3 Ist, 1838. Virginia."
The above is a curious document, independently of its
])roving tlie manner in which man preys upon his fellow-
man in this land of liberty aud equality. It is a well-
known fact, that a considerable portion of Mr. Jefferson's
slaves were his own children.* If any of them abscond-
ed, he would smile, thereby implying that he should not
be very particular in looking after them ; and yet this
man, this great and good man, as Miss Marlineau calls
him, this man who penned the paragraph I have quoted,
as having been erased from tlie Declaration of Independ-
ence, who asserted that the slavery of the negro was a
violation of the most sacred rights of life and liberty, per-
mitted these his slaves and his children, the issue of his
own loins, to be sold at auction after his demise, not even
emancipating them, as he might have done, before his
death. And, but lately, a member of/ Congress for Geor-
gia, whose name I shall not mention, brought up a fine
family of children, his own issue by a female slave ; for
many years acknowledged tliem as his own children;
permitted them to call him by the endearing tide oi papa,
and eventually the whole of them were sold by public
auction, and that, too, during his own life-time !
But there is, I am sorry to say, a more horrible in-
stance on record and one well authenticated. A planter
of good family (I shall not mention his name or the State
in which it occurred, as he was not so much to blame as
were the laws,) connected himself with one of his own
* "The law declares the children of slaves are to follow the for-
tunes of the mother. Hence the practice of planter? selling and
bequeathing their own children." — Miss Martineau.
SLAVERY. 109
female slaves, who was nearly white ; the fruits of this
connection were two daughters, very beautiful girls, who
were sent to England to be educated. They were both
grown up when their father died. At his death his affairs
were found in a slate of great disorder; in fact, there was
not sufficient left to pay his creditors. Having brought up
and educated these two girls and introduced them as his
daughters, it quite slipped his memory that, having been
born of a slave and not manumitted, they were in reality
slaves themselves. This fact was established after his
decease ; they were torn away from the affluence and re-
finement to which they had been accustomed, sold and
purchased as slaves, and with the avowed intention of the
purchaser to reap his profits from their prostitution ! ! !
It must not, however, be supposed that the planters of
Virginia and the other Eastern States, encourage this
intercour-se ; on the contrary, the young men who visit
at the plantations cannot affront them more than to take
notice of their slaves, particularly the lighter coloured,
who are retained in the house and attend upon their
wives and daughters. Independently of the moral fee-
ling which really guides them (as they naturally do not
wish that the attendants of their daughters should be
degraded) it is against their interest in case they should
wish to sell ; as a mulatto or light male will not fetch
so high a price as a full-blooded negro ; the cross between
the European and negro, especially the first cross, i. e.
the mulatto, is of a sickly constitution, and quite unable
to bear up against the fatigue of field labour in the West.
As the race becomes whiter, the stamina is said to im-
prove.
Examining into the question of emancipation in
America, the first enquiry will be, how far this consum-
mation is likely to be effected by means of the aboli-
tionists. Miss Martineau, in her book, says, "The good
work has begun, and will proceed." She is so far right ;
it has begun, and has been progressing very fast, as
may be proved by the single fact of the abolitionists
no SLAVERY.
facturing States, as they are most anxious to be.
Should this happen, the raw cotton grown by slave-
labour will employ the looms of Massachusetts ; and
then, as the Quarterly Review very correctly observes,
" by a cycle of commercial benefits, the Northern and
Eastern States will feel that there is some material
compensation for the moral turpitude of the system of
slavery."
The slave proprietors in these States are as well
aware as any political economist can be, that slavery is
a loss instead of a gain, and that no State can arrive at
that degree of prosperity under a state of slavery which
it would under free labour. The case is simple. In
free labour, where there is competition, you exact the
greatest possible returns for the least possible expendi-
ture ; a man is worked as a machine ; he is paid for
what he produces, and nothing more. By slave labour,
you receive the least possible return for the greatest pos-
sible expense, for the slave is better fed and clothed than
the freeman, and does as little work as he can. The
slave-holders in the Eastern States are well aware of
this, and are as anxious to be rid of slavery as are the
abolitionists ; but the time is not yet come, nor will it
come until the country shall have so filled up as to ren-
der white labour attainable. Such, indeed, are not the
expectations expressed in the language of the represen-
tatives of their States when in Congress; but, it must
be remembered, that this is a question which has con-
vulsed the Union, and that, not only fi'om a feeling of
pride, added to indignation at the interference, but from
a feeling of the necessity of not yielding up one tittle
upon this question, the language of determined resistance
is in Congress invariably resorted to. But these gen-
tlemen have one opinion for Congress, and another for
their private table ; in the first, they stand up unflinch-
ingly for their slave rights ; in the other they reason
calmly, and admit what they could not admit in public.
There is no labour in the Eastern States, excepting that
of the rice plantations in South Carolina, which cannot
be performed by white men ; indeed, a large proportion
of the cotton in the Carolinas is now raised by a free
SLAVERY. Ill
white population. In the grazing portion of these
States, white labour would be substituted advan-
tageously, could white labour be procured at any rea-
sonable price.
The time will come, and I do not think it very dis"-
tant, say perhaps twenty or thirty years, when, provided
America receives no check, and these States are not in-
judiciously interfered with, that Virginia, Kentucky,
Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, (and, eventually,
but probably somewhat later, Tennessee and South
Carolina) will, of their own accord, enrol themselves
among the free States. As a proof that in the Eastern
slave States the negro is not held in such contempt, or
justice towards him so much disregarded, I extract the
following from an American work :
" An instance of the force of law in the Southern
States for the protection of the slave has just occurred,
in the failure of a petition to his excellency, P. M. But-
ler, Governor of South Carolina, for the pardon of Naza-
reth Allen, a white person, convicted of the murder of
a slave, and sentenced to be hung. The following is
part of the answer of the governor to the petitioners :
" ' The laws of South Carolina make no distinction
in cases of deliberate murder, whether committed on a
black man or a white man ; neither can I. I am not a
law-maker, but the executive officer of the laws already
made ; and I must not act on a distinction which the
legislature might have made, but has not thought fit to
make.'
" ' That the crime of which the prisoner stands con-
victed was committed against one of an inferior grade
in society, is a reason for being especially cautious in
intercepting the just severity of the law. This class of
our population are subjected to us as well for their pro-
tection as our advantage. Our rights, in regard to them,
are not more imperative than their duties ; and the in-
stitutions, which for wise and necessary ends have ren-
dered them peculiarly dependent, at least pledge the law
to be to them peculiarly a friend and protector.
" ' The prayer of the petition is not granted.
" ' Pierce M. Butler.' "
112 SLAVERY.
In the Western States, comprehending Missouri,
Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Georgia, and Alaba-
ma, the negroes are, with the exception perhaps of the
two latter States, in a worse condition than they ever
were in the West-India Islands. This may be easily
imagined, when the character of the white people who
inhabit the larger portion of these States is considered
— a class of people, the majority of whom are without
feelings of honour, reckless in their habits, intemperate,
unprincipled, and lawless, many of them having fled
from the Eastern States, as fraudulent bankrupts,
swindlers, or committers of other crimes, which have
subjected them to the penitentiaries — miscreants defy-
ing the climate, so that they can defy the laws. Still
this representation of the character of the people in-
habiting these States must, from the chaotic state of
society in America, be received with many exceptions.
In the city of New Orleans, for instance, and in
Natchez, and its vicinity, and also among the planters,
there are many most honourable exceptions. I have
said the majority: for we must look to the mass — the
exceptions do but prove the rule. It is evident that
slaves under such masters can have but little chance of.
good treatment, and stories are told of them at which
humanity shudders.
It appears, then, that the slaves, with the rest of the
population of America, are working their way west^
and the question may now be asked — Allowing that
slavery will soon be abolished in the Eastern States,
what prospect is there of its ultimate abolition and total
extinction in America 1
I can see no prospect of exchanging slave labour for
free in the Western States, as, with the exception of
Missouri, I do not think it possible that white labour
could be substituted, the extreme heat and unhealthi-
ness of the climate being a bar to any such attempt.
The cultivation of the land must be carried on by a
negro population, if it is to be carried on at all. The
question, therefore, to be considered is, whether these
States are to be inhabited and cultivated by a free or a
SLAVERY. 113
slave negro population. It must be remembered, that
not one-twentieth part of the land in the Southern
States is under cultivation ; every year, as the slaves
are brought in from the East, the number of acres
taken into cultivation increases. Not double or triple
the number of the slaves at present in America would
be sufficient for the cultivation of the whole of these
vast territories. Every year the cotton crops increase,
and at the same time the price of cotton has not ma-
terially lowered : as an every where increasing popu-
lation takes off the whole supply, this will probably
continue to be the case for many years, since it must
be remembered that, independently of the increasing
population increasing the demand, cotton, from its com-
parative cheapness, continually usurps the place of
some other raw material ; this, of course, adds to the
consumption. In various manufactures, cotton has al-
ready taken the place of linen and fur; but there must
eventually be a limit to consumption : and this is cer-
tain, that as soon as the supply is so great as to exceed
the demand, the price will be lowered by the competi-
tion ; and, as soon as the price is by competition so
lowered as to render the cost and keeping of the slave
greater than the income returned by his labour, then,
and not till then, is there any chance of slavery being
abolished in the Western States of America.*
The probability of this consummation being brought
about sooner is in the expectation that the Brazils,
Mexico, and particularly the independent State of Texas,
will in a few years produce a crop of cotton which may
considerably lower its price. At present, the United
States grow nearly, if not more, than half of the cotton
produced in the whole world, as the return down to
1831 will substantiate.
* The return at present is very great in these Western States ;
the labour of a slave, after all his expenses are paid, producing on
an average 300 dollars {£G5) per annum to his master.
10*
114
SLAVERY.
Cotton grown all over the world in the years 1821 and
1831 ; showing the increase in each country in ten
years.
1821. 1831.
United States, - - 180,000,000 lbs. 385,000,000 lbs.
Brazil, 32,000,000 38,000,000
West Indies, - - - 10,000,000 9,000,000
Egypt, 0,000,000 18,000,000
Rest of Africa, - - 40,000,000 36,000,000 •
India, ... - - 175,000,000 180,000,000
Rest of Asia, - - - 135,000,000 115,000,000
Mexico and South")
America, except l 44,000,000 35,000,000
Brazil, J
Elsewhere, - - - 8,000,000 4,000,000
In the World,
630,000,000 820,000,000
The increase of cotton grown all over the world in
ten years is therefore 190,000,000 lbs. Brazil has only-
increased 6,000,000 ; Egypt has increased 12,000,000;
India, 5,000,000, Africa, West Indies, South America,
Asia, have all fallen off; but the defalcation has been
made good by the United States, w^hich have increased
their growth by 205,000,000 of lbs.*
* Increase of cotton grown in the United States, from the year
1802 to 1831 :—
Years.
Ihs.
Years.
lbs.
1802 .
. 55,000,000
1817 .
130,000,000
1803 .
. 60,000,000
1818 .
125,000,000
1804 .
. 65,000,000
1819 .
167,000,000
1805 .
. 70,000,000
1820 .
160,000,000
1806 .
. 80,000,000
1821 .
180,000,000
1807 .
. 80,000,000
1822 .
210,000,000
1808 .
. 75,000,000
1823 .
185,000,000
1809 .
. 82,000,000
1824 .
215.000,000
1810 .
. 85,000,000
1825 .
255,000,000
1811 .
. 82,000,000
1826 .
300,000,000
1812 .
. 75,000,000
1827 .
270,000,000
1813 .
. 75,000,000
1828 .
325,000,000
1814 .
. 70,000,000
1829 .
365,000,000
1815 .
. 100,000,000
1830 .
350,000,000
1815 .
. 100,000,000
1831 .
385,000,000
SLAVERY. 115
In the Southern portion of America there are millions
of acres on which cotton can be successfully cultivated,
particularly Texas, the soil of which is so congenial
that they can produce 1,000 lb. to the 400 lb. raised by
the Americans; and the quality of the Texian cotton is
said to be equal to the finest Sea Island produce. It is
to Texas particularly that we must look for this pro-
duce, as it can there be raised by white labour ;* and,
being so produced, will, as soon as its population in-
creases to a certain extent, be able to undersell that
which is grown in America by the labour of the slave.
From circumstances, therefore, Texas, which but a
few years since was hardly known as a country, be-
comes a State of the greatest importance to the civilised
and moral world.
I am not in this chapter about to raise the question how
Texas has been ravished from Mexico. Miss Marti-
neau, with all her admiration of democracy, admits it
to have been " the most high-handed theft of modern
times ;" and the letter of the celebrated Dr. Channing
to Mr. Clay has laid bare to the world the whole nefa-
rious transaction. In this letter Dr. Channing points
out the cause of the seizure of Texas, and the wish to
enrol it among the Federal States.
" Mexico, at the moment of throwing off the Spanish
yoke, gave a noble testimony of her loyalty to free
principles, by decreeing, ' That no person thereafter
should be born a slave, or introduced as such into the
Mexican States ; that all slaves then held should re-
ceive stipulated wages, and be subject to no punish-
ment but on trial and judgment by the magistrate.*
The subsequent acts of the government fully carried
out these constitutional provisions. It is matter of deep
* It may be asked : How is it, as Texas is so far south, that a
white population can labour there? It is because Texas is a
prairie country, and situated at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.
A sea-breeze always blows across the whole of the country, render-
ing it cool, and refreshing it notwithstanding the power of the
sun's rays. This breeze is apparently a continuation of the trade-
winds following the course of the sun.
116 SLAVERY.
grief and humiliation, that the emigrants from tliis
country, whilst boasting of superior civilisation, refused
to second this honourable policy, intended to set limits
to one of the greatest of social evils. Slaves come into
Texas with their masters from the neighbouring States
of this country. One mode of evading the laws was,
to introduce slaves under formal indentures for long
periods, in some cases, it is said, for ninety-nine years;
but by a decree of the State Legislature of Coahuila
and Texas, all indentures for a longer period than ten
years were annulled, and provision was made for the
freedom of children during this apprenticeship. This
settled, invincible purpose of Mexico to exclude slavery
from her limits, created as strong a purpose to annihi-
late her authority in Texas. By this prohibition, Texas
was virtually shut against emigration from the South-
ern and Western portions of this country ; and it is
well known that the eyes of the South and West had
for some time been turned to this province as a new
market for slaves, as a new field for slave labour, and
as a vast accession of political power to the slave-hold-
ing States. That such views are prevalent we know ;
for, nefarious as they are, they found their way into
the public prints. The project of dismembering a neigh-
bouring republic, that slaveholders and slaves might
overspread a region which had been consecrated to a
free population, was discussed in newspapers as coolly
as if it were a matter of obvious right and unquestion-
able humanity. A powerful interest was thus created
for severing from Mexico her distant province."
The fact is this : — America, (for the government look-
ed on and offered no interruption,) has seized upon
Texas, with a view of extending the curse of slavery,
and of finding a mart for the excess of her negro popu-
lation : if Texas is admitted into the Union, all chance
of the abolition of slavery must be thrown forward to
such an indefinite period, as to be lost in the mist of
futurity ; if, on the contrary, Texas remains an inde-
pendent province, or is restored to her legitimate owners,
and in either case slavery is abolished, she then be-
SLAVERV. 117
comes, from the very circumstance of her fertility and
aptitude for white labour, not only the great check to
Siaverij, but eventually the means of its abolition.
Never, therefore, was there a portion of the globe upon
which the moral world must look with such interest.
England may, if she acts promptly and wisely, make
such terms with this young State as to raise it up as a
barrier against the profligate ambition of America.
Texas was a portion of Mexico, and Mexico abolished
slavery ; the Texians are bound (if they are Texians
and not Americans) to adhere to what might be consi-
dered a treaty with the whole Christian world ; if not,
they can make no demand upon its sympathy or pro-
tection, and it should be a sine qua non with England
and all other European powers, previous to acknow-
ledging or entering into commercial relations ivith
Texas, that she should adhere to the lavj which was
passed at the time that she was an integral portion of
Mexico, and declare herself to be a Free State — if she
does not, unless the chains are broken by the negro
himself, the cause and hopes of Emancipation are
lost.
There certainly is one outlet for the slaves, which, as
they are removed farther and farther to the west, will
eventually be offered : — that of escaping to the Indian
tribes which are spread over the western frontier, and
amalgamating with them ; such indeed, I think, will
some future day be the result, whether they gain their
liberty by desertion, insurrection, or manumission.
Of insurrection there is at present but little fear. Iti
the Eastern slave States, the negroes do not think of it,
and if they did, the difficulty of combination and of pro-
curing arms is so great, that it would be attended with
very partial success. The intervention of a foreign
power might indeed bring it to pass, but it is to be
hoped that England, at all events, will never be the
party to foment a servile war. Let us not forget that
for more than two centuries we have been particeps
criminis, and should have been in as great a difficulty
as the Americans now are, had we had the negro popu-
118 SLAVERY.
lation on our own soil, and not on distant islands which
could be legislated for without affecting the condition of
the mother country. Nay, at this very moment, by
taking nearly the whole of the American cotton off their
hands in exchange for our manufactures, we are our-
selves virtually encouraging slavery by affording the
Americans such a profitable mart for their slave labour.
There is one point to which I have not yet adverted,
which is, Whether the question of emancipation is like-
ly to produce a separation between the northern and
southern States ] The only reply that can be given is,
that it entirely depends upon whether the abolition party
can be held in check by the Federal Government. That
the Federal Government will do its utmost there can be
no doubt, but the Federal Government is not so power-
ful as many of the Societies formed in America, and es-
pecially the Abolition Society, which every day adds to
its members. The interests of the North are certainly
at variance with the measures of this society, yet still it
gains strength. The last proceedings in Congress show-
that the Federal Government is aware of its rapid ex-
tension, and are determined to do all in its power to
suppress it. The following are a portion of the resolu-
tions which were passed last year by an overwhelming
majority.
The first resolution was, '* That the government is of
limited powers, and that by the constitution of the
United States, Congress has no jurisdiction whatever
over the institution of slavery in the several States of
the confederacy;" the last was as follows: '* Resolved,
therefore, that all attempts on the part of Congress to
abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, or the terri-
tories, or to prohibit the removal of the slaves from
State to State ; or to discriminate between the constitu-
tion of one portion of the confederacy and another, with
the views aforesaid, are in violation of the constitu-
tional principles on which the wiion of these States
rests, and beyond the jurisdiction of Congress ; and that
every petition, memorial, resolution, proposition, or
paper touching or relating in any way or to any extent
SLAVERY. 119
whatever to slavery as aforesaid, or the abolition there-
of, shalJ, without any further action thereon, be ]aid on
the table, without printing, reading, debate, or refe-
rence.'"' Question put, "Shall the resolutions pass!"
Yeas, 198; Noes, 6. — Examiner.
These resolutions are very firm and decided, but in
England people have no idea of the fanaticism displayed
and excitement created in these societies, which are a
peculiar feature in the States, and arising from the na-
ture of their institutions. Their strength and perseve-
rance are such that they bear down all before them, and,
regardless of all consequences, they may eventually
control the government.
As to the question which portion of the States will
be the losers by a separation, I myself think that it will
be the Northern States which will suffer. But as I
always refer to American authority when I can, I had
better give the reader a portion of a letter written by
one of the Southern gentlemen on this subject. In a
letter to the editor o^ihe National Gazette, Mr. Cooper,
after referring to a point at issue with the abolitionists,
not necessary to introduce here, says — "I shall there-
fore briefly touch upon the subject once more ; and if
further provocation is given, I may possibly enter into
more details hereafter; for the present I desire to hint
at some items of calculation of the value of the Union to
the North.
" 1. Mr. Rhett, in his bold and honest address, has
stated that the expenditures of the Government for
twenty years, ending 1836, have been four hundred and
twenty millions of dollars; of which one hundred and
thirty were dedicated to the payment of the national
debt. Of the remainder, two hundred and ten millions
were expended in the Northern, and eighty millions in
the Southern States. Suppose this Union to be severed,
1 rather guess the Government expenditure of what is
now about fifteen millions a-year to the North, would
be an item reluctantly spared. No people know better
what to do with the ' cheese-parings and the candle-
ends' than our good friends to the North.
120 SLAVERY.
"2. I beg permission to address New York especi-
ally. In the year 1836 our exports were one hundred
and sixteen millions of dollars, and our imports one
hundred and forty millions. It is not too much to assign
seventy-five millions of these imports to the State of
New York. The South furnishes on an average two-
thirds of the whole value of the exports. It is fair,
therefore, to say, that two-thirds o[ the hiiports are con-
sumed in the Soutji, that is, fifty millions. The mer-
cantile profit on fifty millions of merchandise, added to
the agency and factorage of the Southern products
transmitted to pay for them, will be at least twenty per
cent. That is, New York is gainer by the South, of at
kast ten millions of dollars annually ; for the traffic is
not likely to decrease after the present year. No wonder
* her merchants are like princes I' Sever the Union, and
what becomes of them ]
" 3. The army, the navy, the departments of Govern-
ment, are supported by a revenue obtained from the in-
direct taxation of Custom-house entries, the most fraudu-
lent and extravagant mode of taxation known. Of this
the south pays two-thirds. What will beccme of the
system if the South be driven away?
" 4. The banking system of the Northern States is
founded mainly on the traffic and custom of the South.
Withdraw that for one twelvemonth, and the whole
banking system of the North
Tumbles all precipitate,
Down dash'd.
Suppose even one State withdrawn from the Union,
would not the pecuniary intercourse with Europe be
paralysed ot once ]
" 5. The South even now are the great consumers of.
New England manufactures. We take her cotton, her
woollen goods, her boots and shoes. These last form
an item of upwards of fourteen millions annually, manu-
factured at the North. Much also of her iron ware
comes to the South ; many other ♦ notions' are sent
SLAVERY. 121
•emong us, greatly to the advantage of that wise people,
who know better the value of small gains and small
savings than we do.
" 6. What supports the shipping of the North but her
commerce ; and of her commerce two-thirds is Southern
commerce. Nor is her commerce in any manner or de-
gree necessary to the South ; Europe manufactures
what the South wants, and the South raises what Eu-
rope wants. Between Europe and the South there is
not and cannot be any competition, for there is no com-
mercial or manufacturing, or territorial interference to
excite jealousies between them. We want not the
North. IVe can do without the North, if we separate
to-morrow. We can find carriers and purchasers of all
ive have to sell and of all we wish to buy, without cast-
ing one glance to the North,
"7. The North seems to have a strange inclination to
quarrel with England. The late war of 1812 to 1814
was a war for Northern claims and Northern interests,
now we are in jeopardy from the unjust interference in
favour of the patriots of Canada ; and a dispute is threat-
ened on account of the Northeastern boundary. The
manufacturing and commercial interferences of the North
with Europe will always remain a possible, if not a
probable, source of disputes. The North raises what
Europe raises ; commercially they need not each other
— they are two of a trade, they raise not what each
other wants — they are rivals and competitors when
they go to war. Does not the South, who is not inte-
rested in it, pay most part of the expense ? and is not
the war expenditure applied to the benefit, of the North 1
Sever, if you please, the Union, and the North will have
to pay the whole expense of her own quarrels.
" 8. Our system of domestic servitude is a great eye-
sore to the fanatics of the North. But there are very
many wise and honest men in the North ; ay, even in Mas-
sachusetts. I ask of these gentlemen does not at least
one-third of the labour produce of every Southern slave
ultimately lodge in the purse of the North ? If the South
VOL. n. 11
122 SLAVERY.
works for itself it works also for the Northern merchant,
and views his prosperity without grudging.
" 9. Nor is it a trifling article of gain that arises from
the expenditure of Southern visiters and Southern tra-
vellers, who spend their summers and their money in the
North. The quarrelsome rudeness of Northern society
is fast diminishing this source of expenditure among us.
Sever the Union and we relinquish it altogether. We
can go to London, Paris, or Rome, as cheaply and as
pleasantly as to Saratoga or Niagara.
" Such are some of the advantages which the North
derives from a continuance of that Union which her
fanatic population is so desirous to sever. A popula-
tion with whom peace, humanity, mercy, oaths, con-
tracts, and compacts, pass for nothing — whose promises
and engagements are as chaff before the wind — to whom
bloodshed, robbery, assassination, and murder are ob-
jects of placid contemplation — whose narrow creed of
bigotry supersedes all the obligations of morality, and
all the commands of positive law. With such men what
valid compact can be made? The appeal must be to
those who think that a deliberate compact is mutually
binding on parties of any and every religious creed.
To such men I appeal, and ask ought you not resolute-
ly to restore peace, and give the South confidence and
repose ?
"I have now lived twenty years in South Carolina,
and have had much intercourse with her prominent and
leading men ; not a man among them is ignorant how
decidedly, in most respects, the South would gain by a
severance from the North, and how much more advan-
tageous is this union to the North than to the South.
But I am deeply, firmly persuaded that there is not one
man in South Carolina that would move one step to-
ward a separation, on account of the superior advan-
tages the North derives from the Union. No Southern is
actuated by these pecuniary feelings; no Southern be-
grudges the North her prosperity. Enjoy your advan-
tages, gentlemen of the North, and much good may they
SLAVERY. 123
do ye, as they have hitherto. But if these unconstitu-
tional abolition attacks upon us, in utter defiance of the
national compact, are to be continued, God forbid this
Union should last another year.
"I am, sir, your obedient servant,
" Thomas Cooper/'
124
RELIGION IN AMERICA.
In theory nothing appears more rational than that
every one should worship the Deity according to his
own ideas — form his own opinion as to his attributes,
and draw his own conclusions as to hereafter. An es-
tablished church appears to be a species of coercion, not
that you are obliged to believe in, or follow that form of
worship, but that, if you do not, you lose your portion
of certain advantages attending that form of religion
which has been accepted by the majority and adopted
by the government. In religion, to think for yourself
wears the semblance of a luxury, and, like other luxu-
ries, it is proportionably taxed.
And yet it would appear as if it never were intended
that the mass should think for themselves, as every
thing goes on so quietly when other people think for
them, and every thing goes so wrong when they do
think for themselves : in the first instance, where a por-
tion of the people think for the mass, all are of one opi-
nion; whereas in the second, they divide and split into so
many molecules, that they resemble the globules of
water when expanded by heat, and like them are in a
state of restlessness and excitement.
That the partiality shown to an established church
creates some bitterness of feeling is most true, but,
being established by law, is it not the partiality shown
for the legitimate over the illegitimate? All who choose
niay enter into its portals, and if people will remain out
of doors of their own accord, ought they to complain
that they have no house over their heads I They cer-
tainly have a right to remain out of doors if they please,
but whether they are justified in complaining afterwards
is another question. Perhaps the unreasonableness of the
demands of the Dissenters in our own country will be
RELIGION IN AMERICA.
125
better brought home to them by my pointing out the
effects of the Voluntary System in the United States.
In America every one worships the Deity after his
own fashion ; not only the mode of worship, but even
the Deity itself, varies. Some worship God, some Mam-
mon ; some admit, some deny, Christ; some deny both
God and Christ; some are saved by living prophets
only ; some go to heaven by water, while some dance
their way upwards. Numerous as are the sects, still
are the sects much subdivided. Unitarians are not in
unity as to the portion of divinity they shall admit to
our Saviour ; Baptists, as to the precise quantity of
water necessary to salvation ; even the Q,uakers have
split into controversy, and the men of peace are at open
war in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love.
The following is the table of the religious denomina-
tions of the United States, from the American Almanac
of 1838 :—
Table of the Religious Denominations of the United States.
Congrega-
tions.
Minis-
ters.
Communi-
cants.
Population
Baptists ...
6,319
4,239
452,009 ^
Freewillers
753
612
38,876
4,503 [
4,300,000
Seventh Day -
42
46
Six Principle -
16
10
2,117J
Roman Catholics
433
389
800,000
Christians
1,000
800
150,000
300,000
Congre^ationalists -
1,300
1,150
160,000
1,400,000
Dutch Reformed -
197
192
22,215
450,000
Episcopalians
850
899
600,000
Friends
500
100,000
German Reformed -
600
180
30,000
Jews
15,000
Lutherans
750
267
62,266
540,000
Mennonites
200
30,000
Wesleyans
Protestants
2,764
400
650,103 (
50,000 \
3,000,000
Moravians,
24
33
5,745
12,000
Mormonites
12,000
12,000
New Jerusalem Church
27
33
5,000
11'
126 RELIGION IN AMERICA.
Congrega- Minis- Communi- population
Presbyterians -
2,807
2,225
274,084^
Cumberland
500
450
50,000
ir,,000 )> 2,175,000
Associate
183
87
Reformed
40
20
3,000
12,000 J
Associate Reformed
214
116
Shakers
15
45
6,000
Tunkers
40
40
3,000 30,000
Uniturians
200
174
180,000
Universalists -
653
317
600,000
1,983,905
In this list many varieties of sects are blended into
one. For instance, the Baptists who are divided ; also
the Friends, who have been separated into Orthodox
and Hicksite, the Camelites, &,c. &c. But it is not
worth while to enter into a detail of the numerous
minor sects, or we might add Deists, Atheists, &c. — for
even no religion is a species of creed. It must be ob-
served, that, according to this table, out of the whole
population of the United States, there are only 1,983,905,
(with the exception of the Catholics, who are communi-
cants,) that is, who have openly professed any creed ;
tlie numbers put down as the population of the different
creeds are wholly supposititious. How can it be other-
wise, when people have not professed? It is computed,
that in the census of 1840 the population of the States
will have increased to 18,000,000, so that it maybe said
that only one-ninth portion have professed and openly
avowed themselves Christians.
Religion may, as to its consequences, be considered
under two heads ; as it affects the future welfare of the
individual when he is summoned to the presence of the
Deity, and as it affects society in general, by acting
upon the moral character of the community. Now, ad-
mitting the right of every individual to decide whether
he will follow the usual beaten track, or select for him-
self a by-path for his journey upward, it must be ac-
knowledged that the results of this free-will are, in a
RELIGION IN AMERICA. 127
moral point of view, as far as society is concerned, any
thing but satisfactory.
It would appear as if the majority were much too
frail and weak to go alone upon their heavenly journey ;
as if they required the support, the assistance, the en-
couragement, the leaning upon others who are journey-
ing with them, to enable them successfully to gain the
goal. The effects of an established church are to ce-
ment the mass, cement society and communities, and
increase the force of those natural ties by which fami-
lies and relations are bound together. There is an at-
traction of cohesion in an uniform religious worship,
acting favourably upon the morals of the mass, and
binding still more closely those already united.
Now, the voluntary system in America has produced
the very opposite effects : it has broken one of the
strongest links between man and man, for each goeth
his own way : as a nation, there is no national feeling
to be acted upon ; in society, there is something want-
ing, and you ask yourself what it is ? and in families it
often creates disunion : I know one among many others,
who, instead of going together to the same house of
prayer, disperse as soon as they are out of the door:
one daughter to a Unitarian chapel, another to a Baptist ;
the parents to the Episcopal ; the sons, any where, or
no where. But worse effects are produced than even
these : where any one is allowed to have his own pe-
culiar way of thinking, his own peculiar creed, there
neither is a watch, nor a right to watch over each
other ; there is no mutual communication, no encou-
ragement, no parental control ; and the consequence is,
that by the majority, especially the young, religion be-
comes wholly and utterly disregarded.
Another great evil, arising from the peculiarity of the
voluntary system, is, that in many of the principal sects
the power has been wrested from the clergy and as-
sumed by the laity, who exercise an inquisition most
injurious to the cause of religion ; and to such an excess
of tyranny is this power exercised, that it depends upoa
the laity, and not upon the clergy, whether any indivi-
128 RELIGION IN AMERICA.
dual shall or shall not be admitted as a communicant at
the table of our Lord.*
Referring to religious instruction, Mr. Carey in his
work attempts to prove the great superiority of religious
instruction and church accommodation in America, as
compared with those matters in this country. He draws
his conclusions from the number of churches built and
provided for the population in each. Like most others
of his conclusions, they are drawn from false premises:
he might just as well argue upon the number of horses
in each country, from the number of horse-ponds he
might happen to count in each. In the first place, the
size of the churches must be considered, and their ability
to accommodate the population ; and on this point the
question is greatly in favour of England ; for with the
exception of the cities and large towns, the churches
scattered about the hamlets and rising towns are small
even to ridicule, built of clap-boards, and so light that,
if on wheels, two pair of English post-horses would trot
them away to meet the minister.
Mr. Carey also finds fault with the sites of our
churches, as being unfortunate in consequence of the
change of population. There is some truth in this re-
mark; but our churches being built of brick and stone,
cannot be so easily removed ; and it happens that the
sites of the majority of the American churches are
equally unfortunate, not as in our case, from the popu-
lation having left them, but from the population not
having come to them. You may pass in one day a
dozen towns having not above twenty or thirty private
houses, although you will invariably find in each a
hotel, a bank, and churches of two or three denomina-
tions, built as a speculation, either by those who hold
the ground lots, or by those who have settled there, and
as an inducement to others to come and settle. The
* Miss Marlineau may well inquire, "How does the existing
state of religion accord with the promise of its birth ? In a country
which professes to every man the pursuit of happiness in his own
way, what is the state of his liberty in the most private and indi-
vidual of all concerns ?"
RELIGION IN AMERICA. 129
churches, as Mr. Carey states, exist, but the congrega-
tions have not arrived ; while you may, at other times,
pass over many miles without finding a place of wor-
ship for the spare population, I have no hesitation in
asserting, not only that our 12,000 churches and cathe-
drals will hold a larger number of people than the 20,000
stated by Mr. Carey to be erected in America, but that
as many people, (taking into consideration the difference
of the population,) go to our 12,000, as to the 20,000 in
the United States.
Neither is Mr. Carey correct when he would insinu-
ate that the attention given by the people in America to
religious accommodation is greater than with us. It is
true, that more churches, such as they are, are built in
America ; but paying an average of sG 12,000 for a church
built of brick or stone in England, is a very different
thing from paying 12,000 dollars for a clap-board and
shingle affair in America, and which compared with
those of brick and mortar, are there in the proportion of
ten to one. And further, the comparative value of
church building in America is very much lowered by
the circumstance that they are compelled to multiply
them, to provide for the immense variety of creeds
which exist under the voluntary system. When people
in a community are all of one creed, one church is suf-
ficient ; but if they are of different persuasions, they
must, as they do in America, divide the one large church
into four little ones. It is not fair, therefore, for Mr.
Carey to count churches *
But, although I will not admit the conclusions drawn
from Mr. Carey's premises, nor that, as he would at-
tempt to prove, the Americans are a more religious
people than the English, I am not only ready, but
anxious to do justice to the really religious portion of
its inhabitants. I believe that in no other country is
* " We know also that larg^e sums are expended annually for the
building of churches or places of worship, which in cities cost from
10,000 to 100,000 dollars each; and in the country from 500 to
5,000 dollars." — Voice from America hy an American Gentleman,
[What must be the size of a church which costs 500 dollars ?]
130 RELIGION IN AMERICA.
there more zeal shown by its various ministers, zeal
even to the sacrifice of life; that no country sends out
more zealous missionaries ; that no country has more
societies for the difl^usion of the gospel ; and that in no
other country in the world are larger sums subscribed
for the furtherance of those praiseworthy objects as in
the Eastern States of America. I admit all this, and
admit it with pleasure, for I know it to be a fact : I only
regret to add, that in no other country are such strenu-
ous exertions so incessantly required to stem the tor-
rent of atheism and infidelity which so universally exists
in this. Indeed this very zeal, so ardent on the part of
the ministers, and so aided by the well-disposed of the
laity, proves that wiiat I have just now asserted is, un-
fortunately, but too true.
It is not my intention to comment upon the numerous
sects, and the varieties of worship practised in the Uni-
ted States. The Episcopal church is small in proportion
to -the others, and as far as I can ascertain, although it
may increase its members with the increase of popula-
tion, it is not likely to make any vigorous or successful
stand against the other sects. The two churches most
congenial to the American feelings and institutions are
the Presbyterian and Congregationalists.* They may,
indeed, in opposition to the hierarchy of the Episcopal,
be considered as Republican churches ; and admitting
that many errors have crept into the Established church
from its too intimaie union with the State, I think it will
be proved that, in rejecting its errors and the domina-
tion of the mitre, the seceders have fallen into still great-
er evils ; and have for the latter, substituted a despot-
ism to which every thing, even religion itself, must in
America succumb.
In a republic, or democracy, the people will rule in
every thing: in the Congregational church they rule as
deacons ; in the Presbyterian as elders. Affairs are
litigated and decided in committees and councils, and
* "The Congregationalists answer to the Independents of Eng-
land, and are sympathetically, and to a great extent, lineally
descendants of the Puritans." — Voice from America, p. 62.
RELIGION IN AMERICA. 131
thus is the pastoral office deprived of its primitive and
legitimate influence, and the ministers are tyrannised
over by the laity, in the most absurd and most unjusti-
fiable manner. If the minister does not submit to their
decisions, if he asserts his right as a minister to preach
the word according to his reading of it, he is arraigned
and dismissed. In short, although sent for to instruct
the people, he must consent to be instructed by them or
surrender up his trust. Thus do the ministers lose all
their dignity and become the slaves of the congregation,
who give them their choice, either to read the Scriptures
according to fheir reading, or to go and starve. I wa.s
once canvassing this question with an American, who
pronounced that the laity were quite right, and that it
was the duty of the minister to preach as his congrega-
tion wished. His argument was this : — " If I send to
Manchester for any article to be manufactured, I expect
it to be made exactly after the pattern given, if not I
will not take it : so it is with the minister : he must find
goods exactly suited to his customers, or expect them to
be left on his hands !"
And it really would appear as if such were the gene-
ral opinion in the United States. Mr. Colton, an Ame-
rican minister, who turned from the Presbyterian to the
Episcopal church, in his " Reasons for Episcopacy,"
makes the following remarks;* speaking of the deacons
and elders of their churches, he says —
" They may be honest and good men, and very pious ;
but in most churches they are men of little intellectual
culture ; and the less they have, the more confident and
unbending are they in their opinions. If a minister
travels an inch beyond the circle of their vision in theo-
logy, or startle them with a new idea in his interpretation
of Scripture, it is not unlikely that their suspicion of his
orthodoxy will be awakened. If he does any thing out
* I must request the reader's forbearance at the extreme length
of the quotations, but I cannot well avoid making- them. What-
ever weight my opinion, as the opinion of an observant traveller
may have, it must naturally be much increased if supported, as it
always is when opportunity offers, by American authority.
132 RELIGION IN AMERICA.
of the common course, he is an innovator. If, from the
multiplicity of his cares and engagements, he is now
and then obliged to preach an old sermon, or does not
visit so much as might be expected, he is lazy. For
these and for other delinquencies, as adjudged by these
associates, it becomes their conscientious duty to ad-
monish him. He who is appointed to supervise the
flock, is himself supervised. ' I have a charge to give
you,' said a deacon to me once, the first time and the
moment I was introduced to him, after I had preached
one or two Sabbaths in the place, and, as it happened, it
was tlje first word he said after we shook hands, adding,
* I often give charges to ministers.' I knew him to be
an important man, and the first in the church ; but as I
had nothing at stake there that depended on his favour, I
could not resist the temptation of replying to him in
view of his consequential airs,'* ♦ You may use your dis-
cretion, sir, in this particular instance ; but 1 can tell
you that ministers are sometimes overcharged.' How-
ever, I did not escape.
"It seems to be a principle in Presbyterian and
Congregational churches, that the minister must be
overlooked by the elders and deacons ; and if he does
not quietly submit to their rule, his condition will be
uncomfortable. He may also expect visitations from
women to instruct him in his duty ; at least they will
contrive to convey to him their opinions. It is said of
Dr. Bellamy, of Bethlehem, Connecticut, who was emi-
nently a peace-maker, and was ahvays sent for by all
the churches in the country around, at a great distance,
" The American clerg-y arc the most backward and timid class
in the society of which tiicy live ; self-exiled from the great tnoral
question of the time; the least informed with true knowledge — the
least efficient in virtuous action — the least conscious of that Chris-
tian and republican freedom which, as a native atmosphere of piety
and holiness, it is their prime duty to cherish and dilFusc," — Miss
Marlincau. 1 quote this paragraph (o contradict it. The
American clergy are, in the mass, equal, if not superior to any in
the world: they have to struggle with difliculties almost insur-
mountable, (as I shall substantiate,) and worthily do they perform
their tasks.
RELIGION IN AMERICA. 133
to settle their difficulties, that having just returned from
one of these errands, and put up his horse, another mes-
sage of the same kind came from another quarter — * And
what is the matter V said the Doctor to the messenger.
' Why,' said he, ' Deacon has — ' ' Has — that's
enough. There never is a difficulty in a church, but
some old deacon is at the bottom of it.'
" Unquestionably, it is proper, wise, and prudent for
every minister to watch and consult the popular opinion
around him, in relation to himself, his preaching, and
his conduct. But, if a minister is worthy to be the
pastor of a people, he is also worthy of some confidence,
and ought to receive deference. In his own proper
work he may be helped, he may be sustained, but he
cannot be instructed by his people ; he cannot in gene-
ral be instructed by the wisest of them. Respectful
and kind hints from competent persons he may receive,
and should court — he may profit by them. But, if he
is a man fit for his place, he should retain that honour
that will leave him scope, and inspire him with courage
to act a manly part. A Christian pastor can never ful-
fil his office, and attain its highest ends, without being
free to act among his people according to the light of
his conscience and his best discretion. To have elders
and deacons to rule over him, is to be a slave — is not
to be a man. The responsibilities, cares, burdens, and
labours of the pastoral office are enough, without being
impeded and oppressed by such anxieties as these. In
the early history of New England, a non-conformist mi-
nister, from the old country, is represented to have said,
after a little experience on this side of the water, ' I left
England to get rid of my lords the bishops ; but here I
find in their place my lords, the brethren and sisters ;
save me from the latter, and let me have the former.'
" It has actually happened within a few years in New
England, and I believe in other parts of the country,
that there has been a system of lay visitation of the
clergy for the purpose of counselling, admonishing, and
urging them up to their duty ; and that these self-com-
missioned apostles, two and two, have gone from town
VOL. II. 12
134 RELIGION IN AMERICA.
to town, and from district to district of the country,
making inquisition at the mouth of common rumour,
and by such methods as might be convenient, into the
conduct and fidelity of clergymen whom they never
saw; and, having exhausted their means of informa-
tion, have made their way into the closets of their
adopted proteges ; to advise, admonish, pray with, and
for them, according as they might need. Having ful-
filled their office, they have renewed their march, ' staff-
and scrip,' in a straightforward way, to the next parish
in the assigned round of their visitations, to enact the
same scene, and so on till their work was done.
•' Of course, they were variously received ; though,
for the most part, 1 believe they have been treated civil- -
ly, and their title to this enterprise not openly disputed.
There has been an unaccountable submission to things
of this kind, proving indeed that the ministers thus vi-
sited were not quite manly enough ; or that a public
opinion, authorising these transactions, had obtained
too extensive a sway in their own connexion, and
among their people, to be resisted. By many, doubt-
less, it was regarded as one of the hopeful symptoms of
this age of religious experiment.
" I have heard of one reception of these lay apostles,
which may not be unworthy of record. One pair of
them — for they went forth 'two and two,' and thus far
were conformed to Scripture — both of them mechanics,
and one a shoemaker, having abandoned their calling
to engage in this enterprise, came upon a subject who
was not well disposed to recognise their commission.
They began to talk with him : ' We have come to stir
you up.' — 'How is the shoe business in your city 7'
said the clergyman to the shoemaker, who was the
speaker ; for it was a city from which they came. The
shoemaker looked vacant, and stared at the question,
as if he thought it not very pertinent to his errand ;
and, after a little pause, proceeded in the discharge of
his office : ' We have come to give your church a
sftaking.' — 'Is the market for shoes good?' said the
clergyman. Abashed at this apparent obliquity, the
RELIGION IN AMERICA. - 135
shoemaker paused again ; and again went on in like
manner. To which the clergyman : ' Your busine.ss is
at a stand, sir, I presume ; I suppose you have nothing
to do?' And so the dialogue went on ; the shoemaker
confining himself to his duty, and the clergyman talk-
ing only of shoes, in varied and constantly-shifting col-
loquy, till the perverse and wicked pertinacity of the
latter discouraged the former ; and the shoemaker and
his brother took up their hats, ♦ to shake off the dust of
their feet,' and turn away to a more hopeful subject.
The clergyman bowed them ^^ty civilly out of doors,
expressing his wish, as they departed, that the shoe
business might soon revive. Of course, these lay apos-
tles, in this instance, were horror-struck ; and it cannot
be supposed they were much inclined to leave their
blessing behind them.
" I believe I do not mistake in expressing the con-
viction that there are hundreds, not to say thousands,
of the Presbyterian and Congregational clergy, who
will sympathise with me thoroughly in these strictures
on the encroachments of the laity upon pastoral pre-
rogative ; who groan under it ; who feel that it ought
to be rebuked and corrected, but despair of it; and
who know that their usefulness is abridged by it to an
amount that cannot be estimated.* It can hardly be
* " The Rev. Mr. Reid mentions a very whimsical instance of
the interference of the laity in every possible way. He says, that
being at church one Sabbath, there was one reverend old man,
certainly a leader among them, who literally, as the preacher went
on with his sermon, kept up a sort of recitation with him ; as, for
instance, the preacher continuing his sermon —
The duty here inferred is, to deny ourselves —
Elder. God enable us to do it.
Preacher. It supposes that the carnal mind is enmity against
God—
Elder. Ah, indeed, Lord, it is.
Preacher. The very reverse of what God would have us to be—
Elder. God Almighty knows it's true.
Preacher. How necessary, then, that God should call upon us to
renounce every thing —
Elder. God help us !
Preacher. Is it necessary for me to say more ?
136 RELIGION IN AMERICA.
denied, I think, that the prevalence of this spirit has
greatly increased within a few years, and become a
great and alarming evil. This increase is owing, no
doubt, to the influence and new practices introduced
into the religious world by a certain class of ministers,
who have lately risen and taken upon themselves to
rebuke and set down as unfaithful all other ministers
who do not conform to their new ways, or sustain
them in their extravagant career."
The interference, I may say the tyranny, of the laity
over the ministers of these democratic churches is,
however, of still more serious consequences to those
who accept such arduous and repulsive duty. It is a
well-known fact that there is a species of bronchitis, or
affection of the lungs, peculiar to the ministers in the
United States, arising from their excessive labours in
their vocation. I have already observed, that the zeal
of the minister is even unto death : the observations of
Mr. Colton fully bear me out in my assertion.
" There is another serious evil in the Presbyterian
and Congregational denominations, which has attained
Elder. No— oh— no I
Preacher. Have I not said enough ?
Elder. Oh, yes, quite enough.
Preacher. I rejoice that God calls me to give up every thing-^
Elder. Yes, Lord, I would let it all go.
Preacher. You must give up all —
Elder. Yes— all.
Preacher. Your pride—'
Elder. My pride—
Preacher. Your envy —
Elder. My envy.
Preacher. Your covetousness —
Elder. My covetousness.
Preacher. Your anger —
Elder. Yes — my anger.
Preacher. Sinner, then, how awful is your condition I
Elder. How awful !
Preacher. What reason for all to examine themselves.
Elder. Lord, help us to search our hearts !
Preacher, Could you have more motives? I have done.
Elder. Thank God. — Thank God for his holy word.
Amen."
RELIGIOiN' IN AMERICA. 137
to the consequence of an active and highly influential
element in these communities. I refer to the excessive
amount of labour that is demanded of the clergy, which
is undermining their health, and sending scores to their
graves every year, long before they ought to go there.
It is a new state of things, it must be acknowledged,
and might seem hopeful of good, that great labours and
high devotion to the duties of the Christian ministry in
our country will not only be tolerated, but are actually
demanded and Imperatively exacted. At first glance
it is a most grateful feature. But, when the particulars
come to be inquired into, it will be found that the mind
and health-destroying exactions now so extensively
made on the energies of the American clergy, par-
ticularly on these two classes I am now considering,
are attributable, almost entirely, to an appetite for cer-
tain novelties, which have been introduced within a few
years, adding greatly to the amount of ministerial la-
bour, without augmenting its efficiency, but rather
detracting from it. Sermons and meetings without end,
and in almost endless variety, are expected and de-
manded ; and a proportionate demand is made on the
intellect, resources, and physical energies of the preacher.
He must be as much more interesting in his exercises
and exhibitions as the increased multiplicity of public
religious occasions tend to pall on the appetite of
hearers. Protracted meetings from day to day, and
often from week to week, are making demands upon
ministers, which no human power can sustain ; and,
where these are dispensed with, it is often necessary to
introduce something tantamount, in other forms, to
satisfy the suggestions and wishes of persons so in-
fluential as to render it imprudent not to attempt to
gratify them. In the soberest congregations, throughout
nearly all parts of the land, these importunate and
(without unkindness, I am disposed to add) morbid
minds are to be found, — ^often in considerable numbers.
Almost every where, in order to maintain their ground
and satisfy the taste of the times, labours are demanded
of ministers in these two denominations enough to kill
12*
138 RELIGION IN AMERICA.
any man in a short period. It is as if Satan liad come
into the world in the form of an angel of light, seeming
to be urging on a good work, but pushing it so hard as
to destroy the labourers by over-exaction.
" The wasting energies — the enfeebled, ruined health
— the frequent premature deaths — the failing of ministers
in the Presbyterian and Congregational connexions
from these causes all over the country, almost as soon
as they have begun to work — all which is too manifest
not to be seen, which every body feels that takes any
interest in this subject — are principally, and with few
exceptions, owing to the unnecessary exorbitant de-
mands on their intellectual powers, their moral and phy-
sical energies. And the worst of it is, we not only have
no indemnification for this amazing, immense sacrifice,
by a real improvement of the state of religion, but the
public mind is vitiated: an unnatural appetite for spu-
rious excitements, all tending to fanaticism, and not a
little of it the essence of fanaticism, is created and nou-
rished. The interests of religion in the land are actually
thrown backward. It is a fever, a disease which nothing
but time, pains, and a change of system can cure. A _
great body of the most talented, best educated, most
zealous, most pious, and purest Christian ministers in
the country — not to disparage any others — a body
which in all respects will bear an advantageous com-
parison with any of their class in the world, is threaten-
ed to be enervated, to become sickly, to have their
minds wasted, and their lives sacrificed out of season,
and with real loss to the public, by the very means
which prostrates them, even though we should leave
out of the reckoning the premature end to which they
are brought. This spectacle, at this moment before the
eyes of the wide community, is enough to fill the mind
of an enlightened Christian with dismay. I have myself
been thrown ten years out of the stated use of the min-
istry by this very course, and may, therefore, be entitled
to feel and to speak on the subject. And when I see my
brethren fallen and falling around me, like the slain in
battle, the plains of our land literally covered with these
RELIGION IN AMERICA. 139
unfortunate victims, I am constrained to express a most
earnest desire, that some adequate remedy may be ap-
plied."
It is no matter of surprise, then, that I heard the min-
isters at the camp meeting complain of the excess of
their labours, and the difficulty of obtaining young men
to enter the church :* who, indeed, unless actuated by
a holy zeal, would submit to such a life of degradation 1
what man of intellect and education could submit to be
schooled by shoemakers and mechanics, to live poor,
and at the mercy of tyrants, and drop down dead like
the jaded and over-laden beast from excess of fatigue
and exertion ? Let me again quote the same author: —
♦' It is these excessive, multitudinous, and often long
protracted religious occasions, together with the spirit
that is in them, which have been for some years break-
ing up and breaking down the clergy of this land. It
has been breaking them vp. It is commonly observed,
that a new era has lately come over the Christian con-
gregations of our country in regard to the permanence
of the pastoral relation. Time was in the memory of
those now living when the settlement of a minister was
considered of course a settlement for life. But now, as
everybody knows, this state of things is utterly broken
up ; and it is, perhaps, true that, on an average, the
clergy of this country do not remain more than five
years in the same placet And it is impossible they
should, in the present state of things. They could not
stand it. So numerous are their engagements ; so full
* The Rev. Mr. Reid observes, speaking of the Congregational-
ists, " When I rose to support his resolution, as requested, all were
generously attentive. At the close I alluded emphatically to one
fact in the report, vi^hich was, that out of 4,500 churches there
were 2,000 not only void of educated pastors, but void of pastors ;
and I insisted that, literally, they ought not to sleep on such a state
of things." — Reid and Matheson's Tour.
t " I was sorry to find that, in this part of the stale, the ministers
are so frequently changing the scene of their pastoral labours. The
fault may sometimes be in themselves ; but, from conversations I
have heard on the subject, I am inclined to believe that the peopU
are fond of change." — Rev. Mr. Reid.
140 RELIGION IN AMERICA.
of anxiety is their condition in a fevered state of the
public mind acting upon them from all directions ; so
consuming are their labours in the study and in public,
pressed and urged upon them by the demands of the
time; and, withal, so fickle has the popular mind be-
come under a system that it is forever demanding some
new and still more exciting measure — some new socie-
ty— some new monthly or weekly meeting, which per-
haps soon grows into a religious holiday — some spe-
cial effort running through many days, sometimes last-
ing for weeks, calling for public labours of ministers, of
the most exciting kind throughout each day from the
earliest hour of the morning to a late hour of night ; —
for reasons and facts of this kind, so abundant, and now
so obvious to the public that they need only to be refer-
red to to be seen and appreciated, it is impossible that
ministers should remain long in the same place. Their
mental and physical energies become exhausted, and
they are compelled to change ; first, because it is not in
the power of man to satisfy the appetite for novelties
which is continually and from all quarters making its
insatiate demands upon them ; and next, that, if possi-
ble, they may purchase a breathing time and a tran-
sient relief from the overwhelming pressure of their
cares and labours.
" But, alas ! there is no relief: they are not only bro-
ken up, but they find themselves fast breaking down.
Wherever they go, there is the same demand for the
same scene to be acted over. There is — there can be
— no stability in the pastoral relation, in such a state
of the public mind ; and, what is still more melancholy
and affecting, the pastors themselves cannot endure it
— they cannot live. They are not only constantly
fluctuating — literally afioat on the wide surface of the
community — but their health is undermined— their spi-
rits are sinking — and they are fast treading upon each
other's heels to the grave, their only land of rest.
*' Never, since the days of the apostles, was a coun-
try blessed with so enlightened, pious, ortlu)dox, faith-
ful, willing clergy, as the United States of America at
RELIGION IN AMERICA. 141
this moment ; and never did a ministry, so worthy of
trust, have so little independence to act according to
their conscience and best discretion. They are liter-
ally the victims of a spiritual tyranny that has started
up and burst upon the world in a new form — at least,
witli an extent of sway that has never been known.
It is an influence which comes up from the lowest con-
ditions of life, which is vested in the most ignorant
minds, and therefore, the more unbending and uncon-
trollable. It is an influence which has been fostered
and blown into a wide-spread flame by a class of itine-
rating ministers, who have suddenly started up and
overrun the land, decrying and denouncing all that
have not yielded al once to their sway ; by direct and
open efforts shaking and destroying public confidence
in the settled and more permanent ministry, leaving
old paths and striking out new ones, demolishing old
systems and substituting others, and disturbing and de-
ranging the whole order of society as it had existed be-
fore. And it is to this new state of things, so harassing,
so destructive to health and life, that the regular minis-
try of this country (the best qualified, most pious, most
faithful, and in all respects the most worthy Christian
ministry that the Church has ever enjoyed in any age)
are made the victims. They cannot resist it, they are
overwhelmed by it."
The fact is, that there is little or no healthy religion
in their most numerous and influential churches ; it is
all excitement. Twenty or thirty years back the Me-
thodists were considered as extravagantly frantic, but
the Congregationalists and Presbyterians in the United
States have gone far a- head of them, and the Metho-
dist church in America has become to a degree Epis-
copal, and softened down into, perhaps, the most pure,
most mild, and most simple of all the creeds professed.
I have said that in these two churches the religious
feeling was that of excitement : I believe it to be more
or less the case in all religion in America ; for the Ame-
ricans are a people who are prone to excitement, not
only from their climate but constitutionally, and' it is
142 RELIGION IN AMERICA.
the caviare of their existence. If it were not so, why
is it necessary that revivals should be so continually
called forth — a species of stimulus, common, I believe,
to almost everysect and creed, promoted and practised
in all their colleges, and considered as most important
and salutary in their results. Let it not be supposed
that I am depreciating that which is to be understood
by a revival in the true sense of the word ; not those
revivals which were formerly held for the benefit of all
and for the salvation of many: I am raising my voice
against the modern system, which has been so univer-
sally substituted for the reality; such as has been so
fully exposed by Bishop Hopkins, of Vermont, and by
Mr. Colton, who says —
" Religious excitem.ents, called revivals of religion,
have been a prominent feature in the history of this
country from its earliest periods, more particularly
within a hundred years ; and the agency of man has
always had more or less to do in their management, or
in their origination, or in both. Formerly in theory
(for man is naturally a philosopher, and will always
have his theory for every event and every fact), they
were regarded as Pentecostal seasons, as showers from
heaven, with which this world below had nothing to do
but to receive and be refreshed by them as they came.
A whole community, or the great majority of them, ab-
sorbed in serious thoughts about eternal things, in-
quiring the way to heaven, and seeming intent on the
attainment of that high and glorious condition, presents
a spectacle as solemn as it is interesting to contem-
plate. Such, doubtless, has been the condition of
many communities in the early and later history of
American revivals ; and it is no less true that the
fruits have been the turning of many to God and his
ways.
" The revivals of the present day are of a very different
nature.* There are but two ways by which the mind
* The American clergymen are supported in their opinion on
the present revivals and their consequences by Doctors Reid and
RELIGION IN AMERICA. 143
of man can be brought to a proper sense of religion —
one is by love, and the other by fear ; and it is by the
latter only that modern revivals become at all effective.
Bishop Hopkins says, very truly, — " Have we any ex-
ample in the preaching of Christ and his apostles of the
use of strong individual denunciation? Is there one sen-
tence in the word of inspiration to justify the attempt
to excite the feelings of a public assembly, until every
restraint of order is forgotten, and confusion becomes
identified with the word of God."* Yet such are the
revivals of the present day as practised in America.
Mr. Colton calls them — " Those startling and astounding
shocks which are constantly invented, artfully and habitu-
ally applied, under all the power of sympathy, and of a
studied and enthusiastic elocution, by a large class of
preachers among us. To startle and to shock is their
great secret — their power."
The same author proceeds : —
" Religion is a dread and awful theme in ilself. That
is, as all must concede, there are revealed truths belong-
ing to the category. To invest these truths with terrors
that do not belong to them, by bringing them out in dis-
torted shapes and unnatural forms ; to surpris3 a tender
and unfortified mind by one of awful import, without ex-
hibiting the corresponding relief which Christianity has
provided; to frighten, shock, and paralyse the mind with
alternations and scenes of horror, carefully concealing the
ground of encouragement and hope, till reason is shaken
and hurled from its throne, for the sake of gaining a
Malhcson, who, otherwise favourable to them, observe, " These
revival preachers have denounced pastors with whom they could
not compare, as ' dumb dogs, hypocrites, and formalists, leading
their people to hell.' The consequences have been most disastrous.
Churches have become the sport of derision, distraction, and dis-
order. Pastors have been made unhappy in their dearest connex-
ions. So extensive has been this evil that, in one presbytery of
nineteen churches, there were only three who had settled pastors;
and in one synod, of 1832, of a hundred and three churches, only
fifty-two had pastors."
* " The Primitive Church Compared, &c.," by the Bishop of
Vermont.
144 RELIGION IN AMERICA.
convert, and in making a convert to make a maniac (as
doubtless sometimes occurs under this mode of preach-
ing, for we have the proof of it), involves a fearful
responsibility. I have just heard of an interesting girl
thus driven to distraction, in the city of New York, at
the tender age of fourteen, by being approached by the
preacher after a sermon of this kind, with a secretary by
his side with a book and pen in his hand to take down
the names and answers of those who, by invitation,
remained to be conversed with. Having taken her name,
the preacher asked, ♦ Are you for God or the devil ?'
Being overcome, her head depressed, and in tears, she
made no reply. * Put her down, then, in the devil's
book !' said the preacher to his secretary. From that
time the poor girl became insane ; and, in her simplicity
and innocence, has been accustomed to tell the story of
her misfortunes."
And yet these revivals are looked up to and supported
as the strong arm of religion. It is not only the igno-
rant or the foolish, but the enlightened and the educated
also, who support and encourage them, either from a
consideration of their utility, or from that fear, so uni*
versal in the United States, of expressing an opinion
contrary to the majority. How otherwise could they be
introduced once or twice a year into all the colleges —
the professors of which are surely most of them men of
education and strong mind? Yet such is the fact. It is
announced that some minister, peculiarly gifted to work
in revivals, is to come on a certain day. Books are
thrown on one side, study Is abandoned, and ten days
perhaps are spent in religious exercises of the most vio-
lent and exciting character. It is a scene of strange
confusion, some praying, some pretending to pray, some
scoffing. Day after day it is carried on, until the ex-
citement is at its height, as tlie exhortations and the
denunciations of the preacher are poured into their ears.
A young American who was at one of the colleges, and
gave me a full detail of what liad occurred, told me that
on one occasion a poor lad, frightened out of his senses,
and anxious to pray, as the vengeance and wrath of the
RELIGION IN AMERICA. 145
Almighty was poured out by the minister, sunk down
upon liis knees and commenced his prayer with " Al-
mighty and diabolical God !" No misnomer, if what
the preacher had thundered out was the truth.
As an example of the interference of the laity, and of
the description of people who may be so authorised, the
same gentleman told me that at one revival a deacon said
to him previous to the meeting, " Now, Mr. , if
you don't take advantage of this here revival and lay up
a little salvation for your soul, all I can say is, that
you ought to have your (something) confoundedly well
kicked."
What I have already said on this subject will, I think,
establish two points, first, that the voluntary system does
not work well for society ; and secondly, that the minis-
ters of the churches are treated with such tyranny and
contumely, as to warrant the assertion, that in a country,
like the United Slates, where a man may, in any other
profession, become independent in a few years, the
number of those who enter into the ministry must de-
crease at the very time that the population and demand
for them will increase.
We have now another question to be examined, and a
very important one, which is — Are those who worship
under the voluntary system supplied at a cheaper rate
than those of the established churches in this kingdom?
I say this is an important question, as there is no
doubt that one of the principal causes of dissenting has
been the taxes upon religion in this country, and the
wish, if it were attainable of worshipping at free cost.
In entering into this question, there is no occasion to
refer to any particular sect, as the system is much the
same with them all, and is nearly as follows:
Some pious and well-disposed people of a certain per-
suasion, we will say, imagine that another church might,
if it were built, be well filled with those of their own
sect ; and that, if it is not built, the consequences will
be that many of their own persuasion will, from the habit
of attending other churches, depart from those tenets
VOL. II. 13
146 RELIGION IN AMERICA.
which they are anxious should not only be retained by
those who have embraced then^j, but as much as possi-
ble promulgated, so as to gather strength and make con-
verts— for it should be borne in mind that the sectarian
spirit is one great cause of the rapid church-building in
America.* One is of Paul, another of Apollos. They
meet, and become the future deacons and elders, in all
probability, to whom the minister has to bow; they
agree to build a church at their own risk : they are
not speculators, but religious people, who have not the
least wish to make money, but who are prepared, if ne-
cessary, to lose it.
Say then that a handsome church (I am referring to
the cities) of brick or stone, is raised in a certain quar-
ter of the city, and that it costs 75,000 dollars. When
the interior is complete, and the pews are all built, they
divide the whole cost of the church upon the pews, more
or less value being put upon them according to their
situations. Allowing that there are two hundred pews,
the one hundred most eligible being valued at five hun-
dred dollars each, and the other one hundred inferior at
two hundred and fifty dollars ; these prices would pay the
75,000 dollars, the whole expense of the church building.
The pews are then put up to auction ; some of the
most eligible will fetch higher prices than the valuation,
while some are sold below the valuation. If all are not
sold, the residue remains upon the hands of the parties
who built the church, and who may for a time be out of
pocket. They have however, to aid them, the extra
price paid for the best pews, and the sale of the vaults
for burial in the church-yard.
Most of the pews being sold, the church is partly paid
for. The next point is to select a minister, and, after
due trial, one is chosen. If he be a man of eloquence
and talent, and his doctrines acceptable to the many, the
church fills, the remainder of the pews are sold, and so
* Churches are also built upon speculation, as they sometimes
are in England.
RELIGION IN AMERICA. 147
far the expenses of building the church are defrayed ;
but they have still to pay the salary of the minister, the
heating and lighting of the church, the organist, and the
vocalists : this is done by an assessment upon the pews,
each pew being assessed according to the sum which it
fetched when sold by auction.
I will now give the exact expenses of an American
gentleman in Boston, who has his pew in one of the
largest churches.
He purchased his pew at auction for seven hundred
and fifty dollars, it being one of the best in the church.
The salaries of the most popular ministers vary from
fifteen hundred to three or four thousand dollars. The
organist receives about five hundred ; the vocalists from
two or three hundred dollars each. To meet his share
of these and the other expenses, the assessment of this
gentleman is sixty-three dollars per annum. Now, the
interest of seven hundred and fifty dollars in America
is forty-five dollars, and the assessment being sixty-three
— one hundred and eight dollars per annum, or twenty-
two pounds ten shillings sterling for his yearly expenses
under the voluntary system. This, of course, does not
include the oflferings of the plate, charity sermons, &c.,
all of which are to be added, and which will swell the
sum, according to my friend's statement, to about thirty
pounds her annum.*
It does not appear by the above calculations that the
voluntary system has cheapness to recommend it, when
people worship in a respectable mr-nner, as you might
hire a house and farm of fifty acres in that State for the
same rent which this gentleman pays for going to
church ; but it must also be recollected that it is quite
* " A great evil of our American churches is, their great respect-
ability or exclusivencss. Here, being of a large size and paid by
Government, the clnirch is open to all the citizens, with an equal
right and equal chance of accommodation. In ours, the dearness
of pew-rent, especi:illy in Episcopal and Presbyterian, turns po-
verty out of doors. Pour people have a sense of shame, and I know
many a one, who, because he cannot go to Heaven decently, will
not go at all." — Sketches of Paris by an American Gentleman.
148 RELIGION IN AMERICA.
optional, and that those who do not go to church need
not pay at all.
It was not, however, until late years that such was
the case. In Massachusetts, and in most of the Eastern
States, the system was not voluntary, and it is to this
cause that may be ascribed the superior morality and
reverence for religion still existing, although decaying,
in these States. By former enactments in Massachu-
setts, landowners in the country were compelled to con-
tribute to the support of the church.
Pews in cities or towns are mentioned in all deeds
and wills as personal property ; but in the country, be-
fore the late Act, they were considered as real estate.
A pew was allotted to each farm, and whether the
proprietor occupied it or not, he was obliged to pay for
it ; but by an Act of the Massachusetts' State regula-
tion, passed within these few years, it was decided that
no man should be compelled to pay for religion. The
consequence has been, that the farmers now refuse to
pay for their pews, the churches are empty, and a por-
tion of the clergy have been reduced to the greatest
distress. An itinerant ranter, who will preach in the
open air, and send his hat round for cents, suits the
farmers much better, as it is much cheaper. Certainly
this does not argue much for the progressive advance-
ment of religion, even in the moral State of Massachu-
setts.
In other points the cause of morality has, till lately,
been upheld in these Eastern States. It was but the
other day that a man was discharged from prison, who
had been confined for disseminating atheistical doctrines.
It was, however, said at the time, that that was the last
attempt that would ever be made by the autiiorities to
imprison a man for liberty of conscience ; and I believe
that such will be the case.
The Boston Advocate says — " Abner Kneeland came
out of prison yesterday, where he has been for sixty
days, under the barbarous and bigoted law of Massa-
chusetts, which imprisons men for freedom of opinions.
As was to have been expected, Kneeland's liberation
RELIGION IN AMERICA. 149
was made a sort of triumph. About three hundred
persons assembled, and were addressed by him at the
jail, and he was conveyed home in a barouche. During
his persecution in prison, liberal suras of money have
been sent to him. How much has Christianity gained
by this foul blot upon the escutcheon of Massachu-
setts 1"
It is, however, worthy of remark, that those States
that have enforced religion and morality, and have
punished infidelity,* are now the most virtuous, the
most refined, and the most intellectual, and are quoted
as such by American authors, like Mr. Carey, who by
the help of Massachusetts alone can bring out his sta-
tistics to any thing near the mark requisite to support
his theories.
It is my opinion that the voluntary system will never
work well under any form of government, and still less
so under a democracy.
Those who live under a democracy have but one pur-
suit, but one object to gain, which is wealth. No one
can serve God and Mammon. To suppose that a man
who has been in such ardent pursuit of wealth, as is the
American for six days in the week, can recall his atten-
tion and thoughts to serious points on the seventh, is
absurd ; you might as well expect him to forget his to-
bacco on Sunday.
Under a democracy, therefore, you must look for reli-
gion among the women, not among the men, and such
is found to be the case in the United States. As Sam
Slick very truly says, " It's only women who attend
meeting ; the men folks have their politics and trade to
talk over, and hav'n't /ime." Even an established
church would not make people as religious under a de-
* Miss Martineau complains of this as contrary to the unaliena.
ble rights of man : — " Instead of this, we find laws framed against
speculative atheists; opprobrium directed against such as embrace
natural religion otherwise than through Christianity, and a yet
more bitter oppression exercised by those who view Christianity in
one wa}' over those who regard it in another."
13*
150 RELIGION IN AMERICA.
mocratic form of government as it would under any-
other.*
I have yet to point out how slander and defamation
flourish under a democracy. Now, this voluntary sys-
tem, from the interference of the laity, who judge not
only the minister, but the congregation, gives what ap-
pears to be a legitimate sanction to this tyrannical sur-
veillance over the conduct and behaviour of others. I
really believe that the majority of men who go to church
in America do so not from zeal towards God, but from
fear of their neighbojrs ; and this very tyranny in the
more established persuasions, is the cause of thousands
turning away to other sects which are not subjected to
scrutiny. The Unitarian is in this point the most con-
venient, and is therefore fast gaining ground. Mr. Col-
ton observes, " Nothing can be more clear, than that
Scripture authority against meddling, tattling, slander,
scandal, or in any way interfering with the private con-
cerns, conduct, and character of our neighbours, except
as civil or ecclesiastical authority has clothed us with
legitimate powers, is specific, abundant, decided, em-
phatic. It is founded in human nature ; it is essential to
the peace of society ; a departure from it would be
ruinous to social comfort. If therefore it is proper to
introduce any rule on this point into a mutual church
covenant, it seems to me that the converse of that which
is usually found in that place ought to be substituted.
Even the apostles, as we have seen, found it necessary
to rebuke the disposition prevalent in their time to med-
dle with the affairs, and to make inquisition into the con-
duct of others. But it should be recollected, that the
condition of Christians and the state of society then
* Mrs. Trollope observes, " A stranger taking up his residence
in any city in America must think the natives the most religious
people upon earth." This is very true ; the ovtward observances
are very stricl ; why so will be belter comprehended when the
reader has finished my remarks upon tlie country. The author of
Mammon very truly observes, that the only vice which we can
practise without being arraijrned for it in this world, and at the
same time go through the /orm« of religion, is covetousness.
RELIGION IN AMERICA. 151 /
were widely dififerent from ihe same things with us.
Christianity was a new religion, and its disciples were
generally obnoxious. They were compelled by their
circumstances to associate most intimately ; they were
bound together by those sympathies and ties, which a
persecuted and suffering class always feel, independent
of Christian affection. Hence in part w^e account for
the holy and exemplary ardour of their attachments to
their religion and to each other. But even in these cir-
cumstances, and under these especial intimacies, or
rather, perhaps, on account of them, the apostles found
it necessary to admonish them against the abuse of that
confidence so generally felt and reciprocated by those
who confessed Christ in those unhappy times ; an abuse
so naturally developed in the form of meddling and pri-
vate inquisition."
I quote the above passage, as, in the United States, the
variety of sects, the continual splitting and breaking up of
those seels, and their occasional violent altercations, have
all proved most injurious to society, and to the cause of
religion itself. Indeed religion in the States may be said
to have been a source of continual discord and the unhing-
ing of society, instead of that peace and good-will incul-
cated by our divine Legislator. It is the division of the
Protestant church which has occasioned its weakness in
this country, and will probably eventually occasion, if not
its total subversion, at all events its subversion in the west-
ern hemisphere of America.
The subjugation of the ministry to the tyranny of their
congregations is another most serious evil ; for either they
must surrender up their consciences or their bread. In
too many instances it is the same here in religion as in po-
litics : before the people will permit any one to serve them
in any office, he must first prove his unfitness by sub-
mitting to what no man of honesty or conscientious rec-
titude would subscribe to. This must of course in both
cases be taken with exceptions, but it is but too often the
fact. And hence has arisen another evil, which is that
there are hundreds of self-constituted ministers, who wan-
der over the western country, using the word of God as a
152 RELIGION liN AMERICA.
cloak, working upon ihe feelings of the won:ien to obtain
money, and render religion a by-word among the men,
who will in all probability some day rise up and lynch
some dozen of them, as a hint for the rest to clear out.
It would appear as if Locofocoism and infidelity had
formed a union, and were fighting under the same ban-
ner. They have recently celebrated the birth-day of Tom
Paine, in Cincinnati, New York, and Boston. In Cin-
cinnati, Frances Wright Darusmont, better known as
Fanny Wright, was present, and made a violent politico-
atheistical speech on the occasion, in which she denounced
banking, and almost every other established institution of
the country. The nature of the celebration in Boston
will be understood from the following toast given on the
occasion.
By George Chapman : — " Chrhtianily and the banks
tottering on their last legs. May their downfall be
speedy," &c. &c.
Miss Martineau informs us that " The churches of
Boston, and even the other public buildings, being guarded
by the dragon of bigotry, so that even Faith, Hope, and
Charity are turned back from the doors, a large building
is about to be erected for the use of all. Deists not except-
ed, who may desire to meet for free discussion. She
adds, " This at least is an advance!'''' And in a few
pages further : — " The eagerness in pursuit of speculative
truth is shown by the rapid sale of every heretical ivork.
The clergy complain of the enormous spread of bold
books, from the infidel tract to the latest handling of the
miracle question, as sorrowfully as the most liberal mem-
bers of society lament the unlimited circulation of the false
morals issued by certain Religious Tract Societies. Both
testify to the interest taken by the public in religion.
The love of truth is also shown by the outbreak of heresy
in all directions 1"
Having stated the most obvious objections to the vo-
luntary system, I shall now proceed to show how far my
opinions are corroborated by American authorities. The
author of " A Voice from America," observes very truly,
that the voluntary system of supporting religion in Ame-
RELIGION IN AMERICA. 153
rica is inadequate to the purpose, and he closes his argu-
ment with the following observation : —
"How far that part of the system of supporting reli-
gion in America, which appeals to the pride and public
spirit of the citizens, in erecting and maintaining religious
institutions on a respectable footing, in towns, cities, and
villages, and among rival sects — and in this manner
operating as a species of constraint — is worthy to be
called voluntary, we pretend not to say. But this com-
prehends by far the greatest sum that is raised and ap-
propriated to these objects. All the rest is a mere
fraction in comparison. And yet it is allowed, and made
a topic of grievous lamentation, that the religious wants
of ihe country are most inadequately supplied ; and such,
indeed, we believe to be the fact."
The next point referred to by this author is, " that the
American system of supporting religion has brought
about great instability in the religious world, and induced
a ruinous habit of change."
This arises from the caprice of the congregation, for
Americans are naturally capricious and fond of change :
whether it be concerning a singer, or an actor, or a cler-
gyman, it is ihe same thing. This American author ob-
serves, " There are few clergymen that can support their
early popularity for a considerable time ; and as soon as
it declines, they must begin to think of providing else-
where for themselves. They go — migrate — and for the
same reason, in an equal term of time, iliey are liable to
be forced to migrate again. And thus there is no stabi-
lity, but everlasting change, in the condition of the Ame-
rican clergy. They change, the people change — all is a
round of change — because all depends on the voluntary
principle. The clerical profession in America is, in-
deed, like that of a soldier; always under arms, fre-
quently fighting, and always ready for a new campaign
— a truly militant state. A Clergyman's Guide would
be of little use, so far as the object might be to direct
where to find him : he is not this year where he was
last." And, as must be the consequence, he justly ob-
serves, " Such a system makes the clergy servile, and
154 RELIGION IN AMERICA.
the people tyrannical." " When the enmity of a single
individual is sufficient to destroy a resident pastor's peace,
and to break him up, how can he be otherwise than ser-
vile, if he has a family about him, to whom perpetual
change is inconvenient and disastrous? There is not a
man in his flock, however mean and unworthy of influ-
ence, whom he does not fear ; and if he happens to dis-
please a man of importance, or a busy woman, there is
an end to his peace ; and he may begin to pack up. This
perpetual bondage breaks down his mind, subdues his
courage, and makes a timid nervous woman of one who
is entitled, and who ought to be, a man. He drags out
a miserable existence, and dies a miserable slave. There
are exceptions to this rule, it is true ; because there are
clergymen with talent enough to rise above these disad-
vantages, enforce respect, and maintain their standing, in
spite of enemies."
But there is another very strong objection, and most
important one, to the voluntary system, which I have
delayed to bring forward ; which is, that there is no
provision for the poor in the American voluntary church
system. Thus only those who are rich and able to afford
religion can obtain it. At present, it is true that the ma-
jority of the people in America have means sufficient to
pay for seals in churches, if they choose to expend the
money ; but as America increases her population, so will
she increase the number of her poor ; and what will be
the consequence hereafter, if this evil is to continue ?
The author I am now quoting from observes, " At best
the poor are unprovided for, and the talents of the
clergy are always in the market to the highest bidder.*
There have been many attempts to remedy this evil, in
the dense population of cities, by setting up a still more
voluntary system, called ' free churches,' in which thC
* This is true. When I was in the States one of the most popu-
lar preachers quitted his church at Boston to go to New York,
where he was offered an increase of salary ; telhng his parishioners
" that he found he would be more useful elsewhere'''' — the very
language used by the laity to the clergyman when they dismiss
him.
RELIGION IN AMERICA. 155
pews are not rented, but free to all. But they are uni-
formly/ai/wres."
Two oilier remarks made by this author are equally
correct ; first, that the voluntary system tends to the
multiplication of sects without end ; and next, that the
voluntary system is a mendicant system, and involves one
of the worst features of the Church of Rome, which is,
that it lends to the production of pious frauds. But I
have already, in support of my arguments, quoted so
much from this book that I must refer the reader to the
work itself.
At present, Massachusetts, and the smaller Eastern
Slates, are the strong-hold of religion and morality ; as
you proceed from them farther south or west, so does the
influence of the clergy decrease, until it is totally lost in
the wild Stales of Missouri and Arkansas. With the
exception of certain cases to be found in Western Vir-
ginia, Kentucky, and Ohio, the whole of the States to
the westward of the Alleghany Mountains, comprising
more than two-thirds of America, may be said to be either
in a state of neglect and darkness, or professing the Ca-
tholic religion.
Although Virginia is a slave State, I think there is
more religion there than in some of the more northern
free Slates ; but it must be recollected, that Virginia has
been long settled, and the non-predial slate of the slaves is
not attended wiih demoralising effects ; and I may here
observe that the black population of America is decidedly
the most religious, and sets an example to the white, par-
ticularly in the free Slates.*
* Mr. Reid, in his Tour, describes a visit which he paid to a black
church in Kentucky : —
" By the law of the State, no coloured persons are permitted to
assemble for worship, unless a white person be present and preside.
" One of the black preachers, addressings me as their ' strange
master,' begg-ed that I would take charge of the service. I declined
doing so. He gave out Dr. Wall's beautiful psalm, ' Show pity,
Lord, oh! Lord forgive.' They all rose immediately. They had
no books, for they could not read ; but it was printed on their
memory, and they sung it off with freedom and feeling.
" The senior black, who was a preacher among them, then of-
156 RELIGION IN APflERICA.
Il may be fairly inquired, can tliis be true ? Not fifiy
years back, at the lime of the Declaration of Iudej)endence,
was not the American community one of the most vir-
tuous in existence ? Such was indeed the case, as it is
now equally certain that they are one of the most de-
moralised. The question is, then, what can have created
such a change in the short period of fifty years ?
The only reply that can be given, is, that as the Ameri-
cans, in their eagerness to possess new lands, pushed
away into the west, so did they leave civilisation behind,
and return to ignorance and barbarism ; they scattered
their population, and the word of God was not to be heard
in the wilderness.
That as she increased her slave States, so did she give
employment, land, and power to those who were indif-
ferent to all law, human or divine. And as, since the
formation of the Union, the people have yearly gained
advantages over the Government until they now control
it, so have they controlled and fettered Religion until it
produces no good fruits.
Add to this the demoralising effects of a democracy
which turns the thoughts of all to Mammon, and it will
be acknowledged that this rapid fall is not so very sur-
prising.
But, if the Protestant cause is growing weaker every
day from disunion and indifference, there is one creed
which is rapidly gaining strength ; 1 refer to the Catholic
church, which is silently, but surely advancing.* Its
fercd prayer and preached ; his prayer was humble and devotional.
In one portion, he made an affecting allusion to their wrongs.
' Thou knowcst,' said the good man, with a broken voice, ' our
state — that it is the meanest — that we are as mean and low as man
can be. But we have sinned — we have forfeited all our rights to
Thee, and wc would submit before TAee, to these marks of thy
displeasure.' "
Mr. Reid subsequently asserts, that the sermon delivered by the
black was an " earnest and efficient appeal ;" and, afterwards, hear-
ing a sermon on the same day from a white preacher, he observes
that it was a ''very sorry affair,'" in contrast with what he had be-
fore witnessed.
* Although it is not forty years since the first Roman Catholic
RELIGION IN AMERICA. 157
great field is in the west, where in some States, almost
all are Catholics, or from neglect and ignorance altogether
indifferent as to religion. The Catholic priests are dili-
gent, and make a large number of converts every year,
and the Catholic population is added to by the number of
Irish and German emigrants to the West, who are almost
all of them of the Catholic persuasion.
Mr. Tocqueville says —
" I think that the Catholic religion has erroneously been
looked upon as the natural enemy of democracy. Among
the various sects of Christians, Catholicism seems to me,
on the contrary, to be one of those which are most fa-
vourable to equality of conditions. In the Catholic
church, the religious community is composed of only
two elements — the priest and the people. The priest
alone rises above the rank of his flock, and all below
him are equal. On doctrinal points, the Catholic faith
places all human capacities upon the same level. It
subjects the wise and the ignorant, the man of genius
and the vulgar crowd, to the details of the same creed ;
it imposes the same observances upon the rich and the
needy ; it inflicts the same austerities upon the strong
and the weak; it listens to no compromise with mortal
man ; but, reducing all the human race to the same
standard, it confounds all the distinctions of society at
the foot of the same altar, even as they are confounded
in the sight of God. If Catholicism predisposes the faith-
ful to obedience, it certainly does not prepare them for in-
equality ; but the contrary may be said of Protestant-
ism, which generally tends to make men independent,
more than to render them equal."
see was created, there is now in the United States a Catholic popu-
lation of 800,000 souls under the government of the Pope, an Arch-
bishop, 12 Bishops, and 433 priests. The number of churches is 401 ;
mass-houses, about 300; colleges, 10; seminaries for young men,
9 ; theological seminaries, 5; noviciates for Jesuits, monasteries, and
convents, with academies attached, 31 ; seminaries for young ladies,
30 ; schools of the Sisters of Charity, 29 ; an academy for coloured
girls at Baltimore ; a female infant school, and 7 Catholic news-
papers.
VOL. n. 14
J 58 RELIGION IN AMERICA.
And the author of A Voice from America observes—
" The Roman CathoHc church bids fair to rise to im-
portance in America. Thoroughly democratic as her
members are, being composed, for the most part, of the
lowest orders of European population, transplanted to
the United States with a fixed and implacable aversion
to every thing bearing the name and in the shape of
monarchy, the priesthood are accustomed studiously to
adapt themselves to this state of feeling, being content
with that authority that is awarded to their office by
their own communicants and members."*
Now, I venture to disagree with both these gentle-
men. It is true, as Mr. Tocqueville observes, that the
Catholic church reduces all the human race to the same
standard, and confounds all distinctions — not, however,
upon the principle of equality or democracy, but be*
cause it will ever equally exert its power over the high
and the low, assuming its right to compel princes and
kings to obedience, and their dominions to its subjec-
tion. The equality professed by the Catholic church,
is like the equality of death, all must fall before its
power ; whether it be to excommunicate an individual
or an empire is to it indifferent ; it assumes the power
• The Rev. Dr. Reid observes : —
" I found the people at this time under some uneasiness in re-
lation to the spread of Romanism. The partisans of that system are
preally assisted from Europe by supplies of money and teachers.
The teachers have usually more acquired competency than the
native instructors : and this is a temptation to parents who are
seeking accomplishments for their children, and who have a high
idea of European refinements. It appeared, that out of four schools,
provided for the wants of the town (Lexington, Kentucky) three
were in the hands of the Catholics."
To which we may add Miss Martineau's observations : —
" The Catholics of the country, thinking themselves now suffi-
ciently numerous to be an American Catholic church, a great
stimulus has been given to proselytism. This has awakened fear
and persecution; which last has again been favourable to the in-
crease of the sect. While the Presbyterians preach a harsh, ascetic,
persecuting religion, the Catholics dispense a mild and 4ndulgcnt
one; and the prodigious increase of their numbers is a necessary
consequence. It has been so impossible to supply the demand for
priests, that the term of education has been shortened by two years."
RELIGION IN AMERICA. 159
of the Godhead, giving and taking away, and its mem-
bers stand trembling before it, as they shall hereafter
do in the presence of the Deity.
The remark of the author of the Voice from America,
" that aware of the implacable aversion of the people to
monarchy, the priesthood are accustomed studiously to
adapt themselves to this state of feeling,'' proves rather
to me the universal subtlety shown by the Catholic
clergy, which, added to their zeal and perseverance, so
increases the power of the church. At present Catho-
licism is, comparatively speaking, weak in America, and
the object of that church is, to become strong ; they do
not, therefore, frighten or alarm their converts by any
present show of the invariable results ; but are content
to bide their time, until they shall find themselves strong
enough to exert their power with triumphant success.
The Protestant cause in America is weak, from the evil
effects of the voluntary system, particularly from its
division into so many sects. A house divided against
itself cannot long stand ; and every year it will be found
that the Catholic church will increase its power : and it
is a question whether a hierarchy may not eventually
be raised, which, so far from advocating the principles
of equality, may serve as a check to the spirit of demo-
cracy becoming more powerful than the Government,
curbing public opinion, and reducing to better order the
present chaotic state of society.
Judge Haliburton asserts, that all America will be a
Catholic country. That all America west of the Alle-
ghanies will eventually be a Catholic country, I have
no doubt, as the Catholics are already in the majority,
and there is nothing, as Mr. Cooper observes, to pre-
vent any State from establishing that, or any other reli-
gion, as the Religion of the States* and this is one of
the dark clouds which hang over the destiny of the
western hemisphere.
* "There is nothing in the constitution of the United States to
prevent all the States, or any particular State, from possessing an
established religion." — Cooper''s Democrat,
160 RELIGION IN AMERICA.
The Reverend Mr. Reid says: — "It should really
seem that the Pope, in the fear of expulsion from Eu-
rope, is anxious to find a reversion in this new world.
The crowned heads of the continent, having the same
enmity to free political institutions which his holiness
has to free religious institutions, willingly unite in the
attempt to enthral this people. They have heard of the
necessities of the West ; they have the foresight to see
that the West will become the heart of the country, and
ultimately determine the character of the whole ; and
they have resolved to establish themselves there. Large,
yea princely, grants have been made from the Leopold
society, and other sources, chiefly, though by no means
exclusively, in favour of this portion of the empire that
is to be. These sums are expended in erecting showy
churches and colleges, and in sustaining priests and
emissaries. Every thing is done to captivate, and to
liberalise in appearance, a system essentially despotic.
The sagacity of the effort is discovered, in avoiding to
attack and shock the prejudices of the adult, that they
may direct t-^ie education of the young. They look to
the future; and they really have great advantages in
doing so. They send out teachers excellently qualified ;
superior, certainly, to the run of native teachers.* Some
value the European modes of education as the more
excellent, others value them as the mark of fashion;
the demand for instruction, too, is always beyond the
supply, so that they find little difficulty in obtaining the
charge of Protestant children. This, in my judgment,
is the point of policy which should be especially re-
garded with jealousy; but the actual alarm has arisen
from the disclosure of a correspondence which avows
designs on the West, beyond what I have here set
down. It is a curious affair, and is one other evidence,
if evidence were needed, that popery and Jesuitism are
one."
* The Catliolic priests who instruct are to my knowledge the
best educated men in the States. It was a pleasure to be in their
company.
RELIGION IN AMERICA, 161
1 think that the author of Sam Slick may not be
wrong in his assertion, that all America will be a Catho-
lic country. I myself never prophesy ; but I cannot
help remarking, that even in the most anti-Catholic per-
suasions in America there is a strong Papistical /ee/m^ ;
that is, there is a vying with each other, not only to ob-
tain the best preachers, but to have the best organs and
the best singers. It is the system of excitement which,
without their being aware of it, they carry into their devo-
tion. It proves that, to them there is a weariness in the
church service, a tedium in prayer, which requires to be
relieved by the stimulus of good music and sweet voices.
Indeed, what with their anxious seats, their revivals^ their
music, and their singing, every class and sect in the
Stales have even now so far fallen into Catholicism, that
religion has become more of an appeal to the sensej
than to the calm and sober judgment.
14'
162
SOCIETIES AND ASSOCIATIONS.
Although in a democracy the highest stations anid
preferments are open to all, more directly than they may
be under any other form of government, still these prizes
are but (ew and insufficient, compared with the number
of total blanks which must be drawn by the ambitious
multitude. It is, indeed, a stimulus to ambition (and a
matter of justice, when all men are pronounced equal),
that they all should have an equal chance of raising
themselves by their talents and perseverance; but, when
so many competitors are permitted to enter the field, few
can arrive at the goal, and the mass are doomed to dis-
appointment. However fair, therefore, it may be to
admit all to the competition, certain it is that the compe-
tition cannot add to the happiness of a people, when we
consider the feelings of bitterness and ill-will naturally
engendered among the disappointed multitude.
In monarchical and aristocratical institutions, the mid-
dling and lower classes, whose chances of advancement
are so small that they seldom lift their eyes or thoughts
above their own sphere, are therefore much happier, and
it may be added, much more virtuous than those who
struggle continually for preferment in the tumultuous sea
of democracy. Wealth can give some importance, but
wealth in a democracy gives an importance which is so
common to many that it loses much of its value ; and
when it has been acquired, it is not sufficient for the
restless ambition of the American temperament, which
will always spurn wealth for power. The effects there-
fore of a democracy are, first to raise an inordinate ambi-
tion among the people, and then to cramp the very ambi-
tion which it has raised ; and, as I may comment upon
hereafter, it appears as if this ambition of the people, in-
dividually checked by the nature of their institutions,
SOCIETIES AND ASSOCIATIONS. 163
becomes, as it were, concentraled and collected into a
focus in upholding and contemplating the success and
increase of power in the Federal Government. Thus
has been produced a species of demoralising reaction ;
the disappointed units to a certain degree satisfying
themselves with any advance in the power and import-
ance of the wliole Union wholly regardless of the means
by which such increase may have been obtained.
But this unsatisfied ambition has found another vent
in the formation of many powerful religious and other
associations. In a country where there will ever be an
attempt of the people to tyrannise over every body and
every thing, power they will have ; and if they cannot
obtain it in the various departments of the States' Go-
vernments, they will have it in opposition to the Go-
vernment ; for all these societies and associations con-
nect themselves directly with politics.* It is of little
consequence by what description of tie these " sticks in
the fable" are bound up together ; once bound together
they are not to be broken. In America religion severs
the community, but these societies are the bonds which
to a certain degree reunite it.
To enumerate the whole of these societies actually
existing, or which have been in existence, would be
difficult. The following are the most prominent.
List of Benevolent Societies, with their Receipts in the
year 1834.
Dolls. Cents.
American Board of Commissioners for
Foreign Missions .... 155,002 24
* "Not long afterwards, a prominent Presbyterian clergyman of
Philadelphia thought fit to preach and publish a sermon, wherein
it was set forth and conclusively proved, that on such and such
contingencies of united religious effort of the religious public, the
majority of the American people could be made religious ; conse-
quently they might carry their religious influence to the pollsy
consequently the religious would be able to turn all the profane
out of office ; and consequently, the American people would become
a Christian nation l^'— Voice from America^ by an American Gen,
tleman.
164
SOCIETIES AND ASSOCIATIONS.
American Baptist Board of Foreign Mis
sions .....
Western Foreign Mission Society at Pitts
burgh, Pennsylvania .
Methodist Episcopal Missionary Society
Protestant Episcopal Foreign and Domes
tic Missionary Society
American Home Missionary Society
Baptist Home Missionary Society .
Board of Missions of the Reformed Dutch
Church (Domestic)
Board of Missions of the General Assem
bly of the Presbyterian Church (Domes
tic) estimated ....
American Education Society .
Board of Education of the General Assem
bly of the Presbyterian Churches
Northern Baptist Education Society
Board of Education of the Reformed
Dutch Church ....
American Bible Society .
American Sunday School Union
General Protestant Episcopal Sunday
School Union ....
Baptist General Tract Society
American Tract Society
American Colonization Society
Prison Discipline Society
American Seaman's Friend Society
American Temperance Society
Dolls. Cents.
63,000 00
16,296 46
35,700 15
26,007 97
78,911 24
11,448 28
5,572 97
40,000 00
57,122 20
38,000 00
4,681 11
1,270 20
88,600 82
136,855 58
6,641 00
6,126 97
66,485 83
48,939 17
2,364 00
16,064 00
5,871 12
Total 8,910,961 31
Many of these societies had not been established
more than ten years at the date given ; they must have
increased very much since that period. Of course, many
of them are very useful, and very well conducted.
There are many others: New England Non-resistance
Society, Sabbath Observance Society, &c.; in fact, the
SOCIETIES AND ASSOCIATIONS. 165
Americans are Society mad. I do not intend to speak
with the least disrespect of the societies, but the zeal or
fanaticism (if I may use the term) with which many, if
not all, of them are carried on, is too remarkable a fea-
ture in the American character to be passed over with-
out comment. Many of these societies have done much
good, particularly the religious societies ; but many
others, from being pushed too far, have done great mis-
chief, and have very much assisted to demoralise the
community. I remember once hearing a story of an
ostler who confessed to a Catholic priest ; he enumerated
a long catalogue of enormities peculiar to his profession,
and when he had finished, the priest inquired of him
*' whether he had ever greased horses' teeth to prevent
their eating their corn ?" this peculiar offence not having
been mentioned in his confession. The ostler declared
that he never had ; absolution was given, and he de-
parted. About six months afterwards, the ostler went
again to unload his conscience ; the former crimes and
peccadilloes were enumerated, but added to them were
several acknowledgments of having at various times
" greased horses' teeth'' to prevent their eating their
corn. " Ho — ho !" cried the priest, " why, if I recollect
right, according to your former confession you had
never been guilty of this practice. How comes it that
you have added this crime to your many others 1"
" May it please you, father," replied the ostler, " I had
never heard of it, until you told me."
Now this story is very apropos to the conduct pur-
sued by many of these societies in America : they must
display to the public their statistics of immorality and
vice ; they must prove their usefulness by informing
those who were quite ignorant, and therefore innocent,
that there are crimes of which they had no idea ; and
thus, in their fanatic wish to improve, they demoralise.
Such have been the consequences among this excitable
yet well-meaning people. The author of "A Voice from
America" observes : —
" It has been thought suitable to call the attention of
mothers and daughters over the wide country to the
condition and evils of brothels and of common prostitu-
166 SOCIETIES AND ASSOCIATIONS.
tion, in towns and cities ; to send out agents (young
men) to preach on the subject; and to organise subsi-
diary societies, after the fashion of all reforms. The
annual report of ' The New York Female Moral Re-
form Society,' for 1838 (a very decent name certainly
for the object), announces 361 auxiliaries, and 20,000
members, with 16,500 subscribers (all females !) to the
* Advocate of Moral Reform' a semi-monthly paper,
published by the parent society, devoted to the text of
the seventh commandment, and to the facts and results
growing out of its violation. This same class of reform-
ers have heretofore been accustomed to strike off prints
of the most unmentionable scenes of these houses of
pollution in their naked forms, and in the very acts of
crime, for public display, that the public might know
what they are : in other words, as may be imagined, to
make sport for the initiated, to tempt the appetites and
passions of the young, who otherwise would have
known little or nothing about it, into the same vortex
of ruin, and to cause the decent and virtuous to turn
away with emotions of ineffable regret."
I cannot here help inquiring, how is it, if the Ameri-
cans are, as they assert, both orally and in their printed
public documents, a very moral nation, that they find it
necessary to resort to all these societies for the improve-
ment of their brother citizens ; and how is it that their
reports are full of such unexampled atrocities, as are
printed and circulated in evidence of the necessity of
their stemming the current of vice 1 The Americans
were constantly twitting me about the occasional cases
of adultery and divorce which appear in our newspa-
pers, assuring me, at the same time, that there was
hardly ever such a thing heard of in their own moral
community. Nov/, it appears that this subject has not
only been taken up by the clergy, (for Dr. Dwight, late
president of Yale College, preached a sermon on the
seventh commandment, which an American author as-
serts " was heard with pain and confusion of face, and
which never can be read in a promiscuous circle without
exciting the same feelings ;") but by one of their socie-
ties also; and, although they have not assumed the
SOCIETIES AND ASSOCIATIONS. 167
name of the Patent Jinti-£dultery Society, they are
positively doing the work of such a one, and the details
are entered into in promiscuous assemblies without the
least reservation.
The author before mentioned says : —
" The common feeling on the subject has been de-
clared false delicacy ; and, in order to break ground
against its sway, females have been forced into the van
of this enterprise ; and persuaded to act as agents, not
only among their own sex, but in circumstances where
they must necessarily agitate the subject with men,- —
not wives with husbands, which would be bad enough,
but young and single women with young and single
men! And we have been credibly informed, that
attempts have been made to form associations among
wives to regulate the privileges, and to attain the end of
temperance, in the conjugal relation. The next step,
of course, will be tee-totalism in this particular; and, as
a consequence, the extinction of the human race, unless
peradventure "the failure of the main enterprise of the
Moral Reform Society should keep it up by a progeny
not to be honoured."*
Let it be remembered, that this is not a statement of
my own ; but it is an .American who makes the asser-
tion, which I could prove to be true, might I publish
what I must not.
From the infirmity of our natures, and our prone-
ness to evil, there is nothing so corrupting as the statis-
tics of vice. Can young females remain pure in their
ideas, who read with indifference details of the grossest
nature f Can the youth of a nation remain uncontami-
nated who are continually poring over pages describing
sensuality, and will they not, in their desire of " some-
thing new," as the prophet says, run into the very vices
of the existence of which they were before unconscious'?
It is this dangerous running into extremes which has
occasioned so many of these societies to have been pro-
ductive of much evil. A Boston editor remarks—
*' The tendency of the leaders of the moral and bene-
* " A Voice from America."
168 SOCIETIES AND ASSOCIATIONS.
volent reforms of the day to run into fanaticisms,
threatens to destroy the really beneficial effects of all
associations for these objects. The spirit of propa-
gandism, when it becomes over zealous, is next of kin
to the spirit of persecution. The benevolent associa-
tions of the day are on the brink of a danger that will
be fatal to their further usefulness if not checked."
Of the Abolition Society and its tendency, I have
already spoken in the chapter on slavery. I must not,
however, pass over another which at present is rapidly
extending its sway over the whole Union, and it is
difficult to say whether it does most harm or most good
— I refer to the Temperance Society.
The Rev. Mr. Reid says —
♦* In the short space of its existence upwards of seven
thousand Temperance Societies have been formed, em-
bracing more than one million two hundred and fifty
thousand members. More than three thousand distil-
leries have been stopped, and more than seven thousand
persons who dealt in spirits have declined the trade.
Upwards of one thousand vessels have abandoned their
use. And, most marvellous of all ! it is said that above
ten thousand drunkards have been reclaimed from
intoxication ;" and he adds, " I really know of no one
circumstance in the history of this people, or of any
people, so exhilarating as this. It discovers that power
of self government, which is the leading element of all
national greatness, in an unexampled degree." Now
here is a remarkable instance of a traveller taking for
granted that what is reported to him is the truth. The
worthy clergyman, himself evidently without guile,
fully believed a statement which was absurd, from the
simple fact that only one side of the balance sheet had
been presented.
That 7,000 Temperance Societies have been formed
is true. That 3,000 distilleries have stopped from
principle may also be true; but the Temperance Society
Reports take no notice of the many which have been
set up hi their stead by those who felt no compunction
at selling spirits. Equally true it may be that 7,000
dealers in spirits have ceased to sell them; but if they
SOCIETIES AND ASSOCIATIONS. 169
have declined the trade, others have taken it up. That
the crews of many vessels have abandoned the use of
spirituous liquors is also the fact, and that is the greatest
benefit which has resulted from the efforts of the Tem-
perance Society ; but I believe the number to be greatly
magnified. That 10,000 drunkards have been re-
claimed— that is, that they have signed papers and
taken the oath — may be true; but how many have fallen
away from their good resolutions, and become more
intemperate than before, is not recorded ; nor how many
who, previously careless of liquor, have, out of pure
opposition, and in defiance of the Society, actually
become drunkards, is also unknown. In this Society,
as in the Abolition Society, they have canvassed for
legislative enactments, and have succeeded in obtaining
them. The legislature of Massachusetts, which State
is the strong-hold of the Society, passed an act last
year, by which it prohibited the selling of spirits in a
smaller quantity than fifteen gallons, intending thereby
to do away with the means of dram-drinking at the
groceries, as they are termed ; a clause, however, per-
mitted apothecaries to retail smaller quantities, and the
consequence was that all the grog-shops commenced
taking out apothecaries' licences. That being stopped,
the striped pig was resorted to : that is to say, a man
charged people the value of a glass of liquor to see a
striped pig, which peculiarity was exhibited as a sight,
and, when in the house, the visiters were offered a
glass of spirits for nothing. But this act of the legisla-
ture has given great offence, and the State of Massa-
chusetts is now divided into two very strange political
parties, to wit, the topers and the tee-totaUers. It is
asserted that, in the political contest which is to take
place, the topers will be victorious ; and if so, it will be
satisfactorily proved that, in the very enlightened moral
State of Massachusetts, the pattern of the Union, there
are more intemperate than sober men.
In this dispute between sobriety and inebriety the
clergy have not been idle: some denouncing alcohol
from the pulpit ; some, on the other hand, denouncing
VOL. II. 15
170 SOCIETIES AND ASSOCIATIONS.
the Temperance Societies as not being Christians.
Among the latter the Bishop of Vermont has led the
van. In one of his works, "The Primitive Church," he
asserts that —
" The Temperance Society is not based upon re-
ligious, but worldly principles.
" That it opposes vice and attempts to establish virtue
in a manner which is not in accordance with the word
of God," &c. &c.
His argument is briefly this : — The Scriptures forbid
drunkenness. If the people will not do right in obe-
dience to the word of God, but only from the fear of
public opinion, they show more respect to man than
God.
The counter argument is : — The Bible prohibits many
other crimes, such as murder, theft, &c. ; but if there
were not punishments for these offences agreed upon
by society, the fear of God would not prevent these
crimes from being committed.
That in the United States public opinion has more
influence than religion I believe to be the case ; and
that in all countries present punishment is more con-
sidered than future is, I fear, equally true. But I do
not pretend to decide the question, which has occasioned
great animosities, and on some occasions, I am in-
formed, the dismissal of clergymen from their churches.
The tee-totallers have carried their tenets to a length
which threatens to invade the rights of the church, for
a portion of them, calling themselves the Total Absti-
nence Society, will not use any wine which has alcohol
in it in taking the sacrament, and as there is no wine
without a portion of alcohol, they have invented a
harmless mixture, which they call wine. Unfortunately,
many of these temperance societies, in their zeal, will
admit of no medium party — you must either abstain
altogether, or be put down as a toper.
It is astonishing how obstinate some people are, and
how great is the diversity of opinion. I have heard
many anecdotes relative to this question. A man, who in-
dulged freely, was recommended to join the society —
" Now," said the minister, "you must allow that there is
SOCIETIES AND ASSOCIATIONS. 171
nothing so good, so valuable to man as water. What is
the first thintr you call for in sickness but water? What
else can cool your parched tongue like water? What
did the rich man ask for when in fiery torments 1 What
does the wretch ask for on the rack ! You cannot always
drink spirits, but water you can. Water costs nothing,
and you save your money. Water never intoxicates, or
prevents you from going to your work. There is nothing
like water. Come now, Peter, let me hear your opinion.
" Well then, sir, I think water is very good, very ex-
cellent for navigation."
An old Dutchman, who kept an inn at Hoboken, had
long resisted the attacks of the temperance societies, until
one night he happened to get so very drunk, that he ac-
tually signed the paper and took the oath. Tlie next
morning he was made acquainted with what he had un-
consciously done, and, much to the surprise of his friends,
he replied, " Well, if I have signed and sworn, as you tell
me I have, I must keep to my word," and from that hour
the old fellow abstained altogether from his favourite
schnaps. But the leaving off a habit which had become
necessary had the usual result. The old man took to his
bed, and at last became seriously ill. A medical man was
called in, and, when he was informed of what had occur-
red, perceived the necessity of some stimulus, and or-
dered that his patient should take one ounce of French
brandy every day.
*' An ounce of French brandy," said the old Dutchman,
looking at the prescription. "Well, dat is goot ; but
how much is an ounce?'' Nobody who was present could
inform him. "I know what a quart, a pint, or a gill of
brandy is," said the Dutchman ; " but I never yet had a
customer call for an ounce. Well, my son, go to the
schoolmaster; he is a learned man, and tell him I wish to
know how much is one ounce."
The message was carried. The schoolmaster, occupied
with his pupils, and not liking the interruption, hastily,
and without further inquiries of the messenger, turned
over his Bonnycastle, and arriving at the table of avoir-
dupois weight, replied, " Tell your father that sixteen
drams make an ounce.^^
172 SOCIETIES AND ASSOCIATIONS.
The boy took back the message correctly, and when the
old Dutchman heard it, his countenance brightened up — " A
goot physician, a clever man — I only have drink twelve
drams a day, and lie tells me to take sixteen. I have
taken one oath when I was drunk, and I keep it ; now
dat I am sober I take anoder, which is, I will be very
sick for de remainder of my days, and never throw my
physic out of the window."
There was a cold-water celebration at Boston, on
which occasion the hilarity of the evening was increased
by the singing of the following ode. Nobody will ven-
ture to assert that there is any spirit in the composition,
and judging from what 1 have seen of American manners
and customs, I am afraid that the sentiments of the four
last lines will not be responded to throughout the Union.
" ODE,
In Eden's green retreats
A water-brook that played
Between soft, mossy seats
Beneath a plane-tree's shade»
Whose rustling leaves
Danced o'er its brink,
Was Adam's drink,
And also Eve's.
Beside the parent spring
Of that youj)g brook, the pair
Their morning chaunt would sing ;
And Eve, to dress her hair,
Kneel on the grass
That fringed its side,
And made its tide
Her looking-glass.
And when the man of God
From Egypt led his flock.
They thirsted, and his rod
Smole the Arabian rock,
And forth a rill
Of water gushed,
And on they rushed,
And drank their fill.
Would Eden thus have smiled
Had wine to Eden come ?
Would Horeb's parching wild
Have been refreshed with rum?
SOCIETIES AND ASSOCIATIONS. 173
And had Eve's hair
Been dressed in gin,
Would she have been
Reflected fair ?
Had Moses built a still
And dealt out to that host,
To every man his gill,
An^ pledged him in a toast,
How large a band
Of Israel's sons
Had laid their bones
In Canaan's land ?
' Sweet fields, beyond Death's flood,
Stand dressed in living green,'
For, from the throne of God,
To freshen all the scene,
A river rolls.
Where all who will
May come and fill
Their crystal bowls.
If Eden's strength and bloom
Cold water thus hath given —
If, e'en beyond the tomb.
It is the drink of heaven —
Are not good wells,
And crystal springs.
The very things
For our hotels i"'
As I shall return to the subject of intemperance in my
examination of society, I shall conclude this chapter with
an extract from Miss Martineau, whose work is a strange
compound of the false and the true : — " My own convic-
tions are, that associations, excellent as they are for me-
chanical objects, are not fit instruments for the achieve'
ment of moral aims ; that there has been no proof that the
principle of self-restraint has been exalted and strength-
ened in the United Slates by the Temperance movement,
while the already too great regard to opinion^ and sub-
servience to spiritual encroachment, have been much
increased ; and, therefore, great as may be the visible
benefit of the institution, it may at length appear that
they have been dearly purchased."
15
174
LAW.
The lawyers are the real aristocracy of America ; they
comprehend nearly the whole of the gentility, talent, and
liberal information of the Union. Any one who lias had
the pleasure of being at one of their meetings, such as
the Kent Club at New York, would be satisfied that there
is no want of gentlemen with enlightened, liberal ideas in
the United States ; but it is to the law, the navy, and the
army, tliat you must chiefly look for this class of people.
Such must ever be the case in a democracy, where the
mass are to be led ; the knowledge of the laws of the
country, and the habit of public speaking, being essential
to those who would preside at the helm or assist in the
evolutions : the consequence has been, that in every era
of the Union, the lawyers have always been the most
prominent actors ; and it may be added that they ever
will play the most distinguished parts. Clay and Web-
ster of the present day are, and all the leading men of the
former generation were, lawyers. Their presidents have
all been lawyers, and any deviation from this custom has
been attended with evil results ; witness the elevation of
General Jackson to the presidency, and the heavy price
which the Americans have paid for their phantom glory.
The names of Judge Marshall and of Chancellor Kent
are well known in this country, and most deservedly so:
indeed, I am informed it has latterly been the custom in
our own law courts, to cite as cases the decisions of many
of the superior American judges — a just tribute to their
discrimination and their worth.
The general arrangement of that part of the Ameri-
can constitution relating to the judicature is extremely
good, perhaps the best of all their legislative arrange-
ments, yet it contains some great errors ; one of which
is, that of district and inferior judges being elected, as
LAW. 175
it leaves the judge at the mercy of an excitable and
overbearing people, who will attempt to dictate to him
as they do to their spiritual teacher. Occasionally he
must choose whether he v/ill decide as they wish, or lose
his situation on the ensuing election. Justice as well as
religion will be interfered with by the despotism of the
democracy.
The Americans are fond of law in one respect, that
is, they are fond of going to law. It is excitement to
them, and not so expensive as in this country. It is a
pleasure which they can afford, and for which they
cheerfully pay.
But, on the other hand, the very first object of the
Americans, after a law has been passed, is to find out
how they can evade it : this exercises their ingenuity,
and it is very amusing to observe how cleverly they
sometimes manage it. Every state enactment to uphold
the morals, or for the better regulation of society, is im-
mediately opposed by the sovereign people.
An act was passed to prohibit the playing at nine
pins, (a very foolish act, as the Americans have so few
amusements) : as soon as the law was put in force, it was
notified every where, " Ten pins played here," and they
have been played every where, ever since.
Another act was passed to put down billiard tables,
and in this instance every precaution was taken by
an accurate description of the billiard table, that the
law might be enforced. Whereupon an extra pocket
was added to the billiard table, and thus the law was
evaded.
When I was at Louisville, a bill which had been
brought in by Congress, to prevent the numerous acci-
dents which occurred in steam navigation, came into
force. Inspectors were appointed to see that the steam-
boats complied with the regulations ; and those boats
which were not provided according to law, did not re-
ceive the certificate from the inspectors, and were liable
to a fine of five hundred dollars if they navigated with-
out it. A steam-boat was ready to start; the passen-
gers clubbed together and subscribed half the sum, (two
176 LAW.
hundred and fifty dollars), and as the informer was to
have half the penalty, the captain of the boat went and
informed against himself and received the other half;
and thus was the fine paid.
At Baltimore, in consequence of the prevalence of
hydrophobia, the civic authorities passed a law, that
all dogs should be muzzled, or, rather, the terms were,
" that all dogs should wear a muzzle," or the owner
of a dog not wearing a muzzle, should be brought up
and fined ; and the regulation further stated that any
body convicted of having " removed the muzzle from
off a dog should also be severely fined." A man,
therefore, tied a muzzle to his dog's tail (the act not
stating where the muzzle was to be placed). One of
the city officers, perceiving this dog with his muzzle at
the wrong end, took possession of the dog and brought
it to the Town-hall ; its master, being well known, was
summoned, and appeared. He proved that he had com-
plied with the act, in having fixed a muzzle on the dog;
and, further, the city officer having taken the muzzle
off the dog's tail, he insisted that he should be fined
five dollars for so doing.
The striped pig, I have already mentioned ; but were
I to relate all I have been told upon this head, it would
occupy too much of the reader's time and patience.
The mass of the citizens of the United States have
certainly a very great dislike to all law except their
own, i. e. the decision of the majority ; and it must be
acknowledged that it is not only the principle of equali-
ty, but the parties who are elected as district judges,
that, by their own conduct, contribute much to that
want of respect with which they are treated in their
courts. When a judge on his bench sits half asleep,
with his hat on, and his coat and shoes off"; his heels
kicking upon the railing or table which is as high or
higher than his head ; his toes peeping through a pair of
old worsted stockings, and with a huge quid of tobacco
in his cheek, you cannot expect that much respect will
be paid to him. Yet such is even now the practice in
the interior of the Western States. I was much amused
LA>W. 177
at reading an English critique upon a work by Judge
Hall (a district judge), in which the writer says, " We
can imagine his honour in all the solemnity of his flow-
ing wig," &c. &c. The last time I saw his honour he
was cashier to a bank at Cincinnati, thumbing Ameri-
can bank-notes — dirtier work than is ever practised in
the lowest grade of the law, as any one would say if he
had ever had many American bank-notes in his posses-
sion.
As may be supposed, in a new country like America,
many odd scenes take place. In the towns in the in-
terior, a lawyer's office is generally a small wooden
house, of one room, twelve feet square, built of clap-
board, and with the door wide open ; and the little
domicile with its tenant used to remind me of a spider
in its web waiting for flies.
Not forty years back, on the other side of the Al-
leghany Mountains, deer skins at forty cents per pound,
and the furs of other animals at a settled price, were
legal tenders, and received both by judges and lawyers
as fees. The lawyers in the towns on the banks of the
Susquehanna, where it appears the people (notwith-
standing Campbell's beautiful description) were ex-
tremely litigious, used to receive all their fees in kind,
such as skins, corn, whisky, &c. &c., and, as soon as
they had suflacient to load a raft, were to be seen gliding
down the river to dispose of their cargo at the first fa-
vourable mart for produce. Had they worn the wigs and
gown of our own legal profession, the effect would
have been much more picturesque.
There is a record of a very curious trial which oc-
curred in the State of New York. A man had lent a
large iron kettle, or boiler, to another, and it being re-
turned cracked, an action was brought against the bor-
rower for the value of the kettle. After the plaintiff''s
case had been heard, the counsel for the defendant rose
and said — "Mister Judge, we defend this action upon
three counts, all of which we shall most satisfactorily
prove to you.
" In the first place, we will prove, by undoubted evi-
178 LAW.
dence, that the kettle was cracked when we borrowed
it;
" In the second, that the kettle, when we returned it,
was whole and sound ;
«• And in the third, we will prove that we never bor-
rowed the kettle at all."
There is such a thing as proving too much, but one
thing is pretty fairly proved in this case, which is, that
the defendant's counsel must have originally descended
from the Milesian stock.
I have heard many amusing stories of the peculiar
eloquence of the lawyers in the newly settled Western
States, where metaphor is so abundant. One lawyer
was so extremely metaphorical upon an occasion, when
the stealing of a pig was the case in point, that at last
he got to " corruscating rays." The judge (who appear-
ed equally metaphorical himself) thought proper to pull
him up by saying — " Mr. , I wish you would take
the feathers from the wings of your imagination, and
put them into the tail of your judgment."
Extract from an American paper :
" Scene. — A Court-house not fifty miles from the city
of Louisville — Judge presiding with great dignity — A
noise is heard before the door — He looks up, fired with
indignation. — ' Mr. Sheriff, sir, bring them men in here;
this is the temple of liberty — this is the sanctuary of
justice, and it shall not be profaned by the cracking of
nuts and the eating of gingerbread.' " — Marblehead
Register.
I have already observed that there is a great error in
the office of the inferior and district judges being elec-
tive, but there are others equally serious. In the first
place the judges are not sufficiently paid. Captain Ha-
milton remarks —
" The low salaries of the judges constitute matter of
general complaint among the members of the bar, both
at Philadelphia and New York. These are so inade-
quate, when compared with the income of a well-em-
ployed barrister, that the State is deprived of the advan-
tage of having the highest legal talent on the bench.
Men from the lower walks of the profession, therefore,
LAW. 179
are generally promoted to the office ; and for the sake of
a wretched saving of a few thousand dollars, the public
are content to submit their lives and properties to the
decision of men of inferior intelligence and learning.
" In one respect, I am told, the very excess of demo-
cracy defeats itself In some States the judges «re so
inordinately under-paid, that no lawyer who does not
possess a considerable private fortune can afford to ac-
cept the office. From this circumstance, something of
aristocratic distinction has become connected with it,
and a seat on the bench is now more greedily coveted
than it would be were the salary more commensurate
with the duties of the situation."
The next error is, that political questions are permit-
ted to interfere with the ends of justice. It is a well-
known fact that, not long ago, an Irishman, who had
murdered his wife, was brought to trial upon the eve of
an election ; and although his guilt was undoubted, he
was acquitted, because the Irish party, which were so
influential as to be able to turn the election, had declar-
ed that, if their countryman was convicted, they would
vote on the other side.
But worst of all is the difficulty of finding an honest
jury — a fact generally acknowledged. Politics, private
animosities, bribery, all have their influence to defeat
the ends of justice, and it argues strongly against the
moral standard of a nation that such should be the case;
but that it is so is undoubted.* The truth is that the ju-
ries have no respect for the judges, however respectable
they may be, and as many of them really are. The
feeling " I'm as good as he" operales every where.
There is no shutting up a jury and starving them out as
with us ; no citizen, " free and enlightened, aged twenty-
one, white," would submit to such an invasion of his
rights. Captain Hamilton observes —
" It was not without astonishment, I confess, that I
* Miss Martineau, speaking of the jealousy between the Ameri-
can and the French Creoles says — " No American expects to get a
verdict, on any evidence^ from a jury of French Creoles."
1 80 LAW.
remarked that three-fourths of the jurymen were engag-
ed in eating bread and cheese, and that the foreman
actually announced the verdict with his mouth full,
ejecting the disjointed syllables during the intervals of
mastication ! In truth, an American seems to look on a
judge exactly as he does on a carpenter or coppersmith ;
and it never occurs to him, that an administrator of
justice is entitled to greater respect than a constructor
of brass knockers, or a sheather of a ship's bottom.
The judge and the brazier are paid equally for their
work ; and Jonathan firmly believes that, while he has
money in his pocket, there is no risk of his suffering
from the want either of law or warming pans."
One most notorious case of bribery, I can vouch for,
as I am acquainted with the two parties, one of whom
purchased the snuff-box in which the other enclosed the
notes and presented to the jurymen. A gentleman at
New York, of thenameof Stoughton, had a quarrel with
another of the name of Goodwin : the latter followed
the former down the street, and murdered him in open
day by passing a small sword through his body. The
case was as clear as a case could be, but there is a great
dislike to capital punishment in America, and particularly
was there in this instance, as the criminal was of good
family and extensive connexions. It was ascertained
that all the jury except two intended to acquit the priso-
ner upon some pretended want of evidence, but that
these two had determined that the law should take its
course, and were quite inexorable. Before the jury had
retired to consult upon the verdict, it was determined
by the friends of the prisoner that an attempt should be
made by bribery to soften down the resolution of these
two men. As they were retiring, a snuff-box was put
into the hands of one of them by a gentleman, with the
observation that he and his friend would probably find a
pinch of snuff agreeable after so long a trial. The
snufT-box contained banknotes to the amount of 2,500
dollars (£500 sterling). The snuff-box and its contents
were not returned, and the prisoner was acquitted.
The unwillingness to take away life is a very remark-
LAW. 181
able feature in America and were it not carried to sucli
an extreme length, would be a very commendable one.
An instance of this occurred just before my arrival at
New York. A young man by the name of Robinson,
who was a clerk in an importing house, had formed a
connexion with a young woman on the town of the
name of Ellen Jewitt. Not having the means to meet
her demands upon his purse, he had for many months
embezzled from the store goods to a very large amount,
which she had sold to supply her wants or wishes.
At last, Robinson, probably no longer caring for the girl,
and aware that he was in her power, determined upon
murdering her. Such accumulated crime can hardly be
conceived ! He went to sleep with her, made her drunk
with champagne before they retired to bed, and then as
she lay in bed murdered her with an axe, which he had
brought with him from his master's, store. The house
of ill fame in which he visited her was at that time full
of other people of both sexes, who had retired to rest-
it is said nearly one hundred were there on that night,
thoughtless of the danger to which they were exposed.
Fearful that the murder of the young woman would be
discovered and brought home to him, the miscreant
resolved to set fire to the house, and by thus sending
unprepared into the next world so many of his fellow-
creatures, escape the punishment which he deserved.
He set fire to the bed upon which his unfortunate victim
laid, and having satisfied himself that his work was
securely done, locked the door of the room, and quitted
the premises. A merciful Providence, however, directed
otherwise : the fire was discovered, and the flames
extinguished, and his crime made manifest. The evi-
dence in an English court would have been more than
sufficient to convict him ; but in America, such is the
feeling against taking life, that, strange to say, Robinson
was acquitted, and permitted to leave for Texas, where,
it is said, he still lives under a false name. I have heard
this subject canvassed over and over again in New
York ; and, although some, with a view of extenuating
to a foreigner such a disgraceful disregard to security of
life, have endeavoured to show that the evidence was
VOL. n. 16
182 LAW.
not quite satisfactory, there really was not a shadow of
doubt in the whole case.*
But leniency towards crime is ihe grand characteristic
of American legislation. Whether it proceeds, (as I
much suspect it does,) from the national vanity being
unwilling lo admit that such things can take place among
" a very moral people," or from a more praiseworthy
feeling, I am not justified in asserting : the reader must
form his own opinion, when he has read all I have to
say upon other points connected wiih the subject.
I have been very much amused with the reports of the
sentences given by my excellent friend the recorder of
New York. He is said to be one of the soundest law-
yers in the Union, and a very worthy man ; but I must
say, that as recorder, he does not add lo the dignity of
the bench by his facetious remarks, and the peculiar lenity
he oc(!asionally shows to culprits.t
I will give an extract from the newspapers of some
of the proceedings in this court, as they will, I am con-
vinced, be as amusing to the reader as they have been
lo me.
The Recorder then called out — " Mr. Crier, make the
usual proclamation ;" " Mr. Clerk, call out the prisoners,
and let us proceed to sentencing them !"
Clerk. Put Stephen Schofield to the bar.
It WHS done.
Clerk. Prisoner, you may remember you have here-
tofore been indicted for a certain crime by you commit-
ted ; upon your indictment you were arraigned ; upon
your arraignment you pleaded guilty, and threw yourself
upon the mercy of the court. What have you now to
say, why judgment should not be passed upon you ac-
cording to law.
The prisoner, who was a bad-looking mulatto, was si-
lent.
* America Ihoug^h little more than sixty years old as a nation,
has already published an United Slates' Criminal Calendar (Boston,
1835). I have this book in my possession, and, allhough in num-
ber of criminals it is not quite equal to our Newgate Calendar, it
far exeeds it in atrocity of crime.
t Some allowance must be made for the license of the reporters,
but in the main it is a very fair specimen of the recorder's style
and language.
LAW. 183
Recorder. Schofield, you have been convicted of a
very bad crime ; you atienripled to take liberties with a
young white girl — a most serious offence. This is get-
ting to be a very bad crime, and practised, I am sorry to
say, to a great extent in this community: it must be put
a stop to. Had you been convicted of the whole crime,
we should have sent you to the State-prison for life. As
it is, we sentence you to hard labour in the Statef-prison
at Sing Sing for five years; and that's the judgment of
the court ; and when you come out, lake no more liber-
lies with white girls.
Prisoner. Thank your honour it ain't no worse.
Clerk. Bring out Mary Burns.
It was done.
Clerk. Prisoner, you may remember, &c. &;c. upon
your arraignment you pleaded not guilty, and put yourself
on your country for trial ; which country hath found you
guilty. What have you now to say why judgment should
not be pronounced upon you according to law ?
(Silent.)
Recorder. Mary Burns, Mrs. Forgay gave you her
chemise to wash.
Prisorip:. No, she didn't give it to me.
Recorder. But you got it somehow, and you stole
the money. Now, you see, our respectable fellow-citi-
zens, the ladies, must have their chemises washed, and,
to do so, they must put confidence in their servants ; and
they have a right to sew their money up in their chemise
if they think proper, and servants must not steal it from
them. As you're a young woman, and not married, it
would not be right to deprive you of the opportunity to
get a husband for five years ; so we shall only send you
to Sing Sing for two years and six months ; the keeper
will work you in whatever way he may think proper. —
Go to the next.
Charles Liston was brought out and arraigned, pro
forma. He was a dark negro.
Clerk. Liston, what have you to say why judgment,
&c. ?
Prisoner. All I got to say to his honour de honoura-
ble court is, dat I see de error of my ways, and I hope
184 LAW.
dey may soon see de error of deirs. I broke de law of
my free country, and I must lose my liberty, and go to
Sing Sinj^. But I trow myself on de mercy of de Recor-
der ; and all I got to say to his honour, de honourable
Richard Riker, is, dai I hope he'll live to be de next
mayor of New York till I come out of Sing Sing.
Recorder (laughing). A very good speech ! But,
Liston, whether Vin mayor or not, you must suffer some.
This stealing from entries is a most pernicious crime,
and one against which our respectable fellow-citizens can
scarcely guard- Two-ihirds of our citizens hang their
hats and coats in entries, and we must protect their hats
and coats. We, therefore, sentence you to Sing Sing for
five years. — Go to the next.
John M' Donald and Godfrey Crawluck were put to
the bar.
Recorder. M'Donald and Crawluck, you stole two
beeves. Now, however much I like beef, I'd be very
hungry before I'd steal any beef. You are on the high
road to ruin. You went up the road to Harlem, and
down the road to Yorkville, and you'll soon go to de-
struction. We shall send you to Sing Sing for two
years each ; and when you come out, take your mo-
ther's maiden name, and lead a good life, and don't eat
any more beef — I mean don't steal any more beeves. —
Go to the next.
Luke Staken was arraigned.
Recorder. Staken, you slept in a room with Laliay,
and stole all his gold (loOO dollars). This sleeping in
rooms witli other people, and stealing their things, is a
serious offence, and practised to a great extent in this
city; and what makes the matter worse, you stole one
thousand dollars in specie, when specie is so scarce.
We send you to Sing Sing for five years.
Jacob Williams was arraigned. He looked as if he
had not many days to live, though a young man.
Recorder. Williams, you stole a lot of kerseymere
from a store, and ran off with it — a most pernicious
crime ! But, as your health is not good, we shall only
send you to Sing Sing for three years and six months.
John H. Murray was arraigned.
Recorder, Murray, you're a deep fellow. Y'ou got a
LAW. 185
Green Mountain boy into an alley, and played at " shuf-
fle and burn," and you burned him out of a hundred
dollars. You must go to Sing Sing for five years ; and
we hope the reputable reporters attending for the re-
spectable public press, will warn our respectable country
friends, when they come into New York, not to go into
Orange Street, and play at " shuffle and burn" among
bad girls and bad men, or they'll very likely get burnt,
like this Green Mountain boy. — Go to the next.
William Shay, charged with shying glasses at the
head of a tavern-keeper. Guilty.
Recorder. This rioting is a very bad crime. Shay, and
deserves heavy punishment ; but as we understand you
have a wife and sundry little Shays, we'll let you off,
provided you give your solemn promise never to do so
any more.
Shay. I gives it — wery solemnonly.
Recorder. Then we discharge you.
Shay. Thank your honour — your honour's a capital
judge.
John Bowen, charged with stealing a basket. Guilty.
Recorder. Now, John, we've convicted you : and you'll
have to get out stone for three months on Blackwell's
Island — that's the judgment of the Court.
William Buckly and Charles Rogers, charged with
loafing — sleeping in the park, and leaving the gate open
— were discharged, with a caution to take care how
they interfered with corporation rights in future, or they
would get their corporation into trouble.
Ann Boyle, charged with being too lively in the street.
Let off on condition of being quiet for the time to come.
Thomas Dixon, charged with petty larceny. Guilty.
Dixon. I wish to have judgment suspended.
Recorder. It's a bad time to talk about suspension ;
why do you request this f
Dixon. I've an uncle I want to see, and other rela-
tions.
Recorder. In that case we'll send you to Blackwell's
Island for six months, you'll be sure to find them all
there. Sentence accordingly.
Charles Enroff, charged with petty larceny — coming
16*
186 LAW.
Paddy over an Irish shoemaker, and thereby cheating
him out of a pair of shoes. Guilty.
Sentenced to the Penitentiary, Blackwell's Island, for
six months, and to get out stone.
Charles Thorn, charged with assaulting Miss Rachael
Prigmore.
Recorder. Miss Prigmore, how came this man to
strike you 1
Rachael. Because I wouldn't have him. (A laugh.)
He was always a teazing me, and spouting poetry about
roses and thorns ; so when I told him to be off he struck
me.
Prisoner (theatrically). Me strike you ! Oh, Ra-
chael—
*' Perhaps it was right to dissemble your love,
But why did you kick me down stairs ?"
Prisoner's Counsel That's it, your honour. Why did
she kick him down stairs 1
This the fair Rachael indignantly denied, and the pri-
soner was found guilty.
Recorder. This striking of women is a very bad crime,
you must get out stone for two months.
Prisoner. She'll repent, your honour. She loves me
— I know she does.
"On the cold flinty rock, when I'm busy at work,
Oh, Rachael, I'll think of thee."
Thomas Ward, charged with petty larceny. Guilty.
— Ward had nothing to offer to ward off his sentence,
therefore he was sent to the Island for six months.
Maria Brandon, charged with petty larceny. Guilty.
Sentenced to pick oakum for six months.
Maria. Well, I've friends, that's comfort, they'll sing —
" Oh come to this bower, ray own stricken deer."
Recorder. You're right, Maria, it's an oakum bower
you're going to.
The Court then adjourned.*
» There is, as will appear by the quotations, as much fun in the
police reports in New York as in the best of ours : the style of the
Recorder is admirably taken off.
LA.V. 187
But all these are nothing compared with the follow-
ing, which at first I did not credit. I made the strictest
inquiry, and was informed by a legal gentleman present
that it was correct. I give the extract as it stood in the
newspapers.
" Influence of a Pretty Girl. — ' Catherine Manly,' said
the Recorder yesterday, in the sessions, ' you have been
convicted of a very bad crime. This stealing is a very
serious offence; but, as you are a pretty girl ! well
suspend judgment, in hopes you will do better for the
future.'" We have often heard that justice was blind.
What a fib to say so !
Mr. Carey, in his publication on Wealth, asserts that
security of property and of person are greater in the
United States than in England. How far he is correct I
shall now proceed to examine. Mr. Carey says, in his ob-
servations on security of person — "Comparing Massa-
chusetts with England and Wales, we find in the former
Tin 86,871 sentenced to one year's imprisonment or
more : whereas, in the latter 1 in 70,000 is sentenced
to more than one year. The number sentenced to one
year or more in England is greater than in Pennsylvania.
It is obvious, therefore, that security is much greater
in Massachusetts than in England, and consequently
greater than in any other part of the world."
Relative to crimes against security of property, he
asserts —
'•Of crimes against property, involving punishments
of one year's imprisonment, or more, we find —
In Pennsylvania - - - - 1 in 4,400
In New York - - - - 1 in 5,900
In Massachusetts - - - - 1 in 5,932
While in England, in the year 1834,
their convictions for off'ences against
property, involving punishments ex-
ceeding over oneyear's imprisonment,
was 1 in 3,120
Now, that these numbers are fairly given, as far as
they go, I have no doubt; but the comparison is not just,
because, first, in America crime is not so easily detected ,
and, secondly, when delected, conviction does not always
follow.
188 LAW.
Mr. Carey must be well aware that, in the American
newspapers you continually meet with a paiagrapli like
ihis : — " A body of a white man, or of a negro, was
found floating near such and gnch a wharf on Saturday
last with evident marks of violence upon it, &c. &c., and
the coroner's inquest is relumed either found drowned,
or violence by person or persons unknown." Now, let
Mr. Carey take a list from the coroner's books of the
number of bodies found in this manner at New York,
and the number of instances in which the perpetrators
have been discovered ; let him compare this list with a
similar one made for England and Wales, and he will
then ascertain the difference between the crimes commit-
ted in proportion to the convictions which take place
through the activity of the police in our country, and, it
may be said, the total want of police in the United
Slates.
As to the second point, namely, that when crimes are
detected, conviction does not follow,* I have only to
refer back to the cases of Robinson and Goodwin, two
instances out of the many in which criminals in the
United Slates are allowed to escape, who, if they had
committed the same oiTence in England, would most
certainly have been hanged. But there is another point
which renders Mr. Carey's statement unfair, which is,
that he has no right to select one, two, or even three
States out of twenty-six, and compare them all with
England and Wales.
The question is, the comparative security of person
* Miss Martineau, speaking of a trial for murder in the United
States, says, " I observed that no one seemed to have a doubt of his
guilt. She replied that there never was a clearer case; but that he
would be acquitted ; the examination and trial were a mere form,
of which every one knew the conclusion beforehand. The people
did not choose to see any more hanging, and till the law was so '
altered as to allow an alternative of punishment, no conviction for
a capital offence would be obtainable. I asked on what pretence
the young man would be got off, if the evidence against him was
as clear as it was represented. She said some one would be found
to swear an alibi. . . .
" A tradesman swore an alibi ; the young man was acquitted,
and the next morning he was on his way to the West."
LAW. 189
and property in Great Britain and the United States. I
acknowledge that, if Ireland were taken Into the account,
it would very much reduce our proportional numbers ;
but, then, there crime is fomented by traitors and dema-
gogues— a circumstance which must not be overlooked.
Still, tlie whole of Ireland would offer nothing equal
in atrocity to what I can prove relative to one small
town in America: that of Augusta, in Georgia, contain-
ing only a population of 3,000, in which, in one year,
there were fifty-nine assassinations committed in open
day, without any notice being taken of them by the
authorities.
This, alone, will exceed all Ireland, and I therefore do
not hesitaie to assert, that if every crime committed in
the United States were followed up by conviction, as it
would be in Great Britain, the result would fully sub-
stantiate the fact that, in security of person and property,
the advantage is considerably in favour of my own
country.
LYNCH LAW.
Englishmen express their surprise that in a moral
community such a monstrosity as Lynch law should
exist; but although the present system, which has been
derived from the original Lynch law, cannot be loo
severely condemned, it must, in justice to the Ameri-
cans, be considered that the original custom of Lynch
law was forced upon them by circumstances. Why the
term Lynch law has been made use of, I do not know;
but in its origin the practice was no more blamable than
were the laws established by the Pilgrim fathers on their
first landing at Plymouth, or any law enacted amongst a
community left to themselves, their own resources, and
their own guidance and government. Lynch law, as at
first constituted, was nothing more than punishment
awarded to offenders by a community who had been in-
jured, and who had no law to refer to, and could have no
redress if they did not lake the law into their own hands;
190 LAW.
ihe present system of Lynch law is, on the contrary, an
illegal exercise of the power of the majority in opposi-
tion to and defiance of the laws of the country, and the
measure of justice administered and awarded by those
laws.
It must be remembered that fifty years ago, there
were but few white men to the westward of the Alle-
ghany Mountains ; that the States of Kentucky and
Tennessee were at that time as scanty in population as
even now are the districts of loway and Columbia ; that
by the institutions of the Union a district required a
certain number of inhabitants before it could be acknow-
ledged as even a district ; and that previous to such
acknowledgment, the people who had squatted on the
land had no claim to protection or law. It must also
be borne in mind, that these distant territories offered
an asylum to many who fled from the vengeance of the
laws, men without principle, thieves, rogues, and vaga-
bonds, who escaping there, would often interfere with
the happiness and peace of some small yet well-con-
ducted community, which had migrated and settled on
these fertile regions. These communities had no appeal
against personal violence, no protection from rapacity
and injustice. They were not yet within the pale of the
Union ; indeed there are many even now in this precise
situation (that of the Mississippi, for instance), who have
been necessitated to make laws of government for them-
selves, and who acting upon their own responsibilities,
do very often condemn to death, and execute.* It was,
therefore, to remedy the defect of there being no esta-
blished law, that Lynch law, as it is termed, was ap-
* " A similar case is to be found at the present day, west of the
Mississippi. Upon lands bclon;^ing to the United States, not yet
surveyed or offered for sale, are numerous bodies of people who
have occupied them, with the intention of purchasing them wlien
they shall be brought into tlie market. These persons are called
squatters, and it is not to be supposed that they consist of the elite
of the emigrants to the West; yet we are informed that they have
organised a government for themselves, and regularly elect magis-
trates to attend to the execution of the laws. They appear, in this
respect, to be worthy descendants of the piliirims." — Carey on
Wealth.
LYNCH LAW. 191
plied to ; without it, all security, all social happiness
would have been in a state of abeyance. By degrees, all
disturbers of the public peace, all offenders against justice
met with their deserts; and it is a query, whether on
its first institution, any law from the bench was miore
honestly and impartially administered than this very
Lynch law, which has now had its name prostituted by
the most barbarous excesses and contemptuous viola-
tion of all law whatever. The examples I am able to
bring forward of Lynch law, in its primitive state, will
all be found to have been based upon necessity, and a
due regard to morals and to justice. For instance, the
harmony of a well-conducted community would be in-
terfered with by some worthless scoundrel, who would
entice the young men to gaming, or the young women
to deviate from virtue. He becomes a nuisance to the
community, and in consequence the heads or elders
would meet and vote his expulsion. Their method was
very simple and straight-forward ; he was informed that
his absence would be agreeable, and that if he did not
" clear out" before a certain day, he would receive forty
lashes with a cow-hide. If the party thought proper to
defy this notice, as soon as the day arrived he received
the punishment, with a due notification that, if found
there again after a certain time, the dose would be re-
peated. By these means they rid the community of a
bad subject, and the morals of the junior branches were
not contaminated. Such was in its origin the practice
of Lynch law.
A circumstance occurred within these few years in
which Lynch law was duly administered. At Dubuque,
in the lovvay district, a murder was committed. The
people of Dubuque first applied to the authorities of the
State of Michigan, but they discovered that the district
of loway was not within the jurisdiction of that State;
and, in fact, although on the opposite side of the river
there was law and justice, they had neither to appeal
to. They would not allow the murderer to escape ;
they consequently met, selected among themselves a
judge and a jury, tried the man, and, upon their own
responsibility, hanged him.
192 LYNCH LAW.
There was another instance which occurred a short
time since at Snakes' Hollow, on the western side of
the Mississippi, not far from the town of Dubuque. A
band of miscreants, with a view of obtaining possession
of some valuable diggings (lead mines) which were in
the possession of a grocer who lived in that place, mur-
dered him in the open day. The parties were well
known, but they held together and would none of them
give evidence. As there were no hopes of their con-
viction, the people of Snakes' Hollow armed themselves,
seized the parties engaged in the transaction, and
ordered them to quit the territory on pain of having a
rifle-bullet through their heads immediately. The
scoundrels crossed the river in a canoe, and were
never after heard of
I have collected these facts to show that Lynch law
has been forced upon the American settlers in the Wes-
tern States by circumstances ; that it has been acted
upon in support of morality and virtue, and that its
awards have been regulated by strict justice. But I
must now notice this practice with a view to show how
dangerous it is that any law should be meted out by
the majority, and that what was commenced from a
sense of justice and necessity, has now changed into a
defiance of law, where law and justice can be readily
obtained. The Lynch law of the present day, as prac-
tised in the States of the West and South, may be
divided into two different heads : the first is, the ad-
ministration of it in cases in which the laws of the
States are considered by the majority as not having
awarded a punishment adequate, in their opinion, ^to the
offence committed ; and the other, when from excite-
ment the majority will not wait for the law to act, but
inflict the punishment with their own hands.
The following are instances under the first head.
Every crime increases in magnitude in proportion as
it affects the welfare and interest of the community.
Forgery and bigamy are certainly crimes, but they are
not such heavy crimes as many others to which the
same penalty is decreed in this country. But in a com-
mercial nation forgery, from its effects, becomes most
LYNCH LAW. 193
injurious, as it destroys confidence and security of pro-
perty, affecting the whole mass of society. A man
may have his pocket />{c7fec/ of £1000 or more, but tliis
is not a capital offence, as it is only the individual who
suffers ; but if a man forges a bill for £5 he is (or
rather was) sentenced by our laws to be hanged.
Bigamy may be adduced as another instance: the
heinousness of the offence is not in having more than
one wife, but in the prospect of the children of the first
marriage being left to be supported by the community.
Formerly, that was also pronounced a capital offence.
Of punishments, it will be observed that society has
awarded the most severe for crimes committed against
itself, rather than against those which most offend God.
Upon this principle, in the Southern and Western States,
you may murder ten white men and no one will ar-
raign you or trouble himself about the matter ; but steal
one nigger, and the whole community are in arms, and
express the most virtuous indignation against the sin of
theft, although that of murder will be disregarded.
One or two instances in which Lynch law was called
in to assist justice on the bench, came to my knowledge.
A Yankee had stolen a slave, but as the indictment was
not properly worded, lie knew that he would be acquit-
ted, and he boasted so, previous to the trial coming on.
He was correct in his supposition; the flaw in the in-
d ctment was fatal, and he was acquitted. "I told you
JO," said he, triumphantly smiling as he left the court,
to the people who had been waiting the issue of the
trial.
" Yes," replied they, " it is true that you have been
acquitted by Judge Smith, but you have not yet been
tried by Judge Lynch." The latter Judge was very
summary. The Yankee was tied up, and cow-hided
till he was nearly dead ; they then put him into a dug-
out and sent him floating down the river. Another
instance occurred which is rather amusing, and, at the
same time, throws some light upon the peculiar state of
society in the West.
There was a bar-keeper at some tavern in the State
of Louisiana (if I recollect right) who \vas a great fa-
VOL. II. 17
194 LYNCH LAW.
vourite ; whether from his judicious mixture of the pro-
portions in mint-juleps, and gin-cocktails, or from other
causes, I do not know; but what may appear strange
to the English, he was elected to an office in the law
courts of the State, similar to our jittorney- General, and
I believe was very successful, for an American can turn
his hand or his head to almost any thing. It so happened
that a young man who was in prison for stealing a ne-
gro, applied to this Attorney-General to defend him in
the court. This he did so successfully that the man
was acquitted ; but Judge Lynch was as usual waiting
outside, and when the attorney came out with his client,
the latter was demanded to be given up. This the
attorney refused, saying that the man was under his
protection. A tumult ensued, but the attorney was
firm ; he drew his bowie-knife, and addressing the
crowd, said, " My men, you all know me : no one
takes this man, unless he passes over my body." The
populace were still dissatisfied, and the attorney, not
wishing to lose his popularity, and at the same time
wanting to defend a man who had paid him well, re-
quested the people to be quiet a moment until he could
arrange the affair. He took his client aside, and said to
him, " These men will have you, and will Lynch you,
in spite of all my efforts ; only one chance remains for
you, and you must accept it : you know that it is but a~
mile to the confines of the next State, which if you gain
you will be secure. You have been in prison for two
months, you have lived on bread and water, and you
must be in good wind, moreover, you are young and
active. These men who wish to get hold of you are
half drunk, and they never can run as you can. Now,
ril propose that you shall have one hundred and fifty
yards law, and then if you exert yourself, you can
easily escape." The man consented, as he could not
help himself: the populace also consented, as the
attorney pointed out to them that any other arrange-
ment would be injurious to his honour. The man,
however, did not succeed ; he was so frightened that he
could not run, and in a short time he was taken, and
had the usual allowance of cow-hide awarded by Judge
LYNCH LAW. 195
Lynch. Fortunately he regained his prison before he
was quite exhausted, and was sent away during the
night in a steamer.
At Natchez, a young man married a young lady of
fortune, and, in his passion, actually flogged her to
death. He was tried, but as there were no witnesses
but negroes, and their evidence was not admissible
against a white man, he was acquitted : but he did not
escape ; he was seized, tarred and feathered, scalped,
and turned adrift in a canoe without paddles.
Such are the instances of Lynch law being superadd-
ed, when it has been considered by the majority that the
law has not been sufficiently severe. The other variety
of Lynch law is, when they will not wait for law, but,
in a state o( excitement, proceed to summary punish-
ment.
The case more than once referred to by Miss Mar-
tineau, of the burning alive of a coloured man at St.
Louis, is one of the gravest under this head. I do not
wish to defend it in any way, but I do, for the honour of
humanity, wish to offer all that can be said in extenua-
tion of this atrocity : and I think Miss Martineau, when
she held up to public indignation the monstrous punish-
ment, was bound to acquaint the public with the cause
of an excitable people being led into such an error.
This unfortunate victim of popular fury was a free co-
loured man, of a very quarrelsome and malignant dis-
position ; he had already been engaged in a variety of
disputes, and was a nuisance in the city. For an at-
tempt to murder another coloured man, he had been
seized, and was being conducted to prison in the cus-
tody of Mr. Hammond, the sheriff, and another white
person who assisted him in the execution of his duty.
As he arrived at the door of the prison, he watched his
opportunity, stabbed the person who was assisting the
sheriff, and, then passing his knife across the throat of
Mr. Hammond, the carotid artery was divided, and the
latter fell dead upon the spot. Now, here was a wretch
who, in one day, had three times attempted murder, and
had been successful in the instance of Mr. Hammond,
the sheriff, a person universally esteemed. Moreover,
196 LYNCH LAW,
when it is considered that the culprit was of a race
who are looked upon as inferior ; that this successful
attempt on the part of a black man was considered
most dangerous as a precedent to the negro popula-
tion ; that, owing to the unwillingness to take life away
in America, he might probably have escaped justice;
and that this occurred just at the moment when the
abolitionists were creating such mischief and irritation :
— although It must be lamented that they should have
so disgraced themselves, the summary and cruel pun-
ishment which was awarded by an incensed populace
is not very surprising. Miss Martineau has, however,
thought proper to pass over the peculiar atrocity of the
individual who was thus sacrificed : to read her ac-
count of the transaction, it would appear as if he were
an unoffending party, sacrificed on account of his
colour alone.
Another remarkable instance was the execution of
five gamblers at the town of Vicksburgh, on the Missis-
sippi. It may appear strange that people should be
lynched for the mere vice of gambling: but this will be
better understood when, in my second poi tion of this
work, I enter into a general view of society in the
United States. At present it will be sufficient to say,
that as towns rise in the South and West, they gradu-
ally become peopled with a better class ; and that, as
soon as this better class is suflSciently strong to accom-
plish their ends, a purification takes place much to the
advantage of society. I hardly need observe, that these
better classes come from the Eastward. New Orleans,
Natches, and Vicksburgh are evidences of the truth of
observations I have made. In the present instance, it
was resolved by the people of Vicksburgh that they
would no longer permit their city to be the resort of a
set of unprincipled characters, and that all gamblers by
profession should be compelled to quit it. But, as I
have the American account of what occurred, I think it
will be better to give it in detail, the rather as I was in-
formed by a gentleman residing there that it was per-
fectly correct : —
*' Our city has for some days past been the theatre of
LYNCH LAW. 197
the most novel and startling scenes that we have ever
witnessed. While we regret that the necessity for such
scenes should have existed, we are proud of the public
spirit and indignation against offenders displayed by the
citizens, and congratulate them on having at length ba-
nished a class of individuals, whose shameless vices and
daring outrages have long poisoned the springs of mo-
rality, and interrupted the relations of society. For years
past, professional gamblers, destitute of all sense of mo-
ral obligation — unconnected with society by any of its
ordinary ties, and intent only on the gratification of their
avarice — have made Vicksburgh their place of rendez-
vous— and, in the very bosom of our society, boldly
plotted their vile and lawless machinations. Here, as
every where else, the laws of the country were found
wholly ineffectual for the punishment of these indivi-
duals ; and, emboldened by impunity, their numbers and
their crimes have daily continued to multiply. Every
species of transgression followed in their train. They
supported a large number of tippling-houses, to which
they would decoy the youthful and unsuspecting, and,
after stripping them of their possessions, send them
forth into the world the ready and desperate instruments
of vice. Our streets were ever resounding with the
echoes of their drunken and obscene mirth, and no citi-
zen was secure from their villany. Frequently, in armed
bodies, they have disturbed the good order of public as-
semblages, insulted our citizens, and defied our civil
authorities. Thus had they continued to grow bolder in
their wickedness, and more formidable in their numbers,
until Saturday, the 4th of July (inst.), when our citizens
had assembled together, with the corps of Vicksburgh
volunteers, at a barbecue, to celebrate the day by the
usual festivities. After dinner, and during the delivery
of the toasts, one of the officers attempted to enforce
order and silence at the table, when one of these gam-
blers, whose name is Cabler, who had impudently thrust
himself into the company, insulted the ofBcer, and struck
one of the citizens. Indignation immediately rose high,
and it was only by the interference of the commandant
that he was saved from instant punishment. He was,
17*
198 LYNCH LAW.
however, permitted to retire, and the company dispersed.
The military corps proceeded to the public square of the
city, and were there engaged in their exercises, when
information was received that Cabier was coming up,
armed, and resolved to kill one of the volunteers, who
had been most active in expellihg him from the table.
Knowing his desperate cliaracier, two of the corps in-
stantly stepped forward and arrested him. A loaded
pistol and a large knife and dagger were found upon his
person, all of which he had procured since he separated
from the company. To liberate him would have been
to devote several of the most respectable members of the
company to his vengeance, and to proceed against him
at law would have been mere mockery, inasmuch as,
not having had the opportunity of consummating his
design, no adequate punishment could be inflicted on
him. Consequently, it was determined to take him into
the woods and Lynch him — which is a mode of punish-
ment provided for such as become obnoxious in a man-
ner which the law cannot reach. He was immediately
carried out under a guard, attended by a crowd of re-
spectable citizens — tied to a tree — punished with stripes
— tarred and feathered, and ordered to leave the city in
forty-eight hours. In the mean time, one of his com-
rades, the Lucifer of his gang, had been endeavouring to
rally and arm his confederates for the purpose of rescu-
ing him — which, however, he failed to accomplish.
*' Having thus aggravated the whole band of these
desperadoes, and feeling no security against their ven-
geance, the citizens met at night in the Court-house, in
a large number, and there passed the following resolu-
tions : —
*' Resolved^ That a notice be given to all professional
gamblers, that the citizens of Vicksburgh are resolved to
exclude them from this place and its vicinity; and- that
twenty-four hours' notice be given them to leave the
place.
»' Resolved, That all persons permitting faro-dealing
in their houses, be also notified that they will be prose-
cuted therefor.
" Resolved f That one hundred copies of the foregoing
LYNCH LAW, 199
resolutions be printed and stuck up at the corners of the
streets — and that this publication be deenned a notice.
*' On Sunday morning, one of these notices was post-
ed at the corners of each square of the city. During
that day (the 5lh) a majority of the gang, terrified by
the threats of the cjiizens, dispersed in different direc-
tions, without making any opposition. It was sincerely
hoped that the remainder would follow their example,
and thus prevent a bloody termination of the strife which
had commenced. On the morning of the 6ih, the mili-
tary corps, followed by a file of several hundred citizens,
marched to each suspected house, and sending in an
examining committee, dragged out every faro-table and
other gambling apparatus that could be found.
" Atlengih they approached a house which was occupied
by one of the most profligate of the gang, whose name
was North, and in which it was understood that a garrisorr
of armed men had been stationed. All hoped that these
wretches would be intimidated by the superior numbers
of their assailants, and surrender themselves at discretion
rather than attempt a desperate defence. The house
being surrounded, the back door was burst open, when four
or five shots were fired from the interior, one of which
instantly killed Dr. Hugh S. Bodley, a citizen univer-
sally beloved and respected. The interior was so dark
that the villains could not be seen ; but several of the citi-
zens, guided by the flash of their guns, returned there
fire. A yell from one of the party announced that one
of the shots had been effectual, and by this time a crowd
of citizens, their indignation overcoming all other feelings,
burst open every door of the building, and dragged into
ihe light those who had not been wounded.
•' North, the ringleader, who had contrived this des-
perate plot, could not be found in the building, but was
apprehended by a citizen, while attempting, in company
with another, to make his escape at a place not far distant.
Himself, with the rest of the prisoners, was then con-
ducted in silence to the scaffold. One of them, not having
been in the building before it was attacked, nor appearing
to be concerned with the rest, except that he was the
brother of one of them, was liberated. The remaining
200 LYNCH LAW.
number of five, among whom was the individual who had
been shot, but who still lived, were immediately executed
in the presence of the assembled multitude. All sympathy
for the wretches was completely merged in detestation
and horror of their crime. The whole procession then
returned to the city, collected all the faro-tables into a
pile, and burnt them. This being done, a troop of horse-
men set out for a neighbouring house, the residence of J.
Hord, the individual who had attempted to organise a
force on the first day of this disturbance for the rescue of
Cabler, who had since been threatening to fire the city.
He had, however, made his escape on that day, and the
next morning crossed the Big Black, at Baldwin's Ferry,
in a state of indescribable consternation. We lament his
escape, as his whole course of life for the last three years
has exhibited the most shameless profligacy, and been
a series of continual transgressions against the laws of
God and man.
*' The names of the individuals who perished were
as follow: — North, Hullaras, Dutch Bill, Smith, and
McCall.
*' Their bodies were cut down on the morning after the
execution, and buried in a ditch.
" It is not expected that this act will pass without
censure from those who had not an opportunity of know-
ing and feeling the dire necessity out of which it origi-
nated. The laws, however severe in their provision,
have never been sufficient to correct a vice which must
be established by positive proof, and cannot, like others,
be shown from circumstantial testimony. It is practised,
loo, by individuals whose whole study is to violate
the law in such a manner as to evade its punishment,
and who never are in want of secret confederates to swear
them out of their difficulties, whose oaths cannot be im-
peached for any specific cause. We had borne with tlieir
enormities until to suffer them any longer would not only
have proved us to be destitute of every manly sentiment,
but would also have implicated us in the guilt of accessa-
ries to their crimes. Society may be compared to the
elements which,J although * order is their first law,' can
sometimes be purified only by a storm. Whatever,
LYNCH LAW, 201
therefore, sickly sensibility or mawkish philanthropy
may say against the course pursued by us, we hope that
our citizens will not relax the code of punishment which
ihey iiave enacted against this infamous and baleful class
of society ; and we invite Natciiez, Jackson, Columbus,
Warrenton, and all our sister towns throughout the State,
in the name of our insulted laws, of offended virtue, and
of slaughtered innocence, to aid us in exterminating this
deep-rooted vice from our land. The revolution has been
conducted here by the most respectable citizens, heads of
families, members of all classes, professions, and pursuits.
None have been heard to utter a syllable of censure against
either the act or the manner in which it was performed.
" An Anti-Gambling Society has been formed, the
members of which have pledged their lives, fortunes,
and sacred honours for the suppression of gambling,
and the punishment and expulsion of gamblers,
" Startling as the above may seem to foreigners, it
will ever reflect honour on the insulted citizens of
Vicksburg, among those who best know how to appre-
ciate the motives by which they were actuated. Their
city now stands redeemed and ventilated from all the
vices and influence of gambling and assignation houses;
two of the greatest curses that ever corrupted the mo-
rals of any community."
That the society in the towns on the banks of the
Mississippi can only, like the atmosphere, " be purified
by storm," is, I am afraid, but too true.
I have now entered fully, and I trust impartially, into
the rise and progress of the Lynch Law, and I must
leave my readers to form their own conclusions. That
it has occasionally been beneficial, in the peculiar state
of the communities in which it has been practised, must
be admitted ; but it is equally certain that it is in itself
indefensible, and that but too often, not only much too
severe for the offence, but what is still more to be de-
precated, the innocent do occasionally suffer with the
guilty.
202
CLIMATE.
I WISH the remarks in this chapter to receive peculiar
attention, as in commenting upon the character of the
Americans, it is but justice to them to point out that
many of what may be considered as their errors, arise
from circumstances over which they have no control;
and one which has no small weight in this scale is the
peculiar climate of the country; for various as is the
climate, in such an extensive region, certain it is, that
in one point, that of excitement, it has, in every portion
of it, a very pernicious effect.
When I first arrived at New York, the effect of the
climate upon me was immediate. On the 5th of May,
the heat and closeness was oppressive. There was a
sultriness in the air, even at that early period of the
year, which to me seemed equal to that of Madras.
Almost every day there were, instead of our mild re-
freshing showers, sharp storms of thunder and light-
ning; but the air did not appear to me to be cooled by
them. And yet, strange to say, there were no inci-
pient signs of vegetation: the trees waved their bare
arms, and while I v/as throwing off every garment
which I well could, the females were walking up and
down Broadway wrapped up in warm shawls. It ap-
peared as if it required twice the heat we have in our
own country, either to create a free circulation in the
blood of the people, or to stimulate nature to rouse
after the torpor of a protracted and severe winter. In
a week from the period I have mentioned, the trees
were in full foliage, the helleis of Broadway walking
about in summer dresses and thin satin shoes, the men
calling for ice, and rejoicing in the beauty of the
weather, the heat of which to me was most oppressive.
In one respect there appears to be very little difference
throughout all the States of the Union ; which is, in the
extreme heat of the summer months, and the rapid
changes of temperature which take place in the twenty-
four hours.
CLIMATE. 203
When I was on Lake Superior the tliermoineter stood
between 90° and 100° during the day, and at niglit was
nearly down to the freezing point. When at St. Peter's,
which is nearly as far north, and farther west, the ther-
mometer stood generally at 100° to 106° during the day,
and I found it to be the case in all the northern States
when the winter is most severe, as well as in the more
southern. When on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers,
where the heat was most insufferable during the day,
our navigation was almost every night suspended by the
thick dank fogs, which covered not only the waters but
the inland country, and which must be any thing but
healthy. In fact, in every portion of the States which I
visited, and in those portions also which I did not visit,
the extreme heat and rapid changes in the weather were
(according to the information received from other per-
sons) the same.
But I must proceed to particulars. I consider the cli-
mate on the sea-coasts of the eastern States, from Maine
to Baltimore, as the most unhealthy of all parts of Ame-
rica ; as, added to the sudden changes, they have cold
and damp easterly winds, which occasion a great deal of
consumption. The inhabitants, more especially the wo-
men, show this in their appearance, and it is by the in-
habitants that the climate must be tested. The women
are very delicate, and very j)retty ; but they remind you
of roses which have budded fairly, but which a check in
the season have not permitted to blow. Up to sixteen
or seventeen, tliey promise perfection ; at that age their
advance appears to be checked. Mr. Saunderson, in a
very clever and amusing work, which I recommend
every one to read, called " Sketches of Paris," says :
" Our climate is noted for three eminent qualities — ex-
treme heat and cold, and extreme suddenness of change.
If a lady has bad teeth, or a bad complexion, she lays
them conveniently to the climate ; if her beauty, like a
tender flower, fades before noon, it is the climate ; if she
has a bad temper, or a snub nose, still it is the climate.
But our climate is active and intellectual, especially in
winter, and in all seasons more pure and transparent
than the inky skies of Europe. It sustains the infancy
204 CLIMATE.
of beauty — wliy not its maturity ? It spares tlie bud-
why not the opened blossom, or the ripened fruit. Our
negroes are perfect in their teeih — why not the whiles ?
Tlie cliief preservaiion of beauty in any country is healtli,
and there is no place in which this great interest is so
little attended to as in America. To be sensible of this,
you must visit Europe — you must see the deep-bosomed
maids of Eiitfland upon the Place Vendome and the Rue
Casliglione."
I have quoted this passage, because I think Mr. Saun-
tlerson is not just in these slurs upon his fair countrywo-
men. I acknowledge that a had temper docs not directly
proceed from climate, although sickness and suflfering,
occasioned by climate, may indirectly produce it. As
I'or the snub nose, I agree wiih him, thai climate has not
so much to do with tliat. Mr. Saunderson is right in
saying, that the chief preservative of beauty is health ;
but may I ask him, upon what does health depend but
upon exerciac? and if so, how many days are there in
the American summer in which the heat will admit of
exercise, or in the American winter in which it is possi-
ble for women to walk out ? — for carriage drivins: is not
exercise, and if it were, from the changes in the weather
in America, it will always be dangerous. The fact is,
that the climate will not admit of the exercise necessary
ibr health, unless by running great risks, and very often
contracting cold and chills, which end in consumption
and death. To accuse his countrywomen of natural in-
dolence, is unfair ; it is an indolence forced upon them.
As for the complexions of the females, I consider they
are much injured by the universal use of close stoves, so
necessary in the extremity of the winters. Mr. S.'s im-
plication, that because negroes have perfect teeth, there-
fore so should the whiles, is another error. The negroes
were born for, and in, a torrid clime, and there is some
difference between their strong ivory masticators and the
transparent pearly teeth which so rapidly decay in the
eastern States, from no other cause than the variability of
the climate. Besides, do the teeth of the women in tlie
western States decay so fast? Take a healthy situation,
with an intermediate climate, such as Cincinnati, and you
CLIMATE. 205
will there find not only good teeth, but as deep-bosomed
maids as you will in England ; so you will in Virginia,
Kentucky, Missouri, and Wisconsin, which, with a por-
tion of Ohio, are the most healthy Slates in the Union.
There is another proof, and a positive one, that the
women are affected by the climate and not through any
fault of their own, which is, that if we transplant a delicate
American girl to England, she will in a year or two be-
come so robust and healthy as not to be recognised upon
h'er return home ; showing that the even temperature of
our damp climate is, from the capability of constant exer-
cise, more conducive to health, than the sunny, yet
variable atmosphere of America.
The Americans are fond of their climate, and consider
it, as they do every thing in America, as the very best in
the world. They are, as I have said before, most happy
in their delusions. But if the climaie be not a healthy one,
it is certainly a beautiful climate to the eye ; the sky is so
clear, the air so dry, the tints of the foliage so inexpressi-
bly beautiful in the autumn and early winter months:
and at night, the stars are so brilliant, hundreds being
visible with the naked eye which are not to be seen by
us, that I am not surprised at the Americans praising the
beauty of their climate. The sun is terrific in his heat,
it is true, but siill one cannot help feeliiig the want of it,
when in England, he will disdain to shine for weeks.
Since my return to this country, the English reader can
hardly form an idea of how much I have longed for the
sun. After having sojourned for nearly two years in
America, the sight of it has to me almost amounted to a ne-
cessity, and I am not therefore astonished at an American
finding fault with the climate of England ; but neverthe-
less, our climate, although unprepossessing to the eye,
and depressive to the animal spirits, is much more healthy
than the exciting and changeable atmosphere, although
beautiful in appearance, which they breathe in the United
States.
One of the first points to which Idirected my attention
on my arrival in America, was to the diseases most pre-
valent. In the eastern Stales, as may by supposed, they
have a great deal of consumption; in the western, the
VOL. II. 18
206 CLIMATE.
complaint is hardly known : but the general nature of the
American diseases are neuralgic^ or those which affect
the nerves, and which are common to almost all the
Union. Ophthalmia, particularly the disease of the
ophthalmic nerve, is very common in the eastern States.
The medical men told me that there were annually more
diseases of the eye in New York city alone, than perhaps
all over Europe. How far this may be correct I cannot
say ; but this I can assert, that I never had any com-
plaint in my eyes until I arrived in America, and during a
stay of eighteen months, 1 was three times very severely
afflicted. The oculist who attended me, asserted that he
had seven hundred patients.
The tic dolonreux is another common complaint
throughout America, — indeed so common is it, that I
should say that one out of ten suffers from it more or
less ; the majority, however, are women.
I saw more cases of delirium tremens in America, than
I ever heard of before. In fact, the climate is one of ex-
treme excitement. I had not been a week in the coun-
try before I discovered how impossible it was for a
foreigner to drink as much wine or spirits as he could in
England, and I believe that thousands of emigrants have
been carried off by making no alteration in their habits
upon their arrival.*
The winters in Wisconsin, loway, Missouri, and
Upper Canada, are dry and healthy, enabling the inha-
bitants to take any quantity of exercise, and I found
that the people looked forward to their winters with
pleasure, longing for the heat of the summer to abate.
Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and a portion of Ohio, are
very unhealthy in the autumns from the want of drain-
age ; the bilious congestive fever, ague, and dysentery,
carrying off large numbers. Virginia, Kentucky, North
Carolina, and the eastern portions of Tennessee, are
comparatively healthy. South Carolina, and all the
* Vermont, New Hampshire, the interior portion of the State of
New York, and all the portions of the other States which abut on
the great lakes, are healthy, owing to the dryness of the atmosphere
being softened down by the proximity of such large bodies of water.
CLIMATE. 207
Other southern States, are, as it is well known, visited
by the yellow fever, and the people migrate every fall
to the northward, not only to avoid the contagion, but
to renovate their general health, which suffers from the
continual demand upon their energies, the western and
southern country being even more exciting than the
east. There is a fiery disposition in the Southerners
which is very remarkable ; they are much more easily
excited than even the Spaniard or Italian, and their
feelings are more violent and unrestrainable, as I shall
hereafter show. That this is the effect of climate I shall
now attempt to prove by one or two circumstances, out
of the many which fell under my observation. It is
impossible to imagine a greater difference in character
than exists between the hot-blooded Southerner, and
the cold calculating Yankee of the eastern States. I
have already said that there is a continual stream of
emigration from the eastern States to the southward
and westward, the farmers of the eastern States leaving
their comparatively barren lands to settle down upon
the more grateful soils of the interior. Now, it is a
singular, yet a well known fact, in a very few years
the character of the Eastern armer is completely
changed. He arrives there a hard-working, careful,
and sober man ; for the first two or three years his
ground is well tilled, and his crops are abundant ; but
by degrees he becomes a different character : he ne-
glects his farm, so that from rich soil he obtains no
better crops than he formerly did upon his poor land in
Massachusetts ; he becomes indolent, reckless, and often
intemperate. Before he has settled five years in the
Western country, the climate has changed him into a
Western man, with all the peculiar virtues and vices of
the country.
A Boston friend of mine told me that he was once on
board of a steam-boat on the Mississippi, and found
that an old schoolfellow was first mate of the vessel.
They ran upon a snag, and were obliged to lay the
vessel on shore until they could put the cargo on board
of another steam-boat, and repair the damage. The
passengers, as usual on such occasions, instead of
208 CLIMATE.
grumbling at what could not be helped, as people do in
England, made themselves merry ; and because they
could not proceed on then- voyage, they very wisely
resolved to drink champagne. They did so : a further
supply being required, this first mate was sent down
into the hold to procure it. My Boston friend happened
to be at the hatchway when he went down with a
flaring candle in his hand, and he observed the mate to
creep over several small barrels until he found the
champagne cases, and ordered them up.
" What is in those barrels?" inquired he of the mate
when he came up again.
" Oh, gunpowder V replied the mate.
" Good Heavens !" exclaimed the Bostonian, " is it
possible that you could be so careless '? why I should
have thought better of you ; you used to be a prudent
man."
" Yes, and so I was, until I came into this part of the
country ;" replied the mate, " but somehow or another,
I don't care for things now, which, when I was in my
own State, would have frightened me out of my wits."
Here was a good proof of the Southern recklessness
having been imbibed by a cautious Yankee.
I have adduced the above instances, because I con-
sider that the excitement so general throughout the
Union, and forming so remarkable a feature in the
American character, is occasioned much more by cli-
mate than by any other cause : that the peculiarity of
their institutions affords constant aliment for this ex-
citement to feed upon is true, and it is therefore seldom
allowed to repose. I think, moreover, that their climate
is the occasion of two bad habits to which the Ameri-
cans are prone, namely, the use of tobacco and of spi-
rituous liquors. An Englishman could not drink as
, the Americans do; it would destroy him here in a very
short time, by the irritation it would produce upon his
nerves. But the effect of tobacco is narcotic and anti-
nervous ; it allays that irritation, and enables the Ame-
rican to indulge in stimulating habits without their be-
ing attended with such immediate ill consequences.
To the rapid changes of the climate, and to the ex-
•<nilMATE. 209
treme heat, must be also to a great degree ascribed^ the
excessive use of spirituous liquors ; the system being
depressed by the sudden changes, demanding stimulus
to equalise the pulse. The extraordinary heat during
the summer is also another cause of it. The Rev.iMr.
Reid says, in his Tour through the States, " the dispo-
sition to drink now became intense; we had only to
consider how we might safely gratify it ; the thermo-
meter rose to 100°, and the heat and perspiration were
intolerable." Now, if a Christian divine acknowledged
this feeling, it is not to be supposed but that others
must be equally affected. To drink pure water during
this extreme heat is very dangerous: it must be qualified
with some wine or spirit; and thus is an American led
into a habit of drinking, from which it is not very easy,
indeed hardly possible, for him to abstain, except during
the winter, and the winters in America are too cold for
a man to leave off any of his habits. Let it not be sup-
posed that I wish to excuse intemperance: far from it;
but I wish to be just in my remarks upon the Ameri-
cans, and show, that if they are intemperate (which
they certainly are), there is more excuse for them than
there is for other nations, from their temptation arising
out of circumstances.
There is but one other point to be considered in exa-
mining into the climate of America. It will be admitted
that the American stock is the very best in the world,
being originally English, with a favourable admixture
of German, Irish, French, and other northern countries.
It moreover has the great advantage of a continual im-
portation of the same varieties of stock to cross and
improve the breed. The question then is, have the
xA.merican race improved or degenerated since the first
settlement] If they have degenerated, the climate can-
not be healthy.
I was very particular in examining into this point,
and I have no hesitation in saying, that the American
people are not equal in strength or in form to the Eng-
lish. I may displease the Americans by this assertion,
and they may bring forward their Backwoodsmen and
their Kentuckians, who live at the spurs of the Alle-
18*
210 EDUCATION.
ghany Mountains, as evidence to the contrary ; but
altliough they are pov/erful and tall men, they are not
well made, nor so well made as the Virginians, who
are the finest race in the Union. There is one peculiar
defect in the American figure common to both sexes,
which is, narrowness of the shoulders, and it is a very
great defect ; there seems to be a check to the expan-
sion of the chest in their climate, the physiological
causes of which I leave to others. On the whole, they
certainly are a taller race than the natives of Europe,
but not with proportionate muscular strength. Their
climate, therefore, I unhesitatingly pronounce to be bad,
being injurious to them in two important points, of
liealthy vigour in the body, and healthy action of the
mind ; enervating the one, and tending to demoralise
the other.
EDUCATION.
Mr. Carey, in his statistical work, falls into the great
error of most American v/riters — that of lauding his own
country and countrymen, and inducing them to believe
that they are superior to all nations under heaven. This
is very injudicious, and highly injurious to the national
character: it upholds that self-conceit to which the
Americans are already so prone, and checks that im-
provement so necessary to place them on a level with
the English nation. The Americans have gained more
by their faults having been pointed out by travellers
than they will choose to allow ; and, from his moral
courage in fearlessly pointing out the truth, the best
friend to America, among their own countrymen, has
been Dr. Channing. I certainly was under the impres-
sion, previous to my visit to the United States, that
education was much more universal there than in Eng-
land ; but every step I took, and every mile I travelled,
lowered my estimate on that point. To substantiate
my opinion by statistical tables would be difficult ; as,
after much diligent search, I find that I can only obtain
BDUCATION. 211
a correct return of a portion of our own establish-
ments ; but, even were I able to obtain a general re-
turn, it would not avail me much, as Mr. Carey has no
general return to oppose to it. He gives us, as usual,
Massachusetts and one or two other States, but no
more ; and, as I have before observed, Massachusetts
is not America. His remarlcs and quotations from Eng-
lish authors are not fair; they are loose and partial
observations, made by those who have a case to sub-
stantiate. Not that I blame Mr. Carey for making use
of those authorities, such as they are ; but I wish to
show that they have misled him.
I must first observe that Mr. Carey's estimate of edu-
cation in England is much lower than it ought to be ;
and I may afterwards prove that his estimate of educa-
tion in the United States is equally erroneous on the
other side.
To estimate the amount of education in England by
the number of natio7iaI schools must ever be wrong.
In America, by so doing, a fair approximation may be
arrived at, as the education of all classes is chiefly con-
fined to them ; but in England the case is different ; not
only the rich and those in the middling classes of life,
but a large proportion of the poor, sending their chil-
dren to private schools. Could I have obtained a re-
turn of the private seminaries in the United Kingdom,
it would have astonished Mr. Carey. The small
parish of Kensington and its vicinity has only two
national schools, but it contains 292* private establish-
ments for education ; and I might produce fifty others,
in which the proportion would be almost as remarkable.
I have said that a large portion of the poorer classes in
England send their children to private teachers. This
arises from a feeling of pride ; they prefer paying for
the tuition of their children rather than having their
children educated by the parish, as they term the
national schools. The consequence is, that in every
town, or village, or hamlet, you will find that there are
" dam.e schools," as they are termed, at which about
one-half of the children are educated.
* I believe this esiimate is below the mark.
212 EDUCATION.
The subject of national education lias not been
warmly taken up in England until within these last
twenty-five years, and has made great progress during
that period. The Church of England Society for Na-
tional Education was established in 1813. Two years
after its formation there were only 230 schools, con-
taining 40,484 children. By the Twenty-seventh Re-
port of this Society, ending the year 1838, these
schools had increased to 17,341, and the number of
scholars to 1,003,087. But this, it must be recollected,
is but a small proportion of the public education in
England ; the Dissenters having been equally diligent,
and their schools being quite as numerous in propor-
tion to their numbers. We have, moreover, the work-
house schools, and the dame schools before mentioned,
for the poorer classes ; and for the rich and middling
classes, establishments for private tuition, which, could
the returns of them and of the scholars be made,
would, I am convinced, amount to more than five times
the number of the national and public establishments.
But as Mr. Carey does not bring forward his statistical
proofs, and I cannot produce mine, all that I can do is
to venture my opinion from what I learnt and saw
during my sojourn in the United States, or have ob-
tained from American and other authorities.
The State of Massachusetts is a school; it may be
said that ail there are educated. Mr. Reid states in his
work : —
"It was lately ascertained by returns from 131 towns
in Massachusetts, that the number of scholars was
12,393 ; that the number of persons in the towns be-
tween the ages of fourteen and twenty-one who are
unable to write was fifty-eight ; and in one town there
were only three persons who could not read or write,
and those three were dumb."
I readily assent to this, and I consider Connecticut
equal to Massachusetts ; but as you leave these two
Stales, you find that education gradually diminishes.*
* A churchyard with its mementoes of mortality is sometimes
a fair criterion by which to judge of the degree of the education of
those who live near it. In one of the church-yards in Vermont,
EDUCATION.
213
New York is the next in rank, and thus the scale de-
scends until you arrive at absolute ignorance.
I will now give what I consider as a fair and impartial
tabular analysis of the degrees of education in the differ-
ent States in the Union. It may be cavilled at, but it will
nevertheless be a fair approximation. It must be remem-
bered that it is not intended to imply that there are not a
certain portion of well-educated people in those States
put down in Class 4. as ignorant 8iaics, but they are in-
cluded in the Northern States, where they principally
receive their education.
Degrees of Education in the different States in the
Union.
1st Class. Population.
700,000
298,000
998,000
2,400,000*
555,000
300,000
330,000
110,000
360,000
1,300,000
5,355,000
1,360,000
800,000
650,000
1,600,0001
Massachusetts
Connecticut .
2d CI
New York
Maine
New Hampshire
Vermont
Rhode Island
New Jersey
Ohio .
3d Class.
Virginia
North Carolina
South Carolina
Pennsylvania
there is a tomb-stone with an inscription which commences as
follows : — " Paws, reader, paws."
* New York is superior to the other States in this list ; but Ohio
is not quite equal. I can draw the line no closer.
t Notwithstanding that Philadelphia is the capital, the State of
Philadelphia is a great dunce.
214
EDUCATION.
Maryland
Delaware
Columbia (dislricl)
Kentucky
Population.
500,000
80,000
50,000
800,000
5,840,000
4th Class.
Tennessee 900,000
Georgia
620,000
Indiana
550,000
Illinois
320,000
Alabama
500,000
Lousiana
350,000
Missouri
350,000
Mississippi .
150,000
Michigan
120,000
Arkansas
70,000
Wisconsin .
20,000
Florida (territory)
50,000
5,000,000
If I am correct, it appears then that we have, —
Highly educated 998,000
Equal with Scotland .... 5,355,000
Not equal with England . . . 5,840,000
Uneducated 5,000,000
This census is an estimate of 1836, sufficiently near
for the purpose. It is supposed that the population of
the United Slates has since increased about two millions,
and of that increase the great majority is in the Western
States, where the people are wholly uneducated. Tak-
ing, therefore, the first three classes, in which there is
education in various degrees, we find that they amount to
12,193,000 ; against which we may fairly put the 5,000,-
000 uneducated, adding to it, the 2,000,000 increased
population, and 3,000,000 of slaves.
I believe the above to be a fair estimate, although no-
thing positive can be collected from it. In making a
comparison of the degree of education in the United
EDUCATION. 215
States and in England, one point should not be over-
looked. In England, children may be sent to school,
but they are tak'en away as soon as they are useful, and
have little time to follow up their education afterwards.
Worked like machines, every hour is devoted to labour,
and a large portion forget, from disuse, what they have
learnt when young. In America, they have the advan-
tage not only of being educated, but of having plenty of
lime, if they choose, to profit by their education in after
life. The mass in America ought, therefore, to be better
educated than the mass in England, where circumstances
are against it. I must now examine the nature of educa-
tion given in the United States.
It is admitted as an axiom in the United States, that
the only chance they have of upholding their present
institutions is by the education of the mass ; that is to
say, a people who would govern themselves must be
enlightened. Convinced of this necessity, every pains
has been taken by the Federal and State governments to
provide the necessary means of education.* This is
granted ; but now we have to inquire into the nature of
the education, and the advantages derived from such
education as is received in the United States.
In the first place, what is education ? Is teaching a
boy to read and write education? If so, a large propor-
tion of the American community may be said to be edu-
cated ; but, if you supply a man with a chest of tools,
does he therefore become a carpenter ? You certainly
give him the means of working at the trade, but instead
of learning it, he may only cut his fingers. Reading
and writing without the further assistance necessary to
guide people aright, is nothing more than the chest of
tools.
Then, what is education ? I consider that education
commences before a child can walk: the first principle
of education, the most important, and without which all
* Miss Martineau says : " Though, as a whole, the nation is
probably better informed than any other entire nation, it cannot
be denied, that their knowledge is far inferior to wiiat their safety
and their virtue require."
216 EDUCATION.
subsequent attempts at it are but as leather and prunella,
is the lesson of obedience— o( submitting to parental
control — " Honour thy father and thy mother T
Now, any one who has been in the United States
must have perceived that there is little or no parental
control. This has been remarked by most of the wri-
ters who have visited the country ; indeed, to an Eng-
lishman it is a most remarkable feature. Kow is it
possible for a child to be brought up in the way that it
should go when he is not obedient to the will of his
parents? I have often fallen into a melancholy sort of
musing after witnessing such remarkable specimens of
uncontrolled will in children ; and as the father and mo-
ther both smiled at it, I have thought that they little
knew what sorrow and vexation were probably in store
for them, in consequence of their own injudicious treat-
ment of their oflspring. Imagine a child of three years
old in England behaving thus : —
" Johnny, my dear, come here," says his mamma.
" I won't," cries Johnny.
" You must, my love, you are all wet, and you'll
catch cold."
" I Vvon't," replies Johnny.
" Come, my sweet, and I've something for you."
" I won't.""
" Oh ! Mr. , do, pray make Johnny come in."
" Come in, Johnny," says the father.
" I won't."
" I tell you, come in directly, sir— do you hear?"
" I won't," replies the urchin, taking to his heels.
" A sturdy republican, sir," says his father to me,
smiling at the boy's resolute disobedience.
Be it recollected that I give this as one instance of a
thousand which 1 witnessed during my sojourn in the
country.
It may be inquired, how is it that such is the case at
present, when the obedience to parents was so rigorously
inculcated by the Puritan fathers, that by the Blue Laws,
the punishment of disobedience was death? Captain
Hall ascribes it to the democracy, and the rights of
equality therein acknowledged; but I think, allowing the
EDUCATION. 217
spirit of their institutions to have some etTect in pro-
ducing this evil, that the principal cause of it is the total
neglect of the children by the father, and his absence in
his professional pursuits, and the natural weakness of
most mothers, wiien their children are left altogether to
iheir care and guidance.
Mr. Sannderson, in his Sketches of Paris, observes —
*' The motherly virtues of our women, so eulogised by
foreigners, is not entitled to unqualified praise. There
is no country in which maternal care is so assiduous;
but also there is none in which examples of injudicious
tenderness are so frequent." This 1 believe to be true;
not that the American women are really more injudicious
than those of England, but because they are not sup-
ported as they should be by the authority of the father,
of whom the child should always entertain a certain por-
tion of fear mixed with affectiow, to counterbalance the
natural yearnings of a mother's heart.
The self-will arising from this fundamental error ma-
nifests itself throughout the whole career of the Ameri-
can's existence, and, consequently, it is a self-willed
nation par excellence.
At tlie age of six or seven you will hear both boys
and girls contradicting their fathers and mothers, and
advancing their own opinions with a firmness which is
very striking.
At fourteen or fifteen the boys will seldom remain
longer at school. At college, it is the same thing ;* and
* Mrs. Trollope says: "At sixteen, often much earlier, educa-
tion ends and money making begins; the idea that more learning
is necessary than can be acquired by that time, is generally ridi-
culed as absolute monkish bigotry: added to which, if the seniors
willed a more prolonged discipline, the juniors would refuse sub-
mission. When the money getting begins, leisure ceases, and all
the lore which can be acquired afterwards is picked up from no-
vels, magazines, and newspapers."
Captain Hall also remarks upon this point: — "I speak now
from the authority of the Americans themselves. There is the
greatest possible difficulty in fixing young men long enough at
college. Innumerable devices have been tried with considerable
ingenuity to remedy this evil, and the best possible intentions by
VOL. II. 19
218 EDUCATION.
ihey learn precisely what they please, and no more.
Corporal punishment is not permitted ; indeed, if we
are to judge from an extract I look from an American
paper, ihe case is reversed.
The following " Rules" are posted up in a New Jersey
school-house : —
" No kissing girls in school time ; no licking the mas-
ter during holydays."
At fifteen or sixteen, if not at college, the boy assumes
the man ; he enters into business, as a clerk to some
merchant, or in some store. His father's home is aban-
doned, except when it may suit his convenience, his
salary being sufficient for most of his wants. He fre-
quents the bar, calls for gin cocktails, chews tobacco,
and talks politics. His theoretical education, whether
he has profited much by it or not, is now superseded
by a more practical one, in which he obtains a most
rapid proficiency. I have no hesitation in asserting that
there is more practical knowledge among the Americans
than among any other people under the sun.*
It is singular that, in America, every thing, whether
it be of good or evil, appears to assist the country in
going a-head. This very want of parental control, how-
ever it may affect the morals of the community, is cer-
tainly advantageous to America, as far as her rapid ad-
vancement is concerned. Boys are working like men
for years before they would be in England ; time is
money, and they assist to bring in the harvest.
the professors and other public-spirited persons who are sincerely
grieved to see so many inconipclent, half-qualified men in almost
every corner of the country.
* Captain Hamilton very truly observes — "Though I have un-
questionably met in New York with many most intelligent and ac-
complished gentlemen, still I think the fact cannot be denied, that
the average of acquirement resulting from education is a good deal
lower in this country than in the better circles in England. In all
the knowledge which must be taught, and which requires laborious
study for its attainment, I should say the Americans are consider-
ably inferior to my countrymen. In that knowledge, on the other
hand, which the individual acquires for himself by actual observa-
tion, which bears an immediate marketable value and is directly
available in the ordinary avocations of life, I do not imagine that
the Americans are excelled by any people in the world."
EDUCATION. 219
But does this independence on the part of the youth
of America end here 1 On the contrary, what at first
was independence, assumes next the form o[ opposition^
and eventually that of control.
The young men, before they are qualified by age to
claim their rights as citizens, have their societies, their
book-clubs, their political meetings, their resolutions, all
of which are promulgated in the newspapers ; and very
often the young men's societies are called upon by the
newspapers to come forward with their opinions. Here
is opposition. Mr. Cooper says, in his " Democrat"
(p. 152)—
" The defects in American deportment are, notwith-
standing, numerous and palpable. Among the first may
be ranked, insubordination in children, and a great want
of respect for age. The former vice may be ascribed to
the business habits of the country, which leave so little
time for parental instruction, and, perhaps, in some de-
gree to the acts of political agents, who, with their own
advantages in view, among the other expedients of their
cunning, have resorted to the artifice of separating
children from their natural advisers by calling meetings
of the yr)ung to decide on the fortunes and policy of the
country."
But what is more remarkable, is the fact that society
has been usurped by the young people, and the married
and old people have been, to a certain degree, excluded
from it. A young lady will give a ball, and ask none
but young men and young women of her acquaintance;
not a chaperon is permitted to enter, and her father and
mother are requested to stay up stairs, that they may
not interfere with the amusement. This is constantly
the case in Philadelphia and Baltimore, and I have heard
bitter complaints made by the married people concern-
ing it. Here is control. Mr. Saunderson, in his " Sketches
of Paris," observes —
" They who give a tone to society should have matu-
rity of mind ; they should have refinement of taste, which
is a quality of age. As long as college beaux and
boarding-school misses take the lead, it must be an
insipid society, in whatever community it may exist. Is
220 EDUCATION.
it not villainous, in your Q,uakerships of Philadelphia, to
lay us before we have lived half our time out, upon the
shelf? Some of the native tribes, more merciful, eat
the old folks out of the way."
However, retribution follows : in their turn they mar-
ry, and are ejected ; they have children, and are diso-
beyed. The pangs which they have occasioned to their
own parents are now suffered by them in return,
through the conduct of their own children ; and thus it
goes on, and will go on, until the system is changed.
All this is undeniable ; and thus it appears that the
youth of America, being under no control, acquire just
as much as they please, and no more, of what may be
termed theoretical knowledge. This is the first great
error in American education, for how many boys are
there who will learn without coercion, in proportion to
the number who will not] Certainly not one in ten,
and, therefore, it may be assumed that not one in ten is
properly instructed.*
Now, that the education of the youth of America is
much injured by this want of control on the part of the
parents, is easily established by the fact that in those
States where the parental control is the greatest, as in
Massachusetts, the education is proportionably superior.
But this great error is followed by consequences even
nvore lamentable : it is the first dissolving power of the
kindred attraction, so manifest throughout all American
society. Beyond the period of infancy there is no en-
dearment between parents and children; none of that
sweet spirit of affection between brothers and sisters ;
none of those links which unite one family ; of that mutu-
al confidence ; that rejoicing at each other's success ;
that refuge, when we are depressed or afflicted, in the
bosom ofthose who love us — the sweetest portion of hu-
man existence, which supports us under, and encourages
us firmly to brave, the ills of life — nothing of this exists.
* The master of a school could not manage the gals, they being
exceedingly contumacious. Beat them, he dared not; so he hit
upon an expedient. He made a very strong decoction of worm-
wood, and, for a slight offence, poured one spoonful down their
throats ; for a more serious one, lie made them take two.
EDUCATION.. 221
In short, there is hardly such a thing in America as
"Home, sweet home." That there are exceptions to
this, I grant ; but I speak ofthe great majority of cases,
and the results upon the character of the nation. Mr.
Cooper, speaking of the weakness of the family tie in
America, says —
" Let the reason be what it will, the effect is to cut us
off from a large portion ofthe happiness that is depend-
ent on the affections."
The next error of American education is, that, in their
anxiety to instil into the minds of youth a proper and
ardent love of their own institutions, feelings and senti-
ments are fostered which ought to be most carefully
checked. It matters little whether these feelings (in
themselves vices) are directed against the institutions of
other countries ; the vice more engendered remains, and
hatred once implanted in the breast of youth, will not be
confined in its action. Neither will national conceit
remain only national conceit or vanity be confined to
admiration of a form of government; in the present
mode of educating the youth of A.merica, all sight is lost
of humility, good-will, and the other Christian virtues,
which are necessary to constitute a good man, whether
he be an American, or of any other country.
Let us examine the manner in which a child is taught.
Democracy, equality, the vaslness of his own country,
the glorious independence, the superiority of the Ame-
rican in all conflicts by sea or land, are impressed upon
his mind before he can well read. All their elementary-
books contain garbled and false accounts of naval and
land engagements, in which every credit is given to the
Americans, and equal vituperation and disgrace thrown
upon iheir opponents. Monarchy is derided, the equal
rights of man declared ; all is invective, uncharitableness
and falsehood.
That I may not in this be supposed to have asserted
too much, I will quote a reading lesson from a child's
book, which I purchased in America as a curiosity, and
is now in my possession ; it is called the *' Primary
Reader for Young Children ;" and contains many stories
besides this, relative to the history ofthe country.
19*
222 EDUCATION.
" Lesson 62.
" Story about the 4ih of July.
6. *' I must tell you what the people of New York
did. In a certain spot in that city there stood a large
statue, or representation, of King George III. — it was
made of lead. In one hand he held a sceptre, or kind
of sword ; and on his head he wore a crown.
7. " When the news of the Declaration of Indepen-
dence reached the city, a great multitude were seen run-
ring to the statue.
8. " The cry was heard, ' Down with it — down with
it!' and soon a rope was placed about its neck, and the
leaden King George came tumbling down.
9. " This might fairly be interpreted, as a striking
prediction of the downfall of the monarchical form of go-
vernment in these United Slates.
10. " If we look into history, we shall frequently find
great events proceeding from as trifling causes as the fall
of the leaden statue, which not unaptly represents the
character of a despotic prince.
11. "I shall only add, that when the statue was fairly
down, it was cut to pieces, and converted into musket-
balls, to kill the soldiers whom his majesty had sent over
to fight the Americans."
This is quite sufficient for a specimen. I have no
doubt it will be argued by the Americans — " We are
justified in bringing up our youth to love our institu-
tions." I admit it; but you bring them up to hate other
people, before they have sufficient intellect to understand
the merits of the case.
The author of" A Voice from America" observes —
" Such, to a great extent, is the unavoidable efTect of
that political education which is indispensable to all
classes of a self-governed people. They must be trained
to it from their cradle ; it must go into all schools ; it
must thoroughly leaven the national literature; it must
be ' line upon line, precept upon precept,' here a little
and there a little ; it must be sung, discoursed, and
thought upon every where, and by every body.
And so it is ; and as if this scholastic drilling were not
sufficient, every year brings round the 4th of July, on
which is read in every portion of the Stales the Act of
EDUCATION. 223
Independence, in itself sufficiently vituperative, but in-
variably followed up by one speech, (if not more) from
some great personage of the village, hamlet, town, or
city, as it may be, in which the more violent he is against
monarchy and the English, and the more he flatters his
own countrymen, the more is his speech applauded.
Every year is this drilled into the ears of the Ame-
rican boy, until he leaves school, w hen he takes a political
part himself, connecting himself with some young men's
society, where he spouts about tyrants, crowned heads,
shades of his forefathers, blood flowing like water, inde-
pendence, and glory.
The Rev. Mr. Reid very truly observes, of the read-
ing of the Declaration of Independence—
" There is one thing, however, that may justly claim
the calm consideration of a great and generous people.
Now that half a century has passed away, is it neces-
sary to the pleasures of this day to revive feelings in the
children which, if they were found in the parent, were to
be excused only by the extremities to which they were
pressed 1 Is it generous, now that they have achieved
the victory, not to forgive the adversary '? Is it manly,
now that they have nothing to fear from Britain, to in-
dulge in expressions of hate and vindictiveness, which
are the proper language of fear } Would there be less
patriotism because there was more charity 1 America
should feel that her destinies are high and peculiar. She
should scorn the patriotism which cherishes the love of
one's own country, by the hatred of all others."
I think after what I have brought forward, the reader
will agree with me, that the education of the youth in
the United States is immoral, and the evidence that it is
so, is in the demoralisation which has taken place in the
United States since the era of the Declaration of Inde-
pendence, and which fact is freely admitted by so many
American writers —
" iEtas parentum pejor avis tulit
Nos nequiores, mox daturos
Progeniem vitiosiorem."
Horace, lib. iii. ode 6.
I shall by and by show some of the effects produced
by this injudicions system of education ; of which, if it
224 EDUCATION.
is necessary to uphold their democratical institutions, I
can only say, with Dr. Franklin, that the Americans
"pay much too dear for their whistle.''''
It is, however, a fact, that education (such as I have
shown it to be) is in the United States more equally dif-
fused. They have very fevf citizens of the States (ex-
cept a portion of those in the West) who may be con-
sidered as " hewers of wood and drawers of water," —
those duties being performed by the emigrant Irish and
German, and the slave population. The education of the
higher classes is not by any means equal to that of the
old countries of Europe. You meet very rarely with a
good classical scholar, or a very highly educated man,
although some there certainly are, especially in the
legal profession. The Americans have not the leisure
for such attainments ; hereafter they may have ; but at
present they do right to look principally to Europe for
literature, as they can obtain it thence cheaper and
better. In every liberal profession you will find that
the ordeal necessary to be gone through is not such as
it is with us ; if it were, the difficulty of retaining the
young men at college would be much increased. To
show that such is the case, I will now just give the dif-
ference of the acquirements demanded in the new and
old country to qualify a young man as an M. D.
English. Physician. American Physician.
1. A regular classical education 1. Not required.
at a colleg-e.
2. Apprenticeship of not less 2. One year's apprenticeship.
than five years.
3. Preliminary examination in 3. Not required.
the classics, «Scc.
4. Sixteen months' attendance at 4. Eight months in two years.
lectures in 2^ years.
5. Twelve months' hospital prac- 5. Not required.
tice.
6. Lectures on botany, natural 6. Not required.
philosophy, &,c.
If the men in America enter so early into life that they
have not time to obtain the acquirements supposed to
be requisite with us, it is much the same thing with the
females of the upper classes, who, from the precocious
ripening by the climate and consequent early mar-
EDUCATION. 225
riages, may be said to throw down their dolls that they
may nurse their children.
The Americans are very justly proud of their women,
and appear tacitly to acknowledge the want of theoreti-
cal education in their own sex by the care and attention
which they pay to the instruction of the other. Their exer-
tions are, however, to a certain degree, checked by the cir-
cumstance, that there is not sufficient time allowed pre-
vious to the marriage of the females to give that soli-
dity to their knowledge which would insure its perma-
nency. They attempt too much for so short a space of
time. Two or three years are usually the period during
which the young women remain at the establishments,
or colleges I may call them (for in reality they are female
colleges). In the prospectus of the Albany Female Aca-
demy, I find that the classes run through the following
branches : — French, book-keeping, ancient history, ec-
clesiastical history, history of literature, composition,
political economy, American constitution, law, natural
theology, mental philosophy, geometry, trigonometry,
algebra, natural philosophy, astronomy, chemistry, bo-
tany, mineralogy, geology, natural history, and techno-
logy, besides drawing, penmanship, &c. &c.
It is almost impossible for the mind to retain, for any
length of time, such a variety of knowledge, forced into
it before a female has arrived to the age of sixteen or
seventeen, at which age, the study of these sciences, as
is the case in England, should commence, noi finish. I
have already mentioned, that the examinations which
I attended were highly creditable both to preceptors
and pupils ; but the duties of an American woman, as
I shall hereafter explain, soon find her other occupation,
and the nlogies are lost in the realities of life. Diplo-
mas are given at most of these establishments on the
young ladies completing their course of studies. In-
deed, it appears to be almost necessary that a young
lady should produce this diploma as a certificate of be-
ing qualified to bring up young republicans. I observed
to an American gentleman how youthful his wife ap-
peared to be — '• Yes," replied he, " I married her a
month after she had graduated.''' The following are
the terms of a diploma, which was given to a young
226 EDUCATION.
lady at Cincinnati, and which she permitted me to
copy: —
'' In testimony of the zeal and industry with which
Miss M T has prosecuted the prescribed
course of studies in the Cincinnati Female Institution,
and the honourable proficiency which she has attained
in penmanship, arithmetic, English grammar, rhetoric,
belles-lettres, composition, ancient and modern geogra-
phy, ancient and modern history, chemistry, natural
philosophy, astronomy, &c. &c. &c., of which she has
given proofs by examination,
" And also as a mark of her amiable deportment, in-
tellectual acquirements, and our affectionate regard, we
have granted her this letter — the highest honour be-
stowed in this institution.
" Given under our hands at
(Seal.) '• Cincinnati,
" this 19th day of July, Anno Domini, 1837."
The ambition of the Americans to be a-head of other
nations in every thing, produces, however, injurious
effects, so far as the education of the women is con-
cerned. The Americans will not "■leave well alone''
they must " gild refined gold," rather than not consider
themselves in advance of other countries, particularly
of England. They alter our language, and think that
they have improved upon it ; as in the same way they
would raise the standard of morals higher than with
us, and consequently fall much below us, appearances
supplying the place of the reality. In these endeavours
they sink into a sickly sentimentality, and, as I have
observed before, attempts at refinement in language,
really excite improper ideas. As a proof of the ridicu-
lous excess to which this is occasionally carried, 1 shall
insert an address which I observed in print ; had such
a document appeared in the English newspapers, it
would have been considered as a hoax.
" Mrs. Mandelle's Address
" To the Young Ladies of the Lancaster Female
Academy, at an Examination, March Sd, 1838.
"Affectionate Pupils: — With many of you this is
our final meeting in the relative position of teacher and
EDUCATION. 227
pupil, and we m ust part perhaps to meet no more. That
this reflection Jillrales from my mind to my heart with
saddening influence, I need scarce assure you. But
Hope, in a voice sweet as ' the wild strains of the Eolian
harp,' whispers in dulcet accents, 'we may again meet.'
In youth the impressions of sorrow are fleeting and
evanescent as 'the vapery sail,' that momentarily o'er-
shadows the luciferous orb of even, vanishes and leaves
her disc untarnished in its lustre : so may it be with you
— may the gloom of this moment, like the elemental pro-
totype, be but the precursor of reappearing radiance un-
dimmed by the transitory shadow.
" Happy and bright indeed has been this small portion
of your time occupied, not only in the interesting pursuit
of science, but in a reciprocation of attentions and sym-
pathies, endeared by that holiest ligament of earthly
sensibilities, religion, which so oft has united us in soul
and sentiment, as the aspirations of our hearts simul-
taneously ascended to the mercy-seat of the great Jehovah !
The remembrance of emotions like these are ineffaceable
by care or sorrow, and only blotted out by the immutable
hand of death. These halcyon hours of budding exist-
ence are to memory as the oasis of the desert, where we
may recline beneath the soothing infiuence of their um-
brage, and quaff in the goblet of retrospection the lucid
draught thai refreshes for the moment, and is again for-
gotten. Permit me to solicit, that the immaculate prin-
ciples of virtue, 1 have so often and so carefully incul-
cated, may not be forgotten, but perseveringly cherished
and practised. May the divine dictates of reason mur-
mur in harmonious cadence, bewitching as the fabled
melody of the musical bells on the trees of the Mahome-
dan Paradise. She dwells not alone beneath the glitter-
ing star, nor is always encircled by the diamond cestus
and the jewel'd tiara ! indeed not ! and the brilliancy
ernulged from the spangling gems, but make more hi-
deous the dark, black spot enshrined in the effulgence.
The traces of her peaceful footsteps are found alike in the
dilapidated hovel of the beggared peasant, and the velveted
saloon of the coroneted noble ; who may then apportion
her a home or assign her a clime ? In making my ac-
knowledgments for the attentive interest with which you
228 EDUCATION.
received my instructions ; and the respectful regard you
manifested in appreciating my advice, ii is not as a com-
pliment to your vanity, but a debt due to your politeness
and good sense. Long, my beloved pupils, may my
precepts and admonitions live in your hearts ; and hasten
you, (in the Inniiuage of Addison,) to commit yourselves
to the care of Omnipotence, and wlien the inoriiing calls
again to toil cast all your cares upon him the Auttior of
your being, who has conducted you through one stage of
existence, and who will always be present lo guide and
attend your progress through eternity."
An advertisement of Mr. Bonfil's Collegiate Institute
for Young Ladies, after enumerating the various branches
of literature to be taught, winds up with the following
para^'raph : —
"And finally, it will be constantly inculcated, that their
education will be completed when they have the power
to extend unaided, a spirit of investigation, searching and
appreciating truth, loit'nout passing the bounds assigned
to the human understanding.''''
I have now completed two volumes, and although I
omitted the major portion of my Diary, that I might not
trespass too long upon the reader, my task, is still far
from its termination. The most important parts of it —
an examination into the American Society and their Go-
vernment, and the conclusions to be drawn from the ob-
servations already made upon several subjects ; in short,
the working out of the problem, as it were, is still to be
executed. I have not written one line of this work with-
out deliberation and examination. What 1 have already
done has cost me much labour — what I have to do will
cost me more. I must therefore, claim for myself the in-
dulgence of the public, and request that, in justice to the
Americans, they wdl not decide until they have perused
the second portion, with which I shall as speedily as I
can wind up my observations upon the United States, and
their Institutions. F. M.
THE END.
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