great lakes to the gulf of Mexico. Perhaps the country south of Tennessee river, from the French Broad to the Mississippi, as far south as the junction of the Black Warrior and Tombigbee rivers, might with justice be included in the salubrious region, The southern half of the states of Mississippi and Louisiana, are not generally unfavourable to health, but locally so. The same remark also applies to the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and the Michigan, North-Western, and Missouri territories.

The soil of Tennessee, like its climate, is very different in quality in the respective parts of the state. In East Tennessee the land is good along the banks of the rivers, and in the valleys; the mountains are poor in soil, but they afford good pasture for sheep and cattle. In the middle part the soil is pretty similar to that of Kentucky, and the low lands in the western parts are composed of a rich, black, vegetable earth. In general the land is luxuriant, and will afford every production, the growth of any of the United States. The usual crop of cotton is 800lbs. to the acre, of a long and fine staple, and of Indian corn from sixty to eighty, and sometimes 100 bushels. It is asserted, however, that the lands on the small rivers that empty into the Mississippi have a decided preference to those on Cumberland river, for the produc tion of cotton, rice, and indigo.

Of trees, the general growth is poplar, hickory, black and white walnut, all kinds of oak, beech, sycamore, black and honey locust, ash, hornbeam, elm, mulberry, cherry, sugar maple, &c. The undergrowth, especially on low lands, is cane, some of which are upwards of twenty feet high, and so thick as to prevent any other plant from growing. Of herbs, roots, and shrubs, there are Virginia and Seneca snakeroot, genseng, angelica, spicewood, wild plum, crab apple, sweet anise, ginger, spikenard, wild hop, and grape vines. The glades are covered with wild rye and oats, clover, strawberries, and pea vines. On the hills at the head of rivers, and in some high cliffs of Cumberland, are found majestic red cedars; many of these are four feet in diameter, and forty feet clear of limbs. The animals are such as are found in the neighbouring states. The rivers are well stocked with all kinds of fresh water fish, among which are trout, perch, buffalo-fish, eels, cat-fish, &c.; some of the latter have been caught which weighed upwards of 100lbs. The western waters being more clear and pure than the eastern rivers, the fish are in the same degree mors firm and savoury to the taste.

There are no stagnant waters in this state, and this is certainly one of the reasons why the inhabitants are not afflicted with those bilious and intermittent fevers which are so frequent, and often fatal, near the same latitude on the coast of the southern states. The great business of the inhabitants is agriculture; and cotton forms a sort of staple commodity, particularly in West Tennessee. The other products are generally the same as Kentucky.

The whole of the people throughout the state are clothed in domestic manufactures, which have been encouraged by premiums from the legislature. There are no cotton manufactories upon a large scale, but the subject will doubtless be attended to, as the cotton here is of a very superior quality, and being far from a market, it would be attended with great benefit to the state to fabricate it into different sorts of goods, by machinery. The principal exports in West Tennessee are by the Mississippi to New Orleans, and consist of cotton, tobacco, flour, iron, lumber, pork, &c. From the eastern part they carry considerable quantities of cattle to the Atlantic ports; also fine saddle and cart horses, genseng, deer skins and furs, hemp and flax.

Of cultivated vegetables, the most important produced in Tennessee is Indian corn. In no part of the United States does that valuable plant grow in such perfection as in the rich bottoms of Cumberland, Tennessee, and their branches. Much of this grain in the ear, and also ground into meal, is transported from these rivers to Natchez and New Orleans. Wheat, rye, oats, barley, and buckwheat, are also raised in considerable quantities, both for consumption and exportation. Hemp is amongst the staples of the state, but is not at present so extensively cultivated as it was a few years past. Flax is reared for home use, but not in very large quantities. Tennessee may be with propriety considered, in respect to fruits, as the most favoured situation in the United States. There are,

indeed, very few fruits cultivated in the valley of the Misissippi and Ohio, but what are concentrated in this state. Apples, pears, peaches, and plums, are reared in great variety, and of excellent quality: the two kinds of potato grow in abundance. Of mineral productions found in Tennessee, iron and salt are the most important. Several iron works are, and have been many years in operation, both in East and West Tennessee; castings and iron are made both for domestic use and exportation. Several salt springs are found, but not in general use; the state is generally supplied with that very necessary article from

Kentucky and Virginia. Saltpetre, copperas, alum, lead, and some silver have been found, and pit coal is supposed to be plenty throughout the state; but owing to the quantity of wood it is not much sought after.

Civil divisions, chief towns, inhabitants, religion, character, &c.—It has been already noticed, that Tennessee is divided into two unequal portions by the Cumberland mountains. East Tennessee is only about one-fourth of the state, and is divided into seventeen counties; principal town Knoxville, which is the seat of government for the whole state. West Tennessee contains twenty-one counties, chief town Nashville, situated upon Cumberland river, where it is 200 yards wide. This town was named after general Nash, who fell on the 4th of October, 1777, in the battle of Germantown, and is the largest town in the state. It is regularly laid out, and contains above 3,000 inhabitants, with several haudsome public buildings, among which are a church for presbyterians and one for methodists, a court-house, jail, and a college, liberally endowed. Nashville is, in many respects, one of the most agreeable places of residence in the United States. The adjacent country is variegated and romantic, and the cli-mate a due medium between the extremes of the northern winters and southern summers, and is now a place of great commercial wealth. It is distant 741 miles from the city of Washington, 620 from Pittsburgh, 275 from Lexington, in Kentucky, 580 from Charleston, South Carolina, 360 from St. Louis, and 653 from New Orleans. N. lat. 36° 4′ W. long. 10°.

Knoxville, the metropolis of the state, is situated 203 miles from Nashville, on the north side of Holston river, where it is 300 yards wide; on a beautiful spot of ground, twenty-two miles above the junction of the Holston with the Tennessee, and four below the mouth of French broad river. The population amounts to about the same number as at Nashville; and the town is flourishing, enjoying a communication with every part of the United States by post. As it occupies an interesting situation, almost upon the direct route from New Orleans and Natchez to the middle states, Knoxville will become a place of great consequence, when good roads are made through the states of Mississippi and Alabama. It is regularly laid out, and contains a court-house, government offices, a college, jail, and barracks, large enough to contain 1,000 men. The supreme courts of law and equity

for the district are held here half-yearly, as are also the courts of pleas and quarter sessions for Knox county. Distant 538 miles from Washington city, 470 from St. Louis, 672 from Philadelphia, 624 from Natchez, and 848 from New Orleans. N. lat. 35° 55′ W. long. 6° 58'.

There are many other towns in the state of Tennessee, but most of them are little more than villages, and do not merit particular notice.

Several colleges, academies, and schools have been established; Cumberland college, in Nashville, is the most extensive literary institution in the state, and there are two or three colleges in East Tennessee. By law there ought to be one academy in each county; but how far this important measure has been carried into effect, we are unable to state with certainty. Education is not neglected, though it is not pursued with the regularity, or carried so high as in the northern states.

Tennessee being principally settled from Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, Virginia, and Georgia, with a considerable number of New Englanders and Europeans, the state of society is much diversified; but they are fast improving in civilization and morals. They have wisely profited by the example of the confusion which took place in Kentucky, about land titles, and have adopted a plan to prevent all difficulties on this subject, and it has been of great advantage to the state, as it has held out an inducement to many emigrants to pass over Kentucky and settle in it; but as the land laws in Kentucky have now assumed a secure form, this advantage has been pretty much done away, and the principal increase of population is now had from the Carolinas and Georgia.

Presbyterians are the prevailing denomination of Christians; but there are also many baptists and methodists. Most of them have emigrated from Pennsylvania, and that part of Virginia that lies west of the Blue ridge; their ancestors were generally of the Scotch nation, many of whom had removed to Ireland, and from thence to America. These people, in whatever part of the world their lot may be cast, are always found to encourage learning and science, and their conduct in that respect has been highly praiseworthy in the state of Tennessee. Those seminaries of education in which they are more immediately concerned, are all in a prosperous state, the colleges of Blount, at Knoxville, Washington, in the county of that name, and Greenville, in Green county, are all flourishing establishments. The local situation of the latter college is most happily chosen, on account of silent retirement, NO. XXVI.

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healthiness of climate, cheapness of board, and nearness to the most public roads in every direction. The surrounding country is diversified with lofty mountains, and luxuriant valleys, with the woods of nature and the fields of the planter, with clear and rapid streams speeding their course to the distant ocean, and innumerable springs, ever flowing with the purest water, all agreeably conspiring to stimulate and expand, to invigorate and enrich, to sublimate and purify the youthful mind.

Constitution and History.-The genius of the people in the new states, may be gathered in part from a history of their state constitutions. Having nothing whatever to clog their intellect on the subject of government, which is the most important of all earthly concerns, it may be fairly presumed that the constitution will embrace the sentiments of a considerable majority of the people. The constitution of Tennessee declares, that all power is inherent in the people; that all men have a right to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences, and that no preference shall ever be given by law to any religious establishment; that elections shall be free and equal; and that trial by jury shall remain inviolate.

The government is legislative, executive, and judicial. The legislature consists of representatives and senators, who are chosen for two years, and must be possessed of 200 acres of land in the county for which they are chosen. The governor must be possessed of 500 acres of land, and is also elected for two years. All freeholders, and all free inhabitants, of twenty-one years of age, residing in a county six months before the day of election, vote for the members of the counties in which they reside, or in which they have their freeholds.-Elections by ballot. The judiciary is vested in such superior and inferior courts as the legislature may appoint; the judges are appointed by the legislature, and hold their offices during good behaviour.

This country was included in the second charter of king Charles II. to the proprietors of Carolina. It was explored about the year 1745, and settled by about fifty families nine years afterwards; who were soon driven off or destroyed by the Indians. About the commencement of the revolutionary war, a few hunters reached the sources of the Tennessee r ver, and without any countenance from government, commenced an establishment, which for many reasons increased, and remained obscure