taste for certain luxuries abroad, would have us stop the gradual progress we are making, to attend to some Quixotic scheme for making America like "dear Italy." One man thinks music the great desideratum, and would sacrifice every thing to that; another is mad upon the subject of public edifices, and decries every ill-proportioned building as a blot and stain upon the national character, forgetting that our wealth is yet limited, and that we have a great deal to do in other affairs, and that it is quite as important the debit side of the account should bear a fair ratio to the credit side, as that a faultless proportion should exist in the parts of the building. How many public edifices have been enlarged to meet the exigency of the moment and from economy, while taste demands that the whole be pulled down and put up anew.

Go to the western immigrant, who consults convenience and expedition in building his log hut, and is glad of any house that will shelter his little family, and say to him, "there friend, your house is out of all proportion; and where are your fences and your flower-garden? Why don't you paint your gateway, and make gravel walks about your domicil, and set out shrubbery, &c., &c.?" The man will laugh in your face, and perhaps answer you thus: "I have a very warm house; here is a hole in the roof to let out the smoke, and a hole in the door to let in the pigs; it works very well, as you may see." This matter of the pigs might be dispensed with, to be sure, but you would find out that the man is chiefly bent on living first; he feels that he has great fundamental things to attend to before he can accommodate himself to your tastes.

This is our position as a country. We have the land to clear, canals to dig, rail-tracks to lay, water-works to finish; trade, agriculture, and common school education, are the great interests of our people. You may talk to them, write about them, ridicule them, do what you please to divert them from their common-sense track, and you will talk, and write, and ridicule in vain. We cannot do everything to-day. Give us time; and do not expect from our infancy, what only can be found in the manhood of a nation.

II. ADVICE TO EMIGRANTS

A. Foreign Immigration and the Westward Movement, 18161 During the period when the Mississippi Valley was being rapidly populated many books on emigration were written, in which those about to migrate to America

1 Travels through the United States of America. By John Melish (Philadelphia and London, 1818), 628-33.

were encouraged to emigrate to the western country and advised as to routes and methods of travel. The same advice was equally good for the native Americans along the coast, for the conditions in the western country were distinctive and peculiar to that section.

It would be very prudent for new comers, especially labourers or farmers, to go into the country without delay, as they will save both money and time by it, and avoid several inconveniences of a seaport town. By spending some time with an American farmer, in any capacity, they will learn the method of tillage, or working a plantation, peculiar to this country. No time can be more usefully employed than a year in this manner. In that space, any smart, stout man can learn how woodland may be cleared, how cleared land is managed; he will acquire some knowledge of crops and their succession, of usages and customs that ought to be known, and perhaps save something into the bargain. Many European emigrants who brought money with them have heretofore taken this wise course, and found it greatly to their advantage; for, at the end of the year, they knew what to do with it. They had learned the value of lands in old settlements and near the frontiers, the price of labour, cattle, and grain, and were ready to begin the world with ardour and confidence. Multitudes of poor people, from Ireland, Scotland, and Germany, have, by these means, together with industry and frugality, become wealthy farmers, or, as they are called in Europe, estated men, who, in their own countries, where all the lands are fully occupied, and the wages of labour low, could never have emerged from the condition wherein they were born.

In the west of Pennsylvania, there is a custom which the farmers there call cropping, and which is as beneficial to the owner as to the tiller of the ground, in the present state of this country. The cropper performs the labour of the plantation, as spring and fall ploughings, sowing, harrowing, or other work, and receives a certain share of the crop, as agreed on, for his pains. But he must be an expert farmer before he can undertake, or be intrusted with, the working of the farm. None but a poor man undertakes it, and that only until he can save money to buy land of his own.

It is invariably the practise of the American, and well suited to his love of independence, to purchase a piece of land as soon as he can, and to cultivate his own farm, rather than live at wages. It is equally in the power of an emigrant to do the same, after a few years of labour and economy. From that moment he secures all the means of happiHe has a sufficiency of fortune, without being exempt from moderate labour; he feels the comfort of independence, and has no

ness.

fear of poverty in his old age. He is invested with the powers as well as the rights of a freeman, and may in all cases, without let or apprehension, exercise them according to his judgment. He can afford to his children a good education, and knows that he has thereby provided for their wants. Prospects open to them far brighter than were his own, and in seeing all this he is surely blest.

Industrious men need never lack employment in America. Labourers, carpenters, masons, bricklayers, stonecutters, blacksmiths, turners, weavers, farmers, curriers, tailors, and shoemakers, and the useful mechanics generally, are always sure of work and wages. Stonecutters now receive, in this city, (New York,) two dollars a day, equal to nine shillings sterling; carpenters, one dollar and eighty-seven and a half cents; bricklayers, two dollars; labourers, from one dollar to one and a quarter; others in proportion. At this time (July, 1816,) house-carpenters, bricklayers, masons, and stonecutters, are paid three dollars per day in Petersburgh, Virginia. The town was totally consumed by fire about a year since, but it is now rising from its ashes in more elegance than ever. Mechanics will find ample employment there for perhaps two years to come. . . .

Men of science, who can apply their knowledge to useful and practical purposes, may be very advantageously settled; but mere literary scholars, who have no profession, or only one which they cannot profitably practise in this country, do not meet with much encouragement; in truth, with little or none, unless they are willing to devote themselves to the education of youth. The demand for persons who will do this is obviously increasing: and although many excellent preceptors are every where to be found among the native Americans, there is still considerable room for competition on the part of well qualified foreigners. . . .

In what part of this extensive country may an emigrant from the northern or western parts of Europe most advantageously settle? If he be undecided until his arrival, his choice will be agreeably perplexed or suspended by the different invitations offered by various sections of this empire. It covers an area between the 31st and 46th degrees of north latitude, and from the Atlantic ocean to the westward indefinitely. In time our settlements will reach the borders of the Pacific. The productions of the soil are as various as the climate. The middle states produce grain of all kinds; Maryland and Virginia afford wheat and tobacco; North Carolina, naval stores; and South Carolina and Georgia, rice, cotton, indigo, and tobacco: to these products, Louisiana and Mississippi add sugar and indigo, which are

now cultivated in Georgia likewise. Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio are productive of the principal part of the foregoing staples, together with hemp, coal, and such plants as are found in the northern and middle states, to the eastward of the Allegany mountains. Over this great tract, the finest fruits grow in perfection; grain of every sort is in plenty; and "he who puts a seed into the earth is recompensed, perhaps, by receiving forty out of it." . . .

If a European has previously resolved to go to the western country, near the Allegany or Ohio rivers, he will have saved much expense and travel by landing at Baltimore; from thence to Pittsburg, at the head of the Ohio, is about 200 miles direct; perhaps not more than 240 by the course of the road. A few days' journey will bring him along a fine turnpike from Baltimore, nearly to Cumberland, in Allegany county, (Md.) from whence the public road, begun by the United States, crosses the mountains, and is to touch the Ohio at Wheeling. A smart fellow, in a little time, will reach Union, in Fayette county, Pennsylvania. Here is a flourishing county adjoining Green, Washington, and Westmoreland, in any one of which may be found almost every thing that is desirable, and a population hospitable and intelligent. From Union to Pittsburg is but a day's journey. There one may ascend the Allegany river to the upper countries; or he may follow the current, and descend the Ohio to the state of that name, cross it to Indiana, or continue his voyage to Kentucky. He may proceed to the Mississippi river, and go up to St. Louis, in the Missouri Territory, or he may proceed a little farther up, and ascend the Illinois River, in the Illinois Territory. Such are the facilities of going by water from Pittsburg to various parts of the west; and those states and territories named are among the most fertile in America.

From Philadelphia to Pittsburg is about 300 miles, chiefly through a fine, plentiful, and well-cultivated country. A gentleman in Pennsylvania, of high standing and information, writes to a member of this society: "Pennsylvania, after all, is, perhaps, the best field for Irish capacity and habits to act in, with prospects for a family, or for individual reward. Lands of the finest quality may be had in this state for barely settling and remaining five years; the advantage derived from the emigrant, being the encouragement of others to settle and purchase." That is by the laws of Pennsylvania, warrantees must make an actual settlement on the lands they claim to hold by deeds from the land-office. Hence, trusty persons obtain a deed for a part, on condition of clearing a certain quantity, and building a house and residing there.

In our state, (of New York,) the advantages are great, whether we regard soil or situation, or roads, lakes, and rivers. Few, if any states in the Union, have finer land than the great western district of New York. It has risen exceedingly in a few years, and the price will be much increased as soon as the intended canal from lakes Erie and Champlain to the Hudson river, shall be completed. These most useful and magnificent works will probably be begun next summer, and afford, for several years to come, to many thousands of industrious poor men an opportunity of enriching themselves. If prudent, they may realize their earnings on the spot, and become proprietors, in fee, of landed estates in the beautiful country they shall have so greatly improved....

Those who have acquired useful trades will, in general, find little difficulty, either in our large cities, or the towns and villages all over the country. There are vacancies for a large portion of them.

Clerks, shopkeepers, or attendants in stores, are seldom wanted; their occupation is an uncertain one; it requires some time, too, for such persons to acquire the mode of doing business with the same expertness as natives or long residents. In most cases a sort of apprenticeship is to be served; and it would be well for persons newly arrived to engage for some months at low wages, with a view to procure the necessary experience. Six months or a year spent in this manner, and for this purpose, will fit a man for making better use of his future years; and he will have no occasion to repent his pains: we would press this on your consideration. . . .

Those who have money, and intend to settle here in any line of business, would do well to vest their funds in some public stock, or deposit them in a bank, until they have acquired such a knowledge of the country, the modes of life and business, as shall enable them to launch into trade, commerce, or manufactures, with safety. To loan money securely, needs great care. It has been often seen that persons arriving in America with some property, lose it before they prosper in the world. The reason of which is that, in the first place, they begin some kind of business without knowing how to conduct it; and, in the next, that, with less skill, they are less frugal and industrious than their competitors. It is equally observable, that persons who arrive here with little to depend on besides their personal exertions, become prosperous at last; for by the time they have earned some money in the employ of others, they will have learned there, likewise, how to secure and improve it.

The delay here recommended is all important and necessary. Nothing can be more ruinous to strangers in this country than head