CHAPTER VIII.
_Illinois—Climate—Face of the country—Prairies—Soil—Salt—Lead—Iron—Coal—Water Communication—History—Towns—Government—Education—Kentucky Population—New Englanders—Pioneers—Manners and Customs._
Some of the western United States, forming part of the extensive and fertile valley of the Mississippi, are so different in character from the Eastern States and the Canadas for agricultural emigration, as to merit particular consideration. The region alluded to lies north of latitude 38°, and from 7° of west longitude from Washington to the rocky mountains. Much of this tract is imperfectly known, having never perhaps been trod by civilized man, and embraces the states of Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and the Michigan, North-west, and Missouri territories. My personal observation extended to a portion of four of the mentioned divisions, which enabled me to form an opinion of their characteristics, which are said to be pretty uniform; and for the sake of precision Illinois shall be noticed.
The State of Illinois extends from north latitude 37° to 42½°, and from west longitude 10° 35′ to 14° 25′. It is bounded on the south by the river Ohio, on the west by the Mississippi, on the north by the north-west territory, and on the east by lake Michigan and Indiana. The length is 382 miles, the area 57,900 square miles, or 37,056,000 acres, which is nearly the size of England and Wales.
The climate of Illinois partakes of the general character of North America, but from the absence of hills, and small elevation above the level of the sea, this region is milder than any other of the same latitude, The winter in the southern parts seldom exceeds six weeks. At Shawneetown, which is in the southern part of the State, the average temperature of July, in 1819, was 87°, of December 43°, and the mean annual temperature 64°. At Prairies des Chiens, which is a few miles beyond the northern boundary of the State, the temperature in July 1820 was 74°, in December 16°, and the average of the year 48° 5ʹ.[6]
Footnote 6:
Melish’s View of the United States.
The diseases in Illinois are such as are common to the upper Mississippi valley, amongst which intermitting and remitting bilious fevers often occur. From the variations of temperature, inflammatory complaints and diseases of the lungs are frequent in this and almost every other part of North America. I met several young men, suffering under consumption, travelling in the steam-boats of the west, although this malady is much more frequent in the eastern states. By an official report of the deaths in the city of New York, from 24th November to 1st December, 1832, in a newspaper lying before me, 14 cases of consumption, out of a total of 92, are recorded, which is the highest number of any disease on the list; and the same paper states 5 of consumption, out of 62, at Philadelphia, which occurred during the previous week. Fever, dyspepsia, and consumption, are the maladies of Illinois, the two first being most common in the south, and the latter in the north. The health of an emigrant may, in some measure, be preserved by care. Exposure to sudden changes of temperature without proper clothing, and uncomfortable houses in inclement weather, seldom fail of engendering disease.
The mouth of the Ohio, in the south-west angle of the state, being about 300 feet above the level of the sea, and lake Michigan, in the north-east angle, being 589 feet, while there is no range of hills or elevated ground intervening, the surface of the country must necessarily be level, which is more particularly the case towards the southern part of the state. The rivers, which intersect the country in every direction, have formed deep channels for the conveyance of water, and no great extent of the surface is marshy. The space which I travelled over on foot, between Chicago, on lake Michigan, and the village of Springfield in Sangamon county, a distance of about 200 miles, the surface, with exception of a few miles at the commencement and termination of the journey, was undulating, the swells being long and considerable, without a lake, pond, or marsh being visible, except in one instance. On approaching Springfield, the surface became level without being wet, and from this village until I crossed the Mississippi the wettest parts of the surface might have been rendered dry by the ordinary means of ditching.
The feature in the surface of Illinois, which chiefly distinguishes it from the eastern states and the Canadas, is the prairies, or tracts which are free from timber. I imagine prairies to be natural productions; they may be termed grass fields, and are of every size and shape, being separated from each other by tracts of forest. Americans, whose ideas of an uninhabited country are associated with interminable forests, have speculated on the origin of prairies, which they regard as an anomaly in nature, and assign their existence to man. A Scotchman, accustomed to the bleak naked mountains, and artificial forests of his own country, may take an opposite view of a prairie, and support his opinion by the state of the earth’s surface after the flood, which would be without trees. But the forest and prairie surfaces of Illinois stand in the relation of water and land on the face of the earth, both being the handiwork of nature, and forming bays, peninsulas, straits, isthmuses, lakes, islands, and every other form of outline which charm the eye and delight the imagination. To the individual who has long been immured in the forest, the effect of prairie scenery is enchanting; and the inhabitant of a cultivated and thickly peopled country, who can gaze on the lovely, the lonely, and the rich prairies of Illinois without emotion towards God and his fellow-creatures must be void of feeling.
The different published accounts of Illinois represent one-half of the surface of the state to be prairie, but it is probable none of the writers, or any one individual, has had a proper opportunity of forming an opinion on the subject. In the course of my journey, nineteen-twentieths of the country appeared to be prairie; but the forest tract is chiefly in the south, which I did not visit. It is however certain a vast extent of prairie lies north of latitude 39°. An English traveller informed me he found the prairie country unchanged 500 miles to the west of Illinois. And if such is the case, its breadth in latitude 40° will exceed 1000 miles.
There is a considerable extent of the surface thinly covered with trees, interspersed with the same kind of herbage as clothes the prairies, called barrens, or oak-openings, from the wood which grows on them. They may either be considered thin forest, or wooded prairie, as they partake of the nature of both; but in an agricultural point of view, they must be classed as prairie, from the herbage they afford. The soil of Illinois, like many other parts of the world which has come under my notice, is variable, and the different habitations of the varieties of sunflower and other tall-growing plants, often distinctly marked changes of soil on the prairie. The prevailing soil between Chicago and Springfield, was black sandy loam, and occasionally considerable tracts of clay or heavy loam intervened. In this distance of nearly 200 miles, I did not pass over, in all, 10 miles of bad soil, which was light coloured sand. The surface, which is forest, oak-openings, or prairie, has no relation to quality of soil, all of which abound with soils of every description.
On no part of the prairie did I observe heath, or other thriftless vegetation, occupying the entire surface, with exception of a dwarfish species of hazel, in a few instances, to a limited extent. Besides the many beautiful flowering plants which adorn the prairies, they are covered with four or five tall-growing kinds of grass, and the moist and dry soils could be distinguished by the luxuriance of different species. From the grass attaining between three and four feet in height, and being seared by a powerful sun, the surface of the prairies is scorched by fire every autumn, originating by human, and, it is presumed, also occasionally by natural means. The annual burning seems to have destroyed all the grasses which possess fibrous roots, and are propagated by seed; those which at present exist having strong roots, which resist the effects of fire, and propagate themselves without seed. This property of the grasses is illustrative of the economy of nature, by furnishing plants for every situation and circumstance that may arise. The burning is not attended with much danger, as the turning of one or two sods by the plough is deemed a sufficient protection against fire for a hay stack in the midst of the prairie; and the inhabitants either save their buildings by this means, or by burning the grass immediately around them, before the general conflagration takes place. The burning, in all probability, is conducive to health, by consuming vegetation, which would otherwise putrify on the surface, and by checking the luxuriance of its growth, which the unconsumed matter would produce by natural decay. There is a ruling Providence in every thing!
The mineral productions of the state have been imperfectly explored. Salt is manufactured in many situations. Near Shawneetown is the most extensive establishment, where about 138,000 bushels are made yearly. Salt is also made in the neighbourhood of Brownsville, in Madison county, and in other parts. The saline reservations given to the state, by the general government, consist of 206,128 acres. One of the most remarkable gifts which bountiful nature has lavished on the valley of the Mississippi, appears to me to be the inexhaustible supply of salt water. The government of the country seem fully to appreciate the gift, and have wisely made the springs public property, by which the community will obtain the indispensable article of salt at the cheapest rate.
Lead abounds in the north-east angle of the state, in the neighbourhood of Galena. The mineral is found on both sides of the Mississippi, and supposed to extend over several thousand square miles. The ore is found in detached masses, and not in veins, which renders the digging a matter of chance. The quantity of lead manufactured here, in 1829, was 13,343,150 lbs.; and the population of the region is stated at 10,000.[7] There are also lead diggings in the State of Missouri, about 70 miles south-west of St Louis, and which were wrought by the French about a century ago. The price of lead, at Galena, is from 2 to 3 cents per lb. When at Springfield, I met a young gentleman from Leith, in Scotland, who had travelled by way of New York, the Erie canal, and lake Michigan, provided with a considerable quantity of shot, which he imagined the country could not furnish.
Footnote 7:
Guide to the valley of Mississippi. Philadelphia, 1832.
Iron ore is said to exist in the southern part of the state; and copper ore in the lead region around Galena. But I believe neither of them have been manufactured.
Coal, of bituminous quality, has been found on the banks of the principal rivers, in different parts of the state, and, from having been seen on the banks of the river Missouri, it is supposed to extend over the whole of the upper part of the Mississippi valley. But, in the present state of the country, no particular examination of the field has been made. Coal has, however, been wrought in many places on the banks of rivers by quarrying; and is found above the level of the waters. Several steam-mills, at St Louis, use coal for fuel.
Iron is manufactured in Wabash county, and limestone is found over the whole State. I observed abundance of sandstone in the channel of the Illinois; and perhaps almost every mineral which is useful to man will be found on examination.
Illinois is favourably situated for water communication, the interior of the state being intersected by the Kaskaskia, Rock, and Illinois rivers, which are navigable at all seasons of the year. The State is said to contain between three and four thousand miles of boatable waters, a description of navigation which cannot be well defined, as every rill, in so level a country, will float a boat of small size, on melting of the snow in spring. There is no doubt, however, of the water communication being extensive, which will be farther improved by connecting the navigable point of the Illinois with lake Michigan. To the formation of a canal for this purpose, Congress granted the State 480,000 acres of land. The undertaking has not been commenced; and the extent of rock discovered in the intended line, may render a railroad necessary. The navigable rivers Wabash, Ohio, and Mississippi form the boundaries of three sides, and lake Michigan is on the fourth. The external communication is as remarkable as the internal.
The Mississippi connects the State of Illinois with New Orleans to the south; the Ohio opens a communication with Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York to the west. To the north, lake Michigan communicates with lake Superior and the world of waters which flow into the gulf of St Lawrence. The western communication, by the Missouri, is only limited by civilisation, a steam-boat belonging to the American Fur Company having sailed 1400 miles up the river, from its junction with the Mississippi. So little is known about the western sources of the Missouri, that the limits of navigation, in this direction, must at present be conjectural; and it does not seem to require a stretch of imagination to conceive, as population advances, a communication opened between the head waters of this river and the Pacific ocean. Should such an event take place, the empires of China, Japan, and Russia will be brought near, and Illinois become one of the most central and favourable trading situations in the world.
Illinois was originally discovered by the French, who penetrated by way of Canada, in 1673. They founded the villages of Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and others in 1683. When the country became part of the United States, it formed part of the territory north-west of the Ohio. In 1801, it was included with Indiana as a territory. In 1809, it was made a separate territory. And became one of the United States in 1818.
In so recent a settled country, large towns cannot be expected to be found. Vandalia is the capital, and, like other capitals, situated near the centre of the state. It stands on the western bank of the Kaskaskia, and was founded in 1821. The population is stated at 500 souls.
Shawneetown on the Ohio, about nine miles below the mouth of the Wabash, is the largest town in the State. A number of thriving villages are rising in every direction, and will acquire population according to their situations for trade. Galena, situated on Fever river, a few miles above its junction with the Mississippi, and in the north-west corner of the State, will rise into importance, from the manufacture of lead in the neighbourhood. One hundred steam-boat arrivals at this place are said to have occurred within the year. Chicago on lake Michigan, and Ottawa on the Illinois, from being situated at the termination of the communication connecting these waters, will become important places. Alton, situated on the Mississippi, one mile above the mouth of the Missouri, and sixteen below the entrance of the Illinois, is centrically situated for trade, and is soon likely to become the chief shipping port of the State.
The legislature of Illinois is vested in a General Assembly, consisting of a Senate and House of Representatives. The members of Senate are elected for four years, and the representatives for two years. The pay of the members of each branch of the legislature is $3 a-day. The right of suffrage is vested in all free whites twenty-one years of age, and who have resided six months in the State. The votes are given _viva voce_.[8]
Footnote 8:
Mellish’s View.
The executive is vested in a governor and lieutenant-governor, both elected for four years. The governor’s salary is $1000, or L.212, 10s. sterling a-year.
The judiciary consists of a chief-justice, and three associate-judges, who hold circuit courts. Their salaries are $1000 each.
The taxes are levied by three commissioners in each county. Justices of the peace are elected by the people every four years, and their jurisdiction extends over inferior cases. Each county has a judge of probate, before whom business relating to wills is transacted.
There is no imprisonment for debt, except in case of fraud or refusal on the part of the debtor to deliver up his property for the behoof of his creditors. There are no usury laws. And slavery is not allowed since the adoption of the constitution.
There are fifty-eight counties, and a considerable portion of the northern part of the State has not been surveyed, which was sold by the Indians in 1833. The population, in 1800, consisted of 12,282. In 1830, there were 157,445 inhabitants; and, from the recent emigration, their numbers must now exceed 200,000.
Congress granted to the State, for the purposes of education, one thirty-sixth part of the public land, or 977,457 acres, and 3 per cent on the sales of land. So there can be no doubt of an efficient system of common free schools being established, wherever the wants of the population require them. Besides the grant for common schools, 46,080 acres of land have been granted for colleges. Such an institution was established at Jacksonville in 1829.
The population of Illinois embraces settlers from almost every State in the Union, and every country in Europe. The inhabitants of the south, are understood to have come from Kentucky, a slave-holding State, and were induced to settle in this district from their dislike of slavery. The emigrating Kentuckians approving of slavery, take up their residence in the adjoining State of Missouri, where this bondage is tolerated. The Kentuckians possess different dispositions from the inhabitants of the other States, and, like the New Englanders, they seem to inherit the characters of their forefathers. The first settlers of Kentucky, for a period of between thirty and forty years, waged a cruel and savage warfare with the Indians. Many thousands perished in the strife, and the features which such a mode of life could not fail of imparting to their characters, have descended, with some modification, to their progeny. The Kentuckians of the present day are men of warm temperament, high-souled, and fearless; but, at the same time, generous and hospitable in the extreme. They have been termed the Irishmen of America. With ill-regulated tempers, they can have little medium of character, and will be good or bad members of society, according to the principles they have imbibed. The Kentuckians are said to go armed with knives, a practice which is thought to be on the decline, and which I cannot corroborate from observation. This practice has in all probability descended from the first settlers, and would originate from the unfortunate circumstances in which they were placed. A few boys in Britain, who mistake true honour and courage, provide themselves with pistols and sword-sticks. Perhaps only the fiery youths of Kentucky wear knives.
In the northern part of Illinois almost all the inhabitants appeared to have come from New England, and possessed the characteristics of that people. During my intercourse with them I received some impressions of their dispositions and movements at variance with what I had been led to expect. It has been usual to represent this people void of the best feelings of humanity—the parent with little affection for his offspring—the boy without filial love, impatient of restraint, and scampering off from school to obtain independence in the distant wilderness. But when I found many unmarried young men, after twelve months’ residence in Illinois, anxiously expecting the arrival of their parents from New England, and had travelled with old people journeying from that country to join their sons in Illinois, I attributed the moving of youth to the western districts to the best of motives, and assigned to both parties the feelings of domestic affection. The youth of Britain do not engage in the bustle of the world so early as the Americans, and family intercourse is consequently more enduring. But it is the difficulty of earning a subsistence and not affection, which binds the young men of Britain to the roof of their parents, and in all probability the emotions of the heart are the same in both countries.
A class of men are said to precede civilisation in America, called pioneers or squatters, and have been described by travellers as demi-savages, blackened with iniquity, and shunning their fellow mortals, by moving to a more remote station, as settlers advance. It is probable such beings did at one time exist, and may still occasionally be met with in the lower part of the Mississippi valley. They may be supposed to have originated in such a state of things as occurred at the first settlement of Kentucky, and perhaps were altogether confined to the latitude of this State. In the present day, when the east is densely peopled, and civilisation in the region of Illinois has reached an open country, desperate characters are more likely to find subsistence and concealment in the crowded city than in the prairie. Be this as it may, there are no such characters in the northern parts of Illinois as the pioneers of old, and I regard the present frontier men of the prairie as one of the best and most enterprising portions of the western population.
The manners and customs of Illinois have been described by Mr Stuart in his “Three Years in North America,” in terms and spirit so different from almost any thing that is noticed in the work, that I shall quote part of his remarks.
“I made enquiry on the road from some passengers, as to the hotels at Jacksonville, and was told there were two, neither of them good, but that Bentley’s was the best. I found, on going into the house, that the tea and supper were nearly finished; and it was not without some difficulty, and rather uninviting looks from a young lady who was acting as waiter, that I procured a fresh supply of coffee and eggs. This was Saturday evening, and the young ladies, after having cleared the table and again covered it with the necessary articles, sat down to their meal with me, on a footing of the most perfect equality. I found them very inquisitive, far more so than any of the New Englanders I ever met with, but I afterwards learned that these people had lately come from a remote part of the country, where probably there were no schools. Such silly conduct, in respect to their own interest, as they were guilty of during the forty-eight hours I remained with them, is generally the offspring of ignorance. I found the hotel-keeper a masterpiece of rudeness, and very soon got a candle and retired to my bedroom. I was told the breakfast hour was half past seven, but I started from my pillow on the following morning at six, when I heard other people stirring so early, and the breakfast had commenced before I was able to get to the parlour. I asked how this happened; but I found from the answer that it was quite unnecessary to have any farther discussion with such a barbarian as Squire Bentley. He did not care for the customs of the British. His forefathers had left England to avoid tyranny, and they did not care for seeing foreigners here.
“The tea and supper at the hotel in the evening was even a more ridiculously managed meal, than any of those which preceded it. The female waiter, it being Sunday evening, was particularly smartly dressed, and sat at the end of the table and at some distance from it, much more intent on placing one leg above the other in a proper position for showing her foot and ankle than in giving the necessary attendance at the tea-table—but she was such a good-humoured ‘romp-loving looking Miss,’ that though she did any thing rather than attend to her duty, I believe she was the most popular of all the hotel family with the strangers. Every thing was bad, and the hotel people completely lost temper when they noticed that we did not even find fault with them, but laughed at the absurdity of being so treated. Even the bread was execrable—a most uncommon occurrence in the United States. I soon left the supper-table, and when sitting in my thinly boarded room, heard the landlord tell a traveller who had recently arrived, at ten minutes past nine in the evening, that he must go to bed—he could not wait longer to show him his room. Candlesticks seemed never to have been cleaned—snuffers were wanting—and as for shoes, there was no one to clean them while I was in the house.
“At an early hour on the following morning, the 3d May, I left Jacksonville, not without thanking Tom Bentley for his civility, and telling him how utterly unfit he was for his situation.
“Springfield is a straggling village, somewhat longer than Jacksonville, but the situation is not at all equal to it in point of beauty or interest. The hotel was very nearly as bad as that at Jacksonville. Hornden was the name of the landlord. It was difficult to say whether he, his wife, or his daughter was the sauciest. They certainly were as rude untutored Americans as I have seen. The lady undertook to wash some linen for me, and there was no difficulty about it—as I got to her house early in the afternoon—but she delayed and delayed so, that I was obliged to carry them away only half dried next morning after seven o’clock.”
It was my fortune to visit Springfield and Jacksonville, without being aware at the time of Mr Stuart’s remarks, and my treatment seems to have been very different from what he describes. At Springfield I put up at the hotel in which Mr Stuart lodged, and refer to page 241 for the particulars of my reception. In the interval between his excursion and mine, the hotel had changed proprietors—and I found no difficulty in getting linens washed and shoes cleaned. Every individual connected with the house was attentive and civil.
My intercourse with Jacksonville was of short duration, and I have no means of ascertaining if I entered Bentley’s hotel. The house in which I took coffee was situated on the north side of the square, and in all respects greatly superior to the hotel at Springfield. A smart waiter attended the stage passengers during coffee, and the hotel keeper himself was looking after his business at 2 o’clock in the morning, when the mail started with us.
Mr Stuart mentions two female waiters having seated themselves at table with him at Jacksonville, “on a footing of the most perfect equality.” Throughout the whole of my intercourse with the United States, no female waiter or help of any degree seated herself at table, or even in the room of a hotel when I was present, and I am unable to determine whether this was the result of accident or design. Perhaps the young ladies may have disdained to honour me with their company. Mr Stuart’s treatment on his arrival at Jacksonville, admits of easy explanation. By his own account, “on going into the house tea and supper were nearly finished,” and it was with some difficulty he was admitted to a second table, at which the establishments of western hotels sit down. Mr Stuart had refused to seat himself with the rest of the company at the first table, and in fairness ought to be considered an obtruder at the second one. On his arrival he plainly showed that he considered himself somewhat different from the guests of the hotel, by not sitting down at table. If inferior to them it was right he should mess with the establishment, and if he had assumed superiority over them, it was right so to punish his arrogance. In either case he met with his desert. Travellers in America may derive instruction from his fate. The individual who moves, snail-like, in a foreign land, canopied with the manners and customs of his own country, and marking his route with the slime of prejudice, need not expect civility from the inhabitants.
It is quite evident Mr Stuart had been playing the _great man_ in this part of the country. His demand of fresh coffee and eggs in the evening, his questions about breakfast next morning, his allegation that “the hotel people completely lost temper when they noticed that we did not even find fault with them,” and that the female waiter put forth her foot and ankle for his admiration, all denote in a high degree self-importance.
In the seventh chapter of Mr Stuart’s work there is the following extract from Professor Silliman, when alluding to an inn in Connecticut.
“This is a peculiarity in the manners of this country not easily understood by a foreigner, and especially by an Englishman. Such a person, if uninstructed in the genius of the country, almost of course presumes that all those he sees in public houses are in servile situations. If he adopt towards them imperious and harsh language he gives offence, and produces coldness and possibly resentment, so that the interview ends in mutual dissatisfaction. If the traveller should write a book he of course enlarges on the rudeness of American manners, and it is very possible that even the servants of our inns may give him some occasion for such remarks, if they are treated as persons of their condition commonly are in Europe.” Mr Stuart seems to have forgotten this sensible quotation while in Illinois, and I have no doubt had himself to blame for any rudeness he may have experienced. The heart is the source of true politeness, which is often better conveyed by expression of feature or tone of voice, than by words or gestures. The possessor of such civility is incapable of, and invulnerable to, rudeness, and will be well received in every part of the world. At the time Mr Stuart told Tom Bentley “how utterly unfit he was for his situation,” he himself committed a flagrant outrage on decorum, and justly merited any treatment that could have been bestowed on him. There is a ludicrous anecdote related at Springfield of his demands on Hornden, which, if true, shows how unlikely it was any American landlord could comply with them.
The manners and customs of a people, like objects in a landscape, may be coloured by the medium of vision, and they will not only appear different to individuals, but seemingly vary to the same individual according as his feelings may alter. It is evident Mr Stuart was out of humour both at Jacksonville and Springfield, and could not have been a dispassionate judge of what was passing around him. His situation and mine in Illinois must have been very different. He had travelled for some time before in slave-holding countries, where he had fared sumptuously on canvass-backed ducks and other delicacies, attended by crouching and despised creatures. For many weeks I had sojourned in the rudest parts of Upper Canada, Indiana, and Illinois, leading a demi-savage life, and faring, as it were, by the way sides. He was travelling with a carriage and pair, accompanied by a store of venison hams, and whisky. I trudged on foot, quenching my thirst with indifferent water, and occasionally satisfying my hunger with nuts. Jacksonville and Springfield must necessarily have presented less refinement, luxury, and humiliation than he had been accustomed to, and more civilisation and comfort than I had for some time experienced. From the state of my feelings consequent on such a transition, it is possible I may have seen things in too favourable a light, and the truth may perhaps be found to lie somewhere between Mr Stuart’s account and mine.
Referring to what has been stated at pages 400, 401, and 403, regarding the amount of the population of the United States, and the progress of wealth and refinement, it would be unreasonable to expect luxury in so young a country as Illinois, or to subject the manners and customs of its inhabitants to serious criticism. Indeed it will appear evident to every reflecting mind, that such a motley population, scattered over an extensive territory, cannot yet have amalgamated in feeling or custom, and that the manners of the different parts of the state will be as varied as the origin of their population. Rudeness and vulgarity are not attributes of the native population of the United States; and if found in Illinois, they must be imports from foreign countries. The circumstances of the State with regard to refinement are favourable to young men entering on life. But every emigrant on leaving Britain must lay his account with a change, to whatever part of the world he proceeds; and if he dislike the manners of the people of Illinois, he can live in retirement.