Part 13
His Excellency James Munro, President of the United States, is now on a tour through the southern and western parts of the country.[83] On the 24th current, three of our citizens, deputed by the inhabitants of the town, went to congratulate him, on his arrival in the neighbourhood, and to invite him to visit Jeffersonville. On accidentally meeting with them returning, I felt myself at a loss for a trite phrase in congratulating them, and could only tell them bluntly, that in Europe we should say, You are very _loyal_. One of them was polite enough to set me right, by informing me, that the object of their mission was to make an expression {147} of _public respect_. Should you consider the loyalty of Europe, and the public respect of America as convertible terms, you will also have occasion to be set right, and this may perhaps be best done by telling you, that the President does not engage in dubbing knights or granting sinecures:--That public officers are not appointed by his fiat, nor with the concurrence of a privy council of his choice; but in conjunction with the Senate, whose members are elected by the people. These officers are not only few, but their salaries are merely remunerations for the services which they perform. In short, the President is not regarded as a dispenser of public money. On his part he has to regard public greetings as the spontaneous sentiments of disinterested and independent men, without repulsing any one in the language of James the First of Scotland, “What does the cunning loon want?”
On the 26th the President arrived. A tall pole with the striped flag was displayed on the bank of the river. A salute was fired, and a large body of citizens waited his coming on shore. To be introduced to the President was a wish almost universal, and he was subjected to a laborious shaking of hands with the multitude. A public dinner was given. This, too, was an object of ambition. Grocers left their goods, and mechanics their workshops, to be present at the gratifying repast. The first magistrate appears to be about sixty years of age. His deportment is dignified, and at the same time affable. His countenance is placid and cheerful. His chariot is not of iron, nor is he attended by horse-guards or drawn swords. His protection is the affection of a free and a represented people.
FOOTNOTES:
[82] De Witt Clinton (1769-1828) was from early manhood engaged in New York politics. Beginning as secretary to his uncle, Governor George Clinton, he was state senator from 1798-1802; mayor of New York from 1802-1815; and, with the exception of four years, governor from 1817 until his death. His interest in the Erie Canal is well known. In 1812 he urged its construction upon Congress; failing in that he drew up an elaborate memorial to the state legislature, which had great weight in inducing that body to undertake the enterprise. When the canal was opened (1825), he was carried on a canal barge in triumphal procession from New York to Lake Erie.--ED.
[83] For Monroe’s tour, see Buttrick’s _Voyages_, volume viii of our series, note 28.--ED.
{148} LETTER XII
On Emigration--The Prospects of Emigrants--Inconveniences--The method of laying out and disposing of public lands.
_Jeffersonville, (Indiana,) August 2, 1819._
This letter will be devoted to such remarks on emigration so far as my little experience and short residence in America enable me to have made. Before entering upon the subject, I think it proper to state, that I disown every intention of advising any one to leave his native country; and that I disapprove of exaggerating the prospects held out here, and underrating those of Britain, as uncandid and deceptive, as appealing to the passions to decide in a matter which ought to be determined by the sober exercise of reason.
In exchanging Britain for the United States, the emigrant may reasonably expect to have it in his power to purchase good unimproved land, and to bring it into a rude state of cultivation, with less capital unquestionably, than that employed in renting an equal proportion of good ground at home. He will not be burdened by an excessive taxation, nor with tithes, nor poor’s rates; for there are no internal taxes paid to the government, no privileged clergy, and few people who live by the charity of others. His labour and his capital will be more productive, and his accumulation of property more rapid, (good health, industry, and economy, presupposed,) {149} and a stronger hope may be entertained, that extreme poverty or want may be kept at a distance. After residing five years in the country, he may become an elector of those who have the power of making laws and imposing taxes.
The inconveniences or difficulties which attend removing, are upon no account to be overlooked. The man who undervalues these is only holding disappointments in reserve for himself. He must part with friends, and every acquaintance to whom he is attached, a case that he may, perhaps, not fully understand, till he acts his part in it. A voyage and a long journey must be submitted to. He must breathe a new air, and bear transitions and extremes of climate, unknown to him before. His European tinge of complexion must soon vanish from his face, to return no more. A search for the new home will require his serious attention, a diversity of situations may soon be heard of, but it is not easy to visit or compare many of them. Nor is the emigrant, on his first arrival, an adequate judge of the soil of America. In a dilemma of this kind advice is necessary. This is easily procured every where; but it deserves attention to know, whether the informant is interested in the advice he gives. Land dealers, and others, naturally commend tracts of land which they are desirous to sell. The people of the neighbourhood have also an interest in the settling of neighbouring lands, knowing, that by every augmentation of population, the value of their own property is increased. On several occasions I have met with men who attempted to conceal local disadvantages, and defects in point of salubrity, that were self-evident. I do not recollect of having heard more than two persons acknowledge, that they lived in an unhealthy situation. {150} In the high country of Pennsylvania, I was told that Pittsburg is an unhealthy place. At Pittsburg, I heard that Marietta and Steubenville are very subject to sickness. At these places, the people contrast their healthy situation with Chillicothe, which, I was told, is very unhealthy. At Chillicothe, the climate of Cincinnati is deprecated; and at Cincinnati, many people seem willing to transfer the evil to the falls of the Ohio. At this place the truth is partially admitted; but it is affirmed that the Illinois country, and down the Mississippi are very unhealthy. The cautious will always look to the views and character of the man who would direct them, and will occasionally rely on their own judgments.
In the public land-offices, maps of the new lands are kept. Sections of a square mile, and quarter sections of 160 acres, are laid down. The squares entered are marked A. P. meaning advance paid. This advance is half a dollar per acre, or one-fourth of the price. Lands, when first put to sale, are offered by public auction, and are set up at two dollars per acre. If no one offers that price, they are exhibited on the land-office map, and may be sold at that rate at any subsequent time. New settlers, who are sufficiently skilled in the quality of the soil, are in no danger from land-office transactions. Besides the land-offices for the sale of national property, there are agents who sell on account of individuals. I can mention Mr. Embree, of Cincinnati, as a gentleman who does much business in this way, and with much reputation to himself.
The land office maps are divided into townships {151} of six miles square.[84] The figure represents a portion of the country laid out in this way.
The positions of the townships relatively to the base line, are expressed by the numerals I, II, III, &c. and their positions relatively to the meridian are numbered on both sides of it east and west, as marked on the top and bottom. The parallels marked I, I-II, II-III, III, and so on, are called townships, Nos. I, II, III, &c. north or south according as they lie on the north or south side of the base line. Positions in regard of the meridian are indicated by the numbers 1, 2, 3, &c. at top and bottom, east or west, as they lie on the {152} east or west side of the meridian line, and are called ranges, Nos. 1, 2, 3, &c. For an explanatory example, suppose the designation of the township at the bottom of the right hand column is required. The square in question, is in the parallel numbered V south of the base line, and IV east of the principal meridian. It is therefore called town five south, range four east.
[Illustration]
The townships are divided into sections of a square mile each, as in town No. 4 north, range No. 3 east.
The figure [page 178] is a larger representation of a township, showing how it is divided and numbered.
The faint lines represent the divisions of sections into quarters of 160 acres each. At the auctions {153} of public lands, and at subsequent sales, lots of this extent are frequently entered. The sixteenth section of each township is reserved for the support of a school.
[Illustration]
Lands entered at the public sales, or at the Register’s office, are payable, one fourth part of the price at the time of purchase; one fourth at the expiry of two years; one fourth at three years, and the remaining fourth at four years. By law, lands not fully paid at the end of five years, are forfeited to the government, but examples are not wanting of States petitioning Congress for indulgence on this point, and obtaining it. For money paid in advance at the land office a discount of eight per cent, per annum is allowed, till instalments to the amount of the payment become due. For failures in the payment of instalments, interest at six per cent is taken till paid. The most skilful speculators usually pay only a fourth part of the price at entry, conceiving that they can derive a much greater profit than eight per cent. per annum from the increasing value of property, and occasionally from renting it out to others. Where judicious selections are made, they calculate rightly.
The land system now adopted in the United States is admirable in regard of ingenuity, simplicity, and liberality. A slight attention to the map of a district, will enable any one to know at once the relative situation of any section that he may afterwards hear mentioned, and its direct distance in measured miles. There can be no necessity for giving names to farms or estates, as the designation of the particular township, and the number of the section is sufficient, and has, besides, the singular convenience of conveying accurate information as to where it is situated. By the new arrangement the boundaries of possessions are most securely fixed, {154} and freed alike from the inconvenience of rivers changing their course, and complexity of curved lines. Litigation amongst neighbours as to their landmarks, is in a great measure excluded. The title deed is printed on a piece of parchment of the quarto size. The date, the locality of the purchase, and the purchaser’s name, are inserted in writing, and the instrument is subscribed by the President of the United States, and the agent of the general land office.[85] It is delivered to the buyer free of all expense, and may be transferred by him to another person without using stamped paper, and without the intervention of a law practitioner. The business of the land office proceeds on the most moderate principles, and with the strictest regard to justice. The proceeds are applied in defraying the expense of government, and form a resource against taxation. The public lands are in reality the property of the people.
The stranger who would go into the woods to make a selection of lands, ought to take with him an extract from the land office map applying to the part of the country he intends to visit. Without this, he cannot well distinguish entered from unentered grounds. He should also procure the names of the resident people, with the numbers and quarters of the sections they live on, not neglecting to carry with him a pocket-compass, to enable him to follow the blazed lines marked out by the surveyor. _Blaze_ is a word signifying a mark cut by a hatchet on the bark of a tree. It is the more necessary for the explorer to be furnished thus, as he may {155} expect to meet with settlers who will not be willing to direct him, but, on the contrary, tell him with the greatest effrontery, that every neighbouring quarter section is already taken up. Squatters, a class of men who take possession without purchasing, are afraid of being turned out, or of having their pastures abridged by new comers. Others, perhaps meditating an enlargement of their property, so soon as funds will permit, wish to hold the adjoining lands in reserve for themselves, and not a few are jealous of the land-dealer, who is not an actual settler, whose grounds lie waste, waiting for that advance on the value of property, which arises from an increasing population. The non-resident proprietor is injurious to a neighbourhood, in respect of his not bearing any part of the expense of making roads, while other people are frequently under the necessity of making them through his lands for their own convenience. On excursions of this kind, the prudent will always be cautious of explaining their views, particularly as to the spot chosen for purchase, and without loss of time they should return to the land-office and make entry.
The new abode being fixed, the settler may be surrounded by strangers. Polite and obliging behaviour with circumspection in every transaction, become him in this new situation.
FOOTNOTES:
[84] The township system of survey was adopted in the first ordinance for the sale of public lands, passed May 20, 1785. The authorship of the plan has been a subject of controversy. It is usually attributed to Thomas Hutchins, first geographer of the United States, who had earlier embodied the idea in a plan for establishing military colonies north of the Ohio. See Hindsale, _Old Northwest_ (New York, 1888), p. 262.--ED.
[85] At every land office, a register of the weather is kept. Three daily observations of the thermometer, the direction of the wind, the aspect of the sky, whether clear or clouded, fair or rainy days; and some other occasional phenomena, are noted down.--FLINT.
{156} LETTER XIII
Comparative Advantages of several Parts of the United States--Temperature of the Climate at Philadelphia and at Cincinnati--Pennsylvania--Ohio--Kentucky, and the Western Part of Virginia--Indiana--Illinois--Missouri--Reflections on Slave-Keeping.
_Jeffersonville, (Indiana,) October 16, 1819._
To determine the most proper parts of America for new settlers, is a proposition interesting in its nature, but one that cannot be solved with precision. This general fact is to be kept in view, that, in the old populous settlements, land is already too dear to admit of that spontaneous increase in value so profitable in back-wood districts. The sea-board then is to be rejected by those who would go in search of the most profitable investment of their capital, and some part of the interior country is to be selected. The vast migration from the eastern States to the western, is satisfactory evidence of this state of the land market; and, besides, countenances the opinion, that the country first peopled by Europeans is not destined to such population and wealth as that rationally anticipated in the more fertile western States.
In the most inland parts of the old States, there are still abundance of good woodlands reserved for future cultivation, embracing an extensive range of climate, and a great diversity of vegetable products; but the natives of the temperate climes {157} of Europe will, for the most part, be averse to live under the scorching sun of Georgia, or the intense frosts of the province of Maine. Somewhere between the extremes, probably between Hudson River and Chesapeake Bay, affords the best approximation. At Philadelphia, for example, the mean temperature of the year may be stated at 53.66°, that quantity being a mean of the results obtained by the observations of Dr. Rush, Dr. Cox,[86] and Mr. Legoux;--a determination nearly coinciding with that of Mr. Playfair,[87] (53.58°) for the mean temperature of the vegetative season, from the 20th of March to the 20th of October, at Edinburgh, and only 5.86° higher than the mean temperature of the latter place for the whole year. It is true that the extreme variations are much greater at Philadelphia than at Edinburgh, but it will be in vain to search for a situation in the United States, possessing that equability of heat, that characterizes the British islands.
From the tract of country under consideration, Maryland and Delaware will be deducted, as ineligible to the man who does not wish to live amongst slaves. He may, indeed, live in either of these parts without employing the involuntary labourer, but the man of acute sensibility will usually be unwilling to injure the feelings of his neighbours, who may conceive that his abstaining from the detested practice implies a practical censure on their conduct. Slaves being addicted to theft and other immoralities, form a strong objection against settling amongst them. The whole stretch of country on the coast, including Maryland, Delaware, part of Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, may be rejected, on account of the high price of land. The inland parts of Pennsylvania and New York States remain free from the objections just mentioned, and {158} are believed to possess comparative advantages in respect of climate and soil.
The winter of New York State is the more severe of the two, and seems to point out Pennsylvania as preferable. With the single defect of distance from market, Western Pennsylvania possesses great advantages. The most prominent are, a healthy climate, a good soil, abundance of coal, iron-ores, limestone, sandstone, and salt springs, circumstances that render this country susceptible of a dense population, and a very high state of improvement.
It being assumed that Pennsylvania lies between parallels of latitude, the most temperate of any on the eastern coast, the inference is natural, that the States Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and part of Kentucky, must have a climate of similar warmth, slightly modified, no doubt, by the elevation and prevalent winds of particular parts. Accordingly, observations made at Cincinnati, (which lies fifty minutes south of Philadelphia) show, that its annual mean temperature is only six-tenths of a degree higher than that of the latter place.[88]
The lands of the State of Ohio are understood to be more fertile than those of Pennsylvania.--With good culture, from sixty to a hundred bushels of maize per acre, are produced. On an acre of land, near the mouth of the Little Miami, one of the first settlers raised the extraordinary quantity of one hundred and fourteen bushels. The advanced state of population, in the southern part of the State, has withdrawn the most choice tracts of ground from the land-office; good lots, however, may still be bought from private individuals at a moderate price. The higher country, lying nearly {159} equidistant from the river Ohio and lake Erie, is understood to be healthy, fertile, abounding in springs of water, and possessing a good navigation downward, in wet seasons of the year, by means of the rivers Muskingum, Scioto, and Miamis. The northern part of the State is described as having many large prairies, of a rich quality, but unhealthy.
Kentucky, and the western part of Virginia, have much land of the first rate quality; but the influx of new settlers is greatly prevented by the insecurity of titles. Surveyed at an early period, when the country was in the possession of the hostile aborigines, and before the new method of laying out public lands was adopted, much confusion as to boundaries prevails.[89] Many conflicting claims are frequently made on the same tract, and a degree of litigation has ensued that appears to be almost interminable. There is another cause tending to retard the ingress of new comers which it would be invidious to repeat.
Indiana is a State more recently settled than any of the foregoing. The part where the Indian title was extinguished, was, till lately, comparatively small. Non-resident purchasers have shut up a large proportion of it from immediate cultivation; some judicious entries may still be made in the land-office, particularly by White River, and in some other parts at a considerable distance from the Ohio. The land office map for Jeffersonville district has many more vacancies in it than that at Cincinnati, showing that it contains much more land not yet appropriated by individuals. Here, as in Ohio State, the high lands are considered the most healthy. A recent purchase from the Indian tribes will make a valuable addition to the State of Indiana.[90] The tract is supposed to contain about six {160} millions of acres, and is to be soon abandoned by the natives. Already upwards of a hundred families have entered it, for the purpose of rearing cattle and hogs. These will have excellent opportunities for selling their stock when purchasers take possession of the newly acquired territory, and will have the advantage of becoming acquainted with the most valuable lands previous to the sales. The surveyors, and other persons, who have visited the new purchase, represent it to be rich, diversified in surface, with the advantage of navigable waters in spring and autumn; and that it is much better adapted to pasturage than the country adjoining to the Ohio.
In the State of Illinois there are vast quantities of land to be disposed of by the Government, besides the residuary of former sales, standing open in the land-office maps at Shawneetown[91] and Edwardsville.[92] The recent surveys bring about 3,730,000 acres into the market. A great portion of this land lies on the Sangamon, a southern branch of Illinois river; and I am informed by a gentleman who has lately been there, that the country is the best that he is acquainted with. At a period not far distant, a communication between Lake Erie and Illinois river may be opened through the river Plein, which empties itself into the lake.[93] Craft are said to have already passed out of the one river into the other. A large portion of Illinois, lying between Illinois river and the Mississippi, is a military grant given to the troops who fought in the late war, and divided amongst them at the rate of a hundred and sixty acres to each man.[94] Shares of this land have been sold since its partition at a dollar, and even so low as half a dollar per acre. The military grant is chiefly low and flat. The soil is rich, and interspersed with {161} prairies[95] but subject to agues: this, with a great proportion of non-resident owners, must greatly retard the improvement of the district. The northern parts of Illinois are understood to possess a healthy climate.