Part 16

Those who predict an early dissolution of the {184} American Union, and who affirm that the country is naturally divided into two nations by the Allegany ridge, might with equal propriety say, that the Thames and the Severn are destined to water the territories of two distinct governments. And the remark that, in the event of the navigation of the Mississippi being interrupted by an enemy, the western country would be subjugated, is another position that may be applied to other rivers, and to other countries. It is not to be forgotten that, previously to the cession of Louisiana in 1801, the Spanish government claimed the exclusive benefit of that river, and that the privilege of navigation was the principal object that induced the government of the United States to purchase the territory, in 1803. Louisiana being acquired at the general expense, and not by the inhabitants of the western country alone, makes it evident that the transaction was viewed as an important national affair. Perhaps it was with the intention of producing a dismemberment, that the ministry of England made the attack on New Orleans. The defence was conducted in a national form, and not exclusively by the people of the western country; and the British government was not gratified by any overture of the inhabitants for becoming tributary. The supposed conspiracy of Aaron Burr, for detaching the transmontane country from the Eastern States, was not found to amount to levying war against the Union.[115] The evidence that could be obtained from his small party of associates and others, was not sufficient to convict him. The demagogue is not looked on as a personage dangerous to public tranquillity;--a decisive proof that the American people are confident in the strength of the ties by which they are knit together. The western settlements have the strongest incitements to remain in close conjunction, with their eastern neighbours. {185} A separation from them in times of war would cut off all communication by land with the eastern coast; an inconvenience that would greatly aggravate any attempt to blockade the mouth of the Mississippi. A separation would retard the ingress of population; it would injure internal trade; it would occasion an additional expense in supporting a separate government, and it would deprive them of the protection of the United States’ Navy. It will scarcely be alleged, that the Eastern States have an interest in dissolving the compact with the Western; as by that step they would not only forego a rapid accumulation of strength, but would incur the danger of converting fellow citizens into the most powerful enemies. They would lose that important branch of revenue, which arises from the sale of public lands, and they would no longer participate in the fur trade.

To infer the instability of the American republic from the frequency of revolutions in Europe, is altogether preposterous. A different state of society, and the difference of the political institutions to be compared, remove that parity of condition essential to analogical deduction. The executive power in America, does not extend to declaring war at pleasure; nor to dissolving the legislature. The president, whose term of service is only four years, has not the means nor the motives for family aggrandizement which prevail under hereditary succession. The members of the House of Representatives have their seats from the universal suffrage of the people; and the senators get their dignity and seats from the representatives in State Assemblies, who are themselves popularly elected, and who cannot promote obnoxious men without incurring public odium and future exclusion. The representation is equally distributed. Placemen and pensioners {186} are effectually debarred from being members of either house; under these conditions the few have it not in their power to dictate to the many. Ambitious projects, such as disfigure the histories of other countries, are precluded. Accessions of territory are not obtained by conquest, but by purchase. The object sought in these treaties is the right of soil; and not the power of taxing or enslaving men. No yoke is imposed but that upon the labouring steer. The domestic policy of the United States exhibits twenty-four republics, each having its own constitution, without any other restriction than conformity to that of the nation. In regard of foreign relations and general interests, all the States are cemented into one nation. If one or more States are invaded, the citizens have a right to the protection of the Union; and in the case of controversies or disputes between States, the judicial power provided under the general constitution is the umpire between them. Had the individual members of the United States placed a hereditary sovereign at the head of each, and put the reins of government in the hands of a few, we might have heard, before this time, of American courtiers making treaties to last forever; and violating them so soon as the strong found it convenient to attack the weak; of wars furnishing pretexts for raising vast sums to support the views of a party or a faction, perhaps for depriving the people of their liberties, and subjugating their neighbours; and of winding up the whole with holy leagues, admitting of no subsequent arbitrator but the sword.

The organization, of which a brief outline has just been given, is, in theory, well adapted to insure internal tranquillity, and protection against invasion. In practice, it has hitherto been conducive {187} to both these objects; and to a degree of national prosperity, that is unparalleled in the present age. The people govern for themselves, and are too sensible of the value of their rights to allow them to pass into other hands. Power is delegated only for a short period; and the representatives are closely watched by their constituents. Should a congress propose to disfranchise a part of the people; or to engraft a borough system on the present equal representation; or to establish septennial elections; every member voting for the obnoxious motion might expect to be marked out and expelled for ever. A case somewhat in point occurred in 1817.[116] Congress then passed a law for increasing the very moderate compensation for the services of members. The act was conceived to be unconstitutional: an alarm was sounded all over the country; the supporters of increased compensation were left out in the election of 1818; and the offensive law was repealed in the ensuing session. A veneration for the constitution is probably the most universal characteristic of American citizens: but they act, as if their united exertions were necessary to keep it in force; and are sensible, that neglect on their part might soon render the important document a dead letter. Every timely check given to the progress of corruption, is removing the necessity of convulsion to a later date. The people having the means of correction in their own hands, the political institutions of this country are to be esteemed as less mutable than the systems that consist entirely of the unmixed ingredients of disease and death. It would be too sanguine to suppose that the American people shall preserve their liberties for ever; but it may be safe to affirm, that nothing decisive in the fate of this country {188} is to be augured from the histories of republics without representation, or of monarchies without popular control. Before Americans relinquish free government, they must be ignorant of their present knowledge; they must cease to teach their children to prize their privileges; and no longer inculcate esteem for the memory of their dauntless ancestors, who fought for the inheritance. Washington, Franklin, and an host of other patriots, must be forgotten. The avarice of foreign governments, and the sufferings of foreign people, must pass into oblivion, and cease to be monitors. In short, a dark age must arrive before the throne of despotism can be erected here.

FOOTNOTES:

[112] Those who would wish to have a collected view of the principles of this subject, may consult the Federalist, a collection of interesting essays on the new constitution, written in 1788, by Messrs. Hamilton, Jay, and Madison.--FLINT.

[113] Some pious observers of the occurrences of Providence, have remarked that the Spanish Armada, equipped for the invasion of Britain, was destroyed in the year 1588; that the Revolution in that country happened in 1688; and, in seeking for an event to mark the commencement of another century, it has been observed by the loyal in Britain, that his Majesty, George the Third, recovered from a most deplorable visitation in 1788. If there be any American descendants of Britain, who are pleased with a system of chronology that contemplates the great events of Providence as revolving in a centenarian orbit, they may also notice a corresponding occurrence in the consummation of their liberties in the otherwise memorable year 1788.--FLINT.

[114] The power of a state to tax the United States Bank was settled in the celebrated case of McCulloch _versus_ Maryland, handed down March 6, 1819 (4 Wheaton, 316). Ohio refused to be bound by this decision, and her case was decided in 1824 (9 Wheaton, 738).--ED.

[115] A recent contribution to the history of the Aaron Burr conspiracy, drawn largely from material in the Mexican archives, is McCaleb’s _Aaron Burr Conspiracy_ (New York, 1903). Isaac Jenkinson’s _Aaron Burr_ (Richmond, Indiana, 1902), throws new light on Burr’s relations to Hamilton and Jefferson.--ED.

[116] This law was passed in March, 1816, and its effect was felt in the elections of that same year. From Ohio, Delaware, and Vermont not one congressman was re-elected; in Kentucky, but three out of ten; in South Carolina, three out of nine; in Maryland, four out of nine; and in Pennsylvania, thirteen out of twenty-three. Jefferson wrote to Gallatin: “There has never been an instance before of so unanimous an opinion of the people, and that through every state of the Union.”--ED.

LETTER XVI

State Legislatures--A predilection for dividing Counties, laying out New Towns and Roads--The influence of Slavery on the habits of People who live in the neighbourhood of Slave-Keeping States--Elopements from Kentucky--Banking.

_Jeffersonville, (Indiana,) March 10, 1820._

The legislatures of new States consist only of a few members. The consequence is, that public acts for the exclusive advantage of private individuals are occasionally passed through influence or intrigue; and the commendations which I have bestowed on the general government of America must not be held to apply indiscriminately to the administration of the _local_ governments, at least in newly established {189} states. Much of the business (it is said) is privately arranged, before the questions are discussed in the house. Combinations are formed for effecting particular purposes. These are called _log rolling_; a very significant metaphor, borrowed from the practice of several farmers uniting in rolling together large timber to be burnt. A number of bills are frequently conjoined by their movers, so that a member who takes a deep interest in one must vote for all of them, to obtain the suffrage of the separate partizans. The member who deserts from the cabal might be leaving his own motion without any other supporter but himself. An enlightened gentleman told me, that he was induced to vote for the ridiculous law of this State regarding intercourse between white and coloured people, in consequence of its being previously conjoined with other bills.

The laying out of new counties, county towns, and lines of road, seems to be a gratifying duty to back-wood legislators. Where a county includes a considerable tract of country, it must be divided into two. Where it is not large enough to admit of bisection, the county wanted must be made up from the extremities of four or five which are contiguous. A large population is not a prerequisite: yet the convenience of the people is the pretext. A few neighbours who propose that their settlement should be made the nucleus of the new establishment, petition the Assembly for a subdivision. If this is granted, commissioners are appointed to fix the new seat of justice. An eager contest for private advantage ensues, and although the ostensible object is public convenience, the new city is perhaps placed near the outline of its jurisdiction.

You will be much surprised to hear of the avidity which prevails in this country for towns consisting of a very few log cabins. For a convenient {190} distribution of seats of justice, and for roads that are at best openings cut through the woods, with the stumps remaining, without side ditches, and without any other bridges through marshes or streams, than a few pieces of timber laid down side by side across the way. But an explanation is made, when you are told that pettifoggers by this means create situations for themselves, and a few of their constituents who are in the employment of squires, county commissioners, prosecuting attornies, supervisors of roads, and constables. With numbers the design is to increase the value of their contiguous lands at the public expense, instead of improving them by their own industry. By such means, they frequently succeed in selling at an advance of fifty, or even a hundred per cent, per annum; and remove to more recent settlements, where they are able to purchase a larger extent of land, and where they can continue their favourite trade of making counties, towns, and roads.

Towns are laid out by persons who sell lots of about a fourth or a fifth part of an acre: these sometimes sell at from a hundred to three hundred dollars, even in situations where scarcely a single spot of the neighbouring woods is cleared. After a town has made some progress in point of improvement and population, lots usually rise in price, from three hundred to a thousand dollars; and, in the larger towns, to a much higher value. At present the mania of purchasing town lots is rather declining. Holders are unwilling to see the prices reduced. They continue to talk of former rates, and to keep them up; on exchanging one lot for two, say, that for the better one, one thousand dollars is paid in two lots worth five hundred each. Their conduct very much resembles that of a person who said, that he sold a dog at forty guineas, and explained the transaction by stating, {191} “that he was paid in two dogs, each worth half that sum.” I lately saw a town lot sold for state or county taxes, at a fourth part of the price paid for it two years ago. The rents of the worst kind of houses amount to upwards of fifty per cent, per annum, on the price of erection. A miserable cabin, that could scarcely be let at all in your country, or would not rent at £1 10s. a-year, gives here as much per month. The people are of consequence closely crowded together; several families frequently inhabiting a house of one apartment, without any inner door, so that when the street door is open, passengers may see the inmates at table, and the other particulars of the house. The beds are ranged round the walls, like so many looms in a weaver’s work-shop. In various instances I have seen families living in temporary huts, built of small pieces of decayed timber collected in the woods, laid upon one another in the manner in which sawyers erect piles of timber to be dried. The roofs were covered with bark, and the interstices of the walls left open, so that at a distance I could count the persons within, as if they had been birds in a cage. Near to this place a family lately lived, for several weeks, under an old waggon that was turned upside down. In towns along the banks of the Ohio, a class of people are to be seen, who depend on traffic with travellers, and with the scanty population in the rear of them. Without extravagant profits on the trifling capital employed, they could not subsist. Many of them seem to be immoral, dissipated, and without rural or domestic industry. Few of their lots are cultivated as gardens; and the spinning-wheel, (so far as I have observed,) is not to be seen in their houses.

The evils of slave-keeping are not confined to the parts of the country where involuntary labour {192} exists, but the neighbourhood is infected. Certain kinds of labour are despised as being the work of slaves. Shoe-blacking, and, in some instances, family manufactures, are of this class of labours; and it is thus, that in some of the small towns on the _north side_ of the Ohio, the mechanic and the labourer are to be seen drawing water at the wells; their wives and daughters not condescending to services that are looked upon to be opprobrious. It was for the same reason, that on one occasion, some paupers in a poor’s house at Cincinnati refused to carry water for their own use.

Elopements from Kentucky into Indiana are frequent. Since my arrival in this very town, I have witnessed two examples. I do not now allude to slave-keepers losing their negroes, but their white daughters, who escape to get married. In a former letter I mentioned the watchfulness of parents over young ladies in Kentucky, and would only add, that there, as elsewhere, restraint does not seem to be conducive to contentment. Those who are acquainted with the state of society in Turkey, are perhaps the most able to give a decided opinion on this very interesting subject.

Of upwards of a hundred banks that lately figured in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, the money of two is now only received in the land-office, in payment for public lands. Many have perished, and the remainder are struggling for existence. Still giving for their _rags_ “bills as _good as their own_;” but, except two, none pay in specie, or bills of the United States Bank. Discount varies from thirty to one hundred per cent.

The recent history of banking in these western States, is probably unrivalled. Such a system of knavery could only be developed in a country where avarice and credulity are prominent features {193} of character. About four years ago, the passion for acquiring unearned gains rose to a great height; banking institutions were created in abundance. The designing amongst lawyers, doctors, tavern-keepers, farmers, grocers, shoemakers, tailors, &c. entered into the project, and subscribed for stock. Small moieties must actually have been advanced to defray the expenses of engraving, and other incidents necessary to putting their schemes in operation. To deposit much capital was out of their power; nor was it any part of their plan. Their main object was to extract it from the community. A common provision in charters, stipulated, that the property of each partner was not liable, in security, to a greater amount than the sum he had subscribed. This exempted the banks from the natural inconveniences that might be occasioned by the insolvencies and elopements of members. Money was accumulated in great abundance, as they bought property; lent on security; and became rich. But their credit was of short duration. When it was found, that a few of them could not redeem their bills, the faith of the people was shaken. A run on the paper shops commenced; and a suspension of specie payments soon became general. Had the people been at liberty to recover a composition, as in the bankrupt concerns of Britain, the evil might have, in some measure, been remedied before this time; but chartered privileges granted by legislators concerned in the fraud, prevented legal recourse. Even these could not have been sufficient protection, but for the co-operation of subsequent laws dictated by the same interest. The state of Indiana, for example, passed in 1818, what was called “the replevy law,” liberating the debtor for a year from the claim of the creditor, who refuses to accept depreciated money. This {194} law, though sufficiently injurious to creditors, could give no stability to swindling banks. It was, therefore, succeeded by an act during last session, prohibiting landed property to be sold by execution, under two-thirds of the appraised value, and that to be ascertained by five freeholders. The debtor is by the same act allowed to set apart any portion of his property he chooses, to discharge execution. Freeholders, it may be observed, are a class of men naturally adverse to depreciating their own land, by setting a low value on that of their neighbours. This disposition is the more dangerous at present, especially when lands are falling considerably in price, in consequence of the depreciation of the money which lately stamped such a high value on property. In Kentucky, a total suspension of law process for sixty days, was followed by a “replevy law.” In the State of Ohio, enactments similar to those of Indiana were passed. Here is a combination of laws for the protection of knaves, who have swindled the people.[117] Those who have either bought property on credit, or borrowed money, while _rags_ passed at a high price, have got debts of a great amount to pay, while property can no longer be sold at former prices. Debtors of this description have united with bankers, in getting the infamous laws passed just noticed. While the property law was pending in the Assembly of Indiana, debtors were in full activity sending forward petitions in favour of the impolicy, and persuading the ignorant of the propriety of the measure. In the small town of Jeffersonville, two petitions were made. These unnatural expedients, however, cannot long serve the purpose intended. Land continues to fall. The debtor may, for a short time, be kept out of jail, and the peculator from being stripped of his ill-gotten gains; but the public is {195} receiving dearly bought instructions, and must set a watch over future elections.

Although the relations of debtor and creditor are equal in the amount of property involved in their transactions; and although the obligations imposed by contracts naturally render creditors the more powerful class in civilized society, the recent proceedings of legislatures in this western country, would lead us to believe, that a majority in numbers or artifice, or perhaps in both, stands on the debtor side of the ledger. Republicans are not to be whipped like slaves, nor openly and directly taxed to such extent as Europeans are, but they may be deluded. Men of their own electing have practised upon them with success, and the emoluments to be gained in this way, are apparently the great stimulus that prompts men to intrude themselves into State governments. No rational mind can discover profit enough in two dollars per day; or patriotism enough in cheating their constituents; or popularity enough in eloquence that few can hear, and none can ever see in print, to collect talent and integrity in council.