A tour through North America

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.

Productions—Animals—Fowls—Country for Sporting—Mode of Selling Land—Unsold Public Land—Number of Indians—Government policy towards the Indians— War with Indians—Decrease of Population—Agriculture—Wages of Labour—Illinois and Upper Canada.

The productions of Illinois are numerous, including wheat, Indian corn, tobacco, Irish and sweet potatoes, and the castor bean from which oil is expressed. Cotton and wine are said to be productions of the southern parts. Almost every kind of fruit attains perfection. Honey is obtained in great quantities both from wild and domesticated bees, which gather sweets from the prairie flowers.

The wild animals include bears; grey, black, and prairie wolves; two varieties of the fox; rabbits, &c. &c. Deer are very numerous throughout the state. The hare is not found in North America.

The wild-fowl embrace geese, ducks, turkeys, and quails in endless numbers. The ruffed grouse, or prairie hen, is very plentiful, and one of the finest of game birds. While walking from Chicago I observed them often singly, and seldom more than two or three together. In the neighbourhood of Springfield they were in flocks of from sixty to seventy, scattered over a considerable space while feeding, and, when disturbed, rising on wing without concert, in the manner of the British pheasant.

The prairies of Illinois seem to me the only good sporting country I saw in America. The ruffed grouse, in size and mode of flying, resemble the black-cock of Britain, and are every where in great numbers. Quails may be as easily shot as sparrows in England, and there are abundance of deer. Fox-hunting might be pursued at a rattling pace over the prairie, which does not present an interruption of any description, and would literally form a fox-race. The deer and prairie wolf might be hunted with dogs, or shot, according to fancy. I recommend the upper Mississippi valley to British sportsmen, as a country likely to afford them amusement and instruction. A person may cross the Atlantic with a brace of dogs in one of the best vessels, and travel to the prairies, and devote a year to the excursion, living in the best style the country affords, for the sum of L.200 sterling. If he were economical in crossing the ocean, and living with settlers, and serving himself while in Illinois, the expense would be under L.120.

The mode of selling government land in Illinois, is the same as in the other parts of the Union. When a tract has been surveyed, and brought into the market for settlement, it is advertised, and a day and place of sale fixed. Lots are put up and sold to the highest bidder for ready money. The tracts generally consist of millions of acres, and the sale is continued from day to day while individuals call for particular lots. When purchasers are satisfied, a public land-office is opened for the sale of the remainder, the price of which is invariably $1¼, or 5s. 3¾d. sterling per acre. A person wishing land goes to the land-office and selects any lot which pleases him. There is no form of application or interest necessary, title-deeds and possession being immediately obtained on payment of the purchase money. Government land is never sold on credit, and there is no fee of office, nor any other expense, on receiving titles.

Formerly the price of land was $2 per acre; one-fourth was paid at the time of purchase, one-fourth at the end of two years, one-fourth at three years, and the remaining fourth at four years. It was, however, found that much of the price of land sold on credit could not be recovered. An act of Congress was passed, limiting the price in future to $1¼ per acre, ready money, and the purchasers in arrears were dispossessed of a part of their lands. With this example on record, it may appear somewhat singular that land should continue to be sold on credit in Canada. It seems, however, the policy in that country to enrich the aristocracy at the expense of the poor; and selling high-priced land on credit is one of the most effectual means that could be adopted.

There were 28,237,850 acres of unsold public land in Illinois in 1832, and upwards of 3,000,000 acres recently sold by the Pottowatomy Indians have since come into the market. By far the greater portion of this extensive surface is prairie, on which cattle and sheep might be pastured without challenge, and the whole is open to the selection of settlers.

The following estimate of unoccupied land, belonging to the United States Government, is taken from Mellish’s View, published in 1822.

In addition to the public lands above stated, the United States hold the preemption right, or exclusive right of purchasing from the Indians tracts lying in several of the States and territories mentioned, and in the immense territory of Missouri, the aggregate extent of which may be stated at not less than 1,000,000,000 acres.

The number of Indians in the valley of the Mississippi, which includes nearly all that reside on the United States’ territory, is not accurately known. The following estimate is taken from a Philadelphia publication of 1832, entitled, “View of the valley of the Mississippi.”

As the settlement and future prospects of Illinois are connected with the Indians, the policy of the United States Government towards them may be explained by extracts from a report of the Secretary of War to the President, dated November 25, 1832:—“In the practice of European states,” says President Adams, “before our revolution, the Indians had been considered as children, to be governed as tenants at discretion, to be dispossessed as occasion may require, as hunters to be indemnified by trifling concessions for removal from the grounds upon which their game was extirpated. In changing the system it would seem as if a full contemplation of the consequences of the change had not been taken. We have been far more successful in the acquisition of their lands than imparting to them the principles, or inspiring them with the spirit of civilisation. But in apportioning to ourselves their hunting grounds, we have brought on ourselves the obligation of providing them with subsistence; and when we have had the rare good fortune of teaching them the arts of civilisation and the doctrines of Christianity, we have unexpectedly found them forming, in the midst of ourselves, communities, claiming to be independent of ours, and rivals of sovereignty, within the territories of the members of the Union. This state of things requires that a remedy should be provided—a remedy which, while it shall do justice to the unfortunate children of nature, may secure to the members of our confederation their rights of sovereignty and of soil. As an outline of a project to that effect, the views presented in the report of the Secretary of War are recommended to the consideration of Congress.

“The most important feature in the present policy of the Government, as connected with this people, is to be found in the efforts that are making to remove them beyond the limits of the States and organized territories. A very extensive tract of country, lying to the west and north of the Arkansas territory, has lately been set apart for the colonization of the Indians.

“Let such of the emigrating Indians as choose it, continue as heretofore to devote themselves to the chase in a country where their toils will amply be rewarded. Let those who are willing to cultivate the arts of civilisation be formed into a colony, consisting of distinct tribes or communities, but placed contiguous to each other, and connected by general laws, which shall reach the whole. Let the lands be apportioned among families and individuals in severalty, to be held by the same tenures by which we hold ours, with perhaps some temporary and wholesome restraints on the power of alienation. Assist them in forming a code of laws, adapted to a state of civilisation.

“In regard to such Indians as shall still remain within the States and territories, and refuse to emigrate, let an arrangement be made with the proper authorities of the States in which they are situated, for partitioning out to them into severalty as much of their respective reservations as shall be amply sufficient for agricultural purposes. Set apart a tract proportioned in size to the number of Indians, to remain, in common, as a refuge, and subject to all the municipal laws of the state in which they reside. Let the remainder of the reservation be paid for by those who hold the paramount right, at such prices as shall be deemed, in reference to the uses which Indians are accustomed to make of it, reasonable, and the proceeds to be applied for the benefit of those of the tribe who emigrate after their establishment in the colony; or be divided between those who emigrate and those who remain, as justice may require.

“To the views herein presented, of the condition of the Indians, of the prospects which await them, and of the only efficient remedy in their power to seek, or in that of the government to apply, I take the liberty of adding my own testimonial, founded on an intimate intercourse with them for eighteen years, both personal and official, under every variety of circumstances, in peace and war, and in very remote regions, as well as within our own settlements. The principles laid down in these extracts, are substantially the same as those which now regulate the government in all their transactions with the Indians, when the question of their permanent establishment, or removal, is brought under discussion. So far as respects the emigrating Indians, this will clearly appear by reference to the instructions of the commissioners now engaged in the adjustment of all the unsettled matters connected with the great plan of colonization.

“With regard, however, to those Indians who refuse to remove, it has not been deemed expedient for the government, by its own act, either to partition out to them the land necessary for their support, or to decide upon the consideration to be allowed for the residue, and to direct its appropriation. This, so far as regards the general government, has been, and continues to be, the subject of conventional arrangement, in which the parties, by mutual discussion, and compromise of opinion, arrive at a satisfactory result. In these arrangements, where the parties desire it, adequate tracts of land, in fee, with temporary and wholesome restraints upon the right to sell, are secured to all who desire to remain. That this system of guardianship is, however, founded upon a just and intimate knowledge of Indian character, no one acquainted with that character will question. I need not now enquire whether a practical resort to the principles resulting from it will ever become necessary. If it should, no doubt every arrangement which justice and humanity call for, will be liberally made.

“In your message to the Senate, of February 22d, 1830, you explained your views of the question of jurisdiction over the Indian tribes living within the respective States and territories, and stated, that in your opinion, and in the words of the above report, they were subject to the municipal laws of the State in which they reside, in all cases where such laws are extended over them.

“The progress of events, since 1828, has confirmed, if confirmation was wanting, the correctness of these principles, and their adaptation to the actual and prospective condition of the Indians. The circle of civilisation and improvement has extended, and various tribes have retired, or are retiring before it. The experience of the four years which have intervened, does not afford one consolatory hope that the insulated bands who have reserved and occupy tracts surrounded by our settlements can permanently retain these possessions and prosper. There are moral, political, and physical causes all in operation, which cannot be counteracted, and which forbid such an expectation. And, in fact, the whole history of our intercourse with our primitive people teaches no one lesson more important than this; and it will be fortunate for their posterity, and for our responsibility, if, in its practical application, both parties should become satisfied that the system provided by the act of May 28th, 1830, offers the only rational prospect of a durable and happy residence for the Indians. A few individuals, almost always half-breeds, and their connexions, engrossing the intelligence and means of these small communities, may become assimilated to our institutions, and eventually planted amongst us with safety. But this should never be permitted at the sacrifice of more important interests, and to the utter disregard of the fate which awaits the unfortunate mass of these tribes, persuaded or almost compelled to remain where they must rapidly decline, and at length disappear. And the causes which enacted this law are not less obvious in their origin, than they are certain in their operation. Their progress is onward, and regret them as we may and must, no human power can arrest their march, or avert their consequences. These efforts have been made for generations, and in every mode which wisdom and philanthropy could suggest; and yet, in not one solitary instance has it produced any permanent or general beneficial effect. And we may survey our whole cultivated territory in the vain expectation of discovering one aboriginal community, however small, which has withstood the ceaseless pressure of civilisation, and which holds out the slightest prospect of moral or physical improvement, or even of eventual subsistence, for the great body of the individuals composing it. If such a community exists, it is unknown to me; and, in fact, if one is believed to exist, it is only by those who are unacquainted, with its actual condition, and with the internal history of its wants, its dissensions, and its oppressions.

“The Choctaw treaty of 1830, allowed that tribe three years to emigrate. In 1831, about 5000 of them removed to their new possessions between the Canadian and Red rivers. They are highly gratified with the climate and country, and satisfied with the exchange they have made. From the returns which have been received, it is estimated that about 7000 more will cross the Mississippi this season, and the residue of the tribe, amounting to about 6000, will follow the next.

“General Coffee has succeeded in concluding a treaty with the Chickasaws, which will lead to their entire removal, and to their location in the west. The basis of this treaty is different from any heretofore assumed in our negotiations with the Indians. The whole value of the country ceded is assigned to the Chickasaws, and the United States become, in fact, trustees to make the necessary arrangements for their benefit.

“It is stipulated that the ceded territory shall be surveyed and sold, and the whole proceeds, deducting only the actual expenses, applied to the various objects enumerated, connected with the temporary subsistence, removal, and permanent establishment of these Indians. A residuary fund is to be invested in some productive stock, and the income to be annually appropriated for the public and private objects stipulated in the treaty. A country for the residence of the tribe is to be provided by themselves, and it is probable they will be able to make a satisfactory arrangement for that purpose with the Choctaws, a kindred people, who are in possession of a much larger district than is required by their numbers.

“No pecuniary benefit will result to the United States from this treaty; but should it be ratified, it will constitute an important era in our Indian relations. It will probably lead to the establishment of the principle that, in future cessions of land, the full value shall be secured to the grantors, with such deductions only as may be necessary to carry into effect the object of the treaties. The advantages to be derived by the United States from these arrangements will be limited to the removal of the Indians from their present unsuitable residences, and to their establishment in a region where we may hope to see them prosperous, contented, and improving. And it cannot be doubted but that a course so consistent with the dictates of justice, and so honourable to the national character, would be approved by public sentiment. Should we hereafter discard all expectation of pecuniary advantage in our purchases from the Indians, and confine ourselves to the great objects of their removal and reestablishment, and take care that the proceeds of the cessions are appropriated and applied to their benefit, and in the most salutary manner, we should go far towards discharging the great moral debt which has come down to us as an inheritance from the earlier periods of our history, and which has been unfortunately increased during successive generations by circumstances beyond our control. The policy would not be less wise than just. The time has passed away, if it ever existed, when a revenue derived from such a source was necessary to the government. The remnant of our aboriginal race may well look for the value, and that usefully applied, of the remnant of those immense possessions which have passed from them to us, and left few substantial evidences of permanent advantage. One great objection to a removal that has been urged by the more discreet Indians, and by many of our own citizens, who are honestly seeking their improvement, is the prospect, judging by the past, that their location west of the Mississippi would be temporary, as they would be soon pressed for new cessions, and would yield, as they have heretofore yielded, to successive applications for this purpose. Although the nature and objects of their removal, and the spirit of the act of Congress which introduced the system, are opposed to such attempts, still the apprehension is entertained, and has proved injurious. Probably no course would better satisfy them upon this subject than the introduction of a principle which would secure to them the full value of the property, under all circumstances, thus lessening in their view any wish on our part to acquire it, and ensuring to them, if not the power and disposition to retain it, at least the means of converting it to the greatest advantage.”

The policy of the United States with regard to the Indians is to place them to the west of the Mississippi, and it has been so successful, that a treaty, for the removal of the last body, was concluded at Chicago in September, 1833, and in 1836 there will scarcely be a resident Indian to the east of the Mississippi.

The Indians are a quiet inoffensive race, and generally conduct themselves well towards the white people. The united tribes of Sacs and Foxes, which inhabit the banks of the Mississippi north of Illinois, are an exception, being a restless fierce people. They made war on the United States in 1831, commencing hostilities in the neighbourhood of Prairie des Chien. They created a good deal of alarm in the northern part of Illinois and Michigan, but were easily subdued. Their chief, Black Hawk, noticed at page 29, was taken prisoner, and, after two years’ confinement, suffered to depart. The Sacs and Foxes have retired beyond the Mississippi, and even ceded some territory to the west of the river. The chastisement they got, and the increase of population at Galena, will keep this tribe in subjection in time to come.

What the ultimate effect will be of removing the Indians to the west of the Mississippi, I am at a loss to conjecture, and doubt if it will be so beneficial as the United States’ Government seem to contemplate. Not being fully aware of the causes alluded to in the report of the secretary of war, which decrees the poor Indians residing amongst white men to certain annihilation, it is unnecessary to speculate on their removal, or what effects may come into operation in their new territories. I believe, however, it is a fact that the Indians are decreasing in number in the Canadas, as well as in the United States, even after considerable advances in civilisation have taken place, and Christianity obtained a footing amongst them. It is a common opinion that the Indian tribes were extremely numerous in former times, but there is no very good evidence of the fact. The French penetrated from Detroit to New Orleans between 1670 and 1719, establishing trading ports and villages in many parts of the valley of the Mississippi. At the commencement of the eighteenth century the Sacs and Foxes made a desperate effort to take the fort at Detroit from the French, and for forty years subsequent to that period they caused great trouble and embarrassment to them, which was terminated by a successful expedition into the remote regions west of Green Bay.^[9]

Had the Indians been very numerous in the valley of the Mississippi when it was first discovered, they would not likely have established villages, more especially when engaged in war with the Sacs and Foxes, who reside still in the same regions, and are now, perhaps, more powerful than at the time alluded to. The progress of the Indians towards annihilation does not seem to have been rapid for 160 years, and it is a melancholy reflection to think it is connected with civilisation and the intercourse of the whites, and that their removal to the wilderness and exclusion from white people, has been adopted as the means of preserving the race. Leaving naturalists to determine the properties belonging to colour, I shall simply remark, the dark man of North America, like the dark rat of Britain, seems destined to be exterminated by the light-coloured species.

Prairie Agriculture—Capital required—Crops and Prices—Wages of Labour compared with Land and Produce in Illinois and Britain—Future prospects—Sheep Husbandry—Illinois and Upper Canada—Illinois and Britain—The Canadas and Illinois estimated by the standard of Nature—Emigrant Information.

The agriculture of forest land in Illinois, is the same as in other parts of America, but is seldom followed, the cultivation of the prairie being so much more simple and profitable. It has formerly been observed, that the grasses have strong creeping roots, and that six oxen are required to plough the land for the first time. The plough which is used in breaking up the prairie has a very broad share, which cuts a turf seventeen or eighteen inches wide, by two or three in depth. The thinner the turf is cut the less grass is found to grow afterwards, which must be owing to the neck, or vital part of the plants, being near the surface. After the first ploughing the soil becomes friable, and is easily cultivated. The breaking up of the prairie is often performed by contract at $2 per acre. It is common to drop Indian corn into every third furrow of the first ploughing, and the ground is not afterwards operated upon until the crop is reaped, when it is sown with wheat, and simply harrowed. Thus two important crops are obtained by once ploughing and harrowing. A bushel of Indian corn was stated to be sufficient seed for ten acres, and half a bushel of wheat sows one acre. The first crop of Indian corn commonly yields fifty bushels per acre, and the following wheat crop twenty-five bushels. When Indian corn is not sown as a first crop, the ground is sown with wheat, which is covered by the harrow. Grass seldom springs after the land has been ploughed, and weeds do not appear for some years afterwards. When Indian corn is grown on land which has been some time cultivated, it is planted on hills four feet square, the intervals being ploughed in both directions; and a boy with a horse is capable of managing the cleaning process of fifty acres. There is but little diversity in prairie agriculture, which is almost entirely confined to the growing of wheat, oats, and Indian corn. Natural herbage affords both hay and pasturage, and the supply is at present inexhaustible. In the tract which I travelled, the seeds of clovers, or artificial grass, never had been sown. But there can be no doubt of the soil and climate being capable of producing in abundance almost every description of plant.

A great many cattle are reared on the prairies which are occupied in common by the inhabitants. The grass was quite withered when I saw it, and the cattle were in good condition, although by no means fat. They are seldom taken under cover during winter, and when snow is on the ground they are foddered with hay. It is customary in some parts to fatten oxen with Indian corn during winter; and the fine animals seen at New York, and alluded to in page 32, had been fed on Indian corn for two successive winters; it is daily strewed on the ground to the best of the animals; a secondary description succeeds to what the first may have left, and swine are allowed to pick up the refuse. It is by means of the Indian corn of the western states that the people of New Orleans, the cities on the Atlantic, and the Canadas are chiefly supplied with salted beef and pork.

There is perhaps no country in the world where a farmer can commence operations with so small an outlay of money, and so soon obtain a return, as in Illinois. This arises from the cheapness of land, and the facility with which it is cultivated, and will appear more evident from the following statement:—“Suppose a settler with sufficient capital to purchase and stock a farm and maintain himself for six months. The farm to consist of two hundred acres, thirty-five of which being forest and the remainder prairie. If the purchase was made in spring, the expense might be thus stated:—

With an expenditure of $1604, or L.340, 17s. sterling, is obtained the dairy produce of 4 cows and the improvement of 8 cattle grazing on the prairie, and 3200 bushels of Indian corn, besides vegetables and the improvement of a lot of pigs and poultry.

The attention of the settler and his family is supposed to be confined to the cultivation of vegetables, tending the cows and pigs, and planting and husking Indian corn.

Supposing the Indian corn of the second year equal to the first crop, the wheat to yield 22 ½ bushels per acre, and cost 2 ½ bushels in thrashing—the farmer in eighteen months after settling would have expended $2325.50, or L.484, 4s. 6d. sterling. In the same time he would have reaped 6,400 bushels of Indian corn, and 1600 bushels of wheat, and enjoyed abundance of vegetables, dairy produce, beef, pork, and poultry. With this produce and expenditure the farmer and his family do not perform any laborious work. It is presumed the farm would, with some ploughing, to destroy weeds amongst the Indian corn, afterwards continue to yield yearly 3200 bushels of Indian corn, and 1800 bushels of wheat.

The data of the preceding statements are unfavourable for industrious and frugal emigrants, being framed for a person disliking to work; and Mr Ferguson’s estimate of buildings, and maintaining a family having been taken, which is too high for ordinary settlers. The crops are estimated considerably lower than what I was told the land of Illinois generally yields; but from knowing how prone farmers are to speak of good crops, and conceal indifferent ones, I have made considerable deductions from the accounts received, with the view of avoiding exaggeration.

If an industrious man were to purchase the farm, and perform a considerable portion of the work himself, the result would be different. A saving might also be effected on the buildings and living to the extent of $250. If to this sum be added $150 for work performed personally above the other case, the same produce would be obtained with an outlay of L.389 sterling. A person who would be content at first with cheap houses, little household furniture, and labour with his own hands, might reap the same produce with an outlay of L.300 sterling. The expense of buildings and living until a crop is reaped, must in a great measure depend on the individual himself, and the nature of his family. But the advantages of the country will be best seen by simply viewing the produce of an acre of land for two years, and the cost of obtaining it.

With an outlay of $10.02, or L.2, 2s. 7d. sterling, there is obtained 40 bushels of Indian corn, and 22½ bushels of wheat.

A person with little capital might commence farming on a smaller scale than has been taken for illustration; government selling lots of 80 acres. Supposing a farm of this extent, consisting of fifteen acres of forest, and the remainder prairie, the expense would stand thus:—

With an expenditure of $609, or about L.130 sterling, and the farmer’s labour, 2,400 bushels of Indian corn and 675 bushels of wheat would be obtained, besides the produce of a cow, vegetables, pigs, and poultry for family use.

Notwithstanding the enormous quantity of produce exhibited by the preceding statements, high wages and low prices prevent much money being realized. By referring to the statement of the produce of an acre of land for two years, it will be seen the cost is $10.02, and Indian corn being estimated at 15 cents per bushel, and wheat at 45 cents, the produce amounts to $6 and $10.12 ½ for Indian corn and wheat respectively; or the outlay is L.2, 2s. 7d., and the produce is L.3, 10s. 7d., subject to the charges of fencing, thrashing, and marketing. Every thing, however, has been done by contract, and in future the purchase of the ground and part of the expense of ploughing would be saved. In the view there is a profit on hired labour, and an industrious man would obtain almost the whole of the produce by labouring himself.

In a country where Nature is so bountiful and land so abundant and cheap, the wages of labour must necessarily be high. Accordingly, an ordinary mechanic obtains $1 per day, with board, including washing; and superior workmen, engineers, and millwrights, get from $2 to $3. Farm labourers are engaged at from $100 to $120 a-year. Female house-servants obtain $1 in private families, and from $2 to $2½ a-week in hotels. As compared with the prices of produce and land, wages may be stated thus:—

If an ordinary mechanic work five days in the week he will earn throughout the year, besides board, $260; or of Indian corn about 1733 bushels; or of wheat about 580 bushels; or of beef about 13,000 lb.; or of land about 200 acres.

An ordinary farm labourer will get during the year, besides his board, $100; or of Indian corn about 667 bushels; or of wheat about 222 bushels; or of beef about 5000 lb.; or of land about eighty acres; which is a sufficient extent of surface for any labouring man to possess.

Female house-servants in private families get in the year $52, which would purchase forty acres of land, and in hotels what would purchase eighty acres of land.

How very different is the situation of farm labourers in England, Scotland, and Ireland, compared with those in Illinois. Supposing the weekly wages of labourers to be 10s., 8s., and 3s. 6d., without board, in England, Scotland, and Ireland respectively, and they do not exceed these sums, the Englishman will earn during the year about seventy bushels of wheat, or of beef about 1560 lbs.—the Scotchman about sixty-two bushels of wheat, or of beef about 1400 lbs.—the Irishman about thirty bushels of wheat, or of beef about 750 lbs. But when the board of the workman, or simply what he himself would consume, is taken from these numbers, they will appear quite insignificant compared with the wages of Illinois.

An ordinary farm labourer in Illinois gets the value of eighty acres of land yearly: In Britain, when due allowance is made for the board of the labourer, he does not get one-tenth of an acre of good land. When wages are compared with land, the farm labourer of Illinois is about 800 times better rewarded than in Britain.

The wages of female servants, compared with the price of land, are also remarkable. I am sure there are many of my excellent countrywomen who, if they could reach Illinois, would cheerfully earn a farm for their fathers, husbands, or lovers, by engaging in service. Perhaps in almost every case individuals, on their arrival in the country, would act prudently by working for hire for the first twelve months, even if they possess a little capital. By so doing, the knowledge which they would obtain of the country, and the intercourse of the people, would perhaps be of as much importance to them as the increase of funds. In the case of a family without funds, the members might separate entirely or partially, as circumstances admitted, and afterwards again unite when they had obtained the means of purchasing and farming land.

The land in Illinois to which the comparison of wages refers, is of fine quality, situated in the best climate of America, and, considered as a workshop, is not greatly surpassed by any portion of the earth. The view which I have taken of the reward of farm labourers in Illinois and Britain may appear excessive, yet it will bear investigation. The British labourer’s reward of one-tenth of an acre would yield a mere trifle annually; but the Illinois labourer’s reward of eighty acres might afford sustenance for himself and family for ever. The man who gives his services one year for hire in Illinois, and invests his wages in the purchase of land, obtains the services of nature on a large scale in perpetuity, and by leading a life of industry and economy for five or six years, he would be enabled to purchase and sufficiently stock eighty acres of land, which would for ever support himself and family.

Illinois may justly be called “the poor man’s country,” if any part of the world deserves the title. The extraordinary reward which the labourer receives, and the bountifulness of Nature, are favourable to the poor, and no person who has health and strength, and leads an industrious and a virtuous life, can continue without the means of subsistence in Illinois.

The future prospects of Illinois appear to be highly favourable. Referring to what has been stated regarding the progress of wealth at p. 400, and the channels of trade at p. 424–5, it will be found that almost all the elements of prosperity exist in the country. The soil, grass-covered surface, climate, internal facilities of commerce, cheapness and extent of land, and the systems of governing and educating the people, are not surpassed by any other portion of America, and inhabitants are alone wanting to complete its greatness.

The price of Government land being the same over the United States, the prairies of Illinois will be preferred by all judicious settlers to the forests which lie nearer the Atlantic, while the arrangements which have been made with the Indians will tend for a time to check population from proceeding to the west of the districts already surveyed. The advantages of the country have only been made public of late years, and less seems to be known regarding it in the eastern portions of the United States and the Canadas than in Britain. Emigrants have, however, been streaming in to Illinois for a year or two from the different parts of Europe and the eastern parts of America, and their number is likely to increase. I have frequently alluded to the anxiety of people in the eastern States and the Canadas to sell their lands. This desire proceeds from the advantages of a prairie country, in which many of the farmers in other portions of America obtain better farms than those which they formerly possessed, and at a twentieth part of the price at which they sell their original ones. There is consequently a class of comparatively wealthy settlers attracted to the west, independent of the natural movement of the United States people, alluded to at p. 400, 401. But however great the influx of population may be, there is sufficient room for all who are likely to desire a settlement. Illinois being about the size of England, might furnish a greater supply of food, from the general superiority of its soil, and seems to me to be nearly capable of sustaining the whole inhabitants of England in addition to its present population, or nearly seventy times the inhabitants it now possesses.

The settlement of the prairies in the western parts of the United States will affect the whole population of the Union. The profits of farming in the present state of the country regulate the wages of labour generally, and the facility with which prairie land is cultivated compared to forest land, will attract the operatives of every profession, and thereby have a tendency to keep up wages. Although the price of forest and prairie land is the same, the greater productiveness of the latter, and small capital required to bring it into a state of cultivation, will keep down the price of the necessaries of life by furnishing a greater supply. Thus the prairies of the west, by attracting population from the eastern States, will have a tendency to keep up the wages of labour there, and prevent a rise in the price of farm produce in the thickly peopled parts of the country.

The inexhaustible supply of coal in Illinois is a strong feature in the future greatness of the country, both as enabling the whole surface to be devoted to the production of human food, and furnishing fuel for culinary and manufacturing purposes. From the natural advantages of the country, and consequent great reward of industry, population will be attracted to it, and manufactures of all kinds will either spring up within the State, or the communication with the cities on the Atlantic will become more accessible than it is at present. The towns of Pittsburg and Buffalo seem likely to become the great depots of produce passing between the eastern and western States. Pittsburg is situated at the head of the steam-boat navigation of the river Ohio—it is the chief seat of hardware manufactures in the United States, and has been termed the Birmingham of America. Pittsburg already communicates with the city of Philadelphia by a railway and canal, and a railway is forming to connect it with Baltimore. There is also, I believe, a canal in progress to open a communication between Pittsburg and the Erie canal, unconnected with lake Erie. Buffalo is situated at the junction of the Erie canal with lake Erie, and is one of the best commercial situations in the United States, being connected with the country to the westward by the great lakes and canals, with New York by the Hudson and Erie canal, and it will also soon communicate with Boston by a railway. These two towns are likely to become the centres of diverging lines of railroads and other modes of communication between the eastern and western States, which form the only means of preventing the depopulation of the countries on the Atlantic, as the abundance and cheapness of food in the west would soon induce manufacturers to emigrate and establish themselves there.

It may become a question, at no very remote period, whether the communication between the eastern and western States will be cheaper by water conveyance or railroads. The waters are shut by frost for a portion of the year, the navigation of canals is necessarily slow, and that of rivers often uncertain from want of water, and at all times expensive by the tear and wear of vessels in struggling against the stream. On the other hand, the level surface is admirably fitted for railroads, and the western countries abound in coal and iron. There is no way of so effectually connecting the east and west as by means of railroads. Government commenced a national road, the construction of which has been suspended by President Jackson, to extend from Washington to Jefferson on the Missouri, a distance of nearly 1000 miles, and running through the prairie country. The funds arising from the sale of land might easily form a railroad between Jefferson and Pittsburg, which would be connected with the seaport towns on the Atlantic.

The value of farm produce and land in the different sections of the country will be affected in opposite ways by the opening of the communication between the east and west. By lessening the expense of transport, a greater quantity of produce will flow from the west to the east, and there will be less difference in price, either by produce falling in the east or rising in the west. If prices fall in the east, the value of land will fall there; and if prices rise in the west, the value of land will increase there. Facilitating the intercourse between the countries will extend the market for western produce, and operate like an influx of inhabitants; and the natural effects will be, a rise in the value of produce and land in that quarter.

The west will be farther benefited by the opening of communication lowering the price of the manufactures and luxuries of the east. In a very few years, the prices of Illinois and New York will vary only according to the expense of transport from one place to the other; and the difference will annually decrease with an increase of traffic and a facility of communication.

The prices of wheat and Indian corn included in the preceding statements, represent the general prices in Illinois at the time of my visit; and they were then low from the want of commercial population. A change in this respect was, however, then taking place, which has since progressed. Steam grist-mills have been erected at Jacksonville and other places, and pork-killers from Cincinnati^[10] have established themselves at Alton. Commerce has followed agriculture, and the consequent competition must have the effect of enhancing the price of farm produce. With an unlimited range of pasturage for the rearing of cattle, and Indian corn at fifteen cents, or seven-pence-halfpenny Sterling per bushel, the farmer might comfortably live by stock, without cultivating any portion of his land.