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.
In the Missouri Territory, large surveys are just completed, these
consist of about a million of acres near Osage river, and about two
millions toward the Mississippi, including the old settlements. The
reports of the Missouri country which I have heard, convince me, that
it contains a large quantity of good lands, and that it is favoured
with a fine climate. A gentleman who wintered at St. Louis, near the
mouth of the river Missouri, assured me that the cold is more severe
there than in the Ohio country. Although his opinion was formed from
his sense of feeling, without reference to the thermometer, it is
probably just, as the situation of St. Louis is relatively high, and
as much of the neighbouring country is without wood, admitting a free
circulation of winds, from higher and more northerly parts.
In the countries adjoining to Arkansau and Red rivers, about two
millions of acres are laid out for sale. The former of these rivers is
understood to be larger than the Ohio, and passes through a fertile
country. The post of Arkansau is situated a little northward of
latitude 34°.[96] A parallel that must be felt uncomfortably hot by
most Europeans. Cotton is the most profitable product; a vegetable
that has hitherto been almost exclusively cultivated by involuntary
labourers.
Michigan and north-west territories are understood to be fertile, and
well adapted to rearing cattle. Detroit is the capital of Michigan.[97]
In {162} the north-west territory there are two settlements; one at
Fort Howard, and the other Prairie du Chiens.[98] A military post is
to be formed at the mouth of St. Peter’s river, below the Falls of St.
Anthony.[99] These extensive regions lie in a latitude corresponding
with that of the New England States; and will probably be peopled by a
hardy race of freemen, when the lands of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois,
can be no longer procured at a low rate.
Those who would go in search of healthy situations may keep in view,
that their object can only be attained, at a distance from swamps,
and rivers which overflow their banks; it being well known, when the
former are dried up, and when the latter recede within their low-water
boundaries, vast quantities of mud and vegetable matters are exposed to
the heat of the sun, and a rapid decomposition immediately commences.
The gaseous constituents evolved give a perceptible taint to the air,
and are understood to form the miasmata that occasion agues, bilious
fevers, and liver complaints. The best navigable waters, and the most
healthy parts of the country, are, in some measure, incompatible,
and seldom admitting of immediate proximity to one another. Happily,
a moderate height of land is usually sufficient to prevent the
accumulation of stagnant waters, and to promote a motion in rivers,
that lessens the scope of their inundations, or retains them altogether
within their banks. A degree of elevation conducive to a comparatively
healthy climate, may be usually found within two or three miles of
the river; but as the contaminated air is liable to be transported by
winds, and probably not sufficiently diluted with the atmosphere in
passing over such small spaces; a greater distance from the source of
contagion {163} is no doubt preferable. I have, on various occasions,
seen persons from the higher country, about forty miles north of this
place, whose complexions are apparently more healthy than those of
the people who live on the banks of the Ohio; and several of late who
profess to have a reluctance to come down to the river on business, at
the present season of the year.
In the preceding part of this letter I mentioned the high country
lying near the heads of the northern tributaries of the Ohio, as having
a good climate. That part of it watered by the Muskingum, the two
Sciotas, and the two Miamis, possesses a downward navigation in spring,
and in the latter end of autumn, but as these rivers enter the Ohio
above the falls at Louisville, the upward navigation is interrupted
there during the summer months. This single circumstance amounts to
a weighty objection against the eastern part of the country under
consideration.
The western part has two great navigable streams, the Wabash, and
the Illinois. The Wabash is navigable for boats drawing three feet
of water, to the distance of about 400 miles from its mouth, and in
floods about 200 miles farther. Its largest tributary is White River,
which is navigable to a great distance upward. It waters a fertile
and delightful country, and joins the Wabash below all its rapids
except one run, which forms no great obstruction to the navigation.
The new seat of government is to be erected on the bank of one of
the streams of White River.[100] The Illinois is esteemed one of the
best navigations in western America. So early as 1773, a Mr. Kennedy
sailed upward to the distance of 268 miles from its confluence with the
Mississippi.[101] Sangamon river, one {164} of its principal streams,
is said to be navigable for 180 miles by small craft.
From the best information that I can procure, this western division of
the country, north of the Ohio, appears to be highly eligible to new
settlers. It unites the advantages of having high lands and navigable
waters in immediate contact, and a shorter and a better communication
with the ocean than any part of western America, that is to be
exclusively cultivated by freemen.
The country on Missouri river, has been already noticed as possessing
advantages in soil and climate, but the difficulty of the navigation
upward, amounts to a considerable objection against adopting that
territory. A convention of the people formed a constitution, and laid
before Congress their claim for being admitted as a State in the
Federal Union. The new constitution asserts the right of the people
to hold slaves, and of admitting more negroes from other parts of
the United States. Towards the conclusion of last Session of the
legislature, this question of right was warmly discussed, most of
the members from the Southern States maintained, that Congress have
no right to dictate to the people of any new State on this subject,
viewing it as a matter of internal policy, and one that does not
come under the jurisdiction of the general government,--and the
treaty of Session stipulated, that the Spanish colonists remaining
in the country, should retain their former rights and privileges. In
opposition to these doctrines, the members from Northern States argued,
that Congress has a constitutional right to interfere, and urged as a
precedent, the act prohibiting the introduction of slavery into the
country north-west of Ohio river, with other arguments too numerous
to be recapitulated here. It is painful {165} to learn that the
representatives of the nation are so much divided on this interesting
question, and, in the present instance, to reflect, that in most cases
their proceedings are expressions of the will of their constituents.
The affair waits the decision of next Session, and, in the meantime,
much solicitude prevails with regard to it. The most intelligent
citizens are at a loss to anticipate the result, and the members of
the Legislature are probably equally uncertain, whether the new State
shall become a receptacle of slaves, and its representatives the future
advocates of a Slave keeping interest. The slave keeping States,
and those which have prescribed the practice, commonly called free
States, seem to be struggling for predominance. There are now eleven
Slave keeping, and eleven free States, so that Missouri must give a
sort of numerical preponderance to one of the parties. The number of
representatives for free States, are apportioned according to the
number of free persons in each, and in Slave keeping States, they are
regulated by the number of free persons added to three-fifths of the
slaves, a method that has the effect of strengthening the influence of
the Southern party.
When the Missouri question is set at rest,[102] the people of the
United States will no doubt reflect on the singular line of demarkation
which they have drawn. Supposing that the _internal frontier_ was
produced to the Stony Mountains, or to the Pacific Ocean, every
speculative mind must contemplate it, not merely as a topographical
division, but also as a sort of moral boundary, separating a great
nation into two parts, very dissimilar in the habits and jurisprudence
of their people, and will seriously meditate on the possible
consequences of the unhappy difference. I do not {166} wish to make
any disagreeable reflection on the patriots who have already done so
much in circumscribing the boundaries of human misery; but regret,
that such a wide field still remains for their benevolent labours, and
that their opponents are pursuing a course imminently dangerous to
themselves, and ill calculated to promote the future tranquillity of
the republic. Many disagreeable incidents have already been occasioned
by the collision of principle and interest. Negroes frequently desert
from their masters, and fly into neighbouring free States. It may be,
that the people amongst whom they seek refuge, do not always show
much anxiety that the owners shall recover their property; and it is
perhaps partly on account of this indifference, that the pursuers of
slaves adopt forcible means instead of the legal redress prescribed by
free States. Peaceful communities are thus invaded by small parties
of armed men, who carry off blacks without certifying their right to
them. In two late instances, two free blacks in Indiana were kidnapped
by people from Kentucky, and the remonstrances made on the part of
the former State, were not followed by any satisfactory concession
on the part of the latter. The laws of free States, on this subject,
are in disagreement with the usages of slave-holders; a source of
contention that may not be easily removed. Hitherto no popular rupture
has been occasioned by affairs of this kind; but, it may be asked,
where is there any guarantee that similar discordances may not become
more frequent when a more numerous population of both colours shall
be crowded along the neighbourhood of the slave-line? And may not the
heart-burnings and provincial pride, now manifest, be wrought up to a
higher pitch at a period, perhaps not far distant, when the United
States will become confident of a degree of strength that cannot
require such a {167} complete co-operation as heretofore in repelling
the attacks of foreign force?
If the slave-holding party persist in the extension of the abuse,
it would well become them to give up their constitutional claims
for calling forth the militia of northern states “to suppress
insurrections,” and for protecting them “against domestic violence,” so
far as slaves may be the future disturbers of the peace. Whether they
make such a fair concession or not, it is for them to reflect whether
their northern neighbours, who have so uniformly and so wisely opposed
the evil, and who have so humanely laboured to eradicate it from
amongst themselves, will be willing to imbrue their hands in the blood
of the injured people who have never excited any of their feelings
except pity.
So long as the Missouri question remains unsettled, a hope may be
entertained that liberal sentiments may prevail. The northern people
seem to be almost universally in favour of the restriction, and a part
of the finest feelings, and the brightest talents in the Southern
States, are ranged on the side of humanity.
FOOTNOTES:
[86] Benjamin Rush (1745-1813), a signer of the Declaration of
Independence and member of the state convention of 1787, was the
most eminent American physician of his day, and by his theories
regarding the nature of yellow fever won recognition abroad. Serving
as physician-general in the Revolutionary army, for twenty-nine years
surgeon in the Pennsylvania Hospital, and throughout his life a
practicing physician, he nevertheless found time to become identified
with many public measures, notably the abolition of slavery, and the
extension of public schools, and was a member of nearly every important
literary and philanthropic society in Philadelphia.
John Redman Cox (1773-1864) was, like Rush, a Philadelphia physician,
being trained at the University of Edinburgh. He was for many years
professor of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, and edited
several medical journals; but is best known as an early and pronounced
advocate of vaccination.--ED.
[87] John Playfair (1748-1819), an eminent Scottish mathematician and
astronomer.--ED.
[88] Dr. Drake’s Picture of Cincinnati, page 116.--FLINT.
[89] In Virginia and Kentucky the state made no surveys before
disposing of its lands. The settlers or speculators sought out a tract,
made a survey, generally marking it by “blazing” the trees, and had
it recorded in the state land-office. Areas of all shapes and sizes
were patented, and unpatented strips of irregular shape lay between.
Moreover, there was no limit to the number of patents that could be
taken out on the same piece of land, the land-office concerning itself
not at all with controversies over titles, merely guaranteeing an
entry if no previous title was valid. The original claim to hundreds
of thousands of acres in Kentucky was never settled, the land being
eventually held under possession titles.--ED.
[90] This refers to the Miami cession made at St. Mary’s, Ohio, October
6, 1818. By this treaty the Delaware and Miami Indians ceded all
central Indiana between the Wabash and White rivers.--ED.
[91] For the early history of Shawneetown, see Croghan’s _Journals_,
volume i of our series, note 108.--ED.
[92] Edwardsville, on Cahokia Creek, twenty miles north-east of St.
Louis, was founded in 1816, and named in honor of Ninian Edwards, first
governor of Illinois Territory.--ED.
[93] A canal connecting Illinois River with Lake Michigan was first
suggested by Jolliet in 1673, when he and Marquette returned by that
route from their exploration of the Mississippi River. Such a canal
was included in Gallatin’s system of internal improvements, proposed
in 1808. President Madison laid the matter before Congress in 1814;
Calhoun, as secretary of war, again called attention to it, in 1819;
and for twenty years it found a place in the governor’s annual message.
Finally (1836), its construction was undertaken by the state, aided by
large congressional land grants. The Illinois-Michigan Canal, extending
from La Salle, on the Illinois, to Lake Michigan, at the mouth of
Chicago River, one hundred miles in all, was completed in 1848, and
opened with much ceremony. In 1882 the state ceded the property to the
United States, in the hope that the latter would enlarge it for a ship
canal. But the next step was taken by the Chicago Sanitary District,
which at a cost of about $35,000,000 has completed the Chicago Drainage
Canal for the better disposal of the sewage of Chicago. This canal was
opened January 2, 1900, after seven years spent in its construction.
Flint’s reference is to the Des Plaines (Plein) River.--ED.
[94] The Illinois military grant was the peninsula between the
Mississippi and Illinois rivers, as far north as a line drawn west from
the confluence of the Illinois and Vermilion rivers. The value of the
land began to appreciate soon after Flint’s journey, and ten counties
were erected within it in 1824-25.--ED.
[95] Van Zandt’s description of the military grant.--FLINT.
_Comment by Ed._ Nicholas Biddle Van Zandt, _A full description of the
soil, water, timber, and prairies ... of the military lands between the
Mississippi and Illinois rivers_ (Washington, 1818). The author, the
title-page shows, was “Late, a clerk in the General Land Office of the
United States, Washington City.”
[96] For the Arkansas Post, see Cuming’s _Tour_, volume iv of our
series, note 195.--ED.
[97] For the early history of Detroit, see Croghan’s _Journals_, volume
i of our series, note 18.--ED.
[98] For Fort Howard, see Evans’s _Tour_, volume viii of our series,
note 82.