its inhabitants.--It would be vain to search for a rich district,
according to the European acceptation of the term. Almost every object
bespeaks a want of capital. Fine houses are brick ones of two stories
high, covered with shingles, and frequently unfinished within; and
where the work is completed, it is usually in a bad style; the windows
often broken; and the adjoining grounds perhaps studded with the stumps
of trees, overgrown with rank weeds, or rutted by hogs. The inferior
buildings, as stables, barns, (and negro huts in slave States,) are
unseemly log cabins, frequently standing in front of the mansion; the
whole having more the appearance of a ruin than the abodes of a people
having taste for elegant improvements. Gardening is performed in the
most slovenly manner imaginable; the plough {206} being in more general
use than the spade. Labouring utensils are constructed without the
application of the joiner’s plane. Iron is either sparingly used in
their formation, or altogether dispensed with.
All who have paid attention to the progress of new settlements, agree
in stating, that the first possession of the woods in America, was
taken by a class of hunters, commonly called backwoodsmen. These, in
some instances, purchased the soil from the government, and in others,
placed themselves on the public lands without permission. Many of
them, indeed, settled new territories before the ground was surveyed,
and before public sales commenced. Formerly pre-emption rights were
given to these squatters; but the irregularities and complicacy that
the practice introduced into the business of the land-office, have
caused its being given up, and squatters are now obliged to make way
for regular purchasers. The improvements of a backwoodsman are usually
confined to building a rude log cabin, clearing and fencing a small
piece of ground for raising Indian corn. A horse, a cow, a few hogs,
and some poultry, comprise his live-stock; and his farther operations
are performed with his rifle. The formation of a settlement in his
neighbourhood is hurtful to the success of his favourite pursuit,
and is the signal for his removing into more remote parts of the
wilderness. In the case of his owning the land on which he has settled,
he is contented to sell it at a low price, and his establishment,
though trifling, adds much to the comfort of his successor. The next
class of settlers differ from the former in having considerably less
dependence on the killing of game, in remaining in the midst of a
growing population, and in devoting themselves more to agriculture. A
man {207} of this class proceeds on a small capital; he either enlarges
the clearings begun in the woods by his backwoodsmen predecessor, or
establishes himself on a new site. On his arrival in a settlement, the
neighbours unite in assisting him to erect a cabin for the reception of
his family. Some of them cut down the trees, others drag them to the
spot with oxen, and the rest build up the logs. In this way a house is
commonly reared in one day. For this well-timed assistance no immediate
payment is made, and he acquits himself by working to his neighbours.
It is not in his power to hire labourers, and must depend therefore
on his own exertions. If his family is numerous and industrious, his
progress is greatly accelerated. He does not clear away the forests
by dint of labour, but girdles the trees.[120] By the second summer
after this operation is performed, the foliage is completely destroyed,
and his crops are not injured by the shade. He plants an orchard,
which thrives and bears abundantly under every sort of neglect. His
live-stock soon becomes much more numerous than that of his back-wood
predecessor; but, as his cattle have to shift for themselves in the
woods, where grass is scanty, they are small and lean. He does not sow
grass seeds to succeed his crops, so that his land, which ought to be
pasturage, is overgrown with weeds. The neglect of sowing grass-seeds
deprives him of hay; and he has no fodder laid up for the winter except
the blades of Indian corn, which are much withered, and do not appear
to be nutritious food. The poor animals are forced to range the forests
in winter, where they can scarcely procure any thing which is green,
except {208} the buds of underwood on which they browse.--Trees are
sometimes cut down that the cattle may eat the buds. Want of shelter in
the winter completes the sum of misery. Hogs suffer famine during the
droughts of summer, and the frosts and snows of winter; but they become
fat by feeding on the acorns and beech nuts which strow the ground
in autumn. Horses are not exempted from their share in these common
sufferings, with the addition of labour, which most of them are not
very able to undergo. This second rate class of farmers are to be seen
in the markets of towns, retailing vegetables, fruits, poultry, and
dairy produce. One of them came lately into this place on horseback,
with ten pounds of butter to sell; but as he could not obtain a price
to his mind, he crossed the river to Louisville market. In going and
returning he must have paid twenty-five cents to the ferryman--a
considerable expense, when it is considered that he had travelled
twelve miles with his little cargo. Another, who lives at the distance
of eight miles from this place, brought a barrel of whisky, containing
about thirty-three gallons. He employed neither horse nor vehicle in
the transportation, but rolled the cask along the road, which, by the
by, is none of the smoothest. Incidents of this kind may, perhaps,
cause you to suppose that the condition of the second rate settler is
similar to that of subtenants in the north of Scotland, or in Ireland;
but the high price of labour in America explains the apparent parity.
Men perform offices for themselves that, in Britain, would be done by
hiring others. The American farmer, it must be observed, is commonly
the proprietor of the land he occupies; and, in the _hauteur_ of
independence, is not surpassed by the proudest freeholders of Britain.
The settler of the grade under consideration, is only able to bring
a {209} small portion of his land into cultivation, his success,
therefore, does not so much depend on the quantity of produce which
he raises, as on the gradual increase in the value of his property.
When the neighbourhood becomes more populous, he in general has it in
his power to sell his property at a high price, and to remove to a new
settlement, where he can purchase a more extensive tract of land, or
commence farming on a larger scale than formerly. The next occupier is
a capitalist, who immediately builds a larger barn than the former, and
then a brick or a frame house. He either pulls down the dwelling of his
predecessor, or converts it into a stable. He erects better fences, and
enlarges the quantity of cultivated land; sows down pasture fields,
introduces an improved stock of horses, cattle, sheep, and these
probably of the Merino breed. He fattens cattle for the market, and
perhaps erects a flour-mill, or a saw-mill, or a distillery. Farmers of
this description are frequently partners in the banks; members of the
State assembly, or of Congress, or Justices of the Peace. The condition
of the people has necessarily some relation to the age and prosperity
of the settlements in which they live. In Pennsylvania, for instance
the most extensive farmers are prevalent. In the earliest settled
parts of Ohio and Kentucky, the first and second rate farmers are most
numerous, and are mixed together. In Indiana, backwoodsmen and second
rate settlers predominate. The three conditions of settlers described,
are not to be understood as uniformly distinct; for there are
intermediate stages, from which individuals of one class pass, as it
were, into another. The first invaders of the forest frequently become
farmers of the second order; and there are examples of individuals
acting their parts in all the three gradations.
{210} In the district of Jeffersonville, there has been an apparent
interruption of the prosperity of the settlers. Upwards of two hundred
quarter sections of land are by law forfeited to the government,
for non-payment of part of the purchase money due more than a year
ago. A year’s indulgence was granted by Congress, but unless farther
accommodation is immediately allowed, the lands will soon be offered
a second time for sale. Settlers seeing the danger of losing their
possessions, are now offering to transfer their rights for less sums
than have already been paid; it being still in the power of purchasers
to retain the lands on paying up the arrears due in the land office.
This marks the difficulty that individuals at present have, in
procuring small sums of money, in this particular district.
FOOTNOTES:
[119] Fearon.--FLINT.
_Comment by Ed._ Henry Bradshaw Fearon, a London surgeon born about
1770, was sent to the United States by an association of English
families to investigate suitable sites for their residence. He found
little that pleased him, as appears from his account, _Sketches in
America_ (London, 1818).
[120] The process of cutting the bark round trees, to destroy their
growth, is called girdling, or deadening.--FLINT.
LETTER XVIII
Passage to Cincinnati--Depression of
Trade--Population--Manufactures--Institutions--Banks--Climate--
Temperature--Springs--Quantity of
Rain--Thunder--Lightning--Aurora-Borealis--Tornadoes--Earthquakes--The
Ohio unusually low in 1819--Meeting of the Citizens of
Cincinnati--Notice of three Indian Chiefs on their way for Washington
City--Remarks on the Pacific Disposition of Indians, and their motives
for wars.
_Cincinnati, (Ohio,) June 26, 1820._
I have come from the Falls of the Ohio to this place, by a steam-boat
in twenty-nine hours, the average rate of sailing being about 6¹⁄₄
miles per {211} hour. The downward passage is performed by the same
vessel in about fifteen hours, (nearly at the rate of twelve miles
an hour.) From this it appears that the current moves at the rate of
about 2⁷⁄₈ miles each hour. The late M. Volney[121] estimated the
hourly velocity of this river in very low stages of water, at two
miles. His result is probably a little more than the mean rate along
the whole length of the river. The steam-boat is one built exclusively
for the accommodation of passengers. She measures one hundred feet on
the keel, twenty-five feet on the beam, and draws only three feet and
three inches of water. The cabin is an elegant apartment, forty feet
long, and eighteen feet wide. Adjoining to it are eight very neat state
rooms. The water wheel is situated in an aperture astern, where it is
protected from coming in contact with logs, which are numerous in the
river.
Cincinnati suffers much from the decline in business. The town does
not now present any thing like the stir that animated it about a year
and a half ago. Building is in a great measure suspended, and the city
which was lately over crowded with people, has now a considerable
number of empty houses. Rents are lowered, and the price of provisions
considerably reduced. Many mechanics and labourers find it impossible
to procure employment. The same changes have taken place in the other
towns of the western country. Numbers of people have deserted them, and
commenced farming in the woods. They will there have it in their power
to raise produce enough for their families, but, with the present low
markets, and the probability of a still greater reduction, they can
have no inducement but necessity for cultivating a surplus produce.
{212} In 1819, the Cincinnati Directory, a small book containing a
list of the citizens, and many historical particulars, was published.
Some extracts from that work will give a condensed view of the present
magnitude and business of the place.
The enumeration of houses, made in March, 1819, was as follows:
Of brick and stone, two stories and upwards, 387
Do. Do. of one story, 45
Of wood, two stories and upwards, 615
Do. one story, 843
----
1890
====
Occupied as separate dwelling houses, 1003
Mercantile stores, 95
Groceries, 102
Druggists’ stores, 11
Confectionaries, 4
Auction and commission stores, 5
Printing offices, 5
Book and stationery stores, 4
Places of public worship, 10
Banks, 5
Mechanics’ shops, factories, and mills, 214
Taverns, 17
College, court house, and jail, 3
Warehouses and other buildings, 412
----
Total 1890
====
_Population, as taken in July, 1819_
White males, 5402
White females, 4471
---- 9873
Male persons of colour, 215
Females of colour, 195
---- 410
----
10283
=====
{213} _Manufactures_
Work shops Workmen
Two iron and brass founderies, 132
Blacksmiths, 80 or 90
Tin ware manufactories, 6 32
Copper, Do. 4 14
Nail factories, 2 13
Silver smiths, (watch repairers included,) 9 22
White smiths, 3
Gunsmiths, 2
Fire engine maker, 1 1
Copperplate engraver, 1 1
Gilder, 1 1
Maker of sieves and lattice-work, from wire, 1 1
Cabinet work, 15 84
Coopers, 16 50
Coach and waggon makers, 9 33
Chair makers, 4 31
House carpenters and joiners, from 80 to 100
and employing about 400
Boat builders, employing 60 or 70
Ivory and wood clock factory, 14
Saddle tree makers, 9
A plough maker; pump and block maker; a spinning
wheel factory; a window maker; two turners
of fancy wood-work; and one fanning mill maker.
Shoemakers, 26 116
Tailors, 23 83
Saddlers, 11 32
Tan-yards, 6 25
Tobacconists, 6 70
Bakers, 15 38
Hatters, 5 37
Soap boilers, and tallow chandlers, 7 19
Distilleries, 9 20
Rope-walks, 3 10
Breweries, 2 20
Potteries, 3 14
Stone cutters, 2 15
Brick-yards, 25 200
There are some other manufacturers, mechanics, &c. such as the
following, viz. Five book-binders; five painters and glaziers;
two brush-makers; one {214} comb-maker; two upholsterers; one
bellows-maker; two last-makers; one whip-maker; one hundred
bricklayers; thirty plasterers; fifteen stone masons; eighteen
milliners; one dyer; ten barbers and hair-dressers; ten street pavers;
one burr millstone factory.
Cincinnati has a city court, occasional sittings of the Supreme and
Federal Courts, and a court of common pleas; a museum of natural
history; a library; a reading room; a theatre; three newspapers; five
banks; an insurance company; three fire engines; a humane society
for the resuscitation of persons submersed in water; an agricultural
society; two Bible societies; two tract societies, (one of them for
distributing Bibles and tracts amongst boatmen on the river;) four
Sunday school societies; and three charitable societies. There are
twenty-five lawyers and twenty-two doctors in town.
Of four provincial banks in town, the paper of three is reduced to
about one-third part of the specie sums on the face of their notes,
and the people are making a brisk run on the fourth. This paper shop
is not paying in specie, but merely giving _money like its own_. When
the barter can be no longer continued, the house must be shut, and the
holders of the _pictures_ find them of no value.
The laws of the country, as formerly explained to you, give no redress.
The balance of trade in favour of England and India, together with the
exorbitant premiums to be paid in exchanging bad money for specie, or
bills of the United States Bank, are quite unfavourable to commerce
with foreign countries. The debts due to the merchants of England, and
to those in the Eastern States, might give little {215} annoyance, if
creditors were indulgent as to the past, and as liberal as usual in
future transactions. Property laws give full security in the meantime,
and the bankrupt laws of some States form a complete protection against
foreign claims. It is only to be feared, that foreign merchants will
not be sufficiently accommodating hereafter. The increasing numbers of
their agents in the seaports of America, augur no good to enterprizing
traders in this part.
The climate of this country, like that of other parts of North America,
is subject to extremes of heat and cold. We experience something like
the summer of tropical regions; the winter of Russia; the spring of
England; and the autumn of Egypt. The range of the thermometer is
well exemplified by a compilation from the register kept by Colonel
Mansfield, near Cincinnati, for eight years; 1806 and 1813 included.
_Lowest_ _Highest_ _Range_
1806, 9° 94 85°
1807, 11° below zero, 95 106
1808, 4 do. 98 102
1809, 2 do. 94 96
1810, 7 do. 91 98
1811, 8 do. 96 104
1812, 5 do. 96 101
1813, 10 do. 97 107
Mean range nearly 100°.
The greatest range known at Cincinnati is 116°. At Salem, in
Massachussets, a range of 100° was long ago deducted from observations.
At Jeffersonville, in Indiana, a range of 96¹⁄₄° appears on the
register for six months past. The third column in the following table
shows the greatest change of temperature that occurred in each month,
between eight o’clock A.M. and two P.M.; a period of six hours.
{216} _Maximum_ _Minimum_ _Range_
January, 50° 2° above zero, 30°
February, 78 4 do. 38
March, 70 23 do. 35
April, 92 20 do. 24
May, 79 50 do. 27
June, 98¹⁄₄ 50 do. 36
As the above observations extend only to a space of six months, no
accurate determination can be derived from them. The most prominent
occurrence is a transition of 38° in six hours. Dr. Ramsay has observed
elsewhere a change of 50°, in the space of fifteen hours. These sudden
alterations are disagreeable to the sense of feeling, and injurious to
the health.
It is the popular belief that the greatest cold usually occurs about
sunrise, and the greatest heat about 3 P.M. The most sudden changes
are from cold to heat, the transition from heat to cold not being so
instantaneous. Except for the gradual progress of this change, it would
be more sensibly felt, and more dangerous.
The absence of figured icicles from the insides of windows was
mentioned in a former letter. Up to the present time, I have never seen
any of these incrustations in America,--a certain proof of the dryness
of the atmosphere during frost. In summer, rains are not frequent, but
when they do happen, they generally fall in torrents. They are often
attended by easterly winds, and are partially distributed, drenching
small tracts of country, and leaving adjoining parts dry. During the
summer of 1819, some parts of the country suffered under a severe
and long continued drought. The blades of the crops of maize became
shrivelled, the grass, and afterwards the weeds withered. Latterly,
part of the foliage of the woods was very much dried. {217} Travellers
were subjected to some inconvenience for want of water to their horses,
as were many families who lived in dry situations. Scarcity of water
is a calamity that is much aggravated by a hot climate. In taverns,
a bucket filled with this indispensable liquid, stands open to every
person who chooses to take up the ladle that floats in it, and drink.
In schools, churches, and courts of justice, water is provided.
The older settlers of this country affirm, that the quantity of water
issuing from springs is greatly augmented, by clearing away the timber
from the adjoining lands. From the number and the respectability of the
persons agreeing in this particular, the fact seems to be established.
This is not, however, to be explained simply by evaporation from the
earth, as that evaporation would be promoted by clearing away the
woods, which exposes the surface of the ground to the rays of the sun.
In this way the soil would absorb a less supply for springs than if
it were shaded by trees. It would seem probable, that the moisture
intercepted by trees in the shape of rain, dew, snow, and hoar-frost,
which is evaporated before reaching the ground, and the water withdrawn
from the earth by the organs of trees, are together greater than the
additional evaporation from the surface that is induced by removing the
trees.
In January last, the rain at Jeffersonville measured 3¹⁄₂ inches;
in February 5³⁄₄; in March 3¹⁄₄; in April 2¹⁄₂; and in May, three
inches; making an aggregate of eighteen inches in five months, a
quantity that is probably a little greater than the mean for any long
series of years.
Thunder occurs frequently; sometimes the peals are tremendous, and
almost incessant. They are generally accompanied with showers of
rain, so copious {218} as to cover flat ground with a sheet of water,
and the declivities with a broad stream. Many of the best houses
are furnished with rods for conducting the lightning. Judging from
notices of accidents from the electric fluid in the newspapers, I am
not led to believe that they are much more numerous than in Britain.
Although trees are bad conductors of electricity, they are frequently
struck, and it seems probable that the great abundance of lofty trees
lessens considerably the danger to buildings. An old gentleman, a man
of observation, told me that he never knew of a decayed tree that had
been struck with lightning. This information is the more worthy of
observation, as great quantities of withered trees are found amongst
the woods, and as the greater part of the lands of the western country
are cleared by deadening the timber, and allowing it to stand till
it is easily burnt, or falls by decay. Another person, who is well
acquainted with the habits of the Indians, informed me, that during
thunder storms, these people take shelter under beech trees, in
preference to other kinds of timber. Some comparative experiments on
the conducting properties of leaves, bark, and timber, are necessary
before the propriety of this practice can be established.
It would be difficult to form a conception of any thing in meteorology,
more sublime than the aerial lightning of this climate. In dark nights
the phenomenon is highly entertaining to every spectator to whom the
appearance is new. The vivid flashes seem to emanate from a point, and
diverge from thence in every possible direction. The eye has scarcely
time to trace the progress of these coruscations, which seem to sweep
round half the expanse of the heavens almost in an instant, and to
irradiate {219} the margins of the blackest clouds with a transitory
blaze.
I have never seen the aurora borealis in America. Two instances of its
appearing in 1814 are mentioned in the Picture of Cincinnati, which are
supposed to be the only unequivocal ones observed since the settlement
of the western country. This meteor is more frequently seen by the
people of the northern States.
The most prominent characteristics of the climate of this country are,
the superior transparency of the air in clear weather; the frequency
of a light yellow, but translucent tinge that is strongest at the
horizon, and fainter upwards, where it is blended with a sky of a fine
light blue, at the height of a few degrees. The number of foggy days
is small,[122] and the appearance of clouds, previous to rain, sudden.
Indeed, on several occasions, I have observed a clear atmosphere
transformed into one abounding with dark clouds and rain, in the space
of an hour. Changes of this kind are no doubt produced by sudden
transitions of temperature.
Severe gales of wind do not appear prevalent in western America,
if the two last winters can be admitted as sufficient examples, as
these seasons were much less stormy than those of Scotland. But it is
necessary to make an exception of the tornadoes, which occasionally
blow down houses, lay waste fields, and open avenues through the woods.
One of these tempests destroyed some {220} buildings at Cincinnati, on
the 28th of May, 1809. It was preceded by a wind from the south, and a
higher current blowing from the west, and was understood to commence in
the State of Tennessee. It crossed the Allegany mountains “and made its
exit from the continent” on the same day.[123]