without which all that this world can give is but of little
avail--_Health_. Reports of sickness which never existed, and of
deaths which happily never took place, have been most industriously
circulated; the fact is, that there has seldom been a new settlement
which has suffered so little loss by death; or which has been so free
from sickness. The number of deaths has been in the ratio of four in
ninety-five each year, and this is a smaller number than in most places
in the habitable globe, where the records of such events have been
preserved. Many of its inhabitants have with myself, enjoyed far better
health, than in their native country; so that I may safely conclude,
after two years residence, with the information of those who were here
a year and a half before me, that {41} there scarcely existed in the
habitable globe, a place where the inhabitants have enjoyed so large a
share of this invaluable blessing.
As to our future prospects they are truly flattering, in the
probability of increasing population, now the clouds and mists which
malignity has spread abroad are disappearing, before the light of
truth, as the mists of morning disappear before the light and the heat
of the sun: the well-grounded hopes of future harvests, arising from
the rich abundance of the present; the perseverance and industry of a
large portion of our settlers; the excellent materials for building,
and the increasing number of fine wells of water, all present a most
encouraging and delightful prospect.
Another testimony in favour of our situation is, that some of our
countrymen who have settled in other places, have visited us,
expressing their surprise and regret that they had been the dupes of
false reports, and had stopped short of the Illinois. While others more
prudently came down from Cincinnati, and even Baltimore to visit this
land of evil report, minutely examined for themselves, returned to
bring their families, and are contented with their lot.
Another remark was made by certain writers, {42} that although we had
improved our situation as to animal enjoyments, we had sacrificed
intellectual pleasures, because I stated, in one of my letters, that
there were no booksellers here, and that the necessary business which
could not be avoided in a new settlement, left us but little time for
reading. Hasty conclusion! Many of us brought out ample libraries of
our own, and we have also a standing library in our little town; which
is supplied with newspapers and periodical publications. Those who
emigrated to the Illinois were not altogether illiterate; a majority
of them were quite of a contrary description; and as to agricultural
knowledge, there are very few spots on the face of the earth, where it
is so much concentrated, as at the Illinois, having farmers from almost
all the different counties in England. There are likewise, several
American, Dutch, and French farmers, gardeners, and vine dressers in
our neighbourhood.
The reports of the wickedness and irreligion of our settlement, with a
view to prevent individuals from joining us, have been industriously
spread far and near. That there is a diversity of character in every
part of the globe, will not be denied; that this diversity exists here
is equally true; and that a portion of its inhabitants {43} is of an
immoral cast, will be as readily admitted; that we have not left human
nature with its infirmities and propensities behind us is equally a
fact; and even if it should be admitted, that unhappily, a larger
portion of the dissipated, the idle, and the dissolute are to be met
with in new countries than is usually to be found in old ones, yet we
have the same antidote for these mischiefs:--the _light shining in a
dark place_. We have public worship and ample supplies of sermons from
pious practical preachers, from the Catholic to the Socinian Creed,[64]
which are read on the Sabbath. But above all we have the _incorruptible
seed of the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever_; and it is
with pleasure I can assure my readers, that there is an increasing
congregation, and I trust, increasing religion amongst us. But if it
was otherwise, surely this should be rather an argument for persons
of religious zeal to join us, who have emigration in view; _to come
over to Macedonia and help us_, rather than shrink from such a task.
At least it is not apostolic or evangelic feeling that would draw a
different conclusion.
[64] Socinianism was belief in the tenets or doctrines of Faustus
Socinus, an Italian theologian of the sixteenth century, who denied
the trinity and divinity of Christ, affirming that Christ was a man
divinely commissioned.--ED.
When I was at Philadelphia a lady of the Society of _Friends_ addressed
me most emphatically on the subject:--"Wilt thou, friend {44} Flower,
take thy family to that infidel and wicked settlement in the Illinois?
Thou appearest to be a christian; how wilt thou answer to thy God for
endangering the precious souls of thy dear children?" Madam, answered
I, my destiny appears to be in the Illinois settlement; and rather
than turn from thence on the account you have mentioned, you have
furnished me with a forcible argument to proceed. I trust I am as you
have supposed a sincere christian, and as it is my special duty to go
where reformation is so necessary, I will endeavour to perform it, and
hope for the blessing of the Most High. It is for us to use the means.
We know who it is to command success in our present state and future
prospects.[65]
[65] See _Note_ B.--B. FLOWER.
It may be worth while to make a few remarks on the characters,
situations, and apparent motives of some of those persons by whom we
have been misrepresented and reviled.
The first class that opened their batteries of illiberal abuse, were
the ministerial and hireling writers in England.[66] The emigration
of Englishmen, in the Illinois it appears did not please the masters
whom these writers serve; and this is sufficient to account for _their_
{45} conduct: as usual, they were not very nice, in the means they
made use of. Private characters were assailed indiscriminately, and
motives imputed to the emigrants which never entered their minds. The
grand reason for emigration was to escape that overwhelming system
of taxation which had diminished the property of the emigrants, and
threatened if they staid much longer, to swallow up the whole. Their
conduct has proved their discernment, and justified their proceedings.
[66] Regarding the attitude of the English government, at the time,
towards emigration to America, see Preface to the present volume.--ED.
How many of my brother farmers have lost their all! How many have
been added to the list of paupers since we left our beloved country,
newspapers and private letters, agricultural meetings and parliamentary
proceedings and reports, sufficiently declare. Happy had it been for
many others, if they had accompanied us: some who have followed us
have lamented their indecision, and have felt the fatal consequences
of their lingering in their own country. The motives and views of this
first class of revilers, is too obvious to need fa[r]ther notice.
Another writer, who is, or rather who was once popular, whom I met
at New York, passionately expressed his determination _to write us
down_: amongst much false reasoning which {46} he made use of for this
purpose, it is greatly to be feared he also cared but little for truth;
and I have often wondered what could be his motive? Whether he had some
other settlement at heart; or whether he wished to keep all emigrants
near him to persuade them to enter into his grand plan of inundating
England with forged Bank of England notes!!--One thing however is
decidedly clear; that he knew nothing about what he was writing; and
our present success, surrounded by so many comforts, is a sufficient
proof he did not do us all the harm he intended. Were he to ride over
our fine prairies, viewing our flocks, herds, and corn fields, such
ocular demonstration of the falsehood of his statements would be to him
a sufficient mortification.[67]
[67] See _Note C_.--B. FLOWER.
But there is another class of men of a very different sort; those
who were raising rival settlements, in various parts of America, and
who had lands for sale: who longed to stop the cash which seemed to
be pouring into the lap of the Illinois. It was natural for them, as
human nature is constituted, to attempt to arrest its progress; they
therefore joined the hue and cry against the Illinois, and spread
reports {47} of sickness, starvation, famishing for thirst, frequent
deaths, and the consequent abandonment of our settlement. In this
they in some instances succeeded, and as I have before hinted, some
have visited us who speak of their having been _entrapped_, and
express the deep regret that they did not join us. Facts however soon
began to dispel the illusion: one gentleman brought his family to
Cincinnati, several families visited Baltimore, who notwithstanding
the evil tidings that they had heard ventured, although with fearful
apprehensions, to the English settlement: but singular as it may
appear to our calumniators, after a most minute investigation into our
situation and circumstances, in the autumn of the year they could not
find a sick person throughout the settlement: nor was the drought which
certainly inconvenienced us, peculiar or local; it raged throughout the
western country. They were satisfied, and went to fetch their families,
who are now residents amongst us to their entire satisfaction. It is
no wonder then, that the falsehoods and calumnies which have been
so industriously spread, are at length found to be such; and that
the character and motives of the persons who have assailed us are
duly appreciated: and, as a consequence of these and {48} other
circumstances one hundred individuals have joined the town of Albion,
and about twenty have settled in its environs since last August.
Notwithstanding all I have stated, I would not have my countrymen
consider me as inducing them to emigrate, without serious and due
consideration of their own circumstances; but rather consider me
as advising them if they do emigrate to America, to come and unite
with us in the Illinois; resting assured that what I have stated is
truth--_impartial truth_.
It is a trial of no mean sort to quit one's native country, and
separate ourselves from those for whom we have the sincerest friendship
and regard. The privations however of a first settlement are at an end:
we may now indeed say "the way is smoothed for them;" and it rests with
us who are now settled to be prosperous, contented, and happy. It is
equally our duty and our interest, to consider well the blessings we
enjoy at this place of abounding plenty. Many of you my countrymen,
can look back on the frightful abyss of pauperism and starvation which
you have escaped, and should lift up your hearts in gratitude to God
for his mercies vouchsafed to you. Forget not who it is that has
preserved your lives and prolonged {49} your days; blessed you with so
much health; preserved you _from the arrow that flieth at noon day;
and the pestilence that walketh in darkness_. Remember that it depends
upon your virtuous endeavours, how great, how good, and how happy the
settlement in the Illinois shall be. Eradicate the stain which report
has cast on your moral and religious characters; and may your example
be such as to influence the formation of character of this place;
that your _ways may be ways of pleasantness, and all your paths be
peace_. Remember that without virtue happiness cannot exist. Let future
generations rise up and call you blessed; so that you may, on your
departure from this life, rest satisfied that your emigration to the
Illinois proved the means of your increasing welfare and happiness in
time and eternity.
R. F.
{50} EXTRACT OF A LETTER, FROM MR. BIRKBECK
_Wanborough, May 7, 1821._
SIR,
REGARDING the abuse which people have indulged in about
my undertakings, and my accounts of them, I find little difficulty
in taking it quietly. I have spent four years in this country, and
now every day furnishes fresh proofs of the correctness of my early
impressions, so complete as to excite a degree of astonishment at my
good fortune _in conjecturing rightly_, and occasionally something of
self-congratulation, under the hope that partial friends may give me a
little credit for sagacity.
A statistical account of this country, by the time I had finished it,
and long before it could reach you, would need correction. Satisfied
as I am, to a degree of occasional exultation, with the condition of
my own farm, and my prospects as an American cultivator, so rapid and
certain is the progress of improvement, that I should not be flattered
by your reading, six months hence, an account of its present state.
Besides, enough has been already written to shew the _candid_ public
that all our {51} reasonable expectations are satisfied: for the rest,
who _enjoy_ our imaginary reverses, and rely more on the superficial
accounts of such people as C. F. &c. who have never seen the country,
or if they have seen it, are incapable of judging, it really is a waste
of labour to write for _them_. Those wretched people who indulge their
malevolence in personal abuse are unworthy of my notice. It would
indeed be to our advantage, and is the only harm I wish them, that
their ignorance and their prejudices should continue, lest they should
follow us.
We are on the eastern limits of a country differing essentially from
all that has hitherto been cultivated in the United States. The
people to the east of us are incapable of imagining a dry and rich
wholesome country, where they may enter at once on fine lands prepared
for cultivation, without the enormous expence of time and labour in
_clearing_, which has been bestowed on every acre between this and
the Atlantic. The inhabitants of the old States are profoundly and
_resolutely_ ignorant of the advantages of our prairie country. Books
are written in the east to prove the wretchedness of the prairies, by
persons who have never approached them within five hundred miles; and
English writers of the same {52} description, some with names and some
without, can obtain more credence than is granted to me, from that
description of readers. On the whole, I do not think it worth while
to undertake the conviction of these people. The settlers here _who
prosper_, that is to say, those who possess good morals and common
discretion, will, in course, tell their experience to their friends and
connections in England, and invite them to follow their example; these
again will invite others. This is now going on in all directions. Some
_write_ for their former neighbours or the residue of their families,
others push back to the old country, to conduct them out. Numbers who
come to try their hands at a _new_ settlement are wholly unfit for
_any_ place in this world, _new_ or _old_, unless it be to supply the
requisite quota of evil, which in this imperfect state, adheres to all
places. These are the people sometimes most likely to be heard, whilst
those who go on well and wisely are little noticed. Their _adventures_
are at an end: they "keep a pig" and live happily. A volcano is a fine
subject when in action, but the interest ceases with the eruption. At
some future day,--some "still time, when there is no room for chiding,"
should my life be spared, I may lay before my countrymen a statement
{53} of our condition: but the suitable time, I think, is not yet. It
is, however, a pleasing office to transmit to an intelligent friend an
occasional sketch of the settlement; and to receive, as I have from
you, and I hope you will repeat the obligation, a return of liberal
communication.
The various attacks upon my reputation will be repelled, _surely_,
though perhaps _slowly_, by time. Among my neighbours, who are
now numerous, their effect has ceased already. The accuracy of my
statements become daily more evident, and my errors are found to be on
the opposite side to _exaggeration_; a style which I dislike: it is
offensive to my taste, as well as my moral feelings: is not a written
lie to the full as abominable as one that is spoken?
The telescope which you have had the goodness to procure for me is
an object of pleasant anticipation. This climate is favourable for
astronomical observations, and it will add to our rational amusements.
I shall therefore be obliged by your forwarding it as before directed,
as soon as convenient.
M. B.
END OF THE LETTERS
{55} NOTES[68]
[68] As already explained in note 55, _ante_, the writer of these Notes
was Benjamin Flower, brother of the author of the Letters.--ED.
[_Note_ A, _page_ 139.]
The following Remarks respecting the want of water, and the account
of the English settlement at the Illinois, are taken from a most
entertaining, interesting, and elegant work, lately published, and
of which a _second_ edition is in the press. I here insert them, as
they tend to confirm the correctness of the accounts published by Mr.
Birkbeck and my brother, and contain some excellent advice to emigrants,
"You have expressed in your late letters, some curiosity regarding the
condition of the English settlement, in the Illinois, adding, that the
report has prevailed that those spirited emigrants had been at first
too sanguine, and had too little foreseen the difficulties which the
most fortunate settler must encounter. This report, I believe, to have
originated with Mr. Cobbett, who thought proper to pronounce upon the
condition of the farmer in the Illinois, in his own dwelling upon Long
Island. Feeling an interest in the success of our countrymen in the
West, I have been at some pains to inform myself as to their actual
condition. The following statement is chiefly taken from the letters
of two American gentlemen, of our acquaintance who have just visited
the settlement; they inform me that its situation possesses all those
positive advantages stated by Mr. Birkbeck; that the worst difficulties
have been surmounted; and that these have {56} always been fewer than
what are frequently encountered in a new country.
"The village of Albion, the centre of the settlement, contains at
present thirty habitations, in which are found a bricklayer, a
carpenter, a wheelwright, a cooper, and a blacksmith; a well supplied
shop, a little library, an inn, a chapel, and a post office, where the
mail regularly arrives twice a week. Being situated on a ridge, between
the greater and little Wabash, it is from its elevated position, and
from its being some miles removed from the rivers, peculiarly dry and
healthy. The prairie on which it stands, is as exquisitely beautiful;
lawns of unchanging verdure, spreading over hills and dales, scattered
with islands of luxuriant trees, dropped by the hand of nature, with
a taste that art could not rival--all this spread beneath a sky of
glowing and unspotted sapphires. The most beautiful parks of England,
would afford a most imperfect comparison. The soil is abundantly
fruitful, and of course has an advantage over the heavy timbered lands,
which can scarcely be cleared for less than from twelve to fifteen
dollars per acre, while the Illinois farmer, may in general clear his
for less than five, and then enter upon a more convenient mode of
tillage. The objection that is too frequently found to the beautiful
prairies of the Illinois, is the deficiency of springs and streams
for mill seats. This is attended with inconvenience to the settler,
though his health will find in it advantage. The nearest navigable
river to Albion is the Wabash, eight miles distant: the nearest running
stream, that is not liable to fail at Midsummer, the Bonpaw, four
miles distant. The stock of water in ponds for cattle, was liable to
run dry in a few weeks, and the settlement apprehended some temporary
inconvenience from {57} the circumstance. The finest water is every
where to be raised from twenty to twenty-five, or thirty feet from the
surface, these wells never fail, but are of course troublesome to work
in a new settlement.
"The settlement at Albion, must undoubtedly possess some peculiar
attractions for an English emigrant, promising him, as it does, the
society of his own countrymen, an actual or ideal advantage, to which
he is seldom insensible. Generally speaking, however, it may ultimately
be as well for him, as for the community to which he attached himself,
that he should become speedily incorporated with the people of the
soil: many emigrants bring with them prejudices and predilections which
can only be rubbed away by a free intercourse with the natives of the
country. By sitting down at once among them, they will more readily
acquire an accurate knowledge of their political institutions, and
learn to estimate the high privileges which these impart to them, and
thus attaching themselves to their adopted country, not for mere sordid
motives of interest, but also from feeling and principle, become not
only _naturalized_, but also _nationalized_. I have met with but too
many in this country, who have not advanced beyond the former. I must
observe, also, that the European farmer and mechanic, are usually far
behind the American in general and practical knowledge, as well as
enterprise. You find in the working farmer of these states, a store of
information, a dexterity in all the manual arts, and often a high tone
of national feeling, to which you will hardly find a parallel amongst
the same class elsewhere. His advice and assistance always freely given
to those who seek it, will be found of infinite service to a stranger;
it will often save him from many rash speculations, at the same time
that it will dispose {58} him to see things in their true light, and to
open his eyes and heart to all the substantial advantages that surround
him."
_Views of Society and Manners in America, in a series of Letters from
that Country to a Friend in England during the years 1818, 1819, 1820.
By an Englishman, 8vo._[69]
[69] The last word of the title should be _Englishwoman_. The author,
Miss Frances Wright, was born in Dundee, Scotland (1795) and at an
early age became interested in sociological questions. She came to
America in 1812 and made one of the earliest attempts to solve the
slavery problem; but her practical experiment in employing negro labor
on a Tennessee plantation ended in failure. Removing to New Harmony,
she conducted, with the assistance of Robert Dale Owen, a socialistic
journal. From 1829 to 1836 she lectured throughout the United States,
being one of the earliest women lecturers on the American platform.
Returning to Europe, she married M. Darusmont (1838), and did not again
appear in public life.--ED.
The above as the reader will notice, was written two years ago, since
which the settlement, as appears by the letters now published, has
considerably increased, and for the time it has been established, is in
a very flourishing state.
[_Note_ B, _page_ 145.]