_Albany, N. Y. July 27th, 1834._
It is a Southern opinion, that the large factories which have grown up
in the North, within the last seventeen years, are of a very
demoralizing tendency: that so many persons--_such_ persons too--cannot
be housed together, and allowed the free intercourse unavoidable where
the restraint is not for crime, without a large result of
licentiousness and vice. I have long thought thus: and must confess I
entered New England with a sort of _wish_ (arising from my hostility to
the protective system,) to have the opinion confirmed. In some places,
I heard and saw confirmation strong: but in most--and those the chief
seats of manufactures--my inquiries resulted directly otherwise. The
laborers there, it seems, are as moral as any other class of the
population. The females watch each other's deportment with the most
jealous vigilance: a slip is at once exposed, and punished by
expulsion; even a slight indiscretion is sure to draw down
remonstrance, and if that fails, complaint to the ruling power. The
boys and girls are allowed a reasonable part of the year to attend the
common-schools; and are encouraged at all seasons to frequent Sunday
schools. Lectures, occasional or in courses, are delivered, of which
the operatives are eager hearers: and social Libraries, with habits of
reading, sometimes produce among them strengthened and well stored
minds. Wherever these good effects appear, be it observed, the
proprietors and superintendents (generally men of fortune, as well as
intelligence) have taken the greatest possible care to produce them.
And where the unfavorable appearances occurred, there seemed to have
been a corresponding neglect on the part of owners and agent.
The _natural_ course of these establishments, then, seems to be _down
the stream of vice_. Great exertions may enable them to resist, nay to
surmount and ascend the current; but so soon as those efforts cease,
that instant the downward tendency prevails.[1] While the manufacturing
system is young--while high protecting duties enable employers to give
high wages--while a desire to conciliate favor to the system keeps both
owners and operatives upon _their best behavior_--the favorable moral
condition I have described may continue. But the oarsman cannot forever
row up the stream; weariness, or confidence, or incaution, will, some
day, relax his arm. In process of time, these promiscuous assemblages
of hundreds and thousands will vindicate the justness of the reasoning,
which argues the danger of contamination (a sort of _spontaneous
combustion_) from so close a contact:[2] will shew themselves rank hot
beds of vice; and make the lover of good morals grieve, that so many
souls should ever have been seduced from the healthful air of field,
and forest, and rustic fireside, to sicken and die in a tainted,
unnatural atmosphere.
[Footnote 1: Non aliter quam qui adverso vix flumine lembum
Remigiis subigit; si brachia forté remisit,
Atque illum in præceps prono rapit alveus amni.]
[Footnote 2: In Godwin's Inquirer, are some very just and forcible
observations on the corrupting effect upon youth, of too close and
numerous an association with each other. He applies it to large
boarding schools. The enlightened President of a Rhode Island
University, on similar grounds (as he told me), does all that he can to
discourage students from boarding and lodging in _College_. Observation
and experience had shewn him the danger of _spontaneous combustion_,
from the too near approach of human passions and weaknesses. The same
principle applies to the case of Factory hands: only, here, are
superadded, elements which incalculably enhance the danger.]
I mentioned _Lectures, and social Libraries_.--These, and similar
institutions for diffusing knowledge among the multitude, are among the
chief glories of New England. In all the cities, and many of the larger
and middling towns (towns in the English sense,) there are Lyceums,
Young Men's Societies, Library Societies, or associations under some
such name, for mental exercise and improvement. A collection of books
is a usual, and a philosophical apparatus an occasional appendage.
Connectedly with these institutions, or sometimes, independently of
them, Lectures on every variety of subjects that can instruct or profit
mankind, are delivered by public spirited men--professional and
unprofessional--sometimes, by farmers and mechanics themselves. They
are gratuitous; and in a style plain enough to be understood by all
classes of society, who flock to hear them. For these occasions, the
first abilities of the country have now and then been put in
requisition. Story, Everett, and Webster--alike with the village
teacher and mechanic; have contributed their quota of MIND, towards the
holy cause of Popular Instruction. A valuable lecture from each of
these; from Mr. Everett indeed, two Lectures--are in Vol. 1 of the
"American Library of useful knowledge." The name of this work at once
suggests that a similar one, published by Mr. Brougham and his generous
associates in Great Britain, in _fortnightly_ pamphlets, at a rate so
cheap as to be within every laborer's reach; unfolding, in a familiar
style, the useful parts of scientific and historical knowledge. To his
share in this work, Brougham, you remember, having his hands already
filled with pressing employments, was obliged to devote "_hours stolen
from needful rest_." How magnanimous the spirit, which could prompt
that "hardest lesson that humility can teach--a voluntary descent from
the dignity of science,"[3] to explain the simple rudiments of
knowledge to unlettered minds! the spirit, which could make genius and
power drudge in the lowliest walks of learning, to open and smooth them
for the ingress of intellectual "babes and sucklings!" When will the
great of Virginia deign this magnanimous descent? When will our Leigh,
our Tazewell, our Barbour, our Rives, our Johnson, our Stanard, our
Robertson--a generous spirit, from whose devotion to democracy,
something might be expected towards fitting his countrymen for self
government--when will they, and the host of talents besides that
Virginia possesses, be found striving in this noble race of usefulness
with Brougham, Jeffrey, McIntosh, Webster and Everett? That
trumpet-call of the North American Review five years ago, which might
have roused apathy itself to energetic effort in the cause of Popular
Education, and which--whether it _betokened_ only, or _strengthened_,
the beneficent operation of the spirit that has so long been diffusing
through the North the blessed light of MIND--doubtless met a response
in every Northern bosom; that trumpet-call, in Virginia, fell upon
senseless ears. You indeed, I remember, echoed it; but trumpet-call and
echo both, sounded in ears deaf save to the miserable wranglings of
party, about the more miserable pretensions of opposing candidates:
and, at this day, our people, and their leaders, are in a slumber as
profound on this subject, as if we had no Literary Fund--no Primary
Schools--no youth to educate--no country to save from the certain fate
of popular ignorance.
[Footnote 3: Dr. Johnson.]
It is bed time, and I must forbear saying more at present. Yet I have
not done with New England: there remain several topics, which I incline
to touch. So you shall hear from me at my next stopping place.
* * * * *
_West Point, N. Y., July 28._
On board the Steam-boat this morning, I met ---- ---- and his family;
who, without my knowing it, were in Albany all of yesterday. They have
landed here too; and we expect to descend the river together to New
York city, to-morrow. He has given me a very gratifying account of the
Temperance reformation in this state. It seems to be triumphant, beyond
all experience in Virginia, or even in New England. The _means_ have
been, _perfectly organized action_--_great diligence of exertion_--and
_the use of the_ PRESS. The organization consists in a regular and
intimate concert, of _township_ societies with _county_ societies, and
of these with the _State_ society. This powerful machinery has been
aided by the active zeal, and generosity, of individuals, who have
profusely lavished time, and toil, and money, to advance the goodly
work. And by a judicious use of a great modern improvement of the
Press, a monthly paper (the Temperance Recorder) is published, at the
price of seventeen cents per annum: a copy of which, or of some other
Temperance newspaper, it is believed, is received by almost every
family in the state. Measures are taking to convey light thus to,
absolutely, _every family_. Cannot something like this be done in
Virginia? In Massachusetts, I perceived with regret, a strong
disposition to invoke Legislative action in support of the Temperance
Society: to get the making and vending of ardent spirits prohibited by
Law. In New York, they disarm opposition of so plausible a pretext for
hostility, by fixedly determining to ask--to accept--no such aid; but
to rely exclusively upon _reasoning_, _the exhibition of facts_, _and
the influence of example_--means, which have already achieved, what
were seven years ago deemed chimæras, and which will doubtless be fully
adequate to the consummation of this great work.--But I am digressing
from my design, of dwelling a little longer on some features of New
England.
_Manual Labor Schools_ (on the Fellenberg plan) have not multiplied
there, or grown in esteem, as might have been expected from the
forwardness of the people in adopting every valuable improvement; and
particularly, from the congeniality of this one with their own
long-cherished custom, of blending labor with study. Possibly, this
very custom may, in their eyes, make the improvement unnecessary: since
their youth already substantially enjoy its advantages. To study in
winter--to work in summer--has, time out of mind, been the routine of
New England education: differing from the Fellenberg method only in
having the alternations half-_yearly_, instead of
half-_daily_.--Franklin, the Trumbulls, Sherman, Dwight, Pickering,
Webster, Burges, and all the illustrious self-made men, who have
rendered that otherwise unkindly soil so verdant with laurels, were
nurtured strictly in the discipline of _manual labor schools_: and
perhaps the new method would be quite needless, were not the progress
of wealth, luxury, indolence and pride, now rapidly swelling the
numbers of those who, urged by no necessity, and relying upon no
exertions of their own for distinction, would never feel the salutary
influence of labor, if not sent to schools where it is taught; and were
not the same progress multiplying those also, who never could procure
instruction, except by the opportunity which this method affords them,
of purchasing it by their labor. Perhaps too, the Common Schools (in
which poor and rich are equally entitled to learn) may tend still more
to render the new plan useless; as to the branches of knowledge taught
in them.
_Infant Schools_ appear to have sunk a good deal in esteem, among
intelligent people in New England. At Hartford, a lady, whose name
(were it seemly to publish a lady's name) would give commanding weight
to the opinion, told me that they were found hurtful both to body and
mind: To _body_ (and this the physicians confirmed) by overexciting,
and thus injuring, the brain and the nervous system: to _mind_, by
inducing the habit of learning parrot-like, by rote--by sound
merely--without exercise of the thinking power. It seems agreed, that
some features of the infant school system may advantageously be
transferred to ordinary schools: for instance, the use of tangible and
visible symbols and illustrations. And infant schools themselves are
certainly well enough, for those children who would otherwise have to
be left alone, or untended, while their parents are abroad or at work.
But for _young children_, where the sternest necessity does not forbid,
there is nothing comparable to _domestic education_; no care, no skill,
no authority, like those of a mother--or of a father. And how few
parents there are, who, by methodical husbandry of time, and reasonable
exertion of intellect, might not find both leisure and ability to train
the minds and form the habits of their offspring, for at least the
first nine years of life!
The Common-school system, _as a system_, is certainly admirable. But
some _minutiæ_ of its administration may be censured. Teachers are
often tasked with too many pupils. I saw a young woman of twenty,
toiling in the sway of fifty-two noisy urchins, with twenty of whom I
am quite sure my hands would have been over-full: and it was said to be
no unusual case. Then, _Webster's spelling book_ is in frequent use.
There are half a dozen better ones. And the barbarous usage, of making
a child go on to spell in five or six syllables, before he is allowed
the refreshment of reading--instead of teaching him to read as soon as
he can spell in three letters, and then carrying on the two processes
together, to their mutual acceleration--is still kept up, as in our
_old-field_ schools.--A usage about as worthy of this enlightened age,
as the old rule, of whipping a boy for miscalling a word, or for not
crossing a _t_. I was glad to see Warren Colburn's books--his
Intellectual Arithmetic particularly--in pretty general use. His merit
is, not so much that he has smoothed the road to that child-perplexing
branch of knowledge (though in that respect he has entitled himself to
every child's gratitude), as that he has rendered the study an
improving exercise to the mind--a strengthener and quickener of the
reasoning faculty; and has disclosed the _rationalia_ of many processes
of calculation, as mysterious before to the young mind as so many feats
of jugglery. A pervading fault in the management of the common-schools,
is a _false economy_; shewn, in choosing teachers less by their proper
qualifications, than by their cheapness. In Connecticut, more
especially, this wretched mistake seems to prevail; as a curious fact,
told me in Providence, strikingly illustrates. Of the many who go forth
from the University there, and from several good Academies in the state
of Rhode Island, to find employment as teachers in the adjoining
states, few or none, it was said, found it in Connecticut: owing to the
niggardly wages paid there. The man for their money, is he who _asks
the least_.
Wide discretion, as to the classification of the Common-schools, and as
to the extent of the studies in them, is given to the _Towns_. In some,
the people, or their commissioners appointed to superintend the
schools, are content with a single grade or _tier_, in which are taught
merely the _necessary_ sorts of knowledge, from Arithmetic downwards.
Others classify them, into 1st. _primary_ schools, where only spelling,
reading, and writing, are taught: 2nd. _secondary_ schools, for the
rudiments of Arithmetic, Geography, English Grammar, and further
progress in reading and writing: 3rd. _Apprentices'_ schools, where the
above branches are further taught, with the addition of some History,
Book-keeping, and Geometry: 4th. _High_ schools, for Algebra, Geometry,
use of the Globes, Latin, (and sometimes Greek) with perhaps the
elements of Natural Philosophy. The classification sometimes stops at
the third, sometimes at the second, tier. There are but few towns, in
which it is carried to the fourth. Worcester is one of these: Boston,
and Salem, are the only others that I heard of. In the first and second
grades, boys and girls are schooled together: in the higher grades,
male and female schools, are separate.
Latin and Mathematics are coming to be considered as a regular part of
female education, throughout the North. But I have not ascertained
satisfactorily, whether it is a mere smattering that is taught, or so
thorough a course as may solidly improve the memory, taste, judgment
and reasoning powers. In relation to women even more emphatically than
to men, (it seems generally agreed) these studies are less to be
prized, for any specific pieces of knowledge they furnish, than for the
activity, strength, acuteness and polish, they give to the various
powers of the understanding. The Yankees are too shrewd, and too
habitually observant of practical utility, not to perceive this truth,
and act accordingly.
The voyage hither from Albany abounds with captivating spectacles. For
the first fifty miles, these consisted chiefly of waving hills,
interspersed with modest but handsome country seats half-veiled by
trees;--and of villages and landings, where, at intervals of four or
five miles, our immense floating Hotel would halt to take in and land
passengers--if halt it could be called, when her motion was not
actually suspended, but only slackened, while by _her boat_, she
rapidly communicated with the shore. The Catskill Mountains were in
sight; and we were nearly entering the Highlands, so celebrated in the
journal of every tourist, from Dolph Heyliger downwards, for their
almost matchless combination of beauty and sublimity; when the _lean_
"orderer of all things," for reasons best known to himself and his
employers, contrived to coop us all under hatches at dinner. A slender
appetite, and a surmise that there would be something worth seeing,
carried me on deck before the rest were half done eating; when
mountains, hemming in the majestic Hudson to a width of not more than
five or six hundred yards, broke at once upon my view. They rise, from
the water's very edge, within twenty or thirty degrees of the
perpendicular, to a height of fourteen or fifteen hundred feet; their
sides and summits undulating with various prominences and depressions,
occupied by dark brown rocks, intermingled with scanty shadings of
evergreens, stunted bushes, and shrubs. After sailing three or four
miles between these awful embankments, we reach West Point. Here are
quite too many pleasing objects, for enumeration; a skilful book-wright
could make a volume of them. 'Kosciusko's Garden' is a romantic
_sinus_, or recess, in the precipice which forms the eastern face,
(upon the river) of the _table land_ called West Point. Hither, it is
said, that hero used daily to retire for meditation and repose; and a
shelf in the rock is shewn, as the couch where he often reclined. Nay,
within a few inches of where his head probably used to lie, an
indentation in the rock is pointed out, said to have been made by a
cannon ball, fired at him from a British man of war that lay in the
river: but this story "wants confirmation." You descend by a flight of
stone steps to the "Garden," which is only ten or fifteen feet above
the river. It is furnished with wooden seats; and with a neat fountain
of whitish marble, in which bubbles up a bold vein of water.
On the north-eastern angle of the "Point," around which the river
somewhat abruptly sweeps, is a handsome monument, erected by the Cadets
some years ago, to the same hero. It is a plain marble column, about
fifteen or eighteen feet high; with no inscription save the single word
"KOSCIUSKO." This simple memorial is, in moral sublimity, scarcely
inferior to that conception, one of the noblest of its kind in the
whole compass of poetry--
"We carved not a line, we raised not a stone,
But we _left him alone with his glory_."
There are few names which can justly be relied upon, thus to speak the
epitaphs of those who bore them. Among those few, doubtless, is the
name of KOSCIUSKO. History, and the halo thrown around that name by
Campbell, will ensure it a place among the "household words" of Poland
and America, and of every people who shall speak the language or
breathe the spirit of either.
"Hope, for a season, bade the world farewell,
And Freedom shrieked, as KOSCIUSKO fell!"
To be mentioned thus, and so deservedly--is to be embalmed in Light,
and set conspicuously on high in the Temple of Fame.
A similar inscription is upon the tomb of _Spurzheim_, in the cemetery
of Mount Auburn, near Boston. To me, this seems to be taking too high a
ground for him: though you, who are a phrenologist confirmed, may not
think so. Possibly, you are right. Contemporary celebrity is no measure
of posthumous fame. PARADISE LOST was almost unknown till near half a
century after its author's death: and he was contemptuously designated
as "_One Milton_," by a man then conspicuous, but whose very name
(_Whitelocke_) it has at this moment actually cost me _an effort_ to
recollect. So, possibly, Spurzheim's renown may freshen with time; and
a discerning posterity, honoring him above Napoleon, and even above
Kosciusko, may apply the just saying of a _great_--that is a
voluminous--poet:
"The warrior's name,
Though pealed and chimed on all the tongues of Fame,
With far less rapture fills the generous mind,
Than his, who fashions and improves mankind."
Good night.
For the Southern Literary Messenger.