A GLIMPSE OF KENTUCKY.
Cincinnati--The Queen city--Views in reference to
missionary labour--The kind of missionaries wanted in
the great Valley--Walnut Hills--Lane Seminary--Dr.
Beecher--Woodward College--Dr. Aydelott--The old
Kentucky man--Louisville--The Galt House--View of the
interior of Kentucky--Plantations--A sore
evil--Kentuckian traits of character--A thrilling
incident.
_Cincinnati, Friday Morning, June 23d, 1837._
We reached this city, not inappropriately called "The Queen of the West,"
yesterday morning, and bid adieu to the Elk and its taciturn captain. Upon
the whole I have been greatly pleased with Cincinnati. The whole air and
aspect of the town has reminded me more of Philadelphia than any city I
have seen west of the mountains. Christ Church, in this city, is a noble
building, and the interior furnishes a beautiful specimen of architectural
taste and skill. St. Paul's Church is also a tasteful structure, although I
was not able to obtain a view of the interior. The Roman Catholic cathedral
and college make a fine appearance, but the interior of the cathedral
greatly disappointed me. The audience room is small, narrow, and mean in
appearance. I am happy to say that in passing through this western region
I find but one impression among well-informed and intelligent men in
relation to the growth and progress of popery here; and that is, that it is
making little or no advances, except with the increase of foreign
population.
In my visit to Cincinnati I derived much information in relation to the
west, as well as much personal enjoyment from the conversation and society
of our most excellent brother, the Rev. J. T. B., Rector of Christ Church.
He occupies a most important position on the walls of Zion, and I could not
but say to myself, the more I saw and conversed with him, "Oh that we had a
thousand such clergymen at the west as he." He, as well as several other
intelligent clergymen in this region, assured me that it needed only a band
of well-trained, devoted, godly men, to plant the Episcopal Church every
where through the whole length and breadth of this vast valley. The united
testimony of all is, "Send us the right kind of men--or send us none. The
idea that any one will answer for a missionary to the west is a most fatal
error. We want here men of enlarged and liberal views, thoroughly educated,
of great prudence, energy and efficiency--men who are willing to work, and
willing to keep on working till they see the fruit of their labours--and
above all, pious, devoted men--men full of the Holy Ghost, and burning with
a love for immortal souls, who will speak directly to the hearts and
consciences of people. Give us such ministers, and no limits need be set to
the establishment of the Church. But if men of another stamp are to be
sent, those whose dullness, and deadness, and inefficiency prevent their
getting any place among the old established parishes at the east, the
result will be that our prospects here for the Church wherever they plant
themselves will be for ever ruined."
I have heard these sentiments again and again from the lips of some of our
most devoted ministers at the west. The body of clergy that now come here
are going to give character to the Church. They are engaged in the
momentous business of _laying foundations_. We must look not only to the
immediate, but future results of their labours. In almost all places,
before any thing can be done a church has to be built. I had no conception
till I entered this great valley of the difficulty of finding a place in
which to assemble the people for public worship. Almost the first business
to be done is to effect the erection of a church. The clergyman who can
inspire such confidence in himself and awaken such a degree of interest, as
to lead a western community to embark in such an enterprize, must have some
tact and power. Another difficulty is to induce the people to attend
church. Vast numbers here have fallen into the confirmed habit of spending
their Sabbaths in another way. It is an effort for them to go to church.
There must be some attractions in the minister to draw this class of
persons out, and they are here a very large, and respectable, and
influential class. A dull, sleepy, prosing minister is not the man for the
west.
In the afternoon we rode out to Walnut Hills to visit Lane Seminary, and
pay our respects to Dr. Beecher. He received us with that frank, blunt
cordiality, which I have so often experienced in New England, and which
makes its rough and cragged hills more attractive to me than all the
luxuriant fields of the west. The pleasure of our visit was not a little
enhanced by the presence of Miss Catharine E. Beecher, who is widely known
to the literary world through the productions of her gifted pen. I am sorry
that my limits will not allow me to detail to you some parts of a
discussion that we had upon several interesting topics--especially in
reference to the present state of _the Presbyterian Church_, and of the
best mode of diffusing light among the _Roman Catholics_. I certainly left
Dr. B---- more than ever impressed with a high conviction of the brilliancy
of his intellect, and the depth of his piety.
The location of Lane Seminary is in the midst of a most beautiful
landscape. There is just enough, and just the right admixture of hill and
dale, forest and field, to give it the effect we love to feel in gazing
upon a calm and quiet scene of beauty. In our return to Cincinnati we took
another route, which, as we approached the town, gave us from the lofty
amphitheatre of hills that encircle this "occidental queen" a new view of
her charms. As we approached the lofty eminences in the rear of the town,
while we gazed from the summit down upon the city, I could not but reflect
how Jerusalem must have appeared to the spectator who stood upon Mount
Olivet, and looked down upon the proud domes and busy streets that lay
beneath him. And the thought too then occurred to me, that had I the gifted
vision of him who once stood upon Olivet, and wept over Jerusalem, I might
see in this beautiful city enough to draw forth floods of grief. With all
my admiration of Cincinnati, I see here abundant evidences of great
wickedness. The temperance cause I fear has made but little advance in this
place, and the god of this world holds a fearful sway over the minds of too
many of its inhabitants.
I met last evening the Rev. Dr. Aydelott, the former Rector of Christ
Church, who now occupies the place of President of Woodward College, an
institution in Cincinnati, endowed by the munificence of a single
individual, and which promises, with its present head, to do much for the
cause of learning in the west. I am satisfied that education here is to be
one of the great moral levers by which mind is to be raised from the
darkness and degradation of sin. In the President of Woodward College I
found a man of thorough evangelical views, sound intellect, and fine
literary attainment.
_Louisville, Tuesday, June 27._
It was about noon, Friday the 23d, that we left Cincinnati on board the
steamboat _Commerce_. Having reached the great Miami, we had immediately
under our eye the view of three states. Ohio which we were leaving--Indiana
which now constituted the right-hand bank of the river, and Kentucky, which
still continued to present us with its "alternations of bottom and bluff"
on the left.--We met on board a fine specimen of plain, honest, fearless
Kentucky character. He was an old man who cultivated a farm without slave
labour, possessing great bluntness, a large share of intelligence, and an
evident warm-hearted piety. Having formed some acquaintance with B----, he
accosted Mr. F---- and myself almost immediately upon coming where we
stood, in the following manner. "Well, gentlemen, I find your friend here
is for Christ: which side are you on? I am willing to show my colours." He
seemed very happy to know that we were trying to serve the same Master whom
he loved.
At early dawn, on the morning of Saturday, June 24th, we found our
steamboat lying along the shore, on which Louisville is built. As the heat
now began to be oppressive, it was very reviving to leave the confined
cabin of our steamer, and inhale the fresh breath of morning. Louisville is
evidently a flourishing business town, containing about twenty-five
thousand inhabitants, ten thousand less than Cincinnati. We put up at the
GALT HOUSE, an establishment which we had heard very highly commended. We
however, in the end, did not feel disposed greatly to dissent from the
remark of one of the lodgers at the Hotel, who in true Kentucky style
remarked--"_that the Galt House was not after all just what it was cracked
up to be_." I found many things to interest me in Louisville. During the
few days that I stopped here, it was my intention to visit Lexington, but
having been providentially prevented, I endeavoured to make amends for this
disappointment by taking short excursions into the country. How could I
fail to be delighted with the splendid corn and hemp fields along by the
sides of which I passed! and the luxuriant forests which, with their
underwood cleared away, and grown up, as they were, with blue grass,
appeared like noble parks affording pasture ground for the hundred beeves
that roamed there! How could I fail to be delighted with the frank, and
generous, and warm-hearted hospitality which I every where experienced. But
I saw a dark cloud hanging over this beautiful state! Almost all its
inhabitants see it, and lament it, and hope that it may one day be rolled
away! Through the politeness of a friend I was afforded an opportunity of
visiting several large plantations cultivated by slaves. I was pleased with
the evident kindness with which the slaves are treated, and the happy
contentedness which they displayed. But still I could not but see many
evils connected with this system. And I have no doubt that large portions
of the intelligent part of the people in Kentucky have juster views of
these evils than any of their northern neighbours--and that could silent
wishes remove the difficulty the chains of bondage would be instantly
broken. I dined with a gentleman, of great urbanity and professed piety,
living on a small plantation in the country. After dinner, we walked out,
and passed by the shantee in which his slaves lived. He asked me to look
in, and talk with them, he in the mean time passing on, with some other
gentlemen into the garden. I did so. In the cottage they occupied there was
every appearance of neatness and comfort. I remarked to an intelligent
looking woman who stood over the wash-tub--
"You look quite comfortable here, I suppose you are very happy."
She immediately replied, "I am not happy."
"Ah!" said I, "what makes you unhappy? Are you not treated kindly by your
master and his family?"
"Oh, yes!" she responded, "I have nothing to complain of on that ground."
"What is it then that makes you unhappy?" I asked.
"My sins," she replied.
I remarked that this was indeed the cause of all our misery; and I then
endeavoured to point her to that blessed fountain opened for sin and
uncleanness, where she and all our guilty race might wash and be clean.
As I passed along, I saw several young children around the establishment,
and when I joined our host in the garden, I told him what had passed, and
inquired of him, if the parents of the children we saw had been regularly
married. He appeared somewhat confused, and very serious--but at length
replied--
"This is one of the worst features of slavery. Two of the parents of those
children are married. The woman with whom you were conversing is the mother
of four children, and has never been married? Her conscience is not easy."
I inquired if such things were of common occurrence among the slave
population? He replied--"Yes--and we cannot prevent it." Alas for that
state of society which brings along unavoidably such sin in its train!
I inquired in relation to the religious instruction of the slaves, and was
sorry to learn that it was so very defective. On one plantation where there
were seventy slaves, the master was a perfect worldling, and never allowed
his slaves to attend public worship or receive any kind of religious
instruction. Must there not be something wrong in that state of society
which places seventy immortal souls so entirely under the control of one
individual that he can shut against them completely the gate of heaven? But
this is an unwelcome theme and I pass on.
Perhaps there is no part of our country where there are such fixed and
marked traits of character as in New England and Kentucky. There are many
traits in the Kentuckian which I admire, and which when brought under the
influence and control of Divine grace form the substratum of a noble
character. One of the attributes of this character is an honest
independence, which despises the meanness of stooping to get any advantage
by blandishment or truckling. This is evident from the common drayman to
the high-minded planter. Another attribute in this character, is a love,
amounting almost to a passion, for discussion, oratory, and public
speaking. It is said, that in no one of the states are all political
questions so thoroughly discussed and understood by the great mass of the
people as in Kentucky. During the sittings of the courts, I am told that
all leave their work, and give up their time to attend the trial of the
various suits that are pending, and to listen to the speeches that are made
on the occasion. Wherever there is public speaking, there the people will
flock. I believe there is no state where a talented, eloquent ministry
could effect more than here.--Unhappily there is much infidelity prevailing
in this state, and yet I have no doubt that it may and will be entirely
supplanted by the labours of a faithful and efficient ministry. You will be
gratified to learn that the Rev. Mr. J---- has commenced his labours with
great acceptableness. His removal to Louisville, at this time, is regarded
by the friends of the Church in this region as a most auspicious event. I
have no doubt that a wide field of usefulness lies before him. They are
erecting in Louisville a new Episcopal Church, and if a suitable pastor is
procured, there is not the least question but that both churches will be
entirely full.
The very best specimen of true original Kentucky character, which I have
met, was on board the steamboat. The love of this individual for his native
state amounted almost to a passion. Though in exterior very plain and
blunt, he possessed uncommon intelligence, and contributed by his
conversation in no small degree to our enjoyment.
He gave me the following statement in relation to the early settlement of
Kentucky.
"This was one of the most beautiful and blooming territories over which a
wild luxuriant forest ever waved.--And yet as it was a sort of dividing
line between the northern and southern Indians, it became the battle-ground
upon which these nations met and waged interminable wars, so that it went
among the savages by the name of the _dark and bloody land_. Near the close
of the revolutionary war several settlements were attempted in Kentucky by
emigrants from Virginia. My ancestors were among the number. The Indians
both from the south and north, almost immediately became jealous of these
white settlers, and adopted the purpose of exterminating them. The settlers
were able to keep their position only by building a fort and living in it.
While a certain portion of the men worked in attempting to clear and
cultivate the land, another portion being armed, were on watch. I was born
in one of these forts near Boonsborough. I wore, till I was twelve years
old, hose made of buffalo hair. Our chief living was upon bear and buffalo
meat. We were in the midst of the wildness of nature. Hundreds of times
have I seen the Indians rushing upon our fort, or fleeing before the
sharp-speaking guns of our friends. People who live in the densely settled
portions of our country, know very little about the toils and dangers, the
sacrifices and privations which the first settlers endure."
My Kentucky acquaintance illustrated this last remark by a vast number of
thrilling incidents, one or two of which I will relate.
When he was quite young, several of the people of that settlement,
undertook to manufacture maple sugar. The winter had relaxed its rigours,
and the warm sun began to pour down his genial rays. The snow was fast
melting away, and the sap ran merrily from the perforated sugar trees.
Several negroes were engaged a short distance from the fort in collecting
the sap. It was supposed that no Indians were in the neighbourhood, as none
had been seen for several months. Tempted by the bright sunny day, a
daughter of one of the settlers, a young, beautiful, blooming girl, rambled
beyond the enclosures of the fort, where the negroes were collecting the
sugar sap. While she stood there, full of buoyancy and free from every
apprehension, a negro being near, busily engaged in some of the various
processes of sugar-making, four or five wild Indians in a moment sprung
upon them! The negro they seized and bound, and in an instant cut down with
their tomahawks this beautiful girl. Having scalped her, they fled,
carrying with them the captured negro. The alarm was soon given at the
fort. They were pursued--overtaken, and several of them shot. The negro was
rescued. Those that had escaped went five hundred miles around among the
tribe to raise the war-cry, and then came back and again attacked the
settlement. In that encounter my Kentucky friend told me that _eleven_ of
his family relatives were killed.
Another incident which he related was the following. Somewhere on a station
near Kentucky river, in the spring, when the earth began to put on her
bloom, two young ladies, the eldest of whom was the first child born in
Kentucky, went out to gather flowers. As they saw some very rich blossoms
on the banks of the river, they took a little skiff, and went from one
side to the other collecting them. While thus engaged a number of Indians
were in the canebrakes watching them. The young ladies having by a turn of
the river passed beyond the view of their enemies, the Indians proposed to
gather flowers, and place them all along the bank, where they were in
ambuscade, so that when they returned, attracted by these flowers, they
would come up to the bank and then the boat could be seized. The plan
entirely succeeded, and while these young ladies were gaily cropping their
flowers, a huge wild Indian sprang from his concealment into the boat.
Their destiny then seemed sealed. They were immediately borne away as
captives. One of them, however, wore a dress handkerchief of red and
brilliant colours.--This she silently kept pulling to pieces, and dropping
the shreds as she was hurried along through the forest. The friends of
these young ladies soon become alarmed. Marks were discovered of an Indian
trail. The empty boat was found. A band of armed men commenced pursuit,
headed by the father of one of these young ladies.--They discovered the
shreds of the handkerchief, and traced them till night fall, when they
suddenly came upon them where they were encamped. They perceived there was
a large number of Indians, and thought secresy in their movements
important. They waited till the Indians were asleep, and then the father
drew near. He saw the two young ladies sitting by themselves, guarded by an
Indian. The others appeared to be asleep. His men were at some distance,
and he thought it better to go up unseen, and tomahawk this sentinel, and
rescue his child without alarming the other Indians. But in attempting it,
his faithful dog which accompanied him, growled at the sight of these
savages. In a moment they were on their feet and he their prisoner. They
determined at once to put him to death. He was stripped and bound to a
tree, and they were just levelling their pieces to fire at him.--What a
moment of awful suspense for his child who stood looking on! His men,
alarmed at his long absence, drew near, saw what was going forward, and
instantly fired upon the Indians. A panic was immediately struck into the
camp, and as the fire from the whites was kept up, and one and another
Indian fell gasping on the ground, they soon fled and left their prisoners.
The father and the two young ladies returned. One of them is still living,
the mother of a large and respectable family, whose declining age is
cheered with the comforts of a sweet hope in Christ.
It is well for us to know something of the hardships endured by the first
settlers in the west.