Society of Natchez--New-England adventurers--Their prospects
--The Yankee sisterhood--Southern bachelors--Southern society
--Woman--Her past and present condition--Single combats--
Fireside pleasures unknown--A change--Town and country--
Characteristic discrepancies.
Until within a very short period, the society of Natchez has exhibited
one peculiar characteristic, in the estimation of a northerner, in whose
migrating land "seven women," literally fulfilling the prediction, "take
hold of one man;" a prediction which has, moreover, been fulfilled,
according to the redoubtable and most classical Crockett, in the west;
but by no means in this place, or in any of the embryo cities, which are
springing up like Jonah's gourd, along the banks of the great "father of
waters." The predominance of male population in the countless villages
that are dotting the great western valley, rising up amidst the forests,
one after another, as stars come out at evening, and almost in as rapid
succession, is a necessary consequence of the natural laws of migration.
In the old Atlantic and New-England states, the sons, as they
successively grow up to manhood, take the paternal blessing and their
little patrimony, often all easily packed and carried in a knapsack, but
oftener in their heads, and bend their way to the "great west," to seek
their fortunes, with them no nursery tale, but a stern and hardly earned
reality:--there to struggle--prosper or fail--with blighted hopes go
down to early graves, or, building a fire-side of their own, gather
around it sons, who, in their declining years, shall, in their turn, go
forth from the paternal roof to seek beyond the mountains of the Pacific
shore a name, a fire-side, and a home of their own. And such is human
life!
To this migratory propensity is to be attributed the recent peculiar
state of society in this city, and throughout the whole western country.
The sons are the founders of these infant emporiums, but the daughters
stay at home in a state of single blessedness--blessings (?) to the
maternal roof, till some bold aspirants for the yoke of hymen return,
after spying out the land, take them under their migratory wings and
bear them to their new home. But unluckily for six out of every seven of
the fair daughters of the east, the pioneers of the west feel disposed
to pass their lives in all the solitary dignity of the bachelor state.
Wrapped up in their speculations, their segars and their "clubs," not
even a second Sabine device could move them to bend their reluctant
necks to the noose. Those, however, who do take to themselves
"helpmeets," are more gallant and chivalrous than their Roman
predecessors in their mode of obtaining them, not demurring to travel,
like Coelebs, many hundred leagues to the land of steady habits, to
secure the possession of some one of its lovely flowers. The
concentrating of a great number of young gentlemen for a permanent
residence in one spot, without a suitable proportion of the gentler sex
to enliven and relieve the rougher shades of such an assemblage, must
produce a state of society, varying essentially from that in communities
where the division is more equal. Hotels, or offices of professional
business must be their residences--their leisure hours must be spent in
lounging at each other's rooms like college students, (to whose mode of
life their's is not dissimilar,) or in the public rooms of the hotels,
cafes, or gambling houses. Habits difficult to eradicate are contracted,
of dark and fatal consequences to many; and a rude, cavalier bearing is
thereby imperceptibly acquired, more congenial with the wild, free
spirit of the middle ages, than the refinement of modern times. The bold
and rugged outlines natural to the sterner character of man, can only be
softened by that refining influence which the cultivated female mind
irresistibly exerts upon society. Wherever woman--
"Blessing and blest, where'er she moves,"
has exercised this gentle sway, the ruder attributes of man have been
subdued and blended with the soft and lovely virtues so eminently her
own. Second to Christianity, of which it is a striking effect, the
exalted rank to which man has elevated woman, from that degrading and
tyrannical subjugation to which she has in Pagan nations, in all ages,
from the pride and ignorance of her _soi disant_ "lords," been
subjected, has contributed more to the mental and personal refinement,
dignity and moral excellence of men, than any other agency that has
operated with a moral tendency directly upon the human mind. To the
absence of this purifying influence, is to be attributed in a very great
degree, that loose, immoral, and reckless state of society, peculiar to
all border settlements and new towns, originating generally from
communities of men. In such places that mysterious, yet indisputable
power, exercised by the other sex upon society, is unknown; and men,
throwing the reins upon the necks of their passions, plunge into vice
and dissipation, unchecked and unrestrained. In such a state the duello
had its origin--that blessed relic of that blessed age, when our
thick-skulled ancestors broke each other's heads with mace and battle
axe, for "faire ladye's love," or mere pleasant pastime--and a similar
state of things will always preserve and encourage it. Hence the
prevalence of this practice in the newly settled south and west, where
the healthful restraint of female society has been till within a few
years unknown. But as communities gain refinement through its influence,
this mode of "healing honour's wounds," so unwise, unsatisfactory and
sinful, gradually becomes less and less popular--till finally it is but
a "theme of the past." To this state of disuse and oblivion it is
rapidly advancing in this portion of the south-west, which, according to
the theory before advanced, is an indication of the growing refinement,
and moral and intellectual improvement of the community. Natchez has
been, you are well aware, celebrated for the frequency and sanguinary
character of its single combats; and this reputation it has once justly
merited. Till within a few years, duels were alarmingly frequent. But
more recently public opinion has changed, and the practice is now almost
abandoned. The society has emerged from its peculiar bachelor cast, to
that social and refined character, which constitutes the charm of well
organized and cultivated communities. But a short time since, there were
not three married men to ten unmarried. The latter predominating, gave
the tone to society, which was, as I have before observed, that of a
university, so far as habits and manners were concerned. And the
resemblance was still greater, as a large majority of the young men were
graduates of northern seminaries, or well informed young merchants. The
social or domestic circle, so dear to every New-Englander, in which he
delights to mingle wherever he reposes after his wanderings, was
neglected or unvalued; and the young ladies, of whom there was found
here and there one, (for their appearance in this desert of men was with
the unfrequency of "Angel's visits,") were compelled to pine neglected,
and
"To bloom unseen around their lonely hearths,
And waste their sweetness on the desert air."
Such was the state of society here formerly, varied only, at long
intervals, by a public ball at some one of the hotels, got up to kill
_ennui_, a plant which, in such a soil, flourishes vigorously. But now
"a change has come o'er the spirit of the town." A refined,
intellectual, and highly educated class of females, both exotic and
natural plants, enrich and diversify the moral features of the former
lonely and monotonous scene: and as the vine entwining around the oak
relieves with lines of grace and beauty its harsh, rugged outlines, so
woman here, as every where, has assumed her brilliant sceptre, waved it
over the heterogeneous mass, and "bidden it to live."
The society of Natchez, now, is not surpassed by any in America.
Originally, and therein differing from most western cities, composed of
intelligent and well-educated young men, assembled from every Atlantic
state, but principally from New-England and Virginia, it has advanced in
a degree proportionate to its native powers. English and Irish gentlemen
of family and fortune have here sought and found a home--while the
_gentilhomme_ of sunny France, and the dark-browed don of "old Castile,"
dwell upon the green hills that recede gently undulating from the city;
or find, in their vallies, a stranger's unmarbled and unhonoured grave.
The citizens of Natchez are, however, so inseparably connected with the
neighbouring planters, that these last are necessarily included in the
general term "society of Natchez." The two bodies united may
successfully challenge any other community to produce a more
intelligent, wealthy, and, I may say, _aristocratic_ whole. But I do not
much like the term applied to Americans; though no other word will
express so clearly that refinement and elegance to which I allude, and
which everywhere indicate the opulence and high breeding of their
possessors. This is not so manifest, however, in the external appearance
of their dwellings, as it is in their mode or style of living. To this
their houses, especially the residences of those who have _made_ their
wealth, and who yet occupy the same cabins, but little improved, which
they originally erected, present a sad contrast. Many of the wealthiest
planters are lodged wretchedly; a splendid sideboard not unfrequently
concealing a white-washed beam--a gorgeous Brussels carpet laid over a
rough-planked floor--while uncouth rafters, in ludicrous contrast to the
splendour they look down upon, stretch in coarse relief across the
ceiling.--These discrepancies, however, always characteristic of a new
country, are rapidly disappearing; and another generation will be
lodged, if not like princes, at least, like independent American
gentlemen.--Many of these combinations of the old and new systems still
exist, however, of a highly grotesque nature; some of the most
characteristic of which I may mention more particularly hereafter.