CHAPTER I. CHAPTER I. 
"Plus un peuple nombreux se rapproche, moins le gouvernement peut usurper sur le Souverain. L'avantage d'un gouvernement tyrannique est done en ceci, d'agir a grandes distances. A l'aide des points d'appui qu'il se donne, sa force augmente au loin, comme celle des leviers. Celle du peuple, au contraire, n'agit que concentree: elle s'evapore et se perd en s'etendant, comme l'effet de la poudre eparse a terre, et qui ne prend feu que grain a grain. Les pays les moins peuples sont ainsi les plus propres a la tyrannie. Les betes feroces ne regnent que dans les deserts."
Rousseau.
The pride and delight of Americans is in their quantity ofland. I do not remember meeting with one to whom it had occurredthat they had too much. Among the many complaints of theminority, this was never one. I saw a gentleman strike his fiston the table in an agony at the country being so "confoundlyprosperous;" I heard lamentations over the spirit ofspeculation; the migration of young men to the back country; thefluctuating state of society from the incessant movementwestwards; the immigration of labourers from Europe; and theignorance of the sparse population. All these grievances I heardperpetually complained of; but in the same breath I was told intriumph of the rapid sales of land; of the glorious additionswhich had been made by the acquisition of Louisiana and Florida,and of the probable gain of Texas. Land was spoken of as theunfailing resource against over manufacture; the great wealth ofthe nation; the grand security of every man in it.
On this head, the two political parties seem to be more agreedthan on any other. The federalists are the great patrons ofcommerce; but they are as proud of the national lands as thebroadest of the democrats. The democrats, however, may beregarded as the patrons of agriculture, out of the slave States.There seems to be a natural relation between the independence ofproperty and occupation enjoyed by the agriculturist, and hiswatchfulness over State Rights and the political importance ofindividuals. The simplicity of country life, too, appears morecongenial with the workings of democratic institutions, than thecomplex arrangements of commerce and manufactures.
The possession of land is the aim of all action, generallyspeaking, and the cure for all social evils, among men in theUnited States. If a man is disappointed in politics or love, hegoes and buys land. If he disgraces himself, he betakes himselfto a lot in the west. If the demand for any article ofmanufacture slackens, the operatives drop into the unsettledlands. If a citizen's neighbours rise above him in the towns, hebetakes himself where he can be monarch of all he surveys. Anartisan works, that he may die on land of his own. He is frugal,that he may enable his son to be a landowner. Farmers' daughtersgo into factories that they may clear off the mortgage from theirfathers' farms; that they may be independent landowners again.All this is natural enough in a country colonised from an oldone, where land is so restricted in quantity as to be apparentlythe same thing as wealth. It is natural enough in a youngrepublic, where independence is of the highest political value.It is natural enough in a country where political economy hasnever been taught by its only effectual propounder--socialadversity. And, finally, it falls out well for the old world, inprospect of the time when the new world must be its granary.
The democratic party are fond of saying that the United Statesare intended to be an agricultural country. It seems to me thatthey are intended to be everything. The Niagra basin, theMississippi valley, and the South, will be able to furnish thetrading world with agricultural products for ever,-- for aught wecan see. But it is clear that there are other parts of thecountry which must have recourse to manufactures and commerce.
The first settlers in New England got land, and thoughtthemselves rich. Their descendants have gone on to do the same;and they now find themselves poor. With the exception of someSoutherners, ruined by slavery, who cannot live within theirincomes, I met with no class in the United States so anxiousabout the means of living as the farmers of New England. In theseventeenth century, curious purchases of land were made, and thefathers were wealthy. In those days, a certain farmer Dexterbought the promontory of Nahant, which stretches out intoMassachusetts Bay, of Black Willey, an Indian chief, for a suitof clothes; the part of the promontory called Great Nahantmeasuring a mile and a half in circuit. Others, who held land insimilar or larger quantities, divided it equally among theirchildren, whose portions had not been subdivided below the pointof comfort, when the great west on the one hand, and the commerceof the seas on the other; opened new resources. From this time,the consolidation of estates has gone on, nearly as fast as theprevious division. The members of a family dispose of theirportions of land to one, and go to seek better fortuneselsewhere than the rocky soil of New England can afford. Still,while the population of Massachusetts is scarcely above half thatof London, its number of landowners is greater than that of allEngland.
The Massachusetts farmers were the first to decline; but nowthe comparative adversity of agriculture has extended even intoVermont. A few years ago, lenders of money into Vermont receivedthirty per cent. interest from farmers: now they are glad to getsix per cent.; and this does not arise from the farmers havingsaved capital of their own. They have but little property besidestheir land. Their daughters, and even their sons, resort todomestic service in Boston for a living. Boston used to besupplied from Vermont with fowls, butter, and eggs: but thesupply has nearly ceased. This is partly owing to an increasedattention to the growth of wool for the manufacturers; but partlyalso to the decrease of capital and enterprise among the farmers.
In Massachusetts the farmers have so little property besidestheir land, that they are obliged to mortgage when they want tosettle a son or daughter, or make up for a deficient crop. Thegreat Insurance Company at Boston is the formidable creditor tomany. This Company will not wait a day for the interest. If it isnot ready, loss or ruin ensues. Many circumstances are nowunfavourable to the old-fashioned Massachuserts farmer. Domesticmanufactures, which used to employ the daughters, are no longerworth while, in the presence of the factories. The young men, whoshould be the daughters' husbands, go off to the west. The ideaof domestic service is not liked. There is an expensive family athome, without sufficient employment; and they may be consideredpoor. These are evils which may be shaken off any day. I speak ofthem, not as demanding much compassion, but as indicating achange in the state of affairs; and especially that New Englandis designed to be a manufacturing and commercial region. It isalready common to see agriculture joined with other employments.The farmers of the coast are, naturally, fishermen also. Theybring home fish, manure their land with the offal; sow theirseed, and go out again to fish while it is growing. Shoemaking isnow joined with farming. In the long winter evenings, all thefarmers' families around Lynn are busy shoemaking; and in thespring, they turn out into the fields again. The largestproportion of factory girls too is furnished by country families.
The traveller may see, by merely passing through the country,without asking information, how far New England ought to be anagricultural country, if the object of its society be to securethe comfort of its members, rather than the continuance of oldcustoms. The valleys, like that of the Connecticut river, whosesoil is kept rich by annual inundations, and whose fields have nofences, gladden the eye of the observer. So it is with particularspots elsewhere, where, it may be remarked, the fences are of theordinary, slovenly kind, and too much care does not seem to havebeen bestowed on the arrangements and economy of the estate.Elsewhere, may be seen stony fields, plots of the greenestpasture, with grey rocks standing up in the midst, and barberrybushes sprinkled all about: trim orchards, and fences on which agreat deal of spare time must have been bestowed. Instead of theugly, hasty snake-fence, there is a neatly built wall, composedof the stones which had strewed the fields: sometimes the neatestfence of all; a wall of stones and sods, regularly laid, with asingle rail along the top: sometimes a singular fence, whichwould be perfect, but for the expense of labour required; rootsof trees, washed from the soil, and turned side upwards,presenting a complete chevaux-de-frise, needing no mending, andlasting the "for ever" of this world. About thesefarm-houses, a profusion of mignonette may be seen; and in theseason, the rich major convolvulus, or scarlet runners, climbingup to the higher windows. The dove-cotes are well looked to.There has evidently been time and thought for everything. This isall very pretty to look at,--even bewitching to those who do notsee beneath the surface, nor know that hearts may be achingwithin doors about perilous mortgages, and the fate of singledaughters; but, it being known that such worldly anxieties doexist, it is not difficult to perceive that these are the placesin which they abide.
There is, of course, a knowledge of the difficulty on thespot; but not always a clear view of coming events, which includea remedy. The commonest way of venting any painful sensibility onthe subject, is declamation against luxury; or rather, againstthe desire for it in those who are supposed unable to afford it.This will do no good. If the Pilgrim Fathers themselves had hadluxury before their eyes, they would have desired to have it; andthey woultl have been right. Luxury is, in itself, a great good.Luxury is delicious fare,--of any and every kind:and He who bestowed it meant all men to have it. The evil ofluxury is in its restriction; in its being made a cause ofseparation between men, and a means of encroachment by some onthe rights of others. Frugality is a virtue only when it isrequired by justice and charity. Luxury is vicious only when itis obtained by injustice, and carried on into intemperance. It isa bad thing that a Massachusetts farmer should mortgage his farm,in order that his wife and daughters may dress like the ladies ofBoston; but the evil is not in the dress; it is rather in hisclinging to a mode of life which does not enable him to pay hisdebts. The women desire dress, not only because it is becoming,but because they revolt from sinking, even outwardly, into alower station of life than they once held: and this is more thanharmless; it is honourable. What they have to do is to make uptheir minds to be consistent. They must either go down with theirfarm, for love of it, and the ways which belong to it: or theymust make a better living in some other manner. They cannot havethe old farm and its ways, and luxury too. Nobody has a right todecide for them which they ought to choose; and declaimingagainst luxury will therefore do no good. It is, however, prettyclear which they will choose, while luxury and manufacture aregrowing before their eyes; and, in that case, declaimiug againstluxury can do little but harm: it will only destroy sympathybetween the declaimers and those who may find the cap fit.
One benevolent lady strongly desires and advises thatmanufactures should be put down; and the increased population allsent away somewhere, that New England may be as primitive andsparsely peopled as in days when it was, as she supposes, morevirtuous than now. Whenever she can make out what virtue is, soas to prove that New England was ever more virtuous than now, herplans may find hearers; but not till then. I mention these thingsmerely to show how confirmed is the tendency of New England tomanufactures, in preference to agriculture.
There is one certain test of the permanent fitness of anydistrict of country for agricultural purposes; the settlement ofany large number of Germans in it. The Germans give any price forgood land, and use it all. They are much smiled at by thevivacious and enterprising Americans for their plodding, theirattachment to their own methods, and the odd direction taken bytheir pride.* The part of Pennsylvania where they abound iscalled the Boeotia of America. There is a story current againstthem that they were seen to parade with a banner, on which wasinscribed "No schools," when the State legislature wasabout establishing a school system. On the other hand, it iscertain that they have good German newspapers prepared among themselves: that their politics do them high honour, considering thevery short political education they have had: and that they knowmore of political economy than their native neighbours. They showby their votes that they understand the tariff and bankquestions; and they are staunch supporters of democraticprinciples.
Nothing can be more thriving than the settlements of Germans,when they have once been brought into order. Their fields arewell fenced; their implements of the most substantial make; andtheir barns a real curiosity. While the family of the farmer isliving in a poor log-house, or a shabby, unpainted frame-house,the barn has al1 the pains of its owner lavished upon it. I sawseveral, freshly painted with red, with eleven glass windows,with venetian blinds, at each end, and twelve in front. They keepup the profitable customs of their country. Thc German women arethe only women seen in the fields and gardens in America, excepta very few Dutch, and the slaves in the south. The stores ofpumpkins, apples, and onions in the stoup (piazza) are edifyingto behold. Under them sits the old dame of the house, spinning ather large wheel, and her grand-children, all in grey homespun,look as busy as herself.
The German settlers always contrive to have a market, eitherby placing themselves near one, or bestirring themselves to makeone. They have no idea of sitting down in a wilderness, andgrowing wild in it. A great many of them are market-gardenersnear the towns.**
It is scarcely possible to foresee, with distinctness, thedestination of the southern States, east of the Alleghanies, whenthe curse of slavery shall be removed. Up to that period,continual deterioration is unavoidable. Efforts are being made tocompensate for the decline of agriculture by pushing theinterests of commerce. This is well; for the opening of every newrail-road, of every new pier, is another blow given to slavery.The agriculture of Virginia continues to decline; and her revenueis chiefly derived from the rearing of slaves as stock for thesouthern market. In the north and west parts of this State, wherethere is more farming than planting, it has long been found thatslavery is ruinous; and when I passed through, in the summer of1835, I saw scarcely any but whites, for some hundreds of milesalong the road, except where a slave trader was carrying down tothe south the remains that he had bought up. Unless some newresource is introduced, Virginia will be almost impoverished whenthe traffic in slaves comes to an end; which, I have a strongpersuasion, will be the case before very long. The Virginiansthemselves are, it seems, aware of their case. I saw a factory atRichmond, worked by black labour, which was found, to thesurprise of those who tried the experiment, to be of very goodquality.
The shores of the south, low and shoaly, are unfavourable toforeign commerce. The want of a sufficiency of good harbours willprobably impel the inhabitants of the southern States to renewtheir agricultural pursuits, and merely confine themselves tointernal commerce. The depression of agriculture is onlytemporary, I believe. It began from slavery, and is aggravated bythe opening of the rich virgin soils of the south-west. But thetime will come when improved methods of tillage, with theadvantage of free labour, will renew the prosperity of Virginiaand North and South Carolina
No mismanagement short of employing slaves will account forthe deterioration of the agricultural wealth of these States.When the traveller observes the quality of some of the land nowunder cultivation, he wonders how other estates could have beenrendered so unprofitable as they are. The rich Congaree bottoms,in South Carolina, look inexhaustible; but some estates, once asfine, now lie barren and deserted. I went over a plantation, nearColumbia, South Carolina, where there were four thousand acreswithin one fence, each acre worth fifteen hundred dollars. Thisland has been cropped yearly with cotton since 1794, and is nowbecoming less productive; but it is still very fine. The cottonseed is occasionally returned to the soil; and this is the onlymeans of renovation used. Four hundred negroes work this estate.We saw the field trenched, ready for sowing. The sowing is doneby hand, thick, and afterwards thinned. I saw the cottonelsewhere, growing like twigs. I saw also some in pod. There arethree or four pickings of pods in a season; of which the firstgathering is the best. Each estate has its cotton press. In thegin, the seed is separated from the cotton; and the latter ispressed and packed for sale.
There seems nothing to prevent the continuance or renovationof the growth of this product, under more favourablecircumstances. Whether the rice swamps will have to be given up,or whether they may be tilled by free black labour, remains to beseen. The Chinese grow rice; and so do the Italians, without theadvantage of free black labour. If, in the worst case, the riceswamps should have to be relinquished, the loss would be morethan compensated by the improvement which would take place in thefarming districts; land too high for planting. The western,mountainous parts of these States would thus become the mostvaluable.
It was amusing to hear the praises of corn (Indian corn) inthe midst of the richest cotton, rice, and tobacco districts. TheIndian looks with silent wonder upon the settler, who becomesvisibly a capitalist in nine months, on the same spot where thered man has remained equally poor, all his life. In February,both are alike bare of all but land, and a few utensils. By theend of the next November, the white settler has his harvest ofcorn; more valuable to him than gold and silver. It will procurehim many things which they could not. A man who has corn, mayhave everything. He can sow his land with it; and, for the rest,everything eats corn, from slave to chick. Yet, in the midst ofso much praise of corn, I found that it cosr a dollar a bushel;that every one was complaining of the expenses of living; that,so far from mutton being despised, as we have been told, it wasmuch desired, but not to be had; and that milk was a greatrarity. Two of us, in travelling, asked for a draught of milk. Wehad each a very small tumbler-full, and were charged aquarter-dollar. The cultivation of land is as exclusively forexportable products, as in the West Indies, in the worst days oftheir slavery; when food, and even bricks for building, wereimported from England. The total absence of wise rural economy,under the present system, opens great hope of future improvement.The forsaken plantations are not so exhausted of their resourcesas it is supposed, from their producing little cotton, that theymust be. The deserted fields may yet be seen, some day, againfruitful in cotton, with corn-fields, pasturage, and stock, (nothuman,) flourishing in appropriate spots.
Adversity is the best teacher of economy here, as elsewhere.In the first flush of prosperity, when a proprietor sits down ona rich virgin soil, and the price of cotton is rising, he buysbacon and corn for his negroes, and other provisions for hisfamily, and devotes every rod of his land to cotton-growing. Iknew of one in Alabama, who, like his neighbours, paid for hisland and the maintenance of his slaves with the first crop, andhad a large sum over, wherewith to buy more slaves and more land.He paid eight thousand dollars for his land, and all the expensesof the establishment, and had, at the end of the season, eleventhousand dollars in the bank. It was thought, by a wise friend ofthis gentleman's, that it was a great injury, instead of benefitto his fortune, that his labourers were not free. To use thiswise man's expression, "it takes two white men to make ablack man work;" and he was confident that it was notnecessary, on any presence whatever, to have a single slave inAlabama. Where all the other elements of prosperity exist, asthey do in that rich new State, any quality and amount of labourmight be obtained, and the permanent prosperity of the countrymight be secured. If matters go on as they are, Alabama will intime follow the course of the south-eastern States, and find herproduction of cotton declining; and she will have to learn awiser husbandry by vicissitude. But matters will not go on asthey are to that point. Cotton-growing is advancing rapidly inother parts of the world where there is the advantage of cheap,free labour; and the southern States of America will findthemselves unable to withstand the competition of rivals whomthey now despise, but by the use of free labour, and of theimproved management which will accompany it. There is already agreat importation of mules for field work from the higher westernStates. Who knows but that in time there may be cattle-shows,(like those of the more prosperous rural districts of the north,)where there are now slave markets; or at least agriculturalsocieties, whereby the inhabitants may be put in the way ofobtaining tender "sheep's meat," while cotton may begrown more plentifully than even at present?
I saw at Charleston the first great overt act of improvementthat I am aware of in South Carolina. One step has been takenupwards; and when I saw it, I could only wish that the slaves inthe neighbourhood could see, as clearly as a stranger could, thegood it portended to them. It is nothing more than that anenterprising gentleman has set up a rice-mill, and that he availshimself to the utmost of its capabilities; but this is made muchof in that land of small improvement; as it ought to be. Thechaff is used to enrich the soil: and the proprietor has made lotafter lot of bad land very profitable for sale with it, and isthus growing rapidly rich. The sweet flour, which lies betweenthe husk and the grain, is used for fattening cattle. The brokenrice is sold cheap; and the rest finds a good market. There arenine persons employed in the mill, some white and some black; andmany more are busy in preparing the lots of land, and in buildingon them. Clusters of houses have risen up around the mill.
Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, present the extreme caseof the fertility of the soil, the prosperity of proprietors, andthe woes of slaves. I found the Virginians spoke with sorrow andcontempt of the treatment of slaves in North and South Carolina:South Carolina and Georgia, of the treatment of slaves in thericher States to the west: and, in these last, I found the casetoo bad to admit of aggravation. It was in these last that themost heart-rending disclosures were made to me by the ladies,heads of families, of the state of society, and of their ownintolerable sufferings in it. As I went further north again, Ifound an improvement. There was less wealth in the hands ofindividuals, a better economy, more intelligent slaves, and morediscussion how to get rid of slavery. Tennessee is, in some sort,naturally divided on the question. The eastern part of the Stateis hilly, and fit for farming; for which slave labour does notanswer. The western part is used for cotton-planting; and theplanters will not yet hear of free labour. The magnificent Stateof Kentucky has no other drawback to its prosperity than slavery;and its inhabitants are so far convinced of this that they will,no doubt, soon free themselves from it. They cannot look acrossthe river, and witness the prosperity of Illinois, Indiana, andOhio, without being aware that, with their own unequalled naturaladvantages, they could not be so backward as they are, from anyother cause.
Kentucky is equally adapted for agriculture and commerce. Shemay have ports on the rivers, along her whole northern andwestern boundary; and she has already roads superior to almostany in the United States. She is rich in stone, and many otherminerals; in mineral waters, and in a soil of unsurpassedfertility. The State is more thickly settled than is evident tothe passing traveller; and the effect will appear when moremarkets, or roads to existing markets, are opened. In one smallcounty which I visited, my host and his brother had farms offifteen hundred acres each; and there were two hundred and fiftyother farms in the county. Sometimes these farms are dividedamong the children. More commonly, all the sons but one goelsewhere to settle. In this case, the homestead is usually leftto the youngest son, who is supposed likely to be the mostattached to the surviving parent.
The estates of the two brothers, mentioned above, comprisingthree thousand acres, were bought of the Indians for a rifle. Wepassed a morning in surveying the one which is a grazing farm.There is a good red-brick house for the family: and theslave-quarter is large. Nothing can be more beautiful than theaspect of the estate, from the richness of its vegetation, andthe droves of fine cattle that were to be seen everywhere. Inever saw finer cattle. The owner had just refused sixty dollarsapiece for fourteen of them. Fifteen acres of the forest are leftfor shade; and there, and under single oaks in the clearedpasture, were herds of horses and mules, and three donkeys; theonly ones I saw in the United States.
We passed an unshaded meadow, where the grass had caught fireevery day at eleven o'clock, the preceding summer. Thisdemonstrates the necessity of shade.
We passed "a spontaneous rye-field." I asked what"spontaneous" meant here; and found that a fine crop ofrye had been cut the year before; and that the nearly equallyfine one now before us had grown up from the dropped seed.
We enjoyed the thought of the abundance of milk here, afterthe dearth we had suffered in the South. Forty cows are milkedfor the use of the family and the negroes, and are under the careof seven women. The proprietor declared to me that he believedhis slaves would drive him mad. Planters, who grow but oneproduct, suffer much less from the incapacity and perverse willof their negroes: the care of stock is quite another matter; andfor any responsible service, slaves are totally unfit.
Instead of living being cheaper on country estates, from thenecessaries of life being raised on them, it appears to be muchmore expensive. This is partly owing to the prevailing pride ofhaving negroes to show. One family, of four persons, of myacquaintance, in South Carolina, whose style of living might becalled homely, cannot manage to live for less than three thousanddollars a year. They have a carriage and eleven negroes. It ischeaper in Kentucky. In the towns, a family may live in goodstyle for two thousand five hundred dollars a year; and for nogreat deal more in the country. A family entered upon a goodhouse, near a town, with one hundred and twenty acres of !and, afew years ago, at a rent of three hundred dollars. They boughthouse and land, and brought their slaves, and now live, exclusiveof rent and hire of servants, for two thousand dollars a year, ingreater numbers and much higher style than the South Carolinafamily.
The prospects of agriculture in the States northwest of theOhio are brilliant. The stranger who looks upon the fertileprairies of Illinois and Indiana, and the rich alluvions of Ohio,feels the iniquity of the English corn laws as strongly as in thealleys of Sheffield and Manchester. The inhuman perverseness oftaxing food is there evident in all its enormity. The world oughtnever to hear of a want of food,--no one of the inhabitants ofits civilised portions ought ever to be without the means ofobtaining his fill, while the mighty western valley smiles in itsfertility. If the aristocracy of England, for whom those lawswere made, and by whom they are sustained, could be transportedto travel, in open wagons, the boundless prairies, and the shoresof the great rivers which would bring down the produce, theywould groan to see from what their petty, selfish interests hadshut out the thousands of half-starved labourers at home. If theycould not be convinced of the very plain truth, of how their ownfortunes would be benefited by allowing the supply and demand offood to take their natural course, they would, for the moment,wish their rent-rolls at the bottom of the sea, rather than thatthey should stand between the crowd of labourers and the supplyof food which God has offered them. The landlords of England donot go and see the great western valley; but, happily, some ofthe labourers of England do. Far off as that valley is, thoselabourers will make themselves heard from thence, by those whohave driven them there; and will teach the brethren whom theyhave left behind where the blame of their hunger lies. EveryBritish settler who ploughs a furrow in the prairie, helps toplough up the foundations of the British Corn Laws.
There is a prospect, not very uncertain or remote, of theseprairie lands bringing relief to a yet more suffering class thaneither English labourers or landlords; the sugar-growing slavesof the south. Rumours of the progress of sugar-making from beetin France have, for some time past, been interesting many personsin the United States; especially capitalists inclined tospeculate, and the vigilant friends of the slave. Information hasbeen obtained, and some trials made. Individuals have sown tenacres and upwards each, and manufactured sugar with a smallapparatus. The result has been encouraging; and a largemanufactory was to be opened in Philadelphia on the 1st ofNovember last. Two large joint-stock companies have been founded,one in New Jersey and the other in Illinois. Their proceedingshave been quickened by the frosts of several successive seasons,which have so cut off the canes in the south, as that it cannotsupply one quarter of the domestic consumption: whereas it hadpreviously supplied half. Some of the southern newspapers haverecommended the substitution of beet for canes. However soon thismay be done, the northern sugar planters, with their free labour,will surely overpower the south in the competition. This is onthe supposition that beet will answer as well as canes; asupposition which will have been granted whenever the southbegins to grow beet in preference to canes.
A heavy blow would be inflicted on slavery by the success ofthe beet companies. The condition of the cane-growing slavescannot be made worse than it is. I believe that even in the WestIndies it has never been so dreadful as at present in some partsof Louisiana. A planter stated to a sugar-refiner in New York,that it was found the best economy to work off the stockof negroes once in seven years.
The interest excited by this subject of beet-growing is verystrong throughout the United States. Some result must ensue whichwill be an instigation to further action. The most importantwould be the inducing in the south either the use of free labourin sugar-growing, or the surrender of an object so fatal todecent humanity.
The prettiest amateur farm I saw was that of the late Dr.Hosack, at Hyde Park, on the Hudson. Dr. Hosack had spared nopains to improve his stock, and his methods of farming, as wellas the beauty of his pleasure-grounds. His merits in the formerdepartments the agricultural societies in England are much betterqualified to appreciate than I; and they seem to have valued hisexertions; to judge by the medals and other honourabletestimonials from them which he showed to me. As for hispleasure-grounds, little was left for the hand of art to do. Thenatural terrace above the river, green, sweeping, and Imdulating,is surpassingly beautiful. Dr. Hosack's good taste led him toleave it alone, and to spend his pains on the gardens andconservatory behind. Of all the beautiful country-seats on theHudson, none can, I think, equal Hyde Park; though many bear amore imposing appearance from the river.
Though I twice traversed the western part of the State of NewYork, I did not see the celebrated farm of Mr. Wadsworth; thefinest, by all accounts, in the United States. The next bestthing to seeing it was hearing Mr. Wadsworth talk about it,--especially of its hospitable capabilities. This only increased myregret at being unable to visit it.
The most remarkable order of land-owners that I saw in theUnited States was that of the Shakers and the Rappites; bothholding all their property in common, and both enforcingcelibacy. The interest which would be felt by the whole ofsociety in watching the results of a community of property isutterly destroyed by the presence of the other distinction; orrather of the ignorance and superstition of which it is the sign.
The moral and economical principles of these societies oughtto be most carefully distinguished by the observer. This beingdone, I believe it will be found that whatever they havepeculiarly good among them is owing to the soundness of theireconomical principles; whatever they have that excitescompassion, is owing to the badness of their moral arrangements.
I visited two Shaker communities in Massachusetts. The firstwas at Hancock, consisting of three hundred persons, in theneighbourhood of another at Lebanon, consisting of seven hundredpersons. There are fifteen Shaker establishments or"families" in the United States, and their total numberis between five and six thousand. There is no question of theirentire success, as far as wealth is concerned. A very moderateamount of labour has secured to them in perfection all thecomforts of life that they know how to enjoy, and as much wealthbesides as would command the intellectual luxuries of which theydo not dream. The earth does not show more flourishing fields,gardens, and orchards, than theirs. The houses are spacious, andin all respects unexceptionable. The finish of every externalthing testifies to their wealth, both of material and leisure.The floor of their place of worship, (the scene of their peculiarexercises,) the roofs of their houses, their stair-carpets, thefeet of their chairs, the springs of their gates, and theirspitting-boxes,--for even these neat people havespitting-boxes--show a nicety which is rare in America. Theirtable fare is of the very best quality. We had depended on aluncheon among them, and were rather alarmed at the refusal wemet, when we pleaded our long ride and the many hours that weshould have to wait for refreshment, if they would not furnish uswith some. They urged, reasonably enough, that a steady rule wasnecessary, subject as the commmity was to visits from the companyat Lebanon Springs. They did not want to make money by furnishingrefreshments, and did not desire the trouble. For once, however,they kindly gave way; and we were provided with delicious bread,molasses, butter, cheese and wine; all homemade, of course. Ifhappiness lay in bread and butter, and such things, these peoplehave attained the summum bonum. Their store showswhat they can produce for sale. A great variety of simples, ofwhich they sell large quantities to London; linen-drapery,knitted wares, sieves, baskets, boxes, and confectionery; palmand feather fans, pin-cushions, and other such trifles; all thesemay be had in some variety, and of the best quality. If suchexternal provision, with a great amount of accumulated wealthbesides, is the result of cooperation and community of propertyamong an ignorant, conceited, inert society like this, what mightnot the same principles of association achieve among a moreintelligent set of people, stimulated by education, andexhilarated by the enjoyment of all the blessings whichProvidence has placed within the reach of man?
The wealth of the Shakers is not to be attributed to theircelibacy. They are receiving a perpetual accession to theirnumbers from among the "world's people," and theseaccessions are usually of the most unprofitable kind. Widows withlarge families of young children, are perpetually joining thecommunity, with the view of obtaining a plentiful subsistencewith very moderate labour. The increase of their numbers does notlead to the purchase of more land. They supply their enlargedwants by the high cultivation of the land they have longpossessed; and the superfluity of capital is so great that it isdifficult to conceive what will be done with it by a people sonearly dead to intellectual enjoyrments. lf there had been nocelibacy among them, they would probably have been far morewealthy than they are; the expenses of living in community beingso much less, and the produce of co-operative labour being somuch greater than in a state of division into families. The truthof these last positions can be denied by none who have witnessedthe working of a co-operative system. The problem is to find theprinciple by which all shall be induced to labour their share.Any such principle being found, the wealth of the communityfollows of course.
Whether any principle to this effect can be brought to bearupon any large class of society in the old world, is at presentthe most important dispute, perhaps, that is agitating society.It will never now rest till it has been made matter ofexperiment. If a very low principle has served the purpose, for atime at least, in the new world, there seems much ground forexpectation that a far higher one may be found to work as well inthe more complicated case of English society. There is, at least,every encouragement to try. While there are large classes ofpeople here whose condition can hardly be made vorse; while thepresent system (if such it may be called) imposes care on therich, excessive anxiety on the middle classes, and desperation onthe poor: while the powerful are thus, as it were, fated tooppress; the strivers after power to circumvent and counteract;and the powerless to injure, it seems only reasonable that somesection, at least, of this warring population should make trialof the peaceful principles which are working successfullyelsewhere. The co-operative methods of the Shakers and Rappitesmight be tried without any adoption of their spiritual pride andcruel superstition. These are so far from telling against thesystem, that they prompt the observer to remark how much has beendone in spite of such obstacles.
There must be something sound in the principles on which thesepeople differ from the rest of the world, or they would not workat all; but the little that is vital is dreadfully encumberedwith that which is dead. Like all religious persuasions fromwhich one differs, that of the Shakers appears more reasonable inconversation, and in their daily actions, than on paper and at adistance. In actual life, the absurd and peculiar recedes beforethe true and universal; but, I own, I have never witnessed morevisible absurdity than in the way of life of the Shakers. Thesound part of their principle is the same as that which hassustained all devotees; and with it is joined a spirit offellowship which makes them more in the right than the anchoritesand friars of old. This is all. Their spiritual pride, theirinsane vanity, their intellectual torpor, their mental grossness,are melancholy to witness. Reading is discouraged among them.Their thoughts are full of the one subject of celibacy: with whateffect, may be easily imagined. Their religious exercises aredisgustingly full of it. It cannot be otherwise: for they have noother interesting subject of thought beyond their daily routineof business; no objects in life, no wants, no hopes, no noveltyof experience whatever. Their life is all dull work and no play.
The women, in their frightful costume, close opaque caps, anddrab gowns of the last degree of tightness and scantiness, arenothing short of disgusting. They are averse to the open air andexercise; they are pallid and spiritless. They look far moreforlorn and unnatural than the men. Their soulless stare at us,before their worship began, was almost as afflicting as that ofthe lowest order of slaves; and, when they danced, they were likeso many galvanised corpses. I had been rather afraid of not beingable to keep my countenance during this part of their worship;but there was no temptation to laugh. It was too shocking forridicule. Three men stood up, shouting a monotonous tune, anddangling their crossed hands, with a pawing motion, to keep time,while the rest danced, except some old women and young children,who sat out. The men stamped, and the women jerked, with theirarms hanging by their sides; they described perpetually thefigure of a square; the men and boys on one side, the women andgirls on the other. There were prayers besides, and singing, anda sermon. This last was of a better quality than usual, Iunderstood. It was (of all improbable subjects) on religiousliberty, and contained nothing outrageously uncommon, except theproposition that the American revolution had drawn the last ofthe teeth of the red dragon.
It is not to be supposed that the children who are carried inby their widowed, or indolent, or poor, or superstitious parents,are always acquiescent in their destination. I saw many a brightface within the prim cap-border, which bore a prophecy of areturn to the world; and two of the boys stamped so vigorously inthe dance, that it was impossible to imagine their feelings to bevery devotional. The story of one often serves as an index to thehearts of many. I knew of a girl who was carried into a Shakercommunity by her widowed mother, and subjected early to itsdiscipline. It was hateful to her. One Sunday, when she was, Ibelieve, about sixteen, she feigned illness, to avoid going toworship. When she believed every one else gone, she jumped out ofa low window, and upon the back of a pony which happened to be inthe field. She rode round and round the enclosure, without saddleor bridle, and then re-entered the house. She had been observed,and was duly reprimanded. She left the community in utterweariness and disgust. A friend of mine, in a neighbouringvillage, took the girl into her service. She never settled wellin service, being too proud for the occupation; and she actuallywent back to the same community, and is there still, for nobetter reason than the saving of her pride. Her old teachers had,it thus appeared, obtained an influence over her, notwithstandingthe tyranny of their discipline; and it had not been of awholesome moral nature. But no more words are necessary to showhow pride, and all other selfishness, must flourish in acommunity which religiously banishes all the tenderest charitiesof life.
The followers of Mr. Rapp are settled at Economy, on the Ohio,eighteen miles below Pittsburgh. Their number was five hundredwhen I was there; and they owned three thousand acres of land.Much of their attention seems to be given to manufactures. Theyrear silkworms, and were the earliest silk-weavers in the UnitedStates. At my first visit they were weaving only a flimsy kind ofsilk handkerchief; last summer I brought away a piece ofsubstantial, handsome black satin. They have sheep-walks, and alarge woollen manufactory. Their factory was burnt down in 1834;the fire occasioning a loss of sixty thousand dollars; a meretrifle to this wealthy community. Their vineyards, corn-fields,orchards, and gardens gladden the eye. There is an abundance somuch beyond their need that it is surprising that they work;except for want of something else to do. The Dutch love offlowers was visible in the plants that were to be seen in thewindows, and the rich carnations and other sweets that bloomed inthe garden and green-house. The whole place has a superior air tothat of either of the Shaker "families" that I saw. Thewomen were better dressed; more lively, less pallid; but, I fear,not much wiser. Mr. Rapp exercises an unbounded influence overhis people. They are prevented learning any language but German,and are not allowed to converse with strangers. Thesuperintendent keeps a close watch over them in this respect.Probationers must serve a year before they can be admitted: andthe managers own that they dread the entrance of young people,who might be "unsettled;" that is, not sufficientlysubservient.
I was curious to learn how five hundred persons could be keptin the necessary subjection by one. Mr. Rapp's means are suchthat his task is not very difficult. He keeps his peopleignorant; and he makes them vain. He preaches to them their ownsuperiority over the rest of the world so incessantly that theyfully believe it; and are persuaded that their salvation is inhis hands. At first I felt, with regard both to them and theShakers, a strong respect for the self-conquest which couldenable them to endure the singularity,--the one community, of itsnon-intercourse with strangers; the other, of its dancingexhibitions; but I soon found that my respect was misplaced. Oneand all, they glory in the singularity. They feel no awkwardnessin it, from first to last. This vanity is the handle by whichthey are worked.
Mr. Rapp is now very old. His son is dead. It remains to beseen what will become of his community, with its immenseaccumulation of wealth, when it has lost its dictator. It doesnot appear that they can go on in their present state without adictator. They smile superciliously upon Mr. Owen's plan, asadmitting "a wrong principle,"-- marriage. The besthope for them is that they will change their minds on this point,admitting the educational improvements which will arise out ofthe change, and remaining in community with regard to property.This is the process now in action among the seceders from theirbody, settled on the opposite bank of the river, a short distancebelow Economy.
These seceders were beguiled by Count Leon, a stranger, whotold the people a great deal that was true about Mr. Rapp, and agreat deal that was false about himsel£ It is a great pity thatCount Leon was a swindler; for he certainly opened the eyes ofthe Economy people to many truths, and might have done all thatwas wanted, if he had himself been honest. He drew away seventyof the people, and instigated them to demand of Mr. Rapp theirshare of the accumulated property. It was refused; and a suit wasinstituted against Mr. Rapp, in whose name the whole is invested.The lawyers compromised the affair, and Mr. Rapp disbursed120,000 dollars. Count Leon obtained, and absconded with almostthe whole, and died in Texas; the burial-place of many more suchmen. With the remnant of their funds, the seventy secederspurchased land, and settled themselves opposite to Beaver, on theOhio. They live in community, but abjuring celibacy; and havebeen joined by some thorough-bred Americans. It will be seen howthey prosper.
Though the members of these remarkable communities are farfrom being the only agriculturists in whom the functions ofproprietor and labourer are joined, the junction is in them sopeculiar as to make them a separate class, holding a placebetween the landowners of whom I have before spoken, and thelabourers of whom I shall have to treat.
* I might add their matter-of-fact credulity, stronglyresembling romance. As a specimen of tbe quizzing commonwith regard to the Germans, I give an anecdote. At the time whenthe struggle between Adams and Jackson was very close, asupporter of Adams complained to Mr. W. that it was provokingthat somebody had persuaded the Germans in Pennsylvania that Mr.Adams had married a daughter of George III.; a report which wouldcost him all their votes. Mr. W. said, "Why do not youcontradict it?" "O," replied his friend, "youknow nothing of those people. They will believeeverything, and unbelieve nothing. No: instead of contradictingthe report, we must allow that Adams married a daughter of GeorgeIII.; but add that Jackson married two."
** I heard some interesting facts about the Germans inPennsylvania from Mr. Gallatin, who lived among them for sometime. A fact regarding this gentleman shows what the obscurity otcountry life in the United States may be. His estate wasoriginally in Virginia. By a new division, it was thrown into theback of Pennsylvania. He ceased to be heard of, for some years,in the interval of his engaging in public affairs. During thistime, an advertisement appeared in a newspaper, asking fortidings of "one Albert Gallatin;" and adding tbat if hewere still living, he might, on making a certain application,hear of something to his advantage.
From Harriet Martineau, Society in America, VolumeII, Part II, Chapter I - "Agriculture." London:Saunders and Otley, 1837, pp. 29-65.
Forward to Society in America, Vol II,Chapter I, Section I, - "Disposal of Land."
Back to Society in America, Vol II,Part II, - Economy, (Section VIII) - "The NorthernLakes."