English settlement in the Illinois. : Reprints of three rare tracts on the Illinois country. With map and a view of a British colony house at Albion

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AOR AP PRRAToo SAA ANRC Rae Pea : ©) 3 ; =o Peres RM Berane pee say Fee Meare Serio COE fo UUs Rate oe ee on eon Rea ek : Sea 5 os mae . te ; * OSS OORT e oe PSeamiie ete 2 SUPPLEMENTARY A FROM EXTRACTS LETTER FROM THE ILLINOIS. By MORRIS LIMITED 'T, «£ * EDITION. 250 copies on Small Paper. 10 copies on Large Paper. @- -_——+ — By Professor BIRKBECK. EDWIN ERLE SPARKS, Pu.D., of American History and Dean of University the University of Chicago. College in EXTRACIS FROM A SUPPLEMENT AR. LETTER FROM THE ILLINOIS. By LETTERS MORRIS FROM THE By THE LEXINGTON ILLINOIS. RICHARD LETIERS FROM 1820, By WITH RICHARD EDWIN ERLE AND FLOWER. THE ILLINOIS 1821. FLOWER. INTRODUCTION By Professor BIRKBECK. AND SPARKS, NOTES Pu.D., of American History and Dean of University the University of Chicago. College in THE ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN THE PLLIN OTS. WITH MAP AT WITH EDWIN: AND A VIEW OF A BRITISH ALBION. AT EDITED INTRODUCTION BY - ERLE THE AND SPARKS, Professor of American History, University of Chicago. LONDON THE MUSEUM 43, MUSEUM : BOOK STREET, STORE, W.C., AND THE TOKCH PRESS, CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa. 1907. COLONY NOTES ENGLISH COLONY HOUSE REPRINTS OF RARE TRACTS ON ILLINOIS COUNTRY. HOUSE ALBION, ILLINOIS. THREE Pad. INTRODUCTION. Tus group of interesting pamphlets belongs to the reconstruction period of European history, when the nations were attempting to resume their normal economic relations, after twenty years of almost continuous war. it was hoped and cessation a freedom and ae a from that the of caging hostilities anxiety, general of Napoleon would bring a return happiness. precisely contrary. In England a of prosperity The result was In their ensuing unfortu- nate condition the people failed to appreciate the length of time necessary to resume former relations. They upon government, blamed and all their demanded miseries various re- forms. While the common classes formed mobs to protest against the price of bread, the better informed organized Hampden to secure a repeal of the Corn Laws Clubs and the v1 Introduction. Introduction. extension of manhood uncertain relation of suffrage. Even England to the to shoot the Fundholders Holy To attack by the reformers. ocean, where taxes would paid officials fewer, means of making to Cobbett, the one of many robbed reformer, who, of, and and, presumably, terrors. easier. In a of a Tour of America,” describes in William Hulme “having something wishing the robbed “Journal Countries beyond to preserve as to be it, and looking toward America as a place of refuge from the Borough-mongers and the Holy Alliance,” Hulme Same might alienated themselves to that himself ascribes his migration causes. be able ‘“I to saw that, give to of my Jand. to the whatever I children, as well as of what they might be able to earn, more than one-half would feed pensioned Lords and be taken Ladies, away had lent their to Soldiers the money to and of of its in fee transplanting many by the United States Government of the about two assured landlord tection a unite and New World, land of acre a on home, laws prevented For mutual families select adjacent acquired more cultivate, and desiring they land frequently the fertility of .climate of these various arose, at a pro- would some- lands in the thus forming a kind of colony. Having forth an emigrant system. number times dollars each restrictive foreign soon which offered while salubrity Between of blood and a lands terms, of institutions public price numbers, States The easy setting United a kinship of language the simple a emigrants presented similarity be lower, tithes un- a livelihood Hulme’s the Western ae home known, preface we LU) a new these America Under such disturbances many people conseeking who to persecute us, and be applied to purposes of enslaving us.” Alliance was made a subject of suspicion and templated at us, Parsons vil each taking than to they could augment their sent of home the their new colonies a every letters soil and homes. rivalry occasion to Introduction, Introduction. Vill Upon advantages against the disadEnglish colonies of the others. were planted in eastern Pennsylvania along the Susquehanna River; in Long Island, New York: in the southern portion of the its establish vantages of State made was great in Flower, George near twenty years his junior, son of a DisDesiring to senter named Richard Flower. escape the authority of the Established Church, Birkbeck sent out the younger Flower in 1816 to arrange of land some sixteen in what country.” Illinois. thousand was known In 1818 it One year later, for the acres as became purchase of “the the Birkbeck his four children to his purchase, and returned to England for his family. public Illinois State between rivers, He frame Birkbeck Great selected in a large prairie for described filled thirteen. the the building as with rooms brick, and two and con- cellars. Travellers who visited him called it a cabin. He intended it to be a manor house for a Morris Birkbeck was born at Wanborough, in Surrey, in 1763, of Quaker ancestry. him of taining printed. with Wabash his residence. From the latter were written the Illinois. pamphlets by Birkbeck and Flower herein Associated Little Illinois a bit of rising ground south-eastern in and Indiana, arriving at his tract of land, situated in south-eastern and ix of brought Flower estate, similar Surrey. Two to the one he had left miles to the eastward he laid out a village which he called Albion. Here were to be gathered the artisans and tradesmen necessary Very soon the prairie in which Wanborough and Albion locally as Birkbeck events of were ‘‘ English had his for his located establishment. became known Prairie.” kept careful migration, and notes these of he the sent back with Flower to England, where they appeared as ‘‘ Notes on a Journey in America from the Coast of Virginia to Illinois.” They were later supplemented by a collection of Introduction. Introduction. Xil two related by Flower, was not singular. and Birkbeck Differences arose between as Flower, George caused, two stores, Other the by said, it was the marriage of Flower to a ward of Birkbeck, whom the latter wished to make his second Vaux, Woods and other travellers spouse. mention this quarrel as growing into a feud between the settlements at Wanborough and Albion, and greatly injuring the growth of in (Chicago: cations, County, Edward’s 1862. described Wanborough containing twenty-five cabins, a In of five Albion, acres, each Woods saw laid about out prairie smith in single and were other returned cabins. to and artisans. scattered This about was England the Many disheartened. the English Birkbeck’s (population in 1900, 1,162), differing in from neighbouring villages along the line of railway which passes through very few descendants of the English are yet to be found. Occasionally a Publi- solid brick house survives to mark in 1822 as tavern, a in a village. twenty a settlers house, children left Illinois after his death. Wanborough has disappeared from the modern map. Albion is a _ small village store or two, and the shops of various craftsmen. To these settlers Birkbeck had sold lots with a market American settlers came in, and predominance was soon lost. X.) Woods church, English settlers Illinois.” Hist. Soc. Chicago a period of greatest English supremacy. In 1825 Birkbeck was drowned in each. crossing a stream while making a visit ‘to Robert Owen at his community of Harmony. Flower resided in Illinois until George 1862, leaving a “History of the English Settlements taverns, Xili cabins, nowise single it. A settlers square the Eng- lish occupancy. On the prairie, where games of played cricket were Catharine be seen to keep in Hill fair in old Guildford, only fields of corn fruit trees. Typical American houses scattered are over memory now or orchards can of farms and farm the old English Introduction. XIV prairie which Birkbeck an American manor. remains “No of man the man hoped to make into Scarcely a tradition of since Columbus towards peopling America whom Vaux has done as Mr. said, so much Birkbeck.” docky fills Decpwoods By, pes > oF ‘al a bya AOE Wy anit. 72 Albio mE “ "oe 7, ~ ike % aN Vv ° shill oP ye ee Sx 4iPalmavra Del tame) cam g Se, Mapord Os 4 ew White 7) Porte Island they, "tae oo ue 7 w > 2 ¥ Wkn F mecnn hy feartield 4 Ske ee t-Fi be Princliwn avord Aa MAP ENVIRONS of ILLINOIS. : ALBION English uy pVewhav ai Re NC Ok 913 English Miles & OF 1 lO 8|7 oz London, Published bv Longman, Buh hers, Orme i i i § 4 & Brown, Puternoster Row, March, 1822. al6 {SEMEL SAEED NILE BE 2 OREN 20 SIH ALN IROIE © go Miles. 60 80 als Sta! Hall, we Bury Sir’ Blooms: FATRAC Es FROM “A SUPPLEMENTARY FROM LEV Tee THE ILLINOIS; AN kododress to British Emigrants ; AND A REPLY THE REMARKS OF SeilLIAM COBBET?T @£.. BY MORRIS BIRKBECK. —_=— Second LBdition. LONDON: PRINTED FOR JAMES RIDGWAY, MDCCCXIX, PICCADILLY. EXTRACTS SURPLEMENTARY LEY le THE @ ILLINGIS, Sent to England for Publication, January THE interest which has been 31, 1819. excited by the voluntary expatriation of an _ obscure individual shows, that the thing itself is of importance, when considered in connection with its causes. The exposure of these causes has been imputed to me as an act of hostility to my native country, by those, who identify the government with the people. This imputation is unjust and extremely painful; for, though no _ longer a subject of the British Government, I am bound to my countrymen affection, to be broken by that by ties of stroke only, B 2 which must sever me from all the interests of mortality. But I make no apology. Hoping to do good, it became my duty to publish: and who apologises for the performance of a duty? In my _ solicitude for the well-being of our colony, I have deprecated the formalities practised in ew of Religion. Il have therefore been deemed a foe to Religion—that bond which connects the soul of man with the Supreme Intelligence, ‘in whom we live, and move, and have our mee. ot is the. love of God i creasing our good will toward each other. It is a principle of action aiding the moral sense: a divine sentiment, impelling us to pursuits which reason approves, and ree straining us from evil. If I have written in disparagement of this principle, I plead guilty. It has been reported in the Eastern States, that all our bright prospects have vanished, and that we have been visited by every calamity, physical and moral: by famine, disease, and strife: that the sound have been too few to nurse the sick, and the living scarcely able to bury the 3 dead: and that we are an immoral and licentious crew, tearing each other by incessant broils and _ contention. On _ the contrary, we have had an abundant supply of all the experienced of disease tions and former is On gard no to the the my of life, and extraordinary have visitations or mortality. And as to dissenimmorality, if instances of the have latter beyond necessaries occurred, object whole, it of is our we because are prosperous, own expectations. his operations, pecuniary commencing the abhorrence. success, the With far capitalist or re- is looking around him undecided as to the course he shall pursue, but the labourer has made an establishment. It is not with him as with the capitalist, a state of hope merely, from good prospects; but of enjoyment, from good possessions. Numbers of | this class, and of mechanics, have already building realized cabins their little for themselves. of labour are not their freeholds, and are The squandered fruits in dis- sipation and excess, because they have higher objects, and considering their former depressed condition, it is astonishing 5 4 to me, as it is honourable to them, that they betray no arrogance in their advance to independence. domestic early for the Unfortunately female the classes, all of arrangements “2 for vacant remain must departments rehave We time, or scantily supplied. ceived large importations of British goods by way of New Orleans. (4) This our natural channel of intercourse with Europe is at present greatly obstructed by the irregularities and impositions attending the navigation, arising from the steam boat One hundred want of due competition. and ten dollars are paid for a passage from New Orleans to Shawnee Town (c), and from four and a half to six cents per pound for merchandize. But a steam boat of seven hundred tons burthen is building at Louisville, to ply between that place and New Orleans, besides numbers of smaller burthen now on the stocks, to the amount I understand of nearly a hundred; this constitutes an unprecedented demand for ship carpenters; and it is expected with confidence, that the rates of freight on the Mississipi and Ohio will be reduced one half the next summer. Packages sent from England should be strong, if possible water tight, and of moderate weight, say two hundred pounds. The weight of each package should be fairly marked on _ it. And it should be especially remembered by all, who make shipments to this country, that unless an invoice accompanies the goods, specifying the contents and _ value of each package, enormous expense and damage will be incurred. New articles, although not designed for sale, are liable to a duty of from sixteen and a half to thirty-three per cent. on the original cost, but articles which have been used are admitted duty free. In general, I think it better to bring letters of credit, funds, than parel, kitchen things which are on arrival, should An erroneous’ prevailed, both are, fact, States, that less of the in or other utensils and _ merchandize. in convertible Bedding, ap- other _ tools, in immediate requisition accompany the settler. opinion has _ generally England and the Eastern all prairies partake more or nature of swamps: that they morasses too wet for the 6 growth of 7 in Whereas, timber. this coun- should have been misconstrued by neither surprises nor offends me. substantial good, that has already try, prairies frequently occupy the highest, the driest, and generally the most fertile portions of the surface, river bottoms exWhy one portion of the Earth's cepted. when surface, in nature, of a state effected, not campis producing yet to be arbor tree solved. e@estiva recreatur is forest or shrub, Or, the is should innumerable inseparable new aura, that peculiarly have them my adapted countrymen to their will habits, a more find it and | therefore taken pains to lay before That my motives its advantages. country. delays compensation. from A and _ new year unproductive exertion the debtor side of a problem turf? the green than covering natural The 4apLet that point be first decided. prest for man is a due proportion of each, as is the case in the country we _ have It is only of late that this dechosen. scription of land has attracted the notice of the Americans, and its value is as yet perI am_ imperfectly appreciated. but suaded, ample In the statements I have published, I see little to correct, as far as my _ observation and experience have now proceeded, excepting, that, in my view of the profits of cultivation to early settlers, I have not made sufficient allowance zz teme for the be covered with trees, and another porprairies why only: herbage tion with should prevail from the Wabush westward, and Dup forests to the east: why in the south-east of Europe and in South Amevast regions, dz be rica there should nulla affords some, The been outset. I Our precursors anticipated, good earnest: provements,’ are of selling and undertakings of preparatory in a and should be added to the account at the the now disappointments hunting “clearing their moving tribe, little out” forward as i “im- into the wilderness. There is nothing congenial in their habits with those of our people; yet, greatly to the honour of both, no quarrels of any importance have occurred (@). Tn! AN ADDER ESS TO BRITISH EMIGRANTS ARRIVING THE IN EASTERN STATES. Published in New English My bited, Friends in and two York. Prairie (e), July 13, 1819. Countrymen; For your service publications, an I exhi- outline of the process of emigration, from its commencement up to the final settlement. My first opinion of this, the spot of our choice, and the reasoning on which that choice was grounded, are before you, and sufficient time has elapsed to try those opinions by the test of experience, by 12 cation on this subject who, by misapplication and show dishonest that comments, this country 13 by a Dr. Johnson, of partial extracts is has not laboured such have stated it to be: but that | chosen a bad situation, and described as to | have it as a good one. This gives me a mean opinion of Dr. Johnson. But it is the zztevest of these speculators to fix you on their lands, and their proposals may be worth your attention; therefore, as the distance is comparatively small from the eastern ports, I advise you to examine the thing for yourselves, or at least to obtain an account of it through honest hands. If you are poor, I would recommend you to find out some of the Susquehannah proprietors, who may _possibly undertake to pay the charges of a journey thither, should you find Dr. John- son's favourable report as false as I know his unfavourable to be, I hear of adver- tisements in settlers; but the daily papers, inviting why do annual thousands of New York and Pennsylvanian farmers pass these eligible settlements at their own doors, and make their way into the west, even as far as this placc’ [1 feel Ga anxiety as to the peopling of this neighbourhood; our prosperity is out of the reach of Mr. Cobbett or Dr. folnson, tut | think it right to offer these hints to your attention. It would be well for you to inform yourselves what the Emigrant Society consists of, which professes so much good will towards you. The Preface to Dr. Johnson's book is called an address to you from this Society, but it is not authenticated either by signature or date. It is probable, that the owners of the lands in question are the ‘Emigrant Society;” if so, you will understand the whole affair. M. BIRKBECK. 16 17 my veracity seems to be the point at issue, I should not have considered any reply needful. You, Sir, are an eminent caricaturist, and have exercised your talent on this occasion, as you have on others innumerable, with considerable effect. But your success is not to be envied; for the mo- ment the exaggeration is discovered, the effect ceases, and your credit as an _ honest writer suffers in proportion. You have given the Public your first years history, and I have described things as I went along, to the best of my judgment. In your mode you have the advantage of following your experience, and are good of course hold however, cipations important of much perfectly your to if repret, I “as have proved correct particular, with one and that is in regard and safe, pen. disappointments to at time.” the you keep my ang have not, in every exception, The delays commence- ment of a settlement, remote from all old establishments, consume more time than had entered into my calculations. Of this error I have taken due care to apprise the Public through various channels: but with the general correctness of the result, in other respects, I am quite satisfied. I shall now recal your attention to some paragraphs in your Letters, placing the numbers in the margin. 591. You have seen prairies in Canada, and you have seen Joyalists from Connecticut (g) well settled on those prairies. They were surrounded by British soldiers, who were “by no means shy;” who But since ‘drank their coffee and grog by gallons, and ate their fowls, pigs, sausages, and sweetmeats by wheelbarrow loads,’ and ‘still they sighed for Connecticut.” They had “beautiful corn fields,’ and were as ‘happy as people could be as to ease and plenty;” still they were dissatisfied, notwithstanding the efforts of yourself and your comrades to console them. you have seen my publications you have discovered, that they were wretched because it was on frazries they were settled. And it is thus that you “write down” the prairies of Illinois, But, Sir, the prairies of rich, Illinois are beautiful, as I have healthy; and described we, who them, C are 18 settled on them, 19 are not dissatisfied, or sighing even for Old England: on _ the contrary, contented ourselves, we are anxious to induce those whom we _ love best to follow our example. 576 to 579. declaimer dissuatle Far from being a general in favour of emigration, I would persons, whose dispositions or circumstances unfit them for fact; and it; and al- most in the words which you have unconsciously adopted. Emigration you allow to be good for some; of this your own example is an evidence. I thought it good for me, and published my case, because I knew many, who were in a similar condition, and I wished for society. The dangers and difficulties, which we overcame so easily in theory, have not proved more in formidable possession of in those dows,” which were to reward our “fine freehold domain” around us. ceeded. 580, ace, with in its as the Thus the The context, of as th i are now mea- our toil, and lies smiling experiment quotation first we “beautiful from has suc- my Pre? ce “There are, however, many restless, whom this prescription but badly. If low indulgence, avarice, have soured their of the would suit or unsated tempers, it 1s not in a transfer from the old _ establishments of society to the silent waste, where it scarcely is begun, that they will find a cure. Envy or disappointed ambition— have these disgusted them with the world? The wilds of Illinois will yield no repose to their perturbed spirits. The fiends will migrate with them. “As little would I encourage the emigration of the tribe of grumblers, people who are petulant and discontented under the every-day evils of life. Life has its petty miseries in all situations and climates; to be mitigated or cured by the continual efforts of an elastic spirit; or to be borne, if incurable, with cheerful patience. But the peevish emigrant is perpetually comparing the comforts he has quitted, but never could enjoy, with the frzvationus of his new allotment. He overlooks the present good, and broods over the evil with habitual perverseness; whilst in his recollection of the past he dwells on the good 20 as only. Such people are always bad associates, but they are an especial nuisance in an infant colony.” Now this was plainly addressed to the tribe of grumblers, whom I left behind me in England, earnestly exhorting them to remain there. In your comment I find them, to my astonishment, placed dy my side, and you gravely chiding me for treating my “wailing neighbours” with too much asperity of language! mains a shed: all is ‘“‘misery at present “The apoand despair of the future!” off, and miles thecary’s shop is a hundred 582. Then you proceed to caricature these unfortunate settlers under their first difficulties, and a woful picture you make of it. Fixed as you are to the very selvedge of this country, your vecollectzons of Canadian prairies, and their hospitable inhabitants, might have given your sketch a different, and a truer character. You allow the grumblers “whiskey and pure water,’ but where are the “wheelbarrow loads of fowls, and pigs, and sausages, and Sweetmeats?” You saw “the shed” zz Canada succeeded by a “log house,” and on by a “frame house;” and in Canada they were as happy” as ease and plenty could make them, But eve the shed re- the party: and our family the standing jest of your might be of medicines are brother have doctor a whereas nowhere;” doctor a4 satirists a gentleman of the of fact, In East. we profession, highly that esteemed by us, and exceeded by few in his almost however, has, he qualifications : lest fear es sometim we nothing to do; and compelled he should be other reason. 585 our Why 586. and without “living to quit us—for should dread for you talk no of months,” where wheat is to be bought at a dollar per bushel, and flour at five or six dollars deer,” “without why And barrel? per consump common of article an is it where tion? ters, why If you do you are ignorant mention of them? these Not mat- for the instruction of your readers, certainly. We are not “cut off from all intercourse with, and tions and of colony neighbours, hope of friends:” relations who are hearing but and from our rela- we are heré, @ old friends, and constantly hearing of 23 ae and from the A letter from the contents. connections we have left. is a sort of common property numbers who are interested in . Friends, who used to visit at the distance of twenty or thirty, or a hundred miles, are here within an easy walk. There are neither “the seeds” nor the Sruits “of discontent” in our plan. We help each other cordially, and feel the most friendly interest in each other’s prosperit We contribute to each other’s ae and we have few causes of jealousy. This prevailing character of our social We have much friendly society, and ever y coming i accession. the 594. You Atlantic Saying, ne seid o St gives 1 that us an i ates is m iad “¢he € 4 Americans : maghaveesas no mut- that : eat,” ie say, month ane dogs.” “regard Now, it only Sir, I have as a not oo oolish an assertion, and therefor e nl a of an apology. When you ies nee ne le ee : at » Where to page 75 of the English Notes, or 98 of the AmeriI have veally said on this will you find an apology? you ‘first say, that you will Perhaps practised a deceit on yourself and then as I presume to be the upon others;” case where you give us an instance of my general inaccuracy with regard to prices, that “salt will soon be at one guarter of a dollar per bushel.” (4) “And thus " you I have observe, “it goes all through.” 126 of (page mentioned the price of salt ng; sterli the Journey) at three quarters made I and at page 75 of the Letters, the following observation. “The demand for all the necessaries of life increases so rapidly, that the supply does not always keep pace with it; and those who want money or foresight are compelled to pay high prices. sometimes High prices stimulate the producer, supply is increased, and the articles soon recover their due level, until a similar cause opetemporary a occasioning in again rates Thus scarcity. at forded sells now 605, which say 4 be might af- per bushel, cents seventy-five and upwards.” dollars at two thus”. “And. through!” 604, salt, 606. The “8. estimate om all for farm 24 25 buildings was made from correct working plans; and the prices such as I was then contracting for and have since paid. I am now.a_ competent judge of these is ttt) he gp matters from experience, and [| repeat, that a house exceedingly convenient and comfortable, together with the requisite farm buildings, including (613) corn cribs, may be executed well for one thousand five hundred dollars. Really Sir, you must allow me to understand this one particular subject better than yourself, or the building carpenter “two miles from New York,” 608. The glorious occasion of triumph Over my simple statement is yet behind. : One thousand eight hundred rods_ of line Page for one hundred and fifty dollars ! Here your eagerness to “write me down” (you understand the applica- tion of the phrase), has hurried you Jdeyoud a misplaced joke, as you will perceive. : went to Basseron Prairie, fifty miles ? , to see a young hedge of hone y locust: (2) was promising: I projected such a fence for our inclosures, by sowing the seed on the banks; within one referring to five pecks something and the expense will be greatly hundred and fifty dollars. On my memorandum, I find that of honey locust seed, which is smaller than a pea, will plant one thousand inches apart. and few the banks for two liberty with truth,” taken made cost, collecting, , leaves twenty-nine for planting . - . No levelling of performed by the contract; two at Dollars. The seed may dollar per peck Which per peck rods, hundred eight . one dollars + « 145 Dollars 150 banks is required; ditchers as part of it is their by any mortal discovery, the or no weeds grow on years. “So great a you say, ‘“‘never was and having being;” great “in are you haste to conclude” your letter ¢o me, not to afford me an early opportunity of correcting it, but that your “son William with him,” it ¢0 mgland take might (par. 620), and publish it there, sex months before I could hear of it. 28 to get im his Po caver A barn! loads 29 wheat. Ln, indeed; what it but ithe canopy of. Heaven? It will, at two English waggon of sheaves to an acre, require a_ barn a hundred feet long, fifty feet wide, twenty-three feet high up to the eaves ; this barn, with two proper floors, will more than seven thousand dollar s, will put it in stacks: let him add six to his batallion, the field; What then. He will let him add ten more a rhodomontade is thresh here! and and cost He men zt in men, &c.” Why, Sir, there have grown Zhés year, on a Prairie, a few miles south of us, four hundred acres of wheat, besides spring grain ; and there are now growing seven hundred ares of magnificen t Indian corn, The entire buildings, to which this produce appertains, might, | believ e, be erected for fifteen Crying barn!” hundred out dollars; — whilst “seven thousand you dollars for are a In the estimate of husbandr y labour, | have given the regular prices of the eae est settled neighbourhood, from the information of “elve my own many persons; and I con- authority to be at least on a@ par with yours on this subject, where opportunities of knowing are equal. this instance, I think consequence of I have the of you. Should team labour, exceed the rates I have adopted, in an advance advantage hereafter, it will be in the of grain, affecting the credit side account in favour of the grower, proportion which the consumption teams bears 617. to “When Letters ploughs, that and the you I entire produce. had prepared other read in things, our In your of in of price the the the Hlinois horses, for putting in a hundred acres of corn in the spring, how I pitied you! I saw all your plagues, if you could not see them. I saw the grass choking your plants; them; and you fretting the and grubs eating turning from the sight with all the pangs of baffled, sanguine hope. I expected you to have ten bushels instead of fifty per acre. I saw your confusion, and participated in your mortification. From these feelings I was happily relieved by the Journal of our friend Hulme (4), who informs the world, and our countrymen in_ particular, that 33 32 But to proceed with my summary—] have built three stables, a corn crib, hog sties, carpenters shops, a_ forge, and various other things. I have dug five wells, from eighteen to forty-five feet deep ; made an excellent kitchen garden, and ‘ good preparation for an- orchard. I have also nearly finished a large house for my own family; great part of which is frame, filled in with brzck It contains thirteen rooms, and two cellars, walled and floored with bricks. There is also an ice house and a smoke house. I have pleusteg about seventy acres, partly twice, in preparation for wheat. I have made about eighteen wide, and rails on hundred rods three deep, the bank of of ditch, with a fence 4 great four part feet of four of .it recommend ‘6 Cor n may be grown to greater advantage after these preparations than before them: and it is a course I would now others. and I So I have no “confessions to make :” bear your “decided condeuiaaete of my publications” with more equanimity than you have predicted, because I am tolerably estimable sure of person, the who approval of understands ever _ In subject. I Sir, truth, on you consider this occasion an object of pity rather than of anger; and it is with that feeling that I am obliged to inflict upon you one or two more Letters, your from quotations with my remarks. Your 624th paragraph is as follows :— “It is of little consequence what wild schemes are formed and executed by men who have property enough to carry them back; but to invite men to go to the Illinois with a few score of pounds in their pockets, and to tell them, that they can become farmers with these pounds, appears to me to admit of no other apology than that the acknowledgment an unequivocal Letter Fifteenth your Yet invitor is mad. an such contains from the Illinois really This Letter is manifestly adinvitation. It is person. to an imaginary dressed /ezgned, a clear that the correspondent is The Letter is, f an or supposed being. sorry poor pockets.” the trap to say, I think, a mere creatures letter, You for with a then which few insert I pounds the thank to catch in whole you, their as D of it 34 contains ful good advice, information and to teeth of your “imaginary,” may numbers, in a a near good the seven a relation farmer, detain or most such very and by whose ciracquainted; marriage. eight a notable farmerly with is qualified, labour, to has morewife, fine children. man, He singularly by skill and ability in manual accomplish all I proposed. He Over use- commentary. It is not an Dear Sir, whom I address in that Letter, but one with cumstances I am _ intimately being 30 afford You his family and would and his four hundred and fifty dollars, in Long Island, where your neighbour Judge Lawrence might sell him ome acre for three hundred, build him a hut for and fifty, and employ him afterwards. A horse laugh cover I call hands such labour; many have and a blunder a as this, man “Dear been hardened when you the seed-lip hundred Mr. Cobbett! as a labourer would hardly Sir,” by honour the appellation, you do the who was probably holding carrying one whilst like the you me_ whose severe with to a man, plough or were in Canada “in your coat of bright red,” administering consolation to the unfortunate exiles from Connecticut. 629. That two persons, opposite as we are in our habits and pursuits, should be guided by similar principles in the choice of a situation, would be strange indeed. A village on Long Island may be, I doubt not, as well adapted to your views as the beautiful prairie on which I am _ now writing is to mine; but the extravagance of the following passage seems _ indicative of a disturbed imagination. ‘““And I most solemnly declare, that I would sooner live the life of a gipsey in England, than be a settler, with less than five thousand pounds, in the Illinois.” You have posted me over England and America as boaster;. and, mad; as a. in or two one simpleton, a instances, as something worse. Your last dated, December 15, 1818, and was book published finds after, and meet the you have its owz about way that to me in three more public eye in the advantage Letter is I suppose time. seven Your months this Reply may England. Thus of ten months, SATAN But no matter; justice will overtake us at last; and there is a something in your character as a writer, which is greatly in favour of those whom you attempt to NOTES [O “EXITRACIS SUPPLEMENTARY Prue, LEITER, @ Ga vilify. i am, ese. ie Nae eA Et MET ‘ 36 Sir. Your obedient MN. Servant, BIRKBECE, (a) page 1, “The Illinois.” This is a French spelling of “‘Tllini,” the name of a tribe of Indians which inhabited the prairies between Lake Michigan and the Ohio River. The white settlers applied the name to the region. (4) page 4, “New Valley, carried Orleans.” down on The produce of the Mississippi flat-boats to New Orleans, was exchanged for foreign goods brought in ocean vessels which ascended the river to that port. This trade was gradually shifted to the Atlantic coast cities by the introduction of railways. (c) page 4, “Shawneetown.” Named from the Shawnees, a tribe of Indians frequenting the region. It was the meeting place of the Ohio River and the Mississippi River Trade. In the decadence of River traffic, it has lost its early importance. (d) page 7, “have occurred.” Before 1819, these assigned the date of this (ec) page 9, “English Prairie.” The prairie in which English settlements were located in Illinois. (See Introduction.) the the letter, the United States had inaugurated the policy of making treaties with the Indians for their lands and then removing them to new and vacant tracts west of the Mississippi River. The former massacres were not renewed until the whites began to trespass, in their westward CHARLES Poppin’s Court, WOOD, Printer, Fleet Street, London. movement, upon (7) page 11, “ Philadelphia.” to promote colonies on River. lands. This was one of many attempts the banks of the Susquehanna WIN) (g) page 17, “Loyalists from Connecticut.” During the American War for Independence, more than 60,000 adherents of the King were driven from the thirteen colonies. Many of them migrated to Canada where they were granted lands. (4) page 23, “Price of salt.” Salt was obtained by settlers the Atlantic coast from boiling down the water. Before the saline deposits of the interior of sea the continent were discovered by boring, the advance of populat INDEX along salt. ion was frequently hindered by the absence of (2) page 24, “ Hedge of honey locust.” Many English settlers tried to introduce hedges in Americ a, but the great extent of grounds to be inclosed and the force of the prevailing winds prevented any extensi ve use. Fences of wood or wire are employed instead . (4) page “Friend Hulme.” of a Tour in the 29,Western Countries of Hulme’s America”“Journal was not so severe upon the Birkbeck Colony as Cobbett, by distorting his language, makes him. “EXTRACTS FROM FROM TO A SUPPLEMENTA RY THE ILLINOIS.” LETTER —0:——Basseron Prairie ... a Birkbeck, Cobbett’s Account a i vs pee ie Birkbeck (Mr.) and Mr. Cobbett ... i a Birkbeck on Cobbett’s Ac- count of Farming Birkbeck and Dr. Johnson 24 | Cobbett writes down the Illinois... re. on Ir | Connecticut Exiles os is Connecticut, Loyalists from, 16 Dissatisfied aes ies 29 | Emigration ... 17 35 17 ..18, 19, 20, 33 Farming on the Prairies 12 | Hulme’s Journal PAGE ... 26, 27, 28 “oe Buildings... cs .+» 32, 34 | Johnson (Dr.) and Birkbeck Cattle ae es ss 11 | Labour iat ...20, 27, Cobbett’s Account of BirkLawrence (Judge) ... i: beck on age ane 11 | log Huts... ve one Cobbett Deceived ... see 30 | Loyalists from Connecticut Cobbett’s Letters ae 33 Peopling (The) of me Illinois Cobbett and the Settlers in — of English inoi 8, Si, oh te as on ce ised nati his Son to . Prices of Produce »0+23_ 24, England ai a 25 sprees . Rg Woods of Pennsylvania ... ne piste - - iaheaes 11 | Water in « English Prairie ” 12 28, 29 34 315 34 17, 35 13 : 25, 28 C 10 LETTERS LEXINGTON AND THE CONTAINING BRIEF ACCOUNT IN OF THE THE AND REFUTATION By SETTLEMENT TERRITORY, A THE MISREPRESENTATIONS MR. COBBETT. or OF A ENGLISH LATTER ILLINOIS, RICHARD FLOWER. London: Printed by C. FOR TEULON, J. 67, High RIDGWAY, Street, PICCADILLY. 1819. [Price One Shilling.) Whitechapel, - eri)| ee iv PREFACE, been overcome, few places, I believe I may say in the world, have been _healthier than the English settlement in the Illinois. I trust my friends and acquaintance in England, who interest themselves in our concerns, retain that good opinion of me, as to believe me incapable, from any motive, of laying before them inducements to emigrate to a _ station, where their existence or comfort would be likely to be threatened by diseases not prevalent in the same in their own country. degree, at least, LELITERS, Mek ine as hope, of be interest found to native country. my to old be entirely acquaintance destitute in my | Lexington (a), June A difference of opinion as to eastern or western settlements may prevail, as differences of opinion in England respecting Essex or Hertfordshire, which may be most healthy or profitable. I have only to request the attention of the reader to the facts I have stated. The miscellaneous matter relative to the state of Kentucky, &c., will not, I Ge MY DEAR It 25, 1819. TON FRIEND, is those enquiries last, and which natural you should have made of me which you did in your it shall be my business to an- swer in their respective order. 1st.—How I like America in general, and Lexington in particular? the 2nd.—Whether I have been disgusted with American character and habits, as many have been? or whether I dare invite others to follow the course I have taken? but above all, how I, whose notions of liberty run so high, can endure slavery to reside exists. in a state where personal Wye 8 LETTER FROM LEXINGTON. LETTER ported according to their respective merits; and it is my duty to add that episcopalians, as well as the ministers of most other sects, are in general “labourers worthy of their hire,” virtuous in their conduct, exemplary in their deportment, exhibiting christianity in their every day conduct and intercourse with mankind, and enjoying the esteem of their congregations. There are none of those divines in the busy hive of America, which you know by the name of dignified clergy, partaking of the largest revenues, and doing the least possible service,— conduct which one would think must make their heart shudder at the thoughts of a judgment day! (0) As to the travelling in America, you are already informed of its conveniences and inconveniences ; you dine at a fixed hour, as at our ordinaries in England; and you have abun- dance of provision of every kind the country affords. Poultry in every shape, with the standing dish, ham or bacon: but you must FORM LEXINGTON. 9 not suffered the inconveniences so magnified in England from musquitoes, the often-brought charge of being infested with that ugly and sleep-destroying insect the bug, is indeed too true. Also, the many-bedded rooms found in most taverns, who are as you travel westward, is more than an inconvenience, as often being the sleeping-place of those who fall sick, as of those in health; Americans spreading are and, criminal, infection, which in this respect, and instrumental might be the in avoided by a little expense in the division of sleepingrooms; but there are many happy exceptions; and, as civilization advances, this evil will be cured. it As to the general character of the Americans, is sober, though industrious, drunkenness, and idleness, hospitable; and al- gambling, are vices in existence, they are kept in the back ground, and are by no means so conspicuous as amongst what are called the lower class in England. be aware, that in a country so extensive as | It is remarkable, that in the houses of the wealthy, as well as in store or shop-keepers back-rooms, it is the common practice to ask you to take a glass of water, land, and those in the remote villages. The beds generally cleanly; but although I have as at have already traversed, there must be as much difference in accommodations, as there is between the best inns on the great roads of Eng- a refreshment; which cool offer fresh no water, one is offended ; and when wine or liquors are on the E FROM LETTER 10 LETTER LEXINGTON. salver, water is often preferred ; but our countrymen would think it a sad insult to be invited to so simple a refreshment. I have, my dear sir, met with no instances of a rude ruffian-like character, that will apply to Americans generally ; and, I believe, much less than I should have met with in England, had I travelled her roads and rivers to the extent I have done in this country. The American notion of liberty and equality is highly gratifying to me. The master or employer is kept within the bounds of reason No curses and decency towards his labourer. towards or oaths their servants, or HELPS as they choose to call themselves; (for every one who takes money or wages, is, after all, a ser- vant;) he obeys all reasonable remuneration; and when orders for his this obedience cea- ses, the contract of service is at an end. I have often been surprised at the highmindedness of American labourers, offended at the it to be a phenomenon in the who are name of servant (c). With respect to this place, I have, in former letters, stated history of the world; twenty five years since it was trodden only by the foot of the savage; now it contains about three thousand inhabtitants. A college, at which are already one hundred and forty FROM LEXINGTON. students (d); it its professors, chosen purely for their talents, without any requirement of unanimity of religious opinions, as in the colleges with you: professors so chosen, not being confined to any particular sect, are likely to fill their stations with ability ; and, as far as I am capable of judging, are eminently calculated for their respective situa- tions to which they are chosen. This institution promises to be in the moral world, what the sun is in the natural world, and is calculated to illuminate, civilize, and bless mankind. To the inhabitants of Lexington, wherever I may reside in future, I shall ever feel grateful : their hospitality, their kindness to me, as a stranger, and their sympathy in the hour of affliction, are never to be effaced from my memory. Their politeness and liberality are perhaps, Balls, at which the fair sex are neunequalled. ver allowed to share any expence,—an Atheneum and a considerable museum, the benefits of which the stranger is invited to partake gratis,—may be mentioned as not being very Tea-parties are a concustomary in England. tinual festival from the time you enter to the time of your departure, which however, are too much like our routs in England; and in time, J should fear would, as they have in England, be- 2 LETTER FROM LETTER LEXINGTON. come a substitute for hospitality. I collected at these parties from one dred persons. Thus, my dear Sir, stead of being in continual broils, have known to two hunyou see, inand exposed to the affronts and insults of rude Americans, I have received nothing but civility and hospitality. It will hardly be credited when I assure you I have not yet met with a single annoyance in the whole of my journey from New York to Pittsburgh by land; nor from thence down the Ohio to Louisville.—a distance of six hundred miles by water, and five hundred miles by land: thus you see, my dear friend, I am in no danger at present, of being disgusted by American cism. rudeness, irreligion, or fanati- To your last question—How can you reside in a state where personal slavery is in existence? I, with regret, reply, this is the spot FROM LEXINGTON. 13 sion of tyrants or tyranny ; and a Kentuckyan has no more right to talk of freedom than the legitimates, whose determined purpose it is to blot liberty and happiness from the face of the earth, The one talks of liberty and social order, and it appears that by it is meant the increasing trappings of monarchy ; the other does the same of liberty, and the rights of men. The legitimates, who have high notions of regal authority, attempting to subjugate the minds of men, is perfectly consistent with their notions of power, their education on satin and velvet ;—an and habits; but to hear the republicans of slave states point to the Declaration of Rights, who inform the coming traveller that they are now blazoned forth American re- eye to subjugate the publican pointing to the Righ¢s of Men with his left hand, while his right is obliged to hold the which clouds the American sun of liberty ; and whip, and I confess I know not which are most excited in me, the risible or the sorrowful feelings, when I lation of his state :—this, indeed is worthy the the liberty of his country, when that country is divided into two classes, and two classes only—the master and the slave! The term treasures hear a Kentuckyan boasting, in lofty terms, of of master implies the willing servitude of free men ; the term s/ave, includes in it the admis- with watchful minds and bodies of a large share of the popu- It is this that taunts and derision of kings. keeps the wealth of Europe from pouring its into the fertile region of Kentucky, and the industry of thousands from approach- ing the state (e). It would be painful to relate all the horrors I have beheld in slavery under 14 LETTER FROM LEXINGTON. LETTER its mildest form. Whites full of whiskey, flogging their slaves for drinking even a single glass! Women, heavy with young, smarting under babes the angry blow, or the lash, and with at the breast, which one of our writers calls ‘““Wature’s passport through the world,” lacking food in the midst of abundance, and cloathing insufficient to satisfy the demands even of common decency. Avarice, which our Poet Young calls “ Earth’s greatest blunder—Hell’s loudest laugh ;”—avarice, which seems to be the source of all this mischief, now comes to the relief of the ragged lingering wretch. If they are miserable, they must not die, fora mother and infant are worth from six hundred to a thousand dollars : but in a slave State, avarice has preserved life, clothed the wretched, and fed the hungry; it has fattened and made fine, the slave that he or she may fetch at the hammer, one or two hundred dollars more. “ Lord, what is man!” Was it for this that your heroes fought, bled, and died? Was it for this, that the Washington, to whom brave so many and virtuous memorials in the way of oration and praise are delivered on each succeeding anniversary of his birth, spent his long and glorious course? Oh! youth of Kentucky, when you speak of his FROM LEXINGTON. 15 fame with the enthusiasm of a republican, speak of his humanity, read his will; see his ardent desire to let the captive go free: imitate his virtues, errors of tyrants, and fall not into the who suppose military glory to be the glory of a christian. It is worthy of enquiry, whether it is likely that Americans will escape the judgments with which God has afflicted other nations, while their land is infected with personal slavery, and whether the liberties of America are not endangered by the increase of its black population. Perhaps some ambitious military chief may take the work from the hands of republicans, and ‘proclaim liberty to the captives,” and make them the instruments of political slavery: let it be the work of crowned despots to subjugate the minds and bodies of men, but let not republicans assist in such a work. Whenever you take Freedom’s sacred name into yourlips—whenever you unfurl the standard of partial liberty—you stand self-condemned. Despots keep men’s minds in ignorance, that the voice of slavery and abject dependance may not be heard even in its defence. Do ye not the same: both your efforts will be in vain; the minds of men are in progressive march, and your united efforts will not stop their destination, WINN] MOACCH LETTER *“No, FROM bless’d with ‘Dungeons **No one THE ILLINOIS. freedom, LETTER unconfin’d, can ne’er contain the soul; can chain th’ immortal “No one but Him mind, who spans the pole.” I remain, yours sincerely, ge 16. MY DEAR FRIEND, AFTER many interruptions I removed from Lexington to this place, at which we arrived on the 2nd of July, spending in our way a week at Zarmony, that wonder of the west (/). You have heard this settlement mentioned, and it is worth visiting to see, and observe the wisdom and discretion: regulated by sound here perfect equality prevails, and there are no servants; but plenty of persons who serve. Every man has his station appointed him according to his ability, and every one has his wants supplied according to his wishes. He applies to the mill for his supply of flour; to the apothecary ILLINOIS. to the store for cloaths, arms; this would not allow them and 17 so on for every thing necessary for human subsistence. They do not forbid marriage, as some have represented ; but it is one of their tenets that the incumbrance created by families is an hindrance to the spirituality of christians, and it is this opinion which discourages marriage amongst them. They have also an aversion to bear and they emigrated to remain in to live in the manner they have adopted, and have certainly fi. Lltinots, near Albion, Aug. effect of united industry, THE cine; Germany, Lec ie FROM for medi- the outside appearance of contentment and happiness. After travelling through the woods of Indiana, the hills divide to the right and left, and a fine valley opens to your view in which the town stands. The hills assume a conical form, and are embellished with fine cultivated vineyards; and the valleys stand thick with corn, Every log house is surrounded by a well cul- tivated garden, abundantly supplied with veIt getables, and ornamented with flowers. was the beginning of wheat harvest when | arrived, and the entire company of reapers retired from the fields in a body, preceded by a band of music: their dress is like the Norman peasants, and and as all are of the same form and colour, may properly be designated their TAA: NA 20 LETTER ture; FROM THE labour incessant and ILLINOIS. LETTER unremitting, before a small tract of land can be tolerably cleared: but here I can enter either as a farmer or a grazier immediately; fine wide spreading fields of grass, inviting the flocks and herds to come and partake of the bounty with which they are loaded. In answer to the enquiry as to the proper mode of farming, I sit, and from the place I am now writing, see a beautiful herd of cattle of nearly two hundred in number. I have one hundred tons of fine hay collected for spring provision. Every head of cattle, the expence of herdsman deducted, on a moderate calculation, promises a fair profit of at least five dollars per head; and yet Mr. join us, Cobbett, in and direct his weekly letters, very modestly asserts, “There is no farming for profit in the west!”—I state these facts for the information of those who may wish to ill-founded in assertions subject. of contradiction this writer to the on the It is also stated by Mr. Cobbett, that “the obstruction prevent tradiction by bush early to can put the where there and or easy this briar are such as to cultivation.”—In assertion, | affirm, con- that plough into thousands of acres is no such obstruction. One I FROM THE ILLINOIS. 21 gentleman in our settlement has grown eighty acres of fine corn, although he only arrived last year; this alone is a sufficient contradiction to all Mr. C. has said on this subject. There is also a sufficiency of corn and grain grown this first harvest to supply the wants of the settlement: next year there will be a surplus for brewing and distilling. If a person enters heavy timbered land, it is by great exertion he clears ten acres the first year; but he has only here to enclose and take his choice of farming and grazing, or enclose enough for corn and pasture, his cattle feeding on the unoccupied range of grass which the neighbouring cultivator cannot stock himself, and which is much improved by the feeding of cattle. Now, my dear Sir, as to the persons who come here or to any other part of America, I would have them consider for what purpose and intent they emigrate. It is certain as regards farming, that there are only two ways in which it can be performed: the one, labouring by his own hands; with him the other, by his capital, stocking his farm, and hiring his labourers. It is thoughtlessness and folly to tell any person, if he bring himself one hundred in comfort; pounds, he can but, it is certain, place that a LETTER 24 FROM THE ILLINOIS. them well but have the pleasure of seeing settled. of the setNow, my dear Sir, as to the state ady made. tlement and the progress it has alre ash to On a tract of land from the little Wab sevent abou sh, Waba the Bonpar on the Great six from north teen miles in width, and four to ers’ cabins, to south, there were but a few hunt about a year and a half since, and now there are ly four sixty English families, containing near fifty Amehundred souls ; and one hundred and souls, red hund n seve t rican, containing abou who like many of We have circle of the English for their neighbours, and whom are good neighbours to us. In our nothing here like loneliness. English acquaintance, as well as in anions that of American settlers, we find comp t. who are often found interesting and intelligen indusIn good deed and in truth, here is, to the trious, a source productive than Industry Peru. ple reward: but of wealth more certain and the mines of Golconda and of every kind has its amfor the idle, the drunkard, spirits and the vicious, there is no chance; cerare cheap, and a short existence is their tain that All persons feeling anxieties portion. attend agricultural pursuits may be re LETTER leased from FROM those THE anxieties ILLINOIS, 25 by emigrating to the Illinois. Your newspapers, the Farmer’s Journal in particular, relate the particulars of the distress of the farmers, and the ruin in which many of them are involved. It is in vain that you petition for relief. By your own account your ruin is inevitable, and your destruction sure. Escape then to a land where the efforts of your industry will be rewarded, and the produce of your labour will be your own. You will escape, not only from the tax-gather and tithe-collector, but from the expence attending the frightful system of pauperism which is constantly making demands, not only on your pecuniary resources, but calling you to the most painful personal exertions. In the extensive region from New York to this place, I have had but one application for relief, and that was from an Englishman. In this country peace and plenty reign. I have mentioned a scarcity of servants : this arises much from emigrants bringing out with them the work a better only sort, or sort wanting confidential are females servants: who in the kitchen, milk the cow and can attend to the dairy. All above this class can earn too high wages by their needle. A good sempF 26 LETTER FROM THE ILLINOIS. LETTER stress, earning a dollar per day, will soon quit servitude, and put on the airs of American independance, with an addition of some little insolence ; but a cure is not unfrequently wrought, and that by various easy methods. A gentleman hired a female servant of this sort, who would insist, as a condition, on sitting down at the dinner table, with the family; her christian name was Szddy; the condition was consented to, and a project for cure at the same time engaged in:—A party was invited to dinner, and Biddy took her place at the table, being above waiting, or being in any degree more than a HELP, When any- thing was wanting, a gentleman arose from table and offered it to Miss Biddy. Miss Biddy was asked to drink a glass of wine, first by one gentleman and then by another. Miss Biddy was desired not to trouble herself about any thing, and was ceremoniously treated, till she felt the awkwardness of her situation, and said, the next day to her mistress,—‘‘ Madam, I had rather give up dining at your table,”"— which she did, continuing in their service for some time. I have had to do with people of the same cast, though not quite so foolish as Miss Biddy :—I have hired persons to certain employments, and they have been discontented FROM THE ILLINOIS. a7 and spoiled by their notions of equality: “Very good,” said I; we, then, are equal ; I like the idea much; it pleases me greatly; you, of course, mean to take no money of me for what you please to do for me; and, if that is the case, I shall be as perfectly satisfied with your notion of things, as you appear to be; but, if you take my money, you must perform the service I have pointed out to you.”— This perfect notion of equality does not suit, although it is too reasonable to be much ob- jected to. It is generally supposed, that this high notion is of republican origin; but it is the contrary, and originates in the insolence of those who keep and domineer over slaves. Anything that a black is made to perform, is pronounced unfit for whites; and, although many who have held slaves as their property, are far inferior in understanding to the slaves they hold, and are sometimes reduced to poverty, they deem it degrading to perform any work that a slave can perform; and those persons who, like myself, are far from thinking all men equal in character, are little disposed to engage with such persons in any service. With our superiority in our consistent love of freedom, and our having escaped from political 28 LETTER FROM THE LETTER ILLINOIS. the exslavery, we shall never fail to oppose onal tention, and even the continuance of pers slavery. The arguments for a state of slavery, urged by Americans, are just such as might be urged by Algerines for taking the ships of America, Both conand making slaves of her seamen. sist in the right of force, and not of reason or justice; and when a person hears members of congress pleading the cause of slavery,— personal slavery,—with the pretence they are my property, one cannot help blushing for human nature. Those who appear to love freedom, both personal and political, making use of such a pretence, forces the tear of sorrow from the eye of humanity. One human being the property of another. No! the whole race of man- kind is the sole property of their great universal parent; and he who enslaves another, whether his skin be black, white, or intermediate, 1n- sults the right of his God, and blasphemes the name of his Creator. I rejoice, my dear friend, in the choice the English have made of a free state ; and am cer- tain we shall be able to cultivate from the ser- vices of free men, cheaper than those who culti- vate them by slaves. But to return to our settlement and its in- FROM THE ILLINOIS. 29 fant capital Albzon. Log houses, those cabins unpleasant to the cleanly habits of Englishmen, the receptacles of the insect tribe, are no longer erected. I have had the pleasure of laying the first brick foundation in Albion; it is for an inn where travellers I hope may find rest without disturbance from insects. We have also nearly completed our market house which is sixty feet by thirty. A place of worship is began. Religion, I mean the outward form, has not been unattended to: a selection from the Churchof England service, anda sermon hasbeen read on the sabbath to a few persons assembled in a log room: our psalmody is excellent, having some good musicians, and singers amongst us. The Americans here think all who take money for preaching, 4zve/zng ministers, and several well-intentioned farmers preach to small assemblies God, in the neighbourhood. The worship of and the keeping his commands is the thing which I believe all will agree in, as being the end to be produced by public worship. As we have not, and I trust never shall have, that grand corruption of christianity, an establishment formed and supported by statesmen and politicians, I hope christianity in its original purity, will for ever flourish in the Illinois, We intend also our place of worship for a li- LETTER 30 THE FROM LETTER ILLINOIS. rnoon; brary, and to open it on a sunday afte and read, to a day when all persons have leisure The are clean in their dress and persons. of strict sabbatarians will doubt the propriety this proceeding ; but any thing which will have a tendency to promote moral and intellectual improvement, and keep men from the vices of idleness and drinking, is justified by him who put the question,—“ Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath?” But to return from spiritual to temporal things. I spoke of our market house being finished. The price of provisions in this place is as follows. A fine turkey, a quarter of a dollar.—Fowls, twelve cents each._—Beef four to five cents per pound.—Mutton none yet at market.— Eggs twelve and a half cents per dozen.—Cheese thirty cents per pound.—Butter to the heat of the pound.—Bacon climate, scarce, sixteen owing cents per at this time fifteen cents per pound, half the price in winter.—Flour nine dol- LORELEI OT 8 lars per barrel.—Deer, a fine fat buck from one dollar to one dollar and a half including skin.— Melons, such as cannot be procured in England, twelve and a half cents each in great abun- dance.—Honey of the finest flavour, one dollar per gallon—Whiskey one dollar per gallon FROM THE ILLINOIS. 31 retail.—F ine Hyson tea two dollars per pound. Moist sugar thirty one cents.—Coffee sixtytwo cents per pound: wholesale from New Orleans much cheaper. Fine fish three cents per pound. We leave it to the public to judge of our danger of starving, as some writers have hinted. Here then you have the situation of our rising settlement ; progressing with rapidity in the eye of Americans, though to Englishmen, setting and watching for fresh intelligence, but slowly. You ask me, dear Sir, whether there is any sale for books here? We have no bookseller yet, and the writings of your favourite authors, in defence of civil and religious liberty, would not sell here: the love of civil and religious liberty is unbounded in every Illinois heart ; there are none to dispute the truth of the principles of complete and perfect freedom; and when con- troversy ceases, controversial writings must of course lose their interest. I would not for the world invite persons, no! not a single individual, if I did not think that his happiness would be encreased : it may be said that so are those I am who an interested take such person, pains vent persons from coming westward. and to pre- Emigra- 32 tion LETTER from the FROM ILLINOIS. THE states, has already eastern re- duced the price of lands there. When I passed New York, I heard a popular writer (g) say, “I'll be d——d if I don’t write down Birkbeck and the settlement :” those who are familiar with this writer’s usual phraseology in conversation, cannot, I think, be in any great danger of mistake as to the person alluded to: how far he has succeeded, the public will be a proper judge when they carefully peruse the facts I have stated, and compare the evidence they receive from time to time through the various channels from the Illinois. We have here plenty of scribes, and the truth—the whole truth will appear before both an American and British public. I remain, Your sincere friend, RICHARD THE END. @=ea] C. TEULON, Printer, 67, Whitechapel. FLOWER. NOTES LEXINGTON YO “LETTERS AND THE feUn ILLINOIS.” From this, the chief settlement in (a) page 1, “Lexington.” the State of Kentucky, Mr. Flower wrote this letter while awaiting the construction of the Flower house at Albion. (See the Introduction.) The Church was dis(4) page 8, “A judgment day.” established in America at the time of the American Upon its foundation was erected the ProRevolution. testant Episcopal Church. (c) page 10, “ Name of servant.” This sensitiveness was due to the levelling influence of a new country and a demoIt continues to the present time. cratic government. This was (d2) page 11, “Hundred and _ forty students.” Transylvania University, the first institution of higher It was education west of the Allegheny Mountains. founded about 1780, and later was merged into the present University of Kentucky. (e) page 13, “ Approaching the State.” In 1820 Kentucky conOf the twenty-five States in the tained 126,732 slaves. Union only nine were free from slavery. The anti-slavery feeling was strong in Kentucky at this time. Among those who had migrated to the North of the Ohio River and freed their slaves was Edward Coles, first governor of the Illinois Territory. He first suggested Illinois to Birkbeck In 1818 an effort was made to as a place of colonization. introduce slavery into Illinois. Coles and Birkbeck were actively engaged in defeating the attempt. 36 Servants, Scarcity of LETTERS PAGE x 23, 25 Slaves and White Slavery 14, 27, 28 Students, Number of, in Lexington os a II Taverns ue oe “a eS Timbered Land _... a 21 Travelling in America... 8 Wabash Wabash, in the Wages to Bonpar ... English a in a Families 24 FROM es os 24 +610, 23, 25, 26 Washington Memorials _ ... Whiskey and the Whites Worship __,.. ve ... ae THA 14 14 29 CONTAINING AN AT AND ALBION VARIOUS FS LEIA 1820, 1821. ACCOUNT ITS OF THE VICINITY, MISREPRESENTATIONS, LARLY OF MR. By RICHARD WITH A LETTER AND FROM NOTES M. BY Cy. ENGLISH AND A SETTLEMENT REFUTATION THOSE MORE OF PARTICU- COBBETT. FLOWER. BIRKBECK; BENJAMIN AND A PREFACE FLOWER. Thou shalt bless the LORD thy GOD for the GOOD LAND which he hath given thee :—beware that thou forget not the LORD thy GOD. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. DIVINE COMMANDS. London: PRINTED By FOR JAMES C. Teulon, RIDGWAY, 67, PICCADILLY Whitechapel. ———— 1822. vee [Price Two Shillings and Sixpence.] a 9h AS apes) se PREFACE. a ‘PREFACE, the spots they are describing are not those described by others; and that, of course, it is not fair to charge others with statements they have never made. I have publications before me in which Mr. Birkbeck and my brother (a) are charged with been ee eel to whom it would be uncandid to impute such motives, but who are chargeable with misrepresentation, which appears to have arisen from their not having considered that ee iv Vv written on the subject, and the various advantages it certainly presents to different classes of society, is an affair of such importance, that those who propose it should seriously reflect on the turn of their own mind, their disposition, habits, circumstances, &c. Some who have emigrated to America find themselves as unhappy there as they were in their own country. labour, Those who are averse to fond of luxuries, and whese minds are unfairness in their statements, because they do rivetted to the artificial distinctions of society not in Europe, have found to their cost, that America is not the country for them; and unless they can learn wisdom, and form resolution sufficient to alter some of their habits, and if not to despise, to regard with indifference most of those distinctions, they can never be reconciled to Republican manners and institutions. Res- apply to the situations chosen, one or which was the writers had fifty, and the other four hundred miles from the English Settlement. There are at the Illinois as in almost all other unpleasant, emigrant countries, healthy situations and pleasant and unhealthy, and that does not act a very wise part, who fixes on a station unless he had carefully examined it himself, or at least had the recommendation of some scorn to mislead Emigration intelligent friend who would him. to America, after all that has pecting a few persons of this description at the Illinois, one of the principal settlers exclaimed: —‘ What are such people come here for?” For the Notes to the following letters, with “all their imperfections on their head,” I G am Vi PREFACE. PREFACE, solely responsible.—I am not without apprehen- the corruptions of christianity, I have from the sions that there may be even candid readers, who may think that in my Reflections on /nfidelity, Civil Establishments I have somewhat wandered of Religion, &c., out of my way: to such readers I beg leave to offer a word or two by way of apology. True religion, I consider as the most important and were I, when reflecting society which too generally globe, even its most civilized various follies and concern of life; on the state of characterizes this parts, and on the vices which have so sadly Vil circumstances which are stated in the following letters respecting the state of religion at the Illinois, thought proper to express myself on the subject with my usual freedom. So little has been done towards the restoration of primitive christianity in this country for the two past centuries, although there has been of late, an unusual bustle in the religious world,— so inveterate are the evils resulting from STATECRAFT and PRIESTCRAFT united, that al- though I believe with a firm and unshaken faith, that the kingdoms of this world will become deformed mankind—on the adversity of the righteous, and the prosperity of the wicked,— the kingdoms were I confess my ignorance as to the period, and by I not, amidst such reflections, supported divine consolations, suggested by a firm belief in the Beng and Providence of Gon, and of the truth of the christian system which assures us that “all things shall be subdued “and reconciled to um,” I should indeed be “of all men the most miserable ;” and, as I am firmly persuaded that the success of the gospel is not more hindered by open infidelity than by of our Lord and of his Christ, the means by which those glorious events predicted in the sacred writings will be accom- plished. I cannot however but indulge the hope that mankind will, by observation and experience, under the blessing of heaven, grow wiser ; and that in the formation of new settlements, many of the evils referred to, may with proper care be avoided. With this hope, I Vill PREFACE. PREFACE. have endeavoured to give a helping hand, however feeble, to those who have at heart the best interests of their fellow creatures. For the language I have made use of in ex- 1X In conclusion, I ask I hope no great favour in claiming on brother, and myself, until they are refuted who ments, behalf of Mr. Birkbeck, my that credit for our state- by evidence, have little character claim; and that posing bad men, and more particularly a notori- to which persons to cannot feelings of humanity, or sets truth and decency, may on the present occasion obtain belief when we have nothing to contradict us but the confident language of a man “ known to be wholly ous political impostor, who when indulging his deep-rooted prejudices and violent passions, cares not how he throws off the common or the principles of honour and honesty at defiance, scarce any apology is necessary. Should any one think my language too strong, I might plead the example of some of the greatest and best men in different ages; but I shall confine myself to that of the sacred writers. The prophets and apostles, yea, our Saviour himself, when describing the Cos- BETTS of ¢heir day, have used much stronger language than I have done; and if it be a duty at any time to vebuhe sharply, or as critics of such a des- inform us the words should be rendered, with a cutting severity, or cutting to the quick, it is when we cription, have to do with men lose, lay we ‘indifferent to truth ;” and who has, in the com- pass of three months only, for his scandalous libels on private characters,—on one of those occasions for having invented the atrocious charge of FORGERY against a former associate— most deservedly smarted in a court of justice. Should I, however unintentionally, have com- mitted any mistake, I shall deem myself bound to acknowledge it. Datston, Jan. 16th, B. F. 1822. P.S. Mr. Cobbett somewhere remarks—‘ That he would sooner join the fraternity of gypszes in this country than the settlement at the Illinois.” This is not so extravagant as some of his assertions, as he has proved himself pretty TT ANAL Xx PREFACE. PREFACE. well qualified, in one respect at least, for a member of that fraternity; namely, by his numerous g7Jsy prophecies.— To select one class only :—How frequently has he in terms the most unqualified and confident, predicted that the Bank of England would zever return to cash payments ; how frequently has he fixed the Zeriod beyond which it was impossible for bank-notes to preserve their value! Perhaps he had in his eye the accomplishment of his favourite plan,—a general forgery of those notes, as the grand means of bringing about his predictions. Notwithstanding the complete failure of those predictions, (and I could produce numerous instances of similar failure) he, although apparently sadly mortified, goes on with his prophecies, and renews the senseless and injurious advice to the farmers, which he has been giving them for many years past, but which —to hoard “will up buy the twice as he knows, gold much alas! they “because land as in it cannot two will follow years buy it now!” It was not many months since he gave them the same advice respecting silver, assuring them “that a bundle “of silver would shortly prove a mine of wealth.”—Addvess lo the Farmers, (Register Dec. 15.) In which publication Mr. C. has, in his language applied to Mr. Webb Hall, so justly drawn his own picture, that I hope the farmers will keep it constantly in view.—“ The truth is, Mr. [Cobbett] “is a conceited man with a great deal of loose and indis“tinct stuff in his head; and, having great powers of “front, he puts the stuff forth without hesitation. A mo“dest man may be a weak man and yet not deserve our “contempt ; but impudence and folly joined claim as “much of contempt as man can bestow.”—lIf the farmers can swallow such acug.” they have indeed, what Dr. South calls an “iron digesting visit this, as they are faith,” now X1 and visiting should other the Jesuits countries, they will doubtless consider Mr. Cobbett’s boasted “disciples ” as well prepared to swallow down the doctrine of Zransuéstantiation / ERRATA. , Page 24, last line, after the word “to,” add as follows or . become man and wife, and their answer of consent. This is neers if at the magistrates, and recorded by him at the county corel Page 36 dine 20, for ‘‘ the Illinois,” read “Or ai Be 5 from the bottom, for : liberal,” vead ‘* illiberal. 44 en oC 4, for “‘light,” read “life.” 59 eject Chihanteaet y. 60, dast line, after the word “‘ circle,’ ad . 4 and 5, for *‘ proring” vead : gba 74 8 from the bottom, for ‘‘ made,” read ** may. 76 LETTERS, LETTek me. f. Albion (6), Lllenots, Jan. Dear have 18, 1820. Sir, My whole family, I think enjoy, since we been here, much better health than in months, of England, and we have enjoyed the fine Indian summer, most which charming has lasted full two temperature, the thermometer varying from 70 to 75. We had only two wet days in November, and one sudden change to 35 degrees; the weather in December was equal- ly fine till Christmas-day, when we had frost and snow much as in England, and since that time some very cold days, the thermometer being below freezing, 22 degrees. We have now milder weather, but frost and snow on the ground, and the thermometer again at freezing, but gently thawing. Our settlement has been remarkably healthy, and everything is going on tolerably well. You TATA VV A\en Sas is LETTERS FROM cent, for nine month’s THE ILLINOIS. keeping; thus LETTERS we are this year principally graziers, having two hundred acres enclosed, and more enclosing. George will have a fine farm opened, an excellent garden and young trees, and vegetables of the most luxuriant growth. It ought not, however, to be concealed that we are much in want of farming labourers; we with difficulty get a regular ploughman, anda ploughboy is still a scarcer commodity ; and till we can get our prairies once broken, and go with two horses without a driver, ploughing will be diffi- cult to be performed. Our people put on the independent airs of Americans, without either their natural or noble independence, which disdains any thing like servitude; but, as if delighting to teaze us gave them great pleasure, they quit their work suddenly and without reason: but we greatly counteract this by keeping them out of employ, and our money in our pockets, and pay the Americans who come out and are always migrating fora Job of work, and then return to their farms. We are also, in female many instances, servants, but then we destitute of have plenty of helps, or charwomen, who will come and work by the day or half-day, and then return to their families. My wife has managed this business FROM THE ILLINOIS. 13 admirably well: observing their disposition, she hires them by the hour, sees well to them for the time being, and generally gets a usual day’s work done in a few hours. This occa- sional assistance, in addition to the services of Mrs. C. who we brought with us, and a woman servant, makes us comfortably served. On the return of Christmas day, we invited our party as at Marden, my late residence in Hertfordshire: we assembled thirty-two in number. A more intelligent, sensible collection I never had under my roof in my own country. A plentiful supply of plumb pudding, roast beef and mince pies were at table, and turkeys in plenty, having purchased four for a dollar the preceding week. We found among the party good musicians, good singers; the young people danced nine couple, and the whole party were innocently cheerful and happy du- ring the evening. The company were pleased to say I had transferred Old England and its comforts to the Illinois. are not in want Thus, my dear Sir, we of society; and I would not change my situation for any in America, nor for disturbed or tumultuous England. My efforts to assemble the people to public worship have been successful; our place is well attended, from forty to fifty people, 16 LETTERS FROM THE LETTERS ILLINOIS. on to plansof usefulness. A placeforeducation(c), a sunday-school, and above all, a Bible-society, if we increase, shall be my aim and endeavour. I have already abundant testimony that God will bless his word, and if the rest of my life should be spent in such useful employment, my death-bed will be more calm than if I had been taken from life before I had arrived at this period of utility. You will, I trust, be able to appreciate the station Providence has placed me in, and feel pleasure at this communication. My house, which is nearly finished, comfortable one, and can boast a roof is a that ceil =: ee neither Hertford nor Marden could. It stands the most drenching rain and drifting snows without letting in any wet. I described it in my former letters; and while I am satisfied with the comfort it affords, the Americans behold it with surprise. You would have been much amused if you had been with us a few weeks since, when I had a visit from Captain Burke (¢), a sensible and intelligent backwoodsman. He paid me a short visit, put off his business that he might fetch his wife, which he did; we thought we saw through the plan; he returned with her the next day, and we felt disposed to gratify their FROM THE ILLINOIS. 17 curiosity. “There wife,” said he, ‘did you ever see such fixings?” He felt the paper, looked in a mirror over our chimney-piece which reflected the cattle grazing in the field before the house, and gazed with amazement. But turning from these sights to the library,— “Now,” said he to my wife, ‘does your old gentleman” (for that is my title here) ‘read those books?” ‘‘ Yes,” said she, ‘“‘he has read most of them.”—‘‘ Why if I was to read half of them, I should drive all the little sense in my head out of it.” I replied that we read to increase our sense and our knowledge; but this untutored son of nature could not conceive of this till I took down a volume of Shaw’s Zoology. You, Mr. Burke, are an old hunter, and have met with many snakes in your time. I never saw above one in my life; now if I can tell you about your snakes and deer, and bears and wolves, as much or more than you know, you will see the use of books.” I read to him a description of the rattle-snake, and then shewed him the plate, and so on. His attention was arrested, and his thirst for knowledge fast increasing. ‘I never saw an Indian in my life, and yet,” said I, “I can tell you all about them.” I read again and shewed loured plate. him a co- ‘‘ There,” said he, ‘‘ wife, is it not H 18 LETTERS FROM THE ILLINOIS. LETTERS wonderful, that this gentleman, coming so many miles, should know these things from books only? ‘See ye,” said he, pointing to the Indian, “got him toa turn.” In short, I never many books, he seemed, before he left us, as if he could spend his life amongst them. Our library is now consolidated; and that the kind intentions of yourself and others may not be lost, and that your names may live in our memories and be perpetuated to future generations, I have conveyed all the books presented to us, in trust to the proprietors of the town, for the writing the names in my next letter convey to you our use of of the I shall, united the Albion Library ; donors in them; and pro forma, be able to thanks for the books presented. Our little library is the admiration of travellers, and Americans say we have accomplished more in one year, than many new settlements have effected in fifty—a well supplied market, a neat place of worship, and a good library. THE LETTER felt more interested for an hour or two, to see how this man’s mind thirsted after knowledge; and though he dreaded the appearance of so FROM ILLINOIS. II, Park Flouse (e), Albion, June, 20, 1820. I have not written many letters to my friends in England, because I was determined not to state any thing on presumption, or of mere opinion, but only matters of fact, which must stand uncontradicted, of examination. I proceed to state and bear the test you the circum- to stances which we are now in; and you will my dear Sir, feel satisfaction at my being able to give you the pleasing account, that, after nearly a twelvemonth’s residence, there is no foundation for reasonable complaint. Every workman or artificer has abundance of employ- ment at a price that will procure him a plentiful subsistence ; and at this time our little town is amply supplied, with not only the necessaries of life, but even its luxuries. I have a com- fortable habitation, containing four rooms and a hall on the ground floor, and five chambers above; two wings are added which contain kitchen, china closet, dairy, and an excellent cellar, My farm produces, as it did at Marden, good beef and mutton, with abundance of 20 LETTERS FROM THE poultry, eggs, milk, cream, ILLINOIS. butter, and LETTERS cheese. I am quite at home again, and am writing to you surrounded by the same library standing in the same relative situation, in my large easy chair, and enjoying every earthly comfort. | have the happy absence of tax-gatherers, and am never galled with tithes or poor-rate collectors. Our settlement, thank God, is remarkably healthy, and my family and self have never enjoyed better health than in the situation which some of your reviewers and critics call ‘the swamps of the Wabash.” There is no situation in the habitable globe in which less sickness and fever have taken place in the given period of twelve months, and the evil reports that have been spread about, applied only, in a small degree, to the large party of settlers who, on their arrival, took shelter in the woods, finding none of the conveniences prepared for them which they had reason to expect. All is going on here to the full as well as can be expected or hoped; prosper, only. and if the British settlement does not it will be the fault of the seé¢lers As to religion, the form of it is now regu- larly attended to by many, and all have the FROM THE ILLINOIS. oe | means of assembling on the Sunday at our small but neat place of worship. We read the Reformed or Unitarian Liturgy, the Scriptures, and Sermons from our best English authors. Our place of worship is likewise our library-room. Religion in the outward form is by no means ostentatious, notwith- standing which, we have a large portion of good, sober and industrious people amongst us, who, I trust, by a virtuous example and keeping alive religious feelings, will be ultimately successful in preserving true reli- gion amongst the people of the Illinois. the frequency But to return from spiritual to temporal concerns: I imagine you asking,—Are there then no inconveniences? There are. We have not a sufficiency of female ser- vants, on account of of marriage, which is constantly depriving us of those we have; and though I have hitherto been well off, yet I am fearful we may be as others are, inconvenienced for want of them. Boys for either plough or house work are scarce, but the entire absence of pauperism more than amply compensates for these privations. How much I regret that more of the overflowing population of England cannot find ° 22 aaa a — a ae — = Sa é‘er g Se —s aire ye . es = ms “ THE abundance; silks, crapes, } aa FROM ILLINOIS. LETTERS their way here, exchanging their poverty for plenty of employment and good fare. We have East and West India produce in a , | LETTERS &c., such as you in England only can procure by a breach of the laws. On the first day that I dined at the tavern which I had just finished building in Albion, I drank bottled porter as cheap as in London, and had fine English salt at half the price I paid for itin England. Thus I find I have escaped the ruinous system of taxation which has reduced so many thousands to beggary or the workhouse, and so many of the middling classes to a state of pinching want, whom | have seen shivering through the winter over a few coals called a fire, because their limited means would not afford a cheerful blaze. A great advantage in settling in the IlIlinois, rather than many other parts of America, is the state of society amongst us. Most of the persons who emigrate here, are those who have diminished their former fortunes ; persons who have received good education, but are unable to sustain their stations in England. There is no arrogance in saying our circle of society is far superior to that in most of the villages in our native country. Except the parson, the squire, and FROM THE the principal society of many of the ILLINOIS. farmers, 23 what is the English hamlets but rude and uncultivated? Here it is different; for within the circle of a few miles, there is more good company (I mean well-educated persons) than in the same circle in most parts of England. We frequently find superior education and intelligence among the sons of the plough and the axe, to those in like situations in England. A person lately offered me his services to split boards for observed a me: we agreed for price. I correctness in his pronunciation and manner of speaking, apparently far above his situation. I attended him to the woods; he had with him two younger men than himself. The first singularity that appeared was, after taking off their clothes, (having first ground their axes) a nail or two were driven into a tree, on which were hung handsome go/d watches. These men were well educated, understood geography, history, European politics, and the interesting events that now so much excite the attention of mankind. I went into my field the other day, and began a con- versation and with manner my ploughman: of speech, his address as well as his conver- 24 LETTERS FROM THE ILLINOIS. LETTERS sation surprised me. I found he was a colonel of militia, and a member of the legislature; he was indeed a fit companion for men of sense; and where will you find persons of this class in England with equal intelligence? Of the particular news of this place, there is one piece of intelligence that will surprise you ; the author of “Letters from the Illinois,” (Mr. Birkbeck) has opened a place of worship at Wanborough ; he officiates himself, and reads the Church of England Service, so that Wanborough is the seat of orthodoxy, and our place stands, as a matter of course, in the ranks of heresy ? (f). There is an opinion prevailing amongst many in England, that the marriage ceremony in America is considered loosely performed; but greater mistake. parent. A license must A lightly there minor of; never cannot and was but a marry without the consent of his or her guardian or be applied for at the county court, and a declaration accompanying it from the parent, that it is with 4zs consent. This license is taken forms the ceremony, to a magistrate who per- that is, the legal part of it, at either his own house or that of the parties ; which is simply asking if they are willing to FROM THE ILLINOIS. 25 either neglect to make this register, a heavy fine is the punishment of their negligence, and the marriage is considered illegal. This is legal marriage in the Illinois; but both the magistrates inquire of the parties, and the law allows of any addition of a religious kind, that they may choose, and we adopt the vows of the marriage service of the Church of England, which are as solemnly put and answered, as if performed by a person in canonical habits before the altar. Marriages here take place so frequently, that we are certainly in want of female servants ; even our Mrs. C., who lived with us upwards of twenty-five years, and is turned of fifty, has not escaped; she is married to a Mr. W., having first refused gardener, may of very Monsieur polite R., an manners, be said to have seen a /z¢¢/e as he marched from to Italy Bonaparte, back France, to Madame C., and spoke to Italian and who of the world, Moscow and with proceeded from thence to this place: he was tall and majestic in person, made very elegant bows English enough to assure her he had the highest esteem for her, and would marry her to-morrow if she would consent; but all in vain, plain John Bull 28 LETTERS FROM THE ILLINOIS. LETTERS We are relieved entirely from the dreadful state of pauperism witnessed before I left England. My wife, with others of our acquaintance, have not had such good past. Mrs, Flower on horse back, with visit my old servant health for twenty years rides twenty miles a day, ease. I wish you could T. S. on one of the plea- santest situations in the world, with his nice garden, his cows, pigs, and poultry about him ; his wife Perhaps him, and were eggs up chicken children and you might gave him a day’s haunch of venison, contented to come bacon be with your and suddenly a fare: happy. hastily but upon got if you notice, you would see a or a fine cock turkey on the table. How long would Tom _ have fagged in England, although he had double his wages, before he could have possessed himself of two hundred acres of good land, and been placed in such affluence. Here, indeed, it may be truly said that the hand of the diligent maketh rich. We have here and there an idle person, but Providence has given them an industrious help-mate; and I know two in- stances of females earning from six to eight dollars a week by their needles; enough for for them to keep comfortable tables. I have felt great satisfaction in never having FROM THE ILLINOIS. 29 invited any one to emigrate, and still greater in finding those who came here out of regard to my opinions, in such situations of ease and comfort, as not only to contribute to their own happiness, but to add greatly to mine. I may say that those who have asked and taken my advice have succeded to their wishes ; and in all cases which have my knowledge, where affairs have ducted with industry and tolerable they have occasion to be thankful for they have made from the old world come to been condiscretion, the change to the new. Our population increases. We want in particular more tailors and shoemakers: any one understanding the coarse earthen-ware manufactory would meet with great success.—I have just finished a flour mill on an inclined plane, which has given fresh spirit to agriculture. Distilleries are also building. It is a happy circumstance that while industry is attended with certain success, vice, drunkenness, and idleness are no better off than in Europe; the effect of this will be to give the virtuous that natural ascendency over the vicious which they ought always to have. We read in the news- papers of all the bustle you have had about your queen; (4) but if it ends without the people regaining their long lost liberties, between the 32 LETTERS FROM THE ILLINOIS. LETTERS attention to a few observations on the various reports which travellers have circulated of the English settlements at the /é/nozs. I must first be allowed to remark on the want of competency of some very confident writers to form any judgment of our real situ- ation; they appear to be wholly unacquainted with the history of the new settlements, and from this defect are unfitted to form a right judgement of our comparative and relative advantages. Hence the incongruous and con- tradictory accounts which have been given of our soil, climate, and agricultural concerns. Of the many who have visited us there are two CR hb INDIA individuals whose reports I hear gain some credence amongst my countrymen; I shall therefore confine my attention chiefly to the accounts they have given of us, and then examine those reports which have been raised from deep-rooted enmity and determined selfinterest. These, with a brief account of our present situation and future prospects shall be the remaining subject of this letter. One of these travellers visited us when the snows were melting, and the rains descending : he reports us to be dwelling upon the swamps of the Wabash; and our lands to be so wet that they are unfit for either cattle or sheep to thrive on; and FROM on THE ILLINOIS. that account 33 unsuitable for the purposes of an English farmer. Another. passed through our country in an unparalleled drought; and reported us to be in a sad situation for want of water. There was some degree of truth in this, but a very partial degree, owing to his not stating the circumstances of the case. Orv town is situated very high, and till we had experienced some drought we knew not that we should want to dig deep for water, and of course could not provide for an exigency that was not known to exist. ‘Dig deep” 1 have said; but one hundred feet is thought, by a western American to be a vast and dangerous enterprise ; we have however with us Englishmen who have been far into the bowels of the earth in England, and have no sort of fear of there not being abundance of water in Albion; already have we experienced the benefit of these exertions; but while our dry-weather traveller was report- ing our inconveniences, he should have stated it was an unusual season which pervaded the whole of the western country: that Kentucky and Ohio that in springs, Such an were worse Indiana, rivulets, instance than the Illinois; and in the best watered districts, and has wells never were before exhausted. occurred I 34 LETTERS FROM THE ILLINOIS. LETTERS during the memory of the oldest inhabitants. The same person (who I know would not willingly give a false account) has stated that so short was the water that we were obliged to send our cattle into Indiana.—That our herds were in Indiana is very true, but that they were sent there on account of want of water, is equally untrue. We have in Indiana about twelve miles distant some high ground in the midst of low land, subject to be overflowed; on this low ground grows the most luxuriant cane, springing to an extraordinary height; the tender shoots food for cattle, season, with the working oxen, to what similar of which, affording excellent we send them in the winter exception of milch cows and fatten. Our custom is some- to that of the farmers of the upland districts in England, who send their stock into the fens of Lincolnshire, to fatten on coleseed and superabundant grass. So we dispose of our herds when the winter draws toa close. To this may be added, that the cane in the low river bottoms, growing naturally is the most luxuriant pasturage for summer feeding: and as we only pay the expense of the herds- man, the food either there or in the cane costing nothing : and the herdsman living there we leave our herds; so it was true that they FROM were in the cane, but THE ILLINOIS, were not sent 35 there on account of the want of water. When this person reported that there was shortness of water amongst us, he should have added, that fine wells were no rarity in the vicinity of Albion; that he drank as fine water from our well as he ever tasted in his life; and that from the grounds of Richard and George Flower, Albion, and even a part of Wanborough were supplied. It will therefore appear that this person, as well as many others, told the truth, but very partially, and not the whole truth, and on that account are not to be depended on. At the very time he was visiting us a person from Kentucky, assured us that we were better off than they were at Kentucky and Ohio.* Another person who visited us on purpose to examine and spy out the land of evil report, went back to Baltimore and brought his family, stating in his travels that he had not met with such good water as at this place. This same traveller has reported our soil to be poor, and our inability to raise a sufficient quantity of provisions ourselves, and that on the Harmonites: * See we are Note A. still for dependant in this he only shews his 36 LETTERS FROM THE LETTERS ILLINOIS. want of knowledge of the history of new settlements and their progress. Every person knows that the second year is the most unprofitable: the first year being spent in building and fencing, little produce is raised: but then all settlers of property bring a supply with them to make up for this certain deficiency; but capital being somewhat exhausted, and an increase of population still continuing, must of necessity keep a new settlement short of self- supplies; but when to this was added an extraordinary drought, is it a matter of surprise that the crops should in some degree have been scanty; but at the time I am writing, almost every thing these travellers have said of of the Illinois, is happily reversed : they are the remarks of very superficial observers; though they may be in some degree true at the moment they were written, they are no fit representations the Illinois; either as to its soil, climate, or general character ; could I but set these very travellers down here at this moment, how would their astonished senses give contradiction to their own accounts! We have now what the Americans tell us is a usual specimen of the seasons of the IlIlinois. Frequent rains, with than the last year. the heat more moderate Agriculture is beaming forth in its glory. have alluded of the finest they would of natural supply of FROM THE ILLINOIS. 37 If some of our travellers to whom I were now here, they would see some wheat crops their eyes ever beheld: witness the most luxuriant crops grasses, now gathering for the winter food; also fine plants of artificial grasses well set in our enclosures; they would acknowledge that the corn crops were as abundant, or more so than any they had before witnessed in the United States; but as they are not here I must inform you that our corn crops upon good tillage have the of appearance and in some from instances sixty eighty to the Americans, bushels; who are the best judges, say one hundred bushels fer acre(z). If this is the usual season of the I Ilinois, which can scarcely be doubted, as it answers the character given by those longest resident, then is the Illinois one of the finest countries under heaven the for human most beings delightful given to dwell residence. Another traveller has stated is in general low Flower’s and family, with swampy, one in; man to of his that the Illinois or two but that Mr. others, placed their houses upon rising ground. gentleman one for had This must either be naturally or wilfully 38 LETTERS FROM THE ILLINOIS. LETTERS blind. He might have found, within a circuit of five miles round Albion, numerous pleasing elevations, also inviting that the beauty which they presented to the admiring eye of the settler, would be the only difficulty in the way of instant decision. Then comes another objector, armed with an un answerable question ?—‘ But what will you do with your produce?” This objection only needs to be examined to be refuted. The answer is, that for the present our home market will take all we raise, and if our population increases in future as it has done during the present year, and the probability is that, it will increase much will be wanted faster, no foreign for ten or a dozen market years to come. Our infant town has taken root, and is growing luxuriantly. It has increased one hundred in the number of inhabitants since last September, and its vicinity has added seventy to their number. Our mill is at work, and can grind the produce now raised ; and a distillery and brewery will shortly be at work, so that the suplus of several years will not raise more than a sufficiency for the population. We have also in the settlement some small plantations of tobacco, hemp, and cotton, articles which we FROM THE ILLINOIS. 39 at present import; it will therefore be a work of some time to raise a sufficiency for our own consumption. Another article of produce is wool. Since I have been here I have turned my attention to an important object which engaged much of my attention in my native country—the breeding of sheep, and have succeeded to the utmost of my wishes and expectations. My flock consists of about four hundred sheep and lambs; and although the first winter there were unexpected difficulties to encounter, I can assure my countrymen that it has been more healthy this last year than any I ever had, or ever heard of in England; my some that success but as I intend giving in this future letter, although I an account of of agriculture branch in it will be sufficient to say, can grow in the Illinois a profitable export, at present its produce is wanted, and all that can be raised for years to come, will be wanted at home. We have therefore not only a market for our extra produce around us, but we have also a foreign market at New Orleans, and through it to the If it be said that owing market of the world. to our situation, we labour under peculiar disadvanges, all is reduced to the price of land carriage, of about nine miles to the Wabash, 40 LETTERS FROM THE ILLINOIS. LETTERS at sixteen cents per hundred pounds. If therefore it is said that our surplus produce cannot be disposed of, it is not applicable to local circumstances alone; but to all Ame- rica. Whenever the United States in general can dispose of their produce advantageously, the Illinois can do the same ; and we are more contiguous to navigation than the great proportion of the interior of America. The report which has injured us most is the want of that blessing, without which all that this world can give is but of little avail— flealth. Reports of sickness which never existed, and of deaths which happily never took place, have been most industriously circulated; the fact is, that there has seldom been a new settlement which has suffered so little loss by death; or which has been so free from sick- ness. The number of deaths has been in the ratio of four in ninety-five each year, and this is a smaller number than in most places in the habitable globe, where the records of such events have been preserved. Many of its inhabitants, have with myself, enjoyed far better health, than in their native country; so that I may safely conclude, after two years residence, with the information of those who were here a year and a half before me, that FROM THE ILLINOIS, 41 there scarcely existed in the habitable globe, a place where the inhabitants have enjoyed so large a share of this invaluable blessing. As to our future prospects they are truly flattering, in the probability of increasing population, now the clouds and mists which malignity has spread abroad are disappearing, before the light of truth, as the mists of morning disappear before the light and the heat of the sun: the well-grounded hopes of future harvests, arising from the rich abundance of the present; the perseverance and industry of a large portion of our settlers; the excellent materials for building, and the increasing num- ber of fine wells of water, all present a most encouraging and delighful prospect. Another testimony in favour of our situation is, that some of our countrymen who have settled in other places, have visited us, express- ing their surprise and regret that they had been the dupes of false reports, and had stopped short of the Illinois. dently came Baltimore to | While others more pru- down from Cincinnati, visit this land of and evil even report, minutely examined for themselves, returned to bring their their lot. families, and are contented with Another remark was made by certain writers, 44 LETTERS FROM THE ILLINOIS. LETTERS Flower, take thy family to that infidel and wicked settlement in the Illinois? Thou appearest to be a christian; how wilt thou an- swer to thy God for endangering the precious souls of thy dear children?” Madam, answered I, my destiny appears to be in the Illinois settlement; and rather than turn from thence on the account you have mentioned, you have furnished me with a forcible argument to proceed. I trust I am as you have supposed a sincere christian, and as it is my special duty to go where reformation is so necessary, | will endeavour to perform it, and hope for the blessing of the Most High. It is for us to use the means. We know who it is to command success in our present state and future prospects.* It may be worth while to make a few remarks on the characters, situations, and apparent motives of some of those persons by whom we have been misrepresented and reviled. The first class that opened their batteries of liberal abuse, were the ministerial and hireling writers in England. The emigration of Englishmen, in the Illinois, it appears did not please the masters whom these writers serve ; and this is sufficient to account for ¢hezr * See Note B, FROM THE ILLINOIS. 45 conduct: as usual, they were not very nice, in the means they made use of. Private characters were assailed indiscriminately, and motives imputed to the emigrants which never entered their minds. The grand reason for emigration was to escape that overwhelming system of taxation which had diminished the property of the emigrants, and threatened if they staid much longer, to swallow up the whole. Their conduct has proved their discernment, and justified their proceedings. How many of my brother farmers have lost their all! How many have been added to the list of paupers since we left our beloved country, newspapers and private letters, agricultural meetings and parliamentary proceedings and reports, sufficiently declare. Happy had it been for many others, if they had accompanied us: some who have followed us have lamented their indecision, and have felt the fatal consequences of their lingering in their own country. of this first class of to need father notice. Another writer, who The motives and views revilers, is too obvious is, or rather who was once popular, whom I met at New York, passionately expressed his determination ¢o write us down amongst much false reasoning, which FROM LETTERS 48 THE ILLINOIS. LETTERS other circumstances, one hundred individuals have joined the town of Albion, and about twenty have settled in its environs since last August. Notwithstanding all I have stated, I would not have my countrymen consider me as inducing them to emigrate, without serious and due consideration of their own circumbut stances; rather consider me as advising them if they do emigrate to America,to come unite with wmpartial truth. and assured that us what in the I have Illinois; stated resting is truth— It is a trial of no mean sort to quit one’s native country, and separate ourselves from those for whom we have the sincerest friendship and regard. The privations however of a first settlement are at an end: we may now indeed say “the way is smoothed for them;” and it rests with us who are now settled to be prosperous, contented, and happy. It is equally our duty and our interest, to consider well the blessings we enjoy at this place of abounding plenty. Many of you my countrymen, can look back on the frightful abyss of pauperism and starvation which you have escaped, and should lift up your hearts in gratitude to God for his mercies vouchsafed to you. Forget not who it is that has preserved your lives and prolonged FROM THE ILLINOIS. 49 your days; blessed you with so much health preserved you from the arrow that Jureth at noon day, tn darkness. your and virtuous the pestilence Remember that walketh that it depends upon endeavours, how great, how good, and how happy the settlement in the Illinois shall be. Eradicate the stain which report has cast on your moral and religious characters; and may your example be such as to influence the formation of character of this place: that Pleasaniness, your ways may be and all your paths ways of be peace. Remember that without virtue happiness cannot exist. Let future generations rise up and call you blessed ; so that you may, on your departure from this life, rest satisfied that your emigration to the Illinois proved creasing eternity. welfare and the means of your in- happiness in time and R. F. LETTERS EBATRACT FROM FROM THE OF MR. A ILLINOIS, LETTERS reasonable LETTER, BIRKBECK. Wanborough, May 7, 1821 Sir, Regarding the abuse indulged accounts people have taking it quietly. I have spent four years in this country, and now every day furnishes fresh proofs of the correctness of my early impres- _ 5 sions, ; which in about my undertakings, and my of them, I find little difficulty in s so complete as to astonishment at my good excite a depree of fortune zz conjectu- ring rightly, and occasionally something of self- a \) ok Hy f iN time I had finished it, and long before it could reach you, would need correction. Satisfied tof | Hy a ~ { f i ; 4 | congratulation, under the hope that partial friends may give me a little credit for sagacity. A statistical account of this country, by the 4 as I am, to a degree of occasional exultation, with the condition of my own farm, and my prospects as an American cultivator, so rapid and certain is the progress of improvement, that I should not be flattered by your reading, six months hence, an account of its present state. ten Besides, enough has been to shew the candid public already writ- that all our rest, who We are FROM THE ILLINOIS. expectations are satisfied: exjoy our imaginary 51 for the reverses, and rely more on the superficial accounts of such people as C. F. &c. (£), who have never seen the country, or if they have seen it, are incapable of judging, it really is a waste of labour to write for them. Those wretched people who indulge their malevolence in personal abuse are unworthy of my notice. It would indeed be to our advantage, and is the only harm I wish them, that their ignorance and their prejudices should continue, lest they should follow us. on the eastern limits of a country differing essentially from all that has hitherto been cultivated in the United States. The people to the east of us are incapable of imagining a dry and rich wholesome country, where they may enter at once on fine lands pre- pared for cultivation, without the enormous expense of time and labour in clearing, which has been bestowed on every acre between this and the Atlantic. The inhabitants of the old States of are profoundly the advantages and of our vesolutely ignorant prairie country. Books are written in the east to prove the wretchedness of the prairies, by persons who have never approached them within five hun- dred miles; and English writers of the same 52 LETTERS FROM THE LETTERS FROM THE ILLINOIS. ILLINOIS. description, some with names and some without, can obtain more credence than is granted to me, from that description of readers. On the whole, I do not think it worth while to un- dertake the conviction of these people. The settlers here who prosper, that is to say, those who possess good morals and common discretion, will, in course, tell their experience to their friends and connections in England, and invite them to follow their example; these again will invite others. This is now going on in all directions. Some wrzte for their former neighbours or the residue of their fami- lies, others push back to the old country, to conduct them out. Numbers who come to try their hands at a mew settlement are wholly unfit for any place in this world, xew or odd, unless it be to supply the requisite quota of evil, which in this imperfect state, adheres to all places. These are the people sometimes most likely to be heard, whilst those who go on well and wisely are little noticed. Their adventures are at an end: they “keep a pig” and live happily. A volcano is a fine subject when in action, but the interest ceases with the eruption. At some future day,—some “still time, when of our condition : but the suitable time, I think, is not yet. It is, however, a pleasing office to transmit to an intelligent friend an occasional sketch of the settlement; and to receive, as I have from you, and I hope you will repeat the obligation, a return of liberal communication. The various attacks upon my reputation will be repelled, surely, though perhaps slowly, by time. Among my neighbours, who are now numerous, their effect has ceased already. The accuracy of my statements become daily more evident, and my errors are found to be on the opposite side to exaggeration; a style which I dislike: it is offensive to my taste, as well as my moral feelings: is not a written lie to the full as abominable as one that is spoken? The telescope which you have had the good- ness to procure for me is an object of pleasant anticipation. This climate is favourable for astronomical observations, and it will add to our rational amusements. I shall therefore be obliged by your forwarding it as before directed, as soon as convenient, M. B. there is no room for chiding,” should my life be spared, I may lay before my countrymen a statement 53 END OF THE LETTERS. NOTES The following and the account are taken elegant respecting the want of water, of the English from work, [Wore A, page 35.] Remarks a lately most settlement at the Illinois, entertaining, published, and of interesting, which and a second edition is in the press. I here insert them, as they tend to confirm the correctness of the accounts published by Mr. Birkbeck and my brother, and contain some excellent advice to emigrants. © “You have expressed in your late letters, some curiosity regarding the condition of the English settlement, in the Illinois, adding, that the report has prevailed that those spirited emigrants had been at first too sanguine, and had too little foreseen the difficulties which the most fortunate settler must encounter. This report, I believe, to have originated with Mr. Cobbett, who thought proper to pronounce upon the condition of the farmer in the Illinois, in his own dwelling upon Long Island. Feeling an interest in the success of our countrymen in the West, I have been at some pains to inform myself as to their actual condition. The following statement is chiefly taken from the letters of two American gentlemen, of our acquaintance who have just visited the settlement; they inform me that its situation possesses all those positive advantages stated by Mr. Birkbeck; that the worst difficulties have been surmounted ; and that these have 56 NOTES. always NOTES. been fewer than what are frequently encountered in a new country. “The village of Albion, the centre of the settlement, contains at present thirty habitations, in which are found a bricklayer, a carpenter, a wheelwright, a cooper, and a blacksmith; a well supplied shop, a little library, an inn, a chapel, and a post office, where the mail regularly arrives twice a week. Being situated on a ridge, between the greater and little Wabash, it is from its elevated position, and from its being some miles removed from the rivers, peculiarly dry and healthy. The prairie on which it stands, is as exquisitely beautiful; lawns of unchanging verdure, spreading over hills and dales, scattered with islands of luxuriant trees, dropped by the hand of nature, with a taste that art could not rival —all this spread beneath a sky of glowing and unspotted sapphires. The most beautiful parks of England, would afford a most imperfect comparison. The soil is abundantly fruitful, and of course has an advantage over the heavy timbered lands, which can scarcely be cleared for less than from twelve to fifteen dollars per acre, while the Illinois farmer, may in general clear his for less than five, and then enter The tiful upon a more convenient mode of tillage. objection that is too frequently found to the beauprairies of the Illinois, and streams for mill seats. venience advantage. is the deficiency to the settler, though The nearest of springs This is attended with inconhis health navigable river will to find in it Albion is stock water in ponds for the circumstance. 57 The finest water is every where to be raised from twenty to twenty-five, or thirty feet from the surface, these wells never fail, but are of course trouble- some to work in a new settlement. “The settlement of Albion, must undoubtedly possess some peculiar attractions for an English emigrant, promising him, as it does, the society of his own countrymen, an actual or ideal advantage, to which he is seldom insensible. Generally speaking, however, it may ultimately be as well for him, as for the community to which he attaches himself, that he should become speedily incorporated with the people of the soil: many emigrants bring with them prejudices and predilections which can only be rubbed away by a free intercourse with the natives of the country. By sitting down at once among them, they will more readily acquire an accurate knowledge of their political institutions, and learn to estimate the high privileges which these impart to them, and thus attaching themselves to their adopted country, not from mere sordid motives of interest, but also from feeling and principle, become not only zaturalized, but also nationalzzed. I have met with but too many in this country, who have not advanced beyond the former. I must observe, also, that the European farmer and mechanic, are usually far behind the American in general and practical knowledge, as well as enterprise. You find in the working farmer of these states, a store of information, a dexterity the Wabash, eight miles distant: the nearest running stream, that is not liable to fail at Midsummer, the Bon- in all the manual arts, and often a high tone of national feeling, to which you will hardly find a parallel amongst the same class elsewhere. His advice and assistance al- cattle, was liable to run dry in a few weeks, and the settlement apprehended some temporary inconvenience from infinite service to a stranger; it will often save him from many rash speculations, at the same time that it will dis- paw, four miles distant. The ways freely given to those who seek it, will be found of 60 NOTES. NOTES. must profess, that after some acquaintance with several of our principal infidel writers, English and foreign, I have never met with any who dared meet the distinguishing evidences of christianity fairly ; and that in general, the description of writers alluded to, have been men whose causes may be assigned. I must confine myself to a few. The principal reason is assigned by the divine author of Christianity :—Zis zs the condemnation ; light ts come into moral conduct has been so defective, as to afford just the world, and men 61 love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.—The love of applause in favourite circles is assigned by the same authority as another rea- reason to apprehend they were not sincere inquirers after truth. The infidel public may safely be challenged to son. Our Saviour demanded of the Pharisees,—ow can ye believe who receive honour one of one another, and not the answer, honour which cometh from God only! They rejected our Saviour’s doctrines because ¢hey loved the praise of men, more than the praise of God.—How often has pride determined men to reject truths the most important? The doc- Paley, not only the writings &c., pamphlets. futing that but even some of Locke, Newton, Lardner, of our shilling or sixpenny Let any unbeliever exert his energies admirable tract Question, WHY ARE YOU entitled—An A CHRISTIAN? Answer by the in reto late the Dr. trine of the cross, although the brightest display of the Clarke of Boston, in America, of which there have been published numerous editions, but to which, if an answer wisdom and power of God to the world, is to the carnal has been written, I will thank any person to inform me, and where it can be procured. But so long as the enemies of revelation consider misrepresentation, arising from wilful ignorance, sneering, jesting, and ribaldry, lawful weapons to effect the purpose they have at heart—the mined by worldly motives, foolishness. The remark of Dr. Priestley on this subject, deserves the most serious attention of men, who are by their talents and learning, destruction of christianity—I shall certainly suspect they do not possess that indispensable qualification in all inquiries concerning revelation,—an honest and good heart, and that of course they are not sincere in their inqui- ries ; but let all such men take warning from the numerous declarations in scripture concerning the rejecters of the gospel, as they will most assuredly find, that with res- pect to threatnings, jor God to lie! as well as promises, z¢ 2s impossible Should it be asked,—How is it that so many men of talents, and who may possess qualities, which may render them in different ways, and to a certain degree useful to the world and ornamental to the social circle; various man, that is the man whose belief and practice are deter- elevated above the rest of the world. ‘‘ Learned men have “prejudices peculiar to themselves, and the very affecta- “tion of being free from vulgar notions, and of being wiser “than the rest of mankind, must indispose them to the ad‘mission of truth, if it should happen to be with the com- “mon people!” Although if the opinions I have expressed be true, they want not the sanction of the learned, yet knowing the influence of names, I will in their support add two, who although men of very different opinions, are by their respective admirers, considered masters in Israel. ‘The first is Dr. Johnson who, as his biographer Mr. Boswell informs “man “fair us, remarked could be a deist; on this subject,—‘‘Vo honest for no man could be so after a examination of the proofs of christianity. Hume SAL AAS NOTES. NOTES. But as America is not disgraced with an established church, supported by penal laws, the work of statecraft and priestcraft united, infidelity has, in that country, lost its chief support, and cannot, to any extensive degree, flourish. Let that favoured quarter of the globe carefully 64 Whether the body of the clergy, who have for so many ages been supported by these and by other means scarcely less obnoxious, come nearer to the description of the primitive apostles and pastors for independence, disinterestedness and benevolence, or to that description predicted by one of them of those who should come after him,— grievous wolves not sparing the flock, I leave to the reader to determine. Dr. Gaskin, I was informed, ranks amongst the clergy who have arrogated to themselves the epithet evange/ica/ ; but I have since been informed otherwise ; and I am inclined to believe, as those do who best know him, that he is of an evangelical clergyman ! I cannot help expressing my surprise that my countrymen will not, on this subject, take a hint from that great and liberal minded statesman, the late Lord Chatham, at the commencement of the American war, when our debt and taxes were not one fifth of what they areat present. His lord- ship in aspeechin the House of Lords, turning to the right reverend bench, exclaimed,—‘‘ Let the bishops beware of war ; for should the people be ‘‘ pressed for money, they know where tolookforit!” Itisa pity that amidst so much nonsense, with which the nation is pestered at our agricultural meetings, and in agricultural reports, and so much injustice as is proposed for relieving the public, by Mr. Webb Hall on the one side, Mr. Cobbett and others on the other, such as new corn laws, and breaking public faith, &c. ruining thousands by the reduction of interest of the Is national debt, our real resources should not even be even hinted at. there no patriot to be found in either House of the Legislature, following the excellent example of Mr. Hume respecting state abuses, who will recommend, *‘ Aningutry into the nature and amount of our church reveWould christianity suffer if a Bishop of Winchester, ora Bishop nues?” of Durhum, had not 30 or £40,000 a year! or if our over-grown church revenues in England, and more especially in that still more oppressed country, Ireland, where the bishoprics are in general richer, and many thousands are wrung from a long oppressed and impoverished people, not unfrequently in places where little or no duty is performed, were inquiredinto? Let Britainlook atthe church reformation which has taken placein France, and is now going forward in Spain and Portugal, the abolition of tythes, and the resumption of the useless and hurtful revenues of the church, and blush at her éa¢ and mo/e-like stupidity ! preserve her only 65 establishment—LisERTY AND EQUALITY, and her religious interests are safe. Christianity left to itself will, by its own internal excellence, and by the lives of its sincere professors, have free course, and be glorified. The English settlement in the Illinois already affords an illustration of the truth of these sentiments. In the first Stage of its infancy, reports, as it appears by the remon- strance and admonitions of the female friend at Philadel- phia to my brother, have been industriously and widely circulated, of its being a “ wicked infidel settlement ;” where “a christian parent” could not “answer it to his God for “endangering the precious souls of his dear children!” Three years have scarcely passed since this solemn warning was given; and what is the present state of this “Infidel settlement ?” The friends to Christianity have exerted themselves, and although without the assistance of Priests, even or of Reverends any denomination, two places within the distance of as many miles, have been erected for public worship; one on the moderate candid Unitarian to the only plan,—I accurate its communion, mean import of all christians who that the which word according includes in that con- dissent from tradiction in terms—“THREE divine PERSONS in ONE ‘“‘Gop:”—The other for the members of the Episcopal Church of England, which in America, by losing its antichristian sting, has lost its principal deformities; and what deserves peculiar notice—the service in the latter is read by the very person who was supposed to have been the chief promoter of infidelity !—A third chapel is now erecting for the use of the Calvinistic baptists. | These different denominations, with any others L 66 NOTES. NOTES. which may hereafter appear, have, only to follow the example of their brethren throughout America; to meet in civil society, as friends, perfectly equal as to political, civil, and religious rights, no one allowed to have any ascendancy over the other, christianity will then triumph, and infidelity will be ashamed to show its face. To the excellent admonitions on the subject of religious and moral conduct with which my brother concludes his letters, I cannot help adding my ardent hopes, that as the English settlement appears to be increasing in prosperity, and to present an happy asylum for those, who from various circumstances, are induced or compelled to emigrate from their native country, the inhabitants will prove an example of that true religion and virtue, which constitute the only sure foundation and preserver of states and communities:—my wishes are equally ardent, that as christians, they would not only avoid the errors of antichristian established churches, but of those which although professedly dissenting from them still retain a strong Primitive christiattachment to many of their follies. anity, how seldom is it aspired after! unnecessary The division of christians into clergy and laity ; the distinctions 67 attachment to weak and beggarly elements, are in general equally distinguished for their indifference to the grand principles of LIBERTY, for their servility to the ruling powers, and for their support of that ruinous system of war and corruption, which has so peculiarly disgraced the British nation for the past sixty years.—May the office of pastor of a christian church be no longer deemed a ¢vade, but let every christian teacher aspire to the honour of being equally independent with the apostles and pastors of the primitive churches, who were chiefly if not wholly dependant on their own exertions in the pursuit of some honest calling. May all denominations, uniting with each other in the bonds of christian friendship, no longer consider their peculiar explanation of doctrines as necessary to christian communion. May their only grand essentials be, sémcercty in the search of truth, and honesty in practising tt. Thus may they, in the full enjoyment of political, civil, and religious liberty go on unto perfection.* * That I may not be misunderstood, I beg leave to remark, that I intend no reflection on those who may have been educated solely with a view to the ministry, and of whose habits we cannot expect an alteration. the It is an evil attending the present system, that while men of very moderate fancy of our grown babies in the christian church; the objectionable manner in which christian pastors are too frequently ordained and supported :—these with other follies which might be mentioned, all innovations on the talents, and judging by their conduct, who have made no great advancement in the christian life, who possess a few superficial qualifications which of dress, habits, simplicity and and titles, so calculated to please purity of the primitive churches will at the Illinois, it is hoped, be avoided. recollect, not only amongst creasing; that in the those and captivate the ignorant and unthinking, are living in luxury, there are men of fine talents, and transcendant virtues, whoare living in comparative poverty. The grand error is the mechanical transformation of youths into ministers at seminaries, instead of their being brought up to some Let the English seriously trade or profession in which their independence might rest on themselves. prevails, degrees it is infor their understands Christianity may teach it.” And another in the Posthumous volume of his works, entitled, ‘‘ Zhe Corruptions of Christianity.” in their native country priestcraft established church, but in different who dissent from it, where I fear that those who are distinguished I have, on this subject, expressed myself more at large in the MEMOIRS OF RoBERT ROBINSON, prefixed to his Works. See also an excellent Sermon in hisincomparable VILLAGE DIscouRsES, entitled, “Amy onewho NOTES. NOTES. [Note C, sage 46.] Mr. Cobbett’s former calumnies respecting the English settlements in the Illinois were amply refuted by Mr. Birkbeck and my brother, in two pamphlets, published in To this atrocious paragraph I reply :—J¢ zs false that ‘terrible fevers haunt the English settlements” more than is common in either England or America. I am well ac- 68 1819, and to neither of which, although he has alluded to a private letter, since written by the former, and inserted in a provincial paper, has he dared to reply. He has however, had the effrontery in a late Register (July, 7th, 1821,) not only to repeat those calumnies, but to invent others still more atrocious; and as the parties concerned are five thousand miles distant, I deem it my duty on the present occasion, to add a few observations to those of my brother, that the character of the calumniator may appear in its true colours, and that my countrymen may no longer be the dupes of a man who has so frequently deceived them. This writer has in his rage against the settlements at the Illinois, not only shewn his usual disregard of truth and decency, but thrown humanity. piously off the common feelings of Yes!—This marble-hearted reprobate has im- dared to reproach an affectionate,—a peculiarly warm-hearted father with the death of a favourite son. Addressing himself to Mr. Birkbeck, he states as follows :— ‘As to English farmers, yours, or any like yours, is the “very worst spot they can goto.” Of the falsehood of this as- sertion, the reader has before him demonstrative evidence. Then, alluding'to Mr. William Hunt and his qualifications for farming, the writer adds :—“ With great sorrow I heard “of his untimely end, from one of those terrible fevers that ‘never fail to haunt new settlements for years. One of **Mr. of Flower’s sons is dead also, in the bloom life. “Now, had Mr. F. followed my advice given him at New ‘York ; if he had purchased a farm or two on the Atlan- “tic side, this son would in all probability have been alive!” quainted with some who were 69 born, and had previous to their emigration, lived in one of the finest counties in England, Devonshire, who were not unfrequently subject “terrible fevers,” as had nearly terminated their earthly existence. to fevers These very persons in have general, but lately written to such me, that during a twelve- month’s residence near Albion, succeeding a long and fatiguing voyage and journey, they have been less subject to fevers, and have enjoyed better health than when breathing their native air. As to the climate in general, its healthy state has, after four years experience, been proved, by the evidence of persons, whose characters for veracity more particularly, are as superior to that of their calumniator, as light is to darkness.—J/¢ zs false that Mr. W. Hunt was brought to an untimely end by “a terrible “fever.” At the moment I am writing I have a gentleman at my elbow, who during his late residence at the Illinois was well acquainted with Mr. H. and with the circumstances attending his death ; and he has authorised me to state:—That Mr. Hunt’s disorder was a common pleurisy, attended with but a slight degree of fever; that he was fast recovering ; but as is not uncommon in other countries, not taking proper care of himself, and negligent in following medical advice, he had a relapse which terminated fatally. It is false, that my amiable and excellent nephew ded also in consequence of one of those “terrible fevers.” Being intimately acquainted with the circumstances of his reader, case, from the very best authority I assure the that his death was occasioned by a common com- 70 NOTES. NOTES. plaint in all countries, and to which young people are more peculiarly subject: a cold, caught on a journey, (it is not necessary to detail the particulars), which, without any alarming symptoms of fever, terminated in a decline, and as is frequently the case in such disorders, suddenly, when his parents and family were flattering themselves he had nearly recovered. Thus has Mr. Cobbett impiously represented an affecting visitation of Providence ;—a visitation common to every spot on the habitable globe,—as a judgment inflicted on my brother for not following 47s advice, although he forgot to add, that this advice was enforced with a denunciation, clothed in his favourite phraseology, “Tl be d d if I do not write down Birkbeck and his “ settlement.” *--Thus has he strove to transpierce the heart of a father, and to tear open a wound, which time, a flourishing situation, with those ample means of enjoyment with which the favour of providence has surrounded him, together with those “strong consolations,” which a true christian only can feel the force of, was healing ; and I trust, that the same supports will enable him to triumph over the fiend whose deadly aim has been to send him a mourner to the grave. Mr. C. warns my brother and his family “to retreat in time,” which if they do not, he dooms them for their lives “to pass their days principally amongst the fellers of “trees, and the swallowers has attended to the of whiskey.” evidence society at the English settlements, After the reader respecting the in the pamphlet state of before him, (I might refer him to additional respectable evidence) it is only necessary to warn Mr. C. in return, should he again cross the Atlantic, and take it into his head to reside at the Illinois, to be careful to leave his vicious habits of * Flower’s Letters from the Illinois, 1819, p. 32. 71 swearing and lying behind him, as he will otherwise find not only English society, but even the society of “ fellers “of trees, and swallowers of whiskey” too humane, too civilized, too virtuous to be very fond of és company. The hypocrisy of Mr. Cobbett, in his professions of respect for Mr. B. and my brother can only be equalled by his fadsehood. His inhuman attack on the latter I have already noticed; and his eagerness in the same Fegéster, to expose and misrepresent private matters with which the public have no concern, for the sole purpose of making mischief, must be too obvious to its readers to require farther notice. I might quote from a subsequent Jegzster, the manner in which he has endeavoured to ridicule both my brother and Mr. B. but it is too contemptible for a reply. Mr. Birkbeck, in the letter quoted by Cobbett observes, “I suppose you have seen Cobbett’s attack on me, and “laughed at the ridiculous posture in which he has contriv“ed to place me.” On this Mr. C. indignantly demands —‘ Pray Sir, by what rule known amongst men, are you Jus“ tified in imputing to me az attack on you. I addressed to “you two letters while I was in Long Island, dated in the “latter part of the year 1818 :—now throughout the whole ‘of those letters ¢here 1s not to be found one single expression “ to warrant this charge of having made an attack on you ; “from one end to the other I speak of you with the greatest “respect.” will judge, referred to. Of the s¢ncerity of these professions the reader by a short extract or two from the letters “It is of little consequence,” observes Mr, C. “what wild schemes are formed by men who have pro“ perty enough to carry them back ; but to invite men to go “to the Illinois, with a few score of pounds in their poc“kets, and to tell them that they can become farmers with “those pounds, appears to me to admit of no other apology 72 NOTES. NOTES. “than an unequivocal acknowledgment that the author ts “MmaD! Yet your fifteenth letter from the Illinois really “contains such an invitation. This letter is manifestly “addressed to an cmaginary person, it is clear that the cor“respondent is a feigned or supposed being. It is, I am “sorry to say, a mere trap to catch poor creatures with a “few pounds in their pockets.” Mr. Birkbeck in reply, after stating that his letter was not addressed to an “ima“‘ginary person,” but to one with whose circumstances he was intimately acquainted, a relation by marriage, adds :— “You have posted me over England and America as mad, “as a simpleton, and a boaster, and in one or two instances “as something worse. So great a liberty with truth you say, “ never was taken by any mortal being; and having made the ‘discovery, you are in great haste to conclude your letter “to me, that your son William might take tt to England with “him, and publish it there six months before I could hear of “zt!”—So much for Mr. Cobbett’s séncerity in his high professions of respect for Mr. B. his veracity in declaring he made “no attack on him,” and that his letter, “ was “not written to be circulated in Europe!” It is a pity that he did not adduce his ever-memorable denunciation against Mr. B. and his wrote his letters, veracity | * The concect of vicious qualities, settlement uttered a short time before he as an additional proof of his séucerity and this writer is as intolerable as his other Speaking of the House of Commons, he thus expresses himself :—“T am well aware of all the feel- “ings that are at work in that assembly with regard to me “and my “pretend writings, I have not mock not to perceive the power 7 Cobbett’s Register, July 7, 1821. Ridgway, 1819, second edition, modesty enough, to that I have in the Birkbeck’s Letters, printed for 73 “country; and it is out of the power of that assembly to “ disguise from me that they are well aware of the extent of “that power. Neither am I ignorant of the power that I “have with regard to ¢heir actions, and of the great reluct‘ance that they have to suffer the public to perceive that ‘they feel the effects of any such power. I manage my “matters adroitly: but the power I have, and the power “I will have ; and this I repeat it, the public know full as “well as I do; and I only state the facts here in order to “let those who grudge me the power know, that the pos“session of it gives me great satisfaction.” How adroitly this bankrupt in fortunes and character has “ managed his “matters,” the London Gazette and our courts of justice have recently afforded ample evidence; and should he profess modesty, that it will be “ mock modesty,” no man will dispute: as to the rest of the paragraph, surely the ravings of the poor bedlamite, with his crown of straw, brandishing his straw scepter, and fancying himself a king, appears rationality itself compared with this disWhat play of bloated pride and intoxicated vanity! particular fower this writer possesses over the country, or over parliament, I know not: that he may impose upon some people by his acknowledged talents as a writer, whose style is so well calculated for the lower classes more particularly, and by his confident assertions, I do not deny; but in justice to Mr. C. I must observe, that I do not believe his powers for wickedness are so gi- gantic as he has laboured to persuade us they are. How often has he boasted of his power at any time totally to ruin the Bank of England by his favourite project of a general forgery of bank notes; and which he could easily put in execution at any time; but notwithstanding he proves his good wishes on the subject, he has not had that 76 NOTES. public abuses, and making every class understand their nature. It is indeed to be lamented how little he feels himself, what he has made others is no system, men nor measures, But, as there feel. but he has equally panegyrised and reviled, as it has suited his caprice, or weathercock opinions ; his own conduct has, in a great degree, destroyed the effects of the best parts of his writings.—But as he has lately turned his attention to that best of books,—the bible,—which he has frequently sneered at, and reviled the successful exertions of those who have extended its circulation ;—as his prolific pen has lately produced SERMONS, in which he has displayed his usual energies, I will not despair of him; and I hope he will take in good part my friendly and concluding hints. I will help him to one or two subjects for his succeeding sermons. The first shall be—THE SIN AND from Exodus xx. 7. DANGER OF PROFANE SWEARING, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. The other, Gop’s AB- HORENCE OF FALSEHOOD, from Pyov. xii. 22. Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord. No man is capable of doing these subjects more ample justice ; and I will promise him that, as I have distributed some of his writ- ings, I will so exert myself respecting these proposed sermons, as that he made add to his recent boastings of their extensive sale. It is impossible that in reading and studying his Bible, he can prevent it from flying in his face, and I most sincerely hope his reflections will terminate in his repentance and reformation: that he may no longer remain in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity; but that it may be his fervent prayer to God,—TZhat the thoughts of his heart may be forgiven him. FINIS. C. Teulon, Printer, 67, Whitechapel. NOTES TO “LETIERS ILLINOIS, FROM Tae ac. 01 (2) page iv, “My brother.” This preface was written by Benjamin Flower, younger brother of the author of the Letters, and uncle to George Flower. He was born in 1775, and became a Radical editor and writer. He never migrated to America. (6) page 9, “Albion.” Mr. Flower had resided at Albion nearly two years when these Letters were written. c) page 16, “A place for education.” During the year that this Letter was written, a log structure was built at Albion, which served both as school-house and churchPrayers were said in it every Sunday, and a building. sermon read from some English divine. The services were attended alike by Church of England followers, Quakers, and Unitarians. Captain Jeremiah Birk had (d) page 16, “Captain Burke.” purchased land in the Illinois country before the coming When the settlers began to of the English colonies. come in numbers, he sold out and moved across the He represents the crude and vigorous Mississippi. frontiersmen who led the van in the onward march of civilization. This was the residence of the (e) page 19, “ Park House.” Some travellers describe it Flower family at Albion. as a finer borough. house than the Birkbeck (f) page 24, “In the ranks of heresy.” one of the few indications of the mansion at Wan- This paragraph is animosity existing in Illinois. between the Flower and the Birkbeck factions schism. It was to the interests of all to conceal the Public Worship Religion... at Albion ove - Wabash Swamps sos 20; 21 Church .. sas OO, 32 Sn oe Rival Settlements ... wee 46 | Wanborough, Waterin Servants, Lack of ... es 21 | Water, Insufficiency of, Settlers in Illinois ... 1 Oh Aen os Settlers’ Life... ee oe 52 | Weather, The, in Albion Sheep, Breeding of... as 39 | West India Produce Society, State of, in Illinois, 22, 23 | Wheat Crops oie Taxation .. oo a 22 | Wool... ses oss wae eS 2 ... 13, 14, £5 | Wanborough, Mr. Birkbeck’s 8 ) Workin, Pubic... 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