It is confidently expected, that the brave and potent nation, with whom we have common origin, will not risk the loss of that portion of liberty, which at the expense of so much blood and treasure, they have secured for themselves, by an unnatural association with despots, for the unholy purpose of making war on the few nations of the earth, which possess any considerable portion of that invaluable blessing; on the contrary, it is hoped by us that they will, if necessity should require, employ the bravery of their people, their immense resources, and the trident of the ocean, in defense of their own liberties, and by consequence those of others.

Legislators, fathers of our country! lose no time, spare no expense in hastening on the requisite means of defense, for meeting with safety and with victory the impending storm, which sooner or later must fall upon us.

CHAPTER XXXI.

CIVILIZATION.

THE causes which led to the present state of civilization in the western country, are subjects which deserve some consideration.

The state of society and manners of the early settlers, as presented in these notes, shews very clearly that their grade of civilization was indeed low enough. The descendants of the English cavaliers from Maryland and Virginia, who settled mostly along the rivers, and the descendants of the Irish, who settled in the interior parts of the country, were neither remarkable for science or urbanity of manners. The former were mostly illiterate, rough in their manners, and addicted to the rude diversions of horse racing, wrestling, shooting, dancing, &c. These diversions were often accompanied with personal combats, which consisted of blows, kicks, biting, and gouging. This mode of fighting was what they called rough and tumble. Sometimes a previous stipulation was made to use the fists only. Yet these people were industrious, enterprising, generous in their hospitality, and brave in the defense of their country.

These people, for the most part, formed the cordon along the Ohio river, on the frontiers of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky, which defended the country against the attacks of the Indians during the revolutionary war. They were the janizaries of the country, that is, they were soldiers when they chose to be so, and when they chose laid down their

arms.

pay.

Their military service was voluntary, and of course received no

With the descendants of the Irish I had but little acquaintance,

although I lived near them. At an early period they were comprehended in the Presbyterian church, and were more reserved in their deportment than their frontier neighbors, and from their situation being less exposed to the Indian warfare, took less part in that war.

The patriot of the western region finds his love of country and national pride augmented to the highest grade, when he compares the political, moral, and religious character of his people, with that of the inhabitants of many large divisions of the old world. In Asia and Africa, generation after generation passes without any change in the moral and religious character or physical condition of the people.

On the Barbary coast, the traveler, if a river lies in his way and happens to be too high, must either swin it or wait until it subsides. If the traveler is a christian, he must have a firman and a guard. Yet this was once the country of the famous Cathagenians.

In Upper Egypt, the people grind meal for their dhoura bread, by rubbing it between two flat stones. This is done by women.

In Palestine, the grinding of grain is still performed by an ill-constructed hand mill, as in the days of our Savior. The roads to the famous eity of Jerusalem are still almost in the rude state of nature.

In Asiatic Turkey, merchandise is still carried on by caravans, which are attended with a military guard; and the naked walls of the caravansera is their fortress and place of repose at night, instead of a place of entertainment. The streets of Constantinople, instead of being paved,. are in many places almost impassable from mud, filth, and the carcasses of dead beasts. Yet this is the metropolis of a great empire.

Throughout the whole of the extensive regions of Asia and Africa, man, from his cradle to his grave, sees no change in the aspect of any thing around him, unless from the desolations of war. His dress, his ordinary salutations of his neighbors, his diet and his mode of eating it,, are prescribed by his religious institutions; and his rank in society, as well as his occupation, are determined by his birth. Steady and unvarying as the lapse of time in every department of life, generation after generation beats the dull monotonous round. The Hindoo would sooner die a martyr at the stake, than sit on a chair or eat with a knife and fork. The descendant of Ishmael is still "a wild man." Hungry, thirsty and half naked, beneath a burning sun, he traverses the immense and inhospitable desert of Zahara, apparently without any object, because his forefathers did so before him. Throughout life he subsists on camel's milk and flesh, while his only covering from the inelemency of the weather is a flimsy tent of camel's hair. His single, solitary virtue, is that of hospitality to strangers: in every other respect he is a thief and a robber.

The Chinese still retain their alphabet of thirty-six thousand hieroglyphics. They must never exchange it for one of twenty letters, which would answer an infinitely better purpose.

Had we pursued the course of the greater number of the nations of the earth, we should have been this day treading in the footsteps of our forefathers, from whose example in any respect we shonld have thought it criminal to depart in the slightert degree.

Instead of a blind or superstitious imitation of the manners and cus toms of our forefathers, we have thought and acted for ourselves, and we have changed ourselves and every thing around us.

The linsey and coarse linen of the first settlers of the country, have been exchanged for the substantial and fine fabrics of Europe and Asiathe hunting shirt for the fashionable coat of broad cloth--and the moccason for boots and shoes of tanned leather. The dresses of our ladies are equal in beauty, fineness and fashion, to those of the cities and countries of Europe and Atlantic America.

It is not enough that persevering industry has enabled us to purchase the "purple and fine linen" from foreigners, and to use their porcelain and glass-ware, whether plain, engraved or gilt; we have nobly dared to fabricate those elegant, comfortable, and valuable productions of art for ourselves.

A well founded prospect of large gains from useful arts and honest Fabor has drawn to our country a large number of the best artisans of other countries. Their mechanic arts, immensely improved by American genius, have hitherto realised the hopeful prospect which induced their emigration to our infant country.

The horse paths, along which our forefathers made their laborious journeys over the mountains for salt and iron, were soon succeeded by wagon roads, and those again by substantial turnpikes, which, as if by magic enchantment, have brought the distant region, not many years ago denominated "the backwoods," into a close and lucrative connection with our great Atlantic cities. The journey over the mountains, formerly considered so long, so expensive, and even perilous, is now made in a very few days, and with accommodations not displeasing to the epicure himself. Those giants of North America, the different mountains composing the great chain of the Allegany, formerly so frightful in their aspect, and presenting so many difficulties in their passage, are now scarcely noticed by the traveler, in his journey along the gradurated highways by which they are crossed.

The rude sports of former times have been discontinued. Athletic trials of muscular strength and activity, in which there certainly is not much of merit, have given way to the more noble ambition for mental endowments and skill in useful arts. To the rude and often indecent songs, but roughly and unskillfully sung, have succeeded the psalm, the hymn, and swelling anthem. To the clamorous boast, the provoking banter, the biting sarcasm, the horrid oath and imprecation, have succeeded urbanity of manners, and a course of conversation enlightened by science and ehastened by mental attention and respect.

Above all, the direful spirit of revenge, the exercise of which so much approximated the character of many of the first settlers of our country to that of the worst of savages, is now unknown. The Indian might pass in safety among those, whose remembrance still bleeds at the recollection of the loss of their relatives, who have perished under the tomahawk and scalping knife of the savages.

The Moravian brethren may dwell in safety on the sites of the villages desolated, and over the bones of their brethren and forefathers murdered,

*

by the more than savage ferocity of the whites. Nor let it be supposed that the return of peace produced this salutary change of feeling towards the tawney sons of the forest. The thirst for revenge was not wholly allayed by the balm of peace: several Indians fell victims to the private vengeance of those who had recently lost their relations in the war, for some years after it had ceased.

If the state of society and manners, from the commencement of the settlements in this country, during the lapse of many years, owing to the sanguinary character of the Indian mode of warfare and other circumstances, was in a state of retrogression, as was evidently the case-if ignorance is more easily induced than science-if society more speedily deteriorates than improves if it be much easier for the civilised man to become wild, than for the wild man to become civilised;-I ask, what means have arrested the progress of the early inhabitants of the western region toward barbarism?What agents have directed their influence in favor of science, morals, and piety?

The early introduction of commerce was among the first means of changing, in some degree, the existing aspect of the population of the country, and giving a new current to publie feeling and individual pur

suit.

The huntsman and warrior, when he had exchanged his hunter's dress for that of civilised man, soon lost sight of his former occupation, and assumed a new character and a new line of life,-like the soldier, who, when he receives his discharge and lays aside his regimentals, soon loses the feeling of a soldier, and even forgets in some degree his manual exercise.

Had not commerce furnished the means of changing the dresses of our people and the furniture of their house-had the hunting shirt, moccason, and leggins, continued to be the dress of our men-had the three-legged stool, the noggin, the trencher and wooden bowl, continued to be the furniture of our houses, our progress towards science and civilization would have been much slower.

It may seem strange that so much importance is attached to the influence of dress in giving the moral and intellectual character of society. In all the institutions of despotic governments we discover evident traces of the highest grade of human sagacity and foresight. It must have been the object of the founders of those governments to repress the genius of man, divest the mind of every sentiment of ambition, and prevent the cognizance of any rule of life, excepting that of a blind obedience to the despot and his established institutions of religion and government: hence the canonical laws of religion, in all governments despotic in principle, have prescribed the costume of each class of society, their diet and their manner of eating it; and even their household furniture is in like Lanner prescribed by law. In all these departments, no deviation from the law or custom is permitted or even thought of. The whole science of human nature, under such governments, is that of a knowledge of the duties of the station of life prescribed by parentage, and the whole duty aan that of a figid performance of them; while reason, having nothing

H

to do with either the one

or the other, is never cultivated. Even among christians, those founders of religious societies have succeeded best who have prescribed a professional costume for their followers, because every time the disciple looks at his dress he is put in mind of his obligations to the society to which he belongs, and he is therefore the less liable to wander into strange pastures.

The English government could never subdue the esprit du cour of the north of Scotland, until, after the rebellion of '45, the prohibition of wearing the tartan plaid, the kilt and the bonnet amongst the Highlan ders, broke down the spirit of the clans.

I have seen several of the Moravian Indians, and wondered that they were permitted to wear the Indian dress. Their conduct, when among the white people, soon convinced me that the conversion of those whom I saw was far from being complete.

There can be little doubt but that, if permission should be given by the supreme power of the Mussulman faith, for a change, at the will of each individual, in dress, household furniture, and in eating and drinking, the whole Mohammedan system would be overthrown in a few years. With a similar permission, the Hindoo superstition would share the same fate.

use.

We have yet some districts of country where the costume, eabins, and in some measure the household furniture of their ancestors, are still in The people of these districts are far behind their neighbors in every valuable endowment of human nature. Among them the virtues of chastity, temperance, and industry, bear no great value, and schools and places of worship are but little regarded. In general, every one "does what is right in his own eyes."

In short, why have we so soon forgotten our forefathers, and everything belonging to our former state? The reason is, everything belonging to our former state has vanished from our view, and we meet with nothing in remembrance of them. The recent date of the settlement of our country is no longer a subject of reflection. Its immense improvements present to the imagination the results of the labors of several centuries, instead of the work of a few years; and we do not often take the trouble to correct the false impression.

The introduction of the mechanic arts has certainly contributed not a little to the morals and scientific improvement of the country.

The carpenter, the joiner and mason, have displaced the rude, unsightly and uncomfortable cabins of our forefathers, by comfortable, and in many instances elegant mansions of stone, brick, hewn and sawn timbers.

The ultimate objects of civilization are the moral and physical happiness of man. To the latter, the commodious mansion house, with its furniture, contributes essentially. The family mansions of the nations of the earth furnish the criteria of the different grades of their moral and mental condition. The savavages universally live in tents, wigwams, or lodges covered with earth. Barbarians, next to these, may indeed have habitations something better, but of no value and indifferently furnished. Such are the habitations of the Russian Tartar and Turkish peasantry.