An historical, topographical, and descriptive view of the United States of America, and of Upper and Lower Canada

Front matter

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HISTORICAL, TOPOGRAPHICAL, AND DESCRIITJVJ:

VIEW

Preface

America, since she conquered her independence, has risen into importance with a rapidity unparalleled in the history of mankind. In her plains and forests an industrious, enterprising, and intelligent population are daily creating new and extensive communities, and exhibiting the whole mystery of the generation as well as the growth of nations. The spectacle is imposing and instructive, notwithstanding the senseless ravings of animosity, or the affected sneers of a despicable enmity.

This marvellous empire already embraces a range of territory above thirty times the extent of Great Britain ; and will, within one hundred and twenty years, if population increases in the same ratio as it has lately done, contain upwards of four hundred millions of human beings ! Yet, even then it would not be equally populous with England. Without

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supposing the intervention of some great and improbable political convulsion, no rational argument can be assigned why the capital and population of the Americans should not progressively accumulate, until the boundless extent of their fertile and unoccupied land be brought into cultivation.

' Where,' exclaims a popular journalist, ' is this prodigious increase of numbers, this vast extension of dominion, to end? What bounds has Nature set to the progress of this mighty nation ? Let our jealousy burn as it may ; let our intolerance of America be as unreasonably violent as we please; still it is plain that she is a power, in spite of us, rapidly rishig to supremacy ; or, at least, that each year so mightily augments her strength, as to overtake, by a most sensible distance, even the most formidable of her competitors. In foreign commerce, she comes nearer to England than any other maritime power; and already her mercantile navy is within a few thousand tons of our own ! If she goes on as rapidly for two or three years, she must overtake and outstrip us.'

But instead of viewing every step America advances in renown with absurd and groundless dismay, England ought to rejoice in the growing strengtli and happiness of her daughter, who has become respectable and glorious by exercising the virtues of her parent. Their interests, whether mi>ra1, political, or commercial, are inseparably

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united;* and should hordes of barbarians again threaten the existence of liberty and civilization in the west of Europe, America may become the right arm of British strength, or perhaps the last asylum of British liberty.. 'When the nation,' says Dr. Smollett, 'is enslaved by domestic despotism, or foreign dominion; when her substance is wasted, her spirit broken, and the laws and constitution of England are no more ; then these colonies, sent off by our fathers, may receive and entertain their sons, as hopeless exiles and ruined refugees.'

The writer has no intention of exhibiting emigration in a tempting and illusive point of view. Such attempts are certainly blameable, though their consequences are far from being alarming; for, under ordinary circumstances, the emigrants from any community must always bear a small proportion to the whole population. After all, says Dr. Smith, man is of all luggage the most difficult to be transported. 'In truth, he takes such root wherever he has been planted, that, long after almost all nourishment has been extracted from it, we find him cling to the bare rocks, and rather

* 'I'he eminent importance of the American trade is evinced by the fact, that of the whole exports from the United States in 181 6, one hidf went to Great Britain and her dominions ; and in 1815 the amount of goods imported was eighty-six millions of dollars, of which seventy-one millions was imported from Great Britain and her dependencies !

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wither than be torn away. It is in vain to remind him how bleak the sky, how scanty the nutriment, how exposed to tempests tlie position. We find him rebuilding his cottage upon the half-cooled lava which has swept all his possessions away, and obstinately refusing to quit a spot of earth which the perpetual conflicts of the elements hardly leave at rest for a day.' He knows all his privations, his sufferings, his risks; but he deems it all not too high a price for the endearing idea of home — the love of country — and the thousand ties of society and friendship. Thus has Providence, by a powerful instinct, provided against an excess of emigration.

Let not the dissipated, the ambitious, the petulent, or the discontented, deceive themselves, and wander into other climates and situations in search of happiness. ' The wilds of America will yield no repose to their perturbed spirits. The fiends will migrate with them.'

However, the industrious labourer, the mechanic, the farmer, the man of moderate capital, and the father of a family who feels solicitous about settling his children ; in short, all those who are prepared to encounter the numerous privations and inconveniences of emigration, in order to enjoy the great and acknowledged advantages which America offers to adventurers, will find this work a Faithful AND Useful Guide. And this is extremely difiicult to obtain, notwitlistanding the numerous, ex-

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pensive, and valuable works recently published on the subject. Travellers and emigrants have viewed America with different feelings. Some observe every object with delight and admiration, while others experience all the chagrin of disappointment. It, however, has been the aim of the editor to compare with candour the contradictory evidence of different writers, and to draw such conclusions as the case seemed to justify.

The editor has also paid particular attention to the rate of wages and of tbe markets, the expences of living, the comparative advantages of different states and settlements, and the cautions necessary to be observed by new settlers. The present state of the wealth and resources, and of the commercial regulations of the United States, is drawn entirely from authentic documents.

The judicious reader will readily appreciate the attention and diligence employed in compiling this work, and acknowledge the value of the original matter which it contains ; and which embraces the substance of upwards of one hundred Letters lately received by different individuals from their correspondents in America. Some gentlemen have been in the habit of collecting copies of interesting letters from the New World; and the liberality with which the editor has been favoured with the loan of their MSS. merits his best thanks, and will in the proper place be acknowledged.

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In collecting materials for this compilation, the editor has consulted every recent and valuable publication on the present state of North America, and to which references will occasionally be made. Exclusive of the information derived through private channels, he has been most indebted to the following able and instructive works, viz. —

Morse's American Geography.

Maclure's Geology of the United States of America.

Imlay and Filson's Account of Kentucky.

Travels through the United States and Canada, by Isaac Weld, jun.

Michaux's Travels in North America, 1 802.

Grey's Letters from Canada, 1806, 7j and 8.

Lambert's Travels through Canada and the United States, 1808.

Travels in North America in 1809, 10, and 11, by John Bradbury, F. L. S.

Travels in Canada and the United States in 1816-7, by lieutenant Hall, 14th light di-agoons.

Palmer's Journal of Travels in the United States of North America and in Lower Canada.

Bristcd's Resources of the United States.

Mellish's Travels and Directory through the United States for 1 81 8.

Statistical View of the United States, by T. Pitkin, Representative from the State of Connecticut, 1817.

Hints to Emigrants, by the Shamrock Society of New York, 1816.

A Year's Residence in the United States, by Mr. Cobbett, 1818.

Morris Birkbeck's Notes on a Journey in America, 1818.

Letters from the Illinois, 1818.

Fearon's Sketches in America, 1818.