Diary in America, Series Two

20

A Washington belle related to me the sad story of the death of a young man who fell from a small boat into the Potomac in the night,—it is supposed in his sleep. She told me where and how his body was found; and what relations he had left; and finished with “he will be much missed at parties.”

21

A striking instance of the excesses which may be occasioned by the despotism of the majority, occurred at Baltimore in 1812. At that time the war was very popular in Baltimore. A journal, which had taken the other side of the question, excited the indignation of the inhabitants by its opposition. The populace assembled, broke the printing-presses, and attacked the houses of the newspaper editors. The militia was called out, but no one obeyed the call, and the only means of saving the poor wretches, who were threatened by the frenzy of the mob, were to throw them into prison as common malefactors. But even this precaution was ineffectual; the mob collected again during the night, the magistrates again made a vain attempt to call out the militia, the prison was forced, one of the newspaper editors was killed upon the spot, and the others were left for dead when the guilty parties were brought to trial, they were acquitted by the jury.

22

Mr Carey in his introduction says, “Freedom of discussion is highly promotive of the power of protection. The free expressions of opinion in relation to matters of public interest is indispensable to security.”

He denies that we have it in England, and would prove that this exists in America: and how?

1st. By the permission of every man to be of any religion he pleases!!

2nd. By the freedom of the press in the United States!!

23

Soon after I arrived at New York, the naval officers very kindly sent me a diploma xxx member of their Lyceum, over at Brooklyn. I went over to visit the Lyceum, and, among the portraits in the most conspicuous part of the room was that of William the Fourth, with the “Sailor King” written underneath it in large capitals. As for the present Queen, her health has been repeatedly drank in my presence; indeed her accession to our throne appeared to have put a large portion of the Americans in good humour with monarchy. Up to the present she has been quite a pet of theirs, and they are continually asking questions concerning her. The fact is, that the Americans shew such outward deference to the other sex, that I do not think they would have any objection themselves to be governed by it; and if ever a monarchy were attempted in the United States, the first reigning sovereign ought to be a very pretty woman.

24

A proof that the feeling against England is increasing, is the singular fact that latterly they insist upon calling the English foreigners, a term which they formerly applied to all other nations, but not to ourselves.

25

English Capital Invested.—It is but fair to give the English who have invested their money in American securities, some idea of what their chance of receiving their principal or receiving their interest may be. As long as it depends upon the faith of those who have contracted the debt, their money is safe, but as soon as the power is taken out of their hands, and vested in the majority, they may consider their money as gone. I will explain this—at present the English have vested their capital in canals, railroads, and other public improvements. The returns of these undertakings are at present honourably employed in paying interest to the lenders of the capital, and if the returns are not sufficient, more money is borrowed to meet the demands of the creditor; but there is a certain point at which credit fails, and at which no more money can be borrowed; if then no more money can be borrowed, and the returns of their railroads, canals, and other securities fail off, where is the deficiency to be made good? In this country it would be made good by a tax being imposed upon the population to meet the deficiency, and support the credit of the nation. Here is the question:– will the majority in America consent to be taxed? I say, No—if they do, I shall be surprised, and be most happy to recant, but it is my opinion that they will not, and if so the English capital will be lost; and if the reader will call to mind what I have pointed out as to the probable effect of the power of America working to the westward, and the direct importation which in a few years must take place, he will see that there is every prospect of a rapid decrease in the value of all their securities, and that the only ultimate chance of their recovering the money is by this country compelling payment of it by the Federal Government.

26

“At the time of the first settlement of the English in Virginia, when land was to be had for little or nothing, some provident persons having obtained large grants of it, and being desirous of maintaining the splendour of their families, entailed their property upon their descendants. The transmission of these estates from generation to generation, to men who bore the same name, had the effect of raising up a distinct class of families, who, possessing by law the privilege of perpetuating their wealth, formed by these means a sort of patrician order, distinguished by the grandeur and luxury of their establishments. From this order it was that the king usually chose his councillors of state.

“In the United States, the principal clauses of the English law respecting descent have been universally rejected. The first rule that we follow, says Mr Kent, touching inheritance, is the following:– If a man dies intestate, his property goes to his heirs in a direct line. If he has but one heir or heiress, he or she succeeds to the whole. If there are several heirs of the same degree, they divide the inheritance equally amongst them, without distinction of sex.

“This rule was prescribed for the first time in the State of New York by a statute of the 23rd of February, 1786. (See Revised Statutes, volume III, Appendix, page 48.) It has since then been adopted in the revised statutes of the same State. At the present day this law holds good throughout the whole of the United States, with the exception of the State of Vermont, where the male heir inherits a double portion: Kent’s Commentaries, volume IV, page 370. Mr Kent, in the same work, volume IV, pages 1-22, gives an historical account of American legislation on the subject of entail; by this we learn that previous to the revolution the colonies followed the English law of entail. Estates tail were abolished in Virginia in 1776, on a motion of Mr Jefferson. They were suppressed in New York in 1786; and have since been abolished in North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Missouri. In Vermont, Indiana, Illinois, South Carolina, and Louisiana, entail was never introduced. Those States which thought proper to preserve the English law of entail, modified it in such a way as to deprive it of its most aristocratic tendencies. ‘Our general principles on the subject of government,’ says Mr Kent, ‘tend to favour the free circulation of property.’

“It cannot fail to strike the French reader who studies the law of inheritance, that on these questions the French legislation is infinitely more democratic even than the American.

“The American law makes an equal division of the father’s property, but only in the case of his will not being known; ‘for every man,’ says the law, ‘in the State of New York, (Revised Statutes, volume III, Appendix, page 51), has entire liberty, power, and authority, to dispose of his property by will, to leave it entire, or divided in favour of any persons he choses as his heirs, provided he do not leave it to a political body or any corporation.’ The French law obliges the testator to divide his property equally, or nearly so, among his heirs.

“Most of the American republics still admit of entails, under certain restrictions; but the French law prohibits entail in all cases.

“If the social condition of the Americans is more democratic than that of the French, the laws of the latter are the most democratic of the two. This may be explained more easily than at first appears to be the case. In France, democracy is still occupied in the work of destruction; in America, it reigns quietly over the ruins it has made.”—Democracy in America, by A De Tocqueville.

27

In New England the estates are exceedingly small, but they are rarely subjected to further division.

28

It may also be here observed, that the Americans have little opportunity of judging favourably of the English by the usual importations to their country. They all call themselves English Gentlemen, and are too often supposed to be, and are received as such. I have often been told that I should meet with an English gentleman or an English merchant, and the parties mostly proved to be nothing but travellers, bagsmen, or even worse. If the sterling Americans stay at home, and send the bad ones to us, and we do the same, neither party will be likely to form a very favourable opinion of the other for some time to come.

29

See the conduct of the Northern States in the war of 1812. “During that war,” says Jefferson in a letter to General Lafayette, “four of the Eastern States were only attached to the Union, like so many inanimate bodies to living men.”

30

The profound peace of the Union affords no pretext for a standing army; and without a standing army a Government is not prepared to profit by a favourable opportunity to conquer resistance, and take the sovereign power by surprise.

31

I cannot here refrain from making an extract from M. Tocqueville’s clever work, well worthy the attention of those who rule in this country, as probably they may not be aware of what they are doing: “When a democratic republic renders offices which had formerly been remunerated gratuitous, it may safely be believed that the State is advancing to monarchical institutions; and when a monarchy begins to remunerate such officers as had hitherto been unpaid, it is a sure sign that it is approaching towards a despotic or a republican form of government. The substitution of paid for unpaid functionaries, is of itself, in my opinion, sufficient to constitute a serious revolution.”

32

The following description of the iron mines at Marmora are worthy the attention of the reader. It is from the engineer who was sent to survey them.

“To Isaac Fraser, Esquire

“The water power at Marmora, and its sufficiency for all hydraulic purposes, may be better imagined than explained to you by me, from the fact, that the falls occur upon the Crow River, at the foot of untold lakes falling into Crow Lake, the deepest inland lake in the province, and just below the junction of the Beaver River, which latter has its source in the Ottawa or Grand River, or the waters flowing parallel therewith, and by the outlet at the Marmora Falls: these head waters, on the confluence with the waters of the Otonabee, and Rice Lake in Crow Bay, six miles below the works, form the great River Trent, second in importance and magnitude only to the St. Lawrence. It is sufficient for me to add, that I deem the water power at the works abundantly equal to all the purposes of machinery and manufacture, which can for centuries be established there.

“Immediately adjoining the works there is an ore bed, from the partial development of which, and from the opinions I have received of its superior quality, it would appear to be of the purest kind of iron ore, except native iron, in the same veins with which is an admixture of red paint and yellow ochre, and in separate veins and beds at this locality, those paints occur in some quantities, several barrels of which, especially the red paint, Mr Hayes disposed of at 25 shillings per barrel, at the works, and it seems probable they would become profitable articles of commerce. Here also there is a bed of purely white marble, not seemingly stratified, but in large blocks; and a quarry of superior stone for lithographic purposes, the quality of which has been tested and reported favourably upon. This ore bed would be from its situation within any wall constructed for the custody of the convicts, but from the great jumble of mineral substances, which the careless opening of those veins has occasioned, it is not possible to hazard an opinion as to the probable extent of minerals here, but from, if I may judge by appearances and from geological analogy, the few acres surrounding, it is probable they are sufficiently extensive to be an object of consideration—several hundred tons of ore have already been taken out for the furnaces. There is at this place a well-built bridge and a wharf at which the ore brought from the lake ore beds is landed, and from thence carted or wheeled up to the ore bank.

“At a distance of four miles by water, that is at the Crow Lake, in the township of Belmont, Newcastle District, the principal ore bed occurs. I may confine my observations respecting this ore bed to the qualities and varieties of the ores to be found there, and of the extent of the deposit give you an idea, by fancying my feelings when I first saw the mountain. My surprise was great, and my first conclusion was, that it would be more than sufficient to supply the world with iron for ever. The ore here is in great variety of magnetic ore, easily quarried and, in fact, it can be quarried, loaded, and transported to the works, roasted on the ore bank, broken up into particles, and put upon the furnace, at an expense not exceeding 2 shillings 0 pence per ton; as I observed it is strongly magnetic, and although mixed considerably with sulphur, it is easily freed from that deleterious mineral by exposure to the atmosphere, and to the action of air and frost, and by this species of evaporation, a new and valuable commodity could be procured in great quantities, namely, the copperas of commerce.

“With a boat of fifty tons burthen—and there is depth of water enough for a 74 gun ship from the wharf at the works, to this mountain of ore—navigated by four men, 150 tons of ore could be brought down in two days—so readily is it quarried, and so handily put on board. Intermediate to this bed and the works, several other deposites of iron are discovered—one of a superior quality, surpassing in magnetic power any other ore yet discovered, possessing what mineralogists call polarity—and near to this, meadow and bog ore, not a mile distant from the works, is to be found in great quantities. The works are to the north-north-east and eastward, surrounded by beds of ore, of which five have been tried and brought into use—but as they are inland, and consequently more expensively procured, they merit but this passing observation, that in quantity and quality they are valuable.

“For the present I am, Sir,

“Your obedient servant,—Engineer”

33

The building of this Church was undertaken by the inhabitants of Peterborough and its vicinity, belonging to the church of England. In 1835 it was commenced, and, by great exertions, opened for Divine worship in December 1836, though not altogether finished. Nine hundred pounds was raised by voluntary contributions, not one farthing having been given by any public body to it. The gentlemen composing the building committee are responsible for the remainder due, being five hundred pounds. An advertisement for subscriptions to liquidate this debt has been for some weeks past inserted in a London newspaper.

34

It was not long after the conquest, that another and larger class of English settlers began to enter the province. English capital was attracted to Canada by the vast quantity and valuable nature of the exportable produce of the country, and the great facilities for commerce, presented by the natural means of internal intercourse. The ancient trade of the country was conducted on a much larger and more profitable scale; and new branches of industry were explored. The active and regular habits of the English capitalist drove out of all the more profitable kinds of industry their inert and careless competitors of the French race; but in respect of the greater part (almost the whole) of the commerce and manufactures of the country, the English cannot be said to have encroached on the French; for, in fact, they created employments and profits which had not previously existed. A few of the ancient race smarted under the loss occasioned by the success of English competition; but all felt yet more acutely the gradual increase of a class of strangers in whose hands the wealth of the country appeared to centre, and whose expenditure and influence eclipsed those of the class which had previously occupied the first position in the country. Nor was the intrusion of the English limited to commercial enterprises. By degrees, large portions of land were occupied by them; nor did they confine themselves to the unsettled and distant country of the townships. The wealthy capitalist invested his money in the purchase of seignorial properties; and it is estimated, that at the present moment full half of the more valuable seignories are actually owned by English proprietors. The seignorial tenure is one so little adapted to our notions of proprietary rights, that the new seigneur, without any consciousness or intention to injustice, in many instances exercised his rights in a manner which would appear perfectly fair in this country, but which the Canadian settler reasonably regarded as oppressive. The English purchaser found an equally unexpected and just cause of complaint in that uncertainty of the laws, which rendered his possession of property precarious, and in those incidents of the tenure which rendered its alienation or improvement difficult. But an irritation, greater than that occasioned by the transfer of the large properties, was caused by the competition of the English with the French farmer. The English farmer carried with him the experience and habits of the most improved agriculture in the world. He settled himself in the townships bordering on the seignories, and brought a fresh soil and improved cultivation to compete with the worn-out and slovenly farm of the habitant. He often took the very farm which the Canadian settler had abandoned, and, by superior management, made that a source of profit which had only impoverished his predecessor. The ascendancy which an unjust favouritism had contributed to give to the English race in the government and the legal profession, their own superior energy, skill and capital secured to them in every branch of industry. They have developed the resources of the country; they have constructed or improved its means of communication; they have created its internal and foreign commerce. The entire wholesale, and a large portion of the retail trade of the province, with the most profitable and flourishing farms, are now in the hands of this numerical minority of the population.

35

“Nor does there appear to be the slightest chance of putting an end to this animosity during the present generation. Passions inflamed during so long a period, cannot speedily be calmed. The state of education which I have previously described as placing the peasantry entirely at the mercy of agitators, the total absence of any class of persons, or any organisation of authority that could counteract this mischievous influence, and the serious decline in the district of Montreal of the influence of the clergy, concur in rendering it absolutely impossible for the Government to produce any better state of feeling among the French population. It is even impossible to impress on a people so circumstanced the salutary dread of the power of Great Britain, which the presence of a large military force in the province might be expected to produce. I have been informed, by witnesses so numerous and trustworthy that I cannot doubt the correctness of their statements, that the peasantry were generally ignorant of the large amount of force which was sent into their country last year. The newspapers that circulate among them had informed them that Great Britain had no troops to send out; that in order to produce an impression on the minds of the country-people, the same regiments were marched backwards and forwards in different directions, and represented as additional arrivals from home. This explanation was promulgated among the people by the agitators of each village; and I have no doubt that the mass of the inhabitants really believed that the government was endeavouring to impose on them by this species of fraud. It is a population with whom authority has no means of contact or explanation. It is difficult even to ascertain what amount of influence the ancient leaders of the French party continue to possess. (The name of M. Papineau is still cherished by the people; and the idea is current that, at the appointed time, he will return, at the head of an immense army, and re-establish “La Nation Canadienne.”) But there is great reason to doubt whether his name be not used as a mere watchword; whether the people are not in fact running entirely counter to his councils and policy; and whether they are not really under the guidance of separate petty agitators, who have no plan but that of a senseless and reckless determination to show in every way their hostility to the British Government and English race. Their ultimate designs and hopes are equally unintelligible. Some vague expectation of absolute independence still seems to delude them. The national vanity, which is a remarkable ingredient in their character, induces many to flatter themselves with the idea of a Canadian Republic; the sounder information of others has led them to perceive that a separation from Great Britain must be followed by a junction with the great confederation on their southern frontier. But they seem apparently reckless of the consequences, provided they can wreak their vengeance on the English. There is no people against which early associations and every conceivable difference of manners and opinions have implanted in the Canadian mind a more ancient and rooted national antipathy than that which they feel against the people of the United States. Their more discerning leaders feel that their chances of preserving their nationality would be greatly diminished by an incorporation with the United States; and recent symptoms of Anti-Catholic feeling in New England, well known to the Canadian population, have generated a very general belief that their religion, which even they do not accuse the British party of assailing, would find little favour or respect from their neighbours. Yet none even of these considerations weigh against their present all-absorbing hatred of the English; and I am persuaded that they would purchase vengeance and a momentary triumph by the aid of any enemies, or submission to any yoke. This provisional but complete cessation of their ancient antipathy to the Americans, is now admitted even by those who most strongly denied it during the last spring, and who then asserted that an American war would as completely unite the whole population against the common enemy, as it did in 1813. My subsequent experience leaves no doubt in my mind that the views which were contained in my despatch on the 9th of August are perfectly correct; and that an invading American army might rely on the co-operation of almost the entire French population of Lower Canada.”

36

Colonel Prince is the gentleman who took with his own hands General Sutherland and his aide-de-camp, and who ordered the Yankee pirates to be shot. Mr Hume has thought proper to make a motion in the House of Commons, reprobating this act as one of murder. I believe there is little difference whether a man breaks into your house, and steals your money; or burns your house, and robs you of your cattle and other property. One is as much a case of burglary as the other. In the first instance you are justified in taking the robber’s life, and why not in the second? Those people who attacked the inhabitants of a country with whom they were in profound peace, were disowned by their own government, consequently they were outlaws and pirates, and it is a pity that Sutherland and every other prisoner taken had not been immediately shot. Mr Hume may flare up in the House of Commons, but I should like to know what Mr Hume’s opinion would be if he was the party who had all his property stolen and his house burnt over his head, in the depth of a Canadian winter. I suspect he would say a very different say, as he has no small respect for the meum; indeed, I should be sorry to be the party to be sentenced by Mr Hume, if I had stolen a few ducks out of the honourable gentleman’s duck decoys near Yarmouth.