The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1838-11-27
EMlGRArIoNro THE WEST.
N O.. l !.

|
| We have already said, that the advantages Of
emigiating to the West lie mainly in rich soil.
easily obtained upon long credit, and at the
cheapest rate. We have also enumerated sew
eral prominent disadvantages, and argued posi-
lively that three classes of men,--he rich man,
the man in what is called easy circumstances,
and the man in business, better OIL ns
they were, and where they were, than they
would he in the West. We do not mean 10 be
understood IA placing too small value upon
| the great, and, we nny say, the magnificent
West. Neither would We he understoodsas af-
frmng that there no inducements to go 70
the West. Far from it, We concede all the
advantages Of law and government guaranteed to
| us in the Constitution. We c0ncede, too, that
the West has as good society IA new coun-
try ever Ind, or as new country can have
We grant energy and enterprise that always g.
qua, and often excel our own. We acknow-
ledge, too, that the West has richer soil, one
that yields n two-fod abundance, and with
much less labor. We are frank in making these
confessions, and will admit, in favor of the
West. all that candid western man would
! Claim in behalf of the virtues and capacities of
his own section OF the country. But we CON
cede no more,- and, i'm contrast, in vndicating
the rights Of New England md the old States,
we claim tenfold superiority, (sufficent, we
should think, TO keep almost any man at home,
| if he has business enough TO support him and
wife and children, in whom he is properly inter
ested as n husband and father,)- our Moral,
Religious and Intellectual Institutions,-in our
Colleges, our Academies and our free Schooia,
iii our Lyceums and our Associations for mu-
tual imprOvernent,--in our Benevolent Socie-
ties, our Social Meetings. and the hundred times
ten thousand blessings given US, in having just
such Percentage as we had in our Pilgrim Fore
fathers and the Fathers Of the Revolution il
is these men, and those associations, that Will
| ever make New England morally and ntelec-
tually distinguished, and it is the effects of
these men, and those associations also, that will
ever make cup Of cold water drawn from
New England Spring, and drunk upon the New
! England soil, sweeter, more nourishing, and
more welcome to New England man than the
nectar of the gods would he to the most devoted
disciple of Bacchus. We have here an advan-
tage that the West has not and one that no
new country can hnye. Age is with us, and
Experience is with us, and we have all the re-
wards of industry. AMI, well admins tered, all
the blessings of good Government. What
has the West, that have not ?-and how
much we have, that the West has nor
Again, we hear ringing in our ears those hedry
crops that grow like the grain of mustard seed,
and with SO little care that the sown seed in the
,winkling of an eye is multiplied thousand fold
and at once, as it were, ready for the sickle. A
| gain we will grant all that the most enthusiastic
admirer of the West would caim,--a thousand
bushels of corn upon of land instead of
one,-and what then ? We will tell you what
theu,-and, from this very abundance, argue in
favor of the Christian text, that it is easier for
| n camel TO go through the eye OF needle than
il is for a rich man to enter into the kingdom Of
fleaven,"-or that which says, " to whom much
is given, from them much will DO required"
We have seen tho curses OF q large possession
both to the possessors themselves and 10 the
whole community athome,-buf no where have
we seeu the curse more strongly marked than
upon the very forehead of the man who has his
abundance of land and his prolific crops in the
Western sections Of our country. We have
Il; 4y
more suffering than we ever remember to have
seen in any farming section Of our country,-&
we believe it to be solemn fact--and one tina:
has met the observation iof every observing
man that twice, yea thrice and in some instances
Gnadruple the amount of dissipation is seen in "A
Western village that there is in any ,owr of the
same number of inhabitants in the East. We
have accounted for this two ways, first upon tho
ground of a loose stnte oi society in the West,
natural TO all new countries. And, secondly
from cause which better meets the scope and
design Of this article. 1t is this--6nd we state
it for effect in the form of question. u a man
(there are of course exception to the rule we lay
downl can earn as much money by tdboring sir
hours IN The Hest, he can by laborng ten in The
Edsf,-an any ordinary state Of society,-as nos
such Is man liable to spend his four hours saved
from labor n, idleness? Yes or no For one
we answer, and after much inquiry and with
some kno Wedge of the facts, most emphaticniIy
YES. A man who has been bred to hard labor
III VIC best VI society, anu WIN tiie tiost ih'N"S
enconragements spread before him, is not often
inclined to fly to books and study, for the pur-
pose of willing away his time. What is the
consequence Ideness What is the conse-
1nence of that Dissipation Poverty !-7za
Indebtedness We have seen sad exam
pies of this curse in the East, and some
painful illustrations have been set before us in
The West. Ofwhat advantage then, is il to sucha
inborer to have hs wages increased two fold
imagined and anticipated blessing proves to he
his greatest curse and often works out lis sure
and permanent ruin. t.sta
So too of the abundant productions of the
rich toll of the West, and the little time neces-
sary to It's cultivation The texts OF scripture
we have quoted may not be applicable to the ar
gument and only as exceptions to the rule we
have laid down, yet there s neral to this, as
there is to tho first part of the subject.
Surprising, for example, That the result OF SIX
months labor in the West will yield as large crops