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Les cartas, planches, tableaux, etc.. pauvent Atre filmAa A des taux da rAduction diffArents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atra reproduit en un seul clichA. 11 est filmA A partir de I'angle supArieur gauche, de gauche A droite, et de haut en baa. an prenant le nombre d'imagea nAcesssire. Les diagrammas suivants illustrent la mAthoda. 1 2 3 4 6 6 «5 5 -I I THE -^- 1- -i^r 5 .t COLONIES OF ENGLAND: A PLAN FOB THE GOVERNMENT OF SOME PORTION OF OUR COLONIAL POSSESSIONS. BY - JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK, M.P. ^^ -t^ A land there lies Now void ; it flu thy people; thither bend Thy course j there shalt thou And a lasting scat: There to thy sons shall many Englands rise And sUtcs be bom of thee, whose dreadful might Shall awe the world, and conquer nations Imld. ^ LONDON: JOHN W. PARKER, WEST STRAND. MDCCCXUX. 5 I PREFACE. In the truth of the main conclusions which the following work seeks to establish, I have myself a most sincere and earnest faith; but I cannot hope that, to others, they will appear equally correct ; neither do I expect that my plan will be at once adopted, and followed. There are so many interests, fancied and real, opposed to every reform in our colonial management — there is so much ignorance (I must be pardoned the word) respecting everything connected with our Colonies, tht ( ao plan could be devised which would not, on the instant of its promulgation, be met with a storm of violent abuse. Some would be angry because a profitable abuse was pointed out for extirpation ; some, because the means of a fancied benefit were to be removed ; others, because a real advantage would erroneously be deemed in danger; and lastly, all the timid, all those who hate chan^ because it is change, would be in arms against the plan. For all this opposition I am prepared, and shall be A 2 w PREFACE. delighted to experience it. What I most dread is, that my scheme may be assumed to be impossible, because it appears large, and be at once laid aside, with the favourite phrase of official condemnation — " impracti- cable ;" and that being so put by, my proposals, and my reasons, may be together forgotten. The effect of my proposed scheme would, I allow, be great ; but the real objection to it, on the part of official people, will be, that it leaves them, and their office, very little to do. It would take from them the power of meddling — of which, for the most part, their functions now consist. But I earnestly entreat my countrymen to draw a broad distinction between the interests of the Colonial Office and of England. The men of a particular office naturally endeavour to make that office important. In the case of the Colonial Office, the means of doing this have been unfortunately large, but mischievous. It was easy to find pretexts for interfering with the affairs of the Colonies ; it was very difficult to make interference anything but an evil to the colony, and thereby to England. On this topic, however, I will not enlarge. My work is not written for the purpose of prosecuting a quarrel with the Colonial Office, but solely for the purpose of explaining a plan of proceeding which I sincerely believe would, if adopted, be greatly serviceable to the Colonies, and to TREFACE. the mother country ; and I mention the Colonial Office now simply in order to ask those who read the following pages to leave that office, and all that it contains, wholly out of consideration while they are discussing with mc the subject of the Colonies. Throughout my work I have carefully abstained from all discussion of any actually existing grievance or dispute in any colony. My conclusions rest on large results. The petty squabbles of petty people I have no desire to mix in. But wishing to deal with systems, I have sought for results in the history of colonization ; from that history — from the teaching and experience of centuries, my deductions are made, and on that founda- tion, my proposals rest. In the more general conclusions to which my examina- tion of the past has led me, as I have already said, I have great confidence. This plan, however, while it is based on these general propositions, contains many specific details. In these my faith is by no means so great. They are, without doubt, in many instances, imperfect, and susceptible of great improvement. I hope, however, the candid reader will not permit himself "to stick in the incidents," but go at once to the principle, lay hold of, and abide by it. Let us make this step, and I have no fear of conquering all difficulty of detail. w PREFACE. The reader will see, that throughout this whole work my object is to lay a ground for legislation — that from the first to the last page I have an act of parliament in my mind ; and he will be of opinion, if my reasoning produce upon his mind the effect that I desire, that without systematic preceding legislation, all attempts at systematic colonization will be useless, and doomed to fail. Before we can act according to a plan, we must frame the plan. Such a plan to be framed must be written, put down, and recorded. Men will then see what the plan is. And what it is, it will remain, when once recorded in writing. If we decide that a particular course is the right one, the next object should be to make those adopt it who act under our rule. The only effective means of doing this is to give to our recorded plan the authority of law. In short, we must frame and pass an Act of Parliament. In procedure, the teaching of experience is more needed than in any portion of the field of law — and in administrative procedure, no less than in judicial. I was therefore anxious to ascertain what had already been done by ourselves and others in the planting and governing of colonies ; and as the reader will see, I have made constant use of the example afforded by the con- duct of the Congress of the United States of America in this particular. In one instance, however, I propose to rUEFACK. Vil to jlepart very widely from the plan that Congress adopts; and I do so, because I believe our own more favourable position enables us to do once for all, what Congress does upon every occasion of establishing a new Terri- tory and State. Upon the formation of such new Territory, and the reception of a new State into the Union, a specific act of Congress has been passed ; ex- cept, indeed, in the case of the Territories which were created under, and by virtue of the authority of the ordinance of 1784, wliich will be found quoted in cxtenso in the body of my work. That ordinance provided for the government of the territory belonging to the United States, north west of Ohio, and contemplated from the beginning the carving of many states out of that vast tract of country. I, looking in the same way upon all the wild lands in the several portions of our Colonial Empire to which my work relates, as one whole, propose, as Mr. Dane did, by his celebrated ordinance, to make one law for all. The separate interests whicli press upon Congress and obstruct its legislation, do not, after the same fashion, lie in our patTi ; so we may, if we legislate at all, legislate safely, for the whole of the colonies and wild lands in the several possessions of which I speak. One observation is necessary, in order to guard my- self against the imputation of incorrectness in the VIU PREFACE. statistics quoted which relate to the United States. Everything in her new Territories and States changes, and advances so rapidly, that the descriptions and the figures which are accurate this year are wholly incorrect for the next. I have done what I could to obtain the latest statistics, and where I am able, I state the year to which they belong. But my conclusions will, I believe, in no case be found affected by the sort of inaccuracy here spoken of. Ashley Arnewood, April 23, 1849. I tes. ges, the rect the r to 5ve, acy CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAor. Object of the work — A colony, what? — English colonies classed — What classes treated of in this work — What objects sought in founding and maintaining colonies — Surplus population carried away — Trade — How proposed benefits are to be obtained — Examples — Of two systems of coloni- zation 1 CHAPTER II. English colonization in America — Virginia, 1606 — Maryland, 1632 — New England, 1620 — Massachusetts — Connecticut — ^Rhode Island — Carolina, 1663 — Pennsylvania, 1681 — Georgia, 1732 20 CHAPTER III. American colonies — General description — Comparison — Boundaries of the United States in 1783 — Boundaries in 1849 — American system — Some results — Power of Con- iCTess as to Waste lands — Territories — States — An ordi- nance quoted — General conclusions 75 CHAPTER IV. Section I. — General view — Plan — Nomenclature — Settle- ment — ^Province — System 113 Section II. — Settlement — Mode of establishing — Survey — First sale of land — Government — Extent of interference by the mother-country — Colony self-sustaining — Means, land, etc. — The money of the colony, how dealt with — Census — When settlement becomes a province — Frame of the government — Powers of — Judicature 1 1 5 Digression concerning Land Fund 129 CONTENTS. PAOB Section III. — Province— Declared — Tripartite constitution — Of what composed — Powers of — Civil list— Land fund — Trade — Disputes respecting powers — The church — Education 142 Section IV. — System — What — New Zealand excluded — Provinces included — British North America — Australasia — South Africa - Boundaries and extent of provinces — Objections stated and answered — The united legislature — Form of — Legislative — Administrative — Judicial — Powers of legislature — Powers of the administrative body — Powers of judiciary sketched 163 CHAPTER V. British North America — Circumstances peculiar thereto — Provinces existing — Danger of separation imminent — Plan for the union of provinces previously proposed — Lord Durham — Memorandum of plan — Changes proposed — Desires of American politicians with respect to British America — Mode of defeating them — Conclusion . . .186 APPENDIX. A. An Act to establish the territorial Government of Oregon . 227 B. A Bill for the admission of the State of Wisconsin into the Union 242 C. A Graduated Table, showing the comparative amount of money appropriated by the different counties in the State, for the education of each child, between the ages of 4 and 16 years, in each county of the state of Massachusetts . . 246 XI EXPLANATION OF THE ANNEXED MAP. Tub whole that is marked with the shades of Green, consti- tutes the present United States of America. The dorkest shade of Green shows the present extent of the Old Thirteen States who declared themselves independent in 1776. The nrxt shade shows the extent of the States and Territories that have been added to the Union since the year 1783, when the United States were by us acknowledged to be independent. The liglitest shade of Green shows the Wild Lands belonging to the United States not yet constituted Territories according to their system. The Red shows the extent of the English possessions in North America. On the Green, there are now dwelling nearly 25,000,000 of souls — excluding Indians. On the Red, there are less than 2,000,000 of souls, also excluding the Indian Tribes. THE COLONIES OF ENGLAND. CHAPTER I. OBJECT OF THE WORK— A COLONY, WHAT? — ENGLISH COLONIES CLASSED — WHAT CLASSES TREATED OF IN THIS WORK — WHAT OBJECTS SOUGHT IN FOUNDING AND MAINTAINING COLONIES — SURPLUS POPULATION CARRIED AWAY — TRADE — HOW PROPOSED BENEFITS ARE TO BE OBTAINED — EXAMPLES — OF TWO SYSTEMS OF COLONIZATION. nPHE object of the present work is to bring into some- ^ thing like a system the principles which ought to prevail in the government of some portion of our colonies. Hitherto, those of our possessions termed colonies have not been governed according to any settled rule or plan — caprice and chance have decided generally everything connected with them ; and if success have in any case attended the attempts of the English people to establish colonies, that success has been obtained in spite of the mischievous intermeddling of the English government, not in consequence of its wise and provident assistance. In the following pages an attempt will be made to discover, if possible, a means of preventing the continuance of this evil system — if system that can be called which has no B 2 A COLONY — WHAT? rule or order. I shall endeavour to ascertain the mode in which the metropolitan authority can be best employed in the planting and government of those communities which we term colonies, so that they may be rendered prosperous and happy, in so far as their prosperity and happiness are dependent on the government to which they are subject — and while thus flourishing within themselves, may become useful to the mother country from which they have sprung. A Colony — what? There are many dependencies under the control of our Colonial Office which are not colonies in the present English acceptation of that term. Ceylon, the Ionian Islands, Malta, are not considered colonies. The idea of settlement is not connected with them. Their lands are already occupied. They have for their limits a sufficient, a dense population, which population are not emigrants from another land, but belong to the country in which they live, and look to no mother country, no metropolis for which they feel affection, and to which they are willing to render obedience. There are two leading ideas which enter into our conception of a colony — the one is, that the territory itself is, or within recent memory has been, for the most part, wild and without inhabitants; and the other, that the inhabitants for which it is eventually destined, or which it has in part already received, are to go to it from our own country, or have gone from us or from some other mother country. The relation to, and supervision by, the mother country is the great distinctive mark of a A COLONY — WHAT? colony, and is that which will be kept in view through- out the following pages. The present work, in fact, is an attempt to turn that relation to use for both the parties concerned. If we advert to Ceylon, and inquire why it is that we do not consider it a colony, we shall find that there is no belief on our parts, or on that of any one else, that there are wild or unoccupied lands within the island, which are fit for, or likely to receive, any body of English settlers who will go there with the intention of founding a new community in that distant country, transmitting the language, the habits, and the manners of England to generations yet unborn, who will there find a country and a home, but who will always look back to England as their origin and parent. The tribes who now occupy Ceylon are so numerous, that very little land is left for a new comer; and even if there were large unsettled territories which had no owners, yet the climate almost precludes the possibility of planting there an English population. If on the other side of the globe we look to the United States, we shall find there all the elements necessary for the complex notion of a colony except one. The relation to the mother country no longer exists. They have ceased to be colonies. Taking, then, these conditions, such as here described, we are to inquire in what way, under what system, can we render useful both to the mother country and her colonies that tie and relationship — that peculiar domi- nion which is understood when we speak of our Colonies and our Colonial Empire. b2 I' !l 4 CLASSIFICATION OF ENGLISH COLONIES. The colonial dominion of England must, for my pre- sent purpose, be viewed under two separate aspects. We have colonial possessions lying in various parts of the globe, forming distinct systems, or countries. Each of these systems must be considered by itself, and with regard to the interests and circumstances peculiar to each. But there are certain matters which are common to all these separate systems which can be well discussed together, and general rules established concerning these common interests, before we come to the specific consi- derations which belong to the distinct divisions of our colonial empire. What is here meant by distinct systems, may be best explained by making at once the division intended to be adopted when the more specific detail is given : — 1. Our territories in North America, all lying north of the United States, including Newfoundland, form one system. 2. Australasia forms another separate system. [By Australasia I mean the whole of the vast island sometimes called New Holland, and also the island of Van Diemen's Land, together with all the islands which cluster round the coast, both of New Holland and Van Diemen's Land.] 3. South Africa forms also one. [By South Africa, I mean all that we do, all that we may, acquire at the southern end of the continent of Africa. We have already an im- mense and fertile territory there, which promises to increase.] WHAT CLASSES TREATED OF. 5 4. New Zealand. 5. The islands commonly called the West Indies, together with Guiana, and our territories on the main in that part of South America. 6. Borneo, and our possessions in the Indian Archipelago. My present work relates exclusively to the four first mentioned of these systems. The principles which I shall endeavour here to esta- blish are applicable, in my opinion, to all these territories. The West Indies, and the other territories which I include with them, are, in many essential circumstances, different from these, and require for their proper management a different system or arrangement of the powers of government. To frame such an arrangement for them would not, I fancy, be difficult. But at pre- sent, I lay them out of consideration ; not because they are unimportant possessions, but simply because I have enough before me, in the task which I have undertaken. The peculiar modification and complication of interests existing in the West Indies would require a volume to themselves, if they are to be satisfactorily provided for. So, also, I put aside, and for similar reasons, Borneo, and the circumjacent territories possessed by us. Our knowledge of those countries is besides so scant, that we are yet ignorant of the uses to which they can be turned. I intend, therefore, not to discuss any question relating to them, or the interests connected with them. The subject matter, then, of the present work is the plan of government which ought to be adopted for the X, 1 < i MANAGEMENT OF COLONIES. ]• four separate territories which I have above described and named ; that is to say — 1. British North America. 2. Australasia. 3. South Africa, and 4. New Zealand. These territories, though they lie in very distant parts of the globe, the one from the other, are in many im- portant particulars alike. They possess, all of them, similar attributes and capabilities, which render them to England valuable, and the principles according to which they ought to be governed are alike. While they thus in their distinctive characteristics resemble one another, they are in certain other things unlike each other. The mode, then, of treating the question of their management suggests itself naturally : — 1. The principles which are common to all of them may be treated of, once for all — and this ex- planation and discussion will serve as a proper preliminary to the, 2. Second exposition, which will relate to those circumstances which are peculiar to each. [To prevent mistake, let me observe now, that when I use the word colony, without any further explanation, I mean the colonies comprehended in the four above-named territories — or colonies exactly like them in all those essential particulars which have led me to class under one head the different possessions which form the subject matter of the present work.] FOUNDING AND MAINTAINING COLONIES. lescribcd int parts any im- •f them, jr them diug to While esemble unlike uestion •f them lis ex- proper those vhen I tion, I named those under ubject The statements which will be given in the first of these two proposed expositions ought, in my opinion, to be embodied in an Act of Parliament. They will be found to constitute a general plan of government for the class of colonies of which I treat, and require to be put into an authoritative shape in order to produce the effect which I anticipate. Should the opportunity be afforded to me, this Act I purpose framing, so that it may be submitted to the scrutiny of Parliament. Of the second and more specific details and exposition, I shall not be able to give more than relate to British North America. Time must determine whether I can fill up the sketch here made. Before we endeavour to frame a polity, there ought to be in our minds a clear conception of the ends we seek to attain : and this preliminary question, on the present occasion, is — What are the purposes for which we plant and maintain colonies? — Why do we seek, why do we keep, at a great expense of trouble, of wealth, and of blood, our colonial empire? This question is the more important on the present occasion, because there are philosophers and statesmen, of no mean authority, who consider our colonial pos- sessions an unnecessary burthen. They believe them to be costly and mischievous additions to our dominions — maintained partly from pride, and partly from a false notion of gain resulting from them. They assert, and truly, that hitherto our colonies have been to us a source of constant quarrel with other nations, and of unpro- fitable expense to ourselves ; and they say, that it would be better for us to be without colonies, than, to keep BENEFIT DERIVED FROM COLONIES. them, as wc have done hitherto, to be a perpetual cuusc uf strife und waste. But having arrived at tliis accurate conclusion, the statesmen and philosophers to whom I allude draw one other inference, which appears to me far from correct — and this inference is, that colonies must necessarily be thus mischievous and costly. I perceive that this conclusion is favoured by political economists generally, (not by all indeed, for there are some remarkable exceptions,) and I also perceive that the members of parliament who arc classed as the Man- chester and Yorkshire party have a tendency towards this belief, though they have not yet very definitely stated their views on this interesting subject, and I suspect have hardly yet made up their minds upon it. I am therefore the more anxious to state clearly, though briefly, the benefit which I believe may be derived from colonies if they be properly administered — and the mode in which that benefit may be obtained. The people of this country have never acquiesced in the opinion that our colonies are useless ; and they look with disfavour upon any scheme of policy which contemplates the sepa- ration of the mother country from the colonies. For this opinion, the people have been seldom able to render an adequate reason ; nor have they been accustomed to describe with accuracy the way in which the colonies prove useful to us; still they believe them beneficial, and so believing, they regard with suspicion those who roundly propose " to cut the connexion." On the other hand, the economical statesmen clearly perceived that the cry of " Ships, colonies, and commerce," was a monopoly anti-free-trade cry, and they therefore regard SURPLUS POPULATION. with jealousy every scheme for the preservation and miinagcmcitt of our colonies. ^Vow to me it appears possible to concilia! • the pujMilftr feeling, and economical views — that colonies may he created and maintained without waste, and that u lasting benefit may l)c de- rived from their existence — both for England and the new communities she establishes; but that this good can only be accomplished by means of free-trade and self-government. The mother country may hope to derive advantage — 1st, from colonizing — and, 2nd, from her colonics. The one ailvantage is immediate, the other prospective. The first advantage is to be derived from sending oflf a surplus or inconvenient population. The population upon some Irish estates, where more people are asserted to be than are needed for the proper cultivation of the land, may be deemed a surplus popu- lation. I have, however, great doubts as to this excess. The area of Ireland, with adequate capital, could profitably employ a very large population. Hitherto this capital has not been found. A miserable pittance of capital has been used by the peasant farmer, his land has been not half tilled, and the produce, now that the potato has failed, is inadequate to support himself and his family. For himself and his family, emigration to another land may be a happy change, and perhaps the absence of a turbulent and ignorant peasant farmer may make room for a peaceful and industrious labourer, who, receiving weekly wages, will make the land, under the guidance of an instructed capitalist, far more productive than it 10 SURPLUS POPULATION. now is, and able eventually to support a more numerous population than that of which Irish proprietors now complain. The unfortunate emigrant may also, by the change, become a new man. His new country may, and probably will, create in him new habits ; hope will make him cheerful and industrious; a chance of success will make him self-dependent, and convert a discontented mendicant into a worthy, self-relying, and self-maintain- ing labourer. The inconvenient population is, however, of two sorts. The one has been here described and illustrated by the Irish peasant — that which is deemed a surplus, but which is really a troublesome dweller on the land. The other class of inconvenients are the criminals. With these last the present work has no concern. The principles which should direct the conduct of government towards a convict settlement are entirely diflferent from those which ought to preside over our policy and acts in colonization. I mention the subject of criminals and transportation on the present occasion, only for the purpose of at once removing it out of my path, and separating it entirely from my system of colonial policy.* After the mother country has obtained what benefit * English statesmen and writers, when discussing the subject of colonies, almost exclusively consider them with reference to English, or rather, metropolitan interests. The Irish famine, for example, makes the population of Ireland a burthen, and straightway our statesmen endeavour to discern what can be done with this trouble- some, because starving race. A colony, with politicians of this order, is a favourite subject of contemplation and discourse. They look at it as an admirable mode of getting rid of the people — and TRADE. 11 numerous tors now Oj by the may, and »rill make >cess will lontented aaintain- wo sorts. i by the Lit which he other ih these 'inciples towards n those acts in )rtation at once sntirely benefit bject of English, xample, vay our trouble- of this They le — and flows from removing some portion of her population, she may look forward to the more distant but far greater advantages which will come from the existence of a thriving and friendly community, dwelling in one of her outlying territories. Having, by the fact of Colonizing, relieved herself from the inconvenient pressure of a superabundant population, if such have existed, she now reaps from the Colony all the good which a growing market can supply. If the mother country, while she thus extends her dominion, thus carries her name, lan- guage, institutions, and manners to distant lands, and increases the number of her people and the amount of her wealth — if, while she does this, she retains the aflfec- tion of these outlying portions of her people, and makes them consider themselves integral parts of her empire, she may, by means of her colonies, acquire a power and influence which her own narrow territory might not permit her to attain. According to the present feelings and opinions of men, no direct benefit, by way of tribute or payment of any sort, can be derived by England from her colonies. The ever-memorable struggle with the present United States has happily precluded the possibility of our attempting to convert any portion of our people into the difficulty. When they bring the subject of colonies before par- liament, you always find them endeavouring to win attention by a long preamble detailing the miseries of the existing surplus popula- tions. (See the speech on Colonies by the late Mr. Charles Buller, and the many speeches about what is called systematic colonization, for example.) But this mode of looking at the subject is fraught with injustice: it produces plans unfair towards the colonies, and, in the end, injurious to England. m TRADE. I 1 h: In 1)1 tributaries to our dominion. The difficulty of creating a new settlement is of itself sufficiently great, without the addition of a metropolitan tax. To raise up a new community in the wilderness — to create civilized homes, and establish all the arts and all the necessities of civilized life — to supply the one and cherish the others — this is indeed a task, in the performance of which the stoutest heart may quail, will often sink, and be ready to despair. Painful regrets beset him who applies him- self to this trying business. Home, with all the many sentiments which that word inspires, (and which none can fully appreciate but the wanderer who has renounced home, the home of his youth, for ever,) comes in the hours of weariness and disappointed hope, and seems in the distance, as home is to the settler, a land of fairy enjoyment. The courtesies and amenities of the life he has quitted rise up to contrast themselves in his mind with the coarse and harsh realities which are all around him. Sickness comes, and sorrow comes, and want too — and for what, he asks himself, " am I thus a wanderer and an outcast?" The eflfect of such thoughts and of all the real difficulties and troubles which beset the early settler, is great upon the firmest men ; we may easily conceive what their influence is likely to be upon women. But women must share in all the trials, and aid in resisting all the miseries, which the new life of of an emigrant brings. From people who have to combat all these difficulties and resist all the influences which induce despondency and despair, it is useless to expect any tribute to the country from which they have emigrated, and in which they could not live. But still TRADE. 13 in many ways it may be useful to the mother country to have her people employing their energies and their capital in the formation of new communities. If they could be as profitably employed at home, we may be assured that the misery which ever attends an emigrant would not be braved by him. The capabilities which the new country possesses enable him, by industry, to main- tain himself, to increase his substance, and to provide for his family. The present great difficulty once con- quered, his future is more assured than it would be at home, and his children grow up with feelings of attach- ment to the adopted home of their parents, which is, probably, their natal place, and is their home, in short. But in countries destined to be great, to grow into powerful and increasing communities, there will never be found any means of acquiring sudden wealth and ex- travagant fortunes. There, where steady labour is needed to live and to thrive, will be found the habits which are needed to make a great people. The gold that lies in the soil of California, or is found in the mines of Potosi, may for the moment attract cupidity by holding out the promise of vast and sudden wealth to the adventurers who seek those lands ; but in these auriferous regions, useful colonies, the solid foundations of great nations, are not to be created, unless the soil shall cease to afford gold, and the mines come to yield only a scant return to labour and to capital. In the gradual progress which is won by steady labour, the mother country which is wise will see her most promis- ing return for the protection she has afforded ; for the assistance she has given to her adventurous sons, who 14 PROPOSED BENEFITS : m :' i have dared the difficulties of creating a new community in a wild, uncultivated region. As the new community grows, the wants of the inhabitants increase also, and with them the desire and the power to purchase the commodities which the metropolis can produce more easily and more cheaply than the colony for itself. Thus a new market is created for the produce of the mother country. Trade between people so intimately related is sure to arise, and needs no coercive laws to force it into being. With unfettered trade there will arise a commu- nity of interests and of feeling. Instead of hostile and envious rivals, we shall have made willing and friendly customers, into whose ports we can enter without restric- tion and untaxed ; who will not be desirous of placing upon our productions the check of a hostile tariff, or eager to refuse to us the benefits of an untrammelled com- merce. If in a spirit of true liberality we regulate our whole conduct t wards the new nations which our people from time to time create, they in their turn will deal generously and in a spirit of friendship with us. But if we permit the narrow views of a protective policy to be the guides of our system, and by restrictive laws thwart and check the energy and ingenuity of the grow- ing communities while subject to our sway ; if we force upon them the monopoly implied and really expressed in the shibboleth of "ships, colonies, and commerce," we prepare our colonies for a race of rivalry and hostility when they are able to cast off our dominion. Unfortu- nately this course we have hitherto pursued, and we see the fruits in the conduct of the United States. We taught them, while colonies, to believe restriction wise now TO BE OBTAINED. 16 policy, and we proved to them that we were selfish enough to insist upon a cramped and restricted trade, though it was plainly mischievous to the colonies, and though it was at every stage of their history strenuously resisted by them. They naturally believed what we taught, and imitated the example which we had so per- tinaciously set. The doom, however, of this protective policy is sealed. We are bound, if wise and just, to begin at once, and give the world a proof of our sin- cerity, by establishing with all our colonies, in every part of the globe, a perfectly free trade ; by allowing to the whole world free access to our colonial ports. We thus shall lay the sure foundations of a lasting inter- course by means of a thriving, because unrestricted commerce. The object of all the succeeding inquiries of this work will be to ascertain in what way the mother country can best use her powers, in order to create thriving communities of her own people in the terri- tories which she possesses in various parts of the globe, but which are now in a state of nature — the wild home of a few wild tribes — how she can most easily convert a howling wilderness into the secure home of a busy, thriving, happy people. That she can do this without expense I believe, and shall, I think, be able to prove ; and to that proof I now apply myself. The English, with much self-complacency, call them- selves a practical people; and so calling themselves, they are accustomed to search for precedents, as a means to regulate their conduct. This looking for 16 EXAMPLES OF precedents, and trusting to authority, means, in so far as it is a wise mode of conduct, simply inquiring whether mankind have already had the teaching of ex- perience upon the matter in hand, and whether there are records of this experience, from which rules of con- duct for the future may be deduced. Knowing this habit of my countrymen, I naturally, for my own teaching, as well as the persuading of others, have inquired, what examples history offers on the subject of colonization? To ancient history, the philosopher and the scholar may refer with advantage and with pleasure ; but the practical politician had better confine himself for the most part to modern experience, and even, if possible, to English experience. Fortunately, there are ample records for his purpose — and records of a most special and useful character. We have the means, if we so wish, of com- paring the modes adopted by different nations in similar regions, and in similar countries. As for example, the mode pursued by France in her vast North- American territories, with that adopted by Englishmen in the same regions, though in a more restricted field. But we are able to compare the different modes adopted by the same people in the same regions, or by the same people in different regions. As, for example. Englishmen in Massachusetts, and in Maryland and Carolina, and Englishmen in Sydney. The experience and the records of it are so vast and multifarious, that a selection be- comes absolutely necessary ; and this selection I purpose making, in order to lay before the reader an authority for the conclusions to which I have arrived, and to which I ask his assent. TWO SYSTEMS OF COLONIZATION. 17 Of the examples, then, which modern history aflfords, I have selected two, both of which have been distin- guished eventually, and the first, after various for- tunes, with success ; and in this first example, there will be seen almost every possible scheme attempted, but success attending only one condition of things, and attending just in proportion as that condition was adopted or departed from. The conditions upon which success thus depended, were the existence, first of self-government and self-mainte- nance, and next of free trade. Where there were com- plete self-government, and an entirely unrestricted trade, there success, even with an adverse soil and climate, was most rapid and extensive ; where there was no self-government, there was no success; where there was self-government, but so far checked as a restricted trade implied, there was only a partial, and slowly- advancing improvement. The authority in favour of this statement is so extensive, as to create difficulty only by its profusion. I shall content myself by ad- vancing some of the more remarkable portions of this evidence. The two examples of which I speak, and which I intend now to instance, are as follow : — 1st. That of England, when she established in Ame- rica the thirteen colonies, which afterwards became the celebrated United States of America. They were — 1. Virginia; 2. Maryland; 3. Massachusetts Bay; 4. Connecticut; 5. Rhode Island; 6. New Hampshire; 7. New York; 8. New Jersey; 9. Pennsylvania; 10. De c 18 EXAMPLES OF laware; 11. North Carolina j 12. South Carolina; and, 13. Georgia. • These were all English colonies, though some of them, as New York and New Jersey, were begun by,* but taken from, the Dutch. Emigrants came to them from various parts of Europe ; but still their institutions are English ; and, with very slight exceptions, their people all even- tually spoke the English language. We may say, with accuracy, that this is an English example. This great scheme of colonization began in the year 1606 with the foundation of Virginia. It was termi- nated in 1776; when the thirteen colonies (the last of which, Georgia, was founded in 1732) declared them- selves independent, and thus put an end to their colonial existence. Between these two years of 1606 and 1776, thirteen communities were called into existence; and they contained, at the last mentioned period, a popula- tion of about three millions of souls. 2nd. The second example is that of the United States of America, when, being a sovereign people, they esta- blished many new states, and added them to the great federal union. All these new communities, which thus became members of the republic, were originally colonies, planted and maintained by the United States. This second instance has seldom been considered in the light in which I now place it. The new states of the union have not hitherto been deemed colonies ; yet such they truly were ; and the system according to which * Sweden, also, had a share in this attempt. TWO SYSTEMS OF COLONIZATION. 19 they have all been planted and governed is the only regular and predetermined plan for such a purpose which any government has laid down for its guidance ; and as might have been expected, the plan being a wise one, the result is the most successful example of colonization ever yet aflforded by mankind. c2 20 CHAPTER II. ENGLISH COLONIZATION IN AMERICA — VIRGINIA, 1606 — MARYLAND, 1632 — NEW ENGLAND, 1620 — MASSA- CHUSETTS — CONNECTICUT — RHODE ISLAND — CAROLINA, 1663 — PENNSYLVANIA, 1681 — GEORGIA, 1732. rPHE first of these thirteen American colonies, \'irginia, -*- was begun in the year 1606; the last, Georgia, in the year 1732. From the beginning to the end of this period nothing like a system — a regular plan with prede- termined rules of action, can be found in the conduct of the government. Some of the colonies were planted, in the hope of gain, by associations of lich and powerful proprietors in England ; such was, for example, Virginia : some were established by men who fled from religious persecution to the wilds of America, intending there to found an empire in which true religion should be the ruler, and the Bible their code of laws. The pilgrims who laid the first foundations of New England were the most remarkable of this class of settlers ; and New Eng- land still exists and flourishes, a monument to their many great qualities, and some mistaken views. The early settlements of Virginia were formed in con- sequence, and by means of powers granted in charters from the crown. The object was immediate gain to the projectors ; the means by which this gain was sought to be botained were the mines of gold and silver, which in VIKOINIA. 21 those days every adventurer fancied were to be found throughout all the regions of America. But there was in that age something of grandeur and magnificence pervading men's minds, and ennobling even their meaner thoughts, and feelings. Their conceptions were large, though their aims were sordid. They intended and ex- pected to found empires even while seeking for gold. Their cupidity was thus hidden by the brave garb in which it was clothed. By the charter, under which the first successful settlement was established in Virginia, " a belt of twelve degrees on the American coast, em- bracing the soil from Cape Fear to Halifax, excepting, perhaps, the little spot in Acadia, then actually possessed by the French, was set apart to be colonized by two rival companies. Of these, the first was composed of noblemen, gentlemen, and merchants in and about Lon- don ; the second of knights, gentlemen, and merchants in the west.* The London adventurers, who alone suc- ceeded, had an exclusive right to occupy the regions from thirty -four to thirty -eight degrees of north latitude — that is, from Cape Fear to the southern limit of Mary- land. The western men had equally an exclusive right to plant between forty-one and forty-five degrees. The intermediate district, from thirty-eight to forty-one degrees, was open to the competition of both companies. Yet collision was not possible; for each was to possess the soil extending fifty miles north and south of its first * Virginia was planted by the London Company; New England was, in part, the fruit of the powers granted to the Western, or Plymouth, Association. See below, page 49. 22 VIRGINIA. settlement, so that neither could plant within one hun- dred miles of a colony of its rival.* The conditions of tenure were homage and rent; the rent was no more than one-fifth of the net produce of gold and silver, and one-fifteenth of copper. The right of coining money was conceded, perhaps, to facilitate commerce with the natives, who, it was hoped, would receive Christianity and the arts of civilized life. The superintendence of the whole colonial system was confided to a council in England; the local administration of each colony was intrusted to a council residing within its limits. The memhers of the superior council in England were ap- pointed exclusively by the king, and the tenure of their office was his good pleasure. Over the colonial councils the king likewise preserved a control, for the leaders of them were from time to time to be ordained, made, and removed according to royal instructions. Supreme legis- lative authority over the colonies, extending alike to their general condition and the most minute regulations, was likewise expressly reserved to the monarch. A hope was also cherished of an ultimate revenue to be derived f , * Yet the western limits of these colonies were never accurately defined. The terms permitted the colonists to take the whole breadth of the continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, between the degrees mentioned. So much for the precision of the grant. " Several of the old or original states claimed large tracts of wild lands in the west and northwest parts of the country, before the war of the Revolution, on the supposition that their respective ter- ritories extended to the farthest lakes, and the Mississippi, if not to the Pacific ocean, for their patents were limited only by the "Western ocean." — History of the Federal Government, p. 42, by A. Bradford, LL.D. i J VIRGINIA. 2a from Virginia. A duty to be levied on vessels trading to its harbours was, for one and twenty years, to ])e wholly mployed for the benefit of the plantation, at the end o< that time, was to be taken for the king. To the emigrants it was promised that they and their children should continue to be Englishmen — a concession which secured them rights on returning to England, but offered no barrier against colonial injustice."* The historian, Mr. Bancroft, himself an American — one who has carefully considered the whole of the early history of his country, and the effect upon its fortunes produced by the several enactments, legislative and administrative, made in England, thus remarks upon this charter, and the nature of its provisions : — " Thus the first written charter of a permanent American colony, which was to be the chosen abode of liberty, gave to a mercantile corporation nothing but a desert territory, with the right of peopling and defending it, and reserved to the monarch absolute legislative au- thority, the control of all appointments, and a hope of ultimate revenue.f To the emigrants themselves, it conceded not one elective franchise, not one of the rights of self-government. They were subjected to the ordi- nances of a commercial corporation, of which they could not be members ; to the dominion of a domestic council, in appointing which they had no voice; to the control of a superior council in England which had no sympathy * Bancroft, History of America, vol. i. p. 121-3. t The worst sort of restrictive laws respecting navigation was also in the charter. 24 VIRGINIA. with their rights ; and, finally, to the arbitrary legislation of the sovereign. Yet, bad as was this system, the re- servation of power to the king — a result of his vanity rather than of his ambition — had at least the advantage of mitigating the action of a commercial corporation. The check would have been complete, had the powers of appointment and legislation been given to the people of Virginia."* The King, besides this charter, in the plenitude of his royal benevolence and wisdo*n, added a code of laws framed (it is said) by himself. Some of the provisions which adorned this precious production, are thus de- scribed by Mr. Bancroft : — " The superior council in England was permitted to name the colonial council, which was constituted a pure aristocracy, entirely independent of the emigrants whom they were to govern ; having power to elect or remove its president, to remove any of its members, and to supply its own vacancies. Not an element of popular liberty was introduced into the form of government. Religion was especially enjoined to be established ac- cording to the doctrine and rites of the Church of England : and no emigrant might withdraw his allegiance from King James,f or avow dissent from the royal creed. Lands were to descend according to the common law. Not only murder, manslaughter, and adultery, but dan- gerous tumults and seditions were punishable by death ; * Bancroft, History of America, vol. i. p. 122. t This provision was unnecessary; the rule of our common law being the same. Nemo potest exuere patriam. 1 1 VIRGINIA. 25 SO that the security of life depended on the discretion of the magistrate, restricted only by the necessity of a trial by jury. All civil causes requiring corporal punishment, fine, or imprisonment * might be summarily determined by the president and council, who also possessed full legislative authority in cases not affecting life or limb. Kindness to the savages was enjoined, with the use of all proper means for their conversion. It was further and most unwisely, though probably at the request of the corporation, ordered, that the industry and commerce of the respective colonies should for five years at least, be conducted in a joint stock. The King also reserved for himself the right of future legislation."! Severe misfortunes attended the infimt colony; the practical proceedings of its founders being no wiser than their scheme of its political institutions. Visions of glory and of gain — sanguine hopes of great wealth and honour attained without labour, and at once, led the daring, the reckless, and the idle — broken-down spend- thrifts, and gay gallants of the court, to form part of the company of emigrants by whom the new community was to be established. The celebrated Captain John Smith, the real practical founder and saviour of this the first settlement, knew well what was the class of man needed for the work — and clearly understood the benefit that would follow well-selected emigrants — " When you send again," said Smith, in a letter written to his supe- • This is a curious description oi civil causes; punishment being that thing which is the essence of criminal, as distinct from civil jurisdiction. f Bancroft, History of America, vol. i. p. 123. 26 VIKGINIA. riors at home, " I entreat you rather send but thirty carpenters, husbandmen, gardeners, fishermen, black- smiths, masons, and diggers up of trees' roots, well pro- vided, than a thousand of such as we have."* He was averse to all schemes for the attainment of sudden wealth by gold finding and mining — " Nothing," said he, " is to be expected from Virginia but by labour." The misfortunes of the first attempts stimulated the nation to yet greater efforts. Raleigh, who had originally conceived the scheme, and laboured with great patience and energy in the cause which had excited his sanguine and enthusiastic spirit, was now a ruined man and a prisoner. But Cecil, his enemy, adopted his plans, and brought all his own influence in aid of the company. The company itself was enlarged, powerful nobles and rich citizens were added to the list of its shareholders, and as they supposed that the previous failure had re- sulted from defective institutions, they desired to have supreme power in their own hands. Their wishes were gratified — and the power of supervision and legislation, which the King had reserved to himself, he now gave to the corporation. This alteration rendered the political constitution (if I may use the term) under which the scheme of colonizing was to be attempted, as inefficient and mischievous as possible. The supreme power was in the hands of a body of persons in England, whose great object was to attain wealth and influence in Eng- land, by means of the power which, through others, they were to exercise in America. These others — viz., their * Bancroft, vol. i. p. 135. VIRGINIA. 27 servants and ofl&cers, appointed by them to rule over the emigrants — were responsible in name to the supreme council in London ; but exercised, in reality, uncontrolled authority over the emigrants. These last, through whose labour and skill the colony was to be actually founded, were left wholly out of consideration. They had no means of checking the governors and other officers of the company, but were obliged to submit in silence to every species of oppression and cruelty, and injury, which cupidity, tyranny, and ignorance could bring upon an unhappy people. The necessary result was dissensions, open quarrels, violence, and failure. After many valuable lives had been lost, many terrible hardships undergone by the survivors, and constant and large additions had been made to the numbers of the colo- nists, by direct importation from England into the colony of men and means, the j&rst step was taken in the right direction — private property was established. " But the greatest change in the condition of the colonists resulted from the incipient establishment of private property. To each man a few acres of ground were assigned for his orchard and his garden, and to plant at his pleasure and for his own use. So long as industry had been without its special reward, reluctant labour, wasteful of time, had been followed by want. Henceforward the sanctity of private property was recognised as the surest guarantee of order and abundance."* Another change was made, and, in a certain sense, for the better, in what I have called the political constitu- Bancroft, History of America, vol. i. p. 145. 28 VIRGINIA. ii! I ! tion of the colonizing body. The supreme council in England was made responsible to the majority of the corporation. Vacancies in the council were now to be filled by those who obtained the majority of votes given by members of the corporation, and four several courts of the body of proprietors were directed to be held during the year, in order to elect officers and make laws. In fact, the company — that is, the colonizing body, — had now a democratic in place of an aristocratic govern- ment. This was an improvement, but the colonists themselves seemed as far from having a voice in their own concerns as ever. These courts of the company were afterwards employed by the great liberal party of those days as a means of opposition to the arbitrary measures of the king; the debates which took place in these assemblies being made subsidiary to the debates in parliament. But whatever influence these courts might have in aiding the establishment of English liberty, they lent very little assistance, did very little if any good, to the colony which they attempted to govern. That colony, though it might seem firmly established, and since private property had been re-instituted, appeared in some measure to thrive, was still, in fact, endowed with but very little vitality, and threatened every hour to droop and fade away from the land. " In May, 1614, a petition for aid was presented to the House of Com- mons, and was received with unusual solemnity. It was supported by Lord Delaware, whose affection for Virginia ceased only with his life. " All it requires," said he, " is but a few honest labourers burdened with children," and he moved for a committee to consider of relief. VIRGINIA. 29 ,^f ■'1 But disputes with the monarch led to a separation of the Commons, and it was not to tottering or privileged companies, to parliaments or to kings, that the new State was to owe its prosperity. Private industry, directed to the culture of a valuable staple, was more productive than the patronage of England, and tobacco enriched Virginia."* The manner of this statement may not be agreeable to the taste of Englishmen, and probably would not have been adopted by Mr. Bancroft were he an English- man, even though he were as deeply versed as he now is in all that appertains to the early history of his country. He would nevertheless have expressed the same opinions, aud would have insisted as urgently as at present on the importance of the conclusion to which he had been forced by a study of this history ; and now, when we see attempts making to revive that old form of company, by which our forefathers vainly endeavoured in ancient days to found colonies ; when we hear the final success of those colonies attributed to this mode ot directing the enterprise, and skill, and energy of our people, when laying the foundations of what are now mighty states, it behoves all who really know how false are these statements, and how mischievous these com- panies were in fact, how seriously they impeded the progress of adventure, and retarded the growth of the colonial communities, to lay this experience with ear- nestness before the world ; — not to be nice as to phrase while insisting upon the value of the knowledge which * Bancroft. 30 VIRGINIA. can be obtained from our former colonial history, — and at all proper times fearlessly to expose the grave errors which are daily propagated on this important subject by interested projectors, who pretend to be philosophic discoverers of great moral truths in political science, instead of assuming the more modest character of his- torians, in which, if they were honest, they might bring to light the valuable experience which the past has garnered up for our use. In the history of our American colonies, we find in- deed ample experience of every form of mischievous schemes for the planting of colonies ; and more especially does that hist ry teem with evidence to prove, that evils always followed when the oflfice of planting a new settle- ment was intrusted to a chartered company ; that so long as such connexion existed between the company and the colony, the evil continued, and success was impossible; and that the colony never fairly flourished, till that con- nexion was completely severed. The company has always sat like an incubus on the new community. It has been a mill-stone round its neck — a drag upon its wheels — a weight upon its springs— in short, every example and illustration of evil retardation and mis- chievous restraint may be employed with truth, when speaking of the influence of a privileged company upon the fortunes of a colonial settlement. Virginia affords, indeed, a remarkable illustration, at every step of her history, of the mischiefs re- sulting from a distant control, and of the increase of the mischiefs when the distant control was in the hands of a mercantile corporation. I know that I may VIRGINIA. 31 1-rl be met by the example of the East India Company, and asked if I apply this reasoning to their case. My answer is two-fold — first, I certainly do so apply the reasoning, and can, out of the story of British India, fearfully prove its accuracy; but, secondly, the East India Company have never been colonizers. They were first merchants, then conquerors and rulers. They had a country densely peopled to rule over, and that dense population were in a state of civilization very unlike and very inferior to that of England. But what I am now speaking of is a colonizing company, and of subject colonists having the habits, feelings, intelligence, and capacity of the people of England ; and my assertion is, that a mercantile com- pany is wholly unfit to exercise legislative and adminis- trative functions over such a body of colonists ; and that, in the first instance, such a company would be a mis- chievous instrument if employed to plant a colony ; and in the next, if employed as an instrument to rule over it, when with difficulty and danger it has struggled into life, the evil will be increased ten-fold ; and these asser- tions, I assert, are remarkably borne out, no'^ only by the history of Virginia, but by the history of every one of the proprietary governments established in America. Some of those governments were far superior to others ; but the worst of all were those which took the form of chartered companies of mercantile adventurers ruling the colony from England.* I now proceed, however, with my historical illustrations. * In a subsequent part of this work I shall endeavour to explain in what way a company may be of use in the work of colonizing. 32 VIRGINIA. Ijjijil M ,: I h 1 i, ; i^ For a time, martial law was established in Virginia. This system of coercion did not improve the condition of the colonists. Then it was thought that probably mild measures might be more successful, and Mr. George Yeardley, who had previously been deputy-governor, was appointed governor — a mild and benevolent person, though not distinguished by any great ability. Under his rule, great political changes occurred. In the early days of the settlement many mistakes were naturally made in the various modes of cultivation adopted. Vineyards were planted. The colonists attempted to make soap, and glass, and tar, and ashes; but were unable to compete with the people in the north of Europe in the production of these things. The sect of gold-finders died out about 1615. At length, tobacco was discovered, and the fortunes of Virginia improved ; but with improvement came a desire on the part of the colonists for the power of managing their own concerns. The martial law did not suit the convenience of English- men, and successful Englishmen were not likely to sub- mit to such a rule without a struggle. With Yeardley, under the direction of the London Company, a council was associated, and shared his authority; and he, with- out any direction, but of his own motion, conferred on the colonists a share in the government. This circum- stance is memorable, as the first step taken on the American continent towards the establishment of a popular rule — the rule that, over every part of the vast territories which the English race has occupied on that quarter of the earth, is now firmly established. The exj riment which, at the present moment, those young VIRGINIA. 88 communities are making in the science and art of government is of the highest interest to the whole of mankind. We are, indeed, living in times when all appears prosperous with respect to it. In the early days, however, of which we are now speaking, there were doubt, and resistance, and fear. The beginnings of so extraordinary a trial and result cannot fail to interest every reflecting mind. In June, 1619, the first colonial assembly met in Jamestown, Virginia. This consisted of the governor and his council, and two representatives from each of the eleven boroughs then established, which representa- tives were called burgesses. The adoption of this popu- lar portion of the government marks the predominant feelings of the time ; and though Yeardley's sanction was necessary, the proposal to elect burgesses evidently came from the colonists themselves. In this assembly all matters were debated appertaining to the colony. Their laws, however, required to be formally ratified by the company in England.* The consequence of this change was immediately apparent. " They fell to building houses and planting corn, and fearlessly resolved to per- petuate the colony." The next circumstance to which the historian refers * Bancroft, vol. i. p. 153. I may say at once, that I shall quote Mr. Bancroft throughout, when referring to this early history of America. He most carefully adduces his authorities, and is con- scientious in the use of them. A safer guide could not be found. The history of Virginia is a curious chapter in the history of Eng- land, and illustrates the latter in a remarkable manner. Mr. Ban- croft does not state whether the burgesses sat apart from the council, or whether they assembled in one chamber. D 1 84 VIRGINIA. ^1 is of the highest interest, and tends to show that all the great questions respecting the planting of colonies were discussed carefully by the sagacious men who then founded ours, and who have left us little to discover in the so-called " art of colonization." I will quote again, in this instance, the words of Mr. Bancroft. The sub- ject is of primary importance, and deserves to be sup- ported by the most weighty authority : — " The patriot party in England now possessed the control of the London company, engaged with earnest- ness in schemes to advance the population and establish the liberties of Virginia ; and Sir Edward Sandys, the new treasurer, was a man of such judgment and firm- ness, that no intimidations — not even threats of blood — could deter him from investigating and reforming the abuses by which the colony had been retarded. At his accession to office, after twelve years' labour, and an expenditure of eighty thousand pounds by the company, there were in the colony no more than six hundred per- sons, men, women and children ; and now in one year he provided a passage to Virginia for twelve hundred and sixty persons. Nor must the character of the emigra- tion be overlooked. * The people of Virginia had not been settled in their minds ;' and, as before the recent changes, they had gone there with the design of ulti- mately returning to England, it was necessary to multiply attachments to the soil. Few wome^i had as yet dared to cross the Atlantic ; but now the promise of prosperity induced ninety agreeable persons, young and incorrupt, to listen to the wishes of the company and the bene- volent advice of Sandys, and to embark for the colony, VIBGINU. 35 11 where they were assured of a welcome. They were transported at the expense of the corporation, and were married to the tenants of the company, or to men who were well able to support them, and who willingly defrayed the costs of their passage, which were rigorously de- manded. The adventure, which had been in part a mer- cantile speculation, succeeded so well, that it was designed to send the next year another consignment of one hun- dred ; but before these could be collected, the company found itself so poor, that its design could be accomplished only by a subscription. After some delays, sixty were actr 'lily despatched, maids of virtuous education, young, handsome, and well recommended. The price rose from one hundred and twenty, to one hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco, or even more, so that all the original charges might be repaid. The debt for a wife was a debt of honour, and took precedence of any other ; and the company, in conferring employments, gave a preference to the married men. Domestic ties were formed, vir- tuous sentiments and habits of thrift ensued ; the tide of emigration swelled; within three years, fifty patents of land were granted, and three thousand five hundred persons found their way to Virginia, which was a refuge even for puritans."* The formation of a popular power in the colony was, though not openly approved, silently permitted by the company. At length, the company, in 1621, by an ordi- nance dated July of that year, promulgated a constitu- tion for the colony. Every constitution framed by Eng- * Bancroft, History of America, vol. i. p. 155-157. D 2 36 VIRGINIA. ■W^ i Ml Mil' K land for a colony since that period has followed the model of that which this company adopted. It set forth, as a preamble, " that the object sought was the greatest com- fort and benefit of the people, and the prevention of in- justice, grievances, and oppression." The administrative body was composed of a governor, appointed by the company, and a permanent council, also appointed by the company. The legislative body was a general assembly, composed of the governor, the council, and burgesses to be elected from each of the several plantations by their respective inhabitants. This assembly was to be convened once every year, and had full legislative authority — a negative voice being reserved to the Governor; and no law or ordinance was to be valid unless ratified by the Company in England. One step, of a peculiar nature, followed, and pointed most significantly to future events. The Company solemnly bound itself not to impose laws on the colony without the consent of the Colonial Legislature. When afterwards the King superseded the Company, and the Imperial Government occupied the relative position of the Company to the colony, this promise was not con- sidered binding. The Imperial Parliament deemed itself supreme, struggled with the colony, and eventually lost it, because the prudent and long-sighted resolution of the Company, which founded the new community,* had been disregarded. In addition to the Legislative, there was also a judi- cial body instituted ; and their proceedings were ordered * Bancroft, vol. i. p. 157. \] VIRGINIA, 37 \- to be in all things conformable to the laws and manner of trial used in the realm of England. The next succeeding years were, as regarded the colony, years of prosperity. But, at this time, the great obstacle to American happiness was reared by English hands. Those men who had contrived and fashioned a rational plan for the preservation of liberty, and security, and happiness, forgot, in their eager pursuit of wealth, the dictates of justice, as well as of policy ; and slavery was allowed, in her most degrading and degraded form, to raise her horrid front amid a people of freemen. I need not dwell upon this painful spectacle. Such an evil cannot be brought again to life in an English community. Hereafter, we are to expiate the evil deeds of our ancestors, by labouring without respite in the great cause of human freedom, and by spreading a race of freemen, hating black as well as white slavery, over the many vast territories that belong to England. We are destined to be the chief and most eflfective opponents of a system which once we too successfully supported. The King, finding the Company unwilling to listen to his behests, and refusing, at his dictation, to elect their officers, determined to overturn the Company, and re- sume the powers granted by the charter. Commissioners were sent to America, to inquire into the condition of the colony. These Commissioners seized the records, imprisoned the deputy-treasurer, examined witnesses, and intercepted private letters. They easily found evidence against the Company ; some of which evidence, though thus collected, was honest. Smith, well known in Virginian history, was examined by them; "his 38 VIRGINIA. ii ;i I! ■ ! *l i:'l honest answers," says Mr. Bancroft, " plainly exposed the defective arrangements of previous years, and favoured the cancelling of the charter as an act of benevolence to the colony." Hereupon, the King determined to remodel the charter — in fact, to subvert the Company — and take back the powers which the first charter had reserved to the Sovereign, but which, under the advice of Cecil, had been granted to the corporation. A quo warranto was issued ; and the Company was called upon for its defence. Commissioners were now again sent to the colony ; there they found the colonists ready to throw oflf the Company, but utterly averse to submit themselves to the govern- ment of England, or the arbitrary will of the King. A remarkable distinction was now insisted on for the first time, which exercised a most potent influence through- out the remaining colonial existence of these commu- nities. The King was spoken of as the King of Virginia. The supreme power in the colony was said to reside in the. hands of the colonial parliament, and the King, as King of Virginia. This principle was never forgotten by the colonists, though it slumbered for many years after the revolution of 1688. The sturdy republicans of New England carried it still further : they, from the first, insisted upon their independence, and resisted, as long as they were able, the acts of the English Parliament; by which the celebrated system of our colonial monopoly was erected, and our Navigation Laws were enacted. The colonies yielded, indeed, to the superior force of England on that occasion ; but, in due time, they renewed the contest, and with a different result. They not only withstood the enforcement of our law, but recurring to i VIRGINIA. 39 to their ancient doctrine, and dearly prized independence, cast off for ever the dominion of England, and culled into existence the gigantic republic, which will ever remain the lasting memorial of our glory and our humiliation. In Jun^:, 1624, the Court of King's Bench, during Trinity Terra, gave judgment on the quo warranto against the Company. The House of Commons even did not attempt to protect this unpopular corporation. Its patents, therefore, were cancelled, and the Company was dissolved. Such was the first experiment of colonizing by a chartered company ; and this experiment suffices to condemn the system. A more favourable opportunity was never afforded for the successful employment of such a machinery. The company was composed of men of great power, wealth, and intelligence. The country to which colonists were sent was fertile, blessed with a healthy climate, and was found to possess a staple commodity, which proved the source of great and steady wealth; but a wealth that could only be attained by care and labour. There arose, therefore, none of the mischief that befalls a colony which gambles in mines. Steady habits of industry and thrift were acquired by the people ; who, as a community, were likely to flourish, if permitted fairly to exercise their ingenuity and industry in the production of the fortunate commodity, tobacco, by which they could obtain an ample reward for their labour and capital. But the company could derive no advantage from the mere comfort and happiness of the colonists; they, as land- lords, could hope for very small returns in a country in 40 VIRGINIA. ]- ■ ! 3 which new and fertile lands could be obtained without limit. In any other shape, there was no chance of a return, except by the sale of the lands ; and by this sale very little could be expected,* and that little could be acquired only with great trouble, and great discontent. The people might very naturally ask, why a company should derive a dividend from the sale of land which properly ought to form a portion of the community's wealth. Complaints, as we have seen, were rife; the colony were glad to see the company dissolved, hoping that the rule of a nation would be less onerous than that of a mercantile corporation ; — that a King and a Parliament would not look for a dividend; would see that a tribute was impossible ; and be content with the national benefit resulting from having an increasing and thriving body of customers for English productions, for which the colonists were able to pay in produce desired and prized by the people of England. But notwithstand- ing all the advantages under which the attempt was made, this chartered company failed in every way. It failed first as a mercantile speculation ; it failed next as an instrument for the planting of a colony ; and lastly, it failed egregiously as a means of governing the rickety thing they had called into life. After such an ex- perience, may we not wonder when we see attempts made to revive this exploded scheme, and descriptions * Mr. Bancroft, when speaking of the extinct company, says, " that the members were probably willing to escape from a concern which promised no emolument, and threatened an unprofitable strife."— Vol. i. p. 193. MARYLAND. 41 hazarded which assume the plan never to have been before essayed? But if this instance be not sufficient, we have yet more to learn from the attempts made by our forefathers in schemes and adventures for the planting of colonies. Under the fostering care of the imperious Strafford, taking its name from the proud and fierce Henrietta Maria, the ruler of her hen-pecked husband, Charles I. — by the active labours of a papist peer, the colony of Maryland was founded, and in itself and its institutions afforded an example of a happy, free, and tolerant com- munity. Sir George Calvert, member for Yorkshire, and s'^cretary of state, had been early charmed and excited (] m 48 MASSACHUSETTS. paring their evening meal, and some are arranging their lodgings for the night; — on a sudden, while they are thus engaged, separated and all (not in disorder) but without order, an alarm is given, the enemy is near. Watch these men, and count the minutes it takes them to be in line, each one occupying his proper posi- tion. All as if by magic is now order ; the officer com- mands, the force is in array, and the great military instrument, a body of men drilled to act in concert, and in obedience to a law, is there in a moment to be seen, a beautiful, compact, and regular mass, formed at once out of elements apparently confused and heterogeneous. Such is an accurate illustration of a new settlement by new England men, and of old Englandmen also, for they have the same habit of obedience in the right place, and capacity for command, when to command is necessary. This inestimable quality is possessed by no people in the same degree ; a Frenchman, for example, has it not. With him, all government is force. When in command, he transgresses the limits which every majority ought to set to its own power ; and when he is to obey, and thinks himself oppressed, he fights. The consequence is, and the evil thereof is a misfortune for mankind, the French nation has not yet acquired the faculty of self-command. That faculty can only be acquired by experience, and that experience is a slow and dangerous process when the learners are a powerful, energetic, and in other things, an intelligent nation. The Charter of Massachusetts was granted by Charles I. in 1629, and constituted, as a body politic, the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay. .: MASSACUUSETTS. 49 The administration of its affairs was intrusted to the governor, deputy-governor, and eighteen assistants, who were to be ebcted annually by the stockholders of the corporation. Of the stockholders, there were four quar- terly meetings in the year, in which laws were passed, and supervision exercised; but the affairs were under the immediate direction of the governor and assistants. The laws of the Company needed not the king's approval, because they were looked upon as the bye-laws of an ordinary corporation ; and as this corporation was created for the purpose of planting a colony, the laws which it made respecting that colony, and the regulation of its affairs, were bye-laws of the Company made in pursuance of the end for which the corporation was chartered, and such bye-laws were therefore within the purview of the corporate powers. By a general clause of the charter, (which, however, was not necessary, because the effect of the clause is a rule of common law,) the Company was forbid to " make laws repugnant to the laws and statutes of the realm," — a sort of vague rule which answers little purpose, creating doubt, in- deed, but in no way guiding the Company, or the Courts of Law, who might have to decide whether the Company had transgressed the law. The observations of Mr. Bancroft on this charter are pertinent to my present purpose. He says — " The political condition of the colonists was not deemed by Charles a subject worthy of his consideration. Full legislative and executive authority was conferred not on the emigrants, but on the company, so long as the charter of the corporation remained in England. The associates m n ;4| 60 MASSACHUSETTS. in London were to establish ordinances, to settle forms of government, to name all necessary officers, to prescribe their duties, and to establish a criminal code. Massachusetts was not erected into a province] to bo governed by laws of its own enactment : it was reserved for the corporation to decide what degree of civil rights its colonists should enjoy. The charter on which the freemen of Massachusetts succeeded in erecting a system of independent representative liberty, did not secure to them a single privilege of self-government, but left them as the Virginians had been left, without one valuable franchise, at the mercy of a corporation within the realm. This was so evident, that some of those who had already emigrated, clamoured that they were become slaves." * The charter contained no provision for the residence of the rulers of the company. It was supposed that they would remain in England, and hold their courts there ; but there was no direct provision by which they were compelled to do so. " What if the governor, deputy, assistants, and freemen should themselves emigrate, and thus beat down the distinction between the colony and the corporation ? The history of Massachusetts is the counterpart to that of Virginia ; the latter obtained its greatest liberty by the abrogation of the charter of its company ; the former by a transfer of its charter, and a daring construction of its powers by the successors of the original patentees." f * Bancroft, vol. i. p. 344. t Idem, 345. i MASSACHUSETTS. 51 There is a touching scene described of the band of emigrants leaving England, under the powers of this charter, and taking their way to the desert lands of a far-distant continent, in the hope of there finding peace, and the power of worshipping God according to the mode they believed correct. The love of their native land was still fervent in their breasts. Homo — that home in which these people had felt shar^ persecution— was still the beloved home of their childhood and youth, and, to many, of their manhood; for aged n-on '.vere quitting their native land. Stern men — men of g: j,ve thr: ght — and even ascetic, rigid, harsh feelings, melted ". u shed tears when this land of their forefath^^rs sank dowr* below the horizon; and then, in the age ny <^ their griet, there was no indignant word of parting, but the mournful and touching exclamation, " Farewell, dear England — farewell !" It required a long course of folly, wickedness, and much unreasoning tyranny, to eradicate this strong affection, and in the place of an emotion so tender, to plant a fierce and bitter hate. But our rulers have succeeded once in accomplishing this feat — they seem resolved to lose no opportuniiv aTorded for repeating it. This emigration must have been a matter of re- markable and general interest. Of this we have a curious proof. The en: grants amounted altogether to about three hundred souls ; and having left England in search of religious freedom, and because they had been persecuted, they no sooner lost sight of the shore than they began to quarrel, and to persecute one another. A division took place, and some returned home. These persons published an account of their proceedings, which £2 il^ii m m I t.T 'I I '' 52 MASSACUUS£TTS. ii'i had been written by Higginson, the leader of the emigrating band. This little work ran through three editions in a few months.* A scheme was now devised in England to transfer the seat of the company from England to America, and an agreement was entered into at Cambridge by certain men of fortune and education, to emigrate, if the transfer of the government could be legally made. The company debated this point with great earnestness, and at length determined that the government and the patent should be transferred beyond the Atlantic, and settled in New England.f By this means the company became a colony, with power to govern itself; the inhabitants of the colony were members of the company, and in that capacity voted and acted ; — a lucky idea, and leading to much good, but clearly an evasion of the law. Of the persons who had thus resolved, when the time came for acting upon it, many grew frightened. A man now cele- brated in the history of Massachusetts had been chosen governor in October. This was John Winthrop; and by his courage and determination, the greater part of i * When afterwards Boston was founded, Massachusetts Bay was thronged with vessels containing emigrants, because these first were but pioneers, many people intending to follow. " The emi- grants had from the first been watched with intense interest;" a letter from New England was venerated " as a sacred script, or as the writing of some holy prophet, and was carried many miles, where divers came to hear it." — Bancroft, vol. i. p. 382. t Mr. Bancroft quotes a resolution " to take advice of learned counsel, whether the same may be legally done or no," on Sept. 29, 1629. I know not whether such advice ever was taken, but sure I am that the proposal was illegal, though for the colony beneficial. MASSACHUSETTS. 53 the emigrants were kept together, and induced to abide by their first intention. When they were come to Southampton, in order to embark, more again became alarmed, and turned back; of these, some were officers who had been chosen by the company. Their places had to be filled up ; and a court of the company was held on board the ship which took them out. Seventeen ships were employed during the season, and took out, as was computed, fifteen hundred souls. The first band who carried out the charter, and who were headed by their governor, Winthrop, amounted to eight hundred. These were Puritans in religion and Independents in politics — many of them " men of high endowments, large fortune, and the best education : scholars well versed in all the learning of the times, clergymen who ranked amongst the most eloquent and pious of the realm." These men thought it right to publish the reasons for their emigration, and to " bid an afiectionate farewell to the church of England, and the land of their nativity." They arrived in America in June and July, and on their arrival, found the emigrants who had preceded them starving, and sufiering from disease. The miseries to which all these new comers, as well as they who had been some time on the land, appear to have been subjected, was most trying, and to us, at this day, can hardly be accounted for, excepting by the fact that they were persons wholly unfit for the task of commencing a settlement. Many of them had always been accustomed to the comforts of a civilized life, and were not able to work with their hands, or to brave the vicissitudes of heat and cold to which the climate of Massachusetts is subject. I' Ti i 54 MASSACHUSETTS. Two hundred died before December; and from the descriptions given of death-beds and pious ejaculations, and exhibitions of faith, &c., from which fanatics of this class are accustomed to derive much of the only excite- ment in which they are permitted to indulge, and in which, consequently, they passionately delight, it is more than probable that much of the sickness and mortality ■which occurred was owing to the melancholy and despondency which had been occasioned by leaving England. The notion of duty which had induced them to desert their homes, could not protect them from the sadness and dejection which was the natural result of obeying a sudden impulse of this description. This body of settlers founded the city of Boston, and set themselves to the task of legislating for the rising colony. The story of the persecuting laws which they enacted, and the persecutions of which they were guilty, has been often told, and need not be here repeated. The results of their various struggles, as exhibited in the political institutions which they at last obtained, is all that I desire to describe ; and this may be briefly done. The colonists very soon found that their plan for trans- planting their charter did not relieve them from diffi- culties connected with their government. They who formed the coiipany, when they came to the settlement, were not willing to divest themselves of exclusive power, and share it with the whole body of settlers. These by law had no title to any such privilege, and the actual proprietors did not change either their nature or their rights by emigrating to America. The people were dis- appointed, and resisted the dominion of the stock-holders: MASSACHUSETTS. 55 And as th'3 latter were comparatively few, and present on the spot, they were the more open to the effects of persuasion as well as force. In 1635, the people demanded a written constitution, and a commission was appointed " to frame a body of grounds of laws in resemblance to a Magna Charta." The ministers of religion insisted that God's people (which they declared themselves especially to be) should be governed by the laws which God gave to Moses. This suggestion was not adopted, but a dispute commenced which continued for ten years; and one thing deserves peculiar remark. These saints who left England because of persecution, and who describe one another in fulsome terms of mawkish praise, were no less averse to parting with exclusive power than a company who sought only the mammon of unrighteousness could have proved. They did not at once, on landing, enact a liberal constitution such as the papist and peer. Lord Baltimore, had voluntarily drawn up and granted ; but they carped, cavilled, quibbled, and held by what power they had, and grasped at more. Some of the modes of attain- ing their illiberal ends are more ludicrous than edifying. A dispute had continued for years between the assistants and the deputies. Both classes were elected by the people. But the assistants were the " patricians," being, in fact, the remains of the old company, and members of the richer portion of the emigrants. The two bodies acted together in convention ; but it appeared that the assistants claimed to have, as a body, a negative on all the proceedings. This would appear to mean that they sat with the deputies, spoke and acted with them, and then, when the majority had decided, they, the assistants, m ist hm 56 RHODE ISLAND. i ;i I 1 1 asserted that they had the right, sitting by themselves, to re-consider and decide upon the resolution to which the majority of the convention had arrived. A shorter, simpler, and, indeed, more honest proposal, would have been to sit in a separate chamber, and form a distinct and separate body. The representatives resisted their pre- tensions, " yet," says Mr. Bancroft, with a sort of grave slyness, that rather smacks of the puritan school, " yet the authority of the patricians was long maintained, sometimes by wise delay, sometimes by a * judicious sermon ;' * till at last a compromise divided the court into two branches, and gave to each a negative on the other." A serious quarrel afterwards separated the emigrants, and Poger Williams, in consequence, led away a certain number to Bhode Island, and laid the foundations of a new town and a new colony. He had declared openly his opinion on the subject of religious freedom, and stated that, in his belief, the excluding doctrines and conduct of the saints of Massachusetts were erroneous and wrong ; so they persecuted, imprisoned, and in the end, banished him. Though the sentence of exile was passed, he had asked and obtained permission to remain at Salem, where he had hitherto been the minister, until the spring should come, it being winter when the sen- tence was pronounced against him. But his former flocks were strongly attached to their pastor, and * The inverted nmas over the yrords judicioits sermons are not mine. They are in Mr. Bancroft's text, and the words, I suspect, are taken from some grave reverend historian, whose name Mr. Ban- croft has not in this particular instance given. :i 'I I RHODE ISLAND. 57 thronged his house to hear the last exhortations he was permitted to afford, or they to hear from him in that place. This enthusiasm created fear in the magistrates of Massachusetts, who were aware of the iiitention of Williams to proceed in the spring to Rhode Island, in order there to lay the foundation of a new settlement. This now appeared a dangerous project — dangerous to Massachusetts; as so beloved a pastor might prove in many ways a formidable rival. They therefore deter- mined to seize and transport Williams to England : fear or hesitation was not a weakness which these men ever evinced ; they determined boldly, and as boldly acted. Upon hearing this, Williams, who well knew the men he had to deal with, left Salem secretly, and took refuge with an Indian named Massasoit. The Sachem of the same tribe, the Narragansetts, named Canonicus, after- wards, with his son, Miantonomoh, gave him a large tract of land in Rhode Island. Here, in the next June, Williams, with five persons, landed ; and beside a spring, near the spot, laid the foundations of Providence, " as a shelter for persons distressed for conscience." The liberty Williams preached, he granted to others. Even- tually, Rhode Island received a charter from Charles II., which was supposed to have been drawn by Clarendon. Thai charter remained, long after Rhode Island became independent, the constitution of the state.* * By a singular fatality, they who in Europe acted as despots, and the friends of despots, were among the chief friends of freedom in America during her early days. They who had in Europe struggled for freedom, and insisted upon their right to be free mentally and physically, were the chief persecutors who figure in early American annals. 58 NEW ENGLAND. <^>, 1 til; lii ^, '1 f s The increasing wealth and success of Massachusetts attracted the attention of many in England of birth, station, and large fortune. The severe proceedings of Charles induced them to look abroad for a home. Vane actually proceeded to Massachusetts, and lived there many years, and was chosen governor of the state. But not only was the attention of the noble and rich, as well as poor, directed to Massachusetts — the King's, also, was drawn towards the colony, as to a nest of Puritans ; and he proceeded to root out, and, if possible, to destroy it. A quo warranto was issued against Massachusetts in Trinity term of 165§^ This charter, however, unlike that of Virginia, found defenders — and stout defenders, too — in the people of the colony ; simply because there was really no English company now concerned in it ; but the people and company were one. This result was fortunate for all parties, and was happily arrived at, after continued discussions and quarrels, before the royal mind became interested concerning them or their insti- tutions. Charles was, however, unable to pursue his design against the offending colony, having his own crown and life to defend against these puritans whom he so bitterly hated, and had so deeply injured. In the long interval which elapsed from this period to the recall of Charles II., in 1660, a happy neglect at- tended New England. In those years (really a quarter of a century) they governed themselves — asking England for nothing — receiving from her nothing, for which she did not receive ample return. Massachusetts was a favourite with Cromwell, and, while he "ruled, met with the utmost indulgence. From 1640 , ■ 'ii NEW ENGLAND. 59 to 1660, it approached very near to an independent Commonwealth. The House of Commons, in a me- morable resolution, on the 10th of March, 1642, passed in favour of it, gives New England the title oi Kingdom. The Commissioners for New England, sent over by Charles II., assert in their narrative, that the colony solicited Cromwell to be declared a free state — which is not unlikely."* The rapid increase of the inhabitants excited alarm in the minds of the native tribes who surrounded the plantations; and fierce conflicts had to be waged with the Indian, who attempted to expel these ever-encroach- ing invaders of his wilderness. The danger, which was great for many years — the alarm, which was constant, made the whole body of the people a hardy, brave, and energetic race. The soil — as I have already remarked — was so sterile, as to return but a niggard harvest to the husbandman; who was forced, therefore, to severe and unceasing toil, in order to win from it even a scant subsistence. But the sea was more beneficent: the fisherman found in the bays and rivers of the country a means of obtaining subsistence and wealth. This led the people to become fishermen and sailors; and the ships of New England were soon seen in every sea ; and her hardy seamen, as whalers, in the language of Burke, soon pursued their gigantic game from the Equator to the Poles. Up to the time of our Revolution, in 1688, the reigning feeling in NewEngland was that they were, in fact, an independent people. To the King of England ^1 m\ '■I * Gordon, History of America, vol. i. p. 32. 60 NEW ENGLAND. i ii > they faintly acknowledged themselves to owe some sort of allegiance — what sort, and to what extent, was difficult to be ascertained. Under this notion of independence they acted, pursuing their own interests as to them seemed fit, and establishing with every customer and country that offiired, such traffic as their capabilities permitted. They consequently rapidly improved in substance. Increasing wealth brought with it softened feelings and gentler habits. The good and sterling portion of the Puritan remained, and produced its admirable fruits in the energy and virtue of the people ; while all the sterner and cruel characteristics of their class were, by constant collision with their neighbours and the world, so checked and subdued as to seem almost effiiced, leaving traces only of a certain gravity of deportment, and harmless asceticism in their religious observances, which, to this hour, belong to, and dis- tinguish, this singular people. They form, by far, the most remarkable portion of the American people, and have given to the character of the whole nation those traits, whether attractive or the reverse, which dis- tinguish them as a people from the re t of mankind. If by some unfortunate combination of circumstances the colonists of New England could have been with- drawn from America, and directed elsewhere ; and if, in consequence, New England had never arisen, and taken her place in the great federation of America, we should not, at this moment, behold the wonderful spectacle which that vast continent now exhibits. People, and provinces, and wealth, there would undoubtedly have been, but not the people we now see — not that busy. CAROLINA. 61 hardy, adventurous, shrewd, and enlightened race, whose swarms are spreading from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific — who will push up to the Pole, and down to the Equator. Without New England, and New Englanders, the Americans might, and probably would, have proved a more winning and attractive people than they now are, but they would not have proved themselves that great people we now behold. Rapacity was not, however, easily satisfied. The courtiers of Charles II. believed, as their fathers had done, that great store of wealth might be obtained in the regions of America ; and the most powerful nobles of the court of Charles united to plant a colony, to which they gave the name of their royal master. Such were the auspices under which Carolina became a colony. Lord Clarendon, Monk, from a republican general become Duke of Albemarle, Lord Craven, Ashley Cooper Lord Shaftesbury, (he and Monk must have looked significantly at each other sitting at the same council table,) Sir John Colleton, Lord John Berkeley, Sir William Berkeley, and Sir George Carteret, were, by royal charter, constituted the proprietors, and immediate sovereigns of the province, extending from the thirty-sixth degree of north latitude to the river San Matheo. Their rule was nearly absolute under the charter which they had obtained from the dissolute and reckless Charles, under the pretence " of a pious zeal for the propagation of the Gospel." In 1665, another charter was obtained from the crown by Clarendon, which charter gave him and his associates all the ter- ritories from the Atlantic to the Pacific, lying between fV 1 f ; I es CABOLINA. 'I ! twenty-nine degrees and thirty-six degrees thirty minutes of north latitude. This extravagant gift in- cluded what are now the States " of North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, much of Florida and Missouri, nearly all Texas, and a large portion of Mexico."* For this territory Locke was asked by Shaftesbury to frame a constitution. The proprietors had received with the land ample powers from the Crown. " An express clause in the charter for Carolina opened the way for religious freedom ; another held out to the proprietaries a hope of revenue from colonial customs, to be imposed in colonial ports by Carolina legislatures; another gave them the power of erecting cities and manors, counties and baronies, and of establishing orders of nobility with other than English titles. It was evident that the founding an empire was contemplated ; for the power to levy troops, to erect fortifications, to make war by sea and land on their enemies, and to exercise martial law in cases of necessity, was not with- held.f Every favour was extended to the proprietaries ; nothing was neglected but the interests of the English Sovereign, and the rights of the colonists."}: But these great powers availed nothing. Colonists had already come from Virginia and Massachuserts, men determined to govern themselves after their own fashion. They * Bancroft, vol. ii. p. 138. , t The Crown had clearly no power, legally, to make such a grant. Clarendon deserved to be impeached for having put the great seal to so flagrant a violation of the law. I Bancroft, vol. ii. p. 138. PENNSYLVANIA. 63 rejected the complicated scheme of Locke — they resisted the proprietary. They quarrelled with every governor that was sent ; and, in 1G88, their parliament formally deposed Colleton, the brother of the proprietary Sir John Colleton, and who had been created Landgrave, a title in Locke's scheme, and sent out as governor over these refractory colonists. Having deposed, they banished him the province. From this period to the revolution, strife continued between the people and the proprietary. The latter were a clog, and did nothing but mischief. The colonists did everything for themselves, and would have been able to do more, had they not been crossed, vexed, harassed, and plundered by the proprietary. With the revolution the proprietary necessarily ended in name, as they had long ceased to rule in reality. They had failed in every endeavour from the commencement. The history of Penn's doings is not so disastrous ; simply, because he was compelled to follow the rule which he at the outset laid down for his own conduct : "Whatever sober and free men can reasonably desire for the security and improvement of their own, I shall heartily comply with." He found within the territories granted to him by Charles, many settlements already made ; and he had the good sense to see that if he expected any kind or degree of profit, he must allow the people to govern themselves, and watch over and advance their own in- terests. He made and published a frame of government, but he left to the people the power to decide whether they would adopt it. " I purpose," he said, " for the matter of liberty — that which is extraordinary — to leave myself and successors no power of doing mischief; that t -'I m ill -HI li 64 P£NNSYLVANIA. f i the will of one man may not hinder the good of the whole country." This was in reality the great benefit he rendered this new people — he stood between them and meddling — they throve because left alone, and he re- ceiyed advantage because he left them alone. Yet his rule was not borne without complaint, and his rights, like those of all the proprietary governments, came to an end. Having founded his colony and city, he sailed for England — and what says his admiring historian, " His departure was happy for the colony and for his own tranquillity. He had established a democracy, and was himself a feudal sovereign. The two elements in the government were incompatible; and, for ninety years, the civil history of Pennsylvania is but the account of the jarring of these opposing interests, to which there could be no happy issue but in popular independence."* The colour given by Mr. Bancroft to all these pro- ceedings of Penn is far more favourable to the Quaker legislator than that given by other historians. I own for myself I have no faith in any great pretensions made to sanctity and peculiar virtue. That Penn was a time- server and a hypocrite, I have no doubt, and that he was avaricious, is plain, from all his doings in America. He pestered the Duke of York into giving him large grants of territory in that country. It was for the interest of James to make and keep friends with this dissenter, and Penn wanted not the sagacity to understand the full value of his position. He aflforded James the advantage * Bancroft, vol. iii. p. 395. PENNSYLVANIA. 05 of his countenance, which to a Papist was in those days valuable : but he required full payment for this service so rendered. " Mr. Penn," says Gordon, " desirous of carrying his region southward to the Chesapeake, was continually soliciting the Duke of York for a grant of the Delaware colony. The prince, at length wearied out, conveye Igein heads PENNSYLVANIA. 67 represented as an oppressor, and as falsifying his word, in almost every respect, with the provincials."* In this dispute there seemed to be w.ong on both sides, but the practical result for my purpose is the same. While Penn was doing the least mischief, and most good, that a proprietary ruler could effect, James, Duke of York, his friend and patron, carried confusion, and distress, and trouble into every colony he could possibly meddle with. With hiji and his grasping avarice, and cruel bigotry, my purpose does not lead me to deal. The vices and errors which he evinced we need not fear : from the experience of liis failures, therefore, we cannot derive any instruction. Direct, open, barefaced tyranny, like his, will not be in our times attempted. The danger which besets us takes the shape of mischievous meddling — a pretended beneficence, but real mischief — a pursuit of gain under the guise of philanthropy and patriotism. Colonizing and other societies, pretending pious and charitable aims, and extraordinary sympathy with suffering humanity — this is the shape the evil genius of colonization assumes in our days, and is unfortunately but too successful in duping the ignorant and unwary. The scheme is usually carefully devised, and artfully conducted. The projector of some such scheme, while enunciating to all the separate instruments he intends eventually to employ, the peculiar benefit each is to derive from his proposal, invariably begins with the capitalist who must set them all in motion, and whispers in his ear, that this admirable project is sure to be a * Gordon, History of American Revolution, vol. i. p. 91. f2 ii 68 PENNSYLVANIA. 1 i • I safe and profitable mode of investment for his unem- ployed thousands. The wily projector then proceeds to whiten his nose by pouring into the enchanted ear of some amiably ambitious prelate winning descriptions of rising churches, and multiplied parishes, and troops of ordained clergymen, and young hierophants seeking ordination. From the lordly diocesan he next turns to Sir Thomas Leatherbreeches, the squire, and explains how, by selected couples taken from his troublesome parish, he can keep down the powers of increase, and check alike population and the rates. To the gentlemen of small fortune and a large family he is touchingly eloquent on the subject of the uneasy classet;. In the fairy lands which lie so far away, young would-be hus- bands line the shores, and breathe soft sighs to the advancing bark which brings them wives, and perhaps a cargo of assorted goods. The girls whom he sees fading and cheerless, and wan and miserable, he fills with ecstasy, by vivid pictures of this new paradise for marriageable maidens; while the youths of the house are lured by histories of solid fortunes made with " ease and alternate labour," by gay scenes of exciting sport, diversified and relieved by just so much of highly profitable business as is needed to make a man happy and rich. To the unemployed engineer he talks of sur- veys without end, and canals, and bridges, and railroads, and mines. The over-stocked profession of the law, in both its branches, is not safe from the witchery of his delusions: judges are needed in new colonies, and every young barrister soon rises to wealth and power. And disease will come into fairy-land, but only just enough PENNSYLVANIA. 69 iw, m If his jevery And lOUgh to make it the happy home of the young doctor and his too teeming wife. The clever artisan is quickly made to understand that these are the very circumstances which confer importance and dignity on the man of real knowledge. In these happy lands men take their rank by their usefulness and true science ; and who possesses that in a degree to compete with the skilful artisan? At last, the poor ignorant, hard-handed, ill-fed working man is touched by tales of unceasing beer, and illimitable cheese, and beef and mutton at discretion, and live shillings a day, and a master hat in hand. This series of enticements skilfully, and by the great con- juror, is prepared to lay the ground for a scheme of shares, in which premiums, and discounts, and fluc- tuations, and fabulous wealth, and crowds rushing to be shareholders, are all made to perform their part, and the public are pleased, the projector succeeds — and all the misery that follows — who knows it — who cares about it ? The game has been played, and the miserable dupes are disregarded and forgotten. This game, fraught with severe disappointment to thousands, and the cause of great sufiering and loss, as well as disappointment, was several times enacted during the colonization of America. Exactly the same lures were held out as we have witnessed of late years, and the very plans which were then tried and failed, are again attempted. We have seen nothing like the great Carolina scheme of Empire, with its caciques and land- graves, and other orders of nobility ; but we have before our eyes every day deceptive promises of great wealth easily attained, pious professions, such as were pretended 70 PENNSYLVANIA. i ll by the vicious courtiers of Charles II., and vain devices for the relief of great distress. But we may be assured, that under the most favourable circumstances, they who plant a colony have much severe labour to undergo, great privations and suffering to encounter. By labour and patience, courage, prudence, and skill, a comfortable home, and cheerful prospects, may be attained. In this there is no romance ; but here we see the hard realities, from which we cannot escape, by going to a new colony, no matter how beautiful the climate, how fertile the soil, how wise the government of that colony may be. That a great difference results from the mode in which the colony is managed is certain ; but the really important result which ever recurs upon inquiry into the history of every colony is, that from the management of the concerns of the colony, the colony cannot be relieved ; and that all who, under any pretence, pr j^^ose to do this for a colony, mislead the j^ pie who go out as colonists, as well as those who expend their money to send them there. A joint-stock company which makes the attempt will fail, and will do mischief; and so will all separate projectors who seek to form a proprietary government. The whole history of American colonization proves this assertion, if we begin with Raleigh, and end with Ogle- thorpe. The last of these was almost a man of our days ; our grandfathers certainly might have seen him. He was sincerely benevolent, and active, as well as well- intentioned. He wished to make his good wishes effec- tive, and, like all who had preceded him in the planting of colonies, he failed, because he undertook to do for the colonists what they could do best for themselves. GE0B6IA. 71 '1 M Greorge II. granted a charter to certain persons, who were constituted a corporation, and to them Georgia WPM given for twenty-one years " in trust for the poor." The date of this charter was June 9th, 1732. By it, the country lying between the Savan .h and the Alatamaha, and from the head springs of those rivers due west to the Pacific, was erected into the Colony oi' Georgia. This last of our royal charters granted within the territories of the United States, was nearly as wild in certain of its provisions, as the first which our English King (Henry VII.) conferred respecting those regions. Without the slightest reference to the claims of other nations, two lines were drawn across the whole continent of America, from points utterly uncertain, and probably impossible of discovery or determination. This is the mode from which we were destined never to depart. Our blunders stuck by us to the last day of our dominion. The whole powers of government were for twenty- one years given to the trustees under the charter, and to their assigns, and to such persons as they might appoint.* They began by excluding papists. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was exceedingly anxious to aid the colony, and caused this intolerant rule to be adopted ; and parlia- ment conferred on it at one time the sum of ten thousand pounds, Oglethorpe gave himself to the colony, and laboured in his benevolent scheme — which was, to take out poor people, and establish them in a new and happy home — with an activity and perseverance deserving of :i • A i tti i 'i W^H * Bunci'uft, vol. iii. p. 419. Ill 72 GEORGIA. our highest admiration. The Society for the Propaga- tion of the Gospel invited over certain poor Moravians, Protestants who had been persecuted in Germany, and sent them to Georgia, where papists in turn were per- secuted. The personal exertions of Oglethorpe were of infinite service, for he was really interested in his work, and devoted himself entirely to it ; but the trustees and their legislative authority were only mischievous in as far as the prosperity of the colony was concerned ; and no trace remains of them in the legislation of Georgia. Oglethorpe had no thought of gain ; he reserved nothing for himself; he never looked to making a property, as Penn and Lord Baltimore had done. He held the colony in trust, and when he gave up that trust, he gave up everything with it, not having one acre of land, and having spent his own substance in assisting the colonists. The trustees attempted three things, and in all they failed : two of these were mischievous ; one a great good. In the evil and the good they failed alike. They desired to introduce a feudal tenure for the holding of land: the people resisted this proposal, and were successful in their opposition. The trustees desired to exclude ardent spirits from Georgia, and were so unwise as to prohibit their existence in the province : smuggling throve, and ardent spirits were drank in Georgia, in spite of all the legislative provisions of the trustees. And lastly, they desired to prevent the introduction of slavery ; the good Moravians resisted temptation for a long time, and obeyed the wishes of their masters by resisting slavery. But the torrent was too powerful to be resisted. Slavery was introduced, and now Georgia stands, in the anion. ' GEORGIA. 73 pre-eminently a slave state. Thus we see that, for good or for evil, they were alike impotent. But they were not impotent for evil in another sense. They retarded the political education of the colonists ; and they created dissensions, by attempting to exercise arbitrary power. This government of Georgia was among certainly the least mischievous forms of a proprietary, because its power was limited to so short a period ; and, fortunately, a more virtuous creature never existed than Oglethorpe. He would, however, have led a happier life, and would have proved a more successful colonizer, had he made his colonists take care of themselves, in place of forcing them to receive him as their lawgiver. From Gordon we learn that the Bank of England aided this colony, and that parliament gave money to it three several times ; so that, besides private benevolence, the nation paid through parliament, for this colony, £56,000 ; which large sum was exclusive of what it received from the Bank of England, and other private sources of benevolence. The remarks of Gordon, when summing up his account of the formation of the several colonies, deserve consideration : — " On the review of what you have read, you will note that the colonists were very t^rly in declaring that they ought not to be taxed, but by their own general courts ; and that they considered subjection to the acts of a par- liament in which they had no representatives from them- selves as a hardship; that, like true-born Englishmen, when grievously oppressed by governors or others, they resisted, deposed, and banished ; and would not be quieted, till grievances complained of Avere redressed; ' }i-i 74 GEORGIA. II and that not a colony^ Georgia excepted, was settled at the expense of government. Towards the settlement of the last, parliament granted £56,000 at three different periods."* From this history, it is plain that the government could take no credit for any aid rendered, except in the case of Georgia : it meddled, however, at different times, with all of these colonies, and always mischievously. The inherent vigour of the people, however, and the spirit of independence, then strong among them, enabled them to overcome the difl&culties of nature, and to withstand the evil influence of the government. The time at length arrived when there was no alternative between submit- ting to the constant supervision and unjust exactions of the English government, and resisting and throwing off its authority. I'he colonies took the great but dan- gerous resolution, and rebelled. Fortunately for them- selves — fortunately for mankind — the government blun- dered as grossly when dealing with rebels, as when they sought to govern obedient subjects. The colonists achieved their independence, and in their turn afforded an example of a colonizing and mother country. To that example let us next apply ourselves. * Gordon, History of American Revolution, vol. i. p. 95. n 75 CHAPTER III. AMERICAN COLONIES — GENERAL DESCRIPTION — COMPARISON — BOUNDARIES OF THE UNITED STATES IN 1783 — BOUNDARIES IN 1849 — AMERICAN SYSTEM — SOME RE- SULTS — POWER OF CONGRESS AS TO WASTE LANDS — TERRITORIES — STATES — AN ORDINANCE QUOTED — GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. TTAVING thus rapidly described the one scheme of -'-'- colonization to which at the outset I alluded, I now proceed to the exposition of the second scheme, from which I wish to derive instruction. This second scheme of colonization is that which the United States have adopted and acted upon, since they became an independent and sovereign people. The colonies which they have planted are the new states, which, since 1783, have been added to the union, and the territories which are now in progress towards that position. These new states, though while in the condition of colonies (which they are while they continue Terri- tories) they look to the United States as their metro- polis, yet receive, as did the colonies, while subject to our sway, emigrants from other nations. Tne leading mind has, almost in every instance, been furnished by the New England States, the greater part, perhaps, of the population, by the British Isles. 1,1 ^i 76 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF The constitution of the United States contemplates distinctly, and provides for the colonization of the im- mense unpeopled wistes which belong to the nation called the United St..tes; and contemplates not only the colonization of these wild regions, but also the change of the communities so formed, from the condition of colonies into that of sovereign states, and the reception of them into the great Federal Union, when they become integral portions of the great Empire, known to foreign powers as the United States of America. So soon as the United States became in fact in- dependent, and were so acknowledged by England in the year 1783, two great questions arose, which are inti- mately connected with our present subject. The one was, what were the boundaries of the several states ? and the second, those having been determined, what was to be done with the immense territory which lay beyond the boundaries of the several states — territories which belonged to no one of them, but was the property of* the political entity styled the United States.* 1^ i; i! GENERAL DESCRIPTION AND COMPARISON. The result of the determinations of the statesmen of tlie United States, and the comparison of that result with that brought about by the doings of English states- • I am not required on the present occasion to enter into any description of the disputes which arose among the separate States on the subject of these wild lands, nor of the intricate questions to which the complication of state interests gave rise. Those disputes are hardly yet arranged, and constitute a part, and no inconsider- able or insignificant part, of the difficulties which lay in the way of congress, when forming their colonial systems — a difficulty which England has escaped hitherto. AMERICAN COLONIES. 77 men on the same continent, with respect precisely to the same matters, and within precisely the same period, constitute one of the most instructive, though to us the most humiliating parallels which our annals afford. If such another could be discovered, we might indeed tremble for the future destiny of England.* A line drawn across the continent, from the Atlantic on the one side to the Pacific on the other — a line which for a large portion of ^he whole distance, takes the course of the great waters which form the chain of the great lakes, divides the whole of what may be termed North America into two parts ; one of which — viz., the pertion of the continent lying south of this line, belongs to the United States ; while the other — viz., that lying to the north, is the property of England. The first or southern portion is certainly, in almost every particular, superior to the northern portion of this vast continent. The great advantages derived from this superiority of climate, soil, and means of communi- cation, have undoubtedly much aided the American statesmen, and in no small degree contributed to the success which they have obtained in this mighty strife. Making, however, every allowance for the advantage conferred by the natural superiority of the territory itself, still there is much to be accounted for, which can only have resulted from the difference of the system adopted on the two sides of this long boundary line. * I am not now speaking of what England achieved before 1783, butsince. — Leaving the consideration of our old colonies, as colonies, I now proceed to speak of British North America, as at present existing, and of our doings there since 1783, by way of contrast to the American colonies formed since the same year. ^t|i IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 1.1 ^ Ufi 12.0 IL25 III 1.4 U& 1.6 HiotDgraphic Sciences Corporation 23 WIST MAIN STRIIT WIBSTH,N.Y. MSIO (716)«72-4S03 4P> 78 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF The northern shores of the great internal waters which find their outlet to the sea by means of the magnificent St. Lawrence, are for the most part equal to the southern shores of the same waters. The natural capabilities — the mineral wealth, for example — of the English terri- tory have been as yet but imperfectly inquired into. Our rulers have been at no pains to learn what could be accomplished in those vast regions, yet wild and without inhabitants; so that no plan for the future settlement could be formed, and has indeed never been thought of, except, I believe, in one instance, which will hereafter be related. Still, we know thus much. The land is fertile, — is capable of maintaining an enormous popula- tion, — and fit to be the comfortable and happy home of many millions. It is nevertheless still, for the greater part, a howling wilderness. Since the year 1783, no new state or province has been formed. Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward's Island, lie north of the boundary. They existed in 1783. Since that year, the population has slowly increased; so slowly, indeed, that at this moment we have not two millions of people in the whole of the provinces which constitute what is called British North America.* * I have lying before me an account of the population of all British North America in 1833. It is as follows: Lower Canada 626,429 Upper Canada 322,005 "Nova Scotia 154,400 New Brunswick 101,830 Cape Briton 31,800 Prince Edward's Island 32.676 Newfoundland 77,551 Total .... 1,346,691 AMERICAN COLONIES. 79 ' Hudson's Bay is still a mere hunting ground ; and no scheme of colonization in North America has ever yet been entertained by English statesmen, beyond the sending out a few thousand settlers, and placing them within a few miles of existing settlements. Canada has been divided and reunited, and for aught any one knows, may be again divided. For in our colonial legislation, "chance governs all." But no system exists which contemplates extension ; no new communities or provinces have been created. The population, though thousands have gone out every year, has not increased at a rate much beyond what the natural rate of increase would have reached : and this strange, torpid, wretched condition of things exists actually in sight of another, which I will thus in a few words describe. When the United States became independent, in 1783, the territories of Great Britain bounded them on the north ; the Mississippi was their western boundary ; and on the south, Florida hemmed them completely in. The Atlantic ran along their whole eastern frontier. Within this square, the whole of the United States' ter- ritories were then confined.* Their present boundaries are very different. Their northern, which is our southern boundary, runs now from the Atlantic, commencing at the south-eastern point of Nova Scotia, to the Pacific Ocean, where Cape Flattery forms the north-western point. The western boundary commences where the * See the treaty of 1783, of peace with America, and that of 1763, of peace with France, for these boundaries. The free navi- gation of the Mississippi was, by the treaty of 1783, assured both to England and the United States for ever. BOUNDARIES OF ■>:9 t I northern ends on the Pacific, at cape Flattery, and runs down along the whole coast, till it reaches the extreme southern point of New California. Starting from this point, the southern boundary runs towards the east across the continent, dividing the United States from Mexico, until the line reaches the Gulf of Mexico; it then runs along the whole coast of that gulf eastward, till it reaches the south-eastern point of Florida. And lastly, the eastern boundary, commencing where the southern ends, at the south-eastern point of Florida, runs northward along the whole Atlantic coast, till it reaches the south-eastern point of Nova Scotia, from which we originally started. Thus making, as before, a square, but one of dimensions enormously increased. These are the vast acquisitions of territory made by the United States since 1783. They are destined to ex- tend still further.* These acquisitions have not been made, however, in order that they may be contemplated with an idle and complacent vanity by the citizens of the United States when looking at a map. All that an Englishman can do, when considering the possessions of his country in America, is to run his finger across the map, and say, " This is ours." If asked to what end it is ours, he can only answer, " God knows ! What may be done with it no one can tell ; all that we do really * Of the manner of this acquisition I am not called upon by my subject to say a word. My concern at present is with the remit : which is, what I have above described. One great purpose of this my present work, is the explanation of a scheme which will, if adopted, prevent all further acquisition by the U.S. noirth of their present boundary. THE UNITED STATES. 81 know is, that nothing, or next to nothing, has been done with it." Such, however, is not the sort of account which an American can render of the conduct of American statesmen. He would say — " Look you, at our north-eastern frontier — behold our citizens have multiplied, and step by step have advanced till they have reached your boundary. The states of Vermont and Maine are there with their hardy and industrious population — a fine race of intelligent farmers, who have proved that the disadvantages of a cold climate and a soil by no means fertile, may yet be overcome by industry and courage : — and that a powerful and a happy community may be formed under auspices far less favourable than those which attend the Canadas, more especially Upper Canada." Keeping his finger still in the northern boundary, he '•omes to the St. Lawrence, and running along that beautiful river, he shows you the whole shore from the point at which the boundary line first strikes the St. Lawrence, up to Lake Ontario, dotted with thriving towns and villages. Carrying his finger still onwards, still westward, he shows you the growing com- munities along the lakes Ontario, Erie, Michigan, Huron. He now spreads out his hand, and sweeping it down to the south, he says as it passes over tiie map, " this is the broad basin of the Mississippi, teeming now with life — the busy hum of civilized men — look you, here is Iowa, just made a state. Here is also Wisconsin, a yet younger state. Here is Ohio, now the fourth, if not indeed the third state of the Union ; which, wlien Washington was a soldier in the English army, was a G 82 BOUNDARIES OV ii wilderness, and the scene of a defeat of an English force, by the French from Canada aided by a band of savages. Now I come to Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, &c., more states than I need now enumerate. Here, on the west of the Mississippi, is the State of Missouri — on land which did not belong to us, till years after we ceased to be your subjects. Now come Alabama, Tenessee, Louisiana, &c., and there away to the west is Texas — and still away, away till you reach the great Pacific, you must stretch your eyes of the body, and the mind's eye, till you come to California, with its gold-bearing soil, and its quicksilver mines. " These," he might say, ** these are our colonies." Without allowing you time to pause and take breath, he says — " When you drove us into rebellion we hardly amounted to three millions of souls — we now surpass seventeen millions. We were then thirteen states, we are now thirty* We had then no settlement west of the Mississippi and no state west of the Alleghanies. We are now filling the valley of the great father of waters from his source to the sea — and our adventurous people are following the Missouri to its source, and planning routes across the Rocky Mountains — esta- blishing settlements on the Columbia, where it reaches the Pacific — and will soon fill the beautiful Californian peninsula with American citizens." He might then place the following table before you, saying, " before a ♦ At this moment I believe the number may be greater by two or three. Every day calls some new community into existence. What territories exist I am at this moment unable to say. Oregon is probably a state. THE UNITED STATES. •Il year passes away some additions will require to be made." THE THIRTEEN ORIGINAL STATES. 1. Virginia. 2. Maryland. 3. Massachusetts. 4. Connecticut. 5. Rhode Island. 6. New Hampshire. 7. New York. 8. Delaware. 9. Pennsylvania. 10. North Carolina. 11. South Carolina. 12. New Jersey. 13. Georgia, THE STATES ADDED SINCE 1783. 14. Ohio. 15. Kentucky. 16. Indiana. 17. Illinois. 18. Missouri. 19. Alabama. 20. Tennessee. 21. Louisiana. 22. Mississippi. 23. Maine. 24. Michigan. 25. Arkansas. 26. Florida. 27. Vermont. 28. Iowa. 29. Texas. 30. Wisconsin. 31. Oregon Territory. Columbia.* * The census of the United States is taken every ten years — and since 1790 has been as follows : — 1790 3,939,827 1800 5,305,940 1810 7,239,814 1820 9,638,191 1830 12,866,020 1840 17,068,666 An official table in the year 1 846 makes this statement : — " The last census was made in 1840. Adding an increase of three per cent, each year (based upon the average increase of previous years) the total population in 1846 is estimated at about 20,000,000 exclusive of Texas, of which no census has been taken." g2 1 it 84 BOUNDARIFS OF II i' Herein he would observe I have not put Texas, neither have adverted to the rising territories. But the seventeen states here named have been added in a period of sixty- six years. Within that same period our numbers have risen from three to above twenty millions — and the extent of our territory has been quadrupled. A statement of this nature begets serious reflexion. And we are led to inquire, by what machinery, by what favouring circumstances such a result has been brought about. The people, be it remarked, are the same as our- selves — the original thirteen states were the work of Englishmen. English heads, and English hearts, and English hands brought those new communities into ex- istence. No longer connected by government with us, they, nevertheless, retained the characteristics of the race from which they sprang, and, proceeding in the great work to which they were destined, they strode across the Continent, the fairest portions of which they could now call their own. In planting new settlements, they were aided by our own people — the very elements out of which we endeavour to frame colonies, and with which we do produce sickly miserable communities, that can only be said to exist and to linger on in a sort of half life, without the spirit of a young, or the amenities and polish of an old community ; and above all, with- out any spirit of independence. They are eternally looking for aid from others, and not from themselves. The great object of their only hope is to escape from the country of their adoption, and their only notion of dis- tinction is to be an Englishman and not a colonist. If THE UNITED STATES. 85 they ure in puwcr, they doniineei' uver and insult the colony and the colonist ; if they are not of the favoured few to whom power is confided, they truckle, and fawn, and cringe, in the hope of sonic day obtaining the means of tyrannizing in their turn. Such are the diflferent results from precisely the same elements. From the same materials one architect has raised a plain bold, broad, foundation, magnificent in conception, and in its execution simple and secure. The other has built, only that what he rears up to-day may fall to pieces to-morrow — he has worked without a plan — building a little here one day — a small piece a mile away the next; nothing advances, money is spent, good materials are spoiled, time is irrevocably lost; disgust and discontent attend his blundering, his blustering, boasting, and ignorance. This is the accurate but pain- ful description of the two systems. These are the results of the English and the American systems of colonization. But what is the American system? Have they a colonial officer? have they a secretary of state for the colonies! have they colonial governors, u.!ioiiial judges, colonial secretaries, and attorneys-general and collectors? Indeed, they have none of these things, but they have that which is worth them all — they have a system of procedure well adapted for the end in view ; and they have a government responsible to those who are the persons really interested in the proper performance of the duties which the government is required to fulfil. If the reader will take in his hand any common map of North America, he will see there laid down. Lake Ontario, with the Niagara river, and Lake Erie; then he it 86 AM£K1CAN SYSTEM: r I, will see a river joining Lake Erie to Lake Huron, and also he will see Lake Huron itself. The tract of land which lies to the north of these waters belongs to Eng- land, and forms a portion of what was formerly Upper, but is now called West Canada. The tract itself is in all respects equal to the corresponding tract which lies on the American side of the waters I have named, and is in fact among the most beautiful portions of territory upon the whole continent. The reader will perceive that the most southern part of the whole tract of water to which his attention has been solicited, forms the northern boundary of the state of Ohio. This state did not exist in the year 1783. It is now the third state of the union. Its population amounted at the last census to 1,519,467, and it now sends nineteen* members to con- gress as members of the House of Representatives. No traveller in the United States fails to express his asto- nishment at the rapid progress of this state — and the beautiful towns and villages which now exist, and are daily rising in every part of it. But let us remember that in nothing is Ohio naturally more favoured than the tract of Canadian territory which lies north of Erie and opposite to Ohio. In order hereafter to come to some specific results, I will now describe the steps by which Ohio gradually but rapidly passed from its state of wilderness to its present condition, which thus excites the wonder and admiration of every beholder. This contrast between the two districts is remarkable, * This number, however, was regulated by the census of 1830, which gave as the population at that time 937,903. The number of the representatives mat/, therefore, be now greater. SOME RESULTS. 87 because their nntural condition was so wonderfully similar. I simply tukc the state of Ohio, in order to be able to point out the steps of the American pro- cedure. Here is no pretence of making an accurate statistical statement, or of writing a history of Ohio. An instance and a name were wanted for illustration — and a name saves circumlocution. " Although the claims of Virginia to the country north-west of the Ohio were thus gaining strength (this was in 1779) from the rights of conquest, in addition to those derived from her original charter, they were not suffered to pass undisputed by some of the other States, who insisted that all the lands, the title of which had originally been in the crown, and had never been alien- ated, were the common property of the confederation, by the right of conquest, inasmuch as the revolution had transferred the supreme power from the British sovereign to the United Republic. This ground was supported with great earnestness and ingenuity on their part, and was warmly resisted by Virginia in a spirited remon- strance to Congress in the October session of 1779. But this delicate question was happily settled by a voluntary cession from Virginia to the United States of the country in dispute, on certain conditions; and the territory thus ceded comprehends the three flourishing states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, which already con- tain more than thrice as many white inhabitants as are in the state which ceded them."* * Life of Jefferson, by Tucker, vol. i. p. 142. This statement in the text was made in 1836. The startling effects produced by political institutions are instructively illustrated by a comparison 88 AMERICAN SYSTEM: ; i It i" ii Certain adventurous persons, " the pioneers" of civi- lization, wishing to make new settlements beyond the boundaries of Virginia, and Pennsylvania, upon wild lands belonging to the United States, made formal ap- plication to the government of the United States of Washington, who, being bound to afford all possible facility, thereupon take steps to have the lands surveyed and properly laid out into counties, townships, parishes. The roeus are also indicated, and at once the law exists : and security, guaranteed by the authority of the United States, immediately follows, both for person and pro- perty; and all the machinery known to the common law, and needed for the maintenance of this security, and the enforcement of the law's decrees, is at once adopted. — A municipal authority comes into existence; a court house — a jail — a school room — arise in the wilder- ness; and although these buildings be humble, and the men who exercise authority in them may appear in some degree rude, yet is the law there in all its useful majesty. To it a reverent obedience is rendered ; and the plain magistrate who, in a hunter's frock, may, in the name of the United States, pronounce the law's decree, commands an obedience as complete and sincere as that which is paid to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court at Wash- of Ohio and Upper Canada on the one hand, and Ohio and Ken- tucky on the other. Kentucky is the older state of the two: her lands are quite as fertile, and climate the same as Ohio, yet slavery being in Kentucky, the effect appears by the population, which is as compared below : — Whites. SUves. Total. Kentucky. . 597,870 182,258 779,828 Ohio . . . 1,519,464 3 1,519,467!! SOME RESULTS. 89 18 1 ington, or to the crmincd jiulgo who presides in the courts of our Ludy the Queen, in Westminster Hull. The people are nccuHtomed to self-government, and the orderly arrangements of society are adopted by them as mere mutters of course. If a township is marked out on the map, and inhabitants, having purchased the lands, go and live therein, an organization by mere operation of law exists in the township. Magistrates and officers have to be chosen — and arc chosen, and society starts at once, like a well made watch the moment it is put together and wound up. The fact of the inhabitants, and that of the township, being given, all the rest follows of course, without any aid or direc- tion of any body but the people themselves. The wild lands of the United States were increased by various means, and from various causes, immediately upon the States becoming a nation : and conjrress, under the Constitution, having power to deal with these lands, proceed<^d so to do. The fourth clause of the fourth article of the Constitution declares, that " new states may be admitted by the congress into this Union. But no new state shall be formed or created within the jurisdiction of any other state ; nor any state be formed by the junc- tion of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned, as well as of the congress." " Under this clause, besides Ver- mont, three new states formed within the boundaries of the old States — viz., Kentucky, Tennessee, and Maine — and nine others — viz., Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missis- sippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, and Michigan, formed within the territories ceded to the IN 7h do POWER OF CONGRESS ^:i : i I f United States, have been already admitted into the Union." " By the second clause of the same section, it is de- termined that * Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory, or other property belonging to the United States. And nothing in this constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice the claims of the United States, or of any particular State.' ... At the time of the adoption of the constitution, the general government had acquired the vast region included in the North-western Territory ; and its acquisitions have since been greatly enlarged by the purchase of Louisiana and Florida. The two latter Territories of Louisiana and Florida, sub- ject to the treaty stipulations under which they were acquired, are of course under the general regulation of Congress, so far as the power has not been, or may not be, parted with by erecting them into States. The North-west Territory has been peopled under the ad- mirable ordinance of the Continental Congress of the 13th of July, 1787, which we owe to the wise forecast and political wisdom of a man whom New England can never fail to reverence."* This ordinance I now here give entire, in order to show the mode adopted by the United States, when pre- paring for colonizing a large tract of ^^ountry. This is really a specimen of a systematic colonization ; and is the * These extracts are made from an exposition of the American Constitution by Dr. Story. An excellent work in itself, but remarkable as an indication of what in America is thought neces- sai'y for the education of youth in schools; this being a school book. Seep. 139. I ' AS TO WASTE LANDS. 91 more remarkable, because it is really the first instance on record of a government providing for the gradual creation of many independent nations by a carefully- considered and regular system ; a system which we must imitate, if we desire to produce any great eflfect as a colonizing power. We have immense territories, and an expensive and meddling Colonial Office; but a system we do not possess. This ordinance will give some idea of that Act of Parliament upon which, in the course of this work, I shall have so often to insist, and without which no regular plan of colonization can be attempted. m AN ORDINANCE I^or the Government of the Territory of the United States, north-west of the River Ohio. Be it ordained by the United States in Congress assembled, That the said territory, for the purposes of temporary government, be one district; subject, however, to be divided into two districts, as future circumstances may, iu the opinion of Congress, make it expedient. Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, Tliat the estates both of resident and non-resident proprietors in the said territory, dying intestate, shall descend to, and be distributed among their children, and the descendants of a deceased child in equal parts ; the descendants of a deceased child or grandchild to take the share of their deceased parent in equal parts among them ; and where there shall be no children or descendants, then in equal parts to the next of kin, in equal degree; and among collaterals, the children of a i 92 AN ORDINANCE. In \\ I'i deceased brother or sister of the intestate shall have, in equal parts among them, their deceased parent's share ; and there shall, in no case, be a distinction between kindred of the whole and half blood ; saving in all cases to the widow of the intestate, her third part of the real estate for life, and one third part of the personal estate ; and this law relative to descents and dower, shall remain in full force, until altered by the Legislature of the district. And until the governor and judges shall adopt laws as hereinafter mentioned, estates in the said territory may be devised or bequeathed by wills in writing, signed and sealed by him or her, in whom the estate may be, (being of full age,) and attested by three witnesses : and real estates may be conveyed by lease and release, or bargain and sale, signed, sealed, and delivered by the person, being of full age, in whom the estate may be attested by two witnesses, provided such wills be duly proved, and such conveyances be acknowledged, or the execution thereof duly proved, and be recorded within one year after proper magistrates, courts, and registers, shall be appointed for that purpose ; and personal property may be transferred by delivery ; saving, however, to the French and Canadian inhabitants, and other settlers of the Kaskaskies, St. Vincent's, and the neighbouring villages, who have heretofore professed themselves citizens of Virginia, their laws and customs now in force among them, relative to the descent and conveyance of property. Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, That there shall be appointed, from time to time, by Congress, a governor, whose commission shall continue in force for the term of three years, unless sooner revoked by Congress : he shall reside in the district, and have a freehold estate therein, in one thousand acres of land, while in the exercise of his office. There shall be appointed, from time to time, by Congress, a i^ecretary, whose commission shall continue in force for • / AN ORDINANCE. 93 four years, unless sooner revoked; he shall reside in the district, and have a freehold estate therein, in five hundred acres of land, while in the exercise of his office ; it shall be his duty to keep and preserve the acts and laws passed by the Legislature, and the public records of the district, and the proceedings of the governor in his executive department ; and transmit authentic copies of such acts and proceedings, every six months, to the secretary of Congress : There shall also be appointed a court, to consist of three judges, any two of whom to form a court, who shall have a common law jurisdiction, and reside in the district, and have each therein a freehold estate, in five hundred acres of land, while in the exercise of their offices ; and their commissions shall continue in force during good behaviour. The governor and judges, or a majority of them, shall adopt and publish in the district, such laws of the original States, criminal and civil, as may be necessary, and best suited to the circumstances of the district, and report them to Congress, from time to time ; which laws shall be in force in the district until the organization of the General Assembly therein, unless disapproved by Congress ; but afterwards the Legislature shall have authority to alter them as they shall think fit. The governor for the time being shall be commander-in- chief of the militia, appoint and commission all officers in the same, below the rank of general officers; all general officers shall be appointed and commissioned by Congress. Previous to the organization of the General Assembly, the governor shall appoint such magistrates, and other civil officers, in each county or township, as he shall find neces- sary for the preservation of the peace and good order of the same. After the General Assembly shall be organized, the powers and duties of magistrates and other civil officers shall be regulated and defined by the said Assembly ; but All magistrates and other civil officers, not herein otherwise ■'-'I ■ If n .i ! 94 AN ORDINANCE. %i III directed, shall, during the continuance of this temporary government, be appointed by the governor. For the prevention of crimes and injuries, the laws to be adopted or made shall have force in all parts of the district, and for the execution of process, criminal and civil, the governor shall make proper divisions thereof; and he shall proceed from time to time, as circumstances may require, to lay out the parts of the district in which the Indian titles shall have been extinguished, into counties and townships, subject, however, to such alterations as may be thereafter made by the legislature. So soon as there shall be five thousand free male inha- bitants of full age in the district, upon giving proof thereof to the governor, they shall receive authority, with time and place, to elect representatives from their counties or town- ships, to represent them in the General Assembly : Provided that, for every five hundred free male inhabitants, there shall be one representative, and so on, progressively, with the number of free male inhabitants, shall the right of represen- tation increase, until the number of representatives shall amount to twenty-five, after which the number and propor- tion of representatives shall be regulated by the legislature : Provided that no person be eligible or qualified to act as representative, unless he shall have been a citizen of one of the United States three years, and be a resident in the district, or unless he shall have resided in the district three years; and, in either case, shall likewise hold in his own right, in fee simple, two hundred acres of land within the same : Provided also, that a freehold in fifty acres of land in the district, having been a citizen of one of the States, and being resident in the district, or the like freehold and two years residence in the district, shall be necessary to qualify a man as an elector of a representative. The representatives, thus elected, shall serve for the term of two years ; and in case of the death of a represent^ttive, I I ( ' AN ORDINANCE. 95 to rm ve, 4 or removal from office, the govc^or shall issue a writ to the county or township for which he was a member, to elect another in his stead, to serve tot the residue of the term. The General Assembly, or Legislature, shall consist of the Governor, Legislative Council, and a House of Representa- tives. The Legislative Council shall consist of five members, to continne in office five years, unless sooner removed by Congress, any three of whom to be a quorum; and the members of the Council shall be nominated and appointed in the following manner — to wit, as soon as representatives shall be elected, the governor shall appoint a time and place for them to meet together; and when met, they shall nomi- nate ten persons, residents in the district, and each possessed of a freehold in five hundred acres of land, and return their names to Congress, five of whom Congress shall appoint and commission to serve as aforesaid ; and whenever a vacancy shall happen in the Council, by death, or removal from office, the House of Representatives shall nominate two persons, qualified as aforesaid, for each vacancy, and return their names to Congress, one of whom Congress shall appoint and commission for the residue of the term. And every five years, four months at least before the expiration of the time of service of the members of Council, the said House shall nominate ten persons qualified as aforesaid, and return their names to Congress, five of whom Congress shall appoint and commission to serve as members of the Council five years, unless sooner removed. And the Governor, Legislative Council and House of Representatives, shall have authority to make laws in all cases for the good government of the district, not repugnant to the principles and articles in this ordinance established and declared. And all bills having passed by a majority in the House, and by a majority in the Council, shall be referred to the governor for his assent ; but no bill or legislative act whatever shall be of any force .1 , i " ii >v ;i 96 AN ORDINANCE. t II ; I without his assent. The governor shall have power to con- vene, prorogue, and dissolve the General Assembly, when in his opinion it shall be expedient. The governor, judges, legislative council, secretary, and such other officers as Congress shall appoint in the district, shall take an oath or affirmation of fidelity and of office ; the governor before the president of Congress, and all other officers before the governor. As soon as a legislature shall be formed in the distiict, the Council and House assembled in one room, shall have authority, by joint ballot, to elect a delegate to Congress, who shall have a seat in Congress, with a right of debating, but not of voting, during this tem- porary government. And for extending the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty, which form the basis whereon these re- publics, their laws, and constitutions are erected, to fix and establish those principles as the basis of all laws, constitu- tions, and governments which for ever hereafter shall be formed in the said territory : to provide, also, for the esta- blishment of states and permanent government therein, and for their admission to a share in the Federal Councils on an equal footing with the original states, at as early periods as may be consistent with the general interest : It is hereby ordained and declared by the authority afore- said that the following articles shall be considered as articles of compact, between the original states and tlie people and states in the said territory, and for ever remain unalterable ; imless by common consent, to wit: — Art. 1. No person demeaning himself in a peaceable and orderly manner shall ever be molested on account of his mode of worship or religious sentiments in the said territory. Art. 2. The inhabitants of the said territory shall always be entitled to the benefits of the writ of Habeas Corpus, and of the trial by jury ; of a proportionate represc^ntation of the people in the legislature, and of judicial proceeidings accord- AN OfiDINANC£. 97 ing to the course of the common law. All persons shall be bailable, unless for capital offences where the proof shall be evident, or the presumption great. All fines shall be mode- rate ; and no cruel or unusual punishment shall be inflicted. No man shall be deprived of his liberty or property, but by the judgment of his peers, or the law of the land, and should the public exigencies make it necessary for the common pre- servation to take any person^s property, or to demand his particular ser>'ices, full compensation shall be made for the same. And in the just preservation of rights and property, it is understood and declared, that no law ought ever to be made, or have force in the said territory, that shall, in any way whatever, interfere with or affect private contracts or engagements, bondjidey and without fraud previously formed. Art. 3. Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means uf education shall be for ever encouraged. The utmost good faith !uii! always be observed towards the Indians : their lands anu property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and in their property, rights, and liberty, they never shall be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress ; but laws founded in justice and humanity shall, from time to time, be made for preventing wrongs being done to them, and for pre- serving peace and friendship with them. Art. 4. The said territory, and the states which may be formed therein, shall for ever remain a part of this Confede- racy of the United States of America, subject to the articles of confederation and to such alterations therein as shall be constitutionally made, and to all the acts and ordinances of the United States in congress assembled, conformably thereto. The inhabitants and settlers in the said territory shall be subject to pay a part of the federal debts contracted, or to be contracted, and a proportional part of the expenses of govern- ment, to be apportioned on them by Congress, according to H ■;! I ■ i 98 ▲N ORDINANCE. I? [|| the same common rule and measure by which apportionments thereof shall be made on the other states ; and the taxes for paying their proportion, shall be laid and levied by the au* thority and direction of the legislatures of the district or dis- tricts, or new states, as in the original states, within the time agreed upon by the United States in Congress assembled. The legislatures of those districts, or new states, shall never interfere with the primary disposal of the soil by the United States in Congress assembled, nor with any regulations Con- gress may find necessary for securing the title in such soil to the bona fide purchasers. No tax shall be imposed on lands the property of the United States; and in no case shall non-resident proprietors be taxed higher than residents. The navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, and the carrying places between the same, shall be common highways, and for ever free, as well to the inha- bitants of the said territory, as to the citizens of the United States, and those of any other states that may be admitted into the Confederacy, without any tax, impost, or duty therefor. Art. 5. There shall be formed in the said territory not less than three nor more than five states ; and the boundaries of the states, as soon as Virginia shall alter her act of cession, and consent to the same, shall become fixed and established as follow — to wit, the western state in the said teiTJtory shall be bounded by the Mississippi, the Ohio, and Wabash Waters ; a direct line drawn from the Wabash and Port Vincents, due north, to the territorial line between the United States and Canada, and by the said territorial line to the lake of the Woods and Mississippi. The middle states shall be bounded by the direct line, the Wabash, fi:om Port Vincents to the Ohio, by the Ohio, by a direct line drawn due north from the mouth of the Great Miami, to the said territorial line, and by the said territorial line. The eastern state shall be bounded by the last mentioned direct line, the Ohio, Penn- AN ORDINANCE. 99 sylvania, and the said territorial line, provided however, and it is further understood and declared, that the boundaries of these three states shall be subject so far to be altered, that if Congress shall hereafter find it expedient they shall have authority to form one or two states in that part of the said territory which lies north of an east and west line, drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of lake Michigan. And whenever any of the states shall have sixty thousand free inhabitants therein, such state shall be admitted, by its delegates into the Congress of the United States, on an equal footing with the original states, in all respects whatever ; and shall be at liberty to form a permanent constitution and state government, provided the constitution and government so to be formed, shall be republican, and in conformity to the principles contained in these articles ; and so far as it can be consistent with the general interest of the confederacy, such admission shall be allowed at an earlier period, and when there may be a less number of free inhabitants in the state than sixty thousand. Art. 6. There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punish- ment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly con- victed ; provided always, that any person escaping into the same, from whom labour or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original states, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labour or service as aforesaid. Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, That the reso- lutions of the 23rd April, 1784, relative to the subject of this ordinance, be, and the same are hereby repealed and declared null and void. Done, &c. &c. Iii.l h2 ! 1 I' ■ I Ifl ,1 100 GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. " Such," says Mr. Story, " is this most important ordinance, the effects of which upon the destinies of the country have already been abundantly demonstrated in the territory by an almost unexampled prosperity and rapidity of population, by the formation of republican governments, and by an enlightened system of juris- prudence. Already five states comprising a part of that territory have been admitted into the union, and others are fast advancing towards the same grade of political dignity. * The five states are — Ohio, with a population, in 1840, of 1,519,464 Indiana „ „ 685,863 Michigan „ „ 212,267 Illinois „ 475,862 Iowa „ „ Wisconsin added since. It will be seen that there are two stages in the system adopted by America: the wild land becomes first a territory, and afterwards is admitted into the Union as a state. Two Acts of Congress are placed in the Appendix, for the purpose of giving a complete idea of the difference of their two conditions of political ex- istence. The one act provides for the government of the territory of Oregon; the other, for the admission of Wisconsin to the Union. What, then, are the general conclusions which this twofold history, brief as it has been, compels us to draw ? In my opinion, the canons which it establishes respect- ing colonization are these : — * Story's Exposition, p. 141. i GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 101 1. Any supervising power retained, and to be exercised with respect to a colony, should be retained entirely in the hands of the imperial government alone. No part of it should be entrusted to a company, or to a single proprietor. A company may be made useful as a means of collecting many minute portions of capital into one large and effective mass, and may be permitted, by the aid simply of the advantages which that combined wealth confers, to act as private persons, and in that capacity to promote the plantation of the new settlement. But to the company there should be confided no government powers, no mercantile monopoly or privileges. Such facilities as a joint-stock company requires to avoid mere legal obstructions, may be granted to a company wishing to carry on commerce, or effect any legitimate purpose of gain, but not one atom of political power. I will not clog this assertion with one particle of excep- tion; the rule ought to be as I have laid it down, stringent and universal in its negation. That which is true as respects a company, is just as true and as necessary in the case of an individual, no matter what may be his wealth, no matter what may be his virtue. Were Lord Baltimore, with all his real wisdom and goodness, his unostentatious and thoroughly modest and tolerant spirit, to appear again, and with the same benevolent aims and sanguine hopes, ask for the privileges which his family enjoyed in Maryland, and so worthily employed, he would meet from me with the same peremptory refusal that I should give to a grasping, mere money-getting company. The powers of government must not be delegated. If they are to If 102 GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. be in any hands, those hands must be of the government itself. To none others ought such powers to be con- fided. 2. Having determined that the supervision should never be delegated to a company or an individual, but should always be reserved by the government, the next canon commands us to reduce this supervision as much as is possible, retaining only what is needed to maintain our metropolitan rule, and to confide to the colony the government of its own aflfairs. The more completely this is done, the more certain and marked will be the prosperity of the colony. 3. The next rule is, that, certain extraordinary cases being excepted, the metropolitan government should confine its office to attracting settlers to a colony, and ought not to occupy itself in actually carrying them out, and thereby take part in the active business of planting the settlement. The duty of the government is to create those facilities on the spot to be settled which, being known to exist, will of themselves bring the population. The manner of doing this I shall soon attempt to de- scribe. 4. The next rule which I think my short history justifies, is, to insist upon the colony being self-support- ing, in everything except defence against hostile aggres- sion. It is the duty of England to say to all of her subjects that plant settlements within her colonial terri- tories, " I will defend you in the quiet possession of your homes, and of the produce of your labour. No enemy shall attack you from without But this perfect defence being afforded — and that it be afforded, the GENERAL CONCLUHIONS. 10.1 government must provide — -y^^u must yourselves bo the architects of your own fortunes. My government has made tlie way clear fur y ju in tho first instance : there are the limits of the colony; make youiiiiolves a com- munity; sustain yourselves, and govern yourselves. Trade with other nations, with all whom you wish, that you may; fight with other nations or yourselves, that you shall not. Such is my will, and to it I shall enforce obedience." These general rules, or conclusions, I shall now pro- ceed to enlarge into something like a system. The description I am about to attempt is what might well precede a specific act of legislation, which would make law of what is here only suggestion. All my observa- tions in this work, those which I have already made, those which I am about to make, point directly to an act of parliament, which I believe the necessary pre- liminary to any rational system. Our brethren on the other side of the Atlantic have adopted, as we have seen, this prudent course; and her colonies exhibit fairly the result of this wise act of legislation by Con- gress. They have had great difficulties to overcome — far greater than any which lie in our path as legislators. Those diflSculties they have not feared to face; having faced, they have conquered them. Their seventeen or eighteen colonies, with their millions of thriving people, attest the practical wisdom of this conduct, and afford us an admirable reason for imitating and surpassing it. That we have the means of surpassing all that America has done or can do, I shall now attempt to prove. She may, indeed, create one gigantic nation ; that it should 104 GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. be and remain only one, will be their greatest triumph. But we, if we be wise, and use the advantages which as a people we possess, (a tithe of which no other people ever enjoyed) — we, I say, may create mani/ vast nations — nations which must be separate, and may be of almost fabulous greatness. Let not the reader call me a dreamer, till he has read the very unpretending scheme which I now proceed to explain; and which I believe would produce the great effects I describe, because it is unpretending, easy to be understood, and, if once put into motion, self-supporting. There are two things which always present themselves to the mind of an emigrant, or one thinking of becoming an emigrant, and are always placed by him among the circumstances which are deemed to be reasons against expatriation: the one is the uncertainty that attends every step of his progress ; the other is, the inferiority of the position which, as a colonist, he is to occupy. When I speak here of uncertainty ^ I do not mean that uncertainty which attends, and ever must attend, an igno- rant man; but I intend by it, that which every man, even the most instructed, must labour under, who en- deavours to ascertain the various steps necessary to be taken by those who desire to become settlers in any of our colonies, and who endeavours also to discover the probable consequences to himself and his family of the acts which he is about to perform in the character of an emigrant. Let any one attempt to form for himself a conception of what would probably occur if he were to associate himself with a body of settlers, just about to emigrate, for the purpose of taking possession of a tract GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 105 man. of land purchased of the New Zealand Company.* Let us suppose that a band of friends have said to one another, "We will buy from the company a tract of land; we will together expatriate, and make on that land a new home for ourselves and our children." The land is bought, — it is some distance from any existing settlement, — and when they reach the chosen spot, in what condition will they be? I do not mean what con- dition as to material, but as to social things. Friends though these men and their families may be, yet they cannot, as they are not angels, but merely men and women, live without law — without some rule, some order. Well, but where are they to learn what this rule or order is? Where are they to learn if there really be any rule ? The fact is, that nowhere can they find it. Law will grow up in their new settlement, after the fashion in which it grew up among our savage ancestors — by degrees, and be brought into existence, and reduced to shape, by necessity. At once this little band of adventurers will step out of light into darkness, out of the dominion of regularity and reason, into the domain of anarchy and chance. They do not simply leave a well-cultivated country, in which art and labour have conquered the powers of nature for man's service, and go thence to an uncultivated land, whose powers, though not yet brought under command, are in the vigour of youth: they do much more than this; for they go into a lawless, as well as a wild waste. The * This Company has resumed its land sales, after years of most unnecessary, most unjust delay, created for it by the mischievous — gratuitously mischievous— opposition of the Colonial Office. f ;i 1 1 : hi •■ ■ '' I i 1 106 GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. forms and the spirit of social life have disappeared from their eyes, and are only to be recalled after much diffi- culty, and often much distress, and not seldom of crime also. The real mischief of this condition of things, however, is not the circumstance to which I wish at this moment to draw attention, but to the effect of it, in the shape of uncertainty and doubt, upon the mind of the emigrant; particularly upon the mind of an emigrant with a wife and children, and some of those children daughters. He will, he must, shrink from braving the difficulties which he perceives before him. The rude and the reckless will feel least hesitation ; but the rude and reckless are not the best elements for the formation of a new community. Industry is indeed needed, but industry in conjunction with thrift and order, gentle manners and intelligence. The colony that does not begin with these will advance but slowly. You do not desire to impose on yourself the double task of rescuing your colonists, as well as your colony, from a rude, un- cultivated condition. But your wish is to plant at once a civilized community upon a virgin soil; and you ought to make your emigrant population feel that such is the task they will be called upon to perform ; that by changing the spot in which their life is to be passed, they have not changed that life itself; that they are not required to create civilization, but simply to cultivate an untouched soil ; and that with themselves, they have taken out a polity to which they have always been accustomed ; and that while they acquire the advantage of a fresh and fertile soil, they do not lose the inestimable benefit of civility, and of its ever necessary precursor I GENERAL CONCLUSIOKS* 107 and attendant, security. The only way of creating this general understanding, and thereby really performing the part which a wise and provident government can and should perform, is to make and publish a predeter- mined rule for the state of things which the planters of a new colony must encounter. The law should be like the atmosphere, and attend them wheresoever they may go ; and they should feel that it does follow and surround them. And when the little band that I have supposed first find themselves standing upon their newly-acquired territory, they should know its boundaries, its name, the parish in which it is placed, the township to which it belongs, the county of which it forms a part. With a map in one hand, and an Act of Parliament in the other, they ought to feel themselves at once, though in a new country, still surrounded by all that of old produced for them order and security, — still, as formerly, possessed of powers and rights, and subject to duties and obligations, defined, clear, and known, or easily to be ascertained. Every step taken by them should have been taken in security, in peace, and with ease; and now the new community is born, its pulse begins to beat; life, and civilized life, is there. Let that portion of our people who are wishing and destined to be emigrants know that such is to be their future lot, and the government will find no difficulty in procuring a people for its successive colonies. Thus having by the formation of a rule removed un- certainty, next let it be the object of the mother country to make her people feel themselves not abased by becom- i; 108 GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. ill III 1 1 #1 1 I ing colonists. The character of a people is always determined by that of the educated classes, and indi- viduals belonging to them. The mass of the population must always be destined to win their daily bread by daily toil. They may pass a quiet and happy life, but it must be in a certain sense monotonous and obscure. Beyond the narrow horizon of their ordinary hopes, they seek not to look. Their desires are limited to a wish for the means of comfortable subsistence, which they only hope or desire to attain by steady toil, and which they hope also may be the happy and quiet lot of their chil- dren after them. But the educated man, and they who are above the pains and anxieties of absolute want, and the fear of want, are rendered happy or miserable by hope. If they may hope to win renown, gain power for themselves — if a career by which these may be achieved lies before them, they will as a class be content, and love the country whicli affords this field for their ambition. But there is yet something wanting ; — this class of man desires to derive honour from his country. As he and his ge- nerations derive advantage from the wealth which preced- ing generations have stored up, and left in various shapes to posterity; so all men desire to enjoy the benefit derived from the glory, and great deeds achieved, stored up, and left in many shapes, by their predecessors, to be the estate of renown for generations yet to come, who bear the same name and will be the same people. In a petty colony there is really no such career, and the halluci- nation by which sometimes minute and utterly insignifi- cant dots of land, and handfuls of men, are led to think but GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 109 themselves important, and assume airs of consequence and grandeur, has long been a subject of ridicule and con- tempt. In such circumstances of real insignificance, to revel in ideas of fancied greatness is a folly of which no sane and sensible person can be guilty. The intelligent members of such a community are therefore discontented with their position, and curse the fate which has thus con- demned them to hopeless inferiority. Generally speaking, such is the usual lot of a colonial gentry — and if as colo- nists they have no hope of escaping from it, the educated classes of colonists will bend their eyes towards the future, which is to bring them independence, and open to them the path of renown and power. The career that lies before two men, one of whom has been born and lives upon the southern shore of the St. Lawrence, and the other on the north of that river, is a striking ex- ample of the observation here made. The one is a citizen of the United States, the other a subject of Eng- land, a Canadian colonist. The one has a country which he can call his own; a great country, already distin- guished in arms, in arts, and in some degree in litera- ture. In his country's honour and fame the American has a share, and he enters upon his career of life with lofty aspirations, hoping to achieve fame himself in some of the many paths to renown which his country offers. She has a senate, an army, a navy, a bar, many powerful and wealthy churches ; her men of science, her physicians, philosophers, are all a national brotherhood, giving and receiving distinction. How galling to the poor colonist, is the contrast to this, which his inglorious career affords. He has no country — the place where he was born, and i (I 110 GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. where he is to linger out his life, unknown to fame, has no history — no past glory, no present renown. What there is of note is England's? Canada is not a nation — she is — c colony — a tiny sphere, the satellite of a mighty star, in whose brightness she is lost. Canada has no navy, no army, no literature, no brotherhood of science. If, then, a Canadian looks for honour in any of these various fields, he must seek it as an Englishman; he must forget and desert his country, before he can be known to fame. We must not then wonder if we find every intelligent and ambitious Canadian with a feeling of bitterness in his heart — because of his own inferiority of condition. Few will own to entertaining this feeling if they be prudent, even to friends ; some, indeed, contrive to hide it from themselves; nevertheless, there it is — and must be, so long as his country remains a colony. But by care the painful part of this condition may be greatly diminished, if not entirely taken away, and what little remains may be, perhaps, more than compensated by the benefits which the colony may derive from England, by whose friendly aid and honourable kindness she may be enabled to hold a higher position among nations, than she could do, were she entirely independent. The first step to take in every case, in order to reach this end, is to make the colony the manager of its own con- cerns; the next is to increase these concerns in vari^^ty and extent, so that they may become important, not only to the colonist, but to the nations of the earth. The plan which I am now about to lay before the reader^ has these ends especially in view. I seek to frame a polity ! A 6ENERAL CONCLUSIONS. Ill which contemplates the colony in its commencement — in its infancy — and onward in its course, till it becomes an established and self-governing community; my polity then seeks to unite this self-governing state with others, hav- ing the same interests, and living under the same laws and according to the same rule of government. Thus my plan proceeds preparing for a continually increasing power and importance — providing a secure and com- fortable subsistence for the humble millions who con- stitute the large majority of the people — and opening a career of honourable ambition for the more aspiring leaders, by whom the people will be guided, ruled, and led. 112 CHAPTER IV. If. T17ITH these njmarkable examples before our eyes, there is no great difficulty in framing a plan for the effective management of our Colonial possessions. Three of the systems above mentioned — viz., 1 That of British North America, 2 That of Australasia, 3 That of South Africa, are in themselves so vast, as to require to be separated into many distinct pkovinces; and the separate pro- vinces of each system may be united into one federal union. New Zealand is not so extensive as to require such separation; it ought to be one province. But as such PROVINCE it will need the organization which is required in the cases of the separate provinces of the systems above mentioned, and will, therefore, in the following statements, be so far a subject of consideration. My plan will, therefore, directly relate to the four separate portions of our Colonial possessions here named — viz.: 1 British North America. 2 Australasia. 3 South Africa. 4 New Zealand. GENERAL VIEW. 113 Section I. GENERAL VIEW — PLAN NOMENCLATURE — SETTLEMENT — PROVINCE — SYSTEM. As I do not intend to adopt the nomenclature em- ployed by the United States, I shall make one for my purpose, and explain the terms as I proceed. Every colony ought to go through two stages of political existence. It ought to be first in a condition similar to that of a TERRITORY, as Contemplated in the system of the United States, in which condition or stage of its political ex- istence I shall call it a settlement. Its second stage of political existence ought to be similar to that of a state in the system of the United States, and in this second stage or condition I shall call it a PROVINCE. When certain provinces are grouped together — united for certain federal purposes — each group or federation I call a system.* The first step with respect to the formation of a * This term is employed by modern astronomers very much in this sense with respect to groups of stars and constellations. — See Nichol's Architecture of the Heavens. I am by no means wedded to this my nomenclature. Some words were needed for the purpose I had in view: The above* have been chosen not because they are the best, but because they are sufficient. If any small wit feels at all inclined to assail them, all I ask is, that he will replace them by some others, and adhere steadily to those he selects. I lU SYSTEM. 'I *i. C">v should be a survey — a survey not merely to dc ""^"ne the boundaries of private property, but with reference to its political existence and government. Territorial divisions are necessary for the purposes of government, and the same system of division should be adopted throughout. The first point is to determine the boundaries of the colony itself. The next is then to divide the colony — that is, the lands contained within the determined boundaries — into COUNTIES. Then the counties should be laid out into towksiiips. And lastly, the townships should be divided into PARISHES. For the purposes of deciding upon the rights of pro- perty, each parish should be divided into lots, and sold by authority. This would enable a pe/loct registration of landed property to be at once established, and thus most materially contribute to economy and justice in all judicial decisions on civil rights, resulting from or con- • nected with the land. With respect to British North America, Australasia, and South Africa, immediate steps should be taken to determine the boundaries of the existing settlements and provinces, which have been formed in these three systems. All the lands which lie beyond the boundaries of these settlements and provinces I shall for the moment con- sider vested in the Crown, and all the unappropriated lands lying within the boundaries of these settlements and provinces as belonging to the governments respec- I SETTLEMENT. 115 ilasia, ten to [ENTS three these con- riated lents jspec- I l| tively of each of them, subject to certain conditions, to be hereafter described and explained. We have now, then, spoken of colonies as to be con- sidered and provided for as settlements, provinces, and SYSTEMS. The two last conditions are permanent, that of a settlement is a state or condition of transition. Section II. SETTLEMENT — mode op establisuino — survey — first sale OP LAND — GOVERNMENT — EXTENT OP INTERFERENCE BY THE MOTHER-COUNTRY COLONY SELF-SUSTAININO MEANS, LAND, ETC. — THE MONEY OP THE COLONY HOW DEALT WITH — CENSUS — WHEN SETTLEMENT BECOMES A PROVINCE — FRAME OF THE GOVERNMENT — POWERS OP — JUDICATURE DIGRESSION CON- CERNING LAND FUND. The earliest condition of the colony is that of a settle- ment. It is that in which it receives the greatest aid from the mother- country, and during which it is most subject to her direct authority — her immediate inter- ference. All interference, however, is not of the same description. The mother-country may interfere by means of the executive — that is, of the administration who act by the Secretary of State for the Colonies in the name of the Crown — or she may exercise her authority through parliament. Theoretically, the last mode of interference can be subjected to no rule — par- liament is omnipotent in theory, and may do what it pleases — but such is not, either in fact or in theory, the case with the Colonial Secretary, acting for the Crown. His interference ought in all instances to be according i2 ii' I' I ii 116 MODE OK ESTABLISHING A SETTLEMENT. to a predetermined rule, and if he bo given any dis- cretionary authority, tlie limits of that discretion ought to be carefully settled, and definitely stated. Hitherto the interference on the part of the Crown, though directed according to some vague notion of law, has been without any system — and has been in no two cases alike. The earlier colonics were all settled in con- sequence of certain powers conferred by the Crown in the form of a charter. These charters of the Crown were sometimes very rational, and judicious delegations of power — and liberal and wise grants of territory — on other occasions they seemed rather the results of some disordered dream, than the sober dictates of royal reason. For example, what has been termed " the most ancient American state paper of England,"* was a patent or charter granted by Henry VH. to John Cabot," em- powering Cabot himself and his three sons or either of them, their heirs or their deputies, to sail into the eastern, western or northern sea, with a fleet of five ships at their own proper expense and charges ; to search for islands, countries, provinces, or regions hitherto unseen by Christian people; to affix the banners of England on any city, island, or continent, that they might find; and as vassals of the English Crown, to possess and occupy the territories discovered." ♦ ♦ ♦ The exclusive right of frequenting all the countries that might be found was reserved unconditionally and without limit of time " to the family of the Cabots and their * Bancroft, History of the United States of America, vol. i. p. 9, and note 1. ti MODE OF ESTAlliaSIIING A HKi'TLEMENT. 117 assigns." A wilder tlocuinent could hardly have boen devised, ha