E^

g^3-H

tALB UNIVERS:

NEW ENGLAND

AKD

THE WEST.

NEW ENGLAND

THE WEST,

BT R. W. HASKINS, A. M.

REPRINTED FROM THE BOSTON, (mASS.,) ATLAS.

BUFFALO:
A. W. WILGUS.
1843.

NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST

NUMBER L
Buffalo, October, 1842.
To the Editors ofthe Boston Atlos,
Gentlemen: Since the chain of railroad between Buffalo
and Boston has in some sort blended the interests of those
two cities, and connected the latter, and with it all New
England, through the former, with the boundless West, it is
not irrational to assume that this state of things must have
created advantages which only require developing to result in
lasting and mutual benefits.
I propose, then, with your permission, to spread before
the people of New England, through your columns, such
facts and circumstances as seem most intimately to interest
those people, in the new and important business relations in
which they are now, for the first time, placed, to all that
vast region of country known as the valley of the Great
Lakes, together with no inconsiderable portion of the valleys
ofthe Ohio and Mississippi. This I purpose to accomplish —
as the subject is too e.xtended for a single communication — in
a series of numbers upon New England and the West,
at such intervals as leisure and other circumstances shall
permit, in the confident belief that both interest and utility
may well be hopeJ'to result from an examination of the
mutual relations and mutual dependencies arising from tho
geological, geographical and climacteric conditiims of two

4 .S'BW ENGLAND AND THB WEST.
such extensive and vastly dissimilar districts of our common
Union, as New England and those portions of the great
West which have been enumerated, and which have now
become, for all the practical purposes of business, and almost
for those of social intercourse, identical, through the direct
and resistless agency of Science applied to the Arts.

NUMBER II.
BaFFALO, October, 1842.
There is yet but a small portion of any community, pro
bably, which fully appreciates how extensive and irresistible
a control geological characteristics exercise over the popu
lation, wealth, and character of the people — the de.stiny, in
short, of the various habitable portions of our globe. Yet,
not only are the producing capabilities of the soil of any
given region controlled by its geology, but its topographical
conformation, and consequently its climate, to a considera
ble degree, are no less dependent upon this. For the demon
stration of these facts, the ably scientific, and highly useful
labors of Prof. Hitchcock, Dr. Jackson, Prof. Silliman, and
other worthy sons of New England, have recently contribu
ted much, by drawing the attention of our Eastern neighbors
to the unerring data upon which they rest, and the means
that may be employed for their available practical applica
tion. The redundantly siliceous character of a large portion of
the soil of New England — a necessary consequence of tho
vast extent of her mountains of primary rocks — fixes, for
this soil, a comparatively low average capability of produc
tion. This is most prominently true in regard to some of
the leading products of human consumption, and particularly
of wheat. When our forefatherl'drr't opened the soil of
New England to tillage, encouraging crops of wheat were,
for a short time, produced from it; but some of the compo-

NEW aSGLAND AND THE WEST. 5
nents of a legitimate wheat soil — as lime, for instance — be
ing present there in but minute quantity, were soon exhaust
ed; and, in the absence of these, the capability of the soil,
for this crop, was dq^troyed; while for others, almost equally
important, such capability was materially lessened.
The direct and necessary consequence of this, of course,
must be to keep down the agricultural population of the re
gion in question to a corresponding comparatively low ave
rage. But the geological characteristics to which reference
has been made, while they deprived the soil of New England
of the power of high productiveness, are precisely those
which have given, to the topography of that region, a con
formation scarcely less important and valuable, in its con
sequences. The elevated ranges of primary mountains, with
the numerous spurs thrown off by these, in all directions,
throughout New England, so break up the surface of the
country into a multitude of limited rainsheds, as to give rise
to a vast number of streams; while the altitude of those ran
ges, above the level of the sea, is such as to repeat, at short
intervals, upon every stream, in its course to the ocean,
cascades and wnterfalls, whose easy convertibility to the
purposes of motive power, for machinery, was too palpable
to be overlooked. By blending, therefore, vvith the murmur
of these cascades the ceaseless hum of machinery, through
the investment of capital, and the application of native inge
nuity, it was seen that a large population, beyond that which
the soil could be made to sustain, might be profitably em
ployed, and respectably maintained. This was attempted:
and from small beginnings, the manufacturing interest of
New England has grown to one of numerous millions, in
amount, bestowing employment and comforts upon thousands
who, but for this, would be forced to seek sustenance in
other climes. Yet all which has thus far been done, in this
way, constitutes only a commencement, as it were; so that,
although the agricultural population of New England seems
not destined to any very considerable increase, yet the

6 NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST.
growth of her manufacturing interests, and, consequently,
of her manufacturing population, admits of no assignable
limit. Wilh a full knowledge of the present, therefore, and
a clear and just conception of the future, have the energies
of Massachusetts, particularly, been applied to the attain
ment, by Railroad, through a region not available for canal,
of a direct communication, (which, though but just comple
ted, is already a thoroughfare,) with the great and luxuriant
West — that West which now is, and long must continue, as
will subsequently be shown, at once the granary of New
England, and the consumer of the products of her handi
work.

NUMBER in.
Buffalo, October, 1842.
When the great Erie Canal, for uniting the tide waters of
the Hudson River with the chain of Western Lakes, was
first proposed, and even when the undertaking of its con
struction had been entered upon, few thought of consequences
from it so momentous as even those already realized. To
such minds as that of Clinton, and a few others, these con
sequences were, indeed, present; but by those who saw thus
clearly, these visions were revealed only in whispers, and
then but to chosen ears; for they were so far in advance of
public opinion, as to be deemed too wild for sanity to enter
tain; and there was great danger, therefore, that all would
be lost, by claiming too much, whereby general confidence
would be withdrawn from the undertaking, and its prosecu
tion thereby abandoned.
'Prior to the construction of this work, the counties along
the shores of the Hudson, and those occupying the rich val
ley of the Mohawk, were deemed the essential agricultural
portions of the State of New York, which, in truth, they
then really were; and when the Finni]facturii).E- interest be-

NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST. 7
gan, as previously shown, these small portions of eastern
New York constituted all that, lying west of New England,
was so known as to be much counted upon, either as a field
whence to draw sustenance, or in which to seek a market
for mechanical products. But it began to be known that
there lay a region beyond this, upon the West, and within
the great chain of Western Lakes, which, could communi
cation be had with it, would become one of great productive
ness. It was familiarly called "the Genesee country;" and
in New England, in the days of my boyhood, was indefi
nitely known as "the Genesees;" to which an occasional
adventurer, even then, wended his lonely way. This wild
and distant region was "the West" — the utmost West of
those days; and to open this indefinite realm to population
and to culture, by connecting it with a market, was one, and,
in the opinion of the many, the only result to be looked for
from the construction of the Erie Canal. At this day none
need be told how successful was the Erie Canal, in this its
first intent: for the forest-clothed "Genesee country" has
been converted, by it, into the present rich and populous
garden of western New York.
Here the primary rocks of New England no where pre
vail, but the whole geology is changed. Stratified rocks,
namely, lime stone, sand stone, and argillaceous shales pre
dominate, bearing upon them, of course, a soil partaking
largely of these materials. Geologically, these formations,
here, constitute the coal floor; and the soil resting upon them
is compounded of these identical earths which are inseparable
from grea{ productiveness, in the leading crops of the hus
bandman, and particularly that most essential one, wheat.
The opening of this new realm, so prolific in the staff of
life, to the Atlantic market, promptly created farther confi
dence in the manufacturing policy of New England, and
thereby gave an additional spring to that branch of her in
dustry, by providing for her a new granary, at her very
door, to supply the deficiencies of her own less energetic

8 NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST.
soil. Had the advantages ofthe Erie Canal begun and en
ded in this, as the many supposed they must, much would
certainly, even then, have been effectuated, abstractly; but
comparatively, these advantages are really diminutive. At
the completion of that work, sixteen years since, little was
either said or thought of any expected wheat crop west of
the State of New York. The vast wilds, as they then were,
of forest and prairie, which bordered the western chain of
Inland Seas, were as little counted upon, as are, at this mo
ment the forest regions upon the Columbia river. Thus un
known and neglected, it is not strange that the general nature
of the Valley of the Lakes should have been unknown also.
Its geology was almost wholly so; and, consequently, its
agricultural capabilities could not be anticipated. The Erie
Canal, fulfilling the high destiny assigned to it, by its au
thors, by opening an easy route to the lakes, soon covered
these hitherto solitary seas with vast fleets of water craft,
and thus, at once, removed all ditficulties in the way of
reaching, at pleasure, either in person, or with property,
the hitherto unbroken solitude lying adjacent to, and beyond
the great Western Lakes. These facilities soon produced a
current of emigration, from New England, and elsewhere,
to the west, which has grown broader and deeper, in each
succeeding year, and which is yet to reach its maximum at
some period still far distant in fhe future. Geological investi
gations, stimulated by the sudden growth of powerful States
within the wilds in question, have now shown us that the
new wheat field, thus opened to the market of thg Atlantic
coast, extends from the limits of the State of New York,
across the Mississippi, to the base of the Rocky Mountains,
on the west; and north to the regions of primary rocks, be
yond the boundary line of the United States. Throughout
all this vast territory, the general constituents of the soil are
the same; and these of the kinds and in the proportionate
quantities, best adapted to the richest productions in agricul
ture, generally, and particularly wheat.

NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST. 0
Of all this extended realm, which, in Europe, would con
stitute the surface of a large kingdom, only here and there
a spot has yet been occupied. By far the greater part is
still an unbroken wild; there being, at this moment, for ev
ery acre that has been subjected to tillage, very many whose
surface has never yet been disturbed. The capabilities,
then, of the realm in question, to receive and sustain agri
cultural population, are still incalculably great; and so, of
necessity, must be both the quantity of its future production
of raw material, and its consumption of manufactured pro
ducts.

NUMBER IV.
Buffalo, November, 1842.
I have endeavored, in former numbers, to point out the
reasons for supposing that the region of the West, to which
New England now stands so intimately allied as to consti
tute it, emphatically, part of herself, is one which, from its
geological character, is destined to support a very dense ag
ricultural population, and to render that population wealthy,
by the productions of its soil.
The topography of the realm in question is, of course,
like that of all others, controlled and modified by its geology.
The rainshed, which casts its waters into the great chain of
Western Lakes, is one of great extent, and of so gentle
slope as to admit, in many parts, of the construction of Ca
nals from the Lakes to great distances inland, wherever ri
vers, for the transit of property, are either not available, or
do not exist. When the Erie Canal had connected our in
land seas with the ocean, the full importance of opening
communications between these seas and the interior regions
adjacent, was promptly, and for the first time, realized. Ac
cordingly, in July ofthe very year, (1825,) in which New
York completed the "Pioneer Work," the Ohio Canal was
begun. This crosses the State of Ohio, from Cleaveland,
upon lake Erie, to the Ohio river, at Portsmouth, a distance

10 NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST.
of three hundred and ten miles; and has been finished some
years. The Wabash and Erie Canal, a gigantic work, ex
tending from the mouth of Maumee river, upon lake Erie,
across part of Ohio, and penetrating Indiana almost to its
western border, and there connecting the Wabash river with
lake Erie, has been some years in the progress of construc
tion, and is now on the eve of its final completion. Not less,
in both agricultural and commercial importance, than either
of the above, is the Michigan and Illinois Canal, which
unites the waters of lake Michigan to those of the Illinois'
river. This Canal comiTiences at Chicago, upon lake Mich
igan, and terminates in the Illinois river, fourteen miles be
low Ottawa — a distance, from the lake, of one hundred and
two miles; and from which point the Illinois river is naviga
ble to the Mississippi. This work, also, is now about to be
opened for navigation; and all three are destined to pour
vast streams of commerce and wealth into the chain of lakes
in which they terminate. Such, at least, is clearly demon
strated in the case of the only ono of the three that has yet
been tested by results; for these have confirmed far more
than all which theory had ever ventured to assume. The
Chain of Lakes in question is navigated by steamboats, ships,
and other craft, from Buffalo to Chicago, a distance embra
cing an inland sea coaSt of some fifteen hundred miles in
extent, exclusive of the shores of lake Superior, which is,
itself, the largest body of fresh water known upon the globe.
To this extent of natural navigation is added the artificial
works I have enumerated, and which operate as hut so many
prolongations of the Erie Canal. A region as favored by
soil and climate as the one under consideration, lacked only
an opening to a market, to commence its career of greatness.
This, by the Erie and other Canals, which have been men
tioned, aided by numerous Railroads and rivers, as well as
the Great Lakes themselves, has been effected, and hence
forth the course of this portion of the Union is onward, to
the completion of its high destiny.

NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST. 11
It may not be amiss, here, to advert to the position in re
gard to the low limit of populatjon of "the country of the
lakes," that it is sometimes assumed will necessarily be fix
ed by the extent of its prairies, and the consequent want of
fuel. This assumption is conceived in error — as not only do
the prairies produce timber, in profusion, and with great ra
pidity, when planted, but the very region under considera
tion embraces the largest fossil coal field, or rather collec
tion of coal fields, in the known world. Its extent is, in
length, one thousand five hundred miles, and in breadth, six
hundred miles — and having an area of nine hundred thou
sand square miles. Throughout this vast realm, at short
intervals, coal is found, in profusion. It occurs, indeed, in
an exhaustless quantity, and is, in general, of an excellent
quality, being bituminous, and, in many of the beds, so pure
as to be fit for use, in the smitheries, without coking. The
average thickness of the principal beds of coal, is from four
to six feet; while, in some situations, they are ten feet or
more: the beds are free from the dislocations and faults
which so much impede the operations of the miners in other
coal districts, and particularly those of England. The great
peculiarity of the structure of the coal strata in this region
is, that they are, in general, nearly horizontal, having only
sufficient inclination to drain off the water. Many of the
beds are situated above the level of the rivers, and may be
traced round the sides of the hills, at the same elevation, or
nearly so, upon every side. "This circumstance gives an
amazing advantage in working the mines, as no perpendicu
lar shafts are necessary to reach the coal, but passages can
be cut through it, from one side of the hill to the other; and
the expense of lifting the coal from the depth of seven and
eight hundred feet, as well as that of pumping all the accu
mulating water from that distance beneath the surface, as is
most frequently required, in the best English coal mines, is
altogether avoided. Beside this advantage, the proprietors
can ascertain accurately, without boring, and with scarcely

12 NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST.
any expense, the exact thickness of each bed of coal, before
they commence mining operations." Few of the beds have
yet been much worked, as their products have not been
largely demanded; but the supply is equal to the wants of
any population which the country can receive. Beds of this
fossil were cut through in excavating the Ohio Canal: and
the route of the Michigan and Illinois Canal, in the midst of
the rich prairie region, back from Chicago, lies direcdy
through vast supplies of this; while geological researches
are daily disclosing other localities still, where chance or or
dinary domestic arrangements had not before detected its
presence. From these ancient fossil vegetable deposits, so
indispensably important to a country dependent on steam
navigation for much of its prosperity, not only will the mil
lions that are one day to people the soil which covers them
be supplied with fuel, but the immense demand for firing,
created by the fleets of steamboats that will ever be in active
employment, in ministering to the wants of these millions,
will, in like manner, be answered: and when all this shall
have continued for generations — yea, for centuries, there
will still be no lack of supply.

NUMBER V.
Buffalo, November, 1842.
The following statistical details, obtained from the census
of 1840, will be found to accord with, and fully sustain, the
geological differences and influences whioh have been point
ed out; and they will perhaps present, in the most striking
form at my coramand, the importance, present and prospec
tive, of the intimate relations which have so recently sprung
up between New England and the West.
I include, as legitimately belonging to the lake district,
and as carrying on their commerce through the lakes and
the Erie canal, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and
Wisconsin. Portions of some of these, 1 know, do not re-

NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST. 13
sort to the lake thoroughfare; but there are portions of other
states, not here enumerated, which do thus resort, and which
may be set down as their equivalent. The population of
these six States and Territories is given, in the census of
1840, at 2,967,940. The six New England States, at the
same period, 2,234,822. Here is a fraction of difference,
and that in favor of the West, in population; while the ter
ritory of this last exceeds, many times, that of all New Eng
land, in extent. A comparison of the principal, or leading
animal and vegetable productions of the two regions in ques
tion, follows, as next in order.

THE WEST.
Neat Horses
Cattle. & Mules. Hogs.
2,717,636 987,471 5,670,796
Bushels Bushels Pounds of
Wheat. Corn. Wool.
26,480,346 88,520,881 5,756,632

NEW ENLJIND.
Neat Horses
Cattle. & Mules. Hogs.
1,545,273 269,660 748,768
Bushels Bushels Pounds of
Wheat. Corn. Wool.
2,014,123 6,992,909 8,440,909

Here is a disparity, which, considering the sparse popula
tion of the West, though it may startle at first, is of the
highest value as indicating the true and wholesome policy of
each of these two regions of our Union. In the several
items of neat cattle, horses, hogs, wheat, and corn, the dis
parity is so greatly in favor of the West, that there is not
the most distant prospect that New England could ever cor
rect it, even should the West remain stationary in its present
population. But, as that population now is, and must long
continue to be, on the increase, and at a very rapid ratio,
too, the excess of the West, in these, no less than in minor
items, is to augment, in a constantly increasing ratio, so
long as there remains any portion of the vast and fertile val
ley of the lakes unoccupied and unreclaimed.
In the item of wool, the West is more than two millions of
pounds behind New England; and many of your readers, I
am well aware, will not wonder at this, but will only mar
vel that the West should have produced over five millions of
pounds, or even any of this important raw material. There
are circumstances connected with this feature of my subject

14 NEW ENGLAND AND THB WEST.
which should not be overlooked. It must be borne in mind,
that this West was but recently without white inhabitants,
and that even now, but a very small portion of it has them;
and to those familiar with this matter, I need not dwell upon
the difficulties of rearing and preserving sheep, in a country
thinly inhabited, and thronged with beasts of prey. Again,
there is a widespread opinion, in the United States, that
sheep can only prosper in mountainous districts. This was
imbibed from English books; and so slavishly have we ad
hered to English teachings, in this, no less than in a thou
sand other particulars, that the false dogma in question has
materially retarded the introduction of sheep into numerous
regions that are now found to be well adapted to their pros
perity. At the close of the war with England, in 1814, the Eng
lish found that manufacturing had been making some pro
gress, in this country, during the contest, and so much un
easiness was felt upon the subject, that it speedily found its
way into the English Parliament. Here investigations dis
closed the fact, that we had progressed much farther in the
production of the cotton, than the woollen fabrics; and this
was consolingly accounted for, by the assumption that we
could never compete with England in this last, "because,"
said a grave member of that legislative body, "sheep can
never be produced in America, on account of the climate;
the north being too cold, and the south too hot." It was
suggested to the transatlantic statesman, by the then editor
of Niles' Register, that his assumed premises seemingly im
plied the contingent of an intermediate climate, of befitting
temperature! The introduction, into the United States, of those varieties
of sheep which produce the finest samples of wool, was ma--
terially hastened, soon after the event just related, through
the activity of that inordinate avarice which sometimes con
fers lasting benefits upon others, while it punishes the author
of its indulgence by disappointment, and pecuniary loss.

NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST. 15
America, reasoned the gloating disciple of Plutus, must re
ward with sudden riches that enterprise which first plants in
her fields the nucleus of future flocks. The fine wooled va
rieties of sheep, were, therefore, imported; and the very
extravagance of the sums demanded for them, by adding
imaginary consequence fo the fact of their presence, only
hastened their sale. One thousand dollars was often paid,
for a single sheep, and sometimes even much larger sums;
and this stimulated exertion, both for their increase and
their preservation. Of course, the reign of this mania, for
such it was, was short; and utter pecuniary ruin to some,
and less serious losses to others, were the necessary conse
quences of such a state of things. But these were not the
only consequences; for, while, in mercantile phrase, "the
enterprise was not successful," the country became stocked
with the finest varieties of sheep, and thus had the founda
tion of her future greatness and independence, in the impor
tant branch of industry to which this tends, most securely
laid. A mania, all parallel to this, and which scattered
millions of the Morus Multicaulis through the United States,
has but just subsided; and although pecuniary disasters ne
cessarily followed the irrational manner in which the busi
ness was pursued, still, its final results will be reaped in rich
harvests of silk, in future years.
With the inordinate price of choice sheep, aided by the
limited extent of the region to which their profitable produc-
ton was supposed to be confined, the price of wool rose so
much that, had the point it reached been maintained, it must
have retarded its consumption. But this, again, stimulated
production, and perhaps had no little agency in first planting
sheep upon the Western Prairies. Be that as it may, the
supposed monopoly, and its attendant fluctuations, are now
both at an end, and wool will henceforth be so profusely
produced in the United States, notwithstanding the sage pre
diction beyond sea, that dependence will hereafter be placed,
as in wheat, upon quantity, rather than exorbitant profits,

16 NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST.
for remunerating compensation. The causes which have
tended to keep the supply of Western wool below the ave
rage of other products, have been pointed out. from their
very nature, these were temporary in their operation, and
have already ceased to be felt. The census of 1850, there
fore, will show us an excess of wool, in favor of the West,
greater than the average excess of the above table, and thus
demonstrate, to all who are not before convinced of the fact,
that New England is to depend scarcely less upon the West,
in future years, for the raw materials of her woollen fabrics,
than for her supply of breadstuffs, or the sale of her manu
factures.

NUMBER VI.
Buffalo, November, 1842.
I have hitherto spoken of the West as an agricultural re
gion, and suoh its geology, as we have seen, has destined it
to be. The upheaval of that portion of our continent, from
the bottom of the ancient ocean, in which its rocks wer© all
formed, was marked by so much gentleness, and suoh a to
tal absence of all violent commotion, that its stratified rocks,*
for the most part, are still neariy horizontal, and present,
comparatively, very few fractures, or dislocations of the
strata. Over these rocks the vast accumulations of trans
ported materials are spread, forming surfaces gently incli
ned, only, and, for the most part, destitute of mountains,
properly so called. Rainsheds of vast extent are thus crea
ted, along the faces of which the streams have formed for
themselves, by denudation, deep beds, in which they pursue
their sluggish courses to the Lakes or the Mississippi, upon
inclinations so gentle and uniform, as to afford few opportu
nities of applying their waters as motive power. To this
general character of the region in question, there are, of
course, individual exceptions; but these are scarcely more
numerous than will be required for occupancy, for the more

NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST. 17
immediate purposes of a people strictly agricultural. The
excess, if any there should be, over this, will all be absorbed
by the peculiar claims upon water power which are yet to
be noticed.
The demand for motive power wherewith to reduce the
annually accumulating wheat crop of the West, to flour, is
yearly augmenting, and, as will be readily seen, is still to
augment, so long as the crop itself shall continue progres
sive; a period, as has already been shown, which is still so
distant in the future, as to be wholly conjectural. Aside from
this truly exorbitant demand, there ai'e others, arising from
the richness of the West in some of the most valuable of the
known metals. Within the region under consideration, the
last census shows the production of forty-four thousand two
hundred and ninety-four tuns of cast and wrought iron; and
of twenty-four millions four hundred eighty-four thousand
three hundred and fifty pounds of lead. The preparation of
these, from their ores, constitutes, even now, a heavy de
mand for water power; and, like that before described, this
demand must grow with the business which creates it. The
lead region is mostly embraced within a space of eighty-
seven by fifty-four miles — or an area of about four thousand
seven hundred square miles. This section of the country
may be characterised as rolling, and the streams, therefore,
are more broken in' their courses, and, consequently, more
available for giving motion to machinery. Still, there can
ultimately be none of this ^.vailibility to spare, for either the
spindle or the loom; for this lead region is not like so many
mineral localities, in various parts of the world, destitute of
high agricultural capabilities. One who has recently exami
ned its geology, with care, thus speaks of it: "To treat of
all the resources of this favored region, besides its lead, and
copper, and iron ores, would demand the limits of a volume,
rather than an article for a scientific journal. Blessed with
a delightful climate, rich soil, fine streams, its surface and
natural growth admirably adapted to grazing, it promises

18 NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST.
soon to become the most important of the great Western
country. Its inhabitants are industrious and enterprising,
and the emigrants that are gradually filling the territory [of
Wisconsin] are principally hard working farmers, from the
Eastern States."
Iron is scattered in profusion over nearly all this portion
of the West; the quantity stated above having been derived
from all the States and Territories embraced in these esti'
mates, except Iowa. Most of it, it is true, was from Ohio,
because Ohio has been longer settled, and, therefore, has
her resources somewhat more developed. Both these
branches of industry can be considered only as yet in their
infancy, in common with all else around them: but if the
foot, only, of the unknown be yet thrust forward to our view,
we are still in no danger of mistaking it for what it is not^
since the articulations it exhibits unerringly demonstrate
that it can be none other than the foot of a youthful Hei^
cules. Coal, it has been shown, is abundant, in the West, and,.
as yet, is but little mined. Within the region here embra
ced, the census before referred to, gives four millions one
hundred . eighty-one thousand six hundred and thirty-six
bushels, as the total product of the beds then wrought.
Much of this is consumed as firing for steamboats, several
of these upon the lakes having substitute'd it for wood. To
raise this quantity of coal, has diverted from the pursuit of
agriculture, only two hundred and eighty-one persons. This
statement may seem faulty to those who, accustomed to look
across the Atlantic for data, of every kind, are much better
acquainted with England than with their own country, and
consequently are quite familiar with the great depth of the
English coal mines, and, therefore, with the vast amount of
labor which is necessary to raise the coal they contain. Such
persons, if any there are, have only to learn, that certain
geological formations, or series of rocks, which cover the
Coal, in England, so many hundred feet, are wanting: over

NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST. 19
the coal fields of the West, and that, consequently, the coal
is there left near the surface, where it is obtained wilhout
deep mining, as previously shown, and of course, with but
little labor, and but slight expense.
Domestic salt, from native brine springs, remains to be
mentioned. The authority so often cited, gives three hun
dred twenty-three thousand seven hundred and fifty bushels
of salt, as the product of these springs.
The mineral andWossil wealth thus extracted from the
earth, though capable of augmentation to an almost unlimi
ted extent, is not destined, like the spindle, the loom, and
the machine shop, to withdraw a large portion of the popu
lation from the pursuits of agriculture. On the contrary,
these ruder forms of creating value from raw material, while
they all require the aid of but few laborers, and a limited
supply of the rudest machinery, some of them make large
requisitions upon the water power of the country where they
are carried on; and these, added to the still more extended
demand of this power, for the annual conversion of the wheat
crop into flour, as previously specified, will thus absorb this
power, in the limited extent that it exists at the West, and
that, too, without causing any perceptible diminution of ag-
jicultural employment. So of consumption. The few thus
taken from the tillage of the soil, will, it is true, consume of
the products of that soil, without producing provisions from
it, but the proportionate quantity thus consumed will be so
small as scarcely to be able to figure in the most minute de
tails of Political Economy.
It follows, then, that the West in question, is to be and re
main, essentially, an agricultural section of the Union. It
has been shown, from geological data, that the region here
designated, is one which is to maintain, in the tillage of its
soil, an exceedingly dense population, who will draw from
that soil, the most ample means of commanding both the
comforts and the luxuries of life. If correct views have been
"entertained, in the premises, it is manifest t\is.t j^anufactur-

20 NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST.
ing is 'never to constitute a leading feature of this West, but
that, with the exception of some of the coarser forms of
this, as already detailed, there will be neither water power,
nor other inducements to the attempt. On the contrary,
every incentive does, and, it would seem, must ever operate
against such an undertaking. The abundant wealth that
may be rapidly secured in the fields, and, of course,
without it, the difficulties of carrying it on, if attempted,
from geological causes, already poinfad out, and the cer
tainty and ease with which a market is at all times accessi
ble, from which may promptly be obtained every thing re
quired, in the manufactured form, in exchange for the sur
plus products of the soil of the West — these constitute so
many certain barriers to any general or extended attempt to
render this West a manufacturing region. But, although
the West is not to manufacture for herself, she is to be a
giant consumer; and, for reasons already pointed out, she
must be a rich, and, therefore, a paying customer, to indeed
a vast amount, to some other realm; and since, by means of
canals and railroads, both matter and space have been tri
umphed over, where can this recently sequestered and unre
claimed region, now teeming with life, industry and growth,
so readily and so profitably look for a market, both for
purchase and for sale, as to New England? All the physi
cal conditions with whioh the West is allied, constitute so
many distinct answers, that she is to look, in the first in
stance, no where else — while those which control the des
tiny of New England, as clearly point out this West, as the
source whence she is to derive, not only the employment of
her future augmented manufacturing population, . but also
much of the raw material upon which to bestow that em
ployment, no less than the food upon which such population
is to be subsisted.

NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST. 21
NUMBER VII.
Buffalo, November, 1842.
It has already been shown, that, in a given geographical
position, the nature and conformation of the soil, which re
sult, mainly, from geological causes, settle and determine
the principal questions of the existence of a people, with
their manners and their habits, no less than the rank which
the section of the globe that these occupy, is to enjoy upon
the theatre of the world. It is not, therefore, a nearly
uniform climate which constitutes Upper India, Persia, Asia
Minor, Syria, Greece, Italy, the South of Germany and of
France, and all the Iberic Peninsula, a distinct physical re
gion; but it is, rather, the uniformity of their geological con
stitution, now well understood, from Lisbon fo Libanus, and
from the eastern slopes of the Imaus to fhe points where the
chains of the Pyrenees, the Spanish and Portuguese moun
tains, are lost in the Atlantic. It was for this reason, that,
in the migrations of human tribes, within the realms in ques
tion, after crossing the elevated ranges which presented in
their course, these tribe.s again found the same climate, the
same qualities of soil, the same forms and a.spects, the sarae
productions, and all the physical circumstances which they
had left behind, and which exercise so powerful an influence
over a people in fhe infancy of civilization.
But, if these causes direct — within certain limits — semino-
madic tribes in their wanderings, and determine them in their
final settlements, their control is still more direct and impe
rious wherever the business of the husbandman is pursued.
Nor is the agency of geological causes less apparent in the
founding and building up of cities, within a country, than in
, determining its regions of greatest agricultural population.
From the combined agency of these last, is drawn the ele
ments of a nation's wealth; and the topography of the coun
try adjacent to them, is ever decisive of the question, with
whom, and through what channels, the commerce of these is
to be carried on.

23 NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST.
It is in this view, only, that Buffalo — since she forms no ex
ception to the general rule — is to be considered, in common
with other cities, if just and valid conclusions, in regard to the
future, are either sought, or hoped for. The application of
steam to the purposes of navigation, has hastened, by, perr
haps, one hundred years, the settlement of the valley of the
Mississippi: it has also had its agency in the peopling of
that of the Lakes. But, in this last, something more than
steamboats was required. This chain of Inland Seas was
not in navigable connexion with the less favored soils of the
East. The shores of these waters, therefore, though cove
red with a soil of giant strength, remained, for the most part,
a solitude; while the waters themselves were traversed only
by the canoe of the savage. The topography of the adjacent
regions pointed out the route of the Erie Canal; and that great
Work was completed. This connected Buffalo with tide wa
ter; but still, such connexion was insufficient to call forth
the present city. The West was still unpeopled; but it was
now open to settlement: steam and sails, both usurped the
place of the canoe, and through their agency, the Eastern
emigrant could reach the West; and its soil would promptly
sustain him, when once there. A current of emigration,
therefore, though weak and contracted, at first, now began
to set in upon the West, through the Erie Canal and the
Lakes; and as, through those thus planted there, the capa
bilities of the realm became gradually disclosed, this current
both deepened and widened, from year to year, until it swel
led from a rivulet to a river, and from a river to a broad
sweeping ocean, bearing, upon its laboring tide, the thou
sands who daily cast themselves upon its waters, that these
might waft them to the haven of their hopes — the wild, but,
luxuriant and teeming West. The over rapid augmentation
of this Colony — since such, for all the purposes of political
economy, the new settlement must be considered — at a peri
od so soon after its commencement, produced the inevitable
result in this, as in all similar cases, namely, the demand

NEW ENGLAND AND THE WE.ST. 23
for subsistence outran the supply; and provisions, so far
from being produced in profusion, for export, were, for a
time, obliged to be furnished from older settled portions of
the country, to sustain this rapid accumulation, until fhe oc
cupants had time so far to cultivate tbe soil as to make it
yield a quantity of food more than sufficient for their own
support, and which, consequently, they could divide with
those whose more recent arrival left them still dependent
upon extraneous supplies.
During the entire progress of these events, and with all it
had been able to accomplish before, Buffalo, by its utmost
efforts, had only struggled its way upward, in tho scale of
being, to the character of a scattering and unthrifty hamlet.
In both population and business, it was Ihen exceeded by
numerous inland villages, which have since dwindled away
and been forgotten, as their short lived energies have been
gradually absorbed by the spreading and overshadowing effi-
ciences of more commanding positions. And all this, of
necessity, was so; for the West, as yet, yielded nothing to
Buffalo — and without the West she was already all she ever
could be. In other words, had the soil of that West been
identical with that of New England, for instance, and could
it have retained the same topography it now presents, the site
of Buffalo must have remained without pavements, or even
streets in which to lay them; while such ofits surface as is now
covered with buildings, or thronged by busy thousands, each
eager in his vocation, would have been still, and through an
indefinite future must have continued, either the lounge ofthe
vagrant Indian, or, at best, but the pasturage of his Cau
casian supplanter. While the West, then, consumed all, or
more than all that she produced, and hence yielded nothing
for market or exchange, Buffalo lacked the creative princi
ple that was to give her being; but her developement could
not be delayed beyond the period when the energies of that
West began to be manifested. The proofs of all this we

24

NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST.

have, in the annals of the past; and they are valuable, as
affording data for the future.
The following table exhibits the commerce of Buffalo
from 1815 to 1827, inclusive, being for thirteen consecutive
years:

Years. 1815,1816,1817,l818,1819, 1820,1821,

No. of arrivals
and departures. 64 80
100
100 96
120 150

No

of arrivals

Years.

and departures

1822, .

200

1823, .

236

1824, .

2S6
1825, .
355
1826, .
418
1827, .
572
At the close of this period the total number of American
vessels, of all descriptions, employed in the^ commerce of
Erie and the Upper Lakes, was onXj fifty-three, with an ag
gregate burden of but 3611 tuns.
This meagre exhibit is in keeping with the population,
which, in 1825, was ascertained to be constituted of no more
than 2412 souls. This last, it will be observed,' was the
year of the completion of the Erie Canal; and the above
table of Qommerce extends through the first two years of
the canal business.
Without troubling the reader with the yearly details, to
the present moment, the whole question will be as fully sat
isfied by contrasting these meagre items with the business of
the past year, namely, 1841. Retaining, then, the same
order of arrangement as above, the arrivals occupy the first
place. The whole number of these, at Buffalo, in 1841,
was two thousand six hundred and forty-five; and the de
partures the sarae. The nuraber of vessels, of all kinds,
employed in this trade, I have not the means to determine,
but their aggregate burden, as per register, was thirty-nine
thousand and fifty tuns. Of the vessels, two ships, nine
brigs, fifty-three schooners, and twenty-four steamboats — to-
NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST.

26

tal, eighty-eight, of the aggregate burden oi fourteen thou
sand nine hundred and ninety-three tuns — were enrolled and
registered on the books of the Custom House of the District
of Buffalo Creek.* The tunnage of Buffalo has since been
augmented, and is now 17,198 tuns. The value of the im
ports broughf hither, by the fifty-three vessels of the year
1827, has not been preserved. That it was but trifling, is
shown by the diminutive size of the craft themselves — their
average giving but a fraction over sixty-eight tuns for each —
and the recollection of those then resident here, namely, that
the chief business upon the Lakes, at that period, was to
convey emigrants to their destination-, and that return cargoes
were then comparatively rare.
The following table exhibits some of the more leading
articles of our imports, for the year 1841;

Articles.

Quantity.

Barrels Flour,

730,040

Bushels Wheat, .

. 1,635,000

Packs Furs,

4,186

Kegs Butter and Lard, .

40,346

Staves, ....

. 7,860,000

Casks Whiskey, .

19,038

do. Seed,

8,288

do. Bacon,

3,779

do. Pot and Pearl Ashes, .

6,660

Barrels Pork, . . . .

11,752

Bushels Corn, . . . ¦

201,031

Feet Lumber, . . . •

8,000,000

Hides, 

17,538

Barrels Lake Fish,

3,501

Dozens Brooms, .

5,507

Bushels Oats,

14,144

Tuns Coal,

300

Bushels Rye,

• . 2,150

• Distumell's Gazetteer of New York, a valuat^le work, published du
ring the present year, erroneously slates this at 4,91b tuns.
4

26 NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST.
To this must be added a large amount of non-enumerated
articles, as iron, lead, castings, cheese, wool, &c., the de
tailed table of which is omitted, as too prolix, and as unne
cessary. The total value of the whole domestic imports,
for the year, was ten millions of dollars. It is worthy of
particular remark, that, of the above items, seventy-five
thousand barrels of flour, five hundred thousand bushels of
wheat, fen thousand bushels of corn, and ten thousand casks
of whiskey, were received from the shores of Lake Michi
gan — being a surplus from the very region, which, only five
years previously, was importing breadstuffs and provisions
for the consumption of its own recently arrived emigrants.
One item only, namely, that of population, remains for com
parison. We have seen that in 1825, with the same canal,
and the same extent of navigable coast, upon the chain of
Western Lakes, that is now possessed, Buffalo contained a
population of 2,412; in 1840, fhe United States' census gave
its population at 18,213.
No doubt, then, can longer be entertained that the geology
of the West, and the topography which geology has given
to its adjacent regions, now does, and must ever continue to
form, the only true basis of every sane estimate of fhe value
of each foot of business land in Buffalo, whether upon her
wharves or the adjacent streets: and, since the connexion
of Boston wilh fhe West, in the manner that has been shown,
though the same influence will be less, of course, upon her
real estate, yet, the man who shall omit this influencej in
estimates of Boston property, will have neglected one of the
essential contingents of the proposition he is considering;

NEW ENGLAND AND THB WEST. 27
NUMBER VIII.
Buffalo, November, 1842.
I have thus far treated of the mutual relations, dependen
cies and capabilities of New England and the West; and
these have been designated by reference to their producing
and controlling causes. By these 1 have shown that New
England does not possess the requisites for a large augmen
tation of her ag^ricwZ^MraZ population; and consequently, that,
without easy communication with some more highly favored
agricultural realm, her maximum of growth and population
are already very nearly reached. On the other hand, it has
been demonstrated, that, if possessing easy communication
with such realm, her growth, in both population and wealth,
through her manufacturing interest, can, at this day, have
no assignable limit.
I have farther, in the next place, shown New England to
be now in possesaom of these identical, contingent means of
permanent prosperity and future greatness, by its con
nexion with the West. This West, the reader has seen,
is, in all its native efficiences, the antipode of New England,
and therefore, the two are relatively dependent, each upon
the other; and hence it is only by the maintenance of the
relation in question that each is to enjoy its highest degree
of advancement. None need be told that, when the inter
est of the parties is thus reciprocal, and as well understood
as in this instance, the relation and intercourse will remain
permanently undisturbed. There remains something to be
said of the point of meeting, and of the manner of inter
change, for these two antipodal realms.
The reader has already seen thaf fhe agency of geologi
cal causes is no less apparent in the founding and building
up of cities, within a country, than in determining its re-
'gions of greatest agricultural population; and he has also
been shown that the geology of the West, and the topogra
phy of it, and the adjacent portions of country— being a

28 NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST.
geological result — established the necessity of a navigable
connexion between the great Western Lakes and tide water,
and at the same time determined the route by which such
connexion was fo be formed. These causes fixed both the
site and the character of fhe city of Buffalo; and the same
agencies have been no less efficient in determining that New
England should connect, as she has, with the great West,
only at this city, It thus becomes a legitimate inquiry, for
New England, how far the controlling destinies of Buffalo
are to perpetuate her future growth, and render permanent
her prosperity. For fhe solution of these questions the data
is at command. The same causes which fixed fhe site of a
city at Buffalo, are those which control the future destiny
of that city. These are geology, and topography, its re
sulting consequence. The business, and consequently, the
permanent value of each foot of the soil of Buffalo, is de
termined, as previously shown, by the geology of the West.
We have, then, before us, the elements of thaf value. Tho
West, while rising from zero to its present two millions of
population, has made it what it now is; and the scale of
Western future augmentation, whatever that is fo be, is the
unerring scale by which this value is to be enhanced. So
long as the West shall increase in strength of numbers and
of wealth, will the augmentation of Buffalo, and the value
of her soil, continue progressive; and when this West shall
finally, in some future generation, become wholly filled up,
and its lands be all brought to their highest state of produc
tiveness, then will Buffalo become stationary in her growth —
and by the very means, too, that will, from that time onward,
ensure her permanent prosperity and exemption from all
future decay.
Natural causes, then, which are subject to no mental
caprice, combine to give growth to Buffalo, while the West
shall grow, and to its healthful perpetuity, so long thereafter
as the West itself shall be thus prosperously perpetuated;
and the like, and therefore equally unalterable causes havs

NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST. 29
constituted this city the grand entrepot for both the East and
the West; the point of trans-shipment, from one mode of
conveyance fo another, and the mart where fhe crude pro-
ductions of the West first seek a purchaser, upon their tran
sit to the sea coast — in short, the dividing line between fhe
ocean navigation- of fhe lakes, on the one hand, and that of
artificial conveyance upon the other; of the ships and steam
boats ofthe former, and the canal boats and railroad trains
of the latter. The point of meeting, then, between New
England and the West is, by physical causes, and hence
by mutual interest, fixed at Buffalo. New England and
the West are, already, extensive consumers, each for
the other; and yet fhe arrangements are but just now
completed for the first personal interview between these
parties: hitherto their intercourse has been conducted wholly
through fhe brokerage of third persons. It is at Buffalo that
the Western consumer for New England seeks a market for
his bread-stuffs and his wool; and it is there that he no less
seeks returns for these, in the handiwork of the East. None
better understand, than do the sons of New England, the
advantages of buying at first hands; and it is at Buffalo, only,
that, in Western trade, they can do so. This point once
passed, and a new profit must be added fo produce, by each
successive hand through which it passes, in its transit to the
consumer. In like manner, the legitimate Western customer
of New England, if not met at Buffalo, the common point of
concentration, becomes, in his wanderings, the customer,
perhaps of England or France, instead; and for the same
results of skill, too, with which New England seeks to sup
ply him. New England, then, by placing her warehouges
of manufactured goods at Buffalo, will there meet her legiti
mate Western customer, and thus amply providing against
foreign competition, supply his demands; for which supply
she will receive, through the warehousemen, in return, and
from first hands, the provisions furnished by the West, that
are destined to be consumed along the watercourses of her

30 NEW EI^GLAND AND THE WEST.
own granite hills. Buffalo and Boston, Lowell, &c., and
even Portland, Me., are now connected by a continuous
chain of Railroad — for the fifteen miles, only, which are
not yet in operation will be completed in a month — and the
intercourse between these places, therefore, will sutler no
interruption throughout the year. The transit of the mails,
and of persons, between Boston and Buffalo, is now con
stantly effectuated in a less period than forty-eight hours;
and upon any emergency, intelligence may be transmitted
from either of these cities to the other, probably, in some
fifteen or twenty hours. The double facilities of the canal,
in its season, and of Railroad at all times, for the convey
ance of property — of merchandise — leave nothing to be de
sired, (except, indeed, the enlargement of the Erie Canal,)
in aid of these, to augment the advantages now so fully en
joyed. What the character and present commercial and mer
cantile value is, of the point that has been thus reached,
and which it now only remains thus to occupy, the reader
has found the data for determining, in the details that have
been submitted for his consideration; and what the future
value, in these particulars, is to be, he has also, in some de
gree, at least, the facts that must constitute the basis of all
just estimates. If the West, with its population of two mil
Uons, and in a year of general depression, has furnished to
Buffalo a domestic import trade, as the reader has .seen that
it has, of ten millions of dollars in value, what value will
the same realm yield, as the population, within its borders,
shall gradually augment to five, ten, fifteen and twenty mil-
Ijjpns, as in future time it is destined to do, and that too,
without finding a limit at the last mentioned number ?
Having spoken of Buffalo as the distributing point, for the
products of New England, destined for sale and consump
tion in the West, and furnished some of the data for com
puting the immense amount which such distribution is des
tined to reach, there remain a few other points of impor-

NEW ENGLAND AND THB WEST. 81
tance, for consideration. The eariy settlement and long
continued prosperous industry of New England have accu
mulated capital in the hands of her citizens, beyond what
is now demanded for the further development of her native
resources. But Buffalo, on the contrary, is of far too recent
origin to be thus circumstanced; and, furthermore, has pe
culiar features in the elements of her augmentation, that are
not to be overlooked. To create, from Nature's rudeness,
the town; its places of business and of residence; its halls
of justice, and its temples of worship; to execute its ample
provisions, thus early made, with an enlarged and liberal
policy, for the founding of its benificent system of Free
Schools; to construct its portion of so extensive a mercantile
marine as we have seen Buffalo constantly employs; and to
maintain, and, as they require, to augment all these, for a
town of so recent creation, constantly absorbs so heavy an
amount of capital as to leave no sufficiency for the numer
ous other developments, which, though second to these, in
importance, are still of vital moment, in a legitimate busi
ness sense. Having already seen what Buffalo was in
1825 — seventeen years since — the reader is, of course, pre--
pared to expect that such a period of time has been wholly
insufficient to the creation of capital equal in amount to the
development of every facility appendant to the growth and
business that he has seen detailed. From the permanent in
vestments above specified, capital cannot be withdrawn for
application in the more fioafing forms of employment: and
hence property, in really gigantic quantities, is constantly
thrown upon us, both for sale, and for the procurement of
advances, that is, of necessity, refused, for lack of the funds
which are indispensable to the operation. In illustration of
this, and as additional to what has already been exhibited,
upon this head, I may cite the case now before me as one in
point. There have been imported at Buffalo, one hundred
and thirty-seven thousand bushels of wheat, and upwards of
forty thousand barrels of flour, with proportionate quants-

32 NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST.
ties of corn, wool, provisions, &c., all within the twenty-four
hours in which I am now icriting; and within the week of
which this day forms part, the amount ofthe same items re
ceived at this port, was, of wheat, 182,100 bushels; flour,
64,449 barrels; with 13,300 bushels of corn, 2,121 barrels
beef, 4,820 kegs butter, 2,000 casks and boxes chesse, &c.,
with proportionate amounts of miscellaneous articles. De
mands like this, for active capital, "can only be met, and fhe
profits resulting from them be secured, when, either the com
munity in which they occur has accumulated a surplus equal
to the emergency, or when the requisite amount can be ob
tained through banking facilities, whioh is not now the case
here, or from distant capitalists, who either seek the business
as an investment, or for the purpose of directing the pro
duce, in its onward course to the consumer, through some
specific and desired channel. The capital of New England,
which is seeking business employment, by being placed here
either as bank capital, under fhe general banking law ofthe
State of New York, or in any other legitimate business form,
would, then, it is evident, readily command, for New Eng
land, a vast amount of trade, which, if not secured at this
point, inevitably finds its way info other channels.
The importance, fo New England, of meeting her West
ern customers at Buffalo, and there securing that trade,
which, if suffered fo pass this point, will unavoidably be di
vided, and probably with foreigners, has been fully shown;
and the necessity of establishing warehouses of her manu
factured goods, as fhe feasible method of accomplishing this,
has been no less demonstrated. But, as forming exceptions
to this method, which, in general, is fhe only sane, and will
prove the only profitable one, there are three prominent
branches of manufacturing that New England must prose
cute, with her capital, at Buffalo, rather than at home, if
she would control the trade of the West in these. They are,
the manufacture of BOOTS and SHOES, GLASS, and
WHITE LEAD. The products of each of these branches

NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST. 33
of industry pertain to what are now classed among the ne
cessaries of life; and their consumption, therefore, is of con
stant and daily certainty.
In regard to the first named of these branches, it is hadly
probable that fhe first impressions of the reader will accord
with the position here assumed; for, as it is true of most
manufactured articles, that they can be produced cheaper in
New England than here, such, reasoning only from analogy,
would naturally be true of all. The rule, however, has its
limits, and it finds an exception in the case before us. The
most minute and careful estimates, by men every way whol
ly competent, in the case, namely. Shoe Manufacturers, of
New England — estimates, too, made here upon fhe spot, and
including the prices of rent, provisions, fuel, clothing, raw
material — every thing, in short, that can enter into the cost of
boots and shoes, have shown that such first impression is
wholly erroneous; and that wares of this description may be
manufactured, in Buffalo, yrom twenty to twenty-five per cent
CHEAPER than in New England. All that has been exhibited
in relation fo market, demand, &c., no less than upon the
divergence of trade into other channels, if not met at this
point, from the East, and thus secured, of course applies
equally to this business, if conducted here, as to those branch
es which shall be prosecuted in New England, the products
being sent hither for a market. He, therefore, who under-
standingly invests his funds in this business at Buffalo, will,
in the judicious prosecution of his pursuit, enjoy the advan
tage of the entire difference which has been exhibited, in
first cost, over his New England competitors — and which,
alone, in an extensive establishment, would constitute a high
ly satisfactory profit.
' The manufacture of wsite lead, and of glass, remain
lo be mentioned. These both become articles of prime ne
cessity, in every community, so soon as the first rude forms
of a primitive frontier settlement have passed away; and from
that period onward, the demand for thera both is ever aug-
5

34 NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST.
menting, so long as the region of their consumption increas
es either its population or its wealth. This point of incip
ient consumption is already past, by much of the Valley of
the Lakes — of that West, in short, which is concentrated at
Buffalo, in its search for a market — and the consumption,
therefore, of the articles in question, is so great, even now,
as to be apparently limited only by the imperfect extent of
the present supply. The causes whose combined agency,
as already shown, create a want of capital among us, have
alone prevented the establishment, here, ere this, of exten
sive manufactories of both these articles; for it is well un
derstood, and duly appreciated, by those who have given the
subject their attention, that there is not, in the United States,
a point where extensive investments, properly made, and ju
diciously managed, would yield a more certain and constant
profit, in any business, than such investment in these two
brances of manufacturing, at Buffalo. The history of most
of the white lead now sold here is curious, and fully illus
trates one of those anomalies which sometimes exist in bu
siness operations, by reason of the want of development of
local facilities. The reader has already seen where the ga
lena, from which the metal is obtained that furni^cs this
pigment, is first mined. From these mines, either by the
long circuit of New Orleans, or through the Lakes and the
Erie Canal — in' which last case it passes along the whole
Valley of the Lakes, and directly through this city — such
rnetal, in the form of pigs, seeks our Northern Atlantic
coast; here its progress is stayed until the process of con- i
verting it into a subcarbonato of lead can be performed,
which is no sooner done, than it is returned here, through
the Erie Canal, to be vended for ultimate consumption!
With glass, fhe case is hardly as extravagant; but still, this
is all brought from distant glass houses, at a heavy cost of
transportation, and a greater or less loss, by breakage: while
in these methods of supplying our market wilh the two ar
ticles in question. New England has but trifling interest.

NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST. 35
and perhaps still less direct agency. And yet, by investing
her capital in their production, here, the whole of this vast
and growing business is at her command; for against such
production, no competition from abroad could be maintained.
Establishments of this kind, placed directly lipon the water,
where not only all their fuel, but every article of raw mate
rial would reach them without the cost of cartage — a serious
item, in articles so ponderous — and they would enjoy facili
ties which no known point could equal. For glass, the ma
terials are at command; while lead, as before stated, is daily
hrought to port from the West; and in all cases the manu
factured products would be shipped directly from the dock
ofthe company, whether their destination were for inferior
New York, by the canal, or by vessels, to any point upon
the Western lakes. Here, too, when wood can no longer
be consumed with economy, coal, no less than wood, arri
ving by water, would be cheaply supplied, at the very p9int
where its consumption would be required. Every facility
exists for the erection of these establishments, upon still
unoccupied water fronts, upon the harbor; while the cart-
cartage, that would be thus saved, would alone constitute no
inconsiderable item of profits to the proprietors. But, al
though, as previously observed, these facilities are fully un
derstood, and appreciated, here, yet, for reasons already
before the reader, if they are to wait the application of resi
dent capital for their development, the period of such devel
opment must needs be still far distant; and yet a certain and
rich harvest awaits those capitalists who shall answer, now,
the urgent calls of the market, for immediate, extensive and
constant supply.

Reader, I proposed, at the commencement of these essays,
to spread before you such facts and circuiDstances as seemed
most intimately to interest the people of New England, in
the new and important business relations, in which they have
just been placed to the great and prolific West, through the

36 NEW ENGLAND AND THE WEST.
direct agency of Science applied to the Arts, in the construc
tion of railroads and canals; and to point out the mutual
relations and dependencies of the two regions in question,
arising from the dissimilarity of their geology: and having
accomplished this, so far as the limited method of treating
the subject which I have adopted will permit, I here dismiss
the subject — not without indulging the hope that I have con
tributed something to that species of preliminary knowledge
which it is every where found so essentially important to
possess, if we would ensure desired practical results.

YALE UNIVERSITY

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YALE

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