A Ramble of Six Thousand Miles through the United States of America Part 8

The expenditures for the same year were 24,585,281 55

viz.

Civil list, foreign intercourse, and miscellaneous 3,237,416 04

Military service, including fortifications, ordnance, Indian affairs, pensions, arming the militia, and internal improvements 6,752,688 66

Naval service, including sums appropriated to the gradual improvement of the navy[14] 3,239,428 63

Public debt 11,355,748 22 _____________

Leaving a balance in the treasury on the 1st of January, 1831, of 6,014,539 75

_Public Debt_.

Dollars. Cts.

The payments made on account of the Public Debt, during the first three quarters of the year 1831, amounted to 9,883,479 46

It was estimated that the payments to be made in the fourth quarter of the same year, would amount to 6,205,810 21 ______________ Making the whole amount of disbursments on account of the Debt in 1831 16,089,289 67

THE PUBLIC DEBT, ON THE SECOND OF JANUARY, 1832, WILL BE AS FOLLOWS, VIZ.;--

1. _Funded Debt_.

Dollars. Cts.

Three per cents, per act of the 4th of August, 1790, redeemable at the pleasure of government 13,296,626 21

Five per cents, per act of the 3rd of March, 1821, redeemable after the 1st January, 1823 4,735,296 30

Five per cents, (exchanged), per act of 20th of April, 1823; one third redeemable annually after 31st of December, 1830, 1831 and 1832 56,704 77

Four and half per cents.

per act of the 24th of May, 1824, redeemable after 1st of January, 1832 1,739,524 01

Four and half per cents.

(exchanged), per act of the 26th of May, 1824; one half redeemable after the 31st day of December, 1832 4,454,727 95 ______________ 24,282,879 24

2. _Unfunded Debt_.

Registered Debt, being claims registered prior to the year 1793, for services and supplies during the revolutionary war 27,919 85

Treasury notes 7,116 00

Mississippi stock 4,320 09 ______________ 39,355 94

Making the whole amount of the Public Debt of the United States 24,322,235 18 ______________

Which is, allowing 480 cents to the sovereign, in sterling money 5,067,132 6_s_. 7_d_.

General Jackson has proposed another source of national revenue, in the establishment of a bank; the profits of which, instead of going into the pockets of stock-holders as at present, should be placed to the credit of the nation. If an establishment of this nature could be formed, without involving higher interests than the mere pecuniary concerns of the country, no doubt it would be most desirable. But how a _government_ bank could be so formed as that it should not throw immense and dangerous influence into the hands of the executive, appears difficult to determine.

If it be at all connected with the government, the executive must exercise an extensive authority over its affairs; and in that case, the mercantile portion of the community would lie completely under the surveillance of the president, who might at pleasure exercise this immense patronage to forward private political designs. No doubt there have been abuses to a considerable extent practised by the present bank of the United States in the exercise of its functions; but how those abuses are likely to be remedied by Jackson's plan, does not appear. For, let the directors be appointed by government, or elected by congress, they must still exercise discretional power; and they are quite as likely to exercise it unwarrantably as those who have a direct interest in the prosperity of the concern. I totally disapprove of the attempt to correct the abuses of one monopoly by the establishment of another in its stead, of a still more dangerous character; and I am inclined to think that if two banks were chartered instead of one, each having ample capital to insure public confidence, compet.i.tion alone would furnish a sufficient motive to induce them to act with justice and liberality towards the public.

In 1766, Kentucky was first explored, by John Finlay, an Indian trader, Colonel Daniel Boon, and others. They again visited it in 1769, when the whole party, excepting Boon, were slain by the Indians--he escaped, and reached North Carolina, where he then resided. Accompanied by about forty expert hunters, comprised in five families, in the year 1775, he set forward to make a settlement in the country. They erected a fort on the banks of the Kentucky river, and being joined by several other adventurers, they finally succeeded. The Kentuckians tell of many a b.l.o.o.d.y battle fought by these pioneers, and boast that their country has been gained, every inch, by conquest.

The climate of Kentucky is favourable to the growth of hemp, flax, tobacco, and all kinds of grain. The greater portion of the soil is rich loam, black, or mixed with reddish earth, generally to the depth of five or six feet, on a limestone bottom. The produce of corn is about sixty bushels on an average per acre, and of wheat about thirty-five; cotton is partially cultivated. The scenery is varied, and the country well watered.

The Kentuckians all carry large pocket knives, which they never fail to use in a scuffle; and you may see a gentleman seated at the tavern door, balanced on two legs of a chair, picking his teeth with a knife, the blade of which is full six inches long, or cutting the benches, posts, or any thing else that may lie within his reach. Notwithstanding this, the Kentuckians are by no means more quarrelsome than any other people of the western states; and they are vastly less so than the people of Ireland.

But when they do commence hostilities, they fight with great bitterness, as do most Americans, biting, gouging, and cutting unrelentingly.

I never went into a court-house in the west _in summer_, without observing that the judges and lawyers had their feet invariably placed upon the desks before them, and raised much higher than their heads. This, however, is only in the western country; for in the courts at Orleans, New York, and Philadelphia, the greatest order and regularity is observed. I had been told that the judges often slept upon the bench; but I must confess, that although I have entered court-houses at all seasons during the s.p.a.ce of fifteen months, I never saw an instance of it. I have frequently remonstrated with the Americans, on the total absence of forms and ceremonies in their courts of justice, and was commonly answered by "Yes, that may be quite necessary in England, in order to overawe a parcel of ignorant creatures, who have no share in making the laws; but with us, a man's a man, whether he have a silk gown on him or not; and I guess he can decide quite as well without a big wig as with one. You see, we have done with wiggery of all kinds; and if one of our judges were to wear such an appendage, he'd be taken for a merry-andrew, and the court would become a kind of show-box--instead of such arrangements producing with us solemnity, they would produce nothing but laughter, and the greatest possible irregularity."

I was present at an election in the interior of the state. The office was that of representative in the state legislature, and the candidates were a hatter and a saddler; the former was also a militia major, and a Methodist preacher, of the Percival and Gordon school, who eschewed the devil and all the backsliding abominations of the flesh, as in duty bound. Sundry "stump orations" were delivered on the occasion, for the enlightenment of the electors; and towards the close of the proceedings, by way of an appropriate finale, the aforesaid triune-citizen and another gentleman, had a gouging sc.r.a.pe on the hustings. The major in this contest proved himself to be a true Kentuckian; that is, half a horse, and half an alligator; which contributed not a little to ensure his return. After the election, I was conversing with one of the most violent opponents of the successful candidate, and remarked to him, that I supposed he would rally his forces at the next election to put out the major: he replied, "I can't tell that!" I said, "why? will you not oppose him?" "Oh!" he says, "for that matter, he may do his duty pretty well." "And do you mean to say,"

continued I, "that if he should do so, you will give him no opposition?"

He looked at me, as if he did not clearly comprehend, and said, "Why, I guess not."

The boatmen of the Ohio and Mississippi are the most riotous and lawless set of people in America, and the least inclined to submit to the const.i.tuted authorities. At Cincinnati I saw one of those persons arrested, on the wharf, for debt. He seemed little inclined to submit; as, could he contrive to escape to the opposite sh.o.r.e, he was safe. He called upon his companions in the flat-boat, who came instantly to his a.s.sistance, and were apparently ready to rescue him from the clutches of this trans-Atlantic b.u.m-bailiff. The constable instantly pulled out--not a pistol, but a small piece of paper, and said, "I take him in the name of the States." The messmates of this unfortunate navigator looked at him for some time, and then one of them said drily, "I guess you must go with the constable." Subsequently, at New York, one evening returning to my hotel, I heard a row in a tavern, and wis.h.i.+ng to see the process of capturing refractory citizens, I entered with some other persons. The constable was there unsupported by any of his brethren, and it seemed to me to be morally impossible that, without a.s.sistance, he could take half a dozen fellows, who were with difficulty restrained from whipping each other.

However, his hand seemed to be as potent as the famous magic wand of Armida, for on placing it on the shoulders of the combatants, they fell into the ranks, and marched off with him as quietly as if they had been sheep. The rationale of the matter is this: those men had all exercised the franchise, if not in the election of these very constables, of others, and they therefore not only considered it to be their duty to support the constable's authority, but actually felt a strong inclination to do so. Because they _knew_ that the authority he exercised was only delegated to him by themselves, and that, in resisting him, they would resist their own sovereignty. Even in large towns in the western country, the constable has no men under his command, but always finds most powerful allies in the citizens themselves, whenever a lawless scoundrel, or a culprit is to be captured.

At Flemingsburg I saw an Albino, a female about fourteen years old. Her parents were clear negros, of the Congo or Guinea race, and in every thing but colour she perfectly resembled them. Her form, face, and hair, possessed the true negro characteristics--curved s.h.i.+ns, projecting jaw, retreating forehead, and woolly head. The skin was rather whiter than that of the generality of Europeans, but was deficient in glossiness, and although perfectly smooth, had a dry appearance. The wool on the head was of a light flaxen colour, and the iris of the eye was of a reddish-blue tinge. Her eyes were so weak as to bear with difficulty the glare of day.

Most Albinos are dim sighted until twilight, when they appear to have as perfect vision as persons with the strongest sight, and in many cases, even more acute. This individual had evidently weak sight, as the eyelids were generally half closed, and she always held her head down during day light.

Near the banks of the Ohio, full three hundred miles from the sea, I found conglomerations of marine sh.e.l.ls, mixed with siliceous earth; and in nearly all the runs throughout Kentucky, limestone pebbles are found, bearing the perfect impressions of the interior of sh.e.l.ls. The most abundant proofs are every where exhibited, that at one period the vast savannahs and lofty mountains of the New world were submerged; and perhaps the present bed of the ocean was once covered with verdure, and the seat of the sorrows and joys of myriads of human beings, who erected cities, and built pyramids, and monuments, which Time has long since swept away, and wrapt in his eternal mantle of oblivion. That a constant, but almost imperceptible change is hourly taking place in the earth's surface, appears to be established; and independent of the extraordinary _boulevers.e.m.e.nts_, which have at intervals convulsed our globe, this gradual revolution has produced, and will produce again, a total alteration in the face of nature.

FOOTNOTES:

[14] Amongst other plans to this effect, there is one proposed, by which mids.h.i.+pmen on half-pay will be obliged to make at least two voyages annually, in merchant s.h.i.+ps, as mates, and all others must have done so, in order to ent.i.tle them to be reinstated in their former rank. Another is, that there shall be small vessels, rigged and fitted out in war style, appropriated to the purpose of teaching pupils, practically, the science of navigation, and the discipline necessary to be observed on board vessels of war. The Americans may not eat their fish with silver forks, nor lave their fingers in the most approved style; yet they are by no means so contemptible a people as some of our small gentry affect to think. They may too, occasionally, be put down in political argument, by the dogmatical method of the quarter-deck; but I must confess that _I_ never was so fortunate as to come in contact with any who reasoned so badly as the persons Captain Bazil Hall introduces in his book.

CHAPTER IX.

The wailings of the Cherokee, the Choctaw, and the Creek, may have been wafted across the waters of the great salt lake, and the Pale-face in his own land may have heard their lamentations;--but the distant voice is scattered by the pa.s.sing winds, and is heard like the whisper of a summer breeze as it steals along the prairies of the west, or the cry of the wish-ton-wish as it faintly reaches the ear of the navigator, when, in the stilly night, he floats down "the old father of waters."

The present posture of Indian affairs, and the peculiar situation of the Indian nations east of the Mississippi, have caused that unfortunate people to be the topic of much political controversy and conversation; a succinct account of the political condition of these tribes, and of the policy which has been pursued, and which is being pursued towards them, by the executive government, may not therefore be uninteresting.

When Georgia, by becoming a member of the Union, ceded part of her sovereignty to the general executive, that government acknowledged her claimed limits, and guaranteed to her the protection of the Union against foreign and domestic violence. Subsequently, in the year of 1802, in consideration of a certain portion of lands ceded, the United States became bound to purchase for Georgia, any claim which the Cherokee nation might have on lands within her boundaries, whenever such purchase could be made on reasonable terms. On these positions are based the Georgian claims, which the United States government has. .h.i.therto pleaded inability to satisfy, inasmuch as all efforts to purchase the Indian lands have proved fruitless.

After the lapse of twenty-seven years, Georgia, finding herself precisely in the same condition in which she then stood, has determined on forcibly taking possession of the Cherokee lands, and extending her sovereignty over the Cherokee people. But as this cannot be effected without doing manifest violence to the Indian rights, she brings forward arguments to show, that _she_ never acknowledged the independence of the Cherokee nation; that that nation, from the time of the first settlement made by Europeans in America, stood in the position of a conquered people; that the sovereignty consequently dwelt in the hands of Great Britain; and that, on the Declaration of independence, Georgia, by becoming a free state, became invested with all the powers of sovereignty claimed or exercised by Great Britain over the Georgian territory: and further, that in November, 1785, when the first and only treaty was concluded with the Cherokees by the United States, during the articles of confederation, both she and North Carolina entered their solemn protests against this alleged violation of their legislative rights. The executive government pretends not to argue the case with Georgia, and is left no alternative but either to annul its _conditional_ treaty with that state, or to cancel _thirteen distinct treaties_ entered into with the Indians, despoil them of their lands, and rob them of their independence. Jackson's message says, "It is too late to inquire whether it was just in the United States to include them and their territory within bounds of new states, whose limits they could control. That step cannot be retracted. A state cannot be dismembered by Congress, or restrained in the exercise of her const.i.tutional powers." Here the executive government acknowledges that it made promises to Georgia, which it has been unable to perform--that it guaranteed to that state the possession of lands over which it had no legitimate control, on the mere a.s.sumption of being able to make their purchase.

The Cherokees in their pet.i.tion and memorials to Congress show, that Great Britain never exercised any sovereignty over them;--that in peace and in war she always treated them as a free people, and never a.s.sumed to herself the right of interfering with their internal government:--that in every treaty made with them by the United States, their sovereignty and total independence are clearly acknowledged, and that they have ever been considered as a distinct nation, exercising all the privileges and immunities enjoyed by any independent people. They say, "In addition to that first of all rights, the right of inheritance and peaceable possession, we have the faith and pledge of the United States, over and over again, in treaties made at various times. By these treaties our rights as a separate people are distinctly acknowledged, and guarantees given that they shall be secured and protected. So we have also understood the treaties. The conduct of the government towards us, from its organization until very lately--the talks given to our beloved men by the Presidents of the United States--and the speeches of the agents and commissioners--all concur to show that we are not mistaken in our interpretation. Some of our beloved men who signed the treaties are still living, and their testimony tends to the same conclusion." * * * * "In what light shall we view the conduct of the United States and Georgia in their intercourse with us, in urging us to enter into treaties and cede lands? If we were but tenants at will, why was it necessary that our consent must first be obtained before these governments could take lawful possession of our lands? The answer is obvious. These governments perfectly understand our rights--our right to the country, and our right to self-government. Our understanding of the treaties is further supported by the intercourse law of the United States, which prohibits all encroachment on our territory."