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 The Project Gutenberg eBook of
Society in America, Volume 2 (of 2)
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOCIETY IN

AMERICA, VOLUME 2 (OF 2) ***
 Ann Street, June, 1837.
MESSRS. SAUNDERS AND OTLEY,
HAVE NOW READY THE FOLLOWING
IMPORTANT NEW WORKS.
I.
Mrs. Butler's New Work.
THE STAR OF SEVILLE,
A DRAMA IN 5 ACTS,
BY MRS. PIERCE BUTLER.
(Late Miss Fanny Kemble.)
II.
Mr. Willis's Poems.
MELANIE, AND OTHER POEMS
BY N. P. WILLIS, ESQ.
Illustrated by a beautifully Engraved Portrait.
III.
Mrs. Jameson's Illustrated Work.
CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMEN:
MORAL, POETICAL AND HISTORICAL.
BY MRS. JAMESON.
Illustrated by a series of her own Vignette Etchings.
IV.
Lady Blessington's New Work.
 THE VICTIMS OF SOCIETY.
BY THE COUNTESS OF BLESSINGTON.
V.
The Lafayette Papers.
MEMOIRS, CORRESPONDENCE AND OTHER
MANUSCRIPTS OF
GENERAL LAFAYETTE,
Edited by his Family.
This American Edition will include a series of Letters relating to the
Revolutionary War, not inserted in the London and Paris editions.
(Nearly Ready.)
VI.
Mrs. Shelley's New Work.
FALKNER—A NOVEL.
BY MRS. SHELLEY.
Authoress of "Frankenstein," "The Last Man," &c.
VII.
Mr. Dunlap's New Work.
MEMOIRS OF A WATER-DRINKER.
BY WILLIAM DUNLAP, ESQ.
Second Edition, in one vol.
VIII.
Mr. Grant's New Work.
 THE GREAT METROPOLIS.
BY THE AUTHOR OF
"Random Recollections of the Lords and Commons," &c
Fourth Edition.
IX.
Mr. Bulwer's New Drama:
THE DUCHESS DE LA VALLIERE
A Play in Five Acts.
Second Edition.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS.
I.
Miss Landon's New Work.
With a beautiful Portrait of the Author.
THE VOW OF THE PEACOCK.
II.
Miss Stickney's New Work.
THE POETRY OF LIFE.
By the Author of "Pictures of Private Life."
III.
Third Edition. Bound in Embossed Silk.
THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS
Revised by the Editor of the "Forget-me-Not."
(With the London colored Plates.)
IV.
THE INFIRMITIES OF GENIUS.
BY DR. MADDEN.
V.
CITATION OF WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE
TOUCHING DEER STEALING.
BY WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR, ESQ.
VI.
SONGS OF THE ALHAMBRA.
BY MISS L. B. SMITH.
VII.
MEMOIRS OF MRS. HEMANS,
BY H. F. CHORLEY.
2 vols. beautifully Illustrated.
VIII.
TOPOGRAPHY OF ROME & ITS VICINITY,
BY SIR WM. GELL.
With a Beautiful Map to the above.
IX.
ON CIVILIZATION, &c.
 BY THE HON. A. H. MORETON.
X.
ADVENTURES OF A GENTLEMAN
IN SEARCH OF A HORSE.
Illustrated by Cruickshank.
XI.
LUCIEN BONAPARTE'S MEMOIRS
(Prince of Canino.)
WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.
XII.
HAZLITT'S LITERARY REMAINS,
EDITED BY E. L. BULWER, ESQ.
1 vol. with a Portrait.
XIII.
MADRID, IN 1835,
BY AN OFFICER.
With beautiful Plates.
XIV.
THE CONTINENT IN 1835.
BY PROFESSOR HOPPUS.
XV.
SIR GRENVILLE TEMPLE'S NEW WORK
 (Travels in Greece and Turkey.)
2 vols. plates.
XVI.
ADVENTURES IN THE NORTH OF EUROPE
BY EDWARD LANDOR, ESQ.
2 vols. plates.
XVII.
NEW WORK ON FLOWERS.
(The Floral Telegraph.)
With the London Colored Plates.
XVIII.
TOUR OF A GERMAN ARTIST IN ENGLAND
BY M. PASSAVANT.
2 vols. with Plates.
XIX.
VISIT TO ALEXANDRIA, DAMASCUS AND JERUSALEM,
BY DR. HOGG.
2 vols. Plates.
XX.
RECORDS OF TRAVELS
IN TURKEY, GREECE, &c.:
BY ADOLPHUS SLADE, ESQ.
 XXI.
Captain Glascock's New Work.
THE NAVAL SERVICE.
XXII.
Mr. Willis's New Work.
INKLINGS OF ADVENTURE.
BY N. P. WILLIS, ESQ.
Third Edition.
XXIII.
THE CHEVY CHACE.
Illustrated in a series of beautiful Etchings.
BY J. FRANKLIN, ESQ.
XXIV.
RETZCH'S FANCIES.
A series of Etchings, with Notes
BY MRS. JAMESON.
XXV.
THE MESSIAH—A POEM.
BY THE REV. J. MONTGOMERY.

In eight handsomely-printed Volumes, with additional

Notes and Illustrations.
 WITH BEAUTIFUL ENGRAVINGS, BY THE FINDENS.
From Drawings taken on the spot, expressly for the Work.
THE
LIFE AND WORKS OF COWPER.
THE FIRST AND ONLY COMPLETE AND UNIFORM EDITION.
INCLUDING
THE WHOLE OF HIS PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE.
REVISED, ARRANGED, AND EDITED,
BY THE REV. T. S. GRIMSHAWE,
Author of the "Life of the Rev. Legh Richmond."
WITH
AN ESSAY ON THE GENIUS AND POETRY OF COWPER,
BY THE REV. J. W. CUNNINGHAM.
Vicar of Harrow.

"The works of Cowper need no recommendation; they are

incorporated into our living literature, and will be read as long
as men shall read for amusement, or to gather wisdom, of
which no poet is a greater teacher. The peculiar merit of the
present edition is, that it is the only one which can contain the
whole of Cowper's Private Correspondence. It being copyright
and exclusively appropriated to this edition."—Courier.
"The handsomest specimen of modern standard works that we
have yet seen."—Monthly Review.
"Of the manner in which this edition has been produced, we
can hardly speak too highly. The type, the embellishments, and
the whole getting up, are excellent. The peculiar facility with
which the Editor has made the poet tell his own story, has
stamped upon this edition an intrinsic value which nothing can
surpass."—Metropolitan.

SPLENDIDLY EMBELLISHED.
THE BOOK OF GEMS.
(The Poets and Artists of Great Britain.)
WITH UPWARDS OF
FIFTY BEAUTIFUL ENGRAVINGS
FROM
ORIGINAL PICTURES,
BY FIFTY LIVING PAINTERS.

This beautiful Work, which is a perfect novelty among the

embellished publications of the day, presents the combined
attractions of Poetry, Painting, and Engraving. It is splendidly
illustrated with upwards of Fifty exquisitely finished Engravings
from Original Pictures by the most distinguished living Painters,
and altogether forms one of the most beautiful library,
drawing-room, and present books which the advanced state of
the Arts has hitherto produced.
Critical Notices.
"The Book of Gems seems too fair to be looked upon,
combining all those external decorations which made the
Annuals so attractive with something far better than the vapid
prose and milk-and-water poetry of which their staple generally
consisted. It is a book more lovely to the sense than the most
gorgeous of the tribe of Souvenirs and Forget-me-nots; and
unlike them, it will be as valuable twenty years hence as it is
now. The very conception of such a book deserves no little
praise, and its execution the very highest. For its combined
attractions to the man of taste and the lover of art, this work
has no rivals in the annals of book making."—American
Monthly Mag.
"This is, in all respects, so beautiful a book, that it would be
scarcely possible to suggest an improvement. Its contents are
not for a year, nor for an age, but for all time."—Examiner.
"The plan of this beautiful and splendid work is as admirable as
it is novel."—Literary Gazette.
"This sumptuous book has not less than fifty-three
illustrations."—Athenæum.
"The Pleasure-book of the year—a treasury of sweets and
beauties."—Atlas.
A few Proof Impressions of the Splendid Illustrations to the above
work may still be had.

SOCIETY IN AMERICA

BY

HARRIET MARTINEAU,
AUTHOR OF "ILLUSTRATIONS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY."
 IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

NEW YORK
SAUNDERS AND OTLEY, ANN STREET,
AND CONDUIT STREET, LONDON.
1837.
 CONTENTS.
VOL. II.

PART II.—CHAPTER II.

Page
Transports and Markets 1
Section I. —Internal Improvements 29
CHAPTER III.
Manufactures 37
Section I. —The Tariff 46
II. —Manufacturing Labor 53
CHAPTER IV.
Commerce 64
Section I. —The Currency 76
II. —Revenue and Expenditure 88
CHAPTER V.
Morals of Economy 92
Section I. —Morals of Slavery 106
II. —Morals of Manufactures 136
III.—Morals of Commerce 141
——————
PART III.
Civilisation 149
CHAPTER I.
Idea Of Honour 155
Section I. —Caste 168
II. —Property 175
 III.—Intercourse 187
CHAPTER II.
Woman 226
Section I. —Marriage 236
II. —Occupation 245
III.—Health 260
CHAPTER III.
Children 268
CHAPTER IV.
Sufferers 281
CHAPTER V.
Utterance 300
——————
PART IV.
Religion 314
CHAPTER I.
Science of Religion 329
CHAPTER II.
Spirit of Religion 336
CHAPTER III.
Administration of Religion 348
Conclusion 367
Appendix 373

SOCIETY IN AMERICA
PART II.
CONTINUED.
 CHAPTER II.
TRANSPORT AND MARKETS.

"Science and Art urge on the useful toil;

New mould a climate, and create the soil.
On yielding Nature urge their new demands,
And ask not gifts, but tribute, at her hands."
Barbauld.

Nature has done so much for the United States in this article of their
economy, and has indicated so clearly what remained for human
hands to do, that it is very comprehensible to the traveller why this
new country so far transcends others of the same age in markets
and means of transport. The ports of the United States are,
singularly enough, scattered round the whole of their boundaries.
Besides those on the seaboard, there are many in the interior; on
the northern lakes, and on thousands of miles of deep rivers. No
nook in the country is at a despairing distance from a market; and
where the usual incentives to enterprise exist, the means of
transport are sure to be provided, in the proportion in which they are
wanted.
Even in the south, where, the element of wages being lost, and the
will of the labourer being lost with them, there are no adequate
means of executing even the best-conceived enterprises,[1] more
has been done than could have been expected under the
circumstances. The mail roads are still extremely bad. I found, in
travelling through the Carolinas and Georgia, that the drivers
consider themselves entitled to get on by any means they can
devise: that nobody helps and nobody hinders them. It was
constantly happening that the stage came to a stop on the brink of a
wide and a deep puddle, extending all across the road. The driver
helped himself, without scruple, to as many rails of the nearest fence
as might serve to fill up the bottom of the hole, or break our descent
into it. On inquiry, I found it was not probable that either road or
fence would be mended till both had gone to absolute destruction.
The traffic on these roads is so small, that the stranger feels himself
almost lost in the wilderness. In the course of several days' journey,
we saw, (with the exception of the wagons of a few encampments,)
only one vehicle besides our own. It was a stage returning from
Charleston. Our meeting in the forest was like the meeting of ships
at sea. We asked the passengers from the south for news from
Charleston and Europe; and they questioned us about the state of
politics at Washington. The eager vociferation of drivers and
passengers was such as is very unusual, out of exile. We were
desired to give up all thoughts of going by the eastern road to
Charleston. The road might be called impassable; and there was
nothing to eat by the way. So we described a circuit, by Camden and
Columbia.
An account of an actual day's journey will give the best idea of what
travelling is in such places. We had travelled from Richmond,
Virginia, the day before, (March 2nd, 1835,) and had not had any
rest, when, at midnight, we came to a river which had no bridge.
The "scow" had gone over with another stage, and we stood under
the stars for a long time; hardly less than an hour. The scow was
only just large enough to hold the coach and ourselves; so that it
was thought safest for the passengers to alight, and go on board on
foot. In this process, I found myself over the ankles in mud. A few
minutes after we had driven on again, on the opposite side of the
river, we had to get out to change coaches; after which we
proceeded, without accident, though very slowly, till daylight. Then
the stage sank down into a deep rut, and the horses struggled in
vain. We were informed that we were "mired," and must all get out.
I stood for some time to witness what is very pretty for once; but
wearisome when it occurs ten times a day. The driver carries an axe,
as a part of the stage apparatus. He cuts down a young tree, for a
lever, which is introduced under the nave of the sunken wheel; a log
serving for a block. The gentleman passengers all help; shouting to
the horses, which tug and scramble as vigorously as the gentlemen.
We ladies sometimes gave our humble assistance by blowing the
driver's horn. Sometimes a cluster of negroes would assemble from
a neighbouring plantation; and in extreme cases, they would bring a
horse, to add to our team. The rescue from the rut was effected in
any time from a quarter of an hour to two hours. This particular 3rd
of March, two hours were lost by this first mishap. It was very cold,
and I walked on alone, sure of not missing my road in a region
where there was no other. When I had proceeded two miles, I
stopped and looked around me. I was on a rising ground, with no
object whatever visible but the wild, black forest, extending on all
sides as far as I could see, and the red road cut through it, as
straight as an arrow, till it was lost behind a rising ground at either
extremity. I know nothing like it, except a Salvator Rosa I once saw.
The stage soon after took me up, and we proceeded fourteen miles
to breakfast. We were faint with hunger; but there was no
refreshment for us. The family breakfast had been long over, and
there was not a scrap of food in the house. We proceeded, till at one
o'clock we reached a private dwelling, where the good woman was
kind enough to provide dinner for us, though the family had dined.
She gave us a comfortable meal, and charged only a quarter dollar
each. She stands in all the party's books as a hospitable dame.
We had no sooner left her house than we had to get out to pass on
foot a bridge too crazy for us to venture over it in the carriage. Half
a mile before reaching the place where we were to have tea, the
thorough-brace broke, and we had to walk through a snow shower
to the inn. We had not proceeded above a quarter of a mile from
this place when the traces broke. After this, we were allowed to sit
still in the carriage till near seven in the morning, when we were
approaching Raleigh, North Carolina. We then saw a carriage "mired"
and deserted by driver and horses, but tenanted by some travellers
who had been waiting there since eight the evening before. While
we were pitying their fate, our vehicle once more sank into a rut. It
was, however, extricated in a short time, and we reached Raleigh in
safety.
It was worth undergoing a few travelling disasters to witness the
skill and temper of the drivers, and the inexhaustible good-nature of
the passengers. Men of business in any other part of the world
would be visibly annoyed by such delays as I have described; but in
America I never saw any gentleman's temper give way under these
accidents. Every one jumps out in a moment, and sets to work to
help the driver; every one has his joke, and, when it is over, the
ladies are sure to have the whole represented to them in its most
amusing light. One driver on this journey seemed to be a novice, or
in some way inferior in confidence to the rest. A gentleman of our
party chose to sit beside him on the box; and he declared that the
driver shut his eyes when we were coming to a hole; and that when
he called piteously on the passengers for help, it was because we
were taking aim at a deep rut. Usually, the confidence and skill of
the drivers were equally remarkable. If they thought the stage more
full than was convenient, they would sometimes try to alarm the
passengers, so as to induce some of them to remain for the next
stage; and it happened two or three times that a fat passenger or
two fell into the trap, and declined proceeding; but it was easy for
the experienced to see that the alarm was feigned. In such cases,
after a splash into water, in the dark, news would be heard from the
box that we were in the middle of a creek, and could not go a step,
back or forward, without being overturned into the water. Though
the assertion was disproved the next minute, it produced its effect.
Again, when the moon was going down early, and the lamps were
found to be, of course, out of order, and the gentlemen insisted on
buying candles by the road-side, and walking on in bad places, each
with a tallow light in his hand, the driver would let drop that, as we
had to be overturned before dawn, it did not much matter whether it
was now or later. After this, the stoutest of the company were
naturally left behind at the next stopping-place, and the driver
chuckled at the lightening of his load.
At the close of a troublesome journey in the south, we drew up, with
some noise, before a hotel, at three in the morning. The driver blew
a blast upon an execrable horn. Nobody seemed stirring. Slaves are
the most slow-moving people in the world, except upon occasion.
"What sleepy folks they are here!" exclaimed the driver.
Another blast on the horn, long and screeching.
"Never saw such people for sleeping. Music has no effect on 'em at
all. I shall have to try fire-arms."
Another blast.
"We've waked the watchman, however. That's something done."
Another blast.
"Never knew such people. Why, Lazarus was far easier to raise."
The best testimony that I can bear to the skill with which travelling
is conducted on such roads as these, and also in steam-boats, is the
fact that I travelled upwards of ten thousand miles in the United
States, by land and water, without accident. I was twice nearly
overturned; but never quite.
It has been seen what the mail routes are like in the south; and I
have mentioned that greater progress has been made in other
means of transport than might have been expected. I referred to the
new rail-roads which are being opened in various directions. I saw
few circumstances in the south with which I was so well pleased. By
the free communication which will thus be opened, much sectional
prejudice will be dispelled: the inferiority of slave to free labour will
be the more speedily brought home to every man's convictions; and
new settlers, abhorring slavery, will come in and mix with the
present population; be the laws regarding labour what they may.
The only rail-roads completed in the south, when I was there, were
the Charleston and Augusta one, two short ones in the States of
Alabama and Mississippi, and one of five miles from Lake
Pontchartrain to New Orleans. There is likely to be soon a
magnificent line from Charleston to Cincinnati; and the line from
Norfolk, Virginia, to New York, is now almost uninterrupted.
The quarter of an hour employed in reaching New Orleans from Lake
Pontchartrain was one of the most delightful seasons in all my
travels. My notion of a swamp was corrected for ever. It was the end
of April; and the flowering reeds and tropical shrubs made the whole
scene one gay garden. It was odd to be passing through a gay
garden on a rail-road. Green cypress grew out of the clear water
everywhere; and there were acres of blue and white iris; and a
thousand rich, unknown blossoms waving over the pools. A negro
here and there emerged from a flowery thicket, pushing himself on a
raft, or in a canoe, through the reeds. The sluggish bayou was on
one side; and here and there, a group of old French houses on the
other. It was like skimming, as one does in dreams, over the
meadows of Sicily, or the plains of Ceylon.
That which may be seen on either hand of the Charleston and
Augusta rail-road is scarcely less beautiful; but my journeys on it
were by far the most fatiguing of any I underwent in the country.
The motion and the noise are distracting. Whether this is owing to
its being built on piles, in many places; whether the fault is in the
ground or the construction, I do not know. Almost all the rail-road
travelling in America is very fatiguing and noisy. I was told that this
was chiefly owing to the roads being put to use as soon as finished,
instead of the work being left to settle for some months. How far
this is true, I do not pretend to say. The rail-roads which I saw in
progress were laid on wood instead of stone. The patentee
discovered that wood settles after frost more evenly than stone. The
original cost, in the State of New York, is about two thousand dollars
per mile.
One great inconvenience of the American rail-roads is that, from
wood being used for fuel, there is an incessant shower of large
sparks, destructive to dress and comfort, unless all the windows are
shut; which is impossible in warm weather. Some serious accidents
from fire have happened in this way; and, during my last trip on the
Columbia and Philadelphia rail-road, a lady in the car had a shawl
burned to destruction on her shoulders; and I found that my own
gown had thirteen holes in it; and my veil, with which I saved my
eyes, more than could be counted.
My first trip on the Charleston rail-road was more amusing than
prosperous. The arrangements were scarcely completed, and the
apparatus was then in a raw state. Our party left Columbia at seven
in the evening of the 9th of March, by stage, hoping to meet the rail-
road train at Branchville, sixty miles from Columbia, at eleven the
next morning, and to reach Charleston, sixty-two more, to dinner.
Towards morning, when the moon had set, the stage bumped
against something; and the driver declared that he must wait for the
day-spring, before he could proceed another step. When the dawn
brightened, we found that we had, as we supposed, missed our
passage by the train, for the sake of a stump about two inches
above the ground. We hastened breakfast at Orangeburg; and when
we got to Branchville, found we need have been in no hurry. The
train had not arrived; and, some little accident having happened, we
waited for it till near two o'clock.
I never saw an economical work of art harmonise so well with the
vastness of a natural scene, as here. From the piazza of the house at
Branchville, the forest fills the whole scene, with the rail-road
stretching through it, in a perfectly straight line, to the vanishing
point. The approaching train cannot be seen so far off as this. When
it appears, a black dot, marked by its wreath of smoke, it is
impossible to avoid watching it, growing and self-moving, till it stops
before the door. I cannot draw; but I could not help trying to make a
sketch of this, the largest and longest perspective I ever saw. We
were well employed for two hours in basking in the sun, noting the
mock-orange-trees before the house, the turkeys strutting, the
robins (twice as large as the English) hopping and flitting; and the
house, apparently just piled up of wood just cut from the forest.
Everything was as new as the rail-road. As it turned out, we should
have been better employed in dining; but we had no other idea than
of reaching Charleston in three or four hours.
For the first thirty-five miles, which we accomplished by half-past
four, we called it the most interesting rail-road we had ever been on.
The whole sixty-two miles was almost a dead level, the descent
being only two feet. Where pools, creeks, and gullies had to be
passed, the road was elevated on piles, and thence the look down
on an expanse of evergreens was beautiful. This is, probably, the
reason why three gentlemen went, a few days afterwards, to walk,
of all places, on the rail-road. When they were in the middle of one
of these elevated portions, where there is a width of only about
three inches on either side the tracks, they heard a shout, and
looking back, saw a train coming upon them with such speed as to
leave no hope that it could be stopped before it reached them.
There was no alternative; all three leaped down, upwards of twenty
feet, into the swamp, and escaped with a wetting, and with looking
exceedingly foolish in their own eyes.
At half-past four, our boiler sprang a leak, and there was an end of
our prosperity. In two hours, we hungry passengers were consoled
with the news that it was mended. But the same thing happened,
again and again; and always in the middle of a swamp, where we
could do nothing but sit still. The gentlemen tried to amuse
themselves with frog-hunting: but it was a poor resource. Once we
stopped before a comfortable-looking house, where a hot supper
was actually on the table; but we were not allowed to stop, even so
long as to get out. The gentlemen made a rush into the house to
see what they could get. One carried off a chicken entire, for his
party; another seized part of a turkey. Our gentlemen were not alert
enough. The old lady's table was cleared too quickly for them, and
quite to her own consternation. All that we, a party of five, had to
support us, was some strips of ham, pieces of dry bread, and three
sweet potatoes, all jumbled together in a handkerchief. Our thoughts
wandered back to this supper-table, an hour after, when we were
again sticking in the middle of a swamp. I had fallen asleep, (for it
was now the middle of a second night of travelling,) and was
awakened by such a din as I had never heard. I could not recollect
where I was; I looked out of the window, and saw, by the light of
the moon, white houses on the bank of the swamp, and the waving
shrubs of the forest; but the distracting din was like nothing earthly.
It presently struck me that we were being treated with a frog-
concert. It is worth hearing, for once, anything so unparalleled as
the knocking, ticking, creaking, and rattling, in every variety of key.
The swamp was as thick of noises as the forest is of leaves: but, five
minutes of the concert are enough; while a hundred years are not
enough of the forest. After many times stopping and proceeding, we
arrived at Charleston between four and five in the morning; and, it
being too early to disturb our friends, crept cold and weary to bed,
at the Planters' Hotel. It was well that all this happened in the month
of March. Three months later, such detention in the swamps by night
might have been the death of three-fourths of the passengers. I
have not heard of any mismanagement since the concern has been
put fairly in operation.
There are many rail-roads in Virginia, and a line to New York,
through Maryland and Delaware. There is in Kentucky a line from
Louisville to Lexington. But it is in Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode
Island, and Massachusetts, that they abound. All have succeeded so
admirably, that there is no doubt of the establishment of this means
of communication over nearly the whole of the United States, within
a few years, as by-ways to the great high-ways which Nature has
made to run through this vast country. The evil of a superabundance
of land in proportion to labour will thus be lessened so far, that there
will be an economy of time, and a facility of intercourse, which will
improve the intelligence of the country population. There will, also,
be a facility of finding out where new supplies of labour are most
wanted, and of supplying them. By advantageous employment for
small capitals being thus offered within bounds, it may also be
hoped that many will be prevented from straying into the wilderness.
The best friends of the moral as well as economical interests of the
Americans, will afford all possible encouragement to wise schemes
for the promotion of intercourse, especially between the north and
south.
I believe the best-constructed rail-road in the States is the Boston
and Lowell, Massachusetts: length, twenty-five miles. Its importance,
from the amount of traffic upon it, may be estimated from the fact
that some thousands of dollars were spent, the winter after it was
opened, in clearing away a fall of snow from it. It was again
covered, the next night.
Another line from Boston is to Providence, Rhode Island, forty-three
miles long. This opens a very speedy communication with New York;
the distance, two hundred and twenty-seven miles, being performed
in twenty hours, by rail-road and steam-boat.
There is a good line from Boston to Worcester; forty-five miles in
length. Its estimated cost is 883,904 dollars. This road is to be
carried on across the entire State, to the Connecticut; from whence
a line is now in course of construction to the Hudson, to issue
opposite Albany. There are proposals for a tunnel under the Hudson
at Albany; and from Albany, there is already canal and rail-road
communication to Lake Erie. There is now an uninterrupted
communication from the Atlantic to the far end of Lake Michigan. It
only remains to extend a line thence to the Mississippi, and the circle
is complete.
The great Erie canal, intersecting the whole State of New York, is too
celebrated to need much notice here. Its entire length is three
hundred and sixty-three miles. It is forty feet wide at top, twenty-
eight at bottom, and four feet deep. There are eighty-four locks on
the main canal. The total rise and fall is six hundred and ninety-two
feet. The cost was 9,500,000 dollars. Though this canal has been
opened only since 1825, it is found already insufficient for the
immense commerce carried on between the European world and the
great West, through the eastern ports. There is a rail-road now
running across the entire State, which is expected to exhibit much
more traffic than the canal, without at all interfering with its
business.
I traversed the valley of the Mohawk twice; the first time by the
canal, the next by stage, which I much preferred, both on account of
the views being better from the high-road, and from the discomfort
of the canal-boats. I had also the opportunity of observing the
courses of the canal and the new rail-road throughout.
I was amused, the first time, at hearing some gentlemen plan how
the bed of the shoaly Mohawk might be deepened, so as to admit
the passage of steam-boats. It would be nearly as easy to dig a river
at once for the purpose, and pump it full; in other words, to make
another canal, twice as wonderful as the present. The rail-road is a
better scheme by far. In winter the traffic is continued by sleighs on
the canal ice: and a pretty sight it must be.
The aspect of the valley was really beautiful last June. It must have
made the Mohawk Indians heart-sore to part with it in its former
quiet state; but now there is more beauty, as well as more life.
There are farms, in every stage of advancement, with all the stir of
life about them; and the still, green graveyard belonging to each,
showing its white palings and tombstones on the hill-side, near at
hand. Sometimes a small space in the orchard is railed in for this
purpose. In a shallow reach of the river there was a line of cows
wading through, to bury themselves in the luxuriant pasture of the
islands in the midst of the Mohawk. In a deeper part, the chain
ferry-boat slowly conveyed its passengers across. The soil of the
valley is remarkably rich, and the trees and verdure unusually fine.
The hanging oak-woods on the ridge were beautiful; and the knolls,
tilled or untilled; and the little waterfalls trickling or leaping down, to
join the rushing river. Little knots of houses were clustered about the
locks and bridges of the canal; and here and there a village, with its
white church conspicuous, spread away into the middle of the
narrow valley. The green and white canal boats might be seen
stealing along under the opposite ridge, or issuing from behind a
clump of elms or birches, or gliding along a graceful aqueduct, with
the diminished figures of the walking passengers seen moving along
the bank. On the other hand, the rail-road skirted the base of the
ridge, and the shanties of the Irish labourers, roofed with turf, and
the smoke issuing from a barrel at one corner, were so grouped as
to look picturesque, however little comfortable. In some of the
narrowest passes of the valley, the high road, the rail-road, the
canal, and the river, are all brought close together, and look as if
they were trying which could escape first into a larger space. The
scene at Little Falls is magnificent, viewed from the road, in the light
of a summers' morning. The carrying the canal and rail-road through
this pass was a grand idea; and the solidity and beauty of the works
are worthy of it.
The canal was commenced in 1817; and the first boat from the
inland lakes arrived at New York on the 4th of November 1825. The
first year's revenue amounted to 566,221 dollars. In 1836, the tolls
amounted to 1,294,649 dollars.
The incorporated rail-road companies in the State of New York in
1836 were fifty; their capitals varying from fifteen thousand to ten
million dollars.
When I first crossed the Alleghanies, in November 1834, I caught a
glimpse of the stupendous Portage rail-road, running between the
two canals which reach the opposite bases of the mountains. The
stage in which I travelled was on one side of a deep ravine, bristling
with pines; while on the other side was the lofty embankment, such
a wall as I had never imagined could be built, on the summit of
which ran the rail-road, its line traceable for some miles, with
frequent stations and trains of baggage-cars. One track of this road
had not long been opened; and the work was a splendid novelty. I
had afterwards the pleasure of travelling on it, from end to end.
This road is upwards of thirty-six miles in length, and at one point
reaches an elevation of 2,491 feet above the sea. It consists of
eleven levels, and ten inclined planes. About three hundred feet of
the road, at the head and foot of each plane, is made exactly level.