A New Guide For Emigrants To The West Part 9

WISCONSIN TERRITORY.

Mineral Point dist. 14,336.67

MISSOURI.

St. Louis district. 43,634.68 Fayette do 71,049.74 Palmyra do 76,241.35 Jackson do 18,882.11 Lexington do 43,983.80 ---------- Total for the State, 253,791.70

ARKANSAS TERRITORY.

Batesville district. 8,051.31 Little Rock do 25,799.74 Washington do 65,145.88 Fayetteville do 24,514.94 Helena do 26,244.59 ---------- Total for the Territory 149,756.46

_Statement of the amount of Public Lands, sold at the several Land Offices in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Arkansas, from January 1st, to September 30th, 1835, including nine months._

=====================+============= _Acres and LAND OFFICES. hundredths_ ---------------------+-------------

OHIO.

Marietta Dist. 11,012.98 Zanesville do 42,978.36 Steubenville do 3,649.29 Chillicothe do 12,586.87 Cincinnati do 20,105.76 Wooster do 5,157.68 Wapaghkonetta} and Lima, } do 103,020.23 Bucyrus do 154,706.63 ---------- Total for the State, 353,217.80

INDIANA.

Jeffersonville Dist. 44,634.81 Vincennes do 70,903.62 Indianapolis do 158,786.68 Crawfordsville do 108,055.22 Fort Wayne do 148,864.28 La Porte do 227,702.35 ---------- Total for the State, 758,946.96

ILLINOIS.

Shawneetown Dist. 5,754.08 Kaskaskia do 13,814.38 Edwardsville do 123,638.07 Vandalia do 16,253.46 Palestine do 14,088.01 Springfield do 316,966.70 Danville do 94,491.35 Quincy do [A]40,274.58 Galena do [B]262,152.73 Chicago do 333,405.73 ------------ Total for the State, 1,220,838.76

MICHIGAN.

Detroit Dist. 213,763.57 Brownson do 400,722.48 Monroe do 446,631.61 ------------ Total for Michigan} proper, } 1,061,127.66

WISCONSIN.

Mineral Point Dist. 67,052.55 Green Bay do 68,365.53 ---------- Total for Wisconsin} Territory, } 135,418.08

MISSOURI.

St. Louis Dist. 32,914.57 Fayette do 55,839.58 Palmyra do 101,018.00 Jackson do 28,995.19 Lexington do 42,801.45 Springfield do 320.00 ---------- Total for the State, 261,888.79

ARKANSAS.

Batesville Dist. 2,021.22 Little Rock do 22,291.92 Washington do 43,360.81 Fayetteville do 8,723.72 Helena do 312,169.09 ---------- Total for the Territory 388,566.76

[A] Returns only to May 31st.

[B] Returns only to July 31st.

Since those periods, sales at these Offices have been immense

The reader will perceive that the sales of the three first quarters of 1835, almost doubled those of the whole year of 1834. The inquiry was often made of the writer, while travelling in the Atlantic states in the summer of 1835, whether there was still opportunity for emigrants to purchase public lands in Indiana, Illinois, &c. where land offices had been opened for sale of lands many years. He found almost everywhere, wrong notions prevailing. The people were not aware of the immense extent of the public domain now in market, and ready to be sold at _one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre_, and even in as small tracts as forty acres. Take for example, the Edwardsville district, in which the writer resides. It extends south to the base line, east to the third princ.i.p.al meridian, north to the line that separates townships 13 and 14 north, and west to the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, and embraces all the counties of Madison, Clinton, Bond, Montgomery, Macouper, and Greene, a tier of townships on the south side of Morgan and Sangamon, five and a half townships from Fayette, and about half of St. Clair county. The lands for a part of this district have been in market for 18 or 20 years;--it contains some of the oldest American settlements in the state, and has also a number of confined claims never offered for sale.

And yet the receiver of this office informed me in November last, that he had just made returns of all the lands sold in this district, and they amounted to just _one third_ of the whole quant.i.ty. Every man, therefore, may take it for granted that there will be land enough in market in all the new states, for his use, during the present generation. These are facts that should be known to all cla.s.ses. The mania of land speculation and of monopolists would soon subside, were those concerned to sit down coolly, and after ascertaining the amount of public lands now in market, with the vast additional quant.i.ty that must soon come into market, use a few figures in common arithmetic, with the probable amount of emigration, and ascertain the probable extent of the demand for this article at any future period.

The following information is necessary for those who are not acquainted with our land system.

In each land office there are a Register and Receiver, appointed by the President and Senate for the term of four years, and paid by the government.

After being surveyed, the land, by proclamation of the President, is offered for sale at public auction by half quarter sections, or tracts of 80 acres. If no one bids for it at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, or more, it is subject to private entry at any time after, upon payment of $1.25 cents per acre at the time of entry. _No credit in any case is allowed._

In many cases, Congress, by special statute, has granted to actual settlers, pre-emption rights, where settlements and improvements have been made on public lands previous to public sale.

_Pre-emption rights_ confer the privilege only of purchasing the tract containing improvements at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, by the possessor, without the risk of a public sale.

In Illinois and several other western states, all lands purchased of the general government, are exempted from taxation for five years after purchase.

_Military Bounty lands._--These lands were surveyed and appropriated as bounties to the soldiers in the war with Great Britain in 1812-'15, to encourage enlistments. The selections were made in Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas. The Bounty lands of Illinois lie between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, in the counties of Calhoun, Pike, Adams, Schuyler, Macdonough, Warren, Mercer, Knox, Henry, Fulton, Peoria, and Putnam. Out of five millions of acres, 3,500,000 were selected, including about three-fifths of this tract. The remainder is disposed of in the manner of other public lands. The disposition of this fine country for military bounties has much r.e.t.a.r.ded its settlement. It was a short-sighted and mistaken policy of government that dictated this measure. Most of the t.i.tles have long since departed from the soldiers for whose benefit the donations were made. Many thousand quarter sections have been sold for taxes by the state, have fallen into the hands of monopolists, and are now past redemption. The Bounty lands in Missouri, lie on the waters of Chariton and Grand rivers, north side of the Missouri river and in the counties of Chariton, Randolph, Carroll, and Ray, and include half a million of acres. The tract is generally fertile, undulating, a mixture of timber and prairie, but not as well watered as desirable. With the bounty lands of Arkansas I am not well acquainted. Their general character is good, and some tracts are rich cotton lands.

_Taxes._--Lands bought of the U. S. government are exempted from taxation for five years after sale. All other lands owned by non-residents, equally with those of residents, are subject to taxation annually, either for state, or county purposes, or both. The mode and amount varies in each state. If not paid when due, costs are added, the lands sold, subject to redemption within a limited period;--generally two years. Every non-resident landholder should employ an agent within the state where his land lies, to look after it and pay his taxes, if he would not suffer the loss of his land.

CHAPTER VI.

ABORIGINES.

Conjecture respecting their former numbers and condition. Present number and state.--Indian Territory appropriated as their permanent residence.--Plan and operations of the U. S. Government.--Missionary efforts and stations. Monuments and Antiquities.

The idea is entertained, that the Valley of the Mississippi, was once densely populated by aborigines;--that here were extensive nations,--that the bones of many millions lie mouldering under our feet.

It has become a common theory, that previous to the settlement of the country by people of European descent, there were _two_ successive races of men, quite distinct from each other;--that the first race, by some singular fatality, became exterminated, leaving no traditionary account of their existence. And the second race, the ancestors of the existing race of Indians, are supposed to have been once, far more numerous than the present white population of the Valley.

Some parts of Mexico and South America, were found to be populous upon the first visits of the Spaniards; but I do not find satisfactory evidence that population was ever dense, in any part of the territory that now const.i.tutes our Republic. Mr. At.w.a.ter supposes, from the mounds in Ohio, the Indian population far exceeded 700,000, at one time in that district. Mr. Flint says, "If we can infer nothing else from the mounds, we can clearly infer, that this country once had its millions." Hence, a princ.i.p.al argument a.s.signed for the populousness of this country is, the millions buried in these tumuli, the bones of which, in a tolerable state of preservation, are supposed to be exhibited upon excavation. The writer has witnessed the opening of many of these mounds, and has seen the fragments of an occasional skeleton, found _near the surface_.

Without stopping here to enter upon a disquisition on the hypothesis a.s.sumed, that these mounds, as they are termed, are as much the results of natural causes, as any other prominences on the surface of the globe: I will only remark, that it is a fact well known to frontier men, that the Indians have been in the habit of burying their dead on these ridges and hillocks, and that in our light, spongy soil, the skeleton decays surprisingly fast. This is not the place to exhibit the necessary data, that have led to the conviction, that not a human skeleton now exists in all the western Valley, (excepting in nitrous caves,) that was deposited in the earth before the discovery of the New World, by Columbus.

The opinion that this Valley was once densely populous, is sustained from the supposed military works, distributed through the West. This subject, as well as that of mounds, wants re-examination. Probably, half a dozen enclosures, in a rude form, might have been used for military defence. The capabilities of the country to sustain a dense population, has been used to support the position, that it must have been once densely populated. This argues nothing without vestiges of agriculture and the arts. With the exception of a few small patches, around the Indian villages, for corn and pulse, the whole land was an unbroken wilderness. Strangers to the subject have imagined that our western prairies must once have been subdued by the hand of cultivation, because denuded of timber. Those who have long lived on them, have the evidences of observation, and their senses, to guide them. They know that the earth will not produce timber, while the surface is covered with a firm gra.s.sy sward, and that timber will spring up, as soon as this obstruction is removed.

To all these theories, of the former density of the aboriginal population of the Valley, I oppose, first, the fact that but a scattered and erratic population was found here, on the arrival of the Europeans,--that the people were rude savages, subsisting chiefly by hunting, and that no savage people ever became populous,--that from time immemorial, the different tribes had been continually at war with each other,--that but a few years before the French explored it, the Iroquois, or Five nations, conquered all the country to the Mississippi, which they could not have done had it been populous, and that Kentucky, one of the finest portions of the Valley, was not inhabited by any people, but the common hunting and fighting grounds of both the northern and southern Indians, and hence called by them, _Kentuckee_, or the "b.l.o.o.d.y ground."[7]

That the Indian character has deteriorated, and the numbers of each tribe greatly lessened by contact with Europeans and their descendants, is not questioned; but many of the descriptions of the comforts and happiness of savage life and manners, before their country was possessed by the latter, are the exaggerated and glowing descriptions of poetic fancy. Evidence enough can be had to show that they were degraded and wretched, engaged in petty exterminating wars with each other, often times in a state of starvation, and leading a roving, indolent and miserable existence. Their government was anarchy.--Properly speaking, civil government had never existed amongst them. They had no executive, or judiciary power, and their legislation was the result of their councils held by aged and experienced men. It had no stronger claim upon the obedience of the people than advice.

In Mexico, civilization had made progress, and there were populous towns and cities, and edifices for religious and other purposes. With the exception of some very rude structures, the ruins of which yet remain, and which upon too slight grounds, have been mistaken for military works, nothing is left as marks of the enterprise of the feeble bands of Indians of this Valley. Their implements, utensils, weapons of war, and water-craft, were of the most rude and simple construction, and yet prepared with great labor. Those who have written upon Indian manners, without personal and long acquaintance with their circ.u.mstances, have made extravagant blunders. The historian of America, Dr. Robertson, seems to suppose that the Indians cut down large trees, and dug out canoes with stone hatchets,--and that they cleared the timber from their small fields, by the same tedious process. Their stone axes or hatchets, were never used for _cutting_, but only for splitting and pounding. They burned down and hollowed out trees by fire, for canoes, and never chopped off the timber, but only deadened it, in clearing land. The condition of depraved man, unimproved by habits of civilization, and unblest with the influences and consolations of the gospel, is pitiable in the extreme. Such was the character and condition of the "Red skin,"

before his land was visited by the "Pale faces." I have often seen the aboriginal man in all his primeval wildness, when he first came in contact with the evils and benefits of civilization,--have admired his n.o.ble form and lofty bearing,--listened to his untutored and yet powerful eloquence, and yet have found in him the same humbling and melancholy proofs of his wretchedness and want, as is found in the remnants on our borders.

The introduction of ardent spirits, and of several diseases, are the evils furnished the Indian race, by contact with the whites, while in other respects their condition has been improved.

From the second number of the "_Annual Register of Indian Affairs, within the Indian (or western) Territory_," just published by the Rev.

Isaac McCoy, the following particulars have been chiefly gleaned:

Mr. McCoy has been devoted to the work of Indian reform for almost twenty years, first in Indiana, then in Michigan, and latterly in the Indian territory, west of Missouri and Arkansas. He is not only intimately acquainted with the peculiar circ.u.mstances of this unfortunate race, and with the country selected as their future residence by the government, but is ardently and laboriously engaged for their welfare.