Canada and the States Part 23

"In 1791, the public debt of the United States was $75,000,000. It is now, with six times the population, only $64,000,000; and in the same period, the imports of the country have increased from a value of $52,000,000 to $147,000,000; the exports from $19,000,000 to $145,000,000; and the tonnage of shipping from 500,000 tons to 3,300,000 tons.

"The post-office statistics show how the transmission of intelligence has outstripped even the march of population. In 1790, the number of post-offices in the entire States was 75; in 1850, the number was 16,789. In 1790, there were 4,875 miles of post routes; in 1850, there were 167,703. In 1790, the whole post-office revenue was 37,905 dollars; in 1850, it was 4,905,176 dollars; which sum consisted of 4,082,762 dollars for letters, and 819,016 dollars for newspapers and pamphlets. The mileage run in transportation of letters in 1850, was 42,544,069 miles, at a cost, for transportation only, of a little more than twopence-halfpenny per mile. And the total number of letters conveyed was 67,500,000; 62,000,000 of which were paid, and 5,500,000 free and franked.

"To come from letters to arms; it is a curious fact, as exhibiting the real military strength of this great country, that the militia force of the States amounts to 1,960,265 men, or as many as the whole population of Canada, or two-thirds of that of Scotland, who could be called out and in the field in less than a month.

"The school funds belonging to the respective States, swelled by the constant addition of every sixteenth section of government land sold, are very large. Those belonging to seventeen free States amounted, in 1850, in fixed value, to 21,400,000 dollars. Popular education is the condition on which all new States are admitted into the Union.

"There are 121 colleges in the States; with a total of 950 instructors; 50,115 alumni; 9,028 ministers; and 11,565 students; and having 769,079 volumes in their libraries.

"And without a farthing from the State, or from any source beyond the free-will offerings of the people, to support them, there are in this country of yesterday, 30,217 churches (exclusive of those belonging to the Wesleyans) connected with the various sects of Christians: 26,588 ministers; and 4,558,168 communicants, or 1 in 5 1/2 of the population.

"This country, then, possesses all the elements which are usually considered as contributing to civilization and to power. It has far outstripped us in the rate of its progress; and it becomes every day, more and more, the refuge for the industrious poverty, not only of Great Britain, but of Europe.

"Those who wish to gaze at ruins need not go to it. Those who only yearn for the sight of crown jewels, or ancient armour, had better stay away. But to all who would see the realm which Nature has spread out, in her largest features, for the development of the Anglo-Saxon race, under inst.i.tutions once deemed Utopian, and even yet wondered at as experimental--to all who would see how a people can GROW--North America is the country of irresistible attraction."

As to slavery, I wrote:--

"Maryland is a slave State, and Baltimore exhibits traces of the existence of the 'Inst.i.tution.' At the railway stations--the one belonging to the line which connects Baltimore with Philadelphia, for instance--are notices, stating 'that coloured persons desiring to go by the cars, must be at the depot two hours before the starting of the train, to have their names registered and their papers examined, or they will not be allowed to travel.'

"The following announcements in the 'Baltimore Clipper,' were amongst similar advertis.e.m.e.nts:--

"'SLAVES WANTED.--We are at all times purchasing Slaves, paying the highest _cash_ prices. Persons wishing to sell, will please call at 242, Pratt-street. (Slatter's Old Stand.) Communications attended to.'

"'NEGROES WANTED.--I will pay the highest prices, in cash, for any number of Negroes with good t.i.tles, slaves for life, or for a term of years, in large or small families, or single Negroes. I will also purchase Negroes restricted to remain in the State, that sustain good characters. Families never separated. Persons having Slaves for sale, will please call and see me, as I am always in the market with the cash. Communications promptly attended to, and liberal commissions paid, by John D. Denning, No. 18, South Frederick-street, between Market and Second-streets, with trees in front of the house.'

"Maryland has 89,000 slaves, and the number is decreasing. Virginia, its neighbour State, has 448,000--the total number in the Union being 2,487,000.

"I have found throughout my tour, what all English travellers must find--that slavery is a question which it is better not to go out of one's way to discuss. For, although I have had many friendly conversations with its most ardent supporters and most violent opponents, I soon discovered, on the one hand, that the question is practically compromised by the great political parties in the Free States, from time to time, in order to conciliate Southern votes; and, on the other, that the slave-owners consider the word 'abolition' as synonymous with confiscation and civil war. The latter meet you at the outset of the argument by stating that their whole property consists of land and slaves. That their lands of course derive their value from cultivation; and that, apart from the mere question of cost, that cultivation is impossible in the hands of the white man. They tell you, that while the negro endures the labour of the rice field mid-leg deep in water, and with a scorching sun above his head, without danger, and can withstand the miasma-hanging in the night air on the plantations-- the white man is attacked with hopeless fever if he exposes himself to these influences. They declare that the unconditional abolition of slavery, in a country abounding in unappropriated lands, where men may squat without being disturbed, means simply the confiscation of three hundred millions sterling, the value of the slaves, in the first place, and the abandonment and destruction of the entire planting interest, in the second. To urge the morality of the question with these men, would be as successful as a similar appeal to our opium traders; to the maker of fire-arms certain to burst; or, to use an American free State ill.u.s.tration--to the successful manufacturer of wooden nutmegs.

"After hearing these statements, doubtless exaggerated, but which were made with earnestness, and are at least partially true, I was not surprised to learn, that since the forcible seizure of a slave at Boston, some months ago, by the abolitionists of that city, many of the Southern merchants have transferred their purchases of manufactured goods to New York, to an extent which, were it not stated on authority, would be beyond belief. Indeed I learn, that so strong is this anti- abolition feeling, that where any option exists, the avowed abolitionists are systematically avoided in business dealings. A first- cla.s.s firm in New York, having a magnificent shop in the Broadway, see their old Southern customers pa.s.s by to a rival establishment in the same street, the only reason being that they are known to be earnest abolitionists, while their rival has never publicly expressed any opinion on the question.

"This feeling, showing itself in an endless variety of shapes, is just now most-fierce, owing to an outrage which has occurred in Pennsylvania, in which a Mr. Gorsuch has been shot down, and his son seriously wounded, in an attempt to seize a fugitive slave (under the provisions of the 'fugitive slave law'), which was resisted by a rising of the free black population, and of some white abettors.

"The 'fugitive slave law' is, indeed, simply a declaratory act. For it is unfortunately the fact, that the Southern States gave in their adhesion to the Federal Republic solely on condition that, while the slave trade should cease, the inst.i.tution of slavery should be respected, and they should have the right to follow and seize fugitive slaves in any part of the Union. The 'fugitive slave law' was the work of the 'Union' party--a party composed of men of all shades of opinion, who wished, by conciliation, to prevent the threatened withdrawal of South Carolina and other slave States from the Union.

"Greatly as all just and dispa.s.sionate men must abhor slavery, every one must admit the difficulties with which its immediate abolition is here surrounded. The negro does not possess the cordial sympathy of the white man. For while a small, and, politically speaking, uninfluential, party are prepared to make every sacrifice and run all risks in order to blot out slavery on the instant, the influential and acting leaders of the majority, whatever their occasional language of denunciation, and affectation of horror, are not disposed to brave the rebellion of the South, and the possible disruption of the Republic, for the sake of shortening the thraldom of the negro some fifty years. They profess to rely upon the natural progress of events, which, by quiet change, has already banished slavery from the majority of the States originally parties to the Union; and has, within the last few years, forbidden the future existence of slave States north of lat.i.tude 36 degrees 3o'--for the gradual extinction of the system; and in the meantime they are prepared to alleviate the lot of the slave; to refuse any extension of slavery; and, as far as concession can obtain it, to narrow the area which it now occupies.

"Perhaps, should these cold political views still hold possession of the moving spirits of the country, the next practical step in advance may be to secure to the slave a personal right to some small portion of the day, and to the produce of his labour in that portion;--to say, in fact, that after a stipulated number of hours' labour for his master, the remainder of his time shall be his own. The effect of this would be to enable him legally to acc.u.mulate property. And if, in addition, a minimum price be fixed at which his master should be bound to allow him to redeem himself, and savings' banks were opened to receive the produce of his free earnings--some glimmering of daylight would dawn upon his lot, and his condition, as a 'chattel' to be bought and sold, would not be hopeless."

Referring to what I hereafter relate of the incident at Saratoga, I may, at this point, remind the reader that, as late as 1862, President Lincoln, a sincere abolitionist, could not see his way to declare the freedom of the slave. He told a deputation from Chicago that "a Pope once issued a Bull against an eclipse, but the eclipse came along nevertheless." The moment I saw black soldiers in Northern uniform, carrying Northern muskets, at the end of 1863, I made up my mind that the North had won. In 1865 Dr. Mackay, registrar, showed me the registry of the pa.s.sage of John Brown's, corpse through New York. I quote from memory; but if I recollect rightly, it was this:--

------------------------------------------------------------------- |_ Date. Name. Age. Occupation. Cause of Death._ | | ----- ----- ---- ----------- --------------- | | Nov., 1859. John Brown 59 Farmer Hanging | | | | _Remarks._ | | | | Tried and found guilty of treason and of inciting slaves to | | rebel against their masters. | -------------------------------------------------------------------

"CHAMPION STEAMER, UP THE ST. LAWRENCE, "Thursday, September 4, 1851.

"Owing to the locomotive habits of the people, the hotels of America are more extensive and more systematized than ours. One of their features is the system of charging a fixed sum per day, which covers all the annoying extras of English hotel bills. On entering an hotel, you write your name and address in a book, have the number of your bedroom placed opposite your name, and receive a key, which, when you go out you leave in the office. The breakfast, lunch, dinner, and tea, take place at stated hours, and are managed with great precision and discipline.

"At the 'United States Hotel,' Saratoga, the waiters are blacks, and are commanded by a black maitre d'hotel. On dinner being served, the gong is sounded, and each guest takes his appointed place. All being seated, the maitre d'hotel claps his hands, and in an instant, at one _coup_, the covers are nipped away, as if with the same hand, by waiters stationed at regular distances around the tables. Then the serious work of eating commences. If any embarra.s.sment arises, a clap of the hand calls attention to it, and a sign directs its immediate remedy. Then, as each course is finished, another clap stations the waiters again at their old places, and at a wave of the hand all the dishes skip off the table. Then, the table being cleared of dinner dishes, the whole posse of waiters march two and two round the tables, and leave the room by a side door. In a few seconds they return again in the same order, each man bearing three dishes, and fall again into their places. Then, all eyes being fixed upon the maitre d'hotel, _clap one_, and down goes one dish from the hands of each waiter all along the tables. _Clap two_ brings down dish the second; and _clap three_ drops the third. And at a table of nearly 400 persons all are thus served with dessert, as before they had been with each course, in about half a moment, and each at the same time. Even in changing knives, forks, and plates, a system is adopted. A portion of the waiters, obeying a sign, fall out of line, and divide into threes; one of each three bears the plates, one the knives, and one the forks; and each party goes round its allotted length of table. Black No. 1 dots down a plate opposite each person; No. 2 plants a knife on one side of it; No. 3 puts down a fork on the other side. The men do this with an even regularity of movement, and a gravity which is quite amusing. All this rapid and regular action drives dinner on amazingly; indeed, it almost hurries you. In fifty minutes all is over, and the table cleared. The Americans, who seem to know the value of time, generally get up and decamp immediately after the last mouthful, which is perhaps a sensible plan.

"At Saratoga we found a party of Indians. Eighteen of these children of the forest, who had been down to New York to sell toys and ornaments, which they manufacture in the winter, were on their return home, and were encamped outside the village during Sunday. They showed little of the costume of their tribe, or rather, I suppose I should say, want of costume; one man wearing a pair of red plush breeches, and some of the women having bonnets. Still there were the features, the att.i.tudes, and the language of the aborigines. We visited their camp at night, a collection of gipsy-like tents, and conversed with one or two of them, which led others to steal out and listen. I say steal out, for it was only upon turning round, that I became aware that we were suddenly almost surrounded. One man spoke very good English. He said they were Oneidas, or as he p.r.o.nounced it 'Onidehs,' and were going back to their country, where they would remain with their tribe, about two hundred and eighty of whom were left, till next year, and then come down again.

"On Sunday evening I witnessed another and a very different spectacle.

A Methodist preacher came into the village in a little four-wheeled car, with a square black hood over it, and preached from his car, on what is termed by the common voice 'n.i.g.g.e.r abolition.' He was accompanied by a young woman and a very pretty little child, who both sat behind him. He soon got an audience, amongst whom were several men from the Southern States. He denounced slavery in no very measured terms, and soon provoked the Southern men to interject--'Why don't you go into the South?' 'Why, Sir,' was the reply, 'you know, it would be as much as my life is worth.' 'Nonsense! we will give you five hundred dollars to go, and you shall be safe.' 'To what State, Sir?' 'Georgia,'

replied one voice; 'Alabama,' another; 'North Carolina,' another.

'Why,' was the rejoinder, 'three of our preachers were expelled from those very States not a month ago.' 'Your n.i.g.g.e.rs here are free, and they are worse off than ours; why don't you mend their condition first?' And so the attack and reply went on (this was Sunday evening) for half an hour, amidst laughter, jeers, and the occasional propulsion, by fellows behind, of some unlucky lad or other against the poor preacher's horse; a movement which endangered the woman and child especially, but which appeared to give great satisfaction to many, and which no one interfered in any manner to prevent. I left the spot in disgust. I have seen, however, as much petty intolerance at home. I returned from my walk in time to hear the preacher p.r.o.nounce his benediction, in the midst of which there arose a hideous yell: three or four boys were shot against the horse, and the car was nearly overthrown; after which a shouting mult.i.tude followed the retreating abolitionist for some distance, to hara.s.s and annoy him, as he drove with difficulty away.

"On Monday morning, recruited by the previous day's rest, I left Saratoga, and travelled forty-one miles by railway through a partially cleared, and, in many parts, very beautiful country, to Whitehall, which is at the southern end of Lake Champlain, where we took a steamer, a nice, orderly, and comfortable boat, and steamed to Rouse's Point, 132 miles further. The scenery of the lake is very beautiful.

The ruins of the old fortress of Ticonderoga rise upon it, standing upon a steep rocky headland, and commanding the lake, which narrows at this point; a wide expanse of water swelling out both above and below.

Ticonderoga was taken from the French by the English, by the use of artillery fired down from the mountain above it. In the American war of independence it was taken from us by surprise by one Colonel Ethen Allen. It is reported that Allen awakened the commandant, who was in bed, and told him to surrender. 'By what authority?' said the half- awakened officer. 'By the authority of the Lord Jehovah and the Continental Congress,' replied Allen.

"About the middle of the lake is the thriving town of Burlington, the chief town of Vermont. Here we stopped to take in pa.s.sengers, and were pleased with the bustle and activity of the place. The wharf was crowded; and, as the day was hot, straw hats and shirt-sleeves, also the mitigated form of comfort--viz., coat and trousers without waistcoat--were abundant.

"It was dusk when we arrived at Rouse's Point, and we had not so good a view as I could have wished of the extensive wharves and landings; the boat, 300 feet long, built to carry over whole trains; and the extensive station works of the Northern or Ogdensburgh Railroad, which is just opened. 'I had been introduced, at Saratoga, to the superintendent of this line, Colonel Schlatter, by Mr. Van Ransellaer, of the Saratoga and Washington line. Both these gentlemen were very polite, and gave me orders to pa.s.s over their railways when I pleased.

The Ogdensburgh line extends from Rouse's Point to Ogdensburgh, near the head of Lake Ontario. It forms, with other lines, a complete system from Boston and New York to Lake Ontario, and has many difficult and extensive works in its course.

"From Rouse's Point we took the Champlain and St. Lawrence line, opened two days ago, and at Isle aux Noix pa.s.sed into British-American territory, and heard the old French patois of the 'habitans' of that locality, from the mouths of a crowd of curious people awaiting the arrival of the train. At La Prairie we joined the ferry boat, an immense vessel as usual, and dropped down the St. Lawrence for nine miles, to Montreal, where I got to bed at Donnegana's hotel, at one o'clock on Tuesday morning, desperately tired.

"Montreal is a flourishing town of 50,000 inhabitants. It is built upon an island formed by the confluence of the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa.

The 'island' belonged to the Catholic priesthood of the place, who still exercise rights over it similar to those of the 'lords' in cases of English copyholds, and who obtain an annual revenue of some 30,000_l_. or 40,000_l_. from it. The city was founded about 250 years ago, and has still many of the features of a French town, though the improvements of the last twenty years, by obliterating single story and wooden houses from the best quarters, have altered its character. In old times it was the depot for the great fur trades. Now, however, it receives its furs almost entirely back from England, to which country the Hudson's Bay Company send their whole supply, to be dressed and prepared for re-exportation. It is the commercial emporium of this district; and, though it has suffered from the equalization of duties, it is now recovering. The facilities for communication with the United States, by the systems of railroad made and making, which may bring it within twelve hours of Boston and New York, will doubtless urge forward its prosperity.

"Montreal has considerable general commerce, commanding, as it does, the St. Lawrence, now connected by railway directly with the United States, and being at the outlet of the Ottawa river district. The island upon which it stands is some thirty miles long, and contains much fine and valuable land, mostly under cultivation, and abounding in good farms and gardens, and fine orchards. From the 'Mountain' above Montreal, a splendid view is obtained of the St. Lawrence and its wooded sh.o.r.es; the dark forests of the Ottawa valley; the fine bright lands of the islands; the city, and its villaed suburbs. In the distances, north and south, the 'green mountains' of Vermont, and the distant summits which separate the cultivated parts of Lower Canada from those far-off and savage regions, in which the trappers of the Hudson's Bay Company and some scattered Indians are the sole monarchs of the woods--are visible. There can be no view more beautiful, few more extensive. It gives all the peculiarities of this North American scenery in its largest and finest features. And seen again from the high towers of the Catholic Cathedral (the cathedral will hold several thousand people, and is the largest church in Canada), to which I mounted, up 268 steps, it again delights the eye with its extent and beauty. From this latter point, too, the St. Lawrence is seen just below, and you may watch the rushing of the nearest rapids, and the struggles and windings of the boats and steamers, in pa.s.sing on their upward voyages.

"Montreal and Quebec (more especially) have the distinctive features of French towns with many of the peculiarities of English ones. Here is the well-known countenance of the northern parts of France. Carts such as might have been seen, no doubt, hundreds of years ago in France. The Norman breed of horses: small, round, strong, and enduring. Every other signboard presents a French name; the blacksmith styling himself 'forgeron;' the baker, 'boulanger;' the ladies' attendant, 'sage- femme;'--and so on. The professional man generally has two plates upon his door:--one telling you that he is 'M. Charles Robert,' 'avocat;'

and the other, that he is 'Mr. C. Robert,' 'attorney at law.' In the 'Cote des Neiges,' behind the mountain, at Montreal, and in the suburb or quarter 'St. Henry,' this French appearance is universal. 'Notre Dame des Neiges,' in the former, with its gaudily painted inside and unpretending outside, its wooden roof and tin-covered steeple, would recall to you the wooded districts of France; and the houses in both quarters, the people with their 'bonnets rouges' (as distinguished from the 'bonnets bleus' and 'bonnets gris' of the Quebec district), and innocence of English and English ways of living, working, farming, and thinking, are even more French than the French themselves. Indeed, so little have they changed since the settlement of the country two hundred years ago, that they speak the French of that time without the alloy since introduced into the language. Their old modes of farming are still in vogue; and they despise all change, satisfied to live in quiet and simple comfort, without the worry of improvements. In the Quebec district the farmers singe their pigs when they have killed them, and despise the use of hot water. Just as farmers do in Normandy, and in some parts of the south of England. This pig-singeing is a great event; and on one occasion during the Rebellion, the singeing of two or three pigs on a hill-side at night, caused the Quebec garrison and the country volunteers to turn out, under the belief that the light seen was that of a beacon fire, and that the enemy were at hand.

"Montreal, and Quebec also, abound in fine Catholic churches, and the streets swarm with comfortable-looking priests, dressed in black ca.s.socks and bands, and wearing big-buckled shoes and broad-brimmed hats.

"The difference in language, customs, and religion, divides the population into two distinct sections, and is a bar to united effort and to the improvement of the country; which nevertheless does improve in spite of this difficulty, though not as rapidly as it might and ought. I did not fully appreciate this until I visited the Superior Law Court, then sitting in Montreal. This court is held, during the erection of the new court-house, in the old, low-walled, high-roofed, building in which the French Government conducted their public affairs a hundred and fifty years ago. In this building, in 1839, the Privy Council decided to place the country under martial law, and the proclamation was issued from it.

"The judges sitting when I visited the court were Smith, Van Feloon, and Mondelet, the latter a French Canadian. The first case argued was a long-pending one between Sir John Stewart and an architect, who had superintended the erection of some buildings on one of Sir John's farms. The counsel were not over clever, but sufficiently verbose, and full enough of 'instances,' both ancient and modern. The counsel for Sir John laid great stress upon the erroneous manner in which the action had been laid, and contended that as the English form of'

a.s.sumpsit' had been taken, in order to get both debt and damages, instead of a single action of damages being brought, all the consequences of the form adopted must be taken by the plaintiff, who, not having proved _damages_, or even stated them, must be held by the court to have made out no case, and be cast accordingly. The counsel quoted the old French law, and a French law-writer of 1700, Chardon, and also English and Canadian authorities. The French Canadian judge having, during the oration, thrown in an observation or two in English, which he did not speak over fluently, at length uttered in French a long comment upon the fallacy of the argument--which sounded strangely. The counsel for the architect went at the argument of his opponent with great vigour, stimulated by the expressed opinion of Judge Mondelet, and went back to the days of ancient Rome to show that forms of action had been difficult even in those days, having once caused a revolt. He declared that even in England they were as unsettled as ever; and wound up by propounding as a dogma, that the Canadian law was neither English, French, Roman, nor of any other precedent, but was founded upon common sense, which was the only guide and authority in the administration of it. In corroboration of this, the little black eye of Judge Mondelet brightly twinkled, and he nodded his head in dignified approbation. Judge Van Feloon, who seemed more phlegmatic, quietly settled the matter by saying, that he supposed if a man _did_ work for another, and the other had agreed to pay him, he was ent.i.tled to the money, and that therefore the court would have to see that a bargain had been made, and the work duly performed, and then decide. The next case argued arose out of a fraudulent a.s.signment; and in this, too, French authorities, in the old language of a hundred and fifty years since, were often appealed to--Chardon being apparently the standard book of reference. The mixture of custom evidently caused embarra.s.sment, and it was clear that no fixed decisions could regulate disputes concerning property, while the precedents relied upon were based upon the differing laws of two separate countries--laws, perhaps, not now operating in those very countries themselves.

"The tenure of property in Lower Canada is still in part based upon the old French feudal system. There are still 'seigneurs' who hold lands, and have 'censitaires' or tenants, paying fee-rent in produce, services, and money. It is true that a law has been pa.s.sed enabling a fixed commutation, in money, of these seigneurial rights; but I am told that the parties adhere in most cases to the old usage, and despise innovation.

"A singular custom, too, prevails. Parents, when old and tired of labour, a.s.sign their property to their children, or to one of them, in consideration of a string of conditions for their own maintenance and comfort, each one of which is recited in the deed with minute exactness. They stipulate usually for a house, so much meat, bread, sugar, tea, &c.; a caleche and horse to take them to church on Sundays and holidays; so much tobacco or snuff; so many gowns and bonnets, or suits of clothes and hats; and so on. These gifts lead to frequent law- suits; and one can quite understand how, in a country with large tracts of its land held upon tenures of the most complex character, under a system which has pa.s.sed away even in the country from whence it came, and where to this ma.s.s of difficulty is added the cause of dispute just alluded to, the legal profession should flourish,--which I understand it does.