Read Ebook: Hulme's Journal 1818-19; Flower's Letters from Lexington and the Illinois 1819; Flower's Letters from the Illinois 1820-21; and Woods's Two Years' Residence 1820-21 by Flower Richard Hulme Thomas Woods John Thwaites Reuben Gold Editor

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OF VOLUME X

Author's Introduction to the Journal 23

Text 35

Author's Preface 89

Text 91

Publisher's Advertisement 114

Text 121

Text 179

Appendix 353

Facsimile of title-page to Flower's Letters from Lexington and the Illinois 87

Facsimile of title-page to Flower's Letters from the Illinois 113

Facsimile of title-page to Woods 173

Map of the Allotments, from Woods 175

Map of the Illinois, from Woods 177

PREFACE TO VOLUME X

During the second decade of the nineteenth century, a colony of English emigrants was established in southeastern Illinois, at a place in Edwards County known afterwards as English Prairie. Interesting in itself as being a typical experiment in transplantation and in assimilation to frontier conditions, this settlement has attracted unusual attention because of the war of pamphlets it evoked, and the political prominence of some of its detractors.

Agricultural emigration was, at that period, a subject of much importance in Great Britain, and the English Prairie settlement became the nucleus around which the contention was waged. At the close of the Napoleonic wars, England's rural interests were much depressed. Hopes had been entertained that, with the return of peace, conditions for the farmer would improve, but these expectations proved fallacious, prices continually lowered, rents and wages increased, distress was widespread, and agrarian discontent alarming. Added to this, the political situation was grave. The domination of the Tory party, the reactionary tendency of foreign affairs, and the general national impoverishment led to the growth of a strong Radical party, which demanded manhood suffrage, abolition of the Corn Laws, and abrogation of the time-honored privileges of the upper classes. Mobs and disturbances were frequent, and there was developed a strong sentiment in favor of emigration to the United States, where political freedom, combined with the prospects of cheap lands, offered an enticing prospect to the harassed rural population of England.

The emigrants were not merely of the laboring classes, but frequently were men of substance and property, who sold good estates to reinvest in uncultivated lands in America, and to pave the way for the removal thither of large colonies of Englishmen. Among the promoters of such enterprises were Morris Birkbeck and George Flower, both of them owners of considerable estates not far from London. The former was of Quaker origin, and his growing dissatisfaction with affairs in England made him open to the suggestion of emigration. Meeting in London the well-known American diplomat, Edward Coles, returning from a mission to Russia, the latter's account of the wide stretches of virgin prairie lands in the then Territory of Illinois fired his imagination, and determined him to transplant himself and family thither, purchase a considerable area, and found an English colony for the relief of the island's distressed agriculturists. His friend Flower joined him in this resolution, and in the summer of 1816, went out in advance to the United States, where Birkbeck and his family followed him the next spring.

Nothing daunted by the difficulties and hardships of frontier conditions, Birkbeck and Flower bought a large tract of unbroken prairie in southeastern Illinois, began the building of log huts and the importation of furniture, and established themselves and their delicately-reared families on this border-land of civilization. Their optimistic, and even enthusiastic, reports, soon led to the accession of a considerable number of their English friends and neighbors. Some of the newcomers were disappointed in the situation. After the long, tedious ocean voyage, and the still longer and far more tiresome westward journey by land, they would fain have returned to the comparative ease and comfort of their English homes. Detractors arose, who took advantage of the sometimes ill-considered letters of the discontents, and utilized these to decry all English emigration to America. Others urged the intending English emigrant to go no farther than the Eastern part of the United States, where civilized conditions already existed. Prominent in the ranks of the latter was William Cobbett, the famous Radical leader and pamphleteer. Self-exiled from England to avoid prosecutions for libel and consequent fines, Cobbett was employed in rutabaga culture on Long Island. It was commonly reported by his enemies that he had been subsidized by land speculators in the vicinity of New York and Philadelphia to attract and retain in that neighborhood the well-to-do English emigrant who was proposing to make investment in American lands. Be that as it may, Cobbett began an attack upon the Birkbeck-Flower Illinois settlement, which at once brought it into notoriety. Wielding one of the most popular and trenchant pens of his day, the political oracle of thousands of Englishmen, he certainly was a formidable antagonist.

His comments upon American life are shrewd and kindly. On the whole, he says, "we have received as good treatment as we should have in a tour through England; but the manners of Americans are more rough than those of Englishmen." Gifted with penetration that permitted him to discover the good qualities beneath the rude exterior, he makes an interesting portrayal of the backwoodsman, giving us an amusing although not a sarcastic record of an imaginary conversation imbued with some of the peculiar Americanisms of his time. More interesting, perhaps, from the point of view of our series, is the account he gives of the towns on the Ohio, and the progress of settlement, compared with those of the travellers of 1803-09. He finds older towns falling into decay, new ones springing into existence, and over it all the trail of the speculator. The extent and cheapness of public lands is a subject for comment, and the land laws and methods of survey are minutely detailed.

In view of the strictures of later English writers, their flippant comments and inappreciative criticisms, the plain, straightforward descriptions of these farmers of English Prairie give a just and wholesome account of the American West at the beginning of the third decade of the nineteenth century. One further service the English settlers performed for Illinois, and civilization. When a new constitution for the state was agitated--one that should admit slavery to its borders--it was the sturdy opposition of the English leaders that turned the scale in favor of freedom. In this struggle , Morris Birkbeck once more met his friend Edward Coles, now become governor of Illinois. Although a Virginian, Coles was opposed to the extension of slavery, and stood shoulder to shoulder with Birkbeck in this great fight. Largely to English devotion to free institutions, it was due that the attempt to foist the "peculiar institution" upon the new West failed, and the state which was to shelter and train Abraham Lincoln was made a free land.

In the preparation of notes to this volume, the Editor has had the assistance of Louise Phelps Kellogg, Ph.D., Edith Kathryn Lyle, Ph.D., and Mr. Archer Butler Hulbert.

R. G. T.

MADISON, WIS., November, 1904.

HULME'S JOURNAL OF A TOUR IN THE WESTERN COUNTRIES OF AMERICA--SEPTEMBER 30, 1818-AUGUST 8, 1819.

DEDICATION

TO TIMOTHY BROWN, ESQ.

OF PECKHAM LODGE, SURREY

MY DEAR SIR,

THE little volume here presented to the public, consists, as you will perceive, for the greater and most valuable part, of travelling notes made by our friend HULME, whom I had the honour to introduce to you in 1816, and with whom you were so much pleased.

His activity, which nothing can benumb; his zeal against the twin monster, tyranny and priestcraft, which nothing can cool; and his desire to assist in providing a place of retreat for the oppressed, which nothing but the success in the accomplishment can satisfy; these have induced him to employ almost the whole of his time here in various ways all tending to the same point.

Your faithful friend, And most obedient servant, WM. COBBETT

PREFACE

WM. COBBETT

INTRODUCTION TO THE JOURNAL

Henry Hunt, familiarly known as Orator Hunt , belonged to a Wiltshire family. He was engaged in farming near Bristol when, during a visit to London , he became interested in the Radical cause, and immediately set to work to organize the Radical party in Bristol and the surrounding country. An eloquent speaker, and of magnetic personality, he exerted his influence by addressing popular meetings, undergoing two years' imprisonment for a speech delivered at a Manchester meeting in 1819. After several unsuccessful attempts to enter Parliament, he was elected in 1831, but held his seat only two years, when, becoming estranged from the other Radical leaders, he retired from politics.--ED.

THOMAS HULME

THE JOURNAL

Very good accommodations for travellers the whole of the way. The stage stops to breakfast and to dine, and sleeps where it sups. They literally feasted us every where, at every meal, with venison and good meat of all sorts: every thing in profusion. In one point, however, I must make an exception, with regard to some houses: at night I was surprized, in taverns so well kept in other respects, to find bugs in the beds! I am sorry to say I observed this too often. Always good eating and drinking, but not always good sleeping.

This place surpasses even my expectations, both in natural resources and in extent of manufactures. Here are the materials for every species of manufacture, nearly, and of excellent quality and in profusion; and these means have been taken advantage of by skilful and industrious artizans and mechanics from all parts of the world. There is scarcely a denomination of manufacture or manual profession that is not carried on to a great extent, and, as far as I have been able to examine, in the best manner. The manufacture of iron in all the different branches, and the mills of all sorts, which I examined with the most attention, are admirable.

Price of flour, from 4 to 5 dollars a barrel; butter 14 cents per lb.; other provisions in proportion and mechanic's and good labourer's wages 1 dollar, and shipbuilder's 1 dollar and a half, a day.

Just on going to push off the wharf, an English officer stepped on board of us, with all the curiosity imaginable. I at once took him for a spy hired to way-lay travellers. He began a talk about the Western Countries, anxiously assuring us that we need not hope to meet with such a thing as a respectable person, travel where we would. I told him I hoped in God I should see no spy or informer, whether in plain clothes or regimentals, and that of one thing I was certain, at any rate: that I should find no Sinecure placeman or pensioner in the Western country.

The Ohio, at its commencement, is about 600 yards broad, and continues running with nearly parallel sides, taking two or three different directions in its course, for about 200 miles. There is a curious contrast between the waters which form this river: that of the Allegany is clear and transparent, that of the Monongahela thick and muddy, and it is not for a considerable distance that they entirely mingle. The sides of the river are beautiful; there are always rich bottom lands upon the banks, which are steep and pretty high, varying in width from a few yards to a mile, and skirted with steep hills varying also in height, overhanging with fine timber.

This day pass Marietta, a good looking town at the mouth of the Muskingham River. It is, however, like many other towns on the Ohio, built on too low ground, and is subject to inundations. Here I observe a contrivance of great ingenuity. There is a strong rope put across the mouth of the river, opposite the town, fastened to trees or large posts on each side; upon this rope runs a pulley or block, to which is attached a rope, and to the rope a ferry-boat, which, by moving the helm first one way and then the other, is propelled by the force of the water across the river backwards or forwards.

Cincinnati is a very fine town, and elegantly situated on the banks of the river, nearly opposite to Licking Creek, which runs out of Kentucky, and is a stream of considerable importance. The country round the town is beautiful, and the soil rich; the fields in its immediate vicinity bear principally grass, and clover of different sorts, the fragrant smell of which perfumes the air. The town itself ranks next to Pittsburgh, of the towns on the Ohio, in point of manufactures.

We sold our ark, and its produce formed a deduction from our expenses, which, with that deduction, amounted to 14 dollars each, including every thing, for the journey from Pittsburgh to this place, which is upwards of 500 miles. I could not but remark the price of fuel here; 2 dollars a cord for Hickory; a cord is 8 feet by 4, and 4 deep, and the wood, the best in the world; it burns much like green Ash, but gives more heat. This, which is of course the highest price for fuel in this part of the country, is only about a fifth of what it is at Philadelphia.

At Shippingport, stopped at the house of Mr. Berthoud, a very respectable French gentleman, from whom we received the greatest civility during our stay, which was two nights and the day intervening.

James Berthoud in 1803 purchased the town of Shippingport from the original proprietor, Colonel John Campbell.--ED.

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