YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

NOTES

UNITED STATES OF NORTH AMERICA

A PHRENOLOGICAL VISIT
In 1838-9-40. BY
GEORGE COMBE.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. XL

PHILADELPHIA:
CAREY & HART.
184L

T. K. & P. G. COLLIS-S, Printers,
No. 1 Ludge Alley.

CHAPTER I.
Phrenology — The Banks — Spring — Fires — Fraud Detected— Massachu-
sells Temperance Law — Objections to Infant Schools — A Firemen's
Fight — Eifocts of Democracy — Moyamensing- Prison — The Dangers o^
Riches — The Maine War — Pennsylvania University — Black-Foot In
dians — Dr. Morton's Crania Americana — Phrenology — International
Law of Copyright — Spring — Pavements — Queen Victoria — The Ameri
can Phrenological Journal — Phrenology — The Insane Poor of Penn
sylvania — New York — New York Civic Election— General Winfield
Scott — Phrenology — Maine War — Sing-Sing State Prison — Auburn State
Prison — The Election — Sunday — Dr. Channing's Answer to Mr. Clay's
Speech — XJniversalists — Tit for Tat — The Chartists — Licentiousness of
the Press — The Park Theatre — High Prices of Provisions — Female
Seminary for Education — Should British Dissenting Clergymen emi
grate to America? — Extension of New York City — American Judges —
Spring — The Cause of the High Prices of Provisions — The Asylum for
Colored Orphans — General Washington's First Presidency. 1839.
April 6. Therm. 53°. Phrenology. — I met Dr.  , and
by pointing out to him how to trace the superior longitudinal
commissure of the brain, described by Mr. Solly, which lies
above the corpus callosum, and brings the anterior lobe into
communication with the upper portions of the middle and pos
terior lobes, he succeeded in unfolding it very satisfactorily.
The brain was in excellent condition. We tried to trace the
superficial fibres described by Mr. Solly as passing from the
motory track, below the corpora pyramidalia, to the cerebelliim,
but were not so successful.
In the evening I delivered the last lecture of my second
course. The resolutions passed are printed in the Appendix,
No. III.
I have received an invitation to deliver a second course of
lectures in the Stuyvesant Institute, New York, and have agreed
to do so.
Hie Banks. — The banks in the southwestern states have
suspended cash payments, and rumors are afloat that the banks
in Philadelphia will follow their example. Stocks have fallen
very much, and there is great commercial embarrassment. Th
cry for war about the Maine boundary has aggravated the ev
VOL. II. — 2

10 MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE LAW.
by creating distrust in the continuance of pacific relations with
England. The next news from London are looked for with
anxiety and alarm.
April 7. Therm. 53°. Spring.— This day is agreeably
warm. The apricot trees are in full blossom; the weeping
willows, which abound in the public squares, are in full leaf,
and the buds of the other trees are rapidly swelling; the grass,
from dark russet, has become green. The stoves with which
the boxes of the police-watchmen are furnished are no longer
used. Every thing indicates the dawn of summer.
Fires. — The fire-engines were out this morning at seven,
again at 2 P. M., and now, 10 P. M., the State House bell is
announcing a third fire in the southwest part of the city. We
see the sky red and lurid, and the engines are rushing and roar
ing past our windows. The words "roaring" or "braying"
scarcely convey an idea of the hideous noise which the leader of
an engine makes through a brass or tin trumpet as he advances.
It is intended to sound an alarm, and to give notice to clear the
streets for the passage of the procession.
April 8. Therm. 50°. Fraud Detected. — One of the judges
mentioned to me a curious detection of a fraud which had oc
curred in his experience on the bench. The judge himself has
been in the practice of writing his private notes in the Greek
character, although in the English language. Those notes have
occasionally fallen into the hands of persons who have taken
them for Greek, and they gave him a reputation, which he was
far from claiming, of being a great Greek scholar. On one oc
casion a German Jew was brought into court charged with
fraudulent bankruptcy. The judge asked to see his books.
" Oh," said the counsel for the Jew, " you need not take any
trouble about them, for they are all written in Hebrew, and no
body can understand them." He, however, insisted on seeing
them. They were produced, and were written in the Hebrew
character certainly; but, judging from his own practice, it struck
him that they might nevertheless be in the German language.
He called forward a man whom he saw in court who spoke the
same dialect of German as the Jew did, and made the Jew read
aloud his own entries in the books. The German understood
every word of them. The books were unravelled, and the fraud
completely exposed.
Massachusetts Temperance Tmiv. — "A bill licensing the
sale of spirits and wine in quantities over three gallons, and also
allowing travellers to buy it by the glass, recently passed the
senate of Massachusetts, and was sent down to the house of as
sembly. The house promptly killed it by refusing it a second
reading. This vote was afterwards reconsidered, 206 to 142.

OBJECTIONS TO INFANT SCHOOLS. 1 1
The bill was then ordered to a second reading. Mr. Cushman,
of Bernardston, moved to amend the bill by striking out ' three'
gallons, and inserting 'one' gallon. Carried. The bill was
then rejected by — ^yeas 115, nays 230."
Objections to Infant Schools. — 'One of the directors of the
common schools informed me that he perceived the advantage
of teaching by objects, and that he had labored to introduce
cabinets of natural history and philosophical apparatus into the
common schools, but that he met with great difficulties. The
infant schools had been given up because the children were
found not to be prepared by them for the higher schools. Their
instruction needed to be begun anew. Although they could
multiply twenty by twenty by the aid of Wilderspin's board,
yet when they came into the higher school where no board was
used, they could not multiply six by six. Although they could
name a lion from its figure in a picture, and narrate its natural
history very learnedly, they could neither spell nor read its
name. I offered two hypothetical explanations of these facts:
First, It may have happened that the infant school teachers
were themselves imperfectly informed and trained, which I con
sidered highly probable, because I had not been able to discover
a single copy of Wilderspin's work on infant schools in the city
of Philadelphia. If so, the teachers may have omitted to in
struct the children in words as well as objects, which is a com
plete departure from the true principles of infant teaching. Or,
secondly. The masters in the higher schools may have taught
words so exclusively, that children who had been trained to
connect an idea with every word may have been completely at
a loss when words were presented to them tvithout ideas. He
said, that his own experience had led him to the conclusion that
the great obstacle to the success of infant and other schools for
teaching objects, was the want of trained and capable teachers.
Some of the teachers are appointed through political influence,
and have no ideas to communicate. I repeated to him the great
services that Mr. Wilderspin had rendered to this branch of
education in Britain, and urged him to use means for obtaining
his assistance.
I find that most of the directors of the public schools are men
engaged in business, who mean well towards education, but who
do not understand the subject. Besides, they have not sufiicient
time to devote to the schools. They see that their own district
receives its proper proportion of the fund appropriated to educa
tion (for Philadelphia above $200,000 annually,) and that it is
expended on schools; but this is nearly all they can accomplish.
It is, nominally, the duty of the secretary of the commonwealth

12 MOYAMENSINC PRISON.
to superintend all the public schools, but as it is impossible that
he can discharge this duty, he scarcely attempts to do so. Party
enters so largely into every appointment in Pennsylvania, that
there is some danger that, if a secretary for public instruction
were appointed, the office might be conferred, not in considera
tion of capacity to discharge its duties, but as a reward for
political exertions. The ignorance of the people constitutes a
serious obstacle to the improvement of education in this state;
and to me it was curious to see the same impediments to this
great cause arising here from popular ignorance, which in Eng
land flow from the hostility of the church and the aristocracy!
April 9. Ther. 55°. A Firemen's Fight. — The newspapers
to-day contain a report of a trial on cross biUs by individuals of
rival fire companies, who fought for possession of a fire-plug or
station, and each has prosecuted the other for an assault!
April 10. Ther. 35°. Effects of Democracy. — One accus
tomed to European cities detects subordinate influences of the
democratic principle in the American cities, which probably
escape the observation of natives. The carriage-way in the
streets in Philadelphia is paved with round water-worn stones,
apparently gathered from rivers, and is consequently rough.
The foot-way is beautifully paved with brick, and is very smooth.
The whole traffic of the town, carried on in wheelbarrows, pro
ceeds on the foot-paveinent. Even in the best streets, the citi
zen must give way to the wheelbarrow. The foot-pavement is
raised 6 or 8 inches above the carriage-way, and the barrows
have a little wheel fixed on a sort of out-rigging in front, to en
able them to mount up to the side-pavement after each crossing.
In European cities, all vehicles are generally confined to the
carriage-way. Moyamensing Prison — This is the name of the prison for
the county of Philadelphia. It is a modern structure, and con
sists of solitary cells in corridors 280 feet long and three stories
high. It is conducted on the same principles with the Eastern
Penitentiary. The physician who kindly accompanied me in
my visit, assured me that the treatment pursued in these two
prisons is not injurious to health. There are no baths, cold or
warm, for the prisoners, and no yard for exercise. I should
imagine a warm bath once a week would produce, both morally
and physically, a beneficial influence on these convicts. Their
cells are thoroughly ventilated. There is an aperture in the
wall on the level of the floor, communicating directly with the
external atmosphere, for allowing the air to enter, and a hole in
the opposite wall, just below the ceiling, for allowing it to escape
into a ventilating chimney, which goes to the roof. The pri-

THE DANGERS OF RICHES. 13
soners, however, on the different floors, contrive to converse
and communicate through these lower openings. This prison
also has a kind of water-closet in each cell.
Nothing has struck me more than the extensive want of this
accommodation in the American cities. Every reproach ever
heaped on Scotland for its barbarism in this respect, may now
be transferred to the United States. Very few of the best hotels
can boast of civilisation in this particular; and in Philadelphia,
where there is abundance of water, there are sad deficiencies
even in genteel houses. This want must be enumerated among
the efficient and even important causes of bad health. The most
refined and sensitive individuals of both sexes suffer great in
convenience rather than travel from twenty to fifty yards in the
open air, when the thermometer is at zero, or very little above
it; and to those who are laboring under intestinal affections, ex
posure in these frozen regions is fraught with the greatest dan
gers. I have heard physicians of great experience lamenting
the extent of suffering that may be traced to this cause; yet
they hesitate to urge publicly means for removing it, through
dread of giving offence.
The Dangers of Riches. — In this city, refined, easy, social
intercourse, for the sake of relaxation and enjoyment, is rather
limited. The dinner hour is two or three o'clock. A hasty
meal is swallowed, and the merchant returns to his counting-
house, the lawyer to his briefs, and the physician to his routine
of visits. Digestion is interrupted by this sudden return to
mental and bodily exertion, and dyspepsia extensively prevails.
These various persons return home to tea; but they have neither
vivacity, ideas, nor feelings, for passing the evening in easy
conversation. They are pressed down in mind by a load of
business which they cannot throw off, or exhausted by labor
and bad digestion, so as to have litfle enjoyment in society.
There is no idle class to cultivate society as an object. One
family tried to have an easy party once a week, to keep open
house in the evening, but the attempt was unsuccessful. For
several weeks, a few were induced to come, then they left off
coming, and so the experiment failed. Some would not go, just
because it was an innovation, and because, by staying away,
they could disappoint the innovators, and prevent them from es
tablishing a practice which every one might not be disposed to
adopt. If a young man inherit a fortune and follow no profes
sion, it generally happens that in less than ten years he ruins his
fortune in low pursuits. In a few years more his health is equally
reduced with his estate, and he is banished from society, or ad
mitted only on sufferance. These young men are pitied, their
fate is predicted, and the prophecies are too generally realised.
VOL. II. — 3

14 DR. Morton's crania Americana.
There is no class to sustain them in the condition of idlers, and
no sinecure offices for them in the institutions of the country.
The few who form exceptions to this rule are men of natural
taste and refinement, who engage in literature or science as a
pursuit. These are esteemed happy.
April 11. Ther. 60°. The Maine War.— The Mononga-
hela packet-ship has just arrived at Philadelphia, and brings the
" Liverpool Standard" of the 8th March. This is the only
communication from England since the news of the vote of
50,000 volunteers reached that country, and the paper is read
with intense interest. It ascribes the war to the whig ministry,
and depicts to the Americans the certainty of their ruin, if they
go to war, just as the American papers have been, for some
time, exulting in the ruin of England, as the consequence of
hostilities. It is lamentable to see the two freest and most en
lightened nations of the world thus gloating over the prospect
of each other's destruction, in consequence of a dispute about a
piece of waste-land, which is not worth more in fee-simple than
the value of two line-of-battle ships. It is said here that a mil
lion and a half of dollars would purchase the disputed territory
out and out! The anxiety for the arrival of the Great Western,
with official despatches, is great. Already the derangement in
business, the fall of stocks and property, and the apprehensions
of another bank-suspension in this city, have cast a gloom over
society, and war is already deprecated by the multitude as
earnestly as, a few weeks ago, it was invoked.
Pennsylvania University. — This university has published a
catalogue of its students for the session 1838-9. In the Colle
giate department it numbers 105; Medical 402; Academical 169;
Charity (English) schools 128— total 804.
Black-Foot Indians. — Mr. Catlin has kindly presented me
with two skulls of Black-Foot Indians, from the base of the
Kocky Mountains, sent to him by Mr. Mackenzie. They ap
proach pretty closely to the Caucasian variety in form, but they
are smaller than the skulls of the Anglo-Saxon race. The
organs of Combativeness and Destructiveness are very large.
The organs of Firmness and Veneration are large, while those
of Benevolence and Conscientiousness are small. The anterior
lobe devoted to intellect is pretty well developed. This combi
nation indicates a ferocious, cruel, warlike disposition, the more
formidable that the intellectual capacity is greater than in many
of the Indian races. Dr. Morton has not seen any of the skulls
of this tribe, and I have lent them to him to be drawn for his
work. Dr. Morton's Crania ^mericana.—DT. Morton showed m
the measurements of the coronal regions of a number of his

PHRENOLOGY. 1 5
skuUs, taken by means of mercury by him and Mr. Phillips.
The points of Cautiousness and Causality had been correctly
selected in all of them except one, and in it the two points of
ossification of the frontal bone stood on different levels, and they
had taken the lowest, thereby increasing the size of the coronal
region. The organs of Self-Esteem and the Love of Approba
tion are, of necessity, included in the measurements of the
coronal region in all of them, because they could devise no
means of cutting off the locality of these organs when they
poured the mercury into the coronal region. Some of the skulls,
which are very large at the organs of Self-Esteem, Love of Ap
probation, Veneration, and Firmness, but very deficient at the
organs of Conscientiousness and Benevolence, show, by mea
surement, an extraordinarily large size of the coronal region.
The general measurement would lead to the inference of a pretty
high development of the moral organs generally, while an in
spection of the skull shows that the large size proceeds from
Self-Esteem, Love of Approbation, Veneration, and Firmness,
which organs, acting with small Conscientiousness and small
Benevolence, tend to increase tlie features of barbarism instead
of diminishing them. In the skulls, the organs of Benevolence
and Conscientiousness are almost uniformly shown to be defi
cient. On the whole, however, the measurements, as reported,
give a very fair idea, corresponding to that communicated by the
eye, of the general magnitude of the coronal region. The eye
detects the specific organs which are large or small, while the
measurements give the aggregate only.
Phrenology. — Dr. M'Clellan and his patient, mentioned in vol.
i. p. 206, called on me to-day. The latter is now robust and in full
health. The integuments of his head have united, all except a
small point in the centre, into which a few hairs have grown. I
felt the extent of the wound, and now perceived that the bone
had been removed as far forward as near the anterior edge of
Firmness, over the whole of Self-Esteem, and over great part
of both organs of Love of Approbation. The tumor was not
so extensive; but Dr. M'Clellan says, that the skull was dis
organised to this extent, and it was necessary to remove it.
The integuments are very thick at present, and the young man
says that the only inconvenience which he feels is that of a
weight pressing on his head at that place. He mentioned that
he was formerly bold and confident, but is now diffident and
timid. He went lately to an artist to have a cast of his head
taken, and shook with fear at the prospect of the process; yet he
never felt alarm, and never winced, during the operation. He
added, that he can still imitate and Ventriloquise by himself, but
he has no confidence to do so before any one. Is this change

1 6 international law of copyright.
owing to any peculiar affection of the organs of Self-Esteem
and Firmness, or is it the result of general nervous debility re
maining after so severe an operation? He confirmed what has
already been stated — that his self-confidence left him, as the
tumor increased, before coming to Philadelphia, to have the
operation performed-.
International Law of Copyright.— The " New Yorker" of
30th of March contains an able article on this subject. It shows
pretty clearly that American authors can never expect to receive
adequate remuneration for their works, as long as puMishers are
at liberty to pillage EngUsh literature at their discretion. It
asserts what I know to be true, that if an extensive American
publisher has stereotyped the first edition of a popular English
work, he prevents the Americans from reading improved edi
tions.*' Farther, the New Yorker acknowledges that the complaints
of British authors are well founded, wheli they assert that, " the
works published in this country (the United States) under their
names frequently are not, in reality, their proper works; that
their sentiments are often suppressed, their language modified,
and that even that portion which is given to the public is so de
formed by typographical inaccuracies as to prove seriously inju
rious to their reputation. These charges have not been denied,
and for the best of reasons, because the truth is so notorious that
the denial would be met by instant proof of the facts. Literary
men are not ignorant of this, and, for their own security, will
never quote from an American reprint, if the original work is to
be had. Such are the works, often the mere husks of literature,
that are presented to the American public, f
* It was only after I had threatened to reprint the seventh English edi
tion of Dr. A. Combe's " Physiology applied to Health and Education," at
my own expense, that Messrs. Harper agreed to reprint it, and they then
offered $100 to the author for the new matter, and also as a compensation
for past, present, and all future sales of the work, of which offer the author
accepted. I was assured that the sales of the first edition had exceeded
15,000 copies before I applied to them. The New York newspapers are
constantly celebrating their liberality to British authors, and no doubt this
was an act of liberality, as they lay under no legal obligation to make any
recompense whatever; but the magnitude of it was not a matter to boast of.
t This practice of mutilating books by American publishers is not coD-
fined to reprints of English works. In the " Memoirs of Benjamin Frank
lin," published by Messrs. Harper in 1840, they have omitted three para
graphs of his autobiography, which appear in the English editions between
the third an^ fourth paragraphs on page 61 of vol. i, of their work. The
apology probably may be offered that their edition is part of their " Family
Library," and that the passages suppressed relate to the amours of Ralph
and Franklin; but they should have given notice that an omission had been
made.

PHRENOLOGY. 17
Spring. — The horse-chestnut trees are now in full leaf.
Pavements. — In Chestnut street, the great thoroughfare of
Philadelphia, part of the street has been macadamised. At the
end of the frost it stood in waves, from the unequal expansion of
the ground in thawing. This is assigned by the Americans as
their reason for not macadamising their roads in general. At a
subsequent date I visited Canada, and saw admirable macadam
ised roads in the neighborhood of Montreal and Quebec, and
asked how they stood the thawing in spring? " Perfecfly
well." " How do you prevent them from being thrown up when
the thaw comes?" " By laying the stones six or eight inches
thicker than in England;^ so thick that the frost does not pene
trate to the soft soil below." What is done in Canada, may be
accomplished in the United States. Wooden pavement has also
been tried in Chestnut street. It answers extremely well; but
the expense of it is complained of, as it is said to wear out in four
years. Queen Victoria.' — The Americans take a great interest in
Queen Victoria, and forgive her royalty in consideration of her
youth and sex. The print shops display the finest engravings
of her imported from London; and an exhibition of a picture of
her in Philadelphia (not Sully's) has attracted crowds of visiters
for several weeks. It is the portrait of a pretty young woman,
richly attired, with the insignia of royalty lying on a table beside
her; but it has no other resemblance to the Queen. All the
anecdotes about her majesty are carefully copied from the Eng
lish papers, and circulated by the press in the United States.
The American Phrenological Journal. — This periodical is
published monthly in Philadelphia; each number consists of 32
pages 8vo, making a volume of 384 pages per annum. It was
commenced on 1st of October, 1838, and has all along been ably
conducted. It now boasts of a circulation of nearly 1200 copies.
The editor is a native of New England, a man of talent, indus
try, and high moral character, and he has impressed these quali
ties on his work. He is now studying medicine in this city.
The Journal is doing great service to the cause of Phrenology in
the United States.*
Phrenology. — In Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, there
are shops in which Phrenological casts are extensively sold.
Messrs. Fowler are in the United States what Mr. Deville is in
London. They have devoted themselves to the practical de-
* The price of this Journal in Philadelphia is S2 per annum for one copy,
or $5 for three copies. It may be ordered in London through Messrs. Wiley
and Putnam, American booksellers. Paternoster Row; but it must in all
cases be prepaid. There is a small additional charge for the conveyance to
London.

18 THE INSANE POOR OF PENNSYLVANIA.
partment of the science, and have large and valuable collections
for sale, both in New York and Philadelphia.
The Insane Poor of Pennsylvania. — A committee of the
House of Eepresentatives, to whom were referred the petitions
relative to an asylum for the insane poor, have reported that, by
information derived from about half the counties in the state, it
was ascertained, that, in a populaT;ion of about 800,000, there are
upwards of 1100 insane persons, including congenital idiots and
those rendered fatuous by disease; whence it is inferred, that in
Pennsylvania at large, there is a total of 2300 insane and idiotic
poor. Nearly two-thirds of this number are in the worst cir
cumstances; " and probably not less than a thousand of these
unfortunates are kept in county poor-houses and prisons, or in
families at auction-prices.* Not being subjected to medical or
moral treatment, recovery under these circumstances is very rare,
from five to eight in a hundred being an extremely favorable
estimate." The following extracts from the committee's report show the
hardships to which these unhappy beings are exposed:' —
" In one county, of forty persons more or less deranged, seven
are confined in cells, which are nearly if not quite under ground.
They may be seen from without through iron bars in the cellar
windows. Among them is a German girl, twenty years old,
seemingly in perfect health of body, with beautiful teeth and
hair, and without any symptoms of maUgnity, who has been in
such a cell five months, and considered as incurable. This in
teresting case, under treatment for a few months in a proper
insane hospital, would probably result in a complete restoration
to reason and liberty.
"Several other like cases are described, and aU these, we are
told, ' are shut up under bolts and bars, neglected and almost
forgotten, with no friendly voice to break the silence of their
solitude; and presented, one and aU, the same revolting picture
of suffering.'
" In another county ' a man, thirty-five years old, had been con
fined for years in a miserable shed; when the bolt was drawn
and the door opened, he was lying on the floor among straw, no
bed was to be seen though it was cold weather, and we had to
plunge through snow which had fallen the day previous to get to
his wretched abode.'
" ' In another county a woman of thirty-five was confined in
like manner till she raved herself to death.'
" While decided testimony is given to the good keeping and
* This means, that the poor are boarded out at so much a year, to those
who will take them at the cheapest rate.

NEW YORK CIVIC ELECTION. 19
treatment of paupers generally, it is added that ' the poor luna
tics are found with the feet chained together, or chained by the
body to iron weights, logs of wood, or to the trunks of trees, or,
what is more common, under ground, without ventilation, and
breathing an air loaded with intolerable stench.' "
Frightful as this picture is, I am old enough to recollect a par
allel to it existing in the city of Edinburgh; but Scotland has
now wiped off this stain from her moral reputation. Dr. Dun-
glison, and other medical writers, have labored zealously to free
Pennsylvania from the disgrace of such scenes, and the commit
tee have reported a biU for the erection of a proper asylum at the
expense of the Commonwealth.*
April 12. Neio York. — I went to New York to-day to pre
pare for my second course of lectures in that city. The new
railroad by Trenton is now open. The cars started at half-past
eight, and at three P. M. we arrived at New York without de
tention or accident. The cars from Philadelphia to Trenton had
apertures at the top for ventilation; those from Trenton to Jersey
City carried fifty passengers each, and had no provision for ven
tilation. A window on my left side was opened. In consequence
of the exposure to the stream of cold air which it admitted, and
which was indispensable to breathing, I lost the power of hear
ing in my left ear, and did not recover it for six months.
New York Civic Election. — The election of mayor and coun
cillors for the city of New York has just terminated. The
democratic party have turned the whigs out of office, and are
now celebrating their triumph. This is a revolution in public
sentiment which has excited great astonishment.
— ApriHSr— 'The election is the universal subject of conversa
tion. 'Ch.eu"MOTnifigHH«rald," a whig .ne.wspa.per, conducted
)by James Gordon Bennett, a Scotsman, characterised by great
talent, but of about the same standing in moral reputation with
" Thie Age" in London, thus describes the closing seene; —Tie
dEScription, although coarse and caricatured, represents correctly
the spirit of the party, and Bennett's usual style of writing: —
" The locofocos are triumphant at every point, laughing at
every corner of their infernal mouths, aHd-fihakiag-their-sides
till they -almost shake the 'duds' off their -limbs." At the close
of the polls on Thursday night, the devil, knowing what he had
been about, also began to rejoice, andaccordinglyletoutone of the
* The bill passed both houses of the legislature, but in the beginning of
1840 it was negatived by Governor Portei from dire necessity. The state
had not means to pay the expenses of its own government and the interest
of its debt, and he regarded these as more urgent claims than the building
of an asylum. It is hoped that Pennsylvania will speedily recover from this
depression, and that this asylum will not be forgotten.

20 NEW YORK CIVIC ELECTION.
prettiest northeastern rain storms that ever gave hundreds the
consumption, and thousands the ennui and blue devils. But
what cared the locofocos for rain, or getting wet? When they
get to their comfortable quarters in another region hereafter,
they will have time to dry their ragged, dripping breeches before
the flames of the fire that never dies. Tammany Hall, and all
the neighborhood, never was in such an ecstasy of delight. The
whole myriads of locofocos, as numerous as the locusts of Egypt,
were in perfect ecstasies throughout the city yesterday. ' Eain,
blow, pelt,' cried they, ' who cares? we have Ucked the damned
whigs, and that's enough.' "
There is a general admission that, on this occasion, disgrace
ful means have been resorted to by both parties to gain the elec
tion. There is no registry of voters in this city, and the title of
every one who claims to vote is determined at the poll. Citi
zenship and residence are the chief qualifications. It is said
that great numbers of foreigners have been admitted to the fran-'
chise, by one of the courts of law, without the legal qualifica
tions. It is even asserted that the emigrants by their votes
govern the city, to the exclusion of the natives; and a longer resi
dence is insisted on as a title to citizenship. Frauds have been
committed also on the law which requires residence in a ivard
as a qualification to vote. When a party has had a supernume
rary strength of legal voters in one ward, but been weak in an
other, it has removed a portion of its numbers from the strong
ward to sleep a single night in the weak ward; they have ap
peared at the polls in this ward the next day, have sworn that
they were residents in it, voted, and immediately returned home.
This violated the spirit, but not the letter of the law, and is
named " colonising." The virtuous men of both parties admit
that there must be an end of all this fraud, or the ballot-box will be
a mere farce; they say that, otherwise, " he who can cheat most,
raise the most money, buy and colonise most, will carry the
day." There are strong calls for a registry law.
These contests, conducted without reference to moral princi
ple, demoralise all classes, and inflict a lasting injury on a re
public which has no anchorage for its institutions except the
virtue of its citizens. To act immorally in elections is to com
mit treason against the country. Indeed it is almost the only
form in which an American can commit this crime.*
* While I thus severely condemn these republican immoralities, I must
at the same time do justice to the American institutions, and mention that,
before the subsequent election, a very stringent law w.is passed to cure these
evils, and that both parlies admitted that it had produced the desired effect:
Fartherr-befiM'e-Heft-the-United-States, a registry law -was passed for- the
eity of New York, which will render a recurrence of them impossible.

SING-SING STATE PRISON. 21
General Wlnjield Scott. — This officer gave the most une
quivocal proofs of courage and military talents in the last war
with England on the Canadian frontier. He is a man of an
active mind and commanding presence, and crowns all these
accomplishments by dispositions remarkably humane and just.
He has been selected by the President to make a temporary
arrangement with Sir John Harvey for preserving peace on the
Maine boundary, until the resolutiqns of the British and Ameri
can governments shall be finally taken. He has succeeded in
this mission. His correspondence with Sir John Harvey has
been published, and is distinguished by business talent and a
fine moral tone. This adj ustment has given much satisfaction
in New York. Some of General Scott's admirers insist on his
being put in nomination for the presidency. Judging from the
principles on which he acts, and his power of carrying other
minds into his measures by means of reason and moral suasion,
he certainly possesses in a high degree some of the qualities
which should adorn an American president. At a subsequent
period, I had the pleasure of being introduced to him, and all
my prepossessions in his favor were confirmed by the personal
interview. Many individuals and newspapers, that had not
moral courage to advocate peace directly, did so indirectly by
their high eulogiums on General Scott's pacific dispositions and
talents for adjusting disputes by frank honesty and reason.
Phrenology. — I gave the first lecture of my second course
this evening in the Stuyvesant Institute.
April 15. Maine War. — The Great Western, which sailed
from Bristol on the 23d of March, has arrived after a long and
very rough passage. The English have taken the belligerent
demonstrations of the Americans very coolly, and do not return
the threats of war. This has caused great joy here, and stocks
have risen. The news, however, of the act of congress author
ising the enhstment of 50,000 volunteers had not reached Lon
don when the Great Western sailed, and there is still some
anxiety to learn the effect of that measure on John Bull.
April 18. Thermometer 45°. The weather is cold and rainy.
Vegetation is from ten to fourteen days later in New York than
in Philadelphia.
Sing-Sing State Prison. — A report of the committee of the
legislature on this prison has been printed. It discloses great
abuses. The inspectors have neglected their duty, and the
superintendent is said to have erected his will into a law, to have
Thus, while we lament the aberrations of the Americans, we must not shut
our eyes to their tendency to rectify their own errors, and correct their own
derelictions of duty.

22 AUBURN STATE PRISON.
jobbed the supply of provisions, and the sales of the products of
the convicts' labor for his own benefit, applied the scourge abun
dantly, and rendered the prison a scene of tyranny and pecula
tion.' He, however, has published a letter in which he_ desig
nates the investigation as having been secret and inquisitorial;
charges the witnesses with perjury, and announces that he has
petitioned the legislature to send a committee to re-examine the
charges openly, giving him an opportunity of confronting the
witnesses. Auburn State Prison. — Similar charges are made against
the management of this prison. Louis Von Eck, a convict, has
died in it, and a coroner's inquest has been held on his body.
The following facts are reported in the Auburn Journal and Ad
vertiser. " Von Eck was born in Germany, and after having
received a liberal education, he took a medical degree at the
University of Gottingen. He then proceeded to Cuba, where
he for some time practised his profession; and at length re
moved to one of the southern states, and married the daughter of
Colonel  , of the United States army. Thus far all
things had gone comparatively well with him — but behold a
change. Travelling north a few months ago, he fell into com
pany with a set of blacklegs and sharpers, by whom he was in
duced to present a counterfeit check at the counter of one of
the Buffalo banks. His old associates turned witnesses against
him, and the poor fellow, who but a short time before was able
to look upon every thing as bright and cheering, was now
doomed to the habitation of a dreary cell, under circumstances
the most trying and most humiliating. He was, we believe,
about 28 years of age."
The verdict of the inquest is as follows: — "The jury being
sworn and charged to inquire, on the part of the people of the
said state, when, where, how, and after what manner the said
Louis Von Eck came to his death, do say upon their oaths
aforesaid, that the said Louis Von Eck, a convict in the Auburn
State Prison, and a German by birth, came to his death on
Monday, the 8th day of April inst., while in the prison hospital,
from disease; the fatal termination of which was hastened by
flogging, labor, and general harsh treatment, imposed by the
agent, Elam Lynds, and Galen 0. Weed, one of the keepers,
and also by inexcusable neglect and want of proper care on the
part of the physician, Lansingh Briggs, who reported him from
time to time as well, when actually sick."*
* Before I left the United States, the ofEcers of Sing-Sing and Auburn
prisons, implicated in these charges, had either "resigned" or been re
moved—another proof of the speedy remedies applied to public abuses
under this government.

TIT FOR TAT.  THE CHARTISTS. 23
April 19. Ther. 48°. The Election.— This evening the de
mocratic party celebrated its triumph with processions, banners,
transparencies, illuminations, squibs and crackers. Every thing
passed off without disorder.
April 21. Ther. 37°. Sunday. — I heard the Rev. Mr. Dewey
preach an excellent sermon, in which he spoke freely and deci
dedly against the late manifestations of the national spirit for
war, andreproved the corruptions practised at the last election.
He depicted the immorality of war; but said that, when a people
is absorbed in a sordid love of gain — when its political institu
tions are defiled by perjury and bribery — war, with all its
horrors, will be a less evil than the natural fruits of such a social
condition. This is a striking proof that, under the voluntary
system, a preacher is not necessarily led to gloss over the im
perfections of his flock.
Dr. Channing's Answer to 3fr. Clay's Speech. — Dr. Chan-
ning has addressed and published a letter to Jonathan Phillips,
Esq., in answer to Mr. Clay's speech on slavery. It is ex
citing much attention, and is an admirable production. It is full
of the eloquence and energy of the moral sentiments. He in
troduces a powerful rebukfe of the Philadelphians for burning
Pennsylvania Hall because abolition meetings were held in it.
The Philadelphians are beginning to be ashamed of that out
rage. April 22. Therm. 43°. Universalists.—Jhe Rev. Mr. Bal
lon, a universalist minister from Boston, preached here yester
day, and denied the existence of the devil, and of eternal pun
ishment. Bennett's newspaper deprecates such doctrines as
extremely dangerous; for, if they be believed, there will be no
check on the " Loco Focos," and the Wall street brokers!
April 23. Therm. 51°. Tit for Tat.— The Chartists.— As
a set-off against the charges made by the English press against
the Americans for their mob atrocities, the papers here are re
cording the precautions of the British ministry against the
chartists. It is said that large bodies of horse, foot, and artil
lery, and a rocket brigade, have been sent into the manufactur
ing districts of England to prevent an expected appeal to arms
by these men. In the United States no risings of the people in
arms are necessary to obtain a redress of grievances. They ac
complish their sovereign will quietly through the ballot-boxes.
In England the masses are so untrained to freedom that universal
suffrage would lead to revolution; but their entire exclusion
from all control over the government is attended with great
evils. British legislation is partial to the higher and middle
classes, and, in many particulars, unjust to the people. If the
latter were allowed to send fifty representatives to the house of

24 HIGH PRICES OF PROVISIONS.
commons, their grievances would be proclaimed and remedied.
They might be authorised to elect delegates by whom the direct
nomination of the representatives should be effected. By some
such machinery, they might be permitted to wield a reasonable
degree of influence over the legislature without introducing the
evils of universal suffrage. The chief recommendation of uni
versal suffrage in America is its effect in forcing the more en
lightened members of the community to exert themselves earn
estly to instruct and improve the masses for their own protection.
We want such an influence in Britain very much; and a limited
and indirect representation of the people would be more ef
fectual, and far more desirable, than armed insurrections. The
latter probably will never cease until the former be granted.
The Licentiousness of the Press. — The following paragraph,
taken from " The Boston Transcript," is another example of
reprisals: — " We had heard and read much of the licentiousness
of the public press of London, but had no adequate idea of its
infamous extent, until we received a short time since, from a
friend in London, who sent them to us to enlighten our igno
rance, six or seven copies each of ' The Crim. Con. Gazette,'
and ' The Bon Ton Gazette,' papers which are sold openly in the
streets for a penny a copy, and of which thousands are circulated
daily. The contents of these papers are so disgusting, that we
found it next to impossible to read them. We do not believe
that we could have made, from the whole lot, half a column of
extracts, that any Boston publisher or editor would dare to lay
before his readers. And this is the garbage on which the minds
of tens of thousands of the inhabitants of London feed daily."
The Park Theatre. — When we arrived in New York in
September last, the public gave Mr. WaUack, the manager of
the Park Theatre, a complimentary benefit at $3 for each ticket
to all parts of the house. On the 19th of April, they gave him
another benefit at the same rate, and on both occasions the
theatre is reported to have been crowded.
April 24. Therm. 56°. High Prices of Provisions. —
There are great complaints in the eastern cities of the high
prices of provisions, particularly of beef. In Philadelphia it
costs from 8d. to 9d. a pound, and in New York from 9d. to
lOd. Various causes are assigned for this unusual state of the
markets. It is said by some that in 1836-7 the mania for specula
tion had so completely seized all classes, that even the farmers
were affected by it, and abandoned tillage for trafficking in
shares and lots, in consequence of which there is now a real
scarcity of farm produce. Others say that, for many years
past, cattle were reared and fattened in the west, then sent to the
Atlantic cities, and sold cheaper there than they could be reared

EXTENSION OF NEW YORK CITY. 25
on the eastern border; that this led to the neglect of grazing in
the east; that the west has now become so densely peopled that
it consumes all its own cattle, and that this is the cause of the
scarcity in the eastern cities.
April 25. Therm. 58°. Female Seminary for Education.
— I had the pleasure of meeting a lady who is well known in
this and the neighboring states for her success in female educa
tion. She mentioned that Dr. A. Combe's " Physiology ap
plied to Health and Education," and my work on " The Con
stitution of Man," have been regularly taught by her to her
pupils for some years; and that, with a few explanations, they
readily understand both, and take a great interest in, them. The
young ladies range from nine to fifteen years of age.
Shoidd British Dissenting Clergymen Emigrate to Ame
rica? — This question is often put by letters to the American
clergy, and personally to individuals who have visited the
United States. My advice to them is to let well alone, and
stay in their own country, if they can obtain a decent livelihood.
A clergyman must be born and "reared" in the United States
to fit him for his situation and duties. The deficiency of do
mestic service — the high rents and exorbitant prices of most
manufactured and imported articles in the cities — the limited
extent of social habits — the arduous labor — the strict surveillance
exercised by society over official persons — and the overwhelm
ing force of public opinion — render the United States no para
dise to well educated men accustomed to social life in Britain.
April 26. Therm. 57°. Extension of Neiu York City. —
The speculating mania which seized this people in 1836 has
left traces which it wiU require several years to obliterate. Large
tracts of ground cleared and levelled for building lie waste at the
north end of the city, waiting for the extension of the popula
tion. It is probable that more money has been lost and won in
speculation on these " lots," than would have sufficed to cover
them all with buildings. There is a substratum of truth in
Cooper's descriptions of the scenes that occurred at that time,
in his novel, " Home as Found:" — " ' Can you tell us the his
tory of this particular piece of property, Mr. Hammer?' said
John Effingham to one of the most considerable auctioneers.
' With great pleasure, Mr. Effingham; we know you have
means, and hope you may be induced to purchase. This was
the farm of old Volkert Van Brunt — five years since — off which
he and his family had made a livelihood for more than a century,
by selling milk. Two years since, the sons sold it to Peter
Feeler for a hundred dollars an acre; or for the total sum of
5000 dollars. The next spring Mr. Feeler sold it to John
Search, as keen a one as we have, for 25,000. Search sold it

26 HIGH PRICES OF PROVISIONS.
at private sale to Nathaniel Rise for 50,000 the next week, and
Rise had parted with it to a company, before the purchase, for
112,000 cash. The map ought to be taken down, for it is now
eight months since we sold it out in lots, at auction, for the
gross sum of 300,000 dollars.' * * * ' And on what
is this enormous increase in value founded? Does the town ex
tend to these fields?' — ' It goes much farther. Sir; that is to say,
on paper. In the way of houses, it is still some miles short of
them. A good deal depends on what you call a thing in this
market. Now, if old Volkert Van Brunt's property had been
still called a farm, it would have brought a farm price; but as
soon as it was surveyed into lots, and mapped  ' — ' Map
ped!' — ' Yes, Sir, brought into visible lines, with feet and
inches. As soon as it was properly mapped, it rose to its just
value. We have a good deal of the bottom of the sea that
brings fair prices in consequence of being well mapped.' "
I was long puzzled to discover what this last statement, about
selling "the bottom of the'sea" at fair prices, alluded to, until I
saw a large map of Manhattan Island in ,an apartment of the
State House, New York ; and sure enough a number of lots ap
pear on it extended into the sea, at New York city, Brooklyn
and Haeriem. These are intended for wharves, and were favor
ite subjects of speculation under the name of " water lots."
We may laugh at the Americans for these follies, but in J 8 14
—15 they were equalled in Leith in sugar speculations, and
m Edinburgh in 1824 in building and joint-stock company
adventures. American Judges.— This evening I had the pleasure of meet
ing with three distinguished men who have held, or now hold,
the office of judges, and they seemed to me to be well qualified
to command respect in any country. One of them told me that
the abolition of imprisonment for debt for small sums had pro
duced excellent effects in the State of New York; that sub-
sequentiy the measure had been extended to all sums, and he
thought that the abohtion, when thus extended, had encouraffed
gambling speculations and fraud.
Spring.— We had a drive to-day into the country on the
middle road, and returned by the Bloomingdale road. The fniit
trees are in full blossom, and the forest trees are fast bursting.
Spring proceeds with extraordinary rapidity, but I miss the
sweet carolling of the lark which cheers the British spring- Here
the groves are silent; but the plumage of the feathered race is
strikingly beautiful in its colors.
nf T.^4u^T' ^^f^' V ^'''''' °f Provisions.-The editor
of "The Pennsylvanian' says that the disease of America "is
the credit system." " We have became a nation of speculators

ASYLUM FOR COLORED ORPHANS. 27
The whole mass of society is affected with the gambling spirit ;
and in the pursuit of a royal road to wealth, while the head
works, the hands are idle. Men will not stay to dig and to
delve when impressed with the conviction that city loans or
new lands will convert them into nabobs." "The disease must
work out its own cure." " When men find that all cannot be
rich, that speculation and this massive emigration are merely a
feverish mania, and that farming and grazing for the supply of
large cities, form a sure and profitable business, then, and proba
bly not till then, will provisions be sold at reasonable rates, and
preserve some degree of steadiness." This, as already men
tioned, is a democratic paper, but in no country could the press
address the people in bolder or sounder terms than these. The
heat of last summer (1838) was excessive in the United States,
which rendered provender deficient^ in quantity, and this also
must have had a great effect on the supply, and consequenfly on
the price, of cattle.
Aprn 28. Ther. 60°. I heard the Rev. Dr. Hawkes, Episco
palian, preach a highly evangelical discourse to a large and
genteel congregation.
April 29. Ther. 55°. The Asylum for Colored Orphans. —
To-day we visited the Asylum in Twelfth Street for colored
orphan children. It was opened in July 1837, and is managed
by ladies. It contains between fifty and sixty negro children,
of both sexes, from five or six to twelve or thirteen years of age.
They are clothed, fed, boarded, and taught ; and although the
building is too small for so great a number, it is kept in excellent
order. The children are taught on the infant school system, and
performed their exercises well. They have a play-ground behind,
and are encouraged to take abundance of exercise. One little
child, born in slavery, and recently liberated and sent to the asy
lum, presented a more stupid aspect than the others sprung from
free parents. This may have been the result of its condition in
slavery, without intelligent companions, or other stimulants to
its mental faculties. In the course of my inquiries, I learned
that a considerable number of deaths had occurred within the
first two years. The disease in a majority of cases was scrofula
in one or other of its varied forms. It was ascribed to the scanty
and improper diet of the children before admission, and to the
insufficiency of nutriment contained in the regular but light food
supplied in the asylum. For some time no animal food was
allowed, and Indian corn, meal, and brown bread made of rye
and unbolted wheaten flour, were among other things largely
used. One of the consequences of this kind of diet was inordi
nate irritation of the mucous membrane of the bowels, and almost
constant diarrhcea. The orphans were so enfeebled, that many

28 GENERAL WASHINGTON'S FIRST PRESIDENCY.
sunk under the acute and epidemic or contagious diseases peculiar
to childhood, which more robust children would have passed
through in safety. Both the managers and physician became
convinced of the necessity of improving the diet of the establish
ment. A change was accordingly made in this respect, as well
as in others of equal importance, and was followed by a remark
able improvement in the health of the children. Animal food is
now used four times a week in a solid form, and twice in soup.
White bread, rice and milk, the vegetables of the season, &c. are
abundantly supplied. It is now a year since there has been a
death in the asylum, where no less than fifteen deaths occurred
during the preceding eighteen months. This extraordinary ex
emption from mortality is not ascribed to change of diet only,
but to this and other ameliorations of perhaps greater importance
introduced by the enlightened and benevolent managers of the
asylum. The experiment, however, has been repeatedly made
of going back from the better to the poorer kinds of food, and
uniformly with injurious consequences.*
April 30. Ther. 54°. General Washington's first Presi
dency. — This day the Historical Society of New York cele
brated the fiftieth anniversary of the inauguration of General
Washington as President of the United States, on the 30th April,
1789. Deputations of learned men assembled from various
* These particulars are extracted from a letter pated 19th May 1840,
addressed to me by Dr. James Macdonald, the physician to the asylum,
who kindly permitted me to publish them, as they may prove useful lo the
managers of similar institutions in other parts of the United States. In
Britain also they will not be uninstructive. Indeed I perceive that they
confirm the views taken of the subject in two instructive articles puhlished
in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal on 2d and 19th February 1839. In 1838
fifty of the children in St. Cuthbert's Charity Workhouse, Edinburgh, or
nearly one fourth of the whole number, were seized with severe and in-
tractable ophthalmia, which in several cases ended in impaired vision.
From November 1837 till June 1838, seventeen died of pulmonary con
sumption; seventy were seized with hooping-cough, and there were thirty-
six cases of fever. In June seventeen were " afilicted with numerous scro-
lulous ulcers." Two eminent physicians reported that "the general aspect
ot a great number of the children not laboring under actual disease is not
Satisfactory, but is indicative of a feeble, unhealthy state of the constitu
tion, which may lay the foundation of disease in after life." They traced
the evil to scanty diet and deficient clothing. Messrs. Chambers iustlv re
mark that "the want of variety is a prevalent error in public asylums The
managers of such institutions might effect a great improvement in this
respect with little or no addition to the expense." In St Cuthbert's
Chanty Workhouse an improvement in the diet was followed by a dimin
ished mortality among the inmates. In England an opposite error has been
eommitted. In the workhouse of St. Lawrence the paupers become ill
from too high feeding. This error is likely to be committed in the United
otates, where provisions are cheap.

GENERAL WASHINGTON S FIRST PRESIDENCY. 29
parts of the Union to attend the ceremony. The meeting, which
was held in the middle Dutch church, was opened with prayer;
an ode, written by Mr. Bryant, was sung by the choir, and then
Mr. John Quincy Adams delivered an " oration." By a very
proper arrangement, ladies and the gentlemen who accompanied
them were admitted first, and afterwards the doors were opened
to gentlemen. Being unaccompanied by a lady, I obtained a
place only in the second pew from the front of the gallery, far
from. the speaker. A young American, with a quid of tobacco
in his cheek, who sat before me, put his feet on the seat of the
pew, and sat on the board that holds the Bibles, in front of the
gallery, and effectually cut off every possibility of my seeing
Mr. Adams, and the distance prevented me from hearing him. I
sat upwards of an hour without having caught one sentence of
the " oration," which, from its effects on the audience, appeared
to be eloquent. Mr. Bryant's ode was as follows:—
" Great were the hearts, and strong the minds
Of those who framed, in high debate.
The immortal league of love that binds
Our fair broad empire state with state.
" And ever hallowed be the hour.
When, as the auspicious task was done,
A nation's gift,' the sword of power.
Was given to glory's unspoiled son.
"That noble race is gone; the suns
Of fifty years have risen and sel;
The holy links these mighty ones
Had forged and knit, are brighter yet.
*• Wide — as our own free race increase —
Wide shall it stretch the elastic chain;
And bind in everlasting peace.
State after state, a mighty train."
The day was concluded by a grand public dinner of the His
torical Society.
From the reports of the oration, 1 afterwards discovered that
it was essentially an historical resume of the political history of
the United States.
" Never," says Mr. Adams, " since the creation of the globe,
has such a continuous scene of prosperity and glory blessed any
people as was conferred by the constitution. Yet it was most
obstinately and pertinaciously contested. Never did human fore
sight so completely fail as in the doubts entertained of its success.
Nor Washington nor Hamilton dared to hope that it would act
so well in practice as it has done. Between the 4th of March
VOL. II. — 4

30 GENERAL WASHINGTON'S FIRST PRESIDENCY.
and 14th of April, 1789, Washington wrote thus to Knox: — ' This
delay is to me in the light of a reprieve; my feelings are like those
of a culprit going to the place of execution. Without the requi
site political skill, to be taken thus in the evening of life from
the quiet scenes of domestic felicity, and required to take the
helm of affairs and guide this untried and doubtful machine,
leaves me small hope of success. I am embarking my good
name in a shallow bark on an unknown and tempestuous sea; but
be the voyage long or short, two things, my integrity and firm
ness, shall never forsake me. Whether I succeed or fail, please
or displease upon other points, these the world can never deprive
me of.'
" Opposed to him and his principles were many eminent patri
ots of the revolution. They rallied under the flag of state rights;
their cry was for unlimited state sovereignty, and unlimited state
independency, not amenable to the Union. These denounced
the best men of the day, with Washington at their head, as fede
ralists and tories. He was embarking upon this troublous sea a
good name, unparalleled in the annals of history. In his Diary
he says, ' About 10 o'clock I bade adieu to Mount Vernon, to pri
vate life and domestic felicity.' Yet he was deceived. His progress
from Mount Vernon to New York was one continuous triumph
ant procession. All ages, both sexes, all conditions of persons,
turned out to greet their friend and preserver, and demonstrate
their enthusiastic admiration of him. In passing over the Schuyl
kill bridge a wreath of flowers was, unconsciously to himself,
dropped on his head by a blooming boy placed in a triumphal
arch above him. At Trenton a band of aged matrons turned out
to welcome and thank him for the defence of their property,
their persons, their all— thirteen years before. The virgin
daughters of those mothers strewed' his path with flowers, and
with a song sublime as that of Miriam hailed him as their pro
tector, who had been the defender of their mothers.
" It is delightful to look back upon the long vista of fifty years,
and see all the bright visions of hope formed by those good men
more than realised; and all their despondency and doubts more
than dispelled."

31

CHAPTER n.
Judge Darlington — Rents and Taxes in New York — The Erie Canal —
Female Lecturer on Physiology — Dr. Channing on War — Lord Brou-
gham on the Maine Boundary — Spring — Protection to Negroes — Public
Defaulters — Slavery, Emancipation, and Colonisation — A Travelling-
House — The Church of the Messiah — National Academy of Design —
The Causes of Fires in New York — Duel at Vieksburg — Presbyterian
Church Case — Phrenology in the Family — Benevolent and Religious
Societies — American Anti-Slavery Society — Anr.erican Tract Society —
American Bible Society — Travelling-Houses — The Maine War — Patter
son Village — Religion — Sale of Pews — Election Law — Police of New
York City — Phrenology — Shipwrecks^The Franklin Fund — Physical
Geography of America — Haarlem — Staten Island — Dr. Channing —
Phrenology — Fast Driving — Flat;Headed Indians — Colony of Liberia —
Natural Language of Secretiveness — Fire — Anti-Abolition Meeting. 1839.
May 1. Ther. 61°. Judge Darlington.— The 29th of
April was fixed for giving judgment in the action of quo war
ranto at the instance of Mr. Johnson, the Attorney-General of
Pennsylvania, against Judge Darlington, for the purpose of try
ing the validity of his renewed commission, mentioned on p.
321 of the first volume; but he died on the 27th of April; and
the action has dropped!
Bent and Taxes in Neiu York.' — A comfortable family-house,
of about twenty-five feet in front, and from forty to forty-five
feet in depth, consisting of kitchen, dining-room, drawing-room,
and bed-room floors, in a medium situation, lets at $800, or
160/. of rent, and pays about $80 per annum of taxes.
The Erie Canal. — This canal, which connects Lake Erie
with New York, through the medium of the Hudson River,
although only begun in 1817, has already proved too small for
the extent of trade which passes through it, and a vivid discussion
is proceeding in the legislature about widening and deepening
it, and constructing double sets of locks; so that the stream of
boats may never be interrupted except by frost. This extra
ordinary increase of traffic has been caused by the rapid de
velopment of the population and resources of the western parts
of the state of New York, consisting of a vast extent of rich
alluvial soil now nearly all cleared and setfled; and also by the

32 DR. CHANNING ON WAR.
rapid advance in wealth and population of the states which bor
der on the great western lakes. The town of Buffalo, in the
state of New York, is situated at the terminus of the canal
where it enters Lake Erie. It has a spacious harbor, in which
may be seen three-masted vessels, brigs, schooners, and from
fifteen to twenty large steam-boats, all plying an active trade.
" The property from other states passing into the Erie Canal
by Buffalo increased as follows in the last four y^ars:
1835, - - 22,124 tons. I 1837, - - 42,229 tons.
1836, - - 36,273 | 1838, - 98,187
" The merchandise passing to the West from Buffalo, was
1835, - 18,466 tons. I 1837, - - 22,236 tons.
1836, - - 30,874 | 1838, - 32,087
" The amount of wheat and flour, those great articles of
western produce, increased steadily from 15,935 tons, in 1835,
to 57,979 tons in 1838."*
It is only by contemplating such facts as these that one can
form a conception of the extraordinary rapidity with which the
western states are rising in population, industry, and wealth.
Female Lecturer on Physiology. — Mrs. Gove, a lady belong
ing to the Society of Friends, impressed with the great import
ance to the female sex of instruction in anatomy and physiology,
pursued a regular course of study in these subjects, under the
Professors of Boston, and then commenced lecturing on them to
ladies. She was well received in Boston, and has recently
lectured in New York. She is a lady of unquestioned charac
ter, and her lectures were attended by most respectable persons
of her own sex in this city. No gentlemen were admitted.
The advantages of this instruction are self-evident, and every
real friend to human welfare must wish her success; Bennett's
" Morning Herald," however, to its own deep disgrace, has
published what he pretends to be reports of her lectures, pan
dering to the grovelling feelings of the men, and alarming the
delicacy of the ladies — an effectual way, in this country, to
stifle any new attempt at improvement. I have inquired into
the character of the lectures, of ladies who heard them, and
they declare Bennett's report to be scandalous caricatures, mis
representations, and inventions.
May 2. Ther. 65°. Dr. Channing on War. — One of the
excellent qualities of Dr. Channing is his moral intrepidity.
There never was a more sincere devotee to truth than this ex
cellent man; and not content with enjoying it himself, he comes
forth to apply it to practical use, on all occasions when legiti
mate opportunities occur. No one who has not visited the
* Report by Mr. Verplanck to the Senate of New Ycrk State.

LORD BROUGHAM ON THE MAINE BOUNDARY. 33
United States, and witnessed the prostration even of powerful
minds before public opinion, can form an adequate conception of
the extent of Dr. Channing's moral courage. Generally, when
the pubUc mind goes farthest wrong, it burns with the intensest
vivacity, and displays the most formidable unanimity. Its ordi
nary leaders shrink from addressing it when thus excited. Dr.
Channing, on the contrary, on such occasions comes forth in
dauntless might. He has just published a sermon on war, de
livered in the beginning of last year, with a preface adapting it
to the present crisis. It is calculated to have the best effect in
bringing the minds of the people to reason, and amply supports
Dr. Channing's high reputation. He rebukes the war-spirit of
the Americans in the following forcible language. " Can we
hope that liberal principles and institlitions, unsanctioned', unsus-
tained by the Christian spirit, wiU ensure peace? What teaches
our own experience? Because free, have we no wars? What in
deed is the free spirit of which we so much boast? Is it not much
more a jealousy of our own rights, than a reverence for the rights
of all? Does it not consist with the infliction of gross wrongs?
Does it not spoil the Indian? Does it not enslave the African?
Is it not anxious to spread bondage over new regions? Who
can look on this free country, distracted by parties, rent by local
jealousies, in some districts administering justice by mobs, and
silencing speech and the press by conflagration and bloodshed;
who can see this free country, and say, that liberal opinions and
institutions are of themselves to banish war? Nowhere are the
just, impartial, disinterested principles of Christianity so much
needed as in a free state. Nowhere are there more elements of
strife to be composed, more passions to be curbed, more threat
ened wrongs to be repressed. Freedom has its perils as well
as inestimable blessings. In loosening outward restraints, it
demands that justice and love be enthroned within man's soul.
Without Christian principle, freedom may swell the tide of tu
mults and war." p. 30.
I^ord Brougham on the Maine Boundary. — Lord Brougham,
in his place in the house of peers, and in reference to the Maine
boundary dispute, is reported to have said, " He had the conso
lation of believing, of being convinced, that we were undeniably,
clearly, and manifesfly in the wrong; and when a man or a na
tion was in the wrong, to acknowledge error did not make the
case of either worse." The Americans are highly commending
this acknowledgment. In a company to-day, I heard the speech
discussed, when a sagacious old gentleman said, " I wish that
an honester man had said so, and it would have served us more!"
This remark terminated the conversation.
May 4. Ther. 43°. Spring, — The peach, pear, and apple

34 SLAVERY, EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION.
trees, are profusely covered with blossoms; the foliage of the
forest trees is partially unfolded, but there are no " gowans" to
deck the ground in this country.
Protection to Negroes. — The House of Assembly has passed
a bill to secure a trial by jury to " alleged fugitives from service
in other states," — anglice, slaves, before being dehyered up to
their masters. The claimant must prove to the satisfaction of
the jury, " the identity and escape of the alleged fugitive," who
shall " be defended by counsel at the expense of the state."
The bill enacts, that " the alleged fugitive shall be entitled to
subpoenas for his witnesses without any charge; constables serv
ing the same shall have their fees from the county;" and " every
witness summoned shall be bound to attend without fees, as in
criminal cases. No claimant shall have a writ to arrest a fugi
tive from labor, until he shall have filed, in the office of the
county clerk, a bond in the penalty of $1000, with two sureties,
conditioned to pay all costs and expenses legally chargeable
against him; also the sum of $2 per week for the support of the
fugitive while in custody; also all expenses of the fugitive in
case the decision shall be against the claimant; and also the sum
of $100 to the alleged fugitive and his damages." The bond
may be prosecuted " by any person claiming benefit from its
provisions, in the name of the people; but the people shall not
be liable to costs in such suit."
This bill does credit to the House of Assembly of New York.
Public Defaulters. — The newspapers teem with instances of
cashiers, tellers, and directors of banks committing enormous
frauds, embezzling funds, sending false certificates of deposit
into circulation, and so forth. While we were in Philadelphia,
Dr. Dyott was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to the Moya
mensing prison for fraudulent bankruptcy, committed by him on
a gigantic scale as a banker. A committee of the legislature of
Michigan has just investigated the affairs of the Bank of Ypsi-
lanti, and reported, " that they consider the failure of the bank
an instance of as glaring a fraud as was ever perpetrated in this
or any other community" — and, in conclusion, report a bill for
the repeal of the charter of the said bank.
Slavery, Emancipation, and Colonisation.'— k. correspond
ence has appeared in the New York Journal of Commerce, be
tween the Rev. Benjamin Tappan of Augusta, Maine, and F. S.
Key, Esq., a lawyer of Washington, on the subjects of slavery,
colonisation, and emancipation. The letters are written in an
excellent spirit, and Mr. Key describes the state of slavery in
impartial terms. They should be read by every one who de
sires to form a correct idea of the difficulties which beset slave
owners, even of the most humane and upright dispositions, in

THE CHURCH or THE MESSIAH. 35
accomplishing abolition. I regard them as so important that I
print them in the Appendix, No. II. Mr. Key mentions that
in Maryland slave labor has ceased to be profitable, because free
labor from Pennsylvania flows over into it, and is better and
cheaper. The legislature has repeatedly contemplated abolish
ing slavery, and at no distant period will do so. Slavery can
not permanendy exist in a state bordering on a free state. When
Maryland has freed her slaves, Virginia, after a few years, will
be compelled to follow her example, by two causes, 1st, The
slaves will escape easUy; and 2dly, Free labor will come in and
displace them. He contemplates the irresistible advance of free
dom by this piocess. He is a warm advocate of colonisation,
because the negroes prosper in Africa; while, in the United
States, emancipated slaves become immoral and wretched. The
greater number of slaves whom he has seen set free have per
ished miserably from incapacity to maintain themselves. As a
lawyer, he has assisted many slaves to obtain freedom; but very
few, indeed, have improved their condition by liberty. If the
men in the north would receive the slaves, and provide for them
as freemen, there are a great number of slave-holders in Mary
land who would willingly emancipate their negroes and send
them to the north. The exertions of the abolitionists are said
to have retarded emancipation and injured the slaves. A man
loses caste who deals in slaves, or who treats them harshly.
These are a few of the topics touched on in Mr. Key's letter,
and I. believe that his representations contain much truth. It
may be remarked, however, that there are two causes for the
unsatisfactory conduct and condition of emancipated slaves in
slave states: 1 st, A life spent in slavery deprives the individual
of self-will and self-reliance, and of those intellectual resources
which are indispensable to successful exertion. 2dly, In such
a society there is no legitimate place for liberated slaves. Every
thing is cast in the mould of slavery, and free negroes are un
welcome residents among slaves and their masters. The mas
ters regard their presence as calculated to render the slaves
discontented, and are disposed to throw impediments in the way
of their success, rather than remove them. General abolition
would be attended by these causes of failure, particularly if the
slaves were previously prepared by education for freedom.
A Travelling-House. — This day a wooden house, supported
enlarge beams, mounted on four wheels, and drawn by horses,
passed our windows in Broadway, in its progress from one
situation in the city to another.
" The Church of the Messiah."' — A handsome new Unitarian
church, for the Rev. Mr. Dewey, has just'been opened in Broad
way. It is built of stone, and is of Gothic architecture. It has

36 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF DESIGN.
a gallery, and altogether is seated for 1500 persons, and is said
to have cost $100,000. The pews are lined with dove-colored
damask; they have stuffed backs, and cushions for the seats. It
has a very chaste and elegant appearance. The "Morning
Herald" reports that Dr. Skinner, who has a Presbyterian church
in the near neighborhood, preached a sermon on the occasion,
on the text, " Dagon appeared alongside of the ark of the cove
nant," and warned his congregation against the Unitarians.
May 6. Ther. 53°. National Academy of Design. — We
visited the fourteenth annual exhibition of the National Academy
of Design. The pictures consist chiefly of portraits and land
scapes. A feeling for art, and a power of coloring, are con
spicuous in the works; but with the exception of the pictures
of Mr. Sully, Mr. Ingham, and a few others, the portraits stand
low in the scale of excellence. In many of them the drawing
of the heads is bad, the attitudes are stiff, and the countenances
staring. The subjects look as if they were sitting for their j)ic-
tures. They have put on a face for the occasion, and in many
of them the expression is so full of Self-Esteem and Love of
Approbation (intended for character and smartness) that the pic
tures are almost ludicrous.
The scheme adopted for the encouragement of art in Scot
land, and which has been successful, is much wanted in the
United States. A society was formed, each member of which
paid at least £\ ($5) per annum. A committee of the sub
scribers laid out the money in purchasing the best pictures
offered for sale by living artists at each annual exhibition. The
pictures were formed into lots, and distributed among the sub
scribers, whose names were drawn from an urn. These pictures
are now spread over all Scotland, and have increased the general
taste of the people for works of art. The sum paid for pictures
has in some seasons exceeded £3000, and this has afforded en
couragement to the artists in the best possible form — that of
remuneration for their talents and labor.
The United States are at present in a condition analogous to
that of Scodand. There is no general taste for the fine arte
among the people; no rich aristocracy to purchase statuary and
pictures, and, therefore, no adequate encouragement to artists.
Yet there are many thousands of persons who, from a favorable
feeling towards art, and from the hope of gaining a prize, would
willingly subscribe $5 per annum to such a society as I have
described. If the Americans will try the plan, it can scarcely
fail to succeed. They have both the temperament and develop
ment of brain that will produce excellence in the fine arts, if they
will only enable artists to live.
May 7. Ther. 56°. The Causes of Fires in New York.—

DUEL AT VICKSBURG. 37
The commissioners appointed to examine into the origin of fires
in New York have reported as follows: —
" The total number of fires from the 1st of February to the 30th of April,
1839, was - . ¦ - 64
" The amount insured was $112,000
" The amount paid, - . S3<1,434
"Amount of property destroyed not insured, . . §33,752
"Total loss, $69,186

" The causes of the fires enumerated are: —
" By incendiaries, - -19
" From defects in chimneys, stove-pipes, lighted candles, cigars,
deposits of ashes, sparks from chimneys, and accidents, 29
" Causes unknown, . . . . - 16
" Total, 64"

The commissioners comment on the recklessness and} immo
rality which these causes imply, and observe, that in one in
stance " the design evidently was to destroy the family of a
person residing in the upper part of the building," between
whom and the perpetrator " a quarrel had for a considerable time
previously existed."
Duel at Vicksburs. — Two editors in Vieksburg, Dr. Hagan
of "The Sentinel" and Major M'Ardle of "The Whig," quar
relled; a challenge ensued, and as the parties were reputed to be
excellent shots, and the challenge was publicly known, a num
ber of bets were made on the result.
" On Wednesday last they met on the Louisiana shore, oppo
site Vieksburg, at ten o'clock, when two shots were exchanged
with pistols at ten paces without effect; a suspension of hostili
ties was agreed to, and the parties returned to town. We learn
that not less than a thousand persons were present to witness
the duel. In the afternoon, M'Ardle seemed to think he was
not satisfied, and it was soon arranged to have another meeting.
Accordingly, at four o'clock, the belligerents were again on the
field. One shot was exchanged, and the ball of the Sentinel
editor took effect in the fleshy part of the thigh of the Whig
editor. This put a stop to the fighting a second time. Whether
it will again be renewed we have not learned.
" The above items are gleaned from a private letter from
Vieksburg, received by a friend in this city, who politely fur
nished us with its perusal. The same letter says: ' They are
beginning to fight here pretty fast now. Three at this place

38 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH C-iSE.
yesterday, and one at Manchester. Thermometer 93° to 96°.
Nobody killed yet.' "—Neiv York Commercial Advertiser^ 7th
May. r 1 ¦ J
Presbyterian Church Case.— The opinion of the judges sit
ting in bank on the appeal in this case has been published. It
was deUvered by Chief Justice Gibson. The decision in favor
of the New School is reversed. The leading grounds of the
decision on appeal are these: The " Union" between the Pres
byterians and the Congregationalists in 1801 was a measure of
a mere temporary nature. It was intended to accommodate the
" new settlements, by suffering those who were yet too few
and too poor for the maintenance of a minister temporarily to
call to their assistance the members of a sect (the Congrega
tionalists) who differed from them in principles, not of faith,
but of ecclesiastical government." " This was not intended to
outlast the inability of the respective sects to provide separately
for themselves, or to perpetuate the innovations on Presbyterial
government which it .was calculated to introduce." " The
Assembly is a homogeneous body, uniting in itself, without
separation of parts, the legislative, executive, and judicial func
tions of the government." The plan of the " union," viewed
as a temporary expedient, acquired the force of a law by the
mere act of the Assembly, without the ratification of the Pres
byteries, which it never obtained. " The people embraced it
with all its defeasible properties plainly put before them; and
the power which had constituted it might fairly repeal it when
ever the good of the Church should seem to require it." The
exscinded synods were created under the " union;" their exist
ence, therefore, like that of the union itself, was a temporary
arrangement, liable to be discontinued at any time. These
synods, created by a legislative act of assembly, could be legally
dissolved in no other way than by another legislative act of the
same body. Having been so dissolved, the delegates from them
were not entitled to take their places in the General Assembly.
The Old School, therefore, constituted the only true assembly,
and the votes of the New School, followed by their secession
and subsequent meetings as another General Assembly, were
altogether invalid. The judges, therefore, decided that the Old
School formed the legitimate General Assembly, and that the
trustees nominated by them are legally entifled to hold the pro
perty of the Presbyterian Church. The opinion of Judge
Rogers, who presided at the former trial, " remained unchanged
on all the points ruled at the trial."
Phrenology in the Family. — The Rev. Joseph A. Warne,
A.M., an Evangelical clergyman, and pastor of the church near
the Museum in George street, Philadelphia, has published

BENEVOLENT AND RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES. 39
" Phrenology in the Family," 18mo, pp. 290; a work intended
to assist parents in the education of \he feelings. It points out
the character and legitimate uses of each primitive feeling, the
ordinary forms in which it is liable to be abused by children, and
the best means of training it to proper modes of action. It is
calculated to be highly useful in domestic education.
May 7. Ther. 56°. Benevolent and Religious Societies. —
The annual meetings of the great benevolent and religious socie
ties of the Union are now taking place in New York, and they
present striking evidence that, however active the acquisitive
and ambitious propensities of this people may be, their benevo
lent and reliarious sentiments are far from beinsf dormant. The
crowds of persons in attendance, and the large sums of money
contributed, bespeak a vigorous and general activity of the moral
faculties. " American Anti-Slavery Society. — An abstract of the annual
report was read by one of the secretaries of the society. By this
document it appears that the present number of abolition socie
ties is 1650 — of which 304 are new societies, formed since the
last anniversary. The number of presses devoted or open to
the discussion of slavery has increased, and now amounts to 9
weekly, 1 semi-monthly, and 2 monthly publications, from which
are issued 25,000 sheets weekly, and for the support of which
$40,000 are annually received from subscribers.
" The receipts into the treasury for the year show a handsome
increase over those of the previous year. The total of the pub
lications by the society, for the year, amounts to 724,862, of
which about 213,000 were copies of the Emancipator, 148,000
of Human Rights, 19,958 bound volumes, the remainder tracts,
&c.
" A considerable portion of the abstract is devoted to the dis
cussion of the emancipation of the slaves in the West Indies.
It is assumed that the experiment has been successful there,
and thence is drawn the inference that it must be successful
here. " The abstract recommends pressing the subject of abolition to
the ballot-box, cites various instances in which it has been done
with effect during the past year, and avows the opinion that the
time is not far distant when the influence of pohtical abolition
will be more strongly felt.
"American Tract Society. — The fourteenth annual report
states, that during the year 1833 new publications have been
stereotyped, making the whole number of the society's pubhca-
tions 944, of which 58 are volumes. In addition to these, 672
works, including 50 volumes, have been approved for publication
abroad. Of some tracts more than 100,000 copies have been

40 TRAVELLING HOUSES.
printed within the year: and of one 184,000 copies. Total
printed during the year, 356,000 volumes, 3,65t,000 publica
tion^; 124,744,000 pages.
" Circulated during the year, volumes 299,166 — publications,
4,099,170— pages, 119,733,356. Total circulation since the
formation of the society* — volumes, 1,153,390 — publications,
57,039,678— pages, 917,983,578.
" The number of volumes circulated exceeds that of any pre
ceding year by 65,000; the number of pages that of any pre
ceding year by more than 22,000,000.
" The gratuitous distributions, in 422 distinct grants, including
nearly 2,000,000 pages for foreign lands, amount to 8,257,266
pages. "Receipts during the year, $131,295 40, of which $55,852 81
were donations, including $28,100 62 for foreign distribution,
and $3,461 06 for volume circulation.
" American Bible Society. — Abraham Keyser, Esq., the
treasurer, read his annual report. The receipts during the year
were $95,126 62, and the expenditures $98,205 31. The Rev.
John C. Brigham, the corresponding secretary, announced a
donation by Janies Douglas, Esq. of Cavers, in Scotland, to the
Society, of £1000 sterling. The report next alludes to the calls
for supplies of the holy Scriptures in various parts of the world,
to the amount of $50,000. During the past year the issues were
134,937 copies, and the total number 2,588,235. These copies
were in seventeen different languages."
The names of some of the other societies of which meetings
are announced for this week, are the New York Marine Bible
Society; the New York Female Moral Reform Society; the
American Seamen's Friend Society; the New York and American
Sunday School Unjon; the Foreign Evangelical Association;
American Tract Society; Second American Health Convention;
American Home Missionary Society; New York Colonization
Society; Central American Education Society; American Moral
Reform Society; New York City Temperance Society; Ameri
can Board of Foreign Missions; New York Academy of Sacred
Music. Travelling Houses. — To-day I saw another wooden house of
two stories, bearing on one corner "Washington Place," and on
another " Greene street," travelling to a new site. Planks were
laid down before it on the carriage-way, rollers were placed on
the planks, and the house was dragged forward on them. The
motive power was applied thus: Large iron bolts were driven
deep into the ground eighty or one hundred yards in advance of
the house; the bolts supported a windlass, to which was attached
a strong cable, the other end of which was fastened to the house

RELIGION. 41
by pulleys and a hook. A horse, by turning round the wind
lass, wound up the cable, and the house slowly advanced on the
rollers. When it was brought up to the windlass, the latter was
carried forward another 100 yards, fastened to the ground, and
the same operations were repeated.
The Maine War. — The Liverpool steam-ship has arrived and
brought English news to the 20th of April. The threats of the
Americans have excited littie interest, and no apprehension of a
war is entertained in Britain. The Americans are very glad at
this result, but a litfle surprised that they should have been so
warm and John Bull so cool. The legislature of Maine au
thorised the Governor to borrow $800,000 to prepare for the
war. It is currently reported that he sent an agent to New York
to borrow the money in Wall street^ that the bankers told him
that he must go to England to sell his bonds, and that he has
returned home, without being able to raise a dollar!
May 9. Ther. 56°. Paterson Village. — This is a manufac
turing village in New Jersey, eighteen miles from New York.
We visited it by a railroad. It is built on the banks of the Pa-
saic river, near a large fall, which supplies water-power for seve
ral important manufactories. The scenery is picturesque., We
visited Mr. Colt's manufactory of rifles, which discharge eight
balls in succession, with one loading, also of pistols that discharge
four balls. There are these numbers of barrels, which can be
turned round to the same lock: Of course, when once discharged,
there must be a corresponding extent of reloading; but in the
Indian wars, and in cases of attack by robbers, these rifles are
like loaded batteries in the hands of the assailed. The work
manship appeared to be excellent, and the number sold is said
to be large.
May 12. Ther. 56°. Religion. — I heard the Reverend Mr.
Bellowes preach. He said that the vulgar notions of heaven
being a place where men stand through all eternity doing nothing
but ^ging psalms, and of hell consisting in flames, and darts,
and devils, are altogether unworthy of an enlightened age. Hea
ven consists in the highest activity of our faculties directed to
proper objects, which confers the highest delight; Hell in the
abuse of our faculties, with the consequent misery. I heard this
discourse criticised by some persons as too free; others approved
of it, and said that preaching in general is far behind the enlight
enment of the age; and that there is a greater desire for liberal,
rational, and practical sermons, in the United States, than I could
infer from the character of the sermons which I usually hear.
An advertisement has appeared in the following terms: —
" Christian Liberty. — The Association for the Promotion of
Christian Liberty will hold its first anniversary at the Stuyvesant

42 ELECTION LAW.
Institute, on Friday evening, at half-past seven o'clock. The
cardinal principle of the association is, that ' American Chris
tians, in their religious associations, are entitled to as much liberty
as they enjoy in their political associations as American citi
zens.' Persons disposed to unite with the association, and the'
public generaUy, are respectfully invited to attend.
"David Hale,
Leonard Crocker,
Wm. C. Redfield,
S. F. B. Morse,
Geo. 11. Haswell,
Seth B. Hunt,
Wm. T. Cutter,
May 9, 1839. Committee.
The meeting was held, but, as few persons came forward to
join the association, it wns adjourned.
Sale of Pews. — The pews in the " Church of the Messiah"
have been sold by auction, and their prices are reported in the
newspapers. There are 196 pews in the church, and they were valued at
$97,373. Of these seventy-four in the body of the church were
sold at prices varying from $1200 to $401, according to the size
and the situation, and twenty-two in the gallery at prices ranging
from $475 to $125. There are still 100 pews left unsold, va
lued at $39,475, making with those sold, a total of $101,298,
being $3924 above the estimated values. These sums are ap
plied in defraying the expense of building the church. The
ovyners of the pews contribute annually towards keeping the
church in repair, supporting the minister and the choir, and de
fraying all other necessary expenses. The salary paid to the
Reverend Mr. Dewey was stated by one of the congregation to
be $4000 per annum, with leave of absence for nine weeks, dur
ing which the congregation pays for supplying the pulpit. This
is the only church about which I have been able to obtain so much
information, but I presume that the Evangelical congreo-ations
are equally liberal to their pastors. The sums paid annually by
individuals for church accommodation appear to be much larger
in this country than in Britain.
Election Laiu. — On the 7th May the legislature of the state of
New York passed a law to remedy the abuses complained of at
the elections. It enacts, that any person swearing falsely as to
his quaUfication, shall be guilty of perjury, and persons wilfully
procuring others to swear falsely, shall be guilty of subornation
of perjury; and both shall be punished accordingly. Persons
attempting to influence or deter an elector in .giving his vote.

PHRENOLOGY. 43
shall pay a fine not exceeding $500, or suffer imprisonment not
longer than one year, or both. Persons voting or offering to vote
in a ward in which they do not reside, or more than once at an
election, shall be punished by fine and imprisonment, or by both.
Persons advising or assisting others not duly quahfied to vote,
shall suffer the same punishment. Any inhabitant of another
state voting or offering to vote in this state, shall be guilty of
felony, and shall be confined in the state prison not more than
one year,..<^.
If the republican form of government be fertile in abuses, it is
gratifying to observe the promptitude and energy with which
checks and remedies are applied to mitigate or remove them.
May 14. Ther. 66°. 'Police of Neiu York City.— I have
more than once made remarks on the imperfections of the police
system in New York, and perceive that the evil is attracting pub
lic attention. The " Journal of Commerce" contains a letter
describing New York a.s the dirtiest city in Christendom. It
complains of the huge dirty swine perambulating the foot pave
ments, one of which ran against the writer of the letter. They,
however, he says, do great service to the city, for they eat up the
animal and vegetable matter thrown out into the streets, which
otherwise would breed a pestilence — in fact, they are the chief
scavengers. The sting of this representation lies in its essential
truth. It is no part of the public duty of the police officers of this
city to trace out and apprehend thieves and robbers who have
committed depredations on private persons. A number of them
exercise this vocation on the employment of the persons who are
pillaged, and who either pay them fees, or engage to give them a
certain proportion of the stolen property if they recover it. The
police magistrates do not concern themselves in the matter until
the thief be detected and brought before them for judgment, and
there is no other functionary whose duty it is to superintend the
efforts of the officers to bring delinquents to justice. In short, in
New York an experiment seems to be in progress to ascertain with
how little of government a great city can possibly exist. I do not
think that it has great cause, at present, to boast of its success.
May 15. Ther. 66°. Phrenology. — This day I was intro
duced to James J. Mapes, Esq., a scientific gentleman, residing
in 461 Broadway, New York. His daughter fell from a win
dow when she was about four years of age; her head struck
against the iron bar which extended from the railing to the wall,
and the skull was extensively fractured, but without rupturing
the pia mater or doing any serious injury to the brain. She was
attended by Dr. Mott; a part of the skull was removed from the

44 PHRENOLOGY.
superior-posterior portion of the head, the integuments were
drawn over the wound, and the child recovered. The part of
the skull removed was that which covers the organs of Self-Es
teem and Love of Approbation. She does not wear any pl^te
over the wound; but the hair over it, like that on the other parts
of the head, is fine, and is kept short. Immediately after the
wound was closed, her father was struck with the variety of
movements in the brain, and its great mobility during mental
excitement, producing, as he said, a sensation in the hand when
placed on the integuments, as if one were feeling, through a silk
handkerchief, the motions of a confined leech. He felt as if
there was a drawing together, swelling out, and a vermicular
kind of motion in the brain; and this motion was felt in one
place and became imperceptible in another, according as different
impressions were made on the child's mind: but not being mi
nutely acquainted with phrenology, he could not describe either
the feelings or the precise localities in which the movements oc
curred. He observed also, that when the child's intellectual
faculties were exerted, the brain under the wound was drawn
inwards. The child was introduced to me; she is now eight years of
age, healthy and intelligent; and no external trace of the injury
is visible to the eye. The form of her head is that of a superior
female child: It is long, and moderately broad at the base; Secre
tiveness, Love of Approbation, Self-Esteem, Cautiousness, and
Firmness, are all large. Benevolence and Veneration are well
developed, and the anterior lobe is large. I saw the pieces of
the skull which had been removed. They may be three and a
half by three inches in superficial extent. The skull has not
been replaced. On applying my hand, I felt the brain rising
and falling with the -respiration, and distinctly ascertained that
the organs of Self-Estsem and Love of Approbation were denuded
of the skull; also a small part of Conscientiousness, and the pos
terior margin of Firmness. Her father mentioned that, before
the accident, he considered her rather dull; but her mother
(whom also I had the pleasure of seeing) did not concur in this
opinion; both, however, agreed that since her recovery she had
been acute, and fully equal to children of her own affe in Doint
of ability. " ^ ^
With the permission of her father and mother, I kept my hand
for some minutes gently pressing on the external integuments
over the site of the injury, 'and distincdy felt a considerable
movement, a swelling up and pulsation, in the organs of Self-
Esteem; and the same movements, but in a less degree, in those
of Love of Approbation. When I began to talk to the child, she

PHRENOLOGY. 45
was shy and bashful, and at first would scarcely speak.* The
vivid movements in Self-Esteem indicated that amidst her ex
treme bashfulness this organ was active. As I continued to con
verse with her, and succeeded in putting her at her ease, the
movements in Self-Esteem decreased, while those in Love of
Approbation continued. I spoke to her about her lessons and
attainments, not in flattering terms, but with the design of exciting
Self-Esteem; and the movements increased. Again I soothed her,
and they diminished. This was repeated, and the same results
ensued. Her father gave her several questions in mental arith
metic to solve: she was puzzled, and made an intellectual effort,
arid the peculiar movements in the organs of Self-Esteem and
Love of Approbation ceased; only a gentle and equal pulsation
was felt. She solved the question, and we praised her: the
peculiar moveinenfs in Self-Esteem and Love of Approbation
returned and increased. This experiment was repeated at least
four times, with the same results. I took out a piece of paper
and began to write down notes, in pencil, of what had occurred.
She looked at my writing; and as all attention was now with
drawn from herself, and her mind was occupied intellectually in
observing what I was doing, I placed my hand on the integu
ments, and only the gentle and regular pulsations of the arterial
system were perceptible.
I am much indebted to Mr. Mapes, the father of the child, for
permitting me not only to see this very interesting case, but to
publish his name and residence, so that my remarks may be veri
fied, or corrected if I have erred.
This case is replete with instruction in practical education.
It tends, so far as one example can go, to prove that, by exer
cising the intellectual faculties, we do not necessarily excite the
feehngs; and also that each feeling must be addressed by objects
related to itself before it can be called into action, f
* "Bashfulness is the result of the fear of not acquitting one's self to ad
vantage, and of thereby compromising one's personal dignity." System of
Phrenology, 4th edition, p. 702.
t Some years ago a similar case was reported by Mr. John Grattan of
Belfast in the Phrenological Journal, vol. ix, p. 473, and vol. x, p. 11. Two
fissures, having the apJDCarance of the fontanels in children, and which
looked as if there had been an absorption of thebone, had existed for atleast
six years in the head of a gentleman aged fifty-six. So far as Mr. Grattan
could learn from mere description, they were situated — the one on the left
nearly over Veneration and part of Firmness, and that on the right across
part of Conscientiousness and Hope; "and I am positively assured," says
Mr. G., " by his daughter, that his clerks could at any time tell when he
was angry, without hearing him speak or seeing his face, but simply from
the great depression which on such occasions occurred in those fissures, or,
as they termed it, ' the holes that would appear in his head;' and that she
has at different times observed the same phenomenon herself." The lady
VOL. II. — 5

46 HAERLEM.
Shipwrecks. — A gentleman called on me to-day, who said
that he did so in consequence of having read the observations on
shipwrecks in stprms contained in the " Constitution of Man."
He stated that he had been bred to the sea; had served as mate,
and subsequently, for four years, as master of a merchant ves
sel; and had, in the course of his own experience, come to the
conclusion that not above one shipwreck in twenty was excusa
ble, and that nineteen vessels out of every twenty were lost
through ignorace, incapacity, or carelessness in the masters, or
through avarice in the owners, who sent them to sea in an im
proper condition. When mate of a vessel, his captain became
tipsy, and, in the very gathering of a storm, ordered the crew to
set more sails. My informant took the responsibility upon him
self of assuming the command of the vessel, ordered the captain
below, took in all the sails except one, and trimmed the ship
with the utmost expedition. He had scarcely finished, when
the rising storm became a tempest; he laid the ship to, and she
rode it out well. In the middle of the tempest the captain reap
peared on deck, having slept himself sober. He was astounded
at the sea and the wind, and recommended that even the one
sail should be taken in, but he was persuaded to allow it to
stand. The captain never forgave him for having " mutinied,"
as he termed it; and my informant left the ship when she made
her destined port in the Mediterranean.
The Franklin Fund. — I was introduced to-day to a gentle
man in extensive business as a dial-plate maker; and he men
tioned that the beginning of his elevation in the world was a
loan of $250 from the Franklin Fund. He speaks with great
gratitude and respect of Franklin's provident generosity.
May 16. Therm. 66°. Physical Geography of America.
— A very intelligent friend, lately a member of the house of as
sembly in the legislature of New York, told me that he had
read with great interest an article in the Encyclopaedia Britan-
nica, by Charles Maclaren, Esq., of Edinburgh, on the physical
geography, &c. of America. He regarded it as a masterly view
of the physical features of this country. I told him that Mr.
Maclaren had never been in America; when he remarked that
few readers would have discovered this to be the case.
Haeriem,. — We visited some friends a few miles beyond
Haeriem, in a beautiful situation overlooking the East River.
The strawberries and green pease are in full btossom, and the
gooseberries ready for tarts.
states farther, that "the depressions remained so long as he was under the
influence of passion; and, as it subsided, the depressions gradually disap
peared. Seeother cases in my System of Phrenology, 4th edit, p 16

dr. CHANNING. 47
May 17. Therm. 63°. Staten Island.— We visited this
lovely island, and had a drive to the old fortification and signal
port. New Brighton, &c. Staten Island is the quarantine sta
tion in the bay of New York. About a quarter of a mile from
the shore strong posts have been driven into the bottom of the
sea, and a large platform erected on them, pardy covered with
a roof. Emigrants are transferred to this platform from their
ships, and inspected by the health officer before being permitted
to land. We saw a multitude of them on it like sheep in a
pen. May 18. Therm. 64°. Phrenology, — This evening I com
pleted my second course of lectures in New York, and a com
mittee was appointed to present resolutions.
May 19. Therm. 63°. Dr. Channing.— We heard the
Rev. Dr. Channing preach in the church of the Messiah on the
text "Blessed are the peace-makers." The church was crowded
in every part. The sermon was replete with moral beauty,
and the delivery was gentle, earnest, and touching. He gave a
graphic view of the present state of the social, religious, and
political struggles of this country. He regarded them as only
the natural workings of the human mind groping its way to
freedom; and anticipated that they will lead to universal love
and justice, which alone can form the basis of universal peace.
Civilization is progressive, and it cannot attain to its highest
condition until peace, based on benevolence and justice, prevail.
The discourse was listened to with the profoundest attention,
and much spoken of afterwards.
Twenty years ago, no congregation in New York would ad
mit Dr. Channing into its pulpit. His first sermon in this city
was delivered in a private house, and his second in an anatomi
cal lecture-room. Now, the unitarians have two handsome
churches, well attended by highly respectable congregations.
I perceive that the liberality of the different sects towards
each other increases in proportion to the number and standing
in society of the adherents of each. In Boston, the unitarians
are numerous, and belong to the first class. There I could dis
cover no ostensible prejudice against them. The governor of
the state and almost all the judges of the courts were unitarians;
and among the magistrates and school directors, they were
found co-operating with Calvinists and men of other sects in all
public duties, without dissension or disrespect on any side. In
New York, where the unitarians have only two congregations,
and are of comparatively recent origin, the prejudices entertained
against them by the orthodox sects are stronger; and in Phila
delphia, where they are still more recent, and have only one
church, the dislike of them, as a religious body, is still more

48 A FLAT-HEADED INDIAN.
conspicuously manifested. It has been remarked that sectarian
hatred increases in proportion as the differences in opinion be
tween the partisans diminish. The animosity, for instance, ex
pressed by Calvinists against Jews is far less than that mani
fested against unitarians.*
May 20. Therm. 66°. Phrenology. — The committee of
my class presented a series of elegant and complimentary reso
lutions, and requested me to sit to an artist for a model of my
head, to be embossed on ,a silver vase which the individuals
who have heard my lectures intend to present to me in token of
their esteem. The resolutions are printed in the Appendix,
No. III. Nothing can exceed the kindness with which my
lectures have been received in this country, and only the fear of
being charged with indulging my own vanity prevents me from
expressing how deeply I feel every mark of their approbation.
I may remark that in the resolutions of the second classes, both
in Philadelphia and New York, the foundation of phrenology
in natural truth is recognised.
Fast Driving. — The thermometer stood at 83° in the shade
this evening, and at this temperature innumerable gigs and car
riages of all sorts were driving on the Bloomingdale road at the
rate of from ten to fifteen miles an hour, amidst clouds of dust
which obscured vision at the distance of a hundred yards. They
were filled with parties driving for pleasure!
May 31. Therm. 63°. A Flat-headed Indian. — I was in
troduced to the Reverend Jason Lee, who has been a missionary
among the Indians, beyond the Rocky Mountains. He was ac
companied by Thomas Adams, an Indian of about twenty years
of age, of the Cloughewallah tribe, located at the falls of the
Wahlamette River (the Multuomah of the maps,) about twenty-
five mUes from its junction with the Columbia River. This
tribe presses the heads of their children by boards and hair
cushions, applied to the forehead and oct;iput. This young
man's head had been pressed. It was broader from side to side
above the ears (from Secretiveness to Secretiveness) than it was
long from front to back (from Individuality to Philoprogenitive-
ness.) The spinous process of the occipital bone was as high
as to the top of the ear. The head appeared as if it had been
tilted up behind, in such a manner that the forehead, although
deficient in the reflecting organs, was made to stand much
* In Scotland, where both the church and the dissenters are almost all
Calvinists, intolerance reaches its maximum; and the religious public are
far from manifesting that liberal and Christian spirit which, while it holds
fast by that which it regards as right, recognises its own fallibility, and
admits the privilege of other men to do the same, without offering dispara<re-
ment to their characters in thought, word, or deed. "

A FLAT-HEADED INDIAN.

49

nearer the perpendicular than otherwise it would have done.
So far as could be judged in a case of such distortion, the organs
of Destructiveness, Acquisitiveness, Secretiveness, Self-Esteem,
Love of Approbation, and Firmness, were very large; those of
Combativeness, Philoprogenitiveness, and Adhesiveness, defi
cient. It was difficult to estimate the size of the moral organs,
they were so displaced. The organs of the observing faculties,
lying on the superciliary ridge, were fully developed; the brain
at the reflecting organs was shallow and deficient, but on the
left side, the organ of Causality was pretty distinctly marked.
The organs of Form and Language were large.
The young man spoke English well, and had practised speak
ing it for two years. He was intelligent in his conversation,
and said that he liked the Indian and American modes of life
equally well. His face was exceedingly broad, full, and lym
phatic. The predominant expression was that of Love of Ap
probation. There were no traces of thought in his smooth fat
cheeks, but his eye was dark and mild; and, when he smiled,
the countenance was pleasing. I endeavored to direct the con
versation so as to ascertain, if possible, the extent of his intel
lectual powers. On all subjects that fell within the scope of the
faculties of observation (the organs of which are fairly de
veloped) he was intelligent, ready and fluent; but on others
which required the aid of Comparison and Causality, he was
dull, unintelligent, and destitute equally of ideas and of lan
guage. Thinking that probably , he did not understand the
words used on these topics, I tried to explain them; but found
an obtuseness of comprehension that rendered the attempt un-

50 A FLAT-HEADED INDIAN.
successful. I found those intellectual powers to be of tolerable
strength whose organs were fairly developed, and those to be
deficient whose organs were Small. Mr. Lee said that he was
warm-tempered and touchy.
I explained to Mr. Loe that the convolutions of the brain in
this youth might have been displaced, but not destroyed or en
tirely impeded in their growth, as the spinal marrow exists and
performs its functions in persons afflicted with hunchbacks,
although bent out of its usual direction. I requested him to
carry a cast of a normal European brain with him, when he re
turned to his station, and to beg the medical officer of the fur
company, who lives in his neighborhood, to examine carefully
the brains of these Flat-headed Indians after death, and report
minutely the differences in the size and distribution of the con
volutions. Mr. Lee mentioned that the tribe called by the
English Flat-headed Indians do not compress the heads of their
children, and that they are not flat-headed. The name is erro
neously bestowed. The tribe to which this youth belongs do
compress the skuU in infancy.
Having no means of discovering the condition of the feelings
in this young man, I requested my friend Mr. Samuel W.
Dewey, who had procured this interview, to use every means
of observation in his power, and to report to me on this subject.
He did so, and two letters with which he favored me are pub
lished in the Phrenological Journal for January, 1841. They
are highly instructive, and show that those propensities and
sentiments, were most active (so far as Mr. Dewey had the
means of observation) the organs of which were largest in the
brain.* Mr. Lee spoke confidently of the success of missionary
efforts among the Indians, and mentioned several who had been
reclaimed to agriculture and Christianity. A man, he says,
cannot be a Christian who is a wanderer in his habits; and he
* After I left New York I saw an announcement of the death, in that
city, of the companion of this Flat-headed Indian, who was ill at the time
of this conference. I was told that Dr. Reese attended him as his physi
cian. This gentleman had, previously published " The Humbugs of New
York," among which he included phrenology; but he allowed this young
man to be buried without examining his brain, or at least without reporting
on it, or Calling in the aid of phrenologists to do so. It is strange that
those who are so confident that phrenology is a " humbug" should be so
averse to producing evidence by which alone it can be proved to be so.
The condition of the brain in a Flat-headed Indian is an interesting and
unknown fact in physiology, and any medical man who has the means of
throwing light on it, and neglects to use them, is no friend to his own pro
fession Or to general science.

ANTI- ABOLITION MEETING. 51
recommeds that missionaries should teach the useful arts and
Christianity simultaneously.
Colony of Liberia. — Mr. Matthias, Governor of the Penn
sylvania and New York Colony at Bassa Cove in Liberia, in
Africa, was present; and he assured me that this settlement and
another of the same description are doing well. The colonists
(Negroes from the United States) are increasing in numbers;
they support all the civilisation which they carried out with
them; live in peace, and maintain law and justice. They are
not attacked by the surrounding tribes. He remarked that the
Negroes improve in America when free, and that they improve
stiU more in Africa when they become their own masters. I men
tioned to him my estimate of the difference between them and
the American Indians (vol. i, p. 259), and he acquiesced in my
observations in regard to the qualities of the Africans.
Natural Language of Secretiveness. — In describing the head
of Colonel Aaron Burr (vol. i, p. 144), I adverted to the large
size of the organ of Secretiveness, and the deficiency of that of
Conscientiousness. A writer in the " New York Mirror," in
describing him, says, " He glided rather than walked; his foot
had that quiet, stealthy movement which involuntarily makes
one think of treachery; and, in the course of a long life, I have
never met with a frank and honorable man to whom such a step
was habitual." This is an excellent description of the natural
language of large Secretiveness and deficient Conscientiousness,
as expressed in the gait. The writer's observation is correct,
that no frank and honorable man — that is, no man in whom Be
nevolence and Conscientiousness are larger than Secretiveness- —
will be found characterised by that kind of motion.
May 22. Ther. 60°. Fire.— The House of Refuge was
burned to the ground this forenoon. It was a stirring but me
lancholy sight to see the whole engines of New York city,
amply supplied by water from ponds outside the walls, playing
for hours on the burning mass with the greatest energy, but
without effect. But the building was old, and its loss is not
much regretted, except for the immediate inconvenience which
it occasions. Anti-Abolition Meeting. — The town of Newark in New
Jersey was taunted with manufacturing the whips with which
the slaves are flogged in the south ? It replied that it manufac
tures whips in general, and that carters use the article alleged to
be employed in scourging the slaves. The inhabitants have held
a meeting, James Millar, Esq., the mayor, in the chair, at which
violent resolutions were passed, the last of which declares " that
the subject of slavery appertains to the slave States alone — that

52 ANTI-ABOLITION MEETING.
the question of its duration or abolition belongs exclusively to
them — and that the meddling interference of others is uncalled
for by any considerations of public justice or of public policy."
The opinion expressed in this resolution prevails generaUy in
the United States.

53

CHAPTER HI.
West Point — Phrenology — Politeness to Ladies — Politicnl Economy — Con.
dition of New York City — The Niskayuna Shakers — Forfeiture for Taxes
— Napoleon Bonaparte — Rate of' Board in Albany — Glen's Falls, and
Caldwell^Lake George — Emancipation in Jamaica — The Law — Sche
nectady — Road to Utiea. — Trenton Falls — Utica — Journey to Syracuse —
Syracuse — Phrenology — Railroad from Syracuse to Auburn — Auburn
State Prison — Auburn — Geneva — Canandaigua — Avon Springs — Indians
— Geneseo — General Scott — The Western Country — Niagara Falls —
Lundy's Lane — Journey to Buffalo — American Hotels— "Buffalo — Phre
nology — The Indians. The Seneca Village — Mosquitoes — Portland-in-
Maine. 1839.
May 24. Ther. 60°. West Point. — My phrenological labors
being now terminated for the season, we resolved to visit Lake
George, Niagara, and Canada, and this morning at seven o'clock
embarked on board the " Avon" for West Point, where we land
ed at quarter before eleven, the distance being 50 miles. The
military academy belonging to the United States stands here on
a platform of land elevated several hundred feet above the Hud
son River, and surrounded by hills clothed to the summit with
wood. No situation can be more lovely. There are at present
about 240 cadets in the establishment. They are maintained
and educated in civil and military engineering at the public ex
pense for four years, on condition that they serve the State, if
called on, for four years after the expiry of their time. On the
hill which rises to the west of the plateau, there is an ancient
fort (Fort Putnam) in ruins, which is a picturesque object, and
repays the labor of ascending to it. There are monuments to
Kosciusko, to Lieut-Col. Wood, who was killed in September
1814 leading a charge at Fort Erie, and to a pupil who was ac
cidentally kiUed by a gun in his exercises. These objects,
although all simple in themselves, being placed in appropriate
situations, add to the interest of the scene. There is an excel
lent hotel for the accommodation of visiters ; but it has been let
this year by the Government on the condition of total abstinence
by the guests from all liquors containing alcohol in any form.
Not a drop even of beer is sold. It has, in consequence, been
difficult to find a tenant, and the house is now only in the course

54 PHRENOLOGY.
of being fitted up. We, however, obtained a good bed-room,
and dined at an exceUent ordinary kept for a few officers of the
establishment. Major Leslie politely conducted us through the
public buildings, which are extensive and commodious ; but here
also the want of ventilation in the apartments forced itself upon
our notice by the disagreeable effects of vitiated air. So careless
are the students and attendants on this point, that I found every
window close in several class-rooms which had been vacated for
the day, and which were full of carbonic acid gas and the effluvia
of the human body. I used the freedom to open them for my
own comfort while passing through them, for which I hope to be
forgiven by the students. The habit of chewing, tobacco, and
spitting, prevails in the hotel to a distressing extent.
May 25. Ther. 63°. Phrenology. — This morning we had a
storm of thunder and lightning, which had a sublime effect among
the mountains. It cleared off at nine o'clock, and at eleven we
embarked on board of the " Champlain" for Albany. In this
boat an amusing incident occurred. One of the passengers ac
costed me, without any preface or introduction. " You have
just finished a course of lectures in New York?" " Yes, sir."
" How long is it since you lectured in Syracuse ?" " I was
never in Syracuse in my life." The gentleman was surprised
and walked away to the other end of the boat ; and on his return
he renewed his interrogation. " Have you any of your books
with you?" " No — they are all the property of booksellers, and
I take no charge of the sales." " Have any of them been printed
in Europe ?" " Yes, they were all printed there first." This
answer caused him to turn and take another walk to a distant
part of the deck. He returned, still apparently greafly puzzled.
" I read your book and I have made observations, and am dis
posed to beheve in Phrenology." " Observation is the only
phUosophical mode of attaining conviction." "Do you examme
heads ?" " 1 do, for my own instruction, but not publicly, or for
money." He again looked puzzled. " Where is the very tall
man that was with you, when you traveUed through Kentucky ?"
" I have never been in Kentucky." " I understood that you
had a very tall man, of 7 feet 4 inches, and a very short man
with you, in that State." "I have not travelled in this country
with any man, either taU or short, and I have not even seen any
man of extraordinary stature here." At this point, the interroga
tor's sagacity was completely at fault. He left me, and never
resumed the conversation. I afterwards discovered the cause of
his inquiries. An itinerating phrenologist, named Frederick
Coombs, had traveUed through the western country examining
heads, and, to add to the attractions of Phrenology, carried with
him a giant and a dwarf, whom he exhibited as a show. This

POLITICAL ECONOMY. 55
gentleman mistook me for him ; nor had he been unique in this
error, for a newspaper had previously been sent to me containing
an intimation that " the gentleman with the giant and the dwarf
is not Mr. George Combe of Edinburgh!"
Politeness to Ladies. — The Americans always give place to
ladies in the stage-coaches, rail-road cars, at the public tables,
and in other similar situations. In the steam-boat, at dinner to
day, a small incident occurred which affords an' illustration of
this practice. I was seated at table, with Mrs. Combe on my
right hand. A genfleman, leading a lady, saw the the chair
next me on the left hand unoccupied. He placed his lady in it,
and then requested me to rise and give him my seat. I de
clined to do so; on which he said, " Very well, sir, if you are
so uncivil as not to give place to a lady, I shall certainly seek
another place at the table;" and before I had time to utter another
word of explanation, he and his lady were off beyond my reach.
The plain meaning of the request appeared to me to be this.
"Be so good, sir, as to leave the seat beside your lady, and give
it to me that I may sit beside my lady;" but I did the gentleman
injustice. After diniier, he came up to me, and said, " Sir, I
owe you an apology for my remark: I did not observe that you
had a lady with you: You were quite right in retaining your
seat." Political Economy. — I enjoyed some interesting conversation
with a gentleman who happened to be a passenger, and who had
had an opportunity of observing the evolutions of the mercan
tile world in the United States for many years. On my remark
ing that many mercantile men in the great cities of the Union
appeared to me to conduct their business too much in the spirit
of speculation, without taking accurate and comprehensive
views of causes obviously in operation, which would as cer
tainly affect the value of their commodities, as the sun would
ripen the' crop in autumn, he acquiesced in the correctness of
the observation, and added that many merchants dash at every
thing as a speculation, and talk of "the chance" much more
than of the principle in nature by which the supposed " chance"
must be ruled. I described to him the effects which I had ob
served in Scotland to flovy from too free an emission of paper
money. Men were tempted by it to manufacture, and also to
import goods, far beyond the demand for consumption;^ a rapid
rise in the price of the raw material and in wages occurred; and
prices of manufactured articles rose for a few months. This
was called " prosperity;" but speedUy the foreign exchanges
became unfavorable to Britain; gold was demanded from the
Bank of England to pay for the excess of imported goods; the

56 CONDITION OF NEW YORK CITY.
bank, finding her coffers drained, contracted the currency; the
resources of the Scotch banks in London were circumscribed;
they took the alarm, lessened their discounts, called in their
loans, and realised the debts due to them. The direct conse
quences of this were, that those individuals who had manufac
tured or imported on the " credit system" were forced to seU at
any sacrifice in price, in order to raise funds to meet their en
gagements; prices fell ruinously low; trade became stagnant; the
" credit" men declared themselves bankrupt; and a period of
great suffering ensued. He said that in the United States the
same system prevailed to an inconceivable extent; and that as
one phantom vanished, another was conjured up. Certain
speculators now hold cotton in  , to the value of three
millions of dollars, waiting for a rise. The basis of the adven
ture was the known fact, that last year's crop had been con
siderably short of an average; and, in the face of a falling
market, they held on, convinced that the prices must rise.
They acted on this single fact, without taking into consideration
collateral circumstances. I remarked that the high price of pro
visions in Britain is a most important element in such a specula
tion; for it must influence the price of cotton. The mass of the
British people are very important consumers of cotton fabrics:
when they are forced to expend all their money in purchasing
food, they must wear their old clothes, and give up buying new.
They will go in rags rather than starve. He said that this
very circumstance might account to some extent for the fall in
the price of cotton, although the last crop was short, and that a
few more incidental circumstances might entirely counteract the
consequences of the short produce; but that these collateral in
fluences were rarely considered by those whose fortunes were
at stake. Condition of New York City.' — I made some remarks on the
condition of the city of New York; when a gentleman observed
that the cause of the disorder of the streets, pavement*, police,
and many other things in New York, is the aversion of the
lower classes to be taxed, and the subjection of the politicians to
them. At the present time, the democratic party of that city is
engaged m expeUing every public officer of the whig party, and
substituting their own men; this they could not do, if they of
fended the people' by taxing them. A moral party is much
wanted — one which should advocate what is right, and care no
thing about votes. Such a party woifld raUy round it the sound
portion of the people, and do great good. At first they would
fail; but if they had courage to persevere, they would acquire
such strength that they would be in a condition to dictate terms

THE NISKAYUNA SHAKERS. 57
to both of the political parties. At present, no leading man has
courage to encounter the opposition of both; and the substantial
interests of the country suffer.
We arrived at Albany at half-past six, where we were kindly
received by my brother and his wife. Nothing could exceed the
beauty of the scenery through which we have passed.
May 26. Ther. 43°. The Niskayuna Shakers. — We drove
to this Shaker settlement, situated about half way between Troy
and Schenectady. The grounds are not naturally fertile, but are
remarkably well cultivated. The settlement presents a number
of plain-looking buildings, one of which is used as a church. In
size and appearance it resembles an ordinary school-house of one
story. This being Sunday, there was a large number of [stran
gers in attendance, who came in carriages of various kinds. The
female Shakers entered the church by one door, and the men by
another; and the strangers were forced to follow the same rule.
We were provided with benches to sit on. At ten o'clock the
Shakers appeared. The women were dressed something like
Sisters of Charity; the men wore the ordinary dress of male
Quakers, only their coats and hats were of the color of dust,
broader in skirts and brims, and of a coarser fabric than those
usuaUy worn by other Quakers, The women occupied one end
of the floor, and the men the other. The apartment had neither'
pews, pulpit, desk, nor any other appendage of a church. An
aged, sensible-looking man, one of their number, addressed the
visiters. He told them that the Shakers are " a peculiar peo
ple;" that they were now met to worship God; that the whole
human race were interested in what they were doing, and would,
in God's good time, be benefitted by it; that, in the mean while,
their mode of worship and their manners appeared to the world
to be strange; that although they knew this to be the case, they
opened their doors to every visiter, and aU that they required in
return was that visiters should behave with common decency,
and forbear from whispering and laughing. " We have pro
vided," he continued, " spit-boxes for those who spit, or at least
as many as we could, and we hope that they wiU try to sit near
them; — if not, we beg that they will not put more tobacco in
their mouths, so as to render it necessary for them to spit, and
that they will not dirty the floor. Chewing tobacco is a practice
not followed by ourselves, and we wish to be protected from its
effects." The service began by one of the men delivering some sensible
moral precepts; after which, as the day was warm, the men
stripped off their coats and laid aside their hats; while the wo
men took off their shawls and bonnets. They then commenced
singing and dancing; at the same time waving their hands.

58 THE NISKAYUNA SHAKERS.
which they held in the attitude of the forefeet of the kangaroo.
WhUe singing they knelt occasionaUy; and, at other times,
several of them took their station in the middle of the floor and
sung, while the rest danced round them. Their tunes were
merry measures, with strongly marked time, such as are played
in farces and pantomimes. By-and-by some of them began to bend
their bodies forwards, to shake from/ side to side, and to whirl
round. A favorite motion -was to let the trunk of the body drop
downwards, with a sudden jerk, to one side, care being always
taken to recover the perpendicular before the equilibrium was
lost. The head and trunk were drawn up by another jerk. In
all their shakings and contortions they never lost the step in their
dance, nor ran against each other.
During these gesticulations some of the strangers laughed.
One of the male Shakers, singling out a young lady whom he
had observed committing this breach of decorum, addressed her
thus: " Young woman, you laugh too much. We are a-wor-
shipin' God: we want you to be quiet; that's all we desire."
The Shakers trace back their origin to the days of Oliver
Cromwell; but the testimony was lost for many years, and re
vived in 1747 under James Wardley, a tailor, and Jane, his wife,
in Bolton and Manchester, in England. They believe that the
second appearance of Christ is at hand, and, in accordance with
this doctrine, they enforce a total separation between the sexes.
No children are born in their institution.* In 1770, Anna Leese
became a distinguished leader of the sect, and declared herself to
be " the Elect Lady," the woman " spoken of in Rev. xii, and
the mother of all the Elect." In 1774, she, and a number of
her followers, left Manchester, complaining of persecution, and
came to New York. Being joined by others of their own faith,
they settled at this place, then called Nisqueunia, near Albany,
where they have spread their opinions, and increased to a con
siderable number. They have also a large settlement near New
Lebanon, twenty-five miles to the east of Albany. "They are
neither Trinitarians nor Satisfactionists. They deny the impu
tation of Adam's sin to his posterity, the doctrine of election and
reprobation, as well as the efernity of future punishment."
They deny also " the resuscitation of the body," and " reject
the celebration of water baptism and the Lord's Supper.f
They admit freely aU who wish to join them, and subject
them to probation. I was told that they receive numerous re
cruits from among destitute Irish mothers with famUies, whose
* I observed in the newspapers mention made of a Bill depending before
the legislature of New York state, to provide for the wives and children
of men who had become Shakers; but its terms were not published.
t Adam's Dictionary of all Religions.

THE NISKAYUNA SHAKERS. 59
husbands have died or deserted them. They cultivate the
ground, and manufacture a variety of articles, which they sell in
the towns. The community is properous and rich.
About half a dozen of the men whom we saw were past the
middle period of life: they had large, round, portly figures, with
regularly-formed and well-developed brains, and the external
aspect of good sense. They were obviously the leaders. The
rest presented heads such as one generally sees in Lunatic Asy
lums, characterised by excessive predominance of some organs,
and great deficiency of others. The organs of the domestic
affections were strikingly deficient in some of them, but not in
all. In several, Self-Esteem and Firmness were exceedingly
large, combined with a narrow base of the brain, and an expres
sion of countenance in the highest degree fanatical, dogmatical,
and inflexible. In these men the nose was disproportionately
long. In many the brain was below an average in size, and the
men looked sUly.
The heads of the women were covered by their caps; but the
general size and outline could be seen through the thin muslin.
The great majority of them had well-developed foreheads; but
in some the head was small. Some were pretty. I distinctly
remarked that those who shook, jerked, whirled round, or other
wise gave marks of being possessed, had small heads, and the
expression of their countenances was maniacal or fatuous. Those
individuals who had large well-shaped brains never manifested
contortion, but danced, and sang, and waved their hands, and
knelt and rose, all with the most perfect composure. One boy
of twelve or thirteen, with a small head, but enormously large
Secretiveness, jerked incessantly, so that it became fatiguing to
look at him; he was in excellent health, and there was no ex
pression of fanatical emotion in his countenance. He appeared
to me to be acting a part. One man whose brain indicated
a close approximation to idiocy, rolled his head, and shook in
cessantly. After the meeting, he continued shaking on the road
home to his residence, tiU one of the brethren gave him a good
shake, which had the effect of quieting him. The women were
the greatest shakers; and their pale faces, wild looks, and flabby
condition, indicated at once a low state of health, and irregular
nervous excitement. ,
The oddly formed brains indicate bizarre minds, and these
produce strange actions. The sincere members of the commu
nity appeared to me to be monomaniacs on the point of their
rehgion. In other respects they are said to be rational, honest,
benevolent, and industrious. From the large development of
Self-Esteem and Firmness, they would in other days have en
dured martyrdom without hesitation; but here these feelings are

60 NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.
manifested chiefly in pretending to exclusive salvation, and
setting at naught the opinions and practices of the world.
May 27. Ther. 62°. Forfeitures for Taxes. — I attended a
great sale of lands, building-lots, and houses, lying in aU parts
of the state of New York, brought to the hammer for non-pay
ment of taxes. The sale was held in the State-House, Albany,
and purchasers from great distances were in attendance. The
catalogue, printed in double columns, formed a pretty thick
pamphlet. A sale of this kind takes place every two years. If
I rightly understood the proceedings and the explanations of
them given by a friend, the whole property is put up to auction
at the sum due on it for taxes and costs, and the bidding is back
wards: that is to say, if the property extends to 50 acres,
and the taxes to $50, one bidder will engage to pay the sum
named for 30 acres of it; another for 20; another for 10; and so
on, until no one will go lower.-- The lowest is the purchaser.
The state conveys to him his portion, which is now specially
marked off; and the remainder continues the property of the
original owner. It is a common practice, when the title to a
property becomes confused or irregular, to aUow it to be for
feited to the state for taxes, and to buy it in: the state gives a
new title, which it guarantees to the purchaser. The property
is redeemable by the forfeiting owner, if he pay up the sum
advanced with interest at ten per cent, to the purchaser, within
two years of the sale. After two years, it is irredeemable.
Napoleon Bonaparte. — When Napoleon granted licences to
American ships, on certain conditions, to touch at English ports,
on their way to France, they were all subscribed by himself.
He had no faith in the officers of his government, that they would
not take the money and grant the licenses, all for their own ad
vantage. The gentleman who mentioned this fact to me, had
seen a license which bore date " The field of batfle at Wilna."(a)
When ships were loaded under these licenses at New York, the
French consul sent a description of the cargo in cypher to Na
poleon; and in his possession alone was the key to the cypher.
The custom-house officers reported the cargo to him, on the
arrival of the vessel in a French port; he had it compared with
the consul's report, and it was only when the two agreed, that
the ship was safe. An eminent merchant in New York had a
large quantity of goods seized by the French at Antwerp. He
complained to Napoleon, proved that they were truly American
property, and solicited compensation; but in vain. He went to
(a) The gentleman's memory was at fault. There was no " field of bat-
tie" at Wilna. Napoleon had his head-quarters there for a time before he
entered Russia with his " grand army" in 1812.

GLEN S FALLS AND CALDWELL. 61
Paris, and laid the case before Talleyrand, whom he had known
when a refugee in America, and who mentioned it to the Em
peror, on an occasion which he thought to be favorable. Na
poleon listened to his statement, turned round to him, and said,
" How much of the compensation-money are you to receive for
this agency?" Talleyrand made no reply; but reported this
answer to his American friend, and no compensation was ever
given. These two anecdotes I believe to be essentially authentic,
and they are examples of the absence of conscientiousness as a
sentiment, and as a principle of action, in Napoleon and in those
who administered his government. This appears to me to have
been the greatest defect in Napoleon's mind; and one to which
the downfaD, as well as the rise of his empire, may in part be
ascribed. He outraged justice, tiU Europe, in moral indigna
tion, cast him forth as a mischievous being from its soil.
Rate of Board in Albany. — In winter the members of the
legislature assemble from all parts of the state, and hold their
sessions here. They live chiefly in boarding-houses and hotels.
The rate for a bed-room and board, with the use of a public
dining-room and reading-room, is from $3, to $8, $12, and $14 a
week, according to the style of the house. Albany looks very
beautiful at this season.
May 29. Ther. 63°. Glen's Falls and Caldwell. — Yester
day, we went by the raUroad to Saratoga, which is now inter
esting. It has a clean and fresh appearance, and the air is
aromatic from a profusion of blooming lilacs. To-day, we
travelled by a very bad rOad, to Glen's Falls, a village on the
banks of the Hudson, where there is a great abundance of water-
power, derived from a fall of 63 feet in the river. There were
nine passengers inside the stage, and one on the top. One of
the passengers mentioned that " Mr.  of New York had
sold to a friend of his a lot of 100 acres up in this country, at
$31 per acre. His friend bought it by a map and description.
When he came to take possession, he found the lot composed
entirely of rocks and stones, and lying so high, and so deeply
buried in an impenetrable forest, that " even a bird could scarcely
have got to it." He left it, considering himself completely
cheated of his money.
At Glen's FaUs, there is an old crazy bridge over the river,
so unsafe that the passengers were requested to leave the stage
and walk along it. The country from Saratoga to Glen's Falls
is pretty weU cleared and settled^ but the soUis white and sandy.
Many stumps of trees stand with crops growing round them.
In other places, the stumps have been puUed up by a machine,
like teeth drawn from a jaw, and now form substantial and
picturesque fences.
VOL. II. — 6

62 EMANCIPATION IN JAMAICA.
The next stage brought us to Caldwell, a viUage on the shore
of Lake George. This part of the road runs between hiUs,
most of which are in a state of nature. We left Saratoga at 1
P. M. after dinner, and arrived at CaldweU at 8 P. M., the dis
tance being 27 mUes. We passed a rock where Colonel Wil-
Haras was kiUed by the Indians during the French war, and a
small insignificant pool, by the ro?idside, 3 miles from Lake
George, named "Bloody Pond," from its having received the
slain of a battle fought near it in 1755. The hotel at CaldweU
proved good. It is clean and completely prepared for a rush of
summer visiters. , The situation is extremely beautiful, over
looking the lake.
May 30. Ther. 47°. Lake George.— M 7 A. M. we em
barked on board the " William Caldwell," a handsome new
steam-boat of fifty -horse power, low pressure; and sailed down
Lake George. It is 34 miles long, and in its general features
remarkably like Loch Lomond in Scotland. The breadth,
varying from 1 to 4 miles, is the same; the distribution of small
and large islands is similar; the hills which rise from the margin
of the lake are of corresponding heights; with the exception of
the highest peak, which at Loch Lomond is 3260 feet, and here
2200 feet, and with the farther difference, that the American hills
are clothed with trees to the summit, while the Scottish moun
tains are dark and bare.
We reached the northeastern extremity of the lake at half-past
ten; entered a coach that was in waiting; and passed along the
banks of the Cecilia River, which, rising from Lake George,
empties itself, at the distance of a few miles, into Lake Cham-
plain. We reached the ruins of Fort Ticonderoga on Lake
Champlain; suiveyed them leisurely, admired the beauty of the
scenery, and listened to the stories of the battles which had here
been fought between the French and the English, and latterly
between the English and Americans. Afterwards, we dined at
an inn in the neighborhood of the Fort, and returned by the
same road and the same steam-boat in the evening to the hotel
at CaldweU, highly gratified with our day's excursion.
Emancipation in Jamaica. — Few passengers were yet travel
ling by this route to Canada; but we met one English gentleman
who had just come from Jamaica, where he had resided for
several months, thence he had proceeded to New Orieans,
where he entered a steam-boat and came up the Mississippi and
Ohio to Wheehng; and he was now on his way to Canada.
He mentioned that the reports which are circulated in the United
States about the effects of emancipation in Jamaica are partly
true and partly false. It is true that many of the negroes may
be seen idle; but it is not true that the lands in general are left

EMANCIPATION IN JAMAICA. 63
uncultivated. If an estate required the labor of three hundred
slaves to cultivate it successfully, free negroes labor so much
more energeticaUy, that from one hundred and fifty to two hun
dred of them actually accomplish the same work within the
same time. The remaining hundred or hundred and fifty are
still on the estate, and take their turn in labor. The practical
arrangement is this — one-half or two-thirds of the whole labor
the first thiee days of the week, and the remainder the other
three days. The negroes enjoy the pleasures of mere existence
highly; they bask in the sun surrounded by their wives and
children and are happy. The wages paid to them for three
days' labor, added to the produce of their grounds, suffice to
supply all their wants, and they have not yet contracted artificial
tastes, which would call for extra labor to procure the means of
their gratification, ('a) One or two plantations may be seen un
cultivated and covered with weeds; but these belong to individuals
who used their slaves and apprentices so cruelly, that nearly all
their negroes left them or refused to labor the moment emanci
pation took effect. Even on these estates, however, a few acres
may be seen cultivated — the work of some domestics who were
not ill-treated whUe slaves, and whose gratitude induces them,
when free, to remain in the service even of these masters, and
to raise provision for their maintenance. I have seen this ac
count confirmed in its essential features by subsequent pub
lished reports.
The beautiful scenery through which we have travelled to-day
has been the theatre of many a bloody strife, and graves are still
pointed out which contain the bones of hundreds of fallen war
riors. It is painful to reflect that to these spots came the flower
of France and England in the hey-day of life and enjoyment,
and in maddened fury terminated each other's existence. In
looking on a battle-field, I cannot help thinking of the mothers
who there lost their sons, the wives bereaved of their husbands,
and the chUdren whose fathers were cut off; contemplated in
such a spirit, the scene appears like an arena in which madmen
have come together and indulged their phrenzied passions.
May 31. Ther. 46°. It has again become extremely cold.
The Indian corn is just appearing above the ground.
(a) Or it may be said, that their intellect seeks for no wider range of ex-
ercise than that suggested and impelled by the mere gratification of the
animal appetites. An indifferent commentary this on the blessings of
freedom, and the mind of the Negroes. But whilst we admit that this is
not proof of their inability to appreciate the boon, so neither can it be
called conclusive of the success of the experiment of "general, uncondi
tional, and of course unprepared, emancipation," which, be it added, has not
as yet answered the expectations of its sober friends in Jamaica, however it
may produce good results in the smaller West India islands.

64 SCHENECTADY.
June 1. Ther. 53°. The Law. — In aU our travels in the
United States, we have met with abundant evidence of the ac
tivity of the law. Lawyers abound, and courts of justice are
held often, and in every locality. To-day we found a vast con
course 'of lawyers, doctors, and ordinary citizens, at the viUage
of BaUston Spa, near Saratoga, attending the trial, before Judge
WiUard, of a young man of some fortune accused of murder.
After a long trial, he was found guUty of manslaughter in the
second degree.
Schenectady. — After leaving BaUston Spa by the railroad, the
locomotive engine became unserviceable, and the train quietly
stood stiU. Every car poured forth its company in alarm, Uke
bees issuing from their hive on a serious assault. The passen
gers pushed the whole train backwards about a third of a mile,
to a passing station, when the engine was run off the track, and
a messenger was despatched to BaUston, three miles distant, for
aid. After waiting an hour, one horse appeared, and we pro
ceeded forward at a snail's pace. The evening was fine, and
nature fresh and young, which made the detention less tedious.
Independently of such alleviations, however, the Americans are
certainly remarkable for good temper ; for although there was
ground for provocation in the slender supply of horse power
when the engine failed, the numerous company displayed the
most exemplary patience and good humor. After advancing
four miles with one single horse, we obtained three, and at last
arrived after dark at Schenectady. We went to the hotel near
the railroad office, one of large dimensions, and of good reputa
tion. The first thing to be done on entering an American hotel,
is to go to the bar and inscribe your name in the book of arrivals,
adding the name of every individual in your party. When a
number of travellers arrive at the same time, the bar-keeper con
sults with the chamber-maid, and distributes the bed-rooms
according to their estimate of the condition of their guests.
Single gentlemen are worst served, ladies and married persons
best. I do not know whether it was observed that we were
foreigners, and whether any extra attention was paid to us on
this account ; but in general we experienced the most unexcep
tionable treatment at the inns, and our accommodations were
seldom otherwise than good. On the present occasion we waited
longer than usual before any person came to show us to a room.
At last the landlady of the house appeared ; she mentioned that
the chamber-maids "had gone to the circus," apologised for the
delay, and did the honors herself in a very pleasing manner.
In Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, exceUent gas is
burned in the houses, but in the hotels visited by us since we
left New York, oU lamps are extensively used. I have observed

ROAD TO UTICA. 65
that they form a pretty accurate index to the general economy of
the house. If they are clean, well trimmed, and burning brightly,
the house is well kept throughout. The least neglect shows
itself in them. The superintending mind which maintains a
discipline that reaches them, does not allow higher objects to be
neglected, or to be treated in a slovenly manner. In travelling
we find the hours advertised for the starting of coaches and rail
road cars to be very ill observed. A detention of half an hour
is common, sometimes of a whole hour. WhUe we waited for
the starting of a train, C  read a letter from London which
the post had just delivered. A female passenger looked over
her shoulder, and attempted to read it. The hand was too
cramp for her to make it out, and she turned to her companion
and said aloud, " I wanted to see whether that letter was full !"
June 2. Ther. 55°. Road to Utica. — We started by a rail
road train this morning at ten o'clock for Utica. The distance
is seventy-seven mUes. The railroad follows the valley of the
Mohawk River. This valley in general is not above a mile
broad. On the right bank of the Mohawk runs the Erie Canal,
and on the left bank are the high road and the railroad, all nearly
paraUel to each other. The valley is inclosed on both sides by
hills, apparently of 500 or 600 feet in height, partly cultivated,
and partly bearing the primeval forest. The railroad consists of
a single track, and no inclined plane occurs. It was commenced
in 1834, and completed in 1836, at a cost of $1,540,000, or
$20,000 per mUe. It forms the second link in the great chain
by railroad from Albany to Buffalo and the Falls of Niagara.
The annual dividends are generally ten per cent.* In the car
with us were two Canada Quakers, and a person whose appear
ance and manners led us to suppose him to be a journeyman
tradesman. For three hours they discussed the subject of a
general or particular providence with good temper, and some
considerable ingenuity. The mechanic maintained the doctrine,
that " whatever is, is right," which the Quakers denied ; but as
the subject puzzled MUton's Devils in Pandemonium, it was no
disparagement to the talents of my fellow-traveUers that they did
not succeed in throwing much additional Ught on its obscurities.
We arrived safely at Utica at 3 p. m., and found exceUent accom
modation in Mr. Baggs's hotel. The geology of the Mohawk
valley is described in the second annual report of the Geological
Survey of the Third District of the State of New York, by Mr.
Lardner Vanuxem, in the Assembly paper. No. 200, Feb. 20.
1838.t * Tanner's Description of the Canals and Railroads of the United States.
New York, 1840, p. 78.
t " The valley of the Mohawk," eays-he, " forms an important geological

66 TRENTON FALLS.
June 3. Ther. 54°. The weather is cool and showery.
Blossoms are stiU visible on the apple and pear trees; the oats
and barley do not yet cover the ground so thickly as to obscure
the soil; and altogether vegetation is later than it is at Edinburgh
in ordinary seasons at the same period of the year.
Trenton Falls. — We hired a caniage with grasshopper springs
and two horses to drive us to Trenton FaUs, fifteen miles distant
from Utica. No words can describe the horrible condition of the
road, and yet it was a turnpike, on which toU was levied both go
ing and returning. It runs, however, through a beautifiil and fertile
country, crosses a ridge of hiUs from which delightful views are
obtained of Utica and of the valley in which the Trenton FaUs are
situated. The houses are neat; much of the country is cleared,
and the fields are well cultivated. All seems civUised except
the roads. The rural population wiU scarcely expend a doUar
on a road which will not present them with half-yearly dividends
and a saleable stock. The waste of labor, destruction of vehi
cles, and loss of time, are taxes which they seem not to appre
ciate, or rather which they evade, by using the roads only during
winter snows and midsummer droughts when nature renders
them passable.
The falls of the Trenton are very picturesque. The river,
" the West Canada Creek," is about the same in size as the
Clyde at Lanark in Scofland; its bed is cut deep into limestone,
and its banks are thickly wooded. There are six faUs: in the
uppermost the water \s precipitated eighteen or twenty feet
down an abrupt ledge into a spacious basin. In another the
perpendicular descent is forty-eight feet, and in a third it is thirty-
seven feet. In the others the fall is is broken. The entire descent
in less than five miles is 387 feet. The proprietor has cut walks,
line of division. A high and abrupt elevation, caused by the appearance of
the northern edges of the rocks of which it is formed, characterizes the
southern side of the valley; whilst the northern side, being in general
formed of the inclined planes of the surfaces of the roeks which pass under
and support those of the great escarpment, presents nothing in common
with its southern border. The rocks, whose appearance commences in the
bottom of the valley, and which extend north, are black shale (with its
overlying green shale and sandstone), the Trenton limestone, the Birdseye
limestone, the calciferous sand rock, and the gneiss, the arrangement being
in the descending order ; thus the black shale, relatively to the four other
rocks, is invariably the upper one, while gneiss is as invariably the lowest.
" Along the borders of the Mohawk, from the eastern end of Montgomery
lo the eastern part of Oneida county, there exists a series of parallel uplifts
extending but a short distance south of the river; their effect in that direc
tion being confined altogether to the valley. To the north the uplifts extend
for some distance, but are finally lost in the mass of primary rock, of which
gneiss, the lowest member of the uplift, seems to form the greater part.
The general direction of the uplifts is north and south."

UTICA. 67
erected stairs, thrown abridge across the river, built sheds and seats
for resting and taking refreshments, excavated paths in the rock to
admit the visiter to the best points of view, secured dangerous paths
by chains, and established an excellent hotel; so that, altogether,
the visit to the Falls is rendered highly interesting and inviting.
The scenery, is fuU of loveliness and beauty, approaching in
some points to grandeur. The lime rock abounds in organic
remains, and specimens of ammonites, trUobites, &c., along with
rock-crystals, are exhibited at the inn. In the hotel, we found
residing for a few days one of the most estimable and distin
guished men of the United States, with whom we had previous
ly become acquainted, along with several members of his family.
We enjoyed the pleasure of their society; and altogether this has
been a day of great gratification.
Utica. — This was the site of the old Fort Schuyler. The
first settlement took place in 1789, In 1798 a village charter
was granted, and in 1832 the place was incorporated into a city.
It contains now nearly 10,000 inhabitants. It is regularly laid
out, the streets are of good width and mostly paved, but it has
no lamps. It has sixteen churches, a lyceum, an academy, a
high school, a female institute, a museum, and an institution
called the Young Men's Association, in which there is a library
and reading-room, which are gratuitously open for the use of
strangers. It contains also three banks, an insurance company,
and from six to eight newspaper establishments. We found
several phrenologists in the city, from whom we received much
attention. They drove us to see the new Lunatic Asylum now
in the course of erection by the state of New York, about a mile
and a half from the town. The foundations of this institution
are laid, and on a large scale. It is in the form of a square, and
wUl inclose eleven acres of ground within its area. It is calcu
lated to accommodate 1000 patients, paupers, and also persons
who pay. Attached to it is a farm of 130 acres. The buUding
stands on an eminence sixty-eight feet above the level of the Erie
Canal, and commands a beautiful view of the surrounding coun
try. The erection of this asylum is intrusted to commissioners,
and so searching is the spirit of party, that even the management
of charities cannot escape from its influence. Francis E. Spin
ner and Elam Lynds have been dismissed, and Anson Dart and
Willet H. Shearman have been appointed commissioners in their
stead, purely, it is said, on party grounds; but Captain W.
Clarke, the most active of the commissioners, has in the mean
time been spared. We enjoyed much hospitality and excellent
society during our stay at Utica. I observed, in a newspaper
there, an advertisement by Mr, Crowley, 42 Geneseo Street, in
timating that he professes Practical Phrenology — that he wUl

68 JOURNEY TO SYRACUSE.
give lessons in it on one or two evenings in every week, and
that he examines heads for a fee. I did not see him.
June 5. Ther. 54°- Journey to Syracuse.— -A railroad is
in the course of construction between Utica and Syracuse, but
not yet serviceable. The road was described as very bad, and
we were advised by our friends to travel by the boat on the Erie
Canal. We started at eight o'clock in the morning, and pro
ceeded at the rate of five miles an hour. The distance is fifty-
three miles, and the canal runs for a part of the way through a
low, marshy, unsettled, and uninteresting country. It rained
the most of the day. After dinner, a brisk young man entered the
boat, and in a loud voice asked if any lady or gentleman wanted
to have " corns cured." He was asked his terms, and said they
were half a dollar for one corn, and less for each additional. He
offered to remove the corn by the root instantly, without pain,
and engaged that it should never grow again. After a great deal
of bargaining and bad wit, one passenger made an agreement
with him to have one corn extirpated, for which he was to pay
25 cents (Is. sterling). The operator, who was dubbed by the
passengers " the Doctor," pulled out a botUe, borrowed a pen
knife, applied some sulphuric acid to the com, received his 25
cents, paid 18 cents for his fare, and left the boat. The lent
knife was destroyed by the acid, but " the Doctor" was fairly
beyond reach before its owner made this discovery. The best
piece of wit elicited on the occasion was a remark that this was
in every sense " a toe-boat." The master of the boat told me
that " the Doctor" had done a smaU business to-day, but that
yesterday he had cleared $9 iu the boat going east.
In most of the public conveyances, very JitUe attention is paid
to the safety of the passengers' luggage. In this boat two men
were returning to Rochester, whence they had come yesterday,
to inquire after their portmanteaus, which they had missed on
arriving at Utica. The owners of aU the public conveyances
give notice that they wUl not be responsible for luggage; but the
supreme courts in different states have decided that no individual
can set aside the common law, which enforces this liabUity. and
that the pubhc notice is of no avaU. As this rule of law is in
teresting to travellers in general, I subjoin in the Appendix, No.
IV, a report of the decisions. They have, in some instances,
led to the adoption of a regular plan for securing the effects of
passengers, which is at once simple and effectual. Long straps
of leather are used, having at their extremities loop-holes, to
which are attached pieces of tin-plate bearing numbers from one
to two or three hundred. The same number is stamped on the
tin-plates attached to each end of these straps. When a pas
senger presents his luggage, one of the plates is slipped off the

SYRACUSE. 69
strap and given to him as his voucher; and the strap itself, bear
ing the other plate, is attached to his portmanteau. This is
repeated with every piece of his luggage. At the end of the
journey, the baggage-master reads aloud the numbers attached to
the packages, as he takes them out of the boat, car, or coach;
and the owner, on producing the check-plate bearing the same
number, receives the package, but not otherwise. There is no
lock on the canal from Utica till within one mUe of Syracuse,
where three descending locks occur, We arrived at Syracuse at
half-past eight o'clock, and found very comfortable accommoda
tion in the Syracuse Hotel, close beside the wharf.*
Syracuse. — We were agajn greeted by several highly respect
able citizens of Syracuse who have embraced phrenology, and
have formed a phrenological society. One of them kindly drove
us in an open carriage to Salina, a village in the neighborhood,
which has received its name from its salt springs. These have
all been reserved by the state, and they yield a large revenue,
applicable to the expenses of the Erie Canal. The spring was
known to the Indians, and was discovered by the resort of the
wild animals to drink the water. It lies near the Onondaga
lake, which is fresh to the bottom. The well at Salina, which
was opened twelve or thirteen years since, is seventy feet in
depth, and from it brine is raised, by means of forcing pumps
worked by a water-wheel, to a reservoir eighty-five feet above
the Oswego Canal. It is distributed to a great number of salt
works. In the month of July, 1837, these pumps raised 483
gallons of brine in a minute, or 38,920 gallons in an hour. Its
temperature during its passage from the pumps into the reservoir
is 50° F. Its specific gravity is 1.11060 at 60° F. It is said
that for a period of thirty-six years its strength has undergone no
change. One thousand grains evaporated to a perfect dryness
by heat, left the residuum of 146.50 grains. The foUowing is
the result of an analysis of this quantity of the water: —
Carbonate of lime, - - - 0.17
Sulphate of lime, ------ 4.79
Chloride of calcium, - ¦ 1-04
Chloride of magnesium, - . - - 0.51
Chloride of sodium, or comfnon salt, - - - 140.02
Oxide of iron, with a minute portion of silica and carbonate of
lime, - ¦ . - - 0.04
Carbonic acid, holding in solution the carbonate of lime and oxide
of iron, - • • - 0-09
Water, with a trace of organic matter and bromine, - - 853.41
1000.00
* Before we left the United States, the Syracuse and Utica rail road was
completed. It is a continuation of the Utica and Schenectady rail road. It

70 PHRENOLOGY.
This brine contains 1130 grains of pure and perfectly dry
chloride of sodium in a wine pint, and 9045 grains, or 1.29 lb.
avoirdupois in a gaUon. It therefore requires 43 J of these
gallons to yield a bushel of salt weighing 56 lb. But as salt
made by boUing usuaUy contains not less than five per cent, of
water, 411 of these gaUons wUl yield a bushel of salt of mer
cantile quality.*
There are wells also at Syracuse, Geddes, and Liverpool, and
in 1835 the quantity of salt manufactured from them aU amounted
to 2,323,694 ' bushels. The individuals who manufacture the
salt pay a tax to the state for the use of the springs.
In the Appendix, No. V, I present a table exhibiting " the
relative strength of the different brines from which salt is manu
factured in the United States," and a table " showing the com
position of the various specimens of Onondaga and foreign salt
in 1000 parts."
Dr. Hoyt mentioned, that in the men who superintend the
boiUng of the_salt, the venous blood is nearly as florid red as the
arterial blood in other men. He bled one yesterday, and but for
the continuous flow, he rtiight have believed that he had punc
tured an artery. These men are remarkably healthy, and if
sober, are rarely affected with any aUment.
Syracuse is the capital of Onondaga county. It contains
about 800 houses and stores, several churches, two banks, a
court-house and jail. It appears to carry on an extensive busi
ness. We saw two Onondaga Indians, a man and woman, in
the street. They have a settlement seven miles distant. These
two were poorly clothed, dirty, and forlorn in their appearance;
like the most abject of European beggars, only dark in the com
plexion. They spoke English.
Phrenology. — In the evening the Phrenological Society of
Syracuse held a meeting in the Presbyterian church. I had
positively declined to deliver a lecture, or to make any pubhc
exhibition, but agreed to take a part, incidentally, in the pro
ceedings of any meeting of the society. I insisted that the
public notices of the meeting should be so expressed, and they
passes up the south acclivity of the Mohawk, near to, and parallel with, the
Erie Canal. Its length is 53 miles. The capital stock is $800,000. Ac
cording to a statement of the President, the company received for tolls in
five months $117,614, equal to 19 per cent, on its cost, or 30 per cent, per
annum. The revenue of these railroads is derived from passengers alone.
Their charters prohibit them from carrying goods, the monopoly of which
the state, as proprietor of the Erie Canal, reserves to itself. In September,
1840, this stock sold in the New York market at $117 per share of $100.—
Tanner's Canals and Railroads, p. 78.
*Abridged from Report by Dr. Lewis C. Beck to the Governor of the state
of New York. Assembly paper, No. 200, p. 25.— 20th Feb. 1838.

AUBURN STATE PRISON. 71
were so. On entering the church, which was filled, the presi
dent of the society led me at once to the pulpit; and announced
that I would address the audience. I told him that he must be
gin with the ordinary business of the society; he then said, that
they had no business that evening except to hear me. I was
thus unexpectedly forced to extemporise without either a theme
or preparation. I spoke for an houi: and twenty minutes, and the
people listened. The phrenologists were so much satisfied, that
next morning I found that they had come to the inn, and, as a
mark of respect, proposed to the landlord to settle my bill.
This intended courtesy I respectfully declined, and we parted
friends. June 7. Ther. 58°. Railroad from Syracuse to Auburn.' —
This railroad was opened only on 5th June, and we travelled on
it the third morning of its operation. It was not inclosed, and
the domestic animals along the line had not yet become accus
tomed to the appearance of the locomotive engines and trains.
It was a curious study to mark the effects of our train upon
them, as it rushed past. The horses in the fields generally ran
away, carrying their heads erect, and their ears bent downwards
and backwards; and they turned their heads alternately to the
one side and the other to catch a glimpse of the dreaded enemy
behind. One horse, however, turned round to us, and presented
a bold and inquiring front. He erected his ears and turned them
towards us, stood firm on his legs, and looked as if he would
" defy the devU." The sheep and lambs fled in terrible agita
tion and confusion. The swine early took alarm, and tried to
run from before us. When we overtook them, they endeavored,
in an ecstasy of fear, to push themselves through the fences,
if there happened to Ije any, or into the banks. The cows fled,
but were speedily breathless, and gave up in despair. A huge
breeding hen rose suddenly from her brood, and put herself in
an attitude of defence, without moving a step. Another hen,
without a brood, flew straight up into the air, in a paroxysm of
fright. Fortunately none of these animals ventured on the rail
road, and we arrived at Auburn, distance 26 mUes, in one hour
and ten minutes, without accident or detention. In a separate
car were two stout, rascally-looking convicts, chained together,
under charge of an officer, going to Auburn state-prison. They
were merry and reckless, and came out at the half-way station
to have their last supply of tobacco andwhisky, before entering
on the life of temperance that awaited them in jaU.
Auburn State-Prison. — We visited this prison, accompanied
by his excellency Governor Seward (to whom we carried letters
of introduction), and saw its whole economy. It was com
menced in 1816, and is buUt on the plan of a hollow square, in-

73 AUBURN STATE PRISON.
closed by four waUs each 500 feet long. The convicts labor
during day in large workshops, under the close surveillance of
the officers of the prison, to prevent them from conversing.
After work hours, they are locked up in separate cells. They
move to and from their cells, and to and from the hall in which
they receive their meals, in the lock-step, and are never allowed
to communicate with each other. The system of treatment is
essentially the same as that pursued at Boston and Blackwell's
Island, already described. Here, however, the sleeping ceUs
are lower in the roof, and have no ventilating chimneys commu-
nicating-with the open air. The convicts dined during our visit,
and we saw 050 of them in a large apartment, seated at narrow
tables arranged like the seats in a theatre, so that the convicts at
one table looked on the backs of those at the table before. The
keepers were stationed in the open passages to watch them.
Their heads presented the usual development of criminals, viz.,
deficiency of size in many, deficiency of the moral organs in
the great majority, deficiency of intellect in many, with large
organs of the propensities in nearly all. One exception struck
me. A man apparently above sixty presented an ample coronal
region, with a good intellectual development, such as one very
rarely sees in confirmed criminals. I mentioned the fact to
Governor Seward, and he very obligingly made inquiries into
his history. He learned that the man had been a " root doc
tor;" but in consequence of the removal of the late agent of the
prison, and the recent appointment of Dr. Palmer in his place,
no information could be obtained concerning the offence for
which he had been convicted. Among the convicts was a man
in respectable circumstances, who, under religious delusions,
had chastised his son, a chUd, to such an extent that he died.
He is sentenced to seven years' confinement. His intellectual
organs appeared to be of average size; those of Combativeness
and Destructivetiess to be large; and the moral organs rather
shallow and deficient. In the hospital we saw a convict who,
six days before, had voluntarUy chopped off his left hand. Go
vernor Seward asked him why he had done so. " Because,"
said he, " it had offended against God and man, and it was
borne in upon me, that if I cut it off, as commanded by the
Scripture, God would forgive me, and man also." In the hos
pital we saw likewise an interesting man, Mr. Rathbun of Buf
falo, acting in the capacity of steward. He had been engaged
in gigantic buUding speculations in the town of Buffalo, and at
Niagara FaUs, and faiUng in resources, he was a participator in
forgeries, to the extent, as we were told, of neariy a mOlion of
doUars. He was a man of great talent, and of highly popular
manners, and so bold in his undertakings, that he was a genera

AUBURN. 73
favorite with the people. It was with great difficulty that the
jury could be induced to find him guilty, although the evidence
was overwhelmingly clear, and the frauds enormous, in their ex
tent. At last, however, they returned' a verdict against him, and
he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment. He has been
appointed steward of the hospital as an act of grace. He obeys
the prison rules, does not presume on his former station, dis
charges his duties, but keeps himself quite aloof from his fellow
convicts. Captain Lynds, the late agent of the prison, is described as
having been a brave officer of the army, and the father of this
convict-system. He had also managed the prison at Sing-Sing.
He entertained the opinion that convicts were sent to prison to
be punished, and that discipline could be maintained only by
the lash. He acted on these views, and his proceedings had
been so much at variance with the spirit of the age, that there
arose a great public excitement on the subject, in consequence
of which he had retired. Dr. Palmer had succeeded him, and
the social dinner, which we saw has been instituted since his
appointment. I have already (vol. i, p. 224) expressed my opin
ion of the relative merits of the Auburn and Philadelphia S5'stems.
Auburn. — After dinner, we hired a carriage and drove along
the shores of the Owascb Lake, two miles from the town, and,
but for an execrable road, would have enjoyed the scenery
highly. Although its banks are low, the landscape of the lake
is exceedingly beautiful, and at this season in its prime. We
visited Judge Conklin of the supreme court, who has a residence
near the lake, and enjoyed much interesting conversation with
him and his famUy. The more I see of the American judges,
the higher becomes my estimate of their powers, activity, and
attainments. I spoke to Judge Conklin of the nearly universal
want of ventUation in the American courts. He acknowledged
it to be a very great evil, and mentioned that he had suffered
severely from it a few years ago, when trying an important
cause in a neighboring town. It was mid-winter, and the trial
lasted eight days. The court-room was crowded to excess, and
there was no cranny for ventUation. He suffered so excessively
from the bad air, that he opened the window direcUy at his
back, and sat with it open during the whole days of the trial.
He then drove home in an open carriage, the only one he could
procure; the thermometer being at zero. He was seized with
a cold which nearly proved fatal, and which did not leave him
for many months.
We returned to Auburn in the evening. It is one of the most
pleasing little towns we have seen, even in this land of pretty
viUages, and shows evident marks of prosperity. It has numer-

74 CANANDAIGUA.
ous miUs and manufactories, driven by the stream which issues
from the Owasco Lake. Its population now amounts to 6000.
There are seven churches, an academy, a presbyterian theologi
cal seminary, a museum, two banks, a court house, and a jaU.
I made inquiry into the system of repairing the roads here,
and was told that they are maintained by so many days labor
assessed on each proprietor. It is performed in this month.
The ruts are fiUed up with mud, and this is all that is done till
the subsequent year. We saw them using the plough to mend
some of the bye-roads in this state.
I had the pleasure also of visiting Dr. Briggs, whose name
has already been mentioned in the verdict of the coroner's in
quest on the body of Louis Von Eck. He mentioned that
Captain Lynds was severe on small breaches of discipline, for
the very purpose of preventing greater infringements of the rules
and heavier punishments; that the reports circulated were great
ly exaggerated; and that, if such flogging as was described had
existed, he, as physician to the prison, must have known of it,
which he never did.
June 8. Therm. 65°. Geneva. — At Auburn we met a
family from Boston travelling westward, and along with them
hired an " exclusive extra," or stage coach seated for nine per
sons, and drawn by four horses. We started at half past nine
A. M., and found the road, although the great high-way turn
pike to the west, horribly bad. Here I realised the fact of
having the crown of my head rudely beaten against the top of
the vehicle, so dreadful were the jolts. Seven miles west from
Auburn, we crossed the Cayuga Lake on a wooden bridge, one
mile and eight rods in length. This lake is thirty-eight miles
long, and from one to two mUes broad. It is shaUow, but a
steam-boat navigates it daUy to Ithaca, a thriving village at
its head, thirty-six mUes distant from the vUlage of Cayuga,
where we crossed it. Fifteen mUes farther west, we entered
Geneva, a smaU town situated on the bank of the Seneca
Lake, and distinguished for its picturesque beauty. We dined
here; and started again for Canandaigua, where we arrived at
eight P. M., the distance being sixteen mUes. Since we left
Auburn the country has presented a rich soil, weU cultivated,
with every external indication of great prosperity among the
people. C  was feverish when we arrived at Canandaigua,
in consequence of the pain occasioned by the excessive jolting
which she had sustained.
Canandaigua.— This viUage is situafed at the distance of half
a mUe from a beautiful lake bearing the same name, and is
itself one of that class of towns which I have seen in no
country except the United States. Fifty years ago, it was in

CANANDAIGUA. 75
the heart of the forest; now its principal street is two miles
in length, with two broad side-walks, decorated with trees.
The houses stand in enclosures at a littie distance from the
road, and are ornamented with trees, shrubs, aiid flowers.
The street is a long succession of pretty villas, of pure white,
gleaming through the richest verdure. The houses and of
fices are buUt chiefly of wood; but they have a handsome
appearance. In remote situations in the United States the
family burj'ing ground may be seen, indicated by tomb-stones,
in the fields or orchards, there being no general burial-place ex
cept at a great distance. The living there dwell among the
dead. Even in the villages, the graveyards, as they name them,
are not attached to churches; but are enclosures set apart for
this purpose, and unconnected with any buildings. In strolling
abroad to-day, I passed the burial ground of this village, and the
first tomb-stone that attracted my attention bore the following
inscription. " If eternal happiness be the reward of tender
love, unobtrusive piety, and the kindliest charity, blessed is the
spirit which once animated the lovely tenant of this sepulchre."
It was the monument of a young wife, erected by her husband
to her and her infant daughter.
The peculiarity of American villages consis.ts in the beauty of
the dwellings and the superior manners and education of the in
habitants compared with European villages. There is, how
ever, not much society among themselves, but to strangers they
are very hospitable. A number of Scotsmen are settled here,
some of them in affluent circumstances, and their condition is
such that I could not bewaU their change of country. Some of
them complain of trouble with their " helps;" but I strongly
suspect that the meagre wages allowed to domestic servants
(less than the common remuneration for labor in other depart
ments of uidustry,)^ has much to do with these annoyances.
When ample remuneration is given, 1 am assured that the native
Americans wiU engage in service, and prove faithful, useful, and
obliging. In visiting a Scotch gentleman in this vUlage, I was surprised
to observe a number of pictures and articles of vertu which I
thought I had seen before. They proved to have been the
property of the late Thomas Sievwright, Esq. of MeggeUand,
near Edinburgh, which had been brought to sale after his death.
Their present owner happened to visit that city at the time of
the sale, and purchased largely. It was interesting to meet
with the relics of an old acquaintance in such an unexpected
situation. The land in this neighborhood is cleared and fertile. It seUs

76 AVON SPRINGS,
at prices varying from $30 to $50 an acre, according to quality
and situation. It may be let on the foUowing terms. If the
proprietor furnish only the land, a tenant will pay him one-third
of the produce in kind. If he furnish the land and the chief
part of the stocking and seed, he wUl receive one-half of the
produce; but in either case he must sell his share and turn it
into money as he best can. Money-rents for land are nearly
unknown. Although the soil is excellent, the cultivation is not
of a superior order. The price of labor is so high, and that of
produce so low (owing to the fertUity and vast extent of the new
lands in the west, the produce of which is brought to the eastern
cities, and keeps grain cheap,) that draining, manuring, and
other expensive operations, are sparingly executed. A large
crop of wheat yields forty bushels an acre; but this extent of
produce is rare. The growth of wheat is much more rapid, and
the straw stronger than in Britain; but in general the ear does
not fill so thoroughly. The title to land is very simple. A
printed form of conveyance is filled up with a description of
the property, executed before witnesses, and registered in the
county books, and the titie is complete. Twenty-five years'
possession on a written titie gives an indefeasible right, except
ing only the claims of minors, and of other persons ab agenda.
June 11. Ther. 58°. Avon Springs. — We proceeded to
Avon village, a distance of twenty-five mUes, and visited the
Avon springs. The first spring is caUed the Avon New Bath
Spring, and was discovered by the present proprietor in 1835.
The depth of the well is about thirty-six feet, and the formation
through which the water rises is the calciferous slate. The
temperature of the water is about 50° Fahr. and the specific
gravity is 1.00356. One pint of the water contains Grains.
Carbonate of lime, . . . 3.37
Sulphate of lime, ... 0.44
Sulphate of magnesia, - - 1.01
Sulphate of soda, - . 4.84
Chloride of sodium, . 0.71
1''.37
Sulphuretted hydrogen 3.91 cubic inches.
The water of this spring, when heated, assumes a beautiful
green color; the cause of which is not ascertained.
The middle spring, situated about thirty rods east of the for
mer, gives a teniperature of 51° Fahr., and, according to Pro
fessor Hadley, is of the foUowing composition. A pint of this
water contains

GENESEO. 77

Grains.

Carbonate of lime.

.
1.00
Sulphate of lime.
10.50
Sulphate of magnesia.
_
1.25
Sulphate of soda.
2.00
Chloride of sodium,
2.30
17.05
Sulphuretted hydrogen.
12.0 cubic inches.
Carbonic acid.
5.6
do.*
Hotels and baths have been erected at these springs, and there
is a considerable and increasing resort to them by invalids.
June 12. Ther. 44°. Indians. — A party of Indians ap
peared in the village this morning, traveUing in a wagon drawn
by two shabby gray ponies. The driver was an Indian youth,
apparenfly about sixteen or seventeen years of age, and rather
good-looking, clothed in the European style, but in clothes of
various colors, obviously not made for himself. The women of
the party were dressed in trousers and short gowns of cotton
cloth; they wore shoes, and each had a good large thick blanket
with a blue border wrapt round her person. The young man
wore a fur cap, but the heads of the women were uncovered;
their hair was long and twisted up behind. They were dark
and very plain. They came to sell their manufactured articles.
Afterwards two other Indian women came into the village; their
costume was the same, only their coarse black hair hung in lank
locks about their heads and necks, in savage disorder and ne
glect. I addressed them; but they understood no English. On
my presenting them with a piece of money, they expressed
thanks by pleased looks and a slight curtesy.
June 13. Ther. 50°. Geneseo. — We proceeded to Geneseo,
a thriving vUlage on the high ground, which forms the eastern
boundary of Geneseo vaUey. The view from it is beautiful and
luxuriant. The Geneseo valley consists of a vast expanse of
rich alluvial clay, nearly level, through which runs the Geneseo
River, navigable for small boats to Lake Ontario. The name
means the river of the broad valley. The country is cleared as
far as the eye can reach, and carries the richest crops of wheat,
and other common grains. " Geneseo flour" bears a high price
in the New York market; and in aU the viUages in this region
where there is water-power, one sees large mUls erected, bear
ing the inscription " cash for wheat." In clearing the forest,
the present proprietor has spared the finest trees and left them
in the most picturesque groups. The vaUey, seen from the
viUage, looks like an extensive and beautiful English park.
* Dr. Beck's Report, No. 200, p. 66.
VOL. II. — 7
78 GENERAL SCOTT.
This village is the capital of Livingston county, and con
tains a high school, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Methodist
churches, a handsome court-house, two inns, and numerous
" stores." The whole country through which we have lately
passed, and also this county,, lie on limestone. Beginning on
the north, the rocks " are the hydraulic limestone, Onondaga
and Seneca limestones, the extensive group of fossUiferous
shales, succeeded by the upper black shale, the Cashaqua shale,
the Gardean and Portage groups. The latter occupies only
some of the high grounds in the southern part of Livingston
county." For many feet in depth the Geneseo flats, as they
are generaUy called, consist of fine sand and clay intimately
mixed.* I observe, for the first time this season, barley in the ear.
June 14. Ther. 48°. June 15. Ther. 46°. The wheat be
gins to appear in the ear.
June 16. Ther. 50°. June 17. Ther. 52°. June 18. Ther.
71°. To-day we had the first dish of ripe cherries.
June 19. Ther. 48°. We proceeded westward to Batavia,
25 mUes in company with a highly interesting party of friends,
in two " exclusive extras," and visited Batavia and Lockport.
There we found a railroad which carried us to the FaUs of
Niagara, where we arrived on the 21st of June.
June 22. Ther. 50°. General Scott.— I had the pleasure of
being introduced to this gentieman, whom I have formerly men
tioned. He has gained the admiration of the wise and good
men of aU parties for his successful exertions in restraining the
fierce spirit of the American borderers, and preventing them
from attacking the Canadian English. He and the British offi
cers on the Canada shore have been, and stiU are, on the best
terms of reciprocal intercourse. To the credit of both, it is
* Report by James Hall, State Geologist, No. 50, p. 416. Mr. Hall, in
his report on the Physical Geography, Valleys, &c., of Western New York,
remarks that " the absence of all strata superior to the coal series (if we
except some small tracts of tertiary towards the eastern part of the state)
in New York and Pennsylvania prove that this great area has never been
submerged beneath the, ocean for any length of time, since the period of
these ancient depositions. We have proof, however, of the violent action
of water in the denuding and excavating agency, in the production of val
leys and water.courses. These phenomena may have been caused in part
by a sudden submergence, and the rapid passage of a wave over the sur-
iace. The subsequent changes may have resulted from an inland sea,
which, tor a long period, remained in possession of a large portion of the
interior of the continent, ranging at various elevations. This in its sub
sidence gave rise to small lakes, on the more elevated grounds, which, from
accumulating waters, burst their barriers and communicated with those
of a lower level, or passed off through the present water-courses to the
ocean." P. 432.

NIAGARA FALLS. 79
generally acknowledged that they, the men of the sword, have
been the real peace-makers in this district during the last eighteen
months. They have used every exertion to restrain the in
furiated masses on both sides. General Scott mentioned to me
that his grandfather was a Scotchman, who fought on the side
of the Pretender at the battle of CuUoden, and subsequenfly fled
to America. He might have returned after the amnesty, but
preferred remaining in the Colonies. We had the pleasure
also of making the acquaintance of General Porter, who resides
here, and is the proprietor of Goat Island, in the St. Lawrence,
through which the best access has been made to the FaUs.
The Western Country. — We met with two friends who had
just returned by the lakes from the far west, whither they had
gone on an exploratory trip for their own information. They
had suffered severely from the ague, and saw almost every
famUy affected with it, many having not yet recovered from the
attacks of last autumn. They mentioned that the timber land
is generaUy preferred to the prairies. They came to the con
clusion that the "West" forms a desirable place of setflement
for men of small capital, great bodUy strength, and youth; but
that no educated man with a competency can settie there, ex
cept by sacrificing for many years every advantage which these
confer. Niagara Falls. — We devoted four days to the enjoyment of
this wonder of the world, and were not disappointed. The
first impression, however, must differ in every individuul, ac
cording to the natural endowments and habitual activity of his
faculties. I confess that the first view did not awaken those
profound ¦ emotions of astonishment, sublimity, and awe in me
which are generally described as its effects on visiters. I had
read many descriptions and seen numerous pictures of the scene,
and found its general features very much those which I had
expected. It excited my intellectual faculties too entirely to
aUow me to experience vivid emotions. The most forcible idea
suggested was that of the astonishing power of gravitation. The
mass of waters rushed downwards with an indescribable momen
tum, and seemed to reveal to the senses the awful force of this
mysterious influence. Above the falls the river runs over a bed of
limestone; below them it has worn a deep channel in the rock,
leaving high perpendicular waUs on each side. The difference
of level between the water on the upper and that on the lower
beds of the rock is 158 feet 4 inches. The descending surface
is perpendicular, and the whole waters of the St. Lawrence are
precipitated over it in unbroken masses. The faU is fourteen
mUes from Lake Ontario, into which the waters flow; and it is
obvious to the eye that they have excavated the deep channel all

80 NIAGAR.A FALLS.
this distance,* and are stiU engaged in the work of excavation.
By observing the progress which they have made in certain
spaces of time, data have been obtained for calculating the period
which must have elapsed since the work began, and that which
may be stUl required before they shaU deepen the whole course
upwards to Lake Erie, about twenty miles. I became im
mersed in the contemplation of these ideas, and others of a
simUar description, aU aUied to reason, and it was only by de
grees that the observmg faculties and sentiments awakened and
came into communion with the scene. They at last embraced
it, dwelt on it, responded to it, thriUed with intense deUght,
and carried it off indelibly impressed upon the memory and ima
gination. It would be in vain for me to attempt a description of the
Falls; this has often been given by abler pens. I may mention,
however, that after surveying them from the British side, the
American side, and Goat Island in the middle of the stream,
under the rays of the noontide sun of the 22d of June, and
those of a bright full moon at night; after seeing the most per
fect solar rainbovys lying at our feet by day, and lunar rainbows
(like the ghosts of those of the sun) by night; after listening to
the legends of Indians losing command of their canoes, and be
ing precipitated over its brow and engulfed in the whirlpool be
low; after frequent crossing and recrossing the foaming stream
below the cataract in boats; and after descending by the Biddle
staircase, and looking up to the world of water pouring down
overhead; in short, after dwelling for days on its every feature,
— I was far less impressed by its sublimity than by its beauty:
it is full of grace and majesty, and emotions of pleasure were
constantiy predominant while I gazed on it. The Atiantic in
the equinoctial gale of 20th September 1838, seen from the
deck of the Great Western, far surpassed Niagara Falls in ter
rific grandeur. My companion accurately described them in. the
following words: " One sits and gazes one's self out of aU
thought, and into a delightful sort of reverie, which is interrupted
only when some new effect of clouds or sunlight rouses one's
attention. I can only say, that I never saw such greens nor
such whites as are presented by the rushing waters — nor such
graceful motions, nor such delicate veUs, nor such rainbows, nor
listened to such luUing sounds! And all in the midst of more
beauty of accompaniment than Niagara usually receives credit
for. The banks of the river are high, steep, rocky, and wooded;
and the water is a cool and lovely green. Goat Island is a litfle
* Mr. Lyell treats of this subject in his Principles of Geology, vol. i. p.
261, 3d edit.

JOURNEY TO BUFFALO. 81
Eden, and all the ways leading to the FaUs are judiciously laid
out." The best guide to the Falls is the admirable work of Mr.
Ingraham of Boston. He is a man of taste and education, and
passionately enamored of the scene. We walked several mUes
down the river, and visited the " Rapids," but they merit no
particular description. About two mUes and a half below the
viUage, the railroad approaches within a few yards of the brink
of the precipitous bank of the stream, and at that spot, the Falls
themselves and surrounding scenery appear grouped together,
and look like a living cabinet picture of the most exquisite grace
fulness and beauty.
On crossing to the Canadian side, where there was a large
and commodious hotel (since burned down), the first object that
presented itself was a British sentinel of the 43d regiment keep
ing guard at the landing-place. He asked no questions, and I
learned afterwards that he is posted there to prevent the British
soldiers from deserting. There is no danger in crossing the
river even in a small boat, for the basin which receives the cata
ract is so deep (supposed to be 800 feet) and so wide that the
turbulence soon subsides.
Lundy's Lane. — This is the name of the village on the Ca
nadian side of the Falls, and the site of a severely contested
battle between the British and Americans, fought oii the 25th of
July 1814. About 870i men on each side were killed, wounded,
or taken prisoners, and the Americans retired at night. No
traces of the devastations now remain. I wished to obtain some
information, and accosted a man sitting in a field. He was an
Irishman, and said that he could not walk. I asked him why'
His answer was in these words: " I was crazy, sir, and the
people who had the charge of me put me into a cellar, and my
feet were frozen, and afterwards cut off." " Where did this
happen?" " In the town of Niagara, sir." This town is on
the Canadian Side, near the junction of the river with Lake
Ontario. What a scene of suffering and cruel neglect was em
bodied in this brief narrative!
June 25. Ther. 62°. Journey to Buffalo. — We left Niagara
FaUs at half past 2 P. M., in a railroad car, and arrived at Buf
falo at 4 P. M. The distance is 22 mUes. Fifty years ago, it
would have appeared as incredible that we should approach to
and depart from the Falls of Niagara by raUroads and locomo
tive engines, as that the stream should run upwards; and yet
this feat is accomplished. It seems so natural, now when it is
done, that only on reflection and by contrast does it excite sur
prise. This railroad runs nearly along the right bank of the
Niagara river the whole way to Buffalo, and affords admirable
views of the scenery. Several islands in the stream present

82 AMERICAN HOTELS.
themselves, the largest of which. Navy Island, has been the
theatre of some recent contests between the government forces
and the Canadian Patriots, as they caU themselves, or Rebels,
as they are named by the British. The people on both sides of
the river were strongly excited during the late Canadian insur
rection, and the subject stUl continues an interesting topic of
conversation. The feeling of the two nations towards each
other was discussed in very reasonable terms by the passengers
in the railway car. One of the Americans said, " It is not true
that the British hate us. I know that they show our people a
great deal of kindness and hospitality when they go over to the
other side. It is only the ignorant and bigoted tories who hate
us, and they do so merely because they hate republican institu
tions. They have no notion what we are. I wish we could
catch a parcel of them and parade them through our states, as
they did Black Hawk and other Indian chiefs.* It is the only
way to open their eyes, and make them see that we are men."
This spee6h caUed forth a loud laugh of approbation; and it
appeared to me to contain a very sensible ideia. The tories in
general are kind-hearted men; and a sight of the industry, the
prosperity, the order, and attention to religion that essentiaUy
reign in this vast republic, notwithstanding its faults and imper
fections, would expand their sympathies, and render them less
afraid of human nature when left, unguided by kings and nobles,
to fulfil its destinies. The same gentieman added, that he knew
it to be a fact that the British officers of the line had done every
thing possible to alleviate the sufferings of the prisoners taken
in the late border troubles.
American Hotels. — The hotels in the western region of New
York state are on a large scale and very good; but only one
basin, one tumbler, and one basin-stand, are allowed for two
persons. On representing civiUy, however, our British habits,
we were always indulged with duplicates. The meals are
served with amazing despatch. We were generaUy first and
last at table, yet only 15 minutes, by my watch, elapsed be
tween our sitting down and rising up. Within that time 150
persons had crammed down a breakfast. " You Europeans,"
* The United States' government from time to time invites the most for
midable of the Indian chiefs to visit Washington. They are received with
great ceremony, conducted to all the public institutionsjand afterwards in-
vited to the large Atlantic cities, where similar honors are paid to them.
Care is taken to show them the navy yards and the ships of war, the arse
nals and arms; and also reviews of the best appointed militia regiments.
The object of the government is to send them home with a practical con
viction of the colossal power of the United States contrasted with that of
their warrior bands, and it is generally accomplished.

PHRENOLOGY. 83
said an American, " eat as if you actuaUy enjoyed your food!"
" Assuredly we do — and you Americans wUl never escape from
dyspepsia and headaches until you also learn to enjoy your
meals." June 26. Therm. 65°. The viUage of Buffalo was burned
to the ground by the English in 1814. It is now a town of
20,000 inhabitants, and carries on an extensive trade, as the
eastern port on Lake Erie. Here the New York and Erie
Canal has its terminus. The streets are wide, the houses sub
stantial, and the stores numerous, of vast extent, and stocked
with almost every useful and ornamental article produced by
Europe and America. The newspapers reported the " Lake
craft" in the following terms: — " There were in harbor this
morning nineteen steam-boats, two ships, one barque, seven
brigs, and sixty-one schooners: in all ninety sail. Among these
is not included the Julia Palmer, now being converted into a
steamer. Of the steam-boats, about one half are undergoing re
pairs or being repainted, preparatory to commencing the fall
campaign — the others are taking their regular turn in the line.
The sail craft are all, or neariy all, loading or unloading, and
present a lively appearance." We counted seven large steam
boats on the wharf, all announced as ready to sail, and contain
ing excellent accommodation for passengers. They have public
cabins and private state-rooms, and, from their large size, pro
mise to be comfortable vessels. One of the three-masted ships
was announced as belonging to the " MUl-waukie and Chicago
Line," indicating that she is one of a number of regular traders.
I have already mentioned that it has been found necessary to
enlarge the Erie Canal. It will be made from sixty to seventy
feet wide, and seven feet deep, and have double sets of locks.
We may safely anticipate, from the vast extent of country with
which it communicates by means of the lakes, and the astonish
ing rapidity with which the population increases, that at no
great distance of time even these enlarged dimensions will be
too smaU, and that full employment will be found for the raU
roads also, in the transportation of goods. Buffalo is probably
destined to become a city of several hundred thousand inhabit
ants! To a spectator on the shore of Lake Erie, every thing
resembles an ocean prospect. The eye is arrested by the line
where the horizon meets the water; and a few hours sail must
carry the navigator far out of sight of land.
Phrenology. — There is a phrenological society here, and the
subject is well understood, and extensively cultivated. I met a
number of the medical members, and privately assisted at the
dissection of a brain. I was told that the phrenologists are so
numerous and influential, that they would experience little dif-

84 THE INDIANS.
ficulty in getting phrenology introduced into the public schools
as the phUosophy of mind, if they had a work suitable for the
purpose. They have only one zealous opponent, a presbyterian
clergyman, who preached against the science. They requested
him to pubUsh his discourse; but he declined to do so. In the
evening an ordinary meeting of the society was held, this being
one of their regular nights. Above fifty persons, ladies and
genflemen, were present, and Dr. Raymond gave an exceUent
demonstration of the structure of the brain. I delivered a short
address, and was much gratified by the state of the science in
this important place.
The Indians. — The Seneca village, setfled by about 900
Indians, principaUy Senecas, with some Onondagas and Cayu-
gas, lies from three to four mUes" southeast of Buffalo. They
live on what is called an " Indian Reserve," extending to
49,000 acres of land. I delivered a letter of introduction to
Honnondeuh, one of their chiefs, from whom I obtained some
interesting information. We found him living in the same
hotel with ourselves.
Honnondeuh appears to be about thirty years of age; he is
well-formed, with features decidedly Indian, and a complexion
probably one-fourth white. The form of his brain indicates a
cross between the Indian and white. He was sent by his father,
who is an Indian, to tiie common school at Buffalo, and after
wards to Hamilton college, where he completed a good educa
tion. At the school and college he assumed the appellation of
Thomas Strong. He speaks English hke an Anglo-American,
and his dress and manners are those of an American gentie
man. He studied law, and at present receives a salary for act
ing as interpreter and agent between his tribe and the United
States government. A treaty is now proceeding for the re
moval of his people, and of all the other Indians in the state of
New York (about 4000 in number,) to a territory west of the
Missouri, extending to 1,800,000 acres of prairie and woodland,
purchased by the United States government from the Osage
Indians. When the British first settled in America, they found the dif
ferent tribes of Indians in possession of different portions of the
country as common hunting-ground, but individual property in
the soU was unknown. The British setflers, therefore, could
not acquire legitimate individual rights from flie Indians, because
they had no such rights themselves. To prevent frauds, and to
lay the foundation of individual titles, the English government,
at a very early date, prohibited aU its subjects from purchasing
land from the Indians, and entered into a treaty with them, by
which the chiefs bound themselves, when they wished to seU,

THE INDIANS. 85
to give the right of pre-emption to the government. Thus it
became an established principle, that the Indians had only a right
of possession in common, in their own lands; that they could not
sell any portion of them as individual property; and that the go
vernment alone had the privilege of purchasing up their right of
possession, and of converting the tenure of the lands into fee-
simple. After the revolution, the United States government claimed this
right, as succeeding to that of the British crown; and their whole
transactions with the Indians have been founded on it since that
event. An Indian reserve means a certain tract of land left in possession
of an Indian tribe, on which no white man is allowed to settie.
Not only does the American government prohibit the Indians
from selling these reserves to individuals, but it does not permit
them even to divide them among themselves and convert them
into fees. They must possess them in common, or give them
up, and remove to the west. , Farther, it refuses to allow the
rights of American citizenship to an Indian in any circumstances.
Honnondeuh, under his name of Thomas Strong,' purchased a
lot of land in the state of New York from an American who had
a complete title; "but," said he, " the moment the land was
conveyed to me, my blood extinguished the right." He drew
up and presented a respectful petition to the legislature of the
state of New York, detailing the circumstances, and praying for
an act to authorise him to acquire a legal titie to the land. His
petition was referred to the Committee on " Indian Affairs," and
they reported that it was not expedient to comply with his
desire. " Here we are," said he, " surrounded by white men, who
found their prosperity on individual property in the soil, and yet
they prohibit us, as a tribe, from dividing our own lands among
ourselves, and laying the foundation of our own improvement.
Not only so, but when we, as individuals, acquire their know
ledge, and adopt their manners, they still prohibit us from own
ing individual property in the soU, either of our own lands or of
theirs. In such circumstances, our advance in civilisation is
impossible. Our people associate only with the outcasts and
lowest of the whites, because aU others exclude us from partici
pation equally in their rights and in their society. We adopt
their vices, because an insurmountable barrier is placed between
us and their virtues. We become miserable, degraded, extinct."
He delivered these words with deep earnestness, but without
passion. An American gentleman who heard this exposition,
remarked to me, " If you or I had been so treated, we should
not have spoken so calmly of our wrongs!"

86 THE INDIANS.
The present state of the treaty with these Indians (if I rightly
apprehended the explanations given to me) is this: After the
revolution, both New York and Massachusetts claimed these'
Indian lands, and the dispute was adjusted by the territory being
included within the limits of the state of New York, but under
the condition that the right of pr6-emption should be reserved to
Massachusetts. By this arrangement Massachusetts was placed
in the right of receiving the immediate profit which could
be reaUsed by extinguishing the Indian title, and seUing the
lands to white settiers, whUe New York secured the lands
and population to augment her wealth after they were setfled.
Massachusetts, not choosing to wait till she could remove the
Indians, sold her right of pre-emption to Gorham and Phelps.
This right has been several times transferred from them to other
individuals, and parcelled out into lots. A company of fifteen
or twenty persons has acquired the right of pre-emption of the
49,000 acres possessed by the Senecas, and has employed agents
to buy up the Indian right of possession. Massachusetts has
sent a commissioner. General Dearborn, to see that the Indians
are not cheated; and the government of the United States lend
their aid by offering new territories in the far west; and negotia
tions are now proceeding between all these parties for the removal
of the Indian tribe.
Honnondeuh has visited the proposed new territory, and is
satisfied with it. He saw the surrounding Indians, and was
assured of their peaceful dispositions towards his people, if they
should come. The United States government promises to give
them these lands in fee, with the right of holding individual pro
perty, and selling them among themselves at their pleasure.
Honnondeuh and his father have voted for the removal, influ
enced chiefly by the advantages of this last boon. " We may
live there," said he; " here we must become extinct." One of
our party asked him whether he would go with his tribe to the
" far west." " Certainly," said he, " I wiU go with my people."
He explained to us that he is the chief of a clan only, and suc
ceeded his brother in this place of honor. His father is not a
chief, the right having come by his mother.
This Indian reserve' approaches to within one mUe of the town
of Buffalo, and we saw many of the tribe in the town. Some
were clothed in rags, with a tattered great coat above aU, and
were reeling drunk in the streets; others were clothed like Eng
lish carters, and some like respectable tradesmen. Most of the
women wore trousers, coarse cotton short gowns, and a large
blanket adjusted as a robe. The men wear hats or caps; the wo
men were bare-headed, and often bare-footed, haggard and ugly.
Another of our party asked Honnondeuh what progress the

THE INDIANS. 87
missionaries were making among his tribe? " They begin at
the wrong end," said he; " they inform us how to save our
souls, but do not teach us how we may improve our condition.
We believe that our souls will be taken care of by the Great
Spirit; we want rights, justice, civilisation first, and then we
shaU be glad to hear what the missionaries can do for our souls."
He added that the missionaries have kept a school among them,
and one of the Gospels (of which he presented C  with a
copy) is printed in the Seneca language. Great difficulty was
experienced in translating it, in consequence of the great poverty
of that language. I pursued this topic, and learned from him
that his tribe have no words to express many of the emotions
and ideas formed by means of the moral sentiments and the re
flecting faculties, especially when the emotion or idea is a com
plex one, expressive of the activity of a group of these faculties
acting in combination. These emotions and ideas themselves
are unknown to them, and the translation is accomplished only
by means of paraphrases, some of them of a very awkward
character, and which, after all that can be done, do not suggest
to the Indian the same emotions or ideas which the English
words call up in the Anglo-American mind. In short, the trans
lation, to prove successful, would require in many instances not
only to express the original sense, but to evoke feelings and
conceptions never previously experienced by the Indian' faculties.
He does not understand the language of tribes who live at a
distance. There is no perceptible affinity between his speech
and theirs. He repeated to us, first in his own language and
afterwards in English the- speech which he made to the Osage
Indians, and their answer, conveyed through three interpreters.
It consisted of a series of announcements of substantive facts; of'
distinct propositions; and of questions founded on these. The
answer consisted of direct replies, accompanied by an assurance
of amity. We asked him whether Mr. Henry Clay, or the best
Indian orator, was the more eloquent. He replied that the ideas
which they expressed, and the arguments which they used,
were so utterly unlike, that no comparison could be made be
tween them. " Our orators," said he, " could not find words to
express, nor could our people conceive, the ideas which Mr.
Clay Utters. But within our own range I have heard some of
our orators as eloquent as Mr. Clay." He said that they in
structed some of their young men to speak as orators, or, as they
called them, " interpreters."
Honnondeuh had a great deal of conversation with the ladies
of our travelling party, gave them Indian names expressive of
qualities, and became a great favorite with them. He acted and
spoke with natural ease and dignity, and altogether conducted

88 RAILROAD TO LEWISTON.
himself as an educated gentleman, and we treated him as such.
He is not married; but he has a sister who is educated and mar
ried to an Indian.
One of our American friends, who is deeply learned in the
history, and practically acquainted with the affairs, of the United
States, mentioned that he believed the account given to us by
Honnondeuh to be substantially correct. He acknowledged that
there is great injustice in the treatment of the Indians, but re
marked that the evU originated with the English Government,
and that the Indian affairs were in such a condition when the
American Government succeeded to the English, that no other
system could be followed. Besides, said he, the Indians joined
the English in the war of the Revolution, and the United States
conquered their territory. They conceived that they acted
milcUy towards them in pursuing the same course which the
English had adopted previously to the contest.
Buffalo, as I have already remarked, is the scene of Mr. Rath-
bun's speculations. He planned the " American Hotel," in
which we now reside, and it is as magnificent as a palace. It
accommodates with ease 140 travellers.
June 27. Ther. 67°. Railroad to Lewistown. — We left
Buffalo at nine A. M. in a railroad car on our return to Niagara
Falls. It thundered and rained plentifuUy, and the locomotive
engine could not drag us forward. Its wheels continued revolv
ing, but slipt on the wet rails, and we stood motionless. This
railroad is twenty-three mUes in length, and cost $1 10,000. It
has ascents in some places exceeding seventy feet in the mUe.
In order to save the expenditure of capital in levelling, the
Americans construct their railroads with much higher gradients
than ihe English, and, in this instance, the gradient has been
carried so high as to render the road inefficient in wet weather.
The company was incorporated in 1834. After many stops we
obtained horses, and at half-past two o'clock reached Niagara
Falls. We did not remain in the village, but entered a raUroad
train fpr Lewistown, situated on the right bank of the Niagara,
near its junction with Lake Ontario. We arrived there at a
quarter past four P. M., and immediately embarked on board of
the " Great Britain" steam-ship for Kingston in Upper Canada.
Opposite Lewistown is Queenstown in Canada, which the
Americans burned in the war of 1814. On a height above this
viUage a handsome column has been erected to the memory of
the English general Brock, who fell there in the Batfle of Queens-
town. It forms an interesting feature in the landscape, which
is naturally fine.*
* Before we left the United States, a disgraceful attempt was made to

OSWEGO.  THE ST. LAWRENCE. 89
June 28. Osivego.-TTie St. Lawrence.— The steam-boat
was large, and had exceUent accommodations. We saUed aU
night, and at seven A. M. touched at the American town of Os
wego, on the right bank of Lake Ontario. It lies at the mouth
of the Oswego river, and we were told that here Mr. Van Buren,
the present President of the United States, laid the foundation
of his fortune by a speculation in lots. He purchased 600 acres
of laud at $6 or $7 an acre; afterwards sold part of it for $70,000;
and keeps the remainder, which is regarded as very valuable.
The opening of the Oswego Canal, which branches off from the
Erie Canal, and the consequent rise of the town, has caused this
great advance in value. He has also obtained several liberal
grants from the United States Government to improve its harbor.
It now appears to be a flourishing place.
At two P. M. we arrived at Kingston, Upper Canada. The
St. Lawrence commences here. > When we were at Niagara
Falls, General Scott mentioned to us that a plot was suspected
to be hatching by the disaffected Canadians and their American
aUies to burn the British steam-boats on the St. Lawrence; that
he had communicated all the information he possessed on the
subject to the British officers, and had also instructed the Ameri
can officers to observe the strictest watch to defeat the scheme.
At Kingston we entered another steam-boat, and soon saw that
General Scott's information was acted on. We were boarded
by a British sergeant and corporal, and a party of soldiers. The
sergeant mustered them on the deck, gave the words " shoulder
arms," " open pans," and then went along the line and examined
every lock and flint, to see that it was fit for service. The arms
were then piled on deck, and we commenced our voyage. The
river is here ten miles broad, strewed with a thousand islands,
varying from a foot square to many hundreds of acres in extent,
all covered with bushes or timber. The evening was fine, and
the scene was highly picturesque as we glided among them.
Their grouping and forms presented a new picture every five
minutes, and aU graceful and rich. At sunset the sergeant again
mustered his men, and placed three sentinels; one near the pad
dle-box on the American side; one in the stern on the same side,
and one in the bow of the boat. It was moonlight. We ap-
dcstroy this monument. It is a hollow pillar containing a winding stair.
Some miscreants had forced open the door at the bottom, placed several
barrels of gunpowder inside, closed the door, and fired the whole by a slow
match. The stair was blown out at the top, and the column itself seriously
rent, but not thrown from its basis. I heard the Americans express the
greatest indignation against the perpetrators of this barbarity. The strictest
investigations were made to discover them, but without success. The gene
ral opinion seemed to be that it was the work of one individual.

90 LAKE CHAMPLAIN, BURLINGTON, &C.
preached a large barge lying at anchor close to the shore.
" What boat, a-hoy?" cried the soldier on the bow. No answer.
We approached close to her. She was a lumber-boat with no
body on board. We passed Ogdensburg on the American, and
Prescott Off the British side, and I saw the windmiU, which a
short time before had been the scene of an attack.
June 39. Ther. 63°. June 30. Ther. 62°- July 1. Ther.
72°. July 2. Ther. 76°. July 3. Ther. 78°.
We arrived at Montreal at 7 P. M. on the 29th of June,
having traveUed 422 mUes (the distance from Lewistown,)
chiefly by steam-boats, but parfly by stage-coaches, in fifty-
hours. We remained in Montreal till eight o'clock in the
evening of the 3d of July, wlien we embarked in the St. George,
a large and commodious steam-boat, and arrived at Quebec next
day at 2 P. M., the distance being 180 miles.
July 4. Ther. 68°. July 5. Ther. 64°. July 6. Ther. 64°.
We remained at Quebec during these days, and visited the town,
the citadel. General Wolfe's monument, the Falls of Montmo-
renci, the Indian vUlage of Lorette, and other objects of interest.
At 9 P. M. of 6th July we embarked again for Montreal on
board of the " Canada" steam-boat, and in twenty-four hours
completed our voyage, although we ascended the stream, and
had a schooner in tow the whole way.
I. offer no remarks on Canada for two reasons: first. Our visit
to it was short, our motions were rapid, and my means of form
ing correct opinions therefore deficient; secondly. The subject
deeply excites party feeling in Britain, and no observations
which I could offer would be of use in removing the prejudices
which attend political questions. My general impression is,
that Lower Canada, compared with the United States, is like
senUity contrasted with manly vigor; and that this is the result,
first, of the ignorance of the French population; and, secondly,
of a provincial government. The constitution of the United
States developes, in an extraordinary degree, the faculties of its
individual citizens, and the energies of its social masses; whUe
a provincial government, by depriving both individuals and
masses of political power, and vesting the ultimate disposal of
the great interests of the country in a foreign and distant legisla
ture, paralyses the minds of its subjects, and substitutes feeUngs
of dependence and doubt for those of self-reliance and unhesi
tating confidence in distant results.
July 9. Ther. 74°. Lake Champlain, Burlington, ^c— At
9 A. M. we left Montreal, crossed the river in a steam-boat to
La. Prairie, traveUed seventeen mfles on a rail-road to St. John's,
and at one o'clock embarked on board of a large American
steam-boat, named the " White HaU," ascended the River St.

LAKE CHAMPLAIN, BURLINGTON, &C. 91
John and Lake Champlain, and arrived at Burlington in the
United States at 7 P. M., after a delightful day's travelling.
On reaching the first port above St. John's, a piteous scene
presented itself in a party of Irish emigrants. They were going
to the head of the Lake, and the captain demanded their fare.
They had no money, and the captain thrust them ashore at this
place amidst cries, and tears, and prayers, and every moving
appeal which Irish eloquence could comlmand. Great commis
eration was excited among the passengers, and we regretted
that the expulsion was completed, and the boat pushed off, to
prevent their rushing on board again, before we knew what the
lamentations arose from. Our compassion, however, was abated,
when we were assured by the men in charge of the steam-ship
that the emigrants had money, but were unwilling to part with
it, and that they have a re^lar plan for accomplishing their
passage without paying a cent. They go on board and are
carried to the first port, before their fare is demanded, and before
it is possible to put them ashore for refusing to pay. They are
there thrust out, but wait at that port, and go on board tlie next
boat that touches at it on its passage up the lake; they are car
ried by it to another port, again refuse to pay, and are again put
ashore. They wait there for a third boat, and repeat the same evo
lutions, protesting each time that they have no money. At last
they accomplish the whole distance, and then laugh at the cap
tain of the vessel which has brought them to their destination,
and boast of their trickery.
July 10. Ther. 73°. 11. Ther. 64°. 12. Ther. 64°.
13. Ther. 64°. 14. Ther. 63°. In these days we visited
Montpelier, Hanover, Littleton, and the White Mountains. Miss
Martineau has so eloquentiy treated of the White Mountains, and
other travellers have so frequentiy described the other features of
our route, that I merely add that we were much gratified by the
beauty of the country, the prosperity of the towns and villages,
and the generaUy good accommodation which we found on the
road. In one of our walks in the valley which lies at the base of the
White Mountains (which, by the way, are not white, except
when covered with snow in -winter), a young man carrying a
gun accosted us, " Do you fear the gun?" " No, if you do not
point it at us." He fired at some object almost at his feet. It
was a snake about two feet long. He blew its head off, and
hfted up its body. He then joined us. " Have you been up
Mount Washington?" (the highest peak), said he. "No."
" Perhaps you have been here before?" " No, I have not."
"Perhaps you come from a'pretty considerable distance." " Yes,
I do." "In what direction?" " North-east." " Is it very far

92 LAKE CHAMPLAIN, BURLINGTON, &C.
down east?" " Yes, a good way." He was preparing another
question, when I added, " I have come across the ocean." " Oh,
ay! you have come from England; that's a pretty considerable
way, as I have heard my father say." " When did your father
come to this country?" " Fifty years ago." He then asked me
the rate at which agricultural labor was paid in England. I told
him as correctly as I could the rate in Scotland. He continued,
" Well, I hire by the month to do farm-work with Mr. Fabian
(the innkeeper) , but I get more money than that; but when I go
to buy clothes and shoes, and other articles that I want, I guess
that my money does not go so far as it would do in England, and
that when we come to the point, how much we have in hand at
the end of the year, the difference is pretty considerably less
than one would at first suppose, and yet that is the main thing
for a poor man to look to." I told him that he was right in
supposing that most articles produced by labor were cheaper in
England than in the United States. " But," said he, " they teU
me that if a poor man become sick in England, nobody will
attend to him." I explained to him that this was a mistake,
and described the hospitals and dispensaries. I added that the
greatest difference lay in this — that in England a man was some
times able and wiUing to labor, and could get no employment;
but here there was work always. " Yes," said he, " that makes
a great difference; men are scarce here."
I spoke to him of the pranks performed by a tame bear at the
inn. " On the White Mountains," said he, " I was leading my
littie brother, three years of age, by the hand, when I saw two
young bear cubs run up a tree. I pursued them, and caught hold
of one. It cried out, and its mother appeared. My little brother
was now in danger. I took off my coat, and tied it by the
sleeves round the branch on which the young bear sat. I de
scended, got a thick stick, and commenced an attack on the
mother. She retreated before me. I foUowed her for a mile,
leading my brother aU the way, and then left him at a cottage.
1 returned to the tree. My stratagem had taken effect. The
young bear had been afraid of the coat, and had not attempted to
escape. I climbed up the tree, seized it, and carried it off. The
mother had now returned, and its cries brought her to its rescue;
but I showed a bold face with my stick, and she did not attack
me, but hung upon my footsteps. I proceeded to the cottage
and got assistance. We used the young bear as a decoy, and
captured the mother also." These are smaU, dark-colored
bears, and not very formidable.
I have introduced this conversation as a fair specimen of the
intelligence, enterprise, and resources of the American laboring
people. There was no rudeness or presumption in the manner

PORTLAND IN M-4.INE. 93
in which this young man put his questions to me. The pre
dominant motive was obviously the desire of information. He
lived in an inquiring age, and acted in its spirit. At the same
time he was quite at ease, as aU the Americans are in their inter
course with strangers.
Mosquitoes. — After the summer heat fairly sets in, the plea
sures of American scenery are greatly marred by the torment of
mosquitoes. At the White Mountains, they are really a very
formidable evil. Abroad, they assail one in thousands, and
sting by every crevice through which the skin can be reached:
in the house the nuisance is not abated; and even at night, the
only alternatives are to close the doors and windows and shut
out, both them and the fresh air, or to be stung unmercifully.
Around the inn, fires of green wood were lighted to scare them
away by the smoke; but wjth little effect. WhUe suffering under
this affliction, we read the following story in the New York
Sun, and sympathised very sincerely with the unfortunate hero
of it." A correspondent writes us, concerning the mosquitoes of
Michigan, that a man who lived near Grand River, being in the
woods, was exceedingly annoyed by mosquitoes, and took shel
ter under an inverted potash ketfle. His first emotions of joy
for his happy deliverance and secure asylum were hardly over,
when the mosquitoes, having scented him, began to drive their
probosces through the kettle; fortunately he had a hammer in
his pocket, and he clenched them down as fast as they came
through, until at last such a host of them were fastened to the
poor man's domicile, that they rose and flew away with it, leav
ing him shelterless!!"
July 15. Ther. 62°. 16. Ther. 62°. 17. Ther. 64°. 18.
Ther. 68°. 19. Ther. 72°. 20. Ther. 72°. 31. Ther. 68°.
Portland in Maine. — We left the White Mountains on the
16th of July, and descended through the " Notch," a highly ro
mantic) JDass made by a narrow cleft in the mountains. In many
parts its features are grand and awful, rising almost to the sub
lime. After a few mfles of rapid declivity, the vafley opens,
and the mountains diminish in height. The scenery, howev r,
continues very beautiful. We reached Conway, 36 raUes dis
tant, at half-past 7 P. M. We found a pleasant clean inn and
attentive host. On the 17th we drove to Portiand in Maine, 55
mUes, through a genfly undulating country, muc]i of it still un-
setfled, and the crops so late that bariey is only now coming
into the ear, and oats are stiU less advanced.' Very little wheat
is sown. In the valley of the Connecticut we saw numerous
maple trees, each with a littie trough standing at its root, into
which their sap is received for the purpose of making sugar; but
VOL. II. — 8

94 PORTLAND IN MAINE.
we have seen few or none in Maine. Wild strawberries and
wild raspberries everywhere abound, and occasionally dishes of
them are presented at table in the inns. Portland is a beautiful
town of 16,0t)0 inhabitants, lying in a fine bay; it owns a great
number of vessels, which are chartered out to merchants in most
parts of the Union, and make voyages all over the globe. Its
own commerce is not extensive; but so many of these vessels
arrive for orders and- repairs, that its harbor presents an array of
ships, unexpected both in numbers and tonnage.
We drove to Cape Cottage, on Casco Bay, where we enjoyed
sea breezes and beautiful scenery for eight of the hottest weeks
of the season.

95

CHAPTER IV.
Cape Cottage— John Quincy Adams and Negro Slavery — Rammohun Roy
— The Mosquitoes — Public Affairs— The Firemen — The American Press
— Owner's Rights iu a Pew — A School for Good Little Boys — Riots at
Harrisburg — The Massachusetts Fifteen-Gallon Law — Temperance —
Education — De Toequeville's " Democracy in America" — Libraries in
Steam-boats — Maine Loan — Election of Judges — Long Island Pauper
Schools — Puseyism in New York — The Church of Scotland and Educa
tion — Supply of Ice to Calcutta — New York City Humane and Criminal
Institutions — Mercantile Honor in New York — Law as to Challenges —
The Commonwealth v. Caleb Whitehead, before Judge Todd and Jury,
15th August 1839 — A Storm — Captain Marryatt's Diary — Aurora Bore-
alis — Sunday — The Amistad Schopner — Dr. Sewall the Anti-Phrenolo
gist — Dr. Channing and tlie Edinburgh Review. 1839.
July 1 8. Cape Cottage. — Ever since we left New York, we
have been looking for some calm and cool retreat in Which to
spend the remainder of the summer. We happened to take up
a Portland newspaper which contained an advertisement of the
accommodations and agrements presented by Cape Cottage,
situated in the neighborhood of this town, and they seemed to
be so exactly what we wanted, that we have come hither to in
spect them. To our great joy, they even exceed the description,
and are in every respect to our mind. We have, therefore,
engaged apartments here for several weeks.
John Quincy Adams and Negro Slavery. — Mr. Adams has
addressed a Letter to the Anti-Slavery Petitioners, which has
been published. He says that " the Declaration of Independence
derives all the just power of government from the consent of the
governed;" and that as " it is certain that a great majority of the
inhabitants of the District of Columbia are utterly averse to the
abolition of slavery among them," it follows that "the immedi
ate abolition of slavery by congress cannot possibly be effected
with justice to the inhabitants of the district." At first sight
this argument appeared to me to be reasonable, but on a rigid
scrutiny, it wiU be found to contain a fallacy. Mr. Adams as
sumes the slaves to be mere chattels, and the.white inhabitants
of the district alone to be men. The maxim embodied in the
Declaration of Independence is just and true, and when it is
fairly applied, the conclusion will always harmonize with reason.

96

rammohun ROY.

Thus — no "just power of government" can exist " without the
consent of the governed." Slavery is a form of government.
The slaves have never consented to it: It is therefore unjust, and
ought to be abolished. Congress has power to legislate for the
inhabitants of the District of Columbia in matters which meet
their own approval. The slaves are the inhabitants whose rights
are in question, and they consent to immediate emancipation.
Therefore, according to the principles of the Declaration of In
dependence, slavery in the district may lawfully be abolished by
Congress. Rammohun Roy. — This individual presents an interesting
object of study to the phrenologist. We possess an authentic
cast of his head taken after his death in England; and it is dis
tinguished from the heads of his countrymen (of whose skulls
the Phrenological Society in Edinburgh has upwards of fifty
specimens) in the following particulars. It is considerably
larger; and the development of the moral and intellectual organs
in particular is decidedly superior to that which is presented by
any other Hindoo skull in the collection. Causality, and also
Benevolence, Firmness, and Conscientiousness, are large and
far above their average size in Hindoo heads.*
The accompanying figure is drawn from the cast.

I have unexpectedly met with a clear, condensed, and authen-
* The 40th Number of the Phrenological Journal (vol. viii, p. 577) con
tains an article " On the life, character, opinions, and cerebral development
of Rajah Rammohun Roy."

RAMMOHUN ROY. 97
tic account of his moral and intellectual qualities, which I now
present to the reader.
Rammohun Roy having been assafled in " Travels in South-
Eastern Asia, &c., by Ho-w>ard Malcolm," has been defended
by William Adam, formerly missionary in Bengal, in the Chris
tian Examiner and General Review for July, 1839, pubUshed
in Boston. Mr. Adam says that Rammohun Roy " promoted
the establishment of the Hindoo CoUege by the wealthy Hindoos
of Calcutta, at the suggestion of European gentlemen, by re
maining silent and inactive at a time when the prejudice against
him ran very high among his countrymen, and when he was
assured by his European friends that his interference and sup
port would prove more hurtful than salutary, by alarming the
jealousy and calling into activity the bigotry and intolerance of
his opponents. He gave valuable suggestions to Lord Amherst,
the governor-general, when the Go-yernment Sanscrit CoUege
was about to be established. He pointed out the comparative
worthlessness of much of what is called Hindoo learning, and
the value and importance of the pure and useful science of
Europe to his countrymen. Subsequently, he buflt expensive
school-rooms, and established a school at his own cost, for the
rnore useful branches of native learning, the English language,
and its science and literature. The latter department only went
into operation. He gave his cordial and zealous support to Mr.
Duff in the establishment of the institution in Calcutta con
nected with the General Assembly of the Church of Scofland
for the promotion of native education. He encouraged a wealthy
friend and adherent to establish a large English school on his
estate in one of the interior districts of Bengal, and to place it
under the superintendence of the General Assembly's missiona
ries. To Lord William Bentinck, governor-general of India,
in the first place, and in the highest sense, must be ascribed the
honor of abolishing the practice of Hindoo widows burning
themselves on their husband's funeral piles; but next to him it
belongs to Rammohun Roy. Previous to the act of abolition,
from 300 to 400 widows were burned annually. Long before
this period Rammohun Roy had endeavored to awaken the at
tention of government and of the European community to the
monstrous evil. He wrote pamphlets in English and Bengalee
proving that it was not an essential doctrine of the Hindoo re
ligion. He also exposed the modern abuses of the rite, the ap
plication of stupifying drugs and force to prevent them from
escaping from the pile. With little aid from others, amid many
discouragements, he pursued his course, and lived to see the
prohibition enacted as a law.
" Born a Hindoo of the Hindoos, as Paul wafe a Hebrew of

98 PUBLIC AFFAIRS.
the Hebrews, he had every inducement to acquiesce in the sys
tem of religion which, by divine right, gave him so distinguish
ed and privUeged a place; but in early life he freed himself from
the shackles of idolatry, and opened his mind to the grand and
elevating idea of the Universal Father, which he retained with
firm conviction to his latest breath. Nor was this a barren con
viction. His mind expanded in benevolence towards all his
brethren of mankind, and his life was spent in their service.
With an original capacity for metaphysical reasoning, refined
and strengthened by cultivation in the school of Hindoo logic,
he employed his profound and various learning to attack the
complicated system of Hindoo idolatry, which, in Calcutta, we
consider that he chiefly has contributed to shake to its founda
tions, although the time is probably yet far distant when it will
¦wholly disappear from even a single city of India. In this con
troversy even Christian missionaries have been glad to avaU
themselves of the resources brought into use by his acute mind,
and to borrow arrows from his quiver without acknowledgment.
He labored, as we have shown, in the cause of education. He
labored to protect the rights, and to save the lives of Hindoo
widows. He took a deep interest in every political movement
throughout the civilised world favorable to civil and political
liberty. He labored in conversation, and by writing, through
the medium of the press, and by evidence given before parlia
mentary committees during his residence in England, to give a
right direction to the measures then in progress for the future
government of British India. In his whole career we see the
good as well as the great man, the patriot and philanthropist as
well as the phflosopher; and the effect of such a career, and of
such an example, is not to be measured iu the narrow spirit of
sectarianism, inspired by those who opposed and counteracted
him in life, and who now, since the grave has closed over him,
would depreciate and misrepresent his labors." P.- 400.
The Mosquitoes. — I am now blind in one eye, and lame in
both feet, from mosquito bites. We rise at five o'clock in the
morning, and see the sun ascend in beautiful majesty from the
Atiantic Ocean, which is spread beneath our windows. We
brealifast at seven, dine at one, drink tea at six, ^nd go to bed
at nine o'clock. My time is spent in preparing the MS. of my
lectures on Moral PhUosophy for the press, in reading, and in
maintaining correspondence with my friends in Europe and the
United States. But for the mosquitoes, this place would be a
paradise of beauty and delight.
July 29. Ther. 66°. Public Affairs.— The remarks made
on 25th May, see pp. 55-6, are already verified. The Great
Western has arrived from England, and brings the foUowing in-

THE OWNER S RIGHTS IN A PEW. 99
telligence. The drain on the Bank of England for gold to pay
for grain imported from the continent of Europe has proceeded
steadUy for several months, until, at last, the bank, in order to
contract its circulation and recall the specie, has raised the rate
of interest on bflls discounted to 55 per cent. This has led to
a contraction of discounts by the country banks in England.
Commerce and manufactures are embarrassed, and the prices of
commodities are rapidly falling. From this and other causes,
the demand for cotton has greatly decreased, and the prices have
given way. The fall in this article not only gives a severe blow
to the American cotton speculators, but is seriously affecting the
interests of the whole Union. The very large quantity of goods
lately imported from Europe into the United States must be paid
for by means of sales, in the French and English markets, of
cotton, flour, or public securities. Flour has become depressed
in consequence of the expectation at present entertained of a
good crop in England; cotton also has decreased in value; and
American securities have hecome unsaleable in consequence of
the great scarcity of money in Britain, and the embarrassments
which are anticipated to ensue from these combined causes.
The rate of exchange is turning rapidly against the United
States, which increases the amount of their debts to England;
and a general crisis is expected.
The Firemen. — "The Pennsylvanian" of 22d June contains
a letter from "A Father," pointing out, in forcible terms, the
great evils occasioned to the morals and habits of young men
by the " infatuation of fire engines." He says that all his ap
prentices who did not join fire companies did well in business;
but that those who did join them, to the number of thirty-one,
generally became unsteady and went to ruin.
The American Press. — The New York Evening Post, speak
ing of the personalities which not uufrequently disgrace the
columns of the American press, remarks: " The Philadelphia
newspaper press is certainly superior to ours in the general de
cency with which it is conducted, and we have no doubt that
the general reputation of its conductors is proportionably higher
in the community." In so far as my means of observation ex
tend, I fully concur in the remarks of the Evening Post. The
press of Philadelphia in its editorial articles, appeared to me to
stand in a creditable position in regard equally to morals, know
ledge, and literary attainments.
The Oivner's Rights in a Pew. — I have already, in page 42,
mentioned, that when an American church is buUt, the pews
are generally sold by public auction, and that each purchaser
becomes absolute proprietor of his pew. Several questions have
been tried in the courts of law regarding the nature of the right

100 A SCHOOL FOR GOOD LITTLE BOYS.
acquired by the purchaser. It has been decided, that a pew is
real estate, and is governed by the laws relating to that species
of property. The control of it does not he with the majority of
the pew-holders. They can determine as to the management
of the building, and impose assessments, in' certain cases, for
keeping it in repair; but they cannot prescribe to the owner the
manner in which he shaU use his pew. A proprietor in a
church became dissatisfied with the minister, boarded over his
pew, and threatened, if the minister did not resign, to keep pigs
in it. He was rich and self-wUled, and would have executed
his threat. The minister resigned. The remedy would have
been found in an action for abatement of nuisance, at the in
stance of the, conterminous proprietors. Another pew-owner in
the most fashionable part of a church was offended with his
neighbors, and let his pew to a famUy of negroes, on condition
that they should possess it. They did so, and the other pro
prietors, finding there was no-remedy for this in law, bought up
his right at a very high price. The Boston Times reports the
following case, which has recently occurred: — " On the 4th of
July last, Mr. James Jackson of Middleborough nailed up his
pew in church at that place, and covered it over with boards,
painted over with red ochre, in order, as he said, to prevent its
being used for the dissemination of locofocoism, by Mr. Hallet,.
then editor of the Boston Advocate. Some of the town's people
broke into the pew and used it, in consequence of which the
owner sued the trespassers, and recovered nominal damages of
one cent, he having expressly stated, that he desired nothing
more than a verdict to establish his right of property." A gene
ral law should be enacted to restrain the right of property in
pews within the limits of decency^and common sense. (a)
A School for Good Little Boys. — The foUowing advertise
ment struck me as curious, from the contrast which it presents
to the treatment of children in Scofland forty years ago. When
I entered the High School of Edinburgh, the worthy preceptor,
Mr. Luke Eraser, could scarcely be said to teach. He pre
scribed to us lessons to be learned, and if we did not repeat
them, he flogged us heartily. Such an essential element did the
flogging constitute in our education, that when the pupUs of the
high school of those days meet, they stUl ask each other, under
what teacher did you " suffer?" It is refreshing to see so vast
an improvement in the treatment of youth as ti:iis advertisement
bespeaks: —
(a-) We cannot pretend to say that the odd fashion of using one's pew,
as described in the text, is a Yankee notion; but it may with truth be said,
that such an exhibition of a man's right of property has rarely if ever
been witnessed in more southern parts.

RIOTS AT HARRISBURG. 101
"Juvenile Boarding School — For small boys, at the six-
milestone, Bloomingdale (Ninth street), New York. It is lo
cated on Dr. V. Mott's beautiful mansion-grounds, with exten
sive privileges. There is a bathing-room in the house; or the
boys can bathe in the river, and be taught to swim by a compe
tent person. The premises furnish an abundance of the finest
fruits, cherries, currants, raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries,
apples, pears, &c. In addition, the boys are furnished with a
fine stock of i-abbits, Guinea pigs, pigeons, turtles, hens, &c.
The best instruction is provided, and the maternal superinten
dence is not surpassed. The house having been found too
small, a handsome addition and many iniprovements have just
been made, in order to accommodate a few more boys."
Riots at Harrisburg. — In vol. i, page 177, 1 gave an account
of the riots at Harrisburg in December, 1838. An investigation
by a committee of the legislature of Pennsylvania into the
causes of that disturbance has since taken place, and the report
has been published. Charles Houston, one of the judges of the
supreme court, has sworn, that, before the riots, he received a
letter from a person, who, he believes, is a whig or antimason,
soliciting his opinion on fifteen propositions, one of -which was,
" If objections were made to the election of the governor, who
would be governor, and how long the dispute could be made to
continue? and whether objections could not be made by one
county after another, and thus be made to last the whole three
years? I think this was subdivided into seven different shapes.
There were other questions in relation to the new constitution
which I cannot now remember: one question was, what con
dition Pennsylvania would be in during the contest, -whether
she would be under the old or the new constitution? I wrote
to him, that a portion of his questions were such as I was very
sorry that any person for whom I have had any respect, or who
wished me to have any respect for him, should put; and that
no person, who had any regard for law or order, eyer should
put any such questions. His other questions related to matters
that might arise under the new constitution, and I therefore de
clined answering them. I tmderstood the letter to mean a teas
ing opposition to the inauguration of Governor Porter and the
proclamation made of the new constitution." This letter (which
the judge had burned after reading it) may have been the act of
only one individual, and his party may not be answerable for
it; but the friends of free institutions must deeply lament the
existence of such principles of action in Pennsylvania. Every
perversion of the law, and every fraud committed on it, in a
country where the people have full powers to remove all griev
ances by constitutional means, is high treason against the state.

103 TEMPERANCE.
In countries where the laws are enacted by one class, and
brought to operate injuriously on another, legal chicanery in
self-defence may meet with some apology; but in the United
States it is utterly indefensible. The extensive prevalence of
such a spirit as that which actuated the writer of the letter in
question, would undoubtedly introduce a despotism of armed
force. The Massachusetts Fifteen Gallon Law. — A regular legal
opposition to this law is proceeding in the courts at Boston.
The rum-dealers continue openly to retail rum in small quantities
in defiance of the statute; they are prosecuted by the attorney-
general before the municipal court, and fined; they refuse to
pay, and are committed to prison amidst large assemblages of
people, and breaches of the peace are dreaded. After the con
demnation of George C. Jacobs to pay a fine of $10 and costs,
he was allowed to go at large on a bond for his reappearance
on a future day, and the mob moved towards the store of a gen
tleman who had, on a previous occasion, acted as complainant and
witness against a rum-seller, with the obvious design of destroy
ing his property*.
" But the mayor, the marshal, and the sheriff were on the
spot, and exerted themselves to preserve order. Many active
police-ofiicers mingled among the crowd, and when a person
was particularly disorderly, he was seized and conveyed to the
watchhouse. A number of disorderly persons were thus taken
away, which had the effect of preventing the ebullition of passion
which many anticipated. There was, however, a good deal of
noise, cheers, and hurras, and it was obvious that nothing but
the presence of- a strong civfl force, and the knowledge tiiat the
mUitary would appear immediately if called upon, prevented
scenes of riot." — Mercantile Journal.
Temperance. — The late report of the New York City Tempe
rance Society states that the number of licensed liquor shops in
that city in 1828 was 3162; in 1838, with a much increased
population, 2507.
There were in the State of New York alone, in 1825, 1129
distilleries; the number is now reduced to about 200. In 1837,
there were in operation in the city of New York and vicinity 17
large grain distiUeries; now there are but nine. In 1837,
32,680,000, 27-100 gaUons of first proof domestic spirits were
inspected in this city; and in 1838, 18,049,000 88-100 gallons,
being 14,633,000 gaUons less the last than in the preceding year,
or a faUing off of more than 33 per cent., and greater than double
the decrease of any previous year.
In the importations of distilled liquor into the port of New
York the last year, there was also a decrease of 25 per cent.

DE TOCQUEVILLe's "DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA." 103
And it is. worthy of notice, that, according to the latest returns
of the Secretary of the Treasury, in 1837, there was a decrease
of 1,285,084 gallons of wine, as compared with the importations
of 1836.— -/tme 1839.
Education. — The American newspapers report that the
House of Commons lately passed, by a majority of two, a grant
of 30,000/. for the purposes of education, but that the Lords
threw out the measure; and that the bishops and peers waited
on the Queen, and presented an address remonstrating against
the appropriation of some other moneys granted for educational
puiposes, because it was to be bestowed by the Privy Council
for the benefit of all sects. It is further mentioned that, in the
month of June last. Lord John Russell, in his place in the House
of Commons, announced " that government had abandoned the
plan of National Education which it had intended to introduce
(normal schools). So much clamor had been raised against it,
and such great and persevering efforts had been made to excite
an adverse feeling to it throughout the country, that it would be
unadvisable to proceed farther with it." In the course of my
travels in the United States, and also in letters, I have frequently
been asked what this means. To the Ameiicans it appears al
together incomprehensible. I cannot at present explain it.
Aug. 5. Ther. 61°. De Toequeville's "Democracy in
America." — Before leaving Scotiand I had perused this work
with much interest and instruction, and I have now completed a
second reading of the American edition, with notes by John C.
Spencer, Esq., Secretary of State for New York, appended to
it in correction and- elucidation of the text. After having lived
nearly a year under the institutions of which it treats^ I perceive
its merits stiU more clearly than before. I have heard lawyers,
politicians, phflosophers, and inteUigent men of every class,
commend this work as the most correct and profound that has
been written by any foreigner on the United States, .and in this
opinion I fully concur. M. De Toequeville's powers of observa
tion are admirable; his accuracy is astonishing (for Mr. Spencer's
notes do not convict him of any fundamental errors affecting the
general value of the work); his talent for analysis is great; whUe
his depth and comprehensiveness place him in the first class of
phUosophical thinkers. Add to these great qualities an inflexible
honesty that turns neither to the right hand nor to the left, and
that never slumbers, but presides equally over his statements of
fact, his estimates of manners, and his logical deductions. He
certainly has no equal among the authors who have written on
the United States. Those who desire to understand the theory and
practice of the American institutions, and even the existing man
ners, need go to no other source. The only point in which I

104 LIBRARIES IN STEAMBOATS.
perceive a deficiency is a want of a phUosophy of mind that
might have enabled" him to penetrate more clearly into the fu
ture. In the United States a vast moral experiment is in pro
gress. He perceives its magnitude and importance, and the
embarrassments with which it is beset; but he does not equally
well appreciate the relation in which the phenomena stand to the
human- faculties, or divine their ultimate effect on American
civilisation. The reader rises from the perusal of his work em
barrassed by fears and doubts. It appears to me that phrenology
enables us to dispel much darkness from the horizon, and to
view the future progress of the United States in a more favorable
light than that in which it is regarded in his pages.
He censures American manners and institutions with nearly as
much severity as many English writers whose works have been
heai'tfly abused by the American press, yet his book is spoken
of with uniform respect. Two reasons may be assigned for this
difference of treatment. First, His candor disarms resentment.
Every honest mind perceives that he is actuated by the love of
truth alone, and that, if facts be disagreeable, he is not answer
able for their effects. Secondly, His work is philosophical, and
is not generaUy read by the American people. It is not neces
sary, therefore, for the press to abuse it in order to gratify the
public taste.
Captain Marryat's "Diary" has just appeared, and the Ame
rican newspapers are busy abusing him: Mrs. TroUope, Captain
Hamflton, Captain BasU HaU, Mrs. Butier, and Miss Martineau,
all come in for a fresh vituperation. The Portiand Advertiser,
hoVvever, praises De Tocqueville, and blames the Americans for
not reading his work. It strikes me that many of the provincial
American newspapers abuse Captain Marryat without having
¦even seen his work. The New York newspapers quoted it on
its first appearance in that city, and poured forth torrents of in
vective, against it. As soon as these papers reached the distant
states, the press of every hamlet produced an.original criticism of
the work, condenlning it without measure and without mercy.
From what I have learned regarding the slow circulation of books
into distant parts, I am led strongly to suspect that in many in
stances these discourses were founded solely on the New York
texts and materials; and that the principle is boldly acted on that
it is a safe rule to condemn every work which speaks dispara
gingly of the United States, without inquiring very minutely into
either its merits or details.
Libraries in Steamboats.— Almost every English and Scotch,
and probably Irish steamboat, has a library for the use of the
passengers, free. I have never seen a library at all in an Ame
rican steamboat except in the " Whitehall" on Lake Champlain,

LONG ISLAND PAUPER SCHOOLS. 105
and the terms of reading were a deposit of $2, and payment of
125 cents for the use of each volume. I saw nobody using the
library on these terms.
Aug. 13. Ther. 61°. Maine Loan. — I mentioned in p. 41,
that the legislature of Maine had voted $800,000 to defend the
disputed territory against England, and that the treasurer of the
state had applied in NevV- York for the money without success.
He is now advertising for loans on state bonds for $1000 (200/.
sterling,) bearing interest at six per cent;, and redeemalsle in
four, six, or eight years, in the option of the lender. He men
tions several banks where his bonds may be obtained. There
seems no great risk of Maine raising a large army when her
finances are so circumscribed. It is probably a fortunate cir
cumstance for this young, but prosperous ' and rising state, that
the commercial difliculties of the present crisis have prevented
her from engulfing herself in debt. Her efforts never could
have settled the boundary question, and she is wise to entrust
her interests to the government of the United States.
Election of Judges.' — In March 1839, a resolution passed
both houses of the legislature of Maine, by a vote of two-thirds
of the members, agreeing to an amendment of the constitution.
The amendment proposed is,
" That all judicial ofiicers., now in ofllce, or who may here
after be appointed, shall, from and after the first day of March,
in the year eighteen hundred and forty, hold their offices for the
term of seven years from the time of their respective appoint
ments (unless sooner removed by impeachment, or by address
of both branches of the legislature to the executive) and no
longer, unless appointed thereto.
" Resolved, That the inhabitants of said towns, plantations,
and cities shall vote by ballot upon said questions; those in
favor of said amendment expressing by the word Yes, upon
their ballots, and those opposed to the amendment expressing it
by the word No, upon their ballots."
The newspapers contain official notices to the voters to de
clare their opinions on the point on the second Monday in Sep
tember.* Long Island Pauper Schools. — In vol. i, p. 140, I adverted
to the defective accommodation provided for the pauper children
in the Long Island schools. It is gratifying to perceive the
promptitude, with which evils are remedied in the United States.
I perceive that on 17th August, the grand jury for the city of
* The amendment was adopted by the people, and the judges are now
elected only for seven years.

106 PUSEYISM IN, NEW YORK.
New York, among other matters demanding improvement, caUed
attention to these schools.
" The ' nurseries' at the Long Island farm contain 516 boys,
172 girls, 12 men, and 76 women— total, 776. The buildings
at the farm are deemed, by the grand inquest, both insufficient
and unsuitable to accommodate the large number of chUdren
coUected there.
" They would recommend that suitable fire-proof buUdings
be erected on RandaU's Island (belonging to the corporation)
when practicable, and that this establishment be removed there.
" They regret that cases of ophthalmia still oxist among the
chUdren, and would recommend that an entire separation, in a
distinct buUding, and at a proper distance, should take place of
the persons afflicted with this disease, and that promjit mea
sures be taken to eradicate it if possible. They believe that
motives of humanity toward the children and those connected
with the establishment as physicians and nurses, as weU as
economy, call for this arrangement."
August 15. Ther. 55°. Puseyism in Neiu York. — The
New York Review is the organ of thfe Episcopalians of that
city, and it follows closely in the footsteps of the church of
England. The 19th number contains a long and elaborate de
fence of the Oxford "Tracts for the Times," " On Baptism,"
" The Holy Communion," " Who has authority to administer
the Sacraments?" " The kind of prayers that may be offered
for the dead," and " The authority of tradition as a guide in
religious faith and practice." The reviewer defends the tracts
in all points except with regard to prayers for the dead. The
perusal of this disquisition is like reading a collection of trea
tises of the middle ages, written by the schoolmen. The views
which it defends are sadly out of place in the United States.
The Review itself is fruitlessly laboring to introduce into Ame
rica the sentiments and ideas which the progress of knowledge
is expelling from Great Britain.
In an article in the same number on Thomas Carlyle's His
tory of the French Revolution (which it commends), the re
viewer observes, that " we see among all (Americans) of every
political creed, and every religious faith, a disposition to bring
the universe of thought, sentiment, and feeling to the touch
stone of the understanding. We are sadly afraid of mysteries."
* * * , " The higher powers shrink and wither in the shal
low sofl of man's wisdom and the phUosophy of the under
standing." " The land in which the mass rules is not the free
land; that is the home of freedom where the truth rules."*
* This obviously means, — where the theological opinions of the re-

PUSEYTSM IN NEW YORK. 107
* • » 11 The French revolution wrote upon our earth in
letters of blood and fire, that as it is with the individual, so is it
with the nation; that to trust in the wisdom of man, to rely upon
the understanding of man, to leave the mysterious and cling to
the intelligible only, to give up faith and confide in sight only,
to substitute the love of happiness for the sense of duty, and
the equality of the whole for the Christian brotherhood of the
whole, — is to take the sure way to crime and disappointment,
and slavery and self-reproach." P. 135.
The French Revolution taught a lesson the very opposite of
that which is here ascribed to it. For centuries before that
event, the Roman Catholic clergy had fed the minds of the com
mon people of France with " mysteries," and taught them to
give up the " wisdom of man," and to cling to the unintelligible.
The people under their guidance had carefully shunned " the
philosophy of the understanding," and yielded in all things to
their priests. It is true that before the revolution, the philoso
phers of France had thrown off this yoke; but the people at large
had not done so. That event found them still in the profound
ignorance into which they had been allowed by the clergy to
faU; and what were the consequences? It was not the emanci
pated philosophers who perpetrated the horrors of that tragedy;
but the common people; the rude, ignorant, uninstructed mass;
the men who, with their ancestors, had for centuries been left to
the sole guidance of the priests, and who by them, for their own
ease and aggrandisement, had been kept in grovelling ignorance
and disgraceful superstition.
The reviewer observes, " We (the American people) are not
safe from those causes which we suppose to have given its
dreadful character to the French Revolution." " This cause
was the want of reverence. In feudal times, reverence was uni
versal, except, perhaps, among a few of the best informed.
As the world has grown older, the veneration for things for
merly venerated has disappeared, because too often acquaint
ance has proved them to be undeserving; and, whUe the old
objects have ceased to be venerated, new objects deserving
reverence, have not been brought before us." These are
sensible remarks, but who would have expected to see a
writer who could state them so clearly, proposing Puseyism as
viewer rule. The remarks in the text remind me of an argument stated
by one of the established clergymen of Glasgow, at a church extension
meeting. It was the duty, he said, of the civil magistrate to endow the
true religion, " It is asked, how is he to know which is the true religion?
I answer, we are the teachers of the truth." The sentiment was addressed
to his own flock, who loudly applauded this clear and satisfactory solution
of the difficulty! The partisans of every other sect would have done the

108 PUSEYISM IN NEW YORK.
a new object deserving to be venerated! " In addition to this,"
he continues, " the success which attended analysis and logic, as
applied to matter, and many old prejudices and habits, has given
us an undue faith in these processes; and men incline to trust and
rely upon no truths save those reached through logic and analy
sis." This remark is not equally sound with that which pre
ceded it. Correcfly stated, the proposition should stand ¦ thus:
Men decline to receive any doctrine as truth which directly con
tradicts logic and analysis; and hence they reject Puseyism and
its consequences.
The reviewer proceeds: " In the United States, all favors the
growth of confidence in the intelligible only; of reliance upon the
tangible, the useful, the comprehensible. Efforts have been
made from time to time to introduce among us more faith and
reverence, and if we are not mistaken, there is reason to think
there is- a philosophy now in progress that will help to sustain
these efforts;* but as yet the favorers of revetence are few and
scattered, separated by religious, or political, or social differ
ences,^ — and the want of respect and veneration presents daily
greater and greater dangers. Children do not reverence their
parents, chiefly because these parents reverence nothing them
selves. How can a father hope to be respected, who never ex
presses, by word or act, respect for his fellow-men or his Maker?
Independence is, in our land, mistaken for freedom." P. 133.
He Accuses Jefferson of having been tinctured with French prin
ciples, and concludes thus: "We do think our country, then, in
danger of becoming irreverent, religious, and sensual, rather than
spiritual." The facts here stated, in regard to the present condition of the
American mind, are to a considerable extent true; but the remedy
proposed of introducing Puseyism and the "mysterious" is
preposterous. By tracing the cause of the evil we may arrive
at a more rational perception of a remedy. The following
views are offered with all deference to the reviewer's opinions.
At the time of the American Revolution the Federal leaders
were men of great talent, honor, and integrity; but they had
been educated in the monarchical principles of England. The
people, even after they became republicans, continued to feel
that respect for wealth and rank which their English training
had impressed upon their minds, and they allowed the Federal
ists to rule. The Federalists, following the example of the
aristocracy and the clergy in England, did nothing to raise the
character and inteUigence of the people. In the progress of
time this generation died out, and a new generation appeared.
* I do not know to what" philosophy" the reviewer here alludes.

PUSEYISM IN NEW YORK. 109
They discovered their own power, and made efforts to wield it,
aud finaUy triumphed in the election of Jefferson to the presi
dential chair. While these events were taking place, neither the
new leaders of the people, nor the defeated Federalists, made
any adequate efforts to raise the standard of public intelligence.
They neither educated intellectually, nor trained morally the
people; but left them to their own efforts, and to those of the
clergy. After the peace of 1815, the Federal party was entirely
ruined. They descended from their high pretensions, yielded
up much of their leaven of aristocracy, and amalgamated with
the best of the Republicans, and then took the name of Whigs;
but StiU they did nothing effectually to educate the people.
After a few years, the wilder democrats, who had been extin
guished by this coalition, had the sagacity to discover that the
people might be flattered and seduced away from the Whigs,
and they came forth with democratical doctrines as far below the
amalgamated Whig creed, as this creed had been below the
Federal, (a) They triumphed in the election of General Jack
son, and StiU continue to hold power. The very foundation of
their victory was the want of reverence in the people for old
names, old doctrines, and old measures; but wUl Puseyism bring
them back to venerate these? Assuredly not. The error com
mitted has been in following, for too long a period, the pernicious
example of the church and aristocracy of England, — that of
neglecting to prepare the minds of the people by education, for
wielding with success the vast power which the American insti
tutions have committed to their hands.
It is true that the education of the people is now attracting
serious attention; but it is only recently that this has been the
case. The active generation at present on the stage is greatly
under-educated in reference to their political powers and their
duties, and fifty years from the present time must elapse before
the real effects of the American institutions can be fairly judged
of by their influence on an instructed generation. Even at this
day, notwithstanding all past experience, the conviction is not
general among the Whig party, that their only chance of retain
ing power (for they may gain it by accident for a time) lies in
raising the mental condition of the people up to that degree of
inteUigence which will enable them to understand the moral and
political principles on which the welfare of nations is founded,
and in training them to act in accordance with these. It is true
(a) Supposing the statement just made, of the dissolution and reforma
tion of parties, to be dorrect, there is still an error in time, as regards the
order and sequence. The coalition which made up the Whig party was
subsequent to and consequent on the success and measures of the other; and
not, as represented in the text, anterior to them.
VOL. II. — 9

110 PUSEYISM IN NEW YORK.
that even the purely selfish among the rich have discovered that
they, are in the hands of the masses, whose ignorance and ex-
citabUity alarm them- They are, therefore, at last seriously de
sirous to educate them for self-preservation, if from no higher
motive; just as they would desire to pare the claws of a wUd
beast that had unfortunately got into the drawing-room, and could
not be expelled; — ^but do not many of them stUl linger over the
condition of European society with regret, and lament in their
hearts that the people are their masters, and that they cannot do
without them?
So far from the attempt being successful to bring back the peo
ple to reverence the mere wealth of the rich, or to invest the
clergy with a mysterious sanctity, it will now only excite ridi
cule. The rich and the clergy must bring their own maxims
and pretensions " to the touchstone of the understanding;" they
must abandon " the mysteries" in so far as it relates to the
affairs of this world, and attend to that " wisdom" which God
has impressed on the material and moral world. It has been my
humble endeavor, in " The Constitution of Man," in my " Mo--
ral Philosophy," and in my lectures, to convince the people that
there are not two " wisdoms" relative to this world, human and
divine, but one wisdom, which is altogether of God — which is
written in the frame-work of the external universe, and in our
own bodies and minds, as well as in the Bible; and that unless
they study this wisdom, and act according to it, they cannot
prosper in this life. Their present want of reverence may be
traced to their deficiency in inteUectual education and moral
training. The present generation scarcely knows any wisdom
superior to its own; but the wisdom of God, when properly
taught to them, will render them at once reverential and inde
pendent. The impediments in the way of extending a sound and truly
valuable education to the people of America are very great.
The first step towards accomplishing this end must be to insti
tute normal schools for the instruction of the teachers, not only
in the proper subjects to be taught, but in the best modes of
teaching. The assertion that this is necessary, is resented by
nine out of every ten of the actual teachers as a personal insult;
and they find it no diflScult matter to induce the parents of the
chUdren to participate in their feelings. Again, many authors
and pubhshers are interested in the existing school-books; and
to say that some of them are Ul adapted for instruction, is to
affect the interests of their owners, and render these individuals
secret or declared enemies. There are numerous zealous, vigi
lant, and influential clergymen, each advocating pecuUar secta
rian views of Christianity; and to expound a principle in mental

THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND AND EDUCATION. Ill
philosophy or morals which threatens, even in the most remote
degree, to clash with their particular interpretations of Scrip
ture, excites their alarm and rouses their hostility. These
various interests send forth under-currents of discontent, which
wait only the occasion of some tangible act on the part of the
friends of education that may be plausibly condemned or suc
cessfully misrepresented, when they immediately combine and
form a powerful stream of public opposition to the best efforts
of the true friends of the people. The only means of removing
all these obstacles is the steadfast address of information and rea
son to the people, in a spirit which wiU bear in meekness a
thousand disappointments, and stUl persevere in the faith of ulti
mate success.
August 23. Therm. 60°. The Church of Scotland and
Education, — In Britain the cause of education has still greater
obstacles to contend with. The Edinburgh newspapers contain
a report of a meeting held in the Assembly Rooms of that city
on the 8th of July, at which the subject of national education
was discussed. The company were admitted by tickets, and
the Rev. Dr. Muir was called to the chair. The " Central
Society" for promoting education (which advocates a national
system of education universally applicable by avoiding sectarian
teaching), and the Evidence of Mr. James Simpson on that
subject, given before a Committee of the House of Commons,
were severely commented on. Dr. Muir is reported to have
said, that " what excited alarm in his mind, on the present
occasion, was the remarkable coincidence that had taken place
between the opinions of these philosophical educationists and
the projects of education which had been issued by the govern
ment." Mr. Balfour, the minister of Colinton, moved the first
resolution, " to the effect that the education of youth ought to
be vested in the ministers of the Established Church," which
was seconded by Mr. Johnston. Mr. John Wood, of the Ses
sional School, moved a resolution expressing thanks to God for
the " parochial school system, superintended by the parochial
minister, and in which the Bible was received as the basis of all
instruction." He declared his dissent from Mr. Simpson's
-views of education, and commented in " severe terms on the
monstrous consequences to which this would lead." Mr. S win-
ton of Inverleith Row moved that an address be presented to her
Majesty, and that petitions " be sent to both Houses of Parha-
ment deprecating the proposed measure" of government to esta
blish an educational system open to all sects. These resolutions
were adopted.
I introduce this subject to my American readers as a practical
example of the nature and mode of action of an Established

112 THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND AND EDUCATION.
Church. It is a single sect, endowed by the government, and
placed in possession of ecclesiastical power extending over the
whole kingdom, and professing articles of belief sanctioned by
act of Parliament. It is chained in its position by legal fetters.
Theology may gather newUghts from science — from profounder
erudition in the clergy, or from increasing civilisation in the peo
ple; but the law-enacted creed cannot admit one ray of light into
its dogmas. When the clergy of an established church see the
public mind advancing in knowledge, and in the practice of the
Christian virtues of mutual forbearance, justice, and benevolence,
they take the alarm for the safety of their own pretensions to
supremacy. They discover that, if the people should be edu
cated in useful knowledge,' and induced to practise that precept
of Christianity which teaches us to " love our neighbors as our
selves," their exclusive dominion would be wrested from them;
and they, therefore, leave no effort untried to secure to them
selves the education and training of the young, with a view to
bind them to their chariot wheels through life.
Since the reformation, the church has had the charge of the
education of the people both in England and Scotiand. On the
5th of July 1839, the Marquis of Lansdowne, in the House of
Lords, presented a graphic picture of the success with which the
church has discharged this duty in England. In Kent, said he,
the maniac Thorn had induced the people to receive him as one
of the Messrs Rothschild, the rich bankers; as the King of Jeru
salem; as the Earl of Devon; and lately in the sacred character
of the Saviour of mankind; " and in each of these characters he
was implicitly believed, and blindly followed, by the greater
proportipn of the whole population of three or four parishes."
" In two or three instances the most infatuated of his followers
were the very-masters and mistresses of the vUlage schools!
Kent was not singular in its ignorance. He believed that in his
own immediate neighborhood, in the west of England, it would
only require the appearance of another Thom to give rise to a
simUar exhibition of fanaticism."
If the common people had been invested with any degree of
political power, or had enjoyed any legal and constitutional
means by which they could have brought the evils of their igno
rance to bear on the enjoyments of the aristocracy and the clergy,
would they have been allowed to faU into such a state of mental
degradation? No! At present, they have no way of making
this ignorance influence the comforts of the rich, except by open
violations of the law, such as burning corn-stacks and other pro
perty. The chartists have lately destroyed houses and shops in
Birmingham to the value of 40,000/. sterling. For these of
fences they are imprisoned, banished, or executed; meanwhile

THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND AND EDUCATION. 113
the clergy and aristocracy continue to oppose the only practica
ble scheme of averting such catastrophes — that of universal edu
cation. In the United States, the ignorance of the masses ope
rates through the medium of the ballot-box, and it is filling the
wealthy with so much terror for their own safety, that they are
as ardently desirous to educate the people, as the majority of the
English peers and clergy are to prevent the accomplishment of
such an object. Can the Church of England then be safely
trusted with the education of the masses in future? Two reasons
forbid it. First, Two-fifths of the people are dissenters, and
the nation includes the whole; and, secondly, the spirit of the
Church of England is avowedly conservative of all corporate and
social privileges, and it is therefore hostile to the elevation of the
masses into that condition of intelligence and morality which
will render them fit to send representatives of their own feelings
and interests into the legislative assemblies of the country, and
thereby tO destroy all unjust advantages, enjoyed exclusively by
particular classes. No body of men should be intrusted with
national education, who do not conscientiously desire to advance
both the mental and physical condition of the people, without
regard to the consequences of their improvement on the privi
leges of those who are now their superiors. An enlightened
and moral people wUl grant justice to all, and no class has any
title to more.
In Scotland, the clergy have as litfle reason to boast of their
success in national education. Their folds also include only
three-fifths of the population, and they have therefore no right to
direct the education of the whole. Besides, it is confessed by
themselves that they shamefully neglected both the spiritual and
the temporal education of the people during seventy years of the
last century; and Dr. Chalmers lately proclaimed that the large
towns in particular of Scofland are overrun by " unexcavated
heathens." Dr. Spurzheim, when he last visited Scotland, re
marked that the Scotch appeared to him to be the most priest-
ridden nation in Europe; Spain and Portugal not excepted. After
having seen other countries, I can understand the force of this
observation. One of the disadvantages of Scotiand is her remote
situation, and the consequent limited intercourse of the majority
of her, people with foreign nations. She has grown up as a littie
world within herself. She tries her church, her clergy, her
schools, her opinions in general, by no standard but her own
cherished prepossessions; and she finds them perfect. In Pro
testant Germany, Switzerland, and the United States, the darker
features of Calvinism are softening. Scotiand clings to them
aU; and with perfect self-complaceiicy charges these other nations
with " backsliding" from the truth. This is precisely what the

114 SUPPLY OF ICE TO CALCUTTA.
Spaniards and Portuguese have long done in regard to their opi
nions, under the guidance of their priests. The clergy and
political partisans in Scofland take advantage of this tendency to
self-admiration, and by assuring the people that they are the most
orthodox Christians in the world, they rivet the chains of bigotry
and intolerance round the necks of the enthraUed listeners by
their own hands. In the United States, the system of education
which has caUed forth the petition from the church party in Ed
inburgh to the queen, has been in actual operation, and with the
best effect, for years. The state provides for all the people,
secular education and instruction in those moral departments of
Christianity in which all sects are agreed, and it leaves to parents
and pastors of every sect the duty of indoctrinating the young in
their own peculiar tenets. The state recognises no sect as wiser,
or better, or sounder than the others, but leaves the people to
judge of their merits, and to support them according to the dic
tates of their own consciences and understandifigs. The conse
quences are — extremely litfle religious animosity; churches sup
ported by voluntary zeal so numerous that in New England, aud
in the cities generally over the Union, there is one for every
thousand inhabitants; and a clergy so industrious that a large pro
portion of them actually sacrifice their health, and some their
lives in the discharge of their duties. The churches, moreover,
are far more handsome and comfortable in their accommodations,
and much better filled, than those of the establishment in Scot
land. Meanwhile the whole country is actively engaged in the
work of education. It is no wonder, then, that the people of the
United States look with astonishment at the proceedings of our
established clergy in regard to education, and that they sympa
thise with the working classes, when they complain of "the
great opposition given to a grant of 30,000/. for the education of
the poor, in contrast with the litfle opposition to a grant of
of 70,000/. for buUding a riding house for the queen."*
Supply of Ice to Calcutta. — American enterprise has led to
the regular supply of Calcutta with ice from the United States,
as an article of commerce. A gentleman of Boston, who owns
a ship of 400 tons employed in this trade, described to me the
process of loading the ship. In the month of February, the ice
is cut into square blocks and built regulariy up in the hold till it
is quite fufl. The interstices between the' blocks, and also the
sides and a few inches at the bottom of the vessel, are fiUed
with husks of rye, and the whole forms a compact mass. The
hatches are then closed, and the hold is rendered as nearly
* Address by the general convention of the working classes to the middle
classes.

LAW AS TO CHALLENGE. 115
air-tight as possible. About one-fourth of the whole quantity
shipped rnelts in the voyage. The moisture trickles down
and is pumped out with the bilge water; the remaining three-
fourths are delivered in Calcutta. The trade yields a fair
profit. The New York City Humane and Criminal Institutions. —
The female penitentiary at Belle vue contains 71 convicts. The
female penitentiary at Blackwell's Island contains 224. The
male penitentiary at the latter place contains 232 convicts. The
house of refuge contains 158 boys and 58 girls — total 216.
The lunatic asylum on Blackwell's Island contains 200 persons ¦
— 25 men and 105 women. There are in the almshouse at
Bellevue 2432 persons — 1167 natives of this country, and 1265
foreigners.* The city prison contains 128 — 95 men and 33
women — 16 of whom are in the debtors' department. The
" nurseries" at the Long Island farm contain 776 persons — 516
boys, 172 girls, 12 men and 76 women. — September. 1830.
Mercantile Honor in Neiv York. — " A dispute has been car
ried on in some of the papers as to the amount of mercantile
honor in New York. Our opinion is, that there are in New
York some of the biggest rascals that go unhanged. Besides
these, there are a good many litfle rascals, some of whom were
born here, but most of them received their education in other
places. Further, there are a great many very well behaved
genflemanly people engaged in trade." — NeiO York Journal of
Commerce, 20th July, 1839. This is an honest, and appa
renfly a very correct, statement of the case.
August 31. Ther. 51°. Law as to Challenge. — It has been
decided in Philadelphia that a challenge to fight with fists is an
indictable offence; in The Commonwealth v. Caleb Whitehead,
before Judge Todd and jury, 15th of August, 1839. The judge
remarked that this is not an indictable offence in England, and
* The almshouse is the refuge for the paupers of the city; and this
return confirms two facts which I adverted to in vol. i, page 242, namely,
that the aggregate number of paupers in the American cities is small com
pared with that in British cities, and that a large proportion of them are
foreisrners. In regard to the charge formerly alluded to, made against
the Managers of St. Cuthbert's charity workhouse in Edinburgh of ship.
pin? paupers to the United States, in order to free tliemselves from the
burden of maintaining them, 1 find that I understated their defence. Mr.
Johnston paid the agents at Liverpool for the ship "Chieftain" the " head.
money which is exacted from every individual going from Great Britain
to New York," for himself and his apprentices and servants. The captain
of the vessel neglected to report him and his people at New York on their
arrival, and to pay the " head-money," in consequence of which Mr. John
ston was carried before the Mayor, Mr. Clark, and fined in 500 dollarp,
and imprisoned because he was unable to pay or give bail for that sum.
This was regarded even in New York as an outrage on justice.

1 I 6 CAPTAIN MARRY-4T S DIARY.
that the pointhas never hitherto been decided in Pennsylvania,
but that, after hearing able pleadings by the counsel in the case;
he is of opinion that it is an indictable offence, and ruled accord
ingly. The jury returned a verdict of guUty.
A Storm. — Last night the wind increased to a heavy gale
from the north and northeast, accompanied by a tremendous
rain. Cape Cottage, a frame-house of three stories, clap-
boarded, vibrated to its foundations, and our bed shook beneath
us. The rain streamed through the roof, penetrated the room
above ours, and fell in large drops on our floor. The windows
leaked, and the wind roared through our apartments, as if they
had been Eolus's cave. The storm continues this day, and the
sea comes roUing. in from the Atiantic, in stupendous waves,
and breaks with terrific grandeur against the rugged cliffs that
skirt the shore.
Captain Marryat's Diary. — I have perused the American
reprint of this work. It is a special pleading against the Ameri
cans, and not an impartial judgment on their character and insti
tutions. His section on religion is a strange combination of
illogical ideas. He represents the multiplication of sects as fatal
to religion. This, however, is contradicted by facts. His ar
gument amounts to this: that if we leave the human mind free,
with reason and the Bible as its only guides, to form its own
opinions, and institute its own ceremonies in religion, the con
sequence will be simply the multiplication of errors; but he
should have explained how the selecting of one sect, and declar
ing it by act of Parliament to be the depositary of the only true
faith, will confer on its doctrines the character of unquestionable
truth. Does the act which provides bounties for those who
believe in the thirty-nine articles of the Church of England, and
penalties for those who do not believe in them, render them in-
faUibly true? The lesson which the multitude of sects conveys
to my mind is, that those points in which they all agree must
be clearly revealed in the Bible, and must therefore constitute
the essence of Christianity, while those regarding which they
differ widely, must be not so explicitly unfolded, and be there
fore less essential to human salvation. The progress of discus
sion in the United States is diminishing the points of difference,
and increasing those of agreement. For example, the eternal
perdition of infants is now given up by aU, or nearly all sects,
whereas a century ago this was a favorite orthodox article of
belief. Again, the doctrine of the total corruption of human na
ture is now in the progress of being abandoned or modified by
the different sects; which also was a fundamental element in all
sound belief half a century ago. Other modifications are in

AURORA BOBEALIS. 117
progress, some of which I shall take a subsequent opportunity
of stating.
Captain Marryat accuses American jurymen of accepting
bribes. I have never heard this mentioned by the Americans
themselves as a defect in the working of their institutions, and I
have no means of knowing to what extent the evU, if it do exist,
prevails. But, without meaning in the least to palliate the ini
quity of it, I may be allowed to remind Captain Marryat that a
short time ago, even in the reformed Parliament of Great Britain,
the members of the House of Commons, the chosen of the land,
when acting in the character of judges on committees on dis
puted elections, disregarded, in the most shameless manner, all
law, evidence, and justice, and voted the tories for the tory can
didates, and the whigs for the whig candidates, without a single
exception, till the abuse roused the indignation of the honest men
of all parties over the whole empire, and was at last corrected.
The American juries are often composed of ignorant men in
humble circumstances; whereas these committees consisted of
men of the first rank, fortune and education in the country.
He mentions a judge who acquitted a female convicted of
theft because she was " a pretty girl." We could have told
him in Scotiand of a sheriff, only lately deceased, who was so
great an admirer of the fair sex, that, according to common re
port, when he sat as judge in the small debt court, he decided
in favor of the lady, whether plaintiff or defendant, the mo
ment he saw her head-gear, as she passed through the crowd to
come to the bar, and without waiting to discover whether she
was old or young, plain or pretty, or to hear either what she
claimed or what she resisted. Such stories have in general just
so much truth in them as to render them amusing expositions of
the foibles of the individuals of whom they are narrated; but it
is absurd to cite them as traits of national character.
Sept. 3. Aurora Borealis. — This evening at half past seven
we saw a beautiful aurora borealis. In the zenith its top was
exacdy like the centre of a splendid canopy, from which its
rays, some of them of a deep purple color, seemed to descend
to the horizon. I afterwards read in the newspapers that on
the evening of the same day the same appearances had been
seen at London, New York, and New Orleans! As there is a
difference of nearly six hours between London and New Or
leans, this aurora must have retained its form and colors for an
extraordinary length of time. The sun must have been shining
on New Orleans when the aurora was observed in its greatest
splendor in London! Its height must have been great, for it was
seen precisely at the same hour in the same part of the heavens,

118 DR. SEWALL THE ANTI-PHRENOLOGIST.
and presenting the same appearances, in New York and Port
land in Maine, which are more than 300 miles apart.
Sept. 10. Ther. 65°. Sunday. — In New York it has re-
cenfly been decided that it is unlawful to sell newspapers in the
street on Sunday.
The Amistad Schooner. — For some days a long, low, black
schooner, of a very suspicious appearance, was observed hover
ing off the American coast, and she has at last been captured in
Long Island Sound. She was filled with negroes lately brought
from the coast of Africa to Havana, a Spanish city, and sold
there as slaves to a Spaniard, who hired this vessel to carry
them to his estate in Cuba. They rose on the captain and kUled
him and one of the crew; several others fled from the vessel in
a boat, and the rest, including their purchaser, they saved alive.
They commanded them to steer to Africa, which they did during
the Azj, as the negroes knew that Africa lay to the south, and
the sun showed them the direction; but during the night they
invariably steered north, untU they came to Long Island coast.
A vigorous discussion is proceeding in the American newspa
pers, whether these men are murderers and pirates, or noble as-
serters of their invaded rights.
Sept. 11. Ther. 61°. Dr. Seivall, the Anti-Phrenologist.—
In vol. i, p. 277, I mentioned that I had stated to this gentle
man that he erred in regard not only to the truth or merits of
Phrenology, (as to which he had as good a right to form a judg
ment as any phrenologist), but in respect to the 'subject itself,
and that the representation given of it in his work entitled
" Errors of Phrenology exposed," was a tissue of mistakes of
his own; upon which he had expressed the possibUity of his
revising his opinions. A second edition of his book has since
appeared, in which the old misrepresentations are retained. Not
only so, but the same errors in quotation are carefully preserved.
As an example of his accuracy in point of doctrine, I cite the
foUowing words from my Elements of Phrenology, in which
the real Phrenological views are stated, and I shall then intro
duce his representation of them. " The Phrenologist never
compares intellectual ability with the size of the brain in gene
ral; for a fundamental principle of the science is, that different
parts of the brain have different functions, and that hence the
same absolute quantity of brain, if consisting of intellectual
organs, may be connecteil with the highest genius, while, if
consisting of the animal organs, lying in the basilar and occi
pital regions of the head, it may indicate the most fearful en
ergy of the lower propensities."" Elements of Phrenology, p.
151. With this passage before his eyes. Dr. SewaU represents
us as saying that, " If a small head be connected with a pow-

DR. SEWALL THE ANTI-PHRENOLOOIST. 119
erful intellect, it only proves that the brain, though small, is
well organised, and acts -with uncommon energy!" p. 46.
The following will suffice as a specimen of his representa
tion of facts: — " When aU these fail," says he, " in furnishing
a satisfactory explanation, another method still more amusing is
sometimes resorted to in relieving Phrenology from embarrass
ment. It may be illustrated by the following facts: There is a
celebrated divine now living in Scotland equally distinguished
for his amiable disposition, his gigantic powers of mind, and
the great moral influence which he exerts upon the Christian
world. This individual, it is said, has the organ of Destruc
tiveness very largely developed, and not having any counter
acting organ very large, it is contended ' by those who are
acquainted with the fact, that he manifests his inherent disposi
tion to murder, by his mighty efforts to destroy vice, and break
down systems of error. In this way he gratifies his propensity
to shed blood." By the words " it is said," as well as by the
whole context. Dr. Sewall obviously aifirms that this is a state
ment or representation given by Phrenologists. It is a pure
fiction! No such statement, or any. thing resembling it, is known
to me to exist in the whole literature of Phrenology. Dr.
Sewall cites no authority for it whatever.
Finally, Dr. Spurzheim carried with him to America several
diseased skuUs of uncommon thickness, which he showed in
his lectures in elucidation of the rule, that in making observa
tions we must select healthy individuals not past the prime of
life, because in disease and old age the skull does not indicate
the size of the brain. After his death his collection was sold,
and one of these skulls came into Dr. Warren's possession, who
sent it to Dr. SewaU. He has lithographed it and presented it
to his readers without mentioning the rule now stated, or the use
which Dr. Spurzheim made of the skull. In some regions this
specimen is more than an inch thick! Dr. SewaU introduces
drawings of four other skuUs differing very widely from each
other in thickness, but instead of mentioning the age and state
of health of each of them (which he dared not do, because such
information would have destroyed his own argument), he leaves
his unskflled readers to infer that they are all normal skuUs.
His own words are, " The history of the intellectual character
of the individuals whose crania are here delineated / shall not
detail, as the only object of introducing them is to show the
natural and insurmountable obstacles which exist in ascertain
ing the amount of brain by the measurement or inspection of
the living head. Such a history would be entirely irrelevant,,
as it could in no way aid the Phrenologist in his examination.
The difference of their thickness furnishes impressive evidence

120 DR. SEWALL THE ANTI-PHRENOLOGIST.
of the impossibility of ascertaining the volume of the brain by
the rules of Phrenology!" It is diflnicuU to decide whether the
disingenuousness or the indiscretion of this statement is most
conspicuous, for Dr. SewaU is a professor of anatomy, and he
certainly knows that the cases in question are exceptions to the
general rule, and that in making the foregoing statement he is at
issue not only with Phrenologists, but with high anatomical and
non-phrenological authorities. Magendie of Paris, for example,
who is hostile to Phrenology, has said that the " volume of the
brain is generally in direct proportion to the capacity of the
muid;" and that " the only way of estimating the volume of
the brain in a living person is to measure the dimensions of the
skull; every other means, even that proposed by Camper, is
uncertain."* And Dr. John Gordon, the opponent of Phreno
logy, in the 49th number of the Edinburgh Review, says —
" But we will acquiesce implicitly for the present in the propo
sition (familiar to physiologists long before the ages of Gall and
Spurzheim,) that there is in most instances a general corres
pondence between the size of the cranium and the quantity of
cerebrum; that large heads usually contain large brains, and
mall heads small brains." p. 246.
It is not my intention to present any answer to Dr. Sewall's
lucubrations; this has already been done in a very effectual man
ner by Dr. Caldwell in his " Phrenology vindicated," and by
Dr. Bell in his Eclectic Journal of Medicine; but this second
edition is fortified with a new species of evidence, which de
serves some attention. Dr. Sewall presented his work to several
distinguished men, who knew nothing of Phrenology, but
whose opinions are influential in the United States, and obtained
their opinions of his book and the science. They wrote hira
complimentary letters in return, praising his book, and coderan-
ing Phrenology as untrue and dangerous, and has printed these
letters in the front of his new edition! This was a cruel hoax
perpetrated by him on these respectable men. In the Appendix,
No. Vft, I present a few specimens of these certificates; and one
to the same effect, which came too late for his second edition,
from the Emperor of China.
Several of the EngHsh magazines, and also a Berlin journal,
annoyed at the progress of Phrenology, which they had authori
tatively condemned, hailed Dr. SewaU's lectures as a grand sup
port to their own hostfle opinions, and proclaimed them as a
complete refutation of the science. I wish them ioy of their
ally. ¦' ^
* Compendium of Physiology, Milligan's Translation, p. 104. Edit.
1826.

DR. CHANNING AND THE EDINBURGH REVIEW. 121
Dr. Channing and the Edinburgh Review. — There are two
classes of moralists of very different characters. In the one the
intellect is powerful, and the moral sentiments relatively feeble.
Men thus constituted, regaid utUity as the standard of virtue, and
draw their moral maxims chiefly from the dictates of their un
derstandings, much in the same manner as they deduce mathe
matical conclusions. Paley is a representative of this class.
In the other, the moral sentiments are equal to, or preponderate
over, the intellectual faculties. Men of this class first feel the
right, the true, and the beautiful, by a species of intuition, and
then employ their intellectual faculties to give specific form and
expression to their moral impressions. Dr. Channing appears
to me to belong to this class, Fenelon, also, was one of them.
Critics, like other men, approve of works which embody their
own style of thinking, and condemn those produced by minds
different from their own. Dr. Channing has been particularly un
fortunate in respect to the individuals to whom his works are said
to have been committed for criticism in the Edinburgh Review.
The first notice of them, which appeared in October 1829, is
understood to have been written by the late William Hazlitt.
Hazlitt had a vigorous intellect, and considerable Ideality, but
he appears to have been deficient in some of the moral organs,
particularly Conscientiousness. This faculty produces the love
of the simple, the tme, and the consistent. Hazlitt had no taste
for these, but rejoiced in paradoxes. Conscientiousness, Vene
ration, and Benevolence, when powerful, imbue, the mind with
meekness, philanthropy, and a sincere respect for, and trust in,
hnman virtue. Hazlitt labored'uuder the afiliction of disappointed
ambition, envy, ill-nature, and distrust of mankind. He was no
better qualified, therefore, to . appreciate Dr. Channing's genius
and writing, than a critic deficient in Time, Tune, and Ideality,
would have been to discover and describe the peculiar excel
lences of Mozart's Requiem. Accordingly, his review is a tissue
of smaU objections, written in a querulous, dogmatical, and con
tentious spirit, while scarcely a gleam of Dr. Channing's highest
qualities appears to have penetrated his mind. The most pro
found and correct portion of Dr. Channing's character of Napo
leon, that in which he traces the grand errors of the Emperor's
life and his ultimate downfall, to his insensibility to justice, was
to Hazlitt altogether incomprehensible, and he recognises neither
truth nor depth in the idea. He entirely overlooks it.
Another criticism of Dr. Channing's works appeared in the
Edinburgh Review for Aprfl, 1839, which is ascribed to Lord
Brougham. If Hazlitt was ill-qualified to appreciate Dr. Chan
ning's genius. Lord Brougham was not much better fitted to
do so. To some of Hazlitt's defects he added deficiency of

122 DR. CHANNING AND THE EDINBURGH REVIEW.
Ideality. Blind to the numberiess beauties both of thought and
expression in Dr. Channing's " Remarks on Fenelon," written
upwards of twenty years ago, he seized on some smaU defects
in its style, pointed out these in a cynical tone, and passed with
out notice the best as well as the most recent of the author's
productions. The time was when the Edinburgh Review was
the advocate of freedom of thought, and the patron of high-
minded principle. Dr. Channing's fame has risen far above the
sphere of its influence either for good or evU; but for its own
sake, it should not have been found in the ranks of his detrac
tors. His character of Napoleon was worthy of its commenda
tion, even in its brightest days, and he had many other claims
to its respect. He was a clergyman, and yet the enemy of
creeds, because they fetter the understanding and prevent the
progress of the mind in moral and theological science; he was
an American citizen, and subject to the whole influence of public
opinion, which, in his country, is described a^ a tyranny, yet
he braved that opinion with the most admirable courage, aud
sacrificed popularity and influence to the calls of duty. His
appeal to the American public against the admission of Texas
into the Union, is one of the soundest political treatises in point
of principle, the loftiest in moral tone, and the most eloquent in
composition, in the English language, and it had a prodigious
effect; nevertheless, it was written altogether on the unpopular
side, and few men in the Union would have ventured to brave
opinion as he did in addressing to his countrymen such plain
and fervid language, in condemnation of a favorite scheme.
Again, his bold and eloquent denunciations of slavery have reared
up hosts of enemies against him, and added another claim to the
respect of all the generous and good for his talents and his in
trepidity. Finally, while the whole Union was excited with a
vivid passion for war against England about the Maine boun
dary, and Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster, and other political leaders,
either fanned the flame, or stood aloof and saw it rage. Dr.
Channing again stepped forth, and, in an admirable sermon
against war, appealed to the reason of his countrymen, even in
the midst of their fiercest excitement, in favor of peace, and of
the interests of civilisation. These great services, not to his
country altine, but to mankind, had all been performed, and
their blessed effects were discernible on the public mind, when
the review ascribed to Lord Brougham appeared in the United
States. Its paltry exposition of defects in the style of one of
his oldest Essays, and its contemptuous estimate of the merits
of the most intrepid and eloquent advocate of the supremacy of
moral principle, in public as weU as private affairs, and of the
rights of the oppressed, was unworthy of a liberal and enlight-

DR. CHANNING AND THE EDINBURGH REVIEW. 123
ened critic. Dr. Channing, moreover, was a Unitarian, a sect
which is not powerful in the United States, and which is much
vUified by the orthodox in Britain; and yet he dared to encounter
the prejudices of his countrymen when the orthodox in general
took counsel of discretion.
The extent of this merit cannot be appreciated by those who
have not lived in the United States. The New York Evangelist
says, " The truth is, that ministers are so dependent upon the
money-making part, and so easily infiuenced by the fashionable
part of their congregations, that, however forcibly they may
preach against sin in general, there is a great want of that moral
courage which will point out particular and popular sins, and say
to their audiences, ' Ye are the men.' " Dr. Channing has not
only said to his countrymen, " Ye are the men," but has repre
sented to them in the boldest manner the principles which they,
as Christians, are bound to follow; regardless equally of " the
money-making" and "fashionable" portions of his congregation
and the community at large.
If the Edinburgh Review had come forward in a spirit worthy
of its own principles and of its former fame, and added its influ
ence to give effect to these generoijs efforts, it would not indeed
have raised Dr. Channing's reputation on either side of the At
lantic, for happily this is beyond its control, but would have done
credit to itself and the country -which gives it birth. The course
which it has actually followed, has gratified the eneniies of Dr.
Channing in America, encouraged them in their depreciation of
his talents and usefulness, and made the friends of moral, reli
gious, and political freedom lament the decay of what once was
the vigorous champion of the great and the good.

124

CHAPTER V.
Cape Cottage— Portiand — Jeremy Bentham — Phrenology — Hartford in
Connecticut— Phrenology — Advertisements — The Banlss— Miss Marti
neau and the Ladies of Boston— The Amistad Africans — The Militia —
The Late War — The New England Voice — Phrenology — Sunday — Edu
cation and Phrenology — Phrenology — The People of Connecticut — Reli
gious Denominations in Connecticut — The Politicians — Fires — Mrs.
Sigourney — Bank Suspension — The Deaf aiid Dumb — Phrenology —
Natural Language — The Temperaments — Taxes — Sunday — Effects of
the Institutions of England and America — The Eglinton Tournament-
Education in the State of New York. 1839.
Sept. 12. Ther. 55°. Cape Cottage. — We have now re
sided eight weeks in this delightful retreat, and I borrow the
description of it from C  's letter to a friend. " Here you
may picture us quietly seated in our summer retreat, a hand
some, rather large cottage, built of wood, clap-boarded, and
painted white, with those green outside window-shutters which
give such an air of coolness and neatness to New England cot
tages in general. Cape Cottage stands upon Cape Elizabeth, a
projecting point, jutting out into Casco Bay, and forming one of
its extremities. It lies three miles and a half from Portiand,
whether by a good road Or by the sea. Casco Bay is full of
islands beautifully grouped; common report states them to
amount to 300, but the fisherman whose boat we hire to carry
us among them, limits their number to 43. Portiand Harbor,
which is formed by an indentation in the land, is protected from
the Atlantic on all sides by these islands, through which, how
ever, several channels allow ships to approach it from various
points. Nothing can exceed the picturesque beauty of the ves
sels when appearing and disappearing through these openings.
The harbor is defended by two forts, named after natives of Port
land, Fort Preble, on the main land, and opposite to it on an
island. Fort Scammel. The Americans have improved the name
of the cape, by changing the Indian ' Pooduc' into ' Cape Eliza
beth;' but they have been less successful with the islands, to three
of which they have given the uiipoetical appeUations of ' Hog,'
' House,' and ' Bang.' The main channel to the harbor lies in
front of our windows, at the distance of a hundred yards. It is

CAPE COTTAGE. 125
about one mile broad, and is bounded on the opposite side by
Hog Island. We enjoy a view of the vessels bound to and from
Portland, and certainly no craft can look better under a soft
southern breeze and a bright sun; for their sprightly elegant
forms glide like nautilus shells on a ground of lapis lazuli, with
their white sails unsullied by dirt or coal-smoke.
" The coast is rocky, and not unlike that of CuUercoats on our
own northeastern shores. The rocks are of mica-slate, which is
not always a very picturesque formation; but here they contain
iron, which, by rusting, has subjected them to disintegration, and
the waves have torn them into manifold forms, and strewed them
about in a thousand fantastic groups. They seem as if fashioned
for the very purpose of delighting the idler; you may scramble
over them for miles, and every pinnacle will afford you a varied
view; or you may sit under their shade, screened from all winds
and from the sun at every hour of the day. Here you may ru
minate on ocean, earth, and heaven, and, if fond of adventure,
you may, by indulging in a little absence of mind, be surrounded
by the tide, and become a living statue ornamenting a craggy
point of rock, till the falling waters set you free. From this
grandeur of devastation and disorder, you are brought by a sweep
of the coast into a sweet, placid, litfle bay, where you would
think the miniature wavelets could never swell into fury, and yet
we have seen the Atlantic, when roused by a northeasterly
gale, pour terrific masses of water into those seemingly peace
ful retreats.
" The place is essentially scenic: every white sail that starts
out from behind a jutting rock makes you think that an adventure
ought to belong to it, and every man who takes up a fishing-rod,
and places himself on an eminence, however common-looking
before, is immediately transformed into a picturesque object, and
is invested with interest. Altiiough Nature has not endowed me
with those strong perceptive faculties that constitute enthusiasts
in scenery, yet a fine prospect appeals also to the moral part of
our nature, and leads us, by a process too rapid for analysis, from
physical to mental beauty, and to its Author, Infinite Goodness.
I can seldom recall to my mind's eye, as some persons can, any
scene, however lovely or however dear, but, through my mind's
affections, it maybe long remembered. I sit on these rocks and
recall the songs of the sea that I used to hear in my dear native
land, and among them comes oltenest back that sweet ode of
Mrs. Hemans, " The Treasures of the Deep," in the tones of
ray own fascinating cousin Mrs. A  .
" The land that skirts the coast is like our English downs,
grassy and gently undulating, with here a projecting rock and
VOL. II. — 10

126. CAPE COTTAGE.
there a litfle pool. It affords pasture to catfle, sheep, and
horses, and is aU open to the footsteps of the wanderer. Beyond
this, the country is divided into small farms, the possessors of
which are also many of them fishermen, whose neat white cot
tages gleam forth from amidst brushwood, tall Indian corn, and
rather stunted trees. As we range along the shore, one ear
drinks in the murmur of the waves and the splashing of oars,
whilst the other feeds on the notes of American robins, the
sharpening of scythes, and the lowing of herds.
" These rural sonnds. I am sorry to say, are not always
pleasant. In a ramble I took a few days ago, I was distressed
by the peculiarly plaintive tone in which a cow, standing alone
by a barn, was lowing. ' What's the matter with her?' I asked
of a man who leaned over the wall. ' Calf kiUed,' was his
abrupt reply; and as he spoke he spread a fresh skin on the
wall. The poor mother recognised it, ran up to it, began lick
ing it, and smelling to the litfle hoofs that hung down; she
then looked into the man's face and lowed most piteously; and
again caressed the remains of her lost darling! ' She'll go on
that way for four or five days', said her master; and sure enough ,
it was so, for I never passed that way, for more days than four,
, that I did not hear her plaintive tones.
" A profusion of wild flowers, some of which are cultivated
in gardens at home, may be gathered on the downs and in the
fields. Our parlor is generally adorned with bouquets of them,
including fragrant dog-roses that grow even in the clefts of the
rocks quite down to the margin of the tide. Wild raspberries,
of excellent quality, wild strawberries, and the whorfleberry, or
Scotch "blaeberry," abound everywhere. They, an excellent
sea-fishing, attract numerous parties of pleasure from Portiand,
who arrive, some in handsome barges by the bay, others in
equipages of all varieties of form by the road; they spend a few
hours rambling singly or in groups, give liveliness to the scene,
and return home in the evening. The fields also are alive
with grasshoppers,, large and smaU, which hop into your face
without ceremony, and are often brought home and hung up in
one's closet in some fold of dress, from which' they skip forth
next morning much to their own gratification and to our surprise.
Besides the shrill chirping, which is the only sound uttered by
our English grasshoppers, some of these emit a noise like that
of castanets in action, or the tapping with an iron-shod walking-
stick on a hard stone. Nobody can tell me whether this sound
proceeds froni the Cicada;; but, from watching them, I perceive
that the individuals which make it are larger than their chirping
brothers. As you walk along, you encounter also whole clouds

CAPE COTTAGE. 127
of primrose-colored butterflies, and pale blue dragon-flies. These
are harmless; I wish we could say as much of those blood
thirsty mosquitoes, which infest us everywhere, and seem as if
sent to remind us, amidst all these sweets, that we are still in a
world of mingled good and evil. My poor husband has lain on
the sofa for three weeks, lame with their bites on his ankles,
and is only now again able to walk. My own eyes have often
been closed up for days by the mountainous swellings with
which they have been encircled, but, thanks to Providence, the
mosquitoes have generally taken them in turns, and left me one
at a time fit for use. We have learned, however, to exclude
them from our rooms. We have nailed catgut muslin over
every window, through which they find it difficult to squeeze
even their slender bodies; and this, with ablutions of camphora
ted spirits, nearly frees us from their in-door intrusion.
" We have hired a horse and gig from Captain  , (a re
spectable butcher in Portland), and had delightful drives into the
country. The ground in general, within 10 or 12 miles of our
cottage, is pleasing and rural, without being either rich or highly
cultivated, and in this dry season most of the roads are good.
Every drive brings us within sight of the ocean or the bay, at
one point or another; and three tall snow-^hite towers, crowned
with lanterns, and used as lighthouses, are pretty object? in the
scene. The condition of the country and people is obviously
behind that of the rural population in Connecticut and Massa
chusetts; but the abundance of spruce firs, generally grouped in
smaU masses, the undulating and verdant surface, and the de
tached farm-houses and offices, constantly remind me of Eng
land, and, in many points of view, of the "Park" of some
great earl. Here you seldom see a cottage, however small, that
is not brilliant with white paint, and verdant with green shut
ters, and without something like a garden about it, producing a
pleasing impression of cleanliness and comfort.
" A few days ago some one brought up to the house a por
tion of common sea-weed, which, by a freak of nature, had
grown into the exact similitude of a lady's mantelet or cloak,
such as have been lately worn in the world of fashion. It was
double, and trimmed round with what was doubtiess intended
for an embroidered flouncing, since it had regular holes in it
like what our grandmothers caUed punching. It was of a very
becoming form, I assure you: they are not uncommon here,
both of green and brown colors, so we may suit our complex
ions in the article, which, perhaps, some mermaid mantua-
maker has sent up, in hopes to decoy the poor thoughtless lovers
of finery to her emporium below the waves!
" But it is time that I should introduce you to the interior of

128 CAPE COTTAGE.
our cottage. It would never do for an American rural retreat;
for, although a ' public house,' as they name a hotel, it is of
such moderate dimensions, that the famUy of one of the minis
ters of Porfland, that of a senator from Maine to Congress, and
ourselves, with the landlord and his famfly, fill it. This is ex-
acfly to our taste, but would be very hunidrum to those who
rejoice in the crowds of Saratoga, or the White Sulphur Springs
of Virginia. At breakfast, dinner, and tea, we form a very
agreeable famUy party, and; as we have our separate parlors,
we have retirement at command when desired. We find our
fellow-' boarders,' as we are called here, excellent and agreeable
society. The senator has been in England, and, when in Edin
burgh, visited Sir Walter Scott, to whom he carried letters of
introduction. Sir Walter played off a little hoax on him, which
he never discovered till we told him of it. The ' Great Un
known' took him, as his friend, to a public entertainment, given
on the occasion of the coronation of William IV, and placed
him near Mr. Blackwood, the celebrated bookseller, who was
then a bailie, and wore a massive gold chain round his neck, as
an insignium of office. Sir Walter introduced the American to
Mr. Blackwood, and whispered into his ear, ' You must always
call him my lord; he is a bailie!' The senator did as he was
directed, and it was only on my husband telling him that a
bailie is not styled ' my lord' in Edinburgh that he became
aware of the trick. ' Oh, then,' said he, laughing, ' the hu
morous baronet has been playing off the Yankee against the
baUie, and enjoying the joke all the while in his sleeve.' Add
to this society visits from various friends in Portiand, and from
one of the best of Boston's accomplished sons — one engaged
in kindred pursuits with my husband, who has come hither and
spent several days with us, and you have a picture of our social
parties. " We boast of no finery in our cottage, but it will vie with a
palace for order and cleanliness; our fare is not such as would
suit a London alderman, but it is abundant, savory, and well-
cooked. Air, exercise, and minds agreeably occupied, yet void
of care, give an exquisite relish to our dinners of fresh fish,
(cunners and polloks caught by the rod on the rocks, by the mas
ter of the inn, his son, or their boys), our ' chowder,' or fish-
soup, our young Indian corn, and our squash — the last a very
delicate vegetable, I assure you, notwithstanding its frightfully
vulgar name. Fowls, turkeys, beef, veal, and mutton, make up
our fare, and we are in no danger of suffering want either of
substance or variety in our meals.
" You hear much of the want of respect and other faults in
the manners of the people heie, and, perhaps, if you had seen

CAPE COTTAGE. 129
our hostess quietiy keep the seat in our room in which I found
her this morning, and heard her tell me, whUe I was standing
before her, that she was trying my air-cushion, and continue to
ask various questions about it, without rising, you would have
imagined that this was a confirmation of the fact: But in inci
dents of this kind the manner is every thing. Our hostess is a
naturally genteel woman, and had riot the slightest idea of in
truding; her curiosity to understand the nature of the air-cushion
bespoke an active inteUigence, of which we enjoy the advantage
in her management of the general affairs of her household. Be
sides, in this country, such freedoms do not constitute marks of
disrespect, and every land should be tried by its own laws of
politeness. Those stiff-necked persons who cannot turn to the
right or the left as the road bends, had better stay at home, and
enjoy their rigid postures in their own chimney-corners. At
the same time, I must remark that in this country, where equality
is the birth-right of all, manners should form a much more im
portant branch of education than they do. There are many
persons who, through thoughtiessness. Or selfishness, or mere
ignorance, are in the habit of committing offences against deli
cacy, refinement, and common sense. These certainly should
be taught, with all possible celerity and assiduity, that in a state
of society where all ranks may mingle together, and where the
lowest may be found in juxtaposition with the highest, all are
bound to conduct themselves so that they shall not be an annoy
ance to any. My hujband tells them pithily that if they be all
sovereigns, as they'ciaim to be, they are bound to be all gentle
men. I go so far with this idea-that I maintain that this not only
should, but, by proper training in childhood, might he the case
in all societies. Look at the manners of the poorest chUdren
who have been well trained in one of Wilderspin's infant schools;
they are inoffensive and well bi;ed, and the sum of their own
enjoyment is not diminished by this accompUshment: Nay, it is
increased; for good breeding is the consequence of the education
of the moral sentiments, which leads to refinement as well as
to virtue. We often hear of an aristocracy of intellect. I wish
that all over the world we saw an aristocracy of good breeding:
If such existed, political equality would not be far distant.
" But I am writing a dissertation, when I meant only to give
you a description. I must introduce you, then, to mine host's
eldest daughter Tabby. She is an excellent, sensible, and obli
ging young woman, and between her and me there have been
amicable interchanges of books and other civUities. Her collec
tion of books comprises Byron, Moore, Mrs. Hemans, &c. in
poetry; a full and well written history of the North American
Indian tribes; a description of Herculaneum and Pompeii; a

130 CAPE COTTAGE.
History of all Religions, and many other works. Well, Tabby
has just come in to borrow a dress for a pattern; to which I made
her most welcome. I mention this incident only to assure you
that it may be done, and has been done, without the least shadow
of that offensive famUiarity which has been attributed to such a
request by some of our EngUsh historians of American manners.
I am quite sure that Tabby would have had pleasure in lending
me any of her patterns, and thinks that in borrowing mine she
but increases the sum of general enjoyment without in the least
deducting from particular advantage. It was a pleasure to me
to oblige her; and I can testify besides, that there was no do
mestic duty which could add to my comfort, which Tabby did
not as cheerfully perform as if she had never either owned a
work on poetry or borrowed the pattern of a piece of dress.
" The youngest daughter of this family might sit for a picture
of Laura or Beatrice. Her face is lovely, with the real golden
hair parted from her smooth white brow, and the very peculiarly
rich chesnut colored eyes, which are so rare and so beautiful.
This girl, if her form were equal to her face, would be one of
the fairest creatures I have seen in this land of fair ones. These
girls, and the fishermen, and the boys who attend to the horses
and carriages that come here, may be seen strolling together among
the wild raspberries, or conversing familiarly under the large
portico (with which all American inns are furnished), a perfect
specimen of equality; but if you imagine by this that the girls
permit, or the men offer, rude jesting, romping, or other impro
prieties of behavior, you commit the error of supposing them
to be, in manners and feelings, the exact counterparts of our own
people of the same station, which is not the case. Their ' sove
reignty' has at least taught them self-respect, and this is a great
means of insuring respect from others.
" It is a great comfort to us to be served by the landlord's
daughters, and by his wife as cook; for the want of ' help' is as
great an evil here as in other parts of the Union. A lady of
note, in speaking to me of the flourishing state of the cotton
factories at Saco, fifteen miles from Porfland, said, ' If yoit want
to know the real aristocracy of this country, look at the factory
girls; — they will not come to us as servants, — they make us work
much harder in our kitchens than they do at their spinning-jen
nies. It would be aU fair if we and they could ride and tie; but
absolutely it is we who are the domestic drudges.' This you
wiU think is a sad picture of life in a democracy, but, as you
are a benevolent lady, perhaps the cause of it may lessen your
regrets: These factory giris are the daughters of small proprie
tors who farm their own lands, or of respectable tradesmen; they
engage in labor to make up a littie purse for marriage, or to help

CAPE COTTAGE. 131
an old father and mother, and they naturally prefer that kind of
work which yields them the best return. The factory owners
pay them two, or two and a half dollars a week of wages, and,
in domestic service, they could not obtain much above one-half
of this sum.
" If you are not tired of my descriptions, I will introduce you
to two more of our friends and companions — fine young New
foundland Dash, with an ingenuous earnest countenance, ever
watching for our casting sticks into the bay that he may swim
and bring them back; and little stuffy Yorick, with eyes so clear
that I think they must be made of Labrador pebbles, and whose
bark is the most perfect expression of self-importance, seemingly
uttered to warn the meaner crowd to preserve their proper dis
tance. "How do we spend our time? In reading, writing, walking, driv
ing, talking, scrambling, and sitting amidst those delicious rocks, in
balmy air! The hours fly like minutes, and the days like hours.
One amusement of my husband's amuses me. You must know
that Portiand is a great port for ' the lumber trade' — Anglice,
the log and deal trade; and the coast of the bay is literally strewed
with deal-ends and fragments of wood of all shapes and sizes.
He gathers those that suit his purpose, fashions them with his
knife into the form of ships, fits rudders and masts to them, uses
the outer surface of birch bark for saUs, and sends them forth
into the bay or the Atlantic, as the wind answers. We see them
scudding joyously before the gentle southwest wind out into
the ocean. If any of them reach your coast, capture them and
condemn them as lawful prizes. Another of our amusements is
watching the great ' sea sarpent.' I think that we have found
out what perhaps has given rise to some of the stories you may
have read about it. One night there was a brisk gale from the
southwest, and the appearance of stormy weather. In the
morning the porpoises came rolling in to this harbor in great
numbers, and some of them of enormous size. They followed
each other in a long straight line, and as the backs of a dozen of
them in different parts of this line shot up, at the same moment,
a small stretch of imagination could supply solid substance to
the watery spaces between them, and thus picture them as one
continuous creature. Our host, who is a sensible man, gravely
asked if we had seen the ' sea sarpent,' ' who,' said he, ' with
his family, is reported to be somewhere off this coast.' I heard
him put the same question to a chance fisherman, who answered
as gravely, ' Oh yes, we've run along side of him for ten miles!'
The only drawback, besides the mosquitoes, to our enjoyment,
is periodical visitations of dense fogs. They come so regularly
every Monday, tliut we at last reckon them as due on that day.

132 PHRENOLOGY.
They blot out by their leaden vapor aU our lovely islands, bays,
roses, cliffs, and even the foaming surge, as if they had never
been. One day, as I stood under the portico, the mist opened
for a few seconds, just sufficient to show the steamboat from
Boston, like a dim ghost, dripping with the heavy fog, and labor
ing most disconsolately into poit; having, as we afterwards
heard, been obliged twice to take refuge on her voyage. She
gave us one melancholy glance and groan, and was again shrouded
from our view.
" lilh September. This afternoon, dear  .we must
bid adieu to our pretty cottage and all its agremens. I have
taken my last look of those rocks and waves, and grassy seats,
and sunny islands, and I am sad to part with them! It is strange
to find one's affections taken captive by a place which one could
see only for a few weeks, and which we must leave without the
remotest prospect of ever revisiting it; but so it is — our affec
tions answer to the caUs of their objects, and leave reason to
decide in its own way on the wisdom of their doing so. I have
stored my memory with images of goodness, peace, and beauty,
and so, my dear Casco Bay, I will not repent of knowing you,
though I must leave you behind. You are lying in a glorious
sunshine on our last interview, and I carry off your last smUe
of loveliness as that by which you shall hereafter live in my
memory and affections — adieu. I am," &c. C. G.
September 12. Ther. 55°. Portland. — This afternoon we
left Cape Cottage, and came in a fine barge with two satis to
Portland. The evening was delightful, the sea smooth, and the
wind fair. The town looked beatitiful as we approached it by
water. It stands on the slope of a ridge, and from the manner
in which it is built, looks very large for its population, which
is only 16,000 inhabitants. We remained six days in the town,
and enjoyed the hospitality of many friends, who had formed
our acquaintance at the Cottage. The society of Porfland ap
peared to us to be very agreeable, and free from form and cere
mony. We were entertained at dinner, tea, and evening parties,
every day that we remained, and felt new regrets in leaving so
many kind and interesting friends.
Phrenology. — Among other gentiemen in Portiand who take
an interest in Phrenology we became acquainted with Mr. John
Neal, a lawyer and a distinguished author in the United States.
He gave me "The New England Galaxy for January and
February 1835," to read, on account of the report which it con
tains of a trial of a boy, in whose defence he had pleaded and
led evidence, avowedly on phrenological principles. The case
was the following: —
In the month of July 1834, a boy of nine years of age, named

PHRENOLOGY. 133
Major Mitchell, the natural son of a poor woman living at Dur
ham, 23 miles from Portland, actuated by some provocation
offered to him by David F. Crawford, a boy of eight years of age,
induced this boy, by threats and promises, to go with him into a
wood to get some flags. When there, Mitchell beat Crawford
with his fists, then stript ofl' his clothes, bound him to a tree
with the suspenders of his breeches, and flogged him with twigs
from head to foot to the effusion of his blood, castrated him with
a piece of tin, and then attempted to drown him in a pool.
Crawford at last escaped from his hands, and arrived at home
lacerated and naked. Mr. Neal finding the boy Mitchell prose
cuted criminall}- by the Commonwealth, and friendless, under
took his defence. He learned from his mother that, " when
about a week old, he fell off a high chest on the floor, and was
taken up for dead. He struck on the top of his head, and when
lifted his hands were clenched and his head swollen." He had
been at school, but had, never advanced beyond spelling words
of one syllable. His head presented a very large development
of Destructiveness, also large Acquisitiveness and Secretiveness,
deficient moral organs, but a, fair development of the anterior
lobe. Mr. Neal considered that his brain had been injured, and
that he was partially idiotic.
The defence was 1st, The deficiency of evidence of the facts;
2dly, The great improbability of the alleged mutilation having
been perpetrated by the accused; and 3dly, That his conduct, if
according to the accusation, proceeded from injuries sustained
by his brain in his infancy. The second defence rested on the
trifling nature of the wound, as observed when the boy came
home, and the fact that one of Crawford's brothers was deficient
naturally in this respect, whence it was probable that this boy
was so too. The third defence was supported by medical au
thorities and testimony.
Mr. Neal proposed to put in as evidence, " Spurzheim on
Insanity," voce Fatuity, p. 104 of the first American edition:
" Combe's System of Phrenology, case of E. S." &c.; but he
was met by the objection, that in the case of Ware v. Ware, 8
Grem. 1. 56, the supreme court had decided, that " medical
books of the highest authority" were not competent evidence.
He called Dr. Jesse W. Mighles as a witness, who testified as
follows: " I am a believer in Phrenology as a science. Great
changes have taken place in the treatment of insanity, as well
as in the mode of dissecting the brain, since that work (Dr.
Spurzheim's) appeared. I have examined the prisoner's head;
there is something remarkable in it — a very unnatural depression.
I presume it is congenital. All heads are more or less deficient
in symmetry, but the want of symmetry here is quite remarka-

134 PHRENOLOGY.
ble. I have examined it repeatedly before, and had come to the
conclusion long ago, before I was caUed, that some injury had
probably happened to it. The right ear is lower than the left,
and there is a considerable protuberance on that side. An injury
to the muscle of that ear, caused by a faU or blow on the head,
might naturally produce these appearances. Certain functions
of the brain may cease in consequence of a blow — the func
tional power (of a part) may be destroyed, while the rest con
tinue undisturbed. Such is the doctrine of the books, and I
believe it."
Cross-examined — "I do not speak of this destruction of the
functional power of the brain in part, while other parts continue
uninjured, from experience. Change of moral or intellectual
character might appear a twelvemonth after the injury, from
irritation or inflammation."
Mr. Neal proceeded to ask certain questions at the witness
as a, phrenologist. The Attorney-General objected, and Mr.
Neal maintained his right. " At this moment the court inter
fered and asked a question, which resulted in a declaration by
the witness, that he could not, of his own knowledge, say that
such and such enlargements of a given organ would produce a
correspondent change of character. He believed, although he
did not know of his own knowledge, that a blow on the head
might change the character of the individual in some particulars,
though it left him unaltered, undisturbed in others."
Justice Emery charged the jury. " He commented in a clear
and lucid manner on the whole testimony." " But it is said"
(he continued) "that the head has a large peculiar formation
called the organ of Destructiveness. There is no disposition to
keep out of courts of justice true science, but, on the contrary,
to pay it marked deference. If a question were raised here as
to a fact committed in the East Indies, and by two persons it
should be said to have been fuU moon at the time, and astrono
mers should be called who should demonstrate from calcula
tions, that there could not have been a full moon at that time, it
would be proper evidence for a jury. So, if dyers be called as
to the effect of chemical combinations upon colors; or if physi
cians be called to show the effects of poison upon the human
frame, such is competent testimony. But when it shall have
been demonstrated by proof like this, that a bump here, or a
bump there, shall affect the mind, either to destroy the powers
of mind, or decidedly to alter its character, then, and not tifl
then, will such become proper evidence to be submitted to a
jury. Where people do not speak from knowledge, we cannot
suffer a mere theory to go as evidence to a jury; especially
where one says he is a believer in the system, and" has no per-

PHRENOLOGY. 135
sonal knowledge upon the subject. Our decisions are made in
the day-light, and the jury are judges of the law as well as of
facts." The jury found the prisoner guUty on both counts, and sen
tenced him to nine years' confinement at hard labor in the State
Prison at Thomaston. " The boy showed no emotion. The
same downcast look — the same unalterable countenance — the
same dull and sleepy eye — the same stoop, and the same half-
open mouth characterised him from the first to the last moment
of his trial." Mr. Neal concludes — " I am sure that he under
stood little or nothing of what he saw, though he told me he
did, appeared grateful, and promised to be a good boy when he
got to Thomaston." — " ' They give you enough to eat there,
don't they?' was his only remark, when told that he should be
in prison as long as all his life previous to his sentence."
To Mr. Neal is due the merit of being the first barrister, so
far as my information extends, who has had the courage to
bring Phrenology directly into a court of law, and to plead upon
its principles. The case was very unfavorable for him — first,
from the want of direct evidence of the boy's head having been
injured; and, secondly, from Dr. Mighles not having had a
practical knowledge of the science. Judge Emery's charge
was obviously correct, in the circumstances of the case; but the
principles which he lays down convey an instructive lesson to
phrenological physicians to obtain practical knowledge by ob
servation, and not to rest satisfiefl with conviction founded on
mere testimony or phUosophical adaptation. If Dr. Mighles
had observed nature, he would have been able to describe the
peculiarities of the head more accurately and intelligentiy, and
to say positively whether the head was necessarily that of an
idiot, or imbecUe boy, or not. He would also have been better
able to distinguish between a swelling caused by a blow on a
muscle, and one arising from the prominence of a part of the
skull caused by the development of brain beneath; and, in this
latter case, he would have been better able to bear direct evi
dence to the connection subsisting between this fact and the
boy's vicious dispositions. If he had possessed practical know
ledge, he would have been better able also to distinguish a con
genital deformity of head from one caused by an external injury,
and to point out the bearing of each of them upon the case
before him; and, lastly, he would have spoken with the weight
of an observer interpreting nature, or narrating facts of which
extensive and scientific observation had put him in possession,
instead of appearing before the jury as a reader merely, resting
his conviction and testimony on statements and arguments con
tained in books, which books other men of respectable reputation

136 PHRENOLOGY.
are pleased to treat with ridicule or disrespect. The phrenolo
gists who have observed nature know that, most probably, he
was in the right; but they have no direct guarantee that he was
so in this individual case (which they have not seen), and, con
sequently, even they must hold the judge fully justified in re
fusing to place any reliance on such evidence.
In making these remarks, I have in view solely the application
of Phrenology to future cases, and do not at all blame Dr.
Mighles. He probably never contemplated that he would be
called on to make such a solemn use of his phrenological know
ledge, and he deserves credit for having had the courage to avow
his conviction and state his impressions, when judicially sum
moned to do so, undismayed by that terror of public opinion
which makes cowards of so many able men, when the merits of
Phrenology are in question.
Jeremy Bentham. — Mr. Neal, when a young man, lived for
some time in the house of the late Jeremy Bentham in London,
and he mentioned the following anecdote of hm. " Mr. Bent
ham," said he, " had no objection to be known to the world
precisely as he ivas. I frequentiy amused him for a moment or
two by imitating some of his peculiarities of speech, walk, and
gesture, and he actually invited Matthews to dine with him, be
cause I thought that a true Bentham on the stage by Matthews
would be well received by the public. He regarded it as sitting
for a picture, a live-picture, and was tickled with the idea. What
the result of the negotiation between him and Matthews was, I
do not know, farther than this, that Matthews never saw him to
my knowledge." This occurred in December 1826, and is
mentioned in a Memoir of Bentham published by Mr. Neal. I
told Mr. Neal that the cast of Mr. Bentham's head, taken after
death, shows an excessive development of the organ of Love of
Approbation. Mr. Neal remarked that Mr. B. " would not bear
contradiction from any one except Mr. Doane the barrister, one
of his secretaries, and myself. Every body also flattered him to
his face — if not by downright eulogy, by submissiveness or un
questioning acquiescence." There is proof of this in every page
of the Memoir above referred to. When he understood that Mr.
Neal was keeping notes of his conversations, he desired him to
write them out every night, and made him read them to him in
the morning!
Sept. 18. Ther. 42°. Phrenology. — To-day I assisted at
the dissection of a brain in presence of Dr. Rea, Dr. Mighles,
Mr. Neal, and a number of other gentlemen, who take an interest
in Phrenology. Dr. Rea mentioned to me that he had attended a
woman who became insane on account of the death of her son,
and attempted to drown herself. The head was hotter at the

THE BANKS. 137
organ of Philoprogenitiveness than in any other part. He cup
ped her at that part, put on a blister and an issue a littie below,
and cured her. She is now well.
In the evening, at 7 P. M., we left Portiand in the steamboat
for Boston, and saUed past Cape Cottage and the scenes which
we had so abundantly enjoyed. We took our last look of them
with regret, and breathed forth our best wishes for the success
and happiness of our late excellent host and his amiable family.
Next morning at seven o'clock, after a prosperous voyage, we
entered Boston bay and harbor, and found them bathed in sun
shine, anJ beauty, and alive, in every direction, with -white sails
and gliding forms.
Sept. 23. Ther. 59°. Hartford in Connecticut. — We tra-
velled-by the railroad from Boston to Worcester, and by the stage
from Worcester to Springfield, and thence to Hartford by the
Connecticut river, and arrived here after a very pleasant journey.
We met with interesting companions in the public vehicles, and
were overwhelmed with kindness at Springfield during our brief
stay. The country appeared as picturesque and beautiful as it
did last year on our first arrival. New England bears well a
repeated inspection, nay, a scrutiny.
Phrenology. — It had been my intention, when I came to the
United States, to lecture in Baltimore in October of this year,
and then to proceed to Cincinnati and Louisville, and deliver
courses in these cities during the winters of 1839 — 40; but, as
already mentioned, no class could be mustered in Baltimore, and
the same obstacle has presented itself in Cincinnati. Before I
left New York in May, Dr. Gross, from that city, called for
me, and was authorised to announce that I should lecture in Cin
cinnati, if wanted. He gave public notice on his return, but ap
parently met with so little success that I never heard from him,
or from any one else on the subject. I therefore accepted an
invitation to deliver a course of twelve lectures on Phrenology irf
Hartford, one of the two capitals of the state of Connecticut. Its
population is about 10,000 persons, who are employed chiefly in
trade. I am now preparing for my course.
Advertisements. — The " Courier and Enquirer" of New York
states, that, between the 14th September, 1838, and the 14th
September, 1839, it published 143,428 neiu advertisements, or
464 a day!
The Banks. — The signs of coming adversity are thickening.
The United States Bank continued selling bills of exchange on
London at par (Of per cent.,) when the banks in New York de
manded and obtained 10 and 10§, or from 10s. to 20s. per cent.
of premium. This excited much speculation, and a new occur
rence has raised this into astonishment. The United States

138 THE AMISTAD AFRICANS.
Bank has lately sold its own post notes, payable at long dates, in
Boston, to the extent of .$800,000, at a discount equal to 16 and
18 per cent, per annum. The sales were readily effected, as
the credit of the bank was undoubted; but the seller proceeded to
the Boston banks, in whose notes the purchases were paid for,
and immediately drew specie from them for tiie whole amount!
This, it is said, has been shipped to England to enable the bank's
agent there to retire its drafts sold to the public at par! The 'ef
fect has been to paralyse trade in Boston. The banks, drained
of their specie, are contracting their issues, and fearing farther
disasters. The shares of the United States Bank, which were
lately sold at $118 for the share of $100, have now fallen to
par. Miss Martineau and the Ladies of Boston. — Miss Martineau
has excited great indignation in New England by certain expres
sions in her book, which are here interpreted to amount to an
accusation of drinking against the ladies of Boston. We have
never seen any thing that could lead us to suspect the existence
of such a vice; and have inquired what could give rise to the
statement. One of our chance fellow-passengers, who is exten
sively acquainted in that city and New York, said that she knew
some American ladies who indulge in as many as three glasses
of wine after dinner, and then, by means of lavender and cordials,
support a state of artificial excitement during the remainder of
the evening. "This," she said, "I caU drinking." I must
leave the ladies to settle this delicate point among themselves; I
can only testify that it was not my fortune to meet with any of
these excited fair ones, in any part of New England.
Sept. 24. Ther. 46°. The Amistad Africans.— The case
of the Africans, captured in the "long, low, black schooner" in
Long Island Sound, is exciting an extraordinary degree of interest.
The advocates of abolition represent them as heroes who have
nobly risen against their oppressors, and recovered their freedom
at the hazard of their lives; while the patrons of slavery desig
nate them as pirates, murderers, and banditti, and caU for their
trial and execution. We visited them this day in the jail of
Hartford, in which they have been placed, waiting the disposal
of the courts of law. They are aU young, and three of them
are chfldren. Several seemed to be in bad health, but the rest
were robust and cheerful. They are genuine Africans, and little
more than three months have elapsed since they left their native
shores. Their heads present great varieties of form as wefl as
of size. Several have smaU heads, even for Africans; some
short and broad heads, with high foreheads, but with very litfle
longitudinal extent in the anterior lobe. Their leader Cinquez
or Jinquez, who kiUed the captain of the schooner, is a well-

THE LATE WAR. 139
made man of 24 or 25 years of age. His head is long from the
front to the back, and rises high above the ear, particularly in
the regions of Self-Esteem, and Firmness. The breadth is
modeiate, and Destructiveness is large, but not excessive. Be
nevolence and Veneration are well marked, and rise above the
lateral organs; but the coronal region altogether is narrow. The
anterior lobe also is narrow; but it is long from front to back.
The middle perpendicular portion, including Comparison and
Eventuality, is decidedly large. Individuality is full. The
temperament seems to be, nervous-bilious. This size and form
of brain indicate considerable mental power, decision, self-reli
ance, prompt perception, and readiness of action.
The Supreme Court of Connecticut has just decided that it
has no jurisdiction over these Africans, and that it ties within
the district court to dispose of them. They are well treated,
and defended by able counsel, who are paid by public subscrip
tions. It is impossible to look without horror and indignation on
these young and unoffending men and children deprived of their
liberty, reduced to slavery, and converted into mere "property,"
by Christians; I say by Christians, because I have no doubt
that if any one were to deny that their reputed owner, who
also is here, or his advocates in the American press, were
Christians, he would be prosecuted for a libel on their religious
character! Sept. 25. Ther. 52°. The Militia.— There was a grand
muster of militia here to-day. Some of the companies looked
quite military, while others certainly were only citizen-soldiers
in appearance. The mounted officers, dressed in blue coats and
white breeches, with abundance of lace, large cocked hats and
white feathers, by dint of galloping and prancing supported
their mUitary pretensions extremely well. I feel a respect for
citizen-soldiers, notwithstanding their awkwardness, because
they are powerless for evil and aggression, and become always
the more formidable the more real occasion there is for their
services. The Late War. — These soldiers remind me of a " history of
the late war (that of 1812) between the United States and Great
Britain, by H. M. Brackenridge,"* which I have read. It is
ably and temperately written. I heard a distinguished American
citizen remark as follows in reference to this war: " We had
abundance of provocation to justify it, but I never could help
regretting the time we took to declare it. We had suffered
great injuries both from the French and the British, which we
* It has gone through six large editions, and is now stereotyped.

140 THE LATE WAR.
had long submitted to; and there was something ungenerous to
my feelings in our selecting that moment (the 1 9lh of June,
1812) to commence it. Napoleon was then at the summit of
his power, and was marching, as every one believed, to the sub
jugation of Russia, while England alone maintained the cause
of humanity and freedom. We chose that moment to join the
side of the conqueror, and throw our weight into the scale
against Britain." This observation appeared to me to express
admirably the real merits of the question which party was to
blame for the commencement of that contest. The war itself
was conducted by us in the worst spirit. The batties on the
lakes, the bombarding and ravaging of the towns on the Atiantic
coast, the burning of the Capitol at Washington, and the con
flicts between single ships, chiefly frigates, had, every one of
them, the tendency to inflict misery on individuals, and to kindle
the most rancorous feelings between the nations, but to decide
nothing. After having been on the field of some of these baffles,
and read the narratives of all of them, and having contrasted the
small numbers of men engaged in them (from 500 to 3000),
with the enormous extent of territory and resources of the
United States and of Britain, they reminded me of nothing but
two furious women scratching each other's cheeks and tearing
each other's hair. They bore no reasonable relation to the
only conceivable object of war, that of compelling either nation
to yield. The attack by the British on New Orleans appears
to me to have been the only part of their operations that was
worthy of their fame; I mean the object aimed at in that enter
prise, and not the manner in which it was conducted. If the
British had captured New Orleans and closed the Mississippi,
they might have occasioned serious embarrassment to the Ame
ricans; but, as far as I can discover, no other of their projects,
although successful, would have carried any important conse
quences in its train. The command of the Canada lakes would
have enabled them to defend that province, which, however,
was in no danger from the Americans, for their force never was
capable of making conquests. Victory on the lakes might have
enabled the British to retard the settlement of some of the Ame
rican Western States, but onl)'- in a small degree, for these were
accessible by the Ohio, the Mississippi, and the Wabash, inde-
pendenfly of the lake navigation.
The British of those days seem to have been actuated by an
unbecoming hatred and contempt of the Americans. This last
feeling led to most of the defeats which they sustained, both by
land and sea; and the same sentiment stiU lingers among many of
the British aristocracy, who exercise a great influence over the
destinies of England. I have already explained, vol. i, p. 284-5,

THE LATE WAR. 141
that the Americans are really a war-loving, if not a warlike na
tion, and it would be well that the British understood their real
character. It may appear to be an unpatriotic opinion, but my
impression is, that, in a fair combat, either by sea or land, of
man to map, and gun to gun, the Americans, after acquiring dis
cipline and experience, would beat the British; and the reasons
of my opinion are these. — The two nations belong to the same
stock, and are equal in physical organisation. The instinct of
self-preservation is the motive which induces men to shun danger
and to run from a fight, and bravery is in proportion to the mo
tives which can be thro-wn into the opposite scale. The masses
which compose fleets and armies are drawn from the humbler
classes of society. In Britain, these have litfle education, no
sphere of political action, no influential compatriots to sound
their praises or to cover them with shame on their return as
conquerors or cowards. They have no field of ambition to
excite their individual energies before they become soldiers or
sailors, and when they have embraced these professions the road
to high preferment is closed against them. Their motives to
fight, therefore, are derived from their native force of character
and discipline. In native qualities the Americans are their
equals, and in all other motives, except discipline, their supe
riors. There is more mental activity, a greater range of interests
and ideas, a more influential public opinion, and a far wider
field of ambition, operating in the case of the Ajnerican seaman,
militia-man, and volunteer, than in that of' the British sailor or
soldier. The discipline on shore -yyfll at first be inferior in the
Americans; because the British constitution renders discipline al
most natural to British soldiers, while that of America trains her
population to an aversion to subordination. At the commence
ment of a war, therefore, the British, with equal numbers, will be
more than a match for the Americans; but every day will di
minish the disparity. The singular feature, in the case of the
Americans, is, that victory or defeat equally tends to increase
their belligerent efficiency. A large and influential portion of
the people was at first opjiosed to the war of 1812 against Eng
land, and some of the New England states actuaUy refused to
match their mUitia towards Canada on the requisition of the
general government; but first the triumphs of the American fri
gates, and finally the burning of the Capitol at Washington, and
the ravaging of their coasts, rendered them not only unanimous
but enthusiastically devoted to the war; and if it had continued
longer, their energy and efficiency would have rapidly increased.
The Americans are engaged in avocations which prosper most
in peace; they are devoted to gain, and averse to subjection to
authority. As formerly observed, therefore, although they are
VOL. II.  11

112 THE LATE WAR.
full of wariike predilections, tiiese circumstances present strong
practical checks on their indulging in the gratifications of war.
Add to these impediments the fact, that, after one of the political
parties has identified itself with a war, its opponents wiU make
"political capital" out of every thing connected with it; in other
words, however just or necessary hostilities may be, they will
operate on the feelings of the people against the war, for the sake
of destroying their political adversaries. Thus, immediately
after the commencement of a contest, and whUe it is yet known
to the people chiefly in the form of burdensome taxes, interrup
tion to trade, and destruction of credit, there wfll always be a
powerful opposition to it, and great distraction in the national
councfls. At this stage of hostilities the United States Govern
ment will appear powerless, and the Union seem to be on the
eve of dissolution; but only let the contest fairly begin, and let
either victory or defeat visit the American arms, and in the exact
ratio of the pressure from without will be the condensation of
public sentiment withm. In short, the American nation, like a
steel spring, seems, to, have no energy when it is fully expanded,
but it gathers strength with every ounce of pressure that is ap
plied to it. Its territory is so vast, and its climates so various,
that it forms a world within itself; and although a European
maritime war would cause great loss and misery to the -Atlantic
cities, it could not materially affect, far less permanently destroy
the general prosperity of the Union.
I sincerely trust that the days of war between the United States
and Britain are gone by, never to return; but if the mad passions
of either should provoke hostilities, Britain seems to me to have
only one course to pursue that will effectually lead to peace.
She should act not only justly but generously in the conduct of
the war, so as to enlist the sympathies of the good in America
in her favor; she should avoid all petty attacks that would serve
to irritate public sentiment without the possibility of producing
any great results; never engage the Americans without a force
sufl5cient to insure victory; block up their ports, and leave them
without petty injuries to excite resentment, without victories to
gratify national vanity, and without the pressure of external
danger to alarm them for their national safety: in short, let the
war be conducted as one of blockading on the sea coast, and self-
defence in Canada, and not as one of attack and aggression, and
the Americans wiU sooner come to reason under this administra
tion than under any other. They wUl suffer loss and annoy
ance, and yet have no strong passion excited to counterbalance
the irritation which these wiU produce. They are a people yn-
patient of smaU evUs, but capable of meeting great ones with a
heroic spirit. They cannot aggressively injure Britain; for their

SUND.VY. 143
whole institutions render them feeble for conquest; and their
attempts on Canada, unless aided by the native population, would
be easil\- repeUed. Even should they conquer that province, it
is more than probable that they would render as essential :-.
service to tiie British nation as they did when they achieved
their own independence. I repeat, however, that a war between
tiiese two nations would be a disgrace to the civilisation of tiie
nineteenth century, and an event which every enlightened
American and Briton must deprecate and deplore.
Tlie New England Voice. — It has frequentiy been remarked,
that the people of the New England States have a peculiar into
nation of voice, which distinguishes them from Europeans and
other Americans; but I have rarely found any of themselves who
recognised tire difference. They have occasionally asked me
to define it, which it was not easy to do; but I found this
method the shortest and most successful with them on this point.
I said, "Do you discover that I am Scotch?" " Yes, very easi
ly." "How?" " By your tone, accent, and manner." •• Then,
by the same means, I discover that yon are Yankee; and 3-our
peculiarities are as strongly marked as mine." They compie-
hended tiiis iUustration at once. Their voice is nasal, hard, and
unmusical, except when corrected by a refined education.
Sept. 27. Ther. 38°. Phrenology.— Di: Brigham kindly
undertook the airangeraent of the course of lectures in Hartford.
The number of lectures has been reduced from sixteen to twelve,
of two hours each, and the fee from five to three dollars. I de
livered the first lecture this evening, and the attendance was fifty
subscribers, twenty visiters, and twelve complimentary hearers.
At 6 P. M. the thermometer stood at 65°, a rise of 27° since the
morning. Sept. 29. Ther. 40°. Sunday.— We heard the Rsv. Mr.
GaUaudet preach a sound but moderate orthodo.x discourse in
the Rev. Dr. Hawes' church. Dr. Hawes is a Presbyterian
congregationalist, and has a large church, well filled, and a most
respectable congregation. Connecticut has retained her Cal
vinism more unbroken than perhaps any other State in the
Union. There are now, however, both Unitarian and Univer
salist congregations within her boundaries. She is celebrated
also for the severity of her ancient moral and religious code,
known under the name of •' the Blue Laws;" and although there
has been a great relaxation in modern times, a trace of the olden
spirit is still discernible. Tlie 250th hymn, used in the church
which we attended to-day, contains these lines: —
"Awake and mourn, ye heirs of hell;
Let stubborn sinners fear.

144 EDUCATION AND PHRENOLOGY.
Yc must be driven from earth, and dwell,
A long for-ever, there.
See liovif the pit gapes wide for you.
And flushes in your face;
And thou, my soul, look dov/nward too.
And sing recovering grace."
These lines embody the very soul of Destructiveness and
Self-Esteem. Education and Phrenology. — This State poss sses a large
school-fund, the produce of western lands claimed by Connecti
cut under an old title, and allowed by Congress; but she has yet
made small progress in applying it systematically and with effect.
The legislature, however, has appointed a superintendent of
public schools; and Mr. Bariiard, the gentleman -who now holds
the office, entertains enlightened views on the slibjeci of educa
tion, and is anxious to improve not only the mode of teaching,
but the things taught in the common schools of the State. He
had heard of the value attached to my lectures on Phrenology in
relation to education, in the three great cities of Boston, New
York, and Philadelphia, and regretted that so small a number of
the inhabitants of Hartford had taken an interest in them.
Several causes are mentioned as accounting for this circum
stance. Two itinerant phrenologists have commenced lectures
in Hartford since my course was announced; one of them lec
tures free, as an inducement to the people to pay him fees for
examining their heads; and another admits the public at a very
low price. The free lectures are crowded, and those for which
a fee is demanded are slenderly attended. Besides these two,
there have been other phrenological lecturers here during the
summer, who have fleeced the people of their money, and left
little knowledge in its stead. Farther, the people are accusr
tomed to hear lectures free, and have no idea of paying any
serious sum for instruction. They are treated to a new topic, if
not a new lecturer, every night, and do not comprehend the ad
vantage of foUowing out any subject in a scientific form, through
a series of lectures. Besides, they are all able to read and write;
and between scraps of information picked up from these desultory
lectures, from newspapers, and from the speeches of politicians,
and the absence of any class possessing high literary or phUo
sophical attainments, they believe themselves to be exceedingly
weU informed. Finally, the propagation of opinion, except on
political subjects, is difficult and slow in the United States.
Every state presents a focus of interests that engage the chief
attention of its own citizens; while every town and hamlet has
a set of particular interests that excite contests and discussions,
and fill the local newspapers with smaU detaUs. Hence, the

THE PEOPLE OF CONNECTICUT. 145
great body of the people of Hartford, although readers of news
papers, seem to know littie of the interest excited among the
friends of education by my lectures in the largO cities, although
two of them, Boston and New York, are littie more than a'hun-
dted- miles distant from Hartford; or if they know, they pay
little deference to the opinions expressed in these cities. I men
tion these facts, not from feelings of individual vanity or disap
pointment, but because they are illustrative of the condition of
the public mind, and are not confined to Hartford, but are gene
ral over the Union. 1 have found by experience,' that moral
opinion travels more rapidly and certainly in Great Britain and
Ireland. So litfle progress has yet been made by the people of
the United States in regard to a correct appreciation of what
constitutes a good education, and of its Value to them, that an
opposition is at this moment hatching in Massachusetts against
the Board of Education of that State, which is described in vol.
i. p. 52-3. Some Democratic politicians hope to catch a few
votes by persuading the ignorant that that system of State-educa
tion is an infringement of private rights; they maintain that a
free people have a right to educate their children in their own
way, without superintendence; ^for they cannot'^ say that the
Board of Education exercises any control over them; it has no
power except that of moral suasion. The Board may recom
mend, but cannot enforce any thing. Some divines also, I am
told, in tiiat state, are sounding the alarm among their flocks,
that the Board of Education is the harbinger of infidelity.
Oct. 1. Ther. 32°. Phrenology. — Having been requested
by Mr. Barnard to repeat my first and second lectures to the
members of the Young Men's Institute, and to admit them to
the course on reduced terms, 1 agreed to do so, and gave him
carte blanche as to terms. This evening I delivered the first
lecture to them free, and was honored with an attendance of 360
ladies and genflemen. Mr. Barnard addressed them after the
lecture, told them that arrangements had been made, by which
they might be admitted to the whole course on their paying
one doUar, and the lecture-fund of the Institute would pay fifty
cents additional for each who should attend; and he recom
mended to them to avaU themselves of the opportunity of hear
ing the philosophy of phrenology and its application to educa
tion explained.
Oct. 2. Ther. 40°. This evening I repeated my second
lecture to the members of the Young Men's Institute, and thirty-
five hidividuals attended.
Tlie People of Connecticut. — In conversing with a gentieman
from a neighboring state about the population of Connecticut, I
was told that their Calvinistic education, and external circum-

146 THE POLITICIANS.
Stances, had rendered them moral, industrious, and fnigal; so
much so that they are distinguished for the absence of serious
crimes, for general propriety of deportment, and for the comfort
and respectability of their outward circumstances; but that they
are accused by their neighbors of some degree of narrow-mind
edness.* Like the Artiericans in general, however, although
they are keen in the pursuit of wealth, and economical in its
application, they are generous when an object which excites
their sympathies is presented to them. They contribute hand
somely to charitable institutions. Dr. Howe mentioned that he
raised $1200 here very easily for the Institution for the Blind in
Boston; and this year $2200 were raised by a " ladies' fair"
for charitable purposes. Twenty hearers of a favorite minister
subscribed $300, purchased a pianoforte, and presented it to
his daughter. There is a "sewing society" also in this town,
consisting of young ladies, who meet once a-week at each
other's houses, at 2 P. M., and sew and gossip tiU 7 o'clock,
when a number of young genflemen drop in and close the even
ing with music and a dance. They have adopted an orphan
child, which is boarded, clothed, and educated at their expense;
their needlework providing the necessary funds. I was told
that they avoid waltzing, and even playing. waltzes, these being
regarded as sinful.
Religious Denominations in Connecticut. — The population
of this state is estimated at upwards of 300,000. Its sects are -
the foUowing: — " The Congregationalists have 232 churches,
277 ministers, including 49 who have no pastoral charge, and
about 40,000 communicants. The Calvinistic Baptists have
98 churches, 77 ordained ministers, 20 licentiates, and upwards
of 10,000 communicants. The EpiscopaUans have 63 minis
ters, and about 7000 members. The Methodists had, in 1833,
40 ministers, and 7000 members. There is a considerable
number of Universalist Societies, two Unitarian, two or three
Roman Catholic, several Free-wiU Baptist, a few Friends, a few
Sandemanians, and one Society of Shakers." — Chronicle of the
Church, Newhaven, I8th Oct. 18S9.
Oct. 4. Therm. 54°. The Politicians.— The Whigs and
Democrats are equaUy dishonest as politicians; that is to say,
they flatter, coax, and mislead the people to get into power; but
they pass better laws, and act on purer principles, when assem
bled in the legislature, than any One could expect, judging from
* I see no reason to question (hat these effects may be produced by Cal
vinism in a certain state of society, when acting on favorably constituted
minds; but I doubt whether they will be its general resuUs, especially
¦when operating on- an enlightened people in an advanced state of civilisa
tion.

MRS. SIGOURNEY. 147
their conduct whUe candidates for office. The explanation is,
that all profess the love of virtue and the people; and, when in
power, they feel that any flagrant dishonesty, or unprincipled
selfishness, would inslanfly be exposed by their opponents, and
made use of as a lever to turn them out of place. The corruption,
moreover, is chiefly in the towns. The farmers and country
voters are deceived or misled, but not bribed. They look at
the conduct of their rulers without bias or blind partiality; and
even the most unprincipled politicians are afraid to commit too
glaring iniquities .before their eyes. In all the states this class
is composed, to a great extent, of proprietors of the sofl; and it
forms a large proportion of the constituency of the whole United
States. If it were better educated, it would serve as a sheet-
anchor to their institutions; and, even in its present condition of
imperfect enlightenment, it arrests the politicians of either party
when their measures have obviously deviated too far from the
line of common sense, and esoecially from that which leads to
public prosperity. . *
Oct. 9. Ther. 48°. Fires. — There have been two enormous
fires in New York and Philadelphia. The loss in New Yorlc
is stated at $1,000,000, and that in Phfladelphia at $1,400,000.
Mrs. Sigourney. — I borrow the following remarks from
C  's journal: — " We have several times seen Mrs. Sigour
ney, the American Hemans, and spent an evening at her house.
Mer history is very interesting, and would prepossess one in
her favor, even although disjoined from the talents she has
shown. She was s pattern of filial piety, and in the other rela
tions of life has been not less exemplary. One evidence of her
excellent qualities is presented by the many warm and sincere
friends whom she has attached. Her appearance is pleasing,
and her manners entirely natural and unassuming. Her talent
for poetry was manifested at a very early age, and was promis
ing even from the first, though a comparison of her juvenile
productions with those of her matured intellect shows a con
siderable improvement. She resembles Mrs. Hemans in being
eminently the poetess of the affections; every object and incident
creative of human sentiment, or ministering to attachment, finds
a responsive note on her truly sweet and feminine lyre. Her
prose works, on education and other kindred topics, deserve,
and have obtained, a conspicuous place in the literature of her
country; and, whatever the merits of her writings may be com
paratively with those of other authors, she may justly claim the
praise of never having published a line which morality or gentie
womanhood need blush to own. She conducts a periodical (an
annual) named the ' Religious Souvenir,' of which I have not
had an opportunity of judging; but it is popular, and, I believe,
has a wide circulation."

148 phrenology: natural language.
Oct. 10. Ther. 54°. The Bank Suspensions. — News has
arrived that the United States Bank, and most of the banks of
Pennsylvania and Maryland, have suspended cash payments.
The United States Bank stock has fallen to $97 in New York,
and they utmost consternation prevafls. In Hartford the public
mind is quiet, and they have confidence in their own banks, but
a deep anxiety is visible on the countenances of the men of pro
perty. The banks are prohibited by law from paying dividends
during their suspension; and as the losses of the fire insurance
companies will suspend their dividends, many persons whose
capital is invested in the stocks of these institutions, wUl suffer
great privation through the want of their incomes. Besides, the
commercial transactions of the whole Union are deeply affected
by the derangement of the exchange. The arrival of every post
and steamboat from New York is watched with intense anxiety,
to learn whether the banks in that city mean to suspend.
It may be proper to mention, for the information of readers
who are not old enough to recollect the suspension of specie
payments by the Bank of England, that a bank-suspension does
no necessarfly imply a bankruptcy. The Pennsylvania banks
proceed with their business as usual, only they decline to pay
specie for their obligations. The consequence is, that their bank
notes are at eleven per cent, discount in New York, where the
banks continue to redeem their obligations in specie.
The Deaf and Dumb. — I conversed with the Rev. Mr. Gal-
laudet, who for many years was the principal of the American
Asylum for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb, about the
mental condition of these individuals, and he dissented from Miss
Martineau's views regarding them, expressed in one of her works
on America. He considers that the knowledge which they pos
sess, if they be well educated, is both extensive and precise; and
that, if they be well trained, they are in general amiable and
happy in their dispositions.
Phrenology: Natural Language. — Every propensity and
sentiment of the mind, when predominantly active, produces a
peculiar tone in the voice, expression in the eye and counte
nance, and also a peculiar attitude and gait. This is the natural
language by which its activity is made known, and, when
strongly marked, it is recognised and understood in all ages and
countries. Lavater's system of physiognomy was founded on
this fact in nature; but it was imperfect, because Ife did not know
the priniitive faculties which the various expressions noted by
him indicated, and he also introduced, as signs of mental charac
ter, the hard parts of the face, which do not owe their forms to
the state of the brain. Phrenology reveals the functions of the
primitive faculties, and enables us to connect peculiar expressions

phrenology: natural language. 149
of voice, countenance, and gait, with the active condition of par
ticular powers, and also of particular groups of them, and thus
renders physiognomy, or natural language, a branch of the phi
losophy of mind. The Rev. Mr, GaUaudet, without the aid of
phrenology, but from extensive practical observation and experi
ence, has been led to the conclusion that these natural signs may be
taught with manifest advantage to children in general, as a branch
of education. In the Literary and Theological Review, No. II, for
June 1834, he published an article entitied "On the Language
of Signs" as- " auxiliary to the Christian Missionary." " It is
quite practicable," says he, " to convey by the countenance,
sings, and gestures, the import not only of all the terms em
ployed to denote the various objects of nature and art, and the
multifarious business and concerns of common life, byt also those
relating to the process of abstraction and generalisation, to the
passions and emotions of the heart, and to the powers and facifl-
ties of the understanding; or, in other words, the language of
the countenance, signs, and gestures, is an accurate, significant,
and copious medium of thought. Instances have occurred in
the instruction of the deaf and dumb, in which, in the space of
two years, 5000 words have been taught to several intelligent
pupils, who were previously entirely ignorant of them and of all
language, excepting that of their own natural signs, together
with a command of written language, which would place them
on an equality, with regard to the expression of their ideas, with
the most intelligent persons among those heathen nations who
have nothing but an oral language."
These views are not, in his case, purely theoretical, but
founded on experience. He adduces some examples in support
of them. "In the summer of 1818, a Chinese young man
passed through Hartford, Connecticut. He was so ignorant of
the English language that he could not express in it his most
common wants. As principal of the deaf and dumb asylum of
that place, I invited the stranger to spend an evening within its
walls, and introduced him to Mr. Laurent Clerc, the celebrated
deaf and dumb pupil of the Abbe Sicard, and at that time an
assistant-teacher in the asylum. The object of this introduc
tion was to ascertain to what extent Mr. Clerc, who was entirely
ignorant of the Chinese language, could conduct an inteUigent
conversation with the foreigner by signs and gestures merely.
The result of the experiment surprised all who were present.
Mr. Clerc learned from the Chinese many interesting facts re
specting the place of his nativity, his parents and their family,
his former pursuits in his own country, his residence in the
United States, and his notions regarding God and a future state.

150 phrenology: natural language.
By the aid of appropriate signs also, Mr. Clerc ascertained the
meaning of about twenty Chinese words." P. 201. I asked Mr.
GaUaudet how he knew that Mr. Clerc's inferences were cor
rect, and he told me that in this and all the other instances men
tioned in the article in question, he had ascertained either from
interpreters or dictionaries that they were so.
" About a year afterwards," he adds, " I visited CornwaU, in
Connecticut, where upwards of twenty heathen youths were at
that time receiviug education under the patronage of the Ameri
can Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions." He pro
pounded questions to them by signs. " For example: Thomas
Hoopoo, a native of Owhyhee, was asked if his parents were
living; how many brothers and sisters he had; when he left his
native, shores; whether his countrymen worshipped idols and
sacrificed human victims; how the women were treated by the
men; what was the climate of his country; what its productions;
with many inquiries of a similar nature, all of which he weU
comprehended, and to many of which he replied by signs.
The meaning, too, of a number of Owhyhean words was ascer
tained by signs merely, and found to correspond with the import
which had been previously assigned to them in a dictionary
which had been for some time preparing in tire school; and,
indeed, in a variety of instances, the most correct meaning of
such words was estabUshed, by the medium of signs, in a more
satisf ictory way than had been previously attempted."
" Opportunities have occurred of intercouse by signs between
the native Indians of our country, who have visited the institu
tion for the deaf and. dumb, and the instructors (of the pupUs),
the results of which, in a greater or less degree, have corres
ponded with those mentioned above."
" May not this curious language of signs and gestures be
made subservient to the speedy acquisition of the oral language
of people, who have no written or printed language, by the
Christian missionary, or to the communication to them of his
own language, or to their mutual intercourse with each other,
not only on ordinary, but on the most momentous topics, even
whUe they are entirely ignorant of each other's spoken language?"
To many persons these representations may appear almost
incredible, but I obtained some explanations which render them
more comprehensible. Mr. GaUaudet conversed by signs with
the Africans of the Amistad, and learned many particulars of
their history and opinions, and afterwards ascertained from an
interpreter of their language that his inferences were correct.
For example, to discover whether they recognised a God, he
assumed the natural language of veneration, looked up as if
beseeching and adoring, and pointed to the sky. " GooUy!"

phrenology: natural language. 151
said the Africans, " GooUy, Goolly!" then looking grave, they
imitated thunder, uttering the words " Goolly — Bung! Bung!"
There could be nodoubt that they gave their name for God.
The exposition of tiie natural language of the faculties given
in my lectures, led to these remarks. Mr. GaUaudet considers
that it would essentially benefit chUdren to teach them the natural
language of the faculties at the time when they learn to read.
The meaning of many words, particularly those which signify
emotions could be conveyed to them more effectually by this
medium than by any other. In exhibiting the natural language
of any faculty, the faculty itself is called into action, and teaching
the natural language will thus become an important auxiliary in
training children to virtue. He has the testimony of his own
e.xperience in favor of tliis view. In showing to his deaf and
dumb pupils the natural language of Benevolence, Veneration,
and the other higher sentiments, he was conscious that these
faculties became more active and were cultivated in himself. In
his pupils the effect was equally decisive. When they were out
of humor, the bland look of Benevolence, and the resigned ex
pression of Veneration, if perse veringly exhibited to them, rarely
failed to restore their equanimity and cheerfulness.
I owe to Mr. GaUaudet the first clear view of the importance
of natural language in common education,
A great part of his natural language is the same with tha
taught by phrenologists,, both being drawn from nature.*
Many years ago Mr. GaUaudet went to Edinburgh to study
under Mr. Kinniburgh, the teacher of the deaf and dumb in that
city; but Mr. Braidwood had placed him under a bond, with a
large penalty, not to instruct teachers for eight years. He and
the directors threw open the institution to Mr. GaUaudet, and^al-
lowed him to see everything, including the lessons that were
given to the pupUs, but they observed the terms of the bond, and
gave him no direct instruction. He then weut to Pans and
studied under the Abbe Sicard. His system of signs is described
in the EncyclopEfidia Americana. Mr, G. prefers the single-
hand alphabet. It is as precise and expressive as the double-
hand alphabet, and can be used when one hand is disabled or
otherwise employed.
* In visiting the institution for the deaf and dumb, I mentioned to Mr.
GaUaudet that, when a boy attendinar the High School of Edinburgh, I had
learned the finger-alphabet, and could use it readily, but that my mother had
told me that speaking with the fingers was forbidden in Scripture, and I
had given it up and forgotten it. He was surprised to hear of this prohi
bition; but he subsequently found the verse to which I alluded in Proverbs,
eh. vi, V. 12 — "A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward
mouth. He winketh with his eyes, he speakcth with his feet, he teachetk
with his fingers."

1 52 SUNDAY.
Oct. 12. Ther. 48°. TTie Temperaments. — To-day I gave
an exercise on the temperaments, which was well attended. The
predominating temperaments were the sanguine-bUious and the
nervous-bilious: There were a fe-^v instances of nervous-bilious-
lymphatic. Taxes. — The revenue of the general government of the United
States is almost all derived from custom-house duties, the post-
office, and sales of pubhc lands. The. taxes paid by the particu
lar states, and also by the counties and townships, are raised in
a very simple manner. Select men, or assessors, are appointed
in different districts by the citizens. They estimate the -\vhole
property, real and personal, of each individual. In Connecticut
the annual revenue of the property thus estim-ated is assumed to
be six per cent., and the taxes are imposed in the form of an
income-tax on it. The sum total of all the taxes payable in
Connecticut, ex;clusive of the duties to the United States' govern
ment, amounts to about four per cent, on this estimated reve'nue.
The select men are changed from time to time, and the circum
stances of each citizen are so well known that the assessments on
the whole are fairly imposed. The rule generally followed is to
assume a pretty large amount of property to belong to each indi
vidual, and to leave him to prove by his books and affidavit that
the estimate is too high. Assuming the whole free property of
a citizen to amount to $20,000, or 4000/. sterling, the revenue
of this sum at six per cent, would be $1200; four per cent, on
which would amount to $48, or nearly 10/. sterling, being the
aggregate amount of aU the taxes on an income of 240/. sterling
per annum.
Oct. 13. Ther. 54°. Sunday. — We heard a sound orthodox
discourse in Dr. Hawes' Church from a young clergyman, but
were disappointed in not hearing Dr. Hawes ^ himself. An
American gentleman, who had travelled much on the Continent
of Europe, and to whom I remarked the similarity which exists
between a Sunday in Scotland and in Connecticut, observed, that
he had been much struck at first with the difference of a Conti
nental Sabbath from both. If a French famUy, said he, of the
most respectable character, should come from Paris to Connecti
cut, and follow here the practices which they had been accus
tomed to observe from their infancy at home on Sunflays, they
would, by our laws, be hable to fine and imprisonment, and if
they did hot take warning in time, they might, by an accidental
outburst of popular feelings, be chased out of the state, or
lynched! The kingdom of heaven, we may hope, wiU ulti
mately receive at least aU the Christian nations, if not the whole
famfly of mankind; and it appears strange that they should find
it so difficult to tolerate each other's habits on earth!

effects of the institutions of ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 153
Oct. 15. Ther. 51°. Effects of the Institutions of England
and America. — I lately conversed with an American gentieman,
the father of a famfly and the owner of a princely estate, all
cleared and improved, on the different effects which the institu
tions of England and those of the United States produce on men
placed in circumstances like his. We were led to the conversa
tion by reading the remarks of Baron Perignon, in his " Vingt
Jours a Londres," at the coronation of Queen Victoria, in which
he says — " Here I make an observation which relates to the
manners of this country of aristocracy and liberty, and which
establishrs an immense difference between them and the French.
In France, the two cries of the Revolution were, no privileges
{point de privileges), equality for all [pour tous /' egalite). In
England, on the contrary, all is privilege, and one may almost
say that there is no equality. In this country, each has his rank,
each his caste, — he looks above and below him, that he may not
step too high, nor descend too low; and there is no condition,
however bad it may be, in which he does not find something to
satisfy his pride in beingable to class himself above some other
person." The "Court Journal" of 11th May 1839, after quo
ting this passage, adds — "These remarks are certainly well
founded. England is essentially an aristocratic country; — ever)'
class is an is aristocracy of itself, forming, as it were, an ' im-
perium in imperio,' preserving its own importance, and affect
ing an exclusiveness as respects those of lower station. It is
the extensive prevalence of this principle that precludes the pos
sibility of equality, and which is a bar to that famUiarity which
exists in France, and prevails, indeed, even between domestics
and those they serve."
I asked my friend, who had been in Britain, what, if his
princely domain had been situated in England, the great object
of his -ambition would have been? " Tell me your opinion first,"
said he. "Well, then," said I, " in all probability you would
have been intriguing at court, or throwing your whole influence
into the scale of one or other of the political parties, and bargain
ing for a peerage, to gratify your vanity. You would have exe
cuted an entaU to transmit your property to your eldest son and
his heirs; — and, in short, you would have been occupied chiefly
with projects of private or family ambition." He replied, that
"he could well understand the powerful influence of the English
institutions in giving a selfish direction to the ambition of an in
dividual placed in circumstances like his, and in inducing him to
attempt to secure high rank to himself, and permanent wealth to
his remote posterity; but that in the United States all slfich pro
jects would be visionary dreams. Our institutions," he con
tinued, "produce a higher aim. I know perfectly that, under

154 EDUCATION IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
them, my property must be divided. It wiU make aU my own
children rich; but it wiU be again subdivided among their chil
dren; and in less than a century it wfll, in aU probabUity, have
passed entirely into other hands, and no trace of it as a domain,
or of us as a famfly, in the English sense, will be left. This
makes me feel that I can best serve my posterity by employing
my present influence in improving the institutions and general
condition of my country. If the United States shaU preserve
their freedom, and increase in inteUigence and virtue, as it is my
earnest desire that they should do, then I know that my posterity
wiU enjoy the best field for the exercise of their o-^^'ii talents and
virtues, and that every one of them will command that extent of
fortune, consideration, and happiness, which his qualities wiU
deserve; and I desire for them no better inheritance."
In point of fact, the effect is precisely what is here described.
This gentleman exercises a generous and refined hospitality,
without pretension or parade, and devotes his time and fortune
to the improvement of the public institutions of the state in.which
he resides. Among other objects, he has aided very efficiently
the friends of education, in obtaining a law passed which pro
vides for the establishment of a library in connection with every
common school district. He appeared to me to be a nobler
character than an Englishman scrambling for a peerage, as the
reward of political subserviency, to gratify his individual ambi
tion. The Eglinton Tournament. — At the time when the preceding
conversation occurred, the New York newspapers contained
pretty extensive reports of the EgUnton Tournament. The or
dinary Americans, who have no distinct notion of the state of
society in Britain, cannot comprehend it. How any men, not
insane, could expend such large sums of money in such pure
Tom- foolery, appears to them very mysterious. The inteUigent
Americans express their gratitude to Providence that they have
no titled and wealthy aristocracy to play such childish and fan
tastic tricks, and ask me whether there are not numerous poor
and ignorant persons in Scotiand for whose instruction 40,000/.
or 50,000/. might have been better employed than in getting up
this pageant. "The tyranny of public opinion" would prevent
any simUar waste of resonrces in the United States, although in
dividuals could be found wUling to indulge in it.
Education in the State of New York.— One of the most com
mon errors, in my opinion, committed by foreigners who write
about America, as well as by the Americans themselves, is
greafly to ovei--estimate the educational attainments of the peo
ple. The provision in money made by the law for the instruc
tion of aU classes is large compared with such countries as

EDUCATION IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 1 55
Britain or Austria, but, contrasted with what is necessary to be
stow a really good education on the people, it is still very defi
cient. The farmers, for example, are indisposed to dispense
with the services of their older chUdren, during the busy season
of agricultural labor, nor are .they generally in circumstances to
admit of it. It is extremely difficult, therefore, to keep open
district schools (except for very young children, taught by fe
males for a small compensation) for more than four or five months
in the year. A school district in the rural parts of Ne-vi^ York
state contains only from ten to twenty families. Allowing $350
or $400 per annum to be a moderate remuneration for a qualified
teacher (and this is less than a carpenter or blacksmith would
earn,) it is nearly impossible to raise this amount from so small
a number of persons, most of whom are in moderate circum
stances. At present, the sum raised for the salaries of common
school teachers is only $12 50 cents (or 2/. 13s.) per month
for each teacher, this being, according to the report of the
superintendent of common schools, the average compensation
given in the state of New York in 1836 to male teachers. If the
people would have properly , qualified teachers, the sum that
would need to be raised is from $70 to $100 per month, for
each of them, as the school term might be longer or shorter.
This the people will not pay, and the consequence is, tiiat the
education received by probably nineteen-twentieths of the chil
dren, in the agricultural districts, owing to the condition of most
of the common schools, is defective in the extreme; nor can there
be any decided improvement in the condition of the schools
without an improvement in salary, and in tiie Uterary attainments
and professional skill of the teachers.
To supply, in some degree, this great defect, a law was
passed in the State of New York, about four years ago, empow
ering such school-district in the state to tax itself to the amount
of $20 for the first year, and $10 for each subsequent year, for
the purchase of books for a district library. There are 10,207
districts in the whole state, and the work of forming these libra
ries is begun by the friends of education, .and is a popular mea
sure. Some of the clergy, however, object to it, because it
appears to assume that "the mere intellectual instruction of a
community will necessarily tend to reform that community," a
principle which they do not admit.*
Phrenology enables us to perceive that intellectual instraction
wiU not cultivate the moral and religious sentiments, and that
only sedulous training, added to intellectual instruction, wiU lead
to virtuous conduct. The Americans need proper normal schools
* See the American Annals of Education, vol. vii, p. 441.

156 EDUCATrON IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
in which their teachers may be instructed in the philosophy of
mind, and in the art of training and teaching, and they must
also pay them handsomely before they wfll command gobd
education. If the Americans were animated by an enlightened
patriotism, they would submit to a large taxation to accomplish
this object, because on its fulfilment will depend the future
peace and prosperity of their country.
A few years ago Mr. Robert Cunningham, formerly Principal
of the Edinburgh Institution for Languages, Mathematics, &c.,
a full account of which is given in President Bache's interesting
Report on Education in Europe, was compelled by the state of
his health to relinquish his situation. Having spent his two
months' vacation in 1835 in visiting the principal schools of
Prussia, and the same period of the subsequent year in an edu
cational tour in France and Switzerland, he had become deeply
interested in the subject of Normal Schools, and on the failure
of his health, partly with a view to its recovery, and pardy in
the hope of being instrumental in introducing Normal Schools
into America, he visited the United States. After travelling
over the Eastern and Middle States, and visiting the principal
schools, he was induced, by the hope of carrying out his ulte
rior object, to accept an appointment as Professor of Ancient
Languages in Lafayette College, Pennsylvania. Here he la
bored for nearly two years, endeavoring by every means in his
power to arouse public attention to the subject of Normal
Schools, and to obtain support in carrying out his views. Dis
appointed in his expectation, he received in the interim an iuvi-
tation to return to Scotland, and to become Rector of the Normal
Seminary in Glasgow, at a salary of £300 ($1500) per annum,
which situation he now fills with great credit to himself and
advantage to his country. As simUar institutions are much
wanted in the United States, he has, at my request, kindly pre
pared for this work an interesting description of the one over
which he presides. It is printed in the Appendix, No. VI.

157

CHAPTER VI.
The Banks — Schools — Ridicule of Public Characters — Salaries of the Judges
— Slavery^-Washington College^State Prison at Weathersfield — Moral
Responsibility — The Bearing of Phrenology on Scripture — The Hart
ford Retreat — Phrenology — The Deaf and Dumb Institution — Hartford —
To Worcester and Boston — Boston — The Pulpit — Phrenology — Educa
tion — The Negroes of the Amistad — Phrenology — The Sub-Treasury
Law — The Colonisation Society — Orestes Augustus Brownson — Insanity
— The Law — The Election in New York — The Fifteen Gallon License
Law^Taxation — The Swedenborgians — Whig Caucus Meeting — New
York Election — Boston Election — The License Law — Ventilation of
Schools. 1839.
Oct. 17. Ther. 48°. 77*6 Banks.— The arrival of every
mail continues to be watched with unabated interest to ascertain
the progress of suspension. The banks of New York, Massa
chusetts, and Connecticut have all declared their resolution to
continue to pay specie; those of Rhode, Island, and the banks to
the south and west of Philadelphia, with few exceptions, have
suspended. The stock of the United States Bank has been down
to $70 in New York. The consequences to trade are ruinous.
The difference of exchange between Phfladelphia and New York
was at one time 13 per cent. If a merchant had $1000 in his
banker's hands in Philadelphia, and owed that sum, payable in
New York, he must have added to it $130 of exchange, before
he could have retired his note in New York. If, previous to the
suspension, a merchant in New York had sold $1000 worth of
goods to a merchant in Philadelphia, and taken the purchaser's
promissory-note for the amount payable in the latter city, he
would have received payment,, after the suspension, in a depre
ciated currency consisting of suspended bank notes, and he would
have lost 13 per cent, in exchange before he could have con
verted it into the currency of his own domicile. On the other
hand, if a merchant in New York had owed $1000 payable in
Phfladelphia, he would have gained 13 per cent.; for he could
have bought up PhUadelphia bank notes from the brokers in New
York at that rate of discount, which, when sent to Philadelphia,
would have discharged his debt to the extent of their nominal
amount. The exchange against Baltimore rose to 13 per cent.,
VOL. II. — 12

158 THE BANKS.
against Mississippi to 30 per cent., and against Cincinnati to 18
and 20 per cent. The citizens of the specie-paying states, who
owed debts in these districts, bought up the irredeemable currency
at these rates of discount, and discharged their obligations with
it, making an enormous gain; while the merchants of the sus
pended territories either ceased to retire their obligations payable
in the specie-paying cities, or submitted to the same extensive
loss of exchange, to maintain their credit. By far the greater
number ceased to pay altogether.
The law afforded no reniedy for these evils. If a merchant
sent a bill for $1000, payable at his own counting-house in New
York by a Philadelphia merchant, to the latter city, under pro
test, and commenced a prosecution for payment, the law's delay
enabled the debtor to stave off judgment until the meeting of the
legislature, when they legalised the suspension, and made all the
debts due by the citizens of the state payable in their own cur
rency, thus throwing the loss of exchange on their distant cre
ditors. During the bank-suspension in 1837, the state of New
York paid the interest of its debt, not in its own depreciated
bank notes, but in specie; that is to say, it paid the difference of
exchange in addition to the interest; but the state of Pennsylvania
paid the interest of her debt in her own depreciated bank notes,
and made her foreign creditors sustain the loss of the ex
change, (a)
Great as these evils are in a mere pecuniary point of view,
their moral consequences are stUl more deplorable. They ex
hibit extensive mismanagement and speculation on the part of
the most wealthy and influential institutions of the Union, ac
companied by a disregard of their legal obligations; and this
conduct appears to sanction every individual departure from the
dictates of honesty and prudence. They also defraud industry
of its natural rewards; for no profits can compensate the loss
occasioned by these disturbances in the value of the currency.
In short, the unjust loss and dishonest gain, the relaxation of
every principle of honor and punctuality, and the utter derange
ment of commercial transactipns, which attend bank-suspensions,
render them national calamities of the most formidable descrip
tion; and only the amazing vigor, industry, economy, and
youthful enterprise of this people, could enable them to endure,
and recover from these shocks. In the meantime, however,
individual suffering is great and extensive. Innumerable famihes
are compeUed to give up housekeeping, to seU their houses and
furniture, and go with their children into hotels or boarding-
(a) This injustice was speedily corrected by the state, and has not been
repeated since. j

RIDICULE OF PUBLIC CHARACTERS. 1 59
houses. Others are forced to sell their horses and carriages,
and dismiss their servants; and nearly all to stint and economise,
amidst fear and trembling, never certain what evils a day may
bring forth. The number of bankrupts has become so great,
and so many men of unquestionable character are irresistibly
involved in ruin, that the feelings of all have become hardened,
and insolvency ceases to be regarded as a disgrace. It is vain
to descant upon these evils, and vainer still to lament over them,
unless a remedy be applied that will strike at their root. This
can be done only by a thorough reformation of the currency
of the whole Union. Since General Jackson destroyed the
United States Bank as a national institution, the different states
have encouraged banking within their own territories, and the
legislatures of many of them have become partners in the banks.
Each bank has issued its own paper as extensively as possible;
and in prosperous times, when there was no demand for specie
for Europe, there was literally no check on these emissions.
The two measures of the Democratic party, requiring the public
lands and the government duties to be paid in specie, are both
recent; yet they supplied the first checks that have operated
since the destruction of the United States Bank, and their ten
dency is most salutary, although they have been condemned by
the Whigs.
Oct. 17. Ther. 58°. Schools. — The secretary of the Ame
rican Common School Society "estimates the total number of
children in the United States between the ages of four and sixteen
years at 3,500,000; and of this number 600,000 do not enjoy
the benefits of a common school education." [Chronicle of the
Church.) Oct. 21. Ther. 38°. We attended the EpiscopaUan church
and heard Mr. Burgess preach. The church is well appointed
and well filled, and the music was excellent. They use an im
proved prayer book.
Ridicule of Public Characters. — The Ameiicans indulge ex
tensively in ridicule of the governors and other men set in
authority over them. The judges and clergy appear to be the
only public characters who escape from this outrage. The
practice exerts an evil influence on the tninds of the people them
selves. It diminishes their Veneration and fosters their Self-
Esteem, and is without a shadow of apology. The subjects of
despots are often forced, by an irresistible and irresponsible
power, to groan under the administration of weak or wicked
men, and have no means of escaping from their inflictions, or
even of solacing themselves amidst their sufferings, except by
venting their displeasure in satire and wit. In America the peo
ple choose their own magistrates of aU grades; and in Connect!-

160 SALARIES OF THE JUDGES.
cut the judges for a long series of years were nominated every
six months, and even now they are elected annually. It seems
a reasonable expectation that the electors should reverence the
objects of their own choice, at least whfle they permit them to
retain power; but the minority, who do npt concur in the ap
pointment, take revenge for their disappointment by lampooning
the individuals who have obtained the suffrages of the majority.
They plead the example of England in extenuation of this con
duct. In England, the person and character of the sovereign
are sacred by law, but the ministers are delivered over to the
public as objects of unbounded invective and derision. In the
United States, the people themselves are the sovereigns, and
they are as sacred as the Queen in England. No newspapers,
or orators, dare to proclaim their ignorance, their fickleness,
their love of money, or any of their other imperfections. The
president of the Union and the governors of the states are
merely their executive magistrates or ministers, and, like their
prototypes in Britain, they are abandoned to the abuse and ridi
cule of all.
Salaries of the Judges. — The judges of Connecticut, as before
mentioned, were for many years elected by the people half-year
ly, and now they are elected annually. So forcibly, however,
does habit, and the tendency to acquiescence in established ar
rangements operate, that the judges are regularly re-elected, and
are allowed to serve tUl they reach seventy years of age, when
they are no longer eligible. In fact, an annual appointment is
very nearly as secure a tenure of office as one for life, unless the
incumbent be guilty of glaring incapacity or misconduct. The
salaries, however, m this state are so small that they present no
temptation to a lawyer, in even moderate practice, to leave the
bar and ascend the bench. The chief justice receives only
$1 100 per annum of salary, and the four associate justices $1050
each. The salary of the governor of the state is $1100. An
instance occurred, not many 3'ears ago, of a chief justice, a
man of talent and high legal accomplishments, whose famUy in
creased to such an extent, that he could not maintain and educate
them on his salary. He resigned his office, returned to the bar,
and speedily doubled or tripled his income. The Americans
respect men of wealth; and as there are now many persons in
Connecticut, in no very exalted station, whose incomes are
double or triple those of the judges, the latter are liable to be
looked down on by vulgar minds on account of their poverty.
They are also unquestionably open to strong influences from
popular opinion. Nevertheless, the testimony of good and able
men here is strong in favor of their inteUigence, uprightness, and
independence.

MORAL RESPONSIBILITY. 161
Slavery. — I conversed with a gentleman who passed a winter
in Bermuda, when there were many Negro slaves on the island.
None, however, had been imported for more than fifty years
before the time of his visit, and during that interval they had
been educated, well treated, and employed as pilots, and in other
offices of tnist. He said that they were finely-formed men, their
features had improved, and their countenances had lost the heavy
African expression. They not olily looked but actually were
intelligent. This shows the capability of the Negro race of im
provement by cnltivation.
Washington College. — This is the name of the college in
Hartford. In 1840 the number of students was-^resident gradu
ates, 13; seniors, 14; juniors, 13; Sophomores, 29; freshmen, 14.
Total, 83.
Oct. 22. Ther. 22°. State Prison at Weathersfield.— To-
day I visited this state prison; situated a few miles from Hart
ford, with six or seven gentlemen who have attended my lectures.
Among them were the Rev. Principal Totten of Washington
College, the Rev. Mr. GaUaudet, Dr. A. Brigham, and others.
It is conducted on the principles adopted in the state prisons at
Boston and Auburn already described. There are nearly 200
prisoners at present on the books. They sleep in separate cells,
but labor in large workshops, back to back, and in presence of
keepers, who prevent speech or communication. The prison
yields about $7000 per annum of profit to the state, a satisfac
tory proof that it is managed with vigor and economy. I here
learned a curious fact iUustrative of the Connecticut character.
By the existing statutes, adultery is a crime punishable by three
years' imprisonment and hard labor in the state prison. The
law is rarely executed against ladies and gentlemen who go
astray; but when an idle pauper becomes a burden on the city's
funds, it is not uncommon to permit a few facilities for the com
mission of this crime to encompass him; — if he err he is tried,
condemned, and sent to the state prison, where his morals are
corrected, and he is forced to maintain himself.
Moral Responsibility. — In the course of my lectures in Hart
ford, I had stated and illustrated the difference between the heads
of men who are habitual criminals, and those who are virtuously
disposed, and impressed on the minds of my audience the pecu
liar forms and proportions of the animal, moral, and intellectual
regions of the brain which distinguish these two classes, and also
those which are found in the intermediate class in whom the
three regions are nearly in equUibrium. Mr. Pillsbury, the su
perintendent of the prison, brought a criminal intQ his office,
without speaking one word concerning his crime or history. I
declined to examine his head myself, but requested the gentie-

162 MORAL RESPONSIBILITY.
men who accompanied me to do so, engaging to correct their
observations, if they erred. They proceeded with the examina
tion, and stated the inferences which they drew respecting the
natural dispositions of the individual. Mr. Pillsbury then read
from a manuscript paper, which he had prepared before we
came, the character as known to him. The coincidence between
the two was complete. The prisoner was withdrawn, another was
introduced, and the same process was gone through, with the same
result in regard to him. So with a third, and a fourth. Among
the cirminals, there were striking differences in intellect, and in
. some of the feelings, which were correctly stated by the observers.
These experiments, I repeat, were made by the gentlemen
who accompanied me, some of whom were evangelical clergy ¦
men, of the highest reputation. They inferred the dispositions
from their own perceptions of the forms of the heads. They
recognised the great deficiencies in the moral organs, and the
predominance of the animal organs, in those individuals whom
Mr. Pillsbury pronounced to be, in his opinion, incoriigible; for
the question was solemnly put to him by Dr. Brigham, \vhether
lie found any of the prisoners to be irreclaimable under the ex
isting system of treatment, and he acknowledged that he did.
One of the individuals who was examined had been thirty years
in the state prison, under four different sentences, and in him the
moral region of the brain was exceedingly deficient. I respect
fully pressed upon the attention of the reverend gentlemen, that
the facts which they had observed were institutions of the Crea
tor, and that it was in vain for man to be angry with them, to
deny them, or to esteem them of light importance.
Mr. pillsbury added that he could not trace above one in fifty
criminals who was thoroughly corrected, and the reformed were
young offenders committed for not less than five years for the
first time. A shorter confinement led them directly back to
crime. More offenders against the person than against property
are reformed.
In treating of the difference between the functions of Indi
viduality, which observes things that exist, and those of Event
uality, which observes motion, or active phenomena, I had men
tioned in my lectures that a spectator of a mUitary review, who
has large Individuality and smaU Eventuality, will observe and
remember the detafls of the uniforms, and other physical ap
pearances of the men, but overlook and forget the evolutions;
whUe another spectator with large Eventuality and deficient In
dividuality will observe and recollect the evolutions, but over
look and forget all the minute particulars in dress and appear
ance. It having been observed that Mr. PiUsbury's head presented
this last combination, Mr. GaUaudet, without giving any expla-

BEARING OF PHRENOLOGY ON SCRIPTURE. 163
nation of his object, asked him whether in seeing a review, he
would observe and recollect best the appearance of the men or
the evolutions. He replied instantiy, " The evolutions."
Oct. 23. Ther. 32°. The Bearing of Phrenology on Scrip
ture. — The facts before mentioned have led several members of
my class to serious reflections on the relation between- Phre
nology and the prevalent interpretations of Scripture. I have
repeated to them what I have said to all otiiers, that Nature will
not bend, nor will she cease to operate, and that if they discover
any discrepancies between her truths and their own interpreta
tions of the Bible, these interpretations must be corrected and
brought into harmony with nature.
I afterwards learned that a relaxation of the principles of Cal
vinism has already taken place in the theology of Connecticut,
which renders the views of the human mind presented by Phre
nology less formidable to the divines of that state than to those
of the Church of Scotland. Dr. Taylor, Professor of Divinity
in Yale CoUege, celebrated as one of the most orthodox institu
tions in the Union, has for some years abandoned the doctrine
of the total corruption of human nature, and been supported by
a large majority of the clergy of the state. Dr. "Tyler now
leads the orthodox, or total-corruptjon party, and has been
enabled to found a new theological semiijary at Windsor, on the
Connecticut, which numbers seventeen or eighteen students. I
have looked into the controversy on this subject, and find the
following statement of Dr. Taylor's views given by himself in
a letter addressed to Dr. Hawes, of Hartford, dated the 1st of
February, 1832:—
" I do not believe," says he, " that the posterity of Adam
are, in the proper sense of the language, guilty of his sin; or
that the ill-desert of that sin is truly theirs; or that they are
punished for that sin. But I do believe, that, by the wise and
holy constitution of God, all mankind, in consequence of Adam's
sin, become sinners by their own act.
" I do not believe that the nature of the human mind, which
God creates, is itself sinful; or that God punishes men for the
nature which he creates; or that sin pertains to any thing in the
mind which precedes all conscious mental action, and which is
neither a matter of consciousness nor of knowledge. But I do
believe that sin, universally, is no other than selfishness, or a
preference of one's self to all others — of some inferior good to
God; that this free voluntary preference is a permanent prin
ciple of action in all the unconverted, and that this is sin, and
all that ill the Scriptures is meant by sin. I also believe, that
such is the nature of the human mind, that it becomes the occa
sion of universal sin in men in all the appropriate circumstances

164 PHRENOLOGY.
of their existence; and that, therefore, they are truly and pro
perly said to be sinners by nature."*
The phrenological doctrine, that every faculty is manifested
by a distinct organ; that the Creator constituted the organ, and
ordained its functions; that therefore each is good in itself, and
has a legitimate sphere of action; but that each is also liable to be
abused, and that abuses constitute sin, approaches closely to Dr.
Taylor's views, as expressed in the preceding letter. There is
a general opinion abroad that Dr. Taylor is still progressive in
his opinions, and that he will announce farther modifications of
Calvinism. Those who embrace liberal opinions in theology
say, that they expect him still farther to purify the faith of Con
necticut; while those who adhere to the ancient creed express
their fears that the extent of his backslidings is not yet fuUy
developed. Oct. 24. Ther. 51°. The Hartford Retreat.— This is a
lunatic asylum beautifully situated, and having 17 acres of ground
attached to it. The patients perform no labor, and th6 classifica
tion is very imperfect; nevertheless Dr. Fuller the physician
mentioned that the cures amount to 90 per cent, of the recent
cases. He told me that a part of the head which he had pointed
out (Concentrativeness) is always small in the incurably insane,
or that it becomes small if the disease be continued; and that,
when that part is large, he expects recovery. This was new to
me, and I record it, to call the attention of phrenologists to the
subject. Dr. Brigham, who accompanied me, pointed out a
case of mania proceeding from disease of the cerebellum, which
he had successfully treated by local depletion in that region.
Oct. 25. Ther. 48°. Phrenology. — I delivered the last
* The controversy on this point extends to a volume of above 400 pages.
Those parts of it which I consulted were the following: — " Two discourses
on the nature of Sin delivered before the students of Yale College, July
30, 1826, by Eleazar F, Fitch, Professor of Theology." " Concio ad clerum,
a Sermon delivered in the chapel of Yale College, September 10, 1828, by
Nathaniel W. Taylor." " A Review of the above Sermon by Joseph Har
vey, 1829." " An examination of the said Review, Hartford, 1829." " An
Inquiry into the nature of Sin, as exhibited in Dr. Dwight's Theology. By
Clericus, 1829." " Strictures on the Review of Dr. Spring's Dissertation
on the means of Regeneration. By Bennet Tyler, D. D., Portland, 1829."
" A Vindication of said Strictures, by the same author, Portland, 1830."
" Letters to Rev. Nathaniel W. Taylor, D. D., by Leonard Woods, D. D.,
Andover, 1830." " Correspondence between Rev. Dr. Taylor and Rev. Dr.
Hawes, Hartford, January, 1832." " Remarks on Rev. Dr. Taylor's Let.
ters to Dr. Hawes. By Bennet Tyler, D. D., Boston, 1832." " Letters on
the present state and probable results of Theological Speculations in Con
necticut, 1832." " A Dissertation on Native Depravity. By Gardiner
Spring, New York, 1833." These productions show at once the import
ance attached to the question under discussion, and the thorough investiga-
tion which it received.

THE DEAF AND DUMB INSTITUTION. 165
lecture of my course, and a committee was appointed to present
resolutions. Oct. 26. Ther. 47°. The committee waited upon me, and
presented the resolutions, which are printed in the Appendix,
No. VI. Tickets were, at my request, presented to the editors
of all the periodicals published in Hartford, who, as I was in
formed, attended the lectures. They did not, so far as I ob
served, notice them during their progress, and I was told that
the cause of their silence was the fear of giving offence by either
approving or disapproving. After the close of the course, " The
Congregationalist" printed a favorable notice, but avoided offer
ing any opinion on the merits of Phrenology.
The Deaf and Dumb Institution. — We visited this institu
tion along with Mr. GaUaudet. The United States' government
gave a donation in its favor of a township of land in Alabama;
which has been sold, and the proceeds invested; audit is thereby
enabled to provide food, lodging, and tuition, for its pupfls, for
the annual payment by each of $100, or 20/. sterling. Mr. Gal-
laudet called our attention to the happy expression of the coun
tenances -of the pupils, and again differed from Miss Martineau
in his opinion of the mental condition of the deaf and dumb. He
regards it quite possible, when their natural talents and disposi
tions are good, to educate them, and to train their dispositions
thoroughly. We saw them perform a variety of exercises, indi
cating great intelligence and mental resources.
I gave Mr. GaUaudet the proposition, that, " many years ago,
Columbus discovered America," to be communicated by signs
merely, without finger-spelling or the use of any language except
that of the countenance and gestures, to his former pupil David.
In our presence he made a variety of signs, and David wrote,
" A long time ago Columbus sailed west and discovered Ameri
ca." The communication made to David was, that, " a long
time ago a great man sailed west," &c.; he supplied the name
from his general reading. Mr. G. next mentioned to us, that he
would communicate by signs also, without words, that " the
American leaders signed the Declaration of Independence." He
made a variety of gesticulations, and David wrote, "John Han
cock advised them to make war with England and be inde
pendent." David has a large anterior lobe of the brain and very
large organ of Imitation, with an excellent development of the
moral organs, and a sanguine and nervous temperament. He is
now one of the assistant teachers of the Institution, and supports
his aged mother out of his salary. When he was a child, she
lamented over his deafness, and regarded him as her greatest
burden. He is now her only stay.
We saw also Julia Brace, who is blind, deaf, and dumb. The

166 THE PULPIT.
anterior lobe of her brain is weU developed, indicating natural
intellectual talent, but the coronal region is rather deficient. She
has great acuteness in smell and touch; and delivered our hand
kerchiefs to us by smell, after they had been mixed, and we had
changed places. She examined C — — 's dress from her bonnet
to her shoes, most carefully, by .touch. She dresses herself,
makes her own bed, and does up her own hair; but she has re
ceived very littie instruction, and seems unhappy. She has
neither occupation nor amusement. As she has large organs of
Time, I recommended that she should be taught to beat time for
her entertainment. The deaf and dumb pupils here dance with
pleasure and success.
Oct. 27. Ther. 53°. 7%e Pm//w7.— To-day we heard the
Rev. Dr. Hawes preach. His text was in Matthew, vi, 19.
" Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth," &c. He is
the eminent Congregationalist minister to whom Dr. Taylor's
letter before quoted was addressed. He agrees with Dr. Taylor
in his opinions about original sin. He preached a bold, liberal^
and practical sermon, in relation to the commercial crisis which
has just occurred. He told his congregation that a character
made up Of deep anxieties about dollars and cents could not be
pleasing to God; that the wealth of many of them was about to
be swept away; and that, from their natural reluctance to part
with it, strong temptations to act dishonestly would arise; but
he entreated them to part with aU freely except their integrity.
God required them to pay all they owed, to the last cent, and if
they did so, so far as they had the means, and preserved their
honor, they would be more worthy than if they parted with con
science, and had the whole world as their own. He said that
there is something fundamentally wrong in the " credit system"
of this country. Only one young man in twelve who begins
business in New York succeeds and becomes rich: the rest
pass through speculation and various fortunes to bankruptcy and
ultimate ruin. " The crash which is now heard at a distance
will soon reach you, and the laboring poor will be thrown out of
employment, and they must rely on you for subsistence. The
missionaries whom you have sent abroad will look to you for a
continuation of your supplies; you must not abandon them in the
wilderness. You can answer these calls only by retrenchment.
Calculate the sums you spend on sumptuous clothing, elegant
furniture, and costiy entertainments, and lop off part in time,
and prepare the saving for these caUs. Do not despond. When
aU your accumulations are gone, you wiU have your fertUe land,
your bright sun, your strong arms; and if you preserve also a
pure conscience, you wiUstiUhave the best blessings of life, and
you know that God wiU never cease to be gracious." This is

TO WORCESTER AND BOSTON. 167
merely a faint outline of the discourse, written down from me
mory after my return home from the church. In tone, matter,
and manner, it was bold, searching, honest, yet sympathetic and
encouraging — such, in short, as sermons should generally be.
It bore the directest reference to real life, and applied Christianity
to practical duties. Instead of being forgotten as soon as ut
tered,* as many sermons are, my impression is that it will be
distinctly remembered in Hartford long after the present day.
Hartford. — The situation of Hartford is very beautiful, and
many of the citizens live in detached villas surrounded by grass
plots and shrubberies, situated on gentle eminences commanding
extensive views of the vaUey of the Connecticut and the hills
by which it is bounded. The custom of being over-housed is
said to prevail here extensively. I was told that the annual ex-
pendituie in many of these large and handsome villas wfll not
exceed $1500 (£300 sterling) per annum. In England, they
would suffice for the accommodation of families possessing
£1500 or $7500 a-year.
Oct. 28. Ther. 48°. We left Hartford with sincere respect
for the kind friends whose society we had enjoyed, and, at 2
P. M., safled up the river for Springfield. The water in the
Connecticut is now very low, and, although the steamboat is
smaU and draws little water, we could not pass the rapids, but
entered and passed through a canal six miles long. We rose
by three locks of ten feet in height each, and again entered the
river. The steamboat has its wheel and paddles in the stern.
In the canal we moved at the rate of six miles an hour, and the
surge was not greater than I have seen raised by a tow-boat
going at the same rate. For ten days past, the Weather has
been, and still continues to be, clear, calm, and mild. The rich
tints of autumn render the woods gorgeously beautiful, and the
whole scenery is exceedingly picturesque. We arrived at
Springfield at half-past six.
Oct. 29. Ther. 40°. To Worcester and Boston.— This
day, at half-past eleven, we started for Worcester by the rail-
* The Edinburgh Review for October 1840 expresses " our wonder that
there should be so small a proportion of sermons destined to live; that, ent
of the million and upwards preached annually throughout the Empire, there
should be a very few that are remembered three whole days after they are
delivered, — fewer still that are committed to the press, scarcely one that is
not in a few years absolutely forgotten." P. 66. There is only one answer
that can be given to this statement. As the sermons are preached by the
best educated men in the country, and by men of at least average abilities,
the subjects of them must be such that they do not stand in a natural rela
tion to the human faculties, and therefore do not interest or edify their
hearers. In no other department of industry would such a waste of labor
be permitted.

168 TO WORCESTER AND BOSTON.
road, which has been opened since we travelled to Springfield a
month ago. Yesterday a stray horse had its legs and head cut
off on this railroad by the engine, and the night before a carter
had left a cart with stones standing on the track, against which
a train loaded with merchandise had run in the dark and been
smashed to pieces. We hoped to be more fortunate, and were
so; but, although we encountered no danger, our patience was
sufiicientiy tried. About ten miles from Springfield we came to
a dead "fix," and the whole train stood motionless for three
long hours, enlivened only by occasional walks in the sunshine,
and visits to a cake-store, the whole stock of eatables in which
was in time consumed, the price of them having risen from
hour to hour in proportion to the demand. The advance was
equal to at least 250 per cent, between the first sales and the
last. The cause of our detention was the non-arrival of tiie
train from Worcester, which, from there being only a single
track of rails, could pass our train here and nowhere else. We
heard nothing of its fate, and expected it to arrive every minute
till four o'clock, when at last an express on horseback came up,
and announced that it had broken down, but that it was now
cleared off the raUs, and that we might advance. Again I ad
mired the patience and good humor of the American passengers,
which never forsook them in all this tedious detention. A
clergyman, of some pretty liberal sect, but whose name I did
not learn, knew me, and spent two hours of this time in discuss
ing the attributes, power, and foreknowledge of the Deity — the
laws of nature and Phrenology — often in language to which I
could attach no definite ideas. When he raised his hat, I saw
that he possessed very moderate organs of Causality; yet he
was acute in all the perceptions that related to Individuality and
Eventuality: he seemed also to be sincere and amiable; and,
having a high nervous temperament, he delighted in metaphysi
cal discussions, although he was not fitted by nature to excel in
this field of phflosbphy. At 6 P. M. we arrived at Worcester;
but here we found ourselves in another- "fix." The afternoon
train from Boston does not arrive tiU 7 P. M., and we could not
proceed to that city untfl it appeared. It was now dark, and.
for another hour and a half the passengers sat with exemplary
patience in the cars. At half-past seven Pi M. we started again,
and arrived in Boston, without farther impediment, about ten
o'clock, with pretty good appetites, as we had breakfasted at
half-past seven in the morning, and been allowed no meal since
that hour. The car was seated for 'fifty-six passengers, and
contained at least thirty. There was no aperture for ventila
tion, and, when night came, the company insisted on shutting
every window to keep out the cold. A few who, like us, pre-

THE NEGROES OF THE AMISTAD. 169
ferred cool air to suffocation, congregated at one end, where we
opened two windows for our relief.
Oct. 30. 1840. Ther. 40°. Boston.— Phrenology.— Some
weeks ago the friends of education in Boston sent me an invita
tion to return and deliver a second course of lectures on Phre
nology, in this city; and they have secured an audience, hired a
chapel, in Philip's Place, Tremont sti'eet, and made all other
necessary arrangements for my accommodation.
Education. — A course of weekly lectures is now in the pro
gress of hping delivered gratis by the educated gentlemen of
Boston to the assistant-teachei-s of the common schools. To
day, we heard Mr. Mann deliver an excellent address on " cor
poral punishment." The^hall in Tremont Row was crowded.
He drew a striking picture of the different mental conditions of
the children who are assembled in the common schools. They
not only differ in their natural dispositions, but at home some
may-have been spoiled and indulged in their every whim; others
may have been taught by example to swear, to lie, and to steal;
others may have been beaten unmercifully and capriciously, and
have known no law except that of force. The schoolmaster is
called on to reduce this mass of discordant elements to order, and
to infuse into it the spirit of obedience, attention, exertion, self-
command, and mutual respect. He did not think that in the
present state of the civilisation of Boston, corporal punishment
could be entirely dispensed with in common schools. He,
however, deprecated its excessive use. There were teachers,
he said, who, if consulted about the situation of a school-house,
would plant it at the side of a birch-grove, " not for the sake of
the shade, but of the substance." In his view, the minimum of
infliction would indicate the maximum of qualification in the
teacher foir his duties. He recommended that corporal punish
ment shotild always be inflicted in private, because the imagina
tion exaggerates its terrors, while familiarity lessens them: that
the rod should be used in^ solemnity and sorrow, and never in
passion; and that the quantity of punishment should be such as
to render it a real chastisement, but never cruel. He entered
into a philosophical exposition of the objects of punishment, and
of its effects on chUdren of different natural dispositions. His
discourse contained, also, admirable iUustrations of his principles,
in which wit and logic were gracefully combined, and the whole
was interspersed with passages of touching eloquence. Alto
gether the lecture was a moral and intellectual treat.
Oct. 31. Ther. 48°. The Negroes of the Amistad.— By
the American law one foreigner may prosecute another in the
courts for assault and battery, although committed on the high
seas, if both are found within the American jurisdiction. Avail-

170 THE SUB-TREASURY LAW.
ing themselves of this law, the negroes captured in the Amistad
have, by their counsel, applied to the court for a warrant of im
prisonment against Ruiz and Montez, the Spaniards who claim
them as their slaves, which has been granted; and these two
gentleimen are now in prison through default of bail. This is
done at the instance of the abolitionists, and is resorted tO;in order
to force the court to decide whether the Africans are slaves or
free. The assault and battery charged, is the fact of forcing
them on board of the schooner and carrying them captive out to
sea. If they were free men, this is an indictable offence, for
which their pretended owners are answerable: If they are slaves,
the act was justifiable. Meantime many of the New York news-
papei-s are abusing the abolitionists for resorting to this form of
law, as if they were felons themselves. They have an unbounded
sympathy for Ruiz and Montez, " the Spanish gentiemen,"
Who, they say, having escaped from the murderer's knife, have
been cast for protection on the American shores; but none for
the Africans who were stolen from their homes by " Spanish
gentlemen," and sold as slaves in Cuba, in defiance, if not of the
laws of Spain and America, at least of the dictates of mercy and
justice. The annual election for the officers of state and the members
of the legislature of Massachusetts is approaching, and the voters
are addressing letters to the candidates to learn their sentiments
on the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, the pro
hibition of the slave-trade between the different states of the
Union, and other points connected vyith slavery. Most of those
who have been appealed to have answered in favor of abolition.
The Sub-Treasury Law. — I have repeatedly expressed my
humble opinion that the Democratic party is in the right with
regard to instituting a national treasury, with sub-treasurers, in
various parts of the Union, who shall receive the revenue of the
United States in specie, and lock it up in strong boxes until
needed, and who shall be punished as felons if they embezzle
any part of it. They are laboring hard, through the newspapers,
in the speeches of their orators, and by lectures speciaUy devoted
to the subject, to Unfold to the public the principles which regu
late the currency, the evUs of excessive bank issues, and irre
deemable paper; and, altogether, they afford on this subject an
example of sound sensg, real patriotism, and respect for the un
derstandings of the people, which cannot be sufficienfly com
mended. The Whigs meet their arguments by declamations
about the evfls into which the Democrats have brought the coun
try; they ascribe the present universal derangement of the cur
rency, the stagnation of trade, and the general bankruptcy which
prevails, to the " hard cash" principles of Van Buren and his

THE COLONISATION SOCIETY. 171
party; and promise them " credit," wealth, and plenty, if they
will turn the Deinocrats out of office and put them in. The im
perfectly educated people understand little of abstract reasoning;
they are rarely capable of tracing a principle in political economy
through present evil to distant good, while they are captivated by
promises of future prosperity, and readily believe in what they
wish to be true, viz., that Whig rule will restore banks, credit,
wealth, and general happiness. They are going rapidly round
to the Whig side.
Nov. 3. Ther. 38°. Tlie Colonisation Society. — Several
years ago a society was instituted in the United States, called
"the American Colonisation Society," to provide means for
transporting free negroes to the settiement of Liberia, on the
coast of Africa, where they might form a separate and indepen
dent colony; thus ridding the Union of the black population, and
spreading civilisation into the interior of the African continent.
Mr. Elliott Cresson came to England, and was warmly received
by many philanthropists as a missionary from this society. The
abolitionists now declaim against this society in unmeasured
terms, and I have endeavored to discover their objections to it.
Some of these are as follows: 1st, It is physically impossible
that the society's operations can put an end to negro slavery in
the United States; because the annual increase of slaves by birth
alone is so great that the whole American navy would not suffice
to transport the blacks to Africa. The society, by pretending to
do something, endeavors to divert the public mind both from its
own inadequacy to accomplish any important good, and from the
crying evU of slavery itself. 2dly, It serves also to support the
marketable value of slaves and slave-labor, by removing free
negroes who might compete with them. 3dly, It is converted
by the slave-owners, who are its warm supporters, into a power
ful prop to slavery. The free blacks form the only conductors
of discontent between the philanthropic whites and the slaves.
Where there are no free negroes in a district, the blacks born in
it are reared with the conviction that slavery in the negro and
liberty in the white, are institutions of nature, with which they
never think of interfering. Intercourse with free negroes destroys
this iUusion, and engenders a desire in the slaves to improve their
condition. The legislatures of some of the slave states observing
this fact, have passed laws prohibiting the return of free negroes
who leave their territories. There is a clause, however, in the
articles of union, which provides that every Aiherican citizen
shall enjoy the privUeges of citizenship in all the states, and, as
these acts of the slave-holding legislatures deprive the free negro
citizens of this general right, which the union guarantees, it is
thought that the supreme court of the United States would annul

172 THE COLONISATION SOCIETY.
them as unconstitutional. To avoid the agitation of this ques
tion, the planters patronise Liberia as a place to which, by an
noyance, by terror, or by bribes, they may force the free negroes
to fly, and thus indirecfly obtain the advantages which they con
templated by their laws enacting'banishment against them, (a)
I believe that there is force in these objections; yet the evfls
on which they rest appear to me to arise from abuses of the
colony of Liberia, • and not to be necessarily inherent in the
scheme. In the United States the free negroes suffer many evils
from the climate and from their degraded social condition, and
they also encounter great obstacles to their advancement, from
being forced to compete in all branches of industry with a race
superior to themselves in native energy of mind, in education,
and in social power and respectability. To m«ny of them a
home in a climate congenial to their constitutions, and amidst a
society of their equals, atihe same time carrying with them the
benefits of American ci\'ilisation, would be advantageous: and
such Liberia, if honestly administered, might unquestionably
become. I cannot, therefore, join in the condemnation of this
scheme as necessarily fraught with evil, however much it may
have been abused; and it appears to me, that, although universal
emancipation were actually accompUshed, Liberia might still be
useful as an asylum for such of the American negroes as could
find no satisfactory resting-place in the Union.
, In vol. i, p. 264, I inserted several advertisements by slave-
merchants in Washington, the capital of the Union. A friend
in Boston informed me to-day, that the "jails" mentioned in
them are licensed, directiy or indirectiy, by the United States
government, as sovereigns of the district of Columbia, and that
they, or the city of Washington, draw $400 a-year from each as
the price of the license! This may be meant to operate as a
check on their increase, and to give an opportunity for laying
them under regulations; but the whole transactions of these slave-
dealers are sadly in discord with the principles of humanity and
justice consecrated by the American Union.
We went to Dr. Channing's church in Federal street to-day,
Sunday, but he did not preach. A stranger officiated in his
stead. As soon as the sun sets, we hear the pianofortes, and the
ladies' voices singing in full activity. Dr. Tuckerman, weU
known for his highly phflanthropic exertions in consoling and
reclaiming the vicious poor of Boston, is extremely fll of con-
(fl)The simple and conclusive answer to this accusation, is the fact, that
the larger number of the emigrants in Liberia were slaves manumitted
at a great pecuniary sacrifice to their owners, for the express purpose of
their enjoying the rights and privileges of freemen in Africa, whither
they went of their own free will.

ORESTES AUGUSTUS BROWNSON. 173
sumption, and we were not allowed to see him when we called.
He is much esteemed, and his illness is deeply regretted.
Nov. 5. Ther. 27°. Orestes Augustus Brownson. — This
gentleman was originally a preacher, and afterwards became a
politician; and his mental fertUity and originality are so great
that, two years ago, he established " The Boston Quarterly Re
view" to afford a vent for his thoughts. He has not only con
ducted, but essentially written it since. In his eighth number
for October 1839, an article appeared on the " Education of the
People." " Religion and poUtics," says he, " do in fact em
brace all the interests and concernments of human beings, in all
theii: multiplied relations." * * " If, then, we are to have in the
commonwealth a system of populur education, which shall an
swer the legitimate purposes of education, we must have a sys
tem which shall embrace both religion and politics." (p. 402.)
Mr. Brownson is a warm Democrat, and his object is avowedly
to undermine the Board of Education. He objects to the Board
because it recommends the teaching of Christianity "so far, and
only so far, as it is common to all sects." " This," says he,
"if it mean any thing, means nothing at all." " There is, in
fact, no common ground between all the various religious de
nominations in this country, on which an educationalist may
plant himself. The difference between a Unitarian and a Cal-
vinist is fundamental. They start from different premises."
" The gospel of Jesus Christ is ' another gospel,' as expounded
by the one, from what it is as expounded by the other." " If
we come into politics, we encounter the same difficulty.
What doctrines on the destiny of society wUl these normal
schools inculcate? If any in this commonwealth at present,
they must be Whig doctrines, for none but Whigs can be pro
fessors in these schools. Now the Whig doctrines on society
are directly hostUe to the Democratic doctrines. Whigism is
but another name for Hobbism. It is based on materialism, and
is atheistical in its logical tendencies!"
These latter words would serve admirably weU for a motto to
a pamphlet by the Bishop of Exeter against national education;
but my object in noticing Mr. Brownson's article is to make a
few remarks on the insidious course of argument by which he
(the friend and advocate of " equal rights and social equality,"
as he calls himself) labors to destroy the most beneficial institu
tion for the welfare of the people which his country can boast
of. His argument, reduced to a logical form, appears to me to
be the following: — -" All education," says he, " that is worth any
thing, is either religious or political." But there is no common
ground in Christianity in which all sects can meet, and as our
" equal rights" prohibit any one sect from enforcing its doctrines
VOL. II. — 13

174 ORESTES AUGUSTUS BROWNSON
on all, therefore there can be no religious education by the
state. Again: This commonwealth is nearly equally divided
between the Whig and Democratic opinions. "Equal rights"
prohibit either party from forcing its pecuUar principles on all
the chUdren of the state: therefore there can be no " political"
education. As, however, aU good education must be either re
ligious or political, and as neithei of these can possibly be ac
complished in Massachusetts, there can be no education by the
state at all.
Such, accordingly, is Mr. Brownson's avowed conclusion;
and there is a remarkable harmony between the results reached
by the ultra-Democratic and by the ultra-Tory party in Eng
land, when arguing on the subject of the education of the people.
It is explained by the unity of their objects; both desire to keep
the people in ignorance that they may use them — the Tories as
docile laborers and administrators to the comfort and luxury of
genteel life, and the ultra-Democratic politicians as stepping-
stones to power. One aim of this article was obviously to fo
ment the opposition to the Board of Education, which I have
already mentioned as being secretly hatching; but I am told that
it is so completely ultra in its propo,sitions, that Mr. Brownson
has defeated his own object.
The only public education which he advocates is that of grown
people by means of the pulpit and lyceum. He has some good
remarks on the necessity of the pulpit extending the range of its
interests, and embracing the affairs of this world in a far more
direct manner than it has hitherto done; and I have heard the
same idea frequently thrown out by men of various religious
opinions in the United States. He urges also the advantage of
making the lectures in the lyceums embrace man's moral and
social nature, or politics. He ministers to the Self-Esteem of
the uneducated mass; for he tells them that they are wiser than
the government, and says that it is the duty of the rulers to re
ceive instruction from the people, and not to pretend to give it.
" Democracy," says he, " is based on the fundamental truth,
that there is an element of the supernatural in every man placing
him in relation with universal and absolute truth; that there is a
true light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the
world; that a portion of the spirit of God is given unto every
man to profit withal. Democracy rests, therefore, on spiritual
ism, and is of necessity a behever in God and in Christ. No
thing but spiritualism has the requisite unity and universality to
meet the wants of the masses." p. 406.
This paragraph shows what Mr. Brownson means by his
charges of irreUgion against the Whigs. They regard the human
faculties as standing in need of education. This, in his opin-

ON EDUC.\TION. 175
ion, is atheism and materialism. He maintains that " there is an
element of the supernatural in every man; placing him in relation
with universal and absolute truth," which is spiritualism and
true religion. In other words, this " element of the supernatural"
means the unenlightened and untrained impulses of the human
faculties, ever ready to take on -whatever impressions, and to
move in whatever directions, men of bold and ardent minds
choose to communicate to tiiem. It was this " element of the
supernatural'-' which enabled the maniac Thom to persuade the
people of Kent that he was Jesus Christ, and to induce them to
die in testimony of their belief. So far from its being true that
" there is no common ground between all the various religious
denominations in this country," the contrary may with more
reason be maintained; namely, that here, where no men are
bribed by privileges and endowments to profess opinions which
they do not believe to be true, but where the mind is left in free
dom to deal with Scripture according to its own perceptions of
truth, those -views in which all sects of intelligent and well-in
formed men are agreed must really constitute Christianity, and
those in regard to which there "is no common ground between
them" must be non-essentials. The " Christian Examiner" for
July, 1839, observes that, " ever since the apostolic days, the
tendency has been to make the metaphysical view of Christ the
essential and only important one. However a few may have
felt, the mass of Christians have held the moral view of Christ
wholly subordinate. Men have never been martyred because
they held too low notions of the Saviour's character. His cha
racter has formed no subject for creeds. But creeds have almost
always been filled with speculations as to his nature. To sustain
particular views on this point, no efforts, no penalties, have been
thought too great. For this churches have hurled denunciations
against heretics; for this the Inquisition has dug dungeons, and
armies have been arrayed with hostile banners, and the sky of
Christendom been red with the flames of martyrdom. Christians
often have not merely ceased to imitate, but have ceased to think
of the character of Christ, in conteiitions about his nature." Do
not these remarks forcibly embody the proposition, that Chris
tian sects have never disputed concerning the excellence of the
precepts and the practical conduct of Jesus Christ? and do these
form no " common ground" between them, on which to base a
religious education? These precepts and that example also, be
it observed, relate, to a great extent, to human conduct in this
world, with which alone states and governments are entitled to
interfere. The metaphysical and abstract opinions about which
the great differences exist, have reference chiefly to man's destiny
in a future state, and regarding them every individual is entifled.

176 INSANITY.
by the principles consecrated at the reformation, to judge exclu
sively for himself.
If the people of the United States fairly understood Phrenolo
gy, these attempts to perpetuate their ignorance, in order to ren
der them the enthralled slaves of selfish and ambitious politicians,
would rouse their warmest indignation. Phrenology represents
our various faculties as general powers or capacities merely,
each having at once an extensive sphere of legitimate action, and
a still -vyider field of abuse. Education is the process of commu
nicating to these faculties instruction how they may best accom
plish their own gratifications, or how they may avoid evil and
pursue good. The faculties have all innate activity, and in acting
they wfll infallibly produce either good or evil; evil, if left blind
and unguided; good, if enhghtened and trained to virtue. In a
busy life, education must begin early, otherwise it can nevei; be
accomplished well. Every individual in a civilised community,
to borrow from a friend a forcible illustration, is a copartner for
life with all the other members of that community: the social,
body having thus a direct interest in the ability and inclination
of every member to discharge his duty, and to observe the laws
of the copartnery, is entitled to insist on every one of them sub
mitting to that degree of instruction which is necessary to render
him fit for his situation. In other words, every state has the
right to instruct and train its members so as to accomplish them
for their secular duties, while it has no title to interfere with
their private judgments concerning the best means of ensuring
their safety in a future life.
The " London Morning Advertiser" of lOth Oct. 1839, men
tions, that "At a public meeting held in the Tower Hamlets, it
was stated by Mr. H. Althans, the advocate of education, that,
when the new Ijancasterian school was opened in Bethnal Green,
a few weeks ago, out of 300 boys above the age of ten years,
who presented themselves for admittance, no fower than 173
were found to be utterly ignorant of every letter of the English
alphabet." This is trusting to the inward light on the great
scale, and may probably satisfy Mr. Brownson; but if, by the
lavy of England, these 300 boys had had the prospect of voting
in the election of the queen, the judges, and the clergy, as well
as of the members of the two Houses of Parliament, and of aU
the civic functionaries, it is highly probable that the bishops
would have done more for their instruction, and that the House
of Peers would not have thrown out the biU for granting 30,000/.
for normal schools.
Nov. 17. Ther. 33°. Insanity.— In my lectures, after de
scribing the healthy states of the mental faculties, I have added
remarks on the effects of di;.?ase in the organs on their manifes-

THE LAW. 177
tations, and by this means endeavored to convey to my audiences
rationalideas of the causes and nature of insanity. A gentleman,
whom I met with in society this evening, told me that this part
of my course is particularly interesting and consolatory to him.
A near relative of his is insane, and he finds that the lectures are
clearing up to his understanding the phenomena of the deranged
mind which he had observed, but which he could not previously
comprehend; and he now understands also how a cure may be
effected in insanity as well as in any other disease. He ex
pressed his conviction, also, that the diffusion of these views
among the people will have a great effect in dispelling the ideas
of horror and mystery which are so generally connected with
insanity, and which, in his own case, he feels to constitute no
small portion of the evil. In my last lecture, I remarked that
there is no raving or violence in a well conducted lunatic asylum,
except when particular patients are laboring, under diseased ex
citement of Combativeness and Destructiveness, and tiiat such
cases are rare, and the excitement generally of short duration.
He recognised the correctness of this description from his own
visits to the Asylum, and wished that the public could compre
hend it, that their sympathies for the insane might be divested
of terror. There is more proper feeling about insanity in the
United States, so far as my observations extend, than in Britain;
the relatives of persons affected generally view it as a disease,
and are more rarely ashamed of it as a disgrace.
The Law. — In Massachusetts conveyancing is reduced to its
simplest elements, and the records of deeds, with the exception
of two volumes, are complete, from the foundation of the colony
to the present day. Nevertheless, vexatious questions about
titles occur here, as in other countries, only not in such great
numbers. By the law of this state, an administrator must
obtain a license from the proper court to seU the real estate of a
person deceased, and it is effectual for only one year; but it may
be renewed if necessary on application. Some years ago, an
administrator, in strict conformity with the law, sold some
valuable property by auction, within the year, and received the
price, but, by some oversight, omitted to subscribe the deed of
conveyance tUl three days after its expiration. The heir of the
deceased now claims the property, which has risen much m
value, and declines to refund the price. The chancery powers
of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts are not complete, and,
if the titie should be set aside, it will require some dexterity so
to shape the claim for indemnification against the heir as to
reach him effectually. If the case should be brought into the
chancery department of the Supreme Court of the United States,

178 TAXATION.
there would be no difficulty, for its powers are universal to re
dress all wrongs.
The Election in New York.— The election of the governor
and other officers of state in New York is exciting great inte
rest. The question of the currency is brought to the polls, and
the newspapers teem with the sentiments of the candidates for
or against the banks, as the qualifications or disqualifications for
office. The Whigs are in favor of a paper currency, regulated
by a national bank; the Democrats advocate specie as the basis
of the medium of exchange.
Tke Fifteen- Gallon License-Law. — The last and most for
midable step in opposition to this law has now been taken. The
counsel for the rum-dealers have pleaded before the juries that
the law itself is unconstitutional; that is to say — that the legis
lature, in enacting it, exceeded the powers conferred on them
by the constitution of the state; that, therefore, the law is not
binding; and that, as the juries are judges of the law as well as
of the facts submitted to their cognisance, they are entitied to
reject the law; and accordingly acquittals have been boldly de
manded on this ground. The judges have strenuously resisted
this argument, and instructed the juries that they are judges not
of the validity of the law, but of its applicability to the case
before them, and that if they shall assume to themselves the
power of deciding on the validity of the statutes, there will be
an end to all law and justice in the commonwealth. The men
of judgment and principle among the jurors have recognised the
force of this argument, and perceived that, if juries were ren
dered masters of the law, they might subvert the whole institu
tions of the state, and resolve society into its first elements; and
they have, therefore, stoutly resisted the doctrine, which, on
the other hand, has been as eagerly caught at and embraced by
the reckless and unprincipled, who desire only to augment the
power of the people, be the consequences what they wiU. Seve
ral juries have been dismissed without returning verdicts, in
consequence of irreconcilable differences among the members on
this point. The proper mode of trying this question is to ap
peal to the Supreme Court, which has power to determine
whether any act of the legislature be constitutional or not.
Taxation. — In Boston, the middle class of citizens pays most
taxes, and contributes most liberaUy to charitable institutions.
The city-taxation is much higher than that for state purposes,
and, like the state-taxes, is levied on the whole estimated pro
perty, real and personal, of each citizen. Some rich men, to
avoid this, live beyond the limits of the city, where they display
the symbols of their wealth, and come to town to transact busi
ness in humble stores or counting-houses. By this means they

WHIG CAUCUS MEETING. 179
withdraw much of their property from taxation for civic pur
poses. There are other very rich men who continually migrate
from state to state, and live in hotels and boarding-houses, to
avoid taxation. At the same time, other rich men make a
munificent ' use of their wealth. Mr. Dwight has presented
$10,000 to the state, to be expended in instituting normal
schools, as an inducement to the legislature to grant an equal
sum. Before this gift, no normal school existed in Massa
chusetts. Nov. 10. Ther. 27°- Tlie Swedenborgians. — To-day we
attended divine worship in the Swedenborgian chapel. It ac
commodates five or six hundred persons, is commodious and
neatly fitted up, and generally well filled. There is something
extremely amiable and spiritual in the. mental condition of this
class of Christians, and their service was refined and soothing.
They have a spiritual interpretation for every incident and
doctrine in Scripture. Wonder, Individuality, and Comparison,
seemed to be predominant organs in most of the congregations.
Whig Caucus Meeting. — This is Sunday, and in the evening
I attended a great Caucus meeting of the Whig party held in
Faneuil Hall. It was called by public advertisements and pla
cards, to-morrow being election-day for the great officers of state.
No one could give me any reasonable explanation of the origin
of the word Caucus, which is appUed to political meetings. It
is an unmeaning-looking vocable to a stranger, and, as used, it
seems to imply a general in contra-distinction to a ward meeting
of a political party. I was tempted to invent an etymology for
it, and to suppose it to be derived from the Latin coscus, blind,
because the people have at some period been viewed as giving
themselves up at these meetings blindly to the guidance of their
political leaders. The Sunday terminates at sunset, and the
Caucus met at 7 P. M. The hall was densely crowded, and
probably between two and three thousand persons were present.
The youthfulness of the assembly was very striking. W'ithout
pretending to accuracy, I guessed the ages as follows. Five per
cent, of the whole appeared to be boys under fourteen years of
age; sixty per cent, young men between fourteen and twenty-
eight; fifteen per cent, between twenty-eight and forty; fifteen
per cent, between forty and fifty; and five per cent, above fifty.
In size of brain and combination of organs, the speakers were
inferior to the men whom I daily meet with in society. Their
ideas were few; their words and figures many; and nearly all was
assertion and declamation. Their speeches were addressed to
Acquisitiveness, Self-Esteem, and Love of Approbation, much
more than to Benevolence, Veneration, and Conscientiousness.
The staple of their orations was praise of " o/(/ Massachusetts;"

180 WHIG CAUCUS MEETING.
of " our ancient and beloved Commonwealth;" of prayers that
she might be preserved from bowing the knee to Martin Van
Buren; of denunciations against the Democrats, termed also the
Locofocos; against specie, and the Treasury and Sub-Treasury
biUs; and of praises of paper currency, the "credit system," the
Whigs, and Whiggery. TJie appeals which produced the loudest
acclamations were those which embodied a warlike figure, or a
witty and degrading representation of the Democrats. " To
morrow," said one speaker, " old Massachusetts wUl go the poll
like old Ironsides (the pet name of one of their frigates) to battle.
She moved so calmly onward, and so sUent were her crew, that
the enemy expected her to strike without a contest; but when old
Ironsides came up, yard-arm to yard-arm, every spirit flashed
with energy and ardor; she sent from all her decks and tops
such a storm of hail and thunder that no sound could be heard
except that of her own mighty voice; when she held her arm,
universal silence reigned; her prostrate enemy floated beside her
sailless, mastless, and helmless, a pitiable wreck at the mercy of
the waves. So shall old Massachusetts make the Locofocos
float on the waters of the state to-morrow at sun-down." This
burst of eloquence called forth loud, long, and unanimous
thunders of applause.
There was no discussion of principle in the speeches; no
statement of facts; in short, very littie inteUectual substance of
any kind. The object of them clearly was, not to operate on
the understanding, for the whole audience was of one mind, but
to produce excitement, with a view to rouse up the voters to go
to the poU next day. Contemplated in this light, and seeing
that the speeches were addressed to a young and essentially an
unintellectual audience, they certainly had the merit of being
well adapted to accomplish the end' for which they were
delivered. I was much struck with the circumstance that the people
must have remarkably few real grievances in any degree charge
able against the Government, when the opposition orators are
able to muster only such slender materials for assaUing them.
The statement by one of them that the Sub-Treasury BiU would
lead to a monarchy, was loudly applauded! One of the speak
ers compared the Democratic candidates to Mflton's devUs, and
ititroduced Mflton's verses descriptive of them, which he and
his audience apphed to particular " Locofocos;" but, from my not
knowing the persons alluded to, the effect was lost on me. The
personal appearance of the individuals who composed the assem
bly was highly respectable, and their conduct completely orderiy.
Our own political meetings are often meagre enough in their
array of facts, principles, and solid arguments; but most of them

WHIG CAUCUS MEETING. 181
are superior to this display — probably owing to the circumstance
that we have more real grievances to complain of. When mere
excitement is the object with us, we are not inferior to the
Americans in the powers of declamation and abuse; and to
satisfy my American readers on this point, as well as to main
tain my own character for impartiality between the two nations,
I shall treat them with the report of a speech delivered just
about the same time with the foregoing addresses, by Mr. Brad-
shaw, the Conservative M.P. for the city of Canterbury. It is
as foUows: —
" The Queen thinks that if the monarchy lasts her time it
is enough; but the people of England will never consent that
the crown should be degraded and debased for the inglorious
ease of any created being. (Tremendous cheers.) We have
not forgotten the forced abdication of the second James, nor
are we ignorant that the tifle to the throne of these realms is
that derived from a Protestant princess. Look at the appoint
ments that these men and women have lately made. There is
not one of them that is not a direct insult to the nation. (Loud
cries of hear, hear.) See the Irish Papists preferred to place,
to power, and to patronage. I shall take leave, on thus referring
to them, to contrast the solemn oath sworn by her Majesty at
her coronation with her subsequent acquiescence in these acts.
(Cheers.) This oath is the compact made between the Sove
reign and the people; its obligations are mutual. (Hear.) I
wfll now read it to you; and be you judges whether or no they
have been truly fulfilled. Here are the late appointments of
Papist councillors, I take them together, and thus I cast them
from me with disgust snd indignation. (Cheers.) The Prime
Minister tells us with rare effrontery that it is his duty to get
support wherever he can. Nothing is too low or too foul for
his purpose. The steivs of the Tower Hamlets and the bogs
of Ireland are ransacked for recruits (loud laughter); and thus
he crawls on, having cast behind him every feeling of honor
and high principle. (Loud cheers.) But his ministry, his
sheet anchor, is the body of Irish Papists and Rapparees whom
the priests return to the House of Commons. (Great applause.)
These are the men who represent the bigoted savages, hardly
more civUised than the natives of New Zealand, but animated
with a fierce undying hatred of England. (Hear.) I repeat,
tiien, deliberately, that the Papists of Ireland, priests and
laymen, peer and peasant, are alike our enemies — aliens are
they in blood, language, and religion. (Loud cheers.) Their
hatred of this country is as undisguised as it is inextinguish
able, and they have become only more rampant and hostile by
the concessions so unwisely made to them. Yet on these men

182 BOSTON ELECTION.
are bestowed the countenance and support of the Queen of
Protestant England. But, alas! her Majesty is Queen only of
a faction, and is as much of a partisan as the Lord ChanceUor
himself. But shall we quaU at this impending danger, arid
meanly submit without a struggle? No; we wiU present the
same bold front as our fathers did of old (great applause), and
God defend the right. (Reiterated applause.) We ivill resist
to the death ill government, and unjustiy usurped authority.
(Loud cheers.) We luill no longer submit to be governed by a
profligate court. (Applause.) It is in your hands, my friends,
it is in the hands of the people of England, that her- destinies
are placed for good or for evil. Upon you, then, be the respon
sibility. Y'ou have the power, see that you make a worthy
use of it; but if you will not be true to yourselves, dare not
ever again to invoke the sacred narhe of liberty, and renounce
the proud name of freemen of England." (Applause.)
When England can boast of such eloquence from an aristo
cratic conservative, the political orators of the American demo
cracy must not suppose that they have improved upon the parent
nation in the flowers of vituperation and incendiarism.
-r-^fovT-lrlr.-— T-h&r. 22°; New York Election.— The demo
cratic party have triumphed in the election of the members of
the legislature for the cift/ of New York, by a majority of fifteen
hundred. The newspapers of that city belonging to both parties
acknowledge that it has been conducted with order and decorum,
and that the result fairly expresses the opinion of the majority.
This election took place under the amended law, 4B6ntioned-tn—
^-^olv4i, p. 20, and it affords a striking example of -the-^^p&wfer-of—
— ju-democracy to , rectify its own errors; for the civic election
last April was marked by disgraceful and wholesale bribery and
perjury by both parties.
In the state of New York, the Whigs have elected the go
vernor and the majority of both Houses of the Legislature; so
that the Democrats have the ascendency in the city alone.
Boston Election. —Tke-Li^ense-Lawi—^his is the election
day in the city of Boston for the governor and other officers of
the state and the members of the legislature; and I went to a
polling station to observe the proceedings. All was order and
good humor, but Opinion is sadly distracted about the license-
law, and these differences are now about to operate on the legis
lature through the medium of the ballot-box. I have already
mentioned that, by moral agitation alone, the cause of temperance
had made so great a progress in Massachusetts, that, in 1838,
the legislature had passed an act, in which both Whigs and
Democrats concurred, prohibiting the sale of any liquors con
taining alcohol in less quantities than fifteen gaUons except by

THE LICENSE-LAW. 183
special Ucense; that the law was opposed from the first by seve
ral friends of temperance as going too far, and as being erroneous
in principle; aad-4hat_it- was subsequently ev^ided by devices,
opposed by the -ruuLTdealers by passive resistance, and finally
assafled..hy; appealsjq juries to disregard it as unconstitutional.
The Attorney-General of the state struggled hard .against all
these forms of hostility to the law, and obtained many convic
tions against offenders in spite of them; but now the question
comes to be decided by the people of the whole state. This is
done bj their voting for candidates pledged to their various opi-
mons7 and even political differences have given way, in a slight
de:^eo> to zeal for or against the license-law. At the poll to-day,
I found a " regular Whig ticket," containing a list of candidates
all Whigs, and a " regular Democratic ticket" aU Democrats;
both made up without reference to the temperance question, a
" Union Liberal ticket," containing candidates all Whigs, but
the one-half temperance and the other half anti-temperance men,
or, as a friend wittily said, a " ticket composed of a glass of rum
and a glass of water" alternately. There is a " Whig tempe
rance ticket," the candidates in which are aU both Whigs and
temperance advocates, a " Democratic temperance ticket" in
which they are aU Democrats and friends of temperance. Be
sides these, there was a " Liberal Whig" ticket, an " Indepen
dent Democratic" ticket, a " Union Temperance" ticket, and an
"Abolition" ticket, the precise meaning of some of which I did
not learn. -I-^iay^here-anticipate. events subsequent in timo,^ in
-orderlojcomplete this subject at this its most interesting crisis.
The result of this day's election all over the state was, that the
Whig governor Edward Everett was remo-yed, and Mr. Marcus
Morton, a Democratic judge, was chosen governor by a majority
of one; the Whigs maintained their ascendency in the Senate
and House of Assembly, but by a diminished majority; and
when the houses met, one of their first acts was to repeal the
license-law by nearly a unanimous vote.
Mr. Everett retired from office on 1st January, 1840, and I
was told by some of his friends that, within a few days after the
loss of his election was announced, he received nearly a hundred
and fifty letters from political adherents, expressing their deep
regret that they had not gone to the poll on the day of election,
because they had considered his return so certain that one vote
could be of no importance to his cause! The path of duty in
such cases is plain. Every citizen who wishes weU to a public
man is bound to vote for him. It is a strange perversion of
morals to argue that because other men will discharge their duty,
I may safely neglect mine. In answer to my inquiries, what
causes had led to Mr. Everett's exclusion from office, three were

184 VENTILATION OF SCHOOLS.
mentioned: First, He had studied so assiduously to please aU, and
offend none, that he had taken no decided part on the question
of the license-law, and had not aUowed himself to be clearly
ranked either with its supporters or''opponents. If he had taken
either side, he would have been more decidedly supported:
Secondly, The circumstance of his being a Unitarian always
carried some orthodox votes against him; and, thirdly, he had
been four years in office, and some part of tiie people become
impatient of the continued supremacy of one individual, and like
to practise " rotation in office."
The first of these reasons, I believe, was the one which chiefly
operated against Mr. Everett; yet, according to sound constitu
tional principles, his conduct was right. He held the situation
of chief magistrate, and possessed a veto on the acts of the legis
lature: To have declared himself the ally of a particular side of a
question that would certainly come before the legislature in its
next session, would have been tantamount to intimating that the
members of the legislature might save themselves the trouble of
discussing, it; for his negative could extinguish all enactments in
consistent with his declared opinions.
Mr. Marcus Morton, it is said, has stood on the Democratic
ticket for governor of this state for fourteen years, and is now
elected for the first time, and by a majority of one! He is de
scribed to be an able lawyer and an honest man.
Nov. 13. Ther. 33°. Ventilation of Schools.— When Mr.
Elliot, the present mayor of Boston, entered on his office on the
1st January last, he delivered a public address, in which, among
other improvements, he strongly advocated the necessity of ven
tilating the common school houses. Effect has been given to
his recommendation in a nevy school-house which I this day
visited. The ceflings of the rooms are high. In winter a large
supply of air, heated by a brick furnace to a moderate tempera
ture, is introduced, and it is let off by five or six separate flues
in different parts of the room, which can be opened and shut at
pleasure. In each of the rooms the temperature, regulated by
a thermometer, was 67° F., the external air being 35°. The
garret which used to be lost, has, at Dr. Howe's suggestion, been
floored and plastered, and furnished with swinging ropes; and in
bad weather the children play in it during the intervals of teach
ing. AU the seats have backs. The teachers told me, that since
they have occupied this school-house, the vivacity and capacity
of the scholars have obviously been raised, and their own health
and energy increased.*
* The following statement occurs in " Reasons for establishing a society
for improving the dwellings of the laboring classes in Edinburgh," issued
in December, 184D. " A metal tube, opening from the upper part of the

VENTILATION OF SCHOOLS. 185
The advantage of not separating the sexes in their hours of
recreation, is forcibly illustrated by the following statement ex
tracted from Mr. Stow's excellent work on the " Training Sys
tem."* — " In a large Foundling Hospital, in the south of Ireland,
the boys and girls, from infancy, are permitted (not compelled)
to play together, and tiie result has been, to the knowledge of
the superintendents and directors, that only three girls had gone
astray in sixteen years; many had given proofs of decided piety;
and a large proportion of the females had gone out into service,
and otherwise settled in life. Whereas, in Dublin and else
where, wiiere the females in hospitals and charily schools are
strictly excluded from the other sex during the "whole course of
their residence in these institutions, the number that had almost
immediately gone astray on their leaving the hospitals was la
mentable in the extreme."' — p., 82. Mr. Stow's work, and that
of Wilderspin, are -worthy of the attention of every person in
terested in education.
wall of the room, and joining a general tube which terminates in the furnace
of some neighboring factory, is all that is required to ensure a constant
supply of fresh air to the inmates of that chamber, though, as often happens,
tbey should be upwards of a dozen in number. A few years ago, a large
building in Glasgow, each room of which contained a family, and the tenants
of which were in all five hundred, was ventilated in this way, and the re
sult was most satisfactory. Previously to the ventilation, diseases, and par
ticularly typhus fever, had been very fatal to the inmates; five persons had
been ill of the latter disease in one room, and in two months, at the end of
1831, fifty-seven had been attacked by it. After the apparatus was applied,
four and a half years elapsed, during which there were only three cases of
fever, and two of these in a room ivhere the tube had been destroyed." I
earnestly recommend these facts to the attention of the Americans of all
classes; for they are little sensible of the extent to which they injure them
selves by living in bad air.
* " The Training System established in the Glasgow Normal Seminary
and its Model Schools, by David Stow, Esq." &c. 1840.

186

CHAPTER VII.
Mr. Lalor's Prize Essay on Education — The Chartif.t< — Domestic Servants
 Endowments for Education — Infant-Schonls— The Planet Venus-
Phrenology — Portrait of Sir Walter Stott — Phrenology and Animal
Mao-netisra — Jeffrey's Respirator — Evidences of Christianity — The Win
ter — Africans and Indians — Teachers — The Rights of Women — The
Rev. Mr. Pierpont — Mr. Abbot Lawrence — The Weatlier — Thanks-
giving-Day — Phrenology and Education — St. Andrew's Day — A Scottish
Sacrament — Quackery — Mobs — " The Perkins Institution and Massa
chusetts Asylum for the Blind" — The United States and Cuba — The
Law of Scotland — The Judges in New Hampshire — Conventional Hypo-
crisy — Sir Walter Scott and the Ballantynes — The Patroon Troubles—
The Presidency of the United States — Honor and Honesty — Small Pox —
Railroad Stocks — Observance of the Sunday — Music taught in Common
Schools — The Organ of Number — Politics of American Authors — Mrs.
Gove's Lectures — Fires.
Nov. 14. Ther. 41°. Mr. Lalor's Prize Essay on Edu
cation has arrived in Boston, and I hear it very highly com
mended. It recognises the benefits which phrenologists have
conferred on the cause, and I am told that, coming to America
backed by the approval of the Central Society of Education in
London, it will give additional weight to the views which this
science unfolds in regard to teaching and training the young.
The Chartists. — A. friend brought to me " The Western
Messenger," vol. vii. No. VI, published in Cincinnati in Octo
ber 1839, and requested me to read the first article, on " The
Chartists," and to give him my opinion whether it fairly repre
sented their case. I have read it, and, while it shows a want of
correct information on some important points, it contains a great
deal of truth, and truth which, read here at a distance from the
prejudices which obscure one's judgment at home, makes me
blush for my coiintry. It points out forcibly the unjust taxation
of Britain,- by which property is exempted and consumable
articles loaded with duties, throwing the chief burden on the poor,
who by their numbers are the great consumers. It describes
the Ul-regulated condition of the jails, and the tyranny of the
magistrates, who all belong to the aristocratic class, in committing
the poor to these prisons for the most trifling offences, and also
in exacting heavy bafl from James Lovett and Joseph CoUins
the chartist leaders. It exposes the sufferings of the manufac-

THE CHARTISTS. 187
turing population, quoting the reports of the commissioners on
the Factory System, and Bulwer's England and the English. It
represents the poor-law improvement act as an additional op
pression on the poor, but this is a mistake; it accuses the Whigs,
as a party, of being as averse to further reform as the Tories,
another error; it regards the Chartists as in the right, and as
justified in taking up arms; the latter, a view from which the
wisest philanthropists who know the whole circumstances, wUl
dissent. I mentioned to my friend that, in June 1838, I had visited
Warwick jail, and could confirm the' charges made against it. I
saw untried prisoners confined in society of convicted fe
lons, and subjected to the same severity of prison discipline.
They were ranked up in the court-yard with the condemned, to
be gazed on and recognised by visiters, and I had observed one
young man of respectable dress and gentlemanly appearance,
said to be a clerk in a shop in Birmingham, and still untried,
who looked as if he wished the ground to open and swallow him
up, so ashamed was he of his condition, yet in the eye of the
law he was stUl innocent! In the society of thieves and prosti
tutes condemned to transportation to New South Wales, I saw a
girl of eight or nine years of age sentenced to imprisonment for
having stolen a flower from a flower-pot in a low, window in the
town, the owner of the flower-pot being a relative of the magis
trate who committed the child.* Such facts, I say, made me
ashamed of my country, and showed how caUously the rich rule
when the poor have no legitimate means of making their griev
ances felt by their masters. If these magistrates had been elected
by the people by baUot, such outrages to humanity and justice
could not have long existed.
The grand obstacle to the remedy of these evils is the ignorance
of the people. In those few instances in which the elective fran
chise has been preserved to them, they have sold themselves
shamefully for sums of money to the highest bidder, and, in the
late commotions, they talked of obtaining their rights by physi
cal force. This alarms the middle classes, and affords the aris
tocracy decent pretences for coercing them by law, and opposing
* I mention these cases from memory, and have no note of the names,
but similar facts are not rare. In the " Globe" of 91st September 1840, a
case is referred to in which the Rev. James Barker, clerk, prosecuted a boy
named Thomaa-Bridge for damaging his fence to the value of one halfpen
ny. Robert \yebb, aged twelve years, testified that the accused pulled
some hazel-nuts from the hedge of the prosecutor, but it was not proved that
he had damaged the fence. The prosecution, therefore, failed; but the
penalty, if the boy had been found guilty, might have been confinement in
the county jail for two months, including the tread-mill. — ^'¦Newmarket
Petty Sessions."

188 ENDOWMENTS OF EDUCATION.
their instruction. The middle classes of society, in whose
hands the supreme political power is now lodged, are also so
imperfectly educated, that they fear the people and worship their
superiors in rank, wealth, and titles. " The greatest enemy of
the political conduct of the House of Lords," says a recent critic,
" submits to their superiority of rank as he would do to the ordi
nances of nature; and often thinks any amount of toil and watch
ing repaid by a nod of recognition from one of their number."*
This spirit must be changed before justice will be done to the
people in Britain; and the middle classes must open their sympa
thies to the wrongs of the poor, and insist on justice for all.
Nov. 16. Ther. 42°. Domestic Servants. — A lady told us
that her mother, seeing the annoyances suffered from bad ser
vants, had, on her first entering on housekeeping, resolved that
her luxury should consist in good servants; that she lived in a
humbler house than many of her neighbors of the same income,
but sought out first-rate " helps" ,and paid them high wages.
She has been uniformly well served, and one servant has been
in her family for twenty-five years. A fevy other ladies testified
to a simUar experience.
Endowments for Education. — A Mr. Smithson of London
has left $500,000 to the Go-s'ernment of the United States, to
be employed in extending the limits of knowledge among men,
or for some similar purpose: and a Mr. Lowel has lately left a
larg sum to the city of Boston for providing gratuitous lectures
to the people. It is questionable how far legacies for these pur
poses do good. It is in vain to expect that the general educa
tion of the people can be accomplished by means of legacies.
They need instruction from competent lecturers, and they will
never obtain these, until they consent to pay them. Legacies
induce the people to think that they should not compensate
lecturers by themselves paying for instruction; and while this
idea prevails, a body of professional lecturers can never be
found. Gifts of money to provide lecture-rooms and apparatus
may be extreemly useful, because these wfll furnish the physical
accomodations for lecturing, and enable the lecturers to lower
their terms; but the remuneration for the instruction given should '
be contributed by the people themselves. Legacies to endow
lecturers on education, whose business it should be to act as
missionaries to rouse the people to do their own duty, may also,
in the present state of human knowledge, be beneficial. No
part of the Smithson Fund is to be appUed to ordinary teach
ing, but afl is to be dedicated to institutions of a scientific charac
ter, calculated to extend the boundaries of knowledge.
* Edinburgh Review, vol. Ixxii, p. 10.

INFANT SCHOOLS. 189
Infant Schools. — I find several attempts are in progress in
Boston to work out the system of teaching and training which
is adapted to infant schools, and to a certain extent they are
successful; but nearly the whole processes are invented by the
sagacity of a few individuals. Wilderspin's work,, and the
other manuals for infant-school teaching, are not reprinted in
this country, and the originals are not in general circulation. I
have advised some of the friends of educatiom to invite Wilder-
spin to come to the United States and show them these schools
in really efficient operation; but they fear public opinion, which
wiU not sanction such a step. Public opinion exerts a trouble
some influence in many respects in this country. It will not
favor infant-schools, untfl they shall be seen in successful action;
yet it will not countenance the best means of accomplishing, this
demonstration. It frowns and opposes, and insists on being
convinced, and leaves to philanthropic individuals the expense,
toil, and risk of achieving the public good. If they be suc
cessful, it will then deign to smile; if not, it will visit them
with obloquy. It is so powerful, also, that individuals find it
extremely difficult to act without its support. Owing to the
want of its sanction children cannot be easily collected into
these infant schools. The parents are afraid of ridicule from
their neighbors, or of something wrong, or at least unusual,
being taught to their offspring, and decline to send them.
Nov. 17. Ther. 33°. We heard a discourse in the church
in Chauncey Place, preached by the Rev. Mr. Dewey of New
York, on the character of Job. Mr. Dewey is here on the invi
tation of the Society for diffusing useful knowledge, and has
delivered several lectures to large audiences.
In society this evening I heard a great deal of sensible discus
sion about the present condition of public affairs. The recent
increase of the democratic party in Massachusetts is variously
accounted for. The hostUity to the license-law is regarded, as
its chief cause. Both Whigs and Democrats concurred in enact
ing this law, because.it was' at first extremely popular; but no
sooner did its stringency begin to give offence, than the Demo
crats made "political capital" out of it; that is to say, they
ascribed the law to the Whigs, and constituted themselves its
vigorous opponents; and they have turned that capital to good
account. It is true that the Whigs had a majority in the Legis
lature which passed it, and could have stifled it, but it is equally
certain that the Democrats as a party did not oppose it, while
they believed that the people were in its favor. I perceive,
however that some of the profounder men of the Whig party
descry in the event other influences. They acknowledge that
the true democratic principle is advancing, and has much in-
VOL. II. — 14

190 PORTRAIT OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.
fluenced this election, and that the days when the wealth and
education of Massachusetts were permitted to govern it are fast
passing away. This appears to me to be a natural result of the
present condition of American society. No adequate foundation
for an aristocracy of birth or wealth is afforded by the institutions
of this country, and the inteUigence of the people has reached
that point at which they are capable of combination, and have
become aware of their own power. The Whigs, therefore,
should throw themselves cordially into the arms of the people,
and, by advancing their improvement in every way, become
their leaders on higher principles than those of mere wealth and
station. I hear some sagacious persons also remarking that the present
extreme embiirrassments of commerce will do good, because
nothing but the want of physical means will prevent this people
from going too far a-head in pursuit of gain. They are deficient
in self-control; and things so often " right themselves," that much
is taken away from the effect of the lessons of experience. This
last observation is correct. The natural sources of prosperity in
this country, in abundance of fertfle land, great ingenuity, cease
less activity, and economy, are so great, that all classes recover
from the prostrations caused by their errors in an incredibly short
space of time.
Nov. 18. Ther. 37°. 77ie P/ane/ Tem^s.— To-day, at half-
past eleven o'clock A. M. we saw the planet Venus shining
brightly in a clear sky, the sun shining at the same time. She
was a little. west of south. Multitudes of people were standing
in the streets gazing at the spectacle. Some said that they had
seen stars in sunlight before, blit to most of them the spectacle
seemed to be new.
Nov. 20. Ther. 27°. Phrenology.— The friends of educa
tion have requested me to deliver one lecture to the assistant-
teacheis, and three lectures in the Odeon Theatre, at the end of
my present course, to which I have with great pleasure acceded.
Portrait of Sir Walter Scott.— In visiting Mr. Ticknor, in
Park street, we saw an original portrait of Sir Walter Scott
painted at Abbotsford in 1824, by Leslie, the celebrated Ameri
can artist. It is a most truthful representation of the original
man, and the head appeared to me to be perfect. As a work of
art, also, it wiU stand investigation, although in this respect it is
surpassed by one or two portraits of him by other artists. Tak
ing it for all in all, however, those who look on this picture
have all but seen Sir Walter Scott himself. It represents him
in his short green coat, his usual dress in the country. Having
seen Sir Walter frequently in the Court of Session for more than
five and twenty years, and having minutely studied his head, I

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTI.4.NITY. 191
was much gratified to see such a faithful representation of it as
this picture presents.
, Nov. 21. Ther. 21°. Phrenology and Animal Magnetism.
— A brother lecturer introduced himself to me to-day, and gave
me his own history as follows: Originally he kept a store, and
while in this employment became a litfle acquainted with Phre
nology. He examined the h^ads of his customers; his interest
increased; and then began to study it in books. He afterwards
gave up the store, and commenced lecturer, head-examiner, and
magnetizer. He gives three lectures; the first free, at which he
examines heads to excite interest. He charges 121 cents (Ojd.)
to every person who attends each of the subsequent lectures, and
he examines heads privately for fees. In all his lectures he gives
his audience yac/s. "If," said he^ "you weie to address them
with reason, you would never see them after the first lecture."
Out of a village of 1500 inhabitants he generally drew from two
to three hundred dollars in a week. He was a pure specimen of
a Yankee. His temperament was sanguine, bilious, and nerv
ous, indicating great activity; his head was of moderate size, the
organs of the observing faculties were large, and those of reflec
tion moderate. I expressed my fears that his mode of proceed
ing did injury to Phrenology in public estimation as a science.
He said that he believed it did so with the better educated classes,
but that the people woifld not receive it in any other way. These
facts indicate the condition of the public mind in the rural dis
tricts of the United States.
Jeffreys' Respirator. — Last year I exhibited one of these
respirators at the end of my lecture on Physical Education in
Boston, and described its structure and use. I did the same in
New York and Phfladelphia. They were previously unknown.
I perceive that they are now coming into use in Boston.
Evidences of Christianity. — In conversing with an American
clergyman to-day, he remarked that the men who affirmed that
they felt no difficulty about the evidences of Christianity, were
eitiier incapable of thinking, or hypocrites. In his opinion, the
evidence was attended with many difficulties, and they were
great either way. There was too much evidence to enable a
reflecting mind to reject Christianity, and too littie fully to satisfy
the understanding when independently applied to its investiga
tion. I remarked that it appeared to me that all the practical
portions of Christianity were dafly gaining strength from the
development of science and the progress of civUisation. Free
trade and free institutions are examples of the maxim, "Love
your neighbor as yourself" carried into effect on the large scale.
The importance attached to doctrinal points will probably dimin
ish in proportion as men become sufficienfly civilised to practise

192 AFRICANS AND INDIANS.
the precepts. The doctrines also wfll one day undergo a new
investigation when they come to be considered in relation to the
functions of the brain. One point is certain, that aU that is true
wiU gain ground; and only error is in danger of suffering from
free discussion. My esteem for both the intellect and honesty
of this divine was increased by his candor.
Nov. 23. Ther. 125°. The Winter. — The weather con
tinues brilliantiy clear. In the forenoon, the wind from the
northwest is high and cutting, but it luUs in the evening and
during night. The sun rises at ten minutes past seven, and
shines directiy into our windows. At 8 P. M. we have a large
anthracite coal fire made up; it burns bright all night; it keeps
the temperature in our bed-room at 58°; and is still a good fire
in the morning -when we rise. We leave a portion of the win
dow ojien all night to supply the room with fresh air; and alto
gether suffer less from cold than in Scotiand.
Africans and Indians.— Some time ago I communicated to a
scientific friend, whose opportunities of observation have been
ample, and whose powers of analysis are profound, the ideas
which I entertained of the African and native American Indian
races, such, nearly, as I have described them in vol. i, p. 259-60.
He has expressed his opinions by letter to the following effect: —
" Your views respecting the intellectual capacity and general
character of the African race do not, I think, differ very materi
ally from my ovyn. Your estimate of them is certainly higher
than mine, though not perhaps very strikingly so. And had
you had as free access to masses of them, especially of those
fresh from their native country,* as I have had, I feel persuaded
that the difference in our opinions respecting them would have
been less. That they are superior to the North American In
dians in their moral and social qualities, and therefore in their
tameableness, cannot be doubted. But that they are superior in
intellect I am not yet prepared very positively to affirm. Nor
would I affirm the opposite. That our Indians are in all the
attributes of mind greatiy above some of the African varieties is
certain. This is especially true as relates to the Boschesemen
and other tribes of the Hottentot race. They and the Papuans
are such miserable representatives of humanity, that it would
puzzle a jury of naturaUsts to decide to which they are most
nearly allied, the genus Homo, or the genus Simia. AU that I
have ever -very strenuously contended for on this subject is, that
the Caucasian race is constitutionally, greatiy, and irreversibly
* My friend is correct in this remark. The Africans of the Amistad,
who were only a few months from their native shores, presented heads, on
the whole, inferior to the negroes whom 1 had previously seen in the United
States.

AFRICANS AND INDIANS. 193
superior to the other races of man. And of this I am as fully
satisfied as I am that the Caballus equus is superior to the
Caballus, asinus, zebra, or quagga. And the superiority is
explained and substantiated by Phrenology." (a)
(a) In connection with this subject, the following, which is a portion of
Mr. Combe's Journal in a former year, is here introduced. It was omitted
in its proper place, in order to prevent any injury to the institution in
which the observations were made, caused by the prejudices of its inmates
or others against th& post mortem examinations.
A native of the Sandwich Islands had. died, and we examined his skull
and brain. The skull presented the form which usually characterises the
Caucasian variety of mankind, and resembled, in dimensions and form,
those of the natives of the S.indwich Islands in the Phrenological Society's
Museum in Edinburgh. The brain corresponded with the skull. We
examined also the skull and brain of an American Indian.
At my request the following account of these skulls and brains was drawn
up by one of our company: — '
The Sandwich Islander was born in Maouvi. At eight years of age,
he left his mitive i.^land in a foreign ship. He passed his life as a sailor.
He spoke a little English. He was a good looking man, and a favorable
specimen of his tribe. Age, twenty-four years. His brain, denuded of the
membranes, weighed exactly 3!b. troy weight.
The North American Indian's parenU were of the Gay Head tribe. He
lived principally among the whiles; served on shipboard; and could read a
little. He was a well-made man, and his organisation superior to that of
the generality of his tribe. He died at the age of twenty-nine years. His
brain weighed 21b. 12Joz.
Both brains showed a proportionately large development in the animal
region: that of the Sandwich islander the largest.
The organs of the moral sentiments were clearly the largest in the brain
of the latter: the anterior lobe was also longest, but they were of equal
height. His skull was higher and broader in the coronal region; it resembled
more closely the Caucasian skull. The brain presented a corresponding
development. Mr. Combe pointed out the greater development of the region of Cau
tiousness in this skull; and on examining the corresponding convolutions of
the brain, they appeared decidedly fuller than those in the brain of the
Indian. The skull of the Indian was fuller in the region of Veneration' than that
of the Sandwich islander; and the corresponding convolutions in the brain
were also clearly larger.
The skull of the latter was more protuberant in the region of Benevo
lence than the Indian's, and the corresponding convolutions of tho' brain
were also fuller.
The skulls of both were equally developed in the region of the organ of
Hope, and a corresponding fulness was observable in both, in the convolu
tions which constitute this organ. In general, the convolutions were
rounder and plumper in the brain nf the Sandwich islander than in that of
the Indian; but the latter was the firmer and harder of the two.
The natives of the Sandwich Islands appear, from the skulls which we
have in Edinburgh, as well as from this instance, to posisess a higher de
velopment of the moral and intellectual organs, in proportion to those of the

194 TEACHERS.
Teachers. — I delivered a lecture to the assistant schooL
teachers, and other persons interested in education, and had a
large audience. The subject of the lecture was the question.
Does the mind manifest a plurality of faculties differing from
each other in functions and relative strength, or is there only one
general power equally susceptible of afl emotions, and equally
applicable to all pursuits? I pointed out the great difference that
would ensue in practical teaching, according as the one or other
theory was embraced. After the lecture, the teacher of a dis
tinguished private seminary mentioned to me that, in conse
quence of the views which he had derived from my lectures on
Phrenology last year, he had ventUaled his school, alternated the
studies, and increased the intervals of relaxation, and had found
the health of himself and his scholars improved, their powers of
animal propensities, than the North American Indians, and they have ex
hibited corresponding qualities of mind. They' are more easily civilised
and.christianised. In March 1838, an eminent philosophical divine wrote to me that he had
remarked "the simplicity of the sutures in brutes, and in the savage com
pared with the more civilised man;" " and that, on the inspection of one-
quarter or less of a skull, he coufd decide whether it were that of a Carib,
for instance, or a European. The complexity of the sutures in the latter
attracts the notice of the most inexperienced eye." We examined the fol
lowing skulls with a view to the determination of this point, and the same
gentleman who prepared the former report also kindly drew up the follow
ing remarks: —
" Observations on the Sutures of the Crania, exhibited to Mr. George
Combe. " The first was the skull of an Indian of the Gay Head tribe, aged fifty-six.
The sutures were but f.iintly marked by a continuous line; the serrations
had disappeared. The sagittal suture had disappeared entirely.
"2. A Penobscot Indian's skull presented regular and distinct sutures.
The serrations in the coronal suture were short, and not so minute as in the
Caucasian crania. Tile serrations in the sagittal and larnbdoidal sutures
were distinct, and rather long, but not minute;
"3. A native of Celebes. The coronal suture presented no serrations;
the bones seemed merely in juxtaposition; and the dividing line was straight
and distinct. The sagittal suture presented in the front part only a eon.
tinuous straight line; in the back part a waving line, but no distinct serra
tions. The larnbdoidal suture presented no regular serrations shooting
distinctly across and into each other, but an irregular line.
" 4. A negro's skull presented a coronal suture with minute and distinct
serrations; a sagittal and larnbdoidal suture with distinct aud coarse scrra.
tions projecting across and far into each other.
" .5. A Sandwich Is-lander aged twenty-four. The sutures were hardly
discernible; the serrations not at all.
" 6. The skull of a North American Indian, aged twenty-nine, presented
very faintly marked sutures with short serrations. The sutures not dis
cernible on the inside of the skull."
These cases support the observation that the sutures are simple in savage
skulls.

THE RfeV. MR. PIERPONT. 195
application increased, and greater enjoyment imparted to them
all. I mention these little incidents to encourage others.
The Rights of Women. — It is currentiy reported that at the
late election of the state officers of Massachusetts, about one
hundred votes were given in favor of Mrs. Maria Ann Chapman
as governor, or rather " governess," of the state. This is a lady
of superior talent and amiable qualities, who has distinguished
herself as an abolitionist. I have never been able to learn in an
authentic form to what extent votes were really given for her;
or whether they were bestowed in earnest, in recognition of the
rights of women, or as a hoax; but from the way in which the
fact is mentioned, I am inclined to believe that some votes have
been given for Mrs. Chapman. As Victoria governs England
with great eclat, there are persons who think that there is no
good reason why Mrs. Chapman should not govern Massachu
setts; more especially as her people could remove her at the end
of the first, or any subsequent year, if she did not give them
satisfaction, which Victoria's subjects cannot do.
Nov. 24. Ther. 31°. Tlie Rev. Mr. Pierpont.— Mx. Pier
pont is distinguished in America and in Europe for his poetical
talent. He is the author, among other excellent pieces, of the
celebrated song " The Pilgrim, Fathers." A majority of the
pew-holders of his church lately decided that his reply to some
charges brought against him by certain of his hearers is satisfac
tory, and he continues his ministrations. The charges were in
fact ridiculous, his real offence having been his ardor in the tem
perance cause. In his "Reply," he gives some amusing il
lustrations of these accusations. "I adverted," says he, " to
the fact that casks of rum bearing the Boston brand might be
seen lying on the wharves of Smyrna, and was led to inquire
whether, if one of our merchant vessels carries missionaries to
Asia in the cabin, and New England rum in the hold, the influ
ence of the new world is, on the whole, a blessing to the old, if
with our religion she takes our rum?" * * " I proposed to them
from the pulpit the question. Whether is nearer the kingdom of
God the sober believer in Mahomet, or the drunken believer in
Jesus?" His congregation consisted to a great extent of distil
lers, one of whom led the opposition against him. Speaking of
this individual, he says, " He heeded not the hafl from HoUis'
Street pulpit that rattled upon the copper of his stUl — his still,
' whose worm dieth not, and whose fire is not quenched,' even
on the Christian Sabbath!"
Another Of tiie charges against him was that he followed " an
imported mountebunk," which was understood by him to mean
condemnation of his attachment to Dr. Spurzheim and Phre
nology. In a beautiful apostrophe to the " Shade of the lamented

196 THE REV. MR. PrERPONT.
Spurzheim," he answers this accusation. "Thou wast honored
in thy life as few in this land have been. Thou wast honored
in thy death and in thy funeral obsequies as, in this generation,
no other man has been. The munificent merchant of Boston
who gave thy bones a resting-place in the sacred shades of Mount
Auburn, and placed over them that beautiful copy of the tomb
of Scipio, was content to cut thy name upon its front as thine
only epitaph; feeUng, that wherever science was honored, or
philosophy loved, no other could be needed. It was left for the
chairman of a committee of HoUis' street society to express his
own views of this philosophy, and thy worth; and under the
name of ' Spurzheim' he writes, ' The Imported Mountebank.'
" Yes, gentlemen, I have entered somewhat into the ' exciting
topic' of Phrenology. I was a hearer of Dr. Spurzheim, and
have been since, and mean to be again, a hearer of the lectures of
George Combe. To these two 'imported mountebanks' I feel
myself more indebted for instruction in the philosophy of mind,
and upon the conditions of the healthy manifestation of the men
tal powers, than to all other men, living or dead."*
It was subsequently stated in the Boston newspapers that it
was not Dr. Spurzheim, but Mr. George Thompson the anti-
slavery lecturer, who was meant by the "imported mountebank"
in the publication of Mr. Pierpoint's opponents. Mr. Pierpont
had repeatedly offered .to his congregation to submit his conduct
to an "ecclesiastical council," but the discontented members
declined this appeal. This is the ordinary way of settling differ
ences between pastors and their people. The accusers and the
accused name a number of clergymen of the same persuasion
with themselves, as umpires; they subscribe a regular bond of
arbitration to them, and the courts of law enforce the decision
given upon it.
We heard Mr. Pierpont preach to-day from the text, " Try
¦* I was surprised at the observation that Dr. Spurzheim's monument was
reared by "a niunifioent merchant in Boston." 1 learned, on inquiry, that
at the time of Dr. Spurzheim's death, when the sympathy was strong, a
good many small sums were subscribed by the citizens of Boston for this
purpose, but, that when the money came to be demanded two years after
wards to pay the artist, the feeling had died away, and some difficulty was
experienced in making the collection. Mr. William Sturgis, a merchant,
,1 man of large fortune and generous spirit, no Phrenologist, but a great
admirer of moral worth, and who had taken a deep interest in Dr. Spurzheim
as a man, requested that these eflbrts should cease, and paid the requisite
sum, JPIOOO, out of his own pocket. The Phrenological Society of Boston
presented him with a copy of all Dr. Spurzheim's works,' with a handsome
letter expressive of their esteem and gratitude, which was published in the
Boston newspapers at the time, but the notice of it had not reached me.
The name of Mr. William Sturgis will descend honorably to posterity
associated with that of Dr. Spurzheim.

MR. ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 197
all things, hold fast that which is good." The sermon contained
a regular and very able discussion'of the nature, aim, and modes
of action, of the two spirits of " Reform" and " Conservatism,"
which are so active in the world. Both are implied in the text.
"Try all things" is the maxim of the determined reformer.
" Hold fast by that which is good" should satisfy the most timid
Conservative. The error committed by many reformers con
sists, not in "trying all things," but in not "holding fast by
that which is good;" whfle the error of Conservatism lies in
holding fast by that which is only comparatively good, and re
fusing to try any thing with a view to making- it better. Con
servatism resisted printing as a substitute for writing in the
manufacture of books; it resisted the substitution of mechanical
power for human and animal labor; it resisted Christianity as
superseding Heathenism; it resisted the Reformation and clung
to Popery. Both spirits are necessary for the welfare of the
world, and our object should be to prevent either from becoming
the sole motive of action. The text is unlimited in its applica
tion; we are commanded to " tiy a// things." There is no truth
so thoroughly established, and no custom so sanctioned by time,
as to have any legitimate claim to exemption from trial. The
world is progressive, and new generations are constantly appear
ing on the stage: if we wish to strengthen the minds of the
young, we should permit, nay encourage them to " try," by the
tests of reason and Scripture, all the doctrines and observances
which we teach them. If these be "good," they will stand
only the faster by being " tried" again and again; and if they
cannot undergo this scrutiny, they are not "good," and we
should not ask the 3'oung to receive them as true.
Nov. 25. Ther. 57°- Mr. Abbott Lawrence.— This genfle-
man was lately chosen as one of the representatives from Massa
chusetts to Congress. We visited him this evening, before his
departure for Washington. He is a man in whom the moral
and inteUectual qualities are happfly blended; he is much es
teemed, and full of patriotism in the best sense of the word. He
labors assiduously to raise the moral and intellectual condition of
his countrymen, in the belief that if they excel in these qualities
all other things will be added unto them. In my journal of this
date, I find these words written: " He is in horror at the pros
pect of the bad air in the chambers at Washington. I urged him
to make a motion to have them ventilated." When this was
written, he appeared to be in good health, and in a green old
age, apparently under or about sixty. He went to Washington;
engaged warmly in his duties; and within three months was taken
seriously Ul. His life was despaired of; and after long and pro
tracted suffering, he escaped by only a hair's-breadth from the

198 PHRENOLOGY AND EDUCATION.
grave. Before we left America he was under the necessity of
resigning his seat on account of his health, and retiring into
private life! Perhaps the bad ventUation had some influence in
producing this deplorable result.
The Weather. — In the eariy part of the day the thermometer
rose to 70° F. The wind was in the south, and much rain feU;
but before sunset the wind changed, and the sky became clear.
At 10 P. M. it was freezing. Next morning the thermometer
stood at 11°.
Nov. 27. Ther. 24°. This evening I concluded my second
course of lectures. The attendance is stated in the Appendix,
No. VII.
Nov. 28. Ther. 23°. Thanksgiving Day. — I heard Mr.
Gannet, Dr. Channing's colleague, pre,ach to-day in his church
in Federal street. His text was, " Do all to the glory of God."
He said, that " Thanksgiving Day" presented one of the few
occasions on which politics could legitimately be introduced into
the pulpit. As religious principle should regulate every action
of life, political action formed no exception. He strongly con
demned the practice of voting with one's party in opposition to
the conscientious dictates of individual judgment. He insisted
on the necessity of every man in this country bringing his con
science and his understanding to the study of political questions
before deciding on them, as he would do in any other matter of
serious import, that he may do justice to himself and to society,
by exercising an enlightened and salutary influence on public
affairs. He denounced all political frauds, lying, slandering of
opponents, and unconscientious arguments, as forbidden by
Christianity. The sermon was sound, bold, and forcible. In
the other services, there was presiding good taste and Christian
sentiment towards all nations on the earth.
Nov. 29. Phrenology and Education. — The remark was
occasionally made to me by persons who had heard my lectures
on Education, without having attended those on Phrenology,
that the views presented were so sound and luminous that I
should have done much more good if I had omitted Phrenology,
and delivered them simply as founded on common sense. This,
said they, would have saved the lectures from the prejudices
which exist in so many minds against Phrenology, and which
render them suspicious of every doctrine and practice springing
out of it. My answers were, first, That a knowledge of the
influence of the organs on the power of manifesting the mental
faculties, is a fundamental requisite to the right understanding of
the subject. of education. Secondly, That to have withheld this
important knowledge, because it was unpopular, would have
been improper and uncandid. By foUowing such a course I

ST. Andrew's day. 199
should also have been extending the impression already pro
duced by too many disingenuous phrenologists, that the science
is worthless, and that the soundest views of education may be
obtained without its aid, which I know not to be the case.
Thirdly, That such conduct would have been unjust and injuri
ous towards the founders and defenders of Phrenology. It would
have been appropriating to myself the fruits, and leaving to them
not only the toil but the obloquy of having raised them.
Fourthly, That lectures on education, founded on Phrenology,
make a deeper and more permanent impression on the under
standing than if based on mere common sense, and can be more
certainly and successfully carried into practice. Every man's
common sense differs from that of his neighbor. In New Eng
land, I had visited a common school, the head master of which
told me, that he devoted one-half of his whole hours of teaching
to arithmetic and mathemathics, because he had discovered that
pupils who expelled in those branches soon became proficients
in every other, such as grammar, geography, and repetitions.
No phrenologist could have held such vie^s, because he must
have known that arithmetic and mathematics depend on different
organs from those which take cognisance of language, grammar,
and general reasoning. I observed that the organs on which
arithmetic and mathematics depend predominated over the other
intellectual organs in this person's own head, in consequence of
which he could teach these branches with most ease aud success,
and his common sense led him to conclude that all his pupils
were similarly constituted to himself. When teachers rely
solely on common sense and their own experience, they act
merely on the suggestions of their strongest propensities, senti
ments, and intellectual faculties, whatever these may be, without
reference to the differences which exist between their minds
and those of their pupils. Phrenology presents a scientific guide
to all.
Nov. 30. St. Andreiu's Day. — By invitation from the office
bearers, I attended the celebration of the hundred and eighty-
second anniversary of the Scots Charitable Society of Boston,
held in the Pavilion Hotel. Mr. W. H. WUson was in the
chair, and Mr. John L. MiUar acted as Vice-President. The
room was ornamented with transparencies of St. Andrew, St.
George, and St. Patrick; and other emblems and memorials of
the " Father Land." Mr. Everett the governor of the state, Mr.
EUiot the Mayor of the city, Thomas CoUey Grattan, Esq.,
the British Consul (author of " High--ways and By-ways"), and
a number of other distinguished guests, were present. The
history of this society is interesting. On the 6th of January
1657, a few Scotchmen of the town of Boston, associated them-

200 ST. Andrew's day.
selves together for the purpose of raising funds for the relief of
their poor and distressed countrymen, and the records of their
proceedings have been preserved for nearly the whole interven
ing period between that date and the present time. The resolu
tion founding the association is expressed in singularly solemn
and forcible religious phraseology. " We look for the assistance
of the Great God, who can bring small beginnings to greater per
fection than we, for the present, can think of or expect; and we
likewise hope that God, who hath the hearts of all men in his
hand, and can turn them which way soever he pleases, wUl double
our spirits upon them (that shall come after us), and make them
more zealous for his glory, and the mutual good one of another
than we." In 1684 their numbers being considerably increased,
they assumed the form of a regular society. " The society thus
constituted, continued in existence until the breaking out of the
troubles of the Revolution, when, on account of the loyalty of
its members, who, desiring to fight neither against their native
or adopted country, all retired either to the Provinces or to Great
Britain. After the declaration of Independence was acknow
ledged by Great Britain, many of the former members of the
society returned to their old homes, and in the year 1784" they
obtained a charter re-establishing the society. The society con
tinued to flourish until the war of 1812-13-14, when it suffered
severely, and it afterwards " continued a languishing existence
for fifteen years." It again, however, revived, and is now in a
flourishing condition. It has been the means of alleviating much
misery; and it forms a striking and cheering example of the in
herent vitality of a good principle. Almost every other institu
tion of this state, religious, civfl, and judicial, has been destroyed
and reconstructed again and again since this society was founded,
but it has lived through all vicissitudes, aud risen from its ashes
even when it seemed to have been finally extinguished by ad
versity. Besides Scotchmen, the company consisted of Englishmen,
Irishmen, and Americans; and nothing could be more pleasing
than to observe the tact and good sense with which, in the ex
pression of their national feelings, each of these sections avoided
all extravagance and matter of offence to their neighbors. The
only jar which struck on my mind was in hearing the Governor
of Massachusetts, with great good nature, join in singing the
Queen's anthem, and, in aUusion to her enemies, giving utterance
to the sentiment " confound their poUtics," " frustrate their
knavish tricks;" more especiaUy as he was lately in great
danger himself of being forced to become one of her enemies
when the " Maine troubles" wore a threatening aspect. Victoria,
or rather her counsellors, are not so infaUible as to render it cer-

A SCOTTISH SACRAMENT. 201
tain that she is always in the right in her quarrels; and even,
independently of this consideration, good taste would dictate
that, to render the anthem perfect, it should be purified of the
manifestations of Self-Esteem and Destructiveness which are
implied in these words.
The health of Governor Everett was given by the chairman,
and received with great cordiality. In returning thanks, he
delivered an appropriate, classical, and eloquent address. The
delivery was graceful, animated, and fltient. He describes the
Scottish character in the chastest language, and with nice dis-
criminati'^n, he adverts felicitously to the leading incidents in the
history of the country, and enumerates her distinguished writers
with a just critical acumen, shewing altogether a highly culti
vated, well-stored, and accomplished mind. It is so characteris
tic of his mental attainments, that I insert it in the Appendix
No. VIII.
Mr. Grattan also delivered a speech full of fervid eloquence
and generous sentiment; and the proceedings of the whole even
ing constituted a highly inteUectual treat. Champagne was
constantiy administered by the servants after the cloth was
drawn, but the company used it, and all the other wines and
liquors, in most exemplary moderation.
Dec. 1. Ther. 40°. A Scottish Sacrament. — Burns, in his
" Holy Fair," has rendered a Scottish sacrament in the country
famous in all parts of the world where his dialect is understood;
but 1 was struct^ with the description of the same solemnity in a
city, given by an American gentleman of serious habits and a
cultivated mind, who had visited Edinburgh about thirty years
ago. The subject was introduced by his asking me whether the
same state of things continued to exist which he witnessed at
that time. I asked him what he particularly alluded to, when
he gave me the following picture of his impressions: He l^ap-
pened to be in Edinburgh in tiie week of the sacrament, and was
introduced to the Rev. Dr. Campbell, long since deceased. The
solemnity of the Thursday's fast day; the long and serious dis
course delivered on the Saturday; the extreme solemnity of the
Sunday's dispensation of the bread and wine, and the deep im-
pressiveness of the Monday's prayers and preaching, appeared
to him more than reverential; they were awful. His mind was
depressed by the terrible images and sentiments which had been
constantiy brought before it during these days. The clergymen
also who officiated, as well as the congregation who listened,
seemed to him to be broken down under a sense of guilt and ap
prehension of punishment. He was invited to dine on the Mon
day, after the close of the exercises, with Dr. Campbell and his
brother clergymen who had assisted him on the occasion. He

203 A SCOTTISH SACRAMENT.
at first shrunk from accepting the invitation. He conceivedthat
the evening would be passed in practically carrying out the awful
admonitions of the previous days, and that every .man would be
found searching deeper and deeper into his own heart, drawing
forth anotiier and yet another sin, and casting it from him. As,
however, he had received so much kindness from the reverend
doctor who gave the invitation, he considered it his duty, to ac
cept it. He entered the house with the most solemn feelings,
and prepared his mind to meet his friends in harmony with the
spirit which he believed to pervade them. He was surprised to
see a bright and benignant smile on Dr. Campbell'.'^ countenance,
and was speedfly introduced to the late Rev. Dr. Ireland, and a
whole circle of other doctors in divinity. They all looked dif
ferently from what he had expected. They seemed, to be happy,
smiling, and good natured. Dinner was served, the cloth with
drawn, and the servants left the room, when forthwith there broke
forth bursts of merriment, droll stories, an universal hilarity that
appeared to him like the opening of the clouds and the sudden
gleam of sunbeams after the awful darkness of a thunder tem
pest. The bottles circulated freely, first port and sherry, and
by-and-by a call was made for the " mountain dew." This was
compounded into "toddy," and the mirth'grew more vivacious;
the stories deepened in a certain kind of interest; the confines of
good and evil seemed constantly threatening to intermingle; and
only at a pretty advanced hour in the evening did this joyous
and jovial party separate. He was then young, and unused to
the ways of the world, but he had often reflected on the subject
since. He had come to the conclusion that in the one scene the
ministers were acting in their professional, and in the other in
their natural capacities; and he did not think the less of the Scot
tish clergy from his having been permitted by this incident to see
them in their natural condition. He hadbeen brought up in dif
ferent views of Christianity himself, but he rejoiced to see that
the austere doctrines of their church had left their social qualities
unblighted and unimpaired; and that they -^vere amiable, cheer
ful, kind-hearted, and sensible men. I told my friend, that no
very marked change has taken place in these particulars in mo
dern times. The Scottish clergy regard the " Monday's dinner"
after the sacrament as the only remnant of the " carnival" that is
left to them, and they think it no sin to enjoy it as such.*
* Since my return to Scotland, I have been assured by a friend who has
frequently attended these "Monday dinners" in Edinburgh, that within the
last ten or fifteen years a most decided improvement has, in some quarters,
taken place. The description in the text was accurate at its own date, and
my Scottish readers will judge how far it continues generally to be so.

THE PERKINS INSTITUTION. 203
Dec. 2. Quackery. — In conversing with a gentleman on the
great extent to which this evil appears to prevail in the United
States, so far as one can judge from the advertisements in the
newspapers, he said that quackery extends through all depart
ments of business; even in lecturing, said he, " it abounds so ex
tensively, that prudent people pay no attention to certificates,
none to resolutions, and none to newspaper reports, because all
these can be obtained by impudence and money; often they are
forged; and the only mode of treating them according to their
deserts is to regard them with utter neglect. This operates
against the man of talents and sound acquirements, untfl, by ex
tensive and persevering efforts, he has reared a personal reputa
tion. This is the real cause," said he, " of the people of Balti
more, Cincinnati, and latterly Providence, having dechned to
pledge themselves to attend your lectures, until you appeared
among them and showed what you could do." I remarked that
the names appended to the resolutions of my classes were a
guarantee against imposition. " Few names," said he, " except
those of politicians, are much known beyond their own district
in our wide extended country; and besides, even our respectable
citizens are so often drawn by their good nature into commending
persons whom they wish to advance, that it is at all times diffi
cult to tell whether any encomium proceeds from the merits
of the party praised, or the kindness of the individual who
utters it."
Mobs. — To-day I heard Judge Thatcher deliver a clear and
sensible address to the grand jury of the county of Suffolk, from
which I learned that, during the last session, the legislature of
Massachusetts has rendered any city or county in the state liable
for three-fourths of all damages done by mobs, if the owner have
used reasonable care to protect his property. This law will form
a good check on mobs, but it is difficult to discover why the
compensation does not reach the entire loss.
" The Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for
the Blind." — This institution is now removed from Pearl street
in the heart of the city, to Mount Washington, on Dorchester
Heights, looking down on the bay. It was built in the days of
speculation for a hotel, and is a splendid establishment. It is
now admirably fitted up for the purpose of educating and instruct
ing the blind in trades. The pupils were removed to it last
summer; and during the first three months after their removal,
the boys and girls consumed 25 per cent, additional of provisions.
They enjoy here purer air, more extended exercise, and sea
bathing. Dr. Howe cultivates the sense of propriety in the
chUdien as assiduously as if they could see. They are taught
to keep their own bed-rooms in order, and to lay every object in

204 THE PERKINS INSTITUTION AND
its proper place. In bathing they are clothed, and they are pro
hibited from ever appearing undressed even before each other.
They have the same delicacy of feeUng in this respect which is
found in well-trained chUdren who see. We entered into the
school about sunset, and commenced an examination of the boys
in geography, natural philosophy, and arithmetic. Dr. Howe
and Mr. Mann, who accompanied us, carried the questions into
a wide range of topics by conversation, and we found the pupils
possessed not only of great acquirements in knowledge, but of
well cultivated powers of reasoning. It became quite dark, and
no lights were brought, but our examinations proceeded uninter
ruptedly. Nothing before ever enabled me so completely to
realise the condition in which the blind habitually live as this
scene did. For the time, we participated with them in being in
unbroken night; and by no other means can one so fully appre
ciate the value of their attainments. In the dark we were help
less; but they read, cyphered, demonstrated mathematical pro
positions, traced the courses of rivers, seas, and mountains, on
their maps, fetched and carried whatever object they wanted,
knew where everything lay, and were as full of vivacity as if
they had enjoyed the benefits of light.
I have already adverted to the great improvement in printing
for the blind accomplished in this institution. In the type used
by Dr. Howe, a chapter of the Bible is printed in less than half
the space occupied by the type in use in Scotland, and is as
easily read. It may be true that a page of the Scotch print
may be cheaper, estimated by the square foot; but as it contains
only half the quantity of matter, the expense of printing any
given book is greater.*
Dr. Howe openly acknowledges that he owes whatever suc
cess has attended his exertions . in improving the education of
the blind (and it is great) entirely to the light derived from phre
nological vews of mental phUosophy: — " Before I knew Phreno
logy," said he, " I was groping my way in the dark as blind as
my pupfls; I derived very litfle satisfaction from ray labors, and
fear that I gave but littie to others. Our upper classes are all
instructed in the general principles of intellectual philosophy,
and we explain to them both the old and the new systems; but
I never knew one of them who did not prefer the latter, while I
have known many who have taken a deep interest in the phUo-
» Since my return to Great Britain, I have shown specimens of Dr. Howe's
type to several persons who take an interest in printing for the blind. The
superior legibility and economy of the Boston printing are generaly admit-
ted; but one gentleman, highly educated and accomplished, who is himself
blind, thinks that if there were two lines less in the page it would be
still more distinct.

MASS-ACHUSETTS ASYLUM FOR THE BLIND. 205
sophy of Phrenology, and heard them avow that they were
made happier and better by understanding its principles. Some
of our teachers are persons of considerable intellectual attain
ments, and all of them have adopted the new philosophy since
they joined the institution, not because they were induced to do
so by any request of mine, or on any consideration of extrinsic
advantage to themselves, but solely because their duties led them
to examine all the theories of mental philosophy, and the new
system recommended itself most forcibly to their understandings,
and appeared most susceptible of practical application."*
Much as we found to interest us in this institution, the most
attractive of aU the pupUs is the girl Laura Bridgman, now
about nine or ten years of age. She has from infancy been
deaf, dumb, and blind; and is also destitute of the sense of smell.
She has grovyn considerably in stature since last year, and 1
observed a distinct increase in the size of her brain. The coro
nal, or moral region, in particular, has become larger, not only
absolutely, but also in proportion to the animal region. Her
temperament is nervous, with a little sanguine. The head alto
gether is of full size and well formed. The organs of the domestic
affections are amply developed, and in the best feminine propor
tions. Self-Esteem, Love of Approbation, Cautiousness, Firm
ness, and Conscientiousness, are all large. The anterior lobe
of the brain also is large, and both the knowing and reflecting
departments are weU developed. The organs of Order are
large, and she shows great tidiness in all her arrangements.
Phrenology leads us to understand that in this child the moral
and intellectual powers exist in great vigor and activity, and that
all that is wanting to her successful education is the means of
conveying knowledge to them. Dr. Howe and his assistants,
guided by this science, have succeeded wonderfully in the work
of educating her. I perceive a manifest and important improve
ment since last year. She manifests the most sensitive delicacy
in regard to Sex. When I placed my hand on her head she was
troubled, and removed it; but she did not interest herself to re
move a female hand. The natural language of her countenance
expresses intelligence and happiness; and we were told that she
is very happy. She has been taught the finger-alphabet, and
converses readily with the masters and scholars. She has been
instructed in writing also; and when informed of our names, she
felt C.'s dress and mine, recognised us as old acquaintances,
recollected our visit of last year, and wrote in pencil the words —
* Dr. Howe, at my request, put this testimony into writing, and autho
rized me to use it.
VOL. II. — 15

206 THE PERKINS INSTITUTION AND
" Laura glad see Combe," and presented them to us. The fol
lowing is a fac-simile of them: —

Qj iXy T<3^

5'

Lo. "d

Ir,

J3PP c(r ^ Its
Two of the pupils named Baker, to whom she was much at
tached, were absent on a visit to their friends, -and she had
worked a bag which she wished to send to them. She had just
finished a letter to them in flie same character as the above, which
she kindly allowed me to carry with me, as a specimen of her
chirography, and said she would write another. It was in the
foUowing terms: " Louisa and Elizabeth Baker.  Laura is
-well. Laura will give Baker bag. Man will carry bag to Baker.
Laura wiU cry. Baker wfll come to see Laura. Drew,"
another pupil, " is well. Drew give love to Baker. Laura
Bridgman." I asked Dr. Howe by what means he succeeded in teaching
her the connection between the letters " delivered," and the act
of delivering, and so forth. He said that the meaning of all such
words was communicated only by very frequent repetition of the
act, and by writing the letters each time. He took a bag, for
instance, and time after time made Laura deliver it to him, and
write the letters, and thus he succeeded in connecting the mental
conception with the words. She has large organs of PhUopro-
genitiveness, and has a littie doll which she caresses and dresses
very neatly. She has a great admiration of ornaments, and was
delighted with C.'s bracelets and brooch. She has a separate
box for her own bonnet, and another for the other parts of her
dress, and preserves them all in the greatest order. She has at
present no ideas of religion. Dr. Howe waits for the farther
maturity of her organisation, and the greater development of her
faculties, before he attempts to convey to her this species of
knowledge; and in the mean time every one is enjoined not to
allude to the subject, lest they should convey impressions that
might render her unhappy, and which it might be impossible to
eradicate. I add the foUowing particulars from the " Annual Report of
the Trustees" of the Institution for 1840.
" There is one whose situation is so peculiar, and whose" case
is so interesting in a phUosophical point of view, that we cannot

MASSACHUSETTS ASYLUM FOR THE BLIND. 207
forbear making particular mention of it; we allude to Laura
Bridgman, the deaf, dumb, and blind girl mentioned in the two
last reports.
" The intellectual improvement of this interesting being, and
the progress she has made in expressing her ideas, is truly
gratifying. " She uses the manual alphabet of the deaf mutes with great
facility and great rapidity; she has increased her vocabulary so
as to comprehend the names of all common objects; she uses
adjectives expressive of positive qualities, such as hard, soft,
sweet, sour, &c.; verbs expressive of action, as give, take, ride,
run, &c., in the present, past, and future tense; she connects
adjectives with nouns to express their qualities; she introduces
verbs into sentences, and connects them by conjunctions; for
instance, a gentieman having given her an apple, she said, mc^n
give Laura sweet apple.
" She can count to high numbers; she can add and subtract
small numbers.
"But the most gratifying acquirement which she has made,
and the one which has given her the most delight, in the power
of writing a legible hand, and expressing her thoughts upon
paper: she writes with a pencil in a grooved line, and makes her
letters clear and distinct. ¦ ^
" She was sadly puzzled at first to know the meaning of the
process to which she was subjected; but when tiie idea dawned
upon her mind that by means of it she could convey inteUigence
to her mother, her delight was unbounded. She applied herself
with great dfligence, and in a few months actually wrote a legi
ble letter to her mother, in which she conveyed information of
her being well, and of her coming home in ten weeks. It was
indeed only the skeleton of a letter, but still it expressed in legi
ble characters a vague outline of the ideas which were passing
in her mind. She was very impatient to have the man carry
this letter, for she supposed that the utmost limit of the Post-of
fice Department was to employ a man to run backward and for
ward between our Institution and the different towns where the
pupils live to fetch and carry letters. We subjoin to this Report
a correct fac-simile of Laura's writing, observing that she was
not prompted to the matter, and that her hand was not held in
the execution; the matter is quite original, and the chirography
is entirely her own.
" She has improved very much in personal appearance as well
as in intellect; her countenance beams with inteUigence; she is
always active at study, work, or play; she never repines, and
most of the time is gay and frolicsome.
" She is now very expert with her needle, she knits very

208 THE LAW OF SCOTLAND.
easily, and can make twine bags, and various fancy articles very
prettily. She is very docile, has a quick sense of propriety,
dresses herself with great neatness, and is always correct in her
deportment. In short, it would be difficult to find a chfld in the
possession of all her senses, and the enjoyment of the advantages
that wealth and parental love can bestow, who is more contented
and cheerful, or to whom existence seems a greater blessing than
it does to this bereaved creature, for whom the sun has no light,
the air no sound, and the flowers no colour or smell.
" For the method of teaching her, and for further particulars
of her case, we refer you to Appendix B."*
The United States and Cuba. — It is calculated that about
fifty Americans of the better class setfle annually in Cuba, and
there is a great trade between this island and the United States.
The Spaniards are becoming acquainted with the American In
stitutions, and it said that they would not be averse to join the
Union. The slave states it is said would gladly consent to their
admission, because this would add powerfully to their strength;
and the other states, through motives of interest, might not be
averse to the compact. The realisation of this idea maybe very
distant, but circumstances might arise to accelerate it.
Dec. 7. Ther. 38°. The Law of Scotland.— At a party
to-day at the hospitable residence of Mr. Grattan the British
Consul (whose urbanity, generous sentiments, and high literary
talents, have already endeared him to the Americans), we met
Judge Story of the Supreme Court of the United States. He
expiessed his admiration of the Commentaries on Bankrupt and
Commercial Law by Mr. George Joseph Bell of Edinburgh;
and mentioned that Mr. Bell had lately sent him his "Principles
of the Law of Scodand," with a kind letter, which had gratified
him much. He said that the freedom with which the Scotch
lawyers have investigated first principles, renders their pleadings
and writings particularly interesting in the United States, where
the law is in the progress of constant change and improvement.
He had also studied Mr. Fergusson's Reports of the Cases de
cided by the Scotch Judges, anmflling, for offences committed
in Scotiand, marriages contracted in England; and he acknow
ledged that he had derived many valuable lights from them in
preparing his own Treatise on the Conflict of Jurisdictions.
There is, said he, great depth of reasoning and soundness of
conclusion in the opinions of the Scoth Judges. In the United
States, their doctrine has long been adopted in the practice of
the supreme court. He was glad to see that the English Judges
* The Appendix B is so interesting that I have transferred it entire to
the Appendix lo this volume. No. IX.

CONVENTIONAL HYPOCRISY. 209
had at length given effect to the cogent reasoning and luminous
exposition of principle adoptedby their Scotch brethren; andhe ad
mired the unswerving firmness with which the latter had adhered
to their own views, opposed as they long were by the great
weight and authority of the English Judges. He added, " These
remarks are not confidential; you may if you please communi
cate them to the Scotch Judges with an expression of my high
esteem."* Dec. 8. Ther. 38°. The Judges in the State of New
Hampshire. — One of the Boston lawyers mentioned to me that
the Judges in the State of New Hampshire are appointed only
for three years; that he has pleaded before them and found them
to be very able and upright men. They are changed occasion
ally, but they resume their places at the bar without any feeling
of degradation. Their elevation to the bench is found to have
invested, them with additional reputation and respect, and their
practice Js increased. I met ex-Chancellor Kent in New York,
and was told that after descending from that high office, at sixty
years of age, beyond which the law of the state did not admit of
his being re-elected, he continued to exercise almost chancery
powers in his private chambers, and sustained no loss of income,
but the reverse. He was applied to for opinions in important cases,
and practised extensively as arbitrator in references. He never
appeared again at the bar in any court. In Rhode Island the
Judges are elected annually; but it is said that anarchy has
threatened to make more serious inroads on social order in that
than in any other of the old states.
Conventional Hypocrisy. — In the twentieth volume of the
Boston " Christian Examiner" there is a review of a religious
work, published anonymously, but reputed to have been written
by a member of the Church of Scotiand. The reviewer ob
serves, that " the author who has called forth these remarks is
kept in countenance, to at least a great degree, in thus solemnly
professing what he does not believe, either in letter or spirit,
by such men as his countrymen Robertson, Blair, and the great
body of the liberal party of the clergy of Scodand, whose
opinions, it is well knoXvn, lean strongly towards Arminianism.
He is kept in countenance, too, in this, by great numbers in
England, on the continent, in our own country, including pro
fessors of our theological institutions, and in all other places,
where these creeds and confessions are imposed. But the com
monness of the sin only renders it a more fitting subject of re
probation." * The conflict between the Law of Scotland and that of England, in these
cases of divorce, is not yet terminated, and a legislative enactment will
probably be necessary to bring it to an end.

210 THE PATROON TROUBLES.
Dec. 12. Ther. 12°. Sir Walter Scott and the Ballantynes.
— Mr. Lockhart's " BaUantyne humbug handled" is attracting
attention in the literary circles here. It is known that the Bal
lantynes have answered it (it is said effectually and conclusively
in Edinburgh), but their reply has not reached the United
States.* 77(6 Patroon Troubles. — The head of the Van Rensselaer
famUy is styled the Patroon of Albany, a title corresponding to
the English Lord of the Manor. Many years ago a large tract
of land, lying on both sides of the Hudson, was let out on leases
for long terms by one of the ancient patroons, for certain rents,
payable in grain, poultry, and services with carriages and teams.
The late Mr. Van Rensselaer, who died in the jiresent year,
was indulgent in commuting these rents, and he even allowed
many of them to stand Over unexacted. His son is now insist
ing on Jhe tenants paying up arrears, and he demands the
modern market price for both the produce and services. The
tenants consider their situation as at once anomalous and grievous.
They are substantially proprietors of their farms; but their
tenures are only lease-hold. They conceive themselves also to
suffer hardship in regard to the rates at which the produce is
commuted. They have thought that the accession of the new
patroon afforded a fitting opportunity to rid themselves of their
grievances; and, after offering him terms which he declined to
accept, they unanimously resolved not to comply with his de
mands. 'He appealed to the law, but they resisted the sheriff
in serving legal writs upon them. The posse comitatus of
Albany was called out, and they resisted them. The sheriff
reported this resistance, as rebellion, to the governor of the
state, and he issued a spirited proclamation denouncing it as an
outrage on the law, and called out the mUitia of the cities of
Albany, Troy, and New York. The Albany and Troy miUtia
marched into the disaffected territory. The insurgents seized
the artillery and powder magazines belonging to their own
mflitia regiments, obstructed the roads, and prepared for battle.
The militia, however) pressed on, and showed a firm determina
tion to support the law; on which the tenants surrendered at
discretion, without any bloodshed. This occurrence excited
great interest all over the Union, and in Boston I heard it dis
cussed by both Whigs and Democrats, and the conduct of the
tenants was unanimou.sly and strongly condemned by both par
ties. M. De Tocqueville jusfly remarks, that, in the United
States, the ascendency of the law is maintained by directing
* I have read it since my return to Scotland, and regard it as completely
supporting the observations made in vol. i, p. 118. \

PRESIDENCY OF THE UNITED STATES. 211
civil processes and executions only against individuals, whose
reasons or desires for resisting it are never p-articipated in by so
large a portion of the community as to give them the power to
set it at defiance. These tenants were so numerous tiiat they
conceived that they could successfuUy resist the' law; but the
state authorities soon convinced them of their mistake; and the
press every where condemned them. The legislature in its
subsequent session passed an act for the equitable commutation
of their grain-rents and services, and otherwise redressed their
grievances. This occurrence enables one to understand how social order
and safety to property should essentially prevaU, whfle mobs
and outrages, in which the people seem to set all law and jus
tice at defiance, may occasionally occur. I have heard Ameri
cans themselves, in moments of disappointment, remark that
there is a steady movement by the people afl over the Union,
towards placing themselves above the law; that mobs resist it,
juries trample on it, and the people, through their legislatures,
continuaUy change it. There is no force which can give effect
to the law when the people choose to oppose it. If the posse
comitatus is called out, it consists of the mob. If the constables
and militia are summoned, they are themselves the law breakers.
In short, the officers of the law are left powerless against the
people. This representation is correct when violent feelings
pervade the people generally; when, for instance, they are
pleased to burn haUs, or maltreat editors, on account of abolition
proceedings; but the feeling must be wide-spread and vividly
excited before these evils can be produced; and, in point of fact,
they are comparativel)' rare. In civil suits, and criminal prose
cutions against individuals for ordinary offences, the people
support the officers of justice; and hence arise order and security
as the general rule, to which occasional outrages are only the
exceptions. The Presidency of the United States. — Mr. Van Buren's first
term of office (four years) will expire in March, 1841, and a
new election of president will take place in the latter part of
1840. Since we arrived in the United States, most of the Whig
newspapers have announced Mr. Clay as the candidate for the
presidency on the Whig side against Mr. Van Buren, who is
nominated by the Democrats for re-election. The Whigs have
held a general convention of delegates from all the states of the
Union, at Harrisburgh, in Pennsylvania, at which they have set
aside Mr. Clay, and nominated General WUliam Henry Harri
son, residing at North Bend, in the state of Ohio, as their candi
date, and John Tyler, of Virginia, for the vice-presidency. Mr.
Clay has written a handsome letter waiving his claims, and

212 SMALL-POX.
urging unanimity in the Whig ranks in favor of General Harrison
and Mr. Tyler. The delegates, on returning to their respective
states, summon the members of their party to a general meeting,
and explain to them the reasons that guided the convention in
their choice. Town -and county meetings are next held, to which
these explanations are communicated; and by this machinery the
Whiffs of the whole, of this vast country are induced to com
mence operations in one spirit, to ensure success to the object
of their choice. The Democrats foUow simUar measures; but as
they possess power, theirs is a defensive rather than an aggressive
contest. Honor and Honesty. — Some time ago I became acquainted
with a teacher of the higher branches of education, who now
successfully conducts a private seminary in this state, and whose
history is instructive. He pursued the same vocation in Eng
land, and told me that there he had a fair attendance of scholars,
but that many of the parents, even in respectable circumstances,
did not pay the school-fees for their children, and when he urged
for payment, they resented his urgency, and in the circles in
which they visited, accused him of imputed offences, concealing
the real one, till his reputation was injured, and his school seri
ously thinned. As he did not move in the same rank with them,
he had no means of defence, and left the country and came to
the United States. I asked him, whether he did not experieuce
the same grievance here? He said no; that the Americans con
sidered school-fees as debts of honor, and paid them in almost
all circumstances. I am sorry to say that in Scotland teachers
are no better treated in this respect than this gentieman was in
England. I have repeatedly been informed by teachers in my
own country, that their fees are ill-paid by the fashionable por
tion of the middle-classes, and that they have the mortification
to know that, whfle they are teaching two or three chfldren
without recompense, the parents are sumptuously entertaining
fashionable society, at an expense which would have cleared off
the school-arrears in one week. They have assured me, also,
that urgency on their part is resented in the same way, and with
the same effects, as in the case before described. It is difficuU
to conceive a greater dereliction of aU feeUngs of honor and
honesty than such conduct implies.
Dec. 13. Ther. 31°. Smallpox. — There has been a serious
alarm in Boston caused. by the re-appearance of the smaUpox,
attended by a considerable number of deaths. In c-aUing on
Dr. Smith, the health-officer, I have seen crowds of persons
from one year old to fifty, undergoing vaccination. The British
Pariiament has rendered it penal to inoculate for the smallpox;
but this has not yet been done in Massachusetts.

RAILROAD STOCK. 213
Dec. 14. Ther. 25°. Railroad Stock. — I find that some
bankers and men of property in the United States entertain
doubts concerning the stability of railway stocks as investments
for capital, and the following have been stated as some of the
reasons for the distrust: — 1st, The uncertainty of American
legislation. When an incorporated company is reaping a great
profit by any public undertaking, it excites envy, and some
patriots discover that the pubhc interests require a rival road, or
a rival bridge, to be erected, and the Legislature, which answers
to the popular cafl, gives effect to their designs. The first com
pany's rights are not violated in direct terms, but a rival is estab
lished which ruins it. 2dly, The railroads are constructed
slightly, and many soon wear out. 3dly, There are such rapid
changes in the great currents of trade and travelling, that nobody
can be certain that any particular line of raUway will be as
extensively used ten years hence as at present: and lastly, these
roads are, new, and the timid have not confidence in them. In
Massachusetts, the state has reserved to itself power to pur
chase up the raflroads at the end of twenty years, on paying the
prime cost, and ten per cent, per annum of interest from the
commencement, deducting all dividends and bonuses on the stock
previously paid out of the profits. The majority of the legisla
tors in most of the states are farmers; that is, proprietors who
farm their own lands;* many of whom are changed every year.
There is no efficient public officer in the legislatures for revising
private bills (such as Lord Shaftesbury in the British House of
Peers), and the law is in constant fluctuation. The lawyers are
ever beginning and never ending their studies, and decisions
have less weight in establishing the law than in England, because
new statutes frequently interfere with them.
This representation is strongly drawn, but contains substantial
truth. I heard the stock of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and
Baltimore Railroad strongly recommended by some sagacious
persons, and the reasons assigned for their opinion were these: —
1st, It connects the two great cities of Philadelphia and Balti
more, and lies in the direct line of communication between the
east and the southwest. 'Zdly, In part of its course it is bound
ed by the sea on the one side and high ground on the other, and
its proprietors have united with the Steam-boat and Railway
* In 1840 the House of Assembly of the. state of New York, numbering
128 members, presented the following professions: 59 fanners, 23 lawyers,
18 merchants, 7 pliy.sicians, 2 cabinet-makers, 2 lumbermen, 1 furrier, 1
gardener, 1 mariner, 1 joiner, 1 blacksmith, I post-master, 1 mechanic, 1
grocer, 1 yeoman, 1 agriculturist, 1 teacher, 3 with blank occupations, and
1 with none. Of the whole nunibcr 74 were born in the state of New
York, 22 in Connecticut, 13 in Massacfiusetts, 10 in Vermont, 3 in New
Hampshire, 2 in Rhode Island, 2 in New Jersey, and 1 in Prague, Germany.

214 MUSIC TAUGHT IN COMMON SCHOOLS.
Company already existing on the side next the sea, so that
rivalry is neariy impossible. 3dly, The railroad traverses por
tions of three states, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland,
and the Company enjoys charters from them aU. It would be
extremely difficult to induce aU the three legislatures to unite at
the same time, and on the same terras, in establishing a rival
company, ithly. The charters are perpetual, and are not liable
to come under the discretionary action of the legislatures in be
ing renewed. 5thly, The railroad, after defraying all current
expenses, including tear and wear, yields a surplus revenue
applicable to tiie redemption of its debt. This statement of
advantages confirms, to some extent, the previous views; but
there are other railroads, particularly those between Albany and
Buffalo, that seem nearly as safe, except that they are all liable
to be acted on by the Legislature of the single state of Naw
York. Dec. 16. Ther. 31°. Observance of the Sunday. — This
day we have a very severe snow storm, the first unequivocal
symptom of -winter. In visiting Lowell I made inquiries about
the observance of Sunday by the manufacturing population,
about 20,000 in number, and was assured that it is kept sacred
in the most exemplary manner. The only exception mentioned
is, that occasionaUy the mflls and dams are re))aired on Sundays,
to avoid throwing large numbers of people idle on week-days.
The interests of the owners and of the workmen concur in this
arrangement, and the clergy, who are dependent on both, do not
object. These operations are viewed as works of necessity. If
the Scottish clergy were equally dependent on their flocks, they
would not prohibit (as they actually do in some cities) the labor
ing poor from burying their dead relations on Sundays, under
pretence that this is a desecration of the day; causing, by this
sanctimoniousness, the loss of a day's labor to these suffering
people, at the very time when sickness and death increases their
necessary expenses.
Dec. 19. Ther. 8°. Our English thermometer now ceases
to be serviceable. It is graduated only to 10° above zero, and
to-day the mercury has fairly disappeared in the bulb. An
optician in Washington street, Boston gave me 8° as the tem
perature in the morning, and mentioned that occasionaUy the
English opticians, when sending scales for thermometers to the
United States, forget the difference of the climate, and send them
graduated only to zero, or to 10° above it. They should range
down to 50° below it.
Music taught in Common Schools. — I attended a lesson given
by Mr. LoweU Mason in vocal music to the girls attending the
Hancock common school in Boston. About 200 of them were

THE ORGAN OF NUMBER. 215
instructed for half an hour. They are taught only two half hours in
the week, but their attauiments are very considerable. They read
music, analyse the notes, and detect false notes both in rhythm
and melody, when played on the pianoforte or sung. They
give the notes of the common chord in the various positions.
They sang extremely wefl, observing both time and tune with
great accuracy. The influence of this instruction in refining
their taste, and opening up a source of innocent enjoyment to
them, must be valuable. Mr. Mason is employed by the public
authorities, and is remunerated from the common school fund.*
He appears to be a first-rate teacher; and it is gratifying to see
high talent devoted to the improvement of the common people in
a branch of the fine arts which, a few years ago, was litfle prized
even by the wealthy citizens of the United Slates. Although
the food of the common people in Boston is abundant and nutri
tive, and these g-irls were well dressed, I regretted to observe that
their bodily condition did not indicate robust health. Some ap
peared to have distorted spines, or depressed and narrow chests,
and most of them presented that waxy, sodden appearance of the
skin, which indicates breathing vitiated air, and absence of suffi
cient exercise. The school-room was well ventilated, so that
they must have suffered at home. This is the more lamentable,
as in this country these imperfections are the result not of poverty
and physical degradation, as they often are in Britain, but of
ignorance or want of resolution to act in conformity with the
laws of health.
-Dec. 20. Ther. 6°. The Organ of Number. — A gentleman
who kindly undertook the management of the tickets for my
lectures at Lowell, wrapped up the sum received from each
bookseller in a separate paper, and made the person who paid it,
mark on the parcel the amount it contained. When he paid the
bflls for advertising, &c., he took the money wanted out of one
of the parcels, and put the receipts for the pa)'ments into it, and
brought the whole sums collected to me in this form. Not un
derstanding why he had done this, I placed the contents of the
whole parcels together, and asked him how much he had re
ceived, and how much he had paid. He could not tell! I then
observed that his organ of Number was deficient, and he told me
that he had adopted this method to " avoid confusion." My
own organ of Number being equally small, we tried, both by the
pen and by counting the money, to discover the amount; but
* Not only do concerts a la Musard, at one shilling for the admission of
each person, prosper in Edinburgh, but the laboring classes also have con
certs this winter (1840-41) in Dun-Edin Hall, to which the admittance is
only twopence, and these are crowded every evening. They are patronised
by the Temperauce Societies, and are valuajjle auxiliaries to civilisation.

216 FIRES.
neither of us could succeed! We finally parted, much to our
own amusement, without either of us having been able to find
out the aggregate sum either received or paid, and certainly it
was not the magnitude of the amount that caused our difficulties.
A deficiency of this kind, when it occurs in the organ of Num
ber, occasions only amusement; but I never experience its effects
without sincerely sympathising with those individuals who are
as defective in the organs of Conscientiousness or Causality as I
am in that of Number. They stand as much in need of external
guides to virtue and wisdom as a man in my condition does of
a ready reckoner; and they are equally unfit to fill situations in
which active honesty and reflection are necessary to success, as
such a man would be to discharge the duties of a teller in a
bank. Politics of American Authors. — The Whig party in- America
claims the wealth of the Union on their side, and the Democrats
claim the genius. One of the Democratic papers cited the
names of Irving, Cooper, Bryant, Leggett, Bancroft, Alexander
Everett, Brownson, Nat. Willis, Fay, Prescott, Langtree,
O'Sullivan, Nathaniel Greene, among other men of literary
talents, as belonging to their party. The " Boston Atlas"
answered this boast as foUows: " We have only one observation
to make, and that is, that somehow or other it has always hap
pened, that, as a general rule, your poets, your story-tellers,
your historians, your wits, nay, even your philosophers, have
been great worshipers of poivcr, in whatever hands for the time
being it might happen to be deposited; and that, after all, the
approbation or the praises of this sort of gentry must ever be
regarded as a very uncertain test or proof of merit." I should
like to see a list of men of genius classed under the heads of
Whig and Tory. The general idea is that genius is liberal.
Dec. 21. Ther. 8°. Mrs. Gove's Lectures. — This day
C  attended one of Mrs. Gove's lectures to ladies. The
subject was the effects of tight lacing and bad ventUation. The
lecture was good, and the attendance was about 300, aU females.
Dec. 22. Ther. 18°. Fires.— At U o'clock this night we
felt a strong smell of burning in our parior, and in a few minutes
it was full of smoke. The hotel (the PavUion) has shops below
it on the level of the street, and one of them, directiy beneath
our apartments, was on fire. The porter of the hotel discovered
the fire by the liirid Ught and smoke issuing from the shop win
dow. The engines arrived with great promptitude, and it was
extinguished. An iron stove full of coals had been left burning
in the shop, and the radiation of the heat had ignited a wooden
partition at the distance of three feet. The prospect of being
driven to the street at midnight, with the temperature at 18°,

FIRES. 217
was not very agreeable; but our only wonder is that we have
escaped so long. There has been another very extensive fire
in Cedar street. New York. The loss is stated at $500,000,
and its origin is ascribed to incendiaries, who profit by stealing
goods during the conflagration. The absence of a police force
enables them to perpetrate this wickedness on a grand scale. A
New York newsp-aper describes the scene as follows: —
" To those who were not witnesses of the conflagration on
Saturday night, it is impossible to convey an idea of the scene
it presented. Such a collection of blackguards and rowdies
imagination can scarcely conceive, and the merchandize carrying
about in all directions, without any one to look after it, or see
that it was deposited in safe hands, would seem to say, that pro
perty had lost all value. As to the city watch, they scarcely
troubled themselves to inquire — we know they rarely can tell —
where the fire actually is when one does occur.
" The reports published by us of the fire commissioners show
that, in their opinion, the great majority of fires which take place
are intentional, and yet we hear of no prosecutions for arson,
the most atrocious of crimes. As matters are now going on, it
is impossible for insurance offices to stand the losses — it is im
possible for the commerQe or inhabitants of the city to pay them
remunerating premiums. If the public authorities will not stir,
wfll not take effective measures to arrest the evil, individuals,
from every consideration of private interest and public duty,
ought to combine on some plan to save themselves and the city
of their residence from the destruction which hourly awaits
them." After this the merchants did institute a private watch, and in
some degree mitigated the evil.

218

CHAPTER VIH.
Frauds — Debts of Cities — Dr. Spurzheim's Birth-day — Phrenology and
Education — Lunatic Asylum at Worcester — History of R ligious Free.
dom in Massachusetts — Journey from Springfield to Al:i.,ny — Albany,
from 10th January to Uth February — Dissection of the Brain — Albany
Female Academy — Dr. Sprague's Collection of Autographs — Newhaven. 1839.
Dec. 25. Ther. 26°. This is Christmas day, and in Boston
all the world is abroad enjoying the fine bright weather.) Public
worship is performed in the Catholic and Episcopalian churches.
but not in the others. The stores belonging to members of
these sects are closed, but the rest of the community who ob
serve the day at all, dedicate it to feasting.
Frauds. — A fraud to the extent of a million of doUars has
lately been exposed, perpetrated by the cashier of the SchuylkiU
bank in Philadelphia. He sold shares to that amount in the
bank of Kentucky, and appropriated the proceeds to his own pur
poses, or to those of the bank over which he presided, which
also has faded. On the 23d December, Judge Bouvier, sitting
in the court of criminal sessions at Philadelphia, deliyered the
following charg-e to the grand jury: —
" Genflemen of the Grand Jury: — Within a few days occur
rences have transpired calculated to throw a gloom and dismay,
not only in the commercial world, but also among the honest
people in the middle and poorer ranks of society, which require
from the court and the grand jury a full and impartial investi
gation. Men who have heretofore stood erect in society, and
whose integrity never was doubted, have been publicly accused
of committing the vilest frauds. Men who stood in high places
have for a series of ten or fifteen years astonished the commu
nity by the boldness of their crimes. Scarcely one shock of the
moral feeUng has subsided before another has succeeded, and
the people, even those who have been robbed by these men of
good standing, have viewed, after the first moment of indignation
was over, the whole matter with apathy.
"Trace back the history of our public men for the last fifteen
years, and you find some of those who have fiUed high official
and other stations have been charged with forgeries, perjuries.

FRAUDS. 219
and conspiracies. They have not been guilty of these offences,
gentiemen, to get bread for their starving famUies, but to make
a fortune by a dash, regardless of the means — to come out, if
successful, in society, and by their wealth to claim distinction,
and to be placed above the virtuous but poor man. The spirit
of speculation has swept over the land, and carried away the
frail virtue of those who became its worshipers. Enterprise,
genflemen, with industry, punctuality, and a high sense of mer
cantile honor, ought to be cherished; but the recklessnesss of
the gambling and dishonest speculator ought to be discounte
nanced and discouraged, or the bands of society must be loosened,
confidence between man and man destroyed, and fair trade must
cease. "Let but the poor starving wretch break into a house to pro
cure what he conceives he needs, and what perhaps he actually
does want, and the public voice is raised to a clamor against
the daring villain. He is arrested, and brought to trial and
speedy and certain punishment. What idea, gentlemen, think
you, he will entertain of human justice when he perceives 're
spectable offenders' unpunished — when he sees the man who
has robbed the helpless widow, age tottering on the grave, and
childhood, unable to provide for itself, of their litfle aid — when
he beholds one who has robbed of millions go unpunished, under
the pretext that the law does not reach the case, or out of a
sickly compassion to the offender or his family. This is the
pity which spares the tiger that he may feed upon your children.
Hold in your hands the scales of even-handed justice, and be not
deterred in the performance of your duty from presenting of--
fenders who have fifled high places. Let not the poor man be
able to say there is one kind of justice for him, and another for
the rich. Do your duty ' without fear, favor, or affection.'
" You are aware, genflemen, that I aUude to the disgraceful
disclosures which have been made within a few days, of alleged
frauds by certain persons connected with the Schuylkill bank of
this city. You have a right, and it is your duty, to investigate
this business, and to send for persons and such papers as may be
lawfully called for by a court of justice, and ascertain whether
there has been any violation of law, and if so, by whom.
" You wUl be careful not to be carried away by your abhor
rence of the crime so far as to present any one without reason
able proof of his guilt."
This charge embodies the sentiments which I heard generally
expressed by tiie respectable members of the community on this
occurrence. The cashier escaped to Europe; but a statement
appeared assuring the public that the proceeds of the Kentucky
Bank stock fraudulentiy sold, had been applied, not to his private
use, but to support the SchuylkUl Bank.

220 DR. spurzheim's BIRTH-DAY.
Debts of Cities.— The individual property of the citizens of
Boston, New York, Rochester, and I believe of other towns, is
liable, by the law of the states, to attachment for debts contracted
by their civic rulers, and the Uabflity has been enforced. When,
in any of these cities, opposition is made to a tax for paying
the interest of the public debt, a few of the largest creditors im
mediately commence processes against the parties who oppose;
and speedUy they petition for an assessment for their own
relief. The law reserves to every citizen who has paid a flebt
under these processes, a claim for a rateable reimbursement
from all the other inhabitants, but this form of redress is so
tedious and expensive, that few resort to it. They prefer aiding
the corporation to raise the necessary funds by general assess
ments. The bonds of these cities (which yield, those of Boston
6, and those of New York and Rochester 7 per cent.) are re
garded as among the most secure investments in the United
States. This state of the law under democratic institutions
contrasts favorably with the provisions of the law under the
aristocratic legislature of Great Britain. The civic corporation
of Edinburgh borrowed large sums of money on bonds; built a
high school, churches, and other expensive erections, for the
use or ornament of the city; and then declared itself bankrupt.
The law protected these edifices as public property, sacred to
social purposes, and also the property of the individual citizens
from attachment. The civic corporation which contracted the
debts, essentially enjoyed the privilege of self-election, and the
citizens had no efficient control over its actions. The law,
therefore, regarded the lenders as having trusted for repayment
solely to that portion of the corporation's property which could
legally be alienated or attached for debt. In the American
cities, the inhabitants at large elect their rulers, and are, there
fore, justly held responsible for the debts which they contract.
Since the Burgh Reform Act came into operation in Scofland,
the citizens have enjoyed the right to elect the civic councils,
but the law still exempts them from individual responsibflity for
the public debts. ,
Dec. 31. Ther. 0°. Dr. Spurzheim's Birth-Day— This is
the anniversary of the birth-day of Dr. Spurzheim, and of the
institution of the Phrenological Society of Boston. In the
morning I waited on Mr. WiUiam Sturgis, who erected the
monument in Mount Auburn, and thanked him cordiaUy for
the tribute of respect which he had paid to his memory. He
said that he admired Dr. Spurzheim's sound sense and warm
phUanthropy, but knew nothing about Phrenology. He re
peated, that it was his shrewdness of observation, simplicity of
manners, and goodness of heart, that won his esteem. In the

LUNATIC ASYLUM AT WORCESTER. 221
evening I delivered an address before the Phrenological Society
in the Melodeon, lately the Lyon Theatre, which the public
were invited to attend. The order of proceeding was the fol
lowing: — Mr. Pierpont delivered an appropriate prayer; various
airs were performed on an excellent organ; the address was read;
and Mr. Green pronounced a benediction. The attendance ex
ceeded 600 persons, and would have been larger, but for the
circumstance, that at the same time Governor Everett delivered
the introductory address to the Lowell lectures in the Odeon,
and had an audience of at least 1500.
Phrenology and Education. — So much interest was excited
by my three lectures on education, that, in compliance with the
request of numerous friends, I devoted the month of December
to repeating them in the following places, and to all the courses
the assistant-teachers of the common schools were admitted
free. In Boston, to the teachers in the Odeon, and again to the sub
scribers to the Lyceum. I was told that 1 500 persons attended
this last course.
In Salem, Lowell, and Worcester, each of which towns is
accessible by a railway. The audiences who attended these
lectures were numerous, averaging from two to three hundred
each. I received more invitations to repeat these lectures than
it was possible for me to comply with.
Having been invited to lecture in Albany in January, 1840, I
left Boston on the 1st of that month, and remained at Spring
field, where also I delivered the three lectures on education, and
where again we passed a most agreeable week. I am under
the necessity, from the length to which this work has already
extended, of omitting many observations relative to these places,
and the excellent persons with whom we became acquainted in
each of them; and cah only remark, that, in the New England
viUages, there is an amount of moral worth and inteUectual at
tainment that redeems the country from the blots which its
reputation sustains by the gambling speculators and ambitious
politicians of the great cities, whose public actions attract the
chief notice of a stranger, and give in his eyes their own cha
racter to that of the whole country. There is a sound kernel of
honesty and worth in " old Massachusetts" that wiU preserve
her amidst all her trials.
Lunatic Asylum at Worcester. — In vol. i, p. 44-5, I have
described this institution. On the 28th of December I visited it
again, and met Mr. Silsbury, one of the inspectors named by
the state, commencing his official -visitation. I was invited to
accompany him, and entered every cell and apartment, and saw
every patient in the institution, and nothing could exceed the
VOL. II.  16

222 LUNATIC ASYLUM AT WORCESTER.
exceUent condition in which it appeared. Only four or five
furious and filthy patients were found among the whole, and
they are lodged in a separate building, so distant that their noise
cannot annoy the general inmates of the hospital. Each of
these persons was in a distinct ceU, the walls of which are of
brick, and the floors of m.ica-slate pavement, heated by fire ap
plied below. The light is admitted from the passage. In one
of the cefls was a musician, who tears every thing to pieces,
and is excessively dirty. He was seated on the warm stone-
floor, clothed in a very strong and thick cotton vestment, which
descended to his ankles. His organs of Time and Tune re
mained sound amidst the wreck of nearly all his other faculties.
I heard him, while thus seated, play several tunes on the flute,
with coirectness and expression. His head is well formed,
with the exception of a predominating Destructiveness. His
temperament is nervous-sanguine, and the , organs of Imitation
and Ideality, as well as those of Time and Tune, are largely
developed. Dr. Woodward gave the patients of the hospital a
ball on Christmas eve. They themselves decorated very taste
fully one of the comdors, with boughs of evergreens, and con
verted it into a handsome ball-room, which I saw. They looked
forward to the entertainment with great interest for many days
before Christmas, and it is still affording them a pleasing theme
of conversation. It proved very successful, and even this musi
cian performed a part in it.
Dr. Woodward is an enlightened phrenologist, and he assured
me that his conviction increases, the more he observes, that the
cases are extremely rare in which the whole of the mental organs
are involved in disease; and that this conviction led him to try
the experiment whether this individual could not be enabled to
command himself at the ball. He explained to him the prepara
tions that had been made; asked him if he would like to attend.
This wakened up a thousand impressions received in his best
days of health and usefulness, and he professed his desire to
assist and to play in his professional capacity. Dr. Woodward
adverted to his dress, and said that he must appear in the costume
of a genfleman, and must conduct himself with decorum, as the
only conditions on which he could be admitted. He engaged to
comply with both stipulations. When all things were prepared
on the evening of the ball, the keepers entered his cell, dressed
him in a decent suit of clothes, and led him to his seat among
the musicians, and instantly the band struck up, and the dancing
commenced. He played in perfect tune and time. One of the
keepers was stationed behind him all the evening to prevent acci
dents, in case of his losing command of himself; but there was
no need for his interfering. For three hours he continued to

LUN.4.TIC ASYLUM AT WORCESTER. 223
play and conduct himself with perfect propriety. At the end of
two hours he complained of fatigue, and said that he believed
that formerly he used, about this time, to receive a glass of wine.
A glass of wine was given to him, he drank it, and played on,
tfll the close of the entertainment. He was then reconducted to
his ceU, and had hardly entered it when he recommenced tearing
his clothes. In Dr. Conolly's instructive Report on the Hanwell
Lunatic Asylum, 1840, he remarks, that " the principle of chang
ing all the cirOumstances surrounding a lunatic is evidently one
capable of application in certain cases, and in certain periods of
the malady, with singularly felicitous effects." (P. 26.) This
instance in the text shows how powerfully a change of circum
stances may affect a lunatic even in the most hopeless condition.
In this case, the effect was temporary, but it was great while it
lasted. Dr. Woodward mentioned that he allows about one-fourth of
the inmates of the Asylum to go into the village on specific
errands unattended, and only one man has escaped; and he did
so after being enticed by some acquaintance to drink. Social
parties, with music and dancing, are given from time to time,
which, with religious worship on Sundays, have an excellent
effect on the minds of the patients. The music is supplied
entirely by the patients themselves.
I saw in the hospital a woman, who, in a fit of religious and
destructive mania, had attempted to cut off the heads of two of
her children. Philoprogenitiveness was deficient, and Destruc
tiveness enormously large. A man who is insane in regard to
wealth, imagining himself to possess incalculable riches, has the
organs of Acquisitiveness standing forth in such ample size and
well-defined forms, that they attract the eye in looking at him
even in passing. Ideality is also large, and in his imagination
he applies his wealth to gorgeous purposes. There were other
striking examples of the concomitance between the peculiar
features of monomania and the size of particular organs in the
brain; and Dr. Woodward expressed his surprise how any man,
living in charge of a hospital for the insane, and capable of men
tal analysis and physical observation, reasonably acquainted
with Phrenology, could avoid conviction of its truth, (a)
He mentions that he receives many shoemakers as patients.
This class is numerous in New England; but he believes that
insanity is produced beyond an average extent among them by
their breathing vitiated air in their hot, smaU workshops, with
out ventilation, and by their unfavorable position when working.
(a) Dr. Conolly, who has charge of the Lunatic Asylum at Hanwell near
London, holds similar opinions.

224 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
The frequent mention of bad ventUation in this work may ap
pear to some of my readers almost like a monomania on the
subject in its author, but the evidence of its injurious consequen
ces meets one everywhere. " Dr. Lombard, whose researches
(into the causes of pulmonary' consumption) are founded on a
total of 4300 deaths from phthisis, and 54,572 individuals exer
cising 220 different occupations, found by a comparison of all
the professions carried on in the open air and in workshops, that
the proportion of deaths from phthisis was double among the
latter, and this proportion increased as the apartments were
close, narrow, and imperfectly ventilated."* Dr. Woodward
mentioned that he receives also many sailors as patients, whose
insanity is produced by intemperance and exposure to severe
hardships at sea. The cure in cases of less duration than one
year amounts to 85 per cent, on an average of six years.
Dr. Woodward has published a valuable pamphlet, strongly
urging the advantage of instituting "asylums for inebriates."
His reasoning may be briefly stated thus: " 1. Intemperance is
a physical disease. 2. It is curable in the gfreat majority of
cases, if not always. 3. The greatest existing difficulty in
effecting this end commonly arises from the extent of the tempt
ation to which the patient is uniformly exposed. 4. The
best remedy for this state of things is to confine the individual,
with a view to the avoidance of this temptation, and to the adop
tion of whatever other measures are necessary for this cure —
tfll he is cured — under charge of an institution expressly adapt
ed to the purpose." The subject has attracted considerable
attention in the United States; and as Dr. Woodward's views
are unquestionably sound, both physiologically and morally, I
hope to see Massachusetts adding to her oAer claims to public
admiration, that of being the first to carry his suggestions into
effect. History of Religious Freedom in Massachusetts. — No cir
cumstance presents a more interesting subject of reflection than
the change which has taken place in religious opinion in some
parts of Switzerland, Protestant Germany, and Massachusetts,
since the Reformation. Geneva was then the stronghold of
Calvinism, and now it is, to a great extent. Unitarian; and, for
along period, Massachusetts was one of the most othodox states
in the Union, whfle now it is celebrated for its liberal religious
opinions. OriginaUy, also, a tax for the support of religion was
levied in tiiis state; now this is abrogated, and the voluntary
system is adopted in its stead. I have endeavored to learn some
particulars of the latter change.
» Article " Phthisis" in Penny Cyclopedia.

IN MASSACHUSETTS. 225
For many years after the colonisation of Massachusetts, nearly
the whole population were rigid Calvinists, and none but mem
bers of the Church were freemen, or entitied to vote in the
election of civil officers. As, however, nearly the whole set
tlers were of one faith, this scarcely operated as any restriction
on civil liberty. At first, the parishes were territorial, the min
isters were chosen by the members of the church, they were
ordained by an ecclesiastical councU, and, without any special
legislative enactment on the subject, they were understood to be
settled during life and good behavior, ad vitam aut culpam. In
1654 authority was given to the county court to assess upon all
the inhabitants living within the parish a proper sum for the sup
port of their minister. This law was re-enacted in 1669. For
nearly two centuries no exemptions were admitted, except in
the case of the Quakers. After Massachusetts ceased to be an
English colony, she framed a constitution for herself; but stiU
the old system prevailed. Some years later, however, a relaxa
tion took place, and it was enacted, that if any individual consci
entiously dissented from the Protestant Calvinistic faith of the
parish minister, and actually attended on the services of another
pastor, he should still pay the tax in .support of religion, but
that his own minister should be entitled to draw the amount
from the public treasuiry. Afterwards, the dissenter was allowed
to pay his tax directly to his own minister, the law having pro
vided a process by which he could " sign off" from the minister
of the parish, and attach himself to any other; but, until about
the year 1830, every man was compelled by law to pay tax to
some religious society. Since that date, certain amendments in
the constitution of the state have been adopted by the people,
in virtue of which every man is left free to support religious
worship anywhere, qr nowhere, at his option. This has entirely
altered the relation between the people and the clergy. The
latter are now dependent entirely on their flocks for support, as
much so as a lawyer on his clients, or a physician on his patients.
The number of churches has since increased, the attendance on
them is greater, and I was assured that the sums now paid
voluntarily in support of religion very considerably exceed the
highest amount of the compulsory assessments.
These changes did not take place without severe contests. In
1641 the power of electing church-officers, comprehending the
minister, was vested in the church. By this colonial statute the
right of ordaining the minister was also given to the church,
which enjoyed likewise the power of admitting, recommending,
dismissing, and expelling, or otherwise disposing of its own
members, upon due cause, " according to the rules of the Word."
In 1668 it was thought necessary to enact again, that the church

226 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
should elect her own officers; and in this statute the term church
is defined to mean those who are in full communion only. The
" teaching officer" of the church is also declared to be synony
mous with the " minister of the whole people." This statute
further provided that no inhabitant of any town should challenge
a'right unto, or act in, the calling or election of such officer or
minister untU he be in full communion, upon the penalty of
being accounted a disturber of peace and order; and he is order
ed to be punished by the court of the shire, either by admoni
tion, security for good behavior, fine, or imprisonment, accord
ing to the quality or degree of the offence.
In the 4th of Wflliam and Mary, an act was passed by the
legislature, vesting the appointment of ministers in the inhabi
tants of the town, and providing that if they neglected to exer
cise this right for six months, the court should provide a minis
ter, and cause him to be settled within the town. This statute
confirmed the other privileges of the church. In the same year
another statute was passed, vesting the power of choosing the
minister in the major part of the inhabitants of the town, but
restricting them in the choice to a person of " good conversation,
able, learned, and orthodox." In another statute it is declared
that, upon farther consideration, the method here proposed for
the choice of a minister, has, in divers towns, been found im
practicable, and it is abrogated. By section 9th of this last
statute, the power of election is restored to the church, on the
condition that " the major part of such inhabitants as do there
usually attend on the public worship of God, and are by law
duly qualified for voting in town affairs," concur. It is also
enacted that all the inhabitants should be liable for the minister's
support. In two years the system was again changed; for it was enacted,
¦that, when the church should make choice of a minister, if the
town did not concur, the church might call in a council of the
"elders and messengers" ofthree or five neighboring churches;
to which council the power was given of examining and deciding
upon the question between the town and the church, and if they
approved of the choice of the church, the minister might be set
tled notwithstanding the non-concurrence of the town.
No other law was passed upon the subject during the continu
ance of the provincial government. The "constitution" of
niiO, and a statute passed in 1800, vested the right of election
of the minister in the majority of the parish.
From these several colonial and provincial regulations, the
efforts of the churches to obtain, preserve, and, when lost, to
recover their power in the choice of ministers, is abundanfly
obvious; The circumstances which led to the final overthrow

IN MASSACHUSETTS. 227
of this power were the following: — A church was defined by
law to consist of those individuals only who were in full com
munion; and the clergy early discovered that, by adopting
stringent rules relative to communion, they might concentrate
the electors into a small body, and exercise considerable influence
over them. They accordingly did so. Every candidate for
admission to the table of the Lord, before being admitted, was
called OH to satisfy the church not only in regard to the sound
ness of his doctrinal belief, but of the fact that he had experienced
a change of heart. In proportion as liberal opinions increased,
the communion-table was more and more strictly fenced, untU,
in the progress of time, " the church," that is to say, the persons
in full communion, became a mere fraction of the inhabitants of
the parish. But the constitution of 1780, and the statute of
1800, vested the election of the minister in the " majority of the
parish." In the parish of Dedham the church became vacant: a
majority of the inhabitants elected Mr. Lamson, a Unitarian, as
their minister; the majority of the communicants, who were
rigidly orthodox, refused to acknowledge him. After a minister
is chosen, it is the custom to call in an ecclesiastical council,
composed of the neighboring ministers, to " ordain" him in his
office. The majority of the inhabitants called in a council of
clergymen of their own opinions, who proceeded in due form to
" ordain" Mr. Lamson. The majority of the communicants,
however, refused to concur in the invitation to this councU, and
maintained that without their consent it was void, and the " or
dination" null; and their deacons insisted on retaining the pro
perty of the church.
Mr. Lamson and the majority of the inhabitants proceeded to
elect church officers, who, although like their minister, rejected
b}' the majority of the " communicants," brought an action of
replevin in the supreme court against the orthodox deacons,
"for the recovery of sundry bonds and other securities for the
payment of money, together with the records and documents of
the church aforesaid."
" The orthodox party, among other points, pleaded that " or
dination" was indispensable to a settlement of a minister of the
Gospel, agreeably to the usages and practice of the Congrega
tional Churches in the state, and that Mr. Lamson was not
" ordained" by a council chosen by the church. If this plea
had been sustained, it would have given the church at least a
veto on the minister chosen by the inhabitants, but the Supreme
Court decided against it. The report of the decision mentions,
that " the first minister of Salem was set apart by the lay
brethren, accident having prevented the clergy who were ex
pected from attending; and though, after they arrived, they

228 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
participated in the ceremony by giving the right hand of fellow
ship, this act was not an essential part of ordination. We con
sider, then, the non-concurrence of the church in the choice of
the minister, and in the invitation to the ordaining councfl, as
in no degree impairing the constitutional right of the parish.
That council might have refused to proceed, but the parish
could not by that have been deprived of their minister. It was
right and pioper, as they could iiot proceed according to ancient
usage, because of the dissent of the church, to approach as near
to it as possible, by calling a respectable council, and 'having
their sanction in the ordination. And it was certainly wise in
that councU, finding that the points of disagreement were such
as would be likely to cau^e a permanent separation, to yield to
the wishes of the parish, and give tiieir sanction to proceedings
which were justified by the constitution and the laws of the
land. They ordained him over the parish only; but, by virtue
of that act, founded upon the choice of the people, he became
not only the minister of the parish, but of the church stiU re
maining there, notwithstanding the secession of a majority of the
members. Mr. Lamson thus became the lawful minister of flie
first parish in Dedham, and of the church subsisting therein;
and he had a right to call church meetings, and do all other acts
pertaining to a setfled and ordained minister of the Gospel. The
church had a right to choose deacons, finding that the former
deacons had abdicated their office; and thus no legal objection
is found to exist against their right to maintain this action."
The court found the new deacons entitled to the property of the
church. — Eliphalet Baker and another versus Samuel Poles,
Norfolk October Term, 1820, Tyng's Reports, vol. xvi, p. 488.
While the practice prevaUed of supporting the clergy by a tax
raised on all the inhabitants, and of electing them by the votes
of the communicants only, the result was, that, under pretence
of purifying the communion-roll, they surrounded the table of
the Lord by their own adherents, and by amiable but weak-
minded persons; the first attached to them by deep devotional
feelings, and the latter prepared submissively to adopt whatever
they suggested; — whUe they alienated the strong-minded, en-
tightened, and independent members of the parish, by their wide
departures from charity, peacefulness, and common sense. The
Calvinistic churches aU over the state became a kind of close
corporation; united by one common interest, and standing in
opposition to those who refused to bow the neck to their yoke.
The "communicants" were so thoroughly disciplined, that the
election of ministers, although ostensibly belonging to them,
was, de facto, effected by the clergy; because, when a minister
died, the orthodox brethren whom he had caUed in to assist him

IN MASSACHUSETTS. 229
in his ministrations, recommended a successor to him, when
dead, and, as a general rule, the communicants piously gave
effect to their suggestion. Under this system, Unitarianism and
other forms of dissent from the ancient Calvinistic faith, multi
plied and flourished abundantly, untfl, as in the case of Dedham,
the "church" and its communicants became a mere fraction of
the people, and often also the slenderest in point of influence
and intelligence in the parish.
After the law was altered, and the ministers were rendered
wholly dependent, not on the communicants, but on the people,
the conduct of the Calvinistic clergy underwent a remarkable
change. They found themselves dethroned from their ecclesi
astical dominion, and, instead of directing all their measures to
the sustenance of their own power, under the guise of guarding
the purity of the communion-table, they threw themselves un
reservedly on the affections and inteUigence of their whole flocks,
and became more diligent, more practical, more rational, and far
less arrogant and exclusive. The consequence was, that the
progress of dissent and Unitarianism received a check. At this
moment, from the best information which I can obtain, Unitari
anism is either not at all, or only very slowly, progressive in
Massachusetts; many persons assure me that there has been even
a reaction in favor of Calvinism; — Calvinism, however, is no
longer presented in its ultra forms, and is itself undergoing
modifications. All pretensions on the part of the clergy to a
spiritual dominion, independent at once of the civil power and
of the people, are completely laid aside.
These facts are instructive to the people of other countries.
In Scotland, the clergy of the Established Church are laboring
to bring matters into the condition from which the people of
Massachusetts, after long and painful struggles, have only recent
ly escaped. In Scofland, the law endows a minister for every
parish out of the tithes or teinds payable from the lands lying
within its boundaries. The right of nominating ministers is a
privilege belonging in some instances to the Crown, in others to
one or more private individuals, who are styled the patrons of
the parish. The restrictions on the patron's right of nomination
are twofold. He must choose a person previously licensed as a
preacher, by a church court of the establishment; and, after the
presentation, the nominee must apply to a church court to
" ordain" him in his office. Before this court every objection
to his character, doctrines, or competency, may be stated either
by the people of the parish, or by the members of the court
themselves; and, on cause shown, he may be rejected. A few
years ago, however, the General Assembly of the Church of
Scofland passed a law authorizing the male heads of famflies on

230 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
the " communion-roU" of the parish, to exercise a veto on the
patron's nomination, without showing any cause; and they in
structed the territorial church courts, or presbyteries, to refuse
"ordination" to every nominee who did not obtain the concur
rence of a majority of these " communicants." Certain nominees
who were " vetoed" under this law brought actions into the
Supreme Civil Court to have it found and declared that they had
right to the emoluments of the parish, notwithstanding the
veto and of the refusal of the presbytery to induct them into the
pastoral charge; and the civil court, and also the House of Peers
on appeal, sustained their clairn. The General Assembly next
proceeded to deprive of their > clerical character, and to depose,
certain ministers who had acted in obedience to the civil court,
and who were prepared to receive one of these nominees in
defiance of the veto. The civfl court has threatened to enforce
obedience to the civil law; and in this state the dispute at present
stands. The clergy, meanwhile, are preparing to change their ground.
They are now agitating for the entire abolition of patronage, and
for the passing of a law to enable the church, in other words,
" the communicants," to choose all the church officers. The
parallel between Massachusetts and Scotland, in regard to this
matter, is wonderfully complete: In Scotland, since the project
of placing either a veto, or the power of election, in the hands
of the communicants was started, the clergy have manifested
great zeal in " purifying the communion-roll;" in other words,
in doing what their brethren in Massachusetts did, placing on
the roll their own staunch adherents, and such other persons as
will be most easily led by their advice. They also are evidently
becoming more Calvinistic in their preaching, more lofty in their
pretensions to independent power, and they openly advocate the
principle of setting the civil law at defiance, where it threatens
to abridge their ecclesiastical authority.
The public mind in Scotiand is scarcely awake to the most
important principle involved in this struggle. It is the same as
that which was implicated in the contest between the Calvinistic
clergy and the people in Massachusetts — religious freedom.
The question to be determined in Scotland is. Whether the nation
gave the endowments for the support of the religion of the people,
or for the maintenance of the tenets of a sect. If the former
was the object in view, then it is absurd to give either a right of
veto or of election to the " communicants." The " communi
cants" necessarily represent only the sect to which they belong,
and, according to the experience of other countries, they may be
converted into puppets, by pulling the strings of which, the
clergy of that sect wiU elect themselves to office, and claim to be

IN MASS.iCHUSETTS. 231
the spiritual lords of the whole community. The efforts of the
clergy will then be directed to managing the " communicants;"
the more seriously inclined, and less vigorously minded of every
parish will be sought out, to sit at the communion-table, and in
doctrine and practice the clergy will address themselves to the
task of commanding and leading this portion of their flocks;
whfle, by their pretensions to universal and independent ecclesi
astical power, and their aberrations from common sense, they
will oppose the advance of knowledge and of liberal education;
and finally, after having alienated the minds of the enlightened
and independent members of the community, they will accom
plish their own downfall, and religious freedom will be estab
lished. If the endowments were provided to support the religion of
the people, then the election of the ministers in Scotiand, as in
Massachusetts, should be given to the inhabitants of the parish.
This would at least ensxxxe progress in religious opinions; for if
the people of any parish came to entertain views different from
those of the present predominant sect, they would enjoy the
power of electing a pastor capable of edifying their own minds.
- In short, in my humble opinion, religion will never flourish in
its full vigor in Scofland until the example of Massachusetts be
entirely followed out, and all endowments be abrogated: But if
the majority of the people desire an endowed church, they will
do well to profit by the example now set before them, and to
avoid giving the clergy of the sect which they choose to endow,
the power of self-election through the machinery of the commu
nicants; for such a measure wiU destroy the usefulness of the
clergy, forge chains of intolerance and bigotry for the public
neck, and erect a barrier of the most formidable description to
the moral and intellectual progress of the nation.
While I was engaged in this inquiry into the history of re
ligious liberty in Massachusetts, I placed several Edinburgh
newspapers, containing " non-intrusion" speeches and debates,
into the hands of several intelligent friends who had furnished
me with information. In returning them, after perusal, they
made some remarks which are worth recording. One phrase
that frequently occurred in the addresses of the established clergy,
attracted particular attention; it was the assertion that "Jesus
Christ is the sole head of our church." " We are contending
for the crown rights of the Redeemer." One serious gentleman,
on reading these expressions, said, " This sounds strangely to
me. In Massachusetts every one of our sects, except the Roman
Catholic, professes to have no head except Jesus Christ; that is
to say, they disown all temporal heads; but we have no crown in
this country to assign to the Redeemer, and we do ,not understand

332 HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
what a Christian means by the ' Redeemer's crown rights.' In this
country, every one of our sects believes itself to be the true in
terpreter of the Divine mind, as it is revealed in the Scriptures,
and, in this sense,' each of them regards Jesus as their head, and
themselves as his followers; but it would be viewed as unwar
rantable presumption if each of them were to adduce Him as a
guaranty for all its opinions and observances, and to ascribe
these to him as his honors and privUeges. The Unitarians
might represent him, as their head, denying his own divinity;
while the Trinitarians, also under his headship, might represent
him as maintaining it; yet we do not see that he is, or can be,
the head of the Church of Scotland, in any other sense than he
is the head of our independent churches. The phrase seems to
me to be used merely to operate on the feelings of the multitude;
for we all know that Jesus never interferes with the proceedings
of the clergy; and that under his headship they pursue whatever
measures suit their own interests for the time. He was the
head of our Calvinistic church through all the struggles of which
you have read, yet he never appears to have directed its clergy
to forego any item of power, as long as it was possible for them
to retain it. Here we are republicans; and while we aU acknow
ledge allegiance to Jesus Christ as our federal head, we do not
identify him with the several acts of our separate church govern
ments. We endeavor to discover and practise his wiU; but we
do not call our own ecclesiastical powers and privileges either
his 'state rights' or ' his crown rights:' We claim his protection;
but we offer him nothing in return except the homage of our
he-arts." Another individual remarked, " Surely your Scottish
clergy conceive their own church to be synonymous with
Christendom: I have always understood Christianity to be cos
mopolitan in its principles and application. Their language
may suit themselves and their own flocks; but as it is offensive
to the common sense of Christians who live under different
forms of ecclesiastical government, I cannot acknowledge it to
breathe the genuine spirit of universal Christianity."
I was frequently asked how this great change in the spirit of
the Scottish clergy, since the days of Robertson and Blair, had
arisen. The only account of which I could give was one which
I had received, a few years ago, from an aged friend who was
long an " elder" of one of the churches in Edinburgh, and who
himself had witnessed the alteration. Before the breaking out
of the French Revolution, said he, the Scottish clergy were
distinguished for the liberality of their religious sentiments, and
public rumor mentioned the intention of their leaders even to
propose a revisal of the standards of the church. The men of
property, the lawyers, and distinguished physicians, in general

IN MASSACHUSETTS. 233
partook of the same spirit, and the people would have followed
in their train without much hesitation. In this state of the pub
lic mind, the French Revolution broke out; the throne and the
altar were overturned in France, and trampled under foot. The
government and owners of property in Great Britain, became
alarmed at the progress of French principles among their own
people, and combined to resist them. Their great object was
to rear bulwarks around the throne, for the protection, through
it, of their private interests; and, viewing the altar as the prin
cipal pillar of the state, they became zealous supporters of reli
gious institutions and observances. They patronised the church
and courted the clergy; " I then saw," said the elder, " indivi
duals of great political influence in Edinburgh, who for many
years before had never entered a church door, ostentatiously
walking up the High Street of Edinburgh, with bibles in their
hands, to attend public -worship; and they did not stop there,
but hired evangelical tutors for their sons, and evangelical gover
nesses for their daughters, and used all their influence to induce
every loyal subject of King George the Third to follow their ex
ample. Their efforts were successful; the same spirit prevaded
all classes of the community; a vast zeal was instantaneously
evoked and put into action; and serious impressions were com
municated to the young. This ardor originated in worldly
motives, and its chief object was the security of property; but
the chUdren knew nothing of the designs of their parents; they
received the impressions in all sincerity, and they now consti
tute the mass of modern society. I have lived to see some of
these political supporters of the altar desert its shrines, and
return to their habits of religious indifference; but their children
not only did not fall away from the principles which had been
instilled into them, but neatly broke the hearts of their parents
by advancing into wild fanaticism, which the latter never contem
plated without disgust. We are now in the midst of the re
action, after the irrehgious period of the French Revolution; and
society must abide the maturity of another generation, or pro
bably two, before reason will again exert any salutary influence
over religious opinion in Scotland."
As the French Revolution had taken place long before I was
capable of observing public occurrences, I am not able to judge
of the merits of this explanation; but it bears strong indications
of truth. One striking circumstance in tiie present contest be
tween the church and the civil power in Scotiand, is, that
several men of talent, whose duty it ^as to view the question
as statesmen, are found enlisted in the cause of the church, as
mere religious partizans. The question, as I have already re
marked, involves the religious freedom of the counti:y. If the

234 JOURNEY FROM SPRINGFIELD
church shall be aUowed to hold her endowments and make her
own ecclesiastical laws, independently of the civil courts and
popular control, and to elect her own ministers and office-bearers
by means of the communicants, Scotland will speedily be in
volved in a spiritual despotism which will bring back the dark
ages, or lead to a new reformation. I have introduced these
remarks, because no topic is more generally interesting in the
United States than information concerning the condition and pro
gress of religious institutions, practices, and opinions, in other
countries. Jan. 9. 1840. Journey from Springfield to AHany. — The
cold has been as low as 8° below zero, and the ground is deeply
covered with snow. The distance to Albany is eighty mfles,. and
the road lies over mountains. It has been impassable for some
days, but is now open; and as the thermometer is 5° above zero,
the sky bright, and no wind, we resolved to proceed on our
journey. We hired an exclusive extra mounted on two sleigh-
runners and drawn by four horses. It was nearly twelve feet
long, and four broad, and was seated for twelve persons. We
occupied one end, and our luggage was pfled up in the other.
The body of the " extra," as high as our elbows, was composed
of deal-boards, without stuffing or lining; from these boards to
the roof it was inclosed simply by green baize curtains very iU
fastened,, the air entering freely in all directions. The bottom
was littered with straw; at our feet we had a heated soap-stone of
the size of a commontirick, and a dressed buffalo skin, with the
hair next us, and on our persons we wore abundance of shawls,
fur-caps, cloaks, and great-coats. We set merrily off at nine
o'clock in the morning, and sleighed very smoothly for about
twenty mfles to Blandford, where we stopped and had an excel
lent dinner of fresh fried cod, brought up frozen from Boston,
roast-beef, .cranberry sauce, &c. Notice of our approach had
been given by the mail-sleigh in the morning, and aU was
prepared for us. After dinner we proceeded on our journey;
the snow became deeper, and only one track was open.
-When we met a vehicle of any kind, the two drivers dis
mounted, plied their spades vigorously, which they carried for
the purpose, dug a hole in the snow on one side of the track
sufficient to contain one of the carriages, drove it into the
recess, made the other advance past it, and then extricated it,
put it also on the track, after which each proceeded on his way.
This occurred every half hour, and our advance was very slow.
Sometimes our leaders, sometimes those of the opposing team,
were unfastened and applied to drag the other carriage, or they
were stowed away up to the belly among the snow to make
room for other evolutions. The drivers were uniformly civil
and good natured to us and to each other; but occasionally they

TO ALBANY. 235
¦would cry, " The woman must come out, and the man must
come and hold on upon this here side to prevent her (the sleigh)
from pitching over;" which orders we implicifly obeyed. The
" woman" stood in the snow, the two. drivers and the " man"'
hung by the rail on the roof of the coach, on one side, to pre
vent it toppling over and rolling down the side of the hUl; while
the horses, at the word of command, dragged it forward through
immense wreaths of snow. We constantly overheard such scraps
of conversation as these — " We'll take care any how, this
d  d old thing (our vehicle) will tumble over as easy as not."
" Well, has she been over to-day yet?" — " Well, not yet,"
and so forth. On one occasion we met a heavy wagon drawn
by three horses, and, to make way for us, its master moved it
so much to one side that it was completely and deeply imbedded
in snow. He assisted our coachman for half an hour with his
spade, before a way for us could be excavated, and at last, when
we got fairly past, all hands and horses were applied to extricate
his wagon, but in vain. We were ready to start, leaving him
alone with his three horses on a steep acclivity, and the sun
already set, when he said, in perfect good humor — " Well, I
guess I'll not get out of this fix this night, but I am glad that
you are through any how." I asked him what he would do.
" Take out my horses and go back," said he. At half-past 9
P. M. we reached Stockbridge, and found an excellent room pro
vided for us in Mr. GUpin's inn, by the kind attention of Mrs.
Chatles Sedgewick. This excellent family, we found in affiic-
tion. Miss (Catharine Sedgewick is in Italy witli her brother,
who is laboring under very infirm health, and Mr. Theodore
Sedgewick senior lately died suddenly of apoplexy at Pittsfield.
They are distinguished in the United States for their superior
talents and virtues.
I select the following description of this day's journey from
C.'s Journal: — " I never saw so much snow in my life, except
at the Grindelwald Glacier, as on this journey, and never any so
brilliantly, beautifully, bluely white. Wherever the wind had
drifted it into little irregiflarities, or chinks had opened, we
looked into crannies and miniature arches of the most intense
sky color, often appearing like the porticos to fairy palaces, and
so mysteriously lovely that I longed to be a sylph and explore
them, if so be that sylphs be insensible to cold. In other places
the lovely unsullied wreaths were hanging about the snake fences
and the small evergreen trees, in the most graceful draperies, and
on some of the inequalities in the ground beside us, as we moved
along, lay as in littie waves, or were spread out in chiselled
smoothness. The sun's rays reflected so many diamonds from
the surface of the snow, that I was forced to close my eyes.

236 ALBANY.
The clearer atmosphere of this country must tend to these ap
pearances, which I never noticed at home."
Next morning we proceeded towards Albany, and again I
borrow C.'s description. — " The worst of the road was to
come. We found it full of ' pitch-holes,' and unfortunately our
next sleigh was one of a very inferior description. Pitch-holes
mean holes in the snow into which the runners of the sleigh
descend with horrid jerks, and in rising out of which the travel
ler is pitched up high off his seat, on which he again descends
with a solid thump. The jolts and jars were so incessant and
so severe that my spine literally felt as if shortened a couple of
inches by the crushing of the cartilages between the several
bones. We dined at Chatham, and -were again transferred to
another sleigh; it was an old, dirty, wooden box, with the cob
webs of last summer hanging from the top and interstices between
the deals of the roof, through which sun, wind, rain, and snow,
had full liberty of ingress when they chose. A littie before dark
we crossed the Hudson on solid ice, and immediately drove to
the Mansion House hotel."
Albariy from IQth January toMth February. — We remained
in Albany during this interval. I delivered a course of twelve
lectures on Phrenology in the HaU of the Female Academy, and
was honored by the attendance of an audience exceeding 200
persons, who received the lectures in the best spirit, and, at the
close, passed the resolutions printed in the Appendix, No. X.
On the 17th of January the thermometer fell during the night to
30° below zero, and it was frequently 10°, 15°, and 20° below
that point. I suffered no inconvenience from it; and on three
nights of the week emerged from a temperature of 70° or 75° in
the lecture-room, to these low degrees in the external air, with
out the slightest unpleasant sensation, except that I felt cold in
the balls of my eyes, a feeling which I never experienced before.
Occasionally the wind was high, and the cold was then intole
rably severe; when the weather was calm, it was comparatively
littie felt. It was amusing, on these intensely cold days, to
observe the efforts of the pigs, dogs, and poultry, to screen them
selves from the wind and obtain a few consolatory rays of heat
from the brflliant sun. Fortunately the wind came from some
points north of west, and they most ingeniously found out the
lea and sunny side of projecting stairs, logs of wood, banks of
earth, and other masses of matter, and stood in groups drinking
in the heat. The horses that had been driven into perspiration,
came into the town like moving automatons of frost work, every
long hair being the centre of an icicle. I was surprised to dis
cover the extraordinary degree of cold which these animals
sustain with impunity. I saw them standing round the churches,

ALBANY FEMALE ACADEMY. 237
tied to stakes or trees, with only a rug or buffalo skin thrown
over them, for hours in succession, during divine service. The
stables are made of only half-inch boards, and the joints are not
covered; so that they form a slender protection from the cold;
yet the horses are said to be healthy. One gentleman, who had
passed some winters in Canada, told me that he saw a curious
compact carried into effect in his own stable between his horse
and his poultry. The moment tiiat his horse was unharnessed
and tied up in its stall, in winter, a whole flock of ducks, geese,
turkeys, and hens, descended on his person and covered every
inch of his horizontal surface from his eyes to his tail, and
squatted down upon him. They gave and received warmth,
much to the comfort and gratification of both parties. I saw the
work of excavation proceeding in forming a new street. The
earth, when newly exposed, steamed with excessive heat; it was
70° or 80° warmer than the air. Innumerable steamboats,
barges, sloops, and boats, were frozen up in the river and docks,
and the ice, 15 or 18 inches thick, seems like adamant around
them. One wonders how they will ever get out. There is
much sleighing on the river, and the mail-coaches, coming from
New York, travel many miles on it. The interiors of the
houses are preserved comfortably warm by means of large fires
of anthracite coal.
Dissection of the Brain. — During my stay in Albany Dr.
Hoyt came from Syracuse, a distance of nearly 150 miles, in in
tensely cold weather, bringing with him a brain prepared in al
cohol, for the sake of seeing it dissected in the method taught by
Drs. Gall and Spurzheim. The dissection took place in one of
the rooms of the Albany Medical College, and I was honored
by the attendance of some of the professors and other medical
men. Dr. M'Naughten had seen Dr. Spurzheim dissect the
brain in Dr. Barclay's class-room, in presence of Dr. Gordon,
in 1816; but to the other gentiemen the method was new. It
was' gratifying to see so much zeal for knowledge as Dr. Hoyt
displayed in making so long a journey, at such a season, for a
purely scientific purpose. .;
Albany Female Academy. — This may be described as a col
lege for young ladies, administered by trustees, and supported to
some extent by the state. In this institution Captain Marryat
has forfeited some reputation. He mentions, that at the public
examination he secretly assisted the young ladies with their
French exercises, and received their acknowledgments confi
dentially for the favor; the young ladies maintain that all the
rules of gallantry prescribed to the Captain an inviolable and
eternal secrecy on the subject; instead of observing which he has
published an account of the whole transaction in his work oh
VOL. II. — 17

338 ALBANY FEMALE ACADEMY.
America; betraying their confidence, and, as they say, at the
same time, indulging his own vanity. The teacher in whose
department the aUeged assistance was given, denies the possibili
ty of such an incident having occurred without her having de
tected the Captain's interference; but this point must be settled
between themselves. There is only one opinion, however,
among all the ladies, young and old, plain and pretty, of the
United States, who have read the Captain's narrative — that, if
his own story be literally correct, it was very unlike a British
naval officer to reciprocate confidential favors with young ladies,
and then to boast of his own achievement. I attended part of
the semi-annual public examination of the academy, which com
menced on Tuesday the 4th February 1840, and was continued
on the Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday immediately follow
ing. The programme of the examination will convey an idea
of the nature of the institution, aiid of the subjects taught. The
departments under examination (two proceeding at the same time
in different rooms) were on
" Tuesday, A. M.— The 5th and 6th departments, and the
classes in Mathematics belonging to the 1st and 2d departments.
" Tuesday, P. M. — The French classes under the care of
Prof. Molinard.
" Wednesday, A. M. — The 4th department, and classes in
Watts on the Mind, Mental Philosophy and Evidences of Chris
tianity. "Wednesday, P. M. — The 2d division of the 3d department,
and classes in Physiology and Chemistry.
" Thursday, A. M. — The 1st division of the 3d department,
and classes in Ecclesiastical History, Arnott's Physics, and
Kaimes' Elements of Criticism.
" Thursday, P. M. — The class in Astronomy, under the care
of the President.
" On Friday, at 2 o'clock P. M., the usual exercises wfll take
place in the Chapel of the institution, when the compositions,
both English and French, will be read.
"The examination commenced each day at 9 o'clock A. M.
and 2 o'clock P. M."
The senior classes were composed of young ladies apparently
from fifteen to seventeen years of age, and their attainments
were highly creditable to themselves and to their teachers.
They had committed to memory a vast extent of details in
history, astronomy, chemistry, phj-siologv, and the other
branches, before enumerated. It was mentioned by some per
sons, however that they are stimulated to excess by emulation,
and that they occasionally ruin their health by their exertions to
gain prizes. This error is a serious one, for when knowledge

DR. sprague's collection OF AUTOGRAPHS. 239
is acquired by laborious efforts, not for its own sake, but to
gratify the feelings of Self-Esteem and Love of Approbation, its
practical value is not appreciated and it escapes from the memory
when the gratification for which it was acquired has been attained.
Information, on the contrary, recommended to the intellect by
its inherent interest, and embraced by the moral affections from
its practical utflity, will become the stock and furniture of the
mind through life, and, howe\'er limited in amount, it will be
all real and permanentiy available. Much solid instruction, how
ever, is obviously communicated in this academy. In the ex
aminations, in chemistry, for example, the young ladies, without
assistance or directions, performed numerous experiments, and
gave the theory of the chemical actions involved in them. In
the examinations on' astronomy, they referred to an admirable
orrery, as to a text book. With clear inteUigence; and so in the
other branches. It was in history that the memory seemed to
be chiefly overtasked, and, viewing their studies in the aggregate,
the quantity of matter included in them appeared to be too bur
densome to ordinary minds.
Dr. Sprague's Collection of Autographs. — Dr. Sprague's
collection of autographs surprised me more than any other object
in Albany. It is exceedingly extensive, rich, and valuable, and
has been formed entirely by himself. He has whole volumes of
autographs of literary men, embracing both the kingdoms of
Europe and the United States, and more than one devoted to
those of crowned heads, and extending over several centuries.
He has correspondents in the European cities who procure for
him new treasures as they appear. There are probably few
more valuable collections in Europe.
The extreme cold,. added to the severe suffering inflicted on
C  during the drive from Stockbridge to Albany, unfortu
nately involved her in much indisposition. She was confined
to bed, and continued an invalid during our whole stay in Albany.
We experienced fresh instances of American benevolence. The
Rev. Dr. Sprague kindly offered to receive us both into his
house, and his daughter offered to become C  's nurse; other
female friends offered unreserved attendance on her in her illness.
Dr. M'Naughten, a Scotch physician, was most assiduous and
successful in his treatment of her, and altogether, although I was
prevented by this occurrence from going into society, or extend
ing the circle of my acquaintances, we received renewed proofs
of the generous kindness of the inhabitants. Just as the lectures
terminated, C  was able to travel, and Dr. M'Naughten
recommended to her to set out as speedily as possible for a more
genial locality.

240 NEW HAVEN.
Having received an invitation to deliver a course of twelve
lectures on Phrenology in New Haven, Connecticut, the seat of
Yale Coflege, we left Albany on the 12th, sleighed to Hartford,
and proceeded thence by the railroad to New Haven, where we
arrived on the 15th of February. On the 16th February the
thermometer stood at 15°, which seemed a mfld and almost a
bland temperature, after having been accustomed to — 15°, — 20V
and — 28°, at Albany.
Neiv Haven. — We remained in New Haven from the 15th of
February to the 20th of March. The audience attending my
class included most of ^e professors, and a portion of the stu
dents of Yale College, and a large number of the citizens. It
was the largest class, in proportion to the population, which I
have had in the United States. Our accommodations in the
Tontine Hotel were excellent; the town even in winter is beauti
ful and peaceful; we enjoyed the most agreeable and enlightened
society; and C  's convalescence was rapid and satisfactory.
We had the pleasure of cultivating the acquaintance of Professor
Silliman, whose scientific reputation stands high not only in the
United States, but in Europe. " The American Journal of Sci
ence and Arts," which has now reached its thirty-eighth volume,
has long been, and still is conducted by him with the most in
defatigable zeal, and serves as the grand channel by which the
discoveries of the old and new continents are reciprocally inter
changed. He is a man of the most amiable and interesting
character, full of kindness, and his manner is so pleasing that it
is a common observation in Boston and New York, where he
occasionally delivers lectures, that he can speak more plain
truths to his class, without giving offence, than almost any other
lecturer they hear. In the United States no man's status is
lowered by employing his talents usefully, and the most distin
guished professors in colleges lecture occasionally to popular
audiences in the different towns without any derogation, from
their dignity. In New Haven we met also Professor Olmsted,
Dr. Taylor, whom I have already mentioned, Mr. Noah Web
ster, the Johnson of New Haven, Mr. TrumbuU, the distin
guished historical painter of the United States, the friend of
Washington and Franklin, and who stiU uses his brush. Profes
sor Hooker, Mr. Skinner, and other highly accompUshed men.
The comparative repose which this residence permitted I em
ployed in throwing together some general ideas founded on the
observations which have already been detafled. These I shall
now present to the reader.

241

CHAPTER IX.
American Civilisation. 1840.
March 20. American Civilisation. — Mons. Guizot, in his
" History of CivUisation in Europe," has well observed that the
degree of civilisation which any age or country has attained is
indicated by the " development of social activity, and that of
individual activity; the progress of society, and the piogess of
humanity. Wherever the external condition of man is quickened
and ameliorated — wherever the internal nature of man is ex
hibited with lustre and grandeur — upon these two signs the hu
man race applauds and proclaims civUisation, often in spite of
fundamental imperfections in the social state." Let us apply
these principles to the United States.
In no country, probably, in the world is the external condition
of man so high as in the American Union. The enterprise, in
telligence, activity, and economical habits of the people have
multiplied to an astonishing extent all the physical elements of
human enjoyment. It was observed to me by a gentleman who
is minutely and extensively acquainted with the United States,
that in this country no man who is able and wiUing to work
need to go supperless to bed. In this he far understated the fact.
Laborers here are rich compared with the individuals in the same
class in Europe. Their food is wholesome and abundant; their
dwelling-houses comfortable and well furnished; they possess
property, and enjoy many of the luxuries which property, in a
state of civUisation, is capable of purchasing. The American
cities contain great wealth; and reckoning the whole property,
and the whole population of the Union, and dividing the value
of the one by the sum of the other, my impression is that the
product would show a larger amount of wealth for each indivi
dual in the United States, than exists in any other country in
the world. Great Britain alone probably excepted. In the United
States this property is so equally diffused, that it is really na
tional. The formation of raUroads and canals, the multiplication of
steamboats, ships, machinery, manufactories, and houses, the
extension of the productive soil; in short, the advance of all that

242 AMERICAN CIVILISATION.
ministers to the weU-being of " the external condition of man"
proceeds in the United States on a gigantic scale, and with ex
traordinary rapidity. We must grant, therefore, that whatever
other "imperfection" may exist "in the social state," this fun
damental element of civihsation abounds in a high degree.
The condition of the " internal nature" of man is the next
index to civilisation. The human mind is endowed with animal
propensities, moral and religious sentiments, and intellectual
faculties fitted for observation and reflection. The propensities
and sentiments are blind impulsive powers, which inspire man
with desires, and impel him to seek for their gratification; but
they do not discern either the mode of obtaining their own ob
jects, or the extent to which they may be advantageously in
dulged. It is the province of intellect to study and to acquire
knowledge, and when enlightened by knowledge to direct, guide,
and restrain all the impulsive powers. The mind of an indi
vidual is perfect in proportion as it is capable of extensive action,
of regulating itself in accordance with the rules of duty, and of
finding its way to good in every sphere of its existence. If its
scope of action be narrow; if it need external guidance; or if it
fail to accomplish its own permanent welfare, it is imperfect in
the degree in which it comes short in any of these particulars.
I apply these data to measure the condition of the internal man
in the United States.
The Anglo-Saxon race, which chiefly has peopled the United
States, has been richly endowed by nature with mental qualities.
It possesses, in a high degree, all the faculties classed under the
three grand divisions before mentioned; but, to attain their com
plete development, they need cultivation. In the United States
the development of the mind of the mass of the people is ac
complished by the following influences: — Is/, By domestic edu
cation. 2dly, By district schools. 3dly, By reUgious instruc
tion. Athly, By professional instruction; and, lastly, By pohti
cal action.
\st, By Domestic Education. — The object of education in
the family circle is to develope and regulate the affections, as
vyell as to instruct the understanding. So far as a stranger can
discover by observation, or learn by inquiries, the family educa
tion in the United States is exceedingly various, and depends
for its character much more on the natural dispositions of the
parents, than on any system of instruction. In general the pa
rents are in easy circumstances, are happily matched, are good-
natured, active, and frugal; and these qualities insensibly culti
vate simUar dispositions in the young; but there are of course
numerous exceptions; and education has not advanced so far
among the masses as to render domestic training systematic.

AMERICAN CIVILISATION. 243
Every family has its own manners, maxims, and modes of treat
ment. Speaking generally, the faculties of the child are allowed
free scope in the famUy circle, without sufficient enforcement of
self-denial, or of the subordination of the lower to the higher
powers. The first useful lesson to a 'Child is that of self-re
straint, or of foregoing a present enjoyment at the call of duty,
or for the sake of a higher, although more distant, good. Many
American children appear to be indulged in their appetites and
desires, and to be too littie restrained in the manifestation of
their propensities. Egotism, or the idea that the world is made
for them, and that other persons must stand aside to allow them
scope, is a feature not infrequently recognised. The considera
tion of the manner in which their sentiments and modes of
action, will affect other individuals of well regulated and well
cultivated minds, is not adequately brought home to them. In
short, the active manifestation of tiie moral sentiments in refined
habits, in pure and elevated desires, and in disinterested good
ness, is not aimed at systematically as an object in domestic
training. I speak of the masses composing the nation, and not
of the children of well educated and refined individuals.
In intellectual cultivation, domestic education is still more
defective, because in the masses the parents themselves are very
imperfectly instructed.
On the whole, therefore, the domestic training and instruction
appear to me to be imperfect, viewed in relation to the objects
of enlarging the mind's sphere of action, of conferring on it the
power of self-restraint, and also the ability to discover and suc
cessfuUy to pursue its own permanent welfare.
2f//i/, Of Common School Education. — From the various
remarks which have already been presented in these volumes,
the reader will be prepared to draw the inference that, viewed
in relation to the three objects before mentioned, the common
school education in the United States is also imperfect; I should
say very imperfect. The things taught (chiefiy reading, writr
ing, and arithmetic) are not in themselves education. If sedu
lously and wisely applied, they may enable the individual to
obtain knowledge; but the common schools stop short of supply
ing it. They even communicate very imperfectiy the art of
acquiring it; for sonie of the teachers are themselves ill quali
fied; their modes of teaching are defective, and the attendance of
the children at school is brief and irregular. The addition of a
library to each school-district was dictated by a perception of
the magnitude and importance of the deficiency in this depart
ment. It appears to me that besides great improvements in
existing schools, still higher seminaries are wanted, in which
the elements (jf natural, moral, and political science, with their

244 AMERICAN CIVILISATION.
applicatfons to the purposes of individual and social enjoyment,
may be taught to the whole people.
One, and probably the most important, element in an educa
tion calculated to fit an individual for becoming an accomplish
ed member of the American democracy, is training the faculties
to their proper modes of action. This can be accomplished
only by calling them aU into activity, and by communicating to
the higher powers the knowledge and habit of governing the
lower. Mere intellectual instruction is not sufficient for this
purpose; the propensities and sentiments must be trained in the
field of life. The anecdote mentioned in vol. i, p. 305, is illus
trative of this proposition. This end will be best accomplished
by communicating to children the knowledge of their own
faculties, and of their spheres of use and abuse, by placing
them in circumstances in which these may be called into action,
and superintending that action in such a manner as to cultivate
the powers of rapid judgment and steady self-control. The
play-ground is an important field for conducting this branch of .
education. The principles and practice of it are explained in
the works of Wilderspin and Stow already referred to. This
department of education is in a very humble condition in the
United States; and yet to them it is all-important. Every one of
their citizens wields political and judicial power; he is at once
the subject of the law and its pfllar; he elects his own judges,
magistrates, and rulers, and it is his duty to obey them. If
ever knowledge of what is right, self-control to pursue it, and
high moral resolve to sacrifice every motive of self-interest and
individual ambition, to the dictates of benevolence and justice,
were needed in any people, they are wanted in the citizens of
the United States. A well instructed citizen will consider the
influence of any law on the general v/elfare before he consents
to its enactment, and a vi'ell trained citizen will not only obey
that law when enacted, but lend his whole moral and physical
energies, if necessary, to enforce its observance by all, until
repealed by constitutional authority. An ill-instructed citizen wfll
clamor for the enactment of any law which promises to relieve
him from an individual inconvenience, or to confer on him an
individual -advantage, without much consideration concerning its
general effects; and an ill-trained citizen wfll seek to subject the
magistrates, judges, and the law to his own control, that he may
bend them in subserviency to his interest, his ambition, or his
incUnations, from day to day, as these arise and take different
directions. The ill-trained citizen t-akes counsel of his self-wifl;
and self-wUl, uninstructed and untrained to the guidance of moral
principle, leads to destruction.
Phrenology is calculated to benefit the people of the United

AMERICAN CIVILISATION. 245
States, by enabling both teachers and pupfls to act with intelli
gence and co-operation in instructing and training. It presents
views of each mental power, and of its spheres of use and abuse,
so simple and intelligible that children can understand them, and
teachers can act upon them.
Lecturing to the people in lyceums is extensively practised in
the United States, and as a mode of public instruction it is well
calculated to advance their intelligence; but hitherto, owing to
the defects of their education in the primary schools, it has not
yielded half its advantages. As formerly mentioned, the lectures
delivered in lyceums are generally of a miscellaneous character,
developing no subject systematically, and sacrificing profound
interest to variety and temporary excitement; yet no other
lectures would attract persons of mature age, whose minds had
not been opened up, in their elementary education, to the value
of scientific knowledge. If the simpler elements of the natural
sciences were taught in childhood, the mind, when it expanded
into vigor, would long for fuller developments of tiieir princi
ples, and the lectures in the lyceums might then 'assume a high
character of usefulness.
Viewing the object of education, then, to be to communicate
knowledge by which the sphere of the mind's action may be en
larged — to train each individual to self-control and the love of
good — and to enable him, by these means combined, to pursue
successfuUy his own welfare, the educational institutions of the
United States appear generaUy to be defective.
3dly, Of Religious Instruction. — The objects of religious
instruction are twofold; first. To obtain Salvation in a future life;
and, secondly. To conduce to practical virtue in this world. I
regard the first as belonging to the sphere of theology, and as
beyond the jurisdiction, equally of the phflosopher and the civil
magistrate. By the principles consecrated at the Reformation
each individual has the exclusive right of judging on this subject
for himself, and for those whose souls Providence has intrusted to
his care. I merely remark, that I perceive great differences exist
ing in the opinions of American sects regarding, first, the extent
of the danger to which the human soul is exposed in a future life;
and secondly, the means by which this danger may be avoided;
but that each sect exhibits a means of salvation which it con
siders commensurate with its own ideas of the danger. All
profess to found their belief on a sound interpretation of Scrip
ture; and as only the Great Judge of all can decide which has
reached the largest portion of truth, we may hope that they may
all prove essentially successful in accomplishing this important
end. Instruction in the nature and extent of the danger, and in
the nature and use of the means to avert it, constitute a large

246 AMERICAN CIVILISATION.
portion of the religious education communicated to the young,
The clergy of the various sects appeared to me to be most
assiduous in the discharge of this duty; and from the extensive
attendance on religious worship exhibited in every part of the
Union which I have visited, their teaching appears to have ex
cited that deep interest in the subject, which is the only legiti
mate proof, in this world, of their success. The grand motive
of the clergy of all sects is, no doubt, the love of souls'; but there
is a secondary circumstance which is, probably, not without
some effect in securing their exertions, namely, the knowledge
that the acceptance of their peculiar doctrines regarding salvation
is the bond which binds the people to their ministrations, and
that the more successfully they impress a firm conviction of their
views on their flocks, the more secure do they feel in obtaining
the means of their own subsistence, and the greater also are their
power and influence over their people. This branch of rehgious
instruction, therefore, appears to be in a salutary and satisfactory
condition in the United States.
But religious instructors teach also the morality and religion
which ought to regulate human conduct in this world. In the
great outUnes of, secular duty, all the Christian sects are agreed;
and the clergy of all sects teach them to their flocks. In the
course of my attendance in the churches of the United States, I
could not, however, avoid making two remarks on this subject;
first, that, in proportion as the tenets of any sect represented the
dangers of eternal perdition to be great and imminent, and the
means of salvation to be difficult, the clergy of that sect taught
their own doctrinal views on these points more zealously and
more extensively, and the practical duties of Christianity rela
tively less frequently; and vice versa. Secondly, That the
teaching of practical duties was in the vast majority of churches
exceedingly general, rarely descending to specific instructions
regarding the proper line of conduct to be pursued in the most
momentous and difficult departments of life. This defect at
taches to nearly all Christian churches, and appears to me to
account for the rapid oblivion which overtakes sermons, as
described in p. 167. If I were to dravy a comparison in this par
ticular, I should say that the practical affairs of life are more
extensively introduced into the pulpits of the United States than
into those of Scotiand, and the notices of sermons which have
been given wiU parfly enable the reader to judge on this point
for himself. StiU, in this respect, religious teaching is generally
defective, and I lament that it is so, because when the Creator
introduced into the world a system of causation, in virtue of
which, when circumstances are the same, one event foUows
another in invariable succession; and when He bestowed on man

AMERICAN CIVILISATION. 247
faculties of observation and reflection, rendering him capable of
observing circumstances, and tracing the connection between
causes and effects, he imposed on him the duty of observing,
reflecting, and acting on system; and the moral world forms no
exception to this rule. If the constitution of the world, mental
and physical, be systematic, and if causation run through every
department of it, then, while man acts without sufficient
knowledge of, or reference to, the system of causes in the midst
of which he exists; while he acts impulsively and blindly from
the mere dictates of his inclinations, and upon superficial, limited,
and inaccurate views of the qualities and adaptations of things
which surround him, and which really determine his happiness
or misery, he does not rise to his proper rank of a rational being.
When God framed him and the external world on these princi
ples. He clearly conferred on him the rational character, and it
is man's duty to conform to it. If this view be sound, every
element of external nature, and every organ and function of the
human mind and body which are capable, when properly used,
of promoting human happiness, and when abused, of leading to
misery, is a divine institution presented to man for his study,
and as a guide to his practical conduct. The pulpit, in my
opinion, will never discharge its duty to mankind, until it shall
become the expositor also of " these doings of the Lord," and
shall inculcate the observance of them under the sanction of
religion. The pulpit thus employed would contribute more
effectually than it now does towards enlarging the sphere of the
mind's action — presenting motives to self-control — and direct
ing each individual to pursue successfully his real welfare both
for this world and the next. Sermons of this nature would also
add greatly to the utflity of the lyceums; because the people,
finding the elements of natural knowledge invested with a reli
gious interest, would apply themselves with more earnestness
and patience to extend their studies under the guidance of scien
tific teachers.
4thly, Professional Callings. — The great majority of the
people of the United States are engaged in arts, manufactures,
commerce, navigation, agriculture, divinity, law, and medicine;
and their pursuits are therefore useful, and productive of enjoy
ment. As the paths of industry are rarely obstructed by bad
laws or artificial obstacles, American civilisation, in this depart
ment, will bear a favorable comparison with that of the most
advanced nations. These avocations, however do not fully de
velope th6 highest faculties of the mind. They cultivate Acquisi
tiveness, Self-Love, and the love of distinction, more than Bene
volence, Veneration, Conscientiousness, and Ideality. They
call the intellect into activity, but many of them do not neces-

248 AMERICAN CIVILISATION.
sarily direct it to moral objects. They are deserving of all
praise as important elements of civUisation, indeed as necessary
to the very foundations of it: but in order to exhibit the " internal
nature of man with lustre and grandeur," higher pursuits must
be added to and mingled with them. The schools, coUeges, and
the pulpit, must supply the lustre and grandeur in which the
avocations of comnion life are necessarUy defective. Great
improvements in professional attainments remain to be made in
the United States. American divines are not in general so
learned as those of England, but they appear to be more practi
cal; whUe the professions of law and medicine in the rural dis
tricts, comprising nineteen-twentieths of the whole United
States, st-and in need of large accessions of knowledge to bring
them to a par -with the same professions in the enlightened
countries of Europe, (a) The improved education which I
have suggested would render the practice of the professions in
some degree scientific or philosophical pursuits, in which each
individual would endeavor, in his vocation, to appropriate the
laws which the Creator has established as essential to success,
and the calm calculations of reason would, to some extent, re
gulate the impulsive and empirical movements (p. 55) which
have hitherto been fraught with so much suffering to the people.
5thly, Political Institutions. — The American Declaration of
Independence announces that " all men are created equal," a
proposition which, however liable to be disputed in some re
spects, has (leaving out of view the African race) been practicafly
adopted as the fundamental principle of all the institutions and
legislation of the United States. It is the most powerful maxim
for developing the individual, in all his faculties and functions,
that has ever been promulgated, and it has certainly produced
great results. It is probably the first abstract proposition that
is cloathed with an intelligible meaning in the mind of the Ame
rican chUd, and it influences his conduct through life. It sends
forth the young citizen full of confidence in himself, untram
melled by authority, unawed by recognised superiority in others,
and assured of a fair field for every exertion. When he attains
to the age of twenty-one years, the institutions of his country
(a) If professional knowledge be measured by its ready adaptation to the
exigencies of the case, the disparity between the professions in Europe and
in the United States is far from being so great or so evident as is implied
in the text. The European physicians, for example, may be better lexico
graphers or linguists, but they are not, proportionately to this kind of learn.
ing, better read in medicine nor better practitioners than the Americans.
On the score of composition and style, the communications in the Ameri
can Medical Journals, are in the average, superior to those in the British
periodicals of « similar character. This statement is not made hastily
nor without due consideration.

AMERICAN CIVILISATION. 349
provide him with the following arenas of political influence and
exertion. Each town is to a certain extent and for certain purposes a
body corporate. " The citizens of the several towns quahfied
to vote for elective officers annually assemble and hold town
meetings; and, when so assembled, they have power, not
only to elect town officers, but also to determine what number
of assessors, constables, and pound-masters shall be chosen for
the ensuing year; to direct the commencement or defence of
suits and controversies in which the town is involved or in
terested, ;; ,d a sum to be raised for conducting the same."*
The extent of their powers may be judged of from the officers
whom tiiey elect, and who are all responsible to them. I
select the state of New York as an example; the constitutions
of towns and counties are simUar in most of the other States.
The qualifications of a voter are, that he must be a citizen of
21 years of age; he must have resided in the state one year, and
in the county where he offers to vote for six months before an
election. He must vote in the town or ward where he resides.
Persons of color must have been citizens of the state for three
years; and must have possessed for one year previous to the
election a clear freehold estate of the value of $250. The town-
officers annually chosen are,
1. A Supervisor, " who receives and pays over the principal
moneys raised by the town for defraying town charges."
2. " A Town-Clerk, who has the custody of all the books,
records, and papers of the town."
3. "Assessors, whose chief powers and duties consist in the
assessement and valuation of the real and personal property of
the inhabitants of the town, for the purpose of taxation."
4. " The Collector. He receives a tax-list with a warrant
annexed, from the board of superiors of the county, and he then
proceeds to collect the taxes mentioned in the list."
5. " Overseers of the Poor."
6. " Commissioners of High-Ways."
7. " Commissioners of Common Schools." Of these there are
three for each town. They have power to divide the town into
a convenient number of school districts, and to regulate and al
ter them. They receive from the treasurer of the county, the
moneys apportioned for the use of the common schools of their
town, and they also receive from the town-collector, all moneys
raised by the town, and by him collected, for the use of schools.
These moneys are apportioned by the commissioners among the
* Civil Offices and Political Ethics by E. P. Hurlbut; New York, 1840.
p. 95.

250 AMERICAN CIVILISATION.^
several districts, in proportion to the number of children in each
district, who are above 5 and under 16 years of age, as the same
appears from the last annual reports of the trustees of the seve
ral districts. They have power to sue for and collect certain
penalties, which are added to the school funds.
8. " The Inspectors of Common Schools." They examine all
persons offering themselves as candidates for the office of common
school teachers of their town; also visit once a-year, or of-
tener if necessary, all the common schools of their town; ex
amine into the state of thera, the progress of the scholars in
learning, and the good order of the schools; and give advice
and directions to the trustees and teachers of the schools as to
their government, and the course of studies to be pursued in
them. 9. " Trustees of School-Districts." Their duties are to call
special meetings of the districts when necessary, and make out a
tax-list for the sums voted to be raised at a district meeting, an
nex to it a warrant of collection, and deliver it to the district col
lector. They buUd, hire, purchase, keep in repair, and furnish
the school-houses, and employ and pay the teacher.
10. "The Constables."
11. "The Town Sealer." Who compares all weights and
measures with the standard, and seals them.
12. " Overseers of Highways."
13. " Pound-Masters."
14. " Fence Viewers."
15. " Commissioners of Excise," who grant licenses to
keepers of inns and taverns.
16. "Auditors of the Town Accounts."
17. " Commissioners of Deeds, who take proof and acknow
ledgment of conveyances of real estate, the discharge of mort
gages," &c.*
Some of these officers are not elected directiy by the people,
but appointed by persons chosen by them. Thus the Com
missioners of Deeds are named by the Judges of the county courts
and the boards of supervisors in each county; but directly or in
directiy the people appoint them all.
" The next grand political division is the County; and the of
ficers, most of whom are annually elected by the people, are the
following:— Sheriff, Coroners, District-Attorney, Judges of the
county courts (they are nominated by the Governor, with con
sent of the Senate, and hold office for five years). County Clerks,
Surrogate, Superintendents of the Poor, County Treasurer, Board
* Lib. cit. p. 95 to p. 120.

AMERICAN CIVILISATION. 251
of Supervisors, Grand Jurors, County Sealer, Auctioneers, and
Inspectors of Commodities.
" The Legislature consists of 32 Senators, and 128 Members
of Assembly, with subordinate officers. The Senators are
chosen by the people and by districts, and their term of office is
four years. The Members of Assembly are chosen annuaUy by
the people.
" The State. The Executive officers are a Governor, chosen
by the people at a general election, and who holds his office for
two years. Zie«?enffln/-Got;ernor, appointed as before. A Secre
tary of State, appointed by the Legislature for three years. A
Comptroller, appointed and holds office as the Secretary. A
Treasurer, appointed annually by the Legislature. An At
torney-General, appointed for three years by the Legislature. A
Surveyor-General, tiie same. A State Printer, appointed by
and holds his office during the pleasure of the Legislature.
" TTie Judicial and Administrative officers of the state are
appointed either by the Governor, with consent of the Senate, or
by the courts. The higher judges hold office during good be
havior, or till sixty years of age, when they are no longer ca
pable of holding office. The Judges of County Courts and
other inferior judges hold office for five years. Masters and Ex
aminers in Chancery for three years.
" Finafly, The United States. The President of the United
States is chosen by the electors of each state, appointed in such
a manner as the legislature of each state directs by law, and
these electors are equal in number to the whole number of sena
tors and representatives to which the state is entitled in Con
gress. He holds office for four years, but may be re-elected for
a second term of four years.
" TTie Vice-President, is elected in the same manner, and for
the same term.
The Legislative Body, or Congress, consists of a Senate and
a House of Representatives.
" The Senate is composed of two Senators from each state,
who are chosen by the Legislatures of their respective state, and
hold office for six years.
" The House of Representatives is composed of members
chosen every second year by the people of the several states.
At present they cannot exceed one for every 47,700 of inhabi
tants, but the ratio is changed with every census taken by the
United States.
" The President, or President and Senate, nominate Execu
tive and Judical Officers, and also Naval and Mflitary for the
United States."
In contemplating this fabric of government, it appears as a

252 AMERICAN CIVILISATION.
mighty school for developing the social nature of man; and it is
a school of that kind which nature dictates. The social body
controls its own destiny, suffers for its own errors, and enjoys
the benefits of its own wisdom and virtue. It gives power to
every elector to raise or depress his own fortunes and those of
his neighbors; but he must affect both; he cannot isolate himself
from his fellows, and pursue, in his electoral capacity, private
ends and individual advantages. He must "Love his neighbor
as himself;" for his ,neighbor is his equal, and wfll not submit
to injustice. This form of government calls on individual citi
zens to discharge many public duties, and offers to their ambi^
tion numerous situations of public honor. It quickly brings
home to society the experience of the consequences of its own
actions: — if it commit errors, suffering speedily indicates the
necessity for rectifying them; if it adopt wise laws and pursue
salutary measures, it is rewarded with certain prosperity; but its
influence in developing the internal faculties of the mind is the
chief object of my present remarks.
On perusing the list of officers elected by the American citi
zen, and of whose proceedings he is the ultimate judge, we dis
cover that there is scarcely an interest relating to human nature
in this world, which is not direcfly or indirectly brought before
him for consideration, and placed to some extent under his con
trol. The institutions appear to me to develope the whole facul
ties of the individual, with littie modification. He is educated
by them in the belief _that he can control every thing but public
opinion, and that little self-denial is required from him, except
in preserving a civil bearing in society. If, therefore. Nature
have bestowed on an American citizen a large endowment of
the animal organs with defective organs of reflection, and of the
moral sentiments, he is speedily developed into an audacious
and accomplished rogue. If to the propensities she have added
intellect, but still left the moral faculties deficient, he appears as
a speculative merchant, an ambitious and unprincipled politician,
or a dexterous and unconscientious lawyer — in each character
unscrupulously turning the institutions of his country, and the
good nature of his fellow-citizens, to his private advantage. If
Nature have given the citizen a high developement of the moral
and intellectual organs, with subordinate propensities, the insti
tutions of his country unfold the best of human characters; such
an individual is a philanthropist, a man of practical sense, of
sterling honesty, and sturdy independence; in short, an ornament
to human nature. I have known many such. "The American
citizen whose mental endowments are naturally high, and whose
education has been liberal, is reared in a noble field. There is
no glare of aristocracy to obscure his moral perceptions and

AMERICAN CIVILISATION. 253
misdirect his ambition. There is no established church to tram
mel his rehgious sentiments aud obstruct his path in following
the dictates of truth; there is no servile class to corrupt his self
ish faculties by obsequiousness and flattery. He is an excellent
specimen of humanity, enlightened, benevolent, and just, and
animated by an all-pervading activity. There is another class
of minds, by far the most common, on whom the three orders
of faculties, animal, moral, and intellectual, are bestowed by
nature in nearly equal proportions. The American institutions
evolve their faculties almost in the proportion in which nature
gave them. Men of this class are observed to be habitually
selfish, yet occasionally generous; frequently cunning, yet often
open and direct; at times carried away by passion and prejudice,
but on other occfisions manifesting soimd judgement and
honesty. In short, the grand feature of American society is the fulness
with which it developes all the faculties of its individual mem
bers, without impressing peculiar biases on any of them; and
hence its heterogeneous aspect in the eyes of foreigners. There
is no evil and no good which may not be predicated of it with
truth. Numerous examples could be adduced in support of
every picture representing good, better, best; bad, worse, worst,
in American society. Perhaps the reader may suppose that the
same may be said of society in every country; but certainly not
to the same striking extent as in the United States. In Europe
the different classes are cast in distinct moulds, and some of the
faculties of the individuals constituting each class are suppressed,
while others are highly developed, to fit them for their condi
tions. In the United States the individual man stands forth
miich more as Nature made him, and as freedom and equality
have reared him.
It is this extraordinary activity of all the faculties which forms
the most striking feature in the people of the United States, and
it affords the.best guaranty that they are essentiaUy in the right
road'to a high civilisation.
The imperfections discovered by strangers lie not so niuch in
the American institutions as in the people, The fierce political
contests, the sudden elevations and depressions of public aflairs,
the frequent changes of laws and projects, an4-,the want of
smoothness and harmony in the action of the social machinery
which have been observed in that country, are the natural indi
cations that the impulsive power which is moving, and also the
intelligence which is directing this vast social body, are both
operating to a great extent at random; now attaining, and now
missing their objetits, but ever driving onward towards new ex
periments and evolutions.
VOL. II. — 18

354 AMERICAN CIVILISATION.
In the exercise of nearly aU their high elective, legislative,
and administrative functions, the people and their rulers general
ly proceed on the mere dictates of common sense; and as Arch
bishop Whafley has weU observed, common sense is never
recognised as a sufficient guide in the management of important
affairs, except when the individual is ignorant of scientific princi
ples of action. A sailor will probably admit that common sense
is sufficient to enable a man to preach or to practise medicine,
but he will deny that it is adequate to the steering of a ship: He
knows litfle of the difficulties of preaching and practising the
heating art, and therefore believes that slender attainments will
suffice for t,hem; whfle he is intimately acquainted with the perils
of navigation, and justly decides that scientific knowledge and
experience are both indispensably necessary to render a man an
accomplished navigator. Instinct does not guide man as it does
the lower animals; and reason cannot act without extensive
knowledge and laborious training. The education of the Ameri
can people being stUl essentially defective in relation to their
powers and dutiOs, their institutions, when seeii in action, do not
render justice to the wisdom which framed them. A higher
education, discipline in obeying the natural laws under the sanc
tion of religion, and practical moral training, appear to me to be
the remedies for these evils.
One test of civilisation, both in individuals and nations, is the
power of self-command amidst temptations; and a second is the
capacity of discovering and following out through difficulties,
the path that leads to ultimate good. — In regard to the first test,
it is a common remark in Scotland, that the sons of excessively
rigid clergymen occasionally run into wUd immoralities when
they are emancipated from paternal restiaint. The explanation
is, that their own moral and intellectual faculties have never
been disciplined, to resist and to control the solicitations of the
propensities amidst temptations. The restraining and directing
power has been external; and good conduct depended on its
presence. No youth is ever safe or well-1a:ained unless these
powers be internal; for then only are they ever present and ever
at their posts. The same rule holds good in the case of nations.
Before the revolution, the French people were restrained from
action by priests, police officers, and a numerous soldiery.
French society- then presented fewer mobs, fewer defiances of
the law, and fewer gigantic frauds, in proportion to the popula
tion, than American society does at this moment. Butj were
the French of those days in a higher state of civilisation than the
modern Americans? No. Their propensities were restrainedhy
external powers, and little scope for self-action was permitted to
any of their faculties. The consequence was, that when the

AMERICAN CIVILISATION. 355
pressure of the priests, the police, and the army, was removed,
and a strong impulse was communicated to their minds, the pro
pensities blazed forth with frightful energy — there was a lack of
self-control — all was distraction and anarchy; and Napoleon re
stored order only by reapplying the external restraints. The
American people live under no external restraints, except those
esbtablished by-God and by themselves. Their regulating in
fluences are sitnated in their own minds; and they live, not in a
state of apathy, but in one of high excitement. They contend
for gain, for honor, for power, and in all their contests, only the
law of God, the power of conscience, the fear of public opinion,
and the laws which they themselves have made and may abro
gate at pleasure, repress their ebullitions, and give direction to
their efforts. Do they exhibit the ¦w'reck of social order, and the
degradation of virtue? No! The progress of civUisation has been
steady and rapid. In proportion as the new territories have
been filled up by a numerous population, religion, law, and or
der, have been evolved in them. I was told by gentlemen in
advanced life, that in their younger days Kentucky was the
theatre of fierce duels, gouging, murders, aud other gross outrages,
as the new states of the West at present are; but in our day
Kentucky is comparatively industrious, moral, and civUised.
The latter fact I saw during my visit to the West in April 1840.
In the older and Eastern States the supremacy of the law, the
security of property, and the respect for religion, are unques
tionably great. In the previous pages, I have described excep
tions, but they are onlj- exceptions; and there is a constant dis
position and never-ceasing effort to prevent the recurrence, and
remove the causes of them.
When this state of social affairs is regarded as the result of
the free internal action of the mind of the luhole people, I recog
nise the presence of a higher general civilisation in the United
States than is to be found in any European country, except pro
bably Switzerland, which has similar institutions. What Euro
pean monarchy could throw such an extent of power into the
hands of the whole people as is done in the United States, and
afterwards boast of equal order, law, and justice? The oppressed,
the injured, the ignorant, and untrained masses would, in all
probability, during the first exercise of their power, rush head
long into anarchy. The prominence which outrages and frauds
assume in American society is the consequence of the impulse
given to all the faculties by their institutions, and of the com
parative feebleness of external artificial restraints. As already
mentioned, the rogue is developed in all his might and malignity,
and his greatness attracts attention; but the good are developesi
in an equal proportion; and if they do not appear equally con-

256 AMERICAN CIVILISATION.
spicuous on the public stage, it is because religion and virtue are
in their own nature meek, retiring, and unostentatious quahties.
The first step towards self-government is the most difficult; the
Americans have made, and partly succeeded in it. Their future
progress will be less difficult. '
Captain Marryat bears testimony to a fact which is at once
the consequence and evidence of this power of self-control in the
American people in one department of social life.' It is so im
portant that, in my opinion, although he had not recorded oiie
other circumstance in elucidation of American civilisation, he
would have done good service to ethical and political science by
contributing it alone. " I do not think," says he, " that Demo
cracy is marked upon the features of the lower classes in the
United States; there is no arrogant bearing in them, as might be
supposed from the despotism of the majority; on the contrary, I
should say that their lower ranks are much more civil than 'our
own. In his usual demeanor the citizen-born is quiet and obh-
ging. The insolence you meet with is chiefly from the emi
grant classes. I have before observed that the Americans are a
good-tempered people, and to this good temper I ascribe their
civil bearing. But why are they good tempered? // appears
to me to be one of the few virtues springing from Democracy.
When the grades. of society are distinct, as they are in the older
institutions, when difference of rank is acknowledged and sub
mitted to without murmur, it is evident that if people are obhged
to control their tempers in presence of their superiors or equals,
they can also yield to them with their inferiors; and it is this
yielding to our tempers which enables them to master us. But
under institutions where all are equal, where no one admits the
superiority of another, even if he really be so; where the man
v/ith the spade in his hand will beard the millionaire, and where'
you are compeUed to submit to the cajirice and insolence of a
domestic, or lose his services, it is evident that every man must,
from boyhood, have learned to control his temper, as no ebuUi-
tion will be submitted to, or unfoUowed by its consequences. 1
consider that it is this habitual control, forced upon the Ameri
cans by the nature of their institutions, which occasions them to
be so good-tempered, when not in a state of excitement."
The facts and the philosophy here are equally sound,' except
that American-born " domestics" are trained under the same in
fluences with the rest of the community, and, if paid at the com
mon rate of labor and justly treated, they, as a class, are not
insolent and capricious. Bad temper arises from unjust mani
festations of Self-Esteem and Destructiveness, directed against
individuals who have offended our egotism; while good temper
is the result of Self-Esteem and Destructiveness kept in abey-

AMERICAN CIVILISATION. 257
ance, and Btenevolence, Veneration, Conscientiousness, and
Love of Approbation, or some of them, actively manifested. If
artificial difiereiices of rank afford temptations to indulge iu bad
temper, they, to that extent, foster unchristian states o^ mind;
while demociatic institutions, if they cultivate self-restraint,
good-nature, and civility, are unquestionably, in so far, the allies
of virtue, and cherish Christian dispositions.
With regard to the second test, I cannot bbar the same testi
mony in favor of the power of the American people to discover
and follow forth, through difficulties, the path that leads to gene
ral prosperity. They greatly need a higher intellectual illumi
nation to enable them to do so.
But it is said that the institutions of the United States have
produced a frightful result in establishing the tyranny of the
majority. This subject deserves serious consideration.
In all political, legislative, and corporate assemblies, the mi
nority must, from the nature of » things, yield to the majority.
The mere fact of tiie majority in such bodies, carrying their
own measures into effect, cannot justly be called tyranny.
From the way in which the tyranny of the majority is gene
rally spoken of, a stranger to the United States might be led to
suppose that the majority enact laws in favor of themselves to
the prejudice of the minority; but this is not the case. Except
when legislating for the colored race, the majority uniformly
include themselves in the laws which they pass; and if they be
guilty of injuring the minority, it is only in consequence of an
error in judgment, which equally affects themselves. A few
cases probably might be discovered, in which the majority in
the legislature of a particular state, had a common interest which
they pursued at the expense of the minority. In 1840, for ex
ample, the majority of the legislature of New York may rea
sonably be suspected of having been composed of debtors. On
the 14th of May in that year, they passed an act, ostensibly to
curtail attorneys' fees ; but, by section 24, they enacted that
writs oi fieri facias may be issued, and tested at any time in
term or vacation, after thirty days from the entry of judgment,
and such writs shall be returnable sixty days from the receipt
thereof," &c. The plain meaning of this provision is, that,
after the creditor has pursued his claim to judgment, he must
wait thirty days before he can issue execution; in other words,
that the debtor shall have thirty days to dispose of his personal
property, and thus enjoy the privilege of, defeating the claims of
the creditor entirely. But, as the legislators are changed very
frequently, all statutes which are found to favor one class at
the expense of another, are likely to be speedily repealed.

258 AMERICAN CIVILISATION.
Again, such cases as are referred to on page 213 of this volume
occasionally occur, where the majority sacrifice the rights of the
few, under" the plea of promoting the general good; but unques
tionably the tendency of the democratic legislatures of the United
-States-is-to embody justice in Jheir laws.—- For example, the
want of a registry of voters is an undoubted defect in the elec
tion law of the state of New York; but if such a regulation were
proposed by the one political party, the other would represent
it as " an abridgement of popular rights," and make " political
capital" out of it. In the city of New York, however, the
Democratic party had the ascendency in 1840, whUe the Whig
party prevailed in the legislature of the state. The Whigs
availed themselves of the opportunity afforded by the gross
frauds practised at the New York City election ist-A^vAri^i^^
_and-of4heip. ascen.dencyin-the iegislatnre, to pass a registry-law
for that city. They could not have done so for the state, be
cause the' cry of " popular rights" would have been successfully
raised against them. They could lose nothing, however, by
such a clamor in the city, because it already belonged to their
opponents. They, therefore, by establishing a registry for the
city, did the good that was in their power; and other occasions
may occur in which it will be possible to extend this law to
other places. Jji-€i=eat-_BrLtain_tiie_±wQ_houses of Parliament
represent only the minority of the nation; yet they appear to me
to exhibit many more examples of tyranny in law-making over
the unrepresented majority, than I have been able to discover
perpetrated by the majority over the minority, in the legislatures
of the United States. A list of unjust laws enacted by the ma
jority in the United States in order to benefit themselves at the
expense of the minority, (omitting those regarding the African
race,) would be remarkably brief. A similar list of unjust
enactrflents by the minority in Britain against the majority,
would, on the contrary, be extensive.
But it may be supposed that the tyranny of the majority con
sists in elevating their own will into supremacy over the law;
in trampling on it, for instance, in their character of mobs; in
setting it at naught as jurymen; or in forcing the judges to per
vert it, under fear of dismissal from office. That examples of
such evfls do occur, it is impossible to deny; but they are the
results of excitement, which is generally both temporary and
local; and there is constantly a reaction in favor of law and
order. These are merely ebullitions of unguided feeling, and do
not assume the character of concerted or intentional tyranny
of the majority over the minority. Indeed, my impression is,
that they are generally perpetrated by the minority, without the
approval of the majority, because, so far as my means of obser-

AMERICAN CIVILISATION. 259
vation extended, Iwas led to the conviction that a vast majority
of the citizens of the United States condemn these outrages,
although they lack legal force and moral courage to prevent
them. The newly settled, and therefore semi-barbarous, states
of the west, and the slave states of the south, should be dis
tinguished from the eastern and more civilised states, in discussing
this question. The former may be compared to Ireland in
1824, when an army of 36,000 men was needed to preserve the
peace, and the latter to Scodand now, where 1500 soldiers suffice.
It would lead only to error to regard the British Isles as one
nation, and to detail Irish outrages as examples of the lawlessnfess
of the Scotch; and it is equally fallacious to cite the crimes and
horrors of the south and west as examples of the influence of
democracy in the United States. In judging of political insti
tutions, we are bound to view them in those circumstances
where they have been longest tried, and have had freest scope.
Assuming, then, for the present, the eastern states as tiie
objects of our contemplation, I remark that their mobs proceed,
in my opinion, from two causes— ^the constant excitement, in
which the people live, which pervades all their faculties, and
the want of training and dicipline in youth. "Their outrages
are the result of impulse, vivid and general, but momentary; and
not of deliberate action on any principle. One feature, moreover,
distinguishes an American from an European mob. The moral
and intellectual faculties are in a higher state of cultivation in
the former than in the latter, and for this reason, the people are
more suscepitble of moral or legal influence, even in their highest
state of excitement. A European mob is like a wild beast,
cruel but cowardly; the animal propensities rage with violence,
and completely carry captive the moral powers. An American
mob, on the other hand, if fairly opposed by men of courage
in support of the law, has so much more of the higher elements
of mind in its composition, that it may be arrested. In Philadel
phia, a few years ago, Mr. B- W. Richards, when mayor,
mounted his horse — dashed into the midst of a mob, and seized
some of the ringleaders, when the other guardians of the peace,
finding that they were led by a man of spirit, acted boldly, and
speedily restored order. This act was loudly and universally
commended. Again, in 1840, Daniel NeaU, an old man, with
his wife, and some other members of the Society of Friends in
PhUadelphia, had gone to visit the members of their society in
Delaware, and they were assaUed by a mob under the pretence
that they were abolitionists. At night, while seated round the
fireside of a friend two miles from Smyrna, in that state, Mr.
NeaU " was seized by force, dragged from the arms of his
affrighted and agonised wife, and compeUed to walk to that town

260 AMERICAN CIVILISATION.
' to answer for his disorganising doctrines.' * * The mob
hurried him off to the place of their destination, where they
consummated their deed of shame by tarring and feathering him,
and riding him on a rail. After having thus satisfied their
fiendish malignity, they set him loose, and allowed him to join
his friends. Friend NeaU bore the indignity with his accustom
ed meekness, offering no resistance, evincing no fear, and mani
festing a spirit which drew even from these fellows evidence
that they were half ashamed of their conduct. When he was
set at liberty, he turned to the mob, and, in his gentle manner,
told them that if any of them should ever come to Philadelphia,
and call at his house in Arch Street, he would treat them in a
manner yery different from what they had treated him."
This is the account which appeared in the newspapers, and the
press poured out the warmest indignation against the perpetra
tors of this crime; but the most characteristic part of the occur
rence was not published. Mr. Ne^U was altogether innocent of
the offence alleged against him, biit he both professed and acted
on the doctrine of non-resistance. As he walked alongi he spoke
calmly, and with- great moral force and dignity, to his persecu
tors, and urged on them the unchristian nature of their conduct!.^
They were shaken, and had they not been afraid of the ridicule
of their associates, they would have liberated him. They merely
besmeared about six inches square of the back of his coat with
tai-, stuck some feathers on it, lifted him off his feet on a rafl,
carried him a littie way, and did him no farther injury! This
statement I received from a friend of Mr. NeaU, and its truth is
unquestionable. While no one can abhor these disgraceful out
rages more than I do, I am deeply impressed, from w,hat I saw
of the American people, with the conviction, that even a moderate
exercise of moral and physical courage by the well-disposed
members of society, would check their mobs in the bud; and
that individuals who should flius discharge their duty to their
country would not encounter dne-half of the danger to their own
persons from an American, that they would do in encountering
a European mob. There seemed to me to be, in the eastern
states, an increasing and deepening sense of the disgrace which
these and simUar occurrences bring upon the country, and a
strong tendency in public opinion to arrest them.
The tyranny of the majority may be supposed to mean merely
that in matters of opinion nobody dares to think, or at least to
avow what he thinks, in opposition to the majority; and this is
really the only tyranny that exists. It is not correctiy named,
as I shaU subsequently show; but, in point of fact, a very great
extent of moral cowardice, or of fear to maintain the right, in
opposition to public sentiment, even when it is unquestionably

-AMERICAN CIVILISATION. 261
wrong, does prevafl in the United States. Before attempting to
give an explanation of this phenomenon, it may be instructive to
state a few examples of its mode of operation. When the cry
for war with England, mentioned in vol. i, p. 283, broke fort;h,
the popular excitement was so deep and universal, that, with ex
tremely few exceptions, the most enlightened patriots who con
demned, did'not dare to oppose it, but suffered it first to expend
its force in the manner already described, and then only, ven
tured, cautiously, to offer to the public mind the suggestions of
prudence and reason. Again, — in conversing with the friends of
education on the imperfection of their schools in the department
of training, and suggesting the advantages of inviting Mr. Wil
derspin to come to the eastern cities and show them infant train
ing in practice, — they acknowledged the defect, expressed them
selves convinced of the benefit of a visit from Wilderspin — and
said that there would be no difficulty in raising by subscription,
the sum of money requisite to try the experiment; but one and
all added that public opinion would not sanction such a step, and
that if they ventured on it, they would do more harm than good
to the cause of education. Again, when a scheme was hatching
in Massachusetts to overthrow the Board of Education, there
were not a few influential persons in different parts of the state,
who, in private, acknowledged themselves to be the friends of
the board, and who jusfly estimated its value, yet who had not
sufficient moral courage publicly to declare their convictions, and
to support it. I was informed of this fact by a genfleman deeply
interested in education, resident in another state, who travelled
through a large portion of Massachusetts at the time in question,
and who made it an object to ascertain 'the state of opinion on
the subject. Once more, when agitation for the abolition of
slavery commenced in the New England states, public opinion
gave up the individuals who favored it almost to martyrdom.
This tyranny of opinion proceeds still farther; it takes cogni
sance of private actions. When walking in the streets of a city
with a clerical friend, he Observed the cloak which I wore (a
short light demisaison garment, which I had brought from Edin
burgh,) and admired it, as suited to the American spring and
early summer. " Why don't you get one?" said I. " ]3ecause,"
said he, "public opinion would not sanction it: I should be
pointed at as the ' Dandy Parson!' " Some Americans of large
fortune who have been much in England, and who have adopted
the late hours and the style of English dinners, are condemned by
public opinion as guilty of foreign predUections and aiming at
aristocracy. Public opinion in these, and in many simflar instances, pos-

262 AMERICAN CIVILISATION.
sesses so much force, that few individuals have courage to op-
pose it.
In contrast lo these instances, I may remark that no man is
afraid to avow himself to be a Whig or a Democrat, even in lo
calities where his opinions may be those of the minority; nor to
acknowledge himself to be a Calvinist, a Baptist, or a Roman
Catholic; because these are powerful sects: In short, wherever
the individual is backed by an influential number of persons
holding the same opinions with himself, he is safe. It is only
where one or a few individuals venture to oppose a decided pub
lic sentiment that they are in danger. Hence, in cities where
there are few Unitarians, an individual, if not afraid, is slow, to
acknowledge himself to belong to that sect. It is an error,
therefore, to speak of the tyranny of the majority over the mi
nority of the nation in matters of opinion; the tyranny is rather
that of the public over the individual. To a private citizen the
public is merely those w'ho move in his own circle, and who
may influence his prosperity or his social estimation.
The question next presents itself — What is the nature of the
danger which threatens individuals who venture to avow opin
ions generaUy disapproved of? In the case of the politician it is
exclusion from office: to become unpopular ruins aU a man's
prospects of rising to distinction in the state; and to every Ame
rican citizen the career of office, from that of constable to that
of president of the United States,, is opeh. The constable is
as deeply interested about his popularity, as the senator who
sees the presidentship within his grasp. I have read advertise
ments addressed by constables to the electors, soliciting their
votes and explaining their own principles and conduct, as anxious
ly as if they had been competing for the office of governor. If
the reader wfll cast his eye over the list of public officers whom
the people elect (pages 249^50-51), and bear in mind the fre
quency of the elections, he will perceive a reason why a large
portion of the most active and aspiring men of every town and
county in the Union, should live habitually under the influence
of the desire for popularity. They court popular favor as the
ladder by which they expect to mount to honor and considera
tion. To gain popularity, the public mind must be addressed on its
most accessible side. I have already described the great majo
rity of American voters as young, ardent, impulsive, active, and
practical, but deficient in profound and comprehensive views,
and also in the capacity of pursuing a distant good through tem
porary obstacles and difficulties. I have stated, also, that tiieir
education, in relation to their powers and duties, is very defect
ive. To gain the favor of a people in this condition of mind.

AMERICAN CIVILISATION. 26^
actual fitness for office, with honesty and independence in the
discharge of public duty, do not of themselves suffice. The
candidate must render himself acceptable to the electors indivi
dually; he must address their predominant feeUngs, enter into
their leading aversions and predUections, and attach himself
warmly to the party- or cause which he knows them to regard
with the highest favor. He may vouch for his own fitness for
office, and his own certificate will often be received, provided,
in other respects, his conduct and principles are approved of.
If he egregiously fail in the discharge of his public duties, he
wUl be turned out of office at the end of the term for which he
was appointed; but the most conscientious and skflful execution
of his duties will not, in general, secure the endurance of his
tenure, if he publicly advocate unpopular opinions, although
altogether unconnected with his station, or if he belong to a
party which has lost public favor and been displaced from power.
The best remedy that can be proposed for the evils now de
scribed, appears to me to consist in a higher education and a
better training of the electors: if they were thoroughly instruct
ed in youth, concerning the laws which regulate the prosperity
of nations; in the qualities of the human mind, and in the indis
pensable necessity of judgment and integrity in public officers
to the right management of their affairs — higher qualities would
be required in their public men in order to gain their favor, and
useful and faithful public servants would be retained in posses
sion of their offices, out of respect to their fitness alone. The
idest-that-itis-possible to educate and train a people to act in this
manner is regarded by many persons as altogether visionary and
Utopian; but to deny this is to maintain that man is not a ra
tional being. A certain advance in the knowledge of his own
faculties and of the external world, and of their adaptations to
each other, was necessary before the development of his rational
nature could fairly commence, and this knowledge has not yet
been generally communicated to the young, nor have they been
trained in accordance with it, in the United States. That, in
their actual condition, their actions and judgments should par
take of the character of impulse and direct perception, is inevi
table; but their capacity to advance to a higher state of civilisa
tion is not by this circumstance necessarUy excluded.
The danger which besets an individual in his private capacity
in consequence of openly advocating unpopular opinions, may
be best elucidated by referring to the instances already adduced.
If any citizen propose improvements in education for which the
public mind is not prepared, those, individuals whose interests or
whose pride would suffer, or whose habits of thinking and act
ing would be invaded by the change, naturally oppose them.

364 AMERICAN CIVILISATION.
The common schools are placed under the management of
directors and inspectors chosen by the people, and the reformers
must obtain these offices before they can give effect to their
benevolent designs. But the people, being ignorant of the nature
and UtUity of the proposed changes, are easUy operated upon by
the insinuations, misrepresentations, and- declamations of the
hostile parties, who are scattered every where among them, and
who by these means experience litfle difficiflty in rendering the
reformers unpopular,' and thus preventing their election. The
genflemen who told me thatahe proposal to invite WUderspin to
the United States, would retard, instead of forwarding, the
desired improvements in training, were sound in their judgment;
because the prejudices of the people against foreigners, and their
dislikes to innovation in their school systems, would, whfle they
were ignorant of the nature of the proposed improvement, have
ensured the exclusion of its projectors from office, and placed its
opponents in power over the schools.. The remedy for this evil
is gradually to open up the subject to the public mind in lectures
and through the press: or to carry the scheme into execution in
some private seminary, and then show it to the people in action.
After they comprehend its advantages, they will adopt it. And
accordingly, the project of improvement by training is not
abandoned by those who perceive its value; but they are proceed
ing prudentiy to prepare the people to receive and sanction it.
So far from this condition of things being an unmitigated evU, it
is attended with many benefits. It leads moral reformers to
consider their measures thoroughly, and by anticipating opposi
tion, to detect the weak points of .their schemes. It also imposes
on them the necessity of addressing the reason and moral senti
ments of the people, and of thus aidinec in cultivating their
rational nature; and, in my opinion, the ultimate test of the
merits of all institutions, is the degree in which they promote the
accomplishment of this end.
The dangers which individuals incur from braving public
opinion in their personal habits or pursuits bear a relation to
tiwo circumstances^the extent of their own dependence on that
opinion — and if they be independent of it, on the degree of their
own sensitiveness to disapprobation. In the case of clergymen,
physicians, and lawyers, the dependence of the individual on
public opinion is direct and striking, and in most mercantile
pursuits, also, opinion may, to a considerable extent, influence
individual prosperity. Besides, the example of bowing to it,
set by the aspirants after public offices, who are generaUy the
boldest, most active, and influential members of the community,
generates and cultivates the habit of doing so in those who
m ove in a private sphere; and the habit being once established,

AMERICAN CIVILISATION. 265
sensitiveness increases in proportion to its universal prevalence
and duration, untfl at last, in many instances, it degenerates
into a dread of public disapprobation, so powerful that it para
lyses virtue, and deserves no mUder epithet than that of moral
cowardice. This extreme sensitiveness is a peculiar characteristic of the
Americans. But, as I have already described the milids of the
people to be developed by their institutions in all their faculties,
each man according to his own nature, and as each may be dis
cerned pursuing his individual objects with a predominating
egotism, there appears to be a contradiction between these two
portraitures of society. The representations wear the air of
paradox; and, in point of fact, nothing struck me so forcibly in
the United States as the inconsistency between one aspect of
the character of the people and another. Phrenologically, I ex
plain these anomalous appearances by the impulsive activity of
all the faculties, undirected by any great land-marks either of
established custom, sentiment, or reason. The faculties them
selves are heterogeneous in their objects and feelings, and if
they be manifested freely, one in one set of circumstances, and
another in another, without a presiding guide, inconsistency
will be evolved by Nature herself. Within the limits permitted
by public opinion, an American will pursue his pleasure and his
interest, as if no other being existed in the world; his egotism
may then appear complete; but when he meets an opposing
public opinion, he shrinks and is arrested. The state of manners
allows a pretty wide latitude of self-indulgence, and foreigners
reporting on this phasis of character describe the people as per
sonifications of egotism; but when the limit of pubUc opinion is
reached, this egotist may be seen quailing before, although vir
tue, honor, and religion, should call on him to brave it. Again,
he will not pursue his self-indulgence so far as to give personal
offence to his' neighbor, because this would be resented. In
short, he has that vivid regard to opinion, that he restrains him
self whenever he incurs the risk of its condemnation; and if he
act improperly, it is because opinion tolerates the wrong.
British authors, however, have in general erroneously esti
mated the comparative influence of public opinion in their own
country and in the United States. It appears to me to be pretty
nearly as active and influential in Britain as it is in America,
certain differences in its modes of operation being taken into
consideration. In Britain (see page 153) society is divided into
a number of distinct classes, each of which has standards of
opinion of its own. There is a public opinion peculiar to each
class, and that opinion has acquired definite forms by the in
fluence of ancient institutions. The opinions and modes of

266 AMERICAN CIVILISATION.
feeling of the individuals in each class, grow with their growth
and strengthen with their strength, and in the maturity of fife
these conventional impressions appear to be absolutely natural.
The differences between the grades of society produce cor
responding differences in opinion and modes of action; and when
an observer surveys individuals of each class acting according
to their own perceptions of propriety, he may imagine that,
because they differ, each is manifesting a fine moral indepen
dence, in following the dictates of his own judgment. But this
is an error. In America all men are regarded as equal; there is
no distinct separation into classes, with a set of established
opinions and feelings peculiar to each. As society is young,
and the institutions are recent, there are no great influences in
operation to mould opinion into definite forms, even within this
one circle, which nominally includes all American citizens.
The proper contrast, therefore, is between the power of public
opinion in an English grade and in the American single circle;
and, if so viewed, the difference will not be found to be so
greatly against the Americans as is generaUy supposed.
The English candidates for public offices'ilo not bow to popu
lar opinions, because the people have no offices to bestow; but
if we select the fashioriable circle in London, and consider how
many of the individuals who move in it could be induced by the
dictates of reason, or even by motives of moral or religious
duty, to brave its opinions, and to pursue a line of conduct, how
ever virtuous, that was stigmatised by the whole circle as vulgar
or unfashionable, we should find the number very smaU. The
same lack of moral courage which is considered so peculiar to
the Americans, would be found almost nniversaUy prevalent in
it. If we proceed to another grade, the same fear of incurring
disapprobation wiU be found to pervade its members; and so
down to the lowest, where public opinion ceases to act. In
regard to private conduct the same result presents itself. In
Edinburgh, a certain style of entertainment is in use in a certain
rank; and, although many condemn the pomp, circumstance,
and heavy vanity of the style, not one individual out of fifty
wiU venture to depart from the estabUshed usage. In Scofland,
instead of the tyranny of the majority, we live under " the fear
of the folk;" and the most inattentive observer must have re
marked that it is a most potential fear. It Sends thousands to
church who privately confess that they derive little edification
from the exercises; it withholds thousands from countenancing
their inferiors m society lest they should be regarded as ungen-
teel; and it impels countiess multitudes to give an ostensible
adherence to opinions and observances of which they, in their
consciences, disapprove. Recently a religious party in Scot-

AMERICAN CIVILISATION. 267
land, animated with an extraordinary zeal for the observance of
the Sabbath, has denounced as sinful, and suppressed, inter
ments of the dead on that day. This prohibition does not affect
the rich, among whom it is not the custom to bury on Sundays;
but it is a cruel tyranny over the poor, who, by interring on
that day, more speedily remove a corpse from their small
houses, who find their friends and relatives prepared to accom
pany the funeral without the loss of a day's wages, and who
themselves are saved the loss of a day's labor at the time when
disease and death are pressing most severely on their means.
Besides, a service more solemn and more congenial with a reli
gious frame of mind than a funeral, can scarcely be imagined.
Nevertheless, few defenders of the poor man's rights have ap
peared among the upper ranks of society; and it is my firm con
viction that the fear of being charged with countenancing Sab
bath-breaking and infidelity, has been' the chief cause of the
silence of thousands who in their consciences do not approve of
the prohibition.
The view here presented of the mode in which opinion ope
rates in Britain may be illustrated by an example, in which the
opinion, not of a circle only, but of the whole of Society, was in
vaded. When the discovery by Dr. Gall of the functions of the
brain, and of a system of mental philosophy emanating from it,
was first presented to the British public, it contradicted the opi
nions of physicians, lawyers, divines, men of letters, and phi
losophers generally, as well as those of the people, respecting
the subjects to which it related. How was it received? Did
the reviewers, the men of science, the physicians, and the doc
tors in divinity, investigate it, and brave public opinion by pro
claiming its merits? No! It was intuitively felt that the discovery,
if true, would convict numerous persons of ignorance in matters
of importance, in which they had hitherto been believed by the
public to be learned, and that this mortification, above all things,
was to be avoided. By a nearly unanimous consent, therefore,
the press and public delivered over Dr. Gall, Dr. Spurzheim,
and their few fbllowers, to the most unmeasured ridicule and
abuse; while hundreds who saw that the public was wrong,
shrunk with terror from even whispering such an impression;
and at the present day, when a quarter of a century of investiga
tion and debate has considerably diminished the discredit of
avowing a leaning->to Phrenology, I could present a pretty con
siderable list of physicians of reputation, of divines of talent and
consideration, and of accompUshed private genflemen, who en
tertain an unhesitating conviction of its truth and importance,
and who nevertheless are afraid publicly to acknowledge this
conviction, or to act on it. I have often been counselled to lay

368 AMERICAN CIVILISATION.
aside Phrendogy, and employ myself in investigations approved
of by public sentiment, and been told that the career of honor
would then be opened to me; whUe I have been warned of the
unpopularity and other evil consequences that would attend an
opposite course of action. It did not fall to my lot to witness in
America any greater prostitutions of conscience and judgment at
the shrine of public opinion than I daily witness in my own coun
try; and if in America the necessity for such sacrifices be greater
than it is in Britain, the only cause of ihe difference is, that in
Britain we are able to address a larger class of educated and re
flecting men, who wUl bestow a second consideration on matters
of social importance, and whose opinions Will ultimately sway
those of the people. In the American states, individuals of the
educated class do not feel conscious of their own power, not so
much on account of their being few in. number, as because they
are little united among themselves, and address a mass of their
fellow citizens who wield power without possessing commensu
rate intelligence, and on whom, therefore, it is difficult to make
an impression by means of reason.
The inconsistency of the phenomena preseiited by American
society, strikes a stranger still more forcibly when he observes,
not only tjie impunity, but the success, with which public opin
ion is occasionally braved by certain individuals. There are
men to whom nature has given a predominant development of
Self-Esteem and Firmness, with deficient Love of Approbation,
who, so far from coijrting the approval of society, erect them
selves into standards to which they expect the world, to conform,
and who never hesitate to set public opinion at defiance when it
suits their interest or ambition to do so. No individuals prosper
more than these in the United States. Quackery and bold pre
tension in every form meet with extraordinary encouragement
and success. There is in that, as in other countries, not only a
large share of credulity, the offspring of ignorance, ready to swal
low every bait presented by ingenious impudence, but there is a
sort of admiration of the courage of that man who can boldly
walk, in his own path, regardless of the scorn, and taunts, and
opposition of society; his very impudence confers on him a spe
cies of importance; and if he only avoid gross personal immorali-
ties,_ he may make his way to fortune or distinction with sur-
prisiiig success. There is another class of men, to whom nature
has given predominant organs of Conscientiousness and Firmness,
who also occasionaUy brave public opmion in obedience to the
dictates of duty. Of these Dr. Channing is an illustrious exam
ple. They do not, however, proclaim disagreeable truths to
their countrymen without suffering pain in their feeUngs, and a
temporary abatement of their personal consideration; but the

AMERICAN CIVILISATION. 269
quality of moral courage in this form is so rare, and its value so
highly appreciated, that they draw towards themselves a pro
found sympathy and warm admiration from the virtuous and
enUghtened, and they actually produce a powerful effect. In
short, the Ameiicans are themselves ashamed of their own lack
of moral intrepidity, and they highly honor the quality when it
is displayed by one of their number in virtue's cause. How are
these apparent contradictions to be reconcUed?
Before answering this question, we may first consider the
origin of the influence of public opinion on the minds of indi
viduals. Man is a being obviously destined by nature to live in
the social state. The same fundamental faculties are common to
all, but they are conferred on different individuals in different
degrees of strength. While, therefore, there is an identity of
nature, there are striking individual differences in mind, which
give rise to diversities of feeling, talents, and dispositions.
These differences may be regarded as, to some extent, the
repulsive elements of society; but nature has bestowed on us also
a very powerful faculty of Love of Approbation, (its organs are
among the largest in the brain,) which inspires us with the desire
of the approval of our fellow men. This faculty presents us
with motives to smooth down our peculiarities, to forego our in
dividual indulgences, and to conform as far as possible to the
opinions, manners, and habits of our neighbors, in order to ob
tain their approbation; in short, it Macadamises the highway of
social intercourse, and renders it agreeable and smooth. But
this faculty needs the illumination of knowledge and the guidance
of moral and religious principle to prevent it from degenerating
into an universal complaisance, equally ready to acquiesce in the
pretensions of vice as to approve of the excellence of virtue.
When the quality is deficient in a people, the intercourse of so
ciety is harsh and disagreeable; but, when it is too powerful and
UUregulated, it may expend itself in an universal approval of the
opinions of the day, and induce them to shrink from condemning
any generally received object or opinion, lest they should give
offence, or incur disapprobation. It then undermines truth, by
sapping the foundations of moral courage.
When this faculty acts along with the love of wealth or of
power its selfish influence is augmented, because the approbation
of society conduces directly to the gratification of these desires.
In the United States, these objects are eagerly pursued by a
large majority of the people, and thus the vast influence of pub
lic opinion among them is accounted for. But Love of Appro
bation, -vyhen combined in action with the sentiments of Benevo
lence, Conscientiousness, Veneration, and enlightened intellect,
takes a loftier aim; it then desires distinction on account of intel-
VOL. II.  19

270 AMERICAN CIVILISATION.
lectual attainments, holiness, charity, and truth, and it desires
only the approval of men of virtuous lives and cultivated under
standings. Far, therefore, from regarding the great power of public
opinion in the United States as in itself an evil, I view it as a
gigantic controUing influence which may become the most
efficient afly of virtue. It is delightful to see the human mind,
when emancipated from artificial fetters, evolving from its own
deep fountains a mighty restraining power, far superior in force
and efficacy for the accqmplishment of good, to all the devices
invented by the self-constituted guides of mankind. At present,
this power is operating in the United States essentially as a Mind
impulse; many of the artificial standards erected in Europe by
monarchy, aristocracy, feudalism, established churches, and other
ancient institutions for its direction, have been broken down, and
no other standards have yet been erected in their place. No
manners or maxims have yet received the stamp of general ac
ceptation, to enable opinion to settle on them with security.
That this is the true theory of the phenomena of public
opinion, is rendered probable by the fact that its mighty influence
is of recent growth. , For many years after tiie Revolution, it
was not felt to the same extent as at present — opinion continued
to be modified by the monarchical feelings in which the people
had been educated, long after they became their own rulers. It
is only within these five and twenty years that the people have
discovered and chosen to wield their own sovereign authority;
and as if for the very purpose of controlling them, public opinion
has within the same period developed its stupendous powers.
The ground is gradually becoming cleared of the antiquated posts
and rails that directed public sentiment into particular paths; and
the question occurs, what is destined to supply their place?
Christianity will readily occur, as the most desirable guide; but
at present, and for some generations, its influence wfll be limited
by the conflicts existing between the different sects. Besides,
the pulpit still devotes too littie of its attention to secular affairs,
and there are yet too few instances of combination among
Christians of all denominations to accomplish general practical
good, irrespective_ of their several doctrinal views. May not
some aid be obtained from the maxims of moral and political
science, founded on a sound interpretation of the nature of man
and of the external world, and of their reciprocal relationship?
If the mere forms of monarchy, aristocracy, feudalism, and
religious establishments, often at variance with reason and the
best interests of mankind, have become fetters with which
opinion has been bound as in adamantine chains, why may not
the dictates of God's wisdom, when developed to the understand-

AMERICAN CIVILISATION. 271
ing and impressed upon the moral sentiments from infancy, pro
duce as powerful and a much more salutary effect? The United
States must look to instruction in moral and political science,
aided and sanctioned by religion, for the re- erection of standards
and guides of opinion; and to the accomplishment of this object
the new philosophy will constitute a valuable assistant.
One distinct cause of the fear of individuals to oppose public
opinion, when wrong, is the want of reliance on the moral
tendency of the public mind, and on its inclination to correct
its own errors, and to do justice to those who have braved its
disapprobation in defence of truth. The vivid excitement under
which opinion is formed, is one element in producing this terror;
but another unquestionably is the uncertainty which is felt re
garding both the principles and motives by which, at any
moment, it may be swayed. The public intellect is practical
and direct, and it neither investigates principles nor embraces
distant or comprehensive views; whUe the public feeling is com
posed of a confused jumble of selfish and moral impulses, the
course of which, on any particular emergency, often defies
calculation. Nevertheless the race is ever onward; there is
little looking back, little calm reflection, litfle retracing of steps
once taken, unless some unsurmountable obstacle presents itself,
which, from its magnitude and immovability, deflects the public
mind, or makes it recoil upon itself. It appears to me also that
the organs of Benevolence and Veneration are larger and more
powerful than those of Conscientiousness in the Anglo-Saxon
race in general; and that in . consequence, both the Americans
and British are more distinguished for benevolent and religious
feelings than for an acute sense of justice. This defect renders
it more arduous for individuals, either in Britain or America, to
take their stand on high moral principle in opposition to public
opinion, because the facvflty which prompts to the rectification of
error, and the- redressing of injustice, is comparatively feeble in
the commoe mind. But this imperfection may be removed by
a more assiduous cultivation of the faculty of Conscientiousness
in the young. If the common schools embued the youthful
mind with a clear knowledge of its own faculties, of the laws
appointed by the Creator for their guidance, and also of the
natural laws which regulate the progress of society, this infor
mation might come in place of monarchical and feudal institu
tions for the guidance of opinion", and might afford fixed starting
points, from which the moralist and statesman, the divine and
the philanthropist, could advance with safety, in their endeavors
to check the people when bent on erroneous courses of action.
In short, if the gigantic regulating and controlling power of
public opinion evolved by the free institutions of America, were

272 AMERICAN CIVILISATION.
enlightened and guided by the principles of Christianity and
Science, instead of being left to act impulsively and as it were
blindly, it would prove itself not a tyrant, but a protector to
virtue", law, order, and justice, far more efficient than any that
has hitherto been discovered. It would leave thought and action
absolutely free, within the legitimate limits, of aU the faculties,
(which none of the guides of opinion erected by human inven
tion has ever done); while it would apply an irresistible check
at the very point where alone a check would be wanted — that
which separates the boundaries of good and evU.
I have made these remarks unhesitatingly, because I believe
them to embody some truth; but I admit that it may be long
before the American people wUl appreciate them, and long-er still
before they wiU attempt to carry them into effect; but with a
nation, as with the God of nations, a thousand years is as one
day, and if the views be sound, they wiU not lose their character
or importance by delay.
Whatever estimate may be formed of the adaptation of the
new philosophy to the wants of the American people as a guide
to opinion, there can be littie doubt that some general moral in
fluence which should command respect and pervade the Union,
would be highly useful. The division of the country into states,
and these into counties and townships, each of which becomes
an absorbing focus of interest to its own inhabitants, retards the
diffusion of much valuable knowledge, and to some extent para
lyses moral effort. I met with highly intelligent persons in
Connecticut, interested in education, who knew nearly nothing
of the organisation and action of the board of education in Mas
sachusetts, although this state is divided from Connecticut only
by a line. Not only so, but before I left the United States, the
Common School Journal of Connecticut had ceased to be pub
lished, owing to the want of subscribers. It was a very ably
conducted, useful, and cheap periodical, but it did not discuss
politics, nor theological controversy, nor ne-W's; it was full only
of high moral and practical information relative to the improve
ment of education; and this object interested so few persons that
it could not find subscribers sufficient to support its existence!
In Pennsylvania still less is known by the public of what is doing
in Massachusetts or the other states in mere moral pursuits; and
so with other portions of the Union. Large numbers of religious
papers are published in the states, but the circulation of nearly
the whole of them is local.
In New York several weekly papers devoted to general litera
ture have recenfly been instituted, gigantic in point of size, and
intended, by their contents and moderate price, to command a

AMERICAN CIVILISATION. 273
circulation throughout the Union; but their success also has been
Umited. The circulation of Chambers's Edinburgh Journal in
Great Britain and Ireland, with a population of 24,000,000, is
stated be about 70,000 weekly, whUe the highest circulation of
any one of these New York papers, I was assured, does not ex
ceed, on an average, 15,000 weekly, among a population of
18,000,000. There is a great difference also in the matter con
tained in these publications. Chambers's Journal is reprinted
in New York, but has only a small circulation. It is too didac
tic and too litfle exciting to possess general interest in America.
The New York publications are composed of the plunder of
European novels and magazines; of reports of sermons by popular
preachers; of stories, horrors, and mysteries; of police reports,
in which crime and miser)"- are concocted into melo-dramas now
exciting sympathy, now laughter: with a large sprinkling of
news and politics. As they obtain the largest and most general
circulation of aU the publications in the Union, they may be re
garded as representing to some extent the general mind; and .
certainly they are not calculated to convey a high opinion of it.
It would be a great advantage to the Union if a paper, composed
partly on the principles of Addison's Spectator — taking cogni
sance of manners and minor morals, and partly on those of
Chambers's Journal — combining didactic instruction with a
reasonable amount of entertaining reading, could be established
and widely circulated; a paper which should serve as the gazette
of the philanthropist, of the moral and inteUectual of all parts of
the Union, which should inform each of what the other is doing
in the great cause of human improvement, and diffuse useful
intelligence into every town and county of every state.
Such a publication might, in time, serve to create a moral
public opinion, and do vast service to the civilisation of the
Union. But it should be conducted by a person of much wis
dom and discretion, and be cosmopolitan in its principles. The
difficulty is great in finding such a person. The success of
Chambers's Edinburgh Journal is owing partiy to the sagacity,
perseverance, and industry of both its editors; but it has also
been materiall)' promoted by the genius and peculiar bent of
mind of one of its conductors, Mr. Robert Chambers — in whom
a combination of m,ental qualities, rarely met with, occurs.
Hence, the work has been marked from ilis commencement by
an unity of design, a variety of matter, popular interest, and
scientific solidity, never before exhibited in any simihir work —
added to which is a presiding morality and sound sense, that
recommend it equally to the peer and to the peasant. I deem
it necessary to make these remarks respecting the special quali
ties employed in conducting Chambers's Journal, because I do

274 AMERiCAN CIVILISATION.
not consider that any association of men of talent, although
backed by ample funds, could render such a periodical success
ful either in Britain or the United States, without at least one
conductor peculiarly fitted for the task by his mental endow
ments, tastes, studies, and attainments; and any attempt to in
stitute such a work which should end in failure and disappoints
ment would retard instead of advancing the accomplishment of
Its objects. The local newspapers, in general, do not circulate
moral intelligence. I frequently read in the Common School
Journal of Massachusetts articles of great interest connected
with the advancement of public instruction; but, except in a
few instances, they were not copied by the press -Cvith a view to
diffuse them through the state. It was not because the School
Journal's circulation superseded the necessity of this, but be
cause the editors of the newspapers were not sufficienfly inte
rested in education to perceive the value of the information to
their readers.

275

CHAPTER X.
Phrenology — Reversed Organs — .attack on the Board of Education in Mas
sachusetts — The Manhattan Bank — Presentation of a Silver Vase — Visit
to Ohio and Kentucky — Visit to Qeneral Harrison — Kentucky — Return
to New York — Philadelphia and Boston — Debts of the American Stales
— Number of Stockholders of the United States' Bank in the United States
— Number of Stockholders in Europe and elsewhere, excepting the
United States — American State Stocks held by American Banks — The
Manhattan Bank — Banking in the State of New York — Amistad Ne
groes — The Spirit of British Legislation — Return to England. 18.39.
New Haven, March 20. Phrenology. — The subject of the
foUowing case was introduced to me by a medical friend. On
1 5th September 1833, Lemuel Camp, now aged 36, tempera
ment bflious-sanguine, keeper of an oyster tavern in this city,
was shooting, when the gun burst, and the iron which closes
the end of the barrel was driven into his skull, and buried in
his brain, in the region of Eventuality. He fell, but soon re
covered sensation, and walked home, a mile and a half, assisted
by two young men. He was conscious all the time; felt little
pain, and sustained little loss of blood. Dr. Knight travelled
three miles to reach him, and then extracted the iron. He felt
a terrible wrench when it was withdrawn, but no other severe
consequences. The broken portions of the skull were extract
ed, part of the brain came away, the skin closed on the wound,
and in five weeks he was able to walk abroad. He gave me
this information himself, in presence of a medical friend of his
own, and added that his mind has never been affected; but his
friend informed me that Camp's wife declares that, since the
accident, he has been oblivious of things and occurrences. He
will come into the house, lay down his whip, and in a minute
forget where he has put it. After being exposed to severe cold,
and after drinking, he is liable to be seized with involuntary
muscular action, amounting to convulsions. In other respects,
his health is good. He took a box out of his pocket and showed
the iron and the broken pieces of bone which he carried in it,
and he quite seriously assured me, that for the first year after
the accident, if any person rattied these in the box, or meddled
with them, his wound would ache, although he were a mile dis-

276 PHRENOLOGY.
tant from the box and bones, and had no previous suspicion of
any such interference! After the first year, this acute sensibihty
ceased! I felt the edges of the wound in the skuU, and found
them irregular, and the injury seemed to be chiefly on the left
side. There is, however, in the box a portion of the frontal
bone to which the falx had been attached, and both Dr. Knight
and Dr. Hooker afterwards mentioned, that they considered that
both sides of the brain had been injured at the point in question.
Dr. Knight had no doubt that the longitudinal sinus was ruptur
ed, and accountedfor the small hjEmorrhage by the wound being
low in the forehead. Dr. Hooker said, that the patient's intel
lectual faculties are not impaired. This was all the light I
could obtain on the case. The injury was confined almost
entirely to the organs of Eventuality, and I could form no ac
curate estimate of the state of efficiency of this faculty, from
the short interview which I had with the patient, who, besides,
was not a reflecting man. I must therefore leave the reader to
form his own opinion, whether the mind of the patient was
entire or pot.
The audience attending my lectures passed resolutions at the
close of the course, which are printed in the Appendix No. Xll.
Professor Hooker mentioned to me, that my lectures had
made few converts to Phrenology in New Haven; in answer to
which remark, I repeated the statement made in my introductory
lecture, that the truth of Phrenology could be ascertained only
by observation, and that the object of my lectures was, not lo
prove its truth, but simply to teach what was to be observed,
and how to observe; and, therefore, that the more scientific any
audience was, the fewer would be the believers through sheer
credulity, an oider of converts which I did not desire. Professor
Silliman, on the other hand, in seconding the resolutions adopted
by the class, mentioned that he had attended four courses of
lectures on phrenology, and that he was satisfied that the great
principles of the science were well founded; thus showing that,
in his case, conviction bore a relation to the extent of observa
tion on the subject. His speech was subsequentiy published in
the American Journal of Science and Arts for July 1840, and an
extract from it is given in the Appendix No. XI.
Reversed Organs. — Many objections to Phrenology are
founded on the supposed want of symmetry between the two
sides of the brain. The differences between the arrangement of
the convolutions on the one side and the other are not greater
tiian between the distribution of the veins in the right arm and
the left. Nature occasionally makes considerable deviations
from the common position of particular organs in the body; and,
indeed, in some instances, entirely reverses their usual locality.

attjvck on the board of education, &c. 277
This is well known to medical men, but for the sake of the non
medical reader, I present Dr. Hooker's description of a preparation
of a human subject which I examined in his anatomical museum.
"In the winter of 1638-9, a subject brought into the anato-
mica^ rooms of the Medical Institution of Yale CoUege, was
found to have a perfect lateral transposition of the viscera of the
body. The heart was on the right side; the right lung had two,
the left three lobes, the descending aorta lay on the right side of
the spine, the vena cava on the left; the liver with the gall
bladder on the left, the spleen on the right side. The blood
vessels, nerves, and other parts, were examined with the utmost
minuteness, and not the least exception was found to a perfect
transposition of all the parts, every thing appearing perfectiy nor
mal except in position. The subject was a man apparentiy fifty-
five years old, and had undoubtedly been a hard-laboring m-an,
as was indicated by the thickened cuticle of the hands, the large
muscles, and other circumstances. He appeared to have died
from acute disease of the lungs."
Professor Hooker showed me a skull bearing an inscription —
Richard J. Wethby, died Dec. 10, 1829, aged thirty-one, on
which I remarked that the organs of Constructiveness must have
been very large, because they had depressed the edges of the
super-orbitar plate on which they had rested, towards the eth
moidal fossEB, and also raised a considerable elevation externally
at the usual place on each side; whfle the organs of Ijanguage
must have been very small, because the super-orbitar plate was
convex, instead of being concave, which is usually the case,
where they had rested on it. Dr. Hooker mentioned that the
man whose skull this was had been a stone-cutter; he had died
of consumption, and, during his iUness, had given himself to be
made into a skeleton after death. He was a very expert artificer
in stone, and so deficient in language that in conversation he
was not only slow, but used extraordinary words, through
deficiency in commanding the usual vocabulary.
Attack on the Board of Education in Massachusetts. — The
assault against this institution, which I have repeatedly alluded
to, has at length been made in the legislature of the state. On
the 3d of March, 1840, the committee on Education was directed
by the House of Representatives to consider the expediency of
abolishing the Board of Education and the normal schools; and
on the 7th of March, the majority of the committee presented a
report, which merits serious attention. The reader wUl find
the constitution and powers of this Board described in vol. i,
p. 52; and he is reminded that Mr. Dwight, a citizen of Boston,
had made a gift of $10,000 to the state, on the condition that
the legislature should provide a similar sum, and apply both to

278 ATTACK ON THE BOARD OF EDUCATION
the institution of normal schools, which was accordingly done.
The report possesses more than a local and temporary interest.
It is indicative of the state of inteUigence of a considerable portion
of the citizens of Massachuset1;s, whose opinions it expresses;
and besides, it embodies views which, in all probabUity, would
beuro-edby one party or another against education under the sanc
tion of government in other countries. I shall therefore briefly
advert to it.
Two reports were presented, one by the majority, and another
by the minority of the committee. The majority object to the
Board for the following among other reasons: —
" The Board has a tendency, and a strong tendency, to en
gross to itself the entire regulation of our common schools, and
particularly to convert the legislature into a mere instrument for
carrying its plans into execution."
Remark. — The Board hasno power except that of communi
cating information and recommending measures to the school
committees, teachers, and other persons interested in education.
Therefore, it can engross to itself the regulation of the schools,
only by convincing the understanding of those who manage
them of the wisdom of its proposals, and this is not a 'power
of which any rational being can be justly jealous.
" If the Board has any actual power, it is a dangerous power,
trenching direcflj' upon the rights and duties of the legislature;
if it has no power, why continue its existence at an annual ex
pense to the commonwealth?"
Answer. — By the wisdom of its suggestions and the character
of its members, it may exercise a moral power which may prove
highly beneficial, while it does not, and cannot, trench on the
rights and duties of the legislature. Its members serve without
salaries or fees, and the annual expense which it occasions does
not exceed one-tenth part of a cent, per annum to each of the
inhabitants of the commonwealth.
"As a mere organ for the collection and diffusion of informa
tion on the subject of education, the Board seems to your com
mittee to be, in several respects, very much inferior to those vo
luntary associations of teachers which preceded the existence of
the Board, and which, perhaps, suggested the idea of it." * *
* " The school committees of the several towns and districts
are qualified to superintend the schools, and might best be trusted
with that superintendence."
The sUghtest knowledge of the actual condition of the schools,
school-houses, teachers, modes of teaching, and things taught, in
the commonwealth, wiU suflice to convince any reasonable per
son that this is a most lame and untenable assertion. Before it
was made, the Secretary to the Board of Education had publicly

IN MASSACHUSETTS. 279
stated that, " In this commonwealth, there are about 3000 public
schools, in all of which the rudiments of knowledge are taught.
These schools, at the present time, are so many distinct inde
pendent communities; each being governed by its own habits,
traditions, and local customs. There is no common superin
tending power over them; there is no bond of brotherhood or
family between them. They are strangers and aliens to each
other. The teachers are, as it were imbedded each in his own
school district; and they are yet to be excavated, and brought
together, and to be established, each as a polished pillar of a holy
temple. As the system is now administered, if any improve
ment in principles or modes of teaching is discovered by talent
or accident in one school, instead of being pubUshed to the world,
it dies with the discoverer. No means exist for multiplying
new truths, or even for preserving old ones. A gentleman, filling
one of the highest civil offices in this commonwealth — a resident
in one of the oldest counties, and in one of the largest towns in
the state — a sincere friend of the cause of education — recently
put into my hands a printed report drawn up by a clergyman of
much repute, which described, as was supposed, an important
improvement in relation to our common schools, and earnesfly
enjoined its general adoption; when it happened to be within my
own knowledge that the supposed new discovery had been in
successful operation for sixteen years, in a town but litfle more
than sixteen miles distant!" This representation is indisputably
correct, and in the face of it to deny the utility of the Board of
Education, must have required no small obliquity either of un
derstanding or of conscience.
There are countries which have' outstripped Massachusetts in
some branches of education, and in the art of teaching, and her
teachers stand in need of nothing more than the active agency of
an enlightened central board to collect and diffuse information on
these subjects — to urge them to adopt improvements — to give
advice to local committees, and to submit to their consideration
rules which would benefit the pupils. Such are the duties of
the Board of Education; and its constitution is framed with ex
press reference to the people themselves continuing to govern
their schools. It can operate only by convincing the teachers
and school committees that they may do something better than
they have previously accomplished. It is not to be expected
that voluntary associations of teachers, the members of which
are scattered through the state, and engrossed with local objects,
interests, and duties, should acquire, digest, and diffuse informa
tion with the same success as a public board; and besides, they
would want that moral weight to induce the acceptance of im
provements, which gives the Board its chief value.

280 ATTACK ON THE BOARD OF EDUCATION
" The establishment of the Board of Education seems to be
the commencement of a system of centralisation, and of mono
poly of power in a few hands, contrary, in every respect, to the
true spirit of our democratical institutions, and which, unless
speedily checked, may lead to unlocked for and dangerous re
sults." The Board of Education can wield only the power of moral
suasion; they cannot coerce, they cannot bribe, they cannot
exercise even a veto on any measure or appointment. Their
influence, then, must bear a proportion to the extent of the
reason which they present to the understandings of those
whom they address, of the practical advantages which they
show as likely to result from their recommendations, and fnim
no other source. The real proposition embodied in the fore
going objection is, that democracy, for its own security, must
resist the dictates of reason, and reject the most obvious mea
sures of utility, when propounded by its own servants, lest by
accepting them these servants should acquire a moral influence
over the minds of the people! But this is tantamount to a
denial of the rational nature, of man. A virtuous and enlightened
mind cannot avoid admiring superior wisdom, and yielding to
the suggestions of superior intelligence; and if the Board of
Education display those qualities, why should its influence be
dreaded? If it do not, it can exercise no control over the public
mind, unless we assume that both its members and the people
are irrational, and will voluntarily adopt injurious errors.
So far from such a board being dangerous, it is what above
all things is wanted in every state in the Union. There is a
want of a moral power which shall address itself to the higher
faculties of the people, and assist in forming and giving consis
tency and permanence to opinion, and which, without conflict
ing with the political, reUgious, or money powers at present
exclusively prevailing, may serve, through the influence of rea
son, to elevate, temper,- and guide them all. Such a board,
named by the legislature in every state, and invested with a
pretty extensive range of moral functions, seems of all imagina
ble institutions that which is most directly fitted to prove useful
to a democracy which must rest on the intelligence and morality
of the people, or perish. In its addresses to the people, it
would confine itself to objects of moral import alone; but it
would appeal to principles, expound consequences, recall the
admonitions of experience, and, in short, supply to some extent
the grand deficiencies which palpably exist in the public mind—
the want of knowledge, of reflection, and of regard to distant but
inevitable results.

IN MASSACHUSETTS. 281
" The right to mould the political, moral, and religious opi
nions of his children is a right exclusively and jealously re
served by our laws to every parent; and for the government
to attempt, directly or indirectiy, as to these matters, to stand
in the parent's place, is an undertaking of very questionable
policy." The Board of Education operates on the children only through
the mediuf.i of the parents; for the parents themselves either
constitute or elect the school committees and school inspectors,
who, again, appoint, superintend and dismiss the teachers. The
Board, therefore, can neither order nor forbid any thing, except
by convincing the electors, and those who obey them, of its
utflity. The report next attacks " The School Library." " It is pro
fessed, indeed, that the matter selected for this library will be
free both from sectarian and political objections. Unquestion
ably the Board will endeavor to render it so. Since, however,
religion and politics in this free country are so intimately con
nected witii every other subject, the accomplishment of that
object is utterly impossible, nor would it be desirable, if possi
ble." This argument is founded on the assumption that there is no
portion of religion which is not matter of contention between
the sects, and no scientific principles in politics and political
economy which are not subjects of party disputation. With all
deference to the authors of this report (see p. 175), there is avast
field ,of Christian, ethical, and political truth which is highly
interesting and instructive to the young, and which, nevertheless,
is happily without the pale of contest, and may appropriately
form the groundwork of the treatises prepared for the common
school libraries.
" Another project, imitated from France and Prussia, and set
on foot under the superintendence of the Board of Education, is
the establishment of normal schools. Your committee approach
this subject with some delicacy, inasmuch as one-half the ex
pense of the two normal schools already established has been
sustained by private munificence." * * * "Academies and
high schools cost the commonwealth nothing, and they are fully
adequate, in the opinion of your committee, to furnish a compe
tent supply of teachers." * * * "Considering that our dis
trict schools are kept, on an average, for ordy three or four
months in the year, it is obviously impossible, and perhaps it
is not desirable, that the business of keeping these schools
should become a distinct and separate profession which the
establishment of normal schools seems to anticipate."
This is a striking acknowledgement of the low state of edu-

282 ATTACK ON THE BOARD OF EDDCATION, &C.
cation in the commonwealth; and if the committee had been
composed of enUghtened men it would have perceived that
this fact furnished the most forcible reason for establishing nor
mal seminaries, and for increasing the length of the attendance
at the common schools; but they, on the contrary, recommended
the abolition of the Board of Education, the school library, and
the normal schools, and profiosed to refund the money " gene
rously contributed" to the support of the latter by Mr. Dwight!
They appended to their report the draft of an act to carry these
recommendations into effect!
In my humble opinion, all that has been written bv European
travellers against the people of the United States, their manners
and institutions, will not depreciate the character of their civili
sation in the judgment of reflecting men to one-half the extent
that will be done by this document alone. It appears, indeed,
to contradict much that I have already said in favor of the Ame
rican people; and at the hazard of standing still farther con
demned, I am under the necessity of reporting that it found 182
individuals in the house, of Representatives of Massachusetts,
the most enlightened of the States, to vote for its adoption. In
point of fact, however, I have endeavored to convey the idea
that tfeere is a vast extent of ignorance in the Union, and even
in Massachusetts; and this report signally sustains the assertion.
But there is also another side to the picture, which I am happy
now to exhibit.
The minority of the committee, consisting of " Mr. John A.
Shaw and Mr. Thomas A. Greene," gave in an admirable report
in support of the Board of Education and the normal schools;
some of the Boston newspapers warmly espoused their cause.
Dr. Channing published in one of these an eloquent and cogent
defence of them, and in the House of Representatives a highly
interesting debate ensued on the merits of the whole question,
the result of which was, that 248 members voted for the rejec
tion of the first mentioned report, making a majority in favor of
the Board of sixty-six members. One of the most luminous
and effective speeches in support of education was delivered by
a member who is wefl known as an able phrenologist.*
* Since the text was'written I have received the " Abstract of the Massa
chusetts School Returns for 1839-40," and regard it as affording a trium
phant vindication of the law, which established the Board of Education—
of the Board itself, and of its Secretary. These returns have been made
by 301 out of 307 towns in the commonwealth, and they are accompanied
by selections from the Reports of the School Committees. The " Returns,"
and " Reports" taken together, present a most instructive and interesting
view of the condition of the schools at the present time. They appear to
me to show that the condition of the school-houses is, in many instances,
deplorably deficient; so much so as to be injurious to the health and syra-

THE MANHATTAN BANK. 283
On 20th March we left New Haven at 8 A. M., and arrived
at New York by Long Island Sound at 2 P. M.
TTie Manhattan Bank. — This has long been regarded as one
of the most substantial and well managed banks in New York;
but lately the stock has undergone a rapid and serious depression
metrical growth of the children; that the schools generally have been sadly
neglected by the more wealthy and intelligent citizens, and that many of
the teachers, although men of e-tcellent moral character, are, in consequence
of their own deficiencies in education and in the art of teaching, ill qualified
for their situations. This is an alarming picture of a commonwealth, whose
prosperity rests on the morality and intelligence of its people. It indicates,
that the first step towards a despotism, that of rearing an ignorant popula
tion, had been taken. But the "Abstract" shows a cheering counter part.
The exposure of these defects is already stimulating public opinion to en
force their removal. The Reports of the School Committees while they
indicate that a highly enlightened zeal in educational improvement exists
in many of the towns, throw a flood of light not only on what is deficient,
but on the means of supplying what is wanting. The accurate knowledge,
sound sense and classical eloquence, of some of these reports do honor to
the state, and by placing their bright corruscations of moral sentiment and
intellect, side by side with reports of a different character, the most vigor
ous emulation will be excited in all, to improve. The fact of all the towns
having reported except six, shows that the machinery is efficient. The
" queries" circulated by the board, and which the committees in most in
stances, have answered, are of the most searching description, and well
calculated "to hold the mirror up to nature," and to show to every town its
own imperfections or accomplishments.
The public mind must be vividly awakened to the importance of educa
tion, by such a document as this, and it is indispensable that it should be so.
Under a despotism like that of Prussia, the whole intelligence and power of
the state can be wielded by the Sovereign and applied to the improvements
of schools; but in the United States, unless the people, the whale people, see
the necessity of a high education, understand what constitutes it, and be
come animated with an active zeal to attain it, the common schools cannot
prosper. As water cannot rise higher than its fountain, so, in the United
States, education, morality and religion, cannot rise higher than the level
of the intelligence of the people. The law in Massachusetts is wisely framed,
with a view to this fact. The Secretary to the Board by travelling round
the state, by correspondence and interviews, obtains all the knowledge he
can reach, respecting existing defects and practical improvements; he com
municates this information to the Board; from them it goes to the legislature,
by whom it is printed and sent into every school district of the state. The
law requires that the committee of each town shall make a report to the
town, a copy of which must be sent to the board, and from these reports,
the annual abstract is composed. (See Fourth Annual Report of the Board
of Education, together with the Fourth Annual Report of the Secretary of
the Board. Boston, 1841.) Although in all this there is nothing of com
pulsion, and although the Board acts by moral influence alone, yet the sys
tem, by appealing to the benevolence and intellect, the Self-Esteem and
Love of Approbation, the Philoprogenitiveness and Conscientiousness of the
whole community, is calculated to produce great results, (a) It will beget
(o) The following paragraph, to be met with in p. 59 of the Report of the

284 VISIT TO OHIO AND KENTUCKY.
in consequence of the fact having been divulged, that the cashier
and majority of the directors had lent out a great part of the
capital on permanent loans to themselves and a few of their
friends. Mr. Robert White, the cashier, was removed from
office, and in revenge he assaulted in Wall street -with a stick
Mr. AUan Thompson, the director (seventy years of age), who
had divulged his transactions, and injured him severely. Mr.
White is bound over in $5000 to stand trial for the outrage.
March 23. Ther. 37°. Presentation of a Silver Vase.—
This evening a beautiful and richly ornamented silver vase was
presented to me in Howard's Hotel by the ladies and gentiemen
who had attended my two courses of lectures in New York. It
was delivered by Mr. E. P. Hurlbut, the author of the work on
" Civil Office and Political Ethics," formerly alluded to, in their
names, in presence of an assemblage of the subscribers, and pre
faced by a speech, of the merits, of which it is not suitable for
me to speak, but which, with a description of the vase, is printed
in the Appendix No. XII.
March 25. Ther. 27°. Visit to Ohio and Kentucky.—
This day we left New York, accompanied by a much valued
American friend, on a visit to Cincinnati and Kentucky, not
with the view of lecturing, but to see something of the interior
of the country before returning to Europe. We went to Phila
delphia, and thence to Baltimore, by the Philadelphia, Wilming
ton, and Baltimore Railway.*
that deep and general interest in education, in the whole people, without
which, as already remarked, schools cannot flourish in an American com
monwealth. I shall regard it as a bright day for Great Britain when she
shall have such a machinery at work, directed by such able hands, to raise
the moral and intellectual condition of her people.
Secretary of the Board of Education, Mr. Mann, is worthy of insertion in
this place.
"It will ever remain an honor to the commonwealth of Massachusetts,
that, among all the reports of its school committees, for the last year, so
many of which were voluminous and detailed, and a majority of which,
probably, were prepared by clergymen, belonging to all the various denomi
nations in the state, there was not one, which advocated the introduction of
sectarian instruction, or of sectarian books, into our public schools, while,
with accordant views — as a single voice coming from a single heart — they
urge, they insist, they demand, that the great axioms of Christian morality
shall' be sedulously taught, and that the teachers shall themselves be
patterns of the virtues they are required to inculcate."
* The second annual report of the directors of this Railway Company,
dated 1st January 1840, states the expenditure in making the road (al
miles), and all other expenses, at $4,379,925 17
Deduct bills receivable, . . . $4000
Cash in hands of assistant treasurer, 19,205 28
 23,205 28
$4,356,019 89

VISIT TO GENERAL HARRISON. 285
Aprfl 2. Ther. 32°. We proceeded to Frederick, (Maryland,)
a distance of sixty miles, by a railway which runs for a great
part of the way along the bank of a small river, the Patapsco,
flowing in a beautifully wooded narrow valley. At Frederick
we hired an exclusive extra to carry us by the National Road to
Wheeling on the Ohio river, and travelled the distance, 221
miles, in four days, having stopped each night to sleep. We
descended the Ohio in a steamboat, and arrived at Cincinnati at
6 A. M. on the 8th of April. The thermometer then stood at
40°. The town disappointed me, not in consequence of its own
defects, but of the exaggerated descriptions of it which I had
read. It is a handsome city of 50,000 inhabitants, and a raar-
veUous example of the rapid increase of the country in wealth
and population. In ,1795, Cincinnati contaiiied 500; in 1800,
750; in 1810,2500; in 1820, 10,000; in 1830,25,000; and now,
in 1840, it is estimated to contain 50,000 souls. Mrs. TroUope's
bazaar is converted into a lecture room, and is an object of curi
osity to strangers.
April 13. Ther. 32°. Visit to General Harrison. — General
Harrison, the Whig candidate for the Presidency of the United
States at the election in November, 1840, lives at North Bend,
on the Ohio, 16 miles below Cincinnati; and one of his friends
having offered to introduce us to him, we sailed down the river,
and waited on hira. As he has since been elected President, a
few particular9»of his history may be interesting to the reader.
General Harrison was born in Virginia, on the 9th February,
1773.* He was educated at Hampden Sydney College, and then
repaired to Philadelphia to pursue the study of medicine under
Dr. Benjamin Rush. In 1791 he abandoned the profession of
medicine, and obtained from General Washington a commission
as ensign in the first regiment of the United States ArtiUery.
He served in the ,war with the Indians, in the Northwest Terri
tory; and an old soldier, speaking of his appearance at this time.
The receipts for the year 1839 were .... $490,635 55
The disbursements were  296,131 58

Balance applicable to dividends, $194,503 97
Dividend paid 1st August 1839, 4 per cent., $84,480.
Do. 1st Feb. 1840, 3J per cent, 77,418 25
 161,89825

Surplus fund,  $32,605 72
The description of this railroad, and the expense of its different works
and materials, may be interesting lo some readers, and I present them in
the Appendix No. XIII,, extracted from the report.
* Sketches of the Civil and Military Services of William Henry Harri
son, by C. S. Todd and Benjamin Drake. Cincinnati, 1840.
VOL. II. — 20

286 VISIT TO GENERAL HARRISON.
remarked, " I would as soon have thought of putting my wife in
the service as this boy; but I have been out with him, and I find
those smooth cheeks are on a wise head, and that slight frame is
almost as tough as my own weather-beaten carcass." Peace
was concluded with the Indians in 1795, and Captain Harrison
was appointed to the command of Fort Washington, (now Cin
cinnati,) where he married the daughter of John Cloves Symmes,
the founder of the Miami settiements. He subsequently retired
to his farm near Cincinnati, and soon acquired that taste for agri
culture which, through a long life, has prompted him, when not
engaged in public service, to return to the plough, and where we
found him at our visit.
On 13th July 1787 an "ordinance" was passed in Congress
" for the Government of the Territory of the United States
Northwest of the River Ohio," Article VI of which, proposed
by Mr. Dana of Massachusetts, as an amendment, and adopted,
bears that " there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servi
tude in the said territory, otherwise than inpunishment of crime,
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." This clause
has done more to promote the prosperity of that region than lan-
gnage can express. Early in 1798, Mr. Harrison was appointed
secretary, and ex officio Lieutenant-Governor of the Territory.
In 1800 he was sent as a delegate to represent the Territory in
Congress. " His first effort was to effect a change in the mode
of selling the public lands, which had hitherto been Offered in large
tracts — a system well suited to the rich speculator, but adverse
to the interest of the poor man, however industrious and enter
prising." He partiy succeeded in this object, and obtained an
act which facilitated the purchase of land by poor but industrious
settiers, and thereby contributed essentially to the prosperity of
the Territory.
In 1800, he was appointed Governor of Indiana: In 1803,
upon the admission of Ohio into the Union, the region of coun
try which now forms the state of Michigan was added to the
Indiana Territory; and during the subsequent year, Mr. Harrison
was made ex officio Governor of Upper Louisiana. On the 7th
November 181 1, he fought the batfle of Tippecanoe against the
Indians, led by their celebrated chief Tecumthe, and gained a
decided victory. The forces engaged amounted to about 900 on
each side, and the loss was equal; about fifty men being killed
belonging to each army, and double the number wounded. This
is the exploit celebrated in innumerable electioneering songs,
and which gave name to hundreds of political clubs.
In 1812, when the British and Indians threatened the North
west Territory, he was appointed commander-in-chief, and mam-
tained a gallant defence of " Camp, now Fort Meigs," against

VISIT TO GENERAL HARRISON. 287
these assailants. On the 5th October 1813 he met the British
General Proctor, commanding 800 or 900 men, and Tecumthe,
with 1800 or 2000 Indians, on the bank of the River Thames,
near the Moravian Towns, and completely defeated them.
" General Harrison personally gave the directions for the charge
to be made when the right battalion of the mounted men received
the fire of the British: the horses in the front of the column re
coiled from the fire; another was given by the enemy, and our
column at length getting into motion, broke through the enemy
with irresistible force. In one minute the contest in front Was
over. The British officers, seeing no prospect of reducing their
disordered ranks to order, and seeing the advance of infantry,
and our mounted men wheeling upon them, and pouring in a
destructive fire, immediately surrendered." The result of this
charge decided the fate of the day. The Indians also were de
feated. The Americans lost about twenty killed, and from thirty
to forty wounded; the British had eighteen killed and twenty-six
wounded, and the Indians left on the ground, and in the pursuit,
between fifty and sixty killed. This battle also has been the
fertile subject of many electioneering songs.
In 1816, General Harrison was elected to Congress by the
district in Ohio in which he resided, and some charges having
been preferred against him by an army contractor, his conduct
was investigated by a committee of Congitess, which unani
mously reported his conduct to stand above suspicion. Con
gress subsequently awarded to him a gold medal and the thanks
pf that body. " He exhibited in Congress an intimate famUiarity
with the civil and military affairs of the country, and the pos
session of a vigorous and cultivated mind. As a debater, he
was ready, fluent,, and forcible, always courteous and dignified,
eminently happy in illustrating his arguments by the history of
other nations, both ancient and modern, with the philosophy of
which his mind is deeply and accurately imbued."
In 1824, he was elected to the Senate of the United States
by the legislature of Ohio, and in 1828 appointed, by President
Adams, Minister Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Columbia.
" While in Columbia, the proposition was entertained by one
of the political parties, of putting aside the constitution, and
raising Bolivar to the Dictatorship. During the agitation of this
question, General Harrison, as the personal friend of Bolivar,
and not in his official capacity, addressed to him a letter on the
subject of this change of government. This document, which
has been extensively circulated and greatiy admired in the
United States, is written with great force and eloquence of dic
tion, and breathes the pure spirit of republican liberty. After
General Harrison's return from Columbia, he retired to his farm

288 VISIT TO GENERAL HARRISON.
at North Bend, and resumed the peaceful pursuits of agriculture.
In 1837, he was put in nomination for the Presidency, but was
then unsuccessful.
" Whfle Governor of Indiana, and Superintendent of Indian
affairs, during a period of twelve years, he disbursed, at his dis
cretion, and with but few, if any checks, very large sums of
money; and, in the course of the late war, he drew on the
Treasury for rtiore than $600,000 for mflitary purposes. Yet
General Harrison retired from public service poorer than he
entered it, and has never been a defaulter to his government."
These representations of General Harrison's services, charac
ter, and attainments, although drawn from a work edited by
his friends, contain, so far as I could learn, essentially the truth.
Indeed his writings, which are pretty copiously quoted, prove
that his intellectual attainments are highly creditable, while few
American public men, since Washington, can boast of greater
uprightness, disinterestedness, and devotion to the best interests
of his country. WhOn Governor of the Northwest Territory
he wielded nearly the powers of a Dictator, and his adminis
tration was marked by singular equity, moderation, and judg
ment. General Harrison's residence at North Bend consists of i
centre house of two stories, now covered with clap-boards, but
which the General told us is really built of logs, and two clap-
boarded wings of one story each. It stands about a quarter of
a mUe from the Ohio, in a grass park, having a few cherry trees
in the distance, and several laburnums close to the door. The
park may contain forty to fifty acres, enclosed with a rafl-fence.
A foot-path, worn in the grass, but not formed by art, leads from
the gate to the door of the house. The floor of the' house is
about fifteen or eighteen inches above the grass, and three
stones of increasing thickness, undressed, not built on each
other, but each lying on the ground, at successive distances,
serve as steps to surmount this height. The centre house has
much the appearance of a log-cabin. The principal room in it
is coarsely finished, and the wooden fire blazes on the hearth.
One of the wings, however, is finished like a modern house,
and comfortably furnished as a drawing-room. Between the
park and the river a canal is forming, to. connect Cincinnati with
the interior of the state.
General Harrison was suffering fi-om a -violent headache when
we arrived, but Mrs. Harrison gave us a kind welcome, and the
Geneial at length appeared. He is now sixty-seven, rather
above the middle stature, slender, and he stoops considerably.
His temperament is nervous and bilious; his head is long, of fufl
average height^but not remarkably broad. The anterior lobe is

VISIT TO GENERAL HARRISON. 289
above an average both in length from front to back and height;
and both the observing and reflecting organs are well developed.
The head is obviously flat in the region of Acquisitiveness. The
moral region seemed to present an average development. His
eye is vivacious, and his countenance is highly expressive of
thought; indeed his whole appearance is much more that of a
literary or scientific man, than that of a military commander.
His habitation presented unequivocal indications of humble for
tune: indeed I may say (and I say it without the least feeling of
disrespect) of poverty; yet his manner and appearance were
those of a man of the world, who was familiar with the best
society, and who, in the retirement of his farm at North Bend,
retained the polish and appearance of a gentleman.
In making these remarks I may appear to be trespassing be
yond the limits of legitimate publication, and trenching on the
privacies of domestic life; but at the time of my visit, and for
many subsequent months, all the circumstances of General Har
rison's conduct and condition, private as well as public, were
described and discussed in almost every periodical of the Union;
and I state little here which is not as public in the United States
as the noon-day sun.
Immediately after dinner we retired and walked with him over
part of his farm. It is his own property, and we were told ex
tends to about 1500 acres, part of his wife's dowry. From the
rising ground behind his house the view is highly beautiful, em
bracing two beiifls of the Ohio and its picturesque banks. At
first it was intended to plant on this spot the great city of the
west; but it is said that the commanding-officer of the district
entertained an affection for the wife of a sergeant who was then
stationed at Cincinnati, and that this induced him to remove his
troops there, from which circumstance that town Sprung into
being.* Behind the General's house is a large garden, in which
we saw a white-headed eagle, with only one leg. It was pre
sented to him by a convention of his political friends; and the
gentleman who delivered it, in name of the rest, observed, in his
speech, that as an eagle was seen hovering .over Fort Meigs
when the General fought the battle in its defence, this -may pos
sibly be the identical bird! The General remarked to us that
* The original name of Cincinnati was Losantiville, compounded iu the
following manner by Captain Robert Filson, a teacher apparently of great
classical attainments. A small stream flowing from Kentucky, enters the
Ohio opposite to Cincinnati, and is named the Licking. — L, therefore, stands
for Licking; os, Latin, mouth; anii, Greek, opposite; and ville, French,
town; make Losantiville; or the "town opposite to the mouth of the Lick
ing." It was hard on such an ingenious scholar to drop his erudite appel-
lation, and to substitute for it Cinciinnati, derived from the name of a self-
constituted military order which met there.

290 VISIT TO GENERAL HARRISON.
eagles were then so numerous in that country that they might be
seen hovering over many places. The captors of the eagle had
dislocated its leg, and Dr. Thornton, the General's son-in-law,
believing it to be broken, had amputated it. The friend who
introduced us to the General said, " General Harrison lias
promised to keep the eagle till the 4th of March next, when we
hope he will go to the White House," (the famihar name of
the President's official residence in the city of Washington.)
" Ah!" said the General jiromptly, and in the most natural tone,
" there is one other condition about that. If Mr. Van Buren
abandons his mischievous policy, he may stay in the White
House, and I shall remain in mine." He mentioned that in
agreeing to be put in nomination for the Presidency, he had dis
tinctly announced his resolution to retire at the end of the first
term of four years.
He spoke of Bolivar and General Paez of Columbia. The
former he praised, but regarded him as corrupted and ruined by
his ambition. The latter he described as a true and excellent
man. He was, he said, destitute of education, but studied when
he became a man, and he is now a respectable scholar. He
first distinguished himself by a singular exploit during the War
of Independence. Two Spanish gunboats lay in the river near
which Bolivar's army was encamped, and annoyed them seri
ously. Bolivar had no boats of any kind by which he could
approach them. Paez offered to capture them with his division
of cavalry. Bolivar thought him in jest, as the idea of attack
ing two ships of war in a navigable river by means of cavalry
seemed far removed from reason. But Paez, assuring him that
he was quite serious, obtained leave; and the next morning pre
sented the gun-boats to Bolivar as trophies of -victory, and their
crews as captives. His mode of accomplishing the feat was the
following: — Paez and his division were " reared" in a district
which is overflowed by a large river every spring. The houses
are buUt on eminences, and ^tand, during the inundation, like so
many islands in an ocean. Communication is maintained be
tween the famUies by boats, and also by swimming on horse
back. Paez proposed to his men, accustomed to this kind of
travelling, to enter the river on horseback, about half a mfle
above the gun-boats, at night, and to swim down to them with
the stream. They readUy volunteered; Paez led, and simulta
neously both sides of the two gun-boats were entered sword in
hand, and captured without a struggle. The horses swam to
the shore and joined their regiment.
In the evening we left North Bend, and had a deUghtful drive
along the right bank of the Ohio to Cincinnati. I was impressed
by this visit with strong feelings of respect for General Harrison.

VISIT TO GENERAL HARRISON. 291
After a long life spent in the service of his country, he lives,
poor indeed, but he seemed cheerful and happy. He does not
conceal his poverty, nor does he make the least parade of it.
He alludes to it simply as a fact, and he betrayed not one emo
tion of envy -or jealousy of any human being, and still less did
he indicate any feeling of disappointed ambition.
Since this visit General Harrison has been elected President
of the United States, and enters to his office on the 4th March
1841. The circumstances that have led to his elevation are
curious. The year 1838 was one of great, "prosperity" in the
United States; that is to say, many of the states borrowed largely
on bonds, and prosecuted vast internal improvements. These
bonds were purchased on favorable terms by the bankers and
merchants, who sent them to London, where they sold readily
at high prices, and formed extensive funds of credit. On the
faith of these credits not only were large orders for European
goods transmitted to England and France by the merchants, but
the American banks issued their paper in floods. This abun
dance of currency quickened internal commerce and manufac
tures; prices rose, and speculation flourished. At this time Mr.
Van Buren appeared immovably seated, for two terms, in the
"White House." But in 1838 the crop of grain in England
faUed, large quantities of corn were imported from the Continent
of Europe, and a drain commenced on the Bank of England for
gold. This led to a contraction of the currency in Britain, fol
lowed by commercial distress. The American stocks speedily
felt the effect of the shock, and in 1839 became nearly unsaleable.
The banks and merchants who had drawn on England on the
faith of them, suddenly found their means of meeting their en
gagements and paying for their large importations cut off; and
suspension of cash-payments by most of the banks in the south
and west followed. This produced derangement in the ex
changes (see vol. ii, p. 157), a stagnation of commerce, and a
great fall in the prices of commodities. Cotton, wheat, and to
bacco, the great articles of export to Europe, also fell, and their
value as remittances to extinguish the American debt in Europe,
proportionately diminished. In short, universal distress pre
vailed. So general was the suffering in the latter end of 1839,
and the first half of 1840, that every class in the United States
was involved in it. Many of the capitalists were ruined; the
merchants and manufacturers sustained enormous losses; the
farmers could scarcely obtain money for their produce at any
price, and the laborers were thrown out of employment. The
Whig party, then in opposition, traced all these disasters to the
measures of their Democratic rulers, beginning with the veto
exercised by General Jackson on the rfenewal, by Congress, of

292 VISIT TO GENERAL HARRISON.
the charter of, the United States' Bank as a national institution,
down to the Sub-Treasury BiU; and they promised another na
tional bank, restoration of credit, and renewed prosperity, if the
people would only place them in power. In any country such
an appeal to the interests of a suffering people would have had
great influence in determining their choice; in the UnitedfStates
it was irresistible. Its effects were seconded by the character
and circumstances of General Harrison himself. He had gained
victories, and the American people have an excessive admiration
of warriors. They, therefore, formed " Tippecanoe" clubs, and
celebrated all his victories in songs. He Uved in a log-house;
and log-cabins were constructed and carried in proud triumph in
the political processions, and this charmed the humblest class,
who felt as if, in electing General Harrison, they were raising
one of their own number to the Presidency. For twenty years he
had drunk only cider, because he was not rich enough to pay
fdr wine; and his political opponents said in derision that it was
" hard" cider. Cider casks also became emblems which enlisted
the sympathies of hundreds of thousands who used this beverage.
These nieans secured the people, and as the Whigs had long
had the majority of the wealthy on their side. General Harrison
triumphed by a large majority.
That he was worthy of the honor, and that with many there
was generosity of sentiment in honoring his poverty, I most
willingly admit; nevertheless, judging philosophically of aU the
influences by which his election "vi^as accomplished, I cannot say
that they were such as an enlightened patriot could boast of as
proofs of the intelligence and moral elevation of the people.
The excitement of the public mind during a contest for the
Presidentship is great and universal; the tongue ceases to utter,
and the. ear to hear, any words except those relating to the elec
tion; the press groans under the weight of the subject, and all the
functions of life seem to be exclusively devoted to it. It is the
parent of much drinking and debauchery, of fraud, lying, bribing,
cajoling, and intimidating. But it also evolves good. The
measures of government are severely scrutinised by reason as
well as decided on by passion; the whole Union is moved by
one interest, and the impression that they all belong to one
nation is vividly excited. Local interests are for the moment
forgotten, and one pulse appears to beat from Maine to Missis
sippi. My fear is, that without the recurrence of these elec
tions, the people of the different states would rapidly come to
regard each other as strangers and rivals, and insensibly slacken
the bonds which bind them together as one great nation. The
elections of members of Congress have not this effect; for
although that assembly is national, each of its members repre-

KENTUCKY. 293
sents only a section of the country. The President alone de
rives his power from the people of the whole Union.
Aprfl 15. Ther. 55°. Kentucky. — We sailed down the
Ohio to Louisville in Kentucky, distance 135 mUes, and found
it a large thriving town, and apparently destined to become a
formidable rival to Cincinnati. My chief object was to pay a
visit to Dr. Charles Caldwell, with whom I had corresponded
for upwards of twenty years, but whom I had never met. He
is one of the most powerful and eloquent medical writers in the
United States, and has scarcely a rival west of the Alleghany
Mountains. He has been the early, persevering, intrepid, and
successful advocate of Phrenology; and in his character of medi
cal professor, first at Lexington arid latterly in Louisville, has
exerted a great influence in its favor. To our regret, he was
still suffering from the effects of a recent severe indisposition,
and Was able to see us only for a few minutes, a circumstance
which on every account, we deeply lamented. He recovered;
and before we sailed for Europe I had the pleasure of receiving
a passing visit from him in Staten Island. He is now advanced
in life, but so full of fire and vigor, that I look forward to his
still laboring in the cause of science for many years. ¦
We travelled by an excellent road to Frankfort, the capital of
Kentuck}'-, thence by a railroad to Lexington, near which Mr.
Clay resides, but who was then engaged in the Senate at Wash
ington, and afterwards to Maysville, where -we again met the
Ohio. Nothing can exceed the fertUity and beauty of Ken
tucky; yet slavery prevents it from fully flourishing. In pass
ing through a portion of Virginia, and also in Kentucky, I nar
rowly observed the extent of labor performed by slaves, whether
as waiters, hOuse-servants, laborers, or tradesmen, and in all
these capacities it was greatly inferior both in quantity and
quality to that performed, not only by white men, but by free
negroes. In the inns, the slaves run about with a wonderful
display of muscular activity, but there is a sad lack of mind in
it; they are active in body to avoid vituperation, but their minds
are dormant, because they have no interest in their work. The
condition of many of the inns, the servants of which are slaves,
is very bad. They are sadly dirty and sorely dUapidated; and
even in Louisville and Lexington, where they are managed in
the best manner possible with such assistants, they ate far infe
rior to the hotels of the same class in the free states, in many
of which, too, free Africans are the chief servants. By com
paring the amount of exertion, and the progress in work made
by the white laborers and tradesmen in Ohio, with those of the
slave-laborers and tradesmen in Kentucky, I became convinced
that a vigorous German or British emigrant, working by the

294 KENTUCKY.
piece, performs more work than two slaves, and does it better;
and that two white laborers, taking them on an average, ac
complish more than three slaves. Kentucky, with this inferior
quality of labor, competes with Ohio and Indiana and their free
labor, separated only by the river; and certainly it is not ad
vancing in prosperity nearly so fast as they do, and this in fact
is a relative decline. There is a prevaUing expectation, there
fore, that her own interests will prompt Kentucky to abolish
slavery within a few years, independenfly of any general move
ment on the subject by the other slave states.
Greal religious revivals were in progress at Frankfort when
we visited it. The governor of the state had been converted,
and prayed publicly every morning at sunrise in one of the
churches. The Supreme Court also was in session, and at
table we met the judges and many lawyers. The follovying
dialogue took place at the public breakfast table, and was ob
viously hot of a confidential nature, but on the contrary in
tended, at least by one of the parties, for general edification.
The Rev. Mr.  said, that the governor had, that morning,
given them a most impressive prayer in the church, and, turning
to the chief justice, he continued, "When shall we see the
chief justice in the church giving us a prayer!" Chief Jus
tice — " Why you see I have so many duties to discharge, that I
have no time for it." Minister — " But, Chief Justice, these are
aU little matters of this world's concernment, and this is the one
thing needful!" Chief Justice — " True, and I have been in
tending, the first leisure three months I can command, to give
the whole subject a thorough consideration." Minister — " But,
Chief Justice, you believe, and no time is necessary for consi
deration. If you begin at once and pray, the kingdom of Heaven
wiU be opened unto you." Chief Justice — " WeU, that is very
true, but I don't like to set about a thing without a complete
investigation. I waht to consider the whole question, and to
satisfy myself properly. You see that my time is entirely oc
cupied with these causes; it is my first duty to attend to them,
and I have not an hour to bestow on any other subject. I must
go to court immediately." This dialogue is characteristic of the
professions of the speakers, and it shows, also, that, although
there is no Established Church in Kentucky, there is no lack of
zeal and earnestness in religion.
In Kentucky, slavery exists in its mUdest form, and agri
culture is the chief employment of the slaves. A farmer buys
his ploughman as he does his horses and cattie, and his price is
from $700 to $800. Nevertheless, Thomas Jefferson's picture
of the effects of slavery is realised even here. In his " Notes

KENTUCKY. 295
on the state of Virginia,"* he says, " There must doubtless be
an unhappy influence on the manners of our people produced
by the existence of slavery among us. The whole commerce
between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most
boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one
part, and degrading submission on the other. Our cbihlren see
this, and learn to imitate it; for man is an imitative animal.
This quality is the germ of all education in him. From his cra
dle to his grave he is learnipg to do what he sees others do. If
a parent could find no rtiotive either in his philanthropy or his
self-love, for restraining his intemperance of passion towards
his slaves, it should always be a sufficient one, that his chfld is
present. But, generally, it is not sufficient. The parent storms;
the chfld looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the
same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives a loose to the
worst of passions, and thus nursed, educated, and daily exer
cised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with odious pe
culiarities. The man must be a prodigy who can retain his man
ners and morals undepraved by such circumstances." * * *
"And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we
have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of
the people, that these liberties are the gift of God? That they
are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed, I tremble
for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice
cannot sleep for ever; that considering numbers, nature, and na
tural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an ex
change of situation, is among possible events; that it may become
probable by supernatural interference! The Almighty has no
attribute that can take side with us in such a contest."
It is impossible to add to the force of eloquence of this expo
sition of the inherent evils of slavery. ' I had the pleasure of
meeting a gentleman, a native of Virginia, who mentioned, that
he had emancipated his slaves and removed to a free state, be
cause, among other effects, he saw that slavery was corrupting
the minds of his children. He added, however, that his slaves
had not profited by their freedom; the incapacity for self-action
and self-control which slavery engenders, renders emancipated
Africans, in general, unfit to struggle successfuUy with the diffi
culties which surround them. These difficulties arise from the
existence of slavery and slave-laws, and of habits of feeling con
nected with them, in the society into which they are thrown.
By them the negroes are degraded and oppressed after they are
free, and often become immoral and miserable. Universal eman
cipation, which should raise all the Africans at once to the con-
* Eighth American Edition, 1801, p. 240.

296 RETURN TO NEW YORK.
dition of free men, and impose on the whites the twofold duty
of treating them with kindness and directing their industrial
efforts, wiU probably prove the only safe and beneficial means
of terminating slavery.
Return to New York. — We descended the Ohio from Mays
ville to Cincinnati, and there engaged a comfortable state-room
in a steamboat going up the river to Pittsburg, where we arrived
on the 26th of April. There were only two modes of reaching
Philadelphia, one by the Pennsylvania Canal and Portage RaU
road across the Alleghany Mountains; the other by the public
road. We were assured by every one, that the road was in the
worst possible condition, and the inns indifferent, and that the
canal was preferable. We accordingly embarked on board of
the " James Madison" at 9 P. M., and the scene may be thus
described. The boat is fitted up exclusively for carrying pas
sengers. The gentlemen's cabin was about 42 feet long, 15
broad, and 7 high; and the ladies' cabin 12 feet long, 13 broad,
and 7 high. Behind the ladies' cabin was a dressing-room for
them, 6 feet by 7 or so. Before the gentlemen's cabin was the
bar-room and the kitchen. There were windows all along on
both sides of the boat. There was one small sky-light in the
roof of the gentlemen's cabin. Into this space were stowed 35
men, 19 women, and 10 children, 7 of whom were at the breast.
The rate of travelling by the boats was four miles an hour. The
distance from Pittsburg to Harrisburg is 286 miles, of which we
travelled by the canal 249, and by the Portage Railroad 37 mfles,
occupying four nights and three days. The beds were ranged
continuously along each side of the boat, in three tiers, all within
the space of 7 feet in height, and they ran directly across the
windows; every one of which was anxiously closed, to prevent
the ingress of cold and dainp air. The passengers, whose beds
reached to the door, insisted on closing it also to keep out the
cold; so that there was only the small sky-light in the gentle
men's cabin for ventUating thirty-five pair of lungs; and it, too,
was packed round on every side by luggage, and covered on the
top on account of rain. During tire day the beds, consisting of
mattresses, sheets, pfllows, and cotton quilts, were piled one
above another, as close as they could be packed, in a corner of
the boat, and inclosed withing folding-doors and a curtain, so as
to be out of sight, and to occupy as litfle space as possible.
They were stowed away the moment the passengers left them
in the morning, and continued so untfl bed-time. The smeU of
animal effluvia, when they were unpacked, was truly homd.
The mattresses and quilte, from their construction, could not be
washed, and they were saturated with the perspiration of every
individual who had used them smce the commencement of the

RETURN TO NEW YORK. 297
season, or probably from the time when they were first taken on
board. "I'here was no provision for holding the clothes of the
passengers during the night, except laying them on stools which
were speedily upset, or on the floor, which all day had been spit
upon by innumerable chewers of tobacco. The sense of suffo
cation in bed was distressing, and on rising the feeling of dis
comfort and fatigue proved that nature had not been refreshed.
During the day we breathed fresh air on deck, and opened the
windows. The cooking was astonishingly w.ell accomplished,
considering the small accommodation; and the meals were unex
ceptionable; but I shouldrwUlingly have lived on bread and water
for a cleanbed and fresh air at night. The second night revealed
a new horror. The beds had been packed up promiscuously,
and they were tossed out in the same manner; so that each night
every man got a different sheet, mattress, and quilt, as they
chanced to come to hand, which had been used by his neighbors
the night before, who in their turn received his!
At HoUydaysburgh eight or ten clergymen, of various denomi
nations, with the wives and children of some of them, joined the
boat, and we had now upwards of seventy passengers on board.
The Captain said that we should soon be " damning" him on
account of our discomfort; but he was guilfless, and nobody,
within my hearing, said an uncivil word to him. He was at
tentive, and did all that he could to contribute to the welfare of
the passengers; but litfle was in his power. At night one of
these clergymen put the question to the vote of the passengers,
whether they would have religious exercises. The majority
voted in favor of his proposal, and we had prayers and psalms.
The majority knelt on the floor, which had been defiled all day
by tobacco saliva; and after shutting up all the avenues to fresh
air, and preparing to sleep in unwholesome bedding; in short,
after setting aside all the laws of health, and assembling around
them the natural causes of croup and fever for the children, and
of pulmonary affections for themselves^they prayed fervently
to God for spiritual blessings, and also for refreshing slumbers
and sound health, and to be raised up next morning invigorated
and cheered for the labors and duties of the day! They were
not rough, wild, excited fanatics; on the contrary, with one ex
ception, they were gentle, kind, cultivated. Christian men.
Their exercises were not only clothed in the words, but breathed
the very spirit of benevolence and veneration, and their lan
guage, always appropriate, was in some instances even elegant
and touching. But they were sadly deficient in the knowledge
of God's physical creation. Their prayers for health, in these
circumstances, appeared to me littie short of a mockery of
Heaven; they did not mean them as such, and of course were not

398 RETURN TO NEW YORK.
guflty of irreverence; but God must have suspended his natural
laws before he could have given effect to their petitions; and
when the question is put, whether rational beings should expect
that God should work miracles in order to save them from the
consequences of their own ignorance and neglect of his laws— .
or whether they should ventilate their boat, and preserve decent
cleanliness in their night apparel, as a preUminary condition to
receiving the blessing of health — there can scarcely be two opi
nions on the subject. It was their duty to observe the laws of
health, before praying for the blessing appointed by the Creator
to flow from that obedience. In point of fact their prayers, on
this subject, appeared to me not to have been answered; for in
the morning I heard one of them complaining that he felt as if he
had fio life in him — that his head was as if fifled with some
heavy inanimate matter; another complained of pain in his head;
a third of nausea; and two who were affected with bronchitis,
mentioned how much worse they felt in the morning; whfle the
wife of one of them wondered how, on rising, she was seized
with faintness, and continued for hours to feel as if she should
sink down insensible on the floor. I did not hear one of them
connect these sufferings with the bad air and uncleanly condition
in which they had passed the night. We had prayers and
psalms in the morning, and again on the second evening; but as
it rained incessantiy, and the cabin was' kept, if possible, still i
more close, the suffering increased; and, for my own part, I did'
not recover my usual feelings of internal comfort and mental ala
crity for several days after we had escaped from this torturing
prison. These clergymen, certainly, were only passengers, and could
not alter the circumstances in which they and we were placed.
But if they had known and respected God's natural laws, they
might have used the great influence which they obviously pos
sessed over the minds of the passengers, in inducing them to
admit at least some portion of fresh air, and also in giving effect
to a general complaint to the owners of the boats against arrange
ments so manifestly injurious to health, and which a little skill
and expense could unquestionably have remedied.
Some of these ministers were Methodists, and they mentioned
that their society allows each preacher f 100 for himself, besides
his traveUing expenses; $100 for his wife, if he be married; $16
for each child below seven, and $24 for each chUd above seven,
and below fourteen years of age, all per annum. Each preacher
has a district which he must traverse every six weeks, and at
the end of every two years his circuit is changed. These are
aU the allowances, except gifts from their flocks. By this ma
chinery the thinly-scattered population of the west is preserved

RETURN TO NEW YORK. 299
within reach of Christian ordinances and cultivation. The love
of souls alone can induce men of ordinary attainments to em
brace so laborious and ill-requited a profession.
Part, of the scenery through which we passed is said to be
exqui^tely beautiful, but a heavy rain descending through a
thick mist prevented us from seeing any object at a distance ex
ceeding a hundred yards from the boat.
One of the passengers in conversing with me asked' — " Have
you been to the west?"— "A short way only." — " Have you been
long in the country?" — " Only about twenty months.", — " Did
you go to settle?"—" No." — " Were you iit St. Louis?" — " No,
not so far." — "On the Ohio, then?" — "Yes, as far as Louis
ville." — " Were you thinking of buying land in Kentucky'?" —
" No."—" Do you gd to Baltimore?" — " No, to PhUadelphia."
— "Are you settled there?" — " No." — " Farther east perhaps?"
— " Yes, a good way farther east." — " What is the name of
the town?"—" Why, if you have any particular interest in
knowing, I wUl tell you." — " Oh no, not any particular interest;
only one likes to know the gentlemen one travels with. If we
hear them inquired about, we can say tJiat we saw them." — "I
do not think that there is much chance of your being asked
about me." Here the dialogue terminated; but all this was said
quite civilly, and without the least intention of rudeness.
The day after this conversation C  missed a silver fruit-
knife, which she valued highly; and I used every means to dis
cover whether she, had dropt it in the boat, but in vain. It was
given up as lost; when some hours afterwards, I saw it in the
hands of the individual who had interrogated me so minutely.
" That's my wife's fruit-knife," said I, " which she lost yester
day; where did you find it?" — " Oh, I found it last evening on
the deck between two trunks; I have since been inquiring to
whom it belonged, and could not find an owner." — " But my
wife's initials are on it — C. C." — " True, I sa-w these letters,
but as you would not tell me any thuig about yourself yesterday,
I had no idea that these were your wife's initials." 'The inqui
sitive gentleman kindly returned the knife; and I felt that he
had got completely the better of me on this occasion.
April 30. Ther. 55°. We stayed a day at Harrisburg, and
admired exceedingly the beauty of the Susquehanna River, on
the left bank of which it stands. The viUage itself, although
the political capital of Pennsylvania, is small, plain, and unpre
tending. May 1. Ther. 56°. We started this morning at 7 o'clock
by a railroad for PhUadelphia. The country through which it
passed is all cleared, highly fertile, well cultivated, and possesses
much natural beauty. The farm-houses and offices looked

300 PHILADELPHIA AND BOSTON.
substantial, clean, and neat; we were told that a great part of
the population is of German descent, and that they preserve the
language and manners of their original country. At 1 P.M. the
engine was allowed to run off the track; and we lost two hours
before it could be restored to its place, by means of tackle and
a multitude of men. No injury was done to it or any of flie
passengers; but we had not proceeded far when the engine stood
stfll. All the coals had been consumed, and the engineer had
supplied their place- with green oak, which would not burn. At
last a baggage train came up and pushed nur train before it to
the next station, where we got a supply of combustible fuel.
The engine then performed its duty well, and at 7 P.M. We ar
rived at PhUadelphia, three hours behind the usual time. The
distance was 105 miles. During all these delays, the result of
sheer carelessness, not an angry or discontented word was heard
froin the passengers, who were very numerous. The raflway
train from Philadelphia to New York started at 5 P.M., and we
should have arrived an hour before that time, instead of two
hours after it. Many individuals who had urgent business and
appointments in New York found their plans deranged, and suf
fered serious inconvenience; yet they bore the disappointment
with most exemplary patience and good humor.
May 9. Thermometer 45°. Philadelphia and Boston,. —
I have now seen something of both Boston and Philadelphia,
and they present distinct mental characteristics. In Boston lit
erature is more cultivated than science, and speculation is pre
ferred to physical investigation. A person gains reputation
theve, by having at command all the striking passages of Shak-
speare, and knowing every reading of his text, and the opinions
of his commentators; by studying Italian, and being able to quote
Dante; by learning German and becoming eloquent in Goethe.
It js not necessary that he should know chemistry, natural phi
losophy, natural history, physiology, or even geology. The
Bostonians are learned in literature, write well, and speak well;
but an ingenious theory has more charms for them than a labori
ous inquiry into scientific truth. The educated men of Phila
delphia study science more generally and extensively. They
are precise and accurate in their knowledge of facts and natural
phenomena, and solid in their inductions and conclusions; but
they luiow less of books, commentators, theories, and opinions.
The temperament of the educated class in Boston presents more
of the sanguine and nervous elements than that of the same class
in Phfladelphia; and in them also, the anterior lobe is, perhaps,
a litfle larger, while the moral organs are generaUy large in both.
In their present condition, the PhUadelphians are the more
scientific thinkers, and more in harmony with the first class o

DEBTS or THE AMERICAN STATES. 301
minds in Europe. Boston, however, takes a deeper interest
than PhUadelphia in moral, intellectual, and religious pursuits.
Boston resembles Edinburgh in the days of Dugald Stewart,
when great reputations were founded on acquirements in meta
physics and beUes-lettres, and when distinguished literary men
were unacquainted even with the rudiments of physical science.
Debts of the American States. — I have frequentiy been asked
whether, in my opinion, the American states will preserve faith
with theiV public creditors and pay their debts. A vast extent
of information beyond what I can pretend to possess, would be
necessary to enable any one to deliver a satisfactory answer to
this question; but some ideas may be presented which may serve
to enable others to elucidate it in a moje . satisfactory manner.
The subject divides itself naturally into two heads; 1st, The
abUity of the states to redeem their obligations; and 2dly, Their
willingness to do so. Ample and correct information in regard
to the first head, may be obtained from Mr. Trotter's " Observa
tions on the Financial Position and Credit of such of the states
of the North American Union as have contracted Public Debts."
This work was commended by the American press, and in the
United States its detafls are regarded as worthy of being relied
on. I frequently conversed with bankers and capitalists on the
subject of the state debts; and in travelling into different parts
of the Union, I endeavored to form some estimate, necessarUy
a vague one, of the resources of the states. Premising, then,
that the debts of the different states have been incurred, not to
prosecute wars and measures of destruction, but chiefly to form
canals, roads, and raUroads, and to institute banks, I remark,
that the general opinion which I heard expressed was, that from
one-half to one-fourth of the sums constituting the debts of most
of the states, have been wasted through unskilful application
and lavished expenditure — the inevitable accompaniments of
works undertaken by a popular government; but that the remain
der has been beneficially invested. The waste differs much
in different states; but allowing for its utmost magnitude, and
viewing the extent of surface, the salubrity of the climate, the
fertility of the sofl, the mineral riches, and all the oflier natural
advantages of the country, together with the industry and inge
nuity of the people, the debts appear to me to be a mere trifle
in comparison with the resources of the states. Wealth and
population are augmenting so rapidly, that twenty years hence,
the present amount of state debts, with few exceptions, would
scarcely be felt as a burden according to European notions,
although both principal and interest were raised by direct taxa
tion. I never heard a man of the least judgment doubt the
VOL. II. — 21

302 DEBTS OF THE AMERICAN STATES.
ability of aU the states to meet their obligations; and so far as my
own means of judging extend, I concur in this view.
After traveUing through a considerable portion of Pennsylva
nia, and contemplating the amazing richness of her soU and
mines, and the very great advantages which she derives from
her canals and railroads (with aU their faults), and after witnessing
the industry, economy, and wealth of her people, the amount of
her debt appeared to me to be no formidable incumbrance on her
resources. It is stated in the American Almanack for 1840, as foUows:—
For canals, beating 5 per cent, interest, $lfi,576,527 00
Railroads, do. do. 4,964,484 00
Turnpikes and bridges, do. 2,595,992 00
Miscellaneous, do. 3,166,787 00
Total, $27,306,790 00

In the American Almanack for 1841, the total stock and domestic debt
of Pennsylvania are stated to amount to $33,016,149, or a little more
than six millions and a half sterling.
In 1830, her population amounted to 1,348,232, and it must
now reach nearly to 1,800,000; whUe her soU is capable of sup
porting probably ten millions in abundant comfort. Her fin^an-
cial embarrassments, therefore, arise not from the magnitude of
her debt in relation to her means of payment, but from difficul
ties in bringing the latter forward to meet her engagements; and
the same may be predicated of every other state which has
paused in the discharge of the interest of its debts.
If the revenues of the canals, railroads, and banks, to which
the borrowed money has been applied, should prove sufficient
for repayment of the debts, no doubt can reasonably be enter
tained on the subject. Any proposal to devote these revenues
to other public purposes, and to defraud the public creditors,
would, in my opinion, be rejected by the legislatures of afl the
states without a moment's hesitation. But in some instances
these revenues have already proved insufficient to discharge the
interest of the debts; and in Pennsylvania in particular, the al
ternative has presented itself, of submitting to taxation in order
to raise funds to pay the interest, or of declaring the state insol
vent. This occurred in the beginning of 1840, when the interest
of the public debt remained unpaid for one day. The difficulty
was then surmounted, by a loan from the suspended banks, and
the interest was discharged; but this was a mere temporary ex
pedient; and during the session of that year the proposition was
fairly brought before the legislature, to impose taxes to make
up the deficiency between the revenues yielded by the canals

DEBTS OF THE AMERICAN STATES. 303
and railroads, and the interest of the public debt. The majority
of both houses of the Legislature, and also Governor Porter,
were Democrats, and they had obtained the ascendency in the
state, in a great measure, by reason of their hostflity to the banks
and the paper-currency system, and especially to the Bank of the
United States. By a singular coincidence, also, it happened,
that at the time when recourse to taxation became necessary to
avoid insolvency, the United States' Bank, by suspending specie
payments, had forfeited its charter, and fallen prostrate under the
power of these legislators. The electors and legislators of Penn
sylvania, besides, are by no means so enlightened as those of some
of the Eastern States; so that, altogether, a combination of cir
cumstances presented itself, well adapted to bring the second ques
tion to trial, whether an American state legislature will venture
to impose taxes on the people in order to discharge public debts.
To the honor of Governor Porter, he never hesitated for a
moment, but from the first occurrence of the difficulties, declared
himself in his messages to the legislature ready to support the
public credit by dealing discreetly with the suspended banks,
and by resorting to taxation to supply the deficiency of the reve
nue; and called on the two houses to do their duty to the state
in the same spirit. The measures which he suggested met with
great opposition. Several bUls were brought in to deprive the
United States' Bank of its charter, and some of them passed one
of the houses; but the attempts to pass a bill for raising taxes to
pay the interest of the debt were again and again defeated. In
dividuals were not wanting, in the legislatures both of Pennsyl
vania and other states, who openly advocated bankruptcy, and
seemed to rejoice in the prospect of cheating the public creditors,
especially the bond-holders in Britain. I was told that the con
ferences, arguments, explanations, and entreaties used by the
more enlightened members of the legislature of Pennsylvania,
chiefly belonging to the cities, to induce the farmers and country
members to pass a tax-bfll, were innumerable. The session
dragged on, and no bill was passed. Speeches were delivered,
and articles written in the newspapers, discussing the question
with the utmost zeal, and still the opposition raged. At last,
however, at the very close of the session, a tax-bill was passed,
and the bank-charter was spared. The farmer-proprietors, how
ever, in the legislature, imitating the British Parliament, pre
served all real estate free from assessment, and imposed the taxes
on personal property alone. The following extract from the
New York Weekly Herald of June 20, 1840, contains the par
ticulars of the bUl.
The legislature of Pennsylvania have again adjourned, after
passing the tax-bill, the bUl to pay the interest on the State

304

DEBTS OF THE AMERICAN STATES.

loans, and the improvement bill. The tax-bill provides as fol
lows: — SvNOPSis OP THE Pennsylvania Tax-Bill.
On all dividends bj banks or corporations of one per cent, or
over — on $1, a tax of . . . . IJ mills.
On $1 of all taxable property, occupations, &c. . . 1 mill.
On $1 of all bonds, stocks (except state), moneys at interest,
&c., on which 1 per cent, dividend may accrue, . J
On all household furniture, and plate exceeding $300 — per $1 of
value, . . . . .5

On pleasure carriages,
On gold watches.
On gold and silver watches.
On other watches,
On all salary offices.

1 per cent.
1 dollar.
75 cents. .
50 cents.
1 per cent.

This, it is estimated, wiU yield $1,000,000. This, it is sup
posed, wiU be sufficient to obviate the necessity of resorting to
new loans to pay interest on state stocks. The revenues and
expenditures of the state last year were as foUows: —

Revenue,

$821,780 101,728
207,097133,440
100,000 257,074

Expenditures.

$412,751 376,336 385,253
1,296,010 238,513

$1,621,119

Canal and railway tolls,
Auction duties.
Dividends of banks, &c,.
Tax on bank dividends.
Bank charters.
Other sources.

Government expenses.
Canal repairs, &c..
Common schools.
Interest on loans,
Other expenses, Deiiciency,
The State treasurer's estimate for 1840 was ;
On hand, January 1, 1840, . .
Estimated receipts.
Total means,
Estimated payments, Deficiency,
From this it appears that the new tax wiU be sufficient to cover
the defaciency. The biU to pay the interest on the state loans,
provides that m future aU interest upon loans shaU be paid in

2,708,863
$1,087,744

; follows: —
$1,337,170 2,914,275
$4,251,445 5,267,333
$1,015,888

DEBTS OF THE AMERICAN STATES.

305

specie; and also provides for the payment to holders of state
stock the difference between bank notes and specie on the sums
paid for interest during the suspension. The senate amended
the improvement bill by striking out the clause requiring the
United States Bank to loan the money at 4 per cent., and sub
stituting a resolution authorising the governor to bOrrow in the
market at an interest not exceeding 5 per cent.
Thus far the example is salutary, and calculated to inspire
confidence in the honor of the American states; and my convic
tion is that it will be generally foUowed. Mr. Trotter, in enu
merating the motives which may be relied on to induce the
American democratic legislatures to pass tax-bills to fulfil their
public engagements, trusts chiefly to the influence of religion
and education; but, in addition to these, the operation of the
powerful motives of self-interest, and fear of public opinion, may
be mentioned. In compliance with a resolution of the Houie of
Representatives, the Auditor-General communicated the follow
ing information relative to the banks, savings institutions, and
loan companies of Pennsylvania, returns having been made from
fifty-two institutions: —
Statement of the stock of the Bank of the United States of
Pennsylvania, January 1, 1840.
Number of persons holding stock to the amount of 5 shares and under, 864

Do.

Do.

10

601

Do.

Do.

20

732

Do.

Do.

50

994

Do.

Do.

IBO
588
Do.
Do.
500
814
Do
Do.
over 500
80
Par value of the Stock, ^IQOper share.
The number of shares
held by
Females,
.
.
29,876
Executors and Guardians
-
4,256
Trustees,
16,248
Benevolent Institutions,
-
1,758
Numbe
r of Stockholders in the Vnit-ed States.
Maine,
-
16
Brought forwarc
, 2,665
New Hampshire,
-
23
North Carolina,
27
Vermont,
.
4
South Carolina,
340
Massachusetts,
-
106
Georgia, -
36
Rhode Island,
40
Ohio,
23
Connecticut, -
-
60
Kentucky,
18
New York,
230
Tennessee,
4
New Jersey, -
-
117
Indiana,
2
Pennsylvania,
-
1,481
Illinois, •
4
Delaware,
-
51
Alabama, -
1
Maryland,
.
289
Missouri, -
3
District of Columbia,
37
Mississippi,
1
Virginia,
-
211
Louisiana,
n
Carry
forward.
2,665
3,133
306 DEBTS OF THE AMERICAN STATES.
Number of Stockholders in Europe and elsewhere, excepting United States,

Great Britain and Ireland,

1,185

Brought forward.

1,324

France, -

-

36

Denmark,

2

Spain,

-

59

Switzerland,

4

Portugal,

.

6

West Indies,

52

Germany,

-
10
East Indies,
1
Holland,
-
-
26
South America,
2
Belgium,
1
Mexico,
3
Prussia, -
-
-
1
Nova Scotia,
2
Carry
forward.
1,324
1,390
Statement of the amount of five, ten, and twenty dollar notes
of the Bank of the United States in circulation on the 1st of
January, 1840.
Five dollar notes issued under the eighth section of the improvement act,
passed July 19, 1839, - - $20,000 00
Ten dollar notes, 1,831,110 00
Twenty dollar notes, - - - 1,138,880 00
When the Democratic party was in opposition, they breathed
unmitigated hostUity against the United States Bank, and why
did they not destroy it when it fell fairly under their povyer in
1 840? One answer will be found in the foregoing statement of
the number of shares held by females, executors, guardians, and
trustees; and in the number of stockholders in the United States.
To have withdrawn its charter, would have carried loss and
suffering into thousands of famflies, which would have reached
either directly or indirectly almost every individual in the legis
lature. Public opinion also would have raised its powerful
voice in denunciation of such a measure, and most of the mem
bers who should have voted against it, would have been rejected
at the next election. Hence the very men, who in opposition
clamored most loudly for the destruction of this institution, were
spell-bound by public interest and public sentiment when they
acquired the power to execute their own aspirations!
I was told by a member of the legislature, that one great
objection to the bfll for raising a tax was thus stated by the farm
ers. " Why should we be oppressed by taxes to support the
nobflity of England?" they beUevingthat the state debt was held
chiefly by the British nobflity. I paid Utfle attention to this
report, supposing that it referred probably to the case of one, or
at least very few individuals; but it derives some countenance
from another head of the Auditor-General's return relative to the
Bank of the United States, which is in these words. " The
nobflity holding stock are: Earis, 2; Marquises, 2; Counts and
Countesses, 8; Lords, 2; Knights, Barons, and Baronets, 28."
If the stock of the United States Bank had belonged altogeflier
DEBTS OF THE AMERICAN STATES. 307
to foreigners, the two powerful motives before stated, to spare
its charter, would have operated with less weight, and the result
might have been more doubtful.
The same remarks apply to the state debts. They are not
due exclusively to European creditors, but in almost every state
of the Union, large investments have been made in them by the
banks, and also by private persons who have realised capital.
A state bankruptcy, therefore, would be a highly unpopular
measure, and would carry misery far and wide into private
circles: from which it would directly operate against the indivi
duals whose votes in the Legislature had permitted it to happen.
The aversion to taxation is great every where, and particularly
in the United States: and no surer road to popularity can be
found than in resisting a tax; but on the other hand, a state bank
ruptcy would, if possible, be a stiU more unpopular measure,
from the ruin of famUies, of banks, insurance offices, and charita
ble institutions, and also the universal insolvency which it would
draw after it; and, supposing American morality be neither
greater nor less than that of other nations, it appears to me that
the faith which the financiers and best injformed merchants of
the Eastern cities entertain in the ultimate security of almost all
of the state stocks, is well founded. These views will be better
appreciated after perusing the following additional extract from
the Auditor-General's Report.
"The returns from fifty-one other banks, loan companies,
and savings institutions in Pennsylvania, show the following
result: Amount of $5 notes in circulation, 1st January, 1840, $1,175,535
Amount of $10 in circulation, 1st January, 1840, 1,660,161
Amount of $20 in circulation, 1st January, 1840, 776,740
Number of Stockholders, - 12,548
Number holding 5 shares and under, - - - 3,422
- " ¦ - - 2,905
- 2,8312,647 1,408 933
- ' - - 52
39,860
, 10,956 5,541
- 10,185 1,685

As a single specimen of the extent to which state stocks are
held by the banks in the United States, I present the following
extract from the Utica Observer, (state of New York,) of 3d

Do.

10

do.

Do.

20

do.

Do.

50

do.

Do.

100

do.

Do.

500

do.

Over

500 shares.

Number of shares held by

Females,

Do.

do.

Executors,

Do.

do.

Guardians,

Do.

do.

Trustees,

OfEcers of Benevolent Institutions,

Title of Nobility,

1

-

308 DEBTS OF THE AMERICAN STATES.
March, 1840, written, as I was informed, by a gentieman pos
sessing accurate information and sound views on the subject of
banking. " The Scarcity of Money. — The comptroller's late report to
the legislature, shows that up to December the 1st, the free
banks of this state. New York, had invested but a trifle short of
five miflions of dollars in state stocks; the whole of this, with the
exception of less than half a miUion, was in the stocks of lUi-
nois, Arkansas, Alabanja, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, and
other western states. The investment is in effect a loan to those
states — and it accounts very plainly for the unexampled scarcity
of money at home.
Oneida county has thus loaned to states, $190,000
Erie, - 1,030,000
Monroe, - • 221,000
Niagara, - - 175,000
Onondaga, - 180,000
St. Lawrence, - - - - - 130,000
Genesee, - - • - 136,000
Wayne, - - 110,000
Herkimer and Montgomery, - - 130,000
Seneca, - - - - 97,000
Orleans, - - - - 81,500
Tompkins, ----- 65,000
Jefferson, - - - - 76,000
Broome, - - 75,000
Livingston, - - - 75,000
Steuben, - - - 75,000
Tompkins, - - 65,000
" Any person can see that the more we have of such banks the
poorer we must become. They commence by collecting aU the
money that exists in their neighborhood, and loaning it to dis
tant states, whence it is practically never to return. From the
county of Erie, more than a miUion of dollars have been thus
sent; and no county in the state is so prostrated as Erie, in all
its business operations. If all the investments hadbeen made in
the stocks of our own state, the effect would be equally impover
ishing to the neighborhood; for the stock, after it is procured, is
only locked up in the Comptroller's office. The neighborhood
receives no benefit in return, except that the new bank has the
privilege of issuing bank notes to the amount of money that it
has sent abroad for state stock. And even this benefit is faUa-
cious, because experience proves that the bank notes thus issued,
effect no more than to drive out of circulation an equal amount
of safety fund bank notes; so that the operation ends by making
the community poorer than they were before in funds, to the
whole amount that has been invested in state stocks. Nor is

AMISTAD TRIAL  TERMINATION. 309
this quite all the mischief. The safety fund banks are so weak
ened by the loss of circulation, and the more rapid return than
formerly, of what they issue, that they are compelled to reduce
their loans to a much greater amount than the loans of the new
banks can compensate for."
It requires little reflection to perceive that if the states, whose
bonds have thus become the subjects of such large investments
by the New York country banks, -were to declare themselves
bankrupt, flie loss and misery would be unspeakably ^reat; and
I therefore consider that the different states are bound together,
in some degree, by their debts; that a strong guaranty for good
faith to the foreign creditor is implied in the interest which the
American people themselves feel in preserving their public credit;
and that this interest reaches the yast majority even of the Demo
cratic voters. I therefore look forward to the states preserving
tiieir faith with their creditors, whether foreign or domestic.
Latvs relative to Banking in the State of New York.—l
have procured, by the kindness of a legal friend, a brief summary
of the laws relative to banking in the State of New York, which
I present in the Appendix No. XIV. Athough these banks
were bound by law to redeem their circulating notes either in
specie or by a draft on New York, yet, during the su.spension
of specie payments in Pennsylvania and the south and west in
1840, their paper fell to a discount of from 2 to 5 per cent.; and
in May 1840 the comptroller of the state was almost daily bring
ing large amounts of stocks and other property deposited with
him by " the Free Banks" to sale by public auction, to redeem
their circulation; and in some instances the proceeds of the sales
were not sufficient for this purpose.
The Manhattan Bank.— In December 1840, Mr. Robert
White was tried in New York for the assault on Mr. Jonathan
Thompson, already mentioned, and he was sentenced to pay a
fine of $250, and to be imprisoned for fifteen days.
Negroes of the Amistad Schooner. — The trial which was to
decide the fate of these negroes (see vol. ii. 138), took place in
January 1840, and an appeal was entered to the Supreme Court
of the United States. I have delayed noticing the decision, in
the expectation of the appeal case being disposed of; but as I
now learn that it will not be heard untfl long after my departure
from the United States, I present the foUowing summary of the
District Judges.
" Amistad Trial — Termination. — Having just returned from
New Haven, where, on behalf of the committee acting for the
captured Africans, I have been attending the district court, I
hand you an Extra of the New Haven Palladium containing the
opinion of the Judge, of which the following is an abstract. The

310 ON THE SPIRIT OF
opinion is not very accurately printed, owing to its being done
in haste, and in the night. On Wednesday, the Judge read an
elaborate opinion, in which he decided: — '
"1. That the district court of Connecticut has jurisdiction,
the schooner having been t^ken possession of in a legal sense on
the ' high seas.'
" 2. That the libel of Thomas R. Gedney and others is pro
perly filed in the district court of Connecticut.
" 3. That the seizers are entitied to salvage, and an appraise
ment will be ordered, and one-third of that amount and cost wiU
be decreed just and reasonable.
" 4. That Green and Fordh'am of Sag-HarborJ who claim to
have taken original possession of vessel and cargo, can not sus
tain their claim, and therefore their libels be dismissed.
" 5. That Raez and Montez, through the Spanish Minister,
have established no title to the Africans, as they are undoubtedly
Bozal negroes, or negroes recently imported from Africa, in vio
lation of the laws of Spain.
" 6. That the demand for restitution, to have the question tried
in Cuba, made by the Spanish Minister, cannot be complied with,
as, by their own laws, it is certain they cannot enslave these
Africans, and therefore cannot properly demand them for trial.
" 7. That Antoine, being a Creole, and legally a slave, and
expressing a strong wish to be returned to Havana, a resolution
will be decreed under the treaty of 1795.
" 8. That these Africans be delivered to the President of the
United States, under the 2d sect, of the act of March 3, 1839,
and the 1st sect, of the law of 1818, still in force, to be trans
ported to Africa, there to be delivered to the agents appointed to
receive and conduct them home.
"The Court stands adjourned to meet at Hartford on the 23d
instant, and meantime the decree wUl not be entered, to give an
opportunity to the parties to appeal, if they see fit.
" RespectfuUy yours, " Lewis Tappan.
[The opinion of Judge Judson in the Evening PaUadium, fills
nearly eight closely printed columns, the substance of which
seems to be embodied in the abstract given above.] («)
On the Spirit of British Legislation. — In the preceding
pages of this work, Ihave spoken freely of the defects of Ameri
can legislation, but it is instructive to compare it with that of our
country. Before the passing of the Reform Act in 1832, the
majority of the House of Commons was elected by the influence
of the landed aristocracy; and as they also constituted the House
(a) The Supreme Court of the United States has declared that the negroes
of the amisted shall be liberated.

BRITISH LEGISLATION. 311
of Peers, the legislature of the kingdom represented substantially
only one class of the community. The middle ranks were able
to return a few members to the House of Commons, who gave
utterance to their sentiments and wishes, but who were power
less in protecting the rights of that portion of the nation against
the power of the higher, while the lower orders were not repre
sented at all. The few members elected by the freemen of some
of the burghs cannot be named as representatives of the laboring
population. In those days the Government of Great Britain was
that of an aristocracy; and the following, among many others,
are specimens of the spirit of their legislation.
In the reign of WiUiam III, the land-tax was fixed at 4s. in
the pound upon the valuation of all real estate, and then yielded
1,997,000Z. annually. It amounted to about two-fifths of the
whole public burdens; and it was equal to nominally one-fifth,
but allowing for a low valuation, probably to one-sixth of the
real land rents of the kingdom.
This tax has never been raised since the reign of William III;
while the taxes which bear on the lower and middle classes have
been enormously increased.
At the Union, the land-tax of Scotland was fixed at 48,000?.,
which amounted probably to one-third of the whole revenue of
the country, and was probably equal to one-fifth of the real rents
of the land-holders. It has never been augmented: — it does not
now exceed one-hundredth part of the real rents of the land; and
it forms only about one-hundredth part of the taxes paid by the
country. Sir John Sinclair* estimates it at twopence per pound,
which is less than one per cent, on the rents.
The British Parliament imposed heavy inventory duties on
the personal property of persons deceasing, when passing to
their executors, but exempted real estate from this burden^
They imposed heavy legacy duties on personal property, but
exempted real estate from them also.
They imposed a duty of 3s. per cent, on the value of all
property insured by the subjects of Great Britain, but exempt
ed agricultural stock, produce, and implements, from the tax.
They imposed taxes on dogs and horses, from which agricul
turists, with few exceptions, have been exempted.
They imposed a heavy window tax, from which agricultural
tenants who pay under 200Z. a-year of rent are exempted.
They exempted real estate from attachment for personal debts,
and this law has been only lately repealed.
They authorised entails, by means of which real estate is
preserved to a series of heirs, unattachable by the claims of
creditors. * General Report, i, p. 109.

312 ON THE SPIRIT OF
They authorised the impressment of seamen, and compelled
them to serve in the navy for less wages than they could have
obtained in the merchant's service; the effect of which was to
deprive this class of persons of their liberty, and of the legiti
mate value of their labor, in order to protect the property, and
save the pockets, of the rich.
They nominaUy compeUed all ranks, when ballotted for, to
serve in the mflitia, but made the fine for non-enrolment 20/.
or each person. This was tantamount to the enactment of per
sonal service by the poor, and exemption for the rich; because
the fine was equal to half a year's income of a' laboring man,
while it did not exceed a week's income to the middle ranks,
and not a day's income to the higher.
They prohibited the laboring classes from combining to raise
the price of their labor, but left the higher classes at hberty to
combine to depress it; and this law has only lately been repealed.
They prohibited the exportation of machinery, thus shutting
out the product of the laborer's industry and skill from foreign
markets: and only lately has this law been repealed.
They have imposed heavy duties on the importation of corn
and other necessaries of life, the effect of which is to raise the
rents of land at the expense of the consumers, who are the
great body of the people. The tax on corn varies with the
price of grain in the home market.
Under the present existing Corn Laws of Great Britain (Act
9th Geo. IV, cap. 60) the duty on Foreign wheat is as fol
lows, viz:
When the average price of wheat is at and above
73s. Od. per qr., duty is Is. Od. per qr. On Flour

72 0

2 8

71 0

6 8

70 0'

10 8

69 0

13 8

68 0

-¦ 16 8

67 0

18 8

66 0

20 8

65 0

- 21 8

64 0

22 8

63 0

23 8

62 0

24 8

61 0

25 8

60 0

26 8

59 0 -

27 8

58 0

28 8

57 0

29 8

56 0

30 8

55 0

31 8

54 0

32 8

53 0

33 8

52 0

34 8

0

7

7.32 per bl.

1

7

1.4

4

0

1.8

6

5

8

2

21.32

10

0

5.16

11

2

3.4

12

5

3.16

13

0

13..32

13

7

5.8

14

2

27.32

14 10

1.6

15

5

9.32

16

0

1.2

16

7

23.32

17

2

15.16

17

10

5.32

18

5

3.8

19

0

19.32

19

7

26.32

20

3

1.32

20

10

1.4

i 51 0

- 35

I 50 0

36

. 49 0

37

' 48 0

38

' 47 0

39

. 46 0

40

. 45 0

41

. 44 0

42

. 43 0

43

BRITISH LEGISL.4.TI0N. 313
21 5 15.32
22 0 22.32
22 7 29.32
23 3 1.8
23 10 11.32
24 5 9.16
25 0 25.32
25 8
26 7 7.32
On barley and Indian corn, if the average price is 33s. and
under 34s., the duty is 12s. 4d. per imperial quarter, and for
every Is. per quarter of advances in price the duty is increased
Is. Gd., untU it reaches 41s. per quarter, at whiph price and up
wards, no more than Is. per quarter is levied, and the duty in
creases in like manner Is. 6d. per quarter as the price declines
Is. or part of Is. under 33s. per quarter. On oats, if the ave
rage price is 25s. and under 26s., the duty is 9s. Sd. per quarter,
decreasing Is. 6d. per quarter as the average price advances Is.
untfl it reaches 31s., when at that price or more the duty is only
Is. per quarter, and in like manner it is increased Is. 6d. per
quarter for every Is. or part of Is. per quarter the average re
cedes below 25s. to 24s. per imperial quarter.
The import duties on the following articles, are, I believe,
stationary. They show a tendency of the landowners to avail
themselves of political power to promote their own interests, by
excluding foreign competition: — £. s. d.
Bacon, per cwt. - - , 18 0
Beer, per 32 gallons, - - - 2 13 0
Butter, per cwt. - - - - - 10 0
Cider, per ton, - 21 10 4
Cheese, per cwt. ¦ - - 0 10 6
Cucumbers, ad valorem, - - 20 0 0
Hops, per cwt. - - - - 8 11 0
Hay, per load, - -_ - 1 4 0
Hemp, dressed, per cwt. - - - 4 15 0
Oil, Rape, and Linseed, per ton, - - 39 18 0
Perry, per ton, - - 22 13 8
Potatoes, per cwt - - 0 2 0
Seeds, Clover, &e. 10 0
Spirits, foreign, per gallon, (I. M.) - - 1 2 6
Timber, per load, - - - 2 15 0
Beef, lambs, mutton, pork, sheep, and swine, are prohibited
to be imported.
A high duty is laid on rice, arrow-root, and sago, in order to
encourage the use of British corn and potatoes.
A duty a(£l. 2s. 6d. per gallon is levied on brandy, and 9s. 6d.
per gaUon on rum, in order to encourage, or rather force, the use

314 ON THE SPIRIT OF
of British spirits, which must be made from British grain, and
pay high duties of excise.
WhUe they have thus protected land from a due share of taxa
tion, and have enhanced its value by prohibitory duties, at the
expense of the people; they have not scrupled to throw a vast
amount of taxation on the non-represented masses.
Under the Reform Act the non-electors (including all the males
of 21 years of age and upwards) are to the electors in England
as 5 to 1; in Scotiand as 7 to 1; and in Ireland probably as 14 to
1. The average of the whole United Kingdom is that the non-
electors are to the electors as 8| to 1. The average of Great
Britain, exclusive of Ireland, is 6 to 1.-*
In 1831 the population of Great Britain, exclusive of Ireland,
was 16,500,000. Of this number, about eleven miUions were
workmen, agricultural ior manufacturing, including their famflies;
and all the other classes, including their families, amounted to the
remainder, ot five and a half millions. In this estimate the
word "workmen" is used as including those only who hire their
labor to masters for wages, and their families, and not those who
labor directly on their own account, or their families.
The first requisite of life is food, the second clothing, the third
comforts, and then come luxuries. Taxation is founded in
justice, in proportion as it absorbs equal portions of the incomes
of all classes. If all the taxes, direct and indirect, paid by a
family which spends lOOOZ. a year, amount to 2001,, and all
those paid by a family which expends 50Z. a year amount to
10?., the ratio of taxation is just. But the British taxation is
imposed to so great an extent on the necessaries of life, that a
very large portion of the laborer's income is absorbed by it, in
comparison with that of the rich man. Nine-tenths of a laborer's
income must be expended on food and clothing, while probably
not the tenth part of a rich man's income is devoted to these
objects. The unrepresented eleven mUlions of laborers, there
fore, not only pay a very large portion of the following duties
because they are most numerous and the great consumers, but
the duties bear a larger proportion to their incomes than the
taxes which affect the rich bear to theirs.
1. Sugar, a necessary of life, pays 24s. a cwt., equal to the
prime cost of the article if it be the produce of British colonies,
whUe 63s. is charged on all foreign sugars whatever. On 25th
May 1829, Mr. Huskisson, in his place in the House of Com
mons, said, "that, owing to the present enormous duty on sugar,
he did not go too far when he stated that two-thirds of the poor-
* I am indebted to my esteemed friend, Dr. Thomas Murray, Lecturer on
Political Economy, for the above and other calculations in this section.

BRITISH LEGISLATION. 315
er consumers of coffee drank that beverage without sugar."
The rich scarcely feel the pressure of the duty.
2. Tea. The duty on tea, also a necessary of life, is 2s. \d.
per lb., equal to 200 per cent, on Bohea, and it affects the poor
much more heavily than the rich.
3. Coffee. The duty is 6d. per lb. when imported from our
own colonies; but Is. 3d, when from any foreign country. The
same remark applies to it.
4. Soap. "This is an indispensable necessary of life to all
classes, and the want of it is the direct cause of disease: yet the
manufacture of it is impeded by excise restrictions; the materials
of which it is made, tallow, barilla, and turpentine, are loaded
with duties, and a direct tax is charged upon it, making in all a
charge upon it equal to sixty or seventy per cent, ad valorem.
The importation of it is prevented by a custom-house duty of 41.
10s. per cwt. on hard soap, and 3/. lis. 3d, on soft.
The following articles may be regarded as the luxuries of the
poor, which they chiefly consume, and on which they pay the
legal duties in a proportion far exceeding the ratio of their num
bers to those of the rich, because the rich use them to a very
Umited extent.
5. Tobacco and Snuff. The duty on these amounts, in or
dinary years, to 3,400,000/.
6. Home-made Spirits. The duty on these, including Ire
land, is upwards of 5,000,000/. per annum.
7. Malt Liquors. These may almost be regarded as neces
saries of life in the humbler ranks. The duty on them has
amounted in some years to upwards of 5,000,000/. per annum. («)
The general result is, that the taxes levied on spirits, malts,
hops, corn, soap, sugars, and molasses, — tea, coffee, tobacco,
and snuff, amount annually to about 26,000,000/. odds, and are
paid chiefly by the laboring and middle classes. The land-tax,
window-duties, and taxes on servants, horses, dogs, carriages,
and other minor duties, which are borne exclusively by the upper
and middle classes, do not exceed 4,000,000/. yearly.
Here, then, while the humbler classes in Britain are excluded
from all influence over the legislature, we perceive that the
classes above them, who have monopolised the privilege of con-
dncting the government and law-making, have so managed the
(o) Luxuries, the direct enjoymentof which serves more or less to impair
the health and strength of the people, cannot be taxed too heavily. Of this
nature are the articles enumerated in the three preceding paragraphs in the
text. If tobacco, spirits, and malt liquors could be taxed out of use, and,
in their stead, abundant fruits and the allowably sensual enjoyments of public
gardens and squares, and of music were made common or easily accessible to
all, a nation would gain in the improved health, morals and happiness of its
people.

316 ON THE SPIRIT OF
public affairs that they have created the necessity for levying
taxes to the amount of fifty mUlions of pounds annually to pre
serve the national faith and honor— that they have exempted
themselves to an extraordinary extent froin these burdens — that
they have imposed them unsparingly on the unrepresented
classes; and, finally, that they have prohibited the unrepresented
from purchasing agricultural produce in foreign markets, where
it can be obtained at low prices, in order to increase the revenues
of their own estates.
Farther, the criminal law of Great Britain and Ireland, which
has been enacted by the rich, and applied chiefly against the
poor, was long atrociously unjust and severe, and still retains
too much of the same character. If the reader will peruse the
Prison Reports which are now made to the Secretary of State
for the Home Department, he will see that neglected children of
twelve, fourteen, and fifteen years of age are condemned to trans
portation or imprisonment for periods of seven and ten years for
petty thefts. In the " Reports relating to Parkhurst Prison (Isle
of Wight) for 1840," one of the most judiciously conducted
prisons in the kingdom, I find: Prisoner, No. 7. "Age-^15."
" Offence — stealing a sovereign." " Sentence — sevenyears."
"In custody — once." "Convicted or imprisoned — once."
" Father — living." " Mother — dead." " Character which ac
companied the prisoner — good; connections respectable," "Re
marks — temptation through master's carelessness, and tempta
tion of fellow-servant." p. 11. This is only one of many cases of
a similar nature. The treatment of prisoners has been of the most
debasing description (see vol. ii, p, 187), and the people have
been too often ruled as with a rod of iron. Since the Reform
Bill was passed there has been an amendment in the condition
of prisons and the treatment of prisoners and also in the criminal
law; but much remains to be accomplished before this branch of
our civil administration shall become worthy of a civilised and
Christian people.
The Legislature has refused adequate grants for the education
of the people. Considering that the national debt was incurred
exclusively under the administration of the aristocracy, and that
its existence is the cause of much of our heavy taxation, it
would be an equitable arrangement to apply the 8,400,000/.
raised annually from tobacco, snuff, and home-made spirits (the
luxuries, and, in my opinion, the injurious luxuries of the labor
ing classes), to the education of the people, and to raise a corres
ponding sum by imposing inventory duties, legacy duties, and
direct taxes on real estate.
As the law now stands, the unrepresented masses are able to
influence the classes who make the laws only in two ways,

BRITISH LEGISLATION. 317
either by outrages against social order and property, which are
speedfly repressed and punished, or by becoming burdens on
thera as paupers. I am far from believing that legislation can
remove aU the evUs with which the lower classes in Great Bri
tain and Iceland are afflicted, and much farther from recommend
ing universal suffrage as the remedy even for those which legis
lation may reach. I have elsewhere* said that " no rational
person will maintain that one ignorant man is a proper ruler for
a great nation, but additions to numbers do not alter-the species.
Twenty, or a hundred, or a thousand ignorant men, are not
wiser than one of them; while they are much more dangerous.
They inflame each other's passions, keep each other's follies in
countenance, and add to each other's strength." 
I acknowledge also that the great cause of the prosperity of
the people in the United States appears to me to be their con
tiguity to extensive regions of fertile and unsettled land, which
drain off the restless and enterprising spirits from all the older
states, absorb the population as fast as it increases, pour in plenty
to every market, and still preserve the wages of labor high. I
met with few British subjects, who, however much they might
have advocated universal suffrage at home, continued to admire
it after experiencing its effects in the United States. But whfle
I make these admissions, I regard it as undeniable, that just and
wise legislation is capable of accomplishing much to benefit' —
and partial and unwise legislation much to injure, a people; and
it appears to me that British legislation is probably both unjust
and injurious to the unrepresented masses. The Established
churches in the three kingdoms have not yet succeeded in indu
cing the higher classes, whose laws created and support them, to
practise the first and fundamental precept of Christianity towards
the people, " Love your neighbor as yourself;" and if centuries
of teaching of the Gospel, by the most pious and learned of
mankind, have been so unsuccessful in this respect, it is not un
reasonable at length to try the effect of additional means.
The despotisms of Austria and Prussia are in many respectt
less injurious to the people than the government of Britain. s
The rulers of these countries do not oppress the people with
taxes, and leave the rich free; nor do they deliver over the poor
to become the uncontroUed subjects of the legislation of the rich.
PhysicaUy, therefore, they do not injure the masses so deeply.
* Moral Philosophy, Chap. 7.
t The influence of these governments on the minds of their subjects is
treated of in the next chapter. With respect to taxes, I may notice, that _
in France, Germany, Austria, and other continental states, the chief bur
den of them is borne by land. The Contribution Fonciere in France is a
permanent property-tax of about 10 per cent, on land and houses.
VOL. II. — 22

318 ON THE SPIRIT OF
Again, these rulers prevent political and social action in all
classes of their subjects; and the minds of the people become
so far dormant as to be in some degree in harmony with their
external condition. In Britain, the most ample scope for politi
cal and social action is permitted to the higher and middle
classes, but to the people none. Their minds, however, are
agitated and roused by the vivacity of m'ental action which exists
around them, and they feel their own exclusion from the exercise
of political power far more keenly than the Austrian people,
who, in this respect, see themselves on a level with the noble
and the rich. It is a delusion to suppose, that, because the
higher ranks are open to receive individuals from the lower,
there is no abridgement of their field of political action. Only
men of superior talents can emerge from the lower, and take a
place in the upper ranks; and, as the masses do not boast of
more than average abilities, this liberty of rising can benefit only
a few individuals. Besides, while the present state of social
arrangement continues, the men of superior minds of their own
class are tempted, when they acquire wealth, to leave them, and
to assume the prejudices and dislikes of the- higher orders, the
more effectually to recommend themselves to their new associ
ates. I have endeavored, in this work, to expound the principle,
that mental action is the first requisite to moral and intellectual
improvement. If we expect to confer, on the British people,
intelligence — we must educate them; if self-restraint — we must
intrust them with political power, and train them to use it. It
appears to m'e, therefore, that retaining the two Houses of Par
liament as at present constituted, a limited representation might,
^^'ith safety and advantage, be granted to the people. The ob
jections to remodeUing the House of Commons, and introducing
universal suffrage for all the members, are formidable. The
majority of the people in Great Britain and Ireland are unedu
cated, possessed of litfle property, and untrained to political
action. A legislative assembly which should represent and give
effect to their feelings and ideas, would probably lead directly
to anarchy. Both in physical circumstances and mental enUght-
enment, they are inferior to the majority in America; yet even
in America the people are not prepared to do justice to their
institutions. Universal suffrage in that country is attended with
many evils; and I therefore should deprecate its adoption in
Brtain, at present, as dangerous to the best interests of society.
To household suffrage, or any other limited representation,
there would be this objection, that it would stUl leave a large
non-represented class, which would become more discontented
and impatient, the nearer it was brought to the line which sepa-

BRITISH LEGISLATION. 319
rated it from the represented. To leave the people unrepresented,
and to attempt to perpetuate the selfish reign of the upper classes,
is neither desirable nor praticable. The working classes are God's
creatures, and are as well entitled to justice as the higher ranks.
By the peculiar institutions of this country, the middle classes
have been trained to admire and act with the higher; but when
their eyes are thoronghly opened to the injustice which has
been inflicted on the lower, this idol-worship will cease. Be
sides, the increasing intelligence of the laboring classes will
render their calls for justice irresistible.
If we assume, then, the population of Great Britain and Ire
land to amount to twenty-four millions, and that the non-electors
are to the electors as eight to one; this will give twenty-one mil-
Uons of unrepresented persons in the whole of the United King
dom; or, to obtain round numbers, we may assume them to
amount to twenty millions. Suppose the kingdom were divided
into 100 districts, each containing a population of 200,000 un
represented persons. If universal suffrage, limited only by
requiring in an elector six months' residence within his ward or
county previous to an election— freedom from conviction for felony
— and twenty-one years of age, were established, and the power
of electing one member of the House of Commons were given to
each district, the following results might be expected probably
to ensue: — The mental faculties of the laboring classes would be
provided with a legitimate field of political action, which I con
sider useful in prompting them to improve their moral and intel
lectual condition. "There would be no non-represented class to
foment secret discontent and resistance to the laws: There
would be no danger of anarchy, because the members who repre
sent the property of the country would still constitute a large
majority in Parliament. The laboring classes would have legi
timate organs in the legislature capable not only of making their
grievances known, but of obtaining, to some extent, the redress
of them: In all measures regarding which the representatives of
property were nearly equally divided, these hundred members
could cast the scale on the side which was most favorable to the
people. The higher classes, seeing the people possessed of po
litical power, would be prompted by their own interest, as in the
United States, to respect them more, to do them justice, and to
assist in elevating their moral and physical condition, and thus
by slow degrees our vicious system might be purified, and the
British Constitution be adapted to the wants of increasing civil
isation. The House of Commons is already too numerous; and
probably 100 members might well be spared from its present
number, whose places might well be supplied by the representa
tives of the people. Property would still Jiave five and a hall

320 RETURN TO ENGLAND.
votes to one, even supposing these representatives to be disposed'
to assaU it, which is far from being a probable occurrence.
Whatever may be thought of these suggestions, my humble
opinion is, that the present condition of affairs in Britain is so
palpably unjust and injurious to the masses, that its permanence
is impossible, consistentiy with man's rational nature, and the
obligations of Christianity. Those persons, therefore, who re
gard the Reform Act as a final measure seem blind to the nature
of man, and unaware of the age of the world in which they live.
It was obviously only the beginning of improvement: If it be
not, then, in the words of Jefferson, "I tremble for my country
when I reflect that God is just; — his justice cannot sleep for
ever." Return to England.' — On the 1st June 1840, we saUed from
New York in the British Queen. In leaving the American
shores we were agitated by profound emotion, awakened not
only by parting from many dear and highly valued- friends, but
by an overwhelming impression of the grandeur of the moral
experiment which is now in progress in the United States.
Glorious and cheering hopes for its success mingled with fears
lest it may have been begun too soon. As we receded from the
scene, however, we reflected that Providence has granted to this
people for their moral training and intellectual improvement, the
period between the present day, and that on which their vacant
lands shall be fully settled, and that existing circumstances indi
cate that they will employ this interval with a deep sense of its
importance, and in the end prove true to themselves and to the
cause of universal freedom. As we bounded over the sea to the
home of our fathers, Hope joined with the understanding in lend
ing bright colors to the future destiny of the land which we had
left. We had a prosperous and agreeable voyage; and so admira
ble were the accommodations of the British Queen, and so full
of urbanity and attention her commander Captain Roberts and
her other officers, that we left the deck of a ship for the first
time in our lives with regret. We arrived at Portsmouth on the
16th, and in London on the 17th of June. It is only justice to
England to say that, in passing my multifarious effects through
the Custom House of London, I experienced the same facUities
and attentions which I have mentioned as afforded to us in Bos
ton. The subject of the next chapter is an address to the people
of the United States, which I have been led to believe may be
useful, and with which I close this work.

321

CHAPTER XI.
The Application of Phrenology to the Present and Prospective Condition of
tlie United States.* 1840.
To THE Citizens of the United States:
I have visited various European countries, Prussia, Austria,
Bavaria, Holland, France, and Switzerland, besides the British
Isles, for the purpose of observing the condition of the people
living under different forms of civil and ecclesiastical government,
and one of the motives which led me to repair to your shores
was to obtain the means of judging of the influence of democracy
on the physical prosperity and mental condition of your nation.
I am deeply sensible of the sources of error to which a stranger
is exposed in observing and speculating on the institutions of a
foreign country; but you wfll be able to detect and correct the
errors regarding your own country into which I may inadvertent
ly faU, and I may be permitted to hope that amidst these will be
found some admixture of truth.
The people of the United States are justly proud of their po
htical independence, won at the expense of many sacrifices; and
also of the institutions which the distinguished founders of their
government framed and bequeathed to them for their guidance;
but if I were to ask different Americans in what the superiority
of these institutions consists, I should receive a multifarious va
riety of answers. Does Phrenology enable us to attain to any
precise views on the subject?
In my previous lectures, I have endeavored to explain to you
that happiness consists in the activity of our faculties, and that
the greater the number of them called into action,, the higher
rises our enjoyment. Any object that should delight the eye
would be agreeable; but an assemblage of objects that should
* This Chapter contains a great part of my last Lecture on Phrenology,
delivered before thirteen different audiences, and which 1 was frequently
solicited to publish. There are a few omissions and some additions; but
the substance and arrangement are essentially preserved. My American
readers will find a full, able, and accurate report of the entire course of lec
tures, prepared and published, by iny respected friend Dr. Andrew Board-
man of New York.

S22 ADDRESS
simultaneously gratify the eye, the ear, the palate, and the senses
of touch and smell, would be universally regarded as yielding a
StUl larger measure of gratification; and so with the internal
faculties of the mind. There are three conditions, however,
under which this activity must exist to render it productive of
the greatest amount of happiness. First, It must never exceed
the limits of health; Secondly, The subordination of the inferior
to the superior faculties established by nature must be preserved;
and. Thirdly, The action of the different faculties must be har
monious. The highest enjoyment, therefore, is produced by
the virtuous activity of all the faculties. The question then,
presents itself — What effects do different forms of government
exercise on the activity of the mental faculties?*
We may consider. First, the influence of a despotic form of
government; and I select Austria as, an example of a civiUsed
despotism. In Austria, the emperor is at once the fountain of
the laws and the executive power which carries them into effect.
His wiU rules the empire, and is subject to no constitutional
control on the part of the people. The religion of the state is
Roman Catholic; and the pope and priests rule as despoticaUy in
ecclesiastical as the emperor does in temporal affairs. Never
theless, the Austrian is a civUised despotism, and rests essen
tially on opinion. The emperor is not a tyrant ruling by means
of dungeons and bayonets: He is more like the father of his
people: he may be seen walking among them without mUitary
guards, or other means of protection, safe in their reverence and
affections. I have seen the present emperor going to church in
the town of Ischl, attended by a servant carrying his prayer
book, and two or three gentlemen of his household, so unosten
tatiously that when he passed as near to me as I am now to
you, I could not have discovered his rank, if I had not been told
that he was the sovereign of Austria. Austria, moreover, is
governed by laws, and the emperor acknowledges that, in regard
to rights of property, these bind him as weU as his subjects. In
the viUage of Baden, about twenty miles from Vienna, where
there are celebrated baths, the emperor is proprietor of a house
in an ordinary street, in which he resides when he visits the
springs. The house is in no respect distinguishable in its ex
terior from those on each side of it. I was told that the late
Emperor Francis found it too smaU, and wished to purchase the
contiguous tenement; but that the owner asked an enormous
price. The emperor would not submit to what he considered

The reader who is not familial with the phrenological faculties is re
spectfully requested to read the list of them presented at the end of the In
troduction, 11. vol. 1, with their uses and abuses, which will render this
Chapter more clear and interesting.

TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 323
an imposition, and the proprietor, to force him to his terms, let
it for a sort of club-house or tavern. The emperor made no
complaint, but insisted that the laws of decorum and propriety
should be observed by the inmates; and when I saw it in 1837,
I was assured that it still continued the property of the indivi
dual. In the same year I saw the present emperor and his
household, living in a common street in Ischl. He had pur
chased or hired four ordinary dwelling-houses standing together,
and, by internal communications, converted them into one; but
in no respect did they differ, in their external aspect, from those
of the other inhabitants of the same quarter of the town. I men
tion these unimportant details to convey to you an idea of the
spirit of the Austrian Government as it exists in the emperor's
hereditary states, because many individuals in America, from
reading descriptions of its rule in its conquered Italian provinces,
imagine it to be everywhere a despotism of fire and sword.
In what respect, then, does this government favor or permit
the activity of the mental faculties of its subjects? Viewing the
group which constitutes the domestic affections, I answer that it
allows them ample scope: Life and property are secure, the soil
is reasonably fertile, and industry abounds: The Austrian sub
jects, therefore, may enjoy the happiness of conjugal life and
domestic affection as perfectly as you do under your democratic
institutions. Again, looking at the propensities of Acquisitive
ness, Self-Esteem, and Love of Approbation, those mainsprings
of exertion in the United States, the Austrian is allowed scope
for them all. The farmer, the manufacturer, and the merchant,
may accumulate and preserve wealth in Austria as in America;
distinctions of rank are recognised, and the field of ambition is
open for men to rise from humbler to higher grades: By public
service and the favor of the emperor, nobility even may be ob
tained. What, then, is wanting? In what respect does the Austrian
Government, as a means of diffusing enjoyments and advancing
the civilisation of its subjects, fall short of yours? In this — that
extremely little scope is allowed for the action of the moral and
intellectual faculties beyond the sphere of private life. Man is a
social being, and the field of public interests is the one in which
his higher powers expand and find their appropriate objects. In
Austria this field is shut up to the people, and is appropriated
exclusively by the government. The Austrian people do not
manage their own schools and colleges, the affairs of their own
towns, and counties, or appoint their own civil and military offi
cers; nor do they choose their own religious instructors, as you
do. The government performs all these duties for them. But
Phrenology shows us that the very fundamental element of hap-

324 ADDRESS
piness is activity, and that the higher the faculties which are
vividly employed, the more intense and lasting is the pleasure.
Now, when man pursues private and domestic objects only, he
gratifies chiefly his propensities, which are selfish and inferior
in their nature to his moral faculties: It is when becomes forth
into the circle of social life, and becomes -an agent in producing
public good or evfl, that his higher powers begin freely to play.
A single incident will serve as an example: — The Emperor
lately issued an edict intimating that as his subjects had been
injured by accidents occurring on railroads, he will levy a fine
of 10,000 florins on the directors of the raUroad company for
every person who shall in future be injured; and if this shall
prove insufficient to arrest the evU, he will suppress the railroad
altogether. This edict may in itself be wise and paternal; but
the power which issued it has no legal limits. And even this,
in my opinion, is not its worst feature. In your democracy, in
such a case, you would put into action a grand jury, an
attorney-general, a judge, a common jury, and many lawyers,
and finally the legislature, before you could accomplish the
ends reached by the simple edict of the Emperor; and the
advantage of all this social machinery does not end merely
in protecting your people from oppression: It exercises, and,
by exercise, strengthens and carries forward the moral and
intellectual faculties of your citizens. The impulse given
to the intellect and moral faculties by one of your trials, does
not terminate in the court-house, any more than a lesson ends
in the school. In both instances the ideas and the activity
communicated, remain in the mind, and the individual is wiser
and better in consequence. He follows his private vocation with
more effect, rules his family better, and altogether stands forth a
more amply developed rational creature, when trained to use his
powers in the important arena of social life. This is the grand
effect produced by your institutions, which allow you to manage
every interest of the community yourselves.
If an Austrian subject, under the influence of powerful benevo
lence and enlightened intellect, desire to improve the schools,
the roads, the police of his town, the laws, or the mode of ad
ministering public offices, the government arrests him in every
effort, unless he be employed by itself. If, under the influence
of Conscientiousness, Veneration, and enlightened intellect, he
wish to purify the religion of his country, he is sflenced by
priests whom the civfl power supports in the exercise of a com
plete despotism over religious opinion. For instance, in 1839
the Church of Scofland sent the Rev. Mr. McCheyne, the Rev.
Mr. Bonar, the Rev. Dr. Keith, and the Rev. Dr. 'Black, to Je
rusalem to inquire into the condition of the Jews. They returned

TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 335
through Constantinople, Moldavia, Wallachia, and Austria,
making investigations into the state of the Jews wherever they
-n^ent. On the 20th November, 1839, the Rev. Mr. McCheyne,
in reporting the proceedings of the deputation to the commission
of the General Assembly of the Church, informed them that " in
Austria, the government will suffer no missionaries. There we
were treated with the utmost severity. All our Bibles, our
English, our Hebrew, our German Bibles were taken away; our
papers were searched to see if they could discover whether we
were missionaries, and what were our intentions. In that
country it is out of the question to carry the gospel to the poor
misguided population. A missionary might stand up for once,
but it would be for the first and the last time. There they would
not allow you to preach the gospel even to the Jews, who were
most ready to receive us; and though they knew they could
bring us into difficulty, and get us sent out of the country imme
diately, we found their synagogue a sanctuary. A Jew, to
-whom a Bible had been given, said in his own tongue, ' none
shall see it; none shall see it;' and, so far as the Jews are con
cerned, they are open for the preaching of the gospel."*
Education is the first means by which the faculties may be
roused into activity. It not only furnishes them with the ma
terials of thought, but wakens and calls forth their latent ener
gies. The Austrian Government assumes the control of educa
tion, and permits just so much of it to reach the minds of its
subjects as will fit them for their condition. The people are
instructed in the Roman Catholic as the only true religion, and
are taught to look upon themselves as bound to yield implicit
obedience to the priests and the emperor. They are allowed to
learn mathematics, Greek, and Latin; but moral and political
subjects are interdicted, because, where imperfection is detected,
these lead to efforts for improvement. If an individual see any
* These compliiinlscome with rather a bad grace from the clergy of the
Church of Scotland, because the General Assembly has long had a commit
tee of its own members specially charged with the duty of watching, and,
as far as lies in their power, preventing, the spread of Roman Catholicism
in Scotland. From the spirit of their reports, I am led to fear that, if they
wielded the same temporal power which the Roman Catholic Church does
in Austria, they would serve a deputation of bishops sent from Rome by
the Pope to convert the Scottish people and Jews to their faith, much in the
same manner as the Austrians did them; and, like the Austrians, they
would not doubt that, in dealing with them in this manner, they were con
tributing to the glory of God and the salvation of souls. I can make no
distinction between sects, when they organise themselves with the special
object of watching and obstructing the progress of each other. Perfect
freedom of discussion, and the absence of all pains, penalties, disabilities,
and dislikes, are, in my humble opinion, indispensable to the eliciting and
diffusing of religious truth.

326 ADDRESS
thing wrong in the social machinery, he is not encouraged to
complain of it even to the government. Any servant, except
the highest and most confidential of the Austrian emperor, who
should say that things are better elsewhere, and suggest improve
ments at home, would be told that he might leave Austria and
go into his own Utopia. The government will not permit its
subjects even to reside in other countries, to obtain a higher edu
cation than their own schools afford. If an individual were to
ask a passport to carry his son to France, Switzerland, or Eng
land, to complete his education, it would be refused, and he
would be asked, " Why should you send your son abroad to
spend your money and imbibe false' notions? Our schools and
colleges are sufficient to teach all that a good subject needs to
know." The general effect of this form of government, then, is, that
it is fitted to render happy all the humbler class of minds, those
individuals who have neither desire nor talents to extend their
efforts beyond the private sphere; but that it chains up, and
thereby obstructs the enjoyment of the men of powerful inteflect
and high moral endowments, whose sphere of action is public
life. The nobler the mind, the more heavily does the leaden
load of despotism weigh upon its powers. Farther, it imposes
fetters on the general mind of the nation, and retards progres
sion. The government must move before the people are
allowed to stir; and where all rational motives for progression
are withdrawn from it, its advance must be slow, or if its pace
be accidentally quickened by the genius of an individual sove
reign, the eflects of his liberality and energy are lost, because
the people are not prepared to follow in the path which he opens
to them.
The government of Prussia was in much the same state as
that of Austria, until it was overthrown by Napoleon in the
war of 1807. After its restoration, however, it saw its error.
Under the old regime, its subjects had been kept in such pro
found ignorance, and so thoroughly oppressed, that they pos
sessed neither mental energy nor national feeUng, and so feU an
easy prey to the invading French. It became the interest of
the government to rouse its people from this lethargy, and to
excite sentiments of patriotism. This was accomplished by
making the serfs free, and instituting a system of universal and
comparatively high education. The effects of the change were
marvellous: In one generation Prussia stood forth a regenerated
nation — fuU of energy, activity, intelligence, and profound
national feeling. But the form of the government was Utfle
changed. It continues to be a despotism, but a more Uberal and
a much more enlightened despotism than that of Austria. The

TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 327
e;ducation which it provides for its people is superior to that of
any other country in Europe, and I believe superior to any
which even you can boast of. The government is well admin
istered. It regulates every thing, but it does it well. Its police
and custom-house officers are civil gentlemanly men; its post-
office department is regular and safe, but it opens letters without
scruple when it wants political information; it keeps the stage
coaches, post-horses, and roads of the state in excellent condi
tion, but it monopolises them all. If, however, a single pas
senger more than the stage will carry presents himself at the
hour appointed for its starting, another vehicle is instantly pro
vided for him. The laws are just, and impartially administer
ed. Life and property are as safe as in any country in the
world; industry is fostered; and learning and philosophy are
patronised. In what, then, is the Prussian government inferior
to yours?
I have said that happiness is the result of the activity of all
the faculties. The Prussian government, while it does every
thing./or the people, and does it well, allows the people to do
exceedingly littie for themselves. It educates them, and elicits
talent, but it allows that talent little scope in the social circle,
except in its own service. It permits the towns to choose some
of their municipal officers, but their number and powers are
small. A few simple illustrations wfll enable you to judge of
the restrictions which this government imposes on the activity
of the higher faculties of the mind. When I visited Prussia in
1837, one serious evil in their educational system had begun to
develope itself. The education of females under the national
system has been so much inferior to that of the males, that a
body of young women has grown up who are strikingly behind
the men of the same generation in general intelligence and ac
complishments. The consequence of this inequaUty in mental
attainments is a diminution in that respect for women, which
has long been a beautiful feature in the Prussian character. The
cause of this evil was understood and regretted by many persons;
but it was whispered in society, that the government was more
inclined to diminish the education of the men than to increase
that of the women. " But," said I to a Prussian gentieman,
" why do not your enlightened rnen themselves institute higher
schools for females?" " You speak," said he, " like a Briton.
Here nothing can be done without the government. Should any
private individuals attempt to establish improved academies for
female education without the sanction of government, they would
speedily be stopped." The people are not allowed to meet for
the discussion of public affairs. Missionary and other reUgious
and benevolent societies exist, but their rules are first sanctioned

338 ADDRESS
by the government, and then police spies are sent to their meet
ings to see that they do not transgress them. Again, the govern
ment is so enlightened that its censors of the press will permit
the higher minds to publish works of a liberal cast, even on
government itself, provided they employ reason, and resort
neither to ridicule nor inflammatory declamation, in order to
rouse the people to action; and provided also that the books ap
pear in the form of octavo volumes of not less than 300 pages.
They do not fear the phflosophers of Berlin, and of a few other
cities, who alone will read such works; but if any man were to
move faster than the government, and to propose plans of prac
tical reform for which it was not prepared, it would immediately
arrest his progress. In short, under this monarchy, as under
the empire of Austria, self-action in regiflating social interests is
denied to the people, and the object of the government is to draw
into its own service all the energy, talent, and attainments of the
nation, and to leave the mass the passive recipients of its impres
sions. It desires intelligence in the masses, because it needs
mind and energy for its own defence against hostfle nations; but
it refuses to allow free scope to the mind and energy which it
has evoked, lest they should subvert its own authority, and in
troduce self-government. Here, therefore, as in Austria, com
monplace persons are happy; but the higher minds are cribbed
and limited in their natural and best spheres of action, except
when enlisted by the government in its ow^n service. As civih
sation must be measured chiefly by the intelligence, power of
self-action and self-control of the masses, the Prussian govern
ment, by denying the right of political action to the people,
limits their advance in mental improvement. It, however,
aUows religious freedom; for men of aU forms of faith are
equally eligible to fill public offices.
Let us now advert to the government of Great Britain and
Ireland. That country has enjoyed political liberty for centuries,
and claims to be the parent of your freedom. In Britain we en
joy the right to say and print what we please, in what form we
see proper, and also to go where, and to do what, our own in
clinations dictate, on the simple condition that, in pursuing our
own gratifications, we shall not unjustly interfere with the rights
of our neighbors. We may worship God, also, in any manner
that appears to our own consciences to be most acceptable to the
Divine Majesty. Life and property are secure, and the paths to
wealth and honor are open to aU. In Britain, then, it may be
supposed that every faculty has as ample a scope for action as
in the United States; but there are two bulwarks which arrest,
or misdirect, the activity of the intellectual powers and higher
sentiments of the people. The first of these is the heredhary

TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 339
peerage, invested with political power and special privUeges. It
maintains in possession of great legislative, moral, and political
influence, a body of men who owe their superiority, not to per
sonal attainments, but to birth alone. If man be a rational be
ing, the objects of his reverence, and the standards by which he
forms his manners and opinions, should possess the highest
natural gifts, most assiduously and successfully cultivated. A
hereditary peerage presents to the public mind of Great Britain
and Ireland, standards which do not possess these attributes of
natural and acquired superiority. It, therefore, obscures the
moral perceptions of the middle and lower ranks, by training
them to pay that profound homage to high birth which is due
alone to intelligence and virtue. By its influence it also mis
directs the ambition of the aspiring minds in all the lower grades,
and renders them more desirous to be admitted into its ranks, by
any means, them to merit distinction for superior wisdom and
morality. It is not open, as a matter of right, to all, but is to
be attained by favor, with or without merit. It maintains a class
so far removed from contact with, interest in, or dependence
upon, the mass of the people, that it is litfle moved by their suf
ferings, and Utfle disposed to elevate their moral and intellectual
condition, or to do them justice in the exercise of its legislative
powers. (See page 310—320.)
The hereditary peerage operates injuriously also on the lower
and middle classes of society, by leading their active and am
bitious members to turn away from their fellovys whom they
should protect and advance, and to adopt the interests and pre
judices of the aristocracy, into whose ranks they aspire to gain
admission. The second obstacle to the free action of the mind in Britain
is the existence of established churches. These have conse
crated opinions formed, in the dawn of modern civUisation, by
theologians who partook much more of the character of monks
and school-men than of that of philosophers or practical men of
the world, and these opinions stand immovably enacted and
ordained by Parliament as the legal guides to salvation, against
which advancing reason and science employ their demonstra
tions in vain. A vast priesthood, amply endowed to maintain
these opinions, resist improvement as innovation, and denounce
free inquiry as profanity and infidelity. The consequence is
the reign of hypocrisy, and the prostration of the religious
sentiments by many individuals at the shrines of interest and
ambition. To avoid the ckarge of misrepresenting the state of Chris
tianity in the British Isles, I present you with the foUowing de
scription of it given by the Reverend Baden PoweU, Savflian

330 ADDRESS
Professor of Geometry in the University of Oxford, in his
work on " The Connection of Natural and Divine Truth," pub
lished in 1838.
" Too many nominal Christians entertain only the most
miserable idea of the nature of the Gospel they profess to be
lieve; their only notion too often consists in a confused general
impression of a certain sacredness in Scripture, which produces
Utfle effect beyond that of making them afraid to enter its pre
cincts, and search its recesses for themselves, and yet more fear
ful lest its sanctity should be invaded by others. And their
dread of openly encountering any contradictions, and their
anxious desire to shelter themselves under even ths most fri
volous explanations, if it does not betray a lurking distrust of
the proper evidences of their faith, at least evinces the lowest
and most unworthy conceptions of the spirit and meaning of
the Bible, and an almost total absence of due distinction between
the design and application of the several portions of which it is
made up.
" With others again, the sincere, but (as we must consider it)
misguided spirit of religious fanaticism, produces simUar effects.
Blinded to all but the internal light of his spiritual impressions,
the enthusiast -wUl always entertain a deeply-rooted and devoted
hostility against any such distinctions as those here advocated.
Maintaining the literal application of every sentence, every syUa-
ble of the divine Word, he rejects, as impious, the slightest
departure from it. Human reason, along with all science, which
is its offspring, is at best carnal and unsanctified; and should any
of its conclusions be advanced in contradiction to the letter of a
scriptural text, this completely seals its condemnation as abso
lutely sinful, and equivalent to a rejection of revelation alto
gether. " In such cases we may most readily make every allowance
due to sincerity, however mistaken. But there are other in
stances, in which, unfortunately, littie claim to such indulgence
can be found. There are some who join most frequently in
the cry against science in general, and geology in particular, as
dangerous to religion, upon no sincere grounds of religious
conviction. " Their adoption of a certain form of faith is dictated by mo
tives of expediency, and the mere value of its practical effects on
society. Not themselves recognising its claims as founded in
truth, they uphold the established creed, as well as all received
errors popularly engrafted upon it, as a convenient and effectual
instrument for securing the influence of practical restraints on
the multitude. Hence they condemn all inquiries which may
come into collision with any portion of the popular belief; and

TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 331
against the agitation of any question which ma)'- shake establish
ed prejudices, or suggest any distinctions in the application of
Scripture, there is an immediate and indiscriminate cry raised,
that they unsettle men's minds, and are heretical doctrines of a
most dangerous tendency, and such as will weaken and efface
all sense of religious and moral obligation.
" But even among the best men and most sincere believers,
there exists too often a sort of dread of meeting such questions
in a strictiy honest frame of mind. Those who have the most
conscientious regard for truth in every thing else, seem to think
it dispensed with in supporting the cause of religion; and while
they earnestly condemn those who, in former ages, could justify
the ' pious frauds' introduced in support of the received faith, are
yet themselves influenced by the very same spirit, only in a dif
ferent form, in dreading the dissemination of knowledge, if even
imagined to be at variance with established religious belief. The
one party seeking to support religion by the propagation of false
hood, the other by the suppression of truth, both agree in treat
ing truth as if it were falsehood, and thus give its enemies the
fairest' ground to think it so." (pp. 242-4.)
Fortified by this authority, I may venture to assert that legis
lative articles of faith and endowed churches trammel the whole
some activity of the superior faculties of the human mind; and
thus far serve as impediments to the advancement of civilisation.
I am far, however, from affirming that the hereditary peerage
and Established Churches are felt by every British subject as
obstacles to his enjoyment; or that hundreds of thousands of in
teUigent, good, and sincerely Christian men of all ranks are not
reared under their sway. The Austrian government, civil and
ecclesiastical, has moulded the opinions of the people into har
mony with itself, and common minds in that country are happy
under it, and desire no change. In Britain, also, the institutions
of the state have communicated their own forms to opinion; and
millions of British subjects admire and honor the hereditary
peerage, while their souls rejoice under the wings of rectors,
bishops, and archbishops. But it may nevertheless be true that
the British institutions, like the Austrian, misdirect the minds
even of those who are comparatively happy, and certainly con
tented, under them. The British clergy wiU recognise the truth
of this proposition when applied to the Austrian people, and
concede that their blind, though wiUing, subjection to Popery,
is an obstacle to their advance in civUisation; but they wiU pro
bably deny that a blind, although voluntary, subjection to Cal
vinism, produces any injurious effects on the public mind. It
appears to me, however, that in Britain, as in Austria, these
institutions operate as weights repressing free mental action; and

332 ADDRESS
that the more upright, searching, and independent the moral
sentiments and intellectual powers of any individual are, the more
severely do they check his pursuit of happiness. I disavow,
however, every desire to see them abrogated by force, or pre
maturely abolished by a temporary and unenlightened excitement
of public feeling: — reason and moral suasion are the only weapons
by which they can be overthrown, without producing evfls much
greater than themselves.
Another form in which the Established Churches of Britain
oppose civilisation, is that of hostility to popular and liberal edu
cation. They profess to desire the education of the people, but
demand the entire control of the means which the government
may devote to this object. This demand is not only unjust to
the dissenters, whose contributions form important elements of
the national wealth, but injurious to the whole community, be
cause its avowed object is to obtain the right of fashioning the
religious opinions of all future generations in the moulds of anti
quity, which are already worn out; or, in other words, of exer
cising a spiritual tyranny over unborn multitudes of men. The
authoritative declaration by Parliament of certain points of faith,
as the only true expositions of the wfll of God, the offering of
large endowments to those individuals who choose to embrace
these interpretations, and visiting with obloqu)', exclusion, and
disqualification, thOse who doubt them, and especiaUy the in
vesting of these dogmas with the attribute of infallible truth, to
so great an extent that every member of the church who pub
lishes serious doubts of their soundness is liable to be expefled
for heresy, and excluded from Christian privileges — is at once to
anchor theology — to prevent it from advancing with increasing
knowledge — and to bind up the moral and inteUectual faculties
of the best minds from aU free, honest, and independent inquiry
in this great department of human interests.
What, then, is the influence of the Democratic form of
government under which you live, on the activity of the mental
faculties? The answer is obvious — you leave all the faculties
free to find their own way to happiness as they best are able.
You have no hereditary or artificial aristocracy to mould your
opinions according to erroneous standards, nor to misdirect your
ambition: you have no EstabUshed Church to chain up your
moral and religious sentiments in the trammels of antiquated
articles of beUef; you have no self-constituted executive to take
out of your hands the administration of your own affairs, and
no legislatures formed of privileged classes to restrain your in
dustry by obnoxious laws, or to repress your mental energy by
prescribing boundaries to your exertions. Your government
leaves aU your faculties free, presents to them the highest and

TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 333
best field for their exercise, and leaves every individual to reap
the natural reward or punishment of his own conduct. If the
first and most important condition of happiness be the activity
of all the faculties, your government complies with it in the
most ample manner.
The institutions of the United States not only aUow but en
courage the activity of all the faculties. In your vast unoccupied
territory, a fruitful soil presents its attractions to those individuals
in whom Acquisitiveness and Ambition predominate. The culti
vators raise mUlions of bushels of grain from their lands, and
rear on them innumerable herds of cattie, and offer these rich
productions in exchange for articles of utility or luxury manu
factured by your Atlantic cities, or imported by them from
Europe. All over the wide expanse of your national domain,
industry and enterprise are busy, and Acquisitiveness is stimula
ted by rich rewards. In your poUtical institutions, Self-Esteem
and Love of Approbation find unlimited scope. If the humblest
citizen thirsts for power and distinction, there is no constitutional
obstacle to his becoming President of the United States. The
career of activity is equally open to your moral sentiments and
inteUectual faculties. Every citizen may not only profess what
ever religious or philosophical creed seemfe best suited to his
own mind, but he is at liberty to preach and teach that doctrine;
to found churches, schools, lyceums, colleges, and libraries in
support of it, and to form associations for its propagation and
defence. In short, there is no sphere of action of the human
faculties, consistent with the common dictates of morality, that
is not here encouraged. Nay, so extensive is your liberty, that
it occasionally degenerates into licentiousness: — your citizens,
in paroxysms of excitement, occasionally indulge their animal
propensities in violence, outrage, and injustice, and the law is
too feeble to protect the objects of their displeasure, or to punish
thbse who have set it at defiance.
You perceive, then, the mighty difference between your in
stitutions and those of despotic countries. But I call your
attention to another principle. '
Happiness consists in the free play of all our faculties within
their legitimate spheres of action, and this kind of action can ex
ist only when the animal propensities are subjected to the control
of the moral sentiments and inteUect, and where these latter
powers are sufficientiy enUghtend to be capable of distinguishing
between good and evil — between the right course and the wrong
¦^in every department of individual, domestic, and social action.
I earnestly press on your attention the great truth, that our affec
tive faculties, both animal and moral, are in themselves blind
impulses, and that they stand in need of constant guidance.
VOL. II. — 23

334 ADDRESS
There must be subordination, resh-aint, self-denial, the power of
self-direction, in short, there must be government, and enUght
ened government, before happiness can be attained. Wo have
seen that your institutions have done every thing to set your
faculties free: but what have they done to guide them in the
rioht path? So far as I can discover, the answer must be — too
littie. In Europe a National Church professes to cultivate the senti
ment of Veneration, and to teach morals and religion. Here you
leave every man to embrace whatever religion is approved of by
his conscience, or to cast off the restraints of religion at his plea
sure. In Europe, artificial rank and hereditary tities profess to
inculcate deference and subordination in the different departments
of society. Here yon have no distinction of ranks; and, while
you encourage Self-Esteem and the Love of Approbation in their
boldest flights, you have no artificial institutions, either for re
straining or directing them. In Europe, independent courts of
justice, and a strong executive, direct or repress the animal pro
pensities. Here, your executive is feeble; and when a genei;al
excitement seizes your people, your laws are as cobwebs in re
straining the propensities. Your institutions have relied on one
sole power to regulate all the faculties jn their manifestations-^
the power of public opinion. But what is public opinion? It is
the outward expression of the particular group of faculties which
may happen to predominate in activity in the majority of the peo
ple for the moment. It is the sum of the active impulses of many
individual minds. In questions, however, of moral conduct, of
religion, of political economy, of law, or even of common pru
dence, it is not the number of minds, but the degree of their intel
ligence and virtue, that gives value to their decisions; and I ask,
what do your institutions do to communicate to the mind of each
person who forms one of your majorities, that wisdom -which
alone fits him to act as a directing and controUingpowero.verhis
own propensities and those of his fellow-men? I fear that we
must again answer — too litfle.
The idea seems to be entertained by some of your politicians,
that propensity in one man will restrain propensity in another; —
that sentiment in one will direct sentiment in another; in short,
that out of the <;onflict of interest against interest, justice will be
evolved, and that out of the conflict of reason with extravagance
and error — whether in religion, in morals, or in poUtical action,
wisdom and truth wUl be brought to tight, and that the social
body will at length grope its way to repose, prosperity, happi
ness, hoUness, and virtue. If this resuh shaU ultimately be
reached by such a process of mental action, it can only be by flie
exhaustion of errors, and the endurance of countiess miseries »
the process.

TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 335
Do not imagine, from these remarks, that I am the advocate
of European despotisms, and the enemy of your institutions.
Quite the reverse; but it is my object to point out to you, that,
in providing an organised moral and physical machinery for
regulating the propensities, and directing the sentiments of their
subjects into what they consider to be their legitimate spheres of
action, monarchs act on a sound and phUosophical principle.
The propensities are energetic impulses, which must be re
strained and guided by some power, external or internal, superior
to themselves, otherwise they will deviate into wild abuses. In
the European monarchies external restraints are chiefly resorted
to; and these, too, unfortunately, are, in many instances, applied
by ignorant and selfish men in such a manner as in some degree
to crush intellect and stifie virtue, as well as to suppress vice.
Although, therefore, you have done weU in liberating all your
faculties firom thraldom to legislative churches, aristocracies, and
despots; yet you cannot set them fi:ee from the laws of God,
written not only in the Scriptures, but on, your mental constitu
tion, and on the external world. Some persons appear to con
ceive liberty to consist in the privilege of unlimited exercise of
the animal propensities. The head of Liberty stamped on the
earlier medals, commemorative of the French Revolution, is the
very personification of this idea. She is a female figure with a
viUanously small, low, and retreating forehead, deficient moral
organs, and ample development of the base and posterior regions
of the brain, devoted to the propensities. Her hair is flying back
in loose disorder, and her countenance expresses vivacity and
passion, but neither moraUty nor wisdom. The same figure
appears on the earUer coins of the United States. Liberty, as I
should draw her, would possess large moral and intellectual
organs, with moderate propensities. I should arrange her hair
in simple elegance, and imprint serene enjoyment, benignity,
and wisdom on her brow. She should represent moral liberty,
or the unlimited freedom to accomplish all that is good, and the
absence of every desire to do evil. Such alone is the liberty after
which you should aspire.
I desire, then, to see in this country a moral and intellectual
machinery put into vigorous action, calculated to teach the young
the legitimate spheres in which all their faculties should act, and
to train them to impose that restraint upon themselves, to prac
tise that self-denial, and that self-direction, which are indispensa
ble to happiness and prosperity. I desire to see public opinion,
which is here your great restraining power, composed, not of
the sum of the ruling prejudices, passions, or interests of the day,
but of the concentrated wisdom and virtue of miUions of trained
and enlightened minds. Such a public opinion I should regard

336 ADDRESS
as the best and safest of all governing powers. An ignorant
public opinion is, to the wise and good, a revolting tyranny. In
this country you have chosen public opinion for your chief regu
lating influence, and it is impossible for you to substitute for it
any other. You, have established universal suffrage, placed su
preme authority in the hands of your majorities, and no human
nlea^ns, short of mflitary conquest, can deprive that majority of
its sway. You have, therefore, only one mode of action left t^
reach the goal of national happiness: enlighten your people,
teach them whatever is necessary for them, in order to guide
their faculties aright — train them to self-control — train them in
youth to bend all the inferior feelings under the yoke of morality,
religion, and reason. In short, educate them — and educate them
well. Most of you will probably acknowledge the advantages of educa
tion, point to your common schools, to the large sums appropri
ated by the states for public instruction, and ask what more can
any reasonable man desire? With every feeling of deference
towards your learned men and divines, I would answer that you
stand in need of a phflosophy of mind capable of guiding your
steps in your efforts to bestow education on your people. Many
will say — Is not common sense sufficient to enable us to manage
with success both our political and educational institutions? I
repeat the observation of Archbishop Whately, that men never
acknowledge the sufficiency of mere common sense to the ac
complishment of any important undertaking when they fully
understand its nature and the difficulties that must be surmounted
to ensure success. A blacksmith wiU probably assure you, that
common sense is sufficient to enable you to farm, if he knows
nothing about farming; but if you ask him whether common
sense will enable you to shoe a horse, he wiU unhesitatingly
answer, that if you try the experiment, you will probably get
your brains kicked out for your rashness and presumption. Do
you imagine, then, that the successful direction of the affairs of
a great nation, and the training of the human mind, demand
less of scientific skill and experience than shoeing horses?
But allow me to dsk, what do you understand by common
sense, which is supposed to be such an all-sufficient guide in
the United States? What is called common sense means the
notions which have entered the mind of any individual, from
such occurrences and sources of information as he happens to
have enjoyed. Men's capacities differ, their opportunities of
observation differ, and hence their common sense differs. The
individual who professes to have no theory, no hypothesis, no
system, but to follow plain common sense, has a theory: it is
that formed by his innate capacity, aided by his own individual
experience.

TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 337
In some of your academies, the talent for English composition
is supposed to be the most valuable attainment that can be com
municated to the young; in others arithmetic and mathematics
are regarded as the best studies for developing all the faculties;
whUe'one female teacher assured me, in all seriousness, that the
hurijan mind is a blank, that all minds are alike in their native
capacities, and that she can evoke whatever talents and disposi
tions she pleases. This is her theory, and she has practised on
it for many years'. You must have observed how the practices
of teachers differ; you cannot suppose that each adopts his own
method without some reasons for preferring it; — these reasons,
however limited and lame, constitute his theory. In point of
fact, they all have theories, and the vast differences in their no
tions prove that nature is not the author of them; because she is
always consistent with herself, and gives one response to all.
When we have studied nature we agree. Hence, the great prin
ciples of astronomy, chemistry, physiology, and of other branches
of natural science, are no longer in dispute. But on the subjects
of morals, religion, and education, the diversity and conflict of
opinion are boundless. Does not this indicate that our notions
on these subjects do not yet rest on a scientific basis? in short,
that we enjoy no sound and practical philosophy of mind?
To you this state of mental science is an evil of the greatest
magnitude. In this country you need not only education, but
an education that shall communicate to youth the knowledge,
maxims, and experience of age. Here you commit political
power to the hands of nearly every man who has attained
majority. Your population doubles every tvyenty-lhree or
twenty-five years. The actual majority of your voters is proba
bly under thirty-five or thirty-six years of age. There is no
other country in the world which is ruled by men so young and
so inexperienced. I was told before I came here, that the
Americans are the most excitable nation on the globe; that you
take fire in a moment, and instantiy rush to action, whether it be
in speculation, in legitimate enterprise, in war, or in political
change; and since my stay among you, I have heard the deep-
toned war-cry uttered with a force and unanimity which is full
of fearful omen. And the cause of this maybe discerned. The
mind, tiU thirty-five, acts more under the impulse of the feelings
than under the guidance of intellect. By the very laws of our
nature, Combativeness, Destructiveness, Self-Esteem, Love of
Approbation, and Acquisitiveness, are then more energetic than
they are at fifty or sixty; and at that period also experience is
most deficient. Life has not been long enough to enable us to
accumulate wisdom, to detect the illusions of passion or of vain
glory — to supply the deficiencies and correct the errors of an
imperfect education.

338 ADDRESS
In your country, then, above all others, your school education
should teach your youth the specific knowledge of the constitu
tion and powers of physical nature, and the means by which
they may be applied to the promotion of human happiness — of
the constitution of the body, and the laws of health — of the con
stitution of the mind, and the means by which we may be best
trained to the discharge of our duties in the private, domestic,
and social circles — of the laws by which wealth is created and
distributed; and of the influence of morals and legislation on the
welfare of the individual and society. As you do not wait until
your voters, who wield the destinies of your country — who
make peace and war — who make and unmake banks — who
make and unmake tariffs affecting industry to the core — and who
make and unmake even your schools, colleges, and churches — I
say, as you do not wait nntil age has given them wisdom and
experience, but place the helm, at once, in their hands, and
allow them to act, while they are still full of young blood, and aU
the energy, confidence, and rashness that attend it— you are
called on by every consideration to perfect your schools, so as
to communicate to them the dictates of a wisdom which cannot
be dispensed with, and which will not otherwise be attained.
In the election which took place, in November 1839, the ques
tion of the currency was actuallybrought to the polls in the state
of New York. The mottos were — banks and paper currency on
the one side — hard specie and sub-treasury laws on the other.
These are questions on which Dr. Adam Smith, Ricardo,
M'CuUoch, and the profoundest poUtical economists, have dif
fered in opinion. Does your education enable your people to
understand them, and decide on them? No! Yet your people act
whether they understand them or not. They vote the supporters
of paper into power; and paper flourishes. If evil ensue, they
vote the advocates of specie into power; and paper and credit go
to the waU. They try the experiment. But what an awful ex
periment! How many thousands of individuals and famiUes are
ruined by the violence of every change!
In Austria and Prussia the safety-valve of the body politic is
loaded with the weight of an established church and 100,000
bayonets. In cases of discontent, opinion cannot escape, untfl it
has burst through these compressing powers, and then it wiU
explode with terrific violence. Here the safety-valve bears no
load except the sense of each individual mind. Any strong in
ternal excitement, or the application of external provocation,
causes the propensities and sentiments to glow, and to express
themselves with instantaneous energy. Their voice is heard in
Europe, and the timid hold their breath, waiting for a grand ex
plosion. Perhaps it never comes. In your country, ten times

TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 339
ten thousand valves let off excited opinion so rapidly that the
body-poUtic cools down to its natural heat, as quicldy as its tem
perature was raised. But every one of these excitements shakes
credit, deranges trade, ruins fortunes, is attended by suffering,
and leaves many pangs behind. Load, then, your safety-valves
wifli knowledge of nature and religion, and train your young
minds to control passion by virtue, and you will find these
means more effectual than millions of armed soldiers, to insure
your prosperity and happiness. Mr. Wyse, in his work enti
fled " Education Reform," says, " A period of total quiet result
ing from along continued acquiescence in old institutions, leaves
a very different imprint upon the national mind from that which
is the necessary consequence of a general breaking up of old
principles and forms, and an earnest search after new. In the
first instance, an education of stimulants becomes necessary. % It
is essential to the healthy activity of the body-politic. In the
second, steadiness, love of order, mutual toleration, the sacrifice
of private resentments and factious interests to general good,
should be the great lessons of national education." Vol. i. p. 48.
Such, assuredly, should be the education of your sons.
Yours is a noble destiny. Providence has assigned to you
the duty of proving by experiment, whether man be. or be not,
a rational and moral being, capable of working out his own way
to virtue and enjoyment, under the guidance of Reason and
Scripture, unfettered by despotic power, and unchained by law-
enacted creeds. Your institutions and physical condition call
aU your faculties into vivid action. Among these, the animal
propensities, as I have remarked, are not dormant; but those
observers err, who allow their attention to be arrested only, or
chiefly, by the abuses of the propensities which appear in your
people. Virtue consists in meeting and overcoming temptation.
As you, then, by possessing freedom are tempted above other
nations, you wfll show a virtue above them aU, if you nobly
resist every seducing influence, and march boldly onward in
the paths of rectitude and wisdom. The subjects of a despot,
whose every thought and action are ruled^by other minds, have
litfle merit in exhibiting order and decorum in their public con
duct. You wiU prove the true strength of your moral principles,
when you restrain your passions by your own virtuous resolves,
and obey just laws enacted by yourselves. It is to aid you in
this admirable course of action, in so far as the feeble abUities
of one individual wiU go, that I now address to you these obser
vations. And I again ask. Do your schools teach all that your
young voters should know? aU that the best of your citizens
would wish them to know, when they act as electors and arbi
trators of the public welfare?— I believe not. If you ask how

340 ADDRESS
they can be improved you will be answered by as many projects
and proposals for education, as if you had inquired for the phflo-
sopher's stone.
So far from education supplying this knowledge, it appears to
me, that a vast proportion of your people have not yet obtained
a glimpse of what, I hope, is destined to constitute the real
greatness and glory of your country. I find here, the ambition
of many individuals directed towards, raising the United States to
the rank of the richest and the most powerful nation in the
world. They bend their whole minds to the increase of her
commercial, agricultural, naval, and mUitary grandeur. This is
not wrong; but it is not all. Thousands of your young men
pant for war, in order to wreath the laurels of victory round the
brow of their native country; and they call this patriotism. I
desire to see higher and better views entertained of the glories
and destiny of the United States. History presents only the
records of wars, devastations, and selfish aggrandisement pursued
by all governments that have ever existed; — republics, oligar
chies, monarchies — all have run one wild career of immorality
and ambition. If your nation consider herself to have no higher
vocation than these, she ceases to be an object of moral interest
to the philanthropist and philosopher. If her annals be destined
to record the contests only of faction against faction, of party
against party, or of the nation against foreign nations — the
friend of human improvement must tiirn from her in despair.
The grand duty assigned to Americans is to raise up and exhibit
to the world, a nation great in virtue; to show, for the first time,
since history began, a people universally educated; a people
prosperous, refined, happy, and gigantically great, by the reali
sation in their institutions, in their private lives, and in their
public actions, of the principles of Christianity.
The founders of your constitution, when they established uni
versal suffrage, assumed it as a fundamental principle, that man
is a moral, religious, and intellectual being; and that, if thorough
ly instructed and left to direct his course by the truths of Scrip
ture and the dictates of reason, he will found and maintain insti
tutions calculated to promote virtue, religion, and universal peace,
with all the physical enjoyments and mental gratifications which
attend them. Phrenology confirms this opinion, by unfolding
to us the great facts that we possess moral and inteUectual faculties
invested with authority to rule over and direct the animal propensi
ties; and the propensities themselves have aU a legitimate sphere of
action. When the founders of your institutions threw unlimited
power into the hands of the people, they assumed it as a funda
mental principle, that the people are capable of being trained and
instructed; and that, when so trained, their desires wUl be towards

TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 341
that which is good, holy, useful, and just; and Phrenology is the
only philosophy, with which I am acquainted, which warrants
and sustains this assumption. The despotisms and the estab
Ushed churches of Europe are founded, and defended, on a
principle directly the reverse of this, viz., that the mass of man
kind are so selfish, so ignorant, and so prone to prefer an imme
diate individual gratification to the general advantage — that the
people cannot be trusted with knowledge and power — that it is
Utopian to imagine that the masses can be rendered capable of
applying self-restraint, and of reaching virtue and happiness by
the spontaneous action of their own minds; but that they must
be ruled, like children, by the more enlightened members of so
ciety, and chastised when they infringe the laws enacted by their
superiors for their guidance. These two sets of principles are
subjects of constant debate between the liberal and despotic par
ties in Europe; and both, with the deepest interest, look to you
to solve the problem on which they differ. All your aberrations
from the dictates of morality; the "colonising" and false swear
ing at your elections (see vol. ii, p. 19); the practice of betting
on elections; your mobs, your Lynch laws, your wild specula
tions, your bank suspensions, with the injustice to so many of
yourselves which accompany them; your Negro slavery; your
treatm.ent of the Indians (vol. ii, p. 85); the incessant abuse
which the one of your political parties heaps on the distinguished
men of the other; the elopements of persons placed in situations
of trust with the funds of the nation, or of their constituents; the
excessive number of bankruptcies; the very imperfect police for
the prevention of crime which characterises some of your great
towns, such as New York; the enormous and calamitous confla
grations which scourge your cities, the results either of reckless
ness or incendiarism; the great self-complacency of the mass of
your people, who, although very imperfectiy educated, are per
suaded by political orators that they know every thing, and can
decide wisely on every question; the general absence of reverence
for authority or superior wisdom, displayed first in childhood, and
afterwards in the general progress of life; the regardlessness of the
obUgations of contracts and agreements that occur in trade, com
merce, and personal service; — all these, and every other fault and
imperfection, real or imaginary, which can be ascribed to you with
any shadow of plausibUity, are carefully collected, blasoned, and
recorded in Europe — not to your disparagement alone, but to
the degradation of human nature, and to the unspeakable injury
of the cause of liberty all over the civilised world.
And I ask — What have you to oppose to these charges?
Generally your press hurls back accusations of crimes and
foUies as bad or worse, as fairly chargeable against European

342 ADDRESS
governments and nations. But admitting this to be true, the
phflanthropist, using a common phrase, replies that two blacks
do not make a white, and that this forms no legitimate defence
for your imperfections. You have proclaimed the supremacy
of man's moral and inteUectual nature over his animal feelings,
and adopted this principle as the basis of your social fabric, and of
your hopes. In the old despotisms of Europe, the very oppc
site principle is avowed. It is assumed by the rulers of these
nations, that if man be free, he will only do evil continually.
You profess to impose the' restraints of religion and morality on
yourselves; they impose the restraints of armed force on their
people, to lead them to order and obedience. If you, therefore,
realise only a social condition no worse than those which are
founded on the opposite principle, the friends of liberty feel that
their cause is lost. You are bound -to exhibit higher inteUi
gence, a purer morality, a deeper reverence for all that is great,
good, and holy — a more rational prudence, a juster estimate of
the real value of physical wealth, a greater abhorrence of war
and aU forms of injustice, and a higher interest in every pursuit
that tends to elevate man's moral, religious, and intellectual
nature — than are to be found in countries in which the activity
of the higher faculties is suppressed by force, or misled by igno
rance or fraud — in short, you are bound to impose an enlight
ened self-restraint on all your faculties; and if you do not do so,
you betray the great cause of freedom which Providence has
entrusted to your care.
And I ask — Are, your schools, your literature, your daily
maxims and pursuits, and the spirit which animates the masses
of your people, steadUy, systematically, and successfuUy directed
towards the attainment of these high and honorable objects? are
they adequate to the formation of a public opinion under which
a virtuous and enlightened mind may live in peace, and rejoice,
and with which it can cordially co-operate? V/hen I converse
with your wisest citizens many of them concede that such should
be the objects of your institutions, manners, and pursuits;
and they labor to reach them; but they often lament the vast
interval which lies between these great conceptions and their
accomplishment. The enlightened philanthropists of this country
desire to see commenced in earnest a system of training and
instruction which shall be really capable of preparing the young
republican for the discharge of the highest duties which a rational
being can be caUed on to execute, in a manner and in a spirit
becoming their grandeur, dignity, and utUity; but they experi
ence extraordinary difficulties, arising from the ignorance and
the power of the people, in realising their aspirations. Many
who now hear me, and who participate in these desires, Avill

TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 343
confirm what I say. I was invited to come to this country
by some phUanthropists, who believed that this phflosophy
would aid your people, in discovering, at once, their own need
of better instruction and the means of obtaining it. Phrenology
lays open, even to the most ordinary mind, an intelligible view
of the human faculties; it carries home a striking conviction of
the indispensable necessity of education to their improvement
and direction, and presents tangible principles for administering
this instruction.* I have long been an admirer of your institu
tions, and an advocate of man's capability of raising his moral,
religious, and intellectual powers to supremacy over his animal
propensities; and I obeyed the call which was sent to me. Far
from disapproving of your institutions, I admire them, and have
confidence in them; but it is mj duty to express my conviction,
that your people need a vastly improved education to render
them equal to the faithful and successful discharge of the impor
tant duties committed to them by the institutions of the states and
of the Federal government, and to form a public opinion adequate
to the due performance of the high duties assigned to this power.
In the preceding lectures I have already explained my views
of education, and left them to your judgment. I am far from
pressing them on your attention as infallible; I only submit them
in all humflity to yOur consideration; " prove (or try) all things,
and hold fast that which is good." If you know a sounder and
more practical philosophy of mind than that which I have ex
pounded, adopt it, and carry its principles into practice. All
that I mean to maintain, without limit and quaUfication, is, that,
in the United States, the rrioral and intellectual condition of the
people must be raised far above its present standard, or your in
stitutions wiU perish. If you agree with me in regard to the
end, you are the proper judges of the means.
You are engaged in trying many momentous experiments in
regard to the nature and capabUities of man; and you are now
also in the act of evolving the true nature and power of Chris
tianity. You leave reason and Scripture, science and theological
doctrines, to adjust their several claims to acceptance, and to
work out a harmony among themselves. Though your wide
extended country be overrun by contending sects, still fear not
for religion. If Austria boast of almost unanimity in her faith,
it is not because she has found infaUible truth, but because she
has extinguished in her people the desire and the capacity of
independent thinking on religious doctrines. Your numerous
sects prove to my mind one great truth, that Christianity is not
* The reader is respectfully reminded that this address was delivered at
the close of a> full course of lectures on Phrenology, and that it was not
necessary to describe to my audience what Phrenology is.

344 ADDRESS
yet fuUy understood; that in past ages, the Scriptures have been
interpreted, too often without knowledge of the phUosophy of
mind, and without regard to the dictates of reason and of science.
In Britain many persons suffer under feelings of insecurity about
religion. They seem to regard it as a pyramid resting on its
apex; Bishops and Archbishops may be pictured on one side;
rectors and endowed clergy on another; the Lords and Commons
on a third; and many excellent laymen on the fourth; all strain
ing themselves to preserve it erect, each, apparently, believing
that if he were to withdaaw his support, it would faU and break
into a thousand fragments. Professor Powell, in the work al-
read}' quoted, ably describes the mental condition of these appre
hensive Christians. "Adopting their creed," says he, "blindly
from education, custom, or party, too many hold their religion
only by a most loose and uncertain tenure, and are lamentably
confused in their notions of its nature. Hence they dread a
formidable shock to Christianity in every physical discovery;
and in the obscurity which surrounds them, imagine danger to
the truth in every exposure of error. Insensible to the real
strength of their position, they live in groundless alarm for its
security; and, accustomed to cherish faith in ignorance, they ap
prehend in every advance of knowledge, the approach of the
enemy of their salvation." But when we discover by means of
Phrenology, that religious feelings spring from the innate facul
ties of Veneration, Hope, and Wonder, we perceive that religion
can never be shaken. The churches, creeds, emblems, and
ceremonies, which many individuals mistake for religion, are
really its effects. They are the outward symbols by which the
innate religious sentiments manifest their desires, and seek for
gratification. They are no more the causes of religion, than
clarionets and violins are the causes of that love of melody which
exists in the human mind, and which prompts the inteUect to
produce them for its gratification. I request of you, then, clearly
to distinguish between the sentiment of religion — which is inhe
rent in the human mind; — and its outward symbols — which may
assume various forms at different times and in different countries,
yet religion itself be not for one moment in danger. The
founders of your institutions have acted on this view; and in
your country they have placed the pyramid of religion at once
on its basis. Here, it is seen standing in aU its native solidity,
simplicity, and beauty, without needing the aid of human power
to preserve it in its place.
In the same spirit, you have trusted the preservation of the
purity of the Bible to the moral and reUgious principles, and the
interest, of your printers and pubUshers. You have conferred
no patent monopolies on individuals, and established no boards,

TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 345
with weU paid secretaries, to superintend the printing of the
Scriptures; yet in your country the text is as pure as it is in
Britain. You have learned by experience that an edition in
which errors are detected, becomes, by the unanimous verdict
of your community, mere waste paper in the hands of those who
have produced it, and that this operates as a most efficacious
check against corruption.
The attention of the Christian world has lately been called
to a singular fact, which is instructive, and I think encouraging
to you; It is this — that Protestantism has made littie progress
in extending itself in Europe, since the " end of the thirty
years' war, and that the expansive power," which we believe
all truth to possess, has not been manifested by it since thst
epoch. " It is truly remarkable," says a recent critic, " that
neither the moral revolution of the eighteenth century, nor the
moral counter-revolution of the nineteenth, should, in any per
ceptible degree, have added to the domain of Protestantism.
During the former period, whatever was lost to Catholicism was
lost also to Christianity; during the latter, whatever was regained
by Christianity in Catholic countries was regained also by
CathoUcism."* One cause of this phenomenon appears to me
to be, that the Protestant Kingdoms of Europe, in general, have
imitated the Roman Catholic so closely, that they have in many
respects instituted Popish Churches under a different name.
The Reformation proclaimed freedom of religious opinion; but
the Protestant monarchies enacted creeds and endowed churches
to maintain them. They stifled opinion, and bound up the
human mind in the fetters of authority; — and how could Pro
testantism, in other words, religious freedom, prosper or expand
itself in such circumstances? You, almost alone, have done
justice to Protestantism; you have given it a fair field; and if, in
your country. Popery shall not ultimately yield to it. Popery
must contain the greater extent of truth.
In attending the places of religious worship of several of your
sects, I have received a profound impression of the vivacity of
the rehgious sentiments among you. I, therefore, consider re
ligion in this country as in the most prosperous condition.
Honest and earnest zeal for the glory of God and the welfare of
human souls, evinces itself in innumerable forms: It is true that
I perceive a great diversity of doctrines (a statement of which
wiU be found in the Appendix, No. XV); but this fact leads me
simply to the conclusion that much yet remains to be done
before the true interpretation of Scripture shall be completed;
* The Ecclesiastical and Political History of the Popes of Rome during
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, by Leopold Ranke, Professor in the
University of Berlin. Edinburgh Review, vol. Ixxii, p. 258.

346 ADDRESS
and that many improvements remain to be introduced into
Christian theology, before it shall stand side by side with reason
and science, and exhibit all the symmetry and beauty of a har
monious compartment in the great temple of universal truth.
Far from regarding the diversity of your sects as an evil, I view
it as an unspeakable advantage. The existence of wide diver
sity of the opinions of Christian sects is to mc irrefragable evi
dence that error is not yet fully expurgated from popular Chris
tianity. How, then, is the religion of Jesus to be purified? Not by
adopting one form of its corruption and declaring it, by statute,
to be true. This has been tried, and has faUed. Not by the
recondite studies and commentaries of cloistered monks, or state-
endowed and state-chained divines: for what human- research
and learning could accomplish has been achieved by them already;
The doctrines, generally known under the name of Puseyism,
afford a specimen of the improvements in Christianity which
learned priests, even in the nineteenth century, propose when
left to follow the dictates of their own judgment. Christian
theology is not destined to advance by such aids as these. The
conflicts of your sects will do more for its improvement than
has been accomplished by all the commentators who have labored
in the field since the Reformation.
One palpable advantage of a number of religious seqts, aU
equal in the eye of the law, is, that that their clergy discuss each
other's interpretations of Scripture and the doctrines founded
on them, with a degree of fearlessness, energy, and effect, which
rarely characterises the efforts of laymen in the same field.
Each sect brings the doctrines of its opponents to the touch
stone of reason, although some of them shrink from applying
reason to their own. In a discussion on points of Scriptural
doctrine, between laymen and religious teachers, the latter are
prone to charge the former with infidelity, as the short answer
to all objections; and the religious world too often makes com
mon cause with the teachers, in giving effect to the accusation.
But when the clergy of one sect contend with those of another,
their religious characters protect them against this brief method
of dealing with their arguments, and the subject must be treated
on its merits. By this means, truth is advanced, and theology
and reason are brought more and more into harmony. If a lay
man, for instance, had attacked the Calvinistic doctrine of Elec-
tioui he would probably have been at once denounced as an
infidel. But when the Rev. John Wesley, himself a high
authority in religion, in commenting on the Rev. James Hervey's
advocacy of this doctrine in his " Theron and Aspasia," says,
" But what becomes of other people? (that is, besides the Elect).

TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 347
they must inevitably perish for ever? The die was cast ere
even they were in being. The doctrine to pass them by, has
' Consigned their unborn souls to hell.
And damned them from their mother's womb.'
I could sooner be a Turk, a Deist — yea, an Atheist, than I could
believe this; it is less absurd to deny the very being of God,
than to make him an Almighty tyrant;" — when a religious man
writes thus, he must be answered in reason, and in Scripture
reconcilable with reason.
Again, when, the Church of Scofland, claiming Christ as its
only head, asserted, that in contending for its own power and
privUeges with the supreme civil court of the country, it was
only defending the " Redeemer's crown rights," any layman
who should have stigmatised this as an act of unwarrantable and
irreverend assumption, would probably have been accused of
infideUty; and the religious portion of the community would
have given effect to the charge; but when the Rev. And. Mar
shall of KirkintuUoch, a speaker at a great meeting of Evange
lical Dissenters, held in Edinburgh on the 16th December 1840,
used the following words, the religious public could not treat
them thus, but must have pondered them well and answered
them in reason. The system of non-intrusion, said he, is " an
attempt to set up an institution (the Church of Scotland) in the
name of Christ which Christ never sanctioned — an institution
breathmg a spirit and clothed with a character which the reli
gion of Christ utteriy disowns — an institution calling itself na
tional, and claiming a large portion of the national property —
an institution claiming a right to dispose of the national property,
the national honors, and the national emoluments; yet at the
same time refusing to be controled by the national authority, and
setting at defiance all laws but its own. Is this a Christian insti
tution? Is this an institution to be tolerated in any free State?
Yet, such is the institution which the non-intrusionists are try
ing to set up, and of this institution they say that Christ is the
head. I deny the assertion. I consider it an assertion border
ing upon blasphemy; an assertion throwing a stain, a foul and
injurious stain, upon the great name by which we are called
The head of the Church of Scotiand! Christ is the head of his
own mystical body, the foundation and chief cornerstone of
that spiritual living temple which is composed of all Christian
men in aU parts of the world; but I have yet to learn that the
Church of Scotiand, either as it has existed hitherto, or as it
would exist, provided the non-inti-usionists had their wfll — I say,
I have yet to learn that the Church of Scotiand and this living
temple are one and the same thing. I grant, indeed, that there

348 ADDRESS
is a sense in which Christ may be said to be the head of the
Church of Scotland; but that is just as he is the head of the
Church of England, just as he is the head of the Church of
Rome; and just as he is the head of any other existing society,
or any other portion of human beings — as the head, for instance
of the British empire, or the empire of the Chinese. I wiU
grant that there is a sense in which Christ orders the concerns of
the Church of Scotiand, and in which he superintends all their
affairs, great and small; but that is exactly as he superintends
the affairs of the French, or the affairs of their friend Mehemet
All." Such arguments as these, proceeding from religious men
and directed against the doctrines of religious men, open up the
understandings of the people, and give them courage to think;
and by them theology is advanced.
Fear not evil, then, from the multitude and conflicts of your
sects. Many of them reject the authority of reason when applied to
themselves, but they all use it to expose and refute the errors of
their opponents; and by this constant appeal to reason, I antici
pate the ultimate purification of Christian doctrine, and the in
creasing approximation of all sects towards unanimity. There
is one God, and one truth, and no interpretations of Scripture
can be sound) or secure of universal acceptance and permanent
existence, which contradict reason or clash with natural science.
Scripture may legitimately go beyond what reason can reach, as
in teaching the resurrection of the dead, but no sound interpreta
tions of it can evolve doctrines that distinctly contradict natural
truth. The process of improvement appears to me to be evi-
dentiy begun. A large portion of your Presbyterian Church has
dropt some of the peculiar doctrines of Calvinism (vol. i. p. 312),
and even Yale College (vol. ii. p. 118) has modified the ancient
views of original sin. These are steps, however smaU, by
which the professors of Calvinism are approaching towards the
opinions of those who adopt Universalism and IJnitarianism.
Be not alarmed; it is not my intention to express an opinion in
favor of the superiority of any sect; this does not become a
stranger, and one whose element is philosophy; but aS a phUoso
phical observer, I beg leave to state my conviction that the pro
gress which Christianity is destined to make in your country, is
one of approximation to unity in belief; that, m proportion as the
knowledge of mental phUosophy and physical science is extended
among your people, your sects wiU drop one doctrine after
another, as it is discovered to clash with reason and natural truth,
and that they wiU eUcit purer, and sounder, and more practicaUy
useful docb-ines in their place; untfl truth, commanding unani
mity, shall stand forth before an admiring worid. This must be

TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 349
the ultimate effect of free discussion, if man be really a rational
and moral being; and, however distant the prospect, it is stiU
discernible by the eye of reason and of faith.
If such be the probable result to which your religious discus
sions will lead. Phrenology wiU serve as a beacon-light to guide
you on your way. The starting point of innumerable religious
differences Ues in different views entertained in regard to the
nature of man: Phrenology wUl settie this point beyond the
possibility of controversy. Whfle every individual takes his
own consciousness and observations as the standards by which
he measures human dispositions and capacities, metaphysical
divines may assign or deny to the human mind whatever moral
and inteUectual qualities best suit their several religious opinions;
but when the faculties are studied in connection with organs, this
becomes impossible. Organs are visible and tangible, and owe
then existence directiy to God. The mental quaUties, therefore,
attached to them, are all equally the direct gifts of the Creator;
and be they what they may, they are His workmanship. Hith
erto, Scripture has generaUy been interpreted without the know
ledge of the organs and of their influence on the mental manifes
tations; and it appears to me that, when this knowledge becomes
general, many popular interpretations wfll not bear investigation.
Again, Phrenology sh-ows us that, to improve the human mind,
we must begin by improving the condition of the brain; and that,
to attain success in this object, all moral; religious, and intellec
tual teaching must be conducted in harmony with the laws of
physiology. While, however, it foretells of changes in the in
terpretations of Scripture, and in religious opinions, it affords us
a guaranty for the safety, the permanence, and the ever-extend
ing power of reUgion itself, sufficient to assure the most timid.
It brings before our eyes, organs specially destined to the mani
festations , of reUgious sentiments. It thereby shows us that
religion itself is inherent in our nature, and that it is as enduring
as the race. It enables us to compare our mental nature, such
as God has constituted it, with the precepts of Jesus, and shows
us the most admirable harmony between them. It forcibly de
monstrates that great differences exist in the relative strength of
the faculties in different individuals, and leads us to infer that
many of our religious differences are referable to this cause; each
of us being impressed most forcibly by those texts of Scripture
which speak most strongly to his own predominant faculties.
Whfle, therefore, it foretells the dissolution of many dogmatical
opinions, which at present put enmity and strife between
Christian sects, it presents the strongest confirmation of the great
truths about which all are agreed, and gives, if possible, an en
larged prominence and importance to the influence which, when
vol.. TT. — 24

350 ADDRESS
freed from heterogeneous errors, these are destined to exercise
over human civilisation.*
One great obstacle to your moral, religious, and inteUechial
progress appears to me to be the influence which the history,
institutions, manners, habits, and opinions of Europe are still
exercising over the minds of your people. Study these in order
to imbibe their wisdom and to adopt their refinement; but avoid
the errors which they exhibit, and shun them as guides in your
religious and political progress. Society is in a state of transi
tion, and old things are passing away. I have endeavored to
point out to you, that your institutions, and those of the govern
ments and churches of Europe, rest on widely different views of
human nature and its capabUities. A religious creed, founded
on the opinion that man is " wholly defiled in all the faculties
and parts of soul and body," may be adapted to a monarchy,
which, acting in the spirit of this dogma, denies political power
to its millions, and supports religion by statutes, enforcing these,
if necessary, by bayonets; but it may be very unsuitable to you,
whose whole social arrangements rest on the assumption that
man is by nature a religious, moral, and intellectual being.
When, however, your sects, in- the exercise of freedom, re
nounce that opinion, and embrace views of man's nature more
in accordance with j'our social institutions, the chained clergy
of Europe may accuse them of heretical errors. But do not
allow yourselves to be shaken by their disapproval. If you are
right, they are in the wrong; and they are not willing to decide
against themselves. Every religious community whose faith has
been anchored by the edicts of popes, emperors, kings, or parlia
ments, will represent your departures from their standards as
backslidings and pernicious errors, and the conflicts of your
sects as the harbingers of the extinction of religion. But fear
not. Before your religion can become capable of exercising a
powerful, and a much-needed influence, over the public conduct
of your people, it mnst be brought into harmony with the prin
ciples of your social institutions and as you have laid aside
European forms of government it is to be expected that you may
depart from European standards of faith. After a long night of
troubled controversy, a brighter dawn will rise on your religious
world; Truth is omnipotent, and free discussion is her glorious
arena. She will come forth triumphant; and you will ultimately
exhibit Christianity in her purity and might, acknowledging
Science as her brother and Learning as her sister, mingling
harmoniously and gracefuUy with this world's interests, and
guiding your people securely in tiie paths of virtue and peace.
* I have discussed this topic more fully in my lectures on Moral Philoso
phy, to which I beg leave to refer.

TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 351
The influence of the American citizen reaches to all the inte
rests of his country; and I have already endeavored to point out
to you how Phrenology may aid you in the discharge of your
important duties. Assuming it to be the philosophy of mind
founded on the physiology of the brain, it will furnish valuable
lights to your understandings when you act, —
As jurymen, and decide on questions of insanity, involving
the most important private rights and responsibUity to the crimi
nal law; —
As directors of common schools, and superintendants of edu
cation; —
As visit»rs and inspectors of houses of refuge and of prisons;-—
As visitors and inspectors of lunatic asylums; and
As electors of legislators, governors, and a yast variety of
public officers. AUow me to remark, that, as the whole fabric
of your institutions rests on a moral basis, and is devoid of artifi
cial supports, you, of all nations, stand most in need of high
moral and inteUectual qualities in your public men. It is too
obvious that you do not yet possess adequate means of discrimi
nating and selecting individuals possessed of these qualities; for
in no country which I have visited, has such an array of delin
quencies, committed by men in confidential public situations,
been exhibited, as has met my eye since I came to the United
States. Many of you wfll smUe when I express my opinion
fliat Phrenology is calculated greafly to aid you in avoiding this
monstrous evil. I have stated to you that the native power of
manifesting every mental faculty bears a reference, other condi
tions being equal, to the size of its organs; and that the magni
tude of the organs may be estimated. If you wish, therefore,
that your public administrators should be vigorous and active,
choose men with high temperaments, large brains, and large
lungs. If, you desire that they should possess native integrity,
choose men with predominant organs of Conscientiousness. If
you desire that they should possess native benevolence and piety,
select individuals iu whom the organs of these sentiments are
largely developed. If you desire that they should be distin
guished for intellectual superiority, select persons with large an
terior lobes of the brain. If you require activity, you must at
tend to the temperament, see vol. i, p. 84; if general power, to
the size of the brain in general; if general morality, to the size of
the region above B; if general intellect, to the size of the region
before A A; and if animal vigor, to the size of the region below
B and behind A. This figure represents the proportions of a
head in which the moral region above B is generaUy large, the
inteUectual region, before A A, respectable; and the animal re
gion, below B and behind A, moderate.

352

ADDRESS

5 ~'^ "y

It is the head of the Rev. Mr. Martin, who was distinguished
for this combination of qualities.
If you desire to avoid committing your destinies to men of
great animal vigor, but deficient in moral and intellectual quaU
ties, shun individuals whose heads resemble or nearly approach
to the foUowing form. It represents the head" of WiUiam Hare,
the atrocious associate of Burke in murdering sixteen human
beings for the sake of selling their dead bodies for dissection.

Contrast the proportions of the different regions in these figures;
go to Nature and judge for yourselves.

TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. c53
I have explained to you that the size of the organs indicates
only the presence of native mental power. If size and tem
perament be deficient, I know of no earthly means by which
high capacity can be conferred: but these may be possessed
without being cultivated. Phrenology affords no key to the
extent of cultivation; but this may be ascertained from other
sources. What I desire, therefore, to say is, that if you select
men with favorable temperaments, large moral and intellectual
organs, adequately educated — and moderate animal organs, dis
ciplined to obedience^ — you may rely on their virtuous qualities
when you employ thera as public servants, in all emergencies,
not involving disease, as securely as upon the physical elements
of nature; — if you choose men deficient in the moral and intel
lectual organs, and greatly gifted in those of the animal pro
pensities, be their education and religious professions what they
may, you will, in the hour of trial and temptation, find that you
have relied on broken reeds, and on vessels that retain no
water. lexpect these remarks to draw from many of you a smUe of
increduUty, and from some even one of derision; but nature can
wait her time. You and your sons will probably long contemn
this method of distinguishing the native qualities of the candi
dates who solicit your votes; but you and they will suffer as you
have done in times past, and now do, from the inferior qualities
of many individuals whom you elect, until you open your eyes
to your own interest and duty. It is God who has established
the facts which I now explain to you, and what he has appointed
can never faU. Your vast constituencies cannot, by personal
experience and observation, enjoy the advantage of judging of
the quaUties of aU the candidates who solicit their suffrages; and
nothing is more fallacious than the testimonies of friends and po
litical partisans; but the brain cannot be moulded to suit the in
terests of the day, and it will not deceive you. It affords an
index to native qualities which, with honest intention and assidu
ous care, may be read; and I unhesitatingly anticipate that the
day will come when your posterity will acknowledge that it
sheds a light from heaven upon the entangled path of their public
duties. FmaUy — Phrenology, when generally taught, wiU not only
render your citizens far more discriminating in their estimates
of the qualities of public men, but it wiU give them confidence
in moral and intellectual principle; it will induce them to seek
for, draw forth, elevate, and honor, the good and the wise, who
at present are too often borne down and excluded by noisy ego
tism and busfling profession, and left unemployed in the shade.
ItwiU also enable the good to recognise each other, and to combine

354 ADDRESS TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
their powers; it wiU give definite forms to their object^, and
union to their efforts. In short, it appears to me to be a great
instrument presented to you by Providence, to enable you to re
alise that grandeur and excellence in your individual and social
conditions which the friends of, humanity hold you bound to
exhibit as the legitimate fruits of freedom.
In presenting these views to you, I exercise that freedom of
thought and of speech which your institutions declare to be the
birthright of every rational being: but I do not construe your
attention in Ustening to them into approval of their substance;
nor do I desire that your countrymen should hold you answer
able for either their truth or their tendency. We must hear
before we can know, and reflect before we can understand; and
truth alone can bear investigation. Embrace, therefore, and ap
ply whatever I may have uttered that is sound; and forgive and
forget all that I may have stated in error. By your doing so,
the cause of civilisation will be advanced; while we, although
differing in opinion, may live in the exercise of mutual affection
and esteem. With my warmest acknowledgments for your kind
attention, I respectfully bid you fareweU.

APPENDIX.

APPENDIX.

No. I. — Referred to (erroneously as No. Ill) on p. 9.»
RESOLUTIONS OF THE SECOND CLASS AT PHILADELPHIA.
The average attendance at each lecture in the second course in Phila-
delphia was 357.
The following resolutions were adopted, and presented by a commit
tee: —
".4t the close of Mr. George Combe's second course of Lectures on
Phrenology, in the Hall of the Musical Fund, -4pril 6, 1839,
'• On motion, Professor Samuel B. Wylie was called to the chair, and
Geoage M'Clellan, M.D., appointed Secretary.
" The Rev. Chairman addressed the meeting on the propriety of making
some public expression of the satisfaction which the very numerous class
in attendance had derived from the lectures.
" On motion, the following resolutions, offered by Mr. Thomas Fisher,
were unanimously adopted: —
"Resolved, — That this class have listened with great interest to the
able and highly instructive exposition of Phrenology which Mr. Combe has
offered us.
" Resolved, — That whatever may have been our previous acquaintance
with the subject, the lectures of Mr. Combe have impressed us with much
respect for its practical importance, and with the kindliest feeling for the
learned lecturer.
"Resolved, — That Phrenology is recognised and commended as a science
founded in nature, by a large portion of the most distinguished anatomists
on both sides of the Atlantic, and that we believe it to be the only ade
quate illustration of the existing wonderfully various manifestations of the
human mind.
"Resolved, — That it will afford us pleasure, and that we believe it will
be highly acceptable to this community, that Mr. Combe should make it
consistent with his arrangements in other cities to give, during next winter,
another course in Philadelphia.
"Resolved, — That a committee of seven gentlemen be appointed to com
municate to Mr. Combe a copy of these resolutions.
* In some inst'ances the same number serves to designate different arti
cles in the Appendix. This error has arisen from some mistakes in the
numeration in the English edition, and also from the circumstance of the
sheets of the body of this volume having been printed before the Appendix to
It was received.

358 APPENDIX.
" The following gentlemen were accordingly appointed: —
" Samuel B. Wylie, D.D. Joseph Hartshorne, M.D.
" Samuel George Morton, M.D. Thomas Gilpin, Esq.
" George M'Clellan, M.D. Thomas Fisher."
" Charles S. Coxe, Esq.

No. II. — Referred to on p. 35.
CORRESPONDENCE, BETWEEN MK. TAPPAN* AND MR. KEY.
{From the African Repository for April, 1839.)
Augusta, (Me.) July 31, 1838.
My Dear Sir: — Some years since I had the pleasure of travelling in
company with you from Philadelphia to Baltimore, and was indebted to
you for the privilege of being introduced to the acquaintance and hospi
tality of the much beloved and respected Dr. Nevins. I know not whether
you will recollect the circumstance, but I must make it my apology for
writing to you now with- somewhat more of freedom than I would feel in
addressing a stranger.
The subject of slavery has frequently come up, within two or three
years past, in the meetings in New England of ecclesiastical bodies, and
resoluliions have been passed expressing their views respecting it. At a
late meeting of the General Conference of Maine (consisting of clerical
and lay delegates from the county conferences of Congregational churches
throughout the state), a committee was raised, of seven clergymen, to cor
respond with ecclesiastical bodies at the south. After some consultation,
the committee were of opinion that it would be advisable, in the first place,
to correspond, individually, with individuals at the south. In conformity
to that opinion, I am taking the libe/ty, dear sir, to address this communi
cation to you. You, I am persuaded, will not accuse us of intermeddling,
in this matter, with that which does not belong to us. You have welcomed
the aid of your fellow-citizens at the north in the colonisation enterprise,
in the hope (if I have not misunderstood your views) that the influence of
that enterprise would be conducive to the termination of slavery. You
will not, therefore, object to the inquiry, whether our influence may not be
exerted at the north, as well as at the south, bearing more directly upon
such a consummation.
Our first object, in the correspondence proposed, is to obtain informa
tion. Permit me, then, to request your attention to the following inquiries.
Does the opinion generally prevail among the ministers and members of
southern churches that slaveholding, as practised in this country, is sanc
tioned by the Word of God? If this is not their opinion, hOw do they
justify themselves in holding slaves?
Do professors of religion forfeit their Christian character by buying and
selling slaves, as they may find it convenient? or do they subject them
selves to censure and discipline by any immorality or ill treatment of which
they may be guilty towards slaves?
Since the discussion of slavery in the legislature of Virginia a few
* Rev. Dr. Tappan of Augusta, Maine.

APPENDIX. 359
years since, has there been in that state any change of opinion more favor
able to the continuance of the present system? If so, to what causes is
that change to be attributed?
Is it the general belief of humane and Christian Colonisationists at the
south, that slaves ought not to be emancipated, unless they are also sent out
of the country? If this is their opinion, on what is it founded? Were
they set free, would not their labor still be needed, and might it not be re
warded on terms more advantageous to both parties than under the pre
sent arrangements?
Is there any good reason to believe that any thing of importance will be
done, generally speaking, to prepare the slaves for freedom before they are
made free?
Is there not an under-current of opinion and feeling in the south, among
the more enlightened and philanthropic, and is it not widening and strength
ening, against the continuance of the present system, and an increasing
conviction that it may safely and advantageously be abolished?
What will probably be the influence upon the southern mind of the ex
periment now in progress in the West Indies?
What, in your opinion, has been the effect, on the whole, at the south, of
the efforts of abolitionists? Were the letters, which passed the last winter
between Mr. EUmore and Mr. Birney, read (to any considerable extent)
by southern members of Congress? So far as they were read, what was
the impression produced by the statements and reasonings of Mr. Birney?
Can there be any useful co-operation between the good people at the
north and south (except by means of the colonisation society) in efforts for
abolishing or meliorating the present system of slavery?
What are the present prospects of the American colonisation society?
Have many of the officers of this society liberated and colonised their
own slaves?
Begging you to excuse the liberty, which I have now taken, and request
ing an answer at as early a period as you may find it convenient, — I remain
my dear sir, very respectfully ,i yours, Benjamin Tappan.
To Francis S. Key, Esq.
P. S. — It is not proposed to make any public use of your name, in con
nection with any facts or opinions which you may have the kindness to
communicate. MR. key's reply. Washington, October 8, 3838.
Rev. and dear Sir: — A long absence from home preveiited my receiving
your letter till lately; and, though I could wish for more time and leisure
to answer it more fully and satisfactorily, I will endeavor to do it without
further delay. I well remember our meeting on the occasion you mention;
though that would not be necessary to induce me to treat with all respect
and attention a letter from you on any subject, and particularly on one
which has long and greatly interested me. Before I answer your ques
tions, you will excuse my saying a few words for myself— as that may
show how far I am competent to answer them, and what my answers may
be worth.
I was born in Maryland, and have always lived in a slave state— am
pretty well acquainted with the middle states", and have been as far as Ala
bama to the south. No northern man began the world with more enthu
siasm against slavery than I did. For forty years and upwards, I have

360 APPENDIX.
felt the greatest desire to see Maryland become a free state, and the strongest
conviction that she could become so. That desire and that conviction have
not abated ii> the least — I feel sure that it will be so. I have always been
endeavoring to aid in promoting that object, and do so still. I consider it
now in the course of accomplishment: and, could I give you all the facts
in my possession, and the results of my observation and experience for
many years, I believe you would come to this conclusion — ^that there is
now a field open for the labors of all who wish to promote emancipation,
to which they should direct and confine their efforts; and that such efforts,
if pursued in the right way, would accomplish more in comparatively a
few years, than has ever been yet effected: and with these great advan
tages — that the dissensions arising from this delicate and exciting subject
would be everywhere quieted, and the condition, of the slaves in the other
states greatly meliorated. Had I time, I would like to go on to the north
and maintain these propositions. As this cannot be the case, let me now
say a word or two more about them.
You may ask why such efforts should be confined to Maryland? 1
answer: because, first, they would there be readily received; secondly, her
people see the advantages of her becoming a free state; thirdly, she is the
border state, and can obtain free labor; fourthly, that species of labor
already prevailing in some part of the state, manifests its superiority by
every sort of improvement. These, and many other causes now in full
operation, show, what experience will prove, that no slave state adjacent to
a free state can continue so. The people of Maryland are satisfied of this;
and a vast majority of them are not only content, but pleased at the pros
pect. Her legislature has declared these views, and, with reference to such
a result, has made liberal appropriations to the scheme of Colonisation. —
The state has arcolony of its own at Cape Palmas. Its condition is flour
ishing; and, notwithstanding many difficulties, and the violent and most
unreasonable opposition of the abolitionists, the colored people have con
sented to remove to it as fast as their establishment there could be pru
dently conducted, under present circumstances. It is true that her slave
population is diminishing, at the same time, by other means. Her prox-
imity to a free state enables many to escape. Indeed, near the Pennsyl
vania line, there are few slaves but such as are willing to continue so.
Many are also sold, and many remove with their masters lo the south,
where their labor is more profitable. This, I agree, is not so favorable a
disposition of them as colonisation; but it cannot be helped, and if is bet
ter for thera than remaining slaves in Maryland, where the unprofitable
ness of their labor makes it difficult for their masters to maintain them
comfortably. You may also desire to know what I mean by qualifying these efforts to
be made in Maryland, by saying they must be "pursued in the right way,"
— and you may ask if I do not mean, by this right way, colonisation. I
answer, that it must be done in a way that the people of Maryland will
agree to. Nothing can be more unreasonable than to attenipt it in any
other way. And if there is any way, to which they will consent, which is
better for the slaves than their present condition, it ought to be acquiesced
in even by those who may think that there is a better way. Now, there
are some ways in which the people of Maryland will never agree to these
efforts being made. 1st, Not by abolition publications — because they are
dangerous and unnecessary. It is vain to argue about their being danger
ous. They know it from experience, and certainly are better judges of
what is dangerous to persons in their situation than any men elsewhere
can be. Further— whether better judges or not, they will be, and they

APPENDIX. 361
ought to be the only judges: for the danger is to themselves. And such
efforts are proved to be unnecessary; for there are now, and always have
been, more slaves ready to be emancipated than there are means to remove
from the state, that condition of removal being, as the people of Maryland
think (allowing some exceptions) indispensable. Of this I shall speak
hereafter. 2dly, They will not allow an immediate and general emancipa
tion, deeming it ruinous both to the slaves and themselves. And, 3dly,
They require, as a condition, removal from the state, except in particular
instances, where the slaves, on account of their good conduct and character
may be allowed to remain, on certain conditions. That such removal may
be accomplished in a way advantageous to the liberated slaves, the door of
colonisation has been opened. We believe (we think upon undoubted evi
dence) that, besides the obvious and immense advantages to Africa, this
mode of disposition is the best for theoi; and we are sure that time will
make this apparent to all. But, if the people of the free states think
otherwise, and are so sure that they may remain safely, happily, and use
fully in Maryland, as to be willing to receive them into their own limits,
there would be no objection to their doing so. If there is this difference of
opinion as to their remaining among the whites, between the people of the
fi:ee states and the slave states, surely the only fair way of settling it is
for those who are in favor of their remaining to take them. It is unne
cessary, therefore, to discuss this question. If ever so necessary, I am
sure it would be vain; for the people of Maryland have an experience upon
the subject that no arguments could shake. And they will believe that
they are more competent to decide it than the people of the free states can
possibly be.
I will, however, state the results of my own experience. I have emanoi-
pated seven of my slaves. They have done pretty well, and six of theih,
now alive, are supporting themselves comfortably and creditably. Yet 1
cannot but see that this is all they are doing now; and when age and in
firmity come upon them, they will probably suffer. It is to be observed,
also, that these were selected individuals, who were, with two exceptions,
brought up with a view to their being so disposed of, and were made to
undergo a probation of a few years in favorable situations, and when
emancipated, were far better fitted for the duties and trials of their new
condition than the general mass of slaves. Yet I am still a slaveholder,
and could not, without the greatest inhumanity, be otherwise. I own, for
instance, an. old slave, who has done no work for me for years. I pay his
board and other expenses, and cannot believe that I sin in doing so.
The laws of Maryland contain provisions of various kinds, under which
slaves, in certain circumstances, are entitled to petition the courts for their
freedom. As a lawyer, I always undertook these cases with peculiar zeal,
and have been thus instrumental in liberating several large families and
many individuals. I cannot remember more than two instances, out of
this large number, in which it did not appear that the freedom I so ear
nestly sought for them was their ruin. It has been so with a very large
proportion of all others I have known emancipated. A gentleman in
Maryland, upwards of thirty years ago, emancipated by his will between
two and three hundred negroes. They all took (as they were required to
do) his name. For several years they crowded our cities, where their vices
and idleness were notorious, and their sufferings extreme. I have not
seen one for many years, and am informed that there are none in the
county where they were liberated. There may be some in the free states.
Their name was Barnes. I do not believe there could be now found in
Maryland twenty of the name.

362 APPENDIX.
It is in vain, in the face of facts like these, which every man I have ever
spoken with upon the subject avows his knowledge of, to talk of the British
West India Islands and the apprentice system — at least, it must be vain to
talk of these things till they are fully tried. I shall be surprised, though
gratified, if the result of these experiments differ from that of similar at-
tempts in Maryland. I observe that, at the last anti-slavery anniversary,
it was admitted that the apprentice system was all wrong, and had failed;
and now, the recent accounts from Jamaica represent the deplorable state
of the island, in consequence of the refusal of the negroes to work, except
for wages beyond the power of the planters to give.
I will proceed now to answer your questions. This is the first:
" Does the opinion generally prevail among the ministers and members
of southern churches, that slaveholding, as practised in thi,^ country, is
sanctioned by the Word of God? If this is not their opipion, how do they
justify themselves in holding slaves.'"
The ministers and members of southern churches will not attempt to
justify themselves in any thing without the sanction of the Word of God:
the latter part, therefore, of the question is unnecessary. You ask, then, if
we believe that slaveholding, as practised in this country, is sanctioned by
the Word of God. I answer, that they believe generally, I think, that
Scripture contains neither an express sanction nor an express prohibition
on the subject. It gives general rules to govern men's conduct towards
each other, applicable to this and all other cases. If men cannot hold slaves
without violating these rules, they must not hold them; and, if these rules
permit or require us, under any circumstances, to hold slaves, then the
Word of God sanctions such slave-holding. Take, then, the great rule of
the Gospel — '• Do unto others as you would they should do unto you."
This must govern all possible cases of human conduct, and bears, of course,
upon this question as to slave holding. Does it sanction slave-holding un
der all circumstances'! or prohibit slave-holding urider aU circumstances'!
It does (and, I think, most wisely) neither — leaving it to be determined by
circumstances whether this law of love authorizes or forbids it. If a Chris
tian, then, considering whether he shall hold a slave or not, takes this rule.
and applies it honestly, as in the sight of God, to his case, and comes fairly
to the conclusion that he should, who shall condemn him? All that can be
said is, that he is misled by prejudice or interest, and has come to a wrong
conclusion: Hundreds and thousands of Christians, showing in their whole
life undoubted evidences of the faith which they profess, have so applied
this rule to their conscience, and so come to this conclusion. Their brethren
at the north, knowing nothing of the peculiar xjircumstances under which
they have acted, nor of the care and faithfulness with which they have in
quired and decided, call upon them to justify themselves for violating the
sanctions of God's word. This, I am willing to believe, is more owing to
want of information than of charity: though, certainly, even without infor
mation, it would be only reasonable to indulge the hope and the belief that
there was something of a justificatory nature in the circumstances sur
rounding their distant brethren, which should relieve them from such an
accusation. Consider what a proposition it is that must be maintained by those who
thus denounce, in these sweeping terms, all slave-holders. It is this:, A
man always violates the divine precept of doing as he would be done by
when he holds a slave.
Strange as this proposition would sound to any one at all acquainted with
the various circumstances under which persons in a slave state become the
owners and holders of slaves, yet I doubt not many honest, but heated abo-

APPENDIX. 363
litionists are ready to maintain it. Indeed, it is often avowed in their pub
lications. Yet I think it is easy to state a few instances in which it would
seem impossible to deny that this precept not only permitted, but required,
the holding of a slave; and they are instances continually occurring.
A man becomes (sometimes by no act of his own) the owner of an old or
infirm slave, when emancipation would be the basest cruelty, and there is
no way of maintaining him in comfort, but by holding hira as a slave; is
he to be emancipated? So of a slave who is idle, intemperate, &c. &c. who,
without wholesome restraint, would be wretched himself, and a plague to
all others; would this Christian precept require him to be emancipated? So
of all cases where the holder of slaves conscientiously believes that their
condition, from the peculiar circumstances of their situation, will be made
worse by freedom — worse to themselves and others.
There are, again, other instances when a benevolent man will meet in a
slave community with such appeals to his charity, that he will buy and hold
slaves because he wishes to do as he would be done by. Many are so
bought and held. A slave may have an unkind master— may be about to
be sold away from his friends or family — a family of slaves may be liable
to separation: in all these cases, a man who is known to be a good master,
and who has the means of employing thera so as to maintain them comfort.
ably, will be importuned to purchase them. It will be a manifest improve
ment in their condition. Will not this Christian precept sanction his
yielding to their entreaties? It may be said that he should buy them and
liberate them. This, even if satisfied that it would be better for them, he
might not be able to afford. And shall he refuse to do the lesser charity
because he has not the means to do the greater?
I therefore answer your first question thus: " Slave-holding, as practised
in this country, is sanctioned by the Word of God," when it is practised, as
I know it often is, in such instances as I have stated, and in many others,
consistently with the Christian precept of doing as we would be done by.
And "slave-holding, as practised in this country" otherwise, as when slaves
are bought and held for the mere purposes of gain by traffic, or by extorting
their labor without any regard to their welfare (for it must be admitted that
it is so practised by some,) is not sanctioned by the Word of God. So that
slave-holding is right or wrong (as many other things are) according as it
is practised. I have not thought it necessary to advert to some passages of
Scripture which it seems hard to reconcile with the idea that slave-holding,
under all circumstances, is within its prohibitions.
Your second question is as follows. —
" Do professors of religion forfeit their Christian character by buying and
selling slaves, as they may find it convenient? or do they subject themselves
to censure and discipline by any immorality or ill treatment of which they
might be guilty towards their slaves?"
The persons among us who buy and sell slaves for profit are never, as I
have ever heard or believe, professors of religion. Such conduct, or any
immorality or ill treatment towards their slaves, would forfeit their Chris-
tian character and privileges, if their minister did his duty. And nothing
more disgraces a man in general estimation than to be guilty of any immo-
raUty or ill treatment towards his slaves.
Third question— " Since the discussion of slavery in the Legislature of
Virginia, a few year since, has there been in that state any change of opin
ion more favorable to the continuance of the present system? If so, to what
causes is that change to be attributed?"
A considerable change of opinion has taken place in all the middle states,
particularly, perhaps, in Virginia and Maryland, such as your question sug-

364 APPENDIX.
gests. Some who are favorable to the emancipation connected with removal
now avow themselves against it altogether, and against the agitation of every
thing connected with slavery, and show less kind feeling tovvard the blacks.
I attribute this to the publications and efforts of the abolitioaists.
Fourth question — "Is it the general belief of humane and Christian co-
lonizationists in the south, that slaves ought not to be emancipated, unless
they are also sent out of the country? If this is their opinion, on what is it
founded? Were they set free, would not their labor still be needed, and
might it not be secured on terms more advantageous to both parties than
under present arrangements?"
It is, I believe, universally so thought by them. I never heard a contrary
opinion, except that some conceived, some time ago, that a territory in our
country, to the West, might be set apart for them. But few, comparatively,
adopted this idea; and I never hear it advocated now. Tlvis opinion is
founded on the conviction that their labor, however it might be needed,
could not be secured but by a severer system of constraint than that of sla
very — that they would constitute a distinct andinferior race of people which
all experience proves to be the greatest evil that could afflict a community.
I do not suppose, however, that they would object to their reception in the
free states, if they chose to make preparations for their comfortable settle
ment among them.
Fifth question — " Is there any good reason to believe that any thing of
importance, generally speaking, will be done to prepare the slaves for free
dom before they are made free?"
As the colonisation scheme advances, 1 think much will be done. Many
masters will prepare their young slaves for such a change. Many, Who
cannot afford to emancipate altogether, will make arrangements with their
slaves to go to Africa, and remit a moderate price for themselves, as they
may be able to do. And if a desire to return to their fathers' land should
become general (as I trust it will,) both among the slaves and free blacks,
nothing could be better calculated to improve and exalt the whole colored
race. It would encourage them to good conduct, industry, temperance, and
all those efforts that men make to better their condition.
Sixth — " Is there not an under-current of opinion and feeling in the South
among the enlightened and philanthropic, and is it not widening and strength
ening against the continuance of the present system, and an increasing con
viction that it may safely and advantageously be abolished?"
I have not seen any appearance of such a current for several years past.
I think it would be difficult to find any tolerably informed individual who
holds such opinions or feelings. There was formerly some feeling of this
kind in favor of a gradual abolition of slavery. I think there is none now,
unless conected with the condition of removal. I assure you that I never
hear, though I converse with men of all sorts, slaveholders and others, who
hold no slaves, any opinion favora,ble to emancipation, except on that con
dition. Seventh — " What will probably be the influence upon the southern mind
of the experiment now in progress in the West Indies?"
If the southern mind becomes calm and unhealed by opposition, and that
experiment should succeed, it would, I think, have great effect — Removal
from the country might not then be insisted on as a condition of emancipa
tion. Eighth— "What in your opinion, has been the effect, on the whole, at the
South, of the efforts of abolitionists? Were the letters which passed last
winter between Mr. Elmore and Mr. Birney read (to any considerable ex
tent) by southern members of Congress? So far as they were read, what

-APPENDIX. 365
was the impression produced by the statements and reasonings of Mr.
Birney?" I think the efforts of the abolitionists have been most unfortunate. There
is a great and unfavorable hhange of opinion and feeling in the whites to
wards the blacks, which, I think, cannot be otherwise accounted for; and the
whole colored race have been injured by these efforts. The free and the
slaves have been both subjected to more restraint. The publications men
tioned have been very little read by southern men. They would rarely take
up any thing understood to be written by a prominent abolitionist.
Ninth.^"Can there be any useftil co-operation between good people at
the North and South (except by means of the Colonisation Society) in efforts
for abolishing or ameliorating the present system of slavery?"
1 think good men at the north if tliey will fairly inquire, will, both
for the sake of Africa and our own land, prefer the colonisation plan to
any other. They must do this soon, as they must know (what they may
know now) what benefits Africa is receiving, and our colonists are en
joying, under its efforts. But, if any of our Northern brethren cannot
see this, let them prepare an asylum for emancipated slaves among them
selves, where they can be usefully employed and happily settled, and raise
funds for their removal and settlement. I believe as many could be ob
tained readily as could be thus provided for. In this way they could
essentially promote emancipation.
In " meliorating the present system of slavery," they could also do much.
This might be done in several ways, but more particularly in assisting
in their religious improvement — a subject which now greatly occupies the
minds of southern men, particularly since the Southampton insurrection,
which, you may know, originated with a religious fanatic, or a hypocrite
playing the fanatic. From a variety of causes, the public mind particular
ly of religious professors, has been turned to this subject. The Assistant-
Bishop of Virginia, a year or two ago, made a strong appeal to the
churches of his diocese; and the ministers of all denominations are taking
up the subject, and considerable efforts are making for their regular re
ligious instruction. The Bishop of North Carolina told me, a year ago,
of very interesting commencements of this kind introduced into that state.
He stated that it was now common for two or three neighboring planters
to join in employing a minister for their slaves; and he said he had then
applications for ministers for six or seven such situations, and found it im
possible to supply them. I was informed last winter of the arrangements
made by Mr. Rhett, a member of congress from South Carolina, for the
instruction of his negroes. He employs a minister, who lives on his estate,
and devotes himself to the improvement of his slaves, for whom he has
built a church, where they have regular service. I made several inquiries
of Mr. Rhett, who gave me a very interesting account of his establishment,
and says it has introduced order, good conduct, and happiness among his
slaves to a remarkable degree, and that many of his neighbors are en
deavoring to adopt similar arrangements. Now, we want ministers for
all these places. The demand for them is now great and earnest; and I
believe that, in every neighborhood where there are many slaves, in the
middle states, such situations will be found. Let our northern brethren
quaUfy their young ministers for these interesting charges — qualify them,
by making them understand this delicate subject of slavery — or keeping
them pure from all the fanaticism of abolition, send them with their minds
open to conviction, where they may see and judge for themselves, ?nd
where they will learn that, while many Christians are holding slaves, from
the necessity of their situation, they are holding them without forgetting
VOL. II. — 25

366 APPENDIX.
they are their brethren — and where they will see slaves far happier than
the laboring classes of many countries. At present, young men from the
North are excluded from these situations, because they are supposed to
be under the influence of abolition principles, and slaveholders are afraid to
trust them. Let this prejudice against receiving young men from the
North as teachers and ministers in such situations be removed, by a
more correct and charitable state of feeling and opinion at the North
towards slaveholders and a wide and most interesting field of labor
will be opened to pious young men from the northern states, in which
they will be able to do much for the melioration of the present sys
tem of slavery, and, in some situations, where it can be done with advan
tage to the slaves and without danger to the masters, to promote emancipa
tion also.
I will here mention that the religious instruction of the slaves in the
middle states (I speak, more particularly of Maryland) has been more at
tended to by the Methodists than by any other denomination. I think
more than three-fourths of the whole colored population, where they have
access to Methodist churches, belong to that denomination. Nor is there
any prejudice against the Methodist teachers and preachers, on the part
of the masters, although that sect has been always considered friendly to
emancipation. A change has, however, taken place, not only in the opi
nions and feelings of that class of Christian.s, but in the discipline of their
church, which it may be proper to mention. It shows how Christians,
strongly prejudiced against slavery, and anxious to abolish it, have been
made to learn, by their own observation and experience, that, under certain
circumstances, it is perfectly consistent with Christian principles to pur-
chase and hold slaves. Methodists formerly denounced slavery in general
terriis, as it is now denounced at the north. They were never allowed, and
would not be now, to act as jurors in a suit for freedom. They were not
allowed by their discipline to continue in the church, if they purchased and
held slaves. If a member of their church purchased a slave, no matter
under what circumstances, the matter was brought before the monthly con
ference, and it was then determined, the age and value of the slave and
the priee paid for him being all considered, what was a reasonable term of
service to be required of him as a compensation for what his master had
paid for him — that is, how many years' service at the usual rate of hire,
would reimburse the advance of the master — and he was then to be no
longer a slave, but a servant for that time.
The rule of discipline is now changed; and now, when a member of
their Church purchases a slave, it is brought, as before, to the considera
tion of the conference, and the circumstances are inquired into. If it is
considered that he has bought ffom a mercenary motive, for gain alone,
without any inducements of kindness or favor towards the slave, he is cen
sured and suspended from his church privileges, and made to do what is
thought right or excommunicated, according to the circumstances of miti
gation or aggravation that may be found in the particular case. If he has
bought from kindness to the slave, to prevent the separation of a family, or
in' any way with the motive of bettering his condition, he is allowed to
hold him, and is considered as having acted consistently with Christian
principles. In this way Methodists now buy and work slaves as other
Christians do; and their church (as is the case with all other deniminations)
only requires that they should treat them well. Cruelty to slaves, if
charged and sustained against any man belonging to a church of any
denomination, would exclude him from its privileges, and would also ex
clude him from all reputable society. I do not mean to say that the

APPENDIX. 367
slaves in Maryland are maint?iined as well as they ought to be; in some
parts of the state, I know, I have already said, their masters are unable to
do so.
It may seem strange to gentlemen unacquainted with our institutions
how a man can buy a slave from mere charity; yet nothing is more com
mon — as a very short residence in any slave neighborhood would convince
them. Perhaps I may best show this by supposing a case — it is such a
one as often occurs: To make it more apposite, I will suppose the person
applied to to be a man from the north, with the strongest prejudices against
slavery. He buys a farm in Maryland, which he cultivates with hired
labor, both because of his opposition to slavery, and because it is, in his
opinion (as in some parts of Maryland it is in fact), cheaper than slave
labor. He has nothing but his farm and its stock, and it requires all its
produce, with a good management and strict economy, to maintain his
family. Such a man, who has lived in this way a year or twp, and whom
we will designate as Mr. B., is applied to on a Saturday evening by Tom,
a stout, hearty, young negro, and the following dialogue takes place be
tween them: —
Tom. Master, I am come to ask a very great favor.
Mr. B. Well, Tom, let me hear what it is. If what you want is reason
able and in my power, I shall be glad to do it.
Tom, Master, I think it is reasonable, and I hope it will lie in your
power. My wife, you know, is a free woman, and has now been in your
service some time. I was hired to you last harvest, and at other times, and
you know what sort of a hand I am.
Mr. B. Yes, Tom, I have been well satisfied with both your wife and
yourself, and you know that I offered, partly to accommodate you both, to
hire you by the year, but your master thought he could not spare you.
Tom, Well, sir, he must spare me now. I am to be sold; and what I
want, and what would make me and my wife happy for our whole lives, is
for you to buy me.
Mr. B, Tom, that is out of the question. You know I hold no slaves — I
am principled against it. I will go and see your master, and hire you.
Surely he will not sell you.
Trnn. Sir, he can't help it. They say he has had a power of money to
pay for his cousin in town, who was broke up last spring; and another debt
has now gone against him. last week, at the court. So he called me into
the hall yesterday, and says he, " Tom, you have been a good fellow, and
so was your father before you. You'll have to be sold by the sheriff, if
you can't get a master in the neighborhood: go and see what you can do."
So he gave rae this note, and he gave notice'to all but the old people. He
said he had been to the gentleman who held the debt; and all he could do
was to give him one week, to try and sell the people himself, that the sheriff
might not have to sell them to the soul-drivers. I am sure I am sorry for
him, as well as for myself; for he has been a good master to us all.
Mr. B. Tom, I am sorry for you, but I cannot buy a slave — I cannot
give such a sanction to this horrible system. You must get somebody else
to buy you: I will hire you, and give the highest wages. I know you are
a good hand; but I cannot hold a slave — it is against my principles.
Tom could not well understand this; but he went to two or three other
neighbors without success, and he and bis wife were in great trouble.
On Sunday night they were (as usual) called in to family prayers, and it
so happened that Mr. B., being in the habit of using, on such occasions,
Doddridge's Family Expositor, came to that part of the book which con
tained the precept of our Savior of doing to others as we would they should

368 APPENDIX,
do unto us. The exposition of Doddridge is, as we know, very plain and very
strong. Tom understood it, and thought it a pity that Mr. B.'s principles
should prevent him from doing the favor he asked. Mr. B. was a Christian:
and he felt like a man who has two opposite principles to walk by. He saw
it would be a kind thing to buy this poor fellow — that was plain — and that
it was just what, in similar circumstances, he should wish done for himself.
But slave-holding, he had long settled, was the height of wickedness— and
how could he doit? If he could buy him and set him free, then his duty
was plain: but this he could not afford to do with justice to his own family.
It would leave him without adequate means to hire labor for his farm. Still
he was not at ease; and he arose early in the morning, and called Tom,
whom he found taking a sorrowful leave of his wife.
Mr. B. Tom, I am sorry I have not the means of buying you and setting
you free. If I could afford it, I would gladly do so.
Tom. Master, if you could buy nie and let me work for you as long as I
live! that would be all I could ask. You would have to run the risk of my
dying or running away; but you would have my labor as long as I worked
for you, and this would save you the hire of other hands — so that you might
afford to do this, instead of buying me and setting me free for nothing.
Mr. B. That is true, and I am not afraid of your running away, Tom;
but I cannot hold a slave — I must not be a slaveholder.
Tom. Master, then hold me, not as a slave, but something else — buy me,
and you. can call rae what you please; you can tell me that 1 am not a slave
and that I may run away when I please — you know I will not.
Mr. B. Well, Tom, if I could get around this, I do not see how I can
buy you. It would be owning your master's right to you as a slave, and
his right to sell you.
Tom. Well, it is very haW. I don't see who has got any right to object
to your buying or holding me as a slave, if I am agreed to it. If I ask
such a favor, and you grant if, to save me from being sold away, who can
complain of you for doing such a kindness — for doing as you would be
done by?
Whether this argument succeeded with Mr. B., or he was overpowered
by the distress of Tom's wife, and the sympathy of his own wife and
children, who all came around him,' it might be hard to determine; but he
told Tom to stay where he was, and he rode over to his master.
Before 1 conclude what I have to say under this question, permit me
again to solicit your attention, and that of your friends, to the present situ
ation of Maryland. This state is a slave state, bordering on a free state.
She is changing her condition, as Pennsylvania and other states have done.
Her legislators and citizens very generally avow their determination that
she shall be a free state. The free labor of Pennsylvania is flowing over
into her, and she can change her laborers; and in many parts of the state
bordering on Pennsylvania, there is now scarcely any slavery — certainly
none that can be regarded as an evil — for there are no slaves there but such
as choose to continue so. Such parts of the state also exhibit a remarka
ble degree of improvement; so as to convince all that Maryland, in the price,
and improvements, and products of her land, in the increase and improve
ments of her population, and in many other respects, will Jerive incalcula
ble benefits from the change.
I shall send you some documents and publications upon this subject,
which will show you what the legislature of that state is doing, and what
evident progress is making to accomplish the object of making Maryland
a free state.
Thus will soon he worked out this political problem—" A slave state.

APPENDIX. 3H9
lying by the side of a free state, will become a free state." I believe this
as fully as any demonstration in Euclid.
What a prospect this opens to humane and benevolent men at the north,
is obvious — particularly to such as desire to remove this blot from as many
of our institutions as possible.
When Virginia becomes the border state she will be brought under the
same process. Indeed, in some parts of that state, it is now in operation.
Free labor will be brought to her, and she will find that she can change,
and change most beneficially, her system. And so will it work on, till the
dark line that separates the free from the slave states reaches the southern
border of our land.
Thus, and thus only, is the slavery of the southern states to be approached.
In many of them, now, it is absurd to propose any scheme of emancipa
tion, or to address their people upon such a question.
But let the work be confined to the border states,-and it will, go on rapidly
and safely.
The slaves of Maryland are diminishing every year, as will appear by the
census. They are going off in various ways — many are sold to the south;
many are emancipated; some run away.
Hundreds of masters in Maryland are ready to emancipate their slaves,
if they can go away — a condition which they know, from the fullest ex
perience, is beneficial both to themselves and those they liberate. They
have already emancipated a great number — some of whom have remained,
and others have gone to Africa — and they know how great and obvious
have been the advantages of removal.
In some parts of Maryland slave labor is no longer profitable. They
cannot be maintained there. Their masters must remove with them, or
dispose of them in some way. Humanity to them requires this.
Must they, then, go farther south as slaves? or to Africa as free men?
This is the condition of the colored population of Maryland — this is the
alternative presented for them to the consideration of the benevolent.
I agree that, if removal to Africa is that horrible act of cruelty that it is
represented to be — if their condition in the colonies there established is as
wretched as is asserted — humanity, may stand still, and be indifferent
whether they go south as slaves, or cross the ocean as freemen.
And this brings me to the last topic of your letter — the present condi
tion and prospects of the colonisation scheme. Examine this thoroughly
and impartially, and see whether any thing has been done, or can be done,
to compare with it, in its beneficial results to the colored race here and in
Africa. All I need say of this (as I shall send you publications giving you full
information on the subject) is, that I think I have seen more indications
of the favor of Providence towards this object than any other I have ever
considered — that its success is greater than that of any other similar en
terprise ever undertaken, and that I have no doubt of its success— that the
long-lost children of, ill-fated Africa will be restored to their fathers' land,
hearing with them the blessings of religion and civilisation, and thus
" Vindicate the ways of God to man."
I have no objection to your making use of this coiiimunication, and of
my name, in any way that you think will do good.
I am, yours respectfully, F. S. KEY.
P. S. — I did not observe that I had omitted to answer a part of your
last question.

370 APPENDIX.
The publications of the society will show that many of its members have
emancipated their slaves, and sent them to Africa, and others have made
arrangements for doing so. Mr. Murray, of Maryland, sent out all his
slaves (upwards of 30) nine or ten years ago; and he often hears from them,
and they speak with great satisfaction of their situation. Mr. Fitzhugh,
of Virginia, another member of the society, has made provision, by his will,
for the removal of all his slaves (I believe about 200) to Africa. Most of
those now in Africa have been emancipated with the view to their removal
there. ^- =• ^•

No. HI.-*- Referred to on p. 48.
KESOLUTIONS OF THE CLASS -WHO ATTENDED THE SECOND COURSE
OF LECTURES OF PHRENOLOGY IN NEW YORK.
The average attendance on this course was the following: — subscribers,
139; visiters, 35; complimentary hearers, 20; total average attendance each
night, 194.
To George Combe, Esq. New York, May 20, 1839.
Sir: — At a meeting of the class in attendance on your second course of
lectures in this city, held on the 18th day of May 1839, the undersigned
were appointed a committee to present the accompanying resolutions which
were unanimously adopted by the class, as expressive of their opinions of
the truth and importance of Phrenology, of your talents as a lecturer, and
of your character as a man.
In fulfilling this pleasurable duty, the undersigned beg to assure you of
their hearty concurrence with the opinions and sentiments therein ex
pressed, and of their high personal respect. . Thomas J. Sawyer,
La Roy Sunderland,
E. P. Hurlbut,
Andrew Boardman.
At a nleeting of the class in attendance upon Mr. George Combe's second
course of Lectures, on the 15th day of May 1839, the following gentlemen
were appointed a Committee to prepare and report a paper and resolutions
expressive of the sentiments of the class, upon the subject of said lectures,
and their feelings toward Mr. Combe as a lecturer, to-wit: Rev. Mr. Sawyer,
Mr. Boardman, Rev. Mr. Sunderland and Mr. Hurlbut.
On the 18th day of May instant, Mr. Hurlbut, from that Committee, re
ported the following paper and resolutions, which were adopted unanimously
by the class:
The second course of lectures upon Phrenology, deUvered in this city by
Mr. George Combe, of Edinburgh, having closed, the members of his class
are desirous of expressing their views of the science which he has taught,
and the sentiments entertained by them toward the distinguished lecturer
personally. * See p. 357.

APPENDIX. 371
He has presented to us the wonderful discovery of Dr. Gall, and its prac
tical influence upon the character and condition of man. That discovery
was characterized by the most minute attention to the laws of our organi
zation — by the most patient observation of facts — and by the deduction of
inevitable conclusions from them.
Dr. Gall abandoned the school of metaphysical speculation, and taking to
the observation of nature, he at length presented to the world his great dis
covery of the true functions of the brain, and of its various parts.
We now look to nature for the foundation of the science of mental philo
sophy, and the enlightened mind of the old wnrld and the new is now en
gaged in illustrating and establishing it.
Our own country has been twice honored by visits from the earliest and
most gifted advocates of this science. The noble and accomplished Spurz
heim (a name sacred to every friend of man) fell a victim to disease upon
our shores, whilst just opening the rich fountain of his well-stored intellect
to an American audience.
The language of eulogy fails altogether when employed upon so noble a
nature as his. But for this we thank him — that he directed the mind of a
Combe to the sublime truths he had himself embraced, and allowed his
mantle to descend upon the gifted individual to whom we have all listened
with intense interest and delight. How nobly has he executed in our coun
try the work which his " great and lamented master" had begun!
He came not among us to earn applause, for of that he had already
enough; nor treasure, for we are happy to know of that he had no occasion
to go in search. He came not seeking controversy, being no less distin
guished for his love of peace than for his devotion to science. But be came
as a minister from the enlightened' mind of the old world, to treat with the
intellect of the new upon matters of the deepest concern to the human race.
His message was of the highest importance to us all. It interested us
as students of Nature's laws, as observers of their manifestations, as specu
lators in mental philosophy, and friends of education. It opened new views
of man's moral and intellectual character, and well nigh explained the mys
tery of thought — that most subtle emanation from the divinity of Nature.
It taught the discipline of yoiith: how to inform their intellect, to elevate
their sentiments, and to moderate their passions. It pointed the way of
happiness to man, by exhibiting the sources of human virtue and its effects;
the causes of vice, and its effects upon his condition in life. It presented
the most rational'and humane view of moral responsibility, and explained and
enforced the whole duty of man; and, in this his last and crowning lecture,
Mr. Combe has opened the treasures of his knowledge of the political insti
tutions of the old world— faithfully portrayed their defects, their subver
sion of human liberty and happiness— and contrasted with them the free in
stitutions of our own country and their happy influences upon the moral
and intellectual condition of our citizens.
And now, having attended upon tlie gifted lecturer through his various
illustrations, his well authenticated facts, and heard his sound deductions
drawn from them, we hasten to express our profound sense of obligation
to him for the instruction he has afforded us, and our high appreciation of
the doctrines he has so ably maintained:
Be it therefore —
1. Resolved, That we regard Phrenology as having its foundation in the
truths of Nature— and as entitled, in point of dignity and interest, to rank
high among the natural sciences.
2. Resolved, That we regard the practical application of Phrenological
principles, to physical training, to moral and mental education— to the

372 APPENDIX.
treatment of the insane, and to criminal legislation— as of the highest im
portance and utility; and we indulge the hope of witnessing in our own day
the beneficial results of such application in the increased happiness of our
homes, in the improved condition of our seminaries of learning, in moreen-
lightened legislation, and in the more benign influences of our civil and re
ligious institutions.
3. Resolved, That the extensive knowledge and sound philosophy which
Mr. Combe has exhibited in the course of his lectures, have inspired us with
a profound respect for his intellectual power and attainments; and, while
thesimplicity of manner and purity of style with which he has conveyed
the most interesting truths, evince a highly cultivated taste, the generous
enthusiasm with which he has embarked in the cause of humanity com
mands our adrhiration of his sentiments equal to the respect we entertain
for his understanding.
4. Resolved, That, entertaining such opinions of the science with which
Mr. Combe has identified his life and fame, and such sentiments toward
him as a lecturer and a man, we beg to tender to him an' expression of our
heartfelt gratitude for the instruction and delight he has afforded us, and
our kindest wishes for his prosperity and happiness through life. -
On motion, it was farther Resolved; That the gentlemen constituting the
Committee who reported the foregoing, be instructed to present the same to
Mr. Combo. T. I. Sawyer, Chairman.
Andw. Boardman, Secretary.

No. IV.— Referred to on p. 68.
{From the Albany Daily Advertiser.)
THE LA^y OF THE ROAD.
An esteemed correspondent sends us the following communication, which
is of especial interest to the great moving mass of travellers, who at this
season of the year throng our steam-boats, stages, and railroad cars! Most
persons attach a vast ddalof meaning to the brief notice, "All baggage at
the risk of the owner," when in truth it imposes no additional care on the
traveller, andcertainly relieves of no responsibility the different transporta-
tion companies. Their duties as common carriers are clearly shown in the
annexed Communication; and no notice of the above or any other descrip-
tioh can free them from the obligations which they assume when they un-
dertake to transport passengers and property.
" All baggage at the risk of the owner." — Syracuse and Utica Rail
road. "All goods, baggage, freight, specie, bank-bills, or any kind of property
taken, shipped, or put on board of these boats must be at the risk of the
owners, &e,"— New York, Albany, and Troy Steam-boat Line.
" Freight and baggage at the risk of the owners thereof."— Troy and
Albany Steam-boats.
" All baggage positively at the risk of the owner. Way passengers will
attend personally to the disposition of their baggage at Schenectady." — Utica
and Schenectady Railroad.
" All baggage at the risk of the owners thereof."— Saratoga and Schenec
tady Railroad, Troy, BaUston, and Saratoga Railroad.

APPENDIX. 373
" All baggage at the risk of the owner." — Auburn and Syracuse Rail
road. "All baggage, specie, and freight at the risk of the owners thereof." —
New Steam-boat arrangement between Albany and New York.
To the Editor of the Albany Daily Advertiser:
The above notices are taken from advertisements in a single column of
the Albany Argus.
As quiet or , ignorant people may perhaps be induced to submit to the
imposition of a loss of their freight or baggage rather than litigate with a
great monopoly, especially when the above notices are thrust in their faces,
and they are told they were bound to take notice of them; it will perhaps be
doing the travelling public a service by referring them to two decisions of
the Supreme Court of this State, to wit: Holister ». Nawlen, 19 Wendell's
Reports 234, and Cole v. Goodwin, ibid. 251, both decided at the May term,
1838, in which it is expressly decided, that stage-coach, railroad, and
steam-boat proprietors are common carriers, and are, like all other commor(
carriers, answerable for the baggage of passengers, that they are regarded
as insurers, and must answer for any loss not occasioned by the act of God,
or the public enemies. That the fact that the owner is present, or sends his
servants to look after the property, does not alter the case. That common
carriers cannot restrict their common law liability, by a general notice
like that which I have taken above as the text of this article — thit a notice,
"All baggage at the risk of the owner," even if brought home to the
knowledge of a passenger in a stage coach who lost his trunk, was no pro
tection to the proprietors of the coach in an action against them for the
loss of the trunk. That common carriers are bound lo deliver to each
passenger at the end of his journey his trunk or baggage. That the whole
duty in this respect rests upon the carriers. That the exercise of ordinary
Care in marking the baggage, entering it upon a way-bill, and delivering a
cheek-ticket to the owner, renders easy its discharge. That the passenger
is not required to expose his person in" a crowd, or endanger his safety in
the attempt to designate or claim his property.
What is the reason that the common law will not excuse the carrier un
less he show the act of God, or the enemies of the republic, or the miscon
duct of the owner? " This," says Lord Holt, in Coggs v. Bernard, 2d Lord
Raymond's Reports, 918, "is a politic establishment, contrived by the policy
of the law, for the safely of all persons, the necessity of whose affairs re
quires them lo trust these sort of persons {common carriers) that they may
be safe in their ways of dealing, for else these carriers might have an op
portunity of undoing all persons that had any dealings with them, by com
bining with thieves, &c„ and yet doing it in such a clandestine manner as
would not be possible to be discovered.
Cowen, Justice, in Cole v. Goodwin, cited above, says at page 280, " I
have said that relaxing the common law rigor opens the high road to fraud,
perjury, theft, and robbery. It does more. Looking to the present ordi
nary, not to say universal means of travel and transportation by coaches,
railroads, steamboats, packets, and merchant vessels, the mere superaddition
of negligence, in respect to the safety of passengers and property, would con
stitute a most fearful item. There is no principle in the law better settled
than that whatever has an obvious tendency to encourage guilty negligence,
fraud, or crime, is contrary lo public policy. Such, in the very nature of
things, is the consequence of allowing the common carrier to throw off or
in any way restrict his legal liability. The traveller and bailor is under a
sort of moral duress, a necessity of employing the common carrier under
those legal arrangements, which allow any number of persons to assume

374

APPENDIX,

that character, and thus discourage and supersede the provision for other
modes of conveyance. My conclusion is, that he shall not be allowed, in
any form, to higgle with his customer, and extort one exception and another,
not even by express promise, or special acceptance, any more than by notice.
He shall not be privileged to make himself a common carrier for his own
benefit, and a mandatary, or less to his employer. He is a public servant
with certain duties defined by law; and he is bound to perform those
duties."

No. v.— Referred to on p. 70.
The following table will exhibit the relative strength of the different
brines from which salt is manufactured in the United States: —
At Natucket, 350 gallons sea-water give a bushel of Salt.

Boon's Lick (Missouri),
Conemaugh (Penn.), .
Shawneetown (Illinois),
Jackson (Ohio), . . .
Lockhart (Miss.), . .
Shawneetown (2d saline,)
St. Catharines, (ij.C), .
Zanesville (Ohio), . .
Kenawha (Va.), . . .
Grand River (Arkansas),
Illinois River, do.
Muskingum (Ohio), .
Onondaga,* (N. Y.), .

450 gallons brine, give

300

do.

280

do.

213

do.

180

do.

123

do.

120

do.

95

do.

75

do.

80

do.

80

do.

50

do.

I to 45

do.

do.
do. do. do.do.do.
do.
do.do.
do.
do. do. do.

* This table is chiefly extracted from Dr. J. Van Rensselaer's Essay on
Salt. The produce of the Kenawha brine, and of the Muskingum saline is
added from Hildreth's observations on the saliferous rock-formation in the
valley of the Ohio.— SiUiraan's Journal. No. XXIV. p. 65.

TABLIO
SHOWING THE COMPOSITION OF VARIOUS BRINES, FROM ONONDAGA AND CAYUGA COUNTIES, NEW YORK.

Total

Carbonic

Oxide of

Carlionate

Siilpliate

Oliloride

Chloride

Chloride of

Water,

Total.

amount

Acid.

Iron and

of Lime.

of Lime.

of Blag-

of Cal

Sodium, or

with a

of solid
Hilica,
nesiuin.
cium.
pure Com
trace ot
LOCALITY OF THE WELL OR
matter in
with a
mon Salt.
Organic
SPRING.
1000 grains
of ijrine.
trace of
Carbonate of Lime.
Matter, &c.
ONONDAGA.
From the Well at Geddes,
138.55
0.06
0.04
0.10
4.93
0.79
2.03
130.66
861.39
1000
From the Well at Syracuse,
139.53
0.07
0.02
0.14
5,69
n.46
0.83
132.39
860.40
1000
From the Well at Salina,
146.50
0.09
0.04
0.17
4.72
0.51
1.04
140.02
853.41
1000
From the Well at Liverpool,
149.54
0.07
0.03
0.13
4.04
0.77
_1.72
142.85
850.33
1000
CAYUGA.
From a Well at Montezuma,
101,20
0.08
- 0.03
O.IS
S.25
1.00
1.40
93.35
898.72
1000
>
M
21CI
CO
376 APPENDIX.
No v.— Referred lo on p. 120.
L OF DR. SEWALL
LOGY EXPOSED."
1. From Mr. John Quincy Adams to Dr. Sewall, dated Washington, Sth
April 1839.
" I have read with great satisfaction your two lectures upon the science
of Phrenology, which I have never been able to prevail upon myself to
think of as a serious speculation. I have classed it with alchymy, with
judicial astrology, with augury; and, as Cicero says that he wonders how
two Roman Augurs could ever look each other in the face without laugh
ing, I have felt something of the same surprise that two learned Phrenolo
gists can meet without the same temptation."* Thus qualified to judge,
Mr. Adams congratulates Dr. Sewall on the success of his work,
and thanks him for "furnishing him' with arguments to meet the
doctors who pack up the five senses in thirty-five parcels of the
brainl" 2. From the Honorable Daniel Webster, dated Sth March 1839.
" I read your Examination of Phrenology when first published. Of the
accuracy of the physical and anatomical facts which you state, 1 am no
competent judge; but if your premises be well founded, the argument is
conclusive." Mr. Webster here candidly states his own inability lo form
any judgment through want of knowledge of the subject.
3. From the Honorable John Maclean, Judge of the Supreme court of tke
linited States, dated '25th of June 1837.
" I do not profess fully to understand the science of Phrenology, if it
may be called a science. You have taken the most effectual method to ex
pose the absurdity of the system, and so completely have you succeeded, that
I do not think the disciples of Gall and Spurzheim will attempt seriously
to answer you."t
4. From the Rev. Reuel Keith, D.D., dated 19th March 1839.
"As I am one of those who believe the pretensions of Phrenology not
only to be false, but very prejudicial lo the interests of morality and re
ligion, inasmuch as they degrade man from the rank of a free and accounta
ble being to that of a mere physical and irresponsible machine, 1 have
heard with great pleasure of the intended republication of your admirable
work on the subject,"&c.
I had the pleasure of meeting this reverend gentleman five or six months
after this letter was penned, and discovered from his conversation that
* These remarks are not very complimentary to the good faith or hon
esty of Phrenologists; but the only revenge which I shall lake on Mr.
Adams for the aspersion is, lo mention that Phrenologists do laugh
when they meet, in his presence, and perceive his own head, which is
bald, and strongly marked proDlaiming, in forms so distinct that those
who run may read, the truth of the science which he employs that head in
denying. t Dr. Caldwell published an answer so serious that he did not leave one
shred of Dr. Sewall's argument adhering lo another.

APPENDIX. 377
he was profoundly ignorant of the subject which he had so sweepingly con
demned. There are many letters of a similar description, and one of the wri
ters, the Rev. Dr Fisk, actually commends Dr. Sewall "for his fair
ness and candor," a compliment which lo imitate Mr. Adams's phrase,
must have drawn a smile from Dr. SewaU's own countenance when he
read it.
Instead of preparing any serious exposition of the worthlessness of such
certificates as these, I wrote and sent the following letter lo the New York
Evening Post, in which it was published on 6th September 1839. A few
of the provincial papers copied it, but I was informed that many of them
declined tn do so, on account of the ridicule which it attached lo several
distinguished men. The whole was ajeu d' esprit; and if there be any
point in Ihe letter, it has been derived from the inherent absurdity of the
original certificates themselves.
Letter of the Emperor of China to Dr. Thomas Sewall, on the merits of
Phrenology.
Since the second edition of Dr. SewaU's work, " Errors of Phrenology
Exposed," was published, the foUowing letter has been received. It
came too late' to be printed along with the letters from Mr. John Quincy
Adams, Dr. Reuel Keith, and other distinguished men, prefixed to the
volume itself. The Eveiiing post is, therefore-, requested to give it
a place in its columns. It is proper lo observe that in the Chinese lan
guage the word " Barbarian" which occurs frequently in the letter,
has a signification very mucn resembling the word " foreigner" in English.
All who are not subjects of the Celestial Empire are " Barbarians" in the
court language of China; and the term is not intended to be offdnsively ap
pUed. We, Whang-Ho-Ching, Brother lo the Sun and Moon, Cousin lo the
Stars, Grandfather lo the Comets and Meteors, Supreme Ruler of the
Celestial Empire, and only Fountain of Universal Truth — To the learned
Barbarian Thomas Sewall, M.D., Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in
the city of Washington, District of Columbia, in the United States of Ame
rica, greeting:
Thou hast done well, O learned Barbarian, lo lay at our feet thy produc
tion entitled " An Examination of Phrenology; in two Lectures;" for we are
the fountain of all science. Thou askest our judgment on thy grand pro
position — " the brain is a unit." We condescend to inform thee that we
have never inquired into the dark mysteries of the human skull; but, in
virtue of our high relationship lo the Sun and Moon, it belongs to us to
know all things without study; and also, in matters recondite a,nd strange,
lo judge infaUible judgment even without knowledge. Learn, then, that
in the Celestial Empire, men distinguished for their stupendous wisdom
have no brains at all. It is only in the desolate outskirts of the universe,
in regions far removed from the dazzling glories of the Celestial Kingdom,
that brains are known lo exist; and there they darken the sublime and im
material spirit. We, and our treasurers and sub-treasurers; our post
masters and collectors; our mandarins and judges, district and supreme,
men of surpassing wisdom: our wives and concubines, and the ten thousand
miUions of subjects who live on the breath of our Celestial nostrils, are all
brainless.— Hence the greatness and glory of the Celestial Empire. Know,
then, that the great sun of science, Confucius, before whom all barbarian
sages are ignorant as unborn babes, hath written, " A hen's head lo a wise
man, a big head lo a fool: small heads shall be exalted, because they are

378 APPENDLX.
light; large heads shaU be abased, because they are heavy and full of
brains." In the Empire which encircles the Universe, and is endless as
time, we cut off all heads that are large, because they are troublesome. —
Hence our everlasting peace.
But, O most learned Barbarian, we chide the presumption of thy friends.
Know that it belongs to us alone, in virtue of our high prerogative, to judge
infallible judgment without knowledge. To Barbarians this is not vouch
safed; yet a certain Barbarian, who in thy pages, indicates his existence by
the hieroglyphic marks, " J. Q. Adams," speaketh as one possessing wis
dom, concerning the uses of the brain; nevertheless this Barbarian sailh
" I have never been able to prevail on myself to think of it as a serious
speculation." We, the Great Whang-Ho-Ching, rebuke the barbarian
Adams. It belongs lo us alone to judge infallible judg nent without
knowledge. We rebuke, also, the Barbarian whose marks are " John Mc Lean," who
useth these words: " I am, in a great measure, unacquainted with the
anatomy of the parts involved in the question: but I have always supposed
that there was a tenancy in common in the brain." Make known to this
Barbarian that he insults our Celestial Majesty by his presumption, and,
surely, in his brain wisdom has no tenancy. It belongeth to, the brother
of the sun and moon alone to judge righteous judgment without knowledge.
Thou stylest this Barbarian, " Judge of the Supreme Court of the United
States." Truly hath the heaven-eyed Confucius written " Darkness envel-
opeth the Barbarian." How otherwise could a Barbarian Judge pretend- to
judge without knowledge?
We rebuke also those who are known among Barbarians by the hiero
glyphic marks " John Sargeant," " H. L. Pinckney," " S. Chapin," " Justin
Edwards," " Moses Stewart," and " Reuel Keith." Touching the brain
they have all usurped the Celestial prerogative, which belongs to us alone —
they have pretended to judge infallible judgment without knowledge. —
Verily Barbarian brains obscure wisdom and engender presumption.
We comrtiend the Barbarian whose marks are " Daniel Webster.'' He
judgeth, cautious judgment, as behoveth all Barbarians. He sailh, " Of the
value of the physical and anatomical facts which you slate, I am no com
petent judge; but if your premises be well founded, the argument is con
clusive." Our great interpreter of the Barbarian tongue, Hungi-Fuski-
Chang, read lo us, lately, forth of a Barbarian book, these words — " A
second Daniel come to judgment." We condescend to greet this " second
DanieL" His wisdom is worthy of a mandarin of the Celestial Empire:
"If the brain be good fer nothing; then good for nothing is the brain!!"
Has not this Barbarian read the pages of the sublime Confucius? Only
from the deep fountains of his inspired volumes could such discreet wisdom
penetrate the mind of a Barbarian, obscured by a brain.
We instruct our interpreter Hungi-Fuski-Chang, to render this our epistle
into thy Barbarian speech, lest our celestial wisdom, radiating with too in
tense a brightness, should extinguish thy feeble and Barbarian mind,
clouded by that " unit" styled by thee a brain.
Given at our Palace of the Moon, in the year of the Celestial Empire,
the Seven hundred and fifty-fourth thousand; and of our reign the 399th
year. (Signed) WHANG-HO-CHING.

APPENDIX.

379

Seal of

the

FIGURE.
A large man with a small head,
sitting on a white cloud, the sun be
neath his right arm, the moon be
neath his left, a tiara of comets
around his head, and a firmamentof
stars beneath his leet. His coun.
tenance is radiant with self-com
placency, good nature, and foolish
ness.

- (Signed) Fum, Chancellor.

Celestial Empire.
A correct translation. (Signed)

HUNGI-FUSKI-CHANG,
Interpreter of Barbarian tongues,

Probably some of my American readers may consider that by accepting
Dr. Sewall's hospitality in Washington, I was precluded from offering any
strictures on his work; but I beg leave to observe, that on that occasion I
told him personally Jhat he had mistaken and misrepresented Phrenology;
and that it was subsequently lo this information that he reproduced all his
mistakes, misrepresentations, fictions, and misquotations, as if he had never
heard that they were objectionable. It was also long after Dr. CaldweU
had demonstrated in print his errors and disingenuousness, beyond the pos-
sibiUty of hesitation on the subject. In these circumstances, his republica
tion is a deliberate adherence lo error, which no private considerations can
paUiate, far less justify.

No. VI. — Referred to on p. 156.

DESCRIPTION OF THE NORMAL SEMINARY OF GLASGOW, BY RO
BERT CUNNINGHAM, ESU. RECTOR OF THAT INSTITUTION.

To George Combe, Esq.
My Dear Sir:

Glasgow, 207 St. George's Road.
23d November 1840.
I shall rejoice to be in any way instrumental in advancing the cause of
Common School Education in America. During my two years' residence
in the United Stales, I devoted all my energies to that cause. I had the
pleasure of holding intercourse with many of its most zealous advocates,
and, though now precluded from direct co-operation with them, I cease not
to cherish the liveliest interest in their success.
The great obstacle to the progress of common school education in Ame
rica is the want of properly qualified teachers. This arises from two causes
—the inadequate remuneration of teachers compared with other classes of
the community, and the absence of any provision for training candidates
for the office. These causes co-exist, and means must be taken lo remove
them simultaneously. The bettering of the condition of the teacher wiU
not avail, unless provision is made for securing a higher standard of quali
fication. On the other hand, the establishing of training seminaries, wiU

380 APPENDIX
never insure a supply of properly qualified teachers unless measures are
adopted for rendering their situations respectable and comfortable. In a
country like America, where there are so many openings for talent and
industry, it is not lo be expected that educated men will continue to labor
in situations, the emoluments of which are much below the average gains
of every other profession.
For raising the status of teachers various plans were advocated by me in
the Educator, a paper estabUshed by Dr. J unkin. President of Lafayette
College, and myself, and of which I continued joint-editor during my stay
in the tinited States. One of these was to place teaching on the same foot-
ing as the other learned professions, by prohibiting all persons from prac
tising it who had not a regular diploma. For granting these diplomas, I
suggested that boards of teachers should be established in each county of
the different States, analogous to the County Medical Board in the State of
New York, and over these a State board exercising the same functions as
the county board, and to which there should be liberty of appeal. The
j ustice, expediency, and practicability of this plan are argued at considerable
length in the Educator of 7lh July 1839. On various public occasions I
recommended other measures for improving the condition of teachers, such
as attaching lo every common school a house and garden for the teacher,
declaring the office to be one held during life or good behaviour, instead of
the present system of annual elections, and augmenting their income by
allowing a small fee to be exacted from each pupil in addition to their
salary. For the training of teachers, you are aware that in Pennsylvania, at least,
I recommended the attaching of model schools, and a professorship of eduoa-
tioit to the existing colleges, rather than the establishing of distinct normal
seminaries. My reasons were, 1st, The saving of expense in the erection
of buildings, and endowraent of professorships, thereby enabling the Stale
to expend its bounty in providing scholarships for supporting indigent
young men of talent during the period of their training, idly, The giving
greater unity lo the system of education, by connecting the common schools
with the higher seminaries. 3dly, The avoiding the difficulty in regard lo re
ligious instruction, the colleges being connected with various religious
denominations, and liberty of choice being thus afforded to persons quali
fying themselves as teachers, ithly. The raising the status of teachers, by
associating them during the course of their studies with persons preparing
for the other learned professions. Had the Legislature adopted the plan
proposed, and applied the ©40,000 asked by the superintendent of public
schools for the endowment of normal seminaries, to the erection of 400
scholarships of $100 each (fifty scholarships to each of the eight colleges of
Pennsylvania), taking an obligation from the persons benefitted, that they
would either refund the cost of their education, or serve the state as com-
mon school teachers for three years, I have no hesitation in saying that
the 200 teachers who would have been annually sent forth, supposing the
course limited to two years, would speedily have raised the standard of
common school instruction, and given an impetus to the progress of educa
tion throughout the state. That the superintendent's plan would not have
succeeded, was, I think, clearly proved by an experiment made at Easton.
The trustees and president of Lafayette College, at my suggestion, built a
model school, invited a teacher from Scotland, and advertised in the New
York and Philadelphia papers, Ihal I was willing lo give gratuitous instruc
tion in the art of teaching to persons desirous of becoming common school
teachers, and to superintend their training in the model school attached lo
the college. The advertisements were continued at intervals for several

APPENDIX. 381
months, and the result was, that we had three applications. Had the nor
mal seminaries been built, the superintendent could have offered nothing
more than we did, and had no reason to expect different success. Persons
wiUing, under existing circumstances, lo become common school teachers,
have not ordinarily the means of supporting themselves during the course
of instruction, and those able lo support themselves are not willing to be
come common school teachers.
I have said that the plan which I proposed for Pennsylvania had a special
reference to the circumstances of that slate. In the New England States
that the number of persons qualified, and desirous to become common school
teachers, is greater, and the success of distinct normal seminaries less prob
lematical. In Massachusetts one such seminary had been establishedb efore
I left America; and from the last report of the Connecticut Educational Board,
I observe that the enlightened superintendent of public schools strongly re
commends the establishment of at least one distinct normal seminary in that
slate. In the hope that the experience of the Glasgow Educational Society in
their normal seminary may be useful to the managers of these and similar in
stitutions, I shall endeavor lo furnish you with the details which you request
regarding that seminary. Professor Bache, in his admirable report on the
state of education in Europe, has indeed described the seminary as it was at
the period of his visit. Besides the changes since introduced, my position,
of course, affords me greater facilities for acquiring a knowledge of its in
ternal machinery than even he possessed.
From the accompanying plan, you will observe that the buUdings consist
of a central compartment, and two wings running back in the form of paral
lelograms, and inclosing on three sides a space used as exercise ground for
the normal students. The buildings front the City Road, and a street runs
parallel to the boundary wall on the north side. On either side, and behind
the buildings, there are vacant spaces occupied as play-grounds, each school
having one attached to it.
Standing in front of the seminary, you have immediately before you the
central building, containing on the ground-floor a house for the janitor, and
rooms for the secretary and rector; on the second floor a hall and class
rooms for the normal students, and on the attic story a room lighted from
the roof, to be used as a class-room for drawing. On the ground floor of
the right wing is the Infant School. On the second story the School of In
dustry, in which girls often years of age and upwards, in addition to read
ing the Scriptures, writing, and arithmetic, are taught sewing and knitting.
Behind the School of Industry are apartments for the master of the Infant
School. On the groimd-floor of the left wing is the Juvenile School for
children of both sexes, from six lo fourteen, under two masters, having each
an assistant. The second story of this wing is occupied as a Private Semi
nary, in which the fees are higher than in the other scnools, and the branches
taught more numerous, but the method of instruction the same as in the
other Schools. Behind are apartments for one of the masters of the Juvenile
Schools. The Private Seminary alone is self-supporting. The fees of the
other schools are intentionally low, so as to exclude none; the charge per
quarter in the Infant School being 2s. — in the Juvenile, 3s. — for children
under eignt; and 4s. for those above that age; and in the School of Indus
try, 4s. The buildings and grounds cost £.15,000, of which £.5000 were
contributed by Government — £.7000 remain as a debt on the property. The
interest of the debt, and the excess of the expenditure over the sum raised
by fees, are met by private subscription. The normal students pay £3 3s.
to the institution, and support themselves during the period of their attend
ance, which at present is fixed at not less than six months. The directors
VOL. II. — 26

383 APPENDIX.
contemplate making it twelve. The inability of the students to support
themselves for a longer period, is the sole obstacle to this.
The seminary is open to persons of all the different religious denomina
tions, and contains at present Presbyterians of all the different bodies, Epis-
copalians, Wesleyan Methodists, Independents, and one Baptist. Candi
dates for admission are required only to bring certificates of their moral
character from the clergyman of the denomination to which they belong.
On presenting this, they are examined by a board, composed of the rector
and principal masters of the Model Schools. Candidates are examined on
whatever they profess to know; and as they differ widely in acquirements,
the nature of the examination varies accordingly; embracing occasionally
classics, mathematics, and the elements of natural and moral science; con
fined at other times lo grammar, geography, arithmetic, and the history,
doctrines, and precepts of the Bi ble. If found lo possess a competent know
ledge of the subjects last specified, the candidates are recommended for ad
mission. If found deficient, they are either advised to prosecute their studies
with a view to be again examined at a subsequent period, or dissuaded from
thinking of leaching as an employment.
After being admitted, the students enter on a course of training. The
shortness of the period of attendance precludes the idea of attempting more
in the way of instruction, than revising their previous knowledge, and ar
ranging it anew, so as lo give them a firmer hold of the general principles.
They attend forty hours weekly; of which, during the last four months, six
teen are spent in receiving instruction, eight in observing the model schools,
and sixteen in giving lessons under the .-iuperintendence of the masters and
rector. During the first two months, a greater proportion of lime is spent
in observing the normal schools, as they are not expected to give lessons.
Reports of what passes in the schools under their observation, are given in
to the rector weekly. The written exercises of the students of two months'
standing and upwards, are of a different character.
The method of imparting instruction pursued in the Model Schools of the
Glasgow Society is so peculiar that I despair of making it intelligible with
out actually exhibiting it in operation. One lesson from the Scriptures, and
another from the Book of Nature, are given daUy to the children arranged
in a gallery opposite to the master. E^eh of these lessons is given orally,
the children taking part in the exercise, answering questions, and filling in
ellipses. The idea is lo present to the moMtal eye of the children a clear
picture of the object described, or point to be illustrated — to tell them nothing
which, by analogy, they can be led to discover for themselves — to proceed
from the known to the unknown — slowly and gradually using the simplest
language, and availing yourself of every possible mode of illustration — to
notice all the answers of the children, never dogmatically passing judgment
on these answers, but by a judicious series of questions, leading the child, if
in error, to discover his mistake, and after eliciting the true answer, to make
sure that it is received, by calling on aU the children to fill up ellipses in
which it is involved. The method differs essentially from the verbal analy
sis of the Sessional School, in- which the fragmentsof knowledge that occur
in reading are taken to pieces, but no attempt is made to re-construct them
so as to exhibit a connected view of any one point, far less of any one de
partment of science. It approaches more nearly to that of Pestalozzi than
any other with which I am acquainted, and yet I have reason to believe the
individual under whom it was wrought out, was unconscious of that re.
semblance. The person to whom I refer is, of course, Mr. Slow, the inde
fatigable secretary of the Glasgow Society, in whose recent vrork on " The
Training System" you will find a full exposition of his views. Iu the

APPENDIX. 383
method of leaching reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography, there is
less difference betwixt this and other schools, although in all, the general
principle of addressing the understanding befbre consigning to the verbal
memory, is kept distinctly in view.
The masters accompany the children lo the play-ground, and mingle in
iheir sports. He is a silent, but not unobservant witness of what passes,
and on their return to the gallery, calls their attention to any impropriety
which may have occurred, applying the Scripture rule lothe case, and lead
ing the chUd to pronounce on his own conduct, without directing especial
notice to him, unless under aggravated circumstances. The school, I ought
lo have observed, opens and closes with prayer and praise, and the greatest
pains are taken lo blend devotional feelings with the exercises of the day, —
the children being trained to regard religion as consisting in love to God
and to man, and to practise throughout the day the precepts which have
been explained in the Scripture morning lesson. The effect of this is lo do
away with the necessity of corporal punishment, and the ordinary stimuli
of prizes and taking of places. The sense of duly, the desire of the appro
bation of their masters, and the pleasure arising from the gratification of
their thirst for knowledge, and the exercise of the powers of their minds,
are found sufficient to secure a greater amount of attention during the giv
ing of the lesson than is common in schools. The interference ofthe parents,
or, in an extreme case, the expulsion ofthe offender, is had recourse to; but
this last has occurred once only for several years.
Great attention is paid lo physical exercises. The movements to and
from the play-ground are performed in regular order, lo vocal music; and
whenever the attention begins to flag in the gallery, physical movements,
or the singing of some lively air, are employed to rouse the sluggish.. The
influence of-physical movements in training to habits of obedience is very
important. Require of a child some intellectual effort, you cannot tell
whether his non-obedience proceeds from want of power or of will. Ask
him to raise his hand — you can be al no loss to determine which. The
habit of obedience in one part of his conduct is extended to all. Vocal
music is taught as a regular branch of instruction, and its beneficial influ
ence is visible both on the temper and the spirits of the children, harmoni
sing and softening the character, and cheering and enlivening them after
mental toil.
To prepare a person accustomed to a different method, for conducting a
school on such principles as these, within the limited period at present in
use, is next to impossible. All that we can do is lo put him on the way.
Whether hewUl go forward or return to his former method, depends partly
on the individual himself, partly on the directors of the school in which he
is called lo labor. The candidate teacher is first placed in the infant depart
ment. The necessity of usirtg simple language, and of being clear and
orderly in his statements, is here forced on his conviction. After he has
acquired an idea of the system, he is employed in giving lessons lo detach
ments of the children from the Model Schools, in the hall, under the rec
tor's superintendence. The subjects of these lessons are prescribed, and
the students are expected to prepare themselves carefully for giving the
lesson. After the chUdren withdraw, the voice and manner of the different
students who have been employed, and the .matter and language of the
lessons themselves, are minutely criticised by the rector, who occasionally
interposes even during the 'lesson lo correct an erroneous statement, or
bring out more fully a point slurred over. Once a week four of the senior
students give each a lesson to the children in the gallery of one of the de
partments, on subjects prescribed the week before. These lessons are

384 APPENDIX.
given in presence ofthe secretary, the rector, the master ofthe department,
and all the students. At the close of the lessons, all except the master
ofthe department and the children, withdraw to the hall, and the lessons,
are there subjected to a searching criticism by such of the senior students
as feel disposed and by the master and secretary, the rector summing up
the criticisms, and enlarging occasionally on one or more points of special
importance. In addition to these exercises, the senior students once a
week give lessons to their fellow students on prescribed subjects in presence
ofthe rector. The students on these occasions are enjoined to give no
answers which a child might not be expected lo give, and the ingenuity of
the trainer is put to the. test in bringing out answers without departing from
the principles ofthe system. The rector occasionally interposes to check
wandering, and bring back to the point, or correct erroneous statements,
and he can do this the more freely from the absence of the children. He
exemplifies the system in lessons to the students twice a week; one on
Natural History, and one on Physics.
The number of students varies from thirty to forty, of whom one-third
are females. Had we the means of aiding deserving persons to support
themselves during the course, our numbers might be doubled or tripled. —
As it is, the demand for teachers trained in the seminary far exceeds the
supply, and this it is which keeps up our numbers. Had they not the hope
of bettering their circumstances by submitting lo a course of training, the
mere desire of professional improvement could not be expected to induce so
many to submit to the privations which they often find necessary for attaining
their end. Our transatlantic brethern must keep this in view in planning
Normal Seminaries. No one will submit to a laborious course of training
to prepare for a situation which is not worth the accepting after that train
ing is terminated. One other point I would urge on their especial notice.
Normal Seminaries, if they are to be useful, must be so conducted as lo
inspire the candidate teacher with deep devotional feeling. The remune
ration of the teacher, under the most favorable circumstances, is so inade
quate, and the duties which he is called to perform so laborious, that, to
insure their right discharge, he must be animated by higher motives than
the hope of earthly reward. To train him to act on these motives ought to
be the great aim of rightly conducted Normal Seminaries.
For the encouragement of benevolent individuals desirous of promoting
the interests of education by the establishing of Normal Schools, let me
remind them, in conclusion, that the Glasgow Society commenced their
labors with one small infant school — that they have trained since they
began their operations upwards of 600 teachers, most of whom are still
laboring in different parts of the world; and that they have now under a
course of instruction in the commodious buildings which they have erected,
upwards of 600 children, and from forty to fifty candidate'teachers, with
every prospect of increasing usefulness. — I remain, my dear sir, yours
faithfully, Rob. Cunningham.

APPENDIX.

385

No. VI.— Referred to on p. 165.

TABLE OF ATTENDANCE ON TWELVE LECTURES ON PHRENOLOGY
IN HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT.

Date.

Weather.

Sub

Visiter.

Young Men's

Compli

scribers.

Institute.

mentary.

1839.

Sept. 27.
Fair.
50
25
_
12
" 30.
Rain.
49
14
__
13
Oct. 2.
Fair.
—

35
' 4.
Do.
66
6
46
11
' 7.
Do.
60
4
56
8
' 9.
Do.
62
12
54
10
' 11.
Do.
59
14
53
9
' 14.
Rain.
47
1
50
9
' 16.
Fair.
57
6
54
10
' 18.
Do.
55
8
52
10
' 21.
Do.
53
14
52
38
' 23.
Do.
56
15
54
43
" 25.
Do.
59
23
54
43
12) 673
11) 560
11)560
12)216
A
verage 56
11
50
18
Hartford, 25th October, 1839.
At a meeting of Mr, Combe's Phrenological Class held immediately after
the close ofthe last lecture ofthe course, the class was organised by calling
the Rev. Dr Totten, president of Washington College, to the chair, and ap
pointing Wm. James Hammersley, secretary.
On motion of Erastus Smith, Esq., a committee of three was appointed
by the chair to draft resolutions for the consideration of the class. The
committee consisted of the Rev. Mr. GaUaudet, Erastus Smith, Esq., and
Dr. A. Brigham.
The committee having reported, the following resolutions were discussed,
and unanimously adopted.
Resolved — That we have derived pleasure and instruction from the in
teresting course of lectures now completed by Mr. Combe.
Resolved — That from this able exposition of Plirenology, we have learned
numerous facts of practical utility in relation to intellectual, moral, and
physical education.
Resolved — That we regard his exposition of the subject as highly valua
ble in teaching us the functions ofthe brain, and the philosophy ofthe mind;
and believe that great benefits will result from the application of many of
its principles to the education of youth, to legislation, jurisprudence, and
the treatment ofthe insane.
Resolved—That a committee of five be appointed to convey to Mr. Combe
these resolutions of his class, and an expression of thanks for the gratifica-
tion his lectures have afforded them.
386

APPENDIX.

The committee appointed, in accordance with the above resolution, were
Rev Mr. GaUaudet, Erastus Smith, Esq., Dr. A. Brigham, Rev. Mr. Hovey
and Professor Stewart.

On motion adjourned.
Wm. James Hamersley, Secretary.

Silas Totten, Chairman:

No. VII.— Referred to on p. 198.
TABLE OF ATTENDANCE ON SECOND COURSE OF LECTURES ON
PHRENOLOGY AT BOSTON.

Date.

Weather.

.?ub.
scribers.

Visiters.

Teachers.

Compli
mentary.

1839.

Nov. 1.
Fair.
141
7
19
26
" 4.
Do.
172
, 8
27
32
" 6.
Do.
190
' 8
36
31
" 8.
Do.
199
12
40
32
"11.
Do.
1.92
6
42
26
"13.
Do.
195
5
40
36
" 15.
Do.
151
10
35
28
"18.
Do.
157
11
41
32
"20.
Do.
180
22
47
29
"22.
Do.
178
18
47
36
" 25.
Do.
161
24
34
22
"27.
Do.
139
37
43
30
12) 2055
12) 168
12) 451
12)360,
Average 171
14
37
30
No. VIIL— Referred to on p. 201.
SPEECH OF HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR EVERETT ON ST. ANDREw's
DAY, 30TH of NOVEMBER 1839.
The chairman of the Scots Charitable Society gave as a toast " Mas
sachusetts, and her distinguished Chief Magistrate.
On the announcement of this toast. Governor Everett said —
I rise, Mr. President, to tender you my sincere thanks for the flattering
notice with which you and the company have been pleased to honor me.
I can say with entire truth, though I am unconnected by any national
association with this occasion, that I have cordially entered into its spirit.
Though 1 am a republic-in by principle and feeling, I am not so much of
a stoic as not to have had my sympathies touched while your national an-
APPENDIX. 387
them was sung with such spirit and feeling. It is a beautiful spectacle to
witness this voluntary tribute of respect paid at the distance ofthree thou
sand miles, to the youthful sovereign of Great Britain, by a comp.any like
this who, though the children or descendants of Scotland with few excep
tions (as was observed by H. M. Coniul on my right), owe her at present
no political allegiance. It would be a pleasing incident if it stood alone.
But it is not your solitary act. You do but add your voices to a strain,
which is almost literally echoing round the globe. On this day, dedicated
to your patron saint, the tribute of respect which you have just paid to
the maiden majesty of your father-land, is repeated by the sons of Scot
land, wheresoever their lot is east at home or abroad, from the utmost Ork
neys to the Cape of Good Hope, and from Canada to Hindostan; with no
(Bifference but that of time, as the evening star, rising successively on each
region of the world-encircling empire of England, appoints the hour of
the social gathering, and summons the sons of Caledonia to their patriotic
vespers. I thank you, Mr. President, for allowing me to partake your hos
pitality on this occasion. I was not aware till I received your kind
invitation, that there existed among us an institution like this, coeval
almost with the settlement of the country. It would be doing injustice
to a society of this description, though it may bear a foreign name, to
regard it as an institution of foreigners. Some of you, gentlemen, trace
your descent, I presume, from ancestors who came to this country with
the second, perhaps with the first, generation of its settlers. Among the
names of the original founders of the institution, as preserved in one
of the ancient record books, kindly put into my hands by my friend Mr.
Gordon, I recognise some which still subsist among us, and which stand
as high in the respect of the community as they did one hundred and
eighty years ago.
It is a principle deeply wrought in the destinies of America, th,-\t, set
tled originally in times of trial and convulsion in Europe, it should at all
subsequent periods afford a refuge to those who might be driven abroad
by the storms of fortune, or who, from a desire of bettering their con
dition in life, should go forth from the crowded population of the elder
world, and follow the guidance of an honest spirit of^ adventure to the new
found continent. Accordingly we find that, in the higher paths of state,
swept as they are by the tempests of revolution, regicide judges in ancient
times, and in our own times fugitive kings, have found a safe retreat on
our shores. In the quiet and happier walks of private life there has at all
times been an active resort from Europe to America; and 1 doubt not
that, at this moment, in more than one foreign country, many a loving and
achinir heart, waiting to receive the summons to follow those who have
gone before, is able to respond to the plaintive strain of your immortal
Burns — I turn to the west, when I gae to my rest.
That happy my dreams and my slumbers may be;
For far in the west is he I loe best.
The youth that is dear to my bairn and to me.
Now, Sir, among all those, who, coming from every country in Europe,
have brought hither the qualities by which they are characterised at home
—whether it be the firm and manly Englishman, the ardent and generous
son of Erin, the mercurial and generous Frenchman, the sedate and in
dustrious Hollander or German, there is none who has proved a better
citizen in his new home, than the punctual, intelligent, and conscientious
Scot. We of New England ought to give you this credit, for both those

388 APPENDIX.
who in a serious strain are disposed to pronounce our eulogy, and those
who in a lighter mood, make merry with our foibles, ascribe to us pretty
much the same merits and defects of character. I may say, therefore,
though to this extent a party interested, yet with so much the greater
claim to be believed sincere, that there is no people in Europe or
America among whom the Scottish emigrant has reason to blush for
his native land. You are not numerous here. Sir. I am sorry for
it; and I hardly know why it is so, for I suppose we should be unwil
ling, on either side to acknowledge the validity of the reason, which
has sometimes been assigned to the fact, viz. that we Yankees are too can
ny for you.
Your society. Sir, as the secretary, in his very handsome report, has
informed us, was founded near two hundred years ago. Scotland was then an
independent kingdom. Not merely independent, she had more than half
a century before sent her sovereign to sit upon the throne of the sister
realms. Although in the particular year in which the society was esta
blished, in 1657, the monarch of his proscribed lineage was perhaps, like
some of your founders, wandering in foreign lands dependent on the
stranger for protection, yet three years had scarcely elap.sed before he was
triumphantly restored. At the close of the century, however, the sepa
rate sovereignty of Scotland was merged in the Union of the kingdoms;
in consequence of the superior wealth and numbers of the EngUsh, the lo
cal sceptre of the ancient monarchy departed for ever; and the crown of
Bruce was locked up in a dusty chest in Holyroodhouse, never more to be
drawn forth, but as an object of antiquarian curiosity, or as a melancholy
show. But let not the patriotic son of Scotland lament the change. The
sceptre of mind can never pass away; she has won for her brows a dia
dem, whose lustre can never be obscured. Not to speak of the worthies of
ages long passed; of the Knoxes, the Buchanans, and the early minstrelsy
of the border; the land of your fathers, Sir, since it ceased to be a sepa
rate kingdom, has, through the intellect of her gifted sons, acquired a
supremacy over the minds of men, more extensive and more enduring
than that of Alexander or Augustus. It would be impossible to enume
rate them all — the Blairs of the last generation, the Chalmerses of this;
the Robertsons and Humes; the Smiths, the Reids, the Stuarts, the Browns;
the Homes, the Mackenzies; the Mackintoshes, the Broughams, the Jef
freys, with their distinguished compeers, both in physical and moral science.
The Marys, and the EUzabeths, the Jameses and the Charleses wiU be
forgotten before these names will perish from the memory of men. And
vjhen I add to them those other illustrious names — Burns, Campbell, By
ron, and Scott, I may truly say, Sir, that the throne and the sceptre of
England will crumble into dust like those of Scotland; and Windsor Cas
tle and Westminster Abbey will lie in ruins, as poor and desolate as those
of Scone and lona, before the lords of Scottish song shall cease to reign
in the hearts of men.
For myself. Sir, I confess that 1 love Scotland. I have reason to do so.
I have trod the soil of the
Land of brown heath and sha^iry wood,
Land ofthe mountain and the flood.
I have looked up to the eloud-capt summit of Ben Lomond; have glided
among the fairy islets of Loch Katrine: and, from the battlements of Ster
ling Castle, have beheld the links of Forth sparkling in the morning sun.
I have done more. Sir; I have tasted that generous hospitality of Scotland,
which her Majesty's Consul has so justly commemorated; I have held con-

APPENDIX. 389
verse with her most eminent sons; I have made my pilgrimage to Melrose
Abbey, in company with that modern magician, who, mightier than the
magician of old that sleeps beneath the marble floor of its chancel, has hung
the garlands of immortal poesy upon its shattered arches, and made its
moss-clad ruins a shrine, to be visited by the votary of the muse from the
remotest corners of the earth to the end of time. Yes, Sir, musing as 1 did,
in my youth, over the sepulchre ofthe wizard, once pointed out by the bloody
stain of the cross and the image ofthe areh-angel: — standing within that
consecrated enclosure, under the friendly guidance of him whose genius has
made it holy ground; while every nerve within me thrUled with excitement,
my fancy kindled with the inspiration ofthe spot. I seemed to behold, not
the vision so magnificently described by the minstrel — the light, which, as
the tomb was opened, broke forth so gloriously,
Streamed upward to the chancel roof.
And through the galleries far aloof;
But 1 could fancy that I beheld, with sensible perception, the brighter light
which had broken forth from the master mind; which had streamed from his
illumined page ail-gloriously upward, above the pinnacles of worldly gran
deur, tUlit mingled its equal beams with that ofthe brightest constellations
in the intellectual firmament of England.

No. IX.— Referred lo on p. 208.
MODE OF INSTRUCTING LAURA BRIDGMAN, DEAF, DUMB, BLIND,
AND WITHOUT SMELL.
An extract from tlie diary kept by her instructor wiU give an idea of her
manner of questioning. December 3.
"Spent one hour in giving Laura an idea ofthe meaning of the words left
and right. She readily conceived that left hand meant her left hand, but
with difficulty generalised the term. At last, however, she caught the idea,
and eagerly spelt the name of her arms, hands, fingers, feet, ears, &c., as they
were touched, and named them, right or left, as might be; suddenly pausing,
however, and looking puzzled, she put her finger on her nose, and asked if
that were left or right; thus she continually puzzles one: but such is her
eagerness to find out one's meaning, such a zealous co-operation is there on
her part, that it is a delightful task to teach her.
"Uses to-day freely the prepositions in and on: she says, teacher sitting
in sofa: — do not dare to correct her in such cases of anomalous usage ofthe
preposition, but prefer to let her be in error, rather than shake her faith in a
rule given: the corrections must be made by and by: the sofa having sides,
she naturally says in."
In her eagerness to advance her knowledge of words and to communicate
her ideas she coins words, and is always guided by analogy. Sometimes her
process of Moral maiting- is very interesting; for instance, after some time spent
in giving her an idea of the abstract meaning of alone, she seemed to obtain it,
and understanding that being by one's self was to be alone, or al-one. She

390 APPENDIX.
was told to go to her chamber, or school, or elsewhere, and return alone;
she did so, but soon after, wishing to go with one ofthe little girls, she strove
to express her meaning thus, Laura go al-two.
The same eagerness is manifested in her attempts to define, for the pur.
pose of classification: for instance, some one giving her the word bachelor,
she came to her teacher for a definition, she was taught that men who had
wives were husbands, those who had none, bachelors; when asked if she
understood, she said, "man no have wife bachelor — Tenriy bachelor;" refer
ring to an old friend of hers. Being told to define bachelor, she said " bach
elor no have wife, and smoke pipe." Thus she considered the individual pe
culiarity of smoking in one person as a specific mark of the species bachelor.
Then, in order to test her knowledge of the word, it was said by her
teacher, Tenny has got no wife, what is Tenny?
She paused, and then said, Tenny is wrong!
The word widow being explained to her, a woman whose husband is dead,
and she being called upon to define, she said, "widow is woman, man dead,and
cold," and eked out her meaning, by sinking down, and dropping her hand,
to signify in the ground.
The two last words she added herself, they not having been in the de
finition: but she instantly associates the idea of coldness and burial with
death. Her having acquired any idea of death was not by the wish of her teacher,
it having been his intention to reserve the subject until such a develop
ment of her reason should be attained as would enable him to give a cor
rect idea of it.
He hopes still, by aid of the analogy of the germination and growth of
plants, to give her a consoling hope of resurrection, to counterbalance the
almost instinctive dread of death.
She had touched a dead body before she came to the institution.
She.easily acquired a knowledge and use of active verbs, especiaUy those
expressive oi tangible action; as to walk, to run, to sew, to shake.
At first, of course, no distinction could be made of mood and tense; she
used the words in a general sense, and according to the order of her sense
of ideas: thus, in asking someone to give her bread, she would first use
the word expressive of the leading idea, and say, "Laurd, bread give." If
she wanted water she would say, water, drink, Laura.
Soon, however, she learned the use of the auxiliary verbs, of the differ
ence of past, present, and future tense; for instance, here is an early sen
tence, Keller is sick — when will Keller well; the use of be she had not ac
quired. Having acquired the use of substantives, adjectives, and verbs, preposi
tions and conjunctions, it was deemed time to make the experiment of try
ing to teach her to write, and to show her that she might communicate her
ideas to persons not in contact with her.
It was amusing to witness the mute amazement with which she sub
mitted to the process, the doqility with which she imitated every motion,
and the perseverance with which she moved her pencil over and over again
in the same track, until she could form the letter. But when at last the
idea dawned upon her, that, by this mysterious process, she could make
other people understand what she thought, her joy was boundless.
Never did a child apply more eagerly and joyfully to any task than she
did to this, and in a few months she could make every letter distinctly, and
separate words from each other.
The following anecdote will give an idea of her fondness for teazing or
innocent fun or mischief. Her teacher looking one day unobserved into

APPENDIX. 391
the girls' play-room, saw three blind girls playing with the rocking horse:
Laura was on the crupper, another in the saddle, and a third clinging on the
neck, and they were all in high glee, swinging backward and forward as
far as the rockers would roll. There was a peculiarly arch look in Laura's
countenance — the natural language of sly fun. She seemed prepared to
give a spring, and suddeuly when her end was lowest, and the others were
perched high in the air, she sidled quickly off on the floor, and down went
the other end so swiltly as to throw the girls off the horse.
This Laura evidently expected, for she stood a moment convulsed
with laughter, then ran eagerly forward with outstretched, hands to find the
girls, and almost screamed with joy. As soon, however, as she got hold
of one of them, she perceived that she was hurt, and instantly her coun
tenance changed; she seemed shocked and grieved, and after caressing
and comforting her playmate, she found the other, and seemed to apologise
by spelling the word wrong, and caressing her.
When she can puzzle her teacher she is pleased, and often purposely
speUs a word wrong with a playful look: and if she catch her teaclier in a
mistake, she bursts into an ecstacy of laughter.
When her teacher had been at work giving her an idea of the words
carpenter, chair- maker, painter, &c., in a generic sense, and told her that
blacksmith made nails, she instantly held up her fingers and asked if
blacksmith made them, though she knew well he did not.
With little girls of her own age she is fuU of frolic and fun, and no one
enjoys a game at romps more than Laura.
She has the same fondness for a dress, for ribbons, and for finery as other
girls of her age, and as a proof that it arises from the same amiable desire
of pleasing others, it may be remarked that whenever she has a new bon
net or any new article of dress, she is particularly desirous to go to meet
ing, or to go out with it. If people do not notice it, she directs their at
tention by placing their hand upon it.
Generally she indicates her preference for such visiters as are the best
dressed. ,
She is so much in company with blind persons that she thinks blindness
common, and when first meeting a person, she asks if they are blind, or
she feels of their eyes.
She evidently knows that the blind differ from seeing persons, for when
she shows Wind persons any thing she always puts their fingers on it.
She seems to have a perception of character, and to have no esteem for
those who have little inteUect. The following anecdote is significant of her
perceptioil of character, and shows that from her friends she--requires
something more than good-natured indulgence.
A new scholar entered school — a little girl about Laura's age. She was
very helpless, and Laura took great pride and great pains in showing her
the' way about the house, assisting her to dress and undress, and doing for
her many things which she could not do herself.
In a few weeks it began to be apparent even to Laura that the chUd was
not only helpless, but naturally very stupid, being almost an idiot. Then
Laura gave her up in despair and avoided her, and has ever since had an
aversion to being with her, passing her by as if in contempt. By a natural
association of ideas she attributes to this child all those countless deeds which
Mr. Nobody does in every house — if a chair is broken, or any thing is mis
placed, and no one knows who did it, Laura attributes it at once to this
child. It has been observed before that she is familiar with the processes of
addition and subtraction in small numbers. Subtracting one number from

392 APPENDIX.
another puzzled her for a time, but by help of objects she accomplished it.
She can count and conceive objects to about one hundred in number — to
express an indefinitely greal number, or more than she can count, she
says hundred. If she thought a friend was to be absent many years, she
would say — will come hundred Sundays, meaning weeks. She is pretty
accurate in measuring time, and seems to have an intuitive tendency to do
it. Unaided by the changes of night and day, by the light, or the sound
of any timepiece, she nevertheless divides time accurately.
With the days of the week, and the week itself as a whole, she is per
fectly familiar; for instance, if asked what day will it be in fifteen days
more, she readily names the day of the week. The day she divides by
the commencement and end of school, by the recesses and by the arrival
of meal-times.
She goes to bed punctually at seven o'clock, and of her own accord.
For some time after she came under our charge she had some one to put
her to bed every night; but soon it was thought best to send her alone, and
that she might not wait for any one, she was left alone one evening; and
she sat until quite late, a person watching her; and at last she seemed to
form her resolution suddenly — she jumped up and groped her way up to
bed. From that time to this she has never required to be told to go to bed,
but at the arrival of the hour for retiring she goes by herself.
Those persons who hold that the capacity of perceiving and measuring
the lapse of time is an innate and distinct faculty of the mind, may deem
it an important fact that Laura evidently can measure time so accurately
as to distinguish between a half and a whole note of music.
Seated at the piano forte she will strike the notes in a measure like the
following quite correctly: —

pj J II* -JwJ

Now, it will be perceived that she must have a clear perception of the
lapse of time in order to strike the two eighths at the right instant, for in
the first measure they occur at the second beat, in the second measure at
the third beat.
There is no doubt that practice will enable her to subdivide time still
more minutely. Possibly some attach an undue degree of importance to
this power of measuring time, considered in a metaphysical point of view,
for any one may make the same experiment upon himself, and by stopping
his ears and closing his eyes, will find he can measure time, or the dura
tion of his sensation, and know which of two periods is the longest; neverthe
less we shall continue carefully to note the phenomena in the case of Laura
for the benefit of whom they may concern.
It is interesting, in a physiological point of view, to know the effect of
the deprivation of three senses upon the remaining two.
The sense of smell being destroyed, it seems a curious question whether
the effect Upon the organ of taste is general or particular. That is, whether
the taste is blunted generally, and for all things alike, or whether one kind
of sapidity is more affected than another? To ascertain this some experi
ments have been tried, but as yet not enough to enable one to state confi
dently the results in minute distinction. The general conclusions are
these: Acids seem to make vivid and distinct impression upon the taste, and

APPENDIX. 393
she apparently distinguishes the different degrees of acidity better than of
sweetness or bitterness. She can distinguish between wine, cider and
vinegar better than substances like manna, liquorice and sugar. Of bit
ters she seems to have less perception, or indeed hardly any, for on putting
powdered rhubarb into her mouth she called it tea, and on one saying no,
and telling her to taste close, she evidently did try to taste it, but still
called it tea, and spit it out — but without any contortion or any indication
of its being particularly disagreeable.
Of course she has a repugnance to these kinds of experiments, and it
seems almost imposing upon her good nature to push them very far; we
shaU, however, be soon able to ascertain certainly how far she can dis
tinguish different sapid bodies. Those who are curious in the physiology
of the taste l^iiow that the highest degree of gusto or the acme of pleasure
is not obtained until just as the morsel has slipped over the glottis, and is
on its way beyond the power of recall down the oesophagus. This seems to
be a wise precaution of nature to prevent the stomach being cheated of its
due, for if the highest degree in pleasure of eating could be obtained with
out absolutely swallowing the morsel — the epicure could have an exhaust-
less source of pleasure, and need never degenerate into the gourmand.
Some physiologists who have speculated upon this subject, consider that
this final climax ofthe pleasure of taste is produced by a fine aroma which,
rising from the morsel and mounting up the fauces, pleasantly titillates
the ramifications of the olfactory nerve. The fact that, when we have a
cold in the head and the fauces are obstructed, the taste is blunted, seems
to bear out this supposition; but, from some observations on Laura, one
would be inclined to think that some other cause must contribute to the
effect. She appears to care less for the process of mastication than deglutition;
and probably it is only the necessity of mechanical trituration of food,
which induces her to go through with it, before hastening to the pleasant
part of swallowing. Now, as the imperfection of smell impairs the taste
in the tongue and palate during mastication, it should have the same effect
in deglutition, Supposing this theory to be correct: but it seems not to be
so — else Laura would liave little inducement to swallow, save to fill a
vacuity of stomach. Now, it seems doubtful whether the feeling of
vacuity of stomach, strictly speaking, would show a child the road for
the food, or whether it would not be as likely to stuff bread into its ear,
as into its mouth, if it had no pleasurable sensation in tasting; and further,
if the pleasurable sensation did not increase and tempt to deglutition, it is
doubtful whether hunger or vacuity of stomach alone would teach a child
to swallow the chewed morsel.
On the whole, she seems to care less for eating than most children of her
age. With regard to the sense of touch it is very acute, even for a blind per
son. It is shown remarkably in the readiness with which she distinguishes
persons: there are forty inmates in the female wing, with all of whom of
course Laura is acquainted; whenever she is walking through the passage
ways, she perceives, by the jar ofthe floor, or the agitation of the air, that
some one is near her, and it is exceedingly difficult to pass her without be
ing recognised. Her little arms are stretched out, and the instant she
grasps a'hand, a sleeve, or even part ofthe dress, she knows the person, and
lets them pass on with some sign of recognition.
The innate desire for knowledge, and the instinctive efforts which the
human faculties make to exercise their functions, is shown most remarkably
in Laura. Her tiny fingers are to her as eyes, and ears, and nose, and most

394 APPENDIX.
deftly and incessantly does she keep them in motion; like the feelers of some
insects which are continually agitated, and which touch every grain of sand
in the path, so Laura's arms and hands are continually in play; and when
she is walking with a person she not only recognises every thing she
passes within touching distance, but by continually touching her compan
ion's hands she ascertains what he is doing. A person walking across a
room while she had hold on his left arm, would find it hard to take a pencil
out of his waistcoat pocket with his right hand, without her perceiving it.
Her judgment of distances and of relations of place is very accurate; she
wUl ri.se from her scat, go straight towards a door, put out her hand just at
the right time, and grasp the handle with precision.
When she runs against a door which is shut, but which she expected to
find open, she does not fret, but. rubs her head and laughs, -i though she
perceived the ludicrous position of a person flat against a door trying to
walk through it.
The constant and tireless exercise of her feelers gives her a very accurate
knowledge of every thing about the house; so that if anew article, a bundle,
bandbox, or even a new book, is laid any where in the apartments which
she frequents, it would be but a short time before, in her ceaseless rounds,
she would find it, and from something about it she would generally discover
to whom it belonged.
She perceives the approach of persons by the undulations of the air strik
ing her face; and she can distinguish the step of those who tread hard, and
jar the floor.
At table, if told to be still, she sits and conducts herself with propriety;
handles her cup, spoon, and fork, like other children; so that a stranger
looking at her would take her for a very pretty child with a green ribbon
over her eyes.
But when at liberty to do as she chooses, she is continually feeling of
things, and ascertaining their size, shape, density, and use — asking their
names and their purposes, going on with insatiable curiosity, step by step,
towards knowledge.
Thus doth her active mind, though all silent and darkling within, com
mune by means of her one sense with things external, and gratify its innate
cravings for knowledge by close and ceaseless attention.
Qualities and appearances, unappreciable or unheeded by others, are to
her of great significance and value; and by means of these her knowledge of
external nature and physical relations will in time become extensive.
If the same success shall attend the cultivation of her moral nature, as has
foUowed that of her intellect and her perceptive faculties, great wiU be the
reward to her, and most interesting wUl be the results to others.

No. X.— Referred to on p. 236.
EESOLUTIONS OF CLASS AT ALBANY.
George Combe, Esa. Albany, Feb. S, 1840.
Dear Sir: — At the close of your Course of Lectures in this city, on the 7th
instant, the Class was organised by the appointment of Thomas W. Olcott,
Esq. as chairman, and the Rev. Dr. Bullions as secretary. The objects of
the meeting were then stated by the chairman in the following words: —

APPENDIX. 395
Ladies and Gentlemen. — We have listened to the exposition ofthe prin
ciples of Phrenology by decidedly the most gifted and distinguished advo
cate and teacher of that science now living, and the object ofthe meeting
now called is to convey to Mr. Combe, on bidding him farewell, the assur
ance ofthe pleasure with which we have attended his class and heard his
lectures. The importance of Phrenology as a guide to heslth and physical
education, most of competent judges will freely admit. The respected se
nior trustee ofthe Institution in which we are now assembled has long been
an able and faithful champion of this branch ofthe subject, and Combe on
Physiology has been adopted as a text book in this Academy. If the science
has not attained the accuracy of precision in details, yet its general princi
ples are beginning to be acknowledged, and to occupy the attention of the
most profound and cultivated minds. The proof of this fact I have in the
character of the audience before me. — If gentlemen have any remarks or
resolutions to offer, they will now he entertained.
After which, on motion of Rufus W. Peckham, Esq., it was unani
mously Resolved, — That we have listened wiih deep and increasing interest to
the lectures delivered by George Combe, Esq. of Edinburgh on the subject
of Phrenology and its application.
Resolved, — That we feel gratified, and in the highest degree instructed,
by the clear and able manner in which the principles of that science have
been explained, and that the facts and numerous illustrations with which
Mr. Combe has fortified and enforced his principal positions, entitle them,
in our view, to great weight and consideration.
Resolved, — That the application made by Mr. Combe of the science of
Phrenology to the explaining of life's complicated phenomena, and to the
unfolding ofthe great principles upon which the physical education and the
inteUectual and moral culture of the young should be conducted, invest it
with an interest, which, we believe, has not hitherto been properly appre
ciated, and we hope the day is not distant when every parent in this country
shall be familiar with those principles.
Resolved, — That in our estimation the American people are greatly in
debted to Mr. Combe for his eminently successful efforts in promulgating
doctrines so vitally essential to the proper developement of the physical
and mental powers of man, and the increasing consequences of which can
be realised in a manner adequate to their importance only by coming
generations. Resolved, — That a copy of these Resolutions be presented to Mr. Combe,
and that their publication in the daily papers of this city be requested.
It was then, on motion, resolved that Amo4 Dean, Esq., Dr. Hamilton,
and Rufus W. Peckham, Esq., be a committee to wait upon Mr. Combe, and
to present him with a copy ofthe above resolutions.
We assure you. Sir, that it gives us great pleasure in thus being made
the medium of the communication of sentiments so fully accordant with
those entertained by each of us; at the same time, it is with much regret
we feel that, in performing this grateful office, we must bid you farewell.
With sentiments of the highest respect and consideration, we are, your
obedient servants, Amos Dean,
R. W. Peckham,
W. A. Hamilton.

396 APPENDIX

No. XL— Referred to on p. 276.
Extract from the " American Journal of Science and Arts" for July
1840, edited by Professor Silliman.
RESOLUTIONS OF CLASS AT NEW HAVEN.
At the conclusion of the last lecture, and after Mr. Combe had taken
leave and withdrawn, the audience was called to order by the Hon. Henry
W. Edwards, late Governor of Connecticut.
The Hon. David Daggett, late Chief- J ustice ofthe state, was called to the
chair, when the following resolutions were laid in by Governor Edwards,
seconded by Professor Silliraan, and carried by an unanimous vote. We
trust that our readers will agree with us that it is not inappropriate to the
object of a Journal of Science to record them with the remarks by which
they were supported.
The Observations of Governor Edwards on introducing the Resolutions,
were as follows: —
We have been listening with great interest and instruction, during a
series of evenings,* to the lectures of Mr. Combe on Phrenology, and his
course is now finished. He has displayed much ability and great research
on this subject, and whatever our opinions may finally be as to the correct
ness of the views he has presented, I think we shall readily admit, that he
has acquitted himself fairly and fully in what he undertook. For one, I
am ready to declare that he has accomplished all that I had anticipated.
He has performed to my entire satisfaction his part ofthe engagement. If
there be truth in Phrenology, the sooner we know it the better. The sub
ject is of immense importance, and if we are still in doubt, we have been
furnished with the means of ascertaining the truth.
Mr. Combe is now about to leave us, and an expresrion of our approbation,
in accordance with what has been done at other places where he has lec
tured, is, I think, due from us, and will probably be very gratifying to him.
I hold in my hand some resolutions which will be submitted to the meeting,
and will, it is presumed, be cheerfully concurred in by all present.
RESOLUTIONS.
Resolved, — That we have listened with great interest to the lectures of
Mr.' Combe, on the physical, intellectual, and moral powers of man, and that,
without claiming to express an opinion on Phrenology as a science, we
have derived from his skilful analysis both instruction and gratification.
Resolved, — That our best wishes attend Mr. Combe and his lady, for a
safe return to their native land, and a happy reunion with their friends.
Resolved,— That Judge Daggett, Governor Edwards, Professor Silliman,
General Kimberly, and Professor Olmsted, be a committee to present to
Mr. Combe a copy ofthe above resolutions.
New Haven, Conn., March 15, 1840. « "
"The resolutions were communicated to Mr. Combe with the letter, of
which the following is a copy: —
* The course occupied thirteen evenings, each lecture being two hours
long, with a brief intermission.

APPENDIX. 397
TO MR. GEORGE COMBE.
Dear Sir: — In compliance with the request of the gentlemen and ladies
who have attended your course of lectures on Phrenology, we have the
pleasure of presenting you with a copy of the resolutions adopted by them,
and avail ourselves of the occasion to communicate the assurance of our
high respect and esteem. David Daggett.
Henry W. Edwards.
Benjamin Silliman.
Dennis Kimberly.
Dennison Olmsted.
New Haven, March 15, 1840.
Professor Silliman, in seconding these resolutions, said, Mr. Chairman,
I have no claim to be called a phrenologist, for I have not studied the sub
ject sufficiently to form an opinion upon the science as a whole, and it is
not probable that my engagements will ever permit me to give it a thorough
investigation. All I know of it is derived from the courses of lectures
which I have heard, and of which this is the fourth; from observation of
such facts as have come in my way; from credible attestations of its prac
tical applications published in various works, and from personal communi
cation with some of its cultivators. * * » Jt appears to me,
Sir, that Phrenology involves no absurdity, nor any antecedent improba
bility. The very word means the science or knowledge ofthe mind, which
all admit to be a pursuit of the highest dignity and importance, both for
this life and the life to come; and the appropriate inquiry of the phrenolo
gist is, whether the mind, with its peculiar powers, affections, and propen
sities, is manifested by particular organs corresponding with the conforma
tion of the cranium, that defensive armor by which the brain is protected
from external injury. * * * Are we then expected seriously
to assert, that which appears self-evident, that the seat of our mental ope
rations, and of our affections and propensities, is in the brain? My con
sciousness informs me so, and this is the highest possible evidence to me,
although my consciousness cannot be evidence to another person. *
* * The residence of the mind being in the brain, it is not absurd
or irrational to inquire whether it can be read in the form of the cranium
as weU as in the expression of the features. * « » Perhaps we
may not be able to follow phrenologists in all their detailed divisions ofthe
position of the faculties, affections, and propensities; but, after making all
reasonable allowance for some possible errors in discrimination, and for
some suggestions ofthe imagination, may we not still rely upon their abi
lity to indicate, decidedly, the prevailing faculties and the ruling affections
and propensities of far the greater number of individuals, in any assembly,
either of pupils or convicts, or of people brought together by accident? — In
yielding to our convictions on this subject we should, however, exclude
smatterers and pretenders, who, having only a superficial acquaintance
with the subject, and perhaps no uncommon acumen in any case, examine
heads to flatter self-esteem and gratify cupidity.— The subject is liable to
abuse, and not all who claim to be phrenologists can be deserving of entire
Confidence; but is not the same true of many other subjects, and especially
of surgery? How large a proportion of surgeons should we be willing to
employ in passing a knife among the nerves and arteries of our own bodies,
or of those of our dear friends? — We are persuaded, then, that phrenology
has its foundation laid in truth, and that its first principles, as regards the
VOL. n. — 27

398 APPENDIX.
great regions of the head, are established upon the same ground as that
which sustains all the physical sciences, namely, induction, indicating the
correspondence of the phenomena with the theory. * * * This
apologetic plea for Phrenology has been thrown in, not because we have
made up our minds to go for the whole, but because we would strenuously
maintain the liberty of free investigation. Philosophical is as sacred as
civil and religious liberty, and all three are indispensible to the perfection
of man's faculties, to the improvement of his condition, and to the just
comprehension of his duties.

No. XII.— Referred to on p. 284.
PRESENTATION OF A VASE TO MR. COMBE.
The exquisite vase, subscribed for by the class in attendance on Mr.
Combe's Phrenological Lectures in this city, was presented to the distin
guished writer and lecturer, on Monday evening, 23d March, 1840, at
Howard's Hotel, in presence ofthe subscribers, by a Committee consisting
of the following gentlemen. — Mr. E. P. Hurlbut, Rev. T, J. Sawyer, Dr.
Foster, Dr. Boardman, Mr. S. W. Dewey, Mr. E. C. Benedict. And as
this may be considered the termination of Mr. Combe's lectures in the
United States, we present our readers with the following accurate report
ofthe proceedings.
The Chairman of the Committee, Mr. Hurlbut, thus addressed Mr.
Combe: —
" Sir: — The members of the class who attended your lectures, delivered
in this city during the past year, have instructed us to present you with
this vase, which; in their names, we now beg you to accept.
" It bears upon one side three medallic likenesses, exquisitely wrought —
one of Gall, to whose great discoveries in nature we are indebted for the
true science of mind — one of Spurzheim, who first aided in illustrating and
establishing it: — and the other of yourself their first and favorite British
disciple "This high and just association will ever endure. He who founded,
and they who first illustrated and advanced the true science of inteUectual
and moral philosophy, will descend the stream of time together, shedding
lustre upon future ages, and living in the grateful memories of generations
to come after us.
" Upon this vase are also presented other medallic likenesses; — one of
Rush, whose far-seeing eye, penetrating the veil of nature, which Gall
afterward lifted, had vision of some of the great truths which he demon
strated;— and the other of Caldwell, who was the first among our country
men to embrace and defend the doctrines of the great German, with bold
ness and vigor peculiarly his own.
" We feel a patriotic pride in associating the names of two of our own
countrymen with the most distinguished names of Europe connected with
mental science. ,
" You are soon to return to your native land — to your and our fathers'
country. " Your visit here has awakened the interest of thousands in your welfare
— of thousands who are not wanting in gratitude for the instruction and

APPENDIX. 399
delight which your discourses have afforded them — but who Imve had no
opportunity to manifest, as we do on this most favored occasion, their high
appreciation of your character and attainments, and the enduring impres.sion
which your visit has made upon their minds. Their and our best wishes
attend you.
" Receive, then, this vase — (the superscription upon which is also graven
upon our hearts), and bear it to your home — a tribute to truth, and to the
champion of truth; and rest assured, that, in our estimation, we could be
called to perform no prouder office, than to render a just tribute of respect
and admiration to the author of 'The Constitution of Man.'"
Mr. Combe received the vase and spoke 'to the following effect.
"Gentlemen: — Although I cannot correctly say that I am unused to
public speaking, yet, on occasions like the present, words fail nie to express
what I feel. I accept of your handsome and generous gift with the highest
gratification. The classical elegance of form, the exquisite workmanship,
and the appropriate devices which it bears, render it a gem of beauty. As
a mere physical object, indeed, its merits in this respect have been appre
ciated in this city; it has gained the gold medal offered for the encourage
ment of art, and it will successfully sustain the strictest scrutiny of the dis
tinguished artisans ofthe country to which I am about to carry it. But it
is as a moral monument of your favorable estimation of my labors among you,
and of the interest which you have taken in the science of mind, that it
possesses to me an inestimable value. To Dr. Gall alone belongs the glory
of having discovered the functions of the brain: Dr. Spurzheim generously
devoted his whole life to the extension, improvement, and diffusion of this
splendid product of Gall's originality and genius; and it is difficult to do
justice to the noble sacrifice which he made to the cause of truth. When
Dr. Spurzheim became the disciple of GaU, no human being defended Phre
nology except its author: and he not only stood alone, but encountered the
hostility of civUised Europe, from the emperor to the peasant, a few high
minded individuals only excepted, who were silenced by the hand of power
if they rose superior to the influence of scorn. It is no slender honor to me
that you associate me with such men. Mine has been a flowery pathcom-
' pared with theirs. It is true that, when stiU a young man, without name,
fortune, high associations, or any external advantages to sustain me against
public disapprobation, I fearlessly risked every prospect which the future
held forth to my ambition, and became the defender of Phrenology when it
had few other friends in the British Isles. Professional ruin was prophesied
as the inevitable consequence of this, as it was then styled, rash and incon
siderate step. Butfor the encouragement of the young and ardent worship
pers of truth, I am enabled to say these auguries never were realised. Many
were the shafts of ridicule that were hurled against me, and bitter the taunts
poured forth by a hostile press; but they never penetrated to my sotil, dis
turbed my peace, or impeded my prosperity. I mention this not in the
spirit of vain glory, but to confirm the young in the assurance, tliat the path
of truth and independence may be safely trodden even against a world in
arms, if courage and perseverance be added to prudence in the advance.
"I have sojourned among you now for the greater part of two year,?, and
I am about to leave your country. That I have experienced some incon
veniences, and encountered several disagreeable incidents during my stay
is only what belongs to the lot of humanity; but these sink into insignifi
cance when contrasted with the generous cordiality and enlightened sym
pathy which have been showered upon me by yourselves and your fellow
citizens. I have held converse with many enlightened minds in this coun
try; minds that do honor to human nature; whose philanthropy embraces

400 APPENDIX.
not only patriotism, but an all-prevailing interest in the advancement of the
human race in knowledge, virtue, religion, and enjoyment in every clime.
Many of these admirable men are deeply interested in phrenology. The
gifted individual to whom Massachusetts owes an eternal debt of gratitude
for his invaluable efforts in improving her educational estalishments, has
assured me that the new philosophy is a light in his path to which he at
taches the highest value. You. sir, have shown, in a late valuable work,
that has issued from your pen, that you are penetrated to the core with this
last and best of human sciences;* and many who now hear rae have ex
pressed similar testimonials to its worth. I return, therefore, highly grati
fied with much that I have experienced among you, and I shall not need
this emblem of your respect to maintain the recollection of such men as I
have described, engraven on my affections for ever.
" It is an additional gratification to me to see on this beautiful work of
art the heads of two distinguished Americans, Dr. Benjamin Rush, and Dr.
Charles Caldwell. The former has made the nearest approach of any modern
author to Dr. Gall's discovery, while the latter has manifested great zeal
and high talents in its defence. Allow me to add one brief expression of
admiration and gratitude to a young countryman of my own, Mr. Michael
Morrison from Edinburgh, whose exquisite skill chased these admirable
ornaments on your gift. Among his first efforts in the art was a wax
model which he executed of my head in Edinburgh. Several years ago he
came to this country, v/as highly esteemed as a man and as an artist, and
the embellishment of this vase was almost the last act of his life. Ten days
have scarcely elapsed since he was laid in a premature grave. It would
have delighted me to have addressed to his living ear, the tribute which I
now offer to his memory.
" Again, gentlemen, I assure you of ray heartfelt gratitude and lasting
respect, and with best wishes for your happiness and prosperity, bid you
fareweU." The vase is of exquisite workmanship — being of Grecian model, with
three medallic likenesses on one side — one of Gall, one of Spurzheim, and
one of Combe, with the motto " res non verba quseso;" and two medallic
likenesses on the other — one of Dr. Benjamin Rush, and one of Dr.
Charles Caldwell, with the following inscription; —
- Presented to
George Combe, of Edinburgh,
¦by the class in attendance upon
his lectures delivered in the
City of New York,
in 1839, on the subject of
Phrenology;
In testimony of their profound respect for the
distinguished Lecturer, and of their
belief in, and admiration of,
the noble science
of which he is the ablest living
teacher and expounder."
* Mr. Combe here referred to a work recently published by Mr. Hurlbut,
"Civil Office and Political Ethics," the "ethics" of which are admirably
adapted for the guidance of the people ofthe United States in the cause of
true patriotism and virtue.

APPENDIX. 401
Round the base of the vase are chased the heads of several animals as
emblematical of comparative Phrenology; and below thera, are engraved
the following words, " Mr. James Thomson, manufacturer of this vase,
received a gold medal from the American Institute, for its superior work-
pianship."

No. XIII.— Referred to on p. 285.
EXTRACT FROM REPORT OF PHILADELPHIA, WILMINGTON, AND
BALTIMORE RAILROAD.
In consequence of the absence of the engineer of the road in Europe,
we are unable to give a detailed report of the manner of construction, and
amounts of excavation, embankment, and bridging ofthe road. Some par
ticulars relative to its character may not prove irrelevant; several kinds of
rails have been adopted for different sections of the route, in all of which,
strength, and consequent permanence, have been made essential requisites.
The bridge rail, weighing 40 lb. per yard; the T rail, weighing 56 lb. per
yard; and the heavy-bar rail, IJ inches in thickness, by 2j inches in
breadth, weighing 40 lb. per yard, are used throughout the whole, with the
exception of a portion of the route between Philadelphia and Wilmington,
upon which the heavy plate bar has been laid.
The superstructure of the road consists in longitudinal sills, connected
by cross ties of locust, red cedar, or seasoned white oak, and surmounted
by longitudinal string pieces of Carolina heart pine, on which is laid the
iron rail. Upon the greater part of the road, however, the strength of the
iron bar is such as to render unnecessary the use of the longitudinal string
pieces, the bar being supported by the cross tie alone.
Between the city of Wilmington and the Susquehanna river, the road-way
is graded thirty-five feet in width with superior bridging, aU but one being
built ofthe most substantial stone masonry and brick arches, making them
secure from risk of fire. Upon other portions of the road, the surface width
is twenty.five feet, having, throughout nearly the whole length of the line,
a surface graded sufficiently wide for two tracks of raUway. The whole
distance was contracted for and finished, by different contractors, in various
quantities of from five to ten miles in extent, and amounts from $10,000
to $60,000. The following are the average rates of prices paid for labor
and material. LABOR.
Excavation, 124 cents per cubic yard.
Embankment, 12J do. do.
Rock blasting, 60 do. do.
Culvert masonry, $1 80 per perch, containing 25 cubic feet.
Bridge masonry, $3 per perch, containing 25 cubic feet.
Lattice bridging, $20 per linear foot.
King post bridging, $9 do.
Laying fton rails, 37J cents per yard.
MATERIAL.
Hemlock sills, $12 per thousand feet.

402 APPENDIX.
Locust ties, 67 to 80 cents each.
Yellow pine string pieces, 6 inches by 6 inches, from $18 to $28 per
thousand feet.
Stone for bridges, culverts, &c., 70 cents to $2 50 per perch.
Railroad bars, $70 per ton — costs, &c. included.
Cast iron chairs, 4J cents per lb.
Spikes, 9 cents per lb.
Land damages, $250 per acre.
Fencing per pannel, $1 to $1 25.
These are the general charges for graduation and materials, collected
and averaged from the contracts on file at the Company's office.

No. XIV.— Referred to on p. 309.
NOTICE OF THE LAWS RELATIVE TO fiANKS IN THE STATE OF NEW
YORK.
When Mr. Van Buren was governor ofthe state of New York, a gentle
man by the name of Forman submitted to his consideration a plan for im
proving the paper currency of this state, which Mr. V. B. slightly recom
mending, placed before the legislature ofthe state. From this plan sprung
a law, passed April 2, 1829, entitled "an act to create a fund for the benefit
of the creditors of certain monied corporations, and for other purposes,"
commonly called " The Safety Fund Law."
By this law it was provided that every corporation having banking
powers, thereafter to be created, or whose charter shall be renewed, should,
on or before the 1st of January in every year, pay to the treasurer of this
state a sum equal to half of one per cent, of the capital stock of the corpo
ration paid in.
This payment is directed to be continued until each bank shall have paid
into the treasury three per cent, upon its capital, which is to remain a per
petual fund called " The Bank Fund," and to be appropriated to the pay
ment of such portion of the debts, exclusive of capital stock of any of the
said corporations which shall become insolvent, as shall remain unpaid,
after applying the property ofthe insolvent corporation to that purpose.
This fund is invested by the comptroller as a separate fund, and belongs
to the banks contributing to it, in proportion to their contributions. The
income from this fund, after paying the salaries of the bank commissioners,
and some other expenses, is paid over to the banks in proportion to their
contributions. If this fund gets below three per cent, of the bank capital, as before men
tioned, the banks must contribute and make it up.
Upon the happening of a bank's insolvency, the Court of Chancery directs
a receiver to take charge of its effects, and to divide the property of the
bank among its creditors; and the receiver is put in funds by the comp
troller out of the " bank fund" to pay off the residue of the debts. If that
fund is insufficient, the receiver awaits its being filled up by future contri
butions from " the Safety-Fund Banks."
This law also provides for the appointment of three " bank commission
ers of the state of New York," whose duty it is to visit every four months

APPENDIX. 403
all the banks subject to this safety fund law, and thoroughly to inspect
their affairs— to examine their books, debts, credits, amount of specie on
hand, and to ascertain their means of fulfilling their engagements. They
may examine any ofthe officers ofthe banks, or any other person on oath.
And if from their examination, or in any way, it appears that any bank is
insolvent, or has violated its charter in any respect, the commissioners im
mediately apply to the Court of Chancery for an injunction against the
bank and its officers, and its affairs are wound up.
These commissioners report annually to the legislature. A copy of one
of their reports (1837) accompanies this statement.
Under this system it seems between 90 and 100 banks have been created,
or had their charters extended within this state. There is now a bank in
almost every county, and some counties have several.
These are called " Safety Fund Banks." They are corporations, and I
give a brief summary ofthe provisions of their charters.
Each bank is created by a legislative act obtained on petition. The act
defines the powers of the corporation, limits its existence to some twenty-
five or thirty years, locates it, prescribes the amount of its capital stock,
subjects it to the safety fund law bank commissioners' investigation, and
prescribes the manner in which its capital stock shall be subscribed for,
distributed and paid in. The stock is apportioned among subscribers for
it by commissioners appointed by the act of incorporation. The subscri
bers pay in the amount of their subscription in specie, or current bank bills,
and the latter are always employed in payment. These bills are the issues
of other safety fund banks, and thus the paper of one bank is the basis of
another's issues.
These banks, when first incorporated, were authorised to circulate in
their own biUs twice and a half the amount of their capital actually paid in,
but have been recently limited to one and a half that amount. This re
striction, however, has been created since the suspension of specie pay
ments in 1837.
The explosion just referred to grew out ofthe inflation ofthe paper cur
rency by the safety fund banks of this state, and sister institutions of other
states. A country bank in this state having a capital of $200,000 would not
have in its vaults in specie over $20,000 or 10 per cent, of the capital,
which might not amount to 5 per cent, of their circulation.
After the explosion of 1837, came the new system of banking, by an
act passed April 18, 1838, entitled "An act to authorise the business of
banking." Under this act institutions called " free banks" have been extensively
organised. I enclose a sUp from a newspaper, containing some sound comments
upon this new system of banking, from a gentleman of high intelligence
in general, and of great experience as a banker.*
This " general banking law," as it is called, authorizes the comptroller
of this state to have bills for circulation engraved in blank, in the simUi-
tude of bank notes of different denominations, which are countersigned,
registered, and numbered in his office.
These bills can be procured by any person, or association of persons,
who wUl organise as bankers under the law, file their statement and certi
ficate, and pay over to the comptroller stock ofthe United States, or any of
* The slip referred to, has been printed in the text, p. 309, title " Scarcity
of Money."

404

APPENDIX.

the States ofthe Union, which shall be equal to stock of this state produ
cing 5 per cent, per annum, at such rate as he shall approve, not exceeding
its par value, or by delivering to him bonds and mortgages upon rea! estate,
bearing at least six per cent, interest.
The mortgages transferred must be upon improved, productive, and un
encumbered lands within this State, worth, independent of any buildings
thereon, at least double the amount for which they shall be mortgaged. —
The person or association assigning the bonds and mortgages, or paying in
State stocks to the comptroller, may receive the interest to accrue thereon,
unless default shall be made in paying the bills or notes of the banking
concern, or unless, in the opinion ofthe comptroller, the mortgages, stocks,
&c. so pledged are insufficient to pay the bills or notes.
The banking company, upon thus securing the comptroller, procure the
bills, fill them up, and put them in circulation as money.
For fuller details on this subject, see pp. 307-8-9.

No. XV.— Referred to on p. 345.
RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES.

Churclies

Minis

Hrembera oi

Denominations.

or Congre-
gaUons.

ters.

Com muni-
cants.

Population.

Baptists

6319

4239

452,0001

" Freewill .
" Seventh-Day

753 42

612 46

33,876 1
4,503^

4,300,000

" Six-Principle

16

10

S,117j

Catholics
418
478
800,000
Christians ....
1000
800
150,6do
300,000
Congregationalists
1300
1150
160,000
1,400,000
Disciples of Christ (Campbellites)
Dutch Reformed .
197
192
22,515
450,000
Episcopalians
950
849
600,000
Friends
500
100,000
German Reformed .
600
180
30,tl6o
Jews
J5,m
Lutherans
'75b
267
62,2(36
540,000
Mennonites
200
30,000
Methodists Protestant
3106 400
606,549 )
50,000 i
5,745
12,000
3,000,000
Moravians or United Brethren
MormonitesNew Jerusalem Church
'24 '27
33
'33
12,000
12,000 5,000
Presbyterians
2807
2225
274,084 1
Cumberland
500
450
50,000 16,000 y
3,000 1
" Associate,
" Reformetl .
183 40
8720
2,175,000
Associate Reformed
Shakers
TankersUnitariansUniversalists
214 15
40
200653
116 4540
174317
12,000) 6,0003,000
6,000
30,000
180.000
600,000
' The above statements ofthe number of churches, ministers, and mem-
vera! denominations, have been derived chiefly from recent
AFPaNDix. 405
official documents published by the different denominations; but the last
column contains rather a vague estimate which has appeared in various
pubhcations of the total number of people who are attached to, or show a
preference for, the several . different religious persuasions." — Am erican
Almanac, 1841, p, 157.

THE END.