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REMARKS

9
                 ON THE

 IMPORTANCE OF PROMOTING LITERARY AND SOCIAL

            OQSJOJBIB'jPb

                 IN THE

     VALAEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI,

              AS A MEANS OF


I2!L!2TAmra® a^a ®HlAlBA®ai2lB

                 AND

 PERPETUATING THE UNION,

         DELIVERED IN THE CHAPEL

                  OF



                TO THE

   ZUtcrAnj eonfceuttou  of Seuturlts,

          November 8, 1833.      /Qk/^'
Co
                         V


OF CINCINNATI.           l-V?*
BY DANIEL. BRAKE, M. B. ^
U
PUBLISHED BY MEMBERS OF THE CONVENTION,
                 AT THE
       OFFICE OF THE LOUISVILLE HERALD.


                 1833. 
tAon. McJ.
  VV Z
  3S0

   /£33 

  As the following address is published by request of individual
members of the late "Education Convention," holden at Lexing-
ton, instead of the convention in its  collective capacity, some
explanation of the circumstances of its publication may be ne-
cessary to prevent erroneous impressions.
  The facts are simply  these: Immediately after Dr. Drake
had concluded his  address and retired, a resolution was offered
in the convention, for presenting  its "thanks to Dr. Drake for
the very able and  eloquent address with which he had just fa-
vored us, and that he be requested to furnish a copy for pub-
lication."
  This  resolution was  opposed  by several  members, on the
ground that some expressions  in the latter part of the address,
recognized the probability of a  dissolution of the Union, and
the formation of a  "Western Confederacy."
  The members of this convention, who  were favorable to  its
publication, and who did not perceive in it the objectionable
features above alluded to, did not  feel disposed to urge the mea-
sure upon the convention unless it could pass unanimously; and
preferred procuring its publication by individual solicitation, as
the following correspondence will  show:

           ADDRESS  OF THE COMMITTEE.

                            Lexington,  November 9, 1833.
Dr. Drake,
       Sir: The address you favored the Education Convention
with, on yesterday, excited in our minds  feelings of unmingled
delight.  We were as much struck with the pure patriotism it in-
culcated, adorned with all the stores to be derived from the rich
and luxuriant fields  of  natural science, as with the classic ele-
gance of its style.   With these impressions  glowing our minds,
we  can but think its distribution will  afford new and  beautiful
4 0^1 % 
    \            *"»             \    * ••.             •-»■«


t, .  'as'sociations^rouncT which may cluster,th#great political truth
     oTo'ur Cdfanliy—*'Utt<fa\noW. and foreVer;*' '* We rthefrefore so-
     licit a copy of the address for publication, and  in the interim,
     have the honor to remain,
                With sentiments of high respect,
                             Yours,
                                   MANN BUTLER,
                                   R.  FERGUSON, M. D.
                                   WILKINS TANNEHILL,
                                   G.  H. WILCOX,
                                   D.  J.  AYERS,
                                   THOS. J. THORNTON,
                                   L.  H. VAN DOREN,
                                   C.  B.  NEW, M. D.
       Dr.  Drake.

                                    Lexington, Nov. 9, 1833.
       Gentlemen:
              The Address, a copy of which you have done me the
     honor to solicit for publication,  was not drawn  up with a view
    . to that destination.   As you think, however, that its distribution
     might contribute to the promotion, in the Valley of the Missis-
     sippi, of the great object in which you are so zealously engaged,
     I do  not feel at liberty to  decline your nattering request; and
     after my return to Cincinnati, will, at as early a period as pos-
     sible, prepare the manuscript for publication.
                Most respectfully,
                        Your ob't. serv't.
                                        DANIEL DRAKE.
       Messrs. Butler, Thornton, Vandoren, and others.
       Upon the reception of  this  affirmative reply, Messrs.  Mann
     Butler, W. Tannehill and  G. H. Wilcox, of Louisville, were
     charged by those who had solicited it, with the publication of the
     address. 
PREFACE.
  About three years ago, several respectable teachers in the
valley of the Ohio  River, most of whom reside  in Cincinnati,
projected  and organized  a society,  which they denominated,
"The Western Literary Institute, and College of Pro-
fessional  Teachers."  Its second annual meeting was held in
Cincinnati, in the month of September last, and was  attended
by a number of teachers and professors of Ohio, Kentucky and
Illinois.  Several interesting topics  connected with education,
it is understood, were discussed by these gentlemen, and a num-
ber of public lectures, by themselves and others  invited to that
task, were delivered to large audiences of ladies and gentlemen.
  Before  the  Institute  adjourned, it was thought advisable to
enlarge its limits, both as to the objects on  which it should in
future exert itself, and also to the qualifications of membership.
Accordingly the following resolution was adopted:
  "Resolved, That a Central Committee be appointed to devise
a plan of a Society  for the Improvement of Education and the
diffusion of useful knowledge,  which shall include the citizens
of all classes,  in the several Western States, and be calculated
to exert an influence on the whole mass of the people; and that
said  committee shall make its report at a General Convention
of the  Citizens of the Western States and  Territories, in  this
City, (Cincinnati,) on the  second Monday in April next."
   In the  first week  of November, by the efforts  of the Rev. B,
 O. Peers, acting President of Transylvania University, a  simi-
 lar  Convention,  for the State of Kentucky alone, was held at
 Lexington, and  attended by several  gentlemen from Cincinnati,
 invited thither by  Mr. Peers.  The Author of this  pamphlet
 wa« among the number, and was one of those whom the  Con-
              B
±*B 
VI                       PREFACE

vention honored with the request to address them.   The sub-
ject which he chose, was the Physical, Intellectual and Moral
Education, appropriate to the two sexes, respectively.
   The lecture being concluded, he deemed the occasion a suita-
ble one for promoting the  general literary meeting just referred
to, and accordingly offered the following  resolution, which was
ultimately adopted  by a unanimous vote.
   "Resolved, as the  sense of this body,  That the State of Ken-
tucky should be represented in the  proposed meeting  of dele-
gates, from the different States of the Valley of the Mississippi,
in April next."
   After the Convention adjourned, a respectable  number of its
members,  did him the honor to ask a copy of both the Lecture
and the Remarks for publication.   Expecting, at no distant time,
to be able to present the former to the  public, in a  different way,
he has complied with  their flattering request, in reference to
the latter only.
   His  remarks were chiefly extempore or from brief and hasty
notes; and in writing them out for the press,  he  has extended
them on certain points, so  as to present the subject more fully
than it was then displayed.
   Heisnot a statesman, nor even a politician, but a naturalist; and
has applied his geographical and geological observations, to the
discussion of certain questions of patriotic and social duty.  By
this application he  hopes in some degree to promote uniformity
and elevation of character in the Valley of the Mississippi, and
thereby contribute to  the  preservation of the Union;  which,
however, he regards in no present, and believes, by the West
alone, may be preserved from all future danger.
    Cincinnati, (Ohio,) December 15, 1833. 
                   THE

VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
   Our happy Union enjoys unlimited sovereignty among the
 nations of the earth, but over its own people, and the different
 states  to which  they belong, its powers  are  restricted.  On
 many points the states are sovereign, in relation to the confede-
 racy, but they have  few attributes of sovereignty  in reference
 to each other, individually, and still fewer, in regard to foreign
 governments.  This complex political organization, the only one
 perhaps that could enable the inhabitants of an extensive territory
 to establish union, and at the same time  enjoy  the blessings of
 laws adapted to their respective wants, like every thing compli-
 cated, is liable to decomposition.  At a period when such a ca-
 tastrophe is spoken of by all, and apprehended by many, it can-
 not be unprofitable for the people of the different states, to con-
 sider what they may  do to avert it*  As a  citizen of the valley of
 the Mississippi, addressing those who dwell in the  same region,
 I propose  to say something on the means of prevention which
 lie within our reach; and hope to show, that the  intellectual and
 moral elevation which it is  our absolute duty to promote, is pre-
 cisely that  which  would most effectually perpetuate the Union.
  In past ages of the world, such  a union would, perhaps, have
 conferred but {ew benefits on those who might have formed it, and
 could not, in fact, have been sustained.   To the  discoveries and
inventions  of modern science—physical, mechanical,  political
and moral—applied to national objects, we are indebted for the
means  of its preservation in our  own  case.  But even  these
might be  ineffectual, if nature did not favor their  application. 
8           THE VALLEY OF  THE MISSISSIPPI.
Thus guided, it is, I think, the coldest sceptiscism, to doubt their
perfect efficiency.
  Before the means of diffusing knowledge, favoring personal
intercourse, and facilitating an exchange  of productions, be-
tween the remote sections of a great empire, were invented, the
ti-es which  bound them together, were woven and sustained  by
the hand of military power; and when it became convulsed or
paralyzed,  decomposition was the inevitable consequence.  The
natural  objects and  operations which might  have promoted
union, or which required to be controlled for  the  purpose of
maintaining it,  were too often overlooked.   In  the  United
States the case is far different.   A profound  policy of the peo-
ple, exerted at the same time through the federal and state go-
vernments, has  laid the foundations of union on the  plan of na-
ture. Where she favors intercourse between the different por-
tions of the country,  the  hand of art lends its cultivation; and
when she opposes it, the same hand is successfully raised against
her  power.  Let them  persevere in this policy and the Union
is perpetual.
  To understand how the natural configuration of our country,
under  the  influence of  science, must of necessity give perma-
nence to the Union, we  need  but turn our eyes upon its map,
and contemplate the different great valleys  or basins into which
it is naturally divisible.
  The seaboard presents a range of states, the "Old Thirteen;"
the whole  of which, except Vermont, are connected with the
Atlantic ocean.  Each has its navigable rivers, its bays, harbors,
and wharves, enabling it to establish and  maintain  an indepen-
dent commercial intercourse with every other state,  and with all
the  world.  Most of their rivers originate in  the Alleghany
Mountains; which, commencing in the north  of Georgia, termi-
nate in  the state of Mew York,  traversing the states of North
Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.  The  average
distance of these mountain ranges from  the ocean, is about tvro
hundred miles,  Large portions of two of the states extend be- 
THE VALLEY OP THE MISSISSIPPI.
9
yond them into the interior.  Between the extremities of these
mountains and the gulf of Mexico, towards the south and Lake
Ontario, towards the north,  the land is low and level.  New
England, separated from this Alpine range,  by the valleys of
Lake Champlain and the Hudson river, has its own mountains.
Such is  the maritime or Atlantic basin of the Union;  and the
states which it comprehends, extending from East Florida to
Maine, form a sort of arch, of which New York is regarded, as
the  keystone,  though  nearer to one extremity than the other.
New England is the northern buttress of this arch.
  The original states, lying in this basin, were settled in a great
degree,by separate colonies from Europe;  and tfthey composed
the whole union, it might, at any time be  dissolved; for there is
among them no physical tie of paramount  influence.  Indeed, I
think it a fair presumption, that bpfore thia  time, the Chesapeake
bay would have politically divided them into  a northern and a
southern confederacy.   But, happily there rests on the arch a
weight, which, unremoved must  forever  preserve  it.   This
weight is the superstructure of trans-alpine states and territories,
which stretch  from the  western  foot of the Alleghanies to the
wilds of Missouri, in prospect even to the Chippewan mountains;
and from the Lakes to the gulf of Mexico, in natural association.
The waters of this extensive inland region, flow off to the sea in
two opposite channels;  the Niagara and the Mississippi, dividing
it physically  into two great valleys or basins.   Let us consider
them separately.
  The southwest corner of New York, the adjacent parts of
Pennsylvania, the northern portions of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois,
a part of the Northwest Territory,  and the whole of Michigan,
lie in the Niagara basin; and are, commercially, connected with
the city of New York by the Clinton Canal, and the Hudson river.
The connexion of the west with that city, is not, however, limit-
ed to the states just enumerated, for the Grand Canal of the en-
terprizing state of Ohio,  has recently extended the water com-
munication between New York and th© West, quite into the val- 
10
THE VALLEY OF THE  MISSISSIPPI.
ley of the Mississippi; and Indiana, and Illinois have  similar
works in contemplation or actual progress.
  The connexion between the Niagara basin thus enlarged and
the Atlantic  states, is  not limited to New York, but extends to
New  England,  especially to  Connecticut, Rhode Island, and
Massachusetts.   Thus  the northern parts of the United States
present a natural zone, which reaches from the eastern extremity
of Maine to the  Upper Mississippi,  through nearly thirty de-
grees of longitude.   This is  our lake country, an interior  mari-
time basin, of twice the length of the Atlantic, and four times its
fertility.  The states which it comprehends, form, like the thir-
teen, a kind of arch, of which New York again is the  keystone,
and  New England the eastern abutment.  The  two lines of
states, indeed,  meet  in New York, which is common to both
and the "land of the pilgrims" constitutes the point of the angle
which they form.   The long chain of  northern lakes with their
connecting rivers  and canals facilitate emigration  from east to
west; and, as man never migrates in numbers from a warmer to
a colder climate, the  predominant population of this great zone
will be Yankee.  The manners and customs, the literature, reli-
gion, arts, sciences, and institutions of New England, and its de-
rivative Western New York, are destined to prevail throughout
its whole extent.   All this  is the  offspring of  natural causes;
which, whenever enterprize is left  free, and laws are enacted for
the  public good, will be found to guide emigration, govern the
investment of capital, and direct legislation.
   Every  friend of the Union must look with pleasure and confi-
dence on the interest which  the  eastern and western halves of
this zone must forever have, in maintaining their various mutual
relations.  The focus of these relations is the city of New York.
 In her resides the centripetal power, which can never cease to
 attract the  whole.  This power  has increased a hundred fold
 within the last  twenty years; and  cannot be annihilated.   Na-
 ture has decreed  that she should be the commercial capital of
 the northern belt of the Union.   All the. states  and  parts of 
            THE VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI,         11

states, which it naturally comprehends, will be brought  under
her paramount influence; and she, on the other hand, will never
cease to perceive, that her prosperity rests upon theirs, and that
if her connection with them were dissolved,  the  gorgeous  vis-
ions of future  greatness which  cheer her  enterprising citizens,
would vanish in an  hour.   Of the vast, and already populous
region which administers to her wealth, that part which stretches
from the Falls of Niagara into  the  wilderness, will soon be the
most important, and, in her wisdom, will \>e especially cherished.
In prosperity or adversity—in her days of pride and exultation',
of conscious superiority over many of her humbler sisters of the
Sea-coast—in the calm of political peace or amidst the schemes
and ragings of faction—she will never be so mad as to  discon-
nect herself, if indeed, she could, from  her western resources.
  Such is the northern girdle of the Union, extending from the
Bay of Fundy to  the Lake of the Woods.  New  York is the
link which connects its opposite  parts, and until there arise a
power strong enough to  displace her,  it cannot be  broken.  A
fruitful fancy may conjure up undefined images of such a power,
shooting forth from the midst of possible revolutions;—the spec-
ulative  politician may have his reveries of the future, and the
hypochondriac his forebodings—but the naturalist, who  quietly
contemplates the overruling influence of physical causes on the
political and social relations of a free  and  enlightened  people,
will confide in their power, and continue a firm believer in the
stability  of the north.
   The   integrity of that  commercial and  social  confederacy
being preserved, the Union itself could scarcely be dissolved.
The western portions of that zone, must forever exert an attrac-
tion on  the northern parts of the valley of the  Mississippi.
while its eastern half, composed of New  York and New Eng-
land will act with  equal power  on  Pennsylvania and New
Jersey.   Physically, the north of Pennsylvania, and the south
of  New York, are  one region.   The great  rivers of the for-
mer originate in  the  latter, and  there is between the  two 
12         THE  VALLEY  OF THE  MISSISSIPPI.
 no natural line of separation.   The north-west of Pennsylvania,
 moreover, has a direct interest in the Erie basin and the  canal
 which connects it with the ocean.  The connection between my
 native  state and  New York,  is still closer.  New Jersey, in
 truth, must forever remain in political, as she is in commercial,
 association with the great emporium.   It  is, however, East Jer-
 sey only, that feels this influence.  West Jersey is allied in trade
 and social relations to Philadelphia, and hence, that  little state
 must, af all times, constitute a link of union between the valleys
 of the Hudson and the Delaware.  But dismissing the influence
 of the basin of the Lakes, let us turn to that of the Mississippi.
   It is said by Dr. Goldsmith in his  Natural History, that how-
 ever large one fancies an Elephant to  be,  from reading the de-
 scription, it always appears  larger, still, when seen by him.  1
 would apply a  similar remark  to the valley of the  Mississippi.
 Whatever ideas may be formed of its extent and importance,
 from the ordinary  notices of it, they will  always be found too
 limited, when  a profound  examination is  made.  Compared
 with it, the maritime and lake basins dwindle into insignificance.
 They are  but belts, and at many points  narrow ones.  Their
 united area  does not greatly exceed that part of the valley lying
 east of the Mississippi;  which is itself, much less than the por-
 tion situated beyond that river.   This  great region extends
 through thirty degrees of longitude and twenty of latitude, and
 no part is as far north as England.  It is at  least equal in  area
 to Europe south of the Baltic and west of  the  Black Sea.—
 Bounded on the  east by the Alleghanies; on the west by the
 Chippewan mountains, its numerous rivers meet in the channel
 of the Mississippi through a distance of more than two thou-
 sand miles.   To the north, the sources  of  these rivers  blend
themselves, on an elevated plain, with  the shorter streams which
flow into the lakes.  To the east, from New York to  Georgia,
originating on the slopes of the Alleghany mountains, they inter-
lock with the Delaware, the Susquehanna,  the  Potomac, James
 River, the  Roanoke, the Santee and  the  Savannah.  It is  no 
THE VALLEY  OF THE  MISSISSIPPI.
13
exaggeration to say, that considered in reference to area,  soil,
aspect, and  climate, this valley is superior  to any  other on the
globe.  Its  only natural highway to the sea is the  river- Missis-
sippi;—New Orleans constitutes its  mart; and  between  that
city—the New York of the south—and the vast country above,
there is and must ever be an action and reaction still more natural
and  powerful  than that  between the city just  named and the
basin of the lakes.  Let us consider  the civil  divisions of the
valley, with  a reference to the influence it is exerting, and  must
continue  to exert, on the whole union.
  Several states, as Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkan
sas, lie wholly within its limits.  Of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Mis-
sissippi and  Louisiana, the greater portions are included  in  it.
A part of New York, a larger one of Pennsylvania, and  a still
larger of Virginia, with a small portion of Maryland, North Ca-
rolina, Georgia, and Alabama, dip into the same  basin.   Thus
twenty states and  territories  out  of twenty-nine,  the  latter  of
which are of vast extent and destined  to  sub-division, are em-
braced wholly or in part in the Great Valley;  the  inhabitants of
which already make  one-third of the entire population of the
Union, and are daily augmenting  by emigration from every

  As the extent to which the old states run into the Mississippi
valley is  very different,  so there must  be degrees  in their influ-
ence on the  stability of the union.
  The participation of Pennsylvania and Virginia  is most exten-
A\e, and to this  we may look  for  a permanent  effect.   The
Western portions of these great states, are, in truth, natural and
unalienable elements of the Mississippi community; united to the
true and proper West, by ties not  to be dissolved;  dependent  on
our  great river; familiar with its banks; and proud of its name.
They can never consent to become a distinct people from  their
brethren below, through whom they must forever wish to pass to
the ocean; and among whom, it must always be their interest, to
distribute their mountain forests of pine and cedar, their beds of
              2 
14         THE  VALLEY OF  THE MISSISSfPPL
iron ore, their banks of coal, and the products of their salt springs*
So intimate, indeed, is the physical relation of the western decli-
vities of these states, with the otherparts of the Mississippi basin,
that no influence of the maritime portions could ever draw them
from the West.  Sooner shall we see them, respectively, broken
asunder along the spine of the Alleghenies,  than their western
extremities detached from the Ohio states.
  With respect to Pennsylvania, especially, what motive can
ever madden her into  a desire to leave the West?  Certainty
none.  She has the same interest in the West as New York.   It
has contributed largely to make her what she is.  To facilitate
intercourse with it, she has even anticipated the  resources of ge-
nerations to come: she is turning her  rivers  into artificial chan-
nels, reducing her mountains, and perforating her hills; in short,
?he is laboring  to bind herself with the West and the West  to
her.   Thus we sec that the  commonwealth  of  William Penn.
populous, orderly, respectable, and situated  in the centre of the
maritime zone, is equally bound to the  North and the West, and
must forever maintain her position in the confederacy.
  Her neighbor Maryland, united to her by many natural and
artificial ties, will not consent to see them broken; and although,
more remote from  the Great Valley  than Pennsylvania, she is
deeply impressed with the importance of participating in its trade,
and has for years been stretching towards  it her enterprizing
arms.
  The public  sentiment of Virginia  is moulding itself on the
same plan.  The Atlantic can never think of a separation from
the Ohio portions of  that state.  I assume  that the two halves
will remain united; but the western, for  the reasons I have just
assigned, will adhere politically to the Valley with which it is
naturally associated;  and thus, the whole is permanently bound
to the West by physical causes.
  Would North Carolina leave Virginia?  Contemplate the ima-
ginary line which separates them.  The waters of the same foun-
tain  may bubble up on the territories  of the two states, and the 
THE  VALLEY  OF THE  MISSISSIPPI.          15
fallen tree which lies across the stream below may serve as a
bridge to connect them.  Virginia, moreover, the greater in ex-
tent and physical resources, must forever be superior in political
and moral power, and would be a  dangerous rival.   Would
North Carolina withdraw from her daughter, Tennessee, cstrang'
ed  from her by no impassable  barrier; and prepared, under a
proper  system  of  internal  improvement to administer to her
wealth  and power?  She can never willingly consent to such a
separation.
  What of our high-minded and palmy South Carolina; the
brightest orb in our southern constellation, will she seek a new
zodiac, and become the lost star of our political heavens?  Of all
the states she has the least  of natural and commercial connexion
with the valley of the Mississippi, and, as if to afford a negative
evidence of the over-ruling influence of physical causes, she alone
has shown symptoms of secession.  But she will not wander off
by  herself, and none of the sisterhood can accompany her.  The
geographical cords by which she is united to her  twin sister oh
the north, and  her younger sister on the  south, are too strong to
be  snapt assunder, and those states are bound to others by ties of
equal strength and durability.
   The  participation of Georgia in the valley of the Mississippi,
is small, but her natural relations with  Tennessee  are intimate
and profitable, and those  with Alabama  and Florida perma-
nently  controlling.  She  cannot  disconnect  heiself from the
union, without  the concurrence of Alabama, and the prospective
co-operation  of Florida.   But  Alabama is naturally associated
with  Louisiana, Tennessee and Mississippi, and is not therefore,
politically separable from  them. . Moreover, New Orleans ex-
erts on  the entire region immediately east of it, an  effect pre-
precisely  similar to that of New York on the south of New Eng-
land; and, therefore the maritime portions of Mississippi, Alaba-
ma, and Florida,  are commercially under its control, and cannot
become politically detached  from the West,  till Louisiana shall
«ecede; an event  that  may  happen when the Mississippi finds; 
16         THE VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

some other route to the ocean, or is swallowed up in the sands of
its own delta.
  Thus, in travelling along the Atlantic coast of the union from
the St. Lawrence to the Balize, we find such natural connexions
and dependencies of its states on the valleys of the Niagara and
the Mississippi, as must forever set the spirit of disunion at defi-
ance.   Within these basins, together constituting the West, lies
the centre of gravity of the union.  Here dwells the conservative
power.  The cement of future adhesion among all the states ex-
udes, to speak figuratively, from the soil of the West.  To borrow
a metaphor from my own profession, it  is the interior of the sov-
ereign body politic, embracing the vital organs, which distribute
nourishment through the outer parts.  Once more to change the
figure, it is the part, where the  cords of union are wound into a
Gordian knot, which,  cut  assunder by the sword, would, under
proper treatment, reunite, by the first intention, and nob even leave
a sear behind.  Conventioral regulations may be annulled, trea-
ties abrogated  and political confederacies dissolved, when they
are not based on  nature; but give them this foundation; rest  the
political and social upon the physical; and they will be preserv-
ed from all serious revolutions, but those which change the sur-
face of the earth itself.
   But to produce this effect on the union, the west must become
and remain united with itself.   Whatever retards or diminishes
this subordinate but central and natural confederacy, weakens
the general union; whatever strengthens it, invigorates the whole.
The federal constitution cannot be overthrown while the Mis-
sissippi states  remain in  connection  and harmony.   To  my
own mind, this opinion is so conclusive and cheering, that I wish,
most  earnestly, to commend the grounds on which it rests, to the
consideration of every intelligent patriot, who may apprehend
our political dissolution.
   Under these views, let us proceed to inquire into  the duties
of the people of the  interior.  They must weave among them-
selves a firm web of brotherhood, and become still more closelr 
            THE VALLEY  OF THE  MISSISSIPPI.          17

united in social feeling, literary institutions, and manners and cus-
toms; and then, no temporary or partial suffering, no conflicting
interests, or state aspirations;  no  lawless ambition,  no military
power, nor  reign of faction among their elder brethren of the
sea-coast, can ever jostle from its place, a single column of the
great temple of union.  The  objects  thus presented to the peo-
ple of the west are of the highest and noblest kind.  In labor-
ing to promote  harmony  among  themselves, they are working
for the harmony and happiness of the  whole union.  They have
a  holy task of patriotism to  perform.  The palladium of the
Constitution is committed to them  by nature, and  they should
faithfully preserve it.  The destinies of brethren widely sepa-
rated are confided to their care—let  them not betray the trust.
   But their own  prospective interests should prompt them to
action.   Suppose  they should  neglect these  labors, and  the
Union dissolve:—how deplorable then would be their own con-
dition—geographically united—bound inseparably together like
the  Siamese  twins—but  attached  by no civil ties—no  perva-
ding sentiments of  kindness—no general plans of education—no
common  bonds of  social  harmony!  Nature demanding union,
but reciprocal  prejudices—local animosities—contrarieties of
education, and diversities of manners  and customs, conspiring to
array them against  each  other.    It requires but few lessons
from  history, but a  limited knowledge of our common depen-
dence on the Mississippi to foresee, that  should such a  melan-
choly event ever happen,  without social preparation on  our
part, the west would crumble  with the rest into its political  ele-
ments, and the immense valley, where brethren dwell together
in peace, would become the Flanders of the new world in wfir,
 as it now is in corn.  "Ploughs would be turned into swords, and
 pruning hooks into spears."   The drum and trumpet would echo
 along our fertile valleys, and the midnight cry of hostile sentinels
 fall on the ear from the opposing banks of our.beautiful river?.
 The teeming steamboat would no longer depart from Pittsburgh
 or Cincinnati for New Orleans, but to a neighboring port within
               2* 
18          THE VALLEY  OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

the  limited jurisdiction to which it belonged. Never again would
its decks present  an epitome of the Union; a concourse of pas-
sengers from every state; greeting each other as brethren and
sisters; originating plans of business, contracting new friend-
ships, and forming the alliances of love, while the noble steamer
held its way for  a thousand  miles, through peaceful and happy
lands, which each might call his own.  Fortifications would then
frown from  the magnificent cliffs on which the eye of  the voya-
ger  now dwells with  delight.  The smoke of artillery would
poison our evening mists,  and contaminate the morning fogs,
which  rising from our  plains, curl around  the summits of the
green  hills.  A sulphurous odour would blend itself with the
aronia of our flowers.   Armed steamboats would traverse all our
rivers, and the glorious stripes and stars of our Union, be replaced
by  the hostile flags of every device.   To the dangers  of naviga-
tion would be added those of war;  a brother's hand  would ap-
ply the torch of  battle, and a brother's blood mingle with our
 waters.>
   Would we, through all coming ages, avert these vast calami-
ties, we must in due  time,  and at  all times,  labor to pre-
serve ourselves in domestic harmony;  make ourselves  one broth-
hood in  our customs, affections, and feelings,  however,  dis-
tinct in  political power:  let us, in  short, establish among the
people of the Mississippi valley a literary and social communion,
like that which New England presents, and then, should the old.
the parent states; respectively, set up for themselves;  should the
 demagogue undermine the foundations of the republic, or the
 reeking sword of the desperado cut  assunder its bands, the West
 would go together; the largest mass of the ruin, the least mutila-
 ted in the fall, the most powerful, the most respected, the  most
 prosperous! She might, as she would, mourn over the catastro-
 phe; her daughters, like the damsels of Jerusalem weep  foun-
 tains of tears, and her sons as those of Judea, clothe  themselves
 in  sackcloth and ashes; b-it they would still be safe  and happy,
 compared with  their brethren of the other states. 
THE VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.         19
  Thus, whether we seek to perpetuate the Union, or would pre-
pare for its possible dissolution at some remote epoch, our duty is
the same^ to commune together from  every part of the mighty
West; to  make acquaintanceship  with  each other: to  correct
each other's faults;  sympathise in each other's joys and sorrows,
and mould ourselves into one great social brotherhood  as  our
(lowing waters mingle and roll onward to the ocean.   To these
labors of love we are exhorted or commanded, by more conside-
rations than ever prevailed among the people of any other land.
  The millions who already flourish in the valleys of the Missis-
sippi and the lakes, are chiefly emigrants.  They have entered
it on  every side, and are derived, not  only from all the original
states of the Union, but from western and even  central Europe.
Bringing with them various national peculiarities, the common
good requires that they should be speedily amalgamated into one
social compound.  On this will their stability and moral power
depend.  Every movement of the air  or waters  drifts about the
loose sand; but consolidated  into rock, it  resists the action of the
"•winds and waves," and is  fitted  for permanent use.  A com-
munity formed out of such elements would exert an  attrac-
tion on the whole  Un'on.  But little emigration takes place
between New England and Pennsylvania, New York and  Vir-
ginia, Maryland or New  Jersey and the Carolinas.  There is
no reo-'on east of the mountains, where natives of all the states
congregate, and cherishing their early attachments, constitute a
Union Society.  It was reserved  for the west to exhibit this in-
teresting concourse,   Elsewhere, general patriotism may be the
offspring of policy or interest—in the west it must always be a
sentiment of thcheart.
  In  the character  of the materials for  Western society, there
is much to encourage  those who  would labor to construct it.  1
believe them the best which ever  came to the hands of the so-
cial architect.   The old states were peopled  by Europe, when
*he was far from the eluvatid grade of civilization she now ex-
hibits,and which belongs equally to those states. Those who are 
^0          THE  VALLEY OF  THE MISSISSIPPI.

emigrating to the west, have more knowledge and  refinement
than ever before belonged to any moving population.  Even the
pioneers of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio, were, in part, compo-
sed of men who would have been respected in any community. Our
Clarkes, Boons,  Todds, Logans, Scotts, Marshnlls, Shelbys, Putnams,
Cutlers, Symmes, Ludlows, Benhams, Worthingtons, Lytles, Harri-
sons, St. Clairs, Robertsons, Scviers,  Buchhanons, Jacksons, Mc-
Arairys, are but a small portion of the honored patriarchs of the
three sister states; and  those who accompanied  them as associ-
ates or followers, possessed, like themselves, the sagacity, cour-
age, and high aspiration which gave a good earnest in the  in-
fancy of the west of what we already see it in youth.  The emi-
grants to the original states, were chiefly from Great Britain, and
frequently in masses or streams which flowed and settled  to
gether.   When the continent made contributions, it was done
in colonies, which too often continued as such after they  reached
the shores of America.  Thus the original materials of society
in the  Atlantic states were less diversified, and therefore inferior
to those which past and present emigration has distributed  over
the  region  we. inhabit.  With such  ingredients  in the moral
crucible,  the resulting compound must, ultimately, have less al-
loy  than is found in most  communities, should those who watch
over and direct the process of union, be diligent, harmonious,
 and persevering.
   Other  considerations press  themselves on the mind; address
 themselves  to the heart.  Western Pennsylvania, Western-Virgi-
 nia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio, young as they are, compared
 with the seaboard, have long been emigrating states.  From  the
 unsettled feelings of a new community, their people have passed
 incessantly from one to the other, still, however, advancing into
 the wilderness.  Thus, Western Pennsylvania has scattered its
 «ons over Ohio, while the latter has  peopled Indiana and Illinois
 with  thousands, and Tennessee sent  her children to Alabama,
 Mississippi, Missouri and Arkansas.   But above all, Kentucky,
 the land of my earliest  recollections, has spread herself over Ohio 
            THE VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.           21

Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri.   Of all the new states, she has.
indeed, been the  longest  an emigrating state.  Even the plan
and settlement of Cincinnati, which the orator of the West  has
pronounced the unrivalled queen of theAVest, were arranged in
Lexington, at that time the infant metropolis of all the new  set-
tlements.
   Thus, all the states and territories of the Great Valley contain
the  germs of a natural brotherhood.  Every where we meet
with men and women, whose feelings turn  instinctively to some
other spot of  the interior,  where in  the may day of life,  when
filled with the love of nature, they joyfully collected the lilies of
the untrodden valley, or rambled, without care, among its paw-
paw groves.   While  the  grandfather smokes his pipe  in  the
wide hall of a Kentucky double cabin, his son follows the plough
in Ohio, and his grandson opens  a new farm in Indiana.  Two
brothers embark on the Ohio river; one will stop in Missouri,  the
-other plant himself in Louisiana.   Two sisters marry in the same
week; one to be taken to Alabama, the other to Illinois.   These
unrestrained and apparently capricious migrations,  so familiar to
all the inhabitants of Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, must in-
spire the people of those states with an imperishable interest in
the entire West.  They predispose to union.  They invite  the
western patriot to action, and point out the delightful  task, which
love of country, and love of liberty, and love of offspring, alike
call  upon him to execute.   Seizing upon these scattered elements
of union, he should bind them together, nourish them with one
blood, and harmonize them  with  a single nervous system.   Thus
they will  come to work together, like  the different  organs of  the
living body  endowed with the same sensibility, reciprocally sym-
pathizing, and obedient to the same laws of morality, religion, and
-ocial order.
  Other considerations  still, arise to the mind  while intent on
this subject.    The territory which is now divided into Kentucky,
Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, was  once  a part of Virginia.  The
recollection  of  this  should inspire   the  inhabitants  of  the 
22          THE VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
whole,  with  a  feeling  of affection  for  each  other.   At
that  time,  all  except Kentucky  was an  unpeopled wilder-   |
ness.   The history of their early settlement  fills the  heart
with emotion.  The region  between the Ohio and the Lakes.
belonged to the Ancient Dominion, but Kentucky was the child—   j
a daughter settled in the wilderness, and exposed to every kind   1
of peril and privation.  Participating in the glory of the Cava-   1
liers, her  sons established their claims to such a heritage, by  a
chivalrous devotion to the younger sisterhood of the west, which   I
posterity will  never cease to admire.  For years, Kentucky was   j
a living barrier to Tennessee, against the tribes of the north:
and when did Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and even  Michigan raise
the cry of alarm, that the gallant state  did not,  by spontaneous
impulse, send forth the! choicest of her sons?  Their battle cry
has resounded through  all the forests of the north—their  blood
has fertilized  the plains of the Wabash, the Maumee, the Raisin,.
 and the Thames; their bones still moulder among the rank weedg,
from the banks of the Ohio to Lake Superior.  Their fall in the
 defence of their younger brethren, has more than once clothed
 the  mothers  of their  native  state in mourning, and  spread
 through the city where we are now assembled, a voice of lamen-
 tation more sorrowful  than even pestilence could raise.  Ken-
 tucky must even cherish towards those for whom she has thus
 fought and bled, the good will which kind offices create for those
 on whom they are bestowed; and the children of the people for  |
 whom she thus suffered, can never be unmindful of her gallantry.
  Here then we have another chain  of friendship; one  which ap-
 plies itself to the heart, encloses its best affections, is  alloyed  ■ 1
 with no selfishness, and may be brightened through, all  future  j
, ages, should  our literature prove true to  its charge, and our   i
 men of influence devote themselves to the great cause of civil  \
 union.
   But let us  leave the history and resume the physical and po-
 litical geography of the  West, for the purpose of considering
  the relations  of its different regions—not to  the Atlantic States^  >1 
            THE VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.          23

but to each other.  In reviewing their boundaries and connec-
tions, we find much to excite reflection and inspire us with deep
emotion.  The geography of the interior, in truth, admonishes
us to live in harmony, cherish uniform plans of education,  and
found similar institutions.
  The relations between the upper and lower Mississippi States,
established by the collective  waters of the whole  valley, must
forever continue unchanged.   What the  towering oak is to our
climbing winter  grape, the  "Father of  waters"  must ever be
to the  communities along  its trunk and countless  tributary
streams—an  imperishable  support,  an  exhaustless power of
union.  What is  the composition of its lower coasts and alluvial
plains, but the soil of all the  upper  states and territories, trans-
ported, commingled, and deposited  by its waters?   Within her
own limits,  Louisiana has, indeed,  the rich  mould of ten sister
states, which have thus coatributed  to the fertility of her plan-
tations.  It might almost be said, that for ages this region has
sent thither a portion of its soil, where,  in a milder climate', it
might produce the cotton, oranges and  sugar, which, through
the same channel, we receive in exchange for the products of our
corn fields, woik  shops, and  mines. Facts  which  prepare the
way. and invite to perpetual union between the West and South*
   The state of Tennessee, separated from Alabama and  Missis-
sippi on the south and Kentucky on  the north, by no natural bar-
rier,  has its  southern  fields overspread with floating  cotton,
wafted from the two first  by  every  autumnal breeze; while the
shade of its northern woods, lies for half  the summer day on the
borders  of  the  last.   The  songs  and  uproar of  a Kentucky
husking are answered from  Tennessee; and the midnight rac-
coon-hunt that follows,  beginning in one state, is concluded in
 the other.   The  Cumberland on whose rocky banks the capital
 of Tennessee rises, in  beauty, begins and  terminates in Ken-
 tucky—thus bearing on its bosom at the same moment the  pro-
 ducts of the two  states  descending  to a common market.  Still
 further, the fine river Tennessee drains the  eastern half  of that 
      »J4          THE VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

      state, dips into Alabama, recrosses the  state in which it  arose*
      and  traverses Kentucky to reach the Ohio river;  thus uniting
      the three into one natural and enduring commercial compact.
         Further north, the cotton  trees which fringe the borders of
      Missouri and Illinois, throw their images towards each other in
      the waters of the Mississippi—the toiling emigrant's axe,  in the
      depths of the leafless woods, and the crash of the falling rail-
      tree on the  frozen earth, resound equally among the hills of
      both states—the clouds of smoke from  their burning prairies.
      mingle in the air above, and crimson the setting  sun of Ken-
      tucky, Indiana and Ohio.
         The Pecan tree sheds its fruit at the same moment among the
      people of Indiana and Illinois, and the  boys of the two  states
      paddle their canoes and fish together in the Wabash, or hail
      each other from opposite banks.  Even  villages belong equally
      to Indiana and Ohio, and the children of the two commonwealths  j
      trundle their  hoops together in the same street.
         But the  Ohio river forms the most interesting  boundary
      among the  republics of the  AVest.   For a thousand  miles its  j
      fertile bottoms are cultivated by  farmers, who belong to the
      different  states, while they visit each other as friends or neigh- 1
      bors.  As the school  boy trips or  loiters along its shores, he
      greets his playmates across the  stream,  or they sport  away an |
      idle hour in its summer waters.  These are to be among the fu- ji
V      ture, perhaps the opposing statesmen of the different common-
      wealths.  When, at low water, we examine the  rocks of the
      channel,  we  find them  the same on both sides.   The  plants
      which grow  above, drop their seeds into the common current,
      which lodges  them  indiscriminately on either shore.  Thus the
      very trees and flowers emigrate from one republic to another.
      When the bee sends out its swarms, they as often seek a habita-
      tion beyond the stream, as in  their  native woods.  Throughout
      its whole extent, the hills of Western Virginia and Kentucky,
      cast their morning shadows on the plains of Ohio, Indiana, UK-   •
      cois, and  Missouri.  The thunder cloud pours down its shower-; 
THE  VALLEY  OF THE MISSISSIPPI.         25
on  d;  erent  commonwealths; and the  rainbow resting its ex-
trenw es on  two  sister  states,  presents  a  beautiful arch,  on
whi'ii; the spirits of peace may pass and re-pass in harmony and
love
  Thus connected by nature in the grea'c valley, we must live in
the bonds of companionship, or imbrue our l«nds in each other's
blood.  We have no middle destiny.   To secuio the former to
our posterity, we  should begin while society  is still ^nder and
pliable.  The saplings of the woods, if intertwined, win adapt
themselves to each other and grow together;  the little bird may
hang its nest on  the twigs of different trees,  and the dew-drop
fall successively on leaves which are nourished by distinct trunks.
The tornado strikes harmless on such a bower, for the various
parts sustain each other; but the grown tree; sturdy and set in
its way; will not bend to its fellow,  and when uprooted by the
 tempest, is dashed in violence against all  within its reach.
   Communities,  like forests, grow rigid by time.   To be proper-
 ly trained they must be moulded while young.  Our duty, then,
 is quite obvious.   All who have moral power, should exert it in
 concert.  The  germs of  harmony must  be nourished, and the
 loots of present  contrariety or future discord torn up  and  cast
 into the fire.  Measures  should be taken to mould an uniform
 system of manners and customs, out of the diversified elements
 which are scattered over  the West.  Literary meetings should
 be held in  the  different states; and occasional conventions in
 the central  cities  of the  great valley,  be made to bring into
 friendly consultation, our enlightened and zealous teachers, pro-
 fessors, lawyers, physicians, divines, and men of letters, from its
 remotest sections.  In their deliberations the literary and moral
 wants of the  various regions might be made known, and the
  means of supplying them devised.  The whole should success-
  ively lend a helping hand to all the parts, on the great subject
  of education from the primary school to the University.  Statis-
  tical facts, bearing on this absorbing interest, should be brought
  forward and collected; the systems of common school instruc-
               3 
26           THE VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
tion should be  compared, and  the  merits  of different school
books, foreign and domestic, freely canvassed.  Plans of educa-
tion, adapted  to the natural,  commercial, and social condition
of the interior, should be  invented; a correspondence  instituted
among all our higher seminaries of learning, and an interchange
established of all 1^1 publications on the subject of education.
In short,  we should foster western genius, encourage western
writers, patronize western publishers,  augment the number o(
western readers, and create a western heart.
  When these great objects shall come  seriously  to occupy oui
minds, the union will be secure, for its centre will be sound, and
its attraction  on the surrounding parts irresistible.   Then will
our state governments emulate each other in works for the com-
mon good; the people of remote places begin to  feel as the
members of one family; and our whole intelligent and virtuous
population unite, heart and hand, in  one long,  concentrated,
untiring effort, to raise still higher the social character, and per-
petuate forever, the political harmony of the green and growing
West. 
 
 
nwUDBBBMHS^TS-/ 
«Ii