Society, Manners And Politics In The United States - free ebook by Michel Chevalier

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Society, Manners And Politics In The United States

Michel Chevalier

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SOCIETY, MANNERS AND POLITICS IN THE UNITED STATES: BEING A SERIES OF LETTERS ON NORTH AMERICA.

SOCIETY, MANNERS AND POLITICS IN THE UNITED STATES: BEING A SERIES OF LETTERS ON NORTH AMERICA.

BY MICHAEL CHEVALIER. TRANSLATED FROM THE THIRD PARIS EDITION. BOSTON : WEEKS, JORDAN AND COMPANY. 1839. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1839, By Weeks, Jordan &amp; Co. In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. TUTTLE, DENNETT AND CHISHOLM'S POWER PRESS, No. 17 School Street, Boston....

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NOTICE.

NOTICE.

M. Chevalier was sent to this country in 1834, under the patronage of Thiers, then Minister of the Interior, in France, to inspect our public works. But attracted by the novel spectacle presented by society in the United States, he extended the time of his stay and the sphere of his observations amongst us, and spent two years in visiting nearly all parts of the Union, and studying the workings of our social and political machinery. His letters give the results of his observations, the impressio

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INTRODUCTION.

INTRODUCTION.

1. That form of civilization which has prevailed among the European nations, has moved, in its march over the globe, from east to west. From its cradles in the depths of old Asia and Upper Egypt, it advanced, by successive stages, to the shores of the Atlantic, along which it spread itself from the southern point of Spain to the northern extremity of the British Isles and the Scandinavian peninsula. It seemed to have here reached its goal when Christopher Columbus showed it the way to the New Wo

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LETTER VI.

LETTER VI.

PROGRESS OF THE STRUGGLE.—NEW POWERS. Baltimore, March 1, 1834. Failures begin to be frequent in the United States, particularly in New York and Pennsylvania; the great commercial and manufacturing houses are shaking. Meanwhile the Senators and Representatives in Congress are making speeches on the crisis, its causes, and consequences. Three months have already been taken up in discussing the question, whether the Secretary of the Treasury had or had not the right to withdraw the public deposits

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LETTER XVI.

LETTER XVI.

GENERAL JACKSON. Louisville, (Ky.), December 15, 1834. You must have been astonished in France at the President's Message; here the sharp and reckless tone of a portion of the press had prepared the public mind for some energetic demonstration; but the Message has exceeded the hopes of those who wished to assume an attitude of defiance in regard to France, and the fears of those who dreaded some imprudent step. Had such a paper come from any former President,—from Washington to John Quincy Adams

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LETTER XIX.

LETTER XIX.

Cincinnati. Natchez, (Miss.) Jan. 4, 1835. Cincinnati contains about 40,000 inhabitants, inclusive of the adjoining villages; although founded 40 years ago, its rapid growth dates only about 30 years back. It seems to be the rendezvous of all nations; the Germans and Irish are very numerous, and there are some Alsacians; I have often heard the harsh accents of the Rhenish French in the streets. But the bulk of the population, which gives its tone to all the rest, is of New England origin. What m

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Sect. I. Lines Extending Across the Alleghanies.

Sect. I. Lines Extending Across the Alleghanies.

The works which have hitherto almost wholly occupied, and still chiefly occupy, the attention of statesmen and business men in the United States, are those designed to form communications between the East and the West. There are on the Atlantic coast four principal towns, which long strove with each other for the supremacy; namely, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. All four aimed to secure the command of the commerce of the new States which are springing up in the fertile regions of

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Section II. Lines of Communication between the Mississippi Valley and that of the St. Lawrence.

Section II. Lines of Communication between the Mississippi Valley and that of the St. Lawrence.

There is no mountain chain between these two valleys; the basin of the great lakes, whose united waters form the St. Lawrence, is separated from the valley of the Mississippi only by a spur of the Alleghany system, not exceeding 450 feet in height, and sinking rapidly down toward the west, so as to be elevated but a few feet above the surface of Lake Michigan. During the rainy season, when the streams are swollen and the marshes of the water-shed are flooded, our Canadian countrymen were wont to

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Sect. III. Lines of Communication along the Atlantic.

Sect. III. Lines of Communication along the Atlantic.

Upon examining the coast of the United States from Boston to Florida, it will be seen that there is almost a continuous line of inland navigation, extending from northeast to southwest in a direction parallel to that of the coast, formed, in the north by a series of bays and rivers, and in the south, by a number of long sounds, or by the narrow passes between the mainland and the chain of low islands that lie in front of the former. The necks of land that separate these bays, rivers, and lagoons

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Sect. IV. Lines Radiating around the Large Towns.

Sect. IV. Lines Radiating around the Large Towns.

Three railroads extend from Boston in different directions; the first, 26 miles in length, to the manufacturing city of Lowell, which is thus become a suburb of Boston, and the second, 44 miles in length, to Worcester, the cen tre of an important agricultural district. The former cost 60,000 dollars a mile, the latter 32,000. The third road is the Providence railroad, already mentioned above as one of the links in the great chain from north to south. The Lowell railroad enters into competition w

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Section V. Works Connected with Coal-mines.

Section V. Works Connected with Coal-mines.

The bituminous coal-mines of Chesterfield, near Richmond, are connected with the river James by a short railway adapted only for horses, which is 12 miles long, and cost 15,000 dollars a mile, inclusive of the cars, depots, &amp;c. Once delivered at the river, the coal is easily transported along the whole coast, where it comes into competition with the English and Nova Scotia coals. The anthracite beds of Pennsylvania have caused the construction of a much more extensive series of works. At

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LETTER XXXI.

LETTER XXXI.

THE MIDDLE CLASSES. Baltimore, Oct. 8, 1835. American society is composed of quite different elements, from those of which European society in general, and French society in particular, consists. On analysing the latter, we find, in the first place, the shadow of an aristocracy, comprising the wrecks of the great families of the old order that have been saved from the revolutionary storm, and the descendants of the Imperial nobility, who seem to be already separated from their fathers by the dis

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Note 1—page 26.

Note 1—page 26.

Use of Iron. One must go to England to appreciate the value of iron, the scarcity of wood having obliged the English to apply it to a great number of purposes to which no one on the continent would dream of its being applicable. At every step and under all forms, you meet with cast-iron, bar-iron, sheet-iron, and steel; machines, piles, columns of all dimensions from two inches to four feet in diameter, water-pipes and gas-pipes, posts, grates, bridges, roofs, floors, whole quays and roads, of i

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Note 2—page 26.

Note 2—page 26.

Quantity of Coal mined in France, England, and Belgium. Mr McCulloch, in his Dictionary of Commerce estimates the quantity of coal annually mined in England to amount to 16,000,000 tons. [EG] The extensive inquiries of M. Le Play, who has carefully examined all the English coal-fields, have led him to estimate it much higher; it does not, probably, fall short of 30,000,000 tons, of which 5,000,000 are consumed in the iron manufacture. Mr McCulloch estimates the amount of capital employed in the

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Note 3—page 33.

Note 3—page 33.

Value of Exports of Domestic Produce and Manufactures from England, France, and United States, from 1820 to 1835. England exports hardly any but manufactured articles. The United States export chiefly raw produce. Raw Cotton forms half of the value of their exports, as manufactured cotton forms about half of those of Great Britain. Agriculture furnishes three fourths or four fifths of the exports of domestic articles from the United States, and manufactures, only one tenth. Above two thirds of t

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Note 4—page 36.

Note 4—page 36.

Shipping. Statement of the tonnage belonging to the principal ports of France, England and the United States in 1835. To render the comparison exact, it would be necessary to deduct one fourth from the French tonnage, in order to allow for the different modes of measurement. The French method is mathematically more correct, but it lays our vessels under the disadvantage of being obliged to pay heavier tonnage dues; but a law of 1836 has authorised the government to make a change in this respect.

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Note 5—page 38—omitted. Note 6—page 38.

Note 5—page 38—omitted. Note 6—page 38.

All the banks in the United States, like the Bank of France in Paris, are at once banks of discount and loan, and banks of deposit and circulation. Almost the whole currency of this country consists of paper-money, the metals being chiefly in the the vaults of the banks, which cannot dispense with them, because their bills are payable on demand in gold and silver. The old Bank of the United States, founded in 1791, had a capital of ten million dollars, the Federal government holding one fifth of

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Note 7—page 49.

Note 7—page 49.

Failures in the United States. It would be excessively unjust to the Americans not to acknowledge that they are improving daily in respect to failures. In a new country it is natural that a failure should be little thought of, because every thing is necessarily an experiment, and all speculation is a game of hazard. The public is very indulgent on this point, because it considers a failure what it really is, nineteen times out of twenty, a misfortune and not a fraud. The bankrupt is looked upon

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Note 8—page 54.

Note 8—page 54.

The American newspapers are very numerous, but in consequence of their great number their circulation is comparatively small. There are few daily papers, whose circulation exceeds 2,000, and not one, which exceeds 4,000; that of most of the newspapers is not more than 400 or 500. The American newspapers have little resemblance to the French and English. They are chiefly mere advertising sheets; they do not direct public opinion, they follow it. This local character does not allow of their having

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Note 9—page 53.

Note 9—page 53.

In 1832, the transfer of funds between different points of the Union, or between the Union and foreign countries, effected by the Bank of the United States, amounted to 255 millions, of which 241,718,710 was for domestic, and 13,456,737 for foreign transactions. The Bank received only 217,249 dollars for commissions on this vast sum....

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Note 10—page 64.

Note 10—page 64.

Specie and Paper Money. The quantity of gold and silver coined in France with the new die, amounted, up to 1836, to about 750 million dollars, of which three fourths were in silver. It is not probable that more than one fourth of that sum has been melted and exported; there would then remain about 550 millions. A part of this immense sum is out of circulation, and is buried in the coffers of individuals or in the pockets of the poor, who do not dare trust their savings to any person or instituti

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Note 11[EJ]—page 96. Cherokees and other Indians. Omitted. Note 12[EJ]—page 98. Public Lands. Omitted. Note 13[EJ]—page 119. Temperance Societies. Omitted. Note 14—page 132.

Note 11[EJ]—page 96. Cherokees and other Indians. Omitted. Note 12[EJ]—page 98. Public Lands. Omitted. Note 13[EJ]—page 119. Temperance Societies. Omitted. Note 14—page 132.

Cotton Manufacture. At the end of 1836, the Lowell cotton factories comprised 129,828 spindles and 4,197 looms, and employed 6,793 operatives of whom 5,416 were women. The quantity of cloth made was 849,300 yards a week, or at the rate of 44 million yards a year; raw cotton consumed 38,000 bales, or 15 million pounds yearly. In 1831, the American manufacture employed 62,157 operatives, of whom 38,927 were women and 4,691 children. There were beside 4,760 hand-weavers, 40,709 persons employed in

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Note 15—page 186.

Note 15—page 186.

Production and Consumption of Cotton. In 1834, one of our most able manufacturers, M. Kœkhlin, made the following estimate of the production and consumption of cotton throughout the world. Production. Consumption. Several other countries not enumerated above yield cotton. China produces some which she consumes, or exports under the form of nankeens; Mexico produces nearly enough for her own consumption; Mr Kœkhlin has meant to speak only of what belongs to the general commerce. He has somewhat o

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Note 16—page 154—omitted. Note 17—page 161.

Note 16—page 154—omitted. Note 17—page 161.

Trial of the Incendiaries for burning the Ursuline Convent. The intolerant spirit of a part of the Protestant population was offended by the sight of the Ursuline Convent on Mount St. Bendict, within the limits of Charlestown, a town adjoining Boston. The sisters devoted themselves to the instruction of young girls, and many Protestant families had confided daughters to their care. Every thing proves that they were by no means devoured by a spirit of proselytism. In the beginning of August, 1835

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Note 18—page 172. Omitted. Note 19—page 180. Omitted. Note 20—page 193.

Note 18—page 172. Omitted. Note 19—page 180. Omitted. Note 20—page 193.

Taxation. It has repeatedly been made a question of late, whether the United States were more or less heavily taxed than France. The subject may be considered under several points of view. The systems of Taxation in the two countries are very different. The taxes in the United States are less numerous than they are in France, and are differently distributed. The country population, that is the great majority, pay much less in the United States than in France; but in the large towns the inhabitan

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Note 21—page 11.

Note 21—page 11.

Construction and Cost of Steamboats in the West. The western steamboats are on the high pressure principle, with a force of six or eight atmospheres. The boilers are on deck, in the bow of the boat; the cylinder is horizontal; there are two wheels, one on each side. Formerly, a single stern wheel was generally used. Only one engine is used to a boat. The pistons are not of metal, an arrangement which necessarily involves a great loss of power, but which renders repairs more easy, an important co

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Note 22—page 268.

Note 22—page 268.

Summary Statements of the Public Works in the United States. The six tables which follow present a recapitulation of the statements given in Letter XXI., with the cost per league in francs. [Many of the statements in the Letter are slightly varied from the original, in conformity with official reports, and the cost and distances have there been reduced to English measures and Federal money. In these tables the author's statements are given without change because sufficient materials for a total

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Note 23—page 281.

Note 23—page 281.

Geological Surveys. The legislatures of several States have lately shown a laudable zeal for geological examinations of the soil. Maryland has a State geologist (Mr Duchatel) who is engaged in preparing a geological map of the State, particularly with reference to economical purposes. Dr Duchatel has already made some important discoveries in agricultural geology, especially in respect to the use of marl. Tennessee has also its geologist, Dr Troost. Massachusetts has a geological map prepared by

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