I DESIRE In This Letter To Say Something About The Pioneer, And Life
On The Frontier.
And by pioneer I mean the true pioneer who comes into
the West to labor and to share the vicissitudes of new settlements;
not the adventurer, who would repine at toil, and gather where he has
not sown.
As I have looked abroad upon the vast domain of the West beyond the
dim Missouri, or in the immediate valley of the Mississippi, I have
wondered at the contrast presented between the comparatively small
number who penetrate to the frontier, and that great throng of men who
toil hard for a temporary livelihood in the populous towns and cities
of the Union. And I have thought if this latter class were at all
mindful of the opportunities for gain and independence which the new
territories afforded, they would soon abandon in a great measure at
least their crowded alleys in the city, and aspire to be cultivators
and owners of the soil. Why there has not been a greater emigration
from cities I cannot imagine, unless it is owing to a misapprehension
of Western life. Either it is this, or the pioneer is possessed of a
very superior degree of energy.
It has been said that the frontier man always keeps on the frontier;
that he continues to emigrate as fast as the country around him
becomes settled. There is a class that do so. Not, however, for the
cause which has been sometimes humorously assigned that civilization
was inconvenient to them but because good opportunities arise to
dispose of the farms they have already improved; and because a further
emigration secures them cheaper lands.
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