It Is Of Very
Little Importance How, And In What Manner An Indigent Man Arrives;
For If He Is But Sober, Honest, And Industrious, He Has Nothing More
To Ask Of Heaven.
Let him go to work, he will have opportunities
enough to earn a comfortable support, and even the means of
procuring some land; which ought to be the utmost wish of every
person who has health and hands to work.
I knew a man who came to
this country, in the literal sense of the expression, stark naked; I
think he was a Frenchman, and a sailor on board an English man-of-
war. Being discontented, he had stripped himself and swam ashore;
where, finding clothes and friends, he settled afterwards at
Maraneck, in the county of Chester, in the province of New York: he
married and left a good farm to each of his sons. I knew another
person who was but twelve years old when he was taken on the
frontiers of Canada, by the Indians; at his arrival at Albany he was
purchased by a gentleman, who generously bound him apprentice to a
tailor. He lived to the age of ninety, and left behind him a fine
estate and a numerous family, all well settled; many of them I am
acquainted with. - Where is then the industrious European who ought
to despair?
After a foreigner from any part of Europe is arrived, and become a
citizen; let him devoutly listen to the voice of our great parent,
which says to him, "Welcome to my shores, distressed European; bless
the hour in which thou didst see my verdant fields, my fair
navigable rivers, and my green mountains! - If thou wilt work, I have
bread for thee; if thou wilt be honest, sober, and industrious, I
have greater rewards to confer on thee - ease and independence. I
will give thee fields to feed and clothe thee; a comfortable
fireside to sit by, and tell thy children by what means thou hast
prospered; and a decent bed to repose on. I shall endow thee beside
with the immunities of a freeman. If thou wilt carefully educate thy
children, teach them gratitude to God, and reverence to that
government, that philanthropic government, which has collected here
so many men and made them happy. I will also provide for thy
progeny; and to every good man this ought to be the most holy, the
most powerful, the most earnest wish he can possibly form, as well
as the most consolatory prospect when he dies. Go thou and work and
till; thou shalt prosper, provided thou be just, grateful, and
industrious."
HISTORY OF ANDREW, THE HEBRIDEAN
Let historians give the detail of our charters, the succession of
our several governors, and of their administrations; of our
political struggles, and of the foundation of our towns: let
annalists amuse themselves with collecting anecdotes of the
establishment of our modern provinces: eagles soar high - I, a
feebler bird, cheerfully content myself with skipping from bush to
bush, and living on insignificant insects. I am so habituated to
draw all my food and pleasure from the surface of the earth which I
till, that I cannot, nor indeed am I able to quit it - I therefore
present you with the short history of a simple Scotchman; though it
contain not a single remarkable event to amaze the reader; no
tragical scene to convulse the heart, or pathetic narrative to draw
tears from sympathetic eyes. All I wish to delineate is, the
progressive steps of a poor man, advancing from indigence to ease;
from oppression to freedom; from obscurity and contumely to some
degree of consequence - not by virtue of any freaks of fortune, but
by the gradual operation of sobriety, honesty, and emigration. These
are the limited fields, through which I love to wander; sure to find
in some parts, the smile of new-born happiness, the glad heart,
inspiring the cheerful song, the glow of manly pride excited by
vivid hopes and rising independence. I always return from my
neighbourly excursions extremely happy, because there I see good
living almost under every roof, and prosperous endeavours almost in
every field. But you may say, why don't you describe some of the
more ancient, opulent settlements of our country, where even the eye
of an European has something to admire? It is true, our American
fields are in general pleasing to behold, adorned and intermixed as
they are with so many substantial houses, flourishing orchards, and
copses of woodlands; the pride of our farms, the source of every
good we possess. But what I might observe there is but natural and
common; for to draw comfortable subsistence from well fenced
cultivated fields, is easy to conceive. A father dies and leaves a
decent house and rich farm to his son; the son modernises the one,
and carefully tills the other; marries the daughter of a friend and
neighbour: this is the common prospect; but though it is rich and
pleasant, yet it is far from being so entertaining and instructive
as the one now in my view.
I had rather attend on the shore to welcome the poor European when
he arrives, I observe him in his first moments of embarrassment,
trace him throughout his primary difficulties, follow him step by
step, until he pitches his tent on some piece of land, and realises
that energetic wish which has made him quit his native land, his
kindred, and induced him to traverse a boisterous ocean. It is there
I want to observe his first thoughts and feelings, the first essays
of an industry, which hitherto has been suppressed. I wish to see
men cut down the first trees, erect their new buildings, till their
first fields, reap their first crops, and say for the first time in
their lives, "This is our own grain, raised from American soil - on
it we shall feed and grow fat, and convert the rest into gold and
silver." I want to see how the happy effects of their sobriety,
honesty, and industry are first displayed:
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