There Was The Raw Material Of The
Regiment, But There Was Nothing Else.
Winter was coming on - winter
in which the mercury is commonly twenty degrees below zero - and the
men were in tents with no provision against the cold.
These tents
held each two men, and were just large enough for two to lie. The
canvas of which they were made seemed to me to be thin, but was, I
think, always double. At this camp there was a house in which the
men took their meals, but I visited other camps in which there was
no such accommodation. I saw the German regiment called to its
supper by tuck of drum, and the men marched in gallantly, armed
each with a knife and spoon. I managed to make my way in at the
door after them, and can testify to the excellence of the
provisions of which their supper consisted. A poor diet never
enters into any combination of circumstances contemplated by an
American. Let him be where he will, animal food is with him the
first necessary of life, and he is always provided accordingly. As
to those Wisconsin men whom I saw, it was probable that they might
be marched off, down South to Washington, or to the doubtful
glories of the Western campaign under Fremont, before the winter
commenced. The same might have been said of any special regiment.
But taking the whole mass of men who were collected under canvas at
the end of the autumn of 1861, and who were so collected without
arms or military clothing, and without protection from the weather,
it did seem that the task taken in hand by the Commissariat of the
Northern army was one not devoid of difficulty.
The view from Milwaukee over Lake Michigan is very pleasing. One
looks upon a vast expanse of water to which the eye finds no
bounds, and therefore there are none of the common attributes of
lake beauty; but the color of the lake is bright, and within a walk
of the city the traveler comes to the bluffs or low round-topped
hills, from which we can look down upon the shores. These bluffs
form the beauty of Wisconsin and Minnesota, and relieve the eye
after the flat level of Michigan. Round Detroit there is no rising
ground, and therefore, perhaps, it is that Detroit is
uninteresting.
I have said that those who are called on to labor in these States
have their own hardships, and I have endeavored to explain what are
the sufferings to which the town laborer is subject. To escape
from this is the laborer's great ambition, and his mode of doing so
consists almost universally in the purchase of land. He saves up
money in order that he may buy a section of an allotment, and thus
become his own master. All his savings are made with a view to
this independence. Seated on his own land he will have to work
probably harder than ever, but he will work for himself. No task-
master can then stand over him and wound his pride with harsh
words. He will be his own master; will eat the food which he
himself has grown, and live in the cabin which his own hands have
built. This is the object of his life; and to secure this position
he is content to work late and early and to undergo the indignities
of previous servitude. The government price for land is about five
shillings an acre - one dollar and a quarter - and the settler may
get it for this price if he be contented to take it not only
untouched as regards clearing, but also far removed from any
completed road. The traffic in these lands has been the great
speculating business of Western men. Five or six years ago, when
the rage for such purchases was at its height, land was becoming a
scarce article in the market. Individuals or companies bought it
up with the object of reselling it at a profit; and many, no doubt,
did make money. Railway companies were, in fact, companies
combined for the purchase of land. They purchased land, looking to
increase the value of it fivefold by the opening of a railroad. It
may easily be understood that a railway, which could not be in
itself remunerative, might in this way become a lucrative
speculation. No settler could dare to place himself absolutely at
a distance from any thoroughfare. At first the margins of nature's
highways, the navigable rivers and lakes, were cleared. But as the
railway system grew and expanded itself, it became manifest that
lands might be rendered quickly available which were not so
circumstanced by nature. A company which had purchased an enormous
territory from the United States government at five shillings an
acre might well repay itself all the cost of a railway through that
territory, even though the receipts of the railway should do no
more than maintain the current expenses. It is in this way that
the thousands of miles of American railroads have been opened; and
here again must be seen the immense advantages which the States as
a new country have enjoyed. With us the purchase of valuable land
for railways, together with the legal expenses which those
compulsory purchases entailed, have been so great that with all our
traffic railways are not remunerative. But in the States the
railways have created the value of the land. The States have been
able to begin at the right end, and to arrange that the districts
which are benefited shall themselves pay for the benefit they
receive.
The government price of land is 125 cents, or about five shillings
an acre; and even this need not be paid at once if the settler
purchase directly from the government. He must begin by making
certain improvements on the selected land - clearing and cultivating
some small portion, building a hut, and probably sinking a well.
When this has been done - when he has thus given a pledge of his
intentions by depositing on the land the value of a certain amount
of labor, he cannot be removed.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 59 of 141
Words from 59333 to 60364
of 143277
