LINCOLN SOCIETY. 119 



peat them at length on this occasion. Wc have had grapliic 

 descriptions of the snnny soutli, with its broad savannas and rich 

 bottom lands, with almost spontaneous growtli of all vegetable 

 matter : but in offset wo have been reminded of the deleterious 

 miasma, spreading sickness and death broadcast over its limits.'* 

 The almost boundless west has been minutely described, detail- 

 ing with care its extensive rolling prairies, vast forests, and 

 productive soil, but we are reminded that it is populated with 

 a " bih'ous tinged," cadaverous lookfeg race, constantly shaking 

 with ague and fever, causing listlessness, physical and mental 

 inactivity, premature old age, and death. Our own New Eng- 

 land States too, have been pictured, with all the beauty of their 

 varied scenery, with their proud rivers and vast waterfalls, lofty 

 mountains, fine forests of valuable timber, productive soil and 

 ready markets, affording to the farmer every facility for the sale 

 and exchange of his produce ; but here, too, we find a difliculty 

 and objection as a farming region, in the early frost, long," tedi- 

 ous, frozen winters, and cold, backward springs. 



By a careful examination it will be seen that every State in 

 this widely extended Republic, reaching from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific, and embracing within its extensive limits almost every 

 variety of climate found in the frigid and torrid zones, has some 

 peculiar qualities and advantages not possessed by another. 

 They are, therefore, peculiarly adapted to the various classes 

 of people who inhabit them, congregated from almost every 

 country in the known world. Does a person desire to live at 

 ease, with but little or no labor, he has but to build him a hut 

 at the extreme south, live upon the spontaneous growth of the 

 country, submit to the debilitating influence of the climate, 

 wear down the irritability of his disposition by a constant war- 

 fare with musquitoes and kindred insects, and he will soon find 

 himself in the enjoyment of a very low grade of animal exis- 

 tence. 



Should he prefer a different situation from this, and be wil- 

 ling to work hard for the necessaries of life, dispense with all 

 the luxuries, substitute the slavery of ague and fever for that 

 of fashion, he can settle on a vast tract of land at the west, 

 reap the rewards of his labor in rich crops of wheat, oats and 

 corn, and increase his stock of cattle and hogs ; he may become 



