SOLON ROBINSON, 1845 521 



children, to enable him to endure the toil and trouble 

 of making you a new home, that in a few years will 

 compensate you all for the temporary inconveniences 

 that you have enjoyed — yes, enjoyed, not suffered; for I 

 assure you that you can enjoy inconveniences. My wife, 

 God bless her, often says that she never enjoyed any 

 portion of her life better than she did the first winter 

 upon the prairie, where we now live; when she had only 

 a low log cabin, sixteen feet square, which had not a 

 sawed board about it; being built of round poles, the 

 cracks filled with mud; the chimney built of sticks and 

 clay ; around the warm hearth of which often had we half 

 a score of emigrants, who had nowhere else to shelter 

 themselves from the blasts of a wintry night; for be it 

 remembered, that we began our emigrant's life "fifteen 

 miles from neighbors," and enjoyed it cheerfully. So 

 my dear friends, can you. 



I could advise further, but nobody likes unasked advice. 

 Believe me, your old friend of Indiana, 



New York, Oct. 6th, 1845. Solon Robinson. 



Will Indiana pay her Debts? — Canal Lands 

 and Scrip — Taxes, &c. 



[New-York Weekly Tribune, Oct. 18, 1845] 



[October 7, 1845] 

 To the Editor of The Tribune: 



In your paper this morning you say : 



"It is evident to us that the right spirit is at length 

 fairly aroused in Indiana — that for the most part both 

 Democrat and Whig are now determined to face their 

 obligations like men. — and we confidently look to her 

 next Legislature for the enactment of such laws as will 

 place her permanently, like Pennsylvania, among the 

 paying States of the Union." 1 



1 Indiana's indebtedness was due to the large number of internal 

 improvements begun after the passage of the Mammoth Internal 

 Improvement Bill in 1836. By 1839 all work had been suspended 



