INTRODUCTION TO THE JOURNAL 



864. In the year 1816 my travelling in America was confined 

 to the Atlantic States. I there saw enough to determine the 

 question of emigration or no emigration. But, a spot to settle 

 on myself was another matter ; for, though I do not know, that I 

 shall meddle with any sort of trade, or occupation, in the view 

 of getting money, I ought to look about me, and to consider 

 soberly as to a spot to settle on with so large a family. It was 

 right, therefore, for me to see the Western Countries. I have done 

 this ; and the particulars, which I thought worthy my notice, 

 I noted down in a Journal. This Journal I now submit to the 

 public. My chief motive in the publication is to endeavour to 

 convey useful information, and especially to those persons, who 

 may be disposed to follow my example, and to withdraw their 

 families and fortunes from beneath the hoofs of the tyrants of 

 England. 



865. I have not the vanity to suppose myself eminently qualified 

 for any thing beyond my own profession ; but I have been an 

 attentive observer ; I have raised a considerable fortune by my 

 own industry and economy ; I have, all my life long, studied the 

 matters connected with agriculture, trade, and manufactures. I 

 had a desire to acquire an accurate knowledge of the Western 

 Countries, and what I did acquire I have endeavoured to com 

 municate to others. It was not my object to give flowry 

 descriptions. I leave that to poets and painters. Neither have 

 I attempted any general estimate of the means or manner of living 

 or getting money, in the West. But, I have contented myself 

 with merely noting down the facts that struck me ; and from 

 those facts the reader must draw his conclusions. 



866. In one respect I am a proper person to give an account of 

 the Western Countries. I have no lands there ; I have no interests 

 there : I have nothing to warp my judgment in favour of those 

 countries : and yet, I have as little in the Atlantic States to warp 

 my judgment in their favour. I am perfectly impartial in my 

 feelings, and am, therefore, likely to be impartial in my words. 

 My good wishes extend to the utmost boundary of my adopted 

 country. Every particular part of it is as dear to me as every 

 other particular part. 



867. I have recommended most strenuously the encouraging 

 and promoting of Domestic Manufacture : not because I mean to 

 be engaged in any such concern myself ; for it is by no means 

 likely that I ever shall ; but, because I think that such encourage 

 ment and promotion would be greatly beneficial to America, and 

 because it would provide a happy Asylum for my native oppressed 

 and distressed countrymen, who have been employed all the days 

 of their lives in manufactures in England, where the principal 

 part of the immense profits of their labour is consumed by the 

 Borough tyrants and their friends, and expended for the vile 

 purpose of perpetuating a system of plunder and despotism at 

 home, and all over the world. 



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