LETTER TO 



1012. After the crop is in and the seed sown, in the fall, what is 

 to become of Simpleton s men till Corn ploughing and planting 

 time in the spring ? And, then, when the planting is done, 

 what is to become of them till harvest time ? Is he, like BAYES, 

 in the Rehearsal, to lay them down when he pleases, and when he 

 pleases make them rise up again ? To hear you talk about these 

 crops, and, at other times to hear you advising others to bring 

 labourers from England, one would think you, for your own part, 

 able, like CADMUS, to make men start up out of the earth. How 

 would one ever have thought it possible for infatuation like this 

 to seize hold of a mind like yours ? 



1013. When I read in your Illinois Letters, that you had pre 

 pared horses, ploughs, and other things, for putting in a hundred 

 acres of Corn in the Spring, how I pitied you ! I saw all your 

 plagues, if you could not see them. I saw the grass choking your 

 plants ; the grubs eating them ; and you fretting and turning 

 from the sight with all the pangs of sanguine baffled hope. I 

 expected you to have ten bushels, instead of fifty, upon an acre. 

 I saw your confusion, and participated in your mortification. 

 From these feelings I was happily relieved by the Journal of our 

 friend HULME, who informs the world, and our countrymen in 

 particular, that you had not, in July last, any Corn at all growing ! 



1014. Thus it is to reckon one s chickens before they are hatched: 

 and thus the Transalleganian dream vanishes. You have been 

 deceived. A warm heart, a lively imagination, and I know not 

 what caprice about republicanism, have led you into sanguine 

 expectations and wrong conclusions. Come, now 1 Confess it 

 like yourself ; that is, like a man of sense and spirit : like an honest 

 and fair-dealing John Bull. To err belongs to all men, great as 

 well as little : but, to be ashamed to confess error, belongs only 

 to the latter. 



1015. Great as is my confidence in your candour, I can, how 

 ever, hardly hope wholly to escape your anger for having so 

 decidedly condemned your publications ; but, I do hope, that 

 you will not be so unjust as to impute my conduct to any base 

 self-interested motive. I have no private interest, I can have no 

 such interest in endeavouring to check the mad torrent towards 

 the West. I own nothing in these States, and never shall ; and 

 whether English Farmers push on into misery and ruin, or stop 

 here in happiness and prosperity, to me, as far as private interest 

 goes, it must be the same. As to the difference in our feelings 

 and notions about country, about allegiance, and about forms of 

 government, this may exist without any, even the smallest degree 

 of personal dislike. I was no hypocrite in England ; I had no 

 views farther than those which I professed. I wanted nothing 

 for myself but the fruit of my own industry and talent, and I 

 wished nothing for my country but its liberties and laws, which 

 say, that the people shall be fairly represented. England has been 

 very happy and free : her greatness and renown have been sur- 



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