Louisiana and Aaron Burr 265 



ness to embark in commercial ventures and to build 

 mills, rope-walks, and similar manufactures, for 

 which they had the greatest difficulty in procuring 

 skilled laborers, whether foreign or native, from the 

 Northeastern States 26 and in spite of their liking 

 for the law, they retained the deep-settled belief 

 that the cultivation of the earth was the best of all 

 possible pursuits for men of every station, high or 

 low. 27 



In many ways the life of the Kentuckians was 

 most like that of the Virginia gentry, though it 

 had peculiar features of its own. Judged by Puri- 

 tan standards, it seemed free enough ; and it is rather 

 curious to find Virginia fathers anxious to send 

 their sons out to Kentucky so that they could get 

 away from what they termed "the constant round 

 of dissipation, the scenes of idleness which boys are 

 perpetually engaged in" in Virginia. One Vir- 

 ginia gentleman of note, in writing to a prominent 

 Kentuckian to whom he wished to send his son, 

 dwelt upon his desire to get him away from a place 



26 Do., J. Brown to Thomas Hart, Philadelphia, February 

 ii, 1797. This letter was brought out to Hart by a work- 

 man, David Dodge, whom Brown had at last succeeded in 

 engaging. Dodge had been working in New York at a rope- 

 walk, where he received $500 a year without board. From 

 Hart he bargained to receive $350 with board. It proved im- 

 possible to engage other journeymen workers, Brown express- 

 ing his belief that any whom he chose would desert a week 

 after they got to Kentucky, and Dodge saying that he would 

 rather take raw hands and train them to the business than 

 take out such hands as offered to go. 



S7 Do., William Nelson to Col. George Nicholas, Caroline, 

 Va., December 29, 1794. 



VOL. VIII. 12 



