Louisiana and Aaron Burr 285 



hated Calvinism as heartily as Catholicism, and yet 

 yielded to no Puritan in his austere condemnation 

 of amusement and luxury. 



Often men backslid, and to a period of intense 

 emotional religion succeeded one of utter unbelief 

 and of reversion to the worst practices which had 

 been given up. Nevertheless, on the whole there 

 was an immense gain for good. The people re- 

 ceived a new light, and were given a sense of moral 

 responsibility such as they had not previously pos- 

 sessed. Much of the work was done badly or was 

 afterward undone, but very much was really accom- 

 plished. The whole West owes an immense debt 

 to the hard-working frontier preachers, sometimes 

 Presbyterian, generally Methodist or Baptist, who 

 so gladly gave their lives to their labors and who 

 struggled with such fiery zeal for the moral well- 

 being of the communities to which they penetrated. 

 Wherever there was a group of log cabins, thither 

 some Methodist circuit-rider made his way or there 

 some Baptist preacher took up his abode. Their 

 prejudices and narrow dislikes, their raw vanity and 

 sullen distrust of all who were better schooled than 

 they, count for little when weighed against their 

 intense earnestness and heroic self-sacrifice. They 

 proved their truth by their endeavor. They yielded 

 scores of martyrs, nameless and unknown men who 

 perished at the hands of the savages, or by sickness 

 or in flood or storm. They had to face no little 

 danger from the white inhabitants themselves. In 

 'some of the communities most of the men might 



