COUNTRY LIFE IN THE WEST 31 



churches are seen. Broadcloth, silks, leghorns, crapes, and all 

 the refinements, luxuries, elegancies, frivolities, and fashions are 

 in vogue. Thus wave after wave is rolling westward; the real 

 El Dorado is still farther on. 



A portion of the two first classes remain stationary amidst 

 the general movement, improve their habits and condition, and 

 rise in the scale of society. The writer has traveled much 

 amongst the first class, the real pioneers. He has lived for 

 many years in connection with the second grade ; and now the 

 third wave is sweeping over large districts of Indiana, Illinois, 

 and Missouri. Migration has become almost a habit in the 

 West. Hundreds of men can be found, not over fifty years 

 of age, who have settled for the fourth, fifth, or sixth time on 

 a new spot. To sell out and remove only a few hundred miles 

 makes up a portion of the variety of backwoods life and manners. 



First, we note that the frontier promoted the formation of a 

 composite nationality for the American people. The coast was 

 preponderantly English, but the later tides of continental im- 

 migration flowed across to the free lands. This was the case 

 from the early colonial days. The Scotch-Irish and the Pala- 

 tine Germans, or "Pennsylvania Dutch," furnished the domi- 

 nant element in the stock of the colonial frontier. With these 

 people were also the freed indentured servants, or redemp- 

 tioners, who, at the expiration of their term of service, passed 

 to the frontier. Very generally these redemptioners were of 

 non-English stock. In the crucible of the frontier the immi- 

 grants were Americanized, liberated, and fused into a mixed 

 race, English in neither nationality nor characteristics. The 

 process has gone on from the early days to our own. The ad- 

 vance of the frontier decreased our dependence on England. 

 The coast, particularly of the South, lacked diversified indus- 

 tries, and was dependent on England for the bulk of its sup- 

 plies. In the South there was even a dependence upon the 

 Northern colonies for articles of food. Before long the fron- 

 tier created a demand for merchants. As it retreated from the 

 coast it became less and less possible for England to bring her 

 supplies directly to the consumers' wharfs, and carry away 

 staple crops, and staple crops began to give way to diversified 

 agriculture for a time. 



