l"oL. II. AUGUSTA, GA., AUGUST 7, 1844. No. 16. 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
For the Southern Cultivator. 
EMIGRATION. 
The principal motives to our citizens of the 
planting States to emigrate to the West, were, 
formerly, the restless disposition of the people of 
a new country — the greedy avarice of the acqui- 
sition of land — and the strong propensity (to 
some extent commendable) to accumulate 
wealth. I speak not of those who were driven 
from their homes by crime, or made wanderers 
by the union of pride and poverty, or those who 
sought professional employment; but of plant- 
ers. Many of them were also weary of cultivat- 
ing lands which, under their rude agriculture, 
gave early signs of exhaustion; and, being ig- 
norant of the modes of renovating soils, and in- 
deed, (had they known them,) probably deficient 
in the steady energy and philosophic patience 
requisite to apply them successfully, they pre- 
ferred rather to encounter the difficulties of set- 
tling a wilderness, for its advantages of rich 
laud, its facilities for living, and its freedom 
from restraint. And no doubt they all attached 
lull credit to the exaggerated accounts of the 
wonderful fertility, and incomparable climateof 
that region, which yielded in perfection all the 
products of the earth; of its immense forests, 
filled with game, and its rivers with fish; of its 
extemsive prairies, rich and perennial meadows 
for stock: that it was exempt from the fatal dis- 
eases of old countries, and that they would im- 
mediately possess a princely domain, and in a 
few years, a princely fortune. 
Led captive by an excited imagination, and 
disregarding the plainest precepts of wisdom, 
they sacrificed, some of them, ease, competence 
and health — abandoned friends and relatives, 
their old homestead, tolerable lands and reason- 
able prospects, here, for an ignis fatuus of 
wealth in distant parts. Experience, however, 
soon taught them, and with indelible impres- 
sion, all the privations and sufferings to be en- 
dured, the manifold obstacles to be subdued, and 
the alo'ost superhuman labor to be achieved, in 
order to secure, even moderate success. The 
deception which had carried them far away, to 
drag out in sickness and its consequent poverty, 
a miserable life, was exposed and denounced 
over and again by many, who cherished the 
hopeless resolution to come back ag."ia when 
able. A few returned, broken in fortune and in 
spirit, yet happy to pass the rest of their days 
amid the scenes and the society of their birth- 
place. Others who had gone early, and with 
large capital, selected the best locations — and, 
by indomitable energy and judicious manage- 
ment, received a fair compensation. But none 
have realized their vain imaginings, or have dis- 
covered yet a Hespeiian garden. 
The spirit of adventure wasessentially check- 
ed by these discouragements. People were no 
longer seen moving in crowds and by compa- 
nies, but singly, or by families, and at Intervals: 
some prompted by a vague desire of change, or 
the genius of enterprise, the great moral feature 
of our countrymen; and others from a disposi- 
tion to invest their surplus means in wild, but 
fertile lands, and await a future day for interest 
upon it. when the increase of population would 
create a demand for them. These were legiti- 
mate causes of emigration, and had no tendency 
to depopulate any section of the old States. But 
the recent praises of Texas soil and climate — 
the prospect to both political parties of the South, 
of its early union with this confederacy, and the 
fear that citizens of the West and Northwest, by 
immed'ate removal, may secure all the favora- 
ble situations in that country, are calculated to 
awaken anew the feeling of speculation. The 
signs that are exhibited around us, cannot be 
mistaken. 
To those who have already determined to 
leave us, and are yet inclined to think before 
they act, I will offer a few considerations, which 
may be worthy of their deliberate attention. 
And first, it is by no means certain that Texas 
will be annexed. The period for adopting this 
measure may have passed forever. Some of her 
late papers intimate that if her independence is 
acknowledged by Mexico, she can maintain a 
national existence, and will refuse to unite with 
us. And it is said that France and England 
will use sure means to obtain this recognition, 
if she will abandon the idea of annexation. 
But if, on the contrary, she asain consents, it is 
said that the North, while willing to abide by 
the terms of the Constitution and not interfere 
with us, will never sanction the admission of a 
foreign slave State. The South will, of course, 
only receive her as such. Can there be a com- 
pronqise between these conflicting parties— the 
adherents cf the institution — who believe that it 
has bestowed upon them countless blessings, 
and are opposed to taking any step for its exunc- 
tion, or to modify it at all ; and the people of the 
North, who are strongly and naturally averse to 
it, from the want of necessity for its use among 
them — from the public opinion of the world — 
and (with a large portion certainly) from jeal- 
ousy of the happy division of classes it has ad- 
justed at the South; and ofthe aristocratic ease, 
and consequent genius, manners, high-toned ho- 
nor and undaunted courage, it has imparted to 
those educated under its influence ? It is to be 
hoped there will be, (1 express no opinion, and 
venture no conjecture,) yet it will be seen that 
difficulties attend the speedy termination ofthe 
controversy; and those who, under the faiie.st 
auspices, might be persuaded to emigrate there, 
should, on this ground, pause for the present. 
But the fever to leave, being once thoroughly 
enkindled, no disappointment with regard to 
Texas can allay it. The resolution formed to 
go, and preparation made for it, home and its 
occupation are no longer attractive, and they 
will move, at all events, to Mississippi or Lou- 
isiana. 
What I am about to say, may, therefore, be 
as fully applied to these States as to Texas. 
Notwithstanding the high authority of General 
Thompson to the contrary, all that country 
must be more or less unhealthy. It is an axiom 
that rich lands are sickly: they are fertile main- 
ly by the vast accumulation of vegetable mat- 
ter, and unde” the action of moisture, and the in- 
tense heat of that di ne, which continues the 
greater part of the year, fermentation and decay 
are constantly going on, and the most deadly mi- 
asmata are evaporated. Seatsfield, who, by the 
way, is a close and shrewd observer, who seems 
to have caught, instinctively, the spirit of eve- 
ry scene and of every character he has portraj'- 
ed, and is peculiarly interesting to us for his 
genuine Southern feeling, remarks somewhere, 
in reference to Louisiana, (and Texas is essen- 
tially the same,) that the country might do, 
were “the heat and vapors less oppressive ; the 
atmosphere less hot-house like; and the n.osche- 
toes less ravenous, — but tliese draw from you 
the last remnant of warm and pure blood, and 
leave little more than red cool salt-water in the 
veins, creating salt humors, and cruel livercom- 
plainls.” His description of the cypress swamp, 
and its sociable inhabitants, and seas of muck, 
and lying adjacent to the settlements, too, is 
enough, it would seem, to content a .sensible 
man with a pine barren, where good w'ater, ro- 
bust health, and long life, would be the accom- 
paniments of a moderate income. He says fur- 
ther, that the black earth in some places is 18 
feet in depth, and the mud slime, on the banks of 
Red River, is 16 feet deep: a mass of muck that 
Dr. Dana would, no doubt, behold with rapture. 
Can health reside here? 1 would as soon look 
for it in the Pontine Marshes of Italy, or in the 
diked mud-flats of Holland, where, I believe, 
the average of human life is about 20 years. 
There are some situations, it is true, which are 
better than others, but the pestilential vmpors of 
such extensive swamps and bottoms as are found 
there, must contaminate, more or less, the whole 
atmosphere. And the annual ravages of the 
yellow fever in .some parts, the bilious fever in 
others, and the liver complaint and pleurisy in. 
all, are satisfactory prools of the fact. It may 
be said, that desire in the pursuit of riches is 
never counteracted by fear, and rumors of sick- 
ness and death excite no alarm in the enterpris- 
ing, who risk everything for the certainty of 
gain— (this may be an abstract truth, but I leave 
the dissussion and disposal of it to each one’s 
feelings) — that since large fortunes can be ra- 
pidly made, as asserted, a short residence only 
will be necessary, when the product of their en- 
chantment may be wafted to a purer clime, and 
the enjoyment of it be enhanced by the hazard 
of procuring it. And indeed, to come more di- 
rectly to the practical objects of this paper, that 
a larger amount of cotton, and of better quality, 
can be grown to the acre, the soil richer and 
more durable, the climate more genial, and the 
living more abundant and cheaper. 
The fertility ofthe land, and the benificence 
of the clime, are undeniable. The fatal diseas- 
es which they generate, have been mentioned. 
The cost, to an emigrant, of an improved river 
plantation, will average 25 orS'SOan acre, some 
being as high as S50. This requires a large 
capital to begin with. The greater number 
who move, would thus expend their all for a 
place. The failure of the first crop w'ould in- 
volve him in serious embarrassment, and espe- 
cially if he has obtained his land on credit, 
which is by no means unusual. He must part 
with some of h's negroes to meet the necessary 
payments, A second failurS would ruin him 
Irretrievably. The recent overwhelming flood, 
which, it is estimated, has destroyed nearly half 
a million of bags of cotton, and corn in propor- 
tion, is a specimen of the chances of failure. 
These chances will increase, in proportion to 
the clearings along all the branches to the maia 
river, until, in a lew years, they will become 
regular annual visitants. The cream of the 
