1802.) 
kinds is in a more conftant ftate of fluc- 
tuation, and multitudes among us confi- 
der no {pecies of it as out of their line of 
trading. Indeed, it isa pretty prevailing 
maxim, that a man ought, at any time, to 
fell any thing that he has, if he can get 
a good price for it, and buy any thing 
which falls in his way, if he can get it at 
half its value. A few days ago, a neigh- 
bour of mine took the very blankets from 
his bed, which he really wanted, and gave 
them in exchange for fome articles which 
he did not want, and this merely becaufe 
he thought it would be making a good 
trade, as the term is. In confequence of 
this turn of mind, which naturally fprings 
up out of the fituation of the country, the 
avidity for good bargains becomes much 
more general than it can be with you. 
A larger proportion of minds become ex- 
poled to its influence, and, at the fame 
' time, the fate of fociety is not fuch as to 
impofe the fame ties upon them that the 
inhabitants of old countries are fubjeé& 
to. With you, a mechanic mult be a 
complete matter of his bufinefs, or he will 
not fucceed. A man concernedin buying 
and felling muft be a man of fcrupulous 
integrity, in appearance at leaft, or he will 
forfeit his credit, and be negle&ted. In 
both cafes, the rivalfhip of others in the 
fame lines impofes thefe reftridtions on 
them: the one is compelled to be fkilful, 
and the other to be honeft, if it be only 
in felf-detence. 
But here the caufe'of competition is 
JefS: it cannot be expected, that either 
fkill or integrity, though a recommenda- 
tion no doubt, fhould be viewed as equal- 
ly indifpenfable ; and, though a mechanic 
fhould fometimes put indifferent work out 
of his hands, orthe trader over-rate a 
piece of property he is felling, and impofe 
on the credulity of the purchafer, neither 
has the fear of being entirely difcarded by 
his fellow-citizens. His tellow-citizens 
cannot do without him, but only learn to 
rely more on theirown attention and judg- 
ment, than on the fkill and charater of 
thofe they deal with. I confefs I am 
giving a humiliating picture, but it is 
drawn by nature and the circumftances of 
the country. Thefe might teach us a pri- 
ori to expect to find a want of principle 
more prevalent here than it is with you, 
and I believe that it is fo in fa&t. Fiagi- 
tious vice, however, is lefs frequent, 
All crimes, except murder, are punifhed 
in Kentucky by fine, or confinement in 
the penitentiary. I frequently vifit the 
convicts, and their indultry and deport- 
ment would rather give one the idea of a 
Letter on Kentucky, fron Mr. Toulmin. 221 
well-ordered family,than that of a ptace of 
punifiment for the out-cafts of fociety. 
In fact, the intercour(e, which partially, 
at leaft, takes place between perions of all 
characters, as well as ftations, though it 
lowers perhaps the general ftandard of 
morals, muft operate as a check and curb 
on great excefles. Mediocrity, indeed, 
feems to be the charaéteriltic feature of 
America. Mediocrity is equally difcern- 
idle in fortune, in knowledge, in arts, and 
in morals. In every one of thefe refpeéts, 
there is no clafs of men fo high, there is 
none fo low, as are to be found in Eng 
land. The fame caufe, I conceive, pro- 
duces the whole chain of phenomena... 
15. Prosrefs of Cultivation, and Mode 
of Settling.—-According to the beft of my 
recollection, no part of America, which I 
have feen*, correfponds with what would 
probably be the expeétation of moft Eng- 
lifhmen, with regard to fuch of the States 
as have been a long time fettled. I have 
no where feen any confiderable extent of 
country, confifting of cultivated land, not 
intermixed with woods. Indeed, even in 
the moft eaftern parts of Virginia, the 
main body of the land you travel through 
is merely woodland; and, to theeye ofan 
European, it prefents the profpe& of as 
new a country as Kentucky. Our fen- 
cing and our fuel requiring a conftant fup- 
ply of timber, a proportion of every 
tract muft be kept in a {tate of nature, in 
order to fatisfy thefe demands. I cannot 
eftimate what proportion of cleared land 
there is in the fettled parts of Kentucky ¢ 
butit muft be in very few diftriés of the 
country, that one-half of every fettled 
tract is, upon an average, under cultiva- 
tion, and, even then, numerous traéts are 
intermixed, on which the hand of improve- 
ment has never been exercifed. You 
will perceive, therefore, that the new fet- 
tler, or the man who firt ftrikes the axe 
ina piece of woodland, may be a very ra= 
tional fociable being, and that there ts no 
real ground for fuppofing that he muft be 
that wild favage out-cait, that hater of his 
fpecies, that enemy to the legal rettraints 
of civilifed fociety, which he has been fo 
often reprefented to be, both by European 
writers, and by fome Americans likewife, 
who, living near the fea-coaft, have pro= 
bably pofleffed no ideas more accurate, 
refpecting the interior parts of the Conti- 
nent, than you have. Nothing is more 
* The ftates I have vifited are New York, 
New Jerfey, Delaware, Pennfylvania, Mary. 
land, Virginia, Teneffee, and the north- 
weftern territory, eae 
4 commog 
