* 
1807.] Account of the Country on the South Shore of Lake Erie. 433 
“Tt is the duty of every family enjoy- 
ing this condition in life, to take measures 
for the continuance of these blessings, by 
an annual application of a small part of 
their income to such objects as will be 
best calculated to transmit them to poste- 
rity. . 
itis equally, if not emphatically, the 
duty of those who are ina more humble 
condition of life, to struggle with all their 
power to elevate themselves and their fi 
milies to this desirable state of society.” 
—This the Doctor conceives compara- 
tively dithcult in Maryland. 
Tic adds, “ To be nominally free, fel- 
low citizens, is one thing; to be actually 
free and happy is another, and altogether 
different. ‘Lhe first is secured by our ad- 
mirable constitution ;the last can only 
be gained or secured by the efforts of 
every individual citizen for himself and 
his family, incessantly applied, and to ob- 
jects the most judicious. 
“ The actuai exercise of your rights as 
freemen, depend upon your being placed 
above a state of want or dependance ; on 
your possessing sufficient knowledge to be 
able, without advice, for yourselves to 
judge and act; and on feeling that you 
owe 10 pbedience but to God and the 
laws. 
“The shade of liberty is not worth 
preserving ; its substance is the greatest 
bic ssing bestowed on man. 
‘ Tufluenced by these considerations, 
w Hck have always had vast weight upon 
my mind, by a desire of preserving not 
only my self, but my posterity tor genera- 
tions, 1 this middie. and desirable rank 
of lite; and also by a-wish to elevate to 
the same rank and comforts the virtuous 
poor of Maryland, I have been years de- 
voting myself to acquire a knowledge 
of the several states of territorics; to 
ascertain which presented the greatest 
and most certain natural advantages. 
“ As was natural, my attention was 
first drawn to the great staples of to- 
bacco, rice, and i: digo, which the south- 
ern states produce in some of tlicir rich 
lands, and cotton almost on any land, 
however poor, The advantages appeared 
to be great at first view; but, when I 
considered the habits of the people, the 
etiects of the burning heat on the life of 
man, on his energy, his comforts, and his 
happiness, and especially on the accumn- 
lated evils of slavery, which are there car- 
ried to ®x¢ir highest pitch, and the cous 
sequent evils which must daily increas se, 
I said ts myself, This cannot be that safe, 
certain, an d Lappy country, in which I 
-of the northern states. 
could wish to plant my children and my 
grand-clildren.” 
Ybe Doctor next turned his attention 
to the country which furnishes the waters 
of the Mississippi, but he found. the 
whole SOU EN west of that river locked 
up by the policy of the nation, and the 
land im the Mississippi territory covered 
by varying titles, which generations yet 
unknown, perhaps, will not see adjusted. 
His partiality fur asouthern climate yet 
continuing, he next looked at Tennessee 
and Kentucky. But here, superadded to 
the evils of slav ery, he discovered that, in 
the summer months, water for mills was 
often wauted, and almost every title to 
land litigated. Chagrined at these disap- 
pointments, unknown and unexpected 
when the enquiry commenced, our author 
turned his attention to the vacant lands 
Tn Vermont and 
in Maine be found rich lands and sound 
titles, in Maine great prospect from fish- 
eriesand navigation; but the country was 
locked up in eternal frost for six months 
in ,every year. He found the peo- 
ple sober, patient, industrious, kind, and 
enterprising; tree from the curses of sla- 
very, and valuing man only for his virtue 
and lis worth, and his feelings were 
sharply in favour of settling among them ; 
but he was deterred from becoming an 
inhabitant, by the chilling frost of the 
winter. 
Determined neither to despair, nor 
quit the regions of civil liberty, the Doc- 
tor next devoted his attention to the coun- 
try on the right bank of the Ohio, and 
viewed the state of Ohio, the territories 
of Michigan and Indiana. He found 
Michigan oe of immense advan- 
tages, resulting trom her navigation, hav- 
ing large vessel wavigation on three sides, 
aid a most valuable fist hery; but the 
body of the soil was low, marshy, and 
poor, and inundated seven months in the 
year. ‘Phe country far north very cold, 
with few inhabitants, and those without 
industry, activity, economy, or enterprize, 
and no hope of becoming a State for many 
years, 
Tidiania contained immense bodies of 
fine land, with clear utiles, but it also con- 
tained vast prairies without wood or wa- 
ter: a colonial government not likely 
soon to be changed, and a country “ so 
distant froia market, that she must pass 
either down the Mississippi to the ocean, 
1100 miles, or by the iakes Mi ichigan, 
Huron, St. Clair, aud Erie, east and 
north-eastward, to Montreal, Albany, or 
New York, a distance not less than 1000 
miles. 
