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likewife adds to the number, and improves the quality of his fruit-trees: his fons work by his fide all the year, and his wife and daughters forfake the dairy and the fpinning-wheel, to share with him in the toils of harvest. The last object of his induftry is to build a dwelling-house. This bufinefs is fometimes effected in the course of his life, but is oftener bequeathed to his fon, or the inheritor of his plantation; and hence we have a common faying among our beft farmers, that a fon fhould always begin where his father left off; that is, he fhould begin his improvements, by building a commodious dwelling-houfe, fuited to the improvements and value of the plantation. This dwelling-houfe is generally built of ftone; it is large, convenient, and filled with ufeful and fubftantial furniture; it fometimes adjoins the house of the fecond fettler, but is frequently placed at a little distance from it. The horses and cattle of this fpecies of fettler, bear marks in their ftrength, fat, and fruitfulness of their being plentifully fed and carefully kept. His table abounds with a variety of the best provisions; his very kitchen flows with milk and honey; beer, cyder, and wine are the usual drinks of his family; the greatest part of the clothing of his family is manufactured by his wife and daughters. In proportion as he increases in wealth, he values the protection of laws: hence he punctually pays his taxes towards the fupport of government. Schools and churches likewife, as the means of promoting order and happiness in fociety, derive a due fupport from him: for benevolence and public fpirit, as to thefe objects, are the natural offspring of affluence and independence. Of this clafs of fettlers are two-thirds of the farmers of Pennsylvania: these are the men to whom Pennsylvania owes her ancient fame and confequence. If they poffefs lefs refinement than their fouthern neighbours, who cultivate their lands with flaves, they poffefs more republican virtue. It was from the farms cultivated by these men, that the American and French armies were fed chiefly with bread during the late revolution and it was from the produce of these farms, that thofe millions of dollars were obtained from the Havanna after the year 1780, which laid the foundation of the bank of North America, and which fed and clothed the American army, till the glorious peace of Paris.

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This is a fhort account of the happiness of a Pennsylvania farmer; to this happiness our ftate invites men of every religion and country. We do not pretend to offer emigrants the pleasure of Arcadia; it is enough if affluence, independence, and happiness are infured to patience, industry, and labour. The moderate price of land*, the credit which

arifes

*The unoccupied lands are fold by the state for about fix guineas, inclufive of all charges, per hundred acres. But as most of the lands that are Settled, are procured from perfons who had purchased them from the ftate, they are fold to the first fettler for a much higher price. The quality of the foil; its vicinity to mills, court-boufes, places of worship, and navigable water: the distance of land carriage to the fea-ports of Philadelphia or Baltimore, and the nature of the roads, all influence the price of land to the first fettler. The quantity of cleared land, and the nature of the improvements, added to all the above circumAtances, influence the price of farms to the fecond and third fettlers. Hence the

arifes from prudence, and the fafety from our courts of law, of every fpecies of property, render the bleffings which I have described, objects within the reach of every man.

From a review of the three different fpecies of fettlers, it appears, that there are certain regular stages which mark the progrefs from the favage to civilized life. The first fettler is nearly related to an Indian in his manners. In the fecond, the Indian manners are more diluted. It is in the third fpecies of fettlers only, that we behold civilization completed. It is to the third fpecies of fettlers only, that it is proper to apply the term of farmers.

While we record the vices of the first and fecond fettlers, it is but juft to mention their virtues likewife. Their mutual wants produce mutual dependence: hence they are kind and friendly to each other-their folitary fituation makes vifitors agreeable to them; hence they are hofpitable to ftrangers; their want of money (for they raife but little more. than is necessary to support their families) has made it neceffary for them to affociate for the purposes of building houfes, cutting their grain, and the like. This they do in turns for each other, without any other pay than the pleasures which ufually attend a country frolic. Perhaps, what I have called virtues, are rather qualities arifing from neceffity, and the peculiar state of fociety in which thefe people live. Virtue fhould, in all cafes, be the offspring of principle.

I do not pretend to fay, that this mode of fettling farms in Pennsylvania is univerfal, I have known fome inftances where the first fettler has performed the improvements of the fecond, and yielded to the third. I have known a few inftances likewife, of men of enterprizing spirits, who have fettled in the wilderness, and who, in the course of a single life, have advanced through all the intermediate ftages of improvement that I have mentioned, and produced all thofe conveniencies which have been afcribed to the third fpecies of fettlers; thereby refembling, in their exploits, not only the pioneers and light-infantry, but the main body of an army. There are inftances, likewife, where the firft fettlement has been improved by the fame family, in hereditary fucceffion, till it has reached the third stage of cultivation. There are many fpacious ftone houses, and highly cultivated farms in the neighbouring counties of the city of Philadelphia, which are poffeffed by the grandfons and greatgrandfons of men who accompanied William Penn across the ocean, and who laid the foundation of the prefent improvements of their pofterity, in fuch cabins as have been described.

price of land to the first fettler is from a quarter of a guinea to two guineas per acre; and the price of farms is from one guinea to ten guineas per acre, to the fecond and third fettlers, according as the land is varied by the beforementioned circumftances. When the first fettler is unable to purchase, he often takes a tract of land for feven years on a leafe, and contracts, instead of paying a rent in cafb, to clear fifty acres of land, to build a log cabin, and a barn, and to plant an orchard on it. This tract, after the expiration of this leafe, fells or rents for a confiderable profit.

This paffion, ftrange and new as it may appear to an European, is wifely calculated for the extenfion of population in America: and this it does, not only by promoting the increase of the human fpecies in new fettlements, but in the old fettlement likewise. While the degrees of industry and knowledge in agriculture, in our country, are proportioned to farms of from 75 to 300 acres, there will be a languor in population, as foon as farmers multiply beyond the number of farms of the above dimenfions. To remove this languor, which is kept up alike by the increase of the price, and the divifion of farms, a migration of part of the community becomes abfolutely neceffary. And as this part of the community often confifts of the idle and extravagant, who eat without working, their removal, by increafing the facility of fubfiftence to the frugal and induftrious who remain behind, naturally increases the number of people, just as the cutting off the fuckers of an apple-tree increases the fize of the tree and the quantity of fruit.

I have only to add upon this subject, that the migrants from Pennsylvania always travel to the fouthward. The foil and climate of the western parts of Virginia, North and fouth Carolina, and Georgia, afford a more eafy fupport to lazy farmers, than the ftubborn but durable foil of Pennfylvania. Here our ground requires deep and repeated ploughing to render it fruitful; there fcratching the ground once or twice affords tolerable crops. In Pennfylvania, the length and coldness of the winter makes it neceffary for the farmers to bestow a large fhare of their labour in providing for, and feeding their cattle; but in the fouthern ftates, cattle find pasture during the greatest part of the winter, in the fields or woods. For these reafons, the greatest part of the western counties of the ftates that have been mentioned, are fettled by original inhabitants of Pennsylvania. During the late war, the militia of Orange county, in North Carolina, were enrolled, and their number amounted to 3500, every man of whom had migrated from Pennsylvania. From this you will fee, that our ftate is the great outport of the United States for Europeans; and that, after performing the office of a fieve, by detaining all those people who poffefs the ftamina of industry and virtue, it allows a paffage to the rest, to thofe ftates which are accommodated to their habits of indolence and vice.

I fhall conclude this letter by remarking, that in the mode of extending population and agriculture, which I have defcribed, we behold a Lew fpecies of war. The third fettler may be viewed as a conqueror. The weapons with which he atchieves his conquefts, are the implements hulbandry: and the virtues which direct them, are industry and economy. Idleness, extravagance and ignorance fly before him. Happy would it be for mankind, if the kings of Europe would adopt this mode of extending their territories: it would foon put an end to the dreadful connection, which has exifted in every age, between war and poverty, and between conquest and defolation *

Thefe obfervations are equally applicable to the progrefs of the fettle

ments in all new countries.

* See Col. Mag. Vol. I. p. 117.

Religion

Religion.] We have already mentioned the prevailing religious fects in this ftate. A particular account of fome of their peculiar customs and

tenets will here be expected.

Of the great variety of religious denominations in Pennsylvania, the FRIENDS OF QUAKERS are the most numerous. George Fox is called the Father of this religious fect, because he first collected them into a fociety in England, about the middle of the 17th century. The true appellatiou of these people is FRIENDS; that of QUAKERS was early and unjustly given them by way of contempt. They came over to America as early as 1656, but were not indulged the free exercise of their religion in New-England *.

They were the first settlers of Pennsylvania in 1682, under William Penn, and have ever fince flourished in the free enjoyment of their religion. They believe that God has given to all men fufficient light to work their falvation, unless it be refifted; that this light is as extenfive as the feed of fin, and faves those who have not the outward means of falvation; that this light is a divine principle, in which dwells God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft. They maintain that the fcriptures are not the principal ground of all truth and knowledge; nor yet the primary rule of faith and manners; but because they give a true testimony of the first foundation, they are and may be esteemed a fecondary rule, fubordinate to the Spirit, from whom they derive all their excellence. They believe that immediate revelation has not ceafed, but that a measure of the Spirit is given to every perfon. That as by the light or gift of God, all fpiritual knowledge is received, thofe who have this gift, whether male or female, though without human commiffion or learning, ought to preach; and to preach freely, as they have freely received the gift. All true and acceptable worship of God, they maintain, is by the inward and immediate moving of his Spirit; and that water baptism and the Lord's fupper were commanded only for a time. They neither give titles, nor ufe compliments in their converfation or writings, believing that whatsoever is more than yea, yea, and nay, nay, cometh of evil. They confcientiously avoid, as unlawful, kneeling, bowing, or uncovering the head to any perfon. They difcard all fuperfluities in drefs or equipage; all games, fports, and plays, as unbecoming the chriftian. Swear not at all' is an article of their creed, literally observed in its utmost extent. They believe it unlawful, to fight in any cafe whatever; and think that if their enemy Smite them on the one cheek, they ought to turn to him the other also t. They are generally honeft, punctual, and even punctilious in their dealings; provident for the neceffities of their poor; friends to humanity, and of course enemies to flavery; ftrict in their discipline; careful in the obfervance even of the punctilios in dress, speech and manners, which their religion enjoins; faithful in

*See Hift. of Maffachusetts and Connecticut.

+ During the late war, fome of their number, contrary to this article of their faith, thought it their duty to take up arms in defence of their country. This laid the foundation of a feceffion from their brethren, and they now form a feparate congregation in Philadelphia, by the name of the Refifting or fighting Quakers."

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the education of their children; induftrious in their feveral occupations. In short, whatever peculiarities and mistakes those of other denominations have fuppofed they have fallen into, in point of religious doctrines, they have proved themselves to be good citizens.

Next to the Quakers, the PRESBYTERIANS are the most numerous ; concerning whom we have nothing to add to what we have already said under New-York. (page 268.)

The proteftant EPISCOPAL CHURCH of New-York, New-Jersey, Pennfylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and South-Carolina, met in convention at Philadelphia, October 1785, and revised the book of common prayer, and administration of the facraments, and other rites and ceremonies, and published and propofed the book, thus revised, for the ufe of the church. This revifion was made in part, in order to render the liturgy confiftent with the American revolution, and the conftitutions of the feveral flates. In this they have discovered their liberality and their patriotifm. In Pennfylvania and the fouthern states this revised book is pretty generally ufed by the epifcopal churches. In New-York and New-Jerfey it has not been adopted.

There are upwards of fixty minifters of the LUTHERAN and CALVINIST religion, who are of German extraction, now in this ftate; all of whom have one or more congregations under their care; and many of them preach in fplendid and expenfive churches: and yet the first ́Lutheran minifter, who arrived in Pennsylvania about forty years ago, was alive in 1787, and probably is ftill, as was also the second Calvinistical minifter.

The Lutherans do not differ, in any thing effential, from the Epifcopalians; nor do the Calvinifts from the Prefbyterians.

The MORAVIANS are of German extraction. Of this religion there are about 1300 fouls in Pennsylvania; viz. between 500 and 600 in Bethlehem; 450 in Nazareth; and upwards of 300 at Litiz, in Lancaster county. They call themselves the United Brethren of the Proteftant Epifcopal church.' They are called Moravians, because the first fettlers in the English dominions were chiefly emigrants from Moravia. These were the remnant and genuine defcendants of the church of the ancient United Brethren, eftablished in Bohemia and Moravia, as early as the year 1456. About the middle of the laft century, they left their native country, to avoid perfecution, and to enjoy liberty of confcience, and the free exercise of the religion of their forefathers. They were received in Saxony, and other Proteftant dominions, and were encouraged to fettle among them, and were joined by many ferious people of other denominations. They adhere to the Auguftan Confeffion of Faith, which was drawn up by the Proteftant divines at the time of the reformation in Germany, in the year 1530, and prefented at the diet of the empire at Augfburgh; and which, at that time, contained the doctrinal fyftem of all the established Proteftant churches. They retain the difcipline of their ancient church, and make ufe of Epifcopal ordination, which has been handed down to them in a direct line of fucceffion for more than three hundred years*.

*See David Crantz Hift. of The ancient and modern United Brethren's church, tranflated from the German, by the Rev. Benjamin La Trobe. London, 1780.'

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