214

TRAFFIC ON THE ERIE CANAL.

is, besides, the Lake Champlain Canal of 79 miles, by which the navigation of the lake is connected with that of the river Hudson, making in all 714 miles of canal navigation, and necessary feeders, executed and upheld by the State. In executing this work, a large outlay was for many years incurred, and its projectors had much opposition to encounter, and many struggles with the purse-holders of the State, before it could be brought into a navigable condition. Now it is a source of large direct money-revenue to the State, in addition to the numerous indirect benefits which it otherwise confers. The total number of tons of goods of all sorts conveyed along it, in 1849, was 2,894,732, and their estimated value about 145,000,000 of dollars. The main transit of produce is from west to east, as we should naturally suppose. Thus, in 1849, the tons of wheat and flour conveyed eastward to the Hudson were 434,444, while there were conveyed westward to Buffalo, on the way to other States, only 67,966 tons of the same articles. Of the whole traffic, also, of all kinds, 1,266,000 tons came eastward to the Hudson, while only 315,000 tons went westward. The toll varies from 1 to 5 mills (thousandths of a dollar) for 1000 lbs. per mile, and the revenue in 1849 amounted to 3,250,000 of dollars, of which 23 millions remained as a clear surplus, after paying all necessary expenses of collection and repairs.

The importance of this canal to the Western States appears from the fact, that of the whole traffic from the west, (1,226,000 tons) which arrived at the Hudson, 768,000 tons had come direct from the Western States. Besides, it is one of the great thoroughfares to the western territory for the poorer classes of emigrants from Europe. For the emigrants who arrive at New York there is a choice of two routes to the west-one by Philadelphia and Pittsburg, the other by Albany and Buffalo. The latter is the cheaper, the easier, and the

EMIGRANTS TO NEW YORK.

215

more direct, and, since the formation of the railway, is also much the quicker route.

The number of emigrants who landed at New York in the years 1848 and 1849 respectively, were

A very large majority of the European population, which is flowing to the United States, comes, therefore, from the United Kingdom. Germany sends out more than any other country of continental Europe. In considering the effect of the vast numbers of Irish emigrants upon the population of North America, it is of consequence to notice that of the Teutonic races, including the English, German, Scotch, Dutch, and Scandinavian: there are almost as many as there are of the Celts. The Irish emigrants, also, are by no means all of pure Celtic blood. Celtic blood. As a whole, therefore, these emigrants would produce a valuable mixed population were they to be settled indiscriminately, and intermingled by marriage in succeeding generations. This, however, is to a certain extent prevented, by the natural tendency of people of the same country to flock together, and to settle near each other. Thus, as the French preponderate in Lower Canada and Louisiana, the Germans in Pennsylvania and parts of Ohio, the Dutch in some

places upon the Hudson River, &c., so the Irish and the Highland Scotch, and even the Norwegians, establish themselves in separate localities, and give a tone to the manners, feelings, and habits, and new words and accents to the language of the townships, counties, or states, in which they choose their homes. This will, no doubt, be found to give peculiarities to the population of the several States, and to modify the temper, and even the legislation, of the Houses of Assembly in each State. But these State differences will disappear in the Federal Congress, and will rarely affect the action or procedure of the Central Government. The greater fire and impatience of one State will be restrained by the coolness and caution of another; and thus, while the warm temperaments of some of the States may prevent national stagnation, they will, it is to be hoped, but seldom prevail to hurry forward the whole Union to hasty and inconsiderate measures.

In regard to the new States which are springing up towards the west and north, it is very interesting to observe how important an influence is exercised by the restless New Englanders upon the establishment among them of political, religious, and educational institutions, and upon the general character and expression of public feeling and sentiment.

The emigrants who go out from Europe-the raw bricks for the new State buildings—are generally poor, and for the most part indifferently educated. Being strangers to the institutions of the country, and to their mode of working, and, above all, being occupied in establishing themselves, the rural settlers have little leisure or inclination to meddle with the direct regulation of public affairs for some years after they have first begun to hew their farms out of the solitary wilderness. The New Englanders come in to do this. The west is an outlet for their superfluous lawyers, their doctors,

INFLUENCE OF NEW ENGLAND.

217

their ministers of various persuasions, their newspaper editors, their bankers, their merchants, and their pedlars. All the professions and influential positions are filled up by them. They are the movers in all the public measures that are taken in the organisation of State governments, and the establishment of county institutions; and they occupy most of the legislative, executive, and other official situations, by means of which the State affairs are at first carried on. Thus the west presents an inviting field to the ambitious spirits of the east; and through their means the genius and institutions of the New England States are transplanted and diffused, and determine, in a great measure, those of the more westerly portions of the Union.

Near Rochester we passed one of the emigrant trains which every day proceed from Albany and Troy to Buffalo, on their way to the Far West. There were women and children and men of all ages, and the ragged and lively, though often squalid-looking Irish, were mixed up with the more decently clad and graver-looking English, Scotch, and Germans. The fare from New

York to Albany by water, and thence to Buffalo by railway, is five dollars a-head, though the poor strangers are liable to much imposition in New York on the part of a set of men called runners, who waylay them on landing, and profess to give them information, with the view only of cheating them of their money. Much pains has been taken, however, by the State Emigration Commissioners in New York, with the view of preventing such imposition. It is made unlawful for a tavern or lodging-house keeper to detain the luggage of an emigrant for any debts he may contract; persons are appointed to give information to those who land; and were ordinary prudence to be exercised by European emigrants, very much less opportunity for fraud would be afforded to the swarms of heartless wretches who, in proportion to the

218

OLD HUNKERS AND BARNBURNERS.

population, are probably as numerous at least in New York as in any European city.

Though most of my fellow-passengers were on their way from the fair at Syracuse, the conversation in the cars was more about political differences, conventions, and discussions, than about the proceedings of the show. The Old Hunkers and the Barnburners-two sections of the democratic party-were holding many meetings throughout the country, with the view of bringing about a union, as their differences had been a source of great advantage to the Whigs at the recent federal and state elections. In England, to be a democrat still implies a position at the very front of the movement party, and a desire to hasten forward political changes, irrespective of season or expediency. But among the American democrats there is a Conservative and a Radical party. The former, who desire to restrain" the amazing violence of the popular spirit," are nick-named by their democratic adversaries the "Old Hunkers;" the latter, who profess to have in their hearts" sworn eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man," are stigmatised as Barnburners, but call themselves the 66 Young Democracy," or the "Progressive Young Democracy." The New York Tribune, in reference to the origin of the names themselves, says that the name Hunkers 66 was intended to indicate that those on whom it was conferred had an appetite for a large hunk* of the spoils,' though we never could discover that they were peculiar in that. On the other hand, the Barnburners were so named, in allusion to the story of an old Dutchman who relieved himself of rats by burning his barns which they infested, just like exterminating all banks and corporations, to root out the abuses connected therewith." It is alleged against the Barnburners, that

* Hunk or hunch is a large slice or piece-as, a hunk of bread and cheese.