Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD LITERATURE
certain destruction which awaits it, if I remain here much longer. Could I insure
them bread, safety, and subsistence, not the bread of idleness, but that earned by
proper labour as heretofore; could this be accomplished by the sacrice of my life,
I would willingly give it up. I attest before heaven, that it is only for these I would
wish to live and to toil: for these whom I have brought into this miserable existence.
I resemble, methinks, one of the stones of a ruined arch, still retaining that pristine
form that anciently tted the place I occupied, but the centre is tumbled down; I
can be nothing until I am replaced, either in the former circle, or in some stronger
one. I see one on a smaller scale, and at a considerable distance, but it is within my
power to reach it: and since I have ceased to consider myself as a member of the
ancient state now convulsed, I willingly descend into an inferior one. I will revert
into a state approaching nearer to that of nature, unencumbered either with
voluminous laws, or contradictory codes, often galling the very necks of those
whom they protect; and at the same time suciently remote from the brutality of
unconnected savage nature. Do you, my friend, perceive the path I have found
out? it is that which leads to the tenants of the great———village of———, where,
far removed from the accursed neighbourhood of Europeans, its inhabitants live
with more ease, decency, and peace, than you imagine: where, though governed
by no laws, yet nd, in uncontaminated simple manners all that laws can aord.
Their system is suciently complete to answer all the primary wants of man, and
to constitute him a social being, such as he ought to be in the great forest of nature.
There it is that I have resolved at any rate to transport myself and family: an
eccentric thought, you may say, thus to cut asunder all former connections, and to
form new ones with a people whom nature has stamped with such dierent
characteristics! But as the happiness of my family is the only object of my wishes,
I care very little where we be, or where we go, provided that we are safe, and all
united together. Our new calamities being shared equally by all, will become
lighter; our mutual aection for each other, will in this great transmutation
become the strongest link of our new society, will aord us every joy we can receive
on a foreign soil, and preserve us in unity, as the gravity and coherency of matter
prevents the world from dissolution. Blame me not, it would be cruel in you, it
would beside be entirely useless; for when you receive this we shall be on the
wing. When we think all hopes are gone, must we, like poor pusillanimous
wretches, despair and die? No; I perceive before me a few resources, though
through many dangers, which I will explain to you hereafter. It is not, believe me,
a disappointed ambition which leads me to take this step, it is the bitterness of my
situation, it is the impossibility of knowing what better measure to adopt: my
education tted me for nothing more than the most simple occupations of life; I
am but a feller of trees, a cultivator of land, the most honourable title an American
can have. I have no exploits, no discoveries, no inventions to boast of; I have
cleared about 370 acres of land, some for the plough, some for the scythe; and this
has occupied many years of my life. I have never possessed, or wish to possess
anything more than what could be earned or produced by the united industry of
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