- lina. "On mentioning this affair," (says he,) "in a stage,
it operated like an explosion on all present." Met the Rev. John Wright, who complimented me on having {103} dared to attack the beast in his temple, meaning slavery in Carolina. He states, that Mr. Birkbeck, if he had taken good advice, had never gone to Illinois to deceive himself and others, and injure many. Introduced to Messrs. Matchem and Shanks, two native citizens, one in the government, and both eloquent and ingenious men, who openly accuse the English emigrants of shewing contempt for America, by odious comparisons, and by not socially mixing with the natives. Both parties in this matter err, and alike stand in need of correction. The American, so called, although his father or grandfather was perhaps a British convict, despises all recent emigrants, because he fancies, that they who know most, must despise him. Fancy and jealousy then, must bear the blame. There seems so little here to remind me that it is Sunday, that I had almost forgotten it. Religion, however, became the theme. There is more intolerance here than in England. Methodists predominate, and are brimful of bigotry; and the Catholics are very fiery and violent in all spiritual matters, but, having no power, they cannot injure their fellow-citizens. All sects hate my reverend friend, because he is an Unitarian, and hates slavery, and therefore nothing good can be in him or come out of him.
13th.—Met and talked with both Dumbletons, who have failed in two distinct enterprizes. The elder in a brewing concern in Philadelphia, through {104} uniting himself to a falling firm, at the head of which was a thief and swindler; and the younger brother in a threshing machine, in the English fashion, to hire out at 16 dollars per day; but he was seldom able to get a job, the farmer not
