has done so much towards peopling America as Mr. Birkbeck, whose publications, and the authority of whose name, had effects truly prodigious; and if all could have settled in Illinois, whom he had tempted to cross the Atlantic and the mountains, it had now been the most populous state in the Union. America, and the western country generally, are benefitted by and indebted to him; but, not being a man of business, and therefore ill calculated to appreciate properly his advantages, the time to benefit himself is not yet come. He has land enough; but what is land without population and cultivation? Mr. Birkbeck declines the responsibility of advising people to emigrate; and Mr. Flower says, "Tell your countrymen to stay at home by all means, if they can keep their comforts."
The argument for and against speculation, so offensive and repelling to emigrants coming to the prairies, assumes the following shapes. First, It is necessary to keep out the Kentucky non-resident speculators, who are capricious and extravagant in their demands and profits, and remotely situated. Secondly, It is reasonable and just that speculators of capital, living on the spot, and who {299} have encountered the difficulties of first settlers, and smoothed the way for followers, should derive some remuneration from the latter, who now find themselves surrounded with neighbours, facilities, and conveniences of all kinds. Thirdly, That no reasonable man can come, expecting to have the land, under such circumstances, at the Old Congress price. Fourthly, That it is better worth four dollars an acre now, than it was worth two dollars, when they found it an inhospitable wild. Fifthly, That as they have bought large quantities in the mass, good and bad together, without knowing that they
