| Title: | Address to the people of Ireland regarding emigration to the U.S.A. |
|---|---|
| ID | 3923 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | 1821-30/13 |
| Year | 1821 |
| Sender | Note to potential Irish emigrants I |
| Sender Gender | unknown |
| Sender Occupation | unknown |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | USA |
| Destination | unknown |
| Recipient | unknown |
| Recipient Gender | unknown |
| Relationship | re emigration |
| Source | The Irishman, 6th July 1821 |
| Archive | The Linenhall Library, N. Ireland. |
| Doc. No. | 9407290 |
| Date | 06/07/1821 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | Document added by LT, 19:07:1994. |
| Word Count | 1473 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | TO THE INHABITANTS OF IRELAND WHO MAY BE DESIROUS OF EMIGRATING TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A number of the inhabitants of Western Pennsylvania, many of them formerly from different parts of Europe, having taken into consideration the embarrassments and difficulties to which emigrants are often exposed on their arrival here, for want of advice and assistance, have formed themselves into an association under the name of the "Western Pennsylvania Emigrant Society". The object of this Society is to give gratis to the new emigrants on their arrival here, all the assistance which it may be in the power of the Society to grant, in procuring employment for such emigrants, locating them to their best advantage, according to their different situations, trades or occupations; in directing them in a judicious choice of the lands they may wish to purchase; in procuring these for them on the most advantageous terms; and in rendering to such emigrants all such services in establishing themselves as they may stand in need of A committee of correspondence has been established by our society, with directions to make you acquainted with this portion of the United States, and the advantages it offers to new emigrants; and to point out to you a few errors into which emigrants, arriving from Europe, are apt to fall, on their arrival in this country. The United States of America offer advantages to emigrants which are not to be found in Europe or in any other quater of the globe. Enjoying a nearly total exemption from taxation, the whole of the revenue of its inhabitants ensures to their own use, and every emigrant who settles here can, by industry and economy, not only amply provide for the wants and comforts of his family, but render himself independent; provided he takes care in the first instant of making a proper choice of a place where to establish himself. It is a too common error in which emigrants fall, to settle in our large cities on the sea coast, or in a thick settled country in their vicinity. By doing so, they deprive themselves of one of the chief advantages which America offers to Europeans, and which arises from the vast excess of the lands to be cultivated over the number of cultivators. Our cities and the country adjacent posesses already a redundant population; hence the farmer, the labourer, or the artizan, who endeavours to establish himself there, has a powerful competition to encounter, and the new emigrant finds too often that the means, which his journey has left him, became exhausted before he can procure employment; while the high price to which property has risen there, leaves no prospect to such emigrant of ever becioming a proprietor, unless he can bring vast means with him; whereas, by moving on immediately to the western country, where an excess of lands and a less abundant population creates a demand for labour, he would find the certainty of obtaining employment, not only sufficient for the support of himself and his family, but such as in a few years, with the exertions of industry and economy, would render him the independent proprietor of property amply sufficient for his and their support. In the western country, not only the labours of the field, but those belonging to all the mechanical trades and occupations are in great demand. The emigrant, therefore, should, immediately on his arrival move on to the western country; but in doing so, he should avoid another error, in which too many others have fallen, by moving too far to the south and west, down the Ohio and Mississippi and their tributory streams. Not only that but the length of the journey tends to exhaust too much the means of many of the new emigrants, means which are essential to his welfare in procuring him cattle, implements, and the means of subsistence for his family while his improvements are but this southern portion of the United States is subject to other objections. It has but one market, and that a very distant one, viz. New Orleans, which being situated in a very hot and moist climate, is calculated to spoil any country produce which is stored there for any length of time, and neither the consumption, the trade, nor the capitals of that city are to be compared to those of the great commercial emporiums of the middle states. - Hence the country produce raised to the south west will always go to a bad market, and the cultivator will never be able to dispose of it to the same advantage as those whose export trade is to New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. But the last objection to a settlement in the south western parts of the United States is the most formidable. The climate of that country is inimical to men from more northern countries. These are subject here to agues, fevers, and bilious disorders, which, though they may not always, perhaps not often, prove immediately fatal, yet they serve to undermine the constitution, brings on premature old age, and at all events, as these siege on the emigrant during the first years of his residence, they deprive him and his family of the powers of excerting themselves in the very commencement of their new settlement, when all their excertions are most wanted to clear up their farms and provide for their support. Hence many are plunged into a state of want and poverty from which it takes them years to recover. The principal requistes which the emigrant should look to, in determining the place of his future residence, are - a healthy climate; good water; a large extent of fruitful land not too thickly settled, and a good market. Now, an experience of more than twenty years makes us assert with confidence, that no portion of the United States unites all these advantages in a higher degree, than the western parts of Pennsylvania. The counties of Crawford, Mercer, Erie, Venango and Warren, bounded on the north by Lake Erie and the State of New York, on the west by the State of Ohio, and having the beautiful Alleghany river on the east, contain a body of interrupted good land, equalled by few, and perhaps surpassed by no district of equal extent in the United States. Situated between the 41st and 42nd degree of north latitude, the climate is delightful and perfectly healthy. It requires no seasoning here to habituate the emigrants to the climate; and those agues, and fevers, and other bilious disorders to which settlers in the more southern, and even some of the more northern new settlements have always been subject, have been totally unknown here since the first settlement of ther country. This country is better watered than any other part of the United States that we are acquainted with. Besides the Alleghany, the French Creek, and the Shenango and their tributary streams, the springs and small rivulets are so numerous, that but few farms of one hundred acres can be found that are not provided with a spring or rivulet of the best and most wholesome water during the whole year. The European emigrant can cultivate here with success all the grains, fruits, and grasses to which he has been accustomed in his own country, while the climate is warm enough to bring here many products to perfection to which the climate of Ireland is not conjenial; such as the Indian corn, the peach in open field culture, the melons, pumkins, etc. all of which are raised here in the greatest abundance, and to the greatest advantage. As a grass country, calculated for the raising of cattle, this portion of Pennsylvania is perhaps unrivalled in the United States. Our local advantages are also great. By means of our communication with Lake Erie, we have an easy water communication with the vast extent of country on the upper lakes, and with the Montreal and New York markets, and our communication with this last city (the great emporium of American commerce) will be still further immensely facilitated, when the great Western Canal shall have been completed, which, from the progress already made in that stupendous work, is confidently expected to be about the yeasr 1824 or 1825. We shall then be enabled to carry the most bulky our country produce to an advantageous market at a cheap and safe rate. To the east we are connected with the cities of Philadelphia and Baltimore by turnpike roads, which are now constructing through this country, and which will probably be completed in the year 1821; and to the south we have an easy and cheap water communication with Pittsburgh or New Orleans, and the intermediate cities, by means of the French Creek, the Alleghany river, the Ohio, and Mississippi. (To be concluded in our next.) |
