Montreal, Canada East.August 13th, 1851.
It is impossible to give our friends, by narration, an idea of what we
feel, when we cross for the first time the immense prairies of Illinois. It
is a spectacle which must be seen to be well understood.
As you advance in the midst of these boundless deserts, where your
eyes perceive nothing but lands of inexhaustible richness, remaining in the
most desolating solitude, you feel something which you cannot express by
any words.
Is your soul filled with joy, or your heart broken with sadness? You
cannot say. You lift up your eyes to heaven, and the voice of your soul is
chanting a hymn of gratitude. Tears of joy are trickling down your cheeks,
and you bless God, whose curse seems not to have fallen on the land where
you stand: "Cursed is the earth in thy work; thorns and thistles shall it
bring forth to thee."
You see around you the most luxuriant verdure; flowers of every kind,
and magnificence above description.
But, if in the silence of meditation, you look with new attention on
those prairies, so rich, so magnificent, you feel an inexpressible sentiment
of sadness, and addressing yourself to the blessed land, you say: "Why
art thou so solitary? Why is the wild game alone here to glorify my God?"
And if you continue to advance through those immense prairies, which,
like a boundless ocean, are spreading their rolling waves before you, and
seem to long after the presence of man, to cover themselves with incalculable
treasures, you remember your friends in Canada, and more particularly
those among them who, crushed down by misery, are watering with the
sweat of their brow a sterile and desolated soil, you say:
"Ah! if such and such of my friends were here, how soon they would
see their hard and ungrateful labors changed into the most smiling and happy
position."
Perhaps I will be accused here, of trying to depopulate my country, and
drive my countrymen from Canada to the United States.
No! no. I never had so perverse a design. Here is my mind about
the subject of emigration, and I see no reason to be ashamed of it, or to
conceal it.
It is a fact that a great number (and much greater than generally believed)
of French Canadians are yearly emigrating from Canada, and nobody
regrets it more than I do; but as long as those who govern Canada
will not pay more attention to that evil, it will be an incurable one, and
every year Canada will lose thousands and thousands of its strongest arms
and noblest hearts, to benefit our happy neighbors.
With many others, I had the hope that the eloquent voice of the poor
settlers of our eastern townships would be heard, and that the government
would help them; but that hope has gone like a dream, and we have now
every reason to fear that our unfortunate settlers of the east will be left to
themselves.
The greatest part of them, for the want of roads to the markets of
Quebec and Montreal, and still more by the tyranny of their cruel landlords,
will soon be obliged to bid an eternal adieu to their country, and with an
enraged heart against their haughty oppressors, they will seek in the exile
to a strange land the protection they could not find in their own country.
Yes! If our Canadian government continues a little longer to show the
same incomprehensible and stupid apathy for the welfare of its own subjects,
emigration will increase every year from Canada to swell the ranks of the
American people.
Since we cannot stop that emigration, is it not our first duty to direct it
in such a way that it will be to the poor emigrants as little injury as possible?
Let us do everything to hinder them from going to the large cities of
the United States.
Drowned in the mixed population of American cities, our unfortunate
emigrating countrymen would be too much exposed to losing their morality
and their faith.
Surely there is not another country under the heavens where space,
bread, and liberty are so universally assured to every member of the community,
as the United States. But it is not in the great cities of the United
States that our poor countrymen will soonest find these three gifts. The
French Canadian who will stop in the large cities, will not, with a very few
exceptions, raise himself above the unenviable position of a poor journeyman.
But those among them who will direct their steps towards the rich and
extensive prairies of Bourbonnais, will certainly find a better lot.
Many in Canada would believe that I am exaggerating, were I to publish
how happy, prosperous and respectable is the French Canadian population
of Bourbonnais.
The French Canadians of Bourbonnais have had the intelligence to
follow the good example of the industrious American farmers in the manner
of cultivating the lands.
On their farms as well as those of their neighbors, you will find the
best machinery to cut their crops, to thresh their grain.
They enjoy the just reputation of having the best horses in the country,
and very few can beat them for the number and quality of their cattle.
Now, what can be the prospects of a young man in Canada, if he has
not more than $200? A whole life of hard labor and continued privation
is his too certain lot. But, let that young man go directly to Bourbonnais,
and if he is industrious, sober and religious, before a couple of years he will
see nothing to envy in the most happy farmer in Canada.
As the land he will take in Illinois, is entirely prepared for the plow,
he has no trees to cut or eradicate, no stones to move, no ditch to dig, his
only work is to fence and break his land and sow it, and the very first year
the value of the crop will be sufficient to pay for his farm.
Holy Providence has prepared everything for the benefit of the happy
farmers of Illinois.
That fertile country is well watered by a multitude of rivers and large
creeks, whose borders are generally covered with the most rich and extensive
groves of timber of the best quality, as black oak, maple, white oak,
burr oak, etc.
The seeds of the beautiful acacia (locust), after five or six years, will
give you a splendid tree.
The greatest variety of fruits are growing naturally in almost every part
of Illinois; coal mines have been discovered in the very heart of the country,
more than snfficient for the wants of the people. Before long, a railroad
from Chicago to Bourbonnais will bring our happy countrymen to the most
extensive market, the Queen city of the west—Chicago.
I will then say to my young countrymen who intend emigrating from
Canada: "My friend, exile is one of the greatest calamities that can befall
a mau.
"Young Canadian, remain in thy country, keep thy heart to love it,
thy intelligence to adorn it, and thine arms to protect it.
"Young and dear countrymen, remain in thy beautiful country; there
is nothing more grand and sublime in the world then the waters of the
St. Lawrence. It is on those deep and majestic waters that, before long,
Europe and America will meet and bind themselves to each other by the
blessed bonds of an eternal peace; it is on its shores that they will exchange
their incalculable treasures. Remain in the country of thy birth, my dear
son. Let the sweat of thy brow continue to fertilize it, and let the perfume
of thy virtues bring the blessing of God upon it.
"But, my dear son, if thou hast no more room in the valley of the
St. Lawrence, and if, by the want of protection from the Government, thou
canst not go to the forest without running the danger of losing thy life in
a pond, or being crushed under the feet of an English or Scotch tyrant, I
am not the man to invite thee to exhaust thy best days for the benefit of the
insolent strangers, who are the lords of the eastern lands. I will sooner tell
the, `go my child,' there are many extensive places still vacant on the
earth, and God is everywhere. That Great God calleth thee to another
land, submit thyself to His Divine Will.
"But, before you bid a final adieu to thy country, engrave on thy heart
and keep as a holy deposit, the love of thy holy religion, of thy beautiful
language and of the dear and unfortunate country of thy birth.
"On thy way to the land of exile, stop as little as possible in the great
cities, for fear of the many snares thy eternal enemy has prepared for thy
perdition.
"But go straight to Bourbonnais. There you will find many of thy
brothers, who have erected the cross of Christ; join thyself to them, thou
shalt be strong of their strength; go and help them to conquer to the Gospel
of Jesus those rich countries, which shall, very soon, weigh more than is
generally believed, in the balance of the nations.
"Yes, go straight to Illinois. Thou shalt be not entirely in a strange
and alien country. Holy Providence has chosen thy fathers to find that
rich country, and to reveal to the world its admirable resources.
"More than once, that land of Illinois has been sanctified by the blood
of thy ancestors.
"In Illinois, thou shalt not make a step without finding indestructible
proof of the perseverance, genius, bravery and piety of thy French forefathers.
"Go to Illinois, and the many names of Bourbonnais, Joliet, Dubuque,
La Salle, St. Charles, St. Mary, etc., that you will meet everywhere, will
tell you more than my words, that that country is nothing but the rich
inheritance which your fathers have found for the benefit of their grandchildren."
