University of Virginia Library

28. XXVIII.

Until within a very short period, the society of
Natchez has exhibited one peculiar characteristic,
in the estimation of a northerner, in whose migrating
land “seven women,” literally fulfilling the prediction,
“take hold of one man;” a prediction which
has, moreover, been fulfilled, according to the redoubtable
and most classical Crockett, in the west;
but by no means in this place, or in any of the embryo
cities, which are springing up like Jonah's
gourd, along the banks of the great “father of waters.”
The predominance of male population in the
countless villages that are dotting the great western
valley, rising up amidst the forests, one after another,
as stars come out at evening, and almost in as
rapid succession, is a necesary consequence of the
natural laws of migration. In the old Atlantic and
New-England states, the sons, as they successively
grow up to manhood, take the paternal blessing and
their little patrimony, often all easily packed and
carried in a knapsack, but oftener in their heads,

and bend their way to the “great west,” to seek
their fortunes, with them no nursery tale, but a
stern and hardly earned reality:—there to struggle
—prosper or fail—with blighted hopes go down to
early graves, or, building a fire-side of their own,
gather around it sons, who, in their declining years,
shall, in their turn, go forth from the paternal roof
to seek beyond the mountains of the Pacific shore
a name, a fire-side, and a home of their own. And
such is human life!

To this migratory propensity is to be attributed
the recent peculiar state of society in this city, and
throughout the whole western country. The sons
are the founders of these infant emporiums, but the
daughters stay at home in a state of single blessedness—blessings
(?) to the maternal roof, till some
bold aspirants for the yoke of hymen return, after
spying out the land, take them under their migratory
wings and bear them to their new home. But
unluckily for six out of every seven of the fair
daughters of the east, the pioneers of the west feel
disposed to pass their lives in all the solitary dignity
of the bachelor state. Wrapped up in their speculations,
their segars and their “clubs,” not even a
second Sabine device could move them to bend their
reluctant necks to the noose. Those, however,
who do take to themselves “helpmeets,” are more
gallant and chivalrous than their Roman predecessors
in their mode of obtaining them, not demurring
to travel, like Cœlebs, many hundred leagues to the
land of steady habits, to secure the possession of
some one of its lovely flowers. The concentrating

of a great number of young gentlemen for a permanent
residence in one spot, without a suitable proportion
of the gentler sex to enliven and relieve the
rougher shades of such an assemblage, must produce
a state of society, varying essentially from that
in communities where the division is more equal.
Hotels, or offices of professional business must be
their residences—their leisure hours must be spent
in lounging at each other's rooms like college students,
(to whose mode of life their's is not dissimilar,)
or in the public rooms of the hotels, cafés, or gambling
houses. Habits difficult to eradicate are contracted,
of dark and fatal consequences to many;
and a rude, cavalier bearing is thereby imperceptibly
acquired, more congenial with the wild, free spirit
of the middle ages, than the refinement of modern
times. The bold and rugged outlines natural to the
sterner character of man, can only be softened by
that refining influence which the cultivated female
mind irresistibly exerts upon society. Wherever
woman—
has exercised this gentle sway, the ruder attributes
of man have been subdued and blended with the
soft and lovely virtues so eminently her own. Second
to Christianity, of which it is a striking effect,
the exalted rank to which man has elevated woman,
from that degrading and tyrannical subjugation to
which she has in Pagan nations, in all ages, from the
pride and ignorance of her soi disant “lords,” been
subjected, has contributed more to the mental and
personal refinement, dignity and moral excellence of
men, than any other agency that has operated with a
moral tendency directly upon the human mind. To
the absence of this purifying influence, is to be attributed
in a very great degree, that loose, immoral,
and reckless state of society, peculiar to all border
settlements and new towns, originating generally
from communities of men. In such places that
mysterious, yet indisputable power, exercised by the
other sex upon society, is unknown; and men,
throwing the reins upon the necks of their passions,
plunge into vice and dissipation, unchecked and unrestrained.
In such a state the duello had its origin—
that blessed relic of that blessed age, when our thick-skulled
ancestors broke each other's heads with mace
and battle axe, for “faire ladye's love,” or mere pleasant
pastime—and a similar state of things will always
preserve and encourage it. Hence the prevalence
of this practice in the newly settled south and
west, where the healthful restraint of female society
has been till within a few years unknown. But as
communities gain refinement through its influence,
this mode of “healing honour's wounds,” so unwise,
unsatisfactory and sinful, gradually becomes
less and less popular—till finally it is but a “theme
of the past.” To this state of disuse and oblivion
it is rapidly advancing in this portion of the south-west,
which, according to the theory before advanced,
is an indication of the growing refinement,
and moral and intellectual improvement of the community.
Natchez has been, you are well aware,
celebrated for the frequency and sanguinary character
of its single combats; and this reputation it has
once justly merited. Till within a few years, duels
were alarmingly frequent. But more recently
public opinion has changed, and the practice is now
almost abandoned. The society has emerged from
its peculiar bachelor cast, to that social and refined
character, which constitutes the charm of well organized
and cultivated communities. But a short
time since, there were not three married men to
ten unmarried. The latter predominating, gave the
tone to society, which was, as I have before observed,
that of a university, so far as habits and
manners were concerned. And the resemblance
was still greater, as a large majority of the young
men were graduates of northern seminaries, or well
informed young merchants. The social or domestic
circle, so dear to every New-Englander, in which
he delights to mingle wherever he reposes after his
wanderings, was neglected or unvalued; and the
young ladies, of whom there was found here and
there one, (for their appearance in this desert of men
was with the unfrequency of “Angel's visits,”) were
compelled to pine neglected, and

Such was the state of society here formerly, varied
only, at long intervals, by a public ball at some
one of the hotels, got up to kill ennui, a plant which,
in such a soil, flourishes vigorously. But now “a
change has come o'er the spirit of the town.” A refined,
intellectual, and highly educated class of females,
both exotic and natural plants, enrich and
diversify the moral features of the former lonely

and monotonous scene: and as the vine entwining
around the oak relieves with lines of grace and
beauty its harsh, rugged outlines, so woman here,
as every where, has assumed her brilliant sceptre,
waved it over the heterogeneous mass, and “bidden
it to live.”

The society of Natchez, now, is not surpassed by
any in America. Originally, and therein differing
from most western cities, composed of intelligent
and well-educated young men, assembled from every
Atlantic state, but principally from New-England
and Virginia, it has advanced in a degree proportionate
to its native powers. English and Irish
gentlemen of family and fortune have here sought
and found a home—while the gentilhomme of sunny
France, and the dark-browed don of “old Castile,”
dwell upon the green hills that recede gently
undulating from the city; or find, in their vallies,
a stranger's unmarbled and unhonoured grave.

The citizens of Natchez are, however, so inseparably
connected with the neighbouring planters,
that these last are necessarily included in the general
term “society of Natchez.” The two bodies
united may successfully challenge any other community
to produce a more intelligent, wealthy, and,
I may say, aristocratic whole. But I do not much
like the term applied to Americans; though no
other word will express so clearly that refinement
and elegance to which I allude, and which everywhere
indicate the opulence and high breeding of
their possessors. This is not so manifest, however,
in the external appearance of their dwellings, as it

is in their mode or style of living. To this their
houses, especially the residences of those who have
made their wealth, and who yet occupy the same
cabins, but little improved, which they originally
erected, present a sad contrast. Many of the wealthiest
planters are lodged wretchedly; a splendid
sideboard not unfrequently concealing a white-washed
beam—a gorgeous Brussels carpet laid over
a rough-planked floor—while uncouth rafters, in
ludicrous contrast to the splendour they look down
upon, stretch in coarse relief across the ceiling.—
These discrepancies, however, always characteristic
of a new country, are rapidly disappearing; and
another generation will be lodged, if not like princes,
at least, like independent American gentlemen.
—Many of these combinations of the old and new
systems still exist, however, of a highly grotesque
nature; some of the most characteristic of which I
may mention more particularly hereafter.