Migration from Vermont (1776–1860) by Lewis D. Stilwell (review)

442 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW research but for the revision of the articles which has resulted in so creditable a finishedproduct. A noteworth.y featureis the shortsketchof all the characters mentioned in the narrative. The footnotes are excellent and where there are variations of information in the sourcesthese have been noted. Mr. Harris givesinformationas to the Scottishancestryof CharlesInglis,who wasbornin Irelandin 1734,hisemigration toAmerica, hisworkasa t•cher, his ordination,hispastoraldutiesat Dover, Delaware,and Trinity, New York. The Rev. CharlesInglisis portrayedasan ablepamphleteer, asa strongsupporter of theproposed extension oftheepiscopacy to America, andasa clericinterested in the evangelization of the Mohawks.The difficulties attendantupontheextension of the episcopacy to Americaand the position of the Anglicanclergyduringthe AmericanRevolutionare outlinedclearly. The writer notesthe appointmentof Inglisas bishop,the first suchcasein an overseas colony,his visitations, his assistance toward churchbuildingand the foundingof educationalinstitutions, and hisrelationships with otherreligious bodies. The revieweris not qualifiedto criticizesomeof the detail. He doesfeel,however ,that a foot-noteonthe "New Lights",some furtherextractsfromthediary, andsome quotations fromthebishop's firstcharge wouldhaveaddedstrength to the work. Mr. Harris hassucceeded in giving a living picture of CharlesInglis,hasincludedsome excellent illustrations, andhasprovided anexcellent example for later books along similar lines. M.A. GARLAND Migration.from Vermont (1776-1860).By LEwisD. STILWELL.(Proceedings of the Vermont Historical Society, n.s. V, no. 2.) Montpelier, Vermont: VermontHistoricalSociety. 1937. Pp. [ii, 183]. (75c.) Wm• did somanyVermontersfindit wiseor necessary to leavetheir statein the periodbetween therevolution andthe Civil War? What sortof people became emigrants? Wheredid they go, and howand why? Thoseare someof the questions Professor Stilwellsetfor himself andanswered at greatpainsin a book that is interesting and highlyinformative. More than half the sonsand daughters of the Greenmountainshadleft their homesbeforethe Civil War began. The underlyingcauses of this great exodus were: the inauguration of sheep-raising onan unprecedented scale;the financial panic of1837; thediscouraging growth ofmanufacturers; theinherent Vermontian urgeto upliftandsavetheworld. Thestatewas"throbbing withprotests and programmes andpropaganda", andevangels wentout with theirgladtidings, Brigham Youngto Utah andNoyesto Oneida. Froma deluge of "protracted meetings" Vermont missionaries andministers carried thegood wordto thefar comersof the country,to savethe unionfrom "infidelity,licentiousness and Popery". The laity emigrated, too,withbanners of thecross, andfoundtheir temporal circumstances bettered. It wasthelegislature ofVermont thatenacted in 1836"that all circusriding,theatricalexhibitions, jugglingor slight-of-hand, ventriloquism, andmagic acts,shallbeandaredeclared to becommon andpublic nuisances", andtherewasa fineof $200for those whoventuredto thecontrary. Indeed,thestatehadan inordinate capacity forzealotexcitement andmillennial furor. Epidemics ofrevivals, theMormons, thePerfectionists, theangry hostility against theFreemasons, against theCanadian government in 1837,against the liquorinterests, against theslave-holders, werepartofthesame hectic crusading spirit. Outofeverysoul-stirring boiled a spurt ofemigration. REVIEWS OF BOOKS 443 When camethe stifledcry of liberty in a foreignland, Vermontheard. In 1837a dozenmassmeetings passed resolutions condemning not onlythe Canadian government for opposing the patriots,but alsothe UnitedStatesgovernment for maintainingneutrality. The bordertownsbecame military campswhereaid and succour weregivenwithoutstint to Canadianrefugees, andarmedforces werefitted out for a whole series of raids over the border. Not until 1839 did the frontier burnings and riotingscease and the embattledVermontsympathizers admit that they werebackinga lost cause. The great migrationwas, of course,to the west--steamboatto Whitehall on Lake Champlain, packet-boat to Troy on theChamplain canal,anotherpacketboat to Buffaloon the Erie canal,a steamerup the great lakesto Clevelandor Detroit, or GreenBay or Chicago. That wasthe favouriteway--andonly four weeksfrom Whitehall to Chicago. It was also the cheapway, the canal rate half a cent a mile. Deck passage,Buffalo to Detroit, cost $3.00. In winter familiesundertookto make the long, slow trudge entirely by wagon. Some, indeed, went on horseback,and someon foot at least as far as Ohio. Before1830the movement hadmountedto the tensof thousands.By 1820 genuine pioneers fromVermontweretrailingthe emptyprairielandsof northern Illinoisandthehinterlandof Detroit. Conspicuous in thedrift werepedlars and printers,new-fledged attorneysand physicians, but outnumbering them all were common farmerssearching for cheapland. Bankruptsjoinedthe procession for the rigoursof the debt lawsdrove them out. After 1830 the freshetbecamea flood,andin 1836forthefirsttimeemigrationbecame a publicquestion in thestate. Forty yearslater it wassaidthat every man of prominence in the Republican state organizationof Wisconsinwasa Vermonter. By 1840the ebbhadbecome a flowtidewith the firstappearance of Irishmen and FrenchCanadiansin the industrialtowns. By 1850 the namesof 14,000 Canadians appearin the census, but the samecensus showsthat nearly 100,000 Vermontershad madedomicilein otherstates,to say nothingof thosewho had goneto LowerCanada. TheseVermontmencarriedtheir place-names with themto the newwestand, on a later trek, numbersof thesenameswere carried to new...