Gazette Of The United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser

Domestic Articles.
[The following excellent remarks on the
prevailing rage for migration, are by no
means confined in their application to the
case before us.]
AUGUSTA, April 4
JUDGE WALTON's CHARGE
TO THE
GRAND JURY OF WASHINGTON.
Gentlemen of the Grand Jury,
In visiting a county in the courts of
which I have been accustomed to preside, I
feel myself involuntarily reminded of the
character which has given to it a name. A
name rendered still more dear by a recent in-
stance. In the critical and alarming situa-
tion in which we have been placed by the ag-
gression, the violence and injustice of a na-
tion to which we had been allied, it was
found necessary, on the part of the general
government, to resort to the most vigorous
measures of defence. Among others, to
raise armies ; and the great Washington---
the name a host--has been appointed to,
and has accepted the command.
Near half a century ago, having saved the
remnant of the British army at Braddock's
defeat, a preacher of the Gospel, exclaimed
from the pulpit in Virginia—“ Who knows
but this young man has been spared and de-
signed by Providence to be one day the sa-
viour of his country !" This was the language
of inspiration, and of prophecy: so proved
by the progress of time, and of events.
We all know that he was afterwards, by the
voice of three millions of people, called to
the command of an army of his countrymen;
and conducted it, through a great and peri-
lous revolution, in the midst of difficulties
and danger, to complete and final success,
without injury or wound. But in my mind,
his now consenting again to take the field,
upon the present occasion, at the patriarchal
age of near three score years and ten, is the
most illustrious action of his life.
Gentlemen of the Grand Jury,
Having something to say to you as fellow
citizens, I will confine myself to officially
laying before you the charges which I have
already delivered on this circuit ; and request
that you will consider them as equally addres-
sed to yourselves. They contain my sense
of an innovation upon the judiciary ; the
particular duties of grand juries; and the
general objects of courts; to restore which
to their primitive purity, is my sincere de-
sire.
And now, Gentlemen, a word to you as
friends: on that spirit of remove, and for
new countries, which seems to have taken
such hold on the minds of my countrymen.
For many years past has that spirit agita-
ted men to that degree, as to induce them
to leave comfortable homes and establish-
ments, in this state, and to remove, at great
expense, trouble, and inconvenience to their
families, to the states of Kentucky, Ten-
nessee and the Cumberland settlement, each
of them very inconveniently situated for
trade : but the most aged and judicious of
these have returned. I admit that the up-
per part of Tennessee, below the warm
Springs, that is between the Cumberland
mountains, and the main continental base
of them, dividing that state from North-Ca-
rolina, to be a fine, healthy country : per-
haps, it is the Italy of America: but all the
valuable land is monopolized, and not to be
obtained. This is very much the case in
Kentucky; and experience has shewn, that
it is not as healthy there as here. With
respect to the lower part of Tennessee, or
the Cumberland settlement, the lands are
rich, and may yet be obtained at a moderate
price: but the country is extremely sickly;
and great numbers have already left it on
that account. The township, called Smith-
land, near the mouth of Cumberland river,
which Cox attempted to erect and settle,
presented, last fall, the most miserable
spectacle of distress and sorrow. This I
learned, when over the mountains last year,
from general report, several letters which I
saw, and from the examination of a man
who was an eye witness to the scene. -That
of one hundred and forty persons, ' old and
young, and of either sex, there were not a
sufficient number well enough to attend the
dead, the dying, and the sick.
And yet, surprising as the thing is, this
spirit of emigration, has lately, in this
country, received fresh vigor. This has
been the effect of the establishment of a
government, called the Mississippi Territory,
east of the river of that name, and north
of the Spanish boundary, by the govera-
ment of the United States. I also admit,
that this is the Nile and the Egypt of the
new world; there the warmth of the climate,
the natural richness of the soil, and the
most depositions f the floods, create, it is
true, a wonderful fertility: but which af-
ford, at the same time, the means of a
noxious exhalation ; poisoning the atmo.
sphere; exciting fever, and producing de-
bility, in the human system; and thus de.
stroving by slow, but sure degrees, the vital
principle. I do not, therefore, hesitate to
hazard the conjecture, that the first emigra-
tions to that country will be sickly, and
short lived, and will decrease of their num-
bers. And although it will be supplied by
fresh emigrations, such will continue to be
the state of existence, and of population,
for two or three ages to come; and until
a generation shall grow up there, and be
constituted, as it were, by the climate and
the soil, and by the habits of several gene-
raions. In these opinions I feel myself
founded, by the history of the resembling
region of the old world : but facts have al-
ready arisen to justify them in that of the
new.
During my long mission to the Cherokees
last year, I had the best means of informa-
tion. I there learned, that great numbers
of the new emigrants, at the Natchez, had
sickened: that some had died ; and that there
was, considerable mortality in the army sent
to defend the territory.
I have been thus particular, from the
great regard I have for the people of this
state ; and from the fullest conviction that
they are better where they are. We have
a finer climate, purer water, and more health.
Our soil, from sufficient experience, has
been found equal to an ample reward to the
industrious husbandman. Our markets are
convenient, and the navigation good ; and,
that commerce flourishes is seen by the
plenty of money and the high prices of our
produce. To abandon such a state of things,
for a country of wooded wilderness, covered
with the unhealthiest skies, is the madness of
folly, and the domestic mischief of a restless
spirit.
Let my fellow citizens, therefore, be con-
tent in their own state. I beg pardon,
however, for going so far. They are free
to act for themselves ; and I will only add,
that, what I have said, is the result of di-
ligent enquiry, and of the maturer reflec-
tion : having for its basis, the best inten-
tion, to prevent distress.
Washington county, March 28, 1799.