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truth , but very partially , and not the hole truth , and on that account are not to be depended on . At the very time he was visiting us , a person from Kentucky assured us that we were better off than they were at Kentucky and Ohio . " - ^ Pp . 3 2-35 . ^ _ .
The moral portraits of the whole American people , drawn by travellers , are very inconsistent . We really fear that there are some dark shades in the character of our Transatlantic kinsmen- Boston , in New England , is likely from various causes to present of
the most favourable specimen American manners and morals ; but this northern metropolis of the union would seem to , prove that these young states have already attained the maturity of social depravity , if we may rely upon the following" statement in a recent number of the North American
Review , the first without dispute of the American Journals , published too in Boston itself : " In the town of Boston , which is as well-governed and as sharply
watched as any city in the Union , it is supposed there are two thousand men and women who live by profligacy , fraud and felony ; and that they obtain in one way or another , at least one dollar per day each , making in the whole the enormous sum of 730 , 000 dollars per
annum . " If such be the laxness of morals at Boston , we cannot expect any extraordinary purity in the back settlements where the restraints of law must be very lightly felt . Mr . Richard Flower exhibits the true Christian temper , in }> ein £ more disposed to combat the immoral habits of some of his neighbours than to deny or disguise them .
"The reports of the wickedness and irreligion of our settlement , with a view to prevent individuals from joining us , have been industriously spread far and near . That there is a diversity of character , in every part of the jrlobe , will not ; > c denied ; that this diversity exists here !* equally true ; and that a portion of J | s inhabitants is of an immoral cast , will
"t as readily admitted ; that we have » ot left human nature with its infirmities * w propensities behind us is equally a * ' ** ; and even if it should be admitted ¦ /'*<* l . lllllm nr . il .. _ J ^ . . »_ _* „ l ! n .. ^ . C d . 1-i . »» ' happil larger portioof the
. v "" y , a n dissip ated , the idle and the dissolute are 0 be met with in new countries than is usu all y to be found in old ones , yet we rVr k same antidote for these miscniers— the light shining in a dark place .
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We have public worship , and ample supplies of sermons from pious , practical preachers , from the Catholic to the Socinian Creed , which are read on the Sabbath . But , above all , we have the incorruptible seed of the tcord of God which liveth and abideth for even and it is with
pleasure I can assure my readers , that there is an increasing congregation , and , 1 trust , increasing religion amongst us . But if it was otherwise , surely this should be rather an argument for persons of
religious zeal to join us , who have emigration in view ; to come over to Macedonia and help us , rather than shrink from such a task . At least it is not apostolic or evangelic feeling that would draw a different conclusion .
" When I was at Philadelphia , a lady of the Society of Friends addressed me most emphatically on the subject : — * Wilt Ihou , friend Flower , take thy family to that infidel and wicked settlement in the Illinois ? Thou appearest to be a Christian ; how wilt thou answer
to thy God for endangering the precious souls of thy dear children ? ' c Madam , ' answered I , my destiny appears to be in the Illinois settlement : and rather than turn from thence on the account you have mentioned , you have furnished me
with a forcible argument to proceed . F trust I am , as you have supposed , a sincere Christian , and as it is my special duty to go where reformation is so necessary , I will endeavour to perform it , and hope for the blessing of the Most High . It is for us to use the means . We know who
it is to command success in our present state and future prospects . '"—Pp . 42—44 . In a note on this passage , Mr . B . Flower makes some just and important remarks upon the absurdity of infidelity and the improbability of its prevailing to any great extent , except where " Che alliance between Church
and State" supplies it with arguments and motives . He quotes in a sub-note Dr . Gaskin ' s description of the Church of England , extracted into one of our early Volumes , ( II . 102 , ) in which " the governors of this society" are said to " form a kind of aristocracy
respecting the cottimfenity at large , but each particular governor in his proper district is a sort of monarch , exercising his function both towards tlie inferior ministers and laity , according to the will of the s upreine head of the church , " and to this curious text adds the following no less curious commentary : " How any nian , with the New Testament before htm , could pessibly call such
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Review . —Flower ' s Letters from the Illin ois , 1820 , 1821 . 241
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y xvii . 2 i
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1822, page 241, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2511/page/49/
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