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Файл:The Redskins; or, Indian and Injin
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THE REDSKINS; OR, INDIAN AND INJIN
“Why, you’re in a hurry, friend Griezenbach, or whatever
your name be. But I’ll explain, if you wish it. S’pose, now, a lease
run thirty years – ten on nothin’, and twenty on sixpences.
Well, a hundred sixpences makes fifty shillings, and twenty
times fifty makes a thousand, as all the rent paid in thirty years.
If you divide a thousand by thirty, it leaves thirty-three shillings and a fraction” – Joshua calculated like an American of
his class, accurately and with rapidity – “for the average rent of
the thirty years. Calling thirty-three shillings four dollars, and
it’s plaguey little more, we have that for the interest, which, at
seven per cent., will make a principal of rather more than fifty
dollars, though not as much as sixty. As sich matters ought to
be done on liberal principles, they say Littlepage ought to take
fifty dollars, and give a deed for the hundred acres.”
“Und vhat might be der rent of a hoondred acres now: – he
might get more dan sixpence to-day?”
“That he does. Most all of the farms are running out on
second, and some on third leases. Four shilling an acre is about
the average of the rents, accordin’ to circumstances.”
“Den you dinks der landlort ought to accept one year’s rent
for der farms?”
“I don’t look on it in that light. He ought to take fifty dollars for a hundred acres. You forget the tenants have paid for
their farms, over and over again, in rent. They feel as if they
have paid enough, and that it was time to stop.”
Extraordinary as this reasoning may seem in most men’s
minds, I have since found it is a very favorite sentiment among
anti-renters. “Are we to go on, and pay rent forever?” they ask,
with logical and virtuous indignation!
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
“Und vhat may be der aferage value of a hoondred acre
farm, in dis part of de coontry?” I inquired.
“From two thousand five hundred to three thousand dollars. It would be more, but tenants won’t put good buildings
on farms, you know, seein’ that they don’t own them. I heard
one of our leaders lamentin’ that he didn’t foresee what times
were comin’ to, when he repaired his old house, or he would
have built a new one. But a man can’t foretell everything. I
dare say many has the same feelin’s, now.”
“Den you dinks Herr Littlebage ought to accept $50 for
vhat is worth $2,500? Das seems fery little.”
“You forget the back rent that has been paid, and the work
the tenant has done. What would the farm be good for without
the work that has been done on it?”
“Ja, ja – I oonderstandst; und vhat vould der work be goot
for vidout der landt on which it vast done?”
This was rather an incautious question to put to a man as
distrustful and roguish as Joshua Brigham. The fellow cast a
lowering and distrustful look at me; but ere there was time to
answer, Miller, of whom he stood in healthful awe, called him
away to look after the cows.
Here, then, I had enjoyed an opportunity of hearing the
opinions of one of my own hirelings on the interesting subject
of my right to my own estate. I have since ascertained that,
while these sentiments are sedulously kept out of view in the
proceedings of the government, which deals with the whole
matter as if the tenants were nothing but martyrs to hard bargains, and the landlords their taskmasters, of greater or less
lenity, they are extensively circulated in the “infected districts,”
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THE REDSKINS; OR, INDIAN AND INJIN
and are held to be very sound doctrines by a large number of
the “bone and sinew of the land.” Of course the reasoning is
varied a little, to suit circumstances, and to make it meet the
facts. But of this school is a great deal, and a very great deal,
of the reasoning that circulates on the leased property; and,
from what I have seen and heard already, I make no doubt that
there are quasi legislators among us, who, instead of holding
the manly and only safe doctrine which ought to be held on
such a subject, and saying that these deluded men should be
taught better, are ready to cite the very fact that such notions
do exist as a reason for the necessity of making concessions,
in order to keep the peace at the cheaper rate. That profound
principle of legislation, which concedes the right in order to
maintain quiet, is admirably adapted to forming sinners; and,
if carried out in favor of all who may happen to covet their
neighbors’ goods, would, in a short time, render this community the very paradise of knaves.
As for Joshua Brigham, I saw no more of him that night; for
he quitted the farm on leave, just as it got to be dark. Where he
went I do not know; but the errand on which he left us could
no longer be a secret to me. As the family retired early, and we
ourselves were a good deal fatigued, everybody was in bed by
nine o’clock, and, judging from myself, soon asleep. Previously
to saying “good-night,” however, Miller told us of the meeting
of the next day, and of his intention to attend it.
283
CHAPTER XIII
“He knows the game; how true he
keeps the wind! Silence.”
– King Henry VI.
After an early breakfast, next morning, the signs of preparation for a start became very apparent in the family. Not only
Miller, but his wife and daughter, intended to go down to “Little
Neest,” as the hamlet was almost invariably called in that fragment of the universe, in contradistinction to the “Neest” proper.
I found afterward that this very circumstance was cited against
me in the controversy, it being thought lèse-majesté for a private
residence to monopolize the major of the proposition, while a
hamlet had to put up with the minor; the latter, moreover, including two taverns, which are exclusively the property of the
public, there being exclusiveness with the public as well as with
aristocrats – more especially in all things that pertain to power
or profit. As to the two last, even Joshua Brigham was much more
of an aristocrat than I was myself. It must be admitted that the
Americans are a humane population, for they are the only people who deem that bankruptcy gives a claim to public favor.1
1
Absurd as this may seem, it is nevertheless true, and for a reason
that is creditable, rather than the reverse – a wish to help along the unfortunate. It is a great mistake, however, as a rule, to admit of any other
motive for selecting for public trusts, than qualification. – Editor.
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THE REDSKINS; OR, INDIAN AND INJIN
As respects the two “Nests,” had not so much more serious
matter been in agitation, the precedence of the names might
actually have been taken up as a question of moment. I have
heard of a lawsuit in France, touching a name that has been
illustrious in that country for a period so long as to extend beyond the reach of man – as, indeed, was apparent by the matter in controversy – and which name has obtained for itself
a high place in the annals of even our own republic. I allude
to the house of Grasse, which was seated, prior to the revolution, and may be still, at a place called Grasse, in the southern
part of the kingdom, the town being almost as famous for the
manufacture of pleasant things as the family for its exploits
in arms. About a century since, the Marquis de Grasse is said
to have had a procès with his neighbors of the place, to establish the fact whether the family gave its name to the town, or
the town gave its name to the family. The marquis prevailed
in the struggle, but greatly impaired his fortune in achieving
that new victory. As my house, or its predecessor, was certainly
erected and named while the site of Little Nest was still in
the virgin forest, one would think its claims to the priority of
possession beyond dispute; but such might not prove to be the
case on a trial. There are two histories among us, as relates to
both public and private things; the one being as nearly true
as is usual, while the other is invariably the fruits of the human imagination. Everything depending so much on majorities, that soon gets to be the most authentic tradition which
has the most believers; for, under the system of numbers, little
regard is paid to superior advantages, knowledge, or investigation, all depending on three as against two, which makes one
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
majority. I find a great deal of this spurious history is getting
to be mixed up with the anti-rent controversy, facts coming
out daily that long have lain dormant in the graves of the past.
These facts affect the whole structure of the historical picture
of the State and colony, leaving touches of black where the
pencil had originally put in white, and placing the high lights
where the shadows have before always been understood to be.
In a word, men are telling the stories as best agrees with their
present views, and not at all as they agree with the fact.
It was the intention of Tom Miller to give my uncle Ro and
me a dearborn to ourselves, while he drove his wife, Kitty and
a help, as far as the “Little Neest,” in a two-horse vehicle that
was better adapted to such a freight. Thus disposed of, then,
we all left the place in company, just as the clock in the farmhouse entry struck nine. I drove our horse myself; and mine he
was, in fact, every hoof, vehicle and farming utensil on the Nest
farm, being as much my property, under the old laws, as the
hat on my head. It is true, the Millers had now been fifty years
or more, nay, nearly sixty, in possession, and by the new mode
of construction it is possible some may fancy that we had paid
them wages so long for working the land, and for using the
cattle and utensils, that the title, in a moral sense, had passed
out of me, in order to pass into Tom Miller. If use begets a
right, why not to a wagon and horse, as well as to a farm.
As we left the place I gazed wistfully toward the Nest
House, in the hope of seeing the form of some one that I loved,
at a window, on the lawn, or in the piazza. Not a soul appeared,
however, and we trotted down the road a short distance in the
rear of the other wagon, conversing on such things as came
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THE REDSKINS; OR, INDIAN AND INJIN
uppermost in our minds. The distance we had to go was about
four miles, and the hour named for the commencement of the
lecture, which was to be the great affair of the day, had been
named at eleven. This caused us to be in no hurry, and I rather
preferred to coincide with the animal I drove, and move very
slowly, than hurry on, and arrive an hour or two sooner than
was required. In consequence of this feeling on our part, Miller and his family were soon out of sight, it being their wish to
obtain as much of the marvels of the day as was possible.
The road, of course, was perfectly well known to my uncle
and myself; but, had it not been, there was no danger of missing
our way, as we had only to follow the general direction of the
broad valley through which it ran. Then Miller had considerately told us that we must pass two churches, or a church and
a “meetin’-’us’,” the spires of both of which were visible most
of the way, answering for beacons. Referring to this term of
“meeting-house,” does it not furnish conclusive evidence, of itself, of the inconsistent folly of that wisest of all earthly beings,
man? It was adopted in contradistinction from, and in direct
opposition to, the supposed idolatrous association connected
with the use of the word “church,” at a time when certain sects
would feel offended at hearing their places of worship thus
styled; whereas, at the present day, those very sectarians are
a little disposed to resent this exclusive appropriation of the
proscribed word by the sects who have always adhered to it as
offensively presuming, and, in a slight degree, “arisdogradic!” I
am a little afraid that your out-and-outers in politics, religion,
love of liberty, and other human excellences, are somewhat
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
apt to make these circuits in their eccentric orbits, and to come
out somewhere quite near the places from which they started.
The road between the Nest House and Little Nest, the
hamlet, is rural, and quite as agreeable as is usually found in
a part of the country that is without water-views or mountain scenery. Our New York landscapes are rarely, nay, never
grand, as compared with the noble views one finds in Italy,
Switzerland, Spain, and the finer parts of Europe; but we have
a vast many that want nothing but a finish to their artificial accessories to render them singularly agreeable. Such is the case
with the principal vale of Ravensnest, which, at the very moment we were driving through it, struck my uncle and myself
as presenting a picture of rural abundance, mingled with rural
comfort, that one seldom sees in the old world, where the absence of enclosures, and the concentration of the dwellings in
villages, leave the fields naked and with a desolate appearance,
in spite of their high tillage and crops.
“This is an estate worth contending for, now,” said my
uncle, as we trotted slowly on, “although it has not hitherto
been very productive to its owner. The first half-century of an
American property of this sort rarely brings much to its proprietor beyond trouble and vexation.”
“And after that time the tenant is to have it, pretty much at
his own price, as a reward for his own labor!”
“What evidences are to be found, wherever the eye rests,
of the selfishness of man, and his unfitness to be left to the
unlimited control of his own affairs! In England they are quarrelling with the landlords, who do compose a real aristocracy,
and make the laws, about the manner in which they protect
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THE REDSKINS; OR, INDIAN AND INJIN
themselves and the products of their estates; while here the
true owner of the soil is struggling against the power of numbers, with the people, who are the only aristocrats we possess,
in order to maintain his right of property in the simplest and
most naked form! A common vice is at the bottom of both
wrongs, and that is the vice of selfishness.”
“But how are abuses like those of which we complain
here – abuses of the most formidable character of any that
can exist, since the oppressors are so many, and so totally irresponsible by their numbers – to be avoided, if you give the
people the right of self-government?”
“God help the nation where self-government, in its literal
sense, exists, Hugh! The term is conventional, and, properly
viewed, means a government in which the source of authority
is the body of the nation, and does not come from any other
sovereign. When a people that has been properly educated by
experience calmly selects its agents, and coolly sets to work to
adopt a set of principles to form its fundamental law or constitution, the machine is on the right track, and will work well
enough so long as it is kept there; but this running off, and
altering the fundamental principles every time a political faction has need of recruits, is introducing tyranny in its worst
form – a tyranny that is just as dangerous to real liberty as
hypocrisy is to religion!”
We were now approaching St. Andrew’s church and the rectory, with its glebe, the latter lying contiguous to the churchyard, or, as it is an Americanism to say, the “graveyard.” There
had been an evident improvement around the rectory since I
had last seen it. Shrubbery had been planted, care was taken of
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
the fences, the garden was neatly and well worked, the fields
looked smooth, and everything denoted that it was “new lords
and new laws.” The last incumbent had been a whining, complaining, narrow-minded, selfish and lazy priest, the least estimable of all human characters, short of the commission of the
actual and higher crimes; but his successor had the reputation
of being a devout and real Christian – one who took delight
in the duties of his holy office, and who served God because he
loved him. I am fully aware how laborious is the life of a country priest, and how contracted and mean is the pittance he in
common receives, and how much more he merits than he gets,
if his reward were to be graduated by things here. But this picture, like every other, has its different sides, and occasionally
men do certainly enter the church from motives as little as
possible connected with those that ought to influence them.
“There is the wagon of Mr. Warren, at his door,” observed
my uncle, as we passed the rectory. “Can it be that he intends
visiting the village also, on an occasion like this?”
“Nothing more probable, sir, if the character Patt has given
of him be true,” I answered. “She tells me he has been active
in endeavoring to put down the covetous spirit that is getting
uppermost in the town, and has even preached boldly, though
generally, against the principles involved in the question. The
other man, they say, goes for popularity, and preaches and
prays with the anti-renters.”
No more was said, but on we went, soon entering a large
bit of wood, a part of the virgin forest. This wood, exceeding a
thousand acres in extent, stretched down from the hills along
some broken and otherwise little valuable land, and had been
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