"Far in the west, a paltry spot of land,
That no man envied, and that no man owned,
A woody hill, beside a dismal bog—
This was your choice; nor were you much to blame;
And here, responsive to the croaking frog,
You grubbed, and stubbed,
And feared no landlord's claim."[852]
Nor was hostility to orderly society confined to this class. Knox wrote Washington that, in Massachusetts, those who opposed the Constitution acted "from deadly principle levelled at the existence of all government whatever."[853]
The better class of settlers who took up the "farms" abandoned by the first shunners of civilization, while a decided improvement, were, nevertheless, also improvident and dissipated. In a poor and slip-shod fashion, they ploughed the clearings which had now grown to fields, never fertilizing them and gathering but beggarly crops. Of these a part was always rye or corn, from which whiskey was made. The favorite occupation of this type was drinking to excess, arguing politics, denouncing government, and contracting debts.[854] Not until debts and taxes had forced onward this second line of pioneer advance did the third appear with better notions of industry and order and less hatred of government and its obligations.[855]
In New England the out-push of the needy to make homes in the forests differed from the class just described only in that the settler remained on his clearing until it grew to a farm. After a few years his ground would be entirely cleared and by the aid of distant neighbors, cheered to their work by plenty of rum, he would build a larger house.[856] But meanwhile there was little time for reading, small opportunity for information, scanty means of getting it; and mouth-to-mouth rumor was the settler's chief informant of what was happening in the outside world. In the part of Massachusetts west of the Connecticut Valley, at the time the Constitution was adopted, a rough and primitive people were scattered in lonesome families along the thick woods.[857]
In Virginia the contrast between the well-to-do and the masses of the people was still greater.[858] The social and economic distinctions of colonial Virginia persisted in spite of the vociferousness of democracy which the Revolution had released. The small group of Virginia gentry were, as has been said, well educated, some of them highly so, instructed in the ways of the world, and distinguished in manners.[859] Their houses were large; their table service was of plate; they kept their studs of racing and carriage horses.[860] Sometimes, however, they displayed a grotesque luxury. The windows of the mansions, when broken, were occasionally replaced with rags; servants sometimes appeared in livery with silk stockings thrust into boots;[861] and again dinner would be served by naked negroes.[862]
The second class of Virginia people were not so well educated, and the observer found them "rude, ferocious, and haughty; much attached to gaming and dissipation, particularly horse-racing and cock-fighting"; and yet, "hospitable, generous, and friendly." These people, although by nature of excellent minds, mingled in their characters some of the finest qualities of the first estate, and some of the worst habits of the lower social stratum. They "possessed elegant accomplishments and savage brutality."[863] The third class of Virginia people were lazy, hard-drinking, and savage; yet kind and generous.[864] "Whenever these people come to blows," Weld testifies, "they fight just like wild beasts, biting, kicking, and endeavoring to tear each other's eyes out with their nails"; and he says that men with eyes thus gouged out were a common sight.[865]
The generation between the birth of Marshall and the adoption of the Constitution had not modified the several strata of Virginia society except as to apparel and manners, both of which had become worse than in colonial times.
Schoepf found shiftlessness[866] a common characteristic; and described the gentry as displaying the baronial qualities of haughtiness, vanity, and idleness.[867] Jefferson divides the people into two sections as regards characteristics, which were not entirely creditable to either. But in his comparative estimate Jefferson is far harsher to the Southern population of that time than he is to the inhabitants of other States; and he emphasizes his discrimination by putting his summary in parallel columns.
"While I am on this subject," writes Jefferson to Chastellux, "I will give you my idea of the characters of the several States.
| In the North they are | In the South they are |
| cool | fiery |
| sober | voluptuary |
| laborious | indolent |
| persevering | unsteady |
| independent | independent |
| jealous of their own liberties, and just to those of others | zealous for their own liberties, but trampling on those of others |
| interested | generous |
| chicaning | candid |
| superstitious and hypocritical in their religion | without attachment or pretensions to any religion but that of the heart. |