and the Scandinavian Lutherans on the other, and the election of a Democratic governor in Wisconsin. Each such excursion from the old parties, though followed by a return of the majority to the old allegiance, has strengthened the tendency to independent voting until at the present time, upon questions like the tariff, currency, and legislation for control of railroads and other great corporations, and local option or prohibition, the Scandinavian independent vote makes any election in the middle Northwest a matter of real uncertainty. Roosevelt carried Minnesota by a plurality of 161,000, yet Johnson, the Swedish Democratic candidate for governor, was elected by a small plurality. In 1908 Minnesota re-elected Johnson for a third term by a plurality of 20,000, at the same time giving Taft 85,000.

Turning to the effect of the Scandinavian element upon society in general, it is safe to say that in no case, save perhaps in the matter of the percentage of insane in state hospitals, has it exercised any disintegrating or retarding influence. The statistics of crime and pauperism for the six states containing Scandinavians in great numbers are strikingly favorable; the percentage of offences due to intemperance is not notably higher in such Scandinavian counties as Chisago and Goodhue in Minnesota, or in cities like Rockford, Illinois, and Madison, Wisconsin, or in the densely Scandinavian wards of Chicago, Minneapolis, and St. Paul, than in similar areas peopled by Germans or native Americans. The deep and abiding loyalty of the Norwegians and Swedes to the public-school system has been noteworthy since the early days of their settlement. While in a very few instances the Lutheran church has attempted year-long parish schools, it has usually confined itself to vacation schools for instruction in religion and the mother tongue, and to attempts to build up seminaries and colleges for advanced instruction under the direction of the various branches into which the Lutheran church, especially among the Norwegians, has become divided.

The Scandinavian immigrants, from the beginnings of their movement into the promise of the American West, have dedicated themselves, without reservation and without stipulation, to the interests and institutions of the Republic. Neither educational nor property qualifications, nor any other reasonable restrictions on immigration, would much affect the number of arrivals. They come to the New World to stay and to make homes in the old-fashioned sense of the word; they are racially akin to the best in America; they are mentally and temperamentally detached from Old World dogmas, castes, and animosities; they are educated, hard-working, ambitious, and law-abiding, and permanently quickened by the conditions of

American life. Their contribution to the social structure of the commonwealth will be strength and stability rather than beauty and the delicate refinements of culture. They are not likely to furnish great leaders, but they will be in the front rank of those who follow men of light and of spiritual force. They will be builders and contributors, not destroyers; their greatest and most enduring services. will be as a subtle, steadying influence, reinforcing those high qualities which are sometimes called Puritan, sometimes American, but which in any case make for local and national peace, prosperity, enlightenment, and righteousness.

KENDRIC CHARLES BABCOCK.

DOCUMENTS

1. Documents relating to the Mississippi Land Company, 1763-1769.

THE following documents, found among the Earl of Chatham's papers,1 serve to illustrate one phase of the movement for the colonization of the West in the eighteenth century. Immediately after the announcement of the formal cession of the West to Great Britain in February, 1763, a number of companies were organized for the purpose of exploiting the territory. Among these was the Mississippi Land Company, in which George Washington, the Virginia Lees, and a number of prominent merchants and planters of the colonies of Virginia and Maryland were interested. The proposed colony, the exact boundaries of which are printed elsewhere,2 was to comprise two million five hundred thousand acres situated in the present states of Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky. The efforts of the company to secure a grant were temporarily checked in the year of its organization by the issuance of the royal proclamation of 1763, designed to pacify the western Indians by reserving to them the territory west of the Alleghany Mountains. After 1767 the opposition of certain members of the ministry, notably Lord Hillsborough, who were not persuaded of the utility of such colonies, successfully circumvented the efforts of the company and its friends. By 1770 activity on the part of the company appears to have ceased.

CLARENCE E. CARTER.

WESTMORELAND COURT HOUSE, VIRGINIA.

At a meeting of the Committee of the Mississippi Company Sept. 26th 1763.

Present

Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee, Rich. Parker, John Aug. Washington, Wm Booth, being members of the Committee, and also Charles Digges, George Simpson and Wm Beale Jun".*

1 The bundle of papers relating to the Mississippi Company bears the following endorsement: "Mississippi Co. Papers, sent to the Right Honble William Earl of Chatham, On Saturday the 20th of April, 1774." The papers are in the Public Record Office, London. They are declared by an endorsement to be all in the handwriting of William Lee.

The boundaries are described in the memorial of the company, dated September, 1763. See documentary appendix to Great Britain and the Illinois Country, 1763-1774 (Washington, 1910), by C. E. Carter.

3 A committee of ten members was to meet twice each year to transact necessary business. See A. B. Hulbert, "Original Articles of Agreement", in Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications, XVII. 438.

Any member of the company was given the right to vote in committee meetings should he happen to be present. Ibid.

A Letter to Mr. Thos. Cumming by order of the Company being prepared and approved is as followeth :

Sir,

VIRGINIA Sept. 26th, 1763.

We are now to inform you that a number of Gentlemen of this Colony and the Province of Maryland, many of them your particular acquaintances, have projected a Scheme for taking up a Considerable Tract of Land on a navigable part of the Mississippi and some of its dependencies. That for this purpose they have formed themselves into a Company by the name of the Mississippi Company and have agreed to such Articles and Rules for the better executing their plan, as the nature of the thing suggested to them. Of which, together with their subsequent proceedings you will herewith receive a Copy where you will perceive that we are directed to propose to you to become one of the Company and to desire that you will be pleased to procure so many subscribers to the Scheme, as will amount to nine, of such influence and fortunes as may be likely to promote its success. The particular spot chosen by the Company you will find by the Memorial lies on the River Mississippi, a considerable way above and below the confluence of Ohio therewith; and extending from the Mississippi into the Country Eastward and Southward so as to comprehend the quantity they want, on the first mentioned River, and its great branches, Wabash, Ohio and Cherokee Rivers. Many reasons have contributed to the choice of this place; such as the goodness of the navigation from thence to the Gulph of Mexico, the fineness of the climate, it being in about 38 Degrees of North Latitude, the country level, and the soil from unquestionable Intelligence, as fertile as any on the Globe. These powerful inducements cannot fail to effect a speedy Settlement of this Country which must render the share of each Adventurer extemely valuable.

The benefit then to be derived to the Company, being so probable, it remains only to obtain if possible, from the Crown a Grant to the Company (by the name of the Mississippi Company) for such Lands and on such Terms, as they have proposed in their Memorial. For their Success in this point they rely on you, and as they are conscious that solicitations of this sort are attended with expense, to defray this they present you with an hundred Guineas.

The Company would choose to have their Memorial laid before the King, so soon as you shall find it expedient to do so, from having previously conciliated the favor of the Ministry thereto. And if you find that it is to be attended with success, you are desired to give the Committee the most early intelligence, and at the same time to inform them what expense will arise from the suing out of Letters Patent, that they may immediately call a meeting of the Company to raise the requisite

sum.

But in the meantime you are to proceed as far as the nature of the thing will admit in suing out such Letters Patent. The Company choose Letters Patent rather than a Mandamus for the Colony, because so many persons of the first influence here, are concerned in Land Schemes; that a thousand nameless, artful obstructions would be thrown into their way to prevent the success of their enterprize.

For terms see the original articles of agreement printed by A. B. Hulbert, in Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications, XVII. 436, and the memorial of the company, dated September 9, 1763, printed in documentary appendix of Great Britain and the Illinois Country, 1763-1774.

Also it is desired that a warrant for survey shall be solicited from the Crown and left blank to be filled up with the name of such Surveyor as the Company can agree with to do their business on the cheapest terms, because the legal fees here are so oppressive, that the expence of surveying the Company's Grant would be insupportably great. But this application need not be made untill the Letters Patent be obtained.

It is apprehended that considerable difficulties will attend the attainment of the Grant we request, and for these reasons which have been urged here, as prevailing with you: First that the Grants of large Tracts of Land prevent the poorer sort of people from settling by the previous engrossing of the Soil. However plausible this may appear in theory, the contrary has been found true in practice.

It having been discovered from experience, that Land taken up by Companys may be retailed by them to Individuals, in such a manner as to profit the taker up, and yet the purchaser from him, obtain his Land cheaper than he could himself possibly have taken it up originally, because where a large quantity of Land is to be surveyed, an artist can be obtained to do the whole business, for a much less Sum, than the survey of the same quantity would cost a number of individuals having distinct property in it, and employing different Surveyors. Add to this the heavy charges that arise from the taking out so many different patents, the expense of traveling and attending offices, and lastly the utter ignorance the poorer sort labor under of the proper methods to be taken in the solicitation of patents, and their inability to advance ready money for such purposes. All which is removed by the method we propose, as we carry people immediately to the spot, invite others to come, and give them deeds to the Lands they want on reasonable terms, and credit given them until they by their industry become enabled to pay for their purchases. But in answer to all this it is urged, that what we propose to do, may be done at the expense and under the immediate protection of the Government. It is very true that if the Country proposed to be settled was not of very large extent, this method would answer, but as it happens otherwise and that the Country comprehends many thousand miles in circuit this method would create a most prodiguous heavy Government Expence. 21y, It is said that by the Treaty of Easton, made with the Indians during the War, all the Lands West of the Alleghanys are given up to the Indians for hunting grounds, therefore good faith requires that they shod not be molested in the quiet possession of them. In answer to this objection it may be urged that the Treaty was made with the Northern Indians and therefore could only mean to affect those commonly used by them as hunting grounds. That therefore the Lands solicited by this Company must be out of the question, as it is far South, at least 600 miles from the Indians who were then treated with and where they never go to hunt. And also that by the common principles of reason and the Law of Nations that Treaty is vacated by the Indians themselves, who for the slightest causes have attacked his Majestie's fortifications and most barbarously

This treaty was negotiated in 1758 between the colony of Pennsylvania and the Indians; in it the former promised to make no settlements west of the Alleghanies. See Canadian Archives Report, 1889, pp. 72 ff.; Documentary History of New York, II. 775, 783. For the significance of the treaty see Alvord, Genesis of the Proclamation of 1763, pp. 13-14.

AM. HIST. REV., VOL. XVI.—21.