Most of these emigrants, however, were poor; but where all were poor, this was no degradation.  The concomitants of poverty in densely populated communities—­where great wealth confers social distinction and frowns from its association the poor, making poverty humility, however elevated its virtues—­were unknown in these new countries.  The nobler virtues, combined with energy and intellect, alone conferred distinction; and I doubt if the world, ever furnished a more honest, virtuous, energetic, or democratic association of men and women than was, at the period of which I write, to be found constituting the population of these new States.  From whatever cause arising, there certainly was, in the days of my early memory, more scrupulous truth, open frankness, and pure, blunt honesty pervading the whole land than seem to characterize its present population.  It was said by Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina, that bad roads and fist-fights made the best militia on earth; and these may have been, in some degree, the means of moulding into fearless honesty the character of these people.  They encountered all the hardships of opening and subduing the country, creating highways, bridges, churches, and towns with their public buildings.  These they met cheerfully, and working with a will, triumphed.  After months of labor, a few acres were cleared and the trees cut into convenient lengths for handling, and then the neighbors were invited to assist in what was called a log-rolling.  This aid was cheerfully given, and an offer to pay for it would have been an insult.  It was returned in kind, however, when a neighbor’s necessities required.  These log-rollings were generally accompanied with a quilting, which brought together the youth of the neighborhood; and the winding up of the day’s work was a frolic, as the dance and other amusements of the time were termed.  Upon occasions like this, feats of strength and activity universally constituted a part of the programme.  The youth who could pull down his man at the end of the hand-stick, throw him in a wrestle, or outstrip him in a footrace, was honored as the best man in the settlement, and was always greeted with a cheer from the older men, a slap on the shoulder by the old ladies, and the shy but approving smiles of the girls,—­had his choice of partners in the dance, and in triumph rode home on horseback with his belle, the horse’s consciousness of bearing away the championship manifesting itself in an erect head and stately step.

The apparel of male and female was of home-spun, woven by the mothers and sisters, and was fashioned, I was about to say, by the same fair hands; but these were almost universally embrowned with exposure and hardened by toil.  Education was exceedingly limited:  the settlements were sparse, and school-houses were at long intervals, and in these the mere rudiments of an English education were taught—­spelling, reading, and writing, with the four elementary rules