Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/154

 94 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI idleness and laziness, to welcome and encour- age activity, and exhibit to the industrious men that he is distinguished above others and has earned the protection of the government, in giving him tangible proof, either by pref- erence in purchasing from him or some other manner of recompense. The honest man, the active and industrious man, is sen- sible of the slightest proceeding on the part of his superior, and it is to him a great ex- pansion to reflect that his labors and fatigues have not been ignored, and that they have given him a claim on the good will and be- nevolence of the heads of a Providence. What a vast field is open to a commandant who would reap advantage by these means, and gain the benediction of all the worthy in- habitants of a colony. I stop here, Mr. Commandant ; what I might say further would add but little to the good purposes you design for the progress and success of the place. I have made a con- cise narrative of the origin of the post of New Madrid, and the reasons of its slow growtli in agriculture. The census which follows, will give you a correct view of its present situation. It will prove to you that courage and emulation need but a slight sup- port to emerge from the giddiness where they have so long remained. But for certain the Creoles will never make this a flourishing set- tlement, it will be the Americans, Germans and other active people who will reap the glory of it. Observe, if it please you, sir, that amongst the habitations granted long since, those given by Francis Racine, by Hunot. Sr., the Hunot sons. Paquin, Laderoute, deceased, Gamelin. Lalotte. etc., have not yet had a single tree cut on them ; that those of the three brothers. Saint Marie, Meloche and other Creoles are barely commenced. You will see, on the eonta'ary, that the Americans who obtain grants of land have nothing more at heart but to settle on them at once and improve them to the extent of their ability, and from this it is easy to draw conclusions. Another observation which will surely not escape you, sir, is that the total head of fam- ilies amount, according to the census I ex- hibit to you, to 159, and that in this number there are fifty-three who have no property. This, I think, is an evil to which it would be easy for you to apply a remedy. In a county destined to agricultural pursuits, and to the breeding of domestic animals, it is too much that one-third of the inhabitants should stand isolated from the general interest, and that the other two-thirds should be exposed to be the victim of a set of idle and lazy peo- ple, always at hand at their slightest neces- sities to satiate their hunger liy preying on the industrious. I think, Mr. Commandant, that several habitations left by persons who have ab- sented themselves from this post for a long time should be reunited to the domain. The following are of this class: One Enic Bolduc, absent for over two years, had a place at Lake St. Francis No. 2. One John Easton, absent for over three years, had a place at Lake St. Eulalie: it is now abandoned. One Mr. Waters says he has claims on it. What are they? One Tourney had a place at Lake St. Isi- dor; he associated with to cultivate it one Gamard. Tourney returned to France, and Gamard had worked for two years at Fort St. Fernando. One M. Desroclier. why has he not worked his place in the Mill Prairie, which he holds for over four years? Has he not enough with the one he holds at St. Isidor?