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Rep. George Clymer of Pennsylvania to Benjamin Rush
(Courtesy of Richard H. Kohn, George Curtis, and Kenneth R. Bowling)
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Portrait of George Clymer by Charles W. Peale
(Courtesy of the National Portrait
Gallery, Smithsonian Institution)
The strongest
statement against immediate settlement of the West came from Rep. George Clymer of
Philadelphia who was disturbed by the implications of the land office that Congress
considered establishing in 1789. He did not want Americans to scatter themselves
throughout the wilderness; he believed they should move westward in a gradually
"extending circle" of civilization. Here he proposes to a
fellow signer of the Declaration of Independence that they join forces to write a
pamphlet discouraging emigration to the West aimed at the very people most likely
to move, the barely literate. Clymer was not alone in his concerns. When the United
States found itself immersed in an unsuccessful war against Northwest Territory Indians
in 1791, Rep. Nicholas Gilman of New Hampshire reflected, "It is perhaps
a misfortune that we have any connexion with that Country."
(to Josiah Bartlett, Feb. 6, 1791, Dartmouth College Library)
Full text transcript of Rep. Clymer's letter.
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