"Hospitality and kindness are among the virtues of the first settlers. Exposed to common dangers and toils, they become united by the closest ties of social intercourse. Accustomed to arm in each other's defence, to aid in each other's labor, to assist in the affectionate duty of nursing the sick, and the mournful office of burying the dead, the best affections of the heart are kept in constant exercise; and there is, perhaps, no class of men in our country, who obey the calls of benevolence, with such cheerful promptness, or with so liberal a sacrifice of personal convenience.
"We read marvellous stories of the ferocity of western men. The name of Kentuckian is constantly associated with the idea of fighting, dirking, and gouging. The people of whom we are now writing do not deserve this character. They live together in great harmony, with little contention and less litigation. The backwoodsmen are a generous and placable race. They are bold and impetuous; and when differences do arise among them, they are more apt to give vent to their resentment at once, than to brood over their wrongs, or to seek legal redress. But this conduct is productive of harmony; for men are always more guarded in their deportment to each other, and more cautious of giving offence, when they know that the insult will be quickly felt, and instantly resented, than when the consequences of an offensive action are doubtful, and the retaliation distant. We have no evidence that the pioneers of Kentucky were quarrelsome or cruel; and an intimate acquaintance with the same race, at a later period, has led the writer to the conclusion, that they are a humane people; bold and daring, when opposed to an enemy, but amiable in their intercourse with each other and with strangers, and habitually inclined to peace."
In morals and the essential principles of religion, this class of people are by no means so defective as many imagine. The writer has repeatedly been in settlements and districts beyond the pale of civil and criminal law, where the people are a "law unto themselves," where courts, lawyers, sheriffs, and constables existed not, and yet has seen as much quiet and order, and more honesty in paying just debts, than where legal restraints operated in all their force. The turpitude of vice and the majesty of virtue, were as apparent as in older settlements. Industry, in laboring or hunting, bravery in war, candor, honesty, and hospitality were rewarded with the confidence and honor of the people. Regulating parties would exist, and thieves, rogues and counterfeiters were sure to receive a striped Jacket "worked nineteen to the dozen," and by this mode of operation, induced to "clear out;" but truth, uprightness, honesty and sincerity are always respected. Many of the frontier class are _illiterate_, but they are by no means _ignorant_. They are a shrewd, observing, thinking people. They may not have learned the black marks in books, but they have studied _men and things_, and have a quick insight into human nature. They are not inattentive to religion, though their opportunities of religious instruction are few, compared with old countries. They have prejudices and fears about many of the organized benevolent societies of the present age, yet there are no people more readily disposed to attend religious meetings, and whose hearts are more readily affected with the gospel than the backwoods people; and as large a proportion are orderly professors of religion as in any part of the Union. Ministers of the gospel and Missionaries, who can suit themselves to the circumstances and habits of frontier people,--who like Paul, can "become all things to all men,"--find pleasant and interesting fields of labor on all our frontiers. But let such persons show fastidiousness, affect superior intelligence and virtue, catechise the people for their plainness and simplicity of manners, and draw invidious comparisons, and they are sure to be "used up," or left without hearers, to deplore the "dark clouds" of ignorance and prejudice in the west.