Few Jewels Tucked away in the Mountainous Backwoods and Raw Wood

 

Even Dr. Benjamin Rush, a lesser-known signatory to the Declaration of Independence who also served as the Continental Army's surgeon general in 1787, was scathing, saying that the first squatter is "usually a man who has outlived his credit or wealth in the cultivated parts..."

His initial objective is to construct a modest cabbin out of raw wood for himself and his family.” He is restless and anti-social despite his apparent domesticity, openly opposing civilization and order: "He cannot bear to give up a single natural right for all the advantages of government, and so he abandons his little settlement and finds refuge in the woods" as new neighbours begin to settle nearby. 

It has been observed that the departure of these type of people is frequently exacerbated by the preaching of the gospel, according to the Reverend Benjamin Rush, who described them as having habits "almost akin to the Indians." They were so uncivilised, according to Rush, that they were perilously near to becoming anti-Christian in their beliefs. The fact that the teachings are diametrically antithetical to their hedonistic lifestyle should come as no surprise.”

Apparently, Dr. Rush was not the only one who noticed sulphur and brimstone where logs and daub had previously been found. There were no genteel or Polite Persons among them since they were surrounded by individuals who had abandoned their morals and their values, discounted bark clippings online were rude and ignorant, and lacked education and good breeding. Angry in 1766, Reverend Charles Woodmason shouted about "the people surrounding, of abandoned morals, and profligate principles Rude Ignorant Void of Manners, Education, or Good Breeding. There is no elegant or courteous manners among them." 

The agitation of another clergyman, Yale president Dwight, led him to issue an advisory that log cabins may corrupt a man's mortal soul if lived in. The author stated of “log-houses” in 1798, in the midst of the Second Great Awakening, that “the method of living has not a little effect on the habitation; and the mode of living sensibly affects the taste, manners, and even the morals of those who live in it.” 

“When an impoverished person builds a squalid dwelling with no intention or hope of ever owning a better one, he will either immediately, or within a short period of time, adapt his aims and aspirations to the style of his dwelling...The family's thoughts and conduct will be brought down to a humble level, and a general feature of lowliness and littleness, will be seen on everything they concoct or do,” he continued. According to Dwight's description of back-settlers in upstate New York, "They look not only happy and unambitious, but they also appear unacquainted with the artefacts that arouse desire for advancement." The gliding of life is not the case for them; they are stuck in place.

And there's Thomas Jefferson, the "Man of the People," who preferred ploughmen to professors (“State a moral case to a ploughman and a professor.”) The former will decide it as well as the latter, and often better than the latter, because he has not been driven astray by arbitrary rules.”), and he joined the chorus of those who denigrated the off-the-grid yokel and his "pens"

The poorest people make huts as was true of the creatures that lived there, the people who lived there were just as animalistic as the animals that lived there. Actually, let me restate that: They were just specks in the grand scheme of things. It was clear that they were unsuccessful. Jefferson stated of his idea to educate teachers for universal education that "the greatest minds would be pulled from the rubbish every year, and be trained at the public expense," rejecting vast swathes of the American population in his letter to the editor. There were a few jewels tucked away in the mountainous backwoods, but the vast bulk of the population, the run-off, muck-level inhabitants, were throwaway expendables. The only thing they were was a bunch of squatters, squatters who squatted on land and did absolutely nothing to better themselves or society.