in the forest-clearing for the social comforts of
the town, he suffered hardships and privations, and reverted in many
ways to primitive conditions of life. Engaged in a struggle to subdue
the forest, working as an individual, and with little specie or
capital, his interests were with the debtor class. At each stage of its
advance, the West has favored an expansion of the currency. The pioneer
had boundless confidence in the future of his own community, and when
seasons of financial contraction and depression occurred, he, who had
staked his all on confidence in Western development, and had fought the
savage for his home, was inclined to reproach the conservative sections
and classes. To explain this antagonism requires more than denunciation
of dishonesty, ignorance, and boorishness as fundamental Western traits.
Legislation in the United States has had to deal with two distinct
social conditions. In some portions of the country there was, and is, an
aggregation of property, and vested rights are in the foreground: in
others, capital is lacking, more primitive conditions prevail, with
different economic and social ideals, and the contentment of the average
individual is placed in the foreground. That in the conflict between
these two ideals an even hand has always been held by the government
would be difficult to show.

The separation of the Western man from the seaboard, and his
environment, made him in a large degree free from European precedents
and forces. He looked at things independently and with small regard or
appreciation for the best Old World experience. He had no ideal of a
philosophical, eclectic nation, that should advance civilization by
"intercourse with foreigners and familiarity with their point of view,
and readiness to adopt whatever is best and most suitable in their
ideas, manners, and customs." His was rather the ideal of conserving and
developing what was original and valuable in this new country. The
entrance of old society upon free lands meant to him opportunity for a
new type of democracy and new popular ideals. The West was not
conservative: buoyant self-confidence and self-assertion were
distinguishing traits in its composition. It saw in its growth nothing
less than a new order of society and state. In this conception were
elements of evil and elements of good.

But the fundamental fact in regard to this new society was its relation
to land. Professor Boutmy has said of the United State