where land is to be taken up and that will produce the
necessarys of life with little labour."[22:1] Very generally these
redemptioners were of non-English stock. In the crucible of the
frontier the immigrants were Americanized, liberated, and fused into a
mixed race, English in neither nationality nor characteristics. The
process has gone on from the early days to our own. Burke and other
writers in the middle of the eighteenth century believed that
Pennsylvania[23:1] was "threatened with the danger of being wholly
foreign in language, manners, and perhaps even inclinations." The German
and Scotch-Irish elements in the frontier of the South were only less
great. In the middle of the present century the German element in
Wisconsin was already so considerable that leading publicists looked to
the creation of a German state out of the commonwealth by concentrating
their colonization.[23:2] Such examples teach us to beware of
misinterpreting the fact that there is a common English speech in
America into a belief that the stock is also English.

In another way the advance of the frontier decreased our dependence on
England. The coast, particularly of the South, lacked diversified
industries, and was dependent on England for the bulk of its supplies.
In the South there was even a dependence on the Northern colonies for
articles of food. Governor Glenn, of South Carolina, writes in the
middle of the eighteenth century: "Our trade with New York and
Philadelphia was of this sort, draining us of all the little money and
bills we could gather from other places for their bread, flour, beer,
hams, bacon, and other things of their produce, all which, except beer,
our new townships begin to supply us with, which are settled with very
industrious and thriving Germans. This no doubt diminishes the number of
shipping and the appearance of our trade, but it is far from being a
detriment to us."[23:3]

Before long the frontier created a demand for merchants. As it
retreated from the coast it became less and less possible for England to
bring her supplies directly to the consumer's wharfs, and carry away
staple crops, and staple crops began to give way to diversified
agriculture for a time. The effect of this phase of the frontier action
upon the northern section is perceived when we realize how the advance
of the frontier aroused seaboard cities like Boston, New York, and
Baltimore, to engage in rivalry for what Washington called "the