ton and
Portland, and crossing New Hampshire and Vermont to Ogdensburg, he took a
boat to Sackett's Harbor and Niagara. From there he went to Buffalo and
Detroit, and returned to Washington. Everywhere the people greeted him by
thousands. Monroe on this occasion wore the three-cornered hat,
scarlet-bordered blue coat and buff breeches of the American Revolutionary
army. The "Boston Journal" called the times the "Era of Good Feeling," and
the expression has passed into American history as a characteristic of
Monroe's entire administration.

[Sidenote: Western prairies settled]

It was an era notable for the extraordinary growth of the Western States.
Settlers were encouraged to buy government land on the instalment plan, and
the States refrained from levying taxes on these lands until years after
the settlers had received their title deeds. Endless processions of prairie
wagons passed through New York and Pennsylvania. On one turnpike alone,
16,000 vehicles paid toll during the year. Pittsburg at this time had a
population of 7,000 persons. The log cabin was the house of all, with its
rough chimney, its greased paper in a single window, its door with latch
and string, a plank floor and single room, corn husk brooms and its Dutch
oven. In the newly broken ground corn and wheat were planted, which, when
harvested, were thrashed with the flail and winnowed with a sheet. Little
settlements sprang up here and there on the rolling prairie, with
store-taverns, blacksmith shops and mills. This a thousand times repeated
was seen in western New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and
Michigan.

[Sidenote: Steam navigation]

[Sidenote: The Erie Canal]

[Sidenote: "Thanatopsis"]

During the same year the newly organized territory of Mississippi, formed
from a division of Alabama, was admitted as the twentieth State to the
Union. The first line of steam propelled ocean packets was organized to run
between New York and Liverpool. In the western frontier town of St. Louis
the first steamboat made its appearance. On July 4, ground was broken for
the Erie Canal, which was to connect the city of New York with the great
inland waters. On the strength of this progressive achievement De Witt
Clinton became a candidate for the governorship of New York. Among other
notable events of this year were the foundation of the New York State
Library, Gallaudet's foundation of the first school for the deaf and dumb
at Hartford, and the e