Carey admitted New Englanders did not assert their moral superiority with the same vehemence as when they claimed superiority and exclusivity in commerce. He concluded there was nothing to be gained politically.
Carey had traveled extensively through New England. In the Olive Branch he claimed that anyone familiar with New Englanders knew they considered their religion and morality superior to that of citizens in Philadelphia, New York or Baltimore. Carey cited the geography written by Reverend Jedidiah Morse as proof of the region’s “vile prejudice.”
Jedidiah Morse was a Federalist and a Congregationalist clergyman. He wrote Geography Made Easy in 1784 for his students at a girl’s school. It was widely praised. In 1786 he traveled to Georgia to collect information for a book on the geography of the United States for adults. He received encouragement from Benjamin Franklin and James Madison. Using a questionnaire, and advertising in newspapers, he asked for information. Despite his travels in the South, Morse relied more on his written replies. He published his American Geography in 1789. Southerners were not pleased with his descriptions of the South. Morse described Williamsburg as appearing “dull, forsaken, and melancholy…[with] no industry and very little appearance of religion.”[1]
Carey wrote he would have devoted more time to the conduct of Mr. Morse but that had been done by Joseph Dennie, editor of the Port Folio. Joseph Dennie was a writer, critic and editor who was born in Boston, Massachusetts. A dedicated Federalist who had worked for Timothy Pickering, when he was secretary of state, Dennie began publishing the Port Folio in 1801. It became an important and influential literary journal. Dennie criticized Morse for using his geography to stir up hostility between regions of the United States. [2]
Carey continued “The New England character for morality has been various at various times.” He cited merchants from the mid-Atlantic and Southern states who were “on their guard against Yankee tricks when dealing with New Englanders.”[3]
Writing to convince New England’s farmers of the need for national unity, he claimed that while a few New Englanders were guilty of dishonesty, charges of “Yankee tricks” brought most New Englanders undeserved hatred. Instead he characterized the majority of New Englanders as “sober, orderly and regular—shrewd, intelligent and well informed.”[4]
New Englanders, he concluded, may be religious and pious, but those from New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore are just as much so.
Next: Did New England Have the Right to Claim Superiority in Commerce?
Look for it Monday, June 17
[1] Elizabeth Noble Shor, “Jedidiah Morse,” American National Biography.
[2] Jeffrey H. Richards, “Joseph Dennie,” American National Biography; Mathew Carey, The Olive Branch, or Faults on Both Sides, (Philadelphia: M. Carey, November 8, 1814), 190-1.
[3] Carey, Olive Branch, 191.
[4] Carey, Olive Branch, 193.
