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How would it do

About This Item

  • Title: How would it do
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1860
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman | Unknown
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.03413
  • Source: The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Transcribed from digital images of the original item. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the manuscripts, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Editorial note: The source of many of Whitman's notes here is Samuel Goodrich's geography textbook, The World As it Is, And As it Has Been. The 1855 edition of that textbook forms the base text of Whitman's cultural geography scrapbook, and these manuscripts may, at one time, have been part of that scrapbook. The Library of Congress titles this group of manuscripts "The States and Their Resources," and they are sometimes referred to by that title in scholarship. We were unable to obtain an image of the verso of surface 43, although it is presumably blank.
  • Contributors to digital file: Lauren Grewe Ty Alyea Nicole Gray Matt Cohen Ashlyn Stewart Kevin McMullen
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt and Unknown. "How would it do." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 18 April 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.03413.xml (TEI)

Key

Textual Feature Appearance
Whitman's hand blue double overline and underline
Highlighting yellow background with top and bottom border
Paste-on gray box with black borders
Laid in white box with black borders
Erasure white text with dark gray background
Overwritten brown with strikethrough
[begin surface 1]
How would it do to change the names of New Jersey, Rhode Island, New Hampshire? The State of Narragansett Bay the sea air, the uniform climate ^cool summer, commerce extensive—the cotton, woolen, iron & lace manufactures— Connecticut large manufactures of clocks, cotton goods, and gutta‑percha, shad fishery of Connecticut river is quite large Middle States New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, & Maryland Alleghany Mts Cattskills Valley of the Mohawk Great lakes & small lakes, Susquehannah river animals—bear, wolf, moose, (in the north,) minerals—iron, coal, & marble— Wheat and — apples, peaches, pears & grapes "The vast and numerous mines—the exhaustless stores of iron and coal."
[begin surface 2] [begin surface 3]

The Empire State

put this name instead of New York The population, Wealth & commerce Mts, the Mohegan Mts (also the Katskills) River—the Hudson "the wild-fowl and fish of Paumanok" "Mannahatta Bay." the falls of Niagara,—^The amplitude, and ease, and perfect proportions of the scenery— the broad river ^stream of the inland seas pouring over the ledge, and falling down a one striking a hundred and sixty feet below, The railroads— The Mannahatta that's it 
  the Mannahatta —the mast‑hemmed—the egg in the nest of the beautiful bays—the my city—ma femme—O never forgotten by me
[begin surface 4] [begin surface 5]

Maine

Fish—
  • Codfish
  • mackarel
  • herring
  • salmon
 lumber)
  • white pine
  • spruce
  • red oak
  • beech
  • Hemlock,
  • maple ash
 ☞ limestone (burned for lime 
  plentiful Timber staples —
  • boards,
  • staves,
  • wood,
  • fish,
  • beef,
  • lime,
  • ice
 Shipping (☞ Is a great ship‑building state—the first in the union—builds one third of all the U.S. ship building Lumbering—

Merrimac state

New Hampshire

"granite state" the white pine sometimes 200 ft high, and 6 ft in diameter Granite is found in all parts of the state apples, pears, plums, cherries, cotton factories India Maize, wheat, rye, cattle,
[begin surface 6] [begin surface 7]

Vermont

—mainly grazing springs and brooks are numerous wool is a staple‑product maple sugar is "numerous"

Massachusetts

Massachusetts Bay—historical —CCommerce "The commerce of Massachusetts, the factories, the perfect cultivation of the land—the inventions schools, the benevolent institutions, the curious inventions The Massachusetts aesthetic ^ennuyed, with always concealed fires, unpersuadable, the ^unmasterable, the originatorress of The States, an [illegible] a divine title, well‑deserved,—
[begin surface 8] [begin surface 9]

Empire State

the 12,000 public skoschools— Salt, 
  6,000,000 bushels annually in Onondaga Salt springs and canals— the great railroads—the hundreds Mannahatta—the population and wealth— —the superb scenery— the interior lakes—
[begin surface 10] [begin surface 11]

The Sea‑side State, (New Jersey,

fruit, vegetables—Passaic the falls of the Passaic—fisheries

Pennsylvania—

  • —valley of the Sus
  • —the Susquehannah river
  • —Alleghany Mts—in the forests the wild catalpa, and the laurel‑tree
  • —Staples—wheat & maize the great mines of iron & coal
  • "the Keystone State"
[begin surface 12] [begin surface 13]

Southern states

theAnimals, the alligator, the rattlesnake, & moccasin‑snake—the Humming birds, the turkey‑buzzard
  • the yellow‑pine (producing tar pitch & turpentine
  • " live oak
  • ' cypress
  • " graceful palmetto,
  • " scented bay tree
  • (magnolia
  • (orange
  • lemon
  • fig
Staples—cotton, sugar, rice, & tobacco —fruits—oranges lemons & figs—the sweet potato and the yam

  • Rivers

  • Roanoke —500 length
  • Savannah 600 miles
  • Altamaha 500
  • Alabama 500
 the sluggish rivers, flowing over the sands, or through swamps warm land,—sunny land, the fiery land, the rich‑blooded land, in hot quick‑mettled land, my land—land of impulse and of love [begin surface 14] [begin surface 15] —the sugar‑maple—in western Virginia
^The territory plenteous area— The three millions of square miles—the diverse spread The valley of the Mississippi—the Atlantic slope slope of to the Eastern s S ea—that to the Western s S ea—that to the great South Gulf.
[begin surface 16] [begin surface 17]

Georgia

Cotton and rice—(staples) the olive, the orange, indigo, cotton

  • (in the woods)

  • Oak,
  • pine,
  • hickory,
  • cedar

  • (animals)

  • deer,
  • wild turkeys,
  • (the alligator)
[begin surface 18] [begin surface 19]
The rich luxuriant forests, overhung charged with misleto—the ^odor, density, gloom, ^—the awful natural stillness, — no
[begin surface 20] [begin surface 21]
? Song Always the South, the Dear to me the sunny land, sweet land, the silvery land my land, wild generousthe fiery land, quick-mettled land, luscious and generous land, rich-blooded land, land of impulse and of love
[begin surface 22] [begin surface 23]
The Red River Rio Grande and with its tributaries, the Colorado and with its tributaries, t and and the Brazas and Sabine with theirs, [cut away]
[begin surface 24] [begin surface 25]
[cut away] —the thirteen thousand def towns, cities, and villages,
13,(000) 30,000,(000 | 2300
26
40
39
1
[begin surface 26] [begin surface 27]
principal products Delaware—wheat (The wheat of Delaware and Maryland
[begin surface 28] [begin surface 29]
The measureless maize fields of the earth—the tall, gracefull long-leafed maize—slender, bright-green—with tassels—with beautiful ears, each folded in its husks—the beautiful maize!
[begin surface 30] [begin surface 31]
An entirely new system, theory, & practice of Education, viz: to do that which will teach to think—every one for himself—giving facts, data
The honey and beeswax of Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee, The rice of South Carolina and Georgia—The wool of Ohio and of the Empire State,—the tobacco of Virginia and Maryland The cotton of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas,—The sugar of Louisiana.
[begin surface 32] [begin surface 33]

Delaware

—the Cypress Swamp— staple—wheat (flour)

Maryland

—river the PotomacPatuscent (100 miles Bay—the Chesapeake Bay —the western portion of Maryland, 2000 feet above the sea, forms p an elevated table land—the other portion is lower ^warmer & moister —manufactures of cotton, woolen glass, paper—& copper and iron rolling mills
[begin surface 34] [begin surface 35]

Florida

Rivers Apalachicola—(flows S into G of M) the springs— "the transparent lakes"—the Okeechobee the everglades "the Wakulla Fountain, bubbling up pure & cold trees the palm, ^the live-oak, the papaw, the titi with blossoms the parrots in the woods —the hummock land —the ^yellow pine & live-oak of Florida —the
[begin surface 36] [begin surface 37]

Mississippi

Staple—cotton

Louisiana

sugar-cane —the coast—the levee of the city Crescent City

Texas

cotton, sugar, corn, maize, wheat & wool Rivers—the Sabine—nav. 300 miles—the Colorado—the Brazos the rich soil and pleasant climate the herds of buffaloes and wild horses on the prairies.—
[begin surface 38] [begin surface 39]

Tennessee

The cattle and wool of Tennessee —Tobacco is a leading article "Old Tennesse​ "—T is the oldest of the Western States —settled first 1754

In Kentucky

salt-works, (quite extensive) Kentucky—the rich garden in the centre—
[begin surface 40] [begin surface 41]
silvery land, sweet land, —gen wild, generous land —land of luscious fruits—
[begin surface 42] [begin surface 43]

N. Carolina

The Great Dismal Swamp northeast part of N. Carolina, extending into Virginia—10x30 miles full of pine, juniper & cypress trees, with white & red oak in the drier parts Lumbering is carried on to a great extent—the yellow pine, so esteemed for its beauty and durability (it is what I see for spars &c, in the spar-yards—the men cutting with axes & adz
[begin surface 44]

North Carolina

—The coast its with rude sea-headlands —The gold mines —The valuable forests Mts The peaks of mountains peaks, the Bald Peak, the Smoky Peak, and the Pilot Peak Pamlico Sound—(it must be something like the L. I. South Bay) It communicates with the sea by inlets—Okracoke inlet is the principal one The forests of pitch pine (the tar, turpentine & lumber of this tree make one half the exports of the state) Soil—generally sandy
[begin surface 45] [begin surface 46] model North Carolina, with rude sea-headlands—N
[begin surface 47] [begin surface 48]

Georgia

Rivers —The Savannah, (its north Eastern boundary) —the rafts on the rivers —the island-studded coast —Nicojack Cave, with the huge mouth, and the flat floor laved by water, and the high roof of limestone —the pine-barrens

Alabama

Rivers the Mobile Tombigbee Coosa Staple—Cotton
[begin surface 49] [begin surface 50]

Virginia

The subterranean caves—the sulphur springs, with their medicinal waters Animals—deer, opossum, raccoon—The mocking-bird, and the wild turkey Minerals limestone and iIron, coal & limestone the Cip Capitol on Shockoe hill (Richmond Va. a picturesque, commanding hill, & the building looking down, as it were, over the town and upon James river) the
[begin surface 51] [begin surface 52]

Virginia

Salt—(3,00,000 bushels made annually)
  • —the Blue Mountains (260 miles long
  • —Otter Peaks —4260 ft high
  • —
River—the Potomac—500 miles the Great Kanawha The wild passage of the P The river Potomack—the wild passage through the mountains—the water dashed from rock to rock. The rocky bridge great chasm spanned by natural rock, sixty feet across—the stream flowing under
[begin surface 53] [begin surface 54]

South Carolina

—Rivers —the Great Pedee —the Santee the Edisto trees —the Palmetto—40 feet high (the "Cabbage Palm) —the laurel, with large white blossoms —^^Cotton rice, hemp, indigo, the sand wavy sand-hills of the middle-Country, like ^agitated waves—the pleasant table-lands beyond
[begin surface 55] [begin surface 56]

Arkansas

Rivers—the White river the Arkansas river 1200^m —the beautiful valleys of the Arkansas and the Washita —a great deal of this state in prairies— —"bottom lands, heavily timbered with —the otter, beaver, & raccoon —the sleeping lakes and stagnant bayous —the dead level in South generally the orange, lemon, fig, peach, grapes, pomegranate, dates, pears berries,—sweet potato ginseng, blood-root, snake-root
[begin surface 57]
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