État de Vermont - États-Unis, Montranant Les Fermes Abandonnés - le resultat de la Réciprocité Illimitée [The State of Vermont - United States, Showing the Farms Abandoned - as a result of Unlimited Reciprocity.]
- Title:
- État de Vermont - États-Unis, Montranant Les Fermes Abandonnés - le resultat de la Réciprocité Illimitée [The State of Vermont - United States, Showing the Farms Abandoned - as a result of Unlimited Reciprocity.]
- Alternate Title:
- [The State of Vermont . . . Showing the Farms Abandoned]
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Conservative Party of Canada
- Date:
- 1891
- Posted Date:
- 2024-04-25
- ID Number:
- 2502.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2502_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1870 - 1899
- Subject:
- Advertising & Promotion
Bias
Deception/Distortion
Politics & Government
Ethnocentrism - Measurement:
- 47 x 30 on sheet 69 x 36 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This is a rare example of a persuasive map used to support a political campaign after it was created for an entirely different – and somewhat antithetical - promotional effort.
In the March 1891 Canadian election, long-time Canadian Conservative Prime Minister John A. MacDonald ran for reelection on his "National Policy" of high tariffs against American imports. After an effort to adopt partial reciprocity failed, the Liberal Party, under the leadership of Wilfrid Laurier and Sir Richard Cartwright, campaigned on a platform of full reciprocity of trade with the U.S. See generally Pennington 2011. MacDonald responded that unrestricted trade was part of a secret conspiracy to cooperate in the annexation of Canada by the U.S. - "veiled treason." Ibid. 721.
This poster map was used by MacDonald's campaign to allege the harm that full reciprocity would cause to Canadian farmers. The map was created by Alonzo B. Valentine, Vermont's Commissioner of Agricultural and Manufacturing Interests. The counties shaded in gray on the map are those in which there are abandoned farms. The poster quotes from the Valentine’s Report to the state's General Assembly: "Over 1,000 farms in Vermont, once in cultivation, are now abandoned for agricultural purposes, half of which bear constructions in good order. . . . In a few cases almost entire counties are in this category. . . . a large part have a good soil, unworn, and can yield just as much as the surrounding farms. . . . there are 500,000 acres of this land, 10% of the area suitable for cultivation in the State." The poster states that New Hampshire and Massachusetts have produced similar reports, and that Maine is experiencing the same condition.
The message of the poster is explicit: "The Abandoned Farms" are "the result of Unlimited Reciprocity." "Canadian Farmers! Look at this picture and understand what 'Unlimited Reciprocity' is certain to mean for you. Vermont has always had 'Unlimited Reciprocity' and the result is that these farms . . . are ABANDONED - and without tenant or occupant. What will this mean for you? Exactly the same thing - no more, no less." In short, the Liberal agenda of abandoning tariffs "would spell ruin for farmers and annexation to the United States." While it is unclear what role, if any, the poster played in the campaign, MacDonald achieved a narrow victory.
While the poster is an effective example of cartographic persuasion, it is in fact based on a faulty premise. By the 1880s, "about one-third of Vermont's residents were first- or second-generation French Canadians," and the Governor had "a strong anti-Catholic bias." "Both inside and outside Vermont a growing sentiment demanded that the integrity and purity of rural Vermont be saved." Searls 2013, 142. The Commission on Agricultural and Manufacturing Interests was established by the legislature in 1888, and Valentine was appointed Commissioner, to find a better class of farmers.
Early in his tenure, Valentine decided that the solution was to recruit different immigrants to work and own Vermont farms: immigrants from Sweden. Swedes were thought ideal because they were regarded as frugal, hardy, hardworking, honest, peaceful - and Protestant. He came up with the idea of "abandoned farms" and a related map as a recruiting aid, and prepared copies in both English (which he distributed widely to newspapers and others across the U.S.) and in Swedish. The maps advertised "Good farms with impeccable buildings" and assured that "payments are easily done." Nothing in Valentine's work or Vermont's concerns suggested that the abandoned farms had anything to do with - let alone were the "result of" - trade or tariff policy. "Perhaps most of all, the story illustrates the pervasive anti-Catholic bias of the era, particularly as it applied to immigrants from Québec and their descendants." Ibid. 141.
A Swedish acquaintance of Valentine who was a successful farmer in Nebraska traveled to Sweden in December 1889, armed with the map, to find the desired immigrants. Beginning in April 1890, recruits from a dozen or two families traveled to Vermont, many of them relocating to farm communities. One of the planned Swedish colonies failed almost immediately, while others soon dwindled as the destitute families found work in Vermont's mills. As renewal of the program was considered in the fall 1890 legislative session, it became increasingly controversial, both because of its cost and the negative image of Vermont some Americans had taken from the campaign. Valentine produced his Report to the General Assembly in the hope of saving the effort, but he failed. Searls 2013, 144-46, 149-51, 153-60.
While the program has since generally been considered a fiasco, the widespread publicity in the United States of the Swedish colonization effort "play[ed] a major role in promoting summer tourism" (ibid. 157-58) and began a boom in sale of Vermont land for second homes that continues today. But whatever one concludes about Valentine's map and his program, neither had anything to do with tariffs or trade.
Cornell University Library is pleased to present this digital collection of Persuasive Maps, the originals of which have been collected and described by the private collector PJ Mode. The descriptive information in the “Collector’s Notes” has been supplied by Mr. Mode and does not necessarily reflect the views of Cornell University. - Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.