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man, and enabled him to say, from travel and study, what few have been able to say, then or since, that the west would show great strength "sooner than most people would conceive." * That growth has ever since kept in advance of the conceptions of the average Atlantic statesman, and is constantly surprising even the students of western development. A few aggregate statements, made up to date, will confirm the prediction of Washington, and the comments which we have made on it.

Of the thirty-five cities classed in the last census as having a population of fifty thousand or more each, fifteen of them are beyond the Alleghanies. Even Boston, after all its annexations, is shut in, for its numerical positions, between Chicago and St. Louis-the latter a foreign town when Washington made the tour, and the former not born till near half a century afterwards.

Between 1870 and 1880, the population of the United States increased 11,920,000. "This is three times the European rate of increase and double that of England or Germany." "The increase of population in the United States exceeds the aggregate number of inhabitants in three kingdoms of Europe, namely, Holland, Denmark and Portugal." When it is considered that the centre of population in 1880 was eight miles west by south from the heart of the city of Cincinnati, it will be seen that much of this increase must have

* Sparks' 'Writings of Washington,' Vol. IX, p. 62, October 10, 1784.

been in the west. And that centre is about two hundred and twenty miles farther west than any point which Washington reached. He gained his impressions of "the immense extent and importance" of the United States without crossing that meridian of Cincinnati. In these ten years the live stock of the farming interests has increased thirty-three per cent., so that in 1880 the United States had 12,550,000 horses, 33,600,000 cows, 38,000,000 sheep, and and 35,000,000 hogs. In 1870 the wheat crop was 231,000,000 bushels and in 1880, 496,000,000. For the same years the corn was 992,000,000 and 1,480,000,000 bushels. This was a grain product of 181⁄2 per cent. above home consumption; and for the same time the meat supply was 36 per cent. above home consumption. "And yet," says Mulhall, "the Americans are apparently the best fed of all the nations." Of the grain, the average consumption per person in the United States is much more than double what it is in Europe. Of meats, the American consumes 120 pounds a year and the European 50%. This is very sensible and easy, since the United States produce thirty per cent. of the grain and thirty per cent. of the meat of the world, and have a surplus of 370,000,000 bushels of grain, and 1,076,000 tons of meat. And conversely, the scant rations of Europe are sensible and hard, since " Europe has a deficit of 380,000,000 bushels of grain, and 853,000 tons of meat annually."† It is needless to say that all these food

+ 'Balance Sheet of the World for ten years, 1870 supplies, for American tables totally,

-1880.' By Michael G. Mulhall, F. S. S., London,

1881, pp. 117, 118, 6.

+Mulhall, pp. 111, 119, 38, 39, 118, 12.

and for European so largely set forth in these vast figures, are furnished almost wholly by the west. All the wheat of New England would not call for her hot ovens three weeks a year. All the oats raised in New England in 1880 would feed all the working horses of the country only three days at a peck a day.

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The Americans now make one-fifth of the iron and one-fourth of the steel of the world half of the gold and one half of the silver of the world's supply. ,. Taking, in globo, all the mining interests, of the world, the United States

represents thirty-six, Great Britain thirty-three, and

the other nations thirty-one per cent. of the total.*

During the last ten years, 1870-1880, railway mileage has doubled in the United States, being forty-one thousand eight hundred and eighty-three miles. This is more than the entire increase in Europe for the same time. In the industries of the world, "at present Great Britain holds the foremost place, but the United States will probably pass it in the ensuing decade." As to taxation in the United States, it is nine and one-fourth per cent. on the earnings of the people, as against thirty-one per cent. in Italy, seventeen and a half in France, and twelve in Great Britain. After this array of facts, measuring the growth of our country, in so many of the essentials in national prosperity, Mulhall may well say: "It would be impossible to find in history a parallel to the progress of the United States in the last ten years."§

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It will be observed that the most of these items, as population, live stock and cereals, and the practical and special metals which have carried our nation, in a century, to the fulfillment of Washington's predictions, and to the very front among the nations of the world, were produced "out west." The aggregates given may not be unfamiliar to our princely and international men of commerce, and to eminent railroad men, but the great body of the people receive such statements with profound surprise and with the skepticism usually underlying the remark, "western stories." These immense gains of national strength have come " people conceive."

sooner than most

The very extent and development of our new country have put it to a disadvantage before the older sections, as regards its areas and increase and importance to the entire body politic, by compelling statements of them which

seem incredible to the unread and untraveled. Sometimes a lack of apprehension has been followed, rationally, by a lack of appreciation; and sometimes it has been so far measured and

estimated

as to create jealousy and stimulate repression by the older states. As to any attempts, however, locally and provincially, or nationally, to repress western growth, it was as futile as to serve an injunction on an active volcano, or move to stay proceedings in the process of an eclipse. Yet our history is not barren in this line. Failure to foresee and anticipate has led to some unfortunate neglects, and the loss of grand opportunities. Wealth has

rare foreknowledge, and the bees have discovered rich fields afar and made new hives in them; while sedentary benevolence has indulged memories rather than anticipations, and worked. over and over again the somewhat exhausted acres of the fathers.

In his own delicate and comprehensive way Washington hinted at the neglect by the Atlantic east of the west, which feeling he soon saw developed, even to opposition. The letter of General Putnam to him in 1783, revealed a chance for a noble movement into the west, and he gave it his favor, and soon learned how skeptical and suspicious

the east was of the west. The letter

was more than an epistle, in both volume and topic, and will hold place among eminent papers on the Mississippi valley, as inaugurating both the Ohio company and a general policy. By act of congress, October 27, 1787, then in session at New York, grants of wild lands in the Northwest Territory were made to the company, amounting to near five millions of acres. In obtaining these lands it acted for other parties jointly with itself, and finally obtained, as its own, 964,285 acres, and Washington signed many of the patents May 10, 1792. The Rev. Dr. Manasseh Cutler acted as agent for the company before congress. In a diary, quite minute, he says: The delegates from Massachusetts, although exceedingly worthy men, and in general would wish to promote the Ohio scheme, yet, if it should militate

against the particular interest of this state, by draining her of inhabitants, especially when she is forming the plan of selling the eastern country (province of Maine), I thought they would not be very warm advocates in our favor; and I dare not trust myself

with any of the New York delegates with whom I am acquainted, because that government is wisely inviting the eastern people to settle in that state. . . Few Bingham and Kearney are our principal opposers. . . . New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts would sell us lands at half a dollar an

acre.

The opposition which the Ohio company encountered in Mr. Bingham was eastern, and personal, and financial. This William Bingham, to whom reference has been made, and then delegate from Pennsylvania, was about this time the owner of nearly two and a half millions of wild land in the Province of Maine, and naturally would oppose the scheme before the continental congress, to put five millions of Ohio land on the There were other heavy public market.

eastern operations in wild land which stood in the way of the Ohio movement, and one more may be stated. In a letter to his secretary of state, Washing

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When Louisiana was added to our domain in 1803, the question of its settlement by immigration became a leading, and, at times, a very warm one. Under the treaty of cession Major Amos Stoddard took charge of the upper province for the United States, and thus states the great question:

Will the United States permit the sale of the public lands in Louisiana, and by this measure encourage the settlement of that country? . . . It has been suggested that the more effectually to promote the national interests, we must first dispose of the public lands on the east side of the Mississippi. Settlers entertain a predilection for the lands

.

in the upper Louisiana.*

lowest." Here is the plan to keep up the price of wild land east of the Mississippi, now much in private hands and tending that way, by withholding the new purchase from the market. But it did not succeed, and the price dropped to one dollar and a quarter. The author goes on to say of the purchase :

.

It secures us against the danger of depopulation by immigration from these states to Louisiana. . . The rage for acquiring lands in Louisiana and migrating thither to settle, if encouraged, must at no very distant day weaken and reduce the population in the Atlantic States, and not improbably all that lie eastward of the Mississippi. The consequence of such a seduction must prove ultimately fatal to the United States, for we may boldly pronounce that the confederacy can never be permanently extended beyond the Mississippi, nor preserved among its present numbers, whenever Louisiana shall become a populous country. Whenever that event takes place, the constellation of the present United States will probably set forever.

Here, as in the case of the Ohio company, the sale and settlement of the new lands in the west are made of doubtful policy because the east has so much unsold on the market. When the acquisition of Louisiana was probable, either by negotiation or conquest, popular discussion took up the topic, and in a tract, those who wished it through eclipse of that constellation! war are thus set forth :

The speculators of all kinds anticipate new scenes for their rapacity, and the eastern states indulge their apprehensions of the rising prosperity and strength of the western. +

Another author pleads the seaboard side of this question more pointedly, and shows the advantage of the purchase for the east, "in having effectually secured ourselves against future rivalship in the sales of our lands on this side the Mississippi. Our western lands now command two dollars per acre at the

*Sketches Historical and Descriptive of Louisiana.' By Major Amos Stoddard, 1812, pp. 259262.

The Mississippi Question Fairly Stated.' By Camillus, 1803.

Yet Iowa and Minnesota, and Missouri and Kansas have not caused an

Must we, then, never dispose of this immense quantity of valuable lands which we have purchased at such a price? No, never, as long as the United States have lands to dispose of and settle on this side the Mississippi. In no possible view can I perceive any benefit likely to result to the United States by opening a land office in Louisiana, whilst a thousand mischiefs threaten to flow any attempt of the kind.?

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And Sylvestris balances, finally, his hopes and fears over the Louisiana purchase with a fair prayer, in a pagan tongue, that the United States might discover the fact that they are already well off.||

'Reflections on the Cession of Louisiana to the United States.' By Sylvestris, August 10, 1803. Do., pp. 16, 22, 23, 24.

"O fortunati, nimium, sua si bona noverint!"

In 1807, Rhea of Tennessee proposed in the house some surveys in the Louisiana, that more of the public lands might be put on the market, but Varnum of Massachusetts opposed the scheme, and it was laid over.

A political and partisan philippic will show some of the darker shades of this question, as set in New England light, when the admission of the state of Louisiana was claiming attention:

There is no subject of complaint against the Democratic administration which presents such a variety of disgraceful features, which involved so many and so various causes of censure, in its origin, principles, progress and effects, as this shameful purchase of a colony of Frenchmen. In its origin it was corrupt.

. . In its principles, it was hostile to our constitution and unfriendly to our Republican habits.

. . In its effects it has been a vast whirlpool which has not only swallowed up the original purchase money of eleven millions and a half, but the immense sums which have been expended in exploring its unknown frontiers; in regulating, with France, the adjustment of boundaries purposely left unsettled; in fortifications and a navy for its defense, as well as

the maintenance of an army who have gone thither only to fertilize its soil with their miserable remains.

. . The origin of this monstrous purchase, the effects of which will be felt to our latest posterity, it is well known, is to be found in the necessity which the transmontaine or western states were under to have the free navigation of the Mississippi . . all to be charged to the account of those backwoodsmen, who are so hostile to commercial interests, etc.*

It would be unjust to the topic in hand not to introduce evidence from another source, and all the more worthy as furnished by a representative and deliberative body. What the Hartford convention of 1814 was called to do, or did, or failed to do, does not concern

The New England Patriot.' Being a candid comparison of the principles and conduct of the Washington and Jefferson administrations. Boston, 1810, pp. 58, 59.

our inquiry. Only its expressed sentiments on the east as related to the west are now pertinent.

In reporting the causes which the committee of the convention thought had sadly depressd the commerce, manufactures, trade and general business of New England, they state this as the sixth:

The admission of new states into the Union, formed at pleasure, in the western region, has destroyed the balance of power which existed among the original states, and deeply affected their inter

est.

In recommending measures of action for relief and future safety, a second committee reported:

2. That it is expedient to make provision for restraining congress in the exercise of an unlimited power to make new states, and admit them into the Union.

So far as the records show, this recommendation was adopted.

In commending this restriction of congressional power, the first committee, in their report, say:

By the admissions of these states that balance (between the original thirteen) has been materially affected, and unless the practice be modified, must ultimately be destroyed. The southern states will first avail themselves of their new confederates to govern the east ; and finally the western states, multiplied in number and augmented in population, will control the interests of the whole. Those who are immediately concerned in the prosecution of commerce will, of necessity, be always a minority of the nation. They are, however, best qualified to manage and direct its course by the advantages of experience and the sense of interest. But they are entirely unable to protect themselves against the sudden and injudicious decisions of bare majorities, and the mistaken or oppressive projects of those who are not actively concerned in its pursuits. Of consequence, this interest is always exposed to be harassed, interrupted and entirely destroyed upon pretense of securing other interests. Had the merchants of this nation been permitted by

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