From British America. 117,142 From China (in California almost exclusively) "It is not ascertainable how many have returned to foreign countries, but they probably do not exceed a million. If the present partial check to immigration should continue, though it is hardly probable, the number of immigrants for the decade ending in 1870 may possibly be reduced from 2,707,624 to 1,500,000. "The ascertained average increase of the whole population in the seven decades from 1790 to 1860, which is very nearly 33 per cent., or one-third for each decade, would carry the present numbers (31,445,080) By the year 1870, to.. From which deduct for the possible diminution of immigrants, as above.... There would remain.. 41,926,750 1,207,624 40,719,126 "Mr. Kennedy, the experienced Superintendent of the census, in the Compend published in 1862, at page 7, estimates the population of 1870 at 42,318,432, and of 1880, at 56,450,241. The rate of progress of the population of the United States has much exceeded that of any of the European nations. The experieneed statisticians in the present Congress can readily furnish the figures precisely showing the comparative rate. The population of France was, in "Being about 37 per cent. in the 60 years. It does not include Algeria, which has a European population of 192,746. "The population of Prussia has increased since 1816, as follows: Being at the rate of 79 per cent. in 45 years. "The population of England and Wales was, in Showing an increase of 121 per cent. in 60 years, against an increase in the United States in 60 years, of 593 per cent. “The natural and inevitable result of this great increase of population, enjoying an ample supply of fertile land, is seen in a corresponding advance in the material wealth of the people of the United States. For the purpose of State taxation, the values of their real and personal property are yearly assessed by officers appointed by the States. The assessment does not include large amounts of property held by religious, educational, charitable, and other associations, exempted by law from taxation, nor any public property of any description. In actual practice, the real property is rarely assessed for more than two-thirds of its cash value, while large amounts of personal property, being easily concealed, escape assessment altogether. “The assessed value of that portion of property which is thus actually taxed increased as follows: In 1791 (estimated), $750,000,000; 1816 (estimated), $1,800,000,000 ; 1850 (official valuation), $7,135,780,228; 1860 (official valuation), $16,159,616,068, showing an increase in the last decade alone of $9,023,835,840. "A question has been raised, in some quarters, as to the correctness of these valuations of 1850 and 1860, in embracing in the valuation of 1850, $961,000,000, and in the valuation of 1860, $1,936,000,000, as the assessed value of slaves, insisting that black men are persons and not property, and should be regarded, like other men, only as producers and consumers. If this view of the subject should be admitted, the valuation of 1850 would be reduced to $6,174,780,000, and that of 1860, to $14,223,618,068, leaving the increase in the decade $8,848,825,840. "The advance, even if reduced to $8,048,825,840, is sufficiently large to require the most attentive examination. It is an increase of property over the valuation of 1850, of 130 per cent., while the increase of population in the same decade was but 35.99 per cent. In seeking for the cause of this discrepancy, we shall reach a fundamental and allimportant fact, which will furnish the key to the past and to the future progress of the United States. It is the power they possess, by means of canals and railways, to practically abolish the distance between the seaboard and the wide-spread and fertile regions of the interior, thereby removing the clog on their agricultural industry, and virtually placing them side by side with the communities on the Atlantic. During the decade ending in 1860, the sum of $413,541,510 was expended within the limits of the interior central group known as the 'food-exporting States,' in constructing 11,212 miles of railway to connect them with the seaboard. The traffic receipts from those roads were: In 1860, $31,335,031; in 1861, $35,305,509; in 1862, $44,908,405. "The saving to the communities themselves in the transportation, for which they thus paid $44,908,405, was at least five times that amount; while the increase in the exports from that portion of the Union greatly animated not only the commerce of the Atlantic States, carrying those exports over their railways to the seaboard, but the manufacturing industry of the Eastern States, that exchange the fabrics of their workshops for the food of the interior. "By carefully analyzing the $8,048,825,840 in question, we find that the six manufacturing States of New England received $735,754,244 of the amount; that the middle Atlantic, or carrying and commercial States, from New York to Maryland, inclusive, received $1,834,911,579; and that the food-producing interior itself, embracing the eight great States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri, received $2,810,000,000. This very large accession of wealth to this single group of States is sufficiently important to be stated more in detail. The group, taken as a whole, extends from the western boundaries of New York and Pennsylvania to the Missouri river, through 14 degrees of longitude, and from the Ohio river north to the British dominions, through 12 degrees of latitude. It embraces an area of 441,167 square miles, or 282,134,688 acres, nearly all of which is arable and exceedingly fertile, much of it in prairie and ready at once for the plough. There may be a small portion, adjacent to Lake Superior, unfit for cultivation, but it is abundantly compensated by its rich deposits of copper and of iron of the best quality. "Into this immense natural garden, in a salubrious and desirable portion of the temperate zone, the swelling stream of population, from the older Atlantic States and from Europe, had steadily flowed during the last decade, increasing its previous population from 5,403,595 to 8,957,690; an accession of 3,554,095 inhabitants, gained by the peaceful conquest of nature, fully equal to the population of Silesia, which cost Frederick the Great the seven years' war, and exceeding that of Scotland, the subject of struggle for centuries. "The rapid influx of population into this group of States increased the quantity of the 'improved' land, thereby meaning farms more or less cultivated, within their limits, from 26,680,361 acres, in 1850, to 51,826,395, in 1860; but leaving a residue, yet to be improved, of 230,308,293 acres. The area of 25,146,054 acres, thus taken in ten years from the prairie and the forest, is equal to seven-eighths of the arable area of England, stated by its political economists to be 28,000,000 of acres. "The area embraced in the residue will permit a similar operation to be repeated eight times successively, plainly demonstrating the capacity of this group of States to expand their present population of 8,957,690, to at least 30,000,000, if not 40,000,000 of inhabitants, without inconvenience. "The effects of this influx of population in increasing the pecuniary wealth as well as the agricultural products of the States in question, are signally manifest in the census. The assessed value of their real and personal property ascended from $1,116,000,000, in 1850, to $3,926,000,000, in 1860, showing a clear increase of $2,810,000,000. We can best measure this rapid and enormous accession of wealth, by comparing it with an object which all nations value-the commercial marine. The commercial tonnage of the United States, in 1840, was, 2,180,764 tons; in 1850, 3,535,454 tons; in 1860, 5,358,808 tons. |