xt7tqj77tf37 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7tqj77tf37/data/mets.xml Gallagher, William D. (William Davis), 1808-1894. 1850  books b92-217-30936463 English H.W. Derby & Co., : Cincinnati : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Northwest, Old. Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio. History Societies Ohio. Facts and conditions of progress in the North-west  : being the annual discourse for 1850, before the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio; delivered April 8, the sixty-third anniversary of the first settlement of the state / by William D. Gallagher ; with an appendix, containing a sketch of the history of the society, and other matter. text Facts and conditions of progress in the North-west  : being the annual discourse for 1850, before the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio; delivered April 8, the sixty-third anniversary of the first settlement of the state / by William D. Gallagher ; with an appendix, containing a sketch of the history of the society, and other matter. 1850 2002 true xt7tqj77tf37 section xt7tqj77tf37 





         FACTS AND CONDITIONS



                     OF




PROGRESS IN THE NORTH-WEST.



                 BEING THE


      ANNUAL DISCOURSE FOR 1850,

                   BEFORE

THE HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF OHIO; DELIVERED
    APRIL 8, THE SIXTY-THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST
            SETTLEMENT OF THE STATE.



      BY WILLIAM D. GALLAGHER.





              WITH AN APPENDIX,

CONTAINING A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE SOCIETY, AND
                 OTHER MATTER.





               CINCINNATI:

       PUBLISHED BY II. W. DERBY & CO.



1 8 50.

 




















Entered according to act of Congress, in the year of our Lord, 1850.
                BY H. W. DERBY & Co.,
in the Clerkls Office of the District Court for the District of Ohio.














    PUTBLICATION ORDERED BY THE SOCIETY.



         CINCINNATI:
H. W. Derby e Co., Priseters.

 


                 DI SC O U R SE.


   BY the constitution of the Historical and Philosophi-
cal Society of Ohio, it is made the duty of the President
of this association, at the anniversary each year, to de-
liver a public discourse on some subject lying within the
appropriate fields of its investigation. Occupying, at the
present time, the position referred to, I appear before
you, Gentlemen of the Society, for the purpose of dis-
charging the duty thus imposed. And the theme to
which I have thought proper to invite your attention, is
THE FACTS AND CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS IN THE NORTH-
WESTERN SECTION OF THE UNITED STATES.
    That part of American Literature, which is made up
of the different descriptions of the Public Discourse, de-
livered on occasions of anniversary and other periodical
celebrations, though characterized by a brilliant diction
and a philosophic spirit, and informed with the learning
of by-gone ages, has been too often deficient in the great
events bearing upon our own immediate times, and, corn-
sequently, lacking in that prophetic spirit, whose broad
and intelligent survey extends at once over the past and
the future, and founds upon the present an encouraging
hope for man.
    The great majority of these discourses, which do not
perish in the day that gives them birth, are evidently the
work of abilities far beyond my own, and filled with a
wisdom to which I make no pretensions. It would ill be-

 
4



come me, especially on an occasion like this, to usurp the
seat of literary justice, and pronounce judgment upon
them, even if satisfied, as I am not., that their defects
were many. All I mean to say is, that it seems to me
they too often, though filled with the wisdom of Egypt,
the art of Greece, and the grandeur of Rome, though
charged with the learning of the European Continent and
instinct with the spirit of liberty that has moved with a
mighty presence from the Isle of Britain, yet fail to pro-
duce and array, as they might, the facts that have borne
upon our own past, and shape our immediate present, and
will enter into our near and far future. Many of them
have also been deficient, I think, in making that clear
and distinctive presentation of the conditions of our pro-
gress as a people, which would be useful to us, both as
Warning voices and as guiding hands.
    In attempting to do for our own section of the Union,
what so many have failed to do for other sections and for
the whole, I may be undertaking that which is beyond
the capabilities of a single discourse, and fail also. But
feeling, in the broad and beautiful region of country to
which I belong, an interest surpassed by that of no other
man; having watched its progress for a quarter of a cen-
tury, with a closeness that has permitted little to pass un-
observed; and possessing some views as to its future ad-
vancement, which are the result of my best reflections, I
feel impelled, be the hazard what it may, to make the
attempt.
  My subject divides itself naturally into two parts: the
first, treating of the facts of our past progress; the sec-
ond, of the conditions of our future advancement.

 


    I   The Facts of Past Progress in the A1okth- Western
States.

    The facts of our past progress, I do not propose to
show in anything like detail. This would be an encyclo-
pedic task - even were it desirable - for which I should
not have time, nor you patience. Beside, our history is so
recent, that its details are familiar to the minds of all of
adult age. The general features of that progress, with
the grand outline of the domain upon which it has been
made, are all that I shall attempt to present.
    PROGRESs being one of those indefinite terms, which are
made, in the using, to mean, at times, almost anything,
and at other times almost nothing, it may be proper to
determine its signification as employed in this discourse.
Ordinarily, it is made to stand for almost anything in the
nature of movemient, physical, moral, or spiritual - for-
ward, sidewise, or backward. Here, it is used in its most
comprehensive sense, as the equivalent of the term Hu-
man Civilization. But even this explanation may be un-
satisfactory; for CIVILIZATION itself is a word more easily
understood through its popular signification, than defined
from its classical origin. Symbolically, it may be de-
scribed as a plant of everlasting growth, whose roots are
in the nature of man, which germinates in his savage
state, which sends up its stately trunk and develops its
beautifuel foliage in his political or social condition, which
unfolds its flowers only in a state of human excellence
that has not yet been reached by any nation of the earth,
and which finally matures its fruits among the angels of
heaven, in the Great Hereafter. Or it may be presented

 
6



as an unbroken chain of events and consequences, whose
beginning is in the soul of man as he exists upon earth,
whose links are perfect to the Eternal Eye, though to the
human vision their connection is often lost, whose differ-
ent sections stretch from historic epoch to epoch, under
the Supreme design and guidance binding together the
whole, and whose end is in the bosom of God.
    But in less abstract terms, Civilization may be de-
scribed as that part of human progress which takes man
in his savage or his nomadic state,- that state which had
its type in the Gothic hordes before the Conquest of
Rome, or that which is represented now by the wild In-
dian tribes of the North-American Continent, -and in-
structs his understanding, cultivates the affections of his
heart, elevates his tastes and desires, improves his physi-
cal condition, till he is endowed with the arts generally of
peaceful and associated life: agriculture, commerce, trade,
manufactures, science, painting, sculpture, music, litera-
ture, and others of the more elegant and refining accom-
plishments of Society.
    The art and the weapons of war belong to the nomadic
and the savage state, as do also religions, and, to some
extent, the marriage relation, with more or less skill in
rude fabrics. These, therefore, are not peculiar to civili-
zation, though existing with it, and carried by it to a
condition of refinement of which their original state gives
but the feeblest promise.
   Neither Christianity, nor a knowledge of God, is
necessarily a part of human civilization, in all its first
developments, even to a state of very great perfection.
The Apostle Paul found a high civilization at Athens,

 

7T



where temples the most beautiful the world has seen
were dedicated, in express terms, "To THE UNKNOWN
GOD." Robespierre lived amid the highest civilization
known in the eighteenth century, and in it the names of
God and Christ were both mocked, and Human Reason
was enthroned as the Supreme Intelligence.
    lIodetn civilization, however-which is but another
term for Christian civilization-has a more compre-
hensive signification than the word Civilization simply.
The ancient civilizations were essentially selfish. Kings,
priests, and nobles, were the almost exclusive recipients
of their bounties, while the masses of people remained
ignorant, oppressed, superstitious, and were of little
weight in either the church or the state.' Amid the
splendors of those old civilizations, agriculture, commerce,
and manufactures, flourished; the art of war was carefully
cultivated; and, among the opulent and selfish few, the
elegant arts, literature, science, and the refinements of
life generally, were carried to a high state of perfection.
But all this was for the castes and orders, and not for the
masses of men. The results were, the elevation of the
few, and the degradation of the many.
    From those ancient civilizations, the modern civiliza-
tion differs essentially. It is emphatically the civilization
of MAN: not that of kings, priests, and nobles.     It is
pervaded by the spirit of Love-the spirit of Jesus-
which is a spirit of good to man. It is full-charged with

    From this general characterizing, the Hebrew civilization,
which had the knowledge of God, and was in some peculiar
manner under his immediate direction, is, of course, excepted.

 
8



the promises of the Gospel, which promises come to all
who shall hear and heed them. It speaks to the
poor and lowly, as nothing else has spoken, but the
voice of the Son of God. It says to the proud noble,
whose brows are decked with'a dazzling coronet, to the
priest at the altar, dressed in' his shining vestments, to
the monarch on his imperial throne, whose word is fate to
the millions over whom his dominion extends, and whose
blazonry of diamonds, and stars of gold, and robes of
purple, rival the luster of the glittering heavens: "Dust
thou -art, and unto dust shalt thou return!" while to the
humblest human being, who looks up from his low estate
and his hard toil, and blesses God, it shouts: "Be of good
cheer! Thou art a man! The Son knoweth thee, and
the Father forgetteth thee never! The day of deliver-
ance draweth nigh!"
    The ancient civilizations were sensuous: the modern
civilization is spiritual. The ancient civilizations encour-
aged distinctions: the modern civilization proclaims, in
tones that thrill and echo through the universe, "God is
no respecter of persons!"  The ancient civilizations made
of woman a slave to man's caprices, appetites, and power,
and denied her anything approaching to equality of state
with him: the modern civilization declares her equality,
praises and protects her virtues, seeks to educate her in-
tellect and develop her deepest affections, and proclaims her
"a ministering angel" amid the doubt, and suffering, and
nefarious wrongs of life. The ancient civilizations built
the pyramids and the palaces of Egypt, founded the mag-
nificent empires and the rich cities of Asia, erected the tem-
ples of Greece, and constructed the Appian Way and the

 
9



Roman Aqueducts: the modern civilization builds the
common school, the christian church, the lunatic asylum,
the institution for the blind, the school for the deaf and
dumb, the hospital, and the almshouse. The ancient
civilizations inclosed their cities, and even their countries,
within high and strong walls, to protect them alike from
the rapacity and the weapons of neighboring peoples:
the modern civilization connects its cities by good roads
and canals, to invite visits from one another, and con-
structs railways from state to state, and across continents
from ocean to ocean, to facilitate intercommunication, and
thus brings and binds peoples together, instead of walling
them apart. The ancient civilizations decorated the
walls and columns of their temples and dwellings with
paintings and sculptures, representing personal conflicts,
conquerors returning from battle bearing the dismembered
heads of the slain, and other evidences of the bloody
exertion of brute strength: the modern civilization fills
its private residences and public halls with paintings and
statues that awaken the purer associations, call into
activity the higher sentiments, and fill the mind and
heart with images of beauty, truth, holiness, and love.
The ancient civilizations sent armies abroad, to conquer
and subdue with the sword and with fire: the modern
civilization sends the schoolmaster and the missionary
abroad, to conquer and subdue with intellectual light,
with gospel truth, with human and divine love.
   Such in itself, and such by contrast, is Modern Civ-
ilization: the Progress of which I speak. Eighteen
hundred years ago its seeds were sown in Palestine and
the Holy Land, and since then they have been silently

 
10



but ceaselessly germinating, and springing up, and spread-
ing over the world, which is sooner or later to feel their
presence in its whole extent. Just at this time, from
the wickedness and folly of other nations and the favors
shown our own, the elements of a civilization still higher
than even this, seem to be gathering on the wide territo-
lies of the United States. The physical and moral
grounds upon which this is basing itself, and the social
and spiritual conditions of its advancement, are topics
which would seem to be worthy the consideration of all
classes, but especially of the Historical Student and the
Christian Philosopher.

   On the North-American Continent, scooped out by
the hand of Omnipotence with wonderful adaptation to
the wants of man, and the purposes of his existence, lies
the most stupendous and favored Inland Valley upon
which the sun shines. Having for its eastern edge the
Allegheny and the Cumberland Mountains, and for its
western the Rocky Mountains and the Black Hills, for
its northern rim the summitlands between Lake Win-
nipeg and the headwaters of the Mississippi River, and
for its southern the Guadalupe Mountains and the Gulf
of Mexico, it extends in one direction over twenty-four
parallels of longitude, and in the other embraces eighteen
degrees of latitude. Within it are all the varieties of
temperate climate, and all the geological and topograph-
ical features that are essential to fit it for the residence
of man. It produces in perfection all the fruits and
vegetables that are most valued by civilized communities
for wholesome and nutritive properties, and all the grains

 
11



that are so associated with the history of mankind, as to
have received the name of "the staff of life." Its rivers
are the most wonderful known to Christendom, and its
lakes are so large, and commercially so important, as to
have been designated "inland seas." Its mineral wealth
is beyond computation; the richness of its soil is inex-
haustible; and its general adaptation to the purposes of
agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, is unsurpassed,
perhaps unequaled, by that of any other part of the
earth,
    Geographically, it is difficult to conceive of anything
better than the position of this great valley, whose plains
stretch west from the base of the Allegheny Mountains
to the Mississippi River, with an almost uniform pitch in
that direction, and east from the base of the Rocky
Mountains to the same water, with an almost uniform
pitch in this direction, the two natural divisions meeting
in that great trough, and finding on its edges their lowest
common level. Into the immense channel on this level,
pour, generally in an east and southeast direction, the
waters from  the hither slopes of the Rocky Mountains,
and the drainage from the western half of the great
valley: into it also pour, generally in a west and south-
west direction, the waters fi'om the hither slopes of the
Alleghenies, and the drainage of the eastern half of the
valley: showing that not only have the two natural
divisions of this Great Basin Plain an eastern and a
western declivity, but that both divisions have also a
common pitch to the south, which at the same time
cairies their surplus waters into the Gulf of Mexico,
exposes their fertile bosoms to the warm and generating

 
12



beams of the sun, and secures to them       an unfailing
prevalence of gentle and salubrious winds.
    The western of these two natural divisions of the great
valley under view, is for the most part a desert land, and
much of it must for a long course of years remain so.
Some of it, also, is totally unfitted for the abode of man,
and will forever continue an uninhabited waste. But the
uniformly cultivable character of the eastern division, is
one of the most remarkable features of this region. This
division is watered as is no other known country, and di-
vided into uplands and lowlands, hillranges and interve-
ning valleys, heavily-timbered tracts and naked prairies,
which alternate over much of its surface in a manner the
most favorable to the productive interests of life. Up-
land and lowland, prairie and forest, alike have a soil of
great fertility, the capacity of which to produce, under
good tillage, is inexhaustible.
   In this division of the great valley, natural and artifi-
cial causes have induced a subdivision, the more impor-
tant part of which is called the NORTH-WEST. The region
thus known has an almost uniform south-western expo-
sure, and embraces nearly the whole of the valley north
of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes, stretching from the
western slopes of the Alleghenies to the Mississippi River,
and beyond that great natural line ascending the west-
ern division first to the eighteenth parallel of longitude
west from Washington, then to the nineteenth parallel,
and finally (in Minnesota) to the twentieth. This region,
as now organized and civilly divided, embraces the States
of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Michi-
gan, Iowa, and Wisconsin, with Minnesota Territory,

 

13



the aggregate superficial area of which is 478,349 square
miles - to which I add a small strip of Western Virginia
and Western Pennsylvania lying immediately upon the
Ohio River, and on its two forming tributaries chiefly near
their point of confluence, and obtain, in round numbers,
the grand territoral extent of 500,000 square miles, or
three hundred and twenty millions of acres: ' a territorial
superficies greater than the entire extent of the Original
Thirteen States of the Union.
    This is the great field of observation, that is now spread
before me. And ere surveying it, with a view to my ulti-
mate purpose, it is necessary to go back to some specific
period, as a starting point from which to trace its pro-
gress. We are now just at the middle of a hundred
years. The meridian line of the nineteenth century is
over our heads. Fifty years is but a short time in the his-
tory of great nations: and fifty years ago the oldest State t
of this region, was admitted into the Union. To the be-
ginning of this century, then, let us turn, for a moment,
and see what there was in the region under view, at that
time, to invite the presence of civilized man. At Pitts-
burgh, at Marietta, at Cincinnati, at the Falls of the Ohio,
on the Muskingum, the Kentucky, the Wabash, the Up-
per Mississippi, and the Illinois Rivers, and scattered about
at a few other points, were small villages, composed in
part of hardy adventurers, soldiers, and traders, in a small
degree of men of education and ambition, who had sought

   See note A.
  t Kentucky, it is true, was admitted in 1792, but did not fairly
get "under way" as a State till 1799, when she amended her
Constitution.

 
14



the region that they might grow up with it to wealth and
distinction, and to some extent of religious missionaries
and their converts from among the aboriginal tribes.
There were none of the refinements of life here, and but
few of its comforts. The whole population of the State of
Kentucky was then 220,955 persons, that of what is now
the State of Ohio was 45,365, and that of Indiana 4,875.
And this was about all: 271,195 persons, scattered over
an area of 500,000 square miles - making an average of
one person to a fraction less than two square miles. On
the Ohio River were a few barges and keelboats, and now
and then one or two of this description of craft would
ascend the Upper Mississippi to St. Louis; but the waters
of the Illinois, the Wabash, and other streams, and those
also of the Lakes, were still swept by the birchen bark of
the Indian. Ten years later, Kentucky had a population
of 406,511 persons, Ohio of 230,760, Indiana of 24,520,
Missouri of 20,845, Illinois of 12,282, and Michigan of
4,762: making an agregate of 699,680, or one person
on the average to about every three quarters of a mile
square.
   The tide of emigration had now fairly set in this direc-
tion. Little communities were pitching their tents and
building their cabins on most of the better streams. The
settler's ax resounded through the depths of the wilder-
ness in all directions, and the blue smoke curled above
the tops of the tall trees, at once advising newcomers of
the presence of a habitation, and giving the watchful sav-
age note of a place where he might strike at those who
were encroaching on his old heritage. The Indians were
now receding fast before the whites -going reluctantly, but

 

15



every year further and further - their dark forms disap-
pearing in the recesses of the wilderness, as the dusky
shadows of a dark and unblest age, recede and disappear
before the light of a high, Christian civilization. And
all this continued - and in another period of ten years,
the population of the region had swelled to 1,423,622.
   A new agent of civilization and settlement was now in-
troduced. The keel of the steamboat had been plowing
the waters of the West for three or four years. This de-
scription of navigation was no longer a mere experiment.
Speaking relatively to what was then attempted, it had
succeeded; and every time the escape of steam or the
splash of the paddles woke the echoes of the still solitary
shores, a requiem sounded for the departing Indian, and a
song of gladness went up for the arrival of his adventur-
ous successor. The genius of Fulton was, in the hands
of these adventurers, the Lamp of Aladin: it opened to
them freely the doors of the Great West, frightened away
their enemies, and displayed to their enraptured gaze, the
many and glittering charms of this beautiful land. And
still the paddles dashed the waters - and still the pier-
cing shriek of the escapepipe woke the deep echoes -
and still the child of the forest receded further and further
-and still rolled on the stream of emigration, through the
gaps of the Cumberland, over the hights of the Alleghenies,
down into the rich valley through which coursed the calm
waters of the Ohio. And another period of ten years
passed - the third decade in the half century - and the
population was become 2,298,390.
  By this time, over nearly the whole broad bosom of the
region which I have mapped out, were scattered the habi-

 
16



tations of men, and introduced the institutions of christian,
civilized life. In the- interiors of its different sections, the
wigwams of the savage had given place to the cabins of
the newcomers, and the farmhouses of the first settlers.
On the small streams, which everywhere sent up their
glad voices, giving to the deep solitude a tongue that
was eloquent, the hand of enterprise had taken the wil-
ling waters, and borne them to the clattering wheels of the
manufactory, where they labored and yet sported, and,
like virtue, were overruled and yet free. On the broad
lakes, on the mighty rivers, the arm of Steam
          "That fleshless arm, whose pulses leap
          With floods of living fire,"-
was propelling the gigantic hull, freighted with hundreds
of human beings, coming from afar to cultivate the land,
to fabricate its crude products, to engage in trade and
commerce, to " multiply and replenish the earth." On the
great natural highways, populous cities had taken the
place of the primeval groves, and the schoolhouse, the
chur'ch, the depots of commerce, and the elegant mansion,
invited the on-coming multitudes to seek in and around
them new and better homes. And the years of the fourth
decade were told, and the population had swelled to
4,131,370 souls.
  Still went on the work. The seat of a commerce of
hundreds of millions per year, was this now populous
region. The marts of its trade were filled with the sur-
plus products of its soil, which were borne away in thou-
sands of vessels, to feed the hungry in less-favored lands.



See note B.

 
17



Its flocks were feeding on unnumbered hills, and in count-
less fields its crops sprang up, and ripened, and bowed be-
fore the sickle. That subtle Power, which by water had
brought its myriads of people to its- generous bosom, and
borne its rich products away in exchange for what its own
soil did not yield, scorned longer to be confined to the
rivers and the lakes, and their comparatively slow-moving
keels. Springing upon the dry land, and seeking the
iron tracks which science and labor had laid on the lev-
eled earth, he clutched the loaded car with his invisible
fingers, and bore it fiom point to point, for hundreds of
miles, with an ease and a velocity before unknown-
            "The beatings of his mighty heart"
still sounding through the storm or the calm, and giving
the only note of his approach, as he rushed through for-
est and field, over streams and marshes, and around the
bases of many hills, with his gigantic burden. Nor was
this enough. For commerce it might have been, and for
bodily transit from place to place, bat not for thought.
And next flashed upon human genius the still more sub-
tle essence of the electric spark; and hither came its whis-
pering wires, stretching from hill to hill and from state to
state, crossing mountains, leaping ravines, spanning rivers,
and bearing to the depths of this far Interior, in the
twinkling of an eye, the message spoken a thousand miles
away, on the outer rim of the vast Continent. And the
human tide has still rolled on and on - and the re-
moter forests of this region have been pierced and sub-
dued, till the solitudes that, at the period from which this
retrospect started, heard only the eternal chime of the
       2

 
18



Falls of St. Anthony, and the wild voices of the dark
Chippeways, are filling With the homes of civilized man,
and becoming vocal with prayers and hymns of thanks-
giving to God. And the fifth decade has gone by, and
seven millions now number the population of this region,
which a half century ago, as was shown, contained less
than 300,000 souls!
    Only two prominent facts remain to be mentioned, as
entering into and assisting this wonderful progress. One
of them is that blessed boon, the Ordinance of 1787,
which sprang from the profound regard of the Fathers of
the Republic for the Rights of Man, and forever closed
the doors of all that part of the region under view, which
lies north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi rivers,
against the entrance of human slavery; the other is the
evidence which the settlement of this region has afforded,
that it lies in just that geographical belt of the globe, to
which the natural sagacity of man leads him, when he is
departing from an old and seeking a new home. These
two facts, I shall consider together. The circumstances that
connected them, indeed, render them almost inseparable.

   A year ago, in preparing for publication some historical
and statistical matter about the North-West, I had occa-
sion to construct a series of tables, for the purpose of ex-
hibiting the influence of lines of latitude on increase of
population. Though I shall not burden your minds with
a repetition of these tables here, yet some of the results
thus obtained I shall use, as fully answering my present
purpose. And, With a view to what is to be done here as



 See note C.

 

19



well as to what has been done, I start out with the distinct
proposition, already intimated, that the region of country
of which I am treating - the North-West - lies in the
geographical belt the most favorable of any, to the growth.
and support of a numerous, athletic, free, and enterprising
people.
    There is an accepted theory among political econo-
mists, I know, that, as the productiveness of land depends
principally on heat and moisture, and these increase as
the equator is approached, the nearer you go to that
line the more luxuriant and uninterrupted becomes the
vegetation; and hence the completer the abundance of
food, and the greater the capacity of supporting a numer-
ous population. And to sustain this theory elaborate
tables have been constructed, setting forth, among other
things, that maize, which produces forty or fifty for one
in France, will produce one hundred and fifty on the
average in Mexico; that an arpent of land, which will
scarcely support two men when sown in wheat, will
support fifty when planted in bananas; that the same
extent of ground which supports four persons at the
latitude of sixty degrees north, will support fifteen at
the latitude of forty-five, and one hundred at (0) the
equator; and that as eighty-five is to thirty-five, so is
the productiveness of the useful soil within thirty degrees
of the equator, as compared with that of the useful soil
beyond thirty degrees and within sixty-the latter being
capable of supporting two hundred persons to each square
mile, and the former four hundred and ninety persons.
   Though mean temperature, which is influenced by
altitude, as well as latitude, is an important element in

 
20



calculations of this kind, and may very materially modify
the preceding theory, yet, that this theory is true in
respect to that sort of persons whom bananas and other
tropical fruits will produce and satisfy, I do not care to
dispute. Indeed, so far as the theory applies to mere
numbers, I am willing to admit its correctness. But mere
numbers do not make great nations. The men of bananas
are not the men of muscle or mind-not the men among
whom free, Christian institutions can be successfully
introduced, and the arts of production, fabrication, and
exchange be made to flourish. The latitude of the
banana may present fascinations to an effeminate emigra-
tion, as that in which Nature produces food without the
necessity of physical or intellectual exertion on the part
of those who are to consume it, and in which clothes are
not among the necessaries of life. So, too, a barbarian
emigration, driven by wars or oppressions from the frozen
North, may seek again the latitude of the polar bear,
whose flesh will satisfy the cravings of hunger, and whose
skin protect from the severity of cold-the natural
enemy to be encountered being thus converted, as it
were, into the friend that feeds and clothes. But the
latitude of the cereal grains, of the wholesome and
various fruits of the northern temperate zone, of wool,
and flax, and hemp, is that which a civilized emigration
will seek. And this is the latitude of THE NORTH-WEST-
the region which I have designated "the most favorable
of any, to the growth and support of a numerous, athletic,
free, and enterprising population."
    Let us see, now, what the history of the last half
century will say to this theory.  By the year 1800,

 
21



the American people had achieved their political Inde-
pendence, and fairly started in their career of national
greatness. The principal states then south of thirty-six
degrees thirty minutes, were North Carolina, South Caro-
lina, and Georgia-contiguous territory, and all lying on
the Atlantic seaboard. The aggregate superficial area of
these states is 131,500 square mniles. Their total popu-
lation in the year 1800 was 985,795, and in 1840,
2,039,209. This shows an increase, in forty years, of
1,053,414, or nearly 107 per cent. for that period.
    The nearest eq