Primary tabs
3
Notice.
The following pages were written the latter part of December 1866, and the first part of January 1867, but the publication has been delayed until the present date. In the meantime, the current of public thought and events touching the matter herein contained, has flowed in support of its general truth.
Though the work is very brief in its character and treatment of great questions, and to many will appear extravagant in its phraseology, yet the data that furnished its foundation, and which gave birth to its ideas are held to be correct, as they come from reliable sources. Believing that there is nothing written herein to injure the common good of all, but that every page, however feeble, is an indication of something better to the great Republic and her people, it is submitted by one who, though humble, has no selfish motive to gratify, nor no higher aspiration than that of contributing something for the good of his country and the human race.
ST. LOUIS, MO., June 1867.
4
Quotations.
"I cannot believe that civilization, in its journey with the sun, will sink into endless night to gratify the ambition of the leaders of this revolt, who seek to
And shut the gates of mercy on mankind’;
"It is perhaps impossible to tell what may be the exact result of this South Carolina nullification, but do what she will, conspire with many or few, I am confident that this Union of our fathers — a Union of intelligence, of freedom, of justice, of industry, of religion, of scicne and art, will, in the end, be stronger and richer and more glorious, renowned and free, than it has ever been heretofore, by the necessary reaction of hte crisis through which we are passing." — Gov. Yates' Inaugural, January 1861.
5
The New Republic or the Transition Complete.
Introduction.
MAN, by nature, by creation, and by miracle, stands at the head of all on earth, and is the master work of God.
Coming forth into being, as from an oriental sleep, on the morning of creation, with the full consciousness of his dominion over the beasts and the birds, and like them instinctively taught that his wants and necessities must be satisfied by the sweat of his brow, he set about his mission on earth in Eden.Not long had he surveyed the place of his domestic habitation, until his faculties, his capacities, and his ambition sought wider range, and he leaped the narrow boundaries of Eden and began the journey of man westward around the earth.From that twilight epoch in the far east has the human race wandered forth from the rising toward the setting sun, for more than ten thousand years.Led on by patriarchs, warriors and ambitious adventurers, conquest and commerce have steadily expanded and carried with them civilization, the arts and sciences.
After thousands of years of seemingly barbaric adventure, over the wilds of Asia and Africa, with here and there a distinguished but temporary growth of science, art and civilization, commerce took up her abode around the Persian Gulf and sowed the seeds of a more permanent and advanced civilization.
"Historic records, commencing with the arrival of progressive civilization at the extremity of the Mediterranean, relate from tradition the antique Empire of Bacchus and the religion of Zoroaster on the Ganges and the Indus.The Chaldeans of the Persian Sea followed.Fleets came from the extreme Orient into
6
the Bengal Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea; and caravans overland by the Oxus and the Caspian brought the camel, the horse, cattle, manufactured wool, silks, cotton and metals, agriculture, commerce and coin.Empires expanding westward along the Ganges, the Euphrates and the Nile, reached to the Mediterranean and the Euxine.From Egypt, Phoenicia and Colchis sprung European Greece.Such as progress is to-day, the same has it been for ten thousand years.It is the stream of the human race flowing from the east to the west, impelled by the same divine instinct that pervades creations.By this track comes the sun diurnally to cheer the world.Thus come the tides of men and the waters, learning, law, religion, the plague, the small-pox and the cholera.The sources of life and happiness — the pestilence that saddens both.It is within a belt of the earth straddling the 40th° of North latitude that the greatest mass of land surrounds the world, and where the continents most nearly approach.Within this belt, from 30° to 50°, four-fifths of the human race is assembled, and here the civilized nations, of whom we possess any history, have succeeded one another, commencing at the furthest extremity of Asia and forming a zodiac towards the setting sun.This succession has flowed onward in an even course, undulating along an issothermal line, until in our time the ring is about to close around the earth's circumference by the arrival of the American nation on the coast of the Pacific which looks over into Asia."Following this stream of the human race has been a continued expansion of commerce and civilization.From the narrow limits of the Persian Gulf commerce sought wider range in the expanded Mediterranean, where is grew and flourished for centuries, till its growth demanded more room, and it passes from the Mediterranean to the wide embrace of the Atlantic Ocean.This advance constitutes the most remarkable epoch in commerce and civilization in the world's history.It led to the discovery of the New World, and gave to the human mind a new impulse, and developed in an extraordinary manner and in unparalleled combination, every element of known civilization and barbarism; and applied them all with the most daring energy and ambition to serve the selfish ends of nations and individuals.
The wide Atlantic and the New World became the theatre of
7
tragedy and transition, yet "each notable deed, in government or religion, implied a whole continent of future progress and liberty."Time has rolled on and the wide Atlantic is no longer sufficient to answer the demands of the expanding commerce, and from her shores the pioneer of land and sea is already seeking the shores and bosom of the vast Pacific Ocean to find room for their commerce, their energy, and their ambition.Thus it is the tide of commerce has ever been westward and wider.The goal of civilization will be found when the Pacific Ocean and her shores are fully mastered by the human race.The New Republic.
It was reported of General Banks, that soon after he entered the army at the beginning of the rebellion, while standing upon Arlington Hights, in view of Washington, with other officers of the army, and discussing the causes and consequences of the war, he pointed to the Capitol, and said: "There stands the last of the old Government, out of this struggle with come a new one."This declaration was heralded over the nation and read the next day by millions who gave it prophetic credence.It is herein proposed to show that the late rebellion was a transition struggle, through which the nation was compelled to pass to reach a higher plane of civilization, and that it has almost completed the transition, and in the consummation of such an eventful change, new ideas, new hopes and new aspirations will grow in the minds of the striving millions of the Republic, which, fed and strengthened by the wonderful expansion of the commercial and industrial interests of the nation, will demand a change of national Empire and a removal of the Capitol from Washington to the banks of the great Mississippi.A few of the facts will be here presented which, by succession and by combination point to the under life current of the Republic as it moves in its progressive and westward career to that maturity and strength which of right will demand the change.
Current incidents and events, pregnant with volumes of fruitful history, teach us that we live in no ordinary times.The great flood of light which modern culture has cast over the face of the world and reflected back on history, that progress is stimulated not only by the peaceful arts and industrial achievements
8
of formal and friendly peoples, but even by spoliation, which has developed new energies and devised new means, and that wars stimulate progress, have planted and invigorated nations, and that even religion, promulgated by ambition, prayer and the sword, has given historical fame to Jerusalem, the land of Palestine, and the Saracens, no less than it has to New England and Mexico."The fatal dispatch that ordered fire to be opened upon Fort Sumter, gave notice to the world that the era of compromise and diplomacy had ended."
The struggle which then commenced was one which the great statesman, not only of the United States but of other lands, had long anticipated.Neither human experience nor human history had furnished any instance where political differences, growing out of the great antagonistic social relations in the same Government, had been disposed of without revolution.The proneness of men everywhere to cling to existing wrong with the same tenacity that they cling to truth, renders it impossible to dispose of by legislation great errors that grow upon nations.Therefore it was with reasonable expectation that the Government was swiftly drifting to an internecine struggle long foreseen as an impending punishment for national sin.Any nation passing through a struggle imposed by Providence, as a scourge or chastisement for wrongdoing, may justly be said to be passing a transition state, and thereby being made better for triumphing over an error.The evidence of a transition is to be seen in the fact that a nation, which passing the struggle and casting off an old error, becomes in the future wiser and better.Chastisements and better experience for individuals as well as nations, like physical exercises, if not so severe as to impair vitality, are important though unwelcome teachers.
That the late national struggle has worked enduring good for the Republic, however great the sacrifice, is already fast becoming evident.Not only is freedom established throughout all the land, in fact as it was in theory, but the melting down of sectional bitterness and local hatred, added to growing and expanding industry unknown before in one-half of the country, is the most gratifying evidence of endless good obtained by the passage of the Red Sea.The accumulation of wealth, the enlargement
9
of industry, the spread of education and the absolute guarantee of fraternal as well as political union, are fruits of the transition, more valuable than market-price can ever command.But the gain is not to be hemmed in by selfish, State and governmental lines, it is for all men.The sacrifice was made for the human race in every land, and upon the islands of the oceans.Henceforth wherever the name of the great Republic is sounded throughout the world, with it will be associated the idea of a bulwark on the side of human rights, and universal industry and education, with a lawful guarantee and protection to all.These attained and the transition complete, who will say that we have not passed to a higher plane of national life — who will say the Republic is not saved and made wiser and better for having undergone the sacrifice.Nations and men, by an inherent law of progress, are compelled, as they approach riper years, to out-grow the errors contracted in infancy and early life, and those errors that are not disposed of in a legitimate and lawful way are disposed of by penalty and by revolution.
The United States has not escaped this certain and infallible law of correction, and what she failed in due time to do by legislation, Providence has done for her by revolution.It was a heathen custom to expiate great crimes by a paramount sacrifice.Such has been the obligation imposed upon the United States by Him who "sits on the high and hold place, and send his rains upon the just and the unjust."
The Republic having made the heathen sacrifice and atoned for the sin of slavery, and cleansed her garments of its stain, it is now to be seen whether we are not on the threshhold of a new era, pregnant with unlimited political progress and commercial expansion.Let us see with the eyes of Cassandra what is in the future.
The Mission and End of the Republican Party.
An appropriate name, the UNION PARTY, was given to all those who supported the administration of Abraham Lincoln for the suppression of the rebellion, and the consequent preservation of the Union.The rebellion having been suppressed, and new political issues having arisen out of the contest, which were in
10
advance of the old ones, and being radical in their character, the name of the Union party was abandoned, and in its stead was substituted that of the RADICAL PARTY.This party, having control of the government, will give coloring to the political sentiment of the nation, until it is restored safely from the difficulties of the rebellion into the hands of the loyal people, with constitutional guarantees for enlarged and universal liberty to all; or, in other words, the Radical party will continue in existence until it elects another President, during whose administration the transition will be completed, and the Republic will fully pass from a state of slavery and limited rights to a state of absolute liberty and equal rights to all.The New President.
In the selection of the new President it behooves the American people to select a man of large comprehension, true manhood, unbounded patriotism and devotion to the Republic — a matured statesman, who stands out in advance of his people as a worthy executive of a great nation; for his full installment into office will be the final guarantee of the safe passage, of the old ship of State through the transition storms of the rebellion, the peaceful and perfect healing of the nation from all the wounds and local prejudices among the people, the complete settling up of the affairs of the old order of things and the coming in of the new Republic.
Under the administration of this new President will be inaugurated more great movements, wise legislation for the Republic, and industrial advances by the people, than have occurred in any other part of our history or the history of the world.
The new President fully installed into office and entering upon the broad and national mission of his duties, the Radical party will melt away into the great people, whose hearts will throb in unison and devotion to an all-embracing Constitution, and the common interest of a common country.This will constitute a marked step in the new Republic.
For a time partisan spirit will be lost in the great swell of national devotion that will come from its new dedication.
11
The New Capital.
Among the many great advances that will be made under the new President will be the removal of the Capitol from Washington to the banks of the Mississippi.The truth of this will be shown in other pages.The commercial expansion and multiplication of new States in the great West, and their preponderating millions of industrious and intelligent people dwelling in the Mississippi valley, will claim its removal.In a speech made at St. Paul in 1860, Mr. Seward, in referring to the growth of the Great West, said the time was not remote when she would gather to herself the strength of the Republic, and the power and control would pass from the hands of the East into those of the West, and that the Capital would come to the banks of the great Mississippi.The day for this great change of national importance is at hand.Let no man be blind to the coming change.Let no American statesman be so weak as to contend that cost of the public buildings at Washington is a sufficient guarantee for the permanency of the Capital at that place.The cost in due time will weigh nothing in the balance of power. Not even a wall around the city of Washington, with a cherubim and flaming sword upon its ramparts, can hold the seat of Empire from the Great West.When the time comes for change the public mind will be up to the occasion, and fully prepared to convert the present government buildings into great and far advanced national schools; and at the new Capital, rear buildings far more magnificent in splendor and proportions any yet reared by human hands.
A New Constitution.
Under the new President a new Constitution will be made for the Republic.National progress and national necessities aided by the advanced wisdom of American statesmen, will demand a reconstruction of the fundamental and organic law adapted to the advancement of the people — a Constitution simple in its structure and plain in its meaning, and containing two fundamental ideas of Government — power and liberty — power unquestionable and subject to no false interpretation, and not misunderstood by any, and all-embracing and all-protecting to
12
every human being who seeks shelter from tyrants and wicked men under it — a Constitution fully fitted to the advanced and eventful times in which we live.Such a Constitution will be demanded by the people of the United States, and sought for through a special National Convention.Material Power and Progress.
The honest and intelligent citizen is always proud of his country, and feels for her welfare as he does for himself and household.For many years it has been conceded by the nations of the earth that the great Republic of the West, or the United States, was, though young, the best Government in the world, both in her political and natural advantages.
The superiority of her political system comes from its being purely republican in form, while the configuration of her territories are hemmed in by approximate latitudes, and diversified with all the natural advantages that a country can posses.
However proud the true citizen may be of the greatness of the Republic as she now is, it is evident that she is only a child, with scarcely its swaddling clothes put off and still resting and growing in the parent arms of two vast oceans; but with a vigor and rapidity of growth unparalled in history or experience.Each succeeding year adds prodigies of industry and enormities of wealth that baffle the genius of the statistician, the statesman and the tax gatherer.The change is wonderful.Years ago, before the railroad, the telegraph and steamboat were known, it was the rule for the pioneers, with his ox-cart, his axe and hoe, to go before and build his log cabin in the wilderness, and after him the canoe and the horse mail would come.Not so now.The telegraph, steamboat and railroad go before in rapid march, and instead of the pioneer, with his axe and hoe and log cabin, the village is spread upon the prairie with the magic of the tented field, and the plow takes the place of the hoe.Instead of the school house, the church and the printing office being, as of old, the products of half a generation, they now take their places among the institutions of advancing civilization in a month and a year.The loom and the anvil, the steam engine and the artisan, also keep pace with the advanced guards of industry and institutions.
13
Leaving the simple statement of or national past, present and prospective, we shall proceed at once to collate and present in tabular form the evidence of our nation's genius, wealth, industry and greatness, as we can gather them from the United States census and other reliable sources.
That we may carry out and present intelligently to the reader the object of the world, we shall divide the United States and her territories into four local divisions, as follows:
I.The Atlantic slope with her present and future mechanical and commercial relations to all the balance of the nation.
II. The Mississippi Valley, from the Alleghany mountains to the twentieth parallel of west longitude, or from Lake Winnipeg to the mouth of the Rio Grande, will comprehend the great grain growing district of the United States.
III. From the twentieth parallel of west longitude to the thirty-fifth, will constitute essentially the great American pasture or stock growing region.
IV.From the thirty-fifth parallel of west longitude to the Pacific Ocean will embody the Pacific slope, and ultimately constitute that portion of the continent upon which will culminate American civilization — the birth-place and home of the greatest poets, seers and scholars the world ever saw.
Having stated our four grand divisions, we shall proceed with the work before us.
The superficial area of the United States, including all the territories, is 3,010,250, subdivided as follows:
| Square Miles | |
| The Atlantic slope | 514,416 |
| Mississippi Valley | 1,574,087 |
| Pacific slope | 987,254 |
The sub-divisions, with annexed figures just given, is the old geographical division of the country made long before its commercial and industrial interests had received any reliable proportions, and when the white man knew but little of the Far West.We shall only use this old division for geographical purposes, and the new division for the purpose of illustrating the future progress and development of civilization upon the continent.
The Atlantic slope has a superficial area of 448,919 square miles, which is, with the exception of Russia, more than twice
14
as large as any government in Europe.Its general surface is broken and mountainous.Its soil is good, but has become considerably worn in many parts, by long cultivation.Minerals of incalculable value are scattered throughout the extent of the Atlantic slope; also timber of the best quality and kind is abundantly in all its parts.Such are the natural advantages of this part of our common country that it will ever be, as it now is, a first class manufacturing and commercial region.The advantages in this direction are so great that the New England and Atlantic States, making the first division in our classification, will constitute the great manufacturing and commercial portion of the United States, and also the great consuming district.Advanced skill and economy, controlled by accumulated and concentrated capital, has already widely distinguished the citizens of the Eastern States in the markets of the world.With them, for a time, will remain the seat of learning.The Mississippi Valley has a superficial area of 1,016,687 square miles, which is more than twice as large as all the Atlantic States, and almost as large as all the governments of Western Europe.Two-thirds of this portion of the United States constitutes the great grain growing district, and one-third of it the great American pasture.Within this valley is the finest body of Agricultural land in the world.It also abounds with inexhaustible minerals, consisting of iron, lead, coal, copper, and other metals.
The Pacific slope has a superficial area of 987,254 square miles, which is more than twice as large as the Atlantic slope.This portion of the country is favored with the great mountain chains and beautiful valleys, and untold wealth of precious metals.No country in the world has such strong natural characteristics combined together — its minerals, its mountains, and its fertile valleys, with varied climate — the country, as a whole, may further be viewed in its ocean boundaries and navigation facilities.
It is estimated that over two-fifths of our national territory is drained by the Mississippi river and its tributaries, and more than one-half is embraced by what may be called its middle region, one-fourth of its total area belongs to the Pacific, and one-sixth to the Atlantic proper, one-twenty-sixth to the
15
Lakes, one-ninth to the Gulf, or one-third to the Atlantic, including the Lakes and the Gulf.In reference to the facilities for water transportation, a calculation was made at the office of the Coast Survey, for 1853, which gives for the total main shore line of the United States, exclusive of Sounds, Islands, &c., twelve thousand miles, of which fifty-four per cent belongs to the Atlantic coast, eighteen to the Pacific, and twenty-eight to the Gulf coast; and that if all these were to be followed, and the rivers entered to the head of tide water, the total line would be extended to 33,069.Of the available river navigation there is about a thousand miles each, belonging to the Pacific and Atlantic slopes, and about ten thousand miles to the Mississippi valley.
Taking the continent as a whole, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from our northern boundary to the Gulf, it is not equaled in natural advantages by any country on the globe, and none other is more calculated to facilitate the advancement of civilization.Its immense navigable advantages, its dense forests, of every variety of valuable timber, its outstretching expanse of fertile lands, and its inexhaustible and incalculable minerals, all combine to make it the greatest, commercial, agricultural, mechanical, and wealthy nation on earth.In support of this statement, let us appeal to the fact, and then see, after a careful examination, if we can judge anything of the future by the past.
Turning for a moment from the physical aspect of our country, we will briefly examine its present condition, as presented by the work of civilization, and from the conditions of improvement, and the existing evidence, draw whatever conclusions seem to be most warranted by the facts.Appealing to the United States census as the most elaborate and reliable array of facts, we shall present a condensed tabular statement, classified according to the old geographical divisions of the country, and thereby show the growth of each division, and what are capacities of each.Taking for a basis the census reports of 1850 and 1860, we herewith submit a table, or statement, showing the material growth of the country at that time, and also the respective growth of the Atlantic slope, the Mississippi valley, and the Pacific slope.
The Atlantic slope comprises the following States: Connecticut
16
Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia and District of Columbia.The Mississippi Valley includes the following States and Territories: Arkansas, Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and the Territories east of the Rocky Mountains.
The Pacific slope embraces the States of California and Oregon, and the Territories of Arizonia, Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Washington.[See table, pages 19 and 20.]
By reference to the tabular statement, [pages 19 and 20] showing the material growth of the whole country, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, it will be seen that in 1850 the States of the Atlantic slope were in advance of the Valley States in almost every practical and available interest belonging to the agricultural pursuits.Corn and wheat were the two principal products in which the Valley States excelled at that time.The Atlantic States had more land under cultivation, and a greater number of improved farms, the cash value of which was far greater than that of the Valley States; but the progress of ten years shows a wonderful change.When we compare the growth of 1850 with that of 1860, the advance is like the growth of a continent.
In 1850 the aggregate of improved lands in the Atlantic States was 63,965,491, at a cash value of $1,991,599,378.In the Valley States the aggregate of improved lands was 48,885,479 acres, at a cash value of $2,232,941,038.In 1860 the aggregate of improved lands in the Atlantic States was 73,882 853 at a cash value of $3,132,561,500.In the Valley States the aggregate of improved lands was 87,034,199 acres, at a cash value of $3,446,702,533, showing in the space of ten years an advance of the Valley States over the Atlantic States, of 12,151,346 acres of improved land, and a preponderance of cash value to the amount of $314,141,053.
In addition to this wonderful growth of the West, the States and Territories of the Pacific slope have advanced from 181,644 acres of improved land in 1850, at a cash value of $6,033,010, to
17
3,537,668 acres of improved land in 1860, at a cash value of $67,780,934.These figures are most gratifying in their showing.The whole growth of the West, in agricultural pursuits, is unparalleled in the history of the human race, and yet the Republic is in its infancy.Massachusetts has but little more than one-half her acres under cultivation, while Illinois has far less than one-half her lands in farms.The improvements of the other States, in all the kindred elements of agriculture, are about the same ratio.But what are these half developments, when compared with the full growth of the country?The territory of the Valley States is more than three times as large as that of the Atlantic States, and with their incomparable advantages for agriculture, must lead the way in the pursuit of husbandry.Manufacturing.
While it is true that to the West belongs the great agricultural interests of the country, it is also true that to the East, or Atlantic States, belongs the manufacturing interest.The East is yet the great brain and bee-hive of the Republic.A wealth and natural advantages, have given to those States the capacity, and made them the home of the mechanic arts.We need only refer to the census reports for conclusive evidence upon this point.In fact, it is universally known that the Manchesters, the Birminghams, and the Sheffields, of the New World, belong to New England, and other portions of the Atlantic slope, and to those districts of the country will they continue to belong.
The whole people are ready to concede to that policy of industrial organization, with judgment and wisdom, that confers profits and advantages on all parts of the country.
It has long since been conceded, that, owing to the largeness of the nation, the trade, the industry and pursuits of the people must be diversified, in order to be profitable to all.The adaptability of each portion of the country, for certain leading interests, aids in the classification of the pursuits.Each portion has been considered in relation to some leading branch of industry: New England and the Atlantic States, on account of their immense advantages for the manufacturing business, over the agricultural, have been recognized and accounted the manufacturing and commercial districts, while the Mississippi Valley, with her superior soil and natural agricultural advantages, legitimately becomes the great grain growing and stock raising portion; and the Pacific slope, with her mountain system and varied and picturesque country, will, in due time, open up a new manifestation of commercial, social and civil progress, which will, in its character, be purely American.
Having laid the ground work, with some outline, we shall now proceed with the facts, deductions and conclusions, to show what can and ought to be the future of the Republic.
18
| Atlantic | Slope | Mississippi | Valley | Pacific | Slope | |
| Description of Resources | 1850 | 1860 | 1850 | 1860 | 1850 | 1860 |
| Population | 13,255,254 | 15,903,802 | 9,813,117 | 14,993,427 | 107,271 | 491,153 |
| Area, square miles | 423,197 | 423,197 | 1,899,811 | 1,899,811 | 627,256 | 627,256 |
| Land improved in farms, acres | 63,965,491 | 73,882,853 | 48,85,479 | 87,034,199 | 181,644 | 3,537,668 |
| Land unimproved in farms, acres | 84,598,954 | 93,679,468 | 90,736,948 | 142,567,264 | 4,191,998 | 7,763,090 |
| Cash value of farms | $1,991,599,378 | $3,132,561,500 | $1,232,941,038 | $3,446,702,533 | $6,033,010 | $67,780,934 |
| Value of farming implements and machinery | $78,826,805 | $105,820,439 | $72,389,639 | $134,292,513 | $371,194 | $3,985,091 |
| Live Stock, Horses | 1,441,447 | 2,054,269 | 2,460,078 | 3,987,645 | 32,194 | 207,260 |
| " Asses and Mules | 760,785 | 270,187 | 396,128 | 641,056 | 2,411 | 5,805 |
| " Milch Cows | 3,435,181 | 3,194,557 | 2,931,345 | 4,450,022 | 18,568 | 281,151 |
| " Working Oxen | 816,236 | 755,084 | 866,348 | 1,393,995 | 18,160 | 45,832 |
| " Other Cattle | 4,619,672 | 4,545,368 | 5,372,231 | 9,099,605 | 280,276 | 1,075,314 |
| " Sheep | 10,663,775 | 8,704,355 | 11,013,228 | 12,644,001 | 36,218 | 1,221,919 |
| " Swine | 10,167,505 | 9,767,182 | 20,152,783 | 23,254,291 | 33,925 | 554,672 |
| Value of Live Stock | $280,479,888 | $502,975,639 | $257,926,413 | $617,616,940 | $5,774,215 | $44,325,528 |
| Wheat, bushels | 47,630,178 | 53,306,897 | 48,474,581 | 102,057,361 | 336,973 | 7,229,988 |
| Rye, " | 12,805,283 | 15,287,195 | 1,382,214 | 4,958,375 | 316 | 55,844 |
| Indian corn, bushels | 180,029,595 | 201,638,663 | 359,912,515 | 636,456,595 | 25,053 | 682,486 |
| Oats, bushels | 82,865,111 | 98,216,624 | 63,656,947 | 72,350,255 | 72,114 | 2,130,306 |
| Rice, pounds | 205,439,416 | 179,427,085 | 9,874,081 | 7,730,807 | — | 2,140 |
| Tobacco, pounds | 94,102,203 | 215,472,069 | 105,646,057 | 218,732,827 | 1,395 | 3,565 |
| Ginned cotton, bales (400 lbs each) | 899,615 | 1,278,646 | 1,545,178 | 4,108,270 | — | 136 |
| Wool, pounds | 27,881,509 | 26,502,154 | 24,581,022 | 30,765,734 | 44,428 | 2,997,035 |
| Peas and beans, bushels | 5,696,433 | 8,585,405 | 3,514,321 | 6,263,209 | 9,147 | 213,381 |
| Irish potatoes, " | 46,906,072 | 69,996,473 | 19,016,138 | 39,749,331 | 144,586 | 2,403,068 |
| Sweet potatoes, " | 19,834,295 | 21,391,242 | 19,432,803 | 20,488,724 | 1,064 | 214,860 |
| Barley, " | 4,216,763 | 6,169,419 | 938,741 | 5,258,605 | 11,511 | 4,457,867 |
19
| Buckwheat, bushels | 7,111,179 | 13,012,306 | 1,639,101 | 4,180,596 | 332 | 80,411 |
| Value of orchard products | $5,268,494 | $10,657,206 | $2,435,701 | $8,072,064 | $18,971 | $1,262,615 |
| Wine, gallons | 73,861 | 356,645 | 89,333 | 1,081,187 | 58,055 | 249,360 |
| Value of market garden products | $3,805,066 | $10,261,210 | $1,285,580 | $4,584,374 | $189,384 | $1,273,904 |
| Butter, pounds | 200,161,424 | 257,882,960 | 111,968,204 | 167,217,182 | 295,478 | 4,572,630 |
| Cheese | 80,042,817 | 73,239,325 | 25,124,948 | 28,920,068 | 68,128 | 4,524,545 |
| Hay, tons | 10,213,398 | 10,836,040 | 3,308,028 | 6,822,187 | 7,216 | 359,769 |
| Clover seed, bushels | 316,945 | 555,224 | 152,027 | 180,531 | 6 | 1,533 |
| Grass seed | 300,226 | 282,184 | 116,583 | 563,227 | 22 | 4,629 |
| Hops, pounds | 3,291,549 | 10,148,740 | 205,422 | 272,014 | 58 | 1,162 |
| Hemp, dew rotted, tons | 232 | 301 | 32,961 | 52,979 | — | 1 |
| " water " | 57 | 76 | 1,621 | 3,788 | — | 114 |
| " other prepared, tons | — | 3,574 | — | 13660 | — | — |
| Flax, pounds | 3,355,485 | 2,622,285 | 4,343,641 | 2,093,355 | 1,190 | 4,505 |
| Flaxseed, bushels | 213,140 | 142,130 | 349,067 | 424,668 | 5 | — |
| Silk cocoons, pounds | 4,855 | 1,172 | 6,088 | 10,772 | — | — |
| Maple sugar | 22,577,904 | 28,030,706 | 11,675,532 | 11,989,699 | — | — |
| Cane sugar, hhds., 1000 lbs each | 3,673 | 3,072 | 233,141 | 227,910 | — | — |
| Molasses, gallons, in 1850 | 760,030 | — | 11,940,879 | — | 82 | — |
| Cane Molasses, gallons, in 1860 | — | 1,005,600 | — | 13,968,396 | — | — |
| Maple " " " | — | 484,378 | — | 1,277,770 | — | 46 |
| Sorghum " " " | — | 575,372 | — | 6,056,909 | — | 26,342 |
| Beeswax, pounds, 1860 | — | 539,633 | — | 721,827 | — | 1,327 |
| Honey " " | — | 10,359,970 | — | 12,541,339 | — | 18,353 |
| Beeswax and honey in 1850 | 5,944,794 | — | 8,908,986 | — | 10 | — |
| Value of home made manufactures | $18,160,123 | $8,414,632 | $16,525,229 | $15,789,436 | $8,392 | $402,788 |
| Value of animals slaughtered | $60,799,400 | $92,478,822 | $50,564,074 | $115,818,366 | $339,688 | $4,433,444 |
20
The Atlantic Slope.
The Atlantic slope, with less than one-third the territorial valley, does now, and will, embody the great commercial and manufacturing system of the American Government.Also, for some years to come, the people of the East will act as the brain and teacher of the balance of the population.These elements of civilization will essentially characterize and distinguish that portion of our country.The superior natural advantages, the cheapness, the improved facilities for transportation, the concentration of wealth, and the advanced skill — all unite to make the Atlantic slope a permanent home for the mechanic arts, and give to her cities the control of our foreign commerce.
The Mississippi Valley.
Passing westward of the Alleghany mountains, we at once enter the Mississippi Valley, or that portion of country drained by the Mississippi and her tributaries.Crossing westward over this valley, to the west line of Missouri, we span the great grain growing district, which will constitute and essentially embody the agricultural system of the United States.It is proper and profitable to survey the present condition, and look forward to the possibilities of this portion of our country.The land, from the western line of Missouri to the Rocky mountains, constitute the western half of the valley, or the great American pasture — the stock raising region.
In this valley, as we have previously seen, are 1,574,087 square
21
miles, which is more than one-half the whole country.Not one-fourth of this whole area of country is under cultivation.It constitutes the finest body of agricultural lands in the world, while its mineral resources are inexhaustible.It also has the most stupendous system of internal navigation of any country, and with the least obstacles for its artificial expansion.Minerals.
Of the mineral interest of the Mississippi Valley, the two great natural sources are about Lake Superior and in Missouri.The Lake Superior Mines are said to be in mountain masses, sufficient to furnish an unlimited quantity of the purest iron for all time.They occupy a bolt from six to twenty-five miles wide, and about one hundred and fifty miles long.
The Missouri mines, consisting of iron, coal and lead, are not probably surpassed in the world.Of the mountains of iron, we gather, briefly, from Prof. Swallow's very able geographical report of the State of Missouri: Shepherd Mountain is 660 feet high; its ore is magnetic and specular, containing a large per cent of pure iron.Pilot Knob is 1,118 feet above the Mississippi; its base is 581 feet from the summit.The upper section of 141 feet is estimated to contain 14,000,000 tons of ore.Iron Mountain is 228 foot high, and the solid contents of the cone estimated to weigh 230,000,000 tons.At a depth of 180 feet an artesian auger is still penetrating solid ore.
Lead has been discovered in more than five hundred localities. It runs through twenty counties, and intersects an area of more than 6,000 square miles.The usual average of all mines, though unskilfully worked, from 1840 to 1854, was 400,000 pounds of ore.
Coal underlies a large portion of Missouri.There are some 26,887 coal fields in the State.It is estimated that in St. Louis county there are 160 square miles of coal, and in Cooper county 60,000,000 tons.It is further estimated that it would take 3,000 years, at 100,000 tons per day, to exhaust the coal of the State.
These showings, together with the countless other mineral resources of the Valley States, furnish abundant evidence of the unlimited expansion of mineral and metallic industry at their head and center.
22
Of the agricultural interest of the Valley States we shall not attempt to say anything.All efforts in that direction would be in vain.No calculations, no figures, could definitely approach the facts that another quarter of a century would reveal.It is sufficient to state that the unsurpassing progress of an industrious and intelligent people, in an unequaled land, is a sure guarantee for a wonderful expansion.
Commerce.
Of the commerce of the Valley States much can be said.The growth of population, and the increase of surplus products, necessarily demand great and extended facilities for transportation and travel.Not only have the thousands of miles of our net work of railroads failed to meet the wants of the public, but the demand is still greater for enlarged canal facilities.Already the Valley of the Mississippi embraces a drainage area of 1,224,000 square miles, which is near one-half of the entire area of the United States.
Its navigable rivers are as follows:
Mississippi, from the Gulf of Mexico to Fort Snelling — 2,131 miles.
Missouri, from Mouth to Bosman — 3,525 "
Ohio to Pittsburg — 1,036 "
Washita to Arkadelphia — 601 "
Red River to Jefferson — 720 "
Yazoo to Le Flore — 257 "
Little Red to Searcey Landing — 45 "
Arkansas to Fort Gibson — 800 "
White to Forsyth — 692 "
Black to Pocahontas — 150 "
Currant to Doniphan — 60 "
Tennessee to Florence — 289 "
Cumberland to Nashville — 193 "
Osage to Osceola — 200 "
Kansas — 200 "
Big Sioux — 75 "
Yellow Stone — 800 "
Minnesota — 295 "
St. Croix — 60 "
Monongahela to Geneva (slack-water, 4 locks) — 91 "
Muskingum to Dresden do 8 do — 100 "
Green River to Bowling Green do 5 do — 186 "
Kentucky to Brooklyn do 5 do — 117 "
Kanawha to Gauley Bridge — 100 "
Wabash to La Fayette — 335 "
Salt to Shepherdsville — 30 "
Sondey to Louisa — 25 "
NOTE. — Steamboats have ascended the Des Moines to Des Moines City, Iowa River to Iowa City, Cedar River to Cedar Rapids, and the Moqueketa to Magaketa City, but only during temporary floods.
23
By this showing we have an internal navigation of the Mississippi Valley of about 13,173 miles in extent, which is more or less precarious in the summer season.The Mississippi Valley, viewed as a whole, may be regarded as one great plain between two diverging coast ranges, elevated from 400 to 800 feet above the ocean; Pittsburgh, at the junction of the Monongahela and Alleghany, forming the Ohio, 699 feet; Lake Superior, on the north, 600 feet; but the water-shed on the west, at South Pass, rises to nearly 7,500 feet.
It is traversed by no mountain ranges, but the surface swells into hills and ridges, and is diversified by forest and prairie.Leaving out the vast pasture lands west of the Missouri, the soil is incomparable in fertility, is easily cultivated, and yields abundant returns.The climate is healthful and invigorating, and altogether is the most inviting to immigration of any portion of the earth.
| LAKES. | Greatest length. MILES. | Greatest breadth. MILES. | Highth above sea. FEET. | Area in square miles. |
| Superior | 355 | 160 | 600 | 32,000 |
| Michigan | 265 | 80 | 576 | 22,000 |
| Huron | 210 | 160 | 574 | 20,400 |
| Erie | 210 | 45 | 560 | 9,600 |
| Ontario | 160 | 45 | 235 | 6,300 |
| Total | 90,300 |
The commerce of these Lakes, whose annual value reaches $450,000,000 — more than twice the external commerce of the whole country — is carried on by a fleet of 1,643 vessels, of the following classes:
| No. | Tonnage. | Value. | |
| Steamers | 143 | 53,522 | $2,190,300 |
| Propellers | 254 | 70,253 | 3,573,300 |
| Barks | 74 | 33,203 | 982,900 |
| Brigs | 85 | 24,831 | 526,200 |
| Schooners | 1,068 | 227,831 | 5,955,550 |
| Sloops | 16 | 667 | 12,770 |
| Barges | 3 | 3,719 | 17,000 |
| Totals | 1,643 | 413,026 | $13,257,020 |
24
| Parts | No. of Steamers | Registered tonnage. | Carrying capacity. | Value in dollars. |
| * Cairo | — | — | — | — |
| Cincinnati | 150 | 30,497.16 | 42,983 | 4,134,000 |
| Dubuque | 20 | 3,204.37 | 5,137 | 459,500 |
| Evansville | 25 | 3,043.51 | 5,019 | 402,600 |
| Galena | 20 | 2,297.77 | 3,305 | 435,000 |
| Keokuk | 15 | 1,173.86 | 2,192 | 178,500 |
| Louisville | 66 | 14,100.64 | 25,425 | 1,994,500 |
| Memphis | 70 | 9,849.62 | 15,121 | 1,011,200 |
| * New Albany | — | — | — | — |
| Nashville | 12 | 1,183.06 | 2,156 | 108,000 |
| * Natchez | — | — | — | — |
| New Orleans | 80 | 15,860.07 | 21,625 | 1,292,000 |
| Paducah | 10 | 101,100.80 | 2,893 | 265,000 |
| Pittsburgh (81 tugs) | 159 | 33,598.00 | 42,471.00 | 3,920,800 |
| * Quincy | — | — | — | — |
| St. Paul | 39 | 3,088.52 | 4,973 | 607,500 |
| St. Louis | 210 | 86,532.34 | 110,769 | 8,830,000 |
| * Vicksburg | — | — | — | — |
| Wheeling | 44 | 9,538.11 | 8,075 | 918,000 |
| Total | 910 | 216,067.83 | 292,144 | 24,556,600 |
| *No registration at these ports for want of local inspectors. |
The number of vessels and their tonnage, now employed on these waters, as shown in the above exhibit, is a great reduction from the number in use before the late rebellion.The number of barges, lighters, and similar crafts used as auxiliaries, is very large, but the enrolling of such has not been carried out.
Also, to the above list, and to the commercial interest of the country, belongs a large fleet of canal boats, a list of which we have not been able to procure.
It is proper to notice, in this connection, that an essential improvement, and a new era in the commercial interest of the Valley States, will soon take place.In addition to the unlimited extension and expansion of the railroad system of the country there will soon be developed a canal system.In no country have the railroads been able to do all the work offered to them; besides, there is a universal growing demand for canals.The Mississippi river, and her tributaries, are feathered with smaller streams that can easily be converted into fine canals.The abundance of products, and the cheapness of freights, will necessarily demand their construction.What are the facts?
25
Sugar is shipped from New Orleans to St. Louis at 30 cents per hundred, by boat.The same sugar, from New York, by rail, will cost $1 per hundred.Teas will cost $2 40, while the same freight can be shipped from New York, via New Orleans to St. Louis, for $1 40.Again, on examination, we find that the Atlantic & Mississippi Transportation Company, of this city, and other steamboatmen, can carry freight to New Orleans from this port at $4 per ton, while the same distance, by rail, will cost $15 per ton.To illustrate further:A steamer that will carry 1,000 tons of freight 1,000 miles, will cost about $80,000, and to make the trip will require 75 hands and 20 days.Cost of hands and officers for round trip, about $11,000.To carry 1,000 tons of freight 1,000 miles on railroad will require:
| 6 locomotives, value | $108,000 |
| 100 cars | 120,000 |
| Six days for time of trip, 36 train hands, at $90 per day | 540 |
| Total | $228,540 |
It will be seen by these figures that the expense of freighting by railroad, except at a distance on the Missouri river, is much higher than by steamboat; yet, even with this fact before us, there can be no impediments to the building of railroads.The canal is an intermediate means of conveyance, carrying at less rates of freight than by rail, and at longer time than by steamboat or rail.With such a prairie country as belongs to the Valley States, and the increase of products for distant markets, there will necessarily be a demand for the construction of numerous canals.In addition to this, the introduction of grain elevators, which have become so popular as a means for facilitating the handling of grain, in shipping, will necessarily (and soon) make a radical change in the structure of barges, canal and other boats, used for shipping grain in bulk.Grain dealers and shippers will find it essentially necessary to so construct the internal arrangement of their boats as to facilitate the taking out of grain.
Again, when our political difficulties are healed up, the currents of commerce will undergo many changes, and millions of bushels of grain, and as many pounds of freight, that now find their way to distant markets, will go down the Mississippi, and
26
out at the Gulf, and thence to the different markets of the world.We submit the following letter from the Hon. Platt Smith, of Dubuque, Iowa, to show that freights are cheaper down the Mississippi river, via New Orleans to New York, than by the northern route.Mr. Smith is a lawyer of shrewd observation, and well informed upon the railroad and steamboat interest of the West:
DUBUQUE, November 4, 1865.
I wish to call the attention of your readers, particularly those concerned in the purchase and shipment of grain, to the following facts:
| The cost of shipping a bushel of wheat from — | |
| Dubuque to Chicago is | 12c |
| Elevators and charges in Chicago, say | 3 |
| Freight from Chicago to Buffalo | 16 |
| Charges to Buffalo | 2 |
| Freight from Buffalo to New York | 25 |
| Total | 65c |
This is not high enough, for the reason that no allowance is made for insurance; but the figures are sufficiently exact to illustrate the case which I wish to present.About 4 1/2 cents, between Buffalo and New York, is paid as tribute to the State of New York under the name of tolls.I contend that the State of New York has no right to levy more tolls than would be sufficient to pay the interest on the canal debt; and that the excess is nothing but tribute levied on Western farmers.
| The cost of shipping a bushel of wheat from — | |
| Dubuque to St. Louis is | 12c |
| Freight, St. Louis to New Orleans | 10 |
| Handling and tonnage in New Orleans | 3 |
| Freight, New Orleans to New York | 8 |
| Total | 35c |
The Mississippi river is usually open eight months in the year, and sometimes nine.All that is required to make the route via New Orleans feasible, is an elevator at New Orleans, and a sufficient number of good boats, to ship in bulk, to run from the Upper Mississippi to New Orleans.
As the Mississippi is usually closed about four months, and it is desirable that farmers should market their grain in the winter, they could avail themselves of the Illinois Central Railroad from here to Cairo, but of course at higher rates.I am advised by good authority that the Illinois Central company will grant every facility necessary for the purpose of constructing elevators at Cairo.I presume that a
27
| Fair charge for freight to that point will be about | 25c |
| Elevatorage, etc., at Cairo | 2 |
| Freight, Cairo to New Orleans | 10 |
| Handling and tonnage in New Orleans | 3 |
| Freight, New Orleans to New York | 8 |
| Total. | 48c |
This is seventeen cents a bushel less than via Chicago.
The saving on either of the Southern routes would be added by the wharf buyers to the price paid to the farmers.Time is said to be money, and the saving of time in getting through products to market in the winter would be very great over the lake route.Buffalo harbor is usually closed for five months in the year and sometimes six.
The Mississippi is free.The State of Illinois levies tribute upon all products passing over it, whether they go from Dunleith to Chicago, or from Dunleith to Cairo.Seven per cent of the gross railroad earnings are paid into the State treasury as a tax or tribute; but this tribute is a fraction less than two cents a bushel.If that tribute was taken off this amount would also be added to the price which the farmer would receive for his wheat.
It is high time for our shippers and business men to take this matter in hand. It only requires a little energy and some well directed capital to make Dubuque a good grain market, and to give the farmers an additional outlet and a much higher price for their products.
I am, respectfully yours,
PLATT SMITH.
When the more Eastern States exhibit that liberality due from their people to the internal interest of the country, and thereby secure the enlargement of canals on our northern border, then freight may be carried to New York from the West as cheap as it can via the Mississippi river.Until those canals are enlarged the Southern route will remain the cheapest.In further justification of this position, we quote as follows from an able lecture of the late Patrick Robb, Esq., of Dubuque:
In 1860 the whole number of acres of improved land in all the States and Territories was 163,261,389.Of this —
| Missouri contained | 6,246,871 |
| Illinois | 13,254,473 |
| Iowa | 3,780,253 |
| Wisconsin | 3,746,036 |
| Minnesota | 554,397 |
| 27,579,030 |
28
The total value of crops for 1864 is estimated by the Agricultural Bureau of the Department of the Interior to have been $1,564,543,690.Of this sum —
| Illinois produced | $214,488,426 |
| Wisconsin | 51,938,952 |
| Missouri | 52,996,592 |
| Iowa | 71,100,481 |
| $403,692,474 |
Or more than one-fourth of the value of the entire crops of the country.But these estimates of value are the estimated value of the various products in the States where produced.
The value of the live stock, which, on the 1st of January, 1965, was $990,876,128,
| Illinois had | $116,588,288 |
| Missouri | 44,431,766 |
| Iowa | 66,572,496 |
| Wisconsin | 36,911,165 |
| Minnesota | 8,860,015 |
| 273,363,730 |
A juster standard by which to measure the productiveness of these States would be a comparison of the amount of their respective products, since the value is largely affected by the distance from market.
The great staples of agriculture are wheat, corn, beef and pork.Comparing these, we find that the total number of bushels of wheat produced in all the States and Territories in 1864 (except the cotton States, whose production was almost nominal, probably not more than one-sixth of what it was in 1860, was 160,695,823 bushels, of which
| Illinois produced | 33,371,173 |
| Missouri | 3,281,514 |
| Wisconsin | 14,168,317 |
| Iowa | 12,649,807 |
| Minnesota | 2,634,975 |
| 66,105,786 |
The total number of bushels of corn produced was 530,451,403.
| Illinois produced | 138,356,135 |
| Missouri | 36,635,011 |
| Wisconsin | 10,087,053 |
| Iowa | 55,261,240 |
| Minnesota | 4,647,329 |
| 244,986,768 |
29
The whole number of cattle and oxen, January 1, 1865, was 7,072,591.
| Illinois had | 978,700 |
| Missouri | 471,006 |
| Wisconsin | 388,760 |
| Iowa | 51,338 |
| Minnesota | 127,175 |
| 2,526,979 |
The total number of hogs was 13,070,887.
| Illinois had | 2,034,231 |
| Missouri | 988,857 |
| Wisconsin | 340,638 |
| Iowa | 1,423,567 |
| Minnesota | 109,016 |
| 4,896,506 |
The entire population of the United States in 1860 was 31,443,322.
| Illinois contained | 1,711,951 |
| Iowa | 711,951 |
| Missouri | 1,182,012 |
| Minnesota | 172,123 |
| Wisconsin | 775,881 |
| 4,516,880 |
Thus it will be seen that these five States, possessing only one-seventh of all the population, and one-sixth of all the improved land, nevertheless, in 1864, produced more than one-fourth in value of the entire crop — more than one-fourth in value of all the live stock — more than one-third in number of all the cattle and hogs, and nearly one-half of all the wheat and corn grown in the United States.Here we find four and one-half millions of agriculturists, along the Upper Mississippi, producing, in a single year, from one-third to one-half of all the productions of the leading staples of an estimated value of six hundred and seventy-seven millions, fifty-six thousand two hundred and four dollars.
An examination of the statistics fully establishes the additional fact that these five States, during the years 1861 '62 and '63, shipped East 150 per cent more corn and meal, and 25 per cent more pork products than were exported from the entire country during the same period.These States not only supply the export wheat of the entire country, but also the export corn and pork products.The contributions, therefore, made by Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri and Minnesota, to the exports of the United States in these three leading agricultural staples alone, are as follows:
30
| Wheat | $48,938,780 | $44,187,148 | $55,647,979 |
| Corn and meal | 6,387,160 | 9,609,879 | 9,623,357 |
| Pork products | 4,687,784 | 10,217,281 | 16,424,338 |
| Total | $60,013,724 | $64,017,308 | $81,695,674 |
The entire exports of domestic products of the United States amounted to
1860-1 — $217,666,958
1861-2 — $190,699,387
1862-3 — $260,666,110
The average exports of the country for the three years were $222,874,183.33, and the average exports which these five States contributed in wheat, corn and pork alone was $68,575,568.66, or very nearly one-third.
In 1861, '62 and '63, the average yearly tonnage of all American vessels engaged in trans-oceanic commerce, and entering the ports of the United States, was 2,564,257 tons, and the average tonnage of all the vessels of all countries engaged in oceanic commerce and entering the ports of the United States was 5,341,867 tons.Now the three staples contributed by these five Upper Mississippi States to our exports were equivalent to 1,315,000 tons annually.They, therefore, not only contributed one-third in value to our entire exports, but gave employment upon the ocean to more than one-half of all our American tonnage, which was equivalent to one-fourth of all the tonnage of all nations, our own included, entering the United States, and engaged in trans-oceanic commerce.History cannot furnish a parallel.
We consume in this country an average of about five bushels of wheat to the inhabitant, but if necessary can get along with something less, as we have many substitutes, such as corn, rye and buckwheat.It is estimated that our population will be in
1870 — 42,000,000
1880 — 56,000,000
1890 — 77,000,000
1900 — 100,600,000
Accordingly, we can use for home consumption alone of wheat
| 1870 | 210,000,000 bushels |
| 1880 | 280,000,000" |
| 1890 | 385,000,000" |
| 1900 | 500,000,000" |
From 1790 to 1817 breadstuffs were the chief exports of some of the New England and nearly all of the Atlantic States.Now New England produces but eleven quarts of wheat to each inhabitant, and consumes annually of agricultural productions $50,000,000 more than she produces.Pennsylvania the first, and New York the third among the States in production of wheat in 1860, are now calling upon the West, the former
31
for ten per cent, and the latter for sixty per cent, of its bread, while Ohio, so long the promise land of the emigrant, is not growing but very little more wheat than will meet the wants of a population equal to her own.Nearly every State in South America, and nearly every nation in Europe, imports agricultural products, and in 1863 the United States sent its breadstuffs to sixty different foreign markets.Russia, the chief grain exporting country of the Old World, from 1857 to 1862 inclusive, only exported annually:
Wheat — 19,897,292 bushels
Corn — 2,211,932 "
The only difficulty now preventing these States from sending their products to New York, by water, are the rapids at Rock Island and Keokuk.How to remove these obstructions so as to secure uninterrupted navigation of the Mississippi, is the question at present of all absorbing interest to the people of the Northwest.
A glance at the commerce of the Mississippi will show how necessary it is that this work should be done immediately and effectually.Thirty years ago steamboats engaged in the river trade aggregated but a few score.Now there are over a thousand.
In 1865 the imports of St. Louis, Cincinnati, Louisville, the two or three minor Mississippi towns, were of the value of $730,000,000.As the export trade of these places was about equal to their imports, we have for the entire commerce of these points nearly $1,500,000,000.But this does not include the commerce of New Orleans, Memphis, Dubuque, and other important towns.Include the trade of these points and the aggregate value of the trade of the Mississippi, and its tributaries, the Ohio and Missouri, in 1865, was more than two thousand millions of dollars — a sum equivalent to three times the whole foreign commerce of the United States.When the Atlantic States want a harbor improved, or light-house erected, they ask Congress to undertake the work, on the ground of its national importance and common benefits.If the interests of our foreign commerce require it, the general government, without hesitation or complaint, appropriates millions for the improvement, and calls upon the West to sustain its share of the burden.If Congress can improve harbors and build light-houses as works of national importance for a foreign commerce of $600,000,000 a year, ought it to refuse, aye, under what pretext can it refuse, to appropriate the paltry sum required for the improvement of the rapids of the Mississippi, when asked as an act of justice and relief to the Northwest, and the interests of a commerce of more than two thousand millions of dollars?
What, though an uninterrupted navigation of this river should
32
build up St. Louis to the detriment of rival cities?The questions we have met to consider are vital to us all, and cannot be narrowed down to local interests and rivalries, Chicago, Cincinnati or St. Louis, must eventually become the great centre of trade for the Mississippi Valley.We want and must have this river made easily navigable without any regard to its ultimate effect upon these rival points.If St. Louis shall distance its competitors in the race, and become the controlling commercial centre, it will be because her own energies and advantages, which nature has lavished upon her, entitle her to the position, and all that we shall ask of St. Louis is, that she shall use her commanding position and influence in accordance with true commercial honor, for the development of the trade and resources and the general prosperity of the Northwest.Remove these obstructions, and the producers of these States will then have a convenient and adequate outlet to the markets on our own seaboard and of Europe.They can market their grain in London and Liverpool, be successful competitors of European producers on their own soil, and eventually control the price of breadstuffs in the very centre of the world's trade.In Europe land is scarce and rents ruinously high.The consequence is, that our farmers who have cheap lands and mechanical labor can produce grain with profit, at figures that would ruin the European farmer.The only obstacle that prevents the western producer from underselling, and, by successful competition, driving foreign producers from their own markets, is the want of cheap transportation.For the last five years, the average price per bushel of wheat in London and Liverpool, has been $1.37 in gold, or $1.90 in our own currency.The English farmer cannot produce it at a less cost with any profit.The land is mostly held by the nobility, who exact as rental therefore forty per cent, of the productions.Improve these Rapids, and grain can be sent from Dubuque to New Orleans for 20 cents, and thence to Liverpool for 17 cents, including cost of trans-shipment, thus netting our farmers at least one dollar and fifty cents per bushel, and giving the power to undersell the English farmer in his own market, and eventually compel him to seek other pursuits.Wheat could be shipped from this point to New York for 33 cents per bushel by the way of New Orleans, while the average cost by present transportation from the Mississippi River to New York is 65 cents per bushel.Here is a saving of 32 cents per bushel.This, on 30,000,000 of our surplus crop of 50,000,000 bushels annually raised, would make the enormous sum of $9,600,000.Nor is it unreasonable to suppose that three-fifths of the grain and flour of these States would choose the river route, because, with uninterupted navigation, grain will find a better market on the Mississippi than on the
33
lake, and farmers in the eastern parts of Illinois and Wisconsin will find it to their interest to look westward to the new market thus established.The Pacific Slope.
Leaving the Mississippi Valley, we pass to the Pacific Slope, and into the great mountain system of our continent.Here we have a country that is almost incomprehensible.It is large, magnificent, grand and epical.It is the last step in American progress, the consecrated home of poetry.In territory it is large enough for a great nation, yet it does not have one inhabitant to the square mile.This country will always be noted for its universal developments.It will be rich in agriculture, commerce and stock-growing.It is rich in minerals.It is much larger than the Atlantic Slope.At no distant day it will be the finest sheep-growing region on the continent, and more noted for its shepherds than the mountain regions of Chaldea, where the Shepherds and Magi watched the flocks and the stars by night.
California and Utah already show a wonderful growth of wool, also of wine.The Pacific Slope has given evidence of its superiority as a grape-growing and wine country; its wines are highly prized in the best markets.Its mineral wealth, since its discovery, has been the magnet of the world, drawing, by its golden influence to its own shores, a thousand ships from every ocean around the globe.
When we look forward to the great changes in the commercial currents of the center of the Mississippi Valley, we must not forget that even greater will take place on the Pacific Slope as soon as the continent is spanned by a railroad.
It is difficult to say too much of the future progress of the industrial and commercial pursuits of that golden region.Yet its grandest growth will be in its future civilization, as we shall point out.In like manner, as it is the golden land by nature, so will it be the golden land by progress — the place of ultimation and culmination of American civilization.
Population.
Another most interesting feature of our subject, and the one upon which the fate of all the balance hangs, is the future
34
growth of population in theUnited States.In 1790, or about the time of the adoption of the Federal Constitution, we had a population of 3,929,827, a little more than the present population of the State of New York.Now we have grown up within the life time of a human being to a population of 31,443,322. But, as in other departments of our progress, we have not reached our full growth in population.Even the thought of what we can and will be is overwhelming.In England the density of population is about 230 persons to the square mile; but England is, in some measure, the workshop of the world, and supports, by her foreign trade, a greater population than her soil can nourish.
In France the density of population is about 160.In Germany it varies from 100 to 200.Assuming, on these grounds, that the number of persons whom a square mile can properly sustain, without generating the presence of a redundant population, in our rich country, is 490, the number authorized by a writer in the Britanica Encyclopedia.This would, when the country is fully developed, give the Atlantic slope a population of 219,970,310, and to the Valley States a population of 761,302,530, and to the Pacific slope a population of 483,754,460, and to the whole country a total population of 1,465,027,400, abody of people infinitely beyond the comprehension of the human mind.Even half of this number of inhabitants would make us a greater nation than ever ruled on earth.
The estimate above gives us a population greater than the entire present population of the world.But the grandeur of the thought still swells when we consider that in a little more than a century, or beginning with a new era, our numbers will well nigh approximate this great growth.
Saving briefly given, in outline, the superstructure of the United States, and the material out of which they are made, and what their capacities are, we are prepared to take another step forward, and behold the work of our great future advancement.
35
Railroads.
In 1864 there were in the United States 49,632 miles of railroad, constructed at a cost of $1,265,952,215.There is probably and equal number of miles of telegraph, or nearly so, to that of railroads.Although these figures are large, our railroad system has not half reached its full expansion.
Great Cities.
With the development of the whole country and its commerce, will also come the development of commercial centers, or great cities, monopolizing and controlling the trade of the country.Geographical conditions, and the inevitable tendency of the future commerce of the United States and the world, point to New York, San Francisco, Chicago, St. Louis and Orleans, as destined to be the great depots and entrepots for the external and internal commerce, seeking markets to and from this country.
New York, as she is now, will remain a great American city; but with the civilizing growth of the continent, and the change of commerce, she will be shorn of her controlling influence and leading greatness.The completion of two great internal works — the Pacific railroad to California, and the ship canal from Chicago to La Salle — will change the internal and foreign commerce of the country, and divide between New Orleans and San Francisco one-half the trade that now, or hence, would go to New York.As already noticed, freights via New Orleans to foreign or distant markets, are less than by New York.While teas, which we pay $1.50 per pound in our markets, costs the producer 10 cents per pound, and to-day teas are more than 50 per cent cheaper in San Francisco than in New York city.
With these disparities of freights in favor of New Orleans and San Francisco, in connection with the internal development of the country, and the classification and adaptation of every part of our soil to its appropriate use, we have but to override facts when we say that the Great West, and her cities, are not destined to control the commerce of the country, and out-number in population the cities of the East.
Chicago, aided by her bracing climate and lake atmosphere
36
and extraordinarily favored in her geographical position, and spirit of industry and enterprise unequaled in the world, will forever make her a great progressive and commercial city.She may justly be called the busy Tyre of the New World.St. Louis, occupying, substantially, the geographical and commercial center of the country, and in the heart of the richest agricultural and mineral lands on the continent, is destined to be the great central depot of the United States, and the seat of national empire.She is the Babylon of the New World, not standing on the Euphrates, but upon the banks of the great Mississippi.
The future of San Francisco will be both marvelous and great.In the future growth of our country, the necessity for our people engaging in every pursuit that our climate and soil will admit, will necessarily lessen our demands for foreign goods.With the further development of our manufacturing interests, and the production of fine wares and metalic goods, will leave us to go abroad for silks, perfumes, gums, precious stones, and other rare articles of China, Japan and Turkey.This will, necessarily, throw most of our demands for foreign commerce across the Pacific Ocean, thus making San Francisco the great point for the import of foreign goods.
Slavery has, for many years, stifled the growth of New Orleans; but now the incubus is gone.She is left to her advantages.Situated, as she is, at the mouth of the Mississippi river, and upon the threshhold of the Gulf, with a great undeveloped commerce above her, which must, in due time, find its way through her markets, and great tropical countries, rich in all the fruits and products of those prolific regions, just before her, she is destined to become the greatest city in the world.She ought to have been, to-day, the greatest on the Western continent.
In considering her future growth, to that of the first metropolis of the world, within the first half of the next century, we are not to be guided in our calculations by the present tendency of commerce in its expansion over the continent.We are to look further — to a new and greater growth of commerce, and advanced civilization in the New World; when the visioned El Dorado, so long sought for through spoilation, will have become
37
an actual reality, and an innumerable population and a vast system of commerce shall be fully developed between Behring Straits and Cape Horn.It must be conceded, that strong political advantages, combined with a growing commerce, and an unparalleled enterprising people, have directed the public gaze upon St. Louis as the great central city of the Republic.Her present greatness, united with her geographical position, will give to her the seat of Government.Free labor, and the enterprise of the North, has made her wealthy, populous and great, while slave labor, and an embarrassed people, has, for years, hindered the growth of New Orleans.But now that that obstruction is removed, we have only to look beyond and consider the results of the legitimate growth of civilization in the New World.New Orleans occupies, substantially, the central position between Behring Straits and Cape Horn, with more than 3,000 miles stretching away from her on either side, north and south.Within these limits are all the climates and soils of the globe, and capable of producing all that the wants of man demand.Contemplate, in the future, these climates well populated, and these varied soils well cultivated with valuable products; the whole territory of the United States actively improved for the best uses; also, the tropical regions and States of Mexico, Central and South America, made to subserve their highest uses, and the great mass of all these products seeking an interchange of markets through a vast system of railroads, almost traversing this entire land, and aided by numerous lines of improved ocean steamers, traversing its entire waters, and at least one-half of the railroads and steamers bearing their commerce to New Orleans as the nucleus and central market of the New World.Then the importance of New Orleans becomes manifest.With a mellow Southern climate, and the very gate through which untold wealth must go and come, who can tell her future?No estimates can overreach her, or speculations measure her destiny.She will be the mistress of the world, endowed with all the beauty and wealth that belongs to tropical lands.
Even from this time, it will not be ten years till one-half of the grain of the Mississippi Valley will pass into her lap, and through her hands to distant markets. But a few years more,
38
and well regulated lines of fine ocean steamers will run from her wharf to Europe, Asia, Rio Janeiro, Laguira, Panama and the Islands of the Seas.The argument in her favor could well be detailed to an indefinite length, but the brief manner in which every subject has been herein treated, will not justify the extension.Those who think that climate and foundation are barriers beyond her future growth, do not comprehend the invincible progress of man.The United States will then have five great and distinguishing cities.Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, Memphis, Omaha, Denver City and Salt Lake City, will come next in rank.Then will follow a legion of smaller cities.
But there is a political growth, too, which must keep pace with the growth of arts and agriculture.From our present number of States we shall probably grow to 57, when all the territories are made into States, as follows: 17 belonging to the Atlantic slope, 24 to the Valley States, and 16 to the Pacific slope.This, too, will throw the political preponderance in the hands of the Valley States.
With all this great advance, this magical transfer of power, who can be so simple as to rest in the belief, that with it will not come a change of national empire, or a removal of the Capital of the Government to the banks of the great Mississippi?Who is so foolish as to think that an ambitious, industrious and successful people, with millions of population, and millions of treasure in their favor, will not demand, in due time, the removal of the Capital from its present location to their midst?It will come, and come soon.National gravity will bring it.
In support of this conclusion, we submit the following remarks by Dr. Wm. Elder, of Washington City, who is one of the ablest statisticians in the country:
The time has come, the necessity is upon us, our security and prosperity demand the extension of the Monroe doctrine to the commerce of the continent.England is ready to give up empire in government for dominion in the trade of America.The only supremacy she cares for now is that of her labor.Her only fleets and forces for invasion and conquest are her mercantile vessels and her manufactures, and our defences are not in our monitors and forts, but in our Custom Houses.Political liberty and independence are not only the care of government; industrial freedom and independence are the best security of these,
39
and all that is most worth of living for in this world besides.It is the prime duty of every community to provide and defend for its members all the conditions of individual prosperity which a sound policy can command.
Theories, manufactured by the master commercial nations, and designed to hold their old time colonies in industrial vassalage, must not be allowed to override universal experience.Universal, we say, for it is proved in the history of the past, that no nation has risen to the rank of a first-rate power, in politics or war, in commerce or wealth, that has not studiously and persistently diversified its industries to its utmost capacity.England herself is one of the best among the examples.France and Germany are relatively as prominent; and Portugal and Turkey prove it, as well by the exhaustion they have suffered from abandoning the policy of self-protection, or self-defence, against foreign invasion of their labor markets at home.As to the much vaunted Anglo-French treaty of commerce, made in 1860, which free-traders are accustomed to claim as a partial advance of their doctrine, it is demonstrable that it is quite as protective of the home industry of France, and more effectively framed for that purpose, than the Morrill Tariff, of March, 1861, was for the United States.The authorities abroad have not given up the struggle, but they have abandoned the hope of extending their doctrine of free-trade among the nations.The London Economist, of 17th of December, 1864, concedes that its "creed is not only stationary, but retrograding," adding that "in America (meaning the United States), the Canadas, Australia, and the Anglo-Saxon colonies generally, the belief in protection seems to have acquired a new vitality.The Northern Americans have raised their tariffs to figures, which, but for the vast war expenditure, would almost extinguish trade; the Canadians try to meet every fresh expense by raising some duty on an import, and a parliament has just been elected in Victoria, pledged to introduce a system of general protection for colonial industry.Nothing is to be imported which can possibly be made, and manufacturers are tobe encouraged to make, by the imposition of excessive duties upon all European goods which compete, or may compete, with local protections."
The author, after a very candid, though incomplete, statement of the argument on which the Australian colonists rest the policy which they have adopted, concludes, "we confess we cannot quite see the immediate remedy for this state of affairs, and are inclined to believe that patience is the only remedy."
No doctrine or dogma, exposed to the test of experience, need patience more than the one self-styled free-trade, because it starts upon the false pretence of a misnomer, and never dares to venture far enough from its base of supplies to win a victory in
40
the field of trial and hold it.Its mission of universal philanthropy would be better described as a system of free foreign trade, with industry at home in hand-cuffs.It means — open the ports of the world, and the markets which they guard, to the exclusive traffic of the strongest, at the expense of destroying all the rival labor of the purchasing nation, and starving the workmen of the producing nation.In the natural order of things, the free-traders will have to wait, as the world waited upon England, until protection had served its purpose, and would have been an absurdity and a nullity, if longer continued.Their tariff duties were in effect repealed by their supremacy in commerce, long before it was done by act of Parliament, and they must wait upon the Australian, Canadian, and other Anglo-Saxon colonists, who are still at the mercy of England's larger and cheaper capital, better organized machinery and cheaper wages, until these struggling people have got on even ground, and are ready for a free fight for their lives.
Setting aside theories of commerce, which neither require nor tolerate any reference to history or facts, it may be asked why England, Wales, and the lowlands of Scotland, with a less area than Pennsylvania and West Virginia in the east, or Missouri alone in the West, and having neither more nor better iron and coal than either of them, and with vastly inferior food-producing power, and equally inferior command of all the supporting resources of the highest forms of industry, should nevertheless hold the commerce of the United States in their hands, make our clothing, machinery, agricultural implements, and our railroads, leaving us for our own share of mechanic labor, little besides house building other than iron structures, horse-shoeing, the printing of local items, and grave digging which of necessity must be done on the spot?
The one sole reason why England obtained the mastery of the ocean and command of the world's business, is, that she exported no raw material; and the reason why the Southern States went into ruin, by the route of rebellion, is, because they exported nothing else.The trade of Germany at the beginning of the century was hides, tallow, flax and wool, exported, for cloth and cutlery in return, and Bonaparte could make their territory his fighting ground.Since the battle of Waterloo, they have been making their own clothes and cutlery, and his nephew, with more resources and stronger alliances, was obliged to keep within the line of war with Austria, which the rest of Germany prescribed.
41
The American Pasture.
Leaving that portion of the Mississippi valley lying between the Alleghany mountains and the Mississippi river, or more properly the Missouri, we at once enter that vast plain of country which stretches from its banks to the base of the Rocky Mountains, east and west, and from the northern boundary of Nebraska to the Gulf, and known as the great American pasture region, which, for many years, has been noted for its vast herds of buffalo and wild horses.
This American pasture is not inferior in size to the far famed and historic pampas of South America, which has been so long and eminently known as the greatest stock growing country in the world.Upon this vast plain sheep are more numerous than were under Chaldean shepherds, while the South American herdsman is richer, in the number of his cattle, than was the man of Uz.
The great South American pampas extends from the Bolivian province of Chiquitos to the confines of Patagonia, and from the western margin of La Plata to the eastern slope of the Andes. It embraces an area, north and south, of 800, and east and west of 1,000 miles, making a superficial area of 800,000 square miles, and is situated between 26° and 40° of south latitude, which would correspond in size with the country lying between Atchison, Kansas, and the mouth of the Rio Grande.
This great American pasture, on account of its vast prairies, which furnish by nature, in the growth of grass, almost food enough for herds the entire year, and its lack of dense and navigable streams, necessarily and pre-eminently fit it for the stock growing division of the continent. It is not such a country as that to which the mechanic arts will migrate, nor will it very rapidly increase in population.These facts, in connection with the certainty of the greater portion of its lands remaining cheap for many years, essentially make it the great stock raising and wool growing region of our country.Already the work is in rapid progress; thousands of sheep of the best bloods, and also cattle and horses are fast finding their way to that unlimited but fertile and inviting pasture.Corresponding to the rapid growth of the population and wealth of the nation, will be the increase of the herds and flocks up those broad
42
prairies, and before another generation takes the place of the present, millions of cattle and sheep will swarm over this great areable pasture, as the common stock of enterprising and industrious herdsmen, who will be continually supplying near and distant markets with fine beef and mutton, and cheese and wool, from their countless herds.This region, when properly populated with stock, is capable of furnishing pasturage for cattle and sheep in numbers more than 2,000,000,000 of each or nearly double of each, the present human population of the earth.
Crossing the Missouri River and the line of the State of Missouri, we enter this great pasture, which is said to offer but little inducements for the agriculturists on account of its scarcity of timber.The facts are otherwise; the greater portion of southern Kansas offers better advantages to the stock grower and farmer, than any other equal portion of the United States.Its entire lands will average good, while the emigrant on every other quarter section of land, can dig out of one corner of it, with but little labor, stone enough to build him a good house, and fence his farm, an advantage which is not found to any great extent in any other portion of the whole country.Besides, on entering this great pastorial region there will be found penetrating it everywhere, beautiful living streams and valuable belts of timber, which combined with high latitudes and its genial climate, with the certainty of its interior deficiency of water and navigation being amply and absolutely overcomeby Artesianwells, and railroads crossing in every direction in search of new markets, will render it one of the most available and therefore productive portions of the American continent.
As the mechanical and agricultural pursuits expand in that portion of the continent lying east of the Mississippi, the stock growing business will increase west of it.
It is proper to notice in this connection, that in the future growth and dense population of our continent, that the great future in the stock growing of the country will be confined the raising of cattle and sheep, as the horse is only required for his service; his raising will be confined to those who need him; the dog will soon pass away, and when the people get truly civilized, the hog will go too.The hog ought
43
never to have been eaten, and is fit for nothing; the double use to which the cattle and the sheep can serve in furnishing food, and the use of the skins for boots, shoes, and other uses, and the wool for clothing, will ever make them valuable to man, and render their growth the more important.To this great pasture we may look more, and almost wholly for the culture and growth of the cattle and sheep.Future Civilization.
Sweeping over our great country, and considering her natural advantages, her past, her present and future growth, we are involuntarily invited to a higher consideration of her future civilization.
The growth of civilization, and the growth of a nation, is an enlarged growth of a man.Starting with the child, there must be suitable adaptations to each period of growth through life, up to mature manhood.That which is suited to the infant, is not suited to the boy; that which is suited to the boy, is not suited to the young man; that which is suited to the young man, is not suited to the full grown man: that which is adapted to the full grown man, is not suited to the mature man, whose mental powers reach out after the philosophical, spiritual, and the infinite.So are the same steps in nations and in civilization.
Those who first put their feet upon Plymouth Rock, and the kindred shores of the Atlantic, sowed the seeds of a new and greater nation, and a new and higher civilization.The Atlantic slope became the mother and the germ out of which the most enduring toil, the most ready industry, the greatest skill, the most comprehensive thought, and the most liberal government and religion ever sprung.From those inhospitable shores, arose like magic a race of Titons with an empire's might.Soldiers, statesmen, scholars, husbandmen, craftsmen, artisans and Poets, sprung up into the first ranks of the world quicker than any before had ever arisen.From that nursery of the nation, that nursery of a new civilization has gone out the spirit of progress over the continent, as the dove spirit went over the watersof chaos, and where the rude cabins of forest once stood, now stands the busy cities of the new civilization,
44
and the destitute and native children of the cabins are continually rising to thehighest places in law and government. But the work is only begun, and the sequel will be far greater than the introduction.While we give to the Atlantic slope the great system of manufacturing and commercial industry, and to the Mississipi Valley her teeming millions of population, with their vast agricultural and stock growing districts, it is reserved for the Pacific slope, with her great mountain system, to be the vantage ground whereon will culminate American civilization.Man is a creature of the earth — his success or failures depend much upon the natural advantages of that portion of the earth on which he lives.What is substantially true of the animals of the mammalia kingdom is also true of man.Those animals by instinct and by nature, have ever been found inhabiting such localities of the earth as was most adapted to their wants and necessities — such is the instinctive and natural alliance of man all over the earth.Not only is there a natural adaptability of man to certain portions of the earth, to supply his wants and necessities under suitable temperatures, but he still owes a higher allegiance to mother earth.To a certain degree he owes the strength and durability of his organism and his mental qualities to the physical formation of the earth, where his parents and grand-parents were born and reared.As the geological character — whether mountainous, or barren sand, or fertile valley — so to a great extent are the organisms and mental endowments of the people of that locality.Earth, air and food have much to do in making people what they are.As physical exercise works upon the muscles, so does good or bad air work upon the mind.
People in a timbered country are, as a general thing, more dishonest than those in a prairie country.Thieving is very common with the inhabitants of timbered localities. In a prairie country there is more exposure; hence the embarrassments against theft.People in low valleys and bottom lands are more sluggish and ungenerous and lower toned than people on uplands.People who live in high latitudes are energetic, industrious, generous, and love liberty; while the contrary characteristics belong to the inhabitants of low latitudes.People who live in mountain regions can never be enslaved; like the
45
soaring eagle, they love liberty as they love the water they drink and the air they breathe.People who live upon the low lands and breathe a poor air are slaves to themselves, their passions and their ignorance.The rocks strewn upon the face of a continent by the hand of nature are the initial seeds of sturdy life.Districts of country with ruggid surface and underlaid with granite is the sure birthplace of hardy and industrious people, whose physical and mental endurance will be far greater than those born and reared in a country noted for its rich loam and scarcity of granite stratas.This science of NATALOGY might be carried much further, but we go on to its higher aspect.
It is an old and truthful saying, that poets are born, and not made.There is a great deal implied in this, which is little understood; but history is too full of facts in support of this proposition to be controverted, and, in support of the highest application of this argument, we appeal to history.Turning back, we find that the highest civilization and the finest literature in the world was furnished by those people who lived where they inherited the inspiration and breathed the pure air of the Apennines, the Alps and Caucassian Mountains, and also drank from the Aegian, the Adriatic, the Black and the Caspian Seas. If searching for the fountain of transcendant literature, go to Arabia, and inquire who was the author of the Book of Job — a work so sublime in its very language that its authorship is almost attributed to an inhabitant of the skies.If you wish to know from whence came the inspiration and the constellated fathers of poetry, go to the clear and classic sky and pure air and sublime scenery of Greece and Italy, where their mountains unite with their vast landscapes and beautiful waters: there will you find the homes of Sappho, of Homer, and Virgil — the land, of Dante, of Horace, and Tintoretto.One unbroken line of inspired prophets, poets, and orators, arose and fell under the cloudless skies of those oriental and classic lands, leaving on imperishable pages of literature the evidence of the certain adaptability of climate and country to genius.In further proof of this, we find in man's own organism the index to his nature, out of which his character and his genius will be unfolded. From the bones and muscles come durability and toil. Out of
46
the muscles and blood come industry and ambition, and out of the blood and nervous system come aspiration and inspiration; and as the adaptability of climate and country is to feed these different parts of the organism, so will the leaders of the country be.Turning, then, to the Pacific Slope, we are to enquire for its natural advantages to produce a high civilization.On the very threshold of the inquiry we must go to nature and ask for what purpose did she rear those vast chains of rock-ribbed mountain monarchs of the earth, whose very tops reach away up into the blue etherial above the storms, and over whose partition walls fountains of never-ceasing waters flow with a wild majesty that defies the imagination of man.For what purpose were those splendid parks and evergreen vales spread out with more than poet's beauty, and why those wild rivers that baffle man's control, and why that pure and often humid atmosphere, instinctive with a better life; why the great trees and the beautiful bays, and, above all, and grander than all, why, from those high rocks and imperceptible cliffs and summit heights, which have known no visitor but the soaring eagle, does such all-enchanting and all-inspiring views reach out and meet in still wilder romance the surging billows of an unconquered ocean?Why all these energies and displays of nature, if not to subserve some high use for man?There can be no other ultimate purpose for which to appropriate such a wonderful and such a beautiful combination of great natural sublimities and advantages.
In fertility of soil, of climate, in rich minerals, and natural advantages and commercial facilities, the Pacific Slope is not surpassed by any part of the earth, and is more than inviting to all who know of it, and but few that have ever seen it are contented to stay away.In mountain grandeur, majestic water falls, beautiful landscapes, free and pure air, and wild romance, it far transcends the Alps, the Appenines, or Aegian and Adriatic in beauty, while its flowing fountains and its gushing waters give forth a purer inspiration than comes from Caucassian caves or Pierian springs.
Such a country, then, with such natural advantages for bringing out the higher nature of man, is destined at no distant
47
period to become the home and the land of the highest civilization in the world.Not only will it bring forth a higher order of a chivalrous populace, with a society embellished with wealth and luxury, and highly skilled in the arts and pursuits of life, but it will bring forth greater poets, seers, sages, philosophers and statesmen, than have ever before walked upon the earth — men before whose genius and verse Plato, Homer, Dante, Shakspeare, Swedenborg, Newton, Webster, Poe and Parker would bow with reverence, as the citizen does to the sage.We rejoice in the anticipation, for other people in after times, of such a mountain growth of civilization, so far transcending all preceding advances of the human race: for it is sure to come, and in its maturity will, no doubt, ripen into a patriarchal government, yet to be.
But a few years more and the charms will be lost from Saratoga, the White Hills and Key West, and found amid the romantic scenery of Sierra Navadas, and persons of wealth who seek health, pleasure and luxury, will journey Westward to the Gyser, Soda, Carson and Steamer springs.Larger and grander will be the capacities, demands and uses for summer resorts amid the beautiful scenery of the Pacific mountains. The genii of art, science and literature will plant their rosy grottoes on the ocean side of the Rocky Mountains.
48
Constitutional Government.
It is a rare thing for truth and justice to be born twins. Often either is born in eventful times, but for want of good nursing and liberal culture they struggle long for the ascendency.Two political theories originating in the factional contentions of political partisans of diverse interests have become prominent in this Government.One essentially governmental in its character, the other partisan and selfish.In defence of the two theories, upon which the friends of each contend the government was organized, much has been written and said.Yet the people seem to be only little more enlightened upon the true theory of our government, even with the additional experience and teachings of the rebellion, than in the earlier days of Calhoun and Webster.
The two theories may be stated thus: —
I.The theory of Washington and Hamilton, was that in the organization of the Colonies into a Federal Government, over them was established a Constitution, for the creation of which each colony delegated its sovereign rights.The friends and defenders of this federal theory of government exerted all their abilities to construct out of discordant and feeble colonies, a republican or representative government, with sufficient power for self-defense, and sufficient legal organization to legislate for its people.Upon this federal theory the government was built.
II.The modern democratic theory is that the colonies did not delegate their sovereignty to a superior government made by the Constitution, but that they as States, are in league, at will, with themselves, and at pleasure can dissolve the original contract and set up a new government.
Now what are the facts?There never was, nor is now, nor can be such a government as this modern self-styled democratic party contend for.
There can be no such thing as a government by consent — a government at will allowing the people to dissolve it at pleasure.
A government cannot exist without a legal existence, and the very moment it passes into the hands of a constitution creating legislative power and making laws defensive and offensive, that
49
moment it ceases to be a government by consent, but may be a representative government.A man and woman may consent to marry, and if they do marry they at once assume legal relations and cannot dissolve their marriage by their own consent, and yet they helped to make the law that holds them together.This illustration is simple and easily understood, and applies precisely to the true theory of our government.The man and wife are not in league with each other with the power to dissolve their marriage relations at will, nor are the States in league with themselves, with the power to dissolve their relations and set up new governments when they choose.Common sense itself would not accept such a heresy.All the interests of man are opposed to such a government, even if it were possible for such to be.
It is plain then to be seen that this modern democratic theory is a falsehood and a heresy, taught in the interest of secession.
Our government is a representative government, founded upon and controled by the franchise of all its citizens.State after State that is added to the Union, like the kindred limbs of the banyan tree, turns to the mother source and takes root again and adds increased strength to the parent power.
That our government, great and good as it is, still has some faults, there is but little doubt, but that they will be hastily corrected under a new constitution is equally certain.The difference of opinion between Hamilton and Jefferson upon the theory of our government may be stated thus: Jefferson says the people are fresh from the revolution, and their patriotism and desire for peace and prosperity is a sufficient guarantee for the security and perpetuity of the government, without much organic law.Hamilton says that is all very good as far as it goes, but there will come a time when bad men will rise up in the government and seek for power or for ruin, and that we must have a government by law, — one well provided with laws for self defense against foreign aggression, and bad men within.Jefferson says no, the people are all right.The result was that the master spirit of the nation, as it has been in all times, was overruled by the well-meaning but easy and delusive charity of Jefferson.The consequence has been as Hamilton said, bad men have arisen with the full intent of breaking up the republic.
50
During the fierce struggle of the rebellion all loyal people saw the necessity and want of constitutional power for defending against treason and secession.To the new constitution we look for the remedy.In the future policy of the United States it will be well to consider how far and in what manner it will be wise to annex new territory to the government.
It will be seen by the history of past ages, that governments of large territorial extent have only been held together by force of arbitrary and despotic tyrants and military power.It is well to heed this lesson of history, and be guided by wisdom and natural causes and consequences.
By a close examination of historical evidence and natural causes and effects, this truth is found underlying all national life, viz.: that extended territorial annexations to governments lying under the same latitudes do not so much endanger the safety and permanency of the nation, but that annexations under different latitudes to any great extent, north and south, are dangerous to the safety and perpetuity of any government.People of extreme climates, north and south, cannot well live under the same uniform government.Natural differences of character, habits and interests, will sooner or later arise and demand separate and distinct legislation.All the great empires of antiquity bear testimony to this fact.Rome, in her best days, was great in extent, east and west.So was the great Persian empire.The lesson of history on this subject can be traced to a most instructive extent; but, in this connection, we simply allude to the fact, and ask the attention of American statesmen to the necessity of heeding the truth, and legislating accordingly.
The American policy must, in the future, forever be firmly set against the annexation of any more southern territory — except Cuba, and for which henceforth all national policy ought to be shaped for her purchase and annexation.As remarked by John Quincy Adams, she gravitates toward our government — the sands of the Mississippi beat upon her shores — and she must be ours for the purposes of self-defense.They are but sickly and short-sighted American statesmen who see visions of empire in the annexation of Mexico to this government; such an act would be the laying of a stumbling stone upon which to wreck
51
the great Republic, and upon its ruins liberty, law, and learning, go down.Let timely warning be given, and let every American statesman be thoroughly taught that ambition, jealousy, and cunning diplomacy can easily overleap the bounds of safety and justice.While we would most earnestly oppose the annexation of territory to the United States, we would ever hold it the mission of the great Republic to extend the influence of her laws and institutions to all people.
No More War.
When we consider — for the feelings of nature cannot be dismissed — the calamities of war, and the miseries it inflicts upon the human species, the thousands and tens of thousands of every age and sex who are rendered wretched by the event, surely there is something in the heart of man that calls upon him to think!Surely, there is some tender chord, tuned by the hand of its Creator, that struggles to emit in the hearing of the soul a note of sorrowing sympathy.Let it, then, be heard, and let men learn to feel that the true greatness of a nation is founded on the principles of humanity, and that to avoid war where her own existence is not endangered, and where the happiness of man must be wantonly sacrificed, is a higher principle of true honor than madly to engage in it. — Thomas Paine — Prospects on the Rubicon.
Everywhere in society we find evidence that civilization is elevating and beneficial to man.Step by step he conquers the elements of nature and turns them to his use.He has triumphed over the winds and the waves, and sent the fruit of his lands to the markets of distant nations.Miasmatic swamps have been changed into fertile lands, and mountains have been tunneled; storms, pestilence and famines have almost yielded to his genius and his art.By science, he has taken to pieces and explained the functions and uses of his own organism, and with one grand triumph he has mastered the relation of mind and matter.With the progress of another cycle he will control the storms, navigate the air as he does the waters, and call the rain as he willeth.Slowly but surely is the onward tendency to his complete triumph over all nature that hinders his safety, happiness and prosperity.In view of such an ameliorating progress, may we not be safe in looking forward to no distant day, when the moral strength of nations will have become so strong that, when put in council with honor and justice, they will outweigh the passions, and ambition, and error of men, and thereby prevent any more war?Who would not gladly hail such a
52
time, when wars shall cease to be; when no other Sesostris, Cambyses, Alexander, Tamerlane, or Napoleon, would deluge the world again with human blood!Such a time is surely coming.It will come as a result of the influence of a principle unfolding in governments.Before the days of Sir Isaac Newton, astronomy appeared vaguely to the scientific world; but the discovery of a great law controlling and guiding all planetary and material movements, at once revealed order and harmony everywhere in nature.Such a law in human society did Charles Fourier seek to discover, the application of which would bring peace, plenty and happiness to every member of the human family.
May we not look further for some law or principle, the proper application of which in human society will prevent war?
The philosopher might recommend a superior endowment of moral gravity.The chemist a principle of political affinity.Yet neither of these would suffice to overrule evil diplomacy and artful ambition.The remedy can only be found in POWER. — power, containing lenity, wisdom and justice.Power is stronger than gravity, stronger than affinity, and can easily dethrone ambition, or destroy diplomacy.What is power?In nature, it is the inherent or natural capability of a thing to subserve a certain purpose.In mechanics, it is the most formidable capacity of mechanical combination.In man or government, power is the most formidable use of will and capacity.What statesman is not ready to concede, that power, under the guidance of wisdom, justice and lenity, may not he so delegated and adjusted by the civilized nations of the earth, so as to outweigh human passion and human ambition, and thus prevent any more war?
Another evidence of this final triumph of man over barbarism and error is, that, as we come down the stream of time, we find that the causes of war are not so trifling and foolish in their character now as in olden times.
The progressive tendency of all human affairs unmistakably point to the time, not far distant, when the advanced statesmen of enlightened nations will labor for a solution of this great BARBARIAN PROBLEM.It must be solved in vindication of the law of progress and the providential success of man's creation and career upon earth.
53
Who is the True Voter?
In these radical times, when almost everybody seems intent on getting up something new in government or religion, there are diverse notions being set forth in favor of a change of the status of the right of suffrage, and imposing qualifications, heretofore unknown to the laws.Some are determined on making a property qualification, others in favor of an educational qualification.It has not appeared yet that the arguments in favor of either one of these changes are either satisfactory or convincing.
The importance of all legislative changes affecting the relation of the citizen to the General Government or the State, depends upon two fundamental conditions, as follows:
I. The right of the State or General Government to change the relation of the citizen.
II. The necessity for a change.
When governments are founded, their laws ought not to be changed for light and trivial causes.
A civil government, whether a monarchy, a despotism, or a republic, is founded upon certain general principles declaring the character and functions of the government, and the relation it bears to the citizens; and whenever the legislative power of either form of government departs from those general principles, and begins a wholesale system of special legislation in support of ideas and dogmas generated in peculiar localities, and by peculiar men, for special and local interests, that moment the government departs from its civil and national sphere, and becomes a party in the special interests of society, and from thence it becomes a party to the religion of its citizens, and finally goes on to ruin.
The United States in its organic law declares its own character and defines the relation of the citizen to the government, and in that definition is incorporated the right of suffrage, without educational or property qualifications.
In the organization of a representative government, the people are called upon to choose their representatives, in whose trust they are to confide all their political interests.The representatives once chosen and having met, in convention, the question
54
naturally comes up, whom do they represent?Do they represent the educated men, the school-masters and college professors with their educational qualifications, or do they represent the bankers, merchants, etc., etc., with their property qualifications?Is this the kind of representative government that derives its just power from the consent of the governed?Is it the kind of government that holds these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal?Most certainly not.In the organization of a purely representative government, such as the United States is, the first thing for the convention to declare is that all men are created equal, and in governments or out, are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.The next thing for them to declare is, that the just powers of government come from the consent of the governed.These fundamental truths admitted and declared, the question naturally arises, who are the governed?Are they only the people that have property and education?No; they are those who, by their voluntary consent, accept the government and the laws and privileges growing out of those fundamental principles, enunciated for its foundation.All people, then, living on the territory of such a government, are citizens in the fullest and freest sense of the term, whether they be hewers of wood or drawers of water, noble or ignoble.The next steps to be taken is for the government to provide for its maintenance and the protection of its rights.To do this, it must call upon every citizen to contribute a portion of his money from year to year for its support.Again, for self-protection it must provide by law that its citizens are always under obligation to come, when called for, and defend the government to the extent of their lives.These provisions made, the next step is to make regulations for future legislation, or future government.To do this, the derivative power has but to turn back to the fundamental authority, the governed, and regulate the whole matter in their hands — and the work is complete.We therefore see that a representative government is founded wholly upon the consent of the governed, and the governed must, by taxation, support it, and by military service defend it. In each case the whole people are alike bound, and should be represented.To provide the most practical way for facilitating
55
the action of the governed, in political affairs, the government selected the ballot-box, and conferred upon her citizens the privilege of the franchise.By this means the whole people, every citizen of the government, could have a voice in declaring who should govern, and, in pursuance of the inalienable rights of all and the just powers of government being derived from the consent of the governed, representation, or the qualification to vote, was based upon citizenship, and not upon taxation, as many claim, for taxation is an implied obligation, falling upon all who place themselves or property under the protection of the laws. The privilege of the franchise was conferred upon all whom the law made citizens, and to whom the government could look for service and protection.The franchise is broader than taxation — it is as broad as liberty.Therefore, whoever undertakes to impose, in these times, property and educational qualifications, strikes at an abridgement of the liberty of the citizens, and unites the work of the state with the work of society — a thing illegitimate and dangerous to any government.
The same reasons that demand a property qualification to-day will next year demand an aristocratic qualification.
The same reasons that demand an educational qualification to-day will demand a religious one next year.
Let it go out over the land, as it now is the law, that the citizens of the United States, at all times and under all circumstances, except for the disabilities imposed for crime, shall be fully entitled to the franchise.Let the government look after the citizen, and let society look after the individual and the mutual interest of both, by restraining the wrong and encouraging the good, which will increase wealth and stimulate the cause of education and religion.
A Recapitulation.
"The revolutions of the human mind," says Lamartine, "are slow, like the eras in the life of nations."It is no ordinary work for a great nation to pass a transition — to revolutionize the mental status of its people, to cool passions and remove prejudices, kindled into heat and produced by destructive and unrelenting war — and, by reorganization and new legislation, set up a
56
new order of things.It is not the work of a day, nor a year, but the work of time and deliberate and far-reaching statesmanship.In every great movement mistakes will delay a success or a victory, while wise counsels will accelerate them.Whatever may be the anxiety of statesmen to heal up the wounds of the rebellion and to restore the revolted states to political equality and harmony in the Federal Union, the completion of the work is still in the distance.As we go forward to its end, "hills peep o'er hills, and Alps o'er Alps arise."Difficulties in the machinery of the government, arising out of unexpected interpretations of its law by men of diverse opinions, prolong the work of reconstruction.Nor can the work be thoroughly completed until an entire change and reorganization of the government has fully taken place and a new order established, substantially as follows:I. The election of a new president and his instalment into office.
II. The formation of a new national constitution, and, under it, the reorganization of the Supreme Court, and the making of such other changes as seem best for the safety and perpetuity of the Republic.
III. The removal of the National Capitol to the Great West.
It is not possible, in the nature of things, that a Constitution framed in the infancy of a nation, and by its own weakness and the error of laws enacted under it, sustaining and spreading the greatest moral deformity of the nineteenth century, is a fit fundamental law for the nation after having thrown off, by revolution, that great moral deformity.Nor can this great work of reconstruction and reorganization be done too hastily. The evil in republics, said Carnot, the great French statesman, is found in their instability, "being hastily put together in the midst of civil commotions, enthusiasm always presiding over their establishment."One only, said he, has been the work of philosophy, and that was the United States.It most emphatically behooves our statesmen of to-day to make their work the work of philosophy.The foundations for the new Republic must be laid in the HIGHER LAW — which is the unwritten law of all nations, the teachings of which guarantee to all people alike, an equal right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,
57
with "no restraint but those laws which are the same to all, and no distinction but that which a man's merit may originate."With this consummation justly won, who will not willingly say, happy proud America, thine is the HIGHER LAW, and thine the consecrated home of LIBERTY.
The Labor Question.
The growth of society is continually unfolding vexed questions for time and experience to solve.One of the greatest is that of labor, or how shall each individual human being, by his own best use of himself or herself, provide most bread and raiment, to shelter from storms and hunger.This is one of the great questions of the world.It never has been solved, it never can be.All that can be done by advanced wisdom and experience is to correct errors and conform to the best rules of economy and compensation.
The old idea wrought out of the labor question years ago, by the moral reformers of Europe was, that as civilization advanced the masses darkened and declined.This conviction presented to the well-wishers of the race an unsolvable problem, growing out of the great army of laborers that were yearly increasing in the over-populous regions of European civilization.But a new reckoning taught that such a result sprung from a false civilization, and not from a true and just organization of society.
In America the labor question does not present itself as it does in Europe.There they deal with it collectively, here individually.In fact our country is too new to demand any considerable discussion in detail upon this question.Even in our growing cities those who find the demand greater than the supply, can easily make their way to fertile lands, which they can claim as their own.
The recent agitation of the eight hour question throughout the country is a ridiculous farce played at the expense of the ignorance and blindness of those who are the actors.
Let us look at this for a moment. There are two wide paths in life to travel, one is the path of industry, the other the path of idleness.The path of industry leads upward, the path of idleness leads downward, and whoever does not travel one will travel the other.There are depots, stations and resting places
58
on all roads.These give pleasure to the traveler.Now any man who undertakes to travel on both roads at the same time soon becomes wayward.Physiologists will tell us that at best eight hours for sleep is sufficient for the demand of any human organism; that in this length of time the whole system can recuperate and gather up its lost vitality.Now suppose that of the twenty-four hours eight be devoted to sleep and eight to labor, what will the other eight be devoted to?In nine cases out of ten to idleness and profligacy, for the time must be put on one road or the other.But again, man's physical strength will endure more than eight hours' work, and the poor mans' family demands more than eight hours' pay, therefore it is wrong to establish a system of labor, the workings of which are positively injurious to society.That regulation of labor is the best which gives full employment and full compensation — any other system than this is WRONG, and deserves the condemnation of intelligent people.
But there is a direction in which mechanics and laboring men can look for correction, it is in the matter of rents.Each city ought to provide through its capitalists suitable houses and low rents, corresponding to the wages of the laborers.This can be done in every city in such a way as to yield a profit to the capitalist for his investment, and make just provisions for the mechanic and laborer.It is a matter that ought not to be neglected in any of the great cities.
Touching the question of the world's labor, we present the following suggestive remarks.Whom the author is we know not, but a reading of the statements cannot fail to awaken reflection and excite inquiry upon the subject of the ability of the human race, and cause many to marvel and ask again, how do so many get bread:
THE AGGREGATE LABOR OF MANKIND. — Along with the compassion that is excited by listening to a tale of want, there is apt to arise, at that time, a feeling of astonishment that such a thing should be in a land like this.Perhaps, however, the true wonder is that want is not universal.One-half of the race die before they have contributed an iota to the world's sustenance, or their own.One-half of those who survive the period of childhood are women, who do not, as a general thing, contribute to the production of wealth.Of the men, many are sick, many old, many are lazy, many are idle, many are wasteful, many are
59
parasites.Those who do work, and live to the age of three score years and ten, spend one-third of their lives in bed, one-twentieth at the table, one-sixth in recreation.Much of their time is wasted in mistakes, much of what they do succeed in producing is swept away by fire and flood.During half the year nature sleeps.One harvest in five produces a failure. Only a fraction of the earth's surface is capable of cultivation. A large part of the general labor is absorbed in the production of luxuries, in repairing the damages of war, in preparing the future for conflicts, in the transportations of produce, and in journeys.Probably not more than one-tenth of the whole amount of human force is expended in earning the world's daily bread.
The standing marvel therefore, of society, is not that any should suffer want, but that there should be any who do not.
Every agitation of the labor question which tends to lessen the hours of toil, which man's healthy and physical system will endure, is a curse to society and the laboring population.The question has never been nor never can be, how to lessen the aggregate of labor and prevent a superabundance, but how can society be so organized as to give employment to all willing hands, and thus enable them to provide broad and raiment for them and theirs?
It must be evident to every sensible man that the eight-hour movement is in direct antagonism to this essential object, set on foot by no summer patriots, who have scarcely had ideas in their heads, but is the work of the most matured and advanced thinkers in the world.
Let legislators and pretended friends to the poor take thought, and henceforth strive for an organization of society that will rear every child, male and female, honest, industrious and healthy, with fit accomplishments for some useful avocation in life, and then certainly give him or her a place to labor, with just compensation.This end gained, an infinite good will come to all; this lost, and society will ever heave with convulsions and agitations, and the poor continue to ask for bread.
Fraternal relations must exist between labor and capital, and between labor and society.Labor must be respected and made honorable.This done, broad acres will not much longer lie idle, but be converted into fruitful and happy homes, and the shops of the cities be filled with more and better mechanics.Let all struggle to attain these results, and the happy consequences will bring a just reward.
60
To save the republic of our fathers in all its parts — to purify and perfect it by the struggles through which it passes — to make it wiser and better — to give it a grander and loftier mission among the nations of the earth, and to perpetuate its existence to the remotest time, is the chief end of this and future generations.
61
Special to St. Louis.
One of the strongest incentives in human nature is that which impels man to seek for happiness and success.The means of happiness are diligently sought for through every science, through art, and through industry, and each year adds new contributions to some phase of society.
In social life, it has been the pride and distinguishing characteristic of mankind, in all times, to adorn and beautify their great cities, and provide facilities in commerce, and pleasure for the populace.
Thebes, the pride of Egypt, and the first metropolis of arts and sciences, was distinguished for its hundred gates — Baalbec for its gigantic temples, "the ruins of which baffle the imagination of man."
Babylon had her wonderful walls and her hanging gardens; Nineveh her unequaled carvings, and Persepolis her world of palaces.So in modern times, each city is slowly advancing with improvements that confer privileges and benefits upon its citizens.The certainty of a wonderful future for St. Louis urges the necessity for such steps to be taken by her citizens, as will insure to her future growth the most liberal facilities for her business interest, and the most advanced improvements possible to secure health, pleasure, and the higher culture of her people.What she is to-day, ought not to be, and cannot be what she will be, the city of the future.Her people of this year, and of this generation, will not do their duty, if they, too, do not distinguish themselves — if they do not make the beginning of such improvements as will be finished by those of coming generations. Without generalizing the improvements necessary to great cities, it is proper to notice especially those which ought to be made for St. Louis.
A city ought, by all means, to be abundantly supplied with
62
water, to the extent that each citizen will have no difficulty in getting all the water needed.To expend money in a project that does not answer the demands for which it is designed is wrong.Competent engineers should be employed, and ample and permanent provisions for water be made.Good water and good air are indispensable to the welfare and health and happiness of a great city, and both should be provided.Another matter of great importance to which a city should be earnestly devoted, is to make such improvements and provisions as will facilitate its business interest.This must be done by wise municipal legislation — by protecting health, making public improvements, and aiding private enterprise, to facilitate the travel of the business man from his home to his place of business.It is becoming evident in our great cities, that the ordinary mode of city travel, by street cars and the omnibus, is not fast enough to answer the business demands of the people; consequently, each city is looking out for some improvement in speed.The too frequent stopping of cars to take on and let off passengers, causes great loss of time to the business man, and especially if he lives at a great distance.Various efforts have been made to overcome this difficulty, but no plan has been found sufficiently satisfactory to warrant its adoption. The city of London has partially adopted the underground travel, which meets with tolerable success.But the expense and inconvenience of such a mode renders it insufficient.What is required, is speed and safety.Speed cannot be obtained by the use of horses, nor is the use of steam safe in our streets, under the present regulations.Yet speed and safety must be obtained sooner or later.The necessity for many of the population and business men to live at a distance, and the greater desire of more to live away in the country, will soon require quicker transit.
The close connection of the travel in a city with the beauty of its arrangement, and the pleasure it affords, necessarily ally the two interests, and what is necessary for one will contribute to the other.
In prospect of the future greatness of St. Louis, it must be conceded that the largest provisions should be made for broad and extensive avenues and immense parks.To make ample
63
provisions in this direction, there should be three great avenues extending from the river, or at least from Fourth street, in a straight line, west, to the city limits or beyond.To provide these avenues, the city ought to purchase, and cause to be vacated, certain entire tiers of blocks, and such other grounds as are necessary, to extend the avenues beyond the city limits, viz: The ground between Wash and Carr streets, and between Market and Walnut streets, and such an enlargement of Chouteau avenue as to make it equal to the two above; and by this means open out three great avenues, which, when properly improved, would furnish ample room for safe and speedy transit to the distant homes, besides furnishing the city with three great avenues, such as she needs and ought to have.Such avenues when adorned with trees and shrubbery of beauty and value and flowing water, would add infinitely to the worth and goodness and greatness of St. Louis.In addition to these, let Grand avenue be thoroughly improved, and extended to the river above and below, so as to encircle thus much of the city. Still more, three large parks ought to be provided and improved in magnificent style.With these large and splendid avenues, steam transit could be used with safety and speed, and thus meet all the demands for rapid traveling; and thousands who now are and henceforth would be compelled to live in the narrow limits of the city would make homes in the airy suburbs of the country. Some arrangement of this kind must, sooner or later, be made — the public and private interest of the citizens will demand it. Cities are under a moral obligation to provide for the health and comfort of their poor, and not only must they be furnished with good water and air, but public parks and other places must be fitted up for Sunday resort for the thousands who are confined indoors at honest toil during the week.
With such improvements will come the higher institutions of civilized life.Temples of music, halls of science, palaces of art, and studios for genius.
There are those who will judge these views extravagant, and the improvements impossible, but they are within the legitimate scope of improvements which St. Louis ought to make in view of her future greatness.
64
The whole project is deserving of consideration, and ought to be publicly considered and acted upon.It is high time that something great and valuable — of more than ordinary concern — was projected for a city of such immense possibilities, even with the hopeful assurance of being the seat of National Empire.
Not only the citizens of this generation would heartily rejoice in such magnificent improvements, but millions yet to come, with footsteps soft as those who now tread her walks, and with music notes of sweeter tones, and aspirations of higher aims, would rejoice with fuller hearts, and adorn with more tender hands the great works that this people had given to them.
The Expense, and How to Meet It.
It is easy to imagine that there are those whose selfishness will not allow them to consent to such extended improvements at the public expense, even if they should happen to be impressed with their excellency.But who is there so short-sighted that he cannot see that the very moment those avenues are opened, and well regulated public conveyance provided to their farthest extent, that St. Louis will stand as the most princely city of the world, far-famed for her wonderful and proud public improvements?
Grant that the expense for the purchase of the grounds for the avenues and parks and their improvements reach to $30,000,000, which would probably be more than the outside. The city, with a vigorous administration of her public affairs, could make the purchase without a hazard of her financial interest.When the prosecution of the work is determined upon, let her appoint competent agents to go ten miles or more into the country, and purchase, as near the terminus of these avenues as possible, ten thousand or more acres of land, which shall be held by the city, and improved and sold at advanced prices from year to year for suburban and country residences.By this means the city could raise a considerable portion of the money to pay for the purchase of the avenues.With the avenues purchased, and improved for at least ten miles in the country, or to the new grounds, let there be constructed the improved means of conveyance, as follows: Erect one row of iron
65
posts of sufficient size and from 12 to 15 feet high and say from 12 to 15 feet distant from each other, except at the crossings of the streets, where the distance can be made greater.These posts must be firmly planted in the centre and extend the entire length of each avenue.At the top end of each post attach arms or a cross-bar, whereon to lay the railing for the new road.Then, with a light engine and perhaps improved motive power and light cars, each one being capable of carrying two thousand pounds, trains can be run with as great speed and as much safety as they now run on any of the roads traversing the country, and thousands of mechanics and business men can then go as easily ten miles from the city, where there is pure air, cheap rents and good water, as they now go two miles.The too frequent stopping to take on and let off passengers, can be overcome by having depots at intervals.
These new roads once built would yield an immense income to the city, besides furnishing better and cheaper travel to the owner of the road and the passenger.In other parts of the city the street travel must be confined to the alleys; the present mode is fast becoming very objectionable.
Those avenues, when once opened, should be well improved with shrubbery, walks and fountains.
Again, let the city levy an additional tax on all property each side of the avenues for the purpose of aiding to pay the bonded indebtedness made for their purchase.There can no just objection against this, for it is a common mode of raising funds for a special purpose in all cities.
By these three channels of income, from the lands in the country, the railroads and the additional taxation, the debt for the whole purchase and improvement of parks and avenues could be paid for in twenty years.The income would not fall far short of the two mill tax on the Illinois Central Railroad.
By this plan the city could very well afford to engage in such magnificent improvements, even if they cost $50,000,000.
66
Note.
On the 13th and 14th pages occurs a mistake in the estimated area of the Atlantic Slope and the Mississippi Valley; also a discrepancy between the statements on the 13th and 18th pages
Owing to the fact of some of the Territories lying partly in the Mississippi Valley and partly on the Pacific Slope, it is difficult to make a correct division and give the exact area of square miles in each.