The Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1834-184?, 1845-08-28
THE BEGINNING OF THE RESULT.

The Western Railroad, connecting Boston
with the New York Improvements, and there
by with the great West, was opened in 1871:
The increase of that city since, in wealth and
population, exhibits some astonishing results
In lS4l the valuation of property in Boston
real and personal, WASH the aggregate $685.
log, COG. The year following it amounted 10
LOG, 1885, 800; and in 1914 the cross valua-
ton reached the aggregate of llS.45O,SOO.
Here in a period of three years an increase
is shown gilmore than twenty millions ofdol-I
lars; and what makes it the more remarkable
is an advance of twenty per cent, or one
fifth on the original valuation.
Within three years after the opeelng of
the Erie Canal the city of New York increa-
sed aboutthirteen millions ofofdollars, which
was an advance of twelve.and a half per cent.
ON the valuation of the real and personal
property OF the city.
Population tells the same story. The cit
les of the East are filling up "fast." Eighty
eight years ago Boston had near 10000;
new it bias quadruple that number. Eighty
eight years ago and New York had less than
twenty thousands soulsi now it claims three
hundred and sixty-fve thousands souls! And
Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans, all
show the same wonderful increase.-Whence
this mighty spread of human power?
The Albany Argus answers this question
in two words Western Trade. This is the
.ouroo re ,uaoItb n tho Eaet. tbo =.
whence springs its increase of population
and power, which has made all its cities tower
into mighty places, and which, too, has bull
up New Orleans, amid disease and a bad eli
mate, as their great Southern commercial ri
val. And it is even so. The once wild
Northwest is the great feeder of the East,
and its settlement has made, in the main,
that section OF our country what it is.
Below we publish the article from The Ar
gus.
From the Albany Nv. " Argus.
THE GROWTH OF AMERICAN CIT
lES-THE COMMERCIAL INFLU-
ENCE OF THE WEST.
We ha We been both instructed and amused
in reading recently Burke's "European Set
Elements in America" written in 1851
lightweight years ago. The relative wealth
and population of American cities have
changed wonderfully since then, while their
progress seems almost miraculous. Nothing
in the annals of the world will compare with
their advance in population.
Burke says "There are in all the provin-
ces of New-England, large towns which
drive a considerable trade. Boston, the cap
ital of Massachusetts Bay, is the first city of
New-England and of all North America; il
A-naaina At least 2nnnn inhahiiants-n
This old "reminiscences naturally invites re-
Election. Boston is no longer the first city
in America. New-York has become the
Commercial Emporium of America. Boston
has prospered and more than quintupled IFS
population. Yet the commanding situation
of New-York, backed by The enormous trade
Of the West, has built up city of 1850
inhabitants, (not to include rapidly growing
Brooklyn, with its 40,O00,) where in 1857
there were not 10000. Philadelphia like
wise has run ahead of Boston, while New
Orleans, in forty-6ve years, under the SWELL
ing tide ofthe Valley of the Mississippi, has
already grown into a mightier city than Bos-
ton.
To what may this change be attribu,ed?-
Is it not clearly to the influence ofthe wes-
tern trade, which seems to be a mine OF
wealth and power and population almost be-
yOnd human calculation. In the days of Ed
mund Burke, the West was but little known.
1t was referred to only as a vast wilderness.
America was then bounded by the Allegha.
MES. Even in such speculative minds as
5 Burke's, the settlement and future glory oil
4 the Valley of the Mississippi were scarcely
alluded TO. To their minds, there seemed
land enough on this side of the Alleghanies
4 Tor a hundred years to come. No monarchisl
v could fully appreciate the progressive powel
e and enterprise OF the Anglo-Saxo race, per
haps we may rather say, of Anglo-Saxon free
men. A hundred years have not elapsed
. and our people have already crossed the AL
: leghanies, and advanced their settleme nts ;
thousand miles beyond that mountain barrier
No fancy was so wild as to imagiue such
progress in 1857, but that very expansion ha.
built up the great cities oil America. The
settlement of Western New-York and Ohio
3 forced the construction of the Erie canal
which literally united the waters of the ives
S tern seas with the Atlantic ocean. For onl,
O twenty years, the wealth of the teeming ives
has poured down that avenue, and already /
= has placed New-York on an eminence as til,
Commercial Emporium Of America. Phila
delphia and Baltimore have advance unde
the same impetus, while Newt Orleans ha
marched with a railway rapidity to CONNER
cial greatness. Cincinnati in that once vii