Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1845-09-05
THE GROWTH OF AMERICAN CITIES.
Commercial influence OF The West.
From the Albany Argus.

we nave been both instructed and amused in
reading recently Burke's Elropean Settle.
Incnls 10 America written in l7J7-eighty.
! eight years ago. The relative wealth and pop.
uIaoon ot Am"rcan cities have changed won
dcrfully since then, whilo their nropress soem.
almost miraculous Nothing in the annals of
tho world vii! compare with their advance in
population.
Burke says, "There are in the provinces of
New Eng land, large towns which drive con-
siderable trade. Boston, tue capital of Massa-
chuselts Bay, is the first city Of New England
and OF all North America; it contains at least
10000 inhabitants"
This old "Reminiscences naturally invites res
Election. Boston is no longer the first CITY il.
America New York has become the CONNER
cial emporium Of America. Boston has pros,
pered, and more than quintupled its population.
| Yet the commandlg situation OF New York,
hacked by the enormous trade Of tue West, has
built up city Of $4,000 inhabitants, mot to in.
clude rapidly growing Brooklyn, WITH its 49,
0OO,) where in 1857 there we're not 10000,
PHILADELPHIA likewise has run ahead Of Boston.
while New Orleans, in forty.f years, under
the swelling tide Of the Valley OF the MISSISSIPPI
pI, has already grown Into mghiier city than
Boston.
To what may this change be attributed! Is
it not clearly 10 the influence of tho western
trade, which seems to be mine OF wealth and
power and population almost beyond human cal.
cuaton! Ia the days Of Edmund Burke, tho
West was but little known. 1t was referred to
only as vast wilderness. America was then
oounded by the Alleghanes. Even in such
speculative minds as Burkes, the settlement
ana future glory OF the Valley Of the Mss.ssip.
pi were scarcely alluded TO. To their minds.
there seemed land enough on this side of the
AAcghanles for hundred years to come, No
monarchlst could fully appreciate the progress.
sWe power and enterprize Of the Anglo. Saxon
, race, perhaps we may rather say, of Anglo. Sax.
on ireeInen. a hundred years have not ELAPSED,
and our people have already crossed the Allie.
ghanies, and advanced their settlements thou.
sand miles beyond that mountain barrier No
fancy was SO wild as to imagine such prog
reSs IN 1901 but that very expansion has built
up the great cities Of America.
The settlement Of Western New York and
ONO forced the construction Of the Erie canal,
winch literally united the waters of the western
seas with the Atlantic ocean. For only TWEEN.
~ years the wealth Of the teemug west has
poured GOWN That avenue, and already it has
Piaceu view fork on an eminence as The com.
tneFclal emporium OF America. ishiiade iphia
and Baltimore have advanced under the Same
impetus, while New Orleans has marched with
railway rapidly TO commercial greatness-
Cincinnati, in that once wilderness, valley. after
population of 10000 inhabitants. Even st
Louis, thousand miles ives, Of the Alleyha-
MES, is already rlvalng Cincinnati And Pitts.
burgh, the iron CITY of the West, 10 becoming
a second birmingham.
it will be remarked as among the extraordi.
nary influences OF western emigration that there
is not city on the seaboard but what looks 10
the West as the only resource Of its future
growth. To secure the western trade, is 70,
sardcd OF far more importance than the mines
OF Mexico and Brazil. Moved BY ,hi, unerrins
conviction, we see Portland, in Maine, by me ans
of the ST. Lawrence and Atlantic railway, Ports.
mouth in New Hampshire, BY a railway con.
meeting with the Concord and Burlington rail.
road, and Boston, with its iron arms, stretching
to Lake Erie and Lake Champlain, striving in
an honorable rivalry, TO divert portion OF the
Western trade from New York. Farther South
we perceive Baltimore struggling for the Yves.
, tern trade with Philadelphia, BY means of rail.
ways and canals-and Savannah with Charles
! ton. In Virginia, Richmond is making a giant
, struggle 10 pierce the Blue. Ridge with canal
or railway, IN order 10 reach the rills OF that
western current, which moves on like the wa.
tiers OF the Nile. enrichng the soil upon which
1t o'erfiows Boston is already reaping the ad.
vantage of its llercuean labors, to re ach the
heart of the West. II is but three yesrs since
the opening of the Western railway to Albany,
and yet its influence upon that city has been not
less remarkable than the opening Of the Erie
, Canal was on New York.
The following tables OF facts will confirm this
r position. In December, 1871, the Western
railway was opened for travel. Since that
, epoch, little more than three years have clap.
sed, and look at the change in Boston valuation /: