The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1846-01-02

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thousands of cmigrants along our ca
mails and railways, vending their way
to the far West, not to seek, (for
many of them have none now,) but
to make home, by their toll and la.
Dor. Remuneration seems better
there, and thither they so.
Thus both parties are benefited,
those who are left, for they have in
their pursuits less ruinous competi-
ton, while those who have gone are
creating new comforts in the wilder
ness. This extent of territory is af-
fording thus daily double blessing
to our people. Its influence and in
creasing population is wonderful.
There may be some who believe that
the coping up of a people within
certain limits, will increase popula-
ton, but they forget that great law
of our being, which is, that erceSsirp
poverty checks the multiplication of
population. 1t requires such peo-
pie as that of New England, neither
very rich nor very poor, to obtain
the highest limit Of human produc-
ton. Though she has peopled Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Yves
tern New York, with hundreds of
thousands of her hardy emigrants,
yet few will doubt, that at the same
time, she is advancing in population
as rapidly as if she had never sent
any of her sons to tic West. In the
mean while she is reaping the re-
Ncted benefits of that emigration, in
the growing trade Of that very coun-
try which she has peopled, and to
whose trade she now looks as the
mainstay of her future prosperity.
The same is true OF the Empire
State, though steadily advancing
from year to year in population,
wealth and educational improve
ment, until she has become the State
of the Union, the pride of her sons,
and the admiration OF foreigners.
She has also been the mother of new
States, who look to her with deep
er attachment even than those who
live on her soil. Would these won
ders have been performed without
vast Western domain? Most as
suredly not. This very expansion
Of our population has given ample
room for the full development of the
varied energies of man. Thus, new
sources of wealth to the nation, of
prosperity and comfort to man, have
been realized, while the reputation
and power Of our republic seems to
be spreading over the continent of
Europe, Asia and Africa, in proper
ton as we are advancing to the wes-
tern sea.
As we have alluded to the fayora-
bic influence OF extension on the in
crease of population, it now seems
proper to notice its effects on the
general improvement of society !;
AS the education Of the people is the
first great step in human progress,
what may be its effects on that will
be our leading inquiry.
The question Resolves itself into
this. Does an emigrating popnla-
ton care less about education than
a stationary one? The present con-
dition and astonishing progress Of
Ohio, which has been filled with
nearly two millions Of people, in on
~ fifty years, is an object not only
of admiration, but Of example even
to the older states from whence the
emigrants have come.
There is restless activity and
free-moving enterprise about the
people OF new states, which commu-
nicates itself to all their pursuits !;
"go ahead" is their maxim in every
thing. Educational progress must
partakc in this general movement.
As uncrring evidence of this pcrva-
ding feeling, the traveller perccives
with surprise, the school-housc, the
academy, and even the stately col
lcgc. rising in the wilderness almost
as soon as the cabin of the hardy
settler. Neither can the influence
of the competition OF the West upon
the East be overlooked. .
Does any one doubt that the set
Element of western New York has
acted most favorably upon the edu-
cational and agricultural progress of
Eastern New York, and New Eng
land? The action of our progress
upon theirs, and theirs upon ours,
has been electrical. The one can
not advance step without its Civ
ing move to the other. .
"Press onward' must peculiarly
be the motto of an emigrating popu.
lation. Its recoil is not spent at
home, but even reaches the state of
their emigration. So long as the
United States are embraced within
the folds of one confederacy, no mat
ter how far we extend, this action of
the new upon the older states must