Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1846-04-02

yond this we venture not to speculate. For,
although we devoutly hope that every year
Throughout that far-olf future may be mile
stone notched with the record of human
progress, and every age an arch inscribed
all over with the triumphs of our race, while
religion and knowledge shall shed light as
from sky upon their lofty march, yet for
us that millennial vision is a prophecy vet
unfulfIed, and to our eyes "shadows, cloud
and darkness rest" on all its glories.
But, although for the 1Ohoze country we
may fairly anticipate, through century or
more, rate of progress nearly correspond
ing with the past, yet we must expect the
ratios to be very unequal and unsteady in
the several States, as they have hitherto
been. The same great cause, namely the
expectation of an easier subsistence, which
has SO long drawn among us large portion
of the increase of Europe, has in greater or
smaller measures borne away their natural
increase from the older to the newer mem
bers of this ccnlederacy. At the formation
of our Union some of the cold thirteen,''
for instance Maine, then belonging to Mas
sachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and
course for many years increased rapidly in
population, and some Of them far beyond
their natural progress, owing to large i'm
migration. But as they became more close
! ly peopled, their increase began to leave
/ them, flowing off in a westward and ever
strengthening tide. Those States, however,
which had the most of intelligence and pub
lie spirit, were least drained of their popula-
ton, because they presented inducements
for their inhabitants to stay at home The
only States of the original IS, which still
: advance with tolerable rapdity, are Maine
and Georgia, from their comparative sparse
ness; Pennsylvania from its great mineral
wealth New 7 ork from its unrivaled ad-
vantages of location; and Massachusetts
from an enlightened enterprise, which sure
| ly has no parallel on earth. Yet even in
these States the ratio Of increase falls far
short OF the average ratio of the Union
Meanwhile in all portions of the West the
forests have been felled, and human habita-
Itions established on their ruins with as
tonishing rapidity. Presidents and presi-
dental aspirants find it more and more ne
cessary to propitiate the voters of the Mis-
IsIsslppi Valley, and the census of 1870, at
latest, will show the Atlantic sisterhood of
States, the Revolutionary Thirteen, that the
balance of political power has passed away
forever beyond - llegany mountains
Many of the nes6%lllees are becoming old
Tennessee and Kentucky are as thickly set
tied as Virginia, and the population of Ohio
IL more dense than that of Pennsy lvania.-I
Before the end ofthe next generation all the
territory between the Alleganies and the
Mississippi will be filled with population
of so to the SO. mile, and all the most promis-
ing regions beyond the Mississippi will have
been thoroughly explored and pretty close
ly settled Then the tide of emigration,
which has so long drained the Atlantic slope
of men, money and strength, will be check
ed, becoming stationary, and sometimes
forced backward by reauent stream. Then
the people of Maryland, Virginia and other
Atlantic States, necessitated by circum-
stances, will divide their large plantations
into small farms, and calling in the aid of
minute economy and enlightened mind to
vary their products and fertIlize their land,
will discover that one square mile may be K
made to support $50 more easily than it now
supports 80. To accomplish this desirable
result there will be needed that same Cor
still better) system of thorough, dihusive,
education now found in Massa-
chusetts, and which the author of the Report '
on Free-Schools, just published in your pa q
per, has so warml y and justly eulogized.-
Whether also those, who alone are interest
ed, and who alone, both by the Constitu-
ion of our Government and by the laws of |
common sense, have control of the matter, S
will not at last think it expedient to adopt
Of involuntary, unintelligent and generally IS
service, and thinking it expedi- c
ent, will not endeavor, If 1t be possible, to
accomplish the exchange, | leave for the :
wise to determine. This is a delicate point !
or since the ignorant, meddlesome spirit
md reasonable efforts of Abolitionist incen-
liaries at the North have awakened SO just
| feeling of evaporation at the South, it is I
almost dangerous for man, who on the !
'ne hand reveres the maxim of ST. Paul that b
every man should mind his own business' b
md respects rights vested and guaranteed |
brewer by our glorious Constitution, and
yet, on the other hand, has fixed opinion 4
If his own, even to hint at subject which
'nce was freely discussed by the Jefersons <
md Madisons and Monroes of the South. @
ct in regard to the eGpediency of the sup s
'osed change, | will merely ask any man of Il
ELECTION to consider the vast difference in Il
very species ofprogress between Maryland, c
yirginia and Kentucky on the one side, and IL
'ennsy lvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois on te
nd tIo,, ic 81 tbo 4