The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-04-24

FREE STATES.
Free population in 1850 l3,574797
Do do. 1910 9,72S,972
Increase 3,s45s25
Rate of increase, 3s1& per cent
SLAVE STATES.
Free population in 1850 6,4O9,93s
Do do. 1910 4,s4s,l5O
Increase 156l,7ss
Rate of increase, 3234 per cent
Slave population in 1850 3,O75234
Do do. 1910 2,4s623l
Increase 5s9OO3
Rate of increase 1876 per cent.
The speculations of the Southern Press upon
these general results of the census are as peculiar
as its general theory of progress. 1t says
"Now, from 1910 to 1850, the foreign emigra-
ton to the United States, with its natural increase,
cannot be less than two millons-(for the last
four years ouly, it has averaged 100000 per
annum) And this has gone almost exclusively
to the North Deduct this from her present pop
ulation, and there remains II 574, 797-showing
natural increase of only 1,s45,675, or less than
nineteen per cent. in ten years. The total popu-
lation of the South in 1910 was 1884 ,73l. Now,
in 1850, it is 9,362 l72-showing natural in
crease (since there has been little or no foreign
emigration) of nearly twenty-eight per cent
nearly fifty per cent more than the natural in
crease Of the North.
"In all the decades that have elapsed since this
Union was formed, our increase of population has
been nearly the same, differing only one or two
Der cent. from thirty six in the first, to about
thirty four per cent in the one of lS30-40. In the
-1S4Oj5O-it has been almost the same,
about thirty-fve per cent; although in these Ten
wears our foreign emigration has trebled the num-
Der of the previous tweny years From 1920 to
1910 il was only 79S,770 1t results therefore
that the ratio of natural increase in the North
has at length fallen at least fifty per cent below
the previous rate whilst that of the South has not
declined For the natural increase of the whites
in the South is greater than the average of black
and white. The natural increase Of the slave
population is, as heretofore almost invariably
twenty-five per cent in ten years. The increase
of the whites is therefore more than the average
IL has advanced in fact from S47,376 in 1870 to
629493S in 1850 almost exactly thirty per
cent which is about the highest ratio Of natural
increase at any time during the Union-making
allowance for small amount of foreign emigration
in the earlier periods. IL is thus demonstrable,
that if foreign emigration were now to cease, the
aggregate
South would equal that Of the North in half a GEN.
tury and that in a century the white population
alone of the South would equal the total popula-
ton of the North"
1t is easy for tolerabe logician to prove any
thing, if you concede his premises. The increase
of the free population of the South the last ten
years is 1922 per cent, not 30; while that of the
North, if we take the statement of the Southern
Press, is less than 10 per cent! There is such
an air of total improbability about this result,
that it would require evidence of the most de-
monstrative character to satisfy any intelligent
man of its correctness But, no matter how mar
velous the results worked out by the calculations
of our statistical neighbor, he seems never to
dream that he may be mistaken in his data.
We confess we felt somewba puzzled, when we
saw the conclusion to which he had come, respect
lions, to understand why it was that the North
had been smitten with barrenness - how it was
that Slavery acted as formulating agent. Could
it be possible that virility was dependent upon a
mans being Shareholder, and that his fruitful |
ness was to be estimated from the number Of
slaves he possessed
Seriously, the whole argument of the Southern
Press is founded on very improbable assumptions
1t says the foreign immigration, with its natural
increase, for the last ten years, cannot be less
than two milons-and this has gone almost ex-
clusively to the North. The actual number of
foreign immigrants for the last decade may be as-
certaned, we presume, with tolerable exactness
tha NIL ha
ords?
According to these, the whole number of for
egn passengers that arrived in the United States
in twenty-six years, from October LIST, 1920, to
September 30th, 1916, was 1854, 1905, Of whom
,OS5,4 All, or about four-ths, arrived in the free
States, and 26S s2s, or one-ffth, in the slave
States. This gives the number registered at all
the custom-h houses. Some are registered as j" born
in the United States; )" some came for business or
pleasure; some disappointed in the hope of better
ing their condition, returned. Allowing for these
classes deduction of 900 900, we must add about
the same number for foreign immigrants entering
the country from the Canadas; so that the actual
number settled among US would still remain the
same.
Taking the six years from 1910, inclusive, the
record shows the whole number to have been
$50, SAB. Add to this the immigrants for the sue
ceeding four years, which the Southern Press esti-
mates at not less than 100000 a year, and the
whole number of immigrants for the ten years
ending 1850 is ,5O4 900, the natural increase of
which, allowing an annual increment Of three per
cent, has augmented the number to 10000.
As we have seen, the proportion for twenty six
years that entered the slave States was one-ffth
The same proportion was observable for the six
numbers registered at the ports in the slave
States afford no accurate data for calculating
the numbers settling in them. That is true
Many arrive at Baltimore, who proceed at once
to the -slaveholding States Of the Vest, and
some who enter by the way Of New Orleans 90
up the river to Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin.
But We may safely assume that the proportion of
these does not exceed that of those who, entering
the port of New York on account Of its greater
convenience, find their way afterwards to the
South
We must remember, too, that for the last four
years the tide of foreign immigration to the slave
States has been increasing In New Orleans, the
negroes in hotels and boarding houses have been
displaced to a considerable extent by foreigners.
The numerous railway undertakings in Georgia
and some of the other slave States have attracted
large numbers Of foreigners thither. St Louis
and Baltimore owe their rapid increase to for
eign immigration. Louisville has added to her
foreign population some fifteen thousand during
the last ten years. Vast numbers Of the immi-
grants are finding their way into Missouri, Tex
as, and into all the towns along the Mississippi.
From these considerations and in view Of the