Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1855-12-05
From the st. Louis Republican.
The Future Of the Keystone State---New
York and Pennsylvania

New York is and long has been the Empire
State of our confederacy; but there are causes
at work which are likely TO reduce her from
her present proud enlinence. and elevate a
sister State to the imperial position and chal-
acler she has heretofore enjoyed Pennsyl-
vania is the towering rival. whose portentions
crest is looming up out of the shadow cast by
her neighbor. and reaching forth to snatch
the sceptre which that neighbor thought would
always be her own.
New Workers are demonstrative people,
Pennsylvanians are the reverse. The former
are always in commotion-holding meetings,
passing resolves, writing, speaking. talking.
! trading and working noisily, and thereby inn
pressing on their neighbors and the world
| bewidering sense of their superior activity,
energy and enterprise. The Pennsylyanians
seea, slow and steady-going; yet they are gen.
orally earnestly and perseveringly at work for
the accomplishment of some great work. none
the less important for being less talked of.
New York has greater population. and more
votes in Congress than Pennsylvania; but this
| order of things viii be reversed in few years.
i pennsy lyania will be the first, and New York
| the second in the political frmament Penn
| sylvania will rise. and New ork descend one
| step, thereby reversing their present relative
positions Does any ask how this will
| be, and is being brought about? The answer
Ia easy.
| New York has been building railroads from
/ Que centre-her chief city towards the West.
/ Instead Of having to cut through, or go over
inoup tains. as Pennsylvania did, she could
go round them. Her huge canal and gigan-
/ tic lines of rail. conycrglng at Mahattan Is
| land, radiatea towards the lakes on the north,
and the opening between the lakes and the
/ mountains on the west. The enormous trade
Of nearly the whole West rolled along the
Erie and Central Railroads. or foafed along the
| Erie Canal. to be deposited for distribution in
| the warehouses and ON the quays of her chief
city.
| But while these railroads and this canal
| carried this foreign wealth through the State
| they also bore home wealth out Of it. The
high prices paid within the last few years for
| the very western produce which sought a
market at New York city, together with the
| facility which the railroads of the State offer
ed to emigrants going West, has induced "a
heavy emigration from the Empire State to
the cheap farming lands of the Northwest.
The consequence is, that while the stream of
/ trade fron, The West has swollen the dimen-
sions of New York city the stream of trade
| to the West is deplcting New Icrk State
The former has been built up to its present
! imposing proportions. at such fabulous ra-
! pidity, at the expense of the latter. In short
the internal Improvements of New York State
| were built with an eye to commerce alone
/ and not with view to the deselopement of
| her hidden elements of wealth The business
/ they do is enormous; bat it is a through busi-
ness, whose benefits are not scattered by the
waysi ie. but deposited in lump in the Golfers
| OF the merchant princes and ship owners of
glorious Gotham.
Pennsylvania, with all the old-fogyism
| char red ON her, ! as pursued wiser and mo.
discreet policy. The Aileghenies long lay as
an insurmountable barrier between her and
the Wet. The buildings of tunnels through,
and roads over them, the work of years.
She could not run over the Alleghenies. to
the West. as nlmbly and quickly as her rival
could around them She had therefore, to
give up the West mcasurably. to New York,
and look TO more remote source for wealth.
She turned her eyes homeward, and saw coal
veins and iron beds inviting labor, and prom
ising riches to to those who would turn them
up She built mills, factories and furnaces,
and filed them with the workers whom New
York sent abroad She built farming town
in her valleys, and manufacturing towns
among her coal and iron hills, and connected
the two by railroads. that the farms might
| supply the mills with food, while the mills
supplied the farmers with manufactures. In
short Pennsylvania built roads to serve as
channels for the reciprocal trade of her own
citizens, as well as for the transportation OF
| foreign through trade. Her industry was
therefore diversified, enlarged and enhanchd
She kept her citizens at home by giving them
work. No one can fail to remark the paucity
| OF Pennsylvanians to be found living out of
their native State, as compared with the num-
Der of New Workers TO be found scattered
throughout the West. The results of these
causes are what we might naturally suppose
they would be-
AT the last census, New York lost two
Representatives in Congress, while Pennsyl-
vanla gained two. The causes which led to
this disparity are still at work. and will pro-
duce more palpable relative changes in the fu-
lure. Pennsylvania is not now equal in pop
ulation or importance to her sister State but
she is marching to physical power and politi-
cal Importance with surer and steadier strides
than her neighbor. She is increasing more
rapidly IN proportion. and even the next CEN
sus may show that she has achieved the same
level with New York, from whence her cleya-
ton to superiority is inevitable
In 1861, the Keystone State will be also
the Empire State of the Union. first in the
deEelopeds elements of physical wealth. first
m Il