Southern shield., 1858-10-02
From the Philadelphia Bulletin. Growth of Texas.

From partial returns recently made by the assessors of the different counties of Texas, | it has been ascertaned that the population 1 of that State is now about four huncred and fifty thousand, and the number of vo- ters will range between sixty-hve and sey- entv thousand. In 1850, according to the | United States census. Texas had popula- tion of only 2l2,592. Her inhabitants, therefore, have considerably more than doubled within eight years. Already they greatly exceed in number those of Arkansas, and at the present rate of progress they will soon exceed those of Louisiana, which has in it's metropolis alone q population of a couple of hundred thousand Emigration l from the older States and from Europe has poured steadily into Texas. A large portion of the new inhabitants are hard working farmers, Germans, Norwegians, English and French. The rural population has thus grown more rapidly than the urban, and thus the prosperity of the young State has for it's basis agriculture, the safest of all foundations. Cotton, wheat, corn, tobacco, hemp, and vines, together with all the grains. fruits and vegetables that grow in the other States, flourish there exuberantlv, while tropical fruits abound also. At the same time there Is no better stock country in the world, and the raising of sheep, cattle, swine, horses and mules is becoming one of the most profitable of occupations.
 Such is Texas in 1858, and the contrast with what she was in lS46, at the time of her admission into the Union, is one of the strongest proofs of the blessings conferred ] upon her by thus giving her strong gov ernment to protect and cherish her. The advantage to Texas was far greater than the advantage to the United States We gained a vast territory, but we also gained an i'm mense and difficult frontier to defend at great cost, and we gained q serious war, which involved the sacrifice of thousands of lives and many millions of treasure. Under the American flag, Texas has become a peaceful and prosperous and independent State. She has been relieved of the burden of supporting an army and navy, which were part of the paraphernalia of her sepa- rate existence, and thanks to the liberality of the Federal Government, she is now free from debt, and her taxes amount to but It, tie. The act of annexation was somewhat quiXotic on our part, for the immediate ad- vantages to the Union were but slight, and the gold discoveries of California, which were not dreamed of at the time. have alone made the acquisition materially valuable to us. But as the mission of our Republic seems to Joe philanthropic as much as it is political, we are not to lament the cost of annexation or to question its eXpediencv in a moral or political aspect, since the result has been the permanent establishment of a free and prosperous State, enjoying all the advantages of our admirable system.
 It is not our purpose to discuss here the probable future bearings of the progress of Texas on our domestic politics. That is an important consideration, inasmuch as Texas is the only one of the slave States that is advancing with a rapidity somewhat com menSurate with that of our Northwestern States. It is a grand illustration of the effects of the extension of the American | system over the world, that we have thought proper to refer to the subject The moral influence of such extraordinary growth and ! prosperity must become immense, when the | people and the leading best minds of neigh | boring Mexican and Central American States are brought to a full appreciation of it. The Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Nueva Leon and Coahuila are already fast advan- cing towards such an appreciation. The l civil convusions that have long existed in those States are undoubtedly only the warn ing signals, that foretell their separation from the miserable Mexican Republic Separation from Mexico will inevitably lead to application for admission into the Amer jean Union, and, if this is once accomplish ed, those States will speedily progress at a rate corresponding with that of Texas. Il will be an act of condescension, on our part to admit them, as it was to admit Texas and there will be serious and soundly phi losophical opposition to it among our peo- pie. But we we do not believe such oppo- sition will long be of avail, and some of 0ul readers will live to see the work accom- plished. Some will live, too, to see the gradual total dismemberment of the Mexi- can confederacy, the extinction of it's bas- tard nationality, and the extension of the American flag over all of Mexico and Gen. tral America. Manifest destiny may be : laug he'd at as a phrase of political clap-trap But it is none the less manifest and none the less destiny.