Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-03-07
tFrom the London Times
The Remarkable Growth and Prosperity
of nc AmerIcan nepnbIlc.

If the threatened dissolution OF the United
States should be actually -consummated, lis
citizens viii enjoy a Singular opportunity OF
contemplating, at the very crisis of their
destinies, the magnitude and splendor of the
political fabric which they have just de
siroyed. The year Of the Secession was also
the year Of the census. AT the moment that
the Federal Government was receiving the
ENJOYS of independent Carolina it was re-
ceiving also the returns Of the population
and progress from the several States OF the
Union. For the eighth time only spcs the
origin of the Confederacy, aud yet for the
last time, perhaps, in its history, the great
Republic has taken stock of its people. 1t
has numbered and classified its citizens,
counted its gains and put its growth upon
record, and now it seems as il it were re-
solved on terminating its existence. If it
does, il will die in a blaze. Its progress has
outstripped even the s%peculations OF its own
rulers. Ten years ago, at the taking of the
seventh census, some Americans sat down to
calculate the probable numbers Of the popu-
lation of 1860, just as a thrifty trader on the
balancing his accounts will indulge himself
in computing the prospective accumulations
of such a surplus as he has Just discovered.
They made out that the United States would
contain at the period which has now arrived
an aggregate population of 3l,095, 535. The
reckoning has actually been verified, and
with a little to spare. The numbers are 81
374,956.
Nothing like such growth has ever been
witnessed in the old States of Europe. Tn
increase during the decade has been upward
of 5000, 600; the percentage thirty five.
Our own country has made great strides,
considering the numbers who emigrate, but
we can only show such a percentage OF in
crease in very rare instances, upon insigni-
fcnnt areas, and under special conditions.
OF all the counties Of England and Wales,
two only during the present century have
grown at this rate, and those are the con
t'guous shores of Monmouth and Glamorgan.
In the year 1901 they contained 1l5. 900 peo-
pie. They now contain some 400, 900, and
Merthyr Tydvil can account probably for q
good deal of the result. The gross increase,
however, of the entire population, was never
like t~hirty-ive per cent. in a decade; in
TACT, it was never half as much. At the last
census it was between twelve and thirteen
per cent. for the whole of Great Britain. In
a few months time we shall again be able to
survey our progress, but it will certainly not
approach the American rate, however salts
factory it may prove.
The statistics of the principal returns are
in some cases perfectly astounding. Not
only single cities, but whole States, have
actually doubled their numbers, and Chicago
hiss all but uuadrupled its population. In
1850 it contained less than.3O,0O0 inhabit.
ants; it now contains nearly 10000.
The State of New York has increased by
about 100000, Pennsylvania by SOC, 900,
Mass achusetts by 10000, and Illinois by
little short of 1000, 900. In the Northwest
the progress has been extraordinary. The
three States of Michigan, Wisconsin and
Iowa hardly contained, between them, more
inhabitants in 1850 than Wisconsin alone
contains at the present time. Iowa, in par
ticular, had a population 1872, 2l4, in 1850
whereas it now numbers its 676,435 souls
The Americans carry into these reckonings
a spirit of rivalry which is quite amusing
They poll their populations as they do theil
Electors, and look for the returns of the
enumerators..as we do for the declaration o
the Mayor, on the day after a tremendouI
contest between Wing and Tory. The re.
cent census happened to place Cincinnati
2,1l9 below st. Louis on the great nstiona
poll. It's citizens protested against the re
turn, demanded a scrutiny, and instituted
private census of their own, to test thu
official figures. Their proceedings resulted
in a decisive victory. They discovered tina
they had been moderated by IL, 233 inhabit
ants, and pulled down accordingly the ma
jority of st. Louis with a good 5000 II
spare.
1t will not surprise any one to learn tina
the Southern States are left in arrear by tn
Northern in these statistics; but the contras
is not quite SO strong as it appears to be a
first sight. The Southwest makes progress
just as the Northwest does, and for the sam
Ieason-that the push of the whole popula
, ton is westward. Still, PENNSYLVANIA an
New York have not Jared like Virgini,
Virginia began in 1890, by heading til
whole list of the States in the numbers
its population in 1901 haddropped to til
fourth place, and another place had been los
by the returns just made. North Carolin
5 was originally fourth in the list, and Sout
Carolina seventh; they were tenth an
fourteenth respectively, in 1860, and al
now, perhaps, lower still. On the other hanC
Georgia had risen from twelfth to ninth, an
Missouri from ~twenty-second to thirteenth
There can be no doubt, however, about tn
general superiority of vigor attaching to tn,
free States of the Union. A catalogue ha
been formed of twenty one great town
qualified by their numbers and importanc
to form a species of first class, and of thes
fifteen exclude slavery, and six only ADM
it. Of the whole list, too, one town alon
has shown actual decline since 1850, and this
one is Charleston, the seat of the preseI
revolt. The increase in the number ofslavt
is not quite so great as it was between 1874
and 1850, though greater than it had bee
between 1880 and 1910. 1t amounts to aboU
.0,O00.
A single entry of apparently slight in
portance in the statistics before us explain
the whole ofthat struggle between North an
!, South which now threatens such formidab
consequences. The population of the Tel
~rilories" is set down altogether at 384, $685.
not much above that of the single city
Brooklyn, and less than that of Philade
pkia; but the area of the country thus thinl
occupied is little, if at all, less than the al
gregate area of all the organized States
4 A. TT-sAn d. -hADa AAn. - kHn,a 49,
nificent opportunities of expansion to be Ell
: joyed2 What people are to possess the
boundless chances of GROWTH ave-" 50
the citizens of the North. "We will not a
; low that any new State of this gloriol
Union shall be infected with the faint
|, slavery. New soil shall be free soil. "
will not interfere with the institutions whiC
time has sanctioned in the States where the
: still exist, but we will never permit the ev
= to spread"
What, however, does such a declaratic
mean? 1t is sincerely uttered, we veri
l believe, and Englishmen will never gainsf
it's justice or propriety; but in its polite
import it cuts off the South from all pro
pect, not only of popular growth, but
political preponderance. 1t would isola
; the Southern States and leave them, unle
they choose gradually to abolish slavery,
4 die out as it were, in comparison with d
eAphhsiNe NOiHiuunttieb dFOunu tnem. 1u'
, could only avail themselves of the new TIE
l ritories by foregoing their peculiar 'instit
. ton" and discarding their property" :
, tell them that they may share the CONNIE
privilege of American citizens of migratiI
to new homes, but that they must leave the
slaves behind, is something like telling
: Western settler that he may go into d
backwoods, but that he must not take his
: with him. They protest accordingly, al
are ready to seee6e, and even to Tight n
for their possessions, for those are not like
, to be moiested, but for the freedom of pr
gress and colonization which their adVe
> s4ries would deny them.
. The answer, however, to this specious pl
, is obvious. Slavery is, in very truth, a thiI
r hateful and abominable 1t is a disgrace
, any country, and the Northern people a