The Portland daily press., 1865-08-09
Wednesday Morning, August 9, 1855
WHY POPULATION TENDS SOUTH
WARD.

Appalachian range alone ,interrupcing the
monotony of low land. Within the snare 81
limited the soil is abundantly flrioated ~
numerous rivers and on charts that give the
mean distribution of rain, the shading is here
heaviest As we pass the Mississinni how
ever, the surface of the country suddenly rolls
upward, first gradually, then sharply, broaden
ing into high plateau, that extends westel-
ly with slight notifications Of altitude until
it reaches the surging barrier of the Rocky
Mountain system. On the eastern skirt ofs
this vast table-land are Kansas and Nebraska
Now, any one familiar with the growth Of the
West must know that to the extreme edoe az
the great interior valley population has SO eath-
cred and increased ltsen, that land has ceased to
be the cheap and worthless thing it was twen--
tyyeaFs ago. The emigrant who visits thai. re-
glon with the expectation of purchasing whole
miles Of tat soil tor song, soon discovers his
mistake. Compared with the East an average
sized farm can be bought for moderate price :,
but when one takes into due Consideration
the difficulty of transporting the products OF
labor to the MARKET and of bringing back
those necessaries and luxuries of lite which
the new district cannot create, the land vaiu-
ation viii almost always be found relatively
high. The inducements to change of resi-
dence have been, therefore, gradually losing
their forner force, and the sons of farmers in
Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York begin to
Such was the approaching condition of
things when Kansas and Nebraska were OPEN
ed TO immigration. Shut out from the inter
venlng region because of the speculative and
intrinsic iiSe OF land, the eastern adventures
began to move forward and fill these terrific
ries. The spur Of just political indignation
and the romance of an unsettled border gave
anovelty to the movement, and swept into the
vortex many whose far-sightedness and eau
ton would, III other junctures, have been a
sufficient check. What was the result? The
plough suddenly found itself brought into alb
rupt relations with the great laws of climate
These ncipient states were on the eastern
wing Of the great American table-land, and
the inevitable law of an inner table-land IS
drought. Crops that gave brilliant promise
in sprinS-time, curled and wilted and Withered
beneath burning sun and a rainless sky. A
change OF altitude of but a thousand feet
bait1ed the husbandman. 1t was. discovered
on consulting the United States survey, that.
like Asia, we have our steppes-a broad belt
several hundreds of miles In width, and ex-
tending from British America to the Rio
Grande, where the soil is ever thirsty and
where showers seldom fall. In no place
throughout this enormous territory could the
aSrlculturalst be sure of his harvest We ali
know what ensued. From the day that these
states came in with free constitutions. immi-
grafton was at standstill; and for the first
time In the history OF the nation, there was an
ebb, a reaction, returning to the East. The
line Of one hundred degrees longitude was
recognized as the limit of western agriculture.
1t is from this hard fact of definite restric-
uon to the lateral development of the West.
that we lind authority for our assertion that
henceiorth, by natural laws, the mobile popu-
lation OF the country will take southerly di-
rection. = o.
but, it may be urged, there is the great
lnpfla hat Sc -s,I L.
unbounded supply of unoccupied lands How
Is the growth OF that region to be explained?
by the very causes which we, have Just been
pointing out Minnesota, Michigan Wiscon-
sin, are unfavorably situated in reference to
rapid settlement. Their mean temperature
corresponds with that of few states in the I'm
ion wnile it is far lower than that of the Eu-
ropean countries from which the bulk of their
new citizens is derived. They had everything
against them yet they have evinced an extra
ordinary advance in population and wealth,
for the simple reason that immigration, driy-
en- back from march further West by the arid
plains, preferred the rigors of colder climate
to settling in the South among community
which regarded toll as degradation. and
chose as the insignia Of labor the lash and the
auction block. These states never could have
prospcred as they have, had it not been for
these two circumstances. And one might al
most say that the intense free-soil sentiment
of the Northwest is owing not more to innate
emotions of justice, than TO a feeling of dis
satisfaction and anger at system which had
barred its people out from latitudes whittier
their natural inclinations led them
Even if the old political relations still sub
sisted, if there had been no rebellion. no
emancipation proclamation, this great revolu-
ton in the direction of immigration must in
the end have manifested itself. The unim-
proved lands of these northwestern states are
rapidly absorbed, and in a few years the same
influences which are active in the central
West would have been operative there. There
would have been rise in the valuation of
farms and agdecreasing average in the profits
of the farmer. As the South, on the whole, is
nearer the markets of its raw products, the
question at issue simply resolves itself into the
price of land and the fertility of the soil. Ifa
freehold could be secured at the same cost in
one section as in the other, the balance would
of course turn in favor of the South. 1t
would not be very difficult to prove that this
equality was already attained, or if there
were am inequality it was to the disadvantage
OF the North. And as this latter section in
creased IN capital and superabundance of la
Dor this inequality would constantly tend to
become greater, SO that the population would
have flowed forward by an accelerated pace,
and as II down an inclined plane Not even
slavery itself could, therefore have nreventad
an ultimate flow into the Southern States I
But the war has altered everything: what
was a problem or theory before has now he
come definite fact The one obstacle wbicl
held back immigration from Tennessee Al
kansas, Virginia, ETC., has been removed. It
is as if the sluice-gates were up, but the dam
itself broken away. Or rather, it would be so
if the politics of the South were not in such an
unsettled condition. "A thick fog OF passions.
jeolousy, distrust, race-antagonism, overhangs
the whole section. The hardest emigrant
would hesitate to venture there with his iami-
ly, his household goods, his painfully gathered
earnings, until this curtain IS lifted. And
even then much will depend upon the manner
IN which the political chaos takes form. III.
constitutions be framed which embody slavery
under new name, if there be restricted SUI
frage, which shall make the old labor-scorning
class the still ruling class, if in short, the ret
roSresslye, hampering destructive theories
once more work themselves into the texture of
society, that swarming immigration, that inn
mense mass Of fresh material, that healthy
stream of energy which is now ready to pour
in, will be eifectually held back 1t cannot. it
is true, be checked forever The law of move
ment which we have indicated. must find its
due play. The pressure, in time. would be so
enormous as to admit of no Restraint. I,ut
the South is still so far free agent that bv a
little medieval legislation, by keeping m fbe
old prejudices and the recent hates. ii can IL
it so please, remain poor, and weak, and nroY,d
for half a dozen years to come. TFyeninS
Post. e