Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1870-12-08

This table is instructive. We learn
from it where political power is ebbing
away. and whittier the currents are drift
ing and the tide rising.
The New England States will lose six
members of Congress under the new ap-
portionmen.. They have twenty-seven
now, and will then lie entitled to only
twenty lone. As three of these States,
however. have pretty large fractions, New
England may perhaps get Twenty-Five.
The old Middle States of New York,
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio lose
FIVE members. 1t will be noted that while
New York loses three, Pennsylvania keeps
up to her present number. This depreci-
alton of New York. as compared with
Pennsylvania, is due somewhat to the fact
that considerable body Of the business
men of New York city reside in New Jer-
sey and Connecticut.
The sixteen former slaveholding States
gain four members. This is owing to &! e
circumstance that all the colored popula-
ton of those States is now included in the
basis of representation, whereas, when the
present number Of members Of Congress
was fixed. only three-ftths of the slaves
were reckoncd. On the other hand. as
to the twenty-one free States, though a
part Of them gain seven members, certain
others lose eleven, making a net loss of
four.
1mClhine Northwestern States, COM
menciag with Indiana. but not crossing
the Rocky Mountains. gain nine members.
1t il in this section of the Union that there
has been the largest advance ofpopulat;on
since 1860. Each Of these nine States in
creascs its representation. except Indiana
and Nebraska, which hold their own.
The fourteen States lying in the valley
of the Mississippi, and along the tributa-
ries of tina. river, gam six members.
The three States beyond the Rocky
Mountaius-Nevada. California, and Or
egon-nci,her gain nor lose. but maintain
their present representations of five MEM
b r, thus proving that that remote Sec
ton of tie Union keeps up with the aver
age growth of the other sections
The sixteen Atlantic states lose eight
members, while the twenty zone Western
aad Southwestern States gain severn
South Carolina is the only State of the
former class which gains, she obtaining
one additional member because of the large
number of her population set free under
the Thirteenth Amendment. Ohio is the
only State Of the latter class whose rep
resentation falls off, she losing two men,
bers.
The old fourteen States which carried
the country through the Revolutionary
War will Aave eight members less under
the census Of this present year than were
allotted to them under that Of 1861
These eight members will now be assign
ed to States which have entered the Union
since the close Of the struggle for indie
pendencc.
OF course it will be understood that the
States whose members of Congress will be
now diminished have not necessarily de-
creased in population during the past ten
years, but only that their increase has not
kept up with that Of the other States
Indeed, only two States show a positive
falling of from the census Of 1850. name
". New Hampshire, which loses 5000.
and Virginia. which exhibits decrease
of 10. 900; while the aggregate of the in
crease in the whole Union during that pc
riod will be about eight millions, carry
ing the sum total up to nearly or quite
forty millions.
These statistics show that within the
past ten years. as in the previous thirty.
the course of empire in the Republic is
steadily westward. or rather toward the
great central valley of the continent.-
However. because Of the abolition of slave
~ it will doubtless be detected somewhat
to the southwark during the next decade.