Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1875-12-16
Presidents Message.
To tas Senate and House of Representatives.

To Gts Senate and House Of Representdtires:
4, In submitting my seventh annual messag,
TO Congress in this Centennial year OF our na
tional existence as free and independent peo
pie, it affords me grsat pleasure to recur to the
advancement that has been made from the
time of our Colonies, one hundred years ago.
We were then people numbering only 3, ,0OO, )
1000, now we number more than 40, ,OU0, ,O00.-
Their industries were confined aim. ,st exclu-
sively TO the tillage of the soil. Now manu-
factories absorb much of the labor of the coun-
| try. Our liberties remain unimpaired. The
| bondsmen have been freed from slavery, we
have become possessed of the respect, if not
Inc friendship, OF all civilized nations. Our
progress has been great in all the arts, in sci
ence, agriculture, commerce, navigation, mi
ming, mechanics, law, medicine, ETC., and in
general education the progress is likewise en-
couIagiDg. Our thirteen States have become
thirty eight, including Colorado, which has
taken the initiatory steps to become State,
and eight territories including the Indian Ter
ritory and Alaska, and excluding Colorado,
making territory extending from the Allan
tic to the Pacific. On the South We have ex-
tended to the Gulf of Mexico, and in the West
from the Mississippi to the Pacific One hun
dred years ago the cotton gin, the steamship,
the railroad, the telegraph, the reaping, sewing
and modern printing machines, and numerous
other inventions of scarcely less value to our
business and happiness were entirely unknown.
MANUFACTURES AND MINERALS.
In 1776, manufactures scarcely existed even
in name, in all this vast territory. In 1870,
more than z, ,000, 600 OF persons were employ ed
in manufactures, producing more than 81
100, coo of produce in amount annually, nearly
equal TO our National debt Nearly the whole
of the populace of 1776 were engaged in the
one occupation of agriculture. In 1870 so nu-
merous and diversifieo had become the occu-
pativns of our people, that less than 6,000, 900
out of more than Al, ,000, 900, were so engaged.
The extraordinary effect produced in our coun-
try by a resort to such occupations, has built
market for the products of the fertile lands dis
tant from the seaboard and the markets of the
world. The American system of working va
rious and extensive manufactures, next to the
plow and the pasture, and adding connecting
railroads and steamboats,, has produced in our
distant country results not equalled by the in
tellgent parts of other nations. The ingenui-
ty and skill of American mechanics have been
demonstrated at home and abroad in manner
most flatteiing to their pride, but for the ex-
traordinary grade anu ability of our mechan-
les, the achievements of our agriculturists,
manufacturers and transporters throughout the
country would have been impossible to attain
alCub- lAC PAOSiCoo u eiAO A0o eiSI
been great OF coal, our productions was
small Now, many millions of tons are mined
Annually. So with iron, which formed scarce
ly an appreciable part of our products half
century ago. We now produce more than the
werld consumed at the beginning of our na-s
tional existence Lead, zinc and copper, from
being articles of imports, we may expect To be
large exporters in the near future. The de-
velopment of gold and silver mines throughout
the States and territories has not only been re-
markable, but has had large influence upon
the business of all commercial nations.
Our merchants in the last hundred years,
have had q success, and have established a rep
utation for enterprise, sagacity, progress, and
integrity unsurpassed by people of older ma
tionalities. This good name is not confined to
their homes, but goes out on every sea, and
into every port where commerce enters. With
equal pride we can point to our progress in all
of the learned professions
AS we are now about to enter upon second
centennial, commencing our manhood as ma
ton, it is well to look back upon the past and
study what will be best to preserve and advance
our future greatness. From the fall of Adam
for his transgression to the present day, no ma
tion has ever been free from threatened danger
to its prosperity and happiness We should
look to the dangers that threatens US and reme-
dy them 80 far. Then, so far as lies in our
power, we are a republic, wherein one man is
as good as another before the law.