Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1876-08-02
Our Progress for a Century.

The first century Of the United States
closed on the Fourth Of July. II has been a
century of development without parallel IN
history The population has increased from
2,IjOO1O TO ll,675,000. The area has been
extended from 100000 10 3,G03Sii square
miles. The development Of agriculture, un-
der the pressure Of immigration and the stim.
ulus of mechanical invention, has been ut
terly without precedent. The value of man
ufactures has advanced from $2O,0O0,00O to
sl,2O0,0O0-O10. Foreign and domestic com
merce has taken gigantic strides. The mar
velous development of mineral resources has
not been the work of century, but of fifty
years There was not single bank in the
colonies in l77G. There are more than G0O0
now. Internal improvements and the com
mon school system have kept pace with i'm
migration.
At the outbreak of the revolution the Con-
tinental Congress ascertained approximately
the population of thirteen colonies, in order
that the burdens of the war might not fall
too heavily upon any section. The total pop
ulation was estimated at 2,2j0,0OO. exclusive
OF 100000 slaves at the South. In 1870 the
nation which the representatives of these
colonies founded was the fifth of the great
empires of the world in respect to popula-
N,
The Chinese Empire in 1870 had l77, ,5OO,-
900 inhabitants; the British Empire, Ia
100000; the Russian Empire 76,5OO,OO0;
the German Empire, i0,2O0,000; the United
States, 3s,5jS,37l. The average increase in
the aggregate population since 1870 in the
fifteen states in which census has been
taken is sixteen per cent. and at the same
rate of increase the total population in 1875
would be 4l,6Ij,0Oo, while that of the Ger
man Empire, according to the recent census.
is l21J1Sl2. During sixty years (lS00-60)
the population of the United States increased
five hundred aud ninety-three per cent. that
of England and Wales, one hundred and
twenty-one per cent, and that of France
thirty-seven per cent. The great factor Of
the marvellous growth Of our population has
been immigration. Annexation has con
tributed very little The purchase of 1ouisi-
ana, Florida, California and New Mexico
brought in fewer than 10000 inhabitants.
and the acquisition of Texas and Oregon
merely restored to citizenship those who had
emigrated from the United States.
The colonies We're founded in a religious
age, under the best possible conditions for
ultimate self-goyenment. Nearly all the
early settlers belonged 10 the industrious
middle classes of the Old World A sub
stantial equality existed among the Puritans
in New England the Dntch in New York,
the Quakers and Germans in Pennsylvania,
the swedes in New Jersey aud Delaware,
the English Roman Catholics in Maryland,
the English Churchmen in Virginia, the
Nonconiormists in North Carolina, and the
lluguenots in South Carolina. At the time
Of the English Revolution of 1855 settle
ments had been made in all the thirteen
coll at.I h., t,f al
latiOn was about 100000. Growth was slow
and unequal and it was not until 1880 that
the population exceeded l,0O0,O0O. During
the next twenty years the population of the
colonies was doubled, and on the threshold
of the Revolution there swept great cur
rent of immigration from Germany and Ire
land into Pennsylvania, New York, and the
Carolinas The first census of the United
States was taken in 1870. The result chilled
the ov wrought enthusiasm Of Mr.. Jeifer-
son, and he took pains 10 caution his cores
pondents at foreign courts against accepting
the figures, inasmuch as they fell short OF
what he thought was the truth. The popu-
lation was 3,929,2 I, including 757 pos slaves.
From 1890 to lS20 about % 900 immigrants
arrived. A great wave of immigration then
swept across the Atlantic.
At the outset America was regarded as a
refuge for oppressed labor. The immigrants
were accustomed 10 the simplest forms of Ia
Dor, and were ready to build canals, and sub
sequently railroads. The development of
manufactures in New England changed the
aspect OF immigration and foreigners came
10 regard the United States as market for
skilled labor The cheap lands offered under
the homestead bill attracted an immense
number of industrious farmers. During
twelve years, an area greater than that OF
New England was occupied and titled by
27j,0OO families under the operation of this
act. Interstate migration has been from the
first popular instinct There was con
stant movement from the half-settled states
10 the unsettled territory, and those who
were left behind manufactured for those who
were on the frontiers. From 1915 10 1854
there was a great exodus from Ireland and
Germany. After the famine of 1916 immi-
grafton from Ireland more than doubled,
reaching its maximum in 1891. During this
period nearly l,5OO,OO0 lrishmen landed in
Castle Garden. German immigration reached
its highest point in 1851. After the years
1887, 1851 aud 1873, there was most re- |
markable decline in Immigration, a com |
mercial revnlsion acting as wet blanket |
The total number Of immigrants from 1870 |
to ls73 was S,sOs,l ,lil, of whom 2,o07 ,5Gj
were from Ireland, and 2,G03,i3 from Ger
many. About sixty per cent. (after deduct
ing women and children) were in the prime
Of life, forty-six per cent. were trained TO va
rious pursuits, and ten per cent. were traders.
Nearly lO,O00,O0O OF our population are
foreigners or the descendants OF foreigners.
II has been estimated that if the fusion of
elements were complete, of one hundred
drops of American blood twenty-five would
be Anglo-Saxon twenty-seyen, German
two, Dutch or Scandinavian thirty and one
half, Celtic two, Romanic and twelve and
one-half uncertain. The white, red, black
aud yellow races are all represented. In
$40 the ratio of the colored 10 the whole