THE

WESTERN JOURNAL.

VOL. V.

December, 1850.

NO. III

WESTERN INTEREST-MEMORIAL OF THE

EVANSVILLE CONVENTION.

EXCEPT the adjustment, by Congress, of the agitating questions which grew out of the annexation of Texas and the acquisition of California, no event, of a public nature, within the current year, has afforded us a higher degree of satisfaction than the recent meeting of a Convention at Evansville, Indiana, for the purpose of taking into consideration the action of Congress, in reference to Western interests.

While political and religious meetings are being held in the north, for the purpose of denouncing a law of Congress, recommending disobedience to its mandates, and resistance to its execution; and, while southern men assemble in convention to deliberate on the question of secession, and declare what particular acts of Congress will authorise them to secede from the Union, it is refreshing to see Western men meeting in council to deliberate upon measures, which, though in some sense local, yet, look to the prosperity and happiness of every part of the nation. The memorial to Congress, adopted by the Evansville Convention, is conceived in the true spirit of the men of this Great Valley. Just in its demands, manly in tone, and breathing the sentiment of fraternal kindness towards every section of our common country, it will meet with a cordial response from every true western heart.

The memorial, and the resolutions which follow, shadow forth the policy which western statesmen are expected to pursue. They have been too long following the lead of Northern or Southern Politicians, as one or the other could succeed

in enlisting them under their banners; and, while in the ser vice of others, as a natural consequence, they neglected the interest of their own constituents. But they should not be blamed, perhaps, on this account; for their constituents, confiding in the abundant resources of the country, and in the justice and liberality of the national Legislature, have required little at their hands beyond the loyalty due to their respective parties. But the people of the West are now beginning to look into their own affairs; and, in future, will require the undivided services of their representatives; and those who fail in duty, will be compelled to yield their places to more faithful agents.

Our entire concurrence in the spirit and matter of the following Memorial and Resolutions, has induced us to adopt them as a leading article, believing that nothing which we could write would be more acceptable or profitable to our patrons :

MEMORIAL

[From the Evansville "Journal."]

OF THE UNITED

To THE SENATE AND REPRESENTATIVES

STATES.

It was a remark of a distinguished Senator, in the Congress of the United States, on a recent remarkable occasion, not more beautiful and appropriate than prophetic and true, "That no one could look over the face of this country at the present moment, no one could see where the population was the most dense and growing, without being ready to admit, that ere long, America would be in the Valley of the Mississippi."

To those who have been observers of the rapid increase in population and power, within the last thirty years, of this section of our Union, it could not fail to have been a matter of observation as to our constant growth in all the elements which constitute a great nation, as well as a subject of speculation, what must be the result of such a progression in thirty years to come. In the first period, from the territory bordering on the waters of the Ohio and Mississippi, four great States have been added to the Confederacy-Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa and Wisconsin. Within the period of twenty years, from 1820 to 1840, the increase of population in the Western States, including Michigan, was four million two hundred and fifty-seven thousand four hundred and forty-six. These States aving in 1820, a population of one million eight hundred thousand seven hundred and eight. In 1840, five million fifty-eight thousand one hundred and fifty-four. From 1830 to 1840 the same States show an increase of two million forty-seven thou

sand four hundred and seventy-two. Their population being in 1830, three million ten thousand six hundred and eighty-two, against five million fifty-eight thousand one hundred and fiftyfour, in 1840. Taking the census of 1830 and 1840 as guide for that of 1850, the only one we can have until the census for the present year is taken, and admitting that the increase of population has been no greater the last ten years than it was the preceding ten, we have on the first of June, in the Western States, seven million five thousand six hundred and twenty-six souls. Taking the same standard for our basis. as it regards the New England, Middle, and Southern States, let us see what proportion the increase of population in the Western States will bear to the other three great sections of the country. In New England, in 1830, the population was one million nine hundred and fifty four thousand seven hundred and seventeen. In 1850, two million two hundred and thirtyfour thousand eight hundred and ninety-two-increase, one million two hundred and eighty thousand one hundred and five; making the whole population of New England, in 1850, three million five hundred and fourteen thousand nine hundred and twenty-seven. In the Middle States, embracing New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, the population, in 1830, was three million four hundred and thirty-five thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight. In 1840, four million six hundred and four thousand three hundred and forty-five, being an increase of one million six hundred and eighty-five thousand five hundred and seventy-two. Admit the same increase in the last ten years, and the Middle States would have, on the first of June last, a population of five million six hundred and seventy-two thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.

The Southern States, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, District of Columbia, Florida, including their slave population, had, in 1830, four million two hundred and thirty thousand six hundred and eighty-one inhabitants. In 1840, five million one hundred and sixty-six thousand and thirty-two, the same increase for the last ten years would give them, on the first of June last, six million one hundred and one thousand four hundred and thirty-six inhabitants.

The population, then, in 1850, in these great divisions of the Republic, will probably show as follows:

Western States, population

Southern States,

Middle States,

66

66

New England States, "

7,005,626

6,101,436

5,672,872

3,514,923

Showing an excess of population of the Western States over the Southern, excluding Texas, of nine hundred and four thousand two hundred-and less than New England and

the Middle States, of two million one hundred and eighty-two thousand one hundred and seventy-three.

But owing to the great increase of the Western States in comparison to others for the last ten years, judging from the increase in some of them for the ten preceding ones, we think it a safe calculation to add twenty per cent. on the increase of the Western States for the last ten years over that of the preceding. If this is done, (and we believe the increase in some of them will be shown to be much larger than that,) the Census of the Western States will show nearly eight millions of souls, or something more than one-third of the whole population of the United States.

What proportion of the whole revenue of the Government expended, has been allotted to this portion of the Confederacy, is a question not easy of solution.

That it bears no proportion whatever to the amount expended in the other three great divisions of the United States, as we have classed them above, is, we think, universally admitted by even those portions which have been most largely the recipients of Government favor.

That we have been for years overlooked or neglected is apparent. That we have contributed our full proportion to the common fund, is not denied, and as it appears to us, it would be but a sheer act of justice to donate to us from the coffers of the Government that which of right belongs to us; and the donation of which would not only enure to our benefit but to that of our common country. That this is so let the argument which we propose to submit, and the statistics therein drawn, from unquestionable sources, answer.

The power, magnitude, and resources of a country consist in four things-its Population, Capital, Communication, and Natural Productions and Elements. Cities merely collect, change, and distribute them. Population, the first element of power in a State, follows the natural resources of a country. What that is, to what it has been in the last thirty years, we have shown above, from the tables which the Government itself has supplied us with, to wit: the census of the several years thus far taken, and the very reasonable increase allowed for that which is being taken.

The next subject to be considered is our Capital. That it has increased in the last thirty years in the West beyond any other section of the United States-that it is increasing, and will continue to increase here beyond any other portion of the Union, we think undeniable. There are circumstances surrounding us, in our midst, connected with our very being and existence, which must accumulate it here, in a proportion never before witnessed in any other country. These circumstances are: 1st, the great industry of our people, educated to

industrious habits under our free institutions. Secondly, the posssession of money's value in our inexhaustible agricultural and mineral resources. Thirdly, the great advantages and facilities for manufacturing..

It would be impossible in a memorial like this to show the extent of our resources in these particulars. We have not the data at hand, and must therefore confine ourselves to generalities, instead of entering into detail. The article of Coal, for instance, so important for consumption by our own people, so necessary for all purposes of manufacturing in the absence of water power, so indispensable for our naval and commercial marine, as now constituted forms but one part of our mineral resources, a most important one it is true, but only a part. What has the Government ever done, indispensable as it is to it, in giving us a Geological Survey, showing either its quantity or its quality. And yet one of their officers has within the last year estimated the amount absolutely needed for the commercial and naval marine of the Gulf in a few years, at 20,000,000 of bushels Take but a portion of our coal fields, embracing the southern and western counties of Indiana, part of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois, what is commonly called the "Great Illinois Coal Field."

It equals in area the entire Island of Great Britain, extending from South-east to North-west, from Oil Creek and Rome, on the Ohio River, to the mouth of Rock River, on the Mississippi, a distance of three hundred miles; and south to north, from the waters of Green River and Treadwater, in Kentucky to the waters of little Vermillion, in Lasalle county, Illinois, a distance of three hundred and twenty-five miles. And from south-west to north-east, from St. Louis, and the waters of the west branch of Saline river, in Gallatin county, Illinois, to the forks of the Fox and Kankakee rivers, a distance of two hundred and fifty miles. A coal field'occupying the greater part of Illinois, almost one-third of Indiana, a north-western strip of Kentucky, and extending into Iowa, embracing every variety of bitumenous coal. The thickness of the entire mass is supposed to be from 1,200 to 2,000 feet, and contains at least seven workable beds of coal. If we assume the average thickness of these coal beds, collectively at 21 feet, which is probably below the truth, and the area over which they extend, at 200 miles square, or 40,000 square miles; then we have a mass of coal on land, of which the Government is the largest proprietor of 23,417,856,000,000 cubic feet, or 867,328,000,000 cubic yards or tons of coal, (a cubic yard of coal being nearly equal to a ton.) Let us imagine this coal, worked, and estimating the profit in a ton of coal at fifty cents, this would give in round numbers, a clear income of $400,000,000,000, to be derived from the working of this coal field. It may also be further remarked, that the strata of this coal field is more