To a reflecting man, one of the most interesting subjects of thought is the rapid multiplication of the inhabitants of this country. To the political economist, the philanthropist, or the Christian, there are questions connected with it of vital importance. In respect to the certainty of the increase, the most cautious calculator cannot be sceptical. We know not, indeed, what causes may intervene, in the providence of God, to diminish the ratio of increase, or to make the population stationary. Pestilences, servile or civil wars, may be commissioned to desolate our towns; still, judging from experience, and from many things in the present aspect of the country, we are disposed to calculate upon a vast augmentation of the existing population. 1. There is yet an unmeasured amount of rich land unoccupied. The regions west and north of St. Louis, Missouri, have hardly been visited by white men. The extent of the country may be seen from the fact, that St. Louis is considerably east of the real centre of the valley of the Mississippi. Cincinnati is almost a frontier town on the eastern side. 2. All the old States can support a far greater amount of population than now exists in their limits. Massachusetts, which has about 81 inhabitants to a square mile, might support 230, with the same ease that England now does. At this rate, the population of the United States would amount to more than four hundred and fifty millions. 3. Lands, which are now tolerably well cultivated, are susceptible of a far higher degree of improvement, and could support a far denser population; while vast tracts of stony, mountainous, and swampy land may be reclaimed. Old England herself, has yet 7,000,000 of acres of uncultivated land. 4. A considerable portion of the unoccupied territory of the United States is in a climate almost tropical, where the vegetable productions are far more numerous and nutritious than in colder climates. Florida has hardly one inhabitant to a square mile; Mississippi, but three; Alabama, but six or seven, and the whole southern country, but nine or ten. 5. From late experiments, it would seem that the land in the slave States, which was supposed to have been rendered irreclaimably barren by slave labor, is not totally exhausted, but can, by good management, be brought again into a highly productive state. 6. There is a strong probability that Delaware, Maryland, the District VOL. VI. |