Part 3 (1/2)

Clair,--the victorious one of Wayne,--or the reminiscences and events of the war of 1812, and its termination in 1815. Some historical notices of each state may be found in their proper place.

_Prospective increase of Population._ For a long period, in the states of the west, the increase of population was slow, and r.e.t.a.r.ded by several causes. Difficulties of a formidable character had to be surmounted. The footsteps of the American emigrants were everywhere drenched in blood, shed by infuriated savage foes, and before 1790 more than 5,000 persons had been murdered, or taken captive and lost to the settlements. ”It has been estimated, that in the short s.p.a.ce of seven years, from 1783 to 1790, more than fifteen hundred of the inhabitants of Kentucky were either ma.s.sacred or carried away into a captivity worse than death, by the Indians; and an equal number from Western Pennsylvania and Virginia, in the same period, met with a similar fate.

The settlers on the frontiers were almost constantly, for a period of forty years, hara.s.sed either by actual attacks of the savages, or the daily expectation of them. The tomahawk and the scalping knife, were the objects of their fears by day and by night.”[4]

Hence, in suggesting reasons showing why the population of this Valley must increase in future in a far greater ratio than in the past, it will appear:

1. That the most perfect security is now enjoyed by all emigrants, both for their families and property.

By the wise and beneficent arrangement of government, the Indian tribes have nearly all removed to the Territory specially allotted for their occupancy west of Missouri and Arkansas. The grand error committed in past times in relation to the Indians, and which has been the source of incalculable evils to both races, has been the want of definite, fixed and permanent lines of demarcation betwixt them. It will be seen under the proper head, that a system of measures is now in operation that will not only preserve peace between the frontier settlements and the Indian tribes, but that to a great extent, they are becoming initiated into the habits of civilized life. There is now no more danger to the population of these states and territories from _Indian_ depredations, than to the people of the Atlantic states.

2. The increased facilities of emigration, and the advantage of sure and certain markets for every species of production, furnishes a second reason why population will increase in the western Valley beyond any former period.

Before the purchase of Louisiana, the western people had no outlet for their produce, and the chief mode of obtaining every description of merchandize,--even salt and iron,--was by the slow and expensive method of transportation by wagons and pack-horses, across almost impa.s.sible mountains and extremely difficult roads. Now, every convenience and luxury of life is carried with comparative ease, to every town and settlement throughout the Valley, and every species of produce is sent off in various directions, to every port on earth if necessary. And these facilities are multiplying and increasing every hour: Turnpike roads, rail roads, ca.n.a.ls, and steamboat navigation have already provided such facilities for removing from the Atlantic to the Western States, that no family desirous of removing, need hesitate or make a single inquiry as to facilities of getting to this country.

3. The facilities of trade and intercourse between the different sections of the Valley, are now superior to most countries on earth, and are increasing every year. And no country on earth admits of such indefinite improvement either by land or water. More than twenty thousand miles of actual steamboat navigation, with several hundred miles of ca.n.a.l navigation, constructed or commenced, attest the truth of this statement. The first steamboat on the western waters was built at Pittsburg in 1811, and not more than seven or eight had been built, when the writer emigrated to this country in 1817. At this period, (January 1836,) there are several hundred boats on the western waters, and some of the largest size. In 1817, about twenty barges, averaging about one hundred tons each, performed the whole commercial business of transporting merchandize from New Orleans to Louisville and Cincinnati.

Each performed one trip, going and returning within the year. About 150 keel boats performed the business on the Upper Ohio to Pittsburg. These averaged about 30 tons each, and were employed one month in making the voyage from Louisville to Pittsburg. Three days, or three days and a half is now the usual time occupied by the steam packets between the two places, and from seven to twelve days between Louisville and New Orleans. Four days is the time of pa.s.sing from the former place to St.

Louis.

4. A fourth reason why population will increase in future in a greater ratio than the past is derived from the increase of population in the Atlantic states, and the greater desire for removal to the west. At the close of the revolutionary war the population of the whole Union but little exceeded two millions. Vast tracts of wilderness then existed in the old states, which have since been subdued, and from whence thousands of enterprising citizens are pressing their way into the Great Valley.

Two thirds of the territory of New York, large portions of New Hamps.h.i.+re, Vermont and Maine, an extensive district in middle Pennsylvania, to say nothing of wide regions in the southern states, were comprised in this wilderness. These extensive regions have become populous, and are sending out vast numbers of emigrants to the west.

Europe is in commotion, and the emigration to North America, in 1832, reached 200,000, a due proportion of which settle in the Western Valley.

5. A fifth reason will be founded upon the immense amount of land for the occupancy of an indefinite number of emigrants, much of which will not cost the purchaser over _one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre_.

Without giving the extravagant estimates that have been made by many writers of the wide and uninhabitable desert between the Indian Territory west of Missouri and Arkansas, and the Rocky mountains, nor swampy and frozen regions at the heads of the Mississippi river, and around lake Superior, I will merely exhibit the amount of lands admitting of _immediate_ settlement and cultivation, within the boundaries of the new States and organized Territories.

According to the report of the Secretary of the Treasury up to the 30th day of September, 1831, the estimated amount of unsold lands, on which the foreign and Indian t.i.tles had been extinguished, within the limits of the new States and Territories, was 227,293,884 acres;--and that the Indian t.i.tle remained on 113,577,869 acres within the same limits.[5]

The Commissioner of the General Land Office in December, 1827, estimated the public domain, beyond the boundaries of the new States and Territories, to be 750 millions of acres. Much of this however, is uninhabitable.

According to the Report of 1831, there had been granted to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Alabama for internal Improvements, 2,187,665 acres;--for Colleges, Academies and Universities in the new States and Territories, 508,009;--for education, being the thirty-sixth part of the public lands appropriated to common schools, 7,952,538 acres;--and for seats of government to some of the new States and Territories, 21,589 acres. Up to January, 1826, there had been sold, from the commencement of the land system, only 19,239,412 acres. Since that period to the close of 1835, there have been sold, about 33 millions of acres, making in all sold, a little more than 52 millions. This statement includes Alabama and Florida, which we have not considered as strictly within the Valley. After a hasty and somewhat imperfect estimate of the public lands that are now in market, or will be brought into market within a few years, within the limits of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Michigan, and the Territory of Wisconsin, the amount may be put at 130 millions of acres. This amount admits of immediate settlement and cultivation, and much of it may be put under cultivation without the immense labor of clearing and subduing forest lands.

The comparison between the amount of sales of public lands within the last ten years, and the preceding forty years, shows that emigration to the West is increasing at a ratio beyond what is ordinarily supposed, and that the next ten years will find a majority of the population of the United States within this Great Valley.

Sales of land from 1786 to 1826, (40 years) 19,239,412 acres.

” ” from 1826 to 1835, (10 years) 33,000,000 acres.

Three millions of families may find farms in the West.

The extensive prairie lands of Illinois and Missouri present no obstacle to the settlement of the country. Already, prairies for many miles in extent have been turned into farms.

6. A sixth reason why the increase of the future population of the Valley will greatly exceed the past, is derived from the increased confidence of the community in the general health of the country. The most unreasonable notions have prevailed abroad relative to the health of the western states. All new settlements are more or less unfavorable to health, which, when cultivated and settled become healthy. As a separate chapter will be devoted to this subject, I only advert to the fact now of the increased confidence of the people in the Atlantic States, in the salubrity of our western climate, which already has tended to increase emigration; but which, from facts becoming more generally known, will operate to a much greater extent in future.

7. I will only add that there is already a great amount of intelligence, and of excellent society in all the settled portions of the Western Valley.

”The idea is no longer entertained by Eastern people, that going to the West, or the 'Backwoods,' as it was formerly called, is to remove to a heathen land, to a land of ignorance and barbarism, where the people do nothing but rob, and fight, and gouge! Some parts of the West have obtained this character, but most undeservedly, from the _Fearons_, the [Basil] _Halls_, the _Trollopes_, and other ignorant and insolent travellers from England, who, because they were not allowed to insult and outrage as they pleased, with Parthian spirit, hurled back upon us their poisoned javelins and darts as they left us. There is indeed much dest.i.tution of moral influence and means of instruction in many, very many, neighborhoods of the West. But there is in all the princ.i.p.al towns a state of society, with which the most refined, I was going to say the most fastidious, of the eastern cities need not be ashamed to mingle.”--_Baird._

The eastern emigrant will find, that wholesome legislation, and much of the influence of religion are enjoyed in the Valley of the Mississippi, extending to him all he can ask in the enjoyment of his rights, and the protection of his property.