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. bility of Columbia, Virginia, Kentucky, and perhaps Missouri and Tennessee, will become, in the lapse of a few years, free States. The tendencies to the extirpation of slavery are by no means equivocal. Slave labor cannot come into competition with free labor, in any form, or in any kind of business. The farmer in Ohio, can raise many articles and carry them into Kentucky, and undersell the Kentucky-slaveholder, and yet sell profitably. There is a competition between slave and free labor commenced, from the capes of Delaware to Missouri, and the slaves are fleeing before it. If the northern slave-holding States should become free, of course they would admit a great increase of population. 7. The comparative absence of monopolies and large incorporated establishments, is a favorable circumstance. These, as it is well known, destroy competition, repress industry and invention, and throw many obstacles in the way of an increase of population. The monopolies of the East India Company in England, have, doubtless, in many forms, diminished the population of the mother country, and of the colonies. 8. Our principal reason for anticipating a large increase in the population of the country, arises from the influence of moral causes. It is righteousness which increases as well as exalts a nation, and it is by sin that they are diminished. The temperance reform is laying the axe at the root of the evil. It is taking away the CAUSES of sickness and of premature death. It is multiplying the sources of wealth. It is destroying the hereditary diseases, which have cursed father and son, mother and daughter, to the tenth generation. It is enabling a father to provide for a large family of children when young, and for children to provide for themselves at an early age. It is cultivating those moral habits, and that sense of accountability to God, which are highly favorable to the happiness and enlargement of the human species. It is saving a large amount of national wealth, for purposes of internal improvement and social enjoyment. The same might be said of other departments of Christian labor. The circulation of the Bible, and the multiplication of Christian ministers, tend most essentially to national prosperity. Christianity is the friend of nations. We now present to our readers, some calculations and details on the subject of our population, prepared for the Register by an individual well acquainted with such subjects; the Rev. Wm. S. Porter. Settled 1749. VERMONT. Govt. 1777. Population. Inc. 10 1790, 85,539 years per cent. State 1791. Population inc. 1,5 per cent. 1831, 284,900 1832, 289,200 The resources of New York are very great; but, as most of the productive land has been taken up, the rate of increase cannot be as great as at former periods. The increase will probably continue at something more than arithmetical ratio. 1820, 235,764 17,869 8,2 8 1833, 293,500 Hence the two are blended by adding 1,6 1830, 280,679 44,915 19,0 1,8 1834, 297,900 1840, 326,000 | 45,321 | 16,1 1,5 1835, 302,400 per cent. the half rate of 3,2 per cent. to half arithmetical increase of 1800, 154,465 1816, 217,895 10 y. 1 y. 68,926 81,0 6,1 63,430 41,0 3,5 Some new settlements, and some manufactories, will make the increase about the same as from 1820 to 1830, and the rate a little less. 27,000, the Population. NEW JERSEY. Settled 1664. Population 1790, 378,787 10 years 10 y. 1 y. in. 1,5 per cent. 1800, 422,845 44,058 11,6 1,1 1831, 619,000 1810, 472,040 49,195 1820, 523,287 51,247 1830, 610,014 86,727 1840, 708,000 97,986 1790, 184,139 10 years 10 y. 1 y. Population in. 1,5 per cent. 14,7 1,4 16,3 1831, 325,000 1,5 1832, 330,000 13,0 1,2 1833, 335,000 15,6 1,5 1834, 340,000 11,6 1,1 1832, 628,000 1840, 371,000 50,221 15,6 1,5 1835, 345,000 10,9 1,0 1833, 638,000 16,6 1,5 1834, 647,000 The rate of increase cannot be materially 16,1 1,5 1835, 657,000 altered. It has been very uniform since The annual rate of increase is taken at 1790. Those parts in the vicinity of New 1,5 per cent. a trifle less than it was from York and Philadelphia, and the manufac1820 to 1830. The increase of manufacturing community at Patterson, will contories, the ready market for the produce of tinue to increase sufficiently to keep up the farms and the fisheries, will warrant such same ratio, nearly 1,5 per cent. an estimate. Govt. 1646. Population. Population in. 1,5 per cent. 1790, 434,373 10 years 10 y. 11 y. 1801, 602,545 168,172 38,7 1831, 98,700 1810, 810,091 207,546 1810, 76,931 7,809 11,3 1,1 1832, 100,100 1820, 1,049,313 239,222 29,5 1820, 83,059 6,128 8,0 8 1833, 101,600 1830, 1,347,672 298,359 1830, 97,212 14,153 17,0 1,6 1834, 103,100 1840, 1,700,000 352,328 1840, 113,000 | 15,788 16,1 1,5 1835, 104,700 The increase is confined to the manufac turing districts; and as the principal streams are now occupied, and the district of which Providence is the centre, is extending more into Massachusetts, the rate of increase will probably be not greater than 1,5 per cent, Population in. 2,3 per cent. 3,3 1831, 1,380,000 34,5 3,0 1832, 1,412,000 2,6 1833, 1,445,000 28,5 2,5 1834, 1,479,000 26,1 2,3 1835, 1,514,000 The resources of Ohio are by no means yet developed. The soil is extremely fertile and very little waste land. The canals will produce a great increase of population, as well as the enterprise of free, industrious, and ingenious inhabitants. This State is capable of supporting as dense a population as Ireland or Holland. No inland country 1800, 586,050 245,930 72,3 5,6 1831, 1,961,000 in the world has greater commercial priv1810, 959,049 372,999 63,7 5,0 | 1832, 2,019,000 1820, 1,372,812 413,763 43,1 3,7 1833, 2,077,000 ileges. By the Welland canal, they com1830, 1,913,508 540,696 39,4 3,4 1834, 2,136,000 municate with lake Ontario and Lower 1840, 2,500,000 586,492 30,7 2,7 1835, 2,196,000 Canada; by the Erie canal, with the eastern 1790, 340,120 10 years 10 y. 1 y. cent.+27,000 Population. Inc. Govt. 1805. per cont. In. 20 per cent. 1800, 551 10 years 10 y. 1 y. 1831, 36,000 1810, 4,762 4,211 764, 24,1 1832, 1820, 8,896 4,134 87, 6,4 1833, 1830, 31,260 22,364 251, 13,4 1834, 1840, 184,000 152,740 519,20,0 1835, Population. Settled 1607. per cent. Population Inc. 43,000 1790, 747,610 10 years 10 y. 1 y. in. 12,500 51,000 1800, 880,200 132,590 17,7 1,7 1831, 1,224,000 62,000 1810, 974,622 94,422 10,7 1,0 1832, 1,236,500 74,000 1820, 1,065,366 90,744 9,3 9 1833, 1,249,000 1830, 1,211,272 145,906 13,7 | 1,3 1834, 1,251,500 1840, 1,336,000 124,728 10,3 1,0 | 1835, 1,264,000 In calculating the increase since 1830, 1,500 have been deducted out for that peThe whole increase is taken somewhat riod, as the population of the N. W. Terri- less than from 1820 to 1830. The principal tory, which is now nominally a part of increase is west of the Blue Ridge. But Michigan, but will probably be separated when the latter becomes a State. Michi-States having similar products, have better as this is distant from market, and other gan is well situated, and is now probably water communications with markets, setincreasing faster than any other part of the tlers will prefer the latter; consequently Union. the increase of the State must decline. |