252 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



icans were rendered despondent, hopeless, and desperate by what 

 they saw around them. Men do not fight in mobs and destroy 

 churches and houses and form themselves into complicated secret 

 orders for nothing. Whatever we may think of their mistakes 

 of policy and rashness, there is no question that the native Amer- 

 icans received a severe shock, not only to their sentiments and 

 feelings, but to their opinions and principles. The nation that 

 they supposed was their own seemed to be given over to others. 

 Their high patriotism, their pride and interest in their country 

 were wounded and hurt. Nor was the wound any the less severe 

 because the majority of those who received it were of the class in 

 life that is not trained to express its feelings in writing. 



What else was there in the general condition of affairs in 

 the United States between the years 1830 and 1860 which would 

 cause the rate of native growth to decrease ? It could not possibly 

 have been the growth of luxurious habits of living. There were 

 none at that time. Any we possess have been acquired within 

 the last twenty years, and most of them within the last ten years. 

 The country at that period, so far as concerned room for develop- 

 ment, was as new as it had been in 1750. Our people still lived in 

 a fringe along the Atlantic seaboard. The buffaloes were ranging 

 the prairies east of the Mississippi. The whole valley of that 

 river was practically unsettled. The West was a great unknown. 

 There was no crowding; and as for opportunities, they were 

 greater than ever before. The arts of life and the comfort and 

 health of living were all improving. Manufacturing industries 

 were springing up. Commerce was increasing, new inventions 

 were being perfected, occupations were becoming more numerous 

 and varied, the people were happy, prosperous, jubilant in their 

 successful nationality, and in 1830 railroads began. All things 

 which enable population to increase were present, and population 

 had been increasing rapidly until suddenly, coincident with the 

 great increase in immigration, the rate fell, and has been falling 

 ever since. 



From that period down to the present hour all the facilities 

 of business have improved, new occupations have been created, 

 the medical and surgical sciences have improved, their improve- 

 ment is more generally distributed, sanitary conditions are better, 

 and as a consequence the average human life has been lengthened 

 by two years. 



After the civil war came to an end in 18G5 the same condition 

 existed. The West was still unsettled. The Union Pacific Rail- 

 road was not finished until 18G9. The next ten years, with increas- 

 ing facilities for reaching all parts of the country, gave the grand- 

 est opportunity for rapid growth that was ever known. Yet not 

 only the rate of the native whites kept falling, but the rate of the 



