STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 203 



soon every land was aroused to seek for gold. In our acquired domain 

 marvellous discoveries of silver have been made; and forthwith a Euro- 

 pean monarch is seized with a desire to acquire tcrritor}', (not scrupulous, 

 either, as to how he acquires it,) in order that he may have silver, too. 

 Swift clipper ships were exclusively American property, till one day 

 England became waked up by an American yacht, and now all Europe 

 are rapidly casting aside their old seagoing tubs for swift and beautiful 

 clippers. We made ironclad war vessels, and the whole sj^stem of naval 

 warfare around the globe becomes instantaneously revolutionized. 



The old world and the new are all activity and resonant with the hum 

 of American inventions. In the spirit of enterprise and progressive 

 ideas that are to revolutionize the world, both materially and politically, 

 the United States have fairly won the advance of all other nations. 

 That we have all the material resources necessary when developed by 

 this American spirit of advancement to maintain the advance, and even 

 to carry us greater lengths in the march of improvement, all intelligent 

 Americans believe, candid foreigners admit, and there are few from any 

 country so ignorant as not to know, or so bigoted as to deny it. With 

 surprising vigor and elasticity, the population of the United States has 

 expanded from about two million eight hundred thousand in seventeen 

 huijdred and seventj^-six, to more than thirty-one and a half millions in 

 eighteen hundred and sixt}^, increasing at the wonderful ratio of nearl}^ 

 thirty-five per centum on an average during each decade. At a less ratio 

 than this, a calculation based upon a very reasonable estimate of the 

 causes of our numerical growth in the past will show the following 

 amazing expansion during the remainder of the present century: 



Eighteen hundred and seventy 

 Eighteen hundred and eighty . 

 Eighteen hundred and ninety... 

 l^ineteen hundred 



42,000.000 



56,000,000 



77,000,000 



100,000,000 



But rapid and healthful as has been the growth of population in the past, 

 and amazing as it promises to be in the future, the increase of wealth has 

 been and promises to continue to be still more wonderful. The value of 

 real estate and personal property in the United States in eighteen 

 hundred and fifty amounted to seven thousand one hundred and thirty- 

 five million seven hundred and eighty thousand two hundred and twenty- 

 eight dollars; in eighteen hundred and sixty it had more than doubled, 

 and reached the vast sum of sixteeen thousand one hundred and fifty- 

 nine million six hundred and sixteen thousand and sixty-eight dollai'S, 

 the ratio of increase being over one hundred and twenty-six per centum 

 in the space of ten j-ears. 



In eighteen hundred and thirtj^ scarce!}' a railroad had been begun in 

 the United States, but in a few years we led the van in this, as in nearly 

 all other improvements. In eighteen hundred and thirty-eight we had 

 constructed and in operation eighteen hundred and forty-three miles of 

 railroad, and from this point mark the improvement. We had in 



