PROSPERITY AND POWER OF MASSACHUSETTS. 83 



And now of her efforts to improve her material condition by- 

 all the arts of peace. More than thirty years ago she com- 

 menced a system of public improvements, by loaning her credit 

 to the enterprise of her citizens ; and the fruits of her wisdom 

 in this respect are before us. In 1830, before a railroad was 

 running within her limits, when her agricultural and commer- 

 cial wealth constituted nearly all her resources, her valuation 

 amounted to $208,360,403. In 1840, while her railroad system 

 was yet in its infancy, and the effect of her loans was yet doubt- 

 ful, her valuation had increased to $299,878,327. In 1860, 

 however, under the influence of her public liberality and her 

 private enterprise, the valuation of her property increased to 

 $897,790,326; in 1865, to $1,007,000,000; and in 1870, to 

 $1,417,127,376 ; and all this with a territory not much larger 

 than some of the counties in the great States. Of the prod- 

 ucts of her industry, Governor Bullock remarked in his first 

 annual message : — 



" I am enabled to announce to every holder of a Massachu- 

 setts bond, whether at home or abroad, the fact that while the 

 first report indicated an annual product of eighty-six millions 

 of dollars, the second of one hundred and twenty-four millions, 

 and the third of two hundred and ninety-five millions, the fourth 

 and last exhibits an aggregate of five hundred and seventeen 

 millions. And this result is yet more gratifying and no less 

 remarkable when it is remembered that the increase of seventy- 

 two per cent, on her production in the last decade has been 

 attained with an increase of only three per cent, in her popula- 

 tion." 



The indications of prosperity witnessed everywhere are not 

 less remarkable than these. Under the hands of her citizens 

 towns have been directed into profitable labor, her hillsides and 

 her valleys have been adorned with the architecture and landscape 

 gardening of a prosperous and discriminating population. Her 

 busy and thriving villages are a constant source of admiration ; 

 and he who knows them best will find it difficult to determine 

 which to admire most, the evident wealth of her thriving cit- 

 izens or their devotion to all measures of social reform and 

 their high domestic virtues. This increase in valuation and 

 resource, this constant struggle for material as well as moral 

 and intellectual advancement, are so equally and generally 



