12 G. S. CALLENDER 



of the soil, moved into the region west of the mountains. The 

 census of 1790 showed 109,000 people in Kentucky and the 

 region south of it, not to mention those who had settled in 

 western Pennsylvania and Virginia, which must have 

 amounted to as many more. According to the census the 

 western states and territories contained 387,183 inhabitants 

 in 1800; ten years later they contained 1,075,398; and in 1820 

 2,207,476. To get the total western population, it is neces- 

 sary to add the number of inhabitants of western Pennsylvania 

 and Virginia, which in 1820 amounted to 248,476 and 147,531 

 respectively, making a total for the whole west of 2,603,483. 

 During the same period there was a great emigration to the 

 wild lands of northern and western New York, as well as 

 northern New England. In 1790 the census showed only 

 1,075 people in New York west of Seneca lake; in 1800 there 

 were still but 17,016; by 1810 this number had risen to 72,- 

 000; and in 1820 to 211,000. These figures show how large a 

 movement of people from the older communities into the in- 

 terior took place during the thirty years following the revolu- 

 tion. There must have been between one and a half and two 

 million people living west of the mountains at the outbreak 

 of the war of 1812. 



Great as was this movement of people into the west, its 

 economic influence was very slight. The general character 

 of the industry of the country remained what it had been 

 since colonial times. The west at that time had few economic 

 prizes to attract settlers. To the emigrant from the tide 

 water region it offered a refuge from the pressure of hard 

 times, where he could easily gain a rich subsistence for a 

 numerous family. To the backwoodsman it could add to 

 this the wild, free life of adventure which was so attractive to 

 men of this class. But to the investor or the man who wished 

 to make a fortune it had as yet hardly anything at all to offer. 

 Consequently, its settlement could have little economic in- 

 fluence upon the country as a whole. A little consideration 

 of the conditions upon which the prosperity of a newly settled 

 country depends, and a comparison of these conditions with 

 those prevailing in the west at this time, will make this suf- 

 ficiently clear. 



