844 TRANSACTIONS OP THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



months of time would be consumed in her trip. During this, her 

 imaginary voyage, she will have visited one thousand millions of 

 acres of land, blessed with the most prolific soil in the Eden of 

 our Lord. 



When the census takers of 1790 numbered the people, they did 

 not find west of the Alleghanies a population large enough to be 

 worthy of a separate statement. Ten years thereafter there were 

 but 386,000. In 1860, the voting strength of the nation had passed 

 the mountains. Its fighting strength has decided the issue of 

 every battle of the last rebellion. Its Avarriors outnumber the east 

 as twelve to seven. Thither the destinies of the nation have passed 

 and passed forever. The sons of its broad valleys henceforth hold 

 cojitrol in the councils of the country. They are to-day our rulers. 



What will be the number of its people — what their character, 

 pursuits and enterprises ? The able superintendent of the last 

 census estimates the population of our country will be at the close 

 of this century 1,000,000,000, being an increase of 70,000,000. 

 Of this increase, eighteen per cent will be in the old mother 

 States, and 270 per cent, in the valley of the Mississippi. Her 

 vote in the National Congress will l^e a clear constitutional majo- 

 rity. • The majoi-ity of her sons will be engaged in agriculture ; a 

 lar""e number devoted to mining, arts, commerce and manufactures. 

 Emphatically, her people will be cultivators of the soil. 



That very far-seeing and sagacious financeer of the Revolution, 

 Robert Morris, with almost prophetic vision, in 1800 wrote to a 

 friend as follows : " Shall I lead your astonishment to the verge 

 of credulity ? I will. Know, then, that one-tenth of the expense 

 borne by Great Britain in the last campaign would enable ships 

 from London to sail through Hudson's river into Lake Erie. As 

 yet, my friend, we only crawl along the outer shell of our vast 

 country. The interior excels the part we inhabit in soil, in cli- 

 mate, in everything. The proudest Empire in Europe is but a 

 bauble compared to what America icill be, must be, in the course 

 of two centuries, perhaps in one." 



The following queries, it appears to me, must be apparent to 

 every thoughtful New Yorker : Shall the products of so vast a 

 country, having such bright prospects of the future, and whose 

 sons are so flushed with the hope and enterprise of youth, together 

 with all their inward bound commerce, pass through New York, 

 and be tributary to its growth and greatness ? Or shall this city, 



