344 HARRISON, TYLER 



fold, Missouri fivefold, Illinois sevenfold, Michigan 

 twentyfold. A transformation was going on in the 

 cities. In 1820 New York and Philadelphia, with 

 populations a little over 100,000, had hardly ceased to 

 look like country towns ; by 1835 the former had passed 

 250,000 and the latter 200,000, so that they were begin- 

 ning to take on the appearance of large cities. In 1820 

 the national debt was $90,000,000; by 1835 every 

 cent of it was paid and there was a surplus in the 

 treasury, a fact which powerfully impressed people's 

 imaginations, both here and in Europe. This pros- 

 perity was the cause of endless self-glorification, and 

 it was apt to be ascribed to American institutions in 

 a greater degree than to the natural resources of the 

 country. It began to seem as if nothing were impos- 

 sible to American enterprise, and confidence grew into 

 recklessness. It was an era of road-building. In 

 1820 it cost $88 to carry a ton of freight from Buffalo 

 to Albany; in 1825 the Erie Canal was finished, and 

 that ton could be carried that distance for $21.50; 

 in 1835 it could be carried for $6.50. That single fact 

 gave an unprecedented stimulus to the growth alike of 

 New York and of the West. In 1830 there were 23 

 miles of railroad in the United States; in 1836 there 

 were 1273 miles. During the same six years the 

 steamboat tonnage on our Western rivers increased 

 nearly sixfold, and the cotton crop in the Southwestern 

 states was doubled, while the price of raw cotton rose 

 from ten to twenty cents a pound. Such sudden and 

 surprising changes quite disturbed people's conceptions 

 of value and bewildered them in their calculations. 

 The great West began to seem an El Dorado, and 

 so long as desired land was in some new region, it 



