377 



Absolute population, without the In- 

 dians 234,239 



Relative population of the whites on 



the square league 2| 



It results from these calculations, in which the errors in 

 the estimate of surfaces can have no sensible influence on the 

 relative population, that the United States on the east of 

 the Mississipi (without comprehending the Floridas) con- 

 tained in 1820, on an area of 77,700 square marine leagues, 

 or 730,000 square English miles, an absolute population of 

 9,403,760, and a relative population of 122 inhabitants to 

 the square marine league. If the relative population of the 

 whole territory of the United States, from the Pacific to the 

 Atlantic Ocean, was in 1820, 55 inhabitants to the square 

 league, it must have been at the end of the year 1822, (when 

 I find, in supposing an uniform increase, a total population 

 of 10,220,800), a little above 58. The immense augmenta- 

 tion of the population on the east of the Mississipi becomes 

 little sensible if, according to a simply mathematical abstrac- 

 tion, we divide the whole population over the entire surface 

 of the territory. 



I have discussed in this note the uncertainty that hangs 

 over objects of the highest interest in political economy 5 I 

 have particularly fixed my attention on the countries situ- 

 ated on the west of the Mississipi, and of which the destiny 

 will in the lapse of ages have a powerful influence on the 

 state of the northern provinces of Mexico. In order to ob- 

 tain an accurate knowledge of the area of the United States, 

 we need not wait for the period when 174,000 square leagues 

 are trigonometrically surveyed. It is by means simply as- 

 tronomical, by the combination of a great number of observ- 

 ed latitudes, and chronometrical lines traced in different direc- 

 tions, that we can rapidly obtain precise statements, indis- 

 pensable in every good administration. Amidst so much 

 uncertainty, it were to be wished that the Congress of Wash- 



