52% On Dr. Franklin's Obfervations on American Population. [Jan. ty 
annis, at 30,0c0 per annum, it will be 
thought much under the mask by all who 
have a knowledge of the fubje€t. Scercely 
a veffel arrives in any portiof the United 
States from any part of the world without 
more or fewerpaflengers onboard. Many 
veffels, of not more than 300 tons. bur- 
then, arrive m the Delaware, with 400 
er soo paflengers from different parts of 
Freland.. Neither is this a novel fcene. 
"Fhey bring fimilar cargoes from Scotland 
and Germany. The’ arrivals from Eng- 
Kand and other parts of Europe are leis 
wumerous, ‘but more frequent 3 and, con- 
fidering the inmumerable fwarms imported 
from the French Weft Indies, during the 
Fate troubles there, the number of emi- 
grants and their progeny, during the laft 
ten years, will be confiderably under- 
rated. But, taking it at that rate, and 
making an average calculation upon the 
ten years, from 1791 to 1801, (during 
which America enjoyed in the fulleft latt- 
tude, all thofe advantages for an increafing 
population which it ever can enjoy,) the 
real increafe will be as follows: 
Population ini791. 2. =. 3,929,326 
Encreafe in ten years ending 
MEAGRE GORY 1,376,312. 
Ditto Ditto 381x 1,375,312 
6,681,950 
Dedu& for emigrants and 6 
thee ilies eh is WAR ok t ‘ica. 
7,281,950 
Or 1,776,702 lefs than the Doétor’s cal- 
culation ! 
Fo fuch as make obfervations upon the 
increafe of American population, thefe 
remarks are neceflary to be attended to, 
becaufe the Americans donot difcrimi- 
nate between the inereafe by natural ge- 
neration, and fortuitous or emigrating m- 
ereafe, as Dr. Franklin very properly 
Goes; and the mittaken inference to be 
dGrawn by {uch obfervers, would confe- 
quently be, that America is much more 
propitious to an increafe of the buman 
ipecies than it really is. This miftake 
would be ‘carried to a much more coufi- 
derable extent, if in your Magazine, or 
any other European publication for 1811, 
the cenfus or enumejation fhould be in- 
creafed by the population of Louifiana 
(lately ceaed to the United States) atid 
all its towns and fetflements to the weft- 
ward of the Miffifippi, as will undoubt. 
edly be the cafe with that publifhed by 
the American Government. 
‘Thus the fiatement in your Maga- 
zine, unattended by any explanation, ap. 
i 
pears almoft incredible, confidering the 
imalinefs of European increafe in that - 
period ; but when the efflux. of Europe 
and influx into America is balanced, our- 
aftonfhment ceafes.—It may be doubted 
whether the increafe of American popu. _ 
lation, exclufive of emigration, for the 
ten years, from 1791 to 1801, ever came 
up to any thing near one half of the 
Doétor’s calculation, confidering the vaft 
influx of Europeaus during that trouble- 
fome period ; and whatever might have 
been the fecundity of the American) fe- 
males at the time the Doétor wrote, it is 
now-a-days far inf-rior to that of the Eu- 
ropean women ; fo that, inftead of allowing 
eight births to one marriage, as he has 
done, it is well known that for one mar- 
riage which produces five births, there 
are 500 that do not exceed thiree, and the 
proportion will hold good threughout the 
United. States. Neither have marriages 
in America held any thing like a dupli- 
cate ratio to thofe in Europe fince 1791 ; 
the cities and towns waich have fprusg 
up there, or vaftly extended themfelves, 
fince the Doétor’s time, militating as 
much again{t early marriages, and the. 
eafe and convenience of fupporting a fa- 
mily, as he has alleged againft thofe in 
Europe. Diflipation allo has wonderfully 
increafed in America fince the Revolu- 
tion, and rages in the fea-ports, particu- 
larly Charlefton, Norfolk, Baltimore, &c. 
as much as in any Evropean fea-port 
towns of equal extent ; and were the mar- 
riage lifts to be compared, the deficiency 
would moft probably be on the American 
fide. This drawback on the Do@or’s cal- 
culation certainly did not exift at the time 
he made it; and had he, a fort time pre- 
vious to his death, been to make it over 
again, he mutt have feen occafion to re- 
tract his opinion, as, in fome other in- 
{tances refpecting his favourite. repubhe, 
he found occafion to do, and very cane 
didiy did,* | 
i j The 
_ * Tt was a favourite do€trine with Dr. 
Franklin, that a republican conftitution 
ought to organize the legiflature with a fingle 
houfe or branch of reprefentatives, and his 
influence introduced the principle into- the 
firft- conititution of Pennfylvania after the 
Revoiytion; and, although he confented to 
the prefent conftitution of the United States, 
_yet foon after that inftrument was completed, 
he obferved, ** That he could not fee the 
neceflity ‘of two branches in the legiflature 5 
but as he had, in the courfe of a long life, 
found oc¢afion very often to change his opi- 
Hions, 
