American Institutions and Their Influence

259

The profound peace of the Union affords no pretext for a standing army; and without a standing army a government is not prepared to profit by a favorable opportunity to conquer resistance, and take the sovereign power by surprise.

260

Thus the province of Holland in the republic of the Low Countries, and the emperor in the Germanic Confederation, have sometimes put themselves in the place of the Union, and have employed the federal authority to their own advantage.

261

See Darby's View of the United States, pp. 64, 79.

262

See Darby's View of the United States, p. 435.

{In Carey & Lea's Geography of America, the United States are said to form an area of 2,076,400 square miles.—Translator's Note.}

{The discrepancy between Darby's estimate of the area of the United States given by the author, and that stated by the translator, is not easily accounted for. In Bradford's comprehensive Atlas, a work generally of great accuracy, it is said that "as claimed by this country, the territory of the United States extends from 25° to 54° north latitude, and from 65° 49' to 125° west longitude, over an area of about 2,200,000 square miles."—American Editor.}

263

It is scarcely necessary for me to observe that by the expression Anglo-Americans, I only mean to designate the great majority of the nation; for a certain number of isolated individuals are of course to be met with holding very different opinions.

264

Census of 1790........ 3,929,328.  do      1830........12,856,165.

{do.     1840........17,068,666.}

265

This indeed is only a temporary danger. I have no doubt that in time society will assume as much stability and regularity in the west, as it has already done upon the coast of the Atlantic ocean.

266

Pennsylvania contained 431,373 inhabitants in 1790.

267

The area of the state of New York is about 46,000 square miles. See Carey & Lea's American Geography, p. 142.

268

If the population continues to double every twenty-two years, as it has done for the last two hundred years, the number of inhabitants in the United States in 1852, will be twenty millions: in 1874, forty-eight millions; and in 1896, ninety-six millions. This may still be the case even if the lands on the western slope of the Rocky mountains should be found to be unfit for cultivation. The territory which is already occupied can easily contain this number of inhabitants. One hundred millions of men disseminated over the surface of the twenty-four states, and the three dependencies, which constitute the Union, would give only 702 inhabitants to the square league: this would be far below the mean population of France, which is 1,003 to the square league; or of England, which is 1,457; and it would even be below the population of Switzerland, for that country, notwithstanding its lakes and mountains, contains 783 inhabitants to the square league. (See Maltebrun, vol. vi., p. 92.)

269

See Legislative Documents, 20th congress, No. 117, p. 105.

270

3,672,317; census 1830.

271

The distance of Jefferson, the capital of the state of Missouri, to Washington, is 1,018 miles. (American Almanac, 1831, p. 40.)

272

The following statements will suffice to show the difference which exists between the commerce of the south and that of the north:—

In 1829, the tonnage of all the merchant-vessels belonging to Virginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia (the four great southern states), amounted to only 5,243 tons. In the same year the tonnage of the vessels of the state of Massachusetts alone amounted to 17,322 tons. (See Legislative Documents, 21st congress, 2d session, No. 140, p. 244.) Thus the state of Massachusetts has three times as much shipping as the four abovementioned states. Nevertheless the area of the state of Massachusetts is only 7,335 square miles, and its population amounts to 610,014 inhabitants; while the area of the four other states I have quoted is 210,000 square miles, and their population 3,047,767. Thus the area of the state of Massachusetts forms only one thirtieth part of the area of the four states; and its population is five times smaller than theirs. (See Darby's View of the United States.) Slavery is prejudicial to the commercial prosperity of the south in several different ways; by diminishing the spirit of enterprise among the whites, and by preventing them from meeting with as numerous a class of sailors as they require. Sailors are generally taken from the lowest ranks of the population. But in the southern states these lowest ranks are composed of slaves, and it is very difficult to employ them at sea. They are unable to serve as well as a white crew, and apprehensions would always be entertained of their mutinying in the middle of the ocean, or of their escaping in the foreign countries at which they might touch.

273

Darby's view of the United States, p. 444.

274

It may be seen that in the course of the last ten years (1820-'30) the population of one district, as for instance, the state of Delaware, has increased in the proportion of 5 per cent.; while that of another, as the territory of Michigan, has increased 250 per cent. Thus the population of Virginia has augmented 13 per cent., and that of the border state of Ohio 61 per cent., in the same space of time. The general table of these changes, which is given in the National Calendar, displays a striking picture of the unequal fortunes of the different states.

275

It has just been said that in the course of the last term the population of Virginia has increased 13 per cent.; and it is necessary to explain how the number of representatives of a state may decrease, when the population of that state, far from diminishing, is actually upon the increase. I take the state of Virginia, to which I have already alluded, as my term of comparison. The number of representatives of Virginia in 1823 was proportionate to the total number of the representatives of the Union, and to the relation which its population bore to that of the whole Union; in 1833, the number of representatives of Virginia was likewise proportionate to the total number of the representatives of the Union, and to the relation which its population, augmented in the course of ten years, bore to the augmented population of the Union in the same space of time. The new number of Virginian representatives will then be to the old number, on the one hand, as the new number of all the representatives is to the old number; and, on the other hand, as the augmentation of the population of Virginia is to that of the whole population of the country. Thus, if the increase of the population of the lesser country be to that of the greater in an exact inverse ratio of the proportion between the new and the old numbers of all the representatives, the number of representatives of Virginia will remain stationary; and if the increase of the Virginian population be to that of the whole Union in a feebler ratio than the new number of representatives of the Union to the old number, the number of the representatives of Virginia must decrease.

276

See the report of its committees to the convention, which proclaimed the nullification of the tariff in South Carolina.

277

The population of a country assuredly constitutes the first element of its wealth. In the ten years (1820-'30) during which Virginia lost two of its representatives in congress, its population increased in the proportion of 13-7 per cent.; that of Carolina in the proportion of 15 per cent.; and that of Georgia 51-5 per cent. (See the American Almanac, 1832, p. 162.) But the population of Russia, which increases more rapidly than that of any other European country, only augments in ten years at the rate of 9-5 per cent.; of France at the rate of 7 per cent.; and of Europe in general at the rate of 4-7 per cent. (See Maltebrun, vol. vi., p. 95.)

278

It must be admitted, however, that the depreciation which has taken place in the value of tobacco, during the last fifty years, has notably diminished the opulence of the southern planters; but this circumstance is as independent of the will of their northern brethren, as it is of their own.

279

In 1832, the district of Michigan, which only contains 31,639 inhabitants, and is still an almost unexplored wilderness, possessed 940 miles of mail-roads. The territory of Arkansas, which is still more uncultivated, was already intersected by 1,938 miles of mail-roads. (See report of the general post-office, 30th November, 1833.) The postage of newspapers alone in the whole Union amounted to $254,796.

280

In the course of ten years, from 1821 to 1831, 271 steamboats have been launched upon the rivers which water the valley of the Mississippi alone. In 1829, 259 steamboats existed in the United States. (See Legislative Documents, No. 140, p. 274.)

281

See in the legislative documents already quoted in speaking of the Indians, the letter of the President of the United States to the Cherokees, his correspondence on this subject with his agents, and his messages to Congress.

282

The first act of cession was made by the state of New York in 1780; Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut, South and North Carolina, followed this example at different times, and lastly, the act of cession of Georgia was made as recently as 1802.

283

It is true that the president refused his assent to this law; but he completely adopted it in principle. See message of 8th December, 1833.

284

The present bank of the United States was established in 1816, with a capital of 35,000,000 dollars; its charter expires in 1836. Last year congress passed a law to renew it, but the president put his veto upon the bill. The struggle is still going on with great violence on either side, and the speedy fall of the bank may easily be foreseen.

285

See principally for the details of this affair, the legislative documents, 22d congress, 2d session, No 3.

286

That is to say, the majority of the people; for the opposite party, called the Union party, always formed a very strong and active minority. Carolina may contain about 47,000 electors; 30,000 were in favor of nullification, and 17,000 opposed to it.

287

This decree was preceded by a report of the committee by which it was framed, containing the explanation of the motives and object of the law. The following passage occurs in it, p. 34: "When the rights reserved by the constitution to the different states are deliberately violated, it is the duty and the right of those states to interfere, in order to check the progress of the evil, to resist usurpation, and to maintain, within their respective limits, those powers and privileges which belong to them as independent sovereign states. If they were destitute of this right, they would not be sovereign. South Carolina declares that she acknowledges no tribunal upon earth above her authority. She has indeed entered into a solemn compact of union with the other states: but she demands, and will exercise, the right of putting her own construction upon it; and when this compact is violated by her sister states, and by the government which they have created, she is determined to avail herself of the unquestionable right of judging what is the extent of the infraction, and what are the measures best fitted to obtain justice."

288

Congress was finally decided to take this step by the conduct of the powerful state of Virginia, whose legislature offered to serve as a mediator between the Union and South Carolina. Hitherto the latter state had appeared to be entirely abandoned even by the states which had joined her in her remonstrances.

289

This law was passed on the 2d March, 1833.

290

This bill was brought in by Mr. Clay, and it passed in four days through both houses of Congress, by an immense majority.

291

The total value of goods imported during the year which ended on the 30th September, 1832, was 101,129,266 dollars. The value of the cargoes of foreign vessels did not amount to 10,731,039 dollars, or about one-tenth of the entire sum.

292

The value of goods exported during the same year amounted to 87,176,943 dollars; the value of goods exported by foreign vessels amounted to 21,036,183 dollars, or about one quarter of the whole sum. (Williams's Register, 1833, p. 398.)

293

The tonnage of the vessels which entered all the ports of the Union in the years 1829, 1830, and 1831, amounted to 3,307,719 tons, of which 544,571 tons were foreign vessels; they stood therefore to the American vessels in a ratio of about 16 to 100. (National Calendar, 1833, p. 304.) The tonnage of the English vessels which entered the ports of London, Liverpool and Hull, in the years 1820, 1826, and 1831, amounted to 443,800 tons. The foreign vessels which entered the same ports during the same years, amounted to 159,431 tons. The ratio between them was therefore about 36 to 100. (Companion to the Almanac, 1834, p. 169.) In the year 1832 the ratio between the foreign and British ships which entered the ports of Great Britain was 29 to 100.

294

Materials are, generally speaking, less expensive in America than in Europe, but the price of labor is much higher.

295

It must not be supposed that English vessels are exclusively employed in transporting foreign produce into England, or British produce to foreign countries; at the present day the merchant shipping of England may be regarded in the light of a vast system of public conveyances ready to serve all the producers of the world, and to open communications between all peoples. The maritime genius of the Americans prompts them to enter into competition with the English.

296

Part of the commerce of the Mediterranean is already carried on by American vessels.

297

The foremost of these circumstances is, that nations which are accustomed to free institutions and municipal government are better able than any others to found prosperous colonies. The habit of thinking and governing for oneself is indispensable in a new country, where success necessarily depends, in a great measure, upon the individual exertions of the settlers.

298

The United States already extend over a territory equal to one half of Europe. The area of Europe is 500,000 square leagues, and its population 205,000,000 of inhabitants. (Maltebrun, liv. 114, vol., vi., p. 4.)

299

See Maltebrun, liv. 116, vol. vi., p.92.

300

This would be a population proportionate to that of Europe, taken at a mean rate of 410 inhabitants to the square league.

301

Russia is the country in the Old World in which population increases most rapidly in proportion.

302

The 20th degree of longitude according to the meridian of Washington, agrees very nearly with the 97th degree on the meridian of Greenwich.