Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

NI. THE UNIVERSAL PRIME MOVER.

Description of a new

273

motive power. By ALEX J. GRAHAM, of Mo.......

VII. THE DECOMPOSITION OF ROCKS AND THE RE-COMPOSITION OF THEIR METALLIC COMPOSITION. Observations touching the formation and deposite of gold-quartzmining, &c. By JOHN CALVERT, Esq.......

VIII.-LIFE AMONG THE MORMONS.

San Bernardino valley, California··

276

Mormon settlement in

279

COMMERCIAL DEPARTMENT.

COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES.

General Statement of

the value of goods, wares and merchandize, of the growth, pro-
duce and manufacture of the U. States exported, commencing
July 1, 1852, and ending June 30th, 1853......

Summary statement of the value of the exports of the growth,
produce and manufacture of the U. S., during the year commenc-
ing on the 1st of July, 1852, and ending on the 30th of June, 1853
inclusive.....

Statement of the value of goods, wares, and merchandize imported into the U. S. from each country during the year ending June 30th, 1853......

Statistical view of the commerce of the U. S., exhibiting the
value of exports to and imports from each foreign country, and
the tonnage of American and foreign vessels arriving from and de-
parting to each foreign country, during the year ending June 30,
1853..

Statement of the commerce of each State and Territory, from
July 1st, 1852, to June 30th, 1853....

TRADE BETWEEN ST. LOUIS AND THE SOUTH, TENNES
SEE RIVER, HICKMAN, KY., ARKANSAS RIVER, ETC.
JOURNAL OF PUBLIC IMPROVEMENT.

PACIFIC RAILROAD: CENTRAL ROUTE. Convention at Red
Bluff, California. Noble's Pass. Col. Lander's opinion of the
northern and central routes....

282

283

286

288

292

294

296

ARKANSAS MIDLAND RAILROAD. Breaking ground at Helena..
MISSISSIPPI, OUACHITA AND RED RIVER RAILROAD.
Breaking ground at Camden....

360

301

JOURNAL OF MANUFACTURES AND MINING.

IMPORTANT INVENTION FOR ROLLING RAILROAD BARS
By WM. HARRIS.....

......

LITERARY DEPARTMENT.

ANGEL CHILD. BY LETTIE, of Lexington, Ky...
MEMORY OF FRIENDS. By HARRY......

301

303

'304

[blocks in formation]

The New Territories: Nebraska and Kansas.

Additions to the public domain, and the settlement and cultivation of new territories, are events which necessarily affect the industrial pursuits and social relations of the community whose limits are thus extended. Under institutions like ours where every individual may adopt the vocation most congenial to their nature, and where local interests constitute an important element of public policy, the settlement of new territories and the admission of new States into the Union afford legitimate and interesting subjects for the study of the political economist and statesman.

In discussing the subject before us, we shall omit to notice that provision in the act of Congress which authorizes the institution of slavery in these territories, and confine our views chiefly to the economical and social effects arising from the settlement of so large a district of country, embracing as it does the centre of the continent.

The first American settlements established west of the Alleghanies were made in the central region; but subsequently the stream of emigration from the Atlantic slope separated, and formed two principal currents: the one bearing south, the other north, diverging further from the center as they proceeded towards the west. This peculiarity in the progress of emigration from east to west is generally attributed, we believe, to the institution of slavery in the Southern States: but, if in connection with the enterprising and money-loving character of the American people, we consider the nature of the country and its productions from the Gulf of Mexico to the Northern Lakes, we shall perceive that these diverging currents owe their origin less to social than to national causes.

The Southern States, and the region bordering on the Northern Lakes, are favorable to the growth of certain commercial staples, and until recently their facilities of transportation eastward were much better than those enjoyed by the central region. These were inducements not likely to be overlooked by an intelligent and enterprising people. The culture of tobacco and hemp, the principal commercial staples of the central region, could not be rapidly increased without depressing the price below the cost of production, while the cereals produced in the interior, remote from navigation, would not bear transportation to market.

Hence, it is evident that the course of emigration has been governed chiefly by considerations of economy and calculations of profit on labor. The owners of slave labor emigrating from the Atlantic States moved within the range of the cotton growing region, while the more substantial, and perhaps better judging farmers of the free States settled along the shores of the Northern Lakes.

So decided and well defined has been this movement, that its effects are observable at no great distance below the Falls of the Ohio: Western Kentucky, Southern Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas having remained comparatively stationary in the development of their resources, while the northern and southern regions, and more especially the former, have increased in population, commerce and wealth to a degree unequalled perhaps in the history of man.

Having traced the currents of emigration, as hitherto observed, to physical causes, we are gratified to perceive that those causes are undergoing important modifications, and that not only the physical impediments to emigration have, in a good measure, been overcome, but the commercial facilities of the central region are now nearly equal, all things considered, to those enjoyed by either the north or the south. Within another year we may reasonably expect that at least three lines of railway will be completed from the Atlantic to the Mississippi river, affording ample facilities to emigration and commerce. After reaching the Mississippi, emigration, still governed in its course by physical causes, will, instead of diverging north and south, as in times past, tend to the

center.

The hydrographic systems and physical conformation of that part of the continent lying between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, all point with unerring certainty to such a result.

The valleys of the Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Yellow Stone, the upper Arkansas and the upper Del Norte, will from this time forth attract emigration and commerce to the central region west of the Mississippi, by causes not less certain in their operation. than the law of gravitation. Already, even before the Indians have left their hunting grounds, or the surveyors have stretched a chain upon the soil, many have entered those valleys, others are on their way, and thousands are preparing to remove without see. ing the land.

This extraordinary movement is attributed in part to that provision in the organic law of these territories, which recognizes the institution of slavery; but we are persuaded that it may be traced to a far deeper source-the instincts of the American people.

Individuals actuated by political and religious fanaticism may have been instrumental in organizing emigrating companies in the eastern States; but in this they have only anticipated a movement which would have taken place sooner or later without their assistance. All that was necessary to ensure the rapid settlement of these territories was the removal of the Indian tribes. The spirit of emigration is a natural and active element in the character of the race to which we belong; and the fertile region bordering on the shores of the northern lakes having become so much occupied as to have lost its attractions as a new country, nothing could be more natural or more consistent with the character of our people residing north of the cotton growing region, than to emigrate to the valleys of the Kansas and Nebraska.

If these views touching the course of emigration be correct, it is manifest that we are about to onter upon a new era in the commercial and social history of this country.

The currents of commerce rising in the valleys and plains on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains and flowing eastwardly, will be checked in their course by the Mississippi, and there meeting with commercial currents flowing north and south, the shores of this river, in a commercial point of view, will be to the region. west of it, what the shores of the Atlantic were in former times to the whole country. Hither the productions of the west-the great central region-will, necessarily, come to be exchanged for the commercial staples and fruits of the south, and direct importations of foreign merchandize following as a natural consequence, a cen

tral commercial system, which we have so long labored to introduce, will be established by the operation of natural laws.

This new order of things in the west presents the States of Missouri and Iowa in a new aspect, and gives them a degree of importance among the States of the Union which those who have most highly appreciated their location and natural resources have scarcely hoped for, or even imagined.

One can hardly imagine an event more favorable to the prosperity of Missouri than the settlement of these territories. Her agriculture, commerce, manufactures, mining and public improvements, will all be benefitted by it. The demand for breadstuffs, provisions and stock to supply the new settlements will ensure renumerating prices for all her agricultural productions; while the trade of her commercial emporium will increase in volume with a rapidity unexampled even in the history of western cities.

The center of a great commercial system having been established, manufactures in all their varied forms will grow up in and around it as a natural and certain consequence. For a great commercial center and its vicinity affords facilities, and includes the conditions necessary to ensure success to many branches of manufactures, which cannot exist elsewhere in an equal degree. It is not proximity to the consumer which the manufacturer requires so much as immediate contact with the merchant, and his agency in furnishing raw material, and distributing the fabrics. Doubtless, some one or more of the conditions favorable for manufacturing many commodities may be found to exist at points remote from commercial cities; but then others necessary to ensure success upon a large scale are wanting, and it is on this account that manufacturing in rural districts remote from great cities has so rarely succeeded in this country.

One of the principal advantages which we anticipate from the settlement of Nebraska and Kansas is the powerful impulse which it is calculated to impart to the growth of manufactures in St. Louis. While those territories are filling up with an industrious and enterprising population, they must look to the east for almost every commodity necessary to their convenience and comfort except such as are derived from agriculture and the natural pasturage of the plains. No other place in the west, nor indeed in the United States, combines as many of the conditions required for the suc

« ZurückWeiter »