Blackwood's Magazine-Increase of Southern Free Population. 597 tions, certainly for the force and adroit- searching for truth has in hunting for ness with which they are advocated, I am at a loss to conceive. The whole article appears to have been made up from the study of several anti-slavery publications, in which truth does not appear to have been a very important consideration, and it is set off with an apparent appeal to comparative statistics, in which the abuse of figures amounts in one place to positive misstatement, which, with a very slight examination, could have been avoided. I will first notice his statistical errors, and show how entirely incorrect his inferences are. items to support his own preconceived theory. Now I deny that the ratio of natural increase in the population of the North is any greater than in that of the South-indeed, I doubt whether it is as great-and I think nobody can hesitate to come to the same conclusion, who considers that the North and Northwest are, and have been, since the revolution, the great reservoir of the tide of emigration from Europe. Of the total number of foreign-born inhabitants in the United States in 1852, 1,965,518 were in those states, while only 245,310 were in the South. Here then may be found the real cause of the greater ratio of increase there than here. A portion of this emigration helps to fill up the new states and territories, the balance to supply, in the northern states, the place of the 13,583,328 native population moving West. Of all 6,393,758 this enormous increase, however, not a word is said by those who undertake to prove compare northern and southern progress, and use the result as an argument against slavery. He gives the following as the respective free populations of the slaveholding and non-slaveholding states at the periods specified : 1850. I will now proceed to show, from the census tables of 1840 and 1850, that this pretended superiority in progress is either a gross error in calculation or a wilful misrepresentation of actual facts: This statement is intended to that slavery is unfavorable to the growth of population, showing, as the writer says, "that, while in the last ten years, the population of the free states has increased by nearly four millions, that of the slave states, though Texas has been added to them in the interval, has decreased by nine hundred thousand." But, fortunately, the fact relied upon by the writer for his deduction, is an error in the American Almanac for 1852, in which the total population of the slave states for 1840 is classed under the head of free population." I shall give the table of population as it really was at Vermont.. both periods: 1840. Northern free population.... NON-SLAVE-HOLDING STATES. 1840. Pennsylvania....1,724,033 2,301,681..34 Maine... 217,831..11. 291,948 313,466.. 7 .1,519,467 1,977,031..30 476,180 858,298..80 66 66 Ohio Southern free 4,803,606 Total population of the states.. ..16,945,584 Maryland. 318,114 Georgia.. 407,695 reference, to show that his selection was whether in wealth, population, knowlnot a fair test. I give six northern edge or political power, for there we states, whose average increase of popu- find the barren little territory of Attica, lation for the last ten years is 21 per with an area of 730 miles only, that is, cent.; while the six southern states I give smaller than the smallest county in Alaaverage 28 per cent. I also set down Ken- bama, supporting a population of 528,000, tucky and Missouri against Ohio and Illi- only 120,000 of which were free, defying nois, and show that the former average 58 and defeating the greatest power then per cent. increase and the latter only 55. known, Persia, sweeping the sea with I also give the whole free population her fleets from Sicily to Cyprus, and from North and South, and show that, with the the mouths of the Nile to the Bosphorus, addition of nearly the whole foreign and producing philosophers and histopopulation, which amounts to 11 per rians, poets, painters and sculptors, warcent. of the whole free population of the riors and statesmen, that for centuries Union, the ratio of increase in population had no equals. And it prevailed also at the North exceeds that at the South when Roman energy and knowledge only 7 per cent. in ten years, or seven- had subdued, and Roman civilization tenths of 1 per cent. in each year. This had enlightened half the earth, during fact would seem to afford some ground the period which is dignified in history for the belief that, aside from the effect with the name of the Great Augustan produced by foreign emigration, the ratio of natural increase is greater at the South than at the North. Age. Those who contend that "slavery is a barrier to progress," are deaf to the voice of history, dead to all experience of the past, and, consequently, blind guides in the future. But the writer, had he been really in quest of truth, could have found fairer subjects than those he selected, to test his theory that slavery is "a barrier to MEMPHIS. Before the appearance of progress." He need not have intruded our next number, the third Great Southupon the domestic precincts of a foreign ern Improvement Convention will be confederacy, when he could have found, held at Memphis. Having attended the under the shadow of his own govern- first two, it is a source of great regret ment, a much fairer test-the island of that we must be absent now. But pressJamaica. Or, if disposed to wander ing engagements render it imperative. abroad for the means of ascertaining We shall take pleasure, however, in the truth, he could have found in the im- furnishing to our readers the fullest maperial dominions of Faustin I. sufficient, terial of its proceedings, the substance not indeed to establish his theory, but to of its speeches, and the elaborate reports satisfy him of its unsoundness. Those which will no doubt be offered. Success two beautiful islands, Hayti and Jamaica, to our enterprising friends, and success while slavery was maintained in them, to their glorious and advancing little increased in wealth, commerce, population and civilization. Slavery was abolished, and what followed? Wealth decreasing to poverty, commerce rapidly disappearing, population steadily diminishing, and the unfortunate negroes, who, in the language of philanthropy, had been elevated to the rank of freemen, are fast sinking into that state of barbarism from which slavery alone seems ever to have elevated them. city, connected as it is with so many of our pleasantest recollections, and promising as it does, in time, to be a very big city on the banks of the old Father of Waters-which Heaven propitiously grant! We give a few notes in regard to the early history of the city, having already furnished the later statistics. In 1782, the Spanish Government directed W. H. Gayno, then acting GoThere never was a greater error than vernor of the Territory of Louisiana, to the theory adopted by the writer in take steps to occupy this portion of the Blackwood's Magazine, that "slavery is territory. Accordingly, in the spring of a barrier to progress." On the contrary, 1783, one Benjamin Fry, a German, and it is compatible with the highest degree an old Indian trader, with a company of of civilization. It prevailed three thou- men, landed at the mouth of Wolf or sand years ago, when the light of science False River, just above what is known shone from the pyramids of Egypt. as Third or Lower Chicasaw Bluff, where The history of the Athenians is a proof was erected a fort called Fort St. Ferit is not a barrier to progress, nando. After the United States Govern. Great Southern Improvement Convention-Memphis-Nashville. 599 -A few years ago, cut stone was imported from Cincinnati. Now, the finest Italian, Tennessee and other marbles are being sawed and polished by steam and horse-power in the city, and the elegant and costly products are supplied in large quantities to purchasers at a distance. ment came into possession of the Terri- almost everything is being manufactured tory of Louisiana, Fort St. Fernando was by improved labor-saving machinery. dismantled by Lieutenant Pike, and Fort Pickering established on the lower end of the Bluff. John Overton was the original proprietor of the site of Memphis; but in 1819, he sold one undivided half to Gen. Andrew Jackson and Gen. James Winchester, who proceeded to lay out the town. Gen. Jackson says, in one of his letters, the town was laid here owing to the eligible location, and predicted that it would, in time, be the second city in the Mississippi Valley. It is making rapid strides towards the accomplishment of the prophecy, if increasing activity of every department of trade is any criterion. NASHVILLE. Having said a few words about Memphis, we cheerfully add others in regard to Nashville, a city which, for enterprise, spirit, wealth and refinement, has taken the highest position in the Southwest. In 1840, the population of Nashville was 6,900; in 1850 it was 16,000; now it is estimated variously from 18,000 to 23,000, and it is probably actually about 20.000. Great changes have recently taken place in the elements of its growth. A few years ago scarcely anything was manufactured there otherwise than by hand labor. Now, various engines are throwing up their columns of black smoke in different parts of the city, and Meantime, engine shops, planing mills, trip-hammers, car factories, wagon and plough factories, furniture shops, &c., driven by steam, with powerful and improved machinery, are springing into existence in Nashville and South Nashville, and the hundreds of skilled laborers and artisans employed in them increase the consumption of the farmers' products, and keep the masons and carpenters employed in furnishing new tenements to house them. The hotels are filled with strangers, reaching them daily by railroad or otherwise. The wholesale business of the city has probably been doubled within the last few years. The grocery business has been greatly increased. The city is now as full of population as an egg is of meat. New buildings are rapidly going up, both in the city and the suburbs, and the demand is still for more houses. Nashville, the most beautiful and pleasant city in the Mississippi Valley, has just fairly begun to grow. ART. IX-OREGON AND THE TERRITORY OF WASHINGTON ON THE PACIFIC. THE establishment of a new territorial government upon the Pacific out of the old Oregon territory is another step in the march of empire, and justifies the insertion of such facts, in regard to this portion of our possessions upon the Pacific, as can be brought within the scope of a brief paper. In the year 1846, we published in the Review many interesting porticulars relating to Oregon, then in discussion, upon the authority of Mr. Greenbow, and upon that of many writers who had visited the country. In 1848, the territorial government of Oregon was set up by Congress, comprising all that part of the territory of the United States west of the summit of the Rocky Mountains, and north of the forty-second degree of north latitude. The celebrated "ordinance of 1787, for the government of the INDUSTRY OF OREGON, 1850. Ares of land in farms. Cash value Value of farming implements & machinery. 12,885 $74,545.. $16,565 175,400.. Clackamas.. 36,210.. 82.388.. 841,750.. 3.705. 16,935.. 208,700.. 13,441.. 35,804.. 274,400.. 6,041.. 108,425.. 30,211..152,567.. 835,750.. 63,130.. 159,160.. Yarn-Hill.... 14,481.. 18,340 Aggregate...132,857..299,951..$2,849,170..$183,423 8,046 420 ible to the public, which we present to our readers. "Washington Territory" lies chiefly between latitudes 46 degrees and 49 de20 grees, and between longitudes 110 de24,475 grees, and 125 degrees west of Green6,780 wich. The boundary initial points and 15,445 parallels must soon be accurately deter 48,834 mined, and it must be decided where 17,620 the crest of the Rocky Mountains really 107,910. 22,459 is. This latter problem may not be easy of solution, for Lewis and Clark, Father de Smet, the Irving Astoria map, and the Indian Bureau and Topographical Bureau maps, all represent these mountains differently. Lewis and Clark ex9,427 hibit four distinct ranges, with which 8,114 the best recent explorations essentially 15,382 agree; indicating at least three parallel 30,235 ranges running nearly northwest, instead of the more prevalent indication of a single north and south range. Explo 106 ration may show the necessity of a more 2.918 definite eastern boundary. On the north, 65,146 the mouth of Frazer's River is so near 29,686 to latitude 49 degrees that a portion of it 91.326 may be found to fall in the United 1,271 States, though this is improbable. There 90.241 are thus several important geographical 36,980 questions connected with the boundaries 373 of this neophyte state. Value of orchard products, in dollars.. 24.188 $1,876,189 .211,943 325 6,566 .211,464 22 640 24 Molasses, gallons of.. There were 1,877 children attending school in 1850, and 168 marriages within the year. On the 2d of March, 1853, an act was passed by Congress, establishing within the Territory of Oregon the "Territorial Government of Washington." 4 "Washington Territory" has within its 8 limits portions as well explored, and others as nearly unknown, as can be found west of the Mississippi. The Columbia River was thoroughly surveyed by Captain Wilkes, two sheets out of six by Belcher in 1839, and two sheets are being now published. It was surveyed The Coast Survey has twice surveyed published among the Admiralty charts. its mouth, and published one sheet. A comparison of these several surveys with Vancouver's indicates a remarkable degree of shifting in the sandbanks at its mouth. Shoalwater Bay has been surveyed by the Coast Survey, but the has also been just surveyed, and this, survey is not published. Grey's Harbor with Chickalees River, has been surveyed, and the survey published by Captain Wilkes. The Admiralty charts cover the Straits of Fuca, and many harbors on the mainland and on Vancouver's Island. Washington Territory comprises the northern portion of the recent Oregon territory, and is bounded on the south by the Columbia River, up to near Fort Walla-Walla, (some two hundred and ninety miles,) where the parallel of forty-six degrees of latitude intersects it; thence by this parallel to the crest of the Rocky Mountains; thence the boundary forty-nine degrees, and thence runs west on this parallel to the Gulf of Georgia and the Straits of Fuca to the Pacific, by which it is limited on the west. We derive, from a scientific and well follows this mountain crest to latitude informed source, some particulars respecting this territory, not readily access From the National Intelligencer. A coast survey reconnoissance has coast and along the south coast of the now extended up the entire Pacific Straits of Fuca, and will soon be pub lished. The surveys under Capt. Wilkes, Geographical Position-Agricultural Resources and Wealth. 601 art of man to bring them into a state of and his narrative, give full information The interior portion of this section is but imperfectly known. The land office surveys north of the Columbia have as yet made but little progress; but the sketches prepared in that office give more recent and correct information than is elsewhere to be found on the section between that river and Puget's Sound. On penetrating further towards the Rocky Mountains, the country is essentially unknown. The narrative of Lewis and Clark, the book on Oregon Missions, by Father de Smet, published in New-York in 1847, and Irving's Astoria, (the last edition,) are the chief publications of value on this ground. These serve merely to show that the country bordering the Rocky Mountains, between 46 degrees and 49 degrees, on both sides, is still a fine field for exploration. Much may be expected from Dr. Evans, who is engaged in a geological reconnoissance of the old Oregon Territory, which has taken him much among the Rocky Mountains, and over their basaltic plains. To a person accustomed to the level or gently undulating surface of the western states, the term "valley" appears wholly misapplied to the Umpqua country, as the broad plains and gentlyswelling hills, associated in their minds with that term, are no where to be seen. The basin, being very broken, (the narrow valleys lying between ranges of high hills.) appears, when viewed from the mountains that enclose it, to be merely a mass of hills and mountains, differing from its rim in being of less elevation, bald or timbered with oak, the evergreens only appearing in clumps on the loftiest summits, or lining the deep ravines. There are no lakes nor marshes; the waters of the surrounding mountains rush from their dark chasms in many streams that, meandering through the valley, collect at its northwest corner, where the Umpqua River pierces the mountains, and finds its way to the ocean. The soil is lively and rich; that of the valleys, being alluvial deposits from the hills, is a dark, deep loam, in places sandy, and based upon a red clay; the soil on the hills is dark, or light-brown, according to its depth, it being lightest where most elevated or exposed to the action of the water. Owing to the vicinity of the Pacific Ocean, and the prevailing winds along the coast, the winters are warmer and the summers cooler than in corresponding latitudes on the Atlantic side of the continent. While the wind blows from a southerly quarter, which it generally does in winter, the weather is warm and damp, the ground seldom, if ever, freezing hard enough to kill peas or oats, or check the growth of cabbages, turnips, We are enabled to present the follow- or other hardy plants. The mildness of ing views of the agricultural resources the winters has most important bearing and wealth of Oregon, on the authority upon the agriculture of the country. As of a paper recently prepared by Jesse an illustration of this fact. I herewith Applegate, a resident of the territory :- enclose some flowers which have grown The basin drained by the Umpqua in the open air, and were this day (28th River lies between 42 and 431 de- December) plucked from plants common grees of north latitude, is separated from to all parts of the Union, and tamiliarly the Pacific Ocean and surrounded on all known as the hollyhock. marigold, other sides by a high wall of mountains. morning bride, sweet William, and These mountains are wooded with dense grasspink. You will perceive some of and continuous forests of the evergreen, them are full-blown, and others just fir, pine, and cedar; their lofty peaks, opening, which will show that these steep and narrow ridges, and deep, dark plants continue to produce flowers even chasms, will perhaps for ever defy the in midwinter. : |