stantly. Not only military and naval strength, but the clearing of the forests, the amount of produce raised, and the extent of manufactures produced, are in direct ratio to the number of workers and the number who are to be fed and clothed. The unusual growth of population in the United States made possible her great development in this middle period. Where three people dwelt in the United States when the union really began, twelve were to be found in 1830, and thirty-one in 1860. In other words, the population had multiplied ten times in seventy years. During the same time, the population of England had not doubled, and that of France had increased only one-half.

The growth in numbers during this period was due even more largely to immigration than that of the preceding years. Between 1820 and 1830, nearly one hundred and fifty thousand people came from the old world to live in the new. During the next ten years, nearly six hundred thousand came. Between 1840 and 1850, the number increased to gigantic proportions. Nearly eight hundred thousand came from Ireland alone, largely because of the failure of the potato crop two years in succession. Almost five hundred thousand came from Germany, owing to political troubles in that country. The total for the ten years was almost two million, or nearly one-tenth of the entire population of the United States. During the next ten years ending in 1860, the number reached two and a half million. Ireland again had contributed the largest number, followed by Germany, then England, then Canada, and then France. In the year 1860, out of every one hundred people living in the United States, thirteen had been born in a foreign country.

482. Distribution.-Although the number of people had increased tenfold, different parts of the union had grown at different rates. People had rushed into the new states. At one time, Indiana increased five hundred per cent in ten years. New Hampshire, on the other hand, which had been

Georgia had

growing at the rate of ten people to every hundred in 1830, had fallen to two to one hundred in 1860. fallen in the same way from fifty-one to sixteen.

The uneven growth of different parts of the country in population is shown by the rank of the states. Virginia, which had the largest number in 1790, now ranked fifth, being surpassed by New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois. These four were the most populous states, yet two of them had not been founded in 1790. Indiana, the sixth in size, was also a new state. Massachusetts, which ranked as the fourth of the original states, had now fallen to the seventh place. Most of the old states had been surpassed by

the newer ones created by the people in moving westward. Of the thirty-three states making up the union in 1860, Oregon, the newest, had the least population; but Delaware, an original state, ranked next to the least.

The northern states had gained, as a whole, more than had the southern states. In 1830 there were seven million people north of the slavery and freedom line to five million south of it. In 1860 there were nineteen million north to twelve million south of the line.

483. Cities. The great modern problem, the enormous growth of the cities, was easily predicted in 1860. In 1830 there had been only 26 cities having over eight thousand inhabitants, and no one had more than a quarter of a million. In 1860 there were 141 cities with more than eight thousand people, and two had more than half a million. Out of every hundred people in 1830, only six lived in cities, but thirty years later sixteen out of every hundred preferred the city to the country. Soon one-fifth of the entire population would be in the cities, having abandoned the farms and making the proper management of so many people living together a difficult task. Gas was piped through the streets of the principal cities about 1830, and was much feared at first because of the danger of explosion. Street cars, shaped like stage coaches and hitched several together, were put on the streets of New York about the same time. They were drawn on rails by horses. By 1860 there were over four hundred miles of street-car tracks in the leading cities.

EDUCATION

484. Schools and Colleges.-The middle period is marked by the adoption of the public school system, supported by public taxation, in each of the new states as they formed their governments. As the system improved, a "high school" was planned to supplement the course of study offered in the grades. The study of chemistry applied to soils opened the possibility of scientific farming, and "farmers' high schools" were planned in many states. They were the forerunners of the present agricultural colleges. Many sectarian colleges were opened in the newer states.

485. Newspapers and Mails.-The newspapers of 1860 did not look unlike those of the present day. Those established in large cities had begun to assume their present aspect of great business enterprises. Where the newspapers of Washington or Jackson's time printed only the news occurring in their immediate vicinity, it was now possible to describe events occurring in all parts of the United States within twenty-four hours after they happened. The invention and spread of the electric telegraph made the difference. In 1799 it took the news of Washington's death two weeks to reach the Boston newspapers; the inaugural address of Jefferson required only nine days; the annual address of Jackson in 1832 needed only three days; the last address of Buchanan was printed in Boston the morning following its delivery at noon in Washington. What the telegraph was to the newspapers the railroads were to the mails. Mail routes were established over railways as rapidly as they were extended into different parts of the country. Mails and newspapers meant the spread of intelligence and the growth of national pride and feeling.

486. Literature.-As the wealth and leisure of the people increased, a higher condition of life was developed. Printing presses were multiplied and libraries largely increased. Best of all, a home literature had been encouraged and

several writers of merit had been found. As the sketches of Irving gradually grew fewer in number, a new writer of almost equal charm, Oliver Wendell Holmes, appeared to take his place. The novelist, Cooper, was succeeded by another American novelist, Nathaniel Hawthorne. A group of poets had arisen in New England,-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, and John Greenleaf Whittier. Another not less noted was William Cullen Bryant of New York. Two great historians, Prescott and Motley, were writing of foreign countries, and George Bancroft had issued the first volumes of his history of the United States.

These writers were developed largely by the excellent magazines which had replaced the trashy publications of the earlier time. The North American Review, Harper's Monthly, the Atlantic, and the American Journal of Science were the leaders in this new era of periodical literature.

TRANSPORTATION

487. The Era of Canals.-Although the cost of construction was far greater for a canal than a wagon-road, the weight of goods which a horse could draw on the one was so much larger than the other that canals were laid out to connect all the important waterways. Between 1820 and 1850, nearly three thousand miles of canals were built, chiefly in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Illinois, Indiana, and Georgia. On these, vast quantities of coal, grain, timber, flour, and iron were carried to market. Passenger boats drawn by fast horses carried travelers from city to city. "A cent and a half a mile, a mile and a half an hour," was a famous saying which shows the rate of fare and speed.

Before 1860, the canals had reached the height of their usefulness and began to decline. Railroads were built in all directions. Canals could be built only where they could obtain water to fill them. Railroads could be built over