CHAPTER XXVI

IN THE YOUTH OF THE REPUBLIC

1800-1830

The children of Washington's time were now men and women in middle life, and few who had taken part in the Revolution were living. Many old things had passed away and much had become new. Adams and Clay, Jackson and Van Buren, Calhoun, Benton, and Webster were now famous men, directing public affairs. The days of Washington and Citizen Genet seemed ancient history. Even the War of 1812 was fading away. The Union now had over 12,000,000 people (12,866,020), living in twenty-four states, in the District of Columbia, and in four territories, Michigan, Arkansas, Florida, and Missouri; for the country north and west of the state of Missouri was called Missouri Territory.

Mason and Dixon's line, the Ohio, and the compromise line of 36° 30′, divided the country into free soil and slave soil. There were seventy-one persons north to every fiftyseven south of this line. Of the population, two million were slaves, nearly all being south of the line, and about three hundred and twenty thousand were free negroes, living chiefly in Virginia, Maryland, and states north. Since 1820 a new element had been appearing among the people. This was the foreign immigrant. There were now one hundred and forty-three thousand foreign-born persons who, within the last ten years, had come to live in America. They were found chiefly in the towns and the country along the Atlantic coast.

It will be remembered that in 1800 Virginia ranked first in population, Pennsylvania second, New York third, Massachusetts fourth, North Carolina fifth. Thirty years had greatly changed the order of the states. New York was now first, Pennsylvania second, Virginia third, and

Ohio, which was a territory in 1800, was now fourth. North Carolina was still fifth. But Kentucky had moved up from number nine to number six; Tennessee from number fourteen to number seven; Massachusetts had fallen to number eight. The wonderful growth of Kentucky and Tennessee in the South, and of Ohio in the North, plainly showed where the balance of power was tending to the Mississippi Valley. Each of these flourishing states had a great leader, popular with thousands in other states. Ohio had William Henry Harrison, Kentucky had Henry Clay, Tennessee had Andrew Jackson. New York had Martin Van Buren, perhaps less popular than either of the others, but recognized as a sagacious man and a skillful politician. His opponents called him "the Kinderhook Fox," from the place where he lived.

It may be accepted as true, in the history of our country, that states which are gaining rapidly in wealth and population, as were New York, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee at this time, always have very able and influential men in public life.

Instead of only nine cities of 8,000 people or more, as in 1800, there were now thirty-two, and the city population had increased from 131,000 to 865,000. But fifteen out of every sixteen persons of the population lived in the country. New York was the largest city, with a population of nearly 203,000. Philadelphia and its suburbs had 130,000, Boston 61,000, Charleston, South Carolina, 30,000, Baltimore 80,000, New Orleans 46,000, Cincinnati 25,000, Pittsburg 13,000, Louisville 11,000, Buffalo 9,000.

The principal streets of large cities were now paved with cobblestones. At night oil lamps swinging from wooden posts at the corners flung their timid light, save when the moon shone. But no city of the time would now be considered well lighted.

Since 1800, two improvements had quite changed the habits and ideas of the people: canals and railroads. The thirty years were an era of "internal improvements," as they were called. From every important town radiated roads, usually bad ones, but sufficient to unite the country in a rude sort of industrial union. But the enthusiasm of

1800-1830]

CANALS, RAILROADS

355

the new generation was for canals and railroads. Over three thousand miles of canals were proudly laid down on the map as "finished or in progress. Some were finished, as the Erie Canal, from Albany to Buffalo, three hundred and sixty-three miles; the Ohio Canal, from Cleveland to Portsmouth, on the Ohio River, three hundred and six miles; the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, from Washington to Pittsburg, three hundred and forty-one miles. In all, twentynine canals were built or building. They connected Lake Erie with the Hudson and the Ohio; the Delaware with the interior rivers of New York and Pennsylvania, and the Delaware with Chesapeake Bay. Their purpose was to give an eastern outlet to the West and Southwest. The Erie Canal was opened in 1825. It became at once, and continues to be, a great artery of trade. By means of it the produce of New York, northwestern Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan was marketed in New York City, which was becoming the metropolis of the Union. Pennsylvania constructed a system of connecting canals and railroads from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, which ultimately cost over thirty-five million dollars. These competed with the Erie Canal.*

In addition to canals, about fourteen hundred miles of railroad were "finished or in progress. ." The Baltimore and Ohio, from Baltimore to Pittsburg, was two hundred and fifty miles long; the Boston and Albany (when finished) would be two hundred miles. Some twenty-four lines were projected, varying in length from five and one-half miles to three hundred. But in 1830 none of the long lines were

completed.

Because of so much expectation of profit, cities and towns were laid out on a grand scale all over the country. Speculation raged everywhere. Everybody hoped to get rich by the rise in land. The "boom" penetrated all parts of the West. Wherever a canal or railroad was projected,

*In 1829 the completed canals were the Chesapeake and Delaware; the Cumberland and Oxford (Maine); the Farmington, in Connecticut; the Oswego, from Lake Ontario to Syracuse (Salina), and the Delaware and Hudson. In 1830 there were thirteen hundred miles of canals completed, eighteen hundred in course of construction, and four hundred more projected.

these "mushroom" cities were laid out, and lots were offered for sale.*

But the real reason for the growth of the thirty-two cities and the hundreds of prosperous towns was the increase of manufactures.

In

In 1802, the manufacture of sheet-copper began in Massachusetts; that of sail-cloth, from cotton duck, began seven years later. Over one hundred and eighty papermills were in operation in 1810. They were located on streams, usually small ones, whose water was specially adapted to the paper business. Cotton goods were printed in Philadelphia on engraved cylinders. In 1811, the manufacture of chemicals began in Salem, Massachusetts. 1812, Fall River, Massachusetts started its cotton-mills, and Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, its rolling-mills. In 1813, stereotyping was begun in New York City. In 1814, carriage factories started in New Haven, Connecticut, and in Albany, New York. At the time of the Missouri Compromise, nearly fifty steamboats had been built and were in use on western rivers. Newark, New Jersey, began its manufacture of patent leather in 1822. Carpenters' and other mechanics' tools had been mostly imported from England. A firm in North Bennington, Vermont, began the manufacture of steel squares in 1820. The wine interests of Cincinnati were started three years later.

The manufacture of gas from coal was successful in New York in 1827, and from that time cities began to be better lighted at night. Gas slowly supplanted sperm-oil. Amesbury, Massachusetts, produced the first roll of flannel made by machinery in 1824.

The manufacture of common white or yellow dishes, called queensware, was begun in Philadelphia in 1825. Earthen sewer-pipes and tiles for roofs and drainage were made in Baltimore, and axes, hatchets, chisels, and common edge-tools were made at Hartford, Connecticut, for the first time in this country the same year. School slates came into use, being made at various points on the upper

*For some account of the effect of this wild speculation and its causes, see my Constitutional History of the American People, 1776-1850, Vol. I, Chapter XI.

1800-1830]

MANUFACTURES

357

Delaware River. Fire grates and furnaces, lined with firebrick, came into general use in 1827. They were made chiefly in Baltimore. Until that time, hard coal was not sold in the market, except to the very few who had firegrates imported from England. Work by lithography was done in Boston. The workmen were brought from England.

Pittsburg began the manufacture of linens in 1828; New York started a varnish factory, and straw-paper was made for the first time at Meadville, Pennsylvania. In 1829, figured muslin was, for the first time, made at Central Falls, Rhode Island; the Lowell calico factories produced goods that competed with French and English prints; cutlery, hitherto imported from Sheffield, England, was made at Worcester, Massachusetts; sewing-silk was made by machinery for the first time at Mansfield, Connecticut; machinery for the manufacture of brick was set up in New York City; the importation of fire-bricks now ceased; galvanized iron was invented by a New York physician named Revere.

It is to be noticed that these manufactures were chiefly in the North, that many of them were original inventions, and that they include a great variety of articles in common use. The numerous factories were chiefly in the cities. They employed many people. Therefore cities grew rapidly.

By our patent laws, inventors are protected and encouraged to produce many new devices, designs, and improvements. Upward of four hundred patents were granted annually from 1825 to 1830, but the patent office was not organized, as we know it, till 1836. Manufactures were encouraged by the tariff laws of 1816, 1824, and 1828. Henry Clay was the recognized leader of all tariff men. They supported what they called "the American system of labor."

An enumeration of some of the manufactures begun. during these thirty years suggests one group of interests; a like enumeration of newspapers and periodicals suggests another. Two hundred newspapers were published in 1801, and of these, seventeen were dailies. Newspapers were usually party organs. The Evening Post, New York, began