1800-1900] EUROPE IN AMERICA representation among the northern states. 567 Of this acces sion from foreign lands, nearly five millions came from Germany and settled north of Mason and Dixon's line, from the Atlantic to central Dakota, and most densely in the states of the old Northwest and Minnesota. More than three millions were from Ireland, and they, too, settled within this northern area, but most densely in the older states and near the Atlantic seaboard. They comprise a large proportion of our urban population. A million and a half came from England and Wales, and they are somewhat evenly distributed over the country. A million Norwegians and Swedes located in the northern belt, and chiefly in its northwestern portion, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota, the climate of which is like that of their native land. An equal number of Italians, a contribution of the last twenty years of the nineteenth century, inhabit the cities and towns of the country, chiefly in the Atlantic basin, but they are found in increasing numbers in southern New Jersey and central Illinois. A French migration of less than half a million has mingled with the urban population along the Atlantic. Slightly less numerous than the Italians were the Russians and Poles, who largely supplied labor for railroad operations and public works. On the Pacific slope three hundred thousand Chinese remained "an unabsorbed and unabsorbable element." The Swiss, Danes, and Netherlanders, about half a million in number, scattered over the country, and chiefly engaged in farming. The line that divides the native from the foreign portion of our population is the line that divides the area largely occupied by people of the African race. from the remainder of the country. North of this are few negroes; south of it few immigrants. Great as was this foreign immigration, it fell far below the native migration in numbers, extent, and influence. Swarm after swarm left the old hives; first leaving the thirteen original states; later, the tier along their western border, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana; later, the tier to the west, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Arkansas; later, these last states. for the newer ones. These migrations occurred in the order named, about fifteen years apart, and with each new swarm from a young state there came another from the old, so that our domestic migrations were contemporaneous and constant. Several dominant causes accelerated this migration; cheap lands, equal rights and immunities as guaranteed under the national Constitution, and the facilities for transportation. The latter cause was combined with cheap lands, for the national government subsidized western railroads with a gift of public lands aggregating an imperial domain three times as great as the area of the original thirteen states as they are to-day. Hundreds of thousands went west by wagon, but millions went by rail. The old line of the Missouri Compromise divides the northern and southern streams of population westward. In the twentyone states north of this line there resided at the close of the nineteenth century nearly eight hundred and twentyfive thousand natives of New York, and in New Mexico, Arizona, and Oklahoma, about five thousand more. Within this vast area resided less than half as many who were natives of Virginia, and few Virginians were found in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas, and Washington. Next in proportion of natives of other states within the New York area were those of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, and New England, and within the Virginia area those of Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, the Carolinas, and Georgia. The hundred years' migration in America presents many unique features. Most impressive was the transformation of an almost unexplored continent into forty-five commonwealths within the short period of a hundred years. Interesting and suggestive as was this migration of men from all climes, it was less interesting and less suggestive than the migration of ideas recorded in the constitutions, the laws, and the social institutions of the country. CHAPTER XXXIX AMERICA IN OUR OWN TIME 1860-1900 At the close of the nineteenth century the population of the United States numbers nearly seventy-five million (over twice that in 1860), and the city population is now one-third of the whole. In 1860, the cities contained only one-sixth of the population. In 1800, the area of the United States was 830,000 square miles; in 1900, it is 3,602,390 square miles, exclusive of Hawaii, Porto Rico, and the Philippines, or nearly four and a half times greater. Since 1860 twelve states have been admitted to the Union: Kansas, 1861; West Virginia, 1863; Nevada, 1864: Nebraska, 1867; Colorado, 1876; North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, 1889; Idaho, Wyoming, 1890; Utah, 1896. The Union of forty-five states is now closely bound together by common sentiments, by common interests, by business relations, and by the mechanical conveniences of railroad and steamboat lines, the post-office, the telegraph, and the telephone. The part of our country first explored, settled, and organized under civil government by Europeans was naturally along the Atlantic coast. Its harbors and rivers gave an easy entrance to the ships in use by the settlers, which seldom drew over six feet of water. Thus it came about that our oldest towns, as in most countries, are near the sea. The region from the Atlantic coast to the crest of the Appalachian Mountains, long called the Atlantic plain, is narrowest in Maine and widest in Georgia. At the time of its first settlement it was an unbroken forest, chiefly of the many varieties of pine, oak, beech, and maple, and wild fruittrees. The great number of its rivers flowing to the sea The Indians made the entire region easy of settlement. were numerous and fierce, but they never succeeded in preventing the whites from taking possession of the land. The dense forests, the changeable climate, more severe than that of Europe, the want of many comforts, and above all, the small number of settlers, were far more serious obstacles to the occupation of the country than were the Indians. As late as the American Revolution, the settlements reached barely to the middle of the Atlantic plain. A line drawn from Moosehead Lake to the head-waters of the Tennessee would lie to the west and outside of the actually settled area of our country at the time when the Declaration of Independence was signed. America was nearly three centuries old before population passed over the Alleghany Mountains. By three centuries must be understood the time after the discovery by Columbus, as there is reason to believe that North America is older than any other continent. During the last two of these three centuries, the Atlantic slope was gradually settled along the sea by a people motly engaged in farming, fishing, ship-building, and commerce. Transportation was mostly by water or wagon. The ancient forests were in the way, and they were burned. Untold millions of feet of valuable timber were thus destroyed. Yet in 1776 most of the primeval forest was yet standing. Could we have then looked down upon the Atlantic slope and viewed the country from some lofty height from Maine to Georgia, it would have seemed quite untouched by man, so small was the area under cultivation compared with the area in a state of nature. So vast was the country and so few its English settlers, King George III. attempted to secure peace between them and the Indians by establishing a boundary beyond which to the west the whites should not go. This was in 1763. Before a dozen years passed, however, bold hunters, like Boone, were venturing across the line into the valleys of the Cumberland, the Tennessee, the Kanawha, and the Ohio, all teeming with game, and they were the advanceguard of the millions of settlers soon to follow. After the Revolution, a vigorous migration westward started from 1860-1900] EARLY OCCUPATION OF COUNTRY 571 the thirteen states. Old and young set out from the Carolinas and Virginia toward Tennessee and Kentucky. People from the middle and eastern states migrated to the Ohio country. This migration has never ceased; it has filled the Mississippi Valley, and has pushed on still farther westward until the whole land has been occupied. But the history of the Mississippi Valley has been quite different from that of the Atlantic plain. The dense forests retarded population in the plain, but no such obstacle existed in the greater part of the great valley. Western Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, and the highlands of Kentucky and Tennessee, were covered with woods, but great portions of Ohio were an open country. The pine and the oak gave place to the chestnut and the beech. The soil was deeper and more fertile; was lighter and more easily tilled. The woods continued as far west as the Mississippi River, but when this was crossed, the emigrant entered upon the prairies, richly carpeted with grass and flowers, and almost treeless, except along the banks of streams where the cottonwood flourished. But the forests began again in Missouri, and extended, deep, dark, and almost impenetrable, across Arkansas, Louisiana, and the eastern part of Texas. After 1820 migration from the older states, which began in 1776, was reinforced by the influx of hundreds, and later of tens of thousands, of men and women from Europe. This foreign migration at last amounted to about a half a million souls a year, and for many years these settled in the Mississippi Valley. From 1607 to 1776-78 population had extended from the Atlantic seaboard westward to an average distance of less than one hundred miles. In most striking contrast was the rapidity with which the Mississippi Valley was overrun and organized into states and territories. By 1850 every inch of land belonging to the United States as a nation was thus under some kind of civil government. In 1850, settlers were coming into Kansas, attracted by the cheap, fertile, and accessible land. A farmer might have as many acres as he would promise to pay for. The rivers and creeks were the chief highways to market. But at this time railroads connected Chicago with Boston, and a |