2 vols. (1864), to be used with discrimination; Livermore, War with Mexico Reviewed (1850), on the political side; Bancroft, History of Mexico, 6 vols. (18831888); Ibid., History of California, 7 vols. (1886-1890); and Hittell, History of California, 4 vols. (1886-1897).

On the compromise of 1850 see: Rhodes, History of the United States, 7 vols. (1892-1906); Greeley, The American Conflict, 2 vols. (1868–1870); Schurz, Henry Clay (1887); Stephens, War between the States, 2 vols. (1868-1870); and Davis, Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, 2 vols. (1881).

On the Isthmian canal see: Keasbey, The Nicaragua Canal and the Monroe Doctrine (1896); Huberich, The Trans-Isthmian Canal (1904); and Travis, History of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (Michigan Pol. Sc. Assn. Publications, 1900).

For Independent Reading

Davis, Recollections of Mississippi and Mississippians (1891); Higginson, Cheerful Yesterdays (1898); Wise, Seven Decades of the Union (1881); Parkman, The Oregon Trail (1892 and other editions); Irving, Astoria (many editions); Royce, History of California (1886); and Clarke, Antislavery Days (1884).

CHAPTER XXII

SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT, 1815-1861

GROWTH OF POPULATION AND THE RESULTS

A New Kind of Sectional

ism.

DURING the years 1815-1860 the westward movement of population continued the most noticeable feature of our domestic affairs. In the former year the Atlantic states had about 5,800,000 inhabitants, in 1860 they had 15,895,971, while the region lying westward had increased from 1,500,000 in 1815 to 15,484,350 in 1860. Had the old feeling of opposition between the East and the West persisted, the latter section would in 1860 have been nearly in the supremacy. That it did not persist was due to two causes. 1. The democratic party, founded as an expression of the will of the rural classes, had a strong hold in all parts of the country. It was a truly national bond. 2. The rise of the slavery question introduced a new kind of sectionalism, the North against the South. By this newer alignment the North was very powerful. Including the free West, it had in 1860 a population of 20,309,960, while the South had 11,133,361.

tion.

In a new country the birth rate is high, and to this must be attributed the greater part of the rapid growth in numbers. But another important fact was immigration, which increased swiftly after the war of 1812. The growth of manufactures and Immigrathe development of the West created a great demand for labor, while disturbances and suffering in Europe gave an impetus for emigration to a land where wages were high and homes awaited those who would have them. The records of immigration, kept from 1820, show that from that year to 1860, inclusive, 5,055,938 aliens, including travelers, arrived in the United States, most of them coming from three countries. Ireland, afflicted with famine and many other ills, led with 1,880,943, Germany came next with 1,545,508, and England was third with 744,285. France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands sent considerable numbers; but the nations from which we have lately. received most of our immigrants then sent few. For the entire period, only 16,776 came from Italy, Russia, and Poland.

The immigrant avoided the states in which slavery was the prevalent form of labor. He could not compete with it in wages, and it made it difficult for him to become a proprietor of his own enterprises. In 1860 the foreign-born population was 4,136,175, and

Location of the Immigrants.

of this the fifteen slave states had 471,000, more than half of whom were in the border states of Missouri and Maryland. Immigrants It was said at the time that white labor could not thrive in Avoid the the South. The experience of the last half century shows South. that the opinion was erroneous. It seems evident that but for the presence of slavery the South would have the share of immigration to which its fertile soil and agreeable climate entitled it. The immigrant was rarely a pioneer. The hard task of exploring the wilderness and pushing the Indian westward was assumed by the natives, while the less adventurous European was content to arrive when towns were being planted and farming lands were being taken up. Thus, in the seven territories in existence in 1860, with a total population of 220,197, there were only 35,476 foreign-born persons, while in the five states of the old Northwest, with a total population of 6,926,884, there were 1,197,736 foreign-born persons. The rapid growth of manufactures in the East absorbed a large portion of the newcomers. In the six great manufacturing states, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, with a total population in 1860 of 9,324,818, there were 1,930,139 persons of foreign birth. Thus we see that in eleven states, constituting the older agricultural West and the manufacturing East, were concentrated 75.6 per cent of the immigrant population.

Opposition to Immi

grants' Voting.

Most immigrants were good laborers, and a few were able to purchase farms. Some were diseased, and it was known that parishes in Europe had sent their paupers. By 1830 public opinion, which was all for immigration in 1815, began to change, and demands were heard for discrimination among the incoming multitude. The Irish caused special alarm. They were hot-tempered and clannish, clung to the cities, and soon fell into the hands of designing politicians. As they were generally Catholics, a solid Irish vote caused alarm to those who feared the American doctrine of strict separation of church and state might be weakened. As a result, much was said about denying to the immigrants the right both to vote and hold office, but neither of the great political parties was willing to espouse such a principle.

Finally the advocates for reform effected a distinct organization, calling themselves Native Americans. They appeared chiefly in the

Americans.

cities, and nominated candidates for city office. In Boston The Native in 1837 a riot grew out of the excited feeling of the "Natives" and the Irish. In the same year the Native American Association was created, demanding of congress the repeal of the naturalization laws. Throughout the succeeding years there was much ferment. City after city fell into the hands of the Native Americans; and in the summer of 1844 there was prolonged rioting in Philadelphia, occasioned by a protest of the Catholics against the use of the

Protestant Bible in the public schools. The matter became a campaign issue, the democrats espousing the cause of the naturalized citizens, and denouncing the spirit of persecution. The victory of Polk did not discourage the Native Americans, and in 1847 they held a national convention and indorsed Taylor for president. Violence, which had never been approved by the leaders, was now abandoned, and the organization seemed losing its influence. But the impulse persisted, and in 1850 was founded the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, which proved the germ of the Know Nothing movement (see page 493). Voting by newly arrived immigrants, which was the chief complaint of nativism, has been allowed to this day most liberally by the states, who have jurisdiction of the suffrage.

and Terri

Vast changes in the national domain occurred between 1815 and 1860. A schoolboy in the former year would learn that Florida was Spanish and that our southwestern border was Texas and New Mexico. Our claim to Oregon was so indefinite that New States it hardly counted at that time in the popular mind. By tories. 1860 our western boundary was the Pacific, and 444,053 Americans were settled on the coast. Here already were two states California, admitted in 1850, and Oregon, a state in 1859 and one territory, Washington, set off in 1853. In 1815 no state but Louisiana existed beyond the Mississippi. We have seen how Missouri was admitted in 1820, balancing the free state of Maine. The process continued steadily as the settlement of the territories proceeded. In 1836 Michigan and Arkansas were admitted, in 1845 Texas and Florida came in, followed by the two free states of Iowa in 1846 and Wisconsin in 1848, and in 1858 Minnesota was admitted. Thus by 1860 a belt of states extended the whole length of the Mississippi on the west. Beyond it to the confines of Washington, Oregon, and California was a great area embracing the territories of Kansas, Nebraska, Utah, and New Mexico, destined within a short time to be divided into several territories. The only part of the national domain not organized into territories in 1860 was the portion of the two Dakotas lying between Minnesota and the Missouri, a region in which the powerful Sioux tribes had their homes.

THE INFLUENCE OF GREAT INVENTIONS

factures

In 1815 the United States had already begun to use power machinery in industry. The first effects were seen in New England, every stream of which had water power. Manufactures Manunow took the place of commerce as the chief form of industry, and the seat of wealth was no longer confined to the seaports. The immigrants furnished an operative class Towns. and the towns grew rapidly; while the farmers, drawn more and more away to the West, left agriculture in a languishing state.

and the Growth of

In the Middle states towns grew as readily as in New England, but the greater fertility of the soil sustained the prosperity of agriculture, spite of the drain of men to the Western lands.

For all this rich life transportation was an essential. It was needed to carry merchandise to the interior, to bring farm products to the

Navigation and Canals.

seaboard, and to bind the remote regions to the seacoast. Steamboats, canals, and railroads all served this purpose. The first were especially useful on the rivers of the interior. In these initial days of Western development, when every promoter could call up a vision of wealth, the papers were full of schemes to establish navigation companies. Many of the plans proved failures, others had short careers and gave place at last to railroads, and some were established successfully.

In 1828 canals were much in vogue in the West and in the seaboard states. New York was reaping great advantages from the Erie canal, then three years completed. Pennsylvania had just Railroads. inaugurated a system of roads and canals which would deliver a vast amount of the Western traffic to Philadelphia, and the Potomac people were planning to construct a canal parallel to the river, whence by easy roads they could reach the tributaries of the Ohio. If these routes were opened, Baltimore's thriving trade would be turned aside and her glory would be gone. In desperation she thought of a railroad, and July 4, 1828, the first stroke was made on the Baltimore and Ohio line. The success of the undertaking led to many other similar enterprises, North, South, and West. Sometimes the state built the railroad and operated it, but more frequently it was built by a chartered company and received aid from the state either in bonds given in exchange for stock, or in land donated. By 1840 the railroad had demonstrated its superiority over the canal and was in general use. Most of the roads were short, built to connect important towns or cities, and the era of consolidation did not appear until just before the civil war (see page 733). It was not until 1853 that Chicago had an all-rail line of travel to the seacoast. The development of railroads gave great importance to the great business corporation, whose shares became a medium of investment and speculation. Now arose also the necessity of making laws defining the relation of railroads to the public. They could no longer be looked upon as mere private enterprises, since they were vitally connected with the welfare of the communities through which they ran. Out of this relation arose, chiefly after the civil war, a great conflict between capital and the public.

While railroads largely superseded steamboats on the small streams, they did not soon replace them on the great rivers. On the Mississippi the boats were especially numerous and luxurious. They vied with one another in speed and comfort, and the trip from St. Louis to New Orleans was long remembered by the traveler who took it on