Year 1793. Year 1851.
Number of States 15 31
Representatives and Senators in Congress 135 295
Population of the United States 3,929,328 23,267,498
Population of Boston 18,038 136,871
Population of Baltimore 13,503 169,054
Population of Philadelphia 42,520 409,045
Population of New York (city) 33,121 515,507
Population of Washington . . . 40,075
Population of Richmond 4,000 27,582
Population of Charleston 16,359 42,983
Amount of receipts into the Treasury $5,720,624 $52,312,980
Amount of expenditures $7,529,575 $48,005,879
Amount of imports $31,000,000 $215,725,995
Amount of exports $26,109,000 $217,517,130
Amount of tonnage (tons) 520,764 3,772,440
Area of the United States in square miles 805,461 3,314,365
Rank and file of the army 5,120 10,000
Militia (enrolled) . . . 2,006,456
Navy of the United States (vessels) (None.) 76
Navy armament (ordnance) . . . 2,012
Treaties and conventions with foreign powers 9 90
Light-houses and light-boats 12 372
Expenditures for ditto $12,061 $529,265
Area of the Capitol 1/2 acre. 4-1/8 acres.
Number of miles of railroad in operation . . . 10,287
Cost of ditto . . . $306,607,954
Number of miles in course of construction . . . 10,092
Lines of electric telegraph, in miles . . . 15,000
Number of post-offices 209 21,551
Number of miles of post-route 5,642 196,290
Amount of revenue from post-offices $104,747 $6,727,867
Amount of expenditures of Post-Office Department $72,040 $6,024,567
Number of miles of mail transportation . . . 52,465,724
Number of colleges 19 121
Public libraries 35 694
Volumes in ditto 75,000 2,201,632
School libraries . . . 10,000
Volumes in ditto . . . 2,000,000
Emigrants from Europe to the United States 10,000 299,610
Coinage at the Mint $9,664 $52,019,465
In respect to the growth of Western trade and commerce, I extract a few sentences from a very valuable address before the Historical Society of Ohio, by William D. Gallagher, Esq., 1850:—
"A few facts will exhibit as well as a volume the wonderful growth of Western trade and commerce. Previous to the year 1800, some eight or ten keel-boats, of twenty or twenty-five tons each, performed all the carrying trade between Cincinnati and Pittsburg. In 1802 the first government vessel appeared on Lake Erie. In 1811 the first steamboat (the Orleans) was launched at Pittsburg. In 1826 the waters of Michigan were first ploughed by the keel of a steamboat, a pleasure trip to Green Bay being planned and executed in the summer of this year. In 1832 a steamboat first appeared at Chicago. At the present time the entire number of steamboats running on the Mississippi and Ohio and their tributaries is more probably over than under six hundred, the aggregate tonnage of which is not short of one hundred and forty thousand; a larger number of steamboats than England can claim, and a greater steam commercial marine than that employed by Great Britain and her dependencies."
And now, fellow-citizens, having stated to you this infallible proof of the growth and prosperity of the nation, I ask you, and I would ask every man, whether the government which has been over us has proved itself an infliction or a curse to the country, or any part of it?
Ye men of the South, of all the original Southern States, what say you to all this? Are you, or any of you, ashamed of this great work of your fathers? Your fathers were not they who storied the prophets and killed them. They were among the prophets; they were of the prophets; they were themselves the prophets.
Ye men of Virginia, what do you say to all this? Ye men of the Potomac, dwelling along the shores of that river on which WASHINGTON lived and died, and where his remains now rest, ye, so many of whom may see the domes of the Capitol from your own homes, what say ye?
Ye men of James River and the Bay, places consecrated by the early settlement of your Commonwealth, what do you say? Do you desire, from the soil of your State, or as you travel to the North, to see these halls vacated, their beauty and ornaments destroyed, and their national usefulness gone for ever?
Ye men beyond the Blue Ridge, many thousands of whom are nearer to this Capitol than to the seat of government of your own State, what do you think of breaking this great association into fragments of States and of people? I know that some of you, and I believe that you all, would be almost as much shocked at the announcement of such a catastrophe, as if you were to be informed that the Blue Ridge itself would soon totter from its base. And ye men of Western Virginia, who occupy the great slope from the top of the Alleghanies to Ohio and Kentucky, what benefit do you propose to yourselves by disunion? If you "secede," what do you "secede" from, and what do you "accede" to? Do you look for the current of the Ohio to change, and to bring you and your commerce to the tidewaters of Eastern rivers? What man in his senses can suppose that you would remain part and parcel of Virginia a month after Virginia should have ceased to be part and parcel of the United States?
The secession of Virginia! The secession of Virginia, whether alone or in company, is most improbable, the greatest of all improbabilities. Virginia, to her everlasting honor, acted a great part in framing and establishing the present Constitution. She has had her reward and her distinction. Seven of her noble sons have each filled the Presidency, and enjoyed the highest honors of the country. Dolorous complaints come up to us from the South, that Virginia will not head the march of secession, and lead the other Southern States out of the Union. This, if it should happen, would be something of a marvel, certainly, considering how much pains Virginia took to lead these same States into the Union, and considering, too, that she has partaken as largely of its benefits and its government as any other State.