Let us reduce these general statements to the more tangible form of facts and figures. A short time before the great Reformation in the days of Martin Luther, not four hundred years ago, this Western Continent was discovered. The Reformation brought out a large class of persons who were determined to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences. Being fettered and oppressed by the religious intolerance of the Old World, they sought, in the wilds of America, that measure of civil and religious freedom which they so much desired. A little more than two hundred years ago, Dec. 22, 1620, the Mayflower landed one hundred of these voluntary exiles on the coast of New England. Here, says Martyn, "New England was born," and this was "its first baby cry, a prayer and a thanksgiving to the Lord."
Another permanent English settlement was made at Jamestown, Va., in 1607. In process of time other settlements were made, and colonies organized, which were all subject to the English government till the declaration of Independence July 4, 1776.
The population of these colonies, according to the U.S. Magazine of August, 1855, amounted in 1701, to 262,000; in 1749, to 1,046,000; in 1775, to 2,803,000. Then commenced the struggle of the American colonies against the oppression of the mother country. In 1776, they declared themselves as, in justice and right, an independent nation. In 1777, delegates from the thirteen original States, New Hampshire, Massachussets, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, in Congress assembled, adopted articles of confederation. In 1783, the war of the Revolution closed by a treaty of peace with Great Britain, whereby our independence was acknowledged, and territory ceded to the extent of 815,615 square miles. In 1787, the Constitution was framed and ratified by the foregoing thirteen States, and on the 1st of March, 1789, went into operation. Then the American ship of State was fairly launched, with less than one million square miles of territory, and about three millions of souls.
Thus we are brought to the time when, in our interpretation of Revelation 13, this government is introduced into the prophecy as "coming up." Our territorial growth since then has been as follows: Louisiana, acquired from France in 1803, comprising 930,928 square miles of territory. Florida, from Spain in 1821, with 59,268 square miles. Texas, admitted to the Union in 1845, with 237,504 square miles. Oregon, as settled by treaty in 1846, with 380,425 square miles. California, as conquered from Mexico in 1847, with 649,762 square miles. Arizona (New Mexico), as acquired from Mexico by treaty in 1854, with 27,500 square miles. Alaska, as acquired by purchase from Russia in 1867, with 577,390 square miles. This gives a grand total of three million, five hundred and seventy-eight thousand, three hundred and ninety-two (3,578,392) square miles of territory, which is about four-ninths of all North America, and more than one-fifteenth of the whole land surface of the globe.
And while this expansion has been thus rapidly going forward here, how has it been with the other leading nations of the globe? Macmillian & Co., the London publishers, in announcing their "Statesman's Year Book" for 1867, make an interesting statement of the changes that took place in Europe during the half century between the years 1817 and 1867. They say:—
"The half century has extinguished three kingdoms, one grand duchy, eight duchies, four principalities, one electorate, and four republics. Three new kingdoms have arisen, and one kingdom has been transformed into an empire. There are now forty-one States in Europe against fifty-nine which existed in 1817. Not less remarkable is the territorial extension of the superior States of the world. Russia has annexed 567,364 square miles; the United States, 1,968,009; France, 4,620; Prussia, 29,781; Sardinia, expanding into Italy, has increased by 83,041; the Indian Empire has been augmented by 431,616. The principal States that have lost territory are Turkey, Mexico, Austria, Denmark, and the Netherlands."
We ask the especial attention of the reader to these particulars. During the last half century, twenty-one goverments have disappeared altogether; and only three new ones have arisen. Five have lost instead of gained in territory. Only five, besides our own, have added to their domain. And the one which has done the most in this direction has added only a little over half a million of square miles, while we have added nearly two millions. Thus the United States government has added over fourteen hundred thousand square miles of territory more than any other single nation, and over eight hundred thousand more than have been added by all the other nations of the earth put together: In view of these facts, can any one doubt, looking the whole world over, which government it is that has been, during this time, emphatically, "coming up"?
In point of population, our increase since 1798, according to the census of the several decades, has been as follows: In 1800, the total number of inhabitants in the United States was 5,305,925; in 1810, 7,239,814; in 1820, 9,638,191; in 1830, 12,866,020; in 1840, 17,069,453; in 1850, 23,191,876; in 1860, 31,445,089; in 1870, 38,555,983. These figures are almost too large for the mind to readily grasp. Perhaps a better idea can be formed of the rapid increase of population by looking at a few representative cities. Boston, in 1792, had 18,000 inhabitants; now, 250,000. New York, in 1792, 30,000; now, nearly 1,000,000. Chicago, about thirty years ago, was a little trading post, with a few huts; but yet it contained at the time of the great conflagration in October, 1871, nearly 350,000 souls. San Francisco, twenty years ago, was a barren waste, but contains to-day 170,000 inhabitants.
Our industrial growth has been equally remarkable. In 1792, the United States had no cotton mill. In 1850, there were 1074, employing 100,000 hands. Only forty-one years ago the first section of the first railroad in this country, the Baltimore and Ohio, was opened to a distance of twenty-three miles. We have now 52,000 miles in operation. It was only thirty-four years ago that the magnetic telegraph was invented. Now the estimated length of telegraph wire in operation is over 100,000 miles. In 1833, the first reaper and mower was constructed, and in 1846, the first sewing machine was completed. Think of the hundreds of thousands of both of these classes of machines now in use. And there are now more lines of telegraph and railroad projected and in process of construction than ever before, and greater facilities and larger plans for manufactories of all kinds than at any previous point of time. And should these industries increase in the same geometrical ratio, and time continue ten years, the figures we now chronicle would then read about as the records of a century ago now read to us.
And Nature herself, by the physical features she has stamped upon our country, has seemed to lay it out as a field for national development on the most magnificent scale. Here we have the largest lakes, the longest rivers, the mightiest cataracts, the deepest caves, the broadest and most fertile prairies, and the richest mines of gold and iron and coal and copper, to be found upon the globe. "When America was discovered, there were but sixty millions of gold in Europe. California and the territories round her have produced one thousand millions of dollars in gold in twenty years. Sixty-one million dollars was the largest annual gold yield ever made in Australia. California has several times produced ninety millions of gold in a year." (Townsend, p. 384.) "The area of workable coal beds in all the world outside the United States is estimated at 26,000 square miles. That of the United States, not including Alaska, is estimated at over 200,000 square miles, or eight times as large as the available coal area of all the rest of the globe!" (American Year Book for 1869, p. 655.) "The iron product and manufacture of the United States has increased enormously within the last few years, and the vast beds of iron convenient to coal in various parts of the Union, are destined to make America the chief source of supply for the world." "Three mountains of solid iron [in Missouri], known as Iron Mountain, Pilot Knob, and Shepherd's Mountain, are among the most remarkable natural curiosities on our continent." (Id. p. 654.)