The westward movement of the Caucasian branch of the human family from the high plains of Asia, first over Europe, and thence, with swelling tide, pouring its multitudes into the New World, is the grandest phenomenon in history. What American can contemplate its results, as displayed before him, and as promised in the proximate future, without an emotion of pride and exultation?
Our nation has the great middle region of the best continent of the world, and our people are descendants from the most vigorous races. Western Europe, over-peopled, sends us her most energetic sons and daughters, in numbers augmenting with each succeeding decade. Asia is beginning to send forth a portion of her surplus population to our shores. Though of inferior race, the Eastern Asiatics are industrious and ingenious cultivators and artisans. A large influx of these laborers, though it may lower the average character of our people, will, it is hoped, in a greater degree elevate theirs; and thus, while adding to the wealth and power of a nation, do something toward the general amelioration of the race. While, then, we contemplate with patriotic pride the position which, as a nation, we hold in the world's affairs, may we not indulge in pleasant anticipations of the near approach of the time, when the commercial and social heart of our empire will occupy its natural place as the heart of the continent, near the centre of its natural capabilities?
New York has long been, and for some decades of years it will continue to be, the necessary chief focal point of our nation. But, in all respects, it is not the true heart. In its composition and dealings, it is almost as much foreign as American. Located on our eastern border, fronting the most commercial and the richest transatlantic nations, and of easy access to extensive portions of our Atlantic coast, it is the best point of exchange between foreign lands and our own, and for the cities of the sea border of our Republic. As Tyre, Alexandria, Genoa, Venice, Lisbon, and Amsterdam, in their best days, flourished as factors between foreigners and the people of the interior regions, whose industries were represented in their markets, so New York grows rich as the chief agent in the exchange-commerce between the ocean shores and the interior regions of our continent. As our numbers have swelled, since we became a nation, from three and a half millions to thirty millions, so New York, including Brooklyn and other suburbs, has increased in population and wealth still more rapidly, to wit, from twenty-five thousand to more than one million. While the nation has increased less than tenfold, New York has grown more than four times tenfold. In 1790 the city of New York contained thirty-three thousand, and the State of New York three hundred and forty thousand—the city having less than one-tenth of the people of the State.
Believing that this most prosperous of the Atlantic cities will be eclipsed in its greatness and glory by one or more of the interior cities of the great plain, we have selected it as the champion of the Atlantic border, to hold up its progress during the thirty years from 1830 to 1860, the most prosperous years of its existence, in comparison with the progress, during the same period, of the aggregate cities and towns of the plain. The result of our investigation, the summing up, will be found in the following table. It will be seen that many of the items are put down in round numbers—no document being accessible or in existence to furnish the exact number of many of the new towns, in 1830. The estimate for 1860 may, in some instances, be above the figures which the census will furnish, but the over-estimate for 1830 is believed to be in a larger proportion to actual numbers at that time. Making a liberal allowance for errors, the result of the aggregate cannot be materially varied from that at which our figures bring us:
| 1830. | 1860 Est. | Increase. | |
| New York, including Brooklyn and other suburbs | 234,438 | 1,170,000 | 5 times. |
| Cities and chief towns of the great plain | 270,094 | 2,706,300 | 10 " nearly. |
Leaving out the exterior cities of the plain, to wit, New Orleans, Mobile, Galveston, Quebec and Montreal, the comparison between New York and suburbs, and the interior cities of the plain will be shown by the following figures:
| 1830. | 1860 Est. | Increase. | |
| New York and accessories | 234,448 | 1,170,000 | 5 fold. |
| Interior cities and town of the plain | 172,000 | 2,346,000 | 13 ". |
The five largest cities of the Atlantic border exhibit a growth, as compared with the five largest cities of the plain, as follows:
| 1830. | 1860 Est. | ||||
| New York and dependencies | 235,000 | 1,170,000 | |||
| Philadelphia | " | 170,000 | 700,000 | ||
| Baltimore | " | 83,000 | 250,000 | ||
| Boston | " | 80,000 | 200,000 | ||
| Charleston | " | 31,000 | 60,000 | ||
| 599,000 | 2,380,000 | ||||
| Cincinnati and suburbs | 28,000 | 250,000 | |||
| New Orleans | " | 47,000 | 170,000 | ||
| St. Louis | " | 6,000 | 170,000 | ||
| Chicago | " | 100 | 150,000 | ||
| Pittsburg | " | 17,000 | 145,000 | ||
| 98,000 | 885,000 | ||||
This table shows the five Atlantic cities to have quadrupled, and the five cities of the interior plain have increased nine times. Is this relative rate of increase of the exterior and interior cities to be changed, and, if it is to be changed, when is the change to commence? We can foresee no cause adequate to that effect, or tending toward it. On the contrary, it seems to us certain as any future event, that the rate of growth of the interior cities, compared with those on the Atlantic border, will be increased.