98,000 2,885,000 Increase 9 times.

Let us now compare the _ten_ largest of each section.

_Atlantic._ 1830. 1860 Est.

The aggregate of the five largest as above 579,000 2,370,000 Providence 17,000 55,000 Lowell 6,500 40,000 Washington 19,000 60,000 Albany 24,000 65,000 Richmond 16,000 35,000 ------- --------- 661,000 2,625,000 Increase 4 times.

_Interior._ 1839. 1860 Est.

Aggregate as above 98,000 885,000 Buffalo 9,000 100,000 Louisville 10,500 80,000 Milwaukee 50 75,000 Detroit 2,000 80,000 Cleveland 1,000 70,000 ------- --------- 120,550 1,290,000 Increase 10 7-10.

Aggregate of the ten, with five more of each section added, added, to wit:

1830. 1860 Est.

Aggregate as above 661,000 2,625,000 Troy 11,500 35,000 Portland 12,500 30,000 Salem 14,000 25,000 New Haven 10,000 30,000 Savannah 7,500 15,500 ------- --------- 716,500 2,760,500 Increase 3 8-10 times.

1830. 1860 Est.

Aggregate as above 120,550 1,290,000 Toronto 1,700 65,000 Rochester 9,000 50,000 Mobile 3,000 30,000 Memphis 1,500 25,000 Hamilton 1,500 25,000 -------- -------- 137,000 1,485,000 Increase 16 7-10 times.

Aggregate of the fifteen, with five more added in each section:

1830. 1860 Est.

Aggregate as above 716,500 2,760,500 Springfield, Ma.s.s 7,000 24,000 Worcester, " 4,500 24,000 Bangor, Me. 3,000 23,000 Patterson, N. J. 5,000 22,000 Manchester, N. H. 50 22,000 ------- --------- 736,500 2,875,500 Increase 3 8-10 times.

1830. 1860 Est.

Aggregate as above 137,250 1,485,000 Dayton 3,000 24,000 Indianapolis 1,500 22,000 Toledo 30 20,000 Oswego 3,200 20,000 Quincy 1,500 20,000 ------- --------- 149,700 1,591,000 Increase 10 6-10 times.

From the above tables, we see that the city of New York, with its neighboring dependencies, will have made in growth in thirty years, between 1830 and 1860, increasing its population 5 times. During the same period,

The 5 largest Atlantic cities and suburbs, including New York, increased 4 1-10 times.

The 10 largest Atlantic cities and suburbs, including New York, increased 4 "

The 15 largest Atlantic cities and suburbs, including New York, increased 3 8-10 "

The 20 largest Atlantic cities and suburbs, including New York, increased 3 8-10 "

And that the 5 largest cities of the great plain, during the same period, increased 9 "

And the 10 largest cities of the great plain, during the same period, increased 10 7-10 "

And the 15 largest cities of the great plain, during the same period, increased 10 7-10 "

And the 20 largest cities of the great plain, during the same period, increased 10 6-10 "

If the number of cities and towns of each section were increased to twenty-five, thirty, and thirty-five of each section, the disparity would increase in favor of the interior cities, most of these to be brought into comparison, having come into existence since 1830.

We commend the comparison between the old and the new cities so far back as 1830, to give the former a better chance for a fair showing.

If a later census should be chosen for a starting point, the advantages would be more decidedly with the interior cities.

In the article on the great plain, in the May number of this Review, we gave prominence to the two great external gateways of commerce offered to its people in their intercourse with the rest of the world: that is to say, the Mississippi river entrance into the Gulf of Mexico, and the outlet of the lakes through St. Lawrence and Hudson rivers. These const.i.tute the present great routes of commerce of the people of the plain, and draw to the cities on the borders of the great lakes and rivers the trade of the surrounding country. Between the cities of the great rivers and lakes there has of late sprung up a friendly rivalry, each having some peculiar advantages, and all, in some degree, drawing business into their laps for the benefit of their rivals. That is to say: river cities gather in productions from the surrounding districts which seek an eastern market through lake harbors; and lake cities perform the same office for the chief river cities. Each year increases, to a marked extent, the intercourse which these two cla.s.ses of cities hold with each other; and it may be safely antic.i.p.ated that no long period will elapse before this intercourse will become more important to them than all their commerce with the world beside.

In comparing the interior cities of the great plain, situated on the navigable rivers, with those located on the borders of the lakes, two considerations bearing on their relative growth should be kept in view. The river cities were of earlier growth, the settlement from the Atlantic States having taken the Ohio river as the high-road to their new homes, many years before the upper lakes were resorted to as a channel of active emigration.

This gave an earlier development to country bordering the central rivers, the Ohio, Wabash, Illinois, and Lower Missouri. The States of Kentucky and Tennessee, also, had been pretty well settled, in their more inviting portions, before any considerable inroad had been made on the wilderness bordering on the upper lakes. Owing to these and other circ.u.mstances, the river cities, Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Louisville, and others of less note, were well advanced in growth, before the towns on the lakes had begun, in any considerable degree, to be developed. Another advantage the river cities possessed in their early stage, and which they still hold; that of manufacturing for the planting States bordering the great rivers. For many years, in a great variety of articles of necessity, they possessed almost a monopoly of this business. Of late, transportation has become so cheap, that the planters avail themselves of a greater range of choice for the purchase of manufactured articles, and the lake cities have commenced a direct trade with the plantation States, which will doubtless increase with the usual rapidity of industrial development in the fertile West.

If we claim for the upper lake country some superiority of climate for city growth over the great river region, we do not doubt that the future will justify the claim. More labor will be performed for the same compensation, in a cool, bracing atmosphere, such as distinguishes the upper lake region, than on the more sultry banks of the central affluents of the Mississippi, where are the best positions for the chief river cities.

Refraining from further comment, let us bring the actual development of the interior cities--on the navigable rivers and on the lakes--into juxtaposition for easy comparison. As our comparison of Atlantic cities with the cities of the plain has been made for thirty years, from 1830 to 1860, we continue it here for the same period, between the river cities and lake cities. We select twenty cities, now the largest of each region, and put down the population in round numbers as nearly accurate as practicable. That for 1860, is of course, an estimate only, but it is certainly near enough to the truth to ill.u.s.trate the growth, positive and comparative, of our interior cities.

This table exhibits a growth of the interior cities on the navigable waters of the Mississippi and its affluents, which brings their population, in 1870, up to 11-1-10 that of 1830. This is, unquestionably, much beyond the expectation of their most sanguine inhabitants, at the commencement of that period, being three times that of the chief cities of the Atlantic border. Yet even this rapid development is seen, by our figures, to fall far behind that which has characterized the cities created by lake commerce during the same period.

Interior River Cities 1830. 1860.

Cincinnati and dependencies, 25,500 250,000 Pittsburg, " 15,500 155,000 St. Louis, " 6,000 180,000 Louisville, " 11,000 80,000 Memphis, " 2,500 25,000 Wheeling, " 6,000 20,000 New Albany, " 1,500 20,000 Quincy, " 1,000 19,000 Peoria, " 800 18,000 Galena, " 2,000 18,500 Keokuk, " 50 16,000

Dubuque, " 100 16,000 Nashville, " 6,000 15,000 St. Paul, " 15,000 Madison, Ind., " 2,500 13,000 Burlington, Ind., " 12,000 La Fayette, Ind., " 300 13,000 Rock Island, " 8,000 Jeffersonville, " 800 8,000

81,550 914,000

Lake Cities. 1830. 1860.

Chicago and dependencies 100 150,000 Buffalo, " 8,663 100,000 Detroit, " 2,222 80,000 Milwaukee, " 50 75,000 Cleveland, " 1,047 70,000 Toronto, C. W., 1,667 65,000 Rochester, " 9,269 50,000 Hamilton, C. W., " 5,500 25,000 Kingston, C. W., " 2,500 20,500 Oswego, " 3,200 20,500 Toledo, " 30 20,000 Sandusky City, " 350 14,000 Erie, " 1,000 10,000 G. Rapids, Mich., " 300 10,000 Kenosha, " 10,000 Racine, " 10,000 St. Catharine's, C. W., " 400 10,000 Waukegan, " 8,000 Port Huron, " 100 8,000 Fon du Lac, " 20 8,000

32,408 764,000

These, according to the table, exhibit a growth which makes them, in 1860, more than _twenty-three_ times as populous as they were in 1830.

This is double the progress of the river cities, and more than five times that of the cities of the Atlantic coast. In the face of these facts, how can intelligent men continue to hold the opinion that New York is to continue long to be, as now, the focal point of North American commerce and influence? Yet well informed men _do_ continue to express the opinion that New York will _ever_ hold the position of the chief city of the continent. Every one at all familiar with the location and movement of our population, knows that the central point of its numbers is moving in a constant and almost unvarying direction west by north. An able investigator, now Professor of Law in the University of Michigan, Thomas M. Cooley, five years ago, entered into an elaborate calculation to ascertain where the centre of population of the United States and Canadas was, at that time. The result showed it to be very near Pittsburg. It is generally conceded that it travels in a direction about west by north, at a rate averaging not less than seven miles a year. In 1860, it will have crossed the Ohio River, and commenced its march through the State of Ohio. As our internal commerce is more than ten times as great as our foreign commerce, and is increasing more rapidly, it is plain that it will have the chief agency in building the future and permanent capital city of the continent. If the centre of population were, likewise the centre of wealth and industrial power, other things being equal, it would be the position of the chief city, as it would be the most convenient place of exchange for dealers from all quarters of the country. But this centre of wealth and industrial power does not keep up, in its western movement, with the centre of population! nor, if its movement were coincident, would it be at or near the right point for the concentration of our domestic and foreign trade, while traversing the interior of Ohio. If we suppose our foreign commerce equal to one fifteenth of the domestic, we should add to the thirty-three millions of the States and Canadas, upward of two millions of foreigners, to represent our foreign commerce. These should be thrown into the scale represented by New York. This, with the larger proportion to population of industrial power remaining in the old States, would render it certain that the centre of industrial power of our nation has not traveled westward so far as to endanger, for the present, the supremacy of the cities central to the commerce of our Atlantic coast.

Until the centre of industrial power approaches a good harbor on the lakes, New York will continue the best located city of the continent for the great operations of its commerce. That the centre of wealth and consequent industrial power is moving westward at a rate not materially slower than the centre of population, might be easily proved; but, as those who read this article with interest must be cognizant of the great flow of capital from the old world and the old States to the New States, and the rapid increase of capital on the fertile soil of the new States, no special proof seems to us to be called for. The centre of power, numerical, political, economical, and social, is then, indubitably, on its steady march from the Atlantic border toward the interior of the continent. That it will find a resting place somewhere, in its broad interior plain, seems as inevitable as the continued movement of the earth on its axis. The figures we have submitted of the growth of the princ.i.p.al lake cities plainly show great power in lake commerce, so great as to carry conviction to our mind that the _princ.i.p.al city of the continent will find its proper home and resting-place on the lake border, and become the most populous capital of the earth_. A full knowledge of the geography of North America will tend to confirm this conviction in the mind of the fair inquirer. The lakes penetrate the continent to its productive centre. They afford, during eight or nine months of the year, pleasant and safe navigation for steam-propelled vessels. Their waters are pure and beautifully transparent, and the air which pa.s.ses over them exceedingly invigorating to the human system. Their borders are replete with materials for the exercise of human industry and skill. The soil is fertile and very productive in grains and gra.s.ses.

Coal in exhaustless abundance crops out on or near their waters, to the extent of nearly one thousand miles of coast. The richest mines of iron and copper, convenient to water transport, exist, in aggregate amount, beyond the power of calculation. Stone of lime, granite, sand, and various other kinds suitable for the architect and the artist, are found almost everywhere convenient to navigation. Gypsum of the best quality crops out on the sh.o.r.es of three of the great lakes, and salt springs of great strength are worked to advantage, near lakes Ontario and Michigan. Timber trees in great variety and of valuable sorts, give a rich border to the sh.o.r.es for thousands of miles. Of these, the white oak, burr oak, white pine, whitewood or tulip tree, white ash, hickory and black walnut, are the most valuable. They are of n.o.ble dimensions, and clothe millions of acres with their rich foliage.

Nowhere else on the continent are to be seen such abundance of magnificent oak, and the immense groves of white pine are not excelled. Heretofore little esteemed, the great tracts of timber convenient to lake navigation and to the wide treeless prairies of the plain, are destined soon to take an important place in the commercial operations of the interior. Already, oak timber, for ship-building and other purposes, finds a profitable market in New York and Boston. The great Russian steamship "General Admiral," was built in part from the timber of the lake border. A great trade is growing up, based on the products of the forest. Whitewood (Diriodendron tulipifera), oak staves, black and white walnut plank, and other indigenous timber, are shipped, not only to the Atlantic cities, but to foreign ports. The lumber yards of Albany, New York, Philadelphia, as well as those of Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland and Buffalo, receive large supplies from the pineries bordering the great lakes. Cincinnati and other Ohio river cities, receive an increasing proportion of pine lumber from the same source. These great waters are also, as is well known, stocked with fish in great variety, whose fine gastronomic qualities have a world-wide reputation.

As before stated, these lakes penetrate the continent toward the northwest as far as its productive centre. They now have un.o.bstructed connection with the Atlantic vessels of nine feet draft and three hundred tons burden, by the aid of sixty-three miles of ca.n.a.ls overcoming the falls of the St. Mary, Niagara and St. Lawrence Rivers, with a lockage of less than six hundred feet. By enlarging some of the locks and deepening the ca.n.a.ls, at a cost of a very few millions, navigation for propellers of from one thousand to two thousand tons may be secured with the whole world of waters. The cost is much within the power of the Canadas and the States bordering the lakes, and will be but a light matter to these communities when, within the next fifteen years, they shall have doubled their population and trebled their wealth. The increase of the commerce of the lakes, during the last fifteen years, is believed to be beyond any example furnished by the history of navigation. A proportionate increase the next fifteen years, would give for the yearly value of its transported articles, thousands of millions. According to the best authorities it is now over four hundred millions. In 1855, that portion of the tonnage belonging to the United States was one fifteenth of the entire tonnage of the Union. During the same year the clearances of vessels from ports of the United States to the Canadas, and the entrance of vessels from the Canadas to ports of the United States, as exhibited in the following table, show a greater amount of tonnage entered and cleared than between the United States and any other foreign country:

Clearances from ports in the United States to ports in Canada in 1855:

Number of American vessels 2,369 " Canadian " 6,638

Whole number 9,067 Tonnage American 890,017 " Canadian 903,502

Total cleared from the States, 1,793,519

The registered tonnage of all the States, the same year, was 2,676,864; and the registered and enrolled together, 5,212,000.

The value of lake tonnage was, in 1855, $14,835,000. The total value of the commerce of the lakes, the same year, was estimated, by high authority, (including exports and imports) at twelve hundred and sixteen millions ($1,216,000,000.) This seems to us an exaggerated estimate, though based princ.i.p.ally on official reports of collectors of customs. Eight hundred millions would, probably, be near to the true amount. It will surprise many persons to learn that the trade between the United States and Canadas, carried on chiefly by the lakes and their connecting waters, ranks third in value and first in tonnage, in the table of our foreign commerce; being, in value, only below that of England and the French Empire, and in tonnage above the British Empire.

American goods to Canada $9,950,764 Foreign goods 8,769,580

$18,720,344 Canadian goods to the States, 12,182,314

$30,902,658

We here append a table showing the progress, from decade to decade, of the princ.i.p.al centres of population of the plain since 1820. It has been made with all the accuracy which our sources of information enable us to attain. There are in it, no doubt, many errors, but it will be found, in the main, and for general argument, substantially correct. For future reference, it will be valuable to persons who take an interest in the development of our new urban communities. Included in each city are its outlying dependencies--such as Newport and Covington with Cincinnati, and Lafayette with New Orleans.

1830. 1840. 1850. 1860.