[Sidenote: A Twofold Progress.]
It is manifestly impossible to give, within the brief scope of this
volume, more than a hint of the elements which have entered into and
stimulated the material progress of the United States during the past
century. That progress may be said to have been twofold; the progress
which we have shared in common with the civilized world, and the
progress which has been peculiar to ourselves. The agency which
invention and discovery have had in our advancement scarcely needs to be
pointed out. We have only to look around us, and remember the origin
of many of the comforts, conveniences, luxuries, nay even what we now
regard as necessities, that surround us and minister to our existence,
in order to comprehend how very vast, how much beyond easy calculation,
the material progress of the century has been.
[Sidenote: Modern Comforts.]
Every hour of the day, should you stop to reflect, you would find
yourself doing something, or aided by something, unknown to or unused
by the generation of 1776. Sitting in your parlor or library, your feet
rest upon carpets, which were introduced into American households in
1792; the book you are reading--which has far better paper, print,
binding and illustration than the old copy of "Pilgrim's Progress" which
your great-grandfather used to read--is lighted by gas, which did not
come into use till this century was well on its way; and that gas you
have lit by a friction match, an affair of marvellous simplicity, which
was unknown till after 1830.
[Sidenote: Improvement in Dress.]
You are writing, perhaps, with a steel pen; the Declaration of
Independence was signed with quills. It is, possibly, a rainy day. You
put on rubbers, and you carry an umbrella. The men of '76 had to do as
best they could without either. You burn coal in a furnace or stove;
they must fain have warmed themselves with more cheery but less
warming wood, in an open fireplace. Every article of your dress is an
improvement in convenience and comfort on those worn by Washington in
all his Presidential glory.
[Sidenote: Rapidity of Transit.]
Your walls are hung with photographs; your wife or daughter has a
sewing-machine. In the kitchen are endless contrivances which our
great-grandmothers would have greeted with speechless astonishment. You
can order a case of goods from Hong Kong on Monday, and be told that
they are ready for shipping on Thursday. You can go to San Francisco
in almost the same time that it took, only fifty years ago, to reach
Washington from New York. When General Jackson went to the capital to
be President, he could travel no faster than did the Jews, after the
captivity, from Babylon to Jerusalem.
[Sidenote: Material Growth.]
[Sidenote: Population.]
Taking a broader view--for we might go on with the material details of
progress all about us _ad infinitum_, did patience and strength hold
out--we look abroad over the land, and note the great elements of
a progress peculiarly American, in the growth and distribution of
population, in manufactures, agriculture, and commerce. Each and all
have been incalculably aided by perpetual invention. A few leading facts
must suffice to show that our orators, in their most daring flights, can
scarcely exaggerate the marvels of our material advance. The population
of this country in 1776, including slaves, was about two and three
quarters millions. In 1886, it is without doubt more than fifty
millions. In 1790, when the first census was taken, the figure was a
little less than four millions. A notable circumstance in reference to
the movement of our population has been the increase of the proportion
of dwellers in our cities to those in the rural districts. In 1790, only
one-thirtieth of our population inhabited the cities. In 1886, probably
nearly one-fourth are included in the cities.
In 1790 there were but six cities with a population of more than eight
thousand each. These were: Philadelphia, with about 42,500; New York,
with about 33,000; Boston, with about 18,000; Charleston, with about
16,300: Baltimore, with about 13,500; and Salem, with a little over
8000. The total was about 131,500. Now the aggregate of our urban
population is, probably, at least 12,000,000. It may be added that
the _centre_ of our population has shifted from a few miles east of
Baltimore, where it was in 1790, to about eight miles west by south from
Cincinnati, where it is now supposed to be.
[Sidenote: Agriculture.]
The earliest avocation of our colonies was that of agriculture; and
before 1776 our agricultural industries, owing to the discoveries which
had gradually been made as to the capabilities of the then settled
districts, had grown to important proportions. It needs but a glance
at the map to observe over what a vast area agricultural enterprise has
spread since 1790. We may fairly say that invention and improvement, in
the application of chemistry and mechanical discovery to the cultivation
of land, have kept pace with the territorial advance of agricultural
science. There can scarcely be named a farming operation which is not
performed by instruments far more perfect, and with a rapidity far
greater, than was possible with our ancestors.
[Sidenote: Cheaper Tools.]
Human labor has been greatly lessened in proportion to the results
obtained. Tools are cheaper; and whereas they were formerly made, to
a large extent, on the farms themselves, they are now perfected in
factories supplied with the most efficient machinery. There were in
1880 two thousand establishments for the manufacture of agricultural
implements, with an annual production valued at over $68,000,000. It
would take up too much space to give even a list of these implements;
suffice it to say that it is calculated that the value of those now in
use on American farms is at least $500,000,000. A hundred years ago a
man could only manage six bushels of grain a day--cutting, binding and
stocking, threshing and cleaning it. Now, with the aid of mechanical
appliances, a single man's labor can achieve almost eight times as much.
[Sidenote: Advance of Agricultural Arts]
To machinery must be added the advance in the arts of manuring,
draining, irrigation, and of grafting and obtaining greater varieties
of fruits and vegetables. The improvement in breeding and raising
live-stock must not be omitted. In this product the wealth of the
country was at least $2,000,000.000 in 1880.
[Sidenote: First Mills.]
Great as has been our progress in agriculture, it is scarcely so
remarkable as that in manufactures. In 1776 we were mostly a farming
community. Now, in New England at least, to a large extent in the Middle
States, and to some degree in the West and South, manufactures have
outstripped the farming industry. Manufacturing necessarily began,
indeed, very early in the settlement of the country; for ships had to
be built, and were built, soon after the colonization of Plymouth and
Boston. The first saw-mill was erected at Salmon Falls as early as 1635.
A printing-press was set up at Cambridge in 1638, and a book-bindery in
1663. The first fulling-mill for making cloth was started at Rowley in
1643. Iron manufacture was regularly established at Lynn in 1645. The
first successful cotton-mill in the United States was started by Samuel
Slater at Providence in 1793.
[Sidenote: The Cotton Industry.]
[Sidenote: Manufactures.]
The growth of the cotton industry may be appreciated when we state that
its extent in 1831 comprised 795 factories and 1,246,500 spindles;
while in 1880 there were over ten million spindles, and the value of
the products reached nearly two hundred million dollars annually. The
progress in woollen manufacture has been equally rapid. Since 1850 the
number of factories in this industry has more than doubled, while the
value of the products has increased over fourfold. Looking over the
whole field of manufacturing industries, it is stated that the
estimated capital employed throughout out the country in 1880, namely
$2,790,000,000, does not really approximate to the total amount.
According to the census of that year, moreover, over two and a half
millions of persons were engaged in manufacturing; while about seven and
a half millions were employed in agriculture, and nearly two millions
in trade and transportation. Only a hint can thus be attempted of our
progress in manufactures.
[Sidenote: Commercial Relations.]
It need scarcely be said that commerce, as the great medium of barter
and exchange between States and with foreign nations, has necessarily
kept pace with the development of the industries which we have briefly
glanced at. The increase of our mercantile marine, up to the unhappy
period of the war, when it was almost swept from the ocean, kept pace
with the ever-increasing needs of the business of the country. Now it is
again slowly reviving from the disasters of the civil conflict. During
the past century, our commercial relations have extended to the remotest
corners of the earth, whither we send the commodities we have to spare,
and whence we derive those which we need for comfort, convenience,
luxury, and wealth. The extent to which steam applied to water
navigation, and telegraphy laid not only over the continents but under
the oceans, have stimulated our commerce in common with that of the
world, is more easy to be observed in general than calculated in detail.
With many nations we have treaties of commerce, and the time may not
be long in coming when such pacts will be reciprocated between all the
trading nations of the world.