United States are mainly of the same race, speak the same language, have
the same literature, ancestry, and common law, with the same history for
centuries, and a reciprocal commerce exceeding that of all the rest of
the world, it is amazing how little is known in each country of the
other. This condition of affairs is most unfavorable to the continuance
of peace and good will between two great and kindred nations. It causes
constant misapprehension by each party of the acts and motives of the
other, arrests the development of friendly feeling, and retards the
advance of commercial freedom. It excites almost daily rumors of
impending war, disturbing the course of trade, causing large mercantile
losses, and great unnecessary Government expenditures. If war has not
ensued, it has led to angry controversy and bitter recrimination. It is
sowing broadcast in both countries the seeds of international hatred,
rendering England and America two hostile camps, frowning mutual
defiance; and, if not terminating in war, must, if not arrested, end in
embargoes and non-intercourse, or discriminating duties on imports and
tonnage, greatly injurious to both countries. I know it has become
fashionable in England and America to sneer at the fact of our common
origin; but the great truth still exists, and is fraught with momentous
consequences, for good or evil, to both nations, and to mankind. The
United States were colonized mainly by the people of England. Ten of our
original thirteen States bear English names, as do also nearly all their
counties, townships, cities, and villages.
Leaving to Englishmen the task of disabusing the Americans in regard to
their own country, I will endeavor to present, in a condensed form, some
material and authentic facts as regards the United States, for the
consideration of the people of the United Kingdom. I read and hear every
day here predictions of our impending bankruptcy and national
dissolution; our wealth and resources depreciated; our cause, our
people, our armies, and Government decried; and a war in words and in
the press prosecuted against us with vindictive fury. All this hostility
is fully reciprocated in America; and if the war is not confined to
words and types, it will not be the fault of agitators in both
countries. So far as an American can, even in part, arrest this fatal
progress of misapprehension, by communicating information in regard to
his own country, is the principal purpose of these essays.
In answer to the daily predictions here of our impending ruin and
national bankruptcy, I shall first discuss the question of our wealth,
resources, and material progress.
AREA.--The area of the United States, including lakes and
rivers, is 3,250,000 square miles, being larger than all Europe. (Rep.
Sec. of Interior and of Com. of Gen. Land Office for Dec. 1860, p. 13.)
Our land surface is 3,010,370 square miles, being 1,926,636,000 acres.
This area is compact and contiguous, divided into States and
Territories, united by lakes, rivers, canals, and railroads. We have no
colonies. Congress governs the nation by what the Constitution declares
to be '_the supreme law_,' whilst local regulations are prescribed and
administered by the several States and Territories. We front on the two
great oceans--the Atlantic and Pacific; extending from the St. Lawrence
and the lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, from near the 24th to the 49th
parallel of north latitude; and in longitude, from 67° 25' to 124° 40'
west of Greenwich. Our location on the globe as regards its land surface
is central, and all within the temperate zone. No empire of contiguous
territory possesses such a variety of climate, soil, forests and
prairies, fruits and fisheries, animal, vegetable, mineral, and
agricultural products. We have all those of Europe, with many in
addition, and a climate (on the average) more salubrious, and with
greater longevity, as shown by the international census. We have a far
more fertile soil and genial sun, with longer and better seasons for
crops and stock; and already, in our infancy, with our vast products,
feed and clothe many millions in Europe and other continents. Last year
our exports to foreign countries of breadstuffs and provisions, from the
loyal States alone, were of the value of $108,000,000. (Table of Com.
and Nav. 1860.)
If as well cultivated as England, our country could much more than feed
and clothe the whole population of the world. If as densely settled as
England, our population would be more than twelve hundred millions,
exceeding that of all the earth. If as densely settled as Massachusetts
(among the least fertile of all our States), we would number 513,000,000
inhabitants.
We have seen that our area exceeds that of Europe, with a far more
genial sun and fertile soil, and capable of yielding more than double
the amount of agricultural products and of sustaining more than twice
the number of inhabitants. We have a greater extent of mines than all
Europe, especially of coal, iron, gold, silver, and quicksilver. Our
coal alone, as stated by Sir William Armstrong (the highest British
authority), is 32 times as great as that of the United Kingdom, and our
iron will bear a similar proportion.
Our maritime front is 5,120 miles; but our whole coast line, including
bays, sounds, and rivers, up to the head of tide water, is 33,663 miles.
(Ex. Doc. No. 7, pp. 75, 76, Official Report of Professor A. D. Bache,
Superintendent of U. S. Coast Survey, Dec. 5th, 1848.) Our own lake
shore line is 3,620 miles. (Top. Rep. ib. 77.)
The shore line of the Mississippi river above tide water and its
tributaries, is 35,644 (ib. 77); and of all our other rivers, above tide
water, is 49,857 miles, making in all 122,784 miles. Of this stupendous
water mileage, more than one half is navigable by steam, employing an
interior steam tonnage exceeding that of all the internal steam tonnage
of the rest of the world. No country is arterialized by such a vast
system of navigable streams, to have constructed which as canals of
equal capacity would have cost more than ten billions of dollars, and
then these canals would have been subjected to large tolls, the cost of
their annual repairs would have been enormous, and the interruption by
lockage a serious obstacle. We may rest assured then, that, all Europe
combined, can never have such facilities for cheap water communication
as the United States. This is a mighty element in estimating the power
and progress of a nation. It shows, also, why we have no such deserts as
Sahara, so small a portion of our lands requiring manures or irrigation,
and no general failures of crops, with so few even partial failures of
any one crop.
We have more deep, capacious, and safe harbors, accessible at _all
tides_, than all Europe, with more than twenty capable of receiving the
_Great Eastern_. (Charts, U. S. Coast Survey.)
Our hydraulic power (including Niagara) far exceeds that of all Europe.
We have more timber than all Europe, including most varieties, useful
and ornamental. We have, including cotton, vastly more of the raw
material for manufactures than all Europe. With all these vast natural
advantages, has man, in our country, performed his duty, in availing
himself of the bounteous gifts of Providence? We are considering now the
question of our material progress, in regard to which, the following
official data are presented.
We have completed since 1790, 5,782 miles of canals, from 4 to 10 feet
deep, and from 40 to 75 feet wide, costing $148,000,000, and mostly
navigable by steam. (Census Table, 1860, No. 39.)
We have constructed since 1829, 33,698 miles of railroad (more than all
the rest of the world), costing $1,258,922,729. (Table 38, Census of
1860, and Addenda.)
We have in operation on the land, more miles of telegraph than all the
world, a single route, from New York to San Francisco, being 3,500
miles.
Our lighthouses exceed in number those of any other country, and we have
no light-dues, as in England.
Our coast survey, executed by Professor Bache, Superintendent of the U.
S. Coast Survey, exceeds in extent and accuracy that of any other
country. On this subject, we have the united opinions of British and
Continental savans.
We have made since 1790, 1,505,454 linear miles of survey of the public
lands of the United States, belonging to the Government, including
460,000,000 of acres already divided into townships, each six miles
square (23,040 acres), subdivided into square miles, called sections, of
640 acres each, and each section further subdivided into 16 lots of 40
acres each.
TONNAGE.--The total tonnage of the United States was in--
1814, 1,368,127 tons.
June, 1851, 3,772,439 "
June, 1861, 5,539,812 "
At the same rate of increase as from 1851 to 1861, our tonnage would be,
in
1871, 8,134,578 tons.
1881, 11,952,817 "
1891, 17,541,514 "
1901, 25,758,948 "
(_Table of Com. and Nav._)
At the close of this century our tonnage then, at this rate of increase,
would far exceed that of all the rest of the world.
GOLD AND SILVER.--The aggregate product of our gold and silver
mines approaches now _one billion of dollars_, most of which has been
converted into coin at our mint. Nearly all of this product has been
obtained since the discovery of gold in California. Less than two per
cent. of the precious metals has been the product of the seceded States.
This gold and silver are found now in seven States, and nine
Territories; the yield is rapidly augmenting, and new discoveries
constantly developed.
The Secretary of the Interior estimates the total product 'next year,'
of our mines of precious metals, at '$100,000,000,' and when our
railroad to the Pacific (traversing this region) is completed, his
estimate of the 'annual yield' is '$150,000,000.' The mines are declared
'inexhaustible' by the highest authority, and our Nevada silver mines
are now admitted to be 'the richest in the world.' The completion of our
imperial railroad, now progressing to the Pacific, will carry an immense
population to the gold and silver regions, vastly increase the number of
miners, diminish the cost of mining, and decrease the price of
provisions and supplies to the laborers. When we add to this, the vast
and increasing product of our quicksilver mines of California, so
indispensable as an amalgam in producing gold and silver, as also the
great and progressive improvement in processes and machinery for working
the quartz veins, it is now believed that the estimates of our Secretary
of the Interior, and Commissioner of the General Land Office, will be
exceeded by the result. These mines of the precious metals are nearly
all on the public lands of the United States; they are the _property of
the Federal Government_, and their intrinsic value _exceeds our public
debt_.
PUBLIC LANDS.--The United States own an immense public domain,
acquired by treaties with France, Spain, and Mexico, and by compacts
with States and Indian tribes. This domain is thus described in the
Report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, of November 29th,
1860:
'Of the 3,250,000 of square miles which constitute the territorial
extent of the Union, the public lands embrace an area of 2,265,625
square miles, or 1,450,000,000 of acres, being more than two thirds
of our geographical extent, and nearly three times as large as the
United States at the ratification of the definitive treaty of peace
in 1783 with Great Britain. This empire domain extends from the
northern line of Texas, the Gulf of Mexico, reaching to the
Atlantic Ocean, northwesterly to the Canada line bordering upon the
great Lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Superior, extending westward
to the Pacific Ocean, with Puget's Sound on the north, the
Mediterranean Sea of our extreme northwestern possessions.
'It includes fifteen sovereignties, known as the 'Land States,' and
an extent of territory sufficient for thirty-two additional, each
equal to the great central land State of Ohio.
'It embraces soils capable of abundant yield of the rich
productions of the tropics, of sugar, cotton, rice, tobacco, corn,
and the grape, the vintage, now a staple, particularly so of
California; of the great cereals, wheat and corn, in the Western,
Northwestern, and Pacific States, and in that vast interior region
from the valley of the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains;
and thence to the chain formed by the Sierra Nevada and Cascades,
the eastern wall of the Pacific slope, every variety of soil is
found revealing its wealth.
'Instead of dreary, inarable wastes, as supposed in earlier times,
the millions of buffalo, elk, deer, mountain sheep, the primitive
inhabitants of the soil, fed by the hand of nature, attest its
capacity for the abundant support of a dense population through the
skilful toil of the agriculturist, dealing with the earth under the
guidance of the science of the present age.
'Not only is the yield of food for man in this region abundant, but
it holds in its bosom the precious metals of gold, silver, with
cinnabar, the useful metals of iron, lead, copper, interspersed
with immense belts or strata of that propulsive element, coal, the
source of riches and power, and now the indispensable agent, not
only for domestic purposes of life, but in the machine shop, the
steam car, and steam vessel, quickening the advance of civilization
and the permanent settlement of the country, and being the agent of
active and constant intercommunication with every part of the
republic.'
Kansas having been admitted since the date of this Report, our public
domain, thus described officially, now includes the sixteen _land
States_, and _all_ the Territories.
Of this vast region (originally 1,450,000,000 acres), there was surveyed
up to September, 1860, 441,067,915 acres, and 394,088,712 acres disposed
of by sales, grants, etc., leaving, as the Commissioner states, 'the
total area of unsold and unappropriated, of offered and unoffered lands
of the public domain, 1,055,911,288 acres.' This is 'land surface,'
exclusive of lakes, bays, rivers, etc., 1,055,911,288 acres, or
1,649,861 square miles, and exceeds one half the area of the whole
Union. The area of New York, being 47,000 square miles, is less than a
thirty-fifth part of our public domain. England[3] (proper) has 50,922
square miles, France 203,736, Prussia 107,921, and Germany 80,620 square
miles. The area then of our public domain is more than eight times as
large as France, more than fifteen times as large as Prussia, more than
twenty times as large as Germany, more than thirty-two times as large as
England, and larger (excluding Russia) than all Europe, containing more
than 200 millions of people.
As England (proper) contained in 1861, 18,949,916 inhabitants, if our
public domain were as densely settled, its population would exceed 606
millions; and it would be 260,497,561, if numbering as many to the
square mile as Massachusetts. Its average fertility far exceeds that of
Europe, as does also the extent of its mines, especially gold, silver,
coal, and iron, with every variety of soil, climate, mineral and
agricultural products.
These lands are surveyed at the expense of the Government into townships
of six miles square, subdivided into sections, and these into quarter
sections (160) acres, set apart for homesteads. Our system of public
surveys into squares, by lines running due north and south, east and
west, is so simple as to have precluded all disputes as to boundary or
title. This domain reaches from the 24th to the 49th parallel, from the
lakes to the gulf, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Its isothermes
(the lines of equal mean annual temperatures) strike on the north the
coast of Norway midway, touch St. Petersburg in Russia, and pass through
Manchooria on the coast of Asia, about three degrees south of the mouth
of the Amour river. On the south, these isothermes run through Northern
Africa, and nearly the centre of Egypt near Thebes, cross Northern
Arabia, Persia, Northern Hindostan, and Southern China near Canton.
Of this vast domain, less than two per cent. is cursed by slavery, which
is prohibited by law in eleven of these land States, and in all the
Territories.
Now, however, within our present vast domain, not only the poor, but our
own industrious classes and those of Europe, may not only find a home,
but a farm for each settler, substantially as a free gift by the
Government. Here all who would rather be owners than tenants, and wish
to improve and cultivate their own soil, are invited. Here, too, all who
would become equals among equals, citizens (not subjects) of a great and
free country, enjoying the right of suffrage, and eligible to every
office except the presidency, can come and occupy with us this great
inheritance. Here liberty, equality, and fraternity reign supreme, not
in theory, or in name only, but in truth and reality. This is the
brotherhood of man, secured and protected by our organic law. Here the
Constitution and the people are the only sovereigns, and the Government
is administered by their elected agents, and for the benefit of the
people. Those toiling elsewhere for wages that will scarcely support
existence, for the education of whose children no provision is made by
law, who are excluded from the right of suffrage, may come here and be
voters and citizens, find a farm given as a homestead, free schools
provided for their children at the public expense, and hold any office
but the presidency, to which their children, born here, are eligible.
What does Europe for any of its toiling millions who reject this
munificent offer? He is worked and taxed there to his utmost endurance.
He has the right to _work_, and _pay taxes_, but not to vote. Unschooled
ignorance is his lot and that of his descendants. If a farmer, he works
and improves the land of others, in constant terror of rent day, the
landlord, and eviction. Indeed the annual rent of a single acre in
England exceeds the price--$10 (£2. 2s. 8d.)--payable for the
ownership in fee simple of the entire homestead of 160 acres, granted
him here by the Government. For centuries that are past and for all time
to come, there, severe toil, poverty, ignorance, the workhouse, or low
wages, and disfranchisement, would seem to be his lot. Here, freedom,
competence, the right of suffrage, the homestead farm, and free schools
for his children.
In selecting these homestead farms, the emigrant can have any
temperature, from St. Petersburg to Canton. He can have a cold, a
temperate, or a warm climate, and farming or gardening, grazing or
vintage, varied by fishing or hunting. He can raise wheat, rye, Indian
corn, oats, rice, indigo, cotton, tobacco, cane or maple sugar and
molasses, sorghum, wool, peas and beans, Irish or sweet potatoes,
barley, buckwheat, wine, butter, cheese, hay, clover, and all the
grasses, hemp, hops, flax and flaxseed, silk, beeswax and honey, and
poultry, in uncounted abundance. If he prefers a stock farm, he can
raise horses, asses, and mules, camels, milch cows, working oxen, and
other cattle, goats, sheep, and swine. In most locations, these will
require neither housing nor feeding throughout the year. He can have
orchards, and all the fruits and vegetables of Europe, and many in
addition. He can have an Irish or German, Scotch, English or Welsh,
French, Swiss, Norwegian, or American neighborhood. He can select the
shores of oceans, lakes, or rivers; live on tide water or higher lands,
valleys, or mountains. He can be near a church of his own denomination;
the freedom of conscience is complete; he pays no tithes, nor church
tax, except voluntarily. His sons and daughters, on reaching twenty-one
years of age, or sooner, if the head of a family, are each entitled to a
homestead of 160 acres; if he dies, the title is secured to his widow,
children, or heirs. Our flag is his, and covers him everywhere with its
protection. He is our brother; and he and his children will enjoy with
us the same heritage of competence and freedom. He comes where labor is
king, and toil is respected and rewarded. If before, or instead of
receiving his homestead, he chooses to pursue his profession or
business, to work at his trade, or for daily wages, he will find them
double the European rate, and subsistence cheaper. From whatever part of
Europe he may come, he will meet his countrymen here, and from them and
us receive a cordial welcome. A Government which gives him a farm, the
right to vote, and free schools for his children, must desire his
welfare.
Of this vast domain (more than thirty-two times as large as England) the
Government of the United States grants substantially as a free gift, a
_farm of 160 acres_ to every settler who will occupy and cultivate the
same, the title being in fee simple, and free from all rent whatsoever.
The settler may be _native_ or _European_, a present or future
immigrant, including females as well as males, but must be at least
twenty-one years of age, _or_ the head of a family. If an immigrant, the
declaration must first be made of an _intention_ to become a citizen of
the United States, when the grant is immediately made, without waiting
for naturalization. When the children of the settler reach twenty-one
years of age, or become the head of a family, they each receive from the
Government a like donation of 160 acres. The intrinsic value of this
public domain far exceeds the whole public debt of the United States.
Our national wealth, by the last census, was $16,159,616,068, and its
increase during the last ten years $8,925,481,011, or 126.45 per cent.
(Census, 1860, p. 195.) Now, if, as a consequence of the Homestead Bill,
there should be occupied, improved, and cultivated, during the next ten
years, 100,000 additional farms by settlers, or only 10,000 per annum,
it would make an aggregate of 16,000,000 acres. If, including houses,
fences, barns, and other improvements, we should value each of these
farms at ten dollars an acre, it would make an aggregate of
$160,000,000. But if we add the product of these farms, allowing only
one half of each (80 acres) to be cultivated, and the average annual
value of the crops, stock included, to be only ten dollars per acre, it
would give $80,000,000 a year, and, in ten years, $800,000,000,
independent of the reinvestment of capital. It is clear that thus vast
additional employment would be given to labor, freight to steamers,
railroads, and canals, markets for manufactures, and augmented revenue.
The homestead privilege will largely increase immigration. Now, beside
the money brought here by immigrants, the census proves that the average
annual value of the labor of Massachusetts, _per capita_, was, in 1860,
$300 for each man, woman, and child. Assuming that of the immigrants at
an average net annual value of only $100 each, or less than 33 cents a
day, it would make, in ten years, at the rate of 200,000 each year, the
following aggregate:
1st year, 200,000 = $20,000,000
2d " 400,000 " 40,000,000
3d " 600,000 " 60,000,000
4th " 800,000 " 80,000,000
5th " 1,000,000 " 100,000,000
6th " 1,200,000 " 120,000,000
7th " 1,400,000 " 140,000,000
8th " 1,600,000 " 160,000,000
9th " 1,800,000 " 180,000,000
10th " 2,000,000 " 200,000,000
-------------
Total, $1,100,000,000
In this table, the labor of all immigrants each year is properly added
to those arriving the succeeding year, so as to make the aggregate, the
last year, two millions. This would make the value of the labor of these
two millions of immigrants, in ten years, $1,100,000,000, independent of
the annual accumulation of capital, and the labor of the children of the
immigrants after the first ten years, which, with their descendants,
would go on constantly increasing.
But, by the actual official returns (see page 14 of Census), the number
of alien immigrants to the United States, from December, 1850, to
December, 1860, was 2,598,216, or an annual average of 259,821, say
260,000. The effect, then, of this immigration, on the basis of the last
table, upon the increase of national wealth, was as follows:
1st year, 260,000 = $26,000,000
2d " 520,000 " 52,000,000
3d " 780,000 " 78,000,000
4th " 1,040,000 " 104,000,000
5th " 1,300,000 " 130,000,000
6th " 1,560,000 " 156,000,000
7th " 1,820,000 " 182,000,000
8th " 2,080,000 " 208,000,000
9th " 2,340,000 " 234,000,000
10th " 2,600,000 " 260,000,000
--------------
Total, $1,430,000,000