The official statement of the United States' census, published at
Washington in December last, furnishes us with the means of knowing
what our American brethren have been doing in the ten years from 1840
to 1850. In that decennial period, the whole territory had increased
from 2,055,163 to 3,221,595 square miles, exclusive of the great lakes
in the interior, and deeply-indenting bays on the coast. The gross
population in June 1850, numbered 23,246,201; an increase from June
1840 of 6,176,848. Of these, 19,619,366 were whites; 3,198,298 were
slaves; and free blacks, 428,637; the increase having been
respectively, 5,423,371--711,085--42,392. The whole increase was
equivalent to 3-1/2 per cent.; while in Europe, it is not more than
1-1/2 per cent.; and if it continue as at present, the population
will, forty years hence, exceed that of England, France, Spain,
Portugal, Sweden, and Switzerland put together. The deaths in the last
of the ten years were 320,194, being 1 to each 72.6, or 10 to each 726
of the inhabitants; this return is, however, supposed to involve an
error, as the mortality is less in proportion than in the most
favoured parts of Europe; whereas the reverse is generally considered
to be the fact. In the same year, 1467 slaves were manumitted, and
1011 escaped. The number of emigrants from foreign countries during
the 10 years was 1,542,850.
Among the individual states, the most populous are New York, which
numbers 3,097,394 inhabitants; Pennsylvania, 2,311,786; Ohio,
1,980,408; Virginia, 1,421,661; Massachusetts, 994,499; Indiana,
988,416; Kentucky, 982,405; Georgia, 905,999. Taking the whole 31
states, the proportion of inhabitants is 15.48 to the square mile: the
free states comprise 13,605,630, and the slave states, 9,491,759 of
population.
To supply this population, there are 2800 newspapers: 424 in the New
England states; 876 in the middle states; 716 in the southern states;
and 784 in the western states. Three hundred and fifty are _dailies_,
150 three times a week, 125 twice a week, 2000 weekly, 50 fortnightly,
100 monthly, and 25 quarterly: the aggregate circulation being
422,600,000 yearly. There is 1 periodical for every 7161 free
inhabitants.
The capital invested in manufactures, excluding the establishments
under 500 dollars of annual value, amounted to 530,000,000 dollars;
the value of raw material was 550,000,000; the amount paid for labour
(in one year we presume), 240,000,000; value of articles manufactured,
1,020,300,000; persons employed, 1,050,000. There were 1094 cotton
'establishments' in operation, which produced 763,678,407 yards of
sheeting; 1559 woollen establishments, which produced 82,206,652 yards
of cloth; 2190 iron establishments, which produced 1,165,544 tons of
iron of various kinds.
Of improved lands, there were 112,042,000 acres; of wheat, 104,799,230
bushels were grown in the last year; 591,586,053 bushels of Indian
corn; 199,532,494 pounds of tobacco; 13,605,384 tons of hay;
32,759,263 pounds of maple-sugar were made; 314,644 hogsheads of
cane-sugar of 1000 pounds each; 312,202,286 pounds of butter; and
103,184,585 pounds of cheese.