RICA. Political

State.

NAME signature, on the plea that congress had no power to order any such internal improvements, as it interfered with the authority of the separate states. This appears and Moral also to be the opinion of Mr. President Monroe, who nevertheless recommends, in a message to the senate and representatives for Ordering an Amendment to be made in the federal government, to create a power for the purpose. The committee of the house of representatives reports, on the 15th of December, 1817, that congress has such a power; and thus the question remains for the present undecided.

United States.

Roads.

Canals.

Four artificial roads, it has been stated, might be made from the four great western rivers, viz. the Alleghany, the Monongahela, the Kanhawa, and the Tennessee, to those Atlantic rivers which most correspond and are nearest, viz. the Susquehannah, or Juniata; the Potomac; James river; and either of the rivers Santee or Savannah, and these roads may be continued from thence to the nearest sea-ports. The improvement of the navigation of these rivers too might be promoted by cutting canals round the different falls, and the mountains avoided either on the N. by the Mohawk valley and lake Ontario, or on the S. through Georgia and the Mississippi territory.

Another and similar improvement to the S. might be effected by traversing with canals the country lying between the sources of the Chatahouchee and Mobile rivers and the gulf of Mexico, a district which presents, it is said, no considerable obstacles to the plan. This would connect the Mississippi with the Atlantic ocean through a tract of about 550 miles.

Many vessels, from 100 to 400 tons burden, are now built every year on the Ohio, as high up as Pittsburg, which not only take down the produce of the country where they are built to New Orleans, but, in turn, take in cargoes of sugars and other commodities at that port, and carry them across the Atlantic.

But that which has of late, more than any thing else, contributed to the internal intercourse and improve ment of the states in this direction, and has almost given birth to the commerce of New Orleans, is the invention of steam-boats, which are able to stem the rapid tide of the Mississippi river to and from that port; whereas, formerly, the vast inundations and the strong current of the river, prevented the navigation for many months of the year; the produce from the adjoining country was principally carried to market by land, none but that more immediately in its neighbourhood being transported to New Orleans.

Steam-boats now carry merchandize up to the falls of Louisville, on the Ohio, from New Orleans, a distance of 1,700 miles. To avoid these falls, land-carriage is used for two miles, but it is calculated that a canal might be formed for about half a million of dollars, in which case, steam-boats might pass up to Pittsburg, a further distance of 700 miles.

From Louisville to New Orleans and back again, along the rapid Mississippi, a distance of 3,400 miles, these boats run in thirty-five or forty days. To the advantage of celerity must be likewise added the superior safety from damage of the goods conveyed by these boats, in comparison with the rough and jolting waggons. The average speed of a steam-boat, against the stream and heavily laden, is sixty miles per day.

The physical capacities and capabilities of the United

States, therefore, may be summed up under the follow- NA ing heads, viz.

1. Extent of territory, greater than that of any power in Europe.

2. Extent of sea-coast, upwards of 2,000 miles. 3. Amazing richness of soil, and capability of maintaining 500,000,000 of people.

RIC

Poar and

Se

4. Natural internal navigation, already immense. 5. Artificial and improved navigation, at present great, and capable of being extended to an indefinite degree. NAVY.-The navy of the United States at present Na consists of 100 ships, brigs, and schooners, besides small sloops and gun-boats. Nine of these are rated at 74, but carry 90 guns; ten rated 44 guns; one 38 guns; two 36 guns; two 32 guns; and thirty from 28 to 16 guns: and it is to be observed, that all of these exceed in the actual number of their guns the nominal rate. Their officers have also increased in the same proportion. At the commencement of the last war, there were thirteen captains, nine masters, and seventy lieute nants. During this war there were sixteen captains, twenty-eight masters commanding, and one hundred and twenty lieutenants.

It appears very doubtful whether the emancipation of the Spanish colonies will benefit the United States: the reverse seems probable; for, since the peace of 1815, between Great Britain and America, the imports of manufactured goods from the former have beaten those of the latter out of her own markets, and Great Britain would be enabled to sell her manufactures cheaper in South America, than is possible to the people of the United States. The last contest between the United States and Great Britain seems also to have proved that internal manufactures are not the objects of wise policy with the United States, but that external commerce, protected by, and, in its turn, strengthening a navy, is their sure road to power and prosperity.

COMMERCE-The commerce of the United States Cam has advanced in proportion to its increase in population. This may be best demonstrated by the following table, furnished originally by Lord Sheffield, in his "Observations on American Commerce," and which form the earliest data of Mr. Pitkin's "Statistical View" of this subject.

Total Exports.mestic origin. Exports of do

Exports of foreign origin.

$55,800,033 $42,205,961 $13,594,072 108,343,150 48,699,592 59,643,558

22,430,960 9,433,546 12,997,414

66,757,970 42,366,675 24,391,295

6,927,441 6,782,272 145,169

52,557,753 45,974,403 6,583,535 81,920,452 64,781,896 17,138,555

Of the domestic exports, the produce of agriculture amounts, in value, to three-fourths; the produce of the forest, one-ninth; of the sea, one-fifteenth; and manufactures, one-twentieth. Of the foreign exports, the proportions in 1807 (the greatest commercial year ever experienced by the United States), being the year immediately preceding the embargo, were $43,525,320, imported from the British isles; $3,812,065, from France and her dependencies; and $11,318,532, from the rest of the world.

From the documents furnished to congress by the secretary of the treasury in 1806, of the trade of the United States with different parts of the world during the years 1802, 3, and 4, Mr. Pitkin supplies us with the following calculations. During these three years, the annual value of the imports into the United States was $75,316,937; and of the exports, $68,461,000. Of the imports the proportions were,

ME- our own case, and, doubtless, will be supported with A. equal solicitude by the United States,

AGRICULTURE. —' --The United States, as a nation, is ical yet in every respect in her youth. This, therefore, is loral the season of her labour, and the period for enterprize; in both of which she not only has the advantage of that ed experience which has been so dearly purchased by all the rest of the civilized world, but an ample scope of ture. territory to exercise and reward her efforts. That the encouragement of agriculture must enter decidedly into her policy, and that agricultural pursuits must form the employment of the major part of her population for some time to come, if she aspire to a solid eminence among the nations is clear from the extent of her territory alone; or this very circumstance may enfeeble her strength and precipitate her ruin. Their actual necessities dictated to her first settlers an attention to agriculture; while the enormous increase of population has at once encouraged and demanded extensive enclosures of unoccupied and uncleared territory in more modern times, of which the government has assumed the active proprietorship, and become, in fact, the great farmer of the soil. Hitherto the means of subsistence have happily increased with the demand for it, and the agriculturist of moderate capital and moderate views would appear to have no prospects more promising than those which may be found in America. The very peculiarity in the agricultural labour of America will also demonstrate that the really skilful farmer will here find sufficient encouragement. One man spreads his labours over a far greater surface of land than can be given to an individual in England. It follows, therefore, that the science of agriculture is more perfect in England than in the United States; that is, that more produce is procured from a certain quantity of ground in the former than in the latter country; in other words, any given number of working men produce far more in America; any given number of acres has hitherto given far less produce. Her agricultural productions have been classed into, 1st, Vegetable food, such as wheat, flour, rice, Indian corn, rye, peas, beans, potatoes, &c.; 2d, Product of animals, in beef, tallow, hides, butter and cheese, pork and lard; or the animals themselves, as live cattle, horses, mules, sheep, &c. ; 3d, Tobacco; 4th, Cotton; 5th, Indigo, flax-seed, wax, and other inferior articles.

Wheat is the staple of the middle states, and Mary land and Virginia have latterly exchanged many of their tobacco-lands for this invaluable grain, the cultivation of which was also, during the late war, greatly substituted for cotton in the southern states. The official value of wheat, flour, and bread, exported from the North American colonies, now the United States, in 1770, was 636,020 l. 6s. 11d. or about $2,862,190; in 1811 (owing, however, greatly to the enhanced price of those articles that year) it was $ 14,662,000. The West Indies, Spain, and Great Britain, are the great consumers of American wheat and flour. A large proportion (particularly of the latter) finds a ready market in the islands; seasons of scarcity in Great Britain and the south of Europe bring the United States into successful competition with the ports of the Baltic, and the late protracted contests in Spain and Portugal created an astonishing demand in those countries for these indispensible supplies. In 1812, 8,865 bushels of wheat were sent to Spain, and 33,591 to Portugal; of flour,

VOL. XVII.

Political

and Moral

State.

in the same year, 381,726 barrels to Spain, and N. AME557,218 to Portugal. In 1813, 74,409 bushels of RICA. wheat to Spain, and 431,101 barrels of flour; 214,126 bushels of wheat, and 542,399 barrels of flour to Portugal: the official value of these exports, in the latter years, to both countries, being $ 11,213,441 at the places of exportation; in the foreign market they were worth full $ 15,000,000. In 1801, a season of scarcity in Great Britain, the United States exported thither 216,977 bushels of wheat, and 479,720 barrels of flour. In 1807, 669,950 bushels of wheat, and 323,986 barrels of flour.

It appears to be as difficult in North America as in England to fix any average price of wheat that would fairly remunerate the grower and satisfy the consumer; nor does it appear to have been attempted. In 1806 and 1807, years of the largest exportation, the average price of wheat was $1 27 per bushel, and of flour $7 50 per barrel.

The relative importance of the American commerce in these staple articles of the agricultural world, compared with that of the grain countries of Europe, will appear from the fact, that, in the years 1801 and 1802, about eight millions of bushels of wheat were, according to Oddy (European Commerce, vol. ii.), shipped from all the ports of the Baltic taken collectively; and from the United States, according to Mr. Pitkin, about five millions nine hundred thousand bushels, falling only about two millions short of the entire quantity of the great market of European trade; and reckoning, as the Americans do, about five bushels of wheat to one barrel of flour. The average value of all kinds of grain exported from the Baltio, in common years, is about two millions sterling, or nine millions of American dollars. In particular years, it has amounted to eight millions. The entire value of American grain, including rice, shipped from the ports of the United States, on an average of the years 1805, 6, and 7, was about twelve millions and a half of dollars; and in the particular years 1811, 1812, and 1813, about twenty millions, eighteen millions, and nineteen millions, respectively. In the first of those years, that of the greatest exportation ever known in America, and, as we have seen, a year of high prices, the official value of Wheat, flour, and biscuit exported, was $14,662,000 Indian corn and meal

2,896,000 2,387,000

446,000

$ 20,391,000

United

&c.

States.

Wheat was brought into America by the original Rice, settlers, as well as rice, which was first cultivated in Indian corn, South Carolina, and became the staple of the province. Indian corn, or maize, was found amongst all the Indian nations, except in the higher northern climates, where the summer is too short for its cultivation. In 1816, one of the best years for the exportation of rice, 137,843 tierces were shipped abroad, at the official value of $3,555,000. Rice finds its best and principal markets in Europe; Indian corn in the West Indies, and, ground into meal, in Spain and Portugal. In times of scarcity, small quantities of it are sent to Europe; before it is ground into meal it undergoes a drying process by the kiln. Most of the rye grown

3 F

N. AME in the United States is made into bread, or used in distillation at home.

RICA.

State.

United

States. Spirits.

The distillation of ardent spirits has increased proPolitical digiously of late years throughout the Union, and threeand Moral fourths of it is from grain. In 1801 the entire distillation from grain and fruits was only about 10,000,000 gallons; in 1810 it exceeded 20,000,000. A bushel of rye is calculated to yield from two and a-half to three gallons of spirits, making the consumption of rye for this article, in the latter year, therefore, between five and six millions of bushels. About five million gallons were in the same year distilled from molasses. The whole of this immense quantity of spirits is consumed at home, together with upwards of six million gallons imported, making a total of 31,725,417 gallons, according to the official returns, and allowing, it is said, about four gallons and a half per annum to each person in the states.

Beef, pork,

&c.

Tobacco.

Cotton.

Beef and pork, tallow, hams, butter and cheese, lard, live cattle and horses, are also valuable branches of the export trade to the West Indies. Of these articles, as exports, in 1815 and 1816, the following were the proportions and value:

Tobacco is indigenous to America, and finds its principal market in the north of Europe, Great Britain, France, and Holland. Before the revolution, it is said to have constituted, in value, between a quarter and one-third of all the exports of the North American colonies. Since that period its average value, as an export, has not exceeded, and scarcely equalled what it was the middle of the last century. From 1802 to 1807 this was about $6,000,000; from 1808 to 1813, only 2,300,000. In 1815 and 1816, it averaged ten million dollars, owing to the quantity on hand and high prices; in the former year 34,149 hhds. at an average of $96, were shipped to Great Britain; and in 1816, 31,756, at $185.

Cotton is another important modern article of American growth and exportation, called the seaisland and upland cotton; the former growing along the coasts, the latter in the higher parts of the interior. A machine, of American invention, used in the cleaning of the upland cotton, has much improved the prospect of the agriculturist in cultivating it, and given birth indeed to the article as an export. Prior to this invention, in 1793, the plant was little grown, and scarcely a pound of it exported; it has now become the principal object of the South Carolina and Georgia planters, and nearly supplanted their indigo. In 1792 the entire exports of the United States were valued only at $20,753,098; and in 1807 this new article of commerce amounted to more than half that sum. Great Britain is the principal market for American cotton; the whole quantity of which, as an export, amounted, in 1791, to 189,316 lbs. In 1815 and 1816 we find the returns as follow:

Indigo, which has lately been neglected for the India growth of cotton, constituted, for a long period, the second great staple of Carolina; 216,924 lbs. of this article were exported from South Carolina alone in 1754; and just before the revolution, upwards of one million pounds was the annual average. In 1794 we find 1,550,800 lbs. among the returns to congress; but a considerable portion of this is supposed to have been foreign indigo re-imported.

the produce of the sea, of the forest, of agriculture, and The following table exhibits the comparative value of of manufactures exported, for each year, from 1803 to 1816:

forest, &

product

Of the sea. Of the forest. Of agriculture. Of manufactures. Compar Dolls. Dolls. Dolls. Dolls. tive val 1803 2,635,000 4,850,000 32,995,000 1,355,000 of sea 1804 3,420,000 4,630,000 30,890,000 2,100,000 1805 2,884,000 5,261,000 31,562,000 2,300,000" 1806 3,116,000 4,861,000 30,125,000 2,707,000 1807 2,804,000 5,476,000 37,832,000 2,120,000 1808 832,000 1,399,000 6,746,000 344,000 1809 1,710,000 4,583,000 23,234,000 1,506,000 1810 1,481,000 4,978,000 33,502,000 1,917,000 1811 1,413,000 5,286,000 35,556,000 2,376,000 935,000 2,701,000 24,555,000 1,355,000 304,000 1,107,000 23,119,000

390,000

1812 1813 1814 188,000 570,000 5,613,000 246,300 1815 912,000 3,910,000 38,910,000 1,553,000 1816 1,331,000 7,293,000 53,354,000 1,755,000

From this it appears, that on an average of eight years, from 1803 to 1811, the produce of agriculture constituted about three quarters, in value, of all the domestic exports of the United States; the produce of the forest, about one-ninth; of the sea, about onefifteenth; and manufactures, about one-twentieth.

These documents, for which we are principally indebted to the second edition of Mr. Pitkin's recent work, will best demonstrate to the sober calculator the relative importance of American agriculture. To that work, and our future article on the UNITED STATES, we must refer for further details; but the progressive march of this mighty empire to what may prove an almost indefinite prosperity, must be interesting at every stage. We are not amongst the converts of Mr. Birkbeck's popular reasoning on the unequalled advantages of his adopted country; but a passage or two from his picturesque description of the manner of settlement in the western territory, toward which all the redundant population of Old America, as it is now called, is migrating with as much eagerness as are Europeans, may well close our remarks on this subject.

"The land, when intended for sale, is laid out in the government surveys in quarter sections of 160 acres, being one-fourth of a square mile. The whole is then