and all other schemes for transcontinental railroad building, the postponement could not be for long. The country beyond the Mississippi had no navigable streams of any consequence, and the railroad was its only hope. "For the West there was nothing between the creeping pace of the canvas-covered wagon and the railway express." of the Marine Along with the development of railway transportation, there Growth was a corresponding growth of our merchant marine. The Merchant prosperity of our shipping interests in the fifties was due to several causes. In 1849 England by the repeal of an unfavorable navigation act admitted American vessels to the traffic between Great Britain and her colonies, thus enabling our vessels to secure their full share of the British carrying trade. The rush to California stimulated the building of fast sailingvessels that would make the long journey around the Horn. The famous American clippers, the fastest sailing-vessels ever placed upon the ocean, were built in large numbers during this period. In 1851 one of these clippers, the Flying Cloud, in a run from New York to San Francisco made a record that had never been equaled by sail or steam up to that time, and has remained the record for sail for all time. The best day's run on this remarkable voyage was 374 miles. The lower rates of the Walker Tariff (p. 302) reduced to a considerable degree the cost of building ships. Then, ship subsidies at this period played a part in stimulating the growth of our merchant marine. In 1845 our Government came to the aid of steam navigation (p. 314) by subsidizing a transatlantic line at the Subsidies rate of $200,000 a year. The Collins Line from New York to Liverpool was receiving in 1852 a subsidy of more than $850,000 a year. These favorable circumstances working together made the period of 1850 to 1860 the most important in the history of our merchant marine. THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT IN THE FIFTIES With steamships plowing the ocean to bring immigrants to America in greater comfort and at less expense, and with the railroads to carry them straight to the country beyond the Ship Minne sota Mississippi, Western development was bound to proceed at an accelerated velocity. The growth of Minnesota in the fifties was the most remarkable event in the entire history of Western settlement. No Territory ever began its existence with fewer white inhabitants than did Minnesota Territory when it was organized in 1849. Its population at that time was less than five thousand. The settlement of the Territory was at first hindered by the presence of red men, but in 1851 a tract of land, consisting of 28,000,000 acres belonging to the Sioux By permission of Mrs. M. S Fowle A clipper ship-From the clipper ship era. Indians, was secured by treaty and was thrown open to the whites. Three years later Chicago and Rock Island on the Mississippi were joined by a railroad, and in 1856 the Sault Sainte Marie Canal was opened. Emigrants could now reach Minnesota by water route and by railroad, and they fairly swarmed over the vacant lands of the Territory. In 1857 the population of Minnesota was found to be thirty times as great as it was in 1849. Accordingly, Minnesota Territory applied for admission as a State, and in 1858 it joined the Union. It was the swift westward movement of the fifties that made and it necessary for Congress to pass the Kansas-Nebraska Bill and thus establish territorial governments for the new communities in the Nebraska country. The slavery contest kept early Kansas in a state of ferment, yet it hastened rather than Kansas retarded the settlement of the Territory. In 1860 Kansas had Nebraska a population of more than 100,000. It was now ready for statehood (p. 352), and in 1861 it was admitted into the Union as a free State. Nebraska Territory did now grow so rapidly as Kansas, but its growth was healthy. When the first legislature of Nebraska met at Omaha in 1855 the population of the Territory was about 5000; by 1860, the population had increased sixfold. As early as 1859 the Nebraskans began to urge their claims for admission into the Union, but they were compelled to bide their time. It and It was in the fifties, also, that the first settlements in Colo- Colorado rado were made. The early development of Colorado, like the Nevada development of most of the Rocky Mountain States, was due to the discovery of valuable mines for precious metals. In 1859 a rich gold-mine was discovered in the vicinity of Pike's Peak; and forthwith there was a wild rush to the scene. was estimated that within a year nearly 60,000 gold-seekers visited the newly discovered mines. Thousands of those "fifty-niners" remained and laid the foundations of Colorado. The mining towns of Denver, Boulder, and Pueblo were built so rapidly that they seemed to rise out of the ground overnight. The miners, feeling the need of law and order, at once organized a new government under the name of the Territory of Jefferson. In 1861, however, Congress organized the Territory of Colorado, and the Territory of Jefferson passed out of existence. Three days after Colorado was provided with a government, Nevada was made a Territory. The development of Nevada was due almost wholly to the discovery of the great Comstock silver-mine. The impulse of the westward movement in the fifties was Oregon felt clear across the continent. California by 1860 had become a great State with a population of nearly 400,000. The rush to California threatened for a while the prosperity of Oregon. Immigration Many settlers left the Willamette Valley to seek their fortunes in the gold fields of the Sacramento region. But the tide soon turned toward Oregon again. In 1859 it had a population that was sufficient for statehood and was admitted to the Union.2 But the full significance of the westward movement in the fifties is to be seen not in the new States and Territories that were organized, but in the wonderful development of the Western States that had already been formed. The population of the United States in 1850 was 23,191,876; in 1860 it was 31,443,321. The increase in population of the whole country was a little more than 8,000,000; the increase in the Western States alone was more than 4,000,000. The center of population moved a greater distance westward in the fifties than in any other decade in our history. In 1800 the center of population was about eighteen miles west of Baltimore; by 1840 it had crossed the Alleghanies; in 1850 it had reached Parkersburg, West Virginia; and in 1860 it was half-way across the State of Ohio. The population of Michigan increased in the fifties from 397,654 to 749,113; that of Wisconsin from 305,391 to 775,881; that of Illinois from 851,470 to 1,711,951; that of Iowa from 192,214 to 674,913.3 Much of this increase was due to immigration, for the stream of immigrants that began to flow in such volume in the forties flowed in even greater volume in the fifties. In the ten years before 1860, 2,598,214 foreigners came to our shores-a greater number than came in the thirty years before 1850. Nearly a million of these new-comers were Germans, and nearly another million were Irish. Of the Germans, great throngs made their way directly to the States of the Northwest and began to give their brain and brawn to the building up of the country. In 1853 a portion of Oregon had been set off and organized as Washington Territory. The Panic of 1857. The rapid development of the West in the fifties was accompanied by an over-investment in land and excessive railroad construction, with the result that in 1857 the country suffered a panic. Many of the Western railroads went into bankruptcy, and business failures numbered nearly five thou sand. The panic, however, was of short duration. In 1857 a slight reduction was made in the tariff, and some writers assert that the change was partly responsible for the financial crisis of that year. EVERY-DAY LIFE A glance at the every-day life of our people in 1860 would have revealed conditions widely different from those that prevailed in the early years of the Republic (pp. 152-163). Civilization was beginning to take on the complexion it is wearing to-day. In the largest cities, where the price of land was high, there were houses of five and six and even seven stories. In a few places elevators were in use. Cities and towns were full of factories, and there was steam-driven machinery with its smoke and rattle and din. Streets were well paved and, in the large places, lighted by gas. Matches and stoves and hot-air furnaces had come into general use. In the largest cities there were street-cars drawn by horses. The steamboat and the steam-car were the ordinary means for transportation both for freight and passengers. The Pullman palace-car was making travel a delightful experience. Express companies had been organized and were doing a thriving business. In the stores, piled high on the counters, were articles of every-day use, which, thanks to new processes and inventions, could be purchased at reasonable prices. A sewing-machine could be bought for $25; a carpet-sweeper for $2; a pair of women's shoes of the finest calf for $2.75; a copy of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1500 illustrations and 1250 pages, for $6.50. Little Red house Education was making good progress. The "little red The school-house" was becoming one of the most popular institutions of America. The educational movement begun in the early part of the century (p. 291) acquired greater force year by year, and by 1860 there was in most of the States a wellestablished system of fairly good common schools. This was true not only of the older States but of many of the newer States as well. In the fifties, Wisconsin, Iowa, Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky, California, and Oregon all made provision for elementary schools that should be free to all white children. But a school of the Middle West in the fifties was a primitive thing, as is shown in the following description of an early |