former of which is kept constantly employed. A new and commodious building, intended for a Protective Union Store, has been erected at the private cost of some of the members, and is nearly sufficiently completed for the commencement of business. There is a good stone school house; a blacksmith shop with three fires in full employment; and buildings for the dwelling of members, one a long new frame house, conveniently and pleasantly arranged, several of the rooms of which are now completed and occupied, and all might be finished within a short time, and at no great expense. Another row of frame houses, not so convenient nor strong in construction, as that just referred to, was put up at the first founding of the Society; and in this latter range of buildings, the greater part of the members yet reside. There is also another row of frame buildings, with a cupola and a bell, a kitchen, a bakery, a large dining room and apartments serving for the accommodation of strangers and travelers. In addition, there is a substantial stone dwelling, sufficiently large for two families, living on the principles of Associative life. The most of these buildings have been constructed with a view to a unitary mode of life; they were designed for temporary use in a transitional state of society and would principally be serviceable for the accommodation of a combined or friendly company, until more suitable and comfortable dwellings were erected. They would contain altogether about thirty-five families, with the usual average number of persons to a family.

V. CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE

NORTH AND SOUTH

The Views of an Englishman with Southern Tendencies, 18601

Although the people of different sections of the country developed the same general characteristics, those of the people of the northern states differed in detail from those of the people of the south. An Englishman with Southern tendencies has drawn for us the following picture of the people of the different sections:

[CHARACTER OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLE]

The greatest distinction between the Northern and Southern States of the Union was the tendency of the population of the former to the towns and cities, from the meagreness and unattractiveness of life in the country. And yet it is a beautiful country in many parts in most parts of New England. Generally speaking, the North, as to healthfulness and scenery, has considerably the advan

1 Ten Years in the United States. By D. W. Mitchell (London, 1862), 192-6.

tage; and yet the natives don't seem to enjoy rural life; they neither talk nor look as if they did; and those are considered, and consider themselves, fortunate, who abandon it to go and push their fortunes in town. The training of the young, and the notions instilled into them, partly account for this. The quietness and slow profits of farming are not very tempting to a youth who has been brought up to believe that he is as good as anybody else, and that there is no reason why he should not be a millionaire or a President, if he only struggles hard enough; a very unhealthy and irrational, though very popular mode of exciting youth to improve themselves—seeing that there is only room for a very few at the top of the tree.

Arrived in town, the young American looks out for something light and genteel, abandoning hard and dirty work to foreigners. While the West has been calling for labourers, workmen, and agriculturists of all grades, there have been large numbers of superfluous young men hanging about in the large eastern cities, competing for poorly paid employment, principally as "clerks," as shopmen are called.

The universality of education of ability to read, and write, and figure a little accounts partly for this tendency. A youth who has been to school, and who has read of the successful struggles of genius with poverty, feels that he is lowering himself, and throwing away his chances of rising in society, by submitting to hard, longcontinued physical labour; especially in a climate like that of the Northern States, where the summer heat and winter cold are so exhausting to the system, that after the ordinary ten hours' work, and the time spent in rest and meals, and getting to and from the place of business, the workman has neither leisure nor inclination for intellectual culture by study of any kind. Climate has not yet had time to tell on the population of the United States in general, recruited as it has incessantly been by immigrants from Europe; but by analyzing the population, and observing that portion of it which has been longest and most exposed to the dry land-air, the hot summers, and long, cold winters, and great and sudden meteorological changes of the North, we may see some of the combined effects of the climate and his mode of life and general circumstances on the man of the United States. That portion is the farming population, of Yankee descent.

The type of this class is a rather tall, bony, sinewy, strong man, with very little fat; with none of the English ruddiness of complexion; with a good, full, well-formed head, and a brain above the English average; active, persevering, and full of energy not a lazy bone

in his body; well marked, intelligent, decided features, highly expressive of a cautious, secretive, determined character; by no means a handsome man, but frequently fine-looking in youth. There is too often about him a look of being overworked both in mind and body, and a want of ease, content, and cheerfulness. His mind is always at work, engaged seriously on something useful or profitable; and he wears himself out with unceasing anxious thought about gaining and saving: not avariciously, but to provide for the future, and to raise himself and his family in the social scale. The most serious faults in his character are too much thought of his own personal independence and dignity, too much jealousy of any superiority, and an unduly excited pride and ambition; to which he sacrifices that little occasional indulgence in careless, hearty, social enjoyment, which is necessary to health of mind and body.

This is, I think, a fair description of the predominant race in the eastern and northern States, and in many parts of the west. The Irish, indeed, interfere seriously with its supremacy, and lately, to a still greater extent, the Germans; but till within the last ten years, this Yankee race gave the tone and character to the legislation of the free-labour States.

[CHARACTER OF THE SOUTHERN PEOPLE]

The typical Southern man is in many respects, though it will hardly be expected, more British and European in habits, appearance, and character. He has plenty on his mind, but he is not so uneasy about his social position, and allows himself more pleasure and social enjoyment often too much; hence, at forty and fifty, he is well enough off for flesh and fat, but not to excess. What in Europe would be called a fat person is a great rarity in America, and is seldom to be met with, except among the Germans, Englishmen, negroes, and negresses: these last especially; for while among the native-born whites there is a strong tendency to dyspepsia, the blacks seem constitutionally inclined to hyperpepsia.

The preference for rural life, and the love of quiet social intercourse and enjoyment, mainly distinguish the South from the North; in the latter section the want of domestic unostentatious sociableness has been much dwelt upon at times by the press; but excessive devotion to money-making and getting on in the world seems to have become an incurable habit. There are four national holidays New Year's Day, 4th of July, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day, though, in fact, Christmas is little noticed in the North, while

New Year's Day is not much kept at the South. In an article on this subject, headed, "Are we a happy people?" in a widely-read periodical, it was asked, "How can we get rid of the Fourth Holiday?" it being regarded as an inconvenient interruption: in towns, at least. And one-third of the people of the United States live in towns and cities: in the North, it must be nearly one-half; and in the South a large portion of the few town people live nearly half the year on their property in the country.

VI. POPULATION

Distribution in 18601

The census of 1860 showed several important facts regarding the growth of population during the previous decade and its distribution in 1860. The largest growth had been in the west and southwest, while in one state, Vermont, the increase in population had been less than one per cent. The center of population, however, was in the east, but moving steadily westward.

Though the number of States has increased during the last decennial period from thirty-one to thirty-four, and five new Territories have been organized, the United States has received no accessions of territory within that term, except a narrow strip to the southward of the Colorado river, along the Mexican line, not yet inhabited. As general good health prevailed, and peace reigned throughout the country, there was no apparent cause of disturbance or interruption to the natural progress of population. It is true that the very large immigration from Europe, together with an influx of considerable magnitude from Asia to California, has added largely to the augmentation which the returns show to have taken place during the decade. In comparing the gain of any class of the population, or of the whole of it, one decade with another, the rate per cent. is not a full test of advancement. The rate of gain necessarily diminishes with the density of population, while the absolute increase continues unabated. The actual increase of the entire free and slave population from 1850 to 1860, omitting the Indian tribes, was 8,225,464, and the rate per cent. is set down at 35.46; while from 1840 to 1850 the positive increment of all classes was 6,122,423, yet the ratio of gain was 35.87 per cent. The two decades from 1800 to 1810, and from 1840 to 1850, were marked by the great historical facts of the annexation of Louisiana, and the acquisition of Texas, New Mexico, and Cali

1 Preliminary Report on the Eighth Census, 1860 (Washington, 1862), 3–8.

fornia. Each of these regions contributed considerably to the population of the country, and we accordingly find that during those terms there was a ratio of increase in the whole body of the people greater by a small fraction than shown by the table annexed for the decade preceding the Eighth Census. The preponderance of gain, however, for that decennial term above all the others since 1790, is signally large. No more striking evidence can be given of the rapid advancement of our country in the first element of national progress than that the increase of its inhabitants during the last ten years is greater by more than 1,000,000 of souls than the whole population in 1810, and nearly as great as the entire number of people in 1820. That the whole of this gain is not from natural increase, but is, in part, derived from the influx of foreigners seeking here homes for themselves and their children, is a fact which may justly enhance rather than detract from the satisfaction wherewith we should regard this augmentation of our numbers.

Thus far in our history no State has declined in population. Vermont has remained nearly stationary, and is saved from a positive loss of inhabitants by only one-third of one per cent. New Hampshire, likewise, has gained but slowly, her increment being only 8,097, or two and one-half per cent. on that of 1850. Maine has made the satisfactory increase of 45,110, or 7.74 per cent. The old agricultural States may be said to be filled up, so far as regards the resources adapted to a rural population in the present condition of agricultural science. The conditions of their increase undergo a change upon the general occupation and allotment of their areas. Manufactures and commerce, then, come in to supply the means of subsistence to an excess of inhabitants beyond what the ordinary cultivation of the soil can sustain. This point in the progress of population has been reached, and, perhaps, passed in most, if not all, of the New England States. But while statistical science may demonstrate within narrow limits the number of persons who may extract a subsistence from each square mile of arable land, it cannot compute with any reasonable approach to certainty the additional population, resident on the same soil, which may obtain its living by the thousand branches of artificial industry which the demands of society and civilization have created. This is forcibly illustrated by the returns relative to the three other New England States - Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut which contain 13,780 square miles. The following table shows their population in 1850 and 1860, and its density at each period.