On the south we have extended to the Gulf of Mexico, and
in the west from the Mississippi to the Pacific.
One hundred years ago the cotton gin, the steamship, the railroad, the
telegraph, the reaping, sewing, and modern printing machines, and
numerous other inventions of scarcely less value to our business and
happiness were entirely unknown.
In 1776 manufactories scarcely existed even in name in all this vast
territory. In 1870 more than 2,000,000 persons were employed in
manufactories, producing more than $2,100,000,000 of products in amount
annually, nearly equal to our national debt. From nearly the whole of
the population of 1776 being engaged in the one occupation of
agriculture, in 1870 so numerous and diversified had become the
occupation of our people that less than 6,000,000 out of more than
40,000,000 were so engaged. The extraordinary effect produced in our
country by a resort to diversified occupations has built a market for
the products of fertile lands distant from the seaboard and the markets
of the world.
The American system of locating various and extensive manufactories
next to the plow and the pasture, and adding connecting railroads
and steamboats, has produced in our distant interior country a result
noticeable by the intelligent portions of all commercial nations.
Pages:
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675