Census of 1860 [pp. 226-242]

230 Census of 1860. [APRIL
through the gorges of the Rocky Mountains, and to roll down
the Pacific slope.
If, since the year 1790, the average rate of increase of our
population has never been less than 33 per cent., or one-third
every ten years, then taking this as the rate of increase in the
future, and leaving out of view the possible effects of the present
civil war on our population, we have in round numbers the following results:
A. D. 1860, the population was,... 31,000,000
18T0, the population will be,... 41,300,000
" 1880,... 55,060,000
189Q... 73,410,000
" 1900,... 97,8dQ000
If in 1820, forty years ago, any one then old enough to be
acquainted with the simple rules of arithmetic, had applied the
above rule to ascertain the probable population in 1860, the
result reached would have been 30,461,116; almost a million
less than the census shows. ~Te may therefore safely set down
100,000,000 for A. D. 1900. llumboldt, as late as 1823,
estimated the entire population of the whole American continent at 34,942,000; onlv a bout three millions more than the
present population of the United States. The progress of our
country has clearly unfolded the principles on which the multiplication of human beings depends, and has demonstrated
that a prosperous community, possessing abundance of unoccupied land, will double its numbers in about twenty-three years.
The agricultural facilities and salubrity of climate of these
United States are equal to those of any portion of tbe globe of
similar extent. Of the eastern continent we cannot find that
the productive soil constitutes more than one-third, and of that
third a part is poor. Should the density of population here
ever equal that of Europe, (110 to each square mile,) the population would exceed 350,000,000. Should it only equal that
of New England, it would exceed 165,000,000. It is an interesting fact that in the colony of Connecticut the governor was
of opinion, in 1682, that all the land which was fit had been
taken up already. Connecticut had then only 10,000 inhabi