THE ASTONISHING GROWTH AND FUTURE OF THE UNITED STATES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 696, 16 August 1870, Page 4

THE ASTONISHING GROWTH AND FUTURE OF THE UNITED STATES.

(From the New York Hera'd.) The progress of the United States has no parallel in the history of na.ions. Nothing has been seen comparable to it either in material development or ia moral power. Less than a century ago there were but two to three millions of people, then forming remote dependencies of a monarchial and European power. Now the republic has a population of forty millions or more. For a long time even after the independence of the country was established the settled portion of it did not extend west of the Alleghany Mountains, except through a few little bands of pioneers mostly engaged in tho Indian and fur trade. Though a few sagacious statesmen had some scintillations of light as to what the country might become in the distant future, no one realised its rapid and wonderful growth. The stream of immigration from the Old World was steady in former times, it is true; but that was slow, and of course the natural increase of population could not within so short a time make the mighty empire we now see. Still the American statesmen of the early days, of the republic began to lay the foundations of a continental republican empire. The acquisition of Louisiana was a great event, and the first one to carry the people in large numbers to the immense and rich valley of the Mississippi. This was really the initial step to our wonderful territorial expansion and development. The ambition and national pride of our. people - received a powerful stimulus in that. The acquisition of Florida, of Texas, of California, of New Mexico and Arizona, and of Alaska, was but the sequel of that act, and followed the natural law of our development. But new agencies began to work in the course of time- to increase the population of the United States and to spread it over the Continent from the shores Of the Atlantic to the Pacific. The wonderful natural wealth, variety of products, cheap lands, free republican institutions, and . a glorious future, attracted the people of all nations from the Old World. A vast stream of immigration poured in and cultivated the soil, built up cities, and made the wilderness blossom as a rose. The redundant population of Europe, with the poverty, tyranny, and political troubles there, increased the volume of this immigration from year to jear, and it continues to swell more and more. Here was the home of the oppressed and poor, and here they could find a welcome and abundance. There is not a village or hamlet in Europe where, this fact is not known. Then came those mighty agents of modern civilisation and science — th« Press, steam power, and the magnetic telegraph— to ; increase knowledge, facilitate communication, and to inspire admiration for this great republican and conglomerate representative nation of the world. The late war startled mankind with the wonderful power and resources of the republic. It revealed the fact, of which we were hardly conscious ourselves before, that the United States is really the most powerful nation on the globe, and as regards foreign nations absolutely impregnable. Within the course of a few years railroads and telegraphs have covered like network the vast area of the interior and have spanned the Continent over a distance of thousands of miles. A national debt of enormous magnitude, created in four or five years, that would have overwhelmed any other nation under such circumstances, is to us comparatively a bagatelle, and is now. being paid olf at the rate of nearly a hundred millions of dollars a ..year. Such progress, such wealth and resources, and such power have never been known before.. All this, however, glorious. as it is, only foreshadows the mighty future of the republic. By the natural increase of population, and the euormous stream of immigration we shall have, probably, in thirty or thirty-five years, a hundred millions of people. The augmentation of Wealth will be still greater. Whatever difficulties we may labour under at present with regard to the development. of our mercantile ; marine, commerces and naval power, we have such resources, such a geographical position, and such harbours and vast seaboard, that we must, become the first maritime and commercial ination. Nothing can prevent) this. And what is thirty years in the life of a nation or, in history ? Other nations may and perhaps will advance under the new and progressive dispensation of modern science ;. but relatively they have not: the. - resources and means that we have. : Already we see the moral influence of American ideas and institutions upon Europe and the: rest of the world,; and. -the time ie not. distant when 4his country; will control^ indirectly,' if not directly, the <desti- ; nies of mankind.' ; There is i>ut one thing we need, and that is, statesmen who can comprehend the position we oocupy and the glorious future before in. Instead of being bound by the precedents \of the Old World or of the rpaat, we .should strike i out a- policy for ourselves in oonsonance with oup destinyi We 'should throw off the swaddling clothes that Europe has placed upon ub and assert lourmanhood,'. It is our destiny to give the law to nations, for the people everywhere are with us, and there is no use of resistance, if we be wise to to the moral and political power we /may .exercise. As to to the affairs .and;) intertfti of the American. Continent, this republic can do as .it wishes, and no one will presume to interfere. •■ ■ •.• ■<-■>■ ■ ■■• - ■ .•< •' •■• '•■