Switzerland
Great Britain

United States
Spain

Sardinia

Brazil

Belgium

Other countries

COUNTRIES OF DESTINATION.

1839.

1835. 1836. 1837. 1838. 1840. 41,000,000 46,200,000 43,000,000 49,200,000 40,800,000 55,500,000 33,400,000 39,700,000 24,400,000 46,000,000 34,700,000 44,500,000 41,800,000 63,300,000 29,300,000 34,500,000 66,100,000 40,400,000 12,100,000 14,900,000 13,200,000 13,600,000 14,000,000 14,500,000 8,500,000 8,600,000 7,300,000 9,200,000 8,800,000 8,600,000 4,800,000 6,500,000 5,300,000 4,600,000 5,800,000 7,700,000 5,400,000 5,500,000 6,100,000 5,200,000 3,700,000 3,500,000 11,500,000 19,700,000 19,000,000 20,600,000 18,600,000 21,600,000

Total francs, 158,500,000 204,400,000 147,600,000 182,900,000 192,500,000|196,300,000 This is a most remarkable table in many points of view, and illustrates the peculiarities which attend the trade of each country in a singular degree. We may instance Switzerland, England, and the United States. The first-mentioned has a steady and sound currency, with no protective tariffs. England and the United States have a fluctuating paper currency, which periodically inflates prices to an extraordinary extent. This was the case in 1836 and 1839. In that year of inflation it will be seen that the exports of Swiss goods rose more than 200 per cent, or f.44,000,000; of this f.22,000,000 was sent to the United States, and f.6,000,000 to England. Notwithstanding this enormous increase of exports, Switzerland increased her imports but f.5,000,000. England actually decreased her exports f.3,000,000, and the United States increased but f.4,000,000. The reason is evident, viz: the prices in Switzerland, under a steady currency, remained unchanged, while the enormous inflation in the United States and England favored the sale of her goods to an extraordinary extent, and at the same time prevented Switzerland from purchasing any more of their products. The same general features appertain to the whole trade of France, and indicate that it is destined to increase to a prodigious

extent.

ART. IV.-PROGRESS OF POPULATION AND WEALTH IN THE UNITED STATES IN FIFTY YEARS,

AS EXHIBITED BY THE DECENNIAL CENSUS TAKEN IN THAT PERIOD.

CHAPTER VI.

THE CENSUS OF 1840, being the SIXTH DECENNIAL ENUMERATION UNDER THE CONSTITUTION.

THE population was distributed under the same heads by this census as by that of 1830. This, however, also exhibits copious details of every branch of productive industry in the United States, by which we are furnished with authentic data for estimating the revenue and wealth of the Union, and the several states. They will be used for this purpose after the subject of population is disposed of.

The result of the census of 1840, as to population, may be seen in the five following tables,* viz:

* The four first tables having been already published in this work, are now omitted. See Merchants' Magazine, Vol. vi. No. 3, for March, 1842, pages 274, 275, 276, and 277.

* Add Seamen in United States service 6,100-grand total, 17,069,453.

The decennial increase since the census of 1830, was

The distribution of the different classes under this census, compared with that of 1830, was as follows, to wit:

If we compare the increase of numbers shown by this census with that shown by the census of 1830, by adding to the last the proportional increase for two months, we find that the ratio of increase had diminished in the last 10 years (33.92—32.67—) 1.25 per cent. But as the ratio of increase in the largest class, the whites, had, at the same time, experienced an increase, (equal to 0.14 per cent,) the diminution was proportionally enhanced in the two smaller classes, constituting the colored part of the population. Thus the increase of the free colored persons had fallen off from 34.85 to 20.88, or 13.97 per cent, and the slaves from 30.75 to 23.81, or 6.94 per cent.

These differences are so great, compared with any before experienced, as to cast a shade of suspicion over the accuracy of the last enumeration, if they were not capable of explanation.

First, As to the greater rate of increase of the whites. This class has experienced a small advance in its decennial increase since 1820, as, by the census of that year, it was 34.30 per cent, by the fifth census 34.52 per cent, and by the sixth 34.66 per cent. The progressive increase of ratio thus shown is to be ascribed to the known increase of immigration, which, as will be subsequently shown, has augmented at a rate beyond our indigenous multiplication, and which would have manifested itself much more sensibly in the two last enumerations, if there had not been a decline of the natural increase in the old settled states, and if the settlement of Texas had not furnished, for the first time, an instance of emigra tion of whites from the United States. We have no data for estimating the number of whites who have thus emigrated, but they probably have not been short of 50,000 since 1830, and may have reached to double that number; that is, the loss from this source may be from one half to one per cent of the white population in 1830.

Secondly, The smaller rate of increase of the colored population. This race has also lost by emigration. Slaves have been carried to Texas; some have escaped to the British dominions on this continent; and many free negroes are known to have migrated thither. This class has probably also received fewer accessions than formerly by emancipation. The zeal of abolitionists, by a natural reaction, has had the effect not only of making the holders of slaves less disposed to liberate them, but has also influenced the policy of some of the state legislatures, and created new difficulties in the way of emancipation. These circumstances have had the

greater comparative effect, because before the last ten years, and since 1810, the colored race had received no accessions from abroad, and had sustained little loss from emigration.

We have no means of estimating these separate influences, but we learn how great must have been their united effect when we find that if the increase of the free colored class had been as great in the last ten years, as in the ten preceding, their numbers would have been 44,650 more than it was at the late census; and that if the increase of the slaves had also continued the same, their number would have been 128,000 more than it seems to be at present. A diminution in the rate of decennial increase of the colored race so considerable as to be equivalent to 172,000 persons, may seem to some yet greater than can be reasonably ascribed to the conjoint effects of emigrations to Texas and to British America, and to the extraordinary mortality which was experienced by the slaves transported to the southwestern states during a part of the last decennial term; in which case, there seems to be no alternative but to question the accuracy of this part of the census.

The proportions between the sexes, in the several classes, were as follows, viz:

In the white population, the males exceed the females as 100 to 95.73 66 free colored " the females exceed the males as 107.14 to 100 slave 66 the males exceed the females as 100 to 99.55 The proportion of white males was greater than it was in 1830, but that of the colored males was less. The first difference was probably produced by the increased immigration of the whites, and the last by the greater emigration of the colored race-a greater proportion of those who migrate being commonly males.

The males and females of each class were thus distributed, according to age, viz:

The above proportions do not materially vary from those of the preceding census. The chief difference is, that in all the classes the proportion of those under ten years of age was less in 1840 than in 1830, as may be thus seen, viz:

The number of whites,

under 10 was, in 1830, 32.53 p'ct. in 1840, 31.63 p'ct.

Table showing the population in the slaveholding states, and how it was distributed among the three classes on the first of June, 1840.

TOTAL,..

2.92 33.67

7,334,434 4,682,640 215,568 2,486,226 63.41

It appears from the preceding table, that the whites, in the slaveholding states, have in the last ten years gained on both classes of the colored population; but that in Mississippi, as well as South Carolina and Louisiana, the number of slaves exceeds that of the white population.

21*