souls. This estimate is considerably under that of many of the writers of those times, and particularly that of Sir William Petty'. (8) Now, supposing that there had not proceeded to the shores of North America, from that period to the present hour, one single emigrant, (an assumption not more false or extravagant than, as it will be seen, are many of those upon which the geometric theory professes to be built,) there ought, according to the 66 very slowest rate of increase" it admits, and which its advocates are so "perfectly sure is far within the truth," to have been in 1826 sixteen millions of Anglo-Americans in the United States, whereas there were, in 1820, far less than half that number, namely, 7,861,710 whites, including people and their descendants of every kindred, nation, and tongue, of the civilized world. (9) But during this whole period, a tide of emigration has set in from the Old World to the New, and which for several generations past has not been poured from the mother country only, but has been swelled by the contributions of every nation in Europe. In behalf of the system I am controverting, the effect of this emigration on the increase of the population has been attempted to be disputed in every possible way; by totally denying its existence, as in the case of the New England States; by underrating its amount when it is adverted to *; and, finally, and more particularly, by concluding that it is immaterial, in its consequences, as to the question at issue. Assertions like these, dictated by the false philosophy I am opposing, have been too congenial to the feelings of the country concerning which they have been put 2 1 Petty, Polit. Arithmetic, p. 257. Malthus, Essay on Population, p. 5. 3 Ibid., p. 338. 4 Ibid., p. 339, note. 5 Ibid., p. 339. forth, not to be eagerly adopted and reiterated from thence; till the theory of American increase, independently of emigration, is now held to be an incontrovertible fact, and demonstrative of the principle of population as soon as it is stated. It is one, however, which we proceed to prove is founded on statements and suppositions utterly erroneous in every possible point of view. 432 CHAPTER V. OF EMIGRATION TO NORTH AMERICA. ITS (1) THE mere enunciation of the early population of the British Colonies having totally destroyed the sole proof of the geometric theory, and shewn that the population of America has not doubled, as asserted, every five-and-twenty years, by all the means that have contributed to its increase, much less by procreation only, it may, perhaps, seem unnecessary to pursue the argument, at least as it regards that part of the world, any further. But, as the theory in question is fraught with a variety of explanations, and is described in its effects as subject to the influences of “tendencies and oscillations," which might easily adjust it to another, and a somewhat lengthened term of duplication, founding thereon a fresh series of "demonstrations," as they are called, in its favour; it appears necessary to take a more precise and particular view of the subject, in order to satisfy ourselves whether any, and how great a part, of the increase which has actually taken place, has been attributable to a cause, the material effect of which its advocates necessarily and strenuously deny; I mean, continued emigration. A brief examination of this subject will give us a more clear and comprehensive view of the nature of American population, and of its progress, and will also prepare the way for other inquiries, closely connected with the general argument. (2) It is somewhat singular, that nearly all the American writers, few of whom could reckon two pure American descents, almost unanimously pronounce the increase of their population to be wholly independent of emigration, and, therefore, can reckon with great precision when they shall attain to the sovereignty of the ocean, and the consequent command of the world. Thus, Mr. Jefferson informs us, in his Notes on Virginia, that all their importations had ceased in his State in 16541. The historian of Vermont seems never to have acknowledged any whatever. That of Connecticut is very jealous, even about the original peopling of that colony; denying that it was founded from Massachusetts; and asserting, that since the year 1760, the emigrations from Europe, or elsewhere, to Connecticut, have been trifling, in comparison to the emigrations from Connecticut to New Jersey, New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Nova Scotia, &c.; and, that it nevertheless doubles ten times in less than a century3. Governor Hutchinson informs us, that the importations of settlers to New England, generally, had ceased in 1640; since which time, as in the case of Connecticut, "more persons," he says, "have " removed out of New England to other parts of the "world than have come from other parts to it." (3) Mr. Malthus takes up the last passage, but deduces from it a very contrary conclusion to his authority, as has been already shewn as he attempts to prove therefrom, that the inhabitants in the New England States have gone on doubling every five-and-twenty years. He seems, however, as he proceeds in his pretended demonstration, to desert New England, and to 1 Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, p. 138. 2 Dr. Williams, Hist. Vermont, passim. VOL. I. 3 Hist. Connecticut, p. 263. 4 Hutchinson, Hist. Massachusetts Bay, vol. i., p. 93. 2 F transfer his argument to the United States generally: and though several of those States have been founded since the period at which he starts, and by emigration exclusively, still he omits all consideration of emigration whatsoever, till, I think, 1784, at which time, and thenceforward, he pronounces it to be (how erroneously remains to be seen) immaterial. And yet the geometric ratio cannot, after all, be made up. On such a rotten foundation is the pretended principle of population erected. (4) I shall proceed to take a hasty and imperfect sketch of the history of emigration, from the period at which, in respect to some of the States, we are so confidently assured that it had ceased, down to the date of the last American census: imperfect and hasty it must necessarily be, as I am not in possession of all the authorities I could have wished to consult on the subject, nor have I sufficient leisure fully to examine those I possess. Moreover, were all the notices of emigration, direct or incidental, which are so profusely scattered over the records of the intervening times, collected before me, and could I present them entire to the reader, still the whole would only be so many evidences of the existence of emigration, instead of amounting to any proof of its actual extent. The great mass of those deportations has, as I conceive, been made up of those individual removals which were constantly taking place, and were little likely to attract the attention of the historian, though, in their consequences, they have not always escaped that of the statesman. It is not the perpetual recurrence of the genial showers, but the rarer visitations of the hurricane and the inundation, that are recorded; though the latter are as nothing compared with the former, in distributing the copious moisture that re |