America, at Jamestown; in 1620 the Pilgrims began their far-famed experiment at Plymouth. What a change from 1608 to 1854! It is not in my power to determine the number of immigrants before the Revolution. There was a great variety of nationalities—Dutch in New York, Germans in Pennsylvania and Georgia, Swedes and Finns in Delaware, Scotch in New England and North Carolina, Swiss in Georgia; Acadians from Nova Scotia; and Huguenots from France.
America has now a stable form of government. Her pyramid is not yet high. It is only humble powers that she develops, no great creative spirit here as yet enchants men with the wonders of literature and art;—but her foundation is wide and deeply laid. It is now easy to see the conditions and the causes of her success. The conditions are, the new continent, a virgin soil to receive the seed of liberty; the causes were, first, the character of the tribe, and next, the liberal institutions founded thereby.
The rapid increase of America in most of the elements of national power, is a remarkable fact in the history of mankind.
Look at the increase of numbers. In 1689, the entire population of the English colonies, exclusive of the Indians, amounted to about 200,000. Twenty-five years later there were 434,000, now 24,000,000.[1]
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Table of Population in 1715. Colonies. Whites. Negroes. Total. New Hampshire 9,500 150 9,650 Massachusetts 94,000 2,000 96,000 Rhode Island 8,500 500 9,000 Connecticut 46,000 1,500 47,500 New York 27,000 4,000 31,000 New Jersey 21,000 1,500 22,500 Pennsylvania and Delaware 43,300 2,500 45,800 Maryland 40,700 9,500 50,200 Virginia 72,000 23,000 95,000 North Carolina 7,500 3,700 11,200 South Carolina 6,250 10,500 16,750 375,750 58,850 134,600
