CHAPTER III.

AMERICAN COLONIES-GENERAL DESCRIPTION-COMPARISON -BOUNDARIES OF THE UNITED STATES IN 1783 BOUNDARIES IN 1849-AMERICAN SYSTEM-SOME RESULTS POWER OF CONGRESS AS TO WASTE LANDS. STATES AN ORDINANCE QUOTED

TERRITORIES

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS.

HAVING thus rapidly described the one scheme of

colonization to which at the outset I alluded, I now proceed to the exposition of the second scheme, from which I wish to derive instruction.

This second scheme of colonization is that which the United States have adopted and acted upon, since they became an independent and sovereign people. The colonies which they have planted are the new states, which, since 1783, have been added to the union, and the territories which are now in progress towards that position.

These new states, though while in the condition of colonies (which they are while they continue TERRITORIES) they look to the United States as their metropolis, yet receive, as did the colonies, while subject to our sway, emigrants from other nations. The leading mind has, almost in every instance, been furnished by the New England States, the greater part, perhaps, of the population, by the British Isles.

The constitution of the United States contemplates distinctly, and provides for the colonization of the immense unpeopled wastes which belong to the nation called the United States; and contemplates not only the colonization of these wild regions, but also the change of the communities so formed, from the condition of colonies into that of sovereign states, and the reception of them into the great Federal Union, when they become integral portions of the great Empire, known to foreign powers as the United States of America.

So soon as the United States became in fact independent, and were so acknowledged by England in the year 1783, two great questions arose, which are intimately connected with our present subject. The one was, what were the boundaries of the several states? and the second, those having been determined, what was to be done with the immense territory which lay beyond the boundaries of the several states-territories which belonged to no one of them, but was the property of the political entity styled the United States.*

GENERAL DESCRIPTION AND COMPARISON.

The result of the determinations of the statesmen of the United States, and the comparison of that result with that brought about by the doings of English states

*I am not required on the present occasion to enter into any description of the disputes which arose among the separate States on the subject of these wild lands, nor of the intricate questions to which the complication of state interests gave rise. Those disputes are hardly yet arranged, and constitute a part, and no inconsiderable or insignificant part, of the difficulties which lay in the way of congress, when forming their colonial systems-a difficulty which England has escaped hitherto.

men on the same continent, with respect precisely to the same matters, and within precisely the same period, constitute one of the most instructive, though to us the most humiliating parallels which our annals afford. If such another could be discovered, we might indeed tremble for the future destiny of England.*

A line drawn across the continent, from the Atlantic on the one side to the Pacific on the other—a line which for a large portion of the whole distance, takes the course of the great waters which form the chain of the great lakes, divides the whole of what may be termed North America into two parts; one of whichviz., the portion of the continent lying south of this line, belongs to the United States; while the other-viz., that lying to the north, is the property of England. The first or southern portion is certainly, in almost every particular, superior to the northern portion of this vast continent. The great advantages derived from this superiority of climate, soil, and means of communication, have undoubtedly much aided the American statesmen, and in no small degree contributed to the success which they have obtained in this mighty strife. Making, however, every allowance for the advantage conferred by the natural superiority of the territory itself, still there is much to be accounted for, which can only have resulted from the difference of the system adopted on the two sides of this long boundary line.

* I am not now speaking of what England achieved before 1783, butsince. Leaving the consideration of our old colonies, as colonies, I now proceed to speak of British North America, as at present existing, and of our doings there since 1783, by way of contrast to the American colonies formed since the same year.

The northern shores of the great internal waters which find their outlet to the sea by means of the magnificent St. Lawrence, are for the most part equal to the southern shores of the same waters. The natural capabilitiesthe mineral wealth, for example of the English territory have been as yet but imperfectly inquired into. Our rulers have been at no pains to learn what could be accomplished in those vast regions, yet wild and without inhabitants; so that no plan for the future settlement could be formed, and has indeed never been thought of, except, I believe, in one instance, which will hereafter be related. Still, we know thus much. The land is fertile, is capable of maintaining an enormous population,—and fit to be the comfortable and happy home of many millions. It is nevertheless still, for the greater part, a howling wilderness. Since the year 1783, no new state or province has been formed. Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward's Island, lie north of the boundary. They existed in 1783. Since that year, the population has slowly increased; so slowly, indeed, that at this moment we have not two millions of people in the whole of the provinces which constitute what is called British North America.*

* I have lying before me an account of the population of all British North America in 1833. It is as follows:

Hudson's Bay is still a mere hunting ground; and no scheme of colonization in North America has ever yet been entertained by English statesmen, beyond the sending out a few thousand settlers, and placing them within a few miles of existing settlements. Canada has been divided and reunited, and for aught any one knows, may be again divided. For in our colonial legislation, "chance governs all." But no system exists which contemplates extension; no new communities or provinces have been created. The population, though thousands have gone out every year, has not increased at a rate much beyond what the natural rate of increase would have reached: and this strange, torpid, wretched condition of things exists actually in sight of another, which I will thus in a few words describe.

When the United States became independent, in 1783, the territories of Great Britain bounded them on the north; the Mississippi was their western boundary ; and on the south, Florida hemmed them completely in. The Atlantic ran along their whole eastern frontier. Within this square, the whole of the United States' territories were then confined.* Their present boundaries are very different. Their northern, which is our southern boundary, runs now from the Atlantic, commencing at the south-eastern point of Nova Scotia, to the Pacific Ocean, where Cape Flattery forms the north-western point. The western boundary commences where the

* See the treaty of 1783, of peace with America, and that of 1763, of peace with France, for these boundaries. The free navigation of the Mississippi was, by the treaty of 1783, assured both to England and the United States for ever.