Rise of the New West, 1819-1829 | Page 6

F.J. Turner
England had a population of almost unmixed English origin,
contrasting sharply, in this respect, with the other sections. [Footnote:
For the characteristics of New England in colonial times, see Tyler,
England in America, chaps, xviii., xix.; Andrews, Colonial
Self-Government, chaps, xviii., xix.; Greene, Provincial America,
chaps, xii., xiii., xvi.-xviii.; Bassett, Federalist System, chaps, xi., xiii.
(Am. Nation, IV., V., VI., XI.)].
With these peculiarities, New England often played an important
sectional role, not the least effective instance of which had been her
independent attitude in the War of 1812. [Footnote: Babcock, Am.
Nationality (Am. Nation, XIII.), chap. ix.] By 1820, not only were
profound economic and social changes affecting the section, but its
relative importance as a factor in our political life was declining.
[Footnote: Adams, United States, IX., chaps, iv., vii.] The trans-
Allegheny states, which in 1790 reported only a little over one hundred
thousand souls, at a time when New England's population was over one
million, had in 1820 reached a population of nearly two millions and a
quarter, while New England had not much over a million and a half.
Ten years later, the latter section had less than two millions, while the
western states beyond the Alleghenies had over three millions and a
half, and the people northwest of the Ohio River alone numbered nearly
a million and a half. In 1820 the total population of New England was
about equal to the combined population of New York and New Jersey;

but its increase between 1820 and 1830 was hardly three hundred
thousand, not much over half that of New York, and less than the gain
of Ohio. If Maine, the growing state of the group, be excluded, the
increase of the whole section was less than that of the frontier state of
Indiana. "Our New England prosperity and importance are passing
away," wrote Webster at the beginning of the period. [Footnote:
McMaster, Webster, 90.]
Were it not that New England was passing through a series of
revolutionary economic changes, not fully appreciated at that time,
doubtless the percentage of her growth would have been even more
unfavorable. As it was, the rise of new manufactures helped to save her
from becoming an entirely stationary section. In the course of the
preceding two decades, New England's shipping industry had reached
an extraordinary height, by reason of her control of the neutral trade
during the European wars. The close of that period saw an apparent
decline in her relative maritime power in the Union, but the shipping
and commercial interests were still strong. New England possessed half
the vessels owned in the United States and over half the seamen.
Massachusetts alone had a quarter of the ships of the nation and over a
third of the sailors. [Footnote: Pitkin, Statistical View (ed. of 1835),
350.] Of the exports of the United States in 1820, the statistics gave to
New England about twenty per cent., nine-tenths of which were from
Massachusetts. [Footnote: Shaler, United States, I., chap, x.;
MacGregor, Commercial Statistics of America, 41, 58, 63, 72, 126,
133.] This is rather an under-estimate of the share of New England,
because a portion of the commerce fitted out by her capital and her
ships sought the harbor of New York.
Great as was New England's interest in the commercial policy of the
United States, the manufactures of the section rose to such importance
in the course of this decade that the policy of the section was divided.
The statistics of the manufactures of the United States at the beginning
and at the end of the period were so defective that little dependence can
be placed upon them for details. But the figures for New England were
more complete than for the other regions; the product of her cotton
mills increased in value from two and one-half million dollars in 1820

to over fifteen and one-half millions in 1831; and her woolen products
rose from less than a million dollars to over eleven million dollars. In
Massachusetts alone, in the same years, the increase in cottons was
from about seven hundred thousand dollars to over seven million seven
hundred thousand dollars; and in woolens, from less than three hundred
thousand dollars to over seven million three hundred thousand dollars.
[Footnote: See Secretary of Treasury, Report, 1854-1855, PP-, 87-92;
"Treasury Report," in House Exec. Docs., 22 Cong., i Sess., I., No.
308.]
In brief, the period witnessed the transfer of the industrial center of
gravity from the harbors to the water-falls, from commerce and
navigation to manufactures. Besides the textile mills of Rhode Island
and Connecticut, the Merrimac mills grew rapidly around Lowell,
Massachusetts; the water-powers of New Hampshire became the sites
of factory towns, and the industrial revolution which, in the time of the
embargo, began to transfer industries from
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