"Westward the star of empire moves."
Ohio welcomed its first permanent settlers in 1788, and now it is
occupied by nearly 2,000,000 of people. Michigan obtained its first
immigrants but fourteen or fifteen years ago, and now has a population
of 300,000. Indiana, admitted into the Union in 1816, has since then
received a population of more than half a million, and now numbers
nearly a million of inhabitants. Illinois became a State in 1818. From
that date its population trebled every ten years till the last census
of 1840, and since then has risen from 476,000 to about 900,000.
Missouri, which in 1810 had only 20,800 people, has now 600,000, having
increased 50 per cent. in six years. Iowa was scarcely heard of a dozen
years ago. It is now a State, and about 150,000 people call its land
their home. Wisconsin was organized but twelve years ago, and has now a
population of not less than 200,000. One portion of its territory, 33
miles by 30, which ten years before was an unbroken wilderness,
numbered even in 1846 87,000 inhabitants; and the emigration to the
"Far West" is now greater than ever.
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