Nashville Union And American

THE PROGRESS OF THE NORTHWEST.

A day or two since we published a paragraph, showing the probable strength, by the next apportionment, of the northwestern States in the House of Representatives. The statement placed Illinois next to Ohio on the list. By the census of 1850, Illinois had an aggregate population of 851,000. In 1856, it has by actual census, over 1,350,000; a gain of half a million of souls in about five years. Illinois had been for many years a State, and acquired somewhat the character of a well settled region, and had lost in a great measure the charm of novelty. Emigration had set towards Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, etc, and Illinois seemed, like the wild districts of western New York and Pennsylvania, to be passed over by it. Suddenly a change came over the prospects of the State. The building of extended systems of railways was undertaken and carried on with wonderful rapidity and success, and the result is visible in the marvellous increase in the population. Iowa had in the year 1850 only 192,000 inhabitants. In 1856, the total is about 600,000, being treble the aggregate of the national census. Iowa has been ten years a State. Yet its progress seemed comparatively slow up to 1850. Then it took a start. Emigration which had been before chiefly directed to other quarters, poured into Iowa in such a steady and uninterrupted tide, that the whole State is swarming with new settlers. The same spectacle is to be seen in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

There is no difficulty in arriving at the causes which have produced these results. The construction of vast chain of railways leading to the banks of the Mississippi from the northern seaboard, has rendered emigration now far cheaper and easier than formerly, so that the migratory family, instead of marching wearily at the tail of a wagon over a long and toilsome road, now goes by railway in a couple of days. Chicago, too, has risen to commercial greatness just in time to supply the necessaries of the Northwest. It serves as a grand stimulant to the progress of settlement, by furnishing an accessible market for all the produce which can be raised by the agriculturist. Under such circumstances, and with railways in process of construction over Iowa, to supply all the wants of that State, it is no wonder that emigrants rush into that thriving commonwealth in great numbers. When the land grants shall be made available to those iron arteries of trade, and the land offices be re-opened for the sale of land, we shall doubtless see an unprecedented rush.

A hen with one chicken does more scratching than if she were blessed with a family of fifteen.

The less a man does the more fuss he makes.