The Rhode Island American, And General Advertiser

POLITICAL.

FROM THE SALEM REGISTER.

THE WESTERN STATES.

The population of the western country daily becomes a more interesting concern. The progress has been worthy of the enlightened zeal bestowed upon it. Of its commencement we have a concise and clear view from ImLay, who had a military commission in the country, and was a commissioner for laying out the lands in the back settlements. He tells us, that the military operations of 1760 opened to the publick view these then unknown regions. That the peace of Paris in 1763, by the cession of Florida and of the lands east of the Mississippi; with the navigation of that river, encouraged visits to the country, and some places on the Ohio became known. Before the Revolution, some places had been settled on the eastern side of the Mississippi, above and below the Natches, some troops were in the Illinois, and on the Wabash, at St. Vincent, a post now known as the capital of Indiana, under the name of Vincennes. During the war, a settlement was formed on the Cumberland river, back of North-Carolina, which began the Tennessee settlements, as from Virginia had begun the Kentucky settlements on the Ohio. Such was the state of things in 1780. Just before the peace of 1783, Virginia had provided for the government of its western settlements, and the spirit of independence soon discovered itself. In 1780, surveys had been made on the Muskingum, and in 1787 began the settlements upon the western side of the Ohio. We have now the commencement of the western States. As the settlements extended on the Ohio, they successively claimed the privileges of the Constitution. Next to the Ohio, we saw Indiana arise, and extending to the banks of the Ohio, we find Illinois rising to the same privileges. North of these settlements, on the Lakes, the State of Michigan appears. In the south, the purchase of Louisiana gave new hopes. The Upper and Lower Louisiana appear, and on the eastern side of the Mississippi, already Mississippi and Alabama have their claims, till another division give the better accommodation of a rapidly increasing population. West-Florida is already in our possession, as is the capital of East-Florida. Foreign negotiation is to determine whether a union of the whole with the States is to be the return of that blessing which was so welcome in the peace of 1763. In the census of 1800 the population of the States exceeded five millions, and in the next in 1810, it exceeded seven millions, giving an increase of two millions in round numbers. At the former of these census, the west contained nearly half a million, but in the next the population had doubled. In the Territories then reported, but since become States, it was necessary that one should more than double, another required more than a third, while another was deficient in several thousands. It is now confessed that these numbers have been supplied, while the States formed before the last census have proceeded with a rapidity not at first imagined, being from 6 to 10 times as numerous as was contemplated in their claims to be independent States. We have seen nothing like this in any other population, by any other nation in America.