Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/812

782 ratified by the necessary number of States, and became a part of the constitution (1870). Ratification of it was imposed as an additional condition on Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas, which had rejected the original terms of readmission. They accepted it, and were readmitted (1870). It was not until January 30, 1871, that all the States were once more represented in Congress.

310. The foreign affairs of the United States during this period took on a new appearance. The country's promptness in disarming at the end of the war put it under no disadvantage in dealing with other nations; power and pacific intentions were united in the act. The successful completion of the Atlantic cable (1866) gave a celerity and directness to diplomacy which was well suited to American methods. The tone of American complaint at the continued presence of French soldiers in

Mexico grew more emphatic as the success of the war became assured; and, at the end of the war, significant movements of troops to the Mexican frontier led the French emperor to withdraw his support of Maximilian.

Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867. The treaty

of Washington (1871) provided for the settlement by arbitration of the “Alabama” disputes, of the north-western boundary, and of the claims of Canada for damages for use of the shore by American fishermen.

The capture by a Spanish man-of-war of the “Virginius,” a vessel claiming American nationality, and the execution of a part of her crew (1873), threatened to interrupt friendly relations with Spain; but the rupture was averted

by proof that the vessel's papers were false. Chinese immigration had grown largely on the Pacific coast. There were riotous attacks on the Chinese by worthless white men; and many others did not feel that they were a desirable political addition to the population of the United States. A treaty with China was obtained (1880), by which the limitation of Chinese immigration was allowed.

So, also, the raising of money in the United States to assist the destruction of private and public buildings in England by some of the more desperate of the Irish people (1885) gave England reason for discontent. But the American Government had no power in the premises. The matter was under the exclusive jurisdiction of the State Governments; and, as soon as these began to apply the common law to the case, the “dynamite subscriptions” disappeared. Further difficulties made their appearance as to the Canadian fisheries (1886-87). When American

fishing-vessels bought ice or bait in Canadian ports, the Canadian Government seized and condemned them, on the ground that such purchases were acts “preparatory to fishing in Canadian waters.” Retaliatory measures were suggested, but no full retaliatory system has been adopted, nor has the dispute yet been settled (1887).

311. The prosperity of the United States knew no

cessation. It had been found that gold was not confined to California. In 1858 it had been discovered in Colorado, at Pike's Peak. It has since been found in most of

the Pacific States and Territories. Silver, a metal hardly known hitherto in the United States, was discovered in Nevada (1858); and this metal also has been found to be

widely scattered over the Pacific coast. Petroleum was found in north-western Pennsylvania (1859), and the enormous drain of this oil from the earth still continues

without apparently affecting the reservoir. The coal-fields of the country began to be understood clearly. Taylor, in 1848, thought that the coal-area of the United States amounted to 133,000 square miles; it was estimated in

1883 at over 200,000 square miles. Natural gas has since come into use, and has made production of many kinds

cleaner, more effective, and cheaper. Manufactures and every variety of production have increased with cumulative

rapidity. In 1860 the largest flouring-mill in the United States was in Oswego, N.Y., the next two in Richmond, Va., and the fourth in New York city; and the capacity of the largest was only 300,000 barrels a year. In 1887 the flour production of Minneapolis, almost unknown in 1860, is 100,000 barrels a week or 5,000,000 barrels a year. The absolute free trade which prevails between the States has resulted in a constant shifting of centres of production, a natural arrival at the best conditions of production, and an increasing development. Mulhall, perhaps safer as a foreign authority, gives the total manufactures of the United States as £682,000,000 in 1870 and £888,000,000 in 1880, Great Britain coming next with £642,000,000 in 1870 and £758,000,000 in 1880. He

estimates the accumulated wealth of Great Britain at £8,310,000,000 in 1870 and £8,960,000,000 in 1880, an increase of £650,000,000, and that of the United States at £6,320,000,000 in 1870 and £7,880,000,000 in 1880, an increase of £1,560,000,000. If he had followed the American census returns his value for 1880 would have been 25 per cent. larger. In 1870 the United States stood third in wealth; in 1880 they had passed France in the race, and stood at least second. The country whose population has been developed within 280 years does already one-third of the world's mining, one-fourth of its manufacturing, and one-fifth of its agriculture; and at least one-sixth of the world's wealth is already concentrated in the strip of territory in central North America which is the home of the United States.

312. Of the 290,000 miles of railroad in the world, probably 135,000 are in the United States. Of the 600,000 miles of telegraph lines, more than a fourth are in the United States; and the American telephone lines are probably still longer in the aggregate. The new

development of the American railways began in 1869, when Vanderbilt consolidated the Hudson River and New York Central Railroads and formed a trunk line to the west. It was undoubtedly hastened by the completion of the Central Pacific line in that year, and it has resulted in a universal tendency to consolidation of railways and the evolution of “systems,” under combined managements (§ 273). The coincident introduction of Bessemer steel rails, the steady increase of weight carried by trains, and concentrated competition have reduced railway freight rates through the whole of this period. The average rates per ton per mile were 1.7 cents in New York in 1870 and 0.8 in 1880, 2.4 cents in Ohio in 1870 and 0.9 in 1880. The persistent effects of such a process on the industries of so large a country can hardly be described.

313. The extraordinary stimulus given to a new territory, if it has any basis for production, by the introduction of a new railway, is also quite beyond description. Most of the Western railways have had to build up their own traffic; the railway has been built, and the sales of lands have afterward brought into existence the towns and even States which are to support it. Nebraska was described in the Government reports of 1854 as a desert country, hopelessly unfitted for agriculture, and the maps of the time put it down as a part of the “Great American Desert.” It is now one of the leading agricultural States of the Union, with a population of a million; and Dakota is waiting only for the legal form of admission to become a State. The profits of railway construction, the opportunities for skilful management in the development of territory, and the spice of gambling which permeated the whole were great temptations to Americans to embark in the business. The miles of railway constructed per annum, which had been from 1000 to 3000 (averaging about 1500 miles) for the period 1859-68, rose to 4615 miles in 1869, to 6070 miles in 1870, and to 7379 miles