Page:The Galaxy, Volume 6.djvu/72



T is a familiar assertion, but one to which each new step taken in the civilization of the globe adds fresh pungency and force, that the geographical position of the United States of America, both as regards interior development and foreign commerce, is superior to that of any other nation in the world. A country extending from latitude 25 deg. to 49 deg. North, and from longitude 75 deg. to 125 deg. West, not only contains climates to suit all temperaments, but comprises an area (including the lately acquired possessions in the far North-west) of 2,208,900,000 acres. This vast territory is filling up with emigrants from all parts of the world, bringing their money and household effects, and their hardy frames and muscles wherewith to open up the wealth that lies buried in the mountains and valleys of the land. Germans, Irish, French, Scotch, Americans, vie with each other to see who shall push farthest the bound of civilization.

The enormous strides made by the United States—a nation not a century old—are, of course, due to the fact that it came into existence during an age of progress. "Brother Jonathan" has surely lived longer than old Noah, who, in his 950 years, saw only forty days and nights of events which caused him any excitement or promised the least progress. I think the chances are that the hundreds of years passed by those antediluvians upon earth, were spent in a kind of lethargy, and that instead of advancing they were often set back.

Annual statistics almost bewilder the reader with their exhibit of material wealth that yearly flows into our possession, while cities are springing up as if by magic, where but yesterday the antelope and the buffalo divided with the savage the sovereignty of a wilderness. The general mineral resources of the United States are doubtless greater than those of any country on the globe; but its inexhaustible coal mines, with the measureless wealth they contain or represent, are worthy of special comment. The coal fields already discovered cover an area of 200,000 square miles—that is to say, twelve and a half times more than is to be found in the aggregate coal deposits of Great Britain, France, Belgium, Prussia, Bohemia, Saxony, Spain, and Russia.

The possession of these immense deposits of coal at once betokens and assures future enterprise in America to an extent practically beyond limit. Such an agent at hand to produce power on land and sea, and applicable to all improved mechanism, becomes the symbol of the national strength of the Republic. Through it, iron roads are belting the country in all directions, and the locomotive whistle is frightening the Indian's game from the prairies. It keeps in motion hundreds of thousands of spinning jennies, which turn raw material into articles of luxury and of necessity. To it is due the rapid transfer of merchandise in peace, and in war the transportation of armies and navies; changing the whole character of warfare, accelerating events, deciding the fate of battles, and the destiny of