He pointed to the west as the
route to the east--the long-sought way to India; and, in
imagination, he outlined the states to be laid off "from the center
of the valley of the Mississippi to the foot of the shining
mountains." "It is time," he wrote, "that Western men had some share
in the destinies of this republic." [Footnote: Meigs, Benton, 98,
99, cf. 91.]
CHAPTER IX
THE CRISIS OF 1819 AND ITS RESULTS (1819-1820)
In 1820 the United States had a population of about nine and one-
half millions; in 1830, nearly thirteen millions. It was spread out
from east to west like a page in the history of society. On the
Atlantic seaboard were the centers of American civilization that had
grown up in colonial days in close touch with Europe. From this
region of commerce and manufacture, the nation, on its march towards
the west, changed through successive types of industrial life until
in the Rocky Mountains the frontier fur-trader mingled with the
Indians. The successive stages of social evolution which at first
were exhibited in narrow belts on the Atlantic coast had now spread
nearly across the continent.
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