This illustrates the immense effect of area, as one of the great
elements influencing the progress of population. But wonderful as are
these results, the great fact is omitted in this calculation, that
Virginia, in 1790, had largely more than double the population of New
York. Thus, if we reverse the numbers of New York and Virginia in 1790,
and take the actual ratio of increase of each for the succeeding seventy
years, the population of Virginia, in 1860, would have been 728,875, and
that of New York, as we have seen, would have been 7,789,141, making the
difference exceed seven millions, or very largely more than ten to one.
Reverse the areas also, and the difference would exceed eight millions.
SHORE LINE.--As furnishing cheap and easy access for imports
and exports, creating marts for commerce with great cities, and
affecting the interior most beneficially, the shore line, with adequate
harbors, constitutes a vast element in the progress of states and
empires. Now, by the last tables of the United States Coast Survey, the
shore line of Virginia was 1,571 miles, and of New York 725 miles. The
five great parallel tide-water rivers of Virginia, the Potomac, the
Rappahannock, the York River, James River, and Roanoke (partly in North
Carolina), with their tributaries, furnish easy access for hundreds of
miles into the interior, with both shores of the noble Chesapeake Bay
for many miles, as well as its magnificent outlet and the main ocean for
a considerable distance, all within the limits of Virginia.
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