At the time of the
inauguration of Washington in 1789, the center of population of the entire
country was thirty miles east of Baltimore. The progress of settlements
westward, which had already begun in the last period, became in an
increasing degree one of the remarkable events in the history of the world.
We may observe that the second war with England (1812) resulted in welding
the Union more closely together and in giving it more prestige abroad. We
should next note the unparalleled material development of the country; the
opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, the rapid extension of steamboats on
rivers, the trial of the first steam locomotive in 1828, the increased
westward movement of population, which reached California in 1849, several
hundred years ahead of schedule time, as those thought who prophesied
before the introduction of steam. The story of the material progress of the
country sounds like a new _Arabian Nights' Tale_.
The administration of Andrew Jackson (1829-1837) is really the beginning of
the modern history of the United States. The change during these years was
due more to steam than to any other single cause. At the beginning of his
administration, there were no steam railroads, but fifteen hundred miles
were in operation before the end of his second term.
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