States in 1810, more than double that of Scotland, and more than twice the population of Australia, now paying annually ninety millions of dollars interest to England on loans of English capital invested there. Meanwhile, ten thousand square miles of the most fertile region of Carolina does not to-day average as many inhabitants to the square mile as are to be found in each house of the old town of Edinburg. Practically, therefore, in these regards, the natural advantages and capacities of South Carolina may be said to be unlimited. Whatever her future increase may be, it will suffer no let or hindrance on these accounts, but will depend upon the degree in which she can succeed in establishing and maintaining cordial relations with the other States and nations of Christendom. Freed finally and forever from all that in the past has so heavily shackled their intercourse with outsiders, the polity of her people has taken a new and vigorous departure; they have thrown their gates wide open to all comers; aid and welcome is extended to immigrants; manufacturers are encouraged by relieving the capital invested in them from taxation, and their traditional doctrines of free trade would admit all people to their commerce. MOVEMENT OF THE POPULATION. The first settlements took place along the seacoast, thence, slowly moving inland, they followed the rivers. There were settlers in the upper-country as early as 1736, but no great progress was made there until the middle of the eighteenth century. Meanwhile there remained, as there is now and has been during all the movements of population in the State, a vacant or thinly-settled belt between the upper and the lower country. The State is this day traversed by two such belts of thinlysettled country, the sand hill region and the flat lands of the lower pine belt. The first is comparatively narrow, and is due to the dry and sandy soil which unfits it, in large measure, for the present methods of agriculture. The other is due to the want of drainage, which, with the accession of wealth, will be remedied, and an extensive and fertile region will be opened to settlers. The Indians were, perhaps the most mobile of all the populations that have inhabited South Carolina. Nevertheless, there is everywhere and always a continual movement of the population in progress. Even in England and Scotland, where the population might be considered "to the manor born," it has been found that only a little over seventy-five per cent. were living in the counties where they were born. ties, States are substituted, about the same percentage obtains for the United States, a little more than seventy-six per cent. of the native popu YEAR. lation being found in the States in which they were born, according to the census of 1880. This percentage, however, varies widely in the dif ferent States. In Vermont, only fifty-eight per cent. of those born there were found remaining in their native State. In Texas, on the other hand, this percentage was ninety-five, as given, in both instances, by the census of 1880. For South Carolina it is eighty per cent., and only fourteen out of thirty-eight States retain more of their native population than she does. The fluctuations that have occurred in this regard will be seen by reference to the following data, taken from the returns of the United States census for the years specified: Movement of the Population of South Carolina in the United States, and from other Countries. 1860 1870 1880 Persons born in S. C. living in the U. S. 470,257 276,868 .193,389 Gain by immigration from all quarters. 291,300 412,408 703,708 S. 418,875 505,899 924,774 Gain by immigration from all quarters. Persons born in S. C. living in the U. S. 500,994 682,817 1,183,311 Persons born in S. C. living in S. C. . Gain by immigration from all quarters. 363,576 588,819 952,395 . 137,418 93,498 230,916 391,105,604,472 995,577 27,529 15,653 43,182 109,889 77,845 187,734 There can be no doubt as to the significance of these figures. The immense losses the State has hitherto sustained in the migration of her natives to other States, is rapidly lessening, especially as regards the white population. Natives of South Carolina are found in every State and Territory of the Union, not excepting Alaska. They are met with in the largest number in the following States, varying in the order here named, from 50,000 to 11,000: Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Arkansas and Tennessee. Natives of each State and Territory of the Union, except Alaska and Washington Territory, are found in South Carolina; the largest number are from North Carolina, 17,297; Georgia, 7,641; Virginia, 4,158; New York, 1,070. There are, also, among the citizens of South Carolina, natives of each of the following countries: Africa, Asia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bohemia, Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, British America, Central America, China, Cuba, Denmark, France, Baden, Bavaria, Brunswick, Hamburg, Hanover, Hessen, Mecklenburg, Nassau, Oldenburg, Prussia, Saxony, Wurtemberg, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Greece, Greenland, Holland, Hungary, India, Italy, Malta, Mexico, Norway, the Pacific Islands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Sandwich Islands, South America, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the West Indies, TOTAL. |