This gives a result rather more than double for 1850, what was consumed in 1840. If, now, we take the weight of iron articles imported for the same years, the result will be as follows: IMPORT OF CERTAIN IRON ARTICLES INTO THE UNITED STATES BY WEIGHT. hardware, which have struggled manfully against English competition, driving out nearly all the leading articles formerly im ported, although they have had to pay such exorbitant prices for the raw material, as compared with the English manufacturers. The manufacturers of iron paid last year three and a quarter million dollars tax on the raw material they used; notwithstanding which, the shelves of our hardware stores show constantly increasing proportions of wood screws, butt hinges, scales, etc., the American goods. In very many cases, as in American articles are much superior in quality, and cheaper in price, than the Eng lish articles, consequently the importation has gradually ceased. The importation and cost of iron has been as follows for several years: PIG IRON. Quantity Year Tons Value Av.cost Tons Value Cost HOOP & SHEET IRON. Tons Value Cont 1843*. 15757.$511282 $33 50...6254. $327550. $52 37. .3873.. $48251. $12 46...1202 $134206. $111 70 1844...37891..1065582.28 12..11822.583065...49 32...14944...200522...13 42...2010. 152771.7600 1845... 51188.. 1691748..33 05.18176...872157.47 99.27510.506291...18 40.5344 409528...190 00 1846...24188.1127418..46 76. 21328.1165429...54 65...24187...489573...20 24...4508..481828...106 80 1846+... 8098...434316..53 63.10413...588322. .56 50....4478....82398...18 40...641 70660...109 20 1847..32085..1695173..52 83...1998...266386...53 30 23477...472088...20 11...5345.399042....74 80 1848...81589..3679598..45 10. 20156...975214...48 38...51632...815415...15 79...9730..729955. 1849.173457.6060068.34 93.10598...525770...49 61.105632.1405613...13 30. 11500 543256.47 35 1850 217951.7397166. 29 83. 14706...744735...50 64.74874.950660...12 69..15150 .835995....55 19 1851..254301.7324283..28 80..20198...900026...44 50...67248...787524...11 71..21520..960802 ...44 69 Nine months to June 30. + Seven months to Nov. 30, + Jan. 7. 75.00 IRON INTERESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. ware and cutlery in the country-as the raw material was obtained on better terms, the import of manufactured articles declined. The census returns show the following re In all these articles the reduction in price has been very great, particularly in hoop and sheet. It is in this lessened cost of the raw material that we find the main cause of the stimulus given to the manufacture of hard-sult: Value of raw material. Net product.... Hands employed.. Thus the raw material purchased for the ing that Swedish steel-iron was essential to employment of 36,846 men cost $20,044.464, the manufacture of British steel, reduced the and pays about $5,000,000 tax to those who duty from $30 per ton in 1825, making it free employ 20,448 men. In consequence of this in 1845. France charged $84 per ton duty tax, the manufacturers of iron require 30 per on that steel iron, until a commission discovcent. protection, against imported articles, ered that, in order to make steel in France, on the $41,855,229 of iron articles that they it was necessary to have Swedish steel-iron, produce, and which, in the state to which and it is made free of duty. With us the iron they have brought it, becomes the raw ma- manufacturers are very slow of discovering terial for cutlery, plow, machine, factory, that, in order to make their wares as cheap locomotive, rail-road, steamboat, house and as the English, they should have raw mateship builders, and tool makers, and every rial on as favorable terms. The above table employment of life-all these persons have to shows what an immense development the contend against the importation of the arti- use of iron has undergone as the prices here cles they make, and they do so with this declined, but even at the present rates the heavy load upon their backs for the raw ma- difference in favor of the English manufac terial. Where there are 20,000 men em- turer is as follows: ployed making pig iron, there are 36,846 men who purchase it, and advance it to a state which employ about 30,000 men, in hardware and iron industry: that is to say, the industry of over 66,000 men is heavily clogged, in order that the employers of Excess in ) $14 50 $8.25 $43 60 20,000 men may make inordinate profits. N.-York, England, and even France in some cases, We may now glance for a moment at the have seen the wisdom of placing raw mate- development which the internal trade has rials, to the best advantage, at the disposal of reached, as indicated by the returns of the industry. Thus the British government, see | Ohio public works. PRICE OF IRON PER TON IN LIVERPOOL AND NEW YORK. Sheet Price July 17 POUNDS OF IRON AND NAILS CLEARED ON THE OHIO AND MIAMI CANALS. Hoop $31 70 67 20 $35.50 Total 13,172,295 10.153,652 7,115,650. 1,930,318 5,864,941 2,403,725. .962,710. .9,597,340 .6,787,378. .3,026,385 .785,522 11,049,652 .8.479,749. 3,696,200. 1,112,273. .14,569,755 .7,856,287 .4,945,800. .1,320,068. 15,674,326 12,564,243. 6,301,364. .1,528,365. 22,424,277 1,396,435. .28,449,934 13,558,228 .10,823,804 .2,955,604 44,328,431 1851 63,136,687 .11,713,594. ..14,782,000. 19,345,053. .17,296,040. One hundred and fifty bushels charcoal, 5c....$7 5 Flux. Labor Interest and repairs. Product 2,000 tons per annum.. 3 5 .0 25 200 .3 00 .$16 25 To get the imported iron to the Constantia furnace would cost $2 more, making $7 in favor of the domestic manufacture--and it will be observed that this is charcoal iron, which is more expensive than coal iron. In Pennsylvania, where all the materials for iron are favorably situated, an extensive furnace owner states it can be delivered in Philadelphia at $15 per ton. In Poughkeepsie, NewYork, the same iron will cost $19 per ton, because the materials are brought to the furnace from a distance. If a duty is graduated to the wants of a disadvantageously situated furnace, great injustice is done to consumers in order to sustain a blundering projector, and those more skilfully located reap inordinate profits. The shipping interest suffers materially from this course of legislation. A ship of 500 tons will require 20 tons of ironwork, 10 tons cables, 2 tons anchors, say 32 tons. The tonnage built in the Union last year, 298,203, would require in round numbers 20.000 tons of iron, which cost at least $600,000 more than it would have cost English shipping.-U. S. Economist. level; in others not so much so; in others again, hilly, but moderately-and in such places there is most water. The levels are not like a carpet, but interspersed with small risings and declivities which form a beautiful prospect. The soil is of a loose, deep and black mould, without sand, in the first-rate lands about two or three feet deep, and ex ceedingly luxuriant in all its productions. The country in general may be considered as well timbered, producing large trees of many kinds and to be exceeded by no country in variety. Those which are peculiar to Kentucky, are the sugar-tree, which grows in all parts, and furnishes every family with great plenty of excellent sugar. The honey-locust is curiously surrounded with large thorny spikes, bearing long and broad pods in the form of peas, has a sweet taste and makes excellent beer. The coffee-tree greatly resembles the black-oak, grows large and also bears a pod in which is inclosed coffee. The pawpaw tree does not grow to a great size, is a soft wood, bears a fine fruit, much like a cucumber in shape and size, and tastes sweet. The fine cane, on which the cattle feed and grow fat, in general grows from three to twelve feet high, of a hard substance, with joints at eight or ten inches distance along the stalk, from which proceed leaves resembling the willow. There are many canebrakes so thick and tall that it is difficult to pass through abundance of wild rye, clover and buffalograss, covering vast tracts of country, and affording excellent pasture for cattle. The fields are covered with an abundance of wild herbage not common to other countries. Here are seen the finest crown imperial in the world, the cardinal flower, so much extolled for its scarlet color, and all the year, excepting the winter months, the plains and valleys are adorned with a variety of flowers of the most admirable beauty. Here is also found the tulip-bearing laurel tree, or magnolia, which is very fragrant and continues to blossom and seed for several months together. The reader, by casting his eye upon the map, and viewing round the heads of Licking from the Ohio, and round the heads of Kentucky, Dick's River, and down Green River to the Ohio, may view, in that great compass of above one hundred miles square, the most extraordinary country on which the sun has ever shone."* KENTUCKY. DESCRIPTION OF THE them. Where no cane grows there is an COUNTRY; EARLY HISTORY AND MANNERS; SCHEMES FOR SEPARATION FROM VIRGINIA AND FROM THE UNION; MR. BURR, WILKINSON, &C.; CAUSES OF WESTERN EXCITEMENT; POPULATION AND PRODUCTS OF KENTUCKY; AGRICULTURE OF KENTUCKY; DANIEL BOONE; MINERAL SPRINGS OF KENTUCKY; THE MAMMOTH CAVE; LEXINGTON, FRANKFORT, MAYSVILLE, LOUISVILLE; INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS; EDUCATION AND SLAVERY IN KENTUCKY.-The fame of "Old Kentucky," whose hardy hunters and warriors have been celebrated so much in national patriotic songs and legends, from the time when George Rogers Clark made his descent upon the savage tribes of the Wabash to that which saw, in all his "martial pomp," "John Bull" in the "low and murky places" of Louisiana, is not likely soon to be lost among the generations that are now passing upon the board. If the romance of hunter and border life has given way to civilization, scattered log huts and villages to mansions and crowded cities, dense forests to cultivated fields, Daniel Boone to Henry Claystill is Kentucky famed for her hardy independence and fearless intrepidity, for her stalwart men and her handsome women, for her fruitful soil, het benign climate and the general and uninterrupted prosperity of her people. "The country is in some parts nearly In the geology of Kentucky the blue limestone occupies a conspicuous place. It forms the surface rock in a large part of the state, and is used for building purposes. Among the cliffs of the Kentucky River, is found an excellent marble, capable of fine polish. The cliff limestone is the base of the Ohio falls lay's," 1784; see Collins. at Louisville. The slate, or shale, is very common, bituminous, and supports combustion and contains iron pyrites and ores, giv ing rise to mineral springs. The sand, or freestone, extends from Danville to Louisville, etc., is used for purposes of art and even the construction of grindstones. The cavernous limestone, as its name imports, gives rise to many caves, the most famous of which, the Mammoth, we shall hereafter describe. The conglomerate or pudding stone, consists of quartz pebbles, rounded, and united with fine sand by a kind of natural cement. It underlies the coal formation. The coal beds of Kentucky are known as those of the Ohio and Illinois. They cover ten or twelve thousand square miles. The coal is very accessible, but very little is mined, not perhaps, annually, more than 4 or 5,000,000 bushels. Iron is equally abundant in the state, but mostly neglected. It is commanded by navigable streams and must produce future wealth. An estimate of the quantity embraced has been fixed at 38,000,000 tons, "a quantity sufficient to supply a ton of iron annually to every individual in the United States, estimating them at 15,000,000, for 2,560 years." Small quantities of lead are traced in Kentucky. Salt springs abound in the sandstone formation, and a million bushels of salt is annually worked. Saltpetre and plaster of Paris are found in the caves. The mineral springs are numerous, embracing sulphur, blue lick, epsom, chalybeate, etc. The most fruitful soil of the state is that of the blue limestone formation -the country about Lexington and toward the Ohio is said to be the garden of the state. It was not until the middle of the eighteenth century, that the Saxon foot-print was traced in Kentucky. The state was one great hunting-ground and battle-field for the savages of the North and the South. Among the earliest American explorers were Boone and Knox, and these, after incredible perils, returned to Virginia and Carolina, spreading everywhere the fame of the back-woods. Then came Thomas Bullitt, James Harrod and Richard Henderson. The foundation of Boonesboro' was laid by Daniel himself, who had brought to the banks of the Kentucky the first white women-his wife and daughters. Kenton, Calloway and Logan arrived. Kentucky was now made a County of Virginia, and, in 1777, the first court was held at Harrodsburg. We pass over the bloody strife with the Indian tribes, the invasion from Canada, of Du Quesne, the expedition of Clark against Vincennes, the perils and the heroism of the Kentuckians, during all of which adventurers were still crowding to their midst. 66 The rich lands of Kentucky," says a chronicle, "were the prize of the first occupants, and they rushed to seize them with a rapacity stronger than the fear of death.” In the early manners of the settlers of Kentucky, there is much that will interest our readers. We have, on another occasion, referred to the peculiarities of border life in the Great West, and shall only add now to what we have already written-basing ourself upon the authority of "Doddridge's Notes." The Kentuckian was altogether self-dependent, being excluded from intercourse with his Eastern neighbors. His table furniture was of wood, but never larder furnished better meats and butter, or stimulated keener appetite. With his guest he freely divided. He wore a hunting shirt-sometimes of skins-and a wallet for his provender and amunition. The tomahawk and scalping-knife adorned his belt. A fur cap, leggins and deer-skin moccasins, completed his costume. His residence was a log cabin without floors, defended by walls, stockades and block-houses, from the fierce savages. He married young and needed no fortune but his unerring rifle. His wedding was an epoch in the settlement. The ladies flaunted in their linsey petticoats, brogans and buckskin gloves. The marriage procession was unique. The whisky bottle performed its important part. The ceremony being performed, dinner followed, and then the dance, reels and jigs, until morning. "About nine or ten o'clock, a deputation of young ladies stole off the bride and put her to bed. This done, a deputation of young men, in like manner, stole off the groom and placed him snugly by the side of his bride. The dance still continued, and if seats happened to be scarce, every young man, when not engaged in the dance, was obliged to offer his lap as a seat for one of the girls, and the offer was sure to be accepted. In the midst of this hilarity, the bride and groom were not forgotten. Pretty late in the night some one would remind the company, that the new couple must stand in need of some refreshments; black betty,' which was the name of the bottle, was called for and sent up stairs, but often black betty' did not go alone. Sometimes as much bread, beef, pork and cabbage, were sent along with her, as would afford a good meal for half a dozen hungry men. The young couple were compelled to eat and drink more or less of whatever was offered them." Soon the whole neighborhood unite in building for the happy pair the needful log cabin; and thus, as log cabin after log cabin appeared, began the peopling of Kentucky. A race of hunters and yeomen and freemen sprung from that early stock, whose epitha * See Vol. IV., Com. Rev., Art. "Great West." lamium was sung by wild forests, and whose | Orleans, where he had been on a mercantile morning slumbers were cheered by the melody of nature's choristers. adventure, with intelligence that he had se cured the right of landing, selling and depositing tobacco there. He proposed to purchase all the tobacco, and gave out that Kentucky might command the trade of the river and of the South West, if she would be true to herself and her position. Then were party politics at their height, and the risks to the Union imminent. A review of the political history of Kentucky presents but few prominent landmarks. The war of the Revolution closed, but left the Kentuckians in constant fear of an Indian invasion. The citizens assembled at Danville, which became afterward famous for Conventions west of the mountains, soon discovered they were without the means of A sixth and seventh Convention met at defence, and that a government at Richmond Danville. A separation, by violent means, was too far off to be relied upon. Two from Virginia, was proposed. Wilkinson other Conventions at Danville recommended read a manuscript essay upon the navigation a peaceable and constitutional separation of the Mississippi, for which the Convention from Virginia. The third Convention sent tendered unanimous thanks. Constitutional a petition to Richmond, and, in 1786, an measures prevailed, and an address by Wil act was passed complying with the wishes kinson was voted to Congress. An eighth of Kentucky. This act made some unfor- and a ninth Convention assembled, and on tunate provisions which caused great delays, the 4th of February, 1791, Kentucky was as well as danger to the country. The Ken- admitted into the Union. tuckians looked upon the old federal government with great distrust, as being too weak to defend them from the Indians; and it was notorious, that the New-England states, entirely at peace themselves, were desirous, for commercial considerations, to yield up the navigation of the Mississippi for twenty years, to Spain. Congress, from the fear of a standing army, would send no men to protect the frontier from savage warfare. Virginia could give no relief. Can it be wondered, then, that there was a deep feeling in Kentucky of self-defence, which sought a separation by any means, from such a federation, and entire independence? "Democratic Indian wars continued frequent on the frontier, and complaints of the inefficiency of the federal government was again heard. The whiskey tax, too, became oppressive. The American policy toward the republicans of France was denounced in every cabin west of the mountains. Enthusiasm was at its height, and the agents of the mad minister Genet were received in triumph in the West. It was proposed to raise an army in Kentucky, to descend upon New-Orleans. The people were rife for the movement. clubs" were extending everywhere. Even the Governor could write to the Secretary of State: "I shall feel but little inclination in A fourth Convention at Danville was at-restraining or punishing my fellow-citizens, tended with no better result than the three etc., to gratify or remove the fears of a minis others, and Virginia had prolonged the time ter of a prince who openly withholds from two years when Kentucky might be inde- us an invaluable right, and who secretly inpendent. To add to the ill-feeling occasion-stigates against us a savage and cruel enemy." ed by this, it was announced that John Jay The old idea of independence was mooted was actually ceding the navigation of the again, but the storm passed over. Then were formed committees of river. correspondence, and the name of Jay was every where odious in the West. A fifth Convention met, and on petition, a delegate to Congress was allowed by Virginia; but the Constitution of the United States having been adopted, Congress turned over to the new government all action upon the claims of Kentucky. The whole state was again in a ferment, and, at this early period, the refusal of Congress was at tributed, by able minds, to the jealousy of New-England of any increase of southern power. This jealousy was expected to continue under the new government. In the ten or twelve years which succeeded, for the navigation of the Mississippi, and then and which included the period of negotiation destined again to be agitated to her very for the purchase of Louisiana, Kentucky was centre. The treaty of 1795 with Spain, gave to the United States a deposit at New-Orleans for merchandise, and the freedom of the river. Pending negotiations, the Governor of Loui siana had approached some leading citizens of Kentucky, with the view of a different treaty but the matter was checked in its bud by the action at Washington. Judge Sebastian, it is said, was willing to go on believing the regu lar treaty would not be ratified, or being, as is most probable, in the interests of Spain. The faithlessness of the Spaniards was soon evident. An agent again appeared in Kentucky with the offer of artillery, small arms and munitions of war, money in large quantities, etc., if inflammable documents were cir Taking advantage of such a state of things in the West, Spain proposed clandestinely through her minister, peculiar commercial favors and facilities to Kentucky, if she would erect herself into an independent government. At the very moment of the proposal, Cen. Wilkinson returned from New-culated calling for a separation of the Union |