At the distance of thirty years from that time the
last enumeration, five years since completed, presented a population
bordering upon 10,000,000. Perhaps of all the evidences of a prosperous
and happy condition of human society the rapidity of the increase of
population is the most unequivocal. But the demonstration of our
prosperity rests not alone upon this indication. Our commerce, our
wealth, and the extent of our territories have increased in
corresponding proportions, and the number of independent communities
associated in our Federal Union has since that time nearly doubled. The
legislative representation of the States and people in the two Houses of
Congress has grown with the growth of their constituent bodies. The
House, which then consisted of 65 members, now numbers upward of 200.
The Senate, which consisted of 26 members, has now 48. But the executive
and, still more, the judiciary departments are yet in a great measure
confined to their primitive organization, and are now not adequate to
the urgent wants of a still growing community.
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