Manufactures, Commerce, etc.—Manufactures, protected by high duties on foreign importations, have had a rapid development, as will be seen in the accounts of indi vidual states. The census of 1870 gives the following aggregates for the year: Pig-iron, used chiefly in the manufacture of stoves and hollow-ware, 2,052,t321 tons; rolled iron, 1,975,000 tons; manufactories of cotton, 956, making goods to the value of $177,489,789; 2,891 woolen mills,'using 172,000,000 lbs. wool, and 17,571,929 lbs. cotton in mixed fab rics, and producing goods to the value of $155,405,358; leather in boots and shoes, value $146,704,055, curried and tanned, $130,000,000; flour, $444,985,143; lumber, $210,159, 327; with large quantities of petroleum, spirits, india-rubber goods, steam engines, and machinery, paper, oil-cloth, carriages, sewing machines, and agricultural implements. The chief manufacturing states are Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. The whole number of manufacturing establishments, large and small, in the United States in 1870, was 252,148, employing a capital of $2,118,208,769; using raw material of the value of $2,488,427,242; and employing the labor of 1,615,598 males and 323,770 females, besides 114,628 children, and producing manufactures valued at $4,232,325,442.
The commerce of the United States, foreign and internal, is in proportion to its agri culture and industry. The exports of the year ending June 30, 1876, amounted to $636,620,593, or £127,324,118, of which the chief articles were wheat, flour, cotton, tobacco, pork, and hams, butter, cheese, lumber, fish, manufactured goods, oils, gold, and silver, etc. The imports were $476,576,871, or £95,315,374, the principal articles being foreign manufactures, sugar, tea, coffee, wool, iron, and steel, etc. The total number of vessels that entered in the foreign trade in 1874-75 was 27,961, with a tonnage of 11,692,810; cleared, 28,238 vessels, of 11,896,507 tons.—Great facilities for internal commerce are given by free trade between all states and territories, and the great extent of navigable rivers, canals, and railways. The Mississippi and its branches afford 20,000 m. of steamboat navigation; and most of the rivers emptying into the Atlantic, gulf of Mexico, and Pacific, are navigable from 100 to 500 m.; canals unite the waters of the Hudson river with lakes Champlain, Ontario, and Erie in New York, the Dela ware and Susquehanna rivers in Pennsylvania, the Ohio with lake Erie in Ohio and Indiana, and the Mississippi with lake Michigan in Illinois. Other canals make with these an extent of 3,500 in., costing $100,000,000. Railways extend from the lakes to the gulf of Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, of which there were in opera tion in Jan:, 1876, 74,658 miles. The number of telegraph offices was 6,852; the total length of lines, 79,000 m.; and of wires, 172,000 miles.
Education and benevolent, literary, and scientific institutions of the United States are generally state institutions, accounts of which will be found under the heads of the respective states. The exceptions' are the Smithsonian institute (q.v.), American association for the advancement of science, the national academy of sciences, and military and naval academies and hospitals.—In the United States are 360 colleges, 93 theological schools, 20 schools of law, 71 of medicine, 26 scientific, great numbers of academies or high schools, and female seminaries. Free common schools are established in nearly all the states, sufficient for universal education, supported by taxes, school funds, and in all the new states, the reservation of one or two sections of land, of 618 acres each, in every township. In 1874, there were 73 public libraries con
taining 25,000 volumes or more, 9 of which had upward of 100,000 volumes, and a great many lyceums, literary societies, and courses of popular lectures. The press is very active. In 1871, there were 6,056 periodical publications-637 daily, 247 semi weekly or triweekly, 4,642 weekly, 829 monthly and semi-monthly, and 62 quarterly, having an aggregate annual circulation of 1,436,551,538.
Religion is free from any interference of either the federal or state governments, and all denominations exist in entire freedom upon the voluntary principle. There were, according to the census of 1870, 63,082 churches or places of worship in the United States, giving 562 seats to each 1000 of population. The Roman Catholics possess 3,806 edifices, with 1,990,514 sittings. Of the twenty or more denominations of Protestants, the most numerous are the Methodists, possessing 21,337 edifices, with 6,528,209 sittings; after whom come Baptists, having 13,962 edifices, 4,360,135 sittings; Presbyterians, 7,071 edifices, 2,698,244 sittings; Congregationalists, 2,715 edifices, 1,117, 212 sittings; Episcopalians, 2,601 edifices, 991,051 sittings; Christain Connection, 2,822 edifices, 865,602 sittings; Lutherans, 2,776 edifices, 977,332 sittings; Reformed churches, 1,613 edifices, 658,928 sittings; United Brethren in Christ, 937 edifices, 265,025 sittings, etc. The Jews have 152 edifices, with 73,265 sittings.
Constitution, Government, government of the United States is one of limited and specific powers; strictly defined by a written constitution, framed by a convention of the states in 1787, which went into operation after being ratified by the thirteen original states in 1789. by which instrument the several states, having their independent republican governments, conferred upon a federal congress, executive, or president, and judiciary, such powers as were necessary to "form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, and secure the blessings of liberty." The legislative powers granted to the federal government are vested in a congress of the United States, consisting of a senate of two senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof; and a house of representatives, consisting of bne or more members from each state, elected by all male citizens over 21 years of age; so that the states, large and small, have each 2 votes in the senate, and from 1 to 33 (in 1832, New York had 40 members) in the house of representatives, which consists of 292 members, or 1 to 132,509 of population. The senator must be 30 years old, and is chosen for 6 years; the representative, 25 years old and elected for two years. Senators and representatives, according to an act of congress passed in 1874, are paid $5,000 per annum, with traveling expenses. The senate is presided over by the vice-president; and is a high court for trial in cases of impeachment. It also confirms the appointments of the president, and ratifies treaties made with foreign powers. Revenue bills originate in the house of representatives. Bills passed by both houses, within the limits of their constitutional powers, become laws on receiving the sanction of the president; or, if returned with his veto, may be passed over it by two-thirds of both houses.