The Ohio and its tributaries were peopling with a hardy and industrious race; the Missouri, Arkansas, and Red rivers, too, were filling with a population which was sweeping away the great wild forests, and fields of teeming production were smiling in their stead.  New Orleans was the market-point for all that was, and all that was to be, the growth of these almost illimitable regions.  It was, as it ever is, the exigencies of man answered by the inspirations of God.  The necessities of this extending population along the great rivers demanded means of transportation.  These means were to be devised, by whom?  The genius of Fulton was inspired, and the steamboat sprang into existence.  The necessity existed no longer, and the flood of population poured in and subdued the earth to man’s will, to man’s wants.  Over the hills and valleys, far away it went, crowding back the savage, demanding and taking for civilized uses his domain of wilderness, and creating new necessities—­and again the inspired genius of man gave to the world the railroad and locomotive.

The great increase in the production of cotton in the West, and which went for a market to New Orleans, necessitated greater accommodations for the trade in that city—­presses for compressing, and houses for merchants, where the business could be conducted with greater facility and greater convenience.  American merchants crowded to the city, and located their places of business above Canal Street, beyond which there was not a street paved.  There was not a wharf upon which to discharge freights, consequently the cotton bales had to be rolled from the steamers to the levee, which in the almost continued rains of winter were muddy, and almost impassable at times for loaded vehicles.  Below Canal Street the levee was made firm by being well shelled, and the depth of water enabled boats and shipping to come close alongside the bank, which the accumulating batture prevented above.

The French, or Creole population greatly preponderated, and this population was all below Canal Street.  They elected the mayor, and two-thirds of the council, and these came into office with all the prejudices of that people against the Americans, whom a majority of them did not hesitate to denominate intruders.  The consequence was the expenditure of all the revenue of the city upon improvements below Canal Street.  Every effort was made to force trade to the lower portion of the city.  This was unavailing.  The Faubourg St. Mary continued to improve, and most rapidly.  Business and cotton-presses sprang up like magic.  Americans were purchasing sugar plantations and moving into the French parishes, drawing closer the relations of fellow-citizens, and becoming more and more acquainted with the feelings and opinions of each other, and establishing good neighborhoods and good feelings, and by degrees wearing out these national prejudices, by encouraging social intercourse and fraternity.  They were introducing new methods