----------------------------------------------------- Name. |Population.| Wealth. | Wealth | | |_per capita_. ------------|-----------|--------------|------------- Baltimore | 250,000 | $102,053,839 | $408 New Orleans | 175,000 | 91,188,195 | 521 St. Louis | 140,000 | 63,000,000 | 450 Charleston | 60,000 | 36,127,751 | 602 Louisville | 70,000 | 31,500,000 | 450 Richmond | 40,000 | 20,143,520 | 503 Norfolk | 17,000 | 12,000,000 | 705 Savannah | 25,000 | 11,999,015 | 480 Wilmington | 10,000 | 7,850,000 | 785 |---------- |--------------|------------- | 787,000 | $375,862,320 | $477 ----------------------------------------------------- Let it not be forgotten that the slaves themselves are valued at so much per head, and counted as part of the wealth of slave cities; and yet, though we assent, as we have done, to the inclusion of all this fictitious wealth, it will be observed that the residents of free cities are far wealthier, _per capita_, than the residents of slave cities. We trust the reader will not fail to examine the figures with great care. In this age of the world, commerce is an indispensable element of national greatness. Without commerce we can have no great cities, and without great cities we can have no reliable tenure of distinct nationality. Commerce is the forerunner of wealth and population; and it is mainly these that make invincible the power of undying States. Speaking in general terms of the commerce of this country, and of the great cities through which that commerce is chiefly carried on, the Boston _Traveler_ says:-- "The wealth concentrated at the great commercial points of the United States is truly astonishing. For instance, one-eighth part of the entire property of this country is owned by the cities of New-York and Boston. Boston alone, in its corporate limits, owns one-twentieth of the property of this entire Union, being an amount equal to the wealth of any three of the New-England States, except Massachusetts. In this city is found the richest community, _per capita_, of any in the United States. The next city in point of wealth, according to its population, is Providence, (R. I.,) which city is one of the richest in the Union, having a valuation of fifty-six millions, with a population of fifty thousand." The same paper, in the course of an editorial article on the "Wealth of Boston and its Business," says:--