But notwithstanding this increase (of population), so vast is the territory of North America, that it will require many ages to settle it fully; and, till it is fully settled, labor will never be cheap here, where no man continues long a laborer for others, but gets a plantation of his own; no man continues long a journeyman to a trade, but goes among these new settlers, and sets up for himself.

— BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind (1751),

Sec. 8, Works, Vol. II., p. 225.