THE Territory Of Minnesota According To Its Present Boundaries Embraces An Area Of 141,839 Square Miles Exclusive Of Water; A Domain Four Times As Large As The State Of Ohio, And Twelve Times As Large As Holland, When Her Commerce Was Unrivalled And Her Fleets Ruled The Sea.

Its limits take in three of the largest rivers of North America; the Mississippi, the Missouri, and the Red River of the North.

Though remote from the sea board, ships can go out from its harbors to the ocean in two if not three different channels. Its delightful scenery of lakes and water-falls, of prairie and woodland, are not more alluring to the tourist, than are its invigorating climate and its verdant fields attractive to the husbandman. It has been organized seven years; and its resources have become so much developed, and its population so large, there is a general disposition among the people to have a state organization, and be admitted into the Confederacy of the Union.[1] A measure of this kind is not now premature: on the contrary, it is not for the interest of the general government any longer to defray the expenses of the territory; and the adoption of a state organization, throwing the taxes upon the people, would give rise to a spirit of rivalry and emulation, a watchfulness as to the system of public expenditures, and a more jealous regard for the proper development of the physical resources of the state. The legislature which meets in January (1857), will without doubt take the subject into consideration, and provide for a convention to frame a constitution.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 150 of 188
Words from 40387 to 40658 of 50597