The patronage which the government bestows
on new territories is one of the sources of their growth which ought
not to be overlooked. Instead of making the territory a dependency and
drawing from it a tax, the government pays its political expenses,
builds its roads, and gives it a fair start in the world.
Another cause of the successful growth of our territories in general,
and of Minnesota in particular, is the ready market which is found in
the limits of the territory for everything which can be raised from a
generous soil or wrought by industrious hands. The farmer has a ready
market for everything that is good to eat or to wear; the artisan is
driven by unceasing demands upon his skill. This arises from extensive
emigration. Another reason, also, for the rapid growth of the
territory, is, that the farmer is not delayed by forests, but finds,
outside of pleasant groves of woodland, a smooth, unencumbered soil,
ready for the plough the first day he arrives.
But if a salubrious climate, a fertile soil, clear and copious
streams, and other material elements, can be reckoned among its
physical resources, there are other elements of empire connected with
its moral and political welfare which are indispensable. Why is it
that Italy is not great? Why is it the South American republics are
rusting into abject decay? Is it because they have not enough physical
resources, or because their climate is not healthy? Certainly not. It
is because their political institutions are rotten and oppressive;
because ignorance prevents the growth of a wholesome public opinion.
It is the want of the right sort of men and institutions that there is
"Sloth in the mart and schism within the temple."
"Let states that aim at greatness," says Lord Bacon, "take heed how
their nobility and gentlemen do multiply too fast; for that maketh the
common subject to be a peasant and base swain, driven out of heart,
and, in effect, but a gentleman's laborer." He who seeks for the true
cause of the greatness and thrift of our northwestern states will find
it not less in the influence of just laws and the education of all
classes of men, than in the existence of productive fields and in the
means of physical wealth.
"What constitutes a state?
Not high raised battlement, or labored mound,
Thick wall, or moated gate;
Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned;
Not bays and broad armed ports,
Where, laughing at the storm, proud navies ride;
But men, high minded men.
PART II.
TERRITORY OF DACOTAH.
"POPULOUS CITIES AND STATES ARE SPRINGING UP, AS IF BY ENCHANTMENT,
FROM THE BOSOM OF OUR WESTERN WILDS." The President's Annual Message
for 1856.
THE PROPOSED NEW TERRITORY OF DACOTAH.
Organization of Minnesota as a state Suggestions as to its
division Views of Captain Pope Character and resources of the new
territory to be left adjoining Its occupation by the Dacotah
Indians Its organization and name.
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.
[1 On the 9th of December Mr. Rice, the delegate in congress from
Minnesota, gave notice to the house that he would in a few days
introduce a bill authorizing the people of the territory to hold a
convention for the purpose of forming a state constitution.]
This being the condition of things, the manner in which the territory
shall be divided for no one can expect the new state will embrace
the whole extent of the present territory becomes a very interesting
question. Some maintain, I believe, that the territory should be
divided by a line running east and west. That would include in its
limits the country bordering, for some distance, on the Missouri
River; possibly the head of navigation of the Red River of the North.
But it is hardly probable that a line of this description would give
Minnesota any part of Lake Superior. Others maintain that the
territory should be divided by a line running north and south; say,
for instance, along the valley of the Red River of the North.
