ITS GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION--SIZE--OPINIONS OF DISTINGUISHED
MEN--FERTILITY, BEAUTY AND HEALTHFULNESS OF THE STATE.
The State contains 83,153 square miles or 53,459,840 acres, and is,
therefore, one of the largest in the Union. It occupies the exact centre
of the continent of North America. It lies midway between the Arctic and
Tropic circles--midway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans--and
midway between Hudson's Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. It embraces the
sources of three vast water systems which reach their ocean termini,
northward through Hudson's Bay, eastward through the chain of great
lakes, and southward via the Mississippi River. It extends from 43-1/2°
to 49° of north latitude, and from 89° 29' to 97° 5' of west longitude;
and is bounded on the north by the Winnipeg district of British America,
on the west by the Territory of Dakota, on the south by the State of
Iowa, and on the east by Lake Superior and the State of Wisconsin.
In official reports before us, we find many interesting extracts from
the writings of well-known public men, agriculturists, geologists,
professors in various branches of science, engineers, surveyors and
government officials, who have visited Minnesota at various times on
business or pleasure, and who have borne enthusiastic testimony of her
resources, the fertility of her soil, the healthfulness of her climate
and the beauty of her scenery.
A few sentences from all these writings will suffice for us in this
place.
In the official report of General Pope, who was commissioned by the
government to make a topographical survey of portions of the State, we
find the following sentence, which embraces almost all that can be said
in praise. He says:
"I KNOW _of_ NO COUNTRY _on_ EARTH _where so_ MANY _advantages are
presented to the_ FARMER AND MANUFACTURER."
The adaptability of our rich soil for all the staple crops, as proven by
experience, the large yield per acre in wheat, oats, potatoes, &c., &c.,
the immense quantity of good land in large bodies, the truly magnificent
water power within the State, and so beneficently located in its
different sections; all these advantages, seen beneath a sky always
bright, and in a climate at all seasons healthy, may well account for
the enthusiasm which inspired the above eulogy on Minnesota.
The accredited correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, who visited this
State some three years ago, is equally enthusiastic in his published
letters to his paper. We give two extracts from those letters.
"No wonder the people here wear such smiling countenances. They are
full of hope. I have yet to see the first despairing or gloomy
face. Melancholy belongs to the overcrowded cities, and there is
plenty of it in Chicago.
"Is it not astonishing that so many able-bodied men should hang
about our large cities doing nothing, because they can find nothing
to do, and nearly starving to death, when these broad and fertile
prairies are calling upon them to come and release the treasures
which lie within the soil.
"The resources or this State are immense. It has every variety of
wealth, and every facility for profitable exchange. There is no
more productive soil in the world. Then the State has an abundance
of pine timber. It has a vast amount of available water power, and
offers every facility and encouragement to manufacturing industry.
It has mineral wealth on Lake Superior of iron and copper, in
inexhaustible abundance. There is no region in this country, or any
country, that I am aware of, that is so well watered. And the water
is everywhere clear and pure. It is a land of great rivers,
pellucid lakes, and sparkling streams.
"All this may sound enthusiastic, but every word is calmly written
and justified by the facts; and it is strictly within the facts. If
the advantages of this region were only adequately made known,
there would surely be a great flow of labor from the cities and
places where it is not wanted, into a region like this, where every
variety of labor is needed and where it is certain to meet with a
rich reward."
In the second extract we give, this correspondent expresses himself in
language very similar to that made use of by General Pope. He says,
still speaking of Minnesota:
"I know of no other portion of the earth's surface where so many
advantages are concentrated, and where the man of industry and
small means may so quickly and with so much certainty render
himself independent. Here you have a climate of exceeding purity, a
soil of amazing productiveness, abundance of the clearest water,
with groves, and lakes, and rivers and streams wherever they are
wanted. Then the great railway lines are beginning to intersect
this country in all directions, and thus furnish the farmer with a
cheap and immediate outlet for his produce."
We will close these brief extracts--taken from the writings of persons
well qualified to form a sound judgment on the subject they were
discussing, and totally unconnected personally with the interests of
Minnesota--with two extracts from a speech of the distinguished
statesman, Hon. Wm. H. Seward, delivered in St. Paul, the capital of our
State, so far back as 1860.
Mr. Seward said, and America has not produced so far-seeing a statesman:
"Here is the place--the central place--where the agriculture of the
richest region of North America must pour out its tributes to the
whole world. On the east, all along the shore of Lake Superior, and
west, stretching in one broad plain in a belt quite across the
continent, is a country where State after State is yet to rise, and
where the productions for the support of human society in the old
crowded States must be brought forth.
* * * * *
I now believe that the ultimate last seat of government on this
great continent will be found, somewhere within a circle or radius
not very far from the spot on which I stand, at the head of
navigation on the Mississippi river."