The Sun.
London, England, 1870-01-20 00:00:00

EVENING, JANUARY 20,
,1870.

of St. Paul, from whom we have just received
the sixth edition of an excellent pamphlet on
the State, and as that gentleman offers to post it
free those who like this direction for emigration
should send their names to him for a copy, making
allowance, of course, for over-painting. In truth,
he dwells so much on the salubrity and the advan-
tages of the climate to invalids, more especially for
pulmonary diseases, giving such copious testimony
that we are compelled to admit his conclusion. Min-
nesota is the land of the Dacotah (or Sioux), and
those tribes have conferred their name on the great
territory adjoining. Louis Hennepin explored the
Upper Mississippi in 1680, and discovered and gave
the name of St. Anthony, his patron saint, to the
Falls. Ile was captured by the Indians and car-
ried to the present site of St. Paul, the capital,
which was founded by Father Gualtier, who there
built a log chapel dedicated to St. Paul, whence the
name, though it previously had been called Pig's
Eye. Up to 1848 St. Paul was but a poor place,
with only 800 inhabitants, while its present number
is considerably more than 20,000. This country was
taken formal possession of by France in 1689, but
it was only used for the establishment of fur trad-
ing depots. After Missouri had been admitted into
the Union as a State, all the territory north of it
and west of the Mississippi, including lowa and
Minnesota, was left without a government. In
1834 it was attached to Michigan, and all the lands
belonging to the Dacotahs were ceded by the
Sioux and the Ojibbeways in 1838. Minnesota
was organized as a Territory in 1849, at a time
when it contained but 4,680 inhabitants. Alex-
ander Ramsay was the first Governor, and he be-
came a permanent settler, and is now Senator of the
State. The Dacotahs in 1851 also ceded their title
to the west side of the Mississippi, and the State
began rapidly to fill up, perhaps too rapidly, for peo-
ple took to land speculation—most fascinating em-
ployment—one resembling the philosopher's stone,
which enables the operator to live and become weal-
thy on nothing. Invariably, however, people who give
themselves up to such delusions are brought to their
senses by a rude shock, and such a shock was admi-
nistered to Minnesota in 1857, previously to which
breadstuffs had been imported, the land up to that
time being considered too valuable for growing corn
and potatoes ! In 1854 there were but Ib,ooo acres
cultivated. In 1860 there were 433,276 acres ; in
1866, 1,000,000 ; in 1868, 1,400,000 ; giving a
large export of wheat in the latter year, and an
aggregate yield of over 17,000,000 bushels. Al-
though a fiendish massacre was perpetrated by the
Indians on the western frontier in 1862, which
added an Indian war to the great rebellion then
raging, Minnesota continued to rise with extra-
ordinary rapidity. The Indians were subdued,
Little Crow their leader killed, and out of the cap-
tives 38 were tried and executed. We may here
observe that Mr. Hewitt says that the remaining
tribes were sent " clean out of the country to
a reservation beyond the Missouri River," that
is, well to the west of Dacotah. The condi-

tion of being clean, must have been a novel
one to the Dacotahs, and as long as they re-
mained so they must have been a marvel to the
other tribes. From 1860-5 the increase in popu-
lation was little less than 50 per cent. ; the number
in the latter year reaching 250,000, and at the
close of 1868 it was estimated at 460,000. It is
honourable to so sparsely peopled a district that
during the war out of a population of 175,000,
Minnesota furnished 24,000 men to the 1, nion
army. The State Constitution provides that a
citizen of the United States at 21, who bas resided
four months in the State, can vote ; but if of foreign
birth he must have been in the United States
one year, and in Minnesota four months, and
have signified his intention of becoming a citizen of
the United States, before be can vote. Impartial
suffrage is the law ; no man can be imprisoned for
debt, and this is an extract from the Homestead
Act :—" That a homestead consisting of any quan-
tity of land not exceeding eighty acres and the
dwelling house thereon and its appurtenances, to
be selected by the owner thereof, and not in-
cluded in any incorporated town, city or vil-
lage, or instead thereof, at the option of the
owner, a quantity of land not exceeding in
amount one lot, being within an incorporated town,
city or village, and the dwelling house thereon and
its appurtenances, owned and occupied by any re-
sident of this State, shall not be subject to attach-
ment, levy, or sale, upon any execution or any other
process issuing out of any court within this State."
Great fertility is claimed for Minnesota, and a larger
yield of corn than from any other state, in the ag-
greate. Its most marked feature is innumerable
lakes. Bordering it is Superior, the largest of all fresh
water basins, but there are 10,000 others vary-
ing from a quarter of a mile in diameter to
ten wiles, with pebbly bottoms, and transparent
waters abounding with fish, with wooded shores,
the haunt of innumerable wild fowl. Professor
Morley says of Minnesota, that although far from
the sea, it may be considered the best watered State
in the Union, and it doubtless owes its abundance
of summer rains to its lake system. The surface is
generally even, but diversified with rolling prairie,
and a considerable portion is forest. But the north-
west part is elevated, being termed the Highlands,
though it covers only 16,000 square miles, and does
not rise more than 500 feet above the general level of
the country. It is covered with a dense growth of
pine, fur, spruce, &c., and its principal value consists
in its immense forests, its copper and iron, as well as
the precious metals. The valley of the Red River ex-
tending 18,000 square miles, is of very rich soil ; but
the Mississippi Valley, comprising three-fifths of the
whole State, is said to be among the finest of agri-
cultural districts. It is a rolling prairie, resting on
secondary rocks, well drained by the nature of its
warm, dark calcareous, and sandy loam, as well as the
network of lakes and streams over its surface, and is
dotted with extensive groves and lined by belts of
timber. For eight months the Mississippi is navig.
able by steamer to St. Paul, where the river is inter-
rupted by the Falls of St. Anthony. Above themsmal-
ler boats can go 150 miles further. The Minnesota
River, flowing from llacotah for 500 miles, enters
the Mississippi five miles above St. Paul, and is
navigable for 238 miles. The Red River forms the
western boundary of the State from Big Stone
Lake to the British Possessions 380 miles ; and is
navigable a considerable distance. The forests
cover 21,000 square miles, and in the pineries
3,000 men are now employed. The lumber cut and
manufactured at the Falls of St. Anthony and of
the St. Croix amounted to 400,000,000 feet in 1868.

REPORT OF COMMISSIONER D. A. WELLS.

Continued from The &m of yesterday.)

SPECIE PAYMENTS.

Mr. Wells holds that unless resumption of specie pay-
ment implies contraction of the currency, it would cure
but few of our present evils. " Seven hundred millions of
paper could not be kept redeemable with less than seven
hundred millions of gold, because with such an amount of
currency it would inevitably be depreciated, and hence
gold would bear a premium which every holder of paper
would be desirous to realise. With four hundred millions
of paper, on the other band, a hundred millions of gold
would probably be ample, because the currency, not being
in excess of the wants of commerce, would not suffer de-
preciation, aud, gold and paper being on otherwise equal
terms, paper would be preferred for its greater conve-
nience in use, just as in 1860 the banks were fully able to
redeem all of their circulation which was presented for pay-
ment, although having butlB cents of specie on each dollar
of immediate liabilities. It is not the ratio between gold
endpaper that needs'to be regulated, but the ratio between
the amount of paper in circulation and the volume of
national production and exchange, of which it is the in.
strumen'. Much criticism has been passed upon tho Trea-
sury for not adopting the policy of hoarding gold with a
view to return to specie payments ; but if What has been
stated above is true, such policy could lead to no gool re-
sults unless accompanied by a measure of contraction
while contraction would obviate the necessity of any such
policy, inasmuch as gold would then come to us, or be re-
tained by us—our currency being in a healthful condition
—to just that extent to which it was needed, obeying the
same laws as any other commodity. Equally untenable is
it to suppose that any progress can be made toward re-
sumption by a reduction, through Government purchase
and cancellation, of the principal of the funded debt. If
we had no national debt, if the two thousand millions of
public bonds were by some process to be transferred
into an equal amount of private securities,' exchanged
between citizens, the premium on gold would not bo
appreciably affected. It is not at all the condition of
the credit of the nation which causes gold to be a pre-
mium, as is proved by the fact that in Italy, Austria,
and Russia—countries maintaining large standing armies,
constantly threatened with war, whose debts are larger
relatively to their resources, than our own, and are in no
respect in the process of extinguishment, and whose
annual expenditures, as a rule, are in excess of their or-
dinary revenues—in none of these three countries has the
recent depreciation of the paper money been more than
one-half as great- as in the United States; the reason
being that this paper money ie not as much in excess as
ours."

that such reduction should be directed, first, to relieving
industry as much as possible of unnecessary burdens, and
allowing it to obtain its material at the minimum cost; and
secondly, to the diminution of the cost of the elements of
living to the great, mass of the people, in their capacity as
consumers, irrespective of the consideration whether they
are or are not also producers of wealth. This brings him
to the consideration of the tariff and the income tax. In
regard to the latter he suggests that the rate be reduced
from 5 to 3 per cent., which he believes would not reduce
the collections more than five millions. In connection with
this reduction of the rate he recommends that, while the
absolute exemption to all persons should be allowed to re-
main at $l,OOO, the exemption on accouut of rent should
not be left indefinite, as at present, but should be strictly
limited to an amount sufficient only to relieve from taxa-
tion the rentals of the labouring classes, for instance, $2OO.
If the recommendation of the commissioner in regard to
the exemption of rentals should be adopted, he is confident
that, notwithstanding the reduction of the tax from 5 to 3
per cent., the amount that will accrue to the Treasury from
this source will not be impaired ; and but for the unfavour-
able condition of industry during the past year there is
great reason to believe that a very decided gain world be
realized. But though the amount yielded would iu this
case be equal or greater, the change would constitute a
marked relief to the community, inasmuch as a larger pro-
portion than now would be contributed by the classes best
able to afford it, and who owe most to the protection of
the Government. The Commissioner thinks that the at-
tention of the country should b 3 called to the fact that this
tax was paid during the year 1868 by so small a number as
250,000 persons out of the entire population, yet repre-
senting an aggregate income of not less than $800,000,000,
exclusive of the amounts remitted by reason of rents and
the minor exemptions. Allowing, then, for the families of
these 250,000 contributors, it is evident that only about a
million of the population are interested in having the tax
removed, while the other 38 millions are interested in
maintaining it.

„,§OIiND DOCTRINES ON THE TARIFF.
"However doctrinaires or extremists on either side I
may declaim, it is unquestionably true that, in the condi-
tion of public feeling as it has been, and at any stage of
political philosophy heretofore reached in this country, a tax
imposed under the tariff which could be proved to be ne-
cessary to the maintenance of an industry already estab-
lished, which employs large numbers of workmen and
distributes fairly among them a due proportion of the
profits of manufacture, more especially if such manufac-
ture prepares an article for direct and immediate consump-
tion in sufficient quantity to meet the demands of the
country, it is not to be denied that, whether wisely or not
in the largest view of the case, the past temper of the
American people has approved of such a tax. But it is
furthermore equally tine, and will shortly be found so to
the satisfaction of any sceptic, that the advance in senti-
ment and the diffusion of knowledge among the people on
this subject within the last two years has been such that,
when it can be proved that any tax thus laid upon the
community is not necessary to maintain a protected in-
dustry in a moderate degree of prosperity ; if, more-
over, the industry be one which, whatever its absolute
proportions, yet contributes to the general wealth and
welfare less than it requires ; if it be one which yields its
profits mainly to the capitalist, instead of dividing the re-
turns equitably among large classes of skilled or ordinary
operatives; and especially it it be one whose product is to
become in turn the raw material of other and still more
extensive industries, so that the enhancement of price at the
bottom is repeated through the several successive stages,
and thus becomes a tax not only on the final consumer, but
en each intermediate producer—in such cases the people
of the United States will exercise their right to think and
to speak of such a tax, whoever may seek to intimidate
the official or unofficial organs of public sentiment; and
will exercise an independent judgment without respect to
the will of highly organised and aggressive associations
of capitalists, as to the amount in which that tax shall be
reduced, or the time in which it shall be wholly removed.
"The experience of the last few years has been equiva-
lent to a demonstration that any attempt to reconstruct
the tariff as a whole, on any basis of principle, is practically
impossible ; the diverse interests of the different sections
of industries being sufficiently powerful under almost any
circumstances to engraft upon a bill during its passage such
modifications as would effectually deprive it of any preten-
sions to consistency or harmony. There would, therefore,
seem to be but one available method of tariff reform ; which
is to adopt the same course that has been taken in respec
to the reforms heretofore made in the internal revenue, and
which furthermore finds a precedent in all the experience
of Great Britain in legislating upon those subjects, viz.,
to make such modifications or removals of duties, year by
year, as experience or the condition of the Treasury may in-
dicate as practicable and desirable ; and thus, by pruning,
rather than by reconstruction, to gradually attain the
greatest degree of simplicity and effectiveness with the
least possible burden upon industry and the people. With
the adoption of this method of reform as a matter of expedi-
ency, the following principle should also be insisted upon
as fundamental, viz., that the maintenance of an average
duty of 47 per cent., as under the existing tariff, upon all
dutable imports, is excessive and unnecessary, and opposed
alike to the highest interests of civilization and humanity
as well as to the proper and healthy growth of all domestic
commerce and industry ; and that under no circumstances
except for the supplying of certain technical omissions in
existing laws, or for the sole and avowed purpose of re-
venue, should any increase of rate be hereafter per-
mitted.”