The Columbia Democrat. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1837-1850, 1839-05-04
ROCKY
FROM BEYOND THE ROCl
MOUNTAINS.

MOUNTAINS.
An Indian chief to whom opportunities
had been addressed, with view TO induce |
him to remove TO position farther west
than that occupied by his tribe, resisted the
application upon the groundthatt the cupidity |
of the white man would soon even reach |
that spot however distant, and that it would
be as well for his tribe TO wait their inevita
BILE extermination upon the soil within whose
bosom its forefathers had been deposited'-
The argument was pressed, and with view
TO render it more probable that the new
home to which he was invited would never
be invaded by the aggressions of the white
man, he was urged to a consent to a remov-
al to the delightful hunting grounds beyond
the Rocky Mountains. "lt is in vain,'
said the son of the forest, with mournful
and Touching eloquence; " neither mountain
nor flood can stay the march of the people
who have usurped the dominions of the
red-man. Even now the cabins of the
white settler mingle with the wigwams at
the foot of those distant mountains, and the
red-man is fast retreating before the face of
the intruders Soon he will be driven to
scale them, and take up his abode on the
other sids-and yet the white man will fol-
low and persecute and destroy him, until
the dying shrek of the last Of the Indian
race mingle itself with the roar Of the Pa.
cifc ocean,"
The prophecy of the savage chief is rap
idly approaching its fulilment. The Rocky
| Mountains are no longer barrier to the
white man. He has taken up his abode
| beyond them, and even now, from the dis
tanl regions on the other side Of the stupen-
dious chain comes voice asking that the
| laws which govern the rest of this nation
of white men may be extended over the
dwellers upon the very shores of the Pa
cifc. A petition of this nature from the
iphabitants of the Oregon territory.wss pSe-
sented in the Senate of the IT, S. and the
day is evidently not far distant when that
territory, Of whose very existence large
number Of the people Of the United States
are probably ignorant, will claim her place
among the confederated States of the Union
In less than twenty years, in all probability,
the whole of the territory of the northern
and Southern boundaries of the United
States, from the Atlantic to the Pacific; will
be under the government of separate sove-
reignties, owing political allegiance TO the
Federal Government of the Union.
The mind contemplates almost with dis
may, the immense extent of this vast terri
tory-its boundless physical resources--its
stupendous political power-and the gran
deur Of its position in the family of nations,
when in the enjoyment of peace with all
the world, and in the careful and industrious
cultivation of the bouutes and blessings oi
God, 1t shall have gone on to swell its pop
uation to the extent Of the hundreds of the
millions, which it can sustain--to cemen
its widely distant sections by rail roads anC
canals--to instruct and enlighten its peopl,
TO draw more closely together the bonds
of political and social union, until, at length
, it exhibits the whole hemisphere of Nortl
America, as one nation, united for its owr
/ welfare in peace, and united against whom
= soever may assail it in war.
Whether the vices and infrmities of hu
man nature will allow such a consummaliol
il were in vain to prophecy--but an arden
perhaps an over sanguine-- patriotism
will ever take delightin anticipating it as tn
destiny Of the Union, that now stretche
J its uudsputed territory from the Atlantic t
u the Pacific Seas.-Batt. Cr0n.