The Illinois free trader and LaSalle County commercial advertiser. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1841-1843, 1842-10-21
OTTAWA. ILLINOIS, FRIDAY OCTOBER 81. 1912.
as the Americans, to live within them
selves and upon their own resources,

as the Americans, to live within them |
selves and upon their own resources.
From the sunny south come the rich
products of the cane and cotton, with the
tropical fruits. The north, east, and
west, are rich in focks, herds, and abound
in the material for manufacturing linen
and woolen fabricks. The middle and
southwestern states command as staples,
coal, iron, FAX. hemp, and tobacco.
The northwestern states, besides being
rich in many agricultural products, also
abound in copper and lead. New Eng
land, New York and Pennsylvania, have
unoccupied water-power sufficient TO
manufacture all the material the whole
country can produce, of every kind; and
they can manufacture it in the best form
and Of the best quality. The great pro-
ducing states of the Mississippi valley can
furnish the northern grazier, the eastern
mechanic, the southern planter, with an
inexhauslible supply of beef, pork, and
the choices, bread stufs. 1t is also found
upon experiment, that many of the states
are well adapted to the growth Of the
mulberry and the vine. With the excep-
ton Of tea, coffee, and the spices, there
are but few Of the articles used in COM
mon life which cannot be reared or manu-
featured in the United States of America.
AS to the present situation of the farming
interests of Illinois, altho' there is much
to sadden and depress, there is much to
cheer and encourage us in the coming flu
ture. Whatever else may have happened
the faith and confidence of, none of us
has been shaken in the productiveness and
fertility of our soil, as evidenced by the
results of the late harvest. Perhaps If
the actual state of the market was well
understood, it would be found that the
present low prices of wheat were rather
consequent upon the necessity of the far
mer which compels him 10 sell, than in
any real decrease in the value of the COM
modify, or any permanent diminu,ion in
the demand.
There has been at least one cause in
operation tending to depress and impover-
, ish the Illinois farmer, which happily for
the country is fast passing away. refer
9 to the sale of public lands, and the conse-
r quent drainage from the state of its pre-
, cious metals. The effect of the system
operated as direct tax upon the western
farmer; it was tax upon his enterprise,
his industry, and his very necessity. The
money paid into the government. land
Office was removed from circulation to be
! disbursed at different and far distant points
Tor government purposes. The immi-
grant in the meantime was left to struggle
as he best could, without money, in a
strange land, without friends, with his I'M
cultivated acres around him. far removed
: from supplies and a market. The evil
consisted not SO much in paying tie
r money for the land, as in Withdrawing it
} from whole section of country at one
time, leaving the settler nearly destitute OF
, means at the very period, of all others,
when they were most needed by him.
The expenditures ofgovernmen,, SO far as
they were betrayed by the money arising
from the sale of the public lands, were
paid and borne al.host exclusively by the
l western immigrant. Their hard earned
money, if it could have been followed,
Q nigh perhaps have been found--a part
4 paying off the squadron in the Mediter-
I, ranean; part in furnishing sinews for the
Florida war; and part in fitting out the
$ exploring expedition, under the ilus'rious
4 Lieutenant Wilkes. The immigrar, knew
/. not where it went, bu. it was gone
G Weeks, months, and even years of toll
}. must elapse before he could hope to re-
G cover it again. He was left like Adam
!, after his expulsion from the garden. lie
!, had his hands--,he naked earth was be.
: fore him; but a voice rung in his ears
c "ln the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat
bread !"-Foriunately for us the govern,
II ment title is las, being exlinguished, and
: in few years, it is hoped, this source OF
S depletion will have entirely ceased.
e 1t canno, have escaped the notice of the
n observing, ,ha, of the immense numbers
IT immigraling to the west, few, if any, re-
y main in Illinois. This state of things is
r greatly to be deplored, and fpossible re-
II NEEDED. Every inducement should be
!, presented to the immigrant, on the part OF
i the state government, as amaiter OF sound
s. policy, 10 make Illinois his abiding place.
II The terrors of the state debt, no doubt,