The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1846-01-23
From the New Orleans Commercial Times.
OF THE COUNTRY.

We received yesterday the first number of a
weekly paper Just started in Corpus Christi,
bearing the title Of the Gazets-of tait proportions,
abundan,ly filled with interesting reading matter,
and exhibiting a very creditable amount of industry
and intelligence in its editorial columns.
Three months ago Corpus Christi was not even a
village Ii mere station stopping place, con-
sistiDg of some half dozen wretched hamlets, and
surrounded by extensive prairies, upon which were
scattered at remote Intervals the humble log house
of the settler and the naked rancho of the thriess
Mexican farmer! Now, 1t has become a town, with
busy and thriving population, numbering, we un.
derstand, several thousands. II has its stores, It's
hotel, aye, even its theatre, with stock company
passabe enough to attract crowds, and though last,
not least its organ its newspaper, its daily chron
cler of accidents and incidents, its counsellor to the
honest burghers and citizens.
This is a transition almost rapid and beautiful
as that from the sumbering and unseemy chrysals,
to the lively and many-hued butterfly. We select 1t
illusraton forcble and feicitous of the infu-
ence Of Of those circumstances which the prophetic
eye Of BEhkELEr beheld years since, and which he
incorporated In his famous quatrain
Westward the course OF Empire takes its way,
The four first acts already past.
The hth shall close the Drama with the day
Times noblest offspring is the last"
Truly it is a wonderful spectacle to witness the
growth and development of our country, not mere
iy as evidenced in the suddenness with which, as
in the case Of Corpus Christi, petty assemblage Of
huts and novels is converted, within lapse of time
almost inappreciable, into populods town, with
all the accessories of municipal organization but as
demonstrated in the formation of new States and
Territories, their accreton to the original nucleus Of
the thirteen Independent colonies and their final ag-
gregaton into an empire of nearly boundless extent
and incacuablc resources The rapidity with which
the change is effected is startling and marvellous.
Far away, for instance, in the dim AMI distant
>West lies n tract Of waste territory over whose
broad praries the Indian roams sole monarch Of the
soil, and whose dense forests are Businesses for
beasts of prey. By-and- by, some adventurous
and hardy settler, fearless hunter, striving like
Leather Stocking to get beyond the bounds and con-
fines of civilization and social institutions, erects his
log cabin in the Wilderness and makes his axe ring
upon the forest oah for the first time m that UNI
broken wild. Scarcely has he leisure TO congraiu-
late himself upon escaping from the outskirts Of So
ciety, ere he is followed by party Of wanderers,
who cluster together, building up temporary sta
ton where they may protect themselves from the
enmty of the ferocous Indian. The infant settle
ment hardly calls forth momentary notice, before,
by the constant stream Of emigration, and by that inn
pulse which drives people in this country TO pro-
coed deeper and deeper in their explorations into the
heart of the continent, hear of territory with
teeming population, claiming the maternal care Of
the general government, and in a few brief years,
this territory becomes State, and another star is
added TO the bright galaxy Of the Union.
Such is one Of the many glorious influences Of a
free governmcnt-ofa government that chershes
her citizens as children, not Expresses them as
vassals; whose boundlsss soil invites the wanderer
from other cmes, and whose organic law tenders
him civil and religious liberty, the protection of life
and property, and the right to carry his industry,
enterprise, or love Of adventure, whittier he pleases
--ofa government that is ready to extend its pro-
tectng power over the most remote portions Of the
country, soon they in state to be brought
under the benign effects Of our laws and constitution.
The history Of the world offers no such precedents
as those ofwhich we have been speaking