Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1848-07-04
VOLUME 6, NUMBER d.
New MRXien.

| The opinion formed by the people from
the United States in regard to New Mex
leo, is generally erroneous. The men
who come here are, in most cases far.
mers or mechanics, and expect to see
here what they see in the United States.
They look for vast district of country,
dotted with fine houses, and overspread
with numberless farms and luxuriant
fields; and because the appearance and
lace OF the country present an aspect less
attractive than their fancies had painted
for them, they denounce il without stint
In a word, because the rich loan and the
boundless fields of the Western states are
not every where visible, they are unable
to form any other opinion than that this
is very poor country-ft for nothing.-
These men, thus judging and expressing
opinions, are farmers and mechanics
These conclusions, are very natural, but
very erroneous, and calculated by the diff.
fusion of such views over the United
State, to give very improper and unjust
notion ofNew Mexico. The practice of
irrigation, too, meets with great condem-
nation, and from views equally ignorant
and hastily formed. A man who has
never seen a foot of ground in this terri.
tory. beyond that visible from the road on
his passage to Santa Fe, will deliberate.
ly express and write his opinion on the
whole territory, and by the specimen he
has seen, condemn that Of which be
knows nothing. But rejecting men form
far different and justeF views,
They see no occasion for immense az.
ricultural resources, such as Missouri or
Illinois possess, but going a step furthers
hunt for other sources of happiness and
natural prosperity, and find them beau.
tifully supplied.
To a judicious opinion on any subject,
knowledge is essential, yet opinions of
this Territory are boldly advanced in ut.
ter ignorance of it. New Mexico is judge
ed only by its grain growing facilities
the extensive agricultural branch of stock
raising being entirely overlooked. Let
the reader ask himself whether any state
of the American Union contains equal
capacity for the production and susten.
ance Of stock!-in what enc is grass
equally nutritious and abundant, in what
state there are such inducements and
means of manufacturing wooden cloths,
iron, &c.l Where are such rich mines
of gold, silver, copper, lead, quicksilver,
iron, coal, and other mineralsl In what
state are produced such generous crops
with such little labor? In what consists
the condemnation of irrigation, by which
every man, with the least possible trouble
makes his own season, and never fails
either by too much or to little rain, to
have liberal crop? Look at the eondi.
ton of education, the absence Of mechau-
ical trades; the rudeness Of all agricul-
tural implements; the vast wealth con.
stantly Withdrawn by Indian robberies,
and the want, hitherto, of all motive to
industry, and the consequent VICE and
immorally incident to idleness, united
with the existence ola wretched political
system, unable to afford protection to the
people, impotent to encourage the invest
ment of capital, and to promote or foster
the development Of any single source of
wealth, and the explanation of the present
condition ofthe people is obvious.-SantG
Fe Republican.