The Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. Territory) 1849-1855, 1850-01-23
The Mail in Minnesota.

Sk.-Ss-.The Mail in Minnesota.
twill be recnllected, that in reply to So
lcitarions for better mail facilities, the Post
Muster General addressed letter, last
summer, to the publisher Of the Pioneer;
in which we were told. that we could have
no more frequent mail service on the route
from Prairie du Chen to Minnesota. The
argument used by the Department was.
that the receipts Of the Post offices in Min
nesota were not sufficient to warrant an in
crease of mail service. Now the mail
route from Prairie du Chen to Saint Paul,
is 26S miles long; and all but twenty miles
If it, lies within the limits of Wisconsin.
No part Of that mail service, excep. twenty
miles from Willow river to Saint Paul, is
at all chargeable to Minnesota. lfit be re-
piled then, that we are making claim for
more mail service on this route, in behalf
of Wisconsin. we shy: so be it. Now let the
Department examine mail accounts with
Wisconsin and see where the balance will
lie found. isconsin has uniformly paid
large balance Of postages to tie Depart
mem, -nbove the amounts of money paid for
The transportation of mails within her linn.
its. 1t is useless to argue this point with
the Department: as the figures are there to
refer to.
Now what is the amount of mail service
in Minnesota: Why, twenty five miles each
week, from Willow River to For, Smelling
and back again! We forgot. There is al
so one hundred dollars year appropriated
for carrying weekly mail between Saint
Paul and Saltwater, eighteen miles. FIVE
have any other mail service in Minnesota,
we do not know where it is done. There
are settlements for hundreds of miles north
Of US, on the Mississippi river-on well
travelled roa'l, ,hronged with teams and
travel-trads aud communication northward
to the British line and the Selkirk Settle
ments, ye. not solitary Post ofice-not
n,aii-nO mail to Long Meadow. no mail to
Grow Wing, no mail to Fort Gaines, 10;
not even to Scin, Anthony, aleady a flourish
ing village and which in ten years will he
city. We have no mails up the Saint Pc
tiers, although settlements are there-the
striped flag is there. The villages Of the
Saint ,Croix are destitute of mails. In,mi-
grafton pours in its mighty stream upon us
the coming Spring will inundate MINI esota
with incoming waves of population. The
noisy multitude will be here, hut no voice
will return back from it-engulphed like
the hosts Of Israel in the Red ssa-buried
in oblivion, for want Of mails. If Congress
were to do the thing that is magnanimous,
worthy Of the rich guardian of our young
territory, things would not remain thus.
We should have contracts let to steamboats,
for semi-weekly mails to and from Galena
while navigation is open; and to and from
Prairie du Chen, when il is closed. A
weekly mail should he established from
Point Douglass to the Falls of Saint CroIx;
also a weekly mai! from Point Douglass t.
Saint Paul; also weekly mail from Saint
Paul TO Fort Gaines; and at least a semi
weekly mail from Fl. Gaines to Pembina;
where the British Government would read
lily meet our mail and extend the transport
itatiOn to Red River Of the North, through
the Selkirk settlement, and to York Fac
tory, at the mouth of Nelson River, on
Hudson Bay; thereby opening mail route
from the North Atlantic to the Gulf of
Mexico uiathe Mississippi. That is the way
to do things in new country. Let Con-
gress do something to aid in the legitimate
tendency Of the trade md business, of the
northern central portion Of North America,
TO concentrate on the head of the naviga-
ble waters Of the Mississippi Snatch
something for the Gulf Of Mexico, from
Hudson Bay. That is policy better than
annexation. Or suppose Congress should
be liberal enough to make an appropriation
for extending the telegraph from Dubuque
to Saint Paul, Ft.- Smelling, Saint Anthony,
Et Gaines; end should no longer depend
upon the chance Of travellers, or upon spe-
cial carriers, as means of communicating
with all the troops stationed in the North
west, would it require any stretch Of Iiber-
ality, beyond the spirit Of this age?
But we have Cor had when the P. o. De-
partment addressed us on the subject last
summary l,renty miles of mail service in
Minnesota; aud it didn't PAY. Well; a
single mile Of canal or railroad won't pay;
a single brick WON'T pay houseIen, in St.
Paul; but house will. Why didn't the
Department cut down our mail service to
line Of ten miles, to make it pay? The
Post Master General seems to reason about
this matter, as the Irishnan did who tested
the softness Of a feather bed, by making a
pillow Of single feather, upon q rock.
We are willing to risk an increase of s.fa-
cilities," believingit will be easier than the
Irishman's single facility for US, and more
remunerative to the Department Any how.
. Minnesota is not Of the proper age to receive
: siry-nursing from Government. We intend