The Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. Territory) 1849-1855, 1851-05-01
Fort Smelling for n Military Asylum.

Coft sne1ilnS Tor MlIltuTy Asylum.
/ In the rapid progress Of civilization, mil
i,ary forts, which stand rs fortresses be-
tween savage and eli, Ilized men. to protect
the former from the encroachments Of av-
arire aud the direful scourge OF those vices
which hover, like drowning vu!tures, over
the advancing vanguard Of civilization, as
we'll as 10 protect feeble and scattered colo
MES of our pioneers, from the tomahawk
and scalping knife, occupy the pos, Of SEN
tinels, and guard the eastern end Of the In
dian war path an! .quel! the intestine feuds
Of the frontier tribes. On the Mississippi,
we have seen, in our day, the abandonment
Of fort after fort, the troops following up the
retreat Of the Red man. The fort at Rock
Island first, then the fort at Prairie du CHEN
l,cing evacuated, Fort Smelling with It's gar
rison is now the outpost, lingering yet a
little while until the Sioux treaty shall be
effected.
/ Abandoning Fort Smelling at the junction
of the tw rivers, our troops will necessarily
derloy into two separate lines; and military
posts will have to he established up the Mis-
>issippi river to the British line, and up the
Minnesota river, so far that the reveile may
he heard, from the military posts of the Mis-
souri, river.
Fort Smelling, then, (if the past and pre-
sent policy of frontier defences shall contin-
ue,) will soon be evacuated. The high ma
jestic rock, at the junction of the rivers, on
which Fort Smelling sits pcrched like war
eagle, will remain, for ii is the eternal ma
sorry Of God. The solid walls of the fort
and out-buiidings, with their decaying roofs,
Will remain for while to tell our children
the history of these tirnes-anJ the parade
ground which they surround, the gravelled
walks, will be covered with rank, untrod-
den grass. A sergeant Of the guard, with
men enough to make melancholy whist
party, will remain. Cor time. At last the
garrison will dwindle down 10 single SOL
der, left in custody of the old ruin. And
he will arouse like an owl in a tempest, and
hurry down TO the landing and parade as
sentinel there but within those walls will
there never again be heard the rcve;lle, the
tattOs, the retreat, the elatter Of musketry,
the sweet music of the band, and the ring
ing, joyous laugh of smart officers, with
bevies of gay girls and wives. A little
steamboat, named perchance, the Frolic,
will advertise in the Daily Saint Paul Pio-
neer, to SNAKE tri-weekiy trips with plea
sure parties, between Saint Paul aud the
ruins of Fort Smelling, and the Little Falls,
and when there is water sufficient, to Saint
Anthony" and an opposition boat, on the
same route, will advertise to run, and will
stick up steamboat bills at every corner of
the town, headed, "No monopoly" -
And when the two little rival boats, come
Tuning aud steaming and roaring down the
river abreast, on race, and strive to nestle
up to the Ievee and effect landing, by
crowding between the large boats belonging
10 the lower trade, that will line the leyee
from Trout Brook to the western verge of
the town, not one person in one hundred Of
the thousands then living within the crowd
ed city of Saint Paul, will know or care
whose property the two little rival boats
may be, or where they belong. But the par
iicuar object of this article is to attract the
attention of the public, to a plan for pre-
venting the decay and dIapida,ion of Fort
SnelIing-a plan for arrestiug it from the
fate of other frontier posts-saving the pub
lie property there from ruin, and em!,alin-
ing at eas, one limb Of the old Army that
knocked Mexico into a cooked hat-one
specimen of the old sentinel outposts that
pioneered civilization onward to the Pacific.
A Military Asylum is authorized by a law
Of Congress, to lie established. The Ma
tional inteIligenccr says:
eve are informed that the board of COM
mssioners upon whom has been devolved
the duty ofselecting location for the pro-
posed Military Asylum, authorized by an
act of the last session of Congress, are near
iy ready to set out upon their mission of ex-
animation. Ii is composed Of the following
distinguished gentlemen: General Scott,
general in-chief; Generals Wool s. Twiggs,
commanding the eastern and western divis.
ion of the army; General Jesup, ofthe quar-
termaster's department; General Gibson, of
the subsistence department.; General Tow
son, Colonel Larned acting,) of the nav
masters department; General Lawson, sur.
geon general; and General Jones, the Adj
Jutant General. Within the next ten DAYS
they purpose To visit Mount Vernon, and
some other eastern points, after which
portion ofihe board will extend their exam
nations TO the vicinity Of New Orleans, and
thence up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.
They will probably he absent some five or
six weeks
Now beyond all question, there is not a.
mother spot as suitable for a Military Asy-
lum. in the whole length and breadth of this
continent, as Fort Smelling. IL not only en-
joys the advantage Of climate, heal,hfnl
beyond parallel, and scenery Of unequalled
beauty, but it is in the very centre of the