Minnesota weekly times. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1859, 1854-07-25

THE GREAT WEST.
BY JOHN ESAIAS WARREN.

By JOHN ESAIAS WARREN.
There is no word in the English language mo
fraught with prophetic meaning than the Wes
From the rising towards the setting sun, civiliz'
ton and the course of empire have ever seemed
tend. ''Westward is the cry," and Westwai
the mighty ball rolls on.
From east to west, commerce and freedom
with their thousand ships in every sea and the
starry banners in every air, will forever circun
navigate the globe. The over-crowded countrit
of Europe are sending forth their surplus popr
lation in an annually increasing ratio, to see
food and shelter and employment upon our shores
One thousand immigrants are said to arriv
daily in the harbor of New York. From lS4O t
1850 more than one million and half were adj
ded to the census of the United States, by immil
grafton alone, while during the preceding tei
years the increase was only seven hundred an
sixty two thousand. When is this unpreccdente9
stream of foreign population to be checked?-l
when will it cease its western flow? No maj
knows when, but certainly not until the cause
which are secretly producing this wonderfully exc
dus of the nations of the east have been fully as
certaned and set aside.
But are not the real causes of this apparen
phenomenon already known: are they not visbl
to every eye-heard by every ear, and recognize
by every heart?
The queen of freedom in the west beckons witt
a smile to the oppressed and furnishing laborer
of the east, and forthwith they lay down thei
weary loads of misery and care, and cross tn
wide oce IN to a cline where land is cheap anc
labor is high and tyranny unknown. For age
have the masses of mankind been subjected t.
the oncrous burthens of civil and ecclesiastical op
wandered amid the falling fabrics of European
greatness, to realize how completely the desti
MES of the people have been crushed beneath tn
heel of power.
Vigilantly excluded from the light Of knowl
edge, they have not been permitted to learn hov
blessed thing it is to be intelligent and free
By the sweat of their brows they have been com
PEELED to support vast armies and navies, statelI
palaces and thrones. and all the whims and ex
travagances of arstocratic pride-the servituda
of royalty.
Unrivalled authority has no conscience and re
cognizes no law but force. The experience of tn
past assures us that the Capitalization of pOwe
in any form is invariably attended with danger t.
the liberties of the people. Just in proportion IL
a government is strengthened beyond reasonabl
constitutional limits, is the nation weakened an(
cnslavcd. Truly, the American people cannot b
too grateful to that beniicHnt Providcn rs whic!
inspired the hearts and intellects Of our father
of the revolution, to frame for the benefit Of sue
ceeding generations, that unparalleled Ggs TO
the protection Of human Shts and the mante
nance of perpetual union among the States-th
american Constitution.
The comparative weakness of our government
is its greatest merit and its only pride. 1t ha
strength sufficient to ensure our freedOm-nO.
enough to Cypress our people. Such should be
the rocky basis of every government upon the
earth. Until this shall be, tyranny in the east
will continue to rcpenish with the restless thou
sands it has made, the vast prairies and unappro-
rriatcd natural gardens of the West, until at
length the whole wide wilderness Of America
shall be made to ''bud and blossom like the
rOsc.''
The rapid development Of the incalculable re-
sources of this continent which has taken place
durnE the present century, lar surpasses every
PRECEDENT which history records.
An age of practical untihtarian miracles seems
to have Gawncd upon the world. The west is be-
ginnin. to teach lessons of wisdom, in philoso-
ply, science and constructive art, to which the
philosophers and artizans of the east are listen
inr with mingled interest and proGt-youthful
America is reading from the great book Of Nature
pages of entertainment to Northern England, and
in the ears Of ::the old folks at home.''
America is no longer mere theory-it has be-
come settled cOnviction-an incontrovertiblc
reality, greater and grander and moe in:luentia!
in its principles and results than ancient mod
crn time has seen. But it becomes us not to en-
ter into any needless euiogium of country
where every citizen, however INDECENT may be his
fortunes, is an orator in its prasc-Naturc too is
our orator, Freedom is our champion, Woman is
our safeguard and God is our guide.
Civilization was Graded in the East, it is true
and its dissipated youth was spent in European
climcs, but it seems like decree of destiny, that
the splendor and energy of its reformed maturity
should be reserved for carrying out the supcndous
designs of Providence, now dimly forshadowed in
the glorious West, and by the West in this con-
ncction | refer not to any separate portion of oul
confederacy, but to the whole great continent it.
self.
What can be more like miracle than the trans
formation which America has undergone since the
landing of the pilgrim fathers on Plymouth Rock
but single generation more than two centuries
ago! The change is almost inconceivable to the
mind. What was then but dense and dark pes.
tilential wilderness, for thousands of solitary
miles in extent, has been converted into the wealth
lest, the freeSt and most influential nation upor
the earth, with population of over twenty mil
lion whites, who, with few exceptions, can read
and write the language of their mother tongue.
What lonely stream was the Mississippi then,
flowing from the unexplored recesses of the great
northwest, in the vicinity of our inland seas, and
gathering to itself the surplus water of nearly
two millions of square miles, as sublime tri-
butte to the ocean !
Its wild and uncultivated banks were wrapped
in silence, as profound as that which marked the
first solemn morning of creation, save when the
rowing savage shouted forth the war cry of his
band, or the scream of the eagle, or the howl Of
the panther disturbed at intervals the serene tran
guilty of the scene.
America was then asleep, while civilization
with wealth and population in the train, was
marching towards the west, with a sure vet noise.
less tread. The pilgrims came-they performed
their task, and did they not perform it well p