The Kansas herald of freedom., 1855-03-03

Reeoeu. cry respectfully, your ope,
dent servant, SIS @ -
JEFF. DAVIS, Sec'y of War.
To the President of the United States.
Kansas Territory.
What the inducements are for mechan-
ics,i and others to migrate to this por-
ton of the great West, can be inferred
from the following extracts from letters
written by Gov Reeder, to his friends
in the East
This is a most lovely and promising
country. There is no finer under the
sun; and next summer it will be rich
harvest for all kindsof building mechanics
and laborers. Last season stone masons
and carpenters got So 25 and So SO a
day, hborers 81 95 and 81 SO. A le-
gion of them will be needed early in the
spring and aH summer. If you have
anyto spare, send them along. We shall
pay out in the Territory near million
of dollars in building, and man can be
earning the highest wages, and getting a
good farm at 81 25 per atcre at the same
time. The government alone will spend
$780, 900 or $150, 900 in stone buildings
at Fort Riley, The stone mason, carpen-
ter, brickmaker, bricklayer, plasterer,
iaborer, lime-burner, &C., can lay the
foundation of a fortune here the first
year. Send them on; : know they will
not repent it. We have as yet nothing I
would call winter, and / doubt if it will
be any colder. Spring opens about the
first of March, and mechanics, DC,
should be here at that time. There are
some twenty towns laid out, the greater
part of which must be built up, to say
nothing of farm houses.
This is indeed lovely country. Tht
more see of it the more / am pleased. Ii
rich and fertile soil, fine streams of wa
ter-timber not abundant, but sufficient
superb roads, and unsurpassed climate
it has recommendations of signal value
The winters are genial, dry, and braeing
about all the really cold weather is caus.
ed by the northers, powerful and pierc-
ing winds that blow only occasion,
ally, and spend their force in twelve to
twenty-four hours. The intervening
weather is more like our Indian summer
than anything else. For days past ]
have sat in my room with the outer door
open and no fire. On Christmas day ]
had no fire till night; and, so far as can
learn, this is very often the case with
southern exposures. Indeed, to-day, al
though l have slight fire, the sun is too
warm to stand out in it with COM
fort. And even in this kind of wealth
er we have no mud (; the ground is
dry and comparatively warm. The
healthfulness of the climate is extraordi-
nary; theair is dry, clear, pure, and brac-
ing, and there are numbers of well au-
thentcated cases where persons of un-
doubtedly diseased lungs, so pronounced
by competent physicians-one of them
said to be an incurable case-have been
restored to robust health by residing or
travelling on our plains. Emigrants are
coming in even now, and in the spring
there viii be doubtless rush of them.
s'As soon as the high water commences
in the Kansas river, there will be several
steamboats, upon it as high as Fort Riley,
which is said to be the center of the con-
tinent. and surrounded by fine country.
Building mechanics will be in great de-
mand at the highest wages, as well as
laborers. and there will not be far short
of two thousand houses erected in the
Territory next year. The building stone
we have in many parts of the Territory
is of the finest kind, easily quarried and
dressed, and good brick clay is abundant.
The military buildings at Fort Riley are
of white limestone, which is quarried
generally in blocks, is soft enough to
dress with a hatchet, and hardens on ex-
posure to the air. The buildings COM
posed of it present beautiful appear
ance. The spring opens here, I am told,
about the first of March.
g Leavenworth City, which had the
underbrush cleared off it only last Oc-
tober, and stakes driven for the streets,
has now some fifty houses In it, and no
inconsiderable quantity of goods sold
here. 1t is destined to be an important
commercial city,. ~
The Cambrige. Maryland Chronicle
contains an extract of a letter from Chief
Justice Lecompte, of Kansas Territory,
from which we quote :, 49,.
So / do not feel justified in advising, at
present, persons to come here unless they
have capital to. invest, or are prepared by
their habits to put their hands to work.
These classes of persons are likely to do
well. have no doubt that many men
will realize large fortunes by investment
of their MEANS even In small amounts.
I am fully as well satisfied that, for those
who can work, this Territory will furnish
Immediately on the opening of spring, a
fine field. Carpenters, bricklayers, plas-
terers, DC, viii command high wages,
and find unceasing employment. The
soil is of the greatest fertility; the face
Of the country is not to be surpassed
Everything exists here necessary to soci-
ETY., and the signs indicate that an inn
mense flood Of emigration viii pour out
here as soon as the Missouri shall be
open after the winter. Whether living
win be at any reasonable rate for some
time, is to be disclosed by the future
Thus far all my calculations, as well as
yours and others, have failed, and, I hare
found it the most expansive country In
which my lot has ever been cast. "
Kansas and Anti slavery. .
The overwhelming majority by which
Whitfield, non-interyention, has been
elected over Flenniken, anti-slavery, has
thrown the Abolition and Freesoir party of
the North into strong conyulsions. They
gnash, snap, foam at the mouth, and ex-
hibit ali the symptoms of a dog in the
Iast- stages of hydrophobia. For six
months past, under the whip and spur of
the press, the pulpit, and the stump, they
hayebeen moving heaven and earth toabo-
itionizeK Kansas. They have raised funds,