Daily Davenport gazette. [volume] (Davenport, Iowa) 1854-1855, 1855-08-17
lFrom the Chicago Press,
A Young and 1ising State

States that gives 50 much promise tor the
future astOwa. We gave some figures the
other day which iliustra this point IN
very striking ma nner-the amount OF public
land taken up in the State during the fiscal
year 1855 ending with June. The number
Of acres purshased in.,he State was 3,273,.
$50, for which S4,o6i,9 oil was paid into the
U, S. Treasury. There were taken up in
Missouri during the same period 3,096,525
acres, for which only Sl,a49,27l was paid
so Sis GAO less than was paid in Iowa
fer nearly the same quantity OF land. All
the lands sold In Iowa brought the maximum
price Of 81 as FER acre, while those in
Missouri, which had been many years in
market, brought on an average but - cents
per acre. The soil is no doubt as good in
Missouri as in Iowa, but the incubus which
checks the progress Of the former has made
that difference in the original value Of the
land in the two States. In all departments
Of industry there is an equal difference.
Iowa, though go many years younger as
State than Missouri, is rapidly leaving her
in The rear in the march Of improvement.
The time is not distant when the same dis
parity of condition, though starting With
nearly equal advantages, will be observable
between Town and Miss our that now strikes
one so forciby when instituting a COMPARE
con between Ohio and Kentucky.
The natural advantages Of iowa are ex-
traordinsry. Within her limits are $4,000
square miles OF as rich soil az is anywhere
to be found 10 the world in the same com.
pass. There can hardly be said to be waste
acre in the State--"swamp lands" are I'M
known there. The greater part of its area
consists OF succession Of small undulating
prairies, well watcred, and generally well
supplied with groves Of timber. Ofminerals
it has an abundant supply Of coal, lead and
gypsum, and in agricultural resources i, is
unbounded. With an eastern water-line
on the Mississippi, the State stretches TO the
Missouri on the West, touches Missouri on
the South and Minnesota on the North. Il
is intersected by some half-dozen streams,
flowing through it southeastward into the
Mississippi, furnishing great amount of
water power, and giving apleasing diversi-
~ to the natural features Of the country
The principal of these are the Cedar, the
Iowa, and the Des Moines Rivers, the latter
of which rises in Minnesota, and traverses
the State diagonally for about four hundred
miles. In this enumeration Il natural adj
yantages, we must not omit to state that
no locsl causes of disease exist in the State,
and that the climate. is mlder than in the
States further east between the same paral-
leis Of latitude.
order to afford convenient points Of CON-
parison in the CAREER of this young and vig-
orous State, il will be necessary to recur
to Its early history. In lS3S-oniy seven
teen years since-Iowa was organized under
separate territorial government. having
previous 10 that time been under the same
government as Wisconsin. A. that time
there were only about 90 GOO Inhabitants in
the Territory, which in ls4o had increased
TO $4,000. After eight years of independent
existence, lin is4e,l Iowa was admitted in
to the Union as State, with a greatly in
creased population. which in 1850, as shown
by the census, had swelled 10 $4,000. A
State census, completed in June Of last
year, gave population of 326 900.
With such resources and such popula-
ton, both in numbers and spirit, the pro-
gress ofiowa is in the ratio of geometrical
progression. Up to the beginning of harvest
immigrants poured in from the East in a
food tide. From early spring till that time,
q continual stream of wagons went over the
Mississippi at all the crossing places, and
the population Of the State must have been
very greatly augmented within the last six
months. We be lieve il is quite within
bounds to say that it will reach half a million
by next January. We do no. think it exsrav-
agsnt to predict that the census of 1860
will show a population of at least three
quarters Of million.
The railroad improve ments in our own
State for the last four years have been of
simost as much advantage to Iowa as to H.
hnois, by furnishing easy access to its good
and cheap lands. Those designing to settle
in the northern portion OF the State have
gone over the GaIena and Chicago Road.
This season, muliitndes have gone over the
Rock Island Road; and since the opening
Of the Chicago and Burlington Road, other
multitudes have taken that route TO The land
Of promise. These roads, with the Illinois
Central, and others yet TO connect our State
and City with Iowa, will be an incalculable
advantage to il hereafter. Iowa too is awake
TO the importance Of internal railroad corr
municaton. and not many months will
elapse before she will have railroad run
ming her entire breath toCouncil Bluffs, soon
to be followed by one Of about equal length
further north.
The character of the population Of Iowa
is a guarantee that the moral and intellec-
tual advancement Of the State will keep
pace with its matcria development. In no
other portion OF the Union is 20 be found
more orderly, Industrious, sober and intelli-
gent class OF people. Education receives
the fostering care which it's Importance de-
serves; religion fourishes; and a beautiful
fabric of society is being bull, up there. The
career Of Iowa is onward and upward.