The emigrant aid journal of Minnesota. [volume] (Nininger City, Minn. Terr. [i.e. Minn.]) 1856-1858, 1857-09-26

We recollect hearing an anccdote Of a prophet, who,
in those days when prophets were more respectable than
they are now, was foreteling the fate Of his acquaint-
ances in the presence of one of those rough semi.civil
lied kings so common in Europe in the middle ages.
After he had gone through his cracular category Of evils
he was asked by the king if he who was so liberal in
foretel!ing the destiny Of others could reveal his own.
He said he could not, that it was beyond his power.
Then said the king, Il will tell it for you you will be
heheaded in half an hour and proceeded to carry his
prophecy into execution.
Thus has it been with the Eastern part Of our Union.
From an early day in the present year a systematic effort
has been made by every engine that money could com,
mand to awake prejudice and distrust against the great
West. Loud, numerous and repeated have been the
prophecies of ruin and woe against our beautiful lands.
"A crash = "a crash = "a crash = has been rung in
the ears of the whole country until the very clamor be.
came convincing.
What has been the result? The West broke not.
Not a splinter was detached. The earthquakes have not
swallowed our fertile fields the Indians have fed into
the farther wilderness; even the grasshoppers have taken
wing and left US. A few paper and rasteboard real
estate millionaires have been reduced to their proper
proportions, and some inflated speculations have collapsed
1lAS puuctUftu paiiOuuS. uat us A>otuiHS.
Yes, even more, for while we were expecting the crash
and the comet together, and wondering what shape
both would assume, 10, the storm burst with fury in th;t
serene and pure atmosphere from which all these
prophecies emanated. Yes, even so, the safe East, the
conservative East, the East lying back in ease and digni-
ty, and foretelling regretfully yet impartially. the terri
bic results that were about to ensue from the reckless
speculations of the West, the East with one great howl
gave up its pretensions and its pride, and now lies fat
in the most abject prostration that ever visited any part
Of this great country. Verify,
The poisoned chalice hath returned
To their own lips
They set about to ruin US, they would have enjoyed
our ruin, they would have rejoiced over it as the as
tronomer rejoices over the advent Of some Grant bod.
whose return he had foretold Now they feel the agon.
meant for US. 1t is not Christian like, and yet it is mos
natural that We should not regret to see such condign
punishment visited on their heads who would have
brought woe to our hearth-stones. They deserve no pity
1t is also a subject of satisfaction to notice that Will
the rotten East, rotten to the core, is staggering along
under the weight of its affections, it is deriving all the
little strength it possesses from the abused and i!l-trea'
I'd West. We notice by the New York Herald that on
house in New York received in one week Western rs~
mittances to the amount Of four hundred thousand dol
lars. They are looking to the West, and to the West
alone for succor and relief.
How vain, how idle, for any set of newspaper editors
to imagine they could turn back the course Of God
great gifts. The Western harvest, teeming and groap
ing from Minnesota to Ohio has more Of argument in i.
than all the collected logic Of all the oracles of the con
gregated press. Can they obliterate our wheat fields
Can they by their words and their type cover up our
g~rasaries? Can they deny vitality to the very susie.
2nSnce that feeds them? For if We are all a myth and
a deception, a mockery and a snare, what is to De though
Of those who possess their whole Importance in being
our outlets, the channel through which our productions
seek the sea, and through which we receive our foreigt
supplies. Cut off the great West from the city of New
York, and the destruction Of Sodom and Gomorrah VIA:
not more sudden Or complete than the desolation which
would fall upon it.
Is our country to be not only halved but quartcred
If the slavery agitation separates US North and South, i
the bad and bigoted conduct Of the Eastern Dress to draw
= line of ostracism between US East and West. Are VIZ
TO feel that We are hated and condemned, and that ou
fellow citizens Of a part Of the confederacy not only de
sire but seek to bring about our destruction If so, WI
Say beware. Our dish of soup of your connecting ba
already nauseated your own stomach, beware of a per
sistent course Of such prescriptions.