The emigrant aid journal of Minnesota. [volume] (Nininger City, Minn. Terr. [i.e. Minn.]) 1856-1858, 1857-08-15

/ populating deserts in obedience to some inexplicable
law.
In addition to this mysterious impulse, men turn, in
our own country, from the densely populated states OF
the East in obedience to interests which are explicable
and apparent.
Boundless fields are open to them virgin soils invite;
a country, beautiful as any upon which the sun shines,
displays its interrupted beauties and limltiess resources
to all who can appreciate.
Hither flock the men of small means but daring souls,
who have determined to carve for themselves an honor
able fortune. A benign government offers to them a
property at much less than its value, when we consider
the natural enhancement consequent upon the quadru-
ping of the quantity of gold. Although Ignorant OF
the cause, they all feel and know that that which five
years ago cost one dollar and twenty-five cents, Is now
worth three dollars an acre.
This single consideration enables us to understand
much of the rapid rise in the value of western proper
ty. 1t starts from below its value and must make a
rapid stride toward it's real value. These same consi-
rations also affect the prices of city property.
Men, who forget the increase of gold and the aston
ishing influx of population into our western States, can
not comprehend the amazing enhancement in value of
western property. They Judge all things by the standard
of the past, and measure all things by the standard OF
eastern progress. No doubt there is much unjustifable
speculation in the West, and no doubt these vaticina-
tons are correct in reference to many town sites OF spe-
culators yet the bursting of many such air bubbles
proves nothing as to those seats of trade which geogra-
phical position and natural causes point out as future
centres OF commerce.
We will instance St. Paul. 1t is the head Of navi-
cation on the Mississippi and thus connected with rivers
which afford in the aggregate twenty thousand miles OF
nayigable water. TO the north of this navigation there
In six hundred miles of arabic land, which, even to the
iaefkirk settlement in tho Rritish nnssassiona r-Aanaaa
fndiaD corn 10 the westward extends a fertile country
which for more than a thousand miles Is capable OF sup
porting a dense population.
Wisconsin and Minnesota contain the great body OF
timber, and almost the only timber in the West, and so
to say, are the timber granary of the Mississippi States;
all this must rebound to the advantage of st. Paul and
assist in it's growth. AL produce going into this i'm.
mense territory from the South, or taken away from
the North or West for a southern market must pass
through St. Paul, the head of navigation. The early
period at which Lake Pepin is frozen over and the late
period at which the ice is broken may divert a large
trade in certain seasons to some point below the Lake,
possibly Teepeotah, which is opposite a formidable bar
in the river. However this may be, the tendency Of
our argument is simply to show that IN this Immediate
neighborhooda great city must arise.
Water communication is VIGOROUSLY cheaper than
land. This fact is the secret of the unexampled growth
of a Cincinnati, a Louisville, a St. Louis and a Chicago.
Hitherto Chicago has been tho westernmost point from
which a great trade could depart and reach. The
sluggish Chicago river and the navigation Of the lakes,
assisted by a necessary consequence OF Railways, have
been the cause that this city has afforded an unexampled
career Of growth and prosperity. Hence has been dis
tributed the merchandise of the East it has been a CEN
ter from which eastern goods, coming over the inland seas,
have radiated to the varions points already settled in
the giant West. We repeat, Chicago has been the ul-
innate limit to which eastern and European trade could
reach by water communication. From these causes its
rapid rise.
But since the completion of the canal around the
Sault Ste. Marie, a navigation is extended many hun
dreds of miles farther into the heart of the American
continent, and the westernmost extremity OF Lake Su-
perior is nearly the same distance from Erie, Oswego,
Montreal, Quebec and the Ocean, as is Chicago. Since
the completion of the canals and the opening of an un-
interrupted navigation to the Ocean, the minds OF men
have been turned in a different direction which we can
understand by the following item Of news;
"Cu1cAoo AND LhvEnpooL~-A barque of 800 tuns
burden. capable of taking 16, 900 bushels of grain, and
intended as the first of "a line to run from Chicago TO
Liverpool, was launched at Chicago on the 4th. She
was expected to be ready to sail by the 10th inst, and
will take a cargo Of pipe-staves, and return with a cargo
of iron and crockery for Western merchants. This
vessel is named the c.. J. Kershaw and is built for a
fast sailer.-States."
The necessities of inter- European and American trade
have called up a direct communication between the CEN
tire of our continent and the great marts OF European
commerce Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Bal
timore have developed by reason OF their position as
Intermediates between the old world ana the harvest
of the new
II is the trade of the West that has made them what
thew are. Their networks of Railroads and their efforts
to absorb western trade have been directed in accordance
with these ideas. They have levied a tax upon the
agricultural products and the merchandise which has
passed through these toll houses of commerce. The
taxes which they have levied and the commissions
they have distracted have been the basis OF their
metropolitan growth. :,
But as water seeks its level, trade has now found
its natural channel, and Chicago is the first to feel
this result of the unalterable laws Of commerce. To
avoid the oncrous exactions of New York tranship-
ments and the commissions of New York merchants
and because Of the ruipous cost of transportation by
land, ships must ply between the centre OF the conti-
nent and Europe But Chicago is not the western
most limit Of water-navigation and can be the dis
tributing point Of only a small area. Goods intended
for districts west of this, will seek the heart of the
western hemisphere and avail themselves, to the ut
most limit, Of this easy mode Of transportation. The
! sails which swelled to the breeze which blew over Al
bion's shores or the luxuriant plains of Italy must
carry undisturbed cafgoes to Superior City or Fond
|dusLac.
Hersgthen it would seem the great city Of the Ame-
rican continent should be located and the great centre
Of commercial interchange find its site. But the winds
from the lake are hyperborean; the soil is sterile the
country is unf%ruitful; ard the near back ground Is q
marsh. The great heart metropolis cannot be founded
anywhere around the extremity Of Lake Superior
The proper position must be sought inland and upon