The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1857-07-11
(Erom the N. Y. Tribune. }
East and West.

A|aos 8AAO " Coss
Between the East and the West-the Sea-
board and the Great Central Valley of our
OOntinent--there should be maintained the
most perfect understanding, the most cordial
The letters Of many Western
the structures Of Western
journals, Indicate q growing dissatisfaction
with the East in the quarter whence they
proceed. Let US try to comprehend each
other: - Il ia
The East is not and cannot be Jealous
the growth and greatness of the West. for i
recognizes therein the bases of its own growth
and prosperity. A new state in the West
implies new ships on the ocean, new factories
in Lowell and Lawrence, new blocks of
stores in New York. Our brethren and chill
dren who leave their Atlantic homes to
found new ones on the prairies and by the
waters Of the Mississippi are not lost to US,
even in pecuniary view they are still our
customers as well as our kinsmen and coun-
trymen. The corn Of Illinois nourishes and
the timber of Michigan shelters us as thor
oughly as if they had been produced on the
Genesee or the Penobscot. 1t is the urgent,
palpable, undeniable interest of the whole
Sea board that the fertile and facile " est
should be rapidly and generally peopled by
intelligent, energetic. civilized, thrifty free
men. Hence this journal with others has
been constantly advising our unemployed or
meagerly recompensed workers Immediately
to strike out. neither for Texas nor Near
aqua, Me xico nor Australia, but the virgin
soil and liberal promise of our own Free
West. And We say to-day, as we have ever
said to the young man or woman light of
purse but wiling Of hand, to the farmer or
mechanic of increasing family, slender means
and dubious prospects. Your true home is
in the West! Seek it, and rear you children
there to larger opportunities than await them
on the rugged hlllsides or in, the crowded
streets of the East
But, while We feel and say this, we feel
also that we ought to tell them the whole
truth, so that we shall not be accused by
those who may be influenced by our counsel
of having misled and deceived them. We
feel bound, therefore, to say to those who
heed US, Go West! but do not expect to find
ON the prairies or in the river bottoms of the
Great Valley Garden of Eden. On the con-
trary, expect TO encounter serious priv ations
and sufferings through the years of your pi-
oneer life If you 60 full handed, you can of
course surround yourself with comforts but
if you pass the west line of Ohio (as una
jority of the emigrants do and must) with
less than two hundred dollars per head for
the number Of your famlly-that is to say,
with less than athousand d liars for family
of five persons-you must 60 prepared for
some years of rugged toll, rough usage and
coarse fare. If you would obtain land at any
thing like government price, you must 60
beyond mills stores, post Offices, school hous-
es and churches; if you would locate near, a
railroad or navgable river, you must pay
for the advantage, either in an enhanced price,
in exposure to savage hostility, or in remote
ness from the conveniences of civilized lite
if you insist on a rich soil, you increase the
probabilities of exposure to bilious disease;if
you will have rich land and no ague, you
must be resigned to severe winters and lack
of some choice fruits; if you delight in prai-
RE location, you will probably have to pay
smartly for fencing and timber; if you shun
the bleak winds of the prairies, you will find
the timber less healthful and more difficult t,
subdue to cultivation. Thus every advan-
tage has its relative disadvantage; and though
there may be, spots which combine hestffnl-
ness with rare fertility, prairie for cultivation
with abundant timber for every use, yet such
spots are snapped up by experienced pion-
GERS, and you must not expect to obtain one
Of these without paying for it handsomely
So with regard TO location on the larger
scale. Indiana and Michigan are the most
convenient to market of all the new States,
but we consider their soil on the average
unequal to that further West, so that what
is gained in the price of crop is lost in
its quantity. Illinois is the most fertile body
Of land of equal size that we have ever trav-
ersed, and would produce, in our Judgment
| more grain per acre than any other equal
| area of the globes surface but We should
prefer more good building and fencing tim
Der, more springs more brooks, more stone,
| and dryer soil. Iowa is more rolling, there
fore better timbered and watered but her
grain and meat must ultimately be sold chea-
per than those of Illinois, Wisconsin is at
once fertile and well timbered, but lies lit
tie nearer the North Pole than we should
prefer; Minnesota is still better soil, as good
timber and q healthier climate but we
couldn't pretend to 'mire 40 degrees below
zero with stiff north wester blowing, even
if it didn't kill apple trees and render peaches
impossible. Even Kansas, with her more
southerly latitude, her central location, her
excellent building stone, frequent springs and
ample streams, has sharper winds than we can
fancy, and lies further from pine forests and
from the great Atlantic marts than we deem
preferable. Is there any good reason why
We should realize these various drawbacks
and not state them Can the West desire
that some thousands more of our Eastern
farmers and mechanics should be lured across
the Maumee and Illinois only to come disap-
pointed and grumbling back again to dlffuse
their discomfort among their old neighhors?
Is it not permanently advantageous to all that
both sides Of the shield should be presented,
so that those who return to complain Of the
lack of nutmeg in their Western toddy shall
have none to blame but themselves.
This article has grown SO long that we must
reserve western railroads and corner lots for
Senarafa consideration