The Kansas herald of freedom., 1858-09-25
From tie Kaasas Dai9y Ledger.

The West-Past Present and Future.
The West! Where is it-in what por-
ton of this mundane sphere has it loca-
ton "Way deown" among the hills
aud pine trees of Maine, where the lum-
herman shoots his raft adown the steep
declivities and amid the foaming waters
Of the Penobscott and Kennebec, they
talk of going scout west to York." and a
few years since he who had been thither-
wards was a travelled man, and had tales
TO tell and willing ears to listen. AS time
passed on apace, the denizens of Gotham
spoke of the eastern shore of Lake Erie as
the West, and he who had beheld its bill
lows and padded a canoe over its waters,
was looked upon as wonderful man, and
he was questioned closely as to the sights
he had seen in that far off wilderness of
wild beasts and wilder men roaming thro'
the trackless forest and hiding in the Sc
questered glades. where the sun shone not
through the thick branches. But enter
prise could not rest, and some of the more
adventurous found their way across the
lake or round its southern shore to the
wilderness of Ohio and Michigan, into
the great Territory of the Northwest,
where, in few years, cities sprang to
view from among the primeval woods by
the great lakes and along the banks 19f Ia
Belle REVERE; aud still the cry was, the
west, ever westward no until the Hoosier
State, Illinois and Missouri were in that
Utopian realm and Iowa, too, was sup
posed to be somewhere thereabouts. Then
was the West beyond the Father of Wa
ters, and its rolling tide alone divided
mankind from the earthly Atlantis Of
their dreams. After time, brief Pc
Rod of quietude, there came the notes of
a bugle from the outerrim of civilization,
from the plains of Nebraska, and its tones,
faint and low, told of another west even
farther beyond, on the shore of Missouri |;
and the clarion blasts from Kansas pro-
claimed that here was tho true Atlantis,
the Utopia into which must flow the tide
of ever restless humanity, in the race to-
wards the setting SUB, the struggle for
possession. And they came
Csme as the. waves come when navies are
stranded, r-
Came as the leaves come, when forests are
rended, 5 .
to build themselves houses upon the pam
pas of the west, beside her rivers and in
her valleys. The voice of the tempest is
to them familiar as the singing brook and
April shower; the bird of prey darkens
their sunshine, and the snake crosses their
daily vision, yet do the fields reward their
labor, and their cities arise fair and strong;
and though they have abandoned the
graves of their fathers, their children will
dwell in faith and love around their own.
The broad plain and the dense forest were
before them, but one has grown golden
with the waving grain, and the other re-
verberates to the ringing sound of the axe
the harbinger of progress and ciyiliza.
ton. True, there have been dangers tc
face, difficulties to overcome, hardships tc
be endured but what danger has not hu.
man courage braved; what difficulty thai
human patience cannot surmount; wha
hardship may not human fortitude with
stand, nerved to unyielding strength by
the fixed consciousness of absolute and
eternal right ?
Yet, if we are not watchful, the ives
will pass even US, without our knowing it
pass us in the canvas covered wagons, OF
pack mules and on foot, and settle in the
region of Pixies Peak, amid the plain
and by the creeks of the mountain range
In '49, the cry was westward no ! bu
farther yet than we are, past the great
desert and Pixies Peak, swept the wagoi
of the emigrsnt to the 0phir of the New
World. There was magic in the word
us there is in Cherry Creek now, and Cal
ifornia was the Utopia in which centere,
the highest dreams of wealth and prefer
ment. Then, as now, were the gold hun
ters upon our plains, with eyes eagerl,
turned to the Ell Dorado lying in the ia
west, and their long trains wound slowl,
over the prairies, startling the Antelop
and Buffalo from their propriety, an,
the red man to wonder at the strang
sight. ,...
These things are Of the past and tn
present but in the future we seem to see
instead of the cumbrous white-toppe
wagons, train Of rail cars swinging in
dustriously over the plain, throwing aloi
its long line of smoke, and conqueriDg tn
ground as it goes. And we hear the lou
neigh of the iron horse piercing the dis
tant prairies which join in the ringing CT
of progress, as the numbering train, wit
its rich freight of adventurous and eve
, restless manhood, keeps on its way.
startles the wastes of the Forks with i,
rumbling jar, it flashes through the de:
ert, and the hills shout welcome Wit
a roar and bound it leaps into the valfe,
, aud like wounded buffalo, checks il
! speed at the very base OF the golden peal
, whose crags are stored with the yello'
ore, aud where the stately city of the plai
rises in beauty from the earth.
} Child of the Unions prime, fair Kansa
is the favorite on whom double porto
has been lavished. The harvest read
above, the mine rich beneath, and brav
! free and intelligent people, who can Civ
! a glorious noon to the State yet in i
i morning, having the experience of its bri
liant sisterhood for example. Commerc
! science and freedom are its fate, and ii
web over which :hey preside is but begul