The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1858-07-22


the Bad Lands are reached, q final barrier
will be interposed to the establishment of
large agricultural, mercantile, or even pas
toral communities. lie POUNDS this conclu-
sion upon q number Of reasons, the most
important Of which are, the insufiicicncy OF
water, or the rainlessness Of the great cen
trail plains, arising from the necessity OF
their position and from natural caases
which the writer explains at length and
secondly the inadequacy Of the sofia TACT
alleged on the strength OF scientific obserya.
ton and the practical experience Of emil
grants. II this theory be correct, and the
grounds upon when it rests have lately
been land before the Smithsonian Institution,
in an elaborate paper by Prof HENRY,
Kansas and Nebraska will be the shores at
which will terminate vast ocean desert,
nearly one thousand miles in breadth, bound
I'd ON the West by the great producing
'plutts VI NaiiiuiIio anu of'kohi obu VII wv
East by the great sites Of manufactures
Kansas and Nebraska with soil capable
Of supporting a million of workmen and
layers of coal which will form the fuel of
tens Of thousands Of square miles. These
territories, the writer thinks will be the
Eastern coast Of the great desert %a--the
great manufactures of the Union, and the
furnishing ware.rooms where the people Of
California will exchange their gold aud
quicksilver, and those Of Oregon their fish
and lumber, for the hardware, the clothes
an 4 the furniture which the manufactures
of the Missouri Valley will produce.
Thrown back then, by this gigantic wall
of deserts, population will accumulate IN
denser layers in the cultivable districts Of
the continent. And we here perceive an
immediate geographical limitation Of supply
which in no long time must give to the Ter
tile lands Of the Mississippi Valley very
large increase of value. And il is the TACT
of the existence OF those waste deserts which
cut oil Kansas and Nebraska, on the west,
and shut them forever IN their own narrow
limits which gives to Minnesota the striking
adva ntages OF position which We have al
ways claimed for IL. The future Of all the
States of this continent, Us they have been
developed one after another, has depended
not on what lies east Of them, but what lies
west and northwest Of them. The develop
ment OF the north western States upon he
lakes have made New York what she H.
The growth OF the new cluster OF north
western States upon the Mississippi have
made Chicago what she is. Neither Kan
sas nor Nebraska have any such northwest
or west. They terminate on boundless
voids. Minnesota, on the contrary, occupy
ing q position which links the valley Of
the Mississippi with the fertile basin Of
the Winnipeg, has q northwest, which,
commencing on her immediate frontier ex-
tends TO the shores OF the Pacific. And she
holds the same relation to the unappropriat
ed arabic areas OF the Northwest beyond
us, AZ New York has held TO the Northwest
Immediately beyond it. With this differ
ence in our favor, that while New York has
had to divide the trade Of the West with all
the Saboard States, from Maine TO Florida,
Minnesota il the sole eastern outlet Of a
cultivsble region, Of fine climate and soil,
with IN area equal to twenty States Of the
size OF Ohio.