The emigrant aid journal of Minnesota. [volume] (Nininger City, Minn. Terr. [i.e. Minn.]) 1856-1858, 1858-02-24
Our New York Correspondence.
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TO The E11or If the Em'yruns Aa journal:
DEAR SiE-Who can say how long the burnt child
will dread the fire? Certainly no denizen Of this great
metropolis. Despite all the experience Of the past few
months, speculation aglin runs mad in Wall street.
Once again the knaves and fools are at work-the knayes
leading and the fools following-the chase is up, and
heaven knows when or where it will end. Who would
expect within four months after the greatest panic the
world has ever known, to find such paragraphs as this
in our leading papers:
Fb. 1l.-Busiuess at the Stock Exchange to-day
was on a scale of Importance seldom equalled, even in
the most exciting times Of former years. For most of
the prominent stocks on the share list the rush was
ovcrw helning and every call at the Board was accom-
panied by so much confusion, that the transaction OF
business Was a matter of more than ordinary difficulty.
The Influence of on unprecedented money accumulation
of the idleness of capital--begins to be experienced
in full force ; and the craziness of speculation, which
we have endeavored to foreshadow since the suspension
much rapldity as we had expected. The fever extends
to nearly everything on the list, whether the stock dealt
in c .rries the merit Of intrinsic value on it's face or not
that feature, in point Of fact, becoming one Of COM
parativc iu~igni6cance in the bread ard unbroken wave
OF speculate N, which carries everyth ng before it,
Capital cannot lie idle. Its activity is as much a mat.
ter Of necessity to the lender as the borrower.
Let not the West despair. If human nature can in
so short q time run into such insane excuses in the
Investment of money in those securities which fell lowest
and left least behind them may we not expect
for the great fertile lands of the West, which, as is
generally admitted, bore the depression better than any
other species of security, and which we all think will in
the spring be buoye,l up by an unprecedented tide Of
emigration.
While all kinds Of fancy stocks are thus active in
Wall street, where are your Minnesota Land Grant Rail-
road Companies? They have something substantial behind
them, an should be here now to take advantage of the
general uproar instead of wasting precious moments
begging and whining at the doors of the State Legisla-
ture. l fear they have not the right kind Of men
connected with them or they would have done something
by this time, instead Of, as report says, being unable to
pay the expense of their surveys, and the salaries of
their officers.
Kansas affairs still attract great attention in this
quarter, The hopes Of the Free State party are again
up. We fear any Congressional triumph will be but Of
a temporary character. We condsider the admission II
Kansas under the L~ecompton Constitution a certainty.
We see that tie Tribune thinks that while the admis-
sion of Minnesota, Washington, Oregon and Dakota
will give the North a preponderancein Congress, that that
700 will be but temporary-and asks very pertinently,
where are any additional free States to come from ? To
the South, it truly remarks, the means Of enlargement
are unbounded they have Cuba and Central America
now on the carpet, while the purchase of a new slice
of Mexico is already contemplated, and the territory Of
he present State of Texas is sufficient to make half /.
dozen ordinary sized States. We are, like yourself, not
very ultra in politics, but we confess we look forward to
the time when Southern interests shall largely pre-
| ponderate in Congress with no little apprehension. Why
amid MI these proposed purchases Of Mexican Territory
is 10 proposition made to invest some Of the govern.
ment's spare funds in a Canadian purchase. There are
large tracts Of unpaoplel lands to the North Of Us, that
we doubt not could be readily obtained, and which for
the purposes Of settlement by a hardy and enterpr:sing
! population, are far superior to the insect,infected shores
Of the Gulf, Or the sterile interior tracts Of New Mexico,
| which. as scientific research has shown. are akin in
climate and soil to those desolate regions OF Asia, upon
which the prophecies of the Bible have fallen.
The perpetaity of our Government depends upon a
| balance Of power between the adverse interests locked
up in it
Local affairs are rather dull just now. No murders
of startling interest to whet the public appetite for the
horrible. Some developments it is true are being made
as 10 huge franis and embellishments in one department
Of our city government bat these things are 30 much
matters Of course that they create no surprise AN
inquisition resulting in no discoveries Of the kind would
be more r. matter Of wonder. Adieu for the present.
| Yours truly, MANHATTAN.