The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-05-19
From the Cincinnati Gazette.
THE NORTHWEST-ITS GROWTH, PRO.
GRESS, AND FUTURE.

The Northwest has ceased to be merely the
States comprehended under the ordinance q
! 1877. Ohio has ceased to be merely West
ern State, and Cincinnati is no longer the citI
of the West, but has become the city of the
centre. Yet Ohio and Cincinnati are still az
the Northwest, and will be until the greaG
region between the Rocky Mountains and the
North Pacific shall be known as such. AS
present, the old Northwest has simply enlarged
its borders. 1t has extended its skirts beyond
the Mississippi; it is gradually drawing toward
the Rocky Mountains, and the wilds of Pembina
and the falls of the Missouri already begin 10
loom up on the distant horizon. The terrific
rial extent of this Northwestern centre, as it
really is, is immense its resources whether
for agriculture, commerce, or manufactures,
equally great and its destiny is apparently to
be equally grand and comprehensive. Over
the sandy plains of the South, and the fever
districts of the Gulf, (even if the system of ne
gro Slavery had no adverse influence popula-
ton will never advance as rapidly as in the
North.
On the rocky coast Of the Northern Atlantic,
commerce may create great cities, and wealth
may accumulate, but population, in the inte-
rior, cannot advance much further. 1t long
since began to overflow, and continues It's stream
of migration to the Northwest. The Northern
d
and voluminous stream than do the people of
New England, New York, and Pennsylvania,
I'll up the rich plains and valleys of the Ohio,
the Mississippi, the Kansas, and St. Peter. For
more than half century, a steady and uninter-
rupted current of migration, in our country, has
flowed on lines of latitude, with the compare
lively few exceptions made by doctors, lawyers,
or traders, seeking their fortunes in Southern
towns. The farmers, mechanics, and laborers,
neither like Slavery nor have the means to in
dulge in that expensive luxury Their fortunes
must be made by their own labor, applied to
that rich land which is open to their possession,
and nerved by that vigorous health which con
slant industry and cool breezes confer. In the
same channel moves the great German column
which, accustomed to domestic freedom for
thousands of years, loves not the gale tainted
by Slavery. The migrating masses tend now
as they have done, constantly to the Northwest
They move on lines of latitude, establish the
same kind of civilization, build up towns, grow
into States, and accumulate wealth beyond any
thing known in history. Labor applied to the
raw material, being the only source of wealth,
and selfdirected labor being far more produc-
tive than forced labor, it follows necessarily
that these new States, filled up with a free and
industrious people, must rapidly become rich,
and outgrow communities founded on princi-
| pie inferior IN strength and productiveness.
Such unquestionably has been the fact. The
Northwest has not merely grown in numbers !;
it has grown in wealth just as much. Cincin-
natl, sixty years since a small and dirty village,
can buy more than one State in the South, and
has gone beyond New Orleans, to which all
eyes were long turned as the great city of the
Mississippi Valley.
Ohio, which became State ffty-fve years
ago, could to-day buy out eight States, half in
the South and half in the North. The eventual
result of this growth is to place the political
and moral power of the United States, in the
States north of the Ohio and the Missouri.
Missouri will belong to the same subdivision
for, as Senator Atchison anticipated, the fate of
Missouri was decided in the contest for Kan.
sas. All north of the Arkansas will belong to
the great Gordon of States, which adopt Free
dom as the primary element of social organiza-
ton, and voluntary labor as the great means of
wealth. The world has never seen these prin!
ciples carried to the same extent, or developed
in the same rapid manner, as they have been
in the Northwestern States. A brief review of
these States, at the present moment, will give
the reader an idea of their rapid and powerful
advance towards the control of this country
Taking the sources Of the Ohio and those of
the st. Peter as the boundaries, east and west
we have the following extent of territory: