The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1860-09-28
MINNIE sofa!
As Viewed by William H. Seward.

1--we give DelOW tne Impressions OF MinnoSO.
ia, by WV. H. SEWARD, as he expressed them
at the capitol, at the Republican mass meeting
on Tuesday last. We do not choose to follow
Mr.. SEWARD into his labarynthine discussions
of political questions; but as citizen of Min.
nesota, we feel grateful that he has done justice
to the unriv allied geographical position of our
State, even in political speech. Mr.. SEWARD,
after saying that he had grown up with New
York, and watched its progress step by step,
and that he was familiar with the growth of the
new States of the west--said:1
Every step of my progress, since l
reached the northern Mississippi, has been
attended by great and agreeable surprise.
1 bad early read the works in which the
geographer had described the scenes upon
which l was entering, and 1 had studied
them in the finest productions of art, but
still the grandeur and luxuriance, the be-
nefcence and geniality Of this region, were
entirely unconceived. Those sentinel walls
that look down upon the Mississippi, seen
as l beheld them in their autumnal verdure,
just when the earliest tingeso the fall, gave
variety to the luxuriance OF the forest.
thought how much of taste and genius
had been wasted in celebrating the high
lands of Scotland before civilized man had
reached the banks of the Mississippi. And
then that beautiful Lake Pepin, seen at SUM-
set, when the autumnal green of the hills
was lost in the deep blue which initiates
that of the heavens, and the genial, yellow
atmosphere reflected the rays of the setting
sun, and the skies above seemed to come
down, and to spread their gorgeous drapery
over the scene. It was piece of uphol-
stery such as none but the hand of nature
could have made, and it was but the vesti-
bule of the capitol of the State of Minneso-
ta-(applause) the State which I have
loved, and ever shall love, for more reasons
than time would now allow me to mention,
but chiefly because it is one of three States
which my own voice has been potential in
bringing into the Federal Union, within the
time that l have been engaged in the Fed
eral Councils, and every one of the three
was free State, and I believe upon my
soul, that of the whole three California,
Oregon and Minnesota. Ed. P. & d. Min
nesota is the freest of all. (Applause.)
II find myself now, for the first time, up
on the high lands in the centre of the con-
tinent of North America, equi-distant from
the waters of Hudson's Bay and the Gulf
of Mexico--from the Atlantic ocean to the
ocean in which the sun sets. Here, upon
the spot where spring up almost side by
side, so that they may kiss each other, the
two great rivers, the one of which, pursuing
its strange, capricious, majestic, vivacious
career, through lake, cascade, and rivers
rapid, and lake after lake, and river after
river, cataract and bay, and lake and rap
ids, finally, after a course of two thousand
miles, brings your commerce half way to
Europe; the other, after passing through
highlands and prairie, distance of two
thousand miles, taking tributary after trib>
utary, from the East to the West, bringing
together waters from the Western declivi-
ty of the Alleghanies, and from those
which trickle down the Eastern sides of the
Rocky Mountains, finds its way into the
Gulf of Mexico.
"Here is the place, the central place, where
the agriculture of the richest region of
North America, must pour out its tributes
to the whole world. On the east, all along
the shore of Lake Superior, and west,
stretching in one broad plain, in belt
quite across the continent, is country
where State after State is yet to arise, and
where the productions for the support of
human society in other old, crowded States,
must be brought forth.
"This is then, commanding field but it
is as commanding in regard to the destinies
of this country, and of this continent, as it
is in regard to their commercial future;
for power is not permanently to reside on
the eastern slope of the Allegheny noun
tains, nor in the seaports. Seaports have
always been overrun and controlled by the
people of the interior, and the power that
shall communicate and express the will of
men on this continent, is to be located in
the Mississippi valley, and at the sources of
the Mississippi and St. Lawrence.
ain our day, studying perhaps what might
have seemed to others trifing or visionary
I had cast about for the future and ultimate
central seat Of the power of the North
American people. 1 had looked at Quebec,
New Orleans, at Washington and San
Francisco, and Cincinnati, and St. Louis,
and it had been the result of my last con-
lecture, that the seat of power for North
America would yet be found in the valley
of Mexico, and the glories of the Aztec cap
ital would be surrendered in its becoming
ultimately and at last the capital of the
United States of America. But I have
corrected that view I now believe that the