, 1862-09-20
THE WASHINGTON STATESMAN.
SATURDAY MORNING SEPT. 20, 1862.
Our Future.

our Future,
To our unpredjudiced mind the future
of the "upper country designation
for the territory lying between the Cascade
mountains and the head waters of the Mis-
souri, river, is hopeful and prosperous one
1t is future hopeful with settlement and
civilization--with the incubation of arts and
sciences, of commerce and agriculture. 1t
is future of schools and academies-in
short, of civil and religious development
AMI advancement. We may not at this
early day trace its progress and develop
ing features with certainty, but from past
experience and present evidences, we may
draw perhaps faint outline, and preceive
in the not distant view the glimmerings of
a bright and beautiful realization. This
will not result in a day nor year, but it
is as certain as the march of destiny.
We are aware that skeptics will tell US
that the country we describe is but barren
waste, wilderness without promise, and
an utter desolation. They tell us that our
gold mines don't amount to anything, that
the gold dust we have in our midst in plen-
tiful supply, is brought from foreign mines
and kept in circulation by steamboat own
ers and traders for the purpose of keeping
up the excitement. They tell us that our
correspondents are bribed to lie, and that
gigantic system Of fraud has been resorted
to in order to deceive, the people. Occa-
sionally stray scrap finds IFS way into the
California papers from some disappointed,
disheartened gold-hunter, g out of luck and
out of money!" and such an account as
only a man in this most disagreeable di-
lemma could give, is the pretext in those
papers for TRADE against the mines. But
whatever they may publish derogatory to
the mines of the upper country, and for
whatever reasons, the gold does exist in
paying quantities all over the country, and
it is perhaps unfortunate for their purposes
that with the irrepressible and energetic
people of the western continent it is such
magnet as to be, of more convincing force
than the weak and home sick stories they
generally publish. 1t is on the other hand,
however, fortunate for the development
of the country, as the expert ence
of California proves, that men are
generally more inclined to believe the
STRAIGHTFORWARD statements of miner as to
what he is doing, how much he and those
around him are making, than the state
ments of rambling croakers; and the
opinions of the former, based as they are
upon their own experience and not upon
heresay, are entitled to receive more respect
than those advanced by the latter class.
The news of gold-bearing localities,
stretching away to the Rocky mountains
and beyond, are constantly reaching us,
and it generally comes through sources en-
tirely reliable. Taking them altogether,
they promise rich harvest to the enter
prising miner aud the numberless valleys
here and there throughout the country,
and situated contiguous to the mines, will
in their turn afford superior advantages to
those who choose to follow agriculture as
a pursuit. In this way, and through these
means, the upper country will henceforth
rapidly emerge from its natural and crude
condition into one of civilization and mag
nifcence.