Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1870-11-10

phetic; and the more if we consider that
they were penned hundred and forty
four years ago, and how little progress
America had made long afterward.
Four and forty years after Berkeley's
vaticination only nine institutions in the
thirteen colonies claimed the name of
college. No Bible had as yet been printed
this side the Atlantic; Sntra continental
colonization had hardly begun. England
still expected by surveyors chains and
paper proclamations to keep all white
men to the east of the Alleghenies. The
Able Raynal was still proclaiming with
great ec7at that 'the Americans had de-
generated by transplanting,' as if nature
would punish men for crossing the sea-
He fortified his theory by the fact that
Indians have no boards, and so had passed
for men half finished, as well as his own
assertion that mo American had dis
tinguished himself by those talents which
lead to fame"
But the westward course of empire, SO
long problem atical, has become proven
bal. Some features in this progress have
been annexations as those of Florida,
Louisiana and Texas, or conquests as Cali
fornia and New Mexico. Notwithstand-
ing the grandest characteristic in this ad-
vancement has en- the successive waves
of a colonization, which may be called 5ptrG
continental, as taking place within the
limits of the continent, this internal coloni-
zation has been promoted by manifold agen-
cies some of them newborn, as if created
specially for that purpose. Land bounties
to soldiers scouting against Indians, can
ais, steamboats, and railroads, have each
prepared the way for group of new
States. They have either showed their
attractions, or have made them more ac-
cessible.
A new use OF railroads has also been
lately developed. They used to be thought
either too costly for new countries, or at
least adapted only to follow in the wake
of settlements, but they now lead the van
of pioneers, and even outrun them. South
western Iowa, and especially Nebraska,
best show this new stimulus to settle
ment. Nebraska. the last State to enter
the Union, was the first one which at it's
entrance could boast of railroad fully
completed within its limits. That road,
itself nearly five hundred miles long, has
already brought forth after it's kind, for
more than half dozen roads have been
begun within the last year. The longest
of them, the Burlington and Missouri
River, already finished from Plattsmouth
to Lincoln, the capital. is pushing on to-
ward Fort Kearney, which is talked of by
those who live there az our prospective
national capital.
The lands along this B. & H. r. R. r.,
both in Iowa and Nebraska, are rapidly
seized 10y homesteaders and pre-emptors
so far AZ open to them. The alternate
sections belonging to the railroad com
pany have been this season for the first
time brought into market. It is super
fuous TO prove that these lines are fertile,
near good markets, both for sale and PuF=
chase, and in a location healthful. and
every way as desirable as can be found.
[ say "superfuous,' because ali this is
proved by one single fact, namely: that
the solcs of these lands during the last
five months has amounted to well nigh
"a million and half of doll 4rs Isl ,450,-
229 90 THE sales iu Iowa were some
what less than a million, those in Nebraska
more than half a million The buyers
were not speculators, but in Iowa alone
nine hundred actual settlers, who had
looked before they leaped, Scrutiuizing
with their own eyes the farms where they
meant to settle. Nor have these settlers
paid cash for their lands, but have ob-
tanned them on ten years credit and six
per cent interest. Thus they are able to
expend all their capital in breaking up
prairie, building cabins, fencing and
stacking their acres,