The Leavenworth weekly times. [volume] (Leavenworth, Kan.) 1870-1880, 1878-09-05
REMARKS OF
SENATOR blaine,
AT THE
Minneapolis, Minnesota, Fair, Tues
day, September 8, 1878.

The following is report in full OF Mr..
Blaine's speech delivered at Minneapolis
yesterday:
Mr.. PRESIDENT An assemblage OF the
citizens OF Minnesota, coming together 10
rejoice over abundant harvests, and TO
view the beautiful products OF their State,
j. well calculated to inspire recollections
that are Of interest beyond the limits OF
the audience that now honor me with their
attention.
Near the borders OF your State, on the
banks OF the great river now flowing in
our sight, there resides man 10 the full
vigor OF an honorable old age, long my
acquaintance and my friend, whose career
calls vividiy to mind the wonderful prog
re-, ui the Northwest. In the last two
years oi General Jackson's Presidency,
George ". Jones was the delegate in Con-
gress from that vast area now forming the
States OF Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and
Minnesota, together with that part OF
the territory OF Dakota north OF the Mis-
souri, river, and esst Of the White Earth.
In the last preceding Federal census, the
total civilized population of the entire
territory of Michigan was less than 3, :
GU0,-adventurous men, standing on the
oUtposts OF civilization, and accept
ing and conquering the hardships
of the frontier. There were at that time
forty-three years ago-but two newspapers
OF any kind whatever, published 10 the
whole country Of which i have spoken, and
not one of these west OF Lake Michigan.
To-day the same country has eight Sena-
tors, Twenty-Five Representatives, and one
Delegate in Congress has railroads aggre-
eating eleven Thousand miles in length,
and five hundred millions in cost; has
seyenty-seven daily newspapers, and more
than eleven hundred weekly or monthly
publications; has great cities, larger than
Philadelphia or New York when the Uni.
ted States had taken its second census, and
chosen its third President; has popula-
ton as great, excluding the slaves OF that
day, as that of the whole country which de-
fed Great Britain TO a second contest in
1872; produces a larger amount OF bread
s;u!Ts than the entire Union produced when
General Jones entered Congress; and con-
tains more wealth than was owned in the
eighteen States that divided their electoral
votes between James Madison and Dewitt
Clinton Tor the Presidency. Such facts as
these may well cause us TO give thanks to
God and virtuous ancestry for those
blessings of liberty and good government
which have made all this progress possible
Geographically, the State of Minnesota
is land OF singular and surprising inter
est Lying about equi-distant from the
great oceans on the east, on the west, on
the north and on the south, her situation as
compared with her sister states is entirely
peculiar, and in one respect is without
parallel On any continent. Her surface
forms the central watershed Of North
America, and not far from where We stand
streams have their modest sources that
finally lose themselves in one direction
through Hudson's Bay in the Arctic waters;
in another through the chain Of the great
lakes in the broad Atlantic; and third
through the Mississippi River in the Gull
OF Mexico. To the westward, nature has
raised an insurmountable barrier TO the
W ter course, but the invention of man has
overcome the obstacle, and through the
power OF steam, and over the road Of iron
there is already projected ard partly achiev-
ed that great commercial highway 10 the
Pacific, foretold By LaSalle, when standiag
on the banks OF the ST. Lawrence, by the
rapi Is whose name perpetuates his pro-
PHI scv, pointing TO the untrodden west
whittier he had already turned his face. he
pronounced to his doubling companions the
inspiring word, La Chine.
Viewed historically, that which now con,
sti,utes the State OF Minnesota, has had as
many and as rapid changes in its sover,
eighty asany disputed territory in Europe
fought over by armed hosts, Sc: in motion
by the ambition OF kings or the jealousy oil
rival races oil men. This fair land was I'M.
der The dominion of France during the
reign of Louis NV and his great-crandson
had lberville who led the French colony &c
Louisiana for its first Governor, and Bien-
willie who founded New Orleans, for its sec.
oni was pawned by the Regent Orleons in
| is scheme with John Law for creating
Waite cut OF moonshine, and made, with
other territory, the basis OF the vas: swim
d in paper money projected by the Missis-
sippi Company, in which real estate in
Minnesota, in the undispuied possession Of
savage and wild beast, became the shadowy
foundation in Paris hundred and sixty
years ago, of a far greater monetary credit
than it could have to-day in the same tinan-
cial market with all its improve
ments and its great intrinsic value
Again, under the dominion in part OF George
III OF England, who was compelled 20 yield
his right TO your soil by the treaty OF 1888,
and 10 withdraw the last Red coat by the
treaty OF 1875. Still farther, for thirty
seven years all on the west side of your
dividing river, was attached to the crown
OF Spain during the reigns of the third and
fourth Charles, and given up by the latter
in the year 1900 to France, when for a per-
iod OF three brief years, the larger half OF
Minnesota had Napoleon Bonaparte for its
sovereign ruler. The First Consul ALWAYS
did business on a basis OF hard cash, and
lie transferred the French possession in
to the United States for fifteen
millions OF dollars. Eighty years before
the time, John Law and his speculative
partner, the Duke of Orleans, had made
the same possessions the basis for an issue
Of paper money amounting to nearly three
thousand million of francs. Some rehec-
lions are naturally suggested by these facts
which would perhaps not be entirely per-
linent 10 an address before an agricultural
society. i may be pardoned, however, for
he inference that the resources of great
do not afford sound and secure
basis for an enlarged paper currency.
But these changes OF European sovereign.
striking or more strange than the rap
Of its government since it
;ame under the sovereignty of the United
States. 1t comes to Us as forgotten his
DRY, when We recall that the eastern hall
If your state was claimed during the Revo-
utiOnary struggle as part OF Virginia, by
10 less Governor than Thomas Jefferson
when as part of the Northwest Territory
he gallant but unfortunate Arthur ST.
lair was its chief executive; when as part
II Indiana, William Henry Harrison,
soldier, statesman, was made
Is Governor at the age of twenty-seven
Tears; when az part OF Illinois, the large
ramed and large-hearted Niaian Ed
wards ruled over it-appointed thereto by
Madison, at the personal request of "a
'oung Senator named Clay" as he is sig
styled in a certain record; when
Is part Of Michigan Territory, Gen. Lewis
jass was its efficient, honorable, and care
al executive; when as part Of Wisconsin
he chivalrous and courageous Henry
Dodge was its popular Governor, and also
is delegate in Congress from one half |
Is domain, while his worthy and still
living son as delegate at the same time from
owa, represented the other half-a striking
rendered still more remarkable |
y the father and son meeting again IN the |
National Senate from the States which they |
lad represented in the House when terri
ories.
Nor OF the section of your State west of |
he Mississippi does it read less strangely,
= We recall that when sold to the National |
Government by Napoleon Bonaparte, it be-
anne part of the organized territory of |
changed very soon to Missouri,
nd had for long years as its Governor the