Year: 1867

Hon. VIM. f. Dodge in the course Of


his speech at the Congregational Union


in Brooklyn a few days ago referred to


our own State as follows.


And there never has been period in


the history of our country when all the


element were combining as they are now
combining to increase, to accelerate the


growth of the West. Take that noble


State of Iowa with its four lines of rail-


roads running across from east to west.


l was conversing few days since with


an entcrprising man with whom I have


been associated for years in railioad work


who has himself within the past four


years, completed a line of Railroad from


the Mississippi to Missouri. And he


told me that they had planted, and


mapped out forty towns on the line of


that road, and that some of them already


number over 5000 inhabitants. They


will all require churches, sir. They all


must have churches. They all will have
churches, trust. And when you come


to look at this mighty work, this vast
and rapid accumulation Of work, b.


fore you; when you think of that line of


railroad now fast making its way toward


the Pacific is to be u line all along Of
towns and villages and that it is not only


to carry the population from the east to


west, but is to bring in the thousands,


from the Asiatic world, who shall come


by the steamers-emigration steamers,
built on purpose for emigration, shall


bring them to the shores of the Pacific,
and thus scatter them all through the


Wost-and we shall have the emigra-
ton coming across the Atlantic, and
pressing its way West, while those who
from the 4Asiatic world are pressing
their way eastward. The mind staggers
at what shall be the position of this coun-
try in fifty years. Those old gentleman
to whom I have referred, when they
were boys, could look around on ma
ton of 5,ooo,ooo. They yet live, active
cid men, and they look out upon ma
ton of So 100000. [Applause.] Who can
begin to imagine what this country shall
be in fifty years hence? And what it
thall be morally will depend very much
upon your society, upon the influence it
shall exert, upon the stimulus it shall
give to the people who shall build up
these towns and villages to commence
carly to build the house of God and the
sanctuary that shall stand there; and
FvA,, i,
that shall bless the entire country. We
have a great work before us; and while
tf,i7 country has been spreading itself
and growing in its vastnc-s God has been
giving to the church us ho never gave
before the power, the means to carry out
aud extend all the privileges that we
have at the East to the West AS | |
looked at the map to-day, and looked ut |
New England, l thought OF the power |
and influence that has emanatcd from 1t. |
Look at that lsttle space that it occupies
OH the uap. The whole Of New England
could pc put in the State of lowa-the
whole of it. And Iowa will yet have,
and perhaps in fifty years, as many in
habitants as New England has to-day.
And it depends upon the West whether
the innucpcc that shall emanate from
Iowa shall be of the same kind that has
cmanated from New England. Let the /
Puritan influence be extended. Let |
this society go forward; and let every
society-no matter wether it is Congre
ga,ional, Presbyterian, Episcopalian,
or Baptist, let us all work |
together to save this mighty land for the
Lord. Applause.]