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States. Under these circumstances it would be but just and reasonable to expect, at least from the Ohio delegation, a generous and united support for this measure. That State, and the other States who combined with her upon the occasion alluded to, cannot upon principles of comity and fair, neighborly usage, now object to this grant of land in aid of establishing a communication on the only line that will answer the wants and meet the necessities of the two great divisions of our State, and thus enable us to overcome the barriers of nature and to say, in truth, "we are one people."

After the close of navigation the mails are taken only twice a month, and not sure at that, from Green Bay, through the forest, by two men who carry but a few pounds each. When the population shall increase, as it will, under the wonderful energy with which that country is now being improved, this public supply of the mail, which is all the Department can furnish under the present facilities for transporting it, and so insufficient for the transaction of business, will be a hardship difficult to endure.

The hardship will increase and keep pace with the improvement of the country, and must ever continue, unless some outlet of the kind contemplated is established. And this hardship will be experienced by the State as a body politic as well as by individuals.

With the setting in of the autumnal gales which sweep over Lake Superior with fearful violence, the navigation may be considered as closed. And it is found by dear bought experience, unsafe to depend upon obtaining supplies later than the middle of October, or earlier than the middle of May. Great expense and outlay is required to lay in suitable stores for eight months of winter imprisonment. And they are prevented from shipping their minerals and are compelled to heap them up as idle capital on the shores of the Lake to await the opening of navigation. Much difficulty is also found in employing laborers, as but few men are willing, without extra wages, to be debarred

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from all access to other portions of the Union, and virtually deprived of the enjoyments of the Post Office service for so great a portion of the year. In these several respects, Michigan is situated differently from any other State in the Union. By the proposed route supplies can be obtained, and the mineral sent forward to market summer and winter, and a daily mail would be secured to that country.Lake Michigan between Marquette and Manitowoc is open on the average, and can be safely crossed from nine to ten months every year. This route will bring the Copper and Iron region within forty eight hours of Detroit and Chicago, and within four days of St. Louis and New York. It may be considered as an extension of the Illinois Central, the Michigan Southern, the New York and Erie, and the New York Central Railroads, as well as the Great Western Railroad through Canada. There is a road now being surveyed between Chicago and Milwaukie. The space between Milwaukie and Manitowoc, eighty miles, would be soon improved by a Railroad upon the construction of this route; and there would be a Rail road communication over the Illinois Central and its connections, twelve hundred miles to Mobile. This would give the entire vailey of the Mississippi easy access to the Lake Superior country. Connecting with the Michigan Southern Railroad at Chicago, it would give access to the valley of the Ohio, and accommodate the travel around the head of Lake Erie to the upper country. Crossing the Lake and the Peninsula of Michigan, it would, at Detroit, connect with the road through Canada.

This route is wanted not by the State of Michigan only, but by other States. The seven States which encircle the American side of the western Lakes are commercially as much interested as Michigan. The States adjoining these, which pour their commerce through various channels upon these Lakes, and furnish powder, implements, machinery, laborers and merchandise to the Lake Superior region, are equally interested.

The various artizans of the Union who work in Iron and

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Copper, owing to their superior properties, seek these ma terials with great avidity from Lake Superior, and they are equally interested with Michigan. The Iron mines are being wrought principally by the capital of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. The capital of Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia, as well as other sections of the Union is liberally invested in the development of the Copper Mines. The Southern States will supply that country over the Illinois Central Road with sugar and tobacco, two important items in supplying a mining population. Illinois and the valley of the Mississippi will supply the corn and pork, and Wisconsin the flour and other agricultural products.

Aside from the purposes of government, and the mere unfolding of its mineral wealth, a wealth which will in a few years become the pride of the nation, other States are far more interested in this measure than the Peninsula of Michigan. It is not then merely local selfishness on the part of Michigan and Wisconsin in asking for a giant of land to aid in constructing this route. The interest in the mines now being worked, held in New England, is valued at millions, while there is not a dollar invested in them from Wisconsin. The amount of capital invested in them in Ohio is more than that from Michigan. That from New York will exceed that of Michigan a thousand fold. And that from Pennsylvania is nearly equal to all the rest. This is not then a project of mere local interest, and cannot be objected to on that ground. It is a matter which concerns the Atlantic states as well as ours. It will bind the extreme north to the south, and add another bord to the perpetuity of the Union.

We have seen that these mines have so far been wrought under obstacles of no ordinary character. By examining the statistics it will appear that they have been improved to a surprising extent, so much so as to render it difficult to compute how far it would enhance the value

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of the whole mineral region, by thus increasing the facilities of access to it, or to appreciate the enthusiasm with which those now in that region would hail the establishinent of such an outlet,or estimate the increased rapidity in which the mines would be developed, or count the great saving of time and money in opening and working the mines so as to render them a source of profit.

The lands along this route are worthless to the Government and the people,-without some improvement of the kind, they will long remain in an unbroken wilderness. But once construct this road, the government lands would be eagerly sought for, and there would be numerous flourishing settlements along the route-the germs of the settlement of the adjoining country. Hither would gather foreign emigrants, as well as enterprising Americans-furnishing at once, the source for the settlement of the lands--for laborers to construct the road--and for hands to be employed in the mines.

Of the lands which Congress granted to the State of Illinois, for the construction of the Illinois Central Railroad and Branches, 428,554 acres in the Kaskaskia and Shawmut districts had been in market thirty years; 344,672 acres had been in market twenty two years in the Vandalia district; 372,702 acres had been in market in the Dansville district nineteen years, and 465,948 acres had been in market eleven years in the Dixon district. There is now through the influence of this road an effective demand for these lands, and the reserved sections are reported to be selling by Government at prices varying from $2,50 to $7,00 per acre, and on the average at $5.00 per acre. And it is stated in the public Journals that the Government will sell the reserved sections at a profit of about $9,000,000 over the usual government price. If the rich prairie lands of Illinois remained for twenty or thirty years unsold for want of access to market, it may be said the

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lands on this route will not sell for ages. Though we may not expect they would sell at as great an advanced price as the Illinois lands, it is manifest Government would be largely profited by making the grant and thus securing the construction of the road. There cannot then be any objection to this grant upon the score of loss to the Government. It will cost the Government nothing. It will be like casting bread upon the waters that it may return again with a blessing. This is one of the highest, most noble of the offices of the Government; giving to increase, not to impoverish.

It is too late in the history of Cougressional legislation to object to these grants or the score of precedent. The precedent was, as you are aware, established in the administration of Gen. Washington, to open a road through the then North west territory. It was repeated for like purposes on several occasions in the subsequent administrations, and has been more recently enforced by grants to four different States. And the precedent has proved to be a good one. It works no evil, no harm to any, but it does good; good to the people, to the state, to the nation. Such is the result of experience.

The only question which can well be raised is whether the object to be attained is of sufficient importance to deinand the attention of the National Legislature, and it is deemed further remarks unnecessary on this point. In its character, it is national; it will open a public highway thro' the public domain to a distant and almost inaccessible portion of the Union, in the bosom of which lies unavailable, numerous, vast, rich mines of Iron and Copper, two valuable items in the column of a nation's wealth; mines unsurpassed in purity and value-unequaled by any thing of the kind in the basin of the Atlantic.

It is difficult to see how the generous mind can object to this appropriation. It cannot be objected to for want of