The Care-
Laden Mothers Would Tuck The Bibs Under The Chins Of Their Tyrant
Children, And Some Embryo Senator Of
Four years old would listen
with concentrated attention while the negro servant recapitulated
to him the delicacies of the supper-
Table, in order that he might
make his choice with due consideration. "Beef-steak," the embryo
four-year old senator would lisp, "and stewed potato, and buttered
toast, and corn-cake, and coffee, - and - and - and - mother, mind you
get me the pickles."
St. Paul enjoys the double privilege of being the commercial and
political capital of Minnesota. The same is the case with Boston,
in Massachusetts, but I do not remember another instance in which
it is so. It is built on the eastern bank of the Mississippi,
though the bulk of the State lies to the west of the river. It is
noticeable as the spot up to which the river is navigable.
Immediately above St. Paul there are narrow rapids up which no boat
can pass. North of this continuous navigation does not go; but
from St. Paul down to New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico it is
uninterrupted. The distance to St. Louis in Missouri, a town built
below the confluence of the three rivers, Mississippi, Missouri,
and Illinois, is 900 miles and then the navigable waters down to
the Gulf wash a southern country of still greater extent. No river
on the face of the globe forms a highway for the produce of so wide
an extent of agricultural land. The Mississippi, with its
tributaries, carried to market, before the war, the produce of
Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky,
Tennessee, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
This country is larger than England, Ireland, Scotland, Holland,
Belgium, France, Germany, and Spain together, and is undoubtedly
composed of much more fertile land. The States named comprise the
great center valley of the continent, and are the farming lands and
garden grounds of the Western World. He who has not seen corn on
the ground in Illinois or Minnesota, does not know to what extent
the fertility of land may go, or how great may be the weight of
cereal crops. And for all this the Mississippi was the high-road
to market. When the crop of 1861 was garnered, this high-road was
stopped by the war. What suffering this entailed on the South I
will not here stop to say, but on the West the effect was terrible.
Corn was in such plenty - Indian-corn, that is, or maize - that it
was not worth the farmer's while to prepare it for market. When I
was in Illinois, the second quality of Indian-corn, when shelled,
was not worth more than from eight to ten cents a bushel. But the
shelling and preparation is laborious, and in some instances it was
found better to burn it for fuel than to sell it. Respecting the
export of corn from the West, I must say a further word or two in
the next chapter; but it seemed to be indispensable that I should
point out here how great to the United States is the need of the
Mississippi.
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