All These Are Open To Steamers, And All Of Them Traverse
Regions Rich In Corn, In Coal, In Metals, Or In Timber.
These
ready-made highways of the world center, as it were, at St. Louis,
and make it the depot of the carrying trade of all that vast
country.
Minnesota is 1500 miles above New Orleans, but the wheat
of Minnesota can be brought down the whole distance without change
of the vessel in which it is first deposited. It would seem to be
impossible that a country so blessed should not become rich. It
must be remembered that these rivers flow through lands that have
never yet been surpassed in natural fertility. Of all countries in
the world one would say that the States of America should have been
the last to curse themselves with a war; but now the curse has
fallen upon them with a double vengeance, it would seem that they
could never be great in war: their very institutions forbid it;
their enormous distances forbid it; the price of labor forbids it;
and it is forbidden also by the career of industry and expansion
which has been given to them. But the curse of fighting has come
upon them, and they are showing themselves to be as eager in the
works of war as they have shown themselves capable in the works of
peace. Men and angels must weep as they behold the things that are
being done, as they watch the ruin that has come and is still
coming, as they look on commerce killed and agriculture suspended.
No sight so sad has come upon the earth in our days.
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