Misc. Records
Where to Emigrate and Why - Frederick B. Goddard, Peoples Publ. Co., 1869
NORTH CAROLINA.
NORTH CAROLINA was one of the original thirteen States of the American Union, participating in the early struggles which secured our independence, and actively co-operating with the original founders and leaders of our young Republic. Her territory was a battle-ground on numerous occasions, and her people displayed a courage and patriotism worthy of the renowned and chivalrous ancestry from which they claim descent.
The area of the State is about 45,000 square miles, or 28,800,000 acres. The country near the sea is level, and covered with extensive swamps and marshes. The rivers of the State are not generally navigable, owing to shifting sand-bars at their mouths, and frequent rapids in their descent from the interior.
The soil of North Carolina is remarkably fertile, and the climate favorable to the growth of cotton, rice, tobacco, fruits, &c. Labor and capital are at present much needed throughout the State, and earnest efforts are being made to secure these agencies for a rapid and liberal development of her resources.
We are indebted to ex-Governor JONATHAN WORTH, of North Carolina, for documents containing valuable information respecting the resources of the State, and an interesting letter, from which we extract the following:―
DEAR SIR: * * In every locality in the State we receive with hospitable cordiality every worthy immigrant who comes to settle among us. * * The bona-fide settler coming here to improve his condition, and thus benefit the State, is everywhere received with cordiality.
Our delightful and healthy climate, the fertility and cheapness of our lands, our inviting mineral resources, and the universal anxiety of our people to have immigrants come among us to improve and develop our resources, are thus far inoperative. Few immigrants come here, because partisan representations have made the false impression that we are a set of savages. North Carolina may proudly challenge comparison of her statistics of crime, and the purity of her judiciary and other civil institutions, with any State of America, or any other country. The two printed documents I send you, both prepared under my auspices, may be relied on as entirely authentic. Any amount of land in the sandy portion of the State, which is particularly suitable for the culture of the Scuppernong grape, and generally very salubrious, may be bought at from $1 to $2 per acre.
I have the honor to be,
Yours very respectfully,
JONATHAN WORTH.
The following is taken from one of the printed documents referred to by the ex-Governor:—
RESOURCES OF NORTH CAROLINA.
The United States Commissioner of Immigration having recently addressed a letter to Governor Worth as to the resources and capabilities of the State, the Governor prepared and transmitted the information contained in the subjoined communication.
STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
RALEIGH, June 13, 1866.
* * * * * *. * * * * *
Geographically, North Carolina is situated half way between New York and the Gulf of Mexico, being included between the parallels of 34½ degrees and 36½ degrees. It extends from the Atlantic coast five hundred miles westward, stretching more than one hundred miles beyond the Blue Ridge mountains, and contains an area of 50,000 square miles, having therefore the same extent as the State of New York. This territory divides itself naturally into three well-marked sections: On the west, the mountainous plateau, having an elevation of 2,500 feet above the sea, and being traversed by several chains of mountains, many of whose peaks attain an elevation of nearly 7,000 feet. On the east lies a low plain, nearly level, partly alluvial and partly sandy, extending about 150 miles from the coast; and between these two spreads the hill country, whose elevation rises gradually from 200 or 300 feet, on the east, to 1,200 feet at the base of the mountains.
The eastern section is mostly covered with pines, the middle and western with vast forests of oaks (of many species) interspersed with the poplar, hickory, walnut, maple, &c. Seven large rivers, with their numerous tributaries, traverse the State, furnishing unlimited water-power as they flow down from the mountains through the middle section; and as they move with a moderate current across the champaign country, on the east, into the chain of sounds which skirt the coast, they furnish, with these, an aggregate of 900 miles of inland navigation, which might be doubled by carrying westward the system of slack-water improvements already commenced. With these navigable waters is interlaced the railroad system of the State, amounting to 998 miles completed, and 400 more in progress, which, with 350 miles of plank-roads and turnpikes, brings the sea-coast into ready communication with every part of the State.
THE SOIL is very various; alluvial and peaty accumulations abound near the coast and along the rivers, while in the middle and western regions the soil is mainly of granitic origin, and represents every grade of sandy or clayey loam of various fertility:
THE CLIMATE has also a wide range, being tempered on the seaboard to something like the mildness of that of the Gulf States, while in the mountain region it approaches the rigor of New York. In the middle section, which constitutes the larger part of the State, and represents the average climate, the mean annual temperature is 60 degrees (Fahrenheit)—the mean summer temperature 75 degrees; mean winter, 43 degrees; extreme summer (diurnal), 89 degrees; average absolute maximum, 99 degrees; extreme winter (diurnal), 20 degrees; average absolute minimum, 12 degrees. The annual fall of rain is 45 inches. The number of cloudy days in the year is 130; rainy days, 60.
THE VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS are numerous. The most important are wheat, corn, oats, rye, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas, rice, cotton, tobacco, turpentine, grapes, and fruits. Wheat and corn are produced with facility and abundance in all parts; rye, oats, and potatoes flourish in the middle and western regions; rice, sweet potatoes, and peas in the eastern; tobacco in the middle; cotton in the southern counties of the middle, and in the eastern section; turpentine and pine lumber are peculiar to the east. The fruits most extensively and largely cultivated are the apple, peach, pear, and cherry, represented by numerous varieties. No part of the continent is better adapted to these than the middle and western regions. The principal grasses are the orchard, herd's, timothy, and blue, to which must be added clover and lucerne. All these flourish in the middle and western regions, and some of them. grow wild; hence, stock-raising is easy and profitable. The stock chiefly raised are horses, mules, cows, sheep, and hogs. The grapes usually cultivated, besides foreign varieties, are the Scuppernong, Catawba, Lincoln, and Isabella, all natives of the State, the first three being excellent wine grapes. The Scuppernong is peculiar to the eastern section. The following abstract from the United States Census Report for 1860, will best show the productions and capabilities of the State:―
Live stock 3,326,000 annual product.
Wheat 4,700,000 bushels annual product.
Corn 30,000,000 " " "
Oats 2,800,000 " " "
Rye 437,000 " " "
Peas 1,900,000 " " "
Potatoes 830,000 " " "
Sweet potatoes 6,140,000 " " "
Cotton 58,000,000 pounds per annum.
Tobacco 32,900,000 " " "
Rice 7,600,000 " " "
Wool 883,000 " " "
Honey 2,055,000 " " "
Turpentine 1,000,000 barrels " "
THE MANUFACTURES are chiefly cotton, wool, spirits of turpentine, lumber, iron, and paper.
The amount invested in the manufacture of cotton is $2,250,000; lumber, $1,000,000; turpentine, $2,000,000; iron, $500,000; wool, $350,000.
FISHERIES abound in the sounds and rivers of the eastern counties. The species of fish mostly taken are the herring, shad, bluefish, mullet, and rock. The number of barrels annually packed for market is about 100,000 on the waters of Albemarle Sound. Considerable quantities are packed at other points.
MINERALS.—The most important of these are coal, iron, gold, copper, silver, lead, plumbago, limestone, marble, agolmatolite, soapstone, manganese, whetstones, grindstones, roofing-slates, porcelain. clay, and fire-clay. The coal is bituminous, and exists in two beds, situated respectively one hundred and two hundred miles from the coast, on Cape Fear River and on Dan River. It is abundant, accessible, and of good quality. Iron ore, of excellent quality, abounds in all parts of the State; the principal seat of its manufacture being on the Cape Fear, Catawba, and Yadkin rivers. Gold is found in almost all parts of the State, especially in the middle region; the annual product, for many years, has been $250,000. Copper mines abound in the middle, northern, and western counties. Plumbago is found in great abundance near the capital, and again in the western region; marble in the middle and western; and marl everywhere in the eastern section.
A chain of silver and lead mines (containing gold also) traverses the central portion of the State.
THE POPULATION, in 1860, was 992,622, of which one-third are colored; 3,298 are of foreign birth. One-tenth of the population live in towns and cities.
LAND.—According to the census of 1860, there were 6,500,000 acres of improved land, being about one-fifth of the area of the State. The price at which these lands are held ranges from about $3 to $100 per acre; the average would be about $7.50.
The only qualification necessary to enable a foreigner to own land is, that he take the oath of allegiance to the State, or have become a citizen of the United States.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS were maintained in the State by the means of the income derived from the Literary Fund, which amounted to two million five hundred thousand dollars in 1860. About half of this fund has been swept away by the war; and the system of district schools, which had brought a rudimentary education within the reach of all, free of cost, has been entirely prostrated for the present, but will doubtless be revived in a few years.
The State may be reached directly from Europe through any of her ports—Wilmington, Beaufort, or Norfolk, from which railroads penetrate every part of the State. From New York the distance by railroad or steamer is about 20 hours. The number of newspapers published in the State is about 70; all in the English language.
The above statistics have been prepared, with much care, by the State Geologist, Professor W. C. Kerr, whose information and research will vouch for their entire reliability.
* * * * * * *
Citizens of foreign birth have the same protection of person and property under the laws of North Carolina as her native citizens; and where they are industrious and honest, they are as, thrifty and as highly esteemed—many such occupying positions the most honorable and influential. To foreign settlers, of honest, energetic character, the State extends a cordial welcome; and I can assure you, when such come they will be offered the rights and privileges, and the same support and countenance, enjoyed by our native citizens.
Very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
JONATHAN WORTH,
Governor of North Carolina.
The second document transmitted by his Excellency, and from which we present some extracts, treats of the
SWAMP LANDS OF NORTH CAROLINA.―The Board of Literature of the State of North Carolina owns, in trust for the benefit of Common Schools, all the public swamp lands of the State.
Accurate surveys have not been made of all these lands, and the exact amount can not, therefore, be stated; but enough is known to warrant an estimate of at least one million five hundred thousand acres. The lands are in bodies of from five thousand to ninety thousand acres; and they are situated in the alluvial or coast region of the State, and between the thirty-fourth and thirty-sixth parallels of north latitude.
They lie chiefly in the counties of Beaufort, Hyde, Washington, Tyrrell, Craven, Carteret, Onslow, Jones, Brunswick, New Hanover, Columbus, Cumberland, Bladen, Robeson, and Richmond; and all these counties are accessible to market by water or railroad carriage.
These lands are offered for sale on the most liberal terms, especially to actual settlers; and they present inducements to immigrants and capitalists rarely to be met with.
The Board of Literature will give alternate sections of six hundred and forty acres each, to parties who will drain bodies of these lands; and when a whole swamp can be disposed of at one sale, they will take a price less than the cash value of the timber with which some of the lands are clothed.
* * * * * * *
The better class of these lands are generally covered with a heavy and dense growth of timber, vines, reeds, and grass; the soil is from five to fifteen feet deep, and consists of decomposed vegetable matter, fine sand, and finely comminuted clay. It produces exuberantly all the grains, grass, cotton, rice, peas, potatoes, turnips, pumpkins, melons, the garden vegetables, apples, peaches, and grapes; but the test of its fertility is its growth of Indian corn, an exhausting crop, which it will yield in large amounts, from year to year, without manures or stimulants, and for an indefinite period.
It will not produce as much per acre as the heavy clay soils in the highest state of improvement; but considering the difference of the expense of production, the crops of the former are vastly the more profitable.
The average yield of Indian corn per acre, without the application of fertilizers or stimulants, is from fifty to seventy-five bushels; and experience has proved that this will continue, from year to year, for more than a century, while science infers, from the facts of the past and from careful analyses, that even two centuries of close cultivation will not exhaust the natural and ever renewing fertility of these soils.
* * * * * * * * * * *
The swamps of eastern North Carolina do not generate the malaria which, in the marshy regions further south, causes malignant fevers; and the experience of a large population devoted for over a century to open-air pursuits, will confirm the statement that the laborers here, in the woods, in the fields, and on the waters, are generally as healthy as in any part of the country.
* * * * * * * * * * *
In this State, and in this alone, can be profitably produced every staple—agricultural, mineral, and mechanical—of the American Union; and there is the best authority for asserting that the world presents no more inviting field for industrious immigrants.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Order reigns supreme, and life and property are as safe here as in any part of the continent; the people are quietly and earnestly devoting themselves to the arts of peace, and a worthy immigrant who comes to North Carolina from any part of the globe, to join in these avocations, will receive a cordial welcome, and soon find himself at home, and among his friends.
GAME, FISH, &c.—The shores of North Carolina must be a paradise to the sportsman and the epicure. Oysters, a great variety of fish, terrapin, &c., &c., abound.
As an illustration of the abundance of game in North Carolina, we offer the following from the pen of an immigrant Virginian:―
"There are ducks of various kinds, of which the canvas-back is the most esteemed. There are also wild geese and swans. Altogether, they congregate in numbers exceeding all conception of any person who has not been informed. They are often so numerous as entirely to cover acres of the surface of the water, so that observers from the beach would only see ducks and no water between them. These great collections are termed rafts. The shooting season commences in autumn and continues through the winter. The returns in game, killed and secured, through any certain time, to a skillful and patient and enduring gunner, are as sure as the profits of any ordinary labor of agriculture and trade, and far larger profits for the capital and labor employed. The following particular facts I learned from the personal knowledge of a highly respectable gentleman and a proprietor on the sound (Currituck), in Princess Ann. The shooting (as a business) on his shores is done only by gunners hired by himself; and for his own profit, and who are paid a fixed price for every fowl delivered to him, according to its kind, from the smallest or least prized species of ducks, to the rare and highly valued swan. He has employed thirty gunners through a winter. He provides and charges for all the ammunition they require, which they pay for out of their wages. In this manner, be is obliged to know accurately how much ammunition he gives out; and it may be presumed that the gunners do not waste it unnecessarily at their own expense. In this manner, and for his own gunners and his own premises only, in one winter, he used more than a ton of gunpowder, and shot in proportion, which was more than four tons, and forty-six thousand percussion caps."
Agricultural Department Report, 1868:―
VALUE OF LAND AS COMPARED WITH 1860.—Reports from forty-one counties represent a very general decrease in values of real estate. Madison and McDowell report no decrease from prices of 1860, while the latter shows an actual increase on those of 1866. Onslow reports no decrease on well-improved farms, but all others estimate a decline varying from five to seventy-five per cent, and even more, especially at forced sales. As a general rule, small and improved farms have decreased less than large and neglected ones. The general average may be fairly rated at about fifty per cent. The causes are variously stated, as war, change in system of labor, scarcity of money, unsettled state of public affairs, and the unrest of doubts regarding the future.
PRICE OF UNIMPROVED LAND.—Wild or unimproved lands are reported in three general classes: first, lands exhausted, abandoned, and grown up to bushes; second, virgin uplands, generally well timbered; and third, low or swamp lands ("pocoson"), often well timbered. The first, once fertile, can again be restored in time, and by good management; the second, generally requires only clearing and. tillage; and the third needs drainage in addition. The second and third can be had at prices varying from fifty cents to ten dollars per acre; the first at even low rates. Pitch and turpentine lands abound in Duplin, Lincoln, Cabarras, Hertford, Sampson, Onslow, and Moore counties, and can be had for from two dollars to five dollars, according to quality and facilities for working and marketing.
"Pocoson" or swamp-lands are reported in quantities in Duplin, Onslow, and a few other counties; in the latter, one body of "white-oak pocoson" of sixty thousand acres, extending into several adjacent counties, and other tracts nearly as large, requiring combined capital to drain. Another says of these, "the prices are from two dollars to three dollars per acre, and clearing and draining will cost as much more. They are among the most fertile lands when brought into cultivation." Macon County has thousands of acres at State price (twelve and a half cents per acre), large tracts of which are held by speculators at higher rates. Wilkes reports ridge or rolling lands with branch bottoms, one hundred acre farms, one-fourth cleared, cabin, running water, plenty of wood, at two dollars per acre; mountain lands well wooded, generally fertile, and water-power too abundant to be appreciated, at one dollar per acre; Camden County, virgin forest five dollars, and virgin swamp one dollar per acre; Jackson County, mountain lands, rich and loose in quality, much of it stony, averages fifty cents per acre; Caldwell County, all timbered, and water-power abundant, level lands one dollar, and mountain fifty cents per acre; Bertis County is three-fourths timbered upland, formerly held at five dollars—bottom land higher in price. Lands generally of good quality and capable of high improvement in Duplin, Bertis, Halifax, Hertford, Onslow, Wilson, Macon, and Davie counties offered low; greater part of these suitable for cereals and vegetables, fruits of various kinds—some for cotton and tobacco, and a small part for rice.
Among the resources that could easily be made available and profitable in prosperous times, and with a few facilities in marketing, are yellow and pitch pine in abundance, formerly profitable for turpentine and lumber, in Duplin, Onslow, Wake, and other counties; timber of various kinds suitable for building, furniture, &c., in Bertis, Anson, Hertford, Onslow, Sampson, Iredell, Madison, Henderson, Montgomery, Moore, Stokes, and Burke counties; and agricultural resources in marketable products, with a good system of farming, in all, except, perhaps Northampton and Cumberland. Besides these, iron is manufactured in Chatham, Lincoln, and Gaston counties, and found in Randolph, Mecklenburg, Alleghany, Madison, Moore, Davie, and Guilford counties. Gold, silver, and copper are found in Davidson; gold in Stanley, Randolph, Cabarras (the center of the gold region), Lincoln, Anson, Mecklenburg (which is rich also, in zinc, sulphur, copperas, and blue vitriol), Iredell, Rowan, Franklin, Gaston, Caldwell, Moore, McDowell, Rutherford, Guilford, and Burke; copper in Iredell, Rowan, Alleghany, Jackson, and Guilford ; bituminous coal in Chatham. and. Moore, and plumbago in Wake. In most of the counties, however, railroad or other facilities for marketing will be required to make the resources profitable, and at present, even in the best locations, capital, skill, and enterprise are needed.
CORRESPONDENCE.
WILMINGTON, N. C.,
August 12, 1868.
FREDERICK B. GODDARD, Esq.:—
DEAR SIR : The State of North Carolina, to a close observer of nature, presents many singular and rare features, which are veiled in obscurity to the causal observer. It occupies the highest land and contains the highest waterfall. All its rivers (those I mean which take their rise within her borders), empty into other States, except two (Roanoke, on the northern line, and Cape Fear on the southern). Its territory occupies a ridge, jutting into the ocean, almost to the very edge of the Gulf Stream. It is the very center of the United States; and here is the exact dividing line between the northern and southern sections of our country, geographically, as evidenced by the surveyor's compass and other scientific observations, and geologically, by the discovery here, on the Cape Fear River, of the fossil-remains of all northern and southern animals of a former age, which are to be found nowhere else. These are singular facts, but none the less facts and will impress you at once, as indicating a greater variety of climate, water, soil, and production, both of vegetable and mineral, than any other spot of earth of the same size to be found in these United States, or perhaps on the continent.
Our native population may be classed (with exceptions of course)—
Politically;―As conservative, loyal, law-abiding, and brave.
Religiously,—Tolerant, and pure.
Socially,—Hospitable, frank, sincere.
Commercially,—Intelligent, honest, reliable.
The character and price of farming lands vary from 50 cents to $50, according to quality, condition, location, and other circumstances. Any quality, or quantity, may readily be obtained. Labor of every description is much needed; farm labor ranges between extremes of $8 and $20—generally $10 to $15. Mechanics obtain from. $30 to $80. All classes are needed.
Climate is salubrious, refreshing breezes from the ocean in summer—thermometer rarely above 80 or below 60. Health good to the natives or acclimated. Not subject to any contagion, or epidemic. We consider the health as good as any other region. Winters mild, snow rare.
The resources of coals, minerals of every variety, timber, &c., are unbounded—having no limit as to variety, quantity, or quality.
Character of crops are likewise in varieties: cotton, rice, tobacco, flax, hemp, wheat, rye, oats, barley, buckwheat, clover, lucerne, grasses in variety; corn, peas in variety; African ground peas (or peanuts) potatoes, castor beans, rape, hops, grapes in variety; garden vegetables, and fruits of every description that. can be grown anywhere else.
Facilities for transportation to market, generally good and easy. School and religious advantages, good to fair.
Our State was originally settled by English and French. Subsequently a considerable colony of Scotch refugees, after the battle of Culloden, settled in our State; since which, many Germans, Prussians, and people of the Rhine country, have settled in our State, to say nothing of Northern people, Irish, &c.
From the foregoing statements, you will perceive that our State presents rare attractions in its natural advantages to foreign laboring settlers. Our labor system being entirely destroyed by the abrogation of the institution of slavery, and all the available means of the country being destroyed by the operations of the war, a rare and advantageous opening is offered to foreign laborers, of industrious and thrifty habits, and of honest, temperate, law-abiding settlers. All such will be received with open arms, cherished and protected in all their lawful rights and privileges, no matter where they come from. We have already buried the war-hatchet, and hope it may have a long and quiet rest. And we are trying hard, and will use our best efforts, to obliterate from our hearts forever, all bitter animosities and the remembrance of them growing out of the late disastrous, suicidal, and fratricidal war, between the two sections of our much-loved country.
I will take pleasure in answering any further questions or inquiries, for the furtherance of the object you have in view, or of advancing the interests of my much-loved country—my own, my native land, made doubly dear, by its present crushed and sorely afflicted condition.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
H. NUTT.
OFFICE ATLANTIC AND N. C. RAILROAD COMPANY, NEWBERN,
August 12, 1868.
DEAR SIR: * * * The lands in this section are very productive, and can, owing to the impoverished condition of our people, be purchased very low. They produce cotton, corn, wheat, oats, rye, potatoes, and, in fact, almost any thing you may desire to plant. There is a large amount of surplus labor, and only money is necessary to put it in operation. Although there is a large amount of unemployed labor now here, capital could employ all, and still more, at remunerative rates. There is no part of the Southern country that offers greater inducements than ours for farmers who are conversant with vegetable farming, for early shipment to the Northern cities. If a business of that kind were commenced on the line of our road, from Goldsboro to Morehead City, I have no doubt at an early day it would be carried on to an extent that would not only pay those engaged, but would enhance the lands on the entire line of our road, say ninety-five miles in length. Vegetables of all kinds can be ready for market several weeks earlier here than at Norfolk, thereby giving the advantage of the highest prices for early supplies in your markets. It has already been engaged in to a limited extent; but to make it work well needs capital and a greater number, which would induce a line of steamers from Morehead City, and thus enable all to make prompt shipments and early returns.
Two crops of most kinds of vegetables can be raised in one season. The early Irish potato would be a very remunerative crop, and the outlay would be very light, as the cost of cultivation would be merely nominal. Excuse my rambling way of communicating my ideas; but allow me to express the hope that they may be sufficiently understood to attract attention to this section of country, as I am satisfied all that is required to develop its resources is peace and quiet in the country, and a share of the capital that can not be profitably employed in your section.
There are quite a number of Northern gentlemen here—some farming, some merchandising, some milling, and quite a number holding permanent local and State positions. No one is interfered with in person or property more than they are liable to be in your city.
I am a Southerner, born and raised here, and am associated with both Northern and Southern gentlemen in the position I occupy as President of the above road; and I know no distinction, except that of honesty and capacity. I shall be pleased to confer with you at any time on any matter relating to our section, and the welfare of our people. Very respectfully,
E. P. STANLEY,
Pres't A. & N. C. R. R. Co.
F. B. GODDARD, Esq., New York.
Mr. J. W. STOCKTON, writing from Statesville, says:―
The lands in this county are generally pretty good, particularly on the rivers and creeks.
I do not know of any good, faithful working hands who can not get employment, and get the pay according to contract. We did not have a large number of slaves here, as it is not a cotton-growing region. Corn, wheat, oats, and barley, are principal crops. Red clover grows well. But a kind Providence is carpeting the
whole face of our country—woodlands, old fields, roadsides, and alleys—with Japan clover, for hundreds of miles. It is supposed to have been introduced by some trading vessel into one of our southern ports.
We have a very desirable climate, and a healthy one; on the creeks and lower lands some chills and fevers. Timber plenty: pine, oak (the different varieties), hickory, ash, walnut, &c.
We have, also, in this county, fine water-power, sufficient to run any amount of machinery, and already driving fifteen wheat and corn mills, with a number of saw-mills attached; three cotton factories, five wool-carding machines, three oil mills, &c.
Our citizens generally are of a good class, and we have ample religious and school advantages.
Mr. CHARLES F. HARRIS writes, August 2, 1868, from Concord, Cabarras County:—
* * * We want actual, bona-fide settlers—men who will have an interest in the soil, and who will devote their energies to the development of our vast resources. To all such, an inviting field is open, and a helping hand will be extended. They will be hospitably received and warmly welcomed, and every advantage offered them to make a good living, and to feel comfortable.
Mr. F. S. WIATT writes from Monroe County, August 11, 1868:—
* * * I will add, that with an enterprising, industrious population, this whole section of country, possessing, as it does, such excellent advantages of climate, soil, and healthfulness, is destined to become, if it is not so already, one of the most desirable portions of the United States. This is my deliberate and candid opinion, and I have lived ten years in Missouri, and am familiar with a large portion of the Mississippi valley—have crossed the continent and resided two years in California.
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.