445 



Tlkere are undoubtedly many before me who came into the country 

 about the same time ; many men, and women too — whose enterprising 

 spirits arkl courageous hearts were not afraid to struggle with the diffi- 

 culties, and en<X)unter the hardships of a new country ; and who, leaving 

 home and friends, and the many ties that bind the heart to the father's 

 fire-side — th« old schoolhouse, and tlie playmates of youth — came here 

 to found a new Republic; and leave the impressions of their lives noi 

 only on the face of Nature, but on the hearts and intellects of genera- 

 tions yet unborn. 



And yet, as I look around me, I cannot help reverting to the change 

 which these few short years have wrought — a change, which if then 

 prophesied, we should have considered a wild dream — a dream even 

 among new western men, whoso watchword was " Hope," and who 

 knew not what " Failure" meant. Permit me, on this occasion, then, 

 to call back your memories to the past, in order that we may compare 

 it with the present; and thus bringing together, side by side, the fight 

 and the struggle, the bitter labor and the sweet reward, we may feel duly 

 thankful not only for the blessings we now enjoy, but for the merciful 

 Providence that led our steps to this land of milk and honey, gave \w 

 the power, and enabled us to conquer. 



I well recollect my first journey to this spot; many years of my tife 

 had been spent in the City of New York, when I determined to seek a 

 western home. I was young and ardent ; all around me was old and 

 petrified into permanency; and I supposed that here there was a wider 

 field for the accomplishing of good, than there. I endeavored, of 

 course, to acquire some information, but I found that even the most in- 

 telligent knew no more of this State, than wo at present know of Ne- 

 braska. All agreed, however, that it was a wilderness of forest and 

 marsh, with here and there a log-house, and a solitary family. I though* 

 myself fortunate when I met with a Connecticut man, 'who had actual- 

 ly spent some time in Michigan. He had been a contractor on the 

 Southern Railroad — ^just then beginning to be graded — had had dis- 

 putes with his workmen, and nm away; and his account of the swampe 

 and snakes, the hard living and the harder fevers, were enough to shake 

 the strongest resolution. This, I assure you, was all the information I 

 could acquire, in the metropolisof America, of a State which now rankn 

 as eighth, as a producer of wheat, and whose name is favorably knowa 



