614 



in the highest degree, were surrounded by the developniout of our for- 

 eist homes, and the great impulses of a new State? 



Our prosperity has come upon us so hke the morning aun, bui-sting 

 from a cloud, that we look, I fear more at our prosperity than at itd 

 causes. It was not long ago that it required a day of hard labor to 

 reach Detroit. Now, two days tra\eling from this place will land you 

 in New York, and by more routes than one. In a few months, that 

 time, short as it is, will be reduced to thirty hours. The prices of our 

 produce, therefore, rise and fall with the markets in New York, as reg- 

 ularly as ebbs and flows the tides. It is these facilities for cheap and 

 rapid communication, bringing Michigan in competition with that far- 

 mer who with every rising sun sees New York in the dim distance, that 

 has worked this change. A market is brought to our doors. We sup- 

 ply the manufactming establishments with the raw material — they 

 supply us with the manufactured article. To-day the bargain is made 

 — to-morrow the exchange is effected. Wheat bought in your streets 

 is daily sent forward to stock the mills of New England. The tele- 

 graph from to-day's steamer sends the anxious buyer into market, the 

 highest price is paid, and the farmer reaps every benefit. Fresh raUk 

 from Oakland will yet be sold in the streets of New York. We have 

 nothing to sell, but what we have the 'whole Union to market it in. 



Our railroads, steam vessels and telegraphs, have changed the course 

 and character of trade. Every new facility secures new benefits for 

 the more remote localities. Our internal and central position as a State, 

 will yet, we have no doubt, greatly promote our prosperity. The rail- 

 roads of Michigan will yet be links of that mighty chain of railroads 

 which will cross the plains and pierce the mountains and bind too-ether 

 the two great oceans of the world. Over our State, perhaps, will pass 

 the commerce of the Oriental nations ; and the Celestial, a few years 

 since a curious sight even in our great cities, will soon establish a com- 

 mercial agency in our village to sell his fresh teas to our women for 

 their butter and eggs. The Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad, from Toledo 

 to Adrian, was the third railroad built in the United States; now the 

 railroads of the Union in operation have a continuous length of 16,000 

 miles. This fact is certain: every outlet, east or west, contributes to our 

 wealth, and the farmer, more than all other classes, reaps the benefit. 



