586 



MINNESOTA. 



and Hillsdale College, under the Free "Will Bap- 

 tists. The State has a primary school fund ex- 

 ceeding $1,698,861, a university fund exceed- 

 ing $500,000, and the normal school fund not 

 far from $20,000. The number of children 

 attending school in the State, in 1861, was 

 202,504 out of 252,533. 



The salt manufactures in the State, in conse- 

 quence of the high price of the article during 

 the last year, became rapidly developed. Sag- 

 inaw is the principal town in the region, 

 and the salt fields extend from the bay west- 

 ward between forty and fifty miles, to the 

 point where the Chippewa river passes into 

 the Tittibawussee, and even beyond. Jn breadth 

 they are about thirty miles. This whole dis- 

 trict forms a basin constantly filling with brine 

 85 to 92 per cent. Boring is pushed to the 

 depth of eight hundred feet, and the supply 

 continues inexhaustible. The brine, although 

 containing impurities, compares well with the 

 Onondaga and Kanawha brines. This portion 

 of the country is also a great lumber region, 

 which is inducing a rapid settlement. Salt 

 docks and lumber yards alternate for twenty- 

 five miles up the Saginaw river. About six 

 hundred thousand barrels were manufactured 

 during the year. The old kettles and furnaces 

 are gradually giving way to the new process of 

 evaporating by steam in large vats, which pro- 

 duces a better quality of salt at a reduced cost. 

 The geological survey of the State has also de- 

 veloped vast treasures of iron, copper, lead, 

 coal, marble, and gypsum. The debt of the 

 State on July 1st, 1862, was as follows: 



li Adjusted bonds," 6 per cent., due in 1863 $1,744,185 00 



Full paid "Five Million Loan,'' 6 per cent., due 



in 1863 177,000 00 



Part paid "Five Million Loan," when funded, 



due in 1S63, will be 83,314 00 



" Renewal Loan," 6 per cent, due in 1878 216,090 00 



"Temporary Loan," 7 per cent, due in 1878.. .. 50,000 00 



Internal improvcm't warrant bonds, on demand 50 00 



Sault Canal bonds, 6 per cent, due in 1876 100,000 00 



War loan bonds, 7 per cent, due in 1886 605.500 00 



Internal improvem't warrants, due on demand 3,592 82 



Total $2,979,731 82 



MINNESOTA, one of the northern central 

 States of the Union, enclosing in its boundaries 

 the head waters of the Mississippi river, the 

 Eed River of the North, and the St. Louis, the 

 highest source of the St. Lawrence ; area, 83,- 

 531 square miles ; population, in 1860, 173,855. 



Minnesota, though one of the youngest of 

 the sisterhood of States, having been organ- 

 ized as a territory in 1849, and admitted into 

 the Union as a State in 1857, has exhibited 

 great energy and enterprise. Its population is 

 largely from New England, but considerable 

 bodies of Germans, Norwegians, and Swedes 

 have also settled in different portions of the 

 State, attracted by its fine climate, and the 

 productiveness of its soil. The population of 

 some of the western counties is almost wholly 

 German, while in the more northern counties 

 the Swedes and Norwegians predominate. 



The governor of the State is Alexander 

 Kamsey, of St. Paul, who was chosen in Octo- 



ber, 1861, and assumed office in January, 1862. 

 His term expires in January, 1864. The secre- 

 tary of State is J. H. Baker, of Blue Earth, 

 elected at the same time and for the same 

 term as the governor. At the election in 

 October, 1862, a Legislature and two members 

 of Congress were chosen. The political com- 

 plexion of the Legislature elected was: senate, 

 republicans, 16 ; democrats, 5. House, repub- 

 licans, 29; democrats, 12; Union democrat,!. 

 The congressmen elected were "William "Win- 

 dam, in the 1st district, majority, 2,940; 2d 

 district, Ignatius Donnelly, majority, 2,010. 

 Both are republicans. 



The State has been very prompt in furnish- 

 ing her quota of troops, having equipped and 

 sent into the field before December 1, 1862, 

 11,887, including the first three months' regi- 

 ment of 930 men. This amount is about 300 

 in excess of her quota on all the calls. 



During the spring and early summer of 

 1862, reports from various sources reached the 

 United States Government, indicating that the 

 Indian tribes of Utah, Colorado, Dakota, and 

 western Nebraska would ravage the Territories 

 and frontier States. It was said that emissa- 

 ries from the Southern Confederacy had been 

 among them, stimulating them to rise and 

 plunder and destroy the frontier settlements ; 

 and to encourage them in this movement, 

 they were told that the United States Govern- 

 ment was broken up by the South, and could 

 make no resistance. Adventurers from Cana- 

 da, too, had visited them in the early part of 

 the year (when, in consequence of the Mason 

 and Slidell affair, it was expected there would 

 be a war with Great Britain), urging them to 

 bring their furs across the boundary, and as- 

 suring them that they should be aided with 

 money and arms to drive the Americans from 

 their lands. The Indians while thus prompted 

 to insurrection, by evil and designing men from 

 both north and south of their hunting fields, 

 had also many imaginary and some real grounds 

 of complaint against the Indian agents sent 

 among them by the United States Government. 

 Some of these had proved unworthy of their 

 trust; had swindled and defrauded the In- 

 dians, and had treated them with harshness; 

 and though these were the exceptions, and 

 perhaps rare exceptions, yet the delay in pay- 

 ing the Indian annuities, owing to the negligence 

 of the Indian bureau, and the attempt on the 

 part of some of the agents to pay them in legal 

 tender notes instead of gold, which the Govern- 

 ment had furnished, aroused distrust in the 

 minds of the Red men,- and led them to plot 

 revenge. 



The reports which reached the Department 

 of the Interior had given rise to so much ap- 

 prehension that the commissioner of Indian 

 affairs published in the summer an advertise- 

 ment warning the public of the dangers in 

 taking the overland route to the Pacific. 



Meantime the settlers in western Minnesota 

 were entirely unsuspicious of danger. A large 



