202 THE INFLUEiSrCE OF EARLY SETTLERS. 



Washington, one in sixteen ; in California and Colora- 

 do, one in twenty; in Idaho, one in thirty-three; in 

 Montana, one in thirty-six; in Nevada, one in forty- 

 six ; in Wyoming, one in eighty-one ; in Utah, one in 

 224; in New Mexico, one in 657; in Arizona, one in 

 685. 



If, as Milton says, "Childhood shows the man as 

 morning shows the day ," what will be the manhood of 

 the West, unless the churches of the East are speedily 

 aroused to some appreciation of their opportunity and 

 their obligation? 



Important changes are taking place in the East and 

 South, but they do not possess the almost boundless 

 significance which attaches to beginnings. East of 

 the Mississippi, state constitutions and laws were 

 formed long since ; society is no longer chaotic, it has 

 crystallized; religion has its recognized institutions 

 which are thoroughly established. A vast work remains 

 to be done, both in the North and South — a work which 

 sustains important relations to our national welfare ; but 

 it is the West, not the South or the North, which holds 

 the key to the nation's future. The center of population, 

 of manufactures, of wealth, and of political power is not 

 moving south but west. The Southern States will never 

 have a majority of our population ; the West will. To- 

 day, the constitutions and laws of many of the future 

 states of our western empire are unformed. ^ Those 

 great territories, as Edmund Burke once said of the 

 nation, are yet "in the gristle;" society is still 

 chaotic; religious, educational and political institutions 

 are embryonic; but their character is being rapidly 

 fashioned by the swift, impetuous forces of intense 

 western life. " Know thy opportunity." 



^ Since this sentence was written, five years ago, six of the western terri- 

 tories have adopted constitutions and been admitted as states. 



