of 1833, and the establishment of the territorial government in 1838, the Black Hawk Purchase had gathered a white population of 22,000. In 1840, at the taking of the census, in June, it contained 43,000. It is supposed that the usual annual increase by emigration since that time has been about the same, or something near ten thousand yearly; and, with a sufficient allowance for an augmented natural increase, in proportion to the greatly augmented basis, the whole yearly addition to the population cannot be less than 12,000, or, for the six years, to June, 1846, 72,000; which, added to the 43,000, makes the whole 115,000. This is believed to be under the true amount, as, in 1843, and the spring of 1846, an unusual impulse was given to emigration by the acquisition of new territory, and the allowance for natural increase is made very small. It is more probable that the whole actual population at this time (July 4, 1846) is 150,000.

Wisconsin, as constituted by the division into two territories, had, at that time, July, 1838, 21,000 inhabitants. By the census of 1840, it had 34,000. Its increase in the two intermediate years had been much less than that of Iowa, but in some subsequent periods it has been very great; and it contains, by a recent census, about 160,000. The least total amount that can be assigned to the two territories is little more than 300,000, at this time.

Acts have passed Congress, in June and August, 1846, for admitting both territories into the Union with the attributes of sovereignty. They will probably be adopted by the people; and, in the present year, two new and bright stars will be added to the Union.

At the moment that Congress was acting upon the admission of Iowa and Wisconsin into the Union, a treaty was in progress, and is now completed, by which the Potawatamis have ceded their lands lying east of the Missisippi, Missouri,

and between the Sioux and the Missouri State north line. The tract contains 6000 or 7000 square miles. The Indians have stipulated to remove in two years. By this cession, the Indian title has become extinct in the whole tract between the Missisippi and Missouri Rivers. The Sioux hold a strip on the northern frontier of the new state, which is the only Indian country, except the neutral ground, now within the limits fixed by Congress for the State boundary.

The authorities relied upon for the foregoing statements are, Gabriel Sagard, Hennepin, Lahontan, Charlevoix, Histoire Gen. des Voyages, Paris, 1757; Bossu, Lockman, Churchill, Heriot's Hist. Canada, Pike, Schoolcraft, Nicollet, Long, Laws of Congress, Public Documents, &c.

PART III.

POPULATION-POLITICAL SYSTEM-CIVIL DIVISIONS

MUNICIPALITIES-TOPOGRAPHY.

THE population of this region, at the present time, exceeds by computation, 750,000; viz.-in Illinois, north of the Illinois River, about 240,000; in Missouri, north of the Missouri River, about 240,000; in Wisconsin, about 160,000; in Iowa, probably exceeding 120,000. This multitude has nearly all been planted on the territory within twenty years, mostly indeed within fifteen, excepting a few scattered settlers on the Illinois and Missisippi and Missouri Rivers. Galena was settled in 1828. They are from all States of the Union, from Germany, Ireland, England, Scotland and Canada. There are a considerable number of Franco-American families from Canada and from the early French colonies in the Missisippi valley; and it is as common to hear a certain uncouth French dialect, known in that country under the name of Gumbo French (a term applied both to the people and the dialect), jabbered in the streets of

* By the census of 1840, Northern Missouri contained 160,821; Northern Illinois, including counties that lay across the Illinois River, 160,755; I have added 50 per Iowa, 43,000; Wisconsin, 30,000; total 393,000.

cent. to Missouri and Illinois. Iowa has increased at the rate of about 12,000 per year, which would be 115,000. Wisconsin, by a census just taken, is found to have 155,000, and three counties not returned.

Dubuque, as it is to hear English spoken there. The greater part of this population between Illinois and Rock Rivers, and between the Missouri and Iowa Rivers, comprising a district of some two hundred miles in width from north to south, in the centre, but narrowing toward the extremities, is from the Ohio Valley and the South. Pennsylvania and Virginia, west of the Alleghany, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee and North Carolina, have sent their colonists to these latitudes. North of these lines the larger portion is from the Northern States, east of the mountains, and from Europe. They are, many of them, men who have not derived much knowledge from education, but have been schooled only in the world, and learned in the knowledge of men. They have shaken hands with privations and hardships, and with luxury have but little acquaintance. There are, however, many well informed, of the softer as well as of the rougher sex, living in the homeliest style of rustic life.

Iowa is divided into 39 Counties, 25 of which are organized, and into townships of greater or less extent according to population, but generally comprehending more than one geographical township, into which the whole country is first divided by the government surveys. Other portions, where the population is concentrated at particular points, are incorporated into towns or cities. Between these two last, there is very little difference in substance, if any. The municipal authorities have in each very similar powers. In the towns, affairs are managed by a single board called trustees, and in the other, in the more usual form of Mayor and AlderIn either case the municipal government has the power to assess and levy the taxes, to ordain the by-laws, and to appoint the officers. In the townships, as politically established, the government is in the hands of inspectors. But even in these smaller depositories of power the differ

men.