Next, consider her geographical position: On her western border we have the giant Mississippi, opening a direct communication with the Atlantic Ocean through the Gulf of Mexico. Her eastern shores [are] washed by the waters of the majestic Michigan, opening to her ports the rapidly increasing trade of the lakes, and again communicating with the Atlantic through the Canadas; also with the great metropolis of the United States through the Erie Canal. On the south, if we succeed in maintaining our claim to northern Illinois, we have the Illinois and Michigan Canal. At the north are the navigable waters of the Wisconsin and Fox rivers, uniting the Mississippi with the lakes; while through the central portion flows the Rock and Pecatonica, both soon to be opened for navigation. These benefits to trade and commerce, when connected with the vast amount of hydraulic power for manufacturing purposes, can scarcely find a parallel in any other state. In connection with this what may we not anticipate when the enlargement of the Welland Canal is completed, and foreign vessels are enabled to approach our wharves with their rich freights and return loaded with our products? There is another subject, which, though it may appear foreign to the question of state government, closely concerns us, and may have an important bearing upon our future prosperity. I refer to the Whitney Railroad.21 So important is it to the interests of the West that that question alone should induce us to assume a state form of government in order to lend our most efficient aid in making it a national work. I do not hesitate to give it as my candid opinion that this giant "Asa Whitney was a New York merchant whose attention was first called to railroads in 1830 in England. In 1842 he made a visit to China where he remained two years. He was deeply impressed with the need of an overland route to the Pacific, and upon returning to America projected a plan for a railroad from Lake Michigan to the West Coast to be built with the proceeds of a land grant sixty miles in width, for the entire distance. In the summer of 1845 he visited Wisconsin Territory and personally inspected the proposed route across its soil. He stayed some time at Prairie du Chien, at which point he advocated the bridging of the Mississippi. In the same year he presented a memorial to Congress embodying the main features of his plan. In February, 1846, he drew another memorial for the 29th Congress (see Senate Doc., 161, serial 473) in which work, both as regards the changes that it must produce on the shores of the Pacific, and as a magnificent civilizing effort, will at no distant day be commenced and prosecuted to completion, either by the United States government or by individual enterprise-probably the former. A proposition possessed of so much merit and consequence in its results to the people of the West should attract the attention of the whole community, and if its termination, as has been suggested, is to be within our territorial limits, we should be among the first to become deeply interested in it. It requires no stretch of the imagination to convince any man of the magnitude of the commerce that must flow in through this channel from the Pacific Ocean-all our trade with China and the Indies, the voyages of which it now requires months to accomplish, through the necessity of making the passage round Cape Horn. It is a project of such momentous importance and would soon become so deeply blended with the civil and commercial interests of the Union, that, after all that may be said of particular localities, the general government would prove the greatest beneficiary. Justly magnificent and meritorious as has been considered the discovery of the magnetic telegraph, it must be totally eclipsed in its effects upon the half-civilized and barbarous tribes of the West. There are those among us who have the welfare of the territory warmly at heart, who are seriously alarmed at the prospect of a change from a territorial to a state government, being quite positive that this change will bring with it state indebtedness. If I could be convinced of this, as warmly as I now feel enlisted in its favor, I would give the he rehearsed and enlarged his argument and offered a map on which Prairie du Chien is made a terminus of the proposed road. The Senate Committee on Public Lands, headed by Breese, of Illinois, favored the plan, and brought in a report embodying Whitney's proposals. See Prairie du Chien Patriot, Sept. 22, 1846. Several times Whitney's plan was favorably reported in Congress, and undoubtedly it was because of his continual agitation that the project of the Pacific Railway was kept before the minds of the American people. The Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad was considered the first link in Whit ney's transcontinental railway, and much was hoped from its successful constructior proposition the most strenuous opposition, for I should consider it as one of the greatest calamities that could befall any state. I would remind those, however, who have had their fears excited in reference to this question, that if the constitution which will be presented to the people for their adoption proves to be such an instrument as the enlightened age in which we live will demand, and I have not the slightest misgiving relative to it, their apprehensions are groundless. One of the most prominent articles in that constitution should be a provision against loaning the credit of the state for any purpose except for her protection in extreme cases of insurrection or invasion. It is so clearly evident that we possess all the elements of power and greatness, when those elements shall have been fully devloped; and a change in our government having the tendency to awaken the energies of the people and thus unfold our resources for the benefit and advancement of the country certainly makes a speedy desertion from the shackles of territorial bondage desirable. Would our present dependence upon Congress answer for a state occupying the proud preeminence of New York? No one will for a moment contend that it would. Then how much greater the necessity for a rapidly increasing community like our own, just growing into importance, to place herself in a position that will enable her to take advantage of every favorable occurrence that offers to exalt herself in the eyes of the world. Give us the population and capital that New York possesses, and in five years we can outstrip her in the race for supremacy. The natural resources of Wisconsin are not surpassed, if they are equaled, by any state in the Union. Her geographical position is as perfect as her most sanguine friends could wish it. Her boundary exhibits an area more than twice the size of the Empire State, and leaves her by far the largest state in the Union. The temperature of her climate is mild and healthful. Her soil is as rich and productive as any on the globe. Why sir, I have an accurate, personal knowledge of two counties in this territory, Rock and Walworth, and the assertion I apprehend will not be denied, that these counties alone surpass in the natural richness of the soil, and will yield more wheat than all the counties of New York united. But New York is truly great, and well does she deserve the title of "the Empire State of the Republic." She is great in her commerce, in her splendid cities, in her works of internal improvement, in her system of education, and in her laws. The greatness of New York is the work of man; Wisconsin is great as she came from the hands of the Creator. Who can foretell the splendor of her career in the cause of human liberty and the equal rights of man? I am aware, sir, that to some I may have appeared discursive, that I have drawn within the range of my remarks topics not necessarily connected with the object of my advocacy. All this may be, and no doubt is, true; but I may offer something by way of extenuation through simile, and one that is familiar to us all. Look at the immigrant who arrives on our shores and secures some favorite location as the sphere of future labor and a final home; imagine him looking at and admiring the glowing imagery of nature spread in such rich luxuriance all round. Who can tell the feelings of delight and manly independence which swell his bosom as he contemplates that here he has a home after all his wanderings, and that here, too, his labor will be more than amply rewarded by a fruitful soil. Such, then, must be my apology for allowing fancy to have her flight in contemplating our future prosperity as a state. But may I ask the indulgence of recurring to my simile. If this immigrant allowed himself to revel in the poetry of imagination too long, instead of awakening to the sterner realities of life, if energies and appliances were not called into action to erect his house and fence his fields, if the earlier settled friends began to hint that it was time, and more than time, to commence his settlement, if they gradually withdrew their former aid, and still he remained inactive, would you. not pronounce at once that he was not the stuff out of which to make a Wisconsin citizen? We, too, sir, have received the hint, and a hint too palpable to be mistaken, and we have been bereft of aid. The time, it would appear, has arrived, and to us it belongs to begin, if no more, to lay the foundation for a state erection; one, may we hope, that will rapidly rise and extend itself, and that soon the fabric in its fair proportions will attract the enterprising from every country and every clime to seek a home and happiness beneath its protective roof. With these remarks I conclude, sir, not, however, before thanking the committee for its kind indulgence. DEBATE IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, The house took up in committee of the whole the bill from the Council on this subject [statehood], Mr. Sheldon in the chair, and the bill having been read through, and the chairman calling for amendments to the different sections seriatim. Mr. Burnett moved to amend section third, which provided for the appointment by the governor of persons to take the census, by making it the duty of the sheriffs of the counties to perform that duty. He said that should this amendment prevail a large number of amendments would necessarily follow to carry out the provisions of the act, under that state of the case, and which he would make at the proper places. In support of the proposed amendments, he would say that it seemed to him that the sheriffs would be the best qualified officers to perform the duty here proposed to be assigned to them, of any person that could be named. They are elected by the people for their business qualities, are supposed to be acquainted with all the inhabitants, and are constantly moving out among them. The usual course in this case has been 22 The report of the debate is taken from the Madison Express, January 29, |