■> \ d* 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 c*" ■ A 
 
 X ' 
 
 o- 
 
 a N 
 
 
 x 
 
 
 \° CL. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 _af 
 
 
 
 
 
 O, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
, 
 
 
 
 O 
 
 A 
 £ 
 
 
 •^.i. 
 
 
 ■>* 
 
 ^ 
 
 I; 
 
 
 
 
 
 .A 
 
 
 
 
 s 
 
 \ 
 
 
 V 
 O 
 
 
 "oo N 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 00 
 ©_ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 r v v 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 -* 
 
 ^ x 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 "-. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Kt. 
 

 ^ — <_>Ajv 
 
 THE 
 
 COMMERCIAL DESTINY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Mississippi Valley; 
 
 A LECTURE. 
 
 BY X.. TX. HBAVIS. 
 
 "The Valley of the Mississippi is the chosen seat of population, product and power on this 
 continent." — Gen. N. P. Banks, 
 
 " It is a shame that Great Britain should scoop up the commerce of the West India Islands. It is a 
 shame that France and Great Britain should takf> possession of South America. These territories open 
 their markets for you and for us, who are their nearest and most easily reaching neighbors, and it is 
 part of the task of the future for St. Louis to send put her enterprise, to send down her steamers and 
 ships and take possession of the commerce of South America." — Henry Ward Beechsr, "on 'Change. ' 
 
 ST. LOUIS, MO.: 
 Woodward, Tieknan & Hale, Printers, 212 Locust Street. 
 
 1878. 
 
THE 
 
 COMMERCIAL DESTINY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Mississippi Valley; 
 
 A LECTURE. 
 
 -BIT LlftWE-BAYIS 
 
 "The Valley of the Mississippi is the chosen seat of population, product and power on this continent" — 
 Gen. N. P. Banks. 
 
 " It is a shame that Great Britain should scoop up the commerce of the West India Islands. It is a shame 
 that France and Great Britain should take possession of South America. These territories open their markets 
 for you and for us, who are their nearest and most easily reaching neighbors, and it is part of the task of 
 the future for St. Louis to send out her enterprise, to send down her steamers and ships and take possession 
 of the commerce of South America." — Henry Ward Beecher, "on 'Change." 
 
 
 ST. LOUIS, MO.: 
 Woodward, Tiernan & Hale, Printers, 212 Locust Street. 
 
 187S. 
 
F"3< 
 
TO 
 
 JAMES H. BROOKMIEE, 
 
 A MAN" 
 
 WHO, GIFTED WITH RARE MENTAL QUALITIES, HAS BY 
 AN INHERENT FORCE OF CHARACTER WOVEN FROM HIS OWN ORGAN- 
 IZATION A LIFE OF USEFULNESS AND DISTINCTION ; 
 
 AN INVENTOR, 
 
 WHO WITH MARKED GENIUS HAS GIVEN 
 
 TO LABOR AN INVENTION THAT ABRIDGES TIME AND CONTRIBUTES 
 
 VALUE AND REPUTATION THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY; 
 
 A MERCHANT, 
 
 WHO BY WELL DIRECTED EFFORTS HAS ATTAINED TO THE 
 FIRST RANK IN MERCANTILE PURSUITS, AND STANDS WITHOUT A PEEK 
 AMONG THE MERCHANTS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY; 
 
 • A CITIZEN, 
 
 WHO WITH COMMERCIAL VIEWS AS BROAD 
 
 AS THOSE HEREIN PRESENTED AND AN ENERGY AND A LIBERALITY 
 
 TO PROMOTE THEIR ACHIEVEMENT; 
 
 ARE THESE PAGES RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR 
 
NOTICE. 
 
 This lecture was prepared with the full consciousness that the line of discus- 
 sion and the object for which it'was made, uot only indicated a new commer- 
 cial era for the people of the great basin of the Mississippi, but also for the 
 Western Hemisphere. I fully saw at the time of writing, as 1 believed, the 
 rapid approach of an entire reorganization of commerce on this continent, or 
 in other words, a reorganization, of the lines of trade in the valley of the Mis- 
 sissippi, and the early necessity for the people, the productive people, of this 
 valley seeking new markets southward, in zones and climates which they do 
 not possess. 
 
 To my mind the events of succeeding years afford increased evidence of the 
 correctness of the doctrine presented in the lecture. 
 
 Several times since its delivery I have solicited river men and commercial 
 men to print it in pamphlet form for more permanent use, and send it out over 
 the valley to the press and commercial men, for the purpose of cultivating a 
 wide-spread conviction in favor of the correctness of the principles laid down, 
 and the necessity of promoting trade with equatorial America. In vain did 1 
 look for support for its publication and distribution until very recently. I sub- 
 mitted it to the reading of Mr. James H. Brookmire, of the well known grocery 
 house of Brookmire & Ranken, of this city, who. though young, is one of the 
 leading merchants in the great valley of the Mississippi, and whose purchases 
 come mostly from the South, and much of which comes from South America. 
 He, with an unusual enterprise and sagacity, at once saw the importance of 
 giving the doctrines herein contained a wide circulation, consented to appro- 
 priate from his own private means a sum sufficient to print and circulate a 
 large number of the lecture, to be distributed over this country, the West Indies, 
 and South America. 
 
 As a grateful recognition of the enterprise displayed by Mr. Brookmire as 
 well as personal regard, I have inscribed the compliment of the publication to 
 him, with the ardent wish that we had many more such enterprising men in 
 the Valley of the Mississippi. 
 
 In the belief that the lecture will meet the hearty approval of the active and 
 thinking men of both continents and their islands, I submit it in the interest of 
 a great and growing commercial future. 
 
 L. U. R. 
 
 St. Louis, Mo., Jan. 8, '78. 
 
EXTRACTS. 
 
 The Mississippi is mighty in his imperial dignity, but more mighty in bis 
 lesson of unity and confederation. That matchless tide is the magic Cestus 
 which insures the harmony of the sovereign sisters of the Union, and no peev- 
 ish eruption of unsisterly jealously can dispart the silvery zone that so firmly 
 and graciously hinds their varied climes and products into one common interest. 
 The Mississippi is the most persuasive mediator, the most energetic arbiter, 
 and the most vigilant defender of the federal compact. — Cora Montgomery. 
 
 THE WEST THE SEAT OF EMPIRE. 
 
 "Jealous of the South! Such would not be my theme, if the demon of sec- 
 tionalism had so far possessed itself of me. I should not strive to draw the 
 only real danger of a sectional nature which threatens, and to fasten her atten- 
 tion upon an imaginary one. Nor by the comparatively small section of the 
 Union lying between Mason and Dixon's Line and the Gulf of Mexico, is the 
 sceptre of the power in this Union to be held hereafter; but by those vast 
 regions of the West, State after State stretching out like star beyond star in the 
 blue depths of the firmament, far away to the shores of the Pacific. What is 
 the power of the Old Thirteen, North or South, compared with that of the 
 mighty West? There is the seat of empire, and there is the hand of imperial 
 power. Tell me not of the perils of the slave power and the encroachments of 
 the South. Massachusetts and South Carolina will together be as clay in the 
 Angers of the potter, when the great West shall stretch forth its arm of power, 
 as ere long it will, to command the destiny of the Union." — Cale/> Gushing. 
 
 WHERE REAVIS WORSHIPS. 
 
 Reavis is not a handsome man, and not especially good-natured. He some- 
 times gets awfully angry and writes very savagely and very unwisely. But 
 Reavis has a big, ugly head on his great, brawny shoulders, full of curious 
 conceits and grand ideas, now and then tumbled about in unutterable con- 
 fusion in the great, ruddy, glowing cranium of the redoubtable Reavis. lie 
 is pugnacious, and obstinate and original. He won't adopt anybody's ideas, 
 and is in a towering passion when everybody don't swallow his own. He 
 startles people by his industriously collected facts and figures, and can make 
 a man's head swim who contemplates the sea of glory over which Reavis guides 
 the barque freighted with St. Louis' glory and fortunes. ' Reavis believes in the 
 Mississippi. Some people are sun- worshipers, but Reavis is a Western rather 
 than an Oriental idolater, prostrating himself in humble adoration before the 
 splendid majesty of the "Father of floods." This is a Memphis deity, and, 
 since Memphis and Reavis worship in the same temple, and bend reverently 
 before the same idol, it would be well for Reavis to preach in this city. The 
 hall of the Chamber of Commerce will be crowded on any evening that the 
 giant, who bears the destiny of St. Louis in the hollow of his hand, chooses to 
 appear. — Memphis Appeal. 
 
THE 
 
 COMMERCIAL DESTINY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 MISSISSIPPI YALLEY. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlem,en: — 
 
 We are entering upon a new century in the life of our nation. 
 The years of our traditionary and colonial history have rolled 
 away into the past. A century has passed since our fathers 
 issued the Declaration of American Independence. 
 
 During that long stretch of years our people, as a nation, have 
 tested many social and political problems, which they were com- 
 pelled to confront. In many instances they made mistakes, but 
 in the main, both the Republic and the people have profited by 
 the experience through which they have passed. 
 
 Now, closing our eyes upon the factional strife and bloody 
 conflict from which the nation has recently emerged, and purify- 
 ing our hearts after the great sacrifice of humanity made upon 
 the altar of the Republic, let us turn from a decade of war, and 
 look forward to an era of peace and prosperity, now dawning 
 upon our country. Such an era is just before us, and we stand 
 face to face with it. As it comes we shall be compelled to con- 
 front new and peculiar questions, be called upon to solve new in- 
 dustrial, commercial, social and political problems, greater than 
 those of the past. And if we do not look forward to their com- 
 ing, and study to comprehend their importance to the general 
 welfare of the whole people, we shall fail to keep pace with the 
 onward progress of the new century. On the other hand, if we meet 
 
10 COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
 
 the new questions of the future in due time, and discuss them 
 with earnestness and wisdom, it will be the high prerogative of 
 the inhabitants of North America to lead the great progressive 
 column of the world's people into new fields of industrial activity 
 and thought. I therefore entreat you to look well to the future, 
 and if possible, discover what achievements arc hi store for our 
 people. I earnestly entreat you to take high ground on the side 
 of progress ; and by progress 1 now mean the adaptation of things 
 and principles to their best uses. To announce one of the questions 
 relating to the national welfare of the people of the grand valley 
 of the Mississippi, which demands immediate consideration, and 
 to indicate its importance, is the purpose for which i stand before 
 you to-day. Nine years ago, when 1 lirst began to devote some spe- 
 cial thought to the great questions of the West, I became convinced 
 that for our people to achieve the highest ends of industrial and 
 commercial life on this continent, the efforts of civilization must 
 conform to the essential and distinctive features of nature, as 
 marked by the physical formation of the continent. 
 
 An examination of the subject reveals the fact that the. moun- 
 tains and their domains have a mission to subserve for the civili- 
 zation of North America, essentially their own, and that the 
 rivers, with the domain of the interior basin of the continent, have 
 a mission to subserve, essentially their own, in the expanding 
 growth of human power upon the wide area penetrated by their 
 numberless tributaries. For in this country, as in all others, the 
 character of the civilization must conform, in a great degree, to 
 the character of the distinguishing topographical features which 
 mark the surface of the continent. The mountain ranees, the 
 boundless prairies, the plateaus and pastoral lands, the rivers and 
 the lakes, will each produce types of civilization peculiar to them- 
 selves, yet essential to the unification of our continental civilization. 
 The two great slopes of North America, the Atlantic and Pacific, 
 will produce a civilization in many respects peculiar to the topo- 
 graphical character of each. So, too, will the Mississippi Basin 
 be distinguished by many features of civilization peculiar to itself. 
 
 Planting ourselves upon these fundamental truths founded in 
 nature, we can easily survey the wide domain of North America, 
 
COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 11 
 
 and with one sweep of the mind determine what are to be the dis- 
 tinguishing pursuits of the inhabitants destined to reside upon 
 either of the slopes, and in the great valley. And as easily can 
 we define what industrial and commercial policies are best calcu- 
 lated to subserve the highest interests of the inhabitants of each 
 physical division. Therefore, in view of these facts, I invite your 
 attention to a consideration of the commercial destiny of the Mis- 
 sissippi Valley, as indicated by nature herself, in the physical 
 formation of the continent. I have many times indulged the hope 
 that when our people recovered from the embarrassments of the 
 late civil war, # they would instinctively turn their attention to the 
 material development of the country, and thus afford greater op- 
 portunity for a full and free discussion of the many questions now 
 ] (resenting themselves for consideration. 
 
 It may well be laid down as a philosophical axiom, that every- 
 thing has a destiny — an end to be achieved, by subserving in a 
 t special way the special purposes of existence. This must be re- 
 garded true of all things, animate or inanimate, physical and spirit- 
 |ual, whether of flowers and vines, of oceans and continents, of 
 men and angels. To comprehend the destiny of those things 
 with which the material interests of men are concerned, is an im- 
 portant function of human knowledge. And in proportion to the 
 character and extent of a thing to subserve the necessities and 
 interests of individuals and communities, is the importance of the 
 destiny to be achieved. 
 
 Thus, when we come to consider the destiny of the Mississippi 
 Valley, in any aspect of civilized life, we must, from the very 
 nature of the case, regard it as one of vast importance to the fu- 
 ture material prosperity of its inhabitants. 
 
 Its superlative size at once warrants such a conclusion, as the 
 facts will demonstrate. 
 
 If we look to the river navigation of the continents, we find that 
 the greatest river of Asia — the Obi —drains a valley containing 
 1,357,000 square miles. The largest river of Africa — the Nile — 
 drains a valley containing 520,000 square miles. The greatest 
 river of Europe — the Volga— drains a valley containing 400,000 
 square miles. The greatest river of South America — the Amazon 
 
12 COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
 
 — drains a valley containing 2,000,000 square miles. The grand- 
 est river of North America — the Mississippi — drains a valley 
 containing 2,455,350 square miles. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that the Mississippi Valley is the largest 
 land formation of the kind on the globe. With its tributaries 
 it extends through thirty degrees of longitude and twenty-three 
 degrees of latitude, and embraces within its area all the essential 
 climates of all the zones of the 'earth, and in conjunction with 
 the productive power of this valley furnishes the market basis 
 for the mightiest growth of commerce ever known to the world ; 
 hence, the commercial destiny of such a country must be great. 
 
 Our present purpose, then, is to consider the commercial des- 
 tiny of this grand valley, or in other words, to consider the true 
 commercial interests of the people of the Mississippi Valley, and 
 how to achieve their best results by a wise regulation of commerce 
 and traffic at home and abroad. 
 
 This is a work of no ordinary concern, for the commercial destiny 
 of the valley, and as will be shown, involves an entire reorganiza- 
 tion of traffic and commerce upon the continent, and the exchange 
 of products through new channels and facilities , supported by public 
 improvements that are not yet in the ascendancy, nor are they 
 even considered by the general mind, which rarely looks beyond 
 the present of its own time to ascertain what changes nature, and 
 progress, will dictate in the future. 
 
 In this marvelous age of ours, it well becomes the actor in pub- 
 lic affairs to look into the future, and discern, if possible, to what 
 better condition of things, individuals, communities and states 
 are rapidly tending, and apply wisdom to the things of the present, 
 and compel them to subserve the better ends of life. If it be true 
 that we can look wisely into the future and realize what it is des- 
 tined to bring forth, who shall say that that knowledge may not 
 be wisely applied to the uses of the present? 
 
 Heretofore the experience of our people has been such as to 
 convince the most incredulous that the goal of their ambition and 
 wealth was to be reached somewhere in the path of empire as it 
 lies across the continent East and West. And such has been the 
 rapid western march of the American pioneer, and such the 
 
COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 13 
 
 succeeding progress of the railway to the Pacific Ocean, that men 
 have seemed for a time to forget that they must conform to nature, 
 rather than with the implements of art become masters of nature. 
 But we have only to question this mental blindness to expose its 
 absurdity. 
 
 Man's mightiest achievements in every field of activity and 
 thought have been more easily and truly won when his etforts were 
 directed conjointly with nature herself, or in other words, when he 
 more nearly co-operated with nature. 
 
 The water is more easily utilized in the channel of the river ; 
 the railway is better and easier built where nature has more nearly 
 prepared the track. 
 
 It is, therefore, essential that we ascertain, as a necessary basis 
 for the argument, whether it is possible for man, in the career of 
 his progress, to transcend, in any important degree, the well- 
 ordered arrangements of nature, for the direction of his industrial 
 and commercial pursuits, and to point out the economic use of the 
 commercial means destined to give character and activity to the 
 future great interests of the people of the Mississippi Valley. 
 
 That man cannot in any great degree transcend the order of 
 nature, and establish dominion, and go forward in the highway 
 of progress, contrary to the unchangeable laws of gravitation and 
 gain, must become evident to every one who will give the subject 
 a moment's thought. Assuming that this general proposition is 
 true, let us make the application. 
 
 Since the beginning of the migration of the human race upon 
 the earth, man has been governed by two essential movements. 
 The first has ever been westward along the zodiac of empire. 
 Along the path of the first movement has grown up the control- 
 ling civilization of the human race. Along it the camel and the 
 caravan traveled in Oriental lands. Along the seas adjacent to 
 the land, the rude form of the ship sailed in ancient and modern 
 times. Now the camel, the caravan and the ruder form of the 
 ship are superseded by the railway and the ocean steamer ; and 
 yet the railway and the steamships do not transcend the order of 
 nature, and change the natural course and character of human 
 enterprise. The railway simply does the labor of the camel in 
 
14 COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
 
 another form, and does not change any of the principles of human 
 enterprise and action. The ship does upon the ocean what the 
 railway does upon the land ; hence the same general laws of human 
 interest and ambition govern mankind to-day that did four 
 thousand years ago, and must continue to govern man's commer- 
 cial interest. 
 
 The second essential movement of man upon the earth has ever 
 been at right angles with the zodiac of empire, to the North and 
 the South. From this second movement has been produced the 
 greater portion of all the commerce and maritime wealth of the 
 world. This movement has been the essential producer and ex- 
 changer of the products of man in all ages, and stimulated ambi- 
 tious rulers to seek the rich trade of the tropics, through new 
 channels, with which to build up their own empires. 
 
 If we go to the countries of Africa, of Asia, and of Europe, and 
 trace the commercial movements of their peoples since the begin- 
 ning of time, we will find in all their efforts but little variation 
 from this general law which nature has prescribed, and to which 
 all people have unerringly conformed. The operation of this law 
 governing the commercial interests of mankind, is not only traced 
 in the right-angular divergence of the race from the zodiac of 
 empire, but is also discoverable in the natural tendency of man, 
 in all the controlling commercial pursuits, to follow the flow of 
 the waters toward the tropics, on all the continents. In this 
 movement of man is to be found the most important operation of 
 the law of commercial adventure upon the globe. 
 
 And this same unchangeable law— this law of human action 
 conforming to the requirements of nature — must control the 
 people of this great valley, and compel them to a destiny over- 
 ruled by nature herself. 
 
 And as in all ages of the world, man upon the continents has 
 followed the flow of those waters running to the tropical oceans, 
 in search of markets for his own produce, and wealth for his 
 aggrandizement, so will the people of this valley, in obedience to 
 nature's provision, follow the flow of waters from the lakes to 
 the gulf, and from thence will their ships go down to the sea, 
 bearing their produce to the markets of the world, and in return 
 
COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 15 
 
 gather up the rich treasures of other lauds and bear them home. 
 It is true, as already stated, that in modern times a new agency has 
 been introduced on the continents to facilitate commerce. I re- 
 fer to the railway. But when we come to consider the economic use 
 of the commercial means destined to give character and activity 
 to the industrial interests of the people of this valley, it at once 
 becomes evident that by the use of the railway, man can in no 
 degree transcend the provisions of nature. Besides, the railways 
 must yield to the superior and overruling influence of nature, and 
 in their greater use, .yield alike with man, and follow the flow ot 
 the waters to the tropical seas. It is therefore assumed as an 
 incontrovertible fact — an unavoidable goal to which our people 
 are rapidly hastening — that the commercial destiny of the Mis- 
 sissippi Valley must be achieved in harmony with nature ; that 
 the surplus products of the valley, designed for foreign trade, 
 must follow the flow of the waters from Hudson's Bay to the 
 Gulf of Mexico, the Mediterranean of the New World. The 
 people of this vast domain, from the water-sheds of the Alle- 
 ghanies to the water-sheds of the Sierra Nevadas, must all 
 yield to this universal law of nature and interest, and follow the 
 flow of the waters of the innumerable rivers to the gulf stream. 
 This must be the commercial destiny of the millions of people 
 who now and henceforth inhabit the interior plain of the continent, 
 and neither ambition nor conflicting interests can thwart them 
 from an obedience to the plain and simple dictates of Nature. 
 Nor will this people be deflected from their destiny, and com- 
 pelled or inclined to pass over either range of mountains, the Alle- 
 ghanies or Sierra Nevadas, to seek the markets of the world from 
 the shores of the Atlantic or Pacific oceans. Cheaper freights on 
 the one hand will compel the products of the valley to the gulf, 
 and a rigorous climate, on the other hand, will contribute to the 
 same end. 
 
 T have stated that the surplus products of the Mississippi Valley 
 destined for foreign markets, must follow the flow of the waters 
 of the Mississippi and its tributaries, to the Gulf of Mexico, and 
 from thence to the markets of the world. I base this statement 
 upon three fundamental propositions. 
 
l(i COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI A r ALLEY. 
 
 I. That transportation by the rivers of the valley, to the gulf, 
 will forever remain a necessity to which the present and future 
 millions of inhabitants of the central plain of the continent must 
 resort for the purpose of conveying their surplus products to the 
 markets of the world. 
 
 II. That the products of the farms and factories of every part 
 of the great valley can be transported cheaper by the rivers to 
 the gulf, and thence to foreign markets, than can possibly be done 
 to the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards, and from their ports to the 
 markets of the world. 
 
 III. The future place of traffic for the people of the Mississippi 
 Valley must be with the West India Islands, Central and South 
 America. 
 
 These three propositions, demonstrated by facts that cannot be 
 refuted, will reveal to the world the commercial destiny of the 
 Mississippi Valley, as indicated b}^ its topographical character, 
 and call the attention of the people of North America who reside 
 upon its great rivers to an interest and a duty that must hence- 
 forth command their united support. 
 
 That transportation by the rivers of the Valley to the gulf will 
 become a necessity to the millions of people who now live and 
 henceforth will reside in the central and upper portions of the 
 Mississippi basin, there can be no manner of doubt, and if there 
 was but one compelling cause for such a necessity, that cause 
 alone would operate as an irrevocable decree in controlling the 
 commerce of this great valley. The necessity to which I refer, and 
 which is the first thought to direct the attention of the people of the 
 Valley to the gulf as an outlet to the markets of the world, conies 
 from the fact that it will be utterly impossible for the railroads of the 
 country to take the produce of the farms and factories and foundries 
 to market. Perhaps this statement may seem strange to some ; 
 nevertheless it is true, and requires but a single reflection to real- 
 ize its truth. It is impossible to build within the bounds of interest 
 and economy a sufficient number of railroads to take away to the 
 gulf the products destined to accumulate from year to year on 
 the upper rivers. There is neither money enough in the country 
 to build the roads, nor would the investment be profitable if the 
 
COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 17 
 
 money could be obtained, for no capitalist can afford to invest 
 their means to build roads that can only be supplied with business 
 from three to six months during the twelve ; hence, to limit the 
 railways to such a number as to insure them profits on the cost 
 of construction and maintenance, by the business they can do, will 
 leave the people of the Valley of the Mississippi constantly bur- 
 dened with their surplus products, unable to find a market save 
 by the water lines to the gulf. 
 
 The present railroads of the country have cost more than 
 $4,000,000,000. They cannot to-day, with the rivers, do the 
 freighting business of the country as prompt as the best interests 
 of the people demand. In less than a generation the population 
 of the Mississippi Valley will be more than 100,000,000, and its 
 commerce more than tripled, and in no event will there be suffi- 
 cient railway capacity to take to the oceans and the gulf the 
 products of the people. 
 
 Turning to the rivers we find ample facility. They penetrate 
 with navigable waters every part of the grand valley, and the one 
 mighty river of the continent has a freighting capacity greater 
 than all the railroads of the world ! And while speed will neces- 
 sarily draw the travel and light freights to the railroads, cheap 
 rates will draw the heavy freights to the rivers, and thus will the 
 railroads and the rivers each subserve their own best purposes in 
 the industrial and commercial affairs of the country. 
 
 Passing to our second proposition, that the surplus products of 
 the Mississippi Valley, designed for the markets of the world, 
 can be transported cheaper by the water lines to the gulf than by 
 any other way, is a fact as easily demonstrated as the simplest 
 mathematical problem. 
 
 Experience has substantially settled the rates of freights by the 
 various modes of transportation to be as follows : The transpor- 
 tation of one ton of freight costs by ocean, 1 1-4 mills per mile ; 
 by lake, 2 1-2 mills per mile ; by river, 3 mills per mile ; by 
 canal, 10 mills per mile ; by railway, 30 mills per mile. 
 
 Taking the above rates as a basis for the exchange of products 
 between the markets of the different channels of communication, 
 no difficulty lies in the way of establishing the truth of our 
 
18 COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
 
 second proposition, which also carries with it a still greater in- 
 ducement for the people of the valley to look toward the gulf for 
 an outlet to foreign ports. Let us look at the facts. The distance 
 from St. Paul to New York is 1,350 miles; at the foregoing 
 rates it will cost a little more than 40 cents, exclusive of ele- 
 vatorage, to ship one bushel of wheat from St. Paul to New York, 
 by railroad ; from New York to Liverpool, a distance of 3,200 
 miles, it will cost 12 1-4 cents to carry one bushel of wheat; 
 therefore from St. Paul by rail to New York, and from thence 
 to Liverpool, it will cost 52 cents to export one bushel of wheat. 
 From St. Paul to New Orleans, a distance of 1,993 miles, by 
 river, it will cost a trifle more than 16 cents to ship one bushel of 
 wheat, and from New Orleans to Liverpool, a distance of 4,950 
 miles, it will cost 15 cents to ship the same measure of wheat ; in 
 other words, it will cost 31 cents to export one bushel of wheat 
 from St. Paul b}' the river and gulf route to Liverpool, thus 
 making a difference of 21 cents on each bushel exported by the 
 river and gulf route. 
 
 The same rate of difference in the cost of shipping wheat and 
 other products of the valley, commands alike the consideration of 
 the people in eveiy locality throughout its wide domain. But the 
 discussion does not stop here ; it takes a wider and deeper range. 
 If it is true that. art and capital can improve railwa} r s, it is also true 
 that science and capital can improve rivers, and this brings us to 
 a great question of continental and national concern — the im- 
 provement of the Mississippi and its tributaries. There is no 
 commercial and national question before the American people to- 
 day half so important as that of improving the great rivers of the 
 valley, so as to afford free and ample navigation for first class 
 steamers from the Gulf of Mexico to Cincinnati, Chicago, St. 
 Paul, and Omaha. In these railroad times, we occasionally hear 
 men speak of the improvement of the rivers and their navigation 
 as an old fogy notion. But men who talk thus can, with equal 
 reason, call it old fogy to plow and plant corn— a thing that was 
 done in Egypt many thousand years ago. The one has ever 
 been a necessity, the other an interest to promote the welfare of 
 man. Referring, however, to the Mississippi River, its improve- 
 
COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 19 
 
 ment will be both a necessity and an interest to the future 
 prosperity of our people ; for if it be true that on account of 
 cheaper freights it is to the interest *of the people of the valley to 
 send their surplus products by the water lines to the gulf, then 
 they will be sent that way. And if it is to their still greater in- 
 terest to improve the rivers, then the rivers will be improved. 
 We have seen, according to the first proposition laid down, that 
 the people of the valley will be compelled to continue the use of 
 the rivers, by which to export the vast supplies of constantly ac- 
 cumulating products ; for it will be utterly impossible, within the 
 range of economy and profit, to provide sufficient railway facil- 
 ities to carry to the gulf and the oceans the freights destined 
 for foreign markets ; therefore the improvement of the rivers 
 comes as another necessity, coupled with the first proposition, 
 and in vindication of the second. 
 
 If it be true that our people who reside in the grain, pork, and 
 beef growing regions of the valley, must go to the rivers and 
 follow the flow of the waters to the gulf with their products, and 
 that by so doing, go to market at a less cost than b}^ any other 
 route, then is it not true that by a wise and sufficient improve- 
 ment of the rivers, so* as to utilize the waters as they flow to the 
 seas, freights can be greatly reduced below their present rates? 
 Most assuredly so. Then shall we not all join hands and efforts 
 to secure the improvement of the rivers according to the dictates 
 of science and the demands of commerce? 
 
 This is the central idea of the subject under discussion. It is 
 the great commercial question for the people of the Mississippi 
 Valley to solve. To improve the rivers of the interior basin of 
 the continent, is a subject almost as old as that of improving the 
 American harbors of the Atlantic ocean. In fact, it was the fear 
 of Washington when young, that if the seaboard States did not 
 make good roads from the head waters of the Mohawk and adja- 
 cent country, to afford easy communication to the seaboard, the 
 people of the Western States would turn their attention down 
 the Mississippi, to the gulf. 
 
 In 1783 Washington visited the Mohawk, and followed that 
 river up to the summit which divides the waters flowing into Lake 
 
20 COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
 
 Ontario from those flowing into the Hudson. The object of his- 
 visit was to examine into the condition and wants of the people. 
 On his return he reported to the Governor of Virginia, and urged 
 the necessity of making- good roads, for the purpose of attracting 
 the attention of the people of the Western States eastward. He 
 said they had been looking down the Mississippi, and the touch 
 of a feather would turn them either way. 
 
 Now more than 20,000,000 people are not only looking, but 
 o-omg down the Mississippi to the gulf, which they can reach more 
 easily than the Atlantic or Pacific oceans. Their market and 
 their commercial destiny is down the river. For this people to 
 achieve their destiny in the highest degree, the Mississippi and 
 its tributaries must be improved. There is not a navigable river 
 in the Valley of the Mississippi that does not afford sufficient 
 water for all the demands of commerce almost the entire year, if 
 the water is utilized by its proper confinement to the channels 
 of the respective streams. But the great question is the im- 
 provement of the Mississippi, into which all the others flow. 
 That there is sufficient water in the Mississippi during all seasons 
 of the year to render its navigation serviceable in the highest 
 degree, when properly improved, there is no manner of doubt. 
 Already it is the mightiest inland commercial thoroughfare in the 
 world. At a less expense than would be required for any other 
 public improvement of equal magnitude and importance, it can 
 be made more than double its present value to the commerce, 
 civilization and government of North America. 
 
 The character and extent of the improvements necessary to be 
 made in the interests of a free and unrestricted commerce from 
 St. Paul to the Gulf of Mexico, I leave for river men and engi- 
 neering science to determine. It is my purpose only to indicate 
 the commercial destiny of the people of the valley, to urge the 
 importance of improving the river, and join hands with the people 
 and demand of Congress to make the improvements. The com- 
 mercial interest of the Mississippi Valley demands free and un- 
 restricted navigation from St. Paul to the Gulf of Mexico. It 
 demands that every wreck and snag that endangers the vessels 
 that do the bidding of commerce be taken from the channel of 
 
COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 21 
 
 the river. It demands that the water be so utilized between St. 
 Paul and the Gulf as to afford a sufficient depth in the channel 
 during the entire year, for the different vessels engaged in differ- 
 ent trades. 
 
 For myself, I am in favor of a uniform depth of twelve feet of 
 water between St. Louis and New Orleans. This depth will admit 
 sea-going vessels of from 1,300 to 1,400 tons — the same size ves- 
 sels that England uses for carrying her mails to the West Indies, 
 Aspinwall and Australia. 
 
 I am aware that many river men regard this as visionary and 
 impracticable, and tell us that from six to eight feet of water is 
 sufficient. I shall not be content with that depth, but insist that 
 we demand twelve feet of water between St. Louis and New Or- 
 leans. River freights are almost three times higher than ocean 
 freights, and if it is profitable for vessels to go upon the oceans, 
 it is also equally profitable for them to run on inland waters, 
 where the facilities are alike advantageous. But there is another 
 reason why I am in favor of establishing a uniform depth of twelve 
 feet between St. Louis and New Orleans. I look beyond to-day 
 and see, in less than a century hence, 400,000,000 enterprising 
 and intelligent American citizens residing in this great Valley of 
 the Mississippi ; I see this generation pass away ; I sec another 
 come, inspired with new hopes and new ideas, with fresh systems 
 of navigation and new modes of transacting business ; I see a 
 vast system of inter-oceanic navigation and commerce carried on 
 in this country — ships arriving by the St. Lawrence and going 
 out by the Mississippi; I see St. Louis, Chicago, Cincinnati, 
 Louisville and other great cities of the rivers made ports of entry ; 
 I see ships come from every part of the habitable globe to the 
 great city of the world, and take of the choice products of the 
 400,000,000 people and go down to the sea laden for the markets 
 of other lands; I see mighty cities, populous and powerful, 
 spreading all over this great valley, centers of commerce and 
 human activity ; I see North America controlling the civilized 
 world; and when I see all these things pass before my mind, I 
 am admonished to urge such an improvement of the Mississippi 
 river as will give an annual dep.li of twelve feet. 
 
22 COMMERCIAL, DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
 
 Besides, we shall not go far in the future before ships will be built 
 upon the Mississippi that will traverse alike the rivers, the lakes, 
 and the ocean with equal facility. They will be owned and run by 
 capitalists and companies organized in the great cities on the rivers 
 and lakes, like unto those of the seaboard cities. Ship- building 
 will yet be an important branch of productive industry for river 
 cities. 
 
 As to the cost of improving the Mississippi so as to have an 
 annual depth of twelve feet from St. Louis to the Gulf of Mexico, 
 I have consulted with an engineer in whose judgment I have con- 
 lidence ; he estimates the expense at from $50,000,000 to $60,000,- 
 000, if the money can be honestly expended, but $100,000,000 if 
 the steal is big. Some of you may regard this amount very large, 
 but it is small in comparison with the magnitude and importance 
 of the work. No other improvement, ancient or modern, relating 
 to the special interest of commerce, has ever commanded the atten- 
 tion of man equal in importance to that of the Mississippi, so as 
 to control its waters, and aiford ample and free navigation from 
 St. Paul to the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of 1,957 miles. Be 
 it ever so much, what matters the cost if it falls infinitely below 
 the profits to accrue, and if the work is cheaper than any other 
 public improvement in the world ? There is at least $250,000,000 
 invested in railroads in the Mississippi Valley, and the amount 
 will be swelled to $5,000,000,000, and yet a thousand railroads 
 are not equal to the Mississippi river. I would not undervalue 
 the importance of railroads to commerce and civilization, but at 
 best, as commercial thoroughfares, they can only be feeders to the 
 rivers. They can gather the products of the land and take them 
 to the rivers, the lakes, and the oceans, to be transported to dis- 
 tant markets, but never can they be made to subserve the uses of 
 the rivers, the lakes, and the oceans. Each have a mission, a 
 work to do in the grander growth of civilization upon the conti- 
 nent. There is room for all, there is use for all ; and in the rapid 
 strides for commercial achievements which our people are making, 
 we must not improve the one at the expense of the other. Touch- 
 ing the subject of an imaginary contest between the rivers and the 
 railways for the transportation of the products of the country, I 
 
COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 2n 
 
 was surprised at reading the testimony of some of the citizens of 
 St. Louis before the senatorial committee, that met at that city 
 in November, 1873. Among other things stated by one of the 
 men interrogated, is the following absurd declaration : "We all 
 know," said the witness, "it to be the fact, that railroads have 
 absorbed the enterprise and the capital of the country." I give 
 the gentleman's own language, and, notwithstanding he says "we 
 all know it," I for one don't know it at all. But I do know the 
 very reverse to be true. 
 
 Instead of absorbing the enterprise of the country, instead of 
 absorbing the capital of the country, railroads have made this 
 gigantic land strong in material power and progress. They have 
 developed incalculable wealth, and made the people of the nation 
 vigorous and enterprising. 
 
 The arts have given nothing to the world equal to the railway, 
 and be you Granger or demagogue, fool or fanatic, when you 
 strike at the railway system of this country, in the name of a 
 starved economy, 3^011 strike at the progress and commercial ad- 
 vancement of the world. Go, if you will, and check the blind 
 Samson, you will die in the ruins of poverty made by your own 
 hands. 
 
 But, while I would advocate railways, I do not mean to say that 
 the men who control them, if misguided by bad motives, will not 
 aggress on the rights of the people, as well as legislative assemblies 
 and any other forms of organized power — I know they will do so. 
 But the remedy against any public wrong is not to be found in 
 mobs , strikes and class organizations . Such movements are always 
 founded upon ignorance and selfishness, and prosecuted without 
 regard to the rights of otners. 
 
 There need be no war between the rivers and railways. Small- 
 minded and mercenary men may talk of fogyism about the one, 
 and the despotism of corporations of the other, but interest and 
 wisdom will prescribe to each, in due time, its special and recip- 
 rocal use. 
 
 I am therefore in favor of the General Government appropria- 
 ting from the national treasury a sufficient amount of money, 
 $100,000,000 if need be, to put the Mississippi river and its 
 
24 COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
 
 navigable tributaries in first-class commercial order, and open the 
 way to the gulf, free to the commerce of the great valley. Sup- 
 pose it does cost $50,000,000 or $100,000,000? The people 
 will be the gainers in less than five years after the work is done. 
 Insurance will be reduced by removing the dangers to navigation ; 
 freights will be reduced, and corn will be shipped from St. Paul 
 to the gulf at eight cents per bushel. These advantages alone 
 would repay the cost of the improvements. What is $50,000,000 
 or $100,000,000 to such a vast work, and by so great a nation? 
 Have not the nations of Europe spent millions of dollars to im- 
 prove the Elbe, the Oder, the Rhine, the Danube and the Seine? 
 And yet, have we not a greater nation, our people a mightier 
 mission to fulfill, than was ever born beyond the Atlantic? Still 
 timid men and politicians, empowered with the function of the 
 statesman and legislators, hesitate to go forward in the develop- 
 ment of the country, by making such improvements as the people 
 and the nation demand for the best interest of each. 
 
 Is it unreasonable for the General Government to improve the 
 great river system of the grand Valley of the Mississippi? Is 
 not such a work essentially national ? Most certainly it is ! Then 
 I would have the General Government organize a corps of the 
 best engineers in the country— yes, in the world if need be. I 
 would have them go up and down the navigable rivers of the 
 valley, and make a thorough examination of every harbor, and 
 the character of every stream, as well as the lands upon their 
 shores. I would have them consult the merchants and river men, 
 from St. Paul, Chicago, Pittsburg and Omaha to the gulf, and 
 ascertain, as far as possible, what the present and future com- 
 merce of the valley, in conjunction with railways, demands. I 
 would then have estimates made of the cost of the necessary 
 improvements. And by the improvements necessary to be made, 
 I do not mean any politician's job of snag-boat swindle, and 
 sand-bar and rapids steals ; but I mean the inauguration of a 
 great system of improvement, in character and importance com- 
 mensurate with the nation itself. A system of river improvements 
 that will last for ages ; which will be the work of statesmanship 
 and science ; an improvement that will unite the oceans, the 
 
COMMERCIAL DESTIMT OF THE MISSISSIPPI VAELEY. 25 
 
 rivers, the lakes and the canals of North America, and enable 
 the great ship of the sea to go through the land, like an amphib- 
 ious monster, where commerce commands. 
 
 The character of the improvements agreed upon, and the cost 
 ascertained, I would have Congress issue River Improvement 
 bonds sufficient for the expense — $100,000,000 if need be. I 
 would have the bonds run fifty years. At the end of that time, 
 200,000,000 people will reside in the valley, ready and willing to 
 pay the bonds, and thank God for the foresight and wisdom ot 
 the Congress that made the improvements. It would not be' 
 necessary to place all the bonds on the market at the same time, 
 but only such installments as would be required from time to 
 time to supply money for the prosecution of the work, each 
 installment to run fifty years from time of sale. In the mean- 
 time, the burden of taxation, after the improvements are made, 
 will fall inmiitely below the profits that will accrue to the people 
 by cheaper transportation. 
 
 But there is still another way by which the cost of improvement 
 would come home to the people. The improvement of the Missis- 
 sippi would necessarily drain and bring into use the alluvial lands 
 lying along its shores and adjacent to it. The restoration -of those 
 lands alone would bring into existence more than double the cost 
 of the entire improvement, though it be $100,000,000. I quote 
 from the report of Humphreys and Abbot, on the survey of the 
 Mississippi, page 421, as follows : 
 
 "It may be well to exhibit, in this connection, with this approx- 
 imate estimate of the cost of leveeing the alluvial regions, the 
 extent and probable value of lands, which, thus protected from 
 overflow, will be rendered available for cultivation. The area of 
 those lands from Cape Girardeau to Red river is 19,450 square 
 miles. It may be assumed that one-half of this area will be 
 rendered cultivable, and as its value per acre may be set down 
 at twenty-live dollars, the total will amount to $160,000,000. 
 The area of the alluvial land under cultivation below the mouth 
 of Red river is not less than 1,000,000 acres, which at $100 per 
 acre, (by no means an extravagant estimate), gives $100,000,000 
 for the value of the plantations in that section, making a total 
 
26 COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
 
 value of $260,000,000 for the land that will be rendered perpet- 
 ually cultivable by the expenditure of $17,000,000." 
 
 This calculation, you will bear in mind, is founded upon an 
 advance in the price of only 7,000,000 acres of alluvial land, 
 lying upon the lower Mississippi below Cairo and forms but a 
 small portion of the alluvial lands that would be rendered valu- 
 able by the improvement of the rivers and the consequent confine- 
 ment of their waters within their banks. But were there not a 
 single acre to be reclaimed by the improvement, its necessity 
 would still be paramount. And we all agree that the work shall 
 be done by the General Government. And yet the impression 
 pervades the public mind that the railroads of the country have 
 a sufficient controlling power over Congress and the people, to 
 prevent any improvement of the rivers, as long as their use is 
 reckoned to be hostile to the railway interests. In addition to 
 this impression, it is held, with no small amount of evidence for 
 its foundation, that the capital and interest, on the Atlantic 
 seaboard of our country, are hostile to the growth and indepen- 
 dence of the West, and having control of the administration and 
 legislation of the government, sharply contest all the national 
 legislation designed to promote Western interests. And especially 
 has it ever been the practice of the capitalists and statesmen of 
 the Eastern cities and seaboard States, to hold the West in check, 
 and make her a dependency upon Eastern capital and Eastern 
 interests. Appropriations from the national treasury, designed 
 for Western improvements, have always been grudgingly and 
 diminutively made. But such a narrow policy cannot endure 
 forever. 
 
 " For time at last sets all things even.'" 
 
 To-day the West is the vital portion of the national life, and I 
 mean by the West the entire Mississippi Valley, from the lakes to 
 the gulf. She supplies the materials for the fabrics of the country. 
 From the West come most of the resources out of which the 
 taxes to support the government are drawn. To the West 
 belongs most of the population of the country, and to the West 
 belongs a majority of the senators and representatives in the 
 
COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 27 
 
 Congress of the United States. And if a majority of them were 
 statesmen instead of politicians, the West would not complain 
 much longer about the unfair treatment of the East. Legislation 
 and money would be given in abundance at the dictates of wisdom 
 and statemanship, of commerce and civilization, if the West was 
 rightly represented in the Congress of the United States. The 
 time is at hand when we must look in another direction for the 
 cause of our incompetent representatives, our incapacitated law- 
 makers ; we must look to the people ; to tl^em belong the respon- 
 sibility, in a great measure, of choosing demagogues and fools to 
 make the laws for the government and welfare of their country. 
 We must have a new discussion of the great questions of our 
 government and civilization. The people must be made to feel 
 more than now the responsibility resting upon them, of choosing 
 the law-makers of the country. The school-house, the college, 
 the rostrum, the pulpit and the press must be made to ring with 
 eloquence and reason, that will revolutionize the vulgar conception 
 of the people, and revivify them with knowledge and sense of 
 responsibility, one to another, and each to the whole. 
 
 But I have said that to the West already belongs a majority of 
 the senators and representatives in Congress, and this being true, 
 there must not be any delay about the legislation essential to 
 Western interests. 
 
 In view of these facts, if the West fails in the future to get her 
 share of national legislation, as well as appropriations, the fault 
 will be in the people, who send incompetent men to Congress. 
 
 Having thus briefly considered a work of incalculable value to 
 the commercial interests of the people of the Mississippi Valley, 
 I would ask your attention to a higher consideration of the work, 
 and the importance it is destined to subserve for the government 
 of the people of North America. 
 
 1 hold that the Mississippi and its tributaries are the greatest 
 bonds of national union known to the people of the country. 
 
 Let us consider this statement for one moment. Here we have 
 a river extending through thirty degrees of longitude and twenty- 
 three degrees of latitude, and draining an area of 2,455,000 square 
 miles — an area larger than all Europe, exclusive of Russia, Nor- 
 
28 COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
 
 way and Sweden. It gathers its floods from the country between 
 the upper lakes and the Rocky mountains. They are gathered 
 from semi-arctic regions, and they flow through all the climates, a 
 distance of 3,000 miles, there to be emptied into the Gulf Stream 
 of a tropical sea, to be lost in the "dark and deep blue ocean." 
 
 This great river forms the boundary line of eleven populous 
 and powerful States and two Territories. Upon its main stream 
 and tributaries lie eighteen States and lour Territories, large 
 enough in themselves to form one of the mightiest nations on the 
 face of the globe. It is a bond of common interest and political 
 union, alike to the whole as it is to the parts. No one State or 
 climate can appropriate it, to the exclusion of the others. It be- 
 longs alike to all, and is a mightier bond of national unity than 
 the constitution itself. In the late civil strife, when the authority 
 of the constitution was of no avail in a land of discordant and 
 belligerent States, this mighty river, which binds the continent 
 by the authority of Jehovah, mocked alike at friend and foe, and 
 defied the passions of men, and supremely vindicated the unity 
 of the States of the Republic as one and indivisible. As long as 
 the waters run in the Mississippi from the north to the south, the 
 country through which it runs will know but one government and 
 one people, and be the unfailing servant of all. "Its annual over- 
 flow engulfs more wealth than the revenue of half of the petty 
 kingdoms of the earth ! ' ' What a wonderful river ! It wears the 
 bright honors of unnumbered centuries. Its liquid volume moves 
 undisturbed to the sea as at the dawn of creation. It halts not in 
 its course at the tread of empire. On its shores are the unwritten 
 pages of more history than belongs to all the existing kingdoms 
 of the world. 
 
 The traditionary empire of Hiawatha, extending over the val- 
 ley of this grand river, is but the prophecy of that still mightier 
 empire of the mound-builders, whose traces yet remain in the re- 
 lentless hand of Time, and whose origin and decline prefigured 
 in the then far-off future, the world's mightiest nation. This 
 great river of the continent, though a new-comer to civilized 
 man, is older than human things, is older than organic life. It 
 was the parent and protector of millions of organic forms long 
 
COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 29 
 
 before the pyramids were built, and before the southern cross 
 disappeared from the horizon of the Baltic. It floats, annually, 
 upon its tributaries and main stream, more than $200,000,000 of 
 commerce, and in less than a century hence it will bear upon its 
 bosom to the sea the commerce of 400,000,000 Saxon Americans. 
 
 What a wonderful river ! No man can compute its importance 
 to the North American people. What the Nile is to Egypt, 
 what the great river Euphrates was to ancient Assyria, what the 
 Ganges is to India, what the Yangtese is to China, what the 
 Danube is to Europe, what the Amazon is to Brazil — all this, and 
 even more than this, the Mississippi is to the North American 
 continent. In an earlier period men would have worshipped the 
 Mississippi ; in this age we can do better — we can improve it. 
 Then let us improve it ; let us make a great ship canal, or ship 
 river, if you please, from Chicago to the Gulf of Mexico, and thus 
 make it worthy the respect and care of the active, earnest, and 
 patriotic people of the American Union. 
 
 But there is still another sense in which this great river is a 
 wonderful agent of civilization. It forms continued inland navi- 
 gation with that of ocean navigation, which has proven in all ages 
 to be a great civilizer of mankind. In every land where ocean 
 navigation has been connected and extended into the interior, civ- 
 ilization has been promoted by the inter-communication of the 
 people of one country with that of another. In this way, the 
 Mississippi river is destined to subserve, in the future, a higher 
 purpose than it has in the past, notwithstanding the great advan- 
 tages it afforded to the earlier pioneers and explorers of the 
 country. 
 
 There remains the third and last proposition of the subject to 
 be considered. The future place of traffic for the people of the 
 Mississippi Valley will be with South America and the tropical 
 lands of the Western hemisphere. 
 
 The products of the earth and industry which create commerce 
 are confined to special zones and climates, and are rendered more 
 valuable as officiating ministers to human happiness when ex- 
 changed between people occupying regions of different tempera- 
 ture. This truth is demonstrated by the entire experience of the 
 
30 COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
 
 human race. All the rich commerce of the world, since Joseph 
 went down into Egypt, has grown out of an exchange of the pro- 
 ducts of the temperate for those of the tropical zones ; and time 
 has demonstrated to the people of every nation the necessity of 
 sooner or later abandoning the pioneer, or East and West, path 
 of human activity, and moving commerce upon longitudinal, in- 
 stead of latitudinal lines, to secure the greatest rewards of 
 industry. The same lessons of trade that experience has taught 
 the people of other nations, the people of this great Mississippi 
 basin must learn. A new commercial era, a new commercial des- 
 tiny, now dawns upon the Western hemisphere. The tales of 
 Marco Polo, the hopes of Columbus, and the Spaniard's dream of 
 the El Dorado, will soon find fruition in the new land of Cathay. 
 
 " The lost Atlantides, that lay 
 
 To ancient thought, beyond the waves away." 
 
 The opening of a gateway to the Gulf of Mexico by Captain 
 Eads, is the opening of a new commercial era of the Western 
 hemisphere ; a new commercial destiny that will invite all the 
 people of the globe into its simple secrets, and place in the hands 
 of Saxon America the control of the commerce of the world. 
 Through the gateway to the gulf the future opens to the people 
 of the Valley of the Mississippi, and they are now compelled to 
 begin to learn the lesson before them, and turn away from old 
 Europe, and seek new markets, if need be, of their own creation, 
 in the tropical lands of the Western hemisphere. 
 
 There lies beyond the rule of our constitution, and south of us, 
 an immense area of navigable waters, a gulf and a sea, destined to 
 be the theater of the greatest marine commerce on the globe. It is 
 studded with islands, rich in the wealth of nature, and struggling 
 to take part in the affairs of the world. Still beyond and around 
 lies a vast continent, pregnant with all that is great and grand, 
 and valuable in nature. Those islands and waters and adjacent 
 continent are our natural allies, and with us destined to be the 
 world's conservators. For with us, under the new civilization, 
 Europe and Asia are separated but still struggling under the old 
 civilization, our people are diverted from their final goal to those 
 distant continents in pursuit of commerce and wealth. We know 
 
COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 31 
 
 but little of those lands and waters of our own hemisphere that 
 lie under and beyond the tropics ; our people should know more. 
 They occupy a longitudinal position in the geography of the hem- 
 isphere, in their relation with the people of the valley, and will 
 inevitably command the trade of the valley, in obedience to an 
 all-controlling commercial law, that stimulated Alexander the 
 Great to enrich his empire with the products of southern climes. 
 That law moved from the Persian Gulf with the human tide of 
 the world, and successively built up commercial centres on the 
 Mediterranean, and from thence moved to the Netherlands, and 
 now rules the commerce of England. This all-powerful commer- 
 cial law is now being enacted upon the Western hemisphere, and 
 in obedience to its sovereign power, and in the language of Mr. 
 Beecher : 
 
 "The States of North America are to be the commercial centre 
 of the globe. This destiny seems so inevitable that one hardly 
 requires more than inspection of the map to perceive it. Both 
 sides of the globe — the two hemispheres — are ours by our posi- 
 tion ; for we are the land of two oceans. From our hither shore 
 we hail the European and African continents ; from our thither 
 shore we greet the Oceanica and Asiatic continents. And all 
 between the oceans is our own ; to be tilled with our own people, 
 under common institutions, speaking our language. 
 
 "The interior structure of this continent peculiarly fits it to be 
 the mart of the globe. Its rivers open the interior from almost 
 every part, and give natural outlets ; its lakes are embosomed 
 oceans, giving to the Northern frontier a third shore and an inland 
 commerce scarcely less than the Atlantic or Pacific shore. 
 
 "Such artificial ways as are needed, especially the great thor- 
 oughfares from ocean to ocean — the inland highway from the 
 Atlantic to the Pacific — are within our own bounds. We have 
 no Prussia on our border, no Russia beyond her. Our vast inte- 
 rior is not grouped into national estates, blocking each other up 
 and wasting each other's means by monstrous armies of watch 
 or attack. 
 
 "We can ask of commerce what she needs, and whether it is 
 Northward or Southward, Eastward or Westward, her path lies 
 among our own people. 
 
 "Shortly the carrying trade of the globe must be in our hands ! 
 Upon our shores are the gates through which must pour the 
 world's merchandise." 
 
32 COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
 
 Such a commercial destiny as lies before the great people ot 
 the Mississippi basin, and their rapid increase to 100,000,000, 
 and from thence to 600,000,000 population before the close of 
 the twentieth century, commands the immediate action of those 
 now living to adjust themselves to the new trade and the new 
 commerce now growing up between the two continents of the 
 Western hemisphere. Linked together by nature as these conti- 
 nents are, their people must be united by commercial relations, 
 reciprocal in their character, and profitable in their results. 
 Seeing these things to be true, we must conclude that the future 
 growth in commerce and art of the people of the continents of the 
 Western hemisphere, will depend upon the co-operative relations 
 of the one with the other. And if we are wanting in examples 
 to stimulate such high commercial adventure, we have only to 
 refer back to an age when commerce began its final struggle with 
 the military under the feudal power of old Europe and Western 
 Asia. Five different routes successively opened and occupied 
 from the Persian Gulf to the commercial marts of the Mediterra- 
 nean were traveled, respectively 'to the East Indies, by the Phoe- 
 nicians, the Jews, the merchant princes of Alexandria, Constan- 
 tinople and of Venice. And if it be true that in an elder day 
 cities and nations were enriched by the trade of the East Indies 
 and Africa, how much greater must be the opportunity for the 
 people of this great valley to enrich themselves by the trade of 
 the West Indies, Central and South America. 
 
 The European farmer is the rival of the American farmer in the 
 grain markets of the world, and the American manufacturer is 
 fast becoming the rival of the European manufacturer. 
 
 The course of trade and the condition of the markets now open 
 to the American manufacturer and farmer, demonstrate that we 
 must earnestly seek for more profitable consumers, especially 
 when, as in the case of Central and South America, they buy our 
 productions with such of their own as we do not produce and are 
 not competitors in any of our chosen fields of industry. 
 
 The people of the Mississippi Valley have, nearer home, a far 
 richer and broader field for human activity than Europe affords, 
 
COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VAT-LEY. 33 
 
 which they have only to explore and cultivate, to make it an im- 
 pregnable ally in trade and wealth, and not a rival. 
 
 While it is true that the general tendency of man upon the 
 planet has been to make the circuit of the globe within lines of 
 latitude of equal temperature, thus instinctively following the 
 sun in his course around the earth, it is also true that the sub- 
 stantial wealth of all nations has been gathered, at least in past 
 times, from the tropics. No people have became cosmopolitan 
 and been vitalized by eclectic elements of civilization, who have 
 not exchanged products with tropical climes, and between zones. 
 Sameness is not the law of progress. Variety is the eternal means 
 of improvement. 
 
 There is no advantage derived by the exchange of the potatoes 
 of Colorado for those of Ohio, nor the wines of Missouri for 
 those of California. Those are the products of the same domes- 
 tic industry, and grow along the isothermal path of the human 
 race. 
 
 It is by the exchange of the products of the tropics for those of 
 the colder climates — the corn and wheat, the hardier fruits, and 
 industrial arts of the North, for the cotton, the rice, the sugar, 
 and the delicate fruits of the South, that our people are to be 
 mostly benefitted in gathering the rewards of industry. 
 
 If we are wise we will study these facts, and organize them into 
 the greatest commercial policy of our age and people. 
 
 They must be studied, understood and applied to the highest 
 commercial interests of this country. 
 
 Let us no longer ignore these great facts which God has or- 
 dained, and to which the future millions of the two lands must 
 conform. 
 
 We have completed the circuit of the globe. Upon our land 
 the chain of the world's empire is made complete. Columbus 
 and Humboldt carried the conquest forward to the rising and 
 setting of the sun. Amazed at this triumph, the Anglo-American 
 mind instinctively turns to new fields of conquest, and seeks for 
 dominion on sea and land. What else can it do but to achieve 
 its greatest possibilities in commerce, peaceful conquest, and 
 
34 COMMEECIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
 
 civilization? Nothing else remains to be done in this restless, 
 grasping, conquering age. 
 
 Man's instinctive destiny upon the planet has been to make the 
 circuit of the globe within lines of equal temperature with that of 
 his birth-place. This movement is in obedience to a higher law — 
 a law over which neither kings nor emperors have any control, 
 for it is the same law which operates in the planetary and sidereal 
 heavens, to direct the sun within the plane of the zodiac and bring 
 the seasons in turn. 
 
 The westward movement of man along the path of empire cor- 
 responds to the movement of the sun in the zodiac. It is the 
 movement of discovery and conquest. The second movement of 
 man is at right angles with the path of empire, and corresponds 
 to the second solar movement, known as the precession of the 
 equinoxes. In the one case, the varying of the sun to the north 
 and south, in his celestial pathway, the ecliptic, produces the 
 seasons, and gives sensation and intellectual life to the lands and 
 waters, and supplies fruits and llowers for the happiness and re- 
 finement of man. In the other case, the varying of the human 
 race to the north and the south of the path of empire, pro- 
 duces the great wealth of the world, and advances civilization 
 in every land. Therefore the people of the great States of the 
 Valley of the Mississippi have only to live in obedience to this 
 great law of nature to fullil their mission in the affairs of the world. 
 
 Man's civil, cosmopolitan and commercial destiny is to conquer 
 and triumph over the lands and oceans of the varied zones and 
 climates of the earth. The American people have established their 
 line of conquests from ocean to ocean, and thus demonstrated their 
 ability to accomplish their instinctive destiny ; they are now com- 
 pelled to engage in their civil, cosmopolitan and commercial des- 
 tiny. It is supremely important to the people of these great 
 States of the valley that they hasten to realize that destiny, and 
 earnestly set about its accomplishment. It commands the master 
 might of mind. It involves the universal interests of races and 
 nationalities. It involves national power and individual prosper- 
 ity. Its fulfilment will be the grandest achievement of the race in 
 the nineteenth century. It will be vitalized by the removal of the 
 
COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 35 
 
 American capital to the Valley of the Mississippi, the discovery 
 of the north-west passage around the continent, and the full de- 
 monstration and realization of the Future Great City of the World . 
 Let us hail this coming triumph, this possible achievement of our 
 countrymen, with auspicious foreshadowings of a better time for 
 the world's people. 
 
 The application and development of these truths will at once 
 reorganize the present system of the exchange of products on the 
 continent, and lessen the importance of east and west railways in 
 their relation to those running north and south. This brings us 
 to another statement made by a citizen of St. Louis before the 
 senatorial committee. The question was asked by Senator Conk- 
 ling, why railroads were built on latitudinal instead of longitudinal 
 lines? The witness answered, " because latitude has grain and 
 longitude has not." Now it seems to me that this is a singular 
 statement, and especially when made in the face of all the know- 
 ledge in the world. 1 think that any scientific man will affirm 
 that wheat and corn will grow on longitudinal as well as latitudi- 
 nal lines, where the climate and soil are favorable. But if science 
 won't do it, farmers will. 
 
 But I simply repeat the statement made by the gentleman of 
 St. Louis, and leave it for others to criticise. 
 
 Our lathers landed upon the Atlantic seaboard of the continent, 
 they there pitched their tents and made fixed habitations : They 
 began to subdue the wilderness, to multiply and create wealth. 
 
 The army of pioneers began to organize. Their only field of 
 activity lay westward across a broad continent. They took up 
 their march and moved forward toward the setting sun, constantly 
 carving empire from the wilderness. Soon the arts and means 
 of civilization followed their footsteps. The mechanic arts, edu- 
 cation and improvement followed the pioneer, soon to be succeed- 
 ed by the railway. And thus as the pioneers went forth from the 
 East to the West, so did the railway go forth from the East to the 
 West. The westward movement caused the railways to be built 
 upon latitudinal lines to facilitate the going to and from the parent 
 home. The wealth was there, and those who possessed it built 
 railroads for their own interest. This was a pari of the work 
 
36 COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
 
 done by the American people during the first century of our na- 
 tional life. There is now being inaugurated a new movement of 
 civilization, for the people of the second century. This move- 
 ment will build railroads and canals upon longitudinal lines, and 
 establish harmony between the efforts of man and the purposes 
 of nature. 
 
 And railways running from either of the great commercial 
 centers of the Valley — Chicago, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, 
 New Orleans, and other kindred cities, to the Atlantic and Pacific 
 Oceans, will sink into far less relative importance than is now 
 attached to them, in comparison with those running north and south 
 and connecting the Lakes and the Gulf. In fact, one good railway, 
 constructed to a good harbor on the Gulf of Mexico, will be of far 
 greater value to any one of the cities of the Valley from which 
 it may run, than any Pacific railway that can possibly be built. 
 Besides, it must be evident that in less than ten years the trade of 
 the West India Islands, Central and South America will be more 
 valuable to the people of the Mississippi Valley than all the trade 
 they will require with Europe and Asia. This may seem to some 
 strange at first, but nevertheless, time will demonstrate it to be 
 true. Understand me, I do not mean to say that the trade of the 
 West India Islands, Central and South America will be greater 
 than the combined trade of Europe and Asia, but I do mean to 
 sav that the time is not distant when the people of the Mississippi 
 Valley will do more business with the West Indies, Central and 
 South America than the} r will with Europe and Asia combined. 
 
 Let me explain. It may be assumed that by far the greater 
 portion of our trade, at present, with Europe and Asia is confined 
 to such fabrics and products as belong to climates that we possess, 
 and that under these same climates are to be found, in North 
 America, in greater abundance, those natural resources that 
 Europe and Asia have in the same zones. Therefore, it is reas- 
 onable to assume that the time is not distant when the people 
 will produce, from the same raw material, such fabrics, wares ami 
 implements as they may need in art and civilization, and hence 
 will no longer be required to go abroad to Europe and Asia for 
 such merchandise as can be produced at home. Then our people 
 
COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 37 
 
 will only be required to go to zones and climates that they do not 
 possess, in the prosecution of trade with mankind. This will 
 necessarily lead them to the tropical and semi-tropical regions of 
 the Western Hemisphere, more than to any other portion of the 
 globe ; therefore another evidence of the commercial destiny of 
 the Mississippi Valley, and the necessity of the surplus produce 
 of the people of the valley following the flow of the waters to the 
 gulf. Already our trade with the tropical and southern lands of 
 the Western Hemisphere is rapidly growing, and to cultivate it 
 requires favorable legislation and wise statesmanship at Wash- 
 ington . 
 
 No man can estimate our future, trade with the South American 
 States when these lands shall be more truly cultivated, and the 
 soils and climates yield to their full capacity the necessities for 
 man, most of which will find their way to the markets of the 
 Valley of the Mississippi. 
 
 Beyond these continental considerations, if we consider what- 
 ever of trade the people of this valley must carry on with Europe 
 and Asia, we readily conclude that it must be done through the 
 Gulf of Mexico. The construction of a ship canal across the 
 Isthmus of Panama as well as a railway to Panama, via the City 
 of Mexico, will inevitably compel nine-tenths of the foreign trade 
 destined for the people of the valley to reach them through those 
 routes. The Gulf of Mexico and the Carribean sea must be the 
 commercial waters of America, infinitely transcending, in special 
 importance, the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. In short, they form 
 the Mediterranean of the New World. And in the future growth 
 and organization of the world's commerce, may we not reasonably 
 expect that thousands of ships, from the Atlantic and Pacific — 
 from the combined fleets of the nations of the earth — will asso- 
 ciate in rendezvous in that world's commercial place which these 
 two waters are destined to be? Every consideration in our 
 geography and resources, as well as the rapid tendency to a com- 
 plete organization of the world's commerce, points to this one 
 great fact. The Mediterranean of the New World is just as 
 surely to supersede, in commercial importance, the Mediterra- 
 
38 COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
 
 nean of the Old World, as does the civilization of the New World 
 supersede the civilization of the Old. 
 
 Our Mediterranean will yet have its Suez canal. It has its own 
 Rome, its Constantinople, its Genoa and its Venice, its Smyrna 
 and its Palermo. In short, to the Mediterranean of the Old World 
 belongs scarcely anything of nature and civilization that does not 
 belong to the Mediterranean of the New, whether in oceans east 
 and west, or whether in continents north and south : or whether 
 in islands and cities, in climates and peoples. Brilliant and event- 
 ful as is the long line of historic scenes which have been enacted 
 upon the shores of the Mediterranean of the Old World, through 
 thousands of years of man's history, growth and fall of nations, 
 the commercial greatness, and the diffusion of the arts and sciences, 
 — there seems to be reserved in the future, to be enacted upon the 
 shores of the Mediterranean of the New World, still mightier 
 deeds in commerce, in art, in Peace ! Why may we not antici- 
 pate a superior and more advanced rehearsal of history? Even 
 now it is being enacted, and must go on. 
 
 " From the Gulf of Mexico all the great commercial markets 
 of the world are down hill. A vessel bound from that Gulf to 
 Europe places herself in the current of the gulf stream and drifts 
 along with it at the rate, for part of the way, of eighty or one 
 hundred miles per day. if her destination be Rio, or India, or 
 California, her course is the same as far north as the island of 
 Bermuda. 
 
 "And when there shall be established a commercial thorough- 
 fare across the Isthmus, the trade-winds of the Pacific will place 
 China, India, New Holland, and all the islands of that ocean, 
 down hill also from this sea of ours. , In that case, Europe must 
 pass by our very doors, in the great highway of the markets both. 
 of the East and the West Indies. 
 
 "This beautiful Mesopotamian sea is in a position to occupy the 
 summit level of navigation, and to become the great commercial 
 receptacle of the world. Our rivers run into it, and float down 
 with their currents the surplus articles of merchandise that are 
 produced upon the banks. Arrived with them upon the bosom 
 of this grand marine basin, there are the currents of the sea and 
 
COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 39 
 
 the winds of heaven so arranged by Nature that they drift it and 
 waft it down hill and down stream to the great market place of 
 the world." 
 
 The configuration of the two lands, their climate, soils, natural 
 products, navigable waters and intermediate islands, afford the 
 strongest possible evidence of their alliance to each other, both 
 in nature and civilization. And as nature has tixed the bounda- 
 ries of each, and adapted their uses one for the other, it highly 
 becomes civilized men, inhabiting the two lands and their islands, 
 to form civil and commercial relations with each other in unison 
 with the purposes of nature. 
 
 I am convinced that those climates and lands, with their incal- 
 culable resources and noble navigable waters, must be the future 
 Held of commercial enterprise for the Anglo-Saxon race — the 
 American people — and that it is of the utmost importance to the 
 people of the Mississippi Valley to look at once, with eagerness, 
 to those countries, and to secure at the earliest moment intimate 
 commercial relations with them. 
 
 Every consideration invites the people of this valley to the 
 tropics of this continent, and admonishes them that their com- 
 mercial destiny must be with the flow of the waters of the rivers 
 of the valley. 
 
 Then it is that the future of this valley, which is destined to 
 be the essential future of the civilization and the commercial 
 activity of the Western hemisphere, depends upon the exchange 
 of the products of the zones and climates of the Western conti- 
 nents, and the highest development of the commercial relations 
 between the people of North and South America and the inter- 
 vening lands. The continent having been spanned by a railway, 
 the people of the great Valley States, controlled by an instinct, 
 whose highest achievement is destiny, are now vaguely but truly 
 looking toward the tropics for their future held of commercial 
 activity. Railroads and steamships will soon be put in line, and 
 capital brought into, requisition, in the new and greater field of 
 commerce. 
 
 And from this great valley will go forth captains and generals 
 with armies, to traverse again, in peaceful conquest, the battle- 
 

 40 COMMERCIAL DESTINY OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
 
 fields of Pizarro and Cortez, and fructify the lands of Aztecs and 
 the Incas. 
 
 The mission of our people is now being rapidly defined, and 
 from their course there can be "neither variableness nor shadow 
 of turning." Our commerce, when properly organized in its 
 legitimate channels of usefulness, must follow the rivers, and our 
 people who drink the waters of the Arkansas, the Illinois, the 
 Ohio, the Missouri and the Mississippi, must be kindred in inter- 
 est and prosperity with those who drink the waters of the 
 Orinoco, the Kio de la Plata, the Parana and the Amazon. 
 
 With the achievement of continental conquest will be established 
 the most perfect commercial relationship between the zones and 
 climates of the Western continents, North and South America. 
 
 '•No ship that sails from either shore. 
 
 While to and fro it plies. 
 But weaves the thread of friendship o'er 
 
 The Gulf that 'twixt us lies. 11 
 
 Let no man be blind to the commercial destiny of this people. 
 Let no man console himself with the hope of some vague specula- 
 tion, in which this people will waste their time and their substance, 
 by foolishly asking for profits and prosperity along the beaten 
 track of conservatism and superstition, wandering east and west 
 along parallel lines of equal temperature, with the rising and 
 setting sun. No such absurdity awaits the Anglo-Saxon blood. 
 Its mission is more than this. It is to combine in one universal 
 relationship the zones and climates of extremes of heat and cold ; 
 to o-ather the wonders and the wealth of torrid and frigid lands. 
 
 Realizing that such a destiny awaits the people of this valle}', 
 is it not the part of wisdom to so shape the schemes of ambition, 
 of speculation, of industry, of improvement, and of commerce, 
 as to carry out the purpose of the Divine, in the application of 
 the economic uses of all those interests which are destined to 
 contribute to their progress and the greatness of our nation ? 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 • 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 v 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 -<- ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 •£%. 
 
 
 
 ■\ 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ •* 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 •^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 n o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 ... 
 
 
 o o 
 
 
 
 
 v 
 
 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ o \. 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 
 <-> S- N 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 -; 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' // 
 
 
 %$ 
 
 
 . \ 
 
 
 • 
 
 
 
 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 014 495 426 9 
 
 MM mm 
 
 II mWm 
 m Ssl M 
 
 II 
 
 liii 
 Wast H 
 
 IffiHi 
 
 m^a 
 
 BSbIHI 
 
 Hi U 
 
 mm Ball 
 
 ilii m 
 
 1 
 
 IffiHHBBi 
 
 IwlJ 
 
 inn 
 
 11118 
 I || 
 
 MISS imll