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yield of ores in the latter State is $20 per ton, but the average in Montana is stated to be four times that amount. Great as is the yield of gold mines here it is declared that the ease with which silver is separated from its combinations in the ore will make that branch of mining more profitable. Copper also abounds. This territory has several eminent advantages over other mining districts. It is reached by steamboats on the Missouri river, from St. Louis, without transhipment: navigation being free to Ft. Benton, in the heart of Montana. The river voyage from St. Louis to Ft. Benton, is made in 28 days. There is a large and constant supply of water, a point of great difficulty in most of the other mining regions; and the country everywhere furnishes easy natural roads, the principal range of the Rocky Mountains not presenting the broken and rugged character of most other ranges. Associated with this point is the important fact of great agricultural capability. It is one of the best grazing regions west of the Mississippi. Small grain and fruit are grown with the greatest ease, as also the more important vegetables. There is abundance of timber for all purposes of home consumption.

The area is stated at 153,800 square miles. The population in 1870 was 20,594.

ALASKA TERRITORY

Was acquired to the United States by treaty with Russia in the year 1867, for $7,200,000. It is a vast region containing 394,000 square miles, with 24,000 inhabitants.

It was first explored by command of Peter the Great of Russia in 1728. A government was first established on Kodiak island in 1790. In 1799 the Russian American fur company was chartered by the Emperor Paul.

The northern portion is a tolerably compact body of mainly level country about 600 miles square, and a line of coast runs south for a long distance, including many islands. The Aleutian group of islands is included. The principal value of the region to Russia was the fur trade. The annual export of these

amounted to only a few hundred thousand dollars. American thrift will probably make much more of it.

The country is much warmer than its high latitude would seem to imply Sitka in the southern part having about the same mean temperature, by the thermometer, as Washington! It is, however, extremely damp. In one year there were counted only 66 entire days without rain or snow. The coast is broken with mountains. The peninsula of Alaska has some very high mountains-Mt. St. Elias and Mt. Fairweather being estimated at 15,000 to 18,000 feet above the sea. The islands of the Aleutian group are volcanic in origin. There are several rivers, the largest, the Yukon, or Kwickpak being 2,000 miles long, and navigable for 1,500 miles. There are vast supplies of timber, much being pine, found nowhere else on the Pacific coast. Vegetables, and some grains, may be raised without difficulty, and the soil, in parts, is rich. Abundant supplies of coal are believed to exist. The precious metals and iron, it is thought, are to be found there, but the country has been very imperfectly explored.

In the lively and extensive trade that is likely to grow up with Japan, China, and the East Indies, it will no doubt be found of great value, and its resources contribute to the wealth of our country.

WYOMING TERRITORY

Was organized by act of Congress July 25th, 1868, and is the youngest of the territories. Its area is stated at 100,500 square miles, and it had a population, in 1870, of 9,118.

The Pacific railroad passes through it, to which its settlement is probably mainly due. Montana lies on the north; Dacotah and Nebraska on the east; Colorado and Utah on the south, with the northern part of Utah and Idaho on the west.

The main chain of the Rocky Mountains crosses it from northwest to southeast which maintain here the same general characteristic as in Montana, viz.: that of a rolling upland. Its outlying ranges are more broken. Most of the country is

good arable, or grazing land, sufficiently fertile to give excellent returns for labor, though, in large part, requiring irrigation. A few regions are remarkably sterile, but they are limited in comparison with the fertile lands.

Gold mining has been successful, to a considerable extent; coal is extremely abundant and accessible; the supplies for the Pacific railroad being obtained in this territory. Iron has been found in considerable quantities, together with lead and copper ores. Oil and salt springs promise to be productive.

Thus without, as yet, developing any eminent specialty, the resources of this Territory seem to promise all the requisites of prosperity to a large population; while the climate is mild and extremely healthy, and the great thoroughfare between the east and the west furnishes all necessary facilities for transporting its supplies to the best markets. More intimate knowledge of its mineral deposits may perhaps give it a higher rank as a mining State.

THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

The first Congress convened under the new Constitution in 1789, held its session in New York. The seat of government was then removed to Philadelphia. There was much dissension as to where it should be permanently located. The North and the South, were each equally obstinate in their desire to locate it in their own section, and the quarrel threatened a rupture of the confederacy. The great political question of the time was the debts of the States contracted in carrying on the War of Independence. The South, disliking a strong central government, opposed giving the charge of the finances of the country into its hands; while the North, strongly approved the plan of clothing it with authority to concentrate the strength of the nation to a reasonable extent, so that it might be able to act with vigor, and make the country formidable to its enemies. The reservation of as much power as possible to the individual States was a vital question with the South, since it wished to maintain Slavery, and it was always

foreseen that the north must preponderate, ultimately, in the general government; and the north was unfriendly to slavery. The Constitution could make its way in the South only by compromise as to slavery.

The question was a very difficult and delicate one to adjust, but with much tact Jefferson and Hamilton, usually antagonists in politics, united to urge a compromise; the North conceding the location of the national capital, and the South the assumption, by the general government, of the State debts. This was accomplished in 1790, and Washington selected the site on his own Potomac, Virginia and Maryland uniting to give a tract ten miles square, extending to both sides of the river. A new city was laid out, and buildings erected which were occupied for the first time in 1800. This small territory, the government and control of which was lodged wholly in Congress, was called "Columbia." This possession of its own capital was considered important in order to avoid a possible conflict of Federal and State authority.

The capital city was located on the Maryland side, and called Washington. The territory on the Virginia side was, in 1846, re-ceded to Virginia. On Feb. 21st, 1871, the District was made a territory, with a legislature for its internal government, and the right to be represented by one member in the House of Representatives.

Washington is

The population in 1870 was 131,706. adorned with many immense buildings erected for the various departments of the government, and the capitol itself is one of the largest in the world, and cost $5,000,000. It is worthy of the great nation represented in its halls.

CHAPTER LXX.

THE ANNEXATION POLICY.

1. The original States of the American Union were all on the Atlantic seaboard. The central States were separated from

the fertile valleys and plains of the Mississippi and its tributaries by mountains, while those lying at the northern and southern extreme found, in the vast forests filled with fierce and hostile savages, a still greater barrier against settlement westward. The "Old Thirteen "found their hands and thoughts sufficiently occupied with the establishment of their liberties, and the ultimate western boundaries of the country were left to be settled in future years. Fortunately for us England was too much occupied with the immense debt the useless American war had cost her to make difficulties over the cession of the western regions to us; and, at the peace, we were in possession of the whole region from the Atlantic ocean to the Mississippi river. That was enough and more for the present; but the people were enterprising. We offered a home, freedom, and great opportunities to the oppressed and poor of other lands, and that region was soon sufficiently peopled to show what other regions were required to secure the prosperity of all.

2. It soon became clear that the development of the Western States east of the Mississippi required the possession of the lower part of the river and the territory on its western bank. Circumstances were favorable to its acquisition, and Louisiana, extending from the mouth of the river far up toward its head waters, including several hundred thousand square miles of as valuable land as was to be found on the continent, was purchased. It entered into the vindictive policy of Napoleon Bonaparte to injure England by strengthening America, and it was obtained for the comparatively insignificant sum of fifteen million dollars. This annexation was altogether essential to the security and development of the larger part of the original territory.

3. Florida was discovered and settled by the Spaniards, who claimed the coast along the Gulf of Mexico to the Mississippi river. Though it was not commercially or agriculturally important to us, it became in the hands of a power not very friendly, the support and refuge of the barbarous and resolutely

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