tral commercial system, which we have so long labored to introduce, will be established by the operation of natural laws.

This new order of things in the west presents the States of Missouri and Iowa in a new aspect, and gives them a degree of importance among the States of the Union which those who have most highly appreciated their location and natural resources have scarcely hoped for, or even imagined.

One can hardly imagine an event more favorable to the prosperity of Missouri than the settlement of these territories. Her agriculture, commerce, manufactures, mining and public improvements, will all be benefitted by it. The demand for breadstuffs, provisions and stock to supply the new settlements will ensure renumerating prices for all her agricultural productions; while the trade of her commercial emporium will increase in volume with a rapidity unexampled even in the history of western cities.

The center of a great commercial system having been established, manufactures in all their varied forms will grow up in and around it as a natural and certain consequence. For a great commercial center and its vicinity affords facilities, and includes the conditions necessary to ensure success to many branches of manufactures, which cannot exist elsewhere in an equal degree. It is not proximity to the consumer which the manufacturer requires so much as immediate contact with the merchant, and his agency in furnishing raw material, and distributing the fabrics. Doubtless, some one or more of the conditions favorable for manufacturing many commodities may be found to exist at points remote from commereial cities; but then others necessary to ensure success upon a large scale are wanting, and it is on this account that manufacturing in rural districts remote from great cities has so rarely succeeded in this country.

One of the principal advantages which we anticipate from the settlement of Nebraska and Kansas is the powerful impulse which it is calculated to impart to the growth of manufactures in St. Louis. While those territories are filling up with an industrious and enterprising population, they must look to the east for almost every commodity necessary to their convenience and comfort except such as are derived from agriculture and the natural pasturage of the plains. No other place in the west, nor indeed in the United States, combines as many of the conditions required for the suc

cessful manufacture of such commodities as are needed in a new country, as does St. Louis; and these conditions will continue to be enlarged and improved, as the population of the new territories shall increase.

The settlement of these territories will create a large demand for iron in all its forms; and while it will be in the power of Missouri to supply the raw material, the manufactures of St. Louis should aim to produce the manufactured articles in quantity sufficient to keep pace with the increasing wants of the country. Indeed, when we take a view of the mineral deposites, as far as they are known, west of the Mississippi, it is manifest that the entire central region west of the river must depend, in a great measure, upon Missouri for its supply of iron.

These are facts that sagacious men will soon begin to investigate; and it will then require no argument on our part to convince them of the advantages of mining and manufacturing in Missouri.

The settlement of these territories will also greatly enhance the value of our works of public improvement.

It is true that all our railroads do not lead in that direction; but they will all be benefitted by a more rapid development of the resources of the State.

The event is especially propitious to the future prospects of the line of railway-the Pacific-connecting St. Louis with the eastern boundary of Kansas, near the Missouri river. This may now be justly regarded as among the best public enterprises west of the Alleghanies; and if the cost of the work should not too far exceed the Engineer's estimates, the stock must be sought for time as a desirable object of investment.

The great demand created for this road by the opening of the Kansas valley to settlement should operate as a powerful argument to the directory and to the people along its line. increase their exertions to complete the work; and we sincerelype, that the citizens of the western counties through which the rod passes, will, in view of the benefits to be derived from its immediate completion, come up to the work with a resolution that will ensure its accomplishment in two years at furthest from the present date.

But passing from local to broader and more national views of this subject, we still find cause of gratification in the settlement of these extensive territories.

They embrace a region most admirably adapted to the pursuits of the herdsman, and more especially to the production of sheep. The American people are not much addicted to the occupation of herdsmen, and it may be some years before this branch of industry attains to much importance. But when a residence on the plains shall be made safe from Indian depredations, if Americans do not possess them as pastures and sheep walks, emigrants from other lands will, and the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains will add another great staple to the national wealth.

But more and better still than all, we shall have a pastoral population in the center and heart of the Union, whose bold independence and incorruptable patriotism will constitute one of the strongest and most durable pillars of our institutions.

It requires no effort of the imagination to perceive that the settlement of these territories will produce important changes in the political aspects of the nation. The machinery which has been used with so much effect by political aspirants and demagogues, will, in a great measure, be rendered powerless. The northern and southern parties which to the detriment of the center have been so long struggling for political ascendency, are destined ere long to lose their potency in the councils of the nation, and yield to sentiments more liberal and a policy more national-emanating from the center.

Heretofore the central region has had no policy of its own, and its weight in the national councils is still regarded by the north and the south as a prize to be won and enjoyed by the party which can play the deepest game to secure it. It is a matter of little consequence to the west which wins; for her interests are generally overlooked and often positively sacrificed by the successful party. It is a pleasing reflection that the time is rapidly approaching when a new order of things will be established; when the people of the great central region attracted thither by natural laws and actuated by a truly national sentiment, shall rise above the sectional strifes which have so long vexed the nation and disturbed the harmony of its constituents.

The people occupying the central region, when its resources shall have been developed, can have no interests antagonistic to those of either the northern or southern sections of the Union, and from the nature of things their policy must be conservative, and tend to the perpetuation of our happy institutions.

Believing that perhaps every reader of the Western Journal and Civilian will be pleased to have a copy of the law organizing these Territories in a permanent form, we give below a copy of the "Act to organize the Territory of Nebraska." The provisions of the law organizing the Territory of Kansas are in all respects similar to those contained in the following copy, except as to boundary. Kansas is bounded north by Nebraska, east by Missouri, south by the parallel of 37° north latitude, and west by New Mexico. The seat of government for Kansas is located temporarily at Fort Leavenworth.

AN ACT TO ORGANIZE THE TERRITORY OF NEBRASKA.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. That all that part of the territory of the United States included within the following limits, except such portions thereof as are hereinafter expressly exempted from the operations of this act, to wit: Beginning at a point in the Missouri river where the fortieth parallel of north latitude crosses the same; thence west on said parallel to the east boundary of the Territory of Utah, on the summit of the Rocky Mountains, thence on said summit northward to the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, thence east on said parallel to the western boundary of the Territory of Minnesota; thence southward on said boundary to the Missouri river; thence down the main channel of said river to the place of beginning, be and the same is hereby created into a temporary government, by the name of the Territory of Nebreska; and, when admitted as a State, or States, the said Territory, or any portion of the same, shall be received into the Union with or without slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission: Provided, That nothing in this act contained shall be construed to inhibit the Government of the United States from dividing said Territory into two or more Territories, in such manner and at such times as Congress shall deem convenient and proper, or from attaching any portion of said Territory to any other Slete or Territory in the United States: Provided further, That nothing in this act contained shall be construed to impair the rights of persons or property now pertaining to the Indians in said Territory, so long as such rights shall remain unextinguished by treaty between the United States and such Indians, or to include any territory which, by treaty with any Indian tribe, is not without the consent of said tribe, to be included within the territorial limits or jurisdiction of any State or Territory; but all such territory shall be excepted out of the boundaries, and constitute no part of the Territory of Nebraska, until said tribe shall signify their assent to the President of the United States to be included within the said Territory of Nebraska, or to affect the authority of the Government of the U. S. to make any regulations respecting such Indians, their lands, property, or other rights, by treaty, law, or otherwise, which it would have

been competent to the Government to make if this act had never passed.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the executive power and authority in and over said Territory of Nebraska shall be vested in a Governor, who shall hold his office for four years, and until his suocessor shall be appointed and qualified, unless sooner removed by the President of the U. S. The Governor shall reside within said Territory and shall be Commander-in-Chief of the militia thereof. He may grant pardons and respites for offences against the laws of said Territory and reprieves for offenses against the laws of the U. S. until the decision of the President can be made known thereon; he shall commission all officers who shall be appointed to office under the laws of the said Territory, and shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That there shall be a Secretary of said Territory who shall reside therein and hold his office for five years, unless sooner removed by the President of the U. S., he shall record and preserve all the laws and proceedings of the Legislative Assembly hereinafter constituted, and all the acts and proceedings of the Governor in his executive department; he shall transmit one copy of the laws and journals of the Legislative Assembly within thirty days after the end of each session, and one copy of the executive proceedings and official correspondence semi-annually, on the first days of January and July in each year, to the President of the U. S., and two copies of the laws to the President of the Senate and to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to be deposited in the libraries of Congress; and in case of the death, removal, resignation or absence of the Governor from the Territory, the Secretary shall be and is hereby authorized and required to execute and perform all the powers and duties of the Governor during such vacancy or absence, or until another Governor shall be duly appointed and qualified to fill such vac

ancy.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That the legislative power and authority of said Territory shall be vested in the Governor and a Legislative Assembly. The Legislative Assembly shall consist of a Council and a House of Representatives. The Council shall consist of thirteen members, having the qualifications of voters, as hereinafter prescribed, whose term of service shall continue two years. The House of Representatives shall, at its first session, consist of twenty-six members, possessing the same qualifications as prescribed for members of the Council, and whose term of service shall continue for one year. The number of representatives may be increased by the Legislative Assembly from time to time, in proportion to the increase of qualified voters Provided, That the whole number shall never exceed thirtynine. An apportionment shall be made, as nearly equal as practicable, among the several counties or districts, for the election of the Council and Representatives, giving to each section of the Territory representation in the ratio of its qualified voters as nearly as may be. And the members of the Council and of the House of Representatives shall reside in, and be inhabitants of the district, or county, or counties, for which they may be elected, respectively. Previous to the first elec tion the Governor shall cause a census, or enumeration of the inhabit