only be settled by immigrants across the repudiated the title of the American Plains, or around the Cape. The "desert boundary" was not adopted, and the American demand for a "right of free way across Tehuantepec" was withdrawn, because of title in British subjects. But Mexico succeeded in putting the following singular restrictions upon the American right of way to the Pacific, into the Treaty of Peace, Amity and Limits: holders, and rejected the Tehuantepec treaty, than it published a decree expressive of the terms upon which it was intended to open the Tehuantepec route. This decree affirmed: 1. That Mexico possessed full and unqualified sovereignty upon the isthmus. 2. That the government should be the controlling partner in the way of communication. 3. That the route should be open and free for all nations in amity with Mexico. 4. That all nations should be invited to guaranty the neutrality of the isthmus in case of war. "ART. VI.-The vessels and citizens of the United States shall in all time have a free and uninterrupted passage by the Gulf of California, and by the River Colorado, below its confluence with the Gila, to and from their possessions, situated The contract for constructing a way of north of the boundary line defined in the communication, not having been perfectpreceding article; it being understood ed by the government, it proceeded on that this passage is to be by navigating the 15th August, 1852, to invite proposals the Gulf of California and the River Co- upon the following terms: lorado, and not by land, without the express consent of the Government of Mexico. "If, by the examinations which may be made, it should be ascertained to be practicable and advantageous to construct a road, canal, or railway, which should, in whole or in part, run upon the River Gila, or upon its right or its left bank, within the space of one marine league from either margin of the river, the government of both governments will form an agreement respecting its construction in order that it may serve equally for the use and advantage of both countries." When it is considered that the passage of the Gila lies through a country presenting more physical difficulties than any perhaps on the continent, and that Mexico has reserved the right of "agreement" to any way along its banks, even on the American side, the obstacles to an intercourse with the Pacific, upon this route, may be appreciated. They would be greatly increased by the initial point of the boundary, fixed by Mr. Bartlett, if it should be adopted by the government. From this, it is evident that there will be important obstacles to overcome before a right of way can be obtained by way of the Gila. It is not probable that Mexico will consent to open that way of communication, because it will compete with that which she desires to construct and control by way of Tehuantepec. Nor is there evidence wanting to prove that Mexico meditates the establishment of an exclusive way, to be constructed and worked for her own benefit. No sooner had the Mexican Congress 1. The contractor to construct the work for an agreed sum. 2. The contractor to advance the money necessary to construct the work without regard to cost. The contractor to be reimbursed under the first proposition, by an annual payment of six and a half per cent.; under the second, by an assignment of ninety per cent. of the revenues of the work itself. The government to be constituted a stockholder to the extent of one third of the work, with power to take the work at any time upon accounting to the contractor for cost and interest. The government reserves free transportation of troops and persons in its employment, and of arms, munitions and property, at one-fourth tariff rates. It reserves the right to fix "any additional impost upon merchandise or passengers," and prescribes that "it will not be lawful to transport, without the express order of the government, any foreign troops or munitions of war." The object then of annulling the rights of American citizens is sufficiently plain. It was to gain a large bonus, and make revenue of the intercourse between the Atlantic and Pacific states. The charter of Garay contains the following provisions: "Under no excuse whatsoever will the government lay any tax or impost duty upon any of the articles passing through the isthmus during the period in which the proprietors shall have the exclusive enjoyment of its proceeds, and in no case shall these (the Custom House officers) Tehuantepec and its Title. 21 interfere in the collection of freights, She would receive an annual revenue lighterage, or tonnage, or any other class upon the transit of one hundred millions of dues, for none shall be payable for of gold, one hundred and fifty thousand vessels loading or unloading for the trans- passengers, a large amount of merchanport of effects, so long as the communi- dise, the California mail, besides troops cation shall belong to the negotiation." and munitions of war. This would be the contribution of the United States alone. This gives the American people as free a passage across the isthmus as they would have through any state of the Union. If, however, this be repealed, all persons and property coming into that portion of the Mexican dominion, will be subject to the general law of transit, import or export. The taxes of Mexico are very onerous. Her police in regard to passports and bearing arms is very strict. Having again resumed the sovereignty which is qualified by the grant to Garay, Mexico would have the undoubted right to impose any taxes upon the intercourse through her dominions, that foreign nations would endure, or she would have the right to discriminate and exclude them from passing through her dominions at all. Being in undisputed possession of the right of way, Mexico might cede it to some foreign power, or as announced by a leading English journal, France and England may interfere actively in the affairs of Mexico; they may establish "a firm and solid government," and invite the United States, Spain, Holland and Belgium to maintain it. It is moreover proposed, "that as the Tehuantepec route will inevitably form one of the principal channels of communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans," a Commissioner should be appointed to receive the reports of eminent native and foreign engineers as to the best means of constructing this line of communication, "and the powers shall guarantee a loan sufficient to carry it out, on the understanding that the transit duty levied shall be applied to the interest and redemption of the debt." It is then evidently the interest of Mexico to repeal the obligations of the Garay grant, and impose revenue taxes upon the national commerce passing over the isthmus. It is equally evident, on the other hand, that the United States and other nations in amity are interested in enforcing her covenant with Garay. The American holders have been always willing to permit their own government to regulate their charges upon the isthmus, and prescribe any regulations necessary for the comfort and safety of the public. The American people need not, therefore, fear that in preventing the establishment of one monopoly, they are encouraging the organization of another. But the political importance of a rapid, safe and healthful communication with our states and "orphan territories" on the Pacific, exceeds any question of pecuniary calculation. We may anticipate within a few years a system of states resting upon the Pacific Ocean, and extending to the slopes, valleys, and into the great Basin of the Rocky Mountains. With greater inducements than any colonial settlement has ever presented, we may anticipate more rapid and perfect or, ganization. States will know no interval between embryo and maturity; they will step from the parent brain ready armed for the field or council. They will not be settled by outcasts, convict for heterodox opinion or for social crime. They will comprise the selected energies of a free people; they will organize their relations according to their interests. With a full appreciation of the blessings of The United States are more interested the Union, they will hold the "pursuit than any other nation in this route, be- of happiness" as a paramount object. cause it is the best way of communica- If the political connection with the Attion between the states of the Union, lantic states be advantageous, it will be whereas other countries are only interest- preserved; if it be replete with disaded, as one of several ways of general commerce. Here then is a plan for paying for the work by a transit duty, which must fall principally upon the people and property passing from one state to another. Such a disposition of the right of way would be highly profitable to Mexico. The vantages, it will be terminated. cease, and be reversed. The revenues the traveler is pursued by privations and derived from the states of the Pacific waylaid by death. It is marked with will in time exceed the appropriation impaired health and disappointed hopes. from the federal government. This mo- It is strewed with abandoned values, tive for the connection will then terminate. richer, perhaps, than the mines to which The federal government extends an the wanderers go. apparent protection to the Pacific States. An allegorical epitome of that great But suppose, in the present state of in- journey which all must travel, it tertercourse between the two sections, that minates in an unmarked grave, or in wea a maritime nation should declare war riness and vexation without ultimate against the United States. A descent advantage. upon the coast of California, and the capture of her treasure galleons, will be simultaneous with the declaration. The United States will dispatch its volunteers by the isthmian routes, or by the plains, but they will find cities sacked, and all the consequences of successful invasion, whilst the enemy, having slain and ravaged to their satisfaction, will have withdrawn. These will constitute to the Pacific states the responsibilities of belonging to the Union to pay more than they receive, and to be the defenceless victims of its foreign wars. The journey across the plains is not like that of a protected people whose "raiment did not wax old upon them." But it is like that disastrous return from a blazing city, in which the foe, the elements, the wild beasts, preyed upon the retreating host, and the richest objects of human desire were abandoned, or torn from the grasp of the dying fugitive. That this description may not be considered as imaginative, we add some extracts from the report of Capt. Stansbury, U.S.A., (Journey from Leavenworth to the Great Salt Lake,) showing the difficulties encountered by emigrants upon that portion of the route to California. The trade of the Indies constituted the prize of centuries; no state has enjoyed it without prosperity, or lost it without decline. The merchants of our Pacific "June 1, 1849.-Passed a traveling states may not be content with a mere train consisting of about twenty-five ox factorage of this trade for others; they may teams. They had been on the spot prefer to constitute the medium of distri- several days detained by sickness. In bution, making others tributary to them. the morning we had met four men from To these tendencies to separate, the the same camp returning on foot with want of communication will powerfully their effects on their backs, frightened at contribute. Practically, France, Eng- the danger and disgusted already with land or Ireland would constitute more the trip. accessible members of the confederacy "June 4.-Meet Sauk Indians, who than California or Oregon. Practically, demand compensation for passing through the expense and time of intercourse with their country. those nations would be less by one half than with the Pacific coast or its interior. It is therefore the identity of origin and institutions that preserves the bond of connection with the Pacific states. But let us consider the existing obstacles to intercourse in detail. The ways of communication are "June 5.-Meet a small party of emigrants returning, having sold out their meat and flour at one cent a pound. "June 6.-Passed a melancholy memento of disappointed hopes and blasted enterprise-four freshly made graves of emigrants. "June 7.-Passed a fresh grave. "June 8.-Met a small party returning to St. Louis. "June 9.-Passed six graves. Meet returning emigrants, discouraged by death and loss of cattle. "June 10.-Three horses stolen during the night. 1. By way of the frontier, across the Rocky Mountains and the plains. This is a terrible journey. The time occupied by immigrants is five months. This covers every vicissitude of season and every degree of endurance. Superadded to the casualties of a march so extended, are, "June 11.-Violent storm of rain, the dangers of inundation, fire, disease, prostrates the tents and wets the bag want of food, the heartless exactions of gage. Passed six graves within 174 those who make a prey of the traveler, miles. and the perpetual depredations of unruly "June 12.-Pass an emigrant family, and rapacious savages. The course of who subsequently saw their wagon in Tehuantepec and its Title. 23 two to make carts, and dispose of every- and the carcasses of 27 oxen have been thing they can sell or give away to lighten the load. "June 13.-Violent storm. There is no shade in the naked prairie during the long fatiguing day. Observe Indians lurking along the road for a chance to steal horses. "June 14.-Fight reported between emigrants and Indians. "June 18-Party complaining of cutaneous irritation from use of salt meat without vegetables. seen. "July 28.-Wind so hot and dry as to make respiration difficult. Thirtyone dead cattle and nine oxen passed today. August 1.-Passed about one dozen burnt wagons and nineteen dead oxen." We ask whether there can be any intercourse adequate to the relations which ought to unite the states of this confederacy carried on under such appalling obstacles? Will there be any return current from such a journey as we have "June 19.-Emigrants selling meat at one cent, or using it for fuel; pack described? Will the people who have animals in a horrible condition. Storms and violent rain. "July 2 and 3.-Difficulties and dangers of crossing Plains described. Ravages of cholera amongst savages. "July 9.-An excellent double wagon purchased for seventy-five cents. "July 19.-Passed to-day the nearly consumed fragments of about one dozen wagons that had been broken up and burned by their owners; near them was piled from 600 to 800 pounds of bacon. Boxes, bonnets, trunks, wagon wheels, whole wagon bodies, cooking utensils, in fact, almost every article of household furniture were found from place to place along the prairie, abandoned for want of means of transportation. "July 21.-The road, as usual, was strewn with fragments of broken and burnt wagons, trunks, and immense quantities of white beans thrown away by the sackful, from fatigue or fear of cholera. Stoves, gridirons, moulding planes and carpenters' tools of all sorts were to be had at every step for the mere trouble of picking them up. "July 25.-Property of every description was strewn about in every direction, and in much greater quantities than we had yet seen. Twenty-eight persons drowned during the year in crossing the Platte. emigrated to California revisit the land of their nativity by this route, or will they relate to their children the terrors of their exodus, and warn them never to cross again a region so replete with dangers? 2. Upon the crossings of the lower isthmus the dangers are as formidable. The line passes for nearly six thousand miles along a coast much of which is dreaded for its rocks, reefs and tornadoes. The passenger is exposed to all the dangers of fire, explosion, shipwreck, to epidemic and infectious disease, and to all the discomforts of a voyage prolonged to nearly twice the time and distance of the transatlantic passage. Under these circumstances, it is plain that the intercourse by these routes must be limited to those who travel upon the compulsion of duty, or are stimulated by the appetite for gain. We intend no disparagement, however, to the lower crossings; they are from the nature of things temporary, as far as the intercourse with the Pacific States of the Union are concerned, but they will always be invaluable for the general purposes of Pacific commerce, and for the particular trade of the coast of South and Central America. Tehuantepec itself, offering greater facilities for the inter-state intercourse, will in its turn be superseded by rail-roads cros sing the continent in the latitudes of California and Oregon. Until that period, however, it will evidently constitute the shortest and most favorable route. It will reduce the time between NewYork and San Francisco to fifteen days, between New-Orleans and San Francisco to about eleven. "July 27. - Passed eleven wagons broken up. Road strewn with abandoned property. Bar iron and steel anvils and bellows, crowbars, drills, augers, gold washers, chisels, axes, lead trunks, spades, plows, grindstones, ovens, cooking stoves, kegs, barrels, harness, clothing, bacon and beans, were found strewed It will, in effect, form a section of the along the road. The carcasses of eight following rail-roads, whilst it will incioxen lying on the road side in one heap dentally benefit many others. explained a part of the trouble. An 1. The New-Orleans and Nashville excellent rifle was found. In the course Rail-road. of this one day the relics of 17 wagons 2. The Opelousas Rail-road. 3. The Mobile and Chicago Rail-road. 4. The Alabama and Tennessee Railroad. 5. The Virginia and Tennessee Railroad. 6. The Richmond and Danville Railroad. 7. The Southwestern Georgia Rail-road. 8. The Charleston and Hamburg Railroad. of Mexico to Vera Cruz, the whole coast mail line from New-York around to the point of intersection, off Tehuantepec, would be saved. The adoption of a route comparatively domestic would diminish greatly the tendency to collision between our citizens and the punctilious authorities of the European dependencies in the West Indies. 9. The Savannah and Florida Rail-road. The saving on interest and insurance Each of these nine radial lines, with upon the precious metals, would constiits interior connections, will contribute tute another principal subject of advanto the commercial intercourse between tage; whilst the reduction of fares, the the states and cities of the South and promotion of health and comfort to the Southwest and the Pacific. The im- immense number of persons annually mense resources upon the enumerated passing between the Atlantic and Pacific routes, and the competition amongst them, states, all demand the earnest consiwill reduce greatly the charges and pro- deration of the government. mote the comfort of the travel upon the Atlantic section of the route to California. The united intercourse of California and Mexico will have a similar effect upon the cost of crossing the Gulf of Mexico. The reduction of ocean steaming upon the Pacific coast will contribute to the same result. It will lessen greatly the cost of mail transportation, because the mail being already paid for through the United States to New-Orleans, Mobile and Pensacola, and provided for across the Gulf It is therefore obvious, that the effect of a free way of communication for the citizens of the United States across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, would be to shorten the time, reduce the cost and increase the comfort, of their intercourse with the prosperous and expanding states of the Pacific; and if the subject has been placed in the point of view which it merits, it is obvious that the American people are far more interested in securing the right of free passage across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec than the proprietors of the Garay grant. ART. II.-WISCONSIN. POPULATION, RESOURCES AND STATISTICS. presenting to the eye scenery that is indescribable, even by the pencil of the artist. The Mississippi River forms, in part, the western boundary of Wisconsin. Among the tributaries to the "Father of Waters" in the state, are the Wisconsin, Chippewa, Black and St. Croix Rivers. The Mississippi is navigable in all parts bordering on this state. The Wisconsin is also of sufficient depth to admit of small steamers ascending to the "pine regions." waters of the lakes and rivers usually originate in springs of pure, cold water. THAT part of the territory of Michigan lying west of the Menomonee River and the middle of Lake Michigan, was, on the 4th day of July, 1836, constituted by an act of Congress as the Territory of Wisconsin. In the year 1848, Wisconsin was admitted as one of the states of the Union. On the northern border of this state is Lake Superior-the largest body of fresh water in the world; and on the east, Lake Michigan-second only to Lake Superior in size-but vastly more important to Wisconsin, as forming a link in the great chain of inland seas that con- No state in the Union has increased nect her with the east. Besides these with the same rapidity that Wisconsin vast bodies of water, smaller lakes of crys- has, (unless we except California, whose tal clearness are scattered promiscuously population can hardly as yet be considered over the surface of the state. Many of as altogether permanent.) Its population them are of the most romantic nature, has progressed as follows: The |