of some of the principal rivers of this vast interior basin, with their
waters flowing both to the Arctic and Equatorial Seas.

The chief of these is that of the "Father of Waters," rising in Lake
Itaska, and emptying in the Mexican Gulf, separated by a distance of
more than two thousand miles, washing in its course the shores of nine
States, all embraced by this, the most fertile and important valley
known to mankind. As an aid to civilization and to commerce, its value
can never be fully estimated or completely comprehended.

Rivers are frequently important, in connection with mountain ranges, as
supplying natural boundaries for governments and peoples who dwell on
either side; but, they likewise perform the more important office of
binding with indissoluble bonds communities living along their banks and
tributaries, from origin to outlet, making their interests common and
population kin.

The European Carlyles and believers in the divine rights of kings have,
in view of the influx of discordant races and the jarring elements
within, together with the cumbrous machinery of our government,
prophesied that disintegration and ruin would ere long be ours. But they
took no note of the harmony and fraternal feeling that must come between
peoples so differing, when all have equal share in a government founded
in justice, and on the broad principles of human right; and, last but
not least, the important influence of those commercial relations which
we sustain to each other, growing out of the general configuration and
accessibility of the country occupied and governed.

The Mississippi River is the natural outlet and grand highway to the
Northwest, and contributed everything toward its early settlement; so