Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XXVIII. Home from India—A Friendly Reception—Journey to New Mexico—The Maxwell Land Grant Company—Renewed Visits to England and Holland—Re-elected Secretary of State—Visit of the Swedish Officers in Minneapolis and St. Paul—Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Landing of the First Swedes in Delaware
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Story of an Emigrant.
2g3
the St. Anthony falls. There was no city, not even a sign of a city, on this
side of the river; the red man chased his game in the woods where our
churches and school-houses now stand ; the country west of us was an
unknown wilderness, Minnesota did not exist as a state, and many of our
western states, which now contain millions of happy inhabitants, were not
even projected.
"Now, on the contrary, our state alone is a mighty empire, with a
population of nearly a million and a half, and with an assessed valuation of
six hundred million dollars. Alinnesota now produces a hundred million
bushels of grain annually on her fertile fields, six hundred and fifty million
feet of lumber from her forests, and her infant iron mines already show an
annual production of half a million tons of rich ore The Scandinavians
constitute more than one-fourth of the population of the state, and
produce at least one-third of our agricultural products on the’r own lands,
as most of them are farmers. The amount of grain which in Minnesota
alone is annually produced, would be more than sufficient to furnish the
whole population of Sweden with bread from the beginning to the end of
each year.
" Our beautiful city of Minneapolis has already a population of one
hundred and sixty thousand, of which at least one-fourth, or forty thousand,
are Scandinavians or their descendants.
"I hope you will all have an opportunity* to see our city with your own
eyes before you leave us,—its mills, churches, schools and happy homes,—
and will therefore not consume the time by referring to these.
"As to yourselves, gentlemen, we have heard what has been said to you
so expressively in Chicago by our friends there, and we join them heartily
in their praise.
"When we heard that the soldiers and representatives of Denmark,
Norway and Sweden would honor us with a visit we all rejoiced, and we have
come together this evening to express our jov in a cordial welcome.
"We have intentionally conducted you to this hall where we may, under
our own roof, pay you our homage in the plain manner of our sturdy
Scandinavian forefathers, and give you an opportunity to see us as we are
in our daily life. We are men of the people; we have come here as poor im_
migrants, ignorant of the language and of th£ customs of tliecountry. Our
sole heritage was our strong arms and our good cheer,—no, excuse me,
another heritage of more worth than gold or genius have we brought from
our old homesteads,—our share of Northern fidelity, strength, and virtue;
and the talent confided to us we have used in all branches of industry,
science, fine arts, in the service of the community, the state, and the Union,
in peace and in war, and we perform our share in the great national work,
the result of which is a new and powerful commonwealth, the foundation
of which lies in the individual worth and right of man.
"I think I can see a Providential dispensation in this, that when the time
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