CONCLUSION
| "Westward the star of empire takes its
way." Five years ago the land we occupy was a howling wilderness.
Vast herds of buffalo roamed over our prairies, or came thundering down
our green slopes, where the husbandman's flocks now graze in quiet.
The huts of savages marked the sites of our flourishing villages.
The aged man of New England can recollect when central New York
constituted the west. Following down the aisles of time he will
recall the period when the few enterprising men who decided to emigrate to
the "far west," collected their household goods hitched their ox teams to
their wagons, and started on a two months journey to Ohio. Their
friends crowded around them to speak their sad farewells, little expecting
they would ever be able to return. Today, although a thousand miles
further west, we are yet east of the middle of the United States, and
still the course is west. We can take the railroad almost at our
doors, and in three days reach the Atlantic or Pacific coast.
Flourishing communities, cities, territories and powerful states have been
established, among which the noble state of Iowa occupies a proud
position. Blessed with favorable climate, personal liberty and energy protected and encouraged by equal laws, great strides have been made in agriculture, commerce, art, science and learning. Thousands of poor men from the Old World and the New, have followed this march of progress up the rugged valley of pioneer life, to fortune and independence. Hundreds of thousands of young men have here begun life and grown up with the country, sharing its wealth and prosperity. And yet there is room for millions more with opportunities equal to those who have preceded them. In the region which it is hoped this little pamphlet will describe are hundreds of thousands of acres of rich lands, as fresh as when first from the hands of nature, whose surface has never been furrowed by the plow. This must be made to contribute to the sustenance of man. Our water-powers are to be made useful' our railroad system is to be developed; our institutions are to be founded and our history shaped. Who will join us in this noble work and share the blessings which it will confer? "I hear the tread of pioneers of nations yet to be-- The first low wash of waves, where soon shall roll a human sea. The rudiments of empire here are plastic yet, and warm, The chaos of a mighty world is rounding into form." |