Territorial Dispatch 170 years ago THE WEEKLY MINNESOTIAN December 11, 1852

Proclamation

By Alexander Ramsey, Governor of the Territory of the State of Minnesota In the numerous blessings and bounties of the closing year, it becomes the people of Minnesota to recognize the Goodness and Mercies of a superintending Providence.

“The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad.” We behold cultivation extended , the face of the country improved, labor fully and profitably employed; our towns have expanded, and villages springing up as it were by enchantment. Fertile lands, that were a year ago idle, are now being subdued by the strong arms and strong muscles of intelligent freemen. The husbandman who but yesterday was a stranger in a strange land,” and “sowing in tears,” has “reaped in joy,’ and now counts his gains by the cheerful fireside. Education has not been overlooked. The institutions of our forefathers are beginning to take root, and many things betoken a prosperous future.

In accordance, therefore, with a time-honored custom, I respectfully commend to the people of this territory, the observance of Wednesday, the 22nd day of December, as a day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer “to the Author of every good and perfect gift.”

Given under my hand and the great seal of the Territory, at St. Paul, this Tenth day of December, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, and the independence of the United States, the seventy-seventh.

Alex Ramsey by the Governor Alex. Wilkin, Secretary Winter Travel to Minnesota.

For the information of those who may wish to make the journey to Minnesota before the opening of navigation, and those of our citizens who intend going down during the winter on office-seeking missions or other business, we will give a brief sketch of our experience in regard to the mail route and the accommodations upon it.

At the outset, it is but just to remark, that Minnesota is solely indebted to the enterprising proprietors of the line, Willoughby & Powers, for the excellent advantages which the road through Wisconsin to Prairie du Chien now affords for winter travel.

The Sioux Purchase – Louisiana and Minnesota Railroad

By the final measures of consummation, now in progress in our midst, a new Empire is added to, and brought under the full dominion of the United States. The last act to fulfill the treaty stipulations entered into with the Dakota Indians during the summer of ’51—the payment of money for their lands— will be completed ere what we now write meets the eye of the public reader. And then the curtain will drop, which forever closes the scenes so familiar to all who have dwelt here in days past. The next act of the drama is far different, but more deeply important and interesting…But this is not our present purpose. A mission has been cast upon us; and it is not in the visions of either past or the present that we would deal, but the realities of the future…The Louisiana and Minnesota Railroad. This is the point which we wish to come at, and remark for a few moments upon. “It is a wild, impracticable project,” says Mr. Standstill—“the man is a fool that talks of its feasibility, and deserves to be sent to a lunatic asylum.”

“It will ruin St. Paul,” says Mr. Selfish Shortsight, “and I will have nothing to do with it.”

But these are petty annoyances that all great improvements have ever been destined to encounter, and will encounter to the end of time. Therefore, they are hardly worth alluding to; and shall certainly not deter us from advocating and agitating, continually, this great work, until its final consummation…(text continues with description and plans)

And then the curtain will drop, which forever closes the scenes so familiar to all who have dwelt here in days past. The next act of the drama is far different, but more deeply important and interesting…But this is not our present purpose. A mission has been cast upon us; and it is not in the visions of either past or the present that we would deal, but the realities of the future…