Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/249

Rh fifty thousand inhabitants or more, and that the whole region round about will be full of a people alike potent in war as in peaceful civilisation.

I have spoken of the progress of the new man in the West; but I must, for the sake of justice, also say a few words about the old man, for ah! the old progresses equally with the new, and he is here also, on the new earth, the same old sinner, and drinks, and quarrels, and gambles, and steals, and makes a fool of himself, and is puffed up with pride, tout comme chez nous; and in the great West, on the Mississippi and the Pacific Ocean, perhaps a little more so, because many unconscientious adventurers are collected there, and the counteracting powers have not yet gained an ascendancy. Freedom is still sowing its wild oats here. One great difficulty in the cultivation of the West is the great emigration thither of a large portion of the most rude and indigent population of Europe, as well as the unfortunate children of the Eastern American States. By degrees, however, this population becomes orderly under the influence of the New World's cultivation, and with every passing year the new Adam gains a greater ascendancy over the old, in proportion as the better emigration from the Pilgrim States gains a firmer footing, and with this, schools, churches, and the better periodical press, take their place.

The valley of the Mississippi has room for about two hundred millions of inhabitants, and the American Union has a heart large enough, and sufficient power to take under her charge all strangers, all neglected or unfortunate children of the earth, and to give them a portion of her earth and of her spiritual life.

This Mississippi valley—the central region of North America—presents in its entire extent all the principal features which distinguish the great realm of North America, in which I also, as far as people and scenery