The other parts are but marginal borders to it, the
magnificent region sloping west from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific
being the deepest, and also the richest, in undeveloped resources. In
the production of provisions, grains, grasses, and all which proceed
from them, this great interior region is naturally one of the most
important in the world. Ascertain from the statistics the small
proportion of the region which has, as yet, been brought into
cultivation, and also the large and rapidly increasing amount of its
products, and we shall be overwhelmed with the magnitude of the prospect
presented. And yet this region has no sea-coast, touches no ocean
anywhere. As part of one nation, its people now find, and may for ever
find, their way to Europe by New York, to South America and Africa by
New Orleans, and to Asia by San Francisco. But separate our common
country into two nations, as designed by the present rebellion, and
every man of this great interior region is thereby cut off from one or
more of these outlets,--not perhaps by a physical barrier, but by
embarrassing and onerous trade regulations.
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