"It must always be observed that a decision as to the fate of this
territory must be immediately made. It cannot wait political
necessities elsewhere, or be postponed to suit individual wishes. The
fertile country between Lake Winnipeg and the Rocky Mountains will be
now settled, since that is now a fixed policy, and its plan of
government must be in advance of, and not lag behind, that settlement.
The electric wire, the letter post, and the steamboat, which two years
more will see at work, will totally change the face of things; and as
Minnesota has now 250,000 inhabitants, where, in 1850 there was hardly
a white man, so this vast district may, when once it can be
communicated with from without, with reasonable facility, be flooded
with emigrants, not forgetting a very probable rush of English, Irish,
and Scotch farmers, and settlers from the United States, who here will
find a refuge from conscription and civil war.
"The discoveries of gold, and the disturbed state of the border Indians
in Minnesota, are both unanswerable reasons of necessity for the
immediate establishment of a permanent form of Government, and fixed
laws and arrangements for the settlement and development of the
country.
"1. The government of the North-west, as an 'annexe' to Canada,
possesses advantages of contiguity and similarity of ideas on the part
of Canadians and the probable settlers.
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