Gentlemen of the Council and House of Representatives:

In assembling at this period of internal dissension and civil War, it would appear that we have especial reason to return thanks to an all wise and beneficent Providence for the peace and quiet which the people of our Territory have enjoyed; also for the bountiful harvest we have gathered, and the unparalleled good health we have been blessed with during the past year, throughout our settlements.

Let us express the hope and faith, and offer an earnest prayer that the same Providence which directed our Forefathers, more than two centuries since across an unknown, trackless ocean, to plant in the Western World, the germ of civil and constitutional freedom, and which directed Washington through all the perils of the American Revolution, will direct and guide the Federal Government through the struggle which now threatens her unity and life, until peace is secured and the majesty of the Constitution and laws are vindicated, and the people of all the world are rejoiced to behold the Temple of Constitutional Liberty, safe, secure, resting upon a basis unmoved and immovable—the affections of the people.

By an act of Congress on the second day of March, 1861, the Territorial Government of Dakota was created.

By virtue of the provisions of that Organic Act you have been chosen by the voters of Dakota to compose the first Legislative Assembly.

To you they have delegated the authority to enact laws necessary for the protection of property, the security of life, and the efficient guarantee of all the social and civil rights, privileges and immunities pertaining to the citizen under our free constitutional form of government.

It is well for you to remember that you are not legislating alone for to day, but also for and indefinite future—not for the few thousand now resident in the Territory, but for the tens of thousands who will soon be attracted within our limits.

Impress yourselves with the responsibility resting upon you, and go forward in your labors in founding a civil structure, with liberal and enlarged view of the duties devolving on you.

In judging correctly of the future and calculating upon the coming wants and necessities of the Territory it is proper to examine our surroundings, to reflect upon our soil, climate and the natural resources of the country.

Dakota Territory extends from the forty third to the forty ninth parallel of latitude, and from the ninety seventh to the one hundred and thirteenth parallel of longitude —embracing an area of country greater in extent then all New England combined with the great States of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri.

Occupying the most elevated section of country between the Arctic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico: forming to a great extent the watershed of the two great basins of North America, the Missouri and Mississippi rivers and the tributaries of Hudson Bay.

Thus within the limits of Dakota are found the sources of rivers running diametrically opposite; those flowing northward reach a region of eternal ice, while those flowing southward pass from the haunts of the grizzly bear and the region of wild rice, through the cotton fields and the sugar plantations of the Southerner, until their waters are mingled with the blue waves of the Gulf.

The general surface of the country east and north of the Missouri is a beautiful, rich undulating prairie, free from marsh, swamp, or slough, traversed by many streams and dotted over with innumerable lakes of various sizes, whose wooded margins, and rocky shores and gravel bottoms afford the settler the purest of water, and give to the scenery of the Territory much of its interest, and fascination. West of the Missouri the country is more rolling and gradually becomes broken, hilly, and finally mountainous as the western limits are reached and terminated by the Rocky Mountains.

The mighty Missouri runs through the very heart of our Territory and gives us more than one thousand miles of navigable water course; thus giving us the facility of cheap water transportation, by means of which we can bear away the surplus products of our rich, luxuriant lands, to Southern markets, and receive in exchange the trade and commerce of all climes and lands.

We have located on the Missouri, Big Sioux, Red River of the North, Vermillion Dakota, Niobrara, millions and millions of acres of the richest and most productive lands to be found anywhere within the bounds of the National Government.

We have combined, the pleasant, salubrious climate of southern Minnesota and the fertility of soil of central Illinois.

The incentive to immigration is so great, and the inducements and advantages so promising that it is no idle fancy, which pictures the towns and cities which are soon to cover and enrich our hills and valleys, and river sides. In arriving at a correct estimate of the probable settlement of our Territory, it is well to bear in mind some very favorable facts, which promise much in the development of our resources and increase our population. Thermal statistics and experiments prove, that within the limits of our Territory are to be found both the climate and soil necessary to produce most successfully the two great leading staples of American agriculture—corn and wheat. We find that, starting from Chicago as a point, that the isothermal line rises to a higher and higher degree of latitude as you go westward.

We find that Fort Benton on the Missouri River, in the extreme northern part of Dakota, possesses the same mean temperature of Chicago, and Albany, New York.

The corn producing belt of the country, which runs through Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, extends north and west through Iowa up the valley of the Missouri through Dakota.

According to Blodgett, the author of a very able and interesting work on the climatology of the United States, the thermal capacity required for the successful cultivation of Indian corn, is a mean temperature of 67 degrees for July, and it may go a little beyond 65 for the summer." According to the same authority the thermal capacity required for the successful cultivation of wheat is a mean temperature of from 62 to 65 degrees during the ripening months. Statistics prove that our Territory possesses a considerable excess of the temperature required, being beyond seventy.

Another fact should be borne in mind, that while we are not flooded with the excessive spring rains which often retard the putting in of crops in the State southeast of us, yet we do have in the late spring and early summer months, copious showers, which supply vegetation with all the moisture needed for the rapid growth which is characteristic of this region. The capacity of our Territory for raising immense herds of cattle and for the production of large crops of corn, wheat, oats, rye, barley, buckwheat, potatoes, sorghum, melons, fruits and vegetables, demonstrate the ability of our country to sustain a dense population.

Our Territory possesses a climate especially conductive to health and longevity, occupying an elevated section of the country, we are free from the humid, raw, chilly weather often prevailing in the central western States, we have a dry, bracing atmosphere, which gives tone and vigor to the physical system.

We have a temperature sufficiently high in July and August to insure the rapid growth and maturity of all our cereal products; yet our hot weather is not continuous enough to engender those malarious diseases, ague, billious [sic] fevers and dysentery which prevail in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri.

What were once the great wheat producing States of the country, are becoming less and less so, each succeeding year. The uncertainty of the crop discourages its cultivation in those States, and the growing demand for shipment to western Europe, must be supplied from other sources.

I venture the prediction, that the wheat granary of this continent will yet be found in the valley of the Red River and Saskatchawan [sic].

The day is not distant when the eye which can now behold only the vast expanse of prairie and the tall luxuriant grass waving before the wind, will rest gratified and contented upon the farm and workshop, the schoolhouse and church. We should bear in mind that within the last thirty years, the great States of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Missouri have been settled up; and that within twenty years Iowa and Wisconsin have been rescued from the possession of the roaming Indian and subdued to the usages of civilized man.

Thus has one generation witnessed an area of country no less than ours transformed from the hunting ground of the Indian, the scene of the chase and war-dance, and converted and divided into six of the most populous and thriving States of the Union.

Shall we not judge of the future by the past. As regards soil, climate, beautiful uplands, rich prairies, luxuriant bottoms, productive mountain valleys, mineral wealth, navigable rivers upon which to float our cereal products and commercial exchange, what section of country within the broad confines of our Republic is fairer, or lovlier [sic], or richer, or more inviting as the home of the active, intelligent and industrious citizen? Before a generation shall have passed more than a million of people will be living in the valley of the Missouri alone. The Pacific Railroad will have been long completed, connecting the two oceans with its iron bands. The trade with India and Japan, the commerce of the opulent and gorgeous East will pass through our borders on its way to the great cities on the Atlantic. By the transit of a world's commerce over a thousand miles of our Territory, we will derive incalculable benefit.

The experience of six thousand years and the verification of all history is pointed and conclusive, that activity, prosperity and opulence, are inseparably connected with the great lines of intercourse between nations. Along the great highways of the world, where passes and repasses the goods, wares, merchandise, the products, the commodities and wealth of nations, there towns and cities spring up, manufactures are established, and all the industrial arts are quickened and encouraged, and from these centres, ramify and extend rivulets of business and avenues of wealth.

I congratulate you, gentlemen, as the Representatives of the people, who are most fortunately and happily located in a portion of this country which possesses within itself all the elements which are necessary to constitute a great, prosperous and powerful State. Our rich alluvial lands will produce the corn and the broad prairies the nutritious grasses which are ample to feed and support cattle enough to supply every market in the Union.

The Salt lakes in the northern part of the Territory, can furnish inexhaustible supplies of the best of salt.

The high rolling prairies south and west of the Missouri, seem especially intended for the herdsmen of sheep and the growth of wool. The falls on the Big Sioux, furnish a motive power, sufficient to drive all the machinery of the New England mills.

The Black Hills and the mountain ranges at the sources of the Wind river, Yellowstone, and Missouri, are rich beyond conception in mineral resources of coal, copper, iron and gold.

The explorations and discoveries at Pikes Peak and on Fraser river, connected with the geological formation of the western part of Dakota would indicate these facts — but what is more satisfactory, we are already in possession of actual knowledge in relation to the mineral deposits of that rigion [sic] obtained by the discoveries of missionaries and trappers, who, braving all trials and dangers, have visited that region which has been scarcely marked by the foot print of the white man.

With all the elements of power surrounding us—we need but members combined with industry, intelligence and virtue to make Dakota one of the most desirable and potent States of the government.

Gentlemen, upon the result of your legislative action depends in a great measure, the rapidity with which this Territory is to be settled up, and her mighty resources developed, and her place claimed as one of the bright stars which shall emblazon our national design.

It is your duty, and I doubt not the result of your labors will be, by the exercise of just, wise and judicious legislative action, to invite and encourage emigration, to stimulate settlement in our midst and to attract within the limits of our Territory thousands of our people who each year leave their homes in the older States to seek new homes and participate in the common benefit incident to all new countries.

Laying the foundations of government and erecting thereupon a social, civil structure, beautiful and symmetrical in all its parts, will require earnest, thoughtful consideration, based on all the light you can obtain from an examination of the enactments of the different State and Territories of our country.

Among the different subjects which will demand your attention, no the least will be, a system of civil and criminal laws; and educational system; a militia system; the character our you county organization; a county and territorial financial system; the extent of powers proper to be granted to corporations, of a moneyed, mining, manufacturing, or railroad character.

I trust you will give due deliberation to all your enactments of civil and criminal law.

The peace, quiet and stability of society, depend upon the protections and security of property, liberty, and life. In a natural state of society, without any form of government, every man is compelled to rely upon his own individual prowess for the maintainence [sic] of his rights, and the enjoyment of his property and security of his life. With the organization of society, law and government, every one concedes and gives up a portion of his natural rights, and defers to law and authority for the adjustment of questions and the decision of claims which otherwise, could only be settled by force. Therefore it is due from government to the citizen, that what he has relinquished of his natural rights, should be more than compensated in the security of person and property by the guarantee of law. Therefore it becomes your duty to secure to every citizen the peaceful possession and enjoyment of all his rights of property and person: also enact laws which shall deal out prompt punishment to all evil doers and violators of law.

Criminal law should not be so harsh and cruel as thereby to defeat itself, but it should be just in its retributions, and severe in proportion to the offense committed. I trust and believe that your record of both civil and criminal law will be such as shall commend itself to the approval of an enlightened age, and an advanced civilization.

I believe in the truthfulness of the remark of one of the most sagacious of our revolutionary Statesman, "that the great hope of a free people was dependent upon her educational and militia systems." There is no subject more essential and vital to the prosperity and general welfare of the Territory, than the subject of education. The virtue, intelligence and public happiness of a people, and all that conduces to the advancement of the prosperity, wealth and power, of a country, is intimately associated with, and dependent upon, the development of the educational interest of the State.

In communities where truth, virtue, intelligence and knowledge prevail, there crime is rare, and poverty almost unknown. Every dollar of taxes levied for the support of schools, lessens, by many dollars, the taxes which would be assessed for the support of prisons and poorhouses. If attention to one interest more than another has made Massachusetts the first of the great, rich, proud and powerful commonwealths of the Union, it has been the ever watchful, constant, liberal encouragement and aid given to her educational interest.

I recognize the difficulties you must encounter in your efforts to establish a practical and efficient system in our (at present) sparsely settled Territory. Let us, at least, take the first steps, and show to all who may be looking to our Territory for a future home, that we are not unmindful of the great interest of education and the proper moral and intellectual training of the youth of our land.

Every nation relies more or less upon her Militia system for the maintenance of her authority at home, and vindication of her national rights and honor abroad. A free people are and should be ever jealous of a large standing army. Those nations who enjoy a constitutional form of government, are more dependent upon their Militia than those ruled by arbitrary power. A free people, whose laws and government are the expression and creation of the popular will, are averse to a regular army which eats up the resources of the industrial classes; they rely chiefly upon the citizen soldier in any emergency which shall give occasion for the use of military force. Holding, as we do, the most advanced outposts of settlement; having a widely extended frontier exposed to the hostile incursions of a savage foe, it is imperative that we institute and cultivate a plain, economical and thorough Militia system, adapted to our situation and adequate to the necessities of our people.

The slavery question has been an exciting and distracting subject of dispute, of late years, in the Territories. I hope we may be free from it. I would recommend to your body that you pass a law prohibiting, for all time to come, in this Territory, slavery or involuntary servitude except for crime. I should hope to see such a law passed without a dissenting voice. I hope that the free air of Dakota may never be polluted, or her fair virgin soil pressed, by the footprint of a slave. Congress having seen proper to create this Territory without exercising her authority in prohibiting slavery, to us, therefore, has devolved the welcome task of recording our approval of the sentiment of Jefferson when he declared slavery was a "moral, social and political evil." There is a conflict between the principles of freedom and slavery. That conflict has existed from the creation of the human race. There is an eternal antagonism between the principles of freedom and slavery. The constitution of the human heart and human mind makes the conflict inevitable, and sooner or later one or the other must gain the supremacy. Liberty is neither a cheat, a delusion or a lie, but a vital principle of the human heart, born of the nature of man and the revelation of God— it is eternal and cannot die. Recognizing these self-evident truths, I trust that we shall start right. Let us by a prohibitory enactment express our repugnance to an institution which to-day convulses the continent; arrays a million of men in arms; interrupts our commerce, suspends business, prostrates trade and paralyzes all the industrial interests of the country; which has darkened the home, widowed the wife and made fatherless the children of some of the bravest and noblest in the land, and bequeathed to our children and children's children an untold burdened of taxation and debt. In this great and rich Territory, possessing extend of country and natural resources sufficient to make an Empire, let freedom rule—let this be the home of the white man. Declare by legislative enactment that here labor shall be honored and respected and rewarded. Let us make room in our Territory for no privileged class, spurning labor and the laborer—exalted above common sympathies and cares—secured against vulgar necessities and scorning honest occupation. Let us pass this law and then we shall be done with slavery so far as we have any authority over the question; leaving it where the Constitution has left it, and the fathers of the Constitution left it, with the States where it exists, to be by them regulated as they deem best.

I take this occasion to warn you against falling into the snares of bank men. Too often it has been the case that legislative sanction has been given, in the new Territories, to the design of cunning men, who, unwilling to labor, have endeavored by plausible schemes of finance, to put afloat worthless bank paper, which soon depreciates and becomes valueless after it is in the hands of the laboring men of the country. I hope you will turn a deaf ear to all their applications for bank characters, and that you will, to the best of your ability, secure our citizens against the evil of a pernicious paper currency.

Elections in the new Territories, of late years, have been so fraudulently conducted that the word election has almost become, in the Territories, a synonym of fraud, deception and corruption. Upon the purity of the elective franchise rests the basis of our government. I trust that you will enact a stringent election law, one which shall secure to our people immunity from fraud.

At the present time we are suffering inconvenience for want of proper accommodations for the various departments of our Territorial government; but they are but temporary. I have no doubt but what Congress, with her accustomed liberality and fostering care to her Territories, will make provisions by appropriating as liberal an amount as the state of the Treasury will justify, for the purpose of erecting buildings for the use of the various departments of our government.

Some appropriations which I think it is very necessary should be made, may be neglected by the general government, unless we bring them to the notice of Congress and show the propriety and the advantages to be received by the Territory and the government in return for the expense.

It would seem to me very proper that the Legislative Assembly should memorialize Congress on the subject of an appropriation for military roads, and a geological survey of the Territory, and a Pacific Railroad. There should be a military road from the mouth of the Big Sioux to Fort Randall and from Randall to Fort Laramie; also one from the Red River of the North to the Missouri.

Every man who is acquainted with the country west of the Missouri is aware of the fact that Ft. Randall should be the distributing military post west of the Missouri, and north of the Kansas rivers. Thousands and tens of thousands could and would be saved to the Treasury, by making Fort Randall, instead of Fort Leavenworth, the distributing post for supplying Laramie, and the military posts in Utah. There would be thus saved to the Government the expense of more than three hundred miles of land transportation.

No better road can be found to Laramie than one running along the Niobrara river. As we have good water communication from St. Louis to Fort Randall, goods and army stores would be delivered at Randall at but a trifling cost more than the government pays for freight to Leavenworth. It is only necessary for this matter to be brought to the attention of Congress to have the change effected. The economy of the change, in connection with the present excessive demands on the Treasury, is an imperative reason why it should be done promptly and at once.

I would recommend that you memorialize Congress on the subject of the Pacific Railroad. The only route to the Pacific, along the line of which the country is capable of sustaining a continuous and prosperous settlement, is through this Territory. By any other route, hundreds of miles of the railroad must pass through a barren, sterile country, not susceptible of settlement, —The cost of construction of such parts of a railroad, would necessitate an immense outlay in the original cost, as would also the annual expense 'of repairs. —Through Dakota is to be found the most direct route; one easy and cheap of construction, and the character of the country through which the road would pass insures a rapid and prosperous settlement along the whole line. A direct route from New York city along the shore of the Lakes, would pass through Chicago, Dubuque and Sioux City, up the valley of the Missouri to the north of the Niobrara, and then up the valley of the Niobrara to the South Pass. Chicago and Dubuque must extend the hand of welcome to us, and co-operate with us in securing the early completion of a railroad to this Territory, if they would avail themselves of the trade of the tens of thousands who will soon occupy the valley of the Missouri. Otherwise our trade and travel will seek New Ulm and Makato for an outlet, and St. Paul as the center of the trade and commerce of the Territory. St. Paul being only 200 miles distance from the town of Sioux Falls, situated near the eastern line of the Territory.

The propriety of a Geological Survey of the Territory, has already been brought to the notice of the Government in a very able manner by our efficient Surveyor General. George D. Hill, Esq. Feeling a great interest in this survey, I cannot refrain from urging on you that you should co-operate in securing by Congress a liberal appropriation for that purpose. I am confident that there is west of the Missouri river, untold wealth in the mineral resources of Dakota Territory. The recorded opinion of some of the most eminent geologists in the United States, and information gathered from missionaries and trappers who have visited that part of the country, confirms that belief. Every dollar appropriated will be returned a hundred fold by the addition of our population, the increase of business, and the amount of land sold.

I hope you will memorialize Congress upon the subject of the Homestead Law, and urge its immediate passage. That question is no longer an open one and subject to debate. The American people have declared almost unanimously in favor of the justice, wisdom and necessity of such a law—the grant of 100 acres of land to every actual settler, who is willing to go out on the public lands, and settle upon and occupy the same. If such a bill fails to become a law at present session of Congress, it can only be by the neglect of those who are the most vitally interested in its enactment.

Agriculture being for sometime to come the leading interest in our Territory, I should deem it proper in you to give to that interest the benefit, fostering care and protection of just and wise legislation. Proper laws should be passed to prevent, as far as possible, those extensive prairie fires, which sweep over the country in the fall months, and have destroyed crops and fences and houses, and have injured to so great extent the young timber, which is so rapidly growing along all our streams. If these fires can be prevented, a few years will suffice to make Dakota a well timbered country.

Territorial roads should be surveyed and established by law at an early day, between the different towns and settlements, by the most direct and eligible routes. —Proper attention to this will secure our settlers from much trouble and annoyance, which otherwise will here after arise upon the location of roads at a later day.

Having within our Territory a large Indian population, it would seem desirable that you should enact some law regulating intercourse between our citizens and the different tribes. As our citizens are excluded from going upon the Indian lands without a permit, it would seem to me just, that the Indians should not be allowed to roam at will over the ceded lands. I believe that all Indian should be restricted to the unceded lands, and their reservations. I believe that such a requirement, would conduce to the peace and quiet of the Territory, and free the settlers from the annoyance of these straggling Indians who are wandering about the country. Such an exclusion from the ceded lands, would do away with the opportunity, which now tempts bad white men to carry on an iniquitous liquor traffic with the Indians.

I would recommend to you that a law be passed, securing to every family exemption from execution and sale of their homestead; if residents of a town, a house and lot of a fixed value; if residents in the country, a house and so many acres as your wisdom may determine.

I believe that such a law is eminently just and proper. I would have every man know, and especially every wife and child feel, that there was one spot on earth that they could call home; one place that the cruel and remorseless creditor could not tread upon; that one fireside was sacred, and that one roof should shelter and protect the innocent and unfortunate.

I hope never in Dakota to see the harsh creditor darken the door, and drive from home the wife, or it might be the widow and her children, because, forsooth, he could, in his wily brain and bloodless heart, overreach in trade the honest but improvident husband and father.

The vast expense of the Federal Government incurred in the prosecution of the war, will necessarily impose upon all the people of this country, a burden of taxation hitherto unknown in our government. As the expenses of the Executive, Judicial and Legislative departments of our Territorial government are defrayed by Congress, with the exception of our proportion of the war tax, the taxes levied on our people should be very light.

I hope that the form of our county organization, and the powers granted to the county authorities for the levying of taxes, will be safeguarded as to confine them to the strictest economy consistent with efficiency. The great error committed in other Territories has been the disposition to incur debt, and to issue Territorial warrants and county orders. Sound public policy forbids such a system of finance. A depreciated currency increases the price paid, and the enhanced price necessitates an additional issue, which again contributes to lower the county or Territorial credit.

Our proportion of the War Tax, our people will cheerfully pay. There being as yet no titles to real estate in this Territory—no Land Office having yet been opened, much is left to your body, to decide as to the proper system of taxation to adopt.

I would recommend the passage of a law, which shall secure to every citizen of Dakota, who shall volunteer to go into the service of the United States, upon the requisition of the War Department upon our Executive, his right of voting, without regard to where he may be stationed on election day.

I would not have his patriotism be the means of depriving him of the proudest right of the citizen—the enjoyment of the selective franchise. This proposition is so plainly just that it need only be suggested to be approved.

I take this occasion to express my gratification at the prompt response made by our loyal citizens to the requisition by the War Department upon the Executive of Dakota for volunteers to garrison Fort Randall, and thus relieve the regulars who were stationed there, who were needed South to aid in crushing this most accursed rebellion. In a few weeks the requisition was filled, and we now have a volunteer force of which we have just reason to be proud. Every citizen felt it a privilege that Dakota, in common with her older sisters, should be allowed to contribute her mite to aid the Federal Government in this the darkest day of her life.

If this exigencies of the war should demand it, I believe that every male citizen within our limits, would abandon the field and workshop, and with his musket upon his shoulder, would rush to the tented field to the rescue of the Constitution. That, I trust, will not be necessary.

I believe the dawn of a better and brighter day is upon us. This most infamous rebellion, born and bred of an aggressive, domineering interest, must die—must perish, that faith in the justice of God shall be vindicated. He is but a superficial observer of political events, who does not recognise [sic] as the primary cause of this rebellion, the institution of Slavery. Can it be possible, that, in the providence of God, an institution founded in error, injustice and despotism, shall become the instrument for the destruction of a Government, the wisest and best ever framed by the inventive genius of man? I cannot believe so.

I recognise [sic] in the darkness that now clouds our beloved country, and the heavy hand which presses upon her, the inscrutable workings of a Divine Providence, "who doeth all things well." I believe that we shall come out of this rebellion better, purer and stronger—that the American Union will continue to move upward and onward in her destined path in the history of the world. I have never entertained any fear of the disruption of our Government, the division of our Union, and the overthrow of the Constitution. A glance at the map of North America, should satisfy any one that Nature made this country for one people to dwell in, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Lakes of the North, to the Gulf of the South.

The great North-West, the region of the Lakes, and the valleys of the Mississippi and Missouri, whose waters divide and seek the Ocean, to the east through chains of the great Lakes and the St. Lawrence, to the south through the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico, forbids a division. The millions who live upon the Upper Mississippi and its tributaries, can never consent to a division of the Union. To them an imperative political and commercial necessity forbids a division. To allow the mouth of the Mississippi to belong to a foreign power, would be to subject ourselves to trouble and annoyance and all our commerce to unjust and arbitrary taxation. An absolute, overwhelming necessity compels us to remain one people—one nation—with the flag of our Fathers floating over every State.

Six hundred thousand freemen are to-day in martial array—citizen soldiers—not an unwilling conscript among them all—a prouder army than Napoleon, in the plenitude of his power, ever reviewed: each and every man crying aloud to be led on to battle and victory.

The men composing that army, are men of peace, who prefer the peaceful walks of life, who love to tread in the paths of agriculture, the mechanic arts, trade and commerce; but they are men, who, when treason opened its batteries upon Sumpter [sic] and its little band of devoted men, inspired by the noblest impulses which are planted in the human heart, bid farewell to home and its comforts, to father and mother, wife and children, and rushed to the tented field, with willing hearts and strong arms, offering all upon the alter of their country, ready to pour out their blood like water and yield their lives, if need be, in defence of the supremacy of law and the Constitution.

With such an army, engaged in such a cause, who can doubt the final result? Though they were not the first to seek the arbitrament of the sword, they will be the last to leave it. Though they did not provoke or commence the conflict, they will be the last to abandon it. Let the war be prosecuted vigorously, and in deadly earnest, with but on object in view, the unity of the country, the preservation of the Union and the assertion and supremacy of the Constitution, over every foot of our widely extended domain. Let nothing cramp or hamper the noble efforts of our army; whatever stands in the way of success, let it be trampled under foot.

Let us commit no blunder, by placing any interest before or above the Union, least of all that interest which is solely and entirely responsible for the rebellion which to-day convulses the nation.

If Slavery stands in the way of a successful subjugation of this hellish rebellion, let Slavery die. If in the providence of God it should come to pass, that through the efforts for the preservation of Constitutional Liberty, the institution of human Slavery should be blotted out of existence, no lover of humanity, civilization and christianity, will drop a tear over its grave.

The events of the last forty days have given heart and hope to the whole country. The advent of Secretary Stanton into the War Department, with the declaration that the business of the army was "to attack, pursue and destroy the rebellious enemy," electrified the nation. The late glorious victories in Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and Missouri, have made good the declaration. Manassas and Columbus are evacuated—the two great strongholds of the enemy.

This is due to the new vigor infused into the War Department, by the act of the President in placing in that department, a man of WILL and PURPOSE. Upon the accession of Stanton into the War Office, a Cabinet meeting was called. The country had furnished six hundred thousand men, and six hundred millions of money; and was clamorous and impatient for an advance. The zeal and patriotism of the people were likely to become paralyzed, unless something was done to justify the immense outlay of men and money.

The President, rising with the occasion, asserting his rights and duties as commander-in-chief of the army and navy, having, with his far-sighted and sure-footed judgement [sic], surveyed the whole field of military operations, he declared that the backbone of the enemy was to be broken, by a vigorous advance in the West, and that the just expectations of the people should be fulfilled.

Abraham Lincoln directed that Buell and Grant and McClernand and Curtis should advance, and make good the declaration of Stanton that the business of the army was, "to attack, pursue and destroy the rebellious enemy."

The terrible energy of these armies, drawn from the bone and sinew of the West, led by Generals Grant, McClernand, Curtis and Buell, have not only won the most force contested battle-fields, but have compelled the evacuation of Columbus and Manassas, without the sacrifice of a life.

We already see the beginning of the end. The haughty and rebellious enemy have been driven, at the point of the bayonet, from behind their own chosen and well-fortified entrenchments.

These victories do not prove that the men of one section are any braver or better than those of a different section of our common country; but it proves that "he is thrice armed who hath his quarrel just:" it evidences that the ingrate and wicked and rebellious citizens, seeking to destroy the priceless legacy of Constitutional Liberty, bequeathed by Washington and his noble compatriots, cannot withstand, on the battle-field, the indomnitable [sic] will and determined valor of the citizen, who, giving his life to his country, and his soul to God, fights to "preserve, protect and defend" that rich political inheritance, purchased by the struggles of our Fathers, on the bloody fields of Trenton, Monmouth, Saratoga and Yorktown.

The glorious victory won by the unparalled bravery and heroism of the army of the Northwest—the men of Illinois, aided by their fellow-soldiers of Iowa and Indiana, and other Western States, have won imperishable honor. The attack and capture of Fort Donelson, is the most brilliant military victory ever won on the American continent. To every officer and soldier of that gallant army, the whole American people owe a lasting debt of gratitude, and they will ever live in their hearts.

This victory has given us possession of the State which holds the honored remains of the great Chieftian [sic], who so heartily hated and despised this cursed heresy of secession. Standing by the grave of Jackson, may our brave soldiers renew their faith and redouble their will, and swear "by the Eternal" secession shall die.

Andrew Johnson, the purest of patriots and the most courageous of men, who in the darkest hour, and amid the thickest gloom, when reverses attended our arms, and hope almost fled the stoutest heart, he faltered not—despaired not—proscribed and exiled from his home for months, by the hellhounds of secession, to-day he re-visits his home, and stands upon the soil of Tennessee, with the "stars and stripes" floating over the Capital. Let the energy of the last sixty days continue—as it will continue—and a few months will witness the end of this monstrous and stupendous slaveholders' rebellion.

Gentlemen, I trust that when your labors are over, and you shall have passed away from the field of legislative action, that those who shall come after you, may remember you as not unmindful of the responsibilities imposed upon you. It is well you should bear in mind the age in which you live, and the nation of which you are a part.

Let your memories run back a little over two centuries and there is present before you a small band of refugees. And, despised and oppressed, about to set sail upon the hungry sea, seeing a home in the unknown western world, bearing with them the germ of civil and religious liberty, which to-day has expanded, until it has become the first nation of the world.

Let your imagination run forward only half a century, and you behold the American Union dictating the law to all nations. You behold her without a parallel in the history of nations; first in the arts and sciences, in religion and literature, in peace and arms, the pride of all governments, the hope of the oppressed, the asylum of the refugees, a nation kind to the weak, firm to the strong; a republic which will stand unmoved amidst the throes of revolutions, while thrones totter and empires pass away; beautiful as Cytherea, as she arose from the flashing foam of the Agean; more powerful than Rome in the days of the Caesars, or France under the imperial sway of Napoleon; a government with a hundred millions of loyal subjects, carrying the beneficent influence of her arts and her civilization upon the wings of her commerce, over every sea and ocean, to every continent and isle, which smiles beneath the genial rays of the sun.

In conclusion, allow me to assure you that it will be my endeavor to cordially, earnestly and faithfully cooperate with you, in the enactment of all laws which your wisdom may suggest, which shall prove kind in their influence, and tend to advance the honor and greatness and glory of Dakota.