n, extinguish the slavery by which it was caused, make the Union
stronger and more harmonious, and thus give a new impulse and an
irresistible moral influence and power to free institutions.

Let me recapitulate some of the facts referred to in these letters, and
established by the Census of the United States.

Area of the United States, 3,250,000 square miles, exceeding that of all
Europe--all compact and contiguous, with richer lands, more mineral
resources, a climate more salubrious, more numerous and better harbors,
more various products, and increasing in wealth and population more
rapidly than any other country.

_Miles._
Our ocean shore line, including
bays, sounds, and rivers,
up to the head of tide
water 33,663

Lake shore line 3,620

Shore line of Mississippi River
and its tributaries above tide
water 35,644

Shore line of all our other rivers
above tide water is 49,857

Total, 122,784

Our country, then, is better watered than any other, and has more
navigable streams, and greater hydraulic power.

We have completed since 1790, 5,782 miles of canal, costing
$148,000,000; and 33,860 miles of railroad (more than all the rest of
the world), costing $1,625,952,215. (Amer. R. R. Journal, 1864, No.
1,448, vol. 37, p. 61.)

Our land lines of telegraph exceed those of all the rest of the world,
the single line from New York to San Francisco being 3,500 miles. Our
mines of coal, according to Sir William Armstrong, the highest British
authority, are thirty-two times as great as those of the United Kingdom.

Annual product of our mines of gold and silver, $100,000,000, estimated
at $150,000,000 per annum by our Commissioner of the General Land
Office, when the Pacific railroad shall be completed.

Public lands unsold, belonging to the Federal Government, 1,055,911,288
acres, being 1,649,861 square miles, and more than thirty-two times the
extent of England.

Immigration to the United States from 1850 to 1860, 2,598,216, adding to
our national wealth during that decade $1,430,000,000.

Education--granted by Congress since 1790 for the purposes of public
schools--two sections (1,280 acres) in every township (23,040 acres), in
all 1,450,000,000 acres of public lands; one eighteenth part given,
being 80,555,555 acres, worth at the