ing a population of
several thousands each, were absolutely without money to carry on the
necessary commercial functions. A temporary remedy was soon discovered,
by every merchant and shopkeeper issuing tickets marked "Good for one
dollar at my store," and every fractional part of a dollar, down to five
cents. This device tided the people for a while, but scarcely any
business establishment in the territory weathered the storm, and many
people who had considered themselves beyond the chance of disaster were
left without resources of any kind and hopelessly bankrupt. The distress
was great and universal, but it was bravely met, and finally overcome.

Dreadful as this affliction was to almost everyone in the territory, it
turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It compelled the people to
abandon speculation, and seek honest labor in the cultivation of the
soil and the development of the splendid resources that generous nature
had bestowed upon the country. Farms were opened by the thousands,
everybody went to work, and in ten or a dozen years, Minnesota had a
surplus of forty millions of bushels of wheat with which to supply the
hungry world.

LAND TITLES.

All the lands of Minnesota were the property of the United States, and
title to them could only be obtained through the regular methods of
preemption, town-site entry, public sales, or private entries. One event
occurred on Aug. 14, 1848, which illustrates so clearly the way in which
western men protect their rights that I will relate it. The recognized
price of public lands was one dollar and a quarter per acre, and all
pioneer settlers were willing to pay that sum, but when a public sale
was made, any one could bid whatever he was willing to pay. Under the
administration of President Polk, a public sale of lands was ordered to
be made at the land office at St. Croix Falls, of lands lying partly in
Minnesota and partly in Wisconsin. The lands advertised for sale
included those embraced in St. Paul and St. Anthony. The settlers
selected Henry H. Sibley as their trustee, to buy their lands for them,
to be conveyed to them subsequently. It was a high offense under the
United States laws to do any act that would tend to prevent persons
bidding at the sales. Mr. Sibley appeared at the sale, and bid off every
tract of land that was occupied by an actual settler at the price of
$1.25 per acre. The general, in a paper he read before the Historical
Society, says of