f mind,
community of thought produced by free interchange of opinion, in the way
of social intercourse, these will open our hearts to each other and
strengthen the links of our national brotherhood. That we may love each
other, let us know each other; that we may know each other, let us not
fail to look each other fairly in the face.

West of the deep and gently flowing northern Mississippi, I know, is a
long way off from the surging waters of your eastern coasts. When you
have come this distance, you are, in so far as distance only is
concerned, pretty well on your way toward the Rocky Mountains, and the
new land of El Dorado, the young and golden Nevada. But yet we are in
fact much nearer to your golden markets than to the hidden ore of our
new Territories. Time and space, whose natural demands have been so
rudely disregarded by the iron progress of science and skill between you
and us, still to a great degree maintain their ancient rule over the
lands west of us. That vast, thrifty vine of speedy transportation,
which has wound itself about the trunk of our national tree, strikes
here and there one of its tendrils out upon the branches beyond us, over
the region of a few counties. In one instance, in the State immediately
south of us, a single energetic scion has crept even to the banks of
the rapid Missouri, and others are pushing steadily on in determined
emulation. But in most cases, we must be content to ride to the
westward, only on the back of the laggard and unambitious coach, that
tortoise of travel, crawling on through prairie and swamp. And it is
still within the recollection of almost the youngest inhabitant, how the
daily trains, drawn by horse, mule, or ox, dragged themselves through
our streets, proclaiming from their cotton coverings their distant
destination, illustrating on their march the Western 'Excelsior'--

'The wheels in mud were sticking fast,
As through a boundless prairie passed
A youth, who drove a two-mule team,
While on his wagon top was seen.

PIKE'S PEAK.'

Thus eastward we are within forty-eight hours of your press, while
westward we are nearly as many days distant by private conveyance from
the land of fabled wealth. But time and space must eventually give in.
They are not equal to the task; and already the shadow of the great
Pacific road makes them tremble for their natural tenure of the free
West. It might have done for AEsop to talk about the tortoise and the
hare,