was claimed by the destroyer, and passed away from earth, regretted and beloved. Time and your patience do not permit me to speak at length of his successors. There was the venerable Woodbridge, he who led the first political campaign for reform, of which the people said they could not see it. Old John S. Barry, as shrewd and economical an old Yankee as ever came from the sheep pastures of Vermont, he who mowed the State-house yard, sold the hay, and put the money in the treasury. The talented Felch, and Epaphroditus Ransom, who wrote a Thanksgiving message once so remarkable for its brevity that Shillaber Partington, of the Boston Post, said of it, that the message was a remarkable document, for the reason that it was shorter than the governor's name. Then came McClelland, afterwards secretary of the interior under Pierce; and later still, Bingham, and Blair, and Wisner, and Baldwin, in all of whom the State may well feel emotions of honest pride, as sons entirely worthy her confidence and regard. Nor should I forget to mention, as among the tried and trusted of Michigan men, Elon Farnsworth, Digby V. Bell, John J. Adams, Charles G. Hammond, the Wings, the Whipples, and a score of others, not the less worthy that they are not named in this connection, with that of Lewis Cass, who, but for the simple circumstance of his not receiving quite votes enough, would have been president of the United States. Michigan, in all that pertains to a well organized State, is not behind any other in the union. Her humane institutions, in all their structures and appointments, are full abreast of the improvement that distinguishes the age; while in the number and extent of its educational establishments, comprising its world-renowned university; its prosperous and promising agricultural college; its efficient normal school; all crowned by that splendid common school system, the benefits of which the poorest and humblest of her children can enjoy, leaves nothing to be done in the way of securing to her people all those blessings that intelligence, enlightenment, and erudition can bring in their train. Nor are her people changeable and mercurial in their dispositions. A thoughtful and reading population, they are generally slow to conviction, but firm in their conclusions. For long years the trained legions of her indomitable democracy stood like rocks against the attack of their determined adversaries, until she came to be the banner State of all. But when, in the course of the political changes incidental to all popular governments, her people withdrew their confidence from the party that had held the sway for so many years, they did not hesitate to turn upon it the guns of their batteries, until they drove almost the last show of organized resistance from the political field, and the banners of the victorious republicans tossed in triumph in every portion of the commonwealth. Nor are the political views of her people founded in theory alone. For, when the institutions of that great land of which she is an integral part, were ruthlessly assailed by the reckless hands of rebellious force, armed men sprang up from her soil as though the fabled dragon teeth had been sowed in their midst, and crowded upon the ensanguined field, until, from the Ohio to the Gulf, thousands of their manly forms had been laid low in the second great struggle for American liberty.

Such, my friends, are some of the crowning glories of the great State we are met this evening to commemorate. To perpetuate the memories of the years that we were proud to say, "I am a citizen of Michigan," and of those of her sons whom she most delighted to honor, were alike creditable to the head and the heart of every member of our honorable association. Though

by the circumstances of life, those relations of friends, neighbors, and citizens, which in the pride of our patriotism we were wont to consider above all others, have been suspended, and that probably forever, yet at times, in the hours of pensive reflection, we shall again be wandering back by the banks of those beautiful rivers, where in other days we passed so many hours away; the home and the hillside; the cottage and the clustering vines that clambered on the porch; the dark recesses of the forests, where we played in the heat of the summer day, or when autumn had tinged with golden hues the trembling leaves, we shared with the chattering squirrel the treasures he claimed for his winter store; the church and the school; the altar, where, by the side of a heart's young devotion, were plighted the vows of eternal love; or that retired spot in the city of the dead, where the green grassy knoll covers all that is mortal of a dear one departed. And thus, memory, busy with years that are gone, shall take us back through the paths we have trod, leading us once more by the edge of those clear flowing waters, on whose silver-like surface the lightsomeness of youth mirrored a thousand fanciful forms of love and beauty, for the years to come. These and other pictures touched in mellow tints by fancy's magic hand, though they shall come and go, in the midst of life's practical realities, like a dissolving view, yet shall they never fail to awaken, as of yore, the pride and devotion we were wont to feel for our old peninsular home. And, inspired by sentiments such as these, how earnestly we shall enter upon the glorious purpose of bringing to this noble young commonwealth, in her onward career, the same devoted spirit and energy of will that we gave to Michigan, in other years. Here is an empire to be settled up, and made to occupy a foremost position in the sisterhood of States. Here, in these enterprising young cities and on these beautiful prairies, we are to build up new homes, around which shall cluster new ambitions and new attachments. Here our children will pass from youthful to maturer years, and learn to cherish the same warm affection for these Kansas scenes that we felt for those we have left behind us. And when, in the distant future, they, in turn, shall have become pioneers to some new region in the ever receding west, there, in imitation of the example set by us this evening, they will, with each returning year, gather around the festive board in honor of their early home, and in the goodly cheer, recite fond reminiscences of the fatherland.

CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES

ITEMS FROM NOTES UPON CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES FROM 1832

TO 1840

BY A TRAVELER

WILD RICE IN MICHIGAN

Wild rice, a valuable aquatic plant, grows in Michigan rivers of 4 or 5 feet in depth. When ripe, Indians pass through it in canoes, and bending its stalks over the sides, beat off the grain with sticks.

LAKE SUPERIOR

Lake Superior, the largest body of fresh water in the world, is subject, as that of Erie, to fogs, mists, and storms, and therefore of dangerous navigation.

ANECDOTE OF TWO ENGLISHMEN IN MICHIGAN

During the residence of a friend at Detroit, capital of Michigan Territory, settled by the Canadian French in 1683, two Englishmen, traveling for information, put up at the Mansion House hotel. Conversing with some others on what Americans call the gallery of the house, they were joined by Major B—, an influential resident, when thinking, like many of his countrymen, that to mislead the Hinglish would be a capital joke, he paused as if suddenly recollecting himself, and said hastily, "Good day, gentlemen, I must now be gone, for I have to help my wife make soap." I need scarcely remark that this was fudge; however, it had the desired effect, for the Englishmen stared at each other, and doubtless entered in their note-book, "Major B— helps his wife make soap."

MONEY IN MICHIGAN

The just elected State of Michigan designate their money thus: First quality, Red Dog; second ditto, Wild Cat; third ditto, Catamount. Of the last quality it takes five pecks to make a bushel.

LOANING MONEY IN MICHIGAN

An English gentleman in the Western District opposite Michigan (Canada) lent £6,000 to persons of consideration in that State, which he will never see

again; but the reader will be surprised to hear that upon his consulting the legal authorities of Michigan for its recovery, those functionaries very candidly told him that it would be useless his endeavoring to do so by any action at law, as he would find no jury there to enforce his claims.

NATIVE COPPER

[From the Democratic Free Press, Detroit, Aug. 5, 1843.]

John S. Bagg, Esq.:

GRAND TRAVERSE BAY, July 29, 1843.

DEAR SIR-While on a visit the past month to Sault Ste. Marie, I happened to land on one of the islands situated on the north coast of Lake Huron, between Michilimackinac and Drummond Island. I found a mass of native copper weighing 434 lbs., a beautiful specimen of that mineral, and while there is so much speculation going on in Lake Superior in relation to the mines in that region, may this not elucidate something favorable for Lake Huron. Should you consider this worth publicity, will you give it a place in your columns, and oblige,

Very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

GEO, JOHNSTON.

P. S.-The specimen alluded to I now have in my possession.

DETROIT TO CHICAGO IN 1843

[From the Democratic Free Press, Detroit, May 20, 1843.]

ROUTE FROM DETROIT TO CHICAGO.-CHEAP TRAVELING AND GREAT SPEED

Persons can now go from Detroit to Jackson (70 miles) by railroad in 6 hours; from Jackson to St. Joseph (120 miles) by stage, in 26 hours; from St. Joseph to Chicago (69 miles) by steamboat, in 7 hours-whole distance, 269 miles, in 39 hours. Fare through from Detroit to Chicago, $8.50.

TRAVEL ACROSS THE PENINSULA

DETROIT, July 7, 1843.

The travel across the peninsula, by persons passing between Detroit and Chicago, is increasing. From three to six coaches a day arrive in Jackson with pasengers from Chicago to take the cars for this city and proceed hence down the lakes. The cars yesterday brought some twenty passengers who came across from Chicago and took the stage at St. Joseph. This shows that the traveling public are beginning to understand that the land route across the State is quicker, cheaper, and pleasanter than a steamboat passage around the lakes.

THE MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

THE EARLIER HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE UP TO ITS REORGANIZATION IN 1861

BY PRESIDENT ABBOT

The ordinance of 1787 for the government of the Northwestern Territory ordains, "That religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." Michigan, a State formed out of this ter ritory, has lived faithfully up to the spirit of this famous ordinance. Her liberality to her institutions of learning, and their success, have given her a wide and honorable fame throughout the nation, and to no inconsiderable degree throughout the world.

The crowning glory of her educational system is the university. But something approaching her fame has come also to her agricultural college. A military chieftain of a gulf State, elected president of the agricultural college of that state, has exhibited to our board of agriculture a written order from his own board to visit our agricultural college, and take a graduate, if possible, as a professor in his own, and he took two, one of whom is still doing them excellent appreciated service, and the death of the other was chronicled in their State as of the nature of a State calamity. Maine and Oregon, Texas and Minnesota have or have had her graduates as professors, and thirty of her short roll of graduates have been called to permanent places of trust in the colleges of the land. The college has, at this time, graduates as officers in the agricultural college of New York (Cornell), Indiana, Mississippi, Texas, Missouri, Michigan, Kansas, Wisconsin, Iowa, Colorado, and Oregon. The experiments and addresses of her officers have been published and approved in France and England.

I propose now to give the earlier history of the college, more especially up to its reörganization under a State board of agriculture in 1861. Subsequently to this reorganization there have been published an annual catalogue and regular reports; but up to the year 1861 there were no catalogues of students except that issued just after the first opening of the institution, and imperfect lists for some of the terms. The reports, too, for these earlier years are very imperfect. But I became an officer of the college at the beginning of its second year, and in the first year I visited the college. The officers, when I