To give a brief, and yet correct account of a portion of this Great Valley, its resources, the manners and customs of its inhabitants, its political subdivisions, cities, commercial and other important towns, colleges and other literary institutions, religious condition, public lands, qualities of soil and general features of each state and territory named in the title page, together with such information as may form a kind of manual for the emigrant and man of business, or which may aid him on his journey hither, and enable him to surmount successfully the difficulties of a new country, is the object of this new work. In accomplishing this task the author has aimed at _correctness_ and _brevity_. To condense the particular kind of information called for by the public mind in a small space, has been no easy task. Nor has it been a small matter to collect from so wide a range as five large states, and two extensive territories, with other large districts, the facts and statistical information often found in the compass of less than a page. It is an easy task to a belles-lettre scholar, sitting at his desk, in an easy chair, and by a pleasant fire, to write "Histories," and "Geographies," and "Sketches," and "Recollections," and "Views," and "Tours" of the Western Valley,--but it is quite another concern to explore these regions, examine public documents, reconcile contradictory statements, correspond with hundreds of persons in public and private life, read all the histories, geographies, tours, sketches, and recollections that have been published, and correct their numerous errors,--then collate, arrange, digest, and condense the facts of the country. Those who have read his former "GUIDE FOR EMIGRANTS," will find upon perusal, that this is radically a _new work_--rather than a new edition. Its whole plan is changed; and though some whole pages of the former work are retained, and many of its facts and particulars given in a more condensed form, much of that work being before the public in other forms, he has been directed, both by his own judgment, and the solicitude of the public mind in the Atlantic states, to give to the work its present form and features. There are three classes of persons in particular who may derive advantage from this Guide. 1. All those who intend to remove to the states and territories described. Such persons, whether citizens of the Atlantic states, or natives of Europe, will find in this small volume, much of that species of information for which they are solicitous.