“Minnesota, with the co-operation of the Government at Washington, has relied with confidence upon the probability of such a colonisation of the fertile valleys which stretch beyond the international boundary, from the lakes of Superior and Winnipeg, or the western limits of Canada, to the Pacific colony of British Columbia. Our mails, our trains of regular transportation, and our steam-vessels on the Red River of the North, are already provided as important links of international communication from Toronto to St. Paul, and thence to Fort Garry. The projected railroads of Minnesota, with extensive grants of land from Congress in behalf of their construction, harmonise in a north-western trend to the valleys of the Red River of the North, and the still more remote Saskatchewan. Our whole commercial future has been projected in concert with the victories of peace, even more renowned than war, of which we still hope to witness the achievement in north-west America, irrespective of the imaginary line of an international frontier. “Animated by these expectations, which the march of events has hitherto justified, we invoke the ‘sober second thought’ of the country upon the subject of our continental policy. With the suppression of the Southern rebellion; with dispassionate discussions by all the parties interested; with the happy accord of minds like Cobden in England and Chase in America upon the best methods of revenue; and lastly, with the lessons and suggestions of the next three years, a treaty, eminently deserving the designation of a reciprocity treaty, will probably be submitted to the Congress of 1864.”