A little over eighty-two years ago, the independence of the United States was acknowledged by Great Britain, in a treaty concluded at Paris, in which the boundaries were agreed upon. By reference to that instrument, it will be observed that the northern line, after striking the River St. Lawrence, follows up that stream to the great lakes, thence through the middle of the same, and their connecting rivers, to Lake Superior; thence through Lake Superior, _northward_ of the Isles Royal and Philippean, to the Long Lake, now known as Pigeon River; thus securing to what is now Minnesota, about one hundred and fifty miles of the north shore of that inland sea, and believed to contain the richest copper and silver deposits known in the world. Benjamin Franklin was one of the commissioners to the treaty. It is supposed that he obtained information in France of the richness of that region; and, to his great foresight, we are mostly indebted for that valuable acquisition. In fact, he wrote that the time would come when the American people would consider the part he took in securing that vast mineral region to them as one of the greatest acts of his life. Seventy-five years after the death of that great and good man, the people of Minnesota are about to realize the importance of the vast interests secured by that far-seeing statesman. On the 5th day of August, 1826, Lewis Cass and Thomas L. McKenney, commissioners on the part of the United States, made and concluded a treaty with the Chippewa Indians at Fond du Lac, Lake Superior, by which the Chippewas granted to the United States the right to search for, and carry away, any metals or minerals from any part of their country. No efforts under this grant were ever made; but from that period (and even before,) explorations, from time to time, were made by individuals; and many indications of rich mines, (now within the limits of Minnesota,) were discovered. Licenses to trade with the Indians were obtained,—buildings for the ostensible purpose of trade were erected, and possession maintained for many years, in hopes the Government would extinguish the Indian title to the land, so that individual titles might be acquired. Time and expense caused the abandonment of most of these points, and a consequent dissipation of the bright visions raised by the knowledge of the wealth which was beyond the reach of the discoverers.