consisting of
great rivers, lakes and harbors,--all these combine to defy the
destructive tendencies so often exerted by the ignorance and passions of
man. It has resisted every folly of its people, and they have been many;
every onslaught of its savage inhabitants, and they have been more
formidable than those experienced by any other state; and even the
cataclysms with which it has occasionally been visited arising from
natural causes. The fact is, Minnesota is so rock-rooted in all the
elements of material greatness that it must advance, regardless of all
known obstructions.

When the territory was organized in 1849, Gen. Zachary Taylor, a Whig,
was the president of the United States, and he appointed Alexander
Ramsey, also a Whig, as governor, to set its political machinery in
motion. He remained in office until the national administration changed
in 1853, and Franklin Pierce, a Democrat, was chosen president. He
appointed Gen. Willis A. Gorman, a Democrat, as governor to succeed
Governor Ramsey. On the 4th of March, 1857, James Buchanan, a Democrat,
succeeded President Pierce, and appointed Samuel Medary, a Democrat, as
governor of Minnesota. He held this position until the state was
admitted into the Union, in May, 1858, when Henry H. Sibley, a Democrat,
was elected governor for the term of two years, and served it out.

On the admission of the state into the Union, two Democratic United
States senators were elected, Henry M. Rice and Gen. James Shields.
General Shields served from May 12, 1858, to March 3, 1859, and Mr. Rice
from May 12, 1858, to March 3, 1863, he having drawn the long term. The
state also elected three members to the United States house of
representatives, all Democrats, James M. Cavanaugh, W. W. Phelps and
George L. Becker, but it was determined that we were only entitled to
two, and Mr. Phelps and Mr. Cavanaugh were admitted to seats. With this
state and federal representation we entered upon our political career.
At the next election for governor, in the fall of 1859, Alexander
Ramsey, Republican, was chosen, and there has never been a governor of
the state of any but Republican politics since, until John Lind was
elected in the fall of 1898. Mr. Lind was chosen as a Democrat, with the
aid of other political organizations, which united with the Democracy.
Mr. Lind now fills the office of governor. It will be seen that for
thirty-nine years the state has been wholly in the hands of the
Repu