ation would be wearisome. The Treaty of 1842 with
the Sauks and Foxes is typical. After a sojourn of hardly more than a
decade in the Iowa country, these luckless folk were now persuaded to
yield all their lands to the United States and retire to a reservation
in Kansas. The negotiations were carried out with all due regard for
Indian susceptibilities. Governor Chambers, resplendent in the uniform
of a brigadier-general of the United States army, repaired with his
aides to the appointed rendezvous, and there the chiefs presented
themselves, arrayed in new blankets and white deerskin leggings, with
full paraphernalia of paint, feathers, beads, and elaborately decorated
war clubs. Oratory ran freely, although through the enforced medium
of an interpreter. The chiefs harangued for hours not only upon the
beautiful meadows, the running streams, the stately trees, and the other
beloved objects which they were called upon to surrender to the white
man, but upon the moon and stars and rain and hail and wind, all of
which were alleged to be more attractive and beneficent in Iowa than
anywhere else. The Governor, in turn, gave the Indians some good advice,
urging them to live peaceably in their new homes, to be industrious and
self-supporting, to leave liquor alone, and, in general, to "be a credit
to the country." When every one had talked as much as he liked, the
treaty was solemnly signed.

The "New Purchase" was thrown open to settlers in the following spring;
and the opening brought scenes of a kind destined to be reenacted scores
of times in the great West during succeeding decades--the borders of the
new district lined, on the eve of the opening, with encamped settlers
and their families ready to race for the best claims; horses saddled
and runners picked for the rush; a midnight signal from the soldiery,
releasing a flood of eager land-hunters armed with torches, axes,
stakes, and every sort of implement for the laying out of claims with
all possible speed; by daybreak, many scores of families "squatting" on
the best pieces of ground which they had been able to reach; innumerable
disputes, with a general readjustment following the intervention of the
government surveyors.

The marvelous progress of the upper Mississippi Valley is briefly told
by a succession of dates. In 1838 Iowa was organized as a Territory;
in 1846 it was admitted as a State; in 1848 Wisconsin was granted
statehood; and in 1849 Minnesota was given te