port of cotton,--the crop which to some persons represents all
that the world contains of value.

Probable export of Cotton in 1861, three-fourths
of the crop of 4,000,000 bales, 3,000,000 bales,
at $45 . . . . . . . . . $135,000,000
Estimated export of Breadstuffs
to Europe . . . . . . . . $100,000,000
Estimated export of Breadstuffs
to Southern States . . . . . . $45,000,000
------------
$145,000,000

We are feeding Europe and the Cotton States, who pay us in gold; we
feed the Northern States, who pay us in goods; we are feeding our
starving brothers in Kansas, who have paid us beforehand, by their
heroic devotion to the cause of freedom. Let us hope that their troubles
are nearly over, and that, having passed through more hardships than
have fallen to the lot of any American community, they may soon enter
upon a career of prosperity as signal as have been their misfortunes, so
that the prairies of Kansas may, in their turn, assist in feeding the
world.

Nothing has done so much for the rapid growth of Illinois as her canal
and railroads.

As early as 1833 several railroad charters were granted by the
legislature; but the stock was not taken, and nothing was done until the
year 1836, when a vast system of internal improvements was projected,
intended "to be commensurate with the wants of the people,"--that is,
there was to be a railroad to run by every man's door. About thirteen
hundred miles of railroads were planned, a canal was to be built from
Chicago to the Illinois River at Peru, and several rivers were to be
made navigable. The cost of all this it was supposed would be about
eight millions of dollars, and the money was to be raised by loan. In
order that all might have the benefit of this system, it was provided
that two hundred thousand dollars should be distributed among those
counties where none of these improvements were made. To cap the climax
of folly, it was provided that the work should commence on all these
roads simultaneously, at each end, and from the crossings of all the
rivers.

As no previous survey or estimate had been made, either of the routes,
the cost of the works, or the amount of business to be done on them, it
is not surprising that the State of Illinois soon found herself with a
heavy debt, and nothin