" 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
territorial organization with boundaries extending westward to
the Missouri.
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