TERRITORIAL HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.

The State of Wisconsin is situated between lat. 42 deg. 30 min. and 47 deg. north of equator, and long. 87 deg. 30 min. and 92 deg. 30 min. west of Greenwich, near London, England. For its northern border, Wisconsin has the largest body of fresh water in the world, Lake Superior; Lake Michigan, a body of fresh water, almost equal in size, forms its eastern border, and the Mississippi river, the largest river in the world, but one, flows on its western boundary. The State of Michigan lies on the east, Illinois on the south, and Iowa and Minnesota on the west of Wisconsin. It has an average length of about 200 miles, breadth 215 miles, and an area of 56,000 square miles. Deducting from this the surface occupied by lakes, rivers, etc., there remain 53.924 square miles, or 34,511,360 acres of land.

Though there are no mountains in Wisconsin, there are many prominent "mounds," so called; among them, the Blue Mounds in Iowa and Dane counties, 1,729 feet above the sea; the Platte Mounds, 1,281 feet, and the Sinsiniwa Mound, 1,169 feet, in Grant county. There is a prominent ridge or elevation of land along the sources of the tributaries of Lake Superior, which, near the Montreal river, is 1,700 or 1,800 feet above the sea level, gradually diminishing to about 1,100 feet at the west line of the State. The calcareous cliffs along the east shore of Green Bay and of Lake Winnebago, extend south through Dodge county, and form in many places bold escarpments; some of the higher points are 1,400 feet above the sea. A series of still more prominent "bluffs" extend along the banks of the Mississippi river, forming some of the grandest and most picturesque scenery in the country. With the exceptions above named, nearly the whole surface of the State may be regarded as one vast slightly undulating plain, having an elevation of from 600 to 1,500 feet above the ocean. This great plain is cut in every direction by the currents of rivers and streams, that have made for themselves often deep and narrow valleys in the yielding soil and rocks. The dividing grounds between these valleys (watersheds) usually attain but a slight elevation above the surroundling country, the waters of a lake or marsh, being often drained in opposite directions to reach the ocean at widely different points. Canoes often pass from the head of one stream to another without difficulty. At Portage City, the Fox and Wisconsin rivers approach so nearly that their waters are commingled; they are connected by a short canal, from which there is a descent of 195 feet to Green Bay, and 171 feet to the Mississippi, at Prairie du Chlen. The name, Wisconsin, first of our Territory, and since of our State, was

derived from its principal river, which the Chippewas, residing on its head streams, denominated Wees-kon-san, which signifies "The gathering of the waters." They gave it this name, as an Indian trader informed the venerable Rev. Dr. ALFRED BRUNSON, on account of the numerous branches above Plover concentrating into one stream, which thence flows onward so great a distance with but comparatively few accessions to swell its current, till it loses itself in the mighty Father of Waters-the Mississippi.

The enterprising French missionaries and traders were the first to plant the standard of the cross, and the germs of civilization, in the region west of Lake Michigan, making their advent as early as 1639. In this year, it is believed, Sieur JEAN NICOLET, the Huron and Algonquin interpreter for the Canadian government, visited Green Bay. As early as 1660, Father RENE MENARD tottering, as it were, on the verge of the grave, left Canada, and founded the mission at Keweenaw, on the southern shore of Lake Superior, and the following spring, met death at the hands of the Huron Indians whom he sought to benefit, on the first rapid of the Menomonee.

There is something grand and sublime in the heroism of these early missionaries; for nothing daunted, Father CLAUDIUS ALLOUEZ pushed on in 1665, to Sault St. Mary's, and thence to the beautiful bay of Chegoimegon; and, in 1669, we find this intrepid missionary abandoning La Pointe, on account of the obstinacy and ridicule of his heathen parishioners, wending his way to Green Bay, and founding a mission at Depere. In September of this year he was joined by Father JAMES MARQUETTE-Who in 1673, pioneered his way up the Fox and down the Wisconsin, and was the first white man to discover the Upper Mississippi. The mission was continued at Depere with varied success, for several years.

In 1692 a military post was established at Chegoimegon Point-now better known as La Pointe; and thenceforward that point was occupied by white traders, and most of the time a military post. When CHARLEVOIX, the historian of New France, visited Wisconsin, in 1721, he found Father CHARDON at the Fort at Green Bay, about a mile and a half from the mouth of Fox River.

Space will not permit of anything more than a passing notice of the several French expeditions into the valley of the Fox River against the intrepid and war-like Sauks and Foxes, led on by DE LOUVIGNY in 1716; DE LIGNERY in 1728; MARIN in March, 1730, and Sieur DE VILLIERS in September of the same year.

By these repeated sanguinary forays, the intractable Sauks and Foxes were severely punished, and the beautiful vailey they occupied was brought prominently to the notice of Canadian French adventurers. This led to the first permanent settlement of the country, at Green Bay, about 1745, by Sieur AUGUSTIN DE LANGLADE, at the head of a small colony. The country remained under the dominion of France, and furnished a band of warriors headed by CHARLES DE LANGLADE, who fought gallantly under the Fleur de Lis-the flag of France-during the old French war of 1755 to the surrender of Canada

in 1769, when Canada and its dependencies were surrendered to Great Britain. The British post at Green Bay, under Lieut. GORRELL, was abandoned during the temporary Indian outbreak of 1763. The laws of Canada governed the territory until its transfer to the United States in 1796; and thenceforward for several years, though forming successively a part of the territory northwest of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan, there was little civil or other authority exercised in the country beyond a show of the administration of justice at Prairie du Chien, and the burlesque court of CHARLES REAUME at Green Bay.

During the war of 1812-'15, Prairie du Chien was the theater of several important military operations. In 1816, military posts were established at Green Bay and Prairie du Chien; and, in 1818, when Illinois became a State, and the jurisdiction of the frontier settlements of Wisconsin was transferred to the Territory of Michigan, the counties of Brown and Crawford, embracing the whole territory of what now constitutes Wisconsin, were established and organized. And in 1823, a further step in the civil government of the country was taken, by the formation of a U. S. Judicial District west of Lake Michigan, with the appointment of JAMES DUANE DOTY as Judge.

The early, adventurous explorer, NICHOLAS PERROT, interpreter and commandant on the upper Mississippi, in 1689, has the credit of first discovering lead on the river Des Moines, in Iowa, which mines long bore his name; and LE SUEUR, in his voyage up the Misissippi in 1700, describes lead mines, apparently at the points now known as Galena and Dubuque. CARVER, in 1766, speaks of lead abounding at the Blue Mounds. But these mines attracted little attention until the period 1822-27. During the years 1826, 27 and 28, large numbers of miners and adventurers came to the country; and the brief Black Hawk war of 1832, brought many of the Illinois soldiers to Wisconsin, who, charmed with the appearance of the country, subsequently returned and became permanent settlers.

In 1835, Michigan, having assumed a State government, JOHN S. HORNER, Secretary and Acting-Governor, convened a session of the Legislature at Green Bay, from the remainder of said Territory west of lake Michigan. No business, however, was transacted, except the passage of several memorials to Congress, among which was one asking for the organization of the Territory of Wisconsin, with the seat of government at Cassville, on the Mississippi.

An act establishing the Territorial government of Wisconsin was accordingly passed, and approved April 20, 1836, and the Territory fully organized July 4, 1836, with HENRY DODGE for its first Governor; and on the 9th of September following, Gov. DODGE, by proclamation, designated the 25th of October in that year for convening the Legislature at Belmont, now in La Fayette county. The second session convened at Burlington, in the now State of Iowa, Nov. 6, 1837, during which session the seat of government was permanently located at Madison, where the first session of the second Legislative Assembly of Wisconsin met, Nov. 26, 1838. On the 12th of June pre

ceding, the Territory had been divided by act of Congress, and that part west of the Mississippi established as a separate government, under the name of Iowa.

A convertion assembled at Madison, October 5, 1846, for the purpose of drafting a State Constitution, which was completed December 16, 1846, but rejected by the people at the election held on the first Tuesday in April, 1847. A second convention assembled December 16, 1847, and agreed to a Constitution on the first of February following, which was approved by the people at the election held in April, 1818, and Wisconsin was admitted into the Union, on an equal footing with the other States, on the 39th day of May, 1848; and has since acted well her part as a member of the American Republic.