HON. THOMAS B. REED, when he first visited Missouri, threw up his hands in astonishment and exclaimed, "My God, this soil is so rich that if we had it back in New England we would sell it by the peck for seed."

REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER said: "In this ocean of land and near its center, stands the imperial State of Missouri. All admit that in natural resources it leads all the rest and is the crown and glory of the Union. It has boundless treasures of coal, iron, lead and other minerals; lands richer there can not be, nor finer streams; its forests are more equally distributed over all the State than any other; its climate, wholesome and delightful, blends the temperature of the northern lakes and the great southern gulf. The beautiful and glorious State of Missouri is yet to stand in that place which God and nature prepared for her. Missouri is providing education for her whole people. Their common school system is founded substantially on that of Ohio. The normal schools in the State are prosperous. The expenditures for common schools for 1,878 will be a fraction less than $3,000,000." (It now aggregates three times that amount annually)  "Churches, schools, emigration and commercial enterprises are doing their work. Good government, wealth and education will ere long exalt Missouri in power and renown second to none of her glorious compeers."

HON. MARSH MURDOCK, editor Wichita-Eagle, says: Missouri is a grand State, an empire in itself. It could be walled in and be absolutely self-sustaining-coal, lead, iron, zinc, clays and cotton, and a soil as productive as any in the known world ; everything upon which the wealth of nations is based, and vet immigration passes through all this aggregation of unparalleled and inexhaustible resources in one unending, uninterrupted stream, into other territory, poor in everything that lies beneath the surface. Great God, what a mistake!"

HON. BAYARD TAYLOR says: I have traveled all over the world to find here in the heart of Missouri the most magnificent scenery the human eye ever beheld."