MISSOURI is one of the Western — or, at present, more properly, one of the Central — states of the American Union.

MISSISSIPPI, one of the most southern states of the American Union, was formerly included in the country claimed by France as a part of Louisiana. As early as 1716, a French colony settled on the spot now occupied by the city of Natchez, where they erected a fort; but in 1729, the inhabitants, together with those of two other settlements in the vicinity, were exterminated by the neighboring Indian tribes, only three or four persons, out of 700, escaping the general massacre. The territory, for many years thereafter, remained exclusively in possession of the savages.

MINNESOTA (TERRITORY.) This was formerly a part of the vast country belonging to the United States which was acquired by the Louisiana purchase in 1803. It was then, with the surrounding regions, a rugged and unmeasured wilderness peopled only by savages, and had never been systematically explored by civilized man until about the period of its transfer. The tract now embraced within the limits of the territory was duly organized, and its boundaries defined, by an act of Congress, passed March 3, 1849, " to establish the territorial government of Minnesota."

MICHIGAN. This is one of those members of the American Union which were formerly comprised in the " North-west Territory." In the year 1640, it was partially explored by a few French traders from Canada; and the first settlement was formed at Detroit, in 1670.  By the peace between France and England, in 1763, the latter, obtained possession of the territory, and, at the termination of the revolutionary war, ceded it to the United States —retaining control of Detroit, however, until 1796.