The Sumter banner. [volume] (Sumterville, S.C.) 1846-1855, 1849-10-31
ga lBre reIsstaysasas.
From tle National Inteliigencer.l
THE PACIFIC RAIL ROAD.

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From they National In'elligcncer.
THE PACIFIC RAIL ROAD.
The annexed letter from distin.
guished gentleman of South. Carolina,
on subject which just now engages a
large share ofpublic attention, has been
oblisingly communicated to us for pub.
lication:
CHARLESTON, Oct. 10 1a49.
GENTLEMEN.-I should greatly re-
grct the circumstance which will pre-.
vent my uniting in the deliberations of
the st. Louis and Memphis Conven-
tons, if l had not witnessed the deep
interest manifested by the public in the
number Of fabler representatives named,
and who will carry into both Of these
assemblies the wisdom and the science
necessary to give successful direction,
to the action which may be had in aid of
the great enterprise projected.
There is no division of opinion in any
quarter Of this country on the import
ance and necessity of opening avenues
OF easy communication between every
part of these United States. The past
and extraordinary performances of the
Rall Road systcm, the still greater I'M
provcments of which it is susceptible,
increasing the commerce and develop.
ing the hiddon treasures Of Empires
and of States; .ho social and political
triumphs it is destined to achieve, have
attracted all intcllccts to it rs the most
approved and certain means of rapid
and secure intcrcommunication between
remote and hitherto inaccessible parts
of the same continent. It has annihi-
lated Macadamised and turnpike roads
as highways; it is rapidly supcrscding
canals, ayailing itself of their beds for
the graduation of its tracks; and, in the
flights ofits locomotive, it seems threat.
cning to rival the lightning Of the tslc.
graph. The Prophet Daniel predict.
ed the time "whcn many shall run to
an fro, and knowledge shall be incrcas-
ed" and Isaiah seems to have fore.
shadowcd great Rail Road from the
Atlantic to the Pacific in that sublime
exclamation, Snake straight in the
desert q highway for our God. Every
valley shall be axaltcd, and ever noun
tain and hill shall be made low, and the
crooked shall be made straight and the
rough places plain, and the glory of the
Lord shall be revealed" 1t will not
require, therefore, labored arguments,
or estimates and reports on cost of con-
struction, and on the praclicaJility Of
routes but impcr(ectly examined, to sat
isfy this comwunity that it the Union
is to continue to be bounded, as it has
been extended from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, by those oceans, measures
must be adopted to bring nearer to-
gcther tho extremes, by those iron
highways, which, in stimulating social
and commercial intercourse, constitute
tho strongest bonds of political ha1mo
my. The circuit by Cape Horn, the
transit by steamers from Chagrcs to
Panama, the projected ship channel
by the San Juan and Lake Nicaragua.
and the rail road across the Isthmus of
Tchuantepcc, may be used for lmc
from necessity by our citizens in
communicating with our Pacific shores;
but those routes by and through foreign
domains, are irrcconcilable with the
American policy Of filling up the inter.
posing wilderness with an cntcrprising
population, and of making each portion
of our extended domain feel its mutual
dependence by being brought into init.
mate and daily communication with
each other. 1t is not road to Fran
cisco, Monterey, or San Diego, on the
Pacific, the Importance or necessity Of
which is alone acknowledged, but it is
the interior links in the chain through
the intermediate wilderness, destined to
be reared up into States, which will Lc
wanting to bring those States into more
intimate, friendly, and commercial rcla-
tons with the valley Of tho Mississippi,
now the great centre Of the Union.
Our rail ways, chcckcring all the
Atlantic States, arc in progress towards
that centre. Those through Virginia,
the Carolinas, and Georgia already pre-.
sent, with but one interruption, con.
tinuous road from the Potomac to the
waters of the Mississippi. The State
work Of Georgia has by this time made
a Judgement at one Of its termini on the
Tennessee; and that to Nashville is in
rapid progress to navigablc point on
the Cumberland. The communications
by rail way to the Atlantic are nearly
perfected; and it is Of the great NYes
tern granary so to direct their action as
to render equally certain, secure, and
easy their communications with the more
western'interior conducted to and con
nected with the Pacific. In all these