The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1849-11-01

AT the St. Louis convention, Colonel
Benton, with characteristic earnestness,
advocated the construction OF the road as
Government enterprise. The conclusion
OF his speech exhibits a fine specimen OF
that bold and glowing eloquence into which
he sometimes rises:
I'VE live in extraordinary times, and are called
upon to elevate ourselves to the grandeur OF the oc
casion. Three and half centuries ago, the great
Coumbus-the man who afterward carried
home in chains from the New World which he had
dscovered-this great Columbus, in the year 1892,
departed from Europe 10 arrive in the east by going
to the west. II was sublime conception He was
in the line OF SUCCESS when the intervention of two
continents not dreamed of BEFORE arrested his pro-
gress. Now, in the nineteenth century, mechani-
cal genius enables his great design To be fulfilled
In the beginning, and in barbarous ages, the sea
barrier 10 the intercourse Of nations. II sepa
rated nations Mechanical genius, in inyentng
the ship, converted that barrier into facility
Then land and continents became the obstruction
The two Americas intervening have prevented Eu-
rope and Asia from communicating on the straight
line For three centuries and half this obstacle
has frustrated the grand design of Columbus. Now,
in our day, mechanical genius has again triumphcd
over the obstacles of nature, and converted into
facility that which had SO long been an impossible
obstacle. The steam Car has worked upon the land,
and among enlightened nations. and to degree
far transcendng it, the miracle which the ship, IN
barbarous ages worked upon the ocean. The land
has become the facility for the most distant
communications, the conveyance being invented
which annihilates both time and space. We hold
the intervening land; we hold the obstacle which
stopped Columbus in the line between Eu-
rope and Asia.
We have it in our power TO remove that obstacle
to convert it into iacility-and to carry him on
to his land of promise and of hope, with rapidity,
precision and safety unknown " all ocean navi-
cation. king and queen started him upon his
great enterprise. IL lies in the hands of republic
to complete it, 1t is in hands-we, the people
of the United States of this first half of this nine
teenth century. Let us raise ourselves up. Let US
rise to the grandeur Of the occasion. Let US COM
plete the grand design of Columbus by putting
Europe and Asia into communication, and that to
our advantage, through the heart Of our own coun-
try. Let give to his ships, converted into cars,
a continued course, unknown to all former times.
Let make the iron road-and make it from sea
to sea; States and individuals making IL east of the
Mississippi, the nation making it west. Let US
now, in this convention, rise above every thing sec
tonal, personal, local. Let us beseech the Nation
al Legislature to build the great road upon the
great national line which unites Europe and Asia
the line which will find, on continent, the bay
of San Francisco at one end, the St. Louis in the
middle, the national metropolis and great com
mercial emporiums at the other-and which shall
be adorned with its browning honor, the colossal
statue Of the great Columbus, whose design it ac-
complishcs, hewn from the granite mass OF peak
of the Rocky mountains, overlooking the road-the
mountain itself the pedestal, and the statue part
of the mountain-pointing with ou!stretched arm
to the western horizon, and saying TO the lying
passenger, there is the East! there is India.