New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1850-12-25
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probability that line Of Mail Steamships
TO China will be authorized and provided
for by Congress at its present Session.
That may be we'll and probably is, though
the cost must be heavy and the immediate
benefits moderate. 1t is long route from
San Francisco or any other American port
to Canton, while the fuel required to run
steamships Of adequate power must Tor
years be costly in every port OF the route
The ends to be attained are more rapid
Intercourse with China and more extern
sive trade with her people. That charm
ing Aurora, securing the trade OF the
world is not to be realized while noun
tain barrier separates our vessels IN the
Pacific from those in the Atlantic-we doubt
that even the completion of the Panama
Railroad would accomplish it. capacious
and easily traversed Ship Canal from sea
to sea might possibly answer the purposes
a well-managed Free Railroad across the
middle of North America pretty surely
would But we must wait littletor either
of these. and meantime we cannot perceive
how any great Commercial change is to
be accomplished by line ofSteamships to
China. Such line would undoubtedly
accommodate our merchants trading thither,
but no great Political or Social Moderation
would necessarily result from it.
-Ifbut single line of Steamships is to be
authorized this Scssion-and the state and
prospects of the inances must counsel fru-
golity and caution-we shink a line to Africa
fairly entitled to the preference. That
Continent on its Western side is compare
lively proximate and accessible; tits filled
with inhabitants who need the articles we
can abundantly fabricate, and it is the an
cestral soil of more than Three Millions Of
our people-of Race on whose account
we are deeply debtors to Justice and to
Heaven. That Race is more plastic and
less conservative than the Chinese; their
soil produces in spontaneous profusion many
articles which are to Us comforts and lux
uries, while nearly everything we produce
is in eager demand among its inhabitants, il
they can but find the wherewithal to pay
for them. Instead of being detriment and
depression to our own manufacturing and
mechanical industry as the trade induced
by our costly Steamship lines to Liverpool,
Bremen and Havre mainly is, all the COM
merce with Africa which more intimate
communication with her would secure would
be advantageous to every department Of
American Labor, Her surplus products
are SO diverse from ours that no collision Of
interests between her producers and ours
could ever be realized, while Millions
worth of her tropical products which will
not endure the slow and caprcous trans
portation which is now their only recourse,
would come to US in good order by steam
ships and richly reward the labor of the
gatherers and the enterprise of the i'm
porteIs.
But the Social and Moral aspects of this
subject are still more important. We are
now expanding life and treasure, in concert
with other nations, to suppress the African
slaveTrade, and it is now generally con-
ceded that such suppression can never be
effected by the means hitherto relied on.
The colonization of the slave coast, with
direct reference to its christianization and
civilization, is the only sure means of put
ting an end to this inhuman traffic. And
this Colonization, all who are interested in
the work seem heartily to agree, would be
immensely accelerated by the establish