The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1850-04-20
The Pacific nai;ropi.

In looking over the resolutions Of the late Pacific
Railroad Convention held ut Philadelphia. We no.
tee that they nre in substance the same as those OF
the St Louis and Memphis conventions. viz:
ls,, That tie construction ola railroad lion some
point on the nayigabe waters Of the Mississippi to
the shores Of the Pacific is practicable
ID, That the wo,k Is OF national character, and
should be constructed by the general government.
Sd, Thattlie road asa national work should only
te constructed by the general government through
the territory beyond the organized states; AMI
IN. That each STAKE may construct q bran n 10
the man trunk by such means and route az she may
deem most conducive 10 her interest.
This seems to have been settled upon as the plan
ty which this grca; cu;eprize Is to be accomplished
and we propose inlhe following arlclcto exam.
inc lts practclblI'y Subject which has.
Tor number Of years, been extensively discussed
but which even up to The present day. has been re.
gaFded as lraught with many difficulties.
The honor ofhrs, projecting scheme for the con.
s,rucion Of railroad across the American Con,in.
'ineri, we believe, justly belongs to Nr A,a Whit
reg, Of New York; though the advantages Of such
ihoroughfare had been spoken ol long before he
laid hS plan before the world bu, it was regarded As
awork 50 sturendons rIa; ages would be rcrarded
TO accomplish ii and Mr.. Whitney his address
to he people Of the United States, seems 10 have
regarded it in the same light, for he speak, Of asa
work tthe future, when he shall have ceasrl TO be
md that the glory Of It's achievement: would be en-.
loye1 by our ch!dg,u'9 children
But tbs po,en, WILL Of the American people has
but little TO do with tie future. is fell j. the PEE
sent. Let the people but cay the word aud, as by
magic It Is done. No,r, this stupeudols, or rs Il
was long regarded. impossible work is bcCinipg to
be looked upon rs the work of but a tew years, and
hundreds and thousands arc standing ready, eager
10 plunge into it with all their might aud main, rs
soon as the sovereign people give the nsscu;ing nod
number oiroutes have been proposed by which
to open thoroUghlre from the Atlantic 10 the Pa
chic Oceans bu, two of .hesc, however. hay. ever
attracted the attention either Of the government or
oipnvatc sneprzc we refer to the route across the
l-tlmus, at some proper point, and the Northern
Route, commencing at some point either on Lake
Michigan or the Mississippi and runni,-y through
the South Pass III the Hockey Mountains, either to
fdgets Bay, in Oregon or Saufraucisco, in CaItor.
MA or branches run TO both these places OF these
two We shall endeayor to show that the Inter IS BY
tar the most practicable, and would be vastly the
most profitable to the country.
y Canal. at some point nc7oss the ls,hgDus, has
been mootcd for the last century Surveys andcx.
porations have been made ut different periods by
England, flonce, Spain, and Portugal, with view
OF opening Approximation from ocean 10
ocean; but, after all these Investigations, the work
has remained untouched Was it for the wan, Of
capital No; for there has ever been enough in ei.
Their OF these nations to have built dozen of such
works But they found that nothing would he gain.
cd to their commerce by that instead Of shorter
ing their route Ia Asia it would increase It's distance
According to a table of distances presented by
Mr., Whitney, in his memorial to congress, and
winch Is generally admitted to be correct il appears
that the distance from London to Canton win the
lsIhmus, for sail vcesca is nearly 5000 miles farther
than by the Cape Of Good Hope, and about ( OCO
siles farther than by Cape Horn The distance
from London to New York is a5ou, 1890 miles:
ihusn will be seen that, although this canal would
somewhat shorten thu route from our port, on the
Cult 1T would not enable our eastern ports to
compete with England in the commerce Of ASA,
as those ports would still be from one 10 two thou.
sand miles farther from Cation than the ports oil
England which are now the great emporium Of the
immense commerce of The eastern world. Nor would
anything be gained by using steam ships, though
they could master the sea-currcnts alonl, our Al.
!nntc coast which compel our sailing vessels "a
make so clrcuous route to reach the gulf, us they
would have TO SO to Oregon or Vancouvers Islan,
IN order 10 procure fuel, there being none n, any o.
Their point upon that coast nor any other route unor
which steamers could be supplied, n, intervals, OF
their way to China From these facts it i, eylen
that tive could not main,ain successful competi,o,
with England in the commerce Of the East Indie
and the Asaiic Continent, by the construction @
the Nicaragua or Tehuantepec canal and mucl
ess by the Panama Railroad.
Some other route, then, must be adopted aud "
contend that the northern route Is the only psac,ca
bic one, and that through we would tain the en-
tire controloflhs vast trade.
The distance from New Yo-!, to San Franc,.co /
2.9OS, ana hon thence to Shonghoc, in China, il
o,io3 miles, making IN oil S26S miles from New
York to one ollhe principal commercial cities il
China, less than half the distance. Of the shoucs
route taken by the English merchantmen to the
anne port. Another great advantage accruinr 10
onr commerce. from this route. would be thu, the
whole OF It could be iraveIsed by steam and III,
overland portion nbou, thrce.eshths Of whole dis
ancs. with velocity vastly greater than con be OBJ
tanned upon the water; and thereby bring New
York within IS days ofChina which is abou, one.
sixih the time required by the English East India
Packets to make the same rp on their presen, route
With these immense advantages In our favor |, Il
vuy surrfziny that 10 little has b,en don. I, &c.