New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-02-13

Whist I desire to call the attention OF your
readers to at this moment is the strange course
pursued toward the interests Of the Great west
and what has been the course for series OF
vears. There she stands that mighty region,
with her Twelve Millions of population, whose
energies have evolved in less than fifty years
commerce Of more than -Four Hundred Millions OF
dollars. with her thousand steamboats,, her hun
6red Members on one floor Of the National Assem-
Div and her thirty the other,-there she stands,
say, humbly petitoning, year after year, Tor that
interest in her behalf by the Congress OF the
United States which shall secure the lives Of her
citizens and the products Of their industry against
the dangers and mpediments OF w estern naylga-
tjon and she has appealed and continues to ap.
neal in vain The inquiry irresisIi5y arises, Why
Is III WHY this Indifference, neglect, total dis
reesrd7 Western Members must answer-it not
now, opine shortly-to their constituents .
Mr. Editor YOU laid bare the daring swlndle OF
the Texas Appropriation Of last year, and you had
the thanks Of the country for IL bat you are not
fnllv posted as to other jobs which are beggarng
the Trensury. vet TO be contaminated, which are
offered AZ excuses FOR not extending aid to West
ern Commerce. am told that debentures or
scrin IN the amount of one million or twenty per
cent. have been issued by toe holders oil the
French Claim of FIVE millions, which has been so
often rejected by Congress and once vetoed, to be
cola or S;ren q,cav. That French claim lrM pass
his session. 1t is now in high favor. Then there
Is the California Marine Railway and Dock, which
found its way so rapidly through Congress at the
ciose of the last sessiOn-tO cost one million ana
a half the lob. That will be contaminated Then
there is the whole list Of the mammoth approprla-
lion bill, embracing every form of expenditure
down to 10000 to pave Penney lvania Avenue TO
the City of Georgetown. while not dollar can
cross the Allegheny Mountains. Why is this
Is tire West too far away! Have the Eastern
politicians infused jealousy, gotten up false issues
and distracted that region by sectional and Irreie'
want controversies
People Of the West! you must arouse and
shake of this lethargy, so fsta to your interest ;
YOU must unite-not to petition tor-but to de-
mand your rights. II not now, you surely Will
have that pow or under the New AppOrtionment
Your REPRESENTATIVES here mus the questioned
questioned closely as to their disregard of the In
terests which you have specially committed to
their charge You are wrong-haye been and
will be, SO long as you allow the shallow devices
which have heretofore been used TO lead you from
YOUR true interests to control you in the selection
of YOUR representation on the floor of Congress.
OF the Fifty Millions of public revenue annu-
ally raised you pay large proportions you are
interested to have share returned IN just aPPro-
priations for Western Navigation. You need it,
and it is your right to have it. Is life lost by
lost for the want of breakwater or a lighthouse
az the East? What difference is there between
improvements on salt water and those on fresh
la not the removal of the impeachment in naviga
ton at the Falls of the Ohio River just as neces
sary to Commerce and Just as constitutional as
buoy in the Delaware Bay! Are not Marine
Hospitals Just as essential to the boatmen on
western rivers as seamen on the ocean, Why,
then, the difference Why everything for the
last and nothing for the West? repeat that
the course of legislation here is strange and ex-
traordinary, and how or why the people of the
West have borne it so long IS problem which
find it difficult to explain
Remarks.
Our friend who writes the above has said
his say Now tce claim word.
The West has for some years failed to
obtain the needfuI and proper Appropria-
tions for the improvement of her Rivers
and Harbors for these, among other strong
reasons:
/. Because she has chosen to send ma
joIity of Representative to Congress hostile
to the appropriation Of Public Money to
,cOrks u Internal improvement. Accord
ing to their Political creed, Government has
rightfully nothing to do with the encourage
ment of Industry and the facilitation of In
tercourse, but should con6ne its attention
to the external relations of the Countryand
to the repression Of violence and crime
therein. OF course, Members holding this
creed cannot heartily and effectively advo-
cate Internal Improvements. Merely vo-
ting for works in which ones immediate
constituents have a special interest, an
swers no good purpose: he must be ready
to live and let live The West has suf-
fered by biting of her own nose.
?. When the West has happened to get
a Harbor and River bill through Congress
that would have done her some good, she
has generally had President Of her Oton
cHoice in The White House TO Yeto ii. We
do not see how that operation can pay.
3. Her advocates and champions before
Congress and the Country have generally
seen fit to operate on the prickly- ash, dog
in-the-manger principle. Thus our cores
pondent sees fit to growl at the French
Spoliations, California Dock and other
bills which he regards as favoring local in
terests not his own-though the friends of
these measures are not growing at him.
The French Spoliations bill ought to pass
as much as he ought to pay his board at
the hotel he stops at. The California Dock
may be unnecessary or too expensive for
aught we know; but is he likely to help
lis bill by going out of his way to kick it
We think not.
On the whole, it strikes us that the