New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-01-16


promptness and boldness to accomplish our
proper work as people and leave an hon
orable mark in history.
And this republic ought to be powerful
not merely for the qualification of national
ambition, but for more substantial reasons.
Upon its influence depends in a great meas
ure the general advancement Of republican
liberty, the extinction of outgrOwn and
pernicious institutions, which darken the
mind and cramp and pervert the action OF
men. and the development of more Just
and admirable conditions of human life.
Let US occupy a controlling position,-
which now we are far from doing,-and
all nations will be benefited and their
progress accelerated thereby.
For centuries a great object Of national
ambition seeking for dominion and great
ness, has been to control the commerce of
India and the East. The present maritime
and commercial superiority of England is
dependent on her holding the Eastern trade
in her hands. The search for shorter
rout for this commerce led to the discovery
of America. The same search has sent
so many brave and hardy navigaters IN
quest of North West passage around this
continent.
And now it is possible to make this COM
merce ours, if we will. We may reach
forth our hands and grasp the supremacy
in the world of Industry. In peaceful
power we may become foremost on the
globe, not by acquiring foreign territory, but
by developing the resources of that we al
ready have; not by sending forth armies,
conqueripg feebler or stronger neighbOrs,
and devastating States, but by building
Railroad The shorter route to India, that
Columbus sailed for, and the gallant Frank
lin has laid down his life to discover, may
be found in our own territory. Build the
Pacific Railroad, and at once the entire
trade between Asia and Western Europe
must pass over it. Then our own manu-
features and products will find new mar
kets ON that Continent. whose teas and
silks, and spices, and thousand fold troPi-
cal products will be sent in exchange for
them and Europe will come to buy Of US.
Brought into direct and constant contact
with the rapid and electric West, Asia will
feel western culture and western ideas
penetrating her barbarism, and infusing new
life into her sluggish veins. Her rich but
uncultivated islands will be filled with en-
igrants from her now Overpopulated re-
gions; and activity, abundance. public or
der and intelligence will gradually supPlant
stOgnstiOn, poverty, despotism and igno-
rance among her children. This is no mere
dream of fancy. The facts are palpable,
the result certain.
And. this result cannot be attained by
any Panama Railroad or Nicaragua Canal.
Neither of these offers to Europe a quicker
route to China and India than that around
the Cape of Good Hope, and neither can
draw to itself the Eastern commerce. Nor
will either confer any special advantage on
this republic, or exert direct and power
full influence in favor of republican freedom
and equality. Nor-what is Of most i'm
mediate consequence-caH either serve as
that bond uniting the east and west of the
Republic, for which the necessity is already
so great end pressing.
Such are the reasons why the Pacific
Railroad should be built. But there is
another reason why no time should be lost
in beginning the work, and that is that
England, our chief competitor in the great
contest, may do it before US. A work of
marked ability, written by Messrs. F. A.
Wilson and A. B. Richards has lately
been published at London with the title of
Britain redeemed and Canada preserved,
in which scheme for building Railroad
from Halifax, across Canada to the Pacific
is developed at length and with great force
of argument. This route, say the writers,
is fifteen hundred miles shorter than that
proposed by Mr.. Whitney. The work
they estimate will cost $4,000 per mile,
or 5f14,OOO,OOO for the whole. They would
have 1T built by removing at first convicts,
and then the paupers of Great Britain, and
employing them in tho work, the entire
cost of which will be less than half the
present annual expense of pauperism in
the United Kingdom. At the same time
Canada should be incorporated with the
Kingdom, not as Colony, but as an in
tegral part, the same as Ireland or Scot