The Minnesotian. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. Territory) 1851-1852, 1851-11-22
From the st. Louis Republican,
St. Louis-WiIl her present CONNIE rcial as
cendancy be maintained:

Have the wealthy citizens of St. Louis
Numbering, according to an official doc
ument, two hundred and twenty persons
taken heed to the elements that are
working against the onward progress of
this city? Do they intendto sleep on?-
If the commerce Of the Mississippi Val
ley was alone to be carried on by steam
boats, upon our majestic rivers, the natu-
raj position Of our city would defy the in
roads of all rival points. But that state
Of things is rapidly changing. Canals
and railroads are as effectually changing
the commerce of the U. S., as the intro
duction of the mariners compass dispen-
sed with the use of caravans of ancient
days. The Illinois and Michigan Canal
has made already perceptible change in
the receipts at this place of the prominent
staples of Northern Illinois. We have
lost the sale and the use of the funds
which the inflowing of that produce
yielded to us. Our steamboats, and ware
houses, our merchants, clerks, porters,
laborers and draymen are directly affected
our real estate men will be the last and
the severest suf1eres. About one-half, if
not more, of the merchandise bought in
the Eastern cities, for sale in this mar
ket, during the past season, has been re-
ceived by the same channel. The Illinois
steamers come to our wharf, freighted
with fabrics of our own and foreign lands
instead Of the teaming cargoes of flour,
wheat, corn, pork, lard, beef, and other
products, which in years past, gave such
valuable employment to our steamboat
tonnage, in its transit to the Gulf of Mex
leo. Do our real estate men feel any in
terest in this state of things? Is not their
prosperity identical with the commercial
relations of our merchants? Have they
inquired into the business that the lower
trade boats are doing? Ii they have not,
and desire to know, let me tell them they
are doing an Improbable business. The
present season, although favored by high
water, has proved, thus far, more disas-
trous than any for years past.
One Of the oldest and most successful
owners and commanders-one who has
been diligent in season and out of season
is about abandoning the trade. 1t has
become too uncertain. The decline of
the commerce of New Orleans is now a
fixed fact; that city has been the hand
maid of our prosperity, and we cannot be
Indifferent to the cause which has pro-
duced the alarming change. 1t needs no
prophetic vision to see, that as soon as
the carrying trade of city begins to lag,
its commercial prosperity is on the wane.
The completion of the Illinois and Michi-
gan canal, was the first blow that has
been struck at the commerce of this city,
The second blow, is the contemplated
Central Railroad, through the State of
Illinois; the third, iii my opinion, will be
the completion of the contemplated Ohio
and Mississippi railroad.
In few years the means Of access to
New York, and other eastern cities will
be so cheap, easy, and pleasant, that near
ly every merchant in the West will have
his correspondent in either one or all of
those cities. Our surplus western pro-
duets will then, slowly and impercepti-
bly,, be sent by inland routes to these mar
kets, and thence be disbursed, by the in
land and coasting routes, to the planting
States Of the South.
The merchants of Baltimore are now
supplying South Carolina, Georgia, and a
portion of Alabama, with our products,
which were formerly distributed by the
merchants of New Orleans. The pro-
ceeds of our products are usually returned
to the West in Goods, wares and mer-
chandise, and it is for this trade that the
large cities on the Atlantic seaboard, have
built railroads and canals.
The result Of these gigantic enterprises
are now seen; their effect on the CONNER
cial progress of our western commercial
cites will be felt in few years; then it
may be too late to avert the evil. All the
inland improvements now in prgress in the
west, except, perhaps, those of Tennessee
are tending to the ACKNOWLEDGEMENT of New
York. She is now the commercial centre
of the county. She is fast swallowing up
the influence of our large commercial cit
les. Her merchant princes regulate the
price of sugar, cotton, and rice, the sta
piles of the south, as we'll as the lead,
hemp, tobacco, pork, lard, flour, and evrey
product of the soil of the west. She has
paralyzed the commerce of New Orleans
she now has her grasp upon st. Louis.
Cincinnati and Pittsburgh are strong
in their manufacturing enterprise, but
their jobbing merchants are quailing un-
der the overshadowing strength of their
near competitor and rival, New York.
The nearear the west is brought to New
York, the more dangerous will that city
become to St. Louis. The customers of
our merchants, in the States and Terrific
ris around, will fancy that New York is
the market in which to buy goods; they
will no more think Of visiting st. Louis
than our present customers think of stop
ing at Burlington, or Hannibal, to make
their purchases. Is all this fiction !? Is
there no truth in what is here written?
Can our commercial supremacy be main
tanned? Can our merchants bear up against