Southern standard. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1851-1856, 1852-03-06

I
the climate of vast region of country and make
1t much more saubrious. 1t would add vastly to
the wealth of these States by giving value to the
lands that now useless, and greatly increase
the commercial resources of these States by bring
ing immense regions of these vacant lands under
cultivation, and it would also vastly improve the
navigation of the river
An object Of so much Importance to the health
and prosperity of so many States and people is GER
talnly worth looking after, and the work when
done, should be done in the most thorough and
appropriate manner.
Therefore, let us pray Congress for the appoint
ment of an engineer who shall plan the work !;
and for the enactment of a statue requiring the
States to have the work done according to that
plan This work is to last for all time. Suppose,
therefore, merely for the sake of demonstration,
that one of the States above Louisiana should be
unfortunate in the adoption of plan that after
having let the work. accepted it and parted with
the lands, experience should prove the plan to be
bad, or the work to be useless, Louisiana then is
overfowed in spite of herself and her works which
we will suppose were really sufficient, thus in
danger of being rendered of no use.
The prosperity of the valley is to be greatly eff
fected by this work of embankment, drainage and
reclamation, and therefore, the best talents that
the country affords should be employed to direct it.
3. More than fourteen feet water cannot now be
:
I lize. Vessels drawing sixteen feet are sometimes
dragged over through the mud
/ As for the ability of New Orleans or the people
who send their produce there on It's way to mar
ket to avail themselves of the improvements in ship
building, long as the passes of the river OBJ
structed by shallow bars is out of the question.
The sailing qualities of ships are according to their
models. Their models are regulated by their
draft and their draft is controlled by the depth of
hon oh b,,-o
to reach their destination. Therefore, the people
of the great valley of the west-the men whose la
Dor and whose enterprise have placed the heart of
the country where it is, and supply all those great
staples out of which the business of commerce rails
es revenue for the Government. Therefore, | say,
/ those people must be doomed to.second and third
rate ships to do business for them upon the great
waters until the bars at the Balize be deepened.
The people of Missouri, Iowa and Tennessee,
of Maine, Massachusetts, and Texas are as much
interested in this matter, those of Louisiana.
4. Steam ships are the railways of the sea.
Notwithstanding there be fine nayigable streams
and good turnpike roads leading into city, it is
found by ample experience that few railroads
well placed and brought into the same city will
vastly increase its business and enhance its pros
perity.
What is singular about these railroads is that
they do not interfere with turnpike nor the river
trade. They create business Of their own,
So it is with lines of steamships, they do not in
terfere with the coasters and the sailing packets,
which answer to the turnpike and river craft of the
interior But they also create business of then
own Look what the European steamers have
done for New Y ork and Boston. So far from in
terfering with the business under canvass from
those cities they have stimulated it and made il
more active.
Ever since steamers began to ply between New
York and Liverpool, the New York packet ships
have been increasing both in numbers and size,
and it is idle for US of the South and west to rest
contended upon the great commercial advantages
which nature has vouchsafed to New Orleans
and that region of country, by reason of her own
geographical position, and the geographical posi-
ton of the Gulf of Mexico It's as idle | say for
people to rest quietly upon natural advantages,
and expect the proper lines of steamers to come tC
them as it has been for them to rest quietly upon
the advantages which the Mississippi river gave
them, while all around them was enterprise and
activity. Other cities and sections sapped the
Mississippi valley and sent railroads there for then
own benefit and advantage. They may also from
the same motives send their steamships to ply
about New Orleans.
The people of New Orleans have walked up tt
the reality of their position in of those re
? spects. The watchful never caught asleeI
twice and it is time they We're beginning to be W
and doing in the other. | need not name the ma
: ny good openings which the Gulf ports have fo
0 lines of steamships
5 d 6. AS soon as there is a commercial thor
j oughfare across the Isthmus, which will unload
handle and transport the breadstuffs with the 9th
er heavy produce Of the Mississippi valley acros
e the Isthmus and put them on board ships In tn
Pacific, for less than it costs p get them as far a
Cape Horn, on the way around-that moment /
j, the Gulf of Mexico raised to the summit level c
this worlds commerce. All nations will then b
n drawn to the Gulf, and the people who inhabi tn
great valley of the west, and who pass its produc
! down through the Mississippi river into the Cru
and deliver it there to the winds of heaven th
e currents of the sea- may then take their choice
90 with it by down stream and fair wind navgatio
to any market place upon the sea shore in the wild
e world.
Then New Orleans instead of New Y ork shoul
y glut the markets of California and Peru wit
h breadstuffs and merchandise.
r Then the valley of the west instead of the CO..
Of mines of England and Pennsylvania, should SUI
70 ply the vast demands which the Pacific ocean ha
and the far greater (which it will have for COAL
r. 1t will give New Orleans the command of the Co
a. ia Rca trade, and better Coffee market than al
b. she now has, and she then send coffee alon
with Louisiana sugar up to that other mouth
n the Mississippi which Illinois enterprise has di
ny covered in Lake Michigan.
d, Therefore let the people of the South and We
take time by the forelock, and wake up Tenne
at see and Kentucky, and other parts to their duty
d. that great manufacturing and mining region whit
be nature has fitted them to be.