The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1852-11-12
GIGANTIC SCHEME

A convention is to be held IN 81. LOUIS, ueA'
month, TO Obtain the cooperation OF the STATES
along the line, in a plan for railroad when
is to connect the city OF New Orleans with the
territory of Minnesota. This IS the most g.
gantic project which the restless activity OF the
American mind has yet conceived. New Of-
leans is exactly under the parallel OF thirty
degrees North latitude; the most Southern
point Of Minnesota is in forty three. 1t ex-
tends, however, to forty-seven or eight, and it
is fair to presume that the ra ilroad will not
terminate be fore it shall have reached at least
forty five. In straight line, therefore, it is
fifteen degrees from one terminus to the other,
that is to say, 1922 miles. Ofcourse, in its &C
tual route, passing along the most profitable
tracts Of country, turning aside to avoid obsta'
cles, etc., it will be at least doubly as long as
this. 1t may not be so long as the projected
railroad of Mr.. Whitney but when we take in
TO consideration the extreme probability that it
will be executed, and weigh it against the
probabilities attached TO the other, we may
venture to predict that it will see the day when
it will be regarded as the most considerable
railroad on earth. 1t will pass through an
immensely rich country-a country either set.
tied already, or in the process of rapid settle
ment. 1t will assist the Mississippi to drain
the States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri,
Iowa, Minnesota-all the country, in one
word, between the ''Father of Waters and the
Rocky Mountains.
Some doubts have been expressed with re-
rar1 ,bo Co s;Jiifv of or homo
For our own part, we are disposed to think any
thing practicable to the energy and enterprise
of our countrymen-So entirely So that when
a new scheme is proposed, we always ask, not
"can it be DONE" but evil it pay ?" Prove
that it has this essential stimulant to industry
and all doubts as to its execution may be
thrown to the winds. The Mississippi river,
it has been urged, will always be in the way
of its success, because that river is amply sut-
hcient to drain its entire valley. In reply, we
say nothing of the annual increase ofthe popu
laton of that valley, which, in forty years, at
present rates, will largely exceed fifty million.
Nor will we deny that the means of carriage
upon its bosom may be indefinitely multiplied.
| We speak only ofthings as they are now, and
we ask, if the Mississippi does really perform
its functions so thoroughly, how it happens
that. corn may be bought on the upper Mis-
s;ssippi for ten cents a bushel, when it is SELL
ing in New Orleans for seventy-fve or a dol
lar 1t has been found that new means of
reaching market always stimulate production
to such degree, that the surplus is equal to
the original product. The North river improve
ment has not, so we learn, done less business
than it did before the construction Of the Erie
Railroad. Yet that railroad has enough BUSH
ness on hand to keep constantly employed, at
least one hundred and fifty locomotives. So,
beyond doubt, it will be with the New Orleans
and Minnesota Railroad should it go into ope-
ration. There are immense regions, uncuIi.
waited, " hich it will bring at once into market.
Arkansas and Missouri will send their cotton,
corn, hemp and minerals, while Iowa and Min
nesota will contribute to swell The production
There is not region of country in the world
that promises better for railroad. Its filling
up, even now, with amazing rapidly. This
railroad would increase the ratio in an meal
culable degree.