The miners' express. (Dubuque, Iowa) 1849-1854, 1852-01-28
DRAWING LARGELY ON THE FUTURE.

We find in the Burlington Telegraph of thu
2lst, long editorial. setting forth the reasons
why Congress, should make donation Of lands
for the construction of Railroad from that city
TO the Missouri The first is, that burlington IS
the largest City IN the Stata, and the second tina,
such IA road would accom- npdate and is desired
by hnndred and serentcen thousand nine
hundred and four efa popuiat;on inhab,ting
the three Southern tier of counties We have
no disposition to quarrel with our ncighbor
about the imnensity of his City 1t is sniff
Gent to say, that the last census, reports Du
bnq'ia as the largest City in the State, and we
can assure our neighbor, that no City in the
North West, has progressed more rapidly in
population since that census was taken, thin
Doouqae. As to the population of the counties
spoken of, this may be all correct and vet prove
nothin for the position Of The Telegraph for
the people of the Dcsno;ne Valley, have al
ways stood mnovable upon the platform Of the
Dubuque and keokuk and Davenport and Coun-
Gil Bluffs railroads. They were among the first
to engage in this enterprise and have thus far
remained its firm, con sistcnt, and inflc xible
friends. This feeble effort, at this late day, to
draw them from their propriety, will have little,
or no effect upon them; for they have the good
sense to perceive, that any proposed change of
the original plan, must be highly detrimental
and dangerous to the passage of laws, for car
rying that plan into etf;ct, and to the general
interests the State. Should our Railroads be
defeated, it would be the scvercst stroke Of mis-
fortune, which could bcfall the State, and from
which it could not expect to recover for years
to come.
Our nciglbor in his article has the following,
upon the improvements of Burlington, which
he offers as an inducement for the Mississippi
and Missouri road to Start from that point:
"What the facts the case? BURLINGTON.
the largest City in the State, with THREE
PLANK ROADS and ONE RAIL ROAD.
all under contract and some of them completed,
through the enterprise and indomtablc persc-
verance OF her citizcns-with the aforesaid Rail
Road pointing directly towards the East, for a
hundred miles, the laborers at work upon it as
busy as bees to get the first ten miles completed
by sprlng-this town asks of Congress a grant
OF Land TO enable them to continue as their great
improvements on westward through the State y
1t is true that Burlington has a plank road
completed to Mt. Pleasant, twenty.six miles
west of that City, for which her citizens are en-
titled to much praise But we know of no other
Improvement of striking public importance
which her citizens can claim as absolutely Ger
tain of immediate completion.
We might in the same spirit Of prophetic lat
itude, enumerate as many, il not more improve
ments projected in this region. The route for
railroad from this place to Keokuk is SURVEYED.
the right Of way and depot grounds obtained as
far as Cedar Rapids; the northern branch of
The Illinois Central raiIroa is to seek this point
Is Its western terminus; the people of Wiscon-
I'm, are now engaged in building a railroad
rom Milwaukee to the Mississippi, which many
is to come to this city, road is seri.
'usly contemplated from Red River to this CITY.
plank road is under contract and BUILDING
rom this city to Sagevile some miles north Of
IS; a large amount of money is being expended
or the Improvement of our harbor and d com.
ANY is now organizing in this city and the
took nearly raised for establishing steamboat
with the Nerth and South.
If these are stubborn arguments to nrescnt n !
congress, in favor Of donation OF lands for
abroad into the interior, then it seems to us,
hat Dubuque shoul4 stand as favorably before
nat body as Burlington. But so far as we are
onccrned we nevor thou rbt that =,
ny thing to do with particular localities, and
re o. ly mention them now, as statistics for
ur neighbor to observe in his comments upon
alroads generally and Dubuque in particle
Ir,