Washington telegraph., 1852-11-17

Rail Road from the Mississippi to the Pacif.
ic coast, will cost about $50, 1000, 900, and,
when completed, cannot reasonably be ex-
pected to pay less than six per cent. upon
the investment. In order that the stock
may be taken without delay. it isproposed
that the General Government shall guaran-
tee the payment of this sum Of six per cent
per annum to the stockholders, for the peri
cd of forty years, which will settle all doubts
as to the security of the investments, and the
speedy completion of the work To idem.
nifty the Government for the risk consequent
upon this guarantee, the company will be
required to transport the mails, government
stores, troops and munitions of war, free of
charge, for like period of years. For this
transportation, at the present time, by the
way of Panama, around the Cape. and in
land to her numerous cut posts, required by
treaty to be kept up, as well to protect Mex
leo from Indian depredations as our own
citizens from danger. the Government is an
nually paying larger sum than she is ask
ed to guarantee to this Company and then,
should this road, as it doubtless will, pay
six per cent. profit on the capital invested,
the Government will never be called upon
for one dollar, and will have saved, in forty
years, not less than S150,000,000
Although this is a project, magnificent in
its conception, and apparently extravagant
in its operations yet It has stood the test Of
the most severe scientific scrutiny, and l
doubt not will bear the application of the
practical test. So we'll am [ satisfied of its
practicability, that would earnestly recon-
men it to your most serious attention; and
to give it practicable shape, I advise that
you will memorialize Congress upon the SUBJ
ject as well as instruct our Senators, and re-
quest our Representative, to use all honorable
means to procure for it a favorable conside-
ration by Congress. And I have no doubt
of the success of the movement, if proper
ly conducted.
But Arkansas has an interest in the con-
struction of this road, other than those of
the general and national character I have
just considered. The prosperity of her
people, and her advanceme ent as State, are
deeply involved in the construction of the
Arkansas Central Rail Road, from Mem
phis to Fulton on Red river Let this road
be completed, and Arkansas becomes at once
the great centre and thoroug ghfare of travel,
commerce, wealth and enterprise as she is
now, geographically, the Centre Of this great
Model Republic. Along the pathway of
Rail Roads, gather wealth and enterprise
the best class of citizens follow in their train
churches and schools spring up; and gene
raj intelligence, virtue and good morals per-
wade the community
The Governor then gives examples of
prosperity in other States, produced by Rail
Roads, and continues.
And if like causes have not ceased to
produce like effects, | may assure vou as
Massachusetts has accomplished in the last
ten years, under the influence of Rail Roads,
what it required two hundred years for her
to accomplish without so Arkansas, within
the next ten years after the contemplated
roads, will effect more good for herself and
her citizens, than she can in all time to
come without them. If Georgia, ruined
and Respondent as she was, can by energy
and enterprise roll back the dark cloud that
lowered upon her fortunes, and make her
self the first State in the south, Why should
Arkansas despair? What can she not do,
with natural advantages unrivaled by any
Nation or State on earth-a climate both
pleasant and healthy, and her soil unsurpass-
ed in fertility and adaptation to the growth
of those production in which consists ma
tion's wealth By their happy diversity,
in one section of the State, abundant crops
of corn wheat and other descriptions of
grain, may be produced while in the other,
immense fields of the great southern staple
are spread out to our view, as superior in
quality as abundant in production
Our entire eastern shore is washed by the
Father of Waters, that great inland sea,
serving as common base upon which may
rest our whole system of Rail Road i'm
provements. In conjunction with these. the
daily development of mineral deposits opens
inviting prospects for the investment Of cap
ital, and must soon become a source of SUBJ
stantial wealth and an inducement to in
creasing population.
make this slight allusion to our natural
advantages as illustrative of the fact that the
same advantages must accrue to Arkansas,
by the construction of Rail Roads, that have
resulted elsewhere, and that too in an in
creased proportion, as our natural advan-
tages exceed theirs.
But. can these roads be built? I con-
tend that they can. Our resources are am
pie, and the people themselves are prepar.
ed for the work. tits proposed to construct,
first: The Arkansas Central Rail Road,
from Memphis to Fulton; second The
Road from Helena to Van Buren, or Fort
Smith and, third Through our State. that
portion Of tho Road from St. Louis to New
Orleans, with branch to Gaines Landing.
As have illustrated. by energetic action,
on our part, the capital for the construction
Of tho tr,,nE rood