Southern shield., 1852-05-01
From the New Orleans Bulletin.
 HELENA, Arkansas.

| tlemen-With your permission, IWish to address the people of New Crlens on a question directly touching their ineres;.- No city can advance in the scale G social, moral and financial greatness without nat oral, or, in their absence, artificial lines of communication, of character thatc,n tran sport rapidly and cheaply products md pas sengers from the regions of county that are or can be made tributary toit. It isun- necessary to enter into argument prove what is self-evident. Cities are built by commerce, and commerce is sustaired only by affordng it easy and rapid means of transit. Naturally, New Orleans possesses more of the elements of grea. city than any other in the South; naturally, the en- tire valley of the Mississippi is tributary to her. But these sources of communication, the rivers, with the exception oi the lower stem of the Mississippi, are only available for commercial purposes part of the year. Low water, ice, obstructs and renders un- certain the navigation; true, without artifi- cial means of communication, he rivers would still answer, by avaling of high wa ter season, to bring to N. o. thevast pro- duct of this immense valley. There is mo- thing so ruinous to commercial interests as uncertainty in its movements. Hence one low water season produces more commer- cal distress and ruin in New Orleans, than two years of certain navigation by high wa ter can alleviate and remedy. The East ern and Southern Atlantic cities, knowing the uncertainty of navigation on our West ern rivers, with an energy and zeal highly commendable and worthy of active mita ton, have gone to work and tapped the head sources of our valley by railroads The certainty and rapidity with which these roads transport the products to the sea
 board, insures to them the carrying trade for all the region to which they penetrate and all the upper tributaries of the Missis- sippi are becoming, and must become ob solete ideas, for great commercial purposes Their uncertainty of navigation is the lra- mary cause of this state of things; he arti
 ficial lines having been built up by it, the rivers will never again be resorted to as means of trnsport. The important and most interesting question arises-Has New Orleans lost forever the handling, selling and exporting the products of the upper sec tions of the valley? To answer this ques- ton with truth, we must say that all that eastern portion of the upper section of the valley, that is directly tapped by the roads from the Atlantic cities is gone and gone forever The antagonist of New Orleans in this contest for the trade of that region has so decidedly the start, it would be . useless effort, waste of energy and means to attempt to bring it back; it is gone east over, or through the mountains, to New York and Boston; and south, and southeast over the Georgia roads, to Savannah and Charleston. What then can New Orleans do! Must she abandon forever the idea o
 that commercial greatness and importance which necessarily attached 10 her position before the drying up of the upper rivers by railroads! lt is useless to regret the loss of this commerce, and equally useless for N. Orleans to reflect on herself for her apa- thic course, in not binding this vas region to her by iron roads, that would have held ii forever in advance of Boston and New York, Charleston and Savannah.
 New Orleans has still a resource eft her, ampe-nay more than sufficient--to ele- vate her 10 the greatest height of commcr
 c'al importance %nd srrandeur, that hel ".oSt enthusiastic friends ever perdicted for her in their moments of reveling faQcv.- That source is in developing and securing the trade ot the Western section of tte up- per division of the valley and that portion oi the lower part west of the Mississippi Here is country boundless in extent, of lneXhaustible fertility, possessing not onlv agricultural resources, superior to any oth- CT portion of Gods footStool, but also vari- ed and unbound mineral resources. The commerce of this great country New Or leans can secure, by prompt, energetic, viz orous action. But to do it, she must still hold on to the available part of that great river which has made her what she is. The lower section of the Mississippis has not and never can become an obsolete idea.- With navigation for first class steamers, uninterrupted by ice or low water, rail- roads will never proftably compete with her. In the extreme railroad excitement that the fear ot commercial destruction may generate, this old Father of Waters may in fancy be laid on the shelf; but time, the cor rector of fancy delusions will prove the fal- lacy ot treating this river in a sang foid manner. Its supremacy in ease and cheap ness ot transporting products and passen- gers, in good time, over any other rival mode will always be maintained. Then, in the correct system ofimprovementf for New Or leans, the lower section of the Mississippi
 must be retained as the great trunk, and all
 the artificial lines that are to be constructed. must be so directed as to be feeders. It is natural for N. o. to feel that her first in. vestments and efforts should be made on roads leading directly out of her limits, and this erroneous feeling can only be corrected by the reflection that she already possesses.