Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1853-03-02
The Amazon and the Atlantic slopes
of South America.

No. l..
The policy of commerce. and not the
policy of conquest, is the policy OF the
United States.
The spirit of the age, animated by pri-
vate enterprise, is every day seeking new
fields for It's peaceful triumphs, and COM
merce can accomplish throughout the
world no achievements like those which
note its coming. and its marches up and
down the Amazon, and other great rivers
of that greatest of watersheds, the At
lantic slopes of South America.
Men may talk about Cuba and Japan;
but of all the diplomatic questions of the
dav, the free navigation of those majestic
water-courses, and their tributaries, Is to
this country the most valuable and lmpor-
tant. IL surpasses them all. 1t is para
mount.
The country that is drained by the Am
azon, if reclaimed from the savage, the
wild beast, and the reptile, and reduced
to cultivation now, would be capable of
supporting with it's produce the population
of the whole world.
1t is a rice country. The common yield
of rice is forty for one. 1t is reaped five
months after planting, and may be plan
ted any time of the year. Thus the far
mer may plant one bushel of rice to-day,
in five months hence he will gather
forty from it. Planting these forty, he
may, in another five months gather six
teen hundred bushels. In ten months the
earth yields an increase of a thousand
fold and more.
Corn. too. may be planted at any time,
and in three months, fit for gathering
Thus the husbandman there may gather
four crops of corna a year. Its seasons are
AN everlasting summer with a perpetual
round of harvest.
1t is the policy of commerce, and com
mcrcc is the policy of these United States,
to open that river to steam, and its val
ley TO settlement and cultivation. and its
earth, air and waters to the business and
wants of trade and traffic.
There, upon the Atlantic slope OF
South America, in the valley of the La
Plata, and in the valley of the ANA
zon, Nature in all her ways has been most
bountiful.
There the vegetable kingdom displays
is forces in all their most perfect gran
deur, and in all their might, and there,
too. the mineral kingdom is most dazzling
with its wealth.
In that region of country, wagon roads
are few, turnpikes unknown, and the first
railway has yet TO be built and though
the La Plata drains country nearly as
large and many times more fertile than
our own Mississippi valley; and though
that of the Amazon is twice as great and
its tributaries many times longer, more
navigable and numerous, yet the steam
boats upon those waters is problem al
most untried.
In the valley of the Amazon the plow
is unknown and the American axe, the
great implement of settlement and civili'
zation, is a curiosity.
For more than three hundred years the
white man has been established in tha
Amazonia basin, and for more than three
hundred wears it has remained Il bowling
wilderness. The European has made M
mpreSsion-none-no, no, not the leaS
upon its forests. How long shall thi
continue to be so
Has diplomacy no arts, commerce M
charms, by which its rivers may be open
ed to navigation, it's forests to settle
ment, its pumpas to cultivation
What commerce has done for Soutl
AheElCd Is HOLhluS5 as 'tO "LSAt ~ hAAA W.
1t has fringed only the Sea-coaSt of tina
continent with settlement and cultivation
The great interior has never been touch
ed.
The heart of the country is CONNER
cial blank; nor is it to be reached excep
through the powers of steam, and th,
free use of its majestic water-courses,
1t is of this country the importanc,
of setting it up. of sending there the i'm
migrants, the Steamboat, the axe, and tn,
plough, with the messengers of commerc,
that wish to speak
Let as, therefore, first see where it is
how far off it is, and what is its actua
condition, and then we will be enabled tn
better to Judge as to the true course o
policy which it would be the best for tn
commercial nations of the earth to tax
with regard to it. TLJE .-.-.f ...
The semi continent of South Ameri
CO is very nearly IN the shape that of
right-angled triangle. Its hypothenus
rests on the Pacific one of its legs ez
tends from Cape Horn to Cape st. Rogue
Here the right angle is formed with tn
other leg which extends from Cape 81
Rogue, in latitude five deg. south, to Ca
bo La Vela, of the Cariabian sea, In la
titude 12 deg, north. -, ~ ~
The longersleg is that between Cape
Horn and st. Rogue, it is $500 geogra
phical miles in length. The other leg
has only g. 500; but the hypotenuse whicl
stands ON the Andes and rests on the Pa.