The Belmont chronicle, and farmers, mechanics and manufacturers advocate. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1848-1855, 1853-09-30
WHOLE NO. Sss

sing this new bridge over the gulf of barbar-
lsm-these results are all clear and certain.
IL IS quite another matter that engrooses all
the serious argument of the cause. I'm all
serious question: more serious one than ia
often offered to free mans choice.
When we state what the question is, name.
ly' which OF the three proposed routes shall
be preferred, the doubt is not about the diff
fculty Of hill and dale, rock and swamp, nor
even about the depth of the SHOWS, and the
! intensity Of the heats. Serious as such mat.
ters are to the engineer, the merchant and
the emigrant, there are greater considerations
for the statesman to weigh. In a word, there
ls deep and spreading feeling among the
Americans, that the completion OF their Pa.
enc railway will bring to the test the stabil,
ity OF their Union, and the apprehension is
seen by those who best know their country
and their politics, not to be unreasonable. If
the northernmost route is chosen, it will be
sustained by the whole force of European i'm
migration, which certainly would not be the
case with the southern route, which would
not suit either the physical or the moral con-
stitution OF the Germans, Dutch, Swedes, and
British, who are continually passing to the
west OF the States. The delegates who met
at Memphis were charged with the advocacy
OF southern rote, which would ntersect
Iexas and Mexico, and come out on the Gulf
OF California The most prominent hope from
the latter scheme is that the South will at
last flourish like the North and have what
the planters call "fsir play' for their "pecu.
liar institution" The preponderance of the
south IN Congress has not ayailed to give her
prosperity, and she now demands another
chance in the first possession of the grandest
railway in the world. 1t is interesting to all
the world to know how far she is right.
The worlds opinion is, in general, we be-
lieve, that railroads and their activity, and
slavery with its anomalies, cannot co-exist.
This is our opinion. We should apprehend
that there mi ght be some extension SOUTH
westwards of the institution of slavery, in
the American form, from the activity which
would be created along the line and at the
end OF it, but We have little doubt that sla-
very would cease in the existing American
States, which are seizing on this new meth
cd OF making it answer, and its introduction
further down the line would perhaps be an
aggravation Of the present condition o: those
who would then be slaves; add to which there
would be certainty of a speedy emancipa-
ton from the same causes which would have
wrought it higher up. We should heartily
wish success to the south in her struggle for
the road, if We did not believe that the same
results to her would follow in the case of the
road being anywheres while the danger of the
extension of the area of slavery is less in the
case of northern route.
Either way-any way in which railroad
is concerned, with all its influx OF intelligence
and mpathies--'ransmutation of slavery
into higher order of productive service is
secure, es the South will find in her own case
will find, we trust, with a satisfaction she
little anticipates. Meanwhile, the contest
about the route is likely to be very serious
one. and, when that is settled the working
of the project will be attended with extreme
anxiety, till it is seen whether the interests
aud he views and temper of the North and
South can be so reconciled as that time and
tact shall consolidate, and not explode the
Union, which can hardly be more dear to A
merican citizans than it is interesting to all
true citizens of the great empire of cvliza.
ton.