The Belmont chronicle, and farmers, mechanics and manufacturers advocate. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1848-1855, 1853-09-30
PACIFIC RAILROAD.

1
PACIFIC RAILROAD.
The following view of the great Pacific
Railroad project we clip from the London
Ae'cs. The writer proves himself to be &C.
quanted with the institutions and geography
OF our country great deal more thorou ghly
than the most Of his brethren. The follow.
ing is only one of the many views taken BY
our European friends, of this great National
work. From every part of the civilized world,
the eyes of the people are turned upon us in
open wonder, at the grandeur and immensity
OF the scheme. Some, and a great portion,
it is true. regard this as they do every thing
connected with Republican institutions, with
feeling of envy, Jealousy, and fear, butmany
there are who are animated by noble feel
ing, and regard it as an evidence of the ca
| pacity and ability Of people who are blest
with liberty or as the first link in that chain
which will ultimately bind the whole world
in one common and ndissolube band of
| brotherhood and freedom:
Our active American relatives are in a
state OF great eagerness about a new enter
prise, in the execution of which all the civili-
zed world wish them well. They are not
now sounding the trumpet and marshalling
their forces Tor war against the dwelers on
their own continent, but promising the shrek
of the steam whistle, and promising to open
highway of peace, in the form of railroad,
which shall unite the commerce of the east
ern and western worlds; which shall run from
the Atlantic to the Pacific. 1t was remark
ed, with some curiosity, that while the con-
vention held at Memphis few weeks since
could agree on none of the immediate objects
of their conference, they came to decision
on one point, before supposed collateral, to
support with the whole strength of the South
the project of railway to the Pacific. And
the North and West show them1elves now
no less ready and eager. With the usual ra-
pidity o. their national purpose, they are
bending their wills to propel the deserts where
the buffalo are browsing in innocent security,
and to bridge the rivers which have hardly
yet heard the mingling of human voices with
their own roar. L1nd surveying, with its
seven league boots, is bestriding the prairies,
and making no more of the passage of the
Rocky Mountains, than if their precipices
were flight of garden steps, leading to "fresh
fields and pastures new" The foot prints of
the geometrical giant mark the spots where
stations are presently to arise, and signal
posts to lift their warning fingers, and plat
forms to be laid down, whence the doctrine
and exhortation will day and night be prac-
tically given forth, to "go ahead" The In
dian and the buffalo will hide themselves afar
off, and be equally at loss to know what it
al - Il. H.
er, and the herds of wild horses will scamper
more wildly with the wind, when the steam
horse snorts and shrieks after them from be-
hind. The Mormons will appoint day of
fast and humiliation, because they are not
permitted to find the ends of the earth, any
more than the Jew the end Of their wander
ings. Fhe whales will sink away from the
Pacific shore, and on the opposite coast the
Asiatics will come down to gaze and harken,
from the Russian in his furs to the Malay in
his cotton scarf.
Will it be done' Can it be donet Why
not! ask the Americans. The only wonder
to them is, that 1t was not done long ago.
The Englishman who once saw Pitt and Fox,
and the first number of the Edinburgh Review,
says that he remembers the discovery Of the
American interior, and the noise that was
made by the travels of Lewis and Clarke, who
described such region wilderness as it is
preposterous to suppose can begin to support
habtation and traffic for century to come.
The American is saying, meantime, that his
nation is growing as lazy as any the Old
World peoples; that Lewis and Clarke had
told us all about the interior of the continent
so long ago as before his grandfather died.
The whole thing should have been at work
before this time, and he cannot imagine what
the world is waiting for. The work will no
doubt be begun. When and how it will be
finished is matter of more doubt, though it
is probably only question of time. The last
Congress made an appropriation Tor the pur-
pose of a triple survey of a western route;
and now every Congress, great and small,
from the halls of the Legislatures to the VIII
lage tea table, is vociferously discussing the
project. That the things is to be done, IS
quite settled, and everybody insists that the
success is no less decided. The mere settle.
ment of the country along the route, will pay
for the road and "pant;" and the goods and
passenger traffic will be all profit. All thai,
is disposed OF, with all the antecedents and
consequences of increased production in the
Southern States, increased manufactures in
the North; more hogs killed by millions in
Ohio; more grain grown in the West than
Tamboff could ever boast; visitors from
Kamptschatka and Shanghai and Batavia, to
the Virginia Springs; the transit of the Ara
gos, and Herschells and Faradays through the
hates, to the scientific meetings which will
be held at Pekin, when the Chinese get their
own again. toll taken(rom the world, in pas