The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-06-11
COL. BENTON TO THE PEOPLE VI
MISSOURI.

.srreat central highway from the Mississ'pp'
"a ,he Pacific" lie publishes. along with H.
,wo letters, one from Antoine Leroux' apauSe
If ST. Louis, but for many years resident oil
Taos. New Mexico, aud another from Colonel
Fremont, relative to the best route Tor the con-
templated highway. From the letters oil
.o,rse. he arrives at the conclusion that the
Mississippi terminus should be st. Louis, and
he sustains his position by arguments some.
what better than are generally used in support
If a foregoue conclusion. tie says, on this
ou,e the,esis not a mountain TO be climbed,
,or a river or swamp TO be crossed, nor hill
n he tunnelled-that there is wood, water and
anil for continuous settlemen-ihat coal is
known 10 be on many points along the line,
tbe whole of which lying South of latitude
80 deg, is traversable in winter. He wishes
the whole of il to be made by the United
States, so far as their territory extends, which
is nearly the whole distance, leaving the two
ends where il traverses States, to be regulated
by State laws. This would be from the Mis-
souri, State line, at the mouth of the Kansas
TO a point on the California State line, opposite
the end of the Sierra Nevada at Walkers
Pass a distance of Oh degrees of longitude,
or las degree Of Longitude Is, in that latitude,
Sc milesl about 1900 miles, with Southern
detection, as it went West, of 81 degrees
The two ends, be says, are already begun by
State authority, both in Missouri and Calfor-
MIA. There is already steamboat transporta-
tion of several hundred miles at each end, from
San Francisco half way mp the San Joaquin,
in California, and from St. Louis TO the mouth
of the Kansas. When the new territory shall
have been established, the Kansas will be nav
igated several hundred miles farther up. Sta
ges, also, and every sort OF land conveyance,
would be at each end of the route. We extract
the following passage:
"My idea is, that the road should be built
by the United States by the creation of a stock,
hypothecated upon the public lands, and pay
able at fixed period al the Federal Treasury;
and that an adequate force should be put upon
il to do the work al once. We think nothing
of leyying an army of fifty or an hundred thou.
sand men for war here is an Object of more
moment to the United States and to the world
than many wars and L should be in favor of
seeing an army of labOrers employed upon it
at once, and the work done in seven years. in-
stead Of bidding at it for lifetime. And why
mott We can have the money and the men
and on a line of 1900 miles there would be
room for so 900 men to work without elbow
ing each other. 1t would only be forty men
to the mile. The pre- emption system would
give the money and the settIers-the rig hit kind
of settlers-men who would defend themselves
from Indians, and raise provisions for the sup
ply of the road, and occupy it on both sides,
and from one end to the other, the first season
thew were allowed to do so. The Indian title
should be extnguished on breadth of fifty to
q hundred miles, and mile reserved for the
different tracks of railroads, and for a common
road, and for Geographic lines. 1t is work
for posterity and for three continents; and we
should elevate ourselves to the grandeur of the
occasion. The main street in the city which
Alexander the great founded to supercede
Tyre in the East India trade was miles long
and thousand feet wide, with a colonnaded
and covered tootway of one hundred feet on
each side. There were men of ample ideas in
those times, aud still t was not the age that
built the pyramids. From the summit OF those
pyramids said the cOnqueror OF the Name
lukes, forty centuries look down upon u.s.
The time will come when forty centuries may
look back upon this road, and they should not
be left to repine at the improvidence which
would dwinde it to the petty calculations of
jobbers, cOrporators and SPECTATORS"
He thinks the United States ought 10 build
the road, and let it out for terms of seven or
ten years to contractors who will carry all
freight, public and private, and all passengers,
individual and governmental. at the same rate,
the lowest responsible bidder to take the con.
tract, and furnish his own cars and run them
If underbid at the end OF his term, his sue
cessor is to take all his stock at valuation. He
regards il as mere illusion to undertake to
carry for the government gratis, since contrac.
tors are always sure TO get out of the govern
ment more than the freight and passage money
would amount to.
We give the concluding passages of this let
ter, and regret that orr limits allow us to give
no more:
In view of the magnitude of this work-in
view OF our dominion over the public land from
Missouri to Calltornia-in view of the immen.
sity OF travel and business upon it, great at the
start, and to increase for longer time than the
pyramids have stood-I propose to have the
plan OF this road, or rather system of roads. on
scale commensurate 10 its future destiny, be
that as great as II may. lpropose toIeserve a
tract mile wide for all sorts of roads. rail and
AAAoN"oSA'oSot ouO piulu Olu English ROAD
such as we have been accustomed TO all our
lives, in which the farmer in his wagon. or en-
his horse, and driving his cattle, may 90 with. y
out tax or fear, with none to run over him, or
make him jump out Of the way under the pc
nalty OF being crushed. We shall want tracts
for many railways, necessary in future time.
and all unconnected and independent of each
other. No monopoles on such mighty line
OF travel and transportation. Two margins of
an hundred feet each should be reserved for in.
dependent and rival telegraph lines.
have said the public lands on the line of the
road will build il. Ten or twelve miles an each
side will do il, on the pre- emption nrine;oIs
81 % an acre; and the meritorous ss,,iars
upon that principle will be the guard 10 nroteet
il. the hands to help make it, and the cni,;ys.
tors to help furnish supplies to the isbore,s@
when done ii should be free, thai ia M tolls
upon ia road of that length will no, hear
tolls, except slight to keep il IL rena;,Ma tram
slt duty on foreign commerce-a sIipn, chsrge
such as all nations exact from loreign com.
merce traversng its territory-would be the
proper source for the repairs which Womb he.
come necessaryi and thus Europe wonld in
demnify Us for the use of our road. -
1lIizEss: II is thirty years since frs, ha-
~ w'iIe and TO, speak on This subiect Of
sne'lcan and Asia,ic communications and in