Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1853-09-03
From the London News, July 81
The Pacific Railroad and the Integrity and
Stability of the Union.


Our active American relations are in state OF
great eagerneSs about new enterprise, in the
execution of which all the civilized world will
wish them we'll. They are not now sounding the
trumpet and marShalling their forces Tor war
against jewellers on their own continent, but prom
lSing the shrek of the steam whistle, and proml-
sing to open highway of peace, in tie form OF
railroad, which shall unite the commerce of
Eastern and Western worlds; which snail run
from the Atlantic TO the Pacific. IL was lehatkeu'
with some curiosity. that while the convention
held at Memphis few weeks since conIu agree
on none of the immediate objects OF their confer
ence, they came 10 q decision on one point pc
fore supposed collateral 10 support with the whole
strength of the South the project OF railway 10
the Pacific. And the North and w slow them
Selvys now no less eager and ready. WIN the
usual raDiIjty of their national purpose, they are
bending their wills TO people the deserts where
The. buffalo are browsing in innocent security, and
| to bridge the rivers which have hardly yet heard
the mingIing of human voices with their own roat
| Land surveying, with its seven league boots, is
bestriding the pralrieS, and making no more otthe
passage of the Rocky Mountains, than if their
precpces were flight of garden steps, leading TO
''freSh fields and pastures new" The footprints
OF the geomerical giant mark the spots where STA
tons are presently 10 arse, and signal posts 10
list their warning fingers, and platforms to be laid
down, whence the doctrine and exhoration will
day and night be practically given forth, TO ego
ahead.'' The Indian and the buffalo will hide
themselves afar off, and be equally at a loss 10
know what II all means, The prairie Cog will
burrow deeper, and the herds of wild horses will
Scamper more wildly with the wind, when the
steam horse snortS and pants and ShriekS after
| them from behind. The MormonS will appoint a
day of fast and humiliation; because they are not
permitted TO find the ends of the earth, more than
| the Jews the end of their wandering. The whales
will stink away from the Pacific shore, and on
the opposite coast the Asiatlcs will come down 10
gaze and hearken, from the Russian in his turS TO
| the MALAY i'll his cotton scarf.
Will it be done? Can it be done? Why not?
ask the Americans. The only wonder to them is,
that it was not done long ago. The EugliShman
who once saw Pitt and Fox, and the first number
of the Edinburgh Review, says that he remembers
the discovery oil that American interior, and the
noise that was made by the travels OF Lewis and
Clarke, who described such region of wilderness
as it is prepoSterouS to suppose can begin TO sup
port habitatIOn and traffic for a century to come
The American is saying, meantime, that his nallon
is growing as lazy as any OF the Old World peo-
pies; 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 lie cannut
imagine what the world is waiting Tor. The work
will no doubt be begun. When and how 1t will
be finished IS matter of more doubt, though 1t IS
probably only question of time. The last Con-
gress made an appropriation for the purpose OF a
triple survey of western route; and now every
Congress, great and small, from the halls OF the
Legislatures 10 the village tea table, is vociterouS
ly discussing the project. That TIE thing Is 10 be
done is quite settled, and everybody insists that
the success is 10 less decided. The mere settle
ment Of the country along the route, will pay for
the road and 'plant;" and the goods and paSSen-
ger traffic will be all pOft. All that IS disposed OF,
with all the antecedentS anu consequences OF III
creased production in the Southern States, lncreaS
ed manufactures i'll the North; more hogs killed BY
millions in Ohio; more grain grown Ill the West
than TamboT could ever boast; visitors from
| Kamptschatka, and Shanghai and Batavia, 10 the
Virginia Springs; the transit OF the ATagOS, and
HerSchellS and FaradayS through the States, 10 the
scientific meetings which will be held at Pckln,
when the Chinese gets their own again; toll taken
| from the world, III passing this new bridge over
the gulf Of barbarISm-theSe results are all clear
and certain. Ii is quite another matter That Gil
crosses all the serious argument oil the case. In
all serious queStiOnS-a luOTe serious one than is
often offered 10 mans free choice.
| When we state what the question is, namely,
which Of the three proposed routes shall be pre-
erred the doubt is not about the difficulty of hill
and dale, rock and swamp, nor even about the
depth OF the SHOWS, and the intensity of the heats
Serious such matters are 10 the engineer, the
mert liant and the emigrant, there are graver con-
Siderations for the statesman TO weigh. In word
| there is deep and Spreading feeling among the
Americans, that the completion of tLeir EaciC
railway will bring to the test the stability Of theiI
Union, and the apprehension is seen by those who
best know their country and their politics, not 10
be unreasonable. If the northernmoSt route is
chosen, il will be sustained by the whole force oil
European immigration, which certainly won not
be the case with the southern TOUT, which would
not suit either the physical or the moral conslitu-
ton Of the Germans, Dutch, SwedeS, and British,
who are continually passing 10 the west of the
States. The delegates who met al Memphis were
charged with the advocacy Of 4 Southern route
which would lnterSect Texas and Mexico, and
come out On the Gulf of California. The most
prominent hope from the latter scheme is, that the
South will last flourish like the North, and have
what the planters call ":air Pay' for their "pecu
| liar institution" The preponderance Oflne South
Ill Congress has not aVailed to give her prosperity
and she now demands another chance in the first
possession of the grandest railway IN the world
1t is Interesting IL all the world TO know how far
she is right. The worlds opinion is in general we
believe, that railroads aud their activity and slave
ry withitS anomalies cannot o-eXIst. That is our
opinion. We should appIehend that theIe might
be some extension south weStwardS of the inStltu-
ton of slavery, the American form, from the ac-
tIvity which would be created along the line and
al the end of II, but have very little doubt that
slavery would cease IN the existing American
States, which Selling this new method OF mu-
king 1t answer, and its Introduction further down
the line would hardly, perhaps, be an aggravation
OF the present condition of those who would then
be slaves; add TO which there would be a certain
ty of speedy emancipation from the same causes
which would have wrought higher up. Weshould
heartily wish success to the South IN her struggle
for the road, il did not believe that the same
suits 10 her would follow i'll the case of the road
being anywhere, while the danger of the extension
of the area of slavery is less in the OF nUrt
crn route. Either way-any way in which u rail-
road is concerned with all its ipfux Intelligence
and sympathies -transmutaton of slavery into Il
higher order of productive service is secure, as the
South will find in her own caSe-wili find we trust,
with satisfaction she little anticipates. Mean
time, 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 ex
IRENE anxiety, till 1t is whether tile interests
and the views and the temper of the North and the
South can lie so reconciled, as that time and tact
shall consolidate and notexplode the Union which
can hardly be more dear to American citizens than
it is interesting TO all true citizens OF the great
pire of civilization.
SINGULAR CASE OF DAMAGE by LrGmTNING-The
Newark Advertiser contains very circunStantial
account of the damage done 10 house in that