The daily union., 1854-07-29

seal OF iperlshable greatness aAd power The conte-
paton OF natural objects striking and vast leads the
mind irresstiby their Divine Author it tends to
large our thoughts and, let us hope to improve them
TO YOU Mr Mayor and your elow-eltizens OF Davel-
port aud Iowa. 10 the inhabitants of the towns in Illinois
Wisconsin Iowa. and Minnesota which we have visited,
our grateful Acknowledgements due for the kindness
have received We have among you strangers
you have greeted with the cordiay Of friends and
kindred We shall bear the remembrance OF your kindness
with us to our homes and treasure it in our hearts.
To the gentlemen who have planned and carried out this
excursion thanks especially due for the gratca
ton they have afforded We nearly thousand in
number Many of us have been brought up from the At
ntc 10 the Mississippi through the courtesy OF the rail-
road and steamboat companies in the intermediate States
We have been carried by Messls Sheffield Farnham and
the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad Company more than
five hundred miles the Mississippi in FIVE beautiful steam
boats furnished with every luxury the heart could desire
and We are now on our way 10 our homes where we are
TO skan at their expense Some of u.s. before Jour
ney is ended win have been transported by land and
by water than three thousand four hundred miles
the guests of the gentlemen and the companies
ierred TO- Such an example of liberay and munifcence
has no precedent in any country Indeed there's no other
quarter of the globe where such excursion could have
been made Africa and Asia are for the most part the
abode OF barbarous and halcivzed almost destitute
of the great improvements of the age Civilized Europe is
split up into multitude Of independent States filled with
jealousy and apprehension of each other and fenced in by
commercial restrictions which framed with express
view to obstrnct familiar intercourse do not hesitate to
say that party like ours coming unexpectedly upon Gus
tom-house the continent Of Europe with all its mach-
merry for the scrutiny Of persons and passports and bag
gage could not have got through it in the time occupied
by eastern friends in coming twelve hundred miles
from the Atlantic to the Mississippi river In the
thousands of miles of country have passed through
there is authorized to question to our names
business, our desnaton or what we carry with u.s.
This perfect liberty of locomotion, this immunity from all
custom-house nquson is the fruit of the Union OF the
United States and it should be the first wish in the heart
and the first prayer the lips of every honest man, that
| it may be perpetual
| We have here felow-czens to celebrate the
petion of the last link in the first direct unbroken line of
railroad communication between the Atlantic ocean and
| he Mssisaipni riy have
geographically remote from each other but brought into
virtual contact by the power of human genius and enter
prise Some Of to the Mississippi from the AaI
tie-a distance of twelve hundred miesin forty-eight
hours The completion OF the various railways which
form this extended chain is far greater achievement un-
der any aspect-in the abridgment OF time the stmn-
lus enterprise, the augmentation Of the productive
power of the country and the association Of distant States
and Territories in commerce and social communiontnnn
any enterprise executed this continent. The
union of the waters OF Lake Erie and the Atlantic
in 1926, through the Erie canala work for which the
State OF New York is mainly Indebted TO the perseverance
of DE Witt Clinton and his assocateswas far inferior in
importance to this, efficient was in its influence upon
her prosperity and that of her western neighbors From
Boston, the Atlantic to Rock Island the Mississippi
portions of eight States with population OF than
eleven millions Of inhabitants trapersed and in half
the time which necessary fifty years age to travel con-
veniently through Massachusetts from east to west
Iowa. Illinois, Wisconsin, aud Minnesot. side by side
| with Massachusetts,, Connecticut and New York They
have common nerestthe interest recprocay Of pro-
duccrs and consamersthe strongest interest that bind
communities OF men to each other excepting that congeni-
a,y Of principle which springs from identity Of political
| institutions.
/ have no commission ladies and gentlemen to speak in
behalf Of the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad Company,
very small stockholder but larger bondhoder--
Of the very earliest believe in the enterprise and
say sincerely that entirely satisfied with my
nexion with in both relations Messr Sheffield Farm
ham, who took this work into their own hands and have
carried it through In almost incredible short period of
time by their unassised and credit have displayed
degree of energy active perseverance, dscreon and
know ledge of their business worthy of the extraordinary
which their lDhors They
collected in ten months unfinished road and an
expenditure of less than four millions of dollars six
| hundred thousand dollars. They receiving,
finished road aud expenditure of four millions and
half of dollars a the rate of over twelve hundred thousand
dollars per annum.
The receipts Of the road for May the third month after
it put in operation hundred and nine thou
sand dollars Making liberal deduction for the season,
when business is less active the annual revenue OF the
road will exceed million OF dollars. 1t viii defray all
expenses pay per cent per to its stockholders
and leave surplus for extending its accommodations 1t
would not be surprising the Stockholders besides recey
ing per cent per their investments should
have the whole capital repaid in twenty-five years This
is the present prospect and nothing well change 1t but
some great Improvement which may leave railways in the
rear as railways left turnpikes and roads.
/ Now, confess, ] can fancy such Improvement There
is the flying machine, it is true but think the stock
holders may fairly calculate getting their money back
before it is brought to such degree Of perfection TO in
ericrc with them There may and doubt WILL be great
improvements in railroadsn their snperstructure and in
their moving apparatus but these will probably have the
effect Of increasing their producyeness well as their
efficiency The only thn they have to fear is competi-
on with each other and this is incident all
full enterprise To the public at large it is always bcne-
cia and capitalists must take that il is not prejudi-
cis to themselves by giving wise direction to their in
yestmcnts
! Now gentlemen, | believe no who has witnessed
the progress this world will appehend that any
investments here udiconsy made for the improvement OF
the country for facilitating its intercourse recprocay
with the Aanc coast and the ever-movng boundary OF
population westward, oustrip the wants Of prolific
n regon teeing as it literally does with fertility and
T. that fbn cot
the half of the Chicago and Rock Island railroad
have been fully as great as those ON the eastern mm
grafton the swarmng of people westward commercial
enterprises and the intense activity of capital seeking
for profitable investment, give to new DISTRICTS IN the
process of geographical extension, advantage oven
those whose boundaries fixed and which merely
filling up remember Rochester when 1t had but thou
sand inhabitants and when houses springng up with
the stumps of forest trees around them 1t is now beau
tiful city, with forty thousand inhabitants. remember
when Buffalo struggling village with fifteen hundred
men, women, and children, all told. 1t has now at least
seventy thousand inhabitants and of the most Hour
ishng and attractive Of our frontier cities | steam
boat there Friday last three hundred and fifty feet long
and fitted up in respects in style Of costluess une
quaed even by the magnificent ocean steamships OF Mr.
Collins.
Everything about this western region the aspec
Of wealth. commercial prosperity financial power and en-
crgy that all opposition in the execution of its pur
poses of Improvement appeal to all who stand around
me say whether this sketch is oyerdrawn in the outline
little further.
went to Lake Huron in 1919 in the first steamboat ha
was ever upon those waters, aud her first trip-th
HWnlkn-the- Water commanded by Captain Job Fish
do not remember how many days were between Bui
fao and Michilmacknac. know the name of our yesse