New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1854-07-14
! 4 nsv Orleans AID lsoEthss.sseIa Railroad.

a NsvI Orleans ara NorthssasseTn Railroad,
s NunxsEn j
In nv lssk standardization alluded to the
nov established certainty that the Tchuaptepeo
Isthnsus will, id Jew years, be spanned BY an
intaroouauic raj Way. We know very well thai
this railway MID BIT have been already far adj
vaIiced IL ward COMP elton, If not actually I'M
operation, but for tho capriciousnsss and bad
fnith Of the Mcxicsn Cover msnt 10 1881 That
this line of communication will no sooner be
ouened than IL viii become thoroughfare for
perhaps the greatest travel and tho greatest
loomneroe the world has ever seen, cnn admit Of
! little doubt And that the bulk Of this travel
| and commerce must pass through New Orleans,
Mobile Or Pensacola, is obvious without argu-
ment It is only question which Of these
cites is to secure the lions share Of the magni-
| fcent prize.
| inunication, that, without the North eastern
Railroad which have endsayored to advocate,
| New Orleans will be absolutely shut out from
competition for the Tehuantepec trade and
Istfavel. The North eastern and South western
lsAlahama Road being required BY charter to
conform its gauge to that Of the Mobile and
Ohio, It's cars will descend to the wharves Of
Mobile without breaking bulk at the junction /;
while the only communication with New Orleans
will be by way Of Brandon and jackson, dis
lance not less than twice as great, with the adj
fsiiti0naI disadvantage of two trans shipments.
Under such circumstances, competition will be
| impossible; and the only reason the anxieties
of New Orleans are not already awake on the
subject, is, that The Tehuantepec project has
lost to them the seeming Of q reality Ono OBJ
stacle after another has prevented its consum-
nation, until perhaps not few begin to look
upon it as an exploded idea. The company Of
Col Sloo is nevertheless actually at work, con-
STRUGGLING a plank road by way Of beginning !;
and there can now be no reasonable doubt that
| the railroad will Immediately follow. Even the
possibility of such q consequence should turn
the attention of New Orleans strongly toward
the question what will this trade and this travel
| be worth, for which she has not at present even
| a chance Of competition
In the year 1851, the Tehuantepec Company,
organized under the Garay grant, caused to be
| published a statement on this subject, by VIM.
| NJ Burwell, Esq. of Virginia. which has been
probably read by most Of the business men. I
\ intend to do little more here than to reproduce
some Of Mr.. Bnrwell's results.
From New York to San Francisco the shortest
route at present is by Nicaragua, and the pas
sage occupies about twenty four days. From
the same to the same over land to New Orleans,
| and so yiG Tehuantepec, is . distance two
| thousand miles less requiring a time Of transit
of only seventeen days. The two thousand
| miles cut off are miles Of ocean, and in place
If twelve hundred additional ocean miles are
substituted as many Of land conveyance !; 80
ithat the sea exposure by this route is reduced
below that on the other by more than the
| breadth Of the Atlantic. This great reduction
| Of the dangers and the confinement of the ocean
| passage, and this diminution of the time Of the
l trip BY an entire week, are considerations which
viii determine nearly sll the travel between the
/ Atlantic and Pacific States to take the Tehuan-
tepec route All the lighter and more valuable
merchandise passing from ocean to ocean will
l fall into the same channel Of conveyance; and
this too, will be the route Of the expresses, and
of the Atlantic and California mail. Upon the
4 magnitude of these great interests it would be
mere waste Of time to dwell
But Mr.. Burwell has shown that trade and
Itravel more extensive than those of the North
American continent will be attracted toward
the new opening to g the great South Sea- 7
| London and Liverpool now communicate with
Eastern Asia-first, by the Cape Of Good Hope;
secondly, by the Isthmus OF Suez and thirdly,
| by Panama. With the completion Of the Pana-
i ma Railroad, now near at hand, this last route
| will rise into high Importance, and will enable
Liverpool to communicate by ocean steamers
with Canton in fifty days. The time CON
sumed at present in the transit over the Suez
route is fifty -four days. But, supposing the
i Tehuantepec Railroad to be built, the time be-
Il York and the airline chain Of railroads
through Washington, Knoxville, Tuscaloosa and
New Orleans, will be reduced to forty 1.-TWO days.
The advantage will be twelve days over the
\ Suez route, and eight over that by Panama.
Can we doubt that o vast European trade and
travel il to take this direction
i When Mr.. Burwell wrote. Chattanooga was
4 the lowest pointon this great air line chain to
4 which existing charters extended He supposed
that cirouitous connection might be made, by
means Of the Selma and Tennessee Railroad,
4 with Selma ON the Alabama River. Writing
| with the careful design not to alarm New Or
leans men, he assumed, quite gratuitously, that
4 the great travel and trade reaching this point,
4 would then proceed, yia Mobile, to New Or
leans, in order to take the Gulf steamers here
| for the Coatzacoaloos River. What man, look
ing at the map, will recognize this as even a
i possibility New Orleans is somewhat nearer
20 Minatitlan than Mobile, it is true; but to
| take this direction would involve two unneces-
sary trans-shipments, one at the Lake and
the other at the Mississippi River. It is sufi-
GENTLY evident that wherever the stream Of
travel and commerce once reaches tide water,
i it will thence pursue an undo Waiting course di-
rectly arcross the Gulf. Mobile, therefore, and
not New Orleans, nor even Pensacola, though
her projected road to Montgomery should be
constructed, will under those arrangements en-.
joy the benefit Of the immense trade and travel
which is to find its interoceanic channel at the
lsthmus Of Tehuantepeo.
4 By the construction Of the North eastern and
South western Alabama Railroad, the facilities
of Mobile for monopolizing these benefits, to the
exclusion of Pensacola on the one hand and O
New Orleans on the other, will be greatly in
creased, By the connection with the Mobile
and Ohio Railroad, cars heighted at Chatta.
nooga, four hundred and fifty miles distant
will deliver their goods in twenty four hours OF
the wharves of Mobile, without breaking bull
by the way. Through the proposed New Or
leans and North east road these same cars coult
proceed in . straight line directly to New Or
leans equally without interruption If New
Orleans value these advantages and means t,
secure them, this road must be built No othe
expedient will answer. The necessity is self
evident. But, if she shut her eyes against con
yiction, and neglect to add this last link to TIL
great trans union air line railroad chain, moth
ing can be more inevitable than that the Tehu
antepec trade and trayel--be they worth mucl
or little-will be lost to New Orleans withou
remedy.
II designed this communication for my last
but, with permission, will present few con
Guiding observations in one additional paper.
J, F. A. P. B.
Gen. VIM. O. Butler, of Kentucky, has writ
ten TO Washington City declining the Governor
ship Of Nebraska. e
In the vicinity of Henderson, Ky, the appl