The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1854-06-17

oil last SaDDatn morning, We Ae'PN'' ~
copy Of the same for publication in one OF the
st. Paul papers.
wR. MARSHALL, l.. A. BABCOCK,
DANIEL. ROHRER, 5. r FOLSOM,
A. e.. FULLER, }. NJ. STONE.
RICHARD JACKSON, ii. +. MAsTERsoN,
L. MARVIN, AS. ELFEIT,
e. W. MOORE, L. b. SUTTON.
Railways in their Higher Aspects:
a Discourse delivered by EDWARD d. NELL,
June IL, 1854.
Isaiah x 3. The voice Of him that crieth in the will
derness, Prepare the OF the Lord make straight
In the desert highway for God. Every valley shall
be exalted and every mountain and hill shall be made
low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the
rough places plain.
Judges 6. In the days of sh sar the Of Anath,
In the days of Jacl, the highways unoccuped and
the travellers walked through byeways.
The Prophet Isaiah in uttering this language.
foretold in fgurative expressions, the pioneer
work Of John the Baptist, yet it primarily was
applied to the return Of the Hebrews from their
captivity in Babylon.
Not only in the days of Shamgar, but during
all of the earlier periods of the history of the
world, there was but little international inter-
course. The means Of transportation were OK
ceedingly limited, and there were few roads
that were common thOroughfarcs for nations.
Here and there, over the mountains and
through the valleys, there were the trails of the
hunter and restless adventurer, and pathways
Of sheep and their shepherds, but seldom was
there highway of any costlincss extending be-
yond the national boundaries. 1t was the policy
OF the day to intrench or wall themselves
around, and cut off the INSTRUMENTATION OF
the people. When, therefore, great bodies OF
men were necessitated to move toward some
distant land, a preparatory work was needed.
Pioneers preceding the army or caravan, made
h xI,a.,
the rough hills and filling up the marshy val
leys
DiOdorus, an ancient historian, in giving an
account of Scmiramis, Queen of Babylon, says
In her march to Ecbatane she came to the
Zarcean mountain, which extending many fur
longs and being full of craggy precipces and
deep hollows, could not be passed without TAX
ing great compass. Being therefore DESTROYS
OF leaving an everlasting memorial of herself,
as well as shortening the way, she ordered the
precipices to be digged down and the hollows
to be filled up, and at great expense she made
shorter and more expeditions road, which to
this day is called from her the road of Semira-
mis-"
Babylon was separated from Judea by wide
and dreary country, and no doubt pioneers
were literally sent on before to "make straight
in III, desert a highway"
Since the advent of the year eighteen hun
dred and fifty-four, the community in which we
dwell have been greatly interested in the pro-
positions for making q straight iron highway
from the head Of Lake Superior to this point on
the Mississippi and from hence to the waters of
the Pacific. connecting with bracelets of iron
the Maids of the st. Lawrence, Mississippi and
Columbia.
Every mail is watched with eagerness, in the
hope that it may bring the intelligence that the
National Congress has taken measures for eX-
alting the valleys and lowering the hills and
mountains that lie between our Mediterranean
and Pacific.
The week that has passed has been signalized
by the arrival of hundreds of our fellowco
trymen on an excursion in boats as far excel
ling in splendor the renowned barges of the lux
urious Cleopatra, as those surpassed the Osier
vessels Of the Briton, or the birchen canoe of
the Ojibway,-who have been gratilied and
astonished by continuous journey in steam
vehicle from the shores of the Atlantic to the
head Of navigation Of the mighty Mississippi, in
the brief space of few days.
ITO every thing there is a season, and time
to every purpose under Heaven saith Eccles-
tastes.
Fatigued with the multiplied duties of last
week, unified for severe thought and bcliev-
Ing that the theme can be appropriately discus
sed, without infringing upon the sacredness of
Che day, or deviating from the dignity of the
pulpit, We enter upon the consideration of
RAILWAYS AND OTHER MODES OF INTERNATIONAL
COMMUNICATIONS, IN THE HIGHER AND REI.IGI-
OTIS ASPECTS.
In the first place. their construction and re-
pairs decrease Mleness. The greatest political
curse is an idle population. Wherever men are
Standing about the wharves and market-places,
with no labor for their hands, there are the TO
menting watts of vice. The work-shO of the
great enemy Of the human race are here con-
structed. and the evil one is always busy in in
citing theft, and riot, and murder. Let q ma
tion cease to have enterprise and disregard in
ternal improvements and there is soon con-
centratOn OF wealth among the few, while the
masses, with nothing to do, detcrorate and in
lest the highways and by-ways, like the Laza-
rOni of Italy.
But If nation has in process Of construction
great thoroughfares, there is demand for la
Dor and the most illiterate can find something
Tor his hands to do, in the digging OF canal in
breaking stones for turnpike, or in making
the cmbankmcnts of a railway.
Among the greatest prcservativcs of our
country from corruption and decay, have been
her vast internal Improvements, which have for
years been absorbing the bone and sinew of the
population. Men as soon as they escape from
the confined holds of emigrant ships, are not
suffered to lounge about and prey like evil
birds upon the vitals of society but are hurried
of by hundreds to work for fair remuneration,
win wheelDarrOws, shOvelS and plckaXcs,
upon some vast public thoroughfarc.
AS the thoughtful man passes the line of a
great route of travel, and notices the number
0f rude dwellings erected in forest wilds by
day iaborers who otherwise would have been
pests to crowded city, he can but bless his
Tod, for putting it into the minds of men, to
construct roads, to act as drains for the sur
plus population of crowded cities of civiliza-
ton. While preventing Incidence, we remark
tho m, hot Il
fares erpdnd the mind of the nation.
He who engages in any great work Of art,
obtains breadth of mind not otherwise attain
able
1t is impossible to assert with prcciseness, at
what time or by whom those vast piles of ma
sonary, known as the Pyramids of Egypt and
wondered at by the whole world were erected
but who can doubt that those who we're opera
.tives in those Titan:ic structures, had larger
views, that those whose days were passed. in
filling fields in some remote part of the valley
of the Nile.
Co In modern time the lahoro. u.l,o oss;s.s l.,