The true Democrat., 1854-11-15

know that you will bear with me if I avail my.
 self of this occasion to say few, very few
 words as to one of the matters that induced
 my coming
 Y We of Kentucky want a railroad connection
 with you of Arkansas. We wish to be linked
 with you, to be brought into proximity with you, by bonds of iron. We are entering vigo-
 rously upon the work of establishing a direct
 communication with the Mississippi river at
 Memphis, and we ask you to meet us as broth
 CTS and strike hands with us there stand not here as an advocate of Memphis, though I am
 under personal obligations to her for her hospi-
 tallty-l stand here as an advocate of Kentucky
 and Arkansas. 1 stand here as the advocate of
 project, which 1 sincerely believe will, if ex-
 ecuted be a source of vast prosperity both to
 us and to you. 1 have no right to oppose any
 railroad project within your State, and would
 not do so if had. should be glad to see a
 railroad running through your State to Cairo, l |, should be glad to see one to Helena, l should
 be glad to see one to Napoleon, but we invite
 you to meet us at Memphis. l do not know
 whether all your projected railroads can be built,
 but do know that the one to the Mississippi
 river opposite Memphis can and will be built if you meet the lberality of Memphis and Ken lucky in corresponding spirit of liberality- And cannot allow myself to doubt that YOU
 will do this. All the other great States of the
 Union are striking their railroads toward each
 others centres, and surely Arkansas will not
 hesitate to join in the magnificent enterprise have heard much said about State pride since
 1 came here. l admire State pride. It is a noble principle of action. It is next in noble ness to national pride. But I appeal to you all if true, just, lofty State pride should not prompt you to the adoption of a policy calcu- lated to develop your mighty resources and en- ergles, and to connect you with the other States in grand brotherhood of enterprise and prosperity.
 It may be said or thought by some that your State has not now the means of contributing essentially to the construction of railroad for meeting Kentucky, Tennessee, and the rest of the States at Memphis. But she has the means she has all the means, which the States, that are inviting her into brotherhood with them, ask or expect of her. The Congress of the Nation has empowered you to give from the National domain within your limits alternate sections of land six miles wide not only to the Cairo and Fulton railroad but also to branch from Little Rock to some point on the Msss- sippi river which your Legislature has the pow CT of designating Your Legislature can at least respond to the movements of your sister States by providing that the Congressional appropria- tlon of land for this branch road shall be given for the projected branch to point on the Mis- sissippi opposite Memphis, and by appropriating such other means as Arkansas Is authorized to grant. And assuredly it is not possible for such very able and intelligent body of men, as your present Legislature evidently is, not to see and to know that they can better and more efficiently promote the general interests of the whole i'm mense territory of yonr State by giving the means at their disposal for the opening of direct communication with the rest of the Re- public at Memphis than by giving them for road to some comp paratively unimportant point. Let the one policy be pursued, and Arkansas, with all her Herculean energies set free can enter into successful competition with the other members ot our magnificent confederacy and perchance win at no distant day the title of the empire State of the Union. Let her pursue the other, and she may remain, as at present, shut out to a great extent from the rogressive world around her and almost as incapable paralv- tic of yielding the strength that Natures God has given her. If she uses the means she pos sesseS for the construction of railroad, let her take good heed that it be great thoroughfare Ol pOIUOu Ol d great duu UIlcCG tHOrOuguldre over which the trade and the travel of the N a. tion shall pass. Her object in the application of the noble boon placed at her disposal by the General Government should not be to make town here or a town there, it should be to make herself prosperous and glorious State, to open to the great masses of her population through out all her wide domain facilities ofintercommu- nication and commerce with the rest of man. d of, Arkansas, and is she afraid to meet them?- They do not hesitate, upon any plea of State pride, to seek eagerly communication with her, and has she any such State pride as would prompt her to keep them shut out from her bor- ders? What sort of pride is it that has pre- vailed for centuries over the councils of China and Japan? Not such pride, am sure, as animates the hearts of the free and liberal peo- pie of Arkansas.
 ;. The great west, now understood as embracing the region west of the Mississippi river, has been mainly peopled within the last twenty years. It is a great empire of itself, extending from the Great Lakes on the North to the Mexican Gulf on the South and from the Father of Floods on the East to the snow-covered Sierras of the West. Nature has scooped out three great valleys as the drains and outlets of this region, that of the Missouri river in the North that of the Arkansas river ill the Centre, and that of Red river upon your southern bor der. Through each of these three great valleys, the trade of mighty States is destined to flow. Let Arkansas be true to herself, and her Central and Southern valleys will be the most impor tant of these and the first opened to the rest of the Union. From the eastern bank of the Mis- sissipp, railroads are radiating to all points of the compass. Connect Little Rock with the Mississippi at Memphis, and branches will be extended to Fort Smith and the border of Texas. Arkansas will be in connection with the whole Nation. No longer isolated as at present, no longer shut up as it were within her own geo. graphical limits, she will be in communication with the whole boundless territory of the Re- public.
 7 Passing up and down the Mississippi river opposite to Arkansas the everlasting cotton wood is scarcely relieved except by an occasion ed wood- yard. The traveller naturally suppo- ses that all beyond the rivers bank is an unln- habitable and impenetrablc swamp. Yet your two counties of Crittenden and Mississippi alone bordering upon the great river, have a oraater ouantitv of prOductiye soil than the