Southern shield., 1854-01-21
Arkansas R0ad-State Pride and
 State Interest"

In the last weeks issue we undertook series of remarks under this head, and we now resume them where we then left of.
 On the South the Cairo and Fulton road connects with that "Mediteranean of the New World" the Gulf of Mexi- co, at Galveston. The Gulf of Mexi- co is the modern realization of that dream of the past, the North West passage to India:-here the riches of the East-its diamonds, golds, silks, teas, spices will seek exchange for the cotton-stuffs and breadstuffs, the forgings and fabrics of this continent. In the Gulf of Mexico the tropical productions of the Carrlbean sea, of the Oronoco and Amazon rivers, will change hands, for the rice of Texas, the corn of Arkansas, and for the products of the loom, the bench, the anvil, the mine, of our own and all the States lying on the Northern extension of our grand highway.
 Nor must we overlook the fact that with the extensions of our great road North and South, Gall of which are now in rapid progress) embracing all the varieties of climate between the sugar lands of Southern Texas and the grass region of the North-its track passing from the sugar-belt to the the cotton-belt, the cotton belt to the tobacco belt, the tobacco-belt to the hemp, flax, grain, grass, and cattle country-the CAIRO and Fulton road, with its connections North and South, will show an activity of way-business unequalled in the world. Under this point of view lies prominent consid- eration of the influence of this CAIRO road on the Industrial development of our State. The country between the Gulf of Mexico and Red River is pure ly Agricultural, and so indeed for the greater part is that between Red River and the Arkansas. Capable of sus- taining an immense and affluent popu- lation of Apriculturists. the population south of Little Rock must forever look elsewhere for supplies of grain, hogs, cattle, and all those other articles for which our own State North of the Ar kansas River is so eminently adapted; supplies of castings, furniture, cot ton cloths, and all those other fabrics for which the road to CAIRO will make the North western portion of our State famous. The manufacturers and far mers of Arkansas then will, as the nearest producers, stand unrivalled in supplying the wide and varied wants Of the Gulf ports and the intermedi- ate country.
 The last point of view in which the Fulton and CAIRO road presents itself bears on its relations with the contem- plated Railroad to the Pacific. The N. York and Boston lines of Road meet the Pennsylvania Baltimore lines at Vim cinnes. Vincennes then, being the point where all these cities come into direct conflict, for the business of the West IS connected with each of them by the shortest possible routes. From this common point all these lines will con- Rect directly with us at Cairo, and consequently the terminus of our Full ton road at Cairo secures the influence Of all New England, the Northwest as far as the Mississippi, and the States or the Eastern seaboard as far South as Virginia, in favor of the location of a Pacific Railroad through Texas. Indeed, Mr. R. J. Walker and his as- soclates in their splendid humbug, had determined publicly on Cairo as their starting point, in order to secure the adoption of their scheme for a route through Texas. Such then, are few