New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1854-01-19

With the little he EDa1 e"HlDiiH0~ - '-D
rsuoe Ct four feet ten, tie competition between Ere
DurkirL and BuE.lo is fair as fair could be "A
70. Erie has % Road Of her own leading 10 the sea
hoard but let her projected Road TO PhlliePhii wa
eurburv be completed, and passengers AMI freight
-,-erirg tie Ohio or Lake Shore Road viii be free
% hoes, between the rival routes to the Atlantic,
vlieb viii stand OF o footing of perfect equality Il
they preer to go via Sunbury TO Philadelphia they
will cbarre at Erie; If tiey choose to try the NV
York and Erie route they will change at DJnkirk If
thew prefer the New-YOrk Central they will change at
Buffalo In either case they will change just once be-
tween Ohio ard the Atlantic port Of their choice
whereas an artificial break on the Lake Shore Road
r,ie comrels ,s-o changes on the way. Even If th
State Line Road through orr State TO Buffalo were
be taken up and relaid, this difficulty could only
part be obyisted for if our part Of the State Lire
Pond were made six feet wide there must De another
break 1T Buffalo if four feet ten, everything tskngte
New. York and Erie route must change second tine
st Dunkirk Only by laying trO separate tracks otTo
di7ers. gauges from Erie to Dunkirk, distance Of 10
miles, could this objection be overcome Ihs, Lac
would Ike TO have done and the money it should cost
taken out Of other folks pockets for her benefit bit
she might as reasonably ask that Perys hotia should
be rebuilt and his Battle of Lake Erie fought over
again every year for her profit and amusement butat
other peoples cost
We regretted to see The Boston Journal fell into the
error Of stating that the New-York portion Of the
State Line Road was originally Of different gauge
from the present II never any other gauge than
~ four.feetten The only foundation for the story is
the fact that the Erieans Unanswered good deal to
comue,sa break Of gauge at their place, aud make it
the virtual point of junction between the East and
West To this end, they negotiated with the New
York aud Erie directors, who agreed to meet item a.
the State line with six-feet track Then they opened
or renewed negotiations with the Central or Buffalo
folks, proposing to break faith with the Dunhrk or
New-York and Erie interest if they could see chance
to do better This dOuble-dealing at length imleled
tie Buffalo and Dunkirk interest to strike hnds,
agree on the Ohio gauge for the Lake Shore Road and
refuse TO treat with Erie at all Thus the Erie and
North East Road was left to ITSELF and proceeded to
lev down a sixfeet gauge which it has recently Ieen
fit to change.
Ten Millions of People are directly interested inhe
progress and issue Of the struggle now centered on
Erie; while the principles affirmed by the ro~iy
domination in that borough would destroy the vaueof
all Railroad investments If Erie and HarbOr Creek
may destroy Railroad bridges and interrupt great n's
of Mail Passenger and Commercial transportation BE-
cause a break of gauge is not made or perpetuatedfc
her special advantage POHghkeepsie, Hudson, NOrwak
Toledo, and Adrisn may ali do likewise until the Mai
are a month in trayersing distance now swept over
in three days Nay. any petty village or township
whose highway has been straiehtened 10 let RAILROAD
pass can tbereupon break down the bridges tear Up
the rails and pow the track, until Railroads are maze
impossible and we revert periorce to the days when
forty miles travel was accounted good days work
If the Erie ruffiaDism is permitted to triumph by
forcing the Railroads to compromise under penalty
of the interruption of their trains aud destruction OF
their properly, then Chaos has come again.
We call the attention of citizens, and especially
OF the merchants to this extraordinary state OF things
- ~ -;iaa.~ 10. -ao,e,h' The few
persons whose property are directly assaed and de-
soyed should not be left longer to fight this unequal
battle alone They may may at length be driven in de-
spsr into compromise, unless the whole East asd
West whose rights and interests are affected, shall
rally to their side. Business men of New-York are
you doing yoaT duty in the premises Cincinnati and
other Western cities held meetings on this su }ject
weeks ago.
That the cowardy villains who bear sway in Eric
kTor that they feOns is clear enough BY their put
ting pettieOats and hiding their faces in sunbonnes
when committing their last Outrsges. Men who are en-
forcing legal rights do not stone and beoul witnesses
who are simply identifying them with view to future
prosecution. Yet this was done at Harbor Creek when
the bridge last destroyed there and Messrs Den
nis and Coughlin barely escaped with their lives SO
igain with Mr. Tracy at Erie on Tuesday. The simple
fact that the cuprts repe Identification act of
hostility proves that they perfectly that their
acts criminal their object is meanly selfish and
basely rapacious.
Had not the country been practically without Pres.
idert, we should have had this matter finally settled
weeks ago. The moment a deliberate and formidable
resolution TO defy the mandates of the Federal Judi
ciary was eyinced in Erie, the President should have
sent force there fully adequate to the protection of
the United States officers engaged in serving and en-
forcing process aud the repression of all further out
rage So did Washington in the case of the Whisky
Rebellion in and about Pittsburgh so did John Quincy
Adams when Georgia undertook to rob the Cherokees
Of their lands; Gen Jackson did when the Nullif
cation fever ragged in South Carolina; so even John
Tyler did when DOrrism with its Foundry Legislature
undertook TO subyert the legal Government of Rhode
Island Never before was there seen 10 this country
humiiating an exhibition of the weakness of our
National authority, when iItrusted TO timid and
rresoute chief Losses have already been inflicted on
the citizens of this Republic by the Erie War to the
amount of millions of dollars without the least adyan-
ge to any one unless it be that the wreched creature
who signs himself Governor of Pennsylvania may have