The Kansas herald of freedom. [volume] (Wakarusa, Kan. Territory) 1854-1860, 1855-04-28
Missouri and the Pacific Rail Road.

There never has been time when mat
ters of greater importance to Missouri,
and to the whole country, were under
consideration, than at the present With
no public commotion, no enthusiastic
demonstrations of the people, Col. Ben
ton as fit climax to the long series of
public acts which he has performed has
gone among the capitalists of our country;
the hard-working. energetic, business
men of the nation, has presented the
claims, and insured the support of the
greatest national work which historian
has ever recorded, and has, we trust,
procured the protection of government to
those who will perform it. We call the
Pacific Railroad national work, because
we consider it national in its location, ma
tional in It's advantages, and above all,
national in its binding and strengthening
influences.
Unlike the favorite of the administra-
ton, Bob Walker and the nulli6ers, it
has no need of a ten million appropria-
tion to pay for the privilege of crossing
Santa Annals domain and unlike, too,
the rival road of the Canadas, and the
extreme north, it has no need of assistance
from ''her Myssty's" subjects to remove
the impossible barriers of snow, which
for half The yearinvest that frozen region.
But laid in the heart of our own domain,
connecting by an almost unvarying line
the two extremes of our country, its
whole extent, in climate mild and salu-
brious, and through country, for the
most part, rich and fertile, it is eminently
American in its position and American
in its practicability.
But the chief importance of this work
lies in a consideration too likely to be
overlooked in the facility of intercourse,
and harmony of interest which it pro-
notes. Notwithstanding all the prating
of demagogues, the Union will be pre-
served, as long as the masses feel that
there is unity of interest between the diff
ferent positions of the country. With
all Difference to compromises, (and we
would not have one of them violated, J
we consider the Mississippi river sweep
ing on its course from our northern, to
our southern boundary, with its wide
spread arms taking hold of the Businesses
of the Alleghanies, and the Rocky Noun
tains-we consider this river greater
security for the prosperity of the Union,
than all the compromises which our legis-
lators have ever formed. It is the COM
promise of nature and of destiny, and
cannot be repealed. Through its chan
mel there is unity of interest, of which
the people will not deprive themselves.
But the east and west have no such COM
promise, and we have e-no surety that
country, rich in mineral and agricultural
resources, and all the elements of national
greatness, as are our western territories,
would long submit themselvesto the per-
lis of tedious sea-yoyage, or tiresome
journey through savage wild, to the
seats of legislation, practically more dis
tant than the Canadas from England
But contrast this railroad, and it is but a
pleasant excursion. while the extremes of
our country are literally doubly bound
together. by "6ars Of iron"
Mineralogists tell US, that at the mo-
ment of formation of a crystal of quartz,
ordinarily, a single isolated spear OF erys-
tai is projected, through the mass, around
which cluster, with more than adaman-
tine firmness, the symmetrical accretions
of the whole mass. This railroad is the
"nascent spear" shooting out through
the wide expanseof our western territory,
permeating the whole extent of our coun-
try with It's crystalogenic orce, and uni
ting it, firm as the granite ridges OF our
western mountains.
But it is of the interests of Missouri
and st. Louis, that we would particularly
sneak. There has been much said in re-
lation to the progress of our sister city
and State, and we now see Chicago. with
her decade of roads radiaaing over the
whole surface of the Prairie State. But
let Missouri awake from her iethargy,
and press the Pacific railroad through
her confines, and let st. Louis men invest
their capital in this great enterprise, and
when it is completed, though itshould be
our only road, we may answer their
boastines with all the compiacency of the
lionessto the prolific little fox. "aaifns sed
conegs.n We have one. but it IS hon.
ST. Louis now occupies the place where
the God of nature designed that the rich
products of the Missouri, upper Missis-
sippi and Illinois should find MART
Here must the cargoes of their lighter
crafts be reshipped. and here the wealth