The Kansas herald of freedom., 1855-02-17
BY G. w. BROWN & co.


attainable by road all the way on oul
own soil, and under our own laws to be
flown over by vehicle as much superior
in speed and capacity to the steamboa,
as the boat is to the ship, and the ship to
the canal. Thanks to the progress of the
machanic arts which are going on con-
tinually, converting into facilities what
stood as obstacles in the way of national
communications. To the savage, the sea
was an obstacle: mechanical genius, in
the invention of the ship, made it facil-
| ity. The firm land was what the barba-
rian wanted: the land became an obstacle
to the civilized man, and remained so
until the steam car was invented Now
the land becomes the facility again-the
preferred element of passage-and admit
ting velocity in its steam car which
rivals the fight of the carrier pigeon, and
punctuality of arrival which may serve
for the adjustment of clocks and watches.
To say nothing of its accompaniment
the magnetic telegraph. which fashesintel
ligence across continent, and exchanges
messages between kingdoms in the
twinkling of an eye-and, compared to
which the flying car degenerates into a
lazy, tagging, creeping John Trot of a
traveller, arriving with his news after il
had become stale with age.
All this commerce, in stream so much
larger, with domestic road for its track,
your own laws to protect it, with convey
ances so rapid, and security so complete,
lies at your acceptance. That which jew
and Gentle fought for before the age Of
Christianity, and for which Christians
have fought both Jew and Gentle, and
fought each other, and with the Saracen
for an ally: all this is now at your ac-
ceptance, and by the benefcent process
of making a road, which, when made,
will be private fortune, as well as pub
lie benefaction-a facility for individuals,
as well as for the government. Any 9TH
er nation, upon half pretext, would 60
to war for such road, and tax unborn
generations for its completion. We may
have it without war, without tax, without
treaty with any nation and when we
make it, all nations must travel it-with
our permission-and behave we'll to re-
ceive permission, or fall behind and lose
the trade by following the old track Civ
ing us bond in the use of our road for
their peaceable behavior. Twenty-Five
centuries have fought for the commercial
road to India; we have it as peaceable
possession. Shall we use it? or wear
out our lives in strife and bitterness,
wrangling over miserable topic of do
mestie contention while glorious prize
lies neglected before us? Vasco de
Gama-in the discovery of the Cape of
Good Hope, and the opening of new
route to India, independent of Mussulman
power-eclipsed in his day, the glory of
Columbus, baked in the discovery of his
well-diyined route by the intervention of
a new world. Let us vindicate the glory
of Columbus by realizing his divine idea
of arriving in the east by going to the
west.
The enterprise would be trifle to the
wealth and resources of our business pop
ulation--only some thirteen hundred miles
of road over ground the most favorable,
and under skies the most auspicious, and
with material the most abundant and con-
venient and the prices of labor and of
iron returning to reasonable rates. More
than half the distance is smooth prairie,
to cost no more than railways in the prai-
ries of Illinois the remainder is nearly
level-only slight undulations-with an
almost total exemption from the high
cuttings, deep filings up, long bridgings
and tunnellings, which constitute the
gravity of the expense of railroad making.
Say fourth more than the cost of Illi-
nois prairie road, (the wide gauge being
understood, } and you have but $50, 900
to the mile-S26, 600, 900 for the whole
What is that to the resources of our busi-
ness populations? There are many,
twenty-six men, in our extended Union
who could build the road themselves
and own it, as their private and princely
estate-themselves and their posterity
after them.
Safety as well as proft-security as
well as policy-protection against calam-
ity, as well as prospective good-require
the construction of this road. What sus-
tains and stimulates the national industry
at this time? California gold ! that gold,
the weekly arrival of which is the hfe's
blood of our daily industry! and one
months default of which would be the
paralysis of our financial, commercial,
and industrial world. And how do we
receive that gold now? Over foreign
seas, and across foreign territory, and
after circuit of six thousand miles-lia-
bic to be cut off at any moment by the
cruisers and privateers Ito say nothing
of fleets of any power with which we
might be at war ; and several specks of
that portentous cloud now appear above
the line of our political horizon. And
this is the place for these political consid-
erations. Such considerations address
themselves to the political power; and
that political power is here. Congress IS
charged with the protection of the ma
tional interests, and ships, and troops. and
missions, are put in requisition for that
purpose. A reader, cheaper, a more
effectual mode of protection to that COM
merce which belongs to the Pacific
which comes from California-would be
to make this road through our own ter
ritory-placing it beyond the reach Of
foreign depreciation; and at the same
time, making it means of keeping the
Indians themselves in order.
Pliny. the elder, accounting for the
commercial prosperity Of some ancient
cities, attributed it to their form of gov
ernment-republican-and because that
form admitted the greatest freedom Of
enterprise. The moderns have seen the
truth of this profound remark in latter
times-seen it in Italy, in Holland, and
in various parts of our America We
are republic, and great one; and our
fathers have given proof of the truth of
Pliny's axiom in the success and extent
of their commercial undertakings. Their
sons have not degenerated. The maxim
eff iPliny is not disparaged. The numer-
ens Mercantile Library Associsaons