New-York daily tribune., 1856-05-02
ROUTBs TO CALIFORNIA.

ROUTES TO CALIFORNIA.
We need not now restate the general considera-
TORS which urge upon our Government the policy
and duty of Immediately establishing an Overland
Mail to California and Oregon; if any of our read
ers are still ignorant of them, the fault is not ours.
But we may fairly ask them to consider this subject
afresh in the light cast upon it by recent occur
rences in Nicaragua and at Panama.
The Panama Railroad was noble enterprise,
and has been nobly pressed forward to completion.
We can scarcely name any thing else so well calcu
lated to exalt our National prestige in the eyes
of the civilized world. We sure it should, and
We trust it will, prove lucrative investment to its
stockholders. We believe its business calculated
to increase year by year, until most of the trade
with Europe Of Western Mexico, the Pacific, and
Western South Americs, will traverse this road.
So the Nicaragua Transit enterprise has been pros
ecuted with spirit and courage, and has redounded
to our credit as people We fervently hope for
ifs safe deliverance from it's present troubles.
But our Pacific Mail system is q mistake-a
grand, dashing, magnificent one, if you will-but
none the less blunder at last. We never should
nave suImltttu, tACtpt ioi thO Adohche, v" WIZ
transportation of our domestic Mails from one Sec
ton of the Union to another by an immensely cir
cuitous route through foreign country or coun-
tries. If forced to send them by the Isthmus for
the first year, we should have been prepared to
send them by the direct overland route the next
season.
We are now paying some six hundred thousand
dollars per annum for the transportation of our
Pacific Mails. This is equal to the highest price
paid by the Post Office Department for the trans
portaton Of daily mail each way on a frst-class
route over two thousand miles of railroad, equal to
the distance from st. Louis to San Francisco.
Now letter written in Minnesota TO a correspond
ent in Washington Territory, hardly more than
thousand miles due west must come east to the
Mississippi down that river to Dubuque or Dun.
tith, east again to Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo and
New-YOrk; then south southwest to Aspinwall,
cross the Isthmus to Panama, thence north north.
west to San Francisco, thence by steamship again
to the mouth Of the Columbia, and thence east
north east to its destination, travelling eight
thousand miles, or about the diameter of the GLOBE
to reach point hardly more than thousand miles
from that whence it set out this protracted aud
devious wandering
The practicability and the proper location Of a
Railroad from the Mississippi to the Pacific have
been earnestly and very properly discussed We
believe the enterprise perfectly fcasibe-nay: we
believe there will be at least three distinct lines of
Railroad completed aud in operation between Mr..
Calhouns finland sea- and the great Western
~. nm h. Etptitue of many rpaders of this
article. But, however and whenever these rail-
roads may be constructed, they are not adapted to
| the immediate exigeney. A Railroad to the Pacific
is the work of years, and we need an overland mail
| forthwith. 1t should be advertised at once, con
tracted to the lowest responsible bidder in July,
organized and run through expeditOusly this Fail,
hay cut and cured along the line wherever it exists
and grain sOwed around the several stations for
next years service. Then, having everything in
readiness, let the line be started regularly next
May, and run weekly thenceforth from April to
November inclusive, and monthly through the four
least profitable months, until arrangements can be
perfected for running it more frequently and
regularly Such mail contract woald secure
the opening and constant improvement of good
wagon-rOad across the prairies and over the
mountains; it would soon bring Kansas and Cali
fornia within hail Of each other, and reduce the
mail time between the Missouri and the Sacra'
mento to ten or twelve days. Let the route be
simply protected by U. s. dragons or mounted
volunteers, and Telegraph will traverse it within
two or three years. constructed by unaided private
enterprise and bringing NewYork and San Fran
cisco within an hours CALL
Our Government is acting with commendable
| promptness on the information just received from
the Isthmus; we trust it will act with commendable
prudence also. The treatment of the Transit Com
pany by Walker and his band of fllibusters would
disgrace gang of pirates, and the conduct of the
| authorities at Panama, no matter though the riot
was provoked by insolerce or violence on the side
of our people, was dastardly. But so far are we
from regarding those outrages with alarm in view
of their ultimate consequences, that we should
deem it q positive benefit to have the Isthmus
rigidly closed against the transportation of our
California mails and Government munitions at once
end for ever
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