Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1857-04-07
TIE PACIFIC RAILROAD QUESTION.

Tbs. proposition 70 embark the General 6OVerh-
Eaent in the construction Of Railroad to the Pacific
shared 50 largely the interest and attention OF the
last Congress, to give assurance that it will be
pressed with increasing zeal upon the next In view
Of the popular and representative character Of our
government, so important and momentous an enter
prise should not be actedEpOn except in response 10
the deliberate and well-ascerained sentiment OF the
sovereign people, who compose the States and have
the exclusive right to shape and fashion the policy OF
their government and the future Of their institutions
In consideration of this fact propose to discuss
somewhat the merits of this question, through this and
succeeding numbers Of our paper with the view Of d-
recting public attention to its most important and
practical bearings.
Granting the 1ull importance Of this work, as
commercial and industrial enterprise claimed for it
by its most interested and earnest advocates the
gument but strengthens in favor Of keeping it en-
tirely disconnected from all political action gov
eminent control, and leaving it exclusively to the
enterprise and energy Of the people themselves
The American people, more than any other nation
upon the globe, have proven themselves equal to
every necessity and demand and have shown that
free people, unencumbered with the clumsy shackles
Of government further than to protect and secure
them in their rights can do for themselves than
government can do for them In all other countries
they have proceeded upon the false dogma that the
people were intended for the government. With US
we have gone upon the reverse idea that government
is intended for the people. The people have not in
stituted government to do their business for them
but simply to protect and secure them IN the great
est liberty compa ible with mutual rights, that they
may work out their own good in their own way, &C
cording 10 their own will and pleasure The oppo-
site of this idea tends depreciation of the i'm
poranee Of the citizen and to an increase Of the in
portance Of the government. Its effect is to cen
tFalizaton-an absorption Of all power and Preroga-
tive in the General Government-an abandonment Of
the great idea of individual and State sovereignty
which now serve as the very basis and cornerstone
of our free republican institutions.
Without intending to argue, for the present the
constitutional authority Of the government to take
the control and construction of this particular work
we assert the imprae,a5iity of its doing so; and in
sst that to urge such policy upon the country is
strongly calculated to retard the progress it would
make if left entirely to the operation of natural
causes The artificial machinery of government is
not more intelligent than the people who compose
-lor its capacity, the thing created, be consd-
cred greater, than they, the people, who created It,
Individual enterprise has gone Pari PassH with
the practical wants of the country, upon the
very simple principle that people left free viii al
ways take care of their own good, better than gov
ernment can take Of it for them. In proof Of this
we have only to review the history Of our own people
from the settlement of the infant colOniesheir un
ceasing progress to power, wealth and greatness
and in all that refnes and improves the material We
fare Of the Masses and eeyates humanity, from the
degradation and oppression in which too much gov
eminent had placed it, to that noble affinity witt
deity itself We have only to look back three quar-
ters Of century-to the primeval wilderness which
our fathers found, blooming as the rose-to con
template the handful of hardy colonsts, in cOmpari
son with the millions of happy beings who now pop
uIate our country-to remember the narrow cOnfne
of the thirteen original States in contrast with ou
present area Of territory stretching from the Allan
dic to the Pacifc-tO take in our view the densel,
crowded and growing cities, whose creation rival al
most the wonders of the magicians lamp-tO con
template cur whitening sails on every ocean, bearing
the rich commerce Of every cline; the floating pal
Ce covering our inland waters tapping every point
trade and carrying the rich products of diversi
Rei 50 and climate to their grea. common reservoir
to let the mind conceive the realities Of steam
electricity as they span the country from center t
circumference, annihilating space, thousand fol-
increasing the intercourse, enlightening the mind
AM humanizing the great family of man. A fret
aad unrestricted people have done all this not tn
government. They who made the government, in
tended it but as an auxiliary means, and not as
thing greater than themselves.
But aside from these general views, and with NOR
immediate application to the subject in question le
US ask where, in the history of all this prosperity
are the great works Of improvement for the materia
interests Of the people, that the government has
structed that the people could not have done? VIVA
has the government ever accomplished in shorte
time or with more economy by transceRding he
limits and undertaking the work Of her citizens
Fortunately we have but few instances to illustrate
This point could not be more fOrcibly presente
than was done by strong friend Of internal i'm
provements Senator Douglass, in letter to Gov
Matteson, Of Illinois, written in 1854:
Let US suppose that twenty-five years ago, whel
We first began TO talk about the construction Of rail
roads in this country the Federal Government haC
assumed to itself jurisdiction Of all works Of that de
scription the exc fusion Of State authority and in
3iyidual enterprise In that event, does any one be
lieve we would now have in the United States four
teen thousand miles Of railroad completed, and fteeI
thousand miles in addition under contract? 1t is
he presumed, that if our own State had Frustrated
itself in humble suPplcaton at the feet Of the Fed
eral Government and, with folded arms, had waited
Recommendations the national treasury, instead
Of eTerting State authority and stimulating anC
combining individual enterprise, should now hav
i'm Illinois three thousand miles If railroad in pro
cess of construction Let the story Of interna
;,,,,yoD,evts nv the Federal Government be fairly
written. and it will furnish conclusive answers tC
these interrogstories. For more than quarter oil
century the energies Of the national government, to
Cether with all the spare funds in the treasury, Were
directed to the construction Of a McAdamIzed roaC
from Cumberland. in the State Of Maryland to JET
ferson City in the State Of Missouri, without being
able to complete one-third Of the work. If the Gov
eminent were unable to make three hundred miles
Of turnpike road in twenty-five years. how lOnl
would it take 10 construct railroad to the Pacific
ocean and 10 make all the harbour and river i'm
provements necessary to protect widely extended
aud rapidly increasing commerce on a seaCoast 81
extensive that in forty years have not been ahlt
70 complete even the survey of onehalf Of it, anl
an lake and river navigation than four times
as extensive as that of se8cOasC These questions
are worthy Of the serious consideration Of those who
think that improvements should be made for the ben
eft Of the present generation well as for our re
y,ote posteritv: for / not aware that the Fedora
Government ever completed any work Of internal i'm
movement commenced under its auspices.
The operations of the Government have not beer
sufficiently rapid to keep pace with the spirit Of tn
ave The Cumberland read, when commenced, m8y