New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-06-24

The bids for carrying the overland mail to Cali
fornia lately opened at Washington are seven in
number: two via Texas; three from ST. Louis via
New Mexico; two from the Mississippi, via the
South Pass and Great Salt Lake.
Were the decision to depend merely upon the
considerations which ought to determine 1.-THE
convenience that is and benefit of the parties who
have the chief interest in the use of this route and
for whose accommodation, nominally at least it is
to be established-the Administration, We suspect,
would have very little hesitation or doubt as to the
bid that ought to be accepted. This however we
are inclined to fear will be the very last cOnsdera-
ton by which the question will be determined.
Having had the use and control of Mr.. Pierce for
the four years Of his administration the Southern
nulfers are desperately bent upon using Mr.. Bu-
chanan in the same manner to rake their chestnuts
out Of the fire. regardless how much his fingers
may be burnt in the process; and whether that
compliant old gentleman will have spirit enough to
refuse to be so used yet remains to be seen.
This overland mail route to California is sort
Of temporary substitute for, and designed to be the
forerunner Of Pacific Railroad; and what inter-
"
very southern direction, was pretty plainly set
forth in the memoir of the Southern Commercial
Convention assembled at Charleston, S. c., in
1854, addressed to the Governors Of the Southern
States. That memoir, after dwelling upon the
necessity Of providing in season for the possible,
and, as it implies, quite probable contingency of
the dissolution of the Union, proceeds as follows:
1T is therefore not improper for to suggest that
nuch as we reed Southern railroad 10 the Pacific
RCbc rlie tn the Union, should need II infinitely
more it would be absolutely and literally ndispensa-
hle-,f he North and The South 10 separate.
Thus only could we maintain foothold upon the "a
cifc coast Thus only could we pre;en to rival the
Moth in the struggle for commercial preeminence.
Offering the shortest, the most practicable and the
cheapest route from The Pacific TO the Atlantic. a
Southern read would bind California 10 with hooks
If steel and max ing separation an ncaeuablc loss to
the North il would go far to render dissolution OF
the Union impossible
The Southern Pacific Railroad, il thus appears,
was not and is not merely commercial project, but
much more political one, getting the weather
cace as it were Of the North, so as to give the
Dsunioni.ts the opportunity to choose their own
time for going of, and in the mean time TO hold the
North in complete, servile, degrading mercenary
subsection.
Such was the scheme of the Southern Pacific
Railroad according to the published statement OF
lis own fcster-fatbers; and the Southern Pacific
mail route is but another crow out of the very
same nest, not quite so big perhaps, but just as
black ard just as hungry. 1t remains to be seen
whether Mr. buchanan is prepared to allow him.
.elf to be made the catspaw of these intriguers
and TO be induced by them to sacrifice the CONNER.
c;s convenience Of the nation TO this pitiul little