Arkansas true Democrat., 1857-07-07
From the Cincinnati Railroad Record.
X Pacific R. R. from the Mississippi or
 Some Other Point West of it.


 Pacific R. R. from the Mississippi or
 Some Other Point West of it.
 If we look at the structure of the globe, we find the great resources of the land always con- sderaby distant from the ocean-often, to a certain extent, accessible by navigable rivers, bay or inland seas but still, in greater part, be- yond trade and commerce, except by roads, Roads in former ages, though greatly ad vanta- geous, could not equal even the advantages of sailing vessels Places between which such vessels could ply, had great superiority in this respect over those between which roads were the only mode of transit. The invention of railroads has nearly capitalized places noao, so far as communication by shipping and by railroad transportation are concerned. Heavy arcles, par tcuarly those combining bulk and weight, are still more advantageously carried by sea than by land; but for passengers and large part of merchandise--mnch of it extremely valuable the modern railroad has the pre-eminence.-- Keeping in view these facts, we may safely affirm that for the largest areas of cultivation, and for the greater value of merchandise trans ported from place to place, railroads will be most used II trade and commerce. That which the ocean, including its bays and the rivers as far up as Underwater runs, supplies of human subsistence and comfort, is probably not more than sixth of the supply contributed by the land. Coal and iron, and the cereals, besides immense varieties of agricultural products, must reach water navigation, in far the greater part, by railroads. They form, with facility and rdpld1ty unknown to navigation, so many radii of transportation tending to common centers, and accumuating in each of these great cen- ters an amount of wealth which, for the want of them, the ancents could not have. A few great cities they might and did have rvalng the moderns; but such a multiplicity of them, filled with the varieties of agricultural produc- tion and valuable manufactures, was to them impracticabe. Railroads advance the wealth of State more than any other mode of con veyance, because they are constructed upon and intersect in all directions the land, which, and the people upon the land, are the great produ- cers of everything ministering to human sub sistence and comfort. have seen it stated, in an account of the very recent railroad meeting at Bristol, Tenn, to devise plan for direct steam lue between England and the waters of the Chesapeake Bay, that the railroads of Vir gnia have increased the value of he property of that State third. They have done more than this for Ohio; they have at least doubled that of Illinois. Similarly to their operations in those States will be their effect in regard to the Pacific railroad A great trunk railroad is
 
 lateral roads, communicating with regions be- fore unknown to trade, and abundant in the means of 1t.
 The Parific railroad from the Mississippi or some point not far west of it, by II Paso and on to San Diego, with branch to San Fran cisco, IS the most magnificent trunk railroad on the globe, or which 1t Is possible to construct with equal facility. It passes through regions of agriculture iu the south western States-in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas-of the very highest value; 1t claims cotton also as one of it's chief products for transportation; and 1t sweeps on in the neighborhood of mineral wealth, now n process of delopmeut, of the most valuable kind As appears from letters of Mir. c. D. Postou, Agent of the Sonora Ex- plorng and Mining Company, very valuable silver ores have been found and tested which promise great per certum of the precious me- tai, and which lie, in part, within few miles ol this road. And -Aere is good reason to be- lieve that large tract of country in the Gads- den purchase Is characterized by immense mine ral wealth; a mountain of iron has been disco vered. The very fact of this discovery would argue, unless there were in that locality d Strik- ing anomaly ln the laws of nature the exist eucc of coal abuudautly in the same vicinity. The Provldentla arrangements for mans sub sstence are not imperfect; beside the iron mine the coal mine is usually placed that the utility of the former may be fully developed; and so we have ill this instance, disinterested testino- ny that coal exists not far from this iron moun- tain. A live oak forest has also been found, which, for the purposes ot the railroad, will very probably be emIDently useful. These important scOver eS of the Sonora Exploring and Mining company, with the other details of their proceedings, show that besides their direct D q |: II benefited by their activity and intelIgence- This will very probably prove land of sjluer; and passing on a few hundred miles further, we come to the land of gold, our own Califor- nia and to that great ocean which embosoms a fifth continent believed by many no less to abound in gold than California itself. The vast shores of Asia, too, swarmiug with population, will become tributary to this railroad
 Solomon built Tadmor, or Palmyra, in desert where there were but few oases but his charact T for wisdom was justified by the event. He saw its favorable situation for a caravan commerce with Central and Eastern Asia, ac- cordln1 to the then existing state of population and commercial intercourse, and Tadmor rose to be queen oi cities. Ii was simply as great depot and thoroughfare of commerce that 1t reached its emuence. In the long space, and on the lne of fertile country which the Pacific railroad bv Fl Paso and the mouth of the Cha wllI occupy, we may certainly calcu- late that cities will arise of at least a second rate magnitude. lo not speak of those which will bc the termiul of the roai, but of those intervening. Those countries need only the facilities of this railroad to bound forward as Ohio, Illinois and other $ ates have done by railroad Improvements. A salubrious and in a large part f it, delightful climate, and soil productive of aiI tle ueceSsarieS and many of the luXuries ot life, will contribute an mportant part of the advantages of it's superior local po- sltlon. And to crown the whole, the work is fairly begun, will be pushed forward with euer- gy and nompcted to the discomfture of croak- er.. who. Aexarllo- will share m l-s henetits