The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1857-08-01

i plomatio comptAJ0ss W0at W0J1i0 tnt
Zine ssy = : ierfse II every capital in En-.
rope. The editorial sta9 has always beer
made up Of able nsn, and il now command.
the best pess in England; but no writer il
| suffered to claim the 'authorship Of any
paper. everythiag good, from whatever
Quarter. come out editorially. The paper
thinks for the whole nation its columns
daguerreotype British ideas and British On.
derstandina. Bold but conslderate, it -.
sails alike tho peasant and the prince, and
not unfrequsntly drops hint to Majesty
itself.
Suah i the London Times such its pre-
sent pcuer and iRHuence in the Old World
and VT in I'll that eonstitutes> newspaper
enterprise the Times 10 far outstripped BY
the leading Journals Of our own country,
We boast Of progression, the Times Of an
tiquity--the essential difference 10, one il
British, the other American.
rnE EoSERLANDMAII.
The contract for carrying the United
States Mail between the Mississippi River
and San Francisco, was awarded last week,
as has already been announced, to BuTrER-
FIELD, DINsxoRE, FARGO Il Co. Personally.
we are unacquainted with either of these
parties; but they are well known TO the pub
lie as experienced, energetic and enterprising
Expressmen, who will be likely to secure
the very best service possible over the route
selected. In the selection of contractors the
President has done well, evincing wise re-
gard for the public Interest. We do not
doubt that he has, from the beginning, de-
sired and designed to pursue, in this connec-
-. ol,, thon ovUhY mi YnO
surely rebound to the public good. And
here let US take opportunity to repudiate the
Interpretation of our former articles on this
subject adopted by certain Democratic CO.
temporaries. We have never charged the
President or his Cabinet with any corrupt
or venal disposition in connection with this
mail contract,-and any such supposition
was entirely gratuitous and unwarranted.
The law authorizing the overland mail ser
vice, reposed wide discretion in the hands
Of the Administration. The Postmaster
General, with the Presidents appreciation,
had the right to award the contract to whom
soever he chose, and to select the route
which seemed to him best,-and that with
out paying the least regard to the character
of the bids put in by parties desiring to per-
form the service. The case differed in this
respect from that of ordinary mail-letting,
where the law requires that the contracts
should be given to the lowest bidder, &c.
Bearing these facts in mind, it will be seen
that we charged no corruption when we ex-
pressed our belief that, despite the bidding,
it had been determined to award the contract
to Mr.. BuRcH, of California, ria the South
ern route. Nor did we intimate that any
venal motive had prompted or controlled that
determination. NJ. BuRcH is gentleman of
large capital, much experience, and more
competent, perhaps, than any other single
man in the United States to execute this
great mail contract. He had influential
friends, too, who urged him upon the Post
MASTER General:, and we repeat to dny,-and
Mr.. BURcH will not deny it,-that he had
reason to believe three months ago that he
would certrinly get the contract-tha it was
as we'll settled in his fav OR, almost, as though
the Cabinet had formally decided it. We
repeat that it was the Postmaster Generals S
determination to give it to him down to a
very recent period,-a fact which report
of the Cabinet discussions on the subject
would make quite apparent. We do not say
that he came to his determenation believing
at the same time that he was sacrificing the
public interest to his private wishes. We
have not questioned his conviction that the
Southern route is the best of all. What we
have questioned was the judgment which
decides in favor of that route,-believing
that practically it does sacrifice the public
good, is unjust to a large portion of the
Union, and perverts to sectional purposes
what Congress intended should be national.
These who insist that an administration can
do nothing unwise except from corrupt mo-
tives, must bear the responsibility Of any
such reflections upon the President in any
thing we have published on the subject in
hand.
So much for our position. Phe President
has overrulcd the determination to give the
contract to Mr.. BURCH. In the matter of
selection Of a route, however, the South has
triumphed. The contract awarded provides
two examinations ON the Mississippi, Memphis
and st. Louis. Starting from these points,
the two mail trains will form junction at
Little Rock, Arkansas, and thence proceed
to the Rio Grande, Fort Fillmore or Dona
Anna, and Fort Yuma, and enter California
at its extreme Southern corner. The great
desert, Of winch we have heretofore spoken,
is crossed by this route, but it is designed to
supply water there by digging Artesian Wells
for which also Congress recently made an
app ropriation.
The selection Of st. Louis as one Of the
starting points will probably quiet, to some
extent, the tempest Of popular feeling in the
West against the selection Of the Southern
route; but a little exrerience inthc operation
of the contract will assuredly draw upon Il
popular condemnation. The route thus Sc
tected does not run through country sus-
ceptible of early settlement, nor is 1t one
which overland emigrant trains can pursue
to advantage. The very fact that it requires
Artesian wells to supply it with water is sui.
fcient evidence in support OF both thes'
propositions. These objections, we believ,
| should have settled the question against tina
route. Besides, the latter is longer than thu
Central, along the line OF which numerous
settlements already exist, which would hay'
become healthy and prosperous had the mai
route passed through them, and, in return
for the advantages thus conferred upon then
would hare furnished abundant protection
to the mails, and supplies for both traveller
and stock.
This is the route, too, already selected b,
hundreds Of thousands of emigrants, aftel
years Of experience, while nobody pretend
that an emigrant-train ever passed over til
now selected mail route. The people o
California have already condemned th
| Southern route, for the reasons thus sugges
ted, and also because it enters their State i
its least populous part. Time, We fear, vii
yindicate these objections, and show that
however honest the President may be, hi
decision is an unfortunate one. ESQ, Con
gress will have the power to provide a rcrned
but, if our views prove erroneous, we shal
be among the first to rejoic that our fore
bodings have proved unfounded.-M 7
Times.
TIE BLoOY DAGGEA, on TIRE CRlMsOl
WARRIORS REvENGE,
4 tale sf Tssa-Hill.
i BY BRAINLEss-BoD, JR.,
Author Of the s Phantom Tooth Pick," eft
1 CHAPTHA I.
i ssf3o IN Lencus-Toa HYI1.