The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-07-15
BALTIMORE.
THURSDAY, JULY IS, 1853.

Are we to enter into competition with New York
and Philadelphia for a portion of the trade of
the Great Lakes, or shall we quietly suffer
neighbors to absorb the commerce of those inland
seas. and content ourselves with the advantages
we have already gained by our Western conncc-
tons? With every disposition to appreciate, to
its fullest extent the commercial value of the pro-
ducts of the Ohio and the Mississippi valleys, and to
accord all honor to that spirit of enterprise by
which those products have become familiar to our
market, and have added largely to the wealth and
prosperity of city, we cannot be lnSellSlple 10
the opportunity now afforded us for opening up
commercial relations with the States OF the North
West. We know how common it is to estimate
the value of a thing by the labor and expense it
has cost us, and how difficult it is for men
whose thoughts, for quarter of a century, have
been turned exclusively in direction to rid
themselves of the habit thus acquired or to realize
in their efforts to command the agricultural re-
sources of the older States of the Union the mar
vellous growth of the younger members of the
confederacy, and especially ofthe States contiguous
to the Great Lakes. Even those among us who
have been struck with the extraordinary increase
of population at the principal Lake ports, have
failed to recognise, in its full significance, the fact
that this expansion has kept pace with the in
creased productiveness of the surrounding region.
1t is, moreover, worthy of notice that, in all our
calculations respecting the future of Baltimore, and
the basis of its trade, We have omitted TO take
into consideration the commerce of the Lakes or
to regard it as coming within the scope of legiti-
mate enterprise. If we have thought upon this
subject at ALL it has been to carelessy conccde to
New York the rightful possession of this noble
appanage, and to reject the idea of ability to
enter into competition with her for q share of its
products. But when we find it publicly announced
that Buffalo can be reached by rail from this city
in seventeen hours-in point of fact, travellers
leaving Baltimore on any evening of the week may
dine at Niagara the following day-and learn that
the facilities for doing so are not only equal tC
those possessed by New York but are in some re-
spects superior, the question of travel at once
connects itself with the question of traffic and the
feasibility of the one confirms the praccability Of
the other Measured by time, the distance from
Baltimore to the Great Lakes is less that the dis
lance was from Baltimore to Cumberland thirty
years ago Yet no one doubted our ability tC
carry on an advantageous trade with Cumberland
or even to cross the mountains bv the National
Road and maintain mercantile relations with
Wheeling. We may as well note here one other
remarkable fact We have expended over twenty
three millions of dollars in carrying our great
commercial artery to the Ohio river. In doing
this, the State was brought to the very verge
of bankruptcy; many Of our citizens were per-
manently impoverished, and yet in spite Of
debts, duns, and difficulties, the work was
pressed forward until it was triumphantlv
accomplished. 1t noble instance of in
domitabe perseverance under circumstances well
calculated to create feeling of dependency even
in the breasts of the most sanguine, and it has
been nobly rewarded. On the other hand, we
have had constructed for us, at comparatively
small cost to ourselves, direct route to the Lakes
the greater portion of which has been completed
by So intimately connecting together a series of
local roads that at length they form one mbroken
line of communication between the city of Balti-
and the city of Buffalo. and constitute a
ready outlet TO the ocean for the products of the
Northwest. What, then is there that operates to
prevent from taking advantage of this new
VI
route? The HGrence IN distance 6etsccen BaAiaort
and IThecIing md bereen Baltimore and Bu6alo, as
etaciy Ci9hteca miles the distance TO Wheeling
being three hundred and eighty-six, and to Buffalo
iour hundred and four miles, from this city If we
have expended millions of dollars to reach the
granares Of the Ohio, shall we forego all competi-
ton for the commerce of the Lakes because it has
been silently opened to us at cost so trilling, in
comparison with the length of the line and the
magnitude of the field of operations that we arc
disposed to doubt the intrinsic value of thing
that has been acquired so easily? What advan-
tages does the Western and Southwestern trade
offer to u.s. that are superior TO those presented by
that of the Northwest? The products are similar.
with this exception, that the Lake Superior region
abounds in metals. Have we monopoly of the
Western trade? Not at all. PENNSYLVANIA COM
petes with us at Wheeling and Pittsburg; and in
the course of n few years, Virginia will he found
tapping the trade of the Ohio below us at Point
Pleasant as she now taps the trade of the Missis-
sippi at Memphis Have either New York or
Pennsylvania any claims to the commerce Of the
Great Lakes that are superior to ours? We
know of none. On the contrary we know that
offer to the Northwest the shortest route to the
seaboard, and that from our large West India
trade we are able TO furnish the merchants of the
interior with articles for home consumption at
prices perhaps less and certainly not higher, than
are demanded in other cities. Now we hold that
the commerce of the Lakes extraordinary as sta
tistical tables prove it already to be- is nothing to
what it will become in the course of few years.
and entertaining this belief, we cannot but trust
that our merchants will not imagine that any in
superabe obstacles are to be overcome in reaching
the Lake ports, because it so happens that Wheeling
is nearer to Baltimore than Buffalo by the immense
distance OILS miles.