The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1858-12-09
The Key % Mr.. 8rswm's Overland Mail
Rssss--The Challenge Of the North

west.
Proposals for mail service from st.
Paul to the settlements in Oregon and
Washington, will, We are assured, be adver.
tised in due time by the Government. Al
though this announcement has been made
several times before in these columns, its
importance will lose nothing by repetition,
and perhaps will gain the only importance
il will ever have by repetition 80 emphatic,
20 general, and so importunate, as will force
meaning in and O result out OF it, that,
perhaps, was not contemplated by Post
master General BRowN, in the official for.
rnalities Of ink ard paper which it has been
thought desirable to bestow upon the sub
ject. For If any one is verdant enough to
suppose that the Postmaster General really
intends 10 establish Northern Mail Route
to the Pacific, or to permit it TO have any.
thing but the most nominal and innocaeus
existence upon standard government paper,
all we have TO say is, that it is to just such
unsuspccting simplicity the Government
advertisement is addressed. The advertise
ment itself costs but lttle--and it will
cost epen less to rfeet any proposals that may
be made Tor the designated scrvice, and the
amount thus saved to the treasury can be
employed much more consistently with the
views Of Mr.. Bsows, upon the Southern
route. 1t is easy TO see that all the partial.
ity Of the Government is concentrated
upon that route, and that while the North.
ern route is ignored, or recognized only by
empty cajolerles, and enough patronage is
doled out upon the middle route to appease
the clamorx Of its partisans--al the ener.
gies and resources Of oil the departments Of
the Government, cooperate in the develop.
ment Of the Southern line and the futile
pantomime Of line Of empty coaches across
deserts impracticsble for settlement, is main
tanned at the expense Of half million dol
lars per year to the national treasury, with
the additional cost Of On army to protect the
spectacle from the hostile tribes which beset
it. in order to afford q plausible basis for
the predetermined recommendation by Mr.
BUCHANAN Of that route as the line of q
Pacific Railroad to be built by the aid Of
Government
And what is the ground Of the Admins
tration preference for this route? Longer
by several hundr,d miles than any other
intersected by wide deserts of irredeemable
aridity, woodless, foodless and waterless, ira
va-sad a.iy .. .h. L...-.i Of brs, ourreu"Iod
by hostile Indians is the peculiar
recommendation by which, in spite of obsta-
cles like these, this route supplants oil its
rivals 10 governmental regard. The Wash
iDgton Union, in admiring echo of the St.
Louis Republican, is in ecstacies over the
sublime craftsmanship and Postmaster Gen
eralship Of Mr.. Brown, as displayed in his
untiring devotion to the curvilinear mail
route. Considered as question OF states
manship or Postmaster Generalship, it is
difficult to understand the audation awarded
to MIR. BRowS for his part in the work.
But there is u point Of view in which the
apparently unreasonable policy of the gov
ernment in this matter, admits Of an easy
and rational solution. The eastern terminus
on the Mississippi Of the southern mail route,
the convenient precedent Of the railroad to
be proposed by the President, is MEMPHIS.
st. Louis divides by an deliberately circuitous
sweep to Fort Smith, the honors Of the
name, but the fat remains in full monopoly
with Memphis, Tennessee, and Postmaster
General Broom IS from Memphis Tennessee.
This fact. we think, affords the only satishc-
tory key to the pcrseverlng prepossessions Of
that iunctionary, and TO magnificent Law
'shness OF administration patronage so i'm
mensly disproportionate to the merits Of
the scheme. We do not accuse Mr. BRowS
Of any conscious or Intentional unfairness in
his partiali,y for Tennessee route to the
Pacific. We are willing to admit tina, he is
u splendid Postmaster General for Tennes-
see, and even for Missouri But his Post
master Generalship is that Of Tennessean
anil not of a sta,csmap
Ii is even more than Tenuessean. IL rises
to the dignity Of a sectional issue. 1t is a
peculiarly Southern measure. II is the ia.
vori,e scheme of the whole belt OF Southern
States from the Atlantic TO the Rio Grande,
and the whole railroad system OF the Sou,h.
ern seaboard States, looks towards Memphis
as its point Of departure TO the Paeifc-and
the proposed Administration Railroad Is
merely the continuation OF line already in
progress, with San Francisco as it, proposed
destination. Nor do We object TO Just and