The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-03-23
From the Washington Star.
CHIRIOUI ROITTE TO THE PA IEIC

FROM Ine w asnlnStOn Staf
CHIRIQUI ROUTE TO THE PACIFIC.
About midway between the Panama and Nicara-
qua Transis is found the short healthy and desira-
bic, but as yet almost unknown Chiriqui Transit
This route to the Pacific is traversed by mule
road from sea to sea- very little talked about it is
true, Tor is used by the native contrabandsts
than foreign tourists but of and romantic beau
ty nevertheless. The negro traders from Jamaica
pronounce the Cherry Key, and it is not
lar from the correct Castilian sound of the word;
and these wild boatmen consider the harbors at
either end of this route second to nothing in those
seas If their experience and opinions worth
anything, this neglected pathway to the Pacific
deserves the careful and immediate attention of
our Government. They compute the distance at
only seventy miles from harbor to harbor, and
the depression or opening through the mountain
range is so favorable that good stage road could
be constructed and put in running order in single
season.
1t is the policy of this Administration to multiply
communications with Pacific States, and no
one, not even our insoucant post-route committees
In Congress, be altogether indifferent to the
| grinding tax now levied our California inter-
! course by the gigantic New York monopoly which
has gathered the control of all our Isthmus transis
IN It's relentless grippe. The great West and the
tive South pay their double tribute to the Panama
kings with exemplary patience for the presents but
they will declare for their rights after awhile These
rights imply duty on the part of the Government
to accommodate the various sections of the country
| with choice of roads to the Pacific.
This choice of roads will lead to healthy com
petition, and reduction of prices for freight and
passage, and that will emancipate people from
the tangs of the one special ytavored clique of
nopolists. We have stated beforehand we intend
to keep stating it until Government relieves our in
ter-State trade of this unjust burden-that the Pa
mama combination charge double price for passage,
while the Nicaragua and Tehuantepec Transst re-
main closed. This extra $3.50 or 5000 on each cab
in passenger enables the Panama Company to de
vote from forty to fifty thousand dollars month
to keep competitors off their track. This, however,
does not explain the apathy of Congress in suffer-
ing the other Transts to remain closed for the ben
eft of foreign enemies or domestic spectators.
Suppose Panama, Chiriqui, Nicaragua, and Te-
huantepec, were all open, and protected under the
fostering care of our Government, at the cost of a
million year, would it not be money well APP
| piled, in military and naval, as well as CONNER
cial point of view? What service has the navy
rendered the country, in those seas that is worth
half as much to the strength, progress, and charac
ter OF the Union? -Four parallel lines of transit,
stretching at regular intervals the lsthmus,
would be worth more than four ships f-the-line,
and four regiments of soldiers, knit our people
IN one thought and one effort whether in peaceful
! growth or war-like defence Four lines would de-
mand of an enemy four times the naval strength to
blockade, and give alert birds of passage four
times the chance of etfecting communication
-Four parallel lines of trade Will supply four
told mducement to settlers, for each is support to
the others; and it is only when this mutual sustain
ment can be relied upon that our people will be
safe to plant settlements that magnificent region
The surprising natural resources of the American
! lsthmus create trade of some value, even in its
throes of anarchy and civil war :; but this is now
almost entirely in European hands. In better
condition OF things, our western wheat-feds and
our eastern factories would supply millions of dol
lars annually to these markets: but that improved
and the rights and lives of our people are found
worthy glance OF attention from Congress