The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1858-11-30

pio'iSiohS " W. constitution authorizing their ad.
nissio.. into the Union, can maintain ,het they are
unusily treated progressively and njuriously re-
strieted in the exercise of political rights. Such
pretensions are mere sham There is nothing in
| them. Their legislative authority is broad enough
to all their real interests and to protect them
ia all their just rights and they have the guarantee
of the constitution itself that they will be received
into tho Union upon equal footing with the origi-
nal States their population will warrant it.
-
THE NEWLY OPENED TRADE WITH THE EAST
IT'S RESULTS UPON OUR PACIFIC STATES, AND
| UPON MEXICO.
| Events couspiring in every part Of the world
to give great importance to our possessions en- the
Pacific slope Hitherto one-t third Of tho entire pop
| ulation of the werld have been shut in from in
| ercourse with other nations, in China and Japan
The EXCESSIVE and secusive policy of both these
countries has all at once been abandoned, and
the western coasts of the Pacific OCEAN are about to
become as active with the hum Of commerce as the
northern coasts Of the Atlantic We doubt ifthe com
mercial activity of the United States England, Hol-
land, and Sweden win hereafter at all compare with
| that of the Chinese and Japanese nations now that
scope has been given to the enterprise Of these peo-
pie, and reer intercourse with European and Amer
lean merchants has been legalized The population
of these countries vastly exceeds that of the COM
mercal nations of Europe, and the trade carried on
in their waters viii probably exceed, in the course
Of few years that of all the American and European
ports of the Atlantic in as great degree the
Der of their people exceeds that of the populations
OF the commercial nations Of Clirstendon
1t is impossible TO overestimate the magnitude of
the trade which, in the course of the next ten years
will have grown up between these two populations
on the one side, and the European and American
cities the ether. To predict that in the course
| of time it will equal in magnitude and value the
present entire trade between the nations of the
Christian world, would hardly be extrayasant AS it
is this last trade that has built up London, New
York, Paris, Amsterdam, and the other great
cities OF Europe and America into their present pro-
portions and wealth, it is natural to suppose that
immense marts of commerce viii soon GROW up
on our Pacific coast The shortest route by many
hundred miles from the ports of China aud Japan to
London, and the shortest by more than thousand
miles from these ports to New York lies across the
Pacific to California, and thence by the routes over
Central America. The most directroues, still shorter,
lie directly across our continent from our Pacific
ports. These circumstances cannot fail to attract
| an immense population to our Pacific States and
acting in conjunction with the influence of tho gold
and silver deposits which lie along that whole coast
and the natural tendency of our agricultural
population to emigrate and coloni2e in that direc
ton, an accumulation Of population on those coasts
more rapid than has ever before been known in the
history OF human migration cannot fail to result
The great width of our continent in the higher
ATTITUDES, and the formidable obstacles to easy and
rapid intercourse Of the people on the Atlantic and
Pacific coasts presented by the rugged mountains
north of the thirty-ffth parallel give unusual i'm
portance to the transit routes south Of that line and
will exert very great influence in concentrating
population in southern California and along our most
feasible lines of overland communication through Ar
IONA, New Mexico, and Texas
Adiversion from this route Of trade and travel NAV
be made by the British government by means Of its
great railroad enterprise projected from the lakes
to Victoria, and it is said that an excellent portage
for military and wagon transit route can be found
within our own northern boundary, between the
/ MISSOURI
and Columbia rivers, scarcely more than four hundred
miles in extent. An early exploration is to be made
we understand, of this whole route, from which
| great public advantage may be derived.
But after ALL there can be no doubt that the CHEAP
est lines accommodation with our Pacific settlements
and the chief tides Of travel will pass over the lower
attitudes OF the continent. In the course Of years
this movement will exert au immense influence rpon
the affairs of Mexico region Of country which will
sooner or later loom up into immense importance
under the influence of the trade of China and japan
and the rapid growth Of population upon the Pacific
slope. The pestential vapors of the narrow por-
tons OF the continent will always impose more or
less disadvantage upon the transits through Panama
and Nicaragua and Mexico will constitute the bridge
over which the chief intercourse between the At
antic and Pacific ports and populations must have
their passage. 1t is probable that Mexico may lie for
several years longer the prey Of contendiug factions
tho victim of anarchy and lawlessness bat sooner
or later the necessities of the greatest commerce
which the world has yet seen, and the convenience
of mighler migration to and fro than has ever vet
been known in international or ntercontnentai in
tercourse will reduce il to the dominion of civil
lization government and law, and convert it, with
the aid OF its native resources Of climate soil and