The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-07-01
VOL. XII.

whole nation to be asked to make tb;.
road for this purpose? But he saws:
"More than TWENTY MILLIONS OF PEopfr l:..
on and north Of the thirty. fifth parallel ROM
and they cannot and ought not to be asked -
go across that line, when everybody knows ,ba,
the line is almost two hundred miles f1rtba.
south than they ought to be asked to come
Everybody knows that the line (of,bo
thirty-fifth PARALLEL is almost two bnndroJ
miles further south than the twenty mil.
lion of people who live north of it ougb,
to be asked to come" And il is caIIo4
the central route. Finally, the people If
Arkansas are informed:
"But the thirty-6th parallel route tbropot
Albuquerque is three and a half degrees south =,
ST. LOuis. The southern portion of the eI..
holding States have if the Albuoueroue ROM.
is adopted, by reason of their geographical NO
sition, a decided adcantage, in the matter og
distance, over the northern part of the slave.
holding, and over all of the non-slaveboI,ir,
States, whose railroads centre at St Louis
BY using the Vicksburg branch, up the Red
and False Washita rivers to Albuquerque tba
Memphis branch to Albuquerque and the s,
LOUIS branch to Albuquerque, the slavehodiDg
states can far more easily reach San Francisco
a 10
OF the Atlantic non-slaveholding States"
There is much more to the same pur.
pose, but this is sufficient to show wba,
sort OF central route this is thar my col.
league advocates. 1t should be called Tho
alse Washlta route, which. | presume
derived Its name from the fact that some
BODY mlstook 1t for the "true Wasbita "
as my colleague has mistaken this line
which IS 1.-TWO hundred miles further
south than the people Of this country
ought to be asked to come" for central
route. Although my colleague has given
his name to bolster this route, it IS bur
far to him and to others to say that il.
paternity belongs TO a gentleman who
formerly lived in ST. Louis, and who sill
claims to live there, although he has lived
here Tor many years, with the desirn. |
presume, OF having some prelext to speak
Tor Missouri. The gentleman refer TO Is
Mr.. Corbin, man Of talent, of energy
and industry, who has been a successful
operator, and has made himself extremely
useful to members of Congress. He ORG.
mated the "false Washita" route. and the
arguments used by my colleague remind
me of him, and of an incident i'm his his.
tory which occurred when he lived IN s.
Louis.
There was a vacancy from the county
OF 81. Louis, in the Missouri Leoisla,ure
Mr.. Corbin and another gentlemen were
candidates before the Democratic COnyen.
ton, and both pie dyed themselves to abide
The decision OF the Convention, and not
to run against its nominee. The other
gentleman was nominated, and 10 the
astonisnment of all, and greatly to the
chagrln of the Democratic party, Mr.. Cor.
bin still persisted in being a candidate.
Being reminded of his pledge not to run
against the nominee Of the Convention.
he replied that it was true he had given
the pledge, and intended to redeem 1t to
the letter, but he did not consider that his
pledge prevented him from running, it only
bound HIM not to run against the nominee
OF the Convention; he should therefore
run, but not as against the nominee. And
so 1t may be said Of this false Washita'
route. 1t may be called central route.
but no one who reads the arguments upon
which 1t rests, can fail 10 perceive that
even if it is a central route, it is not cen
trail route " as against the South" It runs
"two hundred miles farther south than the
twenty million living north Of it ought to
be asked to 60, and then, when it reaches
the Pacific side, has to run two hundred
miles back again to the north, to reach
San Francisco. 1t requires the railroad
to commence on the Mississippi river, and
thus loses four hundred miles of water nav.
lgation, furnished by the Missouri and
Kansas rivers, in their course due west
and may thus be said to throw away seven
or eight hundred miles.
On the true central route, avaline OUT
selves of the navigation OF the Missouri
river, and striking the great Colorado of
the West at its junction with Grand river
where Fremont supposed it to be navlga-
be-and which suppostion has since been
confirmed-we should only have thou
sand miles of railroad travel between the
navIgable waters of the two oceans THIS
is the great feature of the central route.
and, taken IN connection with the supe-
riorIty OF It's soil and supply Of wood and
water, has heretofore given it the prefer
ence with the emigaton to the Pacific,
and dotted the line with settlements, whilst
the other routes have never been used by
the emigrants in their exodus 10 the Pacific
and remain uninhabited.