The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1858-11-16
The Great City Of New York-Wh"t
Made TT

writer In Tennessee paper some OF Wno'e
views are quoted by the New York Daily Neaes,
places the city Of New York a. The Recognized cen
trs of the financial and commercial interests OF
this country. lie says that her influence 10 felt 10
every State, city and town, from the Northeast cor
ner Of Maine to the Southwest point OF California;
ana, from the icy junction of the 4s:h parallel oil
latitude with the Pacific, 70 the extreme limits Of
rt.r,da. within the United States its powers un-
oues,ioped there Is scarcely commercial tran
ssctlop or a financial movement, which has not
some reference 10 the city of New York. Why is
,hi,f Because she controls the exports and i'm
ports Of the country. The writer, 10 furnishing
reasons for all this attributes IL mainly to the Erie
Canal. He says:
Or to make the explanation palmer and more
pertinent 10 the review in hand, IL was the Erie
Canal which brought 10 New York that immesne
aggregate OF domestic produce, on which alone
her immense foreign trade could be founded and
sustained. The overwhelming capacity OF that
canal, in comparison with other avenues OF trade
then existing, enabled New York TO concentrate
upon her wharves larger amount Of the produce
ofthe interior than any other and all other cities
The same canal enabled New York {" distribute
merchandise to distant points In the interior in
greater Masses In less time, aud at cheaper rates
than upon any or all other lines. These grand
facilities made New York tho great point OF ex-
change for foreign and domestic products on the
American continent; aud in the absence OF similar
advantages In rival cities, have given her a more
and more expanded circle of commegce-Tnagnify.
ing Der power ia a ratio with the expansion OF
this circle. until she has become the great nsdel-
strors of American frodt--drawug it nearly all,
into her vortex
There is no doubt Of the truth Of this, Before
the construction of the Erie Canal, New York was
not up to Philadelphia 10 wealth. ard not ahead
of that city Boston in her prospects Of the fu-
fore. In fact. the lethsrgc character OF the Hoi-
lsnders, by whom New Amsterdam was founded,
fccmcd to have stamped itself upon the whole
island of Maubattan. New York was plain,
Substantial and moderately prosperous city, but
no one could have anticipated its present pre-. em-
nent position, its overshadowing commercial i'm :
portauee, and the teeming life which PUSHES in
s~ollen torrents through It's streets Broadway
In those times comparatively quiet avenue,
10 which whole family could walk almost with
ont much danger of jostlng. The lower part cf
that street was the home of the aristocracy, and
indeed the whole lower part Of the city was occu-
pied by respectable dwelling houses. Canal street
now not half way mp town, was quite In the
suburbs. The shipping at the dock was large, but
not larger than that of some other America
cities. The trade Of the West divided by other
posts, aud babe fair to be gradually lost to New
10Th. lheh be WV oiiut"u ioo7, au" otihn6o "
gay, he found iu Eastern New York the same OPP
position to his canal that the James River aud
Ksnawha improvement ha, long found in Eastern
Virginia. The city of New York fought Justify
against her own destinies, and anticipated only
a destructive tempest from the clouds that came
laden with refreshing showers, and which have
since caused her sterile places to blossom like the
rose What New York now Is we all know, and
we also know how the Erie Canal, the stitch" as
its opponents in the New York Legislature styled
it, became the chief instrument in making that
city the commercial and financial centre Of the
country.
With all this Instructive teaching Of Experience
before their eyes, Virgnians refuse to push for"
ward the James River and Kanawba Canal to the
Ohio, work which would make Virginia the New
York CT the SOUTH