The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-05-05

not expect of the Covington railroad, striking
the Ohio farther down than the most southern
of the railroads which are now touched by New
York, and the canal, still farther down, with a
capacity for conveying heavy freights equal to
that of sixteen railroads, a canal which, IN the
mineral and coal region of Virginia alone, will
find articles of transportation as valuable the
products of a gold mine, canal presenting the
shortest route from the Northern lakes to the
sea, which is open winter well as summer,
and which unites its waters with the most mag
nifcent rivers, harbor, and roadstead on the
continent? There ought to be cities on the
James, the York, and the Elizabeth, as large as
Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, and there
would be if we had that faith which is as essen
tial to the enterprises of this life as to salvation
in the next; and the works with which we must
work out our temporal as well as eternal pros
perity. To sit down with folded hands, and as
sumo the permanent commercial supremacy of
New York, is to be recreant to the high trust
and rich inheritance with which the God of Ma
ture has endowed us, to be unworthy of the
spirit and traditions of our ancestry, and false
and cruel to those who come after us. If the
Virginians of 20 had assumed the irresistible
power of Great Britain, which they had more
reason to do than we have the unalterable SUI
perority of New York, we should be the slaves
to-day that men deserve to be who have no
dependence in themselves, no faith in their fu-
ture, and who would rather be well-fed vassals,
than take the chances of striking a bold blow
for liberty and independence An enterprising
man has been well defined as one who is auda-
cious in his plans and vigorous in their execu-
ton, and who acts upon possibilities as if they
were probabilities. In such a plan as the
James River canal, projected by the genius of
Washington, and illuminated by the experience
which De Witt ClintOn's grand success sheds
upon it, Virginia has not only possibilities, not
only probabilities, but certainties, to act upon,
and yet she has hitherto treated these certanties
as if they were impossibilities there has been
neither boldness in her conceptions nor vigor in
her action the mountain has been in labor.
and there has come forth brood of petty, nous
ing, local schemes, on which as much energy
has been exhibited as would have given birth
to a progeny of giants.
When we think of those curious and beauti-
full works of God which are hidden in forests
or CLEAN far down in the dark caverns of the
sea" the flowers that blush unseen" "the
gems of purest ray" that pave the floors of the
ocean, we may wonder that such treasures
should be lavished apparently with no useful OBJ
ject; but then humility suggests that it does
not become intellectual animalculae to criticise
the rays of the Infinite Sun, in whose light they
dance their ephemeral dance, and in whom they
live and move and have their being But when
we see grand production of the Creator, evil
IDENTIFY designed for the use and advantage of
the human race, neglected and forsaken; when
we see noble rivers, which ought to bear rich
argosles to the main, rolling in solitary grand
eur through mountains of minerals and deYy
meads; when we see harbors that ought to mir
the flags of every nation oDd ba ,,oool ,.;.b
the songs Of mariners of every race. unruffIed
save by the tempest, and moving to no music
but that of their own tides upon the shore, we
may well wonder, not that such unappreciated
treasures have been brought into existence, but
that men have been created who are unable to
understand their uses, or unwilling to turn them
to account.