The Placer herald., 1859-01-22

How, then, can the Government lose money?
1t is easy for Senators to assert that the passage
of this bill would cost the Government Sl00,000,-
000 and then inveigh against the magnitude and
extravaganza Of the expenditures but candid
and full consideration requires the bill to be
judged by its own provisions, and not by the loose
Interpretation of its opponents.
The illustration adopted. has been of the op-
Grafton of the bill upon one section OF the road;
but it would work in the same manner upon any
number that might be built. The principle of
the rule is, that upon every dollar in bonds ad-
vanced by the Government, security will be given
by the contractors, in the ratio of more than
three to one; and that it is for the pecunary in
terest of the Government that the contrac tors
should fail in their contracts, by the failure it
would acquire so much of the road as had al
ready been constructed, and would thus be ena-
bled to enter into more advantageous contracts
for the remainder
The Government is to be repaid its bonds, scitk
interest, by the performance of mail service, at
rate not to exceed $500 per mile, and by the
transportation Of military and naval supplies,
troops, and seamen, at rates not exceeding, in
times of peace or war. those which may have
heretofore been paid for similar service.
1t may be urged as an objection to this bill,
that the $500 per mile for carrying daily mail,
both ways, will add to the expense of the Gov
ernment in transmitting its mails to the Pacific
coast. These mails are now carried both ways,
semi-weekly weekly, semi-monthly, and monthly;
not daily mail line exists. The annual compen-
saton for carrying the mail by the present lines
is as follows:
Ocean service from New York and New Or
leans via Panama, to Oregon and California,
1888, ,250
Overland mail from San Antonio, Texas, to
San Diego California $l49, 500.
This contract expired on the lst of the pres
ent month, after which the sum of S90,6GS is to
be paid until the lst, January 1859; and from
that time in consideration of extra services to be
performed in connection with the great overland
mail from St. Louis and Memphis, $l96.44S per
annum is to be the remuneration
These are semi-monthly. Then we have a St mi
weekly overland mail from Memphis and ST.
Louis via Ell Paso. to San Francisco, S600,000
Then we have the week. route, by overland.
from st. Joseph to Salt Lake, and thence to
Paceryille. S320,D00
Then we have the monthly route from Kansas
city via y lhuqurquc and Tcjon Pass, to Stockton,
100000
And finally, the semi-monthly route from New
Orleans to Tehauntepcc, SZ50.OO0.
This sum is ior connecting with, the Pacific
mail steamships at Nentosa bay; OF, if they carry
through, on their own account, to San Francisco.
$2SG,000
This great expenditure of 50 200, 600, is not
chargcnble to California alone. The ocean steam
lines represent the great commercial interests
equally divided between the Atlantic the Gulf of
Mexico and the Pacific; and the overland mails
manifest the unfinished link of connection in all
its varied forms between the Pacific coast and the
northwestern and southwestern States In no
more imposing aspect can the great Importance
and value of California to this Conledcracy be
presented than by the contemplation of these nu-
merous lines of INSTRUMENTATION betwe, that
State and the rest of the Union-grdling the
American continent at six different points, pass
ing equatorial regions, or struggling throu gh
the eternal SHOWS of a nothern latitude.
Sir. the nconsderablc and feeble political in
fuencc of a single State on the Pacific could new
er alone have caused the establishment OF these
expensive mail routes; but the statesmen charg-
ed with the administration of the Government
were compelled to listen to and meet the de-
mands of the commercial States of the Atlantic
and the Cult Of MeXico and the stock raising
and agricultural States of the northwest and
southwest to have the mails carried by these
great highways to the Pacific.
Coming back to the question whether the rate
of $500 per mile for q daily mail each way ms
provided for in this bill, is an eXhorbitant allow
ance it will be perceived that the expense of
transporting these mails if the railroad is con-
structed, will be diminished at least Il million
dollars annually. Not only this but they will
be carried daily. instead of semi-weekly we ky,
semi monthly, and monthly, as at present, and in
one fourth of the time required for the present
transit.
Mr. Gwin then proceeds to show the benefits
ot Pacific Railroad, as means OF national de-
fence and instances the loss sustained by Russia,
in her late contests with The forces OF England
and France for want of u railway, in not being
able to relieve Sebastopol with men and NUM-
tions of war; although the land transportation
was but few hundred miles, while the allies adj
ded these means Of strength to their own side,
by the facilities of their water communication,
from thousands of miles.
r... tlnn vn tnEn n
ton the political, commercial. and agricultural
interest of the whole country that will be benefit
ed by the building of this road, it is manifest
and rank Injustice to treat it merely as Caiifor-
mn question. A State exporting an annual av-
erage Of 100000. 600 Of gold, is second to none
in this Union, in the advantages it gives us a ma
ton. in the commerce .and exchanges of the
wo Id.
Mr.. Gwin then shows the fallacy of the asser-
ton that California has been Il burden upon the
public Treasury by the appropriations made for
her benefit That besides her vast exports OF
gold, more than one million Of dollars per annum
of rcve nue. from customs is collected annually
at San Francisco; while the great interior States
of Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
and Missouri pay scarcely any of such revenue.
The argument against Pacific Railroad, that
it would not pay running expenses, he success
fully con troverts.
The direct benefit to the General Government,
Mr. Gwin, in convincing argument proves, will
be,
/. From increased sale of public lands;
g. From the augmented revenue from imports;
g. From the diminished expenses of the War
Department.; and
d. BY the increased revenues and diminished
expenditures Of the Post Office Department
After speaking at length of the railroad pro-
posed to be constructed by the British Govern
ment, through its own territories from Canada to
the Pacific Mr.. Gwin closes his truly splendid
speech in the following language:
To the whole country it is the most important
question that has ever been considered in the
Congress of the United States; but to California
and The other great States arising on the Pacific,
it is a question of life or death. BY your refusal
to huild this road YOU isolate them forever from