The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-08-25

\ win be thronged. No deserts are to be crossed.
| No tedious deprivatoA of the comforts of civ
ilization is to be suffered. The journey is short
| in time, and the expense OF It Is reduced to
4 moderate proportions.
! The portion of the continent which it opens
/ to settlement is most attractive and viii sus-
tain millions of people in comfort and album
dance The most northerly part of it, that upon
Puget Sound, is on the isothermal line of Ches
| apeake Bay. Winter, as winter is known in
| New England and New York, is not known
| there. Exhaustless forests, teeming fisheries,
| capacious harbors, an equable and invigorating
climate, and an endless expanse of soil without
waste, because adapted in every part of it either
to tillage or grazing, without reference to the
metals, which are widely diffused, including the
| most precious, make up an aggregate of re-
sources, which would suffice for populous and
! mighty empires. These resources, now almost
virgin and intact, and waiting to be apPropri-
ated by the strong hand of free industry, are
the abundant attractions which will draw thith-
er the sturdy sons of toll from the Atlantic and
| from the valley of the Mississippi.
If the Fort Benton and Walla- Walla road
was imperatiyely needed for military purposes,
why should it have been objected to by Mr..
| Garnett of Virginia and his associates, because
it might also become commercial road =
Are the necessary operations of the Govern
ment to be foregone, in every case where lncl-
dental advantages may result to the peoples
| Or could the expense of the proposed road
| be objected to as intolerable, by men who were
voting to sustain an annual expenditure, six
times greater, to keep up worthless mail line,
established in violation of law, across the des-
| erts of Arizona? Does it lie in the mouths of
| these men, who have offered millions, and who
to-day are ready to pay millions, for right of
way to the Pacific across the TehuantePec
| Isthmus, to object to the extravaganza of an
appropriation of one hundred thousand dollars,
to improve the natural way to the Pacific across
our own territory?
| Clearly, it was not the amount of the pro-
posed expenditure, but the object intended to
be effected by it, which was obnoxious to Mr..
Garnett and his associates. 1t was no part of
their policy to assist in the development of Or
egon and Washington, their sympathies being
| In quite another direction.
Let US now examine the record of a vote ia
ken in the House, January ID, upon the print
ing of Dr. Evans's geological report upon the
| Territories of Washington and Oregon.
/ In 1851, DR.. John Evans was employed by
: the Government to make survey and explo-
: ration of those regions, and that work had been
prosecuted to completion at cost of forty-four
thousand dollars. His report, also complete,
was in the hands of the Superintendent of the
/, Public Printing, and the cost of printing the
regular number, fifteen hundred copies, was eX-
actly computed, and amounted to seven thou
sand one hundred and forty dollars. Without
the expenditure of this comparatively small
;, sum, for the publication of the results of the
Texploration, the exploration might as well not
have been made.
At the first session of the late Congress, the
House passed resolution to print DIR. Evans s
4 report, but the resolution was suspended by a
motion to reconsider, made by Mr. Jones of
Tennessee; and it so happened that the vote
upon this motion to reconsider was being taken,
y when the appointed hour for the termination of
the first session arrived.
AT the second session, on the 18th of Jan
nary, Mr. DAYS. of Indiana, having got posses
sion of the floor, made some pertinent observa-
tons upon the importance and value of DIR.
Evans's report, and, among other things, caused
to be read the following extracts from report
of the Commissioner of the General Land Of
fee
:" The report Of Dr. Evans discloses the re-
. suits of his reconnaissance and explorations,
during four years and half highly favorable.
Rich coal fields of semi-bituminous coal have
been found in various places on Puget Sound,
at Goose bay, and other navigable waters, and
= in other inland places, of an inexhaustible ex-
tent; he has also discovered, on large trib-
: utary of the Columbia river, mountains of
3 limestone, marble, gypsum, &c.
"The services rendered by the geologist to
the country, in the exploration of vast ranges
of Oregon and Washington Territories, and
some of their localities, hitherto unvisitea By
y scientific explorers have been highly COM
- mended by repeated Legislative resolutions In
- Oregon and Washington Territories, and
= greatly appreciated by persons 2 gagged in
- commercial, agricultural, and lining pur-
- suits, who have urged the importance Of geo
y logical explorations by DR.. Evans /; and con-
- sidering his labors eminently useful in sci
= enti6c point of view, as well as Of subscribing
the interests of the Pacific shore, by indica-
s. ting the localities of the country possessing
- mineral and agricultural wealth to our enter
( prising citizens, whose commentators of DIR.
: Evanss explorations, in the opinion of this
: office, are worthy of the appreciation and fos-
: tering care Of this Government.
The upshOt of the matter is briefly this
: either what has been done in the way of eX-
- ploration aad development of coal deposits
~ under appropriations by Congress is to 60 for
= nothing, and remain useless, or be brought to
light in proper form, as proposed by further
appropriations, to close the business and make
- the results available.
a" The effect of the latter measure will be to
g open up new sources of trade to active indus
n
- Pacific; thereby furnishing the material for
propulsion, essential in our rapidly growing
steam commerce on the Pacific, at cheap
= rates, instead of the enormous cost of the ar
"a ticle imported from the east
A" Even in this respect the measure will con-
. : tribute eminently to the advantage of that
. distant portion of our territory, whilst it will
= subserve the interests Of the whole country"
To this exposition of the Importance to Or
egon and Washington of the publication of Dr.
EEvans's report, no other reply was made beyond
tsthe following suggestions by Mr.. Davis of Mis-.
fsissippi:
"The Government is now embarrassed 1t is
{. doubtful whether it can provide for the wants
f of the Government for the next fiscal year
e without loan. Would it, therefore not be
r. better to permit the manuscript to remain
where it is, on file, until the Government is in
Is better condition to meet the expenses2 Would
- the manuscript be nlured in few years ?"
= These suggestions were hippant and impert
sssnent, and, under the circumstances, insolent
Mr.. Davis of Mississippi and his political friends
who were refusing to reduce any of the public
establishments, and who were urging an ex
penditure of one hundred and fifty millions OF
dollars for Cuba, were not in position to make
suggestions of economy, with any prospect OF
imposing upon public credulity the absurd be.
lief that frugality is one of their virtues.
For the purpose of extinguishing Mr.. Jones's
motion to reconsider, so that the order to prin,
: might 60 into effect, Mr.. Davis of Indiana
moved that the motion to reconsider be laid
upon the table, and this motion prevailed BY
} the following vote:
YEAs-Messrs. Adrain, ALL, Andrews. Ar
neld, Bennett, Billinghurst Bingham, Blair
, Bliss, Brayton, Burlingame, Case, Cavanaugh