Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1858-1859, 1859-01-29
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Pacific Rail Road J.
The Physical, Commercial, and MILF
tary Necessity or Two Roads---One
North and one South. T-' .'7'-

most able exposition OF the subject treated
upon, ever written. ~ III .,r.
The request of the Chamber is complied
with as follows: ~ @s2-s r. e.,
1856 "ST. PAUL, Jan. "a, 1859.
"DEAR SIR:-I venture to comply with
your request, in behalf of the st. Paul Cham
Der of Commerce to furnish copy of Com
mander MAURY's Letter of the 4th inst, for
publication, (striking out the portion of pri-
vate nature). In doing so, it is proper to
remark, that the letter was written in the
course of private correspondence; yet, in
furnishing it for publication, confidently
rely upon the acquiescence of its distinguished
and patriotic author. Its contents, especially
at this time, are of too much national value
to be allowed to remain in the obscurity of
any private hand. May not say with safety,
that the scientific, geographical and CONNER
cial facts therein presented with such trans
cendent ability and high authority, settle the
whole question, so long debated, about routes
and roads to the Pacific.
Yours truly,
..a-'.e cd. A. ROBERTSON.
"To VIM R. MARSHALL, President st. Paul
-"Chamber of Commerce."
.y OBSERVATORY, Washington,)
4th January, 1859.
MY DEAR SIR:
have often wished that the question, pure
and simple-Railroad or no Railroad to the
Pacific, could be put to the popular vote of
the nation Never since the Memphis Con-
vention of 1849, should have had any doubt
as to the result. The vote would be largely
for the road. .. ..a .,5..
While all admit the importance of one or
more such railways, there has been such adj
versity of opinion as to routes and plans, that
no one route has as yet met with friends
enough to carry it through, in spite of its
rivals, and do not think it ever will
Two roads at least are necessary. At least
two roads, one at the North, the other at the
South are required for the common defense.
At least two roads-one at the South, the
other at the North,-are necessary socially
and commercially, for by two roads so placed,
the markets of China, Japan, and the AMOR,
will be brought nearer to us by many days
sail, than it is possible for one road to bring
them. This may sound paradoxical, yet I
hope before am done, to explain the para
dox to your satisfaction.
Let us first consider the importance of two
roads in their military aspect.
Vancouver Island commands the shores Of
Washington and Oregon; and whether the
terminus of the Northern Road be on Puget's
Sound or at the mouth of the Columbia River,
the munitions sent there could be used for no
other port of the coast, for Vancouver over
looks them.
They could not, on account of Vancouver
in its military aspects, be sent from the North
ern terminus to San Francisco and the South;
nor could the Southern Road, supposing
only one, and that at the South, send supplies
in war, from it's terminus, whether at San
Diego or San Francisco, by sea either to Or
egon or Washington. Vancouver would pre-
vent; for Vancouver commands their coasts
as completely as England commands those of
France on the Atlantic.
So complete is this military curtain, that
you never heard of France on the Atlantic
sending succour by sea to France on the
Mediterranean, or the reverse, in war with
England.
The Straits of Fuca are as close as the
Straits of Gibraltar.
In preparing for the national defences of
the Pacific, this fact and the fact that Van
couver's Island is in the hands of a foreign
power, are well calculated to impress peculiar
features upon any system that may be adopted.
But promised to explain why two roads
one at the South, the other at the North
will bring the markets of Asia much nearer
to us than either road singly would make them.
Before, however, 60 into that explanation,
let us clear away some of the obstacles which
error has placed in the way of Northern
route to the Pacific.
Most men of our age were educated under
the belief that parallels of latitude and terres-
trial climates are corelatives that we might
tell the temperature of any unknown country
or region of country, if we knew its latitude
Humboldt and Dove exploded this idea with
their isothermal lines. For example, they
show that the mean annual temperature of
North Cape, lat. 20 deg, in Europe, is the
same as that along the north shore of Lake
Superior, in lat. 80 deg. Here is difference
of 20 deg. of latitude, without any difference
in the average annual temperature of the two
places. 3D..
There is difference in the length of day
and night at the two places, and so far as eli
mate is affected by difference in the length of
day and night, climate is to that extent, and
no further, an affair of latitude. But with diff
ferences in length of day and night, the rela-
tons between climate and latitude cease. The
thermometer and hydrometer then become
the true opponents of climate. Every region,
indeed, tells the whole story of its climate by
it's fora. .
Let us get rid then of our old notions con.
corning the relations of latitude to climate, and
with unbiased minds, lay out the North Tenn.
perate Zone which we inhabit, into thermal
bands, and then study the fora of these bands
After we shall have done this, then think
we will be able to agree, at least among our
selves, as to the necessity of two routes to the
Pacific. Moreover, we can select those routes
that will be the best agriculturally and com
mercially; and when we shall finish with this
investigation you will find that these two routes
lie exactly where the best plan of national de
fence requires them: the Northern route com
mencing at the western boundary of Mime
sofa and going to Pugets Sound, with branch
| in the course of time to the mouth of the 60
lumbia: the Southern route commencing a
Ell Paso, in Texas, and going thence to SAL
Diego and San Francisco.
| I speak of these routes as the routes, which
commerce and agriculture, as well as wa
require. The elements indicate them.
place the climatology of these, the agriculture
and commercial resources of the region
through which they pass in the same category
because commerce is based on difference o
agricultural productions, and difference Q
productions is an affair of climate altogether
Therefore in studying climates and routes, W
study variety of production, and cannot hell
looking at them in their commercial aspects.
The Army Meteorological Observations
Blodgetts' Climatology of the United State
and Doris Isothermal maps enable us to divid
that portion of the Northern Temperate Zon
occupied by the United States, into two gran'
and charactistic thermal bands.
The fanna and fora of these two band
differ. The people differ; their climates diff
er; the industrial pursuits in them differ, ant
therefore call them grand and striking sub