The Van Buren press., 1860-04-06
From the St. Louis Republican.
The Pacific Railroad of the Thirty.
fifth Parallel

The construction of railroad connecting
the Valley of the Mississippi with the Pa
ciiic coast, has now become an absolute ne
cessity. 1t is demanded by the rich and
growing States of the West, by the large.
intermediate Territories. as we'll as by the
Eastern States. whose great commerce with
the West, render better. cheaper and quick
c. facilities for communication and trans
portation of the highest importance.
The pracricability of building the road
acros, the continent is an established fact
Under the authority of the War Depart
ment. exploring parties have traversed the
great Plains, and crossed the Roxy Mnun-
| tain. ana tte'rangeS Of California along a
variety OF projected routes. extending over
belt Of country embraced between the for
ty second and thirty second parallels and
while, upon some of the lines, serious oh
stacles have been encountered, no route has
been utterly condemned by practical men.
while many have been ackpow ledged to COM
pare mostfsvorabIy with those of our east
ern roads.
The expediency of building the Pacific
Railroad is now SO generally conceded by
all parties and sections. that each of the
proposed locations for 1t has its numerous
| chief obstacle 10 the prosecution OF the
work. Losing sigat of the fact that 1t
should be great national work, inten.i,,l
for the benefit of all. ami not made to sub
serve the peculiar interests Of any section,
whether North or South. even the most ar
dent friends OF the project injute il at its
, very inception, by theii struggles to fix the
| route. simply with view TO rendering the
4 l-.ft Al
| without regard to Its success in other points
The main points to be considered in the
selection of the line can be briefly stated -
The chief business of the road must be the
through traffic, consequently the route
should be the shortest and most direct that
can be found between the eastern and west
ern termini high rate of speed is desira-
| bic. and the road may be expected TO do a
large freight business ; hence light gradients
are Indispensable wool and water, the sup
| plies of which ars more or less limited up-
on all the proposed routes. must have some
| influence on the location it is highly obiec-
tionable to run any risk of serious de,en
tion from snow or other accidents due to
climate-therefore orthern location, when
the winters are very severe, should be avoid
ed cost is matter of great consequence.
and other things being equal, should, of ne
cessity. have considerable influence upon
the selection Of route.
| The matters of local traffic. of tillable
land, of climate within the extremes of heat
and cold. are of minor consequence.
| The choice Of the Eastern terminus will
have great bearing upon the location of
the road. The South favors the thirty-sec-
ond parallel route, with q view to the in
crease Of its commerce, which must be of
necessity enhanced by bringing New Or
leans and the Mississippi cities into close
connection with California. All other
routes look to New York in the east, St.
Louis in the West. New York is now our
commercial metropolis, and will be. Noef-
forts of sectional feeling will ever succeed in
changing trade from its fixed channel and
wherever the eastern terminus of the road
may be located nominally, the practical ter
minus will be 1t New York. There the
goods will be brought and shipped that are
to pass over the road. and thither will be
sent whatever comes back in return.
II it be conceded, then, land whether it
be or not. the fact is beyond dispute, that
New York and San Francisco are to be the
| termini and st. Louis. as the most import-
ant city Of the West, . governing point in
the location, it only remains to settle on the
best line between st. Louis and the Pacific
Missouri is already building q road to-
wards her Southwestern frontier, which may
Il serve as . link in the line which it is sub
mitted will fulGll the conditions already
q mentioned.
i The country immediately west of tn,
Missouri border offers great a1vantages TO