The day book. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1857-1867, 1866-07-17
The Cumberland Gap Railroad.

DEANE, oF'I I1Sq., IeldtlNe 10 tlle complexion
of the Cumberland Gap Railroad, which will
shorten the route to the Mississippi Valley,
and enable its products to find an outlet
through Virginia. Mr.. DEANE says the in
fuence of the great Northern system-which
may be regarded as completed-is best APP
preciated when we look at the growth of the
Northeastern States and statistics of popu-
lation are given from 1880, when the Erie
Canal first commenced to attract Western
tonnage, and immigration commenced to
move ENTHUSIASTICALLY. He shows that one
third of the entire population of the United
States, in 1857, was in the Northwestern
States
A comparison is then made between this
growth, and that of New England and New
York, and the old Southern States, by which
it is evolved that the South has Increased, in
the last thirty-seven years, 81 per cent, the
North 35 per cent, and the Northwest 800
per cent. The Southwest had population,
III $780, of ,424, 665 and in 1857, 5,947,-
600. He states that these exhibits show
where the political power of the Union must
ultimately rest
The rapid growth of the great Northwest
cannot be arrested. Its commerce is monop-
olized by the Eastern and Northern cities,
through their railways and canals This
identity Of interest, he thinks, can be charged
by building up a rival system, which will
give to the South full share Of the GEM
merce of the Northwest The distance from
Norfolk to Louisville, by liles completed
and TO be completed, is 722 miles $40 of
these are in Virginia, of which 392 are COM
pleted In Kentucky there are POP miles Of
this great Chesapeake aud Ohio line, of which
100 miles are finished, leaving 232 miles of
the whole line to be constructed--thc whole
of which work can be completed in four
years.
We shall then have, from the Ohio river at
a point Of great concentration of the trade of
the Northwest line Of railway Of nnbrokcn
gauge to conduct the immense trade to the
best harbors on the Atlantic coast and line
of Canal and tide-Water navigation for Canal
barges of 800 miles Of the distance; reducing
the railway transit to $40 miles. He then
proceeds to illustrate that the trade can be
successfully competed for
1UHHaSe, Ifotn F'rUrrrrvvrs to Consumers will
avail itself Of the most 1;-vye unu cTuzpest
route Or line of transit; and we possess such
route. The line terminates at Norfolk, the
best harbor on the Atlantic coast, always open
and accessible, and with four feet more water
than New York. 1t is the shortest line of
communication with the lower valley of the
Ohio
1t gives to the Ohio Valley and the great
Lake basin a line to the West Indies. and TO
the South American Republics, 500 miles
nearer than that by New Orleans The At
lantic terminus of this line, Norfolk, presents
the best point for the distribution of Western
produce along the Seaboarl of our country,
as well as for foreign expectation. The DIFF
ference in favor of Norfolk from Louisville is
PIP miles. If, says Mr.. DEANE, we mea, ure
to St. Louis OF Chicago, we still have All adj
vantage in distance equally conclusive The
question Of distance being established in our
favor, it follows ours must BE- the cheapest
railway communication by PIP miles.
The maximum grades of both lines is tie
same. He concludes that the energies of Vir-
ginia and Kentucky should be devoted to a
consummation Of the great object, as the best
means of perpetuatng the Union.
The Philadelphia Inquirer, referring to the
proposition to complete the Canal and Gov
ington and Ohio Railroad, comedies with the
views of Mr.. DEANE and says:
IF those enterprises are carried out in the
extent which is designed they will make
Virginia rival in the transportation OF
freight and travel with Maryland, Pennsylva-,
MIA and New York. The Virginia Canal will
be able to compete with the Pepnsy lyanla and
New York and Erie Canals. The railroad
will contest with the Baltimore and Ohio,
Pennsylvania Central, and New York and
Erie for the trade of the West 1t is claimed
that by these means shorter route will he
furnished from the Ohio river to the mouth Of
the James than can be had by any other
route north of it, that it will be shorter from
st. Louis to Newport News, by the railroad,
than from St. Louis to New Orleans. If
these plans are carried out the consequences
will be of advantage to Virginia, in more
ways than one. Her sources of industry will
be-opened; vast emigration Of laborers and
business men will fill up the desert places;
and under the stimulus Of commerce and
manufactures, the State will assert her claims
10 greatness which nature gave her, and
which, by the supineness of her people, were
long since oyershadowed aud almost forgot
ten, by the advance in prosperity Of more
energetic and enterprsing communities.
A General wanted