The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-11-15

lecture suited TO the stormy Atlantic; the
wealth Of the Indies pours round the Cape Of
Good Hope; grass grows in the deep caravan
rnts Of the Persian empire, of Arabia and Of
Syria; their cities disappear with the trade
that gave them birth. A new civilization, born
OF the times, PRODUCES ON intense mental i'm
pulse in Europe The werld has swelled out
and requires more brains. India now feels
the western touch ordinary products minglo
with the rare, and trade takes immense pro-
portions.
The tide sweeps on for three centuries the
commercial nations roll their surplus popula
ton into the New World steamboats,, rail-
roads and telegraphs force the widest com
mercial projects into realities, and progress
in full tension awaits further development
in third and eliminating period The
third period will date from the completion
of the Pacific Railroad. Four hundred and
sixty thousand tons of freight per year are ready
at the linking of its rails to pass across the
Continent. England awaits its completion to
change her Australian steamship line from
Panama and make Australia tributary to San
Francisco. France and Holland will commr-
nicate by this route with their Indian colonies
The advantages Of our geographical posi-
ton make 1t as inevitable as fate that the
whole world must pay tribute to North
America This tribute will, however be but
small tax upon the immense advantages
which 1t will reap in exchange. 1t may be
hat ha oc< ha
trated is working for the general good of man
kind and not with the simple idea of national
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. In building our Pacific
railroads we shall do more for the dormant
masses of Asia than has been done for them in
the last three thousand years. We shall draw
upon them, and this will force them to
produce. We shall have closer contact
with them, for their doors now face
ours. We shall thus be able to exchange
ideas, resulting in great mental as well
as material gain to both. The capacity of Asia
for trade, virtually untouched as yet will now
take new forms and receive new impulses by
being placed in such immediate relationship
with the whole civilized world. 1t is impossi-
BILE to calculate tho effect of the influences thus
brought to bear on Eastern Asia. Old dynas-
ties must go down. ideas of religion and Of life
be completely changed and the Asiatic mind
take new and strange directions. Europe, con-
forming to the changes wrought, must recog-
nize in the United States the favored land des-
tined to deal civilization to the nations of tho
earth.
With our Pacific railroads we shall make the
break the marked distinctiveness of races,
crush national jealousies, teach one half of
mankind what the other half is, show to Asia
that Europe has valuable ideas, and oice oasa,
and that either possesses elements of civilza-
lion foreign to the other. We shall make our
selves the schoolmaster Of the world, and
while we dispense its blessings shall teach the
best method of making use of them.
For ourselves, our railways to the Pacific
will so make us the highway of nations that
the very interest taken in uninterrupted COM
across our territory will be our best
safeguard Of unbroken nationality. If, further,
we would estimate the natural result of our
means of communication upon our future
wealth, commerce and civilization, we have
only to look at the results upon Europe of the
first two periods of imperfect commercial inter-
change to feel that America strides onward to
q great destiny-that to be an American citi-
zen ia greater than to be king.