The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-08-15
. The Trade with China-Thc Northwest
Passage.

Our commercial relations with China are
already of great Importance. Engaged in the
domestic trade Of that country, plying between
its queer ports, up and down its strange rivers
and through the fairyland of hooks on the
coast, there are now at least hundred foreign
steamers, and two-thirds of these are from the
United States. This is an indication of the
enterprise and intelligence with which our
countrymen have pressed forward in the
struggle for supremacy in all the channels of
Chinese trade. From this spirit the recently
made treaty grew, and by that treaty, drawn
in honorable equality on both sides, we enter
into quasi commercial alliance that will give
us the start of the world in trading on the
wealth of the East In the days when the cir
cumnavigation of continents was necessary in
order to reach Oriental countries by the sea
some other nations had peculiar advantages
over us in the prosecution Of this trade.
Holland and Portugal, by their colonial system,
had the monopoly in one age, and England,
by her position and maritime power, distanced
all competitors in another But we have
changed all that. Our expansion, our great
political and commercial development, the
acuteness, the thrift, energy, courage and
broad capacity of our people, have together
nullfed all odds against us, placed us before
all others in the East, and promise to estab-
lish our trade there on better basis than was
found in either Dutch colonies or British
bottoms, and through that establishment to
change the direction Of the great lines Of trade
that are drawn around our maps of the world.
San Francisco, our commercial capital on
the Pacific, conducts our maritime Asiatic re-
lations with enterprsing spirit; but when the
| Pacific Railroad is finished and San Francisco
has direct railroad connection with this
city-with the whole Countryside Oriental
trade will receive through this association
vastly increased impulse Then the railroad
across the Continent and the line Of magnif-
| cent steamers across the Pacific will drive
from existence all other means Of communica-
ton with Eastern Asia; for the tea, the silk
and other products brought by this rapid and
constant transit will undersel in the markets
of the world those brought by all other routes
argoes carried around the Cape of Good
Hope in slow British sailers doubling the
| price in interest and insurance, cannot COM
pete, and to steam communication by that
direction there is practical difficulty of which
the Great Eastern is an abortive monu-
ment. Ordinary steamers are only large
enough to carry the coal necessary to steam
the voyage from England, and thus have no
room left for cargo; but II ships are made
large enough to carry the necessary coal and
a cargo too, they are so large as to be nauti-
cal elephants on the hands of their owners.
| But our American line, with It's swift run to
and fro between Hong Kong and San Fran
| cisco, touching at the Sandwich islands, has
solved the problem of steam communication
with China and places the products Of that
empire within easy reach Of the Western
World at San Francisco. It only remains for
the Pacific Railroad to put them in this city
for us to have accomplished the greatest
revolution in commercial history revolu-
ton which will pass through our hands all
| the commodities with which Asia supplies
Europe, and all the manufactures with which
| Europe supplies Asia, and to supply our own
wants by collecting toll on the wants of
| others.
For ages all the Western nations have sought
the trade of the East and the way to the East,
and we have found the one and thereby Sc
cured the other. Columbus, feeling for the
East in the early gloom, stumbled on this Con-
tinent. Hudson was but one of the many
navigators who in exploring our coast sought
for northwest passage by which European
commerce could have more feasible route to
the East than round the Cape; that was his
errand when he came into the broad river that
now bears his name, and it seems strange,
prophetic vagary of the winds that they should
have borne him so accurately to the eastern
terminus of that shorter route to the Indies
that all men sought. Columbus therefore did
not fail in any sease He did not even blum
der in his search neither did Hudson nor the
others. They came by correct lines, and in
discovering America made possible all the
rest, and our railroads to San Francisco and
steamers thence to Asia constitute the practical
form of their northwest passage.
|
THE PRESIDENT AND TIE PARTIES. 1t is
intimated in the radical papers that the Presi-
dents wrath against the democracy for not
giving him their nomination Ia not to be ap
peased, and that it will result in his actively
assisting the election Of Grant. Morally it
would matter little enough which side Mr..
Johnson might take; but il there should be
close contest-if the vote should run anywhere
near tie-it is yet possible that this thrust
aside functionary, with none 80 poor to do him
reverence, may yet be able, with shrewd use
of the patronage in his hands, to determine
who shall be his successor