The New York herald., 1869-11-30
The Darien CanaI-Geueral Grants Splendid
Opportu nifty.

Opportu nifty.
From the exhaustive review given in yester-
days HERALD Of the various explorations
made from time to time since the year 1900,
by Spanish, English, French and American ex-
ploring parties, Of the Isthmus of Darien, in
view of ship canal between the two oceans,
we think the intelligent reader, whatever may
have been his doubts before, has ceased to
have doubt Of the feasibility of the grand
project. We think, from the facts ascertained,
that ship canal Of one-half the length Of the
Suez Canal may be made from the Atlantic to
the Pacific, on the general level Of the two
oceans, and without tunnel; that 1t may be
completed within four years, and at a cost not
exceeding ones hundred million of dollars.
We think 1t not improbable that route may
be found which will reduce the cost to sixty
millions.
At all events the enterprise, in being made
leading measure Of General Grants admins
tration, may be made great success under
his official supervision; and, if so accom-
plished, it will be an achievement which
III ALotOLy Will ulo uoIuO WIN tuO SICos
events of the nineteenth century, when
all his achievements in war shall have
passed into the realms Of fable and
tradition. In contemplating the work Of the
Suez Canal, now that it is finished and in sue
cessful operation, our only wonder is that 1t
should have been held as an imprac-
ticable undertaking during all the centu-
ries through which the commercial
nations of Europe have been doubling
the Cape of Good Hope to the Indies. We
do not wonder. however, that our government
has heretofore regarded the proposed Darien
Canal as desirable but impossible thing; for
within twenty years the same opinion in this
country was almost universally entertained Of
the scheme for railway from St. Louis to San
Francisco. Before our late civil war, more
over, one hundred. millions Of money as an
investment in anything was an amount too
enormous and too awful to be thought Of. But
the war, in developing our financial capabili-
ties, has reduced the matter Of hundred or
five hundred millions to q mere bagatelle.
Why, indeed, should we hesitate at anything
now, when railway company, for instance,
operating upon line Of three or four hundred
miles, can water its stock to the extent of
twenty, thirty or forty millions, and still keep
running and watering too?
Seriously, however, as an investment this
Darien Canal will eclipse the Suez Canal, as
the Atlantic Ocean eclipses the Red Sea, and
Do 10
Darien Canal will make New York, in fact the
commercial centre and settling house of the
world. 1t will give US the central ship line to
the western flank of our own Continent and
the eastern flank of Asia. 1t will develop the
resources Of Oregon and the
fisheries of Alaska. 1t will establish our oc-
cupation of the West India Islands, Mexico
and Central America, and develop trade in
those regions SURPRISING that of Hindostan and
the isles of the Indian Ocean. It will, in
absorbing all the intermediate trade on the
eastern side of the Continent, bring the
traffic of the mighty Amazon, by way of
the Gulf stream, around to an interchange
with the Mississippi valley. 1t will build up
cities on the isthmus itself compared with
which Tyre and Carthage, ''whose merchants
were princes" will dwindle into insignif-
canoe.
We are gratiied that General Grant has
entered heartily into the movement for the ex-
cavation of this Darien Canal. We believe
that under his leadership the work can be done
before his retirement from Office, and we are
sure that if done it will be the greatest and the
most enduring achievement of his administra-
tioD