The Orangeburg news. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1867-1875, 1869-05-15
Bully.

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sTHs CoAPLEr1oN OF TIE PAcIrio
H9lAILRoAD-- There vas a smack of the
lsstrical effect tn the announcement that
|the Pacific Railroad would be eompleted
Joy driviuga spike Of goldsinto sleeper
OF laurel, each blow of the slcdge being
simultaneously recorded in Che telegraph
offices of New York and San Francisco /:
but there. lis On excuse for flourish and
display, and it viii be hard for the most
bombastio speaker to exsggerate the
Importance fthes iron band which con-
meets thcs Atlantic and the Pacific, aud
as it is the noblest work which Western
civilization has successfully accomplish
ed, must hold the first place in the
material achievements of the century. 1t
matters but little whether there has been
stealing and piundering during the
building of the road; whether ten men
or thousand have been enriched by
contracts or plsce. All that we need
remember is that the Pacific Railroad is
completed, that eleven hundred miles of
road are ADDED to our gigantic railway
system, and that the locomotive which
pants in the streets of the cities of the
East, is never silent until it reaches the
shores of the Golden State.
Every day has impressed more pro-
foundly on the popular mind the prac-
tical utility of tho trans-continental rail-
road. AS it advanced mile by mile, it
created towns which must soon enjoy an
enduring importance 1t mas already
carried an army of farmers to the fertile
lands and pleasant climates of the West
where they will build up new cities,
construct new roads, and in turn, at
tract another tide of settlers. 1t has
drawn immigrants from Europe and from
Asia. 1t has placed the mines of gold
and silver within easy reach of every
quarter. 1t has made Pennsylvania the
neighbor of California, and has brought
the whole Pacific coast one hundred
years nearer to the van of practical pro-
grcss.
The Pacific Railroad will populate
and develope the territory lying between
the great river and the great sea--a ter
ritory vast IN area aud rich in every
element of greatness. And then its
office is but begun. BY means of this
now completed railroad the commerce of
Eastern Asia will be poured into the
lap of Eastern North America. This
trade will be ours, because by this route
it can most easily find market, ani
because Europe, Sun draw her supplies
-'ere 4srssvaiy s~,- ,s,As.=- ;s.e N
railroad than by the uncertain ways of
the sea. The commerce of japan and
Australia must also be ours, aud the is
lands of the Pacific are brought within
our grasp.
And with the opening of the road of
which We speak, the Pacific railroad
system is still in its infancy. Even if
the route of the Pacific Railroad per-
mitted it to be operated without inter
ruption throughout the year, it could not
for long meet the demands of the trade
which will pour over it with steadily
increasing force. Every Immigrant who
settles on the line of the road, every ton
of quartz and ounce of precious metal,
every bushel Of corn and wheat, will be
an addition to, the business of the line
ands the time must and will come when
not one Pacific Railroad but many will
traverse the Continent, and bring the
wealth of Asia and cf the whole United
States, west of the great river, to the
seaports Of the East. First will come
the Southern Pacific Railroad, which
will build up Charleston and Norfolk
and Savannah into metropolitan cities,
and others will follow in its train until
every demand of commerce shall be
satisfied, and its every want fulfilled.
The course of years alone can show
what will be the extent of the effect
produced by the Pacific Railroad upon
the prosperity of the country. 1t must
tend to make the whole Union more
homogeneous in character, to draw the
people more nearly together, and, we
hope, to destroy that sectional feeling
which bids New England thrive though
all else pine and perish. 1t should give
the people larger and broader ideas, and