The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1870-02-16
Richmond not a Seaport

49, RioAlnoGQ uot a Seaport
And who ever said it WASP No citizen
of Richmond. Some excitable persons,
thinking they had discovered something
wonderful--that they had looked very far
into a INSTRUMENTATION than anybody
clse-~have announced the grand discovery
that Richmond is not seaport! True, II
is on river, at the head Of tide-water, one
hundred and twenty-five miles from Hamp-
ton Roads with its salt water of fourth
proof. ..~.~. ..lG -... .
Philadelphia occupies the same relation
to the sea-so does Baltimore. And there
are even larger cities than any in Virginia
on the Ohio river, and even high up on the
Mississippi. Still further away from the
sea there IS a city Mt the junction of the
Kansas with the Missouri. only few years
old, which numbers IS, 900 inhabitants--a
bigger town than any in Virginia except
Richmond. ~
Not a seaport! And yet what have we
seen of this Richmond which never pre-
tended to be seaport Why, that it had
before the war the largest sea-going COM
mcrce of any of the cities in the State-a
commerce exceeding that of all the cities in
the State together. 1t was small enough, God
knows, for this old State: but it was
the largest in it. We had thirteen beauti-
full clipper-built ships and briggs steadily
employed in the trade with Rio, and we
had twenty three or more capaeious schoo-
ncrs of the most elegant construction ply
ing between Richmond and New York, be-
sides steam lines to New York, Philadel-
phia, and Baltimore, and the numerous
casual vessels brought here by the
of a people who are not upon the sea, as
they know and everybody knows, can
provoke q sarcasm from persons who are
disposed to disparage Richmond, why let
them indulge their propensity. 1t can do
us little harm.
The British cities Of greatest wealth and
fame are not seaports, and no one proposes
to supply them with highways, other than
the rivers they are. built on, to the sea. We
never heard of proposition to build rail-
road from Philadelphia to the breakwater
at Lewes to accommodate the trade Of that
Furnishing city, nor Of the necessity of
road from Baltimore to the lower Chesa-
pcake to accommodate the import and export
trade of that large and rapidly Furnishing
scot of commerce. Indeed. if we except New
York and Boston, in. this country all the
great cities are river cities; and what care
they for the sarcasm that they arc not sea-
ports?
There is o law of trade which is we'll
known amongst educated merchants that
causes the incoming foreign trade to 60 as
far into the interior Of the country to which
il is destined ne it can 60 with safety-as
far as the water and the tide will make the
passage easy and successful. A law in en-
tire sympathy directs the trade from the
interior to the nearest point at which it can
meet tho sea-going vessel. The secret is
that the tidc-watcr transportation is the
cheapest in the world. This explains, in
part, the location of SO many great cities of
the world high up on rivcre. Another ex-
rlanation is that men, when building n
city, seek salubrious situations, where the
air and the water are both pure, and where
the pursuits of manufacturing and COM
merce may be followed with greatest con-
vcniencc and the greatest health.
New York is the chief exception in this
country, and yet near the head Of tide on |
the Hudson river there are two great cities
Albany, with it's one hundred and fifteen |
or twenty thousand, and Troy with its
forty thousand. But New York has q har- |
tor which cannot be moderated. We have |
compared Norfolk with it in days past,
claiming the superiority for Norfolk. But
when we look at the great emporium en-
braccd By two great arms of the sea, af
fording many miles of wharfage for the
lagest vessels, We cannot sec that it wants
anything III that line. But independent Of
This matter of access to the sea and ample
sea room for the commerce of the world, New
York is as near to the western trade as any
part of the Hudson river itself. The chief
etimulator which placed that city ahead of
al others in the Union was the Erie canal,
which gave it the commerce of the lakes,
and in few years enabled it to swallow
up the foreign commerce of Philadelphia.
Having thus supplanted the next great
est city in the Union, it rapidly became the
focal point of the national commerce. Ships
could not find cargoes for foreign ports con-
vcnicnty elsewhere; or if they did, only
1T long intervals. Therefore, the staple
exports (of the United Suites particularly
sought New York, where ships were always
ready to be chartered; and this course Of
trade has continued, with unintcrmitted
tendency to growth, ever since.
Observe the difficulty in the way of es-
tablishing and maintaining foreign lines of
vessels st any other port at this time. The
late MIR. DEANE and his disciples declared
that these lines would spring up in Norfolk
Immediately after that offspring Of his
brain, the Southside railroad, was finished.
They are not yet established. God knows
we would be glad to see them. The signs
thus far are not encouraging. Some time
since it was announced that line had been
for,no1 ,,l would ho pormooapt R,,Y