New-York tribune., 1870-01-01
THE YE4RiS HORK.

The year 1869 has witnessed the completion
of some of the greatest works of the century,
and carried the world forward with giander
strides in the pathway of material progress
than any other single year in the recollection
of the present generation. 1t has rarely been
given to any one man to witness the realization
of tro schemes so important to the prosperity
of all civilized nations as the opening of a
canal through the desert and a railway across
a whole continent; but that these great events
should have been crowded into one short year
is indeed a remarkable and significant cir
cumstance. The French engineer, with a
rare combination of enthusiasm and patience,
has succeeded i'll carrying out a project as old
as the ages of the PbalaOhs. In this fast land
of ours a project that is worth anything is
never suffered to grow old and men had
scarcely begun to talk about crossing the un
inhabited plains and mountains with three
thousand miles Of iron rail before the pick and
the shovel commenced clearing the way, and
years before the most sanguine dreamed of
seeing the end, the work was finished. Thus
10y two wonderful achievements of engineering
the distant East is at the same moment brought
next door to America and next door to Europe;
the old currents OF trade are changed; and
with the change commerce prospers and life is
felt in desert aud decayed countries.
These are the chief labOrs which have been
crowned during the year 1869. Others hardly
less important have been planned out or begun.
As France cut through the sands OF Suez so
America is preparing to cut through the forests
and mountains of Darien, and open new
ocean route which will be easier safer, and
more practically useful than the dangerous
path from the Mediterranean to the Arabian
Sea. The year 1870 will doubtless witness the
beginning of this work. and a date by no
means distant may be set for the celebration
of its close BY that time perhaps all our
Western wldeInesscs will be crossed by the
locomotive and dotted with settlements; and
great American steamship lines will be ready
to take their freight at the Atlantic and Pacific
ports and pass through the new channel which
will be opened between the two oceans.
If few great political changes have marked
the year, the principles of political justice have
made cheering progress in nearly all the great
countries Of the world, while no countries can
be said to have gone backward. In Great
Britain and France especially the rights of the
people have been more fully recognized, and
the dcspOtsm of centralized power and priyi-
legged castles has been rudcly shaken. AT home
we have made some steps toward tho
realization Of the American ideal of
equal rights for all, and have been
cheered by steady improvement in the faith
ful administration Of our laws aud the regula-
tion Of our finances. We have presented to
the world a noble spectacle of a people rising
with unbrolicn energies from devastating
war, and by hard work, economy, intelligence,
and the honest rule of good President, re-
pairing with unparalleled rapidity tho raw
ages of four years of conflict. We, at all
events, have abundant reason to look back
upon 1869 with gratitude and satisfaction.
May the record Of the year this day begun
prove equally bright