Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1871-04-13
From the New York In6e; endent.J
The Northern Pacific Railroad.

BY SCHUYLER CoLFIAX, vICE-PREsIDENT OF
THE UNITED STATES.
Midway across the continental the
head of twelve hundred miles of Lake
gation-a thousand miles from Buffalo,
the western terminus of the Erie Canal,
and as near to it by water as Chicago-a
hundred miles west of the longitude of st.
Louis or Galena-is the young city of
Duluth, the initial point of the Northern
Pacific Railroad. That great work, so
magnifcently endowed by the Govern
ment, is already being pushed rapidly
westward, under its energetic controllers !;
and before the snow flies next fall, it will
be completed to the western line of Min
nesota, where it crosses the Red River of
the North-which runs northward to
Lake Winnipeg-and one-eighth of its
distance to the Pacific Ocean will have
been accomplished. Commencing, too,
this season on its western line, the work
will be prosecuted from both directions,
and long before the nation celebrates its
Centennial Anniversary of Independence,
the Lakes will be united by iron bands
with that Mediterranean of our Northwest,
Puget Sound.
Of the auspicious influence of this en-
terprise, which but few years ago would
have been considered so daring, the most
sanguine of its friends have scarcely yet a
full realization. Even taking Chicago as
a starting point, it will be (Uia st. Paul,
where an arm of the Northern Pacific
Railroad is reached) two hundred miles
less to Puget Sound than to San Francis
co. Besides this, vessels from the Golden
Gate to China sail on what is called the
grand circle, instead of in a straight line
and anyone testing this by a string on a
globe will be surprised at the result, if
they have not previously studied the eff.
feet of the rotundity of the earth, and its
diminished protuberance as you go north
ward towards the Pole. Hence, when
they have sailed eight hundred miles from
San Francisco they are only one hundred
miles from the entrance to Puget Sound
and this striking fact shows the advan.
tages this route will have in commanding
the. through, traffic of Asia with our
Atlantic States, or that portion of it which
will pass over the soil of this nation on its
road to Europe.
Nor is this all. Development is the
great duty of the republic, after all its re.
cent trials Resources are the gift of the
Creator. Developing them depends on
the work of man. Along the lire of the
Northern Pacific Railroad, as it follows
up the water courses, the Missouri and the
Yellowstone on this side, and descends by
the valley of the Columbia or the other, a
vast body of agricultural land is waiting
for the plow, with a climate almost ex-
actly the same as that of New York, ex-
cept that, with less snow, cattle, in the
larger portion of it, can subsist on the
open range in winter. Here, If climate
and fertility of soil produce their natural
result when railroad facilities open this
now isolated region to settlement, will
soon be seen waving grain fields, and hap
py homes, and growing towns; while ulti
mately Gordon of prosperous States
teeming with population, and rich in in
dustry and consequent wealth, will occu
py that now undeveloped and almost in
accessible portion of our continental area
But this road is fortunate also in il.
pathway across the two ranges of noun
tains which tested so severely the Pacific
Railroads built on the central line, and til,
overcoming of which reflected sucn well
deserved honor on their energetic builders
| At the Deer Lodge Pass in Montana
where it crosses the Rocky Mountains, it
altitude above the sea is $500 feet less thai
| the Union Pacific Railroad at Sherman
which is said to be the highest point a
which locomotive can be found in tn,
world. And on the Pacific size of tb,
continent it is even more fortunate. From
Arizona up to the Arctic Circle the Col
umbia is the only river which has torn it
way through that mighty range, the Ande
of North America, which in California i
known as the Sierras, but which in Oregon
changes its name to the Cascades. Natur
has thus provided a pathway for the North
ern Pacific Road through these mountains
the scaling of which, on the other line, a
an elevation of over seven thousand fee
"a most wonderful triumph of engineer
ing), cost the Central Pacific Compah,
millions of dollars, and compelled them
for seventy miles, to maintain a grade O
over one hundred feet to the mile-twic
the maximum of the Northern Pacific a
the most difficult point in its entire route
1t is fortunate, also, in its terminus o.
the Pacific coast. No one who has no
been there can realize the beauty of Puge
Sound and its surroundings. One hun
dred miles long, but so full of inlets an,
straits that its navigable shore-lin
measures seventeen hundrci and sixt
miles, dotted with lovely islets, with gi
gantic trees almost to the waters edge
with safe anchorage everywhere, an
stretching southwark, without shoals O
bars, from the Straits of Fuca to the CAP
ital and center of Washington Territory
| IL III OC % OttHcpVS iOl III
commerce of the grandest ocean of tn
world, the Pacific. The Ian
Grant of the United States, exceedin
fifty millions of acres in the winter
wheat region of our nation (ten times q
large as the area of Massachusetts,,
doubtless sufficient for the completion c
the road; but, besides this, millions {
private means are already invested in i
The bonds based on the Land Grant, an
a mortgage on the road itself in addition
are being sold as rapidly as the money
needed; and, as an investment, yieldin
about eight per cent. per year in currenc,
rank already with the best class of raj
road securities And thus the good wor
will go on with unchecked step to its fin
consummation, carrying the blessings
settlement, development, civilization an
Christianity with it in its progress, al
literally causing the wilderness to bio
som as the rose.
The London Post Office emplo,
i lpaar1u nO0 farna1o CLARKE