The weekly echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1868-1876, 1871-03-16
The Thirty-seoOnd Parallel.

the EENGME66s OF Alul8 Us bAl1 HAuOSb
unanimous judgment Of the North
| iu favor Of the thirty-second paral-
lei as Che route for the trunk of a
new Pacific Railroad. This was
the first route to which the Federal
Government gave attention. The
agitation Of the idea of connecting
by railway the Atlantic with the
Pacific coast of the United States
commenced with the close Of the
Mexican war and the acquisition
of New Mexico and California. Its
survey was completed during the
administration Of President Pierce,
under the direction Of Jefferson
Davis, then Secretary of War. MIR.
Davis. State rights and strict con
struction Democrat though he was,
believed that there were overruling
military considerations to Justify
the Federal Government in taking
measures to promote the early con-
sbruction of the road then vaguely
contemplated. Along with Robert
j. Walker and many other eminent
persons, he entertained a strong
prediction for the thirty-second
parallel; and the official survey,
deliberately reported, swept away
every doubt that any intelligent
mind might have retained as to the
superior merits of this route. In
government circles no other route
was then seriously thought Of; and
nobody then dreamed of contend
ing that railway communication
between the waters Of the Atlantic
and the waters of the Pacific was
less eligible by a route of about
fourteen hundred miles in length,
through regions almost level, re-
markedly fertile, and free from
snow, than by route of about four
thousand miles in length, coinci-
dent with the line of the heaviest
snowfall, and for large parts of the
way through sterile wilds and over
mountainous elevations. But the
day was not far off for the triumph
Of this latter conception; and we
must concede that it was proper
day for such triumph. For was
it not to witness also the glorifca-
ton of the doctrine that national
debt is national blessing, and
that a country will prosper the
more, the more it is taxed? In
short, the thirty-second parallel fell
into political disfavor. Approved
by engineering science, approved
By all who judged it lmpartially
from a commercial standpoint, it
became the fashion, because it was
suggested and advocated by South
ern craftsmanship, to regard it as
something, from first to last, o.
diously Southern and identified
with disloyalty, treason, and STRAIT
agem. And then rose the cry Of
the imperious national necessity of
great trans-continental chain Of
railway thoroughly Northern il
conception, ownership, and opera
ton 1t is needless to recount the
subsequenl steps taken to that end.
They belong to the history Of the
existing Pacific Railroad. 1t is
more to the purpose to say that in
due time the location III this rail
road, by preference over every
other practicable route, was found
to be ia every aspect a mistake.
The superior advantages Of the
Southern route for both military
and commercial uses are now adj
mitted where il was common to-
decry or ignore it and Congress,
BY passing, and the President BY
approving, the new Pacific Rail
road bin, virtually declare that con-
siderations of commanding nation
al Importance demand that q road
to the Pacific, having It's trunk
coincident with the thirty-second
parallel, shall be completed before