The tribune. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1874-1876, 1875-02-17
Port Royal,

One would suppose after readings.the
account. t.published in the Charleston News
sad Coartsr of the proceedings and
speeches indulgtd in on the occasion OF
he late annual meeting in that city of the
National Changers, that not one Of the
homs9speakers had over heard Of the
existence Of Port Royal harbor. Bald
Colonel Trenholm, the object of this
day to commercial men is to ship their
goods by the ahorest route to the best
port Of outlet, and the most accessible
pert IL Charleston. We have not as much
water on our bar, 1t 10 true, as Boston,
New York, OF Baltimore, but we can do
what they have done-we can mako the
required depth. Pro-
No reference hers to the fact that our
State is already in the possession Of
barbor amply able to meet all require
nenta
The alluaion to Boston aEd New York
IL inganious, implying as it does, that
those we'll known fiisti class ports were
onos spss tinss in the present admit ted
predicament of Charleston, and unable to
accommodate heavy tonnage. Will Col.
Trenholm kindly inform us at what pre-
else time It was found necessary to dig
out the channels at Boston and New
York, and to what extenti We supposed
ourselves tolerably well informed in mat
tiers pertaining to the history Of the COM
mercial progress Of the two foremost
American ports, but on this one point our
memory fails US. yiiaa
Like Colonel Sellers: with mis- hair
Drained schemes and his oft repeated
assertion There's millions in it, Col.
Trenholm promises inagnifcently, and we
can well suppose that the guests of the
hour mostly from the rural districts and
unfamiliar with msratlme matters, depart
ed from Charleston fully convinced tina.
1t is the easiest thing in the world to
make a third-rate harbor into q first rate
oneby little digging. It only remains
for Col. Trenholm and his equally sar-
guine CO adjutors to make good their
professions and not allow their perform
ance to fall rediculousiy short of their
high sounding manifestos.
At the same reunion another speaker
stated it as his conviction that "Charles-
ton is placed by nature as the nearest and
most convenient Atlantic seaport for tho
cities Of Cincinnati, Chicago, Louisville,
st. Louis, &C." Here again no hint in
q rega-d TO the existing capabiiity of its
q contiguous rival.
~ The truth is that Charleston was not
placed where it 10 by nature bat by man,
and that man inSso placing it committed
great mistake, which the present gener
b alton must sooner or later correct. With
Charleston as it's principal port our State
can never take high rank es q msratims
state. while with Port Royal fully devel-
oped,, and with the necessary railroad
connections, al things are t'ossiJle. When
at length Charleston shall be Obliged to
succumb and yield her pretensiors 10
favor of Port Royal, 1t will be but repe
tition of changes already taken place in
the early colonial history of our country.
Time was when New port, r. j. entirely
!. oyershadowed New York as naval
/, depot, aud when the now insigniicant
. port of Salem, Mass. far outranked Bo,t n
in commercial matters The men of that
b day and generation, wise in time, aban-
doned their inferior and built up their
superior harbors, and the same result will
assuTely follow in these SCu-h Atlantic
waters-