The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-08-01
vs.. PANAMA.

pendence they made q proposition, in 1926, to
Clay, then Secretary OF State under Mr..
Adams, that the United States should Co
operate with them in the construction Of this
great work, and in 1923 the King OF the Meth
erlands proposed to undertake the work, but
q revolution prevailing in the country pre-
vented the survey from being even COM
menced. In 1886, for the first time, something
like @ regular survey OF q route was made
BY John Bailey at the direction OF the Presi-
dent OF Central America, and this survey
showed the practicability OF the Nicaragua
route. Various other surveys have since
been made-that by the Isthmus Of Panama
and that by the Isthmus OF Tehuantepec
being, with that by Lake Nicaragua, the most
and perhaps the only practicable
ones. "5u2m@ ."M@M @
Finally, In 1872, the government Or the
United States appointed an inter-oceanic
canal commission, under which ten routes,
including the three above mentioned, were
surveyed, and it is an important fact to note,
Just at this time, that this commission,
directing and finally examining the only
thorough and entirely reliable surveys for
this canal ever completed, unanimously re-
ported In favor OF the Nicaraguan route as
the most practicable, the most convenient for
the OF the world and the cheapest
to be constructed. The following Is an ex-
tract from the report of the commission:
The route known as the Nicaragua route
beginning on the Atlantic side, at Or bear Grey-
river, thence. following its left bank, to the
mouth Of the San Carlos river. at which point
Of the San Juan river begins, and
E,t I.. ril IF tbrnng tnrt n ~ 1 q =nf ~ a ~ rs n
length Of three and five miles Reaches Lake
Nicaragua. from thence across the lake and
through the vail US OF the Rio del Medic and
Rio Grande t. what is known as the Port OF
Brito. on the Pacific const. possesses, both for
the construction and maintenance Of u canal,
great advantages. and Offers fewer dif1lcnlties,
from engineering, commercial. economic points
of view. than any one of the routes shown to be
praeticabls by surveys sufficiently IN detail to
enable q Judgment to be formed on their rela-
tive merits. @@#
Subsequent to the completion OF these sur
veys the government of Nicaragua expressed
a desire to aid the great work to the full
extent of its ability, and sent a commits
ri~~ - Wn-Ls~,so- 81 "tIans0 a npecidi
treaty involving large concessions to the
United States as the controlling power In the
enterprise.
This treaty was on the eve Of consumma-
ton when the great Pacific Railroad corpora
tions, now among the most powerful bodies
In the country, interfered, and by their in
nuence checked the ardor Of the administra-
ton, and diverted it's energies and ambition
from perhaps the grandest work of the CEN
tury. Thus the enterprise, SO ~favorabIy re-
ported upon, and the contamination of which
would have immortaiIzed the Grant admins
t%ration. was paralyzed and it sank, for the
time being, out Of sight.
The attention Of the world, however, had
been too long fixed upon the project Of an
American ~inter-oceanic canal to permit it to
die out, and it has lately been revived In q
practicable form in Europe. But the Paris
In'er-oceanic Congress. jealous, no doubt, OF
the pre-eminence which the Nicaraguan gov
eminent had given the United States In the
enterprise, and taking advantage Of the in
difference Of our government, applied for and
obtained very large and important conces-
sions from the United States of Colombia and
has certainly been induced by those conces-
sions to adopt the Panama route, a route
more expensive to construct and of the least
advantage to the trade of the United States.
But the vigor with which the Europeans
are prosecuting their enterprise has aroused
AIl1 AIltiltfiA JiItti ~ Ii ItLISSlIy OIL
taking immediate steps to enforce the con-
struction of this canal, either through Mica
raugua or the Isthmus Of Tehuantepec. The
CANA can be constructed over either Of these
at a less cost and with an infinitely less
loss Of human life than over the Isthmus OF
Panama, and either route will be worth many
millions Of dollars more per annum to the
America.
On our first page, accompanying a map OF
Central America, We print q very full and ex-
trelnely interesting description Of the several
practicable routes surveyed, with a history of
the great c,nal project, a suggestion Of the
curious information relative to the country
which it is to intersect. New Orleans is,
perhaps, more interested in the completion
OF this enterprise than any other city in
the United States. Whether the canal be
built through T~ehauntepec or Lake Near
it will be but an extension OF the Missis-
sippi river from New Orleans to the Pacific
coast Of America, and It will necessarily
make New Orleans the chief entrepot of all
the vast trade which will seek the Atlantic
from the islands and countries Of the Pa
ciiic.
To impress upon the reader an idea OF the
value of that trade would require facts and
figures covering many columns. We may,
however, briefly state the generalfact, that the
trade which seeks the Atlantic from the Paci-
tic has, in every age, been so great that every
new route from one ocean to the other has
ruined and built up great cities. The marble
ruins of Palmyra, cleaning over the yellow
sands OF the Syrian desert, mark the path Of
the ancient caravans OF the East to the Med
When the trade Of the East
sought the West through the Red Sea and
over the Isthmus Of Suez, Palmyra became a
marble waste and new cities. Of which there
IS not 2 9 vestige remaining, sprang