Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-12-10
A SCRAP OF HISTORY.
How the Erie Canal Marked New Era in
the Development of our Country.
ISan Francisco Bulletin.l


Editors Bulletin. Considering the large
number of people from the United States
who visit Europe, it is seldom we hear
anything from them that savors of Ameri-
can pride, dignity or patriotism, that we
feel delighted in reading Governor STAN
ford's speech ON the last Fourth of July
celebration, delivered in the heart of the
French Republic. There are few men in
America who are better qualified to explain
the advantages of internal and maritime
improvement and its benefits to a sound
republican form of government and to civ
ilization. The world justly applauds Fer
dinand de Lesseps for building the Suez
Canal, and also his ambition to build
Panama Canal. These are great achieve.
ments yet there is no great mental
thought or conception in the two Isthmus
canals. They do not open any new coun-
tries. They do not advance civilization.
They only shorten distance between the
Occident and the Orient.
These two things are not new. Sisostris
more than two thousand years ago made
canal across the Isthmus of Suez, and John
Quincy Adams in his early manhood was
sent by our Government to Columbia to
negotiate canal across the Isthmus OF
Panama.
THE ERIE CANAL AND LELAND STANFoRD'S
FATHER.
The great achievement of the world in
canal building was the construction of the
Erie canal in New York State. That
canal did not shorten distance, but it
heightened the distance of civilization. It's
terminus at Buffalo was only its beginning.
Int int 70 no hnca Of 4ha
Rocky mountains, it was mostly an unex-
pIored wilderness, and inhabited by
savages. Taking into consideration the
sparse population, the limited condition of
finance, and the general surroundings of
that day, it was the greatest achievement
the civilized world ever produced.
De Witt Clinton is the reputed father of
that grand design, and very Justly, too. Yet
Mr.. Clinton would have failed had it not
been for Leland Stanfords father, and
few men like him. Mr.. Clinton had
hard struggle to carry his measure. The
opposition was great and powerful, as all
the landed interest i'll Eastern New York
opposed it on the same ground the British
aristocracy opposed taking off the corn
laws. The country adjacent to the Hud-
son river thought if capal opened the
great West it would reduce the price of
corn. Under this powerful opposition
even Clinton faltered and lost his courage
There was one man who comprehended
the magnitude of the great work, and that
man was Mr.. Ciintons adviser. He saw
Mr.. Clinton one day wavering and dis.
couraged. He laid the weight of his pom
derous hand on Mr.. Clinton's shoulder
and said, 1.-THE achievement can and must
be DONE" That man was Leland Stan
ford's father. From that day Mr.. Clinton
never faltered, and the great work was
done. All through that great toll MIR.
Stanford and few unassuming men like
him stood by Mr.. Clinton till the work
was accomplished. To use common fig
ure, Mr. Stanford was AIR. Clinton's back
bone. 1t was proud day for religion,
science, civilization and humanity when
refined civilization and crude barbarism
met on the frontier waters of Niagara, and
amidst the roaring of the waters the great
Indian Chief Red Jacket and Dewitt
Clinton embraced. That day new CONT
nent was born. The magic wonder para
lyzed the civilized world. Even the Queen
Of Heaven raised her veil and cast be-
nign smile on the crude earth. The earth
saw it, and her wild bosom swelled out the
laughing verbena, the emblem of civiiiza-
ton. The great West to-day attests this
moral achievement, for nowhere, from the
western borders of York State to the base
of the Rocky Mountains, is the traveller
scarcely beyond the civilizing sound of the
cheerful church going bell.
The writer was contemporary with these
men, and he knows Leland Stanford's
father assisted De Witt Clinton to dip up
the translucent waters from the bosom of
the blue-eyed Erie and cast them on the
liquid face of the turbid Hudson.
To-day we see in the son the legitimate
inheritance of vigorous and determined
father. We see Leland Stanford betting
the continent round with the metallic bands
of steel that will enable California to
reach the Atlantic ocean at Galveston by
making the same number of miles that it
now takes to reach Omaha. We are bound
to admit that there is genius in the man
that can scarify the rugged face of the
Sierra Nevadas and rip open her rocky bo-
som so the locomotive can watt the trav-
eler over It's perilous sleeps while he slum-
bers TRANQUILITY in his berth.
Leland Stanford is great through his
father. His father was creator and lived
in the days when great men lived. Then
the writer was boy. Their mental light
shed its rays on my feeble soul, and hope
future generations will be favored by the
same blessing. J. Bows.
Saws the Sutter Runner. We uuder-