Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-04-08
By a staff Correspondent.

prise singly, It is, nevertheless, but part OF
the overshadowing scheme of extending the
commercial channel of the Mississippi river
to the Atlantic ocean.
The opening of a canal across the penin-
sula, indeed, avoids the dangers of doubling
the capes of Florida, and abridges the time
and cost of present navigation between the
Atlantic and the Gulf-sufieient reason for
urging a work of such national importance:
but even these great advantages are of small
importance, compared to the far-reaching
design of lining the whole eastern coast OF
the continent with cheap water distribution
of the products of the Mississippi valley.
From st. Marks, as the Gulf terminus oi
the peninsula section, the canal extends
westward along the inland coast waters OF
four great States to New Orleans, thus, in
effect, leDgthening the Mississippi about six
hundred miles and mooring its steamboats,
and barges in the ports Of the Atlantic. 1t
is remarkable, as shown by actual survey,
that throughout the entire western division
of the canal, which connects the ports of St.
Marks, Apalachicola, Pensacola, Mobile,
Pascagoula, Pass Christian and New Orleans,
a stretch of 1874 miles, only about thirty miles
will have to be eXcavated, and that through
a low, fat sandy soil, In order to perfect be-
tween those points a waterway amply suff-
cient to accommodate the great barge
transportation Of the Mississippi river. In
remarks on this part Of the line, General
Gilmore says:
"1u determining the western terminus for
a peninsula barge canal from ST. Mary's
river, through OketuOkee swamp, to the
Gulf of Mexico, the advantages offered by
the harbor of st. Marks became at once ap-
parent, whether considered with respect to
either the inside or the outside connection
west. From st. Marks westward to Lake
Borgne or Lake Ponehartrain there exists q
nearly continuous natural land-locked wa
ter route, by means of tidal sounds, bays,
and connecting streams, requiring improve
ment by dredging In some places, it is true,
but only comparatively short aggregate
length OF solid cutting"
Ia further remarks on the peninsula divis-
ion Of the canal the report says:
"Asto the probable effects on commerce
and navigation of the proposed barge route,
1t is presumed that 1t is not to be consid-
cred as a separate or isolated work OF i'm
provement, but as forming a part of great
and continuous water route from the upper
Mississippi and its tributaries to the Atlantic
seaboard."
But the advantages do not end here-the
same great natural system of land-locked
tidal waters extends along the coast of Texas
to the mouth of the Rio Grande, on the very
borders of the Mexican republic; while In
the East, from st. Mary's, 1t leads into the
ports OF Brunswick, Savannah, Port Roval
and Charleston, with the not very remote
probability Of northward extension through
Albemarle, Chesapeake and Delaware into
Long Island sound. In fact, it requires no
great stretch OF Imagination, nor
greatly endsngers ones reputation for
sanity, to contemplate within the next two
census decades a continuous barge canal
throughout the entire southern and eastern
coasts of the Uuited States, creating power
of economic distribution in connection with
the Mississippi and its tributaries not sur
passed by the Mediterranean between the
continents OF the Eastern hemisphere, and
unparalleled within the borders of a single
nation or empire.
II we pause for moment at this point to
connect other divisions of the same great
continental system of inland navigation, as
exhibited in the great lakes, rivers, bays and
CULTS, the future power and grandeur of the
republic under good government, swells
into colossal proportions, and may we'll be-
come the theme of the poets loftiest inspi-
ration. That barge or steamboat should
be able to descend from the lofty
Sierras of the Southwest, or
from the Rocky Mountains OF the
Northwest, now thousand miles beyond
civilization, or even from the frozen lakes
OF Manitoba and Minnesota, aud come to
anchor in the harbor of metropolitan New
York, would, indeed, be glorious achieve
ment-a triumph worthy of!the foresight,and
energy of country already famous through
out the world for the boldness of its con-
ceptions and its determined power of execu-
ton. Such resources of internal transpor-
tatiOn. secure from approach by the most
formidable foe upon the high seas, would
exhibit national power of concentrative
force that must preclude the possibility OF
serious impression from without, and, at no
distant day, establish fual immunity from
all fear Of danger from any possible
combination OF foreign powers.
But to return to the connecting links in
this grand scheme of inland navigation. It
may be asked, why has it been allowed so
long to slumber while millions of capital
were lavished on comparatively insignificant
enterprises? The answer is to be found in
the political history Of the country. AS a
nation we are young-in the verdancy Of
youthful of ambition and fire, but mex
perienced, erratic and beWildered In the
maze of the possibilities of great country
unfettered, animated and running over with
the eXuberance of freedom. When the coun-
try was weak and poor IT could not undertake
a great and costly enterprise not essential to
its existence, and as 1t grew in wealth and
power sectional iealousIes arose and en-
crossed for half century its capabilities and
powers. eliminating at last in the folly
and madness of war, sectionalism exhausted
itself in the chaotic blindness of the strug-
gle, and the republic arose to a newness of
life that now promises the triumph and
glory OF mature manhood. A few years Of
friendly greeting between the sections-a
few years of intermingling and cordial CO.
operation have wrought wonderful change
From youth the country seemed to spring at
a bound to manhood, from poverty to fabu-
lous wealth, while ber enterprise and capa-
bilities of to-day are an astonishment at
home and abroad.
Sectional jealousy and hate, however so
recently in deadly struggle, could not so
readily forgive and forget-so readily be gen.
erous and just-and upon the dictum, "to
the victors belong the spoils," the domi-
Dant party long administered the govern
ment in the interest of its sectional views.
Added to this. four great cities on the North
Atlantic had grown with the country-had
put forth their energy and influence to con-
centrate upon themselves the growing trade
of the West, and any attempt to divert any
portion Of that trade was met with a
hostility and power carrying with
it the fun favor of a sectional administration
of the government. Official reports on the
canal project Of the South presented to the
country a comparison of cost figures and
rates of transportation from the West
alarming to the great railways, designed, at
the cost Of millions to the public treasury,
to accommodate the carrying trade of the
great Mississippi valley; and exhibited a
scope and capacity for transportation sug-
gestive of inevitable change in the mighty
stream Of produce flowing East, heretofore
almost wholly through Northern channels.
But the time is at hand when sectional IN
terest or prejudice must lose their power to
circumscrIbe or direct the trade of the coun-
try. 1t has put off its swaddling clothes,
and fifty millions Of people occupying three
millions OF square miles will prove less
adapted to sectional restraint than twenty
five millions on one million square miles
millions of acres of the pub
lie lands in order to secure
trade and empire permanently to the North,
are already failing to keep pace with the
mighty growth of Western trade. AS evil
dence OF this, may be cited, the sudden
appearance of mammoth barge lines on the
Mississippi bearing off vast bulks of freight
in the opposite direction, in spite of high
insurance, delay and dangerous navigation
still more concerns every patriotic
citizen is the completion of a Canadian
waterway through the great lakes and the
st. Lawrence river, directly In competition
with the American lines, and threatening in
the near future to divert through a foreign
channel the carrying trade of our great
wheat growing region of the Northwest,
The growth of these competing lines, the
latter foreign, and at cost of many millions
OF dollars, must surely open the eyes of the
people and the government to the
Incapacity of the Northern rail-