Year: 1867

The great Pacific railroad, Of which so
much has been heard Of late years, is now
being pushed on with an energy that bids
fair TO ensure its completion at the date
fixed by the company, which is the year
1870. Among the grand and startling
achievements which science and capital
have combined to perform of late years,
the present undertaking is one of the most
interesting and gigantic. 1t was thought
to he a very wonderful thing to run the
Baltimore and Ohio railway over the Allie
phapies, but we afterwards saw heavy
trains crossing rivers on bridges simply
SUSPENDED from the banks, and are eX-
pec,ing the day when they will run under
the Alps instead of over them, and per-
haps ply between France and England far
down below the fretlul waves Of the Brl-
tish Channel. But the Pacific railroad-the
connecting link between New York and
San Francisco-paSses through some
nineteen hundred miles Of an almost un-
broken wilderness, and scales innumerable
ranges Of the Rocky Mountains and the
Sierra Nevada. 1t is already in operation
between Omaha and point three hundred
miles westward of that city, and it will be
completed beyond Fort Laramie by the
first of next September. Steadily and
swiftly it is striding onward, rail by rail,
through the domains of the red man, the
bear, and the bison, and these recede into
the further wilds-doomed races which
NAV have ceased to exist on this continent
before this eventful century shall have
fully run its course. What a wide field
is opened for thoughtful contemplation as
we dwell upon the rapid disappearance
from the earth of the races of men and
animals whose progenitors have occupied
this land for thousands OF years before
Columbus discovered it, and before the
Mayhower planted the seeds OF the greed
and fanaticism which have brought count
less woes upon its inhabitants; as we think
of the wondrous changes which like magic
will transform the face Of nature-for many
of the very men who are now carrying
on this work amid primeval forests
and over uncultivated plains will live to
pass over the line and look, as they ride,
at thriving villages and peaceful farms
scattered at short intervals between the
Mississippi and the Pacific. But if 1t be
satisfactory to reflect upon the magnitude
and value of the magnificent region that
is to be so rapidly thrown open to the
American people, and upon the develop
ment and material prosperity which may
await it, it is difficult matter to venture
upon any coniectures concerning its pollt-
ical future. 1t perfectly clear to us that
this country can no longer be governed
under our old Constitution as now inter
preted. Asa confederation Ofindependent,
sovereign States we might with some re"
notifications Of our former system,
have gone on in tolerable harmony fol
wears to come. AS consolidated empire
we cannot get along with republican instl'
tutions. In so large territory conflicting
sectional interests of violent cha
racter. and on stupendous scale, Will
constantly manifest themselves. Win
these Congress will be constantly y needing
and as they will all have their vehement
representatives and advocates on the hool
that body will mostly fail to reconclle
them, and it will always embitter growing
enmities. The attempt to maintain In thl'
country the political system under Whlcl
we lived before the war will inevitably
fail. The Government will be compelled
TO organize permanently in the North anc
West the crushing despotism it has set vi
in the South, or else this generation vii
live either to see the United States dis
solved into several nations or to witnes


repudiation and more civil war. The IA


cidc railroad gives the country practices,


possession of magnificent DOMAIN whici
is soon to TEEN with thriving population
and to grow powerful in wealth ana re


sources; but whether good or evil Is TO re


snlt from its development remains to b
| seen.