Year: 1872

Lecture by Henry A. Wise, Of Virginia


Ex-Gov. Henry A. Wise. of Virginia,
delivered lecture in Washington on the
evening of the 18th inst. subject-'The
Future of the United States" Gov. Wise
examined the physical conformation Of
the country and the natural resources OF
the several sections He found New
York to be the natural port for all the
belt Of States extending westward along
the lakes and northern boundary to the
Rocky mountains. But he insisted that
there must be second seaport for the
belt of States lying next south of these,
the central belt. He said:


George Washington in this. as in
everything else, was foremost in conceiv-
ing and commencing the first and most
important artificial lines. With that al
most preternatural prescience which was
to be looked for only from such wisdom
and virtue as God gave him. pre-eminently
he foresaw the necessity of connecting the
mouth of the Ohio midway the valley of
the Mississippi, and midway between the
lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. with the
mouth of the Chesapeake bay, midway
the Atlantic coast, on the same parallel
of latitude. We can hardly imagine that
then he contemplated the great artificial
belt of transit which is now begun be-
tween the Pacific and Atlantic coasts,
passing through the whole interior of the
continent. But be did see the true east
ern terminus of that belt, and projected
the Chesapeake and Ohio and the James
River and Kanawha canals; and they are
now the most important works in this
country yet to be constructed to reach
the great interior by the shortest and
cheapest routes of trade"


In the course of further examination of
the subject, he said another and new
commercial city on the Atlantic terminus
of the great artificial belt must and will
rapidly rise up to control that part of the
trade of the great interior which meets
the commerce with the West Indies and
with South America. Its site is due east
from the mouth of the Ohio, is midway
the Atlantic coast. is on the same parallel
with San Francisco; in climate of me-
dium temperature; is near the very
pillars Of Hercules, the Gapes of the
Chesapeake bay; at the mouth of two
magnificent rivers, the York and the
James. which look out upon the sea. in
near proximity to the Gulf stream, which
passes off Cape Henry. 400 miles nearer
from South America and the West Indies
than it pases Sandy Hook. And the
same natural causes which compell the
European commerce to turn in at Sandy
Hook will compel the commerce of the
South Atlantic and of the Cult to turn in
at Hampton Roads, to the deepest and
broadest harbor on the Atlantic coast.
Much of the trade of the interior bound
to New York in the winter months must
pass through the Hampton Roads; and a
city there will have to import largely
from Europe for its own supply and that
of its own immediate back country. Do
you ask the humbling question. why
such city, at such site for commerce.
secondary only to that of New York. has
not risen up heretofore in the past?" The
answer is fair confession that the "plan-
tation interest" has always heretofore
controlled the mouth of the Chesapeake,
and that interest was ever and ever will
be anti-commercial and anti-manufactur-
ing. But now that control has ceased By
the abolition Of slavery, and Capes Henry
and Charles can and will be linked to the
Ohio river by both canals and railroads.