who have examined it, it appears to be feasible. The fact that it originated in a city which is acknowledged as the metropolis of Rail Road enterprise, is an omen of its success. Capitalists are willing to take stock, and all that seems wanting to ensure its speedy execution is a single act of Congress: an act granting to the Company the right to borrow the Credit of the United States to the amount of Ninety Eight Millions. The passage of this single act, places the interests of the Road beyond the influence of any future freak of Legislation; and this is the distinguishing feature of Mr. Degrand's Plan. While we await, with concern, the discussion of this Plan at the next session of Congress, we will indulge in a few thoughts relative to the subject. A Rail Road to San Francisco is an important work. It has a momentous bearing upon every National interest, and with its success is also linked the welfare of Communities which are not our own. Let us follow out these thoughts. This Road will have an influence upon the PECUNIARY relations of our Country. The length of a Rail Road from Boston to San Francisco will be 3000 miles. At an average speed of 25 miles per hour, including stops and traveling day and night, the Express Train will run through in 5 days. In the First-class Cars, at 2 cents per mile, (which is becoming the average rate of Rail Road Fares in this country,) the Fare will be $60. In the Second-class Cars, at 1 cent per mile, the fare will be $30. If, now, we estimate that 200,000 passengers will, annually, pass over this Road, going and returning, between Boston and California, (and it is a reasonable estimate,) the cost of their transportation, supposing that even one-fourth take a second-class passage, is fairly calculated as follows: Fare of 150,000 1st Class passengers, at $60 each, Time and Food of the same, for 5 days, at $2 per day, each, Total expense by the Rail Road Line, $9,000,000 3,750,000 1,500,000 500,000 $14,750,000 This, it will be noticed, is the expense of those only who take passage at the remote Eastern terminus of the Road. Those who travel from points west of the Atlantic sea-board will, of course, be subjected to a less expense. As, for instance, the passenger from St. Louis, having before him a Road of only 1600 miles, will pay only about one half the Fare of the traveler from Boston. But allowing that the estimate of $14,750,000 will be the average expense of the whole, by the Rail Road Line, compare with this the expense of the same travelers by the Sea Route. The transportation of 200,000 passengers between our Eastern Ports and San Francisco, by Sea, a portion going across the Isthmus, a portion through the Straits of Magellan, a portion around Cape Horn, and one-fourth of the whole taking a second-class passage, is fairly estimated as follows: Passage of 150,000 1st Class passengers, at $150 each, Time of the same, for 100 days (average) at $1 per day, each, rate. Total expense by the Sea Route, Clear saving of expense, $22,500,000 52,500,000 2,500,000 5,000,000 $82,500,000 14,750,000 $67,750,000 In this estimate, the cost of passage is placed below the average Few First-class passengers have shipped at a less price than $250, by Cape Horn, or the waters of Magellan; and by the Isthmus, the average expense has been nearly $500. The cost of a marine Outfit, which is expensive as well as necessary, and the cost of Insurances, are not considered in this estimate; nor is the extra risk of Life, nor the disappointments and delays always incident to long voyages by sea. The Overland Route, as it now exists, is as dangerous, and, perhaps, as expensive as the Sea Route. It traverses an almost unknown waste, infested by savage tribes of Redmen. It defiles through intricate Mountain-passes and winds over snow-covered summits. It offers neither hospitality nor cheer to the weary traveler. Fatigue and sudden changes of temperature, not less than the prairie-wolf and the rifle of the Indian, thin the ranks of adventurers toiling across its waste, to the promised land. Many, who have ventured upon this Route, have come back, disheartened and diseased, leaving comrades dead by the wayside. A Californian, recently returned, states that he left 25,000 emigrants, encamped within a circuit of 200 miles upon the South Western frontier of Missouri, who are unable to proceed on account of sickness, and of the scarcity of guides, of food, and of water. Grass sufficient to maintain their cattle, would not grow upon the Route during twelve months to come! If, then, we estimate that 200,000 persons will annually pass to and fro, between California and the Eastern States, the annual saving of expense to the Pepole, by means of a complete international Rail Road, will be Sixty-seven Million, Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollars; a sum which, in two years, will more than repay its entire cost! In this connection there is another thought. As a general thing, a Rail Road always increases the value of the land through which it passes. The truth of this remark is forcibly illustrated in the State of Massachusetts, which, at this day, has 1500 miles of Rail Road, costing nearly fifty millions of dollars. For instance, the land bordering upon the "South Shore Rail Road," in that State, (which was opened January 1, 1849,) has increased in value, to an average of not less than $50 an acre, for a strip of two miles in width, upon each side. By this increase of the value of Property, on either side of a Rail Road, we can account for the facility with which a large amount of money has become tangible, and appropriated to the construction of Rail Roads in this country. It is less than twenty years since the first Rail Road was opened in the United States. And on the 1st of Janu ary, 1848, their iron web covered our Land to an extent of 6,154 miles, and at a cost of $145,260,011. A fact which shows that a Rail Road is a creator of vast national wealth. Now a Rail Road to San Francisco will pass through an immense extent of land, which is, at present, for all practical purposes, valueless. The United States is the proprietor of an idle farm, which returns nothing to the treasury. This farm stretches from the Mississippi, upon the one hand, to the Pacific shore upon the other; running through twenty degrees of latitude, and comprising an area differing not much from the sum of the areas of the Twenty-Nine States. Judging from the past history of Rail Road enterprise, it is reasonable to suppose that the existence of this great iron thoroughfare, penetrating through the heart of this idle farm, even unto the valleys of the Sacramento, will immediately render the Public Lands saleable; and will increase their value to such an extent that their revenue would soon repay the cost of the Road, and would furnish means for the construction of other Roads, diverging from this, the main artery, and threading, in every direction, the Great West; stopping short of no seaport on the Pacific Ocean. There will be an influence from this work upon our cIVIL relations. The Republic now spans the entire breadth of the North American Continent. Its shores are washed by the waters of two Oceans. Its Southernmost limit looks upon the tropic of Cancer, and its Northern is near the farthest line of the temperate zone. Its geographical area nearly equals the area of the entire continent of Europe. With this vast increase of territory, have crowded in new relations and diverse interests. The mass of Republicanism has become unwieldy. What will prevent it from following natural laws, and falling to pieces by its own unwieldiness? It must be propped up by every conservative element. It must be bound by every band of unity. A thoroughly international feeling must be fostered, and a social as well as a political union be maintained. The people must be brought into easy contact and communion with each other. The woodsman upon the Aroostook boundary must know the goldman in California; the planter in Alabama, the trapper at St. Anthony's Falls; the merchant at Boston, the trader at Astoria; and each must have access to each other. To this end, thoroughfares of Intelligence and Intercommunication must be opened. These thoroughfares are Rail Ways and Telegraphic Lines, which always travel side by side. And these are the conservative elements, these the bands of unity which are to consolidate the numberless and diverse interests of the Republic. An intelligent People is a law and order-loving Pople. Build Rail Roads, then, that knowledge may fly through the Land. It is a question whether California could exist as a member of the Confederacy, under her present physical relation to the States on this side of the Rocky Mountains. She is now as far from Washington, as is Bombay from London. And even when the steamers from San Francisco to the Isthmus, and thence to New York, shall be in regular connection, California is forty days' distant, and that, in this day of VOL. XIV. 40 ww steam and electricity, is very remote. New York papers tell us what was going on in New Orleans, a few hours since. A disastrous fire was kindled in St. Louis, and on the next morning the people in the region of Passamaquoddy Bay knew of it. But the people in San Francisco do not hear of it until two months, or more, have passed; and yet the latter city is geographically nearer St. Louis than is the eastern corner of Maine. The iron clamps of a Rail Road must bind California to us, ere she can exist as one of our Family. Then a passage of three days will bring the citizen of San Francisco to the Mississippi valley, of four days to the Capitol, of five days to Plymouth Rock; and he will realize that, though 3000 miles intervene between himself and us, he is as near to his Eastern fellow citizens, and is as familiar with their Interests, as if his home were in their midst. But, by far the most glorious influence of this work will be its MORAL influence. The moral influence of a Rail Road? Yes, there is such a thing, and few of the moral agencies of man are more potent. The moment that this Rail Road is completed, it will become the great Passageway of the European mails and the European travelers to the Pacific isles and to Asia. Asia is a pagan land. Its nearest neighbors are either Pagans, or, what is but little better, "nominal Christians." Heretofore, Christianity has been able to assail it only from the West. During ninety-nine years, that have elapsed since Swartz landed at Tranquebar, the unequal contest has been carried on, and with indifferent success. But now the enemy is vulnerable from an opposite quarter. Steamers from San Francisco will, in a passage of twenty days, land the Christian Missionary, and the Christian Press, and all the influences of a Christian Civilization at the gates of Pekin. The darkest corners of benighted India will be brought within twentyfive days of New England. And upon either shore of that poor Land, and upon the numberless Islands of the intervening sea, the light of the Cross will begin to dawn. There is more in the contemplation of such an event, than words can tell. And all this is linked with a Rail Road to San Francisco. But this is not all. The untutored Redman, who now prowls over that wide territory through which this Road must pass, is to be made, by it, a better being. Christian Civilization cannot enter his domain and pass daily before his wigwam, without tinging him with its regenerating influences. American villages will arise upon his hunting grounds; the New England ploughshare will drive through his prairies; the church spire will ascend where his war songs were sung. The Indian will be no longer a savage. Thus will changes come upon the inefficient and superstitious Mexican. The cruel religion of the Aztecs will pass forever away. And all this, and more, is linked with a Rail Road to San Francisco. One more thought. When this Road is built, the entire globe will be girdled by steam. Then you may take the cars at Boston, and af ter five days land at San Francisco. Thence an American steamer will convey you to Canton, touching, in her course, at the Sandwich Islands. From Canton, English steamers are running to Bombay and Suez. Crossing the isthmus of Suez, steam will take you to Liverpool, and steaming thence, after an absence of less than 125 days, you will find yourself again at your New England home. How soon, after the consummation of such an event, will the English language become the Dialect of the globe! A Railroad to San Francisco, then, is an important Work; having a momentous bearing upon every interest of our own Nation, and upon the welfare of Nations which are not our own. Circumstances seem to have made us responsible for its execution. It is a weighty responsibility; but from it we must not shrink. The vast importance of this Work we cannot estimate, until, with our own eyes, we shall see the glimmering of that Light which is yet to blaze upon the shores of India; until we shall see the gates of Japan and of those Islands of the sea long blockaded by Barbarism, swinging upon their rusty hinges; until we shall see all the rude differences of Custom and Opinion, which have, for ages, separated the Eastern and the Western nations, disappearing; and American Influences shall tinge the most distant summits of the globe. W. R. B. THE VICTORY. STILL Night had thrown her mantle o'er the Earth, Of human and divine invention,-vale And mountain, tower, roof, streamlet, ocean,-all The pall which hushed the voice and step of man. But there was one within whose breast a storm Thick And fast the phantoms glide before the eyes, A mass of shadowy brightness, shadowy gloom. |