32D CONG.....2D SESS.

"I shall take the liberty now, my dear sir, to suggest a matter which would, if I am not too short-sighted a politician, mark your administration as an important era in the annals of this country, if it should be recommended by you, and adopted by the Assembly. It has long been my decided opinion that the shortest, easiest, and least expensive communication with the invaluable and extensive country back of us would be by one or both of the rivers of this State which have their sources in the Alleghany mountains." *** "Maryland stands upon similar grounds with Virginia. Pennsylvania, although the Susquehanna is an unfriendly water, much impeded, it is said, with rocks and rapids, and nowhere communicating with those which lead to her capital, (Philadelphia,) has it in contemplation to open a communication between Toby's creek, which empties into the Alleghany river, ninety-five miles above Fort Pitt, and the west branch of the Susquehanna, and to cut a canal between the waters of the latter and the Schuylkill, the expense of which is easier to be conceived than estimated or described by me." * ***"That New York will do the same, as soon as the British garrisons are removed, which are at present insurmountable obstacles in their way, no person who knows the temper, genius, and policy of those people as well as I do can harbor the smallest doubt."

"I need not remark to you, sir, that the flank and rear of the United States are possessed by other Powers, and formidable ones, too; nor how necessary it is to apply the cement of interest to bind all parts of the Union together by indissoluble bonds, especially that part of it which lies immediately west of us, with the Middle States. For what ties, let me ask, should we have upon those people? How entirely unconnected with them shall we be, and what troubles may we not apprehend, if the Spaniards on their right, and Great Britain on their left, instead of throwing stumbling blocks in their way, as they now do, should hold out lures for their trade and alliance? The western States -I speak now from my own observation-stand as upon a pivot. The touch of a feather would turn them any way. They have looked down the Mississippi until the Spaniards, very impolitically, I think, for themselves, throw difficulties in their way."

Such, in brief, were General Washington's views of the means necessary in 1784 to preserve the western States; and looking from the present point of time, wild and utopian as they may then have appeared, we behold their realization by the States which he named, and much more, because of the discovery of steam and its application as a propelling power on roads, rivers, and to almost everything else. The rival routes and antagonistic State interests are alluded to by him, and had the same effect to delay the great work of that day as they now have to retard the one of the present day.

Mr. Jefferson-that statesman of rare endowments, whose fertile mind was always teeming with enterprises beneficial to his country-in_his confidential message to Congress of the 18th January, 1803, asked authority to order an exploring expedition to the source of the Missouri river, which "might explore the whole line even to the western ocean," remarking that "while other civ'ilized nations have encountered great expense to ' enlarge the boundaries of knowledge by under'taking voyages of discovery, and for other literary purposes in various parts and directions, ' our nation seems to owe to the same object, as well as to its own interests, to explore this, the ' only line of easy communication across the continent, and so directly traversing our own part of it. The interests of commerce place the principal object within the constitutional powers and 'care of Congress; and that it should incidentally 'advance the geographical knowledge of our own 'continent, cannot but be an additional gratifica'tion."

After the return of the exploring party, Mr. Jefferson remarked in his message to Congress of the 2d December, 1806, that "the expedition of Messrs. Lewis and Clark, for exploring the river 'Missouri, and the best communication from that to the Pacific ocean, has had all the success that could have been expected. They have traced the Mis'souri nearly to its source; descended the Columbia to the Pacific ocean; ascertained with accuracy the geography of that interesting commu⚫nication across our continent, and learned the 'character of the country, of its commerce, and ' inhabitants."

Nearly fifty years ago, Mr. Jefferson took the initiative in this matter, and more recent reconnoissances by officers highly competent for the duty, have confirmed the general correctness of the results anticipated from those early proceedings. The more careful and more enlarged means of examining the whole face of the country by talented, learned, and experienced officers, have resulted in the indication of a route which, while it follows the general line of the one named by Mr. Jeffer

son, through the whole distance, coincides with it exactly for a part of the way, indicating a route which many consider the only feasible one for the site of a road across the continent.

SENATE.

now to give up their expensive canals and railroads, with their deep cuts, tunneling and inclined planes, and resolve his State and people back again into the condition in which they were before these improvements were made? Do they not very much prefer these works, premature and unwise though some of them may be, than a return to the pack-horse, the bell-team, and the stage coach? Although the construction of those great works may have saddled Pennsylvania with an onerous public debt, I cannot doubt that the benefits and advantages arising from them more than counterbalance the evils of that debt.

I beg not to be understood as saying that this bill is perfect. I know that it is not; and there are some amendments which, if proposed, will meet my hearty sanction. I will cheerfully vote to strike out the incorporation clause, and for an express prohibition against the exercise, by the company who are to construct it, of anything in the shape of banking powers; none such are given, but I would like to see the possibility of their exercise guarded against. The means and Mr. President, besides the intrinsic merit of this the powers necessary to carry forward the enter- measure, and the deep interest felt in its success prise are all with which I wish to see the com- by those whom I in part represent, it is commendpany clothed; indeed, if it were not for the suc- ed to my support from the fact that it is so fiercecess, economy, and speed with which privately and bitterly opposed by those Senators who companies have carried forward these railroad en- have never failed to show their opposition to every terprises in our old States, I would decidedly pre- western measure. Prominent among these is my fer that the whole road should be made by the worthy friend from Georgia,[Mr.DAWSON,] whose General Government, and be exclusively under smiling countenance and sonorous voice are alits management and control. But the slow prog- ways seen and heard upon this floor in opposition ress and ill success of the Cumberland road would to every measure of internal improvement in the seem to admonish us against the latter plan. I West. Our differences in this regard do not in the admit that the construction of this road, like every slightest degree lessen my respect and kind feelinternal-improvement measure, whether of a gen- ings for him, nor for my worthy friend from eral or local character, is fraught with difficulties Maine, [Mr. BRADBURY,] who usually takes the and liable to abuses, such as we know from the same side, and between whom and myself, owing past history of these works, constantly imperil to a misapprehension on my part of his views and their fate. But this is only an argument for in- position on this question, the first day this bill creased vigilance on the part of the legislator, and was discussed, there was an unpleasant altercation, honesty and fidelity on the part of the public offi- which, however, passed off with the occasion, leavcers having charge of these works, in distant and ing us the same good friends we have ever been. remote parts of the country.

The arguments against this bill apply with much greater force against river and harbor appropriations. With these, besides their liability to abuse, is the very great difficulty of determining whether they are national or local. For one, I have always maintained, that when of the former character, they are objects worthy of appropriations from the National Treasury. Now, I ask if it is at all probable in the course of human events there will ever come before Congress a measure which is more certainly and surely of national importance than that now before us? I think not. None to compare with it in nationality or in any other point of view. Its whole line will be within our own territory-the United States owning nearly every foot of the soil over which it will run. All the money expended in the construction of the road will be for the benefit of our own citizens; and all those great incidental benefits everywhere imparted to the value of the soil by thoroughfares of this sort, the building up of cities and towns, encouragements to emigration from both extremes of the world, will inure to the advantage of our own country and our own citizens. I do not believe that this Government has the right to grant a charter for such a purpose within the limits of a State, and hence the bill has provided that it shall have no effect within the borders of any State, unless such State shall by formal act assent thereto.

At the last session the Senator from Georgia pounced, most unmercifully, not only upon our alternate section bills, but upon the bill of the Senator from Illinois, [Mr. DOUGLAS,] providing forts and some protection to our western emigrants on their perilous journey to California and Oregon. That bill was then slain, because, as was alleged, it made a large increase to our standing army. This one is to be defeated for the want of preliminary surveys. The speech which the Senator from Georgia made against the Pacific railroad, reminded me of his happy effort against the Illinois Central railroad bill. That road was six hundred miles in length, and there were no estimates or surveys before us of any kind, when, notwithstanding that Senator's opposition, the bill became a law; and what is likely to be the result? Triumphant in favor of the principle and expediency upon which the grant was made! Uncle Sam parting with his alternate sections for six miles in width on each side of the road, raising the others to $2.50 per acre! and the gratifying result is manifest that the great thoroughfare through Illinois will, in all probability, be made in a short time, and the old gentleman, who deals out his acres and his dollars so parsimoniously, has not lost a cent, but has actually made money upon the operation, having realized some seven cents the acre more than the $2.50.

The Senator from Pennsylvania, [Mr. COOPER,] But the right of the United States to aid char- who preceded me in this debate, toward the contered companies of States for such purposes, has at clusion of his remarks, contended that this road least the sanction of precedent in their subscription might be so located as to run from some point in to the Louisville and Portland, the Delaware and California, say San Francisco or San Diego, to Chesapeake, the Potomac and Ohio, and the Dis-Matagorda, or some other point in Texas, and if mal Swamp canals; and in the exercise of this right, our subscription in the present instance is made on prescribed conditions, such as the dimensions and strength of the road, and the privilege to transport the mails and munitions of war free of charge. I am aware that Pennsylvania, like other States of this Union, was at an early day precipitated into a ruinous and expensive system of internal improvements. I appreciate the vigilance which would induce my friends from that State [Messrs. BRODHEAD and COOPER] to guard against such abuses on the part of the Government of the United States. But, sir, was not this rather the result of that log-rolling system which undertook to provide every place in the State with a railroad or a canal, than in carrying on, if you please, her double improvements-canal and railroadthrough and over the Alleghany mountains, from Philadelphia to Pittsburg? If my information be correct, such was the case. Would that Senator, [Mr. BRODHEAD,] or his colleague, [Mr. COOPER,] who so ably addressed the Senate a few minutes since in opposition to this measure, be willing

unfortunately it should fall there, it would run through but two States, and be objectionable on that ground. He disposed of the Texas road summarily, and while avowing friendship for the measure, admitting its magnificence and great utility, he proceeded north and pronounced an adverse judgment, as I understood him, upon all the proposed northern routes, not because of the mountain obstructions, but owing to the depth of snow in the mountain gorges. Neither southern nor northern lines will answer the purposes of the opponents of this bill. Now, sir, being in favor of the route up the valley of the Platte, through the South Pass, &c., though willing to take my chance of getting it upon its merits-I wish to meet the latter objection of the Senator by that which I have learned from practical men, not from books. It is, that dry snow is no impediment to a car, no matter how deep. It is wet snow that impedes. This may now be seen, without going to Russia, at Ogdensburg, in New York, in latitude about 440 40', where, I am told, the cars have been seen to plow through fifteen feet of snow without

32D CONG.....2D SESS.

difficulty, while a few inches of wet snow-that is, snow in a soft climate, is oftentimes a great impediment. The hardihood and enterprise of the people who will immediately flock along the northern line, if it be selected, will overcome all difficulties, such as snow may interpose to the progress of the cars in any given locality upon that route. Repeating my preference for the route through my own State, and up either side of the Platte river, through the South Pass, &c., I avow myself willing to vote for the road whether my favorite line be designated or not. Upon that point, Mr. President, I am willing to take my chance, and only wish briefly to call attention to what the accomplished and scientific Frémont has said respecting the practicability of the route to which I allude, and especially to that portion of it which all must certainly admit to be the most difficult. He says that the route he "followed in 1842 was up the valley of the Great Platte to the South Pass." "The road, which is not generally followed through this region, is a very good one, without any difficult ascents to overcome. "It passes through an open prairie region, and may be much improved so as to avoid the greater part of the inequalities it now presents." In describing his arrival at the Great South Pass, he remarks that "the ascent had been so gradual that with all the intimate knowledge possessed by Carson, 'who had made this country his home for seventeen years, we were obliged to watch very 'closely to find the place at which we had reached 'the culminating point. This was between two 'low hills, rising on either hand fifty or sixty 'feet. "" "We crossed very near the Table Mountain, at the southern extremity of the South Pass, which is near twenty miles in width, and already traversed by several different roads. 'Selecting as well as I could, in the scarcely-dis'tinguishable ascent, what might be considered 'the dividing ridge in this remarkable depression in the mountains, I took a barometrical observation, which gave seven thousand four hundred and ninety feet for the elevation above the Gulf of Mexico." Its importance, as the great gate through which commerce and traveling may hereafter pass between the valley of the Mississippi and the north Pacific, justifies a precise notice of its locality and distance from the leading points, in addition to this statement of its elevation. As stated in the report of 1842, its latitude at the point where we crossed is 420 24' 32", its longitude 1090 26'. This route having been explored, I may say surveyed, its altitudes ascertained and compared with others deviating from it, fixes the conclusion in my mind that its eastern terminus, as a United States road, should be at the mouth of the Platte, in the Territory of Nebraska. States, companies, and individuals, with the aid of the usual alternate section grants, or upon their own means and resources, must do what remains to furnish a continuous eastern line, and they will rapidly do this, causing it to branch in more than a dozen directions from that point, or other points further west.

But Senators are frightened at the magnitude of this measure. I beg them, before condemning it, to contemplate the past, present, and probable future growth of our country-to look to the interests, not only of those now living, but to those who are to come after us. I am one who regards, with great satisfaction, the arrival upon our shores, from revolutionary and despotic Europe, of the large number of foreigners who now annually migrate to the United States, believing them, in the main, to make excellent citizens, and knowing that there is nothing we so much want as people. This large and various population scattered over our western plains and valleys will greatly accele rate their settlement, and produce a harvest of good fruits not possible without them. But our unparalleled increase is not to be mainly ascribed to the foreigners; nor should we be told that we are legislating alone for them. The census shows that of our whole population of 23,347,884, but 2,210,028|| were born in foreign countries. Thus it is seen, from the most reliable data, that our increase is to be attributed mainly to the productive and expansive energies of the Anglo-Saxon stock of this continent the same causes which impelled us forward so rapidly in our early history when emigration was comparatively unknown. Official docu

ments, printed by the House of Commons, show that the whole emigration from Great Britain and her dependencies, to this country from 1812 to 1821, did not exceed 68,988, and from the rest of Europe, it was quite small; yet our population in that period increased two millions, or thirty-three and a third per cent. The increase of our white population, from births alone, independent of immigration, has averaged thirty per cent. every ten years during the present century. Without any foreign immigration, our Republic would have doubled once in twenty-seven years; but including that element, it has doubled once in twenty-three years. The Spaniards commenced the great work of colonizing this continent at the same time the English did, and for two hundred years they occupied a larger portion of it. Now, in all America, including, of course, Mexico and the South American States, it is estimated that there are not more than five millions of actual Spanish descent, while there are at least fifteen millions of Anglo-Saxon. Of this race, three hundred years ago there were less than three millions. It is now believed to be, with the exception of the Sclavonic race, the most numerous in the world. It is not only among the largest, but the most energetic and influential. It is gradually taking possession of all the ports and coasts of the world, and its language superseding almost every other. Expansion, if not aggression, is everywhere a characteristic of our race, which should, I think, be called American rather than Anglo-Saxon. The Frenchman feels them in Canada; the Russian in the Northern Archipelago; the Italian in Malta; the Greek in the Ionian Islands; the Spaniard in Cuba and on the frontiers of Mexico; the Dutch at the Cape and at Natal; the Indian in the Rocky Mountains and at the Isthmus; the Negro at Liberia and Sierra Leone; the Arab at Suez and on the Nile; the Australian at Sidney and Adelaide; the Malay at Bombay and in Burmah; the Chinese at Hong Kong; and the repellant Japanese will soon have to learn something of them at Jeddo. Perry and his fleet are going to form their acquaintance soon.

The allusion of the Senator from Pennsylvania [Mr. COOPER] to the fact that the road may run through Southern California and Texas, will not deter me from voting for the bill, nor sustaining the act of the President, if he should designate the most southern route spoken of, as, in his judgment, the best for the nation. I iterate and reiterate, that, for myself, I will vote for the road, although the line selected may not meet my individual preferences. What Senator is so lost to a knowledge of the strong feelings of sectional and local attachment which exists in every legislative body, as not to know that when you attempt to name the termini in your law, that you have either to name all the points which are aspirants, or none, or deposit the power of selection with some disinterested tribunal?

Now, sir, we can construct one great thoroughfare which will cost much money, land, and time; but we cannot build two, much less five, to accommodate aspiring cities and selfish localities. We must run the risk of choice or never have a road. I have reflected long upon this subject, and am well aware of the pent-up local feeling which lies at the bottom of it.

The only hope of success,

in my poor judgment, is to deposit the power of designation in the hands of the President of the United States. And I would just as soon, if the bill could be passed to-day, intrust that power of selection to Millard Fillmore as to Franklin Pierce. Chief Justice Taney, or any one of his distinguished associates on the Supreme Bench, if we could impose the duty upon him or them, would answer my purpose quite as well. The officer who performs the duty, so that he be a man of intelligence, character, and responsible position, is a matter of the most unimaginable consequence to me. I want the law for the road put upon the statute-book. I want the dollars and the land voted. I want the President of the United States, through his engineers, to obtain all the information he may desire to enable him to decide the question of termini and general route, and to put the road under contract as soon as his convenience will allow.

Sir, when we institute a comparison between this work and others, or reflect upon the objects to which the national treasure and resources will

SENATE.

be applied, how completely insignificant, compared with this road, all of them appear. For one, I would be willing to reduce the expenses of the Government at all hazards, to one half of what they now are, if necessary, to enable us to go forward with this work. To my own State-to the West-to the nation, I believe it is worth all the other measures which have come before Congress in modern times, or which are at all likely to present themselves for legislative favor.

Pass this bill, and grant alternate sections of the public lands upon the usual conditions to those States which are pushing forward their roads to and over your public domain in line with this great thoroughfare, and we may truly say that we have bound our Union together by bands of iron; and what is more potent than these, by ties and interests which will render it indissoluble. It is not a party measure, but one on which men of every hue and creed may cordially unite. New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, are all building their roads to and through the State of Ohio, in different directions, to the Mississippi river. Many of these roads are in line from our great eastern cities with the proposed Pacific road, and will constitute a portion of it. When the State of South Carolina shall have finished her road to Memphis, or through Nashville to the Ohio, the web will then be completed, and our whole nation will be brought together at its grand center in the short space of four days-affording us an opportunity not only to carry passengers, but every description of merchandise and produce, from the center to New Orleans, Richmond, Norfolk, Charleston, Savannah, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, and to the Pacific in the same time-four days; and from California to any of those cities in less than eight days; and to China in twenty days—thus bringing our vast country together in four days, and the extremes of the globe in thirty days. Teas from China may then be transported to any of our Atlantic cities in thirty days, and to London or Liverpool in less than forty-five days. These things accomplished, and we may, in the glowing language of the British bard

"Bid harbors open, public ways extend,
Bid temples worthier of the God ascend;
Bid the broad arch the dangerous flood contain,
The mole, projecting, break the roaring main;
Back to his bounds their subject sea command,
And roll obedient rivers through the land."

NATIONAL OBSERVATORY, WASHINGTON, March 9, 1853. DEAR SIR: It gives me great pleasure to comply with your request. Indeed, I am always glad to avail myself of any and every opportunity to contribuie anything in any way towards the establishment of a railway hence to California.

You ask me for a table of distances, by which you may compare time from New York and England, via overland route, on one hand, and California railway, on the other,

to Ay the overland route, I wish you to understand that I

have taken the shortest distance by sea from England to the Isthmus of Suez, and thence down the Red Sea to the places named.

You will also, I hope, bear in mind, that the distance quoted as per railway, is by an air line, and the distance by sea is measured in arcs of the great circle.

Were the California railway finished, and were there a line of steamers to the East from California, it would be as near for the Liverpool merchant, setting out on a trip for Canton, to come this way and take steamer at California, as it would be to go the overland route via India. The distance in miles would be about equal, but the time would be in favor of the California route, because of the railway travel.

By the overland route, the whole distance except a few miles by land across the Isthmus of Suez, is supposed to be accomplished by water as below stated:

Το

To Το Το Shangbai. Bombay Calcutta Canton.

From England via Suez 20 days 27 days 37 days 40 days
From do. via California 50 66 43 66 33
From New York...... 40

66

30

33" 23 " 21 The importance of a railway to California is becoming greater and greater every day, and the necessity of it more and more urgent. Not only is this work required as a work of national defense, but it is required to hold this Union together, and to make it compact, by subserving the purposes of travel, trade, and commerce.

Steam and the telegraph, by sea and land, are making wonderful changes in the business of the world, as well as in the modes of conducting it.

Why is it that railroads are shutting up canals, and taking their business from them? For the same reason precisely that they are superseding the old-fashioned" slow coaches."

32D CONG....2D SESS.

It is because the producer and consumer must come closer together.

There is no part of the Mississippi river, from its mouth to the Falls of St. Anthony, that, by an air line, is more than one thousand eight hundred geographical miles from San Francisco. Midway between these two points on the river, the distance is only one thousand five hundred miles. Two days by railway ought therefore to put the traveler from the Mississippi valley into San Francisco. Thence by steamer to Shanghai, the distance is five thousand four hundred miles, which is equal to eighteen days steaming, at the average rate of three hundred miles per day. Twenty days from China to the heart of this country! Why no one can foretell the revolution in the commercial affairs of the world, which such a compression of time and distance is to make!

I have said and written much upon the subject of this communication across the country. I do not know why I should have it so much at heart, unless it be in consequence of a sort of affection for it, acquired by inheritance.

We have heard a good deal said as to whom belongs the credit of originating the idea as to this communication across the country. I thought it was an affair of our own day and generation; but in looking over some old family records I find that the idea was a familiar one to my father's father, and that one hundred years ago that most excellent man and worthy divine was writing earnestly and enthusiastically upon the subject.

It is well to cast back and see how this question has grown in importance since Anno Domini 1756, when my grandfather, from his glebe home under the mountains of Albemarle, in Virginia, was inditing his letter about a commercial thoroughfare from "Hudson's river, or the Potomac, across this country to the East Indies.""

Tobacco, at that day, constituted the currency of the country, and with the bad roads of the time, you may well imagine the difficulty planters had in hauling their crops seventy five or one hundred miles to market. One wagon load was the work of weeks. Under this state of things, one of the neighbors of my grandfather had just conceived and executed the plan of putting a hogshead or two across a canoe, and of so paddling his crop down the James river at its floods to market.

In telling of the importance and value of this discovery, the old gentleman, who taught in his school both Madison and Jefferson, asks his correspondent in England to conceive, if he can, the importance which this canoe discovery is to prove to the Ohio and Mississippi country.

The letter of his to which I refer is a remarkable one. venture to make a few extracts from it. It is dated "Louisa county, Fredericksville parish, January 10, 1756.

*

"Since the publication of that map, another has made its *appearance in the world, much more extensive, as it com'prehends all that part of the British American Empire that lies between Boston and the southern boundary of Virginia; the territory of the six confederate northern Indian nations; the river St. Lawrence, almost from Quebec to its source; the various communications between that river and the lakes and Ohio; also, Ohio, with its dependencies lower than the falls." * *With it the author has published an instructive, curious, and useful pamphlet, ' explanatory not only of the map, but of many particulars, too, relative to the face and products and natural advantages of the tract of territory which is the subject of it. The map is but small, not above half as large as Fry and Jefferson's-consequently crowded. Though both it and 'the pamphlet be liable to several exceptions, and I believe just ones, yet both are very useful in the main, and together give an attentive peruser a clear idea of the value of the now contested lands and waters to either of the two competitor Princes, together with a proof amounting to more than probability, that he of the two who shall remain master of Ohio and the lakes, at the end of the dispute, must, in the course of a few years, without an interposal of Providence to prevent it, become sole and absolute Lord of North America; to which I will further add, as my own private opinion, that the same will one day or other render either HUDSON'S RIVER AT NEW YORK, or Potomac river, in Virginia, the GRAND EMPORIUM of all East Indian commodities. Marvel not at this, however surprising it may < seem; perhaps, before I have done with you, you will believe it to be not entirely chimerical.

6

"When it is considered how far the eastern branches of ⚫ that immense river, Mississippi, extend eastward, and how < near they come to the navigable, or rather canocable parts ⚫f the rivers which empty themselves into the sea that washes our shores on the east, it seems highly probable that its western branches reach as far the other way, and make * as near approaches to rivers emptying themselves into the ocean to the west of us-the Pacific ocean-across which a short and easy communication-short in comparison with the present thither-opens itself to the navigation from that shore of the continent into the Eastern Indies." "There are more than probable reasons for believing that < the western branches of this river are no less extensive than its eastern branches. This is a common property of * most rivers, and that it is of the Mississippi, I have the authority of one Mr. Cox, an English gentleman who, ⚫ either some time before, or during the reign of King Wil * Fiam III.—in virtue of a charter granted by Charles I., if I remember right, for I speak without books-to his attor rey general, Sir Robert Heath, constituting him the lord• proprietor of the lands and waters of the Mississippi, and afterwards transferred through several hands, till it fell into - those of this gentleman-sailed up to its great falls, near * one thousand five hundred miles from its mouth; both took its soundings that whole distance; traced some of its considerable branches on either side, and almost up to their <sources; made a settlement and planted a colony upon it rear widway that distance-if my memory fails me not< and published a map of it from his own and the company's journals, as far as those falls, and above them, from what araformation he could collect from the savages. One of its ← western branches, he tells you, he followed through its

Debt of Texan Republic-Mr. Seward.

' various meanders for several hundred miles, (which, I believe, is called Missouri by the natives, or Red river, from 'the color of its waters;) and then received intelligence 'from the natives that its head springs interlocked in a 'neighboring mountain with the head springs of another river, to the westward of these same mountains, discharging itself into a large lake called Thoyayo, which pours its waters through a large, navigable river, into a 'boundless sea, where, they told him, they had seen prodigious large canoes, with three masts, and men almost as 'fair as himself, if I mistake not; for, as I have read a his'tory of the travels of an Indian towards those regions, as well as those of Mr. Cox, the reports of the natives to both of them as to the large canoes are so similar, that I, per'haps, may confound one with the other. Mr. Cox's book, 'I imagine, is very scarce. I know of but one copy in this colony, of which I had an accidental, and therefore a cursory view, about four years ago. It is a small octavo volume, entitled Cox's Carolana,' that country being thus 'called, from the donor.

"Now, sir, though this narrative hath in it something of 'the romantic air of a voyager, yet the author's accounts of 'such branches of that river and such parts of that country, 'even as high up as the latitude of Huron's Lake, and also his description of the extent, situation, shape, soundings, and other properties of the lakes now confessedly naviga'ted by him, together with his character of the circumjacent 'lands, are said to have been found just by late discoveries, ' as far as discoveries have been made. And it so, it is but 'reasonable to give credit to what he tells us concerning others of its waters and countries into which, perhaps, no British subject has ever since penetrated.

"I presume the credit which Colonel Fry gave to Mr. 'Cox, and his recommending these matters to the consider'ation of the Governor and Council, gave birth to a grand scheme formed here about three years ago.

"The scheme might have been formed in Great Britain, and was this: Some persons were to be sent in search of 'that river Missouri, if that be the right name of it, in order 'to discover whether IT HAD ANY SUCH COMMUNICATION WITH THE PACIFIC OCEAN; they were to follow that river, "if they found it, and make exact reports of the country they 'passed through, the distance they traveled, what sort of 'navigation those rivers and lakes afforded, &c., &c.

"And this project was so near being reduced into prac'tice that a worthy friend and neighbor of mine, who has 'been extremely useful to the colony in the many discoveries 'he has made to the westward, was appointed to be the 'chief conductor of the whole affair, and had, by order of their honors, drawn up a list of all the necessary imple'ments and apparatus for such an attempt, and an estimate ' of the expense, and was upon the point of making all proper preparations for setting out, when a sudden stop was put to the further prosecution of the scheme for the 'present by a commencement of hostilities between this 'colony and the French and their Indians, which rendered 'a passage through the interjacent nations, with whom they ' are ever tampering, too hazardous to be attempted. This, 'I must observe to you, still remains a secret; and to pre'vent its discovery to the enemy, in case the ship I write by 'should be taken, the person to whom I have recommended 'this packet has instructions to throw it overboard in time. However, you are at liberty to impart it to my uncle John, or to any other friend of whose retentive faculty you can be as confident as I can be of yours.

"But to return once more. As there is such short and easy communication by means of canoe navigation, and 'some short portages between stream and stream from the Potomac, from Hudson's river, in New York, and from the St. Lawrence to the Ohio, the two latter through the lakes, 'the former the best and shortest. As there also is good "navigation, not only for canoes and batteaux, but large flats, schooners, and sloops down the Ohio into the Mississippi, should Cox's account be true of the communication ' of this last river with the South sea, with only one portage, 'I leave you to judge of what vast importance such a discovery would be to Great Britain, AS WELL AS TO HER 'PLANTATIONS, WHICH, IN THAT CASE, AS I OBSERVED ABOVE, MUST BECOME THE GENERAL MART OF THE EURO'PEAN WORLD, at least for the rich and costly products of 'the East, and a mart at which chapmen might be furnished 'with all those commodities on much easier terms than the 'tedious and hazardous, and expensive navigation to those 'countries can at present afford. This would supersede the 'necessity of going any more in quest of the northeast pas'sage, which, probably, if ever discovered, will also be productive of another discovery, that it lies in too inclement a latitude ever to be useful.

"The discovery of a communication through this part of the continent with the South sea, would not only 'be a nursery for our seamen, but would be instrumental in saving the lives of great numbers of them, under Heaven, 'the protectors of you and of us, who, poor fellows, drop 'off like rotten sheep, by scorbutic disorders consequent 'upon such long voyages as that to the East Indies.

"What an exhaustless fund of wealth would here be opened, superior to Potosi and all the other South American mines! What an extent of region! WHAT A

!

But no more. These are visionary excursions into futu'rity, with which I sometimes used to feast my imagina'tion, ever dwelling with pleasure on the consideration of 'whatever bids fair for contributing to extend the empire and augment the strength of our mother island; as that 'would be diffusing Liberty, both civil and religious, and her 'daughter Felicity, the wider, and at the same time be a 'means of aggrandizing and enriching this spot of the globe, to which every civil and social tie bind me, and for which I have the tenderest regard.

"But these pleasing expectations, if not entirely vanished, are much weakened and suspended, till Heaven de'cides the controversy between the two mighty monarchs now contending in some sort for the empire of the 'world."*

6

* See Memoirs of a Huguenot Family. Letters of the Rev. James Maury. Page 388.

SENATE.

Now, draw the contrast. One hundred years ago, the Missouri river was a myth; sailors, on the long voyage to India, died off with the scurvy and other diseases like rotten sheep. Indeed, so dangerous was the calling, that philosophers and political economists at that day confessed themselves at a loss whether to class the sailor at sea as among the living or the dead.

As much then as this old worthy felt that his country owed to sailors, so much, and more too, do I now feel that our country still owes to that gallant class.

What, then, has wrought these changes that have since come over the face of the sea, and the surface of this broad land? Bold mariners, steam, and the hand of improvement, guided by that "spirit of civil and religious Liberty, with her daughter Felicity," to which that worthy sage did homage in his lifetime: these are the instruments with which these great changes have been wrought.

He foresaw that New York was to be the great commercial emporium of this country. He showed theoretically why the Columbia river should exist. He predicted that the northwest passage, as a commercial question, would turn out, as you and I have seen it has, a chimera. He claimed for this country the importance of becoming the "general mart to the European world." He certainly saw far and well into the future.

As great and important as a "canoeable" navigation across this continent to the Pacific would have been in those days, the change which such a thoroughfare would have then made upon the business and commerce of the world would not be greater than that which this Pacific railway would now draw after it.

While the steamboat, the railway, and the telegraph, have, on one hand, compressed the earth into a smaller compass, by bringing the far corners closer together, science, with the discoveries and improvements which its lights have cast upon agriculture and the art of good husbandry, has, on the other hand, vastly enlarged its dimensions by causing two biades of grass to grow where but one stood before, and thus increasing the capacities of the earth to sustain population.

These changes have impressed their characteristics upon the affairs of life, and the whole business of the world. And in contemplating the ways of commerce now, and contrasting them with what they used to be, we are struck with the motto, which we feel rather than see, as we pass among the business marts of the world; it is the "open sesame" of the age, for "Speed's the word, and quick's the motion," is now the countersign with which we are greeted at every turn by every man of business.

Old Vasco de Gama was in a slow coach; and the voyage around Cape Horn is too tedious, too long. There is not time to go round the house, when both the front and back doors are open; we must go through it, and have access from one side of the country to the other by a passageway right in the middle of it. We cannot wait six months

to get our tea from China, when this railroad may give it to us fresh and good in three weeks.

The great end and aim of the vast commercial enterprises that are now on foot, that have wrought such changes and accomplished such magnificent achievements, is to bring the consumer and the producer closer together. How beautifully and magnificently would this California railway accomplish this end!

But there is another point in my ancestor's letter from which we may, I think, learn wisdom. You observe that many of the friends of the California railway say, let us have a survey first. Why this is exactly what the people were saying one hundred years ago. Survey, survey, was the word then. I am sick of surveys. Let us do by this railway precisely what we do by all other great enterprises, and what we daily see done by corporations and States. Authorize the work, then make the surveys and locate it. Pray pardon my earnestness upon this subject, and excuse me for troubling you with snch long, but I hope not tedious, extracts from an old family letter. Very respectfully, M. F. MAURY, Lieutenant United States Navy. Hon. A. C. DODGE, U. S. Senate, Washington.

DEBT OF TEXAN REPUBLIC.

SPEECH OF HON. W. H. SEWARD, OF NEW YORK,

IN SENATE, March 1, 1853,

On an amendment proposed by Mr. PEARCE to the Civil and Diplomatic Appropriation Bill, providing for the payment of the Creditors of the late Republic of Texas.

Mr. SEWARD said:

Mr. PRESIDENT: At the epoch of annexation, 1845, the Republic of Texas possessed some property in public defenses, a large domain of unappropriated land, and revenues derived from customs. It owed a considerable debt which had been incurred in establishing independence and organizing civil government. That debt was divided into two classes: first, what has been called a domestic debt, not distinctly charged on the revenues from customs; second, what was secured to creditors by a pledge of those revenues.

Texas came into the Union as a State, under stipulations concerning her property and debts, namely: She ceded to the United States all public edifices, fortifications, and other property, pertaining to the public defense. She retained all her funds, and all of her public domain, but under

32D CONG.....2D SESS.

a covenant that it should be applied to the payment of her debts, with the absolute right to any surplus; and it was agreed that in no event should those debts become a charge on the Government of the United States. Thus did the United States, in the very act of union with Texas, bind her to pay her creditors, at least as far as her domain would furnish resources for that purpose.

In 1850, five years after the annexation of Texas to the United States, all those debts remained unpaid; and, adding interest thereto, they stood, on the 1st of July in that year, as follows:

Debt of Texan Republic-Mr. Seward.

lions; and Texas was obliged to ascertain it, and see it extinguished, before she could demand the last five millions.

Each party, therefore, undertook to ascertain and fix the amount.

Texas has ascertained and fixed it at....$3,355,360 25 Which would leave to Texas of the five millions......

..1,644,639 75 On the other hand, the United States have ascertained and fixed the amount at....8,293,947, 55 A sum exceeding the five millions reserved for those creditors by. And exceeding the sum at which it is fixed by Texas by....

.3,293,947 52

In the midst of this dispute the creditors of Texas appeared here, and urged the settlement of their claims as a condition of the proposed adjustment. They pleaded that the United States had become liable for those debts, by absorbing the sovereignty of Texas, and that at least they had become liable for them to the extent of the value of the revenue accruing from imposts, which, although they had been specifically pledged to the creditors, had been diverted into the Treasury of the United States by the act of annexation. Thus the debt of Texas became an element of the controversy which Congress undertook to settle in 1850. Congress settled it by compromise:

1. Texas ceded her claim to some of the lands before insisted on, and accommodated her boundary to the demands of the United States.

2. Texas relinquished all claim upon the United States for the debts of Texas, and all other claims for indemnity.

3. In consideration of these concessions, the United States stipulated to pay $10,000,000 to Texas, in five per cent. stock of fourteen years. But

4. It was stipulated that the United States should not pay to Texas more than $5,000,000 of the said $10,000,000 until the creditors, who had taken pledges of her revenues from customs, should have filed releases of all their claims against Texas with the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States.

Thus it appears that there were three parties to this compromise-the United States, Texas, and the creditors of Texas. The United States and Texas bound themselves then. The consent of creditors, whose debts were secured by customs, although postponed, was nevertheless necessary; and so they were a third party, whose consent was afterward to be given by releases. The domestic creditors, who had no specific lien, and in|| whose behalf the United States made no stipulation, were dismissed to the justice of Texas alone, and they disappeared at once and forever from this capital.

|

is in the Treasury, drawing an interest against the United States of five per cent. It is manifest now that it is time, high time, that the controversy should be settled, and the compromise carried into effect. It is equally clear that unless Congress shall intervene, it will not be settled for an indefinite period.

The Committee on Finance proposes a plan of settlement, which is, that in lieu of the five millions of five per cent. of fourteen years, the United States shall issue stock to the amount of $8,333,333 33, at three per cent., redeemable in twenty years, and deliver it to the creditors, taking assignments for their claims, (the small excess of their claims being paid in money at the Treasury,) and that the United States shall hold the assigned claims as a bar to the claim of Texas for these five millions.

I. I consider this plan commended by its convenience.

1. In the first place, the creditors of Texas, for whose protection the United States, with her own consent, has intervened, will be promptly paid. Their claims will be extinguished, and this is a cardinal point.

2. The whole claim of Texas on the United States, under the compromise of 1850, will be virtually paid, which is another cardinal point.

In any event, and by her own showing, Texas will be paid to within the sum of $1,164,639 75. The difference which will remain to be adjusted, if any, will be one between the United States and Texas, which will involve no injustice to individuals-another cardinal point.

3. The expense to the United States will not be materially increased. The interest of $5,000,000 at five per cent., and of $8,333,333 at three per cent., are equal. There will be still the difference of $3,333,333 between the principal sums, to be borne by the Treasury. But we have now, and, for some time to come, are likely to have, a surplus in the Treasury, and so can buy up these $8,000,000; or, if you please, the whole $13,000,000, in one or two years, and so indemnify ourselves, in a great measure, for the additional sum advanced to settle the controversy.

II. I consider the plan, in the next place, commended by its harmony with the principles of the compromise of 1850.

millions of dollars) was appropriated because it was thought adequate to that object. The United States would then have appropriated $8,000,000, if it had been understood that the debts in question amounted to that sum; and there is no reason to

1. That it did not ascertain and fix the amount which was to be paid to the creditors.

2. That it left that amount open to dispute tween Texas and the creditors thus preferred. Nevertheless, the ascertaining and establishing this amount was indispensable to the execution of the compromise. The United States were obliged to ascertain it before they could pay the five mil

SENATE.

III. I consider that the plan of the committee is recommended by justice.

Justice is the basis of moral obligation. Whether there is a moral obligation between the United States and these creditors, is a question concluded by the act of annexation of 1845, and the compromise act of 1850. On what ground, other than such an obligation, did the United States, in 1845, leave to Texas a peculiar national fund, and bind her to use it to pay her creditors generally, and stipulate with her for the indemnity of the United States against those debts? On what other ground did the United States, in 1850, reserve in their own Treasury five millions of the sum to be paid to Texas, until her creditors should file their releases in the Federal Treasury? It is clear, then, that it is just, and the United States are bound to the creditors by a moral obligation to see their debts extinguished, at least as far as the sum of five millions would go. Under just such circumstances, a court of equity would, on a bill of interpleader, direct the United States to pay that fund to those creditors.

But the moral obligation under which the United States assumed to indemnify the creditors for five millions, equally holds for their indemnity to the whole amount of their claims; that is, for $8,293,947 50. If we were under no moral obligation to pay that sum, then the stipulation to pay five millions was a wanton waste of that sum without adequate consideration-a position which no one here will assume.

Such are the grounds on which the plan of the committee is defended. I proceed to consider the objections raised against it. The honorable Senator from Virginia [Mr. HUNTER] says that we are under no obligations to pay these creditors, because, in the act of annexation, Texas agreed that we should not be liable, and that she would pay them, and that the creditors had notice of that annexation on those terms, and did not protest, and therefore impliedly consented. But the honorable Senator was understood to waive this point of implied consent by the creditors.

I take the objection, however, in whatever form, and say in reply:

1. That all the world knows that a protest by the creditors against the act of annexation, would have been not more impertinent than unavailing.

2. That it may well be supposed that the creditors concerned may, in 1845, have foreseen that although the United States then refused, yet in 1850 they would assume the debts of Texas, to the amount supposed to be secured by the revenues of Texas, diverted into the Federal Treasury.

The Senator from Virginia objects, secondly, that the sovereignty of Texas was not, by the act of annexation, merged in the United States; but that, on the contrary, she still remains a sovereign State, and in the enjoyment of adequate and ample resources, viz: her public domain and capacity for direct taxation to pay the creditors.

I reply, first, that while the public domain of Texas, like our own, and her capacity for direct taxation, like our own, are valuable resources for credit, and to some extent for expenses of current administration, they are practically unavailing for the payment of a large funded debt. The resources of Texas for that purpose were her customs, which we have diverted, and so annexation, instead of increasing, has impaired the practical ability of Texas to pay her debts.

2. This objection is foreclosed by the compro

mise of 1850.

The Senator from Virginia objects, thirdly, that the plan proposed is a departure from the theory of annexation, which theory was that Texas should pay her own debt. And the Senator insists that the compromise of 1850 adhered to that supposed theory of the act of annexation, because it directed the $5,000,000 to be paid, not to the creditors, but to Texas herself.

I reply, that the imagined adherence in the compromise of 1850 to the theory of annexation, is an adherence in form only and not in fact, because the $5,000,000 are to be paid to Texas when she procures releases from her creditors, and never to be paid if they will never give the releases. So the stipulation is exactly the same thing as would have been a stipulation for paying the $5,000,000, or so much as should be due directly to the creditors. The departure from the supposed theory,

32D CONG.....2D SESS.

then, was made in 1850, and is not to be made in 1853. We must keep on in the course of 1850 till we reach the goal.

The honorable Senator objects further that this plan of the committee to pay $8,333,333 at three per cent., being less than the usual rate of interest on public stocks, is a scaling of the debts, so that creditors will not get dollar for dollar, and is therefore objectionable on the same ground that Texas is complained of. Grant this to be true, still I reply that we scale less deeply than Texas. Secondly, that we are mediating between the proper parties; and thirdly, who can complain? Not Texas, for we take nothing from her, and do not divert any fund in which she has a claim. Not the creditors, for they assent.

The Senator further objects that Texas will nevertheless come back for the $5,000,000, and will be entitled to it. I reply that Texas has already declared, by an act of January 31, 1852, that $3,355,360 25 of this same $5,000,000 is justly due to these creditors, and shall be paid to them. At the very worst, Texas will not come back for that sum. Will Texas come back for the remaining $1,644,639 75? She must produce releases from the creditors for it. They will have already released, upon a just consideration paid, not by Texas but by the United States, and after Texas had had ample time to obtain releases, and had failed, because she exacted what the creditors were neither legally nor equitably bound to yield.

The Senator from Virginia objects further that

Debt of Texan Republic-Mr. Seward.

the $8,333,333, at three per cent., will cost the Treasury more than five millions at five per cent. It will cost exactly $3,333,333 more. But that is no good objection, if, first, it is necessary to pay that sum to discharge these debts; and if, secondly, it is just, both of which points have been demonstrated.

The Senator at last falls back on his original ground, that the United States are not liable for the debt of Texas, according to the law of nature or of nations. It is quite too late to raise the question after the act of annexation of 1845, and the compromise of 1850.

Nevertheless, I will briefly consider the Senator's argument.

The United States derived advantages from the annexation of Texas, and creditors had aided Texas to rise to the condition in which her union was thus advantageous. They did not give her a dowry, but they enabled her to assume her own. The union of Texas with the United States and di

vision of her revenues were a division of her sovereignty, rendering her less fully and exclusively approachable by creditors. Was there not in these circumstances sufficient consideration to sustain the agreements between Texas and the United States for the benefit of the creditors?

Bynkershock teaches us so, (p. 191.)

Again: Texas by annexation became subject to the debts of the United States. How is it, then, that the United States could acquire Texas without coming under some moral obligation to guaranty the debts of Texas?

SENATE.

It remains only to notice the argument of the honorable Senator from Texas, [Mr. HoUSTON,] which seems to result in this: that Texas had a right to ascertain and fix the amount of her liabilities, and she has fixed it at $3,355,360 25, and the United States and the creditors are concluded by that decision.

I reply, that was not the agreement in the compromise. It was that the creditors should release their claims. If they will release for the $3,355,360 25 it is enough. But they have not released for that sum, and they will not.

Then the Senator insists that Texas is just and they unreasonable. I do not think so. The principle assumed by Texas is that she owes her creditors not what she agreed to pay, but the value of what she received from them.. It needs only that this proposition should be stated to secure its rejection. It can be no more put in the case of Texas in regard to these debts than in any other case of public and even private indebtedness.

The argument, however, is attempted to be sustained by precedents. I reply, if sound, it needs no aid from precedents. If unsound, then no precedents can make it sound.

There is only one ground on which a Government can justly scale its debts-that is the ground of absolute inability or bankruptcy, and then there must be a devotion of all its wealth. Neither Texas nor the United States can adopt that ground. Each of the parties is prosperous, each is rich, and they can neither assume the condition nor interpose the plea of insolvency.

NEW SERIES.-No. 16.