The South And West Are Both
Agricultural Productive Regions, Desirous Of Sending Cotton And
Corn To Foreign Countries, And Of Receiving Back Foreign
Manufactures On The Best Terms.
But the North is a manufacturing
country - a poor manufacturing country as regards excellence of
manufacture - and therefore the more anxious to foster its own
growth by protective laws.
The Morrill tariff is very injurious to
the West, and is odious there. I might add that its folly has
already been so far recognized even in the North as to make it very
generally odious there also.
So much I have said endeavoring to make it understood how far the
North and West were united in feeling against the South in the
autumn of 1861, and how far there existed between them a diversity
of interests.
CHAPTER IX.
FROM NIAGARA TO THE MISSISSIPPI.
From Niagara we went by the Canada Great Western Railway to
Detroit, the big city of Michigan. It is an American institution
that the States should have a commercial capital - or what I call
their big city - as well as a political capital, which may, as a
rule, be called the State's central city. The object in choosing
the political capital is average nearness of approach from the
various confines of the State but commerce submits to no such
Procrustean laws in selecting her capitals and consequently she has
placed Detroit on the borders of Michigan, on the shore of the neck
of water which joins Lake Huron to Lake Erie, through which all the
trade must flow which comes down from Lakes Michigan, Superior, and
Huron on its way to the Eastern States and to Europe. We had
thought of going from Buffalo across Lake Erie to Detroit; but we
found that the better class of steamers had been taken off the
waters for the winter. And we also found that navigation among
these lakes is a mistake whenever the necessary journey can be
taken by railway. Their waters are by no means smooth, and then
there is nothing to be seen. I do not know whether others may have
a feeling, almost instinctive, that lake navigation must be
pleasant - that lakes must of necessity be beautiful. I have such a
feeling, but not now so strongly as formerly. Such an idea should
be kept for use in Europe, and never brought over to America with
other traveling gear. The lakes in America are cold, cumbrous,
uncouth, and uninteresting - intended by nature for the conveyance
of cereal produce, but not for the comfort of traveling men and
women. So we gave up our plan of traversing the lake, and, passing
back into Canada by the suspension bridge at Niagara, we reached
the Detroit River at Windsor by the Great Western line, and passed
thence by the ferry into the City of Detroit.
In making this journey at night we introduced ourselves to the
thoroughly American institution of sleeping-cars - that is, of cars
in which beds are made up for travelers.
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