"In The United States, The Project Of A Railway To The Pacific To Cross
The Rocky Mountains Has Ebbed And Flowed In Public Opinion, And Has
Been Made The Battle-Cry Of Parties For Years Past, But Nothing Has Yet
Been Done.
Such a project, in order to answer its purpose, requires
something more than a practicable surface, or convenient mountain
passes.
Fine harbours on both Oceans, facilities for colonization on
the route, and the authority of one single Power over the whole of the
wild regions traversed, are all essential to success. As regards the
United States, these conditions are wanting. While there are harbours
enough on the Atlantic, though none equal to Halifax, there is no
available harbour at all fit for the great Pacific trade, from Acapulco
to our harbour of Esquimault, on Vancouver's Island, except San
Francisco - and that is in the wrong place, and is, in many states of
the wind, unsafe and inconvenient. The country north-west of the
Missouri is found to be sterile, and at least one-third of the whole
United States territory, and situated in this region, is now known as
the 'Great American Desert.' Again, the conflicting interests of
separate and sovereign States present an almost insuperable bar to
agreement as to route, or as to future 'operations' or control. It is
true that Mr. Seward, possibly as the exponent of the policy of the new
President, promises to support two Pacific Railways - one for the
South, another for the North.
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