OUR PACIFIC POSSESSIONS.
Railway to the Pacific
OUE FÜTUEE EELATIONS
WITH THE
PACIFIC ISLANDS AND MEXICO,
.A.
RESPECTFULLY ADDRESSED TO
HON. B. F. WADE, U. S. SÈNATOR,
BY
One of his Constituents. f
Ivl
< A./
/I' ■ "
y 1# {■ "f 1-
/ /I
# / i
1/
WASHINGTON:
HENRY POLKINHORN PRINTER.
1861.
LIBRARY
BUREAU OF RAILWAY ECONOWIiCS,
WASHINGTON, D.C.
(Cl'VW-/ . îsrii
APR 1Ô leie
HEa-i^S .\S6l
LETTER
Washington City, March 18, 1861.
Dear Sir :—The vast extent of our domain, expanding for
thousands of miles towards the Pacific, and the colossal em¬
pire growing up on that coast, the immense, vital, and press¬
ing necessities of those regions demanding early attention,
are all just reasons for supposing that the Administration
will soon be called upon to decide upon what course of pol¬
icy is best adapted for their development. As an old Cali-
ifornia pioneer, and one who has given some attention to,
and acquired some experience on the subject, I have taken
the liberty to address you, not with the hope of imparting
anything but what you know already, but as a still, small
voice from one of the people, and as an evidence that they
will sustain their public men in any projects which may
result in the general welfare.
Aware of the interest you have always expressed in the
projected Pacific railway, and satisfied that you and no one
else have ever over-estimated the importance of that great
work, I will make an attempt to give you my impressions of
the great enterprise, gathered from my experience and
investigations.
It will not only be a safe and rapid means of communica¬
tion between our Atlantic and Pacific coasts for mails, pas¬
sengers, and freights, and certainly the recipient for trans¬
portation of all the commerce to and from the Orient on the
part of our own country and Europe, but will be the swiftest
means of settling and building up the vast territory in the
centre of our continent, thereby laying its rich soil and nat¬
ural facilities under contribution for the needs of the world,
and spreading yet broader the foundations of our agricultural
wealth—the basis of nátional prosperity.
4
After our late war with Mexico, I became so profoundly
impressed with the vast importance of California, so certain
of the great future of the Pacific coast, where my country¬
men would be sure to build up an empire like that of our
Atlantic States, and that the building of the Pacific railway
was a fixed fact, and but a natural consequence'of its own
intrinsic merit and importance, and the energy and enterprise
of our people, that I determined to emigrate thither for a
permanent home.
So deeply had the explorations of Mr. Fremont impressed
me with the importance of oitr vast inland territories, and
the easy construction oí a grand national rail highway across
their extent, that I determined to cross the plains and acquire
personal knowledge of the climate, soil, and capacities of
those regions.
Confident that Mr. Fremont was correct in his opinion
that the central would be the finally adopted route of the
Pacific railway, I traveled that route, as described by him,
along the Main Platte river, following up the course of the
North Fork, thence along its branch of the Sweet Water
river, then through the South Pass "—a natural depression
on the summit of the Eocky Mountains, the back bone of
the continent whence the waters from the same spring on
one side flow towards the Atlantic, and on the other into
the Pacific—thence down the western slope of the Eocky
Mountains into the Great Basin," through the valley of the
Great Salt Lake," thence down the course of the Hum¬
boldt river to its end or sink—^for it is lost in the sand at
the edge of the Desert—and thence across the Sierra Ne^
vada mountains into California.
I think the Pacific railway must cross the Eocky Moun¬
tains at the South Pass, for from this point three valleys have
their heads. In one direction the springs on the summit
flow northwest and form the head waters of the Columbia
river, in another they flow southwest and form the source of
5
the Colorado, whieh empties into the Gulf of California, and
eastward the waters flow toward the rising sun and form the
head waters of the great Missouri. Here are three natural
valleys from whose mouths easy and practicable rail routes
can converge to one common point. W est ward from the South
Pass, the railway could be carried through the valley of the
Great Salt Lake, across the Great Basin, by a route as feas¬
ible as the easiest graded railway in Ohio—to the feet of the
Sierra Nevada. The range of the Sierra Nevada has been
considered by some as oflering serious obstacles to the con¬
struction of a railway, but I think Latrobe overcame greater
obstacles in pushing the Baltimore and Ohio railway across
the Alleghanies. .
The tunneling and cutting of these mountains will develop
untold mineral wealth, and who knows but that they may
furnish the very-coal necessary to run the locomotives, and
probably the means to build the main portion of it, for it is
a settled fact that 4he quartz forming these mountains is in
all places auriferous.
During this overland trip, I experienced a climate more
uniform, healthful, and pleasant than in our latitude, and
similar to that of Italy, a soil equal to that of our own
Miami valley^ a land capable of supporting millions of the
human race,'ipeculiarly adapted for grazing purposes, and
destined, for the raising of stock and the culture of cereals,
to be the most productive part of our country.
The passage of the Homestead bill would place these
lands within the reach of the poorest, and the completion of
the great railway will soon transform that wilderness to a
cultivated garden, teeming with beauty, and covered with
the homes of a happy and prosperous people.
The water-power, valuable timber and mineral resources
of the mountains, will develop vast manufacturing wealth.
The deserts can be made of use to furnish sand for ballasting
the road bed, and the vast deposits of salt and alkali seem to
6
have been intended by the God of nature, for the consump¬
tion and manufactures of a great people.
The familiarity of our people with our western possessions
and their present condition, certainly result from the explor-
ationS; energy, and usefulness of Mr. Fremont, which find no
parallel in modern or ancient history, excepting the voyages
of Columbus.
Thoroughly exploring the interior of our continent,
making us familiar with its elements, and locating unerring
routes across its extent, and, by his timely presence and
courage saving California from the hands of England, ready
to grasp it, he has rendered his name dear to his countrymen.
His services can be appreciated by those who with their
own eyes have witnessed the empire secured to us by his
gallantry, and where his countrymen in three years completed
what the Spaniards and Mexicans had failed in commencing^
in an occupation of as many centuries,
I arrived in California in 1850, and found an apparently
long settled country. If wonder and astonishment then
moved nie, did I return there now, I could not probably
realize the change and improvements taken place during my
absence. Telegraph lines, steam navigation, and manufac¬
tures of all kinds have made what was once a quiet wilder¬
ness, one of the busiest States in the Union.
It needs no prophet to indicate the future destiny of our
Pacific possessions. The completion of the Pacific railway,
demanded by all our necessities, will develop them in a ratio
hitherto unwitnessed by the world. San Francisco will
become a second London, rivaling that metropolis in the
vast extent of its commerce, its wealth, and magnificence.
Destined as my countrymen are to pulsate bacx to the
Orient the throbs of civilization, whence it originated, any¬
thing connected with our Pacific possessions or relative
thereto, should interest every citizen and arouse the atten-
tion of our statesmen.
7
At no time within the historj' of our country was the
axiom, ^'Westward the star of Empire takes its way," more
truthful and significant than at present.
Our domain westward from the waters of the Mississippi
to the Pacific coast, is now not only attracting our attention,
but that of the civilized world.
The wants of those regions must be provided for, the first
step must be the means of rapid communication, which can be
effected by the great railway. The government should at once
give all the Pacific mail contracts to the overland stage
eompanies, and thus remove one of the greatest protections
to the great monopoly of the Pacific Mail Steamship Com¬
pany. The stages, then, would be enabled to carry passen¬
gers from St. Joseph to San Francisco at the rate of $150,
ânà finally $100, where it now costs by sea from $300 ta
$400, an imposition under which we have been too long
groaning.
In California, at the time she was admitted into the Union,
I became aware of the real intentions of southern politicians,
who, in opposing its admission without slavery, wished to
gain a foothold therein for their institution, thence to ex¬
pand it along the Pacific coast, and finally extend it to the
Pacific islands.
The South foresaw the importance of our Pacific posses¬
sions, and the islands in that ocean, and made tremendous
efforts to gain their point, but they failed ; and what was
their loss, is the nations gain in the present unexampled
prosperity of these regions.
Since our national troubles, the seceded States have made
other arrangements to extend their institution of slavery to
the Pacific,, and thence to the islands. Their plans and the
means I propose to forestall them, I will explain in the lat¬
ter part of this pamphlet.
My attention was thus drawn to the islands, and the fob
8
lowing remarks are the results of my investigations and
experience.
The islands of the Pacific ocean, of more importance to us
than any other nation, are now beginning to attract the earn¬
est interest of the civilized world, renowned as they are for
the salubrity of their climate and fertility of their soil, they
are destined to assume an important position in the com¬
merce of the world.
All the maritime powers of Europe have already gained a
foothold in the Pacific, by the acquisition of some important
islands, on the principle which for all time has induced na¬
tions to claim the prerogative to protect the interests and
claim the results that have emanated from their own com¬
mercial systems.
This is peculiarly the right of every maritime power.
Destined as our ships are to be the carriers and the owners
of the Pacific commerce, and whose enterprise has been the
beacon for other nations to follow, can the Afiaerican peo¬
ple, whose tonnage in a few years has nearly unequalled
that of England, which has taken ages to bring it to its pre¬
sent condition—be satisfied with anything short of a com¬
plete defence of their commerce scattered over the Pacific ;
/
can they by supineness and neglect even run the risk of
endangering our Pacific coast to the defenceless attack of
powerful enemies, without sufficient protection qíF the shore?
Such thoughts have suggested inquiry and investigation,
as to what position in the Pacific ocean would most benefit
our commerce, and assist in protecting and developing pur
growing Pacific possessions, and which region would be of
material assistance in furnishing for that distant section of
our country such articles of food, which are of necessity, and;
for our own benefit and safety should be raised within
our own domain.
Of all the islands in the Pacific for climate, soil, produc¬
tions, excellent harbors, advantageous location, and where
9
OUT own countrymen haye gained the best foothold of other
nationS; the most important, in my opinion, are the—
SANDWICH OB HAWAII ISLANDS,"
which, equi-distant from the coasts of Oregon, California,
Mexico, and South America on one side, and Siberia, China,
Japan, and Australia on the other, and in the direct track of
commerce, are, and always will be, the grand pier of the
bridge of steam navigation on, and the half-way house of
call of every vessel that crosses the Pacific ocean. A slight
mention of their climate, soil, productions, and resources,
added to the question of annexation, already once proffered
by the islands, and which must eventually take place, may
be of some interest to you.
Climate,—The most salubrious and uniform known in the
world. For years the group has been the resort from all
parts of the world of those suffering from pulmonary com¬
plaints, and the especial favorite place for recruiting their
crews of vessels sailing in the Pacific waters. The climate
is most suitable and admirably adopted to the constitutions
of the Anglo-Saxon race, an essential qualification to pre¬
vent the consequent enervation of our race emigrating to
tropical latitudes. The thermometer rarely indjcates over
86 degrees, and never lower than 59 degrees Fahrenheit.
This fact affording a practical solution to the problem, wheth¬
er in the torrid zone, within the tropical belt, tropical pro¬
ductions could be raised by free white labor.
The NoiZ formed by the débris of volcanic matter, the wash¬
ings of the mountains, and the decay of vegetation for ages,
is the richest in the world, capable of producing everything
known in the vegetable kingdom.
Productions.—All tropical fruits are indigenous. The
natural resources of the soil afford materials for cordage, so
important to those who go down to the sea," tanning, salt,
castor, lamp, and paint oils, sandal and other fancy woods
for fine furniture, which of course will become articles for
export.
2
10
There are other resources more directly dependent on cul¬
tivation ; among such we find sugar, molasses, cotton, coffee^
indigo, silk, rice, Indian corn, wheat, henip, cocoa, tobacco,
and spices of all kinds. Vegetables of all kinds thrive enor¬
mously.
Sugar,—One of the most important articles of food and
commerce knovm to the world, the demand for which now
exceeds the supply, is very successfully cultivated on these
islands. Political economists have for many years regarded
the increased production of this article as absolutely essen¬
tial to the welfare of the human race. Once a luxury, now a
necessity. The price for the last years has placed it beyond
the free consumption of the poor man.
It should be the policy of wise and patriotic statesmen to
look after and provide in time for the wants and necessities
of their countrymen, rather than waste their time and talent
in the pursuit and advocacy of impracticable theories, and
he who prepares the way and consummates the plan of pro¬
vision for his countrymen in sufficient and cheap quantities
of such necessary articles as sugar, will nobly earn and merit
their gratitude.
Louisiana being the only sugar producing part of our
country, is unable alone to supply us with that article, and
we seek the deficit from abroad — mainly from the West
India Islands. The present attitude of this State indicates
that upon it we can no longer place reliance for its usual
product. With a nation so great, and a domain so vast as
ours, we should certainly cultivate this important article of
consumption and export within our control ; for every nation
to be truly independent, should raise its own articles of food ;
and sugar, no longer a luxury only, is now considered an
indispensable article of food, and should attract as much
attention as breadstuffs.
One of the most important political problems of the day
for solution is : how to meet our domestic demand for sugar
11
within our own limits, not only for our own consumption, but
as one of the most profitable articles for export. The vast
extent of our domain, our population, and especially the
wa^nts of our distant Pacific possessions, which are naturally
reluctant to pay tribute in the shape of an onerous duty on
an important article of food within reach of their own shores,
in order to protect the industry of but one distant Atlantic
State, demand serious attention to the subject.
The discontent of California and Oregon has already been
loudly expressed at their obligation of paying the present
duty on what sugar they consume, and are looking fondly
towards the day when the annexation of the Sandwich
Islands will enable them to obtain a supply at more reduced
rates, raised by our own industry, and within our own
control.
Sugar is now extensively cultivated in the Sandwich
Islands, and only needs the fostering care of our government
over the industry of our citizens in the undertaking, to make
this famous group one of the largest sugar-producing regions
in the world. Some of the earliest investigators on the sub¬
ject say each of the four principal islands has twenty-five
thousand acres suitable for sugar culture—in all, one hun¬
dred thousand acres—which, at the lowest computation of a
yield of three thousand pounds per acre, would produce the
enormous quantity of three hundred millions of pounds, or
one hundred and fifty thousand tons, or, as they reckon it
here, three hundred thousand hogsheads ; which, at five
cents per pound, would amount to fifteen millions of dollars !
My investigations go so far as to say that there are one
thousand square miles of land (the islands contain an
area of over six thousand square miles) suitable for sugar
culture. This, at the yield above stated, would afford nearly
one million tons—more than four times the quantity of sugar
now imported by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland for home consumption. Incredible as it may seem.
12
this is yet true, and proffers a future of national wealth as
boundless and inexhaustible as the most sanguine could wish
for. Ultimately, Australia, Polynesia, Bast Indies, China,
Japan, the Eussian settlements in Asia and America, the
British possessions on the northwest coast, Washington,
Oregon, California, Mexico, and the central coast of Central
and South America, would seek their supplies of sugar there,
and any markets which these islands would supply are so
remote from our own Atlantic sugar fields — even if we
should acquire Cuba and other West India islands in the
Spanish main—as to preclude injurious competition.
That sugar culture will of necessity attain in these islands
the amount indicated, there is not the slightest doubt. The
only question is : Shall our country enjoy their possession,
or, by supineness and neglect, lose the golden prize awaiting
our reception. A permanent government like ours, with
our industry and machinery to develop their resources and
capacities, would render our acquisition of the islands a
blessing to humanity.
Should we be secured in this trade of sugar alone, and
annexation would accomplish it, we never could be dis¬
lodged from it by any rival so long as the islands enjoy the
advantage—and their situation secures that for all time—of
being the great house, of call in the length and breadth of the
Pacific ocean.
One of the most favored regions for the production of
sugar, silk, cotton, rice, tobacco, indigo, dye-stuffs, coffee,
hemp, spices, and cereals, all of which are now successfidly
cultivated, no doubt is left that the day is near at hand
when the needs of the world will demand of the islands
their share of such products. The sugar produced there
possesses that fine granulating quality so peculiar to Cuba
and Porto Kico sugars, so essential in refijning it to hard
sugars, and which is found wanting in our Louisiana sugars«
It is for this reason that our refiners vlsq the West India pro-
18
duct to transform raw into liard sugars to bear shipment to,
and retention in tropical climates. The markets to be sup¬
plied by the Sandwich Islands render this quality of granu¬
lation in sugar essential to the article.
Actual experiments, with even the uncertain labor of
natives, have demonstrated that coffee, equal in aroma and
flavor to the famous Mocha of Arabia, costs but three to
four cents per pound to raise ; and silk has been produced at a
cost of from $1 50 to $2 per pound. Grapes flourish abun¬
dantly, and yield an excellent wine, and no soil in the world
is more suitable for the culture of that royal staple, cotton.
In fact, should the islands become annexed, my countrymen
would find a lack of but one thing—superficial area enough
for their wishes."
The more I think on the subject, the better am I satisfied
that the islands, either as an annexed State, or under our
protectorate, are absolutely necessary to us, on account of
our Pacific possessions, and the completion of the great
Pacific railway, which Mr. Lincoln's administration stands
pledged to establish and carry out.
Ever since my arrival in California, I have always deemed
the two projects^ Pacific Eailroad and annexation of the
Sandwich Islands, one^ and inseparable, of common and
mutual interest, the consummation of the latter will be but
the continuance of the former to the Orient, and be the means
of bearing to its rails the wealth, commerce, and traffic of
the world.
"When I say that the ultimate fate of this valuable group
is annexation to our Eepublio, it is not with that general
" manifest destiny idea," that it is our duty to over-run and
annex any territory which may suit us ; but with a sincere
and christian impression that such a consummation is for the
benefit of the islands themselves, and the world at large.
I am not a disciple of that school of politicians in this
country, who—and there are, unfortunately, too many such—
14
think our chief duty as a nation is " territorial expansion/'
So far from thinking so, I have always thought our leading
aim and purpose should be to learn and practice whatever
would most certainly contribute to our domestic well-being
and internal growth ; to develop the resources and cultivate
to the highest the capabilities which are already ours ; to
strengthen the foundations where we now stand ; to fix our
free institutions so firmly upon our own land, and give them
root so deep, with fibres so numerous, and embeded in the
soil of material, social, and political interests that they will
stand securely for all time, under all the pressure of rivalry
and unfriendly interests and influences to which they may
be exposed from without, and in all the storms of passion
and faction which have so unhappily arisen in our midst.
Policy and duty alike require that we should look more at
home and less abroad than, I think, we are in the habit of
doing.
I have, therefore, been unable to yield my assent to all
that portion of the doctrines of the Democratic party which
denies the right of the General Government to protect and
encourage, by its legislátion, the home interests of this coun¬
try. Born and raised in the West, and identified with its
interests, I have ever held it the duty of the Federal Govern¬
ment to foster the Great West by the improvement of naviga¬
tion of our inland seas and water courses, and to arrange and
adjust equitably the duties on importations, so as to aid the
industry of the country, rather than oppress it.
With these views, and bearing in mind that nature has
not favored our possessions west of the waters of the Missis¬
sippi with such natural outlets as the country east of the
''Father of Waters," and knowing such an undertaking is
impossible to unaided private enterprise, I have ever held,
and to the last day of my life, if necessary, in any place or
position, will contend—and my judgment is based upon the
good of the whole country—that the most imperative duty
15
of our G-eneral Government, at the present day, is, to con¬
struct, directly or indirectly, by grants of land and other as¬
sistance, a Great National Eailroad, upon its own territory,
from the head of the navigable waters of the Missouri, or a
suitable point thereon, best for the interests of the country at
large, to San Francisco, on the Pacific ocean ; which high¬
way shall cement the East, the South, the Center, the North,
and the West by the ties of acquaintance, of good neighbor¬
hood, and of a common interest, the lack of which is now
causing contending and hostile factions to rend our country,
and the possession of which will place us far beyond the
danger of separation in feeling, and disunion of States which
now threaten us.
Mail coaches are too slow to bring the extremes of our
domain in close communication, such inventions as the tele¬
graph warn us that our physical and material, movements
must keep pace with the progress of the mind.
Eecurring again to my theme, when I consider the numer¬
ous lines of steamships that are to bridge the Pacific, making
a pier of the group of the Sandwich Islands, and from it
spanning the ocean on either side, when I view our present ter¬
ritory, expanding thousands of miles from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, and contemplate the great commercial future of San
Francisco, California, and our other Pacific possessions, when
I hope to live to see the completion of that stupendous line
of railway to the Pacific, which should receive the appro¬
bation of all minds and the help of all hands, which is to
make the Atlantic and Pacific clasp hands across the breadth
of the continent, the work and duty of our day, commanded
by all our necessities, and authorized by the constitution,
not more in particular and specific parts, which are full and
clear, than by the whole sweep and living life of that instru¬
ment, when I know that Eussia, France, and England have
looked with wistful eyes to those distant isles, I cannot res¬
train my ardent wish that my country will avail itself of the
earliest fitting opportunity of uniting them, with their con¬
sent of course, to our republic.
16
Opposed, as I always stall be, to annexation, where it is
sought for the mere purpose of extending our boundaries
and dominion, and without regard to our actual wants and
requirements, as connected with all the interests of the coun¬
try, yet, "when a case occurs where it may manifestly be em¬
ployed as a means to the noblest ends, and humanity de¬
mands it, and our national and domestic interests will be
served by it, and justice itself waits upon it, I shall not
hesitate a moment to give it tjie best advocacy of my mind,
as it will compel that of my heart.
I would not be so confined by the straight jacket of one
idea, whether stand still or go-ahead," that I could not
endeavor to make distinctions and act free from the influence
of extremes, which are almost always practically erroneous
opinions.
The question of the annexation of these islands is surely
of the greatest importance to this country and is now a mat¬
ter of necessity, of time, and of justice. By "necessity," as
I here use the word, I do not mean an absolute and indis¬
pensable need, but that clear, strong, legible convenience and
fitness, which the common understanding sees and feels, and
when this convenience and fitness shall be apparent, and the
parties declare themselves ready and willing for the connec¬
tion, the time will be propitious and the justice unquestion¬
able, for I think no question can arise as to the rights of other
nations to interfere, for of all the nations of the earth, Rus¬
sia, France, and England, who would be most likely to
grumble, should be the very last to complain of territorial
expansion on our part, and the very last certainly whose
protests we should listen to or entertain.
The natives themselves once made a formal offer of annex¬
ation a few years since, the advantage of which has been lost
by the neglect of our Grovernment — they stand willing this
day to repeat the offer if the slightest encouragement of its
acceptance is offered.
17
But those poor islanders are fast passing away — during the
last twenty years nearly four hundred thousand have perish¬
ed — mainly from venereal diseases, brought on by licentious¬
ness ; and in fifty years more, there will not be a native left
to bewail the extinction of his race, and then to whose
hands will these islands revert ? Can we, who are most di¬
rectly interested, and whose countrymen have already gained
a foothpld therein and the good will of the natives, be
blind to the fact, that the fruit is fast ripening for our use,
and unless plucked in time, will be lost to us forever.
My letter is now extended beyond its original intention^
but I cannot conclude without reiterating to you my ardent
wish to be placed in a position to identify my name with the
eyents soon to be , brought forth from the womb of time in
the Pacific regions, to be placed where my wishes for years
have tended, and where my efforts and experience would
accrue to the benefit of my countrymen and humanity.
Ihave long deemed it of vital importance for that portion of
our domain west of the waters of the Mississippi to be con¬
nected by railway with the Pacific ; for I believe the western
coast of this continent will afford the best market ultimately
for the produce, and manufactures of the great West.
To be the avant-courier, and one of the first to attract and
direct our teeming wealth to new and profitable markets in
the Pacific, would be my highest ambition.
Ever determined to make the Pacific coast my permanent
home, and the causes and reasons of my abscence thence
' «/
existing no longer, and looking forward to my speedy return
thither, I have always made it my study to acquire all the
information about, and to investigate everything in connec¬
tion with the prosperity and future of our settlements on the
west side of our continent.
I trust that my hopes of usefulness in that quarter may
yet be realized.
Distant as the islands are, they would be brought within
two weeks journey of Cincinnati by the completion of the
3
18
Pacific railway, and steam passage from San Francisco to
Honolnln, the principal sea port and harbor of the islands.
I am glad to learn that the representatives of onr State
will take an important part in the advocacy of the Pacific
railway during the next Congress. It is fitting and appro¬
priate that the consummation of this project should be directed
by members from the West, and I rejoice to know they will
elevate themselves above the surface of partizanship, and
devote their talents and energies to the greatest of all enter¬
prises. I trust in these troublesome times, their example
may be followed by others in the halls of Congress ; and if
they persevere, they will see the day when a people's gratitude
and esteem will be consolation and ample compensation for
any distress, opposition or contumely they may suffer during
their praiseworthy efforts.
Party strife has consumed too much of the time of our
Federal Congress, which could be better disposed to the good
of the country. It is time our public men were measured
by the largest possible amount of public good they accom¬
plish, instead of narrow-minded party service, which cannot
but engender animosity and prove injurious to the country
at large. The melancholy condition of our beloved country
at present is a warning for all to leave every feeling aside
but that of the public weal.
Should the friends of the great railway follow out their
intentions, they will win national gratitude; and had I the
opportunity, I would advise them, in order to prepare them¬
selves for the discharge of the important duties which will
devolve upon them, to take a trip, after the present session,
across the plains, and with their own eyes see the vast extent
of fertile territory to be traversed and benefitted by the
grand highway they have so much at heart. So strong is
the feeling for the road " in California and Oregon per¬
vading all classes and conditions, they would be received
with acclammations as true statesmen, patriots and benefactors
of their country.
19
They will then behold with wonder and astonishment, and
appreciate the empire their countrymen, by energy unex¬
ampled in the annals of time, have built up in a decade of
years ; and then, no matter how eloquent they may be, or
how energetic, experienced and well posted, their ideas will
be enlarged, their minds will grasp in all its extent, the
mighty truth of the absolute necessity of the railway, and
their appeals and efforts for the enterprise, added to the
practical knowledge they can bring to bear on the subject,
will be irresistible.
Earnest as I am on this subject, in my heart I feel that I
have exaggerated nothing, nor colored any prospect too
highly, for so satisfied am I that the imagination cannot
fully comprehend the vast natural benefit resulting from the
completion of the Pacific railway ; and so determined are
the great people of this country, whose patience is worn out
by the party strife and contention constantly going on at the
seat of government and elsewhere, that their representatives
shall now work for national welfare, that they will hail any
man who devotes his time and efforts to the successful com¬
pletion of this great rail highway, as one of their greatest
statesmen and patriots.
Never losing sight of the intimate connection of the two
enterprises, the improvements of the Sandwich Islands and
Pacific railway, I would .provide for the former object, in
order to be prepared on the completion of the railway, to
furnish its rails with the islands' vast products, and stand
sentinel, as it were, in mid-ocean, to point and direct to
San Francisco and its rails the commercial traffic of the
world.
I would Americanize the islands by the labor of our now
free white countrymen, and if annexation takes place, when
the islanders become willing or extinct, to eftect it by the
plow—not by the sword. I would offer my country a State
^teeming with beauty, and won by Christian and philan¬
thropic efforts, with its escutcheon bright as the sun of the
20
east, and not a drop of blood or tear of desolation to stain
its pnrity. I would be one of the first to emigrate tbither.
My first task on my arrival at the-islands would be to make
a careful and thorough surrey, personally, of all the capaci¬
ties and resources of the whole group. Of course, I would
pay main attention to the production of sugar, as the most
valuable article for export.
I would make my arrangements before my departure
hence, to bring out, when the proper time arrived, machi¬
nery and sober and industrious families, to form the colony.
In one of the preceding pages I have alluded to the wonder¬
ful and salubrious climate, so admirably adapted to our
northern constitutions, this fact alone renders the islands the
most inviting region for emigration.
It would require but the first news of our success, to cause
thousands to follow the first families. It may astonish you,
but it is nevertheless true, that many of our countrymen on
the islands find their residence there so profitable, that they
find it to their interest to check any emigration of their
countrymen which might interfere with the monopoly they
now enjoy of that favored region. They send forth false
accounts of the soil, climate, &c.
But I am willing to take my own family with me, and am
certain that I will not be long alone without the society of
my old friends, when my first dispatches reach iny native
country.
Southern politicians have for years looked towards the
Sandwich Islands with the same feeling they hâve regarded
Cuba, as a means to spread and • strengthen their peculiar
institution and political power. It was with ulterior designs
on the islands, that they so bitterly opposed the admission of
California as a free State. I was in California at the time,
and am well posted as to that feeling.
My plan quietly worked out, would completely forestall
any intention on their part, provide and establish a colony
of our own hardy and industrious people, and lay the foun-
21
dation of a great and prosperouB State; and for tlie first
time solve the much-disputed problem, and prove by fact,
that tropical products could be cultivated successfully by
Anglo-Saxon white free labor even in the torrid zone.
A laudable ambition to gain an honorable name would
require my strenuous efforts to make myself useful to my
countrymen, if I go thither to carry out these plans.
Our Pacific coast alone for many years would absorb all
the productions of the islands, particularly the sugar, rice,
tobacco, coffee, cotton, spices, and indigo.
^The settlement of the islands by our people would open
a new and vast • market for the lumbermen of Oregon, an
interest far more extensive than generally imagined, and
effectually secure the supremacy of our mercantile interests
in those regions. They would also consume all the surplus
crop of meats and breadstuffs raised on our western coast,
and afford vast profitable markets mutually beneficial.
The shipping now rotting in San Francisco would find
busy employment, and the goods now sacrificed at auction
there would find profitable and permanent markets. What
markets would these islands, if settled by our people, afford
to our manufacturers on the Atlantic seabord ? How gladly
would the poor again spring to their labor, and with busy
hands prepare the handsome fabrics for the now distant
market.
In a previous page I have alluded to some plans on foot
by which the seceded States hope to expand slavery to the
Pacific, and gain a permanent foothold thereon, to expand
again wherever they see fit. Their purpose is to acquire
rights of emigration to and settlement in the two norther-
most States of Mexico, Sonora and Chihuahua, for mining
purposes and cotton growing ostensibly, but really for the
acquisition, when strong enough to attempt it, of those
States, and more particrdarly the important port of Guay-
mas, on the Gulf of California.
A secret messenger is now in Mexico for the purpose of
22
negotiating a treaty, offensive and defensive, with the Jua¬
rez government, the objects of which are to acquire rights o^
emigration and settlement, alluded to above, and the repeal
of the present mining laws, which are very unjust to the
owners of land whereon minerals are found.
These laws, as they now stand, deprive such owners of the
proprietorship of such minerals, and give them only the same
quantity of land which any stranger may take up who dis¬
covers the minerals. Thus there is no inducement for a pro¬
prietor to divulge the fact of valuable minerals being on his
land, as it at once places him at the mercy of any adventu¬
rer who choses to prospect for minerals—using the wood,
water and grass, to the owner's detriment—and the latter
receiving in return merely the value of the land, as estimated
before the discovery, and liable to have all his land taken
up by new comers, he only receiving an equal share with
them.
It is this fact which causes the rich mines of Mexico to be
comparatively unproductive. The object of the mission—
and to give the devil his due, this part of it may result in
good—is to repeal these laws and give land owners the abso¬
lute ownership of the minerals on their property. This, of
course, will give an immense impetus to the search for the
precious metals and arouse an unlimited demand for labor.
This latter the South proposes to supply with slaves, and in
still greater abundance when their long-looked-for free trade
in slaves is opened—which they desire as much as free trade
in goods. By these means they hope to gain a permanent
foothold in Mexico, from which they cannot be driven.
For the good will of France and England, it is proposed
to admit to Mexico and the secession States their goods, un¬
der a liberal tariff, and devote the revenue of Mexico and
the proposed tax on all minerals to be excavated therein, to
pay off the bonded debts of Mexico held by French and Eng¬
lish subjects. It is also proposed, by excessive duties, to
prohibit the introduction into the Gulf States and Mexico of
23
manufactured articles from the States faithful to the Union
and give France and England the monopoly of the markets
of the contracting parties.
I know the administration has many questions of moment
to deliberate upon. But not unworthy of their early atten¬
tion are the questions of the Pacific railway, the develop¬
ment of our Pacific possessions by the attention and encour¬
agement necessary for the promotion of our interests beyond
their shores and our future policy with Mexico. The latter
country, from its extent on the Pacific coast, and its imme¬
diate connection with our inland borders, must, were it for
geographical reasons alone, always bear important relations
to us, whether for good or evil. Events are fast making
the mission to that country one of the most important of our
foreign posts. I trust it will be raised to a first class mission
and some of our distinguished men induced to accept the
position.
In a short time the Mexican question will absorb the
nation's attention, and I trust the policy of the Government
towards that country will be just, but at the same time bold,
firm, and vigorous, and forever opposed to any foreign in¬
tervention, from whetever source it may come.
The people of the great State you so worthily represent
take a great interest in these questions, and as one of your
constituents, I have taken the liberty to address you on them.
The destiny, not only of the great West, but of the nation,
lies in the hands of the present administration. May the
splendor of its achievements forever bury the memory of
our recent national disgrace.
A OINCINNATIAN.
Hon. Benj. F. Wade,
Ü, 8, StnatOTf Washington City,
3 5556 041 288101