LETTER.

WASHINGTON CITY, April 3, 1860.

To the President of the Railroad Convention called

to meet in Vancouver, W. T., May 20, 1860:

SIR: I propose in this communication to present some general views in regard to the Pacific railroad, and especially to set forth the character of the northern route. It has become now fixed in the public mind, that the national defence, the development of our interior, the availing ourselves of our geographical position in order to control the trade of Asia and the Pacific, require that early and prompt measures should be taken to establish communication by railroads from the Mississippi to the Pacific ocean. The entire aspect of the interior is most rapidly changing. The progress of that interior within the last two years has been greater than its whole previous progress. The successful accomplishment of the overland mail on the southern route is now throwing a population upon that route. Pike's Peak and the silver mines of Nevada, in connection with Utah, are settling large areas in the very heart of the central route. The interior of the northern route, the Walla Walla, Spokane, and Colville country, have already large settlements, which this very year will number many thousand souls. The opening of the navigation of the Missouri to Fort Benton, and of the Columbia and Snake rivers, to Priest's Rapids, and the mouth of the Palouse, in connection with the overland wagon road from Fort Benton to the Walla Walla, have established an easy and practicable communication via the northern route. In considering this question I shall not look to the present capacities of the country to support an overland communication, but shall consider what all know will be the condition of the country when these communications are completed, and the roads are put in operation. The building of a Pacific railroad will probably be a work of some years, say ten years. It is not to be doubted that in ten years not only will the population on the Pacific seaboard be trebled or quadrupled, but that there will be a very large population along the line of any route that may be selected for the location of a railroad. It must also be borne in mind that in the case of more than one road, there will be no antagonism between the roads in reference to way travel. Each road will drain a very wide extent of country bordering upon it-a country at least

three hundred miles in width; so that if the intermediate population is simply a pastoral one, the country will, when thus settled, afford a population to the running mile of road greater than the way population of any road in the United States. The Pacific railroad, like all other roads, must have a great dependence on its way travel; and it can hardly be doubted that when a road is completed, the way travel will be very large. It must be borne in mind also, that the extraordinary progress of the interior within the last two years, has been made with no immediate prospect of a Pacific railroad, and with none of the aids of excitement which the starting and commencing of such an enterprise would furnish. If Congress should adopt a system, and if a road or roads should be commenced, it will throw a vast number of laborers on the several routes, and will lead at once to a very much heavier movement of our people upon them. I desire to urge the project of building three roads to the Pacific Ocean. It is manifest that one route is unequal to the public exigencies, and would be unjust to the people of the country. If three roads are built, the government will be under the same necessity of using the three roads as it would be if using but a single road. Over each road it must carry the mails, and must transport troops, supplies, and munitions of war. If but one road is built, to wit, over the central route, the government would still be obliged to provide for the transportation of its mails over the southern route and the northern route, and it would have to transport troops over each of these two routes. Any argument, therefore, based upon the defence of the country, applies with equal force to three as to one route.

With these preliminary observations, I will address myself to the immediate object of this communication. I contend that the northern route is eminently deserving of the encouragement and the support of the government. It is not a fiction, the great vision of Columbus. It is a fact, that if we stand firmly on our geographical position, and show a wise forecast in the measures looking to the development of our country, we will have the means of diverting a large portion of the trade of Asia, and causing it to flow through our own land. The experience of railroads within the last few years has demonstrated the fact that much freight will go on railroads, which could with equal safety and without deterioration go by water, when time can be saved. Much of the cotton for the New England factories passes up the Mississippi, and is transported thence by railroad, in order to gain time and save the interest on money. This course. enables the consumer to purchase from day to day, as he wants the article, and he is not required to keep so large supplies on hand as by the former mode of doing the business. Such will

be the case with a vast quantity of Asiatic products. All their costly articles, as silks, the higher priced furniture, spices, furs, &c., instead of making the circuitous voyage around either cape, will be taken by steamer to some one of our Pacific ports, thence overland on the proposed Pacific railroad, and thence to Europe. This will especially be the case with teas, which deteriorate by crossing the tropics, and then being kept long on shipboard. The teas of Russia, which are famed for their superior flavor, are taken overland, through Siberia, at a vast expense, and have been taken in that way for many years. We will then assume, what we think experience has demonstrated, that a Pacific railroad through our borders will have a large way population to sustain it, and will have an immense business in the way of freights in the merchandise of Asia. It will also be the line of movement of population between Asia and Europe, as well as between these continents and our own interior. As the channels of commerce are established, and greater liberality prevails in the management of the affairs of China and the other nations of Asia, it cannot be doubted that this movement of population, which will be hastened all the time the road is being constructed, will become a very great movement by the time the road is in operation.

Looking to all these elements of business-looking to the public necessities, and especially the business which the government will have to transact, we will now consider some of the leading facts touching the geographical position and the natural advantages of the northern route. This route, as has been frequently observed, seems to be pointed out by nature, connecting the great inland sea of Puget Sound with the great basin of the St. Lawrence, which furnish a water line stretching more than half-way across the continent. It has been called the extreme northern route; but looking to this great basin of the St. Lawrence, to the extensive country between it and the Rocky Mountains, watered by the Upper Mississippi, the Missouri, the Red River of the North, the Saskatchawan, and their several tributaries, and to the rapidly-developing communities of British Columbia and Vancouver's Island north of our parallel, and of the State of Oregon and the Territory of Washington south of the parallel,it is a route central to a vast scope of country fitted to be the abode of civilized man, and which is most rapidly rising in importance. Puget Sound, by which designation is included the whole body of waters flowing into the ocean at the Straits de Fuca, is an inland sea equal in extent and length of shore line to the Mediterranean,-infinitely surpasses the Mediterranean in the safety of its navigation, in the number, capacity, and security of its harbors, and, equally with the Mediterranean, hav

ing obstructions neither from ice nor from dense and dangerous fogs. These waters, in connection with those of the Columbia and the main coast of the Pacific ocean north of the Columbia, and the adjacent country, are a second New England, having all the elements for a great variety of pursuits, and for a large and extensive commerce. On the coast there are cod fisheries equal to the best fisheries on the northeast coast; there is the greatest abundance of salmon and halibut; the whaling business could also be prosecuted with great success from these regions. There is coal on Puget Sound acknowledged now to be the best on the coast, and which will probably be suitable for the purposes of ocean navigation by steamers. But our lumber business admits of a development greater than that of any other portion of the country or of the known world. On the sound alone, we now manufacture one hundred millions a year, and we send more than half of this to foreign ports. We have a large business in spars and piles; we manufacture shingles and laths; and this business must very rapidly increase. We have foundries and ship-yards; we are building steamers and sailing vessels of considerable size, and craft of all descriptions, down to the ordinary sailing or row boat. We have large manufacturing advantages. Our country is a most excellent grazing and agricultural country. With all these various advantages, therefore, west of the Cascade mountains-commercial, manufacturing, agricultural, &c.-we shall have to seek the markets of the Pacific in order to give proper scope to our enterprise and industry. If we consider the interior of Washington and Oregon, we find that experience has demonstrated what has heretofore been confidently predicted, that there is a very great extent not only of fine grazing but fine arable land; and the settlements which have sprung up within the last year in the Walla Walla, the Spokane, and the Colville country, to which allusion has already been made, and the excellent character of the intermediate country, must satisfy all persons that a large population will occupy that region, even before the necessary surveys could be made to locate a Pacific railroad. through it.

British Columbia has become a fixed fact. The products of its mines are steadily increasing. Roads and communications are being established, connecting the interior of British Columbia with the coast. Even during the past winter, the yield of gold has been steadily going on.

It has been ascertained by exploration, that there is a very extensive gold region east of the Cascades, in Washington Territory, and exceedingly rich deposits have been actually worked. on the Similkameen and are known to exist in other localities. The prospecting operations of the present year will unquestion