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^ •
\V V
THE
AÜ ST IN-TOPOLO V AMPO
Pacific Survey. ^
'07-
"TTie nearest things are often the farthest off^ the farth¬
est off the nearest. Thisistrueofplacesaswell as of peoples.
Weknow more of Bismarck than of our next-block neighbor^
of Paris than of r.-any an American town. This loiv is
verified in our kno^vledge., or iguorance rather, of our
nearest national neighbor, 2Iexico. Few books are written,
less are read, upon the most novel land on our Continent,
and one of the most attractive of any Continent.''''
'■'■Nevertheless be it remarked thai even a Russian steppe has tumuli and gold orna¬
ments ; also many a scetie that looks desert and rockboundfrom the distance, will unfold
itself, when visited, into rare valleys. Kay, in any case, would criticism erect not only
finger-posts and turnpikes, but spiked gates and impassable barriers, for the mind of
jnanf Itiswrittren, '■Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased."
■'Surely the 2yloin rule is, lei each cons'iderateperson have his own way, and see what it
will lead to. For not this man and thai man, but all men make up mankind, and their
united tasks the task of mankind, lloxo often have we seen some such advoiturous, a7id
pei'haps much-censured wanderer, light on soyne out-lying, neglected, yet vitally moment¬
ous province, the hidden treasures of which he first discovered, and kept procla'iming,
tillihe general eye and effort were directed thither, and the conguest was complete;—
thereby, in these his seemingly so aimless rambles,planting neuj staixdards.Jound'ing
■new habitable colonies, iji the immeasuroble circumambient realm of nothingness and
Kight !" CarIjYLiî:, Sartor Resartus, p. 3.
Bishop Gilbert Haven.
"Our 7iext-door Keighbor," p. .
HENKY CAREY BAIRD & CO.
THE AU8TIN-T0P0L0VAMPÛ PACIFIC SURVEY.
REMARKS INTRODUCTORY TO AN ADDRESS MADE BEFORE THE SENATE
COMMITTEE ON RAILROADS, JANUARY 31 ST, 18'7 6 ; AND BEFORE
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON PACIFIC RAILROADS, FEBRUARY
10TH, 1876, BY A. K. OWEN, C. B.
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the CommUtee :
In behalf of Senate Bill 92, [H. B. 218,] asking that the Secretary
of War be authorized to make a survey and report of the Austin-
Topolovampo Pacific highway, and that for this purpose there be ap¬
propriated $25,000 out of monies not otherwise appropriated, it is
desired to give the Committee a synopsis of that which has already
been effected relative to the project.
As Pacific Railroad extension was earnestly urged by the people a
year ago, and as there were several routes before Congress for con¬
sideration, I thought it proper to lay before the Senate Committee,
for the information of Congress and the people, the Norfolk-Topolo-
vampo Pacific, a project I had matured after a visit to the harbor of
Topolovampo and an examination of sections of the proposed line in
Chihuahua and Sinaloa, and which I felt assured offered superior
advantages over other routes known to the public, and over any
other possible line across the Continent of Xorth America. The
arguments made, last winter, before the Congressional Committees
on Pacific Jlailroads, are published in the pamphlet printed by special
order of the War Department, a copy of which has been presented to
each member of the Committee.
Owing to the press of business last winter, before the Senate Com¬
mittee, the gentlemen could give the projector but a single and hur¬
ried hearing ; but favorably considering the subject, the Committee,
by vote, referred the project (see paper 3,) to Brig. Gen. A. A. Hum¬
phreys, Chief of the Bureau of Engineers, for examination, approval,
or rejection. In compliance with the Committee's request. Gen.
Humphreys commissioned George H. Elliot, Major of Engineers, to
examine maps, reports, arguments, etc., and to question the projector
closely upon points relative to the project. Maj. Elliot made such
examination, and reported in writing to Gen. Humphreys that the
facts, so far as known, sustained the arguments made before the Con¬
gressional Committees on Pacific Railroads. Gen. Humphreys,
however, lieing at this date convalescent, could not attend to an ex¬
amination in person, but as the subject was for the first time before
the Department, and merited a thorough examination, the General
consulted with the Secretary of War, and issued special orders Xo.
21, ( paper 6.) appointing a board of United States Engineers, in the
4
city of New York, February 20th, 1875, composed of Maj. Gen. H.
G. Wright, Maj. Gen. G. K. Warren, and Brig. Gen. Henry L. Abbot.
The official report and reconiinendation by the said board of United
States Engineers, approved by Brig. Gen. A. A. Humphreys, is con¬
tained in paper 7 ; and in the language of this paper we read, at the
bottom of page 11. the following e.xpressive approval of the utility of
the proposed line and the recommendation that the surve}' be author¬
ized.
" In brief, the conclusions of the board are as follows :
" First. That a railroad built on the proposed route would be of
great utility.
" Second. That the feasibility of it remains to be determined by a
survey.
" Third. That the amount of money, $20,000, proposed by the bill,
will not be sufficient to thoroughly provide for the necessary surveys,
but that a great deal of useful information concerning the feasibility
of the route can be gained by this amount of money."
This report was approved and submitted by the Secretary of War,
February 25, 1875, in company with maps, reports, arguments, etc.,
to the Senate Committee ; but as the Committee did not meet on or
after that date, the matter had to await the action of the present
Congress.
After Congress adjourned. President Grant submitted the papers,
maps, arguments, etc., relative to the Norfolk-Topolovampo Pacific to
the Secretary of War for his further examination, with the recom¬
mendation that if, in the consideration of the Department, the infor¬
mation therein contained was of value to the public service, that the
same be printed. The Secretary of War made a further examination,
approved and published the papers relative to the Austin-Topolo-
vanipo Pacific in the form now before the Committee.
The said pamphlet contains but an abridgment of the information
we possess upon the subject, but still it embraces a sufficiently broad
range of facts to show unquestionably that the Austin-Topolovampo
is the most important Pacific highwaj- yet submitted to the American
people—most important as being the shortest outlet to the Pacific
Ocean—most important as being on a line the least sectional and the
most national of any possible route across North America—most
important as being the only highway before Congress, which has for
its object the encouragement of commerce and intercourse between
the fort3'-five millions of people in the United States and British
America, east of the Rocky Mountains, and the nine millions of Re¬
publicans in Mexico.
A year ago we were not aware that any extended and reliable
examination of Western Texas and Chihuahua had been made. The
■archives of the War Department contained little, if anything positive
upon the character of the country lying adjacent to the Rio Grande,
between Eagle Pass and El Paso del Norte, and thence westward
through Mexico; and, as may be seen in the report of the Board of
United States Engineers, and in the special letter (paper 9,) of Maj.
Gen. G. K. Warren, difficulties were thought probable in the moun¬
tain sections of the proposed line. These statements were coutradic-
5
tory to the projector's examination of sections of the line in Chihua¬
hua and Sinaloa, and contrary to the notes taken by him, during ten
months travel through Mexico, from persons who had been over
various parts of the proposed line. Be this, however, as it may, we
now have official scientific reports, which are herewith submitted.
These printed "notes on the geology of Western Texas, and of Chi¬
huahua, Mexico," by Prof. James P. Kimball, of Lehigh University,
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, taken from "The American Journal of
Science and Art, Vol. XLVIIL, ^November, 1869;" also, the Pro¬
fessor's report of " The Silver Mines of Santa Eulalia," situate on the
proposed line, 15 miles east of Chihuahua city, taken from " The
American Journal of Science and Art, Vol. XLIX, March, 1870;"
and " The Silver Mines of Cusihuiriachic," situate on the western
Cordilleras of Chihuahua. To still further interest the Committee,
relative to the inexhaustible richness of the country through which
the Mexican section of the proposed line passes, there is submitted a
graphic description of the Santa Eulalia Silver Mines, and the adjoin¬
ing districts, written by Gen. Lew Wallace in 1867, and published in
Harper's Monthly for November of that year. There is further
submitted to the Committee a manuscript report of the mines (3,000)
in the State of Chihuahua, expressly made for Napoleon III. by Dr.
Koger Dubos, French Consul, in the city of Chihuahua, March 4,
1864.
In a letter from Prof. James P. Kimball, dated July, '75, he says in
reply to the question as to whether the Mexican section of the line, as
far as be is acquainted with it, is practicable for railroad purposes,
that from Presidio del Norte, on the Rio Grande, up the valley of the
Conchos river and its Sacramento branch, and so on through the val¬
ley of Concepción to the summit of the Coast-Range, we would not
meet with serious barriers, if any at all worth mentioning. For a
description of the country between Presidio del Norte and the north¬
ern mountains, we turn to page 8 of Prof. Kimball's Geological Re¬
port, and read the following paragraph : " From the Conchos to
Concepción, the mountains and river system are approximately North
and South ; and the same may be said of the whole eastern slope of
the Cordilleras all the way to the Rio Grande, except where the pres¬
ence of limestone elevations has served to modify the uniform topo¬
graphy of the cantera. This uniformity consists in the succession of
narrow and continuous North and South ridges, with foot hills separ¬
ating broad and longitudinally remarkably continuons valleys. The
whole surface thus characterized rises toward the west, while the
mountains gain somewhat in height and the valleys in breadth in the
same direction. Such is the configuration quite to the summit of the
Cordilleras in this latitude, and it is thus almost insensibly reached.
The term ' Sierra Madre' is for this reason seldom heard in Chihua¬
hua." Again, upon the same page we read : " The champaign vallej's,
which are filled with detritus of the more ferruginous cantera, gener¬
ally contain, west of Chihuahua city, up toward the humid belt, small
running streams or shallow lakes, which fit them for cultivation. Some
of these valleys are over a hundred miles in length,"
These reports, covering the ground from, Austin, Texas, to the sum-
6
mit of the Coast-Kange of the Cordilleras, together with the project¬
or's examination of the line from Topolovampo harbor to the western
slope of the same range, leaves but about one hundred miles yet to be
ofBcially reported.
A year ago it occurred to some of the members that Mexico might
be opposed to a United States survey crossing her States. On May
3, 1875, Senor Uon Antonio Ochoa, Governor of Chihuahua, trans¬
mitted, through Senor Don Jesus Escobar, collector of customs for
Mexico at El Paso del Norte, a communication to the projector of the
Norfolk-Topolovampo Pacific, a translation of which is herewith sub¬
mitted to the Committee, stating his pleasure that such a movement is
in progress, and assuring us that a survey for advancing the common
interests of the two Republics would be cordially welcomed and as¬
sisted across his State. Further than this, last spring. President Grant
directed the Secretary of State to communicate with Senor Don Ignacio
Mariscal, Mexican Minister to this Government, relative to the sub¬
ject. Minister Mariscal laid the pamphlet, bill, etc., before the Mexi¬
can Government, accompanying them with the communication of the
Secretary of State ; and in reply the Mexican Government communi¬
cated that the Austin-Topolovampo survey would not only be per¬
mitted to cross her States, but if said survey were made by United
States Engineers, the Mexican Government would welcome and assist
said survey as the first substantial step taken in favor of commercial
and social prosperity between the two peoples. This, in effect, has
been the communication received by the Secretary of State and the
President. In a conversation with Minister Mariscal, December 15,
1875, the Minister stated that he had authority to pass the Austin-
Topolovampo survey across Mexico without further instructions from
the Mexican Government.
The people of these United States are ignorant of Mexico in regard
to her vast territory, to her inexhaustible physical resources, to her
equable climate, to her picturesque metropolitan cities ; and in regard
to the progressiveness of her people, to the liberality with which her
Government encourages projects which have for their object the bet¬
tering of the physical condition of her producers. The fact that there
isnotanyoverland highway of intercourse and interchange between the
two Republics of this continent is not owing, as is supposed, to the
want of encouragement given by Mexico, but is the result of the
criminal indifference of the people of these United States to interna¬
tional commerce.
J. W. Foster, United States Minister to Mexico, in an address to
the Chamber of Commerce of New Orleans, on the 18th of Novem¬
ber last, stated that " for fifteen years the United States had not aided
any movement toward fostering commerce with Mexico." There are
seven steam lines running to Mexican ports ; five up the Gulf of
Mexico ; two upon the Pacific ; of these three are subsidized by the
Mexican Government, and all these are American lines. Mexico has
given substantial evidence of a desire to aid railroad extension, hav¬
ing the purpose of connecting her industries with those of the United
States, in the subsidies recently granted to Edward L. Plumb. This
proposed line runs from Leon, in the State of Guanaguato, to Laredo, on
7
the Rio Grande, a distance of some 700 miles, and for every mile of this
long line Mexico gives $15,288, besides exemptions from taxation, etc.
This is ample, it is calculated, to build the line. Mr. Plumb has nine
years to complete the line ; if he completes it in less time by one year,
he receives a premium of $100,000 ; if in less by two years, $200,000
per year, or $400,000; and if in less by three years, $300,000 per
year, or $900,000 ; if in four years less than the prescribed term of
nine years, he will receive a premium of $400,000 per year, or $1,600,-
000. Mexico gives to D. B. Blair, Esq., 85 square miles in alternate
sections, for each lineal mile of line from Guaymas, on the Gulf of
California, to the boundary line of Arizona. This is the line known
as the Guaymas and Tuscon Railroad. Mexico has for the fourth
time extended the Tehuantepec Canal and railroad concession, to a
New York company, granting a subsidy of $2,000,000, together with
special privileges, exemptions, valuable timber lands, etc,; ánd Mexico
is now giving as high as $10,000 per annum, for twenty years, to en¬
courage iron and coal mining; and is, also, allowing handsome
bonuses for the cultivation of sugar and coffee. In the decree of the
Mexican Congress, granting subsidies and franchises to Gen. Rose-
crans, it may be seen in article 5, that all rolling stock, iron, utensils,
and materials for building, repairing and operating the road and tele¬
graph, will be free from duties and taxes for twenty years. In article
6, that the company is privileged to use timber and other materials
found en route ; in article 9, that all minerals and metals opened and
denounced by the company are to be considered as in cases of private
individuals; and in article 13, that passengers, correspondence and
merchandise are permitted to pass through the Republic free from all
duties and taxes for fifty years.
In my acquaintance with Mexico I have never known of an in¬
stance when the Mexican Government has not listened with courteous
attention, and granted aid with more than liberality to any project
having for its object the bettering of the physical condition of her
people; and, although there are a dozen instances which might be
cited,-1 have yet to hear of one company, hailing from the United
States, which has complied with a single condition of its part of the
contract.
A reliable description of the industries, resources and topography
of Mexico is contained in the pamphlet printed by Gen. W. J.
Palmer in '73, from the reports of the engineers of the Denver and
Rio Grande Railway, made during an examination of over a year in
the country on and north of the parallel of Mexico City. A copy of
this pamphlet will be left in the Committee's room for a few days.
The following extract is from a recent issue of the North American
of Philadelphia :
That nation is tlie wisest which opens np the widest markets for the sale of its
products. When there is an outlet ioi* the surplus of a countrj'its looms will not
he idle, its mills closed, noi- its willing hands unemployed, In this view of the com¬
merce of nations, the exports and imports of Me.Nico assume their true aspect and
attract the attention of all the mercantile and commercial countries of tiie world.
The United States, Ungland, France, and Germany have entered the Mexican ûeki
in earnest, and the importations in round numbers from these countries for the fis¬
cal year ending June 80, lS7ó, are estimated as follows i Eiiglancl $l-2,()00,u00 ; United
States. îîl0,0u0,00<) ; France, $5,000.000 ; Germanjy $4,000,000. During the late war Eng¬
land gained upon the United States in the markets of Mexico ; hut since that time
we have gained upon her at the rate of $1,000,000 per year. The imports of Mexico
8
for the fiscal year ending June 30,1S73, ^vere !î!î9,002,406 ; exports same period, $30,839,-
234. Of tins snin the im^jorts from England reached $10,180,589; from the United
States, $7,420,419 ; from France, $4,817,110 ; from Germany, $:!.890,496. The increase of
linjjorts from the United Slates is mnch greater than thtit from any otlier country,
■\vliieli shows that we can monopolize the t raile of Mexico, if right means are used to
reacli that object by Américain capitalists and business men. There is also a
steadily increasing commercial growth between the Pacific ports of Mexico and
California. The statistics of 1873 show that Carmen Island expoi'ted goods to the
valne of $379,854: Gnavma.«, $1.480,658.57: La Paz, $340,165: Magdalena, $116,730: Ma-
zallan, $2.726,100.78; Sau Blas, $192,063; Äianzanilla, $1,630,319.05; Acapnico, $;182.21G.
The imports for the same vear were: Guaymas, $:)29,995.97; íNíanzanílla. $470,458.64;
Acapnico, $393,051.27; Magdalena, $3i\450; La Paz, $21,416.34: Mazatlan, $3.003,112,54;
San Bias, $10,626.95. The main depot for these exportsand imports is San Francisco,
and from thence Mexican products of a light character are sent to the Pacific coast
and all points intermediate. When the roads now in contemplation to connect
Mexico with the United States are completed, the union between the two countries
will be encouraged, and the trade assume larger and more beneficial proportions.
TJie United States and Mexico should have closer commercial relations, and from
present appearances they will llave in a short time."
We may see by these figures that the balance of trade is in
favor of Mexico; and it is worthy of special note that Mexico has a
metallic coin circulation equal in amount per head to the circulation of
the mixed currency in the United States. The Mexican nation is
driven to enforced idleness, from the same cause by which our own
citizens are driven to pauperism ; and that cause is the high interest
for money, by which productive industries are taxed out of existence.
When Mexico legislates one commodity, or one product of intrinsic
value a legal tender, Mexico, by that act, disfranchises all other indus¬
tries, in fact, subsidizes a.ll products to the class who produce the one
commodity or product in question. This law is so barbarous, so mon¬
archical, that there is not language to express its injustice ; and the
result of this injustice, in Mexico and the United States, is pictured
in the ignorance, in the wretchedness, in the crime, in the blood of the
wealth-producing people, and in the centralization of luxuries and
power of the corporated and privileged classes. If Mexico and the
United States are to axlvance to a realized civilization, it will be in
proportion to the steps taken to better the physical condition of their
respective people. To accomplish this, interest on money, or the rent
for the tools of societary combinations and the diversification of in¬
dustries, must not exceed the average power of industry to accumu¬
late, and class privileges must not only cease to be granted, but the
privileges already given must be repealed.
Although it is important that the people of these two republics have
safe deposits by means of inter-convertible bonds of the nation at a
low rate of interest for the security of their money, yet it is not so es¬
sential to the nation's welfare as it is tliat their wealth producing
class have a saving fund for their labor. It is, therefore, in the inter¬
est of our labor that we must legislate, aud not in the interest of our
money. Mexico and the United States, to becom'e prosperous, must
create a laior-saving fund by a national system of internal impjroee-
ineids. This would give all who have a day's or more labor to ex¬
change, the opportuuity to fund it in a rail-highway, in a canal, in a
telegraph, in a Mississippi levee, in some national work, which is
essential to the well-being of the whole people; and for this labor
funded, the person should receive, through an official paymaster, a
legal tender treasury note as a receipt for the service rendered, or
labor deposited, to the interest of the nation. The said legal tender
treasury note would be based upon labor thus rendered to the whole
9
people, and would be valuable by its acceptability for all debts and
balances, public and private. This would simply be rendering ser¬
vice for service. Is there anything unjust or impracticable in this
suggestion? Would the rights of any person be infringed upon?
Would this not be a law in the interest of the whole people ? The
laws of the United States for the past fifty years, with two or three
noble exceptions—such forinstance, as the postal and homestead laws—•
have been enacted for the corporated and privileged classes. Future
legislation must be for the whole people or not at all. Governments
will yet learn that national economy does not consist in non-expendi¬
ture, but that every attempt which fails to employ the nation's labor
by diversifying the nation's industries is a national failure in economy ;
and if Mexico is the first to learn this, Mexico will be the first nation
to attain a positive and permanent rank worthy of civilization.
In concluding these statements, it is desired that the Committee
bear in mind that the harbor of Topolovampo has been surveyed and
mapped by the United States Navy on three occasions, and once by
Col. Gred. G. Fitch, C. E. and computer of the Capt. Charles P.
Stone survey of the California Gulf; and that these conclusively
show the said harbor to be the most picturesque, grand, and conve¬
nient commercial haven on the Pacific coast. The reports of the
surveys of the peninsula of Lower California, and the Gulf of Cortez,
recently made by the United States Navy, may be seen at the Hy-
drographical Bureau in this Capital, and the attention of the Commit¬
tee is particularly invited to the geological reports of Thomas N.
Street, U. S. N.
To reach the harbor of Topolovampo from Austin, Texas, and to
give our railroad system its advantages to exchange with the nations
of the Pacific, requires, it is thought, but 800 miles of line, an expense
of sixteen millions of legal tender one-dollar Treasury notes, and the
labor of sixteen thousand men for one year. Senate Bill 92, now
before the committee, simply requests that the Secretary of War be
authorized to survey the route ; and relative to this request, the
attention of the Committee is invited to the projector's letter to Hon.
William M. Stewart, which is paper 12, as published by the War
Department.
With the Committee's permission, it is now desired to demonstrate
with map and tape the geographical claim of the route, and to prove
beyond dispute that the Austin-Topolovampo Pacific is upon the line,
the most national and the least sectional of any possible route across
the continent of North America—most national, because it will give
to every port on the Atlantic Coast, and to every great centre of in¬
dustry and population, east of the Rocky Mountains, the nearest, the
least interrupted, and the least expensive route to the Pacific Ocean—
least sectional, because it will tie the Canadas, the United States, and
Mexico, with a band of iron ; and by a prosperity made inter¬
dependent, make them commercially and socially one nation.
A. K. Owen, Civil Engineer, made the following remarks before
the House Committee on Pacific Railroads, on Wednesday, March 22,
1816 :
10
Gentlemen :—Many thanks for allowing me this opportunity to
press upon your attention the importance of taking a preliminary step
toward giving our railroad system an outlet to the South Pacific, and
particularly in encouraging an inter-dependence of our manufactures
with the tropical productions, and with the tin and other ores of Mex¬
ico. The importations of the United States from Cuba amount to
$103,000,000 per annum. Cuba takes in exchange only about $35,-
000,000 of goods from us. The country lying along the Pacific coast,
from San Bias to Guaymas, and from the ocean to the foot-hills of the
Coast-Range equals, in area, 47,000 square miles, the same as Cuba;
and it is capable of raising every product which Cuba is. The popula¬
tion of the West Indies equals 4,000.000, and they export $250,000,000
worth of sugars, spices, fruits, woods, etc., annually. Mexico can fur¬
nish us, at less cost, every article we receive from the West Indies,
Brazil and Central America ; and our manufactures are so varied and
so much needed by the 9,000,000 people in Mexico, that when we
have rail communication with her intei'ior and coast our exports will
more than balance the tropical groceries, woods, fruits, etc., which we
need in exchange. On pages 32, 38 and 39, of pamphlet printed by
the War Department, are found many items of interest upon this trade,
which need not be repeated here. Every statesman on this Commit¬
tee will duly study these facts. It is to the interest of his whole
country, and for the benefit of our continent, that he does so. Abbe
Domenech, the historian of the French invasion, writes: "Behind the
Mexican expedition there was more than an empire to found, a nation
to save, markets to create, thousands of millions to develop ; there
was a world tributary to France, happy to submit to our sympathetic
influence, to receive their supplies from us, and to ascribe to us their
resurrection to the political and social life of a civilized people." That
which France failed to accomplish by war remains for the United
States to achieve by the resources of peace. And it is asked that the
gentlemen of this Committee authorize the Secretary of War to make
a preliminary survey of the Austin-Topolovampo Pacific route as a
step toward this end.
The Republic of Mexico extends from near the 15th to the 31st de¬
gree of north latitude, and embraces in its range, its plains, its plateaux
and its mountain ranges, all the climates and productions of the tropic
and of the temperate zones. In its extent, resources and capabilities, in
variety of climate and soil, in its known, and in its yet unknown trea¬
sures of precious metals and gems, and in the exuberance of its sup¬
ply of every article needful for the food, clothing, medicine,comfort and
luxury of man, it has not any superior. Its extreme length is 2,000
miles, its extreme breadth 1,100. It has an area of 856,000 square
miles ; equal to the twenty-five States east of the Mississippi. It is a
territory ten times larger than Great Britain, and equal in extent to all
France, Spain, Austria, Lombardy and the British Isles combined. It
has a coast line on the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea of 1,600
miles, and on the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of California of 4,200 miles;
a larger coast line, it is believed, in proportion to its area, than any
other country of equal extent in the world. Mexico joins the United
States by a coterminous boundary of 1,800 miles, and Central Amer-
11
ica by a boundary of 400 miles. The total length of line which Mexico
has to protect to collect her customs is 8,000 miles. Yet Mexico has
but 400 miles of railroad, and not any navigable rivers. The foreign
trade of Mexico equals $60,000,000; imports, $29,000,000; exports,
$31,000,000. In my printed remarks submitted to the House and the
Senate Committees on Pacific Railroads, page 6, may be found im¬
portant figures upon this question. The number of landed estates is
about 13,000, valued at $720,000,000, and the town property at $665,-
000,000 ; total, $1,385,000,000, or an average of $150^ per head. But
one-eighth of the arable couptry is cultivated. Two crops are raised
a year, and the corn crop is often harvested three times. Alfalfa or
luzerne clover is cut every 40 days all the season through. The agri¬
cultural product sare valued at $300,000,000. Blanufactures consist of
cotton mills 47, woolen 8, paper 8, founderies 3, which furnish produc¬
tions valued at $100,000,000 per annum. It is safe to calculate that
the interior commerce of Mexico amounts to $500,000,000 annually,
all of which is carried on the backs of mules and jackasses over nat¬
ural roads, or along bridle trails. The annual increase of the popula¬
tion has been figured at 144,000. The receipts of the government are
about $18,000,000. Previous to 1857 the Government received $16,-
000,000, while its churches had a revenue of $20,000,000. This lat¬
ter tax now rests with the industries of the people. The Tribunal of
Commerce in 1805 estimated the circulation in Mexico, or New Spain,
at $14 per head, which is about the same as Pennsylvania has to-day.
Humboldt, writing in 1803, calculated that Mexico had produced, up
to that date, 6,242 millions. The annual production now in gold
and silver reaches from $30,000,000 to $50,000,000, or twice that of
California. The coinage is $28,000,000. The export of silver in 1872
was $18,000,000, $12,000,000 of which was in bars. There is no end
to silver and gold in Blexico. There are over 3,000 mines in Chihua¬
hua alone. The entire mountain system of Mexico contains silver,
copper, nickel, quicksilver, iron, lead, tin, etc. The Santa Eulalia sil¬
ver mine, situated 15 miles East of Chihuahua City, yielded $62,700,-
000 from 1717 to 1789. Had machinery been used, this amount might
have been taken out in one year. This mountain of silver now belongs
to and is worked by Judge Helfenstein, of New York, and Judge Bell,
of Texas. They sold large bars of the metal at Jay Cooke's Banking
House, in Philadelphia, last summer. They use the old manner of work-
ingthe metals, and produce about $20,000 per month. When they get
their machinery they can readily furnish silver sufficient to make aiea
service for every family on this continent. I submitted to the Senate
Committee printed pamphlets upon the geology of Western Texas and
the State of Chihuahua, which contained descriptions of the Santa
Eulalia and of the silver mines of Western Chihuahua. Their richness
must have pleased and perhaps astonished our Senators, for the
pamphlets have disappeared, and I have been unable to get them to
your Committee.
We have every climate in Mexico, from the inter-tropical or tem¬
perate regions of the plateaux, to the luxuriant tropics of the coast or
Tierras Calientes. The Tierras Templadas or temperate sections
are the characteristic regions of Mexico, and include within their
12
limits all the great centres of population in the Republic. Though
Mexico extends into both the temperate and the torrid zones, its
climate depends less upon latitude than upon elevation. In general,
the Republic enjoys an even and temperate climate, free from the ex¬
tremes of heat and cold. Mexico unites the vegetation of North and
South America, but its flora resembles more nearly that of the latter.
The landscapes and the skies, in Mexico, are even more varied and
quite as attractive as those of Italy. The Mexican people are as lit¬
tle known as their country. Their most notorious desperadoes are
given as a sample of the nation. Must we imagine that the Ameri¬
can people are to be judged by the characteristics of our border out¬
laws ? I have journeyed in four continents, have eaten meat with
several peoples, and have yet to meet a better-disposed race than
the Mexicans: they are a genial, hospitable, industriously-inclined
people. This is stated after a sojourn of eleven months with them,
during which time I journeyed 5,000 miles through their country,
and most of this distance was on horseback.
Humboldt, writing in 1803, says that "Mexico is one of the finest
cities ever built by Europeans." He had successively, and within a
short time, visited Lima, Mexico, Philadelphia, Paris, Rome, Naples,
and the largest cities of Germany; and yet on comparing the impres¬
sions made by them, he says that Me.xico had left on his mind "a
recollection of distinguishing grandeur superior to any of the others."
J. J. Ampere, a French traveler, says : " Mexico is a grand city in
the Spanish style, with an air more inspiring, more majestic, more
metropolitan, than any city of Spain, except Madrid. Crowned by
numerous towers and steeples, and surrounded by a vast plain
bounded by mountains, Mexico reminds one somewhat of Rmne. Its
long streets, broad, straight and regular, give it an appearance like
Berlin. It has, also, some resemblance to Naples and Turin, yet
with a character of its own. It makes one think of various cities of
Europe, while it differs from each of them. It recalls all and repeats
none."
Waddy Thompson in his "Recollections of Mexico," published in
1846, calls attention to the fact that "it is but 500 to 600 miles from
the navigable waters of the Red and Arkansas rivers to the Gulf of
California. If that distance be overcome by a railroad," he says,
"what a vista is opened to the prosperity and power of our country.
I have no doubt that the time will come," he continues, "when New
Orleans will be the greatest city in the world. That period would
be incalculably hastened by the measures which I have indicated,
which would throw into her lap the vast commerce of China and
India." (Page 284.) H. C. Ward, in his history of Mexico, 1829,
speaks particularly of the Oriental trade and the advantages offered
to the Gulf of California to control it, and adds that Guayraas is nearer
to Calcutta and China than Acapulco, which was formerly the great
Spanish shipping port for Manilla and all points in the East.
Gentlemen! These statistics are given to impress upon you the fact
that Mexico is, at present, peculiarly an agricultural people, and that
she can furnish the 45,000,000 people on the Atlantic slope of the
United States and the Canadas with her surplus tropical productions.
13
which her 9,000,000 people will exchange for our manufactured arti¬
cles. Is there any statesman in Congress who can suggest a step
better calculated to start our now prostrated industries, than that of
bringing within a day's ride of the Mexican Gulf ports and of the
lower Mississippi valley a market of 9,000,000 consumers, all desirous
for every article we can furnish, from an ax to a locomotive, from a
spool of cotton to prints in calico? There have been many aud varied
figures and tape measurements, upon the map, given to demonstrate
beyond contradiction to the Railroad Committees that Topolovampo
on the Pacific coast occupies the apex of the great commercial V of
North America. These it is not necessary to repeat. The more im¬
portant of them are printed in the oiEcial pamphlet of the War Depart¬
ment, on pages 13 to 40. It might be added that Omaha, Nebraska,
is 150 miles nearer to Topolovampo than to San Francisco, and that
Fort Worth, Texas, is 400 miles nearer to Topolovampo than to San
Diego. These figures are given merely to show the significant posi¬
tion geographically occupied hy Topolovampo. Washington, D. C,,
is 215 miles nearer to Topolovampo than to San Diego, and 380 miles
nearer to Topolovampo than to San Francisco. On page 35 of M'ar
Department pamphlet, there are given the relative distances from
every port of importance on the Atlantic to Topolovampo, San Diego,
San Francisco and Puget Sound. Halifax, Nova Scotia, is equidis¬
tant between Topolovampo and Puget Sound; but Halifax is 125
miles nearer to Topolovampo than to San Diego, and 225 miles nearer
to Topolovampo than to San Francisco. New Orleans is over 400
miles nearer to the Pacific, via the Austin-Topolovampo Pacific, than
to San Diego, via the Texas Pacific. Merchandise brought to Gal¬
veston, Texas, could be expressed to the Pacific coast, via the Austin-
Topolovampo route, in a distance of but 1,000 miles. Compare this
with the land transportation of 3,303 miles from New York, via the
Union Pacific. Are the Southern members and the statesmen of the
44th Congress going to sit indifferent to a step which promises so
much to our whole country ? If the line from San Antonio and
Eagle Pass be selected, the distance to build will not exceed lOO
miles, and, it is calculated, at a cost of not over $14,000,000—$20,000
per mile. The Kansas Pacific cost but $22,000 per mile, and that,
too, when labor and material were double the present prices. An
hour could be occupied to advantage in giving additional facts, but
you are already overcrowded with the subject, etc.
Take a map and string, and in a minute's time any one may find the
relative distances between any point on the Atlantic dope and Topo¬
lovampo, flat. 25° 30' north), San Diego, San Francisco and Puget
Sound.
House Bill 218 [Senate 92] asks that the Secretary of War be au¬
thorized to make a preliminary survey of the route from Austin to
Topolovampo. It may happen that in another year Mexico will not
encourage an examination of her country. This is an opportune time.
The Hydrographical Bureau of the United States has just completed a
survey and map of the California Gulf and the peninsula of Lower
California. Every year the Navy Department has special appropria¬
tions made to examine, survey and report canal and rail routes across
14
Centra] Ameriea. Since 1853 there have been fifty-five or more sur¬
veys for railroads made by the War Department from the waters of
the Mississippi to the Pacific ocean. It is earnestly trusted that
Congress will have the Austin-Topolovampo Pacific surveyed and re¬
ported, that the people may be encouraged to build the highway, and
thus take a step to make our manufactures inter-dependent with the
tropical productions of Mexico.
[National Republican^ Washington, D. C., Marchl, 1876.]
THE TEXAS PACIFIC RAILROAD AND AUSTIN-TOPOLOVAMPO
PACIFIC SURVEY.
The Senate Committee on Railroads met yesterday. The Texas
Pacific Railroad and the Austin-Topolovampo Pacific survey still
remain before the Committee unacted upon. The people urge
that Congress take some positive step to give the country a
competing line to the Pacific coast. The highest tax the people
pay is the tax or tariff exacted from them for traveling over the
existing private highway, which is built upon the people's lands,
by the people's labor, and with the people's credit. The interest the
people have paid on the credit given to the existing monopoly equals
$28,000,000, and each year adds $4,000,000 to this sum, and this goes
on for thirty years from the date the bonds were issued.
There may not occur again as opportune a time tO make a scientific
examination of the country lying between Austin, Texas, and the
California Gulf, as now presents itself. It is a disgrace to Congress
and to the people that there never has been a step taken to foster per¬
manent commercial and social relations with our sister—the Republic
of Mexico. The following is a communication sent yesterday to the
Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committees on Pacific Railroads, by
A. K. Owen, civil engineer, and the projector of the route :
" Before taking decided action upon House bill 218 [Senate bill 92]
it is suggested that it might be the pleasure of the Committee to com¬
municate with the Secretary of War in respect to any further infor¬
mation the Committee may wish relative to the Austin-Topolovampo
Pacific—whether, in accordance with the data printed by the War
Department, the survey of the route from Austin, the capital of Texas,
to Presidio del Norte, and thence, via Chihuahua City, to Topolovam-
po, at the mouth of the Gulf of California, would not be an important
and very promising step taken to give the system of railroads in the
United States and Canada the shortest and least interrupted outlet to
the Pacific Ocean ; to remove permanently the military difficulties
upon the Rio Grande and in the " Free Zone to overcome the em¬
barrassments which the postal and quartermaster departments now
15
struggle under in western Texas, and to encourage our commercial
and social relations with Mexico.
" If, however, the Committee feels perfectly satisfied that the Secre¬
tary of War and the Bureau of Engineers have, in their reports made
and in the papers approved, printed and submitted to Congress, said
all that may be wished, then it is earnestly petitioned that the Com¬
mittee, at its convenience, consider and approve the said survey.
" It is further suggested that railroads annihilate space and multi¬
ply force, as regards Governmental none the less than all civil depart¬
ments. Certain it is that in Mexico we have an India at our door.
Indeed, within a day's ride of the Mississippi basin there is a vast
country whose history and wealth are marvelous. The Republic of
Mexico embraces an area of 862,460 square miles, equal in extent to
the twenty-five States east of the Mississippi river. It is a country
ten times the size of Great Britain, and nearly equal to that of France,
Spain, Austria, Lombardy and the British Isles combined. There are
nine million people in Mexico awaiting our articles of manufacture,
for which they wish to exchange their sugars, coffees, tropical fruits,
woods, etc.; and yet for fifteen years we have not taken a single step
to foster an interchange, of our industries with theirs. The Mexican
Government has communicated to the Department of State the desire
that the said survey should be made. Is not, then, the present the
time, Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, to inaugurate a step which has
for its object the encouragement of commerce with Mexico and the
South Pacific ?
" It is further suggested that the Austin-Topolovampo Pacific has
been presented and argued upon its merits alone. It is a project sug¬
gested in the interest of the whole people ; is free from all and every
combination, from every corporation, from every association of men
whatsoever. Th«SÄ has not been, nor is there, any lobbying of any
description connected with it ; the projector, however, has held and
still holds himself ready to meet all parties, railroad, civil and Con¬
gressional, to give information relative to the route, or to defend every
figure and all statements he has advanced in argument of its claims.
The Austin-Topolovampo Pacific is exceptional in standing alone upon
its merits before Congress and the country, being unsupported by cor-
porated or moneyed infiuence, and also in the official and thorough
manner in which it has been presented to the Pacific Railroad Com¬
mittees of the Forty-fourth Congress. Would it not, therefore, be
highly commendable, Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, that a vote be
taken and placed upon the record ?
" House bill 218 [Senate bill 92] asks only that which Congress
has granted to every rail route to the Pacific, and that which Con¬
gress every year grants to the canal and rail routes across Central
America, viz : that the Secretary of War be authorized to make a sur¬
vey, so as to have an official report made to Congress and to the peo¬
ple, to the end that the people may be encouraged to construct the
railroad,"
16
[Notio7ial Repv.hliean^ Washington^ D. C., March 20th, 1876.]
THE AUSTIN-TOPOLOYAMPO ROUTE.
The following notice of the Austin-Topolovampo Pacific survey is
taken from a letter dated Washington, February 18, 1816, and pub¬
lished in the Daily Evening Bulletin, San Francisco, February 28,
1816. We call special attention to the review of the new route to the
Pacific. The present is an opportune time to make a survey of that
section of our continent :
The House Committee on Pacific Railroads gave a hearing to-day
(as the Senate Committee had previously done) to A. K. Owen, civil
engineer, in behalf of a bill, heretofore briefly noticed in this corres¬
pondence, asking Congress to appropriate §25,000 to make a Govern¬
ment survey from Austin, Texas, to the Rio Grande, at or near the
thirtieth parallel, and hence, with the permission of the ^Mexican
authorities, to Topolovampo, which is represented to be a magnificent
harbor near the mouth of the Gulf of California, half way between
Guaymas and Mazatlan.
The subject possesses present interest, not as the possible germ of
a great enterprise in the future, but as furnishing what seems to be
the key to the origin of the recent sensation regarding alleged myste¬
rious negotiations of our Government with Mexico. It appears from
the arguments and papers presented to the Committee that when this
bill was introduced last year it was referred by the Senate Railroad
Committee, just before the adjournment of Congress, to the War De¬
partment, for an expression of opinion on the part of the chief of en¬
gineers. By his direction a board of officers of his corps was consti¬
tuted consisting of Lieuienant Colonel Wright, Major Warren and
Major Abbot, which, after a careful consideration of all the informa¬
tion obtainable on the subject, reported as its conclusions; First, that
a railroad built on the proposed route would be of great utility ;
second, that the feasibility of it remains to be determined by a survey;
and third, that although the amount of money proposed by the bill
would not be sufficient to provide thoroughly for the necessary sur¬
veys, it would nevertheless secure a great deal of useful information
concerning the feasibility of the route. Among the papers examined
by the board was an elaborase report of a survey of the Bay of
Topolovampo, made several years ago by Commander Truxtun, of the
sloop-of-war Jamestown ; and letters were filed from Dr. Carman,
our consul at Mazatlan, and others, all tb the same general purport,
and showing that the harbor possesses all the advantages requisite
for vessels of the largest size and the site of a great commercial city.
The report of the board and the accompanying documents were con¬
sidered of sufficient importance to warrant their being printed by the
War Department, and during the recess of Congress President Grant
directed the Secretary of State to communicate vvith the Mexican
Minister, Don Ignacio Mariscal, to ascertain whether the Government
of Mexico would have any objection to the proposed survey.
IT
Minister Mariscal laid the matter before the Mexican Gorernment,
accompanied by the communication of Secretary Fish, and in reply
he was authorized to inform our Government that not only would the
Austin-Topolovampo survey he permitted to cross the States of Mex¬
ico, but that, if made by United States engineers, the Mexican Gov¬
ernment would " welcome and assist it, as the first substantial step
taken in favor of commercial and social prosperity between the two
peoples." Mr. Owen, in his argument to-day, after calling attention to
the fact that his bill does not ask the Government to do anything
more than demonstrate the feasibility of the route (with most of
which he claims to be familiar from personal examination), expressed
his conviction that the proposed line of railway could be constructed
from Austin to the Pacific terminus, a distance of 800 miles, for $16,-
000,000, or by the labor of 16,000 men in one year. With map and
tape he proceeded to demonstrate the geographical advantages of the
route, arising from the wedge-shape of the IS^orth American continent.
Thus, for instance, it was shown that the distance from ISAw York to
Topolovampo, via Austin and Chihuahua, (allowing about 500 miles
for detours), is 2,559 miles, which is 381 miles shorter than the Yew
York—San Diego line; T44 shorter than the New York-San Francisco
line, and 98T miles shorter than the New York-Puget Sound line.
The comparison between what Mr. Owen terms the Great Southern
route from Norfolk to Topolovampo via Austin (these three points
being on a bee line), and all other routes, is still more striking. The
distance (allowing 200 miles for detours to avoid the Sierra Madre),
from Norfolk to Topolovampo, is 2,289 miles. This is 651 miles
less than the distance from New York to San Diego via the Texas
Pacific; 1,014 miles less than from New York to San Francisco via
the Union Pacific, and 1,45T miles less than from New York to Paget
Sound via the Northern Pacific. Similar exhibits were made in regard
to many other points, and finally as to Halifax, with a view to show¬
ing that quicker time could be made from Liverpool to China and
Australia by this new mute than by any other. After dilating upon
the importance of our taking steps to secure the trade and develop the
immense resources of Mexico, Mr. Owen recapitulated his arguments,
and claimed to have proved beyond dispute that the Austin-Topolo¬
vampo is the most national and the least sectional of any possible
route across the continent of North America—most national, because
it would give to every port on the Atlantic coast, and to every great
centre of industry and population, east of the Rocky Mountains, the
nearest, least interrupted and least expensive route to the Pacific
Ocean; least sectional, because it would tie the Canadas, the United
States and Mexico with a band of iron, and, by an interdependent
prosperity, make them commercially and socially one nation.
Ritchie.
44th congress,
1st Session.
18
8. 92.
[H. R. 218.]
m THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.
December 14, 1815.
Mr. Hitchcock, asked and, by unanimous consent, obtained leave to bring in tbe fol¬
lowing bill ; wliicli was read twice, referred to tbe Committee on Railroads, and
ordered to be printed :
April 4, 1876.
Reported by Mr. West with amendments viz : Omit the parts struck through
[printed in parentheses below] and insert the parts printed in italics.
A BILL
To survey the Austin-Topolovampo Pacific route.
Be it enacted by the Senate and Home of Representatives of the
United States of America in Gonyress assembled, That the Secretary
of War be directed to cause a survey to be made of the most practi¬
cable route for a national rail-highway from Austin, Texas, to Fort
Leaton on the Rio Grande, and to extend said survey, [after applica¬
tion to, and the granting permission by] permission having been ob¬
tained from the Government of Mexico, to the harbor of Topolovampo,
on the Gulf of California, and to report to Congress the most feasible
route of rail-communication between Austin, Texas, and said harbor
of Topolovampo ; and that, for the purposes of such survey, there is
hereby appropriated, out of any money not otherwise appropriated, the
sum of [twenty-five]^/iieen. thousand dollars, or so much thereof as
may be necessary.
44th CONGRESS, HQUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
1st Session. No. 3o9.
AUSTIN-TOPOLOVAMPO PACIFIC ROUTE.
April 6,1876.—Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the
Union and ordered to be printed.
Mr. Throckmorton, from the Committee on the Pacific Railroad,
submitted the following
REPORT :
[To accompany bill H. R. 218,]
The Committee on the Pacific Railroad, to whom was referred
House bill No. 218, entitled "A bill to survey the Austin-Topolovam-
po Pacific route," having considered the same, instruct the under-
«
19
signed to report the bill back with amendments and recommend its
passage.
J. W. THROCKMORTON.
First amendment : In lines 6 and 7 strike out the words "after
application to, and the grating permission by," and in lieu thereof
insert the words "the Department of State having obtained permis¬
sion from."
Second amendment: In line 13 strike out the word "twenty-five,"
and in lieu thereof insert the word "ten."
From the " Congressional JBecord," June lOth^ 1876.
The Senate was counted, and a quorum announced to be present.
ATJSTIN-TOPOLOVAMPO PACIFIC ROUTE.
Mr. Capertoni On the 4th of April the Committee on Rail¬
roads reported with amendments the bill (S. No. 92) to survey the
Austin-Topolovampo Pacific route. The bill was afterward called up
for consideration, and on motion of the Senator from Yermont (Mr.
Edmunds), was postponed indefinitely. I had not an opportunity at
that time to say anything on the bill, and it seems not to have been
understood. There was a motion afterward made by the Senator
from New York [Mr. Conkling], to reconsider the vote to indefinitely
postpone, and I ask that that motion be taken up now.
Mr. Edmunds. What is the pending question ?
The President pro tempore. The motion to reconsider the vote by
which the bill was indefinitely postponed.
Mr. Edmunds. Who made the motion to reconsider?
The President pro tempore. The Senator from New York [Mr.
Conkling],
Mr. Edmunds. The Senator from New York is not in, and I do
not think we ought to act on it now.
Mr. Caperton. The Senator from New York is not in ; but I had
an understanding with him yesterday that the bill should be called up,
and I notified him that I would make the motion.
Mr. Edmunds. I merely call attention to the fact.
Mr. Caperton. I am sorry he is not here.
The President pro tempore. The bill was indefinitely postponed,
and the question is on reconsidering that vote.
Mr. Edmunds. I ask for the yeas and nays on the motion.
Mr. Caperton. I desire to make a little explanation. Some years
since, in 1873, there was a survey of a route from Denver, I think,
to the Rio Grande in Mexico.
In the exploration of the route proposed from Denver to the Rio
Grande there was a survey made or attempted to be made, for the
purpose of discovering on the Gulf of California a very valuable
harbor called Topolovampo, or commonly called Smuggler's Retreat.
This awakened a good deal of inquiry, and a young engineer of great
intelligence and a sensible gentleman had his attention directed to
the importance of this point as a point for the accommodation of an
inter-oceanic route from the Chesapeake Ray to the Pacific. Further
inquiry and investigations were made by him, resulting in a great
20
deal of valuable information. The consequence was that a bill was
introduced in January, 18t5, for the purpose of obtaining an ap¬
propriation to aid in a survey of a route from Austin in Texas to this
point on the Gulf of California. That bill was brought before Con¬
gress in January, 1875, and resulted in its reference to the War De¬
partment for the purpose of having information in regard to the
feasibility of the route. There was a board of surveyors appointed,
and that board made its report to the Committee on Railroads, in
which they came to the conclusion that the proposed road, if the
route was practicable, would be a very important road, and that its
feasibility could only be ascertained by a survey. There was a
great deal of very valuable and interesting information communi¬
cated by that investigation to the Railroad Committee of the Senate ;
and, without reference to the great question as to whether this would
be a feasible and practicable route for a.n inter-oceanic railroad, I
was particularly struck with its importance in opening up a very
interesting trade between our States and Mexico.
The Government of Mexico has had its attention called to this sub¬
ject, and has manifested a good deal of interest in the establishment of
this line, because it will at once put the northwestern portion of Mex¬
ico in railroad communication with every part and portion of this
country; not only with the West and NorthweA, but with the East
and all along the Gulf States. The question is whether or not Con¬
gress will feel itself justified in appropriating the small sum of $15,-
000 to ascertain by survey the practicability of this route, which, if
once established and once opened, will be of vast commercial conse¬
quence to this country.
I call the attention of the Senator from Vermont especially to the
history of this bill, because he seems not to have understood it the
other day. The inquiry was made whether this was proposed at the
instance of any railroad or corporation There is no railroad or cor¬
poration behind this. It is the result of inquiries made by the intel¬
ligent young engineer to whom I have referred, and one for which we
ought to feel thankful to him ; because it seems to me that, if the
route is entirely practicable, without imposing upon this Government
any other cost than the cost proposed by this appropriation of $15,000,
we may ascertain the practicability of this line.
From Austin, in Texas, to the point on the Rio Grande where it is
proposed to go, is three hundred and seventy-five miles ; from the Rio
Grande to Topolovampo, four hundred and twenty-five miles ; making
altogether eight hundred miles. Then all that will be necessary for
us will be to provide, and no doubt our railroad companies would
unite with those whose roads terminate or pass by Austin, in Texas,
and at once provide, for the completion of a road to the boundary-line
of Mexico.
In addition, I will state the fact that from San Antonio to the Rio
Grande is one hundred and twenty-five miles only, and from the Rio
Grande at this point to Topolovampo is five hundred and seventy-five
miles, making a distance of seven hundred miles; and I have no doubt
from the investigation I have made that this line will be adopted,
which would make it necessary only to construct one hundred and
21
twenty-five miles from San Antonio to the Rio Grande within the
limits of our own country.
The effect of the adoption of this appropriation will be to awaken
the attention of the people of Mexico, and especially of that portion
of Mexico where there is a great deal of wealth as I understand, to
the importance of having this communication opened to Texas. It
would open up a vast trade between that portion of Texas and all the
States, especiall^v the Western and Northwestern States. From Ma-
zatlan to Guaymas there is adistrictof country between the Gulf shore
and the foot of the mountain range about equal in territorial extent
to Cuba, and furnishing everything that Cuba furnishes, which makes
that considerable trade between us and Cuba. I believe our trade
with Cuba amounts to some hundreds of millions. We could, if we
had communication opened with that portion of Mexico, get all that
Cuba supplies, and upon much better terms ; for they would take in
exchange for such products as would be furnished from that portion
of Mexico, a vast amount of our products and fabrics which now find
an outlet to no other point in that direction.
I think, sir, if any one will take the pains to investigate the papers
and documents which have been filed with the Railroad Committee
through the intervention of the author of this bill and throngh the
commission of engineers, he would be perfectly satisfied that there is
probably nothing that would more interest the country than this pro¬
posed ronte between these points.
Mr. Eaton. I should like to ask my friend one question; and that
is where he gets his information that there is any such amount of
sugar or tobacco raised on this territory that he is speaking of as there
is on the island of Cuba. I have been unable to find any such infor¬
mation.
Mr. Caperton. I hope the Senator from Connecticut will inves¬
tigate this question ; and I am sure if he had investigated it he would
have found this to be the fact. Of course they do not raise as much
sugar there now as they do in Cuba ; but the idea I intended to con¬
vey was that, being a tropical country they have the opportunity by
climate and by soil to raise sugar probably to as great an extent as
in Cuba. They do make a great deal of sugar now, and they make a
great deal of tobacco ; they abound in every variety of tropical fruits.
This is a point interesting to us, that the Mexican tropics are the
only tropics with which we can have railroad communication. To get
to Cuba we have to cross the ocean. Here we shall have a continuous
railroad line, connecting with the railroads throughout all portions of
this country, extending and ramifying throngh the East and West,
that will connect with this tropical region, which would furnish us an
almost inappreciable amount of products.
I say, sir, that apart from the great question as to whether this can
be adopted as an inter-oceanic line, it is exceedingly important in
that point of view. It will have the effect of establishing commercial
relations and social relations with the Government of Mexico. That
is a matter of great importance to us ; and I submit to the Senators
from California, who are so much interested in the Chinese question,
that it is all-important that we should cultivate pleasant relations '
22
with Mexico, in order that she may co-operate with us in keeping
back that tide of Chinese immigration which threatens not only to
overrun California but other portions of the country.
In view of the fact that it will have the effect to establish commer¬
cial relations with Mexico—one of the most important countries on
the face of the globe in every respect, so far as commercial relations
are concerned-:-or as it will tend in that way, I think there should be
no hesitation on the part of Congress in making this^mall appropria¬
tion. If it should result, as I said before, in ascertaining that this is
the best inter-oceanic line of communication between the Chesapeake
Bay and the Pacific, it will be a very important result. But apart
from that, the important interests that we have in our commerce
with Mexico ought to command the assent of Congress without hesi¬
tation.
The President pro tempore. The question is on the motion to
reconsider the vote by which this bill was postponed indefinitely.
The Senator from Vermont has called for the yeas and nays on that
motion.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
Mr. West. Mr. President, I trust at least that the Senate will
favor the restitution of this bill to a condition of business that will
permit of its consideration. This now is a motion, not to pass the
bill, but to reconsider its indefinite postponement, and give us at some
future time an opportunity to consider it, as, with the few minutes
left of the morning hour, we shall have no opportunity to do now.
Id addition to what the Senator from West Virginia has said, I
should like for a moment to ask the attention of the Senate to the fact
that this bill, which has been charged with being the origination of
the War Department and officers of the Army, was not so originated ;
but it was presented here by a member of the Senate, and was, by
the chairman of the Committee on Railroads in the last Congress,
referred to the War Department under the request of that Committee ;
and a board was convened in New York who presented the result of
their examination of the subject in a recommendation that a survey
should be made.
Mr. Edmunds. Where is that report ?
Mr. West. Here it is in full ; I will hand it to the Senator. I
repeat that the matter' was referred by Congress to the War Depart¬
ment ; that the Secretary of War convened a board, and the result of
their investigations is submitted to us in an official document that we
have.
Mr. Edmunds. Why do you say Congress referred it to the War
Department ?
Mr. West. Referred by the Senate.
Mr. Edmunds. I wish the Senator would read a resolution of that
kind.
Mr. West. By the Committee.
Mr. Edmunds. By a Committee of the Senate. Is that what you,
call " Congress ?"
Mr. West. The amount asked for in this bill is no great sum, and
the Senate, I should think, would ask the question whether the ex-
23
penditure of such an amount should stand in the way of exploring
another highway to the Pacific. Millions of money have been spent
in opening communication to the Pacific on higher latitudes, both in
construction of the ways themselves, and in the minor expenditures
for exploration. The section of the Union lying to the south of those
degi'ees of latitude is absolutely cut off from communication with the
Pacific ; and when a simple amount is asked for an exploration, cer¬
tainly that much consideration might be accorded to that section.
To the objection which is sometimes made that such an exploration
ought to be undertaken at the expense of private individuals who are
interested in the opening of this route, it is a sufficient answer to say
that this exploration is to be directed through our own and through
the territory of a foreign neighbor. Any individual surveying party
sent down there to Mexico would be met on the confines of that terri¬
tory with the objection that they were intruders; but going there by
co-operation between this Government and the Government of Mexico,
they will have that official and authoritative sanction which will
enable them to pursue their labors. Hence this appropriation is asked
for from the Government of the United States; and it is but a very
small trifle in contrast with what has been done for other sections of
the Union. This is a proposition to inquire, to examine, to see
whether there is not some outlet through southern territory to the
Pacific Ocean. You of the North have your northern communica¬
tions; you have had your millions and your hundreds of millions
spent to facilitate that communication and to benefit your property.
We ask you to give us this little amount, to see whether we cannot
find our way to the ocean, and we are met here by an objection that
it is too much money. Mr. President, it is not generous, it is not fair
or equitable. If we are required to build our roads, open the high¬
way to us, show us the route, at least go to that expense on behalf of
that section of the Union. I have no expectation that we can pass
this bill now ; but I think, out of consideration for its claims, at least
the motion to reconsider and place the bill on the Calendar, where it
can receive the consideration of the Senate, should be accorded by the
Senate.
Mr. Maxey. Mr. President, I trust the Senate will place this bill
upon the Calendar, so that we can in the future consider the matter
with some degree of care. If by this appropriation more intimate
relations can be established with Mexico, if we can make it to the in¬
terest of Mexico to maintain close commercial relations with us, we
shall thereby aid very greatly in settling the Rio Grande trouble,
which is now disturbing the country, and has occupied so much of the
time of the other House during the present session of Congress. If
by this course we can secure another outlet to the Pacific Ocean, we
thereby bring about a competition which is in the interest of promot¬
ing trade and transportation, and thus benefit every citizen through¬
out the length and breadth of the land.
The city of Austin is now connected by rail with the rest of the
country^ There is a railroad chartered to the Rio Grande ; and if
that road can connect with a road through Mexico to Topolovampo,
we shall have possession of the trade of all that country. The result
■will be of advantage in two respects; First, in promoting commercial
relations with that country, and in settling the Rio Grande troubles ;
and second, in bringing about competition between the present roads
and a new road to the Pacific Ocean.
For these reasons I hope the motion to reconsider will be adopted,
so that the matter can be full3' investigated.
Mr Christiancy. Mr. President, I am not at all opposed to the route
of road proposed here. I am not opposed to the construction of the
road. I should certainly be glad to see it constructed ; it might be
of great national importance ; but I am opposed to any further Gov¬
ernment aid or subsidy to any railroad whatever, whether it be in
the North or in the South.
Mr. Ma.xey. I will state to the Senator that this bill has nothing
on earth to do with the question of subsidy.
Mr. Christiancy. I understand that, and I am coming to that point
presently.
Our experience in the past in reference to encouragement by the
Governmeut to railroad enterprises has not been such as to recom¬
mend that policy for the future. There was, it is true, before the
construction of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads, a
great national necessity for the immediate construction of one railroad
to the Pacific, and that sooner than private enterprise could accom
plish the object. But I look upon all the legislation since that time as
wasteful and extravagant in the extreme, and it ought to be checked
from this time forward. It is said this is not a subsidy. It is true it
is not a subsidy ; that is not the form of it ; but it is making an ap¬
propriation which in the end is to result in favor of some railroad
company to be hereafter established. The principle of it is precisely
that of a railroad subsidy, and it is nothing else. Now whenever
private capital, whenever the interests of capitalists will warrant the
construction of such a road, it will be built; and whenever they un¬
dertake to build such a road, they can easily obtain the necessary sur¬
vey and establish the necessary route, which should be done at their
own expense, as well as the construction of the road itself I see no
difference in principle.
It is said here, however, by the Senator from Louisiana [Mr. West]
that a private company may not be able to obtain leave from the Gov¬
ernment of Mexico. I should think that the diplomacy of the United
States might succeed in obtaining that leave for a company as well as
for the Government ; and in my opinion it would be a much easier
thing to obtain. I see nothing, therefore, in that objection.
I do not wish to take up the time of the Senate. I have merely
stated briefly my objections to the adoption of this motion to recon¬
sider.
The President pro tempore. The morning hour has expired.
25
[Senator Caperton intended to send the following paper to the desk to he printed
with an5- further remarks he might make in the passage of Senate Bill 92. Failing,
however, to have the bill considered during the impeachment trial, and helleving
the session to be drawing to a close, lie advised me to print it and to address a copy
to each Hierüber of the Senate. A. K. OWEN, C. E.j
REASONS
WHY SENATE BILL 92 [HOUSE BILL 218], WHICH HAS BEEN RE¬
PORTED BACK RECOMMENDED BY YOUR COMMITTEES WITH
AMENDMENTS, SHOULD BE PASSED:
First—That the Austin-Topolovampo Pacific route was argued be¬
fore the Coiumittees on Pacific Railroads of the Second Session of the
Porty-third Congress ; was favorably reported by a sub-committee to
House Committee; and was so well considered by Senate Committee
that, in an official communication, dated February 9, 18Î5 (see paper
3, page 7, official pamphlet), the subject (Senate Bill 1199) was re¬
ferred to the War Department, for examination and report.
Second—That at the beginning of the First Session of the Forty-
fourth Congress, the examination and report of the War Department,
accompanied with arguments, letters and maps, relative to the subject,
were submitted hack recomm3nded to the Senate Committee. The
said communications are contained in an official pamphlet of 68 pages,
and on page 11 is found
The repoet op "the Board op Ofpicers of the Corps op En¬
gineers," appointed by special order No. 21 (see jpoper 6, page 9,
official pamphlet), which reads :
" In brief, the conclusions of the Board are as follows :
" First—That a railroad built on the proposed route would he of
great utility.
" Second—That the feasibility of it remains to he determined by a
survey."
[signed.]
H. G. WRIGHT, Lieut Col. of Engineers, Br'v't llaj. Oen.
G. K. WARREX, Maj. of Engineers, 3Iaj. Gen. Ü. S. A.
HENRY L. ABBOT, Maj. of Engineers, BEvH Brig. Gen.
BRIG. GEN. A. A. HUMPHREYS,
Chief of Engineers, U. S. A., Washington, D. C. ^
Additional reasons are that the said route, if it he found upon ex¬
amination to he practicable, will give the important centres of indus¬
try and population in the United States, New Brunswick, Nova
Scotia and Canada, east of the Rocky Mountains, and every port on
the Atlantic coast of the United States and Nova Scotia, their shortest
and their least interrupted line for postal, military, social or commer¬
cial communications with the Pacific Ocean, yet argued before your
Committees.
Additional reasons are that the said route is the only one before
your Committee which has for its purpose the encouragement of com¬
mercial exchange and social intercourse between the forty-five million
26
people liring on the Atlantic slope of North America and the nine
million inhabitants of Mexico; and as a link in the shortest route be¬
tween Europe and Asia it is worthy of special consideration. [See
argument, pages 13 to 40, official pamphlet.]
Additional reasons are that the route is urged in the interest of the
whole people, and is independent of particular individuals, organisa¬
tions, or sections so far as has come to the knowledge of the members
of your Committees.
Additional reasons are that there has never been any official infor¬
mation for scientific or commercial purposes published relative to the
section of our continent in question, although there have been 50 sur¬
veys [see official map] made by the War Department, between 1853
and 1868, for the purpose of reporting highways or routes, postal
military and commercial, from the waters of the Mississippi to the
Pacific These include surveys on the routes known as the 32d, 35th,
41st, 47th, 48th and 49th parallels ; and these, together with probably,
as many more, particularly the survey of the Ohio and Chesapeake,
James and Kanawha, Coosa, Port Saint Philip; the numerous sur¬
veys of the Tehuantepec, Nicaragua, Panama and Darien Canal and
rail-routes, and the deep-sea soundings or surveys for the Atlantic and
Pacific Ocean cables, have been made under the direction, sometimes
of the War and at other times of the Navy Department, at the sug¬
gestion or report of some one or more individuals, to the end that
information relative to their respective claims, together with scientific
and commercial data, be officially reported to Congress and to the
people ; and these surveys and reports have been authorized, gener¬
ally, before organization or plan was formed to utilize the information
gained by said preliminary explorations. [See paper 12, page 24, of¬
ficial pamphlet.]
Additional reasons are that the permission, so cordially given by
the Mexican Government, to extend the said e.xplorations from the Rio
Grande, across her States, to the harbor of Topolovampo, was received
in answer to a communication from the Secretary of State, made at
the suggestion of the President of the United States. [See archives
State Department.]
Additional reasons are that the harbor of Topolovampo has been
surveyed and reported three times by the United States Navy ; that
it is a mountain-locked harbor, has an area of 52 square miles of
water, an anchorage area of 12 square miles, and a depth of water over
bar, at low tide, sufficient for the largest vessels to cross. [See map
and report in official pamphlet, and also recent map, etc., at Hydro-
graphical Bureau, Washington, D. C.]
Additional reasons are that for fifteen years the United States Gov¬
ernment has not taken a step, either by treaty or by survey, to en¬
courage our people to make their industries interdependent with those
of Mexico, [see speech of Hon. J. W. Foster, United States ^Minister
to Mexico, before the Chamber of Commerce of New Orleans, Nov.
18th, 1876,] although it is abundantly upon record that Mexico can
furnish us with all the tropical groceries, medicines, woods, fruits, etc.,
which we obtain at so many disadvantages, expenses and risks from
Cuba and Brazil,—a trade which amounts to $200,000,000 annually.
27
and for which the 9,000,000 citizens of Mexico would take in exchange
our surplus articles of manufacture. [See arguments of A. K. Owen,
C. E., made in behalf of the United States Government before Com¬
mittees on Pacific Railroads,]
For these and for other reasons the Committees on Pacific Rail¬
roads urge upon Congress the importance of the Austin-Topolovampo
Pacific survey, and ask that the Bill reported and recommended by
your committees be passed.
EXTRACT FROM A LETTER OF HON. H. 0, CAREY TO A. K.
OWEN, C. E.
Philadelphia, June 13, 1876.
I have a very confident belief in the honesty of your purpose, as
well as in the advantages which would result from carrying your
views into effect ; and you can freely give assurance to that effect to
any one who might probably be influenced by it.
LETÍER OF HENRY CAREY BAIRD, ESQ. TO A U. S. SENATOR.
Philadelphia, June 13, 1876.
Dear Sir :—Pardon me if, without the pleasure of your acquaint¬
ance, I venture to invite your favorable consideration of a project now
before the Senate of the United States. I refer to the proposed sur¬
vey of the Austin-Topolovampo Railroad route to the Pacific. This
subject has engaged the earnest and intelligent attention of my es¬
teemed friend Albert K. Owen, a civil engineer of great energy, en¬
terprise, and public spirit, for three or four years past, and the work
is not designed in the interest of any private corporation, clique or
"ring" of railroad speculators, but in the interest and for the advan¬
tage of the people of the United States and Mexico. There is every
reason to believe that it will be' demonstrated to be the most feasible
route to the Pacific, and that it will not only cause to be developed
a great local trade along its track, but that it will result in finally
giving us the control of the trade of the Pacific coast of South Amer¬
ica, and of the East Indies, and Oceánica.
The latent resources of the Mexican territory through which this
railroad is to pass, are great beyond the power of computation. We
have never done anything to develop the trade of Mexico with our-
28
selves, nor have we ever helped that country to help herself. Let us
now do both, and we shall create relations which will not only be
cordial and bind the two republics together in the bonds of fellowship
and good-will, but of profit. In no way that I know of can this be
done more surely than by the building of this road. But let us, at
least, provide for the survey ; and this survey, should it develop the
fact of the feasibility of the road, and I doubt not it will, will be wortb
to ourselves all it costs, and the information it gives of the character
and resources of the country through which it is carried will finally
lead to the building of the road.
In conclusion, let me say, that I know Mr. Owen well, and that
he is a man of the highest character and intelligence, and that you can
place full faith in all he states of his own knowledge, and that you
may rely with safety upon all that he gives as the result of his judg¬
ment and belief in regard to this subject, which he has studied so
carefully and to so much advantage.
I am, dear sir, very respectfully your obedient servant,
HENRY 0. BAIRD.
''^Morning News,Washington, D.
THE AU8T1N-T0P0L0VAMP0, OR THE CENTENNIAL PACIFIC
RAILWAY SURVEY.
ONLY SEVEN HUNDRED MILES TO BUILD TO CONNECT THE EXISTING
SYSTEM OF R.A.ILBOADS WITH THE WESTERN OCEAN.
The Senate Committee on Railroads, yesterday, considered and
unanimously passed Senate Bill 92 (House 218), which asks merely
that the Secretary of War be authorized to make a survey from Aus¬
tin, the capital of Texas, to the Rio Grande, and thence (the Depart¬
ment of State having obtained permission fram the Mexican govern¬
ment) to Topolovampo, a new and grand mountain-locked harbor,
Lat 25° 30' north, at the mouth of the Gulf of California. Austin
is connected with the system of railroads of the United States, Nova
Scotia, New Brunswick and Canada, and by constructing only 800
miles of track we may obtain "an open highway" to the Pacific
Ocean, and to the tropical and inter-tropical products of the 9,000,-
000 people of Mexico. From San Antonio, via Eagle Pass, there
would be but 700 miles to construct. The distances from all the
interior and seaboard cities of the United States and the Canadas,
east of the Rocky Mountains, to Topolovampo, San Diego, San
Francisco, and Puget Sound, are astonishingly in favor of Topolo¬
vampo. For instance: Chicago is 221 mil^s nearer, and St. Louis is
316 miles nearer to Topolovampo than to San Francisco. Halifax,
29
Nova Scotia, is equidistant between Topolovampo and Puget Sound.
The distance from New York to Topolovampo via Austiu, Texas, is
l.lSt miles less than that from New York to Puget Sound, via the
Northern Pacific; Î44 miles less than that from New York to San
Francisco, via the Union Pacific; and 381 miles less than that from
New York to San Diego, via the Texas Pacific. From Norfolk, Va.,
to Topolovampo, the distance, via Austin, is but 2,289 miles, which
is 1,014 miles less than from New York to San Francisco, via
Omaha. Omaha is 150 miles nearer to Topolovampo than to San
Francisco. New Orleans is 410 miles nearer the Pacific, via the
Austin-Topolovampo Pacific, than via the Texas Pacific. Galveston,
Texas, is but 1,000 miles from the Pacific, via the Austin-Topolo¬
vampo Pacific, etc., etc. By all means Congress should authorize
the Secretary of War to survey and report upon a route which may
be of suah importance to the United States and to Mexico.
Morning News^*"" Washington^ June V2ih^ 1876.
SPANISH AMERICA.
MeSBco lies within a day's ride of the Great Mississippi Valley.
The western terminus of our railroad system is within 200 miles of
the Rio Grande, and yet our legislative bodies for fifteen years have
failed to take any step, either through treaties or by surveys, to en¬
courage our people to extend their line of communication into the
9,000,000 of agricultural republicans, who wish every article of
manufacture our varied industries make, and from whom we might
obtain, in exchange, all the tropical groceries, fruits, medicine® and
woods, which wm so largely purchase from the West Indies and Brazil
at unnecessary expense, time, and disadvantage.
Gen. Benj. F. Butler, in an interview with the Boston Herald [see
Forney's Chronicle of Sunday, May 28th, 1816], says that " Mexico
would use at least $200,000,000 of our manufactures in a year." How
is it that the South has stood so indifferent to treaties and projects
which would give the Gulf, Atlantic and Mississippi States the direct
and nearer advantages of overland communication with Mexico?
How is it that New England's statesmen do not realize the impor¬
tance of securing a market in Mexico for their famishing industries,
which, for want of buyers, each day close and bring certain ruin upon
their respective communities.
Bishop Gilbert Haven, writing in 1815, in a work which he happily
calls "Our Next-door Neighbor," says: "The nearest ihiugs are often
the farthest off, the farthest off the nearest. This is true of places as
well as of people. We know more of Bismarck than of our next-block
neighbor—of Paris than of many an American town. This law is
verified in our knowledge, or ignorance rather, of our nearest national
30
neighbor, Mexico. Few books are written, less are read, upon the
most novel land on our continent, and one of the most attractive of any
continent."
Col. Ben. Perley Poore's letters, written in Mexico City, in April
1875, and published under the title of " Waifs on the Wing," in the Sat¬
urday numbers of the Boston Journal of May and June, 1875, give
notes upon Mexico, its people, its institutions, its climates, its produc¬
tions, etc., full of interest and information to the legislator and to the
commercial man. In noticing the scenery on the Vera Cruz and
Mexico City Railroad, Col. Poore says: "Nowhere in my wander¬
ings, at home or abroad, have I beheld such a strange mingling of the
terrible with the beautiful." At Orizaba, the Colonel particularly
makes mention of the tropical magnificence of the flora, associated so
delightfully with the invigorating temperature of a cool climate, which
an elevation of 4,000 feet secures ; and even upon the higher plateau,
(the Colonel adds) " Tickle the ground with a hoe and it laughs with
a harvest." " These Indios constitute two-thirds of the population of
Mexico, and I have been impressed while here by the cheerfulness
with which they toiled, * * and with their desire to obtain education."
" Laborers require but 25 cents per day, and are generally paid in
goods." "Bouquets were sent to the ladies of our party while in
Mexico city, the price of which was but 30 cents, which could not be
bought in Washington, D. C., for $-30 00."* " There is less crime in
Mexico than in the United States, as is proved by statistics." " The
Mexican Union is composed of 27 States, with a federal district and
the territory of Lower California. Annual revenue in 1872-73pabout
$15,596,755, of which $9,265,700 was from the maritime custom
houses; $2,217,275 from the sale of stamped paper, used by law for
legal documents, receipts, etc. ; $10,236 from taxes on carriages; and
$474,819, from postal services. The army absorbs one-half of the
revenue."
Colonel Poore writes: "It is folly to think of purchasing an acre of
Mexiton soil, but we can have Mexico as a profitable market, and
that is what our drooping industries now need."
If the Secretary of War is authorized to make the Austin-Topolo-
vampo survey, and the route, which is only 800 miles from Austin,
be reported desirable, then our railroad companies may be encouraged
to extend their lines to the Rio Grande, a distance of 200 miles or
less, [from San Antonio, to which a railroad is now building from
Austin, the distance to Eagle Pass, on the Rio Grande, is but 125
miles,] and with the co-operation of the Mexican people make an
outlet upon the Gulf of California and have an interchange of $500,-
000,000 worth of internal commerce with 9,000,000 Spanish
Americans. When labor is only 25 cents per day, payable in corn,
wheat, groceries, calicoes and meats, certainly it will not cost much
cash capital to make the road-bed and to put the ties upon it, timber
being abundant in the western and eastern sections of the proposed
line.
With the Austin-Topolovampo route completed, Galveston, Texas,
*TheCit3'of Mexico is situated on a plain 7,400 feet above the sea, enclosed by
lofty mountains.
31
fuld be only 1,000 miles, or less than two days, from the great
j:an highway to China and Australia ; while New Orleans, Yicks-
burg. Little Rock and Kansas City, would each be within 1,300 miles
■of the same outlet.
I What our citizens wish is to be informed through the Secretary of
War as to the feasibility of an overland route to the harbor of Topo-
lovampo, recently made public, and which the United States Navy
bas so favorably reported and mapped on three occasions. The Navy
llepartment is now engaged in surveying cable routes across the
Pacific and Atlantic oceans, for the purpose of giving information and
thus encouraging our citizens to associate and to lay ocean-wires.
The Navy Department has been authorized to survey inter-ocean
routes across Central America, to explore the Amazon, and to survey
and to map the harbors, rivers, gulfs and shores of Europe, Mexico,
South America, Africa and the Polar Seas. The War Department
has made over fifty surveys for post, wagon, and rail routes from the
Mississippi to the Pacific on parallels north of the 30th, but never
one south of that parallel.
Why should not the Austin-Topolovampo survey be authorized,
particularly as the Committee on Pacific Railroads of the Senate and
House, and the board of U. S. Engineers, have examined and reported
that the route, if found feasible, will give every great metropolitan
centre in the United States and in Canada, and ev^ery Atlantic sea¬
port in North America, their shortest and least interrupted outlet to
the Pacific ocean ?