the North-west, the West and the Mississippi Valley to take the river
and Gulf route to the sea, the greater and more fixed becomes the
diversion of this incalculable commerce from the great markets of the
Middle and Eastern States. So far, therefore, from the far West being at
the mercy of the East in this matter, the former has the advantage. The
East, rather than allow the present tendency of the commercial current
to set well in toward the Gulf, and wear a channel for itself, should
strain every nerve to keep it steadily moving toward its own maritime
cities. The great cities of the Atlantic seaboard can better afford to
construct a water-line over the mountains at their own cost than to run
the risk of the Mississippi River becoming the commercial avenue for its
vast valley and drainage, and thus bearing the golden stream away from
their harbors and streets.

The Utopian idea that Norfolk may become the rival of the great seaports
and centres of capital, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston, is
without the field of discussion. It is not more possible than that a
magnetized knife-blade should exert a more powerful attraction than the
largest lodestone or the mightiest electro-magnet.

The Lake route from the Mississippi Valley to the East was made
continuous and complete by the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825. The
day of the old flat-boats had not then closed, and the application of
steam to river navigation was still in its infancy. The growth of the
West--which has always outstripped its internal improvements--like an
immense river long dammed up, bursting the barriers that confined it,
forced its way toward the sea. Although it was said at first that the
canal would never pay, "the opening of this work," as the Superintendent
of the Census says, "was an announcement of a new era in the internal
grain-trade of the United States. To the pioneer, the agriculturist and
the merchant the grand avenue developed a new world. From that period do
we date the rise and progress of the North-west." This splendid
structure is to-day the great artery of Eastern wealth; and but for the
fact that for six months in the year, when the vast sea of Western
commerce would seek an outlet through its banks to the East, it is
locked by ice, it would be widened into a ship-canal. It lies in the
very track of the great north-westerly winds, which descend with
torrential rush and polar cold over the Lakes, and thence through
Nort