several grand routes, along the line of
which, for certain periods of time, the life-blood and intelligence of
humanity have coursed. Such was the route which history discloses as the
most ancient from India overland to the Mediterranean, whence it was
continued by that old Phoenician Coast Navigation Company to the
shores of Britain. Along this overland line grew up the great cities of
Asia, depending upon it for their wealth, refinement, and power; and
when commerce was diverted from the inland, and the riches of India took
the ocean path westward, the glory of these cities departed. Such also
was that later route which gave the Italian cities their opulence and
strength in the Middle Ages. When the Cape of Good Hope was doubled,
these Italian centres grew comparatively weak and lustreless. The Roman
road to Britain laid the foundation of that power, the full development
of which has given to London its present position as the European
metropolis. New York City also owes her rapid and stupendous growth to
that peculiar conjunction of circumstances which has secured her the
control of the grand Transatlantic commercial route of present times.
The railroads leading westward from that city, converging upon the
termini of the Pacific lines, continue this world-route of the incoming
era to San Francisco, and there, through the Golden Gate, we grasp the
wealth of Eastern Asia, whence the first great world-route started.
Events more powerful than tradition have thus revolutionized the old
system of travel and commerce, calling them eastward. America becomes at
once interoceanic and mediterranean, commanding the two oceans, and
mediating between Europe and Asia. By the Pacific Railroad, Hong Kong
via New York is only forty days distant from London. The tea and silks
of China and the products of the Spice Islands must pass through America
to Europe. In this connection, also, there is a profound significance
in our alliance, every year growing stronger, with Russia, whose extreme
southern boundary joins Japan, our latest and warmest Asiatic ally.

But the development of American commercial power as against the world is
secondary to the internal development of our own resources, and to the
indissoluble bond of national union afforded by this inland route from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, and by its future connections with every
portion of our territory. In thirty years, California will have a
population equal to that of New York