KEVENUE AND INCOME. 133 
extravagant supposition, that, when constructed, 20 days will suffice to reach 
San Francisco from New York, and 16 days from New Orleans." 
Since this was written telegraph lines have been established 
between the northern cities and New Orleans, as far north, 
indeed, as Montreal. It follows, therefore, that by the way of 
Tehuantepec, San Francisco, and New York, Montreal and St. 
Louis will be brought within sixteen days of each other. This 
certainly is progressing with the spirit of the age. It is un- 
necessary to allude to the importance which this rapid com- 
munication w r ould exercise on the commerce of the country, or 
on the revenues of the company. They can be perceived at a 
glance, and need not be pointed out. But what can be said of 
the tremendous revolution that is destined to take place in the 
course of commerce between Europe and the East, when the best 
connection between the two oceans is established % " Doubling 
the stormy cape" will then be unknown, and "voyages" arownd 
the world will be changed to "trips" across. The American 
continent will then become the entrepot for the commerce of 
the universe, and the United States the " mistress of the seas." 
The Tehuantepec route is, of all the routes proposed from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, the true American route. It is 
the route which is entirely commanded by our possessions on 
tho Gulf of Mexico, and not domineered over by any British 
possession whatever. In case of a war with Great Britain, our 
vessels, bound to Chagres, would be obliged to sail almost with- 
in gun-shot of the British forts at Jamaica, while any number 
of men and provisions could at any moment be sent down from 
New Orleans to the mouth of the Coatzacoalcos. The Missis- 
sippi River being the great artery of the West, and the Missis- 
sippi Valley destined to be the great reservoir of the population, 
enterprise, and nationality of the United States, we are at all 
times better prepared to defend, occupy, and keep the Isthmus 
of Tehuantepec than any other position on this side of our con- 
tinent south of New Orleans. 
In connection with the establishment of a steam marine in the 
Pacific, to which reference has already been made, it may be 
well to mention, incidentally, another important source of reve- 
