by the capitalists of the country to es- sacola route to connect the Atlantic tablish an expeditious and economical with the Gulf of Mexico." route to San Francisco. The western members of Congress are urging the propriety of connecting the city of St. Louis with the Pacific coast, and demanding aid from Government to promote the enterprise. Missouri has already commenced, and has now under contract, a considerable portion of a rail-road, extending westward from St. Louis, designed to connect with the Bay of San Francisco. But an undertaking of such magnitude is well calculated to intimidate the most courageous, and we may confidently expect youth to decay into extreme old age, before a rail-road, 2300 miles in length, will be made over an uninhabited country, to connect the Mississippi with the Pacific Ocean. The antagonistical interests that Montgomery has to contend against are nearer home, almost upon her own threshold. The Mobile and Ohio Rail-road, via Selma, is progressing with an energy that guarantees a completion at an early period, and when connected with the Central Illinois road at Cairo, will be a continuous, though "circuitous" route to the eastern cities. The citizens of Savannah deserve the greatest praise for their comprehensiveness and perseverance in endeavoring to promote the prosperity of their city, by connecting with every point calcu lated to increase her wealth and importance. Their efforts are not to be overlooked by the good people of Montgomery, lest they may suddenly find themselves circumscribed by the state of Georgia, and deprived of a convenient and safe harbor their own neglect has failed to secure. The following table of time and distance exemplifies the advantages of the Pensacola and Montgomery route to the Bay of San Francisco from the city of New-York. It has been prepared with care, and has been partly taken from a paper recently read before the Georgia Historical Society. Inquiries made by myself from experienced naval officers, pronounce the sailing distance and time correct. The Savannah and Pensacola railroad will be nearly four hundred miles in length, and will cost upwards of four million dollars; great as this sum may be, it will certainly be raised, and the road built, if Montgomery fails in duty towards herself. In the event of Montgomery and Pensacola being connected, it is a matter of doubt whether the other road will be constructed, since everything will be accomplished in favor of Savannah, in the connection of the Central Georgia road with the Alabama roads leading to Montgomery, and this idea holds good in respect to Charleston. The citizens of Pensacola are anx ious to join with Montgomery; the misfortune is, they have not much capital to invest, and must, therefore, depend upon her richer neighbor to push the work successfully to completion. All that Pensacola can do, however, will be done to the full extent of her means. It would be well if a Convention was called at Montgomery, and some plan determined upon to undertake the work New-York to Pensacola by R. R. 1,000 mls., 72 hrs. at once, and terminate the great strug Pensacola to Tehuantepec....... Crossing the Isthmus Isthmus to San Francisco ... Equals 14 days, 6 hours.. 900 130 2,350 66 72 6 gle of sixteen years to connect the Atlantic with the Gulf of Mexico. The last Florida legislature granted a liberal charter to this road, and appointed the following gentlemen as commissioners, to open books and receive subscription for stock: This calculation is a reality, and sanctioned by the proposition recently made by Col. Sloo, to carry the United States Mail from New-York to San Francisco in fourteen days, provided Congress recognize the validity of the contract made by him with the Mexican authorities. The Senate are now debating whether the Garey, or the Sloo grant is entitled to the support of our government. Thirdly.-"The advantages this road possesses over the Savannah and Pen Walker Anderson, W. H. Chase, B. D. Wright, O. M. Avery, of Pensacola, Florida. M. Bonclevare, John G. McLane, J. G. Robinson, A. J. Robinson, W. T. Sterns, C. Snowden, W. Ashley, Asa Johnson, T. A. McIvar, A. Russell and A. Fowler, Conecuh county, Alabama. E. I. Pickins, L. A. Bowling, W. J. Sturty, James Dunklein, T. I. Burnett, Harbor of Pensacola-Expense and Income of the new Road. 571 H. L. Henderson, H. B. Taylor, B. W. Henderson, and J. P. McMullen, Butler county, Alabama. C. Webb, A. J. Perry. G. Harrison, J. C. Swanson, and John Walker, Loundes county, Alabama. C. Cromlin, J. E. Belser, E. Sandford Sayer, John Craigen, J. J. Scribles, B. S. Bibbs, H. W. Hilliard, E. Barnes, J. R. Dilliard, R. Wall, and G. Matthews, Montgomery county and city. Any three of the abovenamed persons may open the books in such places as they may think proper, and keep them open until the whole capital stock is subscribed. It is important, however, that these commissioners should be prompt in the exercise of their functions, otherwise the charter will be forfeited. It is a constitutional law of Florida, that all incorporated companies should be organized, and the work commenced within one year after the passage of the act, or it becomes null and void. The general government has conceded the right of way through the public domain, in favor of this road, and continued efforts are being made by the Florida delegation to obtain alternate sections of land for six miles on each side of the line, similar to that passed in favor of the Central Illinois and Mobile roads. Fourthly, "The superiority of the harbor of Pensacola over all others, on the Gulf of Mexico, and its national defenses." The bay of Pensacola, as a harbor, has nothing to compare with it from the Chesapeake to the Rio Grande, or along Central and South America, until you arrive at Rio de Janeiro. It has anchorage for the most extensive commerce; and vessels are securely sheltered from the severest gales. The depth of water on the bar at the main entrance equals twenty-four feet, and has been stationary at this depth from time immemoial. As you ascend the bay, you find the same depth of water until you pass the city of Pensacola; distance from the bar about twelve miles. The largest class frigates and sloops-of-war frequently run up, and ride at easy anchorage off the town. The most important defenses are: First, Fort McCrea, on the main land, as you enter the channel to cross the bar. Second, Fort Pickens, upon the opposite side. Third, Fort Barrancas, on a high cliff, half a mile from Fort Pickens, on the opposite shore. Also, an extensive navy-yard, with floating dock, basin, and rail-way, now ready for the construction and repair of naval and merchant vessels. The health of the city and bay of Pensacola is proverbial, surrounded by open pine woods, and furnished with an abundant supply of healthy spring water. It is the favorite resort in midsummer of many families from Mobile and New-Orleans, who are attracted there by the facilities for salt-water bathing, and the remarkable salubrity of the climate during the unhealthy season. Fifthly, "The probable expense of construction, connected with steamboats to New-Orleans, and the income derived." We have endeavored, briefly as possible, to trace the various merits of this improvement, and the attention it is entitled to from the citizens of Montgomery. Another important feature is now to be considered, and, in fact, the one most essential to the success or destruction of the scheme. We allude to the probable expense and income of the road. The act of incorporation is for two millions of dollars-an amount exceeding the sum necessary for the accomplishment of the enterprise, according to the following calculation: 160 miles rail-road, Montgomery to Pen sacola..... $1,600,000 Four first-class steamboats, to run daily Equals expense.......... INCOME. 200 daily passengers, 360 days, $8 00.... $ 576,000 150,000 bales of cotton.. Mail contract.......... 150,000 Accumulated freight, merchandise, &c... 300,000 100,000 1,126,000 326,000 Deduct expenses. Equals net profit of 23% per ct.. 800,000 This estimate, we are confident, will be found greatly within the assets of the road; my object is, however, not to exaggerate, or to indulge in an enthusiastic confidence as to the ultimate prosperity of the road. The experience of all great lines of communication between populous sections of the country, has been found to exceed in profit, rather than fall below the original estimate. It is sufficient to know, that the investment will be safe, and will yield an ample income upon the capital, and will bear comparison with any other improvement in the country. We might continue the subject, and give a closer analytical detail. Our ob ject has been to state the prominent facts, and leave them for an enlightened and wealthy community to use them for their own advantage. ART V.-VALLEY OF THE OHIO.-ITS CONQUEST AND SET. TLEMENT BY THE AMERICANS. THE following extracts from a work about to be published are kindly sent to us by the author. Of the work itself, the Editors of the Western Journal, that popular monthly published at St. Louis, says: During Mr. Butler's preparation of the History of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, he gleaned, from conversation and correspondence with the old and leading men of the West, many incidents of historical importance, and also discovered among the archives of Virginia many documents pertaining to the history of the West, which could not with propriety be introduced into that work. Also the journals and private papers of distinguished pioneers in the West, which were placed in his hands, afforded a rich resource for an extensive history of its settlement by the Americans. His former work will, therefore, be but the nucleus around which the immense treasures of this work will be gathered. Mr. Butler is peculiarly fortunate, in having enjoyed the advantages of deriving the most reliable and most multifarious data for the work he has undertaken. And in this respect he may be considered as the man most pre-eminently capable of giving accurate annals of the history he narrates. But he has a still stronger claim on the consideration of the public. Mr. Butler is a man of letters. Familiar with the literature of modern and ancient ages, he is also gifted with that comprehensive faculty which enables the philosophic historian to promote the civilization of the people, by indicating with liberal conservatism the laws of the progress of humanity: The object of this work is to record the conquest and settlement of the Valley of the Ohio, by the united efforts of our English ancestors and our own countrymen. I mean to keep this story quite distinct from the French and Spanish enterprises, in or about this region. They have been already most ably narrated by Bancroft, in a manner at once to gratify the pride and to instruct the minds of his countrymen.* My object embraces the western por tion of the United States, if so transitory a name can still be applied to its great central region, watered by the Ohio River and its tributaries. The Valley of the Ohio, without doubt, comprehends a larger quantity of fertile land, a more extensive and diffused interior navigation, together with a more salubrious climate, than any other portion of the temperate zones of the globe. It comprehends an area of 200,111† square miles, which is almost double that of France, more than twice that of Great Britain and Ireland, and nearly as much as the superficies of Germany. Its internal navigation is calculated by an indefatigable and skilful geographer, at 5000 square miles, with access to a navigation on the great northern lakes of 82,750 square miles. The resources of the finest iron and lead, of coal and salt, are spread over this section of the United States, in a profusion unequaled in the world. The valley extends from latitude 42° 29' north, to latitude 34° 12′ north. In an eastern and western direction, this region of country stretches from the head of the Ohio River to its mouth, that is, from 19 to 12° west from Washington city, or from 78° 2′ west from Greenwich to 89° 2. The great debateable land, lying in this valley, which has constituted an ob* Bancroft's History of the United States. + Darby's Gazetteer. Ibid. Mr. Butler's New Work-Conquest and Settlement of Ohio. 573 ject of the fiercest contention between the white and the red races, may well be confined to the country lying between the mouth and the head of the Ohio and its tributaries. Sometimes its history will lead the reader to the great northern lakes, and again to the Cumberland Mountains; but the actions which form the general tenor of the story were performed in the country bordering on its great central stream of the valley, so expressively named by the French discoverers, La Belle Rivière. The settlement by the English and their descendants in this most beautiful and favored section of the United States, presents, among other aspects, one great and striking one, which has fastened itself upon the mind of the writer with great tenacity. It is that this great social work has been mainly a spontaneous, individual effort, without the aid, and scarcely with the countenance of government-often, indeed, against its threatening orders. The subjugation of the western country, as it has been limited, has been effected by a great cotemporaneous movement of society, at various detached points, in distant and separate parties, not knowing, much more not uniting, each other's efforts. It has been an Exodus without a Moses; and yet the pillar of fire by night, and the pillar of cloud by day, did not cease to direct the footsteps of our pioneer pilgrims. The story is full of noble heroic enterprise, not always military, nor chiefly so; it is chequered with many mournful and tragic events; yet the self-denial, the fortitude and bravery, the wisdom and enterprise, displayed in their history, may well be studied by the descendants of the pioneers, and those who are now rioting in the rich fruits of these noble and manly virtues. Their history will ever form a record of daring and gallant exertions, over which admirers of such actions will rejoice, and whose study ought to give delight. each moving on his own footing, and by his own suggestions, or, in the popular idiom, " on his own hook." The progress of the American Republic, in no one of its great sections, can well be said to have been a mere conquest, a military achievement only; although its history is very far from destitute of heroic renown. Still, it has not been entirely fanned into being by conquest's crimson wing." It has mainly originated in more moral efforts. It is the first-born of freedom and commerce in America. The early annals of the United States neither boast of, nor are stained with the cruel and bloody footsteps of a Cortez, or a Pizarro. They present heroes of another and higher order-soldiers of advancing civilization-pioneers of liberty and a great social reform. The moral grandeur of this movement throws the blood-stained triumphs of mere military conquest, for conquest's sake, far into the shade. It behooves Americans to elevate their conceptions to the intrinsic dignity of their country's efforts, to extend the civilization of the world, and to spread over it the blessings of liberty, religion and law. Let our countrymen cease to worship the Moloch of mere military devastation and death; and may they realize the great debt which civilized life owes to the American pioneer! It is the purpose of this work to pursue this train of thought, and rapidly to portray the efforts of the pioneers of Western America (and they were not always military ones) to reduce the fair and fertile region watered by the Ohio and its tributaries, to the dominion of civilized life-to convert the region in question from the rule of savage barbarity to that of enlightenment and humanity, of religion and freedom. The scene shall be laid (as I have already intimated) on the waters of the Ohio river; and the time shall extend from the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, to the peace of Ghent, as ratified by the United States, in 1815. True, there has been no favorite chief at the head of a great expedition. No Cæsar, no Rollo, nor Hengist nor Horsa, The treaty first above mentioned, had headed these wide and scattered nove left the region in question a great dements. It was too grand and gigantic batable land between the British and a project for such means to effect. The French crowns. Yet this smiling and wilderness of North America has been most fertile section of country was, conquered, and reduced under the domi- about the middle of the last century, nion of the axe, and the plow, by hand- the undisturbed forest home of the red fuls of men, sometimes individuals, man. True, there were scattered French VOL. XIV. 4 villages of much earlier date, as Vin- to have been adopted by the Miami cennes, Kaskaskia and Cahokia; but still the vast region stretching from the northwestern lakes to the Cumberland Mountains, and from the heads of the Ohio to the Mississippi, was essentially and indisputably the dominion of the North American savage. Still, this vast tract of country was but dotted over with the towns of the warlike tribes, who wandered over, rather than inhabited it. Of this Indian race, the Confederacy, sometimes denominated the Five, and subsequently the Six Nations, were decidedly the most formidable. They occupied, at the time in question, the country from the lakes Ontario and Erie to the undefined territory of the Wyandots or Hurons, though their territorial claims extended to the Tennessee River. These latter were the most eastern tribe of the Miami, or, as they pronounced it, the Mi-a-mi-ah confederacy; as the Senecas were the most western of the Six Nations. "The Iroquois," or Six Nations, "were formerly confined, with the exception of the Tuscaroras, to the region south of the lakes Erie and Ontario and the peninsula east of Lake Huron."* Loskiel tells us (Note, Part I., p. 130. III, Bancroft, p. 239, Boston, 1841,) that the Delawares, as they were called by our countrymen, Loups by the French, and Lenni Lenape, or Original Men, by themselves, were the parent stem of the Algonquin race of Indians. This tribe of Indians was seated round the Delaware Bay, in the present states of Pennsylvania, Delaware and Jersey, at the time of William Penn's visit to America. They seem to have been gradually driven from their ancient seats, during the earlier colonial times, to the country immediately west of the Alleghany Mountains. Beyond this tribe came the Shawanoes of the French writers, who also call them Chawanons; they were known to our countrymen as the fierce and warlike Shawnees. They were a tribe of most daring, ferocious and wayward character among all the vagrants of the forest. Fugitives from the victorious arms of the Five Nations, they fled about 1672 to the borders of the Carolinas and Florida. Returning thence, they were said, by Governor Harrison, * Parkman's History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac, page 25. Boston, 1851. A work of unrivaled excellence, thoroughness, beauty and fidelity, on the colonial wars of North America. confederacy. (Gallatin and Drake's Life of Tecumseh. Pioneer History, 239.) It was of this tribe, so celebrated for their marauding invasions on the borders of Virginia and Pennsylvania, that Governor Dunmore said, in a proclamation of 1775, that "the most dreadful effects were felt." (See Virginia Gazette, 23d Jan., 1775.) They afterwards became as distinguished for their attacks upon the settlements in Kentucky and Ohio. They seem to have occupied the country watered by the Scioto. Descending the Ohio, the tribes of the Miami confederacy next presented themselves; they are sometimes called Twight wees. After them came the tribes of the Illinois confederacy, embracing the Kaskaskias and Peorias. Such were the most important tribes located on the northern shores of the valley. Between them and the southern tribes lay the country since denominated Kentucky. This region, abounding most eminently in game and salt-licks, the favorite resort of wild animals, seems to have been reserved, by some tacit consent of the adjacent tribes, as a hunting or battle ground, as their wants or passions inclined them. Certain it is, that although at various points in the interior there were indications of different, perhaps superior races of natives having occupied the country, there were no permanent Indian towns located in Kentucky. They were unknown to our oldest hunters and travelers. The tribes bordering the valley on the south consisted of the Cherokees, on the upper valley of the Tennessee River, as far as the Muscle Shoals; and the highlands of Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, and the Chickasas † The latter tribe, ever distinguished by friendship to the white man, were situated on the lower waters of the Tennessee, and upon the Mississippi. These were the aboriginal inhabitants of the valley of the Ohio, about the time of the irruption of the whites into this most desirable region. The numbers of this savage people have been variously estimated by the colonial writers, varying (as such estimates must in the absence of actual enumeration) from 5,000 to 6,000 warriors.‡ + III Bancroft p. 246. Boston, 1841. Col. Croghan's Journal. Butler's History of Kentucky. Appendix and Pioneer History, p. 68, Cincinnati, 1848. |