851 ADDRESS OF THE HON. WILLIAM BROSS, LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF ILLINOIS, ON THE KESOUBCES OF THE FAR WEST, THE PACIFIC RAILWAY, BEFORE THE 00mm*rtt of ito* jj Me $1 AT A SPECIAL MEETING, 25, 1866. JOHN W. AMERMAN, PRINTER ^* 4 ^ CEDAR STREET. .08 EXPOETED FOE THE CHAMBEB OF COMMEECE BY JAilES W. TOELEY, 8TENOGEAPHKE. RESOURCES OF THE FAR WEST. THE PACIFIC RAILWAY. IN accordance with a resolution adopted by the Cham ber of Commerce of the State of New- York, at its regular meeting of Thursday, 4th January, 1866, the Executive Committee invited the Hon. William BROSS, Lieutenant- Governor of Illinois, to address the Chamber, and the merchants of New- York generally, upon the " RESOURCES OF THE FAR WEST AND THE PACIFIC RAILWAY." Mr. BROSS having kindly consented, a special meeting of the Chamber was called for Thursday, January 25th, at the Hall of the Chamber, at two o'clock, when, notwith standing the extreme inclemency of the weather, a large audience, comprising many of the oldest and most dis tinguished New- York merchants, was gathered. On introducing Governor BROSS to the company assem bled, the President, Mr. A. A. Low, remarked, that he took great pleasure in presenting this gentleman to the au dience ; that the Chamber would hear from him some account of the jtmrney across the continent, made by him in the summer of 1865, in company with the Hon. SCHUYLER COLFAX, Speaker of the House of Representatives ; and also his views as to the great national importance of pushing vigorously forward to completion the construc tion of the Pacific Rail-Road, until the continent was spanned, and the Atlantic and Pacific oceans had become as one thoroughfare for the trade of the world. ADDRESS OF LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR BROSS. Mr. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN : Now that the war is over, it is the duty, as it seems to me, of the American people to inquire how they can most rapidly develop the resources of their vast country, and how they can best promote the stability and welfare of the Republic. A knowledge of the extent of that country, of its climate and topography, of its mineral and agricul tural riches, is essential to all those who mean to be identified with that new era of development, upon which, it is believed, the Union is now entering. It is with the hope that I can contribute something to that knowledge that I have ventured to appear before you to-day. It is already known to all of you, by the introduc tion of your President, that, during the last summer, the Hon. SCHUYLER COLFAX, Speaker of the House of Representatives, executed a purpose long entertained to visit the Pacific coast. He had for many years occupied an important and leading position among the legislators of the nation. As Chairman of the Post-Office Committee of the House of Representatives, he had brought in the "Overland Daily Mail" and "Pacific Telegraph" bills. He had also used all his influence to pass the Pacific Rail way bill, and he wanted to see what further legislation was necessary to develop the Pacific States of the Repub lic, and, with this view, he resolved to make a personal tour through this vast region. He invited Mr. BOWLES, of the Springfield Republican, (who has written a most interesting account of our travels, in which all particulars concerning the country can be found, or at least more of them than any where else,) Mr. RICHARDSON, of the New- York Tribune, and your speaker to be the companions of his journey. It is to such facts and observations as I was able to make on that journey of thirteen thousand miles, particu larly those which relate to the Pacific Railway, its location and the means of sustaining so vast an enterprise, that I wish to call your attention. That great belt of valley and mountain, divided into States and Territories, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, which forms our compact and now more than ever glorious Union, embraces the very best portions of the North American continent. A glance, therefore, at the topography of the country will enable us the better to understand the great future which, it is believed, Pro vidence has in store for us. And first, as to its mountains. Beginning at the south ern extremity of South America, the same grand moun tain chain runs through North America, very often reach ing up into the regions of eternal snow. It is in all re spects the most remarkable range of mountains upon the globe. Whether the theory of elevation or subsidence be adopted, these mountains are undoubtedly due to the same geological causes, operating far back in the history of our planet. And now I must ask you, Mr. Chairman, and the Cham ber, to excuse any errors of language I may commit in the extemporaneous expression of as many facts as I can compress within the limits of an hour. The manuscript which I have compiled on the subject would require nearly two hours to deliver. I shall go directly to the map, and point out to you the route we took across the continent, and the route for the railway, and give you such facts as I think will be most interesting in relation to this great national enterprise. I prefer to do this in our plain Western style, giving you the facts, rather than to make any particular attempt at a finished literary effort. I am perfectly aware that the gentlemen here have not more than an hour to spare, and in that hour I want to give you all the information I possibly can. I beg to call your attention to the map. What is really the extension of the Andes from South America, this mountain range, runs west and northwest, forming the Isthmus of Darien, through Central America, till it reaches the Gulf of Tehuantepec. Here it divides. The western range trends a little west of north, near the Pacific Coast, and whether called the Cordilleras in Mexico, the Sierra Nevadas in California, or the Cascades in Oregon, it is the same grand chain of mountains, losing itself far to the north in the Russian Territory. Starting also at the Gulf of Tehuantepec, the other division runs nearly north for some four thousand miles, forming the western bound ary of the valleys of the Mississippi and M'Kenzie's River, while its northern peaks brood over the Arctic Ocean. It is commonly called the Rocky Mountains. The third chain of mountains within the limits of the United States is the Allegheny range. It commences near the mouth of the St. Lawrence, trends to the south west, and passing within from one to three hundred miles of the Atlantic coast, through New-England and the Mid dle States, the range loses itself in Georgia and Alabama. These mountain ranges bound the great valleys of the continent, and from them, of course with a few excep tions, the rivers find their way to the ocean. The streams and the corresponding valleys of the Atlantic slope are so well known that a mere reference to them is all that is necessary. If I should call the rivers, the Hudson, the Delaware, Susquehanna, Potomac and the rest little mill streams, leaping down from the summits of the Allegheny Mountains, I should scarcely misname them, if compared with the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi and the Columbia, the three great rivers of the continent. And yet, as Greece, a little speck upon the map of Europe, gave language and literature and law to all subsequent history, so will these narrow valleys of the Atlantic seaboard give Chris tian civilization and freedom to this vast continent. This broad belt of country, some twenty-five hundred ' miles wide at its northern limit, between these two rods, (placing them upon the map,) one, you will observe, lying upon the Allegheny and the other upon the Rocky Mountains, is the valley of the Mississippi. In the com parison you see that all the valleys of the Atlantic slope do not amount to much. It is the largest, and in all re spects the richest valley upon the globe, and a very few decades more will suffice to concentrate there the wealth and the population and the power of the Republic. From it New- York must draw that commerce which will make her the largest and the most magnificent city upon the globe. Five of the seven great valleys formed by the Rocky and the Sierra Nevada Mountains lie' within the United States. Here (pointing it out upon the map) is the valley of the Rio del Norte, the only river that breaks through the Rocky Mountains to the southeast, in all its course between the Gulf of Tehuantepec and the Arctic Sea. The upper portions of this valley, in New-Mexico, are valuable for agricultural purposes, and they are also exceedingly rich in mineral resources. We notice next the valley of the Colorado of the West, probably the least valuable of all. The Colorado is the only river that breaks through the grand Pacific range between the Gulf of California and the mouth of the Columbia. The valley of Great Salt Lake, some four hundred miles long by three hundred miles wide, is the type of several other smaller valleys west of it, from which the rivers have no outlet to the ocean. All the water that falls upon the moun- 8 tains in which their rivers and streams take their rise, either sinks away in the sand or is evaporated and carried off by the winds of heaven. North of Salt Lake lies the valley of the Columbia, next in size and importance to that of the Mississippi. This magnificent river breaks through the Cascade Mountains in latitude 46, forming some of the most beautiful and sublime scenery upon the continent. Beside its frowning battlements of basalt, many of them said to be four thousand feet high, the Catskills and Pali sades of the Hudson are dwarfed into utter insignificance. It is a remarkable fact that, through all these great mountain ranges there are depressions or passes through which the great lines of travel and transit can find their way from one valley to the other. Not so with Europe. The Alps rise up in the centre, and from them the rivers run in all directions to the sea. So with Asia. The Himalaya Mountains, north of India, shoot up far into the regions of perpetual snow, and from them the great rivers of the continent run north, east and south into the Arctic, the Pacific and the Indian Oceans, and west into the Cas pian Sea. These mountains in the Old World form prac tically impassable barriers between the people who dwell along the great rivers that rise in them, and hence the nations of Europe and Asia have always differed in lan guage, institutions and laws. Europe and Asia may be compared to a bowl wrong side up, while in America we have several grand basins, right side up, with the rims at convenient points smoothed down for the great highways of commerce to pass from one to the other, manifestly showing that Providence intended America to be the home of one homogeneous, great and free people. Let one constitution ever be the palladium of their liberties, and one flag, the glorious stars and stripes, float over them forever. 9 We are now prepared to follow the route for the Pacific Railway, the surveys for which, you will remember, the late Senator BENTON said the buffalo had made long before Columbus landed upon the Western Hemisphere. The eastern terminus of the main trunk line, you will remem ber, was fixed by the late President LINCOLN, at Omaha, in Nebraska, on the Missouri River. Before tracing the line west of that point, I remark that there is still a sec tion of 130 miles west of Boonsboro, on the Des Moines River, to be completed, in order to open a direct rail-road connection between New- York and Omaha. The Direc tors of the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Road have agreed with the Northwestern Company, who have a per petual lease of the line, to complete it by the first of Jan uary, 1868; but it is confidently believed they will have it done on or before the first of May, 1867. It ought to be finished in a single year, and New- York or Chicago could well afford to furnish the extra funds necessary to do it. Turning your attention to the map, let us now trace the line marked out by nature for the great central highway for the commerce of the world across the Ameri can continent. Beginning at Omaha, the line would run for seven hundred miles (I speak in all cases in round numbers) up the valley of the Platte, the north branch of this river and the Sweet Water, to the South Pass. Thence it would cross an elevated plain west of the mountains, running a little north of west for two hun dred and fifty miles, reaching the tributaries of the Snake River, a branch of the Columbia. Thence it would run down the valley of that stream till it emerged on the west side of the Cascade range, whence it could continue down to Portal d, or deflect a little northwest and reach Puget's Sound, one o, the most beautiful sheets of water upon 10 the globe. It is a remarkable fact, that by this route there is not a single mountain barrier between New- York and the Pacific Ocean NOT ONE. He, who fashioned the globe, when He bid the great mountain ranges of the con tinent rise up from the depths of the ocean, smoothed down a pathway for the Pacific Railway. True, at the South Pass you are seven thousand feet above the level of the sea ; but you have seven hundred miles in which to make the ascent, up the valley of the Platte ; and on the west of the Pass, the road would follow down the natural and gradual descent of the Columbia to the ocean. But the wealth of the great City of San Francisco, the wonderful agricultural developments of the great Salt Lake valley, and the untold mineral riches of Nevada, have forced the selection of another route for this road. Until it reaches the Sierra Nevada Mountains, it is, on the whole, nearly if not quite as favorable as the line we have just traced. It follows up the valley of the Platte till it reaches the south fork of that river ; thence up that branch to the mouth of the Cache le Poudre; thence up that stream it finds its way without serious obstruction among the Black Hills to the Laramie Plains ; thence onward, across the North Platte and up the streams which enter it from the west, it reaches Bridger's Pass, with much less engineering difficulties than were overcome by the Erie and the Pennsylvania Central Railways. You may be puzzled to know, as I was, why that pass is called the South Pass when Bridgets Pass is some two hundred miles to the south of it. The reason is that the old trappers who ranged up the east side of these moun tains supposed that the South Pass was the most southerly pass in the mountains, through which one might cross them from east to west. They called it, therefore, the South Pass, and it retains its name to this day. But Cap- 11 tain BRIDGER found this pass two hundred miles south of the South Pass, and hence it bears his name. There is no pass south of this till you get to the Rio del Norte, which breaks through the Rocky Mountains to the south east, from New-Mexico. The descent on the west side of Bridger's Pass is not more difficult than the ascent on the east. The road will first run down the Yalley of the Muddy, thence it crosses a low ridge to Bitter Creek Yalley, down which it will run nearly due west a hundred miles to Green River, the main tributary of the Colorado of the West. Crossing this river, and following up the streams that enter it from the west, it will run near Fort Bridger, soon after passing which it reaches the streams that run into Salt Lake. These it will follow through the mountains till it reaches the great and highly prosperous City of the Saints. From Salt Lake the road is to run a little north of west, through a pass in the Humboldt Mountains, till it reaches the head waters of the river of that name. Down this stream it will run for some five hundred miles, till it meets the Truckey from the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Between what is called the sinks of the two rivers the places where they are lost in the sand there is a low sandy plain of some forty miles wide, so that a capital route for the road exists west of Salt Lake, to the eastern base- of the mountains. Here the real difficulty of the work commences. An elevation of three thousand feet is to be overcome from the east, and from the Donner Lake summit there is a descent of seven thousand feet to the Sacramento River ; but the highest grade on either side is a hundred and five feet to the mile. Gov. STANFORD, the President, and Messrs. CROCKER, the contractors, took our party over the mountains to Donner Lake, on and near the line of the road ; and from actual inspection of 12 this part of the line, from conversations with the engi neers, an examination of their reports, and crossing the Rocky Mountains through Bridger's Pass, and travelling along the line I have described for at least fifteen hundred miles, I repeat the assurance that there are no four hun dred and fifty miles of this road that will cost any thing like what the Erie and Pennsylvania Central Roads cost to build them. For five hundred miles up the valley of the Platte, the plow and the scraper, with a very little leveling off by the inevitable Patrick, will grade the road much faster than it will be possible to procure the iron and ties to build it. For a hundred miles down the Bitter Creek Valley, and for some five hundred miles down the Humboldt and up the Truckey, the grading of the line can be done with very little expense. Two companies, the Central and the Union Pacific, are building the road east and west, and when they meet they are to become one line. The Central Pacific have the California end of the road, and they are building it right up the Sierra Nevada Mountains, with an energy and a success which are worthy of all praise. They had fifty-six miles done, to the new town of Colfax, when we left San Francisco, in September, and fourteen more will be com pleted, to Dutch Flat, by the first of May. They promise to be at Salt Lake in three years ; and if it is possible for human energy to accomplish so great a work in so short a time, the Californians are just the men to do it. What ever the people of the Pacific coast undertake, they carry out with a power of endurance and a success that are truly amazing. On our side, the Union Pacific Company, of which Major-General Dix is President, are building the road west from Omaha. They now have forty miles finished, and sixty more will be in operation before the first of 13 July. It is expected that another hundred, reaching to Fort Kearny, will be completed during the present year, certainly by the spring of 1867. The road can be pushed forward six hundred miles to the mountains as fast as the iron and ties can be procured to do it. When once that is done, the gold of Colorado and Montana will pour into New- York in such amounts that Wall-street will at first look on in amazement, and then shout aloud for These two companies are simply the agents of the American people, for by the munificent aid Congress has granted them the Nation has adopted the work as its own. Hence the people ought to hold them to a strict account ability, and require them to do it in the best possible man ner, and as fast as men and money can do it. If in any respect they fail in their duty, let Congress take the work out of their hands, and give it to men who properly ap preciate the vast importance of the trust committed to their care. To each of these companies Congress has granted or loaned the bonds of the Government, to be reimbursed by carrying the mails, and other services, to the amount of sixteen, thirty-two and forty-eight thousand dollars per mile, proportioned according to the difficulty and cost of the work in different sections of the road, to be delivered as fast as twenty miles are finished. The Government permits a first mortgage bond of equal amounts, to be a lien prior to the claim of the Govern ment, to be put upon the road ; so that if economically and honestly built, these bonds and those granted by the Government will build the road. But, in addition to all this, Congress has given the companies twelve thousand eight hundred acres of land per mile to further aid in its construction. True, in long sections, these lands must ever be worthless ; but even without them, the companies 14 have abundant means at command to complete and fully to equip the line in five at most in eight years ; and if there is any flinching, and whining for more aid, be sure there is an attempt at swindling or stealing by some one. When completed, the men who have built this road will, in my judgment, be the richest men in America; but no one will grudge them their good fortune if they build it rap idly, and conduct it energetically and fairly when once it is finished. Now, as to the material for building the road. The public have been taught to believe that the entire country, for nearly twenty-five hundred miles, between the Missouri River and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, is entirely desti tute of timber ; and, in fact, so it appears to be, as seen from the stage-coach in travelling over the route. But this scarcity of timber is more apparent than real. For the first hundred miles or more west of the Missouri, ties must be procured mainly from the valley of that river. Half way up the Platte there are valleys running out north and south, in which there are said to be very large quantities of cedar suitable for ties. For a considerable distance the stations of the stage company are built of timber taken from these valleys. In the Rocky Mountains there is an abundance of timber for all purposes. It can be thrown into the Platte and its tributaries, floated down in high water to where it is wanted, stopped by a boom across the river, taken out and sawed up by portable saw mills, and thus, if the work is properly managed, it can be finished up to the mountains in less than three years. For a hundred miles or two west of Bridger's Pass the ties would have to be procured from the Rocky Mountains. For convenient distances east and west of Green River the ties can be obtained from the Wind River Mountains at the head of that stream, and floated down, as in the case 15 of the Platte. The mountains about Salt Lake will furnish an abundance of ties to build the road east and west of them. The Humboldt Mountains will supply them for the valley of that river, and the Sierra Nevada Mountains have timber enough to build and furnish fuel for the entire road for a hundred years to come, could it be properly distributed along the line. Gen. Dix, the President of the Union Pacific Company, told me yesterday, that the en gineers had reported a far better supply of timber than it had been supposed could be found. It will be expensive in some sections to get it where it is wanted ; but this will in most cases be more than balanced by the very little amount of grading which, for hundreds of miles, the com panies will have to do. Then as to the means to operate the road ; and first, as to water. My information is that for the entire distance across the continent there is an abundance of this essen tial element within the ordinary run of a locomotive. It will probably not be so difficult to supply the line with water as it was the Chicago branch of the Illinois Central, running as it does on the dividing ridge between the Wabash and the Illinois Rivers. There is an abundance of fuel along the line to supply the road for all time to come. Half way up the valley of the Platte there is plenty of bituminous coal. At Boulder City, near Denver, in Colorado, there are five veins of ex cellent coal, the largest being fifteen and the smallest five feet thick. At the crossing of the North Platte, we saw a coal strata among the rocks on the north side of the river. At Sulphur Springs, the first station west of Bridger's Pass, the fires were made of coal found near by; and half way down the Bitter Creek there is also an abundance of coal. In the Valley of the Weber, near Salt Lake, they have been working a coal mine for several years, anc 1 16 coal has also been found in unlimited quantities in Nevada. Further explorations will undoubtedly show that there is plenty of coal in other sections of the great central basins of the continent, so that not the least scarcity of fuel need be feared by the projectors and friends of this great national enterprise. And now as to the means of sustaining the road of giving it business. That will depend, gentlemen, upon the agricultural resources of the country through which it passes, upon the mineral resources of that country, and upon the through travel and freight which the road will command from the commerce of the world. As to its agricultural resources, I said in another place that most of us have been accustomed to believe all the central portions of the continent to be entirely desti tute of timber and of the means of sustaining life. It has been proved that this is a very great fallacy. As to trees, it is true, that for five hundred miles up the valley of the Platte there are only a few scattered cotton woods along the banks of the river, but on either side, and every where, there is what is called buffalo grass. This grass grows up rapidly in the spring, being watered by the snows of winter and the early rains, and when the hot sum mer comes it is dried by the sun. It is exceedingly nutritious, because during the summer no rain falls upon it, tnd it is cured by the sun, as hay is cured. In the autumn t is an uncut hay. This grass has sustained millions on nillions of buffalo ever since they were first created by Providence, and our own judgment is, that instead of there being a great desert, as laid down on nearly every school atlas, and as we have been taught by geographies from childhood to the present hour, (for only a few days since I saw a new map that still recorded this as the great American desert,) yet there is no desert there, nor any 17 thing like a desert. If the buffalo can live, why cannot the ox live there too ? In our opinion, this vast region was specially intended to be the great meat-producing section of the continent. The buffalo already live there in countless millions; so, therefore, can "the cattle on a thousand hills." So soon as the railway shall be open, and popula tion can be spared to tend the flocks, the great herds of the continent will concentrate there, and supply the food of the world. Immediately beyond the mountains lies the country of the sage brush and the bunch grass. Not a tree is to be seen for five hundred miles in that region. There is no vegetation there but the sage brush and the bunch grass. The bunch grass is a modest little grass, something like red top. Like buffalo grass, it grows up rapidly in the spring, and cures in the sun. The drivers of the stage coaches tell us that it is extremely nutritious as nutritious as oats. Were it not for this little modest bunch grass, neither animal nor man could cross the continent, for no team could draw provender enough to sustain both its driver and itself for so long a distance. The bunch grass is the great nu trition agent of that portion of the continent. The sage brush is a little shrub-like plant, with a stalk two or three inches in thickness, and grows to a height of about four feet. It forms a beautiful head, and has a green circular top in color very much like the sage. That is all the vegeta tion to be seen in travelling between the mountains. The Mormons have proved that wherever there is water to be found in the central portion of the continent, the soil can be made immensely productive. In 1837 the Mormons settled at Salt Lake. They then knew very little of the country, but have since gained experience, and there are now 100,000 people living in the Salt Lake Valley mainly by agriculture. BRIGHAM YOUNG told us 2 18 he had harvested 93 bushels of wheat to the acre ; and if you stand in Salt Lake City, or among the farms that surround it, and look at the immense crops that the Mormons raise, you will be satisfied that in the whole central section of the continent, all along the streams, if you take the water out from its bed and lead it among your fruits and farm products, you will raise them in the utmost luxuriance. There is no city that I have seen to equal Salt Lake in beauty and fertility. As you look down upon it, after having travelled fifteen hundred miles from the Missouri, it is an object of indescribable beauty ; and as you approach it, it becomes only the more beau tiful. The streets are wide, the blocks are regular, and by the side of each street, beautifully paved, runs a stream of water from the mountains as pure and clear as crystal. As this crystal stream passes by the home of each thrifty Mormon, he takes out a little thread and leads it around among his fruits, and flowers, and trees, and there they grow and revel in a perfect Paradise of beauty. All through that central section of the continent which has heretofore been supposed to be entirely worthless, the soil is very fertile, and only needs intelligent, earnest labor to make it yield the finest crops. All through, the Rocky Mountains there are immense parks, beautiful as it is possible for them to be, and covered with rich grass. To these parks I am convinced, that as soon as the rail way reaches Colorado, the people of New- York will go with their families to enjoy the summer, in that pure, bracing air, to derive health and vigor from the abundant oxygen abounding in that region, and to feast the eye and ear upon the beautiful sights and sounds that greet them on every side. I never, if you will permit a single per sonal remark, felt so like a boy as among those moun tains, and I still feel the energy I received from pass- 19 ing through this fine country in the stage-coach, and from sleeping out in the open air. If any one be troubled with rheumatism in Wall-street, I recommend to him a journey across the Rocky Mountains. There are parts of Montana and of the upper Yalley of the Columbia which will be filled by very prosperous farming communities. Every where throughout that vast valley, up west of the mountains, there will be farms in abundance, where the air is dry and pure and bracing, stimulating alike to men and to vegetation. In a word, some of the best sections of the continent are to be found far up in that central region, where it was supposed that nothing could live. The Mormons have proved this abundantly. Now, as to the mineral resources of this vast central region of the continent, whose development depends in a large measure upon the early completion of the Pacific Railway. I begin with Colorado. Eight years ago this new State was the home only of wild beasts, and wilder, more savage Indians, with a few trappers. The gold dis coveries, just before the breaking out of the rebellion, sent a large emigration to Pike's Peak and its vicinity, and now Colorado has its Senators and Representatives at the door of Congress, asking for admission among her older sisters of the Union. The product of the Colorado mines up to the close of the last year, from statistics and the best information we could obtain, will be about $30,000,000. Owing to the delays caused by the introduction of new and more perfect machinery and other causes, the amount realized last year, according to the figures of gentlemen best posted on the subject, will not exceed a million of dollars. But the entire product heretofore taken from the mines is a mere fraction of what will be obtained as soon as the railway is completed. The goods and nearly all the provisions to supply the twenty to thirty thousand 20 people of Colorado, and all their heavy mining machinery, must be carted from six to seven hundred miles, at an ex pense of from ten to twenty-five cents per pound, or at the rate of two to five hundred dollars per ton. Hence only the richest ores can be worked. Build the Pacific Railway, and Colorado will soon have ten times the popu lation and produce ten times as much gold as she did in her most prosperous years. The officers in command at Fort Kearny assured us, that more freight, during the summer months, passed there every day for the mountains, than any one railway carried out of Chicago. Any one who has seen the in terminable line of teams dragging their slow length along, can very readily understand the truth of this assertion. Col. POTTER, U. S. Quartermaster at Leavenworth, told me he had sent 33,000,000 Ibs. of freight west during the present season, up to October 1st, and that he had kept con stantly employed 14,000 mules and 3,000 horses. He is preparing for service next season 2,000 wagons. Who can doubt, therefore, with the small cost of the railway up the Platte Valley, that it will pay handsomely as soon as completed to the mountains ? North of Colorado, and among and east of the moun tains, is the territory of Montana. I have no definite sta tistics of the total amount of gold produced there since the discovery of the mines. The Montana Post, of Oct. 28th, 1865, says: "Last week the queen trophy of the mountains was found by DE FOE & Co., in Dead wood Gulch. This monster nugget weighed fourteen and a half pounds avoirdupois, and measures in length nine inches, in breadth two and a half inches, and in thickness one inch and a half. The specimen is almost entirely free from quartz. The lump is worth $6,500 in greenbacks." Under date of December llth, 1865, the Collector of 21 Internal Revenue for Montana Territory, writes to Wash ington, that "the products of the gold and silver mines of that territory, for the year 1865, will be upwards of $16,000,000. In 1862 the territory was a wilderness, uninhabited except by savages." The amount of gold now produced, as proved by the above, is amazing ; and give the territory access to a rail way at the eastern base of the mountains, and the product would be immense. It is asserted, that larger amounts have been taken out of given localities there in a shorter time than California or any other mining district ever yielded. . That silver and probably gold t exist in paying quanti ties in the mountains about Salt Lake there cannot be a particle of doubt. It has always been the policy of BRIG- HAM YOUNG to keep his followers steadily devoted to agriculture and the manufacture of such articles as his people consume. But in spite of Mormon influence, the officers and soldiers of General CONNER'S command, dur ing seasons of quiet, have explored in small parties, and have found lead, copper and silver in Rush and other valleys. Mr. COLFAX and his party visited the former, and had ocular demonstration that these minerals are found there in large quantities. Besides the iron and coal, the precious metals of Utah would add largely to the traffic of the railway. To show the amount of business already done at Salt Lake, we mention here, that Mr. JENNINGS, a leading mer chant, and Messrs. WALKER, told us that their freight bills alone would each amount, during the year 1865, to $150,000. North of Utah is the new, and, in minerals, rich territory of Idaho. The mines have been discovered and developed to their present extent within the last three or four years. 22 This territory, with all its vast wealth, will reach the Pa cific Railway at Salt Lake, or somewhere in the vicinity of Fort Bridger. What its trade has already done may be judged from the fact, that within the last five years the Oregon Steam Navigation Company have put on a daily line of steamers, and built rail-roads around the Cascades and the Dalles, in all twenty miles, and they are now, with these facilities, navigating the Columbia eastward, five hundred miles above its mouth. We met, in a single ship ment of gold at the Dalles, by WELLS, FARGO & Co.'s Ex press, $90,000, one of the packages of which it was about all our good right arm could do to lift. The gold deposits of the Boise District, all accounts agree, are on the most extensive scale ; and from the Owyhee District, when the stamp mills sent up this season are in full operation, they expect to ship silver by the ton, as they do now from Nevada. The silver developments in the new State of Nevada within the past three years have been truly wonderful. The first district of any considerable importance we reached going west was that of Austin, or Reese River. The progress we found here had all been made within the last three years, and yet, in and about Austin, there are some ten thousand people engaged mainly in mining silver. The mines and ledges are absolutely bewildering in their number and richness. The ore yields from fifty to two and three thousand dollars per ton, and sometimes even twice that amount is obtained from selected specimens. Although it costs from ten to twelve cents per pound freight from Austin to San Francisco, a large quantity of the best ores are sent to that city and thence to Europe to be re duced. There were in operation in June last, in and about Austin, some half dozen mills, with nearly a hun dred stamps ; but during the summer these facilities were 23 to be more than doubled. The range in which the silver is found extends a long distance north and south, and I am prepared to believe it forms a part even of the won derful Owyhee range in Idaho, to which I have alluded. Practically the amount of silver that may be taken from the Reese River mines is limited by the supply of ma chinery and labor that can be commanded to work them. It cost, when we were there in June last, nearly a hundred dollars per ton to reduce the ores ; and hence rock that would not pay about that figure was thrown aside till the opening of the railway affords facilities to work it more cheaply. ;;; The first discoveries of silver in Nevada were made at or near Virginia City, two hundred miles west of Austin, seven or eight years ago ; but the development of the mines has been made mainly since 1860 ; and yet, in that time, Virginia City, containing some ten thousand inhabit ants, with solid brick fire-proof stores, hotels and dwellings of the most substantial character, some of them truly ele gant, has been built a beautiful little city, far up among the mountains. In and about it there were, last June, seventy-seven quartz mills in operation, and the mining machinery is generally on the most extensive scale. Sil ver is shipped hence to San Francisco literally by the ton. It is cast into bricks, perhaps ten inches long by five wide and four thick. We saw more than a ton of them in the safe of WELLS, FARGO & Co. A railway, with a hand-car, extends from the door to the safe in the back part of the store, for the convenience of receiving and shipping the bricks. The most radical advocate of a metallic basis for our currency would regard his wildest visions as sure to be realized, if he made a week's visit to Austin, Virginia City, Gold Hill, Silver City, and the other mining districts of Nevada. 24 What we believe reliable statistics gives the amount of gold and silver bullion for there is some gold in nearly all the silver mines shipped during the last year by WELLS, FARGO & Co.'s Express, from Virginia City alone, at $10,000,000, and it is stated that as much more was yielded by the other mining districts of Nevada. From personal inspection of the mines and all the facts we were able to gather, I cordially endorse the statement of Bishop SIMPSON, who stated in the Cooper Institute, after his visit to that State, u that there is wealth enough there to give every soldier who has returned from our battle fields a musket of silver in place of his iron one ; and now that our victorious iron clads have performed their part so nobly, there will be silver enough left to plank them more heavily than they were plated with iron." In all countries where silver mines are worked they have never been exhausted. Political insecurity, as in Mexico, sometimes stops their development ; but they are undoubtedly as rich as ever. The silver mines of Hun gary, wrought by the Romans before the birth of Christ, still yield their treasures to man ; and in Saxony they have been worked steadily since the eleventh century. Of the mines of California, for years so well known to all of you, I need not speak at length. From Mr. SWAIN, Superintendent of the Mint at San Francisco, we learned that the product of the mines of the Pacific coast, includ ing Oregon, Nevada and Washington Territory, was, in 1861, $43,391,000; in 1862, $49,379,000; in 1863, $52,500,000 ; and, in 1864, the amount will be found to be about $63,450,000. The yield of the California mines last year was about $45,000,000. Twenty millions and quarter were coined in the Mint at San Francisco. It was decidedly refreshing to see a mass of gold worth $75,000 melted in a single retort ; and from the stamping 25 machine gold eagles were dropping much faster than you could count them. There can be no doubt that there are large deposits of gold in Washington and Oregon. We saw a two bushel box full of the finest specimens of gold bearing quartz, taken from the eastern gold districts of Oregon, in the office of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, at Port land. In the central portions of the continent, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Utah and Nevada, there are now nearly two hundred thousand people who would give a large local business to the Pacific Railway. Build the road within five years, and you will have from three to five millions of industrious freemen there in fifteen years more, and our gold and silver mines will then yield five hundred millions per annum. We have long since proved that we have the granary of the world, and we should then, in the language of the sagacious LINCOLN, show to mankind " that we have the treasury as well." If the road can be finished even to the mountains in three years, Mr. Secre tary McCuLLOCH can go to sleep over the national debt, for Colorado, Montana, Idaho and Nevada will put a gold and silver pillar under every bond and every greenback he has afloat, and make them par beyond any possible contingency. The production of so vast an amount of the precious metals will give to this nation a power to control the commerce and the civilization of the world, far beyond all that the wildest imagination ever dared to picture. NAPOLEON, in his most stupendous schemes of empire, never dreamed of what the younger portion of my audience will be sure to see accomplished for our now free, and may we not hope, ever glorious Republic. Besides the practically unlimited local trade which the development of the vast mineral resources of the central portions of the continent will give to the Pacific Railway, 26 its through traffic will be told in figures that would startle old fogyism, could any one now put down the amounts. People by tens of thousands, from all the eastern States, and. from Europe, will visit the Yo Semite Valley, the Big Trees, the Geysers, the magnificent mountains, and other wonders of California, to say nothing of the Cali- fornians and people from the other Pacific States, who will return home, to wander among the hallowed scenes of their childhood. Two lines of bi-monthly steamers, making between them one arrival and one departure every week, now ply between New- York and San Fran cisco. By a wise appropriation of the last Congress, a line of splendid mail steamers will, within the next year, be established between San Francisco, the Sandwich Islands, Japan, and China. The Pacific Mail Steamship Company have the contract, and the nation can be assured that they have both the means and the ability to do in the best manner whatever they undertake. These, in con nection with the Pacific Railway, when completed, will unquestionably control the travel and the commerce be tween western Europe and eastern Asia. The Queen of England and the Empress of France will order their teas and their silks by the American line. The youthful sculptor, now a lad of perhaps ten summers, whittling out his first lessons with a jack-knife among the mountains of New-England, New-York, or the prairies of the West, is preparing himself to realize the splendid conception of the late Senator BENTON, varied to suit the altered glories of our nation's history. Manhood's prime will find him hewing one peak of the Rocky Mountains into statues of COLUMBUS and WASHINGTON, and the opposite, into those of our own immortal LINCOLN and GRANT, while the com merce of the world, for all time, will roll by at their feet. Thus you see, gentlemen of the Chamber of Commerce, 27 that the vast gold fields, and the exhaustless silver ledges of the continent, are waiting to pour their treasures into the lap of New- York. More than that the commerce of the world is within your grasp when the Pacific Railway is completed. In all past ages, that city which has con trolled the traffic of Asia has, for the time being, been the largest and the most powerful city upon the globe. To a self-complacent Englishman the prediction may seem absurd ; but I firmly believe the child is born who will see New- York larger, richer, and far more potent among the nations than London. True, Manhattan Island may not be able to contain such an immense mass of humanity ; but Long Island, and the hills west of the Hudson will, and they are really component parts of the great commer cial metropolis of America. The social and political reasons for the early comple tion of the Pacific Railway might well form the subject of an entire lecture. Wherever Mr. COLFAX and his party went, among the snow-capped mountains of Colorado, the silver hills of Nevada, the rich valleys and gold-bearing ledges of California, under the frowning basaltic crags that brood over the Columbia, among the majestic pines and firs of Oregon everywhere the people spoke of the old States as home. They said, "now that the war is over, will not the nation bend its energies to building the Pacific Railway? WE WANT TO GO HOME." It was affect ing to hear them talk of friends four thousand miles away, toward the rising sun. By sea or land, and the only means of travel now in use, the journey is long and so expensive, that thousands of noble men and hoping wo men are waiting to return home till the road is done. Then they will come for they can do it in a week's time or less. Then the hills, associated with a thousand fond memories of childhood, will be revisited. The old school- 28 house, and the old church, and the venerable paternal mansion, even though owned by strangers, Avill give them welcome and cheer the thoughtful visitor. Who can tell, in paltry pelf, the value of preserving fresh and glowing these endearing associations to bind the nation together in all its interests and all its glory? Mark me these sacred fires will burn out with the life of the men who now cherish them. Another generation is growing up on the Pacific coast, who, if they remain iso lated there, will think little and care less for the early homes of their fathers. The Pacific Railway is, therefore, not only a commercial, it is a political necessity, essential alike to the welfare, the integrity, and the very life of the nation. Now that Congress have, with a patriotic wisdom never before equalled, made such munificent grants of money and of lands to the companies engaged in building the line, let the people hold these men to a strict accounta bility to execute this high trust in the shortest possible time ; and in five, at most in eight years, the road will be done, and the integrity and the prosperity of the nation will be secured for all coming time. A few words to the younger portion of my audience, and I have done. Gird yourselves for the work, my friends, acquit yourselves like men for you are born to a grand, a glorious inheritance. When your speaker, and those of similar age, began life, the frontier settle ments were in western New- York and eastern Ohio. The steamboat had just begun to come into general use. The ocean steamer, the railway, the telegraph, the reaping machine, and scores of similar improvements were un known. More and far worse than all this the dark, blighting pall of slavery hung over the fairest portions of the Republic, and with all our efforts to conceal our sins from ourselves and from others, we were a divided people. 29 What is the legacy which we, as soon, one after another, we are gathered to our fathers, bequeath to you, our chil dren ? Settlements have been pushed beyond the Missouri, more than a thousand miles westward. The country has been rescued from the dominion of the panther and the savage. Innumerable lines of railway have been built; so that it takes little more than three days to travel from New- York to Lawrence, in Kansas. Schools and churches, and all the blessings of our Christian civilization, have been planted everywhere. Cities of ten to two hundred thousand inhabitants have grown up as if by magic. You can send messages of business and affection from New- York to San Francisco entirely across the continent by the lightning line. The steamship vexes every sea, and the reaper and the threshing-machine gather harvests, whose magnitude would have astounded the farmers of fifty years ago. We hand you over Colorado and Ne vada, Montana and Idaho, California and Washington, with all their countless treasures of silver and gold ; and we mean to give you the Pacific Railway to develop their resources, and to control the commerce of the world. Better still in all this broad land, from the Lakes to the Gulf, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, the foot of the slave pollutes not the hallowed soil of America. But what of all this ? What though the stars and stripes float over the richest and the finest land on the face of the earth what of all the glories of the past four years what though, amid thrilling shouts of triumph, the flag of the nation be borne above the clouds on Lookout Moun tain if individual and social corruption sap the founda tions of the Government ? As vice will destroy the strong est and the finest physical organization, so surely will it ruin, and in the end blot out the most wealthy, the most cultivated, and the most powerful nations. As our fathers 30 did, so do ye. Plant schools and churches, side by side, in all the land which you go in to possess, and give them' cordial support where they already exist. Let the prin ciples of our holy Christianity, the gospel of our blessed Saviour, be the foundation on which you ever build. Teach these truths to your children as we have taught them to you. Write them upon the door posts of your houses, and an approving conscience, the blessings of pos terity and the smiles of Heaven, shall attend you. You will then do what you can to make the name and the fame of the Republic grow brighter and brighter upon the pages of history till the end of time. May Heaven bless and prosper your efforts. On the conclusion of the address, which was repeatedly interrupted by warm applause, on motion of Mr. CHARLES BUTLER, the thanks of the Chamber were unanimously tendered to Mr. BROSS for his interesting lecture. The gentlemen present were then severally introduced to Governor Bross, and the Chamber adjourned. JOHN AUSTIN STEVENS, JR., Secretary. Oaylord Bros. Maker* Syracuse, N. Y. PAT. JAN. 21, 1808