ducing the expense, or limiting still further the Navy Department with respect to the extent to which it will pledge the credit of the United States. I think, as I said before, that the circumstances of the country call for the road, and there is nothing in these circumstances that is likely to make it so short-lived or temporary as some Senators seem to imagine; that there is no probability that this work will not be necessary for a number of years. And I repeat again, if there were a proposition now before us for the other route, and if that proposition were in as advanced a state as this, and if we were to have but one, I would give the preference to the route by Tehuantepec; but I still think that, as this work is practicable, and as a channel of communication is necessary for us, we ought not to hesitate to adopt the one proposed, in order that we may avail ourselves of the advantages which it will furnish, until we shall be able to construct a road through our own territory.

On the 6th of February, the same subject being under debate, Mr. Webster spoke as follows:

:

Mr. President, in my opinion, unless this bill shall pass, we shall find ourselves a year hence in exactly the same condition with regard to communication with the western shore of this continent that we now are. And whether we should adopt this bill or not depends upon the general view which we entertain of the necessity, or high utility and expediency, of proceeding as soon as may be to open a communication across the continent somewhere between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. I have no idea, that, without the assistance in advance, so far as any thing is pledged in advance by this bill, this communication will ever be made. I am sure it will not. It requires a very great sum of money. It requires heavy capital, and much credit to raise it. It has to be expended a good way from home, under agencies, some of them sent from this country; some of them found, as well as they may be found, there.

Now let us look at the general aspect of the case, and see whether it be necessary or expedient on the part of the govern ment to encourage and set forward the making of this communication; and then, in the next place, whether the terms proposed in the memorial upon which this bill is founded, or in the amendment proposed, are reasonable.

The basis of the whole, Sir, is our treaty with New Granada, which was ratified by this body, and proclaimed in June, 1848. Looking to the security of a mode of communication across the continent at this isthmus, this government took great pains to obtain the right from the government of New Granada, and by the treaty it is stipulated that whatsoever communication should be made across the isthmus should be open to the government of the United States and citizens of the United States upon as good terms as to the citizens of New Granada itself. This government, looking upon this stipulation as a benefit obtained, a boon conceded by the government of New Granada, as an equivalent for this consideration, entered, on its part, into an engagement to protect, and guaranty, and defend the neutrality of this whole isthmus. This will be seen by reference to the thirty-fifth article of the treaty, which will be found in the volume of the laws of the last session. It is there very distinctly stated. There is no question about it. We are under treaty obligations to maintain the neutrality of this isthmus, and the authority of the government of New Granada over it.

Now, it so happens, that some time before, two or three years previous, the government of New Granada had made a grant to certain citizens of France and England, enabling them to make this railroad and hold an exclusive property in it. One of the terms and conditions of that grant was, that something should be done, or a certain deposit should be made, within a certain period. I believe six hundred thousand francs, or some such large sum, was to be deposited within a certain period. Progress was not made by that company in getting ready the deposit in money, but the charter of the French company had not quite run out when this government ratified the treaty with New Granada. It expired soon afterwards, however, so that no embarrassment arose from that circumstance. The charter reverted to the government of New Granada, because the French company had not made good their deposit. Under these circumstances, Sir, a new contract was entered into by the persons whose names are attached to this memorial. They are not assignees of any French company, as the Senator from Kentucky suggested, but stand in the place of original gran

*Mr. Underwood.

tees from the government of New Grenada, and by the terms contained in the grant they have now the privilege of making this railroad across the isthmus, having eight years to do it in.

The honorable Senator from Kentucky thinks that it would have been better if the government of the United States had appeared earlier, and taken upon itself to make this railroad, according to our old-fashioned way of internal improvements. Well, suppose that were so, how does it bear upon the question now before us? We have not the grant. We cannot obtain the grant. It is in the hands of others, and, in my opinion, much better for our purpose than in the possession of the government. At any rate, the only question now before us is the propriety or the expediency, or the impropriety or the inexpediency, of helping forward the making of this road under the grant, the purport of which is exhibited in the memorial now before us. That is the whole question. It was put upon that ground by the honorable Senator from Missouri,* and the only practical question is, Is it worth our while, at this expense and for this purpose, to encourage the making of this road?

Now, Sir, there are two considerations which present themselves. One of them is properly stated in the bill itself. One inducement to government is to provide for the transportation of its own troops, munitions of war, naval stores, and the mails. But it is obvious at once that that is not the only object. Does the government look to nothing but the transportation of its own materials, mails, and troops? Does it not look, as in other extensive undertakings, to a general public accommodation, an accommodation of the people, and convenience to the commerce of the country, not likely to be obtained without this aid? That larger and more general consideration, that consideration of benefit to the trade and commerce of the country, is certainly, if not the greatest, equally great, in my judgment, with any that results from the mere saving of expense in the transportation of troops, munitions of war, and the mails. Well, then, if we have guarantied the neutrality of the isthmus; if we maintain a communication by steamships from the Atlantic ports to this end of the road, at a great expense; if we maintain a communication in like manner from the ports of the Pacific to the

* Mr. Benton.

other end of the road at Panama, at a great expense; the question is one of practical good sense and expediency, whether we shall connect these two lines of water communication by land communication, and whether the terms of the contract now before us are reasonable.

Certainly, it must strike every body, it seems to me, that it is desirable that there should be this passage across the isthmus, since we have expended so much money to get to the isthmus, both on the one side and on the other.

Well, then, what are the terms of the contract? Are they reasonable or unreasonable? I do not intend to say more in this respect than to present to the Senate some few general estimates and statements, which every man's experience will enable him to judge of, and in regard to the correctness of which there can, I think, be very little doubt. The estimated cost of the road, according to Colonel Abert, is five millions of dollars, or thereabouts; that is to say, Colonel Abert begins by stating the average cost of railroads in the New England States at forty-nine or fifty thousand dollars per mile. He allows fifty per cent. additional cost for the nature of the country, the distance of the place, and other causes naturally augmenting the cost of constructing the road. Taking the distance to be fifty-two miles, the result is a cost for one track of $3,815,000; another track is half a million more; so that, together, they make $4,315,000. Well, then, it is certainly a very low estimate to suppose that the difference between that sum and five millions may be necessary for breakwaters, piers, and improvements in harbors, to render both sides accessible and safe. Then, again, there is the expense for warehouses, a very important item, to be included within this residuum. Taking, then, the aggregate to be not less than five millions of dollars, the question is, whether it is not reasonable to expect this government to contribute such a sum as the proposed substitute contemplates towards the opening of this communication between the two oceans.

Now, Sir, I do not see, I confess, any foundation for such supposed large profits as the honorable member from Kentucky thinks likely to accrue. Here are certain rates of passage and certain rates of freight fixed in this bill. The rates of passage are eight dollars per man or passenger, for the first five years;

afterwards a low rate is stipulated. Now, upon any estimate we may make from these rates, what will be the amount of income from passengers a year? As far as we can now judge, how many people per day would be likely to travel over this road? Why, I can well imagine that, at some seasons of the year, there would be a great many passengers; but I suppose that at other seasons, although it would be necessary for the company to keep up the same equipment, and to incur the same. expense, there would be very few passengers.

But does any one suppose that, for the next ten years, it will not be a high estimate to calculate that a hundred passengers a day will pass over the road? That would be to suppose that vessels would arrive there with a hundred passengers a day. I have no idea that that number would be conveyed. And as to goods or freights, the Senator from Kentucky supposes that the amount to be conveyed will be about ten thousand tons a year. But suppose the passengers to be a hundred a day, there is eight hundred dollars. Suppose the goods will amount to one hundred tons a day (three times as much in a year as the Senator estimates), that makes another eight hundred dollars, and in the aggregate sixteen hundred dollars a day. Then, if you allow three hundred working days for the year, the amount of the gross receipts will be four hundred and eighty thousand dollars. Well, if this were all clear income, it would be very well; but it will be subject to a very great reduction for the expenses of keeping the road in operation, as in the case of all other railroads. Colonel Abert's estimates make the expenses and repairs equal to one half of the gross receipts; consequently, equal to two hundred and forty thousand dollars a year. The whole amount of clear receipts, then, two hundred and forty thousand dollars, will be less than five per cent. on the capital

to be invested.

To take another view of it. Suppose that seventy-five persons a day and seventy-five tons of goods, which is quite as much, perhaps, as may be expected, pass over the road; upon a like estimate, allowing three hundred working days to the year, the result will be an income amounting to a little over three per cent. on the capital. Of course, if you suppose that the pas sengers will not exceed fifty, it reduces the sum still more, and renders the dividend on the capital not quite two and a half per