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capital wealth was very little inferior to that of the old country. Already the States are independent of all other countries for their food supply, and equally so for the three great military and naval necessaries, wood, coal, and iron. The States have, moreover, a vast undeveloped territory, possessing every variety of soil and climate, capable of producing every agricultural production, and rich in every mineral, over which the tide of a population, already numbering 50,000,000, is rapidly spreading.
Means of Communication.
The immense distances of America are of course, to a certain extent, a source of weakness; but the means of communication are advancing with rapid strides. Without attempting even to sketch the 90,000 miles of railway which the States were said to possess in 1880, it may be affirmed that East, West, North, and South are in more or less complete railway communication, and that the connections follow so many lines so remote from possible attack that it is scarcely conceivable that any European assailant should seriously interfere with them.
One distinguishing feature that formerly marked the South, the absence of lateral communication, is rapidly passing away, by the construction of railways parallel to the coast and across the line of the great rivers.
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The following remark (State Papers, p. 10)- There are, no doubt, points less equal to self- defence than others, and where the preparation must be greater. Of this class is the delta of the Mississippi, not only in consequence of its many avenues of approach, but because its great natural highway does not at present allow those lateral supplies of the personnel which, from geographical formation and from the state of the settlements, can be thrown upon most other points of the country"-is now less applicable to the delta itself, as well as those portions of the South originally deficient in lateral communications; while the following statement (State Papers, p. 15)-" Nashville may succour New Orleans in sixty hours, Cincinnatti may aid Charleston in about the same time, Pittsburg will require but twenty-four hours to relieve Baltimore, and troops from that city and from Boston may leave each place in the morning and meet in New York in the evening"-might now be extended so as to include many other populous cities.
At p. 61, State Papers, a Table is given of the amount of militia force that could be concentrated at various points on the coast from Boston to New Orleans in from one to eleven days. Such an estimate, compiled from the new Census, and corrected by the new lines of communication, would give a far more formidable set of figures.
The water communication of the United States is daily becoming more perfect. There is little doubt that, before many years are over, not only will the lakes and Mississippi valley be connected with the sea, but with each other, and by several routes.
However backward Congress may be in military and naval grants, no expense is spared in the improvement of their harbour and water system. Large sums have been voted this year.
Already the Erie Canal, viâ the Hudson, connects the lakes with the sea.
From the mouths of the Susquehanna and Potomac, canals run into the interior. When this system is completed, and the Ohio and sea joined, it will be known as the "North Transportation Route."
From the mouth of the James, that river and the Kanawha Canal commence the system which, when completed, will be known as the "Central Route."
And another canal, not yet commenced, proposes to connect the River Altamaha, in Georgia, with the Tennessee and Mississippi. This will be known as the "Southern Route" from the Mississippi valley to the Atlantic.
As these routes all run perpendicular to the coast they cannot, upon the principle we have accepted, be considered to come within the scope of a European assailant's enterprises. But it is evident they increase the importance of the rivers from which they debouch, and complicate the question of blockade.
But there is another class of communication that does immediately affect the naval assailant of the United States. In the State Papers, p. 28, occurs the following pregnant passage :-
"As lying closely connected with the coast, it will be convenient to describe briefly in this place that line of interior communication on which, in time of war, reliance must be placed as a substitute, in part, for the exterior coasting navigation of peace.
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Beginning in the great bay to the north of Cape Cod, it passes overland, either into Narraganset Roads or Buzzard's Bay; thence through Long Island Sound to the harbour of New York; thence up the Raritan, overland to the Delaware, down this river some distance, overland to the Chesapeake, down the Chesapeake, up Hampton Roads and Elizabeth River, through the Dismal Swamp to Albemarle Sound; thence through the low lands, swamps, or sounds of the Carolinas and Georgia to the head of the Peninsula of Florida; thence overland to the Gulf of Mexico; thence through the interior sounds and bays to New Orleans, and thence through low lands, swamps, and bayous to the western boundary. Some of the few and brief natural interruptions of this extensive line have already been removed, some are rapidly disappearing before the energy of local or State enterprise, and to the residue the public attention is directed with an earnestness which leaves no reason to fear that they will not in due time be overcome. In all cases where this line becomes much exposed to an enemy, from the difficulty of fortifying broad waters, communications more inland are even now afforded, or are in progress, by canals or railroads, which will be perfectly safe."
In this description the following sentences occur, indicating the great interruptions :-
"Overland into Buzzard's Bay.
Overland to the Chesapeake. "Overland to the Gulf of Mexico." [1103]
Appendix No. 9.
UNITED STAtes.
Index, passim.
Index, passim.
7 A
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