ot
bear transportation all the way by the great Pacific railroad, could be
carried by such enlarged canals to the Mississippi and Missouri, and
ultimately to the base of the Rocky mountains, and thence, by railroad,
a comparatively short distance to the Pacific, and westward to China and
Japan. In order to make New York and San Francisco great depots of
interoceanic commerce for America, Europe, Asia, and the world, these
enlarged canals, navigated by large steamers, and ultimately toll free,
are indispensable.

We have named, then, all the Territories, and all the thirty-five
States, except three, as deriving great and special advantages from this
system. These three are Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida, with a
white population, in 1860, of 843,338. These States, however, would not
only participate in the increased prosperity of the whole country, and
in augmented markets for their cotton, rice, sugar, tobacco, and timber,
and in cheaper supplies of Eastern manufactures, coal, iron, and Western
products, but they would derive, also, special advantages. They have a
large trade with New Orleans, which they would reach more cheaply by
deepening the mouth of the Mississippi. They could pass up Albemarle
sound, by the interior route, to Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, or
the West, and take back return cargoes by the same route. Georgia, also,
by her location on the Tennessee river, together with South Carolina,
connected with that river at Chattanooga, would derive great benefits
from this connection with the enlarged canals and improved navigation of
the West, sending their own and receiving Western products more cheaply.

Thus, every State and every Territory in the Union would be advanced in
all their interests by these great weeks, and lands, farms, factories,
town and city property, all be improved in value.

But there is another topic, connected with this subject, of vast
importance, particularly at this juncture, to which I must now refer. It
is our public lands, the homestead bill, and immigration. On reference
to an article on this subject, published by me in the November number of
THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY, it will be found that our unsold public lands
embraced 1,649,861 square miles, being 1,055,911,288 acres, extending to
fifteen States and all the Territories, and exceeding half the area of
the whole Union. The area of New York, being 47,000 square miles, is
less than a thirty-fifth of this public domain