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St. Louis |
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Debow's Review October 1854 |
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It is gratifying to see
the interest now awakened throughout the Southern country on the subject of
commercial intercourse between the fertile valleys of the West and the
Atlantic seaboard. While Southern seaport cities are actively endeavoring to
extend their foreign commerce, they are beginning to feel the necessity of
establishing corresponding internal commercial systems, in order to develop
the varied resources of an almost boundless interior, on which their wealth,
prosperity, and future stability must chiefly depend. The rapid rise to a
commanding importance of many Western cities and towns, as well as the
wonderful prosperity of the whole Western country, has indicated to their
sister cities of the South the advantages of direct and intimate commercial
relations with them, and, indeed, given a new impetus to commercial
enterprise. And this impetus will be quickened and strengthened as those
cities and towns are more known in the details of their growth and
importance; for the rise of some of them has been so rapid, as in a measure
to forestall a correct appreciation of the true elements of their
prosperity, and a just estimate of the character and stability of their
progressive advancement. St. Louis, as she is now the first in importance of
Western cities, presents beyond all others a striking and impressive example
of this rapid extension. It will suffice only to remark the stages of her
progress in the last twenty years. We quote from memory, but are confident
no especial discrepancy will be found between our statements and the same
facts as heretofore authentically published. Her population in 1833 was
about 6,000; in 1853, it was upwards of 100,000-having doubled itself within
the period designated every five years! In 1833, the taxable property of the
city, both real and personal, amounted to not more than $2,000,000; in i853,
it was assessed at nearly $40,000,000! Within the space of twenty years,
therefore, her population has increased seventeen times, and her wealth
nineteen times beyond what both were in 1833. In the latter year the tonnage
of boats belonging to St. Louis was scarcely 2,000; in 1853 it exceeded
37,000! The imports of the city, then nothing, were in 1853, $917,900! The
course of trade, which at that time exhibited a movement there of goods and
produce valued at $5,000,000, now pours into the city the materials of a
commerce valued at $100,000,000!!! And here let us remark-the hydrographic
position of St. Louis is such, with reference to the geographical relations
held by different portions of the Mississippi valley to each other, that, as
by a physical law, she must ultimately become its great distributing centre.
The natural centre of a territorial area of 700,000 square miles, teeming
with mineral and agricultural resources, and capable of sustaining a
population of a hundred millions, who may limit the predictions of her future
destiny? She is at the head of the navigation of the Mississippi River for
large steam vessels, and hence must be always a point of trans-shipment for
the vast commerce of the Illinois, and the still more abundant treasures of
the Upper Mississippi; while the noble Missouri brings to her very feet the
golden harvests of its own glorious State-much of the wealth of prolific
Iowa-and the varied commerce from beyond the "plains," whose
originally divergent channels concentrate on Missouri's northwestern border.
Ten thousand miles of river navigation belong peculiarly to her own waters,
with ten thousand miles of coast-and there are forty thousand miles more of
navigable rivers which connect with her. We will say here, too, that within
the borders of the State twelve hundred miles of railroad have been
projected and begun. It is needless at this time to speculate upon her
probable future resources to be derived from the commerce of the Pacific,
and of India. Flour, tobacco, hemp, lead, and bale rope and bagging are her
great staples, while she is a mart of export for all the various grains
which constitute the produce of the country. The arrivals of hemp for the
year 1853 were 63,450 bales; of bale rope and bagging, 58,439 coils; of
lead, 441,889 pigs; of flour, 737,000 barrels; and of tobacco, about 13,000
hhds. These items will give some idea of the extent and variety of her
trade. Ten years ago there were in St. Louis but three manufacturing
establishments, and these of insignificant pretensions; at present there are
between twenty and thirty, most of them being remarkable for the unusual
scale of magnitude upon which their operations are conducted. The extent of
their operations, however, will be best comprehended by a statement of the
number of workmen employed; about 3,000! These manufacturers are confined to
no particular industrial branch. What her manufacturing interests are likely
to be, especially in branches where iron is the material, may, perhaps, also
be best understood in a knowledge of the natural resources which she
possesses. The Iron Mountain and Pilot Knob, among the greatest of natural
curiosities, are distant from St. Louis, south, the first eighty, and the
latter eighty-six miles. They each cover an area of five hundred acres,-the
former rising two hundred and sixty feet, and the latter five hundred feet
above the level of the surrounding plain. These immense formations are solid
wedges of the purest ore! The Iron Mountain has been estimated to contain
two hundred and twelve million tons of ore above the base. By the first of
November, 1855, the St. Louis and Iron Mountain Railroad, now begun, will
bring these mountains within four hours' transit of St. Louis. The first
cotton factory established west of the Mississippi is in St. Louis. Indeed,
her manufacturing interests seem starting in a race of competition for
predominance with those of her commerce, and it may be a question as to
which will ultimately stamp her metropolitan character. As this city has
advanced in population, in wealth, in the extension of her commerce, and in
manufacturing interests, so, in a harmonious ratio of progression, have all
the diversified pursuits of her busy community multiplied and prospered. The
history of individual opulence, then, would be found equally as striking as
that of the city itself. ART has already taken up her abode, where at no
distant day she will find perchance her favorite seat, and the spirit of
educated taste goes hand in hand with the energy of humbler utility. The
beautiful and the useful are there in happy and prosperous union. But our
intention is to present only general outlines. In view now of the facts
stated, it is for the enterprising citizens of Charleston, in considering
the benefits of commercial intercourse with the Mississippi valley, to
determine how far it would be to their interests to constitute St. Louis a
definite point of connection, and to aid and encourage, with favoring
preference, all schemes and enterprises best calculated to promote this
object. We cannot think, as we have heard some intelligent gentlemen
of the city of Charleston affirm, that it is sufficient to reach
simply the Mississippi-and by any route most likely to effect this soonest
and in the most direct way possible. And, according to the same authorities,
it would appear that with reference to the Ohio valley, the citizens of
Charleston have for a long time favored the idea of reaching Cincinnati as
such a definite point. But the Ohio valley, extensive as its magnificent
regions are, is comparatively a small portion of the "Great West;"
and Cincinnati can never promote very materially the welfare of the city of
Charleston. A glance at a map ought to settle this question. The commerce of
the West, however railroads may multiply throughout the land, must move
principally along the currents of our great "inland seas."
In projecting all extensive internal commercial systems, this must be a leading idea. Though railroads should cover the country with an iron network, yet, as its immense resources are developed, they could no more transport its commerce, than the numerous veins of the body could circulate the blood, without the interposition of the larger arteries. Now Cincinnati, with respect to the great tributaries of the Ohio and Mississippi-particularly the latter-is circumscribed within comparatively narrow limits of river navigation. The Ohio itself, by a rude natural key, is locked against her commerce at Louisville; and the Miami, the Wabash, and the Illinois, all bounteous streams of the valley, flow with their plethoric stores to the west of her. Her trade must continue to be, as it has hitherto been, altogether of a domestic character; her revenues are derived from numerous but petty manufactures, adapted to the wants of her own interior; she has no sympathy with the South; and though usurping the title of" Queen City." her dominion will never be more than a mere principality among sovereignties, where "Commerce is king," |