A Poem on the Isthmus Line [pp. 266-267]

2(36 Fact and Fiction. The Ship Canal.
Valley across to California will bring San Francisco within 2 or 3 instead of 25 or 30 days-as
across Panama it must be.
To shorten the passage between New York
and Boston an hour or two, the Long Island rail
road was built alongside of the Long Island
Sound at a cost almost equal to that of a rail
road to Panama. Seeing, therefore, that the
business men of this country are ready to set up
millions against the saving of an hour in time
day after day, what will they not do when days
and weeks are thrown into the scale? Complete
the Panama link and extend the line from the
Mississippi river to California and the time is
not distant when that Valley will teem with a
population enjoying the blessings of freedom,
wealth and prosperity to an extent that has never
been witnessed by the eye of man.
The effect of a rail road communication with
Panama, would, therefore, in my opinion, be to
unite the two oceans by ship canal. With the
rail road, the world would see the amount of
commerce, seeking portage here. The rail road
would soon be found insufficient to transport it
and a ship canal would be the result. Thus I
regard the proposed rail road, somewhat in the
light of a demonstration which the world requires first to be made, in order to give practical
proof as to the necessity and benefits of a ship
canal.
Respectfully, &e.
M. F. MAURY.
HoN. S. BORLAND,
U. S. Senate Chamber.
A POEM ON THE ISTHMUS LINE,
A pretty, little, gilt-edged book of poems lies before ts,
in which the Isthmus Connection is discussed in verse.
The book was printed, we b)elieve, for private circulation,
but we propose to give the stanzas to our readers as a spe.
cimen of high lyric fervor, and as an appropriate companion to Lieut. Maury's letter.
The reader will naturally ask, "; who is the poet?" We
answer, the distinguished Professor Francis Lieber, the
friend of Niebuhr, the editor of the Encyclopedia Americana, the recently conspicuous figure on the floor of the
German Parliament, and now acting President of the College of South Carolina.-Ed. Mess.
THE SHIP CANAL
FROM THE ATLANTIC TO THE PACIFIC.
An Ode to the American People and their Congress, on read ing the Message of the Urited States President in Decem ber, 1847.
Rend America asunder
And unite the Binding Sea
That emboldens Man and tempers Make the ocean free.
Break the bolt which bars the pasge,
That our River richly pours
Western wealth to western nations;
Let that sea be ours
Ours by all the hardy whalers,
By the pointing Oregon,
By the west impelled and working
Unthralled Saxon son.
Long indeed they have been woorng,
The Pacific and his bride
Now'tis time for holy wedding Join them by the tide.
Have the snowy surfs not struggled
Many centuries in vain,
That their lips might seal the union?
Lock then Main to Main.
When the mighty God of nature
Made his favored continent,
He allowed it yet unsevered,
That a race be sent,
Able, mindful of his purpose,
Prone to people, to subdue,
And to bind the lands with iron,
Or to force them through.
What the prophet-navigator,
Seeking straits to his Catais,*
But began, now consummate it Make the strait and pass.
Blessed eyes, that shall behold it,
When the pointing boom shall veer,
Leading through the parted Andes,
While the nations cheer!
There at Suez, Europe's mattock
Cuts the briny road with. skill,
And must Darien bid defianee
To the pilot still?
Do we breathe this breath of knowledge
Purely to enjoy its zest?
Shall the iron arm of science
Like a sluggard rest?
Up then, at it! earnest People!
Bravely wrought thy scorning blade,
But there's fresher fame in store yet,
Glory for the spade.
What we want is naught in envy,
But for all we pioneer;
Let the keels of every natiorn
Through the isthmus steer.
Must the globe be always girded
Ere we get to Bramah's priest?
Take the tissues of your Lowells
Westward to the East.
Ye, that vanquish pain and distance,
Ye, enmeshing Time with wire,
* Catais or Cathay and Zipango were the names given
to the eastern part of Asia, toward whieh the greatest of
navigators directed his westerly voyage, as Marco Polo had
reached it by an eastward journey. Columbus having found
that a continent debarred him from continuing his westward course, persevered in searching for straits which
would allow him a passage to his wished-for Catais.
266
Fact and Fiction. The Ship Canal,