Staunton Spectator

, Predictions Verified.:
A week since a friend placed in our possession a petition to the General Assembly, written by Hon. A. H. H. Stuart in 1848. invoking action on the part of the Legislature looking to the extension to the Ohio River of the railroad, at that time the Louisa Railroad. (which had not yet reached Charlottesville) afterwards the Central, and now the Ches. & Ohio, and we make the following extract from it that our readers may see how the predictions of the author, which at that time seemed to most persons to be visionary, have been verified.
The "cordon of States extending from the Mexican to the British boundary lines" then predicted now exist, and "the stupendous enterprise of a railroad from the Mississippi to the Pacific coast," is an accomplished fact, and no longer "excites our special wonder"-save the wonder that it was predicted with such confidence twenty-three years ago. The following is the extract referred to;
"By our recent treaties with Great Britain and Mexico, our title to the greater part of the Oregon territory has been recognized and established, and an almost boundless domain west and south-west of our ancient boundaries has been ceded to us. The mouth of the Columbia River and harbors of San Diego and San Francisco, the best ports on the Pacific Ocean, have passed into our hands. Already our enterprising citizens are crowding to those distant shores, and in a few years we shall have a densely populated cordon of States, extending from the Mexican to the British boundary lines. An immense trade will naturally spring up between the cities on our Pacific coast and the Islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and all the countries stretching along the Asiatic Continent more than seven thousand miles from Kamtschatka to the Straits of Babelmandel. Of the extent and value of that trade it would be impossible, with the lights now before us, to form any just estimate; but no one can doubt that we will successfully compete for it with all the world. The products of those countries must seek an outlet in Europe and on our Atlantic coast.
The route around Cape Horn, equal to a voyage around the entire globe, with its perils and delays, will never satisfy the wants of our progressive population. The next thing in the natural succession of events will be a Railroad from San Diego or San Francisco to some point on the Mississippi, most probably St. Louis or Memphis, and thus we shall have the trade of the East disembogued at that point, and the subject of eager and earnest competition among all our Atlantic cities. New Orleans, Savannah, Charleston, Richmond and Norfolk, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston, will all press their claims, and it is easy to see that the first occupant, or in other words, the city which is first prepared with the facilities to attract it, will clutch the prize. That the Virginia route by way of the Valleys of the Ohio, and the Kanawha, and the James, possesses greater advantages than any of the others will hardly be disputed by any one who has an accurate knowledge of the topography of the country.
This stupendous enterprise of a Railroad from the Mississippi to the Pacific coast may seem visionary to some persons : but to those who have carefully viewed the progress of our western cities, many of which, in ten years from their foundation, before the stumps of the primeval forests have rotted within their limits, reckon their population by tens of thousands, and their assessments of property by millions of dollars. it will appear not only a possible but an inevitable event. Already it engages a large share of public attention. The public prints are teeming with able essays commending the scheme to the favorable consideration of the nation-and the politicians who are so keen to scent the popular gale are its avowed advocates. Under these circumstances it is hazarding little to say that before twenty years shall have passed away, this grand scheme will have been partially, if not entirely, executed."