Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/274



A country, if it is to survive, must have a social solidarity. In producing this oneness perhaps there is no more important factor than that of communication. The better the means of social intercourse, the greater the sense of union felt by the different groups of people.

United States is now a vast nation stretching from coast to coast, from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Without communication such a nation based upon republican principles would be virtually impossible. Isolation produces a group solidarity and a desire to be independent. To preserve a nation's unity care must be taken to develop those things which will bind the people together into a closer union.

United States in 1846 was faced with just such a problem. She had gained a new empire by forcing to a conclusion the diplomatic negotiations in which she had been engaged off and on thruout almost her entire existence. In 1848 the Mexican War secured her California. She now had a vast territory 3,000 miles from the seat of government, and not only was there the element distance with which she had to contend, but there was also a great barrier the so-called great American desert and the Rockies. Without communication, geographical isolation would have seemed to have also called for political isolation.

The discovery of gold followed by the Civil War, brought those upon the Atlantic coast to see as never before the need of communication—and no wonder, for during that period there had been talk of a new nation