work, as I have often predicted and as I think I can prove to the satisfaction of any liberal minded military man or citizen that it will contribute to render the United Stales invulnerable in war whilst it will by the unavoidable obstacles which the war with European powers having great Naval forces will give lo our foreign commerce, and by the consequent argumentation of alJ means of domestic or interior commerce, produce a revenue nearly sufficient to pay.the expense of the war. Or al least to pay the expense of all the transportation of men and materials of war from the interior and Western states to the national frontier, and above all, the proposed work will, on the return of peace, when the other expensive means of national defense become useless and burdensome, these rail roads with steam power applied to vehicles of land transportation, taking as they will the natural trend of commerce from the seaboard lo the Central and Western Stales, produce a revenue that will in 6 to 12 years repay into the Treasury every dollar expended in their construction. They will then if it be desirable give to the U.S. or to the state in which they •are located, I care not which, a revenue which will supercede all other means of taxation. And moreover, these railroads will be the means of adding from 50 to 100 percent to the value of every acre of cultivatable land in every county or district through w.hich they will pass. If all this is true, as I contend it is certain as the data upon which a man has hitherto built a mill or factory of almost any kind - then I shall be pardoned for saying my system is magnificent in the extreme. I call it my system because I have labored for many years (10) to bring it into notice and until recently I could find no one who would so far rick his reputation as to give me any assistance; deeming the whole scheme too wild and visionary to be listened to even with patience. You and I, and it may be added, the Government, have committed a great error in supposing that the battle of San Jacinto, brilliant and unprecedented as it was, should have put an end to the War between the Mexicans and Texans. It occured to me soon after your departure, and I expressed the opinion lo the Sect'y. of War, that the chivalry of Mexico would doubtless fly lo the rescue of their President, Santa Anna. Late accounts from Victoria, the hdqrs. of the Texas Army, state that the Mexicans are al Matamoras in great force and that a division had crossed the Rio Grand - but their operations were checked by the Cholera. The Texas Army is upwards of 2500 strong and had the assurance of being 5,000 strong by the first of next month. They are in fine health and well
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