The Wagon Road That Would Bind Puget Sound to the Columbia

PUBLIC MEETING.—A public meeting was held in Vancouver on the 4th inst., to consider the necessity of a military road from Vancouver to Steilacoom, and to adopt such measures as were deemed best calculated to promote the object in view. Col. Wallace, Judge Strong, and others addressed the meeting, setting forth the importance and advantages to result from the proposed new road. At a subsequent meeting, held on the 5th, a committee previously appointed reported a memorial to Congress praying an appropriation of $50,000 for the construction of the road in question. Copies of the memorial have reached us, and are now exposed for the reception of signatures.

In an article published upwards of two years ago (September 3d, 1858), we dwelt at length upon the absolute necessity for this road, and endeavored to show wherein Oregon and this Territory were mutually interested in its speedy construction. Hitherto trade with Oregon, except by water—and that only semi-monthly—had scarcely been thought of. Give us a good wagon road between Vancouver and Steilacoom (to be succeeded before many years, we hope, by a railroad connecting Puget Sound with the Columbia River), and facility will at once be afforded to open a trade. We can, and doubtless will, buy much of Oregon, and Oregon of us, at a considerable saving from present costs. The Columbia River and Puget Sound are in such close proximity that the two must inevitably unite upon removal of the mountain obstructions. Added to this, a new country will be opened along the route; settlers will make their homes upon it to supply the wants of travelers, and trade will be diverted in this direction. It will reduce the expense of travel between the two points and prove a convenience as well as a profit.