MEMORIAL
OF
WW. BAYARD AND COMPANY,
TRAYING FOR A
CHARTER FOR A RAILROAD
FROM THE
MISSISSIPPI RIVER Ï0 CALIFORNIA.
H E
XI
U H
MEMORIAL
of
WM. BAYAED AND COMPANY,
to
THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
OF THE UNITED STATES,
peaying foe a
CHARTER FOR A RAILROAD
fbom: the
MISSISSIPPI RIVER TO CALIFORNIA.
WASHINGTON:
pkinted by john t. towers.
1849.
Ht 5- ^ Uî 3
Li AR Y
•IJf^EAU Or RAILWA" ECO.S'öMICS^
WASHihiCTOhi. D.C.
MEMORIAL.
. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America^ in Congress assembled :
The memorial of William Bayard and Company respectful¬
ly represents, that they have for many years contemplated the
completion of a railroad through the United States to con¬
nect with the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans—that William
Bayard, acting in concert with others in the United States,
visited Europe several years since for the purpose of making
arrangements for funds for the completion of said road—that
the general monetary depression, and especially the shock
wTiich American credit experienced about that time, caused
him to defer any action in the matter until recently. In the
meantime, your memorialists have sought every means of
satisfying their judgments, not only as to the feasability of the
project, but to seek out the best track under all circumstances
for the continuation of said road west of the Mississippi river.
The late treaty with Mexico has furnished that route, and
they now propose to contract for its construction upon the fol¬
lowing terms, to wit :
The main track of said railroad to be made from St. Louis,
Missouri, to intersect the Rio Grande in the neighborhood of
the head waters of the Red and Gila rivers, thence to some
port or ports in California : Provided, That hereafter any char¬
tered company, or companies, shall have the right of connect¬
ing with the same, by running railroads from Cairo in Illinois,
Memphis in Tennessee, Vicksburg, or Natchez, in Mississippi, or
from any other point or points south of said main trunk. This
road to be surveyed and located by Engineers appointed by the
United States with the concurrence of the Engineer of the
Contractors. All travellers and officers of our Army who
have been over this route agree to its practicability, as
doubtless would have done our indefatigable and talented
4
pioneer, Colonel Fremont, had he have travelled over the
same. The United States to grant the right of way, and
to set apart the lands along the said road, twenty-five miles on
each side, in aid of the construction of the same. The Con¬
tractors to have permission to dispose of said lands ratably
as the road progresses ; and for the purpose of ascertaining '
the progress of the work, and of designating what lands may
thus become subject to the disposal of the Contractors, the
United States shall appoint one or more persons, on whose
certificates duly communicated to the proper Department of
Government, permission shall be granted to the Contractors to
dispose of said lands : Provided, That the same shall be sold
to actual settlers only, at not less than the Government price
of public lands, and not more than six hundred and forty
acres to any one person. The United States shall appoint
suitable persons to ascertain whether any, and if any, what
amount of lands within twenty-five miles of said road belong to
individuals, and such quantity shall be granted to said Con¬
tractors to be selected elsewhere on any of the public lands
of the United States subject to sale.
Within thirty days after the completion of said survey, as
a guarantee for the construction of said roads, your me¬
morialist and his associates obligate themselves to place in
the Treasury of the United States a sum not less than five
millions of dollars in Government securities,, according to their
marketable value at the time of deposit, to be ascertained by
the Secretary of the Treasury. The said deposit shall bear
an interest at the rate of six per cent, per annum, which inte¬
rest shall be paid over to said Contractors semi-annually ; and
said deposit shall remain in pledge for the faithful perform¬
ance of said contract until three-fourths of said road shall
have been completed, and then refunded to said Contractors.
Your memarialists obligate themselves to construct said road
of iron rails of the most approved form, which shall weigh
not less than sixty pounds per yard; and to complete the same
within eight years from the completion of said surveys ; and to
carry the United States mails from the Mississippi river to the
5
port or ports selected in California in not exceeding four days ;
and for the carrying such mails, Congress may fix such com¬
pensation as they may deem just and equitable. The Army and
Navy stores, and all munitions of war, to be at all times trans¬
ported on said roads in cars belonging to the United States,
free of charge ; and the commissioned officers of the Army
and Navy to be transported at a rate not exceeding one-half
of the price of passengers ; and the sailors and soldiers of the
Navy and Army, not exceeding one-fourth of said price : Pro¬
vided, That the highest fare charged by said road upon its
whole length from the Mississippi river to its terminus in
California, shall not exceed one-half of the present rates of
passage upon the United States mail steamers from New York
to Chagres, and from Panama to San Francisco.
In view of the extraordinary magnitude of this work—its
immense cost—-the influence which it must necessarily exert
upon the prosperity of our country and the commerce of the
world—^the large bounty asked of the Government in aid of
its construction, and the quid pro quo for the granting of such
bounty—all justify, in the opinion of your memorialists, more
detailed reasons than appear at first blush upon their simple
proposition of contract. They therefore most respectfully beg
leave to enumerate some of those reasons.
Eighteen years since the idea was first promulgated by our
distinguished public servant. General Edmund P. Gaines, as
a convenience of commerce—as a means of defence against
foreign enemies—as an additional bond of Union of these
States, to belt them together by means of railroads ; and this
done, to connect the whole by extending the work to the Pa¬
cific Ocean.
The conception of this great idea was deserving of immor¬
tality, but for the time only secured for this foresighted Patriot,
the credit of "railroad madness." His wisdom and fore¬
thought was at that time lost upon the public, because it was
in advance of the age. The public mind, ever suspicious
of what it cannot readily comprehend, only learns per force.
It paid off this grand conception with ribaldry ; many said
6
that Gen. Gaines was too old—a majority of his countrymen
believed him intemperate upon the subject, and nearly all be¬
lieved him in advance of the undertaking. Let us now turn
to the history of these eighteen years, and see what has been
accomplished. Railroads checkering the length and breadth
of our glorious Union in every direction, which have cost the
enormous whole of two hundred millions of dollars, and are
now paying their owners a larger per cent, than the banking
capital of the country. In addition to which there are rail¬
roads now chartered, many under contract, and others project¬
ed, to an equal amount.
Thus, within this short space of time, has Gen. Gaines lived
to see one road after another springing into existence, until
nearly his whole scheme has been accomplished far in advance
of his predictions. The Railroad Journal, summing up the
extraordinary influences of railroads upon the country and
upon the world, says it may be safely estimated that the en¬
tire expenditure within the last twenty-five years, in the pro¬
jection and construction of railroads, will not fall short of one
thousand millions of dollars, and that their influences in facili¬
tating business, in reducing the expenses and time of travel,
and in opening up new regions of country, has given an in¬
creased value to property of twice that amount ; and yet their
influences are only just beginning to be felt.
From the centre of Maine there are continuous railroads,
which, with three small links yet to complete, tap the lower
Mississippi both at Vicksburg and Memphis and Cairo, a dis¬
tance of 2,200 miles ; and with small connections to be made,
tap the upper part of that river at St. Louis, Alton, Quincy,
and Galena. From Cairo, at the mouth of the Ohio river,
there is a railroad projected to St. Louis, and the interior of
Illinois, which, when the upper river is obstructed by ice, will
at all seasons aflFord a communication with the lower coun¬
try. The whole line of the lakes from Champlain to Michigan
have been tapped at different points, by roads running east,
south, and west. To the East they connect with roads whose
great terminus is the Commercial Emporium of New England?
7
and from thence they radiate to every point of the compass,
reaching into almost every workshop of that industrial people»
To the South they reach into the great cities of New York,
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cincinnati, and still further South,
To the West, they reach the Mississippi at St. Louis, Alton,
Quincy, and Galena. They have in fact reached the verge
of our Mississippi settlements. Where we have people there
have they built roads. Shall they stop at the Mississippi Í
The events of the last few years, consummated by the late
English and Mexican treaties, answer this inquiry in the
negative. Those treaties have given us fifteen hundred miles
of the Pacific coast. With a vast area of back land capable
of supporting many millions of people—with the best ports on
that sea, laying abreast of and within twenty-two days' steam¬
ing of the rich commerce of China and Japan—^that our people
will cross to the Pacific coast and settle that country rapidly,
no one doubts. That they must have our government and
protection, and that they must not be alienated from their
fatherland by absence and distance, all agree. Then to bring
them back and unite them in bonds indissoluble is the question.
How is that to be done ? The answer is plain.
By merging the vast number of miles which separates us
into time—the short time, of neighborhood visit by railways.
This age has done much in merging distance into time. The
hours, and not the miles, are counted on railways ; und when
individual enterprize, backed by the helping hand of Congress,
shall extend the Mississippi roads to these people, they will be
as near, aye, nearer, the Capital of their country, than was
the city of Philadelphia to the city of Boston at the time of
President Washington's inaugural address. That interesting
document was reported to have reached the latter city in the
" unprecedented short time of ten and a half days "—in a less
time the people of Boston, with the bounty asked for by your
memorialists, may safely travel from their counting-houses to
their Canton ships in the ports of California.
The wonderful developments of our country have attract¬
ed others than your memorialists to the project of connecting
8
the two seas. The project of Mr. Whitney, to run a railroad
from Lake Michigan to the mouth of the Columbia river—that
of the Messrs. Aspinwalls, across the Isthmus of Darien, and
others in the same neighborhood, and that of the Tehuantepec
Canal, have all claimed more or less public favor, and are
looking to your honorable body for patronage. Your memo¬
rialists, with the least possible desire to injure these enter¬
prising projectors, believe that the terms proposed and the
route indicated by themselves is the best for the country—-the
whole country.
The objections to the other routes proposed are so manifest
that they cannot escape the attention of the Legislator.
That of Mr. Whitney was, perhaps, the best within our juris¬
diction at the time he proposed it ; but its extreme northern
locality, far beyond the population of the States, crossing the
extreme heads of our northwestern rivers, in a region where
its great altitude will encounter vast quantities of snow and
ice, over a tract, twelve hundred miles of which is destitute
of wood and water, and terminating at a point indiiferentljr
capable of admitting the smallest size sloops of war. It is a
fact well ascertained that the largest portion of the product
of the great Mississippi and its thousand tributaries, are de¬
pendent upon flat-boat navigation. The floods of winter send
forth these bountiful barges from ten thousand ravines in that
great valley where steam can never reach. The rains which
float these numberless, cheap-made boats down stream, will
prevent them from floating up stream to Mr. Whitney's road,
and thus would be lost to this redundent product of the great
West, the markets of the Pacific. Allowing that Mr. Whit¬
ney's road, with his " eight hundred miles of rich land," could
overcome the absence of wood and water, the vast amount of
snow and ice which this road must necessarily encounter, and
the per annum cost of freeing the track therefrom, would add
onerously to the price of transportation. Allowing that
double the quantity of snow and ice falls upon this track
which falls upon the Albany and Boston road, it would re¬
quire, provided the means of getting it off were as cheap.
9
more than $500,000 per anuum. But as his road is to cross a
wilderness, this difficulty would be insurmountable.
The objections to the Isthmus routes do not lie in the cost
of the work, for that is within the pecuniary reach of many
a citizen of ours, unaided by other than his own means—^they
are national. These works would be thousands of miles be¬
yond our people and our jurisdiction, and in a foreign country.
To reach them would require in both seas, more than five
thousand miles of navigation, and from our Atlantic cities,
six shipments and transhipments to reach a California depot.
The additional cost of transhipment, insurance, loss of life
and property, via Cape Hatteras, the Florida reefs, and the
West India Islands, would constitute, with the greater time
necessary for such route, a large objection. The greater ob¬
jection still, is the one looking to a rupture with the nation
through which such works might be constructed ; and a state
of wmr with any other maritime nation, and particularly one
with a larger war marine than ours. The nation owning
such routes might, even from caprice or fancied wrong, close
them against us ; the nation at war with us, whose marine
might be stronger, would surely do so. A few years êx-
pense in keeping this route open, were we at war with a na¬
tion whose marine might be weaker than ours, would far ex¬
ceed the value of the lands which your memorialists ask of
your honorable body.
There ai^e other objections to the Isthmus routes besides
those of greater distance and of anti-national character. It
must necessarily be an expensive route, on account of the ad¬
ditional amount of shipping required to complete a voyage
beyond the Isthmus. The New York or Boston merchant, for
instance, loads his ship in his own city, either for California
or China, proceeds to Chagres, discharges cargo, places it upon
the railroad, and carries it across to Panama. To prevent
the necessity and expense of being housed at that point, the
owner must have another ship in readiness at least as large,
to receive it from the road. Here follows a double outlay of
capital for the shipping, which, with the aid of the railroad,.
10
is to perform the same service. If the merchant keeps a Pa¬
cific ship, he does so at an enormous extra expense in that
climate. The higher price of seamen's Avages, their additional
liability to disease, the rapid decay of his ship, the heavier
expense of repairs, w^ith many other contingencies, must all
be added to the carrier's price, and these tributes which go so
far towards building foreign cities, are at last levied upon the
American citizen who consumes the cargo.
On the other hand, if your memorialists receive the aid of
their Government, which they hope to do, the Boston ship, which
now requires a long year to make the circuit of Cape Horn
to China and return, may take station between the western
terminus of this road and China, and in the same time deliver
in Boston four cargoes. Thus, while the Boston ship may
assist in building up a Pacific city in our own country, the
European ship, to an equal amount, adds to the growth and
wealth of Boston.
Thus, whilst these formidable objections exist to the pro¬
posed routes. North and South of our population, your me¬
morialists beg leave to call your attention to the one proposed
by themselves, which, in their judgment, meets every objection
against the others.
1st. Their pledge of five millions of dollars or more, is a
sure guarantee that it will he completed.
2d. That when completed, it is through the hbart and cen¬
tre of our country and people. It takcs its coursc wcst from
a point upon the Mississippi which is in the heart of nearly
the whole of the steam and flat-boat navigation of that great
valley. At this starting point, it unites with railroads which
already have bound together nearly the entire commercial
interest of our country in one whole. The continuation of
this road west will do more to soften the asperity of sectional
politics, and to make a unity of interest, commercial and po¬
litical, than any system within human reach. It is a work, of
all others yet devised, the least sectional—the most national.
It has its eastern termini alike in every Atlantic city from
Savannah, Georgia, to Bangor, in Maine. It will have its feed-
11
ers upon the Gulf of Mexico, from the mouth of the Rio Grande
to Pensaeola. The frozen waters of Boston will travel to the
Gold Placers of California, in the same trains with the British
and American mails. These trains will return with th^ luxu¬
ries of the Eastern world, and the produce of our own mines.
Every section of our country will send forth the enterprising
to people and develope a wealth which must necessarily give
us a balance of trade against all the world, and consequently
a prosperity over all the world. The Iron masters of Mis¬
souri, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Georgia, will come into a
healthful competition for the sale of their metal, which gold
diggers will not work. The completion of this road, with a
single track, at sixty pounds per yard, and at the present prices
of iron, will require an outlay for this article of fourteen mil¬
lions of dollars. At seventy-five pounds per yard, it will cost
sixteen millions eight hundred thousand dollars, and at one
hundred pounds per yard, will cost twenty-one millions of dol¬
lars. When the wants of commerce and public convenience
shall require a double track, the double of these sums in iron
must be expended. In addition to which, the estimated outlay
of thirty millions of dollars must be expended by your memo¬
rialists for grading, bridge-building, engines, cars, depots, &c.,
before the completion of said road. This large outlay of capi¬
tal, held forth to the industry and enterprise of the country,
must benefit every branch of business.
The general route which your memorialists propose to run
this road is along the southwestern portion of your domain,
through a country, in the estimation of Mr. Whitney, too poor
for his enterprise. And while Mr. Whitney's remark upon
the comparative richness of the Southern and Northern routes
is doubtless true in the main, yet your memorialists believe
that the escaping from the snows, the easier passage of the
mountains, the continuous presence of wood and water upon
their line, the better Pacific termini, as to ports—and above
all, the striking through the very centre of the whole Ameri¬
can people, will justify them in taking the poorer route, even
with a much less quantity of land.
12
In a foreign commercial point of view, the continuation of
your railroads from the Mississippi to the Pacific, is of trans¬
cendent importance to this country. A line drawn from the
greatêst commercial emporium of Europe, to Canton, in China,
would follow nearly the whole line of our roads from Boston
to San Diego, in California. Thus the London mails could
reach Boston in eleven, the Pacific in twenty, and Canton in
forty-two days, by steam and the proposed road. All the
European correspondence would necessarily take this route,
and thereby add immensely to our postal receipts, while at
least the lighter articles of eastern luxuries would cease to
make the tedious circuit of Cape Horn. Our depots upon each
sea, would be the general rendezvous of European shippings
and at no distant day our country would become, in the lan¬
guage of the present indefatigable and sagacious Secretary
of the Treasury, " the great centre of trade and business."
It may be asked, however, that, if this road is to become
the world's highway, wherefore the necessity of such a land
bounty to aid in its construction ? The answer is a plain one.
That while the people of the United States and other coun¬
tries have built numerous roads connecting important points,
the connection of such points alone did not justify the build¬
ing. The people living on the lines of such roads, and the
intermediate travel, has been shown to be the large source of
profit. Upon this route of fifteen hundred miles there is
hardly a civilized being ; the country is in possession of un¬
housed Indians, who live upon horseback and follow the herds
of mustang and buffalo for sustenance. These nations are
fierce, and must necessarily be watched by garrisons along
the whole line of our Mexican boundary, both as security to
our frontier, and by our treaty obligations. Again : Is it in
the history of the world, where individual enterprise has
sought a wilderness of such magnitude for the investment of
capital ? If the Government is the largest recipient of the
benefits of this gigantic national work—-if she thereby adds
largely to her post office receipts by the transit of foreign let¬
ters—if she saves largely in her own mail contracts, which
13
Congress may determine—if she has her naval and army pro¬
visions and munitions of war transported forever free of charge
—^if she can transport all her soldiers and sailors at one-fourth
the ordinary rate of travel—if she can save largely in the value
of her public stores, which must inevitably deterioate by a long
sea voyage—if she can by building of said road add a larger in¬
creased value to her public lands in this distant domain—in
fine, if the road serves as an additional bond of union between
the multitude of our people settling that, at present, distant
country, and our people and Government at home, the land
bounty would be far below these considerations, were it as
rich as the best of Mr. Whitney's "eight hundred miles,'^^
Above all these considerations is one which looks far be¬
yond the present, the magnitude of which, and its vast im¬
portance to our Government it would be difficult to esti¬
mate—^that of perpetual right, forever free of charge, to carry
all her army and navy stores and munitions of war. At pre¬
sent the outlay of the Government for such transport is large ;
in case of war it would become enormous. During our late
war with Mexico, it is estimated that each soldier sent to
California did not cost the Government less than $200 outlay.
Suppose, then, as this contract proposes, that only one-fourth
of this amount shall be charged, the large sum of $150,000 for
each thousand men will be saved to the Government. Sup¬
pose, further, that Government might have occasion, in a state
of war, to send in one year twenty thousand soldiers and sail-
or«^ to that coast, in doing so a saving of three millions of dol¬
lars would follow. The right of Congress to say at what price
your memorialists shall carry a daily mail the whole length
of said road in the short space of less than four days, and back
in the same period: of time, will doubtless prove another enor¬
mous gain to the Government.
At present the semi-monthly mail contracts from New York
to Chagres, and Panama to Oregon, with what (your memo¬
rialists learn) is asked across the proposed Isthmus railroad,
amount to eight hundred cmd ninety thouscttid dollars per aur
nmui It requires nearly thirty days to perform this semi¬
monthly contract, while your menu^Fialists will do the same
14
service daily in one-fourth of that time. It follows, then, that
if a semi-monthly contract, or twenty-four trips per year, cost
the Government eight hundred and ninety thousand dollars,
that at the same rate a daily contract, or three hundred and
sixty-five trips per year, would amount to #13,535,416 66f
cents. These figures are alarmingly large, but nevertheless
true ; and could the selfishness of your memorialists desire of
your honorable body anything like this amount, they might
justly be considered avaricious.
Your memorialists beg that it will be borne in mind by your
honorable body, that they do not ask for one dollar, neither do
they wish any exclusive Government contract. They believe,
however, that the saving to the Government, which this road
would afford, in a very few years, would largely exceed the
Government price of the lands donated in aid of its construc¬
tion, to say nothing of the many others which might be named.
To the great grain-growing population of the Union, and
especially the West, the importance of this road addresses it¬
self with peculiar force. The following table shows the pro¬
duct of 1847, to which 10 per cent, may safely be added for
the crop now about to be seeded.
ARTICLES.
QUANTITIES.
PRICES.
VALUE
Wheat
114,245,000 bushels $120 $137,094,600
539,350,000 « 40 215,740,000
Indian Corn
Barley
Buckwheat
Rye.
Oats
Potatoes
Beans
5,649,950 « 80 4,519,960
29,222,500 « 65 18,994,625
167,867,000 " 25 41,966,750
11,673,000 « 50 5,836,500
100,950,000 « 20 20,190,000
25,000,000 « 1 00 25,000,000
Peas
25,000,000 « 1 20 30,000,000
Rice
103,040,500 pounds 3 3,091,215
«
$502,433,750
15
This was an amount far exceeding the wants of the pro¬
ducers, the surplus of which the accidental dearth of Europe
then created a demand for. This surplus brought into our
country more than thirty millions of dollars, and gave us not
only the advantage of the balance of trade, as a nation, but
added uncommon prosperity to the individual producer. What
proved misfortune to Europe, added greatly to our national
and individual prosperity ; but this event was one of those
accidental national misfortunes, which, under God's provi¬
dence, comes only at long intervals ; and, therefore, the Ameri¬
can producer cannot, ought not to, look with either reason or
hope for its recurrence. Europe, ordinarily, produces enough
for her own people to eat, and at remote intervals, is it neces¬
sary to look to young America for a deficiency. Our country
always produces more than her people can eat, and, therefore,
she must have other markets than Europe for her surplus. The
road proposed to be built by your memorialists will open to
this surplus the best, the most steady, the highest price mar¬
ket on the earth. California will be emphatically a mining
country, and while one pennyweight of gold per day to a la¬
borer remains in the earth, so long she will not sow grain,,
and consequently cannot garner a harvest. At present the
people of California must look for bread to the high prices of
Chilian and Peruvian flour, or eat of that deteriorated article
of our own produce which must make the circuit of Cape
Horn, and reach them under great delay, heavy charges, and
in a sour condition.
It is a singular fact, the cause for which has not been ex¬
plained, that only the flour of the Richmond, Virginia, mills
can be sent around Cape Horn in a tolerable state of preser¬
vation. The whole flour of the Mississippi valley, and espe¬
cially from that portion of our country with a lime stone base,
will sour in this voyage ; and if it be used in this deleterious
form, it is almost sure to engender disease.
The same remark is more generally applicable to nearly
the whole list of grain, potatoes, and other esculents. The
16
proposed road opens alike to all parts of our country an equal
competition in a market bidding fair to become the greatest
consumer of our surplus. The Western miller, from his ob¬
scure creek which has no place upon your map, may descend
with his thousands of flour barrels to this road, and in a week's
time find a steady, a constant market, which he might other¬
wise grind under the precarious expectation of a rainy har¬
vest or ei. potato rot in Europe.
January 5, 1849.
5556 042 142034