REPORT
THE IMPRACTICABILITY
OF
BUILDING A RAILROAD
FROM THE
MISSISSIPPI RIVER TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN:
/
BY
MR. KIDWELL, OF VIRGINIA.
N
WASHINGTON:
CORNELIUS WENDELL, PRINTER.
1856.
f
\
LIBRARY
BUREAU Y ECONOMICS^
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PACIFIC RAILROAD AND TELEGRAPH.
MINORITY REPORT.
The undersigned, a member of the Select Committee, appointed on the
21 st day of February, 1856, to inquire into the propriety and ex¬
pediency of building, or aiding to build, one or more railroads from
the Mississippi river to San Francisco, on the Pacific ocean, dis¬
senting from the opinions of the majority of the committee, begs leave
to submit the following report:
In considering tliis subject tbe undersigned has carefully inquired—
1st. Is a railroad between tbe settlements upon tbe Pacific coast
and those upon tbe banks of tbe river Mississippi desirable f
2d. Is a railroad (between tbe points named) feasible, at a first cost
for construction, and a subsequent cost for maintenance, which is at all
reasonable?
3d. If a railroad between tbe said points is, from any cause, desi¬
rable, and is feasible, is it politic for tbe government of tbe United
States (admitting it has tbe constitutional authority to do so) to fore¬
stall individual enterprise, and construct a railroad for tbe accommo¬
dation of trade and travel?
4th. If it is impolitic for tbe United States to engage in a competi¬
tion with its own citizens, in tbe business of building railroads for tbe
use of persons engaged in tbe business of trade and travel, can tbe
United States, with propriety, and with advantage both to tbe gov¬
ernment and to tbe trading and travelling classes, construct a national
military road, or a postal road, and then lay rails upon it for tbe use
both of tbe government and of traders and travellers ?
5th. Admitting a railroad from the Pacific ocean to tbe Mississippi
river is desirable ; that it can be easily and cheaply built; that it is
politic, in this particular case, to interfere with tbe individual and
State enterprise which has constructed tbe railroads and canals of
this country ; that there is propriety and wisdom in the construction
of a national military and postal railroad to be used in copartnership,
or in common, by government and by individuals ; has the government
of the United States constitutional authority to push individuals, Terri¬
tories, or States out of its way, and enter upon tbe construction, con¬
trol, and management of a railroad for tbe use and benefit either of
traders or of mail contractors ? Has government constitutional authority
to build other than a military road, for strictly military purposes, in
that confined and exclusive sense which defines tbe military purposes
of forts, ships of war, government arsenals, and government found¬
ries, and dedicates them to exclusive military uses? Under tbe plea
4
PACIFIC RAILROAD AND TELEGRAPH
of providing a military, can Congress constitutionally proceed to con¬
struct a commercial road?
In the outset the committee was called upon to consider whether—
First. A railroad from some suitable point or points upon the Paci¬
fic ocean to corresponding ones upon the Mississippi river is desirable ?
Upon this point the undersigned has no doubt whatever. Good
railroads from New Orleans, St. Louis, Chicago, and from the head
of Lake Superior, across the continent, within our own country, to
San Diego, San Francisco, mouth of the Columbia, and Puget's sound,
would, in peace and in war, he productive of consequences the most
beneficent both to individuals and to the nation, to agriculture and to
commerce, to manufactures, and to the mechanic arts.
Like the railroads to the east of the Mississippi, those west of it
would be a military protection and a commercial convenience of a
higher character than any known to the ancients. One or more rail¬
roads to the Pacific from the Mississippi may, therefore, be justly
considered not only desirable, but exceedingly important, in every
national point of view.
Second. Is a railroad between the Pacific and the Mississippi feasi¬
ble, at a reasonable cost for original construction and subsequent
support ?
Upon this point there is a decided difference of opinion between a
majority of the committee and the undersigned. That a railroad can
be built over, or even through, almost any mountain in this country,
by an able engineer who has at his command ample means and modern
science, there can be but little doubt. I think it possible, perhaps, to
build a railroad hence to the Polar sea, or even up the lofty heights
of the Cooclietopa Pass of the Pocky mountains. But there are many
mountains in this country over the heights of which a railroad cannot
be built at a reasonable cost, or with suitable grades and curves, or
that could be profitably used in the summer, or at all in the winter.
After bestowing much labor upon the investigation of this branch
of the subject, the undersigned is convijiced that no route has yet been
discovered to exist in this country, between the northern boundary
line of Mexico and the southern boundary line of the British posses¬
sions, where a railroad from the Pacific to the Mississippi can be loca¬
ted with such grades and curves, and constructed at such a cost, as
would justify either the government, or individuals, in attempting to
build it, and rely upon its earnings to keep it in repair and pay for
the use of the money expended even one per cent, per annum upon the
first cost of the road.* Nay, it is exceedingly doubtful whether a road
located upon the best known route could be maintained from its earn¬
ings during the first ten or fifteen years, even should its builders be
willing to sink all their capital, and abandon the road to whomsoever
would give security to maintain and run it. And at the end of that
period of time, money would have to be obtained to rebuild the whole
railroad—to replace the iron rails, the ties, and the furniture of the
road. Could the debt which this necessary re-construction would cause
to be created, be paid within the next then ensuing ten or fifteen years
from the mere earnings of the road ? And, in that period, would the
PACIFIC RAILROAD AND TELEGRAPH
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-5
earnings also furnish tlie further large sum with which to again re¬
build the road ? For experience teaches that ten or fifteen years is
the average period of time such materials last, after which a rebuild¬
ing must follow.
Many reasons exist, some temporary and others enduring, which
induce the belief that such a railroad must be very costly to construct,
very costly to maintain in an effective condition, and yet would pro¬
duce but small sums of money.
Among these reasons, the chief one is undoubtedly to be found in
the fact that vast sterile plains, and rugged, extensive, and uninhab¬
ited mountains interpose between the termini of the railroad, and
must be crossed. No engineering skill can teach us how to avoid
these arid plains, nor how to turn those lofty ranges of mountains,
either on the right hand or on the left. The sand plains must be
crossed, the mountains must be scaled. No route has yet been discov¬
ered, north or south, after numerous and most diligent explorations,
whose mountain passes are so low as one mile high above the level of
the sea: not one. All are more than one mile high.
So lofty, irregular, and rugged are these mountain ranges, it is
difficult for an unpracticed writer to find language to convey an ade¬
quate idea of their real character. The whole mountain region ap¬
pears as though it had been uplifted amid some great convulsion of
nature ; broken, irregular, often destitute of all vegetation, and rarely
exhibiting even small sections fit for cultivation without a resort to
irrigation. Water, timber, and grasses are found sufficiently abund¬
ant in some places to prove the existence of a soil suitable for agri¬
cultural purposes, but only at infrequent and distant intervals. Hun¬
dreds of miles may be traversed, on this side of the Rocky mountains,
without finding timber fit to make even an axle-tree or an axe-helve.
Throughout all that vast region of desolation, the cold and the hun¬
gry traveller finds no fuel even for the most common uses, save the
dried dung of the animals who roam over it. Along the Platte valley
route (a favorite one with the committee) for 600 miles upon this east¬
ern side of the South Pass, there is an absolute destitution of timber
for all useful purposes whatsoever ; there is none with which to repair
a car, or to replace even a cross-tie.
To show still further the difficulty of building a railroad through
these solitary and uninhabited regions at any cost, and the improba¬
bility of its furnishing business to the road when built, it is only
necessary to point to the absence of water, involving, as that lack
does, a perpetual absence of agricultural pursuits in those desolate re¬
gions, and compelling the railroad to follow the endless sinuosities of
the streams, in order to obtain a needful supply of the indispensable
element. These streams are but few, and are wholly maintained by
the snows of the mountains from which they come. A single glance
at a map delineating the Platte river from its mouth to Fort Laramie,
will show how greatly the length of a railroad between those points
must be elongated, if it is necessarily located along the banks of that
crooked river.
But other difficulties, besides these of the plains, exist in and
among the stupendous mountains lying to the west of them. These
consist, in part, of the vast altitude, not only of the mountains, but
6
PACIFIC RAILROAD AND TELEGRAPH.
also of the lowest passes through them, the narrowness, depth, and
crookedness of the defiles, gorges, and canons, and the greater severity
of climate. Even on the South Pass route, 705 miles lie in and
among these mountains, between the Rocky and the Snowy mount¬
ains, which are more than 3,000 feet high in the lowest place.
If a railroad were constructed from Washington city to Boston upon
a mountain ridge 1,000 feet higher than the present surface of the
earth, the humblest individual, upon seeing it elevated above him,
could readily comprehend its increased disadvantages in point of cli¬
mate. Yet the extreme southern route, via El Paso, has 1,118 miles
which are upwards of 1,000 feet high above the level of the sea. The
extreme northern route (from Lake Superior to Puget's sound) has
1,555 miles at the same height; the Platte River and South Pass
route has 1,818 miles ; Col. Benton's route, through Cooclietopa, has
2,015; and the St. Louis and Albuquerque route, 1,492 miles. The
levellest has over 1,100 miles, and the highest more than 2,000 miles,
which are more than 1,000 feet above the level of the sea.
Again: the most northern route (which is the levellest) runs over
ground of the following elevations: 975 miles are at a height of more
than 2,000 feet, 255 miles exceed 3,000 feet in height, 125 miles ex¬
ceed 4,000 feet, and 28 miles are more than 5,000 feet above the level
of the sea. Irs loftiest pass is 6,044 feet high.
The southern route has 747 miles which are more than 2,000 feet
high ; 620 miles rise higher than 3,000 feet; 520 miles average 4,000
feet; and 28 ipiles are more than 5,000 feet above the level of the
sea ! Its loftiest pass is more than a mile high, being 5,727 feet
high.
The St. Louis and Albuquerque route (Memphis route on the sur¬
vey) has 1,153 miles which are above 2,000 feet high ; 935 miles
which are more than 3,000 feet high ; 745 miles which are 4,000 feet
high ; 651 miles which are 5,000 feet high ; 317 miles which are
6,000 feet high ; and 25 miles which are 7,000 feet above the level of
the sea ! Its highest pass is 7,750 feet high.
The Platte river and South Pass route has 1,579 miles which are
more than 2,000 feet high ; 1,432 miles which are 3,000 feet high ;
1,278 miles which are 4,000 feet high ; 693 miles which are above
5,000 feet high ; 391 miles which are more than 6,000 feet high ; 119
miles which are more than 7,000 feet high ; and 16 miles which rise
above 8,000 feet above the level of the sea ! Its highest pass is 8,373
feet high above the level of the sea.
Colonel Benton's route over the heights of Cooclietopa it is not •
necessary to describe, it having been found utterly impracticable,
being about two miles high. The highest pass yet discovered and
measured on the North American continent is Coochetopa ! The
heights and depths of the adjacent mountains and valleys are of cor¬
responding grandeur and impracticability.
It may be well to dwell a few moments upon these astounding
geographical and topographical facts. The northern route has 125
miles about three-quarters of a mile high, and 28 miles about one mile
high. The southern route has 520 miles about three-quarters of a mile
high, and 28 miles about a mile high above the level of the sea. These
PACIFIC RAILROAD AND TELEGRAPH.
7
are the most favorable routes according to the official surveys. On
the Platte River and South Pass route it is still worse, 1,278 miles ex¬
ceeding a height of three-quarters of a mile ; 693 are about one mile
high ; 391 miles are about one mile and a quarter high ; and 16 miles
are about one mile and a half high above the level of the sea.
And it must he recollected that the line run by the engineers is not
upon the top of a mountain range, hut, like all similar routes through
lofty ranges, " it passes through gorges and narrow defiles, overhung
by rocks and by mountain peaks of the most terrific altitude. These
mountains, through and among which the asked-for railroad would
run, are from 7,000 to 10,000, 12,000, and even 16,000 feet high. In
two places the road would have to he upwards of 8,000 feet above the
level of the sea. Amid these vast solitudes the snow must necessarily
drift in heaps of mountain magnitude, and, it is said, lies unmelted
during by far the larger half of the year. If the art of man could by
any possibility contrive to remove, at a reasonable expense of time
and money, these vast masses of snow, it coidd not prevent a return of
the labor upon the recurrence of every wintry storm. And these
storms must happen lale in the spring as well as early in the fall;
for the rains of the lowlands are indices of snows in the mountains.
When it rains in the valleys it generally snows in the mountains, ex¬
cept in very warm weather."—(Ho. of Reps. Report No. 773, Istsess.
29th Cong., on a railroad through the South Pass.)
In confirmation of these views the undersigned copies the following
brief paragraph from the St. Louis Republican of May 30, 1856. It
is embodied in a letter from its correspondent at Independence:
" The Salt Lake mail arrived here one day last week, but had been
out some time, detained by snow and high water ; and bringing hut
little news of interest, I thought it hardly worth to advise you."
Here it is ; snows in the mountains and high waters in the plains
below in April and May, sufficient to impede the passage of mules and
horses conveying the mails through the passes of these formidable
mountains, and over the rivers of the valleys. Nor is this a solitary
instance in an extraordinary year. Such detentions, late in the
spring and early in the fall, are neither new nor extraordinary occur¬
rences. They are as certain as nature, and recur with the seasons
which annually produce them. Aware of the depth of the snow,
and its long continuance upon the ground, Colonel Benton proposes
to make use of it instead of idly overlooking its existence. Knowing
the usefulness of snow-shoes, dog trains, and sleighs, he long since
recommended their use during the winter season. The length of
time such appliances could he annually resorted to with profit was
definitely ascertained and stated by that accurate senator more than
thirty years ago, as appears from a debate in the Senate between him
and Governor Dickerson, of New Jersey. Governor Dickerson had
ventured to start some " difficulties " in the way of the execution of
Colonel Benton's plans. In reply Colonel Benton thought there
could be no serious difficulty in climbing mountains " whose aspiring
summits present twelve feet of defying snow to the burning rays of a
J uly sun. The passage through the mountains was free from difficulty.
For eight months in the year snow atid sleighs could be confidently
8
PACIFIC RAILROAD AND TELEGRAPH.
relied on." Five and twenty years afterwards, with all the lights
before him which modern explorations had shed on the subject, Colo¬
nel Benton said, in a very elaborate senatorial speech : " Mails in an
uninhabited country of more than two thousand five hundred miles,
traversed by savages, and running over mountains of seven or eight
thousand feet, where deep snows lie for more than a thousand miles
more than one half of the year, could not be carried by a solitary con¬
veyance of a contractor's man or boy. Four or five mounted riflemen,
going together, and started from the different posts to relieve each
other, alone could do it. In winter they ivould have sleighs draiun by
dogs, the reliefs always being ready at each post. A non-commissioned
officer and four or five men, relieved at each post, are the only practi¬
cable mail carriers over such a line"
Since the delivery of that speech, a mail has been carried between
Independence and Salt Lake, over the mountains, described so graph¬
ically, and in a manner somewhat like that stated. The sleds and
dogs have not probably been used by the mail contractor, though in
common use among the fur-traders.
But the snows are not obstructive in the Rocky mountains only;
they are equally troublesome in the Sierra Nevada. Col. Fremont
says : "The high waters came from the melting snows, which, during
the past winter, had accumulated to a great depth in the mountains,
and, at the end of June, lay in the approaches to the Bear River pass,
on a breadth of ten or fifteen miles, and this below the level of 7,200
feet. In rainy seasons, when the rains begin with November, and
the snows lie on the mountains till July" &c. See Geographical Me¬
moir, page 19. The same work, page 7, fixes the latitude of that
pass at 39° 17' 12".
These facts show why Colonel Benton, in his "bill to provide for
the location and construction of a central national road from the
Pacific ocean to the Mississippi river," did not provide for the con¬
struction of a railroad all the way. He knew the rail-car could he
used only in summer, and he expected to use "some other convey¬
ance—the sleigh, for example—for that region, in the time of the
snows." Section 3d of his bill, in accordance with this his intention,
begins thus: "And be it further enacted, that the said central and
branch roads shall be iron railways, where practicable and advan¬
tageous, and shall be macadamized, or otherwise constructed, where
not so practicable and advantageous."
But the bill of a majority of this committee provides for the con¬
struction of railroads, and railroads only, through the passes where
Messrs. Benton and Fremont inform us the snows lie from six to
eight months in the year, and where only dogs and sleds can be profit¬
ably used for the conduction of an East Indian business. Those gen¬
tlemen have explored the capacities of the several routes, and it is
most respectfully submitted, whether, when they have pronounced in
favor of dogs and sleighs, "in the time of the snows," all neophytes
cannot by opponents be considered as fairly concluded f It is submit¬
ted whether, when they have decided for dogs and sleighs "where
deep snows lie for tnore than a thousand miles more than one-half of
the year," men of less knowledge of Jthose vast mountain regions are
PACIFIC RAILROAD AND TELEGRAPH.
9
justifiable in attempting to induce an inexperienced Congress to sub¬
stitute engines and cars for dogs and sleds f Whether it is seemly to
attempt to beguile Congress into the making of an effort to substitute
the railway for the dog-path, even among those extraordinary mount¬
ains, " whose aspiring summits present twelve feet of defying snow to
the burning rays of a July sun?"
Not wishing, however, to appear anxious to limit the enterprising
disposition of the majority, even when it seems to inconsiderately
trample under foot the mountainous knowledge of Messrs. Benton and
Fremont, nor even when adventuring to build railroads a mile and a
half high, through regions where snow lies on the ground for a thou¬
sand miles during six continuous months of the year, the undersigned
will not further press this point, but proceed to call attention to the
difficulty of running a railroad on the plains this side of the Rocky
mountains during several months of the year.
As Colonel Benton and Colonel Fremont are leading friends of a
railroad, of course, when their evidence is unfriendly to the road, it is
to be considered strictly reliable and conclusive against the road, for
their attacks are necessarily unwilling attacks, and only made be¬
cause truth compels them so to do. Speaking of the severity of storms
on the plains, and of Colonel Fremont's skill in sheltering himself,
Colonel Benton says: " He has been safe in his camp, in a grove of
wood, during a snow-storm which hilled all animals on the prairie ;
witness the loss of about a thousand head of government oxen return¬
ing from New Mexico in 1848, while he, in the same snow-storm,
sheltered by woods, lost not an animal," &c., &c. This storm wras
south of the Platte river, south of the Kansas river, and upon a part
of the plain only some 1,800 or 2,000 feet high. But suppose he had
been caught ten miles from timber—it is not necessary to say 100 or
200 miles—neither Colonel Fremont himself, nor his oxen and mules,
could have possibly have escaped alive from the horrors of that howl¬
ing tempest. So rapid is the fall of the snow, and so resistless do the
winds sweep over those almost boundless plains, it is quite impossible
to gain a distant shelter.
So with a train of cars running up the plain from Iowa or Missouri
to the foot of the Rocky mountains, a distance of some 800 miles,
how, in a storm, is shelter, or wood, or water, or food, to be gained?
Arrested 800 miles from Iowa in November, how is a train of cars to
be relieved before May ? By what means could it even be visited ?
In such a case the sheltering skill would be useless. To talk of doing
business in the winter season on a road through such a region, though
every conductor was a Kit Carson and every traveller a Fremont,
would seem to be idle and preposterous. The attempt would soon
make mule-meat fashionable, and u thrilling narratives" super¬
abundant.
It is supposed that no one believes a railroad which can be used but
from four to six months a year will prove a desirable and paying
road.
As to the road from El Paso to California, the same high railroad
authority, Col. Benton, says it passes over a country so sandy, sterile,
and desolate, that a i( tuolf could not make his living!" Devoid of
10
PACIFIC RAILROAD AND TELEGRAPH.
water, fuel, soil, food, and population, it is indeed difficult to see why
a costly road should he built across a country which few have seen
and no one will inhabit. The swiftest riding for four and twenty
hours on the fleetest horse may fail to convey the traveller to the res¬
idence of any human being ; and this holds good of every route,
north and south, recommended by the committee ! If the " way busi¬
ness" is the chief reliance of every road in New York and New Eng¬
land, what can be expected of roads, the way business of either one'
of which, for a distance of 1,500 miles, would scarcely exceed the
business furnished by the most insignificant county in the whole State
of New York, along a line of 15 miles? Who expects a population
of half a million of souls, including men, women, and children, to
supply business enough to support three railroads, each road 2,000
miles long, running over mountains covered with snow, and across
deserts of sand? That eminent friend of the scheme of building a
railroad across those lofty plains, covered only with artemisia, and
only inhabited, here and there, by wandering tribes who gain a pre¬
carious subsistence by digging roots and gathering snails, thus de¬
scribes one portion of a route recently surveyed for a road : " Then
comes the Mohahve, which it ascends and crosses ten times ; a river of
sand—swallowed up in sand—and percolating through a desert of
sand, rolling like the leaves of the ocean under the action of the wind !
where neither man nor beast could lie down or stand still without be¬
ing buried alive—but not to remain long alive—under a tumulus of
sand!"
And yet this route, bad as Col. Benton considers it, is believed by
Kit Carson (another Pacific railroad man) to be the best of any ! If
the best, what must be the characteristics of the worst ? Carson
says:
" I know but one route across the continent which can be travelled
winter and summer, and over a remarkably level country, and that
one must cross the Bio Grande del Norte within fifty or sixty miles
of Sante Fe, and from thence as direct as the nature of the country
will allow. There is no manner of doubt that the trail from Albu¬
querque by Zuni, along the headwaters of the streams that run into
the Gila, and then crossing the Big river about the Mohahve, and so
on, is the easiest road that can be found. Any old mountaineer, that
knows anything about it, will say that the southern route through
New Mexico is the best. The South Pass 1 consider almost impracti¬
cable. The snoivs lie early and late, in both the rocky and snowy
mountain countries."
These authorities are quoted because friendly to the scheme. How
terrible are the obstacles which they show to be in the way of build¬
ing a railroad through these mountains and deserts ! They are also
quoted to show how unreliable and how contradictory are the author¬
ities upon which Congress is called to act in a matter of such large
public concern. Take this very route recommended by Kit Carson,
the most skilful mountaineer in the world ; not only does he and
Col. Benton differ in their estimates of its availability and value, but
great differences exist in the estimates of the engineers. At the
last Congress the cost of the road from Fort Smith, by way of Albu-
PACIFIC RAILROAD AND TELEGRAPH.
11
querque, to San Francisco, was estimated at the sum of $175,877,265.
It is now estimated at $94,720,000. Difference, $81,157,265.
Here is a reduction in one year, and without any materially addi¬
tional surveys, of more than eighty-one millions of dollars! And we
are told by the engineer in his report that " it is believed by him that
the amount will be much diminished !"
Now, whether the first estimate was submitted in order to exhibit
in favorable contrast the route a couple of hundred miles south of it,
and the second one to conciliate those great central interests that had
been injured by the first, or whether it was truly and verily a mathe¬
matical mistake of eighty-one millions of dollars, it is quite foreign
from the purpose of the undersigned to inquire. The discrepancy
exists. Nor is it intended to charge, nor to intimate, that the discrep¬
ancy cannot be accounted for in a manner consistent with the highest
sense of honor ; but it is intended to intimate, and to broadly assert,
that when the friends of a gigantic measure, which threatens to in¬
volve our country in a huge national debt, admit the existence of natu¬
ral obstacles of the gravest character on each route ; when the engi¬
neers admit the existence of mistakes in their estimates to an amount
of more than eighty-one millions of dollars, (an amount almost equal
to the cost of the revolutionary war,) it is both proper and called for
to refuse to act upon authority which may be so justly characterized
as unreliable.
Even if a national railroad ought to be built by the general gov¬
ernment, it were temerity to enter upon its construction with the pres¬
ent uncertain information now before Congress. Undoubtedly a road
from Baltimore, by the way of Wheeling, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Al¬
buquerque, and Zuni, to San Francisco, would avoid most of the
snows on the one hand, and most of the sandy plains on the other.
Undoubtedly, too, it would well accommodate both sections of the na¬
tion. The temptation, on the part of rival routes, is very great to
exaggerate the estimates of its cost. The temptation to cut down its
cost is equally great on the part of its friends.
And yet this central route—the, most fairly located of any to ac¬
commodate the mass of the people and the great cities, and therefore
having far the most political strength of either route—is the route the
estimates of the cost of which have been subjected to such a serious
mistake.
If grave mistakes were committed on a route where more care and
more labor would be likely to be bestowed upon estimates of cost than
upon the estimates of cost of the less important routes upon each side
of it, what reliance ought to be placed upon the estimates of cost made
up for routes of minor importance f Surely greater care, greater labor,
and greater pains-taking, were not likely to be bestowed upon the
lesser objects than upon the greater.
Viewed in any aspect, reliance ought not to be placed upon the es¬
timates submitted—certainly not to such an extent as to base action
that wfill impose a national debt upon the people. This is proved by
a moment's reflection. The Boston and Worcester railroad has been
in existence about twenty years, and its present cost per mile is about
$71,000, including equipment, &c. Now, if that road, with all its
12
PACIFIC RAILROAD AND TELEGRAPH.
conveniences of material and labor, has cost $71,000 per mile, will
not the cost of a railroad amid those vast solitudes in the rocky and
snowy mountains exceed the cost of the Boston and Worcester twice
or three times, even at the enl of one year's running, instead of twenty
years ? Take either of the roads—from Slirevesport, Springfield, In¬
dependence, or Council Bluffs, to San Francisco—the distance exceeds
two thousand miles ; at the cost of the Boston and Worcester railroad
either road would cost one hundred and forty-two millions of dollars ;
at double the cost, would be two hundred and eighty-four millions of
dollars ; at three times the cost, the cost would be four hundred and
twenty-six millions of dollars. The latter will be about the true cost
of either road ten years from the date of its being sufficiently com¬
pleted to be used—-for a railroad is never finished. The Boston and
Worcester railroad (probably the best managed road in this country)
when put in use, in 1835, had cost $1,160,553 ; in 1853, the cost was
$4,850,784. True, the company built branches twenty-four miles
long, but they cost only some $595,000 ; thus increasing its cost three
times in eighteen years, after deducting the cost of its branches f A
road may be quoted as having been cheaply built, or dearly, and both
quotations may be true; this is done by stating the cost at different
periods.
It being evident that the cost of building and maintaining these
Pacific railroads will ultimately be thrown upon the United States, if
the bill of the majority of this committee shall become a law, it is
deemed important that Congress shall have some positive knowledge
of the costliness of the <c bargain " they are buying, and hence the fol¬
lowing official table is submitted; it thoroughly explains itself, and
is most instructive:
i
BOSTON AND WORCESTER RAILROAD.
The cost, mileage, cost per mile, gross receipts, current expenses, net receipts, receipts from passengers, receipts from
freight, miscellaneous receipts, earnings per mile, per centage of gross and net ea/rnings, /row completion of the road
to November 30, 1853, have been as follows:
Year.
1835
1836
1837
1838
1839
1840
1841
1842
1843
1844
1845
1846
1847
1848
1849
1850
1851
1852
1853
Cost.
$1,160,556
1,500,000
1,500,000
1,710,214
1,848.085
1,994^ 980
2,374,547
2,764,396
2,836,200
2,914,078
2,900,000
3,485.232
A\113,609
4,650,392
4,908,332
8W0 KAa
4,882.648
4,862,748
4,845,966
4,850,784
60,002,848
Mileage.
44%
47%
47%
47%
47%
47%
47%
47%
47%
47%
47%
51%
52%
68%
68%
68%
68%
68%
68%
Cost per
mile.
$26,005
31,491
31,491
a5,800
38,800
41,889
49,859
58,045
59,557
61,187
60,892
67,694
77,983
70,345
71,915
71,540
"" ,249
,032
,073
71
71.
71,
Gross receipts.
$119,100-
175,185
210,047
212,324
231,807
267,547
310,807
349,207
383.367
426,403
487,455
554,712
722,170
716.284
703,361
757,947
743,922
758,819
887,219
9,017,683
Current ex¬
Net receipts.
Rate of
penses.
dividend.
$60,212
$48,888
6
89,135
86,050
6
94,762
115,285
6 "
89,325
122,999
7%
122,572
109,235
6
140,441
227,106
6
162,998
147,809
7
168,510
180,697
7
206,641
176,726
6
233,264
193,139
7%
249,729
237,726
8
283,876
270,836
8
381,986
340,184
10
381.917
334,367
8%
6
405,551
297,810
377,041
380,906
6%
414.109
329,813
7
427,522
331,297
7
455,528
431,691
7
•
4,745,740
4,262,564
133
Receipts from
passengers.
$95,279
120,788
123.331
112,032
122,496
170.885
190,097
186,610
207,267
234,634
241,219
279,793
304,580
332.886
330,606
397,249
403,362
424,714
481,222
4,790,646
Receipts from
freight.
$53,821
54,393
86,716
94.827
106,251
92,819
110,001
148^189
162,650
175,990
233,505
260,165
374,663
359,073
331.338
330,780
318,933
314,944
382,558
3,991,622
Miscella¬
neous.
$5,466
3,060
3,873
10,709
14,408
13,444
17,807
12,731
14,754
42,927
24,325
41,417
29.917
21,627
19,162
23,439
299,067
Earnings
per mile.
$2,669
3,678
4,412
4,458
4,867
5,617
6,515
7,332
8,948
8,953
10,237
1 rt nn\
Per centage of
gross earnings.
10
12%
14
12%
12%
19%
12%
13%
14%
16%
16
17
16%
15%
14%
15%
15%
15%
18
19)276%
Av. 14.527
Per cent-
age of net
earnings.
4
5%
7%
6
6
6%
6%
6%
6%
8
8
9
8%
7%
6
8
6%
7
0
19)133
Av. 7
►d
►3
S
w
k
P
w
0
►
>
as
e
/
1
w
o
w
>
w
CO
14
PACIFIC RAILROAD AND TELEGRAPH.
As in the case of the Boston and Worcester railroad, so would" it he
with the Pacific railroads—the steady increase of the cost would he
as "reliable," and could as safely he counted upon as Colonel Ben¬
ton's twelve feet of "defying snow to the burning rays of a July
sun." If that road, under good management, increased its cost 300
per cent, in fifteen years, the Pacific roads would certainly do no
better, and probably would do far ivorse. Supposing one of them
built for 200 or 300 millions of dollars, the same sum, if it was man¬
aged as well as the Boston and Worcester road, would have to be
expended every five years. If not as well managed, the expenditure
would be far more.
This becomes serious when it is known that it is impossible for the
earnings of the road to pay its annual expenses. Could it for a few
years pay 7 per cent, dividend per year, after paying all expenses, as
in the case of the Boston and Worcester road, it might go on for a
few years, perhaps, but bankruptcy would surely overtake it. No
railroad company can long escape insolvency if every five years a sum
equal to its entire first cost must be added to its aggregate cost. And
if a well-managed road in New England did not escape this necessity
during the first fifteen years of its existence, how can we reasonably
expect a railroad to do better that is managed by remote, ill-regulated,
and irresponsible subordinates, amid the Rocky and Snowy mountains,
one, two, and three thousand miles distant from the controlling power
at Washington city—especially when both superior and inferior
managers were appointed by politicians, in reward for past, and in
expectation of future, political services? It is believed to be pre¬
posterous to suppose that efficiency and economy could possibly flow
from such a source in political times like the present. And, besides,
while a rigid supervision may be maintained over a road only forty-
four miles long, where every employee, of all grades of service, is
daily under the eye of stockholders, as well as directors, such effective
supervision cannot be had, on any terms, when the employees are far
removed from such an all-pervading influence,, and such a multiplied
oversight.
But to return. The cost of the Boston and Worcester railroad
(44§ miles long) was, in 1855, including equipments, $4,865,439 03;
the cost of the Pennsylvania railroad (248 miles long) was, in 1855,
$10,245,000, and the outfit $2,900,000—total cost, $13,145,000; the
cost of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad (379 miles long) was, in
1855, including equipments, real estate, and $996,777 26 expended
on a second track, $22,760,205 05 ; the cost of the New York and
Erie railroad (460 miles long) was, in 1855, including equipments,
$33,742,817 11 ; the cost of the New York Central railroad (297 miles
long) was, in 1855, including equipments, $27,360,731 05 ; the cost
of the Western railroad, Massachusetts, (155 miles long,) was, in 1855,
including equipments, $10,495,504 96.
The total length of these six railroads, more important, and located
amidst a more dense population than any other six railroads in the
United States, is 1,589 miles. Having command of labor, food, ma¬
terials, and skill, on the best possible terms, upon the very line of the
roads, and throughout their extent, their builders constructed them
PACIFIC RAILROAD AND TELEGRAPH.
15
<at far cheaper rates than can he hoped for upon the sand plains, or
.upon the snowy mountains, far distant from the habitations of men.
And jet the cost of building and equipping those 1,589 miles, in the
best part of the country, was §112,369,697 20 ! which is over §70,000
per mile, and hut a very small part of it double track !
. In the face of this experience of the cost of building railroads in the
most populous portions of the United States, the engineers have sub¬
mitted official statements, estimating the cost of building a railroad
from Fulton, in Arkansas, through Texas, over waterless sand-plains
and across lofty mountains, 2,075 miles, to San Francisco, in Califor¬
nia, at the sum of §87,990,000 ! They officially state, for our official
guidance, that, in their opinions, a road 480 miles longer than those
six railroads, and at §24,379,697 20 less cost than what we know
those six roads cost, can he built across those uninhabited, barren,
and irregular mountains!
They also estimate that the shortest southern route, (from Fort
Smith to San Francisco,) which is 2,025 miles long, can he built for
the sum of §94,720,000. This road is 436 miles longer than the six
roads referred to, and yet' they estimate that it can he built for
§17,649,697 20 less money!
. Without the examination of a single figure to see wherein the en¬
gineers have erred, does not the judgment of every well-informed man
instruct him at once that such estimates cannot be relied upon by any
considerate person ? Who would take stock and expend his money in
furtherance of a scheme based upon estimates so entirely at war with
all the experience of railroad men, especially if the estimates were
made by army engineers, who have had no practical acquaintance with
the business of railroad building ? And shall the nation be less con¬
siderate in the appropriation of its money than individuals ? Surely
not.
The undersigned has heard no practical railroad man estimate the
Cost of constructing a railroad upon the deserts and in the mountains,
far removed from the labor and the materials which have to be con¬
veyed there from the ends of the road, at so low a price as twice the
cost of building the best roads in the eastern States, where materials,
labor, and food are close at hand. A road 2,075 miles long, at only
§70,000 per mile, (which is the average cost of the six large eastern
railroads,) would eost§145,250,000, insteadofcostingonly§87,990,000,
as estimated by the engineers, for the guidance of Congress ; and the
road 2,025 miles long, at §70,000 per mile, would cost §141,750,000;
whereas the latest estimates of the engineers tell us it can be built
for §94,720,000.
But it is not believed that either of the two roads can be built for
§70,000 per mile. A double-track road—and no other could be safely
used in deserts and mountains far removed from the abodes of men—
cannot, in the opinion of the undersigned, be built and suitably
equipped for the transaction of a business gigantic enough to pay legal
interest upon its cost, short of §140,000 per mile ; it is not at all cer¬
tain that it can be built for double §70,000 per mile—§140,000 per
mile. It is difficult to conceive at what cost cross-ties and rails can
be conveyed hundreds of miles ; at what cost grading, embanking,
16
PACIFIC RAILROAD AND TELEGRAPH.
/
and blasting can be done, when laborers, and food, and tools, are to
be conveyed more than a thousand miles. Having no experience to
teach us, we are compelled to wander in the wilderness of conjecture.
If the experience of the United States in conveying stores high up
the plains is in any way applicable, it would teach us that the cost of
heavy articles is largely multiplied by the mere expense of transpor¬
tation. The opinion is entertained that all estimates of cost of public
works in distant mountains and sultry deserts are in danger of being '
too low rather than too high ; the tendency of the mind is to constantly
refer to similar work done elsewhere, though the surrounding cir¬
cumstances may be wholly unlike. No hesitation is felt in placing
upon record the opinion, that no railroad 2,000 miles long, from the
valley of the Mississippi to San Francisco, upon any route whatever,
can be built and stocked for $100,000 per mile—$200,000,000. For
however cheaply built, the road will require an immense stock to
enable it to have sufficient capacity to earn interest upon the prodi¬
gious expenditures of money its building will necessarily involve.
A few additional thoughts, and the subject of the feasibility of build¬
ing a railroad from the Pacific across the mountains to the Missis¬
sippi river, at a remunerative cost, will be dismissed.
Suppose a railroad can be built as desired, and at a cost not exceed¬
ing $70,000 per mile, which is a cost of $140,000,000 for 2,000 miles.
The interest on that sum, per year, is $8,400,000. That road is a
well managed one which, after paying all expenses, saves 45 to 48
per cent of its earnings ; but, in this case, suppose one-half of the
earnings are saved, and can be counted as clear profit. To clear a
profit of $8,500,000 with which to pay the interest, the road would
have to do a business of twice that amount, or $17,000,000 per year !
Does any reflecting man suppose that a community of 500,000 souls
on the Pacific coast can do an overland business, (which is, in all
cases, less than the maritime business of a people having a sea-coast
extending and meandering through seventeen degrees of latitude,)
the very cost of transporting which exceeds $17,000,000?
Let us look at this in a practical way. The entire value of the
forei gn imports of California b}r both sea and land, during the past year,
amounted only to $5,951,379 ; the foreign exports to $8,224,066—
total $14,175,445. Of these exports, no less than $1,034,651 con¬
sisted of " foreign produce/' which was not wanted, and therefore
was sent to other countries. These figures were obtained at the Treas¬
ury, and may be relied on. Now, if the entire value of the foreign
commerce of California is only about $14,000,000, what was the price
paid for carrying to and from California that $14,000,000 worth of
goods? If that commerce had consisted wholly of iron, beef, pork,
flour, naval stores, &c., the cost of freighting it hither and thither
would have been about one-tenth of the value of the articles carried—
say $1,500,000. If that commerce had consisted wholly of brandy,
the cost of carrying it would have been about one-fortieth or one-fif¬
tieth of its value—say $350,000. If that commerce had consisted en¬
tirely of cloths, (whether of wool, cotton, or silk,) the freight would
have amounted to a very small sum of money.
And here it is well to recall a great fact, viz : that of the commerce
PACIFIC RAILROAD AND TELEGRAPH.
17
of the United States, whether foreign or domestic, hut an insignificant
- part is conveyed upon railroads. The great body of the trade is done
upon the ocean, the lakes, the rivers, the canals, and upon plank and
gravel roads. The business of freighting done upon railroads, im¬
portant as it truly is, may, when contrasted with that done upon the
water; he safely pronounced insignificant.
It is also safe to say that the freight of the f 14,000,000 of California
commerce for the year 1855 did not probably exceed one and a half
millions of dollars ; probably considerably less.
Supposing that the freights earned on domestic goods sent to and
from California by shippers from the Atlantic ports of the United
States during the year 1855 amounted to three millions of dollars ;
the aggregate freights earned by shippers of foreign and domestic
goods would be four or four and a half millions of dollars—an ag¬
gregate by far above the reality.
By adding the fares for all passengers to and from California, by
sea and by land, in 1855, the aggregate income from passengers, and
from freights, at the high rates assumed, might amount to some five
or six millions of dollars.
But a small portion of this trade could be taken away from ship¬
pers; and even if it could, it would go but part way towards sup¬
porting one railroad instead of maintaining three, recommended by
the committee. But a small portion of the freight of any country
that is favored with an extensive sea-coast is conveyed upon roads of
any kind, except to and from the seaports. This holds true, not only
with New York, but also with the interior States of Ohio, Michigan,
Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri; the great mass of the
freight of each one of which States is carried to market by water, and
not by land conveyances. The Ohio, and the Mississippi, and the
Illinois rivers, and the lakes, and their connecting canals, bear upon
their bosoms a hundred times more tons of freight than all the rail¬
roads in all the States which border upon those waters.
So (only in a greater degree) with the ocean conveyances contrasted
with roads. How numerous are the instances where articles are con¬
veyed hundreds of miles along the Atlantic coast in light vessels, and
laid down at the seaports, and sold at a less price than the same arti¬
cles brought in upon roads only some fifteen or twenty miles. Any
member of Congress can learn of various instances of this kind by in¬
quiring of business men in this very city. And Congress is not ah
liberty to be blind to the existence of facts in relation to the relative
cost of water and land transportation which bear so directly upon the-
feasibility of those great mountain roads, considered in an economical
point of view.
To show that the shipping interest is really and truly able to-
maintain its business undiminished in the face of any competition
which any mountain railroad can possibly start against it, and that
railroads cannot take it away from the ship-owners, attention is in¬
vited to the various letters appended to this report. Not being per¬
sonally acquainted with large shipping merchants of intelligence and
probity in the northern cities, the Speaker of the House (and this-
occasion is gladly embraced to make acknowledgments for the cheer-
18
PACIFIC RAILROAD AND TELEGRAPH.
ful politeness with which the service was rendered) enclosed the in¬
quiries of the undersigned to eminent Boston merchants. Mr. Wm.
Sturgis, who, in the language of the Speaker, " is one of the oldest
and most intelligent merchants of this country," says, " I am unable
to give the relative cost of transportation over the several routes named
in the memorandum ; hut, assuming four cents per ton per mile as
the lowest rate, and the shortest route from New York to San Fran¬
cisco to he 2,500 miles, it would cost one hundred dollars to carry a
ton of goods from one of these cities to the other hy railroad ; a
charge quite disproportionate to the average value of goods usually
shipped between the two places, and too heavy to he borne hy most
of them.
" The best answer I can give to the inquiry as to the present and
prospective rates of transportation over existing railroads, will be
found in a pamphlet recently published by Captain Wm. EL. Swift,
formerly in the United States service, a cop}r of which will be sent
with this. I entirely concur with him in opinion that these rates
must be materially increased to make railroads remunerative ; and
this remark will apply to those that may hereafter be constructed, as
well as to those already in use.
" I doubt if a railroad from the Mississippi to the Pacific would
derive much support from the transportation of merchandise. The
advocates for building this road profess to believe that a large por¬
tion of the productions of India and China would ultimately find their
way to the Atlantic States by this route. Suchfis not my belief. At
the present time, first-class ships that will carry 2,000 tons each way
'may be chartered for a voyage from New York or Boston, thence to
Canton or Calcutta and back to the United States, for $50,000 the
voyage round; thus bringing the rate of freight to $12 50 per ton, out
or home. It will cost nearly or quite as much to bring a ton of mer¬
chandise from Canton or Calcutta to San Francisco as to bring it to
the Atlantic ; and the expense of bringing it from California to New
York by railroad would be at least three times as much as the profit
expected by the merchant upon the whole voyage, as now carried on."
The foregoing extract throws much most valuable light upon seve¬
ral important points connected with the subject under consideration.
The pamphlet of Captain Swift, to which Mr. Sturgis alludes, places
the actual cost of carrying freight on the New England roads at
•two cents and four-tenths of a cent per ton per mile ; if the profits
are to be as much as the costs, then the railroad charge for car¬
rying freight should be four cents and eight-tenths of a cent per
ton per mile. Mr. Sturgis reckoned the freight at four cents a ton
per mile, which would be too loio, even in New England; far less
among the Rocky and Snowy mountains, where the expenses would be
so much greater. Instead of four and eight-tenths of a cent, call the
freight jive cents per ton per mile. So as to distance. Mr. Sturgis
makes it too short; from San Francisco to Fort Smith is 2,025 miles,
or from San Francisco to the southwest line of Missouri, near Spring¬
field, is 2,025 miles; and from thereto St. Louis, 350 miles; and
thence to New York, 1,150 miles: in all, from San Francisco to New
York city 3,525 miles, and not 2.500 miles as he estimates. The ex-
/
PACIFIC RAILROAD AND TELEGRAPH.
19
treme southern route would be still longer. At five cents per ton
per mile, it would cost, to carry a ton of merchandise from San Fran¬
cisco to New York, on a railroad, no less than $176 25 ; at four cents
per ton per mile, it would cost $141 ; at three cents per ton per
mile, it would cost $105 75.
When it is considered that merchandise can he conveyed from
China, or from the East Indies, to New York or Boston for $12 50
per ton ; and when it is known that " it will cost nearly or quite as
much to bring a ton of merchandise from Canton or Calcutta to San
Francisco as to bring it to the Atlantic," can any member of this
House suppose that merchandise will he sent from China and India
to California, to he sent overland to New York at a cost of $176 25
per ton ?
As this point is an exceedingly important one, and worthy of the
most careful consideration, attention is specially invited to the follow¬
ing extracts from an able letter written by Messrs. Glidden & Wil¬
liams, at the instance of Messrs. James M. Beebe & Co., and the
secretary of the Boston " Board of Trade," Mr. J. W. Bates. After
stating that the cost of sending goods from New York via isthmus
of Panama to San Francisco, by steam propellers, may be estimated
at $52 per ton, " and say for dead weight about one-third less, or
$35 per ton," Messrs. Glidden & Williams add: "We would re¬
mark, however, that there are not many goods that can afford to pay
such high rates. We think that while shippers can place their goods
in San Francisco from New York and Boston at $12 and $14 per ton,
as now, by first-class clipper ships, there will not be enough of the
finer goods sent forward to tend to a reduction of present rates to
even the prices named above, and that the trade will be carried on
principally by sailing vessels around the Horn, the steamers taking
goods of high value, and such as may be temporarily in great demand,
continuing to get high rates for them."
It is thus seen that sailing vessels are carrying goods from the
Atlantic to the Pacific ports at a cost of from $12 to $14 per ton, and
that " there are not many goods that can afford to pay such high
rates" as $52 per ton for being conveyed from New York to San
Francisco. How, then, can the friends of the plan of building three
railroads, with numerous branches, expect to obtain freight at prices
more than three times as high f True, silks, satins, crapes, and cash¬
meres, a single half ton of which would supply so many merchants,
and have a value so large, would be carried by that conveyance which
is the quickest; for, at the rate of $12, or even $25 per ton, what
would be the cost of carrying one yard of silk, or satin, or lace ? Not
enough to affect its cost, of course ; and hence the greatest speed will
be sought for without regard to its cost. But, as Messrs. Glidden &
Williams say, there are not many goods that can afford to pay even
$50 per ton for carriage from one port to another. This fact, taken
in connexion with the statement of Mr. Sturgis, that " it will cost
nearly or quite as much to bring a ton of merchandise from Canton
or Calcutta to San Francisco as to bring it to the Atlantic," and that
the " expense of bringing it from California to New York by railroad
would be at least three times as much as the profit expected by the
20
PACIFIC RAILROAD AND TELEGRAPH.
merchant upon the whole voyage as now carried on/' must satisfy
even the most prejudiced that the trade of Asia is not likely to he
taken from ships, and placed in the cars which traverse the mountains
of Utah and the desert plains of New Mexico and Nebraska.
But it may he said that, although " freight" cannot be profitably
diverted from ships to a mountain road, upon which, after being car¬
ried 2,000 miles, it would still be left 50 or 75 miles west of the
western boundaries of Arkansas, Missouri, or Iowa, yet that the
travel over it would be far larger than the undersigned has admitted ;
that the " passengers" traffic would be large enough to make one first
class military commercial railroad remunerative. Let us test this sup¬
position by comparing it with known facts.
Of course travellers would start from one or the other of the two
ends of the railroad, as people do not live in any considerable num¬
bers in the deserts and the mountains. The " Way" business will be
inconsiderable; the " through" business will be almost the sole
business.
The receipts of the great Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (379 miles
long) were, last year, $3,711,453 85 ; of which no less than $3,103,-
154 85 were derived from ££ tonnage," and only $608,299 from
££ way" and ££ through" passengers both ! At the same rate, the re¬
ceipts for passengers on the Pacific railroad, 2,000 miles long, would
be $3,210,000 per year ! This would not keep the machinery and the
road-bed in repair !
During the last year the New York and Erie Railroad, one of the
longest and most important roads in this country, conveyed 980,449
passengers, earning $1,698,670 15. Of the 980,449 passengers, 924,-
106 were ££ way" passengers, earning $1,104,017 48, and but 56,-
340 were ££ through" passengers, earning $594,652 67.
Of ££ way" passengers, who compose the bulk on every passenger rail¬
road of importance in the United States, the Pacific railroad would
have next to none at all, until after it becomes possible for people to
live in the deserts and in the Rocky mountains.
Should a Pacific railroad, beginning at San Francisco and termi¬
nating on the western borders of either Arkansas, Missouri, or Iowa,
•where population is sparse, and so continues quite down to the Mis¬
sissippi river, 300 miles further east—should such a road, thus unfavor¬
ably terminating at the east, have a ££ through" passenger business
as large as the Erie road, which connects the western States directly
with New York and Boston, it would amount to but $2,563,000 !
scarcely one-fourth of the money necessary to keep up the road and
machinery, supposing the road was built and made a present of to
those who would undertake to run it and keep it in good repair I The
entire ££ through" passenger business of the New York Central, the
New York and Erie, the Pennsylvania, and the Baltimore and Ohio
railroads, does not yield money enough to keep in repair and run a
Pacific railroad, although those four roads connect 15,000,000 of
people with the four greatest commercial cities upon the Atlantic
coast!
How can Congress rationally suppose that theory a sound one which
necessarily assumes that the passenger traffic between 500,000 men,
* PACIFIC RAILROAD AND TELEGRAPH
21
women, and children on the Pacific coast, 2,000 miles off, and the
border population west of Arkansas, or Missouri, or Iowa, will be
greater than that carried on over the four great connecting roads be¬
tween Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and the hundreds
of small cities and manufacturing villages on the one hand, and the
whole west on the other ?
The Boston merchants have shown, as before set forth, that a rail¬
road across the mountains cannot successlully compete in the freight¬
ing business with those shipping men who have carried the American
flag into every sea. And we have seen that if its through passenger
business, mile for mile, were as great as that of the New York and
Erie railroad, its earnings would not equal one-fourth of its annual
expenses.
Take, then, the travel, and what freight can be obtained, and who
can say that the earnings of a road from California to the Mississippi
would be equal to the sum of $8,400,000 per year? If a road cannot
be relied on to earn that vast sum, then its construction ought not to
be commenced. At $70,000 per mile, either road would cost a little
over one hundred and forty millions of dollars ; the annual interest
upon which, at six per cent., is $8,400,000. Of the earnings it takes
one-half to pay the expenses of running the road and keeping it in re¬
pair. To realize the $8,400,000 with which to pay the interest upon
the cost, the road, therefore, would have to earn double that sum, which
is $16,800,000 ! Now can any one show thattheroad can earn the first
half of that sum, with which to run it and keep it in repair, much less
the second, $8,400,000, with which to pay the interest on first cost?
Can any one point out satisfactorily from what sources even half
enough earnings ($4,200,000) can be obtained to keep the road running
and in good repair ?
But instead of building and equipping one of those roads for the
price of a Massachusetts, or New York, or Pennsylvania, or of a Mary¬
land railroad, the cost may be safely calculated to be more than twice
as much ; if so, the interest would be at least $16,800,000 per year ;
and to pay that sum would require gross earnings to an amount of
not less than thirty-three million six hundred thousand dollars per
annum, forever!
Not only so. The committee recommend the House to construct
three such roads, the shortest of which to be not less than 2,032 miles
long, and ending with seven roads east of the mountains and three
west of it! To properly support that hydra-headed road alone, the
united support of the entire industrial interests of the whole British
empire would prove utterly inadequate !
The southern road has proportions equally gigantic and pretentious,
whilst the hyperborean route, looking into Puget's sound from the
head of Lake Superior, is dwarfed into the modest length of 2,025
miles! Had the route from Kansas, in Missouri, across the Arkan¬
sas, along the Huerfano, up the acclivities of Mr. Fremont's El San-
gre de Christo pass, through the Sierra Blanca, into the long ascend¬
ing valley leading up to the grand and majestic heights of Colonel
Benton's far-famed Coo-cha-to-pe pass in the Pocky mountains; thence
down its violent western declivities through narrow gorges, dangerous
22
PACIFIC RAILROAD AND TELEGRAPH.
defiles, and deep and crooked canons, into tlie swift and hounding
waters of Grand river ; thence scale the steep sides of the Wah-Satch
agglomeration of mountains, and descend from their giddy heights to
Colonel Benton's beautiful s]*ing O-jo San Jose ; thence descend to
the Santa Clara meadows, which are but one mile high above the level
of the sea ; thence onward through the picturesque country which
Colonel Fremont aptly describes as a country " bristling with moun¬
tains ;" and thence to the Sandy desert, along the " river of sand,"
through Walker's pass of the Snowy mountains, down said mountains
to the San Joachim, and thence along the same to San Francisco;
had this route, only some 2,080 miles long, been added to the bill
reported by the majority, the completeness of the scheme would have
rendered the labor of preparing this report entirely superfluous. The
bill would have been self-expository and self-condemnatory ; as it is,
however, even without that most extraordinary of all routes ever seri¬
ously proposed for a railroad by men " with beards on their faces,"
examination must show the scheme of the committee to be, if not a
financial absurdity, at least one of extremely questionable merits.
If one railroad is built across those vast desert plains and moun¬
tains, it will, in all probability, require to keep it in running order,
and to pay only simple interest Upon its first cost, annual earnings to
an amount not less than $33,600,000 ! If tico such railroads shall be
built, annual earnings to the amount of $67,200,000 will be required;
if three roads, then $100,800,000 ! A sum of money greater, proba¬
bly, than is yearly earned by all the shipping of all the oceans of the
world !
In other words, a railroad is too costly a thing to be employed every¬
where^ for every purpose; because it is a great and self-sustaining com¬
mercial convenience in a densely populated country of divers indus¬
trial pursuits, it by no means is to be inferred, that goods sense calls
for its introduction into Iceland, Africa, or Patagonia. Nor is the
success of railroads in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, to
be taken and held as proof that it is well to attempt to construct one
2,000 miles long over numerous ranges of lofty and uninhabited moun¬
tains, merely to transact the business of half a million of people in
California; especially when that people front more than 1,500 miles
upon the most tranquil ocean upon the globe.
The undersigned, for the foregoing and many other reasons which
time does not allow to be adequately set forth upon this occasion, is
of the opinion that, considered in reference to its ability to maintain
itself from its own earnings, a railroad from the Mississippi river to
the Pacific ocean is not feasible upon any route yet explored and re¬
ported upon to Congress. If not one, of course not several.
Third. But supposing the road were feasible, considered in a money
point of view, is it politic (if it has the legal power) for the general
government to forestall individual enterprise, and proceed to construct
a railroad for the accommodation of trade and travel ? Clearly not.
The nations of Europe, as nations, build canals, turnpikes, colleges,
churches, &c. The policy of the United States, on the other hand,
has hitherto been to leave these things to be> done by the several
PACIFIC RAILROAD AND TELEGRAPH.
23
States, and by the people. Of the upwards of 24,000 miles of rail¬
road now in actual operation in tne United States, not a mile has been
built by the United States government. And yet tne expansion of
the railroad system, without being stimulated by national competi¬
tion into greater activity, has been quite as rapid as the welfare of
other material interests would justify—quite. What interest has
represented to Congress that too small an amount of capital has been
invested in railroads and canals, and requesting such legislation as
will cause capital to be more rapidly invested in new railroads? True,
Congress has occasionally, and, at the present session, frequently,
aided the construction of railroads through government lands, taking
care to double the price of the alternate reserved sections. But this
system is of recent date, and by no means meets with universal approval;
the solidity of the objections urged against it is already becoming so
manifest to all, that it is exceedingly doubtful whether it will be main¬
tained beyond the existence of the present Congress. The small stimu¬
lus afforded to the business of railroad building by this aid given by
Congress to roads built or building through its unsettled lands, is not
believed to have had, so far, a very material influence upon the gene¬
ral movements of the capitalists of the country; except so far as re¬
lates to Illinois, Missouri, and Alabama, its influence upon railroad
building has, probably, had no perceptible influence.
Shall Congress go a step further ? Shall it step forward, and, by
tbe use of its lands, or of its money, build one, two, or three conti¬
nental railways, each of them not less than 2,000 miles long, and each of
them costing not less than double the cost of roads in the settled por¬
tions of the country—say $140,000 per mile, which is $280,000,000
for 2,000 miles of road?
At the time this country shook off the dominion of Great Britain,
wealth was very equally divided. Rarely could an individual be found
whose property was worth one hundred thousand dollars. Paupers
were almost unknown. The country had but little wealth, and but
little pauperism. In 1800, the country was still poor, and the govern¬
ment was in debt. Individuals lacked the capital necessary to open
mines, dig canals, construct roads, or to clear out rivers and harbors;
and, hence, the development of these sources, and of these means
with which to acquire wealth, was necessarily slow, as compared with
the rapid developments of the present. To quicken movements,
States commenced digging canals by making use of their several
credits ; associated companies built turnpikes, and founded banks
with small capitals and large issues ; cities built wharves and im¬
proved harbors by using their municipal credit; and, in obedience to
the popular impulse, the general government itself used its credit to
found a bank, with the notes of which to swell the amount of the cur¬
rency.
The results were productive of great good and of much evil. An
immense interior canal navigation, without a rival in the world, was
created ; many thousands of miles of turnpike-roads were built ; mines
were opened, factories built, ships and steamboats launched, and for¬
tunes created with a rapidity never before witnessed. The railroad
system followed with like rapidity, distancing all the world beside.
24
PACIFIC RAILROAD AND TELEGRAPH
On the first day of January, 1856, the railroads of the United States
numbered more miles of road in actual operation than those of all
other nations added together.
But experience taught that managing hanks and building national
roads was a business for which the general government was peculiarly
unfitted. The experience of the several States teaches the same lesson;
in proof of which, it is only necessary to point to the financial diffi¬
culties occasioned by attempting to execute works of internal improve¬
ment. Look, for example, at the experience of Pennsylvania, Mary¬
land, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Mississippi. Even Hew
York, with its supposed success in its schemes, was compelled to resort
to direct taxation to restore its severely wounded credit.
Most of the railroads and turnpikes, most of the academies, colleges,
and universities, all of the churches, and most of the libraries, all of
the ships, steamboats, shops, founderies and factories, and the open¬
ing up of farms, plantations, and mines, may be pronounced the re¬
sults of individual, and not of government enterprise.
There is between the condition of things existing in 1800 and in
1856 very little similitude. Then, capital was scarce ; the mines uno¬
pened ; manufactures unestablislied; steamboats, railroads, telegraphs,
and the cotton-gin uninvented; and even country turnpikes, as well as
canals, remaining unbuilt. Now, no nation has a larger capital, or
a greater volume of a hand-to-hand currency, composed of coin and
bank paper, or more valuable opened mines, or more extensive man¬
ufactures, or larger agricultural products, nor so many ships, steam¬
boats, miles of canal, railroad, plank road, turnpike-road, or of tele¬
graph lines, as the United States. Wherever it can be shown that
by building a new railroad, a new foundry, a new factory, or a new
ship, a handsome profit can be made, there will capitalists speedily
make their appearance. So it is in mining, so in farming, and
planting.
When the country was truly poor, there was some excuse for desir¬
ing government to come to the aid of individuals seeking to build
roads to their mines, to their shops, or to their farms. But now,
when the country is rich, and when capital is seeking investment in
any and all enterprises that are both safe and profitable, it is at war
with sound policy for those charged with the administration of the
government to seek, or to allow themselves to be persuaded, to enlarge
its patronage and increase its cumbrousness by entering upon the
business of railroad building. For if government once enters upon
the business, though only in the humble capacity of assistant, the
speculators and agents who may be interested will soon contrive to
convert it into the "principal.
If the contemplated railroads will be as profitable as claimed, then
their construction ought to be left to those gentlemen whose regular
business it is. They ought not to be deprived of it. Government
ought not to interfere with the business of its citizens ; it ought not
to compete with them in the transportation of trade and travel upon
the land any more than upon water. If Congress builds a line of road
as a matter of accommodation, and not for competition, then it should
do the same thing wherever desired. To do less, is partiality. And
PACIFIC RAILROAD AND TELEGRAPH
25
an honest government is necessarily impartial; it ceases to he honest
the moment it loses its impartiality.
As capital is abundant and enterprise superabundant, individuals
will build the roads west from the Mississippi, as they have from the
east to the Mississippi, if those roads may he fairly considered paying
roads; and as the majority of the committee are of opinion that they
will be, it is respectfully submitted whether sound policy does not re¬
quire Congress to leave the work, and the profits thereof, to those
enterprising persons who so commendably seek to enjoy it !
If, however, the work will not pay, but will entail ever-continuing
expense, why should Congress build a road that prudent capitalists
will not touch ? Why should government be less wise and less pru¬
dent than individuals—especially as it would cost government far more
to build, and far more to maintain, a railroad than it would experienced
and prudent individuals ? Where prudent and experienced men hesi¬
tate, the government may well pause before committing itself to an
expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars.
And, besides, it is considered entirely inexpedient and impolitic to
enter upon the business of constructing railroads for the accommoda¬
tion of trade and travel. If this policy is entered upon, why shall
not the United States next proceed to build a direct road from Wash¬
ington to New York, and thence to Portland ? Why shall it not seek
to avoid the errors of location committed by the New York Central
railroad, and build a road from New York to Buffalo on a more direct
and shorter line? Why not build a road from New York to Erie, in
Pennsylvania, on a line that will more perfectly accommodate trade
and travel than does the New York and Erie railroad? If the gov¬
ernment is induced to enter upon a competition with capitalists to
supply railroad accommodations, ivhen and where is it to stop? If a
crevasse is once opened, who can foretell the extent of the ravages of
the flood? Who can say where the new channel will run ? What
interest would be safe from congressional incursion when all barriers
hut discretion are removed ? When lobby agents for competing rail¬
roads shall be as numerous as steamship agents, what railroad stock¬
holder shall be able to say his road will not next be subjected to gov¬
ernment competition f And when five or ten years hence the Territories
shall be States, who can predict that the subject of government's duty
to furnish the people railroads to put down "corporate monopolies"
will not succeed the present Territorial agitations?
The undersigned is immovably opposed to the recognition of the
doctrine that it is the duty of Congress to build railroads for the ac¬
commodation of trade and travel. The object of government is to
protect the property and business of its citizens, and. not to lessen or
to injure the one or the other by entering into competition with them,
backed by its enormous treasury and credit.
But we pass from this important point to a consideration of another
plausibility, which has been much relied on by many latitudinarian
expounders of the power and objects of the general government.
Fourth, If it is impolitic and unseemly for the government to en¬
gage in a competition with its own citizens, can it not, with propriety,
26
PACIFIC RAILROAD AND TELEGRAPH.
construct either a military or a postal railroad for the use both of the
United States and of traders and travellers? No; for if govern¬
ment builds a military railroad, it could not legally be wrested from
the object of its construction, and converted into a commercial road.
As well might the Secretary of the Navy rent an office in New York
or Boston, order the United States ships-of-war into the harbor, and
commence a freighting business between the United States and Eng¬
land, in competition with the shipping merchants ! As well might
the officers and soldiers of the army be hired out to farmers, or set to
work in factories ! As well might forts and arsenals be converted
into flour mills, or blacksmith's shops, or town halls, for the conve¬
nience and pleasure of the people living near them ! Government
was instituted for the protection of its citizens against foreign inva¬
sion and domestic insurrection, and not to enter into the freighting
business, or into railroad building, for the benefit of the trading and
travelling classes.
It can lawfully build a fort; but, under the pretence of its being a
fort, it cannot build a flour-mill. So also can it build a military road,
if absolutely necessary for military purposes ; but, under the pretence
of building a military road, it cannot proceed to build a commercial
road, open ticket offices, build stores, depots, and sheds, and com¬
mence a freighting business in competition with its citizens. Such
power was never given, for the reason, among others, that whatever
business government entered upon, having power to protect itself, it
would crush out all competition. And, besides, the powers granted
by the constitution are expressed in clear and direct terms. The
whole spirit of the instrument is at war with evasions. That spirit,
at times like the present, ought to be respected.
As to the building of postal roads, nothing need be said about the
danger of their perversion to other purposes, for no authority appears
to have been given Congress to build one.
But aside from the impropriety of perverting a military road to
uses other than those for which it was, at least, ostensibly built, there
are other reasons why a commercial road, under the pretence of its
being a military one, should not be built by the United States.
In 1812, the cost of transporting troops, munitions of war, &c.,
through the interior of New York, Ohio, and Michigan, to the Canada
frontier, was truly enormous. The extra cost of transportation would
have built good military roads ; but war not having been anticipated,
they were not built, and the cost of transportation had to be encoun¬
tered.
After the war was closed, burdened with debt, distressed by a
disordered currency, and unwilling to foster a military spirit at the
expense of the arts of peace, the wise men at the head of our govern¬
ment resolved to pretermit the subject of building expensive military
roads and fortifications, not doubting but that with the growth of the
country good roads would keep pace. It was deemed best to depend
in time of war upon the roads which the people used in time of peace,
instead of rolling up an onerous public debt.
The wisdom of this policy has been nobly vindicated by results.
From Maine to Wisconsin, along the whole Canadian frontier,
PACIFIC RAILROAD AND TELEGRAPH. - 27
good country roads leading thereto everywhere exist. In addition,
fine canals have been dug and lined with thousands of canal-boats,
and extensive railroads, in most advantageous directions, have been
built and efficiently equipped with suitable rolling stock. Railroads
have also been built, or are now building, not only along the whole4
Atlantic and Gulf frontiers, but railroads connecting with these at
innumerable points, from the remotest interior States, have also been
built, have been well stocked, and are well managed. All these have
been built by States and by individuals, without taxing the federal
treasury. These canals and railroads are well and profitably man¬
aged ; they serve in time of peace as distributors of the goods from
which the government derives its income, and in war will prove the
most efficient instruments of defence known among military men.
A greater number of men can be conveyed by them in twenty-four
hours to any considerable city between New Orleans and Portland,
than any fleet of any one nation can land at one time at the one point;
so that, at the moment of landing, an invading foe iconld stand in the
'presence of a superior force.
Had the government involved the nation in a debt of $800,000,000,
a better system of military roads could not have been put in operation.
Why, then, should the government of a people so enterprising arid
so energetic change its policy, and, at this late day, distrusting the
future, commence the construction of military railroads?
Looked at from another point, reasons against entering upon a
new line of policy present themselves. Hitherto it has been an ob¬
ject with the wisest of our statesmen not to unnecessarily enlarge
the operations or the patronage of the general government, but
rather to keep both within as narrow limits as duty and usefulness
will permit.
Placing out of view the fact that a commercial railroad, in every
day use, will be kept in a higher state of efficiency and at far more
economical rates than a military one, and is, therefore, better fitted
for military emergencies than would be an exclusive and but seldom
used military railroad ; putting all this out of view, the enormous
amount of patronage (of a character that could be but indifferently
well controlled) which would be devolved upon the general govern¬
ment, is a most serious objection to constructing a military railroad
across the mountains to the Pacific ocean. To be able to appreciate
this, at least to some feeble extent, it may be well to examine the
patronage, in part, (for time will not allow of a full examination,)
which a military railroad 2,000 miles long would confer on the execu¬
tive department of the government.
To do the business on the great road from Boston to Albany, 200
miles, requires the labor of 1,961 men. At the same rate, a Pacific
railroad, 2,000 miles long, would require 19,610 men !
The Baltimore and Ohio railroad, which is 379 miles long, em¬
ployed, last year, 4,259 men. At the same rate, the Pacific railroad
would employ 22,472 !
The Hudson River railroad, which is 144 miles long, and very level,
employs 1,238 men. At the same rate, the Pacific railroad Avould
employ 17,193 men.
28
PACIFIC RAILROAD AND TELEGRAPH.
In other words, the Baltimore and Ohio railroad employs 11 men
per mile; the Hudson River road, 8 men per mile; the Boston and
Worcester road, 8 men per mile; the Western railroad, (from Wor¬
cester to Albany,) 9 men per mile. On 8,116 miles of English rail¬
roads, 12^ men are employed per mile; on the Hew York Central
road, 10 men per mile; and on the Pennsylvania railroad, 16J men
per mile are employed. At the rate employed on the English rail¬
roads, the Pacific railroad, if just 2,000 miles long, would employ ex¬
actly 25,000 men! At the rate of the Pennsylvania railroad, 33,000
men! The three Pacific roads, 99,000 men !
And can we reasonably suppose that a road through such a region
of difficulties and dangers would require less labor than the before-
named roads? By one single enactment—establishing one military
railroad—the patronage of the government would be increased from
25,000 to 35,000 men! If the creation of one or two places justly
causes reflection and debate, how should a measure creating 35,000,
or rather 100,000 places, be received? That this is not all, will be
shown next.
To exhibit, in part, the value of the patronage which a military
railroad, doing commercial business, would bestow, the following
table has been prepared. The table will show certain expenses neces¬
sarily encountered by certain companies :
New York
Central.
New York
and Erie.
Pennsylv'a
It. R. Co.
Baltimore &.
Ohio.
Boston and
Worcester.
Total.
Number of miles of road of
main road
Number of locomotive en¬
gines
Number of passenger cars....
Number of baggage cars
Number ot freight cars
Number of cars
Cost of fuel, per year, for en¬
gines
Yearly cost of oil, tallow, &.c,
for engines and cars
Cost of waste, &c., for clean¬
ing
2S8
188
2,425
(all kinds.)
2,425
460
203
125
43
2,770
2,938
248
115
94
24
1,485
1,603
379
208
73
14
3,338
3,425
44
29
107
18
746
781
1,430
•
743
*399
*99
*8,339
11,172
.$589,830 61
126,007 15
.$481,270 91
98,808 38
$138,202 43
31,431 50
4,244 24
$726,204 96
66,443 45
9,798 61
$151,475 98
10,341 33
986 06
$2,086,984 89
333,031 81
15 028 91
156,715 24
fl7,479 06
*59,081 67
1139,829 24
1,940.692 91
317,182 88
1149,754 81
1.918,665 04
2,386,391 74
Loss and damage of goods
and baggage
35,083 84
8,340 56
43,839 43
12,280 34
657,290 20
111,529 47
56,325 71
664,374 06
778,360 79
21,631 40
9,132 50
3,015 00
96,813 96
530,400 88
54,583 05
25,031 05
504,655 06
386,894 90
Repairs of fences and gates...
Damages for injuries to per-
sons •••••••• ••••••••«••••■
Damages to property, inclu¬
ding damages by fire, and
cattle killed on the railroad.
Repairs of roadbed and rail-
way •••• •••••• •••« •■••••••
For taxes and insurance
181,717 01
141,213 35
252.506 11
620,578 04
1,670 70
30,734 34
476,547 58
10,556 54
104,737 24
9,857 01
19,398 05
203,396 18
96,673 33
For repairs of station build¬
ings, fixtures,and furniture.
Amount of materials kept on
hand
Cost of repairs of machinery.
49,000 00
293,733 63
503,884 68
* For four roads. f For two roads. J For three roads.
The above table takes no notice of the salaries of the officers and
pay of the men; and yet the five items—cost of fuel, cost of oil for
wheels and waste for cleaning, &c., cost of insurance and taxes, cost
of keeping the machinery in repair, and keeping the road-bed and raiE
\
PACIFIC RAILROAD AND TELEGRAPH.
29
way in repair—for those five railroads, having a total length of 1,430
miles, amount, per year, to no less than §7,079,313 14 !
If', after leaving out the entire cost of management, the mere fuel, oil,
repairing the road, repairing the machinery, and paying insurance
and taxes, alone cost, annually, over seven millions of dollars to keep
up fourteen hundred and thirty miles of road located in the best part
of the United States, what would it cost to support more than 2,000
miles of railroad amid deserts and mountains? If it requires 743
locomotive engines on 1,430 miles of railroad in the Atlantic States,
and §1,918,665 04 worth of materials kept constantly on hand, in
readiness for repairs of machinery and road-way, how many engines,
and what amount of materials, would he required on a road running
over mountains upwards of 3,000 feet high, for a distance of 1,432
miles, as does the South Pass route ? An examination of the letters
appended hereto will show the lessened power of engines when re¬
quired to move a train up a steep grade, or against sharp curves.
High grades and sharp curves are the attendant evils of mountain
routes, and not only call for a largely increased number of engines,
requiring more men, fuel, oil, repairs, &c., but also more speedily use
up both the machinery and the road-way. Even on the New England
railroads, Mr. Appleton says, the rails last but five or ten years, and
locomotives last but some ten to fifteen years. So, also, in regard to
cars. On the five roads, no less than 11,172 cars are in use. What,
then, must be the number which would be required on a continental
railway, equipped to do a continental business corresponding with the
mammoth capital invested ?
These few items will give a faint idea of the immense patronage that
the building and management of a railroad constructed nominally for
military, but used for commercial purposes, would confer upon the
government. It would create a debt of mountain magnitude ; and
yet it would not in all probability earn enough to repair its machinery
and road-way, and pay for the fuel to drive and the oil to lubricate the
wheels of its cars, even if its thirty-odd thousand employees would
perform the necessary labor gratis.
Why, then, should this government, even if it has the constitutional
authority to clo so, attempt to build a railroad so expensive and wholly
unproductive—especially as the enterprise of the American people
has furnished to the government, without charge, the best of railways
for military, postal, and commercial purposes ; and that, too, without
imposing upon the nation the necessity of a patronage at once wide¬
spread, measurably irresponsible, and of most demoralizing political
tendencies ?
Fifth. Has the Congress of the United States constitutional author¬
ity conferred upon it authorizing it to provide for building either rail¬
roads or canals for the uses and conveniences of the people ?
It has not. Wise men like Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Madison, Mr. Macon,
Mr. Polk, Judge Woodbury, and many others of high authority upon
questions of constitutional law, believed that the constitution conferred
no such authority upon Congress. Keferring,for the reasons upon which
he bases his opinion, to the numerous able expositions of this subject,
30
pacific railroad and telegraph.
(without presuming to attempt to add new ideas upon them,) the un¬
dersigned satisfies himself with an expression of the opinion that Con¬
gress lias no authority, express or implied, to build a railroad either
in the States or in the Territories. But for the great length to which
this report has already been extended, a summary of the opinions of
great constitutional expounders upon this point would have been added
hereto. It is, perhaps, scarcely necessary.
Occasion is taken to express, in terms of thankfulness, the many
favors received from leading railroad and shipping men in different
parts of the United States. In nearly every case where information
has been sought, it has been cheerfully and promptly afforded, though
sometimes occasioning much trouble and loss of valuable time. Few
valuable avenues of information have been left neglected, nor has any
been closed ; want of skill and experience has alone prevented a more
perfect use of the valuable materials placed at the disposition of the
undersigned : if any errors of fact, or of inference, have escaped him,
it is justly attributable to the same cause. However imperfect the
result may be found, the aim has been to reach just and reliable con¬
clusions.
In conclusion, the undersigned believes that Congress ought not to
attempt to build, in whole or in part, alone or in partnership, as a
principal or as an aider, with money or with land, one or more rail¬
roads from the Mississippi river to San Francisco, on the Pacific
ocean.
All of which is most respectfully submitted.
Z. KID WELL.
July 24, 1856.