THE 
 
 Texas & Pacific Railway 
 
 OR A 
 
 I t 
 
 NATIONAL HIGHWAY 
 
 ALONG 
 
 The Path of Empire. 
 
 - *■»-. - 
 
 BY L. U. REAVIS. 
 
 - +94 - 
 
 Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be ex¬ 
 alted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be 
 made straight, and the rough places plane, and the glory of the Lord shall be re¬ 
 vealed.— [Isaiah. 
 
 The chartered line of the Texas and Pacific Railway, lies along the path of 
 empire. It traverses a region of country, the climate of which is that golden mean 
 between extremes of heat and cold, and under which man and nature combine to 
 produce the greatest civilization and power. 
 
 NEW YOKE: 
 
 BAKER & GODWIN, PRINTERS, 
 No. 25 Park Row. 
 
 1878. 
 

 
Pis 9 £ 
 
 THE TEXAS AND PACIFIC RAILWAY. 
 
 A Work of National Character. 
 
 The construction of the Texas and Pacific Railway would be, in a 
 representative sense, the greatest commercial achievement, in art and 
 science, contributed by the intellect and enterprise* of man upon the 
 globe. By its completion the world would be united. By the construc¬ 
 tion of one thousand miles of railway upon the line of this proposed 
 road, this path of empire, all the navigable rivers, all the oceans, all the 
 seas, all the islands, all the continents, all the climates, all the zones, all 
 the products, all the resources of the globe would be more truly united 
 than by any other commercial thoroughfare upon the earth. It would 
 form a connecting link between nations and peoples,by affording communi¬ 
 cation between the continents, islands, rivers, zones, climates, seas and 
 gulfs. It would unite the old with the new, the Latin blood with the 
 Saxon, the present with the future, and lift ignorance into the sphere of 
 intelligence and power, and give to the peoples of the world a new life 
 full of prosperity and promise. 
 
 Seeing these things to be true, it is the prime duty of Congress, the 
 ' national legislature of the great nation of futurity, to contribute, with- 
 ^ out stint or delay, the aid required for its immediate construction. The 
 work is in the highest degree worthy of the nation, and by its accom- 
 % plishment will be secured to the commerce of the world a greater and 
 better work than the Suez Canal, the construction of which has exalted 
 engineering science and enlarged the field of national enterprise. 
 
 Shall America, who leads the nations in the onw r ard progress of the 
 world’s people, lag before this great work ? It cannot be. The occasion 
 is grand. The work is transcendent, and its accomplishment will draw, 
 by a universal commercial attraction, all nations unto America. 
 
CORROBORATIVE ARGUMENTS. 
 
 A LETTER EROM THE HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, 
 
 TO THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AT ST. LOUIS. 
 
 Florida, N. Y., October 2d, 1849. 
 
 Gentlemen : Your letter of the 28th of August, inviting me to attend 
 the National Convention, to be held at St. Louis, to deliberate on the im¬ 
 portance of communications across the continent by railroad and tele¬ 
 graph, and tendering to me the hospitalities of the city on that interest¬ 
 ing occasion, has been received. 
 
 When .we contemplate, for only a moment, our expansive territories 
 on the Pacific coast, and the almost magical development of moral, so¬ 
 cial, and political elements in the colonies planted there, we see, at once, 
 that they cannot be left to remain, as they are, separated from us by 
 mountain barriers, desert wastes, and stormy seas. When we look upon 
 the full tide of European immigration beating upon our Eastern shores, 
 and consider the volume that is ready to break upon the Pacific coast, 
 the ultimate unity of the races of men reveals itself to us, and we are ir¬ 
 resistibly impressed with a conviction that that unity is to be perfected 
 in our own country, under our own democratic institutions. 
 
 While we are yet bewildered in endeavoring to obtain a full concep¬ 
 tion of the ultimate influence of railroads] and magnetic telegraphs upon 
 civilization and empire, we see that they are indispensable agencies in 
 perfecting the integrity of the nation and in attaining its destiny. All 
 previous enterprises of internal improvement have involved preliminary 
 questions of practicability, and of necessity, or at least, of expediency, 
 which perplexed the popular mind, and hindered, delayed, or altogether 
 defeated the action of the Government. But the connection of the oceans 
 is an inevitable and immediate consequence of progress already made 
 which cannot be retraced. The banks of the Mississippi, so long, and 
 until so recent a period, the barrier between European powers, whose 
 dominion on this continent has passed away forever, are a fitting place 
 for consultation ; and I should deem it among the most gratifying incidents 
 of my life, if I could control circumstances around me, so as to avail my¬ 
 self of the instructions which the Convention will afford. But this will 
 
6 
 
 be impossible. I pray you to accept my grateful acknowledgments for 
 the respect implied by your invitation, and my sincere assurance that the 
 most disinterested and diligent efforts shall be put forth, on my part, in 
 support of such a system, for perfecting the proposed enterprises as shall 
 seem most likely to gain the favor of the National Legislature. 
 
 I speak of Congress, because I deem it right and necessary to demand, 
 not merely the toleration or consent of that body, but its direct and ef¬ 
 fective action. Undoubtedly a railroad to the Pacific ocean would ulti¬ 
 mately be constructed by means of the enterprise of citizens and of 
 States, as other national works of internal improvement have been built. 
 But the interests of this generation, and even the security of the nation, 
 cannot abide such delays. The action of our Government concerning in¬ 
 ternal improvements, hitherto, has not conformed to the plainly ex¬ 
 pressed anticipations of its founders. It was universally and confiden¬ 
 tially supposed, when the Constitution was adopted, that all works essen¬ 
 tial to the public defense and to the improvement of internal commerce, 
 would be constructed with the national arm, and with the national treas¬ 
 ures. But the Government has hitherto remained, for the most part, in¬ 
 active and quiet, by reason of disputes about the relative utility of such 
 enterprises, and real and affected apprehensions of improvidence and de¬ 
 moralization consequent on the exercise of federal power in that direc¬ 
 tion. This inaction has resulted in deep and pervading doubts about even 
 the constitutional power of Congress to construct any works of internal 
 improvement. The first and most important step towards the fulfillment 
 of the wishes of the people is the removal of these doubts; and this can 
 be done only by full expositions, in every popular form, of the indispen¬ 
 sable necessity and vast utility of the enterprises which will engage the- 
 attention of the Convention. This must be done, or it will be left for 
 States yet to be organized, and even yet to be peopled, to construct link 
 by link the chain which the federal power ought to forge at a single blow. 
 
 I am, Gentlemen, with great respect and esteem, 
 
 Your humble servant, 
 
 WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 
 
7 
 
 An Extract from the Address Issued to the People of the United 
 States, by the Committee in charge, to call a National Conven¬ 
 tion to meet in St. Louis, October the 20th, 1849, to consider 
 
 THE SUBJECT OF BUILDING, BY THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT, A RAIL¬ 
 WAY to the Pacific Coast. 
 
 The acquisition of vast territories in the interior, and upon the 
 western coast of the continent, and removal thereto of such numbers of 
 our people as to authorize the formation of new States within a year, 
 render the immediate resort to the means of sure and easy intercourse, 
 and continued connection with them, matters of overruling necessity. 
 
 The peculiar character of our people, and the triumphs of modern 
 science, make conspicuous our advantages and conduct in contrast with 
 the ancient republics. Unlike the Lacedaemonians, we do not tamely 
 yield our new acquisitions to the grasp of strangers, nor yet like Rome, 
 do we require that roads to the frontier shall first be made, and our 
 people sent to occupy newly acquired countries under the care of great 
 armies ; but our own citizens, each one possessing liberty of action, and 
 feeling sovereign authority within himself, moves voluntarily to the oc¬ 
 cupation, and carries with him the subduing spirit of the American char¬ 
 acter* and the welcome influence of American institutions. Nor doth a 
 Roman road, stretching from Jerusalem to the Wall of the Antonines, 
 upon which armies marched and dispatches were sped by relays, over¬ 
 awe us by the magnificence of its example. For us, lightning annihi¬ 
 lates distance; for us, steam reduces the tardy months of Roman 
 marches to the speedy triumphs of a day. 
 
 To stretch that wonder of modern science, the electric telegraph— 
 to lay that great revolutionizing power of the present age, the steam 
 railway, so that, by the one, thought shall fly with the rapidity of its 
 own action, and by the other, men and merchandise shall pass to and fro 
 across the North American continent, from one great ocean to the other, 
 in less than a week’s time—we have but to call into application the 
 means and authority of the United States. 
 
 We feel assured that investigation and discussion will demonstrate 
 to the world that the Pacific railway and telegraph are practicable and 
 attainable objects. That they will prove them to be above merely party 
 considerations, and exclusively of national import; that their influence 
 will be co-extensive with the republic; that they will tend to increase 
 its power, wealth and grandeur, to elevate still higher its character among 
 the nations of the eaith, to confirm and render indissoluble the attach¬ 
 ments to us of our most distant provinces, and to strengthen and per¬ 
 petuate the bonds of our national union. 
 
8 
 
 We derive our justification for these anticipations from a multitude 
 of reasons, military, political, social and commercial, which cannot fail to 
 suggest themselves in every serious consideration of the subject. The 
 effect upon the public lands in promoting their settlement and enhancing 
 their value ; the increased security to be afforded to the frontiers of the 
 old States, and to the interior of the newly acquired territories, in facili¬ 
 tating intercourse with the Indian tribes, in diminishing the expense and 
 quickening the transit of national forces and munitions, thereby increas¬ 
 ing the efficiency of governmental authority over a widely extended do¬ 
 main ; the opening of a new and available channel to a valuable com¬ 
 merce long pent up and hitherto of difficult access; the development of 
 the resources of a new country, vastly fertile in mineral wealth ; the dis¬ 
 covery of new sources of commerce, and the opening of new fields of em¬ 
 ployment for great numbers of our people; the aid and saving to be af¬ 
 forded to the whale fishery, by offering to it American harbors on the 
 Pacific in immediate communication with those upon the Atlantic ; the 
 binding together the people of the Atlantic and of the Pacific, by adding 
 to the ties of kindred, those of common interests and sympathies, en¬ 
 abling us to say to the New Mexicans and Californians, “ we are no long¬ 
 er strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens;” the exhibition«to the 
 world of the nearest route to Asia for European, Brazilian, West Indian 
 and American travelers, bringing Europe and China within forty-five 
 days of each other ; the probability of securing for the United States the 
 trade with India, China, Australia, Japan and other countries upon the 
 Pacific, and of thus making the old American cities of the Atlantic and 
 the Gulf, the entrepots of the European, as San Francisco would be that 
 of the Asiatic world; the effect abroad of carrying and diffusing the 
 lights of American civilization to regions remote and hitherto involved 
 in the darkness of pagan idolatry and imperial despotism ; the effect at 
 home, of producing a more perfect fusion of the different elements com¬ 
 posing our own National Union. A work having such objects is worthy 
 of the highest efforts of patriotism, worthy, indeed, of the united action 
 of the whole nation, and ought not to be degraded, denationalized, clog¬ 
 ged, injured or endangered by being involved with minor objects, or 
 with the schemes of individual aggrandizement or ambition. A work, 
 whose benefits are thus to be universally felt and enjoyed, has a dignity 
 and a scope beyond the means, and above the interests of persons, sec 
 tions or parties. 
 
 Let us contrast briefly the consequence of erecting this road with- 
 those which would follow a failure to make it. Were it completed, the 
 first car that should rumble over the Stony Mountains in its fiery course 
 
9 
 
 across the continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, would send a 
 new sensation through the world. “ Britannia, Empress of the Sea,” 
 losing much of her pretension upon her great marine employed in the 
 India trade, would feel that the foundations of that supremacy were about 
 to crumble, while from the Icy Cape, to the far islands of the South Pa¬ 
 cific, and along the eastern shores and islands of Asia and Australasia, 
 and throughout all the terra firma of the Pacific Seas, would be awak¬ 
 ened new spirit ideas of a new destiny, and feelings of a new attraction* 
 The eyes of those nations would be drawn to the new lights, which will 
 illuminate the peaks of the Sierra Nevada, nor would their gaze be 
 turned until their regenerated merchant vessels, moored in American 
 harbors, should have exchanged their costly burdens for the substantial 
 products of the United States. Attracted to the great eastern stations 
 of the continental road, as steel to the magnet, a freight would roll 
 down upon the States of the Union, such as the India Companies never 
 saw, embracing the furs of the north, the drugs and spices of the south, 
 the teas, silks and crapes of China, the cashmeres of Thibet, the dia¬ 
 monds of India and Borneo, the various products of the Japan Islands, 
 Manchooria, Australasia, and Polynesia, the results of the whale fishery, 
 the gold, silver, quicksilver, jewels and precious stones of California, and 
 the innumerable and unimaginable elements of commerce which would 
 be brought into life from the depths of the sea, and from new and unex¬ 
 plored regions, by the enterprise and ingenuity of our countrymen. 
 These elements would be distributed throughout the Union, giving a 
 new impulse to population, to trade, to industry, to art, and to all the 
 employments of our people. Our surplus meat and bread, cotton goods, 
 hemp and cordage, lard, leather and hardware, and other products, 
 would find a new, a large and increasing market in return; while the 
 Bible, the printing press, the ballot box, and the steam engine would 
 receive a welcome passage into vast and unregenerated fields, where 
 their magic powers and blessed influence are greatly needed. 
 
 But on the other hand, if we fail to make this road, and California 
 and Oregon remain without any practicable or convenient connection 
 with the old States of the Union, who can doubt that a new republic 
 will grow up on the shores of the Pacific, which would perhaps become 
 independent of the Union, and obtain supremacy of their own upon an 
 ocean favorable to steam navigation, and the very home of the trade 
 with Asia. The whale fishery, the present American trade with China, 
 the Pacific Islands and the Northwest Coast, would be shared if not mo¬ 
 nopolized by the new republic. The central authority would find their 
 power over a people so remote to be feeble and insufficient. With great 
 
10 
 
 mineral wealth in their possession, with a trade before them which has 
 been the cynosure of commercial nations during the whole Christian 
 era, and the experience and energy of the race whence they derive their 
 origin, who can doubt their future power and progress in complete inde¬ 
 pendence of all other nations 1 
 
 The true policy of our government and country, therefore, in refer¬ 
 ence to this subject, is apparent. The great importance and absolute 
 necessity of this communication across the continent, by railway and 
 telegraph, must be appreciated. We confidently trust that it will be 
 carried out, by national means and authority, as one of the most power¬ 
 ful auxiliaries to the integrity and perpetuity of the Union, and to the 
 mission of our country in promoting and extending the influence of the 
 noble cause of civil and religious liberty, civilization and humanity. 
 
 It is not our province here to treat of details, not doubting that sur¬ 
 veys, as usual, will precede locations, and that a percentage of the gold 
 and silver raised upon the public lands in California and New Mexico, or 
 a portion of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands through which 
 the road may pass, will readily suggest themselves as among the ample 
 and available means of the Government. What we want is a CENTRAL 
 HIGHWAY that shall be most useful and most acceptable to all parts, 
 of our country. Nor can we anticipate any dispute as to power, inas¬ 
 much as the route will lay entirely through the territory of the United 
 States, concerning which Congress have power to make all needful rules 
 and regulations ; and if it be expedient or necessary to enter the limits 
 of a State, the right of way is already granted. To the eastern frontier 
 of that territory, we have assurance that the electric telegraph will be 
 constructed during the present year, and to the same frontier, railroad 
 lines are already projected, or in operation, within the limits of the 
 States. 
 
THE TEXAS AND PACIFIC RAILWAY. 
 
 The thought of a nation grows slow, and the generations of 
 men that live are often called upon to accomplish the work begun 
 by those who sleep under the sod. 
 
 During the last twenty years of the first half of the nineteenth 
 century, and the first decade of the second half, the Government 
 of the United States, compelled by the vigorous and sagacious 
 thought of the great statesmen of the nation,‘projected and exe¬ 
 cuted more gigantic schemes for the material development of the 
 country, than were projected during all the other years before or 
 since the adoption of the Constitution. 
 
 In other years, Jefferson made the Louisiana purchase, sent 
 Lewis and Clark, and Bonniville to the Columbia Diver. These 
 acts for the founding of empire and enterprise were succeeded at 
 a later date by the Japan Expedition, Fremont’s Exploring Ex¬ 
 pedition, Gillis’ Astronomical Expedition, the Mexican Boundary 
 Survey, the Pacific Railway Survey, and other enterprises of a 
 national character and of national importance, all looking to the 
 planting of empire throughout the wide domain of the continent, 
 and the extension of political and commercial relations with 
 other nations. 
 
 The great convention held at Memphis in 1845, and presided 
 over by John C. Calhoun, for the distinctive purpose of consider¬ 
 ing the subject of improving the Mississippi River and its tribu¬ 
 taries by the aid of the General Government, and the two con¬ 
 ventions held in 1849, the first in the spring, at Chicago, to con¬ 
 sider the subject of national improvements to aid commerce, and 
 presided over by Edward Bates, the other held in St. Louis in the 
 fall, to consider the subject of building by the General Government, 
 of a railway to the Pacific, and presided over by Stephen A. 
 Douglas, gave expression to the thought of the people of the 
 continent, and that thought is still stimulating the people of this 
 
12 
 
 great nation to press forward in the line of accomplishing the 
 work projected almost a generation ago. 
 
 The most prominent of the projects then presented to the 
 American people was the building of a railway to the Pacific 
 ocean, and to-day, it may seem strange to the intelligent reader, 
 that the discussion in favor of building a continental railway to 
 the Pacific, should be presented anew to the people of the United 
 States. 
 
 We have all been taught to believe that that great trans-conti¬ 
 nental project, which was to be the goal of the enterprise of Co¬ 
 lumbus and Humboldt, and which was the dream of Whitney, 
 and the crowning theme of the sagacious-minded Benton, was 
 already long accomplished, and America, held in the imperial 
 embrace of two oceans, was rapidly fulfilling the plans of Provi¬ 
 dence in drawing all nations unto her. But not so. Enthusiastic 
 efforts, moving in advance of accumulated wisdom and practical 
 experience, have so far triumphed over the obstacles of nature, as 
 to give a semblance to the accomplishment of the achievement in 
 question, and divert the public mind from the real work yet to be 
 done. 
 
 But the facts now demonstrate that the road already built is, 
 in comparison to the true highway to the Pacific, what the Phoe¬ 
 nician, the Jewish, the Alexandrian, and Constantinopolitan 
 routes to India proved to be, in comparison to the ocean route, 
 through which the coveted riches of that country flowed to the 
 populous commercial provinces of Europe. It is, when compared 
 to the true highway to the Pacific, as the discovery of the West 
 India Islands to that of North America. And yet, strange as it 
 may seem, after all the resources of the country have been ascer¬ 
 tained and their values considered, to give character and impor¬ 
 tance to the project, after conventions have been held, and dis¬ 
 cussions made in all parts of the country in favor of its accom¬ 
 plishment, and after many millions of dollars have been spent to 
 reach the Pacific ocean with a railway, the true route still lies un¬ 
 touched by the implements of art and the quickening power of 
 capital. The path of the true continental railway to the Pacific 
 still lies untrod, through the heart of a country larger and richer 
 than the mightiest nation of Europe. 
 
 That the true or, in other words, the most important trans- 
 
13 
 
 continental railway has not yet been constructed to the Pacific 
 ocean, must be evident from certain facts which cannot be ex¬ 
 plained away by any possible form of reasoning. First, it must 
 be evident to every one who examines the facts, that the line of 
 the Union and Central Pacific roads does not occupy the most fea¬ 
 sible nor the most practical route to the Pacific ocean. They do 
 not occupy the most feasible route, because other routes, yet unoc¬ 
 cupied, lie through a country less mountainous, and therefore less 
 expensive to build through and occupy, than the greater eleva¬ 
 tions found in the Sierra Nevada and Pocky Mountains. 
 
 The truth of this statement must be so palpable to every 
 reader, as to require no special demonstration. 
 
 The mountain heights, the elevation of grade to the mile along 
 the Union and Central Pacific railroads, are much greater than 
 those to be found along the proposed line of the Texas Pacific ; 
 thus rendering the latter route more feasible than the former. 
 
 Second, it is vastly more practicable. In fact, the adoption of 
 the present route of the Union and Central Pacific was a mon¬ 
 strous blunder. It grew out of the progressive movement which 
 Dewitt Clinton and slavery gave to northern enterprise, by forc¬ 
 ing competitive industry and speculation from the milder lati¬ 
 tudes of the south to the colder ones of the north. Directed by 
 an impulse, rather than by experiment and knowledge, the army 
 of American pioneers moved forward from their base, to seek in 
 a direct line the shores of the Pacific, without a knowledge of, 
 and regardless of the obstacles of mountains and climates they 
 were destined to encounter. Thus by impulse, and not by wis¬ 
 dom, did they make their way over rugged mountains and through 
 inhospitable climates to the Pacific ocean. Speculation, guided 
 by the same spirit of thoughtless adventure, followed on and con¬ 
 structed a railway along that impracticable route, where it is im¬ 
 possible for competitive capital to contend, with profit, against 
 the difficulties of high grades, gulches, and the conflicts of the 
 climates. Already the expense for snow sheds, the obstruction 
 to quick and connected travel, caused by snow drifts, as well as 
 other climatic difficulties, have established beyond question the 
 failure of that line of roads to subserve the trans-continental inter¬ 
 ests of either our people or those of Europe and Asia. Therefore, 
 it is of the highest possible concern that the public mind be di- 
 
14 
 
 rected at once to the true highway to the Pacific; its advantages 
 set forth, and every possible effort used to secure the early con¬ 
 struction of a great continental railway to the Asiatic side of our 
 continent. 
 
 An enterprise of such great magnitude, and so important to 
 the nations of all the continents, cannot fail to command discus¬ 
 sion from many standpoints, each of which in itself is of sufficient 
 character and value to convince an intelligent man of the necessi¬ 
 ty of the construction of the road at the earliest possible moment. 
 But when the many advantages and the multiplied reasons for its 
 construction are presented in one group, the importance of the 
 project will grow with the arguments it inspires, and the reader 
 will become amazed as the discussion proceeds, to think that an 
 opportunity of the accomplishment of an enterprise so great in its 
 character and importance should have been lost sight of, or neg¬ 
 lected so long. And though we are surrounded on every hand 
 with a net-work of railways, traversing the country in almost 
 every direction, so as to familiarize ourselves with those needs and 
 agencies of commerce, to that degree that would seem to over¬ 
 shadow any bold and master work, the importance of the project 
 under consideration immediately transcends all competition to 
 the Pacific ocean, as I shall demonstrate in the following dis¬ 
 cussion. 
 
 THE CHARTERED LINE, THE PATH OF EMPIRE. 
 
 I shall open the discussion by asking public attention to the fact 
 that the chartered line of the Texas Pacific Pailway lies along the 
 path of empire, as science has traced it from the eastern to the west¬ 
 ern shore of North America. We have only to look upon the map 
 of North America to learn this import fact. It is a noteworthy ob¬ 
 servation of Dr. Draper, that within a zone a few degrees wide, hav¬ 
 ing for its axis the January isothermal line of forty-one degrees, 
 all great men in Europe and Asia have appeared. And it may be 
 added with equal truth, that within the same zone have existed 
 all those great States and nations which have exerted a powerful 
 influence upon the world’s history. It may also be added, that 
 along the axis of that zodiac, and struggling to converge to its en¬ 
 circling grasp have ever moved the mightiest tides of men, and 
 the impelling agencies, forces and- ideas of civilization. That 
 
15 
 
 axis of empire that girdles the globe, passes over North America 
 from a north-easterly to a south-westerly direction. Coming west¬ 
 ward from Asia and Europe, it strikes our Atlantic shore near 
 the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, passes south of St. Louis, and 
 near to Memphis, taking a south-westerly direction, curves around 
 the southern spur of the Sierra Nevada, and passes up the Pacific 
 coast to Vancouver. 
 
 Thus it will be seen upon the map, that the chartered 
 line of the Texas and Pacific road lies along the path of em¬ 
 pire. It lies along the very axis upon which all the great na¬ 
 tions of the earth and the triumphs of the mind of man have 
 revolved. The importance of this truth alone is r one of in¬ 
 calculable value to the enterprise under consideration. It teaches 
 the intention of man to conform to the plainest and most simple 
 principles of nature, and when rightly understood gives unbound¬ 
 ed confidence to the-success of an enterprise that infinitely trans¬ 
 cends in value and character all the efforts of men made in oppo¬ 
 sition to a principle of nature so important and so powerful. 
 Therefore, this great enterprise, projected in harmony with nature 
 herself, must be considered with greater favor than any other com¬ 
 peting line of railway seeking to accomplish the destiny or mis¬ 
 sion of our people on the North American continent. 
 
 THE CHARACTER OF THE ROUTE. 
 
 The first feature of the country to be considered is its topog¬ 
 raphy. And this feature we have to consider more in the light 
 of its varying altitude, than in the aspect of its general formation, 
 because of the expense necessary for the construction of the rail¬ 
 way through it. To ascertain the topographical facts required we 
 are not left to the stories of pioneers and emigrants from which 
 to gather the information the subject demands. Engineering 
 science has supplied, with exact mathematical calculation, the al¬ 
 titudes of every distinct point along the line between the point 
 of starting and San Francisco, thereby enabling the citizen and 
 the capitalist, the emigrant and the speculator, to proceed with 
 assured certainty of the results desired to be attained. The 
 topography of the line presents no formidable obstacles, and 
 capital and science can easily surmount all the natural difficulties 
 intervening between the Mississippi and the Pacific. In fact, as 
 nature combines with civilization in supplying the route, so will 
 
she unite with man to accomplish the design of his progress; the 
 one affording the advantages, the other fulfilling his mission of 
 continental supremacy. We have but to appeal to the facts to 
 establish the truth of both. 
 
 Take any point east, whether St. Louis, Memphis, Little 
 Rock, Texarkana or Shreveport, and trace the line of this 
 proposed road to San Diego and to San Francisco, the objective 
 points on our Pacific shore, and nowhere is the altitude of the 
 country or the grade of the road bed so great as along the line 
 of the Union and Central Pacific roads, and nowhere so difficult 
 and expensive to build. 
 
 CLIMATE. 
 
 Not only do the facts pertaining to the altitude of this route 
 show it to possess vastly superior advantages over any other route 
 to the Pacific, but it penetrates a country possessing advantage's 
 in climate unrivaled by any other road—a climate having a tem¬ 
 perature which is the golden mean between extremes of heat and 
 cold. Not cold enough to require costly snow-sheds, nor to 
 produce expensive obstructions to the easy flow of commerce, nor 
 to disturb or delay the easy and quick transportation of the 
 traveling public, from one end of the line to the other. Through¬ 
 out its entire length, it is favored with a climate, the even tem¬ 
 perature of which has always stimulated nature to produce the 
 greatest abundance of vegetable and animal life, incident to two 
 zones. For the line of the road lies along that belt of common 
 ground, wlieron the buffalo, the deer, and the elk, the wild horse 
 of Texas, and the fowls of the South meet to contest the right of 
 each other to the sustenance which nature affords alike to all. 
 In short, the climate through which the line of this road lies, is 
 more favorable to the purposes of the trans-continental commerce 
 and civilization of the American people than any other line 
 possible to such an enterprise. The geological character of this 
 route, in reference to minerals, soils, water-powers, timbers and 
 other resources necessary to the industry and wants of the people 
 yet to reside upon the pastoral and table-lands, through which the 
 road is to run, is most favorable, possessing all the resources 
 essential to plenty and power. 
 
 Upon such a highway for the nations, no difficulty would lie 
 
IT 
 
 in the way of exchanging any kind of trade from the extremes of 
 heat and cold, and of gathering to it as a means of transporta¬ 
 tion, the products and the interests of the climates and people 
 living north and south. 
 
 ITS LOCAL VALUE. 
 
 In the light of its local value, its importance is transcendent, 
 for it would open to settlement, industry and trade, one-fourth of 
 our territorial possessions which are now little else than frontier 
 regions, yet rich in the wealth of nature. 
 
 South of thirty-three degrees of north latitude, and west of the 
 Mississippi river, and extending to the Pacific ocean, is a vast re¬ 
 gion of agricultural, pastoral and mineral lands, including States 
 and territories that have scarcely been touched by the hand of 
 civilization and wealth. The construction of this road would not 
 only quicken into new life and power the States of Missouri, 
 Kansas, Arkansas and Texas, but it would also lift to political 
 power, and to a growing wealth, the Indian country, New Mexico 
 and Arizona. It would invite to these regions industry and 
 skill that would grow into power, and be like unto new nations 
 added to the federal family. The construction of this road would 
 soon double the national treasury by opening new and inexhausti¬ 
 ble mines of mineral wealth in New Mexico, Colorado and Ari¬ 
 zona. 
 
 ITS NATIONAL IMPORTANCE. 
 
 Beyond the local advantages afforded by the construction of 
 this road, the States upon the Gulf, and east of the Mississippi, 
 and upon the Ohio, would be vitalized with a new life of industry 
 and skill. In fact the whole nation, every State in the federal 
 family, would be benefited by the very existence of this road. 
 And beyond the rule of our Constitution, the regions of Mexico 
 adjacent to it would receive new life and seek new relations with 
 our people, in the promotion of trade and wealth. 
 
 The national importance of this road is to be found, first: in 
 the degree it is possible for it to subserve the General Govern¬ 
 ment in the development of the vast territorial domain through 
 which it is to pass, and by thus subserving, contribute to the 
 growth and power of the national life. Second : Its national im¬ 
 portance is to be found in the advantages it will afford the General 
 2 
 
18 
 
 Government, for mail, army and other transportation facilities, as; 
 well as a means for military defense in time of war. 
 
 To construct this road from the Mississippi to the Pacific 
 would add largely to the continental railway system of the coun¬ 
 try, besides, it would hasten the formation of new and powerful 
 States yet to be born into the federal family. 
 
 The construction of this road will not only open more extend¬ 
 ed mail facilities in the territories through which it will run, hut 
 also it will afford cheaper transportation to the General Govern¬ 
 ment for mails already in operation. Besides it will secure an im¬ 
 mense saving of expenses to the General Government in the way of 
 transporting troops and army supplies to the different forts aud 
 military stations in those distant territories. Its construction 
 would also insure a great saving to the General Government in the 
 expense of the Indian Department, as the following tables clearly 
 show: 
 
 DISTRIBUTION OF TROOPS* 
 
 Position and Distribution of Troops in the Department of Missouri, commanded by 
 Major General Philip H. Shkridan, including Kansas, Colorado and New Mex co, 
 with distances by Wagon Road (as authorized by General Order No. 66, of Quarter¬ 
 master General, November 30, 1867). 
 
 
 Miles 
 
 Miles 
 
 No. Co.’s 
 
 
 
 from Kan-j 
 
 from Leav¬ 
 
 of 
 
 To what Regiment 
 
 
 sas City. 
 
 enworth. 
 
 Troops. 
 
 belonging. 
 
 Fort Union, New Mexico... . 
 
 778 
 
 773 
 
 3 
 
 3d Cavalry. 
 
 Fort Marcy, Santa Fe, N. M. 
 
 878 
 
 873 
 
 
 
 Fort Baecom, New Mexico... 
 
 923 
 
 918 
 
 1 
 
 3d Cavalry. 
 
 Fort Sumner, “ 
 
 926 
 
 921 
 
 6 
 
 3d Cav.. 5:h <fc 37tli Inf. 
 
 Fort Garland, Colorado. 
 
 931 
 
 926 
 
 1 
 
 3d Cavalry. 
 
 Albuquerque, New Mexico.. 
 
 943 
 
 938 
 
 
 
 Fort Stanton, “ 
 
 985 
 
 980 
 
 1 
 
 3d Cavalry. 
 
 Fort Wingate, “ 
 
 1028 
 
 1023 
 
 2 
 
 3d Cavalry and 5th InL 
 
 Fort Craig, 
 
 1038 
 
 1033 
 
 1 
 
 3d Cavalry. 
 
 Fort McRae, “ 
 
 1070 
 
 1065 
 
 
 
 Fort Selden, “ 
 
 1123 
 
 1118 
 
 2 
 
 3d Cavalry, 3Sth Inf. 
 
 Fort Cummings, “ 
 
 1174 
 
 1169 
 
 
 
 Fort Bliss, Texas. 
 
 1185 
 
 1180 
 
 
 
 Fort Bayard, New Mexico... 
 
 1216 
 
 1211 
 
 1 
 
 3d Cavalry. 
 
 Fort W est, “ 
 
 
 
 
 
 Fort Plummer, “ 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 37th rnf.,<fc Headquarters. 
 
 Fort Butler, “ ... 
 
 
 
 
 
 Fort Thorn, “ 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 
 Total. 
 
 
 
 19 Companies. 
 
 * The following tables are from the report of the official surve} 7 of Gen. Palmer 
 made upon the 35th parallel. 
 
Position and Distribution of Troops in Arizona and Southern California, with distances 
 as authorized by Quartermaster’s Department. 
 
 
 Miles 
 
 No. 
 
 
 
 from San 
 
 Companies of 
 
 To what Regiment 
 
 
 Francisco. 
 
 Troops. 
 
 belonging. 
 
 Camp Wright, California. ... 
 
 300 
 
 1 
 
 9th Infantry. 
 
 “ Cady, “ .... 
 
 551 
 
 1 
 
 14th 
 
 “ Rock Springs, “ .... 
 
 
 Detachment. 
 
 14th 
 
 “ Independence, “ .... 
 
 551 
 
 2 
 
 1st Cavalry & 9th Infantry. 
 
 Drum Barracks, “ .... 
 
 480 
 
 Detachment. 
 
 14th Infantry and recruits. 
 
 San Diego, “ .... 
 
 580 
 
 
 
 Port Mojave, Arizona. 
 
 690 
 
 4 
 
 8th Cav., 9th and 14th Inf. 
 
 Beale’s Spring, “ . 
 
 729 
 
 
 
 Fort Yuma, California. 
 
 750 
 
 1 
 
 14th Inf. and Headquarters. 
 
 Camp Willows, Arizona. 
 
 767 
 
 
 
 Maricopa Wells, “ . 
 
 817 
 
 
 
 Camp McDowell, “ . 
 
 922 
 
 4 
 
 1st Cav., 14th and 32d Inf. 
 
 Fort Whipple, “ . 
 
 946 
 
 2 
 
 8th Cav. and Headquarters. 
 
 Camp Grant, “ . 
 
 952 
 
 3 
 
 14th and 32d Infantry. 
 
 Tucson, “ . 
 
 961 
 
 
 
 Camp Lincoln, “ . 
 
 1000 
 
 2 
 
 14th Infantry. 
 
 Tubac, “ . 
 
 1009 
 
 3 
 
 1st Cavalry and 32d Inf. 
 
 Fort Barrett, “ . 
 
 1047 
 
 
 
 “ Lovell, “ . 
 
 1052 
 
 l 
 
 32d Inf. and Headquarters. 
 
 “ Bowie, “ . 
 
 1057 
 
 1 
 
 32d “ 
 
 Camp Goodwin, “ . 
 
 1118 
 
 3 
 
 32d “ 
 
 “ Wallen, “ . 
 
 1140 
 
 
 1st Cavalry and 3 2d Inf. 
 
 “ McPherson, “ . 
 
 
 
 14th Infantry. 
 
 Total number of companies of troops in the Department of California along the 
 general route of Kansas Pacific Railway. 33 
 
 Extract from the Report of the Secretary of the Interior to the Senate, April 13, 1867, 
 showing Population of Indian Tribes in the country penetrated by the Kansas 
 Pacific Railway. 
 
 Superintendency and Agency. 
 Central. 
 
 Tribes. 
 
 Population. Totals. 
 
 Arrapahoe, Cheyenne & Apache.. Arrapalioe, Cheyenne & Apache.. 4,000 
 
 Kiowa and Comanche.Kiowas and Comanche. 2,800 
 
 Ottawa.Ottawas. 200 
 
 Kickapoo.Kickapoos. 242 
 
 Kansas.Kansas or Kaws. 670 
 
 Delaware.Delawares. 1,064 
 
 Shawnee.Shawnees. 
 
 Osage River.Miamas.. 
 
 Peorias, Pinkeshaws, 
 and W eas.. 
 
 Pottawatomie.Pottawatomies. 
 
 Kaskaskias 
 
 660 
 
 127 
 
 230 
 
 1,992 
 
 Colorado. 
 
 Denver.Grand River and Uintah Utes... 
 
 Conejos.Tabequache Utes. 
 
 11,985 
 
 2,600 
 
 2,600 
 
 -6,000 
 
20 
 
 New Mexico. 
 
 Bosque Redondo. 
 
 
 .... 6,500 
 
 Nava joes at large. 
 
 ,... 1,200 
 
 Pneblos. 
 
 
 ... 7,010 
 
 Abiqui. 
 
 
 350 
 
 Webinoche Utes. 
 
 700 
 
 Cimarron. 
 
 
 
 
 Jicarilla Apaches. 
 
 800 
 
 Mescalero Apaches. 
 
 
 .... 550 
 
 Mimbres Apaches. 
 
 
 
 Captives held in peonage.. 
 
 .... 2,000 
 
 Arizona. 
 
 Papagoes. 
 
 
 
 Pimas and Maricopas. 
 
 
 
 River tribes. 
 
 
 
 
 Apaches. 
 
 
 
 Moquis. 
 
 
 Total number of Indians along the general route of the Kansas Pacific 
 Railway. 
 
 19,910 
 
 — 34,500 
 
 Southern California. 
 
 Tule River.Owens River and Tule River. 725 
 
 Mission Indians.Various bands. 3,300 
 
 King River and other bands. 14,900 
 
 Coahuillas and other tribes. 4,400 
 
 23,325 
 
 94,720 
 
 Again, in the event of a foreign war, it is not unlikely that an 
 enemy would decide to invade the country from the Pacific side. 
 In the event that such a calamity was to take place, without the 
 existence of this road, the enemy might come at a time when more 
 northern lines would be blockaded with snow to such a degree as 
 to prevent any transportation of troops for several weeks, thus 
 affording the enemy an opportunity to make a landing and de¬ 
 stroy our seaboard cities, as well as the wealth of their people. 
 
 On the other hand, this road completed, not only troops, but 
 ample supplies of provisions, could be transported as easily to any 
 point on the Pacific, as to any point on the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 This feature of the discussion is well worth the consideration 
 of statesmen and legislators. But let us pass to 
 
 ITS INTERNATIONAL IMPORTANCE. 
 
 This feature of the discussion involves questions greater than 
 material gain—questions of more than local significance. It in¬ 
 volves in its highest and remotest significance, the subject of the 
 final mission of the American people and their government, as 
 
21 
 
 well as the final organization of the great family of man into one 
 whole. But as this feature of the subject would be of no interest 
 to the pioneer and the speculator, whose labor and capital are 
 essential to the construction of the road, we pass it by for the 
 present, and will only consider those things that belong to the 
 more material aspect of the subject. 
 
 Columbus and Humboldt, apostolic citizens of our destiny, im¬ 
 pelled by the idealistic maritime thought of the old world, sought 
 to discover and open the way for Europe to pass more directly to 
 India than by any other known route. Stimulated by intuitional 
 impressions, they went forth over the high seas, one a discoverer, 
 the other a benefactor. The mission of destiny that they inau¬ 
 gurated in the dreary years of the past, for the generations of 
 men that were to succeed each other on this continent, is now- 
 realized as the task work of our people, and not only did they dis¬ 
 cover and open a new and more direct route to India, but the 
 American pioneer followed the path of empire from the Atlantic 
 to the Pacific, and was soon succeeded by the railway and tele¬ 
 graph, thus accomplishing, with adventure, industry, art and 
 science, a connection of Europe and Asia across America. And 
 though that connection has only been imperfectly made, the con¬ 
 struction of the Texas Pacific road will insure its most perfect 
 achievement, and establish between the nations of the earth a com¬ 
 mercial channel girdling the globe in harmony with nature her¬ 
 self. 
 
 Let us consider this for one moment. Let us consider it in 
 the language of the Hon. Thos. H. Benton, used in discussing this 
 same subject in the House of Representatives—the subject of a 
 railway to the Pacific. He advocated its international importance 
 in the following forcible manner : 
 
 u I enforce,” said Mr. Benton, “another advantage, not so im¬ 
 mediate, but obvious to the thinking mind, and important to 
 America, Europe and Asia ; and which, in changing a channel of 
 rich commerce, may have its effect upon the wealth and power of na¬ 
 tions, and operate a change in the maritime branch of national 
 wars. I allude to the East India trade, already incidentally 
 touched upon, and the change of its channel from the water to 
 the land, and the effect of that change in nullifying the maritime 
 supremacy of naval powers, by making continents, instead of 
 
22 
 
 oceans, the great theaters of international commerce. No events 
 in the history of nations have had a greater effect on the relative 
 wealth and power of nations than the changes which have been 
 going on for near three thousand years in the channels of Asiatic 
 commerce. During that time nations have risen and fallen, as 
 they possessed or lost that commerce. Events announce the forth¬ 
 coming of a new change. The land becoming a facility and the 
 ocean an obstacle to foreign trade, must have an effect upon 
 Europe, conterminous upon Asia, and upon America, separated 
 from it by a western sea over which no European power can dom¬ 
 inate. I confine myself to the American branch of the question, 
 and glance at the past to get an insight into the future. I look 
 to former channels of this Asiatic commerce—their changes, the 
 effects of the changes—and infer from what has been, what may 
 be—from what is, to what will be. 
 
 “ I. The Phoenician Route. —Tyre, queen of cities, was its 
 first emporium. The commerce of the East centered there before 
 the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, upwards of six hundred 
 years before the coming of Christ. Nebuchadnezzar, King of 
 Babylon, conquered Tyre and razed it to its foundations ; but he 
 was no statesman—merely a destroyer—and did not found a rival 
 city ; and the continuance of the India trade quickly restored the 
 queen of cities to all her former degree of prominence and power. 
 Alexander the Great conquered her again. He was a statesman, 
 and knew how to build up, as well as how to pull down, and 
 looked to commerce for exalting and enriching that magnificent 
 empire which his war genius was conquering. He founded a 
 rival city on the coast of Egypt, better adapted to the trade ; and 
 the prophecy of Ezekiel became fulfilled on Tyre ; and she be¬ 
 came a place for fishermen to dry their nets. 
 
 “ II. The Jewish Route .—In the time of Solomon and David, 
 the Jews succeeded to the East India trade, made it a leadiug 
 subject of their policy, and became rich and powerful upon it. 
 Jerusalem rivaled Nineveh and Babylon, and Palmyra, a mere 
 thoroughfare in the trade in the midst of a desert, became the 
 seat of power and opulence, of oriental magnificence, and the 
 center of the arts and sciences. The Jews lost that trade, and 
 Jerusalem became as a widow in the wilderness, and Palmyra a. 
 den for foxes and Arabs. 
 
23 
 
 “III. The Alexandrian Route .—This was opened by Alex¬ 
 ander the Great; its course along the canal of Alexandria to the 
 Nile, up that river to Copt ns; thence across the desert with cam¬ 
 els to the Red Sea, and down that sea to the neighboring coasts 
 of Asia and Africa—a route chosen with so much judgment that 
 it made Alexandria and Egypt the seats of wealth, power, learn¬ 
 ing, the arts and sciences, and continued to be the channel of 
 trade for a period of eighteen hundred years—from three hun¬ 
 dred years before Christ to the close of the fifteenth century— 
 when the Portuguese discovery of the passage by the Cape of 
 Good Hope annihilated the Egyptian route, and transferred to 
 Lisbon the glories of Alexandria. But not without a great con¬ 
 test. Solyman the Magnificent, then Sultan of the Turkish Em¬ 
 pire, fought the Portuguese for the dominion of routes—carried on 
 long and bloody wars to break up the Cape of Good Hope route, 
 assisted by the Venetians, because of their interest in the Egyp¬ 
 tian route, and menacing Christendom—this alliance of Christian 
 and Saracen against Christians—according to the Abbe Raynal, 
 indorsed by the philosophic historian Robertson, with the ‘ most 
 illiberal and humiliating servitude that ever oppressed polished 
 nations . 5 From this calamity Christendom was saved by the 
 valor of the Portuguese and the talents of their renowned com¬ 
 mander, Albuquerque; but the contest shows the value which all 
 nations placed on the possession of this trade, and the reversed 
 conditions of Alexandria and Lisbon, of Egypt and Portugal, 
 upon the defeat of the Turks and Venetians, shows that that 
 value was not over-estimated. 
 
 “ IV. The Constantinoplitan Route .—This became fully es¬ 
 tablished in the time of the Greek Empire, and during the two 
 hundred years of the Crusade irruptions, and to which the enlight¬ 
 ened part of the Crusaders greatly contributed. For, while a re¬ 
 ligious frenzy operated upon the masses, the extension of their 
 trade with India was the systematic, persevering, and successful 
 policy of all liberal and enlightened minds, availing themselves of 
 that frenzy to promote and establish the commerce upon the pos¬ 
 session of which the supremacy of nations depended. It was fully 
 established ; and the long and tedious transit across the Black Sea 
 to the mouth of the Phases, up that river to a portage of five days 
 to the Cyrus, down that river to the Caspian Sea, across it to the 
 
24 
 
 mouth of the Oxus, up it nine hundred miles to Samareand, once’ 
 Alexandria, the limit of Alexander’s march to the northeast; and 
 after this long travel, an overland journey of ninety days on the 
 Bactrian camel, to the confines of China, commenced. Such was 
 this extended route. Yet it was upon this route, so extended and 
 perilous, that Europe was supplied with East India goods for sev¬ 
 eral centuries ; the profits of the trade being so great that after its 
 arrival at Constantinople, it could still come on to Italy, and even 
 round to Bruges (Brussels) and to Antwerp. It was upon this 
 route that the Genoese established their great commerce, gaining 
 permanent establishments with great privileges at Constantinople 
 (its suburb Pera) and in that Crimea, then resplendent with 
 wealth, since impoverished, now the scene of bloody strife ; and of 
 which the issue would be fortunate, if it restored the Crimea to 
 w T hat it was when Caffa was as celebrated as Sebastopol is now, 
 and celebrated for streams of commerce instead of streams of blood. 
 But to this route of Constantinople, the Cape of Good Hope pas- 
 age became as fatal as it was to that of Alexandria. 
 
 “ Y. The Ocean Route .—It has been the line of the East India 
 trade since the close of the fifteenth century, and must have con¬ 
 tinued to be so forever if a marvel had not been wrought, and the 
 land become the facility—the ocean the obstacle—to commerce.. 
 All the powers that have land for distant communications must 
 now betake themselves to the steam car. Why contend with 
 ships for the dominion of the sea, when both the ships and the sea 
 are to be superseded ? Take care of Bussia. She has been one 
 hundred and fifty years building up a navy—to become useless the 
 first day it is wanted. Not only useless, but an incumbrance and 
 a burden, requiring impregnable posts, and vast armies, and mur¬ 
 derous battles to protect and save it—save it from going to swell 
 the enemy’s fleet, and be turned against its builders. Why build 
 any more ships when there is the land to carry commerce, without 
 protection, to every part of Europe, and to America by Behring’s 
 Straits, rendering fleets inoperative and harmless? But I must 
 confine myself to our own commerce and our own land. There is 
 the road to India (pointing west), half the way upon our own land, 
 and the rest upon a peaceable sea washing our shores, but separ¬ 
 ated from Europe by the whole diameter of the earth. Can we 
 not cease wrangling over an odious subject of domestic conten- 
 
25 
 
 tion, and go to work upon the road which is to exalt us to the 
 highest rank among nations, and make us mistress of the richest 
 gem in the diadem of commerce? Can we not cease contention, 
 and seize the supreme prize which is glittering before us? Make 
 the road ; and, in its making, make our America the thorough¬ 
 fare of Orient commerce—throw back the Cape and the Horn 
 routes to what Tyre became when Alexandria was founded, and 
 what Alexandria became when the Cape of Good Hope was 
 doubled, making Europe submissive and tributary to us fora tran¬ 
 sit upon this route, and dispensing us from the maintenance of the 
 fleets which the ocean commerce demands for its protection.” 
 
 Thus we see by the foregoing forcible statement of history, 
 that the great commercial struggles of mankind have all tended 
 to one goal, have been directed to the achievement of one com¬ 
 mercial purpose. All marked by five commercial efforts and eras, 
 and all prosecuted by ambitious rulers, seeking to enrich their 
 own kingdoms with ‘the commerce of the distant Indies. Each 
 nation and each succeeding age discovered and brought into use a 
 new and better route by which to reach the Orient, until the 
 discovery of America. That event turned all Europe towards 
 the setting sun, and it was soon ascertained, that by passing over 
 the newly discovered land of America, a still more direct com¬ 
 munication could be made with the Indies than had heretofore 
 been known to Europe. The demonstration of this truth, with 
 the discovery of the railway, developed that spirit of modern 
 commercial enterprise which demanded the construction of a 
 great international railway to the Pacific. And that work, having 
 been only partially accomplished, and that, too, contrary to the 
 purposes of nature, we now urge the construction of a new road 
 —the Texas and Pacific—along the path of empire, thus evinc¬ 
 ing the work to be in harmony with nature. Its importance is 
 everywhere conceded. It is an enterprise, the building of 
 which is a matter of national concern. Every consideration of 
 public interest, individual, territorial, national and international, 
 demand that it be built at the earliest possible moment. Then let 
 us have it; let us fulfill the great mission of our people by con¬ 
 structing a trans-continental railway, as the end of our westward 
 career to the Pacific. 
 
 Let us call upon the nation to build the road, if not to build it, 
 
26 
 
 to give such aid to individual enterprise, as may be required for 
 its construction. The nation owes it, no less to the Southern 
 States, than it does to whole Union. It owes its construction to 
 the labor of the country as well as to the commerce of the world. 
 And it owes it to the new commercial life now beginning to grow 
 in the direction of equatorial America. With the indorsement of 
 the construction of this road by the Government, it can be built. 
 If not backed by the Government, its construction is indefinite 
 and will fail to serve the purposes for which it is designed. 
 Therefore those charged w T ith making and administering the 
 laws of the nation, are called upon by the highest sense of duty, 
 to ignore all questions of contest or clamor, presented by designing 
 men, and rise to the dignity of the work, and pledge the credit of 
 the nation to secure the building of this great highway to the 
 Pacific sea; a highway, an iron road, that will unite all the great 
 waters of the Government, the two oceans, the gulf and the river 
 by which the lakes are reached. Such a work is transcendent in 
 its character and priceless in its use. Then let us have it, let the 
 nation decree it to be built, and thousands of unemployed laborers 
 will seek bread by the hand of industry, and the Government 
 demonstrate to the world its regard for its unemployed and 
 destitute population. This alone is a matter of momentous con¬ 
 cern to a Government “ Of the people, and by the people, and 
 for the people.” 
 
 A WORD TO THE SOUTHERN MEMBERS OF CONGRESS. 
 
 Gentlemen : Aside from your obligation to the Constitution 
 under which you hold position in the national legislature, and 
 the obligation you owe to the whole Union, circumstances of an 
 extraordinary character demand of you fidelity to that region of 
 • country which you locally represent. 
 
 A gigantic civil war, the ravages of which, in pursuance of a 
 defense of the Constitution, prostrated your States and turned 
 capital, industry and skill to the North, has given to the North 
 railways, canals, bridges, foundries and populous cities, while 
 your States now struggle to attain rank, wealth and power as 
 equal members in the federal family. 
 
 God has favored your region of country, while man has deso¬ 
 lated it. You have but to look at the map to be convinced of 
 
27 
 
 the magnitude and character of the fair region, the land you offi¬ 
 cially represent. You have five States lying upon the Gulf of 
 Mexico, quite as large in themselves as the original thirteen 
 States. You have four upon the Mississippi River, and three upon 
 the Atlantic seaboard, all rich in the resources of nature, and 
 struggling to obtain wealth and power, population and industry, 
 as equal members in the federal family. Nature has done more 
 for you than man has done, and no matter what have been the 
 mistakes of your predecessors in office, a golden opportunity is 
 now presented to you, an opportunity to build for your States a 
 great national highway to the Pacific sea, an iron road of com¬ 
 merce and power. 
 
 It is an opportunity to re-invigorate your half of the nation 
 by constructing a great highway, an iron road to the western 
 shore of our continent. An opportunity is given you to clothe 
 your section of the Union with new garments of prosperity and 
 power, by the credit of the nation. Col. Scott presents him¬ 
 self as your friend and benefactor, and proposes to build for you 
 a great iron road to the Pacific sea. He is your friend. He is 
 the first man to tender to you a proposition for such a work, and 
 it remains for you to prove true to yourselves and to your States 
 by proving true to him, by supporting his bill for the construc¬ 
 tion of the Texas & Pacific Railway. In vain will you defend 
 the interests of the States you represent, if you yield to the de¬ 
 lusions of opposing factions, in the name of better friends. 
 
 The Union and Central Pacific railway companies have since 
 their existence been institutional tyrants, and hard will be your 
 fate if any one of your members yield to the influence of their 
 money. They come to you at a late hour; they come as wolves in 
 sheep’s clothing to offer deeds of reward to your States. The 
 blood of a tyrant is always the same. No corporation on this 
 continent has so strongly fortified itself in monopoly, directly ad¬ 
 verse to the interests of the people, as has the corporation of the 
 Union and Central Pacific railways. Perhaps the most essential 
 and distinctive feature of American journalism, in defense of the 
 rights of the people, was presented in the war of the Sacramento 
 Union , against the crush of the iron heel of the Central Pacific 
 corporation, until honor went down in the great maelstrom of na¬ 
 tional corruption. 
 
28 
 
 On the other hand, years of experience have demonstrated in 
 the management of the Pennsylvania Central Pailway and its 
 leased lines, a fraternity with the people as broad as the devotion 
 of the patriarch. Then let the years of the past determine who 
 is your friend. Is it he that hath always shown kindness, or he 
 that has been the tyrant. 
 
 Will you accept tyrants clothed in false garments for your 
 friends, or will you choose a man who is your friend on prin¬ 
 ciple ? 
 
 JSTo great corporation in this country has been so true to the 
 people and the nation as the corporation of the Pennsylvania 
 Pailway Company. On the other hand, no corporation in this 
 country has exercised so much tyranny, in a local and general 
 way, as the corporation of the Central Pacific Pailway, and its 
 official representatives now profess friendship and charity to the 
 American people. Such a presumption is a monstrous fraud. 
 
 The official representatives of the Central Pacific road, after 
 the Government has voted millions of money into their treasury, 
 and after they have played the tyrant beyond endurance with the 
 American people, come with the money voted by the General 
 Government, and ask, like the leeches of Solomon, for more. 
 What interest, let it be asked, have these men of the Central Pa¬ 
 cific to come into the valley of the Mississippi, save as tyrants, 
 and ask for favors ? The whole history of their transactions has 
 been tyrannical to the people as well as to the nation which gave 
 them plenty and power. Pot only did that corporation exercise 
 a despotic power over the people where the Union Pacific Pailway 
 runs, but with all the favors of the national legislature, that corpo¬ 
 ration refused to take the currency of the Government for subsidies 
 granted. It compelled gold and silver from the national treasury, 
 when paper currency was to be given to those who gave life and 
 power to the nation. The whole history of the corporation of the 
 Central Pacific is a gigantic fraud. On the other hand, Col. Scott 
 has demonstrated the character of a benefactor, rather than that 
 of a tyrant. At no time does it appear that in any capacity of 
 life, has he been untrue or tyrannical to the people with whom he 
 has dealt. His whole life work is open, is before the public, and 
 Without a blemish. He has even gone beyond the ordinary rules 
 of business relations to serve the public. 
 
29 
 
 When Postmaster Jeweir decided to give the northern or Chi¬ 
 cago route the exclusive advantages of a fast mail, Col. Scott 
 came forward and demanded that the West and South be provided 
 with like favors, and to secure to these sections of our common 
 country the same postal facilities, he ran hi3 fast mail trains to 
 St. Louis without compensation, until the post office department 
 was so influenced by public opinion, as to grant equal postal facil¬ 
 ities to the people living south of the line of travel to the Union 
 Pacific Pailway. In addition to this, the whole line of facts de¬ 
 monstrate Col. Scott to be a friend to the entire country east of 
 the Pocky Mountains, and the Central Pacific to be a repulsive 
 tyrant. 
 
 The manner in which the business of the Central and Union 
 Pacific Pail ways is conducted, is not only a heartless and mon¬ 
 strous outrage upon the people of the Pacific Slope, but also upon 
 those living east of the Pocky Mountains throughout the various 
 territories and States of the Federal Union. The rates of freights 
 are so enormous as to amount to a positive swindle upon the pub¬ 
 lic. But not satisfied with this outrage, those companies abso¬ 
 lutely refuse to make any business arrangements with other roads 
 running in the same direction and contributing to the same gen¬ 
 eral business interests of a trans-continental character; arrange¬ 
 ments common among all other railways. The people of St. 
 Louis, Cincinnati, Louisville, Nashville, Memphis, and through¬ 
 out the entire Southern States are deprived of going over the 
 Kansas Pacific Pailway by Denver and Cheyenne, unless they 
 choose to pay double rates. They are compelled to go to Omaha, 
 and be bled by that all-devouring corporation vampire which Mr. 
 Huntington now asks the national legislature to further aid, with¬ 
 out a single word of palliation or apology. Like all tyrants, he is 
 heartless and defiant, and urges his way to power over the weak 
 and the corrupt. 
 
 But as there is a trophy without a price, a goal which the ty¬ 
 rant cannot reach, an end the corrupt cannot gain, Mr. Huntington 
 will find that whenever, with the aid of his modern Jehu for at¬ 
 torney, he puts his hand to clutch new power and wrench 
 
 it from the people, he will fall in weakness, like the shorn 
 Samson, before the people whose rights he cannot invade forever. 
 
 Again, if you desire success, you must not be divided by many 
 
30 
 
 propositions, each claiming to be better than the others. Success 
 depends upon standing united on one proposition. Then stand 
 committed to the success of one road, and all else will follow. 
 
 Let me still impress upon jour minds another thought. It is 
 argued, with much vehemence bj many, that the weight of the 
 national debt, together with the hard times, is an unanswerable 
 argument in favor of economy. In answer, I unhesitatingly say, 
 that the very reverse policy is the sure road to solvency and 
 to power. 
 
 The starved policy sought to be inaugurated by the Granger 
 movement shut the door on our material progress, and paralyzed 
 the industry of the nation. And the people now feed upon the bit¬ 
 ter fruits of ruin produced by that blind Samson policy. I un¬ 
 dertake to say that debt, properly created, is a greater element of 
 real wealth than gold and silver and bonds in the national treas¬ 
 ury. Debt is bread on the table for the hungry to eat. Cash in 
 the treasury is the harvest ungathered, and the people going 
 naked and hungry for labor and bread. 
 
 The great law of political economy is that useful production, 
 based on an obligation to pay, is far more valuable to the com¬ 
 munity and the nation, than the possession of treasure without 
 production. Against this law there can be no repeal, neither 
 amendment nor modification. 
 
 An obligation of the General Government will build the road. 
 The road once built, its local and general value will infinitely 
 transcend all the interest on the obligation. This fact is too plain 
 to require argument, and only needs to be stated to demonstrate 
 its own truth. 
 
 A WORD TO THE CONGRESSMEN OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 A proposition is before your honorable body to aid in the con¬ 
 struction of a railway, a national highway, designed more espe¬ 
 cially to unite the Pacific ocean with the Gulf of Mexico and the 
 Mississippi river, under the same climate, belonging to each of 
 these great bodies of commercial water. 
 
 In the face of this proposition, three considerations present 
 themselves to your honorable body: 
 
 I. The national importance of the enterprise. Aside from 
 local considerations of a paramount character, which must be 
 
31 
 
 more or less familiar to each of you, the general importance of 
 the enterprise must be considered superior to any project of a na¬ 
 tional character yet presented to the national Congress for na¬ 
 tional aid. The new commercial life now presenting itself to the 
 American people, and which is growing up under the milder and 
 warmer climates of our hemisphere, brings this railway enterprise 
 into requisition as the greatest commercial highway now before 
 the country. Not only will it be, when built, the great vital com¬ 
 mercial cord, uniting all the climates and zones by land and water, 
 of the Western Hemisphere, but it will be a substitute for the 
 great inter-continental canal yet to be made across the Isthmus, 
 and destined to bring the commerce of all nations to our shores. 
 
 Build this railway to San Diego, and the whole west coast of 
 Mexico and South America will be placed under commercial con¬ 
 tribution to all our people east of the Rocky Mountains. As a na¬ 
 tion, our people demand the ship canal across the Isthmus. But 
 the construction of this railway will be an important substitute. 
 You are therefore called upon, in the most imperative terms, 
 to give the national aid requisite to build this road, both for our 
 own people and for the world’s people. These considerations can¬ 
 not fail to impress you with the superlative importance of the en¬ 
 terprise and the unquestioned necessity of its immediate accom¬ 
 plishment. 
 
 II. Two opposing parties present themselves to lead the way 
 in the construction of this great highway, each asking for your 
 partiality and favor. The first of these is Colonel Thos. A. Scott, 
 of Philadelphia, the second, Mr. Huntington, of San Francisco, 
 Cal. Aside from the personal interest at stake in the action of 
 these gentlemen, to get hold of this great project, the character 
 and public career of each affords the pivot point upon which 
 you are to determine your actio ). 
 
 Col. Scott has been before the American people for many 
 years in an official capacity of sufficient magnitude to test all his 
 qualities as a servant and citizen. In the War Office of the 
 United States, when arduous duties were imposed upon him,’he 
 demonstrated an ability and character equal to one of the first 
 men of the country. And at no time in his public service for 
 the Government, did the tongue of slander or the criminations of 
 the ambitious and the unscrupulous tarnish his fair name, and 
 condemn him as unworthy of trust by his countrymen. In all 
 
32 
 
 his official duties at the head of a great corporation, with railway 
 lines reaching from the Atlantic seaboard to many parts of the 
 Mississippi Yalley, he has demonstrated himself to be worthy of 
 trust in the highest degree, and worthy of public confidence. In 
 short he is a benefactor, and thoroughly identified with all the 
 great railway interests of the American people east of the Pocky 
 Mountains, and no man is more worthy of public trust and con¬ 
 fidence. 
 
 On the other hand, Mr. Huntington, who has become enor¬ 
 mously rich by money voted into his pocket by your predecessors, 
 has presented to the American people the most infamous example 
 of moneyed despotism ever known to this country. He presents 
 the infamous spectacle alluded to by Curran, being “buoyant 
 by putrefaction, he rises as he rots.” 
 
 Of course, by a law of human growth, a country so rich in 
 mineral wealth as California, would necessarily produce its mon¬ 
 eyed kings and its corporation tyrants, as the east has by the ac¬ 
 cumulation of wealth, through many years, produced its Wall 
 street. 
 
 Mr. Huntington is, therefore, a legitimate offspring of the 
 financial growth of the Pacific seaboard—a tyrant of unques¬ 
 tioned ancestry; a man with no sympathies for private or public 
 good. He is not only a corporation tyrant on the Pacific slope, 
 but he is without affiliation or sympathy with any of the people 
 east of the Pocky Mountains. You may ransack the entire coun¬ 
 try east of the Pocky Mountains, and from the Gulf of Mexico to 
 the lakes of the north, and no where can be found any man, who 
 is not bought with a price, who recognizes Mr. Huntington as fit 
 and worthy of public trust. Then, how can it be possible that a 
 Congress which has in its keeping the sacred interests of nearly 
 50,000,000 people, can for one moment consider a proposition 
 from such a man ? It would be a monstrous absurdity. 
 
 III. As to the right and expediency of Congress to aid in 
 building the Texas and Pacific road, there can be no manner of 
 of doubt. The necessity of the General Government giving the 
 required aid for its construction is also paramount, and cannot be 
 overlooked. Let the work, therefore, be hastened, and let it be 
 one of the great national achievements destined to signalize the 
 mighty deeds done in the second century in the life of the Re¬ 
 public !