History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

MEMORIAL FOR AN OVERLAND RAILROAD. 463
other point on or near the Pacific coast as the wisdom
of your honorable body may dictate." The memorialists
stated that for want of proper means of transport
about five thousand persons had perished on the different
routes within the three preceding years; that
there was no great obstacle to the construction of a
road between Salt Lake City and San Diego; that
at various points on the route iron, coal, and timber
were abundant; that on the completion of the line
the entire trade of China and the East Indies would
pass through the United States; and that the road
would consolidate the relations of the country with
foreign powers in times of peace, and furnish means
of defence in times of war. 52
In 1854 a second memorial
was presented, stating the opinion of the Mormons
as to the best route for an overland railroad,
and a demonstration was held in favor of the project,
the inhabitants, male and female, attending en masse.
In the preceding year congress had also been petitioned
to provide for the construction of a telegraph
line from some convenient point on the Mississippi or
Missouri to a suitable port on the Pacific.
As early as April 1849 Captain Howard Stansbury,
of the topographical engineers, had been ordered to
Fort Leavenworth, for the purpose of making a survey
of the Great Salt Lake and an exploration of its
valley, with a view to the construction of a transcontinental
railroad. Among his party was Lieutenant
J. W. Gunnison, who was placed in charge of the
astronomical department. Before reaching Salt Lake
City the captain was informed that no survey would
be permitted, and it was even hinted that his life
would be in danger should he attempt it. Giving no
heed to these warnings, he at once called on Brigham,
aware that if the good-will of the governor were not
5a A copy of the memorial will be found in Tullidge's Life of Young, 213-
14; Smith's Rise, Progress, and Travels, 22. For other memorials passed during
the sessions of 1851-2, see Utah, Acts Legist, (ed. 1855), 401-5.