hubert howe bancroft - Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History ...

514 INCEPTION OP RAILWAY ROUTES.
east and no west, but our country will be everywhere,
and every spot of earth on which our hardy yeomen
tread will be their home and the home of their brethren.
All the angry passions wluch have of late agitated
the public mind, breathing forth the unhallowed
name of disunion, threatening the very existence of
our free institutions, and causing the heart of every
patriot to beat quick with dread when he reflects on
the bare possibility of such a result, will pass away." **
Letters were received from Benton, Orin Fowler,
John Bobbins Jr, Job Mann, Samuel R. Thurston,
Joseph R Chandler, Thomas Ewing, Charles E.
Clarke, James M. Porter, John Cessna of the Pennsylvania
legislature, and W. Milnor Roberts. Fremont
also sent a letter to the convention, accompanied
by a map which was a delineation of the Benton-
Fr&nont route, running from St Louis to Independence,
along the Kansas river to Bent Fort on the
Arkansas, thence through the great mountain chain,
not by the grand caflon of the Arkansas, but south
of it where no pass exists, and in a general northwest
course to White river, up the Uintah river, and over
the dividing ridge separating the waters of the Pacific
from those of the great basin, to the foot of Great
Salt Lake; thence in a northwest course to Pilot
knob at the head of Humboldt valley, and down it,
through the Truckee pass into the Sacramento valley.
As compared with the South pass route, it was one
full of difficulties, and, as the map presented to the
convention shows, was one with which its author was
not personally acquainted, and for which he had no
other authority than hearsay. It was an effort to
establish a line as nearly direct as possible between
St Louis and San Francisco; and, perchance, to
make political capital thereby.
All the plans ever broached were reconsidered.
Stevens, delegate from that state, presented the plan
• Proceedings of the Convention m favor of a National Railroad to the Pactfc
Oeemthrough the Territories of the United State* Phila, 1850^ 9,