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

EFFECT OF CONGRESSIONAL AGITATION 519
cordially urge the construction of a central or northern
Pacific railway out of the national treasury; but
having had time to grasp the subject, as it was understood
by politicians in Washington, he perceived that
the second resolution which asJked for a survey of the
different routes, nullified, for the time being, the first,
and thus made the whole innocuous to the south. He
particularly urged the survey. As the artful senator
himself explains, when giving an account of his instrumentality
in laying the foundation of the magnificent
system of surveys across the continent of America,
that "it brought about the exact result which Mr
Gwin had predicted—that no one route could be
agreed upon."
The history of the Pacific railroad in congress for
several years is a repetition and an elaboration of the
arguments, estimates, opinions, and plans which had
been put forth by individuals and conventions ever
since 1832, and especially since 1847, and would fill
volumes.* 5 It had the effect to stimulate railroad
building in all the states, and to cause a demand for
congressional aid " by public land grants; to increase
public intelligence on the subject of railroads to the
Pacific," and to make more hopeless than ever the
*>Cong. Globe, 1850-1, 6, 66; Senate Jour., 377; 31st cong., 2d sew.; U. S.
H. Jour., 602, 662, 1471, 31st cong., 2d seas. Report of U. S. House Com.
on Whitney's project, urging the attention of congress to it. U. S. H. Com.
Jlept, 101, fed cong., 1st sess.; Cong. Globe, 1851-2^ p, 941. Bill to set apart
and sell to Asa Whitney of New York a portion of the public lands, to enable
him to construct a railroad from Lake Michigan or the Mississippi to the
Pacific; bill to provide for the location and construction of a central national
railroad, from the Mississippi river to the Pacific; bill granting the right of
way, and making a grant of land to aid in the construction of a railroad from
Lake Michigan to the Mississippi. Id., 2466. Propositions for two railroads
to connect the Mississippi with the Pacific.
M Cong. Globe, 1851-2. Bill and amendments thereto, making grants of
land to several states, to aid in the construction of railroads and tor other
purposes, pp. 1536, 1562, 1579, 1595, 1602, 1612, 1616, 1624, 1626. Bills
granting land to construct railroads, viz., for the construction of the Virginia
and Tennessee railroad; from the copper mines on the shore of Lake Superior
to Chicago; from St Louis to St Paul; from Manetowoc to the Mississippi;
from theiWabash to the Missouri; to the Sunbury and Erie railroad company
of Pa to aid in the construction of their works; proposition for a grant of
land to the South Carolina and Tennessee railroad; bills granting lands to
the states of Me, Mass, Pa. Ohio, Ind., Mo., la, 111., Miss,, La, Tenn., Wis.,
Ark., Ala, Minn., Fla, Mich., Ky.
"See Whipple'a Rrpt, in Pac R. R. Ret*., xi 76; Id., vols iii, iv.; Frimord's
Kept, in U. S. Sen. Misc. Doc., 67, 33d cong., 1st sesB.; Pope's Rept, in