:::Not only had the South seceded many months before the passage of the 1862 Act, but the chief proponent for a Southern route had been Jefferson Davis both while United States Secretary of War (1853-57) in the Pierce Administration during which he supervised the massive five route Explorations and Surveys to Ascertain the Most Practicable and Economical Route for a Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean and later as a U.S. Senator from Mississippi prior to that State's secession on January 9, 1861. I doubt that when the UP was being formed that the Congress was worrying about any future Southern route, nor was the CSA in any fiscal position to consider building one either. (  )