The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-08-28
From the St. Louis Republican
THE PACIFIC RAILROAD LETTER fKOM
COL. BENTON
The President of the Pacific Railroad COMPANY
has placed the following letter from Col DkNio"
in our hands for publication


has plsced The following letter from Col. Benton
in our hands for publication
WASHINGTON July 80, 1881.
To N,s,y, Tbomos Allen. James H. Lucas, James H.
Yeatnaan. HUDSON y. Bridge, and Edrard HaTen,
q Committee of the Board Of Directors 81 me FaeVe
Railroad Company:
GENTLEMEN: did not receive your inVi'a'ion
to be present at the commencement OF your gres,
work In time to answer it for the day. 10 sttenu
could not, even if the time had been longer, az
reasons connected with the state Of Mrs Bentons
health, and an occupation Of my own, put IL oue oi
my power to return to St Louis before september.
take great interest in the success OF the ROAD
Of which you make beginning IL Is INC 0on.Is'
route. and every national consideration requires
il TO be made. and with the aid OF the Natiohai
Government. st. Louis, San Francisco, and the
city of Washington are on line, ana tnat hhe is
through the heart and centre OF the Union, anu
the eyes of the Federal Government snoulu oe
fixed upon it. Unhsppily, they seem 10 DC nxeo
upon q Southern sectional route, hardly within
the limits of the United States | send to the
address of the President and Directors OF your
Company dozen copies Of document just print
ed, being a report of seven different recoDnois-
sances for a Southern FL Paso route to San
Francsco-being the seven explored within the
last year by as many different officers, and exclu-
sive Of those previously made, and also exclusive
of the survey which the Mexican Boundary Com
mission is TO make on the ella river, az contlnu-
alton of the Ell Paso route and of which the am
putation of Ell Paso from New Mexico and giving
il to Texas was also an auxiliary measure. This
document should open the eyes Of the people OF
Missouri to the danger which the central route
has to encounter and the forced adoption OF an
other condemned by every national consideration
Il ;at hat 81 - believe
nifes a foyk) Of this Ell Paso route is intended to
be conducted to St. Louis, which, if done, will be
a favor lost, as no man in Missouri would any
more think of going to San Francisco by that
route than of coming to Washington city by way
of East Florida. The central route Is the only
national one, and the only obstacle is the ROCKY
Mountains, and that is DO obstacle at all, as the
country rises gradually and imperceptibly 7,OO0
to 5000 feet before their base is reached, ana
there are then many passes between the head OF
the del Norte and South Pass-between 80 and
AZ degrees-very practicable, and already marked
out by the buffalo trails. In a speech which
made on this route at the last session Of Congress
uoirtsd nut these animals as the original and
most unerring Of Typographical engineers, me aEos
finders Of sll good routes and the safest guides to
~ rssI1 - ~ sF9 (sge instances 'o'
know then that the great Humboldt had prevl-
ously written the same thing, and in fact, given
the same instances, but have since seen that he
did, and now add what be wrote, for the sake oil
convincing those who yield to authority the con-
viction which they refuse to reason. He says
at is worthy Of remark, that the American
buffalo has exerted an inf lence in the progress
of geography in trackless mountainous regions
"These animals wander in the winter in search
of milder climate, in herds Of several thousands,
to the south Of the Arkansas river In these
migrations their size and unwieldiness make II
difficult for them to pass over high mountains
When, therefore, q well-trodden buffalo path is
met with, it is advisable to follow it, as being sure
to conduct to the most convenient path across the
mountains The best routes through the Cumber-
land Mountains, in the southwest part of Virginia
and Kentucky, in the Rocky Mountains, between
the sources of the yellow Stone and the Platte,
and between the southern branch of the Columbia
and the Rio Colorado of California, were thus
marked out beforehand by buffalo paths."-As-
pets Of Nature, p. 60.
This is all true, and the mountain men can
show these roads and passes in as little time as
horse can travel to them. There are, therefore,
plenty of good passes for the central route; and
as for the snow, it is dry, and but little impedi-
ment to locomotive; and besides, where deepest
it is in ravines and gorges, where the road IS
raised and the wind blows off the dry snow. II
is thus that the railroad from Moscow to St
Petersburgh is made-a raised road and dry snow,
which presents but little obstacle, and which the
wind blows away. There is no difficulty in ind
ing practicable pass in the Rocky Mountains
about the latitude IS and 3d. that is to say, on
the straight line between st. Louis and San
Francisco. have no doubt the whole road will
be eventually made, because believe great OBJ
ject which concerns the welfare Of millions will,
in the end, succeed over all opposition II not
made by the Federal Government, as it should
be, it will be made piecemesl, by companies and
communities. Thus, you have begun three hun
dred miles of it at end the people of Califor-
MIA propose beginning at the other end; and the
Mormons propose TO make it from the Salt Lake
to the Sierra Nevada But the Government
should take the whole upon itself, compensating
companies for what they have done, and make it
free road, save the repairs. The public lands
have long been considered q proper fund for
making national roads; and now that they are
squandered by the hundred millions Of acres in
bounties, which 20 to spectators, the only way
to save them from spoliation and to make them
available for present and future public good is to
apply them in mass to this land other great ma
tiona objects | wish you success within your
State further than that you do not CO. The
Government should be pressed without cessation
and first to make a common road from the from
tiers of Missouri to California, which would be
summers work for hundred men, under prac-
teal country road maker, with some mountain
men to show the buffalo trails and passes.
The various projects for getting the public
lands, pressed upon Congress by individuals and
companies to make railroad to the Pacific, are
only schemes of speculation to make land stock
to be sold in market. The honestest Of them Ia
Boston company openly propose to found bank.
ing establishment upon theirs, If they get It, All
Whitney's projects are to him and his "assigns"
Strike out the ass,gHs, or put an amendment into
his bill that no member Of Congress- Dor any one
related to member within the Levitical degrees
of prohibited marriages, shall be an assignee and
his project would never be heard Of again. A cir
oulating land stock or circulating jobbing stock,
is what they after and the prospect Of sharing
in hundred millions of acres Of public land-pl
der concilstes adherents for projects absurd as
impudent, and which it would he as criminal for
Congress to grant as was the Yazoo fraud. But,
courage The right prevails in the end, but not
without persevering exertion.
Very respectfully, gentlemen,
Your obliged fellow servant