Butte record., 1854-02-18
Railroads.

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has worked with untiring energy and
zeal for the advancement of The inter.
ests of California. He has been active
in urging upon the attention of Con-
gress the just claims of California, and
we hope to see them prosecuted with
yigor until our rights are acknowledged
and restitution made of what has been
too long and unjustly withheld from US.
Aside from his labors upon the gigantic
Atlantic and Pacific railroad question,
he has introduced into Congress bill
granting lands to the State of Califor-
MIA, to aid in the construction of rail-
roads from San Francisco to San Jose,
from Benicia to Marysville, from Sac
ramento to Nevada city, and from
Stockton to Sonora. The bill grants
every alternate section of agricultural
land for six sections in width, on each
side of the roads,-the lands to be dis
posed of in quantities not exceeding one
hundred and twenty sections in body,
whenever twenty miles of railroad shall
have been completed That DR.. Gwinn
has the energy and perseverance to car
ry this bill through Congress, we do not
doubt, nor but what he will labor ener-
getically to procure its passage.
The indomitable Doctor, has also in
troduced bill donating lands to the
State of California, for the purpose Of
constructing railroad and telegraphic
line from San Francisco to the Colorado
River" The provisions of this bill,
if we have construed them correctly,
do not actually prohibit the road from
traversing the Sacramento valley, and
making its passage through the Nevada
by the way of Mobiles Pass. On the
contrary. the bill provides that the road
from San Francisco shall intersect in a
straight line, whichever route shall be
selected for the road through the terri
tory of the United States, from the
Mississippi River. But lest a central
route should be selected, and the bar.
rem deserts of the southern route left in
solitude, undisturbed by the neighing of
the iron horse, the Doctor has opened
fierce onslaught against all advocates
of the central route, from Benton down
to Seward, and probably, to his own
satisfaction, has annihilated the advo-
Gates of the central route, and estab-
lished the claims of the southern. If
we were not located in the mountains,
where from the immediate vicinity of
our sanctum, we are Unable to extend
our optical vision over Sonora and Chi
huahua, we might probably be enabled
to discern the great advantages to be
Immediately or ultimately gained, by
locating the road upon our extreme
southern borders, passing through Sec
ton of country lily adapted to the pur-
poses of agriculture, and comparatively
devoid of mineral wealth, and of salts
flying the really valuable agricultural
and mineral portions of our state with
the provisions for plug, extending
from the deserts of Mexico to the in
habitablc portions of California and
Oregon.
The location of the road through No.
ble's pass could in no wise interf, re
with, or retard the growing commercial
importance of San Francisco, as that
city must always remain as it now is, the
great metropolis of the Pacific. But
1t would then traverse large and beau
tiful track of agricultural country until
it reached the Nevada mountains, when
it would pass through valleys that need
only to be brought under the hand of
the husbandman, to bring forth their
abundance. The road would then be
lined with thriving towns and villages,
filed with indncfr,o,e III ,r..-.r.,-: