Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-06-17


proved baiky, and thrown the adventurous old
| gentleman over his head, and broken every bone
| IN ms skin. | pass to examine the railroad
hobby to see if it will perform better than the
horse Nebraska. M F
| IL Is due TO the people to candidly say, that
the empirical railroad schemes Of Colonel Benton
were so obviously gotten up for electioneering pur-
poses, after his difficulties with the democratic
party IN lS49, that | may have erred In sup
posing the object of his schemes were as notice.
able TO the people of Missouri as they were to me
here on the spot. | confess to having had an in
vincible dsinclination to notice. far less to for
maiiy expose, humbugs by me considered SO trans
parent.
What are the facts' He proposed railroad,
one mile icide, over unsurveyed mountains, where
he himself supposed nothing but "sleigh " could
pass! 1T any Senator could adopt folly SO wild
nothing to such an one would appear preposter-
| GUS tsH
What was my coursei Did attempt to build
a road through doubtful and unknown regions,
before one mile was built in our own forgotten
Slater Did undertake to arbitrarily decide that
road should start from st. Joseph, or from
Kansas, or from Springfield, and, while quarrel
ing with dissenting colleagues over rival routes,
obtain no land nor money for either' The North
desire their roads to Chicago extended west and
north Of Missouri, if grades, and climate, and
soil will allow; the South, on the other hand, de-
sire road running to the south of our State.
Under such circumstances, and with such compe-
tition, even if we are united to obtain location
OF the road favorable to us is difficult. After
careful consideration, the Missouri delegation in
Congress, Gas soon as Benton was out of it, OBJ
tanned grant of land from Congress of sufficient
value to ensure the construction Of two roads
across the State, and one on each side Of the Mis-
| souri, river.
This was followed up by the States granting
aid, which secures the building of third road
lying midway between the two. Here, then, are
three well located and nearly parallel roads, lead
ing three hundred miles due west towards the
Pacific ocean. As soon as your delegation OBJ
tanned this grant for Missouri from Congress, and
when Benton saw the construction of three hum
dred miles OF the road to California provided for,
what followedi Credit for the performance,
Praise for the important first step, The re-
verse-reproaches, censure, and abuse, from Ben
ton himself 1T once by published letters, and
by speeches, Colonel Benton proclaimed that the
road TO India aoas Abandoned Z! That if that road
was to be built, he must be sent to Congress to
renew what had been shamefully abandoned!
The impudence was Beritonian, and of course
was unnoticed and being unnoticed, suppose
some actually believed it had been abandoned,
when, in fact, we had just secured the construc-
ton Of three hundred miles Of it! We next OBJ
'ained an appropriation to survey routes through
the mountains, This done, Colonel Benton came
back into Congress.
He has been here in Congress six months, the
usual length OF long session, and if he has
drafted a bill or resolution, OF ever deliv-
cred speech during that time in favor of rail-
road to the Pacific, ] have not seen or heard of
It, That some bold pretension will issue from
him before the election, his political practices Of
thrty-five years allow and justify us confidently
to predict that it will be followed by no beneficial
resait, his whole history teaches us to believe ;
beyond speech or two, one need expect any
labor from him for Missouri. 1t is not his habit !;
snowy speeches, and bills full Of attractive pro-
misses, the people can easily be made to know all
about but the unknown labor in committees and
III Congress, necessary to command success by
making measures understood, the people, he well
knows, cannot be made to fully appreciate. In
like him, promise no railroad from San Fran
cisco to Kansas TO obtain votes nor to SPRING
field nor TO st. Joseph; on the contrary, SO
limited are the surveys, compared with the NUM-
Der wrought to have, that | frankly avow it as
my belief that no road to the Pacific, from any
point, is likely to be ordered to be built during
this session of Congress. That is my honest
opinion, and Twill not conceal it for the miserable
purpose of obtaining votes. ! do hope, however,
That Congress will, in the meantime, adopt and
extend our hitherto successful plan of obtaining
9acifc railroad by piecencal Benton asked tor
millions of acres, and got nothng-in fact, he
lever SO much as asked for final vote upon
it whilst we, when he was out of the way,
secured the building of two roads towards Cali
iornia, each two or three hundred miles long.
J hope this Congress will not pass away before
we can obtain other local grants for roads look
ing toicdrds San Francisco, and for roads coming
from San Francisco. For instance, Kansas
Territory is now organized its government can
act on this subject as efficiently as can that of
Missouri. We hope, (and as our plan is honest
we have no desire to conceal IT'D to be able to
procure for Kansas Territory what we procured
for Missouri--lands to aid in the extension of
the st. Joseph road, northwesterly, up the valley
of the Platte; lands to aid in the extension Of
the Kansas road up the valley Of the river Kan
sas and lands to MD in the extension of the
Springfield road across the Neosho and Arkansas
rivers in the direction of Albuquerque. These
grants will insure the extension of our three
roads. five hundred or six hundred miles EACH
toward California ; if never built rod beyond
the foot of the mountains, these roads would
benefit Kansas Territory and Missouri almost
beyond calculation similar grants of land to
California would insure the building of like roads
from San Francisco eastwardly to the Colorado
and to Utah, some FIVE hundred and fifty miles.
These roads in Kansas Territory and in Califor-
mia, leading toward each other, would be profta-
bic to Missouri and California, even if never
extended SO as to meet and connect. Between
the California and Kansas territorial roads would
remain space of from seven hundred and fifty
miles to nine hundred and fifty miles and four or
five years hence, when these roads are finished by
Kansas Territory and California, even if nothing
shall have been done before, we shall know all
about the country, and the passes lying between
them by that time, if not before, some plan will
be devised that will build road to connect them
together. Scheming men like Colonel Benton,
whose political necessities will not allow him to
wait, and whose minds are ever filled with visions
of Roman splendor and of Arabian gorgeousncss,
can never accomplish large matter Of SO PRAc-
TIcAL a character.
They fail to recollect that even the great rail-
road from New York to Buffalo was not single
undertaking, but the result Of series Of isolated
undertakings. The first link was only sixteen
miles long from Albany to Schenectady. The
next link extended to Utica. Another only
extended to Syracuse. And the very last of all
was the link from New York to Albany. There
must have been some eight or ten companies
between New York and Chicago there are three
between Chicago and st. Louis. So with every
long line Of road in America save the Illinois
Central 4tss
Who so proper, Mt any rate, as our own people
TO build roads through Missouri, and fix the