Demoine courier., 1855-02-08
Protection of Intercourse BE-
tween the Atlantic and Pacific
States, by an Overland Route.

JOINT RESOLUTIONS or THE GENERAL AS
sEMBLY OF II A OF IOWA:
Concerning the protection Of settlers aud emf
grants betreenahe Mississippi DdLey and the
Pacific DEMONSTRATING the establishment Of
Postal aud Telegraphic correspondence across
the .fmericdn Continent.
WHEREAS, The alarming increase of rob
berries and murders perpetrated on travellers and
settlers by the Indian tribes between the Mis-
souri, River and the Pacific Ocean, added to the
d difficulties ordinarily incident to the journey
across the vast regions between those points.
renders it indispensable that immediate meas
ares should be taken by the Federal Govern
ncnt, to protect at least one line Of travel be-
tween the Mississippi or Missouri and the Pa
cifc, by proper distribution of troops for guard
ing against The outrages and horrors to which
American citizens are now constantly subject
ed in travelling across American soil between
widely separated portions of American Ter
ritory.
And Whereas, 1t is the duty of all govern
nents to furnish adequate protection TO the
people for whose welfare they were instituted
"a duty which all civilized governments, in
GLIDING the American government, recognize in
theory; and which the American government
practices in reference to persons claiming its
protection in foreign lands, whether il be in the
rescue Of ship-wrecked sailors from Japan, or
the rescue Of persons like Kozta from the fanss
of European Tyranny.
And Whereas, 1t is believed that the requi-
site protection for travellers and settlers can be
secured (without additional EXPENSE by a pro-
per distribution Of comparatively small num-
bers Of troops in subdivisions stockaded along
any one or more of the routes between the Mis-
sissippi or Missouri and Oregon and California
thus rendering it practicable to accomplish
the journey safely, 10 establish a continuous
line of settlements, and to quicken the trans
mission of the mails between the Atlantic and
Pacihc-and thus incidentally, by affording adj
equate protection, rendering practicable the
completion of Telegraph lines between the At
lantic and Pacific States of this Confederacy.
And Whereas, Iii is particularly due from the
Federal Government that the enterprising set
tiers betwee the Missouri and the P9cifc shall
be protected in their lives and property, while
encountering the tolls and dangers of pioneer
Ing in the civilization of those immense regions
and that this protection is the more impor-
tant, from the fact that, while thus afTording
proper protection for settlers, as well as trav-
~elers, the protection thus afforded would incl
dentally facilitate correspondence by mail and
telegraph between the American people DWELL
ins on opposite sides of the continent as we'll
as at shorter intervals apart, through the whole
extent of the vast line of travel between the
Missouri and Pacific, as aforesaid-thus bridy-
ing North .3merica by POSTAL and LIGHTNING
betueem Europe and the countries bordering on
the Pacific Ocean.
Be it therefore Resolved, That, in the opin-
hn of the General Assembly of the State of
Iowa, the subjects in the foregoing Preamble
should claim the immediate and favorable &C
ton of the Congress of the United States; and
that immediate measures should be taken for
distributing the troops intended for protecting
the western settlements against Indian depreda-
tons; so that parties of fifteen or twenty dra-
goons may be stationed in stockades Quilt like
trading posts) twenty or thirty miles apart, re-
curing only from one to two thousand of the
troops intended FOR the protection of emigrants
and settlers, along some route across the Plains
and Mountains between the Missouri and the
Pacific, as proposed in O'Rielly's Memorial to
Congress, which was approved by the National
Railroad Convention in st. Louis, in 1852
some of those troops from each stockade to
patrol the route daily between the stockades,
and to transmit an Express Letter Mail along
the whole route between the Mississippi or
Missouri and the Pacific, with greater speed
and far less cost than any mail carried off rail-
road route in America:-and with this great ad-
vantage, that, whereas the present mails be-
tween the Atlantic and Pacific States, touch
only at the TWO ports of New York and San
Francisco, the Overland Mail Route here advo-
Gated, would afford its benefits to the whole
country along its route-each stockade, or the
town which would speedily be erected thereat,
serving as a postal station as well as a telegraph
depot for the distribution of intelligence among
the people settled and travelling through all
those vast regions, as well as for the transmits
sion of governmental dispatches between the
Atlantic and Pacific sections of the Union.
Be it also Resolved, as the opinion Of the
General Assembly Of the State Of Iowa, That
such arrangements for the protection Of life
and property, II faithfully carried out vitA
military p~recisio~ by relays or patrols from