Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1858-03-28


Congress.
am happy to inform your committee that since
this route was established and the contract duly eE
ecuted all these fore0Odugs have been disappointed
and the practicabiity of having four horse coach
service, carrying passengers with therequred speed,
has been practically demonstrated. The route es-
tabIisbed nv Congress, from San Antonio, by Ell
Paso. through the Gadsden Purchase or Arizona,
passing Fort Yuma to San Diego, has been put in
oneratioD MANY trips with passengers, have been
made in excellent time, and with the happiest
suIt Large public ASSEMBLIES have been called at
both ends of the line, and the most unb0unded re-
ioicinqs have attested the success Of the service
The line of this San Antonio service is the same
with that Of the overland mail from the Rio Grand
near FL Paso to Fort Yuma, or the Colorado and is
TO be discontinued between those points whenever
the latter service begins. To abandon that line af
ter it has been actually tested for many months is
TO abandon a certainty for an uncertainty, and to
take away from the department and the public the
certain assurance and positive knowledge that the
service can and will be well performed on the route
selected. And what is to be substituted for this
surance which actual experiments have given? No
route that Congress may prefer, or any that its COM
mittee may recommend, but the whole fields thrown
open 10 hs contractors to 60 here or there according
to the suggestions Of their own interest," sWayed and
Influenced, as they may be- by large sectional or
railroad combinations that may choose to appeal to
their cupidity.
This department intends to intimate no combina-
tiOns 10 have BEEN in fact entered into in this case.
It knows Of no facts which would warrant such
charge, but the Postmaster General feels it to be his
imperative duty to point out the almost certain
sequences, which naturally grow cut Of comforting
a power 81 vast and unbounded in the hands Of a
company Of mere carriers who owe no responsible
| ity to the public, and whose individual members
may not even be known to the country. In this
very case If tn action Of the executive government
| is to be disafhrmed by comforting the power on
Errftav al g "a uhof nil hn Of
once their condition? The Sbuth Pass and Salt
Lake route was zealously advocated and great rail
road interests and the interest Of cities lying above
St. Louis invoked to sustain that route. Well,
| suppose these cities and railroad companies COM
bined shall apply not TO Congress- not TO your COM
mittee not to the Executive of the United States,
1 but to Mr. Butter6eld Mr. Fargo, and the rest of
them, in the exercise Of their discretion TO start the
Mississippi above or even at St. Louis, and thence
/ by the South Pass, Salt Lake, SC What answer
| would they make Why, that the route utter
| " Improbable from snow, ice and mountains, for
| at least four or FIVE months Of the year,
The reply to this may be, and according to all the
/ laws Of human nature would be, 1--WE know it, but
we have such large private interest vested in our
railroads, town lots, &c, all along much Of this
route, that if you select IT, will promptly pay all
/ the fines and forfeitures which the Post Office De-
l partment may impose" This might satisfy 1.-the
bond" it is true but in the meantime, for the four
/ or five months the public would have no mails, and
the means Of trsnsportations Of passengers well
as nails would be entirely lost.
The department has no doubt that there are large
| companies and interests who might press hard on
these contractors select this Salt Lake route; and
yet the positive experience Of six years, shown in
pages SO and "a of my report demonstrates the Ut
ter zqDossiJiJitv Of conveying mail it for
than eight or nine months Of the year A full con-
rmation Of all this may be found in the present con
] diGOn Of your army in Utah. They are embedded
/ in the SHOWS and ice Of the Rocky Mountains J GU
cannot send mule, or horse, or soldier to their re
/ lief Although encamped within one hundred miles
Of the enemy, your army cannot move from its posi-
/ ton; and from November to April you have to re
main in a state Of utter inactivity.
II the purpose Of taking 1t by the South Pass and
Salt Lake be disavowed, why is it not excluded by
| the bill? If St. Louis, Springfield, Neosho, Anton
| Chico, and Albuquerque, be the route, why not
specify as the to be substituted for the
lected, leaving room for combinations and bids
Ito the cUpidity Of contractors under no ObGga-
tiOns TO the government of the people Of the Uuied
States beyond the mere money clauses of their COW
/ enant. Here are two routes. The one has been Sc
ected by the President through one Of his depart
ments. The contractors have barEained, freely and
willingly to perform the service required Positive
experiments over the most difficult aud indeed the
only questionable part Of the way, demonstrate, be
yond all caUi that stages, with mails and passen-
gers can be, and are twice every month, conveyed
/ in safety and comfort over It. Now, If Congress
shall think this not to be the best route, why not
/ say so itself? Why set up Butterfeld, largo Co.
not only above the President and one Of his depart
| ments but even above themselves
| There is another mode by which the propriety Of
! this proposition may be tested by your committee
/ The government of the United States mas a vast
/ number of heavy contracts with steamships along
! our coast and steamboats, along our rivers; also
with railroads and stage contractors almost without
number.
In every one Of these the route has been estab-
shed either bv Congress itself or by the Post Office
acted under It's authority. Now what would be
thought Of proposition to Overturn all these routes
established by law and specified in every contract
and turn the whole loose, dependent upon the selfish
interest of the contractors themselves. Such pro-
| position would startle the whole country, and
principle would not differ in one jOt little from
| the one now under consideration.
One reflection more in this case viii demonstrate
5evond all disputaton that this proposition is alto
gether wrong. By the contract made with these par
| les they are now bound to start at Memphis and
run out to Little Rock also, to start at St Louis
/ aud run out, making junction with the Memphis
route either at Little Rock or Preston in Texas,
they nav choose. Other bidders stood ready to do
the same service in the same time, and for the same
price and when they lost the great
" disappointed. Now It Is proposed 10 release But
terfeld, Fargo Co from performing the service on
these two branches of the main road a8d 10 permit
| them 10 select only one as may best cOmport with
| their own interest. Why, IL may be well asked,
this sr post factO easement 10 these particular con-
/ tractors, when many other bidders would gladly
have taken the contract just it S! If three OF
four hundred miles if the junction is made at Little
Rock or five or six hundred if it be by Springfield
! aud Preston, is to be Topped off would think it
sefevident that pro rata deduction ought to bere-
quired in the bill proposed, which seems not At all
| contemplated by 1t inits present condition.
By reference TO the 2sh page Of my report 1t will
be seen thst these contractors, and all the rest
| whose bids we're considered regular under the 8d-
vertsement and the Of Congress, expressly con-
scented that their bids might be held ami considered
/ as extending and applying to the route selected In
proof Of which far the present contractors are
concerned this very line was inserted inthe contract
itself executed by them. On the 18th page you Will
discover modification Of the route, endorsed on the
contract leavingit entirely optional with them, onthe
conditions there expressed tOrun the Missouri branch
bv Springfield in Missouri, thence by Fayetteville
! Van Buren, and Fort Smith, in Arkansas making
the junction at Preston in Texas instead Of Little
/ Rock What the contractors may do in this respect
! is unknown to this department, but the option still
! lies open to them TO do as they may choose
/ This reference shows that the contractors were,
in fact bidders ultimately for this rsrV route, and uu
der any and every construction which il is possible
to put on the law Of Congress have no right or sha
dow of claim for any change or modification Of their
/ contract.
II is due to them to state the department has no
stance.
Your committee having invited me to make any
suggestions which ! suppose might assist them in
arriving at a proper determination on the subject
avail myself Of the occasion TO submit few ubser-
vations in addition to those contained in my re
port.
If It be enoured why bidders were required in
nv advertisement to specify their point Of starting
on the Mississippi, and the prominent points by
which they proposed to pass the answer Is an obyi
GUS one.
Il would be otherwise impossible to judge Of the
rsasoas5Iues Of the price demanded for The service
Some routes would be longer and others shorter
some more and others less expensive some possible
and others not possible; and the department not
being commanded but only authorized, to establish an
overland mail TO California, could not consent, IN
the exercise Of a sound discretion, to attempt the
required service any route which IN the nature
Of things could not be regularly performed
The Postmaster General well remembers pro-
tracted and very useful conference with the late la
meuted Rusk, who was much OF more the author Of
the measure than any body else. He had been long
At the head Of the Post Office Committee in the Sen
ate He had resided for many years in Texas, and
had trayersed much Of the route selected. His as
81.