Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian., 1858-12-18


The President has made wonderful progress
in the treatment of this subject, within ono
year. Last year he seemed to have cooked
his eye at it. This year he has got the twist
out of his neck, so he is beginning to look At it
with both eyes. He has discovered that the
Pacific Railroad, already, has an ideal exis-
tence with every thinking man in the country,
and the reality is imperatively demanded.
But the great problem, how and where it shall
be built, he does not solve. What is said
about the work being dohe by private inter-
est with government aid, in money and lands,
is as it should be, as far as it goes, but is not
definite enough. What we want from tho
executive on this topic, is some plan for action
that will harmonize all the conflicting interests.
Perhaps because Of his inability to do so, he
has not proposed any such plan.
There seems but one way for Congressional
action and Government aid, to be furnished
80 as to take the question out of the vortex Of
politics, and give satisfaction to each section
and all parties.
Let the National Faith be pledged for an in.
come of five per cent per annum on stock is
sued for period of fifty years, in addition to
land grants equal to those in this state per
mile, and there will not be any difficulty in
having all the stock taken that will be required
for building all the roads needed. 1t is thus
easily seen how the means for building road
can be obtained.
The most difficult part of the problem to
solve, is, over which route shall the road be
builts
Any one looking back this last ten years,
and calling to mind the very great increase Of
commercial intercourse with our Western bor-
ders on the Pacific, and the Indies beyond,
will not be long in coming to the conclusion
that in ten years more, it will be impossible
for any one road that can be built, to meet the
demands which will be made upon it. Meth
er can any one linz of road be built, where it
will accommodate Ill sections of our country,
extending as it does from the twenty sixth
to theforty ninth parallel Of latitude.
We would propose, then, that the general
government should donate land and guarantee
five per cent. per annum for fifty years, on an
amount of stock not to exceed seventy-five
millions Of dollars, to each of the three propos-
ed roads. Such an endorsement of the enter.
prize by the people, through their represen-
tatives, would eneure the furnishing of all the
capital wanted; and the competition between
the different routes would secure the early
completion Of at least one road.
The five per cent. guaranteed would in real
ty be small tax on the people, even should
the whole amount be paid annually from the
National Treasury. A large part would be
saved in the transportation of the mails,
troops, and munitions of war, besides the gain
there would be in the increased protection to
our frontiers, and the increased value and sales
of lands on the routes Of the three roads.
The tax on the Treasury would be nothing
compared with the vast benefit which would
accrue to every branch Of industry by the
building of the three roads, and the mighty
impulse which would be given to the COM
merce Of the country, by their completion.
There are many who will roll up their eyes
in holy horror at this proposition. and yet, the
very same persons may favor the purchase of
Cuba by the United States Government at a
cost that would build three railroads from the
Mississippi to the Pacific, opening up an
amount of territory a hundred times as large
as the whole Island of Cuba.
The undertaking is grand and magnificent.
Let us therefore have no narrow and section
al strife over it; but let the policy that shall
decide this measure be as liberal and broad as
the national domain.