The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-08-18
OVERLAND ROUTES TO THE PACIFIC.
THE BUTTERFIELD CONTRACT.

IL L
1t is proposed, in the following pages, to ex-
hibit the votes and proceedings in Congress- at
the last session Of that body in reference to the
contract with Butterfeld Co., for the trans
portstion Of an overland mail to the Pacific;
subject, in ITSELF of great interest, and further
important from its connections with a railroad
across the continent, with the settlement Of our
Pacific States, and with the question Of the d.
rection which shall be given to the expansion OF
our population, whether to the West and North
west, or Southwark upon Mexico.
By the tenth section of the Post Office Appro-
priation Act of March 3, 1857, the following pro-
vision was made for the establishment Of an over
land mail to San Francisco:
SIC 10. Ind BE fa,1eT enacted, That the Postmaster
General be- and he B hereby authorized 10 contract Tor the
conveyance OF the entire letter mall from such point On the
Mississippi river the contractors may select 10 n bran
cscO the state Of California, for SIX years at cost mol
exceeding $500 per for semimonhy, S45OOOO
for weekly 5000 600 for semi weekly service 70 be per
formed semimOnhly. weekly, semi weekly al the optoh
OF the Postmaster General"
1t is part Of the history of this section, fresh
IN public recollection and the evidence Of which
is copiOusly preserved in the official reports OF
Congressional debates, that il was passed IN the
phraseOlogy in which it stands upon the statute
book upon the fullest consideration, with pre-
else knowledge Cd all sides of what was intended,
and because, in fact, it could not have been
carried through Congress in any other form.
The selection Of an overland mail route was at
tended with all the difficulties connected with
the conflict of local interests, which have proved
SO great an embarrassment in the way of a Pa
cifc railroad. The overland mail, it was sup
posed might be the pioneer of the railroad.
Along a line of semi-weekly wagon service, with
the stations necessary for such service, settle
ments might spring up, which would influence
the route of the railroad Such anticipatiOns
n =. 4
10 a certain extent, there was undoubtedly good
ground for them. There is a tendency in settle
ments to follow mail facilities, and to be slim
uated by mail facilities, unless indeed, mails are
carried where settlements are impossible,
turned out in the sequel TO be the case with
large part of the route selected under the act of
March 3, 1857.
At any rate whether for sufficient reasons, or
otherwise it was VIGOROUSLY impossible to carry
an appropriation for an overland wagon mail,
upon any route defined in the appropriation, or
over any route to be defined afterwards by any
political authority. We got oUer The difficulty as
70 1vhere The mail should go, by authorizing The
tractors themselves to select the points tie Nisss
sigpi rsTer from ighch they 100d start" This was
the explanation made in the Senate by the late
Gen. Rusk, the chairman of the Post Office Com
mittee which reported the section we are now
considering; explanation concurred in by
tee, and recognised and received as satisfactory
on all sides indicate no router said Mr..
Gwin. +" Let money find the best route 10 the Pa
cine" That is let the private capital, which is
70 take the risks of the enterprise, make its own
choice of " route to the Pacific"
Il is no part of the duty of the writer of this
paper, to vindicate the propriety of what was
done in this matter by the Thirty fourth Congress
The present question is, what was done, not why
- a., HI, :.
done IN some other way. The question is,
whether law of Congress has been executed,
or violated, by the Administration; and to deter
mine that, il is sufficient to understand what the
law Is, without assuming defence OF the wisdom
Of it.
Nevertheless, there were strong and peculiar
reasons, and they deserve to be stated, which
justify the peculiar phraSeOlogy of this law, in
dependently Of the consideration that it could
not have commanded majority in either branch
of Congress in any other form.
What specially intended was the facilita-
ton Of emigration to our Pacific possessions.
This wagon mail was in response to the great
petition signed by eighty thousand citizens of
California, the stress of which petition was lth3t
that State, languishng for the want of people
must look chiefly overland for families and per-
manent population. This wagon mail was in
fact, urged and carried as a California measure
would have tendency to build up settlements
In the region intervening between the Mississippi
and the Pacific, but those settlements were not
the main object Of the measure. 1t was a mail
route, intended 10 be emigrant route which
was the thing asked for, and which was the thing
intended TO be granted.
IN this predicament of the case there was
peculiar prOpriety in leaving the selection of the
route to the sole discretion of the contractors
he hos for hon. l., Ill
the best route for emigrants; and as a consider
able proportion Of their profits WAS expected TO
arise from the carrying Of emigrauts, they would
have the most decisive inducements to select
route satisfactory to emigrants.
But at all events, whatever may have been the
reasons which controlled the framing of the law
and whether those reasons were sound, or I'M
sound, the language Of it was precise, and the
construction of it unmistakable 1t left nothing
10 the determination of the Postmaster General,
except the frequency Of the service, and it con-
templated no restriction upon the contractors,
except that the Western terminus Of the service
should be the city of San Francisco. For the
starting point it gave range of seventeen de-
grees of latitude, the entire length OF the Missis-
sippi. The route of the mail, per Sc is not named
in the act, but that is involved in the starting
point. If the contractors had the selection of
that, they had necessarily the selection of the
route.
The only honest administration of this law.
would have been to call for proposals, the ire
Quency OF the service being first fixed bv the Post
Office Department and to award tn contract to the
lowest responsible bidder, without any restriction
upon the contractors as To the starting point. or
route; and the Department had, in fact no right
10 require the contractors to state, in their pro-
posals, from what point they Intended to start.
That was something over " hich the Department
had no control and which AZ bad mn -; -
know. 1t was absolutely at the discretion of the
contractors, and this discretion remained TO
them, until they actually commenced the carry
ing Of the mail. 1t was lawful and competent
and might be wise, for persons to propose to
carry the mails for specified sum, without hav-
ing themselves determined at the time of making
the proposals, either the starting point, or the
route. 1t might very possibly happen that per-
sons might defer, until after they had actually
obtained the contract, those precise and detailed
examinations upon which they would finally
predicate their choice of a route
Let US now what the actual administration
Of this law was, if that can be called an admin
istration of a law, which was a fragrant and
complete violation of it.
Instead of the route being left to the discretion
of contractors, it was determined in Cabinet
council, down to the minutest detail of If. Tboso
who made PROPOSALS were required to state their
starting point and route, and no proposal having
been made for the route determined by the Pres
ident and his advisers, those who made propo-
sails were required to assent that they shonld be
regarded as made for the Presidents route.
The following official statement of what was
done, was made by the Postmaster General
himself;
On the I'd day Of July 1851 the Department after fan
and mature consideration made the following order in rei
ton 10 the route selected and the bid accepted.
"l2,57s. From 81. Louis, Missouri, and from Memphis
Tennessee convergng Little Rock Arkansas thence via
Preston Texas, nearly may be found advisable
20 the point OF crossing the Rio Grande above Paso
Fillmore thence along he road