The Smoky Hill and Republican union. [volume] (Junction City, Kan.) 1861-1864, 1862-07-03
OUR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENCE.
WASHINGTON, June II, 1862.

WASHINGTON, June II, 1862.
Editors Union-Before this can reach
you by mail, the fate of the Pacific Rail
Road Bill, and in large measure, of Kan
sas, will be settled, and the result conveyed
to you by telegraph. To-day, after long
and patient waiting, the Bill will be taken
up in the Senate, and its consideration will
be continued from day to day until it is
disposed of. After its various mutations,
its ups and downs, it is at this time impos-
sible to say just what its fate will be. But
that it will all come out right for the enter
prise and for Kansas il still the confident
hope and belief of Kansas men here, who
have labored untiringly to that end. The
chief danger to the enterprise is not from
open and avowed enemies, but from pro-
fessed, and perhaps real friends. The most
formidable and dangerous Of them come
from the extreme eastern State of the
Union-the cold but enterprising State of
Maine. A year or two ago, that State
chartered q company known as the Peoples
Pacific Railroad Company, and invested it
with power to build q road from the Mis-
souri, river to the Pacific ocean. Its capital
is $4,000, 900, 500, 900 of which has been
paid in. The agents of this company were
the FIRST on the ground here, and they sue
ceeded in getting bill introduced into the
House authorizing them to build road
from the Western boundary of Kansas to
the eastern boundary of California. With
the House Rail Road Committee, however.
the Company was not a favorite. They
reported bill organizing new Company
to build the road between those points.
This bill Maine company sought on the
floor of the House to amend. They failed.
They now seek the same thing in the Sen
ate, aud, failing there, they seek to kill the
bill, or to clog it with amendments which
will render it useless, in the hope that at
the next session of Congress, or at some
time in the future they may get a bill
through that will subserve their ends. In
this matter they can afford to be energetic.
They have everything to gain by their sue
cess, nothing to lose by failme or delay.
With the friends Of Kansas, who arc labor
ing here, a very different feeling is enter
tanned. They feel that the people of their
State have an immense interest at stake in
the struggle, and that their failure now,
may be failure whose consequences will
be Immediately felt, and may never be
remedied. Although the Kansas friends of
the enterprise have no special objections,
and have made no special fight on the Maine
that company has not pursued
the same course towards Kansas. They
feel, or affect to feel, that the Kansas com.
pany is the vital part of the enterprise, and
that if they can by disparagement break
lown, they can kill the bill, and it is at it
t they therefore direct their efforts.
They have been in some degree already
successful, and it is possible that they may
yet accomplish all at which they are driv.
ng. We trust not, however; but whether
hey succeed or not you will probably know
~ the time this reaches you.
Whatever may be the fate of the bill,
Kansas will have nothing to complain of
n her Senator'S They have both labored
and effectively in her interest in
his behalf, and if they finally fail to ac
'omplish all that the people of the State
night desire, the people will at least have |
he satisfaction of knowing that they could |
lot have sent men here who would have !
accomplished more. That our Representa-
i've would have been as efficient and effec-
i've on the floor of the House, but for his
most inopportune and painful sickness, no
me who knows his abilities, his ardent
and his earnest interest in
be matter, can doubt 1 regret to say
hat be has not yet been able to resume his
eat in the House. He is at this time ab-
ent from the city, some where in New
Cngland, seeking to recover his physical
nergies, shattered and prostrated by dis
ase.
The times here appear to be unusually
rosperous, and money plenty. Govern.
rent securities, which at the end of the
'st "Democratic CO Administration had ,
one down IL per cent. below par, now .
'mmand from to 7 per cent. premium.
I'd are sought after with eagerness and 4
Vidity BY the most sagacious capitalists of
,e country. The tax bill, which has 50
ng dragged its immense length through
le two branches of Congress, will become I.
law in few days. This bill is intended a
raise about $3.50, ,0O0. 900 annually.
arge as this SUN is, it will scarcely be
II BY the great body of the people.of the J
untry. The taxes are laid chiefly upon
les, manufactures, and incomes. Cotton,
believe, is the only raw article taxed.
o excise Of one half cent per pound il laid . :.
,on the article, which, it is believed, will .s ::
ice some twelve millions of reye,ue u !,
hiskey is taxed twenty cents per gallon. q
'bacco twenty cents per pound. Incomes
)m five to twenty per cent N.,,f..