The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-10-18
WEDNESDAY MORNING, OCT. is.
The Originator of Pacific Rail
roads.

The St. Louis Globe Democrat in long
article, the statements of which are well for
titled by documentary evidence, demons
tratss the fallacy of the common idea that
Thomas n. Benton first suggested railroad
to the Pacific. The credit of the suggestion,
1t appe ars. is due to Asa Whitney, a New
York merchant, whose name is seldom men
toned in connection with the enterprise.
Whitney had been engaged in the China
trade, saw the need of increased rapidity OF
transportation between that empire and Eu-
rope, and clearly perceived the advantages
that would come to this country if the great
highway should cross our land. So pro-
foundly was he impressed with this idea
that he went promptly to work at giving it
practical shape, spending both time and
money in efforts to justify his theory and
enlist public sympathy with it. At his own
expense he made survey of some seven
hundred miles of the proposed route, cross
ing the Mississippi near Prairie du Chen
and penetrating a considerable distance
westward; and also descending the Missouri
in a canoe, to study the topography of the
country. Then he prepared memorial TO
Congress, praying that grant of land sixty
miles in width, from Lake Michigan to the
Pacific, be made and the sale thereof auth
orized, through commissioners appointed by
the President, to furnish the means for con-
structing railroad through said territory,
on the latitude of the South Pass. No
bonds were asked for, and no guarantees of
interest. The sale of the lands alone, it was
urged, would meet the whole outlay, esti-
mated at S50,000,000, with probably SIS ,OoO,-
600 more to operate the road untilit should
reach self-sustaining basis.
The memorial went on to show, by a
strong array of figures and differences,
that the construction Of such road would
bring to our doors the commerce of 700, 00O,-
900 people, worth at least $4,000, 900 year,
otherwise out of our reach by reason of cir
cuitous sea voyages and other natural him
derances. An argument since grown famil
lar in the multiplication table-to the effect
that the building of the road would attract
immigration and make market for the
lands-was dwelt upon at some length, with
the added suggestion that the settlers could
pay fair share of the price of their farms
by working on the road That other argu-
ment, and the one which finally insured a
Pacific railroad, was also employed, to wit:
the political importance of such medium
Of communication between widely separated
portions of the country. The trip from
coast to coast, then requiring six mon tbs,
could be shortened, the memorial pointed
out, to eight days, as has since been verified
ga cargo of tea from China" it proceeded,
"may then be delivered in any of our Allan
tic cities in thirty days, and in London or
Liverpool in less than forty. days" And
finally, Mr.. Whitney insisted, the road
'must revolutionize the entire commerce of
the world, placing us in the centre of all ma
tions, and be the means, morally, of civiliz-
ing and Outstanding all mankind
This memorial was presented to Congress
in 1S45 and referred to committee which
never reported it back. The scheme then
was considered as visionary as the tunnel
ing of the Atlantic ocean would be to-day.
But after time the feasibility of the pro
ject was acknowledged, and its vast benefits
ecognized. Other men took up the matter,
profted by Whitney's calculations and built
the road. Whitney met the fate of many
pioneers in the field of novelty, and died in
poverty.