Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-10-28
WHO SUGGESTED THE PACIFIC Rau
ROAD.

| the Pacific was shown to be fallacv h,
ex-senator Armstrong at recent meetins
| OF the Historical Society in this CITY. Al
| matter of fact, the records prove tina
he opposed such a project, even after i
had gone 80 far as the calling of Con
| vention at st. Louis. 1t was arranged tina,
Stephen A. Douglas should preside owe,
| said Convention, and Benton did all he
| could to embarrass the proceedings until
it became evident that the Convention
was going to recommend line by the
way of Albuquerque-since practically
adopted by the Atchison, Topeka and
Santa Fe road-when he suddenly changed
his views and made vigorous speech in
favor of the South Pass route, which he
argued to be the most natural and most
feasible route, as demonstrated by the
pathway OF the buffalo, and by the ex.
plorations of Colonel Fremont.
The credit of the first serious PROPOSE.
tion for railroad to the Pacific really be.
longs to Asa Whitney, New York MGR.
chant, whose name is rarely mentioned in
connection with the matter. He was at
one time worth about 500, 900, but the
great New York fire of 1885 DESTROYED
nearly all his possessions, and soon after.
wards he went to China as a supercargo.
and then to England and other parts of
Europe. During this journey he made a
systematic study of the problem of trans.
portation and the commercial relations of
the United States to China, India. the
islands OF the ocean and the various Euro
pean countries and it was while returning
home across the Atlantic that he evolved
the scheme of great national railway from
Lake Michigan to the Pacific, which he had
convinced himself was the comprehensive
expedient that would enable his country to
avail itself of its manifest advantages, and
secure vast and enriching foreign trade,
while at the same time developing its own
resources and promoting the general wei.
fare.
So profoundly was Whitney impressed
by this far-reaching conception that he
went promptly to work at giving it practi-
cal shape, spending both time and money
in efforts to justify his theory and enlist
public sympathy with it. At his own ex-
pense he made survey of some 700 miles
OF proposed route, crossing the Mississippi
near Prairle du Chen and penetrating a
considerable distance westward, and also
descending the Missouri in canoe, to study
the topography of the country. Then he
prepared memorial to Congress, praying
that a grant of land 60 miles in width,
from Lake Michigan to the Pacific, be made
and the sale thereof authorized through
commissioners appointed by the President,
to furnish the means for constructing a
railroad through said territory on the lati.
tude 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, estimated
at $50, DOC, 900, with probably 1000, 600
more to operate the road until it should
reach a self-sustaining basis.
The memorial went on to show, by a
strong array of figures and differences, that
the construction Of such a road would
bring to our doors the commerce of 100.
600, 600 people, worth at least $40, OOo..
600 year, otherwise out OF reach
by reason of circuitous sea voyages
and other natural hindrances. An
argument, since grown familiar as the
multiplication table-to the effect that the
building of the road would attract immi-
grafton and make market for the lands
was dwelt upon at some length, with the
added suggestion that the settlers could
pay full share of the price of their farms
by working on the road. The other argu.
ment, and the one which finally insured
Pacific railroad, was also employed, to wit +:
the political Importance of such a medium
of communication between widely sepa.
rated portions OF the country. The trip
from coast to coast, then requiring six
months, could be shortened, as the memo.
rial pointed out, to eight days, as has since
been verified. A cargo of tea from China
1t proceeded, may then be delivered in any
OF our Atlantic cities in thirty days, and
in London or Liverpool in less than forty
five days. Aud finally, Mr.. Whitney in
sisted, the road must revolutionize the en-.
tire commerce of the world, placing US
in the center of all nations, and be the
means, morally, of civilizing and Christian
izing all mankind.
In the light of things cow accomplished,
Mr.. Whitney's madness does not appear so
very unmethodical but we may be sure
that when his memorial was read in the
Senate-in lS45, that was-the statesmen
of the period listened with little other than
an amused interest, with possibly touch
of pity for the dizzy enthusiast who soberly
proposed an undertaking that must have
been looked upon at that time about as we
should now regard proposition to build a
railroad to the moon. We had then only
20, 600, 600 inhabitants, and but ), ZOO miles
of railroad all told, not mile of it west of
the Alleghanies, and the telegraph was Just
coming into operation. The whole wheat
and corn product of the country was not
greater then than is now furnished by the
two States of Missouri and Kansas, the one
OF which was then considered the jumping
Oft place of civilization, and the other was
not taken into account at all except as an
incumbrance and an obstacle. They cour-
teously referred Mr.. Whitney's memorial
to .he Committee on Public Lands, how.
ever, OF which Sydney Breese, of Illinois,
was Chairman, and Tom Corwin and Jesse
d. Bright were members and there it re.
manned. Poor Whitney besought action
upon it until his means were exhausted,
and then gave up in despair A friend of
former days whom he had aided in similar
extremity helped him to employment, and
after time he secured small farm near
what is now the Soldiers Home, in the
neighborhood of Washington, where he
died at last, in obscurity and forgotten of
the world, an old man OF IS years.-[St.
Louis Globe Democrat.