Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1883-09-14
SPEECH or FREDR BILLINGS

LAST SATURDAY.
There were brave men before Agnmomnon.
There have been transcontinental roads be-
fore this one There have been last spikes
and last spikes, but there never was a more
significant last spike driven on the con
tinent than this one never one which had
more work and faith behind il never one
with greater future before it, 1t has been
a long way up TO it, 1t is more than 40 years
"a longer period than the children of Israel
were wandering in the Wilderness before
reaching that Promised Land-since / heard
Asa Whitney discourse on a Pacific railroad
before the legislature of Vermont. 1t is 80
years since Congress authorized surveys for
practicable and economical railroad route
from the Mississippi to the Pacific ocean. II
is more than a quarter of century since l
heard Gov. Stevens discuss this identical
Northern Pacific route before an audience in
San Francisco 1t is nearly a score of years
since the road was chartered. 1t is 10 years
since its first spike was driven. And this
long way has at times been very dark one
1t was a gigantic undertaking, and had pc
Cular difficulties The Union and Central
Pacific was a child of the war In that cri-
sis public sentiment demanded that tue east
ern and western parts of our country should
no longer be connected simply by way of
Cape Horn or the isthmus, but by railway
right across and right through the heart of
our own territory. And that line had almost
| the government treasury behind it, and it fol.
lowed a well known trail across the continent,
and ended in the rich California at the Gold
en- Gate.
The Atlantic and Pacific route on the 35th
| parallel by Santa Fe was familiar to emigra.
ton, and had been advanced by Senator Ben
ton and others for years. The Texas Pacific,
on the sgd parallel, was the one recommend
| ed in 1865 by the then secretary of war, JEFF
ferson Davis, who claimed it to be the best
of all routes according TO his Interpretation
! of the government surveys
The poor Northern Pacific had no such
Judgment in the public thought. There was
no trail across the continent here. Emigrants
! to Oregon, even, went by the central route.
/ This was called region of desolaton. 1t
was in everlasting bondage to snow and ice
and sterility 1t belonged to the widest of
Indians and the North Pole Though it
started from Lake Superior, how few thought
anything of Lake Superior 1t was out OF
the world How brief time is 1t since
Proctor Knott convulsed the continent by de-
riding Duluth as the zenith of the unsalted
seas. And though the road went to Puget
sound, the magnificent northern Medterra-
mean sea, what was Puget sound? Why,
will you believe tit IL said that but for the
marvellous trip of the missionary Whitman
across the continent, and his appearance in
the state department at Washington to make
known that imperial Northwest-all that re
gion north of the Columbia river might have
been lost to this country in the Ashburton
treaty.
With all this dense Ignorance of this north
ern belt, and denser prejudice, and hardly
any human beings on the line save fierce In
/ liana M hpra and tbpro "A It.yY sol lInTs shut
up in forts. and with no government subsidy
how was this road to be built2 To be sure
it had a land grant, to become of immense
value in time. But how many at first be
lieved it to be good for anything Besides,
il it had actual value it practically could have
none till the road was built and the lands
were made accessible But even this land
grant had for good deal Of the time been
put under a sort of cloud by guerrilla attacks
in Congress, which thank God never sue.
ceeded. The majorites of both houses of
Congress and all the presidents from Abra-
ham Lincoln who signed the charter, to the
present graceful chief magistrate who has
passed upon and accepted 80 many miles of
the road, have stood by the company in its
rights Aud from first to last the company
has had this Arm and invaluable friendship
of the great soldier statesman, President
Grant, who makes this memorable occasion
still more memorable by his presence.
But this is no time for historical details.
The great fact il that the road is built 1t
has taken faith and time, and pluck and pa.
thence and hard work, with weary days and
sleepless nights. 1t took line upon line, and
precept upon precept until there is an i'm
mense Northern Pacific literature to educate
the world, step by step, up to the situation.
At last capital took courage through the en-
thusastic, big-hsarted Jay Cooke, who is en-
titled to great share OF the honor of the
event we celebrate, and the work was grand
ly begun on both sides of the continent.
Then bankruptcy engufed Jay Cooke, the
road, and pretty nearly everybody and every
thing else. That was 10 years ago this very
month. But after q while the enterprise wai
clearly brought out of insolvency with every
body's rights preserved, and Jay Cooke, a.
we all rejoice to know, came too, out oil
bankruptcy, and is to day swelling new for
tune.
The faithful friends of the road stuck fas
to it in its adversely, put up more money
and after a while the work was again started
on both sides of the continent. Aud then
when later the skies Frightened all around
outside capital once more took courage, new
life and new blood came, and at last We are
here.
1t is great day. l look back to the tim,
when you could count the friends of thu
Northern Pacific almost on the fingers o
your two hands, and now | behold the tri
umph of their faith. Now everybody cal
come and see this is the best line across thi
continent, unequaed in its variety of re
sources. With magnificent wheat fields, will
! cattle on thousand hills, with mines in it
mountains and ravines, with an astonishing
wealth of timber as you will see further on
on which in time this whole country will hay,
! to depend who can doubt the future ? Ev
erything in these respects is yet IN the Yer,
> infancy of development Then, as to seen
ery you have had taste of it. BE prepare,
for still greater things as you approach tn
Pacific coast. And as for climate, bear il
mind it is in the regions where you have ic
and snug winters you will find the most Wig
orous brains and the most earnest homes
So, putting all these things together who cal
fail to see that this great new highway is t.
be marked all along with prosperous com
munities with schools and churches aud
high civilization2 Who can fail to see that
brings permanent peace with the Indians
that no more Clusters are to be killed, no NOR
regiments to be wiped out that new state
are to come here, now power and new wealth
and new bond of unity to be added to GU
government and q new route opened to tn
. worlds commerce
l Things at the start are always, OF course
] u
3 prophesied. / wish oil the friends Of the en-
r terprise at the beginning, and all VIII
stood by it in the darkest days, and all VIII
&; have helped it on in the later years, could b
here to see the great contamination. HOY
that railroad St. John, who SO early cried /
the wilderness, Prepare ye the way, As
Whitney, would have rejoiced! How, toe
b Gov. Stevens, killed in the war, who survey
= ed this route for the government in 1888, an
,. on all occasions and everywhere WAS it
4 champion How, too, the first president
: Josiah Perham, who labored hard and die
without the sight of even the first spike
How, too the first engineer, Edwin +. John
s son, and the second engineer, W, Milno
t Roberts, both men of the very highest abil
q ty, and whose devotion to the enterpris
Q knew no bounds But l cannot go on throug
a the roll. From first to last, whether here G
+ absent, whether living or dead all should b
9 gratefully remembered who, as officers G
IS priyates have been in the long fight whic
= sees complete victory to-day. 1t is a roll {
> honor, and l cannot forbear saying that {
Il the head OF it should stand the name of Thon
= as jefferson, who, in 1884, sought to have til
70 Columbia and its sources explored by tn
d traveller Ledyard, and as president of tn
IS United States, at the beginning of the cent?
l. Nv orOanized the WORLD. renowned eXpeditiO