Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-09-10

roundings. To you, the representatives of
foreign nations, the members of the exec
utive, legislative and judicial branches of
the United States government, the govern
ors of the states and territories, the repre-
sentatiyes of the European and American
press, and our guests from abroad and at
home generally, to you, one and ell, I beg
to offer in the name of the Northern Phcific
Railroad company, profound thanks for
your kind presence and participation in
this the most important event of our cor
porate existence. Our work means the
conquest of new fields for general COM
merce and industry. 1t creates new high
way between Europe, America and Asia
The population of the states apd territories
traversed by our road is largely made up
| from the European nationalties represent
ed here. We deemed it fit and proper,
therefore, to bid, so to speak, both the old
and the new world to this celebration, or,
in other words, to arrange sort of inter
national festival Many of you have
crossed the ocean, and all have travelled
| great distances in order to be with US to-
day. Be pleased to accept my assurance
that we gratefully appreciate your sacri
fee of time and comfort. In return, we
earnestly wish to do our guests all posi-
BILE honor and to give them all possible
pleasure, and we trust that this transcon-
tinental journey has been and will be an
unalloyed enjoyment to them. We hope,
moreover, that as in this hour new and
indissoluble bond will be formed between
the countries to the east and to the west
of the Rocky mountains, this gathering
may also strengthen the ties of good will
and friendship between the republic of
North America and the parent countries of
Europe.
Thanks to the foresight of President
Thomas Jefferson, we'll nigh four score
years ago, Lewis and Clark toiled through
these mountains as the first explorers Of
Anglo American origin, and lifted the veil
that hid from civilized mankind the re-
gions watered by the upper Mississippi,
the Yellowstone, the Columbia and their
tributaries. The exploits of these gifted
and fearless men were the rich germ,
the full fruition of which we celebrate this
day.
More eloquent lips than mine will de-
SSt4OS W JOu Iuo 4OuS Guu SALB uAdI, puL
interesting process of evolution, by which
our enterprise slowly grew out of the dis
coveries then made with so much courage
and intelligence. They will tell you how
the record of these discoveries first gave
rise, as long as nearly half cen
fury ago, to prophetic visions
of transeontiuental railroad
along Lewis and Clark's route, and how,
within ten years after these visions were
first embodied in print, they filled the mind
of one man with such fire of enthusiasm
as to move him to go forth, like another
apostle, and to spend the best years of his
life and all he possessed in the propaga-
| ton of his faith. You will learn how in
the end he became very martyr to his
belief, but how the project of railroad to
the Pacific, despite the failure of its first
prophet, made converts, spread widely and
grew into popularity, until it finally at
| tanned to the Importance of leading
public question and object of national
legislation.
You will be shown how the northern
route, which at first was the only one
thought of, gradually lost prestige and
other routes took prominence. You will
see the quaint figure of an honest vision
airy appear upon the scene, first as the pro-
| moter of an odd illusion, and next as the
moving spirit in the formal birth and
christening of our enterprise through the
congressional charter of 1864. You will
hear that the charter failed to give real
| life to the corporation, owing to certain
abnormal features engrafted upon it, and
that it passed eventually to the control of
wise, experienced and influential men, but
who, however, also failed at first to attract
the needed capital until those features were
eradicated by congressional amendment.
Then the brilliant episode II our history
will pass before you, in which an able,
bold and resolute man was the central fig
ure, to whom, most of all, the company
owes its practical existence. You will be
reminded how the hopeful brightness of
that period was eclipsed by the black
darkness of the cataclysm of 1873. Our
fabric seemed then to be lost in bottom
less pit. Yet an entire resurrection follow
ed, owing to the inherent vitality of the
PROSTATE body, and to the resolute appli-
cation of the heroic remedies of foreclos-
ure and reorganization.
There was no immediate restoration to
very active life. Years of slow recupera-
ton followed, until the advent of the ex-
traordinary revival of commerce and in
dustry generally, and of railroad under
takings especially, in the years 1879 and
1880. The sagacious men who then di-
rected the company's affairs saw their pa
thence rewarded and the time ripe once
more for the resumption of construction
work upon the road.
They began cautiously, seeking what
was possible rather than what was desir-
able. All at once, fortune smiled with in
tense radiance upon the company. A
financial alliance with great syndicate
was formed. Its conclusion meant nothing
less than the assurance of all the capital
required to complete the road, and there
by the end of all uncertainty in the pros
poets of the company-a leap, in short,
into assured success.
With flood tide in the company's
treasury, there arose not only the posi-
bility, but the necessity of pushing the
construction of our transcontinental line
with the utmost energy. 1 hope 1 may be
permitted to say that we have striven to do
our full duty, and to obtain the greatest
effort of which human brain and muscles,
stimulated by unlimited capital, are ca
pable, in given time and in stated direc-
ton. Work on the main line was first re-
sumed on the west bank of the Missouri
river in the spring of 1879, and at the con-
1 A. 1l-n ~l, IL,