, 1883-09-13
COMPLETION OF TIE NORTHERN
PACIFIC RAILROAD.
Address OF President Willard.

great pleasure 10 offer q hearty wei
come to this distinguished Tssem-
blage on this memorable occasio.I and
in these remarkable surroundings.
To you, the representative OF for
eigp nations. Tie members of the eX-
ecutite, Legislative and Judicial
branches of the United States Gov
ernment, the Governors of STATES
and Territories, the representatives
of the European and American
Press, and our grests from abroad
and at home generally, to yorL one
and all, beg to offer, III the name of
the Northern Pacific Railroad Com
pany, profound thanks for Your kind
presence and participation in this the
most important event of our corpo-
rate existence. Cur work means the
conquest of new fields for general
commerce and industry 1t creates a
new highway between Europe,
America and Asia. The population
of the States and Territories tray
ersed by our road is largely made up
from the European nationalities rep
resented here We deemed it fit and
proper, therefore. to bid, so to speak,
both the Old and the New Worlds to
this celebration; or, in other words,
TO arrange a sort of international fes-
tiyal. Many ofyou have ci3ssed the
ocean. and all have travelled great
distances, in order to be with us to-
day. Be pleased to accept my as
surance that We greatly appreciate
your sacrifice of time and comfort
In return we earnestly wish to do our
guests all possible honor and to give
them all possible pleasure, and we
trust this transcontinental journey
has been and will be an unalloyed
enjoyment to them. We hope, more
over, that as in this hour a new and
indissoluble bond will be formed be-
tween 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 Amer
lea and the parent countries of
Europe.
More eloquent lips than mine will
describe to you the long and singular
but interesting process of evolution
by which our enterprise slowly grew
out of the discoveries then made
with so muce intelligence and cour-
age. They will tell you how the
record of these discoveries first gave
rise, as long as nearly half century
ago, to prophetic visions of trans
continental railroad along Lewisand
Clark's rou te, and how, within ten
years after these visions We're first
embodied in print, they filed 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 propagation
of his faith. You will learn how in
the end he became very martyr to
his belief, but how the project of a
railroad to the Pacific, despite the
failure ofits first prophet, made COZ
verts, spread widely and grew into
popularity, until it finally attained to
the importance of a leading public
question and object of national leg
islation.
You will be shown how the north
ern route, which at first was the
only one thought of, gradually lost
prestage and other routes gradually
took prominence. You will see the
quaint figure of an honest visionary
appear upon the scene, first as the
promoter of an odd illusion, and next
as the moving spirit in the formal
birth and christening of our enter
pr Sc through the Congressional
charter of 1864 You will hear that
the charter failed to give real life to
the corporation, owing to certain alb
normal features engrafted upon it,
and that it passed eventually to the
control of wise, experienced and in
fuential men, but who, however, also
failed at first to attract the needed
capital until those features were
eradicated by Congressional amend
ment-
Then the brilliant episode in our
history will pass before you in which
an able, bold and resolute man was
the central figure, 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 ciataclism of 1873. Our fabric
seemed then to be lost in bottom
less pit. Yet an entire resurrection
followed, owing to the inherent vital
ity of the prostrate body, and to the
resolute application of the heroic
remedies Of foreclosure and reorgan-
ization.
There was no immediate restora
ton to very active life. Years of
slow recuperation followed, until the
advent of the extraordinary revival
of commerce and industries general
ly, and of railroad undertakings es-
pecially, in the years 1879 and 1880.
The sagacious men who then directed
the Company's affairs saw their pa
tience rewarded and the time ripe
once more for the resumption of con-
struction work on the road.
They began cautiously, seeking what
was possible rather than what was
desirable. All at once fortune smil-
ed with intense radiance upon the
Company. A financial alliance with
a great syndicate was formed. Its
conclusion meant nothing less than
the assurance of all the capital re
quired to complete the road, and
thereby the end of all uncertainty in
the prospects of the Company
leap, in short, into assured success.
With flood tide in the company's
treasury, there arose not only the
possibility but the necessity of push
ing the construction of our trans
continental line with the utmost en-
ergy. 1 hope I may be permitted to
say that We have striven to do our full
duty, and to obtain the greatest ef-
fort of which human brain and mus
Gle, stimulated by unlimited capital,
are capable, in given time and in
a stated direction. Work on the
main line was first resumed on the
west bank of the Missouri river in
the spring of 1879. and at the con-
tiuence of the Snake and Columbia
rivers in the fall of the same year.
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