The record-union., 1891-02-08
THIRTY YEARS AGO.
Interesting Debates on the Pacific
Railroad Bill,
Which Showed That Congress Did Not
Expect Money Return for the
Governments Credit.

On the 9Th of January, 1861, and while
the echoes of the rebel battery on Morris
Island, in Charleston Harbor, which
fired on the steamer Star of the Weston
her way to Fort Sumter with food for
Major Anderson's men-were still rever-
berating throughout the land, the Pacific
railroad bill came up for debate in the
United States Senate. In a recent letter
from G.. p. Huntington to William FL.
Mills, published in the RECoRD-UNIoN,
the former called attention to the fact that
the debates in Congress, when the bill
was under consideration there, showed
conclusiyely that it was the intention of
that body that the Government should
never call directly upon the builders of
the road to repay the money obtained
from the sale of bonds for its construction.
In the weekly review of the contents of
this journals columns of thirty years ago,
we find the more important of those de-
bates published in full, and they not only
afford very interesting and profitable
reading at this late day, but also throw
new light Tor, rather, an old one,)
there is no stop in the sentence upon
the subject of the railroad company's OBJ
legations to the Government. These de-
bates are, of course, matters of public
record, but they are buried away in the
old files of the Congressional Record,
under the accommodations of thirty years
OF dust and rubbish, and-judging from
the expressions of some of the latter-day
Congressman while the railroad debt was
being discussed-their existence is I'M
known to them. Hence the Ignorance
displayed by so many modern legislators
when airing their views on the subject of
the obligations of the Central Pacific
Railroad Company to the Government
On the date first mentioned january
5, 1851 Senators Seward, Latham and
Baker addressed the Senate on the rail-
road bill then pending in Congress, and
we quote briefly therefrom to show that
AS Mr.. Huntington recently stated-it
was not the intention of Congress to de-
mand any money return from the build
ers of the road for its credit loaned. Mr..
Seward says:
1t is no idle and wasteful expenditure that
we propose to make in passing this bill.
There is no waste nor sacrifice at all. We give,
for the purpose of securing the Union, only
money which will come back into the Treas
ury, after lapse of years, in profits abundant
to reward the outlay. a railroad to the Pacific
requires no small expenditure of money or of
credit; and there is no power no authority, in
this country to expend such money and credit
but the Federal Government. Therefore, it is
reasonable and right that the Federal Govern
ment shall do here that which in other cases
States and individuals would be expected TO
do. The outlay toiU be repaid abundanHy an
postal returns and in the transportation Of ndUdE
and military munitions and Stores
The annual interest can never exceed Sd
100000, This, though it seems a large sum,
and become diminutive in our estim-
alton when we look forward to the period
fifteen years hence, perhaps-when the
fer to the time of Mr.. Adams, when the ex-
penses of this Government were only S12,-
100000, and then to look at the present ex-
D.A III iN-fN NJ nI. niorht
million dollars annually-and start at
the contrast. But Mr.. President, the
increase of the country-of its population,
Of its commerce, of its wealth and power-haS
been in proportion equal to the increase in
Its expenditures. We have only to just re-
member that one, or at most two, more returns
OF the census are to come in before the account
for constructing these roads can be closed,
and then the cost will relatively be moderate
and reasonable.
But it is not to be required of any road.
banal, or other trade or channel of commerce
thai u repdg the GorerlllentJoa, gse cost Of as
rectty adequate reiCdrds distributed throughout
The 1clI0Le motion. That is the nature of the
enterprise before us. Just so far and SO fast as
you extend a railroad into the western will
derness, just SO far and so fast society de-
Velops itself, spreads itself around, and even
advances before the terminus of your rail-
road. New States arise, and these are COM
blned with the other States, and assume their
share of the burdens and defense of the coun-
try, guaranteeing the common liberty and
promoting the welfare. WIN JllS
line of railroad in operation, opening and
establishing new fields of mining and culture
on the Pacific Coast, you will have given an
impulse to the e material ma prosperity and ag-
all that has ever before been accomplished
since the Government was formed. Practi-
cdELlj, sir, this road 1OiU cost nothing. Only
bonds are to be issued for it, and those bonds
payable at the expiration of thirty years.
The wealth of the United States will double in
thirty years to come, as it has more than
was debt when it was begun, will, in some
sense, cease to be a burden at the time when
il comes to be paid. The interest that is paid
until the work is completed is part of the cost;
but the services that road will render,
when completed, to the postomce, the naval
and the military departments, will be an
equivalent for the interest as aCeH as the prt,l-
cfpal, and think ,ce may ce1y 1OeU compromise
on that.
Mr.. Seward was q far-seeing and broad
minded statesman, but even he did not
dream that there were men in the country
of sufficient enterprise and push to build
railroad across the country in less than
fifteen years, and he qualified even that
possibility with perhaps" But the
road was built and in operation seven
years after Congress gave its sanction and
aid to the enterprise, and California found
the men to do it-Huntlngton, Hopkins,
Stanford and Crocker.
Mr.. Latham, in his argument following
that of Mr.. Seward, Endorsed the latter's
views quoted above, and spoke at length
of the railroad as military and CONNER
cial necessity, in the course of which he
said:
The advantages which q community derives
from a railroad are not to be computed in pro
portion TO the dividends paid on the capital
stock nor by the rates its bonds and shares
are quoted in the market; and the very doubt
which existed in the minds of spectators
in regard to the remuneration of the enter
prise in its incipient stages, Is the reason why
the Government should take it under its pro
tecting wing and aid it by such means as the
Constitution may place at its disposal
Colonel Baker also spoke on the bill
the same day, and the speeches of these
men all confirm Mr.. Huntington's recent
statement that the friends of the Pacific
in the opinion that the Government
thould lend its credit to the builders o.
the road, being well repaid by the deyel-
opment of the country and the services
returned by the road for its outlay. Again
the difference in the time of the com
pletion of the railroad and the shortest
period contemplated by the w1SeSt mer
in Congress represents wide margin o.
cost to the builders over and above what
it was expected to be. The road was
completed, as stated, in seven years. anG
the Government received the benehl
thereof in the immediate reduction o.
expenses for the transportation of its
mails, its soldiers to and from the from
tier, and its military supplies. New Ter
ritories were opened up to settlement
and new States were added years ano
years before they could otherwise have
been formed, and the great West brought
at once into commercial relations witt
the East-all adding TO the wealth and
power of the General Government.
.A glance over the advertising
columns of the UNION of thirty years age
shows the names of very few men or firms
now encraned in business here. Dauie