The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-07-08

valleys terminus for the proposed
road, and wanted it TO run through Ar
kansas and Texas. the latter state be-
ing annexed in IS45. a few months af-
ter Whitney's first memorial was pre-
scented to congress. The slavery issue
touched nearly every great question
which came up an congress in those
days.
Then. too. there was rivalry between
most Of the important cities on the At
lantic coast for the advantage which
would come through direct connection
with the proposed road, Boston, New
York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and
Charleston being in this contest.
Charleston had the support Of most
of the representatives from the south
ern states. Moreover, there was a dlf-
ference of view regarding the plan on
which the road should be built WHIT
ney's original proposition was that ne
should get from the government thirty
miles of the public lands on each side
of the road, or strip sixty miles in
width in all, and that from the sales
of this land, which was to be disposed
of at a. stipulated low price. he should
pay for the building OF the road, the
road and all land in his possession at
the end to belong 10 him and his heirs
forever. Benton and a majority Of the
other advocates of q Pacific road of
that day proposed that the government
should build the road. Benton actively
I
chiefly responsible for the defeat of
the Whitney project when, in 1913, it
seemed to be near adoption By that
time, through the treaty of Guadalupe
HidalgO. of Feb ,, 1873. which brought
the Mexican war TO an end, California
had been annexed. Benton introduced
a bill of his own on Feb Z, 1S49, in
cited largely by the gold discovery IN
California twelve months earlier, and
the thrush of emigrants to that local
ity from all over the globe, but this
also failed.
One day in 1861 Theodore D. Judah
Ga local engineer who had done much
surveying for routes in California;,
Leland Stanford. Coils p Huntington,
Mark Hopkins, Charles Crocker and a
/ few others met in the st. Charles ho-
[ tel in Sacramento and gave practical
! direction 10 the influences which led
to the legislation a year later and to
/ the creation of the Union and Central
Pacific Railroad companies, by which
( the continent was Spanned. CALIFORNIA;
representatives - especially Latham
( and McDOugall in the senate and Sar-
gent in the hOuse-tOOk a leading part
in the passage of an act signed by
President Lincoln on July 1, 1862, I'M
der which, with some additional legis-
! latlOn, particularly an act signed July
| 2, 1864. the first transcOntinentaI road
was built.
The government granted a subsidy to
| the two cOmpanies-the Union Pacific
building the eastern end of the line and
the Central the western end-in per
/ cent gold bonds at the rate Of $4,000 for
each mile of road between the Missouri
river and the Rocky Mountains, S4S, 600
a mile for the 600 miles through the
Rockies and the Sierra Nevada noun
toins (150 miles in each range, S32, 900
a mile between the two mountain sys-
TENS, and $4,000 q mile from the west
ern base of the Sierra Nevadas to the
roads western extremity In addition
eacn company received 1880 acres of
land for each ruile Of road. or about
25,00G.000 acres for the 1917 miles of
line between Omaha. and San Francisco.
Rails began to be laid at both ends
from Omaha westward by the Union
Pacific, and from Sacra mento eastward
/ (afterWaTd connected with San Fran
cisco) BY the Central Pacific-in 1865.
and the end came in 1863 That year
viii ever remain landmark in Ameri-
can railroad history
Just one American achievement since
the governments establishment under
the constitution, and one onIy-the
preservation of the Union and its ac-
/ cOmpanylng extirpatiOn Of slavery
tranScends in Importance the building
Of the first tTanscontinenta railway.
Time and conditions in 1863 were IA
vOTable for the undertaking. A regen-
Grated nation, more powerful. progress
sive and expansive than the old and
with immeasurably greater prestige in
the rest of the world. had been created.
/ Foreign immigration and capital, re-
PEELED by the war, began to flow in with
greater volume than before. Amr Tca
SuTged with the puIsatiOn of a rene -yed
youth A new and brighter destiny
beckOned. The country-the northern
and western sections Of twas eager,
confident, eXultant. It's energies, re-
leased from the work Of destruction.
turned to construction. The concrete
expression of the new forces was the
Pacific railroad.
q 8 8
Cakes Ames, Sidney Dillon and T. c.