The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-07-08
THE FIRST PACIFIC RAILWAY.
Story Of the Iron Band That United
the Atlantic and the Pacific.

JIG ALAdAA1C o4Au L1lC Z
Charles NJ. Harvey in st. Louis Globe
Demoorat)
President McKinley's reference, in
his speech in Memphis at the begin
nins of his recent, tour, to the circum-
stance that the Tennessee legislature
in lS41 requested that states represen-
t&tlEes IN congress to vote for the
building Of q railway line to the Pacific
mas melted some newspaper specula-
ton as TO the origin of the project to
span the continent by rail The story
OF the evolution Of the scheme for the
construction Of railroad to the Pacific
IS long, but 1T is as interesting as any
thinS IN fiction. In the issue of Feb.
D. 1857 OF the Emigrant, a weekly paper
published at Ann ArbOr. Mich, under
the heading Of Something New" an
pears an article suggesting the build
ing Of railroad from New York to the
mouth OF the Columbia. The writer.
VINO IS supposed to have been S w
Dexter the papers publisher and its
principal editor, proposed a route which
Is close TO the line followed many years
later by the New York Central to Buf-
falC, by the Lake Shore to Chicago.
and by the Union Pacific and the Ore
son short Line 10 Portland. Thus this
obscure newspaper, which was pub
hsheo only five years in all, and which
was scarcely known outside Of the then
beckwOOds village OF Ann Arbor five
years before Michigan was admitted 10
statehood won the right to have a
place in the history of the United
States.
Al the time when Dexter's Ann Arbor
paper was suggesting the building of a
railroad across the continent and out
lining q course which it could follow,
ana which, approximately, was fol-
loWed' many years later, no railroad
designed to carry passengers and
IIelgnt had yet been begun in any of
the New England states: only two
years had passed since Peter Cooper.
Tor the Baltimore & Ohio. had built the
hIsL locomotive lone ton in weight as
compared with 100-ton locomotives seen
on many of the railroads in the United
states IN 1901 ever constructed in the
United States; there were doubts as
70 whether the Baltimore & Ohio. the
ploneef among American lines. with
only twenty miles of track laid at that
time would be success. and there
were less than 200 miles of railroad in
the entire United States. The saga itv
which, in that day Of the infancy Of
the railroad system, discerned the prac-
ueabiity OF spanning the continent by
Tai!s and which marked out a course
over which, in its general lines, the
A--AANAAlEAlL w d. dtLudllN SCANNED IN the
after time, deserves high honor
Claims for the honor of originating
the transcontinental railroad idea have
been made for many other persons-Dr.
Samuel B. Barlow Of Massachusetts.
Lewis Gaylord Clark, Irving's and
Bryants literary friend: LiIburn W.
Boggc who was governor Of Missouri
from 1885 to 1910; HartweH Carver.
grandson Of Jonathan Carver, and sew
eral others-but the distinction I'M
questicnably belongs to Dexter. or to
the man who wrote that article printed
in 1889 in Dexter's paper.
CLneF men, however, than these thus
far mentioned had the distinction of
bringing the question of the construc-
ten of a transcontinental railroad to
the attention of the country and con-
gresS Those who were most prom
lnsnt in this work were Asa Whitney
2 New York merchant. and Thomas
Ii. Benton of Missouri. Benton. as a
means of perfecting the United States
title to Oregon, which was in dispute
with England until 1916. began to take
an interest in the Pacific railroad pro-
Ject very soon after it began to be first
suggested. and he predicted. in a public
meeting in St Louis in 1874. that there
were men then full grown who would
i've 10 see Asiatic commerce crossing
the Rocky mountains by rail. But
whitney saw the possibilities Of bene-
nj for the country through a railway
across the continent as early as Ben
ton did, and he gave more time than
did Benton TO its advocacy. He first
brought the matter before congress by
q memorial presented on Jan. %, 1S45,
10 the senate by Dickinson of New
York and to the house by Pratt of the
same state. and was active in pressing
It on congress, in bringing it to the at
tention OF the legislatures of various
states, and in advocating il before state
conventions and mass meetings. by
voice and pen. Interstate conventions
IN favor of the building Of a road to the
Pacific were held in ST. Louis. Chicago.
Philadelphia and other places in 1873
SO. Stephen A Douglas presiding over
the one in st. Louis
But when the matter came before
congress a wide disagreement was de-
veloPed. Whitneys proposed route
originally had Chicago or some point
on the Mississippi near Chicagos lati-
tude for the roads eastern terminus
and Il vas TO run through the South
pass. BENTON cOntended that that line
would be- 700 ifar north and wanted to
have the road begin at St. Louis and
so through to the Pacific by the most
direct route which could be gained on
or near ST. Louis latitude. The south
opposed both projects. on the ground
that either. Of them. running through
free territory. would give the free see
ton Of the country an advantage in
the attraction OF settlers over the slave
sections, and thus add to the prepon-
deranee which the former had already
gained. Most OF the south favored the