The Union Pacific Railway; A Study in Railway Politics, History, and Economics

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: hundred miles of railway from the eastern terminus, and to complete at least ten miles of the railway, within two years; and the entire route was to be located and surveyed, and one-third of the railway completed, within nine years from the passage of the act; one other third should be made and completed within six years thereafter; and the entire railway should be completed and ready -for use within twenty-five years from the passage of the act.1 The first memorial was presented to Congress too late for any action, and Congress adjourned without having considered Whitney's scheme. Soon afterwards Whitney, with a party of seven young men, went on an exploring expedition from Prairie du Chien westward across the great bend of the Missouri and southward and eastward down the Missouri to Saint Louis, where he arrived September 20, 1845, more enthusiastic than ever in the prosecution of his project. He now began a systematic bombardment of Congress directly and indirectly through every available means of affecting public opinion. He conversed with every public man that he could reach, and wrote letters to others out of reach, sought the general public through published letters and newspaper articles, and spent much effort in Washington in personal intercourse with everyone that would take an interest in his great project. He prevailed on the learned and studious in magazine articles and pamphlets. Each session of Congress found his scheme bobbing up in each House. He visited all the great cities in the country from Boston to Saint Louis and Memphis and held public meetings in them. The nature of these public meetings is well shown by William D. Kelley, in his description of a meeting held in Philadelphia, on the 2jd day of December, 1846 (found in an address delivered in the Aca...