TRANS-CONTINENTAL RAILROADS (Delivered in the United States Senate, February 17th, 1858. in Support of the Pacific Railroad Bill)

An objection made to this bill is, the gigantic scale of the projected enterprise.  A grand idea it is.  A continent of three thousand miles in extent from east to west, reaching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, is to be connected by a railway!  Honorable Senators will remember, that over one thousand miles—­one-third of this whole expanse of the continent—­the work is already accomplished, and that chiefly by private enterprise.  I may, as a safe estimate, say, that a thousand miles of this railroad leading from the Atlantic to the West, upon the line of the lakes, and nearly as much upon a line further south, are either completed, or nearly so.  We have two thousand miles yet to compass, in the execution of a work which it is said has no parallel in the history of the world.  No, sir; it has no parallel in the history of the world, ancient or modern, either as to its extent and magnitude, or to its consequences, beneficent and benignant in all its bearings on the interests of all mankind.  It is in these aspects, and in the contemplation of these consequences, that it has no parallel in the history of the world—­changing the course of the commerce of the world—­bringing the West almost in contact, by reversing the ancient line of communication, with the gorgeous East, and all its riches, the stories of which, in our earlier days we regarded as fabulous; but now, sir, what was held to be merely fictions of the brain in former times, in regard to the riches of Eastern Asia, is almost realized on our own western shores.  Sir, these are some of the inducements to the construction of this great road, besides its importance to the military defenses of the country, and its mail communications.  Sir, it is a magnificent and splendid project in every aspect in which you can view it.  One-third of this great railway connection is accomplished; two-thirds remain to be.  Shall we hesitate to go forward with the work?

Now, with regard to the means provided for the construction of the road.  It is said, here is an enormous expenditure of the public money proposed.  We propose to give twenty millions of dollars in the bonds of the government, bearing five per cent. interest, and fifteen millions of acres of land, supposed to be worth as much more, on the part of the government.  This is said to be enormous, and we are reminded that we ought to look at what the people will say, and how they will feel when they come to the knowledge that twenty millions in money and twenty millions in land have been given for the construction of a railway!  Some doubtless there are in this chamber who are ready to contend that we had better give these fifteen millions of acres of land to become homesteads for the landless and homeless.  What is this twenty millions in money, and how is it to be paid?