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University of California Berkeley 
 
 In Honor of 
 
 JAMES C. GREENE 
 upon his retirement from 
 the Council of the Friends 
 of The Bancroft Library 
 1993 
 
p*& ^ 
 
 w \ 
 
PACIFIC RAILROAD COMMENCED, 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 v 
 
 OF 
 
 THOMAS ALLEN, Esq., of St. Louis, 
 
 TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY, 
 
 AT THEIR FIRST MEETING, JANUARY 31, 1850. 
 
 AND ALSO 
 
 A MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 ACT OF INCORPORATION. 
 
 " Every judicious improvement in the establishment of roads and bridges, increases the value of 
 lands, enhances the price of commodities, and augments the public wealth." Dewitt Cuitioit. 
 
 ST. LOUIS: 
 
 PRINTED AT THE REPUBLICAN OFFICE. 
 
 1850. 
 
PRELIMINARY ORGANIZATION 
 
 PACIFIC BAILROAD COMPANY. 
 
 At a meeting of the gentlemen named as Directors in "an act to incor- 
 porate the Pacific Railroad," held in the office of the St. Louis Insurance 
 Company, in the city of St. Louis, on Thursday evening, the 31st of Jan- 
 uary, 1850, were present, John 0' Fallon, James H. Lucas, Edward Walsh, 
 George Collier, Daniel D. Page, James E. Yeatman, Joshua B. Brant, Thom- 
 as Allen, Adolphus Meier, Adam L. Mills, and Wayman Crow. 
 
 On motion of Thomas Allen, the meeting was organized by calling Col. 
 John O'Fallon to the Chair, and appointing Wayman Crow Secretary. 
 
 Mr. Allen then addressed the meeting, and the substance of his remarks 
 will be found in the following pages, together with much new matter, which 
 he has since added. After this address, on motion of Mr. Lucas, it was 
 
 Resolved, That the corporators do now proceed to organize, by the election 
 of a President, Secretary and Treasurer. 
 
 The vote having been taken, resulted in the election of Col. John O'Fal- 
 lon, President ; Thomas Allen, Secretary ; and Daniel D. Page, Treasurer. 
 
 On motion of Mr. Allen, it was 
 
 Resolved, That a committee of three corporators be appointed to open 
 books for subscription to the capital stock of the company; that said books 
 be opened on Monday, the 4th of February, at 10 o'clock, and close at 3 
 o'clock, p.m., and kept open for six days, in the rooms of the Merchants' 
 Exchange. 
 
 The chairman appointed the following gentlemen that committee, viz: 
 James H. Lucas, James E. Yeatman, and J. B. Brant. 
 
 On motion of Mr. Lucas, it was 
 
 Resolved, That the several papers in the city be requested to publish the 
 proceedings of this meeting, and the address of Mr. Allen on this subject. 
 
 On motion of Mr. Allen, it was 
 
 Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to prepare a memorial 
 to Congress, praying a donation of alternate sections of land along the route, 
 for the construction of the proposed road. 
 
 The Chairman appointed the following gentlemen that committee: Thos. 
 Allen, James H. Lucas, Wayman Crow. 
 
 The memorial is hereto appended, together with a copy, of the charter. 
 
 Before the adjournment of this meeting, the eleven gentlemen present 
 pledged themselves to subscribe $154,000 in the aggregate, to the stock, upon 
 the opening of the books, which pledge they have faithfully redeemed. 
 
 At a subsequent meeting, a boot was ordered to be opened in each ward 
 of the city, and the book at the Merchants' Exchange was ordered to be kept 
 open until the Saturday preceding the last Monday in March. 
 
 A committee, consisting of Thomas Allen, Edward Walsh, and Adolphus 
 Meier, was appointed to make preliminary arrangements for a general topo- 
 graphical and geological survey of the country upon the proposed route of 
 the road. 
 
 An election of nine Directors, as provided by the charter, was ordered to 
 be held on the last Monday in March. 
 
 It was well understood, by the 1st of March, that the p-ople and city of St. 
 Louis would subscribe $1,000,000 to the road, and more, if necessary. 
 
ADDEESS 
 
 Mr. THOMAS ALLEN, of St. Louis, 
 
 TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY, AT THEIR 
 FIRST MEETING, JANUARY 31, 1850. 
 
 [The following pages contain the substance of the Address, but parts of it have been omitted, and others 
 modified, and much new matter introduced, with the purpose of affording the friends of the measure ma- 
 terials for its support, and with the hope of imparting general information upon a subject with which the 
 people of Missouri are not practically familiar.] 
 
 Gentlemen : We have come together to consider whether it 
 be our duty to organize as a Board of Directors under the au- 
 thority of an act of the last General Assembly of Missouri, 
 entitled, "An Act to incorporate the Pacific Railroad." 
 
 The question arising is, whether, under State authority and 
 by our own means, it be expedient to commence the construc- 
 tion of a railroad from this city westwardly, with a view to 
 the extension of such road ultimately to the western line of 
 the State. 
 
 In considering this question, it is necessary to take into view 
 our present situation, and our relations to the various railroad 
 schemes projected in different parts of the country. 
 
 Geographically, we occupy a central position, and possess 
 the great advantage of being at the convergence of several 
 navigable water courses of magnificent extent, and of incalcula- 
 ble value and importance. Nature has done much for us ; and 
 it is precisely because she has done so much, that we have not 
 felt the necessity of doing anything for ourselves, while neigh- 
 bors, at the north and at the south of us, are making the great- 
 est exertions to triumph over nature, and to obtain by art those 
 advantages with which nature left them unprovided. At the 
 
same time, it is not to be denied that our relations to the navi- 
 gable rivers constitute our chief natural advantages. The 
 great majority of emigrant farmers of small means from the 
 Eastern States, wishing to settle in the West, but averse to 
 competition with slave labor, direct their steps to the north of 
 us, while the emigrating planter, with his negroes, seeking a 
 western home, turns his course, for the greater security of his 
 slave property, to the south of us. Of the foreign emigration, 
 our city has, it is true, received a very large share, and she 
 has, from that and other causes, chiefly commercial, prospered 
 in an unexampled degree, while the interior of the State has 
 also increased in population, but not with the same rapidity. 
 For example, while St. Louis nearly doubled her population in 
 four years, the counties bordering upon the Missouri river in- 
 creased but about a third in the same time. But it is to be re- 
 membered that it is not alone with the interior of Missouri that 
 St. Louis finds a profitable traffic. Divert the trade of the Up- 
 per Mississippi, and of the Illinois from her, and the consequen- 
 ces would be felt to be of serious weight. Her commercial 
 prosperity is founded very largely, if not chiefly, upon what is 
 called the "produce trade." In this trade, the productions of 
 Illinois and Iowa, and even of Wisconsin, are extensively 
 mingled with those of Missouri. In the past year, 1849, the 
 number of steamboat arrivals from the Upper Mississippi were 
 806 from the Illinois river they were 686, while from the 
 Missouri river they were but 355. The numerous barges, keels, 
 flat boats and canal boats which arrive here, come chiefly from 
 the Upper Mississippi and the Illinois. It is evident, therefore, 
 that St. Louis traffic is more with other States than with our 
 own. To the great productive capabilities of the agricultural 
 regions north of us, the inhabitants apply superior industry 
 and energy. Time, in developing their resources and increas- 
 ing their wealth and population, has also brought to them the 
 disposition and perhaps the means to increase their facilities of 
 intercourse, and to extend the range of their market. Hence 
 we see them devising schemes of railroads to connect them 
 with the lakes, and with the great chain of railroads which are 
 
penetrating the West from the Atlantic cities. We see rail- 
 roads projected from Chicago to Cairo, from Springfield to 
 Quincy, from Springfield to Terre Haute, from Peoria to Oquaw- 
 ka, from Galena to Chicago, from Alton to Springfield, in Illinois; 
 from the Mississippi to the Missouri, in Iowa, and from Mil- 
 waukie to the Mississippi, in Wisconsin, and from St. Joseph 
 to Hannibal, in our own State, the cost of survey in the latter 
 case paid for by the State all of them commended to the pub- 
 lic as probable links in the great chain which is to connect the 
 Atlantic and Pacific. On the south of us we see projected and 
 chartered the Missouri and White River Railroad and the Mis- 
 souri and Mississippi River Railroad; railroads in Kentucky 
 and Tennessee, reaching to the Mississippi, and seeking con- 
 nections with lines through Virginia and South Carolina with 
 the Atlantic sea board, and through Alabama, with the Gulf 
 coast ; while our countrymen of the extreme south, aided and 
 backed by the Topographical Corps of the U. States, are urging 
 forward a railroad, by the Gila route, to the Pacific at San 
 Diego, which should have a terminus upon the Mississippi, be- 
 low the mouth of the Ohio. 
 
 While these movements are going on around us, St. Louis 
 is doing nothing and proposing to do nothing, but reposes con- 
 fidently upon the centrality of her position, her large capital 
 and advanced growth, and her great " produce trade." Those 
 who sought a friendly alliance with her in the east, and pro- 
 posed to increase the facilities of intercourse by a railroad 
 pointing directly to her, have been denied the right of way, 
 and a systematic course of policy is sought to be established 
 by the State of Illinois, which interdicts the use of her soil, and 
 her political authority for the construction of any railroad 
 which should give to the weaker portion of her own people 
 increased facilities for getting to market, and which should, at 
 the same time, admit of the passage of her fellow countrymen 
 of other States to and fro across that portion of her territory 
 lying immediately eastward of and contiguous to St. Louis ! 
 However erroneous, unwise, unusual and apparently unconsti- 
 tutional, as denying to one portion of her people privileges 
 
which she grants to other portions, this policy may be, and 
 though it will ultimately be abandoned upon a clearer view of 
 her own duty and interests, by the force of public opinion and 
 of the comity due to the nation, yet in view of it, it is neces- 
 sary for us to act as with reference to an existing fact. What, 
 then, with these schemes around us, against us, and avoiding 
 us, is it, if any thing, expedient for us to do ? Can we do 
 any thing? Is it possible for us to devise a scheme which shall, 
 by its tendency to increase the settlement of the interior of our 
 State, to increase our own traffic, to introduce new and differ- 
 ent sources of wealth, place our prosperity upon a broader and 
 surer basis? Can we, by any process, put ourselves into a po- 
 sition which shall compel our enemies to enquire, not how 
 they shall best avoid us, but how can they best get to us; 
 which shall increase our own production, our own consump- 
 tion, and invite new and lasting ties of commercial and social 
 intercourse? 
 
 If, with the increase of trade and traders, the industrial arts 
 and artizans be also multiplied, would not the mutual depen- 
 dence of the two classes go far towards placing business upon 
 a stable foundation ? Suppose we were to cheapen and facili- 
 tate transportation, bring the raw materials, cheaply and con- 
 veniently, to the hands of art, to be worked into infinite forms 
 in our midst, give animation to business during the whole sea- 
 son, uninterrupted by winter, would not our market become 
 more brisk and extensive, our means of supply increase, supe- 
 rior men be attracted and engaged in every department, and 
 should we not be doing much to make St. Louis the manufac- 
 tory and machine shop, as well as the emporium and metropo- 
 lis of the Mississippi Valley ? 
 
 Nature has endowed States as well as individuals, with vari- 
 ous gifts. Else commerce would not have existed. If another 
 State excels us in agricultural resources, we, perhaps* excel her 
 in our mineral resources. One State may produce cotton and 
 sugar we produce hemp and tobacco. Wheat may be the 
 staple of one corn and pork may be the staples of another. 
 One people may excel another in a particular handicraft. Bui 
 
no one State can either produce every thing or manufacture 
 every thing. Inasmuch as great diversity enters into the con- 
 sumption of every people, commerce, by which they exchange 
 the surplus of one kind of their productions, for another kind 
 which they need, which forms part of the surplus products of 
 another people, becomes absolutely necessary. And just in 
 proportion as we increase the diversity, the quality, the quan- 
 tity, and the cheapness of our surplus productions, whether of 
 the soil or of the factory, shall we invite, secure and extend 
 our intercourse with other States and people. 
 
 What of these results, if any, should we obtain by a rail- 
 road to the West? 
 
 What lies to the west of us, within the reach of any rail- 
 road we might be able to construct? There are extensive 
 beds of iron ore, of copper, of lead, and of bituminous and 
 cannel coal, and doubtless undiscovered minerals of other kiuds. 
 There are fine forests of timber; there are fertile lands for til- 
 lage, and for grazing. There lies the route of the immense 
 emigration to the great Plains, to the land of Deseret, and to 
 California. There goes the trail of the Santa Fe trader, and 
 of the Fur and Indian trader. There go the Indian agen- 
 cies and annuities, and government stores, munitions and 
 troops. There, upon the borders of the Missouri river, lie the 
 most populous counties of the State, embracing more than two- 
 fifths of the whole people of the State. And if we add the 
 number inhabiting the next tier of counties adjoining those 
 upon the south bank of the Missouri, we shall find, in the ag- 
 gregate, more than half the population of the State. We also 
 find there upon the south bank of the Missouri, including St* 
 Louis county, a larger population than upon the north bank of 
 that stream. Exclusive of St. Louis, we find in the two tiers 
 of eounties next the Missouri river on the south, about the 
 same number of people that we find within the first tier of 
 counties upon the north, including Platte and Buchanan, which 
 lie west of the old State line. Of the 588,971 inhabitants of 
 the State, according to the State census of 1848, there, upon 
 
8 
 
 both banks of the Missouri, exclusive of St. Louis, dwell about 
 200,000.* 
 
 And these people are engaged in mining and smelting, in 
 sawing lumber and rafting it to market, in cultivating corn and 
 wheat, hemp and tobacco, in raising live stock, in making flour, 
 and in transporting and exchanging the various products of 
 their industry for those articles necessary to their comfort 
 which they do not produce. The cost of this transportation 
 causes a serious deduction from their profits, their energies are 
 necessarily depressed, and the resources of the country are 
 very imperfectly developed. Those resources, nevertheless, 
 are various and of great extent and value. Probably in the 
 United States, a region of the same extent cannot be found 
 which combines resources so diversified. Maine has her lum- 
 ber, New Hampshire her granite, Pennsylvania her iron and 
 coal, Northern Michigan her copper, Galena her lead, Ohio 
 her wheat lands, Kentucky her pasturage and hemp and tobac- 
 
 * In proof of this statement, the following tahle has been compiled from the census of 1848, which will ho 
 useful for reference : 
 
 Counties n the South bank of the Missouri. 
 
 St. Louis, 73,364 
 
 Franklin, 11,231 
 
 Gasconade, 4,155 
 
 Osage, 6,373 
 
 Cole, - 6.009 
 
 Moniteau, 5,519 
 
 Cooper 12,467 
 
 Saline, 6,953 
 
 Lafayette, 10,970 
 
 Jackson, 12,618149,659 
 
 Counties adjoining thote on the South bank. 
 
 "Washington, 8,539 
 
 Crawford, ,., - 4,667 
 
 Pulaski 3,899 
 
 Miller 3,026 
 
 Morgan, 4 345 
 
 Pettis, 4,5>5 
 
 Johnson, 6,435 
 
 Cass, 6,000-41,436 
 
 191,095 
 Counties on the Forth bank of the Missouri, 
 
 St. Charles, 11,032 
 
 Warren 4,800 
 
 Montgomery, 5,075 
 
 Callaway, 14,909 
 
 Boone, 14,872 
 
 Howard - 13,125 
 
 Chariton, , 7.071 
 
 Carroll, 4,252 
 
 Kay ; 9,886 
 
 Clay, 9,426 
 
 Platte, 15,018 
 
 Buchanan, 11,500120,066 
 
 311.161 
 The whole number of counties in the State is 100. Total whole population, ..588,971 
 
9 
 
 co fields. But here, upon the route of a single railroad within 
 the limits of Missouri, do we find lumber, and granite, iron 
 and coal, copper and lead, saltpetre and gypsum, salt and sul- 
 phur, wheat lands and pasturage, and soil productive of hemp 
 and tobacco, corn and oats, and all the grains and vegetables 
 but those which are peculiar to other zones. Massachusetts 
 will bring her iron from Sweden, her coal from Liverpool, her 
 lumber from Maine, and the results of her manipulations we 
 buy in Missouri, with the raw materials lying under our feet. 
 So the product of our Iron Mountain goes to the Pittsburg 
 coal and the Pittsburg factories, and comes back to St. Louis 
 for a market. Here, in these counties at the west of us, the 
 iron and the coal lie almost in the same bed, and trees fit for 
 building timber are growing above them. In truth, within 
 these counties which lie westward of us and within the influ- 
 ence of the projected railroad, are resources unprecedented, 
 inviting the hand of man to their development, and giving 
 assurance of great wealth and power to any people who shall 
 avail themselves of them. How perfectly does it seem within 
 the power of St. Louis to avail herself of these resources, and 
 advance herself to a position that will enable her to be a seller, 
 instead of a buyer of many of the manufactured goods which 
 now drain her annually of hundreds of thousands of dollars. 
 
 And, moreover, there lay at the west of us, on our right, 
 the valley of the Missouri, on our left, the valley of the Merri- 
 mac, and further on, the valleys of the Gasconade and of the 
 Osage, the former (the Gasconade) draining Wright, Texas, 
 Ashley, Laclede, Pulaski and Gasconade counties, and the lat- 
 ter, the counties of Cass, Bates, St. Clair, Henry, Dade, Polk, 
 Dallas, Benton, Camden, Miller and Osage, and both entering 
 the Missouri river within one hundred miles of St. Louis. 
 Upon the Merrimac and Gasconade are magnificent forests of 
 the yellow pine and numerous saw mills. The valley of the 
 Osage, which is estimated to embrace 18,000 square miles, is 
 endowed with important agricultural and mineral resources. 
 That fine river has been navigated two hundred and thirty miles 
 by small steamboats, and possesses the remarkable characteristic 
 
10 
 
 of remaining open after the Missouri is frozen up, and is indeed 
 rarely closed by ice more than six weeks in the year. Two hun- 
 dred and thirty miles from its mouth is the town of Osceola, the 
 county seat of St. Clair. It is said to be the centre of a re- 
 gion of country which embraces " elements sufficient for an in- 
 dependent nation; land to support the inhabitants of Great 
 Britain ; minerals to keep her surplus population employed, and 
 water power sufficient to drive one-half of her machinery." 
 
 There, too, lies the Missouri river, turbid, dangerous, uncer- 
 tain, full of snags and sandbars, and ever changing channels, 
 causing high insurance, costly transportation, and subjecting 
 the merchant and the traveller to many drawbacks and disap- 
 pointments. Yet there the river runs, affording steamboat 
 navigation for 2,000 miles to the west of us, and bearing a 
 commerce which has trebled in three years, and now requiring 
 an average of one steamer per day for every day in the year. 
 Doubtless, during the past extraordinary year not less than 
 40,000 persons have been passengers upon that river. But 
 what may be regarded as the regular number of travellers, I 
 have no means of ascertaining. It may not, possibly, exceed 
 15,000. The number of tons brought out by the steamboats, 
 omitting flats, rafts and keels, estimating the 355 arrivals here 
 at an average of 200 tons the boat, would be 71,000 tons. 
 Supposing them to carry the same up the river, and the total 
 number of tons is 142,000.* And we may add to the catalogue 
 as lying yet to the west, the fertile territories of the Indians, a 
 portion of which, stretching 275 miles west of the Kansas, is 
 described as " the future Eden of America" and then also 
 the great plains and their countless herds, the new State of 
 New Mexico, the mountains, the new States of Deseret and 
 of California, and the Territory of Oregon. 
 
 Now then, in view of these people, and objects, and territo- 
 ries, and things unnumbered, and perhaps undiscovered, at the 
 west, of what advantage would be a railroad in respect to 
 them, and in respect to St. Louis? 
 
 * I am informed by a steamboat captain, engaged in the Missouri river 
 trade, that the boatg generally take up about one hundred and fifty tons 
 and bring out over three hundred tons. 
 
11 
 
 The great modern historian of England has well said, that 
 next to the alphabet and the printing press, those inventions 
 which abridge distance have done most for the civilization of 
 mankind. We may add, truly, that the railroad is the great apos- 
 tle and the measure of progress. Though it has come into exis- 
 tence within the memory of most of us, and there be those among 
 us who have never seen one, yet experience has demonstrated 
 that it possesses magical powers to revolutionize commerce, to 
 increase wealth and intercourse, to stimulate industry, and to 
 develop and make available the resources of a country to the 
 fullest extent. It has been proven to possess unequalled advan- 
 tages for locomotion, and advantages which remunerate the 
 cost. It has superceded the canal, and it is constructed with- 
 out fear and without loss, upon the banks of the most splendid 
 water courses, in competition with the perfection of steam- 
 boat navigation. It carries out the city into the country ; it brings 
 the country and its abundance into the city. It equalizes the val- 
 ue of the products of labor, it gives new life to business, cheapens 
 and expedites transportation, gives it certainty and punctual- 
 ity,* distributes the comforts of civilization, and makes travel 
 a delight. What, then, would it do for us ? Stimulating every 
 species of industry in the vicinity of its route, it would, in the 
 immense increase of production and travel, quadruple business. 
 St. Louis, instead of being dull in the winter, in consequence 
 of closed navigation, would be lively through all the season. 
 The merchants would no longer be subject to disappointment 
 in sending forward their goods; the farmers, miners, and pro- 
 duce dealers in the interior, would no longer be compelled to 
 lose a season before realizing the value of their products. The 
 grazier would no longer be subject to loss in driving his stock 
 to market, and the consumers and the packers, would get better 
 meat. Real estate in St. Louis, generally, would be greatly en- 
 hanced in value, as it would, likewise, along the entire route, 
 and within a day's journey of it, and in some places its value 
 
 * The arrival and departure of the cars are so perfectly regular as to give 
 note of time, and they are the chronometers of many of the country people 
 of New England. 
 
12 
 
 would be increased a thousand fold. New towns would spring 
 up in the interior, and all the tilable lands along the route 
 would be brought into cultivation. There would not be a far- 
 mer, a miner, or a manufacturer, in any of the counties through 
 which the road should be located, but would feel its benefits in 
 the enhanced value of his property and productive industry of 
 every kind.* Transportation would be reduced to certainty and 
 punctuality, the cost of insurance would be lessened, and the 
 celerity of transit would be greatly increased. The aggregate 
 wealth of the State would be much augmented, and its reve- 
 nues and those of the counties upon the line of the road would, 
 from larger assessed values, experience proportionate improve- 
 ment. 
 
 It was a maxim of the late Mr. Gallatin, that "whenever 
 the annual expense of transportation on a certain route, in its 
 
 *The examination of a hundred witnesses by a Commitiee of the British 
 Parliament, precedent to granting the act for the great London and Birming- 
 ham railway, elicited facts which are in point : 
 
 " There was not a single fact proved against the great utility of the meas- 
 ure, while its advocates clearly established in its support the following im- 
 portant points, viz: That the exporting of goods suffered material loss and 
 great inconvenience by the present slow mode of traffic that goods for the 
 Baltic trade were often detained by the frost for the whole winter, through a 
 very short delay in shipping them that considerable orders were frequently 
 lost from the impossibility of completing them in time that merchants keep 
 large stocks of many sorts of articles in London to meet these emergencies, 
 at a consequent outlay and loss. That some particular trades have been al- 
 most ruined, through the impossibility of getting goods forward in time that 
 nothing is so invaluable in the export trade as expedition and certainty that 
 in fancy articles it is almost indispensable, orders being frequently sent sub- 
 ject to the condition ot their being shipped in a particular vessel that re- 
 turns of money were sometimes made in eighteen months, instead of nine, 
 through this delay in the shipment of the goods ordered that farmers would 
 be able to send to London a different kind of produce altogether, and a much 
 better one, particularly lambs, calves, dairy products, &c, saving, also, a 
 great expense in their carriage; besides which, cattle were often driven till 
 their feet were sore, and they could go no further, they were then sold on the 
 road for what they would fetch. In the same manner sheep were continual- 
 ly being left in every town on the road, at a ruinous sacrifice in price that 
 many estates along the line of railway would be increased in value at least 
 thirty per cent., the consumer being also benefited as well as the purchaser. 
 " It was also proved in evidence, that killed meat was repeatedly putrid in 
 summer before it could be sent to market that the cost of carriage limited 
 the vast supply of manure to a short distance around London ; whereas, by 
 a railway its application would be most materially extended ; that all cattle 
 became deteriorated considerably when driven even a moderate distance to 
 market, and produced a proportionably less price ; for instance, a sheep driv- 
 en eighty miles, lost eight pounds in weight." 
 
13 
 
 natural state, exceeds the interest on the capital employed in 
 improving the communication, and the annual expense of trans- 
 portation (exclusive of tolls) by the improved route, the differ- 
 ence is an annual additional income to the nation." Admit- 
 ting the truth of this maxim, it were easy to demonstrate that 
 the railroad would save to the State annually about a million 
 of dollars in transportation. Any one may take the following 
 elements and prove this to his own satisfaction : we have 142,- 
 000 tons upon the route in its natural state. The cost of trans- 
 portation upon that route is from one cent to twenty-five cents 
 per ton per mile. The rate of insurance is about one percent. 
 The capital employed upon the improved route may be five 
 millions. The cost of transportation upon the improved route 
 will be, to the company itself, about two cents per ton per 
 mile. 
 
 But it is not in this view only that the railroad would add 
 to the wealth of the State. In opening an outlet for the south- 
 western portion of the State, and in developing the resources 
 of the whole interior, its value cannot be estimated. 
 
 There is another view of the matter, which seems to be as 
 important as any which we have taken. This is, as to the 
 probable effect of such a state work, in determining the eastern 
 terminus, or beginning rather, of the great road to the Pacific, 
 which is contemplated by the people and government of the 
 United States. All know that there are numerous schemes 
 afloat relative to the route and construction of that road ; that 
 several of these schemes are for a northern route, still more 
 for a southern route, and but one or two, perhaps, for the cen- 
 tral route, or that of the latitude of St. Louis. The Execu- 
 tive Department of the government, not committing itself to 
 any scheme, contented itself with a recommendation of a sur- 
 vey, simply, of all the routes. It is quite possible that such a 
 survey may be ordered by Congress. But if the Topographical 
 Bureau should be authorized to make the survey, it will proba- 
 bly require some new light, some unexpected discovery of an 
 unknown pass, or some other powerful influence, to persuade 
 it to report favorably upon any other route than that which 
 
14 
 
 follows the Gila aiong the borders of Mexico, passing at times, 
 probably, into the Mexican territory, and connecting the lower 
 Mississippi with the lower part of upper California. That re- 
 port, however, must undergo the ordeal of Congress; and if it 
 should appear that a route as favorable as any for the construc- 
 tion of the road, which shall be at the same time central and 
 national, and which shall admit of the saving of several hun- 
 dred miles of distance and expense, is to be found, what but 
 the most unjustifiable spirit of jealousy and selfishness could 
 prevent its adoption? It is, however, by no means certain, 
 amid the discontented spirits of Congress, that anything will 
 be done in regard to the national project; or, if surveys are 
 ordered, it will still be doubtful whether anything will be done 
 by the national authorities. The surveys themselves would 
 occupy one or two, perhaps three or four years. To wait until 
 this lapse of time for the survey, and then still to wait upon 
 Congress merely to discover whether they would make the 
 road or not, would be to expose our own fate to be sealed, in 
 the meantime, by the movements of state enterprizes around us. 
 We should see the interests of the upper counties attaching 
 themselves to the St. Joseph and Hannibal railroad, and arrang- 
 ing themselves in reference to it, like the lines formed by the 
 grains of sand attracted by the loadstone. You might seethe 
 Illinois system, so far as it is opposed to St. Louis, completed, 
 and perhaps some southern cross railroads striking the Missis- 
 sippi near the mouth of the Ohio. Blocked up in front, cut off 
 above and below, and in a perfect state of torpidity in the rear, 
 how could we expect to accomplish anything more, if we were 
 even able to save ourselves from retrogression. In either view, 
 therefore, of the national project, whether that be carried out 
 or not, I can see no benefit to accrue to us by delay. If the 
 government should ever adopt the evident predilection of the 
 Topographical Bureau, and construct a railroad from St. Louis 
 down the Mississippi and the St. Francis rivers, and through 
 Arkansas and Texas and el Paso del Norte to San Diego, our 
 road directed to the west would still be of great advantage to 
 the State and to the city, nor would it fail to remunerate us 
 for our labor and capital. 
 
15 
 
 Let us now glance al the act of the General Assembly of 
 our State, approved March 12, 1849, entitled, " An act to in- 
 corporate the Pacific Railroad." 
 
 It is a charter in perpetuity; it cannot, therefore, be subject 
 to repeal. 
 
 The general provisions of the act of incorporation seem to 
 be very liberal. Large discretion is given to the directors to 
 manage the road and its affairs, as they may deem proper, sub- 
 ject to the annual suffrage of the stockholders, and provisions 
 are made for obtaining the right of way in case any one should 
 object to the passage of the road through his lands. The com- 
 pany is authorized to hold real estate, and to sell and dispose 
 of the same. Counties, through which the road may pass, are 
 authorized to subscribe stock, and to issue their bonds to raise 
 money for that purpose, and incorporated cities, and towns, 
 and incorporated companies, are also authorized to subscribe. 
 
 The legislature did not limit the rates of toll and freights, 
 but left them to be determined by the directors. 
 
 With this charter perfected, there would seem to be no fur- 
 ther necessity for railroad charters in the central counties of 
 the State, in which this road should be located. This would 
 form the vertebral column of a railroad system for the State. 
 Branches or ribs might project from it whenever justified by 
 business, to the north or to the south. 
 
 The Board of Directors appointed by the legislature, is a 
 highly respectable and influential one. A Board more respec- 
 table or influential, or representative in the aggregate of more 
 wealth, could not have been selected in the State. The legis- 
 lature seem to have been desirous of placing this scheme in 
 hands that were capable of giving it life, and of managing it 
 with prudence, economy and success. 
 
 Power is given to the company " to survey, mark, locate and 
 construct a railroad from the city of St. Louis to the city of 
 Jefferson, and thence to some point in the western line of Van 
 Buren [now Cass] county in this State ;" and for that purpose 
 may " hold a strip of land not exceeding one hundred feet 
 wide," and " may select such route as may be deemed most 
 advantageous." 
 
 
16 
 
 It would, doubtless, have been more acceptable, had Jeffer- 
 son city been omitted. That route may seem to some persons 
 impracticable. At the first sight of the map alone, the judgment 
 of an engineer would naturally favor the route by the valley of 
 the Missouri. He would look simply to the practicability and 
 economy of construction and operation. The traffic and the 
 profits of a road are subjects for the stockholders and the di- 
 rectors. If two or more routes are equally practicable for 
 construction and operation, and in point of directness and 
 cheapness, and one of them offers a larger traffic than the other, 
 that is the one to be adopted. Given, the traffic of a road, 
 and a man may judge as well of the value of its stock, as 
 though he had the share list every day before him. For the 
 practical operation of the road, regarded merely as a piece of 
 mechanism, a perfectly level and straight line would be the 
 most desirable. For directness merely, a line nearly due west 
 from St. Louis to the western border would be preferable. 
 But this, though it would strike very near Jefferson city, would 
 cross the Missouri four times. A route between the Missouri 
 and Merrimac, if the surface of the country would admit of a 
 railroad at a tolerable cost, would be next best in respect to 
 shortness. The country, however, is quite hilly, rough, and 
 comparatively unproductive. A route going westward from 
 St. Louis, touching the Missouri just above the Big Bonhomme 
 bottom, and then following up the Missouri along the slopes of 
 the hills on its southern border to the La Mine river,* up the 
 latter to Davis' Forks, and thence through one of the finest 
 agricultural districts in the State, to the western line of the 
 State in the northwestern corner of Cass county, is one recom- 
 mended by Mr. Singleton as the most practicable and econom- 
 ical. There is another route, which is directed to St. Charles, 
 across the Missouri, and thence westwardly, crossing the Mis- 
 souri again at or above Jefferson city, and thence by the route 
 last mentioned. This would possess the advantage of passing 
 through some of the most populous and most cultivated coun- 
 
 * On this river are large deposits of iron and lead, and inexhaustible beds 
 of coal of the finest quality. 
 
17 
 
 ties of the State, and through a fine agricultural region all the 
 way. With the exception of cannel coal, it is not very produc- 
 tive in minerals upon the north side. The crossing of the Mis- 
 souri twice would be found difficult and very expensive, and 
 perhaps impracticable. To cross by ferries, would occasion 
 considerable delay in the best stages of water, and in the win- 
 ter, when the stream is frozen, or full of ice, the delay would 
 be still greater. It is possible that the river could be crossed 
 at suitable places by suspension bridges, but only at a very 
 great expense.* But there is a route further south, which, if 
 practicable for construction, although longer than the others, 
 would be in the way of a more various if not a larger traffic. 
 Following up the valley of the Merrimac, we should traverse 
 a well timbered and good agricultural region, and penetrate a 
 part of the State remarkable for the extent and variety of its 
 mineral resources. We should pass within reach of the pineries 
 of the Merrimac, within about twenty-five miles of the mines 
 of Potosi, within forty miles of the Iron Mountain, and by nu- 
 merous forges and furnaces of iron, copper and lead : we should 
 cross the Gasconade not far from those pineries which now pay 
 about $25,000 per annum for the rafting out of their lumber : 
 we should pass within about thirty or forty miles south of Jef- 
 ferson city, and pursue our course, through a fine farming as 
 well as mineral country, afford an outlet to the southwestern 
 portion of our State, and reach the western border by some of 
 the northern tributaries of the Osage. By a branch to the 
 Iron Mountain, by a branch to Jefferson city, by a branch ul- 
 timately toward the southwest, up the valley of the Osage, and 
 by touching the Missouri river again at or near the mouth of 
 the Kansas, a system would be erected, most magnificent in its 
 results, and of the greatest importance to the State. None of 
 these routes, however, can be properly determined upon in ad- 
 vance of a topographical survey. 
 
 The distance, in a direct line from St. Louis to the western 
 border of the State, is forty townships by the United States 
 
 * A suspension "bridge across the Dnieper is stated to have been erected in 
 Russia, about a half mile in length, at an expense of $2,000,000. 
 
18 
 
 surveys, or two hundred and forty miles. By the route last 
 mentioned, we pass through forty-one townships, and diago- 
 nally through most of them. If we add one-fifth on this ac- 
 count, the distance will appear to be about two hundred and 
 ninety-five miles say three hundred. By following up the 
 Missouri, the distance is about three hundred miles. 
 
 It is now proper to consider the cost of this proposed work, 
 and the prospects of its value as an investment of capital. 
 
 It must, of course, be at once seen, that any estimates found- 
 ed upon any thing short of an actual survey and examination 
 of the route from one end to the other, would be conjectural, 
 and therefore, with the best judgment, only an approximation 
 to the reality. It is, however, to be remarked, that while rail- 
 roads have frequently exceeded in cost the first estimate, so 
 the business and profits of the roads have, perhaps, as often 
 eclipsed all the first calculations. For example: on the Stock- 
 ton and Darlington line in England, the passengers soon in- 
 creased to eighty times as many as there were before the road 
 went into operation ; on the Glasgow and Greenock railroad 
 in Scotland, travel increased from one hundred and ten thou- 
 sand to'two millions, and the number of passengers were equal 
 to five times the population of the district. The receipts upon 
 the western railroad of Massachusetts increased from $112,000 
 to $1,300,000. 
 
 The cost of railroads is extremely various. In some parts 
 of the country it is but a few thousand dollars per mile in 
 others it is $20,000 in others $50,000 in others it is over 
 $100,000. In England, where the roads have been thoroughly 
 built, and where the cost of procuring charters, and the land 
 damages, and the grading, and the tunneling have been enor- 
 mously expensive, the average cost of the roads has been $142,- 
 000 per mile. In the eastern States and in Canada, the aver- 
 age cost has been about $30,000 per mile. In the western 
 States the cost is less, owing to a more level surface, and cheaper 
 timber.* In Indiana, the railroads have been constructed with 
 
 * The grubbing, grading and masonry of the Hillsboro' and Cincinnati 
 railroad, Ohio, 35| miles, has been put out to contract at about $2,000 per 
 mile. The Scioto and Hocking Valley railroad, Ohio, 116i miles, is estimat- 
 ed to cost, for grading, bridging, ballasting and laying T or H rails, an aver- 
 age of $11,141 39 per mile. 
 
19 
 
 remarkable cheapness, many of them being built by the coun- 
 try people themselves, the farmers taking stock and paying in 
 labor and materials in lieu of money. The Alton and Spring- 
 field railroad in Illinois, a distance of sixty or seventy miles, 
 has been contracted for at $950,000. The cost of the St. 
 Louis and Cincinnati railroad was estimated at about $16,000 
 per mile. The first half of our road, one hundred and fifty 
 miles, may be more expensive, say $20,000 per mile. But the 
 latter half ought not to cost over $15,000 per mile, the whole 
 three hundred miles costing $5,250,000, which is only $250,- 
 000 over half of the authorized capital.* 
 
 But even this is a considerable sum of money for a new 
 country, and its proposed expenditure very justly calls for a 
 careful estimate of the probable returns for such an invest- 
 ment. 
 
 The indirect advantages, though they may exceed five times 
 the cost, are not in this place to be considered. 
 
 Can we form an estimate of the traffic of the road ? We 
 have seen that the number of passengers per annum upon the 
 Missouri is at least 15,000, and that the number of tons taken 
 up and brought down by 355 steam boat trips is 142,000. 
 Now, the usual effect of railroads is at once to treble travel and 
 to double freights, though sometimes they do vastly more than 
 that. But if this road should have the usual effect, we set in 
 motion 45,000 passengers, and 284,000 tons of freight. Leav- 
 ing the usual traffic for the Missouri boats, let us content our- 
 selves with one-half the probable increase. This would give 
 to the road 22,500 passengers and 142,000 tons of freight. 
 And for still greater safety in calculation, we will suppose these 
 passengers and freight to be moved but half the length of the 
 
 * Mr. W. R. Singleton, C. E., has given me his opinion that, by the Mis- 
 souri River route, the first fifty miles, say from St. Louis to South Point, will 
 cost for grading, bridges, culverts, and sills for the iron, an average of about 
 $10,000 per mile ; but the first thirty miles would cost the most, say about 
 $12,000, and the next twenty about $7,000 per mile. He estimates the dis- 
 tance by this route, passing Jefferson city and Boonville, at about three 
 hundred miles to the western line of Cass county, and the cost of the whole 
 road at $4,200,000, or $14,000 per mile. He puts the cost of preparing the 
 road for the iron at $8,000, and the expense of the iron, weighing seventy 
 pounds to the yard, and the laying, at $6,000 per mile. The cost of equip- 
 ment, in engines, cars, station buildings; &c, is not included. 
 
20 
 
 road, or say 125 miles. At 4 cents per mile per ton, and the 
 same rate for a passenger, we have $6,380 for moving the 
 whole one mile, or for 125 miles, the sum of $822,500. Sup- 
 pose the rates to be but 3 cents per mile,* and we have the 
 sum of $616,875. Taking off one-half the first gross sum for 
 expenses, and we have the net sum of $411,250. Taking off 
 one-half the second gross sum for expenses, and we have net 
 $308,437. The first net sum would be a dividend of over 8 
 per cent., and the second, a dividend of 6 per cent, upon the 
 capital supposed to be invested. If we were to suppose the 
 whole population upon the route passing the railroad, as is 
 stated to be the case to five times the extent upon a railroad in 
 Scotland, the profits would be enormous. To deduct one-half 
 the gross receipts to cover expenses is probably too much, 
 though it takes that in England, and in Massachusetts, upon 
 the average. If, however, the road could be operated for less 
 than half the gross earnings, as some roads are operated, of 
 course the dividends would exceed our mark. This may be a 
 startling, and seem an incredible result. The accuracy of it 
 wholly depends on the truthfulness of our premises as to the 
 cost of the road, and the amount of passengers and freight. 
 As before remarked, the nearest approximation to the truth 
 would be derived from an actual survey and examination of 
 the route, and a full inquiry into all the facts. It is quite pos- 
 sible that the estimate of cost is too low ; but it is equally 
 possible, and, in my opinion, more than probable, that the es- 
 timated traffic is put down at less than what it would be dur- 
 ing the first year's operation of the road. For example, we 
 shall have elements which do not now enter the Missouri boats. 
 
 *The annual average expense of transportation on the best managed rail- 
 roads in this country to the companies themselves, is about two cents per ton 
 per mile. In England, the cost is greater. The Baltimore and Ohio Rail- 
 road Company charge about four cents per ton per mile. The charge for 
 transportation in boats on the Missouri river varies from twenty-five cents to 
 two dollars and fifty cents peT one hundred pounds for carriage five hundred 
 miles, or an average of about six cents per ton per mile. To this expense is 
 to be added much lost time and heavy insurance, and the total destruction 
 of the boat in three to five years. Indeed, our neighbors in Iowa undertake 
 to demonstrate that transportation from Council Bluffs to St. Louis is over 
 40 per cent, cheaper over land through Iowa and down the Des Moines river 
 than by the Missouri river. 
 
21 
 
 We shall have coal and wood, iron, lead and copper, lumber, 
 live stock, game, and the produce of a vast interior, which now 
 has no market. And moreover it is worthy of remark, that 
 when the road is once completed, the future outlay upon con- 
 struction will bear no proportion to the perpetual increase of 
 future business. 
 
 The provision in the charter which authorizes the compa- 
 ny to "take, hold, use, possess and enjoy the fee simple, or 
 other title in, and to any real estate, and may sell and dispose 
 of the same," is of great value ; and if the power be judi- 
 ciously exercised in the purchase and management of lands, 
 and station and town sites along the route, the profit from 
 this source, to the company, might be very great. It would, 
 at least, tend to keep the stock always up to par, even if the 
 company should not meet the expected returns immediately 
 from traffic, and might, by good judgment in the management, 
 put the stock above par, and make it always desirable proper- 
 ty. More certainly still would this be the result, if the gov- 
 ernment of the United States should exercise toward the com- 
 pany the justice and liberality which it has extended to com- 
 panies in every other new State, by granting in aid of the 
 work a small per centage of the enormous quantity of their 
 lands now lying unappropriated and useless upon the route of 
 the road. Foreseeing the great difficulty of raising the large 
 amount of capital required to construct the railroad, the legis- 
 lature probably granted this power as one of the means " ne- 
 cessary and proper to carry the same into complete and suc- 
 cessful operation." 
 
 Another very generous provision is that which renders it 
 lawful for the county court of any county in which any part 
 of the route may be, to subscribe to the stock, to invest its 
 funds in it, and to issue its bonds to pay the stock thus sub- 
 scribed, and also for " any incorporated city, town or incorpo- 
 rated company" to subscribe to the stock. Thus, when the 
 means of individuals fail, the loan of the public credit may 
 come in to complete the work. This resort is not a novelty 
 in such great enterprises. Great works of public policy, often 
 
require and justly appeal to the aggregate power of society. 
 They are matters in which all are interested, and by which all 
 will be benefited. They shed their happy influences upon the 
 rich and the poor, upon the selfish and the benevolent, upon 
 the mean as well as upon the generous. It has often happen- 
 ed therefore, indeed it is happening continually, that States 
 are called on, in sound policy, to aid their more liberal and en- 
 terprising citizens in works tending to the general good, and 
 they have answered the call in numerous instances with com- 
 plete success, oftentimes, not only without advancing a sin- 
 gle dollar, but realizing the beneficient effects of their liberality 
 not only in their increased prosperity, but in the actual re- 
 demption of their liabilities and a pecuniary profit added. 
 This is always the case where the dividends upon the stock 
 exceed the usual rates of legal interest, and of course the stock 
 itself is above par. But they could well afford to lend their 
 aid without direct gain. Indirectly, -the public wealth is in- 
 creased many times more than the whole sum invested in the 
 improvement. This policy, however, is so well known and 
 approved, that we might justly be regarded as benighted, and 
 behind the times, were we to doubt its availability or propriety, 
 or refuse to adopt it. Without it, New York might never 
 have achieved her great system of improvement, and Massa- 
 chusetts would have been still locked within her mountains. 
 Even Virginia, whose bad roads and laggard spirit in internal 
 improvements have been a reproach to her, has awakened to a 
 full appreciation of it, as to a new discovery, and now, by a 
 general law, lends her strength and her means to every rail- 
 road enterprise in the State. In fact, there is scarcely a State 
 or a city striving to maintain its rank among its contempora- 
 ries, that does not, from necessity, avail itself of this means of 
 advancement. And shall Missouri give up without an effort, 
 and forever remain behind? She is too deeply interested to 
 let this opportunity pass. This great work, which is to invite 
 population, which is to stimulate the mechanic arts, extend ag- 
 riculture, disembowel the earth of its mineral wealth, set up 
 machine shops, rolling mills and factories, and awaken all the 
 
23 
 
 slumbering energies of a giant State, must be, will be, carried 
 to a triumphant consummation. The city and county of St. 
 Louis will set an example, which the counties along the line 
 will, doubtless, follow to the extent of their ability. They 
 will subscribe in the stock and issue their bonds to pay it up 
 as required, and receive their certificates. The State then 
 ought not to fail to subscribe such an amount, as, with the other 
 means of the company, will carry the work to the western 
 border. Can there be any reasonable doubt that the stock will 
 be available to redeem all such bonds as they may fall due? 
 Experience shows that there is none of the hazard about rail- 
 roads that exist in banking and insurance and trading compa- 
 nies. They are of the industrial hard-working class, whose 
 gains may be as surely relied on as the daily labor of a man, 
 or of the ox, or of the horse. But unlike the labor of a man 
 or a horse, there is no limit to their productiveness. Their 
 powers expand with every increased demand. Nor is there 
 danger of their falling into desuetude until man ceases to be a 
 social being, and loses his love of locomotion. On the con- 
 trary, they gain in favor, in business, in usefulness, and in profit, 
 every day of their existence. 
 
 But it may be said the State is too young to embark in such 
 an enterprize. Is Missouri younger, poorer and less civilized 
 than New York was when the latter engaged in the great pro- 
 ject of her Erie Canal? Younger and poorer than Alabama, 
 than Michigan, than Indiana, when they began to erect these 
 systems which have put them forward with so much of added 
 wealth and renewed life? But our youth is entirely in our 
 favor. It gives us energy and elasticity; we are not burdened 
 with debt nor decrepitude. Nor are we left to try doubtful 
 experiments. We may avoid the errors of those States which 
 are older and profit by the wisdom which they have purchased 
 by experience. We can see the folly of undertaking too much, 
 and avoid it. We can see the folly of scattering our resour- 
 ces, instead of concentrating them upon a favorite object. We 
 can perceive that when we determine that a work is worth 
 commencing, it is worth completing, or the labor and capital 
 expended in beginning it may be lost, 
 
24 
 
 Look at the work which we propose. Is it not worth un- 
 dertaking? Are we not able to undertake it, and to complete 
 it? Poorer States, or rather people with less capital than we, 
 have projected and finished even greater works. And have 
 they regretted their exertions? Is any completed public work 
 in any State regreted ? Will this road injure any body ? Does 
 it involve any body or people in bankruptcy or ruin ? Certain- 
 ly not. It calls on no man to subscribe in its stock who is not 
 perfectly able to do it, and is both able and willing to meet 
 any legitimate and proper calls that may be made upon him to 
 the extent of his subscription. Involuntary subscriptions are 
 neither expected nor desired, and ought to be impossible. Sup- 
 posing it were true, therefore, which, however, is not admit- 
 ted, that the stockholders will receive no immediate and direct 
 profit upon the money they may have advanced, there are none 
 of them, it is presumed, who will have subscribed so large a 
 portion of their fortunes as to feel very serious inconvenience 
 should their subscriptions turn out to be wholly sunk. Even 
 in that plight, their consciences would be quite as well at ease 
 as those of their neighbors, who, too selfish to engage in any 
 public enterprise, should avail themselves of the opportunity to 
 cloak their illiberality under an affectation of financial shrewd- 
 ness. They would, at least, have the satisfaction of feeling 
 that their State pride, their local pride, was not rebuked, but 
 vindicated by the effort they had made, though unavailing. 
 But, on the contrary, let us suppose, what we believe will be 
 the result, that the money invested not only receives a fair 
 profit, but that the whole community is also advanced in busi- 
 ness, in prosperity, and in wealth, then those by whose efforts 
 the work was achieved, will receive a double satisfaction, while 
 those who are too ignorant, too selfish, or too poor in public 
 spirit to assist in the work, will experience a double mortifica- 
 tion a mortification that would scarcely find relief in seeing 
 their estates enhanced in value upon their hands by the patri- 
 otic efforts of others. 
 
 But upon what do you rely for remuneration, continues an 
 objector, Let us answer him by taking him a ride upon the 
 
25 
 
 rail itself. Let us, for a moment, imagine the work to be com- 
 pleted. As we approach the depot or station house, we notice, 
 with astonishment, the new and costly improvements in its vi- 
 cinity. We see that it has produced a complete revolution in 
 that part of our city. We observe carriages, drays, and peo- 
 ple rushing to and fro, preparing for the train a^out to start. 
 We enter the station house. We see the United States mail, 
 quantities of baggage, and some fifty or sixty passengers going 
 aboard the fast train. Here we see, also, boxes of merchandize 
 of all sizes, and various articles of household and farming uten- 
 sils, hogsheads of sugar, sacks of coffee and of salt, barrels of 
 molasses and of whiskey, kits of mackerel, boxes of raisins, 
 bundles of paper, wagons in pieces, small carriages, kegs of 
 nails, bars of iron, boxes of Indian goods, and of hats and of 
 shoes, glass, tar and turpentine, and a vast variety of articles 
 marked for the towns in the interior, and some of them for 
 Santa Fe, and some for Deseret, which the men are at work 
 placing in the freight train. There is none of that disorder 
 and flurry which exists upon the Levee, but all is neatness and 
 order, and conducted systematically, and under the strictest 
 discipline and accountability. But the bell is ringing we will 
 take our tickets and step aboard the train. Off we go, at the 
 speed of 25 miles the hour. We have not gone five miles when 
 the pace is slacked, and we observe one or two gentlemen 
 jumping off* at their suburban residences. We also notice that 
 the first 6 miles of the road has proved of great benefit to the 
 coal property near St. Louis as against the great competition 
 from the coal fields of Illinois, and that this part of the road 
 is doing a fair business in carrying coal into the city. In the 
 increased consumption of coal, we calculate upon about one 
 million of bushels per annum, which, at a freight charge of 
 two cents per bushel, would afford an annual income to the 
 road of $20,000, and that is vastly less than the cost of haul- 
 ing by wagons. At one cent per bushel, the yield is $10,000. 
 The first 6 miles of the road, therefore, pays a handsome net 
 profit, upon a cost of $20,000 per mile. But the further out 
 we go, the more profitable does this part of the road seem, 
 
26 
 
 A few miles further is a platform and a turn out. Here seve- 
 ral are waiting to get in, and several also get off to go to their 
 dwellings. Here, also, we observe a string of other cars, la- 
 den with coal. We pass on, scarcely having time to observe 
 the fine residences whi< h city gentlemen have constructed all 
 along each side of the road ; but we stop every few minutes to 
 let off a passenger or two, and take on as many more, so that 
 our number is kept about the same. Here we pass a train, 
 standing in a turn out, loaded with wood, with a few cars of 
 baled hay attached. The country on either side seems to be 
 full of busy men, and every farm occupied. Contrary to the 
 apprehensions of some of the farming community within ten 
 miles of the city, who feared the competition of the further off 
 regions, lands adjacent to the road have advanced in value 
 more than one hundred per cent. Soon we reach a water sta- 
 tion, where we observe immense piles of cord wood, and many 
 men still engaged in hauling and cording. Here, also, is a 
 small refreshment house, and here again we leave and take a 
 few passengers. Directly we meet a freight train loaded with 
 a variety of farm produce from the rich valley of the Merri- 
 mac, and with pigs of lead, and copper and iron, from Frank- 
 lin county. In about two hours from St. Louis, we are at the 
 Union Station, where we discharge a few passengers, and 
 where we observe large piles of metal in pigs. We pass into 
 a m'neral region of great and various resources Every few 
 miles we see furnaces in full blast. In addition to the quanti- 
 ties of metals, we notice, also, lumber from the Merrimac and 
 its tributaries we see granite and kaolin and soapstone and 
 fire brick, brought from the country adjacent on the south, 
 and ready for market. We are within reach of the great bu- 
 siness of the Iron Mountain and the various mines of Craw- 
 ford and Washington counties. The quantity of freight col- 
 lected cannot be estimated, but is very large, and is destined 
 to increase indefinitely. Though stopping now and then to 
 take or leave a passenger, or to supply the engine with water, 
 we are soon at the crossing of the Gasconade. Across this 
 river is constructed a grand bridge of solid masonry, of great 
 
27 
 
 strength and durability. There is no lack of materials for 
 such works. Here we see extensive lumber yards, and an im- 
 portant station for the Gasconade region. Immense quanti- 
 ties of yellow pine lumber are floated down from above, and 
 piled up here to season, and is always at command of daily 
 orders from St. Louis. An order given to-day in St. Louis, is 
 answered to-morrow by the receipt of the, lumber. There 
 were, in 1849, upon the Piney Fork of the Gasconade, about 
 fifteen saw mills, turning out about five millions of feet per 
 annum. This has been rafted to St. Louis, at an expense of 
 about five dollars per thousand. The railroad can afford to 
 take it at about half that price, and deliver it in less time, and 
 in much better condition. One of the consequences is, a large 
 increase in the quantity produced, and the road derives from it 
 a handsome profit. Considerable quantities of merchandize are 
 deposited here, and new buildings are going up on lots laid out 
 and sold by the company. But, on we go, into the fertile val- 
 ley of the Osage, and before we are aware of it, we are at the 
 Osage river, and at another fine structure, by which we cross 
 it. We observe a draw in the bridge, to admit of the passage 
 of small steamboats. A small boat is lying just above the 
 bridge, discharging freight, consisting of a variety of articles 
 from the Osage valley, at a depot conveniently arranged, and 
 a series of cars are receiving it. We observe, also, here a few 
 new buildings, and a yard full of live stock, destined for St. 
 Louis, per railroad. We hear of a scheme to penetrate, by a 
 branch, the upper part of the Osage valley, and here, also, we 
 meet the down train, with a number of passengers, and we ob- 
 serve a number of cars also waiting their opportunity to pass 
 down, loaded with bacon and beef, hides and peltries, dried 
 fruits, beeswax, hemp, tobacco, eggs and poultry. From this 
 point westward, we find the country better adapted, in its sur- 
 face, to the construction of a railroad. We observe less of 
 mineral, but much more of the agricultural products. Our 
 passengers leave us to the right and left, and occasionally a 
 few enter the cars. At one place our attention is drawn to a 
 medley of noises, arising from a freight train. We discover. 
 
 
28 
 
 through the bars, as the train moves on, a number of cars, 
 some filled with live hogs and cattle, and others with hemp 
 and tobacco, on their way to St. Louis. We are struck with 
 the fine appearance of the country as we pass on, and observe 
 numerous excellent farms. The agricultural resources of this 
 part of the State are very great, and looking at the whole 
 route, merely in an agricultural point of view, the land upon 
 it is vastly superior to that upon the routes of some of the 
 eastern roads which have been constructed at an expense of 
 sixty or seventy thousand dollars per mile. We reach our sta- 
 tion, not far from the mouth of the Kanzas, in about twelve 
 hours from St. Louis. Here our passengers dispose of them* 
 selves for the night at a commodious hotel, intending to be off 
 in the morning for Independence, and Liberty and Westport, 
 and Fort Leavenworth, and other places up the river. The 
 hotel is quite full of passengers, including people from far up 
 the Missouri, and Santa Fe traders, Californians and others, 
 numbering quite as many to go down as there were up. Here, 
 also, a large amount of freight is collected, comprising farm 
 produce from the rich and populous counties adjacent, furs and 
 peltries, and other products from the great country lying still 
 to the west. We go to, our rest, gratified with the trip, con- 
 vinced that Missouri is to be a great and wealthy State, and 
 fully satisfied that the railroad is a noble and a profitable work, 
 reflecting the highest credit upon its projectors and its finish- 
 ers. 
 
 Now, although this be an imaginary trip, who, that knows 
 any thing of railroads, can doubt that its realization is perfect- 
 ly within our reach? 
 
 Let us, then, put forth our strength and commence the great 
 work, and persevere in it to its final consummation. Let us 
 pledge St. Louis, city and county, for at least one million of 
 the capital required. Let us appeal to the people, towns and 
 counties upon the route of the road, and procure from them, 
 in the aggregate, in money, land, labor and materials, at least 
 one million more, beside the right of way, which ought to be 
 
 
29 
 
 freely granted, either by individuals or by the counties.* Let 
 us appeal to the government of the United States, until we 
 prevail with them to give us, of their twenty-nine millions of 
 acres of unappropriated land in this State, say but one-sixtieth 
 part, but which, by judicious selection, and in our hands, we 
 could make available for another million. And finally, why 
 may we not appeal to the State government ? True, it has lit- 
 tle experience in such works, but the experience of nearly 
 every other State in the Union, and the injunction of the Con- 
 stitution, which requires that " internal improvement shall for- 
 ever be encouraged by the government of this State," points 
 out the path of wisdom and of duty. Clearly this work is 
 one of "the most proper objects of improvement'' contempla- 
 ted by the Constitution, and one of the most important, as the 
 base of a system, which probably can be presented. As a grand 
 trunk line, which will be available to the people on the right 
 and left, and which may ultimately be made the beginning and 
 a part of the National Highway to the Pacific, it cannot be 
 regarded, in any respect, as a local work, but it is, at the least, 
 a State work upon a comprehensive scale, and as intimately 
 bearing upon the national interests, it is a work also of national 
 importance. As a State work merely, however, looking to its 
 effect in developing the resources, and increasing the popula- 
 tion and aggregate wealth of the State, it deserves the serious 
 consideration and parental fostering of the State government. 
 In what manner the aid of the public authorities should be ren- 
 dered, is a question which should be determined with strict 
 reference to the object we have in view. If such aid were to 
 be rendered by subscriptions in the stock to such an amount 
 as to annihilate the influence of private stockholders, and the 
 measure were to result in giving up the control of the road to 
 party politics, we presume no true friend of the road would 
 be willing to receive any such aid. No private stockholder 
 would be willing, probably, to hold an interest subject to 
 the caprices of party politics. Deprecating, as every sin- 
 
 * A correspondent suggests that, looking to the National uses of the road, 
 this strip of laud ought to be one thousand feet wide. 
 
30 
 
 cere friend of the measure must, any connection with in- 
 fluences so ruinous to the best interests of a rail road, it 
 would seem to be desirable that the aid of the public au- 
 thorities should be rendered in some other form than that 
 which would involve them in an actual participation in 
 the management of the road. This necessary aid could, doubt- 
 less, be as well and effectually rendered by a loan to the com- 
 pany of the public credit, which might be secured by the hy- 
 pothecation of certificates of stock, or of the road itself, its 
 property and appurtenances.* 
 
 A loan upon the pledge of certifica'es of stock, would doubt- 
 less be more desirable to the compan}*, inasmuch as their ow r n 
 credit would be more available by their work remaining unen- 
 cumbered. Aid thus rendered, in a liberal and magnanimous 
 spirit, to the extent of a million of dollars by the State, loaning 
 the bonds of the State to the company, and receiving certifi- 
 cates of stock as security, would with the other means secure 
 the completion of the work at an early day, without involving 
 the State in any debt which could not be paid off by the as- 
 signment or sale of the certificates of stock upon the completion 
 of enough of the road to afford a dividend upon its cost and 
 operation. If, however, the aid to be extended should be by 
 an actual subscription in the stock, the interests of the city or 
 state making the subscription can be represented by proxy, 
 but the instalments required by the board of directors, must 
 be met in money as they are called for. Nevertheless, what- 
 ever may be the form, the aid should be proffered, and if pos- 
 sible, given effectually; and the state should not hesitate to as- 
 sume an equal rank with her sister states in the race of civiliza- 
 tion and progress. But let us remember, that our prosperity 
 in this great enterprize may be augured by the disposition we 
 may exhibit to avoid the follies and the corruptions of the past. 
 Boards of direction must have a vital energy, derived from the 
 introduction of really working and practical men, who should 
 
 * The State of Massachusetts holds a mortgage of $4,000,000 on the Wes- 
 tern Railroad. The City of Albany, N. York, holds a mortgage of $1,000,000 
 on the Albany and West Stockbridge Railroad. Numerous States and cities 
 could be mentioned that have lent their credit to railroads. 
 
31 
 
 have an intelligent understanding of their business, and from 
 whom we should exact specific, full and plain details of ex- 
 penditure, and whose continuance in the board, should depend 
 upon the measure of their willingness to act up to the full 
 amount of their responsibility. With such aid, with such care, 
 commencing the work at St. Louis, and working westwardly, 
 completing the road by sections, no more of which should be 
 begun than we can clearly see our ability to finish, who can 
 doubt that the road will make its gradual but sure way to the 
 western border, and fulfill its great mission of usefulness? 
 
 And let us not forget that this work through the State is to 
 be constructed "with the view of continuing the same ultimate- 
 ly to the Pacific Ocean." 
 
 The President of the United States, in his message to Con- 
 gress says : " The great mineral wealth of California, and the 
 advantages which its ports and harbors, and those of Oregon, 
 offer to commerce, especially with the islands of the Pacific 
 and Indian oceans, and the populous regions of Eastern Asia, 
 make it certain that there will arise, in a few years, large arid 
 prosperous communities on our western coast. It, therefore, 
 becomes important that a line of communication, the best and 
 most expeditious which the nature of the country will admit, 
 should be opened, within the territory of the United States, from 
 the navigable waters of the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico to 
 the Pacific. Opinions, as elicited and expressed by two large 
 and respectable conventions, lately assembled at St. Louis and 
 Memphis, point to a rail road as that which, if practicable, 
 will best meet the wishes and wants of the country.'' 
 
 That such a rail road is practicable has been abundantly 
 shown by the reports of travelers, explorers and engineers. 
 That the United States can build it is not in the least proble- 
 matical. The New England States alone, have constructed 
 over 2,300 miles of railway. The people of the United States 
 have constructed more than three times the length of rail road 
 required to reach the Pacific, within the last ten years. Proba- 
 bly they will construct as much more within the next ten 
 years. But where is a rail road more greatly needed than 
 
32 
 
 between the Atlantic States and those which are growing up 
 on the Pacific? How is our government to get on with its 
 mail, its military and civil affairs, its land and fiscal concerns, 
 its Indian department, its territorial difficulties in the vast in- 
 terior, and upon the far off coasts of Oregon and California, 
 without more expeditious means of communication? We hold 
 it to be impracticable, and for any length of time, impossible. 
 Such a communication, in order to the prosperity of this gov- 
 ernment and country as a unit, is indispensable and inevita- 
 ble. Some may regard the measure as extraordinary, but the 
 occasion is extraordinary. Some may consider a rail road a 
 novelty for government, but it is no more a novelty than the 
 Macadamized national road was in the time of it, a species 
 of road now nearly superseded by the railway. Others may 
 affect to know that the country is impracticable for the con- 
 struction of a rail road, that deserts intervene, &c. but they 
 are only ignorant of what they speak. All that is extraordi- 
 nary, all that is novel, all that is obscure about this great 
 measure of the age, will disappear, and the whole thing be- 
 come plain and practicable, upon the application to it of the 
 usual test. In carrying it out, the State work completed by 
 us, will be of great service, and if need be, perhaps the stock- 
 holders would be willing to surrender it to the United States, 
 upon being re-imbursed their outlay, and receiving assurance 
 of its continuation to the Pacific Ocean. 
 
APPENDED NOTE 
 
 The length of Railway in Great Britain and the United States. 
 
 The aggregate length of railway in the united kingdom of Great Britain, 
 at the close of the year 1849, was 5,950 miles. The cost of construction 
 appears to have been 197,000,000, or at the rate of 33,110 per mile. The 
 receipts upon them all, for the last year, is stated at 11,683,800. 
 
 The whole number of miles of railway in operation in New England, Jan. 
 1, 1850, is stated at 2,300 miles. The whole amount expended in the con- 
 struction of these lines, and others in progress, is estimated at about $100,- 
 000,000. A railway to the Pacific would cost nothing like that sum. 
 
 The aggregate length of railway in the United States is over 7,000 miles. 
 
 The cost per mile, charges and profits, of twelve Railroads in . the 
 United States. 
 
 The Auburn and Rochester Railroad, N. Y., 78 miles long, cost $34,000 
 per mile ; pays a dividend of 8 per cent. The charge for heavy freights is 
 27 cents per 100, through. Passengers, 3.89 cents per mile. 
 
 The Boston and Lowell Road, in Massachusetts, 25 miles, cost $73,200 
 per mile ; pays 8 per cent. Freight, $1 25 per ton, through. Passengers, 
 2.15 cents per mile. 
 
 The Boston and Maine Railroad, 74 miles, cost $45,000 per mile ; 
 pays 8}^ per cent. Heavy freight, 2.14 cents per ton, per mile ; light and 
 bulky, 3.5 cents per ton, per mile. Passengers, 2.25 cents per mile. 
 
 The Boston and Worcester Railroad, 44 miles, cost $74,700 per mile ; pays 
 8)< per cent. Heavy freight, 4 cents ; light and bulky, 6 to 10 cents per 
 ton, per mile. Passengers, 2.8 cents per mile. 
 
 The Concord Road, 34 miles long, upon a paid capital of $1,350,000, pays 
 10 per cent. Freight, 4 and 3} cents per ton, per mile. Passengers,- 2.35 
 cents per mile. 
 
 The Fitchburg Road, in Mass., 49 miles, cost $52,300 per mile; pays %% 
 per cent. Heavy freight, 4 cents per ton, per mile. Passengers, 2.5 cents 
 per mile. 
 
 The Utica and Schenectady Road, N. Y., 78 miles, cost $40,500 per mile; 
 pays 10 per cent. No freight allowed when canal is open. Passengers, 3.84 
 cents per mile. 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 The Western Road, Mass., 117 miles, cost $67,700 per mile ; pays 8 per 
 cent. Heavy freight, 2 56 cents per ton, per mile. Passengers, 2.5 cents 
 per mile. 
 
 The Macon and Western Road, Georgia, 101 miles, cost $6,218 per mile J 
 paid, in 1848, $78,722 net earnings. Heavy freight, about 5 cents per ton, 
 per mile. One of the Georgia Railroads made a profit of over 11 per cent, in 
 1849. 
 
 The Madison and Indianapolis Road, Indiana, 86 miles, cost per 
 
 mile ; pays 14 to 15 per cent, dividend. Heavy freight, $5 per ton, through. 
 Passengers, 2.9 cents per mile. 
 
 The Little Miami Road, Ohio, 84 miles, cost $18,000 per mile ; pays 10 per 
 cent. Heavy freight, $3 20 per ton, through. Passengers, 2.38 cents per mile. 
 
 The Michigan Central Railroad, 218% miles, cost per mile ; re- 
 ceived, in 1849, $600,986 60, gross. 
 
 Power of Engines. 
 
 An engine of 24 tons will take, on a level, 500 tons 15 miles per hour. 
 The same engine would surmount grades varying from to 74 feet per mile, 
 say in running 50 miles, and carry 130 tons at the same speed. 
 
 The average speed of passenger cars in Massachusetts, is 23.13 miles per 
 hour. 
 
 The average speed of freight cars, is 12.35 miles per hour. 
 
 The express passenger trains run 35 miles per hour. 
 
 The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company possess engines capable of 
 hauling 1,100 tons on a level road, and 170 tons on grades of 80% feet per mile. 
 
 Consumption of Fuel, Water, tyc. 
 
 The quantity of water consumed on the Western Railroad of Massachu- 
 setts, 156 miles in length, amounts daily to 160,000 gallons, or 640 tons. 
 
 The same road consumes 40,000 cords of wood annually, and 25,000 gal- 
 lons of sperm oil. 
 
 An engine of 20 tons, working up to full power, will evaporate from 50 to 
 60 gallons of water per mile, and consume about a cord of light wood in an 
 hour, or say two cords of hemlock wood in 50 miles. 
 
 Improvements. 
 
 There have been many improvements in railroads, cars and engines, in 
 construction and management within the past few years. The American 
 cars are admitted to be far superior to the English, though the English 
 roads are the most thoroughly built. The construction is better understood 
 than formerly, and therefore it is more economical. Railway iron, in conse- 
 quence of the stand still to which railways have been brought in England, 
 a panic having succeeded the mania, can be purchased now unusually low. 
 It will !be delivered at New Orleans for about $35 per ton. 
 
35 
 
 Comparative ratio of Expenses to gross Receipts, and the com- 
 parative cost per mile run on ten Railroads, in 1846. 
 
 Names of Roads. Rate of ex. to Cost per milo Total Receipts. Total Expenses, 
 
 gross recc:pts. run. 
 
 Georgia-- 38 $0 61 $400,935 46 $157,902 36 
 
 South Carolina 51 87 589,08152 302,369 72 
 
 Boston and Lowell 55 105 384,102 29 212,233 62 
 
 " Maine 51 65 349,136 56 179,734 83 
 
 " " Providence 47 85 360,375 03 169,670 48 
 
 " " Worcester 51 96 554,712 46 283,866 11 
 
 Fitchburg 41 58 286,645 26 117,447 34 
 
 Western 47 72 878,417 89 412,679 80 
 
 Baltimore and Ohio 48 64 895,315 22 429,100 28 
 
 Central (Georgia) 56 67 303,439 96 170,236 90 
 
 The Boston and Lowell Road above mentioned, has its rails laid upon 
 blocks of stone, and it is believed that its working expenses are much 
 heavier than those of roads furnished with wooden sleepers. 
 
 Order of proceeding in establishing a Railroad Line. 
 
 Attention, in the outset, should be directed, first, to the probable character 
 and amount of traffic over the line ; second, the wants of the community 
 in the neighborhood of the line ; third, the natural features of the country 
 between the points of arrival and departure, as regards their adaptation to 
 the proposed communication. 
 
 A thorough examination and study of the ground by the eye, termed a re- 
 connaissance, is an indispensable preliminary, says Mahan, to any more ac- 
 curate and minute survey by instruments, to avoid loss of time, as by this 
 more rapid operation any ground unsuitable for the proposed line will be as 
 certainly detected by a person of some experience, as it could be by the 
 slow process of an instrumental survey. This should be preceded by a 
 careful inspection of the maps of the country through which the line is to 
 pass. 
 
 After the reconnoissauce, succeeds the surveys, which consist in measuring 
 the lengths, determining the directions, and ascertaining both the longitudi- 
 nal and cross levels of the different routes, or, as they are termed, trial lines, 
 with a sufficient accuracy to enable the engineer to make a comparative 
 estimate both of their practicability and cost. 
 
 The results of the surveys are to be embodied in a map and memoir. 
 
 After which, succeeds the location of the line, in whirh we should aim at 
 the greatest practicable directness, and avoid all unnecessary ascents, de- 
 scents and curvatures. 
 
 Gradients. 
 
 Mahan says that, from various experiments upon the friction of cars upon 
 railways, it appears that the angle of repose is about 1-250, but that in de- 
 
36 
 
 scending gradients much steeper, the velocity due to the accelerating force o^ 
 gravity soon attains its greatest limit and remains constant, from the resis- 
 tance caused by the air. 
 
 Wear and Tear. 
 
 Experience upon the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, shows that the injury 
 done to the road by the transportation of two passengers, is about equal to tha t 
 produced by one ton of freight. [Ellkt. 
 
 The expenses of Railroads are elassified as follows : 
 
 1. Motive Power Including the cost of repairing locomotive engines and 
 tenders, fuel, oil, cotton waste, and the wages of engine men and firemen. 
 
 2. Car Expenses Including the cost of repairing cars, grease for cars, and 
 the wages of conductors and brakemen. 
 
 3. Road Expenses Including the repairs of railway, repairs of bridges, 
 repairs of depots, repairs of water stations, pumping water and watching 
 bridges. 
 
 4. General Expenses Including the pay of agents and clerks, pay of de- 
 pot labor, miscellaneous charges, losses by fire, salaries, office rent, legal ex- 
 penses, taxes, insurance, &c. 
 
 Comparative safety of Railroads. 
 
 Experience proves railroads to be superior, in point of safety, to any other 
 mode of conveyance. This is so well settled, that in England insurance 
 companies will insure a life for a single journey, in the sum of $5,000, for 3 
 pence. They also insure a passenger during all the journeys he may take, 
 at a moderate rate. 
 
 Comparative cost of Engines. 
 
 Locomotives Cost in England. Cost in C States. 
 
 15 inch cylinder, 20 tons weight $9,360 $8,300 
 
 16 * 22 * " 10,142 8,000 
 18 " 25 * " 12,000 10,000 
 
 The above figures, upon the authority of the Railroad Journal, show that 
 engines are made at less cost in the United States than in England. 
 
MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS. 
 
 To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives 
 
 of the United States, in Congress assembled: 
 
 The memorial of the subscribers, Directors of the Pacific Rail- 
 road Company, organized at St. Louis, in the State of Missouri, 
 respectfully shows : 
 
 That the Legislature of the State of Missouri, by an act entitled 
 " An act to incorporate the Pacific Railroad," approved March 
 12, 1849, authorized the formation of a company with {< full power 
 to survey, mark, locate and construct a railroad from the city of 
 St. Louis to the city of Jefferson, and thence to some point in the 
 western line of Van Buren (now Cass) county in this State," "and 
 to hold a strip of land not exceeding one hundred feet wide " for 
 that purpose, and also, "sufficient land for the construction of 
 depots, ware-houses, and water stations," to " select such route as 
 may be deemed most advantageous," and to " extend branch rail- 
 roads to any point in any of the counties in which said road may 
 be located." And the said company were also authorized to 
 " take, hold, use, possess and enjoy the fee simple or other title 
 in and to any real estate, and may sell and dispose of the same;" 
 all of which matters will more fully appear by^reference to the act 
 itself, a copy of which is hereto annexed. 
 
 Your memorialists further show, that the said company were 
 duly organized under said act, on the thirty-first day of January 
 last past, at a meeting of a majority of the Directors named in 
 the act, by electing Col. John O'Fallon, President, Daniel D. 
 Page, Treasurer, and Thomas Allen, Secretary, of said com- 
 pany. 
 
 That on the fourth day of February (instant) books were open- 
 ed by order of the said Board of Directors at the city of St. Louis, 
 
38 
 
 for subscriptions to the capital stock of said company, and that 
 in the six days, during which said books have been opened, the 
 sum of three hundred and five thousand and five hundred dollars 
 has been subscribed to the said capital stock. 
 
 Your memorialists further show, that they feel strong assurance 
 that the city and county of St. Louis, and the several counties 
 along the contemplated route of said road, will subscribe a further 
 sum, which, when added to the subscription of individuals, will, 
 in the aggregate, constitute a fund sufficient to construct said road 
 more than half the distance contemplated by the charter, and jus- 
 tify the immediate commencement of the work. 
 
 Your memorialists further show, that the United States own 
 about twenty-nine million two hundred and sixteen thousand 
 acres of land, yet unsold, in this State, very large portions of 
 which are likely to be rendered available and of increased value 
 by the proposed work of this company. That said lands, yet be- 
 longing to the United States, which lie in the counties bordering 
 the Missouri river, especially on the south, will, by said work 
 being constructed through said counties, be enhanced in value 
 from fifty to one thousand per cent., according to the qualities 
 and situations of said lands. 
 
 Your memorialists further show, that in consequence of private 
 entries and claims upon lands in the counties through which the 
 road of this company will be constructed, it will not be possible 
 to find vacant lands along the entire route, so as to admit of an 
 available grant of alternate sections of public land, in any thing 
 like a consecutive series upon the line of the road. 
 
 Your memorialists, knowing the United States to be greatly in- 
 terested in the construction of this road, not only as a land pro- 
 prietor in this State and in the territories west of the State, but 
 also in the increased facilities which will be afforded to the Govern- 
 ment in the transportation of the mail, and of public stores, mu. 
 nitions and troops, officers and annuities connected with the In- 
 dian policy of the Government, therefore respectfully represent, 
 that it would be but justice and propriety, as well with reference 
 to their own interests as to the Railroad Company, that the United 
 States should grant, in aid of said work, such an amount of their 
 vacant lands lying any where within the counties through which 
 
the road may run, as would be. equivalent to alternate sections in a 
 space of two miles width upon both sides of said road and along 
 its entire length, allowing the locations to be made as nearly as 
 possible pro rata among said counties : that is to say, to locate in 
 each county according to the distance the road may run in the said 
 counties respectively. 
 
 Your memorialists further represent, that the distance, in a di- 
 rect line from St. Louis to the western line of the State, is about 
 equal to forty townships, according to the United States' surveys, 
 or two hundred and forty miles ; and that the variation from a 
 direct line, in order to make the most advantageous location of 
 the road, might increase that distance from twenty to fifty miles. 
 That, supposing said road to be two hundred and sixty miles in 
 length, the cost to the company of its complete construction and 
 equipment, estimating such cost at twenty thousand dollars per 
 mile, would be about five millions two hundred thousand dollars. 
 That the grant of the equivalent of alternate sections on both 
 sides of said road, along the entire route, would call, in the aggre- 
 gate, for about three hundred and thirty-two thousand and eight hun- 
 dred acres (332,800) of land, which could not be sold, at the pre- 
 sent time, probably, for fifty cents an acre. Nevertheless, 
 your memorialists believe such a grant would be of great service 
 to this company, in the construction of their Railroad, and that 
 it may become absolutely necessary, in order to secure the com- 
 pletion of the road to the western line of the State. 
 
 Your memorialists further show, that although five hundred 
 thousand acres of the public lands have been granted by the 
 United States to the State of Missouri for purposes of internal 
 improvement, yet none have ever been granted to any company or 
 companies in this State, having such objects in view, nor for any 
 purpose whatever, within the knowledge of your memorialists. 
 In our sister States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Alabama, Michigan, 
 Iowa, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Florida, 
 large grants of public lands have heretofore been made by the 
 United States to individuals and companies, as will be seen by- 
 reference to the reports from the General Land Office, and furnish 
 ample precedents for a liberal exercise of a similar policy, in refer- 
 
40 
 
 ence to the State of Missouri, and especially toward the Pacific 
 Railroad Company, in whose behalf the present application is 
 made. 
 
 Your memorialists respectfully pray for a grant of the right of way 
 through the public lands in the State of Missouri, for the purpose 
 of constructing said Railroad, with the right also, to take and use 
 the necessary materials of earth, rock, timber and water, for the 
 construction and operation thereof, and also a donation to said 
 Railroad Company, equivalent to alternate sections of the public 
 lands in a space of two miles in width on both sides of the said 
 Railroad, for the entire length thereof, and fox such other and fur- 
 ther aid in the premises, as to your honorable bodies may seem meet 
 and expedient. 
 
 And your memorialists will ever pray, &c. 
 
 J. O'FALLON, President. 
 THOMAS ALLEN, Secretary. 
 D. D. PAGE, Treasurer. 
 A. L. MILLS, 
 ADOLPHUS MEIER, 
 J. B. BRANT, 
 JOHN B. SARPY, 
 JAMES H. LUCAS, 
 EDWARD WALSH, 
 JAMES E. YEATMAN, 
 WAYMAN CROW, 
 GEORGE COLLIER. 
 St. Louis, Mo., February 9, 185Q. 
 
AN ACT 
 TO INCORPORATE THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 
 
 Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri, 
 as follows ' 
 
 Section 1. A company is hereby incorporated, called the Pa- 
 cific Railroad, the capital stock of which shall he ten millions of 
 dollars, to be divided into shares of one hundred dollars each. 
 The holders of which, their successors and assigns, shall constitute 
 a body corporate and politic, and by the name aforesaid shall have 
 continued succession, may sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, 
 defend and be defended against, and may make and use a common 
 seal, and shall be able, in law and equity to make contracts; may 
 take, hold, use, possess, and enjoy the fee simple or other title in 
 and to any real estate, and may sell and dispose of the same ; may 
 make by-laws, rules and regulations proper for carrying into effect 
 the provisions of this act, not repugnant to the constitution or laws 
 of the United States, or of this State, and shall have the usual and 
 necessary powers of companies for such purposes. 
 
 Sec. 2. John O'Failon, Louis V. Bogy, James H. Lucas, Edward 
 Walsh, George Collier, Thomas B. Hudson, Daniel D. Page, Henry 
 M. Shreve, James E. Yeatman, John B. Sarpy, Wayman Crow, 
 Joshua B. Brant, Thomas Allen, Robert Campbell, Pierre Chou- 
 teau, jr., Henry Shaw, Bernard Pratte, Ernst Angelrodt, Adolphus 
 Meier, Louis A. Benoist, and Adam L. Mills, or any nine of 
 them, shall constitute the first Board of Directors under this act, 
 and shall hold their offices until their successors shall be qualified ; 
 they shall meet at such time and place as shall be designated by 
 any three of them, and organize as a Board of Directors, and when 
 organized they shall cause books to be opened for the subscription 
 of the capital stock of said company, at such times and places as 
 they may designate under the supervision of such persons as they 
 may appoint, and may continue them open so long as they may 
 
42 
 
 deem proper, and may re-open such books, when necessary, until the 
 whole stock shall be subscribed. 
 
 Sec 3. So soon as two thousand shares shall be subscribed, the 
 Directors shall cause an election to be held for nine Directors, at 
 such time and place as they may appoint, and give notice of it in 
 two or more public newspapers. 
 
 Sec 4. An election for nine Directors shall be held on the last 
 Monday in March, in each year, and if not held on that day an 
 election may be held at any other time that the Directors shall de- 
 signate ; the election shall be held under the supervision of one or 
 more stockholders, and the persons receiving the highest number of 
 votes shall be elected, and shall continue in office till their succes- 
 ors be qualified. Every stockholder shall be entitled to one vote for 
 each share held by him, and he may vote by proxy ; soon after their 
 election the Directors shall meet and elect one of their number Pres- 
 ident, who shall hold his office for the term for which he was elected 
 Director, and until his successor shall be qualified. 
 
 Sec 5. The Directors shall appoint agents, clerks, engineers, su- 
 perintendents, and other officers and servants for said company ; 
 shall keep a journal of their proceedings ; shall cause correct books 
 and accounts to be kept; they may determine by by-laws what num- 
 ber of Directors shall constitute a quorum, and may appoint com- 
 mittees and fill all vacancies in any office under said company ; they 
 shall fix the salaries of the President, and the officers and agents; 
 but no Director shall receive any compensation for his services as 
 such. They may take security from their officers and agents, and 
 may adopt such measures and do such acts as will be best calculated 
 to promote the prosperity and usefulness of said company. 
 
 Sec 6. The Directors shall make and advertise calls for the pay- 
 ment of the capital stock, at such times and in such manner as they 
 may deem proper, and if any stockholder shall fail to pay any such 
 requisition within ten days after the time appointed, the said com- 
 pany may recover the same with interest, and if not collected may 
 declare the stock forfeited and sell the same ; and no delinquent stock- 
 holder shall vote in said company. 
 
 Sec 7. Said company shall have full power to survey, mark, lo- 
 cate and construct a Railroad from the city of St. Louis to the city 
 of Jefferson, and thence to some point on the western line of Van 
 
43 
 
 Buren county, in this State, with a view that the same may be here- 
 after continued westward!}' to the Pacific Ocean ; and for that pur- 
 pose may hold a strip of land not exceeding one hundred feet wide, 
 and may also hold sufficient land for the construction of depots, 
 warehouses, and water-stations; and may select such route as may- 
 be deemed most advantageous, and may extend branch railroads to 
 any point in any of the counties in which said road may be located. 
 
 Sec. 8. Said company may take voluntary relinquishments of 
 the right of way for said road, and the necessary depots and wa- 
 ter stations; and if the land through which such road shall pass, 
 shall belong to minors, in whole or in part, the guardian or cura- 
 tor of such minor shall have power to convey to said company 
 so much of the land as may be necessary for the purpose aforesaid, 
 on fair and equitable terms; but every such conveyance by a guar- 
 dian shall be subject to the approval or rejection of the probate 
 or county court in which such guardianship is pending. 
 
 Sec 9. If any owner of any tract of land through which said 
 railroad shall pass, shall refuse to relinquish the right of way for 
 said road to said company, or if the owners be infants, or persons 
 of unsound mind, or non-residents of the State, the facts of the 
 case shall be specifically stated to the judge of the circuit court 
 of the county in which such lands are situated, and said judge 
 shall appoint three disinterested citizens of the county to view 
 said lands, who shall take into consideration the value of the land 
 and the advantages and disadvantages of the road to the same, 
 and shall report under oath what damages will be done to said 
 land, or any improvement thereon, stating the amount of the dam- 
 ages assessed, and shall return a plat of the land thus condemned. 
 Notice of such application to a judge shall be given to the owner 
 of such land five days before the making of the application, if 
 such owner reside in this State, or to his guardian; and if such 
 owner be a non-resident of this State, he may be served with 
 actual notice, or by an advertisement for four weeks in some pub- 
 lic newspaper. 
 
 Sec 10. The persons appointed to view and value such land, 
 shall file this report and plat in the office of the clerk of the cir- 
 cuit court of the county in which the land, or a part thereof, is sit- 
 uated; and if no valid objections be made to said report, the court 
 
44 
 
 shall enter judgment in favor of such owner, against such compa- 
 ny, for the amount of damages assessed, and shall make an order 
 vesting in said company the fee simple title of the land in such 
 plat and report described. Objections to such report must be filed 
 within ten days after the same shall be filed which objections 
 shall be examined by said judge, in term time or vacation, and he 
 may hear testimony, and by judgment confirm said report, or may 
 set the same aside and appoint three other viewers, who shall pro- 
 ceed in the same manner, and make their report, until a report 
 shall be confirmed. In all such cases, the court shall adjudge the 
 costs of the proceedings according to equity, and the said court 
 shall have power to make such orders and take such other steps 
 as will promote the ends of justice between the owners of such 
 lands and said company. 
 
 Sec. 11. Said company may build said road along or across any 
 State or county road, or the streets or wharves of any town or city, 
 and over any stream or highway; but whenever said railroad shall 
 cross any State or county road, said company shall keep good and 
 sufficient causeways or other adequate facilities for crossing the 
 same ; and said railroad shall not be so constructed as to prevent the 
 public from using any road, street or highway along or across which 
 it may pass j and when said railroad shall be built across any naviga- 
 ble stream, said company shall erect a bridge sufficiently high on 
 which to cross, or shall construct a draw-bridge, so that in no case 
 shall the free navigation of such stream be obstructed. When any 
 persons shall own lands on both sides of said road, said company 
 shall, when required so to do, make and keep in good repair one 
 causeway or other adequate means of crossing the same. 
 
 Sec. 12. Said Company shall commence the construction of said 
 road within seven years, and shall complete the same within ten 
 years thereafter; and said company shall have general power to use, 
 manage, control, and enjoy said railroad ; shall determine what kind 
 of carriage shall be used thereon, and by whom and in what manner, 
 and shall determine the terms, conditions, and manner in which mer- 
 chandise, property and passengers shall be transported thereon ; and 
 shall have power to construct and keep such turnouts, gates and 
 bridges, culverts, toll-houses, depots, warehouses, causeways and 
 other buildings, machinery and fixtures as may be necessary ; said 
 
45 
 
 company may receive such tolls and freights as may be deter- 
 mined on by the directors, and shall keep posted up statements of 
 the rates of toll and freight to be charged. 
 
 Sec. 13. Dividends of the profits of said company shall be made 
 annually, or oftener if necessary ; but the directors may reserve or 
 set apart a portion of the profits as a contingent fund to meet expen- 
 ditures and losses. 
 
 Sec 14. It shall be lawful for the county court of any county 
 in which any part of the route of said railroad may be, to subscribe 
 to the stock of said company, and it may invest its funds in the stock 
 of said company and issue the bonds of such county to raise funds to 
 pay the stock thus subscribed, and to take proper steps to protect the 
 interests and credit of the county; such county court may appoint 
 an agent to represent the county, vote for it and receive its dividends; 
 any incorporated city, town, or incorporated company, may subscribe 
 to the stock of said railroad company, and appoint an agent to repre- 
 sent its interests, give its vote, and receive its dividends, and may 
 take proper steps to guard and protect the interests of such city, 
 town or corporation. 
 
 Sec 15. At every annual meeting of said company, the directors 
 shall make to the stockholders an exhibit of the affairs and condi- 
 tion of the company. One-seventh part in interest of all the stock- 
 holders may call a meeting, by giving four weeks' notice in two pub- 
 lic newspapers. 
 
 Sec 16. When said road shall be completed, the company shall 
 file a plat thereof in the office of the Secretary of State, and the 
 Legislature may at any time require a statement from the company 
 as to the progress of the work, the amount of business, and the re- 
 ceipts of the company ; and the books and accounts of said company 
 may, at any time, be investigated by a committee appointed by the 
 General Assembly. 
 
 Sec 17. Said company shall keep a fair record of the whole ex- 
 pense of constructing said road, and at the end of fifty years the 
 State shall be at liberty to purchase, said road, by paying to said com 
 pany the amount at which it shall be valued, by persons to be mutuall y 
 chosen by the State and by said company; but two years' notice shall 
 be given to said company of the intention of the State to purchase 
 the railroad. 
 
46 
 
 Sec. 18. When any person shall cease to be a stockholder, he 
 shall cease to be a member of said company. 
 
 Sec. 19. If any person shall wilfully injure, obstruct or destroy 
 said railroad, or shall break, destroy, or deface any work, edifice, or 
 other fixture or improvement belonging to said company, he shall be 
 considered guilty of a criminal offence, and shall be punished in 
 such manner as shall be prescribed by law, and shall also be liable 
 to said company for all damages by it sustained. 
 
 Sec 20. The operations of said company shall be confined to 
 the general business of locating, constructing, managing and using 
 said railroad, and the acts necessary or proper to carry the same into 
 complete and successful operation. 
 
 This act shall take effect from its passage. 
 
 Approved March 12th, 1849. 
 

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