HE 
 2763 
 
 1855 
 
PACIFIC RAILROAD 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 Seocr^ 
 
 N. JAS. A. M'DOUGALL, OF CAL, 
 
 DELIVERED 
 
 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JANUARY 16, 1855. 
 
 The House being; in the Committee of the Whole 
 m the state of the Union, and Mr. BENTON having 
 Concluded his remarks 
 
 Mr. McDOUGALL said: 
 
 Mr. CHAIRMAN: I entertain for the venerable 
 jentleman from Missouri great respect great 
 espect as a feature in our history; but as a mem 
 )er of this body, upon this floor, acting, and seek- 
 ngto influence action on a great public question, 
 
 cannot regard him as entitled to any greater or 
 ligher deference or consideration than any one of 
 he honorable gentlemen before me, and I shall, 
 herefore, undertake to discuss freely the gentle- 
 nan's present position, and to exhibit fully his 
 rue relation to the subject now under considera- 
 ion. 
 
 The gentleman from Missouri commences his 
 'iscourse by informing this committee that he 
 ias, for a long time, earnestly desired to withdraw 
 his subject from this forum a forum disturbed 
 .nd agitated by political controversies, and by 
 ersonal and local considerations. 
 
 1 would like to inquire of the gentleman from 
 lissouri what, in his opinion, constitutes a long 
 eriod of time. I hold in my hand a letter written 
 y thatgentleman, or at least his name is appended 
 3 it, dated March 4, 1853. Is the time since then 
 long period, in the estimation of the gentleman 
 f thirty years' experience in senatorial legisla- 
 ;on? This letter is in the form of an address to 
 is constituents, on the subject of a railway to 
 ie Pacific. I will read a few extracts from this 
 ;tter: 
 
 " I hold that it should be made by the United States, so 
 .r as their territory extends, (which would he almost the 
 hole distance on the central route,) leaving the two ends 
 here it would go through States to the operation of State 
 ws and Stale authority." * * * "My idea is, that' the 
 >ad should be built by the United States, by the creation 
 f a stock hypothecated upon the public lands, and paya- 
 e, at a fixed period, at the Federal Treasury, and that an 
 [equate force should be put upon it to do the work at 
 
 This much, sir, is all I have to say as to the 
 ng desire of the gentleman to withdraw this sub- 
 ct from the forum of the Federal Congress. 
 
 I have noticed the opening of the gentleman's 
 discourse addressed to the committee. I will now 
 refer to his conclusion. As in the discourse itself 
 there is nothing consecutive, I see no occasion to 
 treat it consecutively. 
 
 The gentleman says that the northern road pro- 
 posed by this bill is a British road, a Canada 
 road, a hyperborean road, an impracticable road; 
 that it has been projected for entirely speculative 
 purposes; and that this British, hyperborean, im- 
 practicable speculation is the offspring of the 
 present Administration. The gentleman is mis- 
 taken. I will inform this committee that the 
 present Administration is in no respects charge- 
 able with the paternity of this monster offspring. 
 Its paternity is chargeable upon no other person 
 than the gentleman from Missouri now before me. 
 The gentleman from Missouri, as long ago aa 
 1845, in the first proposition made by him for a 
 railroad to the Pacific, suggested that it should be 
 run from the great falls of the Missouri to the 
 Columbia river the same line recently surveyed 
 by Governor Stevens. The exact line of what haa 
 now become a British and hyperborean route. 
 
 Mr. BENTON. That was before the acquisi- 
 tion of California. 
 
 Mr. McDOUGALL. Yes, it was ; but it was 
 as much a British road then as it is now; as much 
 hyperborean, and as impracticable. The gentle- 
 man then described it as an excellent route, as a 
 practicable and convenient route, although we had 
 then but few of our people on the shores of the 
 Pacific. He suggested a railroad by this route, 
 as a means whereby we could command the rich 
 commerce of the Orient; and indulging in a strain 
 of oriental eloquence, he gorgeously portrayed, aa 
 'ts results, a line of cities along the banks of the 
 jreat father of waters, rivaling, in their wealth and 
 splendor, Palmyra of the desert, Tyre, and Car- 
 thage, and Venice. 
 
 I say, then, sir, this projected road is no off- 
 pring of this Administration. If for its paternity 
 either honor or execration is due, the debt is pay- 
 able to the honorable gentleman himself. 
 
 And now as to the southern route. This, the 
 
 c. 
 
gentleman insists, is another offspring of the Ad- 
 ministration; and here, too, the gentleman is mis- 
 taken. Let me state the facts: During the late 
 war with Mexico it became necessary to send 
 a body of troops to New Mexico. This com- | 
 mand, under General Kearny, consisted in part ; 
 of mounted men, and in part of infantry, with a \ 
 large baggage train. They set out from Fort! 
 Leaven worth, on the frontier of Missouri, enroute I 
 for the city of San Francisco. They took the 
 
 miles of road, would furnish the territory for many 
 States. But he not only proposed tp set apart and 
 appropriate the hundred solid miles of land, but 
 also to appropriate to ihe scheme all the revenues 
 of the Federal Government collected in the Ter- 
 ritories of California and Oregon. 
 
 The gentleman's next bill provided for the ap- 
 propriation of seventy-five per centum of the pro- 
 ceeds of all the public lands lying west of the 
 Mississippi, and fifty per cent, of the proceeds of 
 
 route through New Mexico as the most practice- the balance of thfi public Unds, in aid of this great 
 ble. At Santa Fc they endeavored to find guides , | j work. It seems to ms that the gentleman from 
 and to ascertain the best route across into Cal- jj Missouri cannot very reasonably assume now, 
 ifornia, and with this object remained in New j | that there is anything vicious in this measure, be- 
 Mexico for some time. After full inquiry, General i I cause it proposes to dispose of what i, com para- 
 Kearny undertook as an experiment to take the ij lively, but a small part of the public domain, for 
 mounted troops down the Gila; he succeeded in j the^ame purpose, 
 following the Gila, but encountered serious ob- 
 
 stacles, even to the passage of his mules and 
 
 But, sir, it may be supposed by some, that 
 
 r ^ while the gentleman from Missouri was in favor 
 
 horses. Leroux undertook to guide Lieutenant I of a direct appropriation of the public domain, or 
 Colonel Cooke with the Mormon battalion and [ its proceeds; while he was in favor of a direct 
 the wagon train, by a wagon road into California, construction of the road by the Government, with 
 To find this wagon road Colonel Cooke, with his ! the property and money of the Government, yet 
 command, was forced south through what was j that he was consistently opposed to the policy of 
 then a part of Mexico; and over the same line of I granting alternate sections of the public lands, 
 road, the survey of which is now denounced as a 1 1 upon special grounds. I ask the attention of the 
 
 fraudulent speculation on the part of certain offi- 
 v x:ers of the Army and the Administration 
 \ [ I know that, until very recently, it has been gen 
 
 I committee, and of the gentleman from Missouri, 
 while I state that in the debate on the bill to grant 
 lands to the State of Illinois, to aid in the construc- 
 
 erally supposed at the West, that this line was the i tion of the Illinois Central railroad, the gentle- 
 only practicable southern line to the Pacific, and ! man from Missouri boasted that he was one of 
 that, perhaps, the only route for a railroad into I the fathers of this very policy. On that occasion, 
 California, was south of the Gila/ Since the open- he congratulated himself that he had been long 
 of the road ("by Colonel' Cooke, the entire emi- | enough in the Senate to have voted for the original 
 
 gration from the south and southwest have passed 
 over this road; they have passed it in summer and 
 winter; the features and facilities of the country 
 have become well understood, and now for some 
 years it has been known to present no serious 
 physical obstacles to the construction of a railroad. 
 Therefore, when it was proposed to inquire into 
 the practicability of a railroad to the Pacific, it 
 became important for the Government to inquire 
 into, and examine, the southern route, and it also 
 became an important measure assuming that 
 
 a rant to Illinois, for the purpose of aiding the 
 construction of a canal from lake Michigan to the 
 Illinois river. He stated that, without that aid, 
 the work would hardly have been undertaken, 
 much less accomplished. He pointed out the pro- 
 digious results of that grant, and stated that, if no 
 other advantageous results had followed the grant, 
 that the vast facilities afforded to our internal nav- 
 igation well compensated us for parting with some 
 acres, over which this Government then wielded a 
 barren scepter. On the same occasion, the gentle- 
 
 there was no other practicable route to acquire il man stated that he had voted to give nearly half a 
 that country from Mexico. v \ | million of acres to the State of Alabama, to aid in 
 
 Now, Mr. Chairman, the gentleman from Mis- j J the construction of a canal around thr " 
 uri has great objections to the policy of appro- iShoals; and that, although the work had 
 
 souri has great oojections 
 
 priating the public lands in aid of railroad enter- 
 prises. His language amounts to a denunciation 
 of the policy in the most unmeasured terms. It 
 would 'seem somewhat strange, however, to the 
 committee if I should state to them, and should 
 prove to them, that the gentleman has always 
 heretofore been in favor of the most extravagant 
 appropriations of lands for such purposes; that 
 no other man in the Union, in or out of Congress, 
 has made a record of propositions of this kind, 
 that will at all compare, in point of extravagance, 
 with those made by the gentleman from Missouri. 
 The gentleman introduced into the Senate two dif- 
 
 the Muscle 
 not been 
 
 executed, he did not consider the appropriation 
 lost; that there had been great advantages gained 
 by the conveyance of the land out of the dead 
 hands of the Government into the hands of indi- 
 vidual citizens, who would cultivate it, and render 
 it subservient to the wealth and prosperity of the 
 country. That he did not consider any of these 
 grants unprofitable; but that, in his opinion, a 
 great public object was gained by the transfer of 
 the public lands from those by whom they were 
 not cultivated to those by whom they were made 
 productive. 
 
 The gentleman stated that he should vote for 
 
 ferent bills for the construction of a railroad to the j ! the pending railroad grunt with great pleasure, and 
 Pacific. His first bill proposed to appropriate one [ that he hoped from it similar beneficial ^results to 
 
 hundred solid miles of land along the whole line 
 through to the Pacific. Not alternate sections, 
 mind, but one hundred miles in a continuous tract. 
 The gentleman talks about the grant proposed by 
 this Sill as containing mere land than would be 
 
 those effected by the grantin favor of the Illinois 
 and Michigan canal. Thegentleman, then, is not 
 opposed to the appropriation of the public domain 
 for purposes such as are aimed at by this bill, 
 neither is he opposed to the policy of granting 
 
 required for a State. Iriis proposal to appropriate ;i alternate sections to States or individual citiz 
 one hundred miles in breadth, along two thousand [j in aid of enterprises such as the one no w proposed 
 
3 
 
 !-. ehas been the acknowledged advocate, cham- || The gentleman talks about thepromises ofthesolid 
 p on, and father of this policy. 1 ask, sir, how, i men of Boston, and solid men elsewhere. Now, if 
 
 why, has the gentleman just now, at this mo- ij promises were money; if promises were grading, 
 rr ent, changed his position and his front upon this I superstructure, or a road, they might amount to 
 u hole question ? | something. But! am a little surprised that this gen- 
 There is another singular and significant feature i tleman should make promises the premises for so 
 
 ii the history of the gentleman's relations to the I vast a conclusion. 1 have always understood the 
 Picific railroad. As early as 1845 he advocated !| gentleman had a special aversion to promises; I 
 t! e construction of a railroad to the Pacific, but ! | have even understood that he would nottakea bank 
 h '. then proposed no action. |i note for a dollar; and I never supposed that after 
 
 In 1849 he introduced his first bill, one of the I having, from his wantof faith in promises, won the 
 b 11s to which I have already alluded. Upon the I sobriquetof Old Bullion, he would promise to build 
 
 1 troduction of this bill, he delivered one of his Ii a railroad to^the Pacific on promises. He has 
 o iental discourses, a discourse perfect in its rhet- j.j promises of ttie solid men of theEast promises to 
 c ic, gorgeous in its descriptions, and overflowing i do what ? To build a road to the Pacifier By no 
 ^ ith historical illustrations. I have read the h means. They may have informed him that, if the 
 >eech, read it several times, not with curiosity ji country was as beautiful, and as practicable, and 
 
 i erely, but with delight, at the glowing, gorgeous 
 I cture he presented. From sui h a speech, one 
 1 ould ordinarily look for some result, or at least 
 .< >me action; and it seemed strange to me that, 
 i oon an examination of the record, I could not 
 ; id that the gentleman had ever called up the bill 
 ] i had introduced. It seemed strange to me that, 
 ; ter exhausting so much labor and so much elo- 
 aence upon his measure, he should not have 
 jked a vote upon it; but permitted it to lie dead 
 pon the table of the Senate. 
 In 1850 the gentleman from Missouri intro- 
 aced his second Pacific railroad bill. He intro- 
 uced his bill, made another of his oriental 
 Deeches, sent his speech to the country, and 
 jain let. the bill lie dead without moving towards 
 s resurrection. On the 4th of March, 1853, he 
 ;nt his address to the people of Missouri, extracts 
 om which I have read to you. It is now near 
 le 4th of March, 1855. One session of Con- 
 ress has expired, and another has nearly passed, 
 nd no one here has heard of any corresponding 
 reposition from the gentleman from Missouri. 
 Instead of finding him, in his official position, 
 rging upon Congress any one of the measures 
 e has proposed, we find him, within the last 
 lonth or two, making pilgrimages and speeches 
 i the North and East, and in Ins speeches repu- 
 iating the idea of Government aid in the con- 
 truction of the road to the Pacific. The gentle- 
 lan has made speeches in the North and East, as 
 e has made speeches in Washington. I would 
 ke to ask of the gentleman, does he expect 
 peeches to build the road ? But he says he has 
 wenty of the solid men of Boston at his back; 
 hat he can build it by private enterprise alone; 
 nat he has raised millions has it, has it in his 
 ocket; has the railroad in his pocket a ponder- 
 us burden for one man to carry, but it seems not 
 ven to stoop his back. He will build the railroad 
 .imsdf, alone he will do it; another Hercules, 
 ipon his own broad shoulders he will bear the 
 nighty burden. He will have no aid from the 
 federal Government; all he asks is to be let alone, 
 o be jillowed to pass over the public domein, 
 vithout being sued as a trespasser. It is a matter 
 if sincere and earnest regret with me that I 
 annot think his capacity at all equal to his 
 ublime ambition. 
 
 But, Mr. Chairman, what I most apprehend, 
 vhat I most fear, is, that the genileman is still 
 nerely talking about a railroad to the Pacific; that 
 ie has never heretofore, and that he does not now, 
 aean earnestly to act. 1 will elate my reasons: 
 
 the enterprise as productive, as he described, 
 they would favor it, and subscribe stock towards 
 its construction. Information like this has not 
 even the weight of a promise. As yet no company 
 has been organized, no route has been selected, 
 and I do not, and cannot, believe that the gentle- 
 man has any faith in suggestions or assurances so 
 vague and indefinite as those of which he speaks 
 must necessarily be. But a short time since he 
 thought the work too great for private enterprise, 
 He thought the road should be constructed, and 
 should be owned by the Government; that it 
 should be an Appian way, a highway for nations, 
 a highway as free as our rivers; and I say again, 
 and I say to the gentleman from Missouri, I have 
 no faith in his promises, and I do not believe he has 
 any faith in them. When the gentleman last ap- 
 pealed to the Federal Government, as the only pow- 
 er adequate to this great enterprise, private railroad 
 enterprises were prosperous. Now, at this mo- 
 ment, when all individual enterprises of this kind 
 are under a cloud, when every railroad capitalist, 
 and every railroad interest, is laboring under the 
 greatest embarrassment, he discovers suddenly, 
 and for the first time, that private individual capital 
 is altogether equal to the undertaking. What, sir, 
 does this changeof position and opinion mean? or 
 rather, what has caused this change in the gentle- 
 man's tactics? Why is the gentleman from Mia- 
 souri so much disposed , just at this moment, to play 
 the Hercules? Can it be that his proposition, his 
 pilgrimages, and his discourses, since the com- 
 mencement of the present session, are aimed at the 
 assembled wisdom of his State, now in council at 
 Jefferson City , rather than at overcoming the plains 
 and mountains that separate us from the Pacific? 
 
 I can conceive of no other satisfactory solution of 
 his strange and inconsistent course upon the sub- 
 ject under consideration. 
 
 On yesterday evening the gentleman from Mary- 
 land, [Mr. HAMILTON,] a gentleman of altogether 
 a different school from the gentleman from Mis- 
 souri, presented to the committee his views in 
 opposition to the pending bill. He frankly avowed 
 his opposition to all grants of land, and to all 
 Government aid, to railroads. He regarded all 
 such acts on the part of the Government as un- 
 constitutional. I shall endeavor briefly to respond 
 
 I 1 some of the points made by him;ai d I will say 
 here, that, however lightly I may regard the sub- 
 stance of his argument, I will accord to him the 
 credit of sincerity. The gentleman from Mary- 
 land sets out by assuming, that under the pro- 
 visions of this bill, a road to the Pacific must be 
 
a Government road. This assumption he first [j But if the gentleman means thus to test the con- 
 bases upon the clauses in the bill authorizing the <i stitutionality of the bill now pending, I confess it 
 
 is a test the strangest that I have met with in my 
 experience. He asserts that the constitutionality 
 of an exertion of power by this Congress, is to be 
 determined by what may be the policy or legisla- 
 tion of the Government years to come; that the 
 constitutionality of the pending bill is to bedeterm- 
 
 Secretary of War to advertise for proposals, and 
 to contract for the construction of the road. If 
 
 the Secretary of War is to advertise and contract 
 for the construction of the road, he concludes it 
 must necessarily be a Government road. He 
 does not seem to consider that the correctness of 
 his conclusion could be at all affected, by the rela- 
 
 tion of the Government to the contract, or the 
 interest the Government might have, either in its 
 breach or performance. 
 
 I will ask the gentleman : Suppose that when this 
 Congress granted to the State of Ilfinois land to 
 aid in the construction of the Illinois and Michi- 
 gan canal, there had been introduced into the grant 
 a stipulation, or condition, providing that the State 
 of Illinois should forfeit the land so granted, or its 
 equivalent, in case she should fail to construct the 
 work within a time fixed. Would such a stipu- 
 lation have made the work a Government work ? 
 Suppose again, that, instead of the State of Illinois, 
 the offer had been made to individuals, or a cor- 
 poration, and to secure fair competition, the pro- 
 posal was to be advertised, and competent parties 
 nad come in and accepted the proposal, and con- 
 tracted accordingly, will he contend that such an 
 advertisement and contract would make the work 
 a Government work? By a Government work 
 is meant Government proprietorship in a work. 
 Neither the advertisement or contract suggested 
 
 ! ined by the uses to which the road shall be put 
 I after it may have become forfeited to the Govern- 
 i ment. 
 
 Mr. HAMILTON, (interrupting.) The gentle- 
 | man misinterprets my remarks. 1 said its consti- 
 i tutionality depended upon its object. If it were 
 to be used as a necessary and proper instrument, 
 to execute an enumerated power in the Constitu- 
 tion, then it would be constitutional, otherwise 
 not. 
 
 Mr. McDOUGALL. The gentleman said, if, 
 in case of forfeiture, it was to be used for Gov- 
 ernment purposes, he could see no objection to 
 the bill; but if it was to be used for private pur- 
 poses it was altogether unconstitutional. Now, 
 sir, the object contemplated in case of the forfeiture 
 of this road, is no object at all. No such thing 
 as a forfeiture is contemplated. Forfeiture is not 
 an object of this bill, neither is any contingency 
 dependent upon such forfeiture an object in the 
 legislation now proposed. If, by accident or 
 otherwise, the road, or any portion of it, should 
 be forfeited to the Government, it will be for the 
 
 involves any idea of proprietorship on the part of j gentleman from Maryland himself, if then a mem- 
 
 the Government; it would devolve upon the Gov- 
 ernment neither the construction, ownership, or 
 control of the work. 
 
 So far as this bill is concerned, it is a sufficient 
 answer to all such points to show that this bill 
 involves only the exercise of certain specific pow- 
 ers by Congress: 
 
 First The power to grant lands, by alternate 
 sections, in aid of a railroad enterprise. 
 
 Second The power to contract for transporta- 
 tion for Government purposes. 
 
 Third The power to stipulate with the grantees 
 and contracting parties, that they will construct a 
 road in a certain time, and in a certain manner, 
 under the penalty of forfeiture of the property 
 and rights secured to them by the bill, and also 
 the further forfeiture of such further security as 
 they agree to give, as an assurance that they 
 will undertake and complete the work in good 
 faith; or, in other words, the power to stipulate 
 for security sufficient to protect the Government 
 
 ber of this body, and such others as may then 
 have the control of Federal legislation, to say what 
 constitutional use or disposition shall be made of 
 the forfeiture. 
 
 But the gentleman from Maryland insists fur- 
 ther, that the bill is unconstitutional because it 
 provides for a grant of lands. Now, I wish to 
 ask the gentleman and I want his answer does 
 he think the Government possesses the power to 
 grant a right of way, of a mile in width, through 
 the public lands ? 
 
 Mr. HAMILTON. I think the Government 
 has the right to grant the right of way ; but a grant 
 of lands is another thing. 
 
 Mr. McDOUGALL. Government, then, has the 
 power to grant the right of way for a mile, but uo 
 power to grant lands for one mile or ten miles. 
 
 Upon what clause in the Constitution does the 
 g e ntleman found his distinction? Where does he 
 find the power to grant the right of way overland, 
 or, in other words, the power to grant the use of 
 
 and its property from the schemes of irrespon- ! land, without the power to convey the title ? There 
 
 sible speculators. 
 
 Now, sir, I do not understand the power to con- 
 tract for transportation to bequestioned. I do not 
 understand the power to stipulate conditions of 
 forfeiture to be questioned; but as a portion of the 
 road may be forfeited to the Government, the gen- 
 tleman from Maryland thinks that the portion so 
 forfeited would become a Government road, and, 
 therefore, an unconstitutional road. He does not 
 insist that it will be necessarily an unconstitutional I 
 road; for if, after forfeiture, it should be run and ' 
 used for Government and public purposes alone, 
 then it would be a constitutional road; but if, after 
 forfeiture, it should be run and used for private and 
 commercial purposes, then it would be an uncon- 
 stitutional road. 1 have heard of unconstitutional 
 laws, but never of unconstitutional roads before. 
 
 is no distinction of this kind. The power either 
 exists, or it does not exist in the Federal Govern- 
 ment. If it exists to the smallest extent, it exists 
 because there is full power over the subject. Now, 
 sir, under what clause does the gentleman find the 
 power to grant the right of way ? I suppose it is 
 under what he calls the eighth section, the power 
 to provide for the common defense and general 
 welfare; he would not undertake to locale it more 
 definitely. But, sir, we appeal to no doubtful or 
 questionable provision of the Constitution, wher 
 we claim that Congress possesses the power to 
 grant the public lands; we do not appeal to the 
 eighth section, nor to the military power, nor to 
 the naval power, nor to the power to make post 
 roads, but we find the power and right given in 
 the express letter of the Constitution: 
 
"Congress shall have power to dispose of, and make all ' Government works; and we all know that, in all 
 needful rules and regulations respecting, the Territory or j business of this kind, she is both slow and waste- 
 other property belonging to the United States." fuh j wigh the r(md tQ b& & thing of thg present 
 
 What power more perfect than this could have generation; and for this, if for no other reason, 
 been given over the public domain? The term to I prefer that it shall be a matter of individual 
 dispose, is one known to the law, and the power to I enterprise, to which the Government contributes 
 
 dispose conveys the unlimited right of disposition. 
 The legal and the popular signification of the 
 term is the same, and it is by construction or inter- 
 polation alone that it can be limited. The gentle- 
 man says that to dispose means to sell. Sell for 
 
 nothing without an equivalent consideration, and 
 with which the Government has nothing more to 
 do than, by the force of its great arm, to give it 
 life and motion. 
 The amount of the lands granted is another ob- 
 
 what? Sell for one dollar and twenty-five cents jjection of the gentleman. He says it will amount 
 per acre? Why not for five dollars, or for five 
 
 cents? or rather, why not carry out the idea, and 
 
 to a grant of twenty-seven million of acres. The 
 gentleman's estimate is an exaggerated one; but let 
 
 make the proposition complete, and say that the me remind the committee that a thousand miles of 
 only constitutional way to dispose of the public I j this road lies in the remote country of the inte- 
 domain is to sell it, as at sheriff's sale, to the high- 1! rior,and passes over rugged mountains and exten- 
 est bidder, for cash in hand? But the suggestion H sive deserts. Nearly all the lands proposed to be 
 
 is, that Congress is a mere trustee of the public j: granted, except those in the State "of California, 
 
 t. I | j are at present almost inaccessible and totally val- 
 
 domain, with certain limitations on its trust. 
 
 would like to see the limitation in the Constitution, 
 and then I would like to know what supervising 
 court of equity Congress should appeal to, so as 
 to be able prudently to manage the estate for the 
 ad vantage of the beneficiaries. 
 
 The fact is, sir, the gentleman from Maryland, 
 instead of standing by the Constitution, is a most 
 extravagant latitudinarian. He is more of a lati- 
 tudinarian than any one ever accused Mr. Web- 
 ster of being. Mr. Webster only claimed the 
 right to expound the Constitution. The gentle- 
 man from Maryland undertakes to interpolate 
 
 ueless. This bill proposes to open that vast and 
 1 now inaccessible country to run through it a 
 I road, which, like a great river, will give to it 
 
 communication, commerce, and wealth a road 
 ! which will not only make the territory immedi- 
 j ately along its line valuable, but which will open 
 i up to settlement and civilization territory equal to 
 j a dozen States. If the lands granted, now value- 
 l less, are made valuable, the lands, 'also, of the 
 
 Government are made valuable. The lands of the 
 i Government will derive from this communication 
 
 all their value. If, under the provisions of this 
 
 into the Constitution. The power given by the ! bill, the road is constructed, the Government must 
 
 Constitution is too large, therefore he takes the 
 
 liberty of interpolating a proviso. He finds the 
 
 power given to dispose; he interpolates so as to 
 
 make it read, the power to dispose of by sale, at 
 
 $1 25 per acre. I think, as I said before, that, to 
 
 make his idea perfect, he should interpolate so that 
 
 it should read, the power to dispose of by sale at 
 
 public auction to the highest bidder for cash in 
 
 hand. 
 
 Mr. HAMILTON. The gentleman misunder- 
 stands me. 1 do not question the right of the 
 Congress of the United States to dispose of the 
 public domain, but the object for which it is to be 
 disposed of. If the object is constitutional, then 
 there is no question as to the right. 
 
 Mr. McDOUGALL. 1 did not so understand 
 the gentleman. I understand him now to admit 
 that the power exists generally, but that it may 
 be qualified by the object for which the power is 
 
 exercised. Now, sir, power is one thing, and the 
 object of its exercise is another. If it is admitted 
 that the power exists, there will have to be a new 
 school of constitutional law established before it 
 
 necessarily derive immense pecuniary advantages. 
 
 There is no danger, under the provisions of this 
 bill, of establishing a vast landed monopoly; the 
 bill is properly guarded, and the grantees must 
 sell within a specified time, or forfeit the remain- 
 ing lands to the Government. 
 
 The gentleman from Maryland is alarmed at 
 the idea of organizing a vast and overshadowing 
 monopoly; an interest which will hereafter come 
 into these Halls and demand legislation upon its 
 own terms; an interest which will control States 
 and influence the nation; an interest more power- 
 ful than the old Bank of the United States, and 
 more dangerous. 
 
 The cost of this road would be about seventy- 
 five miilions. There is now six hundred million 
 of railroad capital in the United States, and I have 
 never heard that this capital in any way threatened 
 our political institutions. Several States have 
 splendid systems of internal improvements; I 
 never understood that they were regarded as mis- 
 chievous. Illinois has now roads equal to a line 
 from Missouri to California, and I take it she is 
 
 can be maintained that the exercise of that power jj not worse off now than she was ten years ago 
 can be constitutionally qualified by the object pro- without them. I take it that neither Indiana, or 
 P ose d. i| Ohio, or Pennsylvania, or New York, or Massa- 
 
 But the burden of the gentleman's objection is, |i chusetts apprehend political disorganization from 
 that this bill proposes the construction of a Gov- 1| their great railroad enterprises. I take it Mary- 
 land is in no danger from her expensive works and 
 large railroad companies; and to this whole coun- 
 try, the megnitude of a Pacific railroad is trifling 
 compared to what the enterprises of Maryland 
 are to that State. This apprehension is a mere 
 | creature of the gentleman's imagination. There 
 are, perhaps, a thousand owners of the Baltimore 
 
 ernment road. I have said enough upon this 
 point, but I must say I have been surprised by 
 this objection. It was the most distinct purpose 
 of the iramers of this bill that it should not be a 
 Government work. Apart from all questions of a 
 political character, they knew that it would take 
 the Government twice as long, and would cost the 
 
 Government twice as much, to build the road as jj and Ohio railroad, and they are all looking eagerly 
 if it was undertaken and managed by private and j for their cent per cent. For this road there will 
 personal interests. We all know something about |[ be a hundred thousand owners, also looking for 
 
6 
 
 their cent per cent. They may try to get good 
 mail contracts and high prices for transportation 
 from the Government; so do all other companies. 
 What beyond this the parties interested in this 
 road can have to do with the Government, 1 do not 
 understand. It will be no organization like the 
 Bank of the United States. TheGovernment has 
 neither stock nor direction in the work, cannot 
 control or affect either its profits or its losses; and 
 while the Government has no control over the 
 work, the parties interested in the work have no 
 more to do with the Government than any bank in 
 Wall street. 
 
 1 do not expect, however, that this road is to 
 be built by any one company. The people on 
 the Pacific expect to construct and own a portion 
 of it, and a large portion of it. No fears are en- 
 tertained there about the practicability of the road. 
 No one there is alarmed at its magnitude. The 
 people of the Pacific have learned to look obsta- 
 cles in the face, and have learned to conquer them. 
 
 consideration of this question, and I now repeat 
 what I took occasion to state at the opening of 
 this discussion during the last session; I am not 
 the champion of any. particular plan, or of any 
 particular route; I want a road; and if any better 
 legislation can be suggested than is provided by 
 this bill, 1 am ready to adopt it. 1 am willing to 
 go further, and the committee with which 1 am 
 associated are willing to go further: we are 
 willing to adopt another specific measure the 
 measure brought forward at tins session by the 
 committee of the Senate. 
 
 It will be remembered that about the same time 
 the special committee wasappointed by the House, 
 a special committee was also appointed by the Sen- 
 ate upon the same subject. It was my own wish, 
 and it was the wish of the House committee, to 
 secure concurrent and uniform action on the part 
 of the two committees. This was found imprac- 
 ticable during the last session. Since, however, 
 the commencement of the present session, the 
 
 The people of the State of California, within the l| Senate committee have agreed upon a measure 
 last three years, with no other capital than labor, h with which, I am authorized to say, the House 
 have made more than a hundred miles of tunnels |j committee can concur, 
 through the bowels of their mountains, with rail- \\ The Senate bill is the samein principle, and the 
 
 roads their entire length; and they have carried 
 alon? their mountain ridges more than five hun- 
 dred miles of canal. And I say here, make this 
 bill a law, lei me take it with me to the State of 
 California, and, within thirty days after my arri- 
 val at San Francisco, the people of California will 
 have organized, and provided the substantial cap- 
 ital to build an^d from the bay of San Francisco, 
 across their mountains, to the boundary of their 
 State. And let me say further and what I say is 
 no idle boast pass this bill, and, if the enterprise, 
 capital, and spirit of the East is not tqual to the 
 task of meeting the energy and enterprise of Cal- 
 ifornia on the way, the people of that State are 
 equal to building, will undertaketo build, and will 
 build and own the road themselves. 
 
 I do not, however, apprehend the happening of 
 any such contingency. The railroad capitalists 
 of the Mississippi and Atlantic States, with their 
 six hundred million of railroad interests, them- 
 selves among the most intelligent and enterprising 
 men of this or any country, although under a 
 present cloud, and suffering from a general panic, 
 will be ready for action quite as soon as, under the 
 provisions of this bill, the work can be entered 
 upon. The people of the Atlantic, and the Mis- 
 sissippi, and the Pacific, will unite in the accom- 
 plishment of this great work; and so far from their 
 union and success working mischief to the Repub- 
 lic, the beneficent results of their enterprise and 
 labor, will be both felt and recognized through- 
 out this Republic, and throughout the world for 
 ages 
 
 Mr. Chairman, it is time some action was had 
 upon this subject. The popularvoiceof the whole 
 country has called for action upon it. The neces- 
 sities of the Pacific coast demand action upon it. 
 The road is wanted for safety; it is wanted for 
 economy; it is wanted for expedition: it is wanted 
 for union; it is wanted so that this Federal Gov- 
 ernment, in its offices, and in its protecting power, 
 may exist on the shores of the Pacific. I say 
 the r ad is wanted, and I say further, that want 
 is a necessity; and I say further still, that that 
 necessity demands legislation demands legisla- 
 tion here. We have devoted time enough to the 
 
 same in its machinery, with the bill now before 
 the House. The present House bill was the basis 
 of the present Senate bill, and I will now proceed 
 briefly to point out the particular modifications. 
 
 First. The Senate bill provides for three roads 
 instead of two; one to commence on the western 
 border of Texas, and running to the navigable 
 waters of the Pacific, in the State of California. 
 One to commence on the western border either of 
 Missouri or Iowa, and running to the city of San 
 Francisco; and one to commence on the western 
 border of Wisconsin, and running to the navigable 
 waters of the Pacific, in Oregon or Washington 
 Territory. 
 
 Second. Instead of making the grant of lands 
 contained in the House bill, but twelve miles in 
 alternate sections are to be granted, so that the 
 amount of lands to be granted under the terms 
 of the Senate bill for the three roads, will not be 
 more than the amount of grant provided in the 
 House bill for two roads. 
 
 Third. The maximum fixed in the House bill 
 for transportation was #GOO per mile per annum. 
 The Senate bill provides a maximum of $>300 per 
 mile per annum for mail transportation, and for 
 all other transportation, not more than the Gov- 
 ernment now pays for the same service. Now, 
 sir, the Government is at this time paying as high 
 as $375 per mile per annum for first-class mail 
 service. The Government is at this time paying 
 for a semi-monthly mail by the Isthmus of Panama 
 more than it would cost for a daily mail under the 
 provisions of this bill. So far as military and 
 naval transportation is concerned, it is a very pal- 
 pable fact that, until we have a railroad acrosa 
 the continent to our possessions on the Pacific, the 
 cost of such transportation must every year in- 
 crease. If the cost of Government transportation 
 this year is two millions, next year it will be two 
 millions and a half. The year after, it will, per- 
 haps, be three millions. So that this provision is 
 an economical one to the Government. And now, 
 sir, let me ask, if the grant of lands is a matter of 
 economy, as well as of policy, as I have shown; 
 if the tranpportation contract is a matter of econo- 
 my, how do the very economical members of this 
 
committee justify themselves in voting against the 
 bill? 
 
 There is a further important change made by 
 the Senate f)ill. The military features of the 
 House bill have been stricken out. The gentle- 
 man from New York [Mr. PERKINS] need not be 
 further alarmed at the danger and expense of a 
 standing army to protect the road. Now, as to 
 the feature of the House bill providing military 
 protection along the line of road, I wish to state 
 that, along the great emigrant routes to the Pacific, 
 we are entitled to, we have the absolute right to, 
 protection complete, ample protection. It is the 
 absolute right of the people on the Pacific to have 
 a good and a safe route to the Atlantic sea-board, 
 and to the center of Federal power. A force suf- 
 ficient to protect those routes is all the standing 
 army required by the provisions of the bill pre- 
 sented to the House. The force that would pro- 
 tect the lines of emigration, would protect the 
 railroad lines. Every gentleman upon this floor 
 knows that there is now no sufficient protection 
 given to those lines, and I would like to understand 
 why it is that honorable gentlemen think it neces- 
 sary to insist that one hundred thousand of their 
 fellow-citizens should pass and repass every year 
 between the Atlantic and Pacific at peril of their 
 lives? I would like to understand why it is that 
 they prefer that whole companies of men, and 
 women, and children, every year should be butch- 
 ered and scalped by savages, rather than furnish 
 to them the protection guarantied by the Federal 
 Constitution. Sir, is this Government so unnatu- 
 rally overgrown, that it cannot maintain vitality 
 in all its parts, that it cannot perform the func- 
 tions of its office, that it cannot extend protection 
 to its citizens within its own Territories? If it be 
 so, I wish to be advised of the fact. I wish the 
 people of the Pacific to be advised of the fact. If 
 it be that the Federal Government cannot, or will 
 not, protect them, I wish them to be advised, so, 
 that they may make proper provisions to protect 
 themselves. But, sir, it is unnecessary for me to 
 discuss this feature of the House bill; I acquiesce 
 in the action of the committee of the Senate, and 
 abandon the provision for military protection. 1 
 want the road, protection or no protection. 
 
 1 am not disposed to question the proper dis- 
 position of this committee; but before the brief 
 time remaining tome expires, I wish here, in my 
 place, to suggest to gentlemen that this is no mere 
 question of a day. It is, and will continue to be, 
 a present question in this Hall, and throughout 
 this country, until the great work is done. Its 
 accomplishment may involve years of effort, may 
 involve years of expectancy; but there will come 
 
 years of fruition, years that, while they mark the 
 march of this Republic to an unexampled great- 
 ness, will also mark the history and destiny both 
 of the men and the parties who have now the con- 
 trol of our national legislation. 
 
 There can be no good or just cause why hon- 
 orable gentlemen should doubt or hesitate about 
 giving their support to this measure. It is a meas- 
 ure altogether constitutional. Jt is a measure of 
 economy. It is a necessary measure, necessary 
 to the Government, necessary to the people, ne- 
 cessary in the eye of the country, necessary in 
 the eye of the world. Does any gentleman hesi- 
 tate because of the magnitude of the undertaking? 
 Let me say the magnitude of the undertaking 
 bears no relation to the importance and magni- 
 tude of its results. The importance and magni- 
 tude of its results, its relation to the destiny of 
 our nation, and its relation to the world's destiny, 
 are considerations which, in their vast extent, 
 neither human reason or imagination can fully 
 grasp. We know that it would bind together 
 our people and nation from east to west; that it 
 would make and maintain us as one people and 
 one nation; that it would secure to us the com- 
 mand of either ocean; that it would give us com- 
 mercial ascendency throughout the world; that 
 it would soon constitute us the first in pros- 
 perity and powe'r among the nations of the earth; 
 but in addition to these, to wake up the home of 
 the ancient races; to wake up Asia from her slum- 
 ber of ages; to wake up the millions of the hoary 
 East to the light, and power, and progress of 
 "modern Christian civilization; and, while awak- 
 ening Asia, to break the bonds of Europe; to 
 break them not by the power of arms, not at the 
 cannon's mouth, but through the means and 
 appliances of peaceful commerce; to accomplish 
 results like these is worth ambition, is worth not 
 merely any man's ambition, but is worth the 
 ambition of a great nation. 
 
 Since the world was young, since order was first 
 brought out of chaos, no enterprise has been pro- 
 jected, certainly none has been accomplished, that 
 rises into a dignity at all to be compared to this. 
 Its accomplishment would be an answer to the 
 invocation, and would realize the prophecy: 
 
 " Deep dig thy fibres round the ribs of earth ! 
 From sea to sea, from South to icy North : 
 It must ere lonjr be thine, through good or ill, 
 To stretch thy sinewy boughs. Go, wondrous child t 
 The glories of thy destiny lulfill." 
 
 These are the words not only of a poet, but of 
 a philosopher, an English philosopher, addressed 
 to this Republic. I say, sir, let us go forward, 
 and at least endeavor to fulfill our destiny. 
 
 Printed at tb<J Office of the Congressional Globe.