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TEXAS AND PACIFIC RAILWAY. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 HOKJAS.W.TimOCKMORTON, 
 
 OF 
 
 IN THE 
 
 HOUSE OF REPKESENTATIVES, 
 
 MARCH 1, 1877, 
 
 TOGETHER WITH THE 
 
 REPORT OF THE HON. L. Q. C. LAMAR, 
 
 CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE ON PACIFIC RAILEOADS, 
 
 MADE TO THE HOUSE OF KEPRESENTATIVES 
 JANUARY 24, 1877. 
 
 1877. 
 
H E 
 
crort Liorary 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 OP 
 
 HON. JAMES W. THROOKMORTON. 
 
 On the Texas and Pacific Kailroad bill. 
 
 Mr. THROCKMORTON. Mr. Speaker, before proceeding with the 
 views which I desire to submit in favor of the bill reported from the 
 Committee on the Pacific Railroad I wish to refer to insinuations con- 
 tained in some of the newspapers of this city, that the action of 
 :f rieiids of the measure on questions arising in the House on the sub- 
 ject of the presidential count has been influenced by collusion with 
 the friends of the republican candidate for the Presidency. These 
 insinuations have been made in face of the undeniable fact that some 
 of the most ardent supporters of the count under the electoral law 
 are uncompromisingly opposed to the Texas and Pacific bill, while on 
 the other hand some of the leading supporters of the measure are 
 most resolutely and persistently opposing the continuance of the count. 
 Without further observation I desire to pronounce such insinuations, 
 from whatever quarter they may come, affecting the friends of this 
 measure who are members of this body, as utterly false and atrociously 
 ; slanderous. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, it would scarcely be too much to say that this House 
 has had but few measures before it during the present session of 
 greater importance to the material interests of the whole country than 
 the one which I propose to discuss. 
 
 Whether viewed as a measure for the especial benefit of that sec- 
 tion of the Union, the industries and commerce of which are still pros- 
 trate from the effects of a long and desolating civil war, or as a meas- 
 ure for the benefit of the whole country, its importance cannot but 
 command the serious attention of every member of this body. 
 
 The restoration to prosperity of a large and important section of 
 our country can scarcely be a matter of indifference even to the most 
 sectional and selfish ; for whatever may be the political differences 
 and social antipathies between the people of the different sections of 
 the Union, we are so closely connected in our business relations that 
 the prostration of the industries and trade of one important part of 
 the country cannot but injuriously affect the well-being of the whole. 
 
 You cannot desolate Louisiana and South Carolina without the 
 people of New York and Massachusetts sympathizing, perhaps as 
 fellow-citizens of the same great Republic, certainly as fellow-suffer- 
 ers from a common calamity. 
 
 Upon a prosperous South and West depend a prosperous North and 
 East. Let the cotton and sugar fields of the South no longer yield 
 support to the cultivators of the soil and tens of thousands of toilers 
 ,in northern manufacturies will go home to cheerless hearthstones. 
 
Let the South cease to produce that which her people can exchange 
 for the manufactured fabrics of the North and East and both sec- 
 tions will be alike injured. Let a blight fall upon the grain fields of 
 the great Northwest and California, or the mines of Colorado and 
 Nevada cease to yield the precious metals, or let their products be 
 cut off from the markets for want of the means of transportation t 
 and the whole money system of the country feels the shock, and 
 bankers and capitalists and merchants with their millions go down 
 with a crash that spreads ruin throughout the length and breadth of 
 the land. 
 
 The lesson thus taught proves that no considerable section of thi 
 great country can long enjoy a high degree of prosperity while any 
 other important section languishes in poverty. 
 
 I know of no effort of statesmanship better calculated to restore 
 prosperity to the entire country than to build up the waste places in 
 the South, and give to her the prosperity which she once enjoyed 
 and which she still deserves. In my judgment there is no measure 
 we can consider that will more effectually secure that prosperity than, 
 the one under consideration. 
 
 Give the South just laws, treat her as an equal of the North, of the 
 East, and West ; let her have a fair proportion of the protection, the 
 benefits and bounties conferred by the Government, and the result 
 will be that the renewed life and vigor thus given will add ten fold 
 to her production, ten-fold to her consumption of northern fabrics 
 and western produce ; the wealth of the nation will be greatly in- 
 creased, a new era of prosperity will begin, and the balance of trade 
 will turn in our favor. 
 
 The bill reported by the Committee on the Pacific Railroad, grant- 
 ing Government credit to aid in the construction of a southern trans- 
 continental railway, has been printed and laid on each member's 
 desk ; and I trust that members will give its provisions careful con- 
 sideration and not permit themselves to be influenced in their judg- 
 ment of its merits by prejudice or preconceived ideas, inculcated by 
 newspapers that have made war on the measure without understand- 
 ing its scope or intention, or by rival interests that are determined 
 there shall be no southern line to the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 The very able and interesting report of the chairman of the com- 
 mittee presents so strongly and clearly the main features of the meas- 
 ure that I deem it unnecessary to weary the patience of the House 
 by a recapitulation of them. But, sir, before proceeding with my 
 argument, I cannot forbear referring to some of the objections that 
 have been urged to the proposition submitted by the committee, and 
 I earnestly invoke the attention of my southern friends, and those 
 of the North who may be disposed to lend us a helping hand, to the 
 answer I shall make to these objections. 
 
 Mr. Speaker,! have been surprised and astonished to hear the charge 
 made that the measure as presented in this bill is not for the benefit 
 of the South, but that its object is to build up the interests of north- 
 ern commerce. Nothing more absolutely untrue could be stated. This 
 not a southern measure, with already two completed connections 
 with Galveston, and the third under construction ; with branches to 
 New Orleans,Vicksburgh, and Memphis ; these branches and connec- 
 tions to enjoy all the advantages of freights and fares possessed by 
 the main line ! This not a measure for the benefit of the South, when 
 eight hundred miles of its main line and three hundred miles of its 
 "transcontinental branch" lie in Texas, and six hundred and ninety- 
 three miles of the branches traverse Arkansas and Louisiana, making. 
 
5 
 
 a grand total of seventeen hundred and ninety-three miles of railway 
 constructed or to be constructed within these three great cotton-pro- 
 ducing States, and which will when completed connect with the en- 
 tire railroad system throughout the South ! 
 
 But, sir, this charge is made because of the Vinita connection with 
 Saint Louis. It originates in a quarter that never has been friendly 
 to southern interests, and I regret that some southern gentlemen 
 have been led astray by it. The representatives of the various inter- 
 ests opposed to the construction of a southern transcontinental line 
 have been the circulators of this absurd charge. Now, sir, let us see 
 what foundation there is for such a statement. Of course, transcon- 
 tinental commerce would avail itself of the Vinita branch, but only 
 such of it as would be best accommodated by taking the route to and 
 from Saint Louis. That city has already two connections with the 
 main line, one at Sherman and the other at Texarkana ; so that any 
 one can see that should the Vinita branch never be constructed it 
 would require a run of only a few hours longer to reach Saint Louis. 
 
 Again, sir, does not every man of ordinary intelligence comprehend 
 that commerce has her own laws, and that trade and travel invaria- 
 bly use the shortest and least expensive available routes? Without 
 the Vinita branch it cannot be doubted that northern trade would 
 avail itself of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway from Sher- 
 man, Texas, to Saint Louis, and of the Iron Mountain Railroad from 
 Texarkana. But would it be just to force this trade and travel over 
 the longer line, when no interest could be subserved except that of 
 the railroad companies transporting it? No southern city or port 
 could reap the slightest benefit by forcing such commerce out of its 
 most direct line. It is the object of this measure to lessen the bur- 
 dens of commerce. The supposition that the owners and managers 
 of eleven or twelve hundred miles of railway in Texas would, con- 
 trary to their own interest, turn transcontinental traffic away from 
 their own line for the benefit of the Vinita branch and Saint Louis, is 
 too monstrous to be treated otherwise than with derision. Hence, the 
 assertion that the .Vinita branch robs this measure of its claim to 
 southern, favor is a fallacy too absurd for patient or respectful con- 
 sideration. 
 
 But there are other considerations, in connection with the Vinita 
 branch, that ought not to be forgotten. It should be remembered 
 that Congress has passed laws to encourage, by donations of lands, 
 a road from the northern lakes to the Pacific Ocean, with a right to 
 branches, with a land grant of 45,000,000 acres. It has also endowed 
 the Union and Central Pacific, and their numerous branches, with 
 land grants of more than fifty million acres, and with more than 
 $53,000,000 in bonds. It has also bestowed -upon the Atlantic and 
 Pacific Railroad Company 42,000,000 acres of land to aid in the con- 
 struction of a road on the thirty-fifth parallel, and granted lands to 
 the amount of 18,000,000 acres to the Texas and Pacific Railway Com- 
 pany. These several acts were passed in the interest of the various 
 sections of our widely extended country, and were thought to be just 
 to the extreme north, to the extreme south, and to the poople inter- 
 ested in the intermediate lines of the thirty-fifth and fortieth parallels 
 respectively. So that we find the Atlantic and the Pacific, or the thirty- 
 fifth parallel route, by the provisions of the bill under considera- 
 tion, surrenders its claim to more than forty-one millions of acres of 
 land, as the consideration for a Government' guarantee of the interest 
 upon the cost of constructing three hundred and twenty-five miles of 
 railway ; a line, for its length, of more importance to the Govern- 
 
ment than any other on the continent, and a line of more value to* 
 Texas than any of the other branches. Its construction would give 
 peace to her northern border and render valuable her multiplied mill- 
 ions of acres of land that have been dedicated to her common schools, 
 and populate a portion of her territory, now entirely uninhabited, 
 larger than the State of New York ; besides affording the shortest 
 and nearest route to northern markets for the beef-cattle that will be 
 produced on her western plains. 
 
 Then, sir, in the interest of the whole country, in the interest of 
 the Government, and especially as a representative from Texas, in 
 her interest, do I favor this Vinita branch. I regret that there is riot 
 provided for in this bill a shorter and more direct connection with 
 Galvestou, which was attempted to be secured in committee, and 
 which I still hope to see adopted by the House. But if I should be 
 disappointed in this reasonable and just expectation, I cannot afford 
 to do my section and my State, as well as the whole country, an incal- 
 culable wrong and injury by opposing the main proposition. We of 
 Texas are not selfish with regard to this measure, and would be con- 
 tent with the main line without the branches. But how can we deny 
 the reasonable demands of commerce and our southern neighbors for 
 the outlets provided for in this bill ? 
 
 Who is there, acquainted with the facts, that does not know that 
 with our present railroads and water connections the trade and 
 production of Texas alone are unable to be accommodated ? For 
 many weeks during the present season, with our outlets to Galvestou 
 and other Gulf ports by several lines of railway, to New Orleans by 
 Eed Eiver, to Memphis, and Saint Louis by the Iron Mountain and the 
 Missouri, Kansas and Texas Eailroads, our products have been kept 
 from market and return freights delayed in like manner. What 
 would the condition be, with a through line to the Pacific, with the 
 vast increase of population and production which would be superin- 
 duced by such a work ? How extremely unstatesmanlike, then, would 
 it be to arrest that commerce while waiting for the uncertain navi- 
 gation of Ked River, or make it dependent upon the unregulated rates 
 imposed by the Texas Central, the Iron Mountain, and the Missouri, 
 Kansas and Texas Railroads, which are now unable to do the local 
 traffic. These considerations are so important that none who weigh 
 them can fail to appreciate their force. To my mind, at least, they 
 present a complete justification for the cordial support I shall give to 
 all the branches. 
 
 Having answered these objections, I proceed at once to the consid- 
 eration of the bill, and inquire 
 
 Is there a necessity for this action on the part of Congress ? To- 
 sh ow that such necessity exists it is only necessary to state a few 
 facts so apparent, when mentioned, as to fasten conviction upon the 
 most casual observer. 
 
 First. The Viuita branch traverses the whole extent of the Indian 
 Territory from its northeast to its southwest corner. In this Terri- 
 tory are situated large numbers of Indians for which you have re- 
 cently appropriated large sums for transportation alone. 
 
 Second. The main line traverses nearly a thousand miles of the most 
 exposed portions of the frontiers of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, 
 now infested by the most treacherous of all the Indian tribes, and 
 least accessible to the operations of the Army, and in a region, where 
 more'depredations have been committed by the Indians during the 
 last ten years, than in all the other Territories and borders of the Gov- 
 ernment combined. 
 
 Third. Along the line of the proposed road and tributary to it, the- 
 
Government for years past has maintained more than forty military 
 posts, garrisoned by nearly one-half of the entire Army, where sup- 
 plies for both Indians and troops have to be transported long distances, 
 at great cost and much risk, by wagons. 
 
 Fourth. One thousand miles of the line runs directly along and 
 near to the territory of a foreign government, whose people are con- 
 stantly depredating upon the citizens and the property of the citi- 
 zens of this Government. 
 
 Fifth. We have the very best military authority indorsing the con- 
 struction of a transcontinental railroad as among the surest and 
 best means of settling our Indian troubles. 
 
 Sixth. Outside of these considerations, if a necessity exists for the 
 Government each succeeding year to make large appropriations to 
 clean out rivers, improve harbors, and erect light-houses for the bene- 
 fit of trade and commerce between the States and with foreign coun- 
 tries, is there not a like necessity to do something for the transcon- 
 tinental commerce of the nation, the inland commerce between the 
 States of the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, and the trade and com- 
 merce of the Territories of the Government ? 
 
 Because some of the States and Territories have no harbors and no 
 navigable streams, although they have immense productions for ex- 
 port and for exchange with other States and great demand for the 
 fabrics and products of sister- States, are they to be denied the pro- 
 tecting care and support of the Government ? 
 
 Look at Texas, larger than the States of New York, Pennsylvania, 
 Ohio, West Virginia, and Maryland, with an extent and fertility of 
 soil capable of producing (without interfering with her large pro- 
 duction of wheat, barley, oats, corn, sugar, mules, horses, cattle, and 
 sheep) more cotton, if she had the labor and transportation to get it 
 to market, than is produced in all other countries to-day. Is she to 
 be taxed to aid in clearing out the Mississippi, the Ohio, the Missouri, 
 and other streams, and to pay principal and interest on the Union 
 Pacific and California Central and other railroad bonds because she 
 has no navigable waters to which you can make annual appropria- 
 tions ? Are New Mexico and Arizona and Nevada and Utah to be 
 denied all aid from the Government to foster and promote their com- 
 merce because they have been denied by nature navigable rivers ? Is 
 the commerce of China and Japan, of the Indies and Australia, that 
 desires to seek transit across our territory to our own ports or to 
 Europe, and the trade of our own States and Territories to be forever 
 subject to the exactions of one great monopoly, over wlr'eh Congress 
 seems to have no control ; or shall American statesmans .iip strike off 
 the galling shackles that now fetter it, by passing this measure and 
 give to this great and growing commerce an open highway over 
 which Congress may at all times exercise an undisputed and healthy 
 ontrol ? 
 
 Then, sir, may I not insist that, in a military point of view, there 
 is a necessity for this work ? 
 
 As the speediest solution of the Indian troubles is there not a 
 necessity for it ? 
 
 As a measure of economy in -the transportation of troops, muni- 
 tions, and supplies to the Army and the Indians, is it not an absolute 
 want? 
 
 For the speedy and safe transmission of your mails, is it not de- 
 manded ? 
 
 Do not the protection and promotion of commerce between the 
 States and in the Territories and between our ports and the ports of 
 foreign governments both justify and require it ? 
 
8 
 
 Having thus shown the necessity for the work, the next question 
 that naturally presents itself to the mind is as to sufficiency of the 
 security to the Government for the liabilities it will assume should 
 this bill become a law. If it cannot be established that this security 
 is ample beyond any possible contingency, I should be as far from 
 according it my support as any gentleman on this floor. I ask your 
 special attention to this branch of the subject, for herein, so far as 
 the claim for governmental aid is concerned, in my judgment, lies 
 the gist of the whole subject ; for whatever may be shown to be the 
 advantages the construction of the proposed railroads might confer 
 on the people of the country; whatever may be the abstract justice 
 of the demands of the South for an equal share in the benefactions of 
 the General Government, in aid of great works of internal improve- 
 ment, a due regard for the obligations we owe the people to husband 
 the resources of the Government wisely and prudently would de- 
 mand that this bill should be rejected if it cannot be clearly shown 
 that the security offered is ample to protect the Government against 
 the possibility of loss. 
 
 The entire length of the proposed road upon which interest-guar- 
 anteed bonds are asked will be as follows : Main, or trunk line, from 
 Fort Worth to Fort Yuma, 1,187 miles; from near San Gorgonio Pass 
 to San Diego, 100 miles; the eastern extension to New Orleans, Vicks- 
 burgh, Memphis, and Saint Louis, 1,018 miles. Upon these different 
 sections bonds are to be issued for the purpose of construction, only 
 for the actual cost of the work, but not to exceed $35,000 per mile for 
 the trunk or main line ; $30,000 per mile for the San Diego connec- 
 tion, and $25,000 per mile for the eastern extensions to the Mississippi. 
 From this it results that the whole issue for the purposes of con- 
 struction would be $41,545,000 for the main line, $3,000,000 for the 
 San Diego connection, and $25,450,000 for the eastern extensions ; 
 making a total of $69,995,000, the interest upon which, at 5 per cent., 
 would amount to $3,499,750 per annum, or $1,750, $1,500, and $1,250 
 per mile on the respective roads. But if you assume that the $5,000 
 per mile additional issue, authorized by the bill, should be included 
 in this estimate, the total of bonds would be $81,520,000, upon 
 which the annual interest would be $4,077,000. But as the Govern- 
 ment holds these additional bonds merely as a further security, of 
 course, they draw no interest until sold by the Government, after the 
 other securities have proved to be insufficient to meet the interest 
 obligations of the companies. I shall show, I hope conclusively, 
 that tire pther securities are sufficiently ample to meet these obliga- 
 tions, audL consequently that these bonds will never draw interest or 
 become i liability to the Government. 
 
 Now, sir, what security is offered for the Government's guarantee 
 and liability ? In reply, I answer 
 
 First. It will hold a first mortgage, as the roads are constructed, 
 on the roads, equipment, and all the property of the companies. 
 
 Second. The Government is to receive and retain the entire pro- 
 ceeds of the sales of lands of the companies granted by the General 
 Government and so much of the laud granted by the State of Texas 
 as is given for the road to be constructed west of Fort Worth, say 
 about 7,500,000 acres. 
 
 Third. The Government is to retain in the Treasury all dues to the 
 companies for the transportation of troops, munitions, supplies, &c., 
 and for postal and telegraph service. 
 
 Fourth. Such part of the earnings of the road from general traffic 
 .as may be necessary to meet interest and sinking fund. 
 
 Fifth. There are also to be retained in the Treasury bonds of the 
 
companies to the amount of $5,000 per mile, to be sold and the pro- 
 ceeds applied to the payment of any current interest or sinking f uiid 
 the companies may have failed to provide for. 
 
 These securities are so ample, to protect the Government against 
 loss, that the mere enumeration of them would seem sufficient to re- 
 lieve the most skeptical mind from doubt ; but, I beg the attention of 
 the House for a few moments, during which I shall endeavor to show 
 beyond question their entire sufficiency. 
 
 As to the first security, can any one doubt that a railroad property 
 costing twenty-five, thirty, or thirty-five thousand dollars per mile, 
 and the real value of which is equal to the cost, is not sufficient to 
 secure a liability of twelve hundred and fifty, fifteen hundred, or 
 seventeen hundred and fifty, or even two thousand dollars per mile ? 
 More especially is it to be considered that these proposed railroad lines 
 pass through sections of country of the most favored climate and fer- 
 tility of soil, capable of producing the very largest crops of cotton, 
 the cereals, tobacco, fruits, and vegetables, and abundantly able to 
 sustain a population more dense than now inhabits the New England 
 States. 
 
 Such is the country through which the extensions pass in Arkansas, 
 Louisiana, the Indian Territory, and for four hundred miles of the 
 main line from Texarkauna via Marshall to the Colorado Eiver of 
 Texas. The remainder of the main line in Texas will pass through 
 the finest natural pasturage in the whole country, where the buffalo 
 in all time past, in countless numbers from the Rocky Mountains and 
 northern plains, have resorted in winter to subsist. 
 
 When the Indians cease to depredate in that section it will be in- 
 deed what it is now fast becoming, the great beef-producing region 
 of this continent. Its outlet to the markets of southern cities, the 
 valley of the Mississippi, and to the cities of the North and East, 
 with such speedy transportation as to prevent its deterioration, will 
 be over the Vinita branch, main line, and eastern extensions, thus 
 affording the best and cheapest meat, for the consumption of the rich 
 and poor, that the country can produce. 
 
 In proof of the value of railroad property in Texas, where we have 
 scarcely a navigable stream, I need only refer you to the following- 
 table, showing Galveston to be the second largest cotton-receiving 
 city in the United States, second only to New Orleans, outstripping 
 Savannah and largely ahead of Charleston and Norfolk. 
 
 RECEIPTS AT ALL UNITED STATES PORTS. 
 
 Ports. 
 
 This 
 day. 
 
 This 
 week. 
 
 This 
 season. 
 
 Galveston 
 
 Bales. 
 1 648 
 
 Sales. 
 7 505 
 
 Sales. 
 445 879 
 
 New Orleans 
 
 12 503 
 
 48 841 
 
 949 314 
 
 Mobile 
 
 '376 
 
 8 ^88 
 
 
 Savannah 
 
 533 
 
 3 868 
 
 
 Charleston 
 
 869 
 
 5 060 
 
 406 635 
 
 Wilmington 
 
 87 
 
 1 414 
 
 88 415 
 
 Norfolk 
 
 2 277 
 
 12 596 
 
 
 Baltimore 
 
 
 165 
 
 11 653 
 
 New York 
 
 524 
 
 4 131 
 
 156 313 
 
 Boston 
 
 1 081 
 
 5 54 
 
 68 645 
 
 Philadelphia 
 
 >0 68 
 
 2* 317 
 
 
 Providence 
 
 
 
 9 85 
 
 Citv Point 
 
 
 
 
 Port Royal 
 
 
 
 
 Indianola 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 20 086 
 
 100 139 
 
 3 413 370 
 
 Last year 
 
 is' 474 
 
 92 338 
 
 
 
 
 
 
10 
 
 This table is taken from the Galveston News, a reliable and accu- 
 rate journal, and is made out for the present season, up to a recent 
 date in the last month. It does not show the amount of cotton 
 shipped from Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Matagorda Bay, the mouths- 
 of the Brazos and Sabine Rivers, or direct from Houston, from Shreve- 
 port, from Jefferson ; or that which finds its way north and to Mem- 
 phis via Texarkana, where but recently 50,000 bales were passed from 
 the Texas Pacific to the Iron Mountain Road in the space of twenty 
 days ; nor from Deuison, where an equal, if not greater, amount 
 finds its outlet to the North and East. It is safe to say that this sea- 
 son's cotton product in Texas will foot up from 650,000 to 700,000 
 bales, worth at the moderate price of $50 per bale, from $32,000,000 
 to $35,000,000. What will it be in ten years, when our present popu- 
 lation shall be doubled and we have cheap and speedy transportation 
 for our products to the markets of the world ? 
 
 As a further evidence of the value of the railroad properties pro- 
 posed to be encouraged and given as a security to the Government 
 by this bill, it may be stated that since the war there has been an 
 average of about four hundred thousand head of cattle driven and 
 shipped from the State. With the extension of the main trunk and 
 Vinita branch to the northern and western plains of Texas, this 
 profitable traffic would inure very largely to these lines. 
 
 But to give positive proof as to the earnings of railroads in Texas, 
 I submit the showing of the Texas and Pacific earnings upon three 
 hundred and twenty-five miles of constructed road, which for the 
 year ending June 30, 1876, are as follows : 
 
 RECEIPTS. 
 
 Transportation .$1,540,418 82 
 
 Express service 12, 592 99 
 
 Mailservice 30,794 74 
 
 Telegraph service 8,491 11 
 
 Incidental 2, 858 44 
 
 Total receipts 1,595,156 10 
 
 EXPENSES. 
 
 Transportation 539,026 51 
 
 Maintenance 310, 344 76 
 
 General expenses 45, 323 17 
 
 Total expenses 894,694 44 
 
 leaving net earnings, $700,461.66. 
 
 I also submit the following statement as to the Houston and Texas 
 Central Railroad Company, on a constructed line of five hundred and 
 five miles of road : 
 
 Gross earnings, $6,262 per mile $3, 162, 518 22 
 
 Expenses, 59.60 per cent 1,885,196 89 
 
 Net earnings, $2,529 per mile 1,277,321 33 
 
 As compared with 1875, the net earnings show an increase of 
 $133,395.68, or 11.7 per cent. The interest on the bonded debt was 
 $950,000, leaving a surplus of $327,321.33. During the year the com- 
 pany changed the gauge of one hundred and twenty miles of the 
 main line from 5 feet 6 inches to 4 feet 8$ inches, and added eight en- 
 gines and two hundred freight-cars to the equipment. The net earn- 
 ings of four hundred and forty-two miles of the Texas and Pacific 
 road for the six months ending January 1, 1877, were at the average 
 rate of $85,000 per month or at the annual rate of $2,307 per mile. 
 
 And still further, to prove that the investment for the construction 
 of these lines would be a profitable one, and that the Government 
 
Bancroft Library 
 11 
 
 would be secured, I mention the fact that thirty-th^ee counties in- 
 the State of Texas, averaging largely more than nine hundred square 
 miles to the county, and all that portion of the State west of the one 
 hundredth meridian, and extending from the Rio Grande north to 
 the Kansas boundary, would be almost entirely dependent upon the 
 Texas and Pacific and the Vinita branch for commercial facilities. 
 It is worthy of consideration that these thirty-three counties are 
 among the most inviting for settlement and production of any in our 
 whole State. It is not going beyond the truth to assert that for beauty 
 of scenery of mountain, hill, and dale ; crystal flowing waters, beauti- 
 ful valleys, and broad rolling plains, the country alluded to has no- 
 superior on this continent. It is within the bounds of truth to say 
 that two-thirds of the soil is of the richest and most productive char- 
 acter, easily brought into cultivation, and which, if properly culti- 
 vated in cotton, at an average yield of a half bale per acre would pro- 
 duce 6,336,000 bales per annum, being 1,776,000 bales more than the 
 entire crop of the United States for 1875 and 1876. Or if the same 
 amount of laud was cultivated in wheat, with an average yield of 
 fifteen bushels per acre a moderate estimate for that region we 
 should have the enormous amount of 190,030,000 bushels per annum ; 
 which, at the rate of three hundred and fifty bushels to the car, and 
 twenty cars to the train, and twenty-four trains a day, would require 
 eleven hundred and thirty days and nights to transport the crop of a 
 single year to market. 
 
 Or, if cultivated in cotton alone, making the same calculation of 
 the same number of cars to the train, and one train for every hour of 
 the day and night, it would require three hundred and twenty-four 
 days and eight hours to move such a crop to market. In other words r 
 it would require over three years to move one season's wheat crop, 
 and nearly one year to move the cotton crop. 
 
 This, sir, is no fanciful picture. To make it a reality all that is 
 requisite is such a population as the country described can easily 
 support, and the means of transportation for its products. 
 
 As a matter of course, it would not be desirable to cultivate so 
 much soil in any one crop, nor would it be done ; but this presenta- 
 tion will show the capacity of the country for production, and its 
 cultivation in a variety of crops would yield the same results as to 
 freight for transportation. 
 
 This embraces no account of the agricultural products, live stock, 
 or other traffic to be furnished by the great area of territory, at least 
 one hundred thousand square miles in extent, west of the one hun- 
 dredth meridian and between the Rio Grande and the Kansas border, 
 which would be dependent upon the proposed lines for an outlet to 
 market. 
 
 By reference, Mr. Speaker, to the last report of the Secretary of the 
 Interior, we find that the net earnings of the Union Pacific and Cali- 
 fornia Central Pacific Railroads for the current year amount to the 
 large sum of $14,386,626.03 ; or, upon a line 1,913 miles in length from 
 Omaha to San Francisco, that these roads are earning annually $7,520 
 per mile, a sum sufficient to pay the interest on a bonded indebted- 
 ness, at 5 per cent, per annum, of $150,400 per mile. 
 
 Now, the utmost bonded debt the companies could incur under the 
 provisions of this bill would be $40,000 per mile on the main line, 
 $35,000 per mile on the San Diego extension, and $30,000 per mile on 
 the Vinita and other eastern connections. This is the outside limit, 
 and the Government would only be liable, on account of interest, 
 from $1,500 to $2,000 per mile, and not to this extent if the cost of 
 
12 
 
 construction falls below the limit allowed, which I believe will be the 
 case. 
 
 I desire the attention of gentlemen to these striking figures and to 
 the fact that this extraordinary showing of earnings upon the Union 
 Pacific and California Central is upon aline of road traversing a wide 
 extent of country of inferior natural resources, many hundred miles 
 of which are devoid of population, except in isolated spots, and upon 
 which vast sums of money have to be expended during the winter 
 months to keep it open for travel, and, further, that this earning is 
 at a period when transcontinental commerce is in its infancy and at 
 a time of great commercial depression. 
 
 Such being the fact, may I not ask, if this line, with all its dis- 
 advantages of costly operation and frequent interruption to travel, 
 its sparse population and unproductive soil, earns a sum sufficient to 
 pay an interest of 5 per cent, on a debt of $150,400 per mile, can there 
 be a doubt, when the southern line provided for in this bill shall be 
 in operation from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean, that its earn- 
 ings will be as large? Certainly, no one acquainted with the com- 
 parative merits of the regions of country penetrated by the two lines 
 can doubt it. 
 
 And when it is considered that nearly 70 per cent, of the earnings 
 of the Union and Central Pacific lines is derived from local traffic, 
 the view presented is more than confirmed. 
 
 It is in no invidious spirit that a comparison is instituted between 
 the present and proposed line of Pacific roads, to the disadvantage 
 of the former, for, whatever may have been the recklessness of con- 
 gressional liberality in the grant of lands and money to it, there is 
 hardly an enlightened man in the land who would be willing that 
 the Government should take back its gifts and by some Aladdin-like 
 enchantment obliterate the magic line across the continent which 
 has annihilated space, established civilization in the gorges of the 
 Rocky Mountains, and brought the dwellers on two oceans into close 
 neighborship. 
 
 But I merely desire to show that, as the proposed southern line 
 traverses a country of superior advantages, it would be able to meet 
 its obligations to the Government; be a boon to the commercial 
 world, and of advantage to the whole country. The one stretches 
 across the continent on the high parallels of forty and forty-one de- 
 grees north latitude; over elevations varying from six to eight thou- 
 sand feet above the sea level; subject to frequent and dangerous 
 interruptions; traversing a thousand miles or more of desolate and 
 unproductive country, much of it as dead to cultivation or the sup- 
 port of animal life as the Desert of Sahara. 
 
 In striking contrast to this is the line on the thirty-second and 
 thirty-third parallels, the highest elevations of which are less than 
 five thousand feet above tide-water ; passing from the Mississippi 
 River westward through ten degrees of longitude of as productive 
 soil as the continent can boast ; thence across the finest natural past- 
 ures to the valley of the Rio Grande, famous for its wheat, grapes, 
 and fruit ; thence along the rich valleys and grassy plains of Arizona 
 and Southern California, with its western terminus upon the Bay of 
 San Diego, rivaling in beauty the celebrated Bay of Naples and in a 
 climate as genial as that of Southern Italy. 
 
 Besides the difference in climate, productiveness of soil, and ca- 
 pacity for rearing live stock along the southern line, it should be 
 mentioned that the inexharistible pine forests of Arkansas, Louisiana, 
 and Eastern Texas would afford a local traffic to supply Western 
 
13 
 
 Texas and New Mexico with lumber that would be a constant source 
 of revenue to the road, and in this connection, as another source of 
 great local traffic, it should be remarked that the main line- passes 
 through extensive fields of excellent coal. 
 
 Another great source of traffic and prosperity to this line of road 
 would be its proximity, for several hundred miles, to the northern 
 states of Mexico. 
 
 There is no country known to civilization so prolific in the precious 
 metals, especially silver, as these states. According to recent au- 
 thorities the annual average coinage of the precious metals in Mexico 
 cannot be less than $26,000,000 in silver and $3,000,000 in gold. Of 
 this large amount a very great proportion is produced from the mines 
 near to the proposed line of road. 
 
 The construction of the road would be the means of introducing 
 machinery and skilled labor into these mines that would stimulate 
 their production to an extraordinary degree. 
 
 It is a noteworthy fact that while the United States and Mexico, 
 sister republics, have more than two thousand miles of contiguous 
 territory, we enjoy but 15 per cent, of her foreign trade. 
 
 With the construction of the proposed railroad and the results that 
 would naturally flow from it in the construction of a line from 
 El Paso to the cities of Chihuahua, Durango, Queretaro, and to the 
 city of Mexico; and from Tucson, in Arizona, to Guaymas, on the 
 California Gulf, the condition of things would change, and instead of 
 Mexico being an exporter to European markets of her precious metals 
 and a consumer of the goods obtained in exchange, American labor 
 would supply the fabrics, machinery, and goods required for Mexican 
 consumption, and a new source of wealth would reward American en- 
 terprise. 
 
 But as rich in mineral deposits as are the northern states of Mexico, 
 our own Territories of New Mexico and Arizona fall but little behind 
 them. 
 
 Sufficient is known to warrant the assertion that when machinery 
 can be carried there, and life is safe from Indian outrages, the mines 
 of these Territories will prove to be as rich as the mines of Nevada. 
 At this very time rich ores of gold and silver in the natural state are 
 being transported on mules to Yuma, and thence shipped down the 
 Colorado to the Gulf of California, and thence by sea to San Fran- 
 cisco ; while crude copper, in bars, is hauled in Mexican carts from 
 the copper-mines in New Mexico, a distance of nearly five hundred- 
 miles, to meet railroad transportation. 
 
 So that, Mr. Speaker, recurring to the point as to the value of the 
 property proposed to be mortgaged to the Government to secure it 
 against loss, I think I have clearly shown that the lien upon the roads 
 and equipments would be ample ; and further, that the net earnings, 
 exclusive of any other security, would be more than sufficient to meet 
 the interest on the guaranteed bonds. 
 
 But, sir, it is not alone the first-mortgage lien upon the roads and 
 all their property, including the proceeds of the sales of land and 
 earnings, out of which the Government is to be made safe for the 
 loan of its credit, not to exceed $2,000 per mile ; but you have also 
 the retention in the Treasury of all the earnings of these lines of 
 road for transportation of troops and supplies, and for postal and tel- 
 egraph service. To enable you to form some opinion as to the ex- 
 tent and value of this security, I refer you to the last report of the 
 Quartermaster-General, which shows that there have been paid to ex- 
 isting Pacific railroads, for military transportation, $7,28 8.t20.C4, T\h 
 
14 
 
 Claims unadjusted, $(310,720. 93 . total, $7,839,550.13. The amount 
 earned last year on this account was $585,468.13. In proof of the as- 
 sertion that the earnings from this source would be greater on the 
 proposed lines than is shown by the figures above quoted, I call 
 your attention to the fact that until the recent outbreak of the north- 
 ern Sioux, which necessitated the temporary withdrawal from the 
 Southwest of a very large portion of this force, there have been main- 
 tained for the last five or six years, at forty different military posts, 
 eleven regiments of infantry and cavalry, which would have received 
 their supplies by the lines of road, proposed by the bill, had they been 
 in operation. 
 
 From this source alone the earnings of the company could not have 
 been less than $1,000,000 annually, besides effecting to the Govern- 
 ment a saving of more than three times that sum by the greater 
 cheapness of railroad over wagon transportation. 
 
 Just how much that would be is strikingly shown in the letter of 
 the Quartermaster-General to the Secretary of War, dated January 
 31, 1873, in which he says : 
 
 the freight moved 
 shown above, during 
 
 ,..,. 1873, would be as fol- 
 
 lows : 
 
 Kates per 100 pounds per 100 miles, railroad rates, 40| cents. 
 Rates per 100 pounds per hundred miles, wagon rates, $1.46. 
 
 Actual cost of freight at railroad rates $1,896,589 57 
 
 Estimate of cost at wagon rates 6,837,088 32 
 
 Showing a total estimated cost for moving the troops and supplies by 
 
 stage and wagon of 9,850,134 67 
 
 Total cost railroad 3,342,851 82 
 
 Estimated difference 6,507.282 85 
 
 Equivalent to about 66 per cent, saving. 
 
 In addition to this the Indian transportation must not be forgotten, 
 and to show how enormous that is and what a saving to the Govern- 
 ment it would be if we had rail transportation, I need only refer you 
 to recent appropriations made for this branch of the public service. 
 
 For postal service on the Union and Central Pacific for the fiscal 
 year ending the 30th June last, the earnings of these roads amount 
 to $610,899.22. The increase in postal matter on these lines is at the 
 annual rate of 13 per cent. ; and at no very distant day, as the coun- 
 try continues to settle and develop and our commerce with Mexico 
 and other countries increases, this source of revenue to the proposed 
 line and consequent security to the Government would appreciate in 
 value. 
 
 So that from these military, postal, telegraphic, and Indian neces- 
 sities, we may safely venture the assertion the Government would 
 hold in its own hands a security of not less than one million and a 
 lialf annually to be applied to liquidation of interest. 
 
 Besides the security of the proceeds of the sales of the lands of the 
 companies, amounting to about twenty-five million acres, which after 
 completion of the roads must be very considerable, there are the $5,000 
 per mile of bonds, retained in the Treasury, which can be sold at any 
 time to make good any deficit in sinking fund and interest. If there 
 were no other security this would be sufficient. Such a bond, with a 
 first mortgage on property so valuable, with the interest guaranteed 
 by the Government, would sell for very nearly par, and no one will 
 deny that it would bring more than twice the amount for which the 
 ^Government would be boiind. 
 
 Then, sir, may I not ask the most incredulous if the road itself, its 
 

 15 
 
 earnings, the proceeds of the sales of bonds, the Government trans- 
 portation and postal-service, and the $5,000 guaranteed bonds per 
 mile, altogether, do not present a security that will be absolutely cer- 
 tain to hold the Government harmless against its obligations to meet 
 an interest not to exceed, at the utmost limit, $2,000 per mile on 
 eleven hundred and eighty-seven miles, $1,750 per mile on one hun- 
 dred miles, and $1,500 per mile on ten hundred and eighteen miles ? 
 No candid and unprejudiced mind can doubt it. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, having established the necessity of this work and, as 
 I think, demonstrated by the foregoing facts and figures that the Gov- 
 ernment could sustain no loss, the security being largely in excess of 
 any possible liability, my next inquiry will be, Is the measure just? 
 
 For Congress to be/wsi, in the sense of this inquiry, is for it to so 
 shape its legislation that all sections of the Union shall enjoy equal 
 benefits from the distribution of its favors. Has this been the case ? 
 
 From the report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office 
 it appears that the southern States have received the following dona- 
 tions of land for the purposes of internal improvement : 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Alabama 3,579,120 
 
 Florida 2,360,114 
 
 Louisiana 1,577,840 
 
 Arkansas * 4,879,149 
 
 Missouri 2,895,160 
 
 Total to southern States 15,381,382 
 
 The donations to northern States have been as follows : 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Wisconsin 5,236,797 
 
 Minnesota 9, 664, 042 
 
 Oregon 1,888,600 
 
 Illinois 3,249,968 
 
 Iowa 6,795,256 
 
 Michigan 5,962,480 
 
 Kansas.... 8,840,000 
 
 Ohio 1,100,361 
 
 Indiana 1,439,279 
 
 Total tolnorthern States 44,376,763 
 
 Grants of land to southern corporations, including the grant to the 
 Texas and Pacific and the New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Vicksburgh 
 roads, 21,800,000 acres; to northern corporations, 95,036,760 acres; 
 total to southern States and southern corporations for purposes of 
 internal improvement, 37,181,383 acres ; total to northern States and 
 northern corporations, 149,413,543 acres. Is this a just distribution 
 of the public domain ? 
 
 Again, in the report of the Secretary of the Treasury made to the 
 Senate January 7, 1874, it is shown that from 1789 to 1873 the appro- 
 priations of money in aid of the construction of wagon-roads, rail- 
 roads, and canals were as follows : 
 
 For the sixteen southern and border States $6, 981, 982 90 
 
 For the northern States and Territories 97, 025, 762 70 
 
 During the same period the Secretary's report shows that for other 
 public works the disproportion was nearly as great, being $11,612,- 
 086.56 for the border and southern States, against $76.859,609.50 for 
 the northern States and Territories. 
 
 If this is just, it is the justice of the partial father who leaves his 
 millions to his favored son and cuts off another, who has equal claims 
 to his love and protection, with a paltry shilling. 
 
16 
 
 The instances of this partiality are so numerous that I forbear to 
 weary you by their enumeration. 
 
 But, as a subject pertinent to this discussion, I cannot resist calling 
 your attention to the extraordinary liberality of Congress in voting 
 the lands and money of the Government for the construction of Pacific 
 Railroads for the exclusive benefit of the northern sections of the Union. 
 What I said before I repeat, that I allude to this branch of my sub- 
 ject with no unfriendly sentiments toward the favored corporations, 
 much less toward my fellow-citizens inhabiting those sections of the 
 country so greatly benefited by the liberality of the Government, but 
 merely to ask that at least some liberality may be shown toward another 
 important section of the Union. 
 
 From the official records in the General Land Office it appears that 
 Congress has from time to time made the following grants of land to 
 the Union and Pacific roads and their branches : 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Union Pacific 12,000,000 
 
 Central Branch 245,000 
 
 The Denver Pacific 1,100,000 
 
 Burlington and Missouri River - 3, 680, 968 
 
 Sioux City Pacific 60,000 
 
 Kansas Pacific 6,000,000 
 
 Chicago, Kock Island and Pacific -* 1,261,181 
 
 Total to the Union Pacific and branches 27, 922, 147 
 
 The donations of land to the Central Pacific of California and its 
 branches have been quite as liberal, as follows: 
 
 Acres. 
 
 To the Central Pacific 8,000,000 
 
 To the Western Pacific 1,100,000 
 
 Oregon Branch 3,000,000 
 
 Oregon and California Railroad 3,500,000 
 
 Southern Pacific Branch of Central Pacific 9,520,000 
 
 Oregon Central 1,200,000 
 
 Total to Central Pacific and branches 25, 120, 000 
 
 making an aggregate donation to the two roads and their branches 
 of 53,042,429 acres of the public domain. 
 
 If these donations of land seem munificent, the liberality of Con- 
 gress toward those favored corporations in gifts of money will cer- 
 tainly not seem less so. The Government has issued bonds to the 
 Union and Central Pacific Railroad Companies and their branches, 
 and paid interest, not yet repaid by the companies, as follows : 
 
 To the Union Pacific : 
 
 Bonds $27,236,512 00 
 
 Interest 9, 391, 684 65 
 
 Central branch of Union Pacific: 
 
 Bonds 1,600,000 00 
 
 Interest 883,400 21 
 
 Sioux City and Pacific, a branch of the Union Pacific : 
 
 Bonds I ' 1,628,320 00 
 
 Interest 740,932 el 
 
 Kansas Pacific, a branch of the Union Pacific : 
 
 Bonds 6,303,00000 
 
 Interest... 1,980,47? 05 
 
 Total for Union Pacific and branches $48, 761, 234 51 
 
 To the Central Pacific : 
 
 Bonds , 25,885,120 00 
 
 Interest... 11,312,172 75 
 
17 
 
 "Western Pacific, branch of the Central Pacific : 
 
 Bonds 970,560 00 
 
 Interest 831,247 74 
 
 Total for Central Pacific and branches $39, 999, 000 49 
 
 makinga grand total for the main line and four branches of $91,052,795, 
 or at the average rate of $32,782 per mile of indebtedness to the Gov- 
 ernment for the principal and unpaid interest of the bonds given in 
 aid of the construction of twenty-seven hundred and eighty-nine miles 
 of main line and branches. 
 
 ~ This does not include the sum of $6,990,306.21 reported by the Sec- 
 retary of the Interior as having been placed to the credit of the re- 
 spective companies in payment for military and postal transportation 
 and telegraph service. 
 
 There is one feature of these donations of land and bonds to the 
 companies named to which I desire to ask the particular attention 
 of gentlemen who may be disposed to criticise the recommendation 
 of the Committee on the Pacific Railroad in reference to a guarantee 
 of interest in aid of the construction of branches to the proposed 
 trunk line. The committee had abundant precedent for such a course 
 in past legislation. Of the 53,042,149 acres of public lands donated 
 to the Union and Central Pacific Railroads and their branches only 
 20,000,000 accrued to the main-line roads, while 33,042,149 acres were 
 bestowed upon their branches ; and of this present money indebted- 
 ness to the Government, $27,227,305.60, or at the average rate of 
 $28,179 per mile, are due from the branches. 
 
 In this connection it should be borne in mind that the Vinita branch, 
 in consideration of the guarantee asked, is required to relinquish its 
 unforfeited land grant, estimated by the Commissioner of the Gen- 
 eral Land Office at 41,496,165 acres ; and, more than this : the Govern- 
 ment is to be relieved from its obligation to extinguish the Indian 
 title to lands for the company in the Indian Territory. And further, 
 it should be remembered that the Vinita branch, the Memphis branch, 
 and the San Diego connection, having a total length of six hundred 
 and eighty-five miles, receive no grants of land whatever. If it was 
 proper to give bonds to four of the branches of the existing line and 
 lands to twelve of them, surely it is but just to guarantee the inter- 
 est on these branches that get no lands at all ; and can our friends 
 who have been so largely benefited refuse it to us ? 
 
 So, it will be seen that the scheme of the present bill, with only a 
 main through line to San Diego, without any western branches, and 
 with one eastern connection, that is to benefit the Middle and North- 
 ern States, and the three connections to Memphis, Vicksburgh, and New 
 Orleans, falls in extent of miles of road immeasurably below that of the 
 Union Pacific, with its radiating extensions, the Central Branch, Sioux 
 City and Pacific, and the Kansas Pacific, upon which bonds of the 
 Government were issued, and the Denver Pacific, Burlington and Mis- 
 souri RiVer, and Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, receiving grants of 
 lands, thus making the main line of the Union Pacific and three 
 branches that received Government bonds and the same roads and 
 three additional branches receiving lands. Thus we see the six east- 
 ern connections of the Union Pacific spreading out from the main 
 trunk east, to the Mississippi River, to Chicago, and to the States north 
 and south, affording connections in every direction. 
 
 Look at the map. Here you see how every interest of the great 
 West, of the East, and of the North has been cared for by the lib- 
 erality of the Government. But look still further at the map ; trace 
 2 TH 
 
18 
 
 the main line of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific through the 
 States and Territories to the Pacific Ocean, and then look at the 
 branches on the western end. Here you see the Western Pacific, run- 
 ning from Sacramento to Oakland ; the Oregon branch of the Central 
 Pacific, running from near Sacramento, connecting with the Oregon 
 and California Railroad running to Portland, and there connecting 
 with the Oregon Central, extending to Astoria, at the mouth of the 
 Columbia River. Here you see the Southern Pacific, a connection of 
 the Central Pacific, running from Lathrop through all that portion of 
 California south of the main line, to Fort Yuma; besides another 
 extension to Hollister and Santa Barbara, and continuing down the 
 coast, making six branches or extensions on the western end and 
 ramifying the country in every direction. 
 
 Compare the measure proposed by the committee, with its four 
 eastern connections, with the Union and Central Pacific, with their 
 six eastern and six western grand extensions, connecting the main 
 lines with the Mississippi, the great lakes, and the Pacific, and with 
 the vast net-work of railroads in the East and in the North and 
 West, and you will see how moderate and how just is this demand, 
 this plea in behalf of the South ; sir, not only in behalf of the 
 South, but equally in behalf of the commerce and interest of the 
 whole country. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, may I not remind the members of this body that it 
 was a southern State which gave to the Union the territory which 
 now forms the great States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and 
 Michigan, and which has so largely enabled the General Government 
 to foster and encourage the grand system of internal improvements 
 to which I have referred ? May I not further remind them that it was 
 the common treasure of all the older States that made the Louisiana 
 purchase ; that it was the common blood and common treasure that 
 secured New Mexico. California, and Arizona ? Sir, may I not also 
 remind them of the fact that southern tax-payers, southern toilers, 
 and southern commerce contribute, alike with those of the North and 
 East and West, to the common treasure which is bearing the burden 
 of principal and interest of the bonds issued for the construction of 
 the already completed Pacific roads and branches ? 
 
 Mr. Speaker, in view of all the facts presented may we not most 
 confidently appeal to our brethren of the more favored sections of the 
 Union for help on this occasion. 
 
 Our friends from New England, whose harbors and fisheries and 
 manufactories have so long received the bounty and care of the Gov- 
 ernment, should not begrudge us the little asked by this measure. 
 
 The Representatives from the States of New York, New Jersey, 
 Pennsylvania, and Maryland, with the commercial metropolis of each 
 State made so largely from southern wealth and production, and 
 which have received so much from the Government, should come for- 
 ward with alacrity and aid us in this our day of poverty and suffering. 
 
 The five grand States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wis- 
 consin, that have received so liberally of the public lands, and whose 
 boundaries are washed by the waters of the Ohio, the lakes, and the 
 Mississippi, the annual recipients of the bounty of the Government 
 for the promotion and protection of their commerce, will not surely 
 turn a deaf ear to our appeals for help and justice. 
 
 Sir, may we not make an appeal equally as confident to the giant 
 young States of Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Oregon, Cali- 
 fornia, and Nevada, States that have been so peculiarly and bounti- 
 fully blessed with Government aid in lands and money for their works 
 of internal improvement ? 
 
19 
 
 Let me remind these several interests that we have enacted a law 
 which provides for the appropriation of millions to deepen the mouths 
 of the Mississippi. This is done in the interest of the commerce of 
 the whole country, but especially that northern and western pro- 
 duction may have free egress to the waters of the ocean, and that 
 their consumption of foreign commodities may be cheapened. 
 
 And now, sir, I would not close my appeal to the different sections 
 and interests of the country without invoking the help of those from 
 the South who have hitherto opposed this measure. 
 
 How long, how long will you continue to talk about constitutional 
 power, when the power has been exercised almost every year since 
 the foundation of the Government ? Is not this a post-road ? Is it not a 
 military necessity ? Does it not regulate commerce between the States ? 
 
 Madison, Jefferson, Monroe, Jackson, Calhoun, Clay, Webster, Ben- 
 ton, Douglass, Hunter, Jefferson Davis, Houston, and Rusk, recog- 
 nized the power of Congress to do this thing. 
 
 Then, why should we falter and doubt ? How long, my southern 
 friends, will you refuse to aid yourselves, or to assist your kindred 
 and your neighbors, because of your ancient prejudices against the 
 policy of the Federal Government contributing its powerful counte- 
 nance to the support of measures not purely governmental, but which 
 do go a great way in providing for the common defense and general 
 welfare ? 
 
 Under your theory and practice, Arkansas and Missouri and other 
 southern States have languished in poverty or fallen far behind some 
 of their sisters in the march of progress. Their vast areas of produc- 
 tive soil ; their water-power and ever-flowing streams ; their deposits 
 of iron and coal ; their forests of walnut, ash, cypress, oak, and pine 
 are almost useless to-day ; their population and progress have not 
 kept pace with other States less favored in climate, soil, productions, 
 and mineral deposits. While the statesmen of the North, acting upon 
 the acknowledged powers of Government, as sanctioned by Calhoun 
 and others, have wisely looked to their own interests locally ; and by 
 so doing have added to the wealth and population of their localities, 
 and have given to their sections an influence in the control of this 
 Government, which, by our do-nothing policy, leaves our section, 
 though older, with a more genial and favored climate, with a richer 
 and more productive soil, far behind. 
 
 One of the main pillars of democracy, Mr. Douglas, was the au- 
 thor, I believe, of the land-grant system. Under his auspices, Illi- 
 nois obtained from the General Government certain public lands, 
 which that State granted to the Illinois Central Railroad Company. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, when I look back to this action of Congress and of 
 the State of Illinois ; when I look at the surroundings of that great 
 State, and see her navigable waters of the lake, the Mississippi, the 
 Ohio, the Wabash, the Illinois River, and her canal, and regard her en- 
 tire territory, a long, narrow State, in no place very distant from nav- 
 igation, without half the productive capacity possessed by my State, 
 and remember the public debt and taxation that weighed her down 
 at that time, and contrast it with her present population, taxable 
 values, and prosperity, I am filled with admiration at the sagacity 
 and wisdom of her great statesman, Mr. Douglas. What was she in 
 1850, borne down and crushed with debt and taxation, incurred by a 
 foolish effort to build up a system of internal improvements by State . 
 aid? 
 
 She incurred a debt of $20,000,000 and had secured scarcely^ a mile- 
 of completed railroad; but Mr. Douglas invoked the aid of Congress; 
 
20 
 
 uiid got a grattt of lands of six sections per mile, some of which had 
 been in the market for years, and, under the graduating law, could 
 have been entered at thirty-seven and one-half cents per acre. 
 
 Yet with this grant a railroad Avas speedily constructed from Cairo 
 to Chicago, and a branch to Dubuque, on the Upper Mississippi, mak- 
 ing connections with points that already had connections by navi- 
 gable waters. In 1850 the population of Illinois was 846,000, now it 
 is a little less than three millions. At that time Illinois owed 
 $20,000,000, and her people groaned under a most ruinous load of tax- 
 ation. Then her taxable property and values were $156,265,000. 
 Then she had scarcely a mile of completed railroad. Now, mark the 
 extraordinary change : In 1870 her taxable values were $2,121,680,000; 
 her debt has been discharged by the 7 per cent, tax paid by the Illi- 
 nois Central Railroad, and her State government is largely supported 
 from the same source ; and besides her navigable waters, she has 
 six thousand four hundred and ninety-six miles of railroad. Who 
 can wonder at her prosperity ? Who should wonder that, though 
 younger than any of the original thirteen States ; younger than Ken- 
 tucky and Tennessee, she should be the fourth State in population 
 and influence in the (government. Her climate, her production, her 
 area, her mineral wealth, are not superior, indeed they are inferior, to 
 those of Missouri, and yet she is far ahead in population, wealth, 
 and political influence. 
 
 I ask my southern friends to draw a useful lesson from these facts. 
 It cannot be too strongly impressed upon them. Southern statesman- 
 ship should heed it. 
 
 While southern members of Congress have been stickling about 
 State rights and the powers conferred on Congress by the Constitu- 
 tion, northern statesmanship has asked and obtained favors from the 
 Government that have conquered the inhospitality of climate ; turned 
 the wilderness of the great Northwest into populous States; built up 
 commercial centers of trade; populated the desolate valleys, plains, 
 and mountain-tops of our distant Territories, and made the sterile 
 regions of Utah and Nevada contribute to the wealth and prosperity 
 of the nation. 
 
 While these things have been going on the politicians of Arkansas, 
 Louisiana, Mississippi, the Carolinas, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Ken- 
 tucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Texas, and Missouri have been talking 
 about State rights, about the powers conferred by the Constitution, 
 and the true policy to be pursued by the Government. 
 
 The report of the chairman of the committee on this bill shows 
 that both the political parties were pledged to this measure of a Pa- 
 cific railroad in 1860. The necessity is as great now as then ; neces- 
 sity forced a line where it was then hardly anticipated. 
 
 Can either party or any person say that the present constructed 
 line is not a monopoly which Congress seems powerless to control, 
 or that the proposed measure will not take off a great burden both 
 from the Government and the public, and make that competition 
 which will lead to reasonable charges for fares and freights, and 
 leave commerce unfettered to seek the safest and cheapest passage 
 across the continent ? 
 
 Not only are the two great political parties pledged to such work, 
 but the people from every section of the Union have spoken out in 
 favor of congressional aid to a southern line. The States of Texas, 
 Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, South Carolina, Florida, 
 Kentucky, North Carolina, and Georgia, through their Legislatures. 
 haVe passed resolutions approving the measure. The National Grange, 
 
21 
 
 which met at Charleston two years ago, declared in favor of it. The 
 convention which met at Saint Louis last year, with delegates from 
 almost every State and Territory, eight hundred in number, gentle- 
 men of high character and ability, memorialized your body on this 
 subject and recommended the branches provided for in this bill. 
 
 Then, sir, it is evident that the people and every interest of the 
 country, except rival corporations and cities that desire a monopoly 
 of transcontinental commerce, are in favor of Congress doing some- 
 thing to promote the speedy completion of this work. 
 
 And now, sir, I appeal to every fair and just minded member 
 of this body, regardless of section, to come forward and sustain a 
 measure that can have no ill-effect upon any section or any interest 
 of the country, but which cannot fail to lighten the burdens of Gov- 
 ernment and of commerce ; that will give renewed life and vigor to 
 the industries of a large section of country ; that will, in some de- 
 gree, restore the equality of Government support to a portion of the 
 States and Territories that have heretofore received very little of its 
 bounty or care ; a measure that none can deny will be most potent in 
 giving lasting peace and quiet to an extensive border that has suf- 
 fered untold miseries for want of adequate protection; that will 
 prove an economy in the operations of the Army, in the transporta- 
 tion of supplies to troops and to Indians ; in the postal and tele- 
 graphic service of the Government, that can be attained in no other 
 way ; that will open up new fields of industry and production and 
 create new demands for the products of industries already in exist- 
 ence, that, without it, will never occur : that will open new fields for 
 the acquirement of cheap homes for the many thousands of the home- 
 less in the land who desire them ; that will create a demand for and 
 afford labor to the thousands of hungry and suffering toilers who to-day 
 seek but cannot get employment ; that would secure from a neighbor- 
 ing republic a largely increased commerce, bringing to us their exports 
 and taking in return our productions, whose trade is now almost entirely 
 enjoyed by other countries ; a measure, sir, which, if carried into effect, 
 will restore activity to a thousand furnaces whose fires are now going 
 out, and bring back the cheerful, busy hum of industry in a thousand 
 shops now idle ; a measure, sir, that proposes not to curtail the labor or 
 industry of the country, but would largely increase the demand for 
 the one and greatly stimulate the other ; a measure that would not di- 
 minish the circulation of coin or Government paper, that would not 
 inflate the currency, but which would bring from abroad millions 
 upon millions of foreign capital to add to our circulation of money, 
 and which, during the fifty years the bonds have to run, will be paid, 
 not by the mass of our people or by the Government, but by foreign 
 commerce and by that portion of our people who may vise the road for 
 travel or traffic ; a measure, sir, that will, in my judgment, do more 
 to restore the ancient feeling of good-will and esteem between the 
 people of the different sections of the Union and more effectually 
 wipe out the bitter remembrances of the late civil war than any to 
 which we can address ourselves, and which, if consummated, will 
 bind all the interests and sections of this great Republic so closely 
 and firmly together that we will forever remain one people, one 
 Union, one Republic, linked and bound together by ties so strong, so 
 interwoven with every interior interest, and so expansive as to clasp 
 the remotest and most distant sections of the country creating a 
 unity of interest and reliance of one section upon another, so strong 
 and so enduring, that all the powers of earth could not prevail against 
 
 113. 
 
22 
 
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
 
 January 24, Ie77. 
 
 Mr. LAMAR, from the Committee on the Pacific Railroad, submitted 
 the following report to accompany bill H. R. No. 4531 : 
 
 The committee on the Pacific Railroad, to whom were referred 
 House bills Nos. 25, 89, 472, 1035, 1305, and 3140, after considering the 
 same, have instructed me to report the accompanying bill as a sub- 
 stitute therefor, with the recommendation that it do pass. 
 
 PURPOSE OF THE BILL. 
 
 The purpose of the bill which the committee report is to make cer- 
 tain amendments in the original acts chartering the Texas Pacific 
 Railroad, by which amendments that enterprise will be relieved from 
 the consequence of failure to comply with the terms of the original 
 charter, and will receive such aid from the General Government as 
 will secure its completion. 
 
 The causes which interfered with and prevented the prompt execu- 
 tion of the conditions originally attached to the charter, and which 
 may be stated briefly but entirely to have been the disastrous and 
 universal fall in value of all railroad securities in the money markets 
 of the world consequent upon the financial panic of 1873, are suffi- 
 ciently well known. They were causes disconnected with any spe- 
 cial mismanagement of the road itself, and simply rendered it impos- 
 sible for the corporation to complete within a given time a certain por- 
 tion of the work they had undertaken to accomplish, although they 
 have completed and equipped 445 miles of road, which is doing a great 
 work in the development of the country it traverses. There is noth- 
 ing in the history of its management, and certainly no change in the 
 immense national importance of the road itself, which would make 
 this delay in its completion a ground for suspending its franchises or 
 denying it any aid which the interests of the country and the consti- 
 tutional power of Congress should, under other circumstances, fitly 
 grant it. 
 
 The only questions, therefore, which this bill submitted to the con- 
 sideration of the committee were these two : Has Congress the con- 
 stitutional power to grant such aid as it proposes ; and, second, Is it 
 the interest of the whole country that this aid should be granted ? 
 
 IS THE AID PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL? 
 
 With regard to the constitutional power, the question would almost 
 seem to have passed the point of practical discussion. If there is one 
 point in the general policy of the country which seems to lie in con- 
 sonance with the convictions and in harmony with the interests of 
 all sections, it is that the coinpletest, fullest, strongest, and most sen- 
 sitive sympathy, politically, commercially, and socially, should be 
 established between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, that this great 
 continent shall be indeed one republic. The universality and force 
 of this sentiment cannot be better illustrated than by citing the dec- 
 larations of principles set forth in the platforms of the great political 
 parties into which the people of the country are divided. 
 
 THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY COMMITTED TO THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF SUCH AID. 
 
 The democratic national convention of 1860, which at Charleston, 
 South Carolina, nominated Stephen A. Douglas for President, adopted 
 as part of their platform the following resolution : 
 
 3. That one of the necessities of the age, in a military, commercial, and postal 
 point of view, is a speedy communication between the Atlantic and Pacific States ; 
 and the democratic party pledge such constitutional Government aid as will insure 
 the construction of a railroad to the Pacific coast at the earliest practicable period. 
 
23 
 
 The convention held at Baltimore in the same year which nom- 
 inated John C. Breckinridge for President also adopted as part of its 
 platform the following : 
 
 Whereas one of the greatest necessities of the age, in apolitical, commercial, pos- 
 tal, and military point of view, is a speedy communication between the Atlantic 
 and Pacific coasts: Therefore, 
 
 Be it resolved, That the national democratic party do hereby pledge themselves 
 to use every means in their power to secure the passage of some bill, to the extent 
 of the constitutional authority of Congress, for the construction of a Pacific rail- 
 way, from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, at the earliest practicable 
 moment. 
 
 THE REPUBLICAN PARTY COMMITTED TO THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF SUCH AID. 
 
 In the republican platform of 1860 we find the following proposi- 
 tion: 
 
 That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean is imperatively demanded by the interests of 
 the whole country, and that the Federal Government ought to reader immediate 
 and efficient aid in its construction. 
 
 THE GOVERNMENT COMMITTED TO THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF SUCH AID. 
 
 The necessity for this work of union had scarcely impressed itself 
 upon the people when the civil disturbances of 1861-'65 forced its ex- 
 ecution upon the Government, but under circumstances which com- 
 pelled that Government to make its practical connection more north- 
 wardly than under other circumstances would, perhaps, have been 
 deemed most judicious. But the work even then undertaken and ac- 
 complished at such prodigious expense, and with such masterful en- 
 ergy, developed a system of Pacific connection which it was evident 
 could not reach its full and symmetrical completion until a more 
 southern Pacific connection had been added to that already perfected. 
 The road as proposed in this bill completes and perfects this system, 
 and as the General Government has largely and liberally furnished aid 
 and subsidy to what has already been accomplished, it would simply 
 be a reversal of an established policy to refuse some sort of effectual 
 aid to complete what had been so wisely and thoroughly commenced. 
 And it would scarcely seem consistent with the spirit of justice and 
 fair dealing, to say nothing of the inconsequence and impolicy of 
 leaving the system half finished, to refuse to the southern section of 
 the country the same facilities which are afforded to the North, and 
 which it must be remembered are the contributions of the South as 
 well as the North. 
 
 There are sufficient reasons in the history of the Pacific connection 
 why the most northern routes should have been first completed, but 
 these reasons are deprived of nearly all their force unless these routes 
 are considered as only parts of one great national system into which 
 it is high time that southern interests should be fully incorporated. 
 Looking upon the road proposed, therefore, as the completion of a sys- 
 tem already in operation, the committee feel that this bill does no 
 more than give to it the share to which it is fairly entitled as a part 
 of that system of Pacific connection which the policy of the country 
 has enacted and the aid of the Government has partially completed. 
 
 Even then, if the committee felt that there was reasonable doubt 
 as to the power of Congress to give the aid furnished by the guaran- 
 tee of interest proposed, they would find themselves in the face of 
 these facts : that during the war, under the pressure of national 
 preservation, the General Government had found itself compelled to 
 give aid and subsidy to the completion of a Pacific connection, the 
 location ef which was limited to a certain section, and in determin- 
 ing which it was not allowed to consider fairly and fully the inter- 
 ests and necessities of the whole country, because the circumstances 
 
24 
 
 of the -war had ..withdrawn some of these interests and necessities 
 from their control. At the close of the war, when the interests of 
 the whole country are again committed to their national guardian- 
 ship, we find that this connection, proper in itself and eminently 
 serviceable to the country, is yet a sectional advantage, if not mo- 
 nopoly, and does discriminate against the interests of a portion of 
 the country, unless that section is now permitted to enjoy the same 
 advantages of governmental aid, though in a greatly modified and 
 much more secure form, that have been extended to other sections. 
 Surely, whatever may be the constitutional view, the policy, once 
 adopted, must be presevered in until this inequality is redressed. 
 
 If the past aid given was right, then so is this. If the past aid 
 given was wrong, its result can only be corrected by allowing it to 
 work until it has corrected its own partiality ; because what has been 
 accomplished, if not carried out as a national system extending to all 
 sections, would be simply to confine the advantage of the Pacific con- 
 nection to one section, and, from the utter inability of the South to 
 complete its own connection, render that now existing between the 
 Atlantic and Pacific coasts a northern monopoly, not objectionable 
 because northern, but because it would be a monopoly injurious to 
 the interests of the whoV Country. 
 
 ARGUMENT TO SHOW THE COXT T TUTIOXALITY OF SUCH AID. 
 
 But the committee does not feel any reasonable doubt of the right 
 of the Government to contribute the aid provided in this bill to the 
 completion of a railroad which is really necessary to its military and 
 postal arrangements, in which the aid rendered is amply secured, and 
 where the public are protected by proper legislation against the selfish 
 use by the road of the power thus given it. 
 
 There is no question that the Government has the right to build its 
 own military and postal roads, where necessary, and if by a combi- 
 nation with private enterprise it can secure such roads under its gen- 
 eral control at a less expense, and with contingent advantage to the 
 country through which such roads pass, it is difficult to see why this 
 method of executing its powers should be any less constitutional than 
 their direct and more costly exercise. It also appears to your com- 
 mittee that if the general power to regulate commerce justifies the 
 execution of ocean surveys, the erection of light-houses, the subsi- 
 dizing of mail contracts by sea, it would be difficult to say why the 
 same power would not authorize the use of any means which would 
 secure and facilitate the means of transacting a commerce not less 
 important or vast in its ever-growing proportions, a commerce which 
 does not pass from State to State, protected by the law, the order of 
 self-governing communities, but crossing great prairies, immense 
 mountain-ranges, vast territories, in which the only guardian of cir- 
 culation and protection of property is the Federal Government. And 
 while the committee feel too profound a reverence for the Constitu- 
 tion to tolerate any trifling with its positive and salutary provisions, 
 they feel, to use the emphatic language of one of the greatest states- 
 men of the South, Mr. Hunter, of Virgiaia, who has proved his faith 
 by the uncomplaining sacrifice of a great future, that " To prevent 
 so grand an achievement by interposing objections, claimed by an 
 extreme extension of the State-rights doctrine where there is neither 
 use nor necessity for it, is only to bring into odium and ridicule those 
 grand old bulwarks of human liberty, those prime defenses of Ameri- 
 can harmony and progress ;" that, " we weaken them by attempting to 
 stretch them to cases which they do not cover in right reason, and 
 
25 
 
 where the obtrusion of such considerations can onlj- seem to shock 
 the common sense of mankind." 
 
 THE GOVERNMENT SECURED AGAINST LOSS. 
 
 Bat the committee are fully of opinion that all such aid should be 
 rendered on such conditions as will guarantee the Goverment against 
 sacrifice and protect the people against the selfish exercise of the 
 privileges and power which such aid confers. 
 
 The committee think that the provisions of this bill secure this 
 end. The guarantee asked is'the guarantee only of the interest upon 
 the company's own bonds, which secures the bond against the fluctua- 
 tions in value of such security. 
 
 THE LINE OF ROUTE. 
 
 Since the reference to the committee of the various bills on this 
 subject introduced at the last session, the Texas and Pacific Railway 
 Company has completed its road from Marshall, Texas, to Fort 
 Worth, in that State, on the trunk line, completing it also from Tex- 
 arkana to Sherman on the transcontinental line, making in all about 
 four hundred and forty-five miles finished, equipped, and operating. 
 
 The bill, therefore, as now reported, provides for the construction 
 of a railway line from Fort Worth to San Diego on the Pacific coast ; 
 authorizing the Texas and Pacific Railway Company to construct a 
 road from Fort Worth to the Rio Grande near El Paso ; thence west- 
 wardly one hundred miles into New Mexico until it forms a junction 
 with the line of the Southern Pacific Company, which is by the act 
 given a like authority to build a road from San Diego, connecting 
 with its line at San Gorgonio Pass ; thence to or near Fort Yuma on 
 the Colorado River ; thence eastwardly along the thirty-second par- 
 allel of north latitude until it meets with the line of the Texas and 
 Pacific Railway Company at the designated point of junctions. 
 
 It also provides for the construction of lines of railway from the 
 main trunk to Saint Louis, New Orleans, Vicksburgh, and Memphis. 
 To secure the connection with Saint Louis, the Atlantic and Pacific 
 Railroad Company is authorized to construct a line from its present 
 terminus, at Vinita, Indian Territory, southwestwardly, so as to in- 
 tersect with the main trunk at a point between the ninty-ninth and 
 one hundredth degree of longitude, upon the condition that that com- 
 pany renounces its right under its former charter to build to the Pa- 
 cific Ocean, and to surrender to the Government the 33,000,000 t of acres 
 of land granted therein, and to release the Government from its obli- 
 gation to extinguish the Indian title to any lands voluntarily granted 
 to it by the Indians. 
 
 TERMS AND CONDITIONS ON WHICH THE PROPOSED AID IS GRANTED. 
 
 The bill requires that the road shall be built in sections of ten con- 
 secutive miles : that commissioners appointed by the President shall 
 inspect the road as it is built, and upon the certificate that such sec- 
 tion is completed in accordance with the provisions of the law the 
 Secretary of the Treasury shall deliver to the company its own bonds, 
 not exceeding $35,000 per mile for the main trunk and $25,000 for the 
 branches, and $30,000 on the San Diego connection. If, however, a 
 less number of bonds be found, upon examination, to be sufficient to 
 meet the cost of construction and equipment, then the number of 
 bonds delivered to be correspondingly reduced. Upon these bonds 
 so delivered the Government indorses its guarantee to pay the interest, 
 at 5 per cent., in case the company should fail to do so. The guarantee 
 of the Government therefore cannot, on any part of the road, exceed 
 
26 
 
 $1,750 per mile, nor $17,500 for any section of ten miles. The security 
 which the bill provides against loss upon this guarantee of 5 per 
 cent, is 
 
 First. A mortgage, paramount to all other liens, upon the road, its 
 equipments, net earnings, and proceeds of sales of the lands of the 
 company. 
 
 Second. The application to the payment of this interest of amounts 
 due from the Government for postal and Army transportation and 
 telegraphic facilities. 
 
 Third. The retention of $5,000 per mile in any event, and more if 
 the road cost less than the average specified, of the guaranteed bonds, 
 with the right to sell and use the proceeds in making up the deficiency 
 of the payment guaranteed, should such deficiency exist. 
 
 Fourth. The payment into the Treasury of so much of the net 
 earnings of the road as will be sufficient to meet the interest required. 
 
 The trunk line upon which guaranteed bonds are to be issued is 
 
 Miles. 
 
 Mainline, from Fort Worth to Foit Yamu 1,187 
 
 San Diego connection, from San Gorgonio 1 100 
 
 Eastern connections : 
 
 Vinitato the Texas and Pacific 325 
 
 Shreveport and Vicksburgh extension to Monroe 96 
 
 Marshall to New Orleans 337 
 
 Jefferson to Memphis 260 
 
 Total trunk line 1,187 
 
 San Diego extension 100 
 
 Eastern connections 1, 018 
 
 THE SECURITY OF THE GOVERNMENT AMPLE AND COMPLETE. 
 
 Assuming the maximum amount of bonds which can be used for con- 
 struction, we have, on the trunk line from Fort Worth to Fort Yuma, 
 1,187 miles ; at $35,000 per mile we have $41,545,000 with the annual 
 interest on the same of $2,077,250. 
 
 On 100 miles for San Diego connection, at $30,000 per mile, we have 
 a total issue of $3,000,000, with an annual interest of $150,000. 
 
 On the eastern connections, including the Vinita, New Orleans, 
 Vicksburgh, and Memphis connections, we have a total distance of 
 1,018 miles, at $25,000 per mile, with the total issue of bonds to the 
 amount of $25,450,000, at an annual interest of $1,272,500. 
 
 Total of bonds that can be issued for construction under the pro- 
 visions of this bill, $69,995,000, with a total annual interest of 
 $3,499,750. 
 
 This liability of $3,499,750 of annual interest, we repeat, is pro- 
 tected, under the provisions of the bill, by a first mortgage upon all 
 the property and net earnings of 2,305 miles of road, so that an earn- 
 ing of $1,750 on the trunk or main line, and $1,500 per mile on the 
 short San Diego connection of 100 miles, and $1,250 per mile on the 
 eastern connections, will more than amply secure the Government. 
 
 Certainly a mortgage on property worth $40,000 per mile at an 
 original cost to secure a liability of $2,000 per mile, will place the 
 security of the mortgagee beyond any conceivable contingency. 
 
 Besides this, the Government reserves all the earnings from its own 
 transportation, mails, and telegraph service, and receives the proceeds 
 of all the United States and State lands granted in aid of the con- 
 struction of the line, as follows : 
 
 Acres. 
 
 "United States land grants, west of El Paso 16,640,000 
 
 Texas grants, east of El Paso to Fort Worth 7,680,000 
 
 Grants in Louisiana, approximately 2,490,000 
 
27 
 
 This calculation, it will be observed, is based ou the aggregate 
 amount of bonds that can be issued for construction under the bill ; 
 but it is believed that the roads can and will be constructed and 
 equipped for a sum of money greatly below this estimate, thus re- 
 ducing the amount of the guaranteed bonds that will be issued, and 
 consequently the annual interest charge very materially, probably 20 to 
 25 per cent, below the figures given. When it is considered that the 
 Union and Central Pacific roads, by their last annual reports, July 1, 
 1876, show gross earnings of $12,910 per mile, with gross expenses of 
 operating of $5,520 per mile, leaving average net earnings of $7,388 
 per mile, or more that three times the amount of net earnings re- 
 quired on the main line, four times the amount on the San Diego line, 
 and five times as much as on the branches, to pay the interest on the 
 amount of bonds proposed to be issued by the roads to be aided under 
 this bill, there can be no reasonable doubt that the earnings of the 
 lines under discussion will greatly exceed the sum needed to meet 
 the liability of the Government by the proposed guarantee of inter- 
 est, and that there will never be required from the Treasury of the 
 United States the advance of a dollar of the money of the people. 
 
 In addition to this security the Government will retain in its vaults 
 $5,000 per mile of the bonds of the companies, or $12,000,000 in all, 
 as a contingent fund, with the full power in the Secretary of the 
 Treasury to sell any portion of the same at the expense of the com- 
 panies, to meet any possible liabilities during construction or other- 
 wise. 
 
 It is believed, too, that the reserve will be greatly increased by rea- 
 son of the reduced cost of constructing and equipping the lines, 
 through the ability of the company to secure capital on a cash basis, 
 and the diminished cost of labor and material. 
 
 It appears to the committee that if ever a guarantee was protected 
 by the provisions under which it was given, this is. 
 
 THE INTERESTS OF THE PEOPLE PROTECTED AGAINST COMBINATION OU MONOPOLY. 
 
 As to the interests of the people, it will be observed that the bill 
 makes it impossible for the trunk line to become a monopoly strong 
 enough to sacrifice local interests, for ev ery local connection has the 
 right, under the provisions of the bill, to use the trunk line as if it 
 were in fact a part of it, and this right is capable of legal enforce- 
 ment. It will be further observed that the bill provides for control 
 by Congress over the rates for transportation of freight and passen- 
 gers, and for postal and telegraphic service. Whether this control 
 should be absolute or limited by the phrase "under general laws ap- 
 
 Elicable alike to railroads aided by the Government of the United 
 tates," was a question gravely considered by the committee. With- 
 out special and unfavorable reference to other and previous legisla- 
 tion, it is sufficient to say that in the opinion of the committee this 
 limitation seemed rather a confirmation and extension to this road of 
 privileges and franchises hitherto unwisely conferred, than a clear 
 declaration of power on the part of Congress, which ought to be care- 
 fully and judiciously exercised, but the right to exercise which ought 
 neither to be doubted nor crippled. The committee felt that the sub- 
 ject was a delicate and difficult one. They felt on the one hand that 
 a great enterprise, in which large private fortunes have been risked, 
 should not be at the mercy of congressional legislation, affected, as 
 it must always be in such cases, by selfish combination or popular ex- 
 citement. But, on the other hand, they could not consent to leave 
 any such enterprise, so largely aided by the Government credit, and 
 
28 
 
 so directly affecting great public interests, entirely free from such con- 
 trol. 
 
 If they attempted to fix a rate of profit beyond which Congress 
 should have the right to interfere, they would be forced to come to 
 their conclusion on very insufficient information, and to expose the 
 corporation to the temptation of coloring the reports of their busi- 
 ness so as to maintain the rate of profit at a point nominally below 
 the rate of interference. To leave the rate uncertain and require 
 simply a reasonable profit, would be to introduce subjects of very 
 difficult discussion, and impose upon Congress the decision of differ- 
 ences between the corporation and the public, not only very difficult 
 of decision, but open to influences which it is the great desire of the 
 people to see forever excluded from the National Legislature. The 
 committee have therefore deemed it simplest, wisest, and best to rec- 
 ognize the power which Congress unquestionably possesses, and to 
 leave its exercise to the wisdom and patriotism of each succeeding 
 Congress as the great enterprise develops healthy and beneficial pro- 
 portions. 
 
 SUMMARY OF ADVANTAGES OI^ THE PROPOSED ENTERPRISE. 
 
 In concluding this report the committee desires to say that it has 
 been adopted after the most careful consideration. The committee 
 could not help feeling that legislation of this sort was growing un- 
 welcome to the popular sense ; that there was a general conviction 
 that it was too liable to be controlled by speculative and selfish in- 
 fluences, and that in most of it, however disguised, there lurked some 
 private advantage gained at the public expense. They have scru- 
 tinized this bill as thoroughly and as conscientiously as their ability 
 permitted, and they are of opinion that the scheme proposed is honest 
 and patriotic in its purpose, and that while from it, as from every en- 
 terprise of the kind properly and economically completed, there must 
 result great advantage to individuals, yet that, in this case, the pri- 
 vate gain will not have been made at the public expense, and that 
 the advantages to the Government and the people are ample com- 
 pensation for that use of the Government's credit which they advise. 
 
 The construction of this road and the completion of its branches 
 will bring the vast region it traverses a region of surpassing rich- 
 ness, adapted to the culture of the finest cotton, to the production of 
 wool, the raising of cattle, teeming with agricultural resources, and 
 abounding in mineral wealth into connection with all the great cities 
 on the Atlantic seaboard, and also with all the interior centers of trade 
 in the West and Northwest. It will bring the merchants and manu- 
 facturers of the East into a direct, easy, and cheap communication 
 with the commerce of the Pacific coast, Mexico, and Asia, and thus 
 open up to them new and invaluable markets for the surplus products 
 of their manufacturing industry and skill. With its branch lines ex- 
 tending to New Orleans, Vicksburgb, and Memphis, and with its con- 
 nections with Galveston, it will not fail to infuse new life and pros- 
 perity in the South, to develop its capital and resources, and to give 
 to the people of that section the assurance that in this great Union 
 their material interests are considered and protected, and that they 
 are to become in future full participants in its greatness and glory 
 and prosperity. 
 
 This material reconstruction, if thus wrought, will restore to the 
 North her greatest and best customer who will be enabled, by that 
 renewed interchange of those productions which formerly made the 
 exchange of southern and northern trade the vital energy of our na- 
 tional prosperity, to recommence a new and prosperous life a life 
 
29 
 
 produced by common interests, and illustrated by mutual respect and 
 affection. In the stimulus, by the exclusive use of American iron, 
 which it will give to our manufacturers ; in the supply of work 
 and wages to thousands of skilled and honest mechanics and labor- 
 ers who are now in destitution and despair ; and in unlocking and 
 putting into active circulation millions of dollars now hoarded and 
 lying uninvested in a few money centers, it will tend to relieve 
 much of the embarrassment of our financial affairs, and to restore our 
 agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial interests to their natural 
 condition of prosperity. It will effect a great economy to the Gov- 
 ernment in the transfer of its military forces, supplies, and mails, and 
 it is believed by your committee that the direct saying to the Govern- 
 ment will exceed the annual gross amount of the interest guaranteed 
 upon the bonds. 
 
 The advantages to the United States in conducting the administra- 
 tion of the courts in the Territories, and the benefits that will accrue 
 from the settlement of all matters relating to the Indian question, 
 and the protection of life and property on our borders, are so great 
 that your committee deem it only necessary to make a brief allusion 
 thereto. But your committee do not dare to enter at large upon the 
 advantages and importance of this road, either sectional or national, 
 for in their opinion the propriety of a complete system of Pacific con- 
 nection, and the essential necessity of this road as a part of that sys- 
 tem, have already been decided by the action of the Government, 
 and confirmed by the approval of the people, and they feel that in 
 recommending an adhesion to that policy they are advocating one of 
 the simplest and yet surest means of reconciling the interests and har- 
 monizing the sentiment of this whole country, and thus advancing 
 the approach of that future of universal peace and prosperity which 
 this people confidently anticipate, even in the midst of serious polit- 
 ical perplexity and threatened danger.