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which persons may make to the capital stock of the company within a limited time should be confined within a certain amount to each person, in order that these corporators and the friends whom they may choose to associate with them may not have the privilege of subscribing the whole amount of the capital stock, and thus preserve the close character of the corporation. If the whole amount shall not have been subscribed at the expiration of the time limited, then I would permit the corporators or others to subscribe in unlimited sums the remainder of the capital stock. I think that section of the bill should be amended in that form.

If this bill shall pass, there will be conferred upon this corporation an immense power, and it will be not only a commercial power but a political power in this Government. The amount in lands and bonds that we propose to donate to this corporation-for it really amounts to that-for the purpose of enabling them to build this road, will give it immense importance and power. And for the purpose of holding a more decided check upon the organization, I would amend the last section of the bill so as to retain in Congress the reserved right to repeal this act, and take away from the company all the rights, privileges, and franchises hereby conferred. I think that is a check which should be retained by the Government upon a corporation of this magnitude. It is our duty to guard the people against any such concentration of power as a corporation of this magnitude would possess uncontrolled by any check of the lawmaking power upon them.

Now, sir, I have indicated the various amend ments that I think ought to be made to this bill I do not desire to interfere with the main objects of the bill. I do not desire to break up the system proposed by the committee. I only desire that the bill shall be so perfected as that the public welfare shall be protected, and the interests of all guarded against encroachment by the corporation upon which we propose to confer so magnificent an endowment. I think the amendments I have indicated will accomplish that object.

Mr. WATTS. The world does not produce and never has produced such a nation as the American nation. But in all its power and in all its beauty, in all its richness and blessings, it has one little defect. And that defect is too much talk and too little action. [Laughter.]

Now, we have been talking about a Pacific railroad for the last ten years, and we have spent a sufficient time in fighting over the interests of this locality and that locality, over this route and that route and the other route, we have talked of all these various details long enough to have built a Pacific railroad, if we had only spent as much energy in action as we have in talk. Now, if we wait until all the debate that would arise upon a measure of this kind is concluded we shall never commence the work.

Mr. EDWARDS. I would like to know whether the gentleman from New Mexico is willing to be responsible for his share of talking?

Mr. WATTS. Entirely so; and my record will not compare unfavorably with that of the gentleman from New Hampshire, so far as the consumption of the time of the House is concerned. And while I am upon this particular branch of the subject, let me say a word to the distinguished and eloquent gentleman from New Hampshire, who has just taken his seat. I have listened to him upon all occasions with great pleasure, and particularly to-day, to what he said upon the subject of a Pacific railroad. I am glad to see that the gentleman begins fairly to appreciate that there is another section of country than that from which

he immediately comes, and other interests in the country than those which he peculiarly represents. I am glad he begins to appreciate the fact that there is a great West and a great Northwest, which in two years will come into these Halls, not only asserting her rights, but with the ability to enforce them. She will then have no need to appeal to the generosity of any man for justice.

That great West which the gentleman talks about has now a population represented on this floor of three hundred thousand more than all the other sections of the country that are here represented. And, sir, the great West does not come here to complain that thirty, fifty, or sixty millions of dollars are voted here, week by week, for the protection of the great commercial and other interests of the East; but she asks that some little measure of justice may at the same time be meted out to her when she asks that a measure shall be adopted that shall develop not only her's but the best interests of the great American public. And we believe that at the hands of our eastern friends the bill will have justice. We believe that it is in their hearts, that it is in their bosoms, to extend to us that justice which we deserve and which is our due. When we look at the record of the past, we are disposed only to remember their acts of kindness and generosity, rather than acts of injustice and wrong, and we believe they will not fail us now.

Now, sir, so far as the Territory from which I come and many of the other Territories are concerned, we are dependent upon the East, and we shall be more so as the facilities of communication increase, for many of our necessities of life. Every shoe in New Mexico comes from Boston, every article of dry goods comes from Philadelphia or New York, and our groceries come from Missouri.

Is it, then, any objection, is it any loss to the people of the East that we have a safe and speedy communication between the buyer and the seller? On the contrary, is it not a great advantage?

Let me now come to another point in connection with this subject. Look at the Mississippi river. Is there any member of this House who, for any consideration in money, would have that great, magnificent river blotted out of the continent? Well, sir, we propose to make a great Mississippi from one extremity of this continent to the other-one great artery, in which the channels of wealth and commerce can flow and be distributed throughout the length and breadth of the land. If there is a spectacle more humiliating than any other to the American people, it is to be compelled to ask the privilege of passing from one portion of our own country to another of some foreign Government. How is it now? We have to buy of the States of Central America the permission to cross the Isthmus for the purpose of communicating between the different portions of our own Republic, or else to spend weeks, months, and years of labor almost in crossing the broad plains that intervene.

In the

So far as these lands are concerned, there ought to be no objection to the donation proposed for the purpose of aiding the construction of this road. Let there be no objection on that score. There certainly should be none, for two reasons. first place we have stolen the lands from the Indians, and in the second place we have already received into the Treasury $62,000,000 more than the lands cost us. I do not see, then, any reason why we should not use the lands that remain in our possession for some general public purpose, rather than to devote them to some private pur

doses.

Now, then, so far as the constitutional objection is concerned, it reminds me very much of some of the able and eloquent addresses which I have heard in former days upon the subject of trade. One of the distinguished members from Pennsylvania, for instance, will make an elaborate argument in favor of free trade, but just before he sits down he will say, in effect, that we must have a little protection for iron. One of the able members from Louisiana will make a conclusive speech in favor of free trade, but closes with an appeal for a little protection for sugar. Another gentleman from Ohio makes an able and eloquent argument in favor of free trade generally, but before he sits down thinks the interests of the country require that there should be a little protection on wool. So in every section of the country all are in favor of the doctrine of free trade in the abstract, but each must have his particular interest protected. So in reference to the Pacific railroad; it has a great many friends; all are in favor of a Pacific railroad, but they do not just like the particular bill, nor will they like any bill unless it starts in the corner of every man's farm and runs through all his neighbors' plantations. [Laughter.]

Now, sir, all the propositions in reference to this Pacific railroad bill which have been presented by members of Congress were referred to a select committee, for the purpose of having them digested, and some plan reported which would be acceptable to the whole House, for the purpose of commencing the construction of this great work. The bill I had the honor to introduce, with many others, was thrown into the hands of that committee. After a careful consideration of all the measures before them, they reported the pending bill. It puts my bill and my opinions entirely out of the question. It leaves nothing of what I submitted. But that is no reason why I should oppose the report of the committee. It is a good step in the right direction. If any wrong or any injustice be now done to any section, a proper remedy can be provided hereafter. What we want now is to get the road started. That is the desideratum. Let something practical be done at this time. That committee was composed of intelligent gentlemen. They have matured a bill, and they have presented it for the action of this House. If it be not perfect, what then? There is nothing human that is perfect. Yet, sir, this bill is as perfect as any which could be matured and presented to this House. Why not, then, throw individual opinion aside and go for it?

Mr. Chairman, what we want in the House more than anything else is a leader. We want some one here who can represent the feelings and intentions of the business portion of the members. As it is now, scarcely a measure can be brought forward but half a dozen leaders instantly take the floor. Branches then are established, running out in all directions. If we have selected a judicious committee to which we have presented any inatter, let us have faith in that committee, and that the bill they may report is as perfect as they can make it. Let us stand by their bill and pass it. What a spectacle we would present if the Committee of Ways and Means, on every bill that it reported, permitted every member who felt like it to attach what amendments he pleased. We would never get any business through at all, or if we did there would be nothing but confusion and disorder in it. Then I say let us stand by the bill in this instance which was reported from the committee on the Pacific railroad."

I have a word to say now in reference to the objection of the gentleman from Iowa, [Mr. WILSON. If there is anv section of the country more

peculiarly favored by this bill than another, it is the State of Iowa. This bill has showered favors upon that section. It does secure to it a branch of this important railroad, which privilege it does not secure to any other State than the State of Iowa. Then, why should Iowa object?

Mr. WILSON. Does not this bill provide three branches for the State of Missouri?

Mr. WATTS. I do not understand that it does. The idea will strike every man who looks at the map, that a branch should go in the neighborhood of Fort Smith, so that there may be a connection with Memphis and all of the southern roads of the Atlantic sea-board. The main central road should go through the center of the country, at some point in Kansas ke Leavenworth. It is a matter of perfect indifference with me whether it is above Leavenworth or below Leavenworth.

But that is not all. I want to say another word in reply to my distinguished friend from Iowa. This bill has been drawn by the committee with a special reference to Iowa. Any one who will read the fourteenth section of the bill will see that the State of Iowa has under it one hundred miles of road west of the Missouri more than any other State.

Mr. WILSON. The roads in Iowa, under the provisions of this bill, will have to change their route and yield up the lands granted to them by the Government for the purpose of aiding in their construction.

Mr. CAMPBELL. This bill puts the roads in Iowa upon precisely the same footing as the roads in Missouri. If the local charters of the roads in Missouri or lowa require any supplementary legislation, I have no doubt that it can be procured. So far as lowa is concerned, there is nothing in this objection. Missouri and Iowa are upon precisely the same footing in regard to the grant of lands.

Mr. WILSON. I wish to ask whether this bill does not provide for the construction of three lines of railroad running west from the boundary of Missouri, one commencing at Kansas City, another at the terminus of the St. Joseph and Hannibal railroad, and the other at a point the name of which I now forget?

Mr. CAMPBELL. The gentleman from Iowa evidently has not read the bill. When he does read it, he will discover that the Missouri and Kansas roads are authorized to combine for the purpose of constructing a single line. As the bill contemplates a connection with all of the eastern roads, it authorizes them to unite in order to complete a single branch.

Mr. WILSON. Are not the three Missouri companies required to commence one branch at some point upon the western boundary of Kansas?

Mr. CAMPBELL. They are obliged to commence at Kansas City.

Mr. WATTS. When interrupted I was referring to the objection of the gentleman from Iowa, [Mr. WILSON.] In my judgment this bill gives to Iowa one hundred miles of advantage over any other State. It will be recollected that the roads in Iowa are not completed to the Missouri river. They are far from being completed to the Missouri river; and in order that they may be connected with the main trunk of the road, it will have to be deflected north instead of going direct west. It will have to be deflected to a great extent in order to accommodate the railroads in Iowa. If there is any injustice done at all, it is to the whole Union in compelling a deflection of one hundred miles north in order to form a connection with the Iowa branches.

Now I believe that the distinguished gentleman

from lowa will, upon reflection, conclude to sup port this bill, notwithstanding the Committee of the Whole may not choose to agree to the amendments which he proposes to offer. I believe that the time has come when there should be action on this matter. Every gentleman familiar with the business of this House knows that unless we trust something to the committee, and that unless we stand by the measure they have matured, the matter will be delayed from session to session, until finally nothing is done.

There has been much talk here about the great plains which are said to be sterile and to produce nothing. Let me say a word on that. Almost every man here likes a good beefsteak. How do you get it here? You take a plow, turn up the land, plant the corn, and when the autumn comes you gather the corn. Then you fatten your cattle with it. After months you succeed in getting a beefsteak. With a little powder and lead upon those sterile plains you can get a good beefsteak in fifteen or twenty minutes. They support more cattle than the rest of the country besides, and I believe that a white man is pretty near as good as an Indian, and can live on almost anything that an Indian can live upon. Then there are resources in this country, and if every acre of this soil that I am talking about will not produce a hundred bushels of corn, it will produce a hundred dollars worth of gold, or silver, or iron, or some other useful metal.

I have been some twenty-six times across the country, and am familiar with the route, and there is not upon the face of the earth any country where a railroad can be built at such little expense. I am somewhat familiar with the building of railroads, and know something about what country is suitable for building them and what is not, and up to the point where you reach the Rocky mountains, six hundred miles west of the Missouri, there are no obstructions in the way. It is a gentle ascent, and affords almost every facility for the construction of a railroad. After you reach that point, I must confess that "Jordan is a terrible hard road to travel "for some distance beyond, so far as a railroad is concerned. [Laughter.]

But, sir, I have been admonished by my friend from New Hampshire [Mr. EDWARDS] that I ought practically to act upon the maxim with which I started out, that it is action that is wanted upon this great subject, and not talk, and I will not further interrupt the progress of the debate with any remarks of mine.

Mr. PIKE. Mr. Chairman, the gentleman from New Mexico has informed the House that its great need is a leader. While he is busy looking after that desirable person, I will proceed to make a few remarks, and as undoubtedly he will find but little trouble in selecting a person who shall not only satisfy his desires, but the desires of all, he can announce him after I get through. Being somewhat accustomed to act upon my own judgment, and in accordance with the conclusions which I arrive at from the operations of my own mind, I propose to act with reference to this bill upon the conclusions I have formed after a slight examination of the subject.

I am in favor of the postponement of this bill until the next session of this Congress, and I wish to make one or two observations, giving the reasons why I am in favor of such postponement. The gentleman from New Mexico has further informed the House that the great difficulty under which we labor in this country is too much talk and too little action. Where has the gentleman been that he has not heard the sound of cannon within the last twelve months, that he has not seen or heard

of the march of a million of men, whose tread is now shaking this continent? It is because there is too much action, altogethe too great activity in various portions of this nation, that I am in favor of this postponement, and until we have some surcease of this immense activity, I shall continue to be in favor of postponement. For the present, I am in favor of postponing this bill until the first month of your next session. It may happily be that by that time we shall find out where we are and what prodigious load of debt is volved upon us and upon our descendants for years and years without end.

Consider for a moment the magnitude of this project which it is now attempted to launch upon this House. Eighteen hundred miles do not number the distance from Kansas City to Sacramento. Add to it the moderate margin of ten per cent., and you have two thousand miles of railroad in a direct line from Kansas City to Sacramento, at the head of the tide-water of California. In addition to that, there are four hundred miles of branch roads included in this scheme, making twentyfour hundred miles of railroad that we are now asked to build.

Well, sir, every man acquainted with the statistics of this country, knows that the average cost of railroads is at least thirty-five thousand dollars to the mile. In the State of Pennsylvania, which has three thousand miles of railroads, the cost is set down in the last estimate at $150,000,000— $50,000 per mile. How would it be with this railroad, starting from the western border of Missouri and running over the vast desert that lies between the valley of the Mississippi and the Rocky mountains, then scaling the mountains and landing the track upon the head-waters of the Sacramento river? Will any man say that you can build such a road with as little expense as you can construct roads in the thickly-settled East, where the materials are at hand, and where villages dot the line of the road; or as cheaply as in Pennsylvania, to which I have referred? No man who knows anything of statistics, no man who knows anything of the history of railroad building in this country, will for a moment suppose that this road can be built for a cost of less than $60,000 per mile. That is a moderate estimate, when you find roads in Pennsylvania costing $100,000 per mile, and the Baltimore and Ohio road costing-how much? Can any gentleman tell me, for I have not the figures in my mind now? I venture to say that it cost over fifty thousand dollars per mile.

Mr. CAMPBELL. The estimate for this road is $60,000 per mile.

Mr. PIKE. I was not aware of that. Then we will not quarrel about these figures.

Mr. CAMPBELL. The Government is to aid only to the extent of a little more than half the

cost.

Mr. PIKE. Then we have a road calling for $150,000,000. This bill calls for that sum.

Mr. CAMPBELL. The Government aid under this bill cannot exceed half the cost of the road. The other half of the cost is to be met without Government assistance.

Mr. PIKE. I am coming to that point. If the gentleman had paid attention, he would have found that I was hard upon it. I ask where is the great interest in this country, or combinations of interests, that is to furnish $75,000,000? Can any gentleman tell me? There is no travel from the Pacific coast to the eastern coast to justify it. Here are eighteen hundred miles of railroad, through an uninhabited country; one hundred passengers to the mile per annum gives one hun

dred and eighty thousand annually, a very large estimate of the carriage of passengers from one end of the road to the other. But what are one hundred passengers to the mile annually upon a road costing $50.000 per mile? Railroad men understand very well that a road where you cannot have two thousand passengers to the mile is a road not worth considering as a mercantile enterprise.

Now, there are two branches to this matter, and two legs upon which it finds support. One is the mercantile interest, which no gentleman who has discussed the question heretofore has ever put it upon. No man sees any money in this road except in the contracts for building it. The other ground is a political one, presenting considerations to which ordinarily my mind would yield cheerfully; but how is it now? How does this country stand now? Why, the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means announced to us the other day that on the 1st day of July, a time approaching very rapidly, the debt of this country will be $800,000,000. Sir, I find the mind is bewildered by these large figures. I have sometimes thought that the members of this House vote large sums more readily than small ones. This $800,000,000, as compared with the resources of this country and with the interest which that debt carries-from six to seven and three tenths per cent.-is a counterpart, and more than a counterpart, of the British national debt; so that on the 1st of July we shall be carrying a debt which is larger, in proportion to our resources-that is, to our valuation of property, and taking into consideration the difference in the rates of interest-than the British national debt is to the property valuation of Great Britain.

Nor is that all. Would that we could stop there. Would that we could say, "thus far, and no further." But can any gentleman on this floor tell me that our debt is to be kept down to that sum, and that so soon the smiles of peace are to bless us? Can any gentleman tell me that this war will not run through another year, and perhaps another, before it accomplishes, as I believe it ultimately will, the purpose which we all so much desire? Yes, Mr. Chairman, whenever we arrive at that point that we can say "this accumulation of debt is stopped;" when we can figure it up and say "so much interest annually shall be assessed on this people," then I will be willing to consider and to vote on a Pacific railroad. But now we are in a position not dissimilar to that of a man laboring under an acute disease from which it is doubtful in the eyes of the bystanders whether or not he will recover, and in regard to whom the question is whether you will present him with a plan of a beautiful dwelling calling for a large outlay of money, or whether you will not invest his money in medicines to bring him back to health, so that, by and by, he may be in a condition to occupy this beautiful abode. For one, I go for the medicine. I am perfectly willing to vote for the medicine. I am willing to vote any sum of money which shall cure our body politic and restore it to its accustomed health.

We have now, Mr. Chairman, a bill before us which, if carried out, will call for an appropriation very nearly equivalent to the assessment of $1,000,000 on the constituency of every member of this House. There are one hundred and eighty members here, including the gentleman from New Mexico and the Delegates from other Territories, and as the cost of the road is to be $150,000,000, it will be nearly equal to $1,000,000 for each of our constituencies. If the road is to be built, it is to be built as a national enterprise and at the national

cost. That cost the chairman of the special committee agrees with me in saying will be $60,000. to the mile, for a road of two thousand four hundred miles.

I know that nominally the Government is to be called upon only for the limited amount specified in the bill. But that is only nominal; when we begin to make investments we must go through. There is no corporation or body of men or interest which will furnish any considerable proportion of the outlay. We deceive ourselves if we think to get any amount worth reckoning out of private individuals.

And, sir, we do well to bear in mind that for us pay-day has come. For the first time for fortysix years, we are about to send the tax-gatherer among our constituents to get money to pay the debts we have been incurring. It was well enough to vote money freely when it could be replaced by the indirect methods we have practiced for nearly half a century, but now there is no disguise to be adopted. It is a bold and common-place dun. Every constituency is to be assessed and called upon at once.

Under these circumstances, I am in favor of a postponement of the bill until next winter, when we can ascertain more clearly than we now can, whether or not we should vote this large appropriation.

Mr. KELLEY. Mr. Chairman, the argument of the gentleman from Maine, [Mr. PIKE,] more thoroughly than that of the gentleman from New Mexico, [Mr. WATTS,] has persuaded me that this bill ought to be passed immediately.

Prior to the completion of the Pennsylvania Central railroad, the traveler through that region of country used to ascend the Alieghany mountains by a series of inclined planes. The route was picturesque, the scenery grand, and distinguished travelers were very often, in violation of the rules of the company, taken to the front platform of the car that they might enjoy the view of the grand natural panorama. One such traveler was an old marshal of the first Bonaparte. As the train ascended plane number six, approaching the summit level, the old soldier manifested his interest in the scene by perfect silence; but as the car ran on the broad level and he caught a glimpse of its fields of golden wheat and verdant meadows, he exclaimed, with the voice of a stentor," Attention, the universe! Nations, about face! Before me lies the granary of the world, the garden of the future. He beheld, in imagination, the great valley of the Mississippi, which embraces the West and the great Northwest, which have been talked about in this Hall to-day so proudly and with so much justice.

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Mr. Chairman, the great indebtedness and the great activity of the country spoken of by the gentleman from Maine are, in my judgment, reasons why this work, so grand in its proportions and of such grandeur, in view of the results it is to produce to the country and the world, should be commenced at once. I ask the gentleman whether, if this bill were to become a law to-morrow, it would draw one dollar from the public Treasury this year or the next? Not one. The following year how large an amount would it require? One hundred and eighty thousand dollars. And in the next, scarcely double that sum. And when the road should be complete, some ten or twelve years hence, the annual payment which the Government would be called upon to make would be about five millions of dollars, nearly three millions of dollars less than the Departments now pay each year for transportation. What will be the position of the Government at the time of the completion of this

road, if begun forthwith? He who on that day should hold a position from which he might be heard, could command the attention of the civilized world and order its commerce to "about face." Our country would then occupy its just position and relation to the nations-a position and relation which it never can assume until this work shall be completed. Our hills and dales would then bear the most precious and weighty commerce of the world. The dream of Columbus, as I said the other day, would then be realized. Due west and due east over the railroad, the merits of which we discuss to-day, would move the commerce between busy Europe and the sluggish East.

Mr. PIKE. The bill requires the issue, to parties who build a section of forty miles, of bonds to a certain amount. What is to prevent parties building such sections at whatever points they choose, without regard to the termini? Will the gentleman inform us as to that?

Mr. KELLEY. As the Government aid is, as I understand the provisions of the bill, just about in the proportion of half the cost, I do not see that the Government would suffer much even if the people were thus to amuse themselves; but I do see that the forty miles thus made would be forty miles of railroad made in the right direction, and would be so much work done towards a great end.

Mr. Chairman, I am opposed to a postponement of this measure. The work is a great one. The time is a fitting one. I mark well the activity of which the gentleman spoke. I note the fact that we have six hundred thousand men in the field, in defense of the institutions of the country, and I feel that he who writes the history of this period should be able to say, that" so well poised were the people, so confident were they in the resources of their country and the durability of their institutions, that while they put an army of such strength into the field and sustained and appointed it as never army was sustained and appointed, they still, with a view to the future of their country, began the greatest work that ever a nation undertook-a railroad of two thousand miles in length, with branches of from four to six hundred miles, thus extending from ocean to ocean, over mountain and valley, the influences of a rivei which should carry the commerce of the world, and which should irrigate and stimulate, with all the influences of modern science, the wide space between the Pacific and the Mississippi, whereby America was to be and was made the great central figure in the civilization of the world, so that her arts, her language, her institutions, and her religion, flowed in easy channels with her commerce to the people of all nations, and made her the benefactor, the civilizer, the republicanizer, and the Christianizer of the world."

Mr. FESSENDEN. Mr. Chairman, I have a few words to say on this matter of a Pacific railroad. The project has been before the country and before Congress for several years. It has been discussed in all the newspapers of the land. It has been incorporated certainly into the platform of the Republican party, and I believe into the platform of the Democratic party. It has been presented heretofore in both branches of Congress by members of the Democratic party. It is familiar to us all that at the convention of the Republican party, by which Abraham Lincoln was nominated for President, a plank was inserted into the platform to the effect that a railroad to the Pacific ocean was imperatively demanded by the interests of the whole country.

If & railroad to the Pacific ocean was imperatively demanded by the interests of the whole country then, I ask whether that railroad is not

imparatively demanded by the interests of the whole country now? I ask gentlemen upon this floor what has transpired in this country, what change has taken place in our interests, that should render this resolution nugatory?

Mr. PIKE. Let me ask whether the war was included in the Chicago platform?

Mr. FESSENDEN. No, sir, it was not; but I take the ground that the war is an additional reason, and makes it still more imperative, so far as the interests of the country are concerned, that this railroad should be constructed. Why, sir, we hear time and again upon the floor of this House that there is imminent danger that a war with foreign nations may be involved in the issues of this civil war, and the question arises what, in such an emergency, is to become of the Pacific States? If we are to have a war with other nations, and we are in the same condition as regards the communication with the Pacific coast that we are to-day, I repeat, what are we to do? I hold, sir, that the military necessities of the country afford an additional reason for the speedy construction of this road to those which operated upon us when we met as a party in convention at Chicago and adopted our platform, upon which, as the Republican party, we intend to stand.

Now, I do not believe it will do for us as a party-if I may mention party in this connection -to ignore this plank in our platform. I do not believe it will do for us to deceive the people in this respect. We were in earnest, we meant what we said when we declared that the best interests of the country required the construction of this road. And now the people of the country ask us to come forward and redeem our pledge thus solemnly made. They say to us to-day, "give us a bill, give us a chance to act;" and when the gentleman asks where is the money to build the road with, it is sufficient to reply that the people have impliedly said that they will furnish the money by asking for the authority to build the road. They propose to furnish the money if Congress will furnish them the authority to expend it in the construction of the road.

Let us pass this bill, and the responsibility will rest with the people. It will have been removed from our shoulders to those of the people. If they cannot construct the road, if they have not the money, or if they decide that this is not the time to construct the road, they cannot turn round and say to Congress," the responsibility is upon you.

I believe with the gentleman from Pennsylvania, and with every gentleman upon this floor, that this is a work for a nation to accomplish. I believe that when constructed, if it ever be constructed, it will be a chain running through every State, binding them all together, every link of which is welded by a common interest and a common destiny. I believe it will be taking a great step towards a point at which we are some day to arrive, when American minds, American systems, and American influence will control throughout the world; towards the point which we hope one day to reach, when our ideas will prevail in the nations of Europe, Asia, and Africa.

But, sir, I am not in favor of the substitute which has been introduced by the gentleman from Pennsylvania as the Pacific railroad bill which this House should pass. I think the objections 20 that bill have been well stated by the honorable gentleman from Illinois, [Mr. LOVEJOY.] rather in favor of the substitute proposed by the gentleman from Illinois, and I rise more particuTarly to say that if gentlemen on the floor of the House will examine the two bills, and compare

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