rules, and go into the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union.

Mr. LOVEJOY. I ask the gentleman, before the vote is taken on that motion, to permit me to submit an amendment to the bill for the purpose of having it printed.

Mr. CAMPBELL. The gentleman will have the opportunity, I presume, to present his amend ment in the committee.

Mr. LOVEJOY. I desire to offer it now for the purpose of having it printed.

Mr. CAMPBELL. I do not object to the gentleman having his amendment printed.

The SPEAKER. Does the Chair understand the gentleman from Pennsylvania to consent that the amendment of the gentleman from Illinois may be printed merely, or that it may also be considered as a pending amendment to the bill in committee?

Mr. CAMPBELL. What I said was, that I did not object to the amendment the gentlemar proposes being printed. I presume he will have an opportunity of offering it in committee.

Mr. LOVEJOY. I hope the gentleman will not object to having the amendment offered to the bill, so that it may be considered as pending. Mr.CAMPBELL. Very well; I will not ob

ject.

There being no objection, Mr. LOVEJOY Sub mitted an amendment, in the nature of a substi tute, to the bill; which was ordered to be printed

PACIFIC RAILROAD-AGAIN.

Mr. CAMPBELL. I now ask for a vote on my motion to go into committee.

The motion was agreed to.

So the rules were suspended; and the House accordingly resolved itself into the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, (Mr. DAWES in the chair,) and proceeded to the consideration, as a special order, of the bill of the House (No. 364) to aid in constructing a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean, and to secure to the Government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes.

On motion of Mr. CAMPBELL, by unanimous consent, the first reading of the bill was dispensed with.

Mr. CAMPBELL. Mr. Chairman, a railroad and telegraph line, which shall connect the Atlantic and middle States with the Pacific coast, has become a military and commercial necessity. By all the rules that govern prudent, just, and enterprising nations, this great work should be prosecuted at once and with vigor.

It is surprising that a nation with vast resources and enterprising characteristics should not have completed a national project of such importance long before this. The tardiness that has marked the development of many of the nations of the Old World seems not to have presided at the birth and progress of the United States of America. Legislation adapted to our necessities, to our growth and progress, is the only course left for us to pursue if we would hold our place among the nations of the earth. And yet, in this regard, in connecting the States, Territories, trade, and people of the Pacific coast with the States, commerce, and people of the Atlantic coast, we have resisted the pressure of progress and the appealing necessities of the times.

The people in conventions assembled, of all parties, have resolved this railroad shall be constructed. Executives have called attention to the subject until the stereotyped item has no longer

attracted public attention. Secretaries have urged and recommended in vain. Explorations and surveys have been made, and reports, embraced in huge volumes, incumber our libraries, and convert Congress into a publishing house, while committees of both Houses have investigated and reported, time and again, on the utility and practicability of the work in question. Nay, more than this, in a recent eminent peril of collision with a naval and commercial rival-one that bears us no love-we ran the risk of losing, at least for a time, our golden possessions on the Pacific for want of proper land transportation, and shall we still pause, while the nation, sensible of the peril and the escape, call loudly on us to organize and push on this, the greatest enterprise of the age?

I have referred to the tardiness that has marked the development of material power in the Old World, and yet, in the instance of granting Government aid to public enterprises of the character of the one before us, they set us an example well worthy of imitation. The gentleman from California, [Mr. SARGENT,] in a very able speech made during this session, has abundantly shown that England has guarantied governmental aid to no less than seven railroad companies in British India, comprising some five thousand miles of road, at a contemplated cost of $200,000,000. In other words, to induce capitalists to embark in the construction of these roads, Government guarantied a certain per cent. profit on the entire cost.

The Russian Government has adopted the same policy in regard to the construction of her grand system of national highways, while our neighbors on the Canadian frontier, with Government assistance, are pushing on their Grand Trunk railway by the lakes and forests of the Northwest, towards the inexhaustible minerals, the fine harbors, the increasing traffic of Puget Sound and Vancouver's Island, with their proximity to the fisheries of the Pacific, and the trade of the East.

Sir, we cannot afford to be idle. Nations are never stationary. They advance or recede. We cannot remain inactive in the midst of national activity, without the loss of trade, of commerce, and power. A stream which is dammed up in one direction, will force a channel in a new direction. The commerce which we make no provision for in its natural course, will find other outlets and enrich other people. If we would protect our vast possessions and secure our proportion of the trade of the world, we must be enterprising, bold, vigorous, as well as sagacious. Steam applied to transportation by land and water has become almost universal among civilized nations. The only way to secure economy, celerity of movement, and certainty, is to employ steam. This new element of power has been brought into requisition in all the departments of life. To dispense with it now would be to return to the dark ages. Government will derive benefit from introducing it wherever it can be done, in the military, postal, and other operations of the nation. During the existing rebellion we have been enabled, by means of steamboats and railroads, to concentrate more decisive action on any given point in three months, than otherwise could have been done within one year; and this, too, at one fourth the cost.

On the ground of economy, which all admit to be of the first moment in the present position of public affairs, the construction of a Pacific railroad will save the Government annually a large sum, which truth I now propose to demonstrate.

General Samuel R. Curtis, in 1860, then the very able chairman of the House committee on the Pacific railroad, estimated the annual service

required by Government, and which could be better performed by a railway to the Pacific, at $5,000,000 for Army and Navy transportation, and $1,500,000 for postal service, amounting together to $6,500,000. But as this estimate was made from approximation, and not from actual expenditures, as per returns from the various Departments, the real figures show, so far as we have been able to procure them, that it was under the actual outlay. The following table will show the cost to the United States, for the transportation of troops and supplies between the Mississippi river and the Pacific coast, per annum, for the past five years, beginning and ending with the fiscal year. It will be observed that it is in reply to a resolution of inquiry addressed to the Secretary of War by the House. (See House Executive Document, No. 80.)

WAR DEPARTMENT,

WASHINGTON CITY, D. C., March 18, 1862. SIR: In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 19th instant. I have the honor to ransmit herewith a communication of the Quartermaster General, covering a report "showing the cost to the Government for the transportation, per annum, for the last five years, by steam or otherwise, for troops and supplies, between the Mississippi river and the Pacific coast, as well as intermediate points."

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
EDWIN M. STANTON,
Secretary of War.

Hon. GALUSHA A. GROW,

Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Fiscal year 1857: commencing July 1, 1856, and ending

June 30, 1857.

Showing an aggregate of $14,047,154 02 for five years, or $2,809,430 80 per annum. By reference to the note appended to the return it will be found that the Secretary of War adds:

"Large expenditures appertaining to this statement have been made at New York for California, at New Orleans for Texas, and other points in the East for Útah and New Mexico, the exact amount of which cannot be ascertained except by reference to the vouchers in the office of the Third Auditor of the Treasury, and which cannot be done without causing great delay."

The "large expenditures" referred to in this note, and which are not included in the return, may be explained by the fact that the freight contracted to be delivered by Russell, Majors & Co. to certain posts in Utah, Nebraska, Kansas, and New Mexico, is not included in quartermaster's supplies, and the amount, as the honorable Secretary informs us, could not be obtained "without causing great delay." But by referring to the parties themselves, or those best acquainted with the figures, we have, in round numbers, the following results:

Gross amount paid contractors for freight from the Missouri river to the forts on the plains and in Utah and New Mexico, as obtained from a member of the firm of Russell, Majors & Waddell, who were the contractors for 1858, 1859, and 1860: 1858, $4,000,000; 1859, $3,000,000; 1860, $1,500,000; 1861, not ascertained; 1862, estimate at least six millions.

The amount for 1858 was larger than in 1859 and 1860 because of the Utah war, some five thousand men being then in the field. The estimate for 1862 is large because of the troops now employed in New Mexico being double the number of those in Utah in 1858.

The foregoing estimates do not include the cost of conveying troops, tents, quartermaster's supplies, &c. These are transported by Government through its quartermasters, and not by contractors, but at an expense nearly, if not quite, equal the sum paid contractors. Government pays at the rate of $1 30 per one hundred pounds for one hundred miles, or say, twenty-six cents per ton per mile, from the Missouri river to the points indicated, two thirds of which could be carried on a Pacific railroad, on the route contemplated, at one tenth the present cost.

It may safely be concluded from this exhibit that the expenditures not embraced in the Secretary's statement are quite equal to, if they do not very much exceed, those contained within it, or $3,000,000 per annum, making army transportation to the Pacific and intermediate points cost per annum $5,809,430 80. So much for army transportation. The postal service may be placed at General Curtis's estimate of $1,500,000 per annum.

The following table will show the average cost of transportation for naval supplies from the eastern and Gulf ports of the United States to the Pacific coast:

NAVY DEPARTMENT, March 7, 1862.

SIR: In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 19th ultimo, I have the honor to furnish herewith a "statement showing the average cost of transportation for naval supplies, munitions of war, &c., for the last five years from the eastern and Gulf ports of the United States to the Pacific coast."

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, GIDEON WELLES. Hon. G. A. GROW, Speaker of the House of Representatives.

...............

To the Kansas company, with connections... $7,200,000 To the Central company.. 31,200,000 To the Nevada company.. 9,360,000 To the California company........... 5,920,000 $53,680,000

The bonds are to be issued at thirty years, and to bear interest at the rate of six per cent. per annum. When all the bonds shall have been issued (which will necessarily be at the completion of the road) the aggregate annual interest will amount to $3,892,080. I have shown that the Army and Navy transportation, and postal service to the Pacific, cost the Government annually $7,357,781. Take, then, the annual interest from the annual expenditure, and we have left a sinking fund of $3,465,701, a sum more than sufficient to extinguish the bonds before they become due, or what is the same thing in effect, saved to the Government by cheapening expenditure in that d..ection.

We have, at present, no means of ascertaining how much the rebellion has added to the cost of conveying supplies to that part of the country which could be reached by the railway connection indicated, but that it has increased the expenditure greatly no one can doubt. Thanks to the loyal people of California, Oregon, and Washington, we have not been called upon to quell rebellion on the shores of the Pacific. Could we have held the Pacific States against any general rising of the people in the absence of railway facilities? We might with immense expenditure; nay, could; for I doubt not the power of this Government to sustain itself against everything, but a railway to the Pacific would have aided us immensely. If England had committed the folly of giving material aid to the rebellion, as she hes given moral aid, our route by the Isthmus as well as water transit might have been cut off for a time, and then the transportation of armies, ordnance, and Army supplies through the passes of the Rocky mountains and the snows of the Sierras would have been an undertaking for which history furnishes no parallel. We have passed that crisis; how soon we may reach a second one I cannot tell, but it will be our folly, nay maduess, if we ever incur

the same great responsibility.

Without detaining the House on the question of the propriety of a Pacific railroad as a military want; as a commercial necessity for the requirements of internal traffic and foreign commerce; to secure the trade of the East as well as of the West; to strengthen our great nation by bringing us nearer together, and making us more one people; leaving all this for the present, I will proceed at once to explain, in practical detail, the bill before the House, which I had the honor to report from the special committee on the Pacific railroad. The bill was reported with entire unanimity, as gentlemen will observe there has not been any other measure reported from that committee.

The committee have given the subject intrusted to them that careful consideration which its importance demanded. Taking the bill reported by General S. R. Curtis, from the Pacific railroad committee, in the first session of the Thirty-Sixth Congress, which was twice agreed upon in committee, and met with the sanction of this House, when all the States were represented, and after full discussion, we have made such changes as experience has suggested, and which will, in the view of the committee, greatly improve the bill.

While the bill preserves the middle route, as it is generally called, repudiating both the southern and extreme northern routes, it grants more land and fewer bonds for the construction of the main line, without the branches; and while it recognizes two eastern connections, it authorizes certain existing railroad companies, who have competent authority conferred upon them by State legislation, to construct these branch roads, with the coöperation of the corporators named in the bill, to whom and their associates direct corporate capacity is given.

To be more explicit, the bill contemplates two eastern branches: one from the western boundary of Missouri, at Kansas City, on the Missouri river; the other from a point in Iowa, not further east than a line drawn due north from Kansas City; the two branches are to converge and form one main line within three hundred miles west from the Missouri river. These two branches are to be constructed as follows: the Leavenworth, Pawnee, and Western Railroad Company of Kansas are authorized by the bill to construct the road and telegraph from Kansas City to the western boundary of Kansas, or to the one hundred and second meridian of longitude, (whether within or without the State of Kansas,) according to the best and most practicable route. This company has been organized by the State of Kansas, and is said to be a subsisting and responsible company. same company are also authorized to connect their Leavenworth branch with the main branch. The Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad Company of Missouri, a road running from Hannibal, on the Mississippi river, through the State of Missouri, to St. Joseph, on the Missouri river, a road completed and in good running order; and the Pacific railroad of Missouri, from St. Louis, by Jefferson with and aid in the construction of the Missouri City, to Kansas City, are authorized to connect branch of the Union Pacific railroad. In short, the three companies named are empowered, on equal terms, to construct one of the two eastern branches of the great work contemplated by the bill before us.

The

The other eastern branch starting from "a point in the State of Iowa, not further east than a line extending due north from Kansas City," must unite within a distance of three hundred miles with the main stem. Four existing companies, or any or either of them, are empowered to construct this