32D CONG.....2D SESS. Is it wise to omit and disregard this measure and this popular feeling and public sentiment, visible wherever we cast our eye, turn our thoughts, or try our strength? Is it not wise to provide for and improve our own before we thirst for another's-strengthen our own stakes upon our own soil before we plant them upon another's number and improve our own ranks before we attempt to supervise and invade others?-till and improve our own soil before we trample upon our neighbor's? The vote given by us upon the bill we passed, is not sufficiently appreciated, or, in the multiplicity of subjects, passed over for an opportune future, that never comes without being crowded with its own cares. Each member in this body is supposed to reflect the views of the district he represents. There is no way the feeling of a nation can be so well known as by a vote we give, and its very decided character justifies me in the decided influence I give it. A proposition upon this subject, coming from the ever-vigilant sentinel who guards his favorite measure, is now before the committee of this House of which I am a member, and it appears to me to be difficult or impossible to give it any other notice than in the manner I now adopt. The particular manner in which this grant shall be made, to whom, and in what quantity, so as l can secure an actual residence and improvement for five years at least, to me is comparatively unimportant. I would go far in securing and extending the right of preemption and occupation, by which it might ripen into a perfect title, if improvements can be kept up; for the public lands are fast falling into hands where they will remain unimproved for half a century. But it is difficult to fix the mind of a great nation upon any particular plan in any general practical measure; and as one was, with much labor and very general investigation, agreed upon by us, and no time or opportunity now to present another, I shall apply myself to its provisions; and if it is deficient and inadequate, improvements cannot be made if action cannot be had. In my estimation, this is the most important measure there is any hope of adopting this session. I wish to express my views while here, though they may do no good, for it may be some satisfaction to the people of the State I in part represent; they will be brief and confined to the subject. If I can be heard, I shall at least be better understood. These remarks will be applicable to various bills to be brought before us for action, in attempting to show the advantage this measure has over others now pending. I am in favor of granting lands to actual settlers as a public financial measure, and as a private and individual improvement of the condition of the masses. I propose nor advocate no change in the great laws by which property is acquired and regulated. We are yet a new country, possessing all the main elements of prosperity and perpetuity; a wise and liberal Government, founded upon the great principles of equality and justice; no privileged or ders and classes, in which property can be entailed and enjoyed to the exclusion of the masses. Freedom to possess and enjoy is the great principle that animates and stimulates all to acquire and improve. The more general the acquisition of property among the masses, the greater will be the wealth, prosperity, and happiness of a nation. As facilities multiply and accumulate to acquire, acquisitions will increase, and improvements open new avenues of commerce and business, and greatly augment the general wealth of the nation and improvement of the people. Our lands were acquired by the common struggles and effort of all, and of course are the common property of all. No one section or district. can say to another, "We contributed most and have received least, and therefore claim a greater share;" for the laws that regulate it and us are so general and broad, that what one does or receives is the act of all, and for the benefit of all, and goes to augment the general fund-the property of all. Our Government is one of the masses-made by them and for them. Property and honors are alike open and free for all to acquire and enjoy. It was not the design or object that it should amass and perpetuate wealth. The Homestead—Mr. Newton. Wealth in the hands of the Government, as such, is corrupting in its influences and tendencies. Our public land, through its whole history, has been a source of speculation and peculation. It has been a standing political hobby to ride into and out of power. Theories and schemes for its disposal and distribution have been leading articles in the creeds of political parties for the last twenty years. It has been the most fruitful source of political bargaining of any in the Government. These influences and results having reached the ear and understanding of the great body of the people, they have cast about for some scheme by which to use the fund for the greatest advantage for the greatest number, and remove the temptation to evil. Our constant legislation upon this subject has kept the public mind awake and thoughtful, and in a condition to form correct conclusions as to the best mode of disposition. Another great fact that has had its influence in this process of maturation is, that property has a natural tendency to fall into the hands of the wealthy, influential, and sagacious, and to leave the other extreme destitute and dependent. Any one who will look to the history of older nations, and observe the great extremes of wealth and poverty, can but see this truth. HO. OF REPS. capacity, by the slow and tardy process of he ing up your public lands at a high price, and ev sequently holding on to them; or by means of citizens scattered over our territories, invited fre the cities and scenes of vice and degradation, 1o wise and liberal laws to engage in this great art common enterprise? If our lands thirty years ago were worth $1 2 per acre, every seventeen years this sum is douber Every settler over the nation that takes prass sion of wild and uncultivated land, and suce and brings it into cultivation, adds to the aggren amount of the wealth of the nation; and ama number increases, in that proportion is the wan augmented, and the means furnished to produ the results to which I have referred. Our large bodies of lands that have been in mes. ket from ten to sixty years are not one third se and will not be, even by this bill, for the next thr years; for there are but few among the many will comply with its provisions and occupy an a title can be given. It is no ordinary une taking to go and settle in a new country, with in without a family, and be compelled to remain improve it for five years before a title can be give, I and particularly for an American. No one v do it that is not composed of good matenes make a good citizen. Look at our scheme giving a large quantity of land to those who we.. go and settle in Oregon, and see how few`tar gone. Scrutinize the policy of giving land to asdiers without requiring a settlement, and uncmfied freedom to sell, and see where the land v.. be in ten years. I predict, and it requires r prophet to foretell, that it will be piled up in t hands of wealthy men and families and cons. To improve and elevate the condition of the un-nies, and unimproved for a quarter of a century fortunate, the ignorant, improvident, and vicious, without uprooting any general laws, is a most worthy, politic, and laudable object with any legislator. The improvement of the condition of the masses in any country is the strongest tower of strength any people can possess, and it is that which there is the strongest tendency to neglect. The creation of wise laws that hold out strong inducements and facilities to the people to acquire a permanent home, should be the study of every American lawmaker. By our unprecedented growth and advance, our lands have been increasing over and above all our various modes of conveyance, and objects of bounty to the amount of nearly fifteen hundred millions of acres, extending to new, uncultivated, and uninhabited regions, to which our inhabitants are turning their attention. Here oceans, rivers, and lakes are to be improved and made subservient to the wants and interests of man. Civilization is to be extended by preparing the earth to yield her treasures in the great work. Any law that will incite and induce the settler to these lands, and to occupy and cultivate them permanently, or for a given number of years, will add greatly to the wealth and improvement of any country. All the statistics connected with their acquisition and transfer have been given by others upon this floor who have preceded me, and need not be repeated. Two great facts will be admitted by all, for they cannot be denied. The one is, that it is desirable and advantageous to the country and the Government that our wild lands be more rapidly and extensively settled than they have heretofore been. The other is, that there is a surplus population in all our large cities that are not profitably employed for themselves and the country. Any great national measure that is calculated to produce the first, and at the same time remove the existence of a vast amount of wretchedness and misery attendant upon the existence of the other, has for its support policy and wisdom. In all our new States and Territories, much remains to be done, and in many all is yet to be accomplished. The hand of the painter is but just thrown over them, and their undeveloped resources and future greatness but barely sketched. All the great bodies of water that surround and connect them together, now inaccessible or highly dangerous even to the most skillful navigator, much more so to the pioneer enterprise of a new country, must be improved. The heads of your principal rivers are now the sepulchres of your dead, whose enterprise drove them upon their wild and unimproved elements, whose banks are strewed with the wrecks of their bold and daring adventures. Roads are to be made, that link and bind together a great and enterprising nation. Churches, schools, court-houses, and all the details of civil life, are to be supplied. And how is this to be done? Is it to be by the nation in its aggregate Land warrants, under the present laws, an ticles of merchandise that are sold and hawke: the market as common chattels, at less than a é lar an acre; and what farmer will go in the 180 fashioned way, with his money in hand, and ene Government land at $1 25, and settle on it, 86 there is some way devised to counteract the pe vailing policy? The truth is, the Governan by its laws and habits, has made it necessary pass this law to counteract the influence and effer! of laws already passed, in order to settle and i prove the lands." Review the policy of donating the lands to p lic institutions and incorporated companies, reflect upon the effect it will have upon the ce ment where the land is selected. From the m of business the owners necessarily lie by, w the settler improves and increases the ra their location. The actual settler will shan the localities because large bodies of the land are ni in market. The nation under the bill introduces an agritural apprenticeship, and holds out strong inda ments to the apprentice for stability, industry, enterprise, that in five years may change the w character and habits from a state of dependenc and want, to one of independence and comfort Every settler has his influence to a greater r less extent, by his relationships and acquaintans and he cannot fail to bring more or less with in or to him. Settlers invite wealth and capital, mi from it improvements, public and private, spere up. Capital follows the settler with as much tainty as day succeeds night, and with the st certainty it is invested, when the occupant rela the light that discovers his pathway. Nature covered our forests with the richest fertility Dov occupied with her productions, but she yields all with gratitude to the call of man. She is filled the bowels of earth with the richest mineras and all that is required to bring all to light use, is to be preceded by the hardy axman w the skillful miner. You look over our new res try from your halls of legislation, and behold the extensive forests and innumerable wants and in vations, and barter and chaffer with each other to priority of claims for bounty and protectiį and we step in and offer you five hundred the I sand hardy young men, inured to labor and for. y of it, with ax and spade and pick, to mark open the way for your railroads and other gre thoroughfares, and will soon furnish mears to | build them. Which will the Government choose as the most efficient agent? We have a more extensive and unprotected and 32D CONG.....2D SESS. nimproved border coast than any other nation, ecessible to any and all enemies and rivals, howver weak they may be. And it is against the revailing policy of the Government to improve it irectly. How shall it be done? The strongest nd most potent agent is the settlement of the surunding country, by owners of the soil, who 'ould engage in the work. Our new States and Territories stand to the Genral Government as colonies, the older members aving become rich by improvement and patronge, with a surplus population, many of whom re anxious to embrace the provisions of this ill. I believe, with this law, more land will be sold nd money paid in ten years than would be withut it. This idea I know will be regarded by ome as Utopian, but of its correctness I have no oubt. Many who enter upon the land with a iew of acquiring it, will be impatient of delay and > add to its value will pay the money and sell, and uy again. The sagacious capitalist, ever ready s by intuition for a good bargain, seeing the adantages the settlement has added to that which emains, will invest his money, and that, too, exensively. The neighbors of the settler will follow his trail > his hut and buy in the neighborhood. The ountry will be more extensively explored, and avorable situations hunted up and bought, and thers occupied under the law, and by the labor estowed, the land enhanced in value, and aftervards abandoned before five years, and the imrovements bestowed furnish new inducement to uy and invest money. Americans are restless nd impatient and are constantly going and coming rom place to place. Every settler who goes to a new country, exlores it, and discovers its resources and learns its vants to a greater or less extent, and the informtion he obtains is communicated, and from it, new enterprises are undertaken and extended. No man by a course of reasoning and argument an demonstrate the extent and influence of any given improvement. When once it begins, it begets sympathy and influence and effects, and it videns and deepens and overreaches all our calculations, if it can be kept up. All who are thrifty and prosperous are not very eady to perceive a reason why all men are not so, and impute some fault. But we must take men as they are, and furnish the materials if we have it, to make them what we would wish. Our Country is unbounded in extent and resources, out we cannot use it and realize its value without men upon it; and in its rude state we cannot furnish them without some strong inducement. We are indebted for our high position and present prosperity to the reward we give to mental and physical labor. Our halls of legislation, profesional skill, mechanic arts and agricultural prodacts, all testify to and establish the fact. Our proudest statue, that is to be a model for he world, was conceived by an untutored mind, orged in a hovel, and built by faith and reared For admiring thousands. The brightest gems are made from the rudest materials; the most exlted intellects are often culled from the neglected, and pointed to the road that is open and unoccupied, to the summit. Occupation is education, and education is capital. To multiply capital we must multiply occupants and occupation. Under this bill, there is one condition precedent to a title being given, that is a powerful engine of mprovement. This is the five years' occupation. Under it, the tenant or apprentice has a strong nterest to improve, for at the end of the term a itle is conferred with all the improvements made. It cannot be affected by any contingency, not even Heath, for that is provided for, and the title conerred upon him who represents the tenant by blood or affinity. As this bill is, the alternate section cannot be seected, and it will soon be an object for some purChaser. Felling the timber in a new country is a most efficient agent to invite the investment of captal in its vicinity. Its agency is various and general. It robs the gallows and jails, diminishes poor ates, multiplies agents of defense and protection. It erects buildings, builds roads, and opens communication with surrounding inhabitants. As the land now is, it is a source of speculation. Railroad to the Pacific-Mr. Cooper. Instead of multiplying farmers, it multiplies speculation. As this bill is, you propose to change the fashion from speculation to occupation. Instead of holding the warrants as a basis for bartering and gaining, you hold the ax and hoe, by which to domicil and feed and clothe yourself and family; from being alone a consumer, you become a producer. Those who have money invested in wild land, instead of fearing this bill, should be its advocates, for it certainly tends to increase their investment by improving and occupying that which surrounds theirs. By the sale and appropriations of the products of your neighbor, the chance of selling your own is increased. Those who oppose this bill because it appropriates all the land, are greatly mistaken, in my apprehension. By it but a small quantity will be taken; how much and in what localities, no one can tell. But from the difficulties and embarrassments that attend the settlement of all new countries, no one can rationally infer that it will be great enough to make it dangerous to any of our relations, or interfere with the prosperity of any localities. The settlement of any of our new States or Territories for farming purposes has in no instance injuriously affected the old States. It has rather quickened and brightened the energies of the old to improve and keep pace with the new. It is now very common to emigrate from new States to old. In new States property is heavily taxed to make the improvements that old ones have. In old States, new improvements spring up that give them the freshness of youth, and furnish additional employment for hands over new States. They have the advantage of roads, markets, schools, and other improvements, over new States. Many of the older States have permitted their land to run down and become very cheap. This should never be. Land was not made to wear out, like man. It remains as the last thing to be destroyed. It is populated and depopulated from age to age, and if unabused, remains the same. These lands now furnish instances more favorable than any others for the enterprising farmer, for the culture of sheep and growth of wool, and will soon be sought after for this and other purposes. Manufacturing in the old States will, from policy and necessity, soon be much increased. They have nothing to fear from this bill. This bill is opposed, because it is an unconditional gift. It is not so. It is a grant upon condition you occupy five years, and, as an incident, improve the country. But the opponents say the Government will relinquish the occupation, and oppose it upon that supposition. The occupation is the vitals of the bill. Dispense with them, and it is subject to all your objections; with it, to none. In this provision is the consideration to the Government, and the advantage it has over all other schemes, as a financial measure. Every additional freeholder the nation has is an additional pledge and safeguard of its stability and perpetuity. The stability of the property adds to the stability of character. Each freeholder has something to guard and protect and improve. Nine tenths of the mobs in our country are composed of those who are not freeholders. Make land-owners, and you make towers of law and order. Multiply freeholders, and you increase virtue and sobriety, and decrease vice and debauchery. Increase freeholders, and you diminish your bills of mortality. Increase your freeholders, and you increase the strongest basis of wealth the na tion has. But the Government are the gainers in other respects-by the amount of improved lands added to that now occupied, and also the products drawn from it. Suppose, in five years, one hundred thousand take possession under this law, and each one each year subdues and tills two additional acres, and raises from each acre three dollars in value, how much would this amount to annually? But the incidental and relative value they throw around them is greater than the direct and immediate product. All this is in addition to what would have been produced without this process. Again: new settlers soon present themselves and SENATE. their property in a situation to help bear the burdens and expenses of the Government, by paying taxes and contributions. That the bill is a private and individual advantage, seems to be admitted. If it is a public benefit, it is also a private; for the interests of the public and of individuals are so intimately connected they cannot be separated. Improve the one and you improve the other. It is said by the opponents of the bill, "No one will embrace its offer that is not able to buy and pay for the land." I know it is difficult for a thrifty man to see a good reason why a poor one cannot earn and save enough to pay a five dollar debt; but the fact is so. You place before him a motive; find a plan for him; encourage him, and he can pay a hundred easier than he could the five while no object stimulated him. It is said, the bill will have no influence upon the population of cities. I think differently. Many who have been unfortunate in business, and those out of employment, will embrace it. They may not all hold out and perfect a title. The attention of our whole population will be turned to it. It will be talked of and discussed; and the location of the lands, the geography of the country, its capacity, her products, and facilities for commerce will all be more studied and generally understood. Our mountains are filled with the richest minerals, as various and multifarious as the wants and capacities of man; their rocks are fertilizers; at their base flow majestic rivers upon which to manufacture and transport their treasures. Our valleys are covered with most luxuriant vegetable growth, enriching themselves annually from age to age with their own resources and surrounding deposits, and preparing for the hand and mind of man. All that is wanting to bring all into use, is to be sought and found, understood and appreciated. Mr. PRESIDENT: I do not rise for the purpose of continuing the debate on the subject of the bil which is now pending before the Senate, at any great length; nor do I design to follow the honorable Senators who have advocated the bill, through the long labyrinth of questions of a character entirely foreign to the objects of the bill, which they have raised and discussed before the Senate. I will not follow the honorable Senator from Tennessee, [Mr. BELL,] in his inquiry whether peace or war be probable in Europe, or whether, in the event of a war, the United States is likely to be involved in it. I will not inquire whether Cuba, in a military point of view, is an important acquisition for the United States, and necessary to its safety. Nor will I indulge in vaticinations of what the present generation is to see in the character of the improvements of the country. I do not know, sir, how many roads will span the continent from ocean to ocean at the end of the existing generation. Nor is it pertinent to the issue that is now pending before the Senate, whether one or more shall follow this one which is now in contemplation. Nor will I pursue the traces of my honorable friend from Connecticut, [Mr. SMITH, Jand inquire whether it would be competent for England or any belligerent Power, with a single privateer to lay San Francisco under contribution and conquer from us our Pacific possessions. Nor will I indulge, sir, in ante facto encomiums upon the incoming President. I shall rather trust to my acts than to my words, to show that my course of conduct towards his Administration, when he comes to be installed into power, will not be a factious one. Sir, I regard it as unsafe, altogether unsafe, to venture upon any great laudations of any officer in advance. Sir, even when they are indulged in, in the case of friends on whom we have bestowed the most extravagant encomiums for their wisdom and patriotism, we 32D CONG.....2D SESS. are oftentimes disappointed. We ought, the refore, to fear somewhat to indulge in such encomiums as these upon those who have not heretofore merited by their conduct, very extensively, our approbation. But these are foreign questions, and I shall not pursue them. Mr. President, I stated in the casual remarks which I had occasion to make some days ago on this subject, that my opposition to this measure was not founded in hostility to a road between the Atlantic and Pacific sides of the continent. I avowed then, and avowed in a spirit of sincerity and candor, my approval of some great line of intercommunication of this kind; and my objections to this measure were founded upon the fact that it was to be commenced without a preliminary survey and reconnoissances, and because if it were completed, the company would possess powers that would make it inconvenient to the operations of the Government, if not eventually dangerous. Now, sir, I have other objections, which I will state in the course of the brief remarks which I propose to submit. We were told by the honorable Senator from Massachusetts, [Mr. DAVIS,] in the remarks which he made some days since, that if the opponents of this bill had examined it with care and a proper degree of candor, (that was the word,) they would have found that the reconnoissances were already provided for by the bill; and the Senator proceeded, by inference, to show that such reconnoissances were provided for. Yesterday, in the course of the debate which took place, another advocate of the bill, [Mr. SMITH,] more ardent, more enthusiastic, if we may judge from his manner on the occasion, admitted that there was no provision of that kind; and he justified his position, upon what ground do you think? Why, that the reconnoissances and survey would require more time than to make the road itself. That was the position which the Senator from Connecticut took. One gentleman tells you the bill provides for reconnoissances and surveys, and another tells you it would be foolish to make them, because it would take as much or more time to make the reconnoissances and surveys than to build the road. That was somewhat extravagant; and allow me, who generally follow that Senator almost blindly in whatever course, political or otherwise, he chooses to pursue, to doubt in this case whether his usual sagacity, if not to say his usual candor, was not wanting. I am, then, having no one to follow, obliged to grope along and find my way by my own miserable rush-lights. Mr. President, is it no objection to such an enterprise as this, that preliminary reconnoissances and surveys have not been made? We are told by Senators who are the advocates, of this bill on all sides, that this in unnecessary. We are told that Captain Sitgreaves, Major Emery, and Professor Bartlett, have traversed these wastes between the western limits of what was formerly the United States and California, at various times, and that they have pronounced opinions favorable to the practicability of such a route as this. The honorable Senator from Tennessee told us that hunters and trappers had penetrated these wild wilderness wastes, and that they too had expressed opinions favorable to the practicability of a route between the waters of the Atlantic and those of the Pacific. Are not these opinions, expressed by men under circumstances such as these under which those men expressed them, rather unsafe to act upon when a measure of such immense magnitude-"magnificence," as the Senator from Connecticut said yesterday-is in contemplation? Why, sir, in your State and in mine, [Mr. MANGUM in the chair,] although every foot of the ground within their limits has been traversed, and has been known for almost a century, who would undertake to make a road from the Atlantic waters upon your coast to your western border without a preliminary survey? Would it be enough that you, in your carriage, or upon horseback, had traversed for the last forty years the country between the remote points? No, sir; it would hardly be deemed sufficient by wise and prudent men to induce them to embark in so great an enterprise; one, however, comparatively insignificant when compared with this. In my own State, from Philadelphia, on the Delaware, to Pittsburg, on the Monongahela, every Railroad to the Pacific-Mr. Cooper. foot of ground has been known for a century, for it is about a century ago since Washington first traversed it on his expedition to Fort Duquesne. Every foot of that ground is known and has been traversed thousands and tens of thousands of times, and every hill and every valley between those two points were filled with an intelligent population at the time that the great system of internal improvements in that State was commenced. But we did not embark in it without a reconnoissance and survey, without having every foot of it leveled, and the practicability of the work demonstrated. We knew that it was practicable. We knew that money, if plenty of it were expended, would conquer the intervening obstacles between the Delaware and the Monongahela, and although we embarked in it hastily and improvidently, as after facts demonstrated, yet we did not think it safe to begin until surveys and resurveys had not only demonstrated its practicability, but its practicability at no unreasonable or extravagant cost. SENATE. at least for preliminary explorations of the country between the western limits of Missouri, or Tex and the Pacific coast. My honorable friend from Illinois [Mr. De LAS] said that these wastes were not much bez i in the quality of their land than the State of Georgia, and that they would not yield much m corn or many more potatoes to the acre perbije! than the soil of Georgia. That was jocular, course. The Senator did not intend to assert the these wild wastes, which produce no blade of gms, through which no stream of water passes, a? equal to that fertile State, or are capable at a d supporting human life. That was not his oben, 1 It was a jocular expression of his, intended to me statements perhaps equally extravagant. I be permitted to say, on the other side, that is m of the reasons why I object to this road. We are told that it is practicable-that we knew it to be practicable. I do not deny that it is pre ticable to make a road, and to make a road grades that can be traversed, between the points. But that is not enough. We are to look those other conditions to which I have just now s ferred; that is, the practicability of supplying his not merely for ten years, or for a century, bas ir all that indefinite time in the future, during wint this great Republic is to live, continually expens ing until in the folds of progress the whole wak shall have been embraced. Are we assured of the existence of those conditions that should be pre cedently understood? No, sir, we are not. Now, if this be so in States almost every acre of which has its inhabitants; if it is necessary where every foot of ground is known, where the condition of the climate and the obstacles which nature has interposed with almost absolute certainty, that reconnoissances and surveys should be made, how much more so, when you have to traverse a continent in which the foot of civilization has not permanently fixed itself? It is true that many have crossed the continent with wagons, on horseback, and on foot, and they are satisfied that it is possible We ought to know something of the probes to get from the Atlantic borders to the Pacific; cost of this enterprise. We are told that the but, sir, when you embark in an enterprise which fixes the limits that the Government is to ex is to cost millions of dollars, when you propose that those limits are embraced in the $30,000 an expenditure in land and in money, of forty or which are to be given to the company for the fifty millions of dollars, ought you not to know struction of the road, and in the twelve miles first if the route is practicable without unreason- land on either side in alternate sections extendig able and extravagant delay? In the second place, from the east to the west. The bill, we are c ought you not to ascertain whether it is practicable fixes that amount, and it cannot go beyond to furnish the motive power which will be neces- know it does fix it, but there is no security sary, and fuel in order to keep it in motion? All you, will even stop at the end of that expenditus. these things require not only to be ascertained to Far less extensive enterprises than this bave le be possible, but to be practicable, and within rea- undertaken; an entering wedge in the shape of sonable limits of practicability. Sir, it is not enough appropriation to begin the work has been ge that the trapper or hunter, with his traps or his rifle, and Congress has been induced afterwards to ge has penetrated from one ocean to the other. It is millions before the work was completed. Wen not enough that Lewis and Clarke, and their suc- had some experience in our steam lines. Westcessors in adventure, have followed the meander-menced by giving those lines of intercommite ings of the mountain valleys from one coast to the tion between the Old World and the New be other. They must show us how, where, at what sums of money to enable them to start their gre cost this great work can be done before I shall be enterprises; and presently, when the approprate willing to embark in it. Is it not necessary, sir, failed, they come here, appealing to our patrat that we should know something of the grades, and our pride of character as a nation, and thet how much elevation is to be overcome, and how have induced us to double the appropriations it can be overcome? Is it not necessary to know continue them from year to year. They force. with some accuracy the distance? Perhaps that themselves upon us as beneficiaries, and they w may not be so necessary. If any of these things remain our beneficiaries as long as they posses be unnecessary, that perhaps would be because the power of appealing to the sentiment of pri distance is but a simple thing. which inhabits the bosom of every American We have been told by travelers, and it remains while they can bring outside influences to ber uncontradicted to the present hour, except the upon the two branches of the National Legise speech of my honorable friend from Illinois [Mr.ture, such as are within the command of these on DOUGLAS] may be considered a contradiction of it, panies. You, sir, have seen it, and I have se that there are wastes extending hundreds of miles it. You have felt it, and I have felt it. I de in which there is not a stick of timber, scarcely a mean that influence has been exerted upon us, ba blade of grass, or a drop of water. From what we we have felt it in the atmosphere, and we knew know of the ability to propel locomotive engines it was useless to resist it. Stimulated by what! at this day, I would ask how are cars and great believe exists as strongly in your-and if I we railroad trains to be carried over such wastes as not a modest man, I would say, to some extent i those? Sir, I doubt exceedingly, if fuel be not my own-bosom, patriotism, and a disposition a found in greater abundance than it is believed to see our own marine eclipsing in speed and al 1be in those wastes, that a railroad will be found essentials of maritime excellence, that of Gres: to be practicable on that account. If coal shall be Britain, we have voted thousands upon thousandı. found of a quality such as would be proper for and hundreds of thousands, to keep up thes consumption in the propelling of the machinery pereminence of our marine. Give this corporatis necessary for this purposes, that obstacle would be $20,000,000, give it fifteen million acres of land removed; but at present we do not know whether alternate sections from the Atlantic to the Paci there is coal, or whether it is to be found in quan- or from the starting point to the Pacific, and was tities sufficient for that purpose. Now, is it not what kind of an influence will you have clothed the part of wisdom that exploratory surveys should at once? I shall be told directly that it is not be made for these purposes; that geologists should corporation. I do not care whether it is in terms be sent to examine the country, and to ascertain clothed with corporate powers or not. To al whether those wastes indicate the presence of this tents and purposes it is a corporation, and one kind of fuel? for if nature has not provided for with the most fearful powers that has ever existel traversing those wastes in this way, by beds of in the world, or which ever was about to exis fuel being found in them, in no other way has she It does not exist yet, and I hope in God it wa done it, for wood, which is used in many places not. I say, sir, that clothe this company wit for that purpose, is not to be found there." the power and influence which it will derive from commencing this work, and the expenditure of portion of these funds, and see where you will be I think that I have now demonstrated, by simply stating the difficulties, that there is some necessity ! 32D CONG.....2D SESS. as to ability to resist further applications. Help ess, absolutely helpless; tied hand and foot, and driven perforce to all such expenditures as may be necessary to the completion of the road. This emptation, as my friend from Connecticut called t-and it was an admirable word-in the shape of $20,000,000 in money, and $20,000,000 in land, with the profits in the distance, will glitter in their yes, and great companies will be congregated for he purpose of carrying out this vast project. All portions of the country will rival each other in enleavoring to reap the advantages of this magnificent temptation which is held out. And, sir, when Maine and Florida-when Pennsylvania and the other sea-board States unite with the far West, through those who will embark in this enerprise, in pressing Congress to make new appropriations, do you think Congress will have the power to stop it? No, sir. I say, then, that there is no certain limit to the expenditure in this bill. There is no knowing, according to it, what expenditure Congress may not be called upon to make. Then, when it is probable that in the end all will be shouldered upon us, ought we not to know in advance, from a preiminary survey, what is the probable amount which we shall be finally compelled to pay? It seems to me that statesmanship, the commonest wisdom that actuates individuals even in relation to their domestic economy, should induce us to look at least for information to satisfy us upon this point. I do not know what others think, but I know that is my impression. Railroad to the Pacific-Mr. Cooper. company, those who are under the control of the These were my principal objections: first, that Sir, our friends on the other side of the Chamber used to be terrified by a monster which had its den in my own good State-the bank of the United States-and they supposed that with its capital of $35,000,000 it had it in its power to break down and trample under foot the liberties of the country. Have men grown better than they formerly were? Are there any indications in the moral world that men would now be less likely to abuse great power conferred upon them than they would ten, fifteen, or twenty years ago? No, sir; I see no signs abroad, in the political or moral heavens, that indicate a change for the better in that respect. Sir, are the powers that are conferred here of a character which would be likely to permit of an unwholesome exercise, such as in the case of a bank? In my judgment they permit of greater abuse. I have seen, in a neighboring State, the influence of these railroad corporations. There are two or three railroads, not, perhaps, more than four hundred or five hundred miles in extent, and yet they control, politically, socially, and morally, the whole population of that State. They make and they unmake at pleasure. And let a railroad of this kind be built across the continent; let the company have at its command the transportation of the commodities of the whole eastern world, as you are told it will supposing that fuel and everything else can be found in sufficient abundance to make the communication between the East and the West in this way practicable and easy-and what kind of powers will it possess? Unexampled in the history of the world. I repeat, I cannot particularize in what way it might affect the public interests; how it might eventually be used to the danger of the public liberties. There are things in the future which wisdom cannot foresee. It is not necessary that I should particularize, that I should, in short, do that which is impossible to be done; but it is enough to repeat, that possessing such powers as it will possess, and such vast pecuniary resources, it will use them as other corporations have used theirs, and it will abuse them as other corporations have abused them. There is nothing more certain than this. I have stated that there has been no corporation in any country which would possess such powers as these under this bill. Gentlemen have told us not to deal in round assertions, and I will try to deal as little as possible in them. I said in the course of the remarks which I formerly submitted-and they were exceedingly brief-that Fox's East India Company did not possess powers and influence so enormous as would be conferred by this vast amount of money and appropriation of Hands upon this company. I was somewhat called to task about my historical knowledge on that point. The Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. DAVIS] told me there was no similitude between the one and the other-between that corporation and this. I did not say they were alike. I should have been a fool to have said so. Their objects were entirely different; they were not at all the same; nor did I say that they were the same. I only spoke of the character of the powers, and said that the powers here given were greater, and that the influence which the company would be able to exert would be greater than that company, under the provisions of Fox's bill, would have been able to exert. The gentleman himself, or from the promptings, I believe, of a gentleman who sat by him at the time, said that Fox's bill gave to the East India Company the power to make war and conclude peace. Sir, the Senator was entirely mistaken; Fox's bill did no such thing. Long before Fox's bill was thought of war had been made by the company, and it had conquered provinces extending from Cape Comorin to the Himalaya mountains-an extent of territory larger than all the British possessions elsewhere in the world up to that moment. Originally the East India Company was a mere company of traders; but powers were conferred upon it from time to time, and it made war, conquered But let us look at the question in another aspect; provinces, and when it was called to an account and in this view there is a strong objection in my for it by Parliament-and that was why I pro- mind. Let the eastern terminus of this road be duced this measure for the purpose of comparison Texas; let it commence in Texas, and be made -it had power and influence enough in the coun- across Texas. Let the other end commence, as the try to scout at the objections which had been made bill requires it shall commence, in California. Let to the policy which it had pursued. Warren it run eastward across California. You have Hastings was impeached, as you, sir, very well then a road made through these two States, at the know, for his conduct, and anty and humanity, to know, for his conduct; and although he had vio- expense of the General Government. Sir, is that to be doubted? What good would the forfeiture the company had influence enough to screen him be? You are told that if the road be not completed from punishment. I believe he deserved well of there will be a forfeiture; yet there is nothing in England in many respects, and I never found fault the bill providing for the way or the means in with the British House of Lords for their decision which this forfeiture is to be brought about. But, in that case. I was only referring to the great sir, forfeiture or no forfeiture, the road would be powers that such great companies possess. It there, and the States through which it passed was with this view that I referred to Fox's East would have the advantage of this great outlay of India bill. The East India Company had extrav- money. Now, I call the attention of my southagant powers conferred upon it by the act of 1773. ern friends, those gentlemen who are strict in their It has gone on under those powers making war, construction of the Constitution, to this. I do not until finally it has become clothed-or, if not the think, I must say in all candor, that it forms a con SENATE. stitutional objection; but it certainly does give to those States advantages which the other States cannot enjoy. By the provisions of the bill, as you are aware, you are to commence the road at each end; and when fifty miles are completed, so much money and so much land are to be delivered over to those who have built it. We may very well suppose that they will proceed at any rate until the money and the land, or the principal part of the money and the land is exhausted; and by that time they will have finished the road through Texas, and finished it through California. Thus those two States will have this magnificent boon accorded to them at the expense of the other States, and without the slightest benefit to any of them. Now, sir, that, if not unconstitutional, is unequal and unjust, and I trust that Senators all. around me will see it in that point of view. This, sir, is the third objection to the bill in my mind. Sir, I shall not detain the Senate much longer; and I will only advert now to some of the arguments used by the various Senators who are advocates of the bill. The Senator from Tennessee [Mr. BELL] tells us that there can be no difficulty about this road at all that there are some twenty-five passes, through each of which a road might be constructed. If there be so many, we ought certainly to select the best. We ought to send out companies for the purposes of exploration, and to ascertain which of those twenty-five passes is the best. That I think would be the part of wisdom and judicious statesmanship; certainly we ought not to go blindfold into a work of such immense magnitude as this. My honorable friend from Connecticut [Mr. SMITH] told us yesterday that he did not apprehend there was any difficulty from the snowsthat he had learned that on the route between this and California, the snows were not much deeper, and the winter not much longer than in corresponding latitudes in the States. That is true, to a very considerable extent; but in the gorges of those mountains through which the road must pass, in all the northern latitudes, there will be found in those snows an insurmountable barrier during six or seven months of the year. I have it from authority not to be questioned at all, that very often, during the winter and spring months, the snows are found in those gorges and valleys between the mountains, to a depth of fifty or sixty feet, and lie to a very great depth until the latter end of May or June. That is not true of the southern latitudes; and in all probability this road will take a southern route. I will state here that I do not care a fig which way the road goes, or rather from what point it starts, north or south. It is entirely immaterial to me. I only desire that the best route shall be selected, and that over that route, if found practicable, and to contain all the conditions necessary to the safety of such an enterprise, in advance, a road shall be constructed. Now, Mr. President, I think the arguments made use of against my colleague's amendment are not just, and that they condemn themselves. Yesterday, we were told by the Senator from Connecticut, that a hundred thousand dollars was nothing like sufficient for the purpose-that even a million of dollars would not be sufficient for this reconnoissance, and that it would take as long to make the reconnoissance as to make the road. It seems to me that that is no good argument against my colleague's amendment. If $100,000 be not sufficient, amend it and make it sufficient by increasing the sum. We have been asked over and over again, if we were afraid to intrust the incoming President with the selection of the route? No, sir, I am not. I was not a supporter of that gentleman for the distinguished seat which he is soon to fill, but, sir, I never doubted his integrity; and thank God, I never, without doubting, assail the integrity of anybody. I believe his integrity would be sufficient for this, and I trust, for all the exigencies of the public service which he will be called upon to perform. But, sir, he has other duties than those of a surveyor. He has his Executive functions, which will require all his time and all his attention. And, sir, how is he to judge? Is he to traverse those inhospitable wastes which exist between the States of the Mississippi valley and the Pacific ocean? It must be done through the medium of engineers sent out for the purpose. 32D CONG....2D Sess. He cannot guess at it. He would not do it if he could. No, sir. I have confidence in him, if it were a duty pertinent to his position, and if he had information to enable him to act judiciously on the subject; but he has not. The mere books of travels, of which we have published so many in this body, form very poor criteria for the commencement of such a work as this. To acquire the information necessary to the commencement of such a work as this, he must have something more certain than these books, by which he will be enabled to judge as to which route to select. We are told that he must indicate the points in the mountains. All require the same kind of examination and exploration precedently by engineers, whether you begin at El Paso, or further north. It would not be very convenient to change, if it should be found out afterwards to be wrong. You ought, as is the case in every wisely-managed enterprise of the kind, to have a complete survey. from one point to the other before commencing the work. Then, sir, if any incidental advantages which due experience furnishes during the progress of the work occurred, they can be made use of. But, sir, it cannot be that a work of this magnitude is to be commenced in this way in the dark. I agree in many of the suggestions which have been made as to the value of this great enterprise of the Pacific railroad. I think it will be one of the most magnificent that human genius and human skill have carried out and perfected. But this is nothing to the purpose. It can only be thus magnificent, it can only add to the character and the grandeur of this country, by being what it ought to be-as perfect as possible. I therefore, in view of the character of the country, desire that this enterprise shall be undertaken upon such principles as will insure as much perfection as possible. If it be completed, it will be, as has been stated by my honorable friend from Connecticut, a grand and magnificent project-not a project, for it will have ceased to be a project-but a grand and magnificent work, placing us in that respect above all nations which have preceded, or which exist with us at present. I admit it; but I desire that we shall not disgrace American genius by hurrying forward into a great enterprise of this kind, and making it a miserable patchwork thing, when it ought to be one grand and magnificent whole, honorable to the skill and genius of the country, as it will be beneficent to the world. Sir, for this reason, as well as for others, I am for having light before we act. Sir, I am sorry that I have detained the Senate so long as I have done; but I believed it was due to the vindication of the views which I had casually thrown out that I should state my opinions at length; and having done so, I yield the floor. RAILROAD TO THE PACIFIC. SPEECH OF HON. H. S. GEYER, IN THE SENATE, February 18, 1853, On the bill for the protection of the emigrant route and a telegraphic line, and for an overland mail between the Missouri river and the settlements in California and Oregon. Mr. GEYER said: Mr. President, the construction of a railroad to connect the valley of the Mississippi with the Pacific ocean has attracted the attention and commanded the approbation of the people of the United States for a number of years. Long before the acquisition of California, when our possessions upon the Pacific were bounded by the forty second degree of latitude, the popular mind had been earnestly directed to this great subject. At that time there was no division of opinion as to the pass of the mountains through which it should go. The South Pass being within half a degree upon our southern boundary line, was the only one deemed practicable, then within our territory. The will of the people was almost unanimously expressed, sometimes represented in primary assemblies, sometimes expressed through the medium of the Legislatures. Congress was implored to take the subject up. The people then not only believed in the necessity for the construction of such a road, but they felt that it was essen Railroad to the Pacific-Mr. Geyer. tial to their highest interests, political, social, and religious. Had Congress then seconded the voice of the people, one road would now be nearly or quite completed, and we should be ready to commence a second instead of spending our time in debating how long it shall be postponed. With the acquisition of California came upon us new difficulties. Our line was extended to near the thirty-second degree of latitude. Several passes were ascertained to exist that were perfectly practicable, and then came up the difficulty which stands in the way of the execution of the work to this hour. Difference of opinion arose as to the pass that should be selected. The South Pass, which before had been approved by the almost unanimous voice of the people, is now in the judgment of some gentlemen unfit; and we are divided in opinion, according to the section of country in which we happen to reside, and from which we come. Every town on the Mississippi, from St. Paul to the Gulf, is contending for the terminus of the road. Every principal town supposes that it is entitled to that favor, and imagines that the evidences are conclusive in favor of its point as a terminus. The Senator from California [Mr. GWIN] attempted to meet these difficulties by furnishing a branch to each one of the States on the west of the Mississippi. That did not appear to find favor with the Senate. A Select Committee was appointed to take into consideration the whole subject. It had before it the various plans that had been suggested. One of them, which seems to find favor with the Senator from Pennsylvania, looked towards the construction of this road out of the National Treasury, under the superintendence of the National Government; another proposed to make a road by the intervention of a private company, to whom was to be granted a bonus in money; and still another proposed to make a road entirely out of the public lands. The committee has reconciled these difficulties by the proposition now before the Senate. It proposes not to increase the patronage of the Government, or the duties which now devolve upon it, by committing to it the management of this railroad, organizing the Government into a sort of railroad corporation, for the purpose of the transportation of merchandise across the continent. That plan it rejected. At the same time the committee was aware that the work could not be executed exclusively by private enterprise and private means. It has, therefore, combined lands and money, by way of assisting any company that may undertake it; and although I do not entirely approve this bill, and it is not the plan which I would be disposed to favor, the experience of many years has shown me that a member must not always hope to succeed in carrying a favorite plan. There must be compromise on this as upon any other subject. SENATE. power when it intrusted to the President of t United States the selection of the plan for the d ditions to the Capitol? Whether Congress abdicate its power to raise and support a Navy whe i commits to the President the construction of v sels for the public service under his superintend ence? Are we, under the power to authorize the construction of this road, to superintend as a bor of contractors composed of two branches, the en tire operations on the road? But it is said we cannot proceed without a liminary survey; that we have not knowledes enough upon the subject; that it is necessary the a detailed survey of the line and grades of the road should be reported to Congress, and the Congress should then fix the termini and loren 1 the route by an act. The honorable Senator in quires if Congress cannot now locate the F how shall the President do it? Sir, if Congres has not been able to locate the road in ten years, is it to be expected that it would be very prom". when the bone of contention will be preserved them in the form of surveys of the differes: passes of the mountains and the grades of the road, to the different points on the river? Shave not encounter the same difficulties that we hav encountered all along? Do we not see it apparen now, that one of the sources of opposition to the bill is an apprehension that the President select a point which is not the first choice of his orable Senators? Is there not a trembling antier upon that subject to which much of this opention may be traced? It is said that we propose the same sort of s vey and examination by the bill that is proper in the amendment. That may or may not be What we propose is, that there shall be a suffos examination, and that sufficient information ma be obtained by the President to enable him to fr the termini and the passage through the mous ains. That is all the survey that is requ The amendment does not propose to limit the survey or the inquiry to particular points, but n asks for a survey and an examination which sto enable Congress to exercise its power so control the location of the road. But suppose the the surveys are to be of the same character ATI require the same time; we shall by the bill gat this advantage: that a question which we found ourselves unequal to, will be decided. Or all hands it is said that the incoming Preside may be trusted with a subject so momentous this; and in my judgment-without intending disrespect to either House of Congress—he wed be more apt to decide it correctly than the tim Houses of Congress will, when the surveys brought in. But the honorable Senator says the Preside of the United States will have enough to do mie discharge of his high functions without attending to the location of railroads; he will not have time to make an examination for himself, and he mus depend upon the reports which are made by engineers. And, I pray you, Mr. President, v The multiplication of the difficulties has not decreased in the least the intense anxiety of the public that the road should be built; and now that it seems to be admitted on all hands that it is prac-Congress have time to examine the road for them ticable, that it is essential to the public interests, that it is necessary to the national defenses, and indispensable in the time of war, I cannot forbear to express my astonishment that there is a proposition before us to postpone the execution of the work until some future day. If this work is found to be impracticable, it is because of the impracticability of Congress, and not because the work cannot be accomplished. But it is said to be indispensably necessary that we should have preliminary surveys. The honorable Senator from Ohio tells us that the bill itself provides for that; and he states, and states truly, the question to be whether the location of the termini and general route of the road shall be made by the President or by Congress; but he says that by transferring it to the President, we abdicate the power of Congress. I was at a loss to understand his meaning until I heard the speech of the honorable Senator from Pennsylvania. He requires a survey in order that the grades of the road may be ascertained, and its exact line laid down, and then that there shall be a specific direction as to the mode of construction; and unless Congress maintains its power over that subject, we shall be held to have abdicated it. Sir, I would ask that honorable Senator whether Congress abdicated its selves? Will the members of either House fe it a part of their duty, or consistent with the high obligations, to absent themselves for the pr pose of making a personal inspection? Congres will have to rely, as the President must, upon de surveys and reports that are made. Congress. then, will have more to do than the Presiden Congress will be embarrassed, as I have already remarked, by the conflicting interests of varion sections of the country bordering on the Miss sippi, nay, sir, the conflicting interests on the se board, and those who are interested in the line of roads which now take a particular direction whether north or south. Another objection taken by the honorable Se ator from Pennsylvania, is to the cost, which he estimates at $40,000,000. It is not $40,000,00 given away without an interest in, or control over the road; but it is $40,000,000 advanced in lands and money, to execute the work, retaining a control over the use of the road for public purposes. But, Mr. President, I imagine that the honoratit Senator is entirely mistaken. He has described the country through which the road will probaby pass, as a sterile waste, and yet he estimates it s a price for which choice lands will not sell withis the organized States. He estimates it, at least, at |