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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



" No complaint has ever como up from any 

 quarter of any failure to faithfully perform 

 its obligations to the Government, both in re- 

 spect to transportation services and its pecu- 

 niary obligations. In the only instance in 

 which it has differed from any Department of 

 the Government, the variance has bovii upon 

 purely judicial question, upon which tin- 

 courts have been open to the United States 

 but closed to us. Tin* (ioverninent made it- 

 self the creditor of the Union Pacific Compa- 

 ny, tying its debtor hand and foot with n mul- 

 tiplicity of stipulations, and then refused i" 

 submit their interpretation to its own court-. 

 That it has so far reaped the principal benefit 

 of the bargain cannot be denied. Official 

 statements of the Postmaster-General are be- 

 fore the House, which show that for the six 

 years ending June 30, 1872, the saving to the 

 Government upon the transportation of postal 

 matter alone by reason of the construction of 

 the I'nion Pacific Railroad, assuming the 

 amount carried to be equal to that transported 

 previous to its construction, has been $648,- 

 879.55. 



" Hut the amount of postal matter has been 

 over sis times greater by rail than by stage, 

 so that the real saving is not loss than $3,861,- 

 477.80. Even this result fails to represent the 

 increased speed of carriage and convenience 

 of handling and distribution afforded by postal 

 ear* to the employes of the Department ac- 

 companying the mails, thus insuring safety and 

 regularity in delivery. A like statement from 

 the War Department shows the saving npon 

 military transportation for the same time to 

 have been $(1,507.282.85. No official estimates 

 arc before the House for the saving npon 

 transportation of Indian goods, for the Navy 

 Department, or of coin or currency, but they 

 may be safely aggregated at not less than 

 $2,500,000. This gives a total saving for the 

 six years ending June 80, 1872, of the sum of 

 $12,868,760.15. 



" The Secretary of tfie Treasury in a com- 

 munication to the House, bearing date May 20, 

 1872, in answer to a resolution calling for such 

 information, estimates the amount of interest 

 ami principal which will be due from the 

 Union Pacific Railroad Company at the ma- 

 turity of the Government bonds, at the prc-nit 

 rate of payment, at $58,156,746.98. Assuming 

 that the saving to the Government of all the 

 different dames of transportation in the future 

 will be the same as the pant (a supposition en- 

 tirely on the side of the United StaUs, for it 

 will, in fact, increase in almost geometrical 

 progression), and the result is a total saving at 

 the date of the maturity of the bonds of $r.4.- 

 848,880.75, mm in excess of the principal 

 nd interest due at that dme to the amount of 

 $.187,0.'58.77. In other words, if at the ma- 

 turity of the bonds not one cent of interest or 

 principal were paid, but on the other hand were 

 entirely lout, the Government would be the 

 gainer in money to the amount of $6,187,058.77. 



" All this is solid gain, involving no conse- 

 quential clement, and susceptible of exact com- 

 putation. To attempt to grasp the national 

 benefits which lie outside the domain of fig- 

 ures, but are embodied in the increased pros- 

 perity, wealth, population, and power oi' tin- 

 nation, overtasks the most vivid imagination. 

 When the rails were joined on Promontory 

 Summit, May 10, 1869, the Pacific and the At- 

 lantic, Europe and Asia, the East and the 

 West, pledged themselves to that perpetual 

 amity out of which should spring an inter- 

 change of the most precious and costly com- 

 modities known to traffic, thus n^>;irin^ :i 

 commerce whose tide should ebb to and fro 

 across the continent by this route for ap 

 1-o'ne. Utah was then an isolated community, 

 with no industry but agriculture, and those 

 manufactures necessary to a poor and frugal 

 people. 



" In 1*72 it shipped ten millions of silver to 

 the money centres of the world, and is now 

 demonstrated to be the richest mineral store- 

 house on the continent. An institution repug- 

 nant to the moral sense of the Christian world 

 is fast yielding to the civilizing contact of the 

 outer travel made possible by the construction 

 of the railway. Many believe it has already 

 substantially solved the perplexing problem of 

 polygamy. A vast foreign immigration, bring- 

 ing with it from Europe an immense aggregate 

 sum of money, has already been distributed 

 far out on the line of the road, and its means 

 and muscle are fast subjecting the lately 

 sparsely-peopled Territories of Colorado, Wy- 

 oming, Montana, and Idaho, to the uses of an 

 enterprising and rapidly-increasing population. 

 A steady and copious liow of British capital is 

 pouring into the mines of Colorado and Utah. 

 The Indians have been pacified ; fruitless and 

 costly hostile military expenditures, frequent 

 elsewhere, have ceased in the vicinity of its 

 line, and the facility and speed of connection 

 afforded by the railroad enable the Govern- 

 ment to offer adequate protection to the fron- 

 tier with a handful of troops, and, nt the same 

 time, dispense with largo garrisons and for- 

 tified posts, hitherto maintained at fabulous 

 cost. The countless herds of Texas are mov- 

 ing up to occupy the grazing-grounds of the 

 buffalo in the valleys and canons shadowed by 

 the Rocky Mountains. A region of boundless 

 natural resources, lately unknown, unexplored, 

 and uninhabited, dominated l>y savapvs, has 

 been reclaimed, hundreds of millions added to 

 the wealth of the nation, and the bonds of 

 fraternal and commercial union between the 

 East and West strengthened beyond the power 

 of civil discord to sever. 



"Does any one, yearning with solicitude 

 lest the United States, which has made this 

 fortunate bargain, should fail to receive each 

 cent due at the precise moment it may be 

 demanded by its officers, doubt the ability of 

 the company to perform its obligations and 

 pay the last dollar due long before the matu- 



