120 THE GREEN RISING 



adequate transportation facilities. Previous to the 

 Civil War there were no large systems of railroads. 

 The western farmer was in great need of better 

 transportation facilities for marketing his products. 

 Markets were too remote, and the time and cost of 

 delivering his products to market and transporting 

 his supplies to his farm were too great. It was in- 

 evitable and logical that a demand would be made 

 upon the federal government to utilize land grants 

 to encourage the building of railroads through the 

 rapidly developing territorial section of the central 

 and far West. 



The federal policy of making land grants for in- 

 ternal improvement was slowly evolved through the 

 first half of the nineteenth century. The question 

 of the constitutionality of governmental subsidies 

 for internal improvements had first to be considered. 

 Then the nature of the internal improvements to 

 which federal aid would apply had to be determined. 

 The policy was first applied to the building of high- 

 ways. It was then extended to canals and finally to 

 railroads and river improvement. In 1825 the House 

 of Representatives directed its committee on roads 

 and canals to study the practicability of railroads 

 and to report upon the relative cost of construction 

 of canals and railroads. The committee made a 

 report favorable to railroad construction. By 1830 

 the utility of railroads had been demonstrated and 

 construction had begun. From 1830 to 1841 a con- 

 siderable amount of time of each session of Congress 



