210 HISTORY OF THE GRANGE MOVEMENT; OR, 



lowstone. The entire route lay through the extreme 

 northern portion of the Republic, a country which, it 

 was popularly believed, would long remain unsettled, 

 by reason of the severity of the climate and the inhos- 

 pitable nature of the country. The best informed men 

 expressed grave doubts of the practicability of the 

 scheme. They did not believe that this region would 

 be sufficiently settled to warrant the construction of 

 such a railroad for many years, and they based this 

 belief upon the fact that the region offered scarcely any 

 inducements to settlers. Consequently people regarded 

 the road with doubt, and when its bonds were offered, 

 held aloof from them. 



By the terms of the company's charter, a share capi- 

 tal of $100.000,000 was authorized; but of this amount 

 only $2,000,000 was required to be subscribed in ad- 

 vance, and but $200,000 to be paid in. The last-named 

 sum perhaps covered the preliminary expenses of the 

 scheme, such as the cost of surveys, of legislation, and 

 such other operations as were necessary for the com- 

 mencement of the enterprise. The cost of building the 

 road was to be paid by the people. Congress had given 

 a criminally large area of land to the company, and the 

 proceeds of the bonds which were issued were to con- 

 stitute the capital with which the road was to be built. 

 The $200,000, subscribed and paid in by the stock- 

 holders, was the only contribution they seem to have 

 expected to make to the road. " This was a slender 

 provision, it would seem, for a road 2000 miles long, 

 through an uninhabited country, without commerce at 

 either terminus, and without an important town on its 

 whole route. But the projectors intended that Congress 

 should build the road and put them in possession of it. 



