f 



570 THE IMPENDING REVOLUTION. 



enterprise bought the land on which the road was built 

 and constructed it at their own expense. Of late years, 

 however, a great many of the railroads have been built 

 almost or entirely at the public expense. 



u Previous to 1850, the United States possessed vast 

 tracts of lands in the Western States and Territories. 

 These lands were the common property of the States, and 

 were held by the general government for their benefit. It 

 was believed, at one time, that the sale of these lands 

 would produce a large revenue for the republic, which 

 could be expended in various enterprises for the benefit 

 of the people at large. In 1850, however, it occurred to 

 certain of our public men that the public lands might be 

 advantageously used for the purpose of defraying the cost 

 of the various railroads, which were then in contempla- 

 tion. Who first conceived the idea is not known, but it 

 was caught up by the Illinois Central Railroad Company, 

 and they succeeded in interesting Stephen A. Douglas, 

 Senator from Illinois, in the scheme. Mr. Douglas was 

 captivated by the idea of the great railway intersecting the 

 entire State, and bringing Northern and Southern Illinois 

 into rapid and direct communication with Chicago and 

 Cairo. He saw the importance of the undertaking, and 

 the magnitude of the expense attending it, and, in an evil 

 hour for the country, adopted the opinion that the general 

 government should aid the construction of the road by 

 bestowing upon the company a portion of the public lands, 

 since the successful accomplishment of the undertaking 

 would result in building up the population and increasing 

 the wealth of Illinois. Mr. Douglas, with all his great 

 genius, did not seem to recognize the fact that he was 

 really asking the , people of the United States to build a 

 road for a corporation in his own State, or that he was 

 opening a way for a systematic fleecing of the nation, for 

 the benefit of private individuals. 



