APPLICATION OF THE CASH SYSTEM. 21 
years;* but the pioneer road having, within this period of time, reached the supposed paying 
business of the western terminus, a general through traffic would begin to balance wear and 
depreciation. 
Government is amply able to construct the road by cash payments. The need of the nation is 
immediate. To place the undertaking under the liabilities of borrowing, and to subject it to 
the fluctuations of public estimation, is to retard it. To retard it when once commenced, is, in a 
measure, to defeat it, or, at least, to indefinitely augment its cost. To create a moneyed mo- 
nopoly, which will undoubtedly harass the stock-market, by an unrestricted paper issue, is to in- 
fringe upon the legitimate currency of the country, and has not hitherto been thought constitu- 
tional. We may, therefore, most certainly affirm that the land-grant system should be 
applied to the Pacific railroad undertaking with great caution. As the very intricate and 
peculiar questions of loss of outlay by deterioration, and by working without revenue over a 
route of extreme length and novel character, may not yet be perfectly understood, I will once 
more allow myself to repeat conclusions offered. 
I distinctly state that 7f routes exist across the American continent over which communication 
can ensue with a Pacific terminus in seven years, government should take no action to delay the 
communication beyond that period, but should aid the construction of roads over these routes 
only by cash payments. 
But as there are many other routes across the continent, which are fully practicable, but, by 
passage of undulating surface, need excavation and embankment, bridge and culvert masonry, 
ballasting and drainage, before the rail can be made of use, and as these tedious operations 
(without reference to tunnels and mountain sections) will postpone communication, however 
attempted, government need not necessarily feel compelled to aid the construction of such lines 
by the direct application of cash capital. 
Hesitating to bear the risk of private experiments to procure the influx of western commerce 
over these lines, Congress might with reason sufficiently endow them against loss of running 
trains through undeveloped country, and against cost of renewal during their twenty years' 
progression toward the Pacific. 
This aid, however, should only be bestowed in sections; for, in the present instance, it is 
entirely out of place to endeavor to anticipate those contingencies of the future, which are in 
the course of solution by experiment, and which, within ten years, or less, will be completely 
solved by the completion of the more rapidly extended preliminary line. 
Having now placed this subject in every point of view of which I believe it capable, I will 
again refer to the construction of the first section of the preliminary road on the constitutional 
grounds of military defence. 
HOW THE CASH SYSTEM OF CONSTRUCTION MIGHT BE APPLIED. 
As this road is to be aided on the grounds of military defence, it is in some measure a gov- 
ernment work. 
To favor the proper dispositions on Missouri river and along the route required for the pur- 
poses and supplies of military defence, it should be built under the direction or with the co- 
operation of military engineers. To secure the efficient management and able practical know- 
ledge of private parties, it should be forwarded by contract. : 
The line of location of the route should be placed, from Missouri river to the mountains, 
9 This is a broad conclusion. T-rails of 70 pounds the lineal yard have been known to wear in two years. I have 
seen, in my own experience, the edge or chair-rail and the lightest class of U-rail wear ten years without need of renewal. 
The weight of the engine, the inclination of gradients, the nature of earth passed over, the care given to keeping line and 
level in “surfacing up," (technical terms,) the rates of speed, and the number of trains run, all affect this estimate, 
which is approximate and not in excess ` 
