INFLUENCE OF THE WAR. 241 
0,000,000 dollars were immediately given to Mexico in 
ayment for shifting her boundary line a little farther south 
lo make way for the railway. 
3 - Between 1853 and 1860 the political horizon was gradually 
18s ming a lowering aspect. The storm was gathering which 
ultimately revolutionised the Pacific Railway question, as it 
cid d almost every other great question throughout the States. 
st Southern influence appeared to be, as usual, carrying 
thing before it at Washington, and the truce brought 
abo bout by the Missouri compromise was being respected in the 
East, the vital question’ of slavery, State rights, and the rest, 
vy were © hein solved in the Far West throughout “ bleeding” 
sas, Arkansas, Missouri, and the surrounding territories, 
a freedom and rough rapidity natural to the condition of 
inhabitants. The climate influences were adverse to 
ery and weighed heavily on the side of those emigrants 
who poured in from the Free States with an ever-increasing 
ority, bringing with them political emotions verging on 
naticism, and a fixed determination to uphold the laws of 
| jual justice to all men at any sacrifice. The pro-slavery 
orm was defeated in the West, war followed as a direct 
equence, and the almost matured project of construct- 
a Southern Pacific Railroad by the 32nd parallel fell 
ough as a matter of course. : 
The Pacific Railway question soon took another form. 
esmen whisperingly asked each other, What if the Pacific 
States were to waver in their loyalty to the Union? Their 
ed position was for the first time keenly felt, and thus 
necessity of binding California closely to the North by iron 
s laid across the continent, became the highest card held 
those who made it their business to agitate for a Pacific | 
iilroad. Again the question came prominently before Con- 
OL I. R 
