52 
Transactions Texas Academy op Science. — 1906. 
we shall have no more companies organized without capital to impose upon the 
credulous and unwary, and stand in the way of those who have the disposition 
and means to construct railroads.” — Message of Governor Pease to the Sixth 
Legislature, Senate Journal, 1855, p. 8. 
10 Report of the Comptroller of Public Accounts for 1858. The following were 
the elements of this estimate: 
Land 
Town Lots . . . 
Negroes 
Horses . ..... 
Cattle . ..... 
Capital 
Miscellaneous . 
$73,677,316 
12,861,990 
71,912,496 
11,583,247 
13,259,537 
2.745,493 
6,347,298 
Total . 
$192,387,377 
n Texas Almanac for 1859, p. 220. 
12 The condition of affairs is thus admirably summarized by the House Com- 
mittee on Internal Improvements: 
“It may be proper to advert to some of the causes that have hitherto delayed 
and prevented the construction of railroads in the State notwithstanding the 
liberal bonus of land. Some years back when most of our charters were granted, 
eight sections were pledged to the mile constructed. At that time the railroads 
in the Atlantic States had not approached the banks of the Mississippi or of 
the Gulf. A railroad to the Pacific Ocean was not regarded as a practicable 
undertaking, nor had it been ascertained that this work must pass through 
Texas. Our population was much more sparse and our products much less 
than now. Our railroads could not connect themselves with any of the great 
lines of travel connecting with the east web of railroads in the States east of 
the Mississippi, and it was evident that the freight and passenger travel within 
our own borders would not be sufficiently profitable to justify the investments 
of capital. Our lands were believed to be remote from navigable rivers and 
the low price of land certificates depreciated their value. A grant of sixteen 
sections per mile by the United States to railroads in the Northwestern States 
leading from Chicago, St. Louis, and other large market towns and, connecting 
with the railroads of the Atlantic cities, drew off from our State the atten- 
tion of all persons disposed to engage in such undertakings ; therefore, the 
hopes o.f our chartered companies, and citizens generally, were disappointed. At 
the last session of the Legislature the bonus was increased to sixteen sections, 
but unfortunately about that period the western nations of Europe engaged 
in a most expensive war so pressing that no new railroad enterprise could 
command the attention of capitalists either in the United States, London or Paris, 
so that another failure has attended the liberal offers of Texas.” Journal of 
the Sixth Legislature of the House of Representatives, Part II, pp. 401-412. 
13 Poor’s “Manual of Railroads for 1900,” Log. cit., p. xxv. 
"Encyclopedic Dictionary of American History, Vol. 1, p. 241. 
"Cyclopedia of Political Science, Political Economy and the Political History 
of the United States, Vol. Ill, p. 49. 
16 Report of the Committee on Internal Improvements, Sixth Legislature, 1856, 
House Journal, Part II, pp. 401-412. 
"Debates of the Sixth Legislature, Regular Session, Vol. 1, p. 156. 
18 Message to the Sixth Legislature, Senate Journal, 1855, p. 8, et seq. The 
situation and prospects are thus described: “We have chartered thirty-seven 
railroad companies and have held out greater inducements for their construc- 
tion than were ever offered before by any government. It is now nearly four 
years since a bonus of eight sections of land was offered for each mile of road 
constructed, and nearly two years since the bonus was increased to sixteen sec- 
tions a mile for each twenty-five miles. The result of these efforts has been 
that we have one road of about thirty miles in operation from Harrisburg on 
Buffalo Bayou to the neighborhood of Richmond on the Brazos River, and two 
others, the Gaiveston & Red River Railway, and the Galveston, Houston & 
Henderson Railroad in the course of construction, with a reasonable prospect, 
as I am informed, of completing twenty-five miles each by the 30th of January 
next in time to avail themselves of the bonus of sixteen sections. So far as I 
