330 
POLITICAL INHERENCY OF GEOLOGY 
dally the most feasible and attractive of all, and it received first 
financial consideration from private sources when it came to actual 
construction operations. Despite the obstacles which appear to 
have been put in the way by the War Department of the Govern¬ 
ment, the plan of building steadily matured. A northern road ac¬ 
complished first what the South had designed to reserve exclu¬ 
sively for herself, and opened vast virgin expanses in which sla¬ 
very could never have had part. Thus, there was a distinct com¬ 
mercial setting to Squatter Sovereignty in those years immediately 
preceding the War that never drew public attention, but which 
had deep and critical political bearing. 
Unwittingly the South passed on to the North the prize which 
it, itself, held most dear. Nature sided with the North. Slavery 
stood already doomed. The South’s only salvation was recourse 
to arms. The North might not fight. No confederation of states, 
however, could rise successfully against such tremendous odds as 
the combined forces of nature, commerce, and superior man¬ 
power. At this distant day, and in view of the far-reaching re¬ 
sults of the Great Conflict, it seems folly that the South could 
expect its gigantic, bulldozing tactics to work even once more. On 
the other hand, display of even a little tact on the part of Nor¬ 
thern political leaders at a critical moment would doubtless have 
deterred the South however much disgruntled, from making the 
attempt. Immediately before the War the railroad situation in 
the West was in the hands of a new, aggressive and determined 
group of men who, advance guards in this field, had in their make¬ 
up all those sturdy qualities which characterize that early genera¬ 
tion of pioneers who first blazed the forest paths. Railroads were 
building out from the Great Lakes. The present Rock Island line 
was surveyed through to the Missouri River and, already half com¬ 
pleted, was rapidly pushing forward construction. The Union 
Pacific Railway was projected to commence where the Rock Island 
road ended. Linking together of the two oceans by bands of steel 
was in sight. 
Private enterprise never before entered upon such prodigious 
project. The undertaking was really national in scope. None 
grasped this larger situation so quickly as some of the little group 
of Chicago railroad men. There must be substantial help obtained 
