334 
POLITICAL INHERENCY OF GEOLOGY 
nized that it could not elect its own candidate Breckenridge; and 
the Bell followers were soon more interested in the defeat of 
Douglas than that of Lincoln. Split in three ways, the great 
national Democratic Party easily lost; lost to a little company of 
western railroaders. 
Never had geologist done his work so well as on those pioneer 
Pacific Railroad Surveys; and seldom had such work been put to 
baser use. Unwittingly the scientists were instrumental in pre¬ 
cipitating one of the great political upheavals of the ages. Their 
simple and honest efforts were faithfully performed to enlighten 
a world. They were recklessly made dupes for Davis and the 
South. It was the irony of Fate that Nature could not permit 
such ruthless overruling of her laws. And the unfair advantage 
thus taken accomplished the very thing that Southern politicians 
most of all desired not to happen. Those who were to participate 
in exclusive benefits received instead lasting injuries. In the’mad 
struggle that followed to retain the advantage thought to be gained 
in such unholy way, the leaders involved failed utterly to perceive 
their approaching disolution. 
But these scientific results were lasting, dispite the* seeming 
havoc which they had wrought. All that were attained on the 
Pacific Railroad Surveys while failing the South rebounded to 
the North. They were leisurely garnered by northern railroad 
projectors — master pioneers in their way. After the close of the 
War, and after matters had settled down a bit, the “lost” data on 
the northern surveys were partly recovered or replaced. The very 
men who made them joined the corps of the Union Pacific Rail¬ 
road and gave in private to the public what an imperious Govern¬ 
ment had deliberately withheld. It was indeed an unheard of 
thing that the scientific accomplishments of simple-minded geolo¬ 
gists should furnish the tinder, which flashing, aroused half the na¬ 
tion into rebellion. 
So, as Sienkiewicz relates of the Roman Nero, the power of the 
first railroad tyrant passed, as a whirlwind, as a storm, as a fire, 
as war or death passes; but a great steel roadway survives, serves 
its proper function to an appreciative public, and from its stra- 
tigic situation controls the communication of a continent, and 
guides the commerce of the world. 
