10 
REVIEW OE THE PACIFIC RAILROAD PROJECT. 
It is well known that these questions were left to the consideration of Congress. The repre¬ 
sentatives of a people known to possess more mechanical ingenuity and constructive faculty than 
any nation of the globe, were called upon by the united voice of the nation to look this subject 
of overland communication boldly in the face; to view it in its manifold relations ; to grapple 
with its great apparent difficulties; and, if constitutional, to decide when , where , and in what 
manner , it could be best and most speedily accomplished. All sources of information were open 
to them; and, if a problem and an experiment, it could be met by the full force of that acute 
American intellect which had done, and will continue to do, so much towards accomplishing the 
destiny of this wonderful republic. 
If it was denied that government had constitutional power to act in the premises, it certainly 
did not require argument to prove that those distant communities, the unparalleled develop¬ 
ment of which had been the growth of an epoch in the history of human progress, were an 
integral portion and a part of the republic; and it was also evident that they were entirely 
isolated and unprotected. By the constitution , Congress was compelled to defend California against 
aggression. It was well known, in these years of revolutions and of counter-revolutions, that the 
United States of North America had become an object of suspicion and of dread to older and less 
progressive nations. 
In the event of war with one or more of the great powers of Europe, California could not be 
defended against aggression by the means then within the command of the general govern¬ 
ment. Troops, supplies, and munitions of war would be exposed to the dangers and costs of the 
inadequate modes of transit, of a broken and interrupted water transportation, and to the pas¬ 
sage of an unhealthy, and, in that event, probably a hostile foreign territory. 
It had ever been the policy of this government to restrict the military operations of the coun¬ 
try to a simple and effective character. Her volunteer soldiery had already made the wars of 
America immortal. Rallying the energetic population of every hill-side and prairie around that 
gallant and efficient military organization, which would compare in ability and attainment with 
that of any service of the earth, it was evident that the necessity of the occasion would require 
the rapid transportation of these suddenly-collected forces to the utmost verge of her remotest 
border. 
In view of the achievements of science and the mechanic arts, and the advanced stage of 
human progress in the nineteenth century, a military road could no longer be deemed the 
means of crossing a river or making passage of a hill-side. In reference to the exigencies 
involved, it was the application of that mode of transit which had in a measure annihilated dis¬ 
tance, to a route of two thousand miles in length, from the populous eastern States to California. 
It was the definite solution of the requisition of a new, unexpected, and striking necessity, by 
the use of the best means at the command of the nation. 
The demand was immediate. If it was within the power of government to act in the prem¬ 
ises at all, then when government should act on the question became evident to the weakest 
observer. 
If it was within the power of government to act in the premises at all, then where govern¬ 
ment should carry this project to early consummation grew out of the national requisition of 
military defence, and those claims which had led to the attention of Congress. 
If it was within the power of government to act in the premises at all, then in what manner 
it could be best and most speedily accomplished would be devised by the wisdom of legislation, 
in order to avoid those misfortunes which, in the development of minor and local railroad pro¬ 
jects, had affected the business relations of the country, and had been noticed by a message of 
the President. 
But the project was yet to be placed in a position to become the object of a fostering legis¬ 
lation ; an undertaking which, to aid would be national, and to achieve, patriotic. 
Unprofessional parties had invariably confounded the domestic and commercial relations of 
the problem with that distinct and salient constitutional feature which gave Congress power to 
