42 
REVIEW OF THE NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN ROUTES. 
western terminus, and defend and develop the isolated Territories of the north, it would in itself 
exist as a solution of the Pacific railway pro Diem. 
Yet, traversing broad gravel plateaux, both east and west of the dividing range, if attempted 
in a proper manner, it must speedily reach its destination, and the important spur through the 
low pass of the Pannack be as rapidly pushed to the base of the Sierra Nevada, and the vicinity 
of those severe and costly works which should be at once undertaken at the favorable point 
for a passage to California. At the mere nominal outlay of its construction, even for national 
defence, such a road might be deemed a necessity —the cheapest and the best means of restrain¬ 
ing the savage tribes, and providing facilities of approach to the Pacific, the very knowledge 
of which would prevent the aggressions of an enemy. 
For when, by the aid of the genius of American engineers, even the Autocrat of Russia unites 
his extended possessions by the construction of military railroads, it is a suggestion to the policy 
of a free people, whether they do not hesitate too long in adopting that means of rapid commu¬ 
nication, which will continue to confine the military operations of the country to their present 
simple and effective character. Forts and standing armies were once deemed national means of 
protection, but now methods of defence may be made the causes of aggrandizement. 
When a city is the growth of a year, and the passage of an ocean but a fortnight—when the 
newsboy cries the morning message of the telegraph, and the aged man is whirled through 
space by the flight of the locomotive—when the farthest settlements of a mighty nation are 
still the children of one great republic, indivisible and forever to be united—then, as I have 
already stated, and will continue to assert, the military road can no longer be deemed the passage 
of a hill-side, or the crossing of a river; but it must become the means of rapidly moving the 
suddenly organized forces of that volunteer soldiery which have made the wars of America im¬ 
mortal, to the utmost verge of her remotest borders. How important, then, should become the 
choice of location for such a road, and of what paramount consideration all that shall tend 
toward the expediency of constructing it—its prospect of remuneration to private, its means of 
augmentation to public interests, its opportunities for cheap grading and for early reaching its 
destination. 
I have already shown that, by the proper location of the branch road from the Missouri, or 
from Grand island to the St. Peter’s, the Upper Mississippi and St. Croix, northern Minnesota 
and Wisconsin may be drained of their rich lumber upon the line of this southern and grand 
central route, aid in its construction, and find a market for a valuable home product absolutely 
needed in Nebraska, Kansas, and Utah. This branch road would eventually reach Lake Supe¬ 
rior. Again, should the great interests of the Canadas persist in their efforts to construct a dis¬ 
tinct Pacific railroad along the northern frontier, either north of the severe mountainous country 
of Washington Territory, or by the route of the United States northern governmental expedi¬ 
tion, as it is now proposed, to secure the trade of the Pacific ocean to the valley of the St. Law¬ 
rence—then the Northwestern railway, from Chicago to the Great Bend of the Missouri, would 
drain a portion of the traffic of this line toward central American territory ; and it is certainly 
more expedient to build a Minnesotian American railway, to tap the carrying trade of a British 
Pacific road, than to build an American road over nearly impracticable mountain ranges, to be 
drained of its business, on reaching level country, by a British line. 
For this reason, the aiding of the construction of a local railroad from Chicago, via St. Paul, 
on the route of the northern exploration, is worthy of the direct notice of government. Such 
a road would develop a section as fertile as any other of the public domain. It would connect 
the waters of the great Red River of the North with the Mississippi; it would carry the lumber 
of eastern Minnesota to the grand unpenetrated divisions of the northern bison ranges, and 
furnish the means of extending a hardy population to the very limits of the cultivable eastern 
sections. This road would extend over a rough surface, but, in developing this rich agricul¬ 
tural country, could progress as fast as required by the needs of the civilization which would 
keep pace with it. 
