PACIFIC RAILROAD.
Letter to Messrs. Samuel Hallett & Co., May 23, 1863.
Messrs. Hallett & Co. were associated with General Fremont in urging the Pacific Railroad. This letter was extensively circulated.
Washington, May 23, 1863.
GENTLEMEN,—I have always voted for the Pacific Railroad, and now that it is authorized by Congress I follow it with hope and confidence. It is a great work, but science has already shown it to be practicable.
Let the road be built, and its influence will be incalculable. People will wonder that the world lived so long without it.
Conjoining the two oceans, it will be an agency of matchless power, not only commercial, but political. It will be a new girder to the Union, a new help to business, and a new charm to life. Perhaps the imagination is most impressed by the thought of travel and merchandise winding their way from Atlantic to Pacific in one unbroken line; but I incline to believe that the commercial advantages will be more apparent in the opportunities the railroad will create and quicken everywhere on the way. New homes and new towns will spring up, making new demand for labor and supplies. Civilization will be projected into the forest and over the plain, while the desert is made to yield its increase. There is no productiveness to compare with that from the upturned sod which receives the iron rail. In its crop are school-houses and churches, cities and states.