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 ,1 "About the noblest work that man can do is the de-^'elopnu-nt of this niainit'iieut continent f 
 
 Ct' of yours." — TiiuMAS HroiiEs, M. I'. ■^) 
 
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 I 
 
 Ijf ^f\V ^'ortljwfsl: 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 HON. WM. 1). IvELLEY, 
 
 N()I!T1IKI{\ PAOIFir |{aii-\v\v. 
 
 IN lis KII A ric)\- l>> I HI 
 
 Hcucloiiiiiciil of llic ^oilhuicsltiu ^cdipii rt llic uliiilcil !?tfllc3 
 
 ANI> TO HIE IMHSTKIAI AM> CUMMFRt lAI. INTERESTS OK THE NATION. 
 
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 rev.— ^ . r;^--^:T\ 
 
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'■About the noblest ivork f/iat mail can Jo is tJw development of this ma.^nijiccnt 
 continent of yours.'" — TuoNUs Hl'(;hes, M. P. 
 
 K -^i!' 
 
 ^;|[if |ii;w j^ortljwcot: 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 Hon. Wm. D. Kelley 
 
 [Eeported by D. WOLFE BRO'WN, PlionogTap'her.j 
 
 ^mif PACIFIC I|_AILWAY, 
 
 IN" ITS RELATIONS TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NORTHWESTERN SECTION OF THE 
 
 UNITED STATES, AND TO THE INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL 
 
 INTERESTS OF THE NATION*. 
 

 Biodget 
 
€ottt$\mu\t\\u, 
 
 Philadelphia, May 27:h, 1371. 
 H0/\/. WILLIAM D. KELLEY : 
 
 Dear Sir: — Recognizing your position as a representative American, witli an 
 intelligent interest in the material progress of the country, we respectUilly ask you 
 to address the Commercial Exchange and the citizens of Philadelphia, at your 
 earliest convenience, on the development of the Northwest section of the Conti- 
 nent by the building of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and the effect of this 
 enter])rise upon the trade, manufactures and commerce of our State and city. 
 
 Very respectfully, your obedient servants. 
 
 S. I. COMLV, 
 
 Prrsldvtil Commercial Excluinge. 
 
 Morton McMichael, 
 M. Baird & Co., 
 E. Harper Jekeries, 
 George L. Buzbv, 
 S. J. Christian, 
 Samuel M. Felton, 
 
 I'l-exklent Pennsylvania Steel Co. 
 
 Washington J. Jackson, 
 P. A. Keller, 
 Herman J. Lomraert, 
 
 J^-e-tideiU American Steamship Co. 
 
 J. W. Jones, 
 
 Sec. PhiUntelphia and Reading liailroiid. 
 
 'I'liuMAs A. Scott, 
 
 Prcs. Pa. th. and P. C. and S. L. 11. U. 
 
 J. Vi. Fell, 
 A. R. McHenrv, 
 Lewis Ai'denreid, 
 Edwin N. Benson, 
 John P. Wetherill, 
 A. Whitney & Sons, 
 C. H. Clark, 
 James L. Claghorn, 
 G. M. Troutman, 
 Asa Packer, 
 
 J'rr.iident Lehigh Valley Railroad. 
 
 E. A. Rollins, 
 N. B. Browne, 
 Tho.mas Rohins, 
 John Jordan, Jr., 
 Henry H. Bingham, 
 Alex. G. Cattell t\: Co., 
 Dell Noblit, Jr., 
 Logan Bros. & Co., 
 Frederick Fraley. 
 
 J. Edgar Thomson, 
 
 President Pennsylvania Railroad. 
 
 Thomas Smith, 
 Henry D. Welsh, 
 Henry Lewis, 
 Daniel Smith, Jr., 
 William G. Crowell, 
 J. W. Forney, 
 
 WlLLIA.M C. LoNGSTRETH, 
 
 Coffin Colket, 
 Charles Platt, 
 Isaac Hinckley, 
 
 President P. U'. and B. Railroad. 
 
 W. W. Harding, 
 George H. Stuart, 
 A. P. Colesbury, 
 D. Faust, 
 
 Joel J. Baily & Co., 
 John O. James, 
 Charles Santee, 
 Samuel H. Shipley, 
 Tho.mas C. Hand, 
 
 D. B. Cu.m.mins, 
 Arthur G. Coffin, 
 Henry D. Sherrerd, 
 J. P. Aertsen, 
 
 Tiros, ir. and B. T. .V. R. R. and Oxil Co. 
 
 M. P. Hutchinson, 
 
 JYrsldcnt Oitdwissa Railroad. 
 
 W. L. Gilroy, 
 
 Treasurer Oatawltsa Raitroiui, 
 
 F. A. Comly, 
 
 JYesidmt XortA Pennsi/lvania RaUrtxuL 
 
 G. A. Wood, 
 
 E. C. Knight & Co., 
 R. H. Downincj, 
 
 President B. and S. R. R. Cb. 
 
Philadelphia, June 5:h, 1871. 
 
 Gentlem'JN : — Your invitation to address the citizens of Philadelphia on the 
 development of the Northwestern section of the United States by the building of 
 the Northern Pacific Railroad, and the effect of this enterprise upon the trade, 
 manufactures and commerce of our State and city, invites me to continue in the 
 advocacy of an enterprise for the promotion of which I have, as opportunity offered, 
 labored for more than a quarter of a century. 
 
 I will find pleasure in complying with your request on the evening of Monday 
 next, the 12th inst. With thanks for the flattering terms in which you were pleased 
 to express your wishes, I am, 
 
 Very truly yours. 
 
 WILLIAM D. KELLEY. 
 
 To S. I. Comly, J. Edgar Thomson, Thomas A. Scott, John O. James, M. Baird 
 & Co., George H. Stuart, and others. 
 
 The public meeting, which was called in pursuance of the above correspond- 
 ence, assembled in the American Academy of Music, on the evening of Monday, 
 June 12. A crowded audience of more than four thousand citizens of Philadelphia, 
 and prominent gentlemen from other parts of Pennsylvania, attested the general 
 interest felt in the subject to be discussed. 
 
 The meeting was called to order by Seth I. Comly, Esq., and the following 
 officers were then elected : 
 
 President : 
 
 HIS EXCELLENCY JOHN W. GEARY, 
 
 GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 Vice-Presidents 
 
 Hon. John Swift, 
 Col. James Page, 
 Wm. M. MEREurrH, 
 J. O. James, 
 A. J. Lewis, 
 Jos. Price, 
 Henry M. Phillips, 
 John Farnum, 
 Nathan Brooke, 
 Wash. J. Jackson, 
 George Fai.es, 
 John Sellers, 
 Henry Winsor, 
 Matthew Paird, 
 Gen. R. Patterson, 
 Alexander Brown, 
 Gen. W. McCandless, 
 Gen. H. II. Bingham, 
 A. G. Cattei.l, 
 
 RoBT. P. Dechert, 
 A. J. Deruyshire, 
 Jay Cooke, 
 S. Bradford, 
 Richard Wright, 
 John A. Houseman, 
 Henry C. Carey, 
 Henry G. Morris, 
 J. Rinaldo Sank, 
 James McManes, 
 C. A. Griscom, 
 Charles Wheeler, 
 
 J. H. MiCHENER, 
 
 James C. Hand, 
 Alex. Whilldik, 
 Seth I. Comly, 
 N. B. Browne, 
 William M.^ssey, 
 
 FURMAN SHEI'I'ARD, 
 
 S. A. Crozer, 
 Wm. B. Bement, 
 Wm. Gillespie, 
 Morton McMichael, 
 Alfred Day, 
 William Elliott, 
 Caleb Cope, 
 George A. Wood, 
 Wm. V. McGrath, 
 Morris Uavis, 
 James Pollock, 
 Saml. j. Reeves, 
 Saml. E. Stokes, 
 E. Y. Townsend, 
 Jacob Riegel, 
 Thos. E. Hand, 
 Evan Randolph, 
 Isaac Jeanes, 
 Lewis Audenreid, 
 
 E. H. Trotter, 
 Jas. F. Stockdale, 
 Benjamin Bullock, 
 Henry Preaut, 
 Clarence H. Clarke, 
 John Uevereux, 
 B. K. Jamison, 
 William Greer, 
 Fred. H. Newhall, 
 Henry C. Gibson, 
 JosiAH Bacon, 
 Dr. E. C. Kamerly, 
 Geo. L. Harrison, 
 James Albright, 
 George Whitnev, 
 E. W. Clarke, 
 E. A. Knight, 
 J. Gillingham Fell, 
 George G. Parrish, 
 
J. C. Rosi NOARTKN, 
 
 John C. McCali., 
 William S. Grant, 
 William I). Li.wis, 
 (ien. V. M. I'RF.vosT, 
 (;kor(;k W. DiuuLi:, 
 K. C. Knic.iit, 
 J. B. Lii'i'iNcorr, 
 Coffin Colkkt, 
 
 WM. II. HORSTMANN, 
 
 K. IIaki'i.r JkffriI'IS, 
 Alkri:ij I). jKssi:r, 
 David S. ISuown, 
 JosKFn Lka, 
 1'rancis R. Copk., 
 
 ANDRKW WlIK.lCLKR, 
 
 William J. Nkau, 
 John J. TiioMi'soN, 
 Thomas Smith, 
 I). H. Cummins, 
 K. M. Llwis, 
 I'l. B. Comk.(;ys, 
 Josia-H Moore, 
 
 A. G. Cf)KFlN, 
 
 William Adamson, 
 C. H. Sciukner, 
 W. C. Allison, 
 J. B. McCreary, 
 Louis Wacner, 
 John E. Grakkf, 
 (ien. Josiu A T. OwKN, 
 William IUmm, 
 
 Ilr.NRY l.LWIS, 
 
 Richard Wood, 
 Samiel W. Cattell, 
 Henry IIuhn, 
 Jamius L. Cl AG horn, 
 John W. Forney, 
 Fred. Frai.ky, 
 W. W. Hari.inc., 
 
 A. R. McIIl NRY, 
 
 II. G. Gowi.N, 
 RoiiERT Shoemaker, 
 Charli-s Vezin, 
 1". W. LocKwoou, 
 1,. Wester(;aard, 
 Jos. Bailey, 
 J. K. Caldwell, 
 J. M. WniTAi.L, 
 
 H. v.. r.ENNEKS, 
 
 L. C". Madeira, . 
 Thomas li. W.vrrsoN, 
 Wii.i lAM Brckkie, 
 CiEORCE C. Carson, 
 C. V. Knicht, 
 John L. IIoiGii, 
 
 1'. B. MiNCLE. 
 
 Fred. C.erickr, 
 i:. C. Fhv. 
 William B. Mann, 
 James Graham, 
 II. W. Workman, 
 Jerry Walker, 
 E. A. Socder, 
 William Cimmings, 
 
 ThEO. ClYI.ER, 
 
 RouEKT K. Nekf, 
 
 G. F. Lennig, 
 
 Gen. koBT. L. BODINE, 
 
 J. EiK-.AR Thomson, 
 
 A. C. Craige, 
 Stephen Flanagan, 
 
 B. II. Bartel, 
 Thomas Clyde, 
 
 J. Vaigiin Merrick, 
 Henry C^eiger, 
 A. J. Focht, 
 Ed. S. Handy, 
 W.M. McAleer, 
 J. S. Newi.in, 
 Benj. Horner, 
 Charles J. Sharpllss, 
 Reeve L. Knighp, 
 Clement Biddle, 
 Benj. Orne, 
 John W. Thomas, 
 Henry M. Stone, 
 
 C. II. Cimmings, 
 W. E. Lock wood, 
 Madison R. Harris, 
 Charles Smith, 
 
 P. S. JANNEY, 
 
 Francis Jordan, 
 J. V. Creely, 
 Isaac G. Colesberry, 
 Hon. J. F. Bei-sterling, 
 Charlf.s B. Trego, 
 N. I'. Shortridge, 
 
 11. II. LiPPlNCOTT, 
 
 John II. Krause, 
 Thornton Conrow, 
 Jas. S. Martin, 
 George J. Waterman, 
 William T. Kirk, 
 Isaac Hoigh, 
 F. F. Bernadou, 
 William L. Jame^s, 
 Henry Marcis, 
 C. II. Garden, 
 
 A IGUSTIS 1 1 EATON, 
 
 William II. Sowers, 
 William S. Stoki.ey, 
 John L. Shoemaker,' 
 Thomas A. Scott, 
 J. M. Vance, 
 N. B. Kneass, 
 A. H. Franciscus, 
 
 E. I'. Kr.RsHow, 
 v.. Tracy, 
 Henry Davis, 
 Asa Whitney, 
 Wm. L. McDowell, 
 Henry D. Welsh, 
 
 A. F. ClIESEIlRolGH, 
 
 F. H. BlTLER. 
 W. H. Fl.lTCRAET, 
 
 Henry W. Gray, 
 Isaac Kohn, 
 C. Ma(;argee, 
 Rom RT II. Beatty, 
 J. >L Wilcox, 
 Samiel (}. Ki.ng, 
 Thomas Sparks, 
 George Triman, 
 
 M. J. DniiAN, 
 Isaac Hinckley, 
 Tiios. Doi.AN, 
 
 1 1 1 . R M A N J . I ,( )M n A ERT, 
 
 John I'. Wetherill, 
 J. W. Jones, 
 Geo. a. Nicoli-s, 
 J. r. Aertsen, 
 M. 1'. Hutchinson, . 
 Asa Packer, 
 E. A. Rollins, 
 V. A. Co.mly, 
 Geo. Howell, 
 Samiel Field, 
 Samuel Welsh, 
 John Welsh, Jr., 
 John P. Verrke, 
 Wm. E. Litileton, 
 Washington Butcher, 
 William Dorsey, 
 A. T. Eberman, 
 RoPKRT Cornelius, 
 Samuel J. Christian, 
 William B. Eli.I'^on, 
 Thomas H. Moore, 
 A. K. McCi.ure, 
 Peter Williamson, 
 F'rederick Ladner, 
 J. L. Erringer, 
 William G. Boulton, 
 Edward S. Clarke, 
 Robert Toland, 
 William M. Greiner, 
 Edwin Grehi.e, 
 William M. Baird, 
 John Rice, 
 Samuel T. Bodine, 
 William Purvrs, 
 Saunders Lewis, 
 Wm. C. Houston, 
 Joshua P. Eyre. 
 Thos. p. Stoticsbury, 
 I^ANiEi. Smith, 
 Christian Hoffman, 
 Chas. Macai.e.ster, 
 Geo. 11. Stuart, 
 Chas. S. Lewis, 
 John B. Austin, 
 Samuel Bispham, 
 Wm. Sti.venson, 
 Samuel B. Thomas, 
 P. Fitzpatrick, 
 MoRo Philips, 
 Jesse Godley. 
 
 D. H. KiRKPAlRICK, 
 W. H. ASHHURST, 
 
 John RoHBiNs, 
 M. Hall Stanton, 
 William Anspach, 
 Orlando Crease, 
 Wm. A. Porter, 
 Edmund L. Levy, 
 Gen. GitiEON Clarke, 
 Wm. L. Hirst, 
 Henry Boraef, 
 
 Jas. BONBRIGHT, 
 
 Benj. Homer, 
 Charles Plait, 
 c. b. durhorow, 
 F. A. Klemm, 
 S. (iRoss Fry, 
 J. Fraley Smith, 
 Jos. H. Tkotier, 
 Wm. Cramp, 
 
 I. c. c.vssidy, 
 Geo. N. Allen, 
 John A. Shermer, 
 Louis Haehnlen, 
 Jacob G. Ni;afie, 
 Joseph Wayne, 
 
 Gen. John F. Ballier, 
 Alex M. Fox, 
 Jos. F. Marcer, 
 John O'Byrne, 
 Thos. G. Hood, 
 Thos. W. Evans, 
 Wm. R. Leeds, 
 George K. Zeigler, 
 
 D. C. W. Smith, 
 WisTAR Morris. 
 
 J NO. II. Cat HER WOOD, 
 
 E. N. Ben. SON, 
 
 II. C. K El. LOG, 
 Jos. H. DULLF5, 
 C.EORriE De B. Keim, 
 Stephen S. Price, 
 W. J. Pollock, 
 Alexander Kerr, 
 
 S. Fulton, 
 s. s. scattergood, 
 James Abbott, 
 John S. Weimer, 
 George L. Bu/.hy, 
 John II. Dohnert, 
 Israel Peterson, 
 John a. Bri>wn, 
 "Amp.rose White, 
 John Ma.son, 
 GiLLF_s Dallett, 
 Richard Vaux. 
 Chari.i-:s McKion, 
 Richard Ludlow, 
 TiiADDEirs Fairbanks, 
 .\rtiiur Coi.burn, 
 Wm. M. Wiuson, 
 Paul Graff, 
 J. Harvey Cochran, 
 Ai.F. E. Harmer, 
 Leonard Myers, 
 Samuel J. Randall, 
 Wm. E. SIiskey, 
 D. Landreth. 
 Richard Levkk, 
 A. A. Shumway, 
 W. J. Caner. 
 John Wanamaker, 
 D. H. Rock hill, 
 T. S. Emery, 
 j. j. buciiey, 
 Thos. S. Fernon, 
 J. E. Addicks, 
 Henry D. Sherrerd. 
 
Secrcta)'ies : 
 
 Alex. P. Colesberry, 
 George A. Smith, 
 Lor IN Blodget, 
 Stephen N. Winslow, 
 Clayton McMichael, 
 Eli T. Starr, 
 Lewis Waln Smith, 
 Peter Lesley, 
 John D. Stockton, 
 Jas. S. Chambers, 
 Wm. F. Corbit, 
 
 Alex. J. McCleary, 
 Wm. H. Cunnington, 
 Wm. B. Hanna, 
 David F. Houston, 
 Albert Frick, 
 G. W. Hamersley, 
 Riter Fitzgerald, 
 Charles K. Ide, 
 George G. Pierie, 
 Harry Todd, 
 
 Frank Wells, 
 R. Shel. Mackenzie, 
 John D. Watson, 
 Jos. K. McCammon, 
 Chas. E. Warburton, 
 W. W. Nevin, 
 C. E. School, 
 E. E. MoRWiTZ, 
 Jos. H. Paist, 
 RoBT. A. Welsh, 
 
 Dennis F. Dealy, 
 Jas. B. Alexander, 
 
 "E. }. SWARTZ, 
 
 Jos. Robinson, 
 Chas. McClintock, 
 F. W. Thomas, 
 Robt. Friedlande, 
 John Blakeley, 
 John G. Ford, 
 "Edmltnd Deacon. 
 
 Governor Geary, on taking the chair, said : 
 
 Fellow Citizens : — Having been called to preside over the deliberations of 
 this vast and intelligent assembly, I desire to return to you my most sincere thanks 
 for such an honorable compliment. 
 
 We have met this evening, not for the purpose of rehearsing the oft -repeated 
 stories of triumphant marches and victorious battle-fields, of squandered treasure and 
 sacrificed human lives, but to hear and learn from the eloquent and distinguished 
 gentlemen who will, in discussing one of the most important enterprises of the age, 
 address us upon some of the most distinguishing physical features of our country, and 
 in so doing illustrate its wonderful progress and material growth from the Atlantic to 
 the Pacific ocean. 
 
 Particular reference will doubtless be made to the various resources and 
 advant gcs of that portion of the United States territory to be traversed by the 
 Northern Pacific Railroad, now in process of construction. 
 
 From the stern alarms of a recent civil war we turn with pleasure to the culti- 
 vation and advancement of all the arts of peace, and the development of the match- 
 less resources of our country. It is our desire to keep pace with all the laws of pro- 
 gress in such manner as will guarantee life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to 
 all who may desire to seek new homes in the magnificent territory about to be 
 developed, whether they be to the "manor born" or are "strangers within our 
 gates," and thus prove that " Peace hath victories no less renowned than war." 
 
 Through the influence, wisdom and enterprise of some of the prominent mer- 
 chants, i ankers and railroad men of Pennsylvania, the Northern Pacific Railroad 
 will receive and discharge many of it passengers and much of it valuable freight in 
 Philadelphia. It will make our State the great thoroughfare of nations, and our 
 steamshi}) line to Europe will be an assured success. 
 
 Pennsylvanians, therefore, should not be indifferent to the Northern Pacific 
 Railroad, as they have their highest interests involved in its prompt prosecution 
 and sj)eedy construction. 
 
 In conclusion, fellow citizens, I invoke your earnest co-operation and assist- 
 ance in this great work, by which, in addition to the subservance of personal "and 
 local interests, the most distant portions of our country will not only be united and 
 bound together with bonds of iron, but by the more indissoluble links of a common 
 brotherhood. I have now the honor of introducing the orator of the evening, Hon. 
 Williun 1). Kelley. 
 

 Hon. William D. Kr.i.i.F.v, who was 
 received with hearty and long-continued 
 applause, said : 
 
 I thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for 
 this very cordial reception, and beg leave 
 to express my gratitude to the gentlemen 
 who, by their invitation, have afforded 
 me an opportunity to contribute, how- 
 ever humbly, towards the completion of 
 a work which, for more than a quarter of 
 a century, I have regarded as of prime 
 importance to the country, and of spe- 
 cial value to my native city and State, 
 and for the promotion of which, during 
 that period, I have labored as opportu- 
 nity offered. I do not expect the state- 
 ment of facts I shall make to be accepted 
 without many grains of allowance by 
 those of my hearers who have not visited 
 the trans-Missouri portion of our country; 
 and shall not be surprised if mariy of 
 you leave the hall with the opinion that 
 I have dealt largely in exaggeration. 
 Yet it is my purpose to speak within 
 the limits of truth, and to make no state- 
 ment that is not justified by my personal 
 observation, or authorities that all are 
 bound to recognize, or the concurrent 
 statements of numbers of inhabitants of, 
 and travellers through, the country of 
 which I am to speak. 
 
 The truth is, that however well informed 
 a man may be and however large the grasp 
 of his mind, if his life has been passed 
 between the Atlantic and the Mississippi 
 river, he cannot fully conceive the strange 
 contrasts between the characteristics of 
 the Atlantic and Pacific portions of our 
 
 country. The difference in topography 
 is marked, and recognized by all; but as 
 to the subtle differences of climate, soil, 
 temperature and atmosphere, experience, 
 alone, can impart conviction. 
 
 About two years ago, it was my privi- 
 lege, in connection with my colleagues 
 on the Committee of Ways Means of the 
 National House of Representatives, to 
 traverse the entire route of the Union and 
 Central Pacific Road by daylight, and to 
 visit Salt Lake City, which was, as all 
 know, located in the heart of the "Great 
 Desert," that it might be the centre of a 
 Mormon emi)ire that avouUI be guarded 
 by the forces of Nature against Oentile 
 intrusion. After having somewhat studied 
 California, with San Francisco as our 
 head -quarters, we passed up the coast to 
 the mouth of the Columbia river, along that 
 beautiful stream to its confluence with the 
 Willamette, and up the Willamette to 
 Portland, Oregon, as a new point of dc- 
 ])arture for observation, visiting thence on 
 one line of steamers, Oregon city, with its 
 immense flouring and woolen mills, and 
 on another, the grandeur {for beauty does 
 not express it) of the Columbia river be- 
 vond the Cascades and onward to the 
 Dalles. Though that region had so long 
 been a matter of interest to me, the study 
 of which had afforded so much pleas- 
 ure, each day revealed new and strange 
 conditions, and imbued me with a fresh 
 sense, not onlyofthe extent of our country, 
 but of the grandeur and infinite variety 
 of its resources and the beneficence and 
 power of the Almighty, in adapting all 
 
PACIFIC RAILROAD HISTORY. 
 
 parts of it to the sustenance and com- 
 fort of man. But of this hereafter. 
 
 Let me first invite your attention to 
 facts within the memory of some of my 
 auditors, which show that the resources 
 of the new northwest and its adapta- 
 bility to railroad purposes are not, as is 
 sometimes intimated, of recent discovery, 
 but have long been known, and that the 
 route of the Northern Pacific Railroad 
 is that originally proposed, because it 
 is the shortest and best by which to con- 
 nect the seaboard at Baltimore, Philadel- 
 phia, New York, Boston and Portland, 
 Me., with the waters of Puget Sound and 
 the commerce of the ancient East, which 
 is now the West, the march towards which, 
 of American ideas is illustrating again 
 the truth that, 
 " Westward the course of empire takes its way." 
 
 Pacific Railroad History. 
 
 During the summer of 1845, twenty- 
 six years ago, Asa Whitney, of New York, 
 who had spent many years in China, and 
 sought, by all such agencies as were at the 
 command of private enterprise, informa- 
 tion about the country lying between 
 Lake Michigan and Puget Sound, did me 
 the honor to seek my acquaintance and 
 bring to my attention the subject of a 
 railroad from the base of the Lake to 
 some point in Oregon, on the waters of 
 Puget Sound or the Columbia river, or to 
 a point on each. The whole subject was 
 new to me ; but Mr. Whitney came pre- 
 pared to enlighten those who were igno- 
 rant, and to inspire with faith those who 
 doubted. His general views were in 
 print, and embodied columns of statis- 
 tics, obtained from official sources, and 
 many facts reported by persons who had 
 travelled more or less through the region 
 which the proposed road was to traverse. 
 The magnitude of the subject inspired me, 
 and my enthusiasm for his great project 
 induced Mr. Whitney, despite the dis- 
 parity in our years, to favor me with fre- 
 quent conferences, and to bring to my 
 attention whatever information relating 
 
 to the subject he obtained. Early in the 
 year 1846, I felt justified, by the growth 
 of sentiment in its favor, in undertaking 
 to secure him an opportunity to present 
 his project to a public meeting of the 
 citizens of Philadelphia. To induce a 
 sufficient number of gentlemen to act as 
 officers of the meeting was the work of 
 time. I found few who took an inte- 
 rest in, or believed in the feasibility 
 of, the project. Some said that a rail- 
 road so far north would not be available 
 for as many months in the year as 
 the Pennsylvania canals were ; that it 
 would be buried in snow more than half 
 the year. Others cried, "What madness 
 to talk of a railroad more than two thou- 
 sand miles long through that wilderness, 
 when it is impossible to build one over 
 the Alleghanies ! ' ' [Laughter and ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 As I went from man to man with Mr. 
 Whitney's invaluable collection of facts 
 and figures, I discovered that the doubts 
 with which the work must contend were 
 infinite in number, and it was not until 
 six months had elapsed that a sufficient 
 number of well-known citizens to con- 
 stitute the officers of a meeting had 
 consented to sign the call for one and 
 act as such. But patience and perse- 
 veren<;e accomplish a good deal in this 
 worlci. The cause had gained adherents, 
 and, as I find by reference to the papers 
 of that day, the meeting for which I had 
 so long labored was held in the Chinese 
 Mftseum, on the evening of December 
 23d, 1846. Some of these, my venerable 
 friends who sit around me, probably 
 remember the occasion, as I see among 
 them some who acted as officers. His 
 Honor, John Swift, then Mayor of the 
 city, presided. Col. James Page, Hons. 
 Richard Vaux, William M. Meredith and 
 John F. Belsterling, with Mr. David S. 
 Brown and Mr. Charles B. Trego (all of 
 whom still survive) were among the vice 
 presidents; and Senator Wm. A. Crabb, 
 now deceased, and William D. Kelley 
 served as secretaries. The speakers were 
 
PALI lie KAII.ROAI) HISTORY. 
 
 Messrs. Whitney, Josiah Randall, Peter 
 A. Browne and William D. Kelley. 
 
 Mayor Swift, with a few cautious 
 words commendatory of his great en- 
 terprise, introduced Mr. Whitney, who 
 stated, with great clearness, his project, 
 and the advantages that would result from 
 its exec ution. It was, he said, to be a 
 railroad from Lake Michigan to a point 
 on navigable water in Oregon. He be- 
 lieved that it could be constructed on a 
 line about 2400 miles in length ; and that 
 he ancl his associates hoped to be able to 
 build it in twenty years, if the Government 
 would grant sixty miles breadth of land for 
 the whole distance. When asked how he 
 would make land in that remote northern 
 wilderness available for the building of a 
 road, he described the character of the 
 climate, and showed that north of the 
 forty-ninth degree of north latitude, and 
 in valleys extending up to the fifty-sixth 
 degree, the climate was in summer as 
 genial as that of Southern Pennsylvania; 
 and asserted emphatically that a railroad 
 through that section would be less ob- 
 structed by snow than one through Cen- 
 tral New York or Pennsylvania. 
 
 His scheme was to organize a vast sys- 
 tem of immigration from the cities of the 
 Eastern States and from Europe ; the work- 
 men were to be paid in part in land, and a 
 cori« was to be detailed to prepare a part 
 of each farm for cultivation the next year, 
 so that when the laborers of the .seconil 
 year should go forward they would leave 
 behind them those of the first as farmers 
 r^j\c\ guardsmen of the road ; by this pro- 
 cess many millions of poor ami opj)ressed 
 people would be lifted to the dignity of 
 free-holding American citizens, and the 
 great route for the commerce of the world 
 would be established amid the develop- 
 ment of the boundless resources of the 
 yet new Northwest. (Applause.) 
 
 At the close of an eloquent address, 
 the late Josiah Randall, Esq., submitted 
 a series of resolutions, from which I 
 quote the following, which were heartily 
 adopted : 
 
 "\Vlicrcas, the completion of a r.iilroad from l.ake 
 Micliii^jaii to tlic Pacific would secure the carrying 
 of the greater portion of the commerce of tlie world 
 to American enterprise, and open to it tlie markets 
 of Jajian and the vast empire of China, of all India, 
 and of all the islands of the I'acitic an<l Indian 
 Oceans, tojjcther with those of the Western Coast 
 of Mexico and South .America; 
 
 And, where.as, we have in our public lands a 
 fund sufticient for and appropriate to the construc- 
 tion of so great and beneficent a work ; and the 
 proposition of Asa Whitney, Ks<|., of New York, 
 to construct a railroad from Lake .Michigan to the 
 Pacific for the grant of ri strijxjf land 6oniiIes wide, 
 offers a feasible and cheap, if not the only plan for 
 the early comjiletion of an avenue from ocean to 
 ocean ; therefore, 
 
 " Reschrd, That we cordially approve of the 
 project of -Vsa Whitney, Ksq., for the construction 
 of a railroad to the Pacific, and respectfully petition 
 Congress to grant or set apart, bet'ore the close of 
 the jiresent session, the lands prayed for by Mr. 
 Whitney for this purpose." 
 
 It was also resolved to send copies of 
 the resolutions and proceedings of the 
 meeting to our senators and members of 
 Congress, and to the Governor of the 
 Commonwealth, with the request that he 
 would bring the subject to the attention 
 of the Legislature. 
 
 Encouraged by this success, Mr. Whit- 
 ney visited other cities, and brought his 
 plans before the people. On the 4th of 
 January, 1847, he addressed an immense 
 meeting in the Tabernacle, New York, 
 which was presided over by the mayor and 
 participated in by the leading men of that 
 city. His remarks were listened to, but 
 at their close a mob took possession of 
 the hall and denounced the project as a 
 swindle, declaring thas it was an attempt 
 on the part of a band of conspirators to 
 defraud the people by inducing the Gov- 
 ernment to make an immense grant of 
 land for an impracticable project. 
 
 This was the initial movement of a 
 powerful and organized opposition, before 
 which Mr. Whitney retired, silenced in 
 his effort to promote one of the grandest 
 works ever conceived by an .American citi- 
 zen. (Applause.) Hut his labors had not 
 been in vain. On the 23d of June, 1848, 
 Hon. James Pollock, the present Direc- 
 tor of the United States Mint, who does 
 me the honor to listen to me. and who 
 was then in Congress from this State, as 
 
THE PENNSYLVANIA CENTRAL ROAD. 
 
 chairman of a special committee ap- 
 pointed in accordance with a resolution 
 he had offered, presented a favorable 
 report on the project of a Pacific Rail- 
 road, recommending that steps be taken 
 to secure adequate explorations and sur- 
 veys of the trans-Mississippi country. 
 The "madness" of the project was still 
 laughed at even by "grave and rever- 
 ened" senators; and it was not until the 
 3d of March, 1853, that the President 
 signed an act authorizing the Secretary 
 of War, under his direction, "to employ 
 such portion of the corps of topographi- 
 cal engineers and such other persons as 
 he may deem necessary to make such 
 explorations and surveys as he may deem 
 advisable, to ascertain the most practi- 
 cable and economical route for a railroad 
 from the Mississippi river to the Pacific 
 ocean." Effect was given to this resolu- 
 tion at the earliest day, but it was not 
 until the 27th of February, 1855, that the 
 Secretary of War was able to submit to 
 the President, for communication to Con- 
 gress, the reports of the several surveying 
 parties. The first of these reports were 
 given to the public by order of Congress 
 in the latter part of that year. They fill 
 thirteen large quarto volumes, and I shall 
 have occasion to refer to them hereafter. 
 
 The Pennsylvania Central Road. 
 
 As experience is a trusted teacher it may 
 be well to pause and examine the condi- 
 tion of the railroad interests of the 
 country at that time. At the close of 
 1846, we had 4930 miles of road in opera- 
 tion, 297 of which had been completed 
 during that year. A system of con- 
 tinuous railroad had not been proposed. 
 Until about that time the function of 
 railroads had been assumed to be to 
 connect water-courses. Thus the Co- 
 lumbia Railroad constructed by our State 
 'authorities, connected the waters of the 
 Pennsylvania canals with those of the 
 Delaware river ; the Camden and Amboy 
 road connected the waters of the Dela- 
 
 ware with those of the Raritan ; from 
 Philadelphia to Baltimore, until 183S, 
 communication was by steamboat from 
 Philadelphia to Newcastle, thence by 
 rail to Frenchtown, thence by steamboat 
 to Baltimore. The route from Boston to 
 New York was by railroad from Boston 
 to Providence, and by steamboat thence 
 to New York. These connecting links 
 of road soon developed a commerce, not 
 equal to their capacity but beyond that 
 of available water conveyance, and thus 
 demonstrated the necessity of a more 
 general resort to roads. Hence the 
 subject of the expansion of our system 
 was attracting attention. The construc- 
 tion of the Pennsylvania Central road 
 was under consideration. On the 3d of 
 April, 1846, the Legislature, after much 
 and violent controversy, had consented to 
 give the madcaps, who were willing to 
 engage in such a project, a charter; but 
 to prevent them from practising fraud, 
 by peddling the franchise or holding it 
 for sinister purposes, the act required 
 that $2,500,000 of stock should be sub- 
 scribed, and that the enormous sum of 
 $250,000 should be paid in before the 
 issuing of letters patent. Most of you, 
 doubtless, suppose that the requisite sub- 
 scription was obtained at once. No ; 
 nearly twelve months were required to 
 induce the enterprising men of Phila- 
 delphia to risk two millions and a half of 
 dollars in building a road over the iVlle- 
 ghanies. "The grades on the road," it 
 was said, "would be impracticable; the 
 heavy snows and long winter would render 
 the road unavailable ; the project was a 
 mad one." Those only who remember 
 the efforts required to induce the people 
 of Pennsylvania to make that small sub- 
 scription would believe the story, could it 
 be faithfully told. The active young men 
 of this day would regard it as a pungent 
 satire. 
 
 Town meetings were held, and "block- 
 committees" were appointed, by whom 
 citizens were solicited to subscribe for 
 five shares or three or one, for the sake of 
 
TIIK I'KNNSVI.NANMA CENIKAL KOAI). 
 
 the experiment, even though the invest- 
 ment might be unproductive. Meet- 
 ings of draymen and porters were held, 
 and they were sliown that if each would 
 take a share, it would help the enterprise ; 
 that if the road should prove a success 
 they would get good interest on their 
 money with great increase of business ; 
 and if not, it W(nild have been wisely 
 spent in promoting an enterprise which, 
 in the judgment of many good men, 
 promised great benefit to the City and 
 State. 
 
 1 have sjjoken of the business men of 
 Philadelphia, but the appeal was not to 
 them alone ; it w;us to the people of 
 Pennsylvania. This was to be a Penn- 
 sylvania road, and by the act of incor- 
 poration the commissioners for receiving 
 subscriptions were reipiir&d to open books 
 at Pittsburg, HoUidaysburg, Harrisburg, 
 and all the chief towns along the line of 
 the road, as well as in Philadelphia; and 
 the energy, enterprise, and capital of the 
 whole State stood ai)palled.at the magni- 
 tude and doubtful character of an under- 
 taking to byild a continuous line of 
 railroad from Philailelphia to Pittsburg. 
 
 It was not until the 30th of March, 
 1847, ^^'t three days less than one year 
 from the granting of the charter that the 
 ]jetty subscription required was obtained, 
 letters patent issued, and a board of direc- 
 tors organized. And it remained for some 
 time thereafter a grave (piestion whether 
 capital could be obtained by subscription 
 or loan to complete the road. ' 
 
 But by the micldle of October, 1850, a 
 single track was conii)leted from Harris- 
 burg, its then point of departure, to 
 HoUidaysburg, at the foot of the Alle- 
 ghany mountains. The triuiniih was im- 
 mense; and on the iSth of October, 1S50, 
 the event was celel)rated by an excursion, 
 which was enjoyed by many prominent 
 business men and other friends of the 
 road. In the evening a meeting w.xs held 
 over a pleasant dinner, at which I remem- 
 ber my friend. General Patterson (jwint- 
 ing to the general, who sat on the stage in 
 
 company with Governor Geary), and his 
 friend, old General Riley, were speakers. 
 The late President lUichanan and Joseph 
 R. Ingersoll, K<,(\., also deceased, spoke. 
 At the close of a very brilliant spee( h, 
 my friend, Morton McMichael, Kscp, 
 did me the honor to introduce me as one 
 who had been an early and efli( ient 
 friend of the road. 
 
 From a musty copy of the North Ameri- 
 can now before me, I find that, among 
 other things, I expressed my pritle " in 
 the fact that I wa.s a Philadelphian, a 
 member of that community which, with 
 aid from but a single township — that 
 of Allegheny — had, in the face of a host 
 of discouragements, embarked their capi- 
 tal, enterprise, energy and skill in the 
 construction of the magnificent road o\er 
 which we had travelled that day, and 
 which, though not yet comiiletcd. wii^ 
 sufficiently advanced to earn in a few 
 years, the means for its completion, 
 should they not be supjilied from other 
 sources." And, alluding to what was 
 then my favorite project, 1 said : 
 
 "The Enj;lisli ni.ail for Calcutl.a will yet tr.nvel 
 over our reiiiisylvania K.Tilroiul, and its iron HIk 
 will groan inuler the weij^ht of commodities p.iss- 
 ing to and fro between the 250,000,000 of people 
 east of the Atlantic and the 750,000,000 west of 
 the I'acific. The discovery of our Continent by 
 Columbus wxs accidental; but the builders of this 
 road and its several continuations through the 
 Western Slates are vindicating his sagacity, lie 
 sailed due west from Europe to find a shorter 
 route to the wealth of India. Me w.is right; the 
 fact that he encountered a continent did not in- 
 cre.i-se the distance between tiie jxiints; it did but 
 demonstrate the necessity for a new mode of con- 
 veyance. This the railroad and locomotive sup- 
 ply. The pxssage of the two oceans by ste.^ni and 
 the crossing of our country on a railroad will re- 
 duce the time requisite for a voyage fnjni London 
 to Canton to less than thirty days. 
 
 "Columbus was no enthusiast. He looked 
 calmly and gravely at facts, ami sjxike the words 
 of sober wisdom; and so, let folly sneer as it may, 
 do those who speak of the I'ennsylvania road as a 
 link in \ chain of commercial facilities which is to 
 girdle the earth." [.\pplause.] 
 
 .\nd again : ' ^ 
 
 "The Mississippi Valley is not our Western 
 country, nor is the I'acilic coast of our country the 
 'far West' we look to. Colundms would go west 
 to the Indies; and we will do it. The riches of 
 our West, now the world's East, will lade our 
 
12 
 
 A QUARTER OF A CENTURY 
 
 road, stimulate our agriculture, develop our vast 
 mineral resources, quicken and expand our enter- 
 prise, and drop their fatness tlirougliout our bor- 
 ders." [Applause.] 
 
 I find that, when somewhat laughed at 
 for this outburst of subdued enthusiasm, 
 I replied by saying : 
 
 " Why, you can find in Philadelphia to-day 
 more men clamorous for a road from St. Louis to 
 San Francisco than you could who believed in 
 the possibility of constructing a continuous road 
 over the mountains hence to Pittsburg six years 
 ago." 
 
 This, you will remember, was after the 
 acquisition of California and the dis- 
 covery of her gold-fields. 
 
 A Quarter of a Ceiitury. 
 
 But to return to 1846, a quarter of 
 a century ago. Let no man think that 
 the Pacific Railroad then projected was 
 to run to San Francisco, or elsewhere 
 than to the heart of the unorganized 
 Territory of Oregon, which extended 
 from the 42d to the 49th parallel of lati- 
 tude, and embraced what is now the 
 State of Oregon and Washington Terri- 
 tory, into which no settlers had yet gone. 
 
 There was then no San Francisco. 
 Not a cabin or hut stood within tlie now 
 corporate limits of that beautiful and 
 prosperous city. California, Nevada, 
 Arizona and New Mexico, were still 
 Mexican territory. Neither science nor 
 observation had detected the deposits of 
 gold and silver, or the agricultural capa- 
 bilities of that vast region of country. 
 The great railroad centre of the West, Chi- 
 cago, had not yet come into public view. 
 The less than 10,000 people who had 
 gathered at the confluence of the Chicago 
 river with Lake Michigan had no presenti- 
 ment that the swamp in which they dwelt 
 would, in less than twenty years, be filled 
 up and raised nearly twenty feet, to provide 
 drainage for the streets of the most enter- 
 prising and remarkable city in the world, 
 *f its age. Michigan then had a popu- 
 lation ot less than 250,000, and Wisconsin 
 and Iowa each but 100,000; and civili- 
 zation had not yet penetrated the wide 
 
 region then known as Minnesota territory, 
 where the census takers, four years later, 
 found but 6,038 people. Four years later 
 there were but 91,635 people in California, 
 which had then been ceded to us by 
 Mexico, and admitted to the Union as a 
 State, and whose recently discovered 
 deposits of gold had attracted immigrants 
 from every clime. There was no govern- 
 ment in Kansas and Nebraska, that whole 
 fertile region being in possession of the 
 Indian and the buffalo. The name of 
 that busy centre of river and railroad 
 commerce, Omaha, had not been heard 
 by English-speaking people, and the vast 
 mineral, grazing and agricultural region 
 through which the Union and Central 
 Pacific railroad is now doing a profit- 
 able and rapidly increasing business, was 
 noted by geographers as the "Great 
 American Desert." Philadelphia had 
 no railroad connection with Pittsburg, 
 Pittsburg none with Cincinnati or Chi- 
 cago, nor any of these with St. Louis. 
 The northwestern part of our State was 
 known as the "wild-cat country," in 
 which it was regarded as a misfortune to 
 own land unless it was timbered and on 
 the banks of a mountain stream ; and 
 properties in that wide section in which 
 coal and petroleum have since been 
 discovered were sold every few years for 
 taxes, because people could not afford to 
 own land in such a cold, mountainous, 
 unproductive and inaccessible country. 
 [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 Surely the world moves and time does 
 work wonders. What railroads we have 
 you know ; what railroads we are to have 
 you only begin to suspect. In Europe, dur- 
 ing this quarter of a century, dynasties and 
 the boundaries of empires have changed, 
 but the increase of population has been 
 scarcely perceptible. The oppressions of 
 the feudal past linger there, and cannot 
 be shaken off. But here, where man is 
 free, and nature offers boundless returns 
 to enterprise, broad empires have risen, 
 embracing towns, cities, and states ; and 
 millions of people born in many lands 
 
THE NORTHERN PACIFIC KAII.ROAD. 
 
 13 
 
 with poverty and oppression as their only 
 birthright, are now, as American citizens, 
 enjoying all the comforts and refinements 
 of civilization, and with cajjital rivaling 
 that of European jjrinces, originating and 
 j)ressing forward great enterprises which 
 are in the next (piarter of a century 
 to work more marvellous changes than 
 any I have alluded to. Yes, ladies and 
 gentlemen, were supernal })ower to unfold 
 to our view our country as it shall be a 
 quarter of a ( entury hence, the most far- 
 seeing and sanguine of us would regard 
 the reality as a magnificent delusion. Our 
 extension of territory and law, great as it 
 has been, is of small consequence in com- 
 parison with the achievements of mind in 
 the empire of science and art, whereby 
 man is enabled to produce ten-fold, and in 
 many departments of productive industry, 
 a hundred-fold as much as he could 
 twenty-five years ago by the same amount 
 of labor. New roads are to be built ; new 
 towns, cities and states to be created ; 
 new resources developed ; and the slug- 
 gish people of the Orient are to be 
 awakened to their own interests and 
 induced to contribute their vast share 
 to the jirogress and commerce of the 
 world. The vision that filled the soul 
 of Columbus was a grand one ; but that 
 which opens to our view, and should pos- 
 sess and animate us, is as much grander 
 and more beneficent as the civilization 
 and arts of the close of the 19th are 
 superior to those of the dawning days 
 of the 14th century. 
 
 The A'orthcrn Facifii Railroad. 
 
 I regard the construction of the North- 
 ern Pacific Railroad as < hief among the 
 great works of the future, and believe 
 that while it will be a magnifit ent monu- 
 ment to its builders and promoters, and 
 abundantly reward their enterprise and 
 labor, its construction will add incon- 
 ceivably to the wealth, jjower and influ- 
 ence of the nation. It will open to 
 
 settlement under the homestead and 
 pre-emption laws a territory that wuuld 
 accommodate all the peasantry of Europe, 
 and, by the development of its boundless 
 and varied mineral and agricultural re- 
 sources, lift millions of men from poverty 
 to wealth, and enable many who are 
 burdens upon society to bless it by their 
 prosperity. [Applause.] 
 
 These are well considered convictions. 
 If I am mistaken, I have, a.s I have shown 
 you, cherished the delusion through the 
 greater part of my manhood ; and* the 
 study of many authorities, much inter- 
 course with men, and extended travel 
 have only served to confirm it. Nor do 
 I now express them for the first time. On 
 the 26th of April, 1866, a l)ill proposing 
 to authorize the government to aid in the 
 construction of the Northern Pacific Rail- 
 road was under consideration by Con- 
 gress, and I participated in the discussion. 
 IJy reference to the Glolu-, I find, that after 
 having characterized the construction of 
 the road as a matter of not only Na- 
 tional, but world-wide importance, I said : 
 
 " From Lake Superior to Puget Sotiiul I .\ 
 railroad stretching from Lake Superior to Pnget 
 Sniind. a tliMancc of 1800 miles! To open to 
 civilization an empire longer and broader than 
 \Vtstcrn F-uro))e. from the southern vinelands of 
 sunny Spain on tlie one hand to the hyperhorean 
 forests of Norway on the other I Yes. sir; an 
 empire eipial in extent to England, Ireland, Scot- 
 land, France, l?elgium,the flernian States, .\usiria, 
 Holland, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, 
 Norway, .Sjiain and Portugal. 
 
 "We fail, Mr. Speaker, to understand our re- 
 lations to the age in which we live and our duties 
 to mankind, l>ecause we fail to appreciate the 
 grand dimensions and unimagined resources of 
 our country. We would regard ourselves as 
 giants did we estimate ourselves in pro))orti<'n to 
 ]iossessions so grand in a coimtn," so alH>unding in 
 multifoiTn resources, so undevelope<l, and so 
 spai"sely settled. 
 
 '• The region through which it is projx><:c<l to 
 construct this ro.-id, exceeding in extent all the 
 countries I have named, also emlnKlies more 
 mineral wealth than they all comhined ever ihis- 
 scssed. lUit what is its condition ? It is a wil- 
 derness. Almost every acre of it is still innocent 
 of iIk- tread of a tax collector. It yields the 
 (iovernment no revenue. Along the Pacihc co.i^ 
 a few thriving villages dot it. Some of them will 
 one day Ik* great cities, but they arc now on the 
 borders of a vast wilderness." 
 
14 
 
 COMPARED WITH OTHER ROUTES. 
 
 Compared with Other Routes. 
 
 But there are those who, Avhile admitting 
 the vast extent and wonderful resources of 
 the country, assert that it is unfit for occu- 
 pancy by communities by reason of its high 
 latitude and the altitude of its mountains. 
 They present all the objections that were 
 made to the construction of the Pennsyl- 
 vania Railroad. "The mountains are 
 too high," "the snows are too deep, 
 and lie too long!" Are not these objec- 
 tion:^ as groundless in this case as they 
 were in that ? Let us see. Government 
 surveys and other observations show, 
 beyond reasonable question, that a rail- 
 road between the 46th and 49th parallels 
 will have a better route than any other 
 road north of the 3 2d degree, which 
 line has the drawback of a summer climate 
 that is so nearly tropical as to interfere 
 witii travel and the general transit of 
 goods. I am convinced that the country 
 through which the Northern Pacific Rail- 
 road is to pass will, twenty-five years 
 hence, contain double the population that 
 will then be found along the line of the 
 road which connects Omaha and Sacra- 
 mento. Indeed I believe I would be 
 within the bounds of reasonable prediction 
 if I made my proposition embrace the 
 continuation of the road from the City of 
 Sacramento to San Francisco, notwith- 
 standing the wondrous attractions Cali- 
 fornia presents to those who are seeking a 
 new home and more profitable field for 
 enterprise. 
 
 The Central route must create its way 
 traffic; none awaited its construction. 
 From Omaha to Sacramento not a navi- 
 gable stream crosses the route of the 
 Union and Central road ; nor does one 
 approacli it. Let me not be understood 
 as disparaging the value of this road, 
 or as intimating that it is not already 
 doing a profitable business, or that it 
 yill not, as every other railroad. in this 
 country has done, create a constantly 
 increasing volume of business that will 
 enable it to rapidly decrease its rates 
 
 for freight and travel, while increasing 
 its income and net profits. Indeed it is 
 already doing this, and its present charges 
 for freight and travel compare very favor- 
 ably with those of 1869. 
 
 Yes, it has its way business to create, 
 and is doing it rapidly. Witness the 
 two branch roads already constructed, 
 one from Denver to Cheyenne, and the 
 other from Salt Lake City to Ogden. 
 Before the main line was built, who 
 dreamed of railroads along either of those 
 valleys? Behold, also, the enormous de- 
 velopment of the coal and iron fields at 
 Evanston, a little west of Cheyenne, and 
 more than 500 miles west of Omaha. 
 Two years ago the fact was proudly 
 announced that both coal and iron had 
 been discovered at Evanston ; and now 
 the place is marked by the smoke and din 
 of forges, furnaces, rolling-mills, machine 
 shops, and preparations are making for 
 the manufacture of Bessemer steel rails, 
 the construction of the works having 
 been commenced. [Applause.] 
 
 Look, too, at the marvellous develop- 
 ment by "gentile" hands of the silver 
 mines in southern Utah, to which the 
 Mormons, Brigham Young having driven 
 the first spike about a fortnight ago, are 
 extending their branch road in order to 
 carry silver ore, the transportation of 
 which from the mines to Swansea, Eng- 
 land, taxes it ^40 a ton. This tax will 
 be saved when some American shall be 
 enterprising enough to put up smelting 
 works in a country in which coal and 
 rich ores abound. Yes, British vessels 
 coming to New York and Philadelphia 
 with salt or iron return freighted with 
 the ores of southern Utah, because we 
 have not the enterprise to smelt it. 
 
 Look, again, at the development of 
 the wool trade. In many of the valleys 
 along the line of the Central and Union 
 road there are flocks numbering not thirty, 
 not fifty, not a hundred sheep, as in the 
 old States, but thoTisands ; and some flocks 
 numbering more than ten thousand head 
 now range valleys in the very heart of the 
 
GROWTH OF RAILROAD TRAFFIC. 
 
 IS 
 
 "Great American Desert," where it was 
 supjtosed civilization would never find an 
 abode. 
 
 What a field for genius, enter|)rise and 
 industry ! It will, at no distant day, 
 swann with men of grit. There are thou- 
 sanils of young men in this city filling 
 small offices, or in some other way 
 picking up a precarious living, getting 
 through the world somehow, never know- 
 ing whether both ends will meet at the end 
 of any month, who, were they to go to this 
 country, carrying with them the know- 
 ledge gained in our furnaces, machine 
 shops or factories, would in a few years 
 find themselves at the head of large estab- 
 lishments and commanding hundreds of 
 emi)loyees. [Applause.] I rejoice in the 
 fact that the Grand Army of the Republic 
 is organizing one-armed and one-legged 
 soldiers to go and settle in colonies upon 
 the i)ublic lands, on the theory that their 
 wives and children will share their labors 
 in securing a homestead and honest inde- 
 pendence. The scheme is as judicious as 
 it is noble, and the poor disabled fellows 
 will, I doubt not, in a few years write back 
 to their less energetic but immutilated 
 comrades to come and work for and be 
 fed and clotheil b\ them. [Laughter and 
 applause.] 
 
 These branch roads and expanding 
 industries are but some of the many pre- 
 cursors and sure pledges of the immense 
 sources of traffic that are to rise along a 
 road, the drinking water for many of 
 whose agents, as well as for the sup|)ly of 
 many of its engines, is brought in tanks 
 over alkaline plains for hundreds of 
 miles, and one of the summits of whi( h, 
 at Sherman, is a liiile and a-half above the 
 topmost spire of Thiladelphia, antl 3285 
 feet higher than the most elevated sum- 
 mit on the Northern road. — that at Deer 
 Lodge Pass. 
 
 Gro7Vth of Railroad Traffic. 
 
 That this road will create business for 
 itself, and speedily return the capital 
 embarked in its construction I am abun- 
 
 dantly ])crsuaded. This opinion is con- 
 firmed by the highest authority on such 
 questions known to railroad men in this 
 country, H. V. Poor, Esq., who, in his 
 admiral)le sketch of the railroads of the 
 United States, published hist year, says: 
 
 " It is safe to estimate that the railroad tonnage 
 of the country would dui)licate itself as often as 
 once in ten years, were there no increase of line 
 or population, from the progress made in its indus- 
 tries and in the mechanic arts." 
 
 Mr. Poor amply sustains this jjroposi- 
 tion by facts deduced from the railroatl 
 history of the country, and says: 
 
 " Our means will increase just in the degree in 
 whicli we render available the wealtli that now 
 lies dormant in our soil." 
 
 Speaking of the year 1869, he says: 
 
 " The tonnage traffic of the railroads constructed 
 the jxast year, at only one thousand tons to the 
 mile, will ecpial live million tons, having a value 
 of 5750,000,000! Kvery road constructed adds 
 five times its value to tlie aggregate value of the 
 ])roperty of the country. The cost of the works 
 constructed the p.xst year will equal at least 
 S 1 50,000,000. The increased value, conse»iuently, 
 of property due to the construction will cijual 
 §600,000,000." 
 
 These observations of Mr. Poor are 
 specially a])plicable to the Northern 
 Pacific Road, the construction of which 
 will not only create an immense vol- 
 ume of through travel, but develop a 
 region not exceeded in native wealth by 
 any etpial area on the face of the globe ; 
 which aboimds in the i)reci<)tis and other 
 metals, in wheat-lands and lumber forests, 
 and embraces the nattiral home of the 
 sheep and goat, and grazing fields in 
 which herds of cattle large enough to 
 supply our entire market, may graze 
 throughout the year, growing and fatten- 
 ing upon natural grasses, which in the 
 dry atmosphere of the country, do not 
 decompose as ours do when exposed to 
 the weather, but (tire where they grow, 
 and feed herds of bt>(T;ilo, elk, antelojie 
 and mountain sheep the year round. 
 
 The New Northwest. 
 
 Minnesota, through which the road 
 will be completed by October, from 
 Lake Superior to the Red river, 266 miles, 
 
i6 
 
 THE NEW NORTHWEST. A GENIAL CLIMATE. 
 
 is the great wheat field of our country. 
 It is a land of lakes and rivers, of forest 
 and prairie. Its farmers are prosperous 
 and contented. Its population numbered 
 6077 in 1850; had swollen to 172,022 by 
 i860; and was found to be 436,057 in 
 1870. The value of its farm products 
 as reported by the census of 1870 was 
 $33,350,923; the cash value of its farms 
 597,621,691 ; and its production of wheat 
 during 1869 wasabout 19,000,000 bushels. 
 It contains (listen, young men who are 
 working for wages,) 53,459,840 acres, of 
 which but 3,637,671 are occupied. The 
 remaining 50,000,000 await your com- 
 ing for their development. [Applause.] 
 It is not yet fourteen years since the lum- 
 bermen of Minnesota were fed on wheat 
 imported from other States. Yet the 
 wheat crop raised during 1870, from the 
 small part of the State then occupied, is 
 believed to' have been not less than 
 30,000,000 bushels. Time will not per- 
 mit me even to indicate the immense 
 resources of this State in lumber, iron, 
 slate, and other commodities, that bear 
 transportation ; and I leave Minnesota 
 with the remark that when the winter 
 traveler westward on the Northern Pacific 
 Railroad, shall leave her limits and cross 
 the Red river of the North, he will leave 
 behind him the coldest part of the road 
 and that most liable to obstruction by 
 snow. . The only other point at which he 
 will, even under exceptional circumstan- 
 ces, meet with as great a depression of the 
 mercury will be in the neighborhood of 
 Fort Stevenson, in Central Dakota. 
 
 A Genial Climate. 
 
 How, ladies and gentlemen, shall I 
 help you to understand something about 
 the climate of the country west of Min- 
 nesota ? To us of the East it seems in- 
 credible that the temperature of the 
 mountains, along a line running between 
 the 47th and 49th parallels should be so 
 mild ; yet so it is ; and the climate of 
 Washington Territory, along the 49th 
 parallel, is more equable the year round, 
 
 and milder in winter than that of Phila- 
 delphia or Baltimore. Indeed, the mean 
 temperature at Olympia, at the head of 
 Puget Sound, is that of Norfolk, Va., but 
 the dwellers on the Sound are strangers 
 alike to the extreme heat of a Virginia 
 summer and the extreme cold of its win- 
 ter. There cattle are not housed at any 
 season, and thrive upon the grasses they 
 find on the plains. In the western valleys 
 of Washington Territory, winter is un- 
 known. Snow comes occasionally to re- 
 mind settlers of what they used to see 
 in the States of the East ; but it never 
 lies. But once since 1S47, when the 
 first settlements were made, have cattle 
 been deprived by snow for three consecu- 
 tive days, of the natural pasture furnished 
 throughout the winter months west of the 
 mountains in Washington Territory and 
 Oregon. 
 
 The winter climate upon the mountains 
 of Idaho, Montana and Dakota is more 
 severe ; but in their valleys the buffalo, 
 elk and antelope have been accustomed 
 to winter ; and domestic cattle, worn by 
 labor in the service of exploring expedi- 
 tions and transportation companies, are 
 turned into the valleys and herded, and 
 come out in the spring fat and ready for 
 another tour of duty. This is so incon- 
 sistent with our experience, that I beg 
 leave to fortify the statement with a sin- 
 gle authority, the equal to which I could 
 produce by scores. I will, however, con- 
 tent myself with a brief extract from the 
 report of explorations of the Yellowstone, 
 made by Gen. Reynolds, of the Engineer 
 Corps of the U. S. Army, who wintered, 
 in i860, in the valley of Deer Creek, 
 in which the Northern Pacific Road will 
 attain its greatest elevation and cross the 
 Rocky Mountains On this subject he says : 
 
 "Throughout the whole of the season's march, 
 tlie subsistence of our animals had been obtained 
 by graziUf^ after we had reached camp in the after- 
 noon, and for an hour or two between the dawn of 
 day and our time of starting. The consetiuence 
 was that when we reached our winter ciuarters 
 there were but few animals in the train tliat were 
 in a condition to have continued the march with- 
 out a generous grain diet. Poorer and more broken 
 
WOOL AND BEET-ROOT SUGAR, 1 7 
 
 clown crcituros it would he difticiilt to find. In territories, \vhi( il extend frcjlil the 321I to 
 
 the spriiiij all were in as fine condition (or com- .v , .1 11 .1 fi,„,, .,.-.» •.<.,. .i:.>.-1tr 
 
 '. " ., , , 111 1 • 1 the 40th parallel, thev are i)e( uliarly 
 
 mencint; nnother season s work as could he desired. ty 1 t , 1^ / 
 
 A greater change in their appearance could not adapted tO sheep culture. With their 
 
 have heen produced, even if they had heen grain- settlement WC shall become the greatest 
 fed and stahledioused all winter. 0/i/y one' was 1 1 • r »i 1 i 
 
 los(, the furious storm of DecemI.er coming on he- wool-prodlicing country of the world, 
 
 fore it had gained sufficient strength to endure it. though Our present l)roduction gives but 
 
 This fact, that seventy exhausttd anima.'s turned ^^^^^\\ promise of SUC h a result. The 
 out to 7i<inter on the plants on the first of A'oTe»i- . . , 1 1 • r 
 
 ber, came out in the best condition, and with the SOUrcCS and amount of the WOOl-clip of 
 
 loss 0/ but one, is the most forcible commentary I 1868 were in rOUnd figures aboUt OS fol- 
 
 can make on the quality of the grass and the char- if..„c . 
 acter of the winter.''' 
 
 m, . •,-,,, 1 POUNDS. 
 
 Ih.s seems incredd)le, but many de- ^^.^^^^^ ^^^^^ Ameri. an 
 
 grees to the north of our territories are Provinces, .... 10,000,000 
 
 immense valleys, which, if the testimony Australia, South Amer- 
 
 of British officers, civil and military, of ica, and Africa, . . 76,000,000 
 
 missionaries and settlers who have dwelt United States, .... 100,000,000 
 
 there for years, may be believed, rival Spain, Portugal and Italy, . 110,000,000 
 
 Minnesota in wheat-producing capacity, }7'''"'~'-'' ^ '. ' " ' -'-3.000,000 
 
 J , r. 1 Mr 1 • . n- Kuropeau RussKi, . . . 125,000,000 
 
 and eastern Oregon and Washington ler- --- ' ^^^ 
 
 .^ ° dermanv, 200,000,000 
 
 ritory in the mildness of their mean tem- (;reat Britain, . . . .260,000,000 
 
 perature. Exploration and settlement Asia, 470,000,000* 
 
 have a])olished "The Great American ^',,^,^ jj appears that Asia, Australia, 
 Desert," of which these territories formed .^f^ica and South America, which furnish 
 a conspicuous part, and it no longer finds ^^ g^,^,, markets for mutton as the com- 
 a place on maps. And the Mormons niercial and manufuturing centres of Ku- 
 have demonstrated that by conducting ^^^^^ ,^,^^j ^,^5^ ^^^^^^^^^ ^^^, ^,,^^^^ ^,,^.^j, 
 the melting snow of the mountains to the ^^^^^ ^^ ^.^j^^j ^^^ ^^e wool alone, are its 
 foot-hills and valleys, the whole region can ^^^^^ producers. Why is wool chief 
 be made to bloom as the rose, and bear ^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^ South Amer- 
 crops of cereals, roots and fruit equal to j^^, ^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^^^ 
 those yielded by the best flirms in the same conditions as our territories. Why 
 choice valleys of Pennsylvania. ^^ Australia built up a great city more 
 Wool and Bed- Root Stii^ar. by its wool trade than its gold? It is be- 
 Since these apparently inhospitable cause her sheep walks are dry and covered 
 regions have been penetrated by rail- with bunch gra.ss, which cures itself in the 
 roads, and mining adventure has created ^^'1 ^ ''»'^ '^ the case in our territories. Why 
 settlements up even to the northern boun- <Jo<^s Asia produ« e more wool than Great 
 dary of Dakota, Montana and Idaho, we Britain and Germany together, and al- 
 are discovering why we have not sue- most as much as Great Britain, Germany 
 ceeded in raising wool, and why we are -I'lil the United States? It is because the 
 still, while boasting of our agricultural grasses of the elevated plains on which her 
 productions, dependent upon non-manu- countless flocks of sheep and goats range 
 facturing countries which are not famed -ire the same nutritious, aromatic gntsses 
 for their agricultural resources or skill, for "pon which the elk, the buffalo and the 
 our supply of wool. The reason is found mountain sheep have fed through all time 
 in the fact that we have not carried flocks "P"" '''\\\q Great American Desert" of 
 to those portions of our country whi( h America. [Applause.] 
 are pre-eminently adapted to the support Under the impulse given to this inter- 
 of wool-bearing animals. est by the Union and Central road, flocks 
 Mountainous and volcanic as are our numbering thousands, collected in Illi- 
 
WOOL AND BEET-ROOT SUGAR. 
 
 nois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and more eastern 
 States have been transferred to such plains 
 and valleys as are accessible by the road, 
 and where the expense of raising sheep is 
 but the cost of the first flock and of 
 herding. There the finest wool may be 
 produced, and with increasing railroad 
 facilities, mining, manufacturing, and 
 commercial centers will furnish markets 
 for mutton, and add to the wool grower's 
 profits. To say that the wool-clip of the 
 United States, as shown by the census of 
 i8So, will exceed that of Great Britain is 
 not to offer a prediction, but to assert a 
 foregone conclusion ; and it is also safe 
 to say that the clip of that year will em- 
 brace not only wool of all grades of sheep, 
 but of the Cashmere, Angora and other 
 goats, the value of whose hair is so well 
 known to manufacturers and merchants. 
 But more than this, remembering the 
 rapidity with which flocks increase, I 
 predict that at an early day our wool 
 clip will equal that of Asia,* which will 
 
 * On the day after the delivery of the text, my 
 attention was invited to the following striking con- 
 firmation of my views furnished by M. Alcan, Pro- 
 fessor of Spinning and Weaving at the Conserva- 
 toire Imperial des Arts, &c. 
 
 APPROXIMATE PRODUCTION OF WOOLS IN 1 866. 
 
 [Translated from Alcan's " Etudes sur les Arts 
 Textile a I'Exposition Universalle de 1867" for 
 the April number of the Bulletin of the National 
 Association of Wool Manufacturers.] 
 
 " The quantity of the production of wools in 
 weight may be i-eckoned approximately by the 
 number of sheep in each country. We estimate 
 the sheep at the numbers indicated in the follow- 
 ing table : 
 
 France, . . , . . 
 
 Algeria, 
 
 Russia, . . . . 
 
 England, 
 
 Austria, 
 
 Prussia, Zollverein, 
 
 Ottoman Empire, . 
 
 Australia, 
 
 Cape of Good Hope, 
 
 New Zealand, 
 
 The Equator or la Plata, 
 
 Spain, . . , . 
 
 Italy, . . . . 
 
 Belgium, 
 
 Tlie Low Countries, 
 
 Portugal, 
 
 Total, 
 
 NO. OF SHEEP. 
 
 . 30,000,000 
 
 10,000,000 
 
 . 54,000,000 
 
 . 26,376,000 
 
 27,000,090 
 
 . 24,000,000 
 
 . 32,000,000 
 
 . 35,000,000 
 
 . 12,000,000 
 
 15,000,000 
 
 . 30,000,000 
 
 . 20,000,090 
 
 8,500,000 
 
 3,000,000 
 
 1,500,000 
 
 2,417,000 
 
 330.783,000 
 
 insure us supremacy in the manufacture 
 of the entire range of woolen and worsted 
 goods. 
 
 And with this increased production of 
 wool, will come another great industry. 
 You will question my judgment when I 
 tell you that the territory along the 46th, 
 47th, 48th and 49th degrees of latitude 
 high up the mountain sides is to be a 
 great sugar-producing country. Yet as 
 sure as that the world moves and science 
 helps man to supply his wants cheaply, 
 the country along the routes of the Union 
 and Central and the Northern Pacific 
 Railroads will in a few years produce im- 
 mense quantities of sugar. Of course, I 
 speak of beet-root sugar, the manufacture 
 of which will thrive not only along our 
 northern boundary, but in the more north- 
 ern settlements of the Assineboine and 
 Saskatchewan valleys as it does in Russia, 
 Sweden and Norway ; as it is already do- 
 ing in California, Illinois and Wisconsin, 
 and will do in all of the States of the 
 Northwest. Many causes conspire to 
 make the introduction of this industry 
 into our country a necessity ; and in the 
 region of cheap land, abundant fuel and 
 pure water from the mountain snows, in 
 which the cost of transportation more 
 than doubles the price of cane sugar, it 
 must find an early and extensive develop- 
 ment. 
 
 To show that these views are not new 
 or strained, permit me to bring to your 
 
 " Remarks upon the mimbers of the preceding 
 table. — If we compare the present number of sheep 
 as indicated in the jireceding table with the num- 
 bers heretofore given by us, it will not be difficult 
 to recognize that while the production of s'heep 
 has decreased or remained stationary in Europe, 
 it has prodigiously developed itself in the new 
 countries beyond the ocean. Thus, for example, 
 the number of woobbearing animals has diminished 
 in England, in Sjiain, and even in France, if we 
 do not include Algeria; and it has remained 
 nearly stationary in the different parts of Germany. 
 On the contrary, the development exhibits an 
 enormous progression at the Cape, in Australia, 
 and, above all, in La Plata. In seven years, from 
 i860 to 1867, the production has been raised 
 nearly 108 per cent, for the first of these coun- 
 tries, nearly loo per cent, for the second, and 268 
 per cent, for the third. 
 
MONTANA LIEUT. DOANE's REPORT. 
 
 19 
 
 notice a letter I had the honor to ad- 
 dress to Dr. Latham, a cultivated and 
 intelligent gentleman, who, after spend- 
 ing years in the Territories, devoted last 
 winter to bringing their resources to the 
 attention of the wool-growers and woolen 
 manufacturers of the Eastern States; 
 
 " House of Representatives, 
 Washington, D. C, Dec. 18, 1870. 
 " Dr. H. Latham, 
 
 " Laramie, 
 
 U'yoming Te7-7-i(o}y. 
 
 " Dear Sir. — I must achnit that I thought some 
 of the statements you made when I met you at 
 Laramie, and you were kind enough to accompany 
 us eastward were exaggerated ; but subsequent ob- 
 servation and study have satisfied me that you did 
 not fully indicate the capacity of the territories for 
 varied production and the sustenance of a numer- 
 ous and prosperous population. 
 
 "Two industries, eacli of primary imjiortance to 
 the countiy, should be introduced at an early day 
 because both will find there, the conditions under 
 which they may be brought almost immediately to 
 absolute perfection. I mean the growth of wool, 
 both from the Angora and Cashmere goats and 
 sheep, and the production of beet-root sugar. For 
 the latter, Grant in his admirable Tittle book, 
 says the primary essentials are cheap land and fuel 
 and jiure water. All these you have wherever the 
 melting snow of the mountains can be carried for 
 irrigation, and in the neighborhood of all your 
 mountain streams. Your natural grasses and 
 aromatic herbage are identical with those of the 
 great sheep-fields of Asia and Australia ; and 
 should you establish the production of the beet, 
 and the manufacture of sugar on a large scale, you 
 will find, as it has been found everywhere else, 
 that three tons of the refuse beet, from which the 
 saccharine matter has been expressed, will be 
 equivalent to two tons of the best hay in sustain- 
 ing and fattening sheep and cattle. It, therefore, 
 seems to me that you will render a very important 
 service, not only to your own section, but to the 
 country at large, if, by making known these pecu- 
 liar resources you promote the estalilishment of 
 two such vital industries. Either of them will 
 doubtless succeed if undertaken by ]iro]:)er hands ; 
 but both should be established, as each will con- 
 tribute to the success of the other. 
 
 "Again thanking you for the impcjrtant infor- 
 mation you have given me, and wishing you 
 ■ abundant success in your efforts to promote the 
 development of this extended and interesting por- 
 tion of our country, I remain 
 
 " Yours, veiy truly, 
 
 "WM. D. KELLEY. 
 
 Montana — Lieut. Doanc' s Report. 
 
 Thanks to the admirable scientific train- 
 ing. given our army officers at West Point, 
 and the desire of that distinguished sol- 
 
 dier and son of Pennsylvania, Gen. Win- 
 field S. Hancock, [applause,] to ascertain 
 and disclose the resources of the district 
 of which he is in command, we have a 
 recent official report on the characteristics 
 of a hitherto unexplored section of Mon- 
 tana, the Avonders of which not only ex- 
 ceed those of Niagara and the geysers of 
 California, but rival in magnitude and 
 extraordinary combination those of the 
 Yo Semite, the canons of Colorado and 
 the geysers of Iceland. But I cannot 
 pause even to allude to these. Tourists 
 and men of science will give the world 
 many a description of them. My pur- 
 pose is to illustrate the climate and 
 the fertility not only of the valleys but of 
 the mountains, which bear trees rising be- 
 yond one hundred feet in height at an 
 elevation which in New York or New 
 England would mark the region of per- 
 petual snow. 
 
 I have here Executive Document No. 
 51, of the Third Session, Forty-first Con- 
 gress. It is the report (and you will see 
 that it is quite brief) of Lieut. Gustavus 
 C. Doane, upon the so-called Yellowstone 
 expedition of 1870. It is Lieut Doane's 
 account of a brief tour made by the 
 Surveyor General of Montana, whose 
 duty it was to survey the yet hidden 
 region of his district, and who applied 
 to Gen. Hancock for an escort to enable 
 him to do so with safety. The General 
 promptly complied with the request, and 
 put the escort under the charge of Lieut. 
 Doane, with instructions to keep a record, 
 noting the condition of the barometer 
 and thermometer, and the elevation of 
 each day's camp, and to report these and 
 such other facts as might in his opinion 
 be of general interest. 
 
 The party were out thirty-four days. 
 Their point of departure was Fort Ellis, 
 which is at an elevation of 491 1 feet, and 
 at which the thermometer at noon, on the 
 day of their departure, August 22, 1870, 
 stood at 92°. On the morning of the 
 third day they found themselves at an 
 elevation of 4837 feet, the barometer 
 
MONTANA LIEUT. DOANE S REPORT. 
 
 Standing 25.10, the thermometer 40°. In 
 
 noting that day's experience, Lieut. Doane 
 
 says : 
 
 "Throughout the forenoon it rained occasional 
 showers, but before 12 o'clock the clouds rolled 
 away in heavy masses along the mountain sides, 
 the sun came out and the atmosphere was clear 
 again. From this point a beautiful view is ob- 
 tained. The mining camp of Emigrant Gulch is 
 nearly opposite, on a small stream coming down 
 from the mountains on the opposite side of the 
 river. A few settlements have been made in this 
 vicinity, and small herds of cattle range at will 
 over the broad extent of the valley. Our camp 
 was situated at the base of the foot-hills, near a 
 small grove, from which flowed several large 
 springs of clear water, capable of irrigating the 
 whole bottom in front. The soil here is very fer- 
 tile, and lies favorably for irrigation; timber is 
 convenient, water eveiywhere abundant, and the 
 climate for this region reniarkablv mild. Resi- 
 dents informed me that snow seldom fell in the 
 valley. Stock of eveiy kind subsist through the 
 winter without being fed or sheltered. Except- 
 ing the Judith Basin, I have seen no district in the 
 western territories so eligible for settlement as the 
 upper valley of the Yellowstone. Several of the 
 party were very successful during the morning in 
 fishing for trout, of which we afterward had an 
 abundant and continued supplv. The Yellowstone 
 here is from 50 to 100 yards wide, and at the low- 
 est stage four feet deep on the riffles, running over 
 a bed of drift boulders and gravel with a very 
 rapid current. The flow of water is fully equal 
 to that of the Missouri at Fort Benton, owing to 
 the rapidity of the current, though the channel is 
 much more narrow." 
 
 By the fifth day the party had attained 
 an elevation of 7,331 feet, where the 
 thermometer at noon marked 72°. Here 
 they foimd themselves in the midst of 
 indescribable volcanic wonders. They 
 were, however, notwithstanding their 
 great elevation, in the midst of groves of 
 pine and aspen. 
 
 In his notes of the eighth day Lieut. 
 Doane says : 
 
 "Barometer, 23°; thermometer, 50°; elevation, 
 7,270 feet. 
 
 " Coming into camp in advance, passing through 
 a grove of pine " 
 
 Can one who has not visited the pampas 
 of South America, Australia, the elevated 
 plains of Asia, or our own sheep-growing 
 territory, imagine a forest of pines at 48° 
 north latitude, rising from an elevation 
 of 7,270 feet above the level of the sea? 
 
 " Coming into camp in advance, passing through 
 a grove of jiine, on the margin of a little creek, I 
 was met face to face on the path, by two magnifi- 
 
 cent buck elk, one of which I wounded, but lost 
 in the woods. Mr. Smith started up a small bear, 
 which also got away. The ground was eveiywhere 
 tracked by the passage of herds of elk and moun- 
 tain sheep; and bear sign was everywhere visible." 
 
 The tenth day found the party at an 
 elevation of 7,697 feet, with the ther- 
 mometer at 46° in the morning. De- 
 scribing the high hills, (one of which, 
 Langford's Peak, rises abruptly to the 
 height of 10,327 feet,) by which they 
 were surrounded, and through which the 
 waters of the Yellowstone poured in one 
 of the grandest cataracts of the world, 
 Lieut. Doane says : 
 
 " On the caps of these dizzy heights, mountain 
 sheep and elk rest during the night. I followed 
 down the stream on horseback, to where it breaks 
 through the range, threading my way through 
 the forest on game trails with little difficulty. 
 Selecting the channel of a small creek and leaving 
 the horses, I followed it down on foot, wading in 
 the bed of the stream, which fell off at an angle of 
 about 30° between walls of gypsum. Private 
 McConnell accompanied me. On entering the 
 ravine we came at once to hot springs of sulphur, 
 sulphate of copper, alum, steam jets, &c., in end- 
 less variety, some of them of very peculiar form. 
 One of them in particular of sulphur had built up 
 a tall spire from the slope of the wall, standing 
 out like an enormous horn, with hot water trick- 
 ling down its sides. The creek ran on a bed of 
 solid rock, in many places smooth and slippeiy, 
 in others obstructed by masses of debris formed 
 from the overhanging cliffs of the sitlphuretted 
 limestone above. After descending for three 
 miles in the channel we came to a sort of bench 
 or terrace, the same one seen previously in follow- 
 ing down the creek from our first camp in the basin. 
 Here we found a large flock of mountain sheep, 
 very tame, and greatly astonished, no doubt, at 
 our sudden appearance. McConnell killed one 
 and wounded another, whereupon the rest dis- 
 appeared, clambering up the steep walls with a 
 celerity truly astonishing." 
 
 On the twelfth day, at an elevation 
 of 7,487 feet, they discovered a recent 
 volcano, throwing steam and mud to the 
 height of 300 feet. I refer to this, not to 
 dwell upon this wonder (for it was but 
 one among a myriad), but as evidence of 
 the condition of vegetation and the capa- 
 city of the country to sustain flocks at 
 that elevation. Lieut. Doane .says : 
 
 " The distances to which this mud has been 
 thrown, are truly astonishing. Directly above 
 the crater rises a steep bank, a hundred feet in 
 height, oit the apex of which the tallest tree near 
 is 1 10 feet his^h. The topmost branches of this 
 tree were loaded with mud 200 feet above and 50 
 
SETTLEMENTS ALONG THE LINE. COMMERCIAL ADVANTAGES. 
 
 feet laterally away from the crater. The ground 
 and fallen trees near by, were splashed at a hori- 
 zontal distance of 200 feet. The trees below were 
 either broken down or their branches festooned 
 , with dry mud, which appeared in the tops of trees 
 
 growing on the side hill from the same level with 
 the crater, 50 feet in height, and at a distance of 
 iSo feet from the volcano." 
 
 Certainly vegetation is not stunted by 
 climate when in this elevated and vol- 
 canic region upon the apex of the hills, 
 trees attain the height of no feet ! 
 
 But Lieut. Doane's report is replete 
 with evidence that the valleys are capable 
 of sheltering sheep and cattle from the 
 severity of climate that prevails upon the 
 /T y greater elevations during the winter. 
 •*^ But the route of the Northern Pacific 
 
 Railroad is not obstructed by mountains 
 like these ; the highest point it attains 
 being the Deer Lodge Pass through the 
 Rocky Mountains, which is 4950 feet, 
 being 3285 feet below the grade of the 
 Union Pacific Road at Sherman, where, 
 two years ago, I gathered a bouquet 
 composed of the wild flowers common to 
 Eastern Pennsylvania. 
 
 Settlements Along the Line. 
 
 It must be admitted that a portion of 
 the land in Dakota, Montana and Idaho, 
 through which this road will run, is un- 
 suited to cultivation, but the proportion 
 is much less than will be found on the 
 line of any more southern road. The 
 alkali plains alone which the Union and 
 Central road traverses are broader than 
 the breadth of all the bad lands along the 
 line of the Northern route. Governor 
 Stevens, who superintended the original 
 government survey of this line, and fre- 
 quently crossed the country, said, that 
 "•not more than one-fifth of the land from 
 Red River to Paget Sound is unsuited to 
 cultivation, antl this fifth is largely made 
 up of mountains covered with bunch 
 grass and valuable timber, and filled witii 
 precious metals." But, ladies and gen- 
 tlemen, were it true that but one-fifth 
 instead of four-fifths of the land granted 
 to the Northern Pacific Company between 
 the western boundary of Minnesota and 
 
 the eastern boundary of Washington and 
 Oregon, is presently available for the 
 purposes of settlement, the grant would, 
 in my judgment, be adequate for the con- 
 struction of the road. Indeed, I believe 
 that the lands granted in Minnesota, 
 Oregon and" Washington Territory, would 
 build and equip the road. 
 
 Commercial Advantages.* 
 
 No part of the capital employed in 
 constructing this road will be long un- 
 
 * The Chicago yournal, in an intelligent review 
 of the Pacitic Railroads, says : 
 
 The census returns of 1S60 gave 460,1 12 as the 
 sum total of the population of Nebraska, Wvoming, 
 Utah, Nevada and California — the dislncl now 
 traversed by the Union and Central I'acilic Rail- 
 roads. Work was commenced on the road, at 
 both ends, in the winter of 1863. Between the 
 two dates mentioned, owing to the war, it is evi- 
 dent that the far West could not have received 
 much of an addition to its population. Looking 
 back now, it is easy to see why so many of its 
 friends, even, prophesied that tinancially the road 
 would be a failure. They regarded the enicrprise 
 as one of political necessity, but could see no 
 money in it. Its route, for the most part, lay 
 through a wilderness incapable of agricultural 
 settlement. Of the whole number of inliabitants 
 above given all but 90,118 were in the State of 
 California. 
 
 ***** 
 
 The earnings of the Central and Union Pacific 
 Railroad were Fourteen Millions in 1S70 — the 
 net receipts over operating expenses being in 
 excess of Six Millions. In other words, in the 
 first year of its through business it earned enough 
 over and above running expenses to pay six per 
 cent, on a fair estimate of its cost. In six years 
 the Central Pacific (forming one-half of the through 
 line) has earned Ten Millions net, being nearly 
 Six Millions more than the interest on its Bonds 
 and all the the cost of operating. Sixty- five per 
 cent, of this came from local traffic, and one year 
 only of through business is included in it. The 
 authorities of the Central Pacific estimate the earn- 
 ings of their road for 187 1 at Ten Millions, and 
 President Thomas A. Scott, of the Union Pacific, 
 places the earnings of that road, this year, at 
 Nine Millions, making 319,000,000 for the through 
 line from San Francisco to Omalia. Of this at 
 least 39.000,000 will be net above running ex- 
 penses, or 9 per cent, on a reasonable estimate of 
 the entire cost of the road. The first mortgage 
 bonds of the Central Pacific, bearing six per cent, 
 interest, and secured only on the road, are now 
 selling at 103. So oppositely to all expectation 
 has the operation of the road turned out ! 
 
 .Since the commencement of the Union and 
 Central Pacific, San Francisco has grown from 
 being a city of sixty thousand inhabitants to be a 
 city of a hundred and fifty thousand. But, includ- 
 
22 
 
 THE NORTHERN RIVER SYSTEM. 
 
 productive, as a remunerative business 
 awaits the completion of each section. 
 From the Missouri at Omaha to the Sac- 
 ramento no navigable stream crosses or 
 approaches the Union and Central road, 
 while the route of this road is traversed. 
 
 ing that, a total population of the belt of States 
 and Territories through which the road runs is 
 only 788,270. And this number of people, with 
 aid from a portion of Colorado (population 39,- 
 681) furnish business to the Union and Central 
 Pacific at the rate of Fourteen to Nineteen Mil- 
 lion dollars per year. This brings up the rather 
 curious question, How many inhabitants are 
 necessai-y in a given district to make a railway 
 
 And now comes the Northern Pacific, certainly 
 with greater probabilities of success than were be- 
 fore the Union and Central Pacific. While it equals 
 the other in mineral wealth, the country through 
 which it runs is vastly more inviting to the far- 
 mer. Indeed, testimony shows it to be of special 
 agricultural value. Leaving out California on 
 the Union-Central Pacific, and also excluding 
 Minnesota on the Northern Pacific, and the latter 
 road has 104,752 more people to contribute to its 
 local business than awaited the opening of the 
 Union and Central Pacific, and only 23,592 less 
 than give support to the latter road now. 
 
 Including those two States, which would not 
 be unfair, inasmuch as the Northern Pacific will 
 have in Minnesota, with its main and branch 
 lines, over eight hundred miles of road, draining 
 two-thirds of the entire State — including these 
 two States, the tributary population of the North- 
 ern road in all is 639,433, or 179,321 more than 
 were at first reached by the Union-Central 
 Pacific, and only 148,837 less than give aid to it 
 now. 
 
 But the figures given are suggestive. What, 
 principally within the last five years, has added 
 100,000 to the population of San Francisco? 
 Surely nothing so much as the summons of iron 
 knocking at the Golden Gate. If a road can add 
 100,000 people in five years to an existing city, 
 cannot another one in the same time build up a 
 city of 100,000, especially if, by reason of its 
 shorter oceanic distance, it is demonstrated that 
 it will necessarily control foreign shipments? 
 
 Few doubt tliat if the land lying along the 
 Union Pacific hatl Ijeen as available for agriculture 
 as the lands of the Northern Pacific, the popula- 
 tion along the route would have trebled as well as 
 tJiat of its terminal city. Here, then, the case 
 will probably stand : — The Northern Pacific, on 
 its completion, will find a flourishing city awaiting 
 it on Puget Sound, inferior, of course, in size, to 
 San Francisco, but still a thriving, well-grown 
 city, as helpful to it as the other to its Southern 
 compeer. It will, during its progress, on account 
 of its fertile lands, more than quadruple the popu- 
 lation west of Minnesota, and so bids more than 
 fair to equal the first through business of the 
 Union and Central Pacific, while for the succeed- 
 ing years its returns will be vastly greater. 
 
 at intervals of about two hundred miles, 
 along its whole extent by navigable streams 
 upon which there are considerable settle- 
 ments. One eastern terminus of the road 
 is the western-most point of our magnifi- 
 cent system of Lake navigation — the other 
 is the head of navigation on the Missis- 
 sippi river at St. Paul, a city whose popula- 
 tion numbers about 25,000. Duluth, its 
 lake terminus, is rising into commercial 
 importance more rapidly than did Chicago, 
 and with the promise of continuous growth. 
 It is the port through which the people of 
 Minnesota and the entire new Northwest 
 will exchange commodities not only with 
 all the lake ports of the U. S. and British 
 America, but with Europe, and the com- 
 mercial cities of the Atlantic seaboard. 
 It will also be the chief outlet for the in- 
 creasing tens of millions of bushels of 
 wheat and feet of lumber, produced by 
 the farmers and lumbermen of Minnesota. 
 Though Duluth is not yet four years old, 
 her foreign commerce is large enough to 
 to command the attention of the Trea- 
 sury Department, and require the ap- 
 pointment of a deputy collector and 
 several minor officers of customs. 
 
 The NortJicrn Rive)- System. 
 
 The settlements on the Red river of 
 the North, the western boundary of Min- 
 nesota, are numerous, and the trade of 
 the extended and fertile valleys it drains 
 will await the completion of the road to 
 that river, which will be accomplished 
 by the ist of September. Beyond Min- 
 nesota, the line crosses or runs upon 
 the banks of the Dakota, Missouri and 
 Yellowstone, which are east of the 
 Rocky Mountains, and navigable for 
 hundreds or thousands of miles ; and 
 beyond the Rocky Mountains, the Snake, 
 the Cowlitz and the Columbia rivers, 
 will prove immediate and valuable tribu- 
 taries to its business. Its western termini 
 are at Portland on the Willamette, twelve 
 miles above its confluence with the Col- 
 umbia, which is already an important 
 commercial centre, and a point yet to 
 
THE FUTURE PACIFIC METROPOLIS. SOME OFFICIAL TESTIMONY. 
 
 23 
 
 be determined on the waters of Paget 
 Sound, which are the predestined field of 
 a commerce that, at an early day, will 
 exceed that of San Francisco, and, in the 
 not very distant future, equal the present 
 commerce of New York. I cannot give 
 the figures to show the extent of the 
 trade of the Columbia river and its con- 
 fluents, but am able to assure you from ac- 
 tual observation that it has been large 
 and i)rofita.ble enough to give the original 
 stockholders of the Oregon Steam Navi- 
 gation Co. prominent places in the roll of 
 heavy capitalists on the Pacific Coast. 
 
 Tiie Futu7-e Pacific Metropolis. 
 
 That the commercial metropolis of the 
 Pacific coast would be south of Puget 
 Sound I have never believed. Obser- 
 vation confirmed the conviction with 
 which Mr. Whitney had impressed me. 
 And early in August, 1869, just after my 
 return from the Pacific coast, at the re- 
 quest of Col. John W. Forney, I held 
 a protracted conversation with Mr. 
 Joseph 1. Gilbert, an experienced phono- 
 graphic reporter, who, on the 27th of that 
 month, presented to the readers of the 
 Press the substance of the interview. Re- 
 curring to the Press of that date, I find 
 that, speaking on this point, 1 said : 
 
 " Allow me to state one conclusion from personal 
 observation. It is that San P>ancisco will, in the 
 course of time, cease to be the great city of the Pa- 
 cific coast. Her location constitutes her for the 
 present the entrepot for all the commerce of the 
 coast, embracing the trade from the South Ameri- 
 can coast, from the Sandwich Islands, from China, 
 Japan, Briusii Columbia, and our tcrritoiy north of 
 that city. The Bay of San Francisco, too, is quite 
 capable of accommodating the commerce of the 
 world. It is, 1 think, unequalled as a bay, in ex- 
 tent, beauty and safety. The city has made most 
 magnilicent strides. She has her dry-dock, her 
 ample wharves, her steam-tugs, her coast defences, 
 and has made veiy considerable progress in manu- 
 factures. But notwithstanding all these advan- 
 tages, my firm impression is that the great city of 
 the Pacific coast will have its location on or near 
 the waters of Puget Sound. 
 
 ******* 
 
 " Here are to be found in abundance timber, 
 coal, iron, fish, wheat, all domestic grasses, the po- 
 tato, apple, pear, plum, and during more than half 
 the year, all the fruits known to our own tables. 
 Here, in my judgment, will be located the 
 
 great city of the Pacific coast, as, owing to the pe- 
 culiar conformation of the Sound, communication 
 may easily be had between distant parts of this ter- 
 ritoiy by water. 
 
 " Another consideration is that a city located 
 here would be practically nearer to China than is 
 .San Francisco; because vessels leaving San Fran- 
 cisco for China, notwithstanding the point for which 
 they are destined is south of their point of dei)ar- 
 ture, are compelled on account of the prevailing 
 winds, to make what sailors call a "northing," 
 quite up to the Straits of Fuca; in consequence of 
 which a vessel starting from the latter point for the 
 same destination would have an advantage of three 
 or four days over her San Francisco competitor." 
 
 Some Official Testimony. 
 
 But, ladies and gentlemen, let me has- 
 ten on and show you by official testimony 
 the advantages presented by this route to 
 the Pacific over any other north of the 3 2d 
 parallel, on which, as I have said, the almost 
 tropical climate would prove an obstacle 
 to general travel and commerce. In 
 pursuance of the act of Congress of March 
 3, 1853, the Topographical Engineers 
 designated by the Secretary of War, sur- 
 veyed seven routes extending from the 
 line of the Northern Pacific southward to 
 the 32d parallel. Their reports were re- 
 ferred by the Secretary of War, for ex- 
 amination to Captain A. A. Humphreys 
 and Lieut. G. K. Warren, both of whom 
 are well known to the country for the dis- 
 tinguished services they rendered as com- 
 manding generals during the late Avar, 
 and the former of whom is now at the 
 head of the Engineer Department of the 
 United States Army. On the 5 th of 
 February, 1855, these officers submitted 
 the results of their analysis and compari- 
 sons in an elaborate report, in which, 
 speaking of the route near the 47th and 
 49th parallel they say : 
 
 " The advantages of this route are — its low pro- 
 file, which is important in relation to climate; its 
 easv grades, and small amount of ascents and de- 
 cents, both important if the road should be devel- 
 oped to its full working power ; the gi-eat extension 
 west of the prairie lands; in the supplies of timber 
 over the western half of the route; the facilities 
 which the Columbia river and its tributaries, and 
 the Missouri, will aftbrd to the construction of the 
 road; in the short distance from the Mississippi to a 
 seaport of the Pacific; in the western tenninus of 
 the road on Puget Sound being nearer to the ports 
 of Asia than the tennini of the other routes; in the 
 
24 
 
 GRADES A NATURAL PATHWAY. EFFECT ON AMERICAN COMMERCE. 
 
 proximity of the eastern terminus to Lake Superior, 
 from which a continuous navigation for sea-going 
 vessels extends to the Atlantic Ocean; and in the 
 existence of coal on Puget Sound." 
 
 The explorations had been but pre- 
 liminary and had not disclosed the im- 
 portant fact that an abundant supply of 
 coal is distributed at easy points along the 
 whole route.* 
 
 On page 107 of the first volume of the 
 report, to which I refer for a moment, is 
 found a tabular statement, showing the 
 relative distance by each of the seven 
 routes surveyed ; the sum of ascents and 
 descents : the length of level route of 
 equal working expense ; the comparative 
 cost of different routes ; the number of 
 miles of route through arable land ; the 
 number of miles of route through lands 
 generally uncultivated, arable soil being 
 found in small areas ; number of square 
 miles of sums of areas of largest bodies of 
 arable land in uncultivable region ; num- 
 ber of miles at an elevation less than 1000 
 feet ; ntn"nber at an elevation greater than 
 1000 and less than 2000; greater than 
 2000 and less than 3000 ; greater than 
 3000 and less than 4000 ; greater than 
 4000 and less than 5000 ; greater than 
 5000 and less than 6000, at which point 
 the Northern route disappears from the 
 table, while two of the routes have each 
 twenty miles at grades above 10,000 feet, 
 and both of which it would be necessary 
 to tunnel at an elevation of 9540 feet, 
 which is 4590 feet above the highest sum- 
 mit the Northern road will cross. 
 
 Grades — A N'atural Fatlncay. 
 
 In all these respects the Northern route 
 is shown to compare favorably with all 
 of its competitors. But its most remark- 
 able advantage appears under the head of 
 the sum of ascents and descents. High 
 rates under this head indicate increased 
 percentages of danger and cinrent ex- 
 
 '•■ San Francisco and her ocean steamers are now 
 supplied with coal mined on I'uget Sound, near 
 the western terminus of the Northern Pacific 
 Railroad. Twenty-five thousand tons were 
 shipped for this purpose in 1S70. 
 
 pense. The lower the rate of ascent and 
 descent the safer and more economical is 
 travel. And while the Northern route is 
 charged under this head with but 19,100 
 feet, the route comparing most favorably 
 with it in this respect is that on the 41st 
 and 42d parallels, in which the sum is 
 29,120, an increase of more than fifty per 
 cent.; and the extreme contrast is that of 
 the route on the 38th and 39th parallels, 
 in which the sum reaches 56,514. 
 
 The study of these voluminous reports 
 will satisfy any reasonable man that from 
 Duluth to a point on Puget Sound is 
 nature's own route for a Pacific railroad. 
 So startling indeed were the advantages 
 presented by this route, that the then 
 Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis, struck 
 from the report of Governor Stevens, 
 since so distinguished as a soldier and en- 
 gineer, the estimate he presented of the 
 cost, which was $117,121,000 and in- 
 serted in lieu thereof ^130,781,000. His 
 keen foresight showed him that the de- 
 velopment of the then almost unknown 
 Northwest, by the construction of a road 
 upon easy gradients through a region of 
 such wonderful resources, would, in a few 
 years, place his beloved South and slavery 
 at the mercy of a free people, overwhelm- 
 ingly outnumbering those of the planta- 
 tion States. How reckless and unjust this 
 action was, is proven by the fact that all 
 the more recent estimates fix the cost at 
 but little more than sixty-six per cent, of 
 that of Governor Stevens, or $77,000,000 
 for the road and original equipment. 
 
 Effect on American Commerce. 
 
 The effect the completion of this road, 
 with its immense advantages of position 
 and grades, is to have upon our commerce 
 cannot be predicted. I reiterate the asser- 
 tion that the trade of the Pacific Ocean 
 must find its chief tv/Z/r/t'/ on Puget Sound; 
 and as evidence of my appreciation of the 
 future extent and value of this commerce 
 let me again refer to the remarks I made 
 in Congress on the 26th of April, 1866. 
 Replying to a distinguished representative 
 
PACIFIC COAST HARBORS. — PUGET SOUND. 
 
 25 
 
 from Chicago, 111., who had reminded 
 members who were disposed to vote for 
 aid to the Northern Pacific Road, that a 
 Congressional election was at hand, I said: 
 
 " I appeal from the constituents of the gentleman 
 from Chicago [Mr. Wentwortli], on the eve of an 
 election, to posterity, and ask gentlemen to view 
 the proposed enterprise in the hght in which future 
 generations will behold it. They will look beyond 
 the vast and undeveloped empire I liave indicated; 
 for beyond it lies the broad Pacific, capable of 
 bearing a commerce a thousand times heavier than 
 has ever chafed the waters of the Atlantic, but 
 on which our flag is seen floating only from the 
 masts of coasting craft or whalers wending their 
 slow way to the Northern seas in quest of hard- 
 earned wealth. So slight is our power upon this 
 ocean that the recently pardoned rebel Semmes, 
 with a single vessel, destroyed nearly a hundred 
 of our peaceable whalers, giving their cargoes, 
 gathered by y^ars of dangerous toil, to the flames 
 or the waves. It bounds our countiy for more 
 than a thousand miles, and our maritime power, 
 which could not now protect a mile of it, should 
 be seen and felt upon it, and our flag and white 
 sails or the curling smoke of our steamers should 
 shadow its eveiy wave. 
 
 " The commerce of the Pacific ocean belongs to 
 us; and we should confimi our title by the right of 
 occupancy ; for when we cast our eyes beyond its 
 placid surface, we behold what is to be our next 
 conquest. The Old World is to be awakened by 
 American ideas. Its unnumbered people are to be 
 quickened, instructed, and redeemed by American 
 enterprise. Some statisticians tell us that there are 
 750,000,000 people in the ancient tlieocratic coun- 
 tries of the East, which is the West to which the 
 star of our commercial empire will next take its 
 way. Others put the population at i ,000,000,000 ; 
 and othei-s at 1 ,300,000,000. There, where civili- 
 zation dawned and the drowsy past yet lingers, the 
 first impulses of a new cycle begin to be felt. Japan 
 is yielding to the impulses of our age. The Chi- 
 nese wall is crumbling away. It was but yesterday 
 that I had a letter informing me that our country- 
 man. Dr. Martin, interpreter of the American Le- 
 gation at Pekin, under the employment of the Chi- 
 nese Government, had rendered into that language 
 our Wheaton's Law of Nations. Thus, that vast and 
 long isolated Power is preparing to enter into com- 
 mercial connections with the world. The ancient 
 civilization of Asia is giving way, the doctrine of 
 sacred castes is about to yield to the sublimer creed 
 of man's freedom and equality. Muscular labor 
 will soon be done there by the potent agents we 
 now employ — coal and iron — and the genius of the 
 buried dead, embodied in mechanism, will soon 
 relieve their toiling millions as it now does ours. 
 Their whole life is to be quickened by modern en- 
 terprise, and they will swell the numbers of the 
 people on our Pacific slope." 
 
 When it is asserted that these roads 
 will give us the control of the commerce 
 of China, purblind philosophers point to 
 the small portion of that trade carried 
 
 by the Central and Union road as proof 
 that that commerce will never cross our 
 country. It is not two years since that 
 road was completed. Commerce follows 
 cheap and rapid lines of transit, and 
 railroad fares are regidated by the amount 
 of business done. Thus in 1850, by the 
 average rate of fares on American roads, 
 it cost $20 to transport a ton of wheat 
 100 miles; in 1870, a ton of wheat was 
 transported the same distance for $1.25. 
 [Api)lause.] With increase of business 
 the Central and Union Pacific Road will 
 be able, while increasing its profits, to 
 reduce its rates for freight and travel. 
 It is doing it already. Its present rates 
 for passengers and freight compare, as 
 I have said, most favorably with those 
 of 1869 ; and when twenty or thirty other 
 branches, like those to Denver and Salt 
 Lake City, shall throw their business 
 upon the trunk line, and when other 
 Evanstons and Cheyennes shall have 
 sprung up, when Omaha shall be a city 
 like San Francisco, and San Francisco 
 a city like Philadelphia, all which may 
 occur within the next quarter of a cen- 
 tury, who shall say how small will be the 
 charge for carrying a chest of tea or a 
 case of silk? It will be very small, and 
 when railroads shall be able to carry this 
 freight as cheaply and more quickly than 
 it can be moved by steamers, the trade 
 of China and Japan will cross our conti- 
 nent, and my prophecies of 1846 and 
 1850 wjll be more than fulfilled, as the 
 Pennsylvania road will carry the freight 
 of two Pacific roads — one from San Fran- 
 cisco and the other from the Columbia 
 and Puget Sound. [Applause.] 
 
 Pacific Coast Harbors. — Puget Sound. 
 
 Among the strange contrasts presented 
 by our two coasts, few are more impres- 
 sive than the coast line itself. Harbors 
 are numerous along the Atlantic coast. 
 No seaboard State is without one or more 
 good harbors. Count them, from Gal- 
 veston northward and eastward to Port- 
 land, Maine, and the number will surpri.so 
 
26 
 
 PRODUCTIONS, RESOURCES AND SEASONS. 
 
 }ou. The agricultural and mineral pro- 
 ductions of almost every State could be 
 floated to the sea, while our long Pacific 
 coast, south of Alaska, presents but four 
 harbors or fair points for commercial cen- 
 tres, the Bays of San Diego and San Fran- 
 cisco, the Columbia River and Paget 
 Sound, the entrance to which is the Straits 
 of Fuca. The Alleghanies are inland 
 mountains; but the "coast range," as 
 their name indicates, lie along the coast 
 of the Pacific, leaving harbors only where 
 the great waters have forced their way 
 through the rocks. 
 
 As I have said, the commerce of China 
 and Japan must near our coast north of 
 the Bay of San Francisco, north even of 
 the mouth of the Columbia, and at a point 
 near to the Straits of Fuca. While, there- 
 fore, the commerce of the Pacific must 
 to some extent be shared by San Diego, 
 San Francisco, Portland, and Astoria, a 
 city yet to arise on Paget Sound will be 
 its great centre. 
 
 Productions, Resources and Seasons. 
 
 Would that I could convey to your 
 minds a moderate conception of the 
 wealth and climate of this far North- 
 western country and of the body of water 
 called the Straits of Fuca and Puget 
 Sound — so calm, so deep, so guarded by 
 forests such as no man who has not visited 
 them has ever seen. The Straits of Fuca 
 run in an almost direct course more than 
 ninety miles, at an average width of more 
 than ten miles. The shore-line of Puget 
 Sound is nearly 1900 miles, but, such 
 is its conformation, that the points at 
 greatest distance from each other are not 
 four hundred miles apart. The Sound is 
 a series of canals, bays, inlets and harbors. 
 Gov. Stevens, who lived on its shores for 
 a number of years, likened it to a tree, 
 with a very recognizable body called 
 Admiralty Inlet, and innumerable side- 
 branches, the trunk and branches filling 
 a region seventy nautical miles in length 
 from north to south, and thirty in breadth 
 
 from east to west. In speaking of it 
 again, he said : 
 
 " On the whole west coast, from San Diego to 
 the north, nothing like this is met. All the water 
 channels of which Admiralty inlet is composed, are 
 comparatively narrow and long. They have more 
 or less bold shores and are throughout very deep 
 and abrupt, so much so that in many places a ship's • 
 side will strike the shore before the keel will touch 
 the giound. Even in the interior and hidden parts, 
 depths of 50 and 1 00 fathoms occur as broad as 
 De Fuca Strait itself. Vancouver found 60 fathoms 
 near the Vashon Island within a cable length of 
 the shore, and in Possession Sound he found no 
 soundings with a line of 1 10 fathoms. Our mod- 
 ern, more extensive soundings prove that this depth 
 diminishes toward the extremities of the inlets and 
 basins. Nothing can exceed the beauty and safety 
 of these waters for navigation. Not a shoal exists 
 within them; not a hidden rock; no sudden over- 
 falls of the water or the air; no such strong flaws 
 of the wind as in other narrow waters, for instance 
 as in those of Magellan's Straits. And there are 
 in this region so many excellent and most secure 
 ports that the commercial marine of the Pacific 
 ocean may be here easily accommodated." 
 
 There is but little waste land in Oregon 
 and Washington Territory. Oregon em- 
 braces 60,975,360 acres, and its popula- 
 tion in 1870 was but 90,933. Washing- 
 ton Territory contains 112,730,240 acres, 
 and the census takers found but 23,955 
 civilized people dwelling upon them. 
 This State and Territory are among the 
 most fertile and productive sections of 
 our country. The wheat of Oregon and 
 Washington, as you may ascertain by con- 
 sulting the commercial papers of San 
 Francisco, commands, in the markets of 
 that city, ten cents per bushel more than 
 the wheat of California; and oats from 
 the Territory are worth fifteen cents per 
 cental more than the best California oats. 
 As we get the wheat of the entire Pacific 
 slope through California, we know it only 
 as California wheat; but in the home 
 market tlie difference I have indicated is 
 constantly maintained by reason of the 
 superiority of the more northern grain. 
 
 The forests that shelter these waters are 
 composed of trees running up from 250 
 to 350 feet, with a diameter of from 8 to 
 12 feet, and throwing out their first arms 
 at from 60 to 100 feet above the ground. 
 In these glorious solitudes, upon the waters 
 of Puget Sound there are in operation 
 
THE WORK OF DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 27 
 
 saw mills that will this year ship largely 
 over 200,000,000 feet of superior lumber 
 to San Francisco, Callao, Valparaiso, the 
 Sandwich Islands, Australia and China. 
 These forests, an inexhaustible store of 
 wealth in themselves, are underlaid by 
 rich deposits of coal, iron, gold and sil- 
 ver. The beds of iron and coal are 
 already utilized to some extent ; and the 
 existence of the precious metals, is estab- 
 lished by the fact that the washings of 
 the water-courses furnish traces of gold 
 and other metals. Of the fish with which 
 these waters teem, I dare not tax your 
 credulity by speaking. 
 
 Though bounded by the 49th degree 
 of latitude, the climate is genial through- 
 out the year. So mild are the winters — 
 indeed, I may say, so free is the country 
 from winter — that, notwithstanding the 
 moisture of the climate, west of the Coast 
 range, no provision is made for housing 
 cattle at any season of the year. In the 
 month of July, 1869, within the limits 
 of Astor's old fort, near the mouth of 
 the Columbia river, I picked from the 
 orchard of a farmer who had gone thither 
 from Bedford County, Pa., a variety of 
 delicious apples, pears and plums ; and 
 from vines near the trunks of the trees, 
 raspberries, strawberries and blackberries 
 — a combination of fruits that could not 
 be found in the month of July upon 
 the best cultivated and most fortunately 
 situated farm in Pennsylvania. And a 
 week before, our party had found Indian 
 women and children vending these fruits 
 and the apricot in the streets of Victoria, 
 the capital of British Columbia. 
 
 At Olympia, the capital of Washington 
 Territory, situated at the head of Puget 
 Sound, it was my pleasure to pass the 
 greater part of a day with my young 
 friend Elwood Evans, Esq., son of Chas. 
 Evans, the press manufacturer of this 
 city (whom I recognize among my audi- 
 tors), and to gather luscious fruit from 
 tree and vine in the gardens attached to 
 his comfortable home and his law-office 
 hard by upon the same street. . 
 
 The Work of Dcvclopmcjit. 
 
 Do you ask, as others have done, why 
 with such stores of wealth, waiting to 
 respond with such boundless generosity to 
 the demands of man, the population does 
 not equal one man, woman or child, to 
 each square mile? If you do, the answer 
 is ready. It is because the people and 
 Gjovernment of the United States did not 
 promptly respond to the suggestion of Asa 
 Whitney, and either by the means pro- 
 posed by him, or those they should select 
 connect our Pacific territory with the 
 great lakes by a railway. Had that been 
 done, and the way been then opened to 
 emigrants, Washington Territory would 
 long since have been divided into two or 
 more States, California and Oregon would 
 be great commercial rivals, and the popu- 
 lation of our Pacific States would equal 
 or exceed that of busy and blessed New 
 England. 
 
 To reach the golden lands of the Pacific 
 coast has been a matter of too much time 
 and expense for the poor man, and too 
 full of trials for families. The fact that 
 in spite of these almost insuperable diffi- 
 culties, so many intelligent people have 
 found their way thither is a testimonial 
 to the wonderful attractions of the coun- 
 try, and the immense rewards it offers to 
 industry and enterprise. 
 
 Build this road, open these multiform 
 and exhaustless resources to the poor 
 but enterprising people of the Eastern 
 States and Europe, and population will 
 flow into them so rapidly that they who 
 shall a few years hence hear the story 
 of the doubts of to-day about the 
 Northern Pacific Railroad will experience 
 wonder similar to that which you feel at 
 the want of forecast that characterized 
 the people of Pennsylvania twenty-five 
 years ago, when they shrank from em- 
 barking so small a percentage of their 
 capital in building the Pennsylvania 
 Central road ; and in a few years the 
 trunk line of this great thoroughfare will 
 carrv the trade of innumerable lateral 
 
THE WORK OF DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 branches, penetrating not only our valleys 
 but those of the British Colonies to the 
 North, whose people will thus be made 
 tributary to us .forever, or induced to 
 unite their destinies with ours, under a 
 common constitution and flag. This is 
 not declamation or prophecy. It is the 
 announcement of conclusions that flow 
 irresistibly from an ample store of un- 
 questioned facts. 
 
 Do you ask whence the population 
 would have come to efi"ect the changes I 
 have indicated ? By the construction of 
 the road, the character of the climate and 
 resources of the country would have been 
 disclosed long years ago, and the sheep- 
 growers of the States from Vermont to 
 Iowa would have transferred their flocks 
 to the Asiatic and Australian fields that 
 slope the Rocky Mountains. The hardy 
 lumbermen from the forests of New Eng- 
 land and northern Pennsylvania would 
 have found their way to these richer for- 
 ests in more genial climes. Nor would 
 we then have suffered the decline in our 
 ship-building so much and so justly be- 
 moaned; for difficult of access as the 
 country is, and slender as is its popula- 
 tion and commerce, we found along these 
 woody shores ship-yards, having on the 
 stocks first-class ships, the outer planks 
 of which were without a joint, having been 
 cut sheer from one of the monarchs of the 
 forest on the shores of the Sound. The 
 increased coast trade of the Pacific 
 commerce between our Atlantic and 
 Pacific ports would have kept alive this 
 decaying branch of business, which with 
 the completion of the Northern Pacific 
 Railroad, must revive with grander pro- 
 portions than it ever assumed in the past. 
 
 Where will the people come from to 
 make this wealth available, to build cities 
 at the points along this road at which rail- 
 road and river traffic shall intersect, to 
 raise provisions for the mining camps, and 
 to build up commerce on Puget Sound 
 and the Columbia river? What Ameri- 
 can, whose memory is good for a quarter 
 of a century, asks this question? Where 
 have the people come from who, since we 
 
 discussed the propriety of building the 
 Pennsylvania Railroad, and Asa Whitney 
 submitted the project of a Pacific road, 
 have settled Iowa and Wisconsin, whose 
 joint population, though then but 200,000, 
 now numbers two millions and a quarter^ 
 each having over a million ? Where did 
 the people come from who, within a brief 
 quarter of a century have doubled the 
 population of the Northern States of the 
 Union? Where have the peo])le come 
 from who have meanwhile populated so 
 many of the gold and silver-producing 
 sections of our vast territories, and built 
 up the States of Texas, California, Min- 
 nesota and Oregon ? Let Edward Young, 
 Esq., Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, 
 answer these questions. I 'hold in my 
 hand a recent report of his — a document 
 that should be circulated by millions 
 through the Eastern States and Europe. 
 It is entitled, " Special Report on Immi- 
 gration, accompanying Information for 
 Immigrants relative to the Prices and 
 Rentals of Lands, the Staple Products, 
 Facilities of Access to Market, Cost of 
 Farm Stock, Kind of Labor in Demand 
 in the Western and Southern States, etc." 
 This report shows that during the 8 years 
 terminating with the 31st of December, 
 1846, we received 736,887 immigrants, 
 of whom 416,950 came from the British 
 Isles. But, Mr. Doubter, you interrupt 
 me to ask whether this tide of immigra- 
 tion will continue? whether it has not 
 reached its climax? The Chief of the 
 Bureau of Statistics shall answer you 
 again ; for his report shows that during 
 the like period of 8 years, terminating 
 the 31st of last December, we received 
 2,307,554 immigrants, of whom there 
 came from the British Isles 1,015,517, or 
 more than ;^;^ per cent., more than the 
 entire immigration during the former 
 eight years. 
 
 Yes, the tide of immigration will con- 
 tinue, and for many years it will increase. 
 Each year will see its volume rolling in, 
 until regenerated Europe shall give the 
 laborer political power and social con- 
 sideration. [Applause.] Our cheap land 
 
PHILADELPHIA INTERESTS. 
 
 29 
 
 and democratic institutions will bring 
 her bone and sinew and enterprise to 
 develop the resources and add to the 
 wealth and power of our country. [Loud 
 applause.] And nothing will do more 
 to promote the movement than the ad- 
 vertisement to all the world of the vast 
 resources of the region through which 
 this road is to run and the wonderful 
 field for labor, enterprise and adventure 
 at its Pacific termini.* 
 
 Philadelpliia Interests. 
 
 But what will be the effect of the road 
 upon Philadelphia? What relations has 
 all this to our city and State? These 
 questions which you propounded to me 
 in your invitation, have, I think, been 
 answered by what I have said. What 
 State or city shares more largely than 
 ours in the general prosperity or depres- 
 sion of the country? Who will be more 
 benefited by the cheapening of freight on 
 raw materials and manufactured articles 
 than we ? What American city produces 
 so many of the comforts and luxuries 
 which the people along the line of this 
 road will consume as Philadelphia ? 
 Their demands will stimulate our industry, 
 and their abounding means will enable 
 them to reward it abundantly. The con- 
 struction of one railroad bridge — that over 
 
 * A late number of tlie St. Paul J'ioneer, speak- 
 ing ol the tide ot pupulatiua already pouniig to 
 the line ol the Nortlieni racinc Railroad, sa) s : — 
 
 " The roads leading to the Red River V alley 
 are literally covered with emigrant wagons, 
 with tlieir usual accoinpaniment ol lainiiies, lur- 
 niture, and stock ot all kinds, i he wagon roads 
 from Sauk Centre to St. Peter show daily acces- 
 sions to the vast caravan wending its way to the 
 fertile regions of Northern .Mmuesuta. The 
 extent ot the great incoming tide of liumaniiy 
 can be best estimated on the main road bet\\ecn 
 Alexandria and Pomme de Terre. Two hundred 
 wagons per day pass over this portion ol tlie route 
 northwest, and the camp fires are seldom allowed 
 to go out — a fresh train of emigrants arrives 
 almost as soon as its predecessor has resumed its 
 march. A noticeable leature ol this year's emi- 
 gration is its quality — the wagons come loatled 
 with household goods and lanning implements, 
 and are foUowetl by herds ot caule and other 
 stock which in quality would do credit to any 
 country." 
 
 the Mississippi river at St. Louis — gave 
 to one Philadelphia firm, theWm. Butcher 
 Steel Works, a contract for ^500,000 worth 
 of steel. And even now, hundreds of 
 Philadelphia mechanics are busy building 
 locomotives and passenger and freight 
 cars for the Northern Pacific Railroad. 
 
 I need not elaborate this point. We 
 are a community of working people. 
 The mass of the citizens of Philadelphia 
 absolutely live by manual labor. The 
 prosperity of the capitalists of this city 
 is dependent upon the steady employ- 
 ment and liberal wages of her working 
 people. [Applause. J When labor is 
 idle, capital is idle, or employed at little 
 profit ; when the laborer earns no wages, 
 the landlord is not always sure of his 
 rent. [Laughter and applause.] The 
 effect that tne construction of this road 
 will have upon the employment and wages 
 of laboring people was discussed by me 
 in the Congressional remarks to which I 
 have already referred. Let me read a 
 paragraph or two from what I then said : 
 
 " But the inviting held of the ocean, and the vast 
 field of enterprise and reward open to us in Asia 
 are not the only considerations tnat induce me to 
 support this bill. The laboring people ot every 
 eastern city have an intense inierest m this ques- 
 tion. Tne salety of our countiy depends upon the 
 intelligence, the virtue, the stability of our laboring 
 people. He legislates not wisely lor a democratic 
 republic who does not make it the aim ot all his 
 acts to improve the material condition of the great 
 laboring masses of the country, if we would per- 
 petuate our institutions, we must see that the wages 
 ol labor are so maintained that the children of the 
 laboring man shall grow up amid tlie ende.irmeiits 
 of home, and with me expectation that their chil- 
 dren shall hiul more elegance and retiiiement in 
 their homes than their parents were familiar with 
 in childhood. 
 
 " The construction of a road through our north- 
 ern gold region will open a held that will be a con- 
 stant refuge lor ihe surplus labor of our eastern 
 States. 'Ihere will be a refuge for those masses of 
 ingenious workmen who are jostled each year by 
 lack of adjustment oi their numbers to the demand 
 for their branch of labor, or are deprived of the 
 advantage of the skill they acquired in youth by 
 the invention of labor-saving machinery; and in- 
 stead of finding themselves, as age gathers on their 
 brow, without the means of livelihood, rich fields 
 of enterprise, easily reached, will cheer their de- 
 clining years. 
 
 " But again, the depression of our laboring peo- 
 ple springs not alone or chiefly from local causes. 
 Beyond the Atlantic Ocean there are 250,000,000 
 
30 
 
 PHILADELPHIA INTERESTS. 
 
 people, in eveiy community of which laboring men 
 are held as raw material ; and under the grasping 
 influence of capital, and the oppression of despotic 
 government are held in such bondage, that they 
 are made to subsist, even when they toil most assidu- 
 ously, upon a modicum of the elements of life, upon 
 a minimum of the amount that will keep the soul in 
 a tolerably sound body. Escaping from this sub- 
 iection, they are borne to our shores by tens and 
 hundreds of thousands each year. They are strang- 
 ers in a strange land, many of them unacquainted 
 with our language and habits, and are unconsciously 
 and unwillingly the means of depressing wages. 
 But if we give to the company the means to inaugu- 
 rate work on this road, we will not only relieve the 
 laboring masses of our crowded eastern cities, but 
 furnish employment for more than the annual influx 
 of those whom we gladly welcome, because they 
 strengthen and enrich us by their toil. Could we 
 drain Europe of its surplus laborers we would raise 
 her wages as she now too often depresses ours. 
 
 "What will be the true policy of the builders of 
 this road? Will it not be to employ as laborers, 
 the heads of families, and to pay them with land 
 and money, and settle the families along the line 
 of the road, so that the laborer of one year will, in 
 the next, farm his land and supply fresh laborers 
 with bread? Thus will he who enters into an en- 
 gagement with the company a pauper, or little bet- 
 ter, find himself at the end of a year or two an 
 independent farmer upon the world's great com- 
 mercial highway. The managers of the road must 
 pursue this policy, and will thus create business for 
 and guard their road; thus, too, they will quicken 
 the mineral and agricultural resources of the coun- 
 try, and give to the tax collector, whether at a port 
 of entry, or in the service of the internal revenue 
 department, more money each year than this bill is 
 likely to cause to be taken from the treasuiy." 
 
 " I ask gentlemen in considering this question 
 to rise to its dignity and grandeur. I am, sir, a 
 devotee to freedom, but would make every country 
 in the world tributaiy to my own. I delight in 
 every manifestation of my countiy's power, and 
 glow with pride as I contemplate its gigantic pro- 
 portions, and see how rapidly its people subdue the 
 wilderness, and would, as 1 have said, make every 
 nation tributaiy to its power; but I would do this, 
 not liy oppressing any people, not by war wjth any 
 government, but by improving the condition of the 
 masses of my countrymen and those who may 
 become such by emigration, and showing the rulers 
 and people of the world how speedily free institu- 
 tions exalt the poor and oppressed of all nations 
 into free, self-sustaining and self-governing citizens. 
 It is in our power to do this, and by no other means 
 can we do it so well or quickly as Ijy passing this 
 supplement and vivifying the charter granted to the 
 Northern Pacific Railroad Company." 
 
 But, ladies and gentlemen, I have 
 detained you too long, and must close. 
 Not, however, until I shall have reminded 
 you that the grades and snows of the 
 Alleghanies have not interfered with the 
 prosperity of the Pennsylvania Railroad 
 Company. That road has not been a 
 
 failure. It has done something for the 
 improvement of Philadelphia. It is the 
 most profitable railroad, and most pow- 
 erful corporation in the United States. 
 [Applause.] It has stretched its control- 
 ling influence clear across the Continent. 
 Its vice-president, our esteemed towns- 
 man, Thomas A. Scott, Esq., is the 
 master-spirit of the Union Pacific Com- 
 pany, and of more than one line connect- 
 ing it with Philadelphia. [Applause.] 
 Roads owned or managed by the Penn- 
 sylvania Company await -the business of 
 the Northern Pacific road, both at St. 
 Paul and Duluth. It has built a road 
 to Erie, our beautiful city of the Lakes, 
 where vessels charged with freight at 
 Duluth will in the early spring and later 
 autumn of each year, discharge cargo 
 for New York and Boston, and through- 
 out the season of Lake navigation, for 
 Philadelphia and Baltimore; and it re- 
 quires but little power of the imagination 
 to behold Erie expanding into generous 
 rivalry with Buffalo, Cleveland and De- 
 troit. 
 
 Though the great characteristics of 
 Philadelphia will always be those of a 
 manufacturing city, her commerce is to 
 revive. She will have not a line but 
 numerous lines of steamships ; and many 
 of the men who now hear me will see the 
 day when her existing wharf line will be 
 wholly inadequate for her commerce. 
 Indeed the completion of the Northern 
 Pacific road, with the steadily increasing 
 trade of the Central route will settle the 
 now vexed question of a railroad along 
 the entire river front, and require the 
 construction of docks from Greenwich 
 Point to Richmond. But familiar as you 
 are with the resources of our city and 
 State, and the advanced condition of our 
 industries, I leave you to estimate the 
 impulse that will be given to every inte- 
 rest and industry of our people by the 
 early completion of the Northern Pacific 
 Railroad. [Amid earnest and prolonged 
 applause the speaker retired.] 
 
By B. F. potts, 
 governor of montana territory. 
 
 In the middle of the continent, between 
 the Great Lakes and the Pacific Ocean — 
 in the heart of that New Northwest, the 
 extent, character and resources of which 
 the people are at last beginning to appre- 
 ciate — embracing within its boifndaries 
 four parallels of latitude and no less than 
 twelve degrees of longitude, lies the great 
 Territory of Montana. The superficial 
 area of this territory is extensive enough 
 to make three states as large as New York, 
 the Empire State of the East; and, as I 
 have stated elsewhere, I believe it to be 
 the richest region in agricultural and 
 mineral resources on the American 
 continent. There are at least fifty thous- 
 and square miles of tillable land within 
 its limits; and this land, under a cheap 
 and simple process of irrigation, is of 
 unsurpassed fertility, yielding in the 
 greatest abundance all varieties of the 
 cereals. I have seen samples of wheat 
 which yielded eighty bushels to the acre, 
 and the average yield, even with the very 
 imperfect methods of cultivation which are 
 in vogue here, is from forty to sixty-five 
 bushels. This exceeds the yield of the 
 famous wheat-fields of Minnesota, and is 
 about four times as great as the average 
 wheat crop of Ohio. Rye, oats and barley 
 produce enormously, and the yield of vege- 
 tables is simply without a parallel in the 
 history of horticulture in America The 
 common yield of potatoes, for instance, 
 is 400 bushels per acre. 
 
 Lands for grazing purposes, too, are 
 of vast extent and of the best quality. 
 Grasses as nutritious as sheaf-oats cover 
 the hills and valleys and extend far up 
 
 the mountain sides, affording pasturage 
 for numberless herds of cattle and sheep 
 during the entire year. The cattle alone 
 now to be found in the Territory number 
 at least sixty thousand head, and so 
 abundant are these grasses, and so mild 
 is our climate, that no grain or hay is fed 
 to them at all — they take care of them- 
 selves and keep fat all winter. Our meat 
 markets are supplied with beef taken 
 from among the different herds at all 
 seasons of the year, and it is found to be 
 of the fattest and sweetest, making de- 
 licious food, superior generally in quality 
 and flavor to the grain fed stock of the 
 States. Certainly no country can sur- 
 pass this for grazing purposes ; and there 
 is none where, in the future, when the 
 Northern Pacific Railroad has reached 
 us, such fortunes are to be made in the 
 business of raising stock for the market. 
 
 Of the mineral wealth of Montana all 
 the world has heard. Not less than twelve 
 million dollars' worth of gold-dust was 
 taken from the mines last season, and 
 iron, copper, coal, and other minerals 
 exist in exhaustless abundance. 
 
 I suppose, however, that the thing 
 about our New Northwest which has most 
 surprised the public is the genial charac- 
 ter of its climate. Radically different as 
 it may seem from the prevalent idea re- 
 garding it, it is nevertheless true that the 
 climate of Montana, as a whole, is milder 
 than that of New York, while the purity 
 and dryness of the atmosphere make the 
 variations of temperature far less noticea- 
 ble. The old theory that the further 
 north we go the more severe the climate 
 
CLIMATE AND RESOURCES OF MONTANA. 
 
 becomes is now generally exploded. It 
 is understood, at last, that isothermal 
 divisions, except in their larger aspects, 
 are entirely independent of degrees of 
 latitude ; and the various explorers and 
 topographers who have been sent out here 
 by the Government have shown by instru- 
 mental tests that the temperature of 
 Walla Walla, on the 46th degree of lati- 
 tude, is the same as that of Washington 
 City, on the 38th ; that of Clark's Fork, 
 in Montana, on the 48th, the same as 
 that of St. Joseph, Missouri, on the 41st; 
 and that of the Bitter Root Valley, Mis- 
 soula County, Montana, on the 46th, 
 the same as that of Philadelphia, on 
 the 41st. 
 
 The winters in this section are gener- 
 ally open and pleasant, as may be inferred 
 from the fact of the cattle grazing without 
 shelter all winter. The valleys are 
 hardly ever covered with snow, and it 
 is rare that the roads are not dry and 
 passable for ten months in the year. On 
 the mountains, of course, as in moutain- 
 ous regions usually, winter sometimes 
 pinches hard, and snow falls to considera- 
 ble depths ; but even the mountains are not 
 the least attractive features of the territory. 
 The elevation of the mountains, valleys, 
 and plains of Montana above the level of 
 the sea is from 2,000 to 4,000 feet less 
 than that of Wyoming and Utah. This 
 fact alone goes far to explain the milder 
 climate and vastly greater productive- 
 ness of Montana. 
 
 How this great wealth, agricultural 
 and mineral, is to be utilized and made to 
 contribute its due share to the nation's 
 commercial prosperity is a question not less 
 important to the people at large than to 
 the inhabitants of Montana itself; and in 
 considering it I am brought to that great 
 enterprise, the Northern Pacific Railroad, 
 now building and destined to traverse from 
 east to west our entire territory. This road 
 will drain our richest valleys, and furnish 
 an outlet for the immense future surplus 
 productions of the Territory. All that has 
 
 heretofore been written about the super- 
 ior land-grant of the Northern Pacific 
 Railroad in Montana, scarcely gives an 
 adequate conception of the extent and 
 true value of the grant. The company 
 will receive twenty-five thousand six hun- 
 dred acres of our best agricultural and 
 grazing land for every mile of road that 
 is built — lands which not only possess 
 all the advantages which I have men- 
 tioned, but are within easy reach of 
 timber, and abound in fine building- 
 stone of almost every variety and inex- 
 haustible in quantity. I have no doubt 
 that these lands will not only cancel the 
 entire cost of building the railroad, but 
 will leave a surplus to the company. 
 
 The Northern Pacific Railroad is of 
 immense importance to Montana. It 
 will enable our stock raisers to compete 
 on favorable terms with those of Illinois 
 and other states in the markets of the 
 Eastern cities. A new impetus will be 
 given to all our industries. Our mines 
 will be developed, new ones will be 
 opened, and those that produced twelve 
 million dollars in gold last season will 
 far exceed that sum annually. Our popu- 
 lation will rapidly increase : the sixty- 
 two cities and towns we now have will be 
 doubled in number and quadrupled in 
 size; and the public land, now unoccu- 
 pied, will be cultivated by actual settlers. 
 Other prosperous states will spring up 
 around us ; and before we enter upon 
 another decade this great Northwest, 
 now lying broad and inviting before the 
 settler, will be contributiftg its rightful 
 share toward the wealth, commerce, and 
 general prosperity of the nation. 
 
 The enterprise which is opening this 
 Nev. Northwest is truly a great national 
 work, and well deserves the encourage- 
 ment, co-operation and support alike of 
 all who, as Americans, feel an interest 
 in the country's progress, or who as 
 capitalists desire a liberal return upon 
 investment. 
 
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