Oak Street s 
 JNCLASSIFIED 
 
 Texas and Pacific Railway 
 
 Univ.of Ill. Library 
 
 54 
 
 ^7 
 
 A frET^ET, 
 
 JNO.C. brown 
 
 Vice-President. 
 
 TO TOE PEOPLE OF TOE SOUTO 
 
 PTTL A.SKI, TEBTlSr. 
 
 V87S. 
 
Gen« jun 2 o i$34 Howard Mem.Lib 
 
 TO THE PEOPLE OF THE SOUTH. 
 
 .A. LETTER 
 
 FROM 
 
 JJSTO. C. BROWN, 
 
 Vice-President of the Texas and Pacific Railway Co. 
 
 As an officer of the Texas and Pacific Railway Com¬ 
 pany, my attention has been naturally attracted by a re¬ 
 cently developed opposition at the South to the interests of 
 that enterprise, which has manifested itself in an open letter 
 from Mr. Langdon, of Mobile; in the proceedings of the Sa¬ 
 vannah and Charleston Chambers of Commerce; and in some 
 newspaper editorials. 
 
 Exhibiting itself just before the session of Congress at 
 which the fortunes of the bill in aid of the Texas and Pa¬ 
 cific Railway will be determined, and singularly alike in the 
 grounds assumed by these very different authorities, I can 
 scarcely fail to recognize that this hostility derives its mo¬ 
 tive and its strength from the California monopoly. 
 
 The subject is one upon which I readily admit there may 
 be reasonable difference of opinion in the matter of de¬ 
 tail between honest and patriotic men. But I have 
 assumed a very grave responsibility to the people of the 
 South in accepting the Vice Presidency of this company. I 
 have in the past given some assurance of my devotion to 
 Southern rights and interests. Trusted with important du¬ 
 ties, I think I may venture to believe that I discharged them 
 with fidelity, and not without success. The people of the 
 South will not therefore think it unnatural if I now feel 
 anxious to satisfy them that in assuming the position I hold 
 it has been my earnest endeavor to serve, what 1 believe to 
 
 4 
 
 867356 
 
2 
 
 be, their truest interests, as well as the best interests of the 
 whole country, and that in so doing I have not been de¬ 
 luded into schemes which are hostile to their prosperity, nor 
 induced to support measures which are inconsistent with 
 their political faith. 
 
 The measure proposed is a very important one. Upon it 
 every citizen has a right to form and express his opinions, 
 and to insist upon full discussion and explanation of the ob¬ 
 jections which his consideration of the subject may suggest. 
 To such considerations, therefore, as are suggested by the 
 open letter of Mr. Langdon, of Mobile, I would reply re¬ 
 spectfully, recognizing the character of their author and the 
 gravity of the reasons he urges, if they are substantial. To 
 the proceedings of such bodies as the Savannah and Charles¬ 
 ton Chambers of Commerce, I would accord the weight which 
 should attach to the opinions of men experienced in Southern 
 business and justly respected in commercial centres, provided 
 I had the assurance that their views were the result of care¬ 
 ful and impartial consideration. But I must feel some hesita¬ 
 tion in assuming their action to be representative when I find 
 it predicated upon the argument of a gentleman who, what¬ 
 ever be his character and ability, is the recognized counsel 
 of that great California monopoly which has spared no pains, 
 no labor, no expense to defeat the completion of a Southern 
 Pacific connection which is to be independent of its control. 
 I therefore propose to lay before the Southern people my 
 view of their interests in this very important matter, subject 
 to such depreciation of its worth as they may think attaches 
 to the fact that my maturest judgment and my most earnest 
 convictions are committed to this enterprise, and that what¬ 
 ever ability I may possess and whatever ambition I may re¬ 
 tain will find their field and their fulfillment in its success. 
 
 The objections which, as I understand these several com¬ 
 munications, are disturbing, or are intended to disturb, the 
 public mind of the South, are the following : 
 
 1. That the Southern Pacific Company of California, are 
 willing to build, indeed are building, such connections as 
 
3 
 
 will secure a truly Southern Pacific railroad, without further 
 assistance from the Government. 
 
 2. That the bill in aid of the Texas and Pacific road 
 now before Congress, does not secure such certain advan¬ 
 tages to the South as it needs or claims, but places the con¬ 
 trol of its traffic in the hands of Colonel Scott, who repre¬ 
 sents what is charged to be a rival interest. 
 
 3. That the aid asked from the Government cannot be 
 constitutionally given, and that the security offered the Gov¬ 
 ernment is insufficient. 
 
 First As to the completion of a Southern Pacific connec¬ 
 tion by the Southern Pacific of California: Assuming for the 
 moment that this is possible, and to understand the value 
 of the assertion that this will he done without further 
 aid from the Government, it must be borne in mind that 
 the Southern Pacific and the Central Pacific are prac¬ 
 tically one and the same. The present Northern Pacific 
 connection consists of two roads identical in interest—the 
 Union Pacific, running from Omaha to Ogden; and the 
 Central Pacific, running from Ogden to San Prancisco— 
 with minor connections I will not stop now to enumerate. 
 This line, with its branches, has received from the Government 
 since the first subsidy, seventeen years ago, in lands and bonds, 
 $117,000,000. No interest has been paid, or is to be paid, by 
 the companies on these bonds until they mature, and in the 
 meantime that interest must he paid by the Government out 
 of the taxation of the people, for the reservation of one-half the 
 Government dues for transportation is not worth the calcu¬ 
 lation in such an estimate; and for eight years, since the 
 completion of the connection, the absolute monopoly of 
 trans-continental traffic and travel has been in their hands, 
 practically free from supervision or control by the Govern¬ 
 ment. Now, deducting what may have been received by the 
 Union Pacific, is it not clear that enough remains of this 
 enormous subsidy, together with its accretions, to make any 
 connection, Southern or Northern, built by the Central Pa- 
 
4 
 
 cific, the result and application of aid from the Government? 
 Does not every dollar it expends represent the monopoly 
 of profit and the exemption from payment of interest, 
 granted and maintained by the Government? Is not every 
 year’s continuance of this condition of things “ further aid 
 from the Government?” And if such a connection be built, 
 is it in any sense what the South asks and the interests of the 
 whole country require : an independent and competing 
 road ? Huge and lavish as has been the aid given by the 
 Government it is not that of w T hich the South complains—it 
 is the maintenance of the monopoly,the exclusion of full com¬ 
 petition. And what would a Southern Pacific road so built 
 be but a doubling of this very monopoly, the extinction of all 
 possible competition in the future—the measureless increase 
 of the power of this almighty corporation which would 
 then hold under its lock and key the commerce of the conti¬ 
 nent ? The scheme of the connection proves it. It is not 
 the connection between Marshall and San Diego, on the Pa¬ 
 cific, with an independent terminus on the Mississippi, 
 but a connection (by Fort Yuma) between the Mississippi 
 and San Francisco, the whole current of whose trade has 
 already run too deep for change along the course of the 
 Northern line. In face of the fact that the reports of the 
 Southern Pacific Company show that it is run at an annual 
 loss of over half a million dollars, and does not pay the in¬ 
 terest upon its bonded bebt, is it not clear that the useless 
 and profitless line to Yuma from San Francisco was built for 
 the very purpose of defeating competition, by alleging that 
 this connection would furnish the South what it asked for, 
 and thus diminish the chances of an independent road ? 
 
 But even this ingenious contrivance to make a southern 
 connection merely subordinate to the great monopoly, is a 
 delusion and a snare. I know it will be said, it has been said 
 that this company has indicated its good faith by proposing 
 to push its work from Yuma to El Paso, and why should it 
 do so except in execution of a genuine southern connection ? 
 Look at the map. The work is proposed to be resumed from 
 
Yuma eastward under the delusive pretence of going to 
 El Paso, but the line of proposed work goes elsewhere 
 as well, and is directly in connection with other roads. Long 
 before it approaches El Paso the point of divergence will be 
 reached at which its real destination will be evident, and 
 then, the vote having been taken upon the Texas and Pacific 
 bill, it will, leaving El Paso and the southern trunk line two 
 or three hundred miles below, join the Atchison,Topeka and 
 Santa Fe road by way of Albuquerque, and furnish another 
 rich tributary to the great northern current. I charge dis¬ 
 tinctly that such is the purpose and intention of this pre¬ 
 tended advance of the Southern Pacific Company upon the 
 line of true southern connection. The evidence of it is 
 patent to those familiar with the indications of railroad 
 enterprise, and can scarcely be concealed from the public 
 after the receut letter of Gen. Sherman to the vice-president 
 of the Southern Pacific Company of California, from which 
 I quote the following paragraph, as published in the San 
 Francisco papers: 
 
 “ I am informed that you contemplate an extension from 
 Yuma eastward to Santa Fe , New Mexico , and that about 
 two hundred miles to Maricopa Wells are to be contracted 
 for at once.” 
 
 I notice that since this letter has been published on this 
 side, the words “ Santa Fe , New Mexico” are omitted, and the 
 word “eastward ” left to confirm the delusion of a real south¬ 
 ern purpose; for surely the intelligence of the southern peo¬ 
 ple must discern that a connection from Yuma northeast¬ 
 wardly to Santa Ee, New Mexico, and thence by the Atch¬ 
 ison and Topeka road, whatever its commercial value may 
 be to certain sections of the country, is not a southern con¬ 
 nection with southern ports. 
 
 Second. That the bill in aid of the Texas and Pacific road 
 does not secure such certain advantage to the south as it needs 
 and claims , but places the control of its traffic in the hands of 
 Col. Scott , who represents what is charged to be a rival interest: 
 
6 
 
 Mr. Langdon says, “ Take Alabama as an illustration ; 
 Not a shovel-full of earth will be moved in Alabama: 
 no Alabama laborer will find employment; not a dollar 
 of the thirty-eight millions of Government money will 
 be circulated among the people of Alabama.” Suppose 
 not; but can Alabama be isolated from the general pros¬ 
 perity of the South ? Has she no commercial relations be¬ 
 yond her borders, and does Mr. Langdon consider Mobile 
 a seaport and one capable of development ? Have not Ala¬ 
 bama, Tennessee, Georgia, West Virginia, and East Ken¬ 
 tucky advantages for using their iron ores which cannot be 
 surpassed; and, with the proper energy, would not the build¬ 
 ing of this road and its branches develop this valuable in¬ 
 dustry? And what would be thought of a citizen of New 
 York, Cincinnati, or Chicago, who would have opposed the 
 building of the present Pacific connection because u not a 
 shovel-full of earth would be moved” in New York, Ohio, or 
 Illinois ? The Texas and Pacific road no more proposes to 
 enter the States of Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, than 
 the Central Pacific proposed to enter New York, Pennsyl¬ 
 vania, or Massachusetts. The one is a connection between 
 the Missisippi and the Pacific, at San Diego, as the other 
 was a connection between Omaba, on the Missouri, and 
 the Pacific, at San Francisco. The theory of both is 
 that between the termini of the Atlantic system of 
 railroads and the Pacific Coast there was an immense 
 territory which offered obstacles beyond the means of 
 private enterprise to overcome, while the wants of na¬ 
 tional commerce, national defence, and national unity im¬ 
 peratively required that the connection should be accom¬ 
 plished. Unable and indisposed to undertake the work itself, 
 the Government was willing to give its aid in return for the 
 advantages which this connection gave to its own immediate 
 business. In doing so it was bound so to control that con¬ 
 nection that its privileges should be equally shared by the 
 various systems of State roads then in existence. How that 
 duty was d ischarged in the case of the Central Pacific I need 
 
7 
 
 not now discuss. But in the case of a Southern line the ne¬ 
 cessities and requirements of equal justice to the existing 
 system of Southern State roads are to be met by a trunk line 
 which furnishes in its eastern terminus on the Mississippi a 
 point with which the Southern States could connect with 
 equal advantage. But this line does even more, for it se¬ 
 cures the right of connection on equal terms at any point 
 which the interest of any Southern State may require. 
 This is all that the Texas and Pacific proposes to ac¬ 
 complish, and if it makes its trunk line a fair distrib¬ 
 utor of its traffic at such eastern terminus, it has accom¬ 
 plished its purpose. Mr. Langdon therefore makes a graver 
 and more pertinent charge when he denies that the provisions 
 of the Texas and Pacific bill secures a terminus on the Missis¬ 
 sippi. This is an advantage which the South both needs and 
 claims, but I am at loss to understand how Mr. Langdon 
 could have retained such an impression after reading the bill. 
 For after providing for the selection of the route from Mar¬ 
 shall to the point on the Mississippi which shall have been 
 determined, the bill provides, section 12, “ That the eastern 
 terminus of the said Texas and Pacific railway shall be on 
 the east bank of the Mississippi river wherever this point 
 may be designated, and which terminus may be reached either 
 by suitable boats or a bridge over said river, as may be pre¬ 
 ferred by said company ; And provided further , That the said 
 Texas and Pacific Railway Company shall have the right to 
 purchase the charter, franchises and property of any existing 
 line, if any there be on the selected route, or construct a new 
 one, at the option of said company ; and that a failure to so pur¬ 
 chase or construct , at the rate herein provided , on the eastern exten¬ 
 sion , shall work an absolute forfeiture of all right to the guarantee 
 of the Government on the interest of the bonds to be issued for so 
 much of the line as may remain unconstructed at the tune of such 
 default” The same section provides “ That this part of said 
 line shall be built at the rate of not less than fifty miles per 
 annum.” 
 
 It is difficult to see how, in presence of such a provision, Mr. 
 
8 
 
 Langdon can say that no time has been fixed for its comple¬ 
 tion, or that no penalty has been affixed to its failure. Nor 
 can I perceive any greater force in the objections made by Mr. 
 Langdon to the mode in which the Mississippi terminus is 
 to be selected. 
 
 The bill provides that this terminus shall not be further 
 north than Memphis; that between Memphis and any other 
 terminus on the Mississippi, the choice shall be made by a 
 board consisting of three Engineer Officers of the United 
 States Army of the highest rank, and two civilians, none 
 of whom shall have any interest in any railroad connecting 
 the Mississippi with the Atlantic or Gulf Coast, and their 
 decision shall be subject to the approval of the President. 
 Of course, a President might refuse to do his duty under 
 this law, as he might refuse to do his duty under any other 
 law. But the same objection would lie against all and any 
 legislation which devolved duties upon him. One might as 
 well object to the judiciary act creating a supreme court 
 because it was physically possible for a judge to refuse to 
 deliver judgment. As to delay in the action of the board, 
 the interests of the company would seem from the above 
 sections to be a guarantee against it. But if so remote a 
 possibility need be guarded against it can he done by a very 
 simple amendment; and I can assure him that, as the able 
 and patriotic Senator (Mr. Lamar) who advocated the bill in 
 the Senate declared, any amendment will be cheerfully re¬ 
 ceived which is in good faith intended to perfect its pro¬ 
 visions. 
 
 I can scarcely suppose that the following language of Mr. 
 Langdon is used seriously: “ The increased production in 
 Texas of those agricultural staples on which the people of 
 Alabama depend for their subsistence and prosperity will 
 cause a depreciation in their market value, and to the ex¬ 
 tent of that depreciation will the income of our people be 
 diminished and their prosperity be retarded.” It this rea¬ 
 soning be correct, so far from needing the Texas and Pacific 
 Road, the South ought to destroy what roads it has, for every 
 
9 
 
 new acre of cotton planted, every additional bushel of corn 
 or wheat made will compete with the u agricultural staples ” 
 of Alabama and “ diminish the income ” of her people; 
 and thus the prosperity of every Southern State would 
 have to be sacrificed to the logic of State selfishness. 
 
 If this be the feeling of the South, not only must this 
 enterprise be abandoned, but so must every other effort to 
 develope her resources, enlarge her iudustry, increase her 
 population, maintain her strength, or extend her influence. 
 Fortunately, I know the people of the South better. They 
 understand their changed condition. They know that the 
 isolation of plantation life does not mean prosperity in the 
 future. They want the freest and the speediest communi¬ 
 cation with the whole country ; they want varied industries ; 
 they want the influx of an active, energetic population. They 
 are. preparing to play their part, and no small part, in 
 that time which is surely coming when, independent of its 
 foreign trade, the internal commerce of this continent will 
 make us one of the wealthiest and most powerful of nations, 
 and all they ask—and that they do ask—is that in that great 
 industrial rivalry they shall not be denied by the govern¬ 
 ment those advantages, which, at the expense of the whole 
 nation, it has given to other sections. 
 
 Having thus satisfied himself that there is to be no con¬ 
 nection with the Mississippi, Mr. Langdon (as he erroneously 
 supposes) has discovered the real and secret purpose of the 
 Texas & Pacific Road, and quoting from Mr. Herbert, of 
 Alabama, says: “Everyman in America who has studied 
 the question knows that his (Colonel Scott’s) purpose was 
 and is to turn the trade up by the Atlantic and Pacific, 
 which runs from St. Louis down through Yinita, to tap the 
 Texas & Pacific and draw the travel across the steel bridge 
 at St. Louis to his great Pennsylvania combination.” 
 
 How this connection through Yinita, which exists as yet 
 only on paper, is no part of the Texas and Pacific Road, and 
 is neither contemplated nor provided for by the bill under 
 discussion. If the objection be that it is possible that such 
 
10 
 
 a connection may be made in the future, then there never 
 can be a Southern Pacific line unless legislation provides 
 that the vast country lying between the Central Pacific, on 
 the north, and the Texas Pacific, on the south, shall never 
 be developed or create a system of railroad connections for 
 itself; and that there shall be no connection with the Texas 
 and Pacific which does not run southward from its trunk 
 line. I have never maintained that the Government should 
 give aid to the Texas Pacific as a purely sectional road,—as 
 one which was to benefit the South alone. My argument 
 has been, and still is, that the road is a national one—the 
 completion of one national system of Pacific connection—of 
 which the Central Pacific, already built by aid of the Gov¬ 
 ernment, is a part. When built, then, it must be as open to 
 the use of all as the Central Pacific ; and if other sections of 
 the country find it advantageous to connect with it, their 
 right to do so is indisputable. All that the South has the 
 right to ask of the Government is that a Pacific connection 
 be opened to it as well as the North on short and naturally 
 practicable lines, and that equal connection shall be assured 
 wherever commercial interest and enterprise may find it 
 possible and profitable to make them. And when such a con¬ 
 nection is completed as allows the various systems of rail¬ 
 roads in the Southern States to take advantage of that con¬ 
 nection at some point on the Mississippi River, just as the 
 railroads of the Northern States connect with Omaha, then 
 the Government has done for the South all that it can ask. 
 The use which the South makes of such connection must 
 depend upon its own resources and enterprise. Whether 
 the South Atlantic and Gulf ports will develope into great 
 commercial centres must depend upon themselves, not upon 
 the forced suppression of competition. The creation of a 
 commercial metropolis does not depend alone upon railroad 
 facilities. These may be a necessary element, but they are 
 not the only necessary elements. One would think, how¬ 
 ever, that if Southern ports had the capacity for such devel¬ 
 opment, they would scarcely fear a competition when traffic 
 
11 
 
 must have traveled at least seven-eighths of the distance 
 from San Diego to the Mississippi before it reaches the point 
 of diversion, and then encounters a comparison of the dis¬ 
 tances between Fort Worth and New York and Philadelphia 
 on the one side, and the Southern ports on the other. I con¬ 
 fess I share Gov. Throckmorton’s opinion that the supposi- 
 ion that the owners and managers of eleven or twelve hun¬ 
 dred miles of railway in Texas would, contrary to their own 
 interest, turn trans-continental traffic away from their own 
 line, is too monstrous to be treated otherwise than with 
 derision. 
 
 Third. That the aid asked from the Government cannot he 
 constitutionally given , and that the security offered the Govern¬ 
 ment is insufficient: 
 
 As I have said before a committee of Congress, without 
 even provoking controversy, it may be stated as part of the 
 history of the Government that, with one or perhaps two 
 exceptions, the doctrine of the constitutional power of the 
 General Government “ to lay out, improve, and costruct 
 highways,” national in their character, either through the 
 States or Territories, has had the assent of the various ad¬ 
 ministrations, incluning that of Mr. Jefferson. The prece¬ 
 dents established by the legislative, executive, and judicial 
 departments of the Government are unbroken and conclu¬ 
 sive of this power. As early as 1817, under the leadership 
 of Henry St. George Tucker, one of Virginia’s distinguished 
 statesmen, supported by Mr. Clay, and other leaders of both 
 parties, the House passed this resolution: “Congress has the 
 power under the Constitution to appropriate money for the 
 construction of post-roads, military and other roads , and of 
 canals, and for the improvement of water-courses.” And 
 the last word in this controversy, if controversy it can be 
 called, may be considered as spoken in the decision of the 
 Supreme Court of the United Stutes in the case of the 
 Union Pacific Railroad Company against the United States, 
 1 Otto, p. 72. 
 
 But I shall enter into no constitutional argument. I find in 
 
 library — 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
12 
 
 the application of common sense to the condition of things 
 as they exist, and to the history of the causes which produced 
 them, sufficient and ample justification for all I ask. 
 
 The sudden and rapid settlement and development of the 
 Pacific coast, coinciding as it did with the commercial open¬ 
 ing of the great empires of China and Japan, raised a large 
 and urgent question for the solution of American statesmen. 
 Great asffiad been our territorial expansion and the spread of 
 our population, it had been a steady, gradual continuous 
 growth. The questions that arose slowly were settled leis¬ 
 urely. Mile after mile as the emigrant wagon moved, acre 
 after acre as the wilderness was cleared, at no long distance 
 behind arose the school-house, the court-house, and the 
 church. The frontier moved before the pioneer and commerce 
 brought up the rear of the train. But now suddenly, at a 
 distance of thousands of miles, with great mountain ranges, 
 and impassable forests, and deserts of many days journey 
 between, there sprang into existence not a settlement but a 
 State—vast, rich, and powerful—bone of our bone, flesh of 
 our flesh, part and parcel of our political sovereignty, pos¬ 
 sessing an immense influence upon the commercial and polit 
 ical future of the whole country, but further from the seat of 
 government than Europe, and more difficult of access. The 
 common instinct of the American people resolved that there 
 never could be permitted the establishment upon this conti¬ 
 nent of two civilizations not identical—the one on the At¬ 
 lantic, the other on the Pacific—separated by thousands of 
 miles of unsettled territory and bound under such circum¬ 
 stances to develope in the future variant if not hostile interests. 
 They felt that the Pacific coast must be brought nearer; must 
 be within sound of our voice, within reach of our arm. A rail¬ 
 road connection therefore with the Pacific coast was simply a 
 matter of time ; and as it was absolutely beyond the power 
 of any probable, we might say any possible, combination of 
 private capital, the Government, as said by an eminent 
 Southern statesmen, which purchased Louisiana, and acquired 
 Florida, annexed Texas, conquered California; which built 
 
13 
 
 light houses,cleared harbors and subsidized ocean steamers; 
 which held absolute control of the commerce of the nation— 
 such a Government, familiar with the exercise of such pow¬ 
 ers, and supported by an almost unanimous public opinion, 
 could scarcely afford to waste its time in puzzling over con¬ 
 stitutional scruples in the face of such a duty. 
 
 Owing to the necessity of long and careful exploration, 
 to tbe differences of sectional interest, intensified by the un¬ 
 easy consciousness of coming strife and the natural dilatori¬ 
 ness in the execution of all great measures, the Government 
 had not acted when the war of secession broke upon the 
 country and threw a lurid but distinct light upon the value 
 of the Pacific Coast to the Union. With a promptitude and 
 liberality that cannot be too highty praised, acting upon a 
 broad and noble conception of national duty, the Govern¬ 
 ment supplied the aid that was needed, and thus completed 
 that system of railroad connection which, for brevity’s sake, 
 we will call the Central Pacific, and which placed San Fran¬ 
 cisco and the Pacific Coast in safe, speedy, and certain con¬ 
 nection with the great cities of the Northwest, and the com¬ 
 mercial centres of the Northern and Northeastern Atlantic. 
 But in so doing the Government denationalized the sys¬ 
 tem of Pacific connection. For there are three facts which 
 must never be forgotten in this discussion, without the full 
 appreciation of which no discussion would be fair. They 
 are these— 
 
 1. The line of connection drawn by the Central Pacific 
 was a war line. That is, it was selected not because it 
 was the best or the most natural, but because the 
 connection had to be made in view of the civil war, possibly 
 resulting in the establishment of a foreign and hostile con- 
 federacy, from whose Northern frontier the line must be re¬ 
 moved as far as possible, and because the connection then 
 most needed by the Government was the most direct north¬ 
 ern and northeastern connection. 
 
14 
 
 2. In giving its aid to this enterprise the Government 
 gave it—perhaps was obliged to give it—in such method as 
 made the road when complete, not a public highway, but 
 the immense, all-powerful monopoly of a private corporation. 
 
 8. The exhaustion of the South consequent upon the war, 
 the abolition of slavery, and the misgovernment of the re¬ 
 constructed State governments, made it absolutely impossi¬ 
 ble for the Southern commercial and industrial enterprise 
 either to establish a competition or use the partial advantage 
 that an expensive construction of lines connecting with the 
 Central Pacilic would give. 
 
 The South does not complain of these facts. She does 
 not ask the Government to undo any of their consequences, 
 or to deprive the country or any section of the country of 
 the advantages which their occurrence has given. Her lan¬ 
 guage is this : Cheap, certain, and speedy transportation of 
 freight and passengers between the Atlantic and Pacific 
 coasts has been recognized as a national necessity; a policy 
 approved before the war and since, by an almost unanimous 
 public opinion. The line of connection and the method of 
 its execution were subjects for discussion for the people, but 
 all agreed in the wish for a connection which should give 
 equal advantage to all sections. The war compelled the con¬ 
 struction of a line which no one pretends would have been 
 selected either as best in itself, considered simply as a road; 
 or fair and just, considered as a national work the advan¬ 
 tages of which were to be general. You have gone so far 
 north as to make your line an uncertain communication on 
 account of long interrruptions by the winter snows, and a 
 partial and sectional communication by the situation of its 
 termini. How this may have been unavoidable, but we 
 have to bear our share of the burden of its support whilst we 
 are cut off from our share of its advantages. We ask you 
 only to complete your system of Pacific connection. If cir¬ 
 cumstances have compelled you to make two roads—a north¬ 
 ern and a southern road — and you were forced to finish 
 
15 
 
 your northern section first, although it has given enormous 
 advantages already to one section of the country over an¬ 
 other, we do not ask those advantages to be taken away from 
 them but only in justice to be extended to us. Make the 
 Pacific connection what it was intended to be: a connection 
 between the Atlantic coast and the Pacific—not a mere sec¬ 
 tion of the Atlantic coast, but the whole Atlantic and Gulf 
 coast, from Portland to Galveston. We do not criticise or cen¬ 
 sure the mode in which you have begun the work, we only 
 ask you to finish it. 
 
 In the next place, the method which you have adopted in 
 reference to the Central and Union Pacific has deprived you, 
 and through you the people, of all control over the rates of 
 transportation. You have bound yourself to leave this vital 
 interest at the mercy of the private stockholders of the road 
 until they shall be earning a certain clear per cent, upon, not 
 their capital, but the capital we the people have furnished 
 them. ISTow it is within their power—and as long as human 
 nature is what it is, it will be within their purpose—to keep 
 that rate of net income below the point which justifies your 
 interference, and that, too, as is very well known, without 
 diminution of their profits. This places the whole com¬ 
 mercial transportation of the nation at the mercy of a joint 
 stock company, and converts a public highway into a private 
 corporation. The public opinion of the country, founded 
 on principles of common justice, is beginning to be very 
 restive under this transfer of sovereign rights to corpora¬ 
 tions. If, by any new magic of science, a corporation could 
 strike the ground and create a great navigable river running 
 through the heart of a continent, controlling its commerce, 
 increasing its population, building up villages and cities along 
 its banks, directly affecting the safety of the country by its 
 line ot military operation, does any one suppose for a mo¬ 
 ment that the public opinion of to-day would tolerate the 
 monopoly of its use and ownership by an hundred or a 
 thousand stockholders ? And a great trans-continental 
 railroad is very little less, and with full recognition of all 
 
16 
 
 the differences, the analogy is sufficient to require on the 
 part of the Government the exercise of some supervision 
 over powers which so directly and vitally concern the for¬ 
 tunes of the people. In the present relation between the 
 Government and the Central Pacific the Government can do 
 nothing. So much the more is it bound to complete its 
 system, and, by the Southern extension of that system^ 
 afford in a competing road the only check which can now 
 be devised as a protection against this monopoly. 
 
 Lastly. The condition of the South makes an exceptional 
 case. The inevitable consequences of war are not confined 
 to the limits of its merely military operations. “ Like the 
 cannon-ball, it shatters that it may reach, and shatters what 
 it reaches.” If it calls into exercise extraordinary powers 
 to effect its purposes, those powers cannot cease abruptly 
 with their accomplishment. If to preserve the Union the 
 whole social and political condition of half an empire can be 
 suddenly and permanently transformed, to maintain that 
 Union which has been saved surely that condition must he 
 harmonized with the imperative necessities of the country 
 which has been made one. If to secure the ends of the war 
 millions of property can be destroyed, the whole suffrage of 
 the country he essentially altered, absolute military govern¬ 
 ments substituted for State constitutions, surely the restora¬ 
 tion of commercial and industrial life, the opening of new 
 fields for emancipated labor, the perpetual prevention of 
 sectional isolation, are equally within the power and the 
 duty of the great Government which can do and has done 
 such things. 
 
 Now, without going over the long and sad tale of south¬ 
 ern misery, without attempting to deny that what the 
 United States did in the prosecution of the war it was 
 obliged to do, there can be no question that the condition 
 of the South to-day is the condition in which the war and 
 the reconstruction acts have placed it. What that condi¬ 
 tion is needs no description. It is confessed on all sides, by 
 enemies as well as by friends, and it is now equally recog- 
 
17 
 
 nized that the great national want is the restoration of the 
 South to the full vigor of its capabilities, to be developed 
 under the new conditions of national life. If, therefore, a 
 direct southern connection with the Pacific is not only the 
 necessary completion of the system of Pacific connection re¬ 
 quired by national wants and interests, but the cheapest, 
 promptest, and most efficient means for the development of 
 southern commerce and agriculture, a compensation enrich¬ 
 ing those w T ho give as well as those who take, the present 
 condition of the South is the strongest argument for its 
 speedy completion. 
 
 But more than this : in asking the aid of the Government 
 for this road I am asking it to save expense in its own 
 proper business. Along the line of the proposed road the 
 Government has for years past maintained more than forty 
 military posts, garrisoned by nearly one-half of the entire 
 army, where supplies for both Indians and troops have to 
 be transported long distances at great cost and much risk. 
 Fourteen regiments are, I believe, thus maintained at a cost 
 of one million per annum per regiment. The saving to the 
 Government by the Central aud Union Pacific in the trans¬ 
 portation of postal matter, troops, stores, &c., has been for the 
 last two years at the rate of $1,864,894 per annum. Why 
 should not the same economy be effected in the territory 
 through which the Texas and Pacific runs ; and how are the 
 necessities of the Government supplied until it is completed? 
 Surely, if, as the Quartermaster General reports, the saving 
 on the Central and Union Pacific was the difference between 
 nine millions and six millions, there is no reason why this 
 thirty-three per cent, upon the fourteen millions which are 
 being spent in the South and Southwest should not also be 
 saved. And the importance of this road to the Govern 
 ment, as the representative of the national interests, must be 
 obvious to every man who reflects that for one thousand 
 miles it runs directly along and near the territory of a for¬ 
 eign power, with whom our relations are every day assum¬ 
 ing a more delicate and difficult character. When, there- 
 
18 
 
 fare we ask, we also give ; and I venture to assert, that five 
 years of this completed road will fully compensate the 
 Government for any aid it may give or risk it may take. 
 
 But the Texas and Pacific Company are not asking a gift, 
 but a loan,—and a loan not of the money of the Government 
 but of its credit; and for this loan,' to effect an object as im¬ 
 portant to the Government as to the road or to the South, 
 we offer the amplest and most substantial security. On 
 this subject I shall not say much. The provisions of the 
 bill are before the country. They are precise, specific, with¬ 
 out vagueness; matter of sober calculation that a business 
 man can cipher out with certainty. We ask the United 
 States Government to guarantee the payment annually of 5 
 per cent, interest for fifty years upon $38,000,000 of bonds, 
 or so much thereof as may be necessary to complete the 
 line, under direct government supervision, and to secure the 
 payment of the interest so guaranteed, we offer as security: 
 
 1. A mortgage, paramount to all other liens upon the rail¬ 
 way, with its equipment, buildings and property, from Fort 
 Worth to San Diego—-1400 miles. And as the bonds can be 
 issued only upon the completion of specified sections, the mort¬ 
 gage at each issue of bonds covers a completed road of equiv¬ 
 alent value. 
 
 2. The application to the payment of this interest of the 
 entire amounts due from the Government for postal and Army 
 transportation and telegraphic service, the amount of which 
 may be fairly calculated from the reports of the Quartermas¬ 
 ter-General as to the amount of similar service rendered by 
 the Central Union Pacific, ail the circumstances indicating a 
 larger use of the Texas and Pacific. 
 
 3. The retention of $5,000 per mile in the Treasury of 
 the Government of the guaranteed bonds, with the right to 
 sell and use the proceeds in making up any deficiency in pay¬ 
 ment of interest by the company. 
 
 4. The payment into the Treasury of so much of the net 
 earnings of the road as will be sufficient to meet the interest 
 required. This will be less than $2,000 per mile, which is 
 
19 
 
 less than the present net earnings per mile of the Texas and 
 Pacific line without Western connections, and only about 
 one-third of the net earnings per mile of the Central and 
 Union Pacific line. 
 
 5. The relinquishment to the Government of the grant of 
 lands made for the construction of the line through New 
 Mexico, Arizona, and the State of California, opening them 
 to speedy sale and settlement at Government prices with the 
 provision that the proceeds of these lands shall be paid into the 
 Treasury: one half to be appropriated to the payment of any 
 deficit in the annual interest, and the surplus, which, should 
 there be no deficit, will be the entire amount, to the re¬ 
 demption of the bonds themselves. 
 
 The character and value of this security I am willing to 
 leave to the judgment of every practical business man, with¬ 
 out one word of further comment. 
 
 Besides the special objections to the Texas and Pacific bill 
 to which I have endeavored to reply, it remains for me to 
 notice the various schemes which have been suggested as 
 substitutes. I cannot explain them in detail without maps, 
 but, although they vary in minor provisions, they are very 
 similar in general features. I have no hesitation in assert¬ 
 ing that they have all been contrived by the California mo¬ 
 nopoly, wrai no intention or expectation of their being 
 passed, but to distract and divide the southern support of 
 the Texas and Pacific bill. Their object has been*by sug¬ 
 gesting advantages, to induce the friends of such roads to 
 postpone action upon the trunk line, in hopes of dividing 
 the aid proposed to be given to the Texas and Pacific, and 
 they have deluded more than one honest and patriotic legis. 
 ator into the belief that by supporting them he was securing 
 to the several States a direct local connection, and securing it 
 at less cost and with equal security to the Government. 
 
 I will endeavor to state, fairly and clearly, their general 
 character. 
 
20 
 
 1. It is to give the Southern Pacific California Com¬ 
 pany the entire land grant of the Texas and Pacific, and au¬ 
 thorize it to complete the connection between Yuma and El 
 Paso, and also to build the connection between its existing 
 line, from a point to be selected by that company and San 
 Diego. 
 
 2. To confine the Texas and Pacific to the connection be¬ 
 tween Fort Worth and El Paso, giving it a subsidy of 
 not less than $10,00C per mile, but varying in the different 
 bills. 
 
 8. To authorize and subsidize five or six other railroads, 
 at the same varying subsidy, from points in the States of 
 Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee,two only of which 
 are in any sense connections with the Texas and Pacific, the 
 others being essentially local in their character, and links 
 necessary to the completion of what are entirely State lines. 
 
 4. The security of the subsidy in every case by the. 
 reservation in the hands of the Government of such freight 
 transportation and compensation for telegraphic and postal 
 service as may be due by the Government for the use of the 
 road. 
 
 The objection to the first is that it makes of the Southern 
 Pacific connection one which is neither independent nor com¬ 
 petitive. It is idle to assert that the capitalists of the Cen¬ 
 tral Pacific will build a road which is to compe# with their 
 main line, their interest in the great northern connection 
 being supreme. And it must be remembered that this pro¬ 
 posed connection consists in part of the California Southern 
 Pacific as completed now, and which is under the direct con¬ 
 trol of the Central Pacific, and about oue hundred and thirty 
 miles of the Central Pacific, between Yuma and San Fran, 
 crisco, neither of which is subject to the control of the 
 provisions of this bill nor of Congress. The transfer of 
 18,000,000 acres of land from the Texas and Pacific to the 
 Southern Pacific is the grant of further aid from the Gov¬ 
 ernment, which the company, through its agent and attor¬ 
 ney, Mr. Norwood, at Charleston and Savannah, vehemently 
 
21 
 
 protests it does not ask: and it must not be forgotten that 
 the proceeds of the sale of these lands, thfls absolutely given 
 away, would, under the provisions of the Texas and Pacific 
 bill, be paid into the Treasury of the United States to secure 
 the guaranteed interest and the bonds themselves. 
 
 Beside which some of these bills are so artfully worded that 
 a plausible argument may be made to justify their appropria¬ 
 tion of a money subsidy to the Southern Pacific, in addition 
 to this land-grant. 
 
 2. The local lines which it subsidizes are in no sense other 
 than local State roads, and although important to the States 
 as connecting and completing their system of State roads, 
 are not such works of internal improvement as by their 
 character, extent, or direct use to the Government, come 
 within the exercise of its powers. 
 
 3. The security offered for this subsidy, which upon the most 
 reasonable computation and'at the least figure suggested,must 
 amount in the aggregate to $40,000,000, and which when ex¬ 
 pended will not secure an independent and competing South¬ 
 ern connection,^ utterly insufficient,and there is no mortgage 
 whatever upon either of these roads, or their property ; and 
 upon some of them the probable services to the Government 
 in the way of transportation would be positively inapprecia. 
 ble. In short, there is not an objection made to the Texas and 
 Pacific biU^iiich does not apply to these bills with increased 
 force; and there is not an advantage secured to the South 
 and the whole Republic by the Texas and Pacific which these 
 bills protect. 
 
 I have thus attempted briefly to reply to those objections 
 which are being sedulously and mischievously circulated for 
 the purpose of defeating the present bill, by dividing and 
 disturbing the Southern mind in its hitherto almost unani¬ 
 mous support of the measure. I have said but little of the 
 general advantages of a Southern Pacific connection, be¬ 
 cause I do not believe a doubt exists upon it, and because it 
 would be almost impossible for me adequately to express 
 how the vast importance of this enterprise has grown upon 
 
22 
 
 me, as in the discharge of my duties I have travelled over 
 its proposed line and realized in detail its consequences to 
 our people. 
 
 But what I do want to impress upon you is this, that a 
 Southern Pacific connection, to be useful to you and to the 
 country, must he an independent and competing connection, 
 one which shall be open to all who desire to use it, and upon 
 which the rates shall be under the direct supervision and 
 control of Congress ; so that the farmer, the merchant, the 
 manufacturer, the Government itself shall be free from the 
 extortion and the power to extort of the existing monopoly. 
 Any connection, even if such were built, which is a mere 
 branch of the existing Central Pacific monopoly, subject in 
 the arrangement of rates to its interest, limited in its con¬ 
 nections to what it permits, free as it is from the wholesome 
 control of the National Legislature, would be not only a 
 delusion but an added danger. It would be simply the com¬ 
 pletion of the most gigantic corporation known to history 
 since the days of the East India Company—more powerful 
 than even it was in the time of its undisputed authority, 
 for the commerce of the continent will be the stock upon 
 which they declare their dividends, and the great public 
 highways of the nation will be' tolled by their bye-laws. 
 They might as well be permitted to levy customs in your 
 ports and taxes upon your rivers. And you ki%DW little of 
 their spirit if you think for a moment that to them you will 
 he anything but dependent and subject tributaries. 
 
 JNO. C. BROWN, 
 
 Vice-President Texas and Pacific Railway Co. 
 
 Pulaski, Tennessee, October 1878. 
 

 
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