Messrs. Hallett & Co. were associated with General Fremont
in urging the Pacific Railroad. This letter was extensively
circulated.
WASHINGTON, May 23, 1863.
GENTLEMEN,--I have always voted for the Pacific Railroad, and
now that it is authorized by Congress I follow it with hope and
confidence. It is a great work, but science has already shown it
to be practicable.
Let the road be built, and its influence will be incalculable.
People will wonder that the world lived so long without it.
Conjoining the two oceans, it will be an agency of matchless
power, not only commercial, but political. It will be a new
girder to the Union, a new help to business, and a new charm to
life. Perhaps the imagination is most impressed by the thought
of travel and merchandise winding their way from Atlantic to
Pacific in one unbroken line; but I incline to believe that the
commercial advantages will be more apparent in the opportunities
the railroad will create and quicken everywhere on the way. New
homes and new towns will spring up, making new demand for labor
and supplies. Civilization will be projected into the forest and
over the plain, while the desert is made to yield its increase.
There is no productiveness to compare with that from the upturned
sod which receives the iron rail. In its crop are school-houses
and churches, cities and states.
In this vast undertaking coöperation of all kinds is needed,
and it will be rewarded too. Capitalists, bankers, merchants,
engineers, mechanics, miners, laborers, all must enlist.
Perhaps there will be a place also for _the freedmen of this
war_, although it seems to me that their services can be more
effectively bestowed at home, as laborers and soldiers. But I
see not why emigrants should not be invited from Europe to take
part in this honorable service, and share the prosperity it
will surely organize. Let them quit poverty, dependence, and
wretchedness in their own country, for good wages here, with
independence, and a piece of ground which each man can call his
own.
Emigration will hasten the work; but, with or without emigration,
it must proceed. Everywhere, from sunrise to sunset, the Rail
and Wheel, which an eminent English engineer has pronounced “man
and wife,” will yet be welcomed, sure to become the parents of a
mighty progeny.