which I admit I am, perhaps, as susceptible as any of the gentlemen I
see around me, the intrinsic merits of the measure itself are of such an
extraordinary character as to commend it most strongly to the favorable
consideration of every member of this House, myself not excepted,
notwithstanding my constituents, in whose behalf alone I am acting here,
would not be benefited by its passage one particle more than they would
be by a project to cultivate an orange grove on the bleakest summit of
Greenland's icy mountains. (Laughter.)
Now, sir, as to those great trunk lines of railway, spanning the
continent from ocean to ocean, I confess my mind has never been fully
made up. It is true they may afford some trifling advantages to local
traffic, and they may even in time become the channels of a more
extended commerce. Yet I have never been thoroughly satisfied either of
the necessity or expediency of projects promising such meagre results to
the great body of our people. But with regard to the transcendent merits
of the gigantic enterprise contemplated in this bill I never entertained
the shadow of a doubt. (Laughter.)
Years ago, when I first heard that there was somewhere in the vast
_terra incognita_, somewhere in the bleak regions of the great
Northwest, a stream of water known to the nomadic inhabitants of the
neighborhood as the river St. Croix, I became satisfied that the
construction of a railroad from that raging torrent to some point in the
civilized world was essential to the happiness and prosperity of the
American people, if not absolutely indispensable to the perpetuity of
republican institutions on this continent. (Great laughter.) I felt
instinctively that the boundless resources of that prolific region of
sand and pine shrubbery would never be fully developed without a
railroad constructed and equipped at the expense of the Government, and
perhaps not then. (Laughter.) I had an abiding presentiment that, some
day or other, the people of this whole country, irrespective of party
affiliations, regardless of sectional prejudices, and "without
distinction of race, color, or previous condition of servitude," would
rise in their majesty, and demand an outlet for the enormous
agricultural productions of those vast and fertile pine barrens, drained
in the rainy season by the surging waters of the turbid St. Croix.
(Great laughter.)
These impressions, derived simply and solely from the "eternal fitness
of things," were not only strengthened by the interesting and eloquent
debate on this bill, to which I listened with so much pleasure the other
day, but intensified, if possible, as I read over this morning the
lively colloquy which took place on that occasion, as I find it reported
in last Friday's "Globe." I will ask the indulgence of the House while I
read a few short passages, which are sufficient, in my judgment, to
place the merits of the great enterprise contemplated in the measure now
under discussion beyond all possible controversy.
The honorable gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Wilson), who, I believe, is
managing this bill, in speaking of the character of the country through
which this railroad is to pass, says this:--
"We want to have the timber brought to us as cheaply as possible. Now,
if you tie up the lands in this way, so that no title can be obtained to
them,--for no settler will go on these lands, for he can not make a
living,--you deprive us of the benefit of that timber."
Now, sir, I would not have it by any means inferred from this that the
gentleman from Minnesota would insinuate that the people out in his
section desire this timber merely for the purpose of fencing up their
farms, so that their stock may not wander off and die of starvation
among the bleak hills of the St. Croix. (Laughter.) I read it for no
such purpose, sir, and make no such comment on it myself. In
corroboration of this statement of the gentleman from Minnesota, I find
this testimony given by the honorable gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr.
Washburn). Speaking of these same lands, he says:
"Under the bill, as amended by my friend from Minnesota, nine tenths of
the land is open to actual settlers at $2.50 per acre; the remaining one
tenth is pine-timbered land, that is not fit for settlement, and never
will be settled upon; but the timber will be cut off. I admit that it is
the most valuable portion of the grant, for most of the grant is not
valuable. It is quite valueless; and if you put in this amendment of the
gentleman from Indiana, you may as well just kill the bill, for no man
and no company will take the grant and build the road."
I simply pause here to ask some gentleman better versed in the science
of mathematics than I am to tell me, if the timbered lands are in fact
the most valuable portion of that section of country, and they would be
entirely valueless without the timber that is on them, what the
remainder of the land is worth which has no timber on it at all.
(Laughter.)
But further on I find a most entertaining and instructive interchange of
views between the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Rogers), the gentleman
from Wisconsin (Mr. Washburn), and the gentleman from Maine (Mr. Peters)
upon the subject of pine lands generally, which I will tax the patience
of the House to read:--
"Mr. Rogers. Will the gentleman allow me to ask him a question?
"Mr. Washburn, of Wisconsin. Certainly.
"Mr. Rogers. Are these pine lands entirely worthless except for timber?
"Mr. Washburn, of Wisconsin. They are generally! worthless for any other
purpose. I am perfectly familiar with that subject. These lands are not
valuable for purposes of settlement.
"Mr. Farnsworth. They will be after the timber is taken off?
"Mr. Washburn, of Wisconsin. No, sir.
"Mr. Rogers. I want to know the character of these pine lands.
"Mr. Washburn, of Wisconsin. They are generally sandy, barren lands. My
friend from the Green Bay district (Mr. Sawyer) is himself perfectly
familiar with this question, and he will bear me out in what I say, that
these pine-timber lands are not adapted to settlement.
"Mr. Rogers. The pine lands to which I am accustomed are generally very
good. What I want to know is, what is the difference between our pine
lands and your pine lands?
"Mr. Washburn, of Wisconsin. The pine timber of Wisconsin generally
grows upon barren, sandy land. The gentleman from Maine (Mr. Peters),
who is familiar with pine lands, will, I have no doubt, say that pine
timber grows generally upon the most barren lands.
"Mr. Peters. As a general thing pine lands are not worth much for
cultivation."
And further on I find this pregnant question, the joint production of
the two gentlemen from Wisconsin:--
"Mr. Paine. Does my friend from Indiana suppose that in any event
settlers will occupy and cultivate these pine lands?
"Mr. Washburn, of Wisconsin. Particularly without a railroad?"
Yes, sir, "particularly without a railroad." It will be asked after a
while, I am afraid, if settlers will go anywhere unless the Government
builds a railroad for them to go on. (Laughter.)
I desire to call attention to only one more statement, which I think
sufficient to settle the question. It is one made by the gentleman from
Wisconsin (Mr. Paine), who says:--
"These lands will be abandoned for the present. It may be that at some
remote period there will spring up in that region a new kind of
agriculture, which will cause a demand for these particular lands; and
they may then come into use and be valuable for agricultural purposes.
But I know, and I can not help thinking that my friend from Indiana
understands, that for the present, and for many years to come, these
pine lands can have no possible value other than that arising from the
pine timber which stands on them."
Now, sir, who, after listening to this emphatic and unequivocal
testimony of these intelligent, competent and able-bodied witnesses
(laughter), who that is not as incredulous as St. Thomas himself, will
doubt for a moment that the Goshen of America is to be found in the
sandy valleys and upon the pine-clad hills of St. Croix? (Laughter.) Who
will have the hardihood to rise in his seat on this floor and assert
that, excepting the pine bushes, the entire region would not produce
vegetation enough in ten years to fatten a grasshopper? (Great
laughter.) Where is the patriot who is willing that his country shall
incur the peril of remaining another day without the amplest railroad
connection with such an inexhaustible mine of agricultural wealth?
(Laughter.) Who will answer for the consequences of abandoning a great
and warlike people, in possession of a country like that, to brood over
the indifference and neglect of their Government? (Laughter.) How long
would it be before they would take to studying the Declaration of
Independence, and hatching out the damnable heresy of secession? How
long before the grim demon of civil discord would rear again his horrid
head in our midst, "gnash loud his iron fangs, and shake his crest of
bristling bayonets"? (Laughter.)
Then, sir, think of the long and painful process of reconstruction that
must follow, with its concomitant amendments to the Constitution; the
seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth articles. The sixteenth, it is of
course understood, is to be appropriated to those blushing damsels who
are, day after day, beseeching us to let them vote, hold office, drink
cock-tails, ride astraddle, and do everything else the men do. (Roars of
laughter.) But above all, sir, let me implore you to reflect for a
single moment on the deplorable condition of our country in case of a
foreign war, with all our ports blockaded, all our cities in a state of
siege; the gaunt spectre of famine brooding like a hungry vulture over
our starving land; our commissary stores all exhausted, and our
famishing armies withering away in the field, a helpless prey to the
insatiate demon of hunger; our navy rotting in the docks for want of
provisions for our gallant seamen, and we without any railroad
communication whatever with the prolific pine thickets of the St. Croix.
(Great laughter.)
Ah, sir, I could very well understand why my amiable friends from
Pennsylvania (Mr. Myers, Mr. Kelley and Mr. O'Neill) should be so
earnest in their support of this bill the other day, and if their
honorable colleague, my friend, Mr. Randall, will pardon the remark, I
will say I considered his criticism of their action on that occasion as
not only unjust, but ungenerous. I knew they were looking forward with
the far-reaching ken of enlightened statesmanship to the pitiable
condition in which Philadelphia will be left, unless speedily supplied
with railroad connection in some way or other with this garden spot of
the universe. (Laughter.) And besides, sir, this discussion has relieved
my mind of a mystery that has weighed upon it like an incubus for years.
I could never understand before why there was so much excitement during
the last Congress over the acquisition of Alta Vela. I could never
understand why it was that some of our ablest statesmen and most
disinterested patriots should entertain such dark forebodings of the
untold calamities that were to befall our beloved country unless we
should take immediate possession of that desirable island. But I see now
that they were laboring under the mistaken impression that the
Government would need the guano to manure the public lands on the St.
Croix. (Great laughter.)
Now, sir, I repeat I have been satisfied for years that if there was any
portion of the inhabited globe absolutely in a suffering condition for
want of a railroad it was these teeming pine barrens of the St. Croix.
(Laughter.) At what particular point on that noble stream such a road
should be commenced I knew was immaterial, and so it seems to have been
considered by the draughtsman of this bill. It might be up at the spring
or down at the foot-log, or the Watergate, or the fish-dam, or anywhere
along the bank, no matter where. (Laughter.) But in what direction
should it run, or where should it terminate, were always to my mind
questions of the most painful perplexity. I could conceive of no place
on "God's green earth" in such straitened circumstances for railroad
facilities as to be likely to desire or willing to accept such a
connection. (Laughter.) I knew that neither Bayfield nor Superior City
would have it, for they both indignantly spurned the munificence of the
Government when coupled with such ignominious conditions, and let this
very same land grant die on their hands years and years ago, rather than
submit to the degradation of a direct communication by railroad with the
piny woods of the St. Croix; and I knew that what the enterprising
inhabitants of those giant young cities would refuse to take would have
few charms for others, whatever their necessities or cupidity might be.
(Laughter.)
Hence, as I have said, sir, I was utterly at a loss to determine where
the terminus of this great and indispensable road should be, until I
accidentally overheard some gentleman the other day mention the name of
"Duluth." (Great laughter.) Duluth! The word fell upon my ear with
peculiar and indescribable charm, like the gentle murmur of a low
fountain stealing forth in the midst of roses, or the soft, sweet
accents of an angel's whisper in the bright, joyous dream of sleeping
innocence. Duluth! 'Twas the name for which my soul had panted for
years, as the hart panteth for the water-brooks. (Renewed laughter.) But
where was Duluth? Never, in all my limited reading, had my vision been
gladdened by seeing the celestial word in print. (Laughter.) And I felt
a profounder humiliation in my ignorance that its dulcet syllables had
never before ravished my delighted ear. (Roars of laughter.) I was
certain the draughtsman of this bill had never heard of it, or it would
have been designated as one of the termini of this road. I asked my
friends about it, but they knew nothing of it. I rushed to the library,
and examined all the maps I could find. (Laughter.) I discovered in one
of them a delicate, hair-like line, diverging from the Mississippi near
a place marked Prescott, which I supposed was intended to represent the
river St. Croix, but I could nowhere find Duluth.
Nevertheless, I was confident it existed somewhere, and that its
discovery would constitute the crowning-glory of the present century, if
not of all modern times. (Laughter.) I knew it was bound to exist in the
very nature of things; that the symmetry and perfection of our planetary
system would be incomplete without it (renewed laughter); that the
elements of material nature would long since have resolved themselves
back into original chaos, if there had been such a hiatus in creation as
would have resulted from leaving out Duluth. (Roars of laughter.) In
fact, sir, I was overwhelmed with the conviction that Duluth not only
existed somewhere, but that, wherever it was, it was a great and
glorious place. I was convinced that the greatest calamity that ever
befell the benighted nations of the ancient world was in their having
passed away without a knowledge of the actual existence of Duluth; that
their fabled Atlantis, never seen save by the hallowed vision of
inspired poesy, was, in fact, but another name for Duluth; that the
golden orchard of the Hesperides was but a poetical synonym for the beer
gardens in the vicinity of Duluth. (Great laughter.) I was certain that
Herodotus had died a miserable death because in all his travels and with
all his geographical research he had never heard pf Duluth. (Laughter,)
I knew that if the immortal spirit of Homer could look down from another
heaven than that created by his own celestial genius upon the long lines
of pilgrims from every nation of the earth to the gushing fountain of
poesy opened by the touch of his magic wand; if he could be permitted to
behold the vast assemblage of grand and glorious productions of the
lyric art called into being by his own inspired strains, he would weep
tears of bitter anguish that, instead of lavishing all the stores of his
mighty genius upon the fall of Ilion, it had not been his more blessed
lot to crystallize in deathless song the rising glories of Duluth.
(Great and continued laughter.) Yet, sir, had it not been for this map,
kindly furnished me by the Legislature of Minnesota, I might have gone
down to my obscure and humble grave in an agony of despair, because I
could nowhere find Duluth. (Renewed laughter.) Had such been my
melancholy fate, I have no doubt that, with the last feeble pulsation of
my breaking heart, with the last faint exhalation of my fleeting breath,
I should have whispered, "Where is Duluth?" (Roars of laughter.)
But, thanks to the beneficence of that band of ministering angels who
have their bright abodes in the far-off capital of Minnesota, just as
the agony of my anxiety was about to culminate in the frenzy of despair,
this blessed map was placed in my hands; and as I unfolded it a
resplendent scene of ineffable glory opened before me, such as I imagine
burst upon the enraptured vision of the wandering peri through the
opening gates of paradise. (Renewed laughter.) There, there for the
first time, my enchanted eye rested upon the ravishing word "Duluth."
This map, sir, is intended, as it appears from its title, to illustrate
the position of Duluth in the United States; but if gentlemen will
examine it, I think they will concur with me in the opinion that it is
far too modest in its pretensions. It not only illustrates the position
of Duluth in the United States, but exhibits its relations with all
created things. It even goes farther than this. It lifts the shadowy
veil of futurity, and affords us a view of the golden prospects of
Duluth far along the dim vista of ages yet to come.
If gentlemen will examine it, they will find Duluth not only in the
centre of the map, but represented in the centre of a series of
concentric circles, one hundred miles apart, and some of them as much as
four thousand miles in diameter, embracing alike in their tremendous
sweep the fragrant savannas of the sun-lit South and the eternal
solitudes of snow that mantle the ice-bound North. (Laughter.) How these
circles were produced is perhaps one of those primordial mysteries that
the most skillful paleologist will never be able to explain. (Renewed
laughter.) But the fact is, sir, Duluth is preeminently a central place,
for I am told by gentlemen who have been so reckless of their own
personal safety as to venture away into those awful regions where Duluth
is supposed to be that it is so exactly in the centre of the visible
universe that the sky comes down at precisely the same distance all
around it. (Roars of laughter.)
I find by reference to this map that Duluth is situated somewhere near
the western end of Lake Superior; but as there is no dot or other mark
indicating its exact location, I am unable to say whether it is actually
confined to any particular spot, or whether "it is just lying around
there loose." (Renewed laughter.) I really can not tell whether it is
one of those ethereal creations of intellectual frostwork, more
intangible than the rose-tinted clouds of a summer sunset,--one of those
airy exhalations of the speculator's brain, which I am told are ever
flitting in the form of towns and cities along those lines of railroad,
built with Government subsidies, luring the unwary settlers as the
mirage of the desert lures the famishing traveler on, and ever on, until
it fades away in the darkening horizon,--or whether it is a real _bona
fide_, substantial city, all "staked off," with the lots marked with
their owners' names, like that proud commercial metropolis recently
discovered on the desirable shores of San Domingo. (Laughter.) But,
however that may be, I am satisfied Duluth is there, or thereabout, for
I see it stated here on this map that it is exactly thirty-nine hundred
and ninety miles from Liverpool (laughter), though I have no doubt, for
the sake of convenience, it will be moved back ten miles, so as to make
the distance an even four thousand. (Renewed laughter.)
Then, sir, there is the climate of Duluth, unquestionably the most
salubrious and delightful to be found anywhere on the Lord's earth. Now,
I have always been under the impression, as I presume other gentlemen
have, that in the region around Lake Superior it was cold enough for at
least nine months in the year to freeze the smokestack off a locomotive.
(Great laughter.) But I see it represented on this map that Duluth is
situated exactly halfway between the latitudes of Paris and Venice, so
that gentlemen who have inhaled the exhilarating airs of the one or
basked in the golden sunlight of the other may see at a glance that
Duluth must be a place of untold delights (laughter), a terrestrial
paradise, fanned by the balmy zephyrs of an eternal spring, clothed in
the gorgeous sheen of ever-blooming flowers, and vocal with the silvery
melody of nature's choicest songsters. (Laughter.) In fact, sir, since I
have seen this map I have no doubt that Byron was vainly endeavoring to
convey some faint conception of the delicious charms of Duluth when his
poetic soul gushed forth in the rippling strains of that beautiful
rhapsody:
"Know ye the land of the cedar and vine,
Where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine;
Where the light wings of Zephyr, oppressed with perfume,
Wax faint o'er the gardens of Gul in her bloom;
Where the citron and olive are fairest of fruit,
And the voice of the nightingale never is mute;
Where the tints of the earth and the hues of the sky,
In color though varied, in beauty may vie?"
(Laughter.)
As to the commercial resources of Duluth, sir, they are simply
illimitable and inexhaustible, as is shown by this map. I see it stated
here that there is a vast scope of territory, embracing an area of over
two million square miles, rich in every element of material wealth and
commercial prosperity, all tributary to Duluth. Look at it, sir
(pointing to the map). Here are inexhaustible mines of gold,
immeasurable veins of silver, impenetrable depths of boundless forest,
vast coal-measures, wide, extended plains of richest pasturage, all, all
embraced in this vast territory, which must, in the very nature of
things, empty the untold treasures of its commerce into the lap of
Duluth. (Laughter.)
Look at it, sir! (Pointing to the map.) Do not you see from these broad,
brown lines drawn around this immense territory that the enterprising
inhabitants of Duluth intend some day to inclose it all in one vast
corral, so that its commerce will be bound to go there, whether it would
or not? (Great laughter.) And here, sir (still pointing to the map), I
find within a convenient distance the Piegan Indians, which, of all the
many accessories to the glory of Duluth, I consider by far the most
inestimable. For, sir, I have been told that when the small-pox breaks
out among the women and children of that famous tribe, as it sometimes
does, they afford the finest subjects in the world for the strategical
experiments of any enterprising military hero who desires to improve
himself in the noble art of war (laughter); especially for any valiant
lieutenant general, whose
"Trenchant blade, Toledo trusty,
For want of fighting has grown rusty,
And eats into itself for lack
Of somebody to hew and hack."
(Great laughter.)