The Story of the First Trans-Continental Railroad | Page 2

And all creation does its best To set the greenbacks flowing.
The eastern tourist will turn out And visit all the stations For Pullman runs upon the route With most attractive rations.
--From the Chicago Tribune, May 11th, 1869.

The First Trans-continental Railroad.
CHAPTER I.
The Project and the Projectors.
President Jefferson First to Act on a Route to the Pacific--Lewis and Clark Expedition--Oregon Missionaries--Railroad Suggested--Mills 1819--The Emigrant 1832--Parker 1835--Dr. Barlow's Plan--Hartwell Carver's--John Plumbe's--Asa Whitney--Senator Benton's National Road.
It would appear that Thomas Jefferson is entitled to the credit of being the first to take action towards the opening of a road or route between the eastern states and the Pacific Coast. While he was in France in 1779 as American Envoy to the Court of Versailles he met one John Ledyard who had been with Captain Cook in his voyage around the world, in the course of which they had visited the coast of California. Out of the acquaintance grew an expedition under Ledyard that was to cross Russia and the Pacific Ocean to Alaska, thence take a Russian trading vessel from Sitka to the Spanish-Russian settlement on Nookta Sound (Coast of California) and from there proceed east overland until the settlements then confined to the Atlantic Seaboard were reached.
Through the efforts of Jefferson the expedition was equipped and started. The Russian Government had promised its support but when the party had crossed Russia, were within two hundred miles of the Pacific, Ledyard was arrested by order of the Empress Catherine, the then ruler of Russia, and the expedition broken up.
Jefferson became President in 1801. In 1803 on his recommendation, Congress made an appropriation "for sending an exploring party to trace the Missouri River to its source, to cross the highlands (i. e. Rocky Mountains) and follow the best route thence to the Pacific Ocean."
So interested was Jefferson that he personally prepared a long and specific letter of instructions and had his confidential man placed in charge. "The object of your mission," said Jefferson, in this letter of instruction "is to explore the Missouri River and such other streams as by their course would seem to offer the most direct and practicable communication across the continent for the purpose of commerce." This expedition known as the Lewis and Clark, made in 1804-1806, brought to light much information relative to the West and demonstrated conclusively the feasibility of crossing overland as well as the resources of the country traversed.
As a result the far West became the Mecca of the fur trappers and traders. Commencing with the Astoria settlement in 1807, for the next forty years or until the opening of the Oregon immigration in 1844, they were practically the only whites to visit it outside of the missionaries, who did more or less exploring and visiting the Indians resulting in the Rev. Jason Lee in 1833 and Dr. Marcus Whitman in 1835 having established mission stations in Oregon.
The next record is of one Robert Mills of Virginia who suggested in a publication on "Internal Improvements in Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina," issued in 1819, the advisability of connecting the head of navigation of some one of the principal streams entering the Atlantic with the Pacific Ocean by a system of steam propelled carriages. (H. R. Doc. 173, 29th Cong.) This was before there was a mile of Steam Railroad in the world, and under the then existing circumstances was so chimerical as to hardly warrant mention.
In a weekly newspaper published in 1832 at Ann Arbor, Michigan, called "The Emigrant," appeared what was probably the first suggestion in print on the advisability of a Pacific Railroad. The article suggests the advisability of building a line from New York to the Mouth of the Oregon (Columbia River) by way of the south shore of Lake Erie and Lake Michigan, crossing the Mississippi River between 41 and 42 north latitude, the Missouri River about the mouth of the Platte, thence to the Rocky Mountains near the source of the last named river, crossing them and down the valley of the Oregon to the Pacific. It further suggested that it be made a national project, or this failing the grant of three millions of acres to a Company organized for the purpose of constructing it. No name was signed to the article, but the probabilities are that it was written by S. W. Dexter, the Editor of the paper.
With the Whitman party leaving the East for the far northwest to establish a Mission Station was the Rev. Samuel Parker, a Presbyterian minister, who was sent under the auspices of the Missionary Board of his Church to investigate and report on the mission situation and to suggest a plan for Christianizing the Indians. He crossed the continent to Oregon and on his return in 1838, his journal was published. It presented a