for the swift pony express,
organized in 1860, to carry a letter to San Francisco. Indians still
roamed the plain and desert and more than one powerful tribe disputed
the white man's title to the soil.

THE RAILWAYS AS TRAIL BLAZERS

=Opening Railways to the Pacific.=--A decade before the Civil War the
importance of rail connection between the East and the Pacific Coast had
been recognized. Pressure had already been brought to bear on Congress
to authorize the construction of a line and to grant land and money in
its aid. Both the Democrats and Republicans approved the idea, but it
was involved in the slavery controversy. Indeed it was submerged in it.
Southern statesmen wanted connections between the Gulf and the Pacific
through Texas, while Northerners stood out for a central route.

The North had its way during the war. Congress, by legislation initiated
in 1862, provided for the immediate organization of companies to build a
line from the Missouri River to California and made grants of land and
loans of money to aid in the enterprise. The Western end, the Central
Pacific, was laid out under the supervision of Leland Stanford. It was
heavily financed by the Mormons of Utah and also by the state
government, the ranchmen, miners, and business men of California; and it
was built principally by Chinese labor. The Eastern end, the Union
Pacific, starting at Omaha, was constructed mainly by veterans of the
Civil War and immigrants from Ireland and Germany. In 1869 the two
companies met near Ogden in Utah and the driving of the last spike,
uniting the Atlantic and the Pacific, was the occasion of a great
demonstration.

Other lines to the Pacific were projected at the same time; but the
panic of 1873 checked railway enterprise for a while. With the revival
of prosperity at the end of that decade, construction was renewed with
vigor and the year 1883 marked a series of railway triumphs. In February
trains were running from New Orleans through Houston, San Antonio, and
Yuma to San Francisco, as a result of a union of the Texas Pacific with
the Southern Pacific and its subsidiary corporations. In September the
last spike was driven in the Northern Pacific at Helena, Montana. Lake
Superior was connected with Puget Sound. The waters explored by Joliet
and Marquette were joined to the waters plowed by Sir Francis Drake
while he was searching for a route around the world. That same year also
a third line was opened to the Pa