unication, with the gorgeous East, and all its
riches, the stories of which, in our earlier days we regarded as
fabulous; but now, sir, what was held to be merely fictions of the
brain in former times, in regard to the riches of Eastern Asia, is
almost realized on our own western shores. Sir, these are some of
the inducements to the construction of this great road, besides its
importance to the military defenses of the country, and its mail
communications. Sir, it is a magnificent and splendid project in
every aspect in which you can view it. One-third of this great
railway connection is accomplished; two-thirds remain to be. Shall
we hesitate to go forward with the work?

Now, with regard to the means provided for the construction of the
road. It is said, here is an enormous expenditure of the public money
proposed. We propose to give twenty millions of dollars in the bonds
of the government, bearing five per cent. interest, and fifteen
millions of acres of land, supposed to be worth as much more, on the
part of the government. This is said to be enormous, and we are
reminded that we ought to look at what the people will say, and how
they will feel when they come to the knowledge that twenty millions in
money and twenty millions in land have been given for the construction
of a railway! Some doubtless there are in this chamber who are ready
to contend that we had better give these fifteen millions of acres of
land to become homesteads for the landless and homeless. What is this
twenty millions in money, and how is it to be paid? It is supposed
that the road cannot be constructed in less than five years. In that
event, bonds of the government to the amount of four millions of
dollars will issue annually. Probably the road will not be built in
less than ten years, and that will require an issue of bonds amounting
to two millions a year; and possibly the road may not be finished in
less than twenty years, which would limit the annual issue of bonds to
one million. The interest upon these bonds, at five per cent, will
of course have to be paid out of the treasury, a treasury in which
there is now a surplus of twelve or fourteen millions of dollars.
When the road is completed and the whole amount of twenty millions in
lands is paid, making the whole sum advanced by the government forty
millions, the annual interest upon them will only be two millions.
And what is that? Why, sir, the donations and benevolences