i to
celebrate the grandest work of peace that ever engaged the energies of
man. The great Pacific Railroad is commenced and if you know the men
who have hold of the enterprise as well as I do, no doubt would arise
as to its speedy completion.

"Four thousand years ago the Pyramids were started, but they simply
represented the vanity of man. The Chinese wall was grand in
conception, but built to break the tide of invasion. The Suez Canal
was gigantic, but how limited all those things appear in comparison to
this enterprise.

"Before the first century of our nation's birth we may see in the New
York Depots, some strange Pacific Railroad notices such as,

'European passengers for Japan will please take the night
train. Passengers for China this way. African and Asiatic
freight must be distinctly marked For Pekin via San
Francisco.'

"Ere ten years go by I intend to let the European traveller get a new
sensation by standing on the ridge pole of the American Nation and
sliding off into the sea.

"One day a dispatch will come in--we have tapped a mountain of copper,
nineteen miles square, later on--we have just opened up another field
of coal--or--we have struck another iron mountain this morning--when
Eureka--a telegram electrifies the speculators in Wall Streets and
gold drops below par--at ten this morning we struck a pick into a
mountain of solid gold.

"The Pacific Railroad is the nation, and the nation is the Pacific
Railroad. Labor and capital shake hands today. The lion and the lamb
sleep together. Here in the West are the representatives of labor and
in the East are those of capital. The two united make the era of
progress. Steam, Gas, and Electricity are the liberty, fraternity, and
equality of the people. The world is on the rampage. Events are
earthquakes now.

"Ten millions of emigrants will settle in this golden land in twenty
years."

Early in 1864 work was begun on the first hundred miles. The actual
work being commenced within the corporate limits of Omaha in February.
About one hundred thousand dollars was spent in grading a due westerly
route out of Omaha. This was abandoned on account of it being so
hilly, and a route south and thence west was adopted. The ties for
this section were cottonwood from the Missouri River bottom lands,
treated with a view of making them last. It was found that the
treatment was not effective and for the balance of the road, hard wood
ties from