ized Congress. Here he found a rival
advocate in Asa Whitney, whose brain throbbed with the glowing
possibilities of the Chinese trade, while his specious statistics and
contagious eloquence arrested public attention. Neither of these
projectors, however, found the atmosphere of Washington propitious.
Failing there, they once more had recourse to the press. The discovery
of gold in California gave fresh vigor to the agitation. In 1850, that
notable railroad king, William B. Ogden, lent his name to the
enterprise, and by his cogent and well-considered appeals excited
confidence in statesmen and capitalists. Three years after, Congress
yielded to the popular pressure, and ordered those surveys, the result
of which lies in eleven bulky departmental volumes, and bears the name
of "Pacific Railroad Reports." Then came the Fremont campaign, with its
burning enthusiasm, the Pacific Railroad plank in the Republican
platform, and the defeat which was almost a victory. The succeeding year
a strong effort was made to secure a national charter; but though
supported by the Senate, the measure failed to carry in the Lower House.

This disastrous rebuff at Washington produced a profound indignation
throughout wide sections; yet it may be questioned whether the arguments
on which the railway scheme was based were sufficiently solid to justify
such encouragement to the investment of floating capital as the passage
of the bill would have implied. Beyond the Missouri River, even on the
line of Western travel, population was as sparsely scattered as in an
Indian reservation. Neither the gold reaches of Colorado nor the
silver-bearing "leads" of the Washoe district had as yet been
discovered. California was known only as a region of placer-digging, and
its agricultural capacities were very inadequately comprehended. Nor had
the Pacific Steamship Company ventured to create its China line. A
railroad certain to cost one hundred and forty millions, as the War
Department asserted, had in prospect for an immediate revenue only the
meagre trade of Salt Lake City, and the freightage of bullion from the
Pacific shore. Indeed, the prevailing faith in the enterprise almost
passes belief, when it is remembered that no satisfactory survey had
been made of the Sierra Nevada. That terrible pile of snow-crowned
peaks, of deep-sunk ravines, of jagged ridges and perilous chasms, where
the winding bridle-track scarcely permits a driver to walk beside his
mul