had been subscribed.

At this point, Thomas C. Durant, whose connection with Western roads had
inspired so much faith in the Pacific project, threw the weight of his
capital and influence so determinately into the scale, that by October
the subscriptions had reached two millions, and the company was in a
condition to organize. Major-General John A. Dix was elected president,
Dr. Durant became vice-president and general manager, and the
preliminary survey which he had ordered at his personal expense was
approved and officially adopted by the direction. As, however, a
wide-spread feeling existed, not only that additional legislation was
necessary, but that it might also be obtained, the company contented
itself that year with the selection of its eastern terminus. President
Lincoln was consulted; and, acting upon his unofficial sanction, the
Union Pacific broke ground for the railroad at Omaha, then a struggling
village in Nebraska Territory, nearly opposite Council Bluffs. The
inaugural ceremony took place December 2d, and with this event the year
closed.

For the next few months the efforts of all the companies converged upon
Congress. The Union Pacific Company appeared at Washington in great
force. The Central, equally urgent, presented arguments that amounted to
demonstration; the chief points being the energy with which they had
striven to comply with the terms of the charter, and the painful failure
that had attended their endeavor,--a failure clearly imputable to the
insufficiency of the original bill. The Kansas Company, though rent in
twain by rival boards of directors, was also on the ground, animated by
very ambitious purposes, and with a determination to win its ends in
spite of internal complications. The vigor with which the latter body
took the field gave a complex character to the struggle, and very much
prolonged it. On vital points, however, all parties were in accord, and
in the main results of the campaign each achieved a splendid success.
The supplementary bill, approved July 2, 1864, as much surpassed the
legislation of two years previous as the sixteen hundred million
national debt of 1864 exceeded the five-hundred million debt of 1862;
The colossal expenditures of the war had led Congressmen to accept the
estimates of railroad men with implicit credence, and to second their
demands with generosity. The land grant was doubled, the government
bonds were made a second lien to the roads under construc