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First Transcontinental Railroad - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Thomas C. Durant, who was building the cross-Iowa railroad (the M&M), was literally banking that the Omaha route would be chosen and began buying up land in Nebraska. In 1857, Durant hired private citizen Abraham Lincoln to represent the M&M in litigation brought by steamboat operators to dismantle Government Bridge, the first railroad bridge across the Mississippi River. The bridge's drawspan was difficult for steamboats to navigate, and many felt the bridge had been built intentionally so.[60] In August 1859, Lincoln, at the behest of M&M attorney Norman Judd, traveled to Council Bluffs to inspect M&M facilities that were to be used to secure a $3,000 loan Lincoln was to hold. On the visit, Lincoln rode the SJ&H railroad and visited railroad locations in Missouri and Kansas before going to Council Bluffs. During the visit, Lincoln was to spend two hours with M&M engineer Grenville M. Dodge at the Pacific House Hotel discussing the merits of starting the railroad in Council Bluffs, and was to visit Cemetery Hill there to look over the proposed route.[61] Lincoln's ties to Council Bluffs were further strengthened by the fact that he had won the 1860 Republican nomination on the third ballot when the Iowa delegation switched its vote to him.[62] In contrast, Lincoln was to get only 10 percent of the Missouri vote in the 1860 Presidential Election. While the Pacific Railroad Act was to award the eastern contract to the newly formed Union Pacific, it was left up to then-President Lincoln to formally choose the location for the railroad to start, and Lincoln in 1862 was to follow the advice of his former client.
Thomas C. Durant, who was building the cross-Iowa railroad (the M&M), was literally banking that the Omaha route would be chosen and began buying up land in Nebraska.
In 1857, Durant hired private citizen Abraham Lincoln to represent the M&M in litigation brought by steamboat operators to dismantle Government Bridge, the first railroad bridge across the Mississippi River. The bridge's drawspan was difficult for steamboats to navigate, and many felt the bridge had been built intentionally so.[60] In August 1859, Lincoln, at the behest of M&M attorney Norman Judd, traveled to Council Bluffs to inspect M&M facilities that were to be used to secure a $3,000 loan Lincoln was to hold. On the visit, Lincoln rode the SJ&H railroad and visited railroad locations in Missouri and Kansas before going to Council Bluffs. During the visit, Lincoln was to spend two hours with M&M engineer Grenville M. Dodge at the Pacific House Hotel discussing the merits of starting the railroad in Council Bluffs, and was to visit Cemetery Hill there to look over the proposed route.[61]
Lincoln's ties to Council Bluffs were further strengthened by the fact that he had won the 1860 Republican nomination on the third ballot when the Iowa delegation switched its vote to him.[62] In contrast, Lincoln was to get only 10 percent of the Missouri vote in the 1860 Presidential Election.
While the Pacific Railroad Act was to award the eastern contract to the newly formed Union Pacific, it was left up to then-President Lincoln to formally choose the location for the railroad to start, and Lincoln in 1862 was to follow the advice of his former client.
That quote aside, what I really was looking at is how the buillding of transcontinental railroads went into full steam with the war. So had the north lost the south they would have had railroads up and runing within a couple of years, with which they could have projected power. Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se
She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre
When I finally checked up on the matter, the best source I found was Abraham Lincoln as a Railroad Attorney, a 17-page essay by James W. Ely Jr., a professor of law as well as history. I won't review that, but the most important counter to the Lost Cause narrative is that he represented cases both for and against the railroads, taking cases as they came.
Checking some additional sources, the Wikipedia account of the Council Bluffs visit seems severely distorted:
There is an old joke that the modern American legal system was created to sort out disputes between banks and railroads in the mid-19th Century and hasn't changed since. Suffice it to say it was difficult to have a successful law practice and not be involved in railroad cases.
And in all of my sources, too. Ooops, sub-conscious mis-reading. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
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