sample pages from the american postal network, 1792-1914

8/3/2019 Sample Pages From the American Postal Network, 1792-1914

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103

B. B. MEEKER, OVERLAND MAIL ROUE FROMLAKE SUPERIOR O PUGES SOUND

B. B. Meeke, Overland Mail Route om Lake Superior to Pugets Sound, Proposed andConsidered, in a Letter to the Postmaster General, by Hon B. B. Meeker o Minnesota (n. p., 1858).

Badley B. Meeke (181373), a devout beleve n the commecal potental othe Pacc Nothwest, was an ealy settle o Mnnesota, and, n 1858, a judgeon the Mnnesota State Supeme Cout. In ths pamphlet, Meeke lobbed Post-maste Geneal Aaon V. Bown (17951859) to endose the constucton bythe edeal govenment o a wagon oad om Lake Supeo n Mnnesota toPuget Sound on the Pacc. Te Post O ce Depatment, Meeke postulated,

was at pesent a geate agency o cvlzaton and pogess than any othe

banch o the edeal govenment and the Oveland Mal Route that Meekeelt cetan would soon be tavesng that wagon oad that he hoped to buld

would enhance even uthe ts pestge.Meeke had no llusons about Bowns wllngness to nance Meekes

poject out o postal evenue. Rathe, Meeke used Bowns own publc po-nouncements as well as those o othe edeal admnstatons to make thecase o the commecal potental o the Pacc Nothwest. Te mmedate cata-lyst o Meekes appeal was the ecent decson by Congess to gant the PostO ce Depatment the pncely sum o $600,000 to convey the ente lette

mal twce a week om some pont on the Msssspp Rve to San Fancsco.1Te ostensble atonale o ths gant was to speed the mal ; poltcal nsdes, n

contast, took t o ganted that the oute that Bown selected mght well be thesame oute on whch would soon be bult the st Pacc aload.

Bown was a ennessean who, n the NothSouth poltcal contests othe 1850s, stongly avoued the South. Pedctably, the oute that he selectedo the Oveland Mal as ths ventue would soon become known had tseasten temnus n Bowns hometown o Memphs and ae cossng the Ms-

ssspp, veeed shaply southwad.2


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104 Te American Postal Network, Volume 2

Meeke was too shewd to challenge the poponents o a southen aloadhead-on. As an altenatve, he lobbed o a second, moe nothely OvelandMal by compang the clmate, topogaphy and commecal potental o theNoth and the South. Te ponee Pacc aload would ollow the outeBown had chosen, Meeke pedcted: the second, howeve, would o oughtto lnk Lake Supeo n Mnnesota wth Puget South n the Pacc Nothwest.o dve hs pont home, Meekes quoted lbeally om govenment documentsthat ncluded a ecently completed aload suvey o the Pacc Nothwest.\

Notes1. W. R. Austeman, Sharps Ries and Spanish Mules: Te San Antonio-El Paso Mail,

18511881 (College Staton, X: exas A&M Unvesty Pess, 1985), pp. 856. Seealso Haen, L. R. R., Te Overland Mail, 18491869: Promoter o Settlement, Precur-

sor o Railroads (Cleveland, OH: Athu H. Clak Company, 1926), ch. 4; Roscoe P.Conklng and Magaet B. Conklng, Te Butterfeld Overland Mail, 3 vols (Glendale,CA: Athu H. Clak Company, 1948); O. O. Wnthu, Te Southen Oveland Maland Stagecoach Lne, 18571861, New Mexico Historical Review, 32:2 (1957), pp.81106.

2. Te oute that Bown chosen was extemely ccutous, and, o ths eason, was qucklydubbed the ox-bow oute. Fo a useul map o the vaous wagon oads west, see O.O. O. Wnthe, Te ransportation Frontier: rans-Mississippi West, 18651890 (NewYok: Holt, Rnehat & Wnston, 1964), nsde ont cove. At least two anonymous

pamphletes expessed the outage at Bowns decson: A Few Toughts on the Locationo the Overland Mail, 2nd edn [Washngton; n. p., 1857] and Location o the Overland

Mail: From the Missouri Republican, June 26, 1857[Washngton: n. p., 1857].


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105

OVERLAND MAIL ROUTE

FROM

LAKE SUPERIOR O PUGES SOUND,

PROPOSED AND CONSIDERED,

IN A LEER

O HE POSMASER GENERAL,

BY

HON. B. B. MEEKER,

OF

MINNESOA

1858 /


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107

O HE HON. A. V. BROWN,

Postmaster General o the United States.Sir: Te mpotance o the subject s all the apology I have to make o thsaddess to you n you ofcal capacty.

At a tme o poound peace wth all natons, o geat publc and ndvdual

pospety and secuty, when ou pogess n wealth and publc mpovementso evey knd, and ou success and example as a ee govenment appea to chal-lenge the admaton and to excte the emulaton o the wold the pesentseems an auspcous hou o stll geate and mghte achevements to mak theage and to llustate the names o those who ae e cent o oemost n eectngnew monuments to the countys gloy and geatness.

Te poston, s, whch you ll n the Fedeal Govenment, asde om youknown ablty and enegy o chaacte, appeas to me, to sngle you out o con-spcuous acton n the dama o geat cuent events. Te post o ce depatmentat ths moment s a geate agency o cvlzaton and pogess on ths contnentthan any o all othe oganzed banches o the Amecan Govenment. When

peace s n the ascendent, and the ats o peace oush, the Amy, ecedes om

vew and ceases to ll that space n the publc eye whch ts mets and sevcesseem to deseve. So o the Navy; and so o the othe depatments. But yous,comes home to the busness and bosom o all. It anmates and chees evey Cty,own, Vllage and Hamlet ove ou boad land. In ths age o Jounals, Revewsand News-peodcals, t daly beas the bead o le to thty mllons o eagesouls. It s no less a messenge o love, o endshp and o pleasue, than t smade a necessay medum o commece and the gave concens o le. Its outesae channels o tade, tavel and ntellgence the lie atees ndeed o theContnent. It s emphatcally theHome, the Peoples depatment.

It s, besdes, the only depatment that eans a evenue to ad ts admnsta-ton and opeatons, all the othe depatments ae wholly suppoted om theNatonal easuy. All cheeully contbute / to suppot t and that too exactly

n popoton to the benet whch they deve om t the only shape n whchou govenment exhbts the semblance o peect justce. Any patal o sec-tonal use o ts powe o patonage, theeoe, would be a glang outage oncommon aness and common ght.

Moeove, as ts evenue s leved dectly om the people, any appopatono t, to ceate new outes and to extend ts blessngs to the extent even o the lastdolla n ts cofes could not be the souce o just complant om any quate. It


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could stll be suppoted om the odnay evenue o the Govenment as justlyas the othe depatments.

But, s, you have aleady, to a geat degee, antcpated all that mght besad on ths head n the esh spt and new enegy you have gven to, and nthe enlaged and lbeal polcy you have adopted, n the admnstaton o, thsdepatment. You have led the way n the oganzaton and consummaton o ameasue whch s destned n ts happy consequences to the Govenment andCounty to gue lagely n the utue hstoy o both. I allude to the establsh-ment o the Geat Southen Oveland Mal Route, o the conveyance o theente Lette Mal om suchpointon the Msssspp ve as the contactos mayselect to San Fancsco n the State o Calona, o sx yeas.1

Te oute you have appoved o was om Memphs, o you State, by the wayo Lttle Rock, Fot Smth, thence to the lne o the poposed Southen PaccRaload n lattude 32 to Fot Yuma thence to San Fancsco makng adstance o nealy two thousand seven hunded measued mles. Ove ths outethe mal was to be caed twce a week, and the tps to be peomed each ntwenty-ve days wth coaches o spng wagons sutable o the conveyance o

passenges as well as o the saety and secuty o the mals. Fo ths sevce, thecontactos eceve sx hunded thousand dollas and the ght o pe-empton tothee hunded and twenty aces o land at each pont necessay o a staton, notbeng neae than ten mles to each othe. Te success o the scheme s aleadycomplete, and the mals leave and ave twce a week wthn contact tme and

in advance o the Ocean carriers. Ts s a geat vctoy o Peace, complmentayto Amecan enegy and to the Admnstaton unde whose auspces t has beenacheved. It wll speedly esult n a chan o Amecan settlements all along oucotemnous bounday wth Mexco and the establshment o peace and secuty

whee wa and dange have eve egned. It wll, moeove, develope the agcul-tual and vast mneal esouces that / ae beleved to exst n that nteo egon thus addng to the wealth as well as the peace o the county. But ths s not all.Te measue s a sue pecuso o a Raload to the Pacc. It s aleady clamedas a tumph o a Southen ove the Cental and Nothen outes. I cannotthnk t was the ntenton o Congess n authosng ths OvelandMailoutecovetly and nsdously to gve t pecedence as a Railroad lne to the Pacc,ove othes equally pomnent and t s beleved, pactcable. Stll whateve was

ntended the esult s lkely to be the same, and unde the combned acton o theonly two depatments that can buld Mltay oads, o establsh post outes

we ae sue o a good Wagon Road and a sae thooughae along ou extemeSouthen bode and ultmately a Ralway along the same tack to the WestenOcean a consummaton devoutly to be wshed, and by none moe than bythe wte. Tus t s, s, that one step taken n the ght tme, by the ght man,and posecuted by zeal and enegy, wll nevtably lead to esults o the hgh-


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Overland Mail Route 109

est mpotance to ou commece, ou county and contnent. In tsel, what hasalready been accomplshed s a poud achevement and wll eman an endungmonument to all who had the hono to patcpate n t.

Pesdent Jefeson looked upon the expedton o Lews and Clak, plannedand executed dung hs Admnstaton, as one o the events that was destnedto gve luste and pomnence to hs Pesdency; and subsequent hstoans andthe county have conmed hs just antcpatons. It was, ndeed, a geat acheve-ment o that day, a moe d cult and dangeous, and the oute tavesed andthe mountans cossed moe dstant and mpassable than the hostle egons ove

whch the mmotal Geek made hs amous eteat, that has consecated hsname to undyng gloy. Lews and Clak, t s tue, exploed and dscoveed thesouces o the Mssou, cossed the Rocky Mountans, dscoveed the souces othe Columba and exploed ts valley to the mouth. Yet all esulted n nothngbeyond a epot o these dscovees, a bette knowledge o the vast egons theytavesed, the Indan tbes nhabtng them, and some supposed eoms n theold Spansh system o tade wth the Indans o the Nothwest.

Tteen Pesdental olympads wee sufeed to ntevene and nothngmoe was accomplshed towads efectng a pemanent and elable thoough-ae to the Pacc tll the establshment, by the pesent Admnstaton, o theSouthen Oveland Mal Route.

One othe and but one similartophy o ths and all subsequent Admn-statons, emans to be won. It s no moe no less than / to nsh what you

have aleady begun, to establsh anothe lne o ee and cheap deence along ouNothen bounday by establshng a postal oute om the head o Lake Supe-o to Pugets Sound. Tat t willbe done, thee can be no doubt, and t s cheyo you to detemne whethe the system nauguated by ths Admnstatonshall be caed nto complete success and opeaton o ull one hal o ts cedtand gloy tanseed to a successo. I dese to call the attenton o the depat-ment to a ew consdeatons I have to submt on ths subject.

What I popose s, an Oveland Mal Route om the head o Lake Supe-o to the Pacc, dvegng on cossng the Mountans by two banches, one toPugets Sound2 and the othe towads the mouth o the Columba to be styled Te Lake Superior and Pacifc Overland Mail Route.

And, 1st. In egad to the dstance. Fom Lake Supeo to Pugets Sound s

somethng less than one thousand ou hunded mles n a direct line not quteas a as om Fot Smth to Fot Yuma,3 and but a te moe than one hal othe taveled dstance by the Southen Route, om Memphs to San Fancsco.But as a dect lne would be mpactcable o such a dstance, t may be saelyassumed om the Repots o Engnees n the employ o the Govenment andothe elable authotes that, one thousand eght hunded mles would cove


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the ente dstance om Lake to Sound, ncludng all necessay deectons omthe lne to tun ves, dges, o mountans.

Fom the Lake to the Msssspp, less than one hunded mles, the oad wllbe nshed by pvate entepse, and n good ode o wagons and coaches bythe tme the oute could be establshed and the appopaton made. Fom any

pont on the Msssspp whee the oute would be lkely to coss, to Fot Unon,on the the Geat Bend o the Mssou, some sx hunded mles, t s plans and

pae, and pehaps no bette natual way o teams and wagons o such a con-tnuous dstance, can be ound on the contnent. Fom Fot Unon to the ooto the Rocky Mountans though not so good, t s yet easble o wagons o anyknd. All the dstance om the Msssspp to the Mountans beng chey pa-e, level o ollng. Acoss the Mountan county ove whch thee ae severalgood chances o wagon oads, t may be necessay, o awhle, to cay the Malon pack mules untl the most elgble tack o a oad s dentely xed. Fomthe Westen Slopes thee s no d culty n ndng good wagon ways to ethetemnus. All ths abundantly appeas n the vaous o cal epots submttedby / Goveno Stevens,4 whch, t s to be egetted, escaped the notce o thePostmaste Geneal n hs seach o a Pioneer Route or this frst great Railroadthat may be constructed to the Pacifc. Te geat aclty wth whch a good wagonoad can be made acoss the Mountans on ths lne, s gven on all o ts detalsn the Repot o Leutenant Donaldson,5 on the subject seen on page 360, vol.1st., Pacc Raload Exploatons.

Ts Oveland Mal Route to Washngton and Oegon, once establshedwth ts lateal outes, dvegng Noth and South, and adatng om the Soundand the Lake, wll be elt n ts benecal esults ove hal the contnent. FomFot Unon, the Mal could be dealt to evey town and cty on the Uppe Ms-sou, om Fot Abecombe on the Red Rve, t could be dealt to that vastnteo egon o ch cultvable county that stetches one thousand ve hun-ded mles Noth; whlst at the Pont t may coss the Msssspp, t may eadlydvege to all the towns Noth and South by wate o Raload tanspotaton.Fom the temnus o the oute t can be caed by steames to all the Lake townsand ctes om Supeo to Bufalo.

Ts oute s much the shotest and the only easble one though ou owntetoy dect to Washngton and Oegon. Te Mal could be tanspoted

ove t cheape than by the Southen oute om Memphs to San Fancsco,whee t has to be e-shpped by the Ocean to Oegon and Washngton. ShouldCongess, s, on you ecommendaton, authose ths lne and make an appo-

paton to enable you to put t n opeaton, I hestate not to say that a reliableand responsible company could be ound n the State o Mnnesota, that wouldtake the contact and cay the mal wthn contact tme, om Lake to Sound,on tems as advantageous to the Govenment and the tavelng publc as ae now


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enjoyed along the Southen lne. At all events n common justce to Washngtonand Oegon, and the geat Nothwest, let an appeal be made to the Repesenta-tves o the naton n the behal, and the entepse should al o want obddes o any othe cause, nheent n the oute, the Govenment wll only havedone ts duty without loss.

I these emote tetoes eve become valuable acqustons to us, somenew acltes o peoplng them to develop the vast mneal and agcultualesouces wll have to be adopted. I the unjust opnon contnues to peval thatthey aeoreverto be naccessble on the South and on the East by mountansthat ae mpassable to emgants and on the Noth by oegn tetoy, andthat they ae only to be eached by the people who subdue ou wldeness / andsettle and mpove ou new countes, by cossng two oceans unde a topcalclmate, o by what would not be much less hazadous and ccutous by tak-ng an exteme Southen oute, to take the ocean at San Fancsco they wllneve have a populaton su cent to potect themselves om the Indan tbesthat nhabt the vcnty, and t wll cost the Govenment mllons annually totanspot toops and supples o the potecton.

In egad to the county along the poposed oute, and ts cultvable andhabtable natue, we ae not wthout ull and elable nomaton.

Fom the Lake temnus to the Westen bounday o Mnnesota and on alne the oute would most lkely ollow, a dstance o between ou hunded andve hunded mles, the county s not only good sol but a lage poton o t

excellent, and s besdes well settled almost the ente dstance. Fom the Westenbounday o the State to the Bg Bend o the Mssou the county s cultvableand good, though ts etlty alls of as the Mssou s appoxmated. Fom theGeat Bend o Fot Unon to the base o the mountans, the etlty s connedto the Mssou bottoms and to the valleys o the ves that ow nto t om theNoth whch ae epesented by all as beng vey etle. But, o a moe patcu-la and o cal descpton o the county and ts gazng and aable chaacte,eeence s made to the detaled epots o Engnees and othe o ces con-nected wth the explong expedton along ths oute to the Pacc n 1853,unde Goveno Stevens. On page 141, vol. 1st, o Pacc Raload Exploatons,t s stated that, the ch, remunerative county that would be passed ove by thsoute, s all that lyng East o the Bos de Soux and Westwad to the cossng o

the ve Jaques, the valley o the Mouse ve, the egons o the Rocky Moun-tans, a poton o the Spokane county, the geate poton o the Columbave valley and the egon om the Columba to Pugets Sound. Agan, on page451, t s stated, the sol s excellent om the Uppe Msssspp ve to the Bosdes Soux, n the Mouse ve valley and the valleys o the seveal steams owngnto the Mssou. Much o the land s good on Mlk ve and on the banks othe Mssou ve tsel. It s excellent n the valleys o the Maas, eton, Med-


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cne and seveal othe tbutaes at the oks o the Mssou. It s also excellenton the Mssou n the vcnty o Fot Benton o the Geat Falls, on Hghwoodceek, on Judth ve, the Muscle-shell ve and on Smths ve. On the Westo the mountans, the valleys o the Hell-Gate, Blackoot, St. Mays, / Jacko andthe seveal othe tbutaes owng nto Flathead Lake unsh excellent sol.It s also good on the seveal paes o Claks Fok, and n the vcnty o theCudlane and the Westen slopes o the mountans beang the same name. A

poton o the Geat Plans o the Columba s good sol, and t s also good onthe Walah-walah and tbutaes. Fom the Cascades to the Cowltz, and thencethe sol s good and afods excellent gazng. On page 84, t s sad, n genealtems that, the oute passes om the Geat Lakes to thePlateauxat the base othe mountans, o the most pat though a ch county well tmbeed and well

wateed.O the one thousand two hunded mles o pae to the Rocky Mountans,

says M. Lambet,6 Che o the opogaphcal paty accompanyng the Exped-ton, the nest secton s that om the Msssspp to the Shayenne, embacngsome o the ves on the Westen Slope o the Msssspp basn, as the Sauk,the Watab, the Lttle Falls, &c., and the summts between these wates and the

vaous a uents o the Red Rve, the Mnnesota o St. Petes and the Mssou.Te geate pat o ths egon esembles the most avoed dstcts o Oho and

Wsconsn, and thee can be no queston as to ts geat capacty and esouceseven whle connng the examnaton to ts suace only. (It s beleved that a

lage eld o Coal undelays ths dstct.) See page 166.In egad to the Rocky Mountan dstct, the same caeul and able o cesays, that, although the whole egon s petty closely packed wth mountans,stll theavailable county n the valleys and paes, can be eckoned, t s nottoo much to say, thousands o squae mles, equng only roads the leadngstngs o nusng natons to develope ts capactes; and , contnues he, the suc-cessul cultvaton o mountan-slopes and unpomsng sols n densely peopledcountes be consdeed, t wll waant the concluson that but an nsgncantacton o all the mountan county wll pove unt o some knd o useul

pupose o mpovement. Fom the same authotes t s shown that wate nowng steams o standng lakes s at hand the ente oute. Atesan wells andgaton need neve be esoted to on ths oute.

I could not, s, you had tme o the examnaton, ente on a detaledaccount o the vast esouces n sol and mneal o ths oute and o whch theGovenment s the pmay owne and dspose, to be quckened nto beng, andealsed by such a thooughae om the Lake to the Sound.

As to health, there is no line across the Continent to compare with it. All theOld ades, about Lake Supeo, the Uppe Msssspp, / the head wates othe Mssou, on and beyond the mountans, conm the asseton and vouch


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o the salubty o the clmate the ente dstance, and at all seasons. No eve,no ague, no epdemcs no endemcs ae known o need be eaed on ths oute.D. Suckley,7 a Sugeon o the expedton unde Goveno Stevens, epots that,the man paty o sxty-seven pesons and a detachment o nneteen othes, nall, eghty-sx, wee occuped n explong om Sauk Rapds to Fot Unon eght

weeks. Te health o all, he says, was excellent not a case o malarious diseaseappeared. On evewng the whole route to the Sound, the unequalled and theunpaalleled good health o the command dung a mach o one thousand eghthunded mles seems, says he, emakable; especally when the hadshps andexposues o such a tp ae consdeed. Not a case o ague o eve occued om

June tll Januay, the date o hs epot! Is not ths the oute o emgants, thewves and chlden to these dstant etoes?

Emgaton, populaton, tade, tavel and commece lead the way and ceatethe necessty o Mal outes. Ts lne s on the tack o the oegn and homeemgaton westwad, nne-tenths o whch keeps the paallels noth o the38th.8 It s a emakable eatue o the mgatoy chaacte o the age that em-gants aely leave the natve lattudes. New England, New Yok and the enteNothwest, an empe by tsel, would all seek the Pacc by ths oute, o, notat all. Te people that subdue and settle the West, I mean the lagest poton othem, wll neve each Washngton o Oegon they have to each ethe by theAtlantc and Pacc wates. Equally avese would they be to an Oveland outenot much less ccutous, costly and hazadous to the health. I the exteme

Southen oute now happly endeed successul, accommodates that secton,the oute unde consdeaton would accommodate, when put n successulopeaton, twenty mllons o the thty mllons o ou supposed populaton.Besdes, t s beleved that thee-ouths o the populaton o Oegon and Wash-ngton wee bon noth o 38. Te busness and coespondence, theeoe,

wll always natually le noth o the same degee o lattude.But, s, the people, the people wll wok out the destnes o ths county

whethe the Govenment ad them o not. It s only a queston o tme. In lessthan ve yeas, ou settlements wll have eached the base o the Rocky Moun-tans on ths lne; they wll then soon stke hands wth the ellow-ctzensacoss and beyond old Natues baes. Tey have aleady eached om LakeSupeo beyond the westenmost bodes o Mnnesota, the van-guads o /

cvlzaton havng penetated a nto what s known as the etoy o Dako-tah. Wll ou Govenment lead the way n ths onwad mach that cannot be

arrested, o wll t be content toollow the people, as Pete dd hs Maste, a geatway of?

Te geat Nothen hve sends oth ts annual accetons o populaton,enough to settle and people an ente State. Tey mustand willhave space toswam n. Ts space they nd and wll contnue to nd, a little arther West


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untl all the habtable aea between the two oceans s occuped. Rves, lakes andmountans pesent no baes. What they cannot od, they wll ey, bdge, osal ove. What they cannot clmb, they wll tun, and they cannotfnda tack,

wll make one. Nothng can wthstand the ndusty, enegy and detemnatono ths hady ace. Beoe the mach the mountans have to bow and the valleysto se up. Othe people and othe tmes have been dstngushed o the loveo the mavellous; we, and these tmes, excel n tsachievement. Te geat wondeand gloy o the age s the magc aclty wth whch ntellect, ngenuty, ndustyand captal concentate to advance the mpovements o the wold. Wtness theeadness wth whch mllons wee subscbed and the stong ams o two othe leadng govenments o the age wee stetched oth n an entepze then

wholly poblematcal, but, whch, successul, wee a wondeul stde n thepogess o the wold. But hee s an entepze wholly Amecan, evey oot ot on ou own sol, subject to ou own exclusve contol n peace and wa, andn my judgment a moe gloous, and attended wth moe lastng and bene-cal advantages to the naton. Fo I thus judge that ths oute be establshed, agood wagon oad, an emgant thooughae, settlements along ou ente on-te, a lne o telegaphs to the Pacc, and eventually a Raload untng the twoextemes wll be the gand esults.

But, s, the vast commece o ou nland seas, eachng one thousand ouhunded mles n the decton o Pugets Sound, and extendng westwad moethan hal acoss the contnent as to cout a connecton wth the Pacc n the

lattude o Oegon and Washngton, s an tem that outweghs all othe consd-eatons. Ts mmense tade has aleady eached the head o Lake Supeo andun up the ch and populous valleys o the St. Cox, the Msssspp above theFalls o St. Anthony and the Mnnesota o St. Petes, the navgable souces o theGeat Fathe o wates. I we wee to judge o the utue only by the past, t ce-tanly would not appea vsonay to pedct that n less than ten yeas the goldenlnks o commece wll bnd n closest ntmacy the two / splendd habos lyngat the extemes o the poposed oute. Wll not the govenment that contolsand caes the coespondence o the naton, and s by the vey povsons o theConsttuton, tsel, made the guadan and egulato o the commece o theUnted States, but second, n ts legtmate and odnay opeatons, the geatmovements o the people the conquests o cvl entepse and peace? O shall

the pncple o mastely nactvty be appled along ou Nothen bodes, andthat omasterly and o cialactvty, backed by the powe, patonage and teasuyo the naton, be the ule o acton along ou Southen onte?

Te pogess o the Geat Lake Valley n populaton, n agcultue, n com-mece, n eveythng connected wth the advancement o cvlzaton and the

wealth o a naton, s one o the wondes o ths wondeul age. ake the sngletem o tade. In 1816, the st efot n good ath was made to navgate the


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lakes. In 1841, the commece eached an aggegate o sxty-ve mllons o dol-las. In 1856, t swelled to the enomous sum o sx hunded and eght mllons.Ctes n the meantme aose on the shoes lke magc, vewng n populatonand busness wth othes that had been gowng o centues. Bufalo, Chcago,Mlwaukee, Cleveland, Detot and othes, ae classed among the ctes and com-mecal centes o the wold. I cannot esst the nseton hee o the language oa late llustous ctzen and statesman whose exalted patotsm embaced hsentire county. In a speech delveed n New Yok moe than twenty yeas ago,M. Webste, n alludng to ths subject, sad, Tese Geat Lakes, stetchng awaymany thousands o mles, not n a staght lne, but wth tuns and deectons,as desgned to each by wate communcaton, the geatest numbe o mpo-tant ponts though a egon o vast extent, can not but aest the attenton oany one who looks upon the map. Tey le connected but vaously placed; andntespesed as wth studed vaety o om and decton ove that pat othe county. Tey wee made o man, and admably adapted o hs use andconvenence. Lookng, says he, ove ou whole county, compehendng n ousuvey, the Atlantc coast, wth ts thck populaton, ts advanced agcultue, tsextended commece, ts manuactues and mechanc ats, ts vaetes o com-muncaton, ts wealth and ts geneal mpovements; and lookng then to thenteo, to the mmense tacts o esh, etle and cheap lands, bounded by somany lakes, and wateed by so many magncent steams, let me ask such amap was eve beoe pesented to the eye o any statesman as a theate o the

execse o hs wsdom and patotsm? And let me ask, too, / any man sfttoact a pat, on such a theate, who does not compehend the whole o t wthn thescope o hs polcy and embace tallas hs country?9

In you able and elaboate deence o the oute selected, you examne but twoothes, and none whose easten temnus s uthe noth than St. Lous. No

was thee any geat necessty o t, as San Fancsco and not Oegon and Wash-ngton etoes, was made by the Act o Congess the pont to be eached onthe Pacc. Te oute now poposed, s an ognal and ndependent popostonnethe supeceded, no suppled, no pejudced by any pevous act o Con-gess o the Depatment.

Should you, theeoe, n the multpled caes and busness o the Depat-ment, nd tme to examne the oute unde consdeaton, ethe to acltate the

Mal to those dstant etoes States n embyo, o to nd a ponee tacko thesecondRaload that may be bult to the Pacc, (the st havng, as yousuppose n you epot, been dscoveed, to wt: along the lne o the 32,) you

would not al to dscove that the oute om Lake Supeo to Pugets Soundhad cetan advantages whch ae pecula, and whch no othe one acoss thecontnent enjoyed. One s, and a vey mpotant one too, that t cosses on theGeat Wate Shed o Noth Ameca headng the geat ves that ow noth


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and south, whlst t passes along up and down those that ow east and west. Tsgand eatue n the poposed oute, must be obvous to eveyone, at a glanceove the map o the county. Anothe chaactestc o ths oute s, the emak-able dyness o the clmate, o geneal exempton om geat ans n the summeand deep snows n the wnte. Te late Secetay o Wa, n hs epot o 1853,10

justly emaks, that the amount o snow on the oute would be ound to dependupon the tempeatue and humdty o the place. As we advance to the Noth,says he, the amount o vapo dmnshes, and hence the quantty o snow whchalls wll be less. Ts s not mee theoy, but a well authentcated act, om theLake to the oot o the Mountans. Te nomaton on ths head collected byGoveno Stevens and the o ces connected wth hs expedton, s abundantand conclusve. At no tme was t ound that the snow ell so deep upon themountans whee the oute would coss, as to pevent the Flathead and othetbes on the westen slopes and Plans, om passng ove them wth the hosesladen wth the spols o the geat paes beyond them.

akng the whole oute togethe, cando must concede that t s less anadventue than you epot epesents the one you adopted to / have been whenselected. You thus speak o the latte: Te dstance was ove two thousand mles,ove many anges o mountans, and nealy the whole dstance unnhabted. Nooads wee yet opened, and even the oot o the whte man had not yet todden,many potons whch mght nally be selected.11 It would cetanly be vey d-cult to nd on the one now suggested, such appallng and dscouagng scenes

as wee descbed by the Specal Agent, n hs ecent epot to the Depatment,touchng ths exteme southen oute. He came ove n the st tan, and usesthe ollowng language as to a poton o that oute: Ts s the oute by whch

southern emgaton seeks the Pacc, and the abandoned wagons, the cacassesand the whtenng bones by the oadsde, too planly attest the sufengs hee-tooe entaled upon the emgants by the scarcity o water.12 Geneal Davs,late Secetay o Wa n hs epot o 1853, above eeed to, uses language o asmla mpot n egad to ths whole exteme southen way. Te absence, sayshe, o lage navgable steams n a lage poton o ou ecently acqued e-toy and the exstence o the vast ad and mountan egons have entaled uponthe Govenment a vey heavy chage o the tanspotaton o supples, and othe sevce o toops statoned along ou new onte. Te cost o transportation

within that country o puposes connected wth mltay deence, amounted nthe yea endng n June, 1853, to ou hunded and y-one thousand sevenhunded and seventy-ve dollas.

Te modes o tanspotaton now used wagons drawn by horses, mulesor oxen, besdes beng vey expensve, ae necessaly ccutous n the outestaveled, slow and geneally unsatsactoy as to pompt nquyor means whichmay be attended with better results. It oen happens, n tavesng the county,


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just eeed to, that long spaces are encountered in which there is neither grass norwater; and hence the consequence must be, sevee pvaton and geat destuc-ton o the anmals employed. Tese nconvenences ae elt in all movementsbetween the dstant posts n that secton; and obstuct, sometmes deeat the

pusut o the mounted Indans o the plan, who, by the ntmate knowledge othe places whee the small supples owater and grass ae to be ound ae enabledto y acoss the most ad egon ae commttng depedatons on ou onte

populaton.13 Te Secetay poceeds, on the olde contnents n egons each-ng om the tod to the ozen zone, embacng ad plans and pecptousmountans coveed wth snow, camels ae used wth the best esults;14 and con-cludes by ecommendng an appopaton o ntoducng these Aaban Shpso the Deset to emove the obstacles nteposed by the wateless wastes andgassless plans o that onte.

Such wee some o the physcal baes to be ovecome by the / success oan Oveland Mal along ou Southen bounday, and t s gloy enough o oneAdmnstaton to say they have been overcome. It s not tedous to gve n detalthe pocess by whch so much has been accomplshed.

In the st place, a lbeal appopaton s made by Congess to cay out theecommendaton o the Wa Depatment to puchase camels and domedaeso mltay sevce on ths lne: and n the second place, an o ce o the Amyand anothe o the Navy and a shp o wa wee detaled and sent up the Medte-anean sea to puchase the anmals n queston.

Next, the Wa Depatment decded that ths oute was the cheapest andmost easble couse o a Raload to the Pacc, whch decson had ts efectto emove om the publc mnd the easblty o all othe outes, and to con-centate the patonage o the Govenment and the publc on ths. Te Secetayo the Inteo next lends a helpng hand by expendng on ths lne two hun-ded thousand dollas placed at hs dsposal by Congess; and n the last place,the Natonal Legslatue on the heels o the late Admnstaton, places at thedsposal o the Postmaste Geneal, the route, an annual sum o sx hundedthousand dollasor the term o six years, and a ght o peempton to nealy amllon o aces o land, to cay an Oveland Mal om some pont (though theoute as establshed, makes two) on the Msssspp to San Fancsco. Execs-ng the dsceton, the Act o Congess coneed upon you, and supposng that

honoable body meant as you say, that the appopaton should be expendedon the oute you mght deem most easble as a ponee oute o the st geatRaload that mght be bult to the Pacc, you selected the oute n queston.Tus by a emakable unty o acton and pupose, n the leadng depatmentso the Govenment, success has cowned you peseveng efots, and we aeblessed by egula avals and depatues twce a week between Memphs, St.Lous and San Fancsco ove ad mountans and baen plans, by Concod


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coaches, dawn by hose and mule teams, whee a shot tme snce the egoncould be tavesed by camels and domedaes only!

Tus, San Fancsco s povded wth an Oveland and an Ocean Mal thelatte passng a poton o the dstance though a oegn land, daly hazadngthe peace o the county, and both togethe at an annual expense o seveal ml-lons o dollas. No s ths all: the Oveland Mal by the oute adopted, s lkelyto be quckly ollowed by an extaodnay expense o mllons. A dstngushedSenato n a lette lately addessed to the Pesdent, thought he ought to emoveto and establsh along ths lne one-sxth at least o ou ente Amy. And t benecessay, the Che Magstate wll, no doubt, detal a oce su cent to potectthe Mal and emgaton ove that oute.

Whlst San Fancsco s thus avoed, shall nothng be done o all thatcounty lyng Noth o the 42d to the 49th degee, embacng seven degees olattude wth sng commecal towns and ctes along a coast o moe than onethousand mles? Shall nothng be done to acltate theirmmgaton and Ove-land Mal? Is the deence / and secuty o ou Nothen bounday nothng? Isa lvng chan o Amecans along that exposed onte, so hghly pzed else-

whee, o no account to the Govenment thee? Is thee no necessty o untngthose dstant Pacc communtes wth the busness, the commece and kndedo the people who settle them? Shall a people o the same ogn, lvng n thesame county, unde the same Govenment and laws and between the same pa-allels o lattude, have no moe ntecouse by mal acltes than the whole

damete o the globe wee nteposed between them?Tey seek not the combned acton o the leadng depatments o the Gov-enment n ths behal. Tey ask not the decson o the Wa Depatment thattheirs s the best oute o a Raload to the Pacc; no do they ask that Depat-ment to ecommend an appopaton to stock the onte wth camels anddomedaes; o, that the Navy be moved om ts appopate sphee to mpotthem. No do they ask o a vast sum o money to be put at the dsposal o theSecetay o the Inteo to open oads and boe atesan wells. No do they askone-sxth o the Amy to be statoned along the lne to potect the settles onthat onte. Te appeal s to the Postmaste Geneal, and though hm to theFedeal Legslatue, o an Oveland Mal Route om the Lake to the Sound,and, an appopaton made o thatpupose, and that alone. Be assued, s, they

wll make the oad and the things to make the oad wth. Tey ask no otheradto extend that lvng chan oee and volunteerotcatons whch wll be both

pemanent and cheap, and whch wll save annual mllons to the Fedeal eas-uy.

But, I have aleady exceeded the lmts I had poposed to mysel n ths com-muncaton. I what s hee sad shall aest the attenton o the Depatment, oothewse lead to the necessay legslaton n utheance o ths geat natonal


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poject, t s all I dese, whlst the cedt and gloy o ts consummaton, wllenue to those who have led the way n openng new channels o socal andcommecal ntecouse, and n stengthenng and tghtenng the bonds o ouFedeal Unon.

Vey espectully,You obedent sevant,

B.B. MEEKER. /


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Notes to pages 98110 419

4. An American: not urther identied.5. book written by the chie engineer: Te chie engineer o the Royal Dockyards was Charles

Atherton (180575), and the book to which Collinss reerred was Athertons Te Capa-bility o Steam Ships, Based on the Mutual Relations o Displacement, Power and Speed(Woolwich: John Grant, 1853). Te table to which Collins alluded can be ound on p.31.

6. postal treaty: Te 1848 postal treaty between Great Britain and the United States low-ered letter-mail postage between the two countries.

7. frst mail steamers: Te poor perormance o the Washington and the Hermann, therst two transatlantic steamships to carry the mail under the American ag, reinorcedthe widespread presumption that at least in the translantic steamship business theUnited States could not compete with Great Britain.

8. Extract increased speed: Reprinted rom Atherton, Capability o Steam Ships, p. 31.

Meeker, Overland Mail Route fom Lake Superior to Pugets Sound

1. or the conveyance six years: A. V. Brown,Report o the Postmaster General, 35th Cong.,1st sess., 1857, Sen. Exec. Doc. 11 (serial 921), p. 997.

2. Pugets Sound: Pugets Sound in 1858 remained little known and exotic a circumstancethat may help explain why, in this sentence and the next, it was misspelled (PugentsSound).

3. Fort Smith to Fort Yuma: Tis was the route that Brown chose or his overland mail. FortSmith is located in present-day Arkansas; Fort Yuma in Arizona. Meeker seems to havemiscalculated the relative distances between them. As the crow ies, Fort Smith and FortYuma are 1,200 miles apart, signicantly less that the 1,400 miles that Meeker estimatedto separate Lake Superior and Pugets Sound. Pugets Sound, o course, emptied into the

Pacic, while Fort Yuma was over 150 miles east o the Pacic port o San Diego.4. Governor Stevens: Isaac Ingalls Stevens (181862), a West Point engineer and the gov-

ernor o Washington territory, headed up a large exploring party in 1853 to survey anortherly route or a Pacic Railroad. Stevens was a rm believer in the commercial

potential o the Pacic Northwest and the practicality o a northwestern railroad link.Te report that his exploring party prepared and to which Meeker repeatedly reerred took up over 500 pages o the rst volume o the multi-volumePacifc Railroad Explo-rations. All o the subsequent page citations in this pamphlet are to this report. IsaacIngalls Stevens, Report o Exploration o a Route or the Pacic Railroad Near theForty-Seventh and Forty-Ninth Parallels rom St. Paul to Puget Sound, inReport o theSecretary o War Communicating the Several Pacifc Railroad Explorations, 33rd Cong.,1st sess., 1855, H. Exec. Doc. 129, vol. 1 (serial 736), pp. 1599; K. D. Richards, IsaacStevens: Young Man in a Hurry (Provo, U: Brigham Young University Press, 1979),ch. 6.

5. Report o Lieutenant Donaldson: Andrew J. Donelson, Jr (c. 182659), a West Pointgraduate, was a second lieutenant in the Army Corps o Engineers. He too took partin the Stevens expedition and he too prepared a report. Yet the journal entry to whichMeeker reerred a highly attering assessement o the topography between St Paul,Minnesota, and Fort Union, North Dakota had, in act, been written not by Donald-son, but by a colleague, A. W. inkham. Meekers decision to credit Donaldson with theauthorship o this journal entry may have owed something to the act that Donaldson like Postmaster General Aaron V. Brown was a ennessean with solid Democratic


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420 Notes to pages 11028

credentials. Donaldsons ather had been private secretary to Andrew Jackson duringJacksons rst presidential term. A. W. inkham, Itinerary o the Route rom St. Paul toFort Union, by A. W. inkham,Pacifc Railroad Explorations , vol. 1, p. 360.

6. Mr.Lambert: John Lambert (. 1854), a drasman, was not a military o cer, an anom-aly on the Pacic Railroad expedition.

7. Dr. Suckley: Suckley (183069), a physician and naturalist, was a gied observer whowould later publish several books on the ora and auna o the Pacic Northwest.

8. the 38th: Te thirty-eighth parallel stretches rom Virginia to Caliornia via West Vir-ginia, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah and Nevada. In the 1850s, itroughly approximated the divide between the ree soil states o the North and the slavestates o the South a act that would have been obvious to Meeker and his readers.

9. Tese Great Lakes his country: Te statesman and orator Daniel Webster (17821852)

delivered this speech in New York City in March 1837. It can be ound in Daniel Web-ster, Te Great Speeches and Orations, ed. E. P. Whipple (Boston, MA: Little, Brown &Co., 1886), p. 425.

10. report o 1853: Te Secretary o War in 1853, Jeferson Davis (c. 180889), was a mili-tantly pro-Southern Mississippian; eight years later, he would be elected president othe Conederacy. Among the projects that Davis sponsored as secretary o war was theimportation o Bactrian camels rom the Middle East to acilitate the movement otroops and supplies in the arid regions o the Southwest a region in which Davis hopedthat slavery might one day take root. J. Davis,Report o the Secretary o War, 33rd Cong.,1st sess., 1853, H. Exec. Doc. 1 (serial 711); W. L. Fleming, Jeferson Daviss CamelExperiment,Popular Science Monthly, 74:8 (1909), pp. 14152.

11. Te distance selected: A. V. Brown,Report o the Postmaster General, 35th Cong., 1stsess., 1857, Sen. Exec. Doc. 11 (serial 921), p. 997.

12. Tis is the route scarcity o water: Once again, Meeker supplied the italics. A. V.

Brown, Report o the Postmaster General, 35th Cong., 2nd sess., 1858, S. Exec. Doc. 1(serial 977), p. 740.

13. Te modes o transportation ontier population: Meeker excerpted this passage romDaviss 1853 annual report; the italics are Meekers. Davis,Report o the Secretary o War,

p. 24.14. on older continents best results: Davis,Report o the Secretary o War, p. 25.

Roach,Letter Suggesting the Experiment o Advertising orProposals o the Lowest Rates

1. ast mail service: Te Fast Mail, a much-touted high-speed rail link between New YorkCity and Chicago, went into operation in September 1875. F. J. Romanski, Te FastMail: A History o the U. S. Railway Mail Service,Prologue, 37:3 (2005), pp. 16.

2. navigation laws: Te laws to which Roach reerred were a constellation o protective meas-ures that Congress had enacted in the early years o the republic to promote Americanshipping. Tis legislation restricted the coasting trade to American bottoms and imposeddiscriminatory duties on oreign ships entering American ports. It was this legislation

which Roach proudly labelled Our Navigation Laws, to distinguish them rom the hatednavigation acts that the British government had imposed on its American colonies beorethe War o Independence that had laid the oundation or the rapid rise o the UnitedStates in the early republic as a maritime power. Te results o these protective laws had

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