WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1859
194
Senator from that State, and by the gentleman from Minnesota, who were associated with him in arms, that I should think it an unnecessary consumption of time to attempt any allusion to those services. As a man, General Quitman was every inch a man; as a soldier, he was every inch a soldier; as a citizen, he was most amiable in all his relations; as a parent, he was tender, affec- tionate, and gentle; as a man, in his moral and social relations, he was honest, and above all unworthiness of heart or action. The resolutions were unanimously adopted; and the Senate adjourned. icongressional Globe, Part 1, 1858-1859, p. 226. 2 See the Biographical Dfrectory of the Anie1-ican Cong1·ess (1928), p. 1439, for a brief sketch of John Anthony Quitman's life; also see Dictionary of American Biography, XV, 315-316.
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CONCERNING THE PACIFIC RAILROAD AND OTHER MATTERS, JANUARY 12, 13, 1859 1
Mr. President, it was not originally my intention to address to the Senate any remarks on this subject, but it seems to me that the proposition now submitted to us is one of great im- portance. If I have correctly apprehended the design of the Pacific railroad, it is for the national advantage, for the general benefit, and it ought not to be confined to any particular section or interest in the United States. If so, I cannot perceive the propriety of restricting the engineers in their reconnoissances to any particular locality, but we should leave the wide field open for the selection of that line which will best promote our gr_eat national purposes. This amendment, however, proposes to limit the selection to a point north of the thirty-seventh parallel. It seems to me that if nature has designed a communication be- tween the Mississippi river and the Pacific ocean, the least ex- pensive, the most direct, the most facile means of communication, is to be found in a route commencing at the mouth of the Red river. By commencing there, all the streams which would be encountered if you commenced at Memphis, or any point further north, will be avoided, and there is but one stream of importance and that is the Rio Grande. It is a natural trough, if you will permit the expression, extending from that point, with but very little interruption, to El Paso. That country has been described by General Marcy, and others, who have taken reconnoissance of it, and it is manifest that a road can be constructed there with I
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