WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1858
83
can Government, that the possessors of it, a harmless, agricul- tural, and pastoral people, were expelled by the hostile bands of Indians after the Mexican revolution began in 1812. Large ranches, the ruins of splendid churches, are all there to bear testimony to the very desirable character of that country. Inhab- itants are now falling into portions of it, converting it again into a useful and cultivated region. So soon as it is opened to the inhabitants of the United States, so enterprising in their char- acter, we may expect to see it resume its former activity, its former wealth and abundance. It has been demonstrated that it is necessary to have way travel to support a railroad; and I say this is the only section of the Union through which you can construct a Pacific railroad where you will have way passengers to sustain the line. It is folly to talk of having way travel on a route through mountain- ous regions where the Indian walks with trepidation for fear of starving for want of game. This is a beautiful region, and by making a short circuit you will always be within cultivated land; and though you may, by going in a direct line, have a sandy desert to pass for some distance, people traverse that desert; and the appliances that would be made of genius, of art, and of enterprise, would soon overcome an obstacle of that kind, and make a communication direct with California. Sir, is it an impassable region? Could the mail be transported in twenty-one days from San Antonio to San Diego, in California, if it were? There is a practicable refutation to the slanders upon the southern route. It is the only one that nature has stamped with feasibility, or that we can ascertain to be practicable. There is an affirmation that none can deny. It takes twenty-one days from San Antonio, in Texas, which is ninety miles from our seaboard on the Gulf of Mexico. From San Antonio it traverses that region with animals and transports the mail and passengers in twenty-one days, obtaining all the necessary conveniences for effecting an enterprise of the kind. Where have you such a demonstration in favor of any other route? T'here is none other feasible, there is none other practicable, and you may talk about it as much as you please, whenever California is connected with the Atlantic States, the El Paso route is the one by which it will be done. · [The speech ended with an exchange of remarks by Houston and Broderick.] 1 Congressional Globe, 1857-1858, Part 2, pp. 1641-1642. William M. Gwin, of California, offered a resolution that was agreed to, which provided that
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