Page:A History of the Pacific Northwest.djvu/269



velopment of wealth which would follow as a consequence.

Mr. Whitney had observed the liberality with which Congress granted lands to aid canal construction in some of the states and saw no reason why a policy even more liberal might not be pursued in the case of a railroad extending through national territory which without transportation facilities would not be likely to settle up for many years. An adequate land grant being secured along the proposed railway line, he could finance the construction of the road by selling the lands nearest the line as the building proceeded. He appears to have thought that settlers could be tolled along section after section of the road, as these sections were completed, and thus business for the road would be created as fast as the rails could be laid down. In this expectation Mr. Whitney was ignoring the lessons taught by the history of American expansion. This proves that tongues of settlement will never penetrate indefinitely into the wilderness, even along water courses affording free transportation facilities. Expansion has been a mass movement as well as an individual movement.

Whitney desired a land grant. Whitney asked the government to grant him a belt of land sixty miles wide, from Lake Michigan to the mouth of the Columbia River, or to Puget Sound, whichever route for the railroad should be finally decided upon. He launched his scheme as early as 1843 and made a very active campaign for his land grant.