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 HISTORY OF RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION 189 railway. Bancroft gives by far the most details pertaining to discussions, in and out of Congress, of the plans proposed. Smalley, Eugene V. History of the Northern Pacific Rail- road. Chapters VI. and VII., pp. 51-68. Smalley champions Dr. Samuel Bancroft Barlow of Gran- ville, Mass., as the first advocate of a transcontinental railroad. Bancroft had not mentioned Barlow. Smalley quotes in full Barlow's communication to the Intelligencer of Westfield in which the plan is set forth. George Wilkes' plan gets its first notice and Hartwell Carver's claim advanced by Bancroft is ridiculed. Davis, John P. The Union Pacific Railway, Chapters I. and II, pp. 1-34. Davis presents Judge S. W. Dexter as author of the first plan for a transcontinental railway. His editorial in the Emi- grant, February 6. 1832, in which his suggestion is made is quoted from. Robert Mills, as an advocate of a Pacific rail- way, is mentioned and John Plumbe is brought prominently into the list of advocates of such a highway. Cleveland, Frederick A. and Powell, Fred Wilbur Railroad Promotion and Capitalization in the United States. Chap- ter XVI, pp. 257-273. An anonymous contributor to the American Farmer, of Baltimore, July 9, 1819, is given credit for "the germ of the idea" of a transcontinental railroad. These authors seem to have pretty thoroughly ransacked the material extant per- taining to these projects and compare and criticize them to good purpose. Carter, Charles Frederick When Railroads Were New. Chap- ter VII, pp. 226-230. Very brief notice, devoted to Plumbe and Whitney. Gives helpful contemporary criticism of latter.