Speech #570078109

I believe these railroad grants were wise and that they resulted very beneficially to our Union. But for them the development of some of our most prosperous States would have been slow and painful in the extreme. and where there are now populous cities and fertile fields the coyote and buffalo would roam. in freedom over their native heath. It was necessary to give these vast tracts. equal in area. as I have shown. to six times the size of Ohio. in order that the other portion of the public domain might become valuable. in order that cheap homes might be found for the sturdy immigrants flocking to our shores. and for the strenuous boys and girls of our Eastern cities and farms. and in order that we might span our continent and connect the oceans of the Orient and Occident with bands of steel. Much objection was urged at the time to these grants. but I believe it is now generally conceded that no better use could have been made of our public lands. Another precedent is in the vast swampland grants given to 15 of our States. amounting to 60.115.714.08 acres.