Then
there were the transcontinental lines to be built. A convention was soon
to be held in St. Louis, and Douglas wished me to go along with him.
It was held in October and I went with Douglas to attend it. The
proposition was the construction of a railroad from the Mississippi to
the Pacific. The delegates were mostly from the Mississippi valley,
more than 800 in number, and Douglas made me a delegate from Illinois.
He was promptly elected to preside over the convention. The first thing
proposed was the construction of an emigrant route on the line of the
proposed railroad. This was in the interest of the gold seekers. A
delegate who said he had constructed more than 7000 miles of telegraph
offered to string a wire to California if Congress would lend its aid.
There should be stations along the way, with troopers to defend the
emigrants against Indians. The troopers could carry the mails, thus
insuring the delivery of a letter from St. Louis to San Francisco in
twelve days. Another delegate advised the convention that Charleston and
New Orleans would soon be joined by telegraph. As a means of
communication, he proposed that for the sending of messages from
Washington to Oregon, it could be done in fifteen days by transmitting a
telegram by boat from New Orleans to Laredo, and thence by telegraph to
some point on the Gulf of California; thence to San Francisco and to
Washington or Oregon again by boat.
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