Windom, William

The Northern Pacific Railway; its effect upon the public credit, the public revenues, and the public debt. Speech of Hon. William Windom, of Minnesota, delivered in the House of Representatives, January 5, 1869. Develop the national resources, and thereby diminish the national burdens. [Cover title]

Washington [D.C.]: Gibson Brothers, printers, 1869. The Northern Pacific Railway; its effect upon the public credit, the public revenues, and the public debt. Speech of Hon. William Windom, of Minnesota, delivered in the House of Representatives, January 5, 1869. Develop the national resources, and thereby diminish the national burdens. [Cover title]
Washington [D.C.]: Gibson Brothers, printers. 1869.

8 ⅝ x 6 inches, String binding, 60 pp. plus 23 x 18-inch map folded and bound in. Map lightly worn and toned at edges with a two-inch tear to one edge just barely affecting one state’s border and a few tiny tears at intersections. Penciled notation to corner of first page. Scattered spotting. Very Good.

Minnesota became a state in 1858 and the Hon. William Windom was elected, as a Republican, one of its first representatives. He was successively reelected to serve in the 37th-40th Congresses, a period of ten years, terminating in 1869. In that year he was appointed by the Minnesota Legislature to fill a vacancy in the United States Senate, then re-elected for the usual six-year term in 1871 and 1877. He was Minnesota's candidate for the Presidency in 1880, and in 1881 was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President Garfield, but retired that position to rejoin the Senate. In Congress he served on the Committee on Public Lands and as chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs from 1860 to 1869.

This is a copy of the lengthy speech delivered by Windom in 1869 on the Northern Pacific Railroad, which included extended commentary on the “Indian question” and the connection to the military. The speech covered the railroad’s length, gradients, climate, “water communications” and facilities for construction and operation, as well as its agricultural and mineral resources, its relations to foreign and domestic commerce, its “probable influence in promoting immigration” and its effect upon “the general development and prosperity of the country.” Windom argued that the railroad “has merits and advantages which demand the prompt and efficient recognition of the Government.”

Bound in with the speech is a folded, oversized, not quite to scale map showing multiple railroad lines, from San Francisco in the west through Salt Lake City and Nebraska in the east, including Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Arizona, Arkansas and Texas, culminating in the south with a well-identified large display of Mexico. It includes the lines of the Northern Pacific, United States & Mexico, Union Pacific, Vicksburg & Northern Texas and other railroads. Item #1837

Price: $325.00