Report of John Calhoun and Others regarding the Alton and Springfield Railroad, 5
August 1847
ADDRESS OF THE COMMITTEE.
At a meeting of the citizens of Sangamon County, the undersigned were appointed a committee to collect facts and report an address
on the project of connecting Alton and Springfield by means of a Rail Road. A portion of the committee have examined the subject with
great zeal and industry, and submit the following as the result of their labors:
Constructing a rail road from Alton to Springfield, is viewed but as a link in a great
chain of rail road communication which shall unite Boston and New York with the Mississippi. Whatever interest Illinois has in this great improvement, and whatever advantages this particular route through
Illinois may possess, is necessarily connected with the proposed work from Alton,
on the Mississippi, to Springfield. A rail road commencing from the Mississippi,
and running through Springfield to the eastern boundary of the State, in the direction of Lafayette, was marked out many years ago in a system adopted by the State, and a million or more of dollars were expended upon it before
it was abandoned.1 This route commenced at Quincy, on the Mississippi, and crossing the Illinois at Meredosia, extended through Springfield east to the State line. The work from the Illinois
river to Springfield, a distance of fifty-seven miles, was completed by the State.
More than two hundred thousand dollars were expended east of Springfield in the direction
to Lafayette in Indiana.
Since the abandonment of the Internal Improvement system by the State, several acts of incorporation have been passed by the legislature,
the object of which was to secure to the people of the State, if possible, the construction
of the most important of these works by individual enterprise and capital. These
acts of incorporation have looked to no general plan, such as is now contemplated,
and the great work of connecting the Mississippi with the eastern cities, through
Indiana and other States, can now be commenced only by blending some two or three charters.
Of these acts of incorporation, one was passed last winter to construct a rail road
from Alton to Springfield.2 The route proposed in this act is from Alton through Carlinville, in Macoupin county, and New Berlin to Springfield, a distance of about eighty miles. The company is authorised to use fifteen miles of the grade already completed, or nearly so, by the State,
from Alton in the direction to Carlinville, and fifteen miles of the Springfield and
Meredosia rail road, from Springfield to New Berlin, under certain stipulations named
in the law. The capital stock of the company is $500,000, and may be increased under
the law to $1,000,000.
In 1845 the legislature passed a law incorporating the Sangamon and Morgan rail road company with a capital of $1,000,000.3 This act required the company to purchase the road from Springfield to the Illinois
river at a stipulated price before it could organize. No company was organized under
this act, and at the late sesion of the legislature a law was passed authorizing the Governor to sell the road from
Springfield to the Illinois river at public auction to the highest bidder.4 The purchaser or purchasers under this law were to be entitled to all the benefits
of the act for the incorporation of the Sangamon and Morgan rail road company, and
were to be held by this law to be the subscribers to the whole capital stock of said
company of $1,000,000. A law was also passed at the late session, supplemental to
the act incorporating the Sangamon and Morgan rail road company.5 By this supplemental act the company was authorized to construct the cross rail
road east from Springfield to the Indiana State line, on the route previously located
by the State, and all the materials, grade, and work done by the State east of Springfield,
amounting in value to more than two hundred thousand dollars, were given to the company
for that purpose. The capital stock of the company was also increased, $1,000,000.
The road from Springfield to the Illinois river has been advertised and sold by the
Governor, and the purchasers, N. H. Ridgley and others, have thus secured the benefits of the laws for the incorporation of the
Sangamon and Morgan rail road company. A company is therefore organized for the construction
of a rail road from the Illinois river to the line dividing the States of Illinois
and Indiana; and for about eight thousand dollars, the sum given for the road from
Springfield to the Illinois river, all the work on this route, which cost the State
more than $1,000,000, is made available to the company. These advantages ought, by
all means, in the course of a few years, to secure the completion of the road from
Springfield to the line of Indiana. Thus the two or three acts of incorporation above
alluded to, fully authorize, with an aggregate capital of $3,000,000, the construction
of the great work, so far as Illinois is concerned, which proposes to connect the
Mississippi with eastern cities by means of rail road. The citizens of Indiana are
now actively engaged in doing whatever is necessary to forward the work in that State;
and the proceedings of a meeting in Lafayette show that the proper measures are being
taken to secure, so far as Indiana is concerned, the energetic prosecution of the
work to completion.
So far as the acts of the Illinois Legislature are concerned, but one difficulty presents
itself. The road from Alton to Springfield passes for fifteen miles over the road
from the Illinois river to Springfield. The Sangamon and Morgan company own the road
from the Illinois river to Springfield, and such work as is done between Springfield
and the Indiana line; and possesses, also, the sole right to complete the road from
Springfield to the eastern line of the State. If the company had also the sole right
of making the road from Springfield to Alton, no difficulty could possibly occur.
But if the road from Alton to Springfield should fall into the hands of other individuals,
then would they be compelled, under the laws, to use that portion of the road lying
between New Berlin and Springfield, which belongs to the Sangamon and Morgan company.—This
might be embarrassing to the Alton and Springfield company, and could be fully obviated
only by the Sangamon and Morgan company taking stock in the Alton and Springfield
rail road, to the full and fair value of the portion of their road lying between Springfield
and New Berlin.
But the money which is to make the road from Alton to Springfield, and from Springfield
to Lafayette, is principally to come from eastern capitalists. Boston and New York
can, and probably will, furnish the funds necessary to connect those cities with the
Mississippi river; and as the same interests will be blended in the prosecution of
the work through its whole extent, so is it probable that the same interests will
ultimately get possession of and control the entire work through this State. No eastern
capitalist, therefore, will be likely to take stock in the Alton and Springfield rail
road but with a view of its extension so as to form a complete connection between
the eastern cities and the Mississippi river. In this view, the apparent difficulty
between two works running over the same ground, as probably productive of disagreement
between two companies, would ultimately disappear. In presenting, therefore, the
Alton and Springfield rail road to the consideration of capitalists, as a distinct
work, it will be understood as a matter of course, to be only the beginning of a great
work, the construction of a single link in the great chain of improvement; and if
we can show that this link can now be profitably undertaken, we apprehend that no
existing obstacle, growing out of the laws of this State, will prevent such subscriptions
of stock as will be necessary to the speedy commencement of the work. That the business
of this country, its productions, its population, its demands, would justify the making
a good rail road from Alton to Springfield, independent of its connection with a great
chain of improvement, is the object of this committee reasonably to show.
The distance from Alton to Springfield, by way of Carlinville and New Berlin, is about
eighty miles. Of this distance, fifteen miles from Alton to Brighton, is graded. This fifteen miles embraces by very far, the heaviest grade on the whole
route, passing over the bluffs of the Mississippi river to the table land. The expenditure
by the State on this fifteen miles was very heavy, and though the law provides that
the State shall receive a price to be estimated in State indebtedness and paid by
the company, yet there can be no doubt that the legislature will, as in other cases,
surrender the work done to the company without compensation. The State will find
an ample inducement to do this in the advantages she will derive in the completion
of the road.
Fifteen miles of the road from Springfield to New Berlin, is completed. Deducting,
therefore, thirty miles, but fifty remain to be graded. These 50 miles pass over
a level prairie country, with a natural grade, almost fitting it for a rail road,
and upon which the expenditure for grading would be very light. In the whole fifty
miles there is but one place where the expenditure for grading would be considerable.
This is the crossing of Macoupin creek. Here a considerable embankment with a bridge
and cutting through the bluffs is required. The whole grade from Alton to New Berlin,
could easily be contracted for a sum less than three thousand dollars per mile, and
the whole sixty-five miles could be fully completed with a T rail, at a cost not exceeding
ten thousand dollars per mile, or an aggregate cost of $650,000. (Locomotives, cars,
engines-houses, depots and all other fixtures, together with the right of way, would
not probably exceed the sum of $150,000—making the total cost of the work $800,000.)
The road proposed would either pass through or drain the products from the counties
of Madison, Macoupin, Sangamon, Logan, Macon, DeWitt, Christian and Morgan. As Madison is situated on the Mississippi river, and will probably do the greater
portion of its business independent of the rail road, it is entirely left out of the
following calculations, though very much of the business of the parts remote from
the river must be done on the road. One-third of Morgan county is also deducted from
the estimates, it being presumed that at least one-third of its business will be done
independent of the road in the direction of the Illinois river.
The population of the eight counties, Madison, Macoupin, Sangamon, Logan, Macon, DeWitt,
Christian and Morgan, in 1840, was 69,019, and in 1845, was 75,609. By the same ratio
of increase, the population of these counties is estimated in 1850 at 96,526. Deducting
the estimated population of Madison and one-third of Morgan, leaves the estimated
population of the counties, whose business will all be done on the rail road, in 1850,
at 67,073.
The productions of the above counties, except Madison, in 1840, were as follows:
Horses and Mules, | 23,383 |
Neat Cattle, | 69 086 |
Swine, | 196 679 |
Bushels of Wheat, | 245,890 |
budo of Indian Corn, | 3,582,659 |
Estimating the increase of production from 1840 to '45[1845], and from 1845 to '50[1850], in the proportion to the increase of population, we have the production of 1845
as follows:
Horses and Mules, | 26,866 |
Neat Cattle, | 80,150 |
Swine, | 237,777 |
Bushels of Wheat, | 284.334 |
budo of Indian Corn. | 4,231,455 |
And for 1850, we have the following results:
Horses and Mules, | 34,599 |
Neat Cattle, | 104,120 |
Swine, | 308 584 |
Bushels of Wheat, | 363.840 |
budo of Indian Corn, | 5,459,274 |
Deducting from the above the one-third of the population and products of Morgan, and
the following table will furnish a true exhibit of the country immediately dependent
on the rail road:
Population, | 67,000 | per ct. | Surplus. |
Horses and Mules, | 32,211 | 20 | 6,442 |
Neat Cattle, | 97,921 | 20 | 19,444 |
Hogs, | 296 152 | 331/3 | 98,717 |
Bushel of Wheat | 342. 363 | 50 | 171,181 |
Bushels of Indian Corn, | 5,177,231 | 20 | 1,035,446 |
The right hand column of the above table exhibits the surplus of production in those
articles which this country produces in the greatest abundance, and is carefully prepared
from information obtained of persons well qualified by their business pursuits to
judge accurately. For instance, the surplus of hogs is put down at one third. This
leaves one-third for home consumption and one third for stock. That one-third is
abundant for home consumption is evident from the fact that it will furnish more than
a pound of pork per day to every man, woman and child in the district. That the stock
is ample when put at one third every farmer in the country will attest.
The horses, mules and neat cattle will go to market principally on foot: and in estimating
production for rail road transportation, they are left out of the calculation entirely,
though the completion of the rail road would probably lead to beef packing, to a very
considerable extent, in this city. In 1850, therefore, the surplus production of
the country dependent on this road, and on which reliance can be placed for rail road
transportation, will be 98,717 hogs, 171,181 bushels of wheat, and 1,025,447 bushels
of Indian corn. Oats, barley, rye and potatoes, though produced in large quantities,
are not taken into the estimate, the object of this address being to show the reliable
results, which the rail road transportation of the great staples of the country will
furnish. The great demand for corn for foreign exportation is relied upon to justify
its production and sending to market at the cheapest rates of rail road transportation.
It will always be exported when the price in Alton and St. Louis is twenty-five cents or more a bushel; and the counties embraced in this rail road
district, could produce an immensely greater quantity than is at present estimated,
if a market at fair prices could be always expected with any degree of certainty.
Nine-tenths of all the produce for this rail road will be furnished at Sringfield and New Berlin, as all the counties but Macoupin will centre their produce at those points. In estimating therefore the value of freights, the
sum assumed for transportation from Springfield has been applied to all the products
estimated to pass over the road. A price, however, has been assumed so low as to
leave no doubt that the average will fully equal, if not exceed it.
If the rail road should, therefore, be completed in 1850 the following results might
be anticipated:
Transportation of 1,206,628 bushels of Wheat and Corn at 6½ cts.[cents] per bushel, |
$75,441 25 |
98,717 head of hogs at an average weight of 200 lbs.[pounds] would yield at 25 cts. per cwt.[hundredweight] |
49,358 00 |
The amount now paid in the above counties for bringing supplies from the river, estima- ted from the actual amounts paid in Spring- field, and at the actnal cost of transporta- tion from the river to Springfield is $74,180. We estimate the rail road rates at one- third the common rates, and find that bring ing the necessary supplies for the above counties will yield to the rail road. |
24,726 66 |
We estimate that 30 passengers will travel over the road each day for 300 days in the year, which at $2 cach will produce, |
18,000 00 |
Producing for 1850, | $167,498 91 |
The estimated cost of the road is $800,000. | |
The annnal interest on this sum at 6 per ct. | 48 000 00 |
Leaving a balance of | $119,498 00 |
or nearly fifteen per cent. on the estimated cost to keep the road, fixtures, engines, &c.[etc], in repair, and to pay the costs of running trains and furnishing necessary materials.
We think this sum most ample, but whether it be too large or too small, we have not
now here the means of determining. Those who may be disposed in the East to take
stock in this company, will easily be able from the above estimates to arrive at tolerably
accurate conclusions. If that portion of this proposed road, between Springfield
and New Berlin, should continue in the hands of the present owners, or if some company,
other than the Alton and Springfield company should continue to control it, an additional
expenditure on that account will be required. The estimate of costs have been made
only for the sixty-five miles, from New Berlin to Alton. We think, as we have suggested
in another part of this report, that the whole of this great route will ultimately
get into the hands of one company, and that those who are really interested in prosecuting
to completion this grand scheme of improvement, will soon overcome the difficulty
arising from conflicting ownership and interests.
John Calhoun, | John T. Stuart, | |
A. Lincoln, | William Pickerell. | |
J. N. Brown, | J. Bunn, | |
P. P. Enos, | John Williams, | |
S. B. Opdycke, | Virgil Hickox. |
1Section fifty-three of the Internal Improvement Act called for the completion of all railroads contemplated between Quincy and the Wabash River.
2"An Act to Construct a Railroad from Alton, in Madison County, to Springfield, in
Sangamon County," 29 February 1847, Private and Special Laws of Illinois
(1847), 144-49.
3“An Act to Incorporate the Sangamon and Morgan Rail Road Company,” 1 March 1845,
Laws of Illinois (1845), 150-54.
Printed Document, 1 page(s), Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 5 August 1847, 2:1-3.