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RAILROADS AND POLITICS

535

it was characteristic of him that people with whom he was associated quickly learned to place implicit reliance on his business ability and prudence.

In the midst of the absorbing struggle for material success, Stanford was one of the few who saw far enough into the future to perceive the political problem which was beginning to press for solution. California had been counted upon by the advocates of slavery as an addition to the territory for its extension. The line of the Missouri Compromise (See HENRY CLAY) ran through the Territory, and the immigrants were from both free States and slave States. Stanford saw that the development of the State by railroads and the other features of civilization would tend to promote the sentiment of freedom rather than slavery, and with rare wisdom he fostered the popular desire for railroads, as a political as well as an economic movement. The explorations of the great "Pathfinder," Frémont, who had discovered and opened a new route to California, and his efforts to win the State for freedom, enlisted Stanford's enthusiastic sympathy. He was one of the most earnest of those who joined the Republican party at its establishment in 1854, and when the idea of a railroad across the mountains and plains to California first came to be agitated, Stanford was one of its most enthusiastic supporters.

In 1859, a Railroad Convention of the State was held at San Francisco. Delegates were present from all over California, from Oregon, and Washington. It was resolved to send a memorial to Congress, indicating the route preferred by California, and asking national aid. The Pacific Railroad question became a prominent factor in politics, and was one of the measures taken up and advocated by the Republican party, then just about to win its first great victory.

In 1860, when the Republican National Convention met at Chicago, Stanford was there as a delegate from California. Lincoln was his first choice, and he was overjoyed at his nomination. He returned to California to work for his election, and at the same time to push the Pacific Railroad scheme.

The difficulties of building a railroad across the mountains were immense. The idea of taking trains of cars through those tremendous cañons, and over the snow-capped heights of the Rocky Mountains, seemed to many people absurd in the extreme. In the spring of 1861, when the Union armies were gathering in the East, a meeting of the leaders in the Pacific Railway enterprise was held at Sacramento, and there, on the 28th of June, the Central Pacific Railway Company was organized. Mr. Stanford was chosen President, and half a dozen of the wealthiest and most energetic men of California, Huntington, Hopkins, Crocker, and others, were made directors and officers of the company.

The difficulties of the enterprise were very great. A few of the most prominent of the company went on horseback over the proposed route of the road. When they reached the summit of one of the great mountain ranges,

they dismounted, and sat down to discuss the situation. At their feet was a precipice a quarter of a mile in height. The idea of carrying a railroad across these mountains seemed impossible. One of the company said that the cars

would have to be hoisted up the sides of the mountains by derricks: but Mr. Stanford was confident that the difficul

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Work was begun and

pushed on the building of the road. In July, 1862, came the response of the Government to the company's appeal for aid. It was a proposition to loan to the company United States bonds, at the rate of $16,000 per mile to the foot of the mountains, and $48,000 a mile through them. The first forty miles furnished a severe test of the courage and endurance of the projectors; and even after they were completed, they had still to meet the difficulty of supplying the immense amount of money needed in construction. Soon began a race with the company which was building the line westward from Omaha. The Central Pacific Company built 530 miles of railroad in 293 days, a feat of railroad building which astonished the world. On May 10, 1869, the last spike was driven at Promontory Point, Utah, and the long-desired connection of California with the East was complete.

THE PALO ALTO RANCH

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In the meantime, Mr. Stanford had not neglected his political duties. In 1862 he accepted the Republican nomination for Governor of California, and was elected by a large majority. At the close of his term he declined re-election, as the war for the Union was then practically won, and his business affairs required all his attention.

With the completion of the Pacific Railroad began an era of great pros perity in California. A constant flow of immigration poured in from all parts

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of the United States, and the value of property everywhere increased immensely. Mr. Stanford was a large owner of real estate, and in these years the increase in its value made him immensely wealthy.

About thirty miles south of San Francisco he owned an immense tract of land known as the Palo Alto ranch, and here he built himself a beautiful home, supplied with every luxury that wealth could secure. A most bountiful hospitality was here dispensed, and the ranch became the resort of prominent men

from all parts of the State and nation. But it was something more than a mere country-seat. Mr. Stanford had always taken a deep and intelligent interest in agriculture, and he made of his Palo Alto ranch a farm which did much to show what the soil of California would do under scientific cultivation. His vineyard was the largest in the world, and he carried on an experimental fruit farm on a great scale. His aim was to develop the possibilities of farming in California, and with this view he also established a model stock farm, where he developed a breed of horses which soon gained for the Palo Alto ranch a wide fame. The best qualities of improved stock were mingled with those of the native breeds, so as to secure the best points of all. In connection with his scientific culture of stock, Mr. Stanford was one of the first to make use of the new process

THE GREAT DOME AND TELESCOPE OF LICK OBSERVATORY, CALIFORNIA.

of instantaneous photography, which by this means was developed along with the raising of horses. He secured a skillful practical photographer, put unlimited means at his disposal for experiment, and thus produced results which astonished the world.

But with all he had done, Mr. Stanford's life work had not yet come to an end. He had accumulated immense wealth, and had made for himself a great name; but the great university which was to be his chief monument had not yet taken form even in his own mind. In Mr. Stanford, as in many others,

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the best and noblest that was in him was called out by affliction. In 1868, eighteen years after his marriage, his only child, Leland Stanford, Jr., was born. To the loving parents this boy was the greatest of all their treasures. Whatever they did was done with a view to his future. All of their desires and affections were centred on him. In 1884, while they were traveling in Italy, the boy was stricken with Roman fever, and died at Florence. There is a touching story that the father (who was away from his son at the time of his death) firmly believed that in his dying hour the boy said to him, "Father, don't say that you have nothing left to live for; you have a great deal to live for." From that time both the parents resolved to devote their wealth and their powers to the establishment of an educational institution which should be both a monument

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