But let us follow still further the course of this Pacific railroad company. It would occupy too much space, and weary the reader were we to state in detail all the acts of congress passed in aid of this gigantic combination. In speaking of the Pacific railroad we are apt to look upon it as simply a line of road extending from the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean; to consider its great length; the character of the country through which it passes; the sparse settlements; the necessity for direct and speedy communication between the Atlantic and Pacific states, and we yield a ready assent to the action of congress in voting lands and subsidy bonds for its construction. But when we find that the charters of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific companies, and their various amendments, together with the several acts of congress making many other companies branches of the Pacific road, virtually consolidates all the railroads between the cities of St. Louis and St. Paul on the Mississippi river, and all the railroads running west from Chicago, into one vast corporation, uniting all in one track from Fort Kearney to the Pacific ocean, the people will begin to realize that while they thought congress was appropriating lands and moneys solely for the purpose of opening a highway across the territories, it was in fact aiding a combination of men and corporations in their attempt to control the commerce of the great west; and when we further learn that this great railroad interest is already virtually consolidated, and that the whole people are placed at the mercy of this great monopoly, we see at a glance the extent of the power vested in it by act of congress.