The Union Pacific Railroad charter, which in substance was passed by Congress as it had been drafted by the promoters of the enterprise, gave to the new company the right of way through the public lands, and authorized it to take, from the lands adjacent to the line of its road, earth, stone, timber and other materials for its construction. It further granted to the company every alternate section of land to the amount of five alternate sections per mile on each side of its line, excepting only those lands to which preëmption or homestead claims attached at the time when the line of the road should be definitely fixed. In addition to these donations the United States issued to the company subsidy bonds in an amount equal to $16,000 per mile for the distance from the Missouri River to the eastern line of the Rocky Mountains, $48,000 per mile for a distance of 150 miles through the Rocky Mountains, and $32,000 per mile from the western base of the Rocky Mountains to the terminus of the road. Similar franchises were at the same time given to the Central Pacific Railroad Company, a corporation which had previously been chartered by the State of California. Besides its grant of right of way, land, timber, etc., this company received subsidy bonds at the rate of $16,000 a mile for a distance of 7.18 miles east of Sacramento, of $48,000 a mile for 150 miles through the Sierra Nevada, and of $32,000 a mile for the distance from the eastern base of that mountain range to its junction with the Union Pacific. The charters of the two companies provided that, to secure the repayment to the United States of the amount of those bonds, they should _ipso facto_ constitute a first mortgage on the entire lines of the road, together with their rolling stock, fixtures and other property. The franchises and donations thus granted by Congress were most valuable; in fact, the latter were alone sufficient to build and equip the roads. In spite, however, of the liberal grants and in spite of the urgent necessity of the roads in those years of national trial, both of these enterprises made very slow progress. Their promoters were men of small means, and the capitalists to whom they appealed for help failed to realize the value of the franchises. No doubt when these men first engaged in their cause they expected to encounter serious obstacles in Congress, supposing that that august body would consider the proposed measure with much deliberation and to act upon it with still more circumspection. Their success greatly surprised them. They made the discovery that members of Congress could be imposed upon as easily as private citizens, and when they fully realized how readily their demands had been granted, they were greatly provoked at themselves because they had not asked for more.