A grant of land to aid in the construction of a railroad from Burlington and Keokuk to the Missouri river, at or near the mouth of the Platte river. DECEMBER 12, 1853. JOINT RESOLUTION asking a grant of land to aid in the construction of a railroad from Burlington and Keokuk to the Missouri river. To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled: Your memorialists, the General Assembly of the State of Iowa, respectfully represent, that the great interests of the State of Iowa, and of the nation at large, will be greatly advanced by the construction of a railroad from the city of Burlington and the city of Keokuk to some convenient point of junction, northeast of the Des Moines river, thence on the most feasible route to a point on the Missouri river, at, or near the mouth of Platte river. The proposed road will, for some distance, pass through the most populous portions of the State, and over a route eminently adapted to the advantageous construction of a work of this character. Burlington is unsurpassed by enterprise and population by any town in the State, and is, moreover, on one of the great natural lines of railroad communication between the east and the west. At that city it would connect with a road now in process of construction, and which will be completed in the ensuing year, forming a continuous and unbroken line of railroad to Chicago, Boston, New York, and other eastern cities. By the way of Burlington and Peoria will be afforded much the shortest, cheapest, and most expeditious route from the Missouri river to Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cincinnati, and all the middle and southern Atlantic States, of any road now constructed or projected. Your memorialists regard this projected road as eminently national in its character, and calculated to unite the interests, and advance the prosperity of every part of the State, and secure, by the shortest and most economical route, safe and uninterrupted communication |