Washington, May 23, 1863.

GENTLEMEN,—I have always voted for the Pacific Railroad, and now that it is authorized by Congress I follow it with hope and confidence. It is a great work, but science has already shown it to be practicable.

Let the road be built, and its influence will be incalculable. People will wonder that the world lived so long without it.

Conjoining the two oceans, it will be an agency of matchless power, not only commercial, but political. It will be a new girder to the Union, a new help to business, and a new charm to life. Perhaps the imagination is most impressed by the thought of travel and merchandise winding their way from Atlantic to Pacific in one unbroken line; but I incline to believe that the commercial advantages will be more apparent in the opportunities the railroad will create and quicken everywhere on the way. New homes and new towns will spring up, making new demand for labor and supplies. Civilization will be projected into the forest and over the plain, while the desert is made to yield its increase. There is no productiveness to compare with that from the upturned sod which receives the iron rail. In its crop are school-houses and churches, cities and states.

In this vast undertaking coÖperation of all kinds is needed, and it will be rewarded too. Capitalists, bankers, merchants, engineers, mechanics, miners, laborers, all must enlist. Perhaps there will be a place also for the freedmen of this war, although it seems to me that their services can be more effectively bestowed at home, as laborers and soldiers. But I see not why emigrants should not be invited from Europe to take part in this honorable service, and share the prosperity it will surely organize. Let them quit poverty, dependence, and wretchedness in their own country, for good wages here, with independence, and a piece of ground which each man can call his own.

Emigration will hasten the work; but, with or without emigration, it must proceed. Everywhere, from sunrise to sunset, the Rail and Wheel, which an eminent English engineer has pronounced “man and wife,” will yet be welcomed, sure to become the parents of a mighty progeny.

I have the honor to be, Gentlemen,

Your faithful servant,

Charles Sumner.

Messrs. Samuel Hallett & Co.