LAKE SUPERIOR RAILROAD. 81524 LETTER TO THE HON. LEWIS CASS. BY MORGAN L. DRAKE, ESQ. PONTIAC.....MICHIGAN. W. M. THOMPSON, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER, LETTER. SIR: Pontiac, November 19, 1852. It is proposed to solicit Congress at the ensuing session, for a grant of land to aid in constructing a Railroad route from Pontiac, in the State of Michigan, the present termination of the Detroit and Pontiac Railroad, by way of Flint, in Genessee County, to Marquette Bay in the County of Mason, and from Manitowoc on the opposite shore of Lake Michigan in Wisconsin, to Kewana Point on Lake Superior, with a branch to the Ontonagon, and a branch to Iron Bay and near the mouth of the Chocolate River. The distance may be thus stated, direct lines; Detroit to Pontiac, now Railroad, Pontiac to Marquette, 25 miles, 186, After leaving Flint, 31 miles from Pontiac, you strike the public lands, which continue to Marquette Bay, 155 miles. From Manitowoc to Green Bay, 37 miles, there is but little public lands. From Green Bay to Lake Superior, it is a wilderness, and all Government land, save so much as may have been taken in the Mining District. The object of going by the Flint is as follows, viz; 1st, It will open up so much of a route to Saginaw Bay. 2d, It is the nearest 4 point to the Government lands from Pontiac. 3d, It is about as direct a route as can be taken. Congress has granted to Missouri, Illinois, Alabama and Mississippi, to aid in constructing Railroads, lands equal to six sections in width under the plea of opening the public domain. Though these lands, have not hitherto been sold for want of access to market, they are in the finest climate and are of the most generous soil in the Union. In the region to be opened by the Lake Superior route, it is directly the reverse. It is forbidding from the rigor of the climate, and the soil is not an inviting one to emigrants. Instead of fertile and level prairies, skirted with woods just sufficient to relieve the picture and to answer the wants of man, producing luxuriantly every desirable variety of agricultural products, like the land in the States named, this region is rough, rocky, mountainous, covered with a dense forest, and has the cold, hard, stiff soil common to higher latitudes. For these and other kindred reasons, it is thought Congress in that munificence which becomes the Government, would grant an additional section, say seven alternate sections on each side of the line. Indeed, twelve alternate sections on each side of the line will not be more than six in the States named. By reference to the map it will be seen that Michigan is divided in such a manner as to prevent the citizens of the mineral region from mingling with those of the Peninsula, for seven months in the year, without traversing the wilderness through to Green Bay upon snow shoes, using the snow for a bed and the storm for a blanket. And it is of little avail that the citizens of that division are united to the Peninsula by the ties of government, so long as it is impracticable to extend and enforce over them the administration of the State for so great a portion of the year. In this connection it is worthy of remembrance that this state of things was forced upon Michigan by Congress, upon her admission into the Union, against her will, and upon the solicitation of Ohio, and through the votes of the older |