Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the Transcontinental Railroad is a testament to the enduring American spirit of industry and national unity. On the precipice of the American Civil War, Utah's delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, William Henry Hooper, recognized that ``A great band of Union throughout the family of man is a common interest.'' Hooper petitioned Congress in his belief that ``a Central Road would unite that interest as with a chain of iron, and would effectually hold together our Federal union with an imperishable identity of mutual interest.'' William Henry Hooper's letter to Congress would take several months to reach Washington, DC, as any westward travel beyond the Mississippi River required wagon, stagecoach, or horseback. The U.S. Congress would, however, approve such an undertaking, and soon, a National Central Railroad began to manifest from the worn hands of laborers to execute a vision of national unity, a feat that would propel American power and change the course of our history. These hands belonged to men of differing national origins and creeds, who labored together under one banner, often fleeing significant hardship in pursuit of economic opportunity in the American West. Roughly 15,000 Chinese immigrants, 10,000 Irish immigrants, and 4,000 Latter-day Saints joined the national effort to complete the most remarkable and ambitious engineering project of the 19th century.…”