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commissioners secured for themselves large interests in lands near the new Capital, and their work bade fair to bring them ample remuneration for their services.
The policy of granting public lands to aid works of internal improvement had been adopted by Congress as early as 1802, when a grant was made (long before the building of the first railroads), to aid in the construction of a turnpike wagon road in the interior of the State of Ohio to the Ohio River. Other grants for similar purposes followed and in May, 1824, a grant of lands was made to aid in the construction of a canal in Indiana. Grants were made to Ohio and Illinois for similar purposes and one for the improvement of the navigation of the Tennessee River. The first railroad built in the United States, upon which a steam engine was used, was constructed in 1829, but it was not until 1832 that much progress was made in railroad building. In 1835 there were but ninety-five miles of railroad in the United States. Up to 1841 no railroad had been built in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan or Illinois. Transportation was by river, lake, canal and wagons. In 1848 there were but twenty-two miles of railroad in Illinois, eighty-six miles in Indiana and none in Wisconsin or Missouri.
In 1833 Congress made the first grant of public lands to aid in the construction of a railroad by authorizing the State of Illinois to use the land heretofore granted to aid in the construction of canals.
As early as 1837 the people of Iowa had, through the efforts of John Plumb (a citizen of the State) become interested in a project for building a great trunk line of railroad to connect the Atlantic States with the Pacific Coast, to be aided by a grant of public lands along the route. Such a line would be likely to pass through Iowa and open up its inland prairies to settlement. Asa Whitney, of New York, had projected a line of railroad across the great plains and Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast and had written able articles showing the feasibility of
