of great progress but not of absolutely assured success. A few
lines earned handsome profits, but in the main the railroad
business was not favorably regarded and railroad investments
everywhere were held in suspicion. The condition that prevailed
in many railroads is illustrated by the fact that the directors
of the Michigan and Southern, when they held their annual meeting
in 1853, had to borrow chairs from an adjoining office as the
sheriff had walked away with their own for debt. Even a railroad
with such a territory as the Hudson River Valley, and extending
from New York to Albany existed in a state of chronic
dilapidation; and the New York and Harlem, which had an entrance
into New York City as an asset of incalculable value, was looked
upon merely as a vehicle for Wall Street speculation.

Meanwhile the increasing traffic in farm products, mules, and
cattle from the Northwest to the plantations of the South created
a demand for more ample transportation facilities. In the decade
before the Civil War various north and south lines of railway
were projected and some of these were assisted by grants of land
from the Federal Government. The first of these, the Illinois
Central, received a huge land-grant in 1850 and ultimately
reached the Gulf at Mobile by connecting with the Mobile and Ohio
Railroad which had also been assisted by Federal grants. But the
panic of 1857, followed by the Civil War, halted all railroad
enterprises. In the year 1856 some 3600 miles of railroad had
been constructed; in 1865 only 700 were laid down. The Southern
railroads were prostrated by the war and north and south lines
lost all but local traffic.

After the war a brisk recovery began and brought to the fore the