Stimulating the Zenith City of the Unsalted Seas

"Years ago, when I first heard that there was somewhere in the vast terra incognita, somewhere in the bleak regions of the great Northwest, a stream of water known to the nomadic inhabitants of the neighborhood as the river St. Croix, I became satisfied that the construction of a railroad from that raging torrent to some point in the civilized world was essential to the happiness and prosperity of the American people, if not absolutely indispensable to the perpetuity of republican institutions on this continent. I felt instinctively that the boundless resources of that prolific region of sand and pine shrubbery would never be fully developed without a railroad constructed and equipped at the expense of the Government—and perhaps not then." (emphasis added)
Congressman J. Proctor Knott of Kentucky
January 27, 1871

I stumbled upon a reference to this oratory in the obituary of James Proctor Knott, who was a six-term Congressman from Kentucky, a former governor of Kentucky and a law professor. But before that he served a term in the Missouri House of Representatives, resigning to accept appointment as the Missouri Attorney General. He was then elected AG (1860) but shortly thereafter left the state after refusing to sign a loyalty oath.

Knott's raillery about a subsidized railroad to the center of the universe, this place "Duluth" that he'd never heard of, is witty. Duluth did prosper after the railway was built. In fact, during Knott's lifetime (he died in 1911), Duluth had more millionaires per capita than any other city on earth.

Nowadays, a legislator might take a lot of heat for mocking a town — the potshot heard 'round the world. But then as now, I imagine congresscritters just wanted to give the folks back home as much as possible "at the expense of the Government."