congress received shares in the lp&w totaling more than $1.5 million, while secretary of the interior, caleb smithassistant secretary john usher, and the commissioner of indian affairs, william p. dole, collected promises of more than $1 million combined. but ultimately thomas ewing was partially thwarted, withheld from abraham lincoln, the railroad lawyer, who had long since been persuaded that the natural route for the transcontinental railroad would run just north of this place. up from omaha right up the platt river valley. if you've ever driven along i-80, you notice it's very flat.

congress received shares in the lp&w totaling more than $1.5 million, while secretary of the interior, caleb smith, assistant secretary john usher, and the commissioner of indian affairs, william p. dole, collected promises of more than $1 million combined. but ultimately thomas ewing was partially thwarted, withheld from abraham lincoln, the railroad lawyer, who had long since been persuaded that the natural route for the transcontinental railroad would run just north of this place. up from omaha right up the platt river valley. if you've ever driven along i-80, you notice it's very flat. in fact as i have driving up here today, i remembered the opening pages where she has her young hero looking across his new home and thinking of nebraska, there's a lot of it. when congress adjourned on july 17th, 1862, in their inner most thoughts, i'm sure many of its members must have wondered if all their worked had been in vein. george mcclellan's campaign on the peninsula had fizzled tantalizingly close to richmond and soon confederate troops would invade the north in kentucky and maryland, the european po