connections, ewing's father was a former senator and cabinet secretary, his foster brother was william t. sherman, one of his cousins was the future speaker of the house, james g. blaine. ewing arrived in washington and began spreading around some $4 million in bribes. and that number is not adjusted for inflation. $4,000,18.62. and he promised at least 100,000 acres of land to friendly lawmakers who would help his project. in this way, the ewing operation called the leavenworth pawnee and western railroad, first managed to push through a treaty ratified by the senate that would seize lands belonging to the delaware and potawatomi indian tribes and give them to the railroad to then sell to finance their construction. after that, they moved to prevail on the house of representatives to set the route for the great transcontinental railroad from st. louis to denver. straight through ewing's hometown of leavenworth. after denver, hair plans sort of got a little fuzzy because there was something just to the west of denver that they had not quite figured out how to deal with. by one historian's calcula