In the year ending September 30, 1851, the last season in which
summer handling of freight had been forbidden to some companies
by the state, the tons of freight hauled one mile by the Twelve
Little Railroads had reached a total of 19,325,457. In the
following twelve months this was more than doubled, the figure
being 42,220,294 ton-miles. In the next year, that of the
consolidation, the record was 51,029,810 ton-miles. Small gains
in road mileage, it is true, aided the figures a little in those
two years. But there was really a mighty increase in business
under way. America was moving westward. Mexican War, California
gold, the struggle between North and South for Kansas, all these
increased the ferment in the East, and population boiled over,
beyond the Lakes, beyond the Mississippi, beyond the Rockies.
Chicago had 60,000 or 70,000 inhabitants, and railheads were
already far beyond it, driving across the prairies. Detroit was
nearly as large. Daniel Webster, with prophetic insight, had
said in a great speec