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Dissertation Information for Paul Wallace Gates

NAME:
- Paul Wallace Gates

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- Harvard University (USA) (1930)

ADVISORS:
- Allan G. Bogue
- Frederick Merk

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- James Blaine Hedges
- Edwin Francis Gay

MPACT Status: Complete - Except Indecipherables

Title: The Colonization Activities of the Illinois Central Railroad

Abstract: Almost from the beginning of railroad construction in America, the project for a central railroad in Illinois to connect Galena at the northwestern corner of the state with Cairo at the southern tip of Egypt was earnestly advocated by residents of the Prairie State. First attempted as a private undertaking, then by state construction, then again by private management, all plans failed; additional aid was necessary. In accordance with the tradition of appealing to the federal government for aid, the state then turned to Congress and asked for a donation of land to aid the enterprise. After some delay, due partly to opposition by eastern senators and representatives, an act was finally passed making a generous donation to the state to aid in the construction of the central railroad, it being the first important land grant made by the federal government for this purpose. The grant was turned over to a private corporation by the state and finally in 1856 the road was completed and in operation.

The construction of the road and the efforts made by the Illinois Central to promote immigration and thereby to sell its lands gave a great impetus to immigration into the state. This immigration had a profound influence upon the economic, social and political development of Illinois.

The purpose of this thesis is to study the organization, construction, and colonization activities of the Illinois Central. Such a study involves in the first place a background in the form of an account of the settlement of Illinois to 1850 and the factors motivating the immigration and determining its location. Boggess and Pooley, cited below, have studied this movement from various angles and their research has been of importance in contributing to the first chapter of the present work. The first chapter, however, deals more with the geographical factors and thus gives a different emphasis to the subject than has been given by previous writers. The second chapter, though somewhat foreign to colonization activities, seemed necessary in the absence of any satisfactory treatment of the passing of the land grand and the charter. For a final treatment it should be greatly elaborated and further research might even change some of the conclusions which are admittedly only tentative. Sanborn and Brownson have done some good work on this subject but their conclusions depend too largely on the congressional debates, federal and state documents, and, in the case of the latter, on local newspapers. My aim has been so far as possible to go behind these documents and to discover the more fundamental factors, not generally touched upon in the debates and published documents, which brought about the passing of the land grant and charter. Railroad construction and land speculation, originally planned as a single chapter, are important subjects because these activities contributed to the growth of the state and established a braod basis upon which the colonization activities of the Illinois Central might be built.

The following chapters aim to show the methods employed and the results obtained by the Illinois Central Land Department in stirring up interest in immigration in the eastern states in Canada, in the British Isles, and in the European countries. The Illinois Central was the first corporation to carry on a vast advertising campaign to promote immigration and its methods were largely followed, though on a vaster scale, by later land grant railroads. It is proposed to show the results of this campaign not only from the point of view of increased population but also its affect upon agriculture, industry, urbanization, standards of living, education, and politices. Upon these results depends the value of the study.

MPACT Scores for Paul Wallace Gates

A = 1
C = 0
A+C = 1
T = 53
G = 3
W = 53
TD = 14.75
TA = 2
calculated 2016-05-03 20:05:44

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