poor georgie’s almanack: 

Impeachment and the other work of Congress … some context. 

In the first two days of July, 1862, with the Civil War fully ablaze, President Abraham Lincoln signed two Acts that arguably created the most important underpinning for his nation’s long term future. 

Congress had passed legislation to create and finance a transcontinental railroad.  It would largely be paid-for by selling millions of acres of land near the railway for farming and towns. 

Those two Acts were crucial in keeping the isolated American West from creating its own country, as the South was trying to do.  A vast portion of the sales funded Land Grant Colleges in every American state.  The schools generated the “smarts” needed to power the Industrial Revolution. 

As unsavory as the 1862 Congress was, most of the members could walk and chew gum at the same time (as in, work on more than one thing at a time while looking ahead). 

Sometimes it appears the current Congress is just chewing gum.

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Here is more background:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morrill_Land-Grant_Acts

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Railroad_Acts

https://www.chronicle.com/article/Why-the-Morrill-Act-Still/132877

The following is interesting background and culturally curious.  For instance, it doesn’t mention the thousands of Chinese who built the western part of the railroad, noting only the Irish immigrants and Civil War vets who built the eastern part.




https://www.historynet.com/transcontinental-railroad
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