User:RVMershart/Daniel A. Robertson

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Daniel A. Robertson was a journalist, the editor of the St. Paul Democrat who served as a one term mayor of St. Paul, MN. He was also a veteran of the Mexican War. He became involved in a scheme to base a trans-continental railroad starting from the westernmost point of Lake Superior (Superior, WI) and reaching to Puget Sound in the then territory of Washington. In early 1853 he joined Sen. Stephen A. Douglas in visiting the offices of former U.S. Senator and Secretary of the Treasury Robert J. Walker to promote the plan. Congressional speculation on the possible western route would indicate five varying routes to be explored for a national government-sponsored course for the railroad. In 1854 a town was begun at the Bay of Superior and the three sponsors of the northern route would form a group of land speculators called the SUPERIOR PROPRIETORS, each of whom held significant land in the new village growing rapidly on the shore of the bay.

Included in the Proprietors were a group of influential Washington figures. Vice President John C. Breckinbridge, Senator Jesse Bright of Indiana and Senator R. M. T. Hunter of Virginia were Proprietors as well as Congresssman William A. Richardson of Illinois. Rumor had it that President Franklin Pierce was a secret investor. The well-known Washington banker W. W. Corcoran held the largest investment among the speculators. The influence of these figures may well have been important in the funding of the locks on the Sault Ste. Marie that opened Lake Superior to Atlantic Ocean and great Lakes shipping. Federal funds were expended in developing a "Military Road" from St. Paul MN to the new port town of Superior, Wisconsin. It was planned that the railroad to build across the Western prairies and the Rocky Mountains would be the Northern Pacific RR. The national economic recession of 1857 crushed the early plans for the northern transcontinental rail route.

In an odd irony, three members of the Superior Proprietors would compete for the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 1860--Douglas, Breckinridge, and Hunter. The inability of the Democratic Party to select one candidate helped lead to the election of Abraham Lincoln as the new president in 1861.

Ronald V. Mershart