Hyde to Hopkins, Nov. 3, 1871, LB, 2:92-93, box 1, f. 3, Hyde Papers.
Hyde to Hopkins, Nov. 3, 1871, LB, 2:92-93, box 1, f. 3, Hyde Papers.
Hyde to Van Nostrand & Co. Dec. 8, 1872, Letterbook 2: 314, Box 1, folder 3, Hyde Papers.
This is the great theme of Leo Marx, The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America (New York, Oxford University Press, 1964).
Not all of the big four regarded it as a great blunder, as late as 1867 Mark Hopkins was arguing that railroads could never compete with steamships from Sacramento to San Francisco and Sacramento was the popular terminus.
Hyde to John Wilson, Auditor, Treasury Department, May 5, 1867, Letterbook 1: 79-83 Box 1, folder 1; Hyde to C.D. Morgan, Dec. 10 1866, Letterbook 1: 61-70 Box 1, folder 1, Hyde Papers.
Hopkins to CPH, March 30, 1867, CPH Papers, ser. 1, r. *
CPH to Hopkins, May 11, 1872. v. 2: 121, Box 20, Hopkins Collection.