I nominate 'Millard Fillmore'. Revilled by Historians for hisi weaseling of the Missouri compromise-
Had the Civil war broken out in 1851, the Union would have LOST-
by 1861, the US rail network and expanded by 1,000 per cent, in ten years a Steam Navy had been started, and the Union had the ability to shuttle troops year round.
Morals of a weasel, - perhaps ....
“The decade prior to the Civil War had been one of the most dynamic
periods in the history of American railroads. In 1850 a broken skein of short iron
lines served the area between Maine and Georgia with a few stray strings of rail
connecting the Ohio River and the Great Lakes. By the eve of the Civil War more
than 30,000 miles of railroad served quite adequately all the states east of the
Mississippi and few areas of substantial population were much removed from the
Sound of the locomotive whistle.” (1978, p. 232)
But a practical visionary - build the muscle first...
Had the Civil war broken out in 1851, the Union would have LOST-
by 1861, the US rail network and expanded by 1,000 per cent, in ten years a Steam Navy had been started, and the Union had the ability to shuttle troops year round.
Morals of a weasel, - perhaps ....
“The decade prior to the Civil War had been one of the most dynamic
periods in the history of American railroads. In 1850 a broken skein of short iron
lines served the area between Maine and Georgia with a few stray strings of rail
connecting the Ohio River and the Great Lakes. By the eve of the Civil War more
than 30,000 miles of railroad served quite adequately all the states east of the
Mississippi and few areas of substantial population were much removed from the
Sound of the locomotive whistle.” (1978, p. 232)
But a practical visionary - build the muscle first...
