The building of the railroad also marked victory for mercantilism. Abraham Lincoln and the Triumph of Mercantilism in America by Thomas J. DiLorenzo. is also a good read. History books gloss over Lincoln's role as an attorney for the Illinois Central and several other railroads during the 1850s. Advised that Council Bluffs would be an ideal eastern terminus, he invested in property there. Early planning clearly steered the routes and money away from the South. Why engage in a capital and labor intense publicly financed project when the war was showing no early conclusion and several bloody battles had already been fought is a question also often just glossed over by history.
Pete S.