Leland Stanford
Image #1
Guided Questions
1. What symbolism or imagery do you see in this portrayal of Stanford?
2. What is the tone of the image?
3. Using the symbolism, imagery and tone you found in your answers, how is Stanford being perceived in this
political cartoon?
Leland Stanford
Image #2
Guided Questions
1. What is Stanford saying in the above quote?
2. Does this quote reflect on Stanford poorly or positively? Give clear reasons why.
Leland Stanford
Reading #1
As governor, senator, university founder, and especially as a driving force behind the building of the transcontinental railroad, Leland
Stanford helped shape California’s history for more than three decades.
Just five years after his pioneer spirit led him to California in 1852, Stanford helped organize the Republican Party in the state, and in
1862 he became its first Republican governor. During his two-year term in office, he worked to keep California in the Union, and
oversaw the state’s considerable economic contribution to Union victory in the Civil War. He also used his political influence to
secure massive state funding and land grants for a transcontinental railroad.
After his term as Governor ended, Stanford became president of the Central Pacific Railroad. With investors Charles Crocker, Mark
Hopkins and Collis Huntington, Stanford was one of the “Big Four” directing the construction of the western side of the
transcontinental railroad. In 1869 he drove the famous “Golden Spike” at Promontory Point, Utah, linking the east and west coasts of
North America by rail and forever changing cross-country travel and commerce.
In 1885, as a memorial to their son, who died as a teenager, Stanford and his wife, Jane, founded and endowed Leland Stanford Junior
University in Palo Alto. The institution was innovative from the start: co-educational, at a time when most were all-male, and nondenominational, when most were affiliated with a religious organization. Today, it is one of the foremost universities in the world.
Stanford was appointed to the U.S. Senate in 1885 and served until his death
(http://www.californiamuseum.org/inductee/leland-stanford)
Guided Questions:
1. How did Stanford make his fortune? Was it ethical?
2. Was Stanford a philanthropist? Why or why not? Give specific evidence.
3. Would you consider Stanford a “robber baron” or a “captain of industry” after reading this article?
Leland Stanford
Reading #2
In 1859, Theodore Judah convinced four relatively unknown merchants in Sacramento to invest in his proposed railroad to run from
the gold mines through the treacherous Sierra foothills toward the eastern seaboard of America. At the time, the investment was a
considerable gamble on something few people thought likely to pay off any time soon. The four investors--Leland Stanford, Collis P.
Huntington, Mark Hopkins and Charles Crocker--had to wait a few years for the pay-off on their seed money for Central Pacific.
When the transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, the four investors laughed all the way to the bank. They had effectively
laid the groundwork to establish one of the most comprehensive and oppressive monopolies in American history. The four merchants
eventually dubbed themselves The Big Four and their many-tentacled empire of railroads and freight lines was renamed Southern
Pacific Railroad in 1884, although its detractors preferred to call it the Octopus.
In 1862, Congress approved the Pacific Railroad Act which awarded government contracts to two companies--Union Pacific and
Central Pacific. The plan was for the two companies to build toward each other, from Omaha and Sacramento respectively, until they
met. The federal government had a vested interest in the railroad and it generously subsidized the Central Pacific Railroad, aiming to
get its slice of the Golden pie to help fund its war against the South. In addition, the Big Four created their own construction company
and charged the United States inflated amounts to turn a healthy profit while they advanced their operations.
Guided Questions:
1. Why is the term octopus used to describe “The Big Four”?
2. How did The Big Four manage to make a profit?
3. What does this article suggest about The Big Four? Were they “robber barons” or “captains of industry”?