Ratification. Mending the Family Kettle. The U.S. Senate passed the proposed amendment by the required two-thirds majority on June 8, 1866, and the House of Representatives passed it on June 13, 1866, which sent it to the states for ratification. No Virginians served in Congress when it submitted the amendment to the states.
The Father of American Railroads. John Stevens (1749-1838) was the scion of a prominent family in colonial New Jersey. During the Revolutionary War he served as state treasurer. In the postwar period he became intrigued by experiments in steam navigation by men such as John Fitch.
Durant was a central figure in the TCRR. Labor on the Transcontinental Railroad The majority of the Union Pacific track heading westward was built by Irish laborers, by Mormons who constructed much of the track in Utah, and after the war by veterans of the Union and Confederate armies. Chinese immigrants did most of the work on the Central Pacific track.