STANFORD, Leland (1824-1893). The General Railroad Laws of California, the Pacific Railroad Act of Congress, and the By-Laws of the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California, together with City Ordinance of Sacramento and Act Donating Swamp Land. Sacramento: H.S. Crocker & Co.'s Print, 1862.

Leland Stanford's copy of the By-Laws of the Central Pacific Railroad with his bold signature across the front wrapper. The Central Pacific, one of the two railroad companies contracted by Congress to build the transcontinental railroad, was chartered in the spring of 1861 after Charles Marsh and Theodore Judah surveyed a feasible route across the Sierra Nevada. Stanford, together with Collis Huntington, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker became the chief financial backers of the road that was one of two, together with the Union Pacific, to benefit from the generous land grants and subsidies provided for in the Pacific Railroad Act, passed by Congress, and signed into law by Abraham Lincoln in the summer of 1862. The volume opens with the text of the Railroad Law of California (1861), followed by the 1862 aforementioned Congressional act, the text of the articles of association and the by-laws of the Central Pacific, and concludes with the act concerning swamp land in Sacramento followed by a lengthy index. Construction of the railway began in 1863, but did not begin in earnest until 1865. Unlike the Union Pacific, which began its route across the Great Plains from Omaha and followed the overland route into the Rockies, the Central Pacific's route was far more arduous. It was not until late summer of 1867 that the company's tracks began to stretch eastward from the Sierra Nevada. Less than a year later it would cross Nevada and into Utah where it linked up with the Union Pacific to complete the first transcontinental railroad at Promontory Summit on 10 May 1869.

Rare. RBH records the last sale at auction of any copy (signed or unsigned) at the Thomas W. Streeter sale (lot 2869). Sabin 10023.

Octavo (227 x 144mm). Corrigenda slips on pages 72 and 75 (several pages lightly toned, a couple of dogears). Original yellow wrappers (some losses to spine and edges, light soiling). Provenance: Leland Stanford (ownership signature) – with Warren Howell (sold to a West Coast collector ca late 1970s).