Kublai Kaan’s Pony Express
[T]he great Kaan had his Pony Ex- press 500 years earlier. Thus Marco wrote in Book ii, Chapter xxvi (Vol. i, pp. 433-437) how from the royal city of Cambalue…
Persian Angareion
While Xerxes was doing thus, he sent a messenger to the Persians, to announce the calamity which had come upon them. Now there is nothing mortal which accomplishes a journey with more speed…
Senator Gwin
Strange to say, this stalwart Union senator afterward entered the Confederacy, lost his prestige and large fortune, and, at the close of the war, drifted into Mexico and the service of the unfortunate Maximilian, by…
Russell’s Reason for Starting the Pony Express
The motive which prompted Russell to organize and operate the Pony Express has often been misstated. Briefly, it was an advertising proposition to fix public and Congressional attention upon the Central Route, with…
Idea of a Pony Express
The idea behind the Pony Express, soon affectionately abbreviated to "the Pony," was not new, even in America. Postmasters general John McLean and Amos Kendall had sent horsemen racing day and night to…
Chorpenning’s Pony Express
"He [George Chorpenning] projected and put into operation the first 'Pony Express' that ever crossed the country, and in December, 1858, delivered President Buchanan's annual message through to California in seventeen days…
Russell’s Second Mistake
"The launching of [the Leavenworth and Pike's Peak Express in 1858] was the second disastrous mistake Russell made. Had he resisted the temptation to join Jones in it and worked…
William Russell’s Motivation for Starting the Pony Express
"Some historians of the Pony Express attribute [Russell's] action to patriotism, writing that he considered war inevitable and feared that California would swing to the cause of the South unless…
Senator Gwin’s Motivation
"It was sometime in December 1859 or early January 1860 that William H. Russell, one of the partners in the firm Russell, Majors and [sic] Waddell, and California Senator William M.…
A Dramatic Gesture
"The Post Office Department's greatest prize—the $600,000-a-year contract held by John Butterfield's rival California mail operation—still had nearly five years to run. But Russell sensed that opposition to Butterfield's 'ox…
An Idea Whose Time Had Come
"By the fall of 1859, though, the 'Pony Express' increasingly looked like an idea whose time had come. The opening of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad that February brought…
The Idea of a Pony Express
"Russell was hardly the first dreamer to conceive a horseback relay system for delivering mail across distances: Marco Polo found a similar system in thirteenth-century China, operating with 'post stations…
First Mention of a Pony Express
"[The Butterfield Route] failed to address the question of how to provide mail service to Utah, not to mention the political question of how to maintain the North's influence in…