Excerpt from The Great Railroad Conspiracy: The Social History of a Railroad War

This IS a tale of war, a rallroad war, such as flared up ln the Unlted States ln many places dur1ng the mneteenth century, when ra11 roads were new and fearsome th1ngs The field of battle was the young state of M1ch1gan about one hundred years ago, and the combatants were farmers and the blggest ra1lroad m the state Vlolence, arson, 1ntr1gue, money, and pubhc oplmon were the weapons, hfe, 11berty, and property were the goals that drove men on m thls dramatlc confilct that st1rred the state from lake to lake The great rallroad consplracy, as th1s war came to be known locally, has never been truly celebrated ln story The extant ac counts are partlal 1n every sense of the word and, W1th few excep tils, g1ve only the offic1al versmn The story 18 worth retelllng, 1f only the more firmly to estabhsh the facts and present a more rea sonable approx1mat10n of the truth The purpose of thls book, however, goes beyond hlstorlcal ac curacy and dramatlc 1nterest If only these had been the alms, they could have been reahzed m much fewer words The story has been told, rather, m a large way 1n order to give a p1cture of an 1m portant phase of Amer1can hfe, of a young and rap1dly growmg communlty of the West of the l85o's, but one remove from the front1er The bare outhnes have been filled ln, the thread of the confilct has been followed 1nto lts soc1al, polltlcal, and economlc ram1ficat1ons The narratlve of events has been used as a vehlcle lufor presentlng somethmg of the soc1al hlstory of a communlty T wh1ch was certalnly not umque ln the development of th1s country 'll The result, 1t 1s hoped, IS a broad and V1v1d account of what (j Amer1cans were hke ln the long process of becomlng what they are On one level, thls IS a study of the behav1or and feehngs of Amer b 1cans, at home, ln busmess, at the crossroads tavern, ln court, and Q m pohtlcs It IS a case hlstory of democracy, lllustratmg the stralns 0 of our polltlcal development at the grass roots Its themes are.

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