The focus of this letter from Samuel C. Smith in Lawrence, Kansas Territory, to Charles Robinson in Washington, D.C., was the effort underway in Lawrence and Douglas County to attract a railroad and to have it built south of the Kansas River. Leavenworth, Kansas City, and Lawrence were obviously in the midst of their battle to gain advantage on the transportation front, and the decisions being made in Washington at that time with respect to land grants were vital to their future interests.