From Washington, D.C., Charles Robinson wrote his wife, Sara, back home in Lawrence, Kansas Territory, regarding land and railroad issues that he was working on behalf of in the capital. Robinson briefly addresses issues having to do with Indian land disputes, but focuses even more on the competition for railroads being fought out in Washington between Lawrence, Leavenworth, and Kansas City. ". . . Lawrence must fight its own battles . . . . I hope to be able to make Lawrence a point on both roads before we get through." [For more information on this battle over railroads, see I. E. Quastler, "Charting a Course: Lawrence, Kansas, and Its Railroad Strategy, 1854-1872," Kansas History 18 (Spring 1995): 18-33. For a time, civic and business leaders sought to make Lawrence the regional rail center with an aggressive promotion's plan, but they ultimately, and perhaps inevitably, lost the prize to Kansas City; this piece is largely drawn from the author's 1979 book-length study, "The Railroads of Lawrence."] Many of the lands in questions had originally been set aside by the U.S. Government for settlement by Native Americans.