The government wanted the
railroad to expand all across the
nation in order to do what?

develop our economy

The railroad served many purposes and helped many people greatly. One of the government's reasons was that they wanted more people to move into America because that would help develop our economy. They knew that it was going to cost much less because they had Chinese immigrants working for very low wages. Not only was this railroad convenient.

Explanation:

social contract theory basically says that all individuals are born equal, and provided a god given right to consent to be governed. american government is based of this

thomas hobbes and john locke said that we are selfish, individualistic, and constantly at war with each other, therefore we need to be controlled. 

government is defined as the legitimate use of force to control human behavior within territorial boundaries, here comes in hobbes and locke.

hobbes takes the part about controlling human behavior. while locke takes the part of legitimate use of force, since force is not legitimate unless there is consent of the people. 

there are basically 3 goals of the government: 1) maintain order by protecting life and property. 2) providing public goods, those which are typically not provided by the public sector, such as roads and education. 3) promote equality be it political, opportunist or outcome equality.