Liberty advocate., 1839-02-21
NASHVILLE RAIL ROAD.
Ertract from the "Annual Report 70 the Pres
dent and Directors Of the Mem Orleans and
NaShUHle Railroad COmpanv.'

dent and Directors Of the Mem Orleans ana
NashUiHe Railroad Company"
What the Erie Canal has been TO the state
Of New York, the Nashville Railroad must be
| to New Orleans.
The immense territory occupied by the
lChoctaw and Chickasaw nation, having been
brought into cultivation, will be an almost in
Iexhaustibe source Of wealth to the city of N
Orleans. For three hundred miles along the
line of the railroad through the State of Lou
isiana and Mississippi, no finer country exists
for raising stock while cotton, the great sta
pie of the South, finds soil in this district equal
to any upon the bottoms OF the great river
The products of this fertile region can be
brought three months earlier to market, by the
Nashville Railway, than the crops of North
Alabama and West Tennessee, while they now
find an outlet by the waters that flow into the
Ohio. This is an advantage Of inestimabIe
value. The importance of the territory which
the line ofthe Nashville Railway trayerseS, has
attracted the attention of our sister States of
South Carolina and Georgia.
The proposed Charleston Rail Road will
inevitably draw off vast trade from New Or.
leans, if Louisiana sits supinely by and suffers
that immense work to reach Tennessee before
our own road touches the Tennessee line; few
years precedence in this matter would prove
fatal TO our future prosperity, should the Car
oina Road once reach Knoxville, while we neg
lect the vast means at our command to advance
our own interests. The line oGthat work will
be ntersected by numerous transverse rail
ways, pouring the products ofa new and indus
trin uh ,1yiIl anrlxt i,I
up the Choctaw purchases, into the ports of
Charleston and Savannah down the great Ten
nessee valley. The facilities which the Nash
vile Railway will afford to the travelling public
during the low stages ofthe western waters can
be estimated by the experience of the past Au-
tumn, upwards Of twenty thousand persons
were delayed for weeks from their homes and
their business. With the Nashville Railway
in operation hundreds Of thousands of dollars
would have been saved to this city.
1t will easily be seen that work oil this gi-I
gantic scale, on which the Nashville Railway
is projected, cannot be constructed without Leg
islatiye aid The small loans which have al !
ready been obtained have been barley sufficient
to prevent the abandonment Of the undertaking.
The operations of the Company have been con-
fined to one section of country, instead of being
extended to numerous points on the line of the
road, so as to hasten the connecting links thirty
and forty miles at time This mode of pro-
cedure has arisen entirely from the want Of
sufficient means at command, to adopt O. liberal
and proper system. 1t costs nearly as much for
officers to superntend the construction OF one
mile of way per month, as it does for officers to
overlook the making OF six; on the other hand
the more speedy the erection ofthe road, the
more certainly and rapidly profit from it; and
at greater dimuniton of cost.
The completion Of the Nashville Railroad to
the Pass Manchac, will in itself prove one
grand means of income. A depot established at
hat point will command the whole trade OF the
Lake Maurepas. The tributaries ofthls splen-
lid sheet of water, the Amite and the Ticklaw,
md their tributaries, will wait the increasing
supplies Of their rich bottoms to the depot, and
hence vast quantities Of raw material, provis-
ons, ets will reach New Orleans in as many L
hours as il now takes days, to find a market.
When the road shall ,have reached the pine
woods, about seven miles from Pass Manchac,
thousands Of passengers will assemble from the
liflerent parishes in the vicinity, to visit the
,aptal ofther own State, from, which, hlther-
o, they have been excluded by the enormous {
expense and delay incident upon schooner con-
yeyance.
The town of Uncle Sam, with its great water
,ower for manufactures, will fill up rapidly {
with an industrious population, when the road
shall once have been placed on footing, IN
regard TO funds, that will secure It's completion
beyond the possibility ofa doubt Other towns
and villages will spring up along the line, and
the means will thus be afforded to thousands ol {
people, to subsist by each others wants, and
the consequence will be that the arts will thrVo,'