The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1852-05-11
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.


great waste of the public money, in the prose-
cution Of the Internal Improvements VI VS..
State. We have no doubt that the s'a'e"I
is correct; bat admitting 1T to DC %,
any reason why the system should De a'a"uo"
ed There have been, before now, 'eP
instances OF waste in the appropriations ""'s !.
nv co,cress for almost every department VI
,he ,,hi;c service. There have been deiaica-
lions in the Navy. Is that any reason why a.,
the ships of war should be dishnah'feo' anu
,,, commerce left without any protection =
rho,. have been heavy failures in the Army.
Are we. on that account, TO disband our small
military force-to let the grass take possession
of the immense works which were erected at
an enormous expense to protect our sea coast
10 turn ever our frontier settlements to the ten
der mercies of the savages2 There is no in
stitutioa whatever, which is not liable TO
abuse, There is no business, in private life,
which 10 not subject to losses, from neglect
and rogsery. Are we, then, to abandon all
civil government, to give up all private INDUS
try, because the possibility is, that the public
NAV be defrauded, or the individual robbed by
designing and unprincipled agents!
We hear much said about economy, in con-
nection with the proposal to cut short all the
public improvements of the State. fit had
been determined before they were entered up
on. that they were too expensive 10 be under
taken, iRasmuch as no money would have
been spent, there might have been some sha-
dow ofcommon sense in the plea. They who
might have offered it, would have had some
pretenee to call it economy. And it would
have basn oae kind of what is generally un-
derstood b. that much abused word. 1t
would have been economy Of the same kind
with that which induces a man to starve upon
q miserable poverty-stricken piece of land,
rather than expend enough money to buy a
few tons of guano, or few bushels of clover
seed. 1t would have been economy of the same
character with that which has kept Virginia
80 long in the rear of her sister States. But
the option is no longer left us. Vast sums
as far as they have gone. Is it economy to let
them drop? To sacrifice the whole at one
fell swoop1 To put an end to all possibility
of ever receiving any remuneration therefor =
The farmer puts his corn crop in the ground.
He has to pay for making and mending his
ploughs and his hoes. He determines not to
have them mended, for he is bent on economis-
ing. He has his money in his pocket, and he
regulates his conduct by the old maxim, that
ga bird in the hand is worth two in the bush"
His ploughs and his hoes soon become unfit
for service. He will not have them repaired,
and he loses his crop. Is that economy The
original proprietors OF that immense body OF
coal, known as the Midlothian mines, were en-
gagged two years in sinking their first shaft, at
that time the deepest that had yet been sunk
in Virginia. The ant of mining had not then
been brought TO its present degree of efficien-
cy. lat least in this country,) and the progress
was not only slow, but exceedingly expensive.
At the distance of five hundred feet from the
surface, enormous sums had been expended
and vet the coal had not been reached. They
knew it was there; but suppose, being fully
convinced of the fact, and convinced, moreover,
that if they could but reach it, their fortune s
were made, they had abandoned their works
at that stage, on the plea of saving money
The consequence would have been, that they
would have lost, without the hope of redemp.
ton, every cent they had already expended
and would have been laughed at by the whole
world. They persevered, and the result was
that they were rewarded ten fold for what they
had spent.
Are not these instances, drawn from the &C.
currences of every day life, to the point We
think they are, most decidedly. No rational
man at this day, can doubt that, if the Central
Railroad be carried to the Ohio, if the Virginia
and Tennessee joint Improvements be pushed
to the Mississippi, if the Danvile Railroad be
extended to the borders of North Carolina. and
be made to form the connection at Green's
boro', if the James River Canal be placed in
communication with the streams which empty
into the Ohio, if the South Side Railroad at.
tain its terminus at Lynchburg, if the Manas-
sas Gap Railroad tap the Baltimore and Ohio
improvement, the result must be the enriching
of our State TO degree almost incalculabie
1t is impossible, indeed, not to know that such
must be the consequence, if We only look OF
the effect which a western trade, comparative
ly limited, has already had upon those State.
which have secured it-upon Pennsylvania
upon New York, upon Massachusetts. |
must be apparent, to every man who reflects
upon the immense capacities of the Mississp
pi valley-upon the rapidity with which the,
continue to be developed-upop the fact, tina,
immense as its resources are, rs development
has but begun-upon the certainty, that in
fifty years, it must, at the present rate of in.
crease, contain at least 30,000,000 of people-
the population Of an immense empire. The
most narrow-minded antiimprovement man
that ever stood up for the policy and proprie,y
Of going to mill with corn in one end ofthe bar
and big stone in the other, because forsoott
our fathers did SO before us, cannot but b.
aroused to the suspicion that there must b.
some great prospective benefit to be derived
from opening communication with this coun
.~,, v,kao he saea States long ceIehrated for