The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1853-05-27
RABUN GAP RAIL ROAD AND THE
worry OF WETMORE.n

Sll vi w ~ iAOihAA.
We find the following in the Charleston
Courier of May 2lst
If the reader will cast his eyes upon any
late map of the United States aud trace thu
proposed line of Rail Road, which is to pas:
through the Rabun Gap to connect our grow
ing metropolis with the wide Western worlC
beyond the Allegheny, he will notice that the
descent of the great mountain declivity mus
run along the head waters of the TENNESSEE
or the Hiwassee. Upon this latter river, al
the limit of steam navigation, he will find two
thriving towns, charmingly situated, and enti
tled-(a South Carolinian will feel the CON-
pliment) nt)-CALHoUN and CHARLESTON.
At some little distance above these, a capi
talist of New York, one of the merchant
princes, is now erecting third city, to which
indeed his agent has already given his name
Mr.. VIM. S. WErMoRE has purchased an i'm
mensc tract-some $4,000 acres-in Polk and
Monroe Counties, East Tennessee, most
princely domain, including some of the best
farming lands in the Union, and an amount
of water power affirmed to be at least equal
if not superior, to that Of the Merrimack al
Lowell.
This enterprise is in every point of view
worthy of the profound attention of our com.
munity, as it is destined to be of infinite i'm.
portance to us. 1t connects with us in the
bond of mutual interest gentleman Of en-.
larged views, great liberality, indomitable
energy, and resources of the widest extent
A direct and easy communication with the
great highway of commerce, through oul
seaport, is of essential consequence to the
future city, which thus becomes, even before
its foundations are fully laid, a powerful
auxiliary to our great project of internal in.
tercourse.
We hail with enthusiasm, then, our new
ally and its founder. If it be true glory "to
make two blades Of grass grow where one
grew BEFORE" it is surely no less glorious to
plan and erect city of manufacturers, where
labor derives employment and subsistence
from capital while it renders capital produc-
tive and profitable; where agriculture itself
receives a new impulse by the creation OF a
demand for its hitherto wasted supplies; where
comfort and civilization are promoted, and
the arts stimulated into progress; and where
improvement in knowledge of all kinds be-
comes the necessary result of intelligent in
tercourse and active competition.
If any thing could make us envy the pos
session of wealth, it would be the power
which it confers Of thus assisting our fellow
citizens in the pursuit of happiness and inde-
pendence, and at the same time contributing
to the advancement of the general prosperity
of our country.
In the hands of such men as Mr.. Wetmore,
capital is never permitted to be idle, but it is
sent forth and made to circulate through
every channel; employed in calling forth
works of art, paintings and statues that adorn
our galleries and museums in erecting houses
of noble design and lofty architecture; in
building cipperships for Eastern traffic, and
magnificent steamers, whose rapid voyages
across the Atlas.i-, shed lustre on the Ameri.
can flag; and finally in founding cities where
poverty and industry may find occupation
and grow rich, while diffusing wealth and
intelligence throughout wild and remote
districts.
We honor the laurel wreath of the soldier
but be ours in preference, the civic crown Of
oak leaves, which adorns the head Of the hero
of peace and progress.