Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1853-03-30

uihS W She Sentieman from petersburg,
the whole interest of the Commonwealth,
IN the South Side Company will be sunk
But this Is a part of the system, part oil
the series of measures they must forget
that the State has sacrificed seven or eight
millions of property in the James River
and kanawha Company, for the South
Side Railroad and other Improvements
The people on the South Side of James
River will never cross over the river to get
to the canal, for this South Side Railroad
accommodates them. The people Of the
Nothing that starts from the Ohio river
in the cars will stop at Clifton Forge to
take the canal. Whatever is brought to
the canal by the Virginia and Tennessee
Road to Lynchburg. will take the South
Side Railroad or the road by the way of
Gordonsville to Alexandria, Washington
and Baltimore. Yet this is part Of the
system gentlemen talk about.
Sir. the great Central Improvement, the
Canal, Is about to be swallowed up, and
buried and forgotten; and the President
of the company may as well be preparing
for it suitable epitaph. The lock that
is minus few feet the proper length will
not occasion any inconvenience now
The system gentlemen say they must car
ry out, has destroyed, irretrievably,
hopelessly. property that has cost eleven
millions of dollars; and nearly all that
sum was the money of the whole people.
Now, Senators, while all this is to be done
can't you help yourselves little? Why,
saddle you the burden of all this upon
the tax payer? Why can you not give
two tifths of the sum to complete these
works?
The Senator from Nottaway admits
that the region penetrated by these roads
is the richest in the Commonwealth; but
he says its wealth consists N lands and
negroes. Let me tell him that negroes
are as good as Bank notes; that kind of
property is higher now, than it has been
for years There then, can be no difficult
ty about the money.
The Senator from Prince George thinks
the interest upon this loan, and good
deal more may be paid by the premiums
We are to get upon the State bonds. Let
me tell him that so many of our bonds are
to be in the market thai he need not look
lOT from IndL source.
Sir, it might be supposed that after all
has been done, that we are now about to
do, the people would be allowed to bear
undisturbed, the burdens we are now
about to cast upon them. Nothing is
more fallacious. The road proposed
from Covington 20 the Ohio will cost
from seven to ten millions of dollars
The bill lying upon our table appropri-
ates but one million for the purpose !; and
that is to be spent in one year. They
will be back here next winter for another
million. And how will they get it By
making that interest the centre of a great
log rolling operation ; for they will have
to buy up new interests to carry it
Those men, to whom you have so lately
loaned or given the money to complete
their roads, will Just Their, have awaked up
to the magnitude of the State debt; and,
however much they will regret, however
sorry they may feel for your condition,
they will tell you in the klndest manner,
they would do it, but their constituents
will not allow it. Then. sir. they must
go elsewhere, and seek new friends from
new associations and eombinaLions-uew
schemes of improvement brought forward,
that have hitherto not been thought Of
and thus, this State debt will go on aceu
mulating, as long as they can wiring from
the people dollar of taxes.
Sir. my friend from Augusta. Mr..
Shefey.) will find himself and his car
stopped in the mountains above Coving-
ton. and generation will pass before the
iron horse will have an open way from
Richmond to the Ohio. Will not Sena
tors pause before we are fully committed
to a policy SO full of mischief. so injurious
to the agricultural interests of the State I?
Let US do what we are able to accom-
plish now; let us finish what we have be-
gun, in the manner and according to the
spirit in which we have entered upen it i;
let.us not load the trusting people of the
with burdens which they
will find are grevious to be borne. Will
not the friends with whom l am associa
ted politically. stay this tide Of ruin ,
You will be held responsible for this
thing when the day comes-and l trust
that day may never come. But it 1t does
come when the faith ofthe State is doubt
ed when the chords of public credit are
being broken; when your officers shall re-
port. that the people are not able to de-
liver the tale Of bricks that you have
taxed them beyond their ability to salts
fly your demands !; then you will have a
voice coming from the press in those To-
calities that have been built up and made
rich by the labor and means of the great
agricultural sinews of the State, hurting
keen denunciations upon the heads of the
men and party in whom they put their
trust. and by whom they have been be-
trayed.
A COOP SIGN FROM GOOD QUARTER.-
What will the New York abolition editors,
and others in our own State who sympa-
thize with the sickly sentimentality OF