Richmond daily Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1842-1861, 1854-10-25

tualy hauling merchandise Into Western Virginia. Aud
In wagons. and which in her hands did amount to
more than tlboo00 year. Charleston has nov eIpau-
ded out into thirty forty millions ycar-ioe such
tho 6sute with which Charleston merchants express
the value OF the trade which R,ls bringing to that
city from the back country that they hAve opened up
Then there Ia tho AeI,udris Orange and Lyuchburg
Rsusy, which, though only partly flushed has With the
Manassas road, given great impulse to Alex snd, II
bound to Lynchburg compete for tho trade aud travel
which the Virginia and Tennessee road bring up al
the way from the Gulf and from the States aud cities
! the way side.
There Is also the Richmond and D,n~iie RSilrosd-s
work most jujciously placed II runs through hue
try and viii bring rich par, North Carolina In close
| commercial intercourse uith tie Virginia ports.
was glad to meet on my way to the mountains last
summer Capt Tslcot the engineer this road. He Is
very clever We of the most be sutiiul Of
astronomical problems to him. IL problem for 6udiuS
atiude and Is done by the method OF North aud South
stars You nearly fourteen and enough OF
mer to understand H. therefore will expl,t you-
lie skes that will the meridian one to the
North and the other the South Of the zenith
but at equal nearly equal distances from It. Thus sup.
pose you take two aud the de,instiou OF
SO and So You observe them GU the meridian and
iud that Is Just far the south Of your zenith a.
to the north Of it, you know, therefore, that your
NTH just midway between the and that m dsclnaton
which s your latitude, Is exactly 81 o You may now
formula for il. BY this problem our boundary
lines pov run, aud oil nice field determiua Of
tude made.
Besides these roads, there arc tho Petersburg and Nor
folk, the Richmond snd York RIVER and the Frodercks
burg aud Gordonsvle roads that just begun These
With the exception Of those that built fifteen twen
~ years ago mostly for the accommodation of the great
through travel between the North aud South the prn
cpa Railroads In Virginia. and Of them 10 at tina
moment finished
There is spirit therefore, Of internal improvement in
the Old Dom!non but the point and the and upon
which seeking to draw and OK your attention lust
uov 10 the effect t. Is exhibited on this and every
other correct msp, Of the policy which the State has
thought PROPER pursue with regard TO her internal i'm
prOyementA ms basn u~ed
as yet satisfactory results.
Between Baltimore and Charleston there Is not a single
With the Western border any State yond Virginia
or North Carolina. Here gap in the middle of the
lsntic board, equal in extent to oncthd Of thst
entire coast ine Tho railways from the Mississippi
Valley seeking connection with the board around
these two States at great increase both Of distance and
expense aud Virginia is this moment a. COMPLETELY
cut oil from all commercial intercourse 10y rsssy) With
the Western States as your native little town Of Frede~
rcksourg FROM the upper country that used rbuta
~ to it,
The Central with the Orange and Alexandria Railroad.
have made island of this little place. by diver,iuy the
produce Of the Piedmont country away from her
aud carrying IL to those either OF Richmond or AeIsudr
These works have stopped the mountain wagons which
used to see here in the streets; and far as that
Piedmont country concerned have msde Fsedercks-
burg about dependent upon Tor RESOURCES A. the Ca
sis Is upon the desert Aud just in that condition have
the States North aud South with their internal improve
ments left your native State also.
The good people Of She Old burg howev,r are be-
stirring They do not intend TO LET their hack
be of from them or to permit their town to
be made an island OF without manly struggle and hope
the good people OF tue State will follow tue example, 50
nobly set.
But before We proceed to discuss the mode by which
the Stale may recover so great boon trade with
West, should explain to you how Virginia came TO be
far behind hand internal system
tn lose her share Of that business.
OF course many agencies concerned IN bringing
about such state OF things this growing 10 be
very long letter, We will discuss, aud that briefly,
lew Of them.
As prom among these agencies, should not be
TAR wrong III naming some If those natural advan
tges that pr.ponderaed pos erny in favor OF Nor
iok, as the great commercial ciy OF the continent VIZ
those beautiful rivers creeks aud branches which, e1pau
ding out into tue Chesapeake Bay, inerls Eastern VIZ
gina with perfect let work OF natural canals.
From the Revolution until now if not now, Eastern
Virgins has ruled III the legislature for the wealth aud
population OF state have generally been this side
the mountains.
All the internal improvements, therefore, which the
planters OF Eastern Virginia. wanted for own person
al onvenieuce, spout from their farms which were
generally on the banks OF the rivers through which they
could schultz their wheat aud their down into the
hold OF the vessel thai take il away. They there
FORE wanted 10 cana and did have even good
urnoise roads, and Why should they build them the
people beyond the mountanss
The Erie Caual met With much the same Kind Of
opposition from the tidcwaer counties OF New York but
fortunately for New York, abe had been
with sucn an extent Of tide.water country and natural
naiisd.ion.
There another; circumstance which probably wa,
not without influence in producing this neglect with
regard TO internal improvements Virginia took the lead
in the Revolution aud afterwards ia forming and putting
into operating those great aud glorious Institutions under
which we live and rejoice. She became " the mother
statesmen. With her Washington and Jefferson her Mad
ison aud Monroe she governed the country up TO 1926
There was only short inerregnum during the while Be-
sides these grei: lights she had host Of other sons
Judge MaIsnP and John Taylor of Caroline-tbe bes;
thinker Of them all perhaps-among them They were
from Eastern Virginia.
The mind talents Of all Of these great and GOOD
were devoted, not the development of these re-
OF their own beloved State system OF in
ternal for reaching the West but IN bs
federal government How material it that the heart
of the mother and her neditaons should 20 with such
sos and that their friends and Deighbors home should
be thinking their thoughts and occupying their minds
with the subjects which they knew engaging tho at
tenuou OF these statesmen. And evidence that this
so, the Legislature of Virginia SO long accused OF
occupying itself With federal affairs to the neglect OF those
ofthe State thht the accusation last assumed the sem
blance Of truth, and became by-Word.
Under these circumstances the Old Dominion began to
lag behind Her commercial cities anguished and prop
erty went down There is aud has always BEEN common
notions TO the contrary Notwithstanding, a hiyh degree
ofenterPrze aud energy among the people of Virginia.
and in this state of things of the most
among them, resolved to abandon the State seek their
fortune in the Western wiljs. They aocked to the
West. There they carved out States aud added
them as bright ornaments to the Union. Kentucky md
Missouri we're settled principally by vginaus. Many OF
"
North CarOlina-and TO Aahaina, to Nssissipp FlorJ,
Louisiana and other new States, both slave aud free
Thus you see there sand an excuse for the
bauk that Virginia presents aniong the Railroads on the
map.
There was another circumstance also which operated in
favor OF all earlier at the north than nj the South TO-
wards internal improvements aud that IT, in the manner
in which the Western Sii,cs-by which | now mean ali
the States IVES, of the Alleghanies-were settled.
The free States settled up principally BY foreign
ere the slave States by the slave States
that people, for instance, WHO went from Virginia to Ken
lucky, went with their goods and chattes, which was
40 much property aud many people taken away from
Virgins. People and wealth the muscles and sineus
OF State.
But in the new free States, II was for the mos, part
tho Immigrant from abroad. aud tho citizens OF New
York. who went there. The immigrant landing in this
county and going Yves, had TO support himself by money
or by labor, s equivalent for at less. year. and until
no could pfcpire place. clear the land plant cultivate
and reap crop This including provisions Tor himself
stock for his farm poultry and for his yard, &c
did not cost him, the average less than 1900 for bis
first year. Two three thousand immigrants al now ann
ally pouring into those States. They so many walking
markets Introduced toto country where there bss
been time open roads, and in which the settlers of
the year before find demind for forty or fty mil
lions Of oll1rs worth Of their produce which but for
these corners, IL would be impossible TO SELL