Weekly national intelligencer., 1854-11-11

Of which shall have more to say.
In continuance Of this from Lynchburg is the Virgins
and Tennessee Railroad some hundred and twenty
miles Of which finished and In operation. 1t is
grand work and under the management Of its skilfu
engineer has passed over the Allegheny mountains and
the left bank Of New river 1t is laid with heavy
ron and its average cost far is only $25 900 mile
This Is to be by from Knoxville Tennessee and
win therefore do its part in recovering for Virgna not
lost advantages but little Of her lost trade in that
quarter.
There used to be q considerable wagon trade from Bal
tmore to Western Virginia and East Tennessee These
wagons were wont to bring down feathers dried fruits
beeswax and honey with little ginseng nuts and the
like They reminded of Jacobs going down into
Egypt the second time to buy with the best fruits
Of the land" "a little balm and q little ho-
ney, spices and myrrh nuts and almonds" They went
back well filled, carrying merchandise far west
Nashville and supplying the whole intermediate country
with foreign merchandise.
| When the James River Canal finished from Rich
mond to Lynchburg the people Of Virginia received the
benefit of this trade for the wagons ceased going Bal
more and stopped at Lynchburg But they ceased
coming to Lynchburg for in short time South Carolina
and Georgia had reached Chattanooga with their rail-
ways These wagons now 60 there, and are actually
hauling merchandise into Western Virginia. And this
trade, which Virginia content to have carried in
wagons and which in her hands did net to
than $l500 600 year, Charleston has expanded
into thirty forty millions year for such is the
figure with which Charleston merchants express the value
Of the trade which rails bringing to that city from the
back country that they have opened up.
Then there is the Alexandria, Orange, and Lynchburg
Railway, which, though only partly finished has, with
the Manassas road given great impulse to Alexandria
is bound to Lynchburg to compete for the trade and
travel which the Virginia and Tennessee road is to bring
up all the way from the Gulf and from the States and
cities the wayside.
There is also the Richmond and Danville Railroad ;
| work most judciously placed 1t runs through fine
country, and win bring rich part Of North Carolina in
close commercial Intercourse with the Virginia ports
was glad to meet, my way to the mountains last
summer, Capt Tacott the engineer this road Heis
astronomical problems him. 1t is problem for fnd-
ing latitude and is done by the method Of north and
south stars You nearly fourteen and enough of
astronomer to understand ii therefore will explain it
to you He takes two stars that will the meridian,
to the north and the other the south of the OBJ
servers zenith, but at equal nearly equal distances
from it. Thus suppose you take two stars and b. the
decnation Of being $50 and $780, you observe them
the meridian, and find that is just far to the south
Of your zenith as is to the north Of you know there
FORE that your zenith is just midway between hem and
that its decinaon which is your latitude, is exactly
37o. You may construct formula for it. By this
problem our boundary lines now and all nice
field determinations Of latitude made.
Besides these roads there the Petersburg and Nor
folk the Richmond and York River and the Fredercks
burg and Gordonsvle roads that just begun These
with the exception Of those that built fifteen
twenty years ago. mostly for the accommodation Of the
great through travel between the North and South
the principal railroads in Virginia, and not one Of them
is at this moment finished
There is spirit, therefore, Of internal improvement
In the Old Dominon but tho point and the fact to and
upon which seeking to draw and fix your attention
just is the effect it s exhibited this and every
other correct map, of the policy which the State has
thought proper pursue with regard to her internal i'm
provements Be that policy what it may it has produced
as yet no satisfactory results
Between Baltimore and Charleston there is not single
seaport town dewater city that is in connexion by
railway with the western border of any State beyond Vr
gniao North Carolina. Here is gap in the middle of
the Aantc seaboard equal in extent third of that
wav fha Val
ley, seeking connexion with the seaboard around
these States at great increase both of distance and
pense and Virginia is at this moment completely cut
off from all commercial intercourse by railway with the
Western States is your native little town Of Frede-
ricksburg from the upper country that used to be bu
tary to it.
The Central with the Orange and Alexandria Railroads
have made island Of this little place, by divertng the
produce Of the Piedmont country away from her wharyes
and carrying to those either of Richmond Alexan
dria These works have stopped the mountain wagons
that Piedmont country is concerned have made Frede
rcksburg about dependant upon it for
the oasis is upon the desert And just in that condition
have the States North and South with their internal inn
provements, left your native State also.
But before proceed to discuss the mode by which
the State may recover great boon trade with the
West, should explain to you how Virginia to be
far behindhand with her internal improvement system
as to lose her share Of that business.
Or course many agencies concerned in bringing
about such state Of things and this growing be
very long letter. we will discuss and that briefly, but
few Of them.
As prominent among these agencies should not be
far wrong in naming of those very natural advan
ages that preponderated powerfully in favor Of Nor
folk the great commercial city of the continent viz
those beautiful rivers creeks and branches which,
pandng out into the Chesapeake Bay nterace Eastern
Virginia with perfect network of natural canals.
From the Revolution until now IL not now, Eastern
Virginia has ruled in the Legislature for the wealth and
population of the State have generally been on this side
Of the mountains.
All the internal improvements, therefore, which the
planters Of Eastern Virginia wanted for their per-
sona convenience spout from their farms, which
generally the banks Of the rivers through which
they could schultz their wheat and their down into
the hold Of the vessel that to take it away They
therefore, wanted canal and did not to have
good turnpike roads, and why should they build them
the people beyond the mountainsf
The Erie Canal met with very much the same kind of
opposition from the tidewater counties Of New York
but fortunately for New York, she had net been
blessed with such extent Of tdewator country and
natural cdadlizdtion.
There another circumstance which probably was
not without influence in producing this neglect with
gard to internal improvements Virginia took the lead
in the Revolution and afterwards in forming and putting
into operation those great and glorious institutions under
which We live and rejoice She became " the mother Of
statesmen" With her Washington and Jefferson, her
Madison and Monroe she governed the country up to
1925 There was only short interregnum during the
while Besides these great lights she had host Of other
Judge Marshall and John Taylor Of Carone-the
best thinker Of them all perhsrs-among them. They
were all from Eastern Virginia.
The mind and the talents of all Of these great and good
msn were devoted not to the development of these
Of their beloved State to system Of in
erna improvements for reaching the West but to the
Federal Government How material it that the heart