Nashville daily patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1855-1857, 1856-03-06

Internal ImprOvements-Stat Aid.
The late Legislature made quite liberal
provision for aiding the various railroads
now in course of construction in this State
In this, we think, the Legislature did ex
actly right. The apparent Indebtedness
of the State will be considerably increased
by this action of that body, but there
is not the remotest probability that the
State will ever lose a cent by endorsing OF
loaning the bonds for which provision was
made. The aid thus given to the various
roads will be of incalculable advantage not
only to the companies interested in their
construction, but to every class of citizens
residing near to them. Those who will
thus lie benefited by the construction Of
these roads, are deeply indebted to the
Senators and Representatives whose indie.
fatigabe labOrs and votes secured the aid
so much needed to insure the completion oil
the roads interested. These Senators and
Representatives will not be without their
reward. They appreciated the Importance
of extending the aid asked for, and they
had the moral courage to grant it in the
face of powerful and determined opposi-
ton.
Our great system of internal improve
ments should be perfected and put in oper-
alton as speedily as possible, so that the
people and the State might be deriving adj
vantage therefrom. TWAS this spirit that
nerved the friends of that system in the
late Legislature to battle so manfully for
what they secured. When these works
shall have been completed, Tennessee will
assume position in the front rank of pros
porous ana wealthy States.
1t has been aptly remarked by cotem.
porary, (the Baltimore American,) that ex,
perience has so abundantly demonstrated
the fact that internal Improvements in.
crease the amount of business, by affording
larger facilities in the transportation Of
commodities between distant parts of the
country, that even the most tenacious ad
yocate of country roads, stage coaches
and six-horSe wagons no longer pretends to
doubt that in ignoring these primitive
means of INSTRUMENTATION all the sub
stantial interests of Industrial and social
life have been subseryed. The fears enter.
tanned by oldfashioned folks, that the in,
PRODUCTION of railways would be ruinOus to
the honest classes who formerly earned
their livelihood as wagoners, pOrterS, and
carriers of all descriptions, have yielded to
the results of experience, which have
show that instead of being diminished,
their employments have been greatly null
tiplied by the accumulation of commodi-
ties to be transported, and the production
of an endless variety Of occasions on which
their services are required, although per
haps in a way somewhat different to that
to which they have been accustomed, and
to which, from long habit, they were in.
clined to cling. In the place Of the few,
whose teams slowly and laboriously ira.
versed the then limited avenues along
which the trade of the country was trans
ported, hundreds are now induStriOuSly and
actively employed in attendance on the
more modern means Of conveyance which
pass to and fro with such astonishing rap
idty. The railroad has become the great
civiiizing and active industrial agent of the
country, whose iron track, wherever it pen
etrates, is significant of progress and pros
perity. The farmer whose distance from
market in former days made the products
which his diligence and knowledge had ex
tracted from the soil but of little value
now finds the modern facilities Of tranSpor
tation bringing purchasers to his very door
with whom he makes ready sale without
the loss of time and profit involved in act
ing at once as his own carrier and factor
as hundreds and thousands of our Tennes
see reader can attest. OF these and the
thousand other advantages in the mere
way Of business which have followed the
introduction of railroads as the great
transporters of the country all have be
come convinced, and the consequence il
that railroads are regarded as a necessity
for which all sections and every neighbor
hood contend