Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1857-01-21
SPEECH OF Mr.. GREGG.-CONCLUDED.

laOle. All muSt AUNT tnat taliIoauS nave oe-
veloping inAueae. My object is 10 show you
that raising the money to build road is one
thing, and its proper application another.
That in order to render railroad useful to
conntry, it mnst be owned by the right sort of
men, driven by the same sort OF enterprise and
industry which secured the owners their private
fortunes.
The State of South Carolina has not succeed.
ed in any public enterprise yet, and thiak it
next to an impossibilily for her to manage the
Blue Ridge Road if ever so well located and
built, so as to compete successfully with the
great and enterprising companies that have pene-
trated the West with their gigantic and well
managed works
We already begin to feel the Inconvenience of
Charleston; much of the wagon trade that used
10 come down from Charlotte, in North Carroll
ma, has been diverted by the Charlotte Railroad
10 the North Carolina Railroad.
The trade of the great West will not be so
easily turned to Charleston as some persons i'm.
agile, the matter cannot be determined by an
arithmetical calculation of distance. In railroad
operations, the outfit may be 10 much more com.
ple,e, and the management so mnch better on
one establishment than another, that it will car
ry commodities double the distance in the same
time and for less cost.
Recently the Graniteville company sent hun
dred bales of their dunestics to st. Louis, in
Missouri, by the way of Nashville, Tennessee.
The goods started from Graniteville, one hun
dred and twenty-five miles from Charleston, on
the way to ST. Louis. The cost Of transit on
these goods amounted to S640 for one hundred
bales, and ! doubt if they would have gone any
cheaper if there had been railroad from Nash
Vile to St. Louis, where the goods went by
steamboat. The same hundred bales of goods
could have been shipped from Charleston to St.
Louis by the way of New York, for $500. To
the same place, by the way of New Orleans,
from Charleston, insurance included, for S275.
From Liverpool to st. Louis, by the way Of New
York, $3.50. From Liverpool TO St. Louis, by
the way of New Orleans, $500. 1t cost us $40
on those hundred bales of goods 10 Hamburg,
only ten miles, on the South Carolina Railroad
to Augusta for twenty-five dollars the same
has been taken from Charleston to New York |;
for fifty dollars have shipped similar quanti,A
Of goods from Charleston 10 New Orleans, and
for $3.50 they can be taken from New Orleans
to ST. Louis.
These facts will clearly indicate that we will
have something more to do than merely build
railroad over the mountains. After it is built it
will have to be worked with the greatest posi-
hle skill and enterprise, or it will fail to bring
the trade we anticipate
During the first ten years Of the existence Of
the Hamburg Railroad Charleston, instead of
advancing as was expected, actually retro gaded
in popu alton.
In 1916 Charleston was connected with Knox.
vile by railroad-the point at which the Blue
puA =, fn forr pofo Nhnrlo outn hoSr
ceived no perceptible advantage from that con-
necton. Some say that the Georgia State Road
uses its influence to divert trade to Savannah !;
and hence the necessity Of tunneling mountains
in order to be independent of that obstacle. The
truth is, that it is Georgia and Savannah enter
prise that carries the trade to Savannah; for
men will send to the best markets.
Some years ago the people of Nashville made
n strong appeal to Charleston for aid to build a
railroad from Nashville to Chattanooga, which
was to put Charleston in connection with the
West, and give her unheard of commerce from
the Mississippi. Representations were made to
public meetings, which were quite rs extravagunt
and out of the way as some of the speeches
which were made on this floor in favor ofhhe
Blue Ridge. Charleston was 10 receive millions,
if she got nothing more than drayage and com.
missisns: figures were SCI forth 10 show that
enormous quantities Of produce was to be
drawn from that vast region, embracing thres or
four hundred miles around Nashville. TheSarti-
cles were separately enumerated. There was
corn by the millions of bushels, wheat, barley,
bacon, lard, picked pork and beef, live stock,
&c. 1t was quite curious to those who were
entertained by those representations to witness
The results.
Tboo oc ofn cd To n,n
and subscribed S500000, which is now worth
but S25O,000. The road has been completed,
now about three years, and don't suppose that
bushel of corn has ever passed over it from
Nashville to Charleston, and very few bushels
of wheat, drawn in that direction by the extra.
ordinary European war prices. Indeed the
trade of Charleston would not be sensible of
the road having been built, except by losing a
vastly valuable grocery trade of all that Chalta-
nooga country, in the valley Of the Tennessee
river, which trade very suddenly took the back
track through the tunnelled mountains, to Nash
vile, which is supplied by New Orleans.
Charleston had mania ut one time for west
ern extensions, and while in that mood she sub
scribed S250000 10 the Charleston and Men,
phis road That road is destined to make anoh-
er heavy draft on the Charleston trade; it has
already reached North Alabama, and entirely cut
off valuable cotton trade from Charleston, and
when the road is completed, will be in connection
with the valley roads, and it will be more than
State management can accomplish, with the
best road and machinery ever built, to prevent
Blue Ridge travel and freight from taking the
buck track, and make the road feeder Of the
Memphis and Virginia roads; that result will
surely follow unless we have direct and nde-
pendent road 10 Charleston.
Then how necessary it is for US 10 take CON-
prehensive view of the subject and not involve
the State in difficulties and embarrassments that
may discourage and dampen the ardor Of South
Carolina, and preclude for many years 10 come
from helping useful enterprises.
trust, Mr.. Speaker, that have done enough
in this State to satisfy the public mind that
am not what is termed in common parlance an
cold fogy." and opposed to the progress of the
age.
| have always been willing to extend help
ing hand to any useful and practicable work,
and have not been backward in putting my own
shoulder TO the wheel of onward improvement
am, however, not one of those who regard it
TO be so vastly important to extend railroads
through the mountains of South Carolina, rs to
expend millions of dollars of public treasure,
and involve the State in heavy debt, TO accom-.
plish that object. For have not the slightest
idea that the profits from such work would
half pay interest on the COST even with all the
prosperity and success that the most sangune
could expect.
There can be no doubt that the State would
be largely benefited by central railroad leading
from the seabord 10 the interior and before