American union. [volume] (Morgantown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1855-1859, 1857-04-25

WV N"iS' 40 SNVu Ill thc SuuJOlneu
paragraphs: ~,
The annual report Of the Illinois
Central Railroad has just been made,
by which itappears that the gross earn
ings OF the road the past year have
been S2.47f, 600
The previous yearthey were l, 532, 900
Increase, ITCEC se44, 900
The number Of passengers was one
third larger than the previous year.
The entire length of the road is TOT
miles including its two forks; and its
cost has been, including commissions,
loss on bonds, and stock
ofevery kind, $15,040, 900
Lands already sold, 1O,713, 900
The Go. havele 1,729, 900 g,i1
acres, worth - (. 23,713,o 900
Which will pay the whole cost of the
road and leave q surplus Of So, 900, 900,
besides the entire stock of the road free
to the stockholders, which will yield
dividend, as the directors estimate, Of
eight per cent. The stock is now SELL
ing for S137 for 500 given by the
original holder. =
Can anybody, who has regard for
equality of benefits and burdens, give
sound reason why grants of land to a
corporation in Illinois are constitution
al and Democratic, while similar grants
are all unconstitutional for Virginia?
The great Covington and Ohio Rail.
road, from along the line of which inn
provement the people are moving West
with fearful speed, could easily have
been built through the precise means
by which Illinois has been enabled to
build her great Central railroad, if our
Locofoco representatives in Congress
would have permitted it. But they
have stubbornly refused to Virginia the
least participation in the advantages
resulting from the public lands, while
the Democratic representatives from
illinois, and the Northwestern States
generally, have been but too anxious
to grab all they could get. The con-
sequence is, that cities have risen up
almost as if by magic, while railroads
glide out like the quick march of the
snake from beneath the green sward
of the prairie and among the primeyal
forests of their virgin lands. Plenty
and prosperity descend like the dew,
and Illinois, too grateful and contented
to deny and falsify the true origin of
her rejoicing fortunes, discards the
sham of pretending that the land ques,
tlon is humbug--and, exulting over
her 900 miles of railroad built with
public land, proclaims the millennium of
social freedom from taxes and debt.
But it is not alone the Northwestern
States that are beginning to avail
themselves of the immense advantages
to be derived from donations Of public
lands. Not few of the Southern
States have already awoke from their
long and disastrous slumbers on this
question, and have already demanded
a participation in the common fund.
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Ark
ansas, and Florida, have already found,
to their exceeding great profit and re-
ward, that there is something substan-
tial and real, tangible and fructifying,
in the question of Distribution. They
know that there is no delusion in it, for
they have not only touched, felt, and
handled, but they have thrust their
eager hands into the capacious sides of
the great land reservoir, and bravely
clutchcd as much ofthe golden fruitage
for themselves as possible. The lead
ers of the Democracy in these States,
seeing that their opposition to the poll
cy of distribution was utterly incffectu-
al, and knowing that unless the old
States demand and obtain their rights,
Immediately if not sooner, it viii be
entirely too late, have, like sensible
men, yielded their objection, and taken
for the States they represent all the
advantage they could get. They know
that Observation-Disclosures fair and equal
or partial and unjust, such as has pre-.
vailed for years, will continue to be the
policy of the government, and they
have not been slow to yield their party
objections when they stood in the way
of advantages to be secured for their
own States.
Such, however, has not been the
course pursued by the Democratic rep
rcsentatiyes from Virginia. They could
violate the Constitution to vote them.
selves extra pay as members Of Con-
gross, but their consciences are SO ten
der that they could not permit our
tax-riddon people to derive the least
advantage from the proceeds of the
public lands because they affect that it
would be unconstitutional. Besides,
they say the public lands don't amount