New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1858-11-26

Of travel aud fTeights well as the acquisition Of
the contract for the transmission oil the mails made
necessary early in the season. to prepare for anad
dtional daily train from each terminus Of the road
The epidemic in New Orleans, arrestiug all bust
ness operations and making it dangerous for those
not fully accIimaed to enter within its limits retard
ed the Company in making the necessary addition to
the facilities demanded by the public. New locomo-
tves and additional engineers were however, secured,
so as to seize the first opportunity Of successfully
meeting its expectations and enarging our means of
business Daily two passenger trains now start from
each end OF the Toad-One in the morning and one in
the evening, in addition to the freight and other
trains and the passengers seem scarcely less on each
than Just before on one train. Such Il result more
than meets the most sangune expectations in regard
to the estimated receipts for the current year
The policy of the present Board has been to extend the
road beyond Canton, as contemplated by its original
projectors, and demanded by the express terms OF the
charter and by the strongest pledges Of the Company
given to Mississippi, when accepting from her mate
rial aid TO accomplish what has been achieved of this
great enterprise But it was never contemplated by
the most ardent friends of this policy hGedessy to en-
eumber the road with fatal burden of debt. EXten-
sion rapidly possibe-eXtensiOn the ultimate
point OF all labor but not in such manner to de-
stroy the very end which it was their highest amb-
ton to accomplish.
msapprehension, not of the views but of the
means by which the new Board designed to redeem
their pledges to the stockholders and the public has
prevailed To considerable extent, which we take
this opportunity of officially correcting.
The issue presented previous to the election Of the
present Board, as understood at least around the
counciltahle of the Company, this: Shall the
work terminate at Canton, and the contemplated
road through north east Mississippi, to some point
where it would cut the boundary of Tennessee or
Alabama, be finally suspended or not? The friends
of the present Board favored extension. 1t seemed
impossible to adopt any other course without injustice
and bad faith to all parties-the State of louisiana
the City of New Orleans the private stockholders in
the State of Louisiana, the State Of Mississippi and
the private stockholders in that State Sound policy
and desire to make the road contribute to the inn
provement of the business, and add to the com
merCia superiority Of New Orleans, also urged with
irresistible force, the same conclusion.
The original subscriptions, made by individual
citizens of louisiana by the city of New Orleans and
by the State itself were made to a road that was to
connect with the Tennessee river, and not to one
terminating at the village Of Canton. 1t is SO
described in the charter. The first projectors of the
great enterprise had large and expanded views and
it was not their object to build merely local road
but one that should be the trunk line Of communica
ton between New Orleans and New York, running
as nearly as practicable on an air line after reaching
a specific point in the adjoining State
The progress of the work developed new and uu.
expected advantages of the entire route originally
contemplated, It verified the soundness of the views
Of those who with the map before them, and the Ca
paeties of the country to be penetrated well under.
Stood planned the great work which is in connection
with kindred enterprises, believe destined ulti.
mately to change the commercial center Of this Re.
public. Other States took up the links of the great
chain that was to bind together the Northeast Aan.5
tic and the Gulf States ; and when this new issue
was presented to the public, this great highway of
internal commerce and passenger transit was in pro.
gress along the whole line to be traversed be-
yOnd the limits of Mississippi Could those who re-
presented the New Orleans, Jackson and Great
Northern Railroad yield to the first serious obstacle
10 the way of progress the peculiar advantages OF the
whole route, by adopting, instead Of the original line
a road that caused detour nearly to the neighbour
pf tn tho
the Middle and New England States Would such
o course not have violated implied pledges made by
the Company to the people oil this city and State,
and to both the municipal and State Governments
Would it not have inflicted upon it the dscredit of
failure to accomplish the main purpose for which it
was created?
The Company had acquired valuable rights and
franchises in the adjoining State of Mississippi 1t is
not necessary to inform your honorable body that
road running through swamps and pine barrens to
the State line OF Mississippi only would be almost
valueless. Time may, and probably will convert
much Of this territory into truthful fields but where
would be the profits Of the stockholders while the
country was slowly being redeemed from its wdness
and intertiltyf The money expended, the road
built in Mississippi, the business already secured and
the income that Of itself promised to furnish imports
ant assistance TO the final completion Of the whole
work originally contemplated by the express CON
tract of the Company itself with the State of Mssis-
sippi, would all have been forfeited by final abau-
donment OF the policy of the extension. Upon the
years to point where Mississippi and Tennessee or
Alabama intersects all the rights Of the Company in
Mississippi depend. To hope that the Legislature of
the latter State would give up its right to exact the
full performance of its bOndto cast the existence OF
the Company itself upon the chance of change in
popular opinion when large sections of the State
interested in the ulilmeut of all the pledges of
the Company, was in the opinion of the friends of
extension, to grasp at shadow to place interests Of
extraordinary magnitude upon the hazard OF die.
The laws Of Mississippi declared forfeiture of the
charter in case oil failure for any cause to complete
the road. forfeiture would have operated TO enrich
Mississippi Companies at the expense of the people
and State Of Louisiana.
The Company was, at the time the issue was pre-
sented further bound by the most solemn obligations
of honor to complete the road. In its extremity the
State OF Mississippi had loaned money from several
trust funds of that State to the Company on the eX.
press stipulation that Onehalf of the sum so loaned
should be expended in making extensions of he road
north OF Canton On these conditions it was accepted
and all expended in completing the road south of
Canton. When this misrepresentation of funds eX-
cited public attention in Mississippi and provoked in
qniry the direction convinced Mississippi that it was
the true policy to bring every possible energy to the
work Of securing perfect connection with jackson
1t was necessary to an income from the road as well
as essential to public convenience ana it would en-
able the extension north Of Canton to he prosecuted
with greater Yg0r Thus by new pledges had the
Company become bound in honor to Mississippi to
complete the road according To the original route,
How could men, who would protect their own honor
hesitate what course to pursue? Did the position of
representatives of corporation screen those acting
in that capacity from the odium Of an act which an
Individual would have felt as aiiiXing stigma upon
him
But if no such imperative reasons had governed
yonr directors in choosing the policy Of extension
pubic considerations Of another nature would have
led them to the same result, The road now opened
brings to New Orleans no crops which did not reach
this market before it constructed. Blythe Missq-
sipp and Pearl rivers and by land transit we had tine
control OF the cotton and all other crops that now
ind their way into this city by this new met Aside
from the way business built up no new traffic has vet
been gathered for this city. But the field beyond
Canton vas Il new one for CIR city Hundreds Of
thousands Of bales Of cotton, that now reach other
markets, will, by the extension Of the New Orleans
jackson aud Great Northern Railroad, he secured to
thls city Each section completed will intuse a new
lte-blood into the vital current Of our trade We be-
GIN to penetrate regions that produce other crops than
the one great staple Of our Market We enter grain
groWIngTegiOn. We 0penimmediate connection with
vast beads Of coal IRON of marble and other sources
Of untold wealth, which would stimulate manu- aetues
IN this city, and contribute in important manner
e the future superiority on this continent of New
Orleans.
Our road by the extension, cuts all the lines of i'm.
that enter the rich valleys of the Tenues
see and the Ohio, and their tributaries New Orleans
is at once made rival for the trade of almost halt
continent and it was to accomplish This that the
road was first projected. Should the directors orego
NIL These advantages, because heavy debt, at the
moment ofa financial panic embarrassed its opera |
tons, DESTROYED it's credit and alarmed the tIui1