Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1859-06-15
From the Charleston Mercury.
To the People of South Carolina.

political, and our industrial and each Of
these duties requires an equal portion OF
our attention. 1t is too often asserted that
there are certain individuals of society who
are required to discharge these duties re.
spectively, and that they should be held ex.
clusively responsible, no interference being
had between each other. Had this been the
case, we should have had no Archbishop Car
roll engaged in the organization of our politi-
cal constitution; no Alexander Hamilton,
engaged in its administration But all would
have been left to the wild speculations Of
the exclusive political champions of the day
the JEFFERsoNs of our new era-and an
lly.balanccd machine been permitted to hold
its sway over the destinies OF few people,
to be replaced in time by some one Of the
effete systems Of government prevailing in
the old world. Yes, fellow-citizens, church.
man can understand politics, merchant can
administer governments, politician can ap-
preciate moral restraint and civil enterprise
in his turn, and thus all three be employed
in the advancement of the interests Of the
nation, each depending in good faith, upon
the efficiency Of the other.
have assumed this general proposition as
necessary prelude to the subject which l
have to lay before you, viz: the part taken
by John G. Calhoun in the Rabun Gap, or
Blue Ridge Railroad, as it is now called.
The facts which [ shall present will show him
to be the first instigator of that track for our
daily intercourse with the great West, and
to the hour of his death its unceasing suppor-
ter. 1t is for you to appreciate these facts,
| on1 in 1n,n NV no
decision of the majority of your Representa-
tives at the last session Of the Legislature, by
which the State appropriation to this great
work was withdrawn. l take the liberty to
make an appeal; but if it be true that my
immediate neighbors of the parishes-the
seaboard districts of the State-were the
cause of this vote, they have already forgot
ten the man whose reputation, even now
when he is dead, is defending them in their
dearest rights, and will continue to do so un-
til, by uniting the Atlantic slope with theval-
ley of the Mississippi through this wonder
full pass in the Blue Ridge mountains, we
shall require no further. aid, in our industrial
status at least, from the rest of the world.
Mr.. Calhoun would, placing one hand upon
the singular indentation of the Atlantic Ocean
on the coast Of South Carolina, and the other
on the upper waters of the Mississippi, ex-
claim: Unite these, and the future is suffi-
GENTLY ours to make US industrially indepen-
dent at least" But / must not anticipate
my facts in their regular order, or forget that
am not pleading cause. Duty, as having
been an engineer in the service Of South
Carolina at the period to which refer, alone
instigates me to effort, in carrying the great
object now presented to every man born on
the soil of South Carolina-her railroad to
the West.
To many of you it is known that Mr.. Cal
houn spent much time and some money upon
the gold regions of Georgia, North and South
Carolina. These regions. brought the differ
ent passes of the Blue Ridge in these States
respectively in review before Mr.. Calhoun.
Prior to any definite action had by the peo
pie of South Carolina as to routes, and when
engineers were accommodating them without
any regard to particular State interests or
State prejudiccs, Mr.. Calhoun advised me,
in case should be appointed to examine the
Georgia passes, to emp'oJ the utmost coup
dRH allowed to the engineer irNhe eXamina-
ton; for they required bold combinations;
and yet they were the only ones offered US
for our great enterprise. At this time knew
nothing OF the great statesman's private in
terests and hence personal researches in the
mountain regions; [ only remembered that,
as an officer in the Typographical Bureau at
Washington, had seen the report of Cap
tain, now Major Bache, to the Secretary Of
War, and that thus Mr. Calhoun had been
officially informed Of the fact of the availa-
blity of the Rsbln Gap. But Major Bache's
object was canal, with its lockages, reser-
voirs, basins, &c. Could these results be
used in the establishment of a railroad, with
it, light grades, gentle car and trains, &c? /
thought Mr.. Calhoun wanted this problem
solved. did solve it; and my report was
made at the early Convention assembled at
Knoxville to consider this important subject.
But there was no Calhoun there; the same
necessity for difference, and even reserve, in
communicating with Inc, constrained him in
participating in the Knoxville Convention Di-
visions in council he foresaw would prevail,
and knowing that the great State Of Georgia,
if separated from the Carolinas could turn
some hundred miles farther south, lie feared
that his grand "diagonal route" "a lie called
it, would fall victim to the diversion, and
would not risk his reputation, or, rather, eX-
pend his energies in vain. But was he inac-
tive, even, when every one seemed to despair?
1t was n q conversation, had at bis own house
at Fort Hill, and not more than q week after
tue Knoxville Convention had adjourned, the
State Of Georgia having withdrawn from that
Convention, as he expected, that he made
Use of the grand expression | have already
used: "Unite these" (placing one hand on
the Mississippi aud the other on the Atlantic)
"and the future Is sufficiently ours to make
us industrially independent at least,o Deter
mining to retrace the iulse step that had been
taken, he lost no time in repairing to Georgia,
at her fayorite reunions, had at Athens
at its college celebrations, and before lie
left, orders wero issued by the Executive
of that State for the instrumental survey of
the Rabun Gap Pass. But note the precau-
ton of the truly great man. Were bis ideas
vague? Were his plans taken without every
investigation necessary? l had been sum.
moned to his table; his maps were spread
out before him; with pencil and scale in hand
he had traced an indelible line diagonally
across the Union, and then examining its
track, cried out, g knew it; there is your
gap; there is the great pass; there the noun
tains recede, the one from the other, as though
they invited the States Of this great confed-
cracy to pass aid repass them. And you say
that it is available for railroad. A railroad
from northwest to southeast diagonal
road-will give to our seaboard all that is
southwest of that line, and much that is
northeast; it will compete with the northern
markets even at the gates of Cincinnati. We
may fail, sir, in our cndeavors now, but the
result must come, and our industrial indepen-
dence be secured by this boon of Providence
this inexplicable pass, through mighty
range of mountains, unless for some great
moral purpose, such sis now proposed" We
did fail then. The vote of Central Georgia
prevailed at the next session of the Legisla-
ture; and the route by the detour OF the
Blue Ridge, or the Western and Atlantic
Railroad to Chattanooga, was opened by that
State. But while Mr.. Calhoun took the ut
!. - a. q