Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1860-09-22


the respect and attention of the Legislature
than one passing through other States ?" In
the same interrogative strain you ask your
friend "what farmer, if he were asked to i'm
prove his neighbours or his own farm, would
hesitate as to the answer he would give %
These al cuptandum appeals to ignorance
and prejudice will not prevail with the people
OF Edgefield District, or of the State. No
" aid is claimed for the citizens of Georgia
and North Carolina" by the Blue Ridge Rail
road Company in South Carolina The aid
which saskod is to build road for the bene.
tit of the people of South Carolina
Nor is there any pertinence in your analogy
OF a farmer who might "be asked tc improve
his neighbours farm or his own" and your in
ference of the answer he would give" in
favor of his own
The Blue Ridge Company does not ask aid
OF the State to improve the Georgia or North
Carolina farm, but to improve the South Car
olina farm
L VIII suggest n case much more analogous
to the issue than you have presented. There
are three owners OF land on the same stream,
each having mill site very suitable for a toll
or merchant mill, but the lands of two of the
proprlctors are so situated that the middle pro-
prlctor can have no way to the public road,
unless it be made through their land, and
they generously give their consent Where
upon, the middle proprietor reasons sagely
with himself that he cannot make his mill
road without passing through the land of his
nelghbors, and when he reflects on the cost of
that part OF the road he is staggered by the
case you put, "whetherit is better to improve
his neighbours farm or his own" and conclu
ding, as you do, that it is much better TO i'm
prove his own farm refuses to build the road
unless his ncighbors will pay for the cost of
that part which is located over their land, be-
cause he conc dos that to make the road, at
his own cost, will benefit the other proprietors
The only arguments and considerations
which the advocates of the Blue Ridge Road
nave ever urged in support of aid from the
State, are derived from the benefits South
Carolina will receive from its construction.
This you know but still you represent to the
people of Edgcticld District the aid sought
for, and the benefits to be conferred bv the
road, as if they were exclusively for the ad-
vantage of the people of North Carolina and
Georgia 1t the people of South Carolina are
persuaded that the road will compensate for its
cost, they will not churlishly and stupidity,
like the owner of the mill site, refuse to make
the expenditure which will secure great adj
vantages to the State, because it will, at the
same time, benefit the people of North Carroll
ma and Georgia.
South Carolina cannot build railroad to
connect its people and territory with the coun-
try west of the mountains unless it is built
through Georgia and North Carolina. The
only alternative left to South Carolina is either
to build road through those States, or not to
build one at all, and continue dependent on
their good will for its commerce with the
Western States. If the charters and agree
ments which the South Carolina company
possess should now be forfeited, it is very
improbable that they can be obtained again.
That the Blue Ridge Road is to be con-
structcd by the citizens of South Carolina
Through North Carolina and Georgia. is, in
all except the cost of construction, recon-
mendation The middle proprietor of the
mill site, whom | have nstanced, if he would
make rond over the other propretor's lands,
would draw custom from their mills which,
by the location of their lands, they might have
retained exclusively for themselves ythcir
license he might make toll by milling for
ncghborhood to which, otherwise he could
not have access. Georgia has its road already
built, at the cost of the State, to Chattanooga.
North Carolina has lately put under contract
the Western extension of the Central Railroad
to AsheviGe, and the engineers are now in the
field to locate and estimate the cost of its fur
ther extension to Dncktown Charleston. by.
the Hiwassee branch of the Blne Ri5ge Road,
can compete with Savannah, with the advan
tage of fourteen miles in distance in favor of
the former, and share the trade, at Chattanoo.
ga, which the Georgia State road has collected
at that place, and can carry off from the Geor-
gia roads the whole trade of Ducktown and
OF all the country between that place and CLAW
ton The proposed extension of the Norsh
Carolina Central road to Ducktown, will cross
the Blue Ridge road in the valley of the Ten
nessee. The distance, by the Blue Ridge
road to Charleston from the junction is so
much less than the distance from the junction
to the ports OF .forth Carolina, that the trade
of the country which the extension will penc.
trate must be drawn over the Blue Ridge road
Georgia and North Carolina might have ex
c'uGoG South Carolina from any commerce
west of the boundaries of the State. But they
have wisely rejected policy so selfish and so
disadvantageous to the northwestern portion
of those States, and have, permitted South
Carolina to construct tho Blue Ridge Road
and thereby divert the trade of those sections
from the territory and railroads of North Car
olina and Georgia
The license to make road over another's
land, even in the case of private persons, con.
fers valuable privilege, the value of which
depends on the use to be made of the road
If it isa turnpike road, the measure Of the
benefit is she frcGt made by the owner of the
road. lie is thus permitted to collect toll
for travel and freight PASSING oyer land ,,,h;ab