The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-12-14
The virginia Canal

AILtOtd sAHtStttyeUCeT
Tho WeSt Vtrgi,,id Journal of the 9Th
inst, contains an extract from the Rich
mond Wing specializing upon the TaVs
and means Of completing the names
River Canal TO the Ohio. Speaking of
the French company who have assumed
this gigantic task, the writer saws :
Ihey have proved themselves so tilIlfd
ana dIlatory that ''he is tired of the
very names of those gentlemen" In
tue very next sentence, however, he in
advertantly justifies the cautious tactics
of those parties by admitting thai, in
their default, the case is SO desperate
that he (the editor) had to "cudgel his
own brains" to find substitute. And
what do you think he has hit
upon j? 'To offer the canal TO the
world at auction.' Surprising the
sale to be peremPtory, this would at
best amount to giving away the portion
of the canal now in operation, for the
construction of the remainder. And
even upon those terms, it is doubtful
whether any parties could be found
upon the face of either continent to
take the contract, except that very dilu-
tory concern whose name is so depress-
ing 10 the nerves of the Richmond
Wing.
No one in the least acquainted with
the firm who are the moving spirit OF
this canal enterprise, will attribute its
delay to their timidity, or want of ener-
gy. All the world knows that thew
have not got the fifty millions of dollars
required 10 build the work, and if they
had, they would know better than to
invest their all in such a job. They are
merely exerting their credit and intlu-
ence to get the necessary capital sub
scribed abroad. When, after the war,
they proposed the renewal OF their con-
tract here, they were encouraged bV the
financial condition of Europe, and con-
hdlng in the bona hGe submission of the
South to the logic of events, they were
building upon n permanent national
peace, and not upon the second civil
war which the Richmond Wing and
compeers proclaim rs inevitable before
the South can get her rights" 1t is
suPpOsable that the European capital
lists who are to furnish the funds for the
canal, know the value of five franc
piece, and do not have to ''cudgel their
brains" to know what to do with it.
No errors are more characteristic of
the'American press than those arising
from Ignorance and prejudice in regard
TO men and things on the other
continent. Not long ago it was cur
rently reported here that the French
Canal Company had probably failed to
go on with the Work, because, since the
collapse of the Southern Contederacy,
Louis. Napoleon had given up the idea
OF converting Virginia into a French
colony! What intelligent observer of
foreign politics would ever suspect the
great and grave "remodeler'' of the map
OF Europe, of inclination or leisure for
landscape gardening in Dixie?
Nor is it true that the French Com
pany have abandoned the project. In
n letter to the writer dated London.
10th November, Mr.. L. Bellot saws
that the organization of the Canal
Company leaves him little leisure tor
any other business, and makes
inquiries in regard TO the con-
ditlon and prospects of this
State, betokening his unabated energy
in the prosecution of the work under
consideration.
III the meantime it is suicidal policy
on the part of the public press of States
SO sadly deficient in public spirit, to
throw cold water upon the efforts OF
foreign enterprise, because il cannot re-
move mountains in one day. There
are probably not over fifty natives of
Virginia soil, within the boundaries of
the new Stale, capable of approaching
the amount of energy, patience and
perseverance required to attract capital,
population and enterprise into a Terri
tory so unpopular and so little known
as ours, and the number of those will
ling to MD in the good work in proper
ton to their means, is no doubt consid-
erably less.
In conclusion, would ask the Rich
mond Wing, and others who may be
sharing his Impotence, where the At
lantic cable would be now, had the
European stockholders grown tired of
the name of Cyrus w. Field =?
PdrEerSburg, Dec. 10, 1866