The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1867-03-30
Virginia Railroads.

gina rallrcadS IL Is stated that suuSSi'P
"tions are being taken for the constfuc-
" ton Of railroad from Luxembourg 70
Danville, there to connect with the ola
I" Piedmont IN. CO. road. A railroad IS
"beine constructed from Winchester 70
"Salem, on the Virginia and Tennessee
athrough the Shenandoah Valley" Inese
railroad movements are not surprising anu
that they will 90 ahead with energy anu
suceess we have not doubt. Inc rail-
roads thus proposed to be oui'' WI, %
great convenience to the people inhabiting
the sections of country through which
thew mass, but that they will add dollar
20 the commercial wealth of Virginia we
presume no man will contend. Yet they
will probably be built with more rapidity
than any Of those roads whose direct effect
will be the building up Of Virginia cities
and encouraging Virginia commerce and
manufactures.
1t is we'll for US to look these adverse
agencies full in the face, and to inquire
within ourselves what we can do to avert
them. Virginia is weak and disabled by
a bloody war, and by the series Of msfor-
turnes which followed rapidly in success
sion after the termination Of that war. She
cannot well defend herself. And what is
still worse for her, her own citizens are
divided by sectional and local considera-
lions, and there is no harmony either in
plan or in effort to defend her against OPP
posing interests and hostile schemes. 1t
is her misfortune to be large State, with
conflicting interests and numerous little
towns, each setting up its claim to be con-
sidered great, and each aspiring to be a
station on a railway, no matter where it
goes and no matter what injury it does to
the State. What pity that Virginia has
more than one city and more than one
railroad She might otherwise have a big
city and big railroad.
We never were of those, however, who
would prohibit the construction Of rail
roads ultimately in any locality suited for
them. We foresaw that these lines must
be ultimately built. But our desire was,
and it should have been the wish of every
true Virginian, that those leading lateral
lines connecting the chief tide-water
towns of this State with the Ohio and
Mississippi valleys should be first built.
That would have protected the commercial
interests of Virginia and insured the rapid
growth of her cities, her manufactures,
the development of her mines, and the
immense increase Of her resources and her
political power.
The danger now is that before these
lateral lines are finished, those along the
Valley and the Piedmont, in northeast
erly drec ton, will be in full operation,
giving to commerce tendency that, should
it become fixed, will be nearly fatal to all
plans for a Virginia commerce exceeding
the most ordinary retail enterprises OF
stunted and dwarled cities.
We beg our citizens to consider these
matters, and see if they cannot make an
exertion for the good of Virginia and their
own cities. This city has two schemes OF
vital importance to sustain and assist to
completion-the Covington and Ohio line
to the Ohio, and the short road from this
city to Lynchburg. 1t is idle to fold the
arms in dependency. No people ever got
out of trouble in that manner. The greater
the strait and the difficulty, the greater
should be the effort to triumph over them.
A people who are incapable of increasing
their energies in proportion to their ext
gencies must finally 60 the wall, and be.
come inert, unambtious, and unthritty-
in vulgar parlance, "played out" There
fore this is the time Of all others for the
people of Richmond to prove their claim
to be considered enterprising, industrious
and sagacious.
1t may be said that there is no money
But there will be money. The State will
be restored to her equality in the Union
in a few months, when there will be q
plenty of capital here; and undertakings
now will then be fully sustained. In these
great railroad enterprises, no people enters
upon them with the means in hand-all
look to the future for their acquisition.
No people ever were more dependent upon
the future, while there is good reason to
believe that upon the future we may rely
with very considerable hope and confidence.
The connections with the West being
vital, we should at once proceed to con-
slider how to complete them. The restora-
ton political will be the signal of the resto-
ration commercial and financial; but even
before that, the military government al
interim is doing much to promote security
and order, and therefore to invite conf
dence. Our people have been schooled to
trial, difficulty, and adversely. They have
acquired energy and neutrality-suspicious.
from this education. They are more capa-
BILE than ever of great enterprises. Let
them begin-the ways and means will fol-
low, and we shall triumph. But if we
make no effort, depend upon 1t Virginia is
doomed, and becomes permanently, in all
the matters of trade, finance, commerce,
and the physical energies and enterprise
they foster, province-and very dull
and thriftless one.
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North Carolina.
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