Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-09-05
The Memphis and Ohio Road

1t has been already announced that this
road has raised the interest due 10 the
State, and restored to its regular managers,
and DR.. Clifie, who was appointed Receiver
by the Governor, returns home. The peo-
pie of Memphis are now greatly exercised
about the manner in which the money was
raised. II is asserted that an Arrangement
was made with the Louisville and Nash
vile road to advance the money, in con
sideration that the latter should have a
lease Of ninety~nine years on the Memphis
and Ohio road, and so take it out of the
hands of the stockholders, and virtually
transfer the ownership Of an important
Tennessee improvement to Kentucky. At
this the Memphians are indignant. The
assertion that some such arrangement was
made, is sustained by the following article
from the Louisville Journal Of a few days
ago:
The course of Governor Brownlow of
Tennessee, in appointing a Receiver and
new Superintendent for the Memphis and
Ohio railroad (exlending from Paris to
Memphis) iustifes the hope, if not the pre-
dicticn, that the Louisville and Nashville
Railroad Company will soon become the
owners of the insolvent road, as well as the
whole branch from the State line to Mem
phis The Nashville road is abundantly
able to make the purchase, and there can
be no doubt as to the safety of the specu-
latiOn. 1t requires no set argument to
prove that if this Memphis road is bought
and consolidated with the main trunk, and
the union route is operated under the
shrewd and popular management of the
Nashville Railroad Directory, it would be
one of the best railway institutions in the
country. Now, it occurs to us, is the time
for the Nashville road to strike. The COM
pany, as is well known, has negotiated long
and Intellectually for the possession of the
Memphis branch. Hitherto the great OBJ
stacle has been the great Indebtedness and
unreasonable terms adhered to by the
Memphis, GAINESVILLE and Louisville COM
pany. But in view of the action of Gov.
BrownlOw, which virtually embargoes the
Memphis and Ohio strip Of the road, we
imagine it will not be at all difficult to
make a satisfactory bargain to the effect
above stated. Louisville is deeply con-
cerned in the acquisition Of the Memphis
road. Should the authorities Of the main
road consummate the union it will, in our
humble opinion, turn out to be the happiest
move they ever made"
Whereupon the Bulletin says:
1t was not for such purpose-it was not
to reach so lamentable a consummation
that the people of Memphis in their
corporate capacity, subscribed $4,000, or
the county Of Shelby subscribed 100000,
or the capitalists of Memphis subscribed
about $4,000 for the mdkingof this road
Nor was it for such suicidal consumma-
ton, that the merchants and business men
Of Memphis, although impoverished by
war, subscribed sixty thousand dollars last
year to put that road again in running
order. There Is gross dereliction, involv-
ing the utter disregard alike Of the interests
and the rights Of the people Of Memphis
and West Tennessee, inthislong- protracted
negotiation"
The popular indignation will forever blast
the man who, under such circumstance,
would prostitute his temporary connection
with the road to sell, or lease it for ninety
nine years, to Louisville spectators Al
ready, we learn, the freights going TO LOUIS
vile, by this line, ARE LESS IN PROPORTION
TO THE DISTANCE THAN THOSE COMING TO
MEMPHIS and it is not difficult to perceive
how much more oppressive they wonld be-
come when Louisville, aud not Memphis,
interests controlled its operations