The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-08-25
FURTHER BY MAIL.
Irnox An OCCASIONAL ooazzsrosDzsr.l
q lrnoM Az oooAsIoNAL ooRHEsfoNDENT.I
THE RAILROAD SCHEMES IN THE LEGISLATURE
A sHARP TRICK OF THE NORTH oARoLINIANs
"A HEAVY sUBsDY-NTRopucT1oN OF THE
NARROW .auAaE-A BLOW AT SOUTH oARoL1NA
-How THE WIRES WERE WORKED.

COLUMBIA, August "a propose to-day to
confne myself and my letter to the subject Of
railroads, and what is doing here in that direc-
ton. AS your readers are wen acquainted
with the existing railroad system Of the State,
il will be unnecessary for me to lose any time
in a long preface on the subject. The citizens
Of Kershaw and Lancaster Districts have long
felt the want OF railroad communication with
Charlotte, and this long felt desire had ma
tured into q plan Of action, TO ask for charter
from Camden to Charlotte. In this they had
the cooperation Of the South Carolina Rail-
road Company, and Of a'large number Of the
leading merchants OF Charleston. @
TWAS further contemplated by the citizens
of Kershaw and Chesterfield to ask for char.
ter from Camden to Cheraw, and thus secure;
by a connection with the, Cheraw and Coal
fields Railroad q shorter route to Raleigh,
Washington and New York. In this enterprise
also the merchants OF Charleston, and more
especially the Northeastern and Cheraw and
Darlington Railroad Companies. felt strong
interest, and proposed by their aid and coun-
tenance to assist in its construction.
+ These plans, it will be observed, have in view
the development Of the resources of the State,
the improvement Of large area OF her waste
lands the increase Of the commerce OF our
chief city and seaport, and at the same time
increase the travelling facilities both for our
own people and to the country at large.
And besides all these advantages, the proposed
scheme was not designed to work to the detri-
ment of railroads and other large interests
protected by vested rights. These charters
and privileges we're all to be held within the
Stale, and no difficulty was apprehended in 80
arranging the system that, while it tended to
benefit to the utmost the sections Of the State
trayersed by these lines, it should ye: not work
counter to the interests of the South Carolina
Railroad, Wilmington and Manchester Railroad,
Northeastern Railroad, Cheraw and Darlington
Railroad, and to the mercantile and shipping
interests Of Charleston. There could be no
objection to such q scheme, and there was
none. Il was matter OF great importance,
however, and It is no reproach to those Of our
people most concerned to say that they we're
somewhat allow in their deliberations, and pre-
ferred to wait little longer before moving in
/,
the matter, rather than oct hastily.
This was the situation of affairs, when sud-
denly, without any premonition whatever, gen.
tlemen from North Carolina make their appear
ance here before the Legislature, and ask for q
charter for railroad from Raleigh to Colum-
bia, known as the chatham Railroad" This
Chatham Road was originally designed to run
from Raleigh to the coalfelds in Chatham
County, N. c., distance Of little over thirty
miles, and there to connect With the Cheraw
and Coalaelds Railroad. Recently, however, this
little insignificant Chatham Road was pur-
chased by the direction Of the Raleigh and Gas
ton Railroad, with the design, it would appear,
of extending their line southwestward. They
procured charter forthwith from the North
Carolina Legislature, now in session, to extend
this road to the South Ccrohna State line, and
are now here to obtain the permission Of this
Iepislature to continue the road, via Cheraw
and Camden, to Columbia, certainly one OF the
coolest requests ever made to a Legislative
body.
The audacity Of this scheme will be better
understood when direct your attention to the
fact that this charter from the North Carolina
Legislature must be in direct violation OF the
charter granted few years 70 the Cheraw
and Coalields Railroad by az yious Legisla-
ture Of North Carolina. This charter has not e1-
pired, and yet, strange to say, the Chatham Road
proposes, in the face Of it, to run over the same
ground-certainly to run between the same
termini-and all this, without as much as say