Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1869-01-21
THE NATIONAL ROAD.

For years this grand farmers road has
been going down. Each year the bed of
the road has been getting thinner, until
it is now about worn out. A great por-
ton of the road is so little used that the
payments for toll scarcely equal the cost
of keeping up toll-gates, and the tolls
received on few miles of road in prox-
unity to the market towns in each of
the counties through which ii passes,
has to be distributed over the whole
road for repairs. 1t seems to us, how
ever, that even under this condition of
afairs, the tolls received ought to, if
properly managed, be sufficient to keep
the whole road in repair. In Belmont
county we have always paid more in
tolls than was expended on the road
within the county, and never made
complaint as long as the road was kept
in anything like passible condition,
and the funds of the road legitimately
used for keeping it up. The day of for
bearance has gone by. The road is worn
out; the funds paid in for tolls have
been used to fill the pockets Of private
individuals and advance the interests Of
corporations, and our tolls have been
increased twenty per cent. to raise the
money to carry out these abominable
outrages. u e
Two years ago a bill was smuggied
through the Legislature in the appro-
priation bill authorizing the Board Of
Public Works to build an iron bridge
oyer the canal in the town ofZanesville,
at an expense of s.. 900, which was in
creased the year following in the same
way, by an addition of s2,5oO- The
Auditor Of State refused to draw an
order on the State Treasury for the
amount because, he claimed, it was in
violation Of the act Of Congress ceding
the road to the State. .rsasg
Two years ago bill was introduced
to purchase the bridge over the Mus
kingum river, and pay for it by taking
$4,000 out Of the tolls of the National
Road. This bill was defeated. princi-
paIIy through the earnest labors Of DR..
II. West of this county, who was then
in the Senate. Last winter another bill
was introduced by the Muskingum
county members, Messrs. Linn, Jewett
and Ball, and on first vote defeated, but
on a reconsideration of the vote these
gentlemen brought the party lash to
be ar upon recusant Democrats, one of
them going SO far as to accuse its defeat
to the Black Republicans, and calling
ON Democratic members not TO suffer
themselves to be controlled by Republic
can influence.
Under this pressure the bill was passed
and we are reaping the result of this
Democratic triumph in the increased
tolls we pay for travelling over worn
out road.
This law for the purchase of the Mus
kirgum River Bridge, is as clearly in
violation of the law ceding the pike to
the State as the law authorizing the
building of the bridge over the canal,
which the Auditor of State refused to
carry into effect, and those ofour people
who are interested in this subject. should
call meeting at once and see whether
something cannot be done by injunction
in the United States District Court. or
in some other way, to prevent the con-
sumation of this infamous outrage. If
the people of Belmont county are to be
taxed by a Democratic Legislature to
build free bridges for the city of Zanes-
Vile, 1t Is well enough to know it, aud
If we have remedy by which we can
get rid of such unjust legislation 1t is
time we were making arrangements to
avail ourselves of that remedy.