The Portland daily press., 1870-02-15
DAILY PRESS.
Tuesday Morning, February Is, 1870.
Portland, Ruilnnd, OswegO and Chicago
Railroad.
CORTLAND


project, which claimed for Boston the sympa-
thy of the Oswego committee, and purpose
on their part to turn the line from Oswego to
Boston, instead of Portland. You introduced
this article from the Boston paper to your
readers, with evident satisfaction, in the fol-
lowing significant words:
THE oswEGo AND NEW ENGLAND RAILROAD.
The following article from the Boston Com
mercial Bulletin will show what the people of
the New England metropolis think of the
railroad that Mr.. John A. Poor and his asso-
clate5 are so assiduously recommending to the
people OF Portland, and which Mr.. Poor has
seen fit to antagonize with the Portland &
Ogdensburg route.
The committee in charge of the Portland
and Rutland railroad company, deemed it
proper at once to transmit the article from
your paper to the Oswego Committee for ex-
PLANTATION, and the following correspondence,
---',:~l, 50 herewith transmitted for publication,
will enable the readers D-.----
prehend the present condition of the trans
continental railway project, and the chances
of Boston in their efforts to control its direc-
ton. In what manner the Transc ontinental,
or the Portland, Rutland, Osweeo and Chica-
go railroad project, antagonizes the 'Ogders-
burg route" leave it for you to explain.
PORTLAND, Jan. 20, 1870.
G. MoLLIsoN, ESQ: Dear Sir,-Your favor
of the 25th inst. is received. On submitting
the same to our committee in charge of the
Transcontinental Railway project, / was in
structed to reply to it,, setting forth the views
entertained by us as to the policy to be pur-
sued.
The call for the Oswego Convention, a copy
OF which l take the liberty of enclosing to
you, declared its purpose to be the securing of
direct line of railway from Chicago to Port
land, as necessary remaining link to be con-
structed, to secure the shortest possible line
of transit across the continent of North
America at its widest part. SO as to reduce to
its lowest limit OF time and cost the transit
between the commercial centres of Europe
and Asia.
The doings of the convention were in har-
mony with the purpose OF the call, though it
favored not only direct line from Chicago to
Osweso and to Portland, by way OF Rutland,
but favored also the line OF the Northern Pa
cltic railway from PugeI's Sound to the head
OF Lake Superior, thence east to the straits Of
Mackinaw, thence through the peninsula of
tAiSbicdu ~ GuC ~. Sldil l1fcI, HUH WHICH
point common trunk line was to run, by
way of Osweso and Rutland, to Portland
The proposed New England and Oswego
railroad was agreed upon at Oswege, as the
only link unprovided with a charter to carry
the Ii ne through.
The line across the peninsula of Canada,
represented by VIM. A. Thomson, Esq, was
pledged by him, as link in the chain, and
amendments were also promised by him to
make his line coincide in all respects with the
general plan.
The Parliament of Ontario granted all the
amendments asked for by Mr.. Thomson un-
der the new charter, called the Canada South
ern Railway Company, so thai, every portion
OF the route is provided with the necessary
chartered rights, excepting that link in New
York, from Richland TO Fort Ann.
Alter full hearing at Saratoga, your COM
mittee unanimously decided in favor OF di-
rect route from Fort Ann to Richland.
l am aware that the suggestion was made,
that a branch line in connection with the
mail line might be run from some point in
the neighborhood OF Worthwhile to Saratoga
or BallstOn, in the direction of the HoOsac
Tunnel, and while the New England dele
gates present from Maine, New Hampshire
and Vermont, made no objection to other
lines and other routes reaching towards New
railway scheme, or the section of it from
Portland to Chicago ought not to be impaired
or interlerred with, by any attempt to fasten
upon it a branch line, or branch lines of any
sort. Such was the decision of your commit
tee, and notice thereof given to the public
newspapers in the neighborhood, and repub-
lished in the papers OF New England, in the
form following:
"New England and Oswego Railroad. The
,1nre
Transcontinental Railroad Convention, held
at October last, to organize company to con-
struct railroad from Oswego TO some point,
or points il, the eastern part of the State of
New York, between Albany and Whitehall.
having held one meeting at Boonville, 2Sth
of October, and a second at Saratoga this day,
have alter Iull and free discussion by large
delegations interested, decided to have a sur
vey made from Fort Ann to Oswego, through
Glen's Falls, Jessups Landing, Conklingvile,
Beecher's Hollow, Worthwhile and Boonvi!le.
"William McEchron and John p. Conkling
were appointed a committee to procure funds
for the survey OF the route from Fort Ann TO
West Stony Creek.
GILBERT MoLLIsoN, Chairman.
After the adjudication at Saratoga, imme-
diate measures were adopted 10 advance the
project under every assurance of success, and
the principal labor necessary to carry out this
great undertaking, seemed to us accomplish
ed, tor the idea or theory upon which the
transcontinental railway project rested, SEEM
ed to have got some hold upon the public
mind. In carrying out railroad projects, We
had been taught the truth of Lord Houghton's
remark, that ''it is only by an innumerable,
succession of strokes that thought is driven
into the world" and we consoled ourselves
on our return from Saratoga in that success
- - ctrD had oIr Ixr 30 +an -,
our favor.
In carrying out our line of railroad from
Portland 10 Montreal. we were confronted in
Canada by most ilDpudent and audacous
manifesto on the part of leading men in Bos-
ton, headed by Hon. Harrison Gray Otis,
signed by 331 others certified by the Mayor OF
Boston to be the leading capitalists and busi-
ness men Of Boston, representing the senti-
ments of that city, a copy OF which 1 here
with transmit for your information. For the
last twenty-five years the city OF Portland has
enjoyed the distinction OF being the recipient
OF an innumerable succession of blows from
the city of Boston, in the same spirit, and 1T
was with regret not so say extreme mortitica-
tlon, that we read the article in the Boston
Commercial Bulletin of January 18th inst,
indicating a purpose to interfere with the
plans agreed upon for carrying out the trans
continental railway.
If we could have suspected bad faith, moth
ing could have induced us to have visited
Saratoga to meet your committee. Public
faith and udright dealing, can alone win sUc-
CESS in carrying out great national and in
ternatiUnaI work like the one in question,
known as the Portland, Rutland, Oswego &
Chicago Railroad.
If Boston men choose to build line of rail-
road from Boston to Oswego, or if Oswego
men desire to build a line OF railway from Os
wego to Boston, 10 one in Portland or else
where can fairly raise word of objection.
Bnt for Boston men or Oswego men to talk
about line of railway from Oswego to Bos-
ton, as portion of the transcontinenta
scheme as understood by those who signed
the call for the Oswego convention, is simply
absurd, to use no harsher term.
Boston is so miles south of Oswego and 90
south of Richland, and line from Oswego to
Halifax, by way of Boston, is l 10 miles longer
than the direct route by way of Portland.
Common fairness, therefore, requires us to
say that the scheme proposed, since we met
you at Saratoga, of adopting new line OF
policy, running line of railway from Oswego
to Boston, and calling it part of the Trans
continental Railway in the execution of the
trust committed to you, by the Oswego con-
vention, is policy in which we cannot agree.
1t is fair to say, in this connection, that we
should be happy OF the cooperation 0i cap
itals.s and business men everywhere, BOSTON
men among the rest, in carrying out tue greas
scheme upon which we have embarked, the
shortening the time of transit between Hong
Kong and London, and bave no objection TO
connecting or intersecting lines.
Hon. F. +. Low, our new Minister to Chi
ma. whom met at New York city on my re-
,,,,n from, Saratona aSSurnd mo of tba O,,ooass