Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-07-07
RAILROAD GAUGES.
Kellogg Of LOBisIaaa, TaIks---ne Ralties
Away, and states Facts.


question was considered, a few days
ago. the carpet-bag Senator Kellogg
emptied his portmanteau of ideas
thus loosely in the Senate Chamber:
The Little Rock and Memphis rail-
road is a iive-feet gauge railroad, and
it connects at Memphis with railroads
from that point east; it Is nearly com
pleted 10 Little Rock. i think, per
haps, there are twelve or fifteen miles
yet uncOmpleted of something over
one hundred and twenty miles OF
road in all, which will then make a
continuous line of railroad, except
over the Mississippi river at Mem
phis, from a point on the Atlantic at
Charleston or Norfolk, as the case
may be, intersecting or connecting
with ramificatiOn and network OF
railways from the Atlantic to the Pa
cific-every rod of which, with scarce
an exception, is a five feet gauge.
Thus there is a connection from Nor
folk On any point south of Norfolk
on the Atlantic across the cOun-
try, south of the southern line of Ten
nessee, through the cotton belt,
through the Gulf States, to the Gulf OF
Mexico, intersected north and south
as well as east and west, by five feet
gauge railroad. All the railroads
south of the Ohio, with one or two
exceptions and those are five feet six
inches OF five feet nine inches gauge },
are five feet gauge.
The whole system Of our railroads
South is settled upon this gauge. The
great base OF the Northern system Of
railroads finds its center just south Of
the lakes and its apex between Sioux
City and Omaha, thence westward, as
contemplated by bills passed or COM
panies organized or reads completed
Then the other base finding its center
al Pittsburg, and west and south 10
the mouth OF the Ohio river, forming
a focus at st. Louis and south, con-
verging thence westward, and still
another finding its base from the Ohio
to the Gulf and its focus or apex point
ing TO the thirty-tifth or below that,
to the thirty-secOnd parallel, and
forming from Marshall the eastern
terminus or initial point of this road,
the longest and straightest airline in
the world, 20 Charleston and Savan-
nah or Brunswick, Ga, the latter
point containing the best harbOr on
the Atlantic coast, having seventy
two feet OF water. Why, sir, there is
not a finer harbOr on the Atlantic
coast, nor for that matter on the Pa
cific. 1t Is only twenty-three hun
dred and fifty miles from that point
across the country by way of the
route proposed by this Texas Pacific
railroad bill on the thirty-second par
allel 20 San Diego, as fine a harbOr as
there is on the Pacific coast, not eX-
cepting San Francisco, and having
some advantages that San Francisco
has not. This is a distance no FUR
ther in point of statute miles, mile by
mile, than it is from Chicago to san
Francisco by way of Omaha, CT from
Superior City by the way of the North
Pacific TO Puget Sound. The whole |
system of railroads south of the Ohio |
river really bears down to the thirty |
second parallel. 1t is hundreds of /
miles nearer. It Is three hundred and |
seventy-hve miles ne8, ,er from Nor |
folk to San Diego by the thirty-secOnd !
parallel than by the other route. 1t /
Is four hundred miles nearer from
Philadelphia, nay more than that.
Now, this is the mischief, | beg to /
observe to my friend from North Car /
Olina. It is to cut of that commune /
cation through the cotton belt of the 4
South. 1t is to cut off that longest /
continuous airline railroad, almost as |
straight as a bird can fly, stretching /
from the Atlantic to the Pacific over /
vast plains, a road Of less grade every |
where, built at less expense, going /
through a country that in an agricul- /
tUral and mineral point Of view is un-
surpassed in this mighty continent Of 1
ours, and better than all never to be /
Obstructed by climate, by SHOWS, by |
any obstruction peculiar to the win
try cline OF the North, far below the /
snowy belt. with only one single /
chain Of mountains opening at III /
PasO, the COrdilleras, and not the
Sierra Nevada or Rocky mountains,
with their altitude of eight thousand 4
feet above the level Of the sea to
cross.
This road has none Of these OBJ
stacles to overcome; no impediment 4
throughout the year. 1t is route as 4
perennial as the flow of the Gulf /
stream. It is such a road, with all its /
ramificatiOns and network of five-ieet /
gauge, that the South ask at the hands |
Of the Senate. And the question /
simply is, when they ask for bread, /
will you give them a stone? Or will |
you permit the Central Branch of the
Kansas Pacific, from Ellsworth going /
across the Indian country, TO tap it? .
Why, sir, they will be here in a few /
minutes asking that they be put on,
as a sort Of tail 20 our kite. They will |
ask US to pledge the faith of this ma
tiOn TO extinguish the Indian title for !
the benefit of that road, so that they /
can 90 down with their four feet eight 1
and a half inch gauge, tap US at El 1
PasO, aBd bear all our travel and COM
merce to the North, far west of Mem
phis. Here is the mischief that my
friend from North Carolina (Mr. Alb 4
bott) refers TO.
The connection from Memphis to /
No rfOlk is a five feet gauge; the road /
10 Louisville is a five feet gauge; the 1
road TO Lynchburg is a five feet gauge;
your Chattanooga connection is a five /
feet gauge; east Of that, to Charles
ton, Savannah and Brunswick, the |
roads are five feet; and all along to
Tallahassee, and through TO Jackson
vile, in Florida, and down south Of
that so far as built, all five feet; and I
all the Virginia roads are five feet
gauge.
Ii unfortunately happens that the
gauge Of California roads is four feet
eight and half inches, like the Union
Pacific, and thus the Southern Pacific
leaves one or the other system at its
eastern or western terminus without
the possibility Of making connections.
However, 1T IS enough Tor US to know
that the bill will almost certainly pass
As Kellogg wishes IL