Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1872-02-03
500 Appropriated by the State for the
Clifton and Knoxville Railroad.

EDITORS CHRONICLE: BY referring to !
the Acts of the General Assembly for 1857
s, there will be found all appropriation for
this road of $4,000 by the State, of East
Tennessee and Georgia Railroad stock,
owned by the State. The road was then
called the Knoxoille, Seyierville and Big
Pigeon Road. )See page 174-5, secs. 40 and
IL chap. lXXXi, Acts 1S67-S.) What we
have said upon this subject has not been
said to tickle the fancy of few people III
one corner of jefferson county But we
deal IN facts and figures, to benefit all four
counties interested and the whole country.
We indeed should feel melancholy if we
knew we had not u friend, an interest, or
an idea, beyond our immediate neighbor-
hood or corporation limits. Progress and
improvement are the notices of free gov
eminent and the principles of the civilized
world. And their wheels will roll on over
every obstacle, though their free progress
may be somewhat impeded by little
mud, labelled jefferson county.
The article in your issue of January
I'D Oh the cambridge and Messy Creek
Narrow Guage is very good Sunday read
ing, but it is like the subject it was writ
ten upon, it is dead letterand u dead issue.
Consequently, on behalf of the friends of
| the Clifton and Knoxville road, we will
| state, we have no time to waste Ill reply
| ing to dead letters and issues. Neither do
we propose to exhibit little enough sagaCi-
| ty to be decoyed away from the object of
our true interest. Owing to lack OF so
| much fair explanation, we here expose TO
public gaze few more facts and figures
| that are not generally known, even in old
jefferson. 1t will be remembered that in
| 1854, when the railroad tax was levied,
that the part Of jefferson county south of
BAYS mountain, that is now so earnestly
| f,>r IN Clifton on1 Il nov willie
road, paid tax on within s. of SAB, 900
worth of property more than the nerth
side did, through which the railroad now
passes. ,,,
At that time they received $50, 900
worth of bonds, to draw Gper cent. interest
for so years, which when added to the
principal, makes $4,000. Besides in
| i867-6S the Legislature appropriate East
Tennessee and Georgia Railroad stock
owned by the State to the amount of S04, ;
900, for the purpose of building other rail-
roads and turnpikes that would be feeders
to the railroad on that eide of the noun
tain. This added to the above makes
$500 that that side of the mountain
has enjoyed the benefit of i'll the
building and improving of her roads,
while not cent of public money has, 50
far as | know, ever been spent ON the south
side of the mountain. 1t may be gratify-
ing TO know InaC S-U,uOO IdIIOdu SIOUX,
appropriated by the State as the law says
exclusively for the purpose of grading a
railroad from cambridge to Messy Greek,
was iudiciously expended on one-half mile
of turnpike road within the corporate linz
its of one of their villages.
And now few 1--WE do not charge it upon
the high toned masses) who have enjoyed
the public teat so richly, do not want to
take the old plan of laboring to make
money to educate their children with, but
have got the cheek, after receiving S19i 900
of public funds, to ask for the remaining
$780, 900 stock we have got i'll the East Ten
nessee and Virginia Railroad, that they
indeed nay make SolOns of their SONS and
daughters.
Great God and shall it ever be
That we poor mortals have come ~ this
We refer not to this matterin any odiOus
point of view. We helped you roll logs
eighteen years ago; now you have an OPP
portunity to exhibit that high sense of
gratitude that should characterize man.
kind. OF all sins, ingratitude is the UNI
pardOnable one. Apply the golden rule.
Pro Bono PUBLICo.