The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-04-23
TUESDAY EVENING, APRIL 90, 1872.
THE FUTUREOF RICHMOND,

Richmond as a great manufacturing and COM
mercial city. She has most wonderful |
combination Unnatural advantages. Her loca-
ton is central not only to the State, but to
the whole tide-water region. She has even
grander central advantage than either of
these, in being the natural terminus of the |
great middle climatic zone of the Union.
Nature has marked the division Of this
zone, with st. Louis as its center and Rich
mond the terminal point, or the point
through which the vast wealth of this in
calculably productive belt of country,
stretching from the Pacific to the Atlantic,
must eventually pass. For the great CEN
trail route Of transit between these two
oceans must pass through st. Louis, and
from there, of necessity, through Richmond.
This fact is demonstrably settled by the
geographical and Typographical conditions
of the country. Valley, river, and noun
tain, as well as our grand estuary from the
sea, decree it. No subjugation of the ma
teral obstacles of the continent can pre-
vent it. It is as fixed and settled as the
law of natural forces can operate TO fix and
settle anything.
Richmond has water communication
capable, with reasonable improvement, of
building up mighty trade, and, from her
position on the map of the continent, this
trade must inevitably come to her. She has
water power of immense volume, now run
ming uselessly to the sea. Around her, at
convenient distances, are incalculable guam
titles Of coal. This coal applied to ma
chinery becomes bone and muscle to the
brain of man, and answers, in all its aptl-
tudes, to the physical power which over
comes nature while it releases from human
drudgery. Iron ores Of unsurpassed purity,
embracing every variety required in the
arts, naturally flow to her furnaces and
fires from all parts of Virginia. Great
forests, skirting all the rivers and betting
the mountain sides, furnish every variety
of timber of the finest quality and in the
greatest abundance. Stone, slate, clays,
sand, and all coarse materials for build
ing and manufactures, are at her command.
Thanked ON all sides by fertile valleys
and plains, with q mild and healthful
climate securing every comfort and luxury
to her people, she offers cheap living and
pleasant homes to all corners, and with
these an ever-broadening diffusion of bene.
fits and blessings.
But with all these advantages, Richmond
has fallen behind the growth of the grea
cities Of the country. She cannot profita
bly, employ her small operative population
nor effectually harness the elements ant
atoms of material agency into her service
Her real estate commands inadequate
prices, and her business men, lacking trade
lack also the enterprise and thrift of othel
localities. Every man feels himself re
strained and tied down to narrow rou
tine, tame and proftless as compared witt
that of other cities. What is now wanted
to quicken the sluggish pulse of her trade
and give to her that splendid growth ant
development Of which she is capable P
First and chiefly, we answer a system o
railroad connections which will fulfill th'
natural indications and conditions Of he
position.
Richmond lies upon the great natura
thoroughfare from North to South, precise
ly as she does on the line Of the great mid
die climatic zone of the Union. Artificia
causes supplement, in q most emphati
manner, her natural felicity of location
At Richmond the guage breaks, and her
should be the ganglaon center of the grea
network of railroad transit in the centrs
Atlantic belt Of the continent. Richmon
is the front of all the South, where tn
nerve and brain of it's whole railroad 81 s
tenn should be placed. Here should b
located the administration Of these grea
artificial lines of traffic. And this, wit
all its splendid consequences to Richmon
and the State Of Virginia, is clearly with
our reach. If we do not obtain it, ths
insane and wretched Bourbonism
which opposes all progressive idea
and hugs the rags of its beggarry and it
pride, because they are old, will be
blame. That policy which would ruin th
State and stalve its people, rather tina
accept prosperity and plenty from the hand
of those who were not born in Virginia
when proffered upon honorable terms,
the only obstacle in our way. When
rich and powerful corporation, under th
most assured management. proposes
spend its money for our benefit, and to il
fuse its own powerful and electric life int
the stagnant veins of our industry an
trade, it is forbidden by musty tradition
and that wretched spirit of Bourbonisr
which everywhere rests as an incubus upo
our physical energies. The managers {
this corporation live, forsooth, out of III
State, and may possibly receive hant
some incidental benefit from the inves
ment they propose to make, and so an il
significant coterie of old fosils, of tho pos
pliocene period, shut out the people
this whole Commonwealth from the &c
vantages which are waiting for their accep
ance. How long are the people to tolerat
this miserable dog-in-the-manger policy
Virginia Bourbonism? We shall pre-