The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-06-24

/
might use the street in danger? We have
Fever heard this power denied by any
person or party-nor by the advocates oil
the railroad in the Council, nor by its
counsel out of it, not even by the railroad
company, or its president and directors.
1t Is true, that in apaper submitted to the
Council by the President of the railroad
company IAN eminent lawyer in the year
1888. without denying this power to ex.
clude steam engines. he submitted an argu-
ment, founded upon strange misapplica-
ton OF British decision. for the purpose
OF proving that he might deny it; but he
does not venture to deny it. That paper
was so successfully answered by report
from committee of the Council, which
was adopted by the Council, that we deem
it unnecessary to do more than to refer you
to it, and on pages % and 80 of it you will
lind that the Council adopted it, and IRE.
solved that the Common Council possess,
and have never yielded or relinquished, the
right to prohibit the introduction of steam
engines into the city," and we submit that,
having retained that and all other powers
possessed by the corporation, 1t retained,
also, the power to withdraw the permission
to keep the railroad in Broad street
whenever it became satisfied that its ex-
istence was nuisance, incompatible
with the rights of persons and property in
connection with the street. and therefore,
not to be continued, for the right to abate
a nuisance was not only one of the char
tered powers and privileges of the corpora
ton, but one of its duties. Accordingly,
when, by ordinance, the Council prohibited
this company from obstructing the street
by using it as depot, and leaving its cars
standing upon it, and with a defiance of
law and the right of all other persons and
powers but its own, which has been exhib.
tied by no other body of which we have
knowledge, this company persisted in yiolat-
ing the ordinance, the Mayor Of the city,
then its highest judicial officer, proceeded to
arraign, condemn and punish it by fine.
TO illustrate still further the right of the
Council to remove the railroad even if il
had at first parted with that right, we SUBJ
init that that parting with the right was
necessarily subject to the condition well
known to all lawmakers and lawyers, and
every other man who has any sense of right
and justice, which is so tersely expressed in a
few Latin words, ",Sic atere tho Mt non dlie-
mum laedds," which, translated, means, so
use your own that you do not injure others;
and, therefore, if the railroad proves to be
a nuisance, the right to abate it was not
surrendered even by an unconditional per-
mission to come into the city. If, for in
stance, it was found that some man was
killed every day, or some carriage broken,
Or some house fired, it would be an insult
to you TO imagine that you would permit it
to continde, and stultify and make your.
selves accessory to murder and arson by
exclaiming, We can't help it; we have
given to the railroad company the right to
perpetrate these little enormities."
But. as we have shown, the right to come
into the city was never unconditional, and
all your chartered powers and privileges
were retained.
The only question remaining to be con-
sldered is the question whether the railroad
in Broad street is nuisance or not? And
in answer to that question, we have to re-
fer. first. to your own records from the
month of February, 1896, down to the
present time-tilled as they are through
period of thrty-seyen years with the re-
monstrances of our people against the
nuSance, and their supplications for re-
lief from it, which, upon various pretexts,
have been strangely disregarded.
Secondly, to the fact to which almost
every citizen on Broad street can testify,
that various lives have been lost and en-
dangered, various persons mutilGted, and
many carriages destroyed or broken by
engines on the railroad, and even since
our appointment, the passengers in car
nearly full upon the horseback were, in
our view, put in jeopardy of life or limb
by the engine which is used for no other
purpose, that we are aware Of. but storage
of it on Broad street, and passage thence
over it to assist in hauling the Fredericks-
burg train from the Petersburg depot, and
train which comes from and goes to
Milford. And in the further fact, to which
every property holder on Broad street
will testify, that the loss upon rents has
been from fifteen to twenty-five per cent.
for thirty years.
Is not this last fact alone enough to JUS
tify us in demanding the removal of the
railroad, and to make 1t your duty to
comply with the demand: Wonld you
permit any company to put down rail-
road to be used by steam cars on Main OF
Cary streets? Do you believe that if it
were attempted, the people, in the exercise
of the right of selt-protection, would not
rise up in their might and tear it up as fast
as it were put down? Have not we of
Broad street equal rights with those of
Nam and Cary? Why are we treated as
outlaws by being denied the protection of
the law to our persons and property while
all other citizens enjoy it? Such an out
rage, we believe, has never been imposed
upon any other people, and we confidently
appeal to you for relief.
Thus far we have treated the railroad as
if it were still in use for the purpose for
which you permitted it to come into the
city. Then the inducements were that it
would bring much trade and travel, which
would not otherwise come; but that is
not now the case. The cry then was that
if the railroad were not permitted to de-
scend Broad street our merchants would
be subjected to much expense in haul
ing freights to and from the depot, and
passengers to much expense in hiring hacks
to carry them to and from the railroad.
And then, also, it was the carrier for the
Louisa railroad from which it brought much
freight into Richmond /; but its extortions
compelled that road to extend itself to the
city, and it no longer brings, therefore,
either through passengers or through
freight into the city through Broad street,