The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1873-02-06

OF West Virginia which have to them hitber.
Ito proved the Black Forcstsrof America
Mt last are opened by q railroad more mag
| niicent in its capacity than any existing line
now running from the Mississippi basin TO
the Atlantic ocean. Let us show them a
fact which few of:them have hitherto been
aware OF, that nowhere from the banks OF
the Hudson to the bills of Middle Georgia
can this vast Allegheny chain be- pierced to
admit of railroad with maximum grades Of
only 2gs feet TO the mile against the western
trade save along the Chesapeake and Ohio
railroad-a fact of incalculable importance
| in future to the trade Of the West and the
| fortunes Of the State, and one giving to this
road (when the straight-slIoot is completed
from Clifton Forge to Richmond) capacity
nearly as great as its two northern rivals-the
Baltimore and Ohio, and Pennsylvania Cen
tral-unitedly have, in consequence of the
heavy grades which rule on the Latter.
Should either House of Congress fail al
this session in passing the bill extending
| the James River and kanawba canal to the
| Ohio we can use this trip over the line as an
occasion to point out to these western rep
resentative men the great idea which Wash.
iHgton and Madison had in 1854 when they
obtained the first charter from the Legisa.
| tlre of Virginia looking to the connection OF
the waters of the james with those of the Ohio,
| We can point out on this occasion that re-
markabIe topography of the State by which
this great mountain range lowers its crest
only where the hcad-Watcrs of the James
and Kanawha nearly interlap to form that
magnificent acdter-gate through which those
vast streams of western and northwestern
products are, destined to pour to the ocean
| by continuous water navigation; constitu-
ting All imperial franchise of trade to the
State hardly second in its value to the grant
Of that magnificent territory in the North
west In her ordinance of 1857 out of which
those five great empires have been carved,
aud demonstrating to the western mind, that
which the practical sagacity of Washington's
mind taught him nearly one hundred years
ago, that it would constitute to the trade OF
| the Ohio Valley the shortest, cheapest, and
| most conlnlod,Ous water route to the Atlantic
ocean. ~ .-..
These are some of the fruits which will
spring out of a proper celebration of this
event, and the bearing we can give them hy
the participation of the West in the same.
Let our authorities, therefore, shape their
preparations to fitting celebration of this
| long-desired consummation by a trip for our
western friends from the banks of the Ohio
to the city of Richmond. And never will
more suspicious time be: when the minds
of Western and Northwestern men will be
more keenIy alive to any fact which throws
light on the question of cheap transportation
to their grain-growing products. Already
this great question is stirring up the minds
OF the Northwest to its depths; for within
the last week there has been held large
convention Of farmers at Bloomington, ILL.,,
to consider this problem, and the result OF
their deliberations is that continuous water
lines alone can furnish that cheap transporta-
ton to the heavy grain products OF the West.
Within the period between the expiration OF
this session and the commencement OF the
Forty-tbird Congress there will be similar
meetings throughout the Northwest, where
an amount OF public feeling and sentiment
will be formed and directed towards the
Forty.third Congress which will be irresisti-
bic in its influence on that body. 1t is emf
pently proper, therefore, that the occasion Of
the celebration of our railroad connection
with Ohio should be so improved as to give
the right tendency to Western and North
western opinion in behalf of that greater
connection which is to take place by the COM
pletion of the James River and hanaWha
canal. 49,.
Mr. Editor. there is no real rivalry be-
tween this our great completed railroad and
our canal, to be completed. One is the sup
plement to the other. Those vast cereal pro-
ducts which will not bear transportation
over railroads will 60 east over the canal, and
create those values which will give rise to
such freights moving from the east to the
west over the railroad as will tax it to its ut.
most capacity. The Erie canal is al cxcm-
plilication of this fIct; it has given birth to
two magnificent misunderstanding from the
lakes TO the Hudson-the Erie and Central
railroads, the latter running on the banks OF
the canal.
Nothing has given more pleasure to the
friends of the canal in Washington than hear
Ing that Dir. Huntington recognized no an
tagonlSm between his road and the james
River and Kanawha canal. Such liberal and
enlarged views becomes the man who, in
three or four years, has carried this great
line of road over the barriers Of the Allcgha-
mics and planted its western terminus OIL the
bank OF the Ohio ut Il town called after HIM
self, and now rapidly increasing in popula-
ton and wealth.
These liberal sentiments equally become
that practical sagacity of the man which
comprehended at once what was embraced
in the tender on the part of the State OF the
Central road and the unfinished Covington
and Ohio with these great franchises, and
enabled him to utilize them in so short i Pc
Rod Of time.
Mr.. Editor, the passage of our canal bill is
now an assured fact, if not ut the present
session, certainly at the next, for the only
real difficulty existing in the minds of the
Committee of Commerce on the part of the
md tho croppiD1 pnn,Doittpo n the
DART of the Senate has been whether it can
be absolutely assured that the proposed im-
proyements will give to the Kanawha river,
and the Ohio below Point Pleasant, sir feet
OF water through all seasons of the year.
The late report of that eminent hydraulic
engineer Edward Lorraine the work he
was engaged on at the time of his DEATH
has just been published under the auspices
of the War Department, and by combina-
ton of what is most valuable in the
reports of Messrs. Fisk and Elicit he has de-
veloped plan esta blishing beyond scien-
tifc doubt the perfect feasibility of securing
to these two streams, forming as they do
large portion of this continuous water-line,
during periods of the greatest drought
continued depth of water equal to six feet.
These requirements for such navigation
4AT. LOIldluc SuoNs arc iuHy hic' W I'LL
proving the river in the manner proposed
by Mr.. Fisk in 1854, and by supplying the
deficiency of water by means of q reservoir
on Meador river, as proposed by Mr.. Elicit
in 1858.
The Fisk plan is shown by Mr. Lorraine
to have been defective in not providing D
suf1iciency of water for the kanawha river
during the dry season. Mr.. Elett's because
it did not conserve the water already in the
river by proper grading and improving of
the channel so that that vast reservoir OF
Meador river, of water preserved from tho