, 1873-02-07

and larger wor1dliness have kept The Rebel Capi
IN sway from the hot distillery OF the Gul
States, whore 1t bolonged7 That road, spannin
from the Ohio to the James, might have receive
along Its axis the conveying armies Of the Union
: ment to the southward, using this line for IL
base OF movements. and supplies.
But a canal must needs be built to "divids
fair - with the railroad, aud get :" tho Niger
complete canal was the last ditch Of the Re
beuion, for right there, at Appomatto1, on til.
dry cannl-bank, SO miles south Of the railroad
Leo gave up 1iB sword
It has taken lust three years Of straightfor
ward freedom to accomplish what q quarter O.
q century OF blundering slavery failed at. Teacl
this at the Lee University as part Of tht
branch OF rhetoric called " The Lost Causa!' n
Of great temperate canal route between the
Valleys Of the Ohio and the james, uid the Ka-
nawha, so rs to avoid tho cold climate and
frozen COURSES Of the Northern Lakes, and the
is submitted passing down the Mississippi In
1885, the Legislature Of Virginia subscribed
$4,000, 600, and al, 900 900 had already been e.
pended: Richmond City had given, also, eG5o,
QUO. Although nearly forty yeara hive inter
vened, We find the Legislature OF Kansas, in the
year 1873, still petitioniug Government to come
to the aid of this Canal Company.
| CANAL REVIVAL
Thls memorial sets forth that the existing
lanes River and hanawha Canai already extenda
! 200 miles; that it is feet deep, so feet wide,
and has cost $40, ,0o0i and that it is noces-
sary to the grain growing people OF kaneas,
Iowa, Missouri, and the Ohio Valley, who have
been taxed ESQ ,00o, 900 by the Eric Canal. The
canni IN question, It eyer completed, would be
" miles or the navlgable hannwha, 119 miles OF
locks and dams on the same stream, 272 miles Of
| the canal proper across the mountains to Rich
n1ond, and thence ship-navigatlon to Hampton
Roaas.
At present this measure ia represented, but
with apparently poor arguments in its favor.
lhe history OF all tie three mountain canals Is
| history Of baHlemens or abandonment.
/ CANAL RETROSPECT
The Chesapeake d Ohio Canal wnS designed to
be 341 miles long, and to connect both Baltimore
aud Washington with the Ohio Hiver.- 1t ruined
| tho prospects OF Washington City to obtain q
] connection Of its own with the West, and, hnv-
! ing cheated Baltimore with impossible hopes,
drat crossing Of the mountains and delayed it for
years with q lawsuit. Tho canal stops now at
Cumberland. and is used almost wholly for the
transportation OF coal, and quarTy-stone, aud
neighborhood produce. It cost 81, ,0O0, 000 OF
s5s,0 por mile,-near1y three times as much
per milo rs the Erie Canal, and one-third moro
than tho whole of TINT long work.
The Pennsy]vanis system OF interlinking rail-
prised $50 miles Of canals and slackwater, and
120 miles Of rail- costing in all ,000, 900, much
Of which was afterward broken up, and finally
tho whole sold, as costly corruptef Of the State
politics. On this line aportagc-road crossed the
mountains ut an ultimate altitude Of 2,491 feet,
costing$1, ,5oG Co., and carrying laden barges al
saturated with water.
On tue Potomac and tho James River Canals,
to this day, passenger-stcamorB run. aud tho
mails are transported.
As curly rs 1754, twenty years before his great
hess. Washington rode in person up tue line Of
tho Potomac and down the Ioughiogheuy River,
to deliueate the line of Transcontinental Canal.
Tho Potomac Company followed in time, OF
existence Of thirty-slx years, Gnd IN expenditure
Of $3.50, 900, it abandoned its plans in 1922, and
w2s succeeded by the Chesapeake i Ohio
Canal.
There iB no longer any proposition offered to
finish the Potomac Canal Us originally project
.ed,-none to revive the Pennsylvania Canal sys~
tenn; but there ia q steady pressure from tho !
either that canal or the Niagara canals. Stimuli
taneous with this effort from tue Northwest is !
an endeavor on the part Of the Midland West to |
resume the kan2wha Canal, or to connect the |
Tho City of Baltimore, meantime, jealous Of !
the prospects Of tho Chesapeake d Ohio Road
to roach tidowater at the mouth of the bay, is
agitating the subject Of a shlp-canal ACROSS Del
aware and tho Eastern Shore Of Maryland, to
cost $40 coo 000 and to put Baltimore within 50 I
miles Of the Atlanuc, at saving Of $50 miles OF |
roundabout sailing.
The chesapcake & Chic Railway Ae}ps to get
tic the problem of
v1Rots1As so1rEScY ~:
and future importance. It will speedily make
West Virginia what Western Pennsylyauia ls,-a
resounding and labyrintlune maze Of industries
and furnace-flamcs; and the same modern spir-
its who have completed the railway will provide
immigration. The Kanawha River, unlike the
Monongahela and Allegheny, ia now the line Of
a through rail-route between the East and the
West, and its towns will therefore be in posi-
ton to share the advantages Of full communicn-
cion twice per diem with the outer world; they
may be expected to develop with rapidity and, in
another generation, the Observation-Disclosures
Of Vest Virginia will have lost their crude
and contributed strong personal BIZ
ographies to the country: The toWn OF Hunting
ton il 800 miles farther down the Ohio by wnter,
than Pittsburgh, above 100 miles below Parkers-
burg, and about l60 miles, by river, from Cin-
ri1snati. The Chesapeake i Ohio Road is first
tapped eastward ut Charlottesville, by tho Balti-
more L. Ohios connection, aud at Richmond by
the Pennsylvania connection. It is thus a.