Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1873-03-28

whole State, designed to comprehend the
welfare of every locality and the utiliza-
ton of those great advantages which be-
long to her geographical situation. A
State without a policy with reference to
these great arteries of intercommunication
these instruments of material development
and of commercial expansion, is as absurd
as the man without a purpose "a failure in
the great mission of life-as almless as a
lship without chart.
| The policy as asserted in that day looked
Ito the valleys of the West, in whose
Iboundless resources we were to find that
commercial greatness, rightly the cherished
hope OF our State, lying, as she does, upon
la coast whose harbors have no equals on
the Atlantic; possessing advantages with
reference to the trade of this great and
mighty section, unequalled by any sister
State. In that day the policy was East
and West lines, giving to the currents Of
trade the natural dip which water takes
from the mountain to the sea. 1t was I'M
der the inspiration of that policy that you
now have two lines running from the Sea-
board to the great West, the one upon the
south and the other upon the north side,
with her canal between. 1t was to these
great channels that this Commonwealth
looked, justly and with well-founded conf
|dence, for the achievement of that pros
Iperity to which her position and advan-
Itages entitle her.
Shall I remind gentlemen here that it is
the pursuit of this policy of East and
West lines which has given to Maryland her
Baltimore, to Pennsylvania her Philadel-
|phia, and to New Y ork the great metropoli-
tan city of the United States? 1t was
lin the pursuit of just such policy as this
that there has been created in those States
such vast cities and such tide of pros
|perity. Although it has been said that our
State has the best harbor at Norfolk and
more outlets on the Atlantic coast than
ANY other, do we find Maryland looking for
IAN outlet in Virginia waters? Do we find
the Baltimore and Ohio railroad seeking an
outlet at Philadelphia? No, sir. There,
i'm the administration of that great enter
prise-great because of the incalculable
good it has conferred upon the State which
gave it being, we hear of no suggestion
that Baltimore is not sufficient outlet for
the tonnage it moves. Unlike that mon
ster corporation, which bears the name OF
the Pennsylvania Railroad-With it's many
bureaus and parasites-which cares for no
Interests that do not minister primarily to
its own selfish ends; say unlike that
mercenary concern which would take its
traffic to any harbor where profit could be
attained, the Baltimore and Ohio railroad
seeks to promote the destiny and to make
the greatness of the city of Baltimore.
And, sir, in so doing, respectfully submit
that this corporation performs no more than
the duty which it owes to that city and to
the State under whose authority it exists
and by whose generous contributions it was
CONSTRUCTED.
RuINoUs EFFECT OF NoRTH-AND-sOUTH
LINES.
In what light, as Virginians, shall we
regard those of our railways which are
seeking an outlet at Philadelphia rather
mot on this occasion but at other times,
that the Richmond and Danville railroad, a
corporation Of your creation, but scarcely
within reach of your jurisdiction, and re-
lfusing submission to your laws even when
asking extraordinary privileges and boun-
ties, and declining to share the common
burden of the people, must be afforded
another outlet, and that Philadelphia is the
desired port, and this, Notwithstanding the
fact that Richmond is at the head of tide
water, within forty miles of City Point and
within one hundred and thirty miles of the
greatest outlet upon the Atlantic coast.
There is now another proposition before the
General Assembly, in which railroad is
asking the privilege Of finding an outlet at
Philadelphia when its present terminus IS
within nine miles of deep water at City
Point and within eighty miles of the great
harbor of Norfolk. And yet, sir, we are
called on to abandon the ocean Virginia
lis to forget that she enjoys those advan-
tages so early recognized by Washington,
and which have been the boast of her
greatest men. She is urged to ignore and
forget the science of the illustrious Maury,
/ who has so clearly shown the advantage
Gus relations which she bears toward the
mighty West. At this very time, when the
great trade centres of that vast and pro-
ductive region are earnestly seeking an
outlet through our harbors to the ocean,
the privilege of enjoying the great advan-
tages which are ours, there are those among
us who seek to ignore this fact-to consider
:, Virginia an interior State, possessed Of
none of the advantages which are at once
her boast and the power from which alone
her future prosperity must be derived-and