Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1874-01-23
For the Sentinel.
A Trans-Continental Highway.

Mr.. Editor,-,l have thrown together the
following ideas on subject which is destined
10 assume considerable importance in this
country, and which are at your service TO do
with as you think proper.
The necessities Of the age, keeping pace with
the marvellous advance in population,-I will
not say ciyilization--in this country, and in
the opening up of the different nations of the
earth, points, Enthusiastically, to great central
commercial highway, betting the world, and
free alike from the icy winds Of the North, and
the torrid suns and climatic diseases Of the
South. This great worldroad-whether by
rail or water-must, consequently, pass thro'
the United States Of North America But, for
n great part of the year, the Northern States
are completely icebound, whilst the Southern
States are more or less fliieted by the various
diseases incident TO a torrid climate. Its pas
sage therefore must be looked to through the
Middle States. But even there, Nature seems
to have erected an insuperable barrier to its
progress, in the great Appalachian mountains,
stretching, as they do, from the granite hills
Of the Hudson to the midlands of Georgia, and
nowhere lowering their lofty crest, save in the
single instance Of their depression in that part
of Virginia lying between the headwaters Of
the Kanawha flowing West into the Ohio,
and the James, flowing East into the Atlantic.
The people of Virginia, seeing the immense
advantages which must accrue 10 the State by
the completion Of this connecting link between
those two rivers, and by which the great
West would thus be brought into direct COM
munieation with the commerce Of the world,
are now agiating the question whether that
| State, unaided and alone, should undertake
the construction of this important link, or the
General Government be invited to do it. The
advocates of the former idea, whilst they see
the immense advantages which would accrue
to the State by its completion MS a State seork,
yet deplore her inability to undertake it under
the oppressive weight of her present State in
debtedness- brought upon her, MS it was, by
the action Of the Federal Government, in de-
priving her Of her slave property,-her only
productive or effective force and therefore
hesitate las well they might to advise the sur
render of a work of such vital importance TO
her future welfare, to the centralizing control
of the General Government; and which, if
permitted to go on with its present aggressive
propensities, practically unrestrained, as they
are now doing, must eventually crush out the
last vestge Of republican liberty, not only in
that State but throughout the Union The
advocates Of the latter alternative, fayorng,
(under the peculiar circumstances, a relaxa-
ton Of the principle of strict construction Of
the "derived powers" would have the Gene
raj Government undertake it as a National
work.
Coincident with the latter idea, the farmers
and producers of the great West, that i'm
mense interior lying between the Rocky and
the Allegheny mountains, finding themselves
heeced by the merciless exactions of Railroad
monopolies, in transporting their produce to
the markets of the seaboard, are clamoring for
cheaper transportation, and will not rest until
they demand and force the opening up, by the
General Government, of this more direct and,
consequently, cheaper route, and one which
can be used through the entire year.
The most feasible plan, however, | have as
yet seen suggested, and which would not only
meet the exigences of the occasion, but recon
Gle all the constitutional scruples on the sub
ject, is, that inasmuch as Virginia has been
reduced to her present helplessncss through
the action of the General Government, in con-
| fscating, without warrant Of law, her slave
property, she has clear and undoubted claim
upon the latter for indemnity for such illegal
destruction other property-the amount Of
which indemnity TO be computed by the
amount of her State indebtedness-the same
being based, as it was, on such property, SO
destroyed. This incubus removed, the Old
Commonwealth could then move forward once
more, and summoning all her energies to the
undertaking, complete this great outlet to the
commercial world.
And now, as to the claim of Virginia to in
demnity The Constitution of the United
States expressly forbids the confseation Of
property for political offences. The slaves Of
Virgina--on which the integrity of all her
other taxable property depended, were Off
cially recognized, time and again, as property,
by the Federal Judiciary, as well as every 9TH
er department of the Government; and yet
the latter, through its constituted authorities,
by one decisive blow, and in violation Of its
mandates, utterly and hopelessy destroyed
this species Of property, and virtually all other
taxable property in the State. Could there he
a claim better founded
1t is to be hoped, therefore, that the Federal
Government, in its conscious sense of justice,
elf it has any left)-to say nothing of the i'm
mense advantages which would accrue TO the
whole country, by assuming the Indebtedness
Of Virginia, will do so, and thereby enable
that grind old Commonwealth 10 open up this
great outlet to the commercial world. ?.
Bet6esda, January 20.
DRMocRArlC PRlNoIPLEs.-H Alex. Ste
phens Of Georgia, in his great speech, the
other day, in Congress, on the Civil Rights
Bill, made briliiantefort
The peroration is in these words "If
you who call yourselves Republicans shall in