Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1875-04-02
For the J>urna'
For the ,urnai
North Carolina ga strip OF Land
Between Two SIatcs.o

For the y 'urnat
North CarolInas'As strip OF Land
Between Two SIates.'
.Ncssrs. Editors
In my note published in your issue
of the 25th, you made me say the
Greek aOas replaced by the Roman
Church" Remove the two words
"was'' and ''by," which did not use,
and it changes the language entirely
and states the fact. The Greek re-
placed the Roman G. ,urch."
am gratiied that the newspapers
of the State are becoming aroused to
the outrage committed by tsUo mem
bers of the Supreme Court first, and
followed By the Richmond and
Danville Railroad, by changing the
guage, after the tda0 had been enacted.
/ am assured by a person on the
gle rail, had been done until Monday,
18th March, and on that day
the bill passed and became law.
The guage was not changed so that
cars could run to Charlotte until
| Thursday about 5 p. M, the 18th.
Judge Bynum remarked that he die
not consider the lodging out of the
| way of the Injunction or notice of the
! rather aggravated the offence.
| It seems very clear that the opinions
of the Supreme Court in that and the
| Railroad Tax cases were given by
Judges Reade and Settle. Certainly
Judge Rodman did not concur III the
nuage opinion as he was a stock
holder and refused to act. Judge
| Pearson was sick and Judge Bynum
was at home in Charlotte at the bed
side of sick daughter. Had
he been present. he would have dr.
sented from the opinion in all the
cases referred to above. 1t seems
to me that the question OF guage is
one that there could have been but
little difficulty about, though the acts
of Incorporation Of none of the Older
railroads fix the guage. Yet the poll
CIV OF the State was well known to the
public an0 to the Court.
The Wilmington & Weldon Railroad
was the first 10 Duild, end it fixed the
guage for the State at feet 81 inches.
The Raleigh & CASTOR followed the
Wilmington & Weldon Railroad. theI
the North Carolina Railroad was char
tered. and of course 10 guage was
tanned, because the North Caroline
g,tagc tC0s ,UcU k,aoaOn' 1t ar0s com
mon ldsO, so to speak. TIL Ea t"r1
aud Eastern exit ions were to be the
same. Other States had differen'
guage, and if any special case arose
q special guagH was mentioned. How
the Supreme Court fall d to recpgnz'
this fact, and to regard the guhge o
the North Carolina railroad, "a wei
established az though the words 'Jo,N
feet eight and half inchcS." wer'
embraced il the charters, it Is hard t
understand.
, [ 10 not propose to attribute an,
improper motive to the Court (the two
men bers) but for the sake ofthe cred
it OF the State and her interest, ra'h
er than the interests Of the DAnvili'
railroad, we hope the Court, when ;
full bench is IN session in June, vii
on petition, or otherwise, re- open til
case ard have it reconsidered. 1t =
due to the two sitting members snt
they should desire it.
Why the Richmond and Danvltl,
Railroad did rot change the guage o
> its own road to four feet eight and
half inches is "a wonder. But tie WOE
der is solved when We know that til,
want to carry everything through til,
State from South Carolina and GeOr
/ 8a, making our city of Charlotte
! way station. without breaking bull
: there! Thus lmpresslng IL upon auC
t grinding it into us that we have IL,
rights that any of the States shout,
? respect. "Oniy q strip Of land 6ete"ee'
ttcO StateS.
VII orr people ever acquire prop
er State pride and assert their r:ghts
, What would Virginia DO under SINH
lar circumstances ? viz if a Nor;l
. Carolina railroad company had u
i tempted to change the guage OF on
: of her great railroad highways Til
R4leign Ne,cs says they would Lav
,, broken the head of the first man tina
attempted t. draw a spike"
Why is it that we, State, cannO
stand together and fight for our com
mon interes as others States do
Wilmington, Charlotte, Raleigh, &c
, all have a common interest in buiidin,
up the Sta e. Why Lot let US arous
ourselves about the Goth of May
and shake yourself Old
lip VAN WI>KLE.