Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1879-12-13
HOW 1T LOCKS TO BAN UP a
TREE.
" From the Chic so the Atlantic -
KnOXvilie's Neutrality-suspicious.
Ou the Proposed Route frGm
Louisville TO Charleston
Ehe Route fr6m Cincinnati
to Port Royal Suggested
What Knoxville,
Ctncinnaii and An
gusta Should

Mr.. EDITOR: The CHRONICLE of
the 9Th inst. contains an excellent
article under the caption Of From
the Ohio TO the Atlantic" It is high
time Knoxville should be giving at
tention to such connection and the
more public attention ia aroused the
better will it be for the interest of the
place.
But a word ia advance OF what is
proposed TO be said in this communi-
cation. Knoxville is peculiarly and
happily situated. She has coal to the
| north and iron ore to the south, if not
all around she has quarries of marble
near, and fine tributary agricultural
country; she is essentially place
marked out by Nature for an extensive
manufacturing and distributing point.
Had her euterprising citizens, at the
conclusion of the war, held the local
superiority of the spot steadily in
| view, and worked increasingly for
Northern and Southern railroad con-
nection, her population to-day, by
| virtue of her advantages, would have
been $4,000 instead of 10000, Or at
most 1900 souls. And, with the
coming tide of prosperity, the busy
hum OF machinery and jumping
commercial business would have been
| manifest at this moment, only to in
crease with the volume that IS about
to pervade the land and benefit such
centers as throw off sluggishness and
/ get up to their work.
You say, go to Louisville to strike
the Ohio, and, by way of Morristown
and the French Broad Valley, to
Asheviile and Columbia to make
connection with the ocean at
Charleston. This is your route,
or rather the route set forth in
your article to connect the Ohio and
the Atlantic. You give distances, and
show the feasibility of the project, as
lines, or parts of lines, are already con-
structed and gaps only are to be filled.
The distance from Louisville TO
Charleston you make 6Sl miles-not
much, il any, shorter tam from Louis
Vile to New York. The point, ho r.
ever, is established that it is 100 miles
shorter than from Cincinnati, on the
Ohio, = Charleston. by way Of Chat
!, tanOOga and Atlanta; and this is done
probably to make Cincinnati feel that
she has made a mistake in not looking
towards Knoxville instead of Chatta-
no0ga. No objection TO this. Cincin-
natl should have looked to Cleveland,
if determined to go west of Knoxville,
and from that point dictated terms
into the heart of the South by way OF
Dalton, or by a route Of her own
through North Georgia to Atlanta
!, not into Chattanooga direct, to be bot
tied up by rival interests. She should
in reality, have made Knoxville her
objective point in Tennessee, and had
full command of the situation.
Now, sir, give US another article.
Let this chow the distance from Chit
wood, on the Cincinnati Southern, to
Knox Vile, Or from some point below
Chitwood TO Knoxville by way o!
Kingston also the distance from
Knoxville by way of Maryville and
the valley of the Little Tennessee
river to Augusta; also the distances
from the latter point to Charleston,
Port Royal and Savannah respectively.
And let it be noted thst Augusta is
, connected by an independent railroad
with the three laat named places
This is the real SHERMAN march =
the winning way, from the Ohio to
the ses-and this is the way over
which the Cincinnatians will delight
T to travel and have their freighting
done, eventually, especially if the
dog-in-the- policy of Louis
vile, Chattanooga ct al. is to prevail
respecting their new road, as seems
likely from appearances now. 1t is