The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-10-02

North Carolina, were then introduced,
who spoke in the order named. These
gentlemen all spoke eloquently and en-
couragipgly.
Col. Bowen then read the following
letter for the information of the meeting !:
INDIANAPOLIS, IND, Sept. 9, 1879.
Il. I. Epting, Esq, WILLIAMSON, S. c.:
DEAR SIR: Your letter of 18th ult.
has been received. I have delayed an
swering it for some time in order to as
certain whether circumstances would per-
NIT me to accept your kind invitation to
attend the meeting of your Directors on
the 18th; but I regret to state that pre-
engagements of different sorts will render
it impracticable for me to be with you
on that occasion.
shall take great interest in the enter
prise you are engaged in, as l believe 1t
will become 8 part of one of the most
needed commercial thoroughfares in this
country. The discovery of cheap and
practicable route through the Blue Ridge
has long been desideratum, and l am
glad that your Engineer has discovered a
passage way of light cost and easy grade,
and withal lying almost within a direct
alignment between Chicago and Port
Royal. What is Immediately needed is
the completion of line road from Au-
gusta vta Knoxville to the Cincinnati
Southern Railroad. When this is done,
YOU will have all the needed connections
to Louisville, Cincinnati, Chicago and
all parts of the West and Northwest.
There are already two first class railroads
in operation between this city and
Chicago, and within a year or eighteen
months it is quite certain the third will
be completed, besides narrow gauge
road, which will add considerably to the
trade that may be directed to the South
east Atlantic seaboard.
The Cincinnati Southern will be COM
pleted and opened for business to Chatta-
nooga about the 10th December next !;
and it will only require the building
through the Cumberland range of about
forty miles to connect that line with
Knoxville, and about sixty miles to effect
direct connection with Louisville and the
West, on another and perhaps more
direct route.
When these are completed, it will then
bs early enough to build the straight link
from Indianapolis, crossing the Ohio
River at Vevay, to Lexington, Kentucky.
Then by efecting some considerations, or
trade arrangements, the grand line from
Chicago to Port Royal and Charleston
will become an accomplished fact.
7 understand that the Louisville and
Nashville Railroad Company seriously
contemplate putting. their short line, now
completed to London or some other point
in Kentucky, through to Knoxville, q
distance only of sixty miles, and that this
will be done within year or two seems
quite certain. II, then, your line can be
got under headway in the meantime, /
see no great difficulty in the early COM
pletion of the great thoroughfare that the
people of your section and far seeing
ones of the West have so long desired.
Such great natural advantages for ma
tional and international trade as the
South Atlantic Sea Ports, especially Port
Royal, offer, can not remain much longer
untitled, as they are the proper gateways
for the immense traffic of the West In
dies, South and Central America, as we'll
as Europe, the importance of which, un-
til very recently, has been but feebly
comprehended; and I have strong ap-
prehension that the road you are about
to build will become an important link
in the future great thoroughfare, over
which the traffic to the heart of the coun-
try, and over which large share Of the
products of the West and South, will pass
to the sea board.
The late prolonged financial depression
caused temporary suspension and delay
in effecting the much desired connection
BY rail between the Northwest and the
Southeast, as foreign capital could not be
commanded for so great an undertaking.
Had the panic not occurred, am of the
opinion that the road would ere this have
been far along towards completion.
Under the present condition OF affairs,
you are taking the most certain course to
succeed-that is, taking the matter in
your own hands, and starting the work
and pushing it forward to the extent of
your means. If you should not be quite
Strong enough to finish it, what you have
done, on well-chosen and feasible route,
will insure what other capital may be
requisite. I hope to be informed from
time to time of your progress, and shall
take deep interest in the enterprise.
Yours truly,
W. S. RAYMOND.
Col. R. w. Hume, of Brevard, then
offered the following resolution, which
was unanimously adopted:
RESOLVED, By the citizens Of Transyl-
vanis County, in mass meeting as
sembled, that we do most heartily en-
dorse the proposed Railroad through the
Valley of the French Broad, and hereby
pledge ourselves to contribute all the
means within our ability towards its COM
pletion.
Upon motion, the Pickens Sentinel,
the Augusta Chronicle and Constitution
alist, the Charleston News and Courier,
the Columbia Register, the Greenville
News, the Abbeville Press and Banner,
the Abbeville Medium, the Charlotte
Observer, the Anderson INTELLIGENcER
the Anderson Journal, the Asheville
Citizen and the Asheville Journal, were
requested to publish these proceedings.
On motion of General R. B. Vance,
the meeting adjourned.
E. CLAYTON, Chairman.
D. F. BRADLEY, Secretaries.
j. A. FoRsYTHE,
The following is an estimate of the cost
of grading Road from Belton, South Car
olina, to Asheville, North Carolina,
(Swannanoa Junction.
Sn Hn Hn up Hn H9