The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1881-06-09

our eastern terminus. We have examined the
ground carefully and our conclusion is that il
will require less money to bring the deep ses
to Richmond than to extend our r. Il. tC
present deep water
Our wharves within six months will bring
eighteen feet which can and will be increased
to twenty-five feet Richmond is already q
great city, is growing rapidly, is built on gran
tie with all the conditions for healthy and
working people. We'expect that after Balti
more it will become the largest southern sea-
port. Here is the greatest indentation of the
seacoast here is the Chesapeake Bay and
Hampton Roads and a great arm OF the sea
reaching one hundred miles inland straight to-
wards the coal fields, the ore fields. the grain
fields of the continent.
am asked about the minerals on the line
In regard to the minerals | cannot tell you
you must teach me; but whatever you have
seen, or whatever has been proven to you to
be in Virginia | will show you here. This
great exit through and beneath the mountains
exposes ore, and under conditions that cannot
be more favorable. You ask me also the old
question of doubt, how it is if all this wealth
in minerals be here that Virginia buys her
iron and does not pay her debts. | might an
swer this with many explanations, but prefer
q single prophecy
Before you can come again, Virginia will
sell you iron and pay her debts. The Ches.
u Ohio railroad, q great line soon to reach
across the continent, whose president is one
of the ablest railroad men this country has
ever known, upon its line has connected the
ore and coal, and along its line the fires OF
new furnaces are being lighted. Before two
years are passed the Richmond s. Allegheny
railroad will also connect its coal and iron
and light its fires and then there will be found
in this State no man blind enough or bold
enough to talk of REIMBURSEMENT. You ask if
it is safe and pleasant for Northern men to
bring their fortunes and their families to Vir-
glnia. From an experience OF fifteen years, L
bear witness that | have never vet formed as
sociatons so pleasant or friends SO true as
here. The war with its passions, which did
not end at Appomattox, has ended now.
speak not as Virginian, nor as a democrat,
but as a Union soldier and republican,an and
say that | never yet thought of denying my
birthright, until northern republicans, within
thirty day, have barganed for lis sale. We
shall not deliver, but DO our lesser part in re-
storing Virginia to her ancient honor.
You ask about the Natural Bridge; who
owns it, and what they will do with it. We
found it here few months ago within a mile
of the railroad. We found it fenced in, with a
paddock on the gate and a sign giving the
price of admittance, and were told that this
place, one of the wonders of the world was the
only inhosptable spot in Virginia. We bought
it, broke the lock, burned the gate, and to-day
there is not an inhospitabe spot in the Old
Dominion. Others have joined us in the pur-
chase, and improvements undertaken-men
widely separated in homes and politics ::
Blaine and Barnum; Cornell and Ewing:
Mccormick of Chicago; Bartholomew of
Hartford Alexander of New Jersey Daven-
port of Richmond and others well known. We
have employed two OF the best landscape archi-
tects in the country; have purchased nearly
a thousand acres OF land, and expect to lay out
park that shall be beautiful and free and Ma
tional. When the Aleghanics and the Blue
Ridge shall lift their mighty parallels in vain ;
when, at last, Virginia lies, not where eddies
are but where the tides that cross continent
find their widest channels; here where God
has bridged gulf; where mountain top
touches mountain top; when the answering
storm signals on Elliott's Knob and the Peaks
of Otter have given place to constant fires and
wealth that will not pass away in this nightly
amphitheatre of hills, we may touch glasses
and know that a people with one parentage,
one tradition, schooled i'll common trial and
temptation; living where the same peace
reigns or every household is startled by the
same fire bell at night; who sit at the same
table, bow at the same altar and pray to the same
God for common blessings is essentially and
internally one. Then and here may we meet
you again, and prove a hospitality that is in
our hearts but not in our gift to-day.