428 FARMERS' REGISTER -MISSISSIPPI AND CHESAPEAKE RAIL WAT- 



completion; — provided the government of tiie 

 United States will favor the work by the proposed 

 loan; or by a liberal donation of wilderness lands 

 such as have hitherto been made lor the encou- 

 ragement of other (and far inferior) works of in- 

 ternal improvement, to be proportioned to their re- 

 lative extent and importance — mile for mile, or 

 upon a fair estimate of their relative value. 



With such a rail road about the middle of Au- 



fust, 1814, our beloved President Madison might 

 y the 24th of that month have availed hiraseli' 

 and the nation of the services of 59,000 of our 

 Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia sharp 

 shooters; 5000 of whom would have annihilated 

 the Eritish army in its approach to Eladensbm-g, 

 saved the Capitol and the honor of Washington, 

 and would then have formed the rear guard of this 

 rail road maining veterans in Caucida, might have 

 visited Montreal and Quebec in time to hav e taken, 

 or confined to their own strong holds all the British 

 forces in Lower Canada; — and lives there a man 

 who calls himself an American citizen, who would 

 not willingly raise his voice in favor of the faithful 

 distribuiioa of twenty-five millions of dollars of 

 public money among the industrious and virtuous 

 mechanics and farmers of the isolated villages and 

 towering mountains, for the construction of the 

 proposed rail road, rather than to leave it in the 

 power of an invading foe again to destroy our na- 

 tional archives! or again to dishonor the land of 

 W^ashington? 



I need not pause for a reply, when it is known 

 that this expenditure, in place of its being em- 

 ployed in the construction of fortifications, or in the 

 embellishment of palaces, demanding as they do a 

 constant heavy expense, without any advantage 

 to agriculture or domestic manufactures, or inland 

 commerce, except in a state of war — will contri- 

 bute in peace and in war to diffuse throughout 

 hundreds hitherto isolated villages and settlements 

 of rich lands, all the benefits without any of the 

 evils of the immediate vicinity of large sea-port 

 towns — benefits which the narrowest minds will 

 comprehend when they see a horse — a single 

 horse — hauling with ease at the rate of 40 miles a 

 day, a load which 40 horses with ten wagons 

 would scarcely be able to move at the rate of 20 

 miles per day; — or when they see a corps of dis- 

 posable force — which corps, aided by our few re- 

 never tirinp;, mettlescmie steam coursers running at 

 the rate of 30 miles an hour, with a cargo of more 

 wheat, or corn, or meat, or men, than 100 horses 

 can haul, at the rate of three miles an hour! — 

 benefits which in a state of war will contribute to 

 render this nation impregnable — by bringing with- 

 in the short period of four or five days any and 

 every disposable Avarrior and supply from all parts 

 of the interior States and districts to the national 

 frontier. 



Napoleon, at the head of a French army, tri- 

 umphed over the best troops of all the nations ofi- 

 posed to him for many years in succession, simply 

 and mainly because he discovei-ed and profited by 

 the great secret of marcliing six miles further in 

 24 hours than any other, the best troops of Eu- 

 rope, had usually marched. Hence it was he al- 

 ways attacked his enemy an hour or two before 

 they were quite ready for action. Rail roads and 

 steam power will enable us, so long as we are con- 

 tent to confine ourselves to defensive tear, to give 

 to the world the first irrefragable evidence — of a 



Republic the power of a nation — to prove itself to 

 be absolutely impregnable. And this may prove 

 to be the first step taken in Christendom towards a 

 millenium, because it presents the only obvious 

 and certain means (a miracle excepted) by which 

 war must be forced to terminate, and no longer to 

 exist. ^ 



Having had the satisfaction of a li-ee interchange 

 of views and sentiments with the committee 

 whom you did me the honor through another 

 committee to say would visit Memphis, and who 

 were accompanied by the President and two 

 members from the rail road company at Jackson; 

 the citizens of Memphis generally are pleased 

 with the visit, and they concur with me in the 

 o)}inion that the interests of each company Avill be 

 greatly sustained and promoted by occasional 

 meetings and conferences of a similar kind. 



The apparent good temper which characterised 

 this meeting could not but be particularly gratify- 

 ing to those who had long been impressed with a 

 belief that a co-operation and harmonious concert, 

 extending to every point and to every individual 

 interested in our intended great public works, was 

 essential to insure our success. 



Embarked as we are in measures of enterprise, 

 which, in a state and national point of view, is, in 

 all its vital parts the same — an enterprise in which 

 we know that we can contribute — not indeed to 

 annihilate space and time — but at least to reduce 

 to an unparallelled limit the usual time and ex- 

 pense of moving men and all kinds of movable 

 things — in war and in peace; — an enterprise in 

 which like the oflicers and seamen and mariners of 

 a ship at sea, we may have in view diflierent kinds 

 of gain or trade, and all may look to ulterior ob- 

 jects of a difi'erent character to be attended to 

 whenever the voyage terminates — yet we are 

 alike deeply interested in the safety of the ship, 

 and success of the voyage. Hence we cannot too 

 often or too earnestly admonish ourselves to take 

 for our rule of conduct the axiom by which our 

 fathers were borne triumphantly through the war of 

 the Revolution. "United we stand— divided Ave fall." 

 Our enterprise is one Avhich Avithout the hearty 

 co-operation of each other, Ave cannot for many 

 years to come accomplish. We must act in a 

 manner calculated to inspire the confidence of our 

 neighbors, and for this purpose Ave must be faith- 

 ful to ourselves and to each other. If they find us 

 to be consistent — if they find our plans to be the 

 result of mature deliberation and prudent circum- 

 spection — and moreover, if they find our measures 

 of execution judicious, and marked Avith strict 

 economy, indusfr}' and perscA'erance, AA^e shall in- 

 spire the confidence of all Avho see and knoAV us, 

 and they Avill help us — and Ave shall triumph over 

 all difficulties; — but, if on the contraiy, they find 

 us cut up into opposing factions, filled with a spirit 

 of rivalr)', or local prejudices, or sectional antipa- 

 thies — endeavoring to counteract or crij^ple each 

 other — or making Aveight to throAV into the scale 

 of some political favorite or demagogue, Ave shall 

 in this case fail to accomplish any thing Avorthy of 

 ourselves or our country — Ave shall be abandoned, 

 and Ave shall deserve to be abandoned by the vir- 

 tuous and the Avise of our oAvn and our neighbor- 

 ing States. My deliberate opinion as oflen hither- 

 to expressed, and my constant rule of conduct has 

 been and Avill continue to be in accordance Avith 

 the foregoing Aiewis. 



