FAMlfillS' REGISTER— ROAD LAW OF VIRGINIA. 



441 



For the Fanners' Register. 

 OW THE ROAD LAW OF VIRGINIA NO. I. 



The people of Viro^inia have one feature in their 

 national cliaracter which has scarcely attracted ob- 

 servation or remark, but which undeniably exists, 

 and exerts a powcrlid influence on their legal and 

 genera! [)olicy. This is our ready submission (if 

 not attachment) to established and long existing 

 legal regulations, and our o])position, no less 

 strongly marked, to whatever is new, and untried 

 by oiu'sclves, liowever well known, and highly ap- 

 proved, by otiier communities. A certain degree 

 of this steadiness is valuable — and I am willing to 

 acknowledge that Virginia owes to the leeling 

 which causes it, much of her high political cha- 

 racter. We are altogether free Irom the sudden 

 and complete political changes of views and poli- 

 cy which arc often exhibited in some of our sister 

 States — and we thereby give to them this lesson 

 in government, (which they fully return to us in 

 practical and economical matters,) that steadiness 

 and per.sevcrance in a course, even though it be 

 not altogether the best, is more likely to succeed 

 than great and irequent changes. But every thing 

 may be carried to an injurious extreme: and to this 

 extent I conceive we carry our approval olj or sub- 

 mission to old institutions, and our violence of ob- 

 jection to innovations. There are legal provisions 

 on our statute book, ^sleeping there very harmless- 

 ly in most cases, I admit) which have regularly 

 been approved and retained at each deliberate re- 

 visal of the code — and which could not be repeal- 

 ed without a continued struggle maintained for 

 years together — but which, if just now proposed, 

 could not ])ossibly be enacted — and indeed, as to 

 some of them, the very attempt to have them en- 

 acted, would put the whole commonwealth in a 

 ferment. It is not my purpose to lake a general, 

 or extended view of this subject, nor to notice par- 

 ticularl}^, even the most remarkable examples in 

 our laws — but to ask attention to one example which 

 has practical ill effects bearing upon all, and daily 

 felt, and which are endured for no other reason 

 except that they have been long borne, 'and that 

 our siioulders are now accustomed to the burden. 

 I allude to the road law as enacted — and still more 

 to the road law as usually executed. 



Before proceeding with particular remarks, I 

 will quote those sections of our law respecting pub- 

 lic roads, which prescribe the duties of the survey- 

 ors, the means which they are empowered to use, 

 and the manner in which these means are to be 

 applied ior the important object of preserving the 

 roads in the best condition for the public use and 

 benefit. 



"4. The several courts shall also divide all the 

 public roads into precincts, and, as otien as it shall 

 be necessary, appoint a surveyor over every pre- 

 cinct, whose duty it shall be, to superintend the 

 road in his precinct, and see that the same be 

 cleared, and kept in good repair; which surveyor 

 shall continue in ofKce, until another shall be ap- 

 pointed by the said court in his stead. 



5. All male laboring persons, of the age of 

 sixteen years or more, except such as are masters 

 of two or more male laboring slaves of the age of 

 sixteen years or more, shall be appointed by the 

 court to work on some public road. For every 

 person so appointed, who. when required by the j 



Vol. II.— 31 



surveyor placed over him, shall, without legal 

 cause or disability, fail to attend, with proper tools 

 for clearing the road, or shall refuse to work when 

 there, or to find some other j^erson equally able,' 

 to work in his room, the sum of one dollar and 

 twenty-five cents for every day's offence^ shall be 

 paid, by himself, if he be a free man of full age; if 

 an infant, then by his parent, guardian or master; 

 and if a slave or servant, then by his overseer, if 

 he be under one, or otherwise, by" his master: 'and 

 be recoverable by the surveyor, with costs, before; 

 a justice of the peace, and by the said surveyor to 

 be expended, after deducting the amount of his 

 costs in all such cases, in Avhich he may warrant 

 or give information, in the improvement and re- 

 pair of the road, for failing to work on which the 

 penalty was incurred." 



******* 



"7. Every surveyor of the road, shall cause the 

 same to be constantly kept well cleared and 

 smoothed, and thirty feet wide a:t the least; 'unlesa 

 the court shall, by order entered of record, author- 

 ise a less width;' and, at the fork or crossing of eve- 

 ry public road, shall cause to be erected, and kept 

 in repair, from time to time, a stone, or, otherwise, 

 an index on a post or tree, with plain inscriptions- 

 thereon, in large letters, directing to the most noted 

 place, to which each of the said roads shall lead, 

 and may take stone or wood for that purpose from 

 any adjoining land; and, for the expense of setting 

 up and inscribing such stones, pests or indexes^, 

 and keeping thein in repair, the surveyor shtdl be 

 reimbursed by the county court, in their next 

 succeeding levy; and, where bridges and cause- 

 ways are necessary, the surveyor shall cause them 

 to be made twelve feet broad at the least, conve- 

 nient and safe, and shall keep the same in rej)air, 

 and for _f hat purpose may cut and take from llic 

 lands of any person adjoining, such, and so much 

 timber, earth, or stone, as may be necessary, the 

 same being first viewed and valued by two honest 

 house-keepers, appointed and sworn for that pur- 

 pose, by a justice of the peace, unless the owner 

 shall freely give such limber, stone or earth for 

 that use; but, where a road leads through a city or 

 town the surveyor shall not take any timber, stone 

 or earth, from any lot witliin the town, without 

 the permission of the owner, but shall take the 

 same fi-om the lands nigh or adjacent to the said 

 town, where it will do the least injury to the pro- 

 prietor; and where the assistai-ice of 'Wheel carriages 

 is necessarv, for making or repairing any cause- 

 ways, an}' justice of the peace may issue his war- 

 rant, under his hand and seal, for empowering the 

 surveyor to imjjress such necessary carriages, 

 draught horses, or oxen, with their geer arid dri- 

 ver, belonging to any person, who, or their servants 

 or slaves, are appointed to work on the road, and 

 appointing two honest house-keepers, who, being 

 sworn, shall value, by the day, the use of sucli 

 carriages, draught horses and oxen; which valua- 

 tion, with a certificate from the surveyor, how 

 many days the said things were employed in the 

 work, shall entitle the owner to an allowance for 

 the same, in the next county levy. And, in the 

 like manner, shall the owner of timber, stone or 

 earth,- taken for bridges or causeys, be entitled to 

 the valuation thereof; in the next county levy, upon 

 a certificate from the two house-keejiers who val- 

 ued the same. And, hereafter, every surveyor of 

 a road, who shall fail or neglect to perform the du- 



