FARMERS' REGISTER— ROAD LAW OF VIRGINIA. 



611 



Dumont who will methodize, and translate into plain 

 and clear English the substance of Taylor's Inquiry, 

 will acquire fame for himself, as well as for his author, 

 and render a most important service to the interests of 

 ourcounJry, and of free principles in general. ] 



For the Farmers' Regist';r. 

 ON THK ROAD LAW OF VIRGINIA. NO. 2. 



In the precedinjT No., I exhibited the inequality 

 and injustice of the tax imposed by law, for the 

 repairs of public roads, and slated generally, that 

 those whom the law intended should bear the 

 whole burden, contrived to shift the greater part 

 to the shoulders of those whom the law proposes 

 to exempt. In this way, something more like 

 equity h;is been reached: but in so awkward and 

 expensive manner, that the tax now levied is im- 

 posed as a barren penalty, and not in aid of the 

 public service. Those who use the roads, pay- 

 indeed a heavy fax, on account of their bad state 

 — instead of its being in money or labor, to repair 

 the road, the tax is levied in the cost of extra 

 team, worn and broken carriages, and labor lost 

 entirely. What this kind of taxation amounts to, 

 it is impossible to estimate: but this I am siu'e of 

 — that on the average, every load that I send to, 

 or bring from my market town, requires one-fourth 

 more team, and that the mishaps to the wheel car- 

 riages used, are thrice as many in number and 

 cost, as would be on good roads — and (though 

 not belonging to the privileged class, exempt by 

 law,) that this part of my road tax is much more 

 costly than that which is paid, because required 

 by law. Perhaps most formers and slaveholders 

 might say the same. I should like to hear an es- 

 timate on like grounds, from some person who 

 owns road waigons or stage coaches, regularly 

 emploj^edon our common bad roads — and should 

 not be surprised to find that these carriages alone, 

 on some of our roads, paid more in losses, than 

 the fair price of all the labor actually applied for 

 repairs. 



Let us now proceed to consider how the labor, 

 or the legal road tax, is usually applied. 



Road making is an operation which requires 

 much judgement and skill — but neither judgement, 

 skill, nor any kind of knowledge whatever, is re- 

 quired, or considered necessary in the usual ap- 

 pointments of surveyors of roads. The office is 

 ijurdensome and disagreeable, and is avoided by 

 most persons. It is, therefore, often put upon 

 some youth who has no acquaintance with any 

 kind of labor, and who assumes the duty merely 

 because he wishes to exercise this little authorit}-, 

 and hold even this humble public ofRce. More 

 of\en, it is given to some man because he is so 

 poor, that the iew dollars allowed for the service 

 will be very^ acceptable, and of far more value 

 than his private business for the same length of 

 time. Such a person is most generally, and very 

 naturally, destitute of all knowledge of the prin- 

 ciples of road making — unused, and therefore un- 

 fit, to command the slaves placed for a day or two 

 only under his authority — and having very Uttle 

 interest in the economical use of the labor, or the 

 effect produced by it on the state of the road. 

 Under such direction, it might be anticipated that 

 even a good road law (in other respects) Avould 

 be rendered inefficient; and under our very bad 



law, the practice is well suited to the principle and 

 theory. 



When the road has been so washed and gullied 

 as to be almost impassable with ordinary loads at 

 some particular places, the surveyor begins to 

 think that it may possibly be considered by the 

 grand jury as nnt in the condition required by 

 law — and to avoid the danger of a presentment 

 and fine, he summons the laborers. The time 

 selected, is generally the last Saturday, or the day 

 before the sitting of the grand jury — as one day, 

 or at most two, will permit all the usual labor to 

 be given to four or five miles of road. In Eastern 

 Virginia, the roads need very little labor, (if that 

 little was judiciously applied) except to keep ofT 

 the overflowing water of rains, and more rarely 

 of springs. In other words, the roads require but 

 little more than being kept properly drained. But 

 an utter ignorance of the principles on which drain- 

 ing should be conducted, is exhibited in almost 

 every job of what is called road mending. The 

 requisitions of the law are so uselessly and fool- 

 ishly strict, that it is almost impossible for any 

 surveyor to comply with them; and hence the 

 useless requisitions first become neglected and 

 overlooked as a dead letter, by sworn grand jury- 

 men — and next, as a necessary consequence, the 

 useful and necessary parts, follow into a state of 

 like neglect and contempt. Instead of every pub- 

 lic road being kept '-thirty feet wide at the least,'' 

 not one is fifteen, if even ten feet for five miles 

 together. If only twenty feet had been required 

 on all except the most public roads, that width 

 might have been maintained, and the duties of 

 surveyors and grand juries kept better in view. 

 But by requiring so much, in this and m other 

 things, a general permission is assumed to forget 

 the law almost entirely. Wheel carriages follow 

 each other usually in one track, and where there 

 is any descent, the rain water, following the ruts, 

 first serves to wash gullies, and, as they are filled, 

 gradually causes the depression of the w-hole road. 

 If necessity compels, this gutter or ditch-like road 

 is kept wide enough for two carriages to pasa 

 (though never thirty feet) — but in roaris not very 

 much used, such places are oflen not wide enough 

 for the passaire of" two carriages. The more the 

 road is travelled, and the more it is repaired, (in 

 the usual mode) the more it approaches in form 

 to a ditch, and is washed by torrents at declivi- 

 ties, or kept in pools of water, or quagmires, or 

 level ground. 



I do not mean to assert, that there nre no at- 

 tempts to prevent these effects of water — and it 

 may be even admitted, that the labor used, if pro- 

 perly applied, might go far towards effecting the 

 object. But in most cases, the labor is so igno- 

 rantly, imperfectly, and inefficiently directed, as to 

 be of but little avail. 



It should be remembered, that all our roads 

 were first- made by merely cutting down the trees 

 on the track through the woods — then, and then 

 only perhaps, it being the thirty feet wide — and that 

 to avoid the stumps and bared roots as much as 

 possible, the horses and carts followed each other 

 in one track. By the time the stumps had gene- 

 rally rotted, this track was becoming a trench, and 

 the higher margins formerly cleared, had grown 

 up in bushes large enough to prevent its forming 

 part of the road — except in the statute. In for- 

 mer days, our lathers used almost no farming im- 



