422 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



oftransportation on lines of rail-road, between the 

 east and west, south ofNew York, must necessa- 

 rily be much enhanced beyond what may be con- 

 sidered its minimum. Whilst, under these cir- 

 cumstances, the great and growing demands of 

 the west will probably supply an abundant trade to 

 all the avenues now being opened for it, disap- 

 pointment would certainly be experienced, were it 

 supposed that the revenues derived Irom the im- 

 provements would be in proj)ortion to the trade. 

 The great and peculiar expenses oftransportation 

 on these lines, however large their receipts, must 

 necessarily increase in almost the same ratio. 

 Fortunately, these lines of improvement, if not 

 owned, as in the case of the Pennsylvania line, 

 by the states in which they lie, are the property of 

 corporations consisting essentially of states and 

 towns, to which the other benehis to be derived 

 from the improvements, and not the dividends in 

 stock, have been the leading considerations to 

 embark in them. Such is the case with the Bal- 

 timore and Ohio rail-road, the James river, and 

 Kenhawa improvement, and the Charleston, 

 Cincinnati, and Louisville rail-road. The stock 

 of these companies is made up principally, in the 

 case of the Baltimore and Ohio rail-road, by the 

 state of Maryland and city of Baltimore ; of the 

 Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, by subscriptions of 

 the states of Maryland and Virginia, and of the 

 Federal Government, the latter having assumed 

 the subscriptions of the corporations of Washing- 

 Ion, Georgetown, and Alexandria; and in the 

 case of the Charleston, Cincinnati, and Louisville 

 rail-road, by subscriptions of the slates of Soulii 

 Carolina and city of Charleston. It will be suffici- 

 ent for the large subscribers to these great works, 

 if the prosperity of tlie states through which they 

 pass, and towns' which they connect with the in- 

 terior, is promoted in a degree correspondent with 

 (he expectation entertained in relation to them, 

 and the amounts invested by individuals are pro- 

 bably but limited sums, which, they have been 

 willing to contribute, even if lost, to promote by 

 their example and countenance the improvements 

 in which they have embarked. 



It is obvious that it would not be desirable for 

 individual capital to be invested to any great 

 extent in improvements of this description. States 

 and corporations, whose credit may enable them at 

 favorable times to make loans in Europe at a re- 

 duced rale of interests, by adding to the revenues de- 

 rived from them a very limited fund irom taxation, 

 may meet the interests occurring on their loans, 

 and benefited as they are in more essential re- 

 spects, may afford to wait long for a net revenue, 

 equivalent to the interest on their investments ; 

 but to individuals, such investments to any great 

 extent would prove certain bankruptcy and ruin. 



It would be otherwise of the second class of 

 improvements referred to by Mr. Chevalier, name- 

 ly, those which are to connect the lakes and the 

 St. Lawrence with the valley of the Mississippi, 

 wereitnotlhatsomany will probably be authorized 

 as to destroy the productiveness by competition. 

 The lowness of the summits, and abundance of 

 water to obtained on them, admit ol' the construc- 

 tion of canals at many points at a very moderate 

 rate of expense, and the extensive navigation on 

 the lakes, and the Mississippi, and their tributa- 

 ries, and the great agricultural and mineral wealth 

 of the regions watered by them, ensure, whenev- 



er they may be even partially filled up with po- 

 pulation, an immense trade. Lines ofcommunica- 

 lion in this portion of the Union must, however, 

 for some time yet be unproductive, and will al- 

 ways, probably, be unsatii investments lor indivi- 

 duals, ibr the reasons already given. 



There is no such uncertainty as to the third line 

 of communication mentioned by Mr. Chevalier, 

 that between New York and New Orleans. Con- 

 necting, as this does, the metropolis of the union 

 with the great Atlantic cities of the northern and 

 the capitals of the southern states, this line of 

 communication has at the same time the advan- 

 tage of forming the most direct line between the 

 eastern and southern states, and of traversing a 

 belt of country which |)resents, for the execution 

 of a line of rail-roads, peculiar facilities. The 

 public has evinced its perception of the advantages 

 of this great line of thoroughfare, by the large 

 amount which has been contributed within the 

 last six or eight years, almost entirely from indivi- 

 dual resources, to its execution. The separate links 

 which have been so far made, bid fair, even should 

 it not be extended beyond its present terminus in 

 the south, to be extremely profitable ; but there is 

 scarcely a doubt, that within six or eight years 

 more, the whole chain of communication will be 

 completed to New Orleans, and that there will 

 then be a travel and trade over every portion of it, 

 beyond any present conception of its extent. 



At the time of the publication of the sketch of 

 Mr. Chevalier, detached links only in this chain 

 of communication had been made as far as the 

 Roanoke, in North Carolina. Within the two 

 years which have since elapsed, the Philadelphia 

 and Baltimore, the Richmond and Fredericksburg, 

 and Richmond and Petersburg rail-roads, have 

 been put in operation ; and south of the Roanoke, 

 lines of rail-road have been completed to Wil- 

 mington in North Carolina, at the mouth of the 

 Cape Fear, and to Raleigh, the capital of the state 

 on the more direct route to Columbia and Augusta. 

 Between Columbia and Branchville, on the line 

 of rail-road which connects Cbarleston and Au- 

 gusta, a rail-road is now in progress of construction, 

 which, it is understood, will be completed in the 

 course of the present, or early the coming year, 

 leaving only the distance between Raleigh and 

 Columbia (about two hundred miles, but which 

 is said to be of extremely easy execution) to be 

 constructed, to furnish a complete rail-road com- 

 munication between New York and Charleston 

 and Augusta. Between Augusta and Montgo- 

 mery, on the Alabama river, whence to New 

 Orleans there is for about two thirds of the year an 

 excellent steamboat communication, rail-roads 

 now in progress of execution will probably be 

 finished by the time the line north of Augusta is in 

 readiness. 



Great profits may undoubtedly be anticipated in 

 every portion of this great chain of communica- 

 tion, when executed with tolerable judgment and 

 under favorable charters. In another point of 

 view, however, it is much more interesting to us. 

 No line of improvement which has been projected 

 in America, and perhaps none which can ever 

 be made, is so important in a political as well as a 

 commercial aspect, as the one we have been con- 

 templating. In time of war, the government will 

 be enabled by it, with a moderate standing army, 

 to provide (or the delence ofits whole Atlantic coast, 



