86 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 2. 



stockholders, the plan of the canal and of the rest of 

 the works, in points not heretofore enumerated, or not 

 fully explained, shall, along with their execution, be 

 confided to the charge and discretion of the President 

 and Directors of the Company. 



The adoption of the resolutions was opposed at 

 some length by Messrs. Philip Norborne Nicholas 

 and Wyndham Robertson. It was obviously of 

 the utmost importance that the most judicious of 

 the different modes of effecting the improvement 

 in view, authorised hy the charter, should be 

 adopted before it should be commenced; as an er- 

 ror in the outset could not be remedied but at an 

 immense expense. But the question, whether 

 the canal or rail road system of improvement, 

 generally, was preferable, was one on which the 

 most distinguished engineers differed; and the like 

 diversity of opinion as to whether the present work 

 should be by rail road, wholly, or by canal, so far 

 as practicable, obtained among the engineers, 

 who had applied their minds to this particular sub- 

 ject. It was impossible, therefore, they contended, 

 that the stockholders, to many of whom the ques- 

 tion had never before been presented, could, at 

 this time, come to a judicious decision; and they 

 preferred that, the company should first of all be 

 organized by the appointment of officers, whose 

 duty it should be to collect the best information, 

 and digest a plan, to be laid before the stockhold- 

 ers, for acceptance, at some future meeting. Mr. 

 Robertson concluded his remarks by offering the 

 following resolutions, as a substitute for those pre- 

 sented by the committee: 



Resolved, That the President and Directors of the 

 James River and Kanawha Company, proceed as early 

 as may be practicable, to examine and consider the 

 question of the most eligible mode of improvement 

 authorized by the charter, for the country between the 

 city of Richmond, and such point a3 said President 

 and Directors may deem most suitable for the head of 

 canal navigation, keeping in view the great ends pro- 

 posed to be attained by the work contemplated, viz: 

 public accommodation and the profits of the stock- 

 holders. 



That should the examination of the various reports, 

 surveys, profiles, and estimates heretofore made in re- 

 ference to the improvement of the communication be- 

 tween the points indicated, and now the property of 

 this company, and of all such other data, as they may 

 be able to command, not enable the said President and 

 Directors to arrive at a conclusion satisfactory to them- 

 selves of the question proposed for their consideration, 

 or should they for any cause deem it advisable, the said 

 President and Directors shall be at liberty to call to 

 their aid one or more civil engineers, the most eminent 

 to be procured, to perform such services as said Pres- 

 ident and Directors, may require; the expense thereby 

 incurred to be defrayed out of the funds of the com- 

 pany. 



That having thus duly possessed themselves of all 

 the information within their reach calculated to shed 

 light on this interesting inquiry, and duly weighed the 

 same, it shall be the further duty of said President and 

 Directors to digest the same into the form of a report, 

 wherein they shall present, as fully and fairly as they 

 can, all the considerations that recommend or forbid 

 the adoption of each of the alternative modes of im- 

 provement authorized by the charter, together with the 

 conclusions to which, on a view of the whole ground, 

 they shall themselves have arrived. 



That the said President and Directors cause co- 



pies of said report to be printed in pamphlet form, as 

 soon as the same shall have been prepared, and take 

 such means as to them may seem best for transmitting 



one copy thereof to each stockholder in said company- 

 That the said President and Directors call a gen- 

 eral meeting of the stockholders of said company with- 

 in days after the publication of said report, to 

 take said report into consideration. 



Some discussion followed between Messrs. Jo- 

 seph James, Chapman Johnson, Sidney S. Bax- 

 ter, David I. Burr, and Fleming James; in the 

 course of which a general call was made for the 

 reasons of the committee for the resolutions which 

 they had presented. 



The call was responded to by Mr. Joseph C. 

 Cabell, who gave a brief history of the rise and 

 progress of the project, about to be put in execu- 

 tion, from its inception in IS 10 to the present time, 

 adverting to the various surveys, reports, and dis- 

 cussions had upon the very subject during that pe- 

 riod, and contending that in these several ways 

 ample opportunity had been given to all who felt 

 interested in the matter, to acquire the requisite 

 knowledge in reference to it. He referred also to 

 various investigations of the relative merits of the 

 canal and rail road systems, which had taken 

 place in other states — the result of all which, as 

 well as the surveys, reports and discussions above 

 alluded to, was in his opinion, conclusive in favor 

 of the system selected by the committee. In ad- 

 dition to this weight of authority, he professed 

 himself ready to go into the discussion of the ques- 

 tion on its own merits; but owing to the lateness of 

 the hour, contented himself with citing a sum- 

 mary of the arguments of Mr. Mercer in his re- 

 port to congress in 1832, and with stating the fol- 

 lowing "objections to the substitution of a contin- 

 uous rail road for a canal in the valley of the 

 James and Jackson Rivers:" 



1. That the preference of a continuous rail road 

 will cause the loss of nearly the whole amount of 

 capital invested in the lower James River canal, and 

 the canal at the Blue Ridge. 



2. Transportation would be more expensive, in 

 the proportion of at least two to one. 



3. It would be the means of exchanging a free 

 highway for a close monopoly. 



4. The property transported would be more ex- 

 posed to damage. 



5. Transportation on rail roads is inconvenient 

 for many heavy articles. 



6. The adoption of a continuous rail road would 

 cause the loss of the water power of the rivers 

 connected with a canal, and of the valuable estate 

 held by the company in the waters of the rivers, 

 as well as of the manufactories, towns and villages, 

 to result from the water power to the community 

 at hirge. 



7. That a continuous rail road would be more 

 exposed to the danger of competition in the vicin- 

 ity and at a distance. 



8. That the two species of improvement pos- 

 sess each its peculiar advantages, neither possess- 

 ing all the advantages of the other, and both being 

 necessary ultimately to the prosperity of the cen- 

 tral line; and that the adoption of a continuous 

 rail road would preclude a canal, whilst the adop- 

 tion of a canal would not necessarily preclude a 

 rail road. 



The discussion was continued a short time fur- 

 ther by Messrs. Nicholas, Burr and Carter Harri- 

 son, when the resolutions and substitute were laid 

 on the table and ordered to be printed; and the 

 meeting adjourned till 12 o'clock to-morrow. 



