Vol. VII.— No. 48. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



381 



of tliis species of iniproveinent, has hitherto op- 

 posed, Hud give that coiifideiice in its success, 

 wliich will ultimately eitlier impel by a sense of 

 public duty, or influence by motives of private 

 interest, to its execution. 



The first (juestion to be resolved, is, do the pro- 

 posed rail roads ofler the best practicable improve- 

 ment to the means of inter-corruiiunication ; and 

 another inquiry of nol less complexity and diffi- 

 culty, in what manner, and through what agency, 

 are they to be constructed. 



The information, which has recently been dif- 

 fused through the community, of the facility af- 

 forded to heavy trausportion, and the ease and 

 rapidity given to tiavel, by rail roads, has added 

 the conviction of experience to a knowledge of 

 the laws of matter and of mechanical power, in 

 their favor. If there be anytliing which is render- 

 ed certain by the testimony of personal observa- 

 tion, and by a series of experiments producing 

 uniform results, it is the fact of the immense sav- 

 ing of labor and expense, by the adoption of this 

 mode of conveyance. Rail roads have become of 

 familiar use in England, and their introduction 

 into this coimtry, so far as there has been oppor- 

 tunity for trial, has satisfied the most sanguine ex- 

 pectations of their utility, here. It is a point now 

 universally conceded, that wherever the business 

 of any section of country embraces an extensive 

 internal trade, requiring the constant transporta- 

 tion at all seasons of the year, of merchandise and 

 passengers, a rail road may he safely and advan- 

 tageously determined on. The decision is wise- 

 ly made to depend on a comparison of the proba- 

 ble extent of accommodation, with the estimated 

 cost of construction. On this head, in reference 

 to the projects now before the Legislature, the best 

 information which can be had upon a prelimina- 

 ry examination, has been already obtained. The 

 facts which admit of precise ascertainment, in dis- 

 tances, inequalities of sm-face, preferences of lo- 

 cation, materials, and expense of assumed amounts 

 of labor, are distinctly and confidently stated by 

 different Boards of Commissioners, and by skilful 

 Engineers, who have presented their Reports to 

 the Government, and who are officially responsi- 

 ble for the accuracy of these deiails. Whatever 

 is beyond this, must at any time hereafter, as at 

 the present, rest in the confidence of personal 

 opinion. In works of magnitude no greater assu- 

 rance of success can ordinarily be had, in ad- 

 vance, than a reasonable probability. The Legis- 

 lator, who waits for more, will be in danger of 

 passing his life in fruitless indecision, and to the 

 end of it, may see his country without progress in 

 improvement. Besides, in public enterprises, the 

 profitable investment of ca|>ital is not the only mo- 

 tive to action. Indirect, consequential, and wide- 

 ly diffused benefits, are oftentimes more weighty 

 considerations; and of this character, it is readily 

 conceded, must he, in a great degree, the induce- 

 ments and ar,:^imiciits which should prevail with 

 the Government to the encouragement of the pro- 

 posed undertakings. If there is anything sound 

 in the maxims of political economy, if the coun- 

 sels of the wise and the conduct of the prudent 

 can avail anything, they teach the importance of 

 facilitating intercourse, reducing the cost of trans- 

 portation, saving manual labor, opening new av- 

 enues to trade, and new markets to produce. — 

 Profitless, indeed, useless, and worse than useless, 

 were otherwise the researches and labors and 

 hitherto favored influences of those mighty spirits. 



who have led and are now directing governments 

 and individuals to the accomplishment of enter- 

 prises, elsewhere, compared with which all that is 

 proposed here, is truly but inconsiderable. Is it 

 credible, that there is nothing of public advantage 

 in works to which several of the inost enlightened 

 States of the Union are now applying the utmost 

 of their resources ? Are the already constructed 

 canals of New York of no account, in the unpre- 

 cedented growth and prosperity of that powerful 

 Commonwealth ? Is Peimsylvania wasting on 

 idle and valueless objects the mi'Wions appropriated 

 to her j)rojects of internal improvements ? Will 

 Ohio justly suffer the reproach of rash adventure 

 in her gigantic schemes for direct communication 

 through the farthest west? Or shall Maryland, 

 encouraged and sustained by the Councils of the 

 Nation, in the amazing attempts to span the lofty 

 Alleghany, both by canal and railway, in the 

 achievements of persevering industry, afford no 

 countenance to the purpose of our limited endeav- 

 or .' These numerous other examples in our sis- 

 ter States, may inspire us with confidence in the 

 character of works in which, after every precau- 

 tion of previous inquiry and examination, with an 

 assured and provident forecast of advantages, 

 they have so deeply and so nobly engaged. 



But the question recurs, by whom shall the pro- 

 posed rail roads in Blassachusetts be accomplish- 

 ed ? The Commissioners have recommended, 

 that it be done at the charge and on account of 

 the State, and to this Legislature was referred, by 

 our predecessors, the responsibihty of adopting or 

 rejecting the proposition, or assuming, or aiding in 

 the task, or refusing the sanction of the Govern- 

 ment to it altogether. 



It has been objected, that the Western rail road 

 is but a matter of local interest, to benefit, in an 

 especial manner, the citizens of Boston, and the 

 inhabitants of a narrow district of country upon 

 the route of its location. The like objections 

 might be applied with equal pertinency, to any 

 general improvement. Those who are proximate 

 to a public accommodation, be it of what descrij)- 

 tion it may, from the Capitol of the Government, 

 the Temple of Worship, or the Hall of Justice, to 

 the School House of a District, must enjoy its ad- 

 vantages, more directly and in a greater degree, 

 than those who are remote. Yet this argument 

 necessarily resulting from the nature of things, can 

 never l)e permitted to prevail with liberal and en- 

 lightened minds. If there be a place in the 

 Commonwealth so situate, that it will feel no di- 

 rect beneficial influence from the occupation of 

 this new highway, neither is there a place which 

 will he prejudiced, in its essential interests, by its 

 construction. To the City of Boston, indeed, it is 

 believed to be of vital concern. But the streams 

 of business, which it will pour into the metropolis, 

 will be returned to the remotest parts of the Com- 

 monwealth, in the diffusion of the treasures which 

 trade and commerce produce, or in a relief from 

 the burdens e.lseu'here,to which accumulated wealth 

 will be subjected. If the city be disproportionably 

 enriched, i)recisely in the ratio of this advance, 

 will be her liabilities to the contributions of the 

 State, and a corresponding reduction in the taxes 

 of other jjortions of the country. On the other 

 hand, suffer the course of her prosperity to be ar- 

 rested, her trade to decline, her population to re- 

 move, her capital to he transferred to otlier cities, 

 and where but upon the country, and upon whom 

 but the yeomanry, will the demands for the support 



of the government be devolved ? It matters little 

 whether the treasury be replenished by direct or 

 indirect assessments, if the same capital furnish 

 the fund for the supplies. But the failure of trade 

 must inevitably diminish the present fund. The 

 bank capital of the city which contributes largely 

 to the revenue of the State, now bears a much 

 higher proportion to that of the country, than the 

 valuation of the general property of the former to 

 that of the latter. That this must be reduced, un- 

 less business can be extended, will not be ques- 

 tioned. However and whenever it shall be occa- 

 sioned, the effect will immediately be experienced 

 in the necessary imposition of new and higher du- 

 ties on the people of the interior, to make up the 

 deficiency. The amount to be raised upon the 

 general valuation will be increased, and there may 

 be danger too, that the aggregate of the valuation, 

 in the city, may be diminished, and the proportion 

 between town and country may be materially 

 changed. It is no less essential to the pros- 

 perity of the whole body politic, that the com- 

 mercial capital of the Commonwealth should be 

 sustained in vigor, than in the animal structure, 

 that the heart, the seat of life, which sends forth 

 the vital fluid to warm and animate the extremi- 

 ties, should beat with strong pulsations, to pre- 

 serve health and soundness in every part of the 

 natural body. 



A jealousy has unreasonably been manifested, 

 lest a spirit of selfishness may influence the inhab- 

 itants on the route of the proposed location of the 

 road, to advocate its construction, in whole or in 

 part, by the commonwealth. It will be ahke a 

 service to the State, and an act of justice to 

 those whose motives are thus distrusted, to re- 

 move this unfounded jirejudice. The route re- 

 commended by the Board of Coiumissioners was 

 preferred by them, for reasons, which they have 

 fearlessly submitted to public examination. These 

 consist, in the saving of distance, in the less in- 

 equalities of surface, and in a favorable difference 

 in feasibility, and cost of construction. The cor- 

 rectness of the results, in these jjarticulars, to 

 which the Commissioners arrived, has no where 

 been controverted. The influence of the citizen.'', 

 on the route, was not exercised to produce them. 

 It so, in truth, happens, that in many towns in this 

 direction, there is less of local interest to induce to 

 the ])roposed improvement, than in places more 

 remote. The people of no inconsiderable section 

 of country through which the route i)asses, now 

 enjoy, by the bounty of nature, a convenient pas- 

 sage way to the ocean, and the great markets on 

 the sea board : while those of another section, not 

 less important, have opened to them an advanta- 

 geous avenue to trade, through a work of art, re- 

 cently executed by the almost unassisted enter- 

 prise of the citizens of a neighboring State. The 

 valleys of the Connecticut and Blackslone are not 

 the districts of country most to be benefited by 

 the accommodation of rail roads, nor will the 

 Represeniatives from those districts justly incur 

 suspicion, if they should be found to advocate 

 their construction. The object is of general con- 

 cern. The i)romotion of the great interests of 

 the cominonwealth, — the extension of domestic 

 trade, — the saving of that tax on labor which now 

 bears down tlie industry of the country, which 

 leaves agricultural i)roduce to perish on the land, 

 from the exjiense of getting it to a market, and 

 subjects manufactures to charges in transportation 

 which absorb all profits in their management, — 



