200 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 4 



Frorti the Eastoii Whig. 

 No. I. 



ON THE F.A.STER1V SHORE RAIL ROAD. 



To the People of the Eastern Shore. 



On the (iiiy the. Leiri-slature ailjourned. I wrote 

 a note to two e.litors of newspapers, iiidicatirij; a 

 desire to 'rouble their types a little, as soon as I 

 returned home and conhl find leisure, on the sul)- 

 ject of the proposed Eastern Sk'ire Rail Road ; 

 but although the balance of that letter was pub- 

 lished, I am not aware the only part which I de- 

 sired should me<Uthe public eye was ever published, 

 and that was t()r an invitation speedily to take up 

 the subject tor their sage consideration. 1 ant 

 aware that those ot' our countrymen whose vision 

 has been bounded by the sensible horizon which 

 surrounds their own domicils. or whose indolent 

 thoughts have not been permitted to wander be- 

 yond the circle of their every day employment, or 

 every day enjoyment, regard this scheme as one 

 which could only have found birth in the feverish 

 brain of some moon-struck visionary. What, say 

 they, "a Rail Road through the E. S. Peninsula I 

 and to be a part too of the' great national works to 

 afford rapid travel between the North and South? 

 preposterous ! monstrous !" 



In the oatset I profess a want of sufTuient time 

 to do justice to this important subject in hasty 

 essays, and above all, want of time will preclude 

 me from obtaining authentic proofs of some facts, 

 which, nevertheless, certainly exist, and which are 

 essential to render the case I am supporting, per- 

 fectly clear and obvious to the most incredulous; 

 but if such of our countrymen as are now scepti- 

 cal on this subject will have pntience to come along 

 with me, I will promise at least to make him 

 doubt in his disbelief of this scheme, if I do not 

 convince him unconditionally of its practicability 

 at a cheap rate, advantaires to the whole Sliore, 

 and profit to the stockholders. It will not be my 

 purpose to attempt to show that there is at this 

 time travel and commerce enough on this shore to 

 justify fi-oin its resources the making a rail road, al- 

 though I will say, chat the existetice of a rail road 

 for a term of fifty years would create in that time 

 the necessary travel and commerce; but I propose 

 to show diat there is foreign travel from the south 

 to the north, now in readiness to support this road 

 by its means alone, and independent of the funds 

 to be derived from the liberal and enlightened plant 

 of the general government which proposes to 

 make the rail roads the exclusive carriers of the 

 mails. While the government will save money 

 and have the mail carried with more certainty and 

 despatch by their plan on rail roads, it will be seen 

 that the ainount received by the roads for this pur- 

 pose will be nearly entirely clear gain to them. 



On casting the eye over the map of our penin- 

 sula, it will be seen that we not only have the 

 most favoured spot, that perhaps nature in her 

 bounty ever created on the face of this globe, l()r 

 the projection of a rail road; but besides this we 

 have a beautiful spot of earth, bearing other char- 

 acteristics. It has come from the hands of its 

 creator, with alniDst the same smooih finish which 

 it could have possessed, had it been under the 

 graduation of a corps of engineers, employed from 

 tlie days of Father Noalf to the present time. 

 Our soil is emphatically fertile, and not an inch of 

 it but may, by tlie use of lime, be made first rate 



land, equal in its general productiveness to any 

 land in the country. Our whole shore has been 

 overspread and shaded by rich and heavy forests 

 large portions of which particularly in the interior 

 still remain to attest iis native origin and feriility; 

 we are nearly surrounded by two of the noblest 

 bays in the worlil, and we are cut up and intersect- 

 ed by naviijable rivers and creeks, to an extent 

 unlike all other spots on the liice of the Globe; af- 

 Ibrding navigation tiir transportation from almost 

 every iieiijhborhood; these natural highways, ma- 

 ny of them do not go far into the interior, and 

 whilst they give us transportation fi'om place to 

 place, give us a number of luxuries for our diet, 

 which go to supersede one-half of the labor neces- 

 sary for sustenance, and exceeds perhaps in its va- 

 riety, abundance, and excellence, the supply af- 

 Ibrdeil by any other place on eartli. It is to those 

 extraordinary and wonderfully advantages more 

 than to any thing else, that may be ascribed, extra- 

 ordinary as it may seem, the inertness, the indo- 

 lence and supineness, which has caused our popu- 

 lation to retograde in numbers as our lands fiave 

 retrograded in qua'ity — no pxiom is more true than 

 that which alleges that men work and improve 

 their soil, just in the ratio of the difficulty of ob- 

 taining subsistence from it. When we gain sub- 

 sistence with very little labour we soon become im- 

 patient of any labour — when men are compelled 

 to work hard every day to gain there daily siibsis- 

 tsnce, labour becomes habitual, and habit makes it 

 pleasant. 



Our shore from these very causes, strange as at 

 first view they may seem, has fiillen into neglect, 

 and many of our most enterprising citizens are 

 annually leavinir us. The spirit of public Inter- 

 nal Impriivements, so rife in the country, has oc- 

 cupied the thoughts of all our people or emigra- 

 tion, believing that we were without those natu- 

 ral and incidental advantages, which could lead to 

 similar improvements on this Shore, and that we 

 must therefore remain forever stationary. 



A brighter day is undoubtedly dawning on this 

 Eastern Shore, and one that is to bind her citizens 

 to her from one extreme of our bounds to the oth- 

 er, a day that is to bring, and speedily, a great in- 

 crease to her population, and to make the Eastern 

 Shore that which nature intended it should be, the 

 garden spot of the country. 



Whilst there is a vigorous efibrt now progress- 

 ing along the line of our exterior water courses to 

 improve the soil, the interior of the Shore is every 

 day becoming thinner of its inhabitants, and 

 every day brings an increasing number of old 

 fields turned out to run into wilderness or waste 

 land. How long I would ask. would it require for 

 the improvements now going on upon the naviira- 

 ble water courses, chiefly by means of calcareous 

 manures, to reach the interior of the Shore with- 

 out the aid of a rail road through it, with laterals 

 to every convenient navigable point on both the 

 waters of the Delaware and the Chesapeake? A- 

 sres might be re(]uired, whilst by the operation of 

 the railroad, fifty years woulil not be required to 

 place it completely on a footing- throughout, with 

 the most fav.ired and most improving portion of 

 the Uniied Slates. 



It will be borne in mind that the rivers, and 

 creeks of our shore take their rise near the centre 

 of the peninsula, fall to the east into the Delaware, 

 and into the Chesapeake in the west. If yon 



