362 



FARMERS' REGISTER— RAIL-ROAD TO CHARLESTON, 



curred by the laws of settlement. At present, if 

 there is no labor in one parish, instead oi transfer- 

 riiif^ the laborer to another, you chain him to flic 

 soil as a pauper. Nor must we for<;et the mis- 

 chievous and contagious example of the itinerant 

 vagabonds from Ireland, Tliese Hibernian ad- 

 venturers, worthy successors of the tierce coloni- 

 zers of old, are transported in myriads by the 

 blessc^l contrivance of steam, into a country where 

 "to relieve the wretched is our pride:" with much 

 greater capacities for omni-possession than the 

 English laborer, whom the laws of settlement 

 chain to his parish — they spread tliemselvcs over 

 the whole country ; and wherever they are settled 

 at last, they establish a dread example of thriftless, 

 riotous, unimprovable habits of ])auperism. * * * 



But what are the remedies for these growiilg 

 evds.' Every one allows tlie mischief of the pre- 

 sent poor-laws ; puts his hands in Ids pockets, and 

 says, "But what are we to do.'' Tliis is ever the 

 case; men sulfer evils to surround them, and then 

 quarrel with every cure. There is an impatient 

 cowardice in the spirit of modern legislation, 

 which, seeing difficulties on all sides, thinks only 

 of the difficulty of removing tliem. But, in fact, 

 by a vigorous and speedy reform, the worst conse- 

 quences of the poor-laws may be arrestetl — the re- 

 jmedies are not so difficult as they seem. 



The principal machinery of reform sliould lie in 

 the discipline of the workhouse. It is a fact at pre- 

 sent, that where the comforts at a workhouse ex- 

 ceed those of the independent laborer, pauperism 

 increases; but where the comforts at flie work- 

 house have been reduced below those of the inde- 

 pendent laborer, pauperism has invaria})ly and 

 most i-apidly diminished. On this principle all re- 

 form must mainly rest. A workhouse 7nust be a 

 house of loork, requiring severer labor and giving 

 less remuneration than can be obtained by honest 

 eompetition elseivhere. 



The asylums for the aged and the infirm, should 

 on the contrary be rendered sufficiently commodi- 

 ous to content, though not so luxurious as to temjjf, 

 the poor. There may well be a distinction be- 

 tween the house for labor to the idle, and that of 

 rest for the exhausted. 



" The poor shall be with you always," are the 

 pathetic words of the Messiah ; and tliat some men 

 must be poor and some rich, is a dispensation, with 

 which, according to the lights of our present ex- 

 perience no human wisdom can interfere. But if 

 legislation cannot prevent the inequalities of pover- 

 ty and wealth, it is bound to prevent the legis- 

 lative abuse of each; — the abuse of riches is 

 tyranny ; the corruption of poverty is recklessness. 

 Wherever either of these largely exist, talk not of 

 the blessings of free institutions, there is the very 

 principle that makes servitude a curse. Some- 

 thing is, indeed, wrong in that system in which we 

 see " Age going to the workhouse, and Youth to 

 the gallows." But with us the evil hath arisen, 

 not from the malice of oppression, but the mistake 

 of charity. Occupied witli the struggles of a 

 splendid ambition, our rulers have legislated for 

 the poor in the genius not of a desire to oppress, 

 but an im})atience to examine. At length there 

 has dawned forth from the dark apathy of ages a 

 light, which has revealed to ihe two ranks of our 

 social world the elements and the nature of their 

 several conditions. That light has the properties 

 of a more fiery material. Prudence may make it 



the most useful of our servants ; neglect may suf- 

 fer it to become Ihe most ruthless of^ our destroy- 

 ers. It is difficult, however, to arouse the great 

 to a full conception of the times in which we live: 

 the liigher classes are the last to hear the note of 

 danger. The same principle pervades the ine- 

 qualities of social life, as that so remarkable in the 

 laws of physical science : they who stand on the 

 lofty eminence,— the high places of the world, — 

 are deafened by the atmosphere itself, and can 

 scarcely hear tlie sound of the explosion which 

 alarms the quiet of the plains! 



RAIL ROAD TO CH AHLESTON, 



The modus operandi. 



From the Columbia Hive. 



I will now proceed, as briefly as I am able, to 

 discuss this part of the subject. I do not believe, 

 that until tiie Carbondale Rail Road adopted the 

 wooden plan it ever was again thought of, 'till the 

 ad captandum executors of the Charleston Road 

 put it into execution. The projectors of the road 

 originally talked of graduating it and estimated the 

 graduation at .'S800 per mile — a simi equal to its 

 proper execution if we recollect what Virginia has 

 done for .^1500 per mile ; and, if it had not been for 

 the necessity and the costly necessity of beginning 

 it near Charleston there is no doubt that it would 

 have been commenced at Hamburg, which is on 

 the lower edge of the primitive formation. Hence 

 there would have been furnished a large body of 

 stone. This stone mixed with the clay where it 

 was to be had would have been highly useful to 

 coat and perhaps to macadamize the road. The 

 road would have canied the middle country gravel 

 down to the low country and it would have been 

 founded on a basis almost everlasting. 



Thus it should be at Columbia. It is similarly 

 situated as to Hamburg, and the plan should be to 

 obtain profiles of the road ; and, in my humble 

 opinion nothing farther attempted at present than 

 such a Rail Road as I have described in my last. 

 So, that if its cost be reduced to .«:2500 or 3000 per 

 mile it will leave sufficient funds to project other 

 Rail Roads — one for instance from Columbia to 

 Camden and periiaps others to VVinnsborough, &c. 

 &c. Steam carriages are the last things to be intro- 

 duced. 



But as one of the most important objects in view 

 is, the passage of swamps, I will advert to that sub- 

 ject and do most especially call it to the attention 

 of the intelligent; inasmuch, as I am very appre- 

 ]iensive,so powerful is the force of example, that 

 there are many who will think, that the wooden 

 bridge, so perishable of its own nature and espe- 

 cially in swamps, and so obnoxious to fire will be 

 advocated and strange to say, because — it has been 

 adopted on the Charleston Road ! 



However to proofs — What has been the result 

 of the crazy ill-digested and expensive scheme — 

 of passing the Santee at Vances.? Fully $25000 

 have been expended, and such is now its general 

 condition, at the usual season of travel, that com- 

 bined with the superior accommodation of stages 

 at Columbia, a large nundier of persons will ra- 

 ther go 30 miles round than pass the Santee at 

 Vanccs, 



I may not be correct in saying, that, if half the 

 money had been spent at Nelson's ferry, it would 

 have sufficed to have created a jjcrmanent pass- 



