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Ash vi/fe Allanta Co\mnl»is ftut/u.di 4nsm¡oojM IjnmcliviHe T'hi/ad^h ( fíarles1i>n)é^iK Macón Selnui Viehsbin 'JACKSON -«■7m5NT«;< » M K in ^. - Sfumiiisí llic ^ routcí ofrtll tlic ik^ortíiií « InProgreiSS, ( oiisInicU'd & Pr()|U)sc nrruratc as'fhe raimiiilter could oldain the m, any errors however will he cor reeled m die (liHiuiirntr which mai/ he realirr he liiihli.vhed bv the con ven Hon (dendv Un rice j Áícw Mouton I ( Olli III i/lee A.D. t'rossmail / oí .11). II De How \ ( 'on oentwh ('.STarplef ■ Tatii/xi ( ¡.iflioiiraii/ied for the Cini yentiao Coiiin/itlee a/al for Oe luny.s Monthly Ifidie.'itrifil Hecie»'. A'eiv Ihíea/í'í > E R R ATA. In the Address of the Southern and Western Rail-Road Convention, an error is made in calculating the relative rail-road facilities, North and South. It should have been stated, "the North has twelve times, or, including Texas, eighteen times the extent of rail-roads to the square mile—and each mile of Northern territory has on the average expended thirty times as much as each mile of Southern ter¬ ritory." .A TA iL Ii. a -r»!. ^yiflô&R.Tî'^lbi ¿wo ¿otitir ?a ^oaiii 'fiyldf boLaiHir'y ^ T■ -' ' ■ ■■■■•' ÄMüÄSi-»Í • • «■•^' • •« " - » '••,•- •- 5«*ivaF«ft'x»-r-«';--' • ' . »*•■. \ 7^ ■ t ADDRESS . TO THE PEOPLE OF THE SOUTHERN AND WESTERN STATES, and more particularly to those of louisiana, texas, mississippi, alabama, tennessee, arkansas, kentucky and missouri. The portion of the Union which we occupy is one of the most wealthy in the world, and produces, in proportion to population, the greatest amount of exportable commodities. Its population has been steadily increasing, and a condition of general prosperity pre¬ vails through its limits, which, if not as wide as it should be, may be said to depend upon causes altogether within our control. Shall it be asserted, that this great section of the Union is so pecu¬ liarly that it can contain within its limits no large cities, no controlling centres and emporia, but must be dependent upon the Northern Atlantic sea-boards, penetrated through mountain passes, and by the most difficult and devious roads, for the vitals of commercial life and activity 1 Is there any necessary reason that the whole com¬ mercial strength of the nation should concentrate in the cities of the North, whilst New-Orleans, Mobile, Charleston and Savannah, are arrested in their progress, or exhibit af times even the evidences of decline ? Whence is it, that Louisville, Memphis, Vicksburg and Nashville, have shown none of the progress that has marked other sections of the' confederacy 1 Are the cities and towns of the South and South-west in particular to decline, or to remain stagnant, whilst the din of progress is heard everywhere else ? Are there not sympa¬ thies and interests to bind us together in this section of the South and * the valley of the West, and can we not, by a concerted action, pro¬ mote our common weall Whilst we have been idle spectators, New- York and Boston have been taking away the commerce of the rich and growing states of the North-west, which once paid tribute to us as it passed to the ocean, but which now avoids our limits, and refuses the wealth which it formerly diffiised through its channels. Are the millions of the North-west more naturally allied to those of the North than to us, who occupy a part of the same great valley, and are nearer of approach ; and must we forever abandon the idea of con¬ trolling, or of sharing their commerce 1 These questions, fellow-citizens, have a direct and common interest to all of our states, and upon their solution will depend much of the his¬ tory of this great and growing region in the future. Dense population, great and growing cities, wealth, power and influence, and political strength on the one hand—or scattering villages, decayed cities, stag- Fellow-Citizens :— 1 ^ E. . Slo' 2 ADDRESS. nant life, and comparative poverty and imbecility, are the alternatives which seem to he presented ; the realization of which may depend, in a much higher degree than we have supposed, upon our own individual agencies. It is time that we were truly aroused to the urgencies and necessi¬ ties of the occasion, whilst all the world around us is in motion. The interiors of many of our great states are as difficult practically of communication with their commercial cities, or with each other, as they would he were the restraints of separate governments and custom-house collectors interposed between them ! Roads for many months of the year almost impassable, and at all times of enormously costly and laborious transit;—rivers with their insecurities and deten¬ tions, and frequent and frightful losses, exclude us from intercourse and easy connection with each other, except upon the borders of the very largest rivers. For many months of the year the citizens of Louisville might reach New-Orleans by way of New-York sooner than by that of the Ohio and the Mississippi ! Nashville is at all times as distant and of more hazardous approach to New-Orleans than is New-York. Little Rock is practically as far from the ocean as if seated at the Falls of St. Anthony. But this is not the worst. Whole regions of immense fertility within our limits are shut out entirely and hope¬ lessly from any market whatever, and in not one of our states can the citizens of the interior reach their shipping or commercial points in less time than it would take a citizen of Boston to visit New-York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, and even in many cases to stop at each of the points—and return to his home ! Thus is it, that our prosperity is interrupted by causes which tend to separate us in interests and in feelings ; and thus is it that we seem incapable of alliance for any great purpose, whilst other sections of the Union constitute, so far as their interests are concerned, always a unit. If we compare the ten northern states, Maine, New-Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, New-Jersey, Massa¬ chusetts, Pennsylvania, New-York, with the ten southern, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, we find the population of each class of states being nearly equal, the North has 6,838 miles of rail¬ road in operation, whilst the South has but 2,309. Thus, in the com¬ parison of population, the North has three miles of rail-road to our one. The comparison would be still more striking, were the states of the South-west compared with those of New-England. If we compare, in regard to territory, the area of the Northern states is less than one-fourth that of the Southern, or one-sixth, including Texas. Thus the North has four times, or including Texas, six times the ex¬ tent of rail-roads to the square mile that wo have. The average cost of rail-roads at the North has been at least double that of the South;* therefore, each individual of the North has * January Ist, 1849, there were in Massachusetts, and the adjacent states, l.S.'iO miles of rail-road, costing $47,322,938—equal to $37,587 72 per mile. The average cost of 247 miles of road, in North Carolina, was $12,806 per mile ; of 51 miles in Alabama, it was $10,763 ; of the Central Road of Georgia, 190 miles long, it was $12,702 per mile, and the Macon and Western Rail road, 101 miles, cost only $6,218 per mile. The Jefferson Rail¬ road, Indiana, cost $8,064 42 per mile—66 miles. ADDRESS. 3 expended on the average between six and eight times as much as each individual at the South, and each mile of northern territory has ex¬ pended upon rail-roads on the average between ten and twelve times as much as each mile of southern territory ! Whilst this state of things has existed, the relative commerce of the two sections has remained as follows: In 1846, the exports of northern growth and manufactures, (and much of these manufactures were from southern materials.) were $27,331,290 ; whilst the exports of southern produce, cotton, tobacco, rice, naval stores, &c., were $74,000,000, or three times as much. In 1847, the southern exports were $102,000,000, against the northern $48,000,000; in 1848, $93,000,000, against the northern $34,000,000 ; in 1849, $99,000,000, against $32,000,000.* These facts are conclusive in evidence, that the rail-road inferiority of the southern states is not the result of in¬ feriority in commercial and transportable commodities and wealth. A comparison of particular states will show, too, most conclusively, that not the mere denseness of population has influenced rail-road construction. Thus Ohio is denser than the average of New-England, and has but one-third to one-half the extent of rail-roads. Indiana, and parts of Michigan, are as dense as Vermont. Kentucky and Ten¬ nessee both exceed the density of Maine, which has nearly 211 miles actually constructed, whilst Kentucky and Tennessee together have not so much ; or, to compare even the southern Atlantic states with each other, Georgia, with one million of population, has twice or three times the extent of rail-roads contained in all the states of the South¬ west, and South Carolina has more than Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas, actually constructed, though her population is not one-third so great as theirs ! Will it bo said that the people of New-England and the North are more migratory in their habits, more extensively addicted to travel, than the people of the South and the West? This may be true, but for no necessary reason, as the statistics of the Georgia and Carolina roads already evince; and, indeed, the experience of the North itself confirms our judgment. Time was when locomotion was as tardy and as interrupted at the North as it is here, and the disposition for travel did not then exist. When the Boston and Lowell road was proposed, the commissioners, basing their estimates upon the extent of travel then existing, sup¬ posed that 37,500 passengers might be carried annually. This high figure was thought by many absurd. Ten years afterwards this road carried 400,886 passengers in the same time. The Boston and Worcester road was estimated at 23,500 passengers; in 1846 it reached 470,319. The Eastern road claimed 121,000 ; it has reach¬ ed nearly one million ! The Fitchburg road, based upon the results up to 1845, had calculated upon 72,000 passengers per annum. The number immediately reached 327,034. Thus the traveling propen¬ sities of Massachusetts did not create their roads, but the roads created these propensities.) ♦ See De Bnw's Monthly Commercial Review, Vol. X., p. 153. t Safety of Rad ruads.—The chief cause of the popularity of rail-roads as instruments of travel, is their safety. No other conveyance can compare with them. Not even pri- 4 ADDRESS. Where, then, are the obstacles to southern and western rail-road improvement, if they do not exist in the want of merchantable pro¬ ducts for a market—in the density and extent of population—in traveling propensities, or other sufficient facilities of transport ? Can such obstacles exist at all among a people who have within them¬ selves, for a large part of the year, abundance of negro labor appli¬ cable to the construction of roads at cheap expense, abundance of timber to be had without cost, abundance of public lands ready to be donated, and which will in some instances contribute half the expense of construction*—a level country requiring little grading, and no right of way to be purchased, an immense consideration in other quarters ? There is not a people upon the face of the earth who can, at so cheap an expense, checker every section of their fertile territory with the iron bands of travel and of commerce, or hear in every part of their limits the shrill pipe of the locomotive. The importance of speedy, cheap and uninterrupted communication between the people of the same, or of neighboring states, is felt in the cheapening of commodities, and, of course, in the increase of their consumption and production ; in the enlargement of the area tribu¬ tary to their great towns, and in the extension of the benefits of these towns; in the divefsification of labor and employment; the promo¬ tion of commerce; the removal of prejudices; the strengthening of bonds of harmony and peace,—the realization of greater security and strength during actual war ! In a republican government more than in any other in the world, these arguments should be held irresistible and conclusive in favor of such speedy, cheap, aird uninterrupted communication. It is curious to reflect upon the tardy progress which the world has made in the means of transport and conveyance, until within the experience of the present generation of men. Only eighty years ago, in proud old England, the traveler, Arthur Young, bewailed the " perils" of her best turnpikes. " Let me most seriously caution all travelers who may accidentally propose to travel this terrible country, to avoid it as they would the devil, for a thousand to one, they break their necks or their limbs by overthrows or breakings down." " This is a paved road infamously bad ; any person would imagine the people of the country had made it with a view to immediate destruc¬ tion, for the breadth is only sufficient for one carriage ; consequently it vaLe carriages. There were in operation, January 1st, 1849, in Massachusetts, and the adjoining states, 1,259 miles of rail-road ; and in 1848, (as far as reported) there were transported on these roads 19,474,293 passengers within six years ; there were 22 pas¬ sengers killed—53 employers, and 42 other persons—in all, 117. In England it is esti¬ mated that the chances of a man's losing his life in traveling 300 miles, is aa 217,879 to 1 ; , and that out of 400,000 packages of merchandise only 1 is lost. By a return made to the English Legislature, we find a statement made of accidents which had occurred in Eng¬ land, Ireland and Scotland, for half a year. Ninety persons had been killed ; of these, thirteen died from causes which the parties deceased could not have averted. Fifty- seven had died from misconduct or carelessness on the part of the deceased tliemselvea. Ninety-nine had also been wounded ; and the whole number of passengers liad been, during the half year, no fewer tlian 26,330,492 persons. These facts illustrate very fully the safety of this mode ol travel."* *• For (hunrers. eic,, of river travel, sec Appendix to this Address. * See Appendix ia Illustration. ADDRESS. \ 5 is cut at once into ruts," etc.—"Let me persuade all travelers to avoid this terrible country, which must either dislocate their bones with broken pavements, or bury them in sandy mud." This was spoken in 1770, of one of the wealthiest portions of England, which is at present, according to Dr. Lardner, reticulated with rail-roads, upon which tens of thousands of passengers are daily transported at a speed varying from 30 to 50 miles an hour ! What is true of England is true even in a higher degree for the United States, since many of us can remember the time when whole days, and even weeks, were occupied in passing between the most populous and frequented cities of the North, which now employ as many hours ; and when New-Orleans was practically as remote fi'om the City of Washington as is the Bay of San Francisco or the mouth of the Columbia.* Notwithstanding the extraordinary improvements which have been made, many populous and wealthy portions of the South and West are in no better condition than were the parishes of England in the time of Adam Young. "Sir," said a farmer to us in Newberry, S. C., "talk of-the expense of wagoning to market my cotton, eating up the profits of my crop. It does more, sir. I could take you to the Buzzard Lane and show you, besides the profits of my crop, some dozen mules and horses eaten up by the mud holes. I could take you to the grave-yard hard by, and show you where lie buried my dear friends, who have died of exposure while wagoning over these cursed holes," etc. Rail-roads are the creations of the present age, and have reached their maturity almost at one bound, if we can call that maturity, which is always progressing and achieving results (that excel the dreams of ancient or oriental fabulists) higher and higher, and more rapidly than they can be chronicled. The Manchester Rail-road, in England, has the credit of having been the first in the world ; and Mr. Stephenson, its projector, was laughed at very generally for his folly in supposing that twelve miles an hour might be attained on this road. This was in 1832.f In 1840, there were 1,300 miles of rail-roads in Great Britain ; in 1841, 1,500; 1845,2,400; 1850,—J The first rail-road in the United States—a petty affair of four miles—was employed to carry granite at Quincy, and was built in *Mr. Balfour, of Massachusetts, says:—" The first rail-road charter in the United States was granted March 4th, 1826, to convey granite from Q.uincy, Mass., to tide-water. The first rail-road in the United States, on which passengers were conveyed, was the Bal¬ timore and Ohio road, chartered February, 1827, and partly opened December 28th, 1829. A single horse was employed, carrying 41 passengers at the rate of 12 miles per hour. Benjamin Franklin, in 17-13, advertises that the northern post will set out from Philadelphia for New-York on Thursdays—the southern post on Mondays—going every fortnight during the summer season! There are now three daily lines between Phila¬ delphia and New-York. The news of the Battle of Bunker Hill was two weeks in reach¬ ing Philadelphia. William Ellery, a delegate to Congress, 1777, was 25 days journeying on horseback from Dighton, Mass., to York, Penna. ; and Josiah Cluincy, in 1773, was 33 days in a journey from South Carolina to Philadelphia," etc. t Tiiey laughed more heartily at Mr. Clinton. " Where is the water to come from to fill up this great ditch ?" " You need have no fears upon that subject—the tears of the eopie will fill it."—Debate on the construction of the Ene Canal. t See Appendix for the Statistics. 6 ADDRESS. 1825, though in January, 1829, says the Rail-Road Journal^ there was not a road in operation on which locomotive engines were suc¬ cessfully used as the propelling power ! In 1832, there were ninety- two miles in operation, and the utmost that was claimed for them was, that they would answer for light parcels and passengers. In the 20 years that followed, there have been constructed 7,000 miles of rail-roads in the United States.* Up to 1845, there had been expended in the United States 110 millions of dollars upon rail-roads, which were yielding at that time an average interest of five per cent. ; whilst in the same period 150 millions had been squandered on banks, which had carried ruin be¬ fore them. Let us briefly consider some of the efiects of rail-roads as they manifest themselves upon population, industry, wealth and society. 1. Upon Population.—It will not be denied that very much of the settlement of a country depends upon the capacities afforded of communication and transport. Even inferior lands will be cultivated, if within reach of a market, whilst the most productive will remain in a state of nature, or with the most limited population. The argu¬ ments which apply to common roads are strengthened in the case of turnpikes ; still more on plank roads and canals, and in the highest degree on rail-roads, which introduce the potent element of steam. It is common experience that settlements and large towns will spring up on the route of a rail-road, where hitherto nothing but farm¬ houses were to be seen, except at its termini. The traveler at the North will be struck with this every hour. These villages and towns become themselves the centres of a back population, and give rise to the opening of new lands, and thus the area continually widens. The history of the West is strongly in point. When she was shut off' from the Atlantic by a road of 60 days, or a flat boat navigation quite as long, the progress of population and products was slow, re¬ volutions were openly discussed, and a separate government ade¬ quate to her necessities, proposed. The power of rail-roads and steam has changed the whole aspect of things, and the West, which li.ad but 300,000 at the close of the last century, contained, in 18c0, 2,207,463; in 1830, 3,672,569; in 1840, 5,302,918, and reaches nearly 10,000,000 at the present time. IIow much larger might have been the population, had facilities like those of New-York and hlassa- chusetts been enjoyed, may be readily imagined. It will not do to argue that population must come before rail-roads. It is possible to stimulate and excite it ! If the natural facilities of rivers and na¬ vigable streams exercise great influence on the growth of population, as in the history of settlement none can deny, will not other facilities of a like, or even a diiferent character, have the same eflect I Popu¬ lation follows the rivers, and not rivers the population, and so is it of rail-roads. 2. Upon Industry.—A people dependent upon mere pi'oduction, and incapable of exchanging, can only remain in savage barbarism. * See Appendix for Extract, from De Bow's Review, in further illustration. ADDRESS. 7 The first step in progress is barter ; for without it, production will be confined to the mere abject necessities of life. Trade stimulates new energies, and life, and ultimately civilization. Industry is its hand¬ maiden. Manufactures go hand in hand with it, for every article of manufacture, except the very rudest, presupposes exchange, since the skill of the field laborer must be supplied by that of the artisan. The frequency of exchanges, and the capacities for them, thus operate upon production and fabrication. The Indian hunter will transporten his back, or in canoes, his peltry, hundreds of miles, to the trader. This is exchange under the greatest conceivable disadvantages. The Mex¬ ican trader will supply the interior commerce upon pack horses across great deserts. This is commerce at one remove; but still, under such discouragements, it cannot thrive, and thus Mexico remains, from age to age, without improvement or progress. The wagon, the flat-boat, the ship, the steamer and the rail-road, are successive steps in advance¬ ment. New wants spring up with the facilities of their enjoyment, and new energies are diffused. The poorer classes become consumers of what formerly was confined to the wealthy. The wealthy look around for new marks to distinguish them from the commonalty ; thus industry is everywhere taxed and encouraged, manufacturing towns spring up, and villages grow into immense cities. The forests give way to the axe, and the age of highest civilization is ushered in. 3. Upon Wealth.—We shall confine ourselves here to a few facts, which go to show the immense results which have grown out of the construction of rail-roads. They are the creators of wealth in more than one way. As a source of profitable investment, rail-roads have not been surpassed by any other. We have stated, the actual earnings on the roads of England are over four per cent.* on the present value of shares, whilst the interest on money is much less. If there has been a depreciation in the stocks of the roads, it is easily accounted for by the monomania which induced the construction of roads that were unne¬ cessary, and by the reckless and extravagant system of construction, incident to the infancy of all novel enterprizes. The same remark applies to the United States, where the dividends of roads average over five per cent., though in Massachusetts this average reaches eight per cent. ; whilst upon many roads in the country ten, and even a much greater per cent., has been realized by an economical management. No other investments of capital have paid more, and if we take a long series of years, no others have paid so much. Losses, to be sure, have been incurred, and immense amounts sunk, as our own State of Louisiana may exemplify, but in what department of business has experience been otherwise I Certainly not in commerce, certainly not in banking, nor even in agriculture and manufactures. Visionary and impracticable schemes, and ruinous extravagance, will find their place in every branch of human affairs. In the United States they have been, perhaps, less felt in the matter of rail-roads than in any other matter. Nor is it in actual dividends alone that rail-road pro¬ fits are achieved. Far from it. These are among their least advan- * De Bow's Review, March, 1850, Vol. VIII. New-Orleans. 8 ADDRESS. tages. Proprietors, urban and rural, feel their effects primarily and to the largest extent. If the whole amount of the investment were for¬ ever without dividend, it would be good economy often for the land¬ holders if they contributed every cent of it. The enhancement of the value of property has in many cases paid tenfold the value of the investment. Throughout the Union property has received an actual tangible benefit to a much greater amount than the cost of all the roads in it. New-York is a strong illustration. In the 15 years which immediately succeeded the construction of the Erie Canal, the value of property in the city advanced 119 per cent., though in the preceding ten years it had not advanced one dollar ; the per cent, increase of population being not much greater immediately after than before the construction of the canal. " Wherever rail-roads have been constructed," says Colonel Gadsden, of South Carolina, " pro¬ perty has risen in value, and new stimuli have been given to trade and intercourse. These are not speculative views, but realities. The appreciation of property in Boston from the roads converging upon that city has been estimated at thirty-seven millions of dollars. A reference to the statistics of Carolina roads will show, that property and trade has, within the last fifteen years, and since the completion of our rail-roads, increased in a greater degree on the Neck, in Colle¬ ton, Barnwell, Orangeburg and Edgefield, than in any other portion of the state," &o. He says again ; " 1 shall show that trade has expanded, and the value of real estate increased, since the establishment of the rail-road. Any one who will make the inquiry, will find that land all along the road to Hamburgh and Columbia for five miles each side of it, has appreciated in value since its construction, 50, 500, and in some cases, 5,000 per cent., and where before its construction there were not twenty thousand dollars of trade, there is now upwards of $250,000. The valuation of property on the South Carolina Kail- road, compared before and since its construction, shows—1830, $11,387,012; 1846, $19,075,157; gain, $7,638,145. The city of Charleston shows real estate, 1830, $8,366,914; 1840, $13,527,743 : gain, $5,160,829. This increase in trade, and the value of real estate, 1 insist has been principally attributable to the introduction of rail roads ; and if the saving were added to the gain, the advantages would appear almost inappreciable." The statistics of New-York and Boston are even more interesting in showing the results of rail-roads. BOSTON. Real Estate. Personal. Total. 1841 62,063,000 36,043,600 98,106,600 1842 65,,509,500 41,222,800 106,733,300 1843 72,048,000 46,402,300 118,450.300 1844 97,764,500 64,595,900 162,360,400 1850 266,646,844 Increase of real and personal estate from 1841 to 1845 S74,253,80O Deduct cost of rail-roads in Mass. to that time 30,244,926 Nett gain, supposing the roads dead stock $44,008,874 ADDRESS. 9 The same period of five years in New-York, showed a falling off in the value of real estate from $251,194,920 to $247,152,303, an amount equal to $4,042,617. This striking fact has alarmed the New-Yorkers, and set them to work in such a way as must restore the equilibrium. Within the last five years both cities have con¬ tinued their amazing strides. We turn now to our neighbor and enterprising city of Mobile for illustration. The assessment rolls of real and personal estate, pub¬ lished by authority, shows that the total value of property, which from 1836 to 1847 had averaged $20,000,000, had declined in 1847, '48 and '49 to $12,000,000. The result was on all sides evidences of general decay. Rents fell, business declined, and emigration com¬ menced its inroads. The glory of Mobile had departed ! But these things were not to last. The stake was too large a one. Pro¬ perty holders awoke from their sleep of death. They looked around. The grand conception of a rail-road to the Ohio was formed. Many laughed and sneered. Thousands doubted. But the work gained steadily in favor, until now, its realization is demonstrably certain. In a single year the real estate of Mobile has advanced $5,000,000 ; rents have taken a new start ; lots are sold at an immense premium over previous rates, and general confidence has been re-established throughout the city. The St. Louis Reveille says : "That the remarkable increase in the price of property in St. Louis this spring, as shown by the late sales of real estate in that city and the suburbs, is referable, in no small degree, to the anticipated construction of rail-roads hav¬ ing their termini at St, Louis. Since the passage by the Illinois legislature, of the charter for the Ohio and Mississippi Rail-road, foreign capital and enter¬ prise have been directed to that point, and large amounts have been invested in the last two months in real estate, at prices far in advance of those hitherto commanded by property at the same season, and under circumstances of an or¬ dinary character." The next illustration is Virginia ; and here we quote from the late able message of Gov. Floyd. "The wisdom of the policy stands fully vindicated by the recent assessment of lands in the common¬ wealth, which shows an increase of 29^ per cent, upon our entire landed property during the last twelve years, or an aggregate increase in the value of real estate alone, since 1838, of $62,749,718, while the increase between the assessments of 1819 and 1838 was only $5,036,530, or two and a half per cent. The total value of lands in the state, in 1819, was $206,893,978 ; in 1838 it^was $211,930,508, and in 1850 it is $274,680,226 ; which shows an average increase each year, since 1838, whilst the system of internal improvement has been in operation, equal to the whole increase during the nineteen years prior to that time. This result has been owing chiefly to the imptdse imparted to the industry of the state by the facilities which her public works have afforded to our citizens, for transpiorting their pro¬ duce to market. Portions of our country which, twenty years ago, were scarcely inhabited, are now thickly settled, well cultivated and prosperous. A ta.x-paying fund has been thus provided, which will constitute, through all time, a valuable addition to the permanent capital of the commonwealth." 10 ADDRESS. Governor Floyd also presents, in a strong light, the comparative growth of Boston. " The advancement of Boston is beyond all ex¬ ample. The value of her property has increased from 120,114,574, to 260,640,844 dollars ; over twelve per cent, per annum, or more than double the legal interest in Virginia. The population of the city has increased with an equally surprising rapidity. The population of the state has advanced from 718,592 to 973,715, an increase of 255,123. Every vocation of life has partaken of this prosperity and thrift. Agriculture, manufactures, commerce—all branches of indus¬ try, are advancing with an unparalleled rapidity; and the future prospects of Boston continue still to be as brilliant as those of any other city in the Union. That this great increase has been the result of her railway improvements, is denied by none—no other element of prosperity than this has been added to those always possessed by her ; and we have therefore a right to infer that from this source flows the extraordinary tide of wealth. In 1839, Boston had 167 miles of rail-road radiating thence in various directions ; in 1850, she is connected with 3,090 miles—one third of which lies within the territory of Massachusetts; 1,350 within the borders of other New-England states; and six hundred and fifty in the state of New- York. These great works have enlarged the area of country which contributes to her commerce, probably tenfold, and the eflect is un¬ precedented. Her annual manufactures are worth $91,000,000; and the home trade of Boston is estimated to be worth annually the immense sum of $200,000,000." Baltimore, too, exhibits the effects already of a wise and liberal rail-road policy. The Baltimore and Ohio road, though incomplete, has paid a dividend during the past year of more than ten per cent. ; and such has been the effect produced by it already upon the com¬ mercial prosperity of Baltimore, that it is said " she is now compen¬ sated for her subscription of $3,500,000 to the work." The increase in the value of real estate in the counties bordering on the Vicksburgh and Jackson Rail-road has been estimated to be from $700,000 to $7,000,000, whilst on the Nashville and Chatta¬ nooga road, in four counties, the gain in the value of taxable property has been $2,554,639. " 1 confess," said Mr. Segur, in an able speech delivered several years ago to the Legislature of Virginia, " that if a canal or rail-road were to depend, for the reimbursement of its cost, upon the pro¬ duction usually made at the time of construction, indemnity would be out of the question. But ■present production forms a very incon¬ siderable portion of the elements of transportation and profit. We must estimate the increased production caused by the improvements themselves, gradually progressing from the ordinary amount to the highest point to which the means of the state will admit augmenta tion—and that is almost incalculable. We must take into the esti¬ mate the opening of new channels of trade, and the filling up of old ones—the creation of manufactures—the opening of mines—the ex¬ pansion of trade in all its ramifications—the rising up of cities—the growth of population—the increase of traveling resulting from in¬ crease of facilities of communication." ADDRESS. 11 There can be nothing more striking in the history of rail-roads, than the manner in which they have triumphed over the strongest and most inveterate opposition, and baffled in their results the wildest cal¬ culations of their most sanguine advocates. The London Quarterly Review made infinite sport of the proposition that an eventual speed of 18 or 20 miles an hour might be attained. "The gross ex¬ aggerations of the power of the locomotive engine may delude for a time, but must end in the mortification of those concerned. We should as soon expect the people of Woolwich to suffer themselves to be fired upon by one of Congreve's ricochet rockets, as trust themselves to the mercy of such a machine, going at such a rate." In the present year, upon the Great Western road in England, 48.2 miles per hour has been attained on an average run, without stoppage, and we learn, also, in some cases the ultimatum has been sixty miles! A member'of Parliament declared in opposition to the Manchester road, " that a rail-road could not enter into competition with a canal. Even with the best locomotive engine, the average rate would be 3^ miles per hour, which was slower than the canal conveyance."* The Buffalo and Albany Rail-Road even now runs side by side with the great canal of New-York, a distance of 350 miles, transporting its pas¬ sengers at 1.72 of a cent, per mile, whilst the Pennsylvania road has transported coal at 1 cent per ton per mile, and the average of freight on the roads of New-England, is about two cents per ton per mile on the heaviest goods. The Providence road has transported passengers at 1 cent per mile, and the average freights on British roads, with their enormous expenditures, is 2d per ton on bale goods. Let us now furnish some tables showing the increase of business upon different roads. Estimated No. No. Passen- No. Passen- Name of Road. passengers gers soon af- gets carried before opened. ter opened. in 1848 Boston and Worcester 23.500 262,830 807,143 Boston and Lowell 37,400 400,886 525,764 fitchburg 71,790 327,034 745,825 Eastern 121,700 488 026 1,021,169 Boston and Maine 460,426 1,057,569 TABLE SHOWING THE INCREASE OF PASSENGERS ON VARIOUS ROADS. Nwmber Number No. Names of Roads. Year. of Pas- Year. of Pas- of Increase. Perot, sengers. sengers. yrs. Boston and Lowell ...1846 400,886 1848 .'>25,764 2 124,918 31 Fitcliburg 1845 196,669 745,825 3 549,156. ..280 Western 1842 190,436 405,614 6 215,178... 113 Boston & Worcester 1843 262,830 807,144 5 544,313...207 Old Colony 1846 213,144 552,203....2 339,059... 159 Eastern 1842 431,000 1,021,169 6 590,160. ..119 Boston & Maine 1846 460,426 1,057.569 3 597,143. .. 129 Boston & Providence 476,525 569,127 2 92,612...119 Utica & Schenectady 1843 147,868 270,,413 5 122,545 83 TJtica and Syracuse 111,843 216,807 5 101,964 89 Auburn and Syracuse 83.316 154,215 5 71,899 86 Auburn and Rochester 10,5,190 209,259 5 104,069 99 Tonawanda 67,604 148,443 5 80,839... 120 Attica and Buffalo 68,896 146,235 5 77,339...112 Baltimore and Ohio 149,533 270,616 5 121,083 80 "Mr. Wood, in bis history of Rail-Roads, says, "nothing can do more harm to the adoption ot rail-roads than tlie proiriulgation of such nonsense as that we shall see locomotive engines traveling at the rate of 12, 16, 18 and 20 miles per hour." 12 ADDRESS. The subsequent progress of these roads has been in a similar ra¬ tio. In freights the Western Road, Massáchusetts, had a revenue of $246,351—in 1848, 781,030 ; the Boston and Worcester, 1840, $96,950—1848, $123,111 ; Boston and Providence, 1840, $67,950— 1848, $123,111; Eastern Road, 1840, 41,837—1848, 101,088; Boston and Lowell, 1840, $104,569—1848, 260,129. The southern roads exhibit results equally gratifying, as the fol¬ lowing will show : BUSINESS OF SOUTH CAROLINA RAIL-ROADS. Miles Passée* Up j Total Re- 1 Bales iBarrels Bushels Bushels Barrels Run. ge ra. Freight Down- ceipts. Cotton. Flour. Com Wheat., TuriJen- 1 1 ' tine. 1834.... 154,000 1835 160,072 1836.... 161,160 1837... 153,000 1838.... 190,264 1839.... 232&32 1840 232,656 1841.... 236,108 1842.... 286,995 1843... 313,908 1844..,. 310,812 1845... 342,435 1846.... 345,893 1847.... 327,539 1848.... 352,431 1849.... 1850.... 2ü't)49 34.283 39,216 41,554 44,487 37,283 29,279 35,141 33 925 37,740 54,146 56,785 64.136 77.579 75,149 92.713 117,3511 $55,009 89.237 101,3:^5 84.958 111,02' 129,776 110,732 105,951 131,989 129.337 163,778 179,803 172,291 201,481 217,071 268,483 310,616 |28,2i.5 42.546 38,699 53,311 52,395 74.547 77,771 56.035 95.876 118,524 148,769 162,514 179,399 186,153 318,523 353,507 282,739 $166,559 249,754 271,614 280,215 323,381 422,842 388,127 336,538 408,705 442.931 532.870¡ 562,296¡ 589,0821 656,275, 800,073 892,4031 912,720| 24,567, 34,760i .... 28.4971 .... 34,395' .... 35.346, .... 52,585 .... 58,496' 54,064! .... 92.336¡ .... 128,047 186,638 .... 197,657' .... 186,271 12.148 ,134,30219,043 '274,364 15,447 1339,999 1284,935 334*761 201,177 '4,087 %3D7 48 3,186 5,753 Calculating the saving in transportation, &c. at 50 per cent., CoJ. Gadsden shows an annual gain to the state of $70,000 on passengers, and $400,000 on freights, nearly one half million of dollars, upon rail¬ roads, whose cost has been $5,699,736, independently of the revenues of the road. Speaking of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail-Road, the Rail-Road Journal says, " The immense amount of freight collected on the lines, and destined for the sea-board, rendered it almost impossible for the company with their old arrangements to dispose of it; and as the coal trade grew in importance, it cailod for greater accommodations than the company were able to give. The amount of passengers carried per annum, 331,170. The Central Rail-Road of Georgia, from Savannah to Macon, exhi¬ bits the followiim :— Receipts. . 1844 ^328,424 .184.') 368,450 . 1847 383,863 .1843 500,000 An official report of the City Council of Savannah says, " It is per¬ haps a remarkable fact in the history of this road, that, projected and commenced as it was in the infancy of such improvements, and from a port on the sea-coast with a population of white and black of only about 10,000 persons, to a town distant 190 miles, with only 4,000 persons, and through a country almost a wilderness, it should have sustained itself amid all the embarrassments of the times, and without sacrifice of capital or credit." ADDRESS. 13 The increasing business and the saving in freights upon the canals of New-York, present one of the most extraordinary events of the age. The cost of freight from Buffalo to New-York before the con¬ struction of these canals, was $100 per ton. The canal committee supposed it might be reduced to $10 or $12, whereas, in fact, the average of freight from Buffalo to New-York from 1830 to 1850 was $8 81, and in the last three years it has been reduced to $7 50 per ton, 364 miles. The return rates are higher. With the enlargement proposed, freights will again be reduced one-half. Charles Eilet, Esq., engineer on the Virginia Public Works, estimates the freights on ca¬ nals, exclusive of tolls, 1-J- cents per ton per mile; on rail-roads, 2J cents; McAdain roads, 15 cents ; turnpikes, 15 to 20 cents ; steam¬ boats on the lakes, 2 to 4 cents ; on the Mississippi and Ohio, -j- to 1^, or an average of f to 1 cent. If there were wanting other considerations to induce the people of the South-west to enter upon the construction of a system of rail¬ roads, extending through every part of their limits, it would be easy to find them in the peculiar position which they sustain with relation to the rest of the world. They have an interest in each others' pros¬ perity, founded upon common hopes, and fears, and dangers. Menaced, as they are, from so many quarters, it becomes them, in every possible way, to strengthen themselves at home. The interests of Mobile, New-Orleans, Charleston, or Savannah, in each other's advancement, are stronger than their interest in the advancement of Boston or New- York. These interests should preclude all jealousies and rivalries, and induce a generous co-operation in every instance where the bene¬ fit of the whole South is at issue. Such a course cannot be in conflict with the individual interests of any. By opening or creating new avenues of trade and production, and extending our operations at home and abroad, it is possible for these cities, and all others in our midst, to go on enlarging, and increasing, and extending their influences, without at all affecting the progress of each other. In so wide a field there will be room for all. The progress of Boston has not destroyed New-York, but has rather diverted her energies into new and profitable channels. It was an idea of the Middle Ages, as barbarous as it was false, that one community could only advance at the expense of another. The benefits of trade are reciprocal. It is not true, that we at the South are deficient altogether in the spirit of progress and improvement, and can only be fed by the labors of our fellows. The South has had triumphs enough to satisfy us that the principle of progress is here, though latent for the moment, and that it only requires the proper stimulant to be brought into an activity which shall know no rest. She had at one time the longest rail-road in the world, and was the first to project a rail-road across the mountains to the banks of the Ohio ; an enterprise considered, at the time, the most stupendous in the world.* The West, too, full of youth and vigor, has a high destiny before * The Charleston and Hamburg and Louisville lload.—Z)e ßow^s Review, February, 14 ADDRESS her. She finds among us consumers of her bread-stuffs and provisions, to an enormous extent ; and when she becomes, as she is destined to be, the great manufacturing centre of the world, her material and her markets will be found in this quarter.* Her interests will be sub¬ served by a more immediate connection with us, and she will find us ready to co-operate heartily in every enterprise which shall make for her interests and progress. New-Orleans, in every period of her his¬ tory, has been the emporium of the West, and New-Orleans will only give up that distinction after the most unremitting and Hercu¬ lean struggles have exhausted her energies. The sceptre has not yet departed, and if her citizens are true to themselves, the sceptre shall not depart. As the West grows in population, she must consume more of valuable goods favorable to rail-roads; her rivers, in favoring population, are rather an advantage than an impediment to their con¬ struction, and roads may be constructed from the levels existing, at one-half or one-third the cost of the roads in the East. "The West in sixty years will probably contain one hundred mil¬ lions of people. The East will then have but twenty millions. The West, in its level surface, cheap materials, and free right of way, may build the best class of rail-roads, at less than half the cost of the Eastern rail-roads, and run trains on them at a greatly reduced ex¬ pense. The West offers now the first choice of routes—a choice that a few years will show to be of immense advantage to those who wisely avail themselves of it. In number and variety of exchangeable pro¬ ducts, except manufactured goods, the Westei-n rail-roads will ob¬ viously have the advantage of the Eastern, for freight, and in manufac¬ tures the prospects of a great increase is not less for the Western than the Eastern states. In her auxiliary means of commerce, her naviga¬ ble rivers, lakes and canals, the West proffers additional inducements to the construction of roads." A well informed authority further remarks of the construction of Western and Southern roads. "The cost of constructing in the different parts of our territory, containing a primitive soil, broken by abrupt hills and deep valleys, is very great. Here but few natural levels are to bo found ; and the excavation for their tracks sometimes widening along the valleys of rivers, thus prolonging the distance from point to point, have to be made frequently through stony hills, which are often blown up at great expense ; tunnels are to be seen through solid rocks, and viaducts over the frequent streams. This must necessarily be the case throughout the greater part of New- # The facilities for manufactures in the West, from the cheapness of labor and of food, the abundance of coal and iron, and the saving in transportation, have already attracted the attention of capitalists in New-England, and found a place among tlie discussions of the manufacturers of Great Britain. There can be no doubt that the seat of cotton manu¬ factures in America will be on this side of the mountains, and the able arguments and statistics of Ilamilton Smith, of Kentucky, have unanswerably shown it. The experiment at Cannclton, !• diana, has answered the highest expectations. In the South-western States manufactures, under the new and liberal spirit of enterprise which is dawning among us, must be stimulated into a very hi^h development. What we want is a few judicious heads to take the lead. Even a single resolute and enterprising man could work a revolution liere. ADDRESS. 15 England and Eastern New-York, as well as in Pennsylvania, where tracks are laid out, even through ridges of the Alleghany mountains. Such, however, is not the fact throughout the South and greater part of the West, where the land is level, and an alluvial soil easy to ex¬ cavate, prevails. There is yet another great advantage possessed by the Southern and Western roads so far as cost is concerned, in the circumstance that wood, which is an important expense in the item of propelling the cars at the East, is found in great abundance through¬ out the greater part of the new country ; and from the level character of the soil, the tracks of the rail-roads may be run in direct lines from point to point. The soil of these sections of the territory is very mellow, so that the expense of excavation will be comparatively small." The principle laid down in the following remarks may be assumed to be correct, not only for New-Orleans but for any other city, and should underlay any system of works which may be commenced in the 'South-west. " The sum of the commerce of a seaboard city is regulated by the number and extent of the interior cities representing its several tributary basins ; to draw off the tribute of one of those cities or basins is to diminish the commerce of the original outlet by a corresponding amount.—If the Chattanooga Rail-road draw off the business of Nashville to Charleston, the commerce of New-Orleans is diminished by an amount corresponding to the trade of the Nash¬ ville basin. On the other hand, to extend the area tributary to one of her interior cities—to increase its production or stimulate its industry^ is a gain to that amount to the business of the sea-board city. For example, to extend the area tributary to the city of Natchez or to the city of Memphis, is a gain to the amount of the extension by the city of New-Orleans."# It thus occurs that the interests of the sea-board city are as much subserved by the interior rail-roads as if their terniinii were actually at its wharves, and that a sound policy will not be satisfied with contributions only to roads having such a terminus. It \s possible to receive more actual benefit from a road 100 or even 500 miles away, than from another whose locomotive smokes in our suburbs. There are three classes of roads, whose discussion belongs to the present occasion, and which we shall briefly pass in review, with such statistical details and information as will enable the reader to form an accurate idea of the enterprises, present and prospective, of the South-west and the West, whether of a character tending to the ad¬ vancement of their own cities, or those of other sections of the Union. I. In Û\& first class will be embraced the roads in the states of Ken¬ tucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, and Louisiana, as forming a system in which New-Orleans, in parti- culai'j has a primary and paramount interest. II. In t\\(i second class is included the roads of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, constituting a system in which New-Orleans may or may not be beneficially interested. III. In the third class are the roads of Massachusetts, New-York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia, all of which, in *De Bow's Review, Vol. X. New-Ofleans, 185]. 16 ADDRESS. tapping the resources of the West in a greater or less degree, are drawing upon the resources hitherto controlled by New-Orleans, and may thus be considered antagonistic roads, to that extent, though the last three are exercising beneficial tendencies upon the whole South. We begin with the first class, and take the states in the order in which we have named them : 1. Kentucky, which has at present but the short road connecting Louisville, Frankfort, and Lexington, proposes to extend this road so as to intersect the Virginia road at Guyandotte on the one hand, and on the other hand, to connect at the Ohio with the Indianapolis and Madison Rail-road, whose ultimate destination is on Lake Michi¬ gan. More lately a proposition is in discussion for the construction of a road to the city of Nashville, and thence to Memphis, or more directly to the latter point. A convention has been called to deter¬ mine upon the practicability of this road. In behalf of the road it has been ably ui-ged— " The rail-roads of New-York hold Cincinnati at present within their influ¬ ence ; and, operating from that point, New-York, by drawing trade in the op¬ posite direction, is sapping the prosperity of Louisville. An extension of a Memphis and Nashville road to Louisville will hold trade to its original direc¬ tion, and, by maintaining Louisville against the otherwise ruinous influence of Cincinn-ati, preserve the prosperity of Louisville, as part and parcel of the pros¬ perity of New-Orleans. Alt the trade on the north side of the road from Mem¬ phis to Nashville, will be caught on its rails and whirled otf to New-Orleans. " On every consideration, it may be concluded that this Louisville and New- Orleans Rail-road—a road of 370 miles, in reality, though a road of 700 miles in result,—is the first, as it is the best, in the policy of New-Orleans. " Louisville, situated at a point where much of the business of the upper country must, for a great part of the year, take the rails, on its way to New- Orleans, will necessarily become, under the influence of this road, the greatest city on the Ohio. The road to Memphis being the only means of preventing a change in the direction of trade from Cincinnati, will compel that city to pay tribute to Louisville ; whereas, without this road, business following the direc¬ tion of New-York, Louisville, absorbed into a system, in which, taking the part of an extremity which trade flows from, rather than a centre which trade flows to, must inevitably dwindle into a tributary to Cincinnati. The importance of this road to Louisville is, perhaps, even greater than to New-Orleans."* 2. Tennessee havitig, iti course of construction, or nearly completed, her road from Chattanooga to Nashville, to connect with the Charles¬ ton and Savannah rail-roads, and another road from the same point to Knoxville, intended to be continued to Abingdon, intersecting there the Abingdon and Lynchburg or East Tennessee and Virginia rail¬ road, whose terminus is Richmond, and extending still further to the north-east, to intersect the Baltimore and Wheeling road, pro¬ poses in addition the roads we have referred to as connecting Nash¬ ville or Memphis with Louisville, and a road from Chattanooga to the city of Memphis. This last road has been advocated in New- Orleans, as-one greatly to her interest in arresting the trade of North Alabama and Middle Tennessee, from its present direction to the Atlantic sea-board, and a very handsome subscription was received *De Bow's lieview, Vol. X. ADDRESS. 17 from its citizens. Whether the road will have that effect or not, may admit of some question. It would seem, at the worst, that the road offers but the choice of markets to the planters of those sections, who otherwise, from the difficulties of reaching the Mississippi River, might always takethe cars to Charleston in preference. It would seem, also, to be the policy of New-Orleans, that every rail-road from the Atlan¬ tic sea board penetrating the valley, should find its terminus invaria¬ bly at the river. 3. Arkansas.—This now prosperous and thriving state, with a po¬ pulation of 209,641, and a crop of 100,000 bales of cotton, has not within her limits a single mile of rail-road. A citizen of Memphis has proposed two roads for the people of Arkansas, which we have understood meet with great favor in that state. 1st.—A road from opposite Memphis to St. Francis, with two branches from that point, one into the heart of Missouri to Erie, on the Osage River, and the other to Little Rock, the capital of the state. 2d.—A road from Little Rock to Lagrange, on the south-western extremity of Arkan¬ sas, to connect with a road at that point extending to Natchez, Miss. These roads form a system for Arkansas, which must exert an extraordinary influence in developing her resources, and putting her far in advance of her present position in this era of progress. The arguments in their favor are thus strongly summed up by Mr. Ilewson : " The road from Memphis to the Osage must form the basin of a sj'stem of roads. Though only some two hundred and fifty miles long, it suggests, indeed will force, junctions, extensions, branches, to an extent much greater than its own. The branch from St. Francis to Little Rock, the first link in a southern route to the Pacific, will be 90 miles long. A branch road westward from Elizabeth will open up the country to the head waters of White River. A northeasterly branch from Jackson, or Canton in Arkansas, will penetrate the great mineral district of Missouri. A connection at Erie, or some other point in the valley of the Osage, will tap the St. Louis " Pacific Rail-road" on its route easterly. This Osage road must, necessarily, be the parent of all these. It will, therefore, identify New-Orleans with the great future—lying within and without the State of Missouri. Traversing a country teeming with industrial resources—coal, lead, zinc, copper, iron—it will make New-Orleans the market of the greatest manufacturing city in the Mississippi valley, namely, the city of Memphis, when acted on by this road. This road may be said to be not so much a work of development as of creation—the creation, however, of an unequalled, and still more of an unassailable, com¬ mercial greatness. But even now the farmers in the valleys of White River and of Arkansas River are crying, like Sterne's star¬ ling, ' 1 can't get out.' Gentlemen of New-Orleans, pray help those thrifty fellows to bring grist to your mill. 1,200,000 dollars will, most likely, build a rail-road from Memphis to Little Rock. A land donation from the government—obtainable for the asliing—may be made to yield (and the sales should be made on the condition of settlement) at least 500,000 dollars ; Arkansas and Memphis will sub- 2 18 ADDRESS. scribe 300,000 dollars ; and surely you, gentlemen, are sufficiently interested in this road to subscribe the balance—400,000 dollars. You will not trouble yourselves in the matter ? But better things are to be hoped of you. An untamed earthquake tore those Ar¬ kansas and Missouri riches from the bowels of the earth for you ; speak the word, and a tamed, a harnessed earthquake, shall lay them at your feet. " A rail-road from Natchez, by way of Red River to Little Rock, recommends itself to the support of New-Orleans, by the influence it must exert on the development of the whole of northern Louisiana and southern Arkansas; and above, all, in the advancement of the present incipient state, inhabited chiefly by that interesting people, the Choctaws. This road defines a .system of roads that, under its fostering influence, will spring up immediately on its completion ; it bends sufficiently westward to unlock the trade of north-western Texas by a branch road : it runs far enough towards the borders of Arkansas to ensure a future extension to the upper Arkansas, in the territory of the Cherokees and Creeks : and in conjunction with a Memphis and Little Rock road, its upper bend runs sufficiently west¬ ward to place the starting point of a southern route to the Pacific on the borders of Texas." 4. Mississippi.-—With only the short road which connects Jackson with Vicksburg, which has been lately extended to Brandon, now in operation throughout her limits,* Mississippi proposes to extend that road still further to the Alabama line, and thence to Montgomery, and also to connect Jackson with Holly Springs on the one hand, through the richest portions of her territory, and on the other with New-Orleans by whatever route shall appear most advantageous. She also is contributing largely to the construction of a road through her eastern limits which has its terminus at Mobile. Of the New- Orleans and Mobile tcrminii we shall hereafter speak. A committee of the citizens of Vicksburg reports to the eonvention which lately assembled in New-Orleans, in rega/d to the Alabama road :— " This road is to extend from .Tackson, Missi.ssippi, to Montgomery, and will connect at Selma with the Alabama and Tennessee Hiver Rail road, by which, and the roads now under contract and in coiUein|ili»tion, a coiJtinn"n8 railway communication will he opened ihroupli Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio, with the lakes,—and through Tennessee and Virginia with all the Atlantic and Northern States, and at Moulgoinery will connect with (he rail-roads running east through Alabama, Georgia and South-Carolina. It will pabs,"in iht. State of Mississippi, entirely through the counties of Rankin, Scott, Newton and Lauderdale; and in Alabama, before it reaches Selmn, one of the termini of the Alabau-a and Ten¬ nessee River Rail-road, it will pass tliroiigh Sumter, Marengo, reiry and Dallas counties. Nearly all of these and the coutigiiousconnlies, both North hihI Sotith, now haul in wagons their cotton and other a> tides of export to the Touihigbee and Alabama I ivers, and shij) 1 hem thence to Mobile. '1 be coiiiilic.s of Sumter, Marengo, Rerry, Green and Dallas, produce aiiLually about one liundred and tifly thousand bales of cottoij, all of which now goes to MoÍ)ile, but inncb of wiiich will probably bo turned to New-Orleans by means of lliis road. In fact, nearly all * The few oilier very eliorl roads are scarcely worih ineniioning. ADDRESS. 19 the products of East Mississippi and Western Alabama, and their supplies for that region of cnunTry, will probably find their way upon this road, and the branch extending through the north-eastern part of Mississippi. The Southern route then will become the great thoroughfare of northern and eastern travel. Jt will develop the mineral resources of North Alabama. Us rich and inexhaustible mines of iron are now worked in spite of the difficulties of getting to a market, and it will create and open a way to trade, the vast extent of wliich cannot be too highly estimated. We think it within bounds to assert, that *200,000 bales of cotton will probably come over this road, and the branch extending through the north-easteriJ portion of Mississip[)i to New-Orleans, not one bale of whicli now ever reaches if. Detailed estimates, made by an engineer who has surveyed the route from Braijdon to the Alabama line, of the amount required for the completion of the roail that far, are iu our possession, and may be set down in round numbers at one million of dollars. If New-Orleans were to pay ihe whole cost of bciilding the road that far, it would return to her in the increase of trade alone, wiiliout estimating the other advantages, a handsome profit upon tlie iuvesimeiif. But there are inducements to render ihe stock of lliis road valuable, that are not pre¬ sented by any other rail-road in the United States. From dacksou to Brandon— fourteen miles and a half—the road is completed, and in profitable operation. These fourteen and a half miles, with the cars, locomotives, fixiiires, dépens, town lots, &c., attached to the road ; sixty choice and picked negroes ; ihe two per cent, fund now on hand, being about $12.000, and iliat which-may htreafier ho re¬ ceived, now the "operty of the State of Missi.«sippi, and valued, upon a careful estimate by the President of the Southern rail-road, including ihe grading and la¬ bor done east of Brandon, at $378,000, are all offered by a recent act of the Legisla¬ ture, as a bonus for the organization of this company, and the completion of the road to the Alabama line in six years. This act was passed in 1850, and provides that the whole property shall come into the possession of the company so soon as twenty miles of the road beyond Brandon has been finished. '• To organize the c(im[»any requires a subscrip'ioii ol' $500,000 of stock, with a cash payment of $50.000. immediately upon which the cojupany becomes the owner of nearly a halfmiUiou more of valuable and active property. This state¬ ment shows of itself a conclusive inducement to lake slock in this road, and ren¬ ders it absolutely certain that it will be valuable. " But liiere are other causes at work to render this road profitable stock, Congr 6s has already displayed a liheril spirit iu the donation of public lands to similar works, and the Senate has twice passed bills iu behall' of this road, grant¬ ing lands to aid iu its construction, worth, at the government price, over one half rnilliou of dollars. It is believed a similar bill will become a law at the next Congress." The Holly Springs road was proposed by Col. Walters, who ofTered the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted in the Convention, and sustained them in a speech of great force and ability. Resolved, That the citizens of North Mississippi be, and they arc hereby earnestly solicited to procure from the legislature of that state a charter for a rail-road from Jackson, Miss,, to Holly Springs, Miss. Resolved, That should said charter be procured, that the citizens of New- Orleans, Louisiana, and Jackson, Mississippi, through their representatives in the Convention, pledge themselves for a liberal aid (should the same be neces¬ sary) in constructing said road. Resolved, That the citizens of Western Tennessee and South Kentucky be, and they are hereby earnestly solicited, to procure from the legislature of their respective states, a charter for a rail-road to cxteud from some point on the southern boundary line of Tennessee, to some point in Kentucky, opposite or near Cairo, Illinois. Resolved, That should said charter be procured, then the city of Ncw-Orlcans, through its representatives in this Convention, pledges itself for a very liberal aid in the construction of said road. Ö.—Alabama.—The rail-roads of this state, which arc now confined 20 ADDRESS. to the Montgomery and West Point road in the direction of Atlanta, and a fragment of the Charleston and Nashville road, open out into several vast and important projections, which are pressed by the peo¬ ple with a zeal and activity that are the guarantees of the highest and most brilliant success. These roads are—The Mobile and Ohio Road ; The Selma and Tennessee Road; The Blakely and Girard, or Georgia Road. And first of the Mobile and Ohio Rail-road : This road has a total length of 521.8 miles, and is estimated to cost $9,700,000. Of the distance— 164 miles are in Alabama. 191 " " Mississippi. 127 " Tennessee. 40 " " Kentucky. The citizens of Mobile have, by an almost unanimous voice, voted a tax upon their real estate of $300,000, for the benefit of the road, and it is now proposed, with very general concurrence, to raise this tax to 2 per cent, per annum upon all the real estate of the city for five years, the tax-payer, as now, to be entitled to his assessment in stocks of the company. An appropriation of one million acres of public domain has been made to the company, of sufficient value, it is thought, to iron the entire line, and furnish it with ample equip¬ ments for a large through business. In Mississippi the Boards of Police have been authorized by law to subscribe to the extent of $100,000 each, to the road, after obtaining the vote of the people. The county of Noxubee was the first to act under the law by an over¬ whelming majority. A portion of the iron has been contracted for, deliverable at Mobile, for $38 per ton, T pattern, of 65 lbs. The principles of the Mississippi act, allowing the counties to subscribe in a corporate capacity, extends to all rail-roads which may be under¬ taken in the state, and admits of the issue of county warrants at 12 months, bearing interest to meet the subscription. The total population upon the line of the Mobile and Ohio Road is estimated at 725,322. It is argued for the road, 1. That the planters on the route, from the difficulties of river navi¬ gation, are kept back two monthä ftom market, and pay from $3 50 to $7 transportation on a bale of cotton, whilst the rail-road will furnish it for $2 50 to $3 50 ; that corn will be delivered to these planters from Tennessee, for 25 cents, against 50 and 75 cents at present, and bacon at half the present rates, and so of other articles of consumption. 2. The corn, wheat, hemp and tobacco growers of Tennessee and Kentucky, will be furnished with a steady and uninterrupted market; the iron miners of Central and Western Tennessee will enjoy the same facilities ; and the 100,000 bales of the Tennessee River cotton, which now takes a voyage of 1300 miles to a market. 8. That the road will enjoy much of the transport of passengers and merchandise, now passing from New-Orleans to the Ohio, or downwards, by 250 steamers, averaging 75 passengers, and 400 tons, or in all, 375,000 passengers, and 2,000,000 tons freight annually. ADDRESS. 21 Jackson, Mississippi to Mobile, ÍR. R.,) 221 Vicksburg, " ivia. Jackson,) 208 Tennessee River to Mobile, (R. R.,)... 346 Memphis to Mobile, via. L agrange R. R., 428 « << «( u u « Huntsville to Mobile, via. Decatur R. R. 445 (( U (( Ii « (( (( Gunter's Landing to Mobile, 462 (( (( 14 (( Nashville to Mobile, via. river and R. R. 475 Mouth of Ohio to Mobile, R. R., 492 St. Louis to Mobile,. 696 4. That the road will be a great trunk, offering a safe transit from the gulf to the lakes in 44 houj-s of time. The last report of the Company contains some statistics of dis¬ tance, prepared with much labor, from which we form a table, as evi¬ dence of the great disadvantages of our water conveyances at New- Orleans, in comparison with rail-roads, whether to Mobile or to our own city. TABLE OF OOMPAKATIVE EAIL-EOAD AND WATEE DISTANCES. Miles. Miles. To New-Orleans, by Vicksb'g and river 420 " via. river, 268 " « « 1345 <' " '* " 803 " Savannah, via. R. R., 625 " " « « 502 New-Orleans, river,., 1432 " Savannah, R. R.. 429 " Charleston, R. R., 600 Savannah, R. R., 584 " New-Orleans, river, 1531 " " " 1046 " Baltimore, R. R., &c., 1143 " New-York, by river, R. R. and lake,1415 " Philadelphia, river and R. R., 1296 " Savannah, via. Nashville R. R...... 77p " Charleston," " " .... 789 " Baltimore, 1353, " New-Orleans, (river,) 1256 Baltimore, by river to Cincinnati and Wheeling, (R. R.,) 816 " New-Orleans, (river,) 1403 " " " 1546 " Baltimore, (R. R.,) 656 « New-York, " 796 " " via. Buffalo, 915 " Boston, (R. R.,) 975 " Richmond, " 970 " New-Orleans, (canal and river,)....1624 " Boston 1087 " " " " New-York, 1025 The second important rail-road projection in Alabama is the Alabama and Tennessee River Rail-road, commencing at Selma, and extending to Gunter's Landing on the Tennessee, with proposed branches to Chattanooga and Rome. This road, too, has been advo¬ cated in New-Orleans, and subscriptions received upon the ground of immediately shortening the.route of travel to the North. Selma is on the route of the Vicksburg and Jackson road extended to Mont¬ gomery. The subscriptions to this road were already $923,000, six months since, of which Mobile had taken $200,000 ; to which is to be added an appropriation of $238,806 from the legislature. Tlie cost of the road to Gadsden on the Coosa River, in the direction of Rome, is estimated at $2,198,696. Large labor subscriptions are counted on, and appropriations of valuable government lands. An independent rail-road has already been chartered from Gadsden to Gunter's Landing on the Tennessee, and the two companies will combine. Distance from Gadsden to Selma, 160 miles—from Gun¬ ter's Landing to Selma, 200 miles. The Alabama River is always navigable to Selma. Louisville to Mobile, R. R., 700 Cincinnati to Mobile, " 736 Chicago to Mobile, R. R., 867 22 ADDRESS. It is argued for this road, that it will shorten the distance of travel as follows : Boston to Mobile via Richmond, Charleston, Atlanta, Montgomery, etc., 1,803 miles. Boston to Mobile via Winchester, Abingdon, Va., Knoxville, Ten., Rome, Selma, etc., and Alabama River, 1,582 miles. New-York to Mobile, by the present route of travel as above by Charleston, etc., 1,565 miles. New-York to Mobile by proposed new route of Selma road, 1,344 ; Philadelphia old route by Charleston, 1,476 ; by Selma, 1,258; Bal¬ timore old route, 1379 ; by Selma, 1,158 to Mobile. Of course, with the Mobile and Ohio road, or the road from Selma to Jackson and to New-Orleans, the distance will be shortened in a still greater degree as well as the time. The road intersects an abun¬ dant mineral and rich agricultural country in the greater portion of its extent, and the chief engineer says : " It is a link in the great chain of rail-roads now constructed and projected on the most direct, shortest and most expeditious route which can be selected, to connect the Gulf of Mexico with the middle and the North-eastern Atlantic States ; a route which will present one continuous line of rail-roads, passing through the most healthy and picturesque sections of the Union. " This great chain of rail-roads may be said to commence at Portland, in the state of Maine, thence to extend to Boston, New-York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and to Winchester, Virginia ; up to this town the line of rail-roads, with short gaps of steamboat travel, is now completed ; thence to Staunton and to Abingdon, through the great valley of Virginia, and on to Knoxville, Tennessee, a part of the route is under contract. From Knoxville to the Georgia Rail-roads, the connection by rail-way will soon be completed. From the Georgia roads the connection with your rail-road, either from Rome or Chattanooga, will naturally follow the completion of your enterprise ; indeed, it may be anticipated, charters having been obtained at the last sessions of the Legislatures of Georgia and Alabama, for a rail-road from Jacksonville, in Benton county, to Rome, or to some point farther south on the Georgia State Road, as may be found most practicable." The third great road is that from Blakely, on the Bay of Mobile, to Girard, opposite Columbus, Georgia, on the Chattahooehie River. Length of the road 238 miles, or perhaps 230. Estimated total cost, $2,931,816.* This route proposes to connect New-Orleans and New-York in seventy-six hours. Thus ; Miles. Hours» New-Orleans to Mobile, steamer 160 »... 10 Mobile to Girard, (rail-road proposed) 220 11 Girard to Fort Valley, (now constructing) 71 3i. Thence to Macon, (built) 25 1^ Macon to Augusta, (built) 160 8 Augusta to Branchville, (built) 73 Branchville to Manchester, (built) 46 2^- Manchester to Wilmington, (to be built) 148 7^ Wilmington to New-York, (built) 594 29^ 1,497 76 *Tlie friends of the road say :—"We have no disposition to disparage, in the least, the importance or the profitableness of the Memphis and Charleston road ; we regirdit as an enterprise which is demanded by the wants of the country, and one which promises to re- ADDRESS. 23 6. Texas.—We are not aware of any rail-rpads at present com¬ pleted in Texas, though considering thé fertility of many parts of that state, the interruption in the navigation of its rivers, and the growing population, there would seem to be a necessity for her immediate action. The people of New-York are already controlling the trade of Texas by her gulf ports. A route for a road has been examined by Col. Johnson, fi'om Lavaca Bay to El Paso, on the Upper Rio Grande. We are confident that these surveys, when completed, will show, that the southern route for a rail-road connecting the Gulf of Mexico with the Gulf of California, extending from Galveston or I^avaca Bay, by El Paso, is far preferable to the northern route through Missouri. It is shorter, and the country is so uniform, rising by regular grada¬ tions from the gulf on the east to the summit of the table-lands of the Gila, and declining by equally regular gradations to the Pacific Coast, that the cost of constructing a rail-road on this route will scarcely amount to two-thirds of the cost on the northern route. Texas has a deep interest in connecting herself with the great pub¬ lic works of the United States, and she has public domain enough to build more roads than are in all New-England. A grand trunk road from Austin, with branches to Houston and Galveston, passing in the vicinities of Montgomery, Washington, San Augustine, Nacogdoches, would enter Louisiana in about the same parallel of latitude with Alexandria, and connect with the proposed road from thence to New- Orleans. In the other direction, her roads should radiate towards New-Mexico and the valleys of the Pacific. The committee have been instructed, particularly and urgently, to invite the co-operation of Texas. A rail-road from Brazos, Texas, across to Harrisburg, on the Buffalo Bayou of the Bay of Galveston, is commenced, and 20 miles con¬ tracted to be finished this year. Efforts are being made to connect muTjerate its owners. Our only object is to expose the folly of the pretensions which it makes to the patronage of New-Orleans capital. And first, as to the claim set up in favor of this road, on the ground of its being a part of the most direct route between New-Or¬ leans and New-York. The Memphis and Charleston road, we have just seen, intersects the Nashville and Chattanooga road at Grow Creek, which is forty miles west of Chatta¬ nooga. From that point, the route, east, is by the way of Dalton, and thence, north, by the Dalton and Knoxville Rail-road. It is probable, however, that a road will be charter¬ ed and built from Chattanooga to Cleveland, on the East Tennessee road, which would save a distance of forty miles, by cutting oif the angle made in running down to Dalton. We will allow that road to be built, and it will then be seen that the two routes from New- Orleans to New-York, the one by the way of Memphis, and the other by the way of Mo¬ bile, and thence, by the Mobile and Girard road, through West Point and Atlanta, will in¬ tersect each other at Cleveland, on the East Tennessee Rail-road. From that point to New-York, the route is the same to both. In estimating the comparative distance of the two routes, therefore, we have only to take into consideration the distance from Cleveland to New-Orleans. From Cleveland to Memphis, the distance is 351 miles, and allowing Gov. Jones' rates, twenty-five miles per hour, the time required is fourteen hours. From Memphis to New-Orleans, Gov. Jones allows two days and twelve hours, making the en¬ tire time from Cleveland to New-Orleans, three days and two hours. We will now esti¬ mate the time over the Mobile and Girard Rail-road, and through West Point, Atlanta and Dalton. From New-Orleans to Mobile Bay, fifteen hours ; From Mobile Bay to Columbus, nine hours; from Columbus to Cleveland, Tenn., ten and a half hours, making the total lime one day and ten and a half hours—a difference of forty hours in favor of the lower" route ! A difference, which, apart from the greater safety and certainty of the lower route, would always comraaDd the mail and the great body of the through travel." 24 ADDRESS. San Antonio with the coast. Other roads with great merits might be constructed from Houston to Red River, near the head of the Trinity, and south-westwardly through Columbus and Seguin to San Augustine. The San Antonio and Gulf Road has already .been chartered, and $150,000 subscribed towards its construction. 7. Missouri.—The people of Missouri already display a degree of energy and enterprise in matters of rail-road construction, which place them on a level with the most advanced states of the Union. There are now two projects before the Legislature, one to authorise the Pacific Rail-road, with a capital of $4,500,000, and the Hannibal and St. Joseph Rail-road, with a capital of $4,500,000. Total, $9,000,000, of which $600,000 is to be raised by state credit. The last bill has become a law. The St. Louis and Cincinnati Rail-road is another great project, towards which the city of St. Louis has sub¬ scribed $500,000. Other roads, it is believed, are projected in the direction of Arkansas. 8. Louisiana.—Here, fellow-citizens, would he the proper place to introduce some remarks upon the proposed rail-road enterprises in Louisiana, which are now attracting so large a portion of the public attention, and which gave rise to the late Jackspn and Opelousas Rail-road Conventions were it not that the committee deem it desi¬ rable to postpone that subject to the closing pages of this pamphlet, where it can be treated as a subject complete in itself, but only capa¬ ble of being thoroughly understood after a familiarity with the de¬ tails of many other matters connected with the rail-roads of the Great West and the Atlantic sea-board. II. The second class of roads, in which it has been held that New- Orleans has but a secondary interest, are the roads of Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. So far as these roads are seeking an Atlantic terminus, they militate against the interest of New-Orleans ; but so far as they are employed in developing the resources of the North-west, increas¬ ing population and traffic, may be made a part of our own proposed system of works, they are, or may become, of positive benefit to her and to Mobile, perhaps even in a very high degree. 1. Ohio.—There are four great lines constructed east and west through the state. There are four lines completed, or in progress, from north to south. These roads are ; The Cincinnati and San¬ dusky, completed 218 miles; Cincinnati, Cleveland p,nd Columbus, 203 miles completed ; the Sandusky, Mansfield, Newark and Portsmouth line, 221 miles, completed or in progress ; Cleveland and Wellsville line, 88 miles, constructing ; Cincinnati and Belpre line, 204 miles, in the state, constructing ; Ohio Central line to the Indiana line, 243 miles, in the state ; the Pennsylvania and Ohio Rail-road to the Indiana line, 263 miles, in the state; Lake Shore line, 165 miles. Total, 23 roads, 1,705 miles ; of which, 572 miles are completed, and 748 are in construction. The Cincinnati and St. Louis road will pass in its greatest extent through the states of Indiana and Illinois. Most of these roads, in addition to the great canals to the Lakes, are en¬ gaged in conducting trade to the East. Several of them, however. ADDRESS. 25 will connect with the roads contemplated from the South-west. The following is the position of the St. Louis and Cincinnati Rail-i'oad : " Several years ago, a charter was granted by the State of Indiana, incorpo¬ rating a company to construct a rail-road from Vincennes to Cincinnati. This charter was ratified and adopted hy the State of Ohio. Subscriptions of stock to this rog.d, including the amount to he taken by the city of Cincinnati, have already been obtained to the amount of about two millions of dollars. The surveys have been nearly completed, over a most favorable route, and we believe the lettings of contracts on the eastern end of the line have already been made. At all events, the subscriptions already obtained insure the early completion of the road, beyond a shadow of a doubt. Two years ago, the Legislature of Illi¬ nois refused the right of way to this road through the state; consequently, the Indiana charter only embraced the road from Vincennes to Cincinnati. But at the late session of the Illinois Legislature more reasonable counsels prevailed, and a charter was granted for the continuation of the road from Vincennes to Illinois town. The length of the road from here to Vincennes will be less than 150 miles, and from Vincennes to Cincinnati about 180 miles—making the en¬ tire distance by the road from here to Cincinnati less than 330 miles. It is believed that the entire road can be built in the most substantial manner, at a cost of about $20,000 per mile, which would give six millions six hundred thou¬ sand dollars as the aggregate cost of the entire road." 2. Indiana.—The following is very nearly a correct list of the rail-roads of Indiana., and shows very favorably for the enterprise and wealth of that state :— Com- Con- Length. pleted. Btructing. Madison and Indianapolis 88 88 — Shelbyville and Edinburgh 16 16 — " Knightsiown 26 26 — Rushville and Shelbyville 19 19 — Indianapolis and Bellefontaine 83 28 55 New-Albany and Salem 100 27 73 Jeffersonville 66 8 53 Lafayette and Indianapolis 61 — 61 Peru and Indianapolis 70 — 70 Ciawlbrdsvilie and Lafayette 26 — 26 Evansville and Illinois 50 — 50 Lawrenceburg and Indianapolis 87 — 87 .Junction 38 — 38^ Terre Haute and Richmond 141 —- 34l' Richmond and Newcastle 50 — 50 Martinsville and Franklin 20 — 2(J Southern Michigan 100 — 100 Richmond and Ohio 4 — 4 Ciiiciuuali and St. Louis 160 — 160 1205 212 993 3. Illinois.—^Through this state it is proposed to extend the Mo¬ bile and Ohio Kail-road to the shores of Lake Michigan. A point in Illinois, upon the Ohio river, is claimed as the centre of the Union, and an effort is being made to divert the terminus of the Mobile and Ohio Rail-road from Cairo to that point. A great central rail-road is projected through the state from the Ohio to Lake Michigan, with several branches ; and Congress has appropriated 2,500,000 acres of land in aid of the work. " This road is part of that great chain of 26 ADDRESS. rail-roads of which the Erie Rail-road is the first great link. The extension of the Michigan and Southern Rail-road will connect Dun¬ kirk, New-York, with Chicago, and parts of this connection are already constructed." III. The third class of roads, &c., to which we referred, and dis¬ tinguished as directly engaged in tapping the resources of the Valley of the Mississippi and Ohio, and taking away from the cities of the South-west the elements of their past commercial empire, are those of Boston, New-York, Pennsylvania, Baltimore, Richmond, Charles¬ ton and Savannah. With so many drains opened at once upon our resources, and without corresponding and countervailing efforts, it must be evident that the greatest prosperity in the world will be in the end sapped and destroyed. We shall take a brief review of these rival routes. 1. Boston.—The Great Western Road of Massachusetts connects Boston with Albany—a distance of 200 miles. At this point it in¬ tersects with the Albany and Buffalo Road, 323 miles in length, com¬ manding the resources of Lake Erie, and by the tributary canals and rail-roads in that quarter, much of the resources of the whole North¬ west. This road has, in a few years, given extraordinary prosperity to Boston, and it is now proposed to expend several millions of dol¬ lars in shortening it a few miles. 2. New- York having realized the benefits of her great canal to Búllalo, and finding it insufficient for the enormous demands of trade, has constructed by its side her great Erie and Albany Road. Per¬ ceiving, however, that this road is serving as a feeder for Boston, from the winter obstructions on the Hudson, she has more lately completed a road extending directly from her doors to the great lakes. The canal is also to be widened at an enormous cost, so as to become adequate to the demands upon it.* 3. The rail-roads of Philadelphia, extending westward, are the roads to Pottsville, intersecting the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail-road, and the Philadelphia and Pittsburg route of 400 miles. 'NEW-YORK AND NEW-ORLEANS IN WESTERN TRADE. 1- New-llork Population 1840 2,429,721 CarialTrade 66,303,892 " " 1850 3,093,813 " " 156,397,929 An increase of 25 per cent, in population, and 150 per cent, in trade, by canals, in. ten years. 2. produce of West received hp New-York Canals .— 1842 —. $22,751,013 " " 1850 55,474,937 An increase of 145 per cent. 3. Produce ofWest received ai New-Orleans 1842 .... $43,716,045 " «Í " « 1850 96,897,873 Or an increase of 120 percent. ; or acomparative increase by New-York of 25 per cent, over New-Orleans in western produce in 8 years! In the three years 1848, 1849, and 1850, the receipts at New-Orleans by river were 2.312,121 bbls. flour; at New-York, 8,636,207 bbls. Pork: New-Orleans, 1,536,817; New York, 211,018 bbls. Beef: 200,901 bbls. New-Orleans ; New-York, 264,072 bbls. "Wheat: New-Orleans, 852,497 bushels; New-York, 8,798,759. Corn: New-Orleans, 9,758,750 bushels; New-York, 11,170,228 bushels. Bacon: New-Orleans, 135 millions pounds ; New-York. 26 millions. Lard : New Orleans, 292 millions pounds; New-York 21 millions. Butler: New-Of- ns, 8 millions pounds ; New-York, 97 millions, &c., &c. ADBRESS. 27 composed partly of rail-road and partly of canals. " The traffic on this mixed line of transport is conducted so as to avoid the inconve¬ nience and expense of transhipment of goods and passengers at the successive points where the rail-way s and canals unite. The canal boats are divided into segments by partitions made transversely, and at right angles to their length, so that each boat can be, as it were, broken into three or more pieces. These several pieces are placed each on two rail-way trucks, which support it at its ends, a proper body being provided for the trucks adapted to the form of the bottom and 4. Increase in tlie Business of Roais and Canals employed in taking Produce from the West to the Atlantic Cities. REVENUES OF PUBLIC WORKS, ist"!. 1S47, 181S. 1849. 1850. New-York Canals $2,7.56 103 3,635,381 3.252,212 3,266,266 3,226,903 Pennsylvania works... 1,196,977 1,29-5,494 1,587,905 1,633,277 1,713,848 Ohio Canals 612,302 805,019 785,882 713,173 728,085 Illinois " 87,890 118,849 136,331 Indiana" 108,104 134,659 157,173 Total Canals $4,565,382 5,73%894 5,822,083 5,866,224 6,018,340 Erie Railroad $210,130 248,320 302,326 805,0.53 1,600,700 Little Mi^mi do 116,052 221,139 280,085 321,303 405,607 Michigan Central 277,478 347,555 373,931 600,986 860,559 Georgia " 400,935 383,863 582,014 626,813.... 753,383 Macon an J Western .. 128,430 147,768 161,569 198,517 207,040 I 568,555.... 643,065.... 638,102 627,904 687,700 Reading Railroad .... 1,900,115 2,002,945 1,692,55b 1,933,-590 2,360,786 Baltimore and Ohio 797.064 1,101,936 1,213,664 1,241,705 1,343,805 Total eight roads.. $4,398,759 5,096,691 5,244,246 4,355,871 6,219,582 These main roads, as well as canals, have increased their revenues 50 per cent, in the last four years, mostly through the increase of produce transported.— T. P.Kettell, in De¬ mocratic Review. 5. Up to 1835 there may be said to have been but one route to connect the country west of the Alleghanies with the Atlantic slope, and that was the Erie Canal. There are now four in operation, and still another in course of construction. The following are these lines, with their cost and revenue: Erie R. R Northern Line. N". Y Baltimore & Ohio R. R... Total, 5 routes Western Mass. R. R The revenue of the Erie Canal in 1835, the year the Pennsylvania canals were opened, was $1.392,130, and that represented all the tolls collected on western trade. This last ytter that trade has paid on the five lines, to tide water, a sum greater by $8,410,000, or nearly seven times greater; and, if we remember that the tolls are now verymuch less than then, we can safely estimate that the trade, west of the Alleghanies, with the Atlan¬ tic slope, was ten times greater in 1850 than in 1835. Considerable quantities of goods now pass over Lake Champlain to New-York, and over the railroad to Boston ; and the Pennsylvania Railroad, already 174 miles, will open another route to the West. 6. Distances on Northern and Southern Routes.—As computed from Cincinnati, the distances to the ocean are as follows:—To Richmond, by Virginia improvement*', 823 miles; to Baltimore, by Wheeling road, &c., 941 ; to Philadelphia, by Pennsylvania im¬ provements, 967 miles ; to New-York, by Erie Canal, 1,030 miles; to New-OrÍeans, 1,611 miles. In a comparison, says Mr. Flagg, of New-York, between New-Orleans and'New- York from Cincinnati, there is a difference of 500 miles in fivor of New-York, yet, on the untaxed waters of the Ohio and the Mississippi, a barrel of flour is carried 1,500 miles in Miles. Coet. Revenue. 1Í50. Expense. Surplus. 364.. ..$7,143,789. ...2,926,817... .. 420,000... ..2,.506,817 395.. .. 12.381,824. ...1,550,555.. .. 996,592... ,. 553.963 4.50.., ..20.323,.581. ...1,063,950... .. 513,412... . 545,538 327.. .. 14,669,152. ...2,896,042... ..1,005,948... .1,890,094 179... .. 7,227,400. ...1,387,000.. .. 800,000... ,. 587,000 1,715.. ..61,745,746. ...9,124,364.. ..3,735,9.52... ,.6,083,412 150.. .. 7,963,701. ...1,417,571... .. 607,549... . 810,022 28 ADDRESS. keel of the boat. In this manner the boat is carried in pieces with its load along the rail-ways. On arriving at the canal, the pieces are united, so as to form a continuous boat, which, being launched, the transport is continued on the water. On arriving at the rail-way, the boat is again resolved into its segments, which, as before, are transferred to the rail-way trucks, and transported to the next canal station by locomotive engines." 4. Baltimore has projected a great line of Western railway to the left bank of the Ohio, near Wheeling. The road is already com- a flat boat for 50 cents, being less than the toll charged by the states of Ohio and New* York on 613 miles of canals, besides the sum required to remunerate the person for transporting the barrel for l.OOO miles, and the inconvenience and delay occasioned by 1,239 feet ot lockage. The charge of transit on the Ohio river, by steamboats, is about half cent per ton per mile. The disadvaiit«»ge8 of the New-Orleans route are set forth by Mr. Cabel!, of Virginia, many of which are capable of being removed, and all are, no doubt, greatly exaggerated. The dangers of Mississippi navigation, and higher rates of insurance thereon—storms and hurricanes of Gulf of Mexico—injurious effect of New-Orleans climate on produce, &c. He says the mercantile men of Richmond had better pay 2 cents per ton to Richmond than come free to New-Orleans, because of climate, rates of drayage, storage, insurance, commission, dec. ; and even freights from New Orleans, which are often 50 percent, higher than from Richmond. This is the Virginia account of it. The rates of tolls upon New-York canals, on western produce, are 2, 3, and 4 mills per mile on each thousand pounds. 7. Tonnage New-York Erie Canal. Arriyiog at Tide-water. Going from Tide-water. Total. 1836 696,347 133,796 830,143 1837 611,781 122,130 733,911 1838 640,481 142,808 783,289 1839 602,128 142,035 744,163 1840 669,012 129,580 798,592 1841 774.344 162,715 937,059 1842 666,676 123,294 789.970 1843 836,861 143,595 980,456 1844 1,019,034 176,737 1,190,831 1845 1,204,943 195,000 1,399,9« 1846 3,362,319 213,815 1,575,134 1847 1,744,283 288,267 2,032,550 1848 1,447,905 329.557 1,777,462 1849 1,579,946 315,550 1,895,496 1850 . .2,033,863 418,370 2,452,223 In a report of the Erie Canal appears a table, showing the cost, to the road, of transport upon northern roads per ton per mile, from which we extract the following :—Boston and Worcester road, 9 mills per ton per mile ; Fichburg road, 9 4-10 mills ; cost of train per mile. 93 to 66cents, with usefulload of 102 or 103 tons. The coston Western road, with grades of 83 feet, 1| cents per ton per mile ; cost of train per mile, 83 cents, with useful load of 52| tons. The Reading road, its managers assert, can carry coal at a cost of 6 mills the ton, their train being fully loaded both ways. The Baltimore and Ohio road contracted at IJ cents per ton per mile, while their ordinary traffic was costing over 2J cents per ton. It is no doubt true, with a large business, and under experienced ma¬ nagement, average loads of 100 to 150 tons may be carried, heavy grades excepted, at a speed of ten miles an hour, and a cost of 5 to 8 mills per mile per ton, rejecting the inte¬ rest on investment." " Flour is now taken from Detroit to Ogaensburg for 30 cents per bbl. ; from Ogdensburg to Boston, 390 miles by rail-road, at 8 mills per ton per mile, will be 33 cents more, making 60 cents cost without dividends. By the Erie Canal last year the average charges were—Detroit to Buffalo, 12 cents; Buffalo to Albany, 54 cents; Hudson River, 30 cents ; in all 76 cents. The Hudson and Buffalo Railroad, it is esti¬ mated, will take flour from Detroit to New-York at 54 cents. The average charge per ton, through, on the Erie Canal lastyear, varied from $4 44 to $6 94. By the enlarged canal it is proposed to bring ihis down to $2 40 per ton through !"—[See the Statistics of thé Erie Canal, in that valuable work, the Railroad Joumnl. New-York, which, as a mag¬ azine of infiirmation upon such points as these, every man in this age of steam should have.] ADDRESS. 29 pleted to Cumberland, and is being vigorously pressed towards its ul¬ timate terminus. 5. Virginia has aroused herself in the general rivalry of the times, and garners her resources for the great canal she has projected, for the connection of the James River and Richmond with the waters of the Ohio. It will touch the Ohio at a favorable point for navigation, and destroy the competition of northern routes during the winter season, when their works are arrested. A canal boat at Columbus, Ohio, says Governor Floyd, laden with pork, hemp, tobacco, or iron, would greatly prefer going to Norfolk upon this canal, to passing through the lakes and the Erie Canal, to New-York, if the market was as good at one place as the other, for the simple reason, that the distance would be greatly shorter, and the navigation much safer from inter¬ ruption by ice, and from the dangers of the lake. It is plain, there¬ fore, that such trade as would prefer water carriage, and as now reaches New-York, from the heart of Ohio, would find its way through Virginia by means of her canal. It is now completed to Buchanan, 194 miles, leaving a distance of 174 miles to be constructed to the great Falls of the Kanawha. " The Virginia and Tennessee Rai1-road will, when completed, form one link in a chain of road from New-York to Mobile and New Orleans, most of which is already determined upon, and over which will pass a greater amount of travel than this country has ever witnessed. It is the great line which must convey the travel to and from California, from the Northern, Middle, and partly from the Souiheni States, and over which much of the commerce intended for the Pacific by the Tehuantepec route will likewise be transported. It is worthy of all aid from the Commonwealth. When it shall be completed to the Tennessee line, it will have penetrated a country of higher capabilities and greater extent than that through which the Baltimore and Ohio rail-road now passes to Cumberland. And should the Central rail-road decide to go to Cincinnati by Guyandotte in¬ stead of to Louisville, then the Virginia and Tennessee Rail-road will forma com¬ mon stem for a branch either from New river, through Giles, Mercer, and Taze¬ well, to Lexington, Kentucky, or from Abingdon through the county of Russell to the same city. The advantages of this connection I developed sufficiently at length in my last annual message, and therefore deem it unnecessary to repeat them here. There was a mistake made in the state's subscription to this work, which ought to be rectified, and which F earnestly recommend to be done at once. " Shoiild the Central Rail-road reach Cincinnati, it will form the shortest line of road between that great city and tide-water, and will of course command an im¬ mense amount both, of to^ad« and travel. It is a truly great work, and will be ul¬ timately productive of great benefits to the state." Towards their fellow-xitizens of Louisiana and of New-Orleans, in particular, the Committee feel that they have an important duty to dis¬ charge. Situated at the mouth of the largest river in the world, with its thousands of miles of tributaries connecting with the most fertile, and wealthy, and thriving regions that the sun has ever shone upon ; besides being, in her own agricultural facilities, one of the most fa¬ vored states in the Union, the progress of Louisiana has been but slow in comparison with many of her sisters, whilst New-Orleans, which was once -the proud emporium and mart of the immense em¬ pire of the West, sees her trade taken away by piece-mcal, by a host of sleepless rivals, until her rank is fast passing from her, and the grass threatens to grow again in her once crowded thoroughfares. 30 ADDRESS. Fellow-citizens, had New-Orleans been true to herself, she could not now be occupying a position of so much hazard ; and the humilia¬ tion of such appeals as we are making to you would never have been necessary. In the day of her pride and her power, she deemed that the deity had lent her armour, and that, the child of fortune and of destiny, she must be forever invulnerable. Already the evil time has come, and her enemies mock at her, and at the doom which her apathy is threatening to bring upon her. With a position the most favored in the world, New-Orleans should have been the-Queen of the South and the West, elected by the unanimous Yo'ices of subjects ■whom she had conciliated and attached to herself by the liberality of her spii-it, and the extent of her enterprise. Instead of this, she has preferred to sit in her isolation, without sympathy or co-operation in the works of her neighbors. It is thus that these neighbors, on their way to the sea-board, leave us without one parting symptom of re- gret. We have been deceived, fellow-citizens, by the voices of those among us. who, without any ■permanent interest in the city, or only interested to abstract the most out of it to be expended abroad, or to build up mammoth estates by rapacious exactions, have continu¬ ally, and upon all occasions, been crying out that " aZ/ is well !" " Let us eat, drink, and be merry, the old father of waters is garner¬ ing for us wealth unbounded, and is altogether the greatest and cheap¬ est, and most magnificent rail-road in the world." We have been de¬ ceived. Had all been well, New-Orleans would have grown with the growth of the West, as St. Louis, and Cincinnati, and Boston, have grown ; and -we should have had a population of 200,000 or 250,000, and received in produce already $300,000,000 per annum.'* Ask yourselves, however, what arc the facts ? How many buildings are now untenanted in New-Orleans If Within a few days we have seen ctributary region slip away, which gave us 100,000 bales of cotton, ' and 100,000 to 200,000 bales promised to go in the s.ame direction ! Thus our receipts will be diminished at least one-half, and what will be the value of the rent-rolls of New-Orleans I Let property look to its position of peril ! Real estate cannot survive the broken sceptre of trade. It cannot escape to other places like personal property. With trade it lives, and without trade it perishes. To the griping, penurious, and usurious holder of bonds and mortgages, and lots, and tenements, and enormous rent-rolls, dreading a little public expendí- In the Inst ten years the West has more llian doubled its population, whilst New-Or¬ leans has not increased more than 25 or 30 per cent. Tbc average increase ot produce at New-Orleans has ni>t doubled in ten years, though the producta^i* the West, as the receipts at Boaion, New-York, &c., show, have quintupled. * RELATIVE GROWTH OF NEW-ORLEANS AND THE WEST. 2nd •' 3r.l " 4 th " 1st Ward t NO. VACANT HOUSES IN 2ND MUNICIPALITY, MARCH, 1851. Vard 39 6th Ward •' 45 7th " 23 ,73 63 17 Total 5th " .34 address. 31 ture more than the Asiatic cholera—if such men there he among us, which God forbid, we would say, in the language of Holy Writ: " Let him that thinkcth that he stands, take heed lest he fall." What then must be done for New-Orleans'? She mvst, hy a wise and liberal stroke of policy, regain a part, if not the whole, of the trade she has supinely lust, and open new sources of opulence and power, which are abundant all around her. She can do this by chang¬ ing and modifying her laws bearing unequally or hardly upon capital and enterprise ; by cheapening her system of government ; by affording greater facilities and presenting less restrietions to commerce ; by esta¬ blishing manufactures, opening steam-ship lines to Europe, and con¬ ducting a foreign import trade ; and finally, and what is of first impor¬ tance, and should precede every other effort, by munificent appro¬ priations to rail-roads branching to the west, and the north, and the east, from a terminus at iier centre, or from ter¬ mini on such interior streams and rivers as are necessarily tributary to her. Now is the acccptcd time for action. To-mor- ^ row will he too late ! The concern of this committee is, however, entirely at present, with rail-roads ; and having discussed, with some elaboration, the various routes connecting the South, the East, and the West, their duties will be performed by a reference to the routes now in projec¬ tion in Louisiana, with the view of connecting her with her neighbor states, and more particularly with the great lines of public works radiating through every section of the Union. Those routes are—• 1. The New-Orleans and Jackson [Mississippi) Rail-road, with an ultimate destination to Holly Springs, Tennessee, Kentucky, and the Ohio river. 2. The Neie-Orleans and Opelousas Rail-road, with an ultimate destination in Texas, New Mexico, and as fiir westward as the de¬ mands of population or of industry may warrant. 1. And, first, of the New-Orleans and Jackson Rail-road. This road has been advocated in Louisiana and Mississippi upon grounds which entitle it to the highest favor, and several conventions have been held for promoting its construction. A most favorable charter has been procured in Mississippi, authorizing the counties on the line to subscribe for stock by taxation ; and a similar charter, it is thought, will be obtained from the Legislature of Louisiana, which meets in January next. Meanwhile a company has been formed, and nearly half a million of dollars in stock has been promised * The following is the report of the Committee on plans and pro¬ jects of said road : " A larcro majority of the committee have the honor to report that two general plans for the connection of New-Orleans via Jackson, with the great systems of railroads now under construction, and projected, in Mississippi, Ala¬ bama and Tennessee, h.ave been presented. By one plan, it is proposed to construct a continuous railroad from New- * For other information upon this road, see /jfpendixal end. Also Vc ßonTs Review, 32 ADDKESS. Orleans to Jackson ; by the other, a rail-road from Madisonville to Jackson, anij thence to a connection with New-Orleans, by steam-ferry boats being used for bringing the trains of rail-road cars down the Chefuncte river, and across Lake Pontchartrain to the landing of the Pontchartrain Rail-road. The distance from New-Orleans to Jackson, «¿a Pontchartrain Rail-road, Lake Pontchartrain and Madisonville, is 173 miles, of which distance about 30 miles will be steam-ferry. By the located line of the old Nashville Rail-road the dis¬ tance is 192 miles. By a route recently surveyed by Mr. Phelps, passing above Lake Mauripas, the distance will be about 200 miles ; and by a proposed line up the river, to the vicinity of Baton Rouge, the distance from New-Orleans to Jackson will be about 213 miles. The latter route avoids difficult swamps, expensive drawbridges across navi¬ gable rivers, and passes through a fertile and well improved country. Estimating 30 miles per hour for passenger trains, on a level and straight rail-road, the time of passing over each of the routes will be as follows : 1st. By the Pontchartrain Rail-road, steam-ferry and Madisonville route—8 hours 15 minutes. 2d. By the old Nashville Rail-road—6 h. 24 minutes. 3d. By the line above Lake Mauripas—6 h. 40 m. ; and by the route near Baton Rouge—7 h. 5m. The majority of the committee are of the opinion that the road via Baton Rouge may be constructed in the most substantial manner from New-Orleans to Jackson for two millions of dollars, and that the shorter lines would not cost materially less. The cost of the road from the state line of Louisiana to the town of Jackson, will be the same on either route, and may be estimated sepa¬ rately at one million of dollars. The majority of the committee are strenuously opposed to any interruption of a continuous rail-road communication between New-Orleans and neighbor¬ ing states. The time allotted to the committee will not permit a report in de¬ tail, but the majority feel well assured that, on a simple statement of the case, the Convention will not hesitate in adopting an unbroken line of rail-road com¬ munication. On behalf of the majority, Glendy Borke, Chairman." 11. The New-Orleans and Opelousas Rail-road.—The proceedings of the Convention on this road, and which gave rise to the present committee, will be found reported in detail in the number of De Bow''s Review for August, 1851, as the proceedings of the other con¬ ventions are published in previous numbers. The number of dele¬ gates was large, comprising the wealth of the state, and the enthu¬ siasm throughout the country is beyond all precedent.* The construction of these two roads is, then, the first great matter upon which the people of Louisiana and of New-Orleans must be en¬ gaged to regain their lost position, and acquire that rank in the affairs of the nation which nature seems to have marked out for them. By the one our city will be connected with that great and growing region of Te.xas, which is destined to be the empire State of the South, and the trade of which will compensate for many losses in¬ curred by us in other quarters. In the progress of population the road will be extended further, and still further to the westward, until, in less than a generation, it is no chimera to suppose it with a terminus upon the Pacific, and conducting the commerce of the two * For other information upon this road, see Appendix at end. Also De Bow's Review, Vol. X. ADDRESS. 33 hemispheres ! The grand conception of such a road is worthy of America ; and judging from the great conventions that have been held in its advocacy, it is an idea that has taken too deep hold upon the public mind ever to be eradicated. The Jackson Road, on the other hand, in seeking to connect us with the North-western States and the Great Lakes, and with New- England and the North, through the North-Alabama, Tennessee, and Virginia improvements, is another great work entirely worthy of New-Orleans. This road will greatly facilitate, cheapen, and render safe travel in either direction, as will appear from the following statistics ; NEW-ORLEANS IMPROVEMENTS. 1.—EASTERN ROUTE. Miles. N. O. to Jacfeson 212 " Columbus via. Branch.... 322 " " Gunter's Landing, Tennes¬ see River 452 " " Knoxville 600 tt tt White Sulphur Springs.... 770 From the White Sulphur to Rich¬ mond, Washington, or Baltimore, about 200 miles by roads already completed; say then in all, from New-Orleans to Baltimore 1000 (Forty hours.) 2—NORTH WESTERN AND LAKE ROUTE. Miles. N. O. to Bonnet Carre.. 24 " " Donaldsonville 55 " Branch to Baton Rouge 70 " " State Line 110 " Jackson, (Miss ) 212 " Tennessee Line 382 " Ohio River, (Cairo) 530 " Chicago 830 ^Thirty-six hours) No grades or inclinations exceeding fifteen feet per mile, nor carves of less radii than 10,000 feet, equal nearly to level and straight.—{Ranney.) 3.—WESTERN, TEXAS, ANO CALIFORNIA ROUTE. From New-Orleans to Plaquemine 60 miles, (River.) Opelousas 110 " Sabine River 210 *' " Paso del Norte 710 " Gulf of California 1350 " " A distance to be attained in sixty hours, as there are no snows to be en¬ countered, nor heavy grades. The Committee cannot close their labors "without referring to a principle which has been lately resorted to in many quarters in the construction of rail-roads, and which has been recommended with much unanimity in both of the conventions which have assembled in New-Orleans. The principle is thus stated in the report of Mr. Robb :— Resolved, That a memorial be presented to the legislature of this state, pray¬ ing the passage of an act providing substantially as follows, viz. : That the several municipal councils of the city of New-Orleans, and the Po¬ lice Juries of the respective parishes situated on the line of the road, be em¬ powered to levy a special tax on the real estate lying within their respective limits, to be called the New-Orleans and Jackson Rail-road tax ; provided that no ordinance thus passed shall be binding until approved by a majority of the legal voters of the locality, at a special election called for that purpose, and that the tax thus paid by any individual shall entitle him to an equal amount of stock in the company. This principle has been resorted to in Kentucky, parts of OhiO) Tennessee, Mississippi, the city of Mobile, &c., with more or less modification, and the legality and constitutionality of it has been sus- 3 34 ADDRESS. tained in an elaborate decision in the Supreme Court of Kentucky. (Talbot vs. Dent, 9 B. Monroe's Reports, p. 536, 538. 1849.) The case decides : 1. The legislature have constitutional authority to grant to town corporations power to tax the property of towns or cities, for the construction of works of internal improvement, for facility of access to, and transportation to and from the town or city. 8 Leigh's Rep. 120 ; 15 Con. Rep. 475 ; Ten. Sup. Court. A rail-road to a city is such a work. 2. Taxation by a local corporation for a local purpose, and tending to promote the local prosperity, is within the scope of the corporate powers of city cor¬ porations, when sanctioned by the legislative authority, though not consented to by eaeh individual to be aflected thereby ; the will of a majority is to govern when it is referred to the decision of those to be aíTected. The advantages of such a principle are these ; It throws upon real estate the onus of those improvements which most certainly and speedily are felt by it in an appreciation of value. It causes all such property to contribute equally ; and by the distribution of stock into small parcels, gives the whole community a direct and practical in¬ terest in the results of rail-road improvements, and thus insures greater vigilance and responsibility. It renders rail-roads practicable in quarters where, from the obstinacy or ignorance of the largest pro¬ prietors, they otherwise would not be, and removes from the enter¬ prising the necessity of being at the whole expense of improvements greatly advantageous to the whole joublic in the long run, though, perhaps, immediately unprofitable. It is more unexceptionable than methods of state and corporation loans, or pledged credits, and does not trench upon any principle whose inviolability is essential ; since under proper regulation and limitation, there will be little or no chance of abuse. In the South-west, the large majority are land pro¬ prietors, and must tax themselves at the same time, and in the same proportion that they tax others, and men are not generally so fond of the tax collector, that they will willingly and rashly adventure them¬ selves within reach of his rapacious hands. Under this system, pro¬ perty will be altogether as safe and well guarded, ^ under republi¬ can institutions in general. Finally, fellow-citizens, the time has come for us to be astir in the great movements of the age, and let us meet together in one general con¬ vention for an exchange of views and plans ; for a combination of these, where it is practicable ; for a wider co-operation and a more gene¬ rous rivalry ; and for heartily pledging each other a bold, vigorous and sustained effort throughout all the future, in developing our re¬ sources and our power, and in strengthening the bonds of fraternity and of concord between us. New-Orleans invites you here, and, in the awakening spirit of en¬ terprise throughout her limits, tells you that she is in heart with you, and will do her whole duty. I APPENDIX. INSKCURITIES AND LOSSES ON WESTERN STEAMERS. Note, p. 4—Such has been the frightful loss of life within the past few years, and the enormous loss of property on western rivers, and so hopeless appears to be the case of all remedy, that almost any possible mode of communication would be at once preferred. Public confidence has been shaken in the whole system of western boating, and men begin to feel that the chances of the battle-field might rather be encountered than ^hese. Nothing is safe, nothing secure. We lie down at.night upon a volcano, which, in an in¬ stant, may hurl death and destruction in our midst. It is idle then to say that rail-roads cannot compete with steam upon these rivers. Upon their very banks the travel, and much of tlie trade, would be at once taken off by such roads. Mr. Chambers, of St. Louis, furnished a year or two ago the list of steamboat accidents in twelve months, which showed 59 steamers, or more than one a week, destroyed ; 245 lives, and $590,000 property, exclusively of personal effects. 'This was a favorable year, as the loss of life has since reached 500 or more. The dreadful experience of New- Orleans is in confirmation. How frequently, within the last few months, has the work of death been consummated at our levees. The whole number of steamers built on west¬ ern waters, from 1830 to 1847, says Mr. Burke, in his Report to Congress on " Boiler Explosions," is 1,915. The losses by explosions alone amount, according to the returns, (admitted to be altogether imperfect,) during the same period, to 198, or about 10 per cent. PUBLIC LANDS FOR INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. Noie, p. 4.—Government, by virtue of its proprietary, being benefited by the con¬ struction of roads, has pursued, to some extent, the liberal system of donating alternate sections, &c., in their aid. In the last two or three years many splendid donations have been made, particularly to the Central Road of Illinois and the Mobile and Ohio road. The whole amount donated in this way, up to 1847, was 6,693,781 acres, which has since been swelled to ten or twelve millions. The aid to be obtained from public lands for rail-roads is special to the southern and western states, and is an element of immense consideration, since, by the latest report we have access to, there were remaining 25 millions acres pub¬ lic lands in Ohio, about the same in Indiana, 38 millions in Michigan, 16 millions in Iowa, 47 millions in Wisconsin, 35 millions in Illinois, 43 millions in Missouri, 33 millions in Arkansas, 30 millions in Mississippi, 28 millions in Louisiana, 32 millions in Alabama, 34 millions in Florida. Total in these states, nearly 400,000.000 acres, which, by the late war bounty and other grants, has been, perhaps, reduced to 300,000,000 acres. RAIL-ROAD PROGRESS IN THE WORLD. Note, p. 5.—The total amount of rail-roads now opened in Great Britain (1851) is be¬ tween six and seven thousand miles. The total miles in the world, in 1849, was 18,656, having cost nearly $2,000,000,000. It is estimated there were at the same time, in progress of construction, a further extent of 7,829 miles, the cost of which, when com¬ pleted, would be Xl46,750,000. Thus, when these latter lines shall have been brought into operation, the population of Europe and the United States (for it is there only that railways have made any progress) will have completed, within tne period of less than a quarter of a century, 26,485 miles of railway—that is to say, a greater length than would completely surround the globe, at a cost of about X500,000,009 sterling. To accomplish this stupendous work, human industry must have appropriated, out of Its annual savings, X20,000,000 sterling for 25 successive years ! Of this prodigious investment the small spot of the globe which we inhabit has had a share, which will form not the least striking fact in our history. Of the total length of railways in actual operation in all parts of tiie globe, 27 miles in every 100 are in the United Kingdom ! But the proportion of the il APPENDIX. entire amount of railway capital contributed by British -industry is even more remark¬ able. It appears that of the entire amount of capital expended on the railways of the world, X54 in every XlOO, and of the capital to be expended on those in progresa, in every XlOO, are appropriated to British railways ! In about twenty years there have been constructed nearly 7,000 miles of rail-road in the United States, and those in ^rogmswill probably swell the amount 10,000 miles. The amount expended already reacíes $200,000,000. Of these roads 1,000 miles centre at the city of Boston, and required an outlay of $49,221,400. Our whole public works con¬ structed, including every description in the same time, would perhaps reach $500,000,000. Great Britain, meanwhile, has built .5,000 miles at a cost of $550.000,000, and projects 4,000 additional iniles, swelling the aggregate to $1,000,000,000. Her great north¬ western road, 428 riiiles in length, exhausted $104,000,000 in its construction, sufficient to build our way from ocean to ocean. France has expended $137,000,000, Gennany $168,000,000, Holland $39,000,000, and even Russia, despotic Russia, is on her way with three stupendous routes, from St. Petersburg to Warsaw and Cracow, to Moscow, to Odessa, to connect the Volga and the Duna! The passengers increased on British roads from 23,466,896 in 1843, to 57,965,070 in 1848, or more than double, and the re¬ ceipts from them in the last period was X5,720,382, or about $30,000,000. The total re¬ ceipts from passengers and goods had augmented in six years from X4.535,189 to £9.933,551, or from 20 to $50,000,000. The average cost per mile of British railways is £56,915, or $275,000, the Blackwall road having cost nearly $1,500,000 per mile ! Her locomotives have reached 67, and, in one instance, 70 miles the hour ; the average loss of life being, in 1847, 1 out of 2.887.053 passengers carried, and in 1848, 1 in 6,428,000; the German roads giving only 1 in 2.5,000,000 !—De Bow's Rev., Vol. VIII., 226. TEHUANTEPEG AND FLORIDA PENINSULA RAIL-ROADS. The project ofa rail-road across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, is one in which the people of the whole South and West have a direct and practical interest, higher than that of other sections of the Union. Though temporarily suspended by the difficulties interposed on the part of Mexico, the work should not be allowed to rest, but every effort, consist¬ ent with peace and goodwill towards Mexico, should be brought in requisition to carry it through. The road will, practically, make the Gulf of Mexico and the cities upon it the basis of future operations in the Pacific, until some overland communication through the continent has been achieved. The Florida Peninsula road is also one of great interest, and should be properly re¬ presented in the proposed Convention. In Florida it has been advocated with much zeal, and a citizen of that state, (Mr. Fairbanks,) in De Bow's Review, connects it insepa¬ rably witli the Tehuantepec. We give an extract :— u »pjie Tehuantepec route is 135 (Teo or 170) miles iu length, and is as practicable, so far as cost and time of construction is concerned, as that to Panama. The advantage offered by the Tehuantepec route, to compensate for its increased lisngth, is the saving of sea distances from each direction to its termini on the Gulf and Pacific, being 1,200 miles north of Panama. This saving in sea distance is estimated at 1,700 miles, in making the trip from New-Orleans to San Francisco; the distances being stated at 5,000 miles from New-Orleans to San Francisco, by wsy of Panama, and as being only 3,300 by way of Tehuantepec; and being from New-York to San Francisco, by way of Panama, 5,858 miles, and by way of Tehuantepec only 4,744 miles—being a saving, by Tehuan¬ tepec, of 1,100 miles. This immense difference in the sea distances, other things being equal, would seem to be conclusive in favor of the Tehuantepec route. But, by the con¬ struction, in connection with this Tehuantepec route, of a rail-toad across the Peninsula of Florida, a still greater saving of sea distance would be made in the distance from New- York. These two projects of constructing rail-roads across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec of 135 miles, and saving 1,7U0 miles in the passage to San Francisco, and across the Peninsula of Florida 135 miles, and saving 1,000 miles in the passage to New-York and Europe, would be achievements in the progress of communication, worthy of the spirit of the age, and of the consideration of the people of New-Orleans and the Memphis Con¬ vention. These connections made, and you will see that New-Orleans would become the great centre of trade and commerce of a continent. Without the Tehuantepec route New- Orleans is left far to the northward of the great stream of trade and commerce tending toward the Pacific. Without the rail-road across the Peninsula of Florida, the steam¬ ships connecting between New-York and Tehuantepec or Panama, will be compelled to leave her to the northward, or lose several hundred miles; while, with both these roads constructed, (and the Florida route is estimated at less than $1,000,000,) she becomes the great central point of the commerce of two oceans. It is a magnificent idea to dwell upon, that, by the construction of 270 miles of rail-rond, New-York and San Francisco are Drought within 4,300 miles of each other, and New-Orleans within 3,000 miles; thus cut¬ ting offnearly 10,000 miles of the voyage round Cape Horn. And it will not be deemed an extravagant supposition, that, when constructed, 20 days will suffice to reach San Francisco from New York, and 16 days from New-Orleans. APPENDIX. ■ WESTERN CANALS. Whilst referring to the processes by which trade is being carried from the western States to the East, we neglected to refer to the numerous canals now in successful opera¬ tion. In addition to the Great Erie, there are— 1. Illinois and Michigan Canal, 60 feet wide, and 6 feet deep; locks 17; total lockage, 158 feet. It connects the Chicago, which empties into Lake Michigan, with the Illinois at La Salle, 213 miles from the Mississippi. The Illinois is navigable all the year in flat-boats, and 4 months by steam (the ice season being excluded). 2. Wabash and Erie Canal.—This extends from Lafayette, about 378 miles above the Wabash mouth, where it enters the Ohio, to Toledo on the Maumee, adjacent to Lake Erie, and is 187 miles long. It is intended to complete the canal from Lafayette to the Ohio River. At a place called Junction this canal intersects the Miami Canal from Cin¬ cinnati. It is probable the Wabash and Erie Canal is now complete to Terre Haute, on the Wabash. Tlhe Muskingum Improvement extends to the Muskingum River, at or near Zanesville, and is 91 miles long. 3. Sandy and Beaver Canal, connecting the Beaver River with the lake from the Ohio. 4. Mahoning Canal, being a cross canal of 83 miles long. There is a canal called ihe Beaver and Erie, 136 miles long, connecting with the Ohio 28 miles below Pittsburg. The connection with Lake Ontario is by the Welland Canal in Canada, and with Ontario and Champlain by the New-York canals. The points of union of those canals, then, with the Mississippi, are as follows :—mouth of Illinois on the Mississippi, 40 miles above St. Louis ; mouth of Wabash, on the Ohio, 130 miles from the Mississippi ; Cincinnati, on the Ohio,550miles from Mississippi; Portsmouth, on the Ohio, 589 miles from Mississippi; mouth of the Hocking, on the Ohio, 756 miles from Mississippi ; Mari¬ etta, on the Ohio, 783 miles from Mississippi; at mouth Little Beaver, on Ohio, 924 miles from Mississippi. 4. The State of Wisconsin is now connecting the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, which empty into the Mississippi and the Lakes by a canal of very short length. An exchange remarks :—" The above bids fair to become one of the most important public improve¬ ments ever made in the United States. The connecting the great Lakes and the Mis¬ sissippi river by a route navigable by steamers, must form an era, even in our present advanced state of internal communication. A boat may then load at Buffalo for the Falls of St. Anthony, the Yellow Stone, or New-Orleans. The products of the great Mississippi valley will have a direct and cheap route to the Atlantic cities by way of the Lakes. Emi¬ grants may then embark at Buffalo or Oswego, and be carried by the same steamer to the spot where they wish to settle. Anew impulse will be given to the commerce of the country, andil>e bonds of our Union made the stronger by the opening of this new route, which is soon to rival all other artificial lines of water communication opened in this country. INFLUENCES OF RAIL-ROADS. It 18 in the nature of rail-roads to multiply commercial transactions, through the faci¬ lities they offer, and even to create a business where none has previously existed ; so that a line, which, for the first few years of its operation, scarcely pays its expenses, must, in a few years, prove lucrative. The Camden and Amboy Rail road is in point. It cost $1,238,000, completed 1830. In three years the travel increased 65 per cent., and freight 123. In three years, from 1833 to 1837, its nett earnings exceeded the whole cost of the line. In this view rail-roads claim the attention of merchants above any other mode of investment, inasmuch as they create the commerce it is their business to transact, and, therefore, while yielding a better and safer dividend, are superior to banks. What benefits the merchant and dealer, cannot but promote the welfare of the farmer, &c. Rail-roads offer an unsurpassed mode of communication, which, in effect, by the promptness and speed of their operations, doubles the amount of capital employed in all these pursuits. The New-Orleans and Jackson Rail lioad, from the Letters of Col. Tarpley., of Miss. Let us see what business the road would do. In the first place the 60,000 bales of cotton shipped on the Vicksburg road, east of the Big Black river, would be shipped on this direct line. The cotton made along the line of the Big Black, in Madison, Holmes, and Attala counties, araounthig to 10,000 bales, that are now sent to Yazoo city and Satatria to be shipped, would he sent to Jackson. The distance is about equal, the road better, and the difference in the cost, as well as the time of reaching the market, and the condition of the cotton, the saving of èxpenses for re-shipping and insurance, would make it to their iiitere.^tto haul cotton fifty miles to Jack-son, rail»er tliau to reach the Yazoo river at a shorter distance. Now, add the 10,000 bales made in the counties lying south of Jacksun, and contiguous to the road, that would be shipped at half price, or say fifty cents per bale, which would be equivalent to 20,000 shipped at Jack.-^on, and we have an aggregate of 90,000 bales that would, every year, pass over the whole line of ihe road. And should the Eastern road be complete»! to its intersection with the Mobile and Ohio road, we might very safely add fifty per cent, to the amount. The miscellaneous down freighis, for the first year or so, would not amount to much, as it requires time to rai>e stock, njake orchards, and to gel fairly utider way: but, from the present population, wo might very properly estimate them at $25,000. In five years they would amount to double as much as the cotton would. The APPENDIX. up freights ar« usually estimated as being equal to the down freights, including cotton. Such has been the experience of the Vicksburg road, and such would be the case in this. As you bring a country into proximity with a great market like New-Orleans, by opening up facilities for inter- communicatiun, you increase the wealth, and consequently the commerce of the couniry, and the wants of the people become multiplied with the means of gratification, and articles of taste and fancy, as well as those of necessity, must travel over the road, and necessarily increase its profits. The next great source of profit would be the traveling done on the road. It is almost impossi¬ ble to form anything like a just estimate of this item, should the road terminate at Jackson. Should, however, the Eastern load be completed, and connect itself witli the Mobile and Ohio road, making this road a link in the great thoroughfare from North to South, the travelling would be immense, far beyond anything that has ever been knowu upon any other road in the Union. The traveling upon the Vicksburg road has amounted to about one-third of its income. For the last ten months, ending SOth June last, 22,520 persons passed over that road, making upwards of 27,000 per year. In every country, the traveling increases according to the increase of the com¬ merce of the country, and the facilities thereby afforded ; and if men could go from Vicksburg to New-Orleans in one day, upon an average, one-half who travel annually by that point to and from New-Orleans, would take rail-road at and to Vicksburg, as the cheapest, the safest, and most expeditious roi:te. Thousands in middle Mississijipi, who now visit New-Orleans once a year, would pass over the road upon tw-o or three visits ; and thousands more, who otherwise will never gdze upon the dome of her cathedral, or her beautiful crescent, studded with her thousand shijis, would find it convenient and profitable to pass over this road: while many who are unable to spend their summer on the Bay shore, in consequence of the expense, would every summer find a delightful residence for themselves and families in the piney woods of Mississippi, where pure, cool water and perfect health abound, and where the expense of living would be a mere trifie. Again, Hinds, Lauderdale, Madison, and Rankin, hold ont strong inducements to summer visi¬ tors, to partake of their medical waters, and already some prominent citizens of New-Orleans are turning their attention from the fashionable watering places North, to the more humble, more economical, and more beneficial waters of Hinds, and other counties in the State. And if this road was constructed, and the necessary accommodations afforded, thousands would flock here every summer, not only to spend their money amongst us, and thereby to enrich the country, but they would, in so doing, add to the profits of the road. Many merchants and others, engaged in business in this city, would, for the sake of health and economy, keep their families, w inter and summer, in this country, and pass over the road more than twenty times a year in their home visits. Way pa.ssengers from the southern counties, going with their produce to market and re¬ turning, and persons within fifty miles of the road, would crowd the depots, seeking a passage to the great Babylon of the South. Indeed, it would be impossible to estimate any thing like the number of passengers on this road the first year, and which would iucrease more than 100 per cent, in ten ye.irs. But as it will he quite sufficient to show the profits of the road, let us set down the number of through tickets the first year at 30,000, (which I honestly believe would not be more than one- half.) at $5 each, aud theu add the daily mail at $20,000 per year. The account would stand thus : Jackson and New-Orleans Rail-Road, Dr. To cost of construction, fixtures, etc., and running one year $2,000,000 By freight on 90,000 bales cotton, at $1 per bale $90.000 By miscellaneous down freight 2.5,000 By up freight 100,000 Bv 30.000 passengers, tickets at $5 each 1.50,000 By daily mail 20,000 ^ 385,000 Here, then, is 19i per cent, profit, with a cerlainty of doubling in ten years. If, however, any one should think that I have under estimated the cost of the road, and over estimated the amount of business to be done on It, let them add 20 percent, to the cost, and then deduct one-third of the profits, and it will still pay 10 per cent. Neîo-Orleans and Opelonsas Rail Road^From the Report of Bttchier H. Payne. Staíisíícs.—The region through which this road is proposed to pass, produced last year, of sugar, us follows, viz.: (and it was abad year for sugar.) Parishes. No. of Plantations. Hhds. Sugar. Jefferson .... 20 4,783 St. Charles 24 4,253 St John the Baptist 29 3,056 St. James 41^ 8,704 Ascension 30 6,882 Assumption 148 15,468 Lafourclio Interior 77 10,883 Terrelionne 90 13,758 St. Mary 195 St. Martin 101 6,324 Vermilion 21 771 Lafayette 20 1,859 Calcasieu 14 - St. Landry 71 5,132 Rapides 46 7,320 Total 933 110,800 APPENDIX. V and 193,POO barrels of molasses. The upper parishes produce also 33,000 hales of cotton ; and St. Landry, Rapides, I.afayette, Calcasieu and Vermilion, sell, according to their statistics, as pub¬ lished the last winter in Opelousas, 40,000 head of beef cattle, calves, and sheep for mutton, to the New-Orleans inai ket. It must not be forgotten that it cannot reasonably be expected of plantations fronting on the Mississippi River, nor those near Donaldsnnville, on the Laloun he, nor the thirteen plantations on Red River, in the parish of Rapides, included in the above estimate, that they will send their produce by this road ; but it must be equally borne in mind that the present price of transport for beef cattle, through the year, ranses from three to five didlars per head, sugar from two and a half to four dollars per hogshead, until you reach the Lafourche, where it is some lower. The plan¬ tations on the Mississippi River generally sell their crops at home. But in order that the full force of the calculation, now to be submitted, may be appreciateil, I shall at this point introduce the statistics of the Atlakapas country, comprised of the parishes of St. Mary and St. Martin, as published in the Planter's Banner, in the town of Franklin, under date of the 21st February last, as preiJicated upon and verified by the books of the steamboats that have done their business the past four years. Its correctness, I was informed by the most respectable merchants and plan¬ ters, was undoubted. From this document it appears that the cost of transport of their products to New-Oi leans, the return of freights, and passage money to and fro, have averaged the past four years, $29.0,000 for these two parishes. Now, Lafayette, Vermilion and St. Landry, com¬ prising what is called the " Opelousas country," and lying above the Attakapas, and having fur¬ ther to go to market ; and although not producing so much .sugar, yet they more tlian make up that deficit by their cotton, beef cattle, &c., and consequently their expenses would be equally great, if not greater, than tliose of Attakapas. But taking it as only the same, say $295,000, we have the suni of $590.000 as the present business of the Attakapas and Opelousas, and which is only the upper half of the road. The cost of making the whole road is estimated at $10,1)00 per mile, or about $1,600,000 for the whole road. Now, let us see what would be the profit on this half of the road. The cost of maintaining the road, and running the cars on the Georgia rail¬ roads per annum is 39| per cent, of Úieir gross receipts ; those of New York 39^ ; those of Massa¬ chusetts 39^, and the average of the latter, for the past seven years, is 40§ per cent. Now to take 40 per cent, off «590,000 (the business of Attakapas and Opelousas, and from their péculiar situa¬ tion it would have to come by the road) would leave $354,000 as the profit on this half of the road, being equal to 22 per cent, on $1,600,000, the whole cost of the road ! Nor is this all. By the present mode of getting their produce to market, these planters are subjected to expenses of cooperage, and great loss fiom drainage of the sugar, from its havlngto be rolltîd so much in load¬ ing and unloading, and of insurance, which is equal to sixty cents to each hogshead, all of which would be saved by this road to them, even if the charges were the same they now pay. The back freight is equal to about 65 per cent, of their down freight. Let us now return to the sugar >taii'-tics, and suppose the transport on this road would be reduced to $1 50 per hogshead, on the average, which is about half the present prices, and we will have : 110,800 hogsheads sugar, at $1 50 $166,200 200 000 barrels mola-ses and cistern bottoms, at 50c 100.000 Return freight and passage money equal to 65 percent 172,900 Gross receipts $4.39,000 Deduct 40 per cent, for maintenance of road 165,640 Net annual income $273,460 Equal to 17 per cent, on the cost of the road, besides the saving of insurance, cooperage of hogs¬ heads and barrels, and lo'-s of j-ugar l'y ilraiiiage, and other causes. Nor do I refer to any in¬ crease of l)u>iiieas, the natural result of such a convenience as this road will induce. In this esti¬ mate I have not included the large amounlof beef cattle, calves, sheep for mutton, (of which they have thousands.) nor the cotton. Thesi- I have purposely left out to counterbalance shipments by steamboats, of planters residing on the Mississippi and Red rivers, and that part of the La¬ fourche, near Donaldsonville. Thí>se itein.s must reach $150,000, and are deemed amply sufficient to cover all produce sent from Ihi.s section by means other than the rail-road. These calculations are being ba.-eJ on the actual statistics the past year. But wlien we remark that the section of Loui-iana, ihroui-h which this road is confi mplaied to run. comprises 23,000 square miles, equal in size to throe such States as Mas.«achu>eKs, and that not one-fifth of its finest lands are now in cul¬ tivation, for want of such an outlet as this road is designed to furnish ; and not one tenth of the land that can be cultivated, if the rohd is made, it is not unreasonable to suppose that tlie stock of tiiis road will the best in the United States. From its healthfulness, it is destined, at no dis¬ tant Jay, to be to the United States what the South of France is to Europe—a resort for health. !ts giear fertility, furnishing every inducement the richest soil can claim: its beautiful islands along the Gulf shore offering the finest places for summer resort, sea air and sea batliing ; and its exhau.-tless .-upplies of fifih and game of everv kind, its mineral springs of St. Martin, its Belle Cheney sulphur springs of Sr. Landry, all. all conspire to give this road a pre-eminence over all others on tlii.«i continent for dividends; whilst its power to enhance the value of property in both city and country is iiicalcuhible, Butto return to tliis road, and look for a momentbeyond Opelousas, its present proposed termi¬ nus, and what do we see ? The di.-stance from thence to the eai-tern border of Texas, between thirty- first and thirty-second degree of north latitude. (« Inch is her centre,) is only 124 miles ; in this dîstaiic tliere will be developed another portion of Louisiana, equal in size to the whole State of Ma>-sachuseits, giving, in the route fom Algi'-rs to Texas,/nwr such Stales in territorial extent as MassHchn-elts, atid all within our own limits. But what is Texas ? She is oiitof debt, with three millions of money in her treasury, l>y the recent settlement with the United States Govern¬ ment. Siie owns more than one hundre«! and fifty mdlions of acre.s of vacant land ; she t.s forty- four times as large as the Stale of Massachusetts, and New-Jersey thrown in besides ; the tide of APPENDIX. immigration to her, across our own State, is immense > at two points on Red River, viz. : Grand Ecorc and Shrcveport, there parsed, the last year, over sixty-three thousand immigrants, most of whom would have taken this road had it been in existence The price of passage to them would alone have paid ten per cent, dividend on three milhoiis of capital—a sum sufficient to make the road the whole way to Texas. The great outlet and market for Texas is New-Orleans. With this road to strike her centre on the east, (as all her rivers are small and unnavigable most of the year, except in great floods of rain,) her Legislature will, doubtless, direct her grand improve¬ ment to .meet this one from New-Orleans. The Practieablity of the Route.—Washington, the proposed present terminus of the road, is situated in the parish of St. Landry, on the west bank of the Court-a-bleau, on a beautif ul pla¬ teau of land, about thirty feet above the highest high water level of the Mississippi River. From this point the same plateau of land is continued down as far as Berwick's Bay, a distance, by way of the road, of eighiy-five miles, but gently dipping until it reaches the latter point, where the elevation of the land is not more than ten or twelve feet sbove the high water level of the Missis¬ sippi River. On the route we pass through Opelousas, Grand Couteau, Vermilionville, St. Mar¬ tinsville, New Iberia, Franklin, Centreville and Palersouville. The parishes interested in this part of the road are St. Landry, Calcasieu, Lafayette, Vermilion, St. Martin and St. Mary's. A portion of the parish of Rapides, on Bayou Bœuf and Bayou Robert, will use this road when completed, and on which the principal sugar plantations of that parish are found. Outside of the State of Kentucky, so beautiful a country I have never seen as is this whole line ; and 1 was filled with astonishment at finding such a region in the State of Louisiana, but which explained itself on finding it completely cut off, as it is, from direct communication with the Mis¬ sissippi River and New Orlcans, by swamps, trembling prairies, lakes and tortuous bayous. It is, from its southern exposure to the sea-breeze, perhaps the most healthy portion of the Ameri¬ can coDliuent. By the census of IS40, it appears there are more centenarians in this particular section than in any State in the Union. Its fertility is equal to that of the best lands in Louisi- ana, as its productive statistics will show. This land generally is whatmay be called rolling prai¬ rie, interspersed iu many parts with timber. All the water courses are densely timbered. The land, though described as roZiin^, is nevertheless, what most persous would say, a strictly level country, and not an acre but may be cultivated. From Opelousas to St. Martinsville, the road will pass and develope what is known as the " Cote Gelly Hills" country. It is mostly prairie, but is said to be their very richest lands, and to the eye it certainly presents the most magnificent scene man ever looked upon. But a small portion of it is cultivated at present, owing to the difficulty of obtaining, conveniently, timber for necessary farming purposes, but wiilch will be wholly relieved hy the proposed road. If unsurpassed health and fertility of soil be any elements on which to feed arail-road to full¬ ness, and to which, add its equally unsurpassed loveliness, with so great a commercial martas New- Orleans for its terminus, then of all countries or sections this presents considerations to capital¬ ists no where else equaled on this continent for safe investment of money. The Têche, which puts out of the Bayou Court-a-bleau, some twelve miles below Washington, is a beauiilul stream, atid takes the same general course of the road, which, at some places, it approaches, whilst at others it is several miles from it. Berwick's Bay is a sheet of water «orne 7(J0 yards in width, with a rise and fall of about two feet throughout the year. This it is prOi>osed to cross in boats suitable for the transport of the cars. The land on this (the lower) side is also high, and the road will pass directly to the Bayou Black country, in tlie parish of Terrebonne, along which it will pass for some eight to fifteen miles above Tigerville, offering an outlet for the country on each side, and passing thence direct towards the Lafourche, developing the Terrebonne, Caillou, De- large, &c., and crossing the same at or nearTliibodeauxville. From this point two routes present themselves—one going to the Mississippi River by tlie upper side of Lake Des Allemands, and the other towards the lower or right side of the lake, and directly towards the city, approaching the river at the entrance of the Barrataria Canal, and so on to the main depot in Algiers, parish of Orleans. Berwick's Bay is about half way between New-Orleans and Washington, or about eighty-one miles from the city by the way of the road. This will give a distance of one hun¬ dred and sixty-six miles. On the upper half there are two or three small bavous, and tlie Vermi¬ lion to bridge, all of which are small, wit!» high banks. On the lower side of Berwick's Bay, with the exception of the Bayou Lafourche, the bridging will be about the same, perhaps there may be two more bridges on the lower half (of small size, however), wanted, more than on the upper half ufthe road. On the whole route no swamp of greater difficultv occurs than is now crossed by the Pontchartrain Rail-Road to the lake. But little grading or filling will be required beyond the mere diiching of the road, as the land is level, generally, as could be desired. The whole route, therefore, is practicable, and perhaps presents fewer obstacles to overcome than any other road of equal extent to be found anywhere. The cost of making will not exceed ten thousand dollars per mile* 10^ Published by the Convention Commxttee on Rail-Roads in De Bovfs Monthly Review, New-Orleans, August, 1851. and also in Pamphlet Form for Gratuitous Distribution. Persons to whom copies are sent will please distribute