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 THE WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA RAIL ROAD 
 
 Governor Jarvis 
 
 to the 
 
 People of North Carolina, 
 
 1880. 
 

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WORTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL COMMIE 
 
 Western North Carolina Rail Road. 
 
 The Extra Session 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Legislature 
 
 GOVERNOR JARVIS 
 
 TO THE 
 
 People of North Carolina, 
 
 RALEIGH, N. C: 
 
 Edwards, Broughton & Co., Printers and Benders. 
 
 1880. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/westernnorthcaroOOnort 
 
GOVERNOR JARVIS 
 
 TO THE 
 
 People of North Carolina 
 
 i EXECUTIVE OFFICE, 
 
 Raleigh, February 21st, 1880. 
 
 To the People of North Carolina : 
 
 I have to-day exercised the very responsible power vested 
 in me by the Constitution and Laws of North Carolina, in 
 convening the General Assembly in extra session. The 
 purpose for which the extra session is called is to consider a 
 proposition made by W. J. Best, J. N. Tappan, W. R. Grace 
 and J. D. Fish for the purchase of the State's interest in and 
 the speedy completion of the Western North Carolina Rail- 
 road. That road, as will be seen by a glance at the map, 
 begins at Salisbury and runs west to Asheville, a distance 
 of 148 miles, to which point it is now practically finished. 
 At Asheville the road forks, one branch running off to the 
 Northwest with the French Broad River to a place called 
 Paint Rock, very close to the Tennessee line, and distant 
 from Asheville 45 miles. The other, or main line, the one 
 commonly known as the Ducktown line, runs from Ashe- 
 ville southwesterdly for 135 miles through the counties of 
 Buncombe, Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Swain, Graham and 
 Cherokee to Murphy, the county seat of Cherokee, the ex- 
 treme western county in the State. Beyond the North Car- 
 olina line, and some eighteen or twenty miles from Murphy, 
 in the direct line to Chattanooga, the great railroad centre 
 of the South and West is Ducktown. It will be seen, there- 
 fore, that of this road which private individuals propese to 
 
 <s3 
 
boy and complete, there are now 148 miles completed and 
 200 miles uncompleted. 
 
 It was not proper to do so in my Proclamation, but I deem 
 it due to myself now and to you, that I should detail to you 
 my connection with the proposition for the sale of your 
 property, the proposition itself, and the character and stand- 
 ing of the parties making it and my reasons for my course. 
 
 My connection with the matter in brief, is as follows : 
 
 On the eighth day of January last, Mr. W. J. Best, of the 
 city of New York, came to Raleigh and submitted to tne 
 Board of Directors of the Western North Carolina Rail Road, 
 then in session, a proposition to purchase the State's inter- 
 est in said Road, and to complete the same. I was not 
 present at any of the sessions of the Board, but was in- 
 formed by a copy of a resolution sent to me immedi- 
 ately after their adjournment that they had declined to en- 
 tertain the proposition. On Saturday evening, January the 
 tenth, Mr. Best submitted to me for my consideration, in the 
 presence of the State Treasurer and of the Secretary of State, 
 a proposition of the same general import as the one pre- 
 viously submitted to the Board of Directors, but differing 
 from the former, as he stated, in that he then proposed to 
 give the State $450,000 of the first mortgage bonds of the 
 new corporation, instead of the $850,000 of stock offered to 
 the Board of Directors. I stated to him that the $450,000 
 would not cover the expenditures made by the State on the 
 road since its purchase, and suggested several other changes, 
 all of which I regarded to the advantage of the State. 
 The proposition, with these changes inserted, was re- written 
 and, together with Mr. Best's letter, placed on file in the Ex- 
 ecutive Office. Believing the matter to be of such impor- 
 tance as to require my immediate, patient and earnest in- 
 vestigation, I at once addressed myself to its consideration. 
 
 At the same time that the proposition was filed, Mr. Best 
 placed with me also letters from the Senators and members 
 of Congress of North Carolina, approving in general terms 
 
his offer. On the 13th da} 7 of January, after I had consid- 
 ered well the proposition, I wrote Mr. Best a letter, saying 
 that the amount of first mortgage bonds must be $550,000, 
 and suggesting certain other important amendments, look- 
 ing to a better protection of the State's interest and better 
 guarantees for the certain completion of the Road. To this 
 letter Mr. Best replied on the 19th day of January, assent- 
 ing to all the proposed changes except one. On the 29th 
 day of January he returned to the city of Raleigh, and on 
 the next day in the presence of Dr. J. M. Worth, State Treas- 
 urer, Col. Wm. L. Saunders, Secretary of State, R. H. Battle, 
 Jr., Esq., and Col. Junius I. Scales, of the Board of Directors, 
 and C. M. Cooke, Esq., of the Board of Internal Improve- 
 ments, he went over his whole proposition with run. Sev- 
 eral additional amendments were then insisted upon and 
 were accepted by him. He then left the city to visit the 
 line of< the railroad, and while at Salisbury had a corrected 
 copy of the proposition sent to me by mail. As our 
 members of Congress had written to me in general terms 
 approving the sale of the road, I thought it but courteous 
 and fair to them, and due to myself, that before taking any 
 decisive action I should submit to them the proposition as 
 amended, and take their opinion as to whether it was such 
 an one as to authorize me to call a special session of the Leg- 
 islature for its consideration. It was for this purpose and 
 no other that I went to Washington. 
 
 Before leaving Raleigh I carefully re-read the proposition 
 sent me by Mr. Best from Salisbury, and I saw two other 
 changes that could be made therein to the further advan- 
 tage of the State. I thereupon at once telegraphed Maj. 
 Wilson, the President of the Western N. C. Railroad, at 
 Morganton, to turn Mr. Best back from Asheville, and re- 
 quested them both to meet me at Greensboro, prepared to 
 go on with me to Washington. They met me as requested, 
 and on the way I called Mr. Best's attention to the amend- 
 ments I desired. One of these amendments requires him to 
 
commence paying interest on the $850,000 first mortgage 
 bonds on the day that the General Assembly shall adopt his 
 offer, instead of on the first day of May, as set forth in his 
 proposition. If the contract should be agreed upon about 
 the middle of March, this amendment would make a differ- 
 ence of over $7,000 in favor of the State. The other change 
 required an additional guarantee for the completion of the 
 main line to Ducktown. After some hesitation, Mr. Best 
 yielded his assent to these changes. 
 
 I arrived in Washington on Thursday, and on that night 
 the North Carolina delegation in Congress, accompanied by 
 Gen. James Madison Leach and Col. F. E. Shober (one of 
 the Board of Directors) had a consultation with me at the 
 Metropolitan Hotel, at which Mr. Best and President Wilson 
 were present. The proposition was read over and discussed, 
 and two changes were suggested, making more explicit a 
 portion that some of the delegation thought indefinite. The 
 conference ended at a late hour, with the understanding that 
 I was to have these changes properly made and inserted, 
 and that another session would be held on the next night. 
 I was engaged during the greater part of the next day (Fri- 
 day) in drawing out with great care these proposed changes 
 and in transposing some of the sections so as to make the 
 proposition as explicit as possible. 
 
 On Friday night these gentlemen again met me in con- 
 ference, read over the proposition carefully, and addressed 
 me letters approving it and recommending the convening 
 of the Legislature in extra session to pass upon it. 
 
 Before I left for Washington, I had requested Maj. Wil- 
 son to call together the Board of Directors of the W. N. C. R. 
 R. to meet in the city of Raleigh on the 10th February, and 
 I had called a meeting of the Board of Internal Improve- 
 ments at the same time and place. 
 
 On the assembling of the Board of Directors, all being 
 present except Col. Shober, I submitted to them for their 
 consideration the proposition as now perfected. On the 
 
next day I was informed by a letter 'from the Secretary of 
 the Board that six of its members were opposed to* calling 
 an extra session of the Legislature to consider and pass upon 
 the proposition, and that five members favored such a call. 
 On the same afternoon I submitted the proposition to the 
 Board of Internal Improvements, which body was equally 
 divided upon the subject. Among those on both Boards 
 opposing the assembling of the Legislature are some of the 
 best men of the State, for whose opinions upon that or any 
 other subject I have the very highest regard. But my duty 
 was to me so plain that I could not let this vital matter rest 
 there. On the 12th day of February I addressed a commu- 
 nication to Dr. J. M. Worth, the State Treasurer, giving 
 him the names of all the gentlemen who were parties to the 
 proposition (which names Mr. Best had furnished me), and 
 requested him to proceed to New York at once to investi- 
 gate their financial and moral standing, and to report the 
 same to me by letter at as early a day as possible. At Dr. 
 Worth's request I telegraphed to the Hon. Jos. J. Davis to 
 accompany him to New York and assist him in the inves- 
 tigations. I also requested Col. W. E. Anderson, President 
 of the Citizens' National Bank of this place, to make similar 
 inquiries for me, which he did through his correspondents 
 in New York. 
 
 Dr. Worth reports that he is " perfectly satisfied that Mr. 
 Best and his associates [W. R. Grace, J. N. Tappan and J. 
 D. Fish,] possess the financial ability to fulfill the contract 
 submitted to 3 r ou by them and that their personal charac- 
 ter and standing is such as to give positive assurance that 
 they honestly intend to carry out any contract they may 
 enter into." 
 
 Mr. Davis reports that Messrs. James D. Fish, W. E« 
 Grace and J. N. Tappan " are gentlemen of large means and 
 all of them gentlemen of high character commanding the 
 confidence of business men." 
 
 Col. Anderson reports that the sources from which he de- 
 
8 
 
 rived his " information are varied and of the very highest 
 respectability in New York City, and they all agree that 
 these are men who would not intentionally enter upon any 
 undertaking which would involve their good names, or 
 which they might not be able to carry out." 
 
 I thereupon at once submitted the proposition, my letter 
 books, and the reports made to me by the gentlemen above 
 named, to the Council of State, and asked their advice as to 
 whether the General Assembly ought to be convened in 
 extra session. I am informed by the Council of State that 
 they are unanimous in advising an extra session of the 
 General Assembly to consider the proposition for the pur- 
 chase of the Railroad, and in accordance with this advice 
 I have issued my proclamation as the law directs. 
 
 I have exercised all the intelligence, patience and care 
 that I possess, in conducting the negotiations, and in throw- 
 ing all possible safeguards around the interests of the State. 
 I felt obliged, in justice to the parties contemplating the 
 purchase, while the negotiation was in progress, not to make 
 it public ; but now that I have reached the conclusion, so 
 far as I am concerned I desire that the speediest, greatest 
 and most detailed publicity be given to it. For this pur- 
 pose I have caused a thousand copies of the proposition to 
 be printed and sent out — one to each member of the Gene- 
 ral Assembly, Sheriff, Register of Deeds and Clerk of the 
 Superior Court, and to every newspaper in the State. Any 
 information that I have on this important subject will be 
 freely given to any citizen of North Carolina who shall de- 
 sire it, and my letter-books are open for inspection. 
 
 The proposition of Mr. Best and his associates as per- 
 fected, briefly stated, is this : The State, through its proper 
 commissioners, is to make a deed, without any warranty of 
 title, to Mr. Best and his associates for the State's interest in 
 the Western North Carolina Railroad. This deed is not to 
 be delivered to the purchasers until the railroad is com- 
 pleted both to Ducktown and to Paint Rock, nor until all 
 
9 
 
 the other stipulations of their contract are performed ; but 
 until then it is to be held in trust by The United States 
 Trust Company, of New York, upon the following condi- 
 tions : 
 
 If the road is completed as agreed upon in the contract and 
 all the other conditions therein stipulated are faithfully per- 
 formed, the deed is to be delivered to the purchasers; but 
 if they fail in any one the grant becomes void, the property 
 reverts to the State, the United States Trust Company is to 
 re-deliver to the State the deed and all papers pertaining 
 thereto, and the State re-enters at once into the possession, 
 control and ownership of the entire property. 
 
 Before the delivery of this deed to the United States 
 Trust Company, the purchasers are to enter into a contract 
 binding themselves, their executors, administrators and as- 
 signs, to build the Branch Railroad to Paint Rock by July 
 1st, 1881, the Ducktown line as far as Pigeon river by the 
 same time, and to complete the Ducktown line by January 
 1st, 1885. From the day the act authorizing the sale is 
 ratified, the purchasers are to pay all the interest on the 
 $850,000 mortgage bonds which the State is now paying, 
 and are in due time to take up and cancel the said bonds. 
 
 The purchasers are to have the right to mortgage any 
 mile of the said W. N. C. R. R. that has been completed 
 and is in operation, to the extent of $15,000 per mile, but 
 the aggregate amount of these mortgage bonds shall include 
 the $850,000 heretofore issued, until these latter bonds shall 
 be cancelled. Of these bonds issued by the purchasers they 
 are to deliver to the State Treasury $550,000 to re-imburse 
 the State for its expenditures made since the purchase of 
 the road in 1875. The mortgage to be made by the pur- 
 chasers is to contain a condition that it cannot be foreclosed 
 until the railroad is completed both to Paint Rock and to 
 Murphy, in Cherokee county, and this condition is to be ex- 
 plicitly stated in the body of all the mortgage bonds, so 
 that no defalcation in the payment of interest or any thing 
 
10 
 
 else can work a sale of the railroad until it is completed. If 
 the parties shall fail in their contract, the remedy is two- 
 fold. First, the State has the legal right and the ability to 
 enforce its performance. But if from any cause it shall be- 
 come impracticable or inexpedient to enforce its perform- 
 ance, the railroad again becomes the property of the State, 
 which takes that part from Salisbury to Paint Rock with all 
 the rolling-stock and equipment free and discharged of all 
 mortgage, lien or encumbrance of any and ever} 7 kind, in 
 favor of the purchasers or any other person or corporation 
 except the $850,000 now on it, and the actual expenditures 
 made by the purchasers in the construction, repair and 
 equipment of the said road, not to exceed in the aggregate 
 $850,000. But this lien or indebtedness shall not be due or 
 in any manner collectable until the completion of the Duck- 
 town line to Murphy. 
 
 So that whatever money the purchaser shall have ex- 
 pended upon the work will be absolutely forfeited unless the 
 road shall be completed both to Murphy and to Paint Rock. 
 If, therefore, the purchasers build the Paint Rock branch 
 and stop there, the State will take possession of the railroad, 
 which is reasonably estimated to be worth $3,000,000. The 
 only encumbrance upon it will be the $850,000 which is 
 now a lien upon it, and which will be due in 1890, and the 
 amount expended not to exceed $850,000, which latter 
 amount will not be due until the Ducktown line is com- 
 pleted to Murphy ; and if the road shall never be completed 
 to Murphy this amount will never be due. It will be seen, 
 therefore, that unless the purchasers build the road to Duck- 
 town, the State will get a completed road, said to be worth 
 $3,000,000 cash, for $850,000. 
 
 The proposition also contains a provision that the said 
 purchasers, in the matter of transportation shall not dis- 
 criminate against any North Carolina city or town, or 
 against any one North Carolina city or town over another. 
 The State is to hire to the purchasers — not give them — five 
 
11 
 
 hundred convicts, for which they are to pay to the State 
 $125 each per year, amounting in the aggregate to $62,500 
 annually for five years, or $312,500 in all 
 
 The reasons that have influenced me to convene the Gen- 
 eral Assembly in extra session, are — 
 
 First The Western North Carolina Railroad belongs to 
 the people of North Carolina. It has been built up to its 
 present condition by your money, it is slowly progressing 
 towards completion by the aid you give it, and surely you 
 have the right to say whether you will sell it to those who 
 will complete it, or will continue to be taxed for its con- 
 struction. 
 
 Second. Under existing laws, the appropriations for the 
 building of the road, to be paid in cash out of the State 
 Treasur} r , annually, are : For interest on the first mortgage 
 bonds, $59,500 ; for the purchase of iron and material, $70,- 
 000; and for the support of convicts about $45,000 — mak- 
 ing in all $174,500. To collect this money and place it in 
 the Treasury the sheriffs get 5 per cent, commission, 
 amounting to $8,725, which added to $174,500, the amount 
 collected, makes $183,000 in money collected out of your 
 property every year. 
 
 Third. The taxable property of the State is $157,967,481. 
 To raise $183,000, therefore, out of this property requires a 
 tax of 12 cents on every $100 worth of property. It is a 
 simple matter of calculation for each tax payer to know the 
 exact sum he pays annually and will continue to pay if you 
 decline to sell the road and decide to go on with the work 
 yourselves. 
 
 Fourth. The price to be paid for the convicts, that is to 
 say $62,500 a year or $125.00 a head payable quarterly in 
 cash will entirely relieve you of the burden of the mainte- 
 nance of 500 convicts. 
 
 Fifth. I think you have a right to the opportunity of 
 saying through the Legislature whether you will relieve 
 yourselves entirely of this burden, or whether you will use 
 
12 
 
 the money to hasten the completion of the Western Insane 
 Asylum at Morganton, so that those of ourfellow beings whom 
 God has bereft of reason may be provided for with decent 
 comforts instead of languishing in our common jails. 
 ?* Sixth. You have a right to say whether you will continue 
 in fortfe the existing laws or use the money now appropri- 
 ated to this purpose for fostering public schools and the edu- 
 cation of your children, in which so much has been left 
 undone by North Carolina. 
 
 Seventh. You have a right to say whether or not this 
 property shall pass from your hands into those of private 
 capitalists who will speedily complete both lines of this im- ' 
 portant railway without further burden to you. 
 
 Eighth. You have a right to say whether you are willing 
 that these capitalists shall invest $4,000,000 of their own 
 money in developing in the near future one of the grandest 
 and most important sections of your State, a section that 
 bids fair to be the great mining camp of the Union, and 
 w T hether this investment shall be followed by others almost 
 equally as important. 
 
 Ninth. It is for you to say whether capitalists, who have 
 been urged by appeals, constantly and earnestly made, to 
 come and invest their money amongst you, shall be permit- 
 ted to do so. 
 
 Tenth. It is for you to say whether your fellow-citizens 
 of the West are again to be disappointed. For nearly a half 
 century they have appealed to you for help. For a quarter 
 of a century you have responded to their appeals with all 
 the means in your possession. During that time, after ex- 
 pending millions you have been able, of the three hundred 
 and forty miles of railway which you projected nearly thirty 
 years ago, to complete only one hundred and forty, and the 
 track upon the part completed is almost worn out. You 
 have in your political conventions often pledged yourselves 
 to complete the other two hundred miles and appropriate 
 legislation has been participated in by both parties to re- 
 
13 
 
 deem this pledge. Private capitalists now offer to relieve 
 you of this obligation. Whatever may be the speculation 
 on that subject, who can say when another offer will be 
 made ? You are entitled to have an opportunity to accept 
 this offer or to decide to run the risk of another. 
 
 Eleventh. You have a right to say that you will keep your 
 faith. Every plan yet suggested for the State to go on with 
 the work without further taxation looks to the abandon- 
 ment of the main or Ducktown line, and the completion of 
 the branch to Paint Rock alone. Before your plighted 
 faith is broken, you are entitled to the opportunity of ac- 
 cepting, if you desire, a proposition that will enable you to 
 keep that faith, and to strengthen rather than loosen the 
 bonds that bind the mountains to the plains. 
 
 Twelfth. This is the first offer you have had for the pur- 
 chase of the road and for its completion by private means. 
 It may or may not be the last. But if I knew absolutely 
 that one equally advantageous would be made to the Gen- 
 eral Assembly at its regular session next year, I would still 
 deem it my duty to place it in your power to act now. The 
 extra session, I find upon investigation, will cost you about 
 $13,000, detailed as follows : 
 
 170 members at $4 per diem $680 
 
 2 presiding officers, $2 per diem additional 4 
 
 7 clerks at $5 per diem 35 
 
 4 door-keepers at $4 per diem , 16 
 
 4 servants at $1.50 per diem 6 
 
 5 pages at $1 per diem 5 
 
 Printing, fuel, lights and stationary estimated at $29 
 
 per diem (ample) 29 
 
 Total per diem $775 
 
 It is thought that ten days will be amply sufficient for 
 
 Microfilmed 
 SOLINET/ASERL PROJECT 
 
14 
 
 the Legislature to pass upon this question. Then, ten days 
 at |775 per diem, will aggregate, without mile- 
 age $ 7,750 00 
 
 To which add mileage, taken from the Auditor's 
 
 book 5,637 75 
 
 Total cost $13,387 75 
 
 This is less than one cent on each $100 worth of property. 
 To wait until next January means that the sheriffs shall 
 collect of you for the railroad this year $175,000 ; that is to 
 say, twelve cents on the $100 worth of property, the appro- 
 priations for the road being that amount. To act now, 
 rather than a year from now, will cost $13,000, and save 
 $175,000. In other words, it will cost one cent on the $100 
 worth of property, and save twelve cents. Now I think you 
 have a right to say whether you desire to have that eleven 
 cents collected this year or not, or what you will have done 
 with it if collected. 
 
 Of the million and a quarter of people in your State I am 
 the only one, on account of the position in which you have 
 placed me, who can give you the power to answer these 
 questions and exercise these rights for yourselves through 
 your representatives, and to say what you will have done 
 with this property and the money you are annually contrib- 
 uting to build it. After mature deliberation, I have de- 
 termined, whether wisely or unwisely the future will de- 
 monstrate, to give you this opportunity. The way is now 
 open to you, and it is for you to say what shall be done. 
 Respectfully, 
 
 THOS. J. JARVIS. 
 



 GAYLORD Bfl 
 
 MAKERS 
 
 SYRACUSE,- NY. 
 
 PAT. JAN. 21, IBOa 
 
 
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 00020353001 
 
 This book may be kept out one month unless a recall 
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 -orm No. A-369