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 ATLANTIC AND ST. LAWRENCE 
 RAILROAD COMPANY. 
 
 /V ' '* e Honorable Senate and House of Representatives 
 
 now in Session: 
 
 Your committee on roads, to whom was referred Senate 
 lull No. 19. House bill No. 36,entitled -“an act in addition 
 to an act constituting the Atlantic & St. Lawrence Rail¬ 
 road Company a corporation within this State,” approved 
 Oct. 27, 1818, would respectfully report that they have had 
 said bill under consideration before the joint committee oh 
 roads of the two Houses, and we have endeavored to give 
 to the subject that consideration which its importance, and 
 the interest felt in it by the people of this and other States, 
 seemed to demand. 
 
 The committee consider it a matter of no ordinary mo¬ 
 ment, involving great interests of the company making the 
 
application, and to neighboring States, as well as to the 
 people of this State, and especially to those of our citizens 
 residing in the north-eastern part of this State. 
 
 It may also be supposed to affect the interests of the Pas- 
 sumpsic railroad, and the contemplated Missisquoi railroad, 
 chartered at the last session of the legislature. 
 
 The bill is an amendment of the act of 1849, so as to 
 give to the corporation a further time till the first day of 
 August next, to make further survey and locate their road 
 on the ground originally granted by their charter. 
 
 Under ordinary circumstances, this application would 
 have been granted as a matter of course—and more espe¬ 
 cially so, when it is considered that the Atlantic and St. 
 Lawrence Railroad is a great work, connecting the Atlantic 
 with the St. Lawrence, being nearly three hundred miles in 
 length, connecting distant cities and States, and involving 
 an expenditure of nearly nine millions of dollars. 
 
 The Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad company, having 
 been previously established by the legislature of Maine, in 
 1845. and by the legislature of New Hampshire, in 1847, 
 was constituted a corporation \vithin this State by an act 
 passed in 1848. The general purpose of the company, and 
 its object in seeking the right of way through this State, 
 appear in the description of the route, which the act author¬ 
 ized them to adopt. The second section of that act is in 
 the following words : 
 
 “ The said company are hereby authorized to continue 
 and extend their railroad according to the provisions of their 
 charter, and subject to the conditions and limitations of this 
 
3 
 
 
 act, from the western line of New Hampshire, in the coun¬ 
 ty of Coos, through the north-eastern part of this State, to 
 the boundary of Canada, there to connect with the Atlantic 
 and St. Lawrence railroad, to be constructed from Montreal 
 to said boundary line.” 
 
 ~ The intention of the company to apply to the General 
 Assembly of Vermont for the passage of the act of 1848, 
 was not made known by the usual publication of notice, re¬ 
 quired by the statute, at that time, but all the parties within 
 this State supposed to be interested in the matter, and par¬ 
 ticularly the President and several of the Directors of the Pas- 
 sumpsic railroad company were notified and consulted as to 
 the objects of the act. The terms of the act and the des¬ 
 cription of the route were also particularly made known to 
 two other directors of that company, after the bill was drawn, 
 and before its passage. 
 
 Under these circumstances, the bill was passed without 
 any opposition. 
 
 By the terms of the act the company was required to 
 make and record its location through this State, within two 
 years from the passage of the act. 
 
 On account of the great length of route requiring examina¬ 
 tion between the line of Maine and the boundary, through 
 New Hampshire and Vermont, and the necessity of explor¬ 
 ing the courses and elevations of a great number of streams, 
 through a country of that difficult character, extensively 
 covered with forest, the company had not been able to com¬ 
 plete the survey of all the practicable routes within their 
 chartered limits, when the period of two years above refer- 
 
 P 39487 
 
4 
 
 red to was about expiring. The company then applied to 
 the general assembly of 1850, for an extension of time, to 
 complete and record their location. Owing to a want of 
 acquaintance with the statute regulations of Vermont res- 
 respecting notice in such cases, the requisite notice had not 
 previously been given in this case, and the application 
 failed at that time. 
 
 The company thereupon proceeded, before the expiration 
 of the two years, to make a location upon one of the routes, 
 which had then been surveyed. This route was by way 
 of the east branch of the Nulhegan river. Subsequent and 
 more full surveys and comparison of routes have shewn that 
 the line so located is highly objectionable, and the compa¬ 
 ny now ask for a further time to complete the location of 
 their line, upon another route within this State. 
 
 Of this application, due notice has been given according 
 to the statute. 
 
 Within the three years that have elapsed, since the com¬ 
 pany were authorised to passthrough this State, no change 
 has occurred in respect to their original purposes, and the 
 construction of their road has gone forward according to 
 the original design, in reliance upon the liberty of transit 
 through this State, which was granted without objection in 
 1848. 
 
 At the present time, the road is built and in operation for 
 a distance of 91 miles, extending from Portland to Gorham, 
 New Hampshire—80 miles in Maine, and 11 in New Hamp¬ 
 shire. The grading is, to a large extent finished, upon a 
 farther division reaching to the Connecticut river, and the 
 
 n 
 
work is now going on, upon the line up that river nearly to 
 the mouth of the Nulhegan. The associated Canadian 
 company have completed, and are now running 71 miles of 
 their road, and have a further section actively in process of 
 construction. Arrangements are effected between the two 
 companies, by which it is intended to complete the whole 
 line within the course of the next year—considerably more 
 than one half of the whole route between Portland and Mon¬ 
 treal being now in operation. 
 
 The Portland company making the present application, 
 do not ask for any extension of limits, nor any enlargement 
 of their powers, but only for leave to occupy the ground, 
 which was defined for them by the legislature of 1848. 
 
 Not less than five different routes within this State and 
 the adjacent parts of New Hampshire have been examined 
 and surveyed. 
 
 The easternmost practicable route, between the mouth 
 of the Nulhegan and Lenoxville in Canada, by way of Hall 
 stream would lie wholly within the limits of New Hamp¬ 
 shire. 
 
 Another route by way of Leach stream might pass through 
 a small part of this State. On the American side of the 
 boundary, the distances and grades of these routes are not 
 unfavorable but on the Canadian side, they encounter many 
 objections. The summit on the Leach stream route is 1547 
 feet above tide, and would require grades of 60 feet. 
 
 The company are fully authorized by the legislature of 
 New Hampshire to adopt any route through that State, if 
 their location should be made upon that side. 
 
6 
 
 The route which the company adopted when they made 
 their location last year, so as to prevent the lapse of their 
 grant, passes by the east branch of the Nulhegan to the 
 boundary line, and is the next most western route which 
 the company had been able to survey, when they made 
 their location. It is the shortest of all the routes, but is 
 attended with the most serious objections in other respects. 
 The summit upon this route is higher than upon any other, 
 being 1802 feet above tide, and 447 feet higher than 
 the summit on the route which has since been ascertained, 
 and which the company now desire to adopt. It would 
 require grades of 60 feet for fifteen or sixteen successive 
 miles. It is in a narrow precipitous valley, incapable of 
 settlement, and inaccessible by any direct approach from 
 the other settlements of that region. The road would re¬ 
 quire to be laid upon elevated side-hill slopes, exposing it to 
 great inconvenience and peril from snow and ice, as well as 
 from torrents in the tributary streams, and requiring very 
 large expenditures to guard, as far as possible, against these 
 dangers. 
 
 By this route the road bed would require to be laid at 
 the mouth of the Nulhegan, at an elevation of d0 feet above 
 the highway. The necessity of crossing the Connecticut 
 at this point, at so great an elevation, would render it im¬ 
 practicable to establish a depot on the Vermont side ; and 
 the continuous grade ascending northwards by this route, 
 would require the depot at the other end of this part of the 
 route to be established in Canada. 
 
 Subsequent to ihe location upon that route, the company 
 
7 
 
 proceeded to make other surveys of routes farther west, 
 in reliance upon an extension of their time. 
 
 These surveys have discovered a new and available 
 route by following the west branch of the Nulhegan across 
 the entire breadth of Essex county, and thence northward¬ 
 ly to the head waters of the Coaticook, passing into Can¬ 
 ada. 
 
 This route will extend for thirty-two miles through the 
 territory of Vermont, of which more than thirty miles are 
 within the bounds of the county of Essex. The whole- 
 rout e is strictly within the limits of the original grant to 
 to company. 
 
 Upon this route, the highest summit is but 1355 feet 
 above tide, or 447 feet lower than the summit in the East 
 Nalhegan, and the grades on both side of the boundary do 
 not exceed 45 feet to the mile. 
 
 It is this line, which the company wish to adopt and it is 
 shown to be equally favorable to the purposes of the con¬ 
 necting company in Canada. The latter company regard 
 it with the more favor, because it affords them the host 
 method of connecting with the Passumpsic road and other 
 lines in this State for Southern travel and business. 
 
 By such connections, the most direct communication 
 would be opened from Quebec, the Eastern Townships and 
 those parts of lower Canada lying on the lower St. Lawrence 
 to Boston, to New York and to the markets and manufac¬ 
 turing towns on the Merrimack and Connecticut, through 
 the medium of existing roads in Vermont. 
 
 The distance between the westernmost point of the line, 
 
8 
 
 which the company desires to adopt, and the surveyed route 
 of the Passumpsic road is eight or ten miles. 
 
 Another route presented in the evidence for the defence, 
 would pass westwardly from the Nulhegan waters down 
 the valley of the Clyde .river to the surveyed line of the 
 Passumpsic road, and thence fiirough a considerable part of 
 the county of Orleans, over the route of the Passumpsic 
 road to Derby line and Stan stead. 
 
 The testimony showed that objectionable grades would 
 be encountered on the Canadian side by this route. This 
 was ascertained by a survey made some time ago under the 
 direction of the Canadian Company. 
 
 The most serious objection to this route by way of Der¬ 
 by and Stanstead was the increased distance—this route 
 being 19 or 20 miles longer than the shortest route, and Smiles 
 longer than the route which the company desire to adopt. 
 
 The respective Presidents of the Portland Company and 
 the Canadian Company testified explicitly, that on account 
 of this increased distance, and the heavy grades on the 
 northern side, which could not be overcome except by very 
 large expenditure, their several companies could not and 
 would not, in any event, adopt this route by way of Derby 
 Line, and they formally declined to accept an amendment, 
 offered by the defence providing for a connection by that 
 way. 
 
 Various objections from the most respectable sources 
 were urged against the extension of time asked for by the 
 company. 
 
 It was urged that if the Atlantic Railroad Company were 
 
9 
 
 permitted to construct their road by the way of West Nul- 
 hcgan it will take away from the Passumpsic road a great 
 amount of business, and that it would prevent the exten- 
 tion of the latter road ; 
 
 That the faith of the State is pledged to this Passumpsic 
 road to regard their interest rather than those of a foreign 
 corporation. That the East Nulhegan is as near to the 
 route of the Passumpsic as they ought to be permitted to 
 come : that permitting the Atlantic road to occupy the West 
 Nulhegan route will have a tendency to prevent the con¬ 
 struction of the Missisquoi road, and thereby prove injuri¬ 
 ous to the people living on that route. 
 
 And further that if the Legislature should see fit to com¬ 
 ply with the wishes of the Atlantic road, that the Legisla¬ 
 ture should compel them to build a Railroad passing eight 
 or ten miles west from where they wish to go, and to reach 
 the located route of the Passumpsic road and from that 
 point to Canada Line through the town of Derby. 
 
 In respect to the grounds and object of the opposition 
 thus taken, there was a disagreement in the testimony of¬ 
 fered in defence, and that disagreement was not reconciled 
 by any thing presented in evidence. 
 
 On the one hand the President of the Passumpsic road 
 and one other witness for the defence testified that in their 
 opinion the interests of the Passumpsic road required that 
 the Atlantic road should be confined to its present loc itior, 
 or to a line still further east. 
 
 On the other hand several directors of the Passumpsic 
 road and other witnesses on that side testified that the in- 
 
 I 
 
10 
 
 terests of that road would be best promoted if the Atlantic 
 road should be extended further westward to the Passump- 
 sic surveyed line, and thence by a route common to the two 
 companies to Derby Line, 
 
 The President of the Passumpsic road testified that his 
 principal objection arose from the fact that the last General 
 Assembly had chartered a road in the valley of the Missis- 
 quoi river, from a point in the line of the Passumpsic road 
 to the northwestern part of this state, which he had reason 
 to believe would be built, and that in his apprehension, if 
 the Atlantic road should be allowed to come to the west 
 side of Essex county, the Missisquoi would then inevitably 
 have a connection with the Atlantic line, which in his opin¬ 
 ion would be injurious to the interests of the Passumpsic 
 road. In respect to the bearing of this objection, the com¬ 
 mittee state, that the Missisquoi road itself was not repre¬ 
 sented before the committee, and as this objection is urged 
 for the purpose of raising a bar to prevent the Missisquoi 
 road from obtaining such a connection as that referred to, it 
 seems not proper that any determination should now be for¬ 
 med against any desirable extension of the Missisquoi road, 
 inasmuch as that company is at this time not represented in 
 the case, and is incapable, for want of corporate organiza¬ 
 tion, to speak for itself. 
 
 A great amount of testimony which it would be difficult 
 to incorporate into this report, was presented to the com- 
 mitte, as to the grades, distance and expediency of the sev¬ 
 eral routes, and the opinions of individuals in regard there¬ 
 to, also as to the effect upon other roads already built or in 
 
11 
 
 contemplation. From all which the committee unanimous¬ 
 ly came to the following conclusions : 
 
 That if the grant prayed for is refused, there is no cer¬ 
 tainty that any portion of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence 
 road will ever be built in Vermont, as it may pass up the 
 east side of Connecticut River, and by Hall’s stream to 
 Lenoxville in Canda. 
 
 That while the faith of the State is to be kept to all cor¬ 
 porations within our borders, there is no danger of our 
 breaking faith to any of them, by making the grant applied 
 for by the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad Company. 
 
 That where there might be a partial withdrawal of busi¬ 
 ness from the Passumpsic road to the Atlantic line, so long 
 as the former stops at St. Johnsbury, yet that it would be 
 regained and increased upon the extension of the Passump¬ 
 sic road according to its charter. 
 
 That if the northern counties of this State should derive 
 a benefit by transacting some portion vd* their business over 
 the Atlantic road as the shortest line of access to tne sea¬ 
 board, this advantage to them would so increase their gen¬ 
 eral prosperity, as to make them even better contributors 
 to the Passumpsic road in the way of local business and 
 travel. 
 
 That while we think it would be advantageous to the 
 towns of Deiby and Stanstead to have the Atlantic road 
 pass through those towns, we are far from beleiving that 
 that route would be equally advantageous to either Orleans 
 or Essex counties. 
 
 We incline to the opinion that all these roads had better 
 
12 
 
 be permitted to pass on the routes, which God and nature 
 designed for them, and which those investing funds therein 
 may think most suitable, within their authorized limits. 
 
 We think it very clear that such is the situation of the 
 Connecticut and Passumpsic river road, that if that road “ is 
 extended co-incident with the roads connecting with Mon¬ 
 treal,” that its proper business cannot, to any considerable 
 extent, be diverted by rival roads, and that eventually, if the 
 application of the xltlantic road is granted, the Passumpsic 
 road will be sure of very great additions to its present busi¬ 
 ness, and may readily have an opening to all the advantag¬ 
 es of trade and transportation afforded by access to new 
 markets and connections with Montreal, with Quebec and 
 other parts of Canada. 
 
 It was objected that the proposed location of the Atlantic 
 road would have a tendency to depress the stock of the Pas¬ 
 sumpsic road, and thus to delay its extension north of its 
 present terminus. 
 
 The committee were of opinion upon this point, that the 
 alleged probable construction of the Mississquoi road, would 
 lead to an early extension of the Passumpsic road so as to 
 meet it; that the apprehended diversion of trade of the nor¬ 
 thern counties to the Portland line, would thereby induce 
 the Passumpsic road to complete its line so as to occupy its 
 own ground, and that the great desirableness to the Pas¬ 
 sumpsic and other southern roads in Vermont of having an 
 unbroken line from Quebec to New York, would lead to 
 the earliest measures for extending the Passumpsic road to 
 
13 
 
 a connection with the Canada road, so as to form a part of 
 that important line. 
 
 Such a line would be one of the most direct lines of 
 railroad in the world for that distance, and not less than 160 
 or 170 miles of it would be within the Slate of Vermont. 
 But the location of the Atlantic road in the valley of the 
 East Nulhegan would wholly frustrate this connection, and 
 in the opinion of the commiitee, would weaken the induce¬ 
 ments for the extension of the Passumpsic road. 
 
 The committee are of opinion that the interests of Essex 
 county call for the passage of the bill, and that the legisla¬ 
 ture should so determine this question as to secure to that 
 county the large and valuable benefit which is now offered 
 —a county over sixty miles in length, and containing more 
 territory than any other county in the State, and no incon¬ 
 siderable portion of it of the best quality for cultivation. 
 
 The building and working of the proposed railroads with¬ 
 in and near to the territory of Essex county would lead to 
 a large outlay of money in that quarter, and would attract 
 a substantial and growing population to that part of the 
 State. 
 
 The petitioners for the desired location of the Atlantic road 
 presented in evidence the annual report of the directors of 
 the Passumpsic road, submitted to the stockholders in July 
 last. It was contended by the petitioners that the state¬ 
 ments in the 7th and 8th, pages of that report, wholly dis¬ 
 prove all the objections now urged in opposition to this ap¬ 
 plication, and show that that company has, at so recent a 
 date, relied with entire confidence upon its permanent com- 
 
14 
 
 mand of the trade upon its line, notwithstanding all rivalry, 
 and has entertained a constant expectation of deriving large 
 benefits from connections with a road in Canada. 
 
 The report in question having been laid before us in ev¬ 
 idence, it is sufficient for the committee to make this refer¬ 
 ence to its contents to show its bearing upon the present 
 case. 
 
 In view of the foregoing facts and considerations, the 
 committee have decided to report the bill referred to us and 
 to recommend the passage thereof. 
 
 ALYAH SABIN, Chairman .