xt73r20rr86n https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt73r20rr86n/data/mets.xml Wickliffe, Robert, 1775-1859. 1838  books b92-143-29442101 English N.L. Finnell, Pr., : Lexington, Ky. : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Railroads Kentucky. Railroads Southern States. Charleston & Ohio Railroad. Address to the people of Kentucky, on the subject of the Charleston & Ohio Rail-road  / by Robert Wickliffe, Esq. text Address to the people of Kentucky, on the subject of the Charleston & Ohio Rail-road  / by Robert Wickliffe, Esq. 1838 2002 true xt73r20rr86n section xt73r20rr86n AN



THE PEOPLE



OF KENTUCKY,



ON THE SUBJECT OF THE



  BY ROBERT WICKLIFFE, ESQ.








N. L. FINNELL, PR.-OBSERVER  REPORTER OF!ICE.

            1838.

 This page in the original text is blank.


 







                     ADDRESS.






  It is known that the States of South Carolina, North Carolina,
Tennessee and Kentucky incorporated a Company to construct a
Rail Road from Charleston, in South Carolina, to Lexington, in Ken-
tucky, with further powers (if the company chose) to construct si-
multaneously, three branches from the main trunk, one to strike the
Ohio at Louisville, one at Covington or Newport, and one at Mays-
ville. It is also known that upwards of eight millions of stock.has
been subscribed by the States and citizens of the States of South
Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee, but the State of Kentucky
has subscribed nothing as a State, and our citizens only a little up-
wards of two thousand dollars, while the city of Lexington and the
County Court of the county of Fayette are subscribers for two hun-
dred thousand dollars. Of the stock taken, the State of Tennessee
and her citizens have subscribed or provided for subscription nearly
one million, and South Carolina and her citizens about six millions-
North Carolina feeling less interest than the other States, is but a
small subscriber; Kentucky more deeply interested than any State
in the Union in the speedy construction of the Road, has subscribed
nothing whutever. It is further necessary to state that since the
graning of the charter, the company has purchased from the Charles-
ton and Hamburg Rail Road Company, their entire road, beingadis-
tance of about one hundred and thirty-six miles of Rail Road, on
which the Cars daily ply between Charleston and Hamburg, and
from which a rail road communication is continued by the State of
Georgia, to zhe interior of that State, and ultimately intended to be
connected with the rail road leading from Knoxville by way of the-
High-wassee, to both the cities of Charleston and Savannah. The
company has also placed under contract the main western trunk of
the road, from about Branchville, in South Carolina, to the city of

 
4



Columbia, in South Carolina, and are preparing to place the whole
road under contract, as far as the extreme western limits of the State
of South Carolina, during the present year, and it is also understood
that the road from Knoxville, in the State of Tennessee, will be put
under contract as far as the North Carolina line, througllthe course
of the year, and that out of funds furnished by North and South Car-
olina, the road will be opened with the least possible delay, across
North Carolina, so as to connect Knoxville and Charleston by a di-
rect rail road route, and thus give to East Tennessee a communica-
tion to the Atlantic Ocean, and West Tennessee, a route by rail road
and river communication to Charleston. It should also be borne in
mind, that the High-wassee rail road is now in a state of progress
and will shortly be completed, so as to connect Knoxville and Wegt
Tennessee by that route, with the Atlantic at Savannah, and the
whole interior of Georgia, by and through her rail roads constructed
and being constructed. It should be further borne in mind, that it is
in contemplation, by a lateral or branch rail road, from the main trunk
of the Charleston rail road, to connect that road with the rail road
improvements now being constructed or contemplated by North Car-
olina, that are to connect with those made and making in the State
of Virginia; so that it is bjlieved that the construction of the main
trunk of the road from Knoxville to Charleston, will not only connect
Knoxville, by rail roads, with Georgia, Alabama, and Florida, but
with North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia also. In order
that the reader may more fully comprehend the subject, and what is to
be our condition if we are still idle and do nothing to forward the open-
ing of the road, he should be informed that Georgia has decided upon
constructing, from the city of Savannah, a great rail way westwardly,
so as to strike the Tennessee river where it enters and breaks through
the Cumberland mountains, from whence it is intended to be c06tin-'
ued, by a company or by the States of Alabama and Tennessee, to
the Mississippi, so as to communicate, by that river, with the city of
St. Louis, and the Sates of Illinois and Missouri, as well as the other
western States. It is also understood, that the city of Nashville in-
tends connecting herself, by a rail road to be extended from that city
to the point where the Tennessee river passes the Cumberland moun-
tain, with both the cities of Savannah and Charleston. First, by the
great Georgia rail road, which is to lead directly to Savannah; and
secondly, by the branch from that road which is to pass through Au-

 
d



gusta, in Georgia, and from thence on the Charleston and Namburg
road to Charleston; and thirdly, by the Tennessee and Holstein ri-
vers and the Cha'rleston road from Knoxville to Charleston. The
reader, with these improvements in progress on his mind, should then
examine the map of Tennessee, and see how Kentucky is placed in
connection with the subject. A single glance of the map of the Uni-
ted States must satisfy him that Kentucky never can reach the Atlan-
tic with a rail road, except she does it under the present charter.
That Tennessee, lying so as to completely exclude her from every
prospect of dbing so, may avail herself of the advantages which God
and nature has given her-to deny us the right of transit and insist
on our commerce being tributary to her Eastern Emporium. Under
the charter granted, the State of Tennessee is bound by solemn con-
tract to interpose no difficulty to our commerce passing freely to the
southern markets; but if Kentucky refuse to make the road and go
out of the charter, then is our commerce to the south forever at the
mercy of Tennessee. Let this charter pass away, and may not Ten-
Rcssee say to us, you would not let Ohio pass through your State-
you even refused us the liberty to make a road to her commercial em-
porium, without we would make three roads simultaneously to your
principal commercial ports; we will allow you to wagon your bag-
ging and bale-rope to Knoxville and there put it on the Charleston
rail road, or the Georgia railroad tir market; and you may drive your
hogs and salt them into pork or bacon, and send them to market like-
wisefrom'Knoxville. Surely, no friend to his country can be willing
to see her thus degraded and paralized in her enterprise; and yet this
is precisely what is to be the consequence (as I verily believe) of
our failing to act with Charleston in the construction of the road un-
der the existing charter. That the State of Tennessee is sensible of
her prospects, all may understand, when we contemplate the grand
scale upon which her legislature has planned her system of internal
improvements. At her last session, it should be recollected, that the
legislature of that State, in addition to her other means, chartered a
bank with thirteen millions of capital, and gave to the construction of
the Charleston and the Hligh-wassee rail road alone, (both leading
from Knoxville) about thirteen hundred thousand dollars. It did
more-it passed aJaw giving to the Charleston rail road company
banking powers within that State; when our own legislature not only
refused to grant similar powers, (in this State) but to give the read

 

G



any aid whatever, and thus it is-while other States are making the
road for their peculiar advantages, Kentucky is letting the time pass
by, when she can even have the power of making it, and of being
freed from a fettered commerce, with the entire south and south-
east.
  As the question whether Kentucky will abandon or not, the
Charleston rail road project, must of necessity be settled, in some
way, on the rneetingo oi the next Legislature, I have deemed it due to
the importance of the subject, to thus briefly lay before the reader
the actual relation which Kentucky bears to the other States, who
have proceeded in advance of the enterprise.
  I will now endeavor to exhibit some of the many benefits likely to
result to the State, and the nation at large, from the speedy and suc-
cessful completion of the road.
  First: premising that, althou gh rail roads are in their infancy, and
in course of experiment only, that enough is known of them from ac-
tual use to prove that they are the safest, cheapest and most expedi-
lious mode of transportation orer land, known in either ancient or
modern times; and further remarkxng that, as no wise man will travel
by water or trust his property at sea, when he can be equally as well
accommodated by land, so no wiise people should ever put to the haz-
ard of the winds and the waves, what they can as well transport by
land. In making this remark, I would not be understood as discou-
raging commerce by water, because of the perils of the rivers or
seas, but I mean to urge that what a nation can do on land, should be
done on land and not on the water, that what is risked on land is often
damaged, but seldom totally lost; but that which is sunk in the ocean
or rivers is a clear loss to all. If a swindler, thief or robber deprive
a man of his property, his labor is not lost, but the property shifts
hands, so that the loss to the State of the amount taken is saved-not
so where the sea swallows up the vessel and cargo-there all is lost
and nothing gained. The annual loss to the world on the ocean is pro-
digious, and to the United States alone appalling, I nave seen a
statement of the total loss of vessels of every class, belonging to the
United States, in the year 1837, set down at over four hundred. If
that be the case the partial losses can scarcely have been less nu-
merous, and. taken altogether must amount in vaie to the enormous
sum of at least ten millions of dollars annually, and this is a total loss
to the whole world.

 

d



  Suppose the objectors to rail roads and land transportation, calcu-
late the average losses upon the Mississippi and its tributaries in
steam boats and other craft yearly, and when they have done so, com-
pare such losses to the losses on rail roads throughout the world, they
will find to their surprise, a bloody and tremendous account of it-
they will find that more lives and property were lost on the Ben She-
rod or Tennessee alone, than has been lost upon the face of the globe
from rail roads since their use. And to this consideration they should
add a frightful list of deaths arising from diseases contracted from
navigating our waters. Since our own enterprising citizens first
tempted the market of New Orleans, the river and its markets have
been literally the graves of our people. It is a market fraught
with all the perils of life and property, that any market upon earth is.
  Our trade to the south over land is three fold in value the amount
of what we take by water,-and to take our stock, c. to market re-
quires a larger proportion of hands according to the amount in value
taken to market, than is required to take the same amount of our pro-
duce to market on the river, yet there is believed to be a greater a-
mount of the loss of lives from the perils of the rivers and steam
boats, and diseases in one year among our traders in the river trade,
than has arisen from our whole trade by land, since our citizens drove
the first horse to the Charleston market. When this fact is known
to all, ought a wise people to perish and wither their enterprise and
trade by land, and give exclusive encouragement and protection to
that on the water Surely not. But as I have said, let it net be un-
derstoood that I would discourage the river trade or in the least ad-
vise its discontinuance-very different. I believe commerce is the
spirit of labor and civilization, and that a virtuous people should en-
courage and protect it. But commerce, like every other branch ef
business, should be managed with prudence and foresight, and be ever
under the guidance of wise policy, and not left to chance and hazard
alene. Yet, was the question propounded to me which trade to yield,
that of the rivers or of the land, I am ready at once to decide. While
on the one hand I admit the value of our river trade, on the ether
I consider our intercourse with the south over land, invaluable and in-
dispensable to us-so much so, that without it we would in our ruin-
ous trade elsewhere become bankrupt in a twelve month. I have not
time nor inclination to dilate in a contrast upon the subject of our inter-
course with the countries on the Mississippi and those on the Atlntic

 


with New York and Philadelphia; our trade on the Atlantic has been
and must continue to be most ruinous. It is to that trade that we owe
our continual indebtedness; by it our labor is consumed, and through
it annually our people are forced to sell their lands, and migrate
West, where, (out of what they save of the prices of their lands here,
sold to pay Eastern debts,) they can buy cheap lands."
   Our trade to New Orleans, though less unequal in its exchanges,
has always been a disastrous one, to those long engageg in it.
ThQusands lose their lives from exposure to the climate and dangers
of the rivers, and scarcely a man exists, engaged in carrying out the
products of our soil, by way of the Mississippi, for twenty years, that
has not come out in the end worse than when he entered into the
trade, and certainly a large majority of those engaged in the trade
have become totally bankrupt. From this remark ,I except negro
traders (of course.) Indeed, for a series of years past, the New Or-
leans market has produced to the people of the State of Kentucky,
no profit-on the contrary, large balances are believed _to have been
created against us, for the cottons and sugars, c. c. purehased in
that market. I have no statistical account of the value of our pro-
ducts sold in New Orleans, and of those bought there by our traders,
but my own observation enables me to say that those we buy greatly
exceed in value those we sell. Our grain and whiskey sold in that
market are known to have greatly diminished within a few years.
In fact, our whole trade in products, except in hemp and tobacco, a-
mounts to but little, nor do those articles amount to a great deaL But
a few counties in the Green river country, now send tobacco to New
Orleans, and every hogshead from every other part of the State
either sent to New Orleans or elsewhere, is scarcely worth naming;
while our whole trade in hemp is only from a few, counties, chiefly on
-the north side of the Kentucky. Why is this the case, I am asked,
when Kentucky once engrossed the almost entire produce market on
the Mississippi I answer, because the labor of the States of Ohio,
Indiana, Dlliaois, Missouri and Tennessee has measurably crowded
out our produce and manufactures, from the markets of the Missis-
sippi, with the exception of tobacco, cotton-bagging and bale-rope;
and the day is not distant when in these articles the States west of
the Ohio, are to command those markets in the articles of bale-rope
and bagging. To prove the truth of these remarks, we have only to
take as a sample the article of salted pork, for the winter of 1837-8.

 
9



At Cincinnati alone, it is stated on credible autkority, that one hun-
dred and seventy thousand hog3 were slaughtered, and in Madison,
that more hogs were slaughtered for the lower markets than were
slaughtered for those markets in the whole State of Kentucky. It
Louisville, the business of slaughtering hogs for the lower markets,
is insignificant, if not altogether discontinued.
  With these facts already staring us in the face, what can we pro-
mise ourselves and our posterity, in the future struggle for the Or-
leans market, with the labor of the States already mentioned, and
those that are to rise into existence on the waters of the Mississippi,
out of our territories not yet matured into States  Certainly Roth-
ing flattering to our prospects of future wealth and enterprise. This
prospect, no doubt, had its full share in extorting from a distinguish-
ed statesman of Kentucky, twenty years since, the declaration that,
much as he valued the trade to New Orleans, he esteemed that to the
Caesapeake and Delaware more, and if the question were put to him
which he must yield, he would reluctantly give over the trade of the
Mississippi. In that sentiment I then heartily concurred, although
our eastern or trade to the Chesapeake was then, as now, but feebly
developed, and the trade in live stocks to the southern markets,
scarcely known. But since that period our traders have penetrated
the whole southern Atlantic country with our stocks, in quest of
markets, and now occupy them unrivalled by any other people what-
ever, to an extent and value almost incredible. They have found in
the States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Al-
abama and the Territory of Florida, the most valuable out-lets and
markets for our labor and enterprise which any people ever posses-
sed. It is fromn this trade that our almost countless millions have
been drawn and paid to the British for their fabricks, through the
cities of New York and Philadelphia. These valuable citizens have
sought every city, town, and village, yes, every farm-house where
the live stocks of Kentucky could find a consumer; and without ex-
pense or patronage, have thus far sustained our credit and increased
our wealth. It is these traders and this interest which now appeals
to the country for support and protection, in the construction of the
rail road: and will that country withhold it I am here asked, when
this trade has done so much or is doing so much for the counti y; why
not let it alone To this I reply, that although the trade is thus val-
uable and thus indispensable to us, it is carried on at a vast sacrifice
                                    BR

 
1ft



of time and money. From the slow travel of the hog, it takes the
drover from thirty to sixty days to take a drove of hogs to market-
the hands from ten to twenty days to return after sales are effected;
consequently from the great number of hands necessary to drive
hogs to market, there exists in this trade a waste of time and labor,
that ought if possible to be avoided. Besides, each hog averages a
clear loss of twenty pounds in weight before he is sold-then add to
this also, that the average cost of taking a hog to market is four dol-
lars; so that a drover who takes or drives five thousand head to mar-
ket loses ten per cent. in weight on his hogs, and has to pay twenty
thousand dollars for taking them to market. This loss is of course,
that of the grower in the end, and falls as a tariff upon the labor of
the country; so that to take our stocks of hogs alone over land to
market, can fall very little short of five hundred thousand dollars an-
nually, besides the the loss of time and of the weight in the animal,
from the place of starting to the place of sale. Thus if our entire
exports by land shall be one hundred and twenty-five thousand hogs,
and I presume the amount is not short of that number, the ex-
pense to the countrv to send these hogs to market will, at four dollars
each, be five hundred thousand dollars. When we add to this the
consideration that our hogs are drove in thousands to market at the
same time, and must be immediately sold or the drover will have to
sustain a total loss; the wonder is, that the trade has not been a ruin-
ous one to all engaged in it. That our traders and our country have
prospered under it, in its present condition, should teach us its im-
mense value, and the deep obligation we are under to our prosperity
to do all in our power to improve and hand it down to them, freed not
only from unnecessary expenses, but exempt from the let or hinder-
ance of other Stated. I am here asked, what is the remedy for the
loss in weight, and for the expenditure of half a million yearly, and the
loss of time, productive labor, and the jeopardy in making fall sales,
which attend the present mode of sending hogs to market I an-
swer, the South Carolina rail road is the sure and only remedy; and
to prove that it is, I will first premise, that all transportation of salt-
ed pork or bacon to South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, c. by the
Mississippi and the ocean, is out of the question, and can be practis-
ed but with certain loss to whomsoever shall attempt it-not to men-
tion the hot and sultry regions through which pork and bacon must
pass, and the great length of time that it will be exposed to the hu-

 

I1



midity of a wet atmosphere; the dangers or the rivers and sea are
too great to be encountered. But added to these objections is the
fact that the places of consumption of our pork are principally the
countries that lie between our country and the Atlantic, and are as
inaccessible or as difficult of access from Charleston and Savannah,
as they are to Lexington: or in other words, if a vessel shall pass
the whole course of the Mississippi, and the reefs of Florida with a
load of pork or bacon, and reach Charleston or any other seaport of
the south, with her cargo, sound, the pork will then, to find a
market, have to be sent in wagons or carts some hundred of
miles into the interior, and towards Kentucky, for consumption.
And thus it is, that no sensible man can think of sending the hogs of
Kentucky to Carolina or Georgia, in the shape of either pork or ba-
con, by way of the Mississippi;-canals arc not thought of, and every
man must know that wagons or horse power will not do to take either
pork or bacon, from fiur to five hundred miles to market. Hence I
conclude that if ever our stocks reach the southern markets, either
salted or dried, they can only do so by rail roads. And to satisfy
the candid reader that in this way they ought to be sent to market,
1 will submit a few facts, known and understood by every trader of
live stocks in the southern markets.
  First: I will suppose the drover starts a hog, weighing two hun-
dred and fifty pounds when he reaches Augusta or Columbia,-this
hog, if well taken care of and in good health, will weigh precisely
two hundred and twenty-five pounds and no more-the average and
fair price of this hog at either of these markets is six dollars per
hundred. The hog is therefore, at either of these points, worth four-
teen dollars and fifty cents. But this hog has lost in value (that is
weight) one dollar and fifty cents-he has cost his drover, for expen-
ses, four dollars, making in all five dollars and fifty cents; so that the
drover gets for his hog, weighing two hundred and fifty pounds at
home, when he arrives at Columbia and makes sale of him, nine dol-
lars, and no more. We will now suppose that in place of pork, the
hog is slaughtered and turned into bacon-a hog weighing two hun-
dred and fifty pounds neat, will make two hundred pounds of bacon-
the salt and labor to turn the hog into bacon are worth one dollar--
the cooperage and the proportion of the two hundred pounds of bacon
-in paying for a hogshead-for ware-housing, selling, -c. c. may
be put down at another dollar.

 

12



  The maximum or highest charge per hundred on transportation on
the proposed rail road, is one-quarter per cent. per pound for each
hundred miles, or in other words, eighteen pence per hundred for
every hundred miles. Thus for five hundred males is one dollai and
a quarter per hundred, or for the two hundred weight, two dollars
and a half to Columbia-the whole expense four dollars and a half-
or to cover insurance and every expense, say five dollars. In Colum-
bia and the entire State of South Carolina and the whole of Georgia,
a pound of bacon is worth never less than 12i cents, and good quali-
ty commonly sells at twenty-five cents; but to be sure not to exceed
a fair aid steady market, we will put the bacon at ten cents per
pound. The drover then sells his hog for twenty dollars at Columbia
or Augusta-from which deduct the maximum costs of taking the
bacon to market, and his hog neats him fifteen dollars in place of
nine dollars when driven to the same market. The drover carries to
market three thousand head of hogs, his profits upon his three thou-
sand hogs, now lost, is eighteen thousand dollars. It is unnecessary
to state the difference of profits upon salted pork and live stock sold
in these markets-they will be readily admitted to be about the same
as upon bacon, by every candid and experienced trader in the
southern markets.
  It must be borne in mind that I have allowed the highest price for
transportation, charged now on the Charleston and Hamburg rail
road-that is a road of a single track, and a distance of but a bun-
dred and thirty-six miles, and of course, cannot with the same profit
carry tonnage, that a road with a double track will bear it, a distance
of five hundred miles. My object has been to give the highest ave-
rage profit of the hog as he is now sold, and the lowest average when
sold, salted or dried; and I think I have done so.
  Another and very serious disadvantage droving has to contend
with against the rail road transportation, is the fact that the stock
drover has to be always in market at the same season of the year,
and is compelled to sell, to keep his hogs from eating up their value
in markets where corn sells high. Not so with the dealer in pork or
bacon. He will avail himself of the daily arrivals of the cars to ac-
quire a knowledge of the markets, and choose not only his market,
but his own time to bring his article into market. Hence I conclude
that whenever the rail road is made, no hogs will be driven into any
of the southern markets for sale; but all our hogs must go to those

 


markets in the shape of pork or bacon-that they will be driven or
hauled by their owners to the most convenient points on the rail road,
and from thence sent on cars to the places of consumption or distri-
bution. And that should Kentuckv let Knoxville be the terminus,
instead of Lexington, that Knoxville will of necessity be the great
point to which hogs will be driven and salted up for exportation. It
will be seen by a reference to the n-ap, that Knoxville is not far
from our southern line. and nEarly eq idistant from the ends of that
line; so that the transportation of stocks to that point will not be
difficult to a large portion of the State. That the road will be made
to Knoxville is perfectly certain, and is it the interest, does it com-
port with the pride of Kentucky to build up a great city in another
State, near her own boundary, with her labor by making Knoxville
the point of distribution of her products certainly not. And yet I
repeat, such is the inevitable consequence of the policy pursued by
the late Legislature; for if Kentucky will do nothing, rely on it Car-
olina will not make the road for her, nor will Tennessee. On the
contrary, Tennessee will have very powerful interests against the
road ever reaching Kentucky. I will not, however permit myself to
despond. I can never believe that my countrymen will be so lost to
a sense of patriotism, as to permit a single year to pass without taking
the most efficient measures to secure the road. And in order that the
candid reader may have sbme further views of the subject it may be
proper that he should know what is required by the company, that
Kentuckv shall do to complete the road.
  This matter has been so often stated in the prints, and to the Le-
gislature, that I might omit saying any thing on the subject; but that
all may know, I will briefly state, that the company only asks of the
Legislature to furnish the means to make the road to the Tennessee
line, a distance of about one hundred and fifty miles, one third of
which will lie through a lime-stone formation, and the remaining two
thirds through sand-stone and stone-coal formations; to construct
which with a double track will in the opinion of good judges, in no
event exceed two millions of dollars to be raised and expended in a-
bout ten years, and by the time that the road from Lexington to Ten-
nessee shall be completed-it is presumed the Lexington and Ohie
rail road will be done, so as to give, through Lexington, an entire rail
road communication from the Atlantic to Louisville or the Ohio; and
should the Covington and Newport rail road progress to the Ohio, to
that point also.

 
14



  Thus for two millions of dollars expended in ten years, Kentucky
opens to herself a rail road high-way to the Atlantic, and secures to
her citizens for all coming time the most valuable and extensive mar-
kets for their labor that any people ever possessed. Open this high
way and the States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois may contend for the
stock markets of the Delta of the Mississippi. Our State becomes
the unrivalled possessor of the stock markets of Virginia, North Car-
olina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and of East Florida. These
markets will absorb all we have to sell. But this is only one of the
benefits resulting to Kentucky from the road; it will give her a last-
ing, enduring and invaluable market for all her bale-rope and bag-
ging, which she cannot sell on the Mississippi. Make this road and
where we have one acre now growing hemp, we shall then have ten,
and still be unable to supply the demand on us for our only staple,
hemp; at this time, while Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina,
Virginia and Alabama are suffering for the want of our bagging and
bale-rope.
  Our manufacturers of these articles are withering from the glutted
state of the markets of the Mississippi; some of our best men employed
in the manufacture of hemp are ruined, all distressed and many driven
outof the business, simply for the want of the rail road; make the road,
and my word for it that you hear no more complaints that the manu-
factures must cease for the want of a market, nor does the advantage
to the State from the speedy construction of the road stop here. It will
afford a road by which that part of the State now poor and resourceless,
lying between the mountains of the Cumberland and that of the Kentuc-
ky, and above the fall of the Cumberland river; consisting of the coun-
ties of Estill, Perry, Clay, Harlan, Whitley, Knox, Laurel, and Rock-
castle, and now literally mountain locked, will have safe and good
markets for their labor.
  I think I venture nothing when I say, that the cutting of the road
from Lexington to the Tennessee line, will add more in value to the
real estate in those counties only, than it will cost to make the whole
road from the Ohio to the Atlantic ocean. The counties above re-
ferred to, embrace a country as fertile and nearly as extensive as
the whole great State of Massachusetts. It is already known to a-
bound in the richest coal, iron, and salt mines, and formations, which
are measurably valueless to the inhabitants for the want of commerce
with the rest of the world. Thousands of acres of these lands lie va.

 
                                 15

cant and uncultivated, and the whole country in its present state
would if sold, hardly bring twenty-five cents to the acre. Most of
the inhabitants thinly scattered over the surface scarcely think of ac-
cumulating property, or find in their secluded and neglected condi-
tion sufficient inducements to industry, to improve the condition of
the country; yet these people are part of ourselves, they fought their
country's battles, when she needed soldiers. They are peaceable
and orderly, and in all respects entitled to the same protecting care
as the other parts of the State. But while this is the condition of
the people inhabiting our mountain region. and while the State is
pouring out her millions to improve other sections already rich and
populous, the region through which the road is intended to pass has
received little or nothing from the State; and strange as it may seem,
while these people are taxed to pay for improvements, tending to
make some of our richest sections richer; the representativ