Newspaper Page Text
ooinmarasj aroaairsa
EDITED AND PI'BLISHED WEEKLY, BT
Wlf . It . II A R R 1 SO \ .
CITY P R I.YT ER .
[for the southfun museum ]
THE YOI'SG MISAKTHKOFE.
Alas delusive hopes! whv stay ye here
To tempt me with your glittering spell :
Why do ye longer bear a spirit up,
Which, trusting you, hath ever fell ? '
Away, ye phantoms! on the heartless wind
Breathe forth your last adieu to tuc !
No more attempt to gild the time to cotnc—
But leave the future dark and free !
The eighteenth summer sun hath closed its course
Which marks the period of my life :
And yet my soul is sickened with the world,
Its disappointment and its strife !
Ambitious of the praise and love of all,
My object or my action fails—
Yet none there are to say I have done well,
No one my wounded spirit wails !
Mv heart still flutters in its prison-house,
And strives, and hopes, but all in vain,
For disappointment whispers in my ear ;
The end thou never can'st attain !
Thou wert not born an heir to honor's worth.
Thou hast no right to fame’s estate ;
Thy glory is on mimic paper scroll :
Thus hath decreed thine augur—Fate !
Aye, it is true ! —friends, fortune, all have failed,
And left me in the world alone !
Young—ardent—aided by no kindred hand—
A reed swept by the rising Rhone !
I’ve trusted in the wavering, fickle mind,
And leaned upon deception's breast:
The last forsook me, and the other changed—
Both are but enemies at best ’
Farewell ! ye truants! bo your moments sweet,
Your hours of pleasure unalloyed ;
May never o'er your earthly pathway dawn
A thought of him you have destroyed !
The beauty of your fascinuting gaze
Was soulless, yet it bore away
My love, to meet—as doth the sandy shore—
The lashing of contemptuous spray '•
And you have done your work, false, flatt'ring
Base sycophants at friendship's shrine,[friends,
You hate esteemed me, and ’lis over now,
The power to gitc no more is mine !
Fly front mo ! vain pand’rers, foes in disguise t
I’ll trust no unit of the crew—
Get hence ! let not your nauseous skeletons
Intrude again upon my view !
Oh, whither shall I go? I would escape
The notice of my fellow-man ;
Would hide me in some distant, barren isle,
To drown my woe, ifmem'ry can !
And there, a hermit, converse with the wind ;
The stars, the moon, and mine own soul !
That would be happiness, a perfect bliss,
The summit of my loftiest goal !
Oh, cruel Time ! why wilt thou thus drag on,
As cureless as the autumn sky ?
W hy wilt thou thus prolong my misery ?
Oh ! haste the hour when I must die !
Come, gentle Death,thou art most welcome now,
Thine omen brings me heartfelt joy :
Come, take thy captive, I surrender all,
Thou can'st no other hopes destroy !
W. P. 11.
Macon, Oct., 1648.
SCENES OF THE EAST WAR.
Thcfollowiug account of Mrs. Madison’s
flight from Washington, and of the saving
of Stuart’s portrait of General Wasning
ton, when the Capital was taken by the
English during rite iaie war, is from Mr.
C. J. Ingersoll’s forthcoming history :
Part of Colonel Carberry’s regiment of
regulars was quartered not far from the
President’s Heuse, in the large ball of
which were stored munitions of war.—
Two cannon, served by four aitillerists,
were planted before the frontdoor. Mrs.
Madison gathered the most precious cabi
net papers, some clothing, and other im
portant articles, packed in a carriage, and
made ready for what all anticipated—
flight. Dr. Blake, the Mayor of Wash
ington, twice called to warn her of tho pe
ril of her situation, and urge her depar
ture. The four artillerists fled, leaving
her alone in the house, with no attendants
but servants, the most intelligent and reli
able of whom was one called French John,
Mr. John Siousa, a native of Paris, who
came to this country as a seaman on hoard
the French frigate Didon, accompanied
by the Cybele, another frigate, in 1801,
commissioned to take hack Jemme Bona-
parte, whose marriage with a beautiful
American \v>fe gave umbrage to bis ambi
tious and imperious, and soon to be impe
rial, brother. Talleyraud addressed bis
master, the Emperor, when crowned, de
ploring the “terrible degradation of a
whole family of American cousins and
then Mr. Siousa, with several others of
the French crews, deserted from an impe
rial navy to establish himself in this coun
try, and become the father of sixteen re
publican children. Living first in the ser
vice of Mr. Merry, when British Minister
to the United States, and afterwards of
Mr. Erskine, from his family Mr. Siousa
went to that of Mr. Madison, as his por
ter, and is yet living, messenger of the
Metropolis Bank of Washington. Not
long after the Mayor’s second call on Mrs.
Madison, pressing her departure, she still
lingering for tidings of her husband, his
faithful, btave young slave, returned with
his master’s last note, in pencil, directing
her to fly at once. The horses already
harnessed to the carriages, were ordered
to the door, and with her female servants
in one, and only a little black girl in her
own, Mrs. Madison drove off.
Ihe afternoon before, Mr. Uonrge W.
P. Custis, of Arlington, on the other side
of the Potomac, opposite to Washington,
grandson of Mrs. Custis, General Wash
ington's wife, in whose family lie was
brought up—a gentleman fond of painting
and of all memorials of his grandmother’s
husband, particularly every variety of por
traits of Washington —called at the Presi
dent’s to save a full length picture which
has been among the few ornaments of the
Presidential Mansion during is ten in
cumbencies, from that of Adams, on the
removal of the seat of government, in
1800, to the District of Columbia. The
picture, in ISI4, hung on the west wall of
the large dining-room, instead of the east
wall of the small parlor, where it is now.
The President ptomised Mr. Custis that it
should be taken care of, and Mrs. Madi
son deemed it her duty not to leave such a
trophy for the captors. It is one of Wash
ington’s likenesses, by Stuart, stamped
with his superiority as a portrait-painter,
the head and face strongly resembling the
original. Negligent as Stuart was of all
but the face of his pictures, the person of
\\ ashington was left for another artist,
W instauley, to whom President Adams'
sou-in law, Wm. Smith, stood for the bo
dy, limbs, posture, and manner of his
parody ; so that Washington’s ta 1 gaunt
ligure, his shape, air and attitude, are
much better given by '1 riimbull’s repre
sentation of him in the several historical
pictures which fill panels in the rotunda at
the Capitol. Mrs. Madison, with the
carving knife in her hand, stood by while
French John and others strove to detach
the picture uninjured from its heavy ex
ternal guilt frame, and preserve it whole
on the inner wooden work, hy which it
was kept distended and screwed to the
wall. Charles Carroll, of Bellevue, a
gentleman intimate in the President’s fam
ily, entered from the affair of Bladons
burg, while the French porter, Jilin
.Siousa, and Irish gardener, 1 liomas Mc-
Gaw, were labeling wi.li a hatchet to take
down tlie picture, and remotis'rated
against Mrs. Madison risking her capture
for such an object, which, Mr. Carroll
urged, ought not to delay her departure.
Her letter to her sister, Mrs. W ashing
ton, states that the picture was secured
before she left the house. Mr. Siousa,
wlio is highly worthy of credit, thinks she
was gone before it was done, as her letter
expresses the accomplishment. The 1i ish
gardener, to whose aid, in the midst of
the work, Mr. Jacob Barker came in, nc
cording to tnousa’s recollection, while lie
was gone to bring an axe, got the picture
down from the wall, and placed it in the
hands of Mr. Barker; with whom, ac
cording to Siousa’s statement, there was
no other person except a black man, whom
.Siousa took for Mr. Barker’s servant. —
Carried off, upheld whole in the inner
wooden frame, beyond Georgetown, the
picture was deposited hy Mr. Barker in a
place of safety. The presidential house
hold god, the imago of the Father of his
Countiy—by whom its chief city was fix
ed near his home, and by whose name it is
called—was thus snatched from the clutch
or torch of the barbarian captors. Such,
as near as it can be ascertained, is the
truth of its rescue, which has been em
broiled in newspaper polemics by several
claimants to part of the honor.
Mrs. Madison, driving to Georgetown,
went first to the residence of the Secreta
ry ot the Navy, then to Bellevue, and,
joined hy the families of Mr. Jones and
Air. Carroll, returned to the town, insist
ing that her terrified coachman should
take her hack towards the President’s
House, to look for him ; whom she unex
pectedly found near the lower bridge, at
tendee by Mr. A ion oe and Mr. Rush,
who all reached the President’s House
soon after she left arid stopped there a few
minutes foi refreshments. Colonel Laval,
with some of his dragoons, the regulars,
and a company or two of volunteers, also
stopped there, thirsting for drink, which
was furnished in buckets of water and bot
tles ol wiue, set befo e the door for a hur
ried draught: during which short stay
many things were taken out of the house
by individuals; most of them, probably,
to be secured and restored, as some were,
but not all ; for the Secretary of the Trea
sury s fine duelling pistols, which the Pre-
sident took from his holsters and laid on a
table, were carried off, and never recov
ered. As soon as the executive and mili
tary fugitives disappeared, Siousa, solita
ry and alone in the house, who had before
secured the gold and silver mounted car
bines and pistols <the Algerine minister,
which are now in the Patent Office, car
ried the parrot to Colonel Tayloe’s resi
dence, and left it there, in charge of the
french minister’s cook : and then, return
ing, shut all the doors and windows ofthe
President’s House, and, taking away the
key with him, went, for security’, to the
residence of Dasclikoff, the Russian min
ister, then at Philadelphia. The Britisli
brose open the house and burned it, as
before stated, without discovering, as is
believed, anything they deemed vvoithy of
preserving. If they found a feast there,
as one of them relates, like harpy’s food,
it was consumed in the orgies of their fil
thy debauch.
\\ bile the ladies of Mr. Jones’ and Mr.
Carroll s families lingered in Georgetown
tor Mrs. Madison, she accompanied her
husband to the bank of the Potomac,
where one small boat was kept ready, of
the many others all sunk or removed hut
that one, to transport the President, Mr.
Monroe, Mr. Rush, Mr. Mason, and Mr.
Carroll to the Virginia shore. The boat
was too small to carry all at once, so that
several trips were necessary, as the shades
of night set in upon them like departin'*
spirits leaving the world behind, to beset“
lied over an inevitable tityx. President,
secretary, at’omey, and commissary gen
eral seemed condemned to an immortality
ofat lea-'t contempt and malediction in
the world. About that time, it must have
been, if ever, (as Mrs. Madison is clear in
her recollection was the case at some time,)
that Cockburn’s proffer readied them of
an escort for her to a place of safety ; for
it was impossible till nightfall, till when
he did not enter the city : imperfect rem
embrance of which event may give color
to Geueral Armstrong’s impression, deri
ved from I)r. Thornton, that Ross and
Cocburn tendered the President a propo
sal fir a ransom of the pub'ic buildings ;
two distinct proposals, if any such were
made, of which the escort for her was de
clined, and the ransom of the city repulsed
with disdain.
Mrs. Madison, after seeing her husband
over the river, drove back, attended by
John Graham and nine volunteers cavalry,
to her female companions, the families of
Mr. Jones and Mr. Carroll,in Georgetown.
The President’s orders were to pass the
night wherever she could find a conven
ient, safe place in Virginia, and join him
next day at a tavern sixteen miles from
Georgetown, which was the appointed
place of meeiing. Moving slowly onward
the road encumbered with baggage wa
gons and o'her hindrances, their progress
was so tedious that the ladies sometimes
left their carriages and walked, as the least
irksom and dangerous mode of proceeding
in the midst of tumult, till they reached
after nightfall the residence of Mr. Love,
two miles and a half beyond Georgetown,
on the Virginia side of the Potomac, where
they begged a night’s rest. Mr. Love,
was abroad with the troops, but soon re
turned. His lady, indisposed, made the
best arrangements practicable for so large
an irruption of unexpected inmates, for
whom sofas and other substitutes for beds
were arranged as well as could be ; and
they passed a frightful, miserable night,
all disconsolate, several in tears, Mrs.
Madison sitting at an open window gazing
on the lurid flames and listning the hoarse
murmurs of the smou'de'ing city, while
several hundred disorderly militia around
the house aggravated the din and begrim
ed the gloomy scene. Before daylight the
next morning, the caravan of affrighted la
dies, in sad procession, took their depar
tire, under Mrs. Madison’s lead, for the
rendezvous appointed with the Piesident.
Consternation was at its uttermost ; the
whole region filled with panic-struck peo
ple, terrified scouts roaming about and
spreading alarm that the enemy were com
ing from Washington and Alexandria,
and there was safety nowhere. Among
the teirible rumors, one predominated
that Cochrane’s proclamation was execu
ted by Cockburtt, inducing the slaves to
revolt, and that thousands of infuriated ne
groes, di unk with liquor and mad with e
mancipaiion, were committing excesses
worse than those at Hampton the year be
-1 re. subjecting the whole country to their
horrid outrages. About noon the air was
charged with the two-fold electricity of
panic and < fa storm, as the ladies pursued
their weary and disconsolate retreat. Gen-
Young, commanding a brigade of Virginia
militia, in bis official report to the inves
tigating committee of the House of Rep
resenta ives, says that they were delayed
on their march to join General Winder,
“by an alarm of a domestic nature, which
he was so credulous as to believe, from
the respectability of the country people
who came to him for protection ; lie halted
his brigade and sent out light troops and
one troop of cavalry to ascertain the fact,
which finally proved erroneous.” The
terror of Cockburn’s formidable enormi
ties was more conquering than arms.
General Young next day actually stopped
Mrs. Madison, insisting that she must not
be suffered to go without an escort.
Curran’s Ingenuity. — A farmer attending a
fair with a hundred pounds in his pocket, took
the precaution of depositing it in the hand ofthe
landlord of the public house at which he stop
ped Having occasion for it shortly afterwards,
he resorted to mine host the bailment, but the
landlord, too deep for the countryman, wonder
ed what hundred was meant ; and was quite
sure no such sum had ever been lodged in his
hand by the astonished rustic. After ineffectual
appeals to the recollection, and finally to the
honor of Bordolph, the farmer applied to Curran
for advice.
‘Have patience my friend,’ said the counsel,
‘speak to the landlord privately,and yourmoney
with some other person. Take a friend with
you, and lodge with him another hundred in the
presence of your friend, and come to me.’
We must imagine and not commit to paper,
the vociferations of the honest dupe, at such
advice ; however, moved by the rhetoric or au
thority of the worthy counsel, he followed i l
and returned to his legal friend.
‘And now sir, I don’t see as 1 am to be any
better for this, if 1 get my second hundred again.
But how is that to be done ?’
‘Go ask him for it when he is alone,’said Cur
ran.
‘All, sir, but asking won t do, I’m afraid, with
out my w itness at any rate,’ said the countryman.
‘Never mind, take my advice,’ said the coun
sel ; ‘do as I bid you, and return to me.’
The farmer returned with his hundred glad at
any rate, to find that safe again in his posses'
sion. j
‘Now’, sir, 1 suppose I most he content—but I
don't see as 1 am much better ofiV
‘Well, then, said the counsel, now take vour
friend with you, and ask the landlord for" the
hundred pounds your friend saw you leave with
him.'
We need not add that the wily landlord found
he had been taken off his guard, while our hon
est friend returned to thank his counsel,with
both hnudreds in his pocket.
A wag the other day aid to his friend—‘how
many knaves do you suppose live in this street
beside yourself?’ ‘Besides myself,” replied the
other, in a heat ; “do you intend to insult me ?’’
“Well, then said the first, “how many inclu
ding yourself?”
COTTOSf STATISTICS.
The London Economist publishes the
following estimate of the supply and con
sumption of Cotton for the year 1849 :
Manchester, April 12, 1819.
Sir :—As I have made free use of the
cotton stat istics contained in your last num
ber, I think it but civil to you to send you
the result of the calculation.
My enquiry has been to find how far we
are likely to be overwhelmed with 2,600,-
000 bales from America, supposing all
other countries to send us the same quan
tity as last year. The Brazilian and other
imports I have taken from Hollinshead,
Tetley & Co.’s circular, dated December
29, 1848, and have added 30,000 bales to
it for imports into London and Glasgow
from those countries. The whole growth
of American being taken, requires no ad
dition.
The summary of the whole is, that the
whole growth of cotton at the present rate
will go into consumption, and that the
stock at the end of 1849 will be more like
ly to be reduced than increased.
According to the tables in the Econo
mist of April 7, 1849, it appears that :
1848-49 1847-48
Bales. Bales.
The number of bs.
nf cotton taken
consumption in
the U. Estates of
America, from
Sept. 1, 1848,
(date of the N.
Y ork cott’n state
ment,) to March
13, 1849, is 323,626 ag’st 269,595
America has there
fore consumed
323,626 bales in
194 days. If 194
days, 323,626 bs;
7 days 11,677 bs.
weekly.
Exported from the
United States of
America to all
other countries,
omitting Great
Britain, between
Sept. I, 1848,
and March 13,
1849—194 days, 307,757 ag’st 358,659
If 194 days, 307,-
757 bales; seveu
days, 11,105 bs.
weekly.
Cotton exported
from G. Britain
toothercountries
between Jan. 1,
1849, and March
31, 1849—90
days. 51,200 ag’st 19,500
If 90 days, 51,200
bales; 7 days, 3,-
982 bales weekly
export.
Consumption of
Cot’on in Gr’t.
Britain betw’n
Jan. 1, 1849,
and March 31,
1849—90 days, 411,814 ag’st 326,429
If 90 days, 411,814
bales; 7 days,32,-
030 hales weekly
consumption.
Bales.
Weekly consumption of Cot
ton in the United St3tes of
America 11,677
Weekly exportsfrom America
to other countries, omitting
Great Britain 11,105
Weekly exports from Great
Britain to other countties 3,982
Weekly consumption of Great
Britain 32,030
Weekly total consumption 58,894
If 1 week, 55.794 bs; 52 weeks 3,057,288
Estimated growth of the Uni
ted States of America, 2,600,000
Imported into Liverpool in
1848 of
Brazilian Cotton 100,201
Peruvian 1,816
West India, Carthagena, &c. 4 161
Egyptian 27,820
East India 136,012
Import into London from oth
er places, omitting the Uni
ted States, suppose 30,080
Total supply of Cotton for ’49 2,900,090
On the supposition that the
present rate of consumption
should be maintained in
England, America, and on
the continent of Europe,
for the remainder of the
year 1849, the requirement
would be 3,057,288
The estimated growth of cot
ton available for the year
1649, is 2,900,000
Deficiency in hales 157,198
1 am, sir, yours, very respectfully,
H. HEYCOCK.
Mammoth Mules. —The Cincinnati papers
speak of an exhibition there of two mules from
Scott county, Kentucky, which are the largest
ever seen in that city. One, a black mule, four
years old, eighteen hands high ; the other, the
same age, a brown female, also eighteen hands
high. The two were put on the scales together '
and found to weigh 3,000 pounds. The price
demanded for them is S2OO each. Both raised by J
Mr. Thomas, in Scott county.
O' The Gold Dollar, a beautiful coin, a trifle
smaller than a five cent piece, was issued on the i
Ist of Mav.
MACON, G A .
SATURDAY MORNING, JUNE 2, 1649.
The Revival. —This work is still in progress!
and vve believe this is the fourth week of its
continuati >n, with service morning and night.
Seventy-five persons, up to the present time,
have been taken on trial for the Methodist con
nection.
Delegates to the Memphis Convention.
Governor Towns has appointed the fol
lowing gentlemen to attend the Conven
tion on the 4th of July next, to take into
consideration the project of building the
Pacific Railroad :
John P. King, A. J. Miller, Chas. J.
Jenkins, Wm. Schley, Wm. Cumming,
James Gardner, Wm. M. Smythe, Wm.
M. D’Antignac, Rob’t F. Poe, Thomas
Berritt, Henry Cumming, W. T. Gould,
Isaac Scott, L. O. Reynolds, Elam Alex
ander, A. H Chappell, Washington Poe,
Dr. Robt. Collins, Samuel J. Ray, S. T.
Chapman, Chas. Day, Wm. B. Johnston,
R. A L. Atkinson, A. P. Powers, Benj.
T. Bethuue, H. V. Johnson, D. C. Camp
bell, Wm. S. Rockwell, Miller Grieve,
Iverson L. Harris, R. R. Cuyler, J. M.
Berrien, Wm. Law, W. B. Bulloch, M.
11. McAllister, John W. Anderson, R. M.
Charlton, Jos. W. Jackson, Francis S.
Bartow, John E. Ward, E. Padelford,
Andrew Low, Richard Wayne, John 11.
Howard, Marshall Wellborn, Alfred Iver
son, Seaborn Jones, Hines Holt, John G.
Winter, A. H. Flewellen, John Banks,
Wiley Williams, Walter 'l'. Colquitt, Da
niel McDougald, Daniel Griffin, Howell
Cobb, Wm. M. Morton, Asbury Hull,
Henry G. Lamar, Wilson Lumpkin, Hop
kins Holsey, E. L. Newton, Robt. V.
Hardeman, A. F. Owen, 11. H. Tarver,
Charles West, John West, J. W. Jones,
Richard Peters, Jr., Win. L. Mitchell,
Charles Murphy, Albert Wellborn, Joel
Crawford, Wm. H. Crawford, W. H.
Reynolds, Wm. Taylor, Nelson Tift, Rich
ard 11. Clark, E. R. Brown, Wm. J. John
son, Chas. J. McDonald, Thos. C. Hack
ett, John L. Lumpkin, Turner H. Trippe,
A. D. Shackleford, Wm. H. Underwood,
Leander W. Crook, Wm. C. Dawson,
A. H. Stephens, Robert Toombs, Hugh
A. Haralson, Thomas B. King, Geo. Phil
lips, Wm. B. Wofford, George R. Gilmer,
Wm. McKinley, John W. Iturney, Wm.
Terrell, Geo. R. Jesup, Augustus Reese,
John B. Walker, Robert D. McMillan,
Garnett Andrews, Simson Fouch, Seaton
Grantland, Wm. B. W. Dent.
U* W. 11. Bulloch, Esq., for many years
Editor of the Savannah Georgian, has retired
from that establishment, having disposed of his
interest in the Georgian to Mr. S. S Siblev,
late of the Tallahassee Floridian.
The Cholera. —The New York Mirrorstates
that this disease does actually exist in the heart
of the city, and denounces those who endeavor
to conceal the fact.
The cholera is rapidly increasing in the West,
extending as far as California.
We see the Authorities in Charleston are
urging the citizens to use all precautionary
measures to prevent the appearance of this fear
ful disease amongst them—and vve think the
citizens of Macon would.do well to follow their
example, ere it be too late. Let lime be freely
used about their premises.
(PJ* Gen. Twiggs arrived in Augusta a few
days since, in very good health. He is on a
short visit to his family.
The Public Meeting on Saturday Last.
We published in our last only the Resolutions
which were passed at the meeting ofthe Citizens
on that day, and now insert the official proceed
ings, together with the protest of the minority.
The question at issue admits of an honest differ
ence of opinion we think, and regret that it has
not been generally viewed in that light. We
have heard unkind remarks made against those
who are in favor of the connection of the Rail
Roads at this city, as being influenced by sinister
motives—which we believe to be unjust to those
gentlemen, many of whom have been identified
with the trade of this city for fifteen or twenty
years past. Our purpose in noticing these un’
generous inuendoes, is to awaken inquiry into
this subject—to repel the unjust charges so far
as we are concerned, and not to defend those
gentlemen with whom we coincide—they are
competent to the task when necessary to do so.
We shall give only a few ofthe reasons which
influenced our judgment on that occasion—lst
After having carefully read the charter of the
South Western Railroad Company, we were not
satisfied hut that it conferred upon them the right
to commence the Road at East as well as West
Macon ; and ifso, there was not much doubt in
our mind, but that they could cross the Ocmttl
gee river below the Bridge, only subjecting the
Company to such damages as might be assessed
by a competent jury, for the injury done the city
by depreciating the revenue from the Bridge, &.c
--—There being but two barriers in the way, the
one above stated and the other, the procuring of
the right of way for the Road through the Reserve
owned by the State, broadside up to the city,and
within about two or three hundred yards of the
Bridge; the latter objection being merely nominal
as vve have no doubt the next Legislature will
readily grant not only the right of way through
said Reserve, but authorize a junction of the
Roads passing around the City, upon such terms
us the Companies may agree upon, regardless of
the wishes of the citizens of Macon. As the
Central Railroad Company were known to he
favorable to the connection, and owning a Depot
in East Macon, what but the question of dam
ages could prevent a junction there ? Read the
following in the charter of the South Western
Railroad Company, and see if it could notbeua.
derstood to bear the construction we have put
upon it:
“Sec. 19. Be it farther enacted , That the said
Company shall have full power and authority t 0
carry such Railroad over all and any Rivers
creeks or water courses that may be in the route
thereof, or of either Branch Railroad, by suit*,
ble Bridges or other means. Provided, That
when such Railway shall cross any navigable
watercourse, that the same shall not he so con
structed as to impede, or in any way obstruct the
navigation thereof.”
But admitting that they have not the right to
cross at the point named above, can they not
commence at or near the Central Railroad Depot
in East Macon and cross above the city for lest
than many are disposed to demand for the right
to connect the Roads in the city, which has been
variously estimated at from $50,000 to $500,000,
besides pro rata rates, &c. Now we honestly
believe these exactions will never be submitted
to by these Companies—consequently they will
in all probability go round the city. We would
direct the attention of the reader to the follow,
ing remarks of the Editor of the Marietta Advo
cate, (who was the Senator from that District in
the last Legislature,) in relation to the proceed
ings in this city on Saturday last. He says,
among other things, “ the fact is, that the people
of Cherokee Georgia must have a continuous
Railroad route to the seaboard. If they cannot
get it by one line, they will by another. They
will obtain it ultimately. We are confident they
will obtain it, without wronging the interests of
any class or place or section. We are not now
going to argue te question of right for, or against
l he junction at Macon. If this cannot be seen,
red without injustice, it behooves this section of
the State to look for another route, and to make
it to the interest of other parties to aid in secu-
ring it. From Warrenton to Davisboro’ is little
over thirty miles, from Forsyth to Milledgeville
only fifty; from Madison to Milledgeville but
forty-four. A connecting road on any of these
routes would suit the interests of Cherokee
Georgia, because it would secure an uninterrup
ted communication by railroad with our sea port.
It is true that a road may not be built on any of
these routes for years to come. It is equally
true, that if built on any of them, the stock,
with the existing break at Macon, would be as
good as any in the State, if not better.”
But again, we have no faith in the proposed
Railroad from this city to the Georgia Railroad,
because no capitalist in the country will invest
his funds in the Stock of that Road with the fear
ful odds against it in favor of Savannah, of some
eighty miles, which will enable the latter to
compete successfully with the Road at any rate
of transportation—particularly w hen the Savan
nah market is always better to the shipper from
this point, than the Charleston market, even
when cotton is worth a quarter of a cent per lb.
more in the latter than the former city. Thii
information we have from one of the most ex
tensive merchants in this city, whom vve know
to be incapable of misrepresentation. This Rail
Road Company has been chartered eighteen
months, and we heard more about it last Satur
day than at anytime previous, and its friends had
belter get subscriptions pretty soon, as if we mis
take not, ifit is not commenced previous to the
the next fall, the charter will be forfeited.—
We know this road would benefit Macon, ifonce
completed, but as we have no beliefin the patriot
ism of trade, therefore doubt that this project
will ever be entertained by any one to a sufficient
extent to induce him to in vest his money in the
enterprise. Who will subscribe for the stock in
this Railroad in Bibb county. Now suppose vve
are correct in our views, what becomes of the
city of Macon when thrown in opposition to her
rivals on all sides ? Had she not better endea
vor to enter into “concession and compromise’
before the prejudices of the Railroad influence
as well as of the people shall become excited a
gainst her? Wc think so decidedly, and hope
the considerate portion of our fellow citizens 1
will give this subject the serious consideration
which its importance demands.
It has been asserted that in theeventofaeon
nection of the Roads in thiscity, rea! estate would |
immediately go down twenty five per cent. list
this been the effect on property at Griffin and ;
Atlanta—or in the twenty towns on the railroad
linos from Albany to Buffalo, New York, (in an
agricultural country, where there are six rail
road companies, within the distance of three hun
dred and fifty miles ?) But what will be the
condition of Macon if these Roads run round
her, with the prejudices which will obtain a
mong the country people against her? Can an;
one tell ? What would have been her trade thit
season, without the Central Railroad ?—refer to
the cotton statement in another column and cal
culate the freights at $2 per hundred pounds in
stead of 45 cents, and say if you can that railroads
are of no benefit to the community.
We have given a few of tho reasons which
have influenced us to decide in favor of the junc
tion ofthe Railroads in our city—the question of
connection in the abstract, vve do not consider
an open one at all—and if it were, the citizens
of Macon would have no authority to act in tit®
premises beyond the corporate limits ofthe city
The Central Railroad and South Western Kail
road Companies have already agreed upon 1
connection of their Roads, and a valuable con
sideration paid therefor by the former, ifvve mi*’
take not—ifso, we have no doubt that thisjucc-1
tion will take place in some wav or other,wheth
er the citizens of Macon desire it or not—el 1 " |
that too in less than two years from this day-
We have noticed this affair not for the purpo*'
of adding to the angry passions which have > i
ready been unfortunately aroused in this com® 11
nity, but simply to state some of the reasons. **
before stated, which influenced our judgment 19
the matter —and subsequent events have strength .
ened those convictions. We shall not howe vcr ' I
shrink from a discussion of this or any othef - 1111
ject connected with the public good, should ”
deem it necessary to do so, regardless alik 6 •
tile sneers or threats of those who disagree w
us in opinion on this subject.