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p j s universally conceded that with
thc great change in our labor, the system
Wanting an d fanning must also be
odified ; most of our large plantations
'.jll Reconverted into smaller farms;
j (>gg ] all d will be planted, more com-
Miercial manures used, fewer hands and
iU-er farm animals will be required, and
; doubt many other changes of which
llo ne more important than the system of
importation to and from the farms !
Inaccessibility prevents . immigration,
while easy intercourse with the outer
world invite settlers ; stores spring up
around the Post Offices, and villages are
built around these drawing still
- ,ore settlers to the rich lands. Where
navigable rivers are not accessible, lines
of railroads must and will be built ;
railroads ten, fifteen, twenty, or thirty
miles in length, but not like our present
.plendid lines of roads, vieing with each
other in splendor and magnificence and
costliness. They are the great arteries
( ,f the body, which convey the blood
from the heart to the extremities. Now
we want the small veins to circulate
that blond through every portion of the
body to return again to the main arteries.
In plainer words it is these small rad
ii ads we need, spreading like a net work
< V er the whole country, conveying to the
main mad, corn, cotton, cattle, vegeta
bles, fruit, everything in fact that earn be
produced in the country, and that is
needed in the market, and taking back
and distributing groceries, dry goods,
guanos, implements, passengers and the
mails.
In a paper such as this, it is impossible
to develope any plan to its full extent, or
to enter into the minotice of a system.
The intention at present is simply to call
the attention of our railroad corpora
tions and of our farmers to the small
and cheap railroads which are being
rapidly developed in Europe, and of
which we so very much stand in need.
Now, I shall explain what is meant by
cheap railroads They are roads branch
ing right and left from the principal
railroads, and tapping the interior coun
try. They are built of much lighter
iron than the great roads, with a guage
of 2]- to 3 feet, instead of five.
On the main lilies of railroads, it is
necessary to have a uniform guage over
the whole country, and the best guage
has, by experience, been found to be five
feet. The necessity of this uniformity
of guage is too palpable to require com
ment; it is only surprising that tbe
Legislatures of some of our States were
so blind as to require a difference of
guage as a condition for a charter to a
road coming from another State, for the
"tike of a few fancied advantages. The
most inexperienced merchant cannot fail
to understand the advantage of sending
goods irom Charleston or Savannah to
-Memphis without breaking bulk, the
handling of packages being always at
tended with more or less expense, to say
nothing of other advantages. Let us
hope that ere long we shall see not only
goods, but passengers traveling from
one end of the country to the other with
out changing cars.
For the small railroad, it is not neces
sary to have the same guage ; they are
simply intended to take the place of
carts and wagons, and stage coaches ;
and their cargoes consisting of innumer
able heterogeneous articles, can, with
much less inconvenience be transferred
from one car to another. They start from
dmir terminus every day, or every" other
day, and pick up anything that may offer,
passengers or freight, on any point of the
road withoul reference to regular stations;
they run along side a depot or a car on
the large railroad, unload their plunder,
take up return freight and passengers,
which are left wherever desired.
I pon a road thirty miles or less, in
length, one train is sufficient ; go one
% and return the next. One small
light engine, two or three light freight
cars, one or two small light passenger
cars > similar to our street ears; this
constitutes the rolling stock of such a
j'oad. The small engine will consume
a small quantity of wood and water,
a!ul . the entire train will require one
engineer, one conductor, and one assist
ant.
The track will, in most cases, follow the
lines of our large public State roads, and
. lere the width of these will admit of it,
I; can > b y permission from the Legisla
'llre;» tako a lew feet of it without incon
veniencing the local travel. Ttie Civil
Engineer in laying out the track will
s f k the shortest and straightest
oate l roin one point to another ; this is
al] desirable. He will follow the
“ l , ,un loute in all their windings • and
Were the rise of a hill would be too
considerable, let him wind around it to
m °re gradually, for the curves on
ilf roads can be constructed with a
Vby small radius ; say from one hun
o to two hundred feet, while upon the
1 and broader roads they should not
be less than from one thousand two hun
dimd to two thousand feet, as friction
and resistance upon the track in a curve
increase enormously with the width of
the track.
These short curves obviate also the
necessity ot considerable grading or
levelling which is always very expensive;
for as we have said above, where a hill
presents itself too steep to ascend, wind
around it. This, indeed, should have
been the rule for every public State
load in the country when practicable
ioi „these steep ascents in our roads,
usually much washed, and either of heavy
sand or boggy clay are much dreaded by
tra\ ellers who, whenever possible, will
picfei going a circuit of several miles to
a\ oid them. Our railroads could almost
invariably do this without the slightest
disadvantage, for if the road be length
ened it will only accommodate more
farmers.
The speed need not be over ten or
twelve miles. This is quite sufficient
for local travel, will be quite safe, will
save much wear and tear of rolling stock
and road, will prevent the destruction
of animals, and will enable the engineer
to stop the train at short notice—all of
which are important for the public.
A few extracts taken from an article
lately published by a French Engineer
may be of interest.
ihe Brolthal Road (in Prussia) has a
guage of 1 8 metres (equal to 2 feet Cl
inches of our measure.) The rails
weigh IQ.]- kilo*. to the metre (equal to
( pounds 3 ounces Av. du P. per foot.)
On this road some of the curves have
a radius of only 38 metres, (about 124
feet 0 inches our measure.)
At Tavaux Ponsericourt, (Aisne, in
France) are two roads; guage 1 metre,
(3 feet 3 inches) rails weight 13 kilog.
per metre (equal to 8 pounds 12 ounces
Av. du P. per foot.) Curves from 30
to 40 metres, (120 to ICO feet.) This
road winds around hills and mountains
with numerous slopes and plaines, vary
mg in grade from 15 to 25 millimetres
to the metre, to 50 and CO, and one of
75 millim. and over 300 metres in
length, being one of the heaviest grades
in Europe. The small table below re
duces these grades to feet and inches
per mile of our measure :
Metre. Equal to
TO* Feet per Mile.
0.075 39G.! “ “ <«
The locomotives used on these two
roads have four wheels ; carry their own
fuel and water without a tender, and
weigh when loaded, 7,500 kilog. equal
to 16,494 pounds Av. and. P.
At Festiniog, (in England) the guage
of the road is 0 inches, 61, (equal to 24
inches,) rails weigh 15 kilog. per metre,
(11 pounds per feet) radius of curves
40 inches, (131 feet.) Weight of Loco
motives when loaded, 16,494 pounds—
speed ten miles an hour.
The above is quite sufficient to show
what has been done, is being done, and
should be done here.
If we want immigrants into our South
ern States we must offer them facilities
to carry their varied and small products
to market daily or twice a week ; facili
ties of intercourse with each other ;wid
with the rest of the world, which, with
out these small railroads they could
only obtain by taking from work their
only cart or work animal. Europeans
will never be satisfied to see each other
once or twice a year as our native born
country folks are. They are sociable,
and if they work hard, their labor must
be occasionally relieved by social inter
com se. Few, if any would buy lands
eight or ten miles from a town or rail
road.
Mills or factories need no more
sacrifice most important natural advant
ages for the single one of being on a
railroad. If a site, ten miles off be
preferable to one on the railroad, the
cost of a small cheap railroad will more
than counterbalance other advantages.
We have a very striking instance of this
in the Kalmia Mills in this State, where
in order to secure a position on the Rail
road, immensely expensive engineering
had to bo restored to create water power,
risking great injury to the Soitth Caro
lina Railroad, and selecting a locality
anything but healthy. While numerous
other sites from three to ten miles from
tiic railroad would have secured health,
and equal water power at perhaps one
tenth the cost. A small railroad with
ono, locomotive and two or three cars
would have cheaply done all the busi
ness of the factory, and probably of
the neighborhood.
To sum up the advantages of these
railroads: we have their great compara
tive cheapness, having lighter iron,
shorter cross-ties, no turn-outs, very
little grading or excavations and bank
ing. rises and depressions iu the bed of
dm road matter very little, short curves
w ” ero disirable; no clearing of land
whnv the main road can be followed,
-Mill! §1 ffSl'
and consequently in many places, no
right of way to purchase ; light bridges,,
small locomotives, no tender, light and
cheap cars for freight or passengers
moderate speed, few train hands and very
litFe wood or water.
Will these railroads pay ? That will
depend on the resources of the country,
produce and wants, which will increase
with facilities and cheapness of trans
portation—for cheapness is an absolute
requisite for success. Our wants in
crease with accessability, and soon be
come necessaries of life. They would
have to do a very poor business not to
pay interest on the small capital risked.
Civil Engineer.
PRESIDENT JOHNSON’S VALEDICTORY.
Farewell Address of the Retiring President
to the People of the United States.
REVIEW OF THE CLOSING ADMINISTRATION.
The Policy t/f .he Past, dee.
To the People of the United States :
The robe of office, by constitutional
limitation, this day falls from my shoulders,
to be immediately assumed by my succes
sor. Fur him the forbearance and co
operation of the American people, in all
his efforts to administer the government
within the pale of the Federal Constitution,
are sincerely invoked. Without ambition
to gratify, party ends to subserve, or per
sonal quarrels to avenge at the sacrifice of
the peace and welfare of the country, my
earnest desire is to see the Constitution, as
defined and limited by the fathers of tbe
republic, again recognized and obeyed as
flic supreme law of the land, and the
whole people—North, South, East and
West—prosperous and happy under its
wise provisions.
In surrendering the high office to which
I was called four years ago, atamemorable
and terrible crisis, it is my privilege, I
trust, to say to the people of the United
States a few parting words, in vindication
of an official course so ceaselessly assailed
and aspersed by political leaders, to whose
plans and wishes my policy to restore the
Union has been obnoxious. In a period
of difficulty and turmoil almost without
precedent in the history of any people,
consequent upon the closing scenes of a
great rebellion and the assassination of the
then President, it was perhaps too much,
on my part, to expect of devoted partisans,
who rode cn the waves of excitement
which at that time swept all before them,
that degree of toleration and magnanimity
which I sought to recommend and enforce,
and which i believe in good time would
have advanced us infinitely farther on the
road to permanent peace and prosperity
than we have thus far attained. Doubt
less, had I, at the commencement of my
term of office, unhesitatingly lent its pow
ers or perverted them to purposes and
plans “outside the Constitution,” and be
come an instrument to schemes of confisca
tion and of general and oppressive dis
qualifications, I would have been hailed as
all that was true, loyal and discerning—as
the reliable head of a party, whatever I
might have been as the Executive of the
nation. Unwilling, however, to accede to
propositions of extremists, and bound to
adhere, at every hazard, to my oath to de
fend the Constitution,! need not, perhaps,
be surprised at having met the fate of
others whose only reward for upholding
constitutional right and law have been the
consciousness of having attempted to do
their duty, and the calm and unprejudiced
judgment of history. *
At the time a mysterious Providence as
signed to me the office of President, I was
by the terms of the Constitution, the Com
mander-in-Chief of nearly a million of men
underarms. One ofiuy first acts was to
disband aud restore to the vocations of civil
life this immense host, and to divest my
self, so far as I could, oi the unparalleled
powers then incident to the office and the
times. Whether or not, in this.step, I was
right, and how far deserving the approba
tion of the people, all ean now, on reflec
tion, judge, when reminded of the ruinous
condition of public affairs, that must have
resulted from the coutinuance in the mili
tary service of such a vast number of men.
The close of our domestic conflict found
the army eager to distinguish itself in anew
field, by an effort to punish European in
tervention in Mexico. By many it was
believed and urged, that aside from the
assumed justice of the proceeding, a foreign
war, in which both sides would cheerfully
unite to vindicate the honor of the Nation
al Flag, and further illustrate the National
prowess, would be the surest and speediest
way of awakening National enthusiasm,
reviving devotion to the Union, and occu
py a force concerning which, grave doubts
existed as to its willingnes-, after four
years of active campaigning, at once to
’eturn to the active pursuits of peace.
Whether these speculations were true or
false, it will be conceded that they existed,
and that the predilections of the army were,
for the time being, in the direction indi
cated. Taking advantage of this feeling,
it would have been easy, as the Command
er-in-Chief of the army and navy, and
with all the power and patronage of the
Presidential office at iny disposal, to turn
the concentrated military strength of the
Nation against French interference in
Mexico, aud to inaugurate a movement
which would have been received with favor
by the military and a large portiou of the
people.
It is proper, in this connection, that I
should refer to the almost unlimited addi
tional powers tendered to the Executive
by the measures relating to civil rights and
the Freedmen’s Bureau. Contrary to ;
mutß precedents in the experience of pub
lic men, the powers thus placed within
my grasp were declined, as in violation of
the Constitution, dangerous to the liber
ties of the people, and tending to aggra
vate, rather than lessen, the discords nat
urally resulting from our civil war. With a
large army and augmented authority, it
would have been no difficult task to direct
at pleasure the destinies of the republic,
and to make secure my continuance in the
highest office known to our laws.
Let the people whom I am addressing
from the Presidential chair during the
closing hours of a laborious term, consider
how different would have been their pres
ent condition had I yielded to the dazzling
temptation of foreign conquest, of personal
aggrandizement, and the desire to wield
additional power. Let them with justice
consider that, if I have not unduly “mag
nified mine office,” the public burdens have
not been increased by my acts, aud other
and perhaps thousands or tens of thou
sands of lives sacrificed to visions of false
glory.
Much as I venerate the Constitution, it
must be admitted that this condition of
flffaus has developed a defeat which, un
der the aggressive tendency of the Legis
lative department of the Government, may
readily work its overthrow". It may, how
ever, be remedied, without disturbing the
harmony of the instrument.
The veto power is generally exercised
upon constitutional grounds, and whenever
it is so applied and the bill returned with
the Executive reasons for withholding liis
signature, it ought to be immediately cer
tified to the Supreme Court of the United
States for its decision. If its constitu
tionality shall be declared by that tribunal
it should then become a law ; bu s if the
decision is otherwise, it should fail, with
out power in Congress to re-enact and make
it valid.
In easesjn which the veto rests upon
hasty and inconsiderate legislation, and in
which no constitutional question is in
volved, I would not change the fundamen
tal law ; for in such cases no permanent
evil can be incorporated into the Federal
S3 7 stem.
It is obvious that without such an
amendment the government, as it existed
under the Constitution prior to the rebel
lion, may be wholly subverted and over
thrown by a two-thirds majority in Con
gress. It is not, therefore, difficult to see
how easily and how rapidly thc people may
lose—-shall I not say have lost? —their
liberties by an unchecked and uncon
trollable majority in tbe law-makiDg power,
and, when once deprived of their rights,
how powerless they are to regain them.
Let us turn for a moment to the history
of the majority in Congress which has act
ed in such utter disregard of the Constitu
tion. While public attention has been
carefully and constantly turned to the past
and expiated sins of the South, the ser
vants of the people, in high places, have
boldly betrayed their trust, broken their
oaths of obedience to the Constitution, and
undermined,.the very foundations of liberty,
justice, and good government. When the
rebellion was being suppressed by the vol
unteered services of patriot soldiers grnid
the dangers of the battle-field, these men
crept, without question, into place and
power in the national councils. After all
danger had passed, when no armed foe re
mained, when a punished and repentant
people bowed their heads to the flag and
renewed their allegiance to the Govern
ment of the United States, then it was that
pretended patriots appeared before the
nation, and began to prate about the
thousands of lives and millions of treasure
sacrificed in the suppression of the rebel
lion. They have since persistently sought
to inflame the prejudices engendered be
tween the sections, to retard the restora
tion of peace and harmony, and, by every
means, to keep open and exposed to the
poisonous breath of party passion the ter
rible wounds of a four years’ war. They
have prevented the return of peace and the
restoration of the Union, in every way
rendered delusive the purposes, promises
and pledges by which the army was mar
shaled, treason rebuked, and rebellion
crushed, and made the liberties of the peo
ple and the rights and powers of the Pres
ident objects of constant attack. They have
wrested from the President his constitu
tional power of supreme command of the
army and navy. They have destroyed the
strength and efficiency of the Executive
Department, by making subordinate offi
cers independent of and able to defy their
chief. They have attempted to place the
President under the power of a bold, de
fiant and treacherous Cabinet officer. They
have robbed the Executive of the preroga
tive of pardon, rendered null and void acts
of clemency granted to thousands of per
sons under the provisions of the Constitu
tion, and committed grdss usurpation by
legislative attempts to exercise this power
in favor of party adherents. They have
conspired to change the system of our
government by preferring charges against
the President in the form of articles of im
peachment, and coßteinplating, before
hearing of trial, that he should be placed
iu arrest, held in durance, anu when it
became their pleasure to pronounce his
sentence, driven from place and power in
disgrace. They have in time of peace in
creased the national debt by a reckless ex
penditure of the public money and thus
added to the burdens which already weigh
upon the people. They have permitted
the nation to suffer the evils of a deranged
currency, to the enhancement in price of all
the necessaries of life. They have main- j
tained a large standing army, for the en
forcement, of their measures of oppression.
They have engaged in class legislation, and
built up and encouraged monopolies, that !
the few might be enriched at the expense
of the many. Thev have failed to act
upon important treaties, thereby endanger
ing our present peaceful relations with
foreign powers.
Their course of usurpation has not been
limited to inroads upon the Executive De
partment. By unconstitutional and op
pressive euactments, the people of ten
„ atestile Union have been reduced to
® ondl A l0 ’ a nioie intolerable tLan that
Patriots ot the Revolution
NhlUons of American citizens
imfh°Tb Bay ° 1 heir oppressors, with more
™ < at he.- 8 did of British ty
rants, that they have “forbidden the gov
ernors to pass laws of immediate and press
ing importance, unless suspended until their
assent should be obtained;” that they have
refused to pass other laws for the accom
modation of large districts of people, un
less those people would relinquish the
right of representation in the Legislature
a right inestimable to them and formidable
to tyrants only;” that they have “made
judges dependent upon their will alone for
the tenure of their offices and the amount
and payment of their salaries;” that they
ha ve “erected a multitude of new offices,
and sent hither swarms of officers to harass
our people and eat out their substance;”
that they have “affected to render the
military independent of and superior to
the civil power,” “combined with others to
subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our
Constitution andi unacknowledged by our
laws,” “quartered large bodies of armed
troops among us, ’ “protected them by a
mock trial from punishment for any mur
der which they should commit on the in
habitant of these States,” imposed “taxes
upon us without our consent,” “deprived
us in many cases of the benefit of trial by
jury,” “taken away our charters, excited
domestic insurrection amongst us, abolish
ed our most valuable laws, altered funda
mentally the forms of our government, sus
pended our own Legislatures, and declared
themselves invested with power to legislate
for us in all cases whatsoever.”
It cannot, therefore, be charged that
my ambition has been of that ordinary or
criminal kind which, to the detriment of
the people s rights and liberties, ever
seeks to grasp more and unwarranted
powers, and, to accomplish its purposes,
panders too often to popular prejudices
and party aims.
\\ hat, then, have been the aspirations
which guided me in my official acts? Those
acts need not at this time an elaborate ex
planation. They have been elsewhere
comprehensively stated andfully discussed,
and become a part of the nation’s history.
By them lam willing to be judged, know
ing that, however imperfect, they at
least show to the impartial mind that my
sole ambition has been to restore the Union
of the States, faithfully to execute the
office of President, and, to the best of my
ability, to preserve, protect and defend the
Constitution. I cannot be censured if my
efforts have been impeded in the interests
of party‘faction, and if a policy which was
intended to reassure and conciliate the
people of both sections of the country was
made the occasion of inflaming and dividing
still further those who, only recently in
arms against each other, yet, as individuals
and citizens, were sincerely desirous, as I
shall ever believe, of burying all hostile
feelings in the grave of the past. The
bitter war was waged on the part of the
government to vindicate the Constitution
and save the Union ; and if I have erred
in trying to bring about a more speedy and
lasting peace, to extinguish heart-burnings
and enmities, and to prevent troubles in
the South which, retarding material pros
perity in that region, injuriously affected
the whole country, I am quite content to
rest my case with the more deliberate
judgment of the people, and, as I have al
ready intimated, with the distant future.
The war, all must remember, was a stu
pendous and deplorable mistake. Neither
side understood the other, and had this
simple fact and its conclusions been kept
in view, all that was needed was accom
plished by the acknowledgment of the ter
rible wrong, and the expressed better feel
ing and earnest endeavor at atonement
shown and felt in the prompt ratification of
constitutional amendments by the South
ern States at the close of the war. Not
accepting the war as a confessed false step
on the part of those who inaugurated it,
was an error which now only time can cure,
and which even at this late date we should
endeavor to palliate. Experiencing, more
over, as all have done, the frightful cost of
the arbitrament of the sword, let us in the
future cling closer than ever to the Consti
tution as our only safeguard. It is to be
hoped that not until the burdens now
pressing upon us with such fearful weight
are removed will our peoplejforget the les
sons of the war; and that, remembering
them from whatever cause, peace between
sections and States may be perpetual.
The history of late events in our coun
try, as well as of the greatest governments
of ancient and modern times, teaches that
we have everything to fear from a depart
ure from the letter and spirit of the Con
stitution, and the undue ascendancy of
men allowed to assume power in what are
considered desperate emergencies. Sylla,
on becoming master of Rome, at once
adopted measure to crush his enemies and
to consolidate the power of his party,
lie established military colonies through-'
out Italy ; deprived of the full Roman
franchise the inhabitants of the Italian
towns who had opposed his usu r pation ;
confiscated their lands and gave them to
his soldiers; and conferred citizenship upon
a great number of slaves belonging to those
who had proscribed him, thus creating at
Rome a kind of body guard for his protec
tion. After having given Rome over to
slaughter, and tyrannized beyond all exam-
5
