| Annual Report of the Richmond,
Fredericksburg & Potomac RR |
| as of April 1, 1861, |
| President's Report |
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| Twenty-Eight Annual Report |
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| Office Richmond, Fred. & P. R. R. Co. |
| Richmond, May 19th, 1861 |
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The Board of Directors submit herewith to the Stockholders
the customary tabular statements for the year ending 31st March, 1861.
From these it will be seen that the income of the Company for the past
year was $283,208.27. During the same period the current ordinary
expenses of transportation chargeable exclusively to this year, amounted
to $124,699.69. Besides these, there were disbursed for extraordinary
expenses, not exclusively chargeable to this year, $24,549.45, including
the cost of permanent additions to the property of the Company, and
large sums paid for damages recovered of the Company for fires, which
occurred in 1855, and for expenses of law suits consequent upon them,
and of the suit with the Virginia Central and Orange & Alexandria
Railroad Companies.
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The difference between the amount of these expenses of
every kind and the gross income of the year, amounting to $133,959.13,
was applied to the payment of interest on the funded debts of the
Company, to the extension of the heavy rail superstructure, to the
payment of the balance of the debt due in London in 1860, and to the
payment of the two semi-annual dividends on the guarantied stock and
the cash dividend on the common stock of the Company paid on the first
of this month. A portion of this amount was also applied to the
payment of the liabilities of the Company, created by the late
President, and enumerated in his letter to the Board of Directors of
June 18, 1860, contained in the printed circular dated July 20th,
issued to the Stockholders with the last printed annual report.
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The investigation of the books and affairs of the
Company referred to in that letter circular as having been commenced,
was with the aid of skilful accountants, thoroughly prosecuted and
completed, and the result differed from the statement of indebtedness
and liabilities in Mr. Robinson's letter only in making the cash
balance due from him to the Company $1,219.43 less than he in his
letter estimated it to be. Of the property conveyed by him to the
Company in consideration of that indebtedness and to meet those
liabilities, a portion situated in the city of Richmond and county of
Henrico, with the slaves conveyed, has been sold, producing to the
Company the nett sum of $23,242.87. But of much the largest and most
costly portion of the property situated as Ashland, the sale has been
prevented, first by the rapid decline in the demand for and value of
such property, which commenced early last autumn, but was then hoped
to be temporary, and subsequently by the financial embarrassments of
the country, and the Stay Law adopted by the Convention. Its ultimate
value to the Company depends upon too many contingencies of a public
nature to form the subject of any present computation.
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Meanwhile, the whole amount of the liabilities, for the
satisfaction of which this property was conveyed, has, with the proceeds
of its partial sales, and with the current receipts of the Company,
aided by the sales of guarantied stock of the Company, been fully paid
off.
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In the suit with the Virginia Central and Orange &
Alexandria Railroad Companies, a report has been made to the Court by
its Commissioner, ascertaining the indebtedness of those Companies to
this to be over $160,000, [principal and interest]. But further progress
in this suit will be delayed, if not temporarily arrested, by the
existing war and stay law.
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On the 19th of April, 1861, the four steamboats of the
Potomac Steamboat Company were seized by the United States government at
Washington, and appropriated to its won uses as transports and armed war
vessels.
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Since then every exertion practicable has been made by the
President of that Company to obtain of the government at Washington
compensation for those boats, but with what success is as yet unknown.
This occurrence, and the existing war, discontinuing all the revenue
usually derived by this Company from travel to and from points north of
Acquia Creek, will of course considerably diminish during the
continuance of the war the resources of the Company. Some compensation
for this loss, it is hoped, will be had from the greatly increased
freight business over this Road, resulting from the interruption of the
usual trade between Baltimore and northern cities with Fredericksburg
and the country on the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers; so that it is
confidently hoped that no serious embarrassment will be experienced in
the affairs of the Company. The current receipts during the six weeks
which have elapsed since this interruption to through travel over this
road, being at a rate which, if continued, will more than suffice to
defray all current expenses, and meet all the other liabilities of the
Company. And whatever sacrifices of profit or convenience we may be
called upon to incur either as a company or as citizens, it is not
doubted that they will be cheerfully borne as the price of the
independence and welfare of our country, and of future peace and
prosperity.
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Respectfully submitted,
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P. V. Daniel, Jr.
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President
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