| From the Richmond Dispatch |
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| February 9, 1861 |
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| {Richmond &} York
River Railroad |
| Under a resolution adopted by
the stockholders at their last meeting, an application has been made
to the General Assembly for an act appropriating $100,000 for the use
of the Richmond & York River Railroad Company,
in the shape of preferred stock. There are many considerations which
should induce the Legislature to enable the company to complete the
work, which can be done in the short space of two months, and thus
prevent the utter failure of a great commercial project. In its
present imperfect condition, the receipts of the road barely pay the
expenses of transportation, leaving nothing to meet future
contingencies. The State surely will not allow the work to be
subjected to sale under a forfeited mortgage, which must be the result
unless the company has funds to meet the payment of interest on its
bonds for the next two and a half years. One other consideration we
may notice here, which invests the work with peculiar importance at
the present time. This railroad and the
river with which it connects, constitute the only outlet to the ocean
from Richmond, and a large portion of the interior of the State, which
is not commanded by, and which may be defended against, the Federal
Government. Fortress Monroe, at Old Point Comfort, and Fort Calhoun,
at the Rip Raps, have entire command of Hampton Roads and the month of
James River, whereas any vessel may pass from the mouth of York River
to sea without being at any moment within reach of the guns of either
of those fortifications. |
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