| Southern Railroad of Mississippi |
| J. D. B. De Bow, Esq. |
| I take the liberty of sending
you the enclosed articles from the Vicksburg Whig, in the hope that
the subject of main importance to which they relate may, through your
influential Review, be brought favorably to the notice of your readers
in the Confederate States. That is the great importance, especially in
the present and prospective condition of the Cotton States, to
construct, without loss of time, the railroad from Montgomery, now the
capitol of the Southern Government, to Meridian, on the Mobile &
Ohio Railroad, the eastern terminus of the Southern Railroad. It only
requires the liberal and united efforts of a few leading railroad
companies to complete this important connection in twelve or eighteen
months; the whole distance from Montgomery to Meridian is only about
one hundred and forty miles, on which line, that is from Selma to
Uniontown, there are thirty miles of completed road now in operation,
and some forty or fifty miles more of it ready for the cross ties and
iron. The completion of that portion of the east and west trunk of the
great iron highway, penetrating through the very heart of the five
cotton States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South
Carolina, cementing and welding them together in inseparable unity and
harmony, would be one of the most important elements of strength to
the young republic to insure its power and prosperity. Look at the
mineral wealth of Alabama, her rich beds of iron ores and vast coal
fields that would be developed. Look at the necessity of such a line
to prepare for the wonderful revolution in commerce that is about to
take place; we want all the outlets possible for our exportable
supplies. |
| We have now a speedy prospect
of purchasing foreign goods (European) in all our Southern important
commercial cities belonging to the Confederate States, much cheaper
than they can be obtained in New York and other principal Northern
cities. |
| No single proposition or work
of internal improvement within the Confederate States is comparable in
importance, viewed in a social, pecuniary, political, military or
commercial light to the rapid completion of this portion of the Main
Trunk line that is to bind together homogeneous States, and strengthen
the hands of their people to achieve their magnificent designs. |
| Yours, very respectfully. |
| [The articles referred to above will have
attention hereafter. -- Ed.] |
|