NP, RD 3/14A/1863

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch
 
March 14, 1863
  
General Assembly of Virginia
 
Friday, March 13, 1863
 
Senate
 
   The President laid before the Senate a communication from the Executive enclosing a letter from the Secretary of War on the subject of the employment of slaves, called for under an act of the Legislature, on the Piedmont Railroad within Virginia. In his letter the Secretary of War says:
   "As there was great need of force in the construction of the Piedmont Railroad, and serious apprehension on the minds of many slaveholders with regard to the small-pox in Richmond, a portion of the slaves called for under the act of the Virginia Legislature has been assigned to labor on the part of the Piedmont Railroad within Virginia. This has not been done in any case, however, without the consent of the owners."
   The Governor, in communicating the letter to the Legislature, says: "If this construction be a sound one, the slave labor of the State can be assigned to labor on the {Virginia} Central, the Virginia & Tennessee, or any other railroad in the State, upon the plea of military necessity. Without roads it would be impossible to transport the army and the supplies necessary to sustain the troops. All I desire to know is whether this construction of the law is in accordance with the views of the General Assembly."
   The reading of the communication gave rise to a warm debate, in which Messrs. Christian of Augusta. Nash of Chesterfield, Douglas of King William, Neeson of Marion, Robertson of Richmond and others, participated. The general tenor of their remarks were in opposition to the construction put upon the act by the Secretary of War.

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