President's Office
| Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac R. R. Co. |
| Richmond, June 27, 1861 |
| |
| His Excellency Jefferson Davis |
| President of the Confederate States |
| |
| Sir, |
| I was apprised some short time since by
the Secretary of this Commonwealth, who is also a director of this
company, of your expression to him of your sense of the importance
to the public defense of a speedy connection of the railroads
between Weldon and the Potomac frontier which terminate in the
cities of Richmond and Petersburg. Although during the existing war
and until a resumption of intercourse with the States north of the
Potomac these connections are of comparatively little value to any
of the companies owning these railroads, and of none to this
company, which by the seizure of its Potomac steam-boats and the
blockade of that river is cut off from Washington, the other
terminus of its route, yet the companies have ever in former years
of peace and intercourse between the Northern and Southern States
appreciated the advantages of such connections, and have only been
prevented from long since constructing them by the opposition of the
two cities, without whose consent these companies were never
authorized by the Legislature to make them. When, therefore, some
six weeks since they were applied to by the military authorities of
this State to say in what mode and on what terms these connections
could be made and rented or sold by the Government to these
companies, they immediately had the requisite surveys and estimates
made by experienced engineers, and gave the desired information to
the State authorities, which, on his application, they afterward
furnished to the Quartermaster-General of the Confederate States.
The work was ascertained and reported to be practicable, and
estimated to cost about $75,000. To its construction by the railroad
companies two obstacles, insuperable to them, were presented. First,
the want of power to compel the consent of the cities to its
construction; and second, the want of present pecuniary means to pay
for it. The first of these obstacles the Governor of this State
supposed he removed by his instruction to me of the 11th instant,
authorizing me in a few vague words to have only one of these
connections made in accordance with one (not specifying which) of
three propositions which I had submitted in behalf of the companies
concerned some four weeks before, to construct both these works with
money to be advanced by the State and ultimately repaid by these
companies. But a more precise authority being necessary, not only
because of the ambiguity of that given, but because on the face of
the paper giving it appeared the unanimous advice of the Executive
Council, if not questioning the Governor's power to give it, at
least earnestly advising its reference to the convention, I sought
for that more definite instruction, and received for reply a
sanction for my hesitation to comply with his instruction in the
Governor's decision to refer the matter to the convention, which he
did on the 17th instant. That body on yesterday passed an ordinance
giving the requisite authority to the railroad companies to
construct these works, but without any pecuniary aid from the State.
This, in the present crippled condition of these companies, and
especially of my own company (which has lost not only half of its
annual revenue, but a large portion of its capital invested in the
Potomac steam-boats), it is most impolitic and probably
impracticable for them to do. Certainly they cannot afford to employ
on the work such a force as would complete it at any very early day.
Yet, that it should be completed at the earliest possible date I
learn from General Lee and the Quartermaster-General to be of the
utmost importance to the public defense, and I can readily conceive
this to be so. Besides the inconvenient and perhaps hazardous delays
occasioned to the Army by the want of these connections, a very
heavy expense must inevitably be incurred without them by the
Government for the transportation through these cities of troops and
army munitions and supplies. If, on account of this expense, the
Government of the Confederate States could advance the whole or
perhaps even the greater portion of the cost of these connections
the companies constructing them might refund of that cost to the
Government annually the interest and a percentage of the principal
during the existing war, and within, say, three years after its
termination the balance of the principal advanced, each installment
of interest and principal to be retained out of what will be due
then to them from the Government for army transportation, or to the
extent that such installment shall exceed what shall then be due for
transportation to be paid to the Government in money or its own
securities. If such an arrangement be acceptable to you, and you
desire any further information from me respecting it, I shall be
pleased to afford it to you either in writing or in a personal
interview, which last I have refrained from proposing from an
unwillingness to trespass upon your valuable time, although it would
afford a much better opportunity for considering and arranging what
may be done. The same consideration has prevented my testifying by a
special visit the high respect with which I am,
|
| Your obedient servant |
| P. V. Daniel, Jr. |
| Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac R. R. Co. |
|