| At a meeting of the
Stockholders of the Florida Rail Road Company held at their office in
Fernandina on the 13th day of June 1861 |
| The President of the Company
then Submitted the following address: |
| "Address of the President
to the Stockholders at a general meeting held on the 12th June
1861." |
| In the month of July 1855 I
reported to you that work was about beginning upon the Florida Rail
Road. I now report to you that it is made. |
| Begun under hopeful and
encouraging auspices, the work was destined to pass through a period
of accumulated difficulties, not anticipated. But it is done. The
great fact has now an existence that the State of Florida possesses
wholly within her limits the best artificial connection between the
Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico; and that regard being had to
the outline and topography of North America, it is the best that can
ever be made. |
| The value of this great
commercial fact only becomes appreciated, when we ponder upon the
wealth and activity of the population that dwell upon the East and
West shores of the Atlantic Ocean and upon the waters that drain into
the Gulf of Mexico, bearing in mind also that they are all still more
or less rapidly progressive in wealth and numbers. |
| Providence has given us the
shortest route of connection between the two seas. In our day and
generation this gift has been improved, and a way for commerce
constructed which is economical and convenient. To us and to our
children be this work blessed. |
| In the moment of its
completion the seas it connects are occupied by our enemy and the use
of the roadway for general commerce is prevented. But the political
changes which are being wrought out in the strife will settle distinctly
through Southern channels, the leading commerce of the Continent, and
prepare the way for the highest vitality and value of this new route.
The day of Start in its career will come, and then not the least in
its destined achievements will be the creation of a new emporium of
commerce in the South: Fernandina will be added to Savannah, and
Charleston, and Norfolk, and Baltimore, as an Atlantic Seaport for
business with fair claim to a good rank among them. It is the most
Southern of the good harbors on the Atlantic. It has the most
extensive back country of either of them. It has the best assured
healthfulness of any Southern City. It is of all the Atlantic ports
the nearest and most convenient to New Orleans, a fact of no slight
significance, for New Orleans ought to become, under the new political
arrangements, the great entrepot of American produce, and the leading
Centre of trade. |
| Involved in the excitement
and business of a great civil Revolution which was necessary to
Southern vitality, but which carries war in its train, no part of our
community any more than ourselves, can feel disposed to consider or
discuss questions of merely commercial or pecuniary consequence. |
| Saddened by the misfortune of
disappointment and constrained delay, at the very instant when the
unfolding of our great enterprize was about to take place, and the
plans and labors of years to become fruitful of good, I have no
heart for elaborate or laborious exposition. |
| Of the features of the route,
the excellence of the road and of the harbors it connects, the history
of its construction, its cost and commercial value, I wait a more
propitious season to treat and discuss. The great public mind and
heart is now throbbing with the pressure of interests that reach the
foundation of social existence. |
| In general terms I have to
state that the tract is one hundred and fifty four miles in length,
connecting Fernandina on the Atlantic with Cedar Keys on the Gulf,
laid with heavy iron (mostly sixty lbs to the yard) upon a very fine
road bed with light graduations, inconsiderable curves, and very
little bridge or trestle work. This road with an equipment equal to a
considerable business, over 500,000 acres of agricultural and naval
stores and timber lands contiguous to its line, the town of Fernandina
and Cedar Keys, with all the extensive and valuable water front at
both places, the Stockholders own for a cost
of
dollars represented by a paid capital
of dollars
and outstanding issue of seven per cent bonds
and
dollars of eight per cent bonds and floating debt
of
. |
| But all this property is of
small value until the road is put into active employment by the
establishment of connecting lines upon the sea. Until then we can only
endeavor to make it of the greatest local vitality by employing trains
upon the track for the accommodation of those who may desire to use
it. |
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