VAA, RR 12/2/1861

Executive Department {of the State of Virginia}
December 2, 1861
 
Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Delegates
 
   Since the adjournment of the general assembly on the 4th day of April last, Virginia has withdrawn from the Federal Union, and has resumed her sovereignty as an independent state.
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   The rail road companies of the state have been active, energetic and faithful in the performance of duty in this crisis. Their officers, employees and agents have spared no proper effort to transport, with the least possible delay, troops, supplies and ammunition to desired points; and they deserve and will receive the thanks of the people not only of Virginia, but of the Confederacy. They have justly won the confidence of the country, and in times like these it becomes the legislature to deal generously and liberally with them, giving to them such aid as will enable them to promote the public interest, without pecuniary sacrifice.
   Our rail roads have not been constructed with special reference to military purposes and objects, but the war has demonstrated that if they had been constructed with this view, they could not have been better adapted to our wants and necessities. The Virginia & Tennessee, the {Virginia} Central, the Orange & Alexandria, the Manassas Gap, the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac, the Richmond & Petersburg, the South Side, the Richmond & Danville, the Harpers Ferry and Winchester {the Winchester & Potomac}, the {Richmond &} York River, and last, but by no means least, the Norfolk and Petersburg roads, have all rendered essential and valuable services. Indeed, it is difficult to conceive how we could have dispensed with them, or either of them. Their connections are as important as the roads themselves; and it really seems as if Providence had guided our engineers in the selection of the routes, with a view to providing the best means for the defence of the state in the existing contingency. Take a map, examine it carefully, and it would seem as if the same wise Providence had superintended, directed and controlled our entire system of internal improvements of every kind in Virginia and throughout the Southern Confederacy.
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Respectfully,
John Letcher   {Governor}

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