| From the Alexandria (Va.) Gazette |
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| April 2, 1861 |
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| A Card |
| House of Delegates |
| Richmond, March 30, 1861 |
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| I learn from the local columns
of the Gazette, as well as from certain resolutions of the City
Council handed me yesterday by Mr. W. H. Fowle, that the Council, the
merchants and business men of our town, are not correctly advised of
what has been going on here. As the Delegate from Alexandria county, I
have not, nor do I, while occupying that position, intend to aid in
carrying out any views or purposes injurious to Alexandria, whether of
my own or of the Company with which I am connected. Honored, as I have
been several times, by the people of the county, with their
confidence, I trust I will be permitted to close my term with a
continuance of that confidence. A seat in the Legislature from our
county is no sinecure to any one who attends to the business of the
office with proper diligence. Whether I have come up to the just
claims of my constituents by attention and fidelity of their
interests, I cheerfully leave to them to decide. As to the charge now
brought against me, I will merely say that it is untrue; whether known
to be so by those making it, is best known to themselves. Its falsity
could have been easily and quickly ascertained by any one more
desirous of arriving at the truth than of venting a little spite or
malignity upon me. |
| I do not expect to be always
spoken well of. If I were, I should begin to suspect myself. Nor can I
expect my acts as Delegate to be judged honestly and fairly by all.
Humble as I am, I am too much in the way of some. I have the proud
consciousness, however, of having discharged by duty to the best of my
ability, and regardless of private or special views or interests. |
| As regards the Strasburg
connection, I believe our people generally will remember that the bill
for the accomplishment of that object by an extension of the
Winchester & Potomac road was indefinitely postponed in the
Senate, by a vote of 26 to 13. This vote I consider a final settlement
of the question, for this session, at least; and I rejoiced in the
belief; for I looked upon the connexion as deeply injurious to
Alexandria, and especially so to the Manassas Gap Road, without being
be3neficial to any important interest whatever. To the people of
Alexandria nothing need be said to convince them of this. The injury
to the Manassas Gap Road would not be limited to the mere cutting off
its trade at Strasburg, and carrying it to a foreign State and city;
but as the Company have a yearly amount of interest of $60,000
to pay, the loss of her business in this way would so seriously impair
her revenue as probably to render it impossible for her to meet her
payments on that account, whereby much injury and distress would be
inflicted upon innocent holders of her mortgage bonds. |
| There has never, therefore,
been a moment since I have been i9n the Legislature when I have not
been ready to use, and have not zealously exercised my best efforts to
defeat it. This fact, I believe, the fair-minded portion of my
fellow-citizens who know me will not dispute. It concerns me very
little to know that another class of them affect to disbelieve it. |
| It was not until the bill of
which a copy is herewith sent had been ordered to its third reading in
the Senate, that I was aware that any further effort was to be made
this session in the matter. As soon as I heard of it (the Senator from
Fairfax and Alexandria being absent) I called on Colonel Gatewood,
Senator from Shenandoah, to inquire about it, and told him that I
thought the matter was done with for this session. He said he had
determined to press it; and that Mr. J. K. Marshall, for the Manassas
Gap Company, and Major Thomas, had consented to let the bill pass with
an amendment. I told him I would as soon have the original bill as
this, as there was no safety in it; that the object was to fill up the
gap; that it was easy for the Baltimore & Ohio Company to furnish
the means to build the connexion and to buy up the Winchester &
Potomac road, as its stock was at a very low price; that the
restrictions as to connexions could be easily removed, even before the
work was built; and then by tapping the Manassas Gap Road, they could
take off all the freight from Strasburg; and that, finally, the
Baltimore & Ohio Road would penetrate the heart of the Valley. As
soon as Major Thomas returned, I mentioned my objections to him. Not
withstanding all this, Col. G. in the exercise of his right as a
Senator, determined to urge his bill. I then told him that no bill
ought to pass to permit an independent company to make this
connection; that it ought to be built by a Virginia company in good
standing, which could prevent an injurious competition; and that, if
he continued to press his bill, I would prepare one to empower the
Alexandria, Loudoun & Hampshire Company to make it when their road
had reached Winchester, proceeding with it and with their main road
West pari passu: with the proviso that the scheme should be approved
by the stockholders of the company at the next annual meeting; and if
they should not approve it, then (and not till then) the connexion to
be made by an independent company. The passage of my bill, if it had
been introduced (for it has not yet been) would have closed the
question for several years, at least until the Hampshire Road was
complete to Winchester -- even if the stockholders had given their
consent. This I deemed an important point to gain, as the advocates of
the connexion will continue to press it at every session, until they
get it; and when the Hampshire Road shall be made to the coal fields,
the connexion will be demanded by the whole Valley, which will want
the coal of Hampshire for forging and manufacturing purposes. |
| I say, with all sincerity,
that I had no ends of that Company to serve in this; but, I deemed the
proposed measure the safest in view of the probability that the
connexion will ere long be made by unfriendly hands and means. I
allude to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company. The people of
Virginia and Alexandria in particular do not need to be warned against
the tender mercies of that concern. |
| Since Mr. Marshall, the
President of the Manassas Gap Railroad, came here, he strongly
intimated, while opposed to any connexion at this time, in consequence
of a desire to obtain further aid from Rockingham county, that, if it
is made, it ought to be by his company. I do not consider it safe for
us that that company should make it at all; and in my opinion it would
be a fatal mistake for her to do so. If her scheme for extending her
road, by way of Staunton, to Salem, on the Virginia & Tennessee
road, should be revived and carried out, this connexion would become
of infinitely more importance to her than the piece of her road
between Strasburg and the junction with the Orange road. The latter
would then be abandoned to its mere local trade and travel, while, in
injurious competition with the Orange road, she would be flourishing
away as part of a great through road from Memphis to Baltimore. |
| Fellow-citizens: should you
desire further explanations, I must defer them till my return home. I
am in my seat day and night, and am much pressed for time. |
| Lewis McKenzie |
| P. S. Since writing the above, a
friend has shown another account of the proceedings of the meeting at
the Corn Exchange, in which Mr. G. D. Fowle is reported to have said
that he had been reliably informed by a gentleman from Richmond that
Mr. McKenzie designed to submit a proposition for a Winchester &
Strasburg Railroad, in connection with the Alexandria, Loudoun &
Hampshire Railroad. That gentleman was mistaken, whoever he may be. I
was opposed to it, as before stated; but as Col. Gatewood, the
Shenandoah Senator, informed me he was determined to press his bill, a
substitute was prepared, but never offered, providing that, if made at
all, it should be made by a Company in which the State had a
substantial interest and control. I took a common-sense view of the
matter. I knew, as all ought to know, that bills sometimes pass even
if one Senator and one Delegate oppose them. As regards the remark of
Mr. W. H. Fowle, made at the same meeting, that I am so absorbed in
the affairs of the road with which I am connected, as to make me,
"however honest," unsafe, so far as the interests of
Alexandria came in conflict, I have only to say that it is entirely
gratuitous and unjust. Though I do not profess to occupy the region of
serene infallibility which lies above the heads of common mortals, I
am willing to let the people of Alexandria decide which has been the
most disinterested or even wise in his advocacy of
measures affecting Alexandria interests, Mr. W. H. Fowle or myself.
Gentlemen ought to be a little more careful of what they say about me
until they hear the truth; and then condemn whatever I may have done
wrong. Like others, I am liable to err. |
| Lewis McKenzie |
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