| From the Clarksville, Tenn. Jeffersonian |
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| July 9, 1861 |
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| The Louisville & Nashville Railroad -- The Action
of Tennessee |
| We learn that yesterday the Governor of
Tennessee, influenced doubtless by the manifest determination of King
Lincoln to take and keep control of the Louisville & Nashville
Railroad, and in consideration of the gradual withdrawal of cars and
locomotives from the limits of that State to this, where it appears no
objection will be made to the illegal acts of the Dictator, and where
they could be used to transport Federal troops to within striking
distance of Nashville, took possession, in the name of the State, of
all the rolling stock of the road in the limits of that Commonwealth,
and will retain it therein. |
| Of course this will temporarily cut off
all direct communication between this city and Nashville, and is
deeply to be regretted by the friends of the road and the citizens of
both States. |
| It seems that sometime since the
authorities of Tennessee asked that a portion of the rolling stock of
the road equivalent to the proportion of stock in the road owned by
Tennessee and the citizens thereof should be kept in that State; but
the request was not complied with. In the meantime the control of the
road passed virtually from the hands of the directors elected by the
stockholders and under the management of King Lincoln & Co.,
acting through their agents Messrs. Gallagher, Cotton & Co., who
announced their intention to carry out the arbitrary edicts issued
from the office of the Secretary of the Treasury, by force if need be.
It was not unreasonable, that, under these circumstances, Tennessee,
largely interested in the road, directly and remotely, should feel
some solicitude about the congregation of rolling stock in this State,
where it could be reached by the Federal forces whenever in the
sovereign will of the Dictator it should be thought proper for them to
march on the former State; and when her requests to have the matter
put on a proper footing was neglected, no one can say that she acted
save in such a manner as was necessary to her own security. |
| The authorities of Tennessee have not
interfered with the road, or its equipments, within this State, whose
neutrality she respects, as King Lincoln has done here. She has only
assumed to control that portion of the road within her own limits
after the Board of Directors chosen by all the stockholders had been
superseded in its management by Gallagher and Cotton, sub-agents of
the Administration, who are doubtless pleased with an opportunity to
earn the approbation of the King and to show an applauding public what
wonderful authority they possess, regardless of the interest of the
road, the wishes of the people, or the laws of the land. |
| Lou. Courier, 5th |
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