| From the Houston Telegraph |
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| March 21, 1861 |
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| Texas & New Orleans Railroad |
| We have heretofore urged some
considerations why this road should have the favor of the public --
both of the Government and of the people. We do not now design to
recapitulate these considerations so much as to urge another, and one
which recent political events renders far more weighty than all the
rest. It is the importance of the enterprise in a military point of
view to the Confederate States. |
| The vast frontier of Texas,
opening as it does, not only upon the Indian country of the North
West, but upon the Republic of Mexico in the South West, and almost on
the abode of the Kansas Abolitionists in the North, renders its
protection a matter not only of primary importance to our own State,
but of the first necessity to the general Government of the
Confederate States. But not only has this widely extended frontier to
be protected, but the sea coast of Texas is the most exposed of any in
America. While the other States are mostly hemmed in by other States
of like institutions, we have a frontier of over a thousand miles, and
three hundred and fifty miles of sea coast, in all of over 1400 miles,
or as much as all the other Confederate States together; for the
protection of which the Government will be bound, and an inland access
to which must be secured. |
| The present condition of this
enterprise, is that the Texas Division is now nearly completed. From
New Orleans to Berwick's Bay, has been in operation two or three
years. From Berwick's Bay to New Iberia, is all graded but a small
portion. From New Iberia to the Sabine, something more than a hundred
and twenty miles, remains yet to be done. |
| The Company have manifested
great enterprise in pushing their road through. They have within a
year, built fully eighty miles of road. They should, if the means were
furnished, put every mile of the road to New Iberia in operation, in
less than twelve months. |
| Texas has done her full share.
She has given lands, and loaned money to this, like all other railroad
companies with a free hand. It now remains to be seen, if Louisiana
and New Orleans will meet the Texas railroad at their borders.
Louisiana is a much older State than Texas. The people have vastly
more wealth. We have been at work on an enterprise that will pour
untold wealth into the lap of her principal city. We have opened to
her, the door to the richest territory on the face of the earth. We
have not said come and take the fruits, but come half way, and we will
bring the fruits to you. We have shown our good faith by coming that
half way, with the very fruit in our hand, and now stretching it out
to our neighbors, we beg them to come and take it! Will they still
remain indifferent to the appeal? |
| Here is a band of iron that
will be needed to bind this Southern Confederacy together. It also
points Westward, and will be carried over new fields which the Anglo
Saxon must yet possess and develop. It demands the attention not only
of Louisiana and Texas, but of the whole Confederacy. |
| Here is the route of a Pacific
railroad. Here is the plan on which it can be built, viz: By several
companies, none of which is too large to be wieldly, each under local
control, and each, where it can be supported by local business. Here
is indeed the route of the most importance of any that now claims
public attention. |
| Will Louisiana, will New
Orleans hold back now, that the road is brought to them? A million of
dollars will establish the connection between Houston and the Crescent
City. Houston has already too hundred and sixty-five miles of road
terminating in its borders, besides this toward New Orleans, and all
to be feeders of this. The building of this one hundred and twenty
miles, will actually put New Orleans in connection with about four
hundred miles of railroad, now already completed in Texas. Why need we
say more? |
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