| From the Mobile Advertiser & Record |
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| May 6, 1864 |
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| A Novel Case |
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| A novel and interesting case is to heard
before His Honor Judge Jones at 10 o'clock this morning -- an
application for an injunction in the matter of the {Mobile
&} Spring Hill Railroad Company: not,
as will probably strike the reader, for an injunction on their behalf
to restrain the opposing parties from tearing up the road, but on
behalf of the other parties to restrain the Company from making any
opposition to the tearing up of the road! We rather think this is one
of the coolest and most singular proceedings ever heard of in the
annals of the law. |
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We noticed, a month or six weeks ago, the fact that an attempt was
being made by parties sheltering themselves under the wing of
Government, to appropriate to their own use the iron of this road; but
as proceedings were ordered to be suspended until the remonstrance of
the Company and the military authorities could be heard, so much time
had since elapsed, we had hoped that the affair was dropped. The first
intelligence that the Company had that the design was still persisted
in, was a notice a few days ago from the party claiming authority to
impress the iron, and on being asked for his authority, all he could
at first show was a dispatch from certain parties to the effect that
they had got permission to take up the iron -- parties, too, who had
been charged with having an interest in the transaction, and had
disavowed it. The impressing agent, we understand, has since received
a dispatch from some official, who says that there is an order from
the Secretary of War to take up the iron; and how he has filed this
curious bill before Judge Jones. |
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We have no hesitation in pronouncing this impressment, or pretended or
attempted impressment of the material of the Spring Hill Railroad one
of the greatest outrages we have heard of since impressment came in
vogue. It is not the Government that takes the road, but it authorized
private parties to take it for their own use, on the plea that if they
could only build a railroad to a certain point they could furnish the
Government with a vast quantity of iron. A roving commission is
granted them, to find iron where they can, and they discover in the
Spring Hill road five miles of iron, which will go that far towards
building their road, and give notice that they are about to
appropriate it. |
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Gen. Maury protests against the destruction of this road, which is not
a mere public convenience to our community, but an important military
route as regards the defenses of Mobile. If this city should be
attacked it is of great importance, for more reasons than we will name
at present, that we should hold Spring Hill, and that we could not
well do without the present railroad communication. Gen. Maury pointed
out to the Impressing Agent, as he designated himself, a lot of 3,000
rails {close to 8 miles, both rails} which
he could get. These are quite as many as his Company needs: a portion
of them have already been taken up, and they are better rails than
those of the Spring Hill Company. When the objection was made that
they were dangerously near the enemy's lines, he offered the services
of a brigade to protect the parties engaged in removing the rails, but
that would not suite. The important fact was, that the Spring Hill
Railroad was a little more convenient to get at, and the Company were
determined to have it. {The offered rails were
almost certainly some of the Alabama & Florida (of Florida) RR
rails still in place north of Pensacola. They were "better"
because they were heavier and could, therefore, support heavier trains
-- not an issue for a short mile railroad.} |
| We are anxious to know what pretence has
been urged, and what influence brought to bear for the accomplishment
of this project. That there is some underhand work about it, is plain,
from the fact that the War Department has never informed either the
Spring Hill Railroad Company or General Maury of its decision in the
matter, while private parties profess to have obtained an
authorization to proceed with their work of destruction. |
| This impressing for the benefit of private
parties is a most iniquitous extension of the impressment power, of
doubtful propriety, to say the least, and liable to all manner of
abuse. In the present case, the only interest the Government can be alleged
to have is an extremely remote one, unless the parties immediately
interested pretend that the Government is in pressing need of the iron
and coal which they propose to furnish, and that is notoriously
contrary to fact. |
| Two years ago there might have been a
better show of apology for the course intended, but at the present
time the iron works at Selma and elsewhere are turning out all the
work the Government needs or can use, showing that the necessity for
violating private rights in order to procure more, does not exist, and
that the whole project is a plan to enrich a company of speculators. |
| {This is a clear example of the
power of the press being used to spread one falsehood after another.
Just because the editor does not know the true facts does not seem to
bother him. First, the rails were ordered removed by the Secretary of
War on March 3, 1864 (NA, ENG
3-1A-64, NA, ENG 3-3A-64), in agreement with a
recommendation of the Iron Removal Commission. Second, the importance
of this little road to the defense of Mobile is greatly overstated
(the road did not connect with any other railroad, was only 8 miles
long, and was probably horse-drawn). Third, the shortage of coal and
iron to the Confederacy was extreme -- the necessity of removing rails
for use elsewhere, rather than making new ones, is a clear sign that
"the iron works at Selma and elsewhere are turning our all the
work the Government needs or can use" is a false statement.
Finally, if the government was going to remove the rails itself and
then turn them over to a private firm (the Piedmont RR, the Columbia
& Augusta RR, the Shelby Iron Works, etc), how is that different
from authorizing that company to remove the rails and then use them?
With the "support" of a press like
this, it was more and more difficult to get the population to
sacrifice and persevere in the war effort.} |
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