| From the Tarboro (N. C.) Southerner |
| |
| February 23, 1861 |
| |
| Railroad to Tarboro' |
| Amid the storm of political excitement,
and the dangers which threaten the country, and the stringency of the
money market, and the unexpected demands upon the State treasury, and
the depreciation of State stock, the feeling in behalf of our
Railroad, which had been at fever heat, has somewhat abated. We have
said little of late, but we have thought none the less, and have been
watching and waiting for an auspicious moment to rouse public
attention again to this all-important subject. That we are to have a
Railroad we as much believe as we believe in any future event. Our
faith on the subject amounts to a certainty. The thing is a necessity,
and let what may come to pass, our people cannot much longer slumber
upon this question. They cannot much longer consent that Washington
shall be reduced to a stage coach town. |
| The Tarboro' people have built a branch of
the Wilmington {& Weldon}
Road to within forty miles of us. Mr. Stubbs has introduced into the
Legislature a bill to extend that road to Williamston on the Roanoke
river {about 26 miles east of Tarboro;
Washington would be about 23 miles south}. The Norfolk people no doubt favor the project. But the people
of Tarboro' prefer to unite their destinies to ours, and to this end
desire to co-operate with us in running a Road from that place to
this. The Pitt people will no doubt join in the enterprise and the
people of the three counties can build the Road with or without
legislative aid. We learn that an effort is to be made to get an
appropriation from the Legislature now in session, for a survey of the
route between the two places. Once in connection at Tarboro', a
favorable moment can be seized to extend it to Nashville {about
25 miles west of Tarboro and about 10 miles west of the Wilmington
& Weldon RR} and Louisburg {about
21 miles northwest of Nashville}, or even further if desirable. For the present we must be
content to go to Tarboro', because this is feasible now and at all
times. |
| The Wilmington
interest, we have reason to believe, will favor a Road to this place,
in preference to one to the Roanoke, because they prefer North
Carolina to Virginia, Washington to Norfolk. |
| We learn that a
meeting of the Directors of the Washington & Leakesville Railroad {Leakesville
is just under 200 miles northwest of Washington, across three
north-south railroads} for
this town, was held on Wednesday last, at which they resolved to bend
all their energies to the building of a Road to Tarboro', and
authorized Mr. Thomas Sparrow to represent them in co-operating with
the people of Edgecombe and Pitt on the subject. |
| Upon this enterprise
we confidently anticipate a union of all interests here and in the two
counties above, and believe we can promise our readers that in less
than eighteen months they will hear the whistle of a locomotive in our
streets. |
| Washington {N.
C.} Dispatch |
|