| From the Savannah Morning News |
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| February 15, 1861 |
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| Second Report of the President of the
Atlantic & Gulf Railroad |
| Office A. & G. R. R. Co. |
| Savannah, Feb. 1st, 1861 |
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| To the Stockholders of the Atlantic
& Gulf Rail Road Company |
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The President and Directors respectfully submit the
following second annual report upon the affairs of the Company during
the past year.
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| Subjoined hereto will be
found the report of the Chief Engineer, F. P. Holcombe, Esq.,
exhibiting the operations of his department during twelve months, up
to the 23d ultimo. |
| As Mr. Holcombe's
resignation, taking effect on the 11th inst., has been accepted, it
will not be deemed improper to express thus publicly the very high
estimation in which his services have been held by this Board, and to
acknowledge the energy, fidelity and success with which he has
conducted the construction of the Road and maintained the interests of
the Company. The unparalleled rapidity with which the Road has
advanced, and the marked economy distinguishing its construction, has
been in the greatest measure due to his prudence and skill. With
whatever confidence this Board will receive his successor, it cannot
part with the late Chief Engineer without sentiments of regret and
without expressing the compliments justly due to his eminent merit. |
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The track-laying on the Atlantic & Gulf R. Road
properly began at the Satilla River, on the 2d of January, 1859, and
unless detained by unexpected circumstances, will reach the town of
Thomasville by the 15th inst., making the number of miles laid 130.65
in 25 1/2 months, or at the rate of 5.11 miles per month, 1.27 miles
per week, or 1,121 feet per diem. The ordinary rate at which the track
has been laid, when under unembarrassed progress, has been from 2,000
to 3,000 feet per diem. Occasional detentions, beyond the control of
the Company or of the contractors have reduced this rapid advancement
to the average stated above; but it may, with prudence, be asserted,
that the history of railway construction hardly affords an example of
greater celerity in laying superstructure.
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The different Stations on the line have been reached by
the trains as follows:
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| No. |
8 |
Blackshear |
May 1st |
1859 |
| " |
9 |
Yankee Town |
July 4th |
1859 |
| " |
10 |
Glenmore |
October 12th |
" |
| " |
11 |
Holmerville |
Dec'r 21st |
" |
| " |
12 |
Lawton |
February 28th |
1860 |
| " |
13 |
Stockton |
March 23d |
" |
| " |
14 |
Naylor |
June 18th |
" |
| " |
15 |
Valdosta |
July 25th |
" |
| " |
16 |
Quitman |
October 23d |
" |
| " |
18 |
Seward's |
January 28th |
1861 |
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It is with profound regret that the Board is compelled to
declare that the track cannot reach Bainbridge, the proper terminus of
the Road, within the time assigned for its completion, October 15th,
1861. The financial statements embodied in this report will afford
satisfactory evidence of the necessities which will compel the Company
to temporary delay in the expected progress of the Road.
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Other causes, arising out of the abandonment of the
largest contract of the line, lying between Thomasville and
Bainbridge, have mainly contributed to this result.
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The political confusion of the times, striking a panic
into securities of all kinds, has not failed to reach the financial
resources on this Company, and to affect some of its contractors with
a natural alarm. The impossibility of realizing par value for Bonds of
the State, issued for its proportional subscription, deprived the
Company for a time of its most reliable resource for cash. To add most
seriously to this embarrassment, a very large amount of installments,
due since April last, remained, and still remains, unpaid by private
stockholders, almost exclusively in Southern Georgia. They appealed
from the solicitations of the Treasurer to the difficulties of the
period, which had arrested the movement of produce and prevented its
conversion into money.
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Finding the State securities of the Company in a state of
stagnation, and its Stockholders unwilling or unable to respond to
their unpaid installments, with an uncertain future, filled with
portents of commercial trouble and of threatened civil war, Messrs.
Callahan & Co., contractors for 24 miles of bridging and grading
West of Thomasville, abandoned their contract, rather than incur the
hazard of any general bankruptcy by which they might be affected in
common with the Company.
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Whatever may be the justice of the conclusions of these
gentlemen, and whatever may be the result of the present public
commotion, the Board cannot but feel in common with the people of
Decatur county, the disappointment they must deeply realize from even
a brief suspension of a portion of the work.
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Notwithstanding these difficulties, creating at once
a gap of 24 miles in 35, the Board of Directors, still confident of
resources which have sustained their enterprise in times of
prosperity, without a moment's pause to its credit, or a moment's
suspension of its integrity, and still reliant upon the good faith of
its private stockholders, do not hesitate to make new contracts to
carry on the work west of Thomasville.
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There are contractors now prepared to continue the work
even to the banks of the Flint. The labor of these faithful men, will
of itself, nearly earn the cash they contract for, provided the
Company is enabled to obtain par value for State securities.
Unfortunately, though wisely, perhaps, the makers of the Charter of
the Atlantic & Gulf Rail Road Company imposed the following
condition upon the issue of the bonds of the State in subscription to
the Company's stock.
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"And if there shall be on such funds (i. e. any
money not otherwise appropriated,) in the Treasury, or not sufficient
to pay the installment called for, he (the Governor) shall issue and
dispose of bonds of the State of Georgia, having twenty years to run,
and bearing six per cent. interest with coupons attached, made payable
either at the Treasury, or at such other place as the Governor may
think best to insert in said bonds, and the proceeds of the Western
& Atlantic Rail Road after deducting the expenses of said Road and
the payment of all other sums, for which the same has been set apart
and pledged, shall be applied to the payment of the principal and
interest on these bonds, but under no circumstances shall any of
these bonds be sold below their par value.
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In no instance until recently have the bonds here
contemplated realized less than 1 per centum, while they have more
commonly commanded 2 per centum above par. But founded, as they are,
in the extraordinary credit of the State, they have not escaped the
universal depreciation of the present financial and political crisis.
The last issue of State bonds to this Company lay useless upon its
hands for nearly two months, while its creditors, agitated with alarm,
grew clamorous for payments never before denied. By creditors is
intended contractors only, for never until now have obligations
of this Company been emitted -- none, indeed, ever even contemplated
beyond those contained in simple contracts for grading, superstructure
and iron.
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In this condition of a part of our resources, an earnest
appeal was made early in January to delinquent Stockholders to pay up
their installments, warning them that if they refused payment the work
would be arrested. Of $187,000 then due by private stockholders, the
Company received in January, about $9,000, an amount scarcely
sufficient to meet one-third of the amount of the monthly estimates of
the contractors.
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Notwithstanding such decided discouragements, some of the
contractors still confident, in the stability and integrity of the
Company, have continued the grading west of Thomasville, while
McDowell and Callahan have resumed the bridging to the first depot
station west of Thomasville upon terms acceptable to the Company.
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The completion of these contracts will give a continuous
grade to a point eleven (11) miles west of Thomasville, and 24 miles
from Bainbridge, which may be reached by the rail by the 1st of
September next.
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The iron rail necessary to complete the superstructure to
Bainbridge was engaged early in the autumn of 1860 upon terms highly
favorable. The first cargo of 850 tons, being part of 3,200 tons under
engagement, is being now discharged at Savannah, and will be
immediately carried out upon the line. This rail is of 52 lbs. weight
to the yard, and cut in lengths of 24 feet instead of 20 feet with the
usual percentage for short lengths.
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The Company's engagements for this iron is one of the
most momentous embarrassments to be contemplated, should the
subscribers who have not liquidated their installments, continue to
withhold payment. We would here again earnestly appeal to their sense
of justice and of right to come forward to our relief. Longer delay
can only result in the certain stoppage of the Road at a point far
short of its destination. The Company cannot consent to continue the
Road at the enormous sacrifices involved in the present delinquency of
a portion of its Stockholders. It would be unjust to the subscribers
who have promptly responded to the call for installments, unjust to
the contractors who have been paid one half or one-third in stock,
unjust to the State which has nobly promoted an enterprise, without
which southern Georgia might for many years to come remain isolated,
and without the development to which it is entitled by its native
promise.
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It is a question, whether delinquent Stockholders fully
apprehend the consequences of their non-payment. It, in brief,
deprives the Company of all its assets except the subscription of
contractors. The State subscribes $5 for every $6 subscribed by
individuals or corporations, or 5-11 of the whole stock of the
Company. If $60,000 be paid in by private Stockholders, $50,000 is
paid by the State. If then there be $180,000 paid in by private
Stockholders (the amount now due,) the State will pay in $150,000 --
so the actual loss to the Company from the non-payment of
$180,000 now due by private Stockholders, is the sum of $330,000 --
about one-half the amount necessary to complete the Road from
Thomasville to the banks of the Flint.
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The consequences do not stop here. They continue in the
depreciation of the value of the Company's script, in the creation of
liabilities not otherwise necessary, in the issue of bonds never
anticipated in the organization of the Company, nor essential to the
completion of the Road.
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The Board of Directors still, however, indulge the hope
that the Company may be soon relieved from some of these results,
since produce has been carried into market and has met the recent high
prices which have been realized by the planters.
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The question of a Rail Road connection between the
Atlantic & Gulf Rail Road and the Rail Road system of Florida has
elicited for nearly twelve months past the most earnest attention. The
charter of this Company not providing for the investment of any of its
capital in branch roads, and expressly requiring that such Roads shall
be built at the expense of the Stockholders thereof, the Savannah,
Albany & Gulf Rail Road Company obtained an amendment to its
charter from the General Assembly of 1856, by which it is
"authorized to construct a Road or Roads from any point or
points, on their line, or the line of the Atlantic & Gulf Rail
Road Company to such place or places on the boundary line between
Georgia and Florida, as the said Company may select." The
negotiations between that Company and the Pensacola & Georgia Rail
Road Company, have resulted in the location of a line of connection
from No. 12, Lawton, on the A. & G. R. R., and a point on the
Pensacola & Georgia Rail Road, 12 miles east from Columbus in the
County of Columbia.
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Whatever may have been the causes which induced the
establishment of such a line, this Board has looked with especial
interest to the location of a line or lines of connection indicated by
the trend of the Atlantic & Gulf Rail Road.
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A line from No. 10, Glenmore, to Lake City, another from
No. 16, Quitman, to Monticello -- the one entering the centre of the
great angle of the Peninsula of Florida, from the great bend of the
Main Trunk Rail Road, the other reaching the capital of Florida by a
short line of from 22 to 24 miles, would seem to be the natural lines
of connections.
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The exclusive policy of particular Rail Road corporations
has invariably yielded finally to the public want. Sooner or later,
when the people of Florida discover that the great wharf-head which
nature has constructed, between the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico,
for a vast American commerce, lies neglected and unsought, they will
deplore the error of an exclusive system -- they will deplore the
waste of constructing connections which can only place partially
within their reach the greater markets of the country -- they will
deplore the restrictions by which legislation and Rail Road monopolies
have encumbered their progress, and denied to them the prosperous
results of a liberal, far-reaching system of internal improvement.
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The difficulties presented in the way of effecting the
great object of the State in contributing to the construction of the
Atlantic & Gulf Rail Road, by reaching the Gulf by an available
route across the territories of Florida, has finally led to the
location of a route across the Southern territories of Alabama towards
Mobile.
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In conferring a charter upon this Company, it was the
declared intention of the State of Georgia, "by this act to
provide a Main Trunk Railway across her territory connecting the
Atlantic with the Gulf of Mexico." It was furthermore declared by
said charter, "That when the Atlantic & Gulf Rail Road
Company shall be organized, as provided in the previous section of
this act, the said Company shall be authorized, and is hereby declared
to have full power to build, construct, and maintain a Rail Road for
the transportation of produce, merchandise and passengers, from a
point as near as practicable to the intersection of the counties of
Appling, Ware and Wayne, crossing the Satilla River at or near
Walker's Ferry, in the vicinity of Waresboro', and thence by the most
practicable route to the weste3rn boundary of the State of Georgia, at
any point between Fort Gaines, in the county of Clay, and the junction
of the Flint and Chattahoochee Rivers, in the county of Decatur, said
western terminus to be selected by the Directors, after an accurate
survey and estimates of cost shall have been made, and with
distinct reference to a speedy connection with the Gulf of Mexico at
Mobile or Pensacola."
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Thus sustained by the spirit and the letter of the
charter of the State, but debarred from selecting any eligible route
through the State of Florida to Mobile or Pensacola, this Board
directed a survey to be made from Bainbridge to the Chattahoochee and
across Southern Alabama towards Mobile. They were the more sustained
in the propriety of this step by an engagement on the part of the
Savannah, Albany & Gulf Rail Road Company to transfer to this
Company all claim to lands granted to that Company by Congress in
Alabama, and all rights and immunities granted under a charter of that
State for the construction of a Rail Road from the Chattahoochee to
Mobile, and from Eufaula to Montgomery. The grants of lands referred
to amount to 400,000 acres., the value of which would largely
contribute to the construction of the proposed line.
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A reference to the reports of the Chief Engineer, will
show the results of the survey and location, which were made during
the past summer. They demonstrate the entire practicability of the
Road, and its great importance to this Company. It will require the
construction of less than 100 miles in the State of Alabama, and less
than 40 in the State of Georgia, to place the Main Trunk in direct
connection with Pensacola and Mobile.
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The importance of such a connection can admit of no
question, whatever doubts may attach to the authority of the Company
to make such an extension. Certain it is, that so long as it is a
matter of uncertainty, whether any eligible connection can be effected
with the Pensacola & Georgia Rail Road, this Company should
decidedly adhere to the line through Alabama. If the Company cannot
now embark its resources in such an enterprise , a brief period of
time will assuredly develop commercial, social and military
necessities which will ensure its completion. The dangers of
navigation around the Cape, and the consequent burthensome rates of
insurance and loss of time by prolonged voyages, have at all times
embarrassed the trade of the Gulf ports -- a hostile fleet, sustained
by the occupation of the Tortugas, would present an invincible barrier
to commerce, to be avoided only by internal transportation between the
Gulf and Atlantic. It would be a most extraordinary result, indeed, if
all this important commerce estimated at $400,000,000 in value were to
remain stagnant and motionless, for the want of the construction of 95
miles of Rail Road across the State of Alabama.
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This extension established, similar necessities will
enforce the construction of a line of Rail Road direct between Mobile
and New Orleans, this perfecting the whole coast line of the South,
securing its commerce against all probable interruption, and the coast
against all reasonable fear of successful invasion.
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None have been more alive to the value of such a line
than the people of Mobile, whose city authorities in 1857 "caused
a bill to be prepared and forwarded to their representatives in the
Legislature -- which is now a law -- authorizing the city of Mobile,
upon a vote of citizens, to subscribe one million of dollars in city
bonds, or to assess and collect a tax of two per cent. per year on all
property for five years." To this large amount were the people of
Mobile then willing to contribute to the proposed extension, by
which the future interests and security of their city would be
permanently protected. If it remain un-built, the intention of the
State of Georgia in providing a Main Trunk Railway across her
territory to connect the Atlantic with the Gulf, is but half fulfilled
-- if constructed, the Atlantic & Gulf Rail Road will be the
noblest triumph of her wisdom and forecast, the proudest vindication
of the same far-reaching policy, which projected her Western &
Atlantic Rail Road towards the abounding valleys of the Great West.
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In accordance with an understanding between the Board of
Directors of this Company and that of the Savannah, Albany & Gulf
Rail Road Company, a committee from each Board was appointed to adjust
a basis for the division of the earnings of the two Roads. The result
of the deliberations of the two committees was a report embodying the
following basis, which has been accepted by both Boards.
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"Ascertain first the earnings of both Roads from the
time the cars reached the first station of the Atlantic & Gulf
Rail Road, until it reached the next station. Then deduct all expenses
of both Roads including repairs of both Roads, and keeping up rolling
stock; the net income then to be divided to each Road in proportion to
capital invested; and so on, from station to station, as the Road has
progressed, or, as it shall progress, as long as this arrangement
shall be continued by both Companies -- the rolling stock at the
termination of this agreement to be left in as good condition as it is
at present, and when any part of the same shall have been so worn or
used as to b e unfit for service, the same shall b e replaced by and
at the joint expense from the joint earnings, and charged to general
expense account of both Roads.
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This arrangement shall be subject to abrogation on three
months' notice by either party."
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We do not know, that any more equitable adjustment could
have been arrived at for both Companies; but its date going back to
the earliest operations of the Savannah, Albany & Gulf Rail Road
on the Main Trunk, and having been settled only within a vey recent
period, it has been found impossible to prepare a correct statement of
its results up to this date. These can only be obtained by a long,
minute and careful analysis of the accounts of both Companies,
involving no little time and labor.
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We trust, however, that the results of this adjustment
will prove altogether satisfactory of the comparative value of the
Main Trunk, and that its future operations will early exhibit a
prosperous investment to its Stockholders.
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The operations of this Road by the Savannah, Albany &
Gulf Rail Road Company has saved to this Company a large investment in
rolling stock, machine shops, depot buildings, &c., the cost of
which has gone directly to the construction of Road, and
disembarrassed the Company of any other expenditure than for
construction and the contingencies properly appertaining to that
account.
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It is well here to state, that the earnings from the Main
Trunk did not reimburse the Savannah, Albany & Gulf Rail Road for
maintaining its operation, until the trains had reached the Allapaha
river.
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The report, of the Treasurer hereto appended exhibits the
financial condition of the Company, to which is added a list of
Stockholders, and the amounts paid or still due by each.
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John Screven
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President
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